Special Task

"It's been a week since the trial started and I am happy about the fact that there is a decent amount of you alive," said Captain Carr. We arrived back to the island base this morning and were provided with a tasty breakfast. It was nice to have something cooked with spices, I was too tired of eating bland roasted meat and berries.

I don't know what the special task or the rewards are but we were asked to assemble here to hear about the second trial. Captain Carr looked unusually happy with our numbers, so I assume that there were more people alive than expected. I stopped my thinking and concentrated on Captain Carr's speech,

"Before we get into the specifics of the next trial, I am here to inform you that you all are qualified to become grunts which is not a big deal but if you qualify round 2 then you will become Agents directly. Team Rocket like other organisations has a hierarchy model, you start as a Grunt and then get promoted up to Executive. Grunt, Agent, Captain, Elite, Executive and in some special cases you become spies, so this is the ranking order which you need to keep in mind." He paused for a second to see if everyone were attentive and then continued,

"Normally we only have two rounds of the trials every year but this time we have an extra round to recruit Captains for the organisation. We are in need of talents and all the places that are left will be occupied by you guys. I am a Captain myself but keep in mind that you will only be given 'Captain in training' position till you reach the advanced trainer level. You will be directly under an elite and in some special cases under an executive. So, the better you perform the better the rewar....,"

Captain Carr was suddenly interrupted by a grunt and he looked annoyed but suddenly became respectful when the grunt handed him a phone like device, I think someone important called him to talk privately?

At least I have some time to think it through, I need to get that 'Captain in training' position no matter what. The only problem is that I don't know how many are qualified to clear the third round. I don't think there will be more than 5 spots, I need to train and grind levels to at least hit level 30. According to my appraisal system, level 35 is the cap for an Advanced Trainer so I need to reach level 30 to gain a spot. Before I think more about the situation Captain Carr came back and started his oration,

" I just got the rules for the Special task which is your Trial two, you will all be given a token and be teleported to different parts of Zone Nine. Zone nine is an empty forest that doesn't inhabit Pokemon, it's as big as two zones. Your task is to steal the tokens of others, you will have a day to achieve your outcomes. You can battle them to get the token or steal and run. The only thing you should remember is that no killing is allowed as the token you stole will be invalid. If you still kill the person then I have no issues but the token you stole will not be considered."

'Oh, so no killing huh?'

"Each token is worth one point, the higher the points you bring the higher will be the rewards, the first round rewards are your Pokeball and Pokemon that you caught. Second round rewards will be given after you finish it, the round will start when the light starts fading on the island. You can use all the tactics conceivable so be very mindful and you should only have two Pokemon on you. Psychics are always watching you so don't think you can have more than two Pokemon. I will now announce the number of candidates that returned alive from the first trial."

Everyone one of us paid attention to the last sentence because all of us knew how tough it was in the past week. Captain Carr took out a paper and started reading,

"Zone 1- 8 people alive, cause of deaths were due to infighting. Zone 2- 9 alive, cause of deaths are due to a pack of Ariados. Zone 3- 2 alive, cause of deaths- Baltoy. Zone 4- 6 alive, cause of deaths- infighting. Zone 5- 4 alive, cause of deaths- an angry Pangoro. Zone 6- 5 alive, cause of deaths- varied. Zone 7- 0 alive, cause of deaths- a pack of Salandits. Zone 8- 0 alive, cause of deaths- Grimsnarl and Hatterene."

Total of 34 alive and what shocked me was the last two zones, no one returned. Is it due to the lack of information on those two region pokemon? I mean a good amount of people are familiar with the first 6 regions. And also What do you mean only two returned from Zone 3? It should be four right? Wait, don't tell me Duke killed his sidekicks to get rid of witnesses, does that mean it was a mistake to leave him alive? shit...

I know I shouldn't think like this but the cause of deaths in Zone 5 was due to a Pangoro? it's a bit funny but I am also sorry. I am pretty sure their deaths were due to me, that pangoro might have searched the whole zone to find me.

"That's it for now, you all can start round two after dinner. Collect your tokens at the counter before you plan your strategies, alright I hope I see more of you after the round. Goodbye." Captain Carr left after that leaving all the murmurs around.

Gregory was thinking deeply about the rules and I was looking around to see the people alive. I need to get the information on what Pokemon people possess, I hope not all people have two Pokemon.

Sadly, everyone had their Pokemon inside their pokeballs, but it did not stop me from knowing how many caught more than one Pokemon. twenty out of thirty-four had two pokeballs while the rest had only one. That's a decent amount though, so my strategy will be to track people who have one Pokemon and save energy for the unknown circumstances. Although we get teleported, I can at least remember some faces and track them.

"Hey Jay, want to team up with me? I mean we can get all the tokens and then divide them among us. You can bring Gregory too if you want, that way we will be the only guys qualifying which will make this easy."

I snapped out of my thinking after hearing the friendly-creepy voice. It was Duke who approached us, Gregory was a bit afraid so he stepped back a bit, I think he has a trauma now. I looked at Duke and answered him with fake politeness,

"Thanks Duke, but I think we are fine by ourselves. You can try with someone else, I can't a trust a guy who kills his underlings right?"

Duke raised his brows not expecting the last sentence and then he smiled brilliantly shows all his teeth,

"Good guess, they were worthless anyway. You are different, you have some value but it's still fine. I will ask others for a team up then, see you."

Duke walked away and Gregory started talking,

"Is it fine to reject him like that? What if he comes back and attacks us?"

"He will do that for sure, but we can't go with him. Either way it's risky but I would rather avoid him and confront him after round two," I said, but I too was cautious inside. What if he gangs up to take care of us?

"Anyways, we both team up and try to get as much as possible. We need to be in top 5 as per the information from that bastard. So getting six tokens will get us inside, but for better rewards, we need to get nine to ten at least," I said and talked about all the possible problems that we can come across.

I can do this solo but I don't want my only investment to die, Gregory is soft-hearted and easy to manipulate. I don't know him enough to consider him as a real friend, for now he is my investment.

I asked Electrike to sniff all the people that have only one Pokemon. I wanted her to remember their smell, Electrikes are very good at remembering the scent of a person. I will track them later at night and then move forward to hunt others.

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Five minutes before trial 2:

We were all lined up in two lines, there was a Kadabra and a Grumpig. I read it in a book that any psychic with high psychic power can use teleport unlike the games, now I believe that it's true as the Grumpig ahead of us was teleporting people. Kadabra was a level 40 peak yellow potential Pokemon and Grumpig was Captain Carr's. It was level 53 and had mid-grade green potential.

If I did not meet the Slowking, I would have been awed by the aura that was coming out of Grumpig. It was teleporting people very fast compared to the Kadabra on our right. Soon, our turn came and Grumpig took both me and Gregory with a tap.

We were given choices if we liked to go alone or in a group of three or less. Some people went solo due to trust issues and some cowards went in a group of three. I think a group of three is the worst choice as you won't know when your teammate betrays you for an extra token.

The only rule was to not kill if we wanted the token to be valid. The Token contained numbers, I got number 18 while Gregory got the number 3, though I don't think they signify anything.

Grumpig's tap on us made the surroundings around us distorted. It felt like the food inside was banging my throat to come out. It just felt like I was high on weed, everything in front was trippy and I was at a different location in a second.

It looked like a dark lonely forest but my head was spinning so I found a tree nearby to sit for a second. As a psychic, I took it a bit easier but Gregory was vomiting everything. I have to keep in mind that there will be no water or food available in this forest. All the trees or fruits around here were not edible, this test is to assess our decision making and abilities in a harsh condition.

I am sure most of them like Gregory would vomit everything out and would be hungry for the whole day, no water makes it even worse as you also have to do battles and run away if needed. We need to consume less stamina and battles should be as smooth as possible. You don't want your Pokemon to faint after a fight as we don't have healers to make them revive.

I summoned my Electrike and asked her to show the way towards the nearest guy. Gregory summoned his Joltik to protect us from sneak attacks. I put my Sandile inside the Pokeball to save his stamina. Electrike started sniffing around and in a second she found her target.

We walked in the direction that Electrike showed, Gregory protected my back while I moved ahead with good pace. After a thirty-minute walk, I found myself in a weird spot. I thought my luck was over by yesterday, it seems Gregory has a lot of good karma. No wonder he caught a high potential-shiny-hidden ability Pokemon without a system, he even survived from Duke's assault. I think I will keep Gregory by my side even after I quit Team Rocket.

The scene ahead was a fight between three people, this was a team of three who got teleported together. I think the guy who won this two-way battle planned it from the start, if you come with a group then you win free two tokens if you betray your mates. But sadly this will not be his day as I will just battle him and collect all the three tokens.

The guy who won had an average height and was a bit chubby. He had a bowl cut hair, he was grinning with happiness holding the two tokens he just got. The other two had the eyes of despair as if not believing what happened. Their two Pokemon fainted while the chubby guys Scraggy looked a bit tired.

My plan was simple, Joltik had string shot which was very helpful to restrain others. We just use that on people and then collect their pokemon inside the pokeballs. We throw the pokeballs away and then run away with the tokens. We did not want to fight till tomorrow morning, we wanted to save energy for the night and go the efficient way.

"Gregory, tell your joltik to steal the Pokeball of that chubby guy with string shot, then you return his Pokemon inside the ball while I threaten him with Electrike to get the tokens," I said to Gregory in a whispering tone.

"It's night so I think it's easier to steal so it won't be a problem for my Joltik," he said and slowly went around the chubby guy.

Joltik did exactly what was asked, Joltik being one of the tiniest Pokemon makes it easier to steal from someone in the dark. Gregory quickly returned Scraggy inside the ball which startled the chubby guy.

"Whoo...Who arree you? Return my Pokemon," he said panicking. He knew he was doomed the moment he had no pokemon. The other two collected their fainted Pokemon and ran away before this gets bad.

I came out from the bushes with my Electrike and asked him in a threatening tone,

" It doesn't matter who we are, just handover all three tokens. If not my Electrike will kill you and then we take the other two tokens. So choose which one do you want?"

No sound came out of his mouth as he was stunned by my sudden appearance. Gregory flung the Pokeball far into the forest and after seeing that, the chubby guy just threw the tokens and ran towards the side of thrown Pokeball.

I collected the tokens and said,

"Three down, fifteen more to go."

x--------Chapter End -------x