I... might actually like it here.

Mr. Samurott kn-knows that something i-is going wrong right now... He was t-talking to s-someone on his Connection Orb. Th-They said that they were going to bring someone "special" to t-take care of it.

What the heck are you talking about, Lu-...

What, wh-what's going on!?

Oh CRAP, Lucas, this is really, really bad!

What!?

There's some rumors going on in the Academy that there's a Pokemon coming from another continent to see what's going on! And... Their species never got recorded.

WHY?

And I-I'm still trying to figure out what to do a-about Player, David and the others... I feel like I'm the only one that isn't t-trying to stay at arms-length with them.

And sp-speaking of the Rangers, they've been really busy, l-lately. We don't know th-the details, but they've had their p-paws full with a lot of incidents that th-they think are related. I wanted to help, but Mr. Blaziken said that it was too dangerous for Bronze ranks to be involved...

...Maybe something will work out this time. Hopefully, they don't start fighting again, I already get enough of that from Wave... Mr. Samurott just said it's a matter of distributing it all evenly, right?...

[Chris then began to think back to one of his past training sessions. Claude had been trying to teach the Noibat about the specifics of Double Team and how to handle the move, but he was never quite able to get it right due to the unique properties of his execution.]

Mr. Blaziken was there too, what did he say again? I remember him mentioning that this absurd pose was necessary... How am I supposed to disperse this energy again...?...

[He tried to concentrate more on the move, but another memory of that session had cropped up in his mind, one that completely shattered his focus.]

He also called Mr. Samurott a "boomer" for his advice, too! Pfft- Ironic that a fire-type is the one saying that, isn't it? Hahaha-ha-

[As Chris was laughing to himself, Stephanie was walking towards the door, likely to talk to him about what was so funny. Just as she opened it, however, she was nearly swept away by what looked like no less than forty Chrises that tumbled out of the room, appearing more as poorly-made toys than the real Noibat.]

Hi, Stephanie.

Hi, Stephanie.

Hi, Stephanie.

HOLY ARCEUS-! [Stephanie began tossing the duplicates to the side with surprising ease, each of them disappearing into smoke wherever they landed. Soon enough, after practically swimming through the one-Pokemon army, she was able to see the real Chris atop a pile of himself, tears welling up in his eyes as he still tried to suppress his own giggle.] What did you do!?

...So we may have been doofuses. Not only have we been completely wrong about some of the stuff with Heart's... situation, which was already a mess of its own, but now... it seems like Chris found out that we have access to his phone.

H-He's gonna hate me, David! ...Wh-What if he breaks up with me? I threatened on of his b-best friends a-and said they d-deserved what they got...!

Actually, that's half-true. Big Bones ended up telling me that he had Chris's phone, a bit before he, Wave and Steph left the Academy again to visit Jayden. But, I chose to lag behind and see what else comes up.

I'm just here for damage control, really, making sure that things don't go tails-up while they're out... The stuff with that "Heart" fellow is...

Dangerous.

Maybe I shouldn't have l-lied. I'm j-just digging a deeper h-hole for Chris to climb o-out of... He'll never forgive m-me...

...A-At least David's still h-here, he always kn-knows what to do.

...Maybe I should just t-tell him that it's truly hopeless. I-I suppose I wouldn't r-really be lying... r-right?

Everyone's asleep r-right now, and it always leaves me with just m-my th-thoughts... I'm forced to think about... that n-night. When e-everything... was taken...

Even n-now, whenever I l-l-look at Chris, I always see... IT.

...Th-that MONSTER.

...What...? What happened while we were gone? Are you alright? Where are you?

I TOLD you this was going to happen, Chris! Everyone we know's always going through something every few days, and you choose to just stash your phone away for this long!?

Can't you be a little bit more sensitive about this?

I tried being sensitive by agreeing to go with this dummy's idea to hide away for like six months! AND LOOK WHERE'S THAT GOTTEN US, DAVID!

P-Please don't fight...

Guys, we really have to do something, and soon. We don't know how long they've been in this situation, and who's to say that it's not going to get worse?

...Look. Forget the gifts, I'll manage to find them myself some other time. For now, we need to focus on what you're going through. What's in your immediate vicinity? Anything that's even remotely recognizable? Do you remember anything that's happened before this?

Are we really doing- Shouldn't we get a teacher first, at least? Mr. Samurott could probably clear this easily! We probably wouldn't even have to do anything!

It wouldn't make sense to. Not only are they already busy with taking care of things here, they'd likely stop us from going in the first place. This has to be done secretly.

ALREADY!? Are you trying to get our badges revoked?

And would you rather having someone potentially dying because we chose not to help?

...

Figured.

Hello! It's been a while, hasn't it?

We'd actually just gotten our badges today, confirming our upgraded rank. Now, other Pokemon will know that we're open to accept missions!... well, those within our given limitations. I suppose the school doesn't want to be responsible for any unnecessary casualties...

As for potential gifts... I haven't exactly thought about it at all, really. I'm not even sure what I would ask for...

And... Well... Lucas hasn't exactly been at his best lately. He's been "moodier" than usual, and he's paranoid about something that Mrs. Mimikyu had said to him during the exam about a month ago. My poor honey's been paranoid since... It doesn't help that he's been having headaches after that moment. He tries to say that it just happens after he cries for a long time, but this seems a bit more serious this time...

Hm... Now that I think of it, perhaps a few treats would help him feel a little better for the time being. Or a blanket or two...

Dammit, dammit... DAMMIT!

I gave him everything I could muster, and it WASN'T GOOD ENOUGH! I don't CARE that I beat the exam, what I care about is that what I spent those months working on wasn't even able to lay a finger on Mr. Samurott! I told Chris that going back to the school for that long would be pointless, and look where we are now!

I've made NO progress in that time, and it's INFURIATING. And Mr. Samurott even tried to make me feel better by saying that my water-type moves were 'colder' than normal or whatever, what is that even supposed to mean? Either way, it was so, like... UPSETTING. I could just TELL that he was only saying that to make me forget the fact that I couldn't kick his ass.

I'm still really upset with myself, though... I've been doing this since I was, like, four. Why does breathing fire still hurt so much? It doesn't help that it's only gotten worse for me since. I talked to the nurses at the school a while ago, and it turns out that I'm slowly ripping the inside of my throat to shreds because I can't control it yet. And I'll probably lose the ability to do it altogether, or even SPEAK, if I can't get that in check by the time I evolve. She gave me a necklace with Never-Melt Ice on it to try alleviating the issue, but it's meant to only be a temporary fix, like Chris's plug-in.

Mom looked like she understood what was going on, and I knew she did, but the fact that I can't get it down when both my older and baby brothers can... It's embarrassing. She says that it's just proof that I have stronger flames, but I don't WANT strength, I want CONTROL. And, now... I need it.

And speaking of that vocal violet, I'm really glad that he came in clutch through for me and Steph in the end. I know he was scared out of his mind, especially since he hasn't gotten into any real battles since he's become a Pokemon until that day.

...But still... I don't want to just be dead weight, y'know? Maybe I can keep working on Metal Claw instead? That move's never failed me, it even saved my life once...

...

She's a really good ghost t-type Ranger, and it's said that she was always in touch with the world in a way that n-no one else was.

But I actually managed to beat her! I didn't think I had it in me... Maybe practicing those Mud Sh-Shots wasn't useless, after all. But the fight was really weird, too. I was able to feel a lot of r-really... weird stuff in the cave... It was like the entire place was... alive. It was really cold, a-and...

...It felt... normal!?

When we were going b-back to the entrance, Mrs. Mimikyu said that it was really weird that her attacks didn't work like she thought they would, too... She even said that I could "sense certain things," and she wanted to meet with me when school opened up again, and I'm really worried... Sh-She sounded really suspicious of m-me, like I was cheating or s-something...

Arceus, that sucked big-time... It didn't help that I started feeling really weird when I was busy being bullied by Ms. Scolipede. It felt... good. Really good. It got me really hyped up, and I even got a hit on her! I punched her as hard as I could, and it even moved her a little bit! Do you know how HARD it is for someone to do that to her? Even RANGERS have problems doing that, from what I've heard!

It didn't stop me from getting trapped in a web, though. I HAD to surrender after that, the heck did you expect me to do? But she even gave me credit for landing that awesome attack! She was all like, "Stay standing strong, Snivy."

To explain why I've been missing for so long, I was busy preparing myself and my team for a... final exam, of sorts.

Because of the nature of the exam, I'm not allowed to share too many details, but it's supposedly common knowledge that team members each face a member of the school as the final... I suppose "grand finale" is the right term? They're graded based on how they individually do at the end of their dungeons and "bosses," as those in the human world would call them. If half or more of the team is able to survive, they pass and get to rank up. If not... I hope you can predict what happens there.

As for my team? After reaching the end of our five dungeons (I'm admittedly surprised I've made it that far on my own, but I had no doubts about the others), we were greeted by... the strongest Rangers there. The others were, at least.

Stephanie and David had issues with Tempest and... well, David's mother, respectively. Meanwhile, Wave and Lucas seemed to do well against Claude and another Ranger that I hadn't met before. I hear that she's a species referred to as Mimikyu...? Nonetheless, despite my previous worries regarding Wave, I figured that he'd do well, and I expected nothing less of my lover. I still owe him a whole bunch of cuddles for doing so well...

Because there's five of us, that meant that I was the tiebreaker for whether or not we pass. I... am the bridge.

I stepped through the other end, and... an Aggron was on the other side. I had recently picked up type matchups from my classes, and my heart sank to my rear end when I saw him. Despite that, I chose to swallow my worries (As well as an Apicot berry in hopes of not having holes poked in my wings... again...), and moved forward. I knew that he trained under Claude, so I had to keep my guard up. And, even with everything in mind...

I had completed his challenge.

With as much joy as a Noibat can muster in this condition, I'd like to introduce this team as not just an official Rescue Team, but one that has reached the Bronze rank.