As hot as things were outside, the inside of the house felt like an oasis. This place was cold, and you couldn't exactly control the temperature in your house without some sort of magic. Including insulation and windows. This wasn't a mansion, though it seemed big enough to hold a large family, including family heirlooms such as dusty cups and odd gimmicks sitting in glass cabinets. Some of them I actually recognised as the stuff Davis would probably be familiar with. Like a rusty spoon. While looking around, I did notice Celes and her family talking to each other - it was a problem, because we were left forgotten. "Not to interrupt, but I think you've forgotten about us." Casually enough, I did interrupt. Lampshade, more or less. "I call myself M since I don't really have a name. The fish is Kamina, our leader a walking snake is Spruce. Pleasure to be here." Yes, it was - I couldn't stand to be outside unless I was deliberately trying to bake myself.

[Spruce] Celes demonstrated her chains of light, and I just sort of stood there, feeling a little left out as she spoke with her family. They asked her who she was in love with, and she blushed, and looked at me, shouting "Dad!!!" Afterwards. I then hear someone else approaching, and turn around to see a flareon, who looked a little mad at something. He didn't say anything, and instead felt as if it was his duty to try to burn me to a crisp. He started launching fire attack after fire attack at me, and, luckily, I evaded them, though, the fire also lit the carpet on fire, so I still had to move away from it, after I was done evading. "Why are you attacking me?" I asked the flareon, who responded with another question "What are you doing here? This is my family's house, and you're not family!" For some reason, he must have either not seen, or ignored M and Kamina, who also weren't members of Celes' family. I decide against telling him about the other two, given that I'd rather he didn't know about M... Kamina could probably take those embers like a champ, but M certainly couldn't. Heck, he had trouble just getting here in the sun for some reason. --- [Anthony] The scrafty took the attacks like a champ, and decided to go for Bulk Up, again, raising his stats even higher. He then comments "Hmph... you look like you're about to fall, don't you, Anthony? I'm sorry, but I expected my own son to put up a better fight than this!" He then tries High Jump Kick, and, having no other course of action, I hide inside my helmet, and the kick actually manages to hit just the helmet... though... said helmet knocked me around a bit, and I felt dazed, and somewhat confused. I get out of my helmet, and shout "Hey! Where the heck is the rest of my division? I need reinforcements, STAT!" I snap out of my daze, and feel a strange power... I use that power, and feel as though I've been healed, and strengthened. An odd light surrounded me, and the rest of my teammates, and the scrafty who was apparently my dad, backed away a little bit. I then use absorb... somehow managing to hit him three times with that move, and actually manage to damage him, and regain even more health. "I don't know what just happened, but I think the tables have turned, let's use whatever this is to our advantage!" I say to my team after using my attack. The scrafty then tries to attack Matt with Crunch, again, hoping to get rid of our most powerful teammate. Daniel used this to his advantage, and attacked the Scrafty with Shadow Rush, hitting him twice with that move, somehow. --- [Bonnie] The gallade teleports away after William bites him a few times, though, for some reason, he recognized me. I then end up saying "Oh no... he's with... him... isn't he?" Of course, they had absolutely no idea what I was talking about, so, I decide to explain a bit further, adding "My.. father... they're with my father, aren't they? That must be why that gallade recognized me so easily," I then pick up the frying pan Tini was wearing, and say to myself Well, he said it's an insta-cure for the crazies... I then hit Tini with the frying pan, saying "Crazies, begone!" In some sort of mock religious tone. Everyone probably thought I was crazy after that, but, if they wanted to know more, they'd have to ask me, themselves. My badge returns to 'mission complete' mode, and I use this opportunity to teleport myself and my team back to the guild, where a reward was hopefully waiting for us. Once back, I see a purple kecleon looking right at me. He waits for the rest of my team to return, after which, he thanks us for all of our hard work, and gives us a total of (after guild fees, of course) 1000 poke to spend somewhere. I tried to look impressed by that amount of cash, but I had a feeling that my face was practically see-through.

Celes, seeing her brother going and attacking Spruce, suddenly turned around, and stares at him. Her mother then move and actually uses bite at the flareon's ear, a bit hard. "Ouch! Mom! What was that for!" he says, before her mother look at him after letting go. "That's for attacking guests and Celes group of friends!" she says. The flareon suddenly turnes to Celes, staring. "Wait w...what! Celes!?" he says, with Celes moving close to her brother, looking at him closely. "Long time no see brother... but I sudgest you keep your god dang flames in check. Remember what our vaporion siblings did to you last time to put the carpet on fire when I was here?" she says. Her brother then stops, looking down, remembering. They had pushed him out the home and into the pool, and forced him to stay outside until they got the burnt marks out. Her brother calmed down. "Alright..." he says. Celes smiles a bit as William laugh a bit. "I remember that.... lets say a wet Flareon kinda fluffs up a bit too much when dried out." he says laughing. Celes chuckles a bit. Her mother then smiles. "Gonna go get dinner ready, your friends must be hungry. Oh and where are my mathers. Im Serra Silverfall and this is George Silverfall. It is nice to meet you." she says smiling.

Not only did all of the attacks barely do anything, but the Scrafty used Bulk Up yet again, increasing his attack and defense even more. This was bad. He'd be doing a lot of damage to them if they didn't finish him off soon. "Hmph... you look like you're about to fall, don't you, Anthony? I'm sorry, but I expected my own son to put up a better fight than this!" The Scrafty said. "Wait, what?" Josh said, looking at Anthony. "What's he talking about?" The Scrafty uses High Jump Kick on Anthony, who thankfully hides inside of his helmet. He seemed pretty dazed when he came back out. "Hey! Where the heck is the rest of my division? I need reinforcements, STAT!" He shouted. A strange light then surrounded everyone on the team. Anthony then used Absorb 3 times somehow. The Scrafty then used Crunch on Matt once again. This time, Daniel wasn't there to block it, and the attack almost knocked him out. He used Recover, and for some reason it healed him twice. Daniel's Shadow Rush hit twice, as well. Josh then used Water Gun on the Scrafty, expecting it to hit more than once, like everyone else's attacks. It ended up hitting three times. "I think we've got a better chance of winning now, guys." Josh said. With all of their attacks hitting more than once, they would be doing a lot more damage.

The cosmos is all there is, ever was, or ever will be. Our contemplations of the cosmos stirs - there is a tingling in the spine; a falling from a great height. We know we are approaching the grandest of mysteries. Lost between intensity and eternity, is our home the earth. Each speck of light, every microscopic organism, every being on this planet is sacred. Every night, we have the chance, for the approximate time of a varying twelve and a half hours, to look up into the vastness that is space. The vastness known as the our galaxy. There are, an estimate, of over one hundred billion stars in our galaxy, two thousand of which are observable at night. On such a night like this, the majority of the constellations can be seen. Where there is the Tauros, Orion's Belt, or the Drie Susters, an extra star shines bright in the sky. Calm, quaint, and quiet, i- hold up. It's getting closer. That's not even a star. I think it's saying something, too! "Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck!...Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck, FUCK FUCK! OH, SHIT!" Faster than a speeding bullet, and yet slower than the speed of light (huh, didn't even know that was possible), plummets a small, blue object. Being spat out of the ground, the projection sends him uuuuppp and nooooow dooown...straight smack dab of some town some where. Knowing the advent of Deus Ex Machina - this mysterious blue Pokemon is probably taking a rough landing in front of some poor bastar- oh look! He faceplanted onto a Zoroark! Ouch. Big guy's white hair is all messed up now, Zoroark's fur not in the least bit fluffy or cute anymore. Few broken bones and paws, but no matter! The other smaller Pokemon stands up atop him, brushing himself off. Not a scratch on him - even his red 'n blue 3-D specs are in perfect condition. The backwards ballcap atop his head in pristine shape. He pulls out a notepad, pencil in his mouth as he flips about. "Note to self: don't fuck with a family of Electrode." He looks down at the groaning Zoroark rubbing his broken arm. Looking back and forth, he swipes the satchel from him, slowly backing up, while dotting down some more notes. "Remind yourself that you saved a family of Electrode annnd..." He searches through the stolen satchel, looking at its contents. "...that I was rewarded with this new bag and bunches of items! Atta boy, Breen, atta boy...". He runs off, only to make a completely 180 and stops, looking back and forth and all around. "That is one...big...fuckin'...house...". He stands, staring at the patchworks-like mansion, admiring it, taking his hat off and resting it against his heart. "Byootiful! Just, byootiful! If I didn't know any better, I'd confuse this house..." He stares down at a comic, then back up at the house. "...for the one containing the void crystal...". He runs to the front door, knocking on it, eventually thinking outside of the box and using his head!...quite literally to knock on the door...

-William- I teleport back to the guild with the group, looking at Bonnie. "Your father? Why would you be afraid of your father? Did you run away, and now he's looking for you?" I ask, staring at Bonnie. I take my cut of the 1000, and say "Hm... well, whatever the case, there must be another pokemon in need. Let's check the mission board," and I inspect it, taking off a mission labeled "S" and subtitled "Search and Rescue". Why would it be so high ranked if we just need to find someone's Oran Berry or something? I think, and I look at the description. "Save my brother!" I read from the parchment. "He was taken by some village people in Distant Desert! It's north of Sunswept Plains, far past Scale City, and everyone there is thinking he's the sacrifice to save the world from Giratina! I don't know what to do, since they'll kill me if I try to stop them, and I think he's even beginning to think he's the only one that can stop Giratina!" I read. "Sounds important! Let's go. Get Samuel, too," I say, and I head off. After arriving at Sunswept Plains, I waited for Samuel. The fire he made stopped, but left a pretty bad mark on the plains. I wiped my forehead, feeling like it was 80° or more here, and I began sweating.

Kamina It was at this point that Kamina could no longer hold himself back; he began to weep manly tears "it's just so beautiful! A family divided by...by...something, has now reunited. Overcoming the obstacles in their path to come together again! I just...I just...It's so overwhelming, I just can't stop my great manly tears! Celes, Celes' mom, Celes' dad...and the rest of you, I'm just so happy for all of you!" --- Tini Right after the battle ended, Tini was busy thinking of things to brood over 'huh, this is nowhere near as easy as it looks. I wonder how all those anti here's in stories make it look so easy?' However that train of thought was quickly derailed by a frying pan to the head. Not ready for such a blow, Tini fell down to the floor. After Bonnie teleported them back, his brain began to reboot itself. Once they had gotten their reward (and payed the guild fee as well) his brain finally finished it boot up process. "W-what was I thinking? How...how could I have let one mistake let me go Renegade!? I feel so ashamed of myself" while it looked like Tini was about to go into another spiral of despair, he quickly perked up this time "well never again! I'll never let myself fall to self inflicted crazies! For now on; I'm Paragon for life! Don't worry Bonnie; I'll make sure that you never use that horrible move ever again! Now then, off to our next adventure! Don't worry guys; I'll save those poor crazy cult people with my frying pan!" he said the last pat while holding his trusty frying pan aloft

Xeno was having a bit of a rough day so far. His home collapsed, he was forced out of the only world he ever knew, he'd stumbled into town confused and disturbed, and now after trying to dig for food he was flushed out by a sudden flood of water. "AAAAAAAAAAAAARG!" he screamed, scrambling out the hole he'd made in the side of the road. Soon as he breached the surface something took hold of his arm and pulled him out. "So there was someone down there," the quagsire murmured, pulling Xeno the rest of the way out and letting him go. "Thought i'd make sure before patching up the road," it said dreamily, like it was only half awake. Still panicked Xeno held his chest trying to control his breathing, soaked from the encounter and in his mind narrowly escaping death once more. "What were ou doing down there anyways?" the quagsire asked, sitting down and cocking it's head slightly. "Food," Xeno replied quickly, "I was trying to find something to eat." "Well why don't you buy something?" "Buy?" "Ya, like with money." "Money?" The quagsire sighed, falling forward onto it's stomach and laying at the side of the road with Xeno, glancing briefly at the hole now full of muddy water then back at the sableye. "If you're going to live in town you need to be civilized about it. Wherever you came from pokemon here are more polite so long as you are to them. That means not digging holes in the ground for whatever you eat," the quagsire explained, it having put together what had happened. "If you need to dig for food you could dig in the mountains. Wild pokemon probably dig there all the time," it then mused, glancing at Xeno and smiling. "Mountains?" Xeno asked, never having heard the term before. The quagsire sighed, rolling onto it's back then rocking to it's feet, beginning to waddle off down the street. "I'll draw you a map if it'll get you to stop digging holes in the road," it sighed, motioning for Xeno to follow. Tentatively, the sableye began to follow, somewhat intrigued by what this pokemon spoke of.

I just kinda blinked at the action that happened in this house. It was nice and all (the house I mean), but the atmosphere was quickly ruined by tension, then replaced by peace, then a bit of fear and paranoia at the Flareon when it came to me... then peace again. This house was weird, though not as dangerous as outside. "Huh. That escalated quickly." I said, trying to pretend afterwards nothing really happened like everyone else did, 'cause it was pretty awkward. Thankfully, even though I was bad with children, these guys clearly had grown so much so that they're willing to fight their elders. Meanwhile, I forgot why we were even here. It was for a brief reunion, but it was actually supposed to be brief. While waiting for everything to be over soon, I heard some noise attributable to... something being slammed into a wall. Curious as to why someone or something would do that on Celes' door, I carefully hovered over mosaic tiles and passed by polished wooden furniture. The thwacking only seemed to get louder as I approached the door. Was this some sort of fish knocking on the door? Kamina was inside, after all. Not risking anything, I noticed how the doorknob was metal. Therefore, I pointed my magnet at the bent doorknob, turning the doorknob downwards with a bit of difficulty, considering this was pretty much magic. "Uh, who're you and how can I help you?" Well, I had opened the door at a bad time. I think we were just introduced to a fanboy. Well, a rather odd one anyway.

[Anthony] Everything was looking up, from Matt fully recovering from one of the familiar scrafty's attacks, to Daniel rushing in and smashing him with Shadow Rush twice in a row, to him finally taking damage from our attacks, given that they're hitting more than once, now. My health renewed, and myself feeling more daring, and somehow stronger. I prepare to counter an attack, and my father, George, the scrafty decides to use High Jump Kick on me, leaving me back at at the razor's edge of consciousness, and I literally throw all of that damage back at him... twice, somehow! This seemed to change things, and he started avoiding me for a while, even eating a berry to recover some of his health while I pelted him with a multi-attacking absorb to get back all of that health I just lost from the attack. He then turns around and tries that attack again, however, his attack was interrupted by Daniel shadow rushing him another three times... well, the attack wasn't so much interrupted as it was thrown off of its intended course, and as such, George ended up basically flinging himself into the cavern's wall, obviously taking some serious damage from that. Panicking, George then started focusing on Matt again, using Crunch on him, in some sort of effort to at least get rid of someone on this team. --- [Bonnie] I look down after William asked that question, and answer "Yes... you could say that. I ran away for a good reason, though. You see..." I was just about to say more, but William ran off after finding Samuel. Tini was still there, so, I continued, this time talking to him. "You see, Tini... my father, well, he, murdered my mother! Not only that, but, I was the only witness... oh, and he didn't stop at just murder, either, he, well..." I then have another flashback to that horrible sight, and cringe before breaking out into tears again. I then decide to follow William, all the while trying to forget that event, again. Apparently, there was a Flaafy out there who was going to be sacrificed somewhere in some backwards village, and we were the ones to stop it. We make it back to Sunswept plains, my own home, and I feel just like that, at home. William, on the other hand, seemed to be having some sort of issue. "Oh, come on, it's not that bad... your fur's thinner than mine, and I'm doing just fine," I comment, simply being here making me feel more alive, and more safe from a certain someone. I look back and make sure that Tini doesn't get left behind, though, I wasn't the only one waiting for someone, apparently. Samuel arrived shortly, and I remember an event that he started in these plains... that fire... ugh... what was he thinking? I was about to say something, but decided against it, just feeling happy that we're all together, again. --- [Spruce] The flareon who attacked me was punished pretty quickly afterwards by Celes' mother and father, who introduced themselves afterwards, but soon after that, I hear a knock, or, rather, someone trying to bash in the door. M head off towards it first, but I follow him soon afterwards, not really having much to do right now. M opens the door to reveal a rather odd-looking mudkip, who was wearing some sort of odd red and blue plastic and paper glasses. What's this guy selling? I ask myself, wondering if he was just another one of those door-to-door salespokemon. I'm guessing he had some sort of lookalike orb, or a wander gummi, or something similar to that, and he'd say how it would cure all your ails, make you ten times more intelligent, or make you jump over mountains. Whatever it was he had, I wasn't buying... of course, it wasn't really up to M and I... if anything, this visitor would have to be dealt with by Celes' parents. "Uh... mister and missus Silverfall? There's some sort of door-to-door salespokemon at the door," I call back to Celes' parents, wondering how they'd react to the visitor. It didn't seem like they knew him, but for all I knew, he could be a friend of the family who I've never met.

Celes parents stared at the direction of the knock before walking to it, looking at the mudkip. Celes walked by and looked at him confused. "Who the heck is that?" she says, before seeing 2 vaporeons at a distance. Celes brother and sister were coming. Celes looks at the mudkip. "Excuse me but if you are here to sell goods, we are not interested." Celes says calmly. The vaporeons were coming closer, looking at Celes, and whispering at each other. Celes looked at them and smiled as they stood there. They probably were wondering who she was, cause there were no Sylveon in the family. Then Dylian moved next to Celes, looking at the mudkip, his gray fur shining a bit in the sun. He stayed silent, unsure what was everything about. The flareon looked at him, but didn't say anything. He was going to ask who he was but now was not a good time to do so.

It was clear that the Scrafty was about to lose the fight. He used Crunch on Matt, which almost knocked him out. Seconds later, Matt's Reflect began to fade. Instead of healing, he decided to put his Reflect back up, which left him vulnerable if the Scrafty decided to attack him again. Josh used Water Gun on the Scrafty again, and it managed to hit 5 times this time. "Come on guys, let's finish this." He said. The Scrafty seemed to be getting pretty weak at this point, especially with that High Jump Kick missing. Hopefully it wouldn't take much more to knock him out.

Though Xeno felt distrustful of the quagsire, nobody having shown him tolerance in a long time, the sableye couldn't help but give this odd looking pokemon a chance. On the way back to it's dwelling, Xeno had learned that it's name was in fact 'Henry' and 'it' was a 'he'. Though he never showed any enthusiasm Henry was quite the the jolly character, a slight grin constantly on his face like every little thing brought him a hint of amusement which was most apparent when he spoke. And speak he did, being quite understanding of Xeno's situation and taking some time while he drew the map to explain some things about the world beyond tunnel systems. Xeno hung on every word that came out the quagsire's large mouth, crawling on top of furniture habitually to eventually sit on the table Henry worked at. "Well he's the map. Once you get there I guess just start digging and hope you get lucky," Henry explained, still baring that dopey grin as he handed the rolled up paper to Xeno. Fearful Henry might go back on his offer Xeno snatched the map away soon as it was within reach, receiving no resistance from the quagsire. Somewhat confused, Xeno glanced at the paper then back at Henry, wondering why he didn't want back what was clearly his. "Welp, I best get back to that hole you made. Fill it up with something other than mud," he said getting up and moving for the door. "Th-thank you," Xeno managed to say, still sitting atop the wooden table. "You're welcome. Now come on, it's impolite to stay in someone's house without their permission," Henry replied, motion for Xeno to follow just as he did earlier. Again the sableye took the hint but was less cautious this time, trusting the quagsire as he moved past him and through the door. "Best of luck on your trip," Henry said, waving lazily. Xeno nodded and opened the map, looking at the street he was aparently starting on and comparing it to his journey ahead. Simple enough, he thought, rolling up the paper and heading out.

Breen stumbles about briefly, shaking his head. Funny, I didn't realize he was part Spinda. You'd believe that due to the fact his head's spinning so much. Not much in the line of thought runs through his head, and almost for the first time ever - nothing's coming out of his mouth. Geez, Breen, don't use your head much anymore... He looks about the house; everyone's staring at him. Great. Salespokemon? What are they on about - hey! Work with it! Maybe you can get something out of them. Still nothing out of his mouth as he just stares blankly at each of them, the lot returning the same looking face. Geez, Breen, just go with it, say something! Break the ice! Then make like a tree and get outta here! Maybe they're foreign and don't understand English...Eevietnamese? You've studied a bit of that, try that... "Uh...uh..." Thinking. Language barrier processing. "WHATAF 3HIN TIME?" Right on, Breen! You got it! The vacant expressions on everyone's faces snaps Breen back into motion. "Shit. Uh. Sorry 'bout that! Breen! Breen Torrents, here! And uh..." He rummages through the stolen messenger bag, tossing them up in the air and juggling them as he makes his way in. "Can I interest you in any of these here items? We got a uh... Apple! And a uh.... 'nother apple! And, uh... this stupid jewel thingy, probably don't interest any of you guys...and oh! My favorite is this hat that says 'Sattle Seadras Super Bowl Champions XVI', pretty funny if you ask me - N'england Patrats won fair 'n square..."

Well, the mood was quite odd. First, we didn't really know what to do at Celes' house. I knew it was a bad idea at first, but being attacked and having nothing to show for it... I think it was time to politely leave, after all. Maybe when we were older we'd have an actual discussion about life, though not only am I dying, that's honestly bullshit and a waste of time. The doorway. In it, was Pokemon on either side - we had me, who was honestly quite disinterested in life now. On the other side of the door, there was a rather... odd Mudkip. I had no idea what I was about to get myself into by opening the door. While the voice of discipline was drowned out by simple distance, I still felt as if something was trying to communicate. Really, I kinda shrugged and asked 'yes?' with a bit of uncertainty, as to what the heck was happening. Silence. That was what happened. Celes spoke out, but at that point I was just trying to concentrate on the Mudkip. That didn't go so well when he started babbling on trading and throwing around junk in his hands and air. "Uh, hello and goodbye Breen." I haven't really talked to anyone aside from Spruce, Celes and Kamina. I didn't know how to really talk normally to... normal Pokemon. A lot of shit happened, and so far I'm more concerned with what might happen rather than what is happening. So, I asked him to leave. "Speaking of goodbye, can we get going already? II don't want to meet Celes' entire family if it's not gonna give us some mission reward, and we've got more important issues like-" I got a chill, abruptly cutting off my complaint. I just realised the Mudkip was still there, showing off more odd merchandise. Was it a really good idea talking about saving the world in public? We needed to find Giratina's grave alright, though speaking something arguably crazy to another possible crazy probably wouldn't end well. "Er, saving someone's ass or two."

-William- "I used to have cold blood. I've felt like I was on fire on the inside for a little while now," I say, seeing the group approach. "So... this place is north of here, so let's get going!" I say, heading north. After a while it transitions from a field to a desert-like area. I look on the horizon, not seeing any town. It was about 15 degrees hotter, and I had to sit under the shade of... well, there wasn't much. There were plenty of cacti, and cactus-like pokemon, but nowhere to actually rest. I sit underneath the shade of a cactus, since it was practically the only thing in the desert that cast a large enough shadow to sit behind, and then it turns around, using Needle Arm and making me flinch. It scuttles off laughing after he or she hit me, and I whimper, a few needles in my back. Samuel looks at me, and begins to pull them out, which hurt like someone stabbing me with sharp glass, except backwards. I stand up after he'd plucked all the needles from my back, and I say "Well... might as well get searching."