Droplets froze and crumbled from a restless face, inciting a displeased hum, less so at being wet than being bothered. "Awake, of course, yes, that I am. Now buzz away." With sudden force Shannon's neck swung from a curl around his body into its normal upright pose, still humming, blearily blocking sound from his own ears. Pushing his weight into a drowsy stance, he forced his eyelids to stretch open, wondering if he could gauge how long he'd overslept. Orientation was valuable. However long the delay, the consequence of his wary night had raised its head, and Shannon never backed down from consequences. Josh-slash-Matt are here. "Good day, if day it were. The cave blots out the sky." Alright, greeting enough. Hex, Anthony, they're gone. No surprise. Crater? Nowhere, least of all behind every shadow. Stop jumping. Shaking his head to punctuate every thought wasn't sufficient to clear it, and cold water was no shock to a species that plays in snowdrifts. Shannon would have to invoke some other morning ritual to tell his body it was time to wake. "I'll go now. To wash my face. A minute, please, and fill me in when I return." He lumbered off.

Resting his head under the cave's pool as his capacious lungs held on and his headlights played sparkling fuchsia games with the ripples in the water, Shannon had a chance to recall. The term 'Team ACT' meant little to him, but much of Team Scarab had been quick to forgive Crater when it had surfaced. Quick to swoon over the nostalgic décor as well, in Anthony's case. Times changed, however, and Shannon had remained sceptical about the massive hermit's current state. For one, he was hiding. Deterring intruders- Painfully so- and keeping a low key... Yet he had guest rooms. Of course, there could be many reasons for that, but the confession of Blaze's presence (Why would a spirit give itself a 'name' like that? Did Crater name them?) struck Shannon as all the more dubious. 'He's a Victini that I, um, found over near the beach' did not ring of innocence in Shannon's ears. No idiot has ever earned a Master's badge, however, so in all likelihood, Crater was hiding considerable intellect. The strange, suspicious encounter had boiled in Shannon's head amidst an eventful day, but there had been no night sky to coax in sleep for a former plainsdweller. He remembered looking up, many times, expecting to see a spiked figure looming in the doorway.

Shannon finished dousing himself and stepped back towards Josh/Matt. His excursion had lasted maybe a minute or two, but acknowledging the reason for his scant hours of sleep was helpful. "Alright, I'm done," once he had looped his bag around his neck again.

* * *

"Apologies for our delay, and hello Hex and Anthony, and morning Terra, too!" projected Shannon down the narrow passage that the adopted Mawile was already guiding the Combee and Goomy through, deliberately penetrating the not-quite-silence of the cave. This, then, was where he'd be playing catch-up, though he wasn't as far behind as he'd thought. It wouldn't be an easy fit for him, nor Matt, and although Matt was somewhat amorphous, he had a large bucket to haul down as well. "No trouble with that bucket there? Then I'll follow your tail." Shannon took up the rear, lowering his head.

[Spruce]

Okay, it's not like this is my first mission alone... I can do this. I think as I head off to the north from the guild, and end up in some sort of plains area, one that seemed to be much brighter, most likely due to a lack of trees, and tall objects in general that would otherwise cast a large shadow. The grass felt nice under my feet, as I had expected, yet, there seemed to be a warmth to the grass for some weird reason. There wasn't enough wind to make the grass sort of blow around, and ahead of me, there was a mareep. These pokemon were usually very docile, and would even venture into Allure town from time to time, however, this mareep seemed to have a mean look in its eye. It launched a thundershock attack at me, dealing minor damage, and I struck back at it with a vine whip... a move of mine that seemed to constantly get stronger for some reason. That attack wasn't enough to knock out the thing, however, it did call on its friends, a litleo and a buneary, making it three against one. For some reason, I could hear the faintest, sort of flopping sound behind me, but I thought nothing of it, and continued by attacking the litleo with some sort of... weird... grey vine whip? For some reason, the attack actually seemed to do decent damage to the fiery lion cub, who used ember on me as a retaliation. The fire hit me, and hurt quite a bit thanks to the fact that I was a grass type, even if my discoloration would suggest otherwise. The buneary started saying nice things about me, for some weird, unknown reason, and was moving around in a weird way, as well... I had no idea what, er, she was trying to pull off, but it didn't really work all that well.

---

[Anthony]

Finally, everyone seemed to be awake, and following Terra and I through the cave, that is, after Terra and I say "Good morning," to Carrol, who had just joined us. Hex asked if something else was in here, and Terra responded with a short "Yes." she then elaborated, continuing with "Don't worry, though, Dad calls them 'guard dogs'... they already know me, and wouldn't attack anyone that I'm with," the growling doesn't stop, and I simply continue through the dank, dark, cramped cave, which didn't seem to last for too long. I then wondered something... Hey... Crater, back when he was on Team ACT... he would never attack someone like that, not even a wild pokemon. Terra seems a little... well... rough, as well... I wonder if simply being in a mystery dungeon has some sort of effect on pokemon. with Crater's odd behavior during our fight against him, it seemed like a possibility, and one that we couldn't ignore, however, with such little evidence, I couldn't simply say that to my team, they'd laugh more than usual. I had to be patient, and possibly even stay back in a few fights against what used to be city pokemon just to see if there even is an effect, and if there is one, what it might be. After that thought, a trap door opens up, and a huge city shows itself from the distance. The place made Allure town look like a tiny little settlement in the middle of some mystery dungeon, or something. "Whoa..." I end up saying out loud, to which Terra said "Yeah, it sure is bigger than my cave, isn't it? Helpers, welcome to Scale City. Just a fair warning, this place is filled to the brim with dragon types, so... take that into account." she then heads towards the place, and I notice her axew plush doll sticking out of her backpack slightly. The egg, however, was perfectly concealed in the bag and wasn't visible to anyone... which may have suggested that she wants to keep the thing hidden from everyone else. Despite already being visible, Scale City was actually somewhat far away, somehow... at least, I didn't get there as soon as I thought I did, and it didn't seem to really be getting any closer, which was really strange to me.

Celes saw the attacks that Spruce was getting... and knew very well that if she would to move forwards and help, she would blow her cover... but it was not important right now.... She knew she might be able to convince Spruce to at least let her help to get to Scale city for the mission... She looked at Spruce, as he was hit by fire type moves. It was too hard for her. Seeing him getting hurt.... Just then when she saw the buneary.... a unknown rage started to form inside of her. She did not know from where that came from. It was so much that... she could not stand it. She suddenly rushes forwards, running towards the buneary and sends out a surprise Swift attack at it, hoping to knock it off right here and now.
"Spruce! What is the idea of leaving the guild alone like that! We are a team aren't we?" she then says, looking at him. She knew it might be a solo mission... but she could maybe at least convince him to at least tag along until they would arrive at the city. She just hoped he would not be mad at her... especially with what happen this morning... It was already hard enough for her to forgive herself for what she did.

Kamina

Spruce had already encountered combat...but it was still far too soon for Kamina to leap into action. Spruce was handling himself just fine. However, then Celes attacked one of his opponents and ran up to him 'Celes you fool. It's too soon for any of us to do anything. You clearly don't understand the heart of a warrior man. You'll need to learn fast if the two of you are going to become lovers' he thought to himself as he hid out of sight from beneath his fake bush cover.

I see my boss, the Zoroark, come out with one of his employees having a happy chat with him. "Yeah, just head over to Scale City and get a report on the new store over there. I don't care if you think it's mind-numbingly boring, just before you complain," I hear him say. I run over to the Happiny after the boss left.

"Hey, want me to do that report for you instead? You can just relax at home if you say yes," and the Happiny nods and runs straight to her house. I smile as I plan out my little goodbye in my head. I knew that he and the other bosses of the different branches were already discussing whether or not I should go. I snicker and bolt off as fast as I could on a bad leg out of Allure town. Before I leave, I ask someone if they knew how to get to Scale City from this exit. I am told all the directions to get to Scale City and feel something in my stomach. I wasn't nauseous or gassy, but there was an odd sensation there as I left.

As I traverse across the Sunswept Plains, I go invisible so I wouldn't have to fight anything. I didn't need my leg to be hurt even worse. It got increasingly hot and eventually felt as if I was in the crossfire of a Charizard using flamethrower. Luckily I wasn't, I was just not used to that much heat. I flick sweat off my forehead as I get out of the Sunswept Plains, and approach Scale City and look up at the mountain. I go back to my normal color and cough. "Wow. I've never been this hot before," I mutter as I enter Scale City.

I ask someone where and what the new building was, and they said "Down the road, to the left and it should just be right there." I walk to the end of the road, to the left, and see "GRAND OPENING!" on a banner on a building. It was a restaurant. I write down 'Hello, this is William Lennard at the grand opening of a restaurant in Scale City. It probably has good food and all that, and everyone who has ate there has given it good ratings, but I have something to say to Mr. Masda, my boss. I quit, you furry, shapeshifting, asshole. It is not acceptable to throw anything you can find at your employees, you abusive dolt. You'll never see me again.' and I laugh heartily. I fold everything up and put it in my backpack. I decide that I was going to stay here for a little bit. I didn't come here just to write down a small thing about how I quit. Maybe I could find a job or something here, but that would mean that I'd also have to get a house here... I think.

I scratch my side and look at all the dragon types walking around. I was, pretty much, the only normal type here and I would probably get discriminated against. I think, because I had heard about bad reviews from the hotel because one of the owners `wasn't a dragon type.` I walk around and see some people staring at me. They weren't used to pokemon that weren't dragon types. I hurry myself up and hear footsteps behind me. I start sweating and feel as if I was about to get mugged. I look behind me, and see a group of 5 dragon types walking my way. My eyes widen and I run around a corner and look for a building that kinda had the same color as my stomach stripe and find one all the way down the street and run for it, going invisible and ditching my backpack. I see them search everywhere and not find me. As soon as I'm in the clear, I go back to normal and start bawling. I don't know how many times I nearly died in the past few days. I stand up and grab my backpack and search for any place that I could stay for a little that I wouldn't get beat up at. I sit on a bench and rub my eyes, and eventually stop and look around. I think I saved that Happiny from getting shanked and robbed. I now knew why she would rather do something that would get her fired than go to Scale City.

Matt and Josh joined the rest of the group, with Shannon following close behind them. Matt was easily able to fit through the narrow tunnel, but the bucket kept scraping against the walls. Josh could have easily fit through without the bucket, but unfortunately he needed it.
A growling sound could be heard, and Josh had the feeling that someone was watching him. He was starting to think it was just his imagination, until Hex mentioned it. "Is there something else in here? Feels like there's something else in here."
"Yes." Terra said. "Don't worry, though, Dad calls them 'guard dogs'... they already know me, and wouldn't attack anyone that I'm with,"
"I'm not liking this." Josh said. "How long is this tunnel?"
"Terra says they won't attack us. There's no need to worry." Matt said.

It didn't take long for them to reach the end of the tunnel, much to Josh's relief. Terra led them all through a trapdoor revealing a massive city in the distance. Josh thought the reef was huge, but this place was at least three times as big.
"This is incredible." Josh said. "I was honestly starting to think that all of the surface towns were just tiny villages like Allure."
As they all started to make their way toward the city, Matt slowed down a little, purposely lagging behind the rest of the group. As soon as they were out of earshot, he spoke. "I need to talk to you about that dream you had last night."
Josh sighed. "You saw that?"
"Yes, I did. You're lucky we weren't in the guild, otherwise every Psychic-type there would have seen it."
"And then everyone would know about my past."
"Exactly. That's why you need to learn to control it."
"That's not something I can do instantly, Matt."
Matt closed his eyes, thinking for a moment. "I know someone who might be able to help. I can bring you to him."
"What about the rest of our team?"
"Yeah, that's going to be a problem. We might be able to sneak away from them, but it might seem suspicious if we do it too often."
"So, what do we do?"
"I think you should tell them. It would save us the trouble of sneaking away."
Josh thought about it for a moment. "So...I should tell them now?"
"Not now, no. Just make sure they find out from you, instead of somewhere else."
Josh nodded in agreement. "Makes sense. I'll try to play it cool until then."
They caught up to the rest of the group, hoping nobody would notice that they had lagged behind.

I expected the hallucination to give me a message about Spruce's sudden departure. 'Cause that's what they do.

Unfortunately, I had to accept the fact it probably WASN'T a hallucination. It was ghost, or even a delusion. I watched silently (do note this was earlier; earlier than me looking at a mission board and following an inter-dimensional jumper downstairs (now I'm going crazy)).

Normally, I'd let Pokemon go with their course of life. Only problem was, I still hadn't learnt that; why do you think I was still looking for Davis? I looked out the window for several minutes, staring blankly as memories projected themselves onto the blue reflection.

I lied. I would never do that. Not in this lifetime. Either that, or I don't want to be too personal, bogging down my narration with personal experience. In which case... well, I could be honest and sound like a robot, or I could describe my true experience more and sound like a stalker. You'll figure out which one I am sooner or later. So anyway, I just subtly left Arnold's Guild, following the footsteps of Kamina like a real stalker, unlike the one I described earlier.

I heard occasional whispers as they passed bushes and trees, eventually venturing onto a path and overgrown grass. I lay hidden, picking up scraps of information and knowing how Spruce wanted to be alone for now. Yet, I just felt as if there was something going on. Maybe it was because the psychopathic Mareep was giving him a hard time.

Agh. Celes, you drama queen... I thought, floating over Kamina and looking down on him. "You know. Sometimes, people just like to be alone." I said to him, while he was flopping behind some tall grass.

...why was my third magnet dangling around, if not wriggling? Agh, I'll figure that out later. Even if it means not caring about physics. (How does a solid material move like this?)

I hear more footsteps. There was a Dratini and a Fraxure. I yelp at the sudden surprise and they jump back as well.

They ask "Hello, we haven't seen you before, are you new here?" and I nod.

"Yeah. I'm just from Allure town. I had to come here to do a report for the news in Allure Town. There's also a separate branch in Treasure town. I think it's smarter just to have one news station that distributes news to all." They nod and the Fraxure shakes my hand, and the Dratini sorta bows or something. I say "You seem a lot friendlier than I originally thought people would be here," and they look at me with confusion. "Um... I've heard about some people kinda getting criticized for not being a dragon type or somethin'?" I say. They continue looking at me, and my cheeks glow bright red in embarrassment. "Uhm... well, what's your name?" I ask them.

"My names Hannah, and this is Dylan," the Dratini says.

"Mine's William," I reply. They nod and I scratch a flake of dead skin off the top of my head and I mutter "Moulting season." as I flick it away.

By the time I've finished flicking the dead skin away, they've already left. I shrug and say "Friendly people," and sit up. I revise my papers and get a little chuckle at them. I stand up and walk around, getting greeted by more and more people. I really did not expect them to be this nice. What a shock. I scratch off more and more flakes of skin and eventually I've shed my whole layer of dead skin. I felt new and shiny, and I take the dead skin and scoot it off into an alleyway, and look around. It was breathtakingly large, at least for someone who lived in Allure Town. I get interested in the tallest building and open up. Another room full of boards on the walls. I immediately think Oh, another guild, and I close the doors. I continue checking out the town, going in shops and browsing, talking with the owners, and then to every other place, like the hotel, and the bank. Every place I go I say "Wow..." because it was not a lot like Allure town. I look at the strange rock paths all through the place, and feel them. "What is this stuff made out of?" I ask myself as I tap the ground. I look around, and all I could say was "Wow," and "Woah."

Ratnika hovered into the town. It was too late to go back now, Kokono and Kekune had already packed up and left. He saw the stores and the other buildings, and he continued forward. he decided to not go to the guild, yet. He wanted to find out more about the town, so he began walking around. He saw some Pokemon walking around, a bank, a few stores, a Dojo and a storage house. Not much interested him, so he decided to just head back to the guild entrance.

He walked back over to the entrance. It was a metal grate. He stood on top of the grate and waited. After a delay, he heard a voice come from below. "Pokemon detected!" it said, pausing for a moment. "Pokemon identified as a Honedge!" After a short delay, the gate opened, and he walked in.

He saw that there were a few Pokemon in here, but they didn't acknowledge him, so he hovered past them and went to the Guildmaster's office. He saw a two men chatting, probably the guildmasters. "Are you the guildmasters? I'd like to join the guild." he said. They stopped chatting and looked over to him. "Of course!" Arnold said. "Since we're already in the office, we'll get the stuff out that you'll need to be a part of this guild." Archie said. Arnold and Archie walked over to Ratnika. They gave him a gold badge with a ribbon on it. "This is the Guild Badge. Just use it to teleport back here if you get in a sticky situation." Arnold said. Then, they handed him a bag with a few items in it. "Now that you've got everything you need, you can go to the mission board, try and meet some of the other guild members, or you could go have a look around town." He said. "Thanks!" he said as he walked out of the office and then out of the building. He walked out into the fresh air and smiled. He had successfully joined the guild! he wondered what he was going to do next, and settled on going to the mission board.

The Allure Town guild. Some place, isn't it? At the bottom of it's wood-carved spiral staircase leading towards it's ominous and somehow friendly entrance, sits a Dewott and Oshawott, the latter of the two shivering in fear of their first time joining a huge guild and all. The Dewott chuckles to himself, giving the little otter fella a pat on the back. "Yeeeaaah, I remember my first time joinin' here! Don't worry 'lil guy, the hardest part is building up the courage to actually get on up there and enter and all - " He pauses, looking down at the Oshawott, who stares up at him, lip quivering, eyes beady and all cutesy-like.

"I promise you, as soon as you enter - all you get is a bunch of smiles, warm faces and nice people! All kind and nice and totally 100% cool!" Admidst a warm smile, the otter lets out a giggle, looking at the guild. "Y-you mean it, big bro?". The Dewott nods, giving a thumbs up. "Absolutely! What, you expect them to run it like a military camp or something?"

* * *

"I AM GUNNERY SERGEANT TORRENTS, YOUR SENIOR DRILL INSTRUCTOR FOR THIS EVENING." The booming voice comes from some Pokemon a floor below the Guildmaster's room - the kitchen, to be exact. The brim of his red cap hides his eyes as he marches to and fro from the Pokemon lined up adjacent to him, holding a broom like a rifle against his shoulder. "From now on you will speak ONLY when spoken, to! The first and last words out of your measly little mouths will be sir, do I make myself clear?!" Response just as clear as his request from the Pokemon, standing straight. "SIR, YES, SIR!" The so-called sergeant tilts his head up, flipping his hat around backwards, unable to keep a straight face as he erupts in laughter. "Brahahaha! Oh, man, you guys actually fell for that, huh, gahahaha!" He points the broom at a Vulpix, shivering in fear. "You should've seen the look on your face, dude! Here, take a gummi, ya earned it for the scare you went through...as for everyone else, geez, you're wicked responsive for a bunch of rookies! Never had a clean-up crew this awesome!" He smiles brightly, and although you can't see his eyes under that tacky looking red-blue lens'd eyewear, you know he's excited.

First night of a bunch of rookies - clean up after dinner is a big deal to Breen, the only time he gets to be in charge!

[Spruce]

Out of almost nowhere, a very angry Celes ran into the battle, and knocked out the buneary with a combination of Swift, and unbridled fury. She then, still somehow angry, asked why I was going alone. "I, uh, Archie... he, um, said that I should do this alone." I stutter as I say, later adding "Now's not the time to talk, anyways. I'll let you follow me to Scale city, but once I get there, you should head back to the guild, okay?" I then narrowly dodge another ember, one that could have ended me if it had hit, and counter with that weird, grey whip again. Hm... maybe I should give this move a name... Void Whip? Yeah, that will work. I think as I make sure that the whip hits its mark, thankfully knocking out the litleo who was attacking us, leaving just me and the mareep, who backed away a little before letting loose with a thundershock attack to Celes. I was in no condition to take the attack, myself, so I didn't get in the way of it, settling on one other option. Something sort of snapped, and I lashed out at the thing with a vine whip and was about twice as powerful as my usual whip. The mareep lied unconscious on the ground from my final attack. "Uh... are you alright, Celes?" I ask Celes, who probably just got hit by the attack. I then recall my goal, and head towards Scale City again, making sure that Celes was following me, this time.

Celes shook her head after having gotten the thundershock attack, her fur having suddenly puffed up out of no where. She was calming down a bit after that.
"I.... I am alright... And I guess that is ok." she then says, fallowing, going to go to scale city. But in the back of her mind... she had other plans... The cloths that she bought.... she would need a bit of time to work on them, she knew , but in the end they will be perfect for what she was going to do. Also seeing Spruce beat up that mareep like he did kinda made her feel... happy... She looked at him and blushed a bit, before shaking her head quickly. What the heck was she even thinking... Was she in.... love? Seriously? No.... that can't be it.... she could not be in love or anything... but with how she reacted with that buneary... she was starting to have second thoughts. She looked at Spruce, her fur still slightly puffed, as she then shakes and removes the electricity in her fur, growling a bit at this.
"I might go shopping before heading to the guild, just saying." she then says.

Hex tailed the group through the cavernous, dark tunnel, seemingly stretching out quite a bit. Apparently, they had "Guard Dogs" which they kept around to scare off intruders. They seemed to work pretty well. She hadn't seen a wild pokemon since they're first time in the chasm. After a long ways of traveling, they finally arrived at the surface. In the distance, a lone, massive city stood tall. It's buildings were not built from wood, however. They appeared to be made out of hard, cold rock, similar to the material that a Graveler or Golem was made up of. The architecture style was quite interesting, also. Allure Town seemed to stick with smaller, more simple houses, while Scale City had towering spikes of rock. That, however, was not the only peculiar thing about the town. The only inhabitants seemed to be dragons all around. A town with the name scale city, she presumed, would probably only have that type. Several Dragonite flew in and out of the town, flying high above. Haxorous, Garchomp, and Flygon cluttered the city, flying in and through the streets, peering out of windows and staring down at the city. It was quite the sight, considering most of her time was spent in an enclosed space.

"Wow.." Hex said, looking over the looming city in the distance. She glanced behind her, looking at the others. For a small moment, it seemed Matt and Josh had fallen behind the group, but they quickly picked up their pace. "I've never seen a place like this. It's huge."

She briefly fluttered ahead of the group, a habit which she had begun to do more and more as time passed. She took a quick, overhead glance at the city. Hex flew high, her wings whistling and shuttering quickly as she drifted into the air. Overhead, the city was still surprisingly massive, taking up quite a bit of space around the mountain. It was amazing that the dragon types had somehow figured out a way to create such amazing structures. It would've taken a pokemon with great prowess or intelligence to create such a city. Her amazement to Allure Town was completely nothing compared to this city. She soared back down to ground level, fluttering alongside the group of explorers. "This place is awesome!" She exclaimed, looking over the city giddily. She cleared her throat. "I mean, this city looks like a wonder of architecture." She glanced at Terra's backpack, the Axew plush sticking it's head out of the bag. Hidden underneath, the Victini egg lay. The egg of a legendary would be pretty valuable. If she didn't hide it, it would quickly be stolen by thieves. The Axew plush made a good cover for it.

'Strange...this is going far better then I envisioned' Kamina mused to himself 'I had assumed that Spruce would be more offended that she both followed him, and interfered in his fight...clearly I underestimated how far along they were in their relationship.' A smile that would look evil on just about anyone else but the overly passionate, but well meaning Magikarp appeared on his face 'This is one of the few times that I've ever been happy to be wrong. Surly the power of their blossoming love will take them to even greater heights . As their comrade in arms, I must ensure that their love fully blooms!'

"Oh no you don't. Not in America, buddy. Not now. Do you realise what he's trying to do? He's been made into an assassin, and doesn't need anyone hampering his job." Thankfully, lying was easier when it came to me. Though I would've said he needed time alone, that seemingly didn't suffice. "We can follow him, we can't interact with him, so please don't try to do anything else other than exploding in enthusiasm."

Then, I finally noticed my magnet. How do magnets work again? "AaahH-" Before I could actually go from a quiet shriek to a eardrum-blasting scream (which I was pretty sure only me an Kamina heard (AND DAMN PRETTY SURE)), I had successfully clamped my magnet to myself, keeping my 'mouth' shut. "Right then." This was muffled, so don't expect anyone to understand. As I looked down at my magnet, it seemed to... well, the more I looked at it, the more my vision kept pulsating. The magnet probably did too, but at the moment I didn't want to freak myself out further. After five seconds of looking, I had gotten used to it and finally noticed Kamina's presence. "Yeah." I said, jerking the magnet away from my eye. "Just don't do anything stupid." I realised that was an understatement, but at least his behaviour was somewhat useful at times.

[Spruce]

I almost felt as though I heard something else from behind me, however, I couldn't see anyone behind me, so, I assumed it was just my imagination. I then hear Celes say that she was going to go shopping once we get to Scale City, and, after chuckling a little, I say "Yeah, go ahead, I'm not going to stop you, just don't follow me after we get there." I then whistle some tune as I head towards the city, with the trio of knocked out pokemon behind me. For some reason, Vine used to whistle this tune... he said something about how it 'reminded him of his roots' or something similar. It was a relatively simple tune, so it wasn't that hard to whistle along to it as I walked through this pleasantly warm plain. I almost lost my focus as another pokemon appeared, this time, it was a lillipup this time around, and it attacked with tackle, knocking me back a ways, and obviously hurting me somewhat. I then countered with vine whip, which didn't seem to be enough to knock him out. He then threw something at me, some sort of seed, apparently, however, I caught it, and noticed the weird design on it, which included a red X over a sort of eye shape. The seed's main color was black with the eye design being a bright green... was this an X-eye seed? It sure looked like one. Good thing I wasn't dumb enough to eat this thing. I think as I put the seed in my bag... who knows, it may just come in handy some day.

---

[Anthony]

I was simply awe-struck at the sight of the city as soon as I actually entered it. The buildings were huge, the pokemon were huge, and yet, it almost never seemed to be too much. The road was paved with some sort of cold, grey rock, which made it the worst part of the city. "Ah, good, we're here." Terra said to all of us as soon as we got here. She then added "Okay, I know you all want to see the city, so, we'll get one day to do that. Well, one day, and three thousand poke each, courtesy of my dad's rescue work." She then hands Hex, Josh and I the money, and looks off to the right. "See that giant hotel? That's where we'll all meet once it starts to get dark. They know me there, and I can probably get us all a room." she explains as she heads over to that hotel. Something about that hotel bothered me... the sign, more specifically. It had a picture of a Salamence and a sceptile for some reason... why a sceptile? I was convinced that there weren't any non-dragon types in the city, and yet, there it was... 'Chad and Terra's' the sign read... but wasn't Terra a mawile, and not a sceptile? Was there something she was hiding from us all these minutes? Something that she needed to keep hidden from everyone? Did that mean that Crater has a son-in-law that he never mentioned? Could they possibly have children? If so, does that make Crater a grandfather, already? She must have seen the look on my face, as Terra laughed, and said "No, I don't own the place, we used to sleep here a lot... and my dad rescued Terra, who again, isn't me, from some cave once before," she then simply continued on, chuckling as she walked towards the admittedly fancy hotel. I then stopped looking at the sign, and started to wander around town, wondering what I should spend my money on... after all, she gave all of us three thousand poke, and I'm sure that none of us have ever had that much before.

Celes saw the lillipup attacking Spruce, as well as the item that it threw towards him, and growl at it, before jumping to the side, and then using swift attack, aiming to beat it down as fast as she could. If she wanted to fallow him afterwards, she will need to find a way to hide her identity, and she would need to be agile and quick. Well.. guess she will have some work ahead to say the least. She looked at the lillipup that got hit by the swift attack and that seemed obviously mad at her. It then used tackle and knocked her away a couple of feets. She then jumped on it and used hidden power, full force, and knocks the little dog out of commission. She sighed, and shakes off some dirt.
"We should continue on now. Dang thing...." she says a bit annoyed.... She just wanted to get to the city soon and prepare herself. It might not take too much time... and with what she learned from her mother, it might actually help out in this case.

Kamina

Interesting, so M was here too. It warmed Kamina's heart to see the entire team had followed Spruce 'to think; we would have forged such a strong bond so quickly. It...it's more beautiful then words can describe' he thought to himself as he wept great manly tears of manatude (THAT IS SO A WORD). 'Surly this quest can only strengthen the bonds that we all share, and we will emerge from it even more powerful then before!'

---

Tini

Tini was busy taking in all the sight...when one in particular caught his attention; a Magikarp...on land...that seemed to be traveling under his own power by flopping around "ohhhhhhh." All at once, Tini forgot what he was doing and why he was here as he silently followed the strange Magikarp "it's sneaking time." With that, Tini began to slowly slither behind the Magikarp, being careful not to make a sound "I am sneaking, I am sneaking"...um...sort of "sneaking, sneaking, sneaking" okay, so he sucks at stealth! If it was anyone besides Kamina, they would have found him in a heartbeat.

-William-
I look around the town, seeing all the shops and buildings. I was pretty much a tourist. I snicker at this thought and walk outside of the gates, down into Sunswept Plains, and come across a Zigzagoon. It was grazing on some dried up grass, and I get myself psyched up for the fight, and walk up, then use Feint Attack, and it falls over, and gets back up and looks at me, obviously angry that I had just interrupted its meal. It tackles me, knocking the wind out of me and I cough as I stand up, and I scratch it, making it whine, then it tackles me again. It leaves me on the ground for a few minutes and I eventually get back up, using Feint Attack again. This makes it faint, and I smile, proud of myself for defeating a wild and standing in triumph with my foot over it's head and laugh again, walking southward.

Instead of Allure Town, I accidentally walk right into treasure town. I know I made a mistake from the shops, they weren't the ones in Allure Town, and this town had no bank. I pay it no mind, deciding that I could do some shopping in Treasure Town for today. A... different... kind of Treecko bumped past me, seeming to be in a rush. It looked like he had something red on his eyes and lower eyelids, and I realize that... that that red stuff was blood! He ran towards the Treecko, and saw that his back was covered in a strange pattern... The hell is wrong with this Treecko? I think, looking at it, and tap it on the shoulder. "Hey, where are you going?" I ask him.

-Samuel-
"I'm hurrying to the guild, I need to join right now!" I say. "C'mon! Wanna join the team I make?" I ask, looking at the Kecleon. There were still stains from the last crying, and I bring the Kecleon up the hill, and see the guild and get excited, jumping up and down. "Wow! So this is the place? It looks like a small tent," I say. I enter the tent, and see a ladder that went down.

I grab the Kecleon by the elbow and push him down the ladder, and he seems to have taken quite the tumble. He was screaming most of the way down, but I heard something like wood being smacked. I yell down "IS IT SAFE?!" as I grab the ladder, looking down. The Kecleon was hanging down near the end of the ladder with one hand, the other busy clutching his shoulder and his legs flailing around, searching for something to touch. I giggle at the thought of what it must have looked like to anyone in whatever room that ladder went to, just two green legs kicking. I crawl down the ladder, to the Kecleon, who was now too tired to move his legs and I start to pry his fingers off the ladder step he was holding. He yells as I do, falling down about 3 feet, making a loud thump, and I crawl down after him. Once I get there, everyone was staring at us, and I look back at them, and hear some violent flapping noises from the floor below.

A Chatot comes up and in a harsh, frustrated tone asks "What's all this ruckus about?!" as he looks at us, up and down. He sees my stains on my eyelids and cheeks, and yells "Holy arceus, what is wrong with you?!" and I wince at the voice.

"Sorry, I was just very excited to come here and join, sir," I apologize, and say "My name is Samuel Grayson, and this here is... is... uh... my partner, uhm..." and I look at the Kecleon.

"William Lennard. Nice to meet you," says the Kecleon, extending a hand.

The Chatot backs away a little and squawks, then makes a loud, gruff noise and says "Wait right here," as he goes down another ladder. I blush at the sudden realization of how abrupt my arrival was. I scratch my neck awkwardly and say "Sorry everyone..." as I wait for the Chatot. I eventually cover my face as everyone was still looking at me, some with shock, curiosity, or a little pity. The Chatot comes back up and grabs my arm, and takes me down the ladder with the Kecleon, and takes me into a room on the side.

Inside, I see a Wigglytuff. I stare at him and wave, and he asks "Hello, friends! What are you here for?"

"To make a guild, sir..." I say, fumbling my words. "I mean team!" I say, looking at the Wigglytuff directly in the eyes.

"And what will the name be?" Chatot asks.

"I think we'd like it to be called Team... uh... I didn't think about that. Um... How about Team Green?" I stutter.

"Team green..." Chatot mutters, looking at us. "Eugh..." he says as he looks at my face. "Do some washing up, and get a little rest."

I nod and he hands us badges that confirmed us to be part of the guild. "New friends, haha! Friends, friends, friends!" Wigglytuff sings. I smirk at his bad singing and Chatot shows us where our rooms will be. He leaves after a while of boring talk, and one-sided biased chatter. I stand up and rub off some of the old blood from my cheek and feel a punch in the back of the head. I turn around, rubbing my head, and growl in a deep tone at the Kecleon and use Thunder Shock on him before leaving my room, and leaving the guild to go tell all my friends about how I was in the guild now.