Ch.4

Once it began, Obsidian ran along side his teammates. He wanted to go ahead like Crimson and Tungsten were doing but, this was a team exercise, by keeping up with his teammates he was able to talk to them and get to know them.

"So, Electrum why'd you sign up?" He asked curiously. Electrum, who wasn't as in shape as he was panted out an answer.

"Mainly because I didn't want to be guarded by muscle heads like you and Tungsten, no offense," he added quickly. Obsidian chuckled, "hey, I'm with you, we muscle heads don't belong in a lab guarding squints, we belong on the battlefield," he smirked, "if all squints thought that way we would have more troops to fight against Kanto and Jhoto, hell if that happened Unova would be able to fight better and not just be on the defensive after the initial attacks."

He looked at one of the DIs as they slowed their pace, going to reprimand Team Comet for slowing to a jog.

"Thought he'd never leave huh? Keep up the pace, only half a mile to go man. So what about you, Aqua?" He asked, "Why'd you join up with Red?" She smiled.

"I always felt out of place at normal things, felt like I was missing something, like a companion. When I found my ancestors' Pokedex, I knew what was missing. So I joined."

Obsidian nodded, "I personally don't know how I feel yet, my brother's the one who's wanted this for years. I only hate that the king refuses to accept any way of thinking but his own, me I could hardly care about getting a pokemon of my own. But the fact that those who do are oppressed make me want to fight."

They continued the run, talking and getting to know each other better. By the time they got to the push-ups and sit-ups, they were chatting like old friends. They reached the Gauntlet, turns out each team had their own Gauntlet to go through, to prevent it from being too easy. According to the DI's they could use any means necessary to ring the bell, but they all had to ring it. Obsidian stopped them before they went in.

"Ok, Aqua, can you take a look ahead? See what we're dealing with? I don't want to be going in blind." The brunette girl nodded and ran in, a few seconds later, she came out.

"A large field, probably with mines, probably with more obstacles, marines with stun rounds patrolling. Oh and I saw at least one VTOL and humvee, both with stun rounds. I hope. There's a large rundown building probably where the bell is." Obsidian sighed, "Damn it, ok Aqua, I need you to distract them long enough for us get under cover, play rabbit. Electrum, can you shoot a turret?"

"If I have too, yeah" Electrum said looking at Obsidian, "Why?" Obsidian chuckled, "You'll see."

Aqua sprinted as fast as her legs could carry her, blood roaring in her ears as she heard the marines open fire. Stun rounds peppered the dirt around her. She could barely breathe, but then she heard it, the humvee Obsidian and Electrum acquired. They painted the marines with massive amounts of stun rounds until they directed their fire on them. One marine got a lucky shot on Electrum, numbing his chest, he released the turret and slid into the vehicle, barely able to move.

"Aqua, get in and man that turret!" Obsidian yelled stopping long enough for her to get in. As she claimed in, she noticed that he was driving with one arm and was breathing extremely heavily, Electrum was next to him attempting to provide suppressing fire with an assault rifle, it was a poor attempt. "VTOL! Twelve o'clock!" Aqua heard Obsidian's shout and brought the turret to bare. The single occupant aircraft opened fire, Aqua returned fire as the humvee surged forward, bowling over fences and through mud pits towards the bell at the end of the field in the large the mines went off.

With ringing in his ears, Obsidian stood up and looked for his group, seeing them crouched behind the overturned humvee, he picked up a light machine gun that had fallen out of the vehicle, he picked it up and aimed at the aircraft landing to capture his squad mates, he squeezed the trigger.

The stun rounds seemed to leave the weapon in slow motion, he watched as they pierced the plexiglass of the cockpit, hit the marine flying it. Obsidian watched as the pilot went limp, the aircraft fell ten feet and plunged face first into the dirt,sputtered and died. The glass was shattered enough so the pilot could escape when he recovered.

Obsidian walked over to his team as he shouldered his weapon. "Get up let's go." They got up and followed him as he went into the building. Once inside Obsidian found a shotgun and checked it. "Rock salt, won't kill, but it'll sting like a bitch. Good for close quarters like this." He looked at Aqua, "Can you hold a shotgun? It's an 8 gauge, low recoil but still requires a steady hand." At her nod, he handed it to her.

"In here, they went in here!" A marine said as they ran up the stairs. Obsidian turned and shot a couple marines, who had reached the foot of the stairs, they returned fire. Obsidian gasped for breath as the stun rounds hit his chest, he collapsed and started falling down the stairs. Luckily his teammates grabbed him and pulled him up.

"Thanks guys" he wheezed as he tried to sit up. But Aqua stopped him.

"Stay down. You won't be able to move so there's no use trying. Electrum, can you help carry him, remember we all have to ring the bell."

As they carried Obsidian, a marine shot Aqua in her calf causing her to fall, bringing the others down with her. Electrum peppered him with the stun rounds. He didn't get up. "Hurry before more of them come!" He urged, helping Obsidian and Aqua up the second and final flight of stairs.

When they reached the top, they were in a square room with clean metal walls also, there was a screen on the far wall.

"Congratulations cadets, you are the first to make it this far." A man with graying brown hair and steel gray eyes and dressed in a highly decorated military uniform, his rank insignia identified him as a colonel, told them as he appeared on screen. "Don't bother asking about the severity of your training, I will not answer them," he told them seeing Electrum's mouth open. "Leave your weapons here, you will not need them." He told them as a metal tray came out the wall under the monitor. They reluctantly laid them on it, Obsidian and Aqua had recovered enough to stand on their own.

"Now Cadet Kurai, as team leader, I'll ask you first. How do you prefer to fight?"

"Colonel, I prefer to use stealth if I can but if I can't, I use all out attacks, mostly CQC." Obsidian responded with a salute. The officer nodded and looked towards Aqua and Electrum. They saluted as he said, "And you two?"

"Sir! I prefer to be on the defensive and play a more supportive role." Aqua told him. He nodded again. Looking towards Electrum, he saluted smartly.

"I prefer to use defensive maneuvers, weaken my opponents, then overwhelm with my attacks." Electrum responded. The Colonel nodded for the third time. He then saluted them and the screen went black. They looked at each other.

"What the hell?" Obsidian asked, but before either of them could respond, the metal tray reappeared. On it were three pokeballs. They were on three separate stands, each one had their names on them. They each took their assigned pokeballs and they went in to the last room.

It was a large metal room with plenty of lighting, on the far side was the bell. On the left side wall was a large screen. On the floor was a large circle with a small white circle in the middle, the far half was red while the half closer to them was blue, the whole thing was outlined in black. In the middle of the red side was a large orange canid Pokemon with a regal bearing, it's fur was battle-scarred and it's black stripes were faded. Behind it was a masked figure with a feminine silhouette. Obsidian understood what the pokeballs were for.

"Guys, we have to battle her, let out your pokemon." He released his, it was a medium, white, quadrupedal canid with a large scythe on its head. Electrum and Aqua released theirs, a quadrupedal blue fish with orange fins on the side of its face, and a little blue penguin with white markings on its back in the shape of raindrops.

"An Absol, Mudkip, and Piplup," the masked woman said, she sounded familiar to Obsidian, "as you are inexperienced, I will allow you to attack first. Their attacks and status are on the screen."

Looking towards the screen they each saw their pokemon, the status of each pokemon and it's health. On the screen was the woman's pokemon, an Arcanine. Obsidian looked at his team and nodded, they were ready.

A/N: sorry for the wait, I've been busy with health issues. But anyway, like I promised its longer, and Team Nova has gotten their starters! Funnily enough my OC is the only one so far, to not have an actual starter starter. But crappy jokes aside, I would also like to self promote my other story, The Spirit of Recovery, a halo fanfic that is what I wanted to happen to The Spirit of Fire from Halo Wars because I don't like the end of that story. Annnyyyway I am still accepting OCs and the parents available are: Gold, Sapphire, Emerald, Pearl, Platina, Black, Touya, Cheren, Bianca, Calem, and Serena. As always Nightmares and Horrors delight!