After a little less than an hour, all of Vaporeon's Edmonton friends were gathered around her in the hospital. Scorbunny bit her lower lip and sniffed, "I really wanted to see her win," Rillaboom sighing, "I wanted that match so badly."

Drizzile turned to face the gorilla with concern. While the others had not quite detected it, he could tell how nervous she was about facing Melmetal. And he certainly could not blame her. As scary as the thought of facing Unown was, the cyborg somehow seemed worse despite having come across as far less sadistic.

Even so, the group waited around for a little while longer until Scorbunny put on a serious look and said, "Well, we'll just have to prepare extra hard for round two. I'm sure Vaporeon wouldn't want us to worry about her too much," Drizzile replying, "I think you're right. If we spend too much time dwelling on this, it might screw us up."

"Besides," Morgrem added with a light grin, "It's not like she's dead, right?" the others nodding in agreement. Although at the same time, they still wished she could have at least been awake to see them fight in round two. Hopefully she would at least be able to hear the announcers on the TV in her hospital room.

After another ten minutes, they finally decided to exit and head home for the night. They had two days to prepare themselves for the next round and they intended to use every moment possible to take advantage of that. On top of that, Drizzile and Rillaboom had some unfinished business for the evening.

Once they exited the hospital, they noticed Incineroar, Wurmple, Ben and Yanma in front of the building. All of them looked at one-another with serious looks in their eyes, Incineroar grinning at Drizzile and saying, "Hey, I'm looking forward to our match."

After everything that had happened, the chameleon had almost forgotten that Incineroar was his next opponent. Now that he remembered, he nodded with a smile and replied, "Yeah, same here."

He and the others went along their way before Incineroar's group entered the hospital. All three friends would come out on top for Vaporeon's sake, there was no doubt about that.

Once they arrived home, Scorbunny looked around and uttered, "It feels weird with just the three of us here," Rillaboom nodding and groaning, "Yeah. I just remembered, Vaporeon's the only one of us who knows how to cook."

"Not entirely," the rabbit replied with a light smile before the others turned to her, "She's been teaching me how to cook in our free time. Don't worry about the possibility of starving. I'll make sure we're all well fed in her absence."

And so, Scorbunny whipped up a Greek salad, salmon and fries. Ultimately, she had added a little too much balsamic to her dressing and not enough oil, the salmon was slightly burned on the sides and the fries had too much salt. But while the final result was not quite as good as what Vaporeon would have made, it was certainly a big step up from when the trio attempted to make breakfast on their first day. As such, all three still enjoyed the meal for what it was.

Once that was finished, Scorbunny stretched and said, "Let's call it an early night. We'll need to get up extra early," before enquiring, "Do you all wanna work out together or should we do our own separate routines?"

Rillaboom stroked her chin and replied, "I'd say maybe for the first day, we'll do our own thing and then maybe we can have a three way sparring match on the second day," Drizzile nodding and replying, "Yeah, I like that idea."

With his new skills, he felt confident that he might finally be able to best his friends in combat, even if it was just for sparring purposes. If anything, he felt like this alone would tell him whether or not he was truly prepared for his rematch with Incineroar.

But before the heroes went to sleep for good after each had a quick shower and brushed their teeth, Drizzile took a deep breath and pulled out his phone. He then selected Inteleon's number and held the device up to the side of his head.

After a while, she answered and said, "Hi, son," before yawning, "You know it's, like, six AM here, right?"

"Oh, right, I forgot," Drizzile uttered, "Different time zones and all that," the taller chameleon chuckling, "Oh, it's fine. I saw your match and I have to say, I was very impressed. When that snake put sand in your membranes, I was pretty worried."

"About that," Drizzile replied, "After she hit me those few times, I was able to feel her movements. I could follow her based off of that. Do you know what that was?"

Inteleon smiled and explained, "As a matter of fact, I do. It's a talent that our family has always been able to perform. It's very good for stealth. It's part of the reason I became a spy in the first place."

The short chameleon blinked and said, "So it's a genetic thing," Inteleon replying, "Yep. I'm shocked you were able to use it. It actually wasn't until my very last match that I was able to master it, and keep in mind, I was three years older than you are right now."

Drizzile's eyes sparkled when he heard this. This meant he had the potential to upstage his mother. Sure, that hardly mattered to him, but it was still pretty amazing to say the least. Although he then blinked and enquired, "So, do you know how I can use that again? I get this funny feeling I might need a skill like this for other situations, even if the odds of me being blind and deaf during a match again are slim."

"I am really glad to hear you say that," Inteleon replied, "I was worried you might think you wouldn't need that ability. When I used it back in the day, I had all of my senses working perfectly, so that is a genuine concern."

She then sighed, "Unfortunately, this isn't just something I can tell you how to do. Your grandfather, Sobble, taught me how to use it. Though I had to train with him in order to fully understand it. I'll see if I can come to Edmonton within the next little while so I can help you."

Drizzile nodded and replied, "Okay. That would be great," before talking for a little bit longer and hanging up. He really hoped he could master this soon. After all, if he made it to the finals, he would certainly need it regardless of who he faced.

Rillaboom was currently in the midst of a similar conversation with Thwackey, specifically regarding her vine. However, she got less helpful results when the monkey uttered, "Sorry, honey, but I have no idea how you did that either."

"So this is a power that only I possess?" Rillaboom enquired as Thwackey replied, "Well, at least regarding that lock of hair of yours, yes. You're the only member of our family who has ever had something like that. But I do have a feeling you might be able to do more with the rest of your hair."

The gorilla blinked and continued to listen while the monkey continued, "The thing is, while I've never been able to use vines, I did once master the ability to use the leaves on my head like a buzz saw. Since your hair isn't shaped quite like mine, I don't think you can do that, but I imagine you might be able to pull off some other techniques similar to it."

Rillaboom reached back and held her hair in front of her face. When she looked at it and just how pointy it was, she could see exactly what her mother meant. Why such a possibility had never occurred to her was truly a mystery, but she had a feeling that if she could figure out some way to sharpen her hair and use it like an actual weapon, she might stand much more of a chance against Melmetal.

The next day, all three of them headed off to separate areas to train. Scorbunny went to Hawrelak Park. After she had spent almost an hour there yesterday, she could tell this was the perfect place to hone her skills since it was a wide open space where she could move around as freely as she wanted. Morgrem and Rolycoly had both agreed to join her for moral support.

Drizzile, meanwhile, went to the same gym he had always trained at, Allie once again there to give him moral support. Although since he knew better than to strain himself and train all day, he had offered to help her make some new human friends after they were done. After all, even with everything going on, he did not wish to go back on that promise.

Rillaboom, meanwhile, met up with Thwackey and Obasi in a nearby field. She figured this would be a great place to train her new skills and see if she could figure out how to use them. And while Thwackey's may have been different, she was determined to help her daughter at all cost.

Scorbunny practised her flying kicks while Morgrem grinned and squealed, "You got your match in the bag!" Rolycoly nodding and adding, "That unicorn doesn't stand a chance against you."

"Thanks," the rabbit said with a light smile, "Still, after that last match, I need to focus more on coming up with good strategies. I thought I'd finally figured out how to work around enemy weaknesses, yet it still feels like a fluke that I was able to spot Hatterene's."

Rolycoly blinked and wheeled forward with a serious look in his eyes. He then pounded his fist up against his palm and grunted, "I can help you with that!"

Scorbunny stared and uttered, "Are you sure you wanna do this?" the golem replying, "Yeah. I mean, you already faced Morgrem, and Rillaboom had to use her brain to defeat me, so it kinda makes sense."

The rabbit tapped her chin while Morgrem nodded her head with a grin on her face. She had to admit, that was a very good point, and ultimately, Scorbunny agreed. As such, she struck a fighting stance and quipped, "Bring it!"

At the gym, after Drizzile delivered multiple karate chops to a punching bag, Allie enquired, "Hey, is there anything I can do?"

"Um, Allie, I appreciate the offer, but what exactly can you do to help me train?" the chameleon uttered, "You don't exactly have super powers."

"I know," the girl replied, "That's not what I meant. I could never serve as a true sparring partner for you. What I'm talking about is that movement thing you were talking about. I was thinking maybe I could help you figure it out."

Drizzile stared at her for a few seconds and said, "I appreciate the offer, but it's like I said. Only my mom can teach me that technique, so I figured I shouldn't stress out over it. Besides, I don't think I'll need it against Incineroar."

Allie rolled her eyes, rested her hands on his shoulders and sighed, "How do you know unless you try? Who knows? Incineroar's pretty quick on his feet. Maybe you'll find yourself in a position where sight and hearing won't help you. Maybe your mom's wrong. Maybe you can learn it on your own. I mean, you used it without any prior knowledge, right?"

Just as Drizzile was about to retort, he stopped and stroked his chin. He had to admit that Allie had a point. Besides, he had already done enough strength training. Perhaps if he could pull this off without Inteleon there, he could impress her by using it without her help.

With that in mind, he nodded and instructed Allie to race toward him. He even made sure to close his eyes and wear earplugs so that he could not rely on either sense to help him out.

Unfortunately, he found himself unable to sense the girl as she rammed her shoulder into him. This caused him to back up as she gasped, "Oh my god!" pulling out his earplugs and asking, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Drizzile uttered with a light smile, "I'm a hero. I can handle it," the girl pouting only for him to wave his hands in front of his face and reassuringly say, "Hey, I only just learned about this power. It's not like I'm gonna get it on the first try."

Rillaboom, meanwhile, watched as her mother removed her sticks from her hair bun to reveal four long leaves atop her head. She then flicked the longest one with her finger and caused it to spin at a rapid pace. Finally, as a demonstration, she rested the leaves up against a nearby tree, Rillaboom watching in awe when the leaves managed to put a fairly big cut in it.

"How long did it take you to master that?" she enquired before Obasi explained, "It only took her a day or two. Your mother here was a fast learner."

He then patted Thwackey on the shoulder while she beamed with pride. Hearing this gave Rillaboom all sorts of confidence. At the same time, it also explained why it had not taken her too terribly long to figure out how to use her wood powers.

Back in Hawrelak park, Rolycoly and Scorbunny's match had been surprisingly intense. It was just as the golem suspected. Much like when he faced Rillaboom, he had proven himself very difficult to hit, thus the rabbit was covered in quite a few bruises. And it only got worse for her when he sped toward her with his arms crossed in front of his face and rammed them into her neck.

The rabbit grunted in pain and watched him while he continued to race around her. But just as he was about to go in from behind for a clothesline, she frowned and spun around, delivering a roundhouse to his cheek. This left him completely wide open, thus she leapt at him and took hold of his wrists.

Rolycoly gulped nervously when she lit her feet on fire and spat, "REVERSE BUNNY BLAZE KICK!" ramming them both into his face and knocking him down for exactly ten seconds.

Morgrem ran over to Rolycoly and asked, "Hey, you okay, buddy?" the golem rubbing his face and chuckling, "After facing Duraludon, I can handle pretty much anything."

Scorbunny took a deep breath and replied, "That's good to know. Granted, I did kinda hold back," before enquiring, "So how did I do?"

The goblin and golem both grinned at one-another and gave her a thumb up each. But while this certainly made her more confident, she knew she would still need to work on her skills a little bit more. One could only guess how hard Rapidight had trained so far.

At this moment, Allie decided it was time for Drizzile to take a break from his training. Although he could not help but feel a tad disappointed. Despite the fact that he had spent a half-hour training his new defence manoeuvre, he had not made any progress whatsoever.

Even so, Allie patted him on the shoulder and said soothingly, "Hey, cheer up. It's like you said. You only just discovered this. You're not gonna get it right away. At the very least, I'm sure this practice session will make it easier for you to learn it when your mom gets here."

The chameleon thought about this and nodded, replying, "You may be right," before spotting a pair of human girls nearby. It was not long until they noticed him, their eyes wide with shock before they ran over to him with big smiles on their faces.

"Oh my god!" one with long black hair and tan skin squealed, "I know you! You're Drizzile!" another with short red hair adding, "You were so cool yesterday! The way you beat that snake even though you were blind and deaf! That was just, like, wow!"

Drizzile laughed nervously and rubbed the back of his head, Allie biting her lower lip. A part of her wanted to just back away and let the chameleon enjoy his fame in peace, but he quickly saw a golden opportunity. With that in mind, he took hold of Allie's hand, her cheeks flushed pink while he cleared his throat and said in his best attempt at a suave voice, "Hey there, ladies. My BFF and I were just about to hang out at the local..."

He then looked at all the fast food restaurants nearby before spotting one and adding, "A and W for some grub. Would you like to join us?"

Now Allie was no longer scared to interact with these new girls. Now all she could do was bite her lower lip and resist the urge to laugh while the strangers looked at one-another and gasped. Needless to say, they were more than happy to join the two.

Once they were inside, Drizzile started to act more like his real self. As it so happened, both girls were really nice people. The tan girl introduced herself as Bailey and the redhead was Geneva. And it was not long until Allie was able to join into the conversation between them.

"No way!" she exclaimed with a look of shock, "You're into Bone too? I thought I was the only one who still read those books!" Geneva chuckling, "Yeah. We don't talk about it often around other people, not that it helps anyway."

"I'm surprised we never talked to each other before," Bailey added, "Seriously, we've been in the same class together for how long?" Allie uttering, "Well, when you get teased as much as I do, it's hard to make an attempt."

Bailey and Geneva both nodded in understanding while Drizzile beamed bright. Just seeing his plan come together filled him with a great deal of confidence. After all, he had not really expected things to work out this well.

Either way, the conversation continued for a while until it was time for Allie to head home. Thus she, Bailey and Geneva exchanged contact information and made a plan to meet up on the day of the second round and sit together. And so, Allie and Drizzile headed off and waved to their news friends before the tall girl gave the chameleon a light hug and squealed, "Thank you so much!"

Drizzile chuckled, "Well, I probably wouldn't have been able to do something like that if it hadn't been for you," both of them blushing while they carried on their way.

Unfortunately, much like Drizzile, Rillaboom surprisingly had not made much progress with her training either. While she was able to figure out how to control her vine, she had not really figured out anything else. As such, she had a look of shame on her face while she sat on the ground and sighed.

Thwackey smiled and patted her on the shoulder, saying, "There, there, it's fine. I'm sure in due time, you'll get it," the gorilla sighing, "But I don't really have due time. In two days, I'll be up against Melmetal, and you saw what he did to Vaporeon. I just get the feeling if I can't figure out how to use every ability possible, I might not stand a chance."

Obasi blinked as the monkey frowned and did something truly unexpected. She rose her hand and smacked her daughter across the face. And while Rillaboom rubbed her cheek with a look of shock in her eyes, the monkey took hold of her shoulders and grunted, "I never want to hear you say that again!"

Rillaboom stared into her eyes while she added, "Rillaboom, you don't need some fancy greenery to beat Melmetal! You're an amazing fighter, with or without that! Besides, you were able to at least figure out how to control that vine of yours! As far as I'm concerned, that's more than enough! Now are you seriously going to lose because of something as minor as this!?"

The gorilla continued to stare for a few more seconds until a serious look formed on her face and she growled, "Not in your life!" Thwackey beaming and replying, "That's my girl," holding her in a tight embrace.

With all said and done, the trio returned home, all of them feeling much more confident now. While they may not have perfected what they set out to accomplish, they now felt as if they had made at least some progress. Perhaps things would turn out for the best.

And it seemed so on the very next day when around noon, all of them had their three way match out back. Drizzile had invited his new friends to watch, and they were more than happy to come. Just the thought that Bailey and Geneva could hang out in the back yard of a hero, let alone four, was incredible to them.

The fight went on for a surprisingly long time, almost an hour in fact. Each one truly showed how much he or she had improved. Scorbunny managed to use more strategy than ever before, allowing her to deliver more strikes than she had when they last sparred. Rillaboom also put up a good fight with her vine giving her more of an edge.

But of course, the one who had improved the most was Drizzile who was finally able to bring real harm to the others. He had even managed to knock both opponents on their backs with a double clothesline.

Rillaboom slowly rose to her feet and panted heavily, a grin on her face as she grunted, "I gotta hand it to you, Drizzile. You actually knocked me down," before Scorbunny followed suit and said, "Yeah, I did not think this little sparring session would be so much fun, but now I'm gonna end this."

She then leapt backward to a tree and pressed her hands up against it, launching herself off with her heel out and shouting, "BURNING ROCKET!"

Drizzile, however, felt ready for this as he lunged toward her and covered his hands in water. He then formed the water into big fists and barked, "AQUATIC POWER MITTS!" aiming them at Scorbunny's foot.

Rillaboom, on the other hand, saw an opportunity to strike them both down, thus she formed her fist hammers and lifted her arms up, exclaiming, "WOOD HAMMER!"

Sure enough, all three attacks struck at the same time. Since Rillaboom had come in too soon, she was on the receiving end of Scorbunny and Drizzile's attacks while they took in a strike each to the forehead courtesy of the gorilla's hammers. And thus, all three heroes fell on their backs and lay there.

Allie started up a ten count while Bailey and Geneva both stared in stunned silence. And when the tall girl completed the count, she exclaimed, "And it's a three way tie!"

The trio regained consciousness just in time to hear this, thus they all sat upright and breathed heavily while glancing at one-another. Allie bit her lower lip as she could feel friction build up, but it seemed her fears were pointless when the trio smiled. Then light snickers followed only to build to hysterics.

"That was awesome!" Scorbunny squealed before Rillaboom nodded and said, "Yeah. We're more than ready for round two," Drizzile grinning at both of them.

Geneva and Bailey both smiled at one-another. As long-time friends themselves, they understood this feeling very well.

All-in-all, things were certainly looking up for Scorbunny, Rillaboom and Drizzile. While they may not have quite achieved what they wanted to, they were more than ready for the Olympics to resume the following day.