"What? What's wrong" Ciel turned with a worried tone in his voice.

"Can you check the door?" Vaal spoke in a low tone, glancing sideways before pulling out an emergency spray can out of his belt, he popped the cap and started spraying water vapour all over his body.

"On it" Ciel got up sluggishly and moved over towards the door behind them. Reaching the door, he put a hand on the handle before yelping in pain, jerking his hand back away from the metal handle, glancing down he noticed he got the burn status from the brief touch.

"You okay?" Vaal called back to Ciel. He was running out of the water vapour; the areas that he had sprayed were drying rapidly.

"Handle's too hot, instant burn" he cautioned as he pulled a burn heal out of his belt, he always kept one of each heal potions in his belt for an emergency, each bottle had five separate uses. He aimed the nozzle to his palm and sprayed one of the charges directly onto the burnt area. The burn healed almost immediately. Once that was done he shoved it back into his belt before grabbing a heatproof glove putting it on he reached out and grabbed the door handle again.

The door just rattled as he pulled and pushed, trying and failing to shift the door handle, after 30 seconds of consistently trying he gave up as the glove on his hand started to smoke.

"Fucker" he backed away from the door, Vaal had gotten off his sear and moved over to join Ciel at some point.

"Okay, so the door is out of access" Vaal spoke evenly eyeing up the smoking glove on Ciel's left hand.

"You hand, alright?"

"Yeah, gloves wrecked but did its job" Ciel ripped the glove off his hand before throwing it to the ground and started stomping on it to try to stop the smoke.

"Okay so I'm guessing this is the test they were talking about" Vaal spoke as he looked around the room, the walls were starting to give off heat shimmers, the temperature had slowly increased. But now it was rocketing up higher and higher, making matters worse something was draining the moisture from the room.

"There is a dehumidifier somewhere in the room; they are draining the moisture out of the room while raising the temperature" Ciel went to his bracelet. Running his finger across the touch screen, he cycled through various apps, stopping at the temperature monitor and read out the temperature and humidity level.

"Temperature 62 degrees and increasing, humidity levels around 5% and dropping, we need to get out, we will start taking damage at 75 degrees, getting burns at 100."

"I know I know, check the glass, we might have to break our way out, I will try hitting the door" Ciel nodded before dashing over to the glass, grabbing a chair on the way, the metal frame was hot to touch but not burning hot yet. Vaal stood squarely opposite the door.

"Boosting" he called out, activating amnesia and curse, his body was filled with energy as the curse boosted his bodies abilities at the cost of his movement speed, it was an addictive feeling. The power gained from the status move was temporary, amnesia banished the negative worries from his mind, raising his mental fortitude but he had to focus, he and Ciel needed to get out the room ASAP.

"Boosting" Ciel used his boosting move, hone claws, his claws grew out, the muscles in his arms and legs went taunt, and his eyes narrowed slightly as his attack and accuracy spiked in power.

Vaal threw a rock tomb at the door, testing the toughness of the door, the rocks just slammed into the door with a loud thud, but other than that, not a thing happened, not even a dent in the door as the starter rock rolled on to the ground as it rebounded off.

"Door is reinforced, your end?" Vaal was getting breathless. He was drying out quickly, Ciel was trying to slam the metal chair against the glass however the metal just glanced off the smooth surface as the glass wobbled, spreading out the force of the impact preventing the glass from shattering from the impact.

"No good, this is an interrogation room remember the walls, door and glass will all be reinforced, this is genuine stuff, no way we will break through it on our own" Ciel spoke as he left the chair drop to the floor, the heat was starting to drain his strength, he suddenly glowed white. He reverted into his natural form, trying to shed some of the clothes to cool off.

"Bloody hell, now what do we do" Ciel started pacing, the heat in the room was now hot enough to begin damaging them meaning they now had a time limit before they fainted, Vaal had less time then Ciel though as he started to struggle to breathe. As an aquatic pokemon, he could bring in oxygen through his skin, however, like frogs, salamanders and newts, his skin needed to remain wet for that to happen and now his skin was dry. He was dehydrating and overheating at a rapid pace.

Vaal feel to his side with a thump, his head somewhat clear due to the boosts but they didn't help the weakness in his body from dehydration.

"Water..." he managed to choke out, Ciel wasn't much better then Vaal, but he could still move, he wasn't as dehydrated as Vaal. Instead, he was starting to overheat far quicker then Vaal due to his fur, their HP was draining, but they would be fine as long as they could get out of the room, find some water and cool down if they fainted in the room though, that was where things would get serious.

"Hold on Marsh hold on" Ciel rushed over to Vaal's side, twisting his upper half around to grab something out of his belt with his mouth before offering it to Vaal, it was a breathing mask with a small canister attached to it. Vaal grabbed it, fitting the cover around his face before twisting the steel canister to release the highly pressurised water vapour.

In the security room on each screen was showing a live feed to various interrogation rooms, each one with a different pair of pokemon inside them and being placed in a controlled stress test.

Each room was going through a different trail, each designed to cause a high level of stress for the pairs that were in them; the test was to see how they acted in a high-stress situation. Outside of each room were combat medics ready to rescue the pokemon if they fainted due to the conditions. There was a way out of the room, but the pokemon had to find it first.

The officers in the security room had the job of marking the pokemon on their reaction to the induced stress.

"Oh wow, that is not something I expected to see" Cath was watching Vaal and Ciel's monitor. She was impressed how Vaal realised something was wrong by timing how it took the cloth to dry, and she was a little disappointed how they just turned to violence to try and escape from the room if they had broken out they would have failed and forced to repay the damages. Lance looked up with furrowed brows from his screen where the pair had to deal with electrical strikes through the entire room.

"We got a breaker this year?" he spoke clearly, raising one brow in a questioning manner.

"No something far rarer" she replied in a distant voice, her gaze fixed on the two pokemon in the screen.

"The Quagsire seems to trust his partner with his life; he gave the Persian his emergency breather" the rest of the room went slack-jawed and wide-eyed. Lance moved over to the screen to see for himself.

"Well I will be damned" he started to grin, as he kept watching what Vaal and Ciel would do next.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Back in the room, Vaal was starting to get his breath back, being unable to breath was a massive HP drainer and was very dangerous if you faint without being able to breathe, it would typically result in a quick death. The emergency breather was a mandatory item for any water type pokemon that wanted to work and live on land. It was a specially designed mask designed to fit the individual user, and it came with a highly pressurised container filled with water vapour, this was because some water type pokemon needed a high level of humidity to breath properly. Hence, dehydration was a significant problem for them.

As a result, the emergency breather was often a lifeline for water pokemon if they didn't have access to water to drink, giving the emergency breather to another pokemon as often considered a sign that I trust you with my life.

After a couple of deep breaths, Vaal opened his eyes as his breathing started to return to normal, he had 10 minutes of comfortable breathing. Still, it was likely his HP would have drained long before that happened, but as he was on his side, he noticed something underneath the table.

"Pad, table" he pointed vaguely, the heat was starting to become unbearable, but Ciel understood him, tipping the table on to its side revealing something etched onto the underside.

Button hidden in the room, find it to leave.

"Okay button, we need to find the button" Ciel was panicking he was the only one that could move, he had to find it and get Vaal out of the room quickly. Ciel started to scan around the room, and there was a problem. Heat simmers where distorting everything around the room, making it hard to focus on anything. Vaal had an idea, though.

"Dehumidifier must be with dehumidifier" Vaal murmured out loud, in his mind it made sense, there was no apparent cameras, sensors, openings anything in the walls. Yet, something was absorbing the moisture out of the air. There had to be something in the walls hidden, covered over perhaps that was taking all the moisture out. Unfortunately, they didn't know where that was, and Ciel had little idea what he was on about, it all was a bit much.

"All well and good but we don't know where that is Marsh" he was looking around wildly trying to find something that seemed out of place.

"Follow mist..." a white cloud of mist burst out of Vaal's body on his command, the mist would protect him and anyone he chose protection from stat lowering abilities. However, right now, he had another idea for the move at this moment in time.

The mist swirled around before was pulled by some kind of suction force towards the middle of the left-hand wall, Ciel quickly caught on, understanding what was happening. Vaal used the move mist to create a cloud of water vapour; the newly created fog wouldn't do anything to help lower the temperature or help with humidity. Still, it would give a clear indication of where the moisture went and with any luck, show where the button was as well.

Ciel leapt towards the section of the wall that the mist was hitting, he slammed the wall with his paw and fortunately, he was rewarded with a loud click as the hidden button was in fact net to the dehumidifier. Ciel pushed off the wall with his front legs, grabbing Vaal by his vest with his mouth he tugged the Quagsire towards the door, he started swiping at the door handle with is front paw.

Hitting the door handle, he flinched as his paw got burnt from the heat, but the handle moved down and swung open as Ciel pulled it open. As the door swung free, two large hands reached in and grabbed him and Vaal before pulling them out of the heat, slamming the door close once they were clear of the room.

"Congrats on passing the stress test recruit, one last test to go!" a cheerful voice rung out as Vaal and Ciel laid against the cold floor of the corridor, Ciel was breathing deeply in the cold air. Both pokemon had their eyes closed as they just laid still, trying to let the heat radiate off them.

"Damn they okay?" Another voice spoke out in a worried tone of voice, the first voice replied in the same cheerful voice.

"They will be fine, neither of them fainted, just slightly overheated and dehydrated, give em some water to drink and a couple of potions, and they will be right as rain, they just got hit by an extended heatwave that's all."

"That not a good thing you know" the second voice spoke reproachfully.

"Help me move them upright. The two of them need to drink something quickly."

The two pokemon then moved Vaal and Ciel so that they lent against the wall, one of them had to hold Ciel upright due to him being in his natural form, but they placed a bottle to his lips and Vaal's after removing the mask.

"Drink up its just water" the second voice urged as both of the pokemon opened their mouths to let the water in. The newcomers started to tip water into their mouths slowly so they wouldn't choke on the refreshing water. After 30 seconds, Ciel opened his eyes to see two pokemon in their human forms staring back at him, one on his left the other on his right still holding a bottle up for Vaal. They both had silver hair, were male and had white skin; however, the one on the right was far larger than the other.

"You both did good, your room was the worst really, especially considering your species but you managed to make it out" the pokemon on the left quietly spoke as Ciel licked his lips, he was still thirsty, but there were more pressing matters to deal with first. He had to deal with the burn on his paw before anything else, it was still dealing damage to him, and he didn't want to faint after making out of danger.

"Burnt" he muttered quietly. The pokemon on his left nodded once, turned away from Ciel briefly, turning back with a burn heal bottle in hand.

"Where?" Ciel lifted his left paw, and the pokemon took it turned it sideways and used the healing potion on the burnt area, once again the burn disappearing immediately. The pokemon turned his gaze back to Ciel.

"Can you change to human form?" Ciel nodded and activated his ditto suit. Couple seconds later, he was sat in his self-human form, still leaning against the wall where he gladly took the bottle offered to him. He started taking small gulps of water so he wouldn't choke and splutter in front of what he assumed, his superior—Vaal on the other hand.

"Hahaha, we have a fighter here, hahaha" Vaal had just snatched the bottle from the colossal pokemon and was currently downing the entire bottle in one go. Ciel couldn't help but chuckle lightly. The pokemon next to him noticed this.

"It's alright he really needs the water we know that don't worry, once he can stand we will take him to the washroom so he can soak for a while. You can go to the break room where you will find potions and berries for you to recover your HP, you both have a while before the final test, the stress rooms are always nasty. Names Rusty, I think we might be working together in the future" he offered a hand to help Ciel stand up, Ciel paused before grabbing it and let himself be pulled upright on to his feet.

"You are the first ones to make it through, so congrats on that" Rusty patted him on the shoulder a couple of times before pointing down towards the end of the corridor to the left.

"You can go and wait in the break room, go back the way you came and go up the stairs on the right, break room is on the second floor, just look for a door with the words break room on them, easy enough yeah?"

"And I will take this guy to the washroom!" The other pokemon had hefted Vaal up onto his shoulders; the Quagsire just hung loosely from the broad shoulders; he wasn't going to move if someone was going to take him to water. Rusty just gave a heavy sigh as he rolled his eyes at the sight of his partner acting that way.

"Just be quick alright Roland, we still need to keep an eye on the other recruits."

"Yeah yeah won't be long Rusty don't get your feathers in a ruffle" As Roland turned away, Ciel noticed a large chrome coloured tail trail behind Roland as he stomped down the corridor going in the other direction to him. As he made his way down the hallway, he passed other pokemon that were in human form; they were waiting outside other doors along the corridor.

"Don't worry your partner will be fine, the washroom has a bath and showers so he can recover very quickly" Ciel turned back to Rusty who had a small smile on his face.

"I have some questions."

"They will be answered later don't worry, but right now you should go to the break room" the pokemon urged motioning down the corridor before walking over to join another pokemon who was waiting by the door next to the one Ciel had existed. Ciel had questions, but he figured they would be answered later, he checked his bracelet, seeing that it was still on temperature he quickly switched it back to show his current HP value. Upon seeing the amount, he bit his lower lip before muttering.

"Arceus that was close" the HP read 12 out of 134. Looking around, he decided it would probably be a good thing to go to the break room and heal back up. It was always a good idea to have your HP as high as possible, the sergeant, one of his teachers at the academy, taught him, you never know when you might need it in this line of work.

As Ciel started to make his way over to the break room Vaal was in a rather strange situation, Roland stuck to his word that he would take him to the washroom, he had done that for sure. However, once they entered the room, he had hefted the Quagsire up high above his head before launching him into the pool in a belly flop before turning, and he walked back out letting out a loud booming crackle as Vaal breached the surface swearing and cursing after him. Hearing the closed-door echo around the room, Vaal just sighed as he let his skin greedily draw in water.

"That hits the spot..." Vaal decided to just relax for the moment; he needed to rehydrate before he could do anything else, so he let himself float around in the water for a couple of minutes before submerging himself and laying down on the bottom of the pool's floor. There was no better way of rehydrating himself then being submerged from head to toe in the water. He didn't have to worry about breathing as a water type he can breathe underwater.

Elsewhere in the building in the security room, there was a small celebration.

"I still can't believe they worked it out, that was an awe-inspiring use of the mist move" evil eye was a little slack-jawed at the sight of what happened, he had clapped in celebration for the two pokemon. They would have passed anyway, but it was still impressive they found one of the six hidden door buttons, and in such an unusual manner to boot. Even commissioner Lance was impressed by the performance.

"So we agree they passed that test, right love?" Cath asked one last time to double-check with Lance, who just rolled his eyes before answering.

"Yes they passed, they found one of the hidden switches, and they kept their cool, more or less during the whole ordeal so yes they passed Cath you know that" Cath just laughed, before speaking in her usual fruity tone.

"Well, in that case, imma hit the showers I want to look my best before the last test, be back in a bit" Cath strode towards the door, stretching out her arms above her head as she went with a light groan.

"Have a good shower dear" Lance called out towards her as he had his gaze fixed onto a screen that was showing two recruits being pulled out of the room they had been tested in, he needed to decide if they had passed or not. The room was silent as everyone in the room was fixated on the screens.

No one gave what Cath said any thought for a couple of minutes. Leeroy was the first one to realise where she was going and why that was a problem, followed by Evil-eye who shared a look with Leeroy. Leeroy motioned with his head before mouthing.

You tell him

Evil-eye shook his head rapidly, wide-eyed before mouthing back.

You tell him

Leeroy look affronted.

I can't. He is already pissed at me.

"You know if you want to try having a secret chat try taking out of the room next time, now what is it Leeroy" Lance called out in calm voice, scaring both Leeroy and evil eye. Leeroy started to sweat, and Evil-eye just stared fixated at the screen, avoiding Leeroy and Lance's gaze.

"Well ahh, Chief don't take this the wrong way."

"Hmmm?"

"Well… didn't the Quagsire from earlier get taken to the washroom by Roland?" the question hung in the air for a full 5 seconds of complete silence.

"CATHRINE!"