"Congratulations, all you rescue teams of making it so far and one step closer to passing!" Machoke said as in a short timeskip, he came in front of the pond and addressed us, "I'm proud to say as the leader of Team Champ, you're so close to being a part of this wonderful foundation. But now, it's time for me to get on with it. So, without further blah talk, I will explain to you that the last part of the exam is basically a practicum."
"Prah-what?" Naruto said, tilting his head.
I turned to him and explained, "It means you're put into a mock situation that tests if you will be able to do complete what you want to do."
"Basically, you will be put into a mock mission where you need to rescue a client from an enemy in a dungeon. We will test you on teamwork, cleverness, and success with this final stage to see if you can successfully prove yourself as an official team. What will happen is we will hand you a paper with your mission. It will tell what dungeon you have to go to, who your client is, what Pokémon will be the boss that you have to defeat, and what your time limit is in order to get the client back to the pond," Machoke explained to us.
He then raised his left pointer finger in the air as he went on, "However, there are a few things you will need to know, and that is how you can fail at this. If you cannot save the client in the time limit given to you, if the client gets knocked out, or if your whole team is unable to battle, then the boss will stop the fight and help you back to the square for medical treatment."
He finally finished by saying, "The bags you are given are filled with several berries that can be used on your team and the client. What you do is up to you. And the final things I'll tell you: we have the names of the teams that were given a penalty by Tony's test. The penalty is that you will have a shorter time limit than usual. Now, once you get there, there will be a rescue team supervisor who will be ready to start the time limit once you go in. That supervisor will keep track if you go over your time. You can start whenever you want, but you must complete before 4:30 PM, when the sun goes down. Now, dismissed and good luck!"
-
"All right, this is it," Sasuke said as we all grouped near the south exit of the square near Makuhita Dojo, "We all ready to do this?"
"Pumped up more than ever!" King roared as he practiced a few slashes, "Let's get this done!"
"So, what's our destination?" Batsu asked.
"According to the paper we got," Sasuke said, "We have to go to Crystal Cavern. It's a little cave near the waterfall where a lot of Rock and Ground type Pokémon dwell. It's also a great place to train up and go against tough opponents."
"Oh, great..." King said, lowering his head with a sigh, "another rock type battling?"
"Wow, what happened to the great confidence you just had?" Zev asked, folding his arms with a sly smile, "Don't tell me the great King is afraid of some rocks and ground."
"No, it's not that!" King snapped at him, "It's just... I don't wanna get another horrible injury like what happened with my arms. It's bad enough that although these look cool, I have to wear elbow pads for at least a week. But I get hurt again..."
In all honesty, that's what I was thinking before he even said it. I mean, that Marowak had such a freaking strong club and to think it did so much damage to King's arms with one swing meant he... and I included were in big trouble if ever forced to go one on one. Man, fear just grabbed a hold of me there. Sure, I felt a Pokémon attack before and even was poisoned, but I hadn't felt a super-effective attack against me. And I couldn't imagine how unbelievably painful that would be.
"Don't worry, King," Sasuke assured our teammate and make me come back to the present, "Zev and I will make sure to wipe out most of them. They can't handle our attacks."
"What else does the paper say, brother?" Naruto asked, trying to peek at it.
"Well... it says... ! Oh wow! We're rescuing Elek!" Sasuke said astounded.
"Whoa, really?" I asked as we all were a bit shocked.
"Yeah, and it says he's gonna be tied up and 'injured'," Sasuke read.
"You mean, we gotta lug that big butt of his outta this cave while random enemies attack us?" King said with a bland scowl.
The silence after his statement was so surprising. You could literally hear a pin drop. We all sort of gave King a 'I can't believe he said that' look, but then we all glanced back at each other.
"As much as I wanna tell King he's being really rude, he's got a point. Elek's size is going to be a problem," Sasuke said, thinking as he looked down.
"I mean, it's bad enough it's a Blaziken, but that added body weight is gonna take a toll on us. None of us are really built for physical strength lifting," Zev added.
"And on top of it, we have a boss we need to defeat. Sasuke, who is the boss of our mission?" Batsu asked, apparently not wavering.
"Let's see... it says Gabite of Team Diggers," Sasuke said, looking at the paper.
"Oh, no... not him..." King groaned as the whole team looked a bit dreaded and stirred up by that.
"Am I missing something? What's so bad about this guy?" I asked, naïve one what the problem was.
"Gabite is a ground type who excels at digging and is incredible at speed and agility, thanks to the jets he has on his body and his natural abilities," Batsu explained.
"Which means, we're stuck with a freaking lard who probably weighs a lot while a boss who's as fast as a Volt Tackle attack will be trying to stop us," King groaned, rolling his eyes with a growling sigh.
"Don't worry! Sasuke and Batsu will probably think of a plan to beat that boss and save Elek! Right, bro?" Naruto said cheerfully, wagging his tail.
"Yep, and we're in luck. Says here, we can take a total of three hours to complete the mission," Sasuke said smiling.
"Yeah, because they plopped us with a freaking hard mission, of course we need a long time," King said frustrated.
"Well, no use complaining over it," I said, shrugging with an attitude that said 'oh well', "We got our mission, and once we're done, we are official!"
"That's right, Thomas," Sasuke said smiling at me, "and we're not losing, now that we're this close to completing the exams! We're gonna go in there, save Elek, and pass this thing! Right, guys?"
All of us got pumped as we cheered, "Right!"
Sasuke put his paw in the middle of us as we all soon put a hand in.
"All right, Team Believers! Let's make 'em believe!" Sasuke shouted as we all cheered again, breaking the hand huddle. We all then quickly hurried to the entrance of the cave, where we would begin our quest to save Elek...
-
As Team Believers made it towards Crystal Cavern, little did they know that they were being watched from afar by a group hidden in the shadows. They had an air of superiority around them as the six young ones hurried off.
"Hm... it seems that this Believers team that we have been told about has come farther than we expected," a older female voice said.
A young but wise male voice spoke, "Such is the power of teamwork. One individual's strength cannot accomplish it alone."
"To think that they have bonded and accomplished so much in only a matter of days... it seems we chose the right ones after all," a younger female voice added.
"It still burns me that we have to wait so long before we confront them. If we just tell them and Square what will happen, it will settle things quick enough," an impatient older male said hastly, "From what I see, there all just babies."
"Hahaha... you're no prize yourself!" a cocky male voice responded with laughter.
"Shut up!" the impatient voice snapped back.
"Enough."
The five that lurked in the shadows turned around to see a figure with 9 tails speak from the darkness, "Whether the look or ability is not worthy for your eyes, we of fate have chosen them. Will they conquer the darkness of the future? Or will the darkness swallow them?"
The voice, of female gender, slowly smirked as she continued, "Either way, they will be quite useful, and above all... that one will be the key to our goal..."
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