Chapter 4: Entrance Exam
"Get in a line against the wall! I expect each and every worthy member of our Expedition Squad to have the proper posture, attitude, and abilities," barks Scyther, the squad's rough leader.
It's a beautiful day in the city of Fortree. While outside the walls it is silent and dead with the decay of happiness, Fortree's interior bursts with liveliness. It's a wonder the city hasn't been noticed by one of them…whatever they are. The trees are radiating this uplifting atmosphere; it's almost as if they are excited for the trainees to help protect them. They sky is a bright blue, a shade so blue that it in fact doesn't look blue at all. Today is going to be great.
Scyther, the green insect with sharp, pointy blades as his primary weapon, walks along the line of hopeful citizens that lay their backs along the western side's sturdy wall. He begins with this one Pokémon—a Wurmple—and looks him up and down. The leader narrows his eyes, but moves on. He walks over to the three little elemental monkeys—Pansage, Pansear, and Panpour, and immediately blinks several times.
"You all are too young to join our Expedition Team. You would die the minute you step out of the gate. Go home," he growls, and the three Pokémon run off.
"We just want to make a difference," the green monkey cries.
Scyther doesn't respond. He instead continues his inspection. Walking past a Raticate, he immediately strolls onto a lightning bug-looking Pokémon—Volbeat.
"Do you have what it takes, kid?"
"I believe so, sir!"
"
Believe? Get out. If you want to live, leave. You are almost destined for death by agreeing to do this!"
"Sir, with all due respect, I am not leaving. I am willing to die," the blue-bellied Pokémon squeamishly asserts.
"I like that. We'll see how you do," Scyther mumbles, wings twitching.
He moves past an Illumise, presumably Volbeat's buddy, Raticate, Squirtle, and Fennekin, but he stops at one Pokémon: a weak one that flops around aimlessly.
"…I'm not going to ask why you are here," he shakes his head and stares at the ground, however, he continues on without dismissing the Pokémon.
Fletchinder, Elekid, Tropius, Shuppet…they are all asked a question and each give a suitable response in return. Scyther smiles at each one and strolls alongside the wall.
He then comes to Turtwig. Scyther immediately raises his blade up and strikes at the Tiny Leaf Pokémon. Turtwig dodges quickly, easily avoiding the attack.
What was that for? Turtwig asks himself.
Surely he's not angry at me for something?
"Fast reflexes for a snapping turtle. Impressive," he smiles and turns away to look at a Bunnelby standing right beside Turtwig.
As Turtwig sighs, Scyther walks on and questions a Wingull, whose father is actually one of the co-leaders of Fortree City.
"Please don't show me any bias based on who my father is. I don't want that to reflect on my performance," Wingull explains.
"Bias? Ha! Since you're Pelipper's son, I'm expecting you to be top-notch!" Scyther says.
Wingull's face went from a regular, slightly nervous expression to a mortified appearance. Turtwig tries to hold back a laugh and barely succeeds. He notices that Scyther just finished looking over Marill—he has gone over all of the potential recruits and walks over toward the center of the line.
"There are approximately fifteen of you that have volunteered—and have qualified—for the position of trainee. However, only ten of you will have the opportunity to join the squad. Before we begin your entrance exams, let me tell you that coming this far is impressive. Even if you are the most out-of-shape Pokémon on this planet, you're at least making an attempt to change that. You are all passionate, and, in a world like this, that will not take you far. You will all suffer tragedy, experience pain, and most likely get destroyed by our own kind. But you know what? I'm proud that you all—despite knowing that you're selling your souls—are out here and are standing against the wall. It's just too bad that you won't last."
Turtwig's stomach begins to make loud noises as his nervousness intensifies. Die? That's the one thing he's afraid of. He couldn't imagine his friends dying…let alone himself fail to keep his own life. Is he really cut out for this? For just a brief second, he thought of running away, but that would show weakness he wishes not to display.
"The first ten players to reach ten points on our scale will officially become trainees. Now today only some will pass, but tomorrow we will finish up the rest of the exam and determine the final few trainees. Now, onto your first test: you all must compete against—and defeat—another player standing before you. If you get a clean victory, you will earn three points. If you barely win, you will earn two. Losing earns no points because you will not be acknowledged as a threat by the monsters if they take you out in one hit. Since there is an odd number, Volbeat, you will get two out of the three possible points this round and not have to battle," Scyther continues.
"Thank you, sir," Volbeat smiles.
"Now, as for pairing…Wurmple, you and Bunnelby are the first group. Raticate and Fletchinder are our next couple. Tropius and Marill, Fennekin and Illumise, and Squirtle and Elekid will be groups. Finally, hmm," Scyther looks at Turtwig, Shuppet, Magikarp, and Wingull. "Turtwig and Magikarp, Shuppet and Wingull. There—we have our opponents! Wurmple and Bunnelby, you two have the floor."
Bunnelby hops up into the grassy area in front of the group of trainees. Likewise, although on the opposite side of Bunnelby, Wurmple inches its way onto the battlefield.
"Now watch as they fight—I want you to see their techniques and realize why one of them wins," Scyther notes.
Wurmple makes the first move—it shoots an array of purple spikes toward the Digging Pokémon. The poisonous darts zip past Bunnelby's head as it manages to escape the attack through a swift dodge.
Bunnelby immediately responds back with a Quick Attack, knocking Wurmple back and dealing tons of damage. The Worm Pokémon recovers after a few seconds of the attack, but it's obviously still hurt. It doesn't make a move, though—the Pokémon sits there as Bunnelby rears back for another Quick Attack.
"Why is the bunny doing so much damage?" asks Marill.
"I'm not completely sure, but I believe it inherited a hidden ability called 'Huge Power' or something. It means the Pokémon's attack stat is doubled," explains Scyther, who watches in amazement.
How can Wurmple defeat a powerful rabbit?
Bunnelby quickly starts sprinting toward Wurmple again—another Quick Attack. The worm smiles and shoots a thread of silk out of its mouth and toward the Pokémon—Bunnelby was wrapped in a thick blanket of Wurmple's String Shot!
"Now Wurmple can simply poison it, stall it out, and get the points," the Tropius mutters.
"Not so fast," Shuppet whispers back. "I think Bunnelby's about to finish him off."
Bunnelby frantically squirms inside the bundle of silk. However, he does manage to fall back onto his back—his ears are finally able to grasp for something on the ground. How can he win this, though?
"Looks like it's the end of the road for you," Wurmple smiles as he inches closer to his prey.
"Not quite!" Bunnelby strains as its ear finally manages to feel a small pebble—just enough to do the right amount of damage.
"Smack Down!" he shouts as he launches the pebble from his ear and at the worm. The Pokémon, whose location was only about three feet away from Bunnelby, fell over.
Wurmple had lost, Bunnelby won—it's simple; there is no argument as to who clearly dominated that battle.
"Three points for the clear victory," Scyther nods as he continues down the list of people. "Do you all kind of understand this? You don't want to kill the opponent in this situation—you only want to gain the upper hand.
Turtwig frowns as Chansey and Audino take Wurmple off to the Pokémon Center. What if he gets hurt like this? Is it really worth it? Bunnelby's only sitting down to catch his breath…can Turtwig take on a Pokémon like that?
Squirtle notices the slight nervousness that Turtwig now possesses. The Tiny Turtle Pokémon pats Turtwig on the back and smiles.
"Hey, you're going to do
fine. We both are!" he optimistically says.
"Maybe…"
"Raticate and Fletchinder, front and center!" Scyther demands.
The brown rat and fiery robin enter the field and clench their own teeth. Raticate seems angry—its teeth chomp loudly and repeatedly in a provocative manner. Is that a technique? Firing up a rival? Well if it is, then Turtwig wants to see how it plays out.
Fletchinder immediately uses an Aerial Ace attack, which looks really cool. The Pokémon flies up high in the sky, and then swoops down so low that it almost touches the ground. As it declines in altitude, the Pokémon's right wing glows white as it manages to easily hit Raticate where it hurts.
Raticate responds by channeling an electric current in between its paws and then discharging it in a small beam at Fletchinder—it's a super effective hit!
"What move was that?" asks Turtwig as he begins to feel the excitement for battling.
"That was Charge Beam—almost every time it hits, the user gets stronger. This isn't looking good for Fletchinder," Bunnelby notes as it finally catches its breath.
"It didn't look like it did much," Turtwig says.
"No, I don't think it did. Raticate has naturally low Special Attack in the first place, but it could get dangerous if Fletchinder isn't careful," replies Tropius.
Fletchinder recovers from the attack and moves in for another Aerial Ace. However, upon swooping down to attack, Raticate immediately creates a blue barrier—kind of like a dome—that protects it from getting hit by the attack. Using this to his advantage, Raticate then sinks its teeth into the redheaded Ember Pokémon. It immediately seems half as strong as before.
"What move was that?" asks Fennekin, whose attitude finally reflects that of the others.
"That appears to be Super Fang," Turtwig says, finally knowing something. "I think it halves the current HP of the opponent when used."
Scyther nods in agreement and continues watching the process go on. This match is much closer than the other one.
Raticate, who was seemingly in the lead at first, has now turned slightly red.
Red. Why does it seem different?
"That really hurt! I think I just got burned," the Pokémon complains as it begins to feel dizzy and upset.
Fletchinder uses this opportunity to swoop down. Using the flame sac inside of its belly, the Pokémon emits a five-pointed flame star that blasts into the air and slams Raticate hard. The flames of each point seem to pierce the skin of the Mouse Pokémon, and it ultimately faints due to the power of the attack and the inflicted pain from the burn. Fletchinder weakly smiles as it rests on the ground.
"Two points," Scyther continues as Raticate and Fletchinder are taken by Audino, Chansey, and Skitty to the Pokémon Center.
"Hey, Turtwig!" Skitty says as she walks by.
"Hey! Busy day?" he asks, smiling.
"You know it. I hope to not see you there!" she laughs, but then realizes that her comment may have sounded mean. "Not like that—I don't want you hurt. I didn't mean that you—"
"I know what you mean," Turtwig replies, trying to end the awkward conversation.
"Skitty, come on!"
"Well that's my cue to get back to work," the pink-eared Kitten Pokémon bids farewell and continues on up to the Pokémon Center.
Turtwig sighs as she leaves. He likes having someone to talk to. Watching everyone else battle is kind of boring. Eventually, though, it'll be his turn. It'll be fun.
The next few battles go in a similar manner as the first two. Tropius defeats Marill with one simple Leaf Tornado, while Fennekin's Fire Spin allowed it to barely manage the incoming Illumise. Because Elekid is barely old enough to apply, Squirtle did not have a hard time battling him. Next up was Turtwig's battle with Magikarp!
"I've been waiting all day for this!" Turtwig squeals as he runs to one side of the small field.
He notices the western wall that protects the whole city. It's straight in front of him. One day, he's going to go through those walls with the proud title of "Expedition Team." First, though, he must defeat this Magikarp.
"I'm the best Magikarp in my whole family," the flailing, lifeless fish mutters as it flops about aimlessly.
"Alright, then, let's go!" Turtwig cheers.
Turtwig first uses Razor Leaf at the fish Pokémon—and each leaf hits the target dead on. Turtwig goes in to hit it with a Seed Bomb before noticing that Magikarp was already…done. After all this wait, he ends up with this?
"Turtwig has earned three points for his victory against Magikarp," Scyther snickers as he sees Turtwig upset.
"My momma would be so proud," Magikarp wheezes as it is taken away to the Pokémon Center.
"I'm sure should would be, Magikarp. I'm sure she would be," Scyther agrees.
What just happened?
Finally, Shuppet manages a narrow victory over Wingull. Turtwig's not sure how, though. Shuppet had Thunderbolt and Confuse Ray, yet Wingull almost succeeded with Water Gun. It must be some sort of strong Pokémon, because Shuppet only walked (or…hovered?) away with two points out of three.
"Here are the standings so far: the Pokémon with three points are as follows: Bunnelby, Tropius, Squirtle, Turtwig. Good job so far, you four. Those with two points are: Volbeat, by default, Fletchinder, Fennekin, and Shuppet. You eight are officially on the scoreboard, congratulations!" the light green Mantis Pokémon says.
The second part of today's challenge, though, is not fun for anyone—after all the battling, there is going to be a race from one side of the wall to the other. Scyther continues with his explanation of the rules.
"The first five will earn three points, the second five will earn two points, and places 9-12 out of the total 15 will earn a single point.
Each of the fifteen Pokémon are required to put one foot on the western wall before Scyther officially gives the command to run. It's about 6:00 pm now, so the sun is starting to sink down. Each of us are already tired and hungry.
"Come on, we still have two more other challenges before the end of the day!"
Nearly every Pokémon felt like swearing under their breaths, and Turtwig was no exception. All of this one day? There's even more tomorrow! Turtwig frowns as he thinks about the opportunities the monsters have to attack right now. Oh well.
"On your marks…get set…" Scyther slowly mutters as he watches his trainees suffer during the suspense.
In that brief moment, Turtwig's stomach churns nervously as he anticipates when Scyther will officially start yet another competition. As a slower Pokémon, he can't exactly do well in this category.
"GO!" Scyther yells as he clangs both scythe-hands in order to make some sort of signaling noise.
Turtwig thrusts himself off the wall with all of his might, but he just cannot keep up with the rest. Shuppet, Wingull, and Bunnelby are long gone. Tropius and Fletchinder are flying to the other side of the wall. Turtwig is in the lower half in rankings, but that's okay for now.
Magikarp screams that he cannot win by flopping, so he officially quits the race and thus occupies spot fifteen on the leader board. Turtwig, though, still has to work hard if he at least wants a few points. In being one of the slowest Pokémon to compete, he has a big disadvantage.
Turtwig continues sprinting down the path toward the other side of the wall. He manages to run past Elekid, whose poor feet are killing him, and Volbeat, who is confused on where to go. However, he knows that he must keep going.
Ahead of him, Marill uses Aqua Jet on Fletchinder to stop it from advancing forward at such a high pace. The poor Ember Pokémon went from third place to right behind Turtwig, who is now in eleventh.
"Is that even fair?" Turtwig asks out loud, but Fletchinder only remarks that no one said anything against it.
Turtwig immediately decides to spit out several explosive seeds at his opponents. In using Seed Bomb, he can scare them into taking a detour, quitting, or just start lagging behind. His bombs hit Fennekin, Illumise, and Tropius, but only Fennekin is affected by them. He is slowed down and Turtwig, as a result, is officially in the top ten.
Turtwig finally makes it to the several tree houses that may be a quick alternative to just running. He quickly uses the elevator that lies behind the building and pulls himself to a higher elevation. Turtwig then proceeds to run across the rope bridges, beyond the next few houses, and finally down the other elevator. He is so close to the finish line!
"Shuppet has officially won first place, earning him three points," Scyther says with, oddly, no cheer in his voice at all, from ahead.
"Great, one of my friends beat me," Turtwig mutters.
"Raticate and Wingull now occupy second and third place, respectively!"
Turtwig begins to feel down when Bunnelby, Tropius, and Illumise finally cross the finish line as well—he is guaranteed to get two points or less. Turtwig uses Razor Leaf on Marill, which ultimately succeeds as Turtwig gains the lead. He quickly trots across the grassy terrain and is inches away from the eastern wall until Marill Aqua Jets to victory and earns seventh place. Turtwig occupies a respectably solid eighth place, but two points will not get him anywhere. As the other racers come in, he sighs and at least remarks that it was a short race. After all, it's a short distance as well.
Once the race is over, Scyther announces the current standings right now. Bunnelby and Tropius occupy first place with six points, and Turtwig, Squirtle, and Shuppet all have five points. The others have three or fewer, so Turtwig dismisses them as threats. However, Elekid and Magikarp, whose totals are both zero, have been thrown out of the competition due to their poor display of abilities.
"Our third, and, in this case, second-to-last round for the night will be based on stamina. In other words, I will get one of the Squad members to come and use a super effective move on you. Your response to the appropriate attack will determine your number of points. For example, if I use Wing Attack on a Paras and it comes to near death, it will earn 0 points for almost dying. However, if I use X-Scissor on a Tangrowth and it's completely fine, then it will earn 3 points," Scyther continues, though many Pokémon start to tune him out.
"Turtwig, I want you to start us off. I will use my X-Scissor attack on you, so be ready!" the Expedition Team leader puts both scythes together and quickly slices at Turtwig's shell.
The attack did not do much damage; Turtwig simply uses Synthesis to heal what damage it did do, but he was too busy thinking about his ranking before the attack was executed.
"Excellent! Three points for you, then. Who's next? Shuppet?"
Wurmple, Tropius, Wingull, Illumise, and Volbeat are all hit by Lairon's Stone Edge attack. The mighty Steel- and Rock- type Pokémon created and hurled giant stones at each of the Pokémon, and Tropius easily takes to attack due to its large amount of Hit Points. Wurmple likewise took the hit well because it, ironically, became used to the stones after getting hit by Bunnelby several times throughout the night. Both of them earned the maximum amount of points. Wingull did have problems with the stones due to its ability to fly, but it still managed to get partial credit for its attempt to withstand the attack. Illumise cried out several times as the stones hit, but it was relatively okay, so the Pokémon earned two points. Volbeat, though, quits before the rocks can be thrown, so it earns no points whatsoever.
Pelipper, one of the town leaders, comes to use Water Gun on Fennekin, Bunnelby, and Fletchinder. While Fennekin takes the attack very well due to its Special Defense stat, Bunnelby and Fletchinder cannot help but be pushed back by the attack due to its strong propulsion. Therefore, the first mentioned Pokémon earns three points, and the others gain two points each.
Marill earns maximum credit after taking a Vine Whip from Chespin, but Squirtle could only be credited for two points due to his lack of willpower. Raticate and Shuppet only gain one point each because they both do not take Combusken's Double Kick and Houndour's Dark Pulse, respectively, very well.
Volbeat is kicked out of the training session due to it only having a mere two points. Therefore, there are about twelve potential recruits left. After a long, vigorous day, the Pokémon line up outside of their cabin in order to complete tonight's final challenge.
"I must here an oral explanation as to why you all want to join my Expedition Team," Scyther says to the exhausted crowd.
Raticate goes first and states that he wants to make his son, a Rattata that attends the Pokémon School, proud. He wants to help earn his own reputation. He earns only two points due to the slight wish for self-gain. However, he's done for the night. The Pokémon heads to sleep and doesn't come out of the building the rest of the night.
After Raticate comes Tropius, who answers the question well enough to have eleven points—that puts him above the prerequisite to get in. Everyone cheers for him, but he goes to sleep—it's been a long day!
Turtwig goes next. When asked, he sincerely comes up with a thoughtful reason. "I lost my trainer a few months back. I want to fight in her honor not only to make her happy, but so that I can keep her fighting spirit burning true. I have made many friends in this city, and I plan on protecting each and everyone one of them. Even though I have my flaws, I try my hardest to succeed—and that's what I want to do. For my trainer. For my friends. For Fortree City."
"Kind of cheesy, but cheesy can sometimes be good. Congratulations, kid, these three points have brought you above the minimum requirements. You are the second to move on, so you don't have to come tomorrow to see your friends try to meet the 10-point requirements," Scyther smiles.
Turtwig, as the good sport he really is, decides to sit and wait for his friends to arrive. Shuppet earns only nine points, so he must compete tomorrow if he wants to get in. Wingull has reached seven, and that's one of the lowest scores of the night. Both Squirtle and Bunnelby are the only other Pokémon that met the ten-point minimum. Therefore, there were only a total of four trainees that are officially in the squad.
"Hold it," Scyther tells Fletchinder and Illumise before they go to bed. "The two of you have the lowest scores—it's a tie at five points. Therefore, I want the two of you to battle it out so that we can have eleven trainees overnight. The loser will be kicked out, while the winner will have one more night to prove himself worthy!"
Fletchinder and Illumise get onto opposite sides of the field, but Illumise sees Volbeat sitting alone and voluntarily quits. Fletchinder falls over asleep right after, so despite the lack of a battle, Fletchinder has one more night to prove himself. Illumise has given up.
"Well I'm going to bed," Squirtle mumbles, and the rest of the group laughs.
"Good idea," Skitty says as she and Trapinch walk in the door.
"What about food?" someone asks in the background.
"There's always breakfast," Tropius suggests.
"What will we eat? Your bananas?" Shuppet barks, laughing right after he says that.
After a short discussion of food, the light is turned off and the tree house goes completely quiet.
"Good night, everyone!" Turtwig whispers.
At least he knows he's in the squad. Not only that, but Turtwig was one of the first ones to make it in—it wasn't a struggle to the finish.
Let's just hope that doesn't come back to bite me in the future, he thought to himself. I bet I just jinxed myself. Darn it!
After that thought, though, Turtwig falls asleep. It's going to be a great day tomorrow…for him.