[Nina]

The first thing I hear is Rebecca asking "Hey, Nina?" followed by "Are you awake yet?" I then embarrass myself by snorting, grunting and making all manner of loud or otherwise annoying sounds before tiredly answering with "Y...yeah, I am now. Sorry about that, Levita... no, wait, she's still missing... sorry about that Rebecca," I then jump out of my bed, and fail to land on all fours. After getting up, I headed right for the mess hall, where they were serving chesto berries to pokemon who weren't exactly early risers. After pushing my way through 'Team Awesome' who was, for some strange reason, still in that same pose they were in earlier as if Chip didn't even hurt them, I get the berry and eat it within the same instant that I could get it. It wasn't my favorite, heck, I'd almost call it my least favorite flavor-wise, but I knew that this was the best way to stay awake until your brain finally catches up with you, so I was still glad to have one... or more, just for that effect. I then look back at 'Team Awesome', and notice that the leader seems to be clenching his teeth, as if he was still in pain. "You know, you guys can stop with the posing, already... it's the next morning, nobody paid attention last night, and they're not going to today," they didn't respond, and for a moment, I thought they were turned to stone somehow... but then I laughed at my own thought, asking myself Wow, pokemon turning to stone? How DUMB would that be? Then again... there was that random meteor that was somehow stopped by Rayquaza a few years ago... I asked for another chesto berry, but, this one wasn't for me. I headed out of the mess hall with the chesto berry stored away in my bag, and headed right for my team's room, where I assumed Rebecca would be.

---

[Spruce]

My dreams ended and I finally woke up to the bright, sunny, blue sky. Oh, that's right, I'm not at the guild today... I'm on some sort of quest with Anthony. I thought as I finally stood up, and noticed that I somehow fell asleep right next to Celes, who was still asleep somehow. Anthony was the only other one who was still awake, and he refused to say anything to me, even after I said "Good morning," to him. Maybe that has something to do with me not trusting his shadowy friend. There was a good reason not to, after all, every shadow pokemon I've seen so far has been evil, and either was Desia, or was working for her... it's just a crying shame that Vine went down that same road... that he became one of them, as well. What would his team think when he returned to them looking like that? I dug around in my bag for a chesto berry to help me wake up, but I couldn't find any, unfortunately... actually, I couldn't find much in there, at all save for some money. I really must have been packing light, because all that was in there was the void crystal that I took, the 1000 pokedollars that I had, and a single apple. Did I spill all of my stuff, or did I just use it all before I got here? Either way, I was hungry, but I felt as though I should save the apple for when we actually start moving, rather than waste it right here and now. Apparently, Anthony had the opposite idea, and he was already eating at least one of his apples. Daniel, oddly enough, was the next to wake up, and strangely, he tried to be friendly towards me "Good morning, Spruce," he said to me, though, much like Anthony did to me, I simply ignored him.

---

[Bonnie]

I woke up with a yawn, and notice Tini wrapped around his bed, and Eralion still sleeping somehow, and I head off towards the mission board immediately, eager to go do, well, something today. I didn't even need a chesto berry thanks to this just being a wonderful day for me. I then checked the missions, and noticed an outlaw mission involving my father... did he somehow escape arrest? Either way, the place that the mission describes might be his hideout seemed to be kinda out in the open, somewhere where I'd have to take him on head-on... something I already knew I couldn't do. An exploration team I've never seen before consisting of an aggron, a rhydon, and a salamence looked at the same mission and started shivering, similarly to how I used to whenever my father was mentioned... wait... "You three... weren't you that persian's latest victims?" the aggron looks down at me, and says "Yeah, we were, why do you... oh... you're the one who saved us!" I then correct them with "Well, I wasn't the ONLY one who saved you... I had a whole team, you know," the trio then took a low-level mission, and said their goodbyes before heading off to... wherever they were heading off to. I chuckled at the mission they took. The three of them, taking on a low-level, D-rank mission for beginners, when they're all big, tough pokemon who could probably take any mission or outlaw lower ranked than my father. I then hear something from below. "We will be going on an expedition in exactly seven days from now!..." I then heard another blurb about it "We will be choosing participants based on the missions they do, and how quickly they complete them..." another blurb stated "...this WON'T be like last time, where we just chose EVERY member of the guild, correct, Guildmaster?" everyone else seemed excited about it, but... I honestly couldn't tell why from up here.

---

[Anthony]

I suddenly noticed how bright it was and woke up... much taller than I used to be? Oh, wait, that's right, I was on someone else's head. I jump off of their head, and land as a puddle, only to reform myself quickly afterwards. I notice Spruce was awake, and he even said good morning to me, but given his actions yesterday, I was not in the mood to talk. He really needs to change his opinion if he really thinks Daniel is evil just because he's a shadow pokemon... worse, still, that M character seemed to agree with him! I think as I start digging through my bag, only revealing a royal gummi, an apple, the Normal Orb, and 500 pokedollars. I was too hungry to not eat the apple, and I take it out of my bag and eat it in almost one bite, with Daniel waking up soon after that. Daniel was kind enough to take the time to greet Spruce, but Spruce didn't even want to talk to him, for some reason. "Good morning, Daniel," I end up saying to Daniel, which caused him to fly over to me. He then asked "Hey... do you have any food for me? I'm kinda hungry..." I shake my head, saying "Sorry, Daniel, I only had one apple... if I knew you didn't have anything, I would have given it to you, but, I didn't know," he then responds with a sad "Oh..." and I assure him "Don't worry though, you'll get the first apple we find on our path, I'll make sure of it," that seemed to cheer him up a little bit, but he still looked hungry.

Celes started to wake up slowly, before stretching and then giving off a small yawn.
"Goooood.... morning...." she then says, before looking around, and hearing what was being said about food. She looked at Spruce, and then sighed a bit, before opening her bag and then taking what seemed to be a small bread before eating it slowly, and breathing deeply. It was just enough for her to not fall hungry like heck during the journey. He family recipe. Always bring some of it with her during journeys. She breath deeply as she then looked and heard Daniel the shadow pokemon say hello. She stares a bit, looking how Spruce was reacting and breath deeply. She walks near Spruce and whisper to him.
"Well... he didn't attack during the night... maybe it would be best to be a bit nice to him, but still keep our guards up in case it's all a trick. Make him think we trust him so we can react quicker if he does decide to hit us in the back..." she then suggest to Spruce. It would be best to actually try to keep a good mood instead of being too much hateful against everyone here. They were a team right now, and even if one of them wasn't normal... which ironically no one in Spruce's team was, it wasn't a reason to go and act like that.

---

Eralion slowly woke up, and then looked around, seeing Bonnie that already left. He headed down stairs, before seeing the mission board and Bonnie. He moved forwards and saw the mission about her father. He stares for a bit.
"Great.... just great... he isen't even in jail." he says, before breathing deeply, and looking at the other missions.
"Bonnie, any idea which." he says before being interupted by a aggron, a rhydon and a salamance. He stares at them as he listen to Bonnie talk. For them to take a begginer's job... probably cause they needed something relax more for a bit because of how Bonnie's father treated them. He waited before looking back at the board.
"Like I was going to say, any idea which mission we should take now. I feel like we need to find some mission to work and be stronger. With what happen yesterday, he might plan on attacking us maybe. I think a couple of missions could help us get ready." he sudgest. It was true that he was a bit scared of her father, but if the group could become stronger, then they might be able to end his crime spree.

Kamina

Just like he offered; Kamina took watch duty for the entire night. Because of his rough lifestyle before he joined then guild, he had to frequently go without sleep...sometimes for multiple days in a row. So a single night of no sleep, after around a week of restful rest was nothing to him, especially now that he had evolved. "Ah, it looks like everyone is starting to wake up...excellent. Yesterday was truly thrilling; an epic battle, with us hopelessly outnumbered. Yet we overcame that trial, and grew closer together" A small tear fell from his eye. "I can only hope that today will be just as thrilling as yesterday." Despite being fired up for the new day, he kept himself quiet enough to not disturb those still asleep

---
Tini

With a diabetes inducing yawn, Tini left the realm of dreams, and returned to the land of the living. Upon seeing that Bonnie and Eralion were both up, he slithered out of the room he shared with his team. After a relatively short misadventure in the bathroom that none shall speak of, he found the two of them by the mission board. "Hi guys!" Tini chirped, giving them both a quick hug, because hugs were awesome. "What's the plan for today? Do you think we'll climb a mountain and find buried treasure? That would be so awesome! Buried treasure is full of shiny things...I love shiny things. They're just so...shiny. Oh, oh, oh, do you think we'll see a double rainbow? Double Rainbows are so magical. I wonder what they mean."

I didn't sleep well that night. Whether because of the fact I was perched on a tree or still reeling from last night... well, I was quite uncomfortable with my new lifestyle. One could imagine me as a bird sooner or later, 'cause of the way I was beginning to act and appear. I swear to Arceus I woke up with more feathers surrounding me; whatever was going on, I was NOT impressed. It was probably Desia or the work of similar forces, because... because... ARGH!

"What do you want you bastards?!" I woke up angry and furious, though that died quickly. I could tell I had probably scared someone. "Ergh, sorry about that." I said with some angst, rubbing my magnets together. Heh, just a week ago I couldn't even have them touching without either repelling or attracting. Now... they were like a pair of claws to me, still able to conduct electricity but nothing more. What was I furious about though? I certainly didn't know. I just... well, just thinking of Desia made me twitchy. God knows what she could be doing - while figures like Daniel and Vine were reassuring as to the possible behaviours of Shadow Pokemon, it was unlikely that any further Shadow Pokemon we encountered were going to be friendly. That, and we still didn't know if Daniel was on our side... could be another trap by Desia. Though, if it was a trap, we would've been dead by now - no need to keep us alive any longer.

Regardless, I'm sure there was still something wrong with Daniel. A drone to keep tabs on us? Maybe. Just maybe. Even as he pecked at a wing of us, he could still backstab us at any moment. There was also Anthony, who was so trusting of Daniel like he was a friend of his. I dunno about you, but my opinion... well, I'm not gonna talk about opinions of Pokemon as I bleed out.

I didn't hear what Celes whispered as I came by, but I'd suspect her to be sympathetic to Daniel. "I'd keep an eye on him Spruce and Celes." I said to Celes, probably annoyed at what I said loudly earlier. "Maybe he was sent to keep tabs on us by Desia. If he was going to kill us, he would have done it in his sleep though." While I was looking at Spruce, I realised Kamina hadn't slept at all last night. "Then again, Kamina would've fought him off... so, I guess it's just pointing paws and talons against Daniel for then next few months days." I left soon afterwards, getting a weird rumbling and feeling of weakness in my chest. I was hungry. Damn right I was hungry, even for a Magnemite. "Spruce, got any food? Argh, never-mind. We'll just scavenge from whatever comes by." It was apparent that food wasn't exactly abundant and we'd likely have to ration our meals for the time being. So much for being prepared - we were going up against a huge bloody mountain, with possible blizzards and all sorts of cold-related hazards. Being hungry was possibly one of the most idiotic things you could do while going on a trek. At the same time, we didn't prepare to suddenly rest in the forest, instead being confronted by Team Zan and forced to rest early.

So, I just kinda looked around the place. It was certainly busy in the morning, though all I could do was rest on some small tree stump. "Yep, another day, another adventure." I muttered, inspecting my new feathers and nearly horrifying myself.

[Josh]
Everybody else was already awake by the time Josh woke up. He thought that after everyone had gotten a good night's sleep, they would stop hating each other. That wasn't the case, though. Spruce and M still had a problem with Daniel, which caused the conflict between Anthony and Spruce to escalate even more. Celes and Kamina seemed to at least tolerate him, though. Maybe they would be able to talk some sense into their teammates.

In their rush to leave Allure, they forgot to bring food with them. If Josh had any food, he would have given it to someone who hadn't eaten yet. He used to go without food for long periods of time back at the reef, so he was used to it. Unfortunately, though, he didn't have anything on him.

If everything went well today, they could rescue Kiera and be back at the guild before nightfall.
"Come on." Josh said. "If we get this mission done soon enough, we can all have a nice, big meal once we get back."
This would probably motivate them to hurry up. They would have to leave now, though, or they might have to spend another night in the middle of nowhere.

Rebecca gave Nina a smile as she left, heading back to her own bag and gearing up, going through a mental checklist as she went along. Scarf? She thought as she folded up the cloth and wrapped it around her neck. Check. Badge? She pinned the badge to the front of her scarf, making sure it was secure. Check. Notebook? She made sure that the item in question was in her bag and slung it over her shoulder. Check. Sunglasses...? Well, maybe some day... The Ralts stifled a yawn as she walked over to Chip, who seemed to still be asleep.

“Hey Chip,” Rebecca said. “We’re all getting up and stuff. Ready to go on another mission with us? It’ll probably be even better than the last one!” She heard the door open behind her, and turned to give a wave to Nina. Rebecca really hoped that Nina'd brought something back for her, because despite her best efforts, she didn't feel very awake. She decided that she should at least be grateful that she wasn't in the other guild, where they apparently had a Loudred that walked into every room and shouted the guild members awake. That guy's probably some sort of sadist. Like, the sheer glee from creating that much misery would be what keeps him awake through the day...

-Chip-
When I heard Rebecca say the word 'mission' at me, I jumped up and ran towards her. "What kind of mi-" I was about to say before my ear holes nearly exploded from a loudred screaming his head off. I stopped for a moment, turned towards the door, walked out and confronted the loudred, not deciding to give him my loudest lecture yet, but instead a look in his general direction that would suck the life out of anything! Except he looked at me, chuckled, and walked off. I trembled out of anger as I stomped off to the mess hall, grabbing my chesto berry and eating it, beginning to feel better. I sensed Team Awesome standing there in their pose again, and I felt a bit worried, even though they were complete and total jerks. "Team Oz-Um alright?" I asked, but they didn't give a reply.

-William-
I had woken up, and looked around, seeing that everything was bright and colorful, and that I was sleeping in a bed of cotton candy, seeing a giant, twisty bar of taffy slithering out of the room. I jumped out of bed and ran after it, but my attention was diverted by the peppermint door, and I tried but failed to break a chunk off the top, so I just walked out. I got to the morning chants, and saw an even bigger pile of cotton candy, and I salivated. A lemonhead, stared at me, and rolled over, and began to speak gibberish. I was confused, and soon his gibberish began to get louder and louder, and I felt like I was in trouble. It led me into a room with the big cotton candy pile and both of them began speaking complete nonsense, and I asked them to speak normally, but they turned towards eachother and then back at me. The lemonhead escorted me to the medical bay of the guild, and I sat there as more candy spoke some type of other language. I decided to lay down and take a nap, feeling tired after this weird morning so far.

[Spruce]

After everyone finally woke up, and Celes tried to convince me that Daniel was trustworthy while M was convincing me that he wasn't, but, rather, a spy, I finally said "Whatever the case may be, we still have to move forwards... if we have to knock out one of our teammates, I'd rather do that on the road, rather than have that keep us stationary for much longer," I was honestly leaning towards M on this, shadow pokemon have been nothing but trouble for me, Vine included, since I've figured out that they exist. Oddly Anthony seemed to be nodding, and asking Kamina to put him back on his head... that is before he started glowing for no reason, and somehow evolved right there. He was probably faster than he used to be, but somehow, I figured that I'd still be waiting for him. Anthony then started flinging his stubs of arms around as if he had fists attached to them... honestly, it was kinda funny to see him try to punch without hands, but I didn't let that stop me from continuing onward... with the temperature suddenly dropping once I continued north for a few minutes. I took a look at my map, just to try to figure out where we were, but... I couldn't figure it out for the life of me, unfortunately, so I put it away again, and simply continued towards the giant mountain looming in the distance. Unlike Mt. Dragoncoil this wasn't a part of a mountain range, just some solitary mountain that looked even taller than Mt. Dragoncoil... and it looked colder, too.

---

[Nina]

I saw Rebecca rouse Chip from his sleep, and saw Chip run off towards the mess hall and back after doing whatever it was he did. I then smile, and take out the chesto berry, handing it to Rebecca, saying "Here, I figured you'd need this," I then hear someone say something "...here..." I looked around the place, but I couldn't find the source of the voice. "Come here..." I hear the voice call out again, this time loudly enough for me to tell that it came from just beyond our door. I walk over to the door, and see a bronzor wearing some sort of mustache looking back at me. "Ah, there you are. Team Crescendo, correct? If so, then, I will meet you in the new cafe... we will talk there, they've all left to go do something, so we'll be the only ones there," this seemed extremely suspicious to me, and he continued "You girls DO want to figure out the mysteries of the dungeons, and want to figure out why they're appearing randomly, correct?" he still didn't seem like he was someone I could trust, but to be honest, I kind of did want to find out everything I could about mystery dungeons. Despite living in one for so long, I never learned much, if anything about them in general, heck, I just assumed some otherworldly being makes them whenever they get bored or something... okay, I didn't believe that, but it was the closest thing I had to an answer. I then notice that the bronzor left while I was deep in thought, and I turned back to Rebecca, who most likely heard the entire thing, and ask "Reb... should we follow that guy? He seems weird, and untrustworthy, but wouldn't that be amazing if we found out the secret behind the mystery dungeons?"

---

[Bonnie]

I nod at Eralion, and look around on the mission board for a while, that is, until I finally find the best one, well, at least the best one to me. The note read
'Help me find my child!

I'm a mother at her wit's end! My child has just gone mysteriously missing
last night for no explanation or reason! I've looked all over for her
but I haven't found a single clue yet... Come to me in Scale City for
more information. Bring this mission statement with you, so I'll know.

Reward: TM

~Terra the Sceptile'
What made this one stand out was the date... it was on there for months, and nobody's taken it, nor has it been taken off the board in that time. Who knows where this missing child could be or what could be happening to her right now as a result of... whatever it was that made her vanish from existence. I wasn't familiar with this 'Terra', but apparently she lived in Scale City, which I've heard was only for dragon types, yet this 'Terra' was a grass type... perhaps that's the reason why her child was abducted? I showed the mission to Eralion, and said "We should probably do this one," and then I waited for William, not actually aware of his current medical condition.

---

[Anthony]

Everyone was finally awake and and gathered, and as such, we were supposed to be on our way, and Spruce seemed to agree with me on that, opting to continue our exploration rather than continue bickering between his friends all of whom seemed to have a different opinion on Daniel. The magnemite was against his existence, however, Celes seemed to regard him as a teammate... Kamina was still just Kamina, and didn't really have much of an opinion at all on the matter. I slithered over to Kamina and ask him to lower his head so I can get on top of it again, however, before I do that, I suddenly get surrounded by a bright light, and start changing. Is this what evolving is like? Am I evolving right now? I think as the light finally fades, and I notice already that I'm taller, and heavier. I felt somewhat faster, but I knew that Kamina was still going to be the best bet if I didn't want others waiting on me during this exploration. I looked down, and noticed something amazing... I had limbs now! Sure, they were stubby, and flinging them around as if they were arms, and as if I was punching didn't seem like it would be too effective, but this was so much better than just relying on my mouth or stickiness to hold things, heck, I could even put the Power Bracer I've been 'holding' on one of these arms. I chose the left one, and I jumped onto Kamina's head as soon as his head was low enough for me to do that. I then looked back at my teammates, and wonder if any of them evolved, as well... Spruce seemed to be an odd case, surely he should have evolved before I did, right?

Presumably to avoid conflict, Spruce accepted the fact that Daniel may or may not be evil, rather telling us to move on to move onwards. Maybe he was here to cause division in our group? No, Desia wouldn't be that smart... Arceus damn it. It's only been 6 days with this group and yet we're already calling names as to who's the spy or who's the minion. Seriously, we don't know who to trust anymore. Me and Spruce don't take to Daniel too well, whereas Pokemon like Josh, Anthony and even Celes seem to be rather trusting of him. (Not sure about Kamina, he doesn't seem to have any opinions.) Argh, Desia's played us so well that we can't even tell whether or not she ISN'T playing us at other times. This says a lot for a group that has to go up against her sooner or later, as poor decision-making would be the end of us really.

I didn't sneer at Daniel, but I still kept having bad thoughts involving him. Despite this, going head-to-head with him immediately probably wouldn't resolve anything - we'd have to get along with him, at least until he showed any signs of hostility against us. "Daniel, come with us. Don't want you alone with the wildlife, right?" I said to him, trying my best not to antagonise him while also making sure I could keep my single eye on him. What seemed to be a bright light flashed hit my eyes, but all I did was rub it off and assume that it was a side-effect of having these damned feathers. I grunted, realising that was Anthony evolving. I paid little attention considering I was little more concerned with myself at the moment. At that point of time anyway, not now - I had already accepted my fate here.

Anyway, Spruce inspected his map for a while, as if he didn't know what directions were (per usual). Sure enough, he ended up wandering off towards that giant looming mountain in the distance; the sheer size was imposing enough, with clouds moving around the mountain like a river does with a boulder. It was certainly a sight, something we somehow missed while fighting. "Alright lads, let's move then. Don't want to spend another night here, right?" I grinned with my eye, following Spruce who didn't seem to be lost this time.

[Josh]
Just as they were about to leave, Anthony was surrounded in a bright light. When it subsided, Anthony was much taller, and had grown arms. He still had to catch a ride on Kamina's head, though, since he was still rather slow. Just as they were about to keep going, Josh was cloaked in a light as well. He was now much bigger, and could also probably move around on his own.

The group then continued going north, and thankfully, they weren't interrupted at all this time. In the distance, there was a tall mountain capped with snow. They'd been traveling for a while now, so there was a pretty good chance that this was their destination.
"Is that where we're headed, Anthony?" Josh asked. He really hoped that Anthony had some idea of where they were supposed to go. Otherwise, it would take forever to find Keira.

Celina looked at Anthony who just evolved. She stared at him for a bit and smiled. Well, at least he might be a bit faster now, although maybe not too fast. She then looked at the mountain, and had a shiver of cold. It looked so cold, and looking at the group... she really felt like a lot of the pokemons in the group will have a hard time. Kamina probably gonna be just fine, being with his fiery spirit, but Spruce... and Anthony. She shivers a bit and then moved close to Spruce, actually slightly cuddling near him, shivering a bit.
"Sorry... I just have a bad feeling about this. For the team's sake." she says a bit worried, looking at the mountain. She then had the feeling of seeing Spruce get frozen by something, then hit constantly by some things with red glowing eyes. She shivered a bit more. She was really worried of what would happen. She just hoped Kamina might help the group and use his fiery spirit to literally warm the group up.

---

Eralion looked at the job, and smiled a bit, looking at Bonnie.
"That is actually a good job. I just hope we will be able to find that child. With how long he was gone... I just hope he or she is alright." he says, before looking at the job location.
"And having to walk all the way there..." he says, before looking at Tini, and then having a funny idea... sometihng about some dragons trying to attack Tini in rage, only to not be affected at all, probably cause of how he is. With the pink coloring and how he talked, it was no surprise that he was a fairy type also. The face of the dragons if they discover that.... faces of fear probably.
"So when will we go?" he says, smiling, full of energy right now. He then looked at the group.
"I think Tini won't have much trouble there." he says smiling and chuckling a bit.

Kamina

Even though he barely knew him, Kamina was still ecstatic about Anthony's evolution "Hah! Congratulations of your evolution! I can understand the shear bliss that comes from getting a stronger body, and how it can make moving around so much easier. I remember how I had to Splash around to move on land back when I was just a Magikarp." Kamina gently shook his head as he reminisced about days gone by (even though it really hadn't been that long, and being a Magikarp was a really sad existence. Yeah, Kamina's brain wasn't wired quite right). When Anthony requested him to lower his head so he could get on, Kamina did so without even thinking about it. "But I gotta admit; I don't think I've ever had a morning quite as good as the one you're having now. Although my first morning at the guild would come close; it was really amazing to be able to safely eat my fill during breakfast, that was certainly a first." Once Anthony had gotten settled on his head, Kamina followed the mon with the map (Spruce.) As he did however, he noticed something strange happening to Celes "hey Celes, are you okay? Your body is shaking, are you sick, did you get enough sleep?" Kamina being Kamina, failed to notice that it was fucking cold. Although to be fair; he was part Fire Type.

---
Tini

As Bonnie read the mission description, a pit began to form in Tini's stomach. It made him feel sicker and sicker with every word, as they dredged up horrific demons from his past. However, certain words hit him harder then others; 'child mysteriously missing' and 'Scale City.' A single tear fell from his face "no...it can't be" memories of one traumatic night came back to him, of a night spent lost and alone in the seedier part of Scale City, and the indgnaties that had been heaped upon him:


"Hi there, would you like to buy an Encyclopedia set?

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-

"-OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!" Tini being Tini, he screamed along with his flashback self. Wrapping himself around Bonnie and Eralion, he shoved his face into theirs and spoke "we are going to Scale City...NOW! I refuse to let that poor innocent child be exploited like I was. Those people are full of nothing but lies and hate! They tell you that the Encyclopedias hold the secret to the ultimate cookie, but it's all lies, lies and broken dreams! And the deluxe edition is an even bigger lie! They feed on it you know; those filthy Encyclopedia salesmon feed on your suffering. They feed on it I tell you. Well not this time; I won't just sit back and watch as they violate the hopes and dreams of another child." His speech made, he made mad dash to Scale City, with his teammates on his back

[Rebecca]

“I’m not really sure-” Rebecca starts to say, accidentally cutting off Chip before she herself is interrupted by what could very well be the exact same Loudred, ordering them to wake up at the top of his lungs. That was either one of the craziest coincidences Rebecca had ever seen,or she was a much better psychic than she made herself out to be... or fate just seemed to enjoy messing with her like that, which was a theory she drifted back to from time to time.

“We were already awake, if you didn’t notice!” She shouted back at him as he left the halls, the Ralts’ ears still ringing from the sudden noise. Sadistic jerk... Thankfully, Nina arrived on the scene to offer her a chesto berry, which she happily accepted with a thank you and a smile that was only somewhat forced. It was important to start the day that way, after all. She was about to tell the Nidoran that she was unfortunately wide awake already, but they were interrupted by a mysterious visitor, telling them to meet him in the cafe.

“Hmm...,” she hums as she thinks about Nina’s question about what to do. “Shady, secretive, somewhat urgent, requests a secret meeting spot, has an intriguing hook to convince us to join, doesn’t seem to be at all trustworthy... This may actually be the most trustworthy job offer we’ll come across in our lives! Probably one of the best-paying, too. Let’s go grab Chip and see what the deal is. Sound good?” She opens the door and begins to look around for Chip, deciding that it was a good course of action whether or not the team decided to take the mission.

[Spruce]

I continue heading towards the mountain, with the temperature unfortunately dropping lower and lower the closer I seemed to get to it. Eventually, it got to the point where snow covered the ground, and just before it got to the point where I'd give up just from sheer cold, or at least, I would were it not for Celes, who seemed... oddly warm, a single, small building can be seen. The building seemed to have a warm glow coming from it, and Daniel flew right in an open window, which I thought was somewhat rude, but for some reason he didn't get yelled at. Oddly Kamina didn't seem to mind the cold at all, but, then again, he was both a water and a fire type... M would probably love it here, were it not for the sunlight reflecting off of the white snow, which I figured would bother him. Anthony has since started hiding in his helmet for whatever warmth that provided, and, given its dark coloration, that might be more than usual. Once I got close enough to the building, an amazing smell hit me... it almost smelled like... a bakery, but, why out here, where NOBODY ever stops by? Why not in the city, or at least A city? I then look over at Celes, and almost think about kissing her for keeping me warm in this cold place, but the door swung open before I had a chance, and a pignite, one who was wearing an odd tall, white hat greeted us.

"Well, what do we have here? Customers? I haven't had a customer in... well... years!" He then gestures for us to head inside the small building, and, given that it was much warmer than outside, I head right in, and try to get a seat close to the fireplace, and far away from any windows. I was still shivering from the cold, but the fireplace was starting to help a little bit. The place was strange... there was a single room big enough for four small tables, and four chairs around each of them. The other room looked as if it was a kitchen, with a wall separating it from the room we were in... there was a wooden door, and a rectangular hole in the wall... a common set up for a restaurant, but usually, that required more than one worker to be used properly. Daniel was already inside, and I accidentally picked a chair near him. "Uh... hello?" He says to me as if it was a question. I ignore him, still unsure as to whether or not I should trust him, and Anthony's annoyed grunt could be heard from here, even if he chose the opposite table.

---

[Anthony]

Thankfully, I didn't have to worry too much about the cold, given that firstly, I was inside of my helmet, and secondly, I was riding on top of a fire-type pokemon... one who seemed confused at the thought of being cold. Even though I was hiding in my helmet, I still noticed when the grass became snow due to the sounds Kamina was making while he slithered through the stuff. It made a sort of crunching sound as he passed through it, and the tiny view I got from the holes I made in my helmet showed me a pitch black mountain against the white snow... both the snow on top of it, and below it. It was quite an interesting sight, as it also seemed to cut through the clouds... I almost knew that we'd have to climb that mountain ourselves, and the fact that Spruce was already probably dying from the cold wasn't a good sign for things to come. Soon enough, an amazing smell filled my helmet, and I got out of it just to check out what it was. A small, wood and iron building seemed to be the source of that, as well as the source of a warm, inviting glow. Daniel managed to beat Spruce in, and Spruce didn't look too happy about that. I jumped off of Kamina's head, and started making my way there, myself, almost forgetting about the cold entirely.

Once we were at the building, the door opened up to reveal a pignite, probably the owner of this place, and at first, I thought he'd be mad at us, but he assumed we were customers, and we probably were by now, and he let us in. The place was amazingly warm for having two open windows, and being made primarily of wood, though, it was disappointingly small for a restaurant, with seating for only sixteen pokemon, and even then they'd be sharing a relatively small table. Spruce picked a seat right next to the fire place, even though he wasn't a fire type, and Daniel picked a seat right across from him. Daniel tried to say hello to Spruce, but Spruce ignored him, prompting an annoyed grunt from me. Of course, I chose a seat that was pretty far away from them, so I wasn't entirely sure that they heard it, but, after that, the door separating the kitchen from the... I suppose dining room swung open and slammed against the wall next to it, probably damaging both. "So, what can I get ya?" the pignite asked us excitedly, though, that was a given when we were his first customers in a while. He then hands everyone a menu, and I decide "I'll... take three of the Plain Pastries, please," I then turn to whomever was sitting next to me, but the pignite, excited to serve everyone, ran off to the next customer immediately after that... in this case, Spruce, who apparently ordered the same thing, probably for cost concerns, as they were the cheapest, at 250 poke, while the rest ranged in price from 500 to 700 poke, though, if we had any gummis on us, he'd apparently make one for free. Odd.

---

[Nina]

After agreeing wholeheartedly with "Yes, let's go right now! I... just wanted to make sure you were on board with this, heh," I call for Chip to join us, and run off after Rebecca, excited about the new mission that was going to be assigned to us by some guy... whoever he was, he seemed to know a lot about mystery dungeons, and how they worked. I quickly find myself in the requested meeting place, that cafe he was talking about, and I look around... Nope, just two pokemon playing darts... no bronzor there... no, that's just an abomasnow eating X-eye seeds as if they were a snack... AHA, there he is! I think as I look around the bar, not entirely sure if this was the best place for someone like me to be at this time, but after ducking to make sure a supposedly stray dart didn't hit me in the eye, I find a familiar mustache, and a semi-familiar bronzor attached to it. "There you are... I knew you'd show up," He says to me before dropping a dirty, yellow folder in front of me. It had a red [CLASSIFIED] stamp on it, similar to the papers that Rebecca and I helped collect yesterday, but, surely they can't be the same ones... though... the folder smelled suspiciously like grass, dirt, and nidoran poison. "This... is some information. Do with it whatever you please, but I can't say anything more. There are too many... others... here," he then left, dropping a note similar to a mission statement as he did so, and he obviously intended for me to pick it up, as he looked behind him for a moment as I did so, and nodded once I picked it up.

---

[Bonnie]

I would have waited for William, however, Tini supposedly had some sort of flashback to Scale City, and he picked Eralion and I up, and slithered away at full speed shouting "NOOOOOOOOOOOO!" as he did so. His minty scent was overpowering, and I couldn't get a really good view of anything but where we've been, as apparently, I was picked up backwards. As Treasure Town got smaller, I could only imagine that Scale City would be getting closer, and, eventually, we came to a stop at the fabled city of dragons, and thankfully, Tini put me down. The place was... different than what I was used to seeing, that much was true, and it was certainly overwhelming with how tall the buildings were, not to mention how many of them there were... or their residents in general. Dragon types were always intimidating, always big, always scaly, and always powerful... well, save for the younger ones, such as Tini, who I would say is still very powerful. I took my first few steps on the odd, blackened road that separated the primarily painted stone and iron buildings which reached heights probably only achievable by dragons, and, obviously, often held many within their walls. The road, itself felt just as cold as the cobblestone pathways in Treasure town, so that wasn't too unfamiliar, what was, though, was a lack of foot traffic, as it seems most of the city's residents were capable of flight, and as such, they were above us, rather than right in front of us. "So... we're going to have to find a lost treecko in this mess of a city... that sounds easy, doesn't it?" of course, I was being sarcastic, and that much was obvious just from my tone of voice, but, having a mission to find something in here, given what 'here' was like was already getting on my nerves.

Celes was surprised to find a bakery here, of all the places there could be one. this was really surprising. Although this was also very welcome, because they would not have to stay in the cold. Although how can a bakery survive out here, where not lot of people come? That was a big question. She wasen't hungry too much though. She then sat next to Spruce.
"Just one of the plain pastry's. I am just a bit hungry, not much." she says. She looked at Daniel, and heard Anthony's reaction.
'Hey Daniel." she says calmly, before breathing deeply, and looking at Spruce. She breath deeply.
"Maybe just saying hey or something... might not be too much. I mean... what if hes not really a minion of Desia? Just be a bit nice, but stay on your guard? Its just so you look a bit less on your guard towards him and we find out his true attentions... if he has any." she then whispers to him calmly. She then looked at everyone, waiting for everyone to order something.

---

Eralion was surprised by how Tini reacted... but that the thing... that was Tini they were talking about. That how he usually react... It was hard to see what was in Tini's mind... which probbaly would render any normal person insane completely if they were to try to read Tini's mind. One thing for sure, psychic types would have a very hard time with Tini if they were to try Mind Reader on him. Soon the group arrived at Scale city, and first thing he noticed was how dragon types were flying over head them instead of using the road. This made him a bit uneasy, having the feeling something might swoop down and attack them. He breath deeply. At least this was a city, and they probably were civilised, so that would not happen. He then looked at Bonnie as she comments.
"It would be best to go see that Sceptile first. We could get some clues about where he would be. That would be the first step." he then says calmly to her, and then looking at Tini.
"And next time Tini.... easy with the grip.... dang..." he says, holding his arm just a bit. Although one thing he though: When he will evolve, Tini probably won't be able to do that. Although with how big he would be... Well, lets just say he shall be able to guard and take a good hit if someone were to attack one of them.

[Josh]
As they got closer to the mountain, it started to get colder and colder. Josh had grown up in a tropical climate, so he wasn't used to the cold at all. He noticed that the others weren't doing too well, either, with the only exceptions being Matt and Kamina. Matt told him once that the gel surrounding him protects him from things like weather, and he had seen Kamina use Fire-type moves before, so that would explain their resistance to the cold.

The group eventually arrived at a small building. The smell of freshly-baked bread suggested that it was a bakery of some sort, but running a business out here would be nearly impossible, due to how little customers they'd get. Because of this, Josh just assumed that it was just an ordinary house, and it only smelled like that because they were making bread or something.

He was wrong. They were immediately greeted by a Pignite, who seemed excited to finally have customers. They all sat down, with Matt setting Josh's bucket down beside Anthony, who seemed pretty annoyed about Spruce's treatment of Daniel.
"We won't have to deal with him for much longer." Josh said. "As soon as we're done here, we'll be back at the guild and we won't have to go on any more missions with him."

The Pignite began going around, taking their orders. Josh ordered a few plain pastries, since that was the cheapest thing on the menu. When the Pignite got to Matt, he ordered the same thing.
"So, do you know where exactly we're going, Anthony?" Josh asked. "We've gone pretty far. I think we might be getting close."

Kamina

Kamina being who he was, didn't see anything suspicious about a bakery all the way out here (then again, considering he had only spent a little over a week living on dry land, his lack of concern is pretty understandable). "Ah, food! Looks like I will get breakfast this morning" this was a wonderful surprise for triple Typed big guy, as he still hadn't gotten used to the idea of breakfast (as all he had before was found-something-edible time), he was happy to see the pattern that had begun to emerge continue out here. As Kamina looked over the menu, he suddenly realized something extremely important; he didn't know how to read 'well drat! Never expected this to bite me in the fin. Oh well. I wouldn't be me if I let this get me down' he thought to himself. "I'll have three servings of what they're having" he told other Fire Type. To be completely honest; Kamina wasn't sure what he had just ordered. Still, if it was good enough for his friends, then it was good enough for him 'and besides; anything that I don't have to force past my gag reflex if awesome in my book.'

---
Tini

Back when he was just a Dratini, Tini would have found that mad dash exhausting. Sure he was still a little tired, but nowhere near as much as he would have been yesterday. "Sorry guys, it just...the poor Treeko...the encyclopedias" there was a very alien hatred in his voice as he said 'encyclopedia'. "But hey, it's just like Bonnie said; this is going to be easy! I mean a Treeko is a Dragon city is going to stick out like a tumor bulging out of your skin. So first we have to find the mom, then we reassure her that we'll save her child while beating up all the encyclopedia salesmon we find along the way, then we go do that thing we just told her we'd do. It's so simple. I'm sure someone around here has seen him...or her...I forgot which it was. Anyway, all we'll need to do is just ask around and I'm sure we'll find someone who can point us in the right direction. Oh, and before I forget; if we run into an encyclopedia salesmon, go for the encyclopedias. They draw their power from those accursed grimoire. So if you destroy them, then they're powerless. It always works for me." he told them

As the environment got colder and colder, I began to feel more elated. No longer did I feel blinded and opposed by the sun, instead operating on a welcoming cold and wonderful snow-covered plains. It was still bright, but not exactly disturbing. "Huh, I can actually see now." I joked, avoiding some glimmers in the more hardened snow patches. Those still had a degree of reflection which did make me squint occasionally. Otherwise, I was content with living here rather than having a... 'home' in that community a while back. In front however, there was... a bakery. A bit strange, but considering taxes only applied to people living within the towns, I could see why this place could still open. So long as it could have a steady supply of baking goods, which was actually quite suspicious in these snowy flats. "Guys, be careful. It could be a trap or anything as dangerous as one." I warned, though everyone had already went inside, with Daniel slipping through a window and the rest entering the building like normal Pokemon. "Huh. I guess everyone's hungry then."

Inside, the bakery looked a little archaic in terms of design, using sharp corners and dark colours on the ceiling. The rest of the place looked respectable and cosy, which to me rang alarm bells. What? A bakery in the middle of nowhere? Right near a couple of dungeons? That's not something you'd see everyday, wouldn't you? "Ergh, I'll just take the same as the rest of you guys." I said, wiping my eye and looking outside. That seemed like a world away from this place.

“Then why did he pick a place full of “others” if he didn’t want them hearing?” Rebecca asked quietly after her team’s client left, feeling quite perplexed. That Bronzor wasn’t very good at being very conspiratorial, at least if you asked her; you’d need to drop a letter in their pocket or something that tells them to meet in some random place in the woods. They’d need to make sure they weren’t followed, but at least you could talk without worrying about everyone in the room having the potential to be in on the super important secret.

“Do you think we should head back to our room again before we look at any of this stuff,” Rebeca asked her friend as she glanced around the bar nervously. “I mean, he made it sound like it was really important that we knew it was for our eyes only for some reason.” There was also the fact that she wouldn’t be able to read the papers in the first place if she didn’t go out of her way to keep her hair out of her eyes, but she didn’t want to go out of her way to mention that part.

[Spruce]

The pignite, after taking our orders, quickly rushed back into the kitchen, and the smell of baking bread filled the air again, though, unfortunately, the food wasn't ready within thirty seconds, which meant I had to wait, in my seat, next to someone who I don't trust, or even like. Thankfully, Celes was there as well, and she was sitting next to me, but, then again, so was Daniel. Apparently, he gave up on talking to me, and started talking to Celes, saying "Why is your friend being so rude to me? I didn't offend him somehow, did I?" I chose to ignore him, and I whisper to Celes "Don't you dare tell him that I know he's secretly helping Desia... I don't know how he's doing it, yet, but I'm sure he is," I then waited there, as the smell made me even more hungry than I already was... well, okay, I had an apple, but that didn't seem like enough, at least, not anymore. Anthony, honestly was probably having a harder time than I was, I mean, he skipped breakfast. I then look over at M, who seemed way too suspicious of this place, but, then again, he might be right... however, given the fact that this place wouldn't actually sell us anything by now if it were a fake, and would have attacked the extremely vulnerable to fire grass and steel types around here, just to get a quick KO in before anyone knew what was going on... maybe this place wasn't a trap.

Eventually, the food came, and I put two of the pastries away in my bag, saving them for the journey, which I'm sure was still nowhere near finished. The pignite then asked me "So, mind me asking what exactly brings you here?" and I answer with "Well, funny thing, we're actually on some sort of journey. Apparently there's someone in need of help, and Anthony over there got some sort of psychic message. I followed him mainly because I wanted to see his reaction when he finds out that it was all fake... well, either that, or I want to make sure he's not in serious danger if it happens to be a trap," the pignite snorted, as they typically do, and he ends up saying "I see... well, the only place around here where that could have come from would be... Yuki Village, of course, last I heard, they ticked off Kyurem, and the entire place froze over, pokemon included. Heh, and they called me crazy when I wanted to set up a bakery next to a mystery dungeon..." A whole village, frozen over from a single pokemon? This 'kyurem' HAS to be a legendary pokemon... nothing else could have that sort of power... and I don't think I'm ready to take down a legendary. I think as I start eating my plain pastry, which, while plain still tasted amazing... of course, I didn't know if it was because this pignite was a great baker, or if it was just because I didn't have too much to eat today, and was still hungry, and honestly, I didn't care. That pastry didn't last too long on my plate after that first bite, and I felt oddly energized, and ready to go after that meal. I then looked around to make sure that everyone else was finished, and I notice that Daniel was still pecking at his food... and he didn't even look like he was halfway done with his.

---

[Anthony]

"Right, right... sorry, it's just... he gets on my nerves so much," I say to Josh, who I just noticed evolved, and yet was still in the bucket. I then ask "Hey... now that you've evolved... maybe you can finally float your way out of that bucket. I mean, it wouldn't hurt to try, would it, and it would certainly help poor Matt out," After that, the smell of bread almost hits me on the head like a hammer... it seems that whatever method this pignite is using to bake his pastries, it wasn't instant, which meant that I had to wait. Spruce seemed extremely impatient, and he seemed to whisper something to Celes after Daniel starts talking to her instead of Spruce. Thank goodness he stopped talking to Spruce, or I'd probably have a heart attack or something. Of course, right now, I had bigger issues, that being the fact that I couldn't have that food right now. M seemed oddly suspicious of this place, but honestly, I didn't have much of a choice given that somehow, all of my bag's contents were missing. ALL of them, food included, and we were expected to go through another mystery dungeon like this. Obviously, this dungeon wasn't going to be a walk in the park like Sunswept Plains was by now, as well, so it's not like I could really stop by anywhere else for food at the moment.

Finally, the bread was finished baking, and Spruce seemed to have the right idea by saving two of his pastries for our travels ahead. I did that, myself, and limited myself to just one pastry for now. Of course, the thing was gone in basically one bite, due to not only my hunger from skipping breakfast, but also my hunger from evolving earlier. I didn't know why, but this was the best food I've ever had in my life... okay, that was an exaggeration, but still it had no business being this good. I simply chalked it up to just how hungry I was, and I overhear the pignite talking with Spruce, and then snorting afterwards. "Yuki Village, huh? Hey, Josh, I think I just figured out where we're going, but, um, you're not going to like this, the place froze up apparently," Spruce then jumped out of his seat, put on his bag, and glared at Daniel for not finishing his food as quickly as he did. I manage to contain my anger this time, and simply chuckled at the fact that he had to wait for Daniel to finish. Rather than joining Spruce near the door, I just stayed seated until everyone else was finished, Daniel included. Eventually, I got a little bored of just sitting, and I tell Josh "You know... it's been a while since we first formed this team... in fact, it was so long ago, that I was still a bandit, hiding somewhere, huh? Heh... remember back in Scale City when we had that 'Zane' guy or whoever go searching for your friends in Beach Cave?" of course, I didn't really expect him to answer me, I just sort of felt like talking to him about something other than his recent evolution, and the fact that he might not need the bucket anymore.

---

[Bonnie]

I turn back towards Tini who started mumbling about encyclopedia salespokemon, and how to easily defeat them... what really got me was that, unlike the Tini that I'm used to, unlike the Tini whose motto was probably something like 'With the power of cookies, and friendship, I can beat ANYTHING!', this Tini was angry, as in, genuinely angry about something, or someone. "Try to keep your calm, alright Tini? I'm sure there aren't any salespokemon around here, at least, none that we actually have to deal with," I then continued walking around the giant, dragon-filled city, getting strange looks from most of the citizens as I did so. Unfortunately, this place was a rock and iron maze, and I ended up back at the entrance soon after, though, this time, I noticed a giant sign that had a picture of a sceptile, and a salamence on it. Given the species of pokemon she was, that was probably where Terra worked, and she was probably the only sceptile in this city. I then start running towards the sign, only to find myself in the middle of a street, with the sign next to some unmarked, and most likely unimportant building. I then actually read the sign, and it told me that the place was two blocks ahead. Ugh... this place is the worst... how does anyone even get around in this place? I think before I remember that most of the citizens can fly, or have parents who can fly. Sure, there was the occasional haxorus, druddigon, or garchomp, but for the most part, the citizens were all flying above me, including a dragonite who had a pecha berry on her horn who flew over to a building that was shaped like a dragonite's head... odd.

After getting lost several more times in this horrible maze of a city, one which was clearly not made for walking in, I pass by the item shop again, the owner, a dragoniar who's apparently the guildmaster's son, and who reminded me of Tini, who I was almost certain I lost in this horrible place, I finally run into the hotel... and by that, I mean literally. Thankfully, I ran into the doors, and thankfully, those doors opened into the hotel, so I didn't really bump into anything, and, behind the counter of this hotel? A concerned-looking sceptile, and a salamence who was trying to calm her down. "Um... Terra?" I ask the sceptile, who looks around the place, apparently expecting someone taller, or otherwise bigger than I was to enter the building. She then looked down and I held out the paper, just to make sure there wasn't some sort of misunderstanding. "Y...you'll really help me? Oh thank goodness! I sent out that SOS mail months ago, and I've already given up on anyone finding my little girl," I nod, and ask "So... where could your daughter be, Ms. Terra?" she starts thinking for a moment, and I hear her list out "Well, she could be in the park... that's in the center of the city by the way, of course, she could also have been at the clothing store, she always liked it there... and, of course, the nearby restaurant. She used to try to sneak away from her job to eat there... I guess you could start with any of those places," I then look around for my teammates, honestly hoping that they were able to actually follow me through this mess... or, weren't waiting for me somewhere due to me getting lost three times in this city.

---

[Nina]

I pick up the folder, and overhear what Rebecca said. I would have said something, but, due to the fact that I need all of my limbs to walk, and I had to use my mouth to pick up the folder, I simply gave my best impersonation of a shrug in response to her first question, and a nod in response to the second one. Of course, the fact that I was already halfway to the door when she asked that question was not important, and either way, I headed back to our team's room to finally see what was on these papers all along... funny how our VERY FIRST mission had something to do with what we'd probably end up doing throughout our exploration careers... funny... and oddly coincidental, as if something else was supposed to happen between then and now, but someone, or something, just decided to rush this along, to bring us closer to some sort of ending, somehow. I tried to come up with any possible solution as to who or what that might be as I continued towards our room, but, we got back there sooner than I expected to, and somehow, Chip was still there, motionless. I would have checked to see if he was breathing, but then I remembered that he's a bug, and they breathe a little... differently than us more complex pokemon... I then look back at Rebecca, and remembered that I still had the folder in my mouth even though we've been here for a few minutes. I dropped the folder, and opened it up, this time with my front feet rather than my mouth.

What was inside both amazed and confused me. Apparently, due to recent studies listed and explained on the first page, pokemon who spend enough time in a mystery dungeon and away from any of the orbs of balance, or void crystals start behaving strangely, but not JUST due to being there, no something else supposedly has influence over this effect, an unknown pokemon species of some sort... the next page details that this pokemon's strength must be great, and said pokemon could even be considered a legendary, that is, if it's actually real... of course, further studies have proven that once in a while, pokemon in a dungeon who are effected by this being actually see something, an odd collection of squares in various sizes and colors, some pokemon apparently theorize that this thing that they see might be more than just them being crazy, and it might be some sort of clue. There were more pages, but that alone kinda blew me away, a legendary that's building mystery dungeons, and somehow corrupting the pokemon inside of them? That might be a little too much for me to handle for now, so I simply handed the rest to Rebecca, hoping that she'd have a better time understand the papers than I did.