After Naruto had said that, Marowak and Spearow charged at the group on a frontal assault. Zev immediately jumped back into a defensive position as I helped him as well in the back. Sasuke and Naruto guarded us as King and Batsu charged forward. Marowak smirked as he slowly swing his club at the Charmeleon. As King gasped and saw the attack coming, he was forced to put his arms up in defense. The bone smashed into his arms, making him yell in pain as he felt the hard impact. Batsu immediately saw King hold his arms close to his body. Immediately realizing something could be terribly wrong, and seeing Marowak took the opportunity to swing at him again, he immediately placed his paw on the Charmeleon's body and flipped him over the opponent's swing. The injured teammate closed his eyes and gritted his teeth as he flipped forward and away from Marowak. He rolled a bit and grunted as he trembled in pain and held his arms still.

Batsu had taken the club and with his left palm, blocked it with a strong strike upwards. Forcing the momentum of the blow to make Marowak's arm go up and back, making him completely open, the Riolu took his right palm and used Force Palm on his chest, hitting him and forcing him to go backwards. As Marowak was sent flying back, Spearow had flew past him and started to advance closer. King opened an eye painfully and growled, firing a Flame Wheel attack at it. The Spearow smirked and dodged the attack with ease as our poor teammate gritted his teeth, lying on the ground.

But Naruto was ready as he used Shadow Ball on the oncoming enemy. The Spearow barely dodged the attack as Sasuke immediately noticed where it was heading.

"Zev! Thomas! He's coming right at you!" he warned us.

Zev immediately held the bag close to his body and said, "Thomas, I'm gonna be counting on you to help me. I'm weak against him, but this guy is up your alley!"

I nodded as he stood my ground at the incoming enemy. I charged up electricity in my right arm and then electricity cackled through my limb. I aimed my punch at the Spearow as it tried to do a spinning Peck attack at me. As we came into contact, I got a bit nervous and my arm charged dangerously. It exploded as my fist and the peck collided. It knocked me back and sent negative electricity through me, hurting me a bit. As I landed, the Spearow grunted and flew a ways away before gently landing and being paralyzed.

Batsu had followed up on his attack on Marowak and had rushed at him laying on the ground. Marowak was still on the ground from the last attack and had opened his eyes to see Batsu over him with his right leg high in the air, about to try a kick down on him. The opponent gasped and rolled backwards, causing my teammate to miss. But since it took him too long to get up, the opponent was on a disadvantage for the Riolu to keep his offense up. He took his palms and tried a double palm attack, but the Marowak was able to block with his club. But Batsu was then able to bring his left knee up, knocking the club out of Marowak's hands. As the enemy was caught surprised, Batsu stepped forward and smashed his right arm and elbow into Marowak, knocking him back again.

King (God love him) was still on the ground, holding his arms close to his body in a way that looked like he was hugging himself. He was clamping his eyes shut in pain as he grunted. But suddenly, a Vine Whip attack wrapped around his mouth, tying it shut, and also wrapping his arms tight around his body. King was barely able to look at the Ivysaur, who slowly began to pull him towards him. He helplessly moaned in pain as he tried to struggle, but because his arms were badly injured and his mouth was tied up, it looked bad for him as he closed his eyes. Luckily, Sasuke had seen him and immediately looked at Naruto.

"You stay strong here and help Thomas," he said as he rushed over.

As Naruto ran over and helped me up, and using the speed he used back at the alcove, he immediately was in the face of the Ivysaur. Catching the opponent off guard, he used Sonicboom, which was a direct hit to the face. It knocked the Ivysaur back and caused it to let go of King. As the Charmeleon grunted in pain, Sasuke helped him up gently and held him close.

"Stay right next to me, buddy. I got you," he said kindly.

"Ahh.. Th-Thanks…" King winced.

He slowly lead him back as Gastly was about to try a move, but then a huge Water Gun attack was fired. It dodged it as our group was able to regroup as well as the other team's. We looked to see a Dewott, a Axew, and a Combusken coming over.

"Hey! Let's get their crystals! Hurry!" the Dewott shouted.

"Ugh, this isn't good. The team we fought was too bad of a gamble. Gaster, use Smokescreen!" the Marowak ordered.

"Sasuke! Let's get out of here too!" Naruto yelled as we all turned.

"Right! Let's move it!" Sasuke ordered as the Gastly used Smokescreen, just as the other group came over and we made our perfect getaway.

-

It had been close to twelve minutes since we started and we all gathered in a hiding place near the pond. We were all circled around King, who was being checked for his arms. He grunted in pain as he was forced to make his arms go straight and Batsu and Sasuke began to check them. He slowly winced a bit as he clamped his eyes shut.

"Well, King, the good news is that you don't have broken arms," Sasuke said, trying to be encouraging, "but you do have some massive bruises on your arms."

"D-Dang…. Rrrrgh…. It hurts way too much…" King gritted his teeth, "I-I'm trying to be tough, but this is pushing it…"

"Sasuke, I don't think it would be good to be involved in any more battles. Maybe we have to call it quits and go to the pond to end our hunt," Batsu said.

"But how much do we have?" Naruto said, tilting his head.

"Zev, how much do we have in the bag?" Sasuke asked.

After a few minutes of counting, Zev slowly sighed at us and shook his head by telling us, "We only have 261 points. We need 39 more."

"But we can't! We can't risk King getting more injured than he already is," Sasuke said, looking at him.

"No… Y-you can't put my needs in front of the whole g-group… p-please, Sasuke," King begged for the only time I would probably ever hear.

I sighed as I sat back and felt bad. I know that King wanted to continue, but I was siding with Sasuke on this. We couldn't risk him getting his arms permanently hurt. But I felt bad that we, the most watched team, were going to lose in the first stage. As I leaned back, I felt… something on my hand. I immediately sat up and looked behind me.

"…OH NO WAY!" I shouted with a smile.

All of them looked at me as I turned around and showed that I had found an ipod in my hands. All of them slowly smiled and got excited.

"Oh, my gosh! We got one!" Naruto cheered.

"Then, what are we waiting for? We need to get to the pond immediately! Let's head over there now!" Sasuke said with a smile as we (while helping King) immediately turned the corner to the pond to pass the first stage of the exams.

-