Here's the final chapter of the Pokemon Ranger Probationary Test arc! How will things end? And where will they go from here? Review!
Pokemonking0924: She really is sweet. One of the kindest characters in the series, she just doesn't get much chance to show it.
Tambry96bj: Yup, these mysteries will hopefully get explored to the fullest.
Hellraiserphoenix: Petal is really just a big old softy. Just don't tell her that.
Aakareo Kokokuhikari: Harmonia is far from an absolute power, you got that right. And don't worry, Blake isn't planned to get any special abilities or superpowers or anything. Unless catching super powerful pokemon counts, in which case, that will happen at some point.
Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings
Chapter 120
When the large ship pulled up to the dock of the Nature Preserve, Petal was more than a little surprised.
It's only three… they're three hours early. How fascinating. It seems someone upstairs must have been pretty frantic about the notion of the Nature Preserve being under attack… I wonder why that could be? I doubt it's out of concern for the test takers' safety…
Petal stepped up to greet the rangers as they clamored off the ship, filling in the head of the platoon on the events that had been relayed to her. Petal glanced back at the examinees that had already gathered on the shore with their Pichu prizes, staring in awe and admiration.
Gotta keep them out of this, too.
The rangers headed in the direction Petal had indicated, the ranger glancing at her monitor.
The rangers have arrived, so we better start evacuating. I suppose it's time to call it here…
"Pichu!" Ritsu tugged on Petal's sock. Petal glanced down at her partner pokemon's large eyes.
…Well, I did promise to give them until 6… I suppose waiting an additional few hours wouldn't hurt…
"Petal!" A familiar voice startled Petal as she walked back toward the students, the girl wheeling around in stunned surprise.
"K-Kelly?!" Petal gasped, her cheeks flushing. "Wh-what are you doing here?!"
"I heard what was going on, so I accompanied the rangers." Professor Kellyn Lunark, or Kelly, as he was known to a certain someone, stood in front of Petal. His face was pale with anxiety and his brown eyes were teaming with worry.
"W-well, it's no big deal," Petal said, brushing her hair behind her ear. "Just a little bit of worry going down… But enough about that! How are you doing? Have you been eating well? Getting enough sleep?"
Professor Lunark looked past Petal and scanned the examinees.
"Are all the applicants not in yet?" He asked. "We're still missing two of ours from the Pokemon Academy, Marion Rivers and Sango Akana. Did they make it to the third exam? Are they on the island somewhere?"
Petal's giddy smile fell into her usual sour expression, and she was once more all business.
"Work, work, work!" Petal scowled, jabbing her finger hard into the teacher's collared shirt. "That's all you ever talk about! And now you're coming her and telling me how I'm supposed to be running my test?!"
"Sorry, I didn't mean to-"
"For your information, yes, those two are still on the island, and yes, the test is still going on! That boat you lot came in is going to be leaving this island in three hours, and they're gonna be on it- pass or fail! So why not get a head start and get right back on board yourself, mister?!"
Kellyn sighed. There was no talking to Petal when she was in one of her moods. He turned and trudged back to the boat, his shoulders slumping.
A wave of remorse washed over Petal's face, but she quickly shook it away. She wasn't the problem, that was all on that stupid Kellyn with his stupid brown hair in that stupid pointy top! Stupid.
"Pichu…" Ritsu looked up at Petal, who scowled down at her.
"Oh, shut up."
By 5:50, 27 of the examinees had been accounted for, one way or another. A good chunk had dropped out before the exam ended, and another cluster had returned in defeat, resigning themselves to wait out the remainder of their time on the comfort of the soon-departing ship. The 14 remaining were all standing on the beach, holding their Pichu in their hands. The victors all looked worn down from the three days of roughing it, ready to get back to the comforts of dry land. But their eyes all held a gleam of triumph, celebrating internally at how far they had come. Petal scanned their faces and thought on the drop-outs as well.
The leftover is probably that grey-haired boy… he must be this "Preya" those girls were talking about, he took the test under a false name, eh? So it seems there are only two people still left to wait on… Those two girls, Marion and Sango, for all their passion and boasting it seems like they're the last ones to the finish.
Petal chuckled to herself, checking her monitor. Two dots were approaching the beach as fast as they could, almost on top of each other.
How fascinating… 14 Pichu have already been found. Are they returning in defeat? Or did these girls find Pichu 15? If so… well, it seems there will be quite an interesting scene to be had at the end of all this.
True to her expectations, Marion and Sango broke out of the woods, panting, Silver floating behind them with an equally exhausted expression. Sango was holding Marion tightly on her back, Marion gently cradling the Pichu in her hat.
"We made it!" Sango gasped, stumbling forward. She nearly lost her footing on the way down the embankment, but she made it to the sand, standing in semi-triumph.
"With barely a minute to spare, at that," Petal said, putting her monitor away. "And?"
Marion climbed off Sango's back, wincing as she planted her foot. She held up the Pichu for Petal's inspection.
"Well done, then," Petal said, nodding. "You pass."
Marion smiled, but not with the joy that Petal would have expected someone who had taken the test as many times as her would have been smiling with. She put that thought out of her mind, and turned to Sango.
"As for you, you're done! Get walking onto that ship, you've failed!" Petal declared. "And you, go line up with the others."
Marion limped into line, standing at attention like the other successful examinees, but her eyes followed Sango as the tall girl slumped down so low, slowly walking toward the ship. Marion bit her lip, watching Silver rub up against the blonde in an attempt to comfort her. From Sango's back, though, it seemed to have the opposite effect. Marion could see Sango's shoulders trembling, her pace slowing. She could practically hear the stifled sobs coming out of the poor girl's mouth.
Am I really… going to just let my junior do something like this?
"W-WAIT!" Marion shouted, Petal flinching a little at the insistence in her voice. Her outburst was punctuated with a sudden and inexplicable crash of waves on the dusk-lit sand.
Sango paused, glancing back in confusion.
"Th-this isn't right!" Marion exclaimed, hobbling through the sand toward Sango. "I… I can't! Not… not like this! It's not fair!"
"Oh?" Petal frowned, glancing at the girl, and then at Sango. "What's not fair?"
"What are you doing?!" Sango hissed, storming towards her. The two girls met right in front of Petal and Ritsu.
"I-I need to say something!" Marion said. "I… I didn't really capture this Pichu! Sango did! I… she just, I… she gave it to me! Because she said it was more important that I pass than her! But…"
She glanced at Sango's pained look, and winced.
"…I couldn't do something like that, I just couldn't."
"Is this true?" Petal asked, glancing to Sango for confirmation.
"It-it isn't," Sango said, shaking her head. Petal narrowed her eyes, Sango flinching. She averted her gaze from the intimidating woman, staring toward the sand at her feet.
"…It is. I caught that guy… with my styler. And then I gave him to Marion. B-but! But I had to! Marion, she… her dream…"
"I don't want a dream that needs me to step over a friend," Marion insisted. She turned back to Petal, her expression insistent.
"Please, let Sango pass instead of me. I cheated. I didn't capture this Pichu, she did. She tamed that Salamence all on her own, she saved me from falling, it's all thanks to her."
Petal stared at Marion for a good while.
"I don't think you quite understand how this exam works," Petal said, frowning. "I don't care who 'actually' captured the Pichu, or who's the one who tamed it first, or when, none of that matters. Are you forgetting the criteria for passing? Three days after the exam begins, you are to bring a Pichu on this island to the beach. Even if it was a Pichu captured by someone else, you were still the one holding it in the end. You pass. She doesn't. End of story."
Sango nodded in spite of herself. What was Marion even fighting for? Sango could always take this exam again, but this was Marion's last chance! It was the logical choice! Then she remembered the thoughts she'd had when she'd made that choice in the first place. The sadness in Marion's eyes. The look of defeat on her face, the resignation in every step she took. Sango blinked the tears from her eyes, which no doubt looked the same as Marion's had back then. This stupid girl…
"Then I'm dropping out," Marion stated. "I'm dropping out, so pass her in my place!"
"It doesn't work like that," Petal scoffed. "You dropping out doesn't just open up a slot like a waitlist. It just means we have 14 people passing the exam this time instead of 15. The rules are simple. Sango isn't holding a Pichu, so she fails."
"So I can give her mine, then?" Marion asked. Petal shrugged.
Marion whirled around and held the Pichu out to Sango. Sango didn't even raise her arms to take it.
"Come on!" Marion exclaimed, tears falling from her eyes. "Take him! Please, I'm telling you, it's okay! I don't… I don't want to hurt you like this, so please!"
"No," Sango said, pushing the small pokemon back toward Marion. "I'm not doing it. The Pichu looked back and forth between the two girls in exasperation.
"Just take it!" Marion shouted. "Just forget about me, and pass!"
"Not a chance!" Sango replied. "You forget about me, and you pass! I won-"
Something yellow clouded Sango's vision, and cut her insistent exclamation off.
Sango heard a gasp of disbelief from Marion as she pried the thing off of her face, staring down at it in confusion.
"Look at that," Petal said, lowering her hand.
Sitting in Sango's hands was a Pichu with an electric guitar on her back, looking up at Sango with a beaming smile that lit up the night.
"How- wha-?!" Sango stuttered, utterly flummoxed.
"I told you, your job was to capture a Pichu, any Pichu, and bring it back here. Don't recall ever saying it was only limited to the 15 I let loose, did I? It doesn't matter who actually captured the thing, remember?"
"Then you're saying?!" Marion was giddy with excitement.
Sango looked up at Petal, her heart pounding in her chest. Did she dare hope that the ranger was saying what she thought she was saying?
"I'm saying," Petal clarified, "that the two of you, both, pass the third exam."
"WOOHOO!" Marion cheered, jumping with joy, her injured ankle forgotten.
"Is this… really okay?" Sango asked. "I… I didn't-"
"Didn't earn it?" Petal interrupted her, putting words to Sango's insecurity. "That's a load of bunk."
She held up the monitor she'd been using to track the contestants.
"I've been watching the lot of you from the first day. And you know something I noticed? For all the different examinees' movements across the island, there were two that behaved oddly from the start. Two certain testees that stuck by each other's side every time I glanced at the screen. Any time they separated, they always came back to each other. They scoured the forest, climbed mountains, fought off rampaging pokemon while searching everywhere they could, but the one thing that was always the same is that no matter how tough things might have seemed, they stuck together. Right until the very end."
Petal smiled, one of the warmest expressions Sango had ever seen out of her.
"This test is a strange one, because by its nature it pits the examinees against one another, even when we rangers should be working together for the greater good. In an exam like this, things like teamwork and friendship so often get forgotten when winning and losing comes into play. But not always. That's why I was interested where things were going to go, especially when I saw that Sango's styler was the one who had captured that Pichu."
"Wait, what?!" Sango gaped. She'd known from the beginning? …Of course she had. Of course she'd have access to the records of who caught the Pichu and when. Why would she have ever thought otherwise?
"In situations like that in the past, when two people worked together and the prize was ahead of them, they would unfailingly come into conflict over which one of them would ultimately get it. Every time. And yet, here I see the two of you sticking together to the end, with the one who captured the Pichu carrying the one who was holding it all the way to the beach on her back. Something like that? No one does something like that. This little skirmish here just proved to me what I already knew. The two of you are the kind of selfless idiots who would sacrifice your own gain for the chance that your comrades could come out ahead. A trait looked down upon by most… but something truly admirable to see in a Pokemon Ranger. Friendship and loyalty something like that, blooming in an environment like this, where most would only be looking out for themselves…"
Petal placed a hand on each of the girls' shoulders.
"I'd be honored to have comrades who were as loyal and dedicated to me as you two are to each other. A scene like that… I'll happily bend a tiny little rule like that if it means the road to the two of you achieving your dreams of becoming rangers could be shortened just a little."
"Well, actually, I-" Sango clamped her hand over Marion's mouth.
"What?" Petal asked, narrowing her eyes in suspicion.
"Nothing, nothing, she's just happy to hear such kind words," Sango smiled. "Right, Marion?"
"Mrmm hrphm," Marion nodded.
"Well, alright then," Petal nodded. She turned to the other victors of the third exam, a broad smile on her face.
"The display here might have been particularly special, but don't misunderstand me and think that you lot aren't worthy either! Everyone standing on this beach right now has proven themselves to be capable, admirable, and above all, deserving of standing before me now! Your path ahead is a rough one, and someday you'll look back on these last three days as a pleasant island vacation!"
She chuckled wickedly at that, sending a shiver down everyone's spines, Sango and Marion included.
"Don't forget the courage and ambition that drove you to succeed in these tests! You've scraped and struggled and drawn on reserves you didn't even know you had, all for the sake of standing here now, triumphant. What you've forged on this island will be the foundation for your future as a pokemon ranger, and the first path into a future broader and more fulfilling than you could ever imagine. Any one of you, I would be happy to call my comrade and serve both humans and pokemon by your side!"
She held her hands up, and clapped them together.
"Thank you for all your hard work until now! You've all done an amazing job, congratulations!"
"Pichu!" Ritsu hopped up onto Sango's shoulder and strummed her guitar, a cheerful tune ringing across the beach, as cheers of joy and sighs of relief echoed from the previous examinees, now Probationary Rangers.
"Now, without further ado, it's time for us to make our way back to the mainland," Petal said, turning to the large boat that had been preparing to leave for some time. "Leave taking care of the Nature Preserve to the real rangers, there's still much to be done. You kids need to get your licenses printed, at any rate. They should be done by the time we get back, so that's something you can look forward to. But until then, take a load off and relax. You lot have certainly earned it."
Their fatigue forgotten, the students piled onto the boat, walking past Sango as she helped Marion make her way there.
"You girls," Petal interrupted the two, Ritsu leaping off of Sango's shoulder and running over to her partner.
"Y-yeah?" Sango asked, glancing back at Petal.
"Take good care of the bond you made with one another," Petal smiled, walking past them. "Precious bonds are things to be treasured indeed."
"I know, right?" Marion bubbled. "You sure know your stuff, right Miss Petal? I'm sure you've got all kinds of bonds with folks!"
"W-well, something like that," Petal blushed, covering the ring on her finger with her right hand. "A-anyway, you two have a good trip home, and give Kelly-Professor Lunark! Ahem. Give him my regards."
"Uh, sure," Sango nodded, Petal running aboard the ship to hide her flustered face from the two Probationary Rangers.
"Blake! Blake, did you hear?! It's amazing!" Blake was standing over the lip of the Dragon Valley, staring down into the crevice as the morning sun cast the edge in a shadow. A newspaper was rolled up in his hand, and his face wore his troubles from what had been contained within its pages. He looked up to see a certain short girl running up to him.
"Oh, really? What's so amazing?" Blake asked. Kitty pulled to a stop, panting. She brushed her short bangs, more out of habit than anything else. Her hair had been cut down to hang just under her chin, with her bangs trimmed so that they no longer covered her eyes. She wore a sunny smile as she relayed the good news to him.
"Sango's flight is coming in tonight! And that's not even the best part! She passed!"
"Really?!" Blake said, his face lighting up. "That's great! We should totally celebrate, did she say when she was getting in?"
Kitty shook her head.
"Still, though, she really picked a heck of time…"
"I know," Kitty said, frowning, glancing down at the newspaper in Blake's hands, staring anxiously at the headline.
SPECIAL EDITION! THE DAEVAS' DETENTE!
The Four Daevas (known also as the Four Holy Swords) are planning to hold a summit tonight, 10:00 PM, to discuss future endeavors on campus development! Intrepid Reporter and Scholar of Truth Dakota Evans has captured the full story, further details on page-
So, while Sango has been off rangering about, things have been really heating up back on campus! Or in Kitty's case, getting cool with a brand new hairdo.