We soon got to the next obstacle that seemed to get in our way. As we came into the view with our next opening, we saw a bridge that went over one more deep gorge and had a thin yet wide area to travel apart on. As we all approached the area, we slowly turned our attention to Naruto as he kept looking around. He suddenly felt the eerie stare of our collected eyes as he turned his head over in our direction. Despite being a smart rescue member, it seems he has a bit of a problem when it comes to common sense. I love you, Naruto, but you do.
"What?" he asked, tilting his head.
"You know what," Sasuke said smiling, "Just making sure you're not going to run off to the bridge and almost getting killed a second time."
"You know I'm careful! ...Most of the time," Naruto said, with a pouty face.
"Mhm, as careful as a Psyduck," King rolled his eyes as he groaned and looked towards Sasuke, "So, fearless leader, do we cross the bridge or what?"
"Not yet. I wanna analyze if it's safe to pass on. I know this cavern is full of tough gems and ground, but you can't be too careful sometimes," the Buizel said as he looked over and bent down.
I could see his eyes carefully with every twitch look at every part of the bridge. By placing a paw on a part of the side of the bridge, he slowly applied pressure a tiny bit. Suddenly, a tiny crack appeared in the middle of the bridge and came towards a huge chunk of the right side. We all fell as the area shook and the cracked part of the bridge soon crumbled down into the sharp spiky edged gorge below. The bits and pieces of the gorge fell and broke into pieces as we all took a look down into what could've happened to us if we were a naïve team walking over.
"Okay, second plan B?" I asked, slightly chuckling.
"We make another part across the bridge," Sasuke bends down and grabbed a piece of the bridge that stayed.
"And how are we going to do that? The bridge is totaled," Zev said, folding his arms.
"Well, got an idea, but... It's kind of a stretch," our leader said as he turned to us, "King, do you think you can use some of your fire to harden some watered ground I make?"
"Huh? Sure," King said, raising an eyebrow, "But why do you need me to do that?"
"Well, it wouldn't be perfect or permanent, but if I was able to make some of the ground here wet and muddy, I could try to patch it onto the broken bridge and make a temporary path across," Sasuke said, "But I'd need you to make the hottest fire you can and aim it right on target. Think you can handle it?"
"Heh, you're asking the brother of C from Team A.C.T if he can handle something? I got this," King grinned as he cracked his knuckles and the two went to the edge, starting to work.
Basically, what went down was Sasuke would take about a few seconds to make a certain part of the ground muddy and then he would gather as much as he could in his paws. He would then signal to King as he threw the mud at it. The fire-type would then use Flamethrower and harden the mud solid right onto the bridge. As we waited, the rest of us gathered in a circle near the pathway to talk and kill time. Although we were waiting, I couldn't help but think that as I kept watching Sasuke and King work, that these challenges were specific to our abilities. Maybe the test was on how our abilities as individuals and as a team were tested? Possibly like what Tony was doing in a way with his test. But it was amazing that we only had been in here for only seventeen minutes, and yet it seemed we would breeze through this cavern fairly easy.
"Yo, Thomas, you listening?" I heard Zev say.
I jerked a bit and whirled my head back into his direction, slightly smiling as I rubbed my head and apologized, "Sorry, I tuned out. Can you repeat what you said?"
Batsu, without even lecturing me, explained, "We're devising a plan on figuring out how to save Elek. Considering the enemy is an opponent who will be relying on speed and agility, we suspect he might be holding the hostage in a way where it will compromise how fast we can rescue him."
"So, what kind of bondage or trap do you think he has him in?" I asked, tilting my head.
"We actually think he has two ways of stopping us. Our mission says he's tied and injured, so that means Elek will be in a position where his injuries would be a problem," Zev said, pointing two fingers up in order, "One, he will be tied up in some manner hanging from a great height, probably over some trap. Or two, he will be tied up against something in which the ropes or things that are keeping him in bondage will be hard to reach."
"But knowing the weight and species of who we're rescuing, we think it'll be the former," Naruto said, nodding to me with a smile.
"Okay, so then, I'm guessing you have a plan to execute?" I asked again.
"Mhm. It'll be risky, but since we will do what we can, it might work. For the former, what will do is keep our ground and protect Zev as he uses his speed and agility himself to wall jump up and cut Elek free," Batsu explained, "Then we'll use a series of Zev and Sasuke's attacks to defeat him by making distractions for him to get off guard."
"But don't you think if Gabite knows we're going after Elek, he might try to take out the one guy who could compete with him?" I asked, honestly giving a good opinion.
"That is a possibility, but lucky we planned for it," Zev said, smirking, "We have a hunch out of all of us, he'll go after me and Sasuke, since we pose the biggest threat. And more likely, it'll be me, considering I'm the fastest."
"So, therefore, I will be the last and most important defense for him. I can make sure that he won't be coming anywhere near both of them," Batsu nodded and said with confidence.
"Okay, and what happens if the latter idea of Elek happens?" I asked, folding my arms.
"That's easy!" Naruto barked happily and wagged his tail, "Sasuke, Batsu, Zev, and I will attack Gabite and hold him off while you and King go untie him. Once he's freed, you guys help us beat Gabite and we pass!"
"That's easier said than done, little guy," Zev said, rubbing his neck, "This guy is not gonna take his punches. I bet he'll go after anyone who tries to make a break for it. That means, Thomas, if the latter ends up happening, you're gonna need to be ready for anything that happens."
I sort of felt a chill down my spine and through my skin, but I took a breath and nodded. Around that time, it seemed that Sasuke and King finished what they could of the bridge.
"Hey, guys, over here!" Sasuke called out.
We all turned and began to make our way to the edge where we say a (no offense) very poorly constructed attachment to the bridge. I mean, the thing was dripping off despite hardened for the most part, and it ended up looking like it was no safer than it was before. We looked at the two who gave us a look of 'hey, we tried'.
"Um... cool bridge, bro?" Naruto tried to say encouragingly, slighty smiling.
"Is this a bridge?" Zev asked in an honest amazed fashion.
"To be honest and not to mask a lie, this is not a good structure whatsoever," Batsu critiqued as he folded his arms.
King glared at us, snapping, "Okay, we didn't make a masterpiece, but this is the best we could do. Alright?"
As humor couldn't have any better timing, another chunk of what they tried to build slopped off and fell into the gorge. We looked at them as if to just suddenly burst out in laughing, but we all kept our cool. I mean, come on; there's a part of you that says, 'I will trust my friends no matter what they do', but on the slight chance, you have a part that digs into you that says... yeah, no thanks, but I'm sure so-and-so would love to.
"I guess it will have to do," I said, looking at it and then popping a very good question, "So... who's going to go over first?"
Before anyone could give awkward and uncomfortable exchanges, we suddenly heard Naruto volunteer an idea, "I think the builders should go on it first to test if their creation works!"
"WHAT!? Why do we have to do it?" King roared in disbelief.
"Well, it will tell us if we need to add more structure onto it and improve the safety of the bridge..." Sasuke said, then soon regretted opening his caring mouth, "...Oh. All right, King, we better go over so we can get it over with."
"Are you kidding me...?" King asked, his shoulders dropping with disbelief as he was awarded with a nod from Sasuke, "... Great. Darn it."
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