Ampharos was assigned with two other participants for their scenario. The three simply stood next to each other during the elevator ride. Each one wanting to start a conversation but not wanting to seem weird. They avoided eye contact with each other like the plague. Ampharos opened his mouth to say something but he stopped himself.
Once the elevator stopped, the nanobots did their work and made a dark hallway. Beedrill briefed the group from a loudspeaker,
"Listen up, your scenario is that an underground mall has lost power and you received a call that there was an attack. Collateral damage won't cost you as much points. You won't have those five minutes to plan. Good luck and don't 'die.'"
Ampharos turned to his fellow participants,
"Do-do we have a plan?" he asked. The two others just stared at him and chuckled to themselves. Ampharos was flustered but he called out,
"What are you laughing at?!"
"It's nothing." They remarked. Suddenly, they ran off on their own, disappearing into the darkness.
"WAIT!" Ampharos yelled but they were already gone. He sighed as he looked around the dark hallway. He gulped before he walked forward. He trembled as he explored the mall. He didn't turn on the light on his head because that could rat him out. He looked around and listened for any sort of sound that could determine where the enemy was. He came across a staircase that went down into the mall. He took a step down and immediately retracted his step. He took a few breathes as he stared into the dark abyss that was the stairs down. Going into a dark place was frightening for him, but he had a mission to do. With only some hesitations, he stepped down the stairs.
He eventually arrived at the fifth floor and looked around briefly before hiding around a corner. His allies were tied up as armed robots guarded them. Some robots were taking loot from the various shops. Ampharos had to do some slight tweaks to his plans but it was still good to go. Charging up some electricity and, taking inspiration from Infernape, generating some electricity around him. He then leaned against a metal panel against the wall.
The power turned back on in the area. The robots, as he suspected, entered a defensive position around the captured Senshi. The robots were shoulder to shoulder. Ampharos then charged up and unleashed a large electrical attack. It decimated the robots, which fell on the ground as they short circuited. He ran to his comrades and began to untie them.
"Alright, fine. We admit it. You're cool," they apologized half-heartedly. Ampharos shook his head,
"No! You-you guys left me alone! You jerks!" he said like a teacher scolding their students, "You guys could've ruined our chances!" The two idiots could only stare at the floor.
"Just... do as I say and don't do that again." Ampharos ordered.
Ampharos and the Senshi soon finished their part of the exam with apprehension. Ampharos was not used to feeling angry but here he was, fuming at his allies for abandoning him. After rounding up the rest of the robots, they returned to Beedrill where he evaluated their score,
"As much as I would love to give individual scores, the board is stupid and I have to grade you as a group. In short, Ampharos, you saved the team. Fuck you two. Barely passed at 70%."
Next was Gardevoir and Garchomp, they were partnered with a Liligant. As they descended, Liligant introduced herself. She bowed,
"Good morrow to you. Please refer to me as Liligant. Tis an honor to join alongside thee to prove our worth to the Senshi. I hope that you'll beest valorous teammates." Gardevoir stuck her hand out,
"Pleasure to meet you." Admittedly, she was a little put off by Liligant's regality, but she found it interesting.
"Thank you for the compliment. I wonder what scenario we'll has't doth for our exam?" Liligant questioned.
"Hopefully it's something we can manage."
The elevator stopped and the nanobots began to make the scenery. Some of them turned blue and immediately the three knew what was about to happen. A large cargo ship formed in the distance.
"Those little robots art so relaxing to gaze at. Creating any scenery thee wanteth, it's incredible." Liligant said in wonder as the scenario began.
"Alright, listen up! Terrorists have taken over a cargo ship. It is unknown if they have hostages. Like the first test, you'll have four minutes to prepare. However, you cannot go to the ship for recon. Once you arrive on the ship, reinforcement will arrive in roughly ten minutes. Good luck because, by god, you're gonna need it."
Gardevoir, Garchomp and Liligant saw the ship in the distance and began to craft a plan. Obviously, the inability to examine the ship or the number of terrorists would be a huge hindrance but they had the advantage in the fact that if they were careful, the terrorists wouldn't know where they would enter from. The plan was simple, Gardevoir used her psychokinesis to grab some water and make it look like a wave and tear a small hole into the side of the ship. They'd then sneak into the engine room and shut it off and then they'd turn it into a sort of base. The engine being shut off would lure the terrorists and pick them off one by one.
The timer started and Gardevoir created the wave disguise. She picked up Garchomp and Lilligant and carried them along. It was slow but it worked. They had arrived at the ship. Garchomp latched onto the side and painstakingly cut into the ship. She revealed a hallway and the three entered the ship.
They made their way into the engine room, silently taking down robot terrorists along the way. Once they made it to the engine room, Liligant fortified it with several incredibly dense bushes. Gardevoir and Garchomp slowly worked out how the engine worked and they turned it off. Now all they had to do was wait.
Beedrill smirked as he watched the women's plan unfolded.
"So far, so good. This has to be the best performance so far. Let's see how they handle this."
The ship rumbled as something landed on it. The women felt the impact and nearly slipped off their feet.
"What was that?!" Garchomp yelled. She knew whatever it was, it was incredibly dangerous. She ran out of the engine room, being Liligant along as well and yelled at Gardevoir,
"Keep the ship still! We need reinforcements. We'll stall for time."
"Wait! Gardevoir yelled but Liligant and Garchomp were gone.
She stood in the engine room, making sure that the ship was still. She understood why she was here: if the ship started up again, the terrorists could make a getaway, albeit a slow one. Still, she wanted to go up and fight that big whatever that was above her. Gardevoir shook her head,
"No, no, no." she muttered.
She then overheard some strange noise from outside the room. She was naturally a bit hesitant to investigate since it would involve leaving her post. However, what sounded like chatter grabbed her attention. She couldn't make out what they were saying but it couldn't be good. She flew towards the door and looked around the corner.
Some robots were carrying unknown round objects around the corner. Gardevoir used her psychokinesis to grab the object and slam it into the face of a robot. She then brought it to her and looked at it. It was a black spherical object with a basketball like pattern. There didn't appear to be anything special about it. Something shot past her like lightning through the sky. Robots were shooting at her with BB guns. She hid around the corner as bullets pelted her former position. She looked around and she saw one of the robots about to press a button.
She threw the black ball at the robots in a panic right as the robot pressed the button. The ball exploded, destroying the robots and throwing her down the hall. She smacked into a metal wall and darkness consumed her vision.
A few seconds later, she awoke. Part of the hallway was completely destroyed by the blast. Her ears rang like an alarm clock and she was seeing double for a few moments. She struggled to her feet as her head cleared.
"They're gonna sink the ship!" She realized. She immediately flew to where she saw the robots running. She locked the doors to the engine room before doing so.
She didn't need to fly far. Only to one of the watertight compartments, meant to hold water in case the ship hit a rock. She saw robots placing down more of those black bombs against the wall. She immediately grabbed the robots and slammed them into the ceiling. They burst into pieces upon impact with the ground. Gardevoir rushed through the ship, looking for more bombs
Garchomp and Liligant emerged onto the deck and saw that a large mech robot had landed onto the deck. It aimed its weapons at the two and they began to rotate. The two ran out of way as pellets slammed into the deck. Garchomp's mouth glowed blue and yellow as she ran. A burst of blue and yellow fire exploded from her mouth like a flamethrower. It crashed into the robot with little tangible effect. A roar of an engine boomed through the air as a rocket shot from the robot's shins. It slid across the deck as though it were a slip and slide towards the dragon type.
Garchomp rolled out of the way. She tried to forcibly activate her aura, trying to use it through force of will. The robot's gun changed into a fist that threatened to slam onto the dragon type. Garchomp looked up fearfully for she would not be able to dodge in time. She grabbed onto the fist once it crashed into her, managed to hold it above her,
"LILLIGANT! NOW!" she yelled. The grass types shot many small plant seeds into the robot. The seeds quickly grew and overtook the robot. The plant roots dug into the robots circuitry and destroyed it from the inside out.
Garchomp threw the hand off of her and the robot fell onto the deck. It crumbled into the deck into dozens of pieces. Garchomp fought the other robots off but she couldn't help but feel like that fight was... off. Like it was too easy.
The ship was then rocked again by a lesser force from below deck. Garchomp and Liligant looked at each other and knew what happened. The giant robot was a distraction. Garchomp and Liligant quickly rushed down below the deck to figure out what happened. They would not have the opportunity to run for long however.
Gardevoir flew in front of the two and landed. Gardevoir reported what she saw regarding the bombs. The three then ran to the engine room and were glad to see that the robots couldn't break down the doors. Garchomp burst through and they began to make a plan to clear out the ship
"TIMES UP! COME UP FOR EVALUATION!" Beedrill yelled. The three returned to the elevator and waited for their results.
"Congratulations, Gardevoir. I assume thee didst a valorous job. As didst thee, Garchomp. Maybe we'll passeth the test." Liligant said. She sounded very excited. Garchomp smiled at the psychic type,
"You made a great decision today. I'm proud of you."
The elevator stopped, throwing them off. Beedrill flew towards them,
"I must say, you guys have had the best performance so far. You delegated tasks, created a plan of action and made reasonable decisions. The only grades I can knock are where you guys would've certainly died in a real scenario but regardless, 90%," he said
Gardevoir cheered as she embraced the dragon type. Garchomp held the psychic type tightly. Gardevoir, despite having the biggest grin in the world, started crying profusely. Just a month ago, she was giving up on her dream. However, here she was now, having just accomplished it while benching her ego to ensure that the ship didn't sink. This was an excellent first step, but it was just that, a first step. The journey to change was a long one, but it was worth every ounce of effort.
I hate to cut off the training arc halfway through but unfortunately, life has happened. My priorities have shifted for the next wee so I will take a break. The next chapter of Pyrophant will come out on the 27th of April. I'll see you there.