As the siren rang again, Elek and Arty had said their good-byes as they left for us to continue. With that. it wasn't too long that the pond area was packed with everybody again and Naruto had come back from his chat with his idol. He had to hurry for a tiny bit and actually dash to where we were, because of the giant horde almost consuming him in his haste. He sighed as he smiled at us.

"That was so amazing! Arcanine is so much more cooler than I thought he would be!" he said, wagging his little tail.

"Watch it, dork. Your fanboyism is coming off of you like body odor," King teased.

"Dork?!" Naruto said, growling at him.

"Yeah, like how I call Tommy 'pipsqueak'," King said grinning.

"...Tommy? Really?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Okay, you guys, focus. We really don't need useless babbling right now," Zev said, rolling his eyes as he sighed in an unimpressed manner.

"Okay, okay," I said, waving it off, "but I am worried about the test. I mean, do you really think it could be very hard?"

"To be honest, I don't have any idea, but I'm guessing we're going to have some challenging questions. But they shouldn't be anything you, King, and Zev haven't studied for," Sasuke answered.

"I'm a bit nervous to be honest," I said, rubbing my head.

"It's okay to be nervous, but just don't doubt yourself," Batsu said to me.

"May I have your attention, please?" we heard Arcanine say, as the noise died out.

We, along with everyone there, turned to see the proctor sitting in front of the pond with a smile on his face.

"Thank you all, and congratulations to all the teams that manage to pass the first stage! You should be proud to know that thanks to your strategies and teamwork, you have shown why you should continue in this exam. Your courage fighting many teams and your expert work to find hidden items and 'clients' were extremely good. To all the teams that did not make it, please don't lose hope and confidence. It doesn't mean you are weak or not worthy; it means that you can improve greater and come back when you are more qualified. So, please never forget what has happened today and use this to keep striving forward," Arcanine said, "Now, all the teams that did not pass, please exit the pond area and feel free to visit anything of the square. Your rooms and services will be free for the next two days. All the teams that passed, please stay here as your second proctor will soon be ready. Thank you all and have a good day."

As the cheering and applauding ceased after a while, half of the amount that was in the pond left and gave us more room to maneuver. We looked around to see a certain Typhlosion start to come over towards the beginning of the pond. But before he spoke, I decided to take a special look around the area. It had seemed that the teams we had met before all were there. Team Bui-Power were together near the pond water. I could see little Holt playing with the water as Draco and Ryoshi made sure he did it quietly, while Team Memory was nearby, standing quietly as Karine kept glancing over at Batsu. To the left near the entrance was Team Lightgale. Carter was okay; a bit bandaged, but the whole team looked ready for the next part of the exam. And in front of them was Team C-12, all smiling as Mia secretely had stolen a crystal and played with it. But unfortunately, when I looked behind me, Team Meanies had also passed. And when I looked at then, Gengar saw me and chuckled at me with his evil grin. I jerked back a bit in fear and then gave him a bit of a mean glare. I turned around to see Naruto look at me with a look of concern. He nodded to me and leaned into me, giving me comfort as I grinned at the feel of his fur on mine.

It was then that suddenly I felt a little ticklish feeling near my right ribs. It didn't make me start to giggle, but it did tickle a bit. I suddenly smirked to see Naruto have the most cheerful and innocent smile on his face as he looked at me and his tail purposely kept using the tip to tickle my ribs. That little goober! The second proctor is about to announce the next stage. And here he is, trying to tickle me! Therefore, instead of constantly fight with him to knock it off, I decided to treat him to the same thing. I then moved my tail towards his left ribs and made it tickle him back. He then giggled softly as his eyes clamped shut. We then struggled to remain quiet as we tickled each other and Tony came out.

"All right, listen up, you maggots!" Tony said, as he walked in front of the teams, "Eyes front and center!"

Both Naruto and I were jerked out of our tickling trances and stopped as the interrogator spoke. He glared angrily with a smirk on his face as he folded his arms and flared his blue flames out. He then laughed out loud and began to speak.

"Welcome to the second stage, but don't expect me to be all gentle like Arcanine. My name's Tony, and from here, I'm your proctor and your worst nightmare..." he said, quite grimly.

For such a happy go-lucky guy, I can see now why they put him as an interrogator. Man, he can switch personalities and be really freaking scary in a blink of an eye. Some of the teams went dead silent and pale just by that introduction. He then pointed behind him to his right, revealing that there was a little pathway that went up a huge steep way to get above, near the waterfall's height.

"You're to go up that pathway and follow it until you get to a white building with a Rescue Badge statue in front of it. That is where the second stage of the exam will occur in. When you get there," Tony explained, then showing a piece of paper that said 'number' on it, "You'll be handed a number. That's where you will be sitting. From the door to the left, bottom to top rows, is where you will sit. Now get moving, or you'll fail if you slack off!"

-

Well, after that wonderful and kind introduction from the ever-so-polite gentleman Tony, we end up in the grey, boring, and dull test room, in DEAD silence. I was number 43, so I was in the second middle row. In front of every seat number, there was a test sheet and a pencil. There were at least two rows of pew-connected benches that had one on the left, one in the middle, and one on the right. So in the end, there were 36 benches and usually ten Pokémon were at each bench. I couldn't even see where the others were sitting... I was alone... man, this was going to be a complete disaster...

"Oh, hey, Thomas!" I heard a cheerful voice say as my left ear twitched.

I looked over to see that Holt was sitting next to me and looked at me with his cute face. He was doing that little kid 'rock-your-head' movement with his head to each side. His tail wagged cutely.

"Oh, Holt. I didn't see you there. Good to see you, little guy!" I said happily.

"I'm really excited, Thomas! I've never done a test before, but I bet it's fun!" Holt said, having such the kind of naïve innocence I wish I had still.

"I'm sure you will do good too," we heard a familiar voice say too.

We looked past my right to see Zoey sitting next to me, and Alyssa next to her. Both smiled as they waved to us and Zoey blushed.

"Zoey! Alyssa! Great to see you!" I said smiling happily, but then noticed a certain girl start to blush at me.

"Hey, I hope that you do good on the test," Zoey said as she smiled back.

"Let's all hope we do good. I feel that there's a reason that they separated us from our teams and put us in different areas," Alyssa said.

"Hmm... maybe because they want to discourage cheating?" I asked, proposing an idea as Holt looked for his team.

"But that wouldn't make sense. The seats on the bench are so close together, we can see each other's test just by looking to our side," Alyssa said, confused.

"So, what do you think they're trying to pull here?" I asked as we looked around so more.

Suddenly, the door opened and a bunch of Pokémon came in with chairs. Then, one Pokémon with one chair sat on each side of the room on the left and right. So, two chairs would be filled watching three rows. Among them was Zeke, the Lucario that stood up for me back when Lucario and Batsu were on my back. He slowly looked around the room, and once he saw me, gave me a smile and nodded to me. As I nodded back, Tony came to the front of the room, which had a chalkboard and banged his fist on it.

"All right, the lot of you better listen up! I'm about to explain this whole test thing!" he yelled aloud.

-