Gabi:
- Sucking the energy from the land rarely works.
- Sucks about Zack's team. I suppose it was sort of a traumatic event.
- As soon as you mentioned Ventura giving an indecipherable look, I considered that that must be most of the looks she gives. XD
- Oh man, Caledor trying to get his pink stuff fix. XD
- People living in airports? Hm... I wonder if living in the Barracks is comparable. XD
- Awesome. Caledor likes wood. Good to know.
- That Farfetch'd came out of nowhere. And needs to work on his one-liners.
- Way to shut the kid up with the comment about licenses. XD
- Chalk me up for someone else who says "train station." XD
I dug it! A lot of good exposition here. I think 12 stamps works.

Alex:
- Snacks and munchies as well as a full pizza? Man, you don't mess around with your pre-training food. XD
- Phew, 50 C. I would be melting. :[
- When the Ponyta got up, I kinda hoped it would just turn into a lava fight. XD
- Standing behind the boulder to avoid the Flame Charge. Good move!
- Macedon rising out of the lava reminded me of the Terminator.
- Nice job for Macedon, taking on two Ponyta right in a row like that.
- Not so nice job for Rex, though. Poor guy. Hopefully that experience will help him if he ends up in a water arena though.
I think 13 stamps here works.


And now! My RBGs. Cheers!
Test No. 4
---
“Please begin the test.”

Kurtzwick, scowling, glanced around the room as he dropped down from the catwalk. Unlike the last room, which featured tall pillars, odd panels, and a duo of Pokémon that seemed more like robots than anything else, this room featured only one distinguishing characteristic.

A large pit spanned the room in a wide strip, dividing it in two, and it was filled to the brim with a noxious, bubbling acid. Naturally, the door was on the opposite side from Kurtzwick.

Kurtzwick peered at it. A bubble rose to the surface and popped. It stung his nose.

“This test will gauge your aptitude in a number of areas,” the loudspeaker said.

There was a pause. Kurtzwick looked up at the ceiling. “I’m listening.”

“One such area is your ability to not die.”

“That’s so helpful.”

The voice continued. “There are two other areas in which you will be assessed here. The first is a matter of battle-readiness. There are two ghost Pokémon hidden in this room, who will attempt to attack you as your past opponents have. Moreover, there is a lock on the door to this room that won’t open until you defeat them.”

“More creepy guys. Wonderful,” Kurtzwick muttered.

“The second area is one of speed.”

Kurtzwick stared at the ceiling, glanced back at himself, then back at the ceiling, frowning. “You know that Dratini aren’t exactly built for speed, right?”

“It would scarcely be a productive test if we were testing you on what you were already good at. If we wanted to test you on something you were good at, we would test you on…”

The loudspeaker fell silent for a moment. Kurtzwick continued to glare at it before the voice came back. “Our mistake. There would be nothing to test you on.”

Kurtzwick squared his jaw and slithered back to the pit. “Thanks.”

“Regardless, as far as speed is concerned, when I have completed this sentence, you will have 1 minute to clear this chamber before the acid pit will begin to overflow.”

This one took a moment to process. Kurtzwick stared back up at the ceiling. “Wait, what?”

“59 seconds.”


“Hell.”

Test! Kurtzwick versus Rotom and Duskull!
Kurtzwick: “Hack, slay, and haul it all away!”
Rotom: “Are you still there?”
Duskull: “I see you!”

Okay, first things first. I need to figure out where the ghosts are. Kurtzwick glanced around the room. Man, invisible things suck!

“58.”

I need a way to figure out where they are! …Or… A thought occurred to Kurtzwick, and a smirk crossed his face. I can figure out where they aren’t.

“57.”

Kurtzwick lifted his head and closed his eyes. A cold wind began to slowly roll into the room, gradually picking up speed. Come on, move faster! he thought, as the voice counted down to 54. The Icy Wind blew throughout the room, and Kurtzwick swiveled his gaze around, looking for… there it was. At two opposite points of the room, hovering near the ceiling over the pit, there were two spots where the Icy Wind was obviously hitting something.

If I had tried to cross the pit without taking them out, they would have attacked me when I was halfway across, Kurtzwick realized.

Once they were hit, the two ghosts faded into visibility. One looked more or less like a cloth wearing a skull mask, and the other was bright orange and sparking with electricity.

“50.”

Kurtzwick ignored the voice and grinned. “There you lot are! I’ve got you now!”

They didn’t move, instead choosing to stay in their positions overlooking the pit.

Well, that helped slightly, Kurtzwick thought. Instead of two invisible ghosts waiting to attack me out of reach, I’ve got two visible ghosts waiting to attack me out of reach. It’s a first step, I suppose. He glanced around. Aside from the pit itself, there was nothing else in the room.

“45.”

Okay, let’s not psyche out here… How can I get across…

“43.”

Damn! Okay, okay! Let’s just try this! Kurtzwick summoned another blast of Icy Wind. However, where the last one was widespread and admittedly rather flimsy, he focused this one specifically on the Duskull. He aimed it around the Duskull, then back towards him; the end result was that the Duskull slowly began moving towards him. It didn’t seem to take any notice, and when Kurtzwick called off the wind, it didn’t move.

“39.”

Okay, Rotom next… Another gust of wind brought the Rotom down a bit too. This time, though, he arranged the Rotom so that it was a little bit behind the Duskull, though a little higher above: about three feet from the acid, where the Duskull was only two.

“35.” Kurtzwick surveyed his handiwork for a moment, before slithering backwards, and…

“We would like to remind all test subjects that the same strategies may not always work twice,” the voice said from the loudspeaker. Kurtzwick jumped. The voice had broken what focus he had managed to work up. “There was actually a third element of this test: working with change. Good luck.”

Kurtzwick pondered over that one for a moment before his heart skipped a beat: the two ghosts had, while he was thinking, both turned to face him. There was a tense moment in which neither of them moved, followed by the voice saying “30.”

Then the two ghosts both began to lob Shadow Balls at him in quick succession. Kurtzwick yelped as the first two hit him, spraying out a thick cloud of Haze to shield himself out of pure instinct. As soon as the ghosts couldn’t see him, they ceased firing.

“25.”

Okay… that was not my best moment. Kurtzwick sighed… then his eyes lit up, bits and pieces of a plan suddenly forming in his head. I’ve got it!

“23.”

A quick Icy Wind blew the Haze away. The two ghosts’ gaze immediately fixed on Kurtzwick, but before they could begin firing, he took a running (well, slithering) jump into the air over the Duskull. I hope this works…

“19.”

The Duskull’s gaze followed Kurtzwick, and when Kurtzwick was above it, it began launching Shadow Balls. Kurtzwick closed his eyes, grit his teeth, and expanded a Protect around him.

Much to his relief, the momentum that transferred into his shield from the Shadow Ball boosted him just a little further into the air.

“16.”

This got Kurtzwick over the Rotom, who did much the same thing. He strained, beads of sweat appearing on his brow from keeping the Protect solid against so many repeated attacks, but before he knew it, he had bounded over the two Pokémon onto the solid ground on the other side. He dropped the Protect and let out a breath.

“13.”

Granted, this didn’t mean that the two ghosts had stopped paying attention. Kurtzwick had scarcely a moment to relax before another volley of Shadow Balls flew at him. He dodged them, weaving his body back and forth, before expelling another Haze; this, at least temporarily, stopped the attacks.

“10.”

Shoot! Gotta take them down! Kurtzwick glanced around, and, still seeing nothing to help him out, sighed. I guess this is the best thing I can do!

“7.”

Kurtzwick closed his eyes. A dull hum reverberated through the room, though, as expected, the ghosts didn’t seem to care.

“6.”

A dark-grey storm cloud began to form at the ceiling, flashing and sparking with errant lightning.

“5.”

The hum graduated into full-on thunder, accompanying forks of lightning. The clouds roiled, turning black and angry-looking.

“4.”

An orange energy began to permeate the storm cloud. Small ethereal pebbles began to drop from the cloud, each also glowing orange, and wherever they hit the acid, they fizzled. One of them hit the Rotom, who looked skyward, albeit unconcernedly.

“3.”

Once the small pebbles had stopped, a multitude of glowing rocks descended next. These pelted the two ghosts, leaving scrapes and bruises where they bounced off and disappeared. The Duskull joined its partner in turning its attention to the ceiling.

“2.”

The thunder came to a crashing, booming crescendo as the clouds parted: from them came one absolutely tremendous boulder. If Kurtzwick had had his eyes open, he would have remarked on how the orange glow looked remarkably like the meteor was engulfed in flames. The glow illuminated every crater, every bump, every crag in the rock as it fell. The ghosts didn’t move.

“1.”

The meteor impacted with both ghosts at once. Kurtzwick’s eyes snapped open, though he had to wrench them shut almost immediately because of the bright orange explosion that resulted – even through the Haze, it was blinding. Two quiet splashes confirmed for him that the ghosts had dropped, and a clicking noise from the vicinity of the door told him that it had unlocked.

He raced through the door and slammed it shut behind him just as the loudspeaker said “0.”

Test complete! Kurtzwick grows to level 13!

“Very good. You have completed the test with a score of 0 seconds left. The current record is 32 seconds left. You scored in the 0th percentile.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Kurtzwick grumbled. “Trying to kill me. Friggin’ place. Can I go now?”

“Please rest assured that the Pokémon you dropped in a pool of acid are not dead, and even if they were, you would not be held responsible.”

“Wonderful. Sets my mind at ease. Can I go now?”

“Please proceed with the next test.”

“I will burn this place to the ground,” Kurtzwick muttered under his breath as he scoped out the room.