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Chapter 6: The Big Test - Part 1

The next couple months passed quickly. Team Union dedicated themselves to training and studying for the test. A week before, the official announcement was finally given. The Rookie Certification Test would consist of a comprehensive written test, a tournament to showcase strength, and a supervised mission. Passing scores on all three would grant the student their official badge and the ability to operate as a rescue and exploration member. In order for a team to take on missions, all members had to be certified. If the test is failed, all remaining students take the test every month after. Eventually, the day came.

Fusion and Anko awoke to the buzzing of a combee. The bee pokemon had flown in through a window, carrying a pair of notes.

"Sorry to wake you," he said. He flew over to the trunk and set down the notes before flying out.

The boys got up and moved to read them, Anko going a lot faster than Fusion. "Oh, hey, these are the details for the test!"

Fusion took a deep breath. "Today's the day then." He picked up his sheet and read it over. There were no classes this week. Today, Monday, was for the written test. He was in group B. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday were for the tournament. Friday was the day for the supervised mission, with all of Team Union, and their chaperone would be Phantom.

"Phantom..." Anko said. "Why does that name... Oh, he's the headmaster!"

"Really? Looks like we'll have to work even harder..."

"Don't worry, he's really nice. What time is your test? Mine's noon, group D."

"Noon, B," Fusion responded. He looked over at the clock. "We have four more hours to study. Let's go grab some breakfast first."

+++

Lee and Nina woke up the same way, and reacted the same as well, immediately going for the sheets. They were in group C and A respectively, both at noon.

"Yeah!" Nina cried out. "I'm ready, are you ready?! Let's do this!"

"Are you just trying to psyche yourself up?" Lee asked.

"Just a bit. I'm so excited I'm shaking. This is where we start!"

"IF we all pass. Don't get ahead of yourself."

"I know, I know. I'm gonna go for a jog, burn off some of this energy."

"Okay. Just don't forget to eat something." Lee told her as she started to leave.

"Thanks mom, I'll clean my room too," she said sarcastically before slipping outside.

Lee sighed and followed out, going to Santana's shop. There, she spotted Fusion and Anko, going over to sit with them.

"Coba berry," Anko said.

"Reduces super effective flying type damage," Fusion answered.

"Lansat."

"Raises critical when wounded."

"Kee."

"Uhh... weaken special attack?"

"Nope. Try again.

"Raises defense when hit by physical," Lee said as she joined them.

"Morning," Fusion greeted her.

"Hey Lee, are you ready?" Anko asked.

"As ready as I'll ever be."

"Well at least that's one of us," Fusion said. "I've been working so hard, but I'm still so nervous. There's so much riding on this, the pressure's getting to me."

"You've been getting stronger," Lee, who had been helping train him, said.

"Yeah, just do your best. If you fail, you can always try again," Anko offered.

"That doesn't make me feel better. Then you all have to wait on me."

"There's no guarantee we'll pass either," Lee said.

Fusion put his head in his paws. "Aaggh!" he groaned loudly. "I'm just gonna do it. Go in and do what I can, if I fail, oh well." He raised his head back up. "No use worrying, it won't help. Yeah, I'm ready."

"There's still a few hours left," Lee told him.

"I wish it would just happen already!" he whined pitifully.

"So why does Fusion sound like he's dying?" Nina asked as she approached their table.

"Oh Nina, please tell me you're worried too, unlike these two wierdos," Fusion nearly begged her.

"Of course I'm freaking out," she said calmly.

"You don't sound like it..."

+++

The time finally came, all one hundred and fifty of the pokemon of the first year going to the main building. Once inside, they split off, each going to separate rooms, eight groups in total. Fusion entered his assigned room and sat down at a desk. There was a big inkwell on each. At the front of the class was an alakazam, a big stack of papers next to him. Shortly after everyone was seated, he walked down the aisles, placing the test on desks. Before starting, Fusion quickly flipped to the last page. It was twenty pages total.

With a sigh, he went back to the first page, dipped a claw in ink and got started. It started simply enough, with multiple choice questions about identifying items. Doom seeds weaken the target, Totter seeds confuse the eater, Quarter wands reduce stamina to a fourth, Truant wands negate abilities and slow the target. The next question was a matching chart. It listed mission objectives on the left and items on the right.

"Easy," Lee thought to herself. "You bring the vile seeds for the bounty mission, the luminous orb for the rescue, the trawl orb for the item discovery, and the rollcall orb for the exploration."

"You find a young pokemon lost in a dungeon. They are hurt and scared. What do you say to them?" Anko read out a short answer question. "Hey, are you alright? I'm friendly," he wrote out. "Do you need help? Everything will be okay now. I can take you back home, safe and sound."

"What is this, a map?" Nina wondered. "Mark locations of landmark cities and mystery dungeons... Ugh, geography is my worst. Treasure town is where that famous guild is... what continent was it on..."

"Tanga berry, Tanga, Tanga..." Fusion muttered. "If I could see a picture of it..."

"Zero isle south, rescue mission," Anko read. "What is the mission rank? Uhh," Anko marked down C. With such a plain name, it couldn't be that dangerous.

A team has a sceptile, typhlosion and empoleon as members. They find an empowerment seed. Who would it work best on? Lee frowned. "Whoever's strongest... or whoever has a type advantage... Where's the rest of the details? Is this a trick?"

After about two hours of questions, all of team Union had turned in their exams. As agreed, they met up at the shop afterwards.

"So? How did everyone do?" Anko asked.

"How am I supposed to know? We won't get grades until next week," Lee responded.

"He means how do you think you did," Nina explained. "It wasn't too bad. There were only a few things that really stumped me."

"I thought it would be worse," Fusion said cheerily.

"All that matters is we all did our best!" Anko smiled brightly.

The sound of buzzing wings caught the attention of every pokemon there. A combee flew down from the treetops and pinned a giant sheet of paper to the notice board. Everyone got up and went over to go look. The sheet contained the brackets for the tournament the next day. All one hundred fifty students were listed along the bottom, with lines marked up the page. According to those, there would be one winner.

"Wait, that can't be right..." Nina said.

"Yeah, we'll have to fight each other eventually," Anko complained.

"That's not what I meant."

"Maybe they judge you based on far you get?" Fusion guessed.

"Yeah, that's it. There's no way they'd fail everybody who loses."

"The answer is simple. Don't lose," Lee told them.

Looking closer at the sheet, there were boxes around the lower sections. The rules were written on the upper half. Matches before the semifinal round occur simultaneously. Looking along the names and the groupings, each member was in a different one. Fusion was in group B, at the Forest den. Anko was group D at the main area. Lee was A, Volcano and Nina C, Ocean. Every time there was an odd number of participants, a random match would become a three way for that round. There would be seven rounds total. On day one, tomorrow, there would be two rounds, day two would have three and the semifinal and final round would be on day three. Rounds during each day were staggered between hours, so they could watch the other fights. Any moves, including custom ones were allowed, but no items were usable during the match.

Fusion found his name and looked for familiar names. His first match was with Marie the eevee. His eyes widened. "Her? Oh crap, this'll be awkward." He'd 'played' with them a couple more times since that first week.

"What are you muttering about?" Nina asked.

"Nothing!" he spurted out.

"Scared of that bagon?"

Fusion looked over to the match next to his. It was between a bagon and a budew. The bagon's name was Rex. Fusion sighed. "Looks like I'll get to really see how much better I've gotten."

"Especially with that type advantage. It'll be an uphill battle," she told him.

"Yeah... I'm gonna go come up with a strategy to beat him then go to bed early after dinner," Fusion announced before going off alone.

"Thats a good idea," Lee said. "We should all plan for our opponents. We'll have an easier time that way." She left as well.

"Are you guys stocked up on healing items?" Nina asked Anko. "They'll come in handy for recovering between rounds.

"Yeah, I think so," he responded, ears down.

"What's wrong?"

"I'm nervous, I think. I don't really like fighting that much."

"It's part of the job. Don't worry, you're tough."

"I'll give it my best, no matter what. If I'm as good as you think, maybe I can win it?" he smiled brightly, perking right back up.

+++

Fusion was sat in front of a dummy, frowning in focused thought. "Dragon type. It had to be dragon type. I could manage with a rock type, out run him or something. But the power of a dragon and he's resistant to all my best moves. He's probably faster and stronger than me..." His paws clenched at the grass. "Doesn't matter. I have to beat him. I need something, some kinda trick..."

+++

The next day, Team Union gathered early at the shop for breakfast. Lee was up first, in an hour. Every following round was 30 minutes after.

"Hey, uh Lee?" Fusion asked.

"Huh, what?"

"Would you be okay if I didn't watch your match?"

She shrugged. "Do what you want."

"Okay, then, Anko, could you help me?" He turned to the rockruff and asked.

"But..." he looked at Lee, then back at Fusion.

"Please, this second match is gonna be hard. I've got a plan, but I need a little more practice. Since you're a rock type, you can help me test it."

"It's fine," Lee told him. "I got this."

"Don't worry, I'll cheer her on for you," Nina offered.

"Okay, I'll help."

"Great," Fusion smiled. "We'll go easy, so we don't get tired. I just wanna make sure this'll work."

+++

"Group B, Round 1 will begin in thirty minutes!" a loud voice shouted from the sky.

"Alright, I guess that's enough," Fusion said.

"I think you got it," Anko offered. "You can beat him. That's a great idea."

"Yeah, if I can pull it off, my plan should work"

"Just be careful if you have to use your trump card."

"Yeah, still not sure about that one."

"If you wanna go check on Lee, I'm going to the arena."

"Her fight might not have happened yet. But I'll be there for yours too, if I can."

"Don't worry about it. Make sure you're ready for your match too. We all have to win."

"I know, but I wanna cheer on my friends."

They split apart, Fusion moving through the forest to the location of the arena. It was much like the clearings used for training grounds, only bigger and with extra space for others to watch the fight. There were trenches on the sides, giving cover from any stray attacks for the viewers. In the arena itself were four big logs, spread out in a roughly square formation. On one side there was a big wooden platform, raised high up to overlook the arena. There were a couple pokemon sitting on it, including Vespa.

"Twenty minutes until Group B!" the voice from the sky shouted. Fusion looked up just in time to see a noivern flying over the trees. As he waited, he saw the others file in. Rex didn't seem concerned with looking at anyone else. Marie shot him a toothy grin when she spotted him. He took to occupying the time by coming up with a strategy to beat the eevee. Given how versatile normal types were, she could really have any fighting style. His best bet was probably overwhelming firepower.

The battles started, each pair going up one by one, fighting until one side gave up or fainted. Eventually, the call came. "Fusion the growlithe and Marie the eevee!"

With a deep breath and a stretch, Fusion left the trench and climbed onto the field. To his left, Marie walked toward the center as well. They met in the middle and took position.

"Don't think my sis and I are just pretty faces. We came here for a reason, so we're gonna fight," she told him.

"You can do it!" another eevee, probably Bree, shouted from the sidelines.

"Same here. Friends or not, I have to win," Fusion responded.

"Begin!"

Fusion drew in a deep breath and let out a powerful roar. The force of it blew through the grass and crashed into Marie, knocking her off balance. Fusion seized the advantage, charging forward while spitting a few flames her way. She caught herself and jumped back to avoid them. But she was too focused on avoiding his embers and didn't make enough distance to escape the charging hound. He leapt into the air, flames billowing from his mouth as he readied a fire fang.

While he was in midair, she suddenly looked up at him, a begging cute expression on her face. He faltered at the sight, landing short as she backstepped out of his way. He looked up after making sure he landed right to find her giving him a similar look.

"If you let me win, I'll... make it worth your while~" she teased, giving her tail a wiggle.

Fusion shook his head and closed his eyes. "Stop that and just fight me!" He couldn't hide the blush on his face. The sound of crunching grass brought his attention back up. He looked just in time to get a powerful take down to the face. He was sent flying then rolled along the ground a few times. He quickly got back to his feet to see her charging again. He drew in another breath, preparing more fire. But the distractions had made him lose focus, letting his heat drop. It would take too long to build up enough for a significant attack. For the briefest instant, his mind went blank. Before he could think of a plan, his body braced. Just as she neared, he reared up and planted his paws on her head, slamming it violently into the ground with a reversal.

When he realized what he did, a pang of guilt ran through him. He didn't mean to do that so hard; it had just been instinct. Moving away, his mouth opened to apologize but fell silent when she didn't move.

"Winner: Fusion!" the announcement came.

He suddenly realized how hard he was breathing. Taking a bit to calm down, he walked off the arena. Anko was there, leaning up on the trench and waving at him wildly.

"Hey, you did it! That was an awesome turn around!"

"Yeah, I just... got this feeling. It wasn't like when we trained. That was a real fight."

"You might wanna cool down there," Anko said, pointing at the trail of burnt pawprints in the grass.

Fusion raised his head and blew out a steady flame for a second, letting out his built-up heat quickly. "I forgot. My heart is still pounding."

"I guess that was your first real battle, huh."

He nodded. "Lee was mean, but she never pushed me like that."

"Oh speaking of, Lee won her match, pretty easily according to Nina. We should still have time to see Nina fight if we get moving now."

They both ran off, hurrying towards the ocean den. On the way, the call was made for group D in thirty minutes.

"That means Nina's round just started!" Anko said.

"Shouldn't you get moving to yours?"

"Naw, I'll be fine. I've timed it. Takes about ten, fifteen minutes to go from one den to another. I wanna see Nina if I can."

They made it to the Ocean arena not long after. A fight was already in progress. The arena was nestled in a cove, the sand and ocean making up the field. A rocky cliff on the inland side was hollowed out and there were holes to look through. It looked like the whole place would flood during high tide, leftover seaweed on the lower ground. Several mounds of sand provided cover for the fight. Fusion and Anko wandered through the gallery before finding Nina.

"Hey guys," she said as they came up to her. "I think I'm up next."

"Phew, I was worried you'd either gone or I wouldn't have enough time," Anko told her.

"Relax man, worry about winning your fights. Gotta pass all three tests or else," she lectured him.

"I know, everybody keeps telling me that. I just wanna be there for my friends."

"I guess you finally have something to put all that energy into, huh," Fusion said.

"Nina the zorua and Rumpel the wurmple, enter the arena."

"That's me. Don't worry, I got this." She confidently left and entered the arena, waiting as a wurmple crawled out on the other side.

"Begin!"

Nina just stood there. The wurmple frowned. "You think I'm weak, don't you. We'll see what you think when you can't move!" He suddenly blasted a thick stream of string out of his mouth. It shot out, but stuck to the air about a foot away from his face. "Wha-" There was a sudden explosion of dark energy, kicking up a blast of sand. A dark fog and sandy dust hung in the air for a bit before it all settled, leaving a fainted wurmple curled up on the ground.

"Woah!" Anko said. "When did she get so cool?"

"I dunno. That was her own move, I think..."

"Yeah, tell Nina she did great, I gotta go."

"We'll be right behind you," Fusion told him.

Anko ran off while Fusion waited for Nina to come back.

"Anko said you did good," Fusion told her as she walked up.

"Hell yeah. That was my dark trap. Ball of dark energy, turn into an invisible trap with my illusion, blows up if anyone touches or attacks it. Takes a bit to get it set up without getting caught, but his monologue was perfect timing."

"Cool. Let's go catch up with Anko."

+++

Fusion took in several long deep breaths.

"Fusion the growlithe and Rex the bagon," the call came.

"This is it," he said, body tense with anticipation.

"You can do it, beat him," Anko encouraged him.

Fusion climbed out of the trench and onto the field. Straight across, the familiar bagon did so as well.

"Runt? Hmph, easy," Rex growled. "School all weak."

"We'll see what you think when I win!" Fusion barked back.

Rex lowered his head and charged forward. Fusion remained still, building up his body temperature. Just as Rex got close, head lowered for a headbutt, Fusion leapt up and over him. He kicked off Rex's head, but barely moved the charging dragon. He landed behind him as momentum carried Rex further. Now with enough time in the clear, Fusion drew in a deep breath and tensed up. Flames sparked into life along his back before a sudden wave of flames burst down the length of his back. The back of it trailed off his body, sputtering embers falling off into the wind. The whole thing appeared to be a cape of pure fire.

Lighting his whole body on fire while moving and fighting took too much focus. It wasn't until he learned about the pokemon typhlosion that he got the idea. He set his neck on fire, letting the flames flow down his back. It resembled a cape, the back letting out embers that floated into the air. It was easy to keep up, only a small strip actually needing his attention. The constant fire kept his entire body hot with less effort than usually needed. It also made his body hot continually, adding fire to all of his physical attacks and any impacts an opponent made. It wasn't perfect though.

Rex came to a stop and turned back around, his scowl loosening for a moment upon seeing Fusion. Then it became fiercer. Where he had been bored looking before, a fire burned in his eyes. Fusion gulped. Things were about to get harder. Rex took in a big breath then blew out a stream of purple dragonfire. Fusion jumped back, trying to make a gap, but the flame was too big, too fast. It washed over Fusion. The purple fire was not hot, rather it was like a painful tingling that coursed through his body. He clenched his teeth, standing strong until it passed. "Come on..." he growled.

As the purple cleared from the air, Rex was revealed charging again. This time, his head wasn't down. Fusion stood there, ready to enact his plan. Rex came right at him, mouth opening wide to bite into Fusion's shoulder. The growlithe let it happen.

Fusion smiled as Rex's teeth sank into him. He reached out, wrapping his forepaws around Rex's head, before exploding in a ball of high temperature flame. Rex grunted in pain and tried to pull away, Fusion holding on as long as he could, a good five seconds. He couldn't keep up the fire forever though, and both jumped away as it faded.

Fusion brought up a paw, running it over his bitten shoulder. He wasn't bleeding, but it did hurt. Rex however, looked much worse for wear, patches of scales burnt black. Fusion had done it, the bagon was surely burnt. Now it was a game of attrition.

Rex took a step forward, wincing at the pain caused by his severe burns. He then lowered his head and charged again. This time, Fusion turned tail and ran, leaping over a log for cover. However, his safety did not last long. Behind him, the log suddenly burst as Rex broke through. Fusion didn't react quick enough and took a headbutt right to the hip. He was sent rolling, but managed to catch himself, landing on his feet. He quickly stumbled as his leg buckled, his back hip tingling from the hit. It hurt to put weight on that leg.

"This is bad... if I can't dodge..." Before he could think further, another wave of dragonfire washed over him. He tried to leap out of it, but his leg gave out, sending him sprawling out. He cried out in pain before biting it back, his cape burning out. He was running out of energy and needed to conserve all he could.

"Fusion!" Anko called from the sidelines.

"I have to end this now." Fusion grunted as he stood up again. Rex stood at a distance, watching and recovering his stamina for another full power attack. He knew Fusion couldn't run too fast anymore. Fusion felt like prey as the reptile's cold eyes studied his every move. Fusion's body suddenly began to glow, white light emitting from him. His fur was lost in the light and only the shape of his body remained. The grass around him suddenly turned into ash as his temperature skyrocketed, without emitting a single flame. It rose to over a thousand degrees, even the dirt melting under his paws. Then, summoning all his strength, he charged forward, ignoring the pain surging through his back leg.

Rex actually backed up a step. For a brief moment, his stance turned, as if he was going to dodge. But then he returned facing forward, bracing for a counter attack. Fusion saw it coming, but was too far to stop. Glowing impact, as he called it, was his first attempt at a special move. He raised his temperature as high as he could then tackled the enemy. In practice, it had even nearly downed Anko. But it came at a big cost.

Fusion slammed into Rex's chest with his white-hot shoulder. Whatever Rex had been planning, it failed as he recoiled in pain. Without any visible flames, his entire body turned black, some scales burning and falling off. Rex remained standing though, despite the serious injury. The white color quickly faded from Fusion and both he and the temperature returned to normal. He slumped down onto the ground, unconscious.

"Winner: Rex," the call was issued. An audino suddenly jumped off the stand and ran onto the field.

"Oh no, are you boys alright?" She produced a handful of rawst berries from a pouch and handed them to Rex. "Eat those first, then we can get you patched up. I can't believe you're still standing," she said, full of concern.

Rex didn't move. The nurse waved her hand in front of his eyes, to no response. He had fallen unconscious too, still on his feet, refusing to back down even out cold. She turned her attention to Fusion, still lying on the ground. He was in bad shape too. Even his fire type body couldn't handle the heat he had produced, plenty of his fur singed and burnt, plus the beating he took from Rex. Neither were life threatening, but they needed care to recover quickly.