The room was suddenly filled with the sound of pencils writing on top of desks and papers being shifted as they were looked at. Everyone dived into their tests as I began to realize one of the reasons I never went to school. I know they're not doing it on purpose to be rotten or anything, but that noise was extremely annoying of hearing pencils constantly tap on the desks while the test-takers wrote stuff down.

King picked up his pencil and took a deep breath as he stared at the test. He gulped in a bit of nervousness as he then calmed down.

"Okay, King, this is it, man. This is where you show your stuff... just don't blow it, pipsqueak," he thought as he looked at me, "Get at least one of these things right!"

Zev, although far in the back of the room, saw me as he sighed and thought, "Oh, man... they don't look good. Thomas and King are just sitting there..."

I had my eyes closed as suddenly a smile came across my face. I relaxed as I took a deep calming breath. Why was I letting this test get me down? After all, as long as I get a few right, I'm in the clear. As I picked my paper up and looked at the test, I figured that all I needed to do was read through the questions and take my time. No pressure at all. Just take it easy. With that, I looked at the first question. Hmmm... Okay, let's see. The first question said this:

"The Pokémon in trouble is trapped in Magma Cavern. What fire type is more suited to fight if the terrain is rocky and the opponent is three sizes larger than it: a Arcanine, a Chimchar, or a Magmar?"

…...Um, wouldn't they all have an equal shot? I mean, none are ground-types, right? And the three times its size thing really doesn't matter, cause each would have an opponent who's equally big for them to go around. And I've never been to Magma Cavern, so... I really couldn't understand the question, so I shook my head and skipped it. Okay, what's next? Question two:

"This code was intercepted from a team of rogue rescue members. It may contain clues to what their next plan of action is. With the use of your decipher skills that you learned from school, crack the code and write what the message says. Then, come up with the best way to stop whatever evil the code says will happen."

…...Okay, skip that one, because one: I never went to school and two: I'm not good at deciphering. Okay. Let's move onto the third question...

Zev happened to also be on the third question as he read in his head with a struggling look, "Line B in the diagram indicates the trajectory of an Aura Sphere shot at Enemy C from Lucario A seated at a tree 7.5 meters tall. Describe and formulate the trajectory required if C was positioned at points D, E, and F. Also, predict the farthest possible range the attack can be shot at and describe how you arrived at your answer."

Sasuke blinked as he stared at four questions he got right and pondered, "I don't believe it. These are all intergrated questions based on principles of uncertainty, and require complex mechanical energy analysis. Incredibly advanced stuff..."

He looked up with a silent gasp at me and fearfully thought, "Oh, no. Thomas will never have a slight hope of solving any of these. In fact, there can't be more than a handful of Pokémon besides Batsu, myself, and possibly Naruto who barely can understand it."

And boy, was that the truth. I couldn't see it, but tons of candidates began to get frustrated, shake their heads, show some sort of annoyance on how the questions were advanced and difficult. Just by not looking, I could see that although they got some answers, Holt, Alyssa, and Zoey were having a hard time too. I kept staring at the questions as they kept getting harder and harder... wait... were they getting harder and harder...?

Naruto's ears lowered as he thought, "Each question is more difficult than the one before... it's like they purposely made it that way..."

Zev frustratedly chuckled to himself and gritted his teeth under an angry smile as he thought, "Heheh... well, that's no good... I can't even begin to solve or understand a single problem..."

Batsu looked up at the clock, which showed that twelve minutes has passed. Having four answers completed, he then stopped and closed his eyes. It was then he began to try and process a possibility on the test's difficulty.

"Even though there are only nine questions on the paper, there are ten questions in all. And we're given an hour, which is sixty minutes total. So, divide sixty by ten and you get six. That means if a candidate wants to complete the test, they can only take a maximum total of six minutes per question," he pondered as he looked at the questions, "But the problem that lies within as that because the questions become more difficult, it takes more time to figure out. So, in the end, after number four, it takes longer than six minutes to solve a question... why would they do this? To test the most brilliant takers? Surely, they must know that the average candidate would have complications in solving these..."

"RRRRGH! Come on! How the hell am I supposed to solve these!?" King ranted in his head as he gritted his teeth, "What, are they wanting everyone to be as intelligent as an Alakazam!?"

Sasuke slowly stroked his head fur with a paw as he closed his eyes, thinking, "I need a high score if we're gonna pass this exam. This is so hard... I'm s-somehow tempted to... no, no! I can't do that! Cheating is against the rules! Uugh, it's like they're trying to get us to cheat on this test... I just hope none of the others fall for it," as he looked up at us.

"No, no way," he thought, "they would never fall for something like this... Not even my brothers would think of cheating... I hope..."

I slowly put down my pencil and closed my eyes in frustration. Wow, did I feel stupid. None of these questions seemed to make a lick of sense to me. Even after reading them and thinking them over, I didn't even answer one yet. Man, this was harder than I thought... 'There has to be some way I can pass this' was the sentence that kept repeating over and over again. At times like that, it made me wonder if going to school would've been the be- ! What am I saying!? That's agreeing with that snobby Mr. Pepperridge! Oh, heck no! I'm figuring out one of these problems!

While I fumed on having that teacher have the last laugh by subjecting me to this test, King closed his eyes and thought, "Okay, don't panic, King. You need to stay calm and realize there's only one thing to do..."

He opened his eyes, which showed a panicked face, as he screamed in his head, "YOU JUST HAVE TO CHEAT AND NOT GET CAUGHT!"

It was then Tony decided to pace up front a bit and actually looked near King's location. He smirked evilly as the Charmeleon gasped. He punched himself on the top of the head in a manner no one could see him as he grunted and shook his head.

"Yeah, right, and risk getting all our butts thrown out on my tail!? Not a chance!" King thought.

Batsu slowly gave a glance at Sasuke. My brother looked at him with a bit of a smirk as he nodded without anyone seeing. It was then that Batsu closed his eyes, pretending to focus on the test, and then used telepathy to link all six of our minds together. I suddenly heard a voice in my head make me jerk up a bit, but then calm me down.

"Everyone, do not call attention to yourselves. This is Batsu using telepathy. You can talk with each other now by just thinking," I heard him speak.

"So, I'm guessing you all are also having problems with this test?" I heard Zev say.

I sighed as I said, "Yeah, tell me about it. I haven't even gotten one answered."

"I've only got three," Naruto said, grunting.

"...Two for me," King said embarrassingly.

"Two here," Zev said.

"And Batsu and I only have four done," Sasuke said, as he rubbed his temples on his head, "This is going to be harder than I thought..."

"Yeah, and it doesn't help that you have somebody like the sentinels watching every move and slip-up you pull and-" Zev groaned as he rolled his eyes and tried not to look at the one sitting right next to him, and then saying, "Well, somebody just got nailed near my side."

"Well, that's what you get for cheating..." King said, taking a deep annoyed breath.

"But don't you think it's strange?" I asked pondering a bit.

All of them blinked as Sasuke asked, "What is it, Thomas?"

"Well, it's just strange that they make more of a fuss about cheating than the actual test itself..." I said, rubbing my head.

"Yeah, that doesn't make sense!" Naruto said, rubbing his paw from holding the pencil.

"And what also doesn't make sense is about the sentinels too. Why is it that only two points are deducted from every incident of cheating?" Sasuke said, "Normally, if someone is caught cheating once, it's an automatic zero and grounds for dismissal right there..."

Suddenly, Batsu gasped and made all of us jump a bit in excitement as he thought, "Wait! That's it!"

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