Finally able to get into the pond without getting noticed, we quickly went to the middle of the pond where a few exam staff, not to mention Arcanine, was talking. As we kept moving there, we saw that also a few other teams (around seven or eight) had finished and were waiting for the time to go up. We slowly came into their view as Arcanine smiled at us and walked over. I could tell Naruto wanted to socialize with him badly, but right now with one of our teammates hurt, it wasn't the time.

"Well, well, it seems that my feelings were right. I just knew that you two would pass the first part of the exams," he said to us.

"Sir, we're very honored that you believe in us and had faith that we'd come through, but right now, we need medical help for one of our members," Sasuke said urgently.

"Certainly. What's wrong?" Arcanine said, looking at all of us until he laid his eyes on King.

Still clutching his arms close to his body, the Charmeleon grunted as Sasuke slowly led him forward.

Batsu said, "We were attacked by a team with a Marowak in it. Our member was forced into a position where he had to block the Marowak's clubs with his arms. Ever since that, his arms have been in pain."

"Oooh... I don't mean to be the bearer of bad news, but most injuries aren't that pretty when it comes to a club of a Marowak," Arcanine said, "We're gonna need to make sure his arms are properly checked up upon."

With that, he turned to a Chansey and called, "Nurse! We need your assistance!"

The Chansey immediately hurried over and once told the whole incident, signaled for us to follow her as she said, "Here, please follow me and I'll see what I can do for you."

-

We all watched as King stood in front of a cushioned exam table and had his arms laid out straight in front of him. He was gritting his teeth in now intense pain as he looked at Chansey, who was behind a machine.

"Now, please hold still. I'm going to get an x-ray of your arms to see what the problem is," she said as he nodded.

"Just be calm, King. You'll be fine," Sasuke said, encouraging him.

King nodded and winced as we could see a bright white light slowly go over his arms. After a few times of it going back and forth, the light disappeared and Chansey came back with these little black pads. She then looked over at Sasuke, who nodded and stood up. He signaled for us to follow as we all came over.

"Well, I've checked over his arms and there is an injury on both arms that you will need to monitor," she said, "Even thought the wonderful news is that there is no broken bones or fracture at all, the impact seemed to hit his elbows pretty hard. So, because the club that he was hit with was stronger, it did some pretty bad damage to that area of his arms."

King nods as he grunted, "Uuraah... W-Would that explain why it hurts less when I bend my arms?"

"Yes. Because your arms were bent when you were struck, it will feel more comfortable for a while to have your arms bent," she said, "In fact, for several days, your arms are gonna hurt if you straighten them in any way."

"Several days? But that means King can't afford to risk being in danger of further injuring himself," Zev said.

"N-No...! I can't... oww... I can't just leave this exam and the team because of this stupid pain..." King said.

"Which is why I have the solution," Chansey said as she revealed that the black things in her hands were elbow pads, "Now, I need you to move your arms just for a second..."

"Here, Batsu, let's help him," Sasuke said.

King slowly turned as Sasuke and Batsu gently walked over and held his arms. He grunted as the nurse slowly took the first pad and slowly but carefully moved it towards his elbow. As she slowly put it on the elbow and began tightening it, King's face started to look less disturbed and he began to breathe easily.

"Hey... my left arm doesn't hurt badly anymore..." he started to smile.

"Excellent," Chansey said smiling, "That was exactly what I hoped for. These pads will put enough pressure on the elbows to prevent pain. All you need to do is keep them on for at least a week, and soon, your arms will be back to normal."

And with a few more seconds and the other pad on, King grinned as his arms were let go and he threw a few punches. He laughed as I smiled at him. Looks like those pads really helped him block the pain and made him happy. For some reason, it made me happy to see him uplifted after that huge incident.

"Thank you so much!" the Charmeleon said loudly to Chansey, "This is great!"

"You're welcome," she said chuckling, "I'm so glad you're okay and happy with this."

"Is there any way we can repay you for this?" Sasuke smiled and asked.

"No, no, please don't. It's what I live for and I am always happy to help any Pokémon in need," she said with a smile.

"Wow, your pads are really super cool, King!" Naruto said, closely looking at them.

King smirked as he showed them off by flexing his muscles. I had to admit; although he only wore those for a little while, they did look good on him. It was sort of a shiny black leather type of material that you see those cool guys with leather jackets like bikers and bullies wear.

"All right, guys. We're done here. Let's see if they're done totaling our amount left," Sasuke said.

"Huh? Wait, they've been counting our items while we've been in here?" I asked.

"Yeah, they took the bag as we escorted King in here, remember?" Naruto reminded me.

"So, soon, they should be done with the total; no matter, we have enough to pass, so we're pretty much in," Zev said smiling.

"All right. Let's get make sure we are in then," Sasuke said as we all headed out.

-

As we came outside, we had noticed at least a couple of teams had joined the pond area and completed the stage. We then saw a certain Charmander run at us with a crying face. It was Pyro again, and it seemed that he was coming for King. We watched our teammate smile lovingly at him as he bent down to his little brother's height and opened his arms up to catch him, hugging him tight. While he was doing that, Sasuke had gone over to the table that counted the items.

"B-Big brother!" Pyro cried loudly as he snuggled into him.

"Shh... It's okay... I'm here..." King said smiling and rubbing his back.

"A-Are you okay, big brother? I heard you got your arms hurt..." Pyro's tears rolled down his face as he asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," King said, "I got these elbow pads that I gotta wear for now until I'm fully healed. Don't worry; your big brother is going to be fine."

I smiled at King as he kept reassuring Pyro that he would be perfectly fine. It made me happy to see that no matter how rash and impatient King was, he was a great brother towards his little sibling. This just proved that even someone that acts rude and mean can really be a good guy. I mean, sure, this guy did hurt me and keeps making fun of me like calling me a "pipsqueak", but I guess I can really deal with it.

"Hey, Thomas, look," I was nudged by my brother Naruto as he teased, "Looks like Zoey and her team made it too."

He pointed to Team Lightgale slowly make it to the pond as they were helping Carter towards Chansey's place. It looked like he got hit with a massive water attack and was behind helped by Marco towards the area. Leroy and Zoey were following right behind them. Naruto grinned at me with his tail wagging as I gave him a glare.

"She could use some support, don't ya think?" he winked at me.

"No, she doesn't. It's not my right to just butt in when it's her team's problems," I said.

"Oh, come on. Every girl needs a good guy to be right there with her," Naruto nudged me with his head, trying to push me over there.

"Stop it!" I snapped at him as I pushed back on his head, causing him to laugh at me.

Around that time, Sasuke had come back with our bag and Pyro had cheered up, saying good-bye and wishing King good luck. The bag was empty and he walked past us to drop it off in a box that said "drop off". He came back and smiled at us.

"We've passed and we're moving on!" he said happily.

We all cheered and celebrated in our own way as Naruto asked, "So, brother, what happened to our items?"

"Well, it was interesting what they said they would do with them. They explained that if there wasn't 64 teams with enough items to pass, the extra items other teams collected would go to the next highest total teams so there would be 64 teams that have 300 points," Sasuke explained.

"But we still get to keep that human device, right?" Zev asked.

"Only if we pass the exams," Sasuke said.

"Then we better make sure we do. I really want to see what that thing can do," the Grovyle said smiling.

"Me too. It looks very interesting," Batsu had said, while as I close this chapter, you-know-who hid his face and started to chuckle to himself.

-