In this chapter, we head towards the end of the arc! Will the girls be able to pass the exam? Or will the test itself have to be postponed due to all this? Remember to review!

Draisen: It is not.

ZenoZen: I hope so, too.

Hellraiserphoenix: Well, here's hoping.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 119

Sango and Marion's heads burst out of a river that rushed out from the mountain, gasping.

"We're out…" Sango gasped, staring up at the late afternoon sun.

"Yeah…" Marion smiled, sticking her hand out of the water to wave. "Thanks, Relicanth! Keep in touch!"

"Relic…" Relicanth moaned in a kind, low tone, bobbing down into the water and turning back toward the now-buried lake.

"Hey, Marion…" Sango whispered, climbing out of the water and helping the injured girl out. "About that guy… do you think…"

"His Tentacruel was strong, and used barrier," Marion said. "And… he should be able to dig his way out… maybe. I don't know. But… we need to find the proctor, and explain to her what happened."

Sango nodded.

"We also need to find Silver soon…" Sango said, her face turning pale. "I… I need to find him. B-but… please? After, or…"

"It's fine, Sango," Marion said, clapping her gently on the cheek to get her to calm down. "We'll find him. I'm sure."

Sango nodded, wiping her face.

"Then let's go," she said, standing up.

"Um…" Marion glanced up at her sheepishly.

"I still can't walk."

"This is a pain in the ass…" Sango growled. She was running through the forest, holding a bunch of useless Marion on her back. "We're in a hurry, you know!"

"What, were you just going to leave me there?! Alone in the forest?!"

"You'd be fine," Sango said.

"I don't have my fishing pole anymore!" Marion wailed. "I'd be helpless!"

Sango rolled her eyes. They were almost to the beach. Just a little more…

Sango and Marion emerged from the forest, looking down the embankment at the beach below, where Petal had set up camp.

Sango carefully made her way down the steep hill, calling for the proctor.

"What is it?" Petal growled, stepping out of her tent, a frustrated look on her face. "I was about to begin my beauty treatments! It's important to get to sleep early, you know!"

"That's not important right now!" Sango shouted.

"Well, then what? You kids are a day early, and I don't see a Pichu in sight! So you two dropping out?"

"Not a chance!" Sango shouted. "This is an emergency!"

Petal narrowed her eyes.

"What kind of emergency?"

Sango and Marion finished relaying the events that had happened to them (Sango had set Marion down on a rock before they had started).

"…So that's the situation," Sango finished.

Petal had said nothing during the entire explanation, simply considering their words in silence.

"If what you're saying is true… then it seems we have no choice," Petal said, frowning. "I can't go myself, I still have a duty to respond to any potential injuries of the examinees, so I need to stay in action here. But I'll radio the Ranger Union and have them send in a team to go scour the mountains. We'll have to call off the exam and evacuate the island."

"What?!" Marion gasped. "You can't!"

"Stop thinking about yourself!" Petal snarled. "You just said there's someone trapped in there, who might still be alive! Who knows how many pokemon might have gotten caught up in the collapse, waiting for our help? And you think that what's important is your exam?!"

"That's not what she's saying," Sango said, coming to Marion's aid. "She meant to ask… why do we need to be evacuated?"

"Are you serious?" Petal rolled her eyes.

"You said that this is an emergency, didn't you? And that you need all the help you can get? So let us help!"

"You aren't rangers, or even probationaries. Dragging you into an actual ranger situation like this is against regulations. You two are to stay on this beach until the ranger team arrives, and then you'll take a boat back to the Ranger Union."

Sango flinched.

"When will the ranger team get here?" Marion asked.

"Judging from when I put in my previous call… they should be here by this time, tomorrow," Petal said. Marion's eyes widened.

"In that case, then there isn't a need to cancel the exam!" Marion said. "It's ending tomorrow, anyway, right?!"

Petal frowned.

"Please, just… just consider it," Marion said. "Everyone out there right now… they're all trying their hardest to become Pokemon Rangers. People like Sango… they're chasing their dreams with everything they've got! And even someone like me, whose dream isn't to be a ranger… this exam still means the world to me! I know how important this situation is… and that's why I'm asking you, please… just a little more time… as much time as you can… we've already come this far, so… don't let someone like him ruin this for us, please."

Petal stared at Marion, frowning.

"I'm also not leaving," Sango said. "My partner is still somewhere on this island. I'm not gonna find him sitting on some beach. I need to go."

Petal glanced at the two girls and their adamant faces, and scowled.

"Fine then."

Petal took out a large device with a screen on it, a monitor of some kind, and pressed a button on it.

"Attention, remaining examinees." Petal's voice rang out from the girls' stylers, causing an annoying feedback with her in-person voice.

"Due to some unforeseen circumstances, the schedule of our exam has been altered. The time limit is now 6:00 PM tomorrow evening. In the interim, due to a collapse, the mountain area is officially prohibited from any further exploration. All students currently in that area are to evacuate immediately. Is that understood? And be careful. There might be some pokemon enraged by the events."

Petal switched the monitor off and turned back to the two girls.

"There. We're done now. You bought yourself some extra time. Make the most use of it as you can. Your loss if any Pichu are currently hiding in the mountains. I'm not putting any examinees in danger."

"Y-yes, thank you!" Sango and Marion said.

"One more thing," Petal said, frowning. "You said that that guy bragged to you about being from Anja Karzat, and that he had harmonia. But why would he tell you that? It seems strange…"

Marion paused, glancing down.

"He-"

"He was kind of a weirdo," Sango explained. "He was just bragging about how much stronger he was then us, that's all. I don't even know what an 'Anja Karzat' is."

"…" Petal looked at her for a brief moment, and nodded.

"It isn't something to concern yourself with."

Petal turned and walked into her tent.

"I almost forgot."

She stepped out of the tent, holding a pokemon in her hands.

"I believe you were looking for someone?" Petal asked, Silver floating up into the air.

"Silver?!" Sango gasped, her eyes wide.

"Cast…" Silver's eyes began to tear up as he saw his partner, and he flew into her arms.

"Welcome back, Silver!" Sango sobbed. "I was so worried about you…"

"Cast…" Silver cried, rubbing her cheek.

Sango glanced up at Petal, smiling in admiration.

"Thank you for finding him.

"…I didn't do anything," Petal muttered, glancing away from her. "He just flew here crying, so I was looking after him. Castform don't live on this island, so I knew it had to be yours."

"Now then, get out of here," Petal said, glaring at the two girls.

Sango nodded, when she suddenly felt something hot burning in her pocket.

"E-excuse me, one last thing!"

"What?!" Petal growled, whirling around.

"This… this was in the mountain…" Sango said, showing her the white stone. Petal's eyes widened.

"Where was it?"

"In this weird shrine thing," Sango explained. "Like I said, he was looking for it, but I forgot I had it until now."

"I see…" Petal took the stone, turning it over in her hand. She evening sunlight glistened off its smooth surface.

"I thought I should leave it with you," Sango said.

"You both are students at the Pokemon Academy, right?" Petal asked out of nowhere, much to Sango and Marion's confusion. "You're Kellyn Lunark's students, yes?"

"Uh, yeah, but what's that got to do with anything?" Sango asked.

"Well, why not keep this with you, then?" Petal said, returning the stone to Sango.

"Uh… are you sure?"

"Yes," Petal said, nodding. "Consider it as a souvenir of your trip here. After all…"

She checked her watch.

"You girls have less than a day to finish your exam now, so it seems like your chances of passing are just about zero. You might as well take one good memory back with you."

Sango scowled indignantly at the rude proctor, turned, and stormed over to Marion.

"We're going," she said.

"But my foot…"

"We'll take care of it," Sango growled. She helped Marion onto her back and the two headed back into the forest, Sango fuming.

"Change of plans," she said. "We're forgoing sleep tonight. We need as much time as we can get to pass this exam, got it?"

"R-right," Marion said, nodding.

"With that being said… let's take a look at your leg."

Sango sat Marion down on a tree stump, and lifted her leg up, pulling Marion's sock down. She had wrapped it up earlier to compress it, but without ice, her ankle was looking pretty bad. It was swollen up to the size of an orange.

"Silver…" Sango glanced to her Castform, the small pokemon floating over, nodding.

Silver let out a breath of cold air onto Marion's leg, the injured girl sighing in relief.

"Thanks, Silver," Marion smiled. "You're the nicest non-fish pokemon I've ever met."

"Cast?" Silver said, not quite sure how to respond to that. Silver created some ice, and Sango pressed the small chunks against Marion's ankle. She replaced the bandages and made an ice pack with the previous ones, holding it against the swollen portion.

"Ah, that's the stuff," Marion said. She was already starting to feel much better. She wasn't ready to start walking yet, but she was at least feeling better.

"I'll go start looking for Pichu," Sango said. "You stay here and get some rest."

Marion nodded, Sango heading off into the forest. She returned a few hours later, Marion curled up on the large tree stump and snoring. Sango shook her awake, Marion yawning and looking up hopefully at her.

"Still no Pichu," Sango sighed. "How's your leg doing?"

"It's a little better," Marion said, moving it around. She stood up. "I can stand a little better now… my hand isn't giving me as much trouble, either. I don't know if I can run, but maybe walking?"

"I'll give you a shoulder to lean on, then," Sango said, gesturing to Marion. Marion shook her head.

"No need, no, that'll only slow us down." The look on Marion's face was surprisingly serious. "We need to do our best, remember?"

Sango nodded. Marion took a few shaky steps forward, inhaling. The wince on her face was telling about how much her injury was affecting her.

"Sango, I think… I have an idea."

She set her bag down and took out her spare fishing pole, assembling it in a few seconds.

"Ahhh… that's the stuff…" Marion sighed, her face brightening. "Fully restored~!"

"You're kidding."

"Nope!" Marion said, jumping up and down a few times to show. "It's a little sore still, but I'm fully charged and ready to go! Let's find the nearest river and really get to-"

"Focus," Sango said, pinching her tan cheek.

"Owwiee! But I wanna fish!"

"We can fish when we're done," Sango said. "But finding those Pichu come first!"

Mario sighed reluctantly.

"It also means our diet will have to be berries," Sango said. "It'll waste too much time for us to fish up some pokemon to eat."

Marion nodded her head, clearly disheartened to hear that there would be no fishing to be had.

The two girls scoured the forest through the night, and by sunrise, not only did they not find any Pichu, they couldn't even find a single trace of another examinee. They continued through the morning, but still could not find hide nor hair of any Pichus.

"Maybe we're the only ones left…" Marion said, sitting down with a sigh, a look of defeat on her face. "Maybe all the Pichu have been found already… maybe this is one big waste of time…"

"I've been thinking the same thing," Sango admitted, looking down. "But… is that any reason to give up? We've got to do the best we can. We've got the rest of the day to keep looking, and I'm not giving in until the very last second."

Marion nodded, smiling.

"I feel the same way, girl. Let's get a move on, then!" She leapt up, wincing, and ran into the forest.

"Have a plan at least…" Sango muttered under her breath, following after Marion. If I remember right… the Cheri Berry trees were around here somewhere… so if there are any Pichu left… they would be in the area…

Sango pushed through another clump of bushes, only to bump right into Marion.

"Marion, what's-"

"Shh!" Marion shushed her, holding her finger up. "Look!"

Marion's hat was moving slowly across the ground.

"It's my hat!" Marion said gladly. "It came back to me!"

"Marion, I don't think that's-"

The hat froze in place, and immediately shot off in the other direction, much to Marion's shock.

"Wait! Don't run, hat! Is this because I dropped you?! It was an accident, I swear! You're my absolute favorite hat, I'd never do that on purpose!"

"Are you and idiot?!" Sango shouted, running past her. "It's clearly a pokemon!"

She lunged forward and grabbed the hat, a small yellow pokemon slipping out from under it and dodging away from the girls.

"It's a Pichu!" Marion gasped, grabbing her hat from Sango and stepping closer to it.

The Pichu stared at them with a startled face, his eyes gleaming in recognition.

"It's the same Pichu as before," Sango guessed, preparing her styler. "Only this time, he's got the advantage."

To prove her point, the Pichu darted into the bushes.

"Oh, no you don't!" Sango shouted, charging in after it. "You aren't getting away that easily!"

"Sango!" Marion ran after her. Sango released her capture styler and drew tracks of lines not to capture the Pichu, but rather to erect a barrier to prevent its escape. And it was working. With her wits, and Silver's help, Sango was able to slowly but surely herd Pichu out of the trees, chasing him out into an open field.

"Pichu!" Pichu cried, running on all fours away from the approaching examinees, letting loose sparks of electricity at the two of them to warn them off.

"It's attacking, huh?" Sango said. "Silver, we can do that to. Use icy wind."

Silver sent a gust of icy wind at the pokemon, but Pichu ducked under the snow and continued running.

"Looks like we won't catch him unless we go all out… But we aren't supposed to hurt them, either… what a pain…" Sango sighed, continuing the chase.

"Ah, ow!" Marion cried, Sango whirling around to see her having fallen on the ground, holding her ankle.

"Marion!"

"My ankle… looks like it was doing a lot worse than I thought…" Marion glanced up at Sango. "Get going."

"But-"

"Get going! Now isn't the time for you 'leave no one behind' crap! If we let that Pichu get away now, then it's all for nothing! This is your last chance, so go!"

"Right," Sango said, turning back to the fleeing Pichu. "Thanks, Marion."

Marion nodded after her, sighing.

"Damn it…" She looked up at the sky, and checked her watch. So close…

Sango chased after the Pichu, who was quickly drawing close to the edge of the field, the forest within sight. If he got away, that would be it.

Sango glanced at Silver. Certainly, they could cut off his path to escape with a single good fire attack, setting the field of dry glass ablaze. But not even passing the test was worth that.

"Silver, I have one more idea, but I need your help."

"Cast!" Silver nodded.

"Use your ice on the styler," Sango said. "Infuse it with an ice move."

"Cast!" Silver understood what was going on. Not knowing any moves like ice beam that could do pinpoint freezing, Sango was planning to concentrate the freezing power of his blizzards into her styler, and use that to cut off Pichu.

Sango launched the icy disk at the pokemon, the grass shifting into walls of ice as it spun around the small pokemon. Everywhere Pichu turned to run, there was ice. Ice, ice, and more ice. He couldn't get away! He let out bolts of electricity, shattering the capture line and draining some of its energy, but Sango kept going, sending another disk and then another. She skillfully maneuvered the disk to avoid the electricity when she could, putting the focus on draining Pichu's energy instead of on the capture.

Pichu don't have very developed electrical attacks, Sango remembered. Which means that it should be exhausted soon. And once it is…

Just as she predicted, Pichu's thundershocks soon died down completely, leaving him drained and wide-open. A few simple loops later, and the small electric pokemon had been captured.

"We… we did it…" Sango said, stepping forward, parting the grass and looking down at the ring of ice that hemmed in the small pokemon. She lifted it up, the Pichu staring docilely up at her. It seems they had been well-trained to be obedient once they had been captured by a styler.

"It took a while… but I guess that means we passed," Sango said. Fortunately, the ice had already begun to melt in the afternoon sun.

"We need to get to Marion now," Sango said. "Then we can help her find her Pichu, as well."

Sango returned to where Marion had fallen, the girl having pulled herself up into a seated position by now. Marion looked at the yellow prize in Sango's hands with wide eyes, giving her a beaming smile.

"You did it!" She gushed. "You caught him!"

Sango nodded, smiling.

"That means you passed!" Marion cheered, leaping to her feet, clearly not having learned her lesson as shown by the searing pain that shot through her foot when she did so.

"Yeah, that means you're next," Sango said, nodding. "We've got to hurry! We can set up a pitfall trap, I know a girl who's good at them. Or maybe a snare, or-"

"Sango." Marion looked at her, the resignation clear on her face.

"Check your watch."

Sango looked down at her watch, her mouth falling open. No… was it already this late?

"Time sure flies, huh?" Marion said. "It's almost 3. It should take us a couple of hours to get back to the beach from here. It's over. We're out of time."

"No, no, it isn't!" Sango shouted. "What was all that crap about not giving up until the last minute? Were you just pretending when you agreed with me about that?! Huh?!"

"I know!" Marion shouted. "You think I want to give up?! But this is the last minute! I can barely make it back there on my own! If we keep searching, and you keep helping me… then all that's going to happen is you're going to miss the time limit, and then we both fail!"

"But…" Sango glanced at Marion, her eyes tearing up. "But what about your dream?! How can you give something like that up so easily?! I saw that look in your eyes when you were talking about it! I heard that joy in your voice! You can't just let it all be for nothing!"

"It's fine, it's fine…" Marion said, her lips quivering. "Even if I can't get into my program next semester… it doesn't mean that my dream has to die there. I can still… think of something… volunteer work with my mom, or maybe…"

Sango shook her head frantically.

"You said this was your last chance! That's what you said! Stop trying to console me! You think I can't see the heartbreak right there on your face?! So stop trying to make me feel better, because you can't! If you want me to be happy, then tell me you're going to keep struggling until the very end!"

"…" Marion stared at Sango, shaking her head.

"I'm not going to let you put your dream at risk to help someone like me," Marion said. "Let's head back. We should be able to make it just in time."

"…" Sango looked down at the Pichu in her arms. There was only one option left for the two of them, and she knew exactly what it was. She suspected Marion knew it, too. And she hadn't said a word on the matter. Because that was the kind of sweet girl that she was. For all her talk about surviving and doing whatever it takes to be successful... she was still a sweet girl down to her center. Sango stared at Pichu's big eyes. She had a choice to make.

And really, it was no choice at all.

"Marion," Sango called, catching up to the girl. "You take him."

"No."

Sango held up the Pichu and pressed him against her.

"I'm serious! Take him!"

"No, you're not!" Marion said. "You earned this. Fair and square. These last three days… you've worked so hard, and grown so much. I'm not going to ruin all that by stealing something that's rightfully yours!"

"You're not stealing it," Sango insisted, her stubborn face filled with conviction. "I'm giving it to you. You're the one who deserves it."

"All I did was fish," Marion muttered. "I don't deserve a damn thing."

"You're wrong," Sango said. "If it wasn't for you… we would have died in that cave-in. If it wasn't for you, we wouldn't have been able to fight off Preya. If not for you… I would be lying on the forest floor starving. Without you… I would have stood helplessly on that beach and never made it here in the first place."

Sango smiled gratefully at Marion, and held the Pichu out to her.

"I tried my hardest, I struggled, and no one will ever take that away from me. But without you… I would have never gotten this far in the first place. This is only my first exam. There will be another in three months. But this is your last chance. So please… take it."

Marion looked at Sango, the conflict in her eyes obvious. Deep down, part of Sango really did want to keep that Pichu and pass. Impress all of her friends and get a head-start on her career path towards being a ranger. But Sango also knew that some things were more important than others. And that's why she hadn't hesitated at all.

"I'm not going to let you put your dream at risk to help someone like me," Sango said, repeating Marion's own words back at her. "Just take the Pichu… and let's go back. Okay?"

"Is it… really okay for me to have this?" Marion asked, her eyes growing wet. Sango nodded. "Is it really okay… for me to pass like this?"

Sango nodded again. She handed the Pichu over to Marion, and this time the girl took it, tears streaming down her face.

"Thank you, Sango," Marion sobbed, setting the Pichu down and hugging the girl tightly. "Thank you so much…"

"You dummy…" Sango said, hugging her back. "I'm the one who owes you way more thanks than I could ever pay back."

Next chapter will be the conclusion of the Pokemon Ranger Probationary License Test, the arc itself, and a return to our usual programming.