Chapter 1

Guild Graduation

It had been about a year and a half since time was restored to balance and a year since I had come home. In that time, two other exploration teams had joined Wigglytuff's Guild- Team Discovery with Ricky the Bagon, Kit the Shinx, and Matt the Growlithe. The other team was Team Ditto- and as you would expect, it was a 4- member team of Ditto. They were the jokesters of the guild now- changing into one of us or another just to get a kick out of it. They were masters at taking down outlaws- changing form to a super-effective type for the top advantage.

Another big change was Team Sapphire's graduation. We (as in, Team Diamond) were sent out for a scouting mission to a remote region far to the north, and when we came back, lo and behold they had graduated. They had been sworn to secrecy about it, too, so we didn't know what they had done to graduate.

"When your time comes, you'll see," Summer said.

After that, Team Sapphire became one of the most famous exploration teams of our time. They moved out back behind the Kangashkan Storage inside one of the large rock formations. Dugtrio and Diglett had hollowed it out for them as a gift after their graduation. I rarely got to see them any more, they were out on explorations and missions all the time. And even when they were here, other younger explorers were crowded around them, asking for autographs and tips.

I sighed and shook my head. We were all assembled for morning briefings and Chatot was talking.

"I have some wonderful news!" he said. Looking in Tim and my direction, he continued, "Upon the Guild master's wishes, we have decided to allow Team Diamond to Graduate from the guild!"

"WHAT?"

"WHAT?"

"WHAT?"

"WHAT?"

"WHAT?"

"WHAT?"

Everyone in the room was talking at once. Tim and I just stood there. He turned to me and said through the ruckus, "Well, Alex. I guess it's time to join Team Sapphire, Aven, Gorgangler and all those others who have graduated over the years in the 'hall of fame,'"

I nodded and looked at Chatot. But I remained silent. I didn't really talk very much anymore- only when necessary. You can probably guess why if you know what happened a year ago.

"Everyone, hush!" Chatot whistled. Everyone returned to their orderly state as Wigglytuff explained.

"Team Diamond will go to a place called Mystifying Forest. At the end of this dungeon, there used to be a spring where Pokémon went to evolve. But because of the time problems we've been having, no one can evolve anymore. Anyway, Team Diamond, you are to go there and get the treasure box that we've already placed there. But be warned," Wigglytuff continued. "In the Mystifying Forest, there lives an evil Master of All Things Bad,"

I rolled my eyes as Tim said, "Good grief. That sounds ridiculous, Guild Master Wigglytuff. We're full-fledged explorers now. How do you expect us to believe a child's story like that?"

"Don't say I didn't warn you," Wigglytuff said. "Ok, everyone else, get to it!"

And with that, everyone else went off to their duties. I looked up at Tim and him at me. "Shall we go get prepared?" He asked.

I nodded and we went out to pack our bags. As we did every day, we went to see if Summer or Quinton were home. Not surprisingly, they weren't. As we were about to depart for the forest with Sikyatavo and Myuki though, Chatot came and chased us down.

"You, did you not hear me? The only ones allowed to go on this exploration are Alex and Timothy!"

"You never said anything about that," Tim said.

"Well I am now," Chatot said. "Only the guild members may accomplish the guild graduation."

Chatot left, leaving us to go back to his duties. I looked at Myuki.

"Uh, no. I've also been sworn to secrecy. Sorry, but I can not tell you anything… Except for that the Grand Master of All Things Bad is real." She said. She looked over to Sikyatavo and he hopped on her back. Together, they flew off.

"Eh. What ever," Tim said. "Are you ready, Alex?" He asked, turning to me. I nodded, so we went out to this Mystifying Forest. We had a little bit of a surprise once we got there.

"Well, what do you know?" Tim said as we approached. "Team Sapphire, so that's where you went!"

"Hey guys!" Quinton said. "What are you doing here?"

"Graduation," Tim said. "And you?"

"We're here to see if we can evolve here yet," Summer said. "And how are things at the guild? We heard that some new teams joined the guild,"

"Yes, Team Discovery and Team Ditto," Tim said. "Not bad for beginners, especially that Ditto team. None to shabby at all,"

"Hey, Alex? Are you ok?" Summer asked. "You haven't spoken a word,"

I looked at her and smiled. "Yes, I am fine, thank you."

"Well, if you say so…" she said. Team Sapphire looked at each other, and then Summer finished off by saying, "Well, we have to go. We'll see you at the end of the dungeon- if you make it past the Grand Master." And thus, they walked off, Summer fake-laughing evilly.

I just looked at Tim and smiled. He said, "You have been rather quiet lately, you know. I like hearing your voice. But I understand."

"I'm sorry," I said. "I just do more thinking than talking these days…" I shook my head, heading out into the forest. Tim was close behind me.

Being a forest, there were a lot of grass-type Pokémon. We had no trouble getting through. Eventually we made it to a clearing. Summer and Quinton were at the end of it, heading further into the forest.

"Hey!" Tim shouted. They turned and waved.

"Hey, the spring is up here!" Summer said. "Come on!"

Tim and I walked out into the middle of the clearing to follow team Sapphire, but before we knew what was happening, we were falling.

We landed on our feet. I looked up. There was no way we could climb out easily. "Pit fall trap," I said. "Should have seen it coming…"

"Looks like we've landed ourselves in another sticky situation," Tim said. "Hey, Summer, Quinton! Can you hear us!" he shouted. There was no reply.

I went over to one of the walls and tried to start climbing. I got about mid-way up before I had to jump down again. "It's no use," I said. "We're stuck until someone comes looking for us,"

Even as I was saying this, something was happening above us. It looked like leaves were being thrown across the opening. Tim swore and said something else, but I wasn't really listening to him. I was thinking, 'I wonder if this is part of the Guild Graduation,' but I didn't say anything to Tim about it. He stood, arms folded, looking up at the piling leaves. Soon we couldn't see anything at all.

"I'm getting angry, you know," Tim said. "Who ever you is…"

"We are HERE!" shouted a voice from my left. I jumped several paces to the right and bumped into something else. I backed up and ran into Timothy. We stood back to back, ready to fight.

"You know that I can see your aura, right?" Timothy said. "I don't know who the in the reverse world you are, but I know where you are!"

"But your friend over there can't. MWAHAHAHA!"

"My hearing more than makes up for that," I growled. "Who are you, anyway?" I asked, but I already had a sneaking suspicion.

"I am… the Grand Master of All Things Bad!" one of the voices said. "And you are in the World of Darkness!"

"You can not see us," said another voice.

"But we have you completely surrounded," said another.

I growled slightly as I heard one of the other beings start to approach. I lashed out with a good Flamethrower, illuminating the pit.

Everyone gasped. The Grand Master turned around. Some of the minions squealed in terror.

Tim and I looked at each other. "Is this… A joke?" I asked the Grand Master. He turned to me and looked me in the eye, but he didn't reply.

"Guild Master, answer my question!" I shouted, taking a step towards him. The Grand Master took a step back. "Wigglytuff!" I shouted. I made my advance on him again. He was backed up against the wall.

The final embers started to die out, so I blew out another Flamethrower towards the ceiling. Some of the leaves caught fire, giving us sufficient light for the remainder of the time.

The Grand Master looked at me, making an angry face. "Who is this Wigglytuff you speak of?" he said, growling.

The other minions started jabbering. One of them (Who looked suspiciously like Sunflora) said, "Oh My Gosh, I don't know of anyone named Sunflora!"

"Everyone!" another minion shouted. "Please, let us get this over with."

"Yes, Cha- I mean, that minion is right!" the Grand Master said. "Come, we will fight!"

"I don't want to hurt you…" I said, getting into an offensive position. "But if it is a battle you want, then it will be a battle you get,"

And so, the fight with the Grand Master of All Things Bad began.

Well, for starters, I let lose a Fire Spin so that it could run around the room to scare off any of the minions who did not appreciate fire. That got rid of at least two of them. Meanwhile, Timothy was taking care of another one of the minions who was really Croagunk. Timothy finally landed a good force-palm on that minion's head. He went down, and then scuttled away.

Next were the two ground-types. They both tried to use Dig on me, but I jumped out of the way and they crashed into each other. Complaining, they dug their way out of the pit. Tim was now working with the Chatot Minion. I joined him.

"This is for all those times that we were treated unfairly!" I shouted as I leapt on the minion's back after a Faint Attack. The minion landed on his back and looked at me with fear-filled eyes. I had him pinned to the ground, my paws on his wings. He gulped.

"Aww, I'm not going to hurt you…" I said. I stepped off of his wings. The minion squawked and flew out of the pit.

"Good, very good," The Grand Master said, stepping out of the shadows. "But you still have yet to face me!"

I never thought I'd see the day where I would fight Wigglytuff. Or at least, a Wigglytuff. Holy smokes, he was one tough cookie! I firstly got a good Fire Spin to curl around him so it would be harder for him to attack. Or so I thought.

Even through the scorching flames, Wigglytuff/Grand Master opened his mouth and let out a Hyper Voice. The Fire Spin sputtered out. I looked up astonished. The Grand Master smirked. "It will take much more than that to take me out!"

Timothy powered up an Aura Sphere and fired it off. I mean while used Faint Attack. The Grand Master barely flinched.

"Now, watch and see how you are supposed to battle!" he roared. He breathed in deeply concentrating. Then, he blew out a huge beam of light.

The Grand Master of all things bad used Hyper Beam.

I blinked slowly and got up. Timothy was knocked down, breathing through his pain. I looked over at Wigglytuff. He was staggering around. I knew that after using that move and some other moves like it, he would not be able to use any moves during the next turn.

I myself was feeling dizzy, but I let lose a strong Fire Blast at the Grand Master of all things bad. He crossed his arms in a defensive position, trying to block out the blast. Eventually, the fire blast pushed him back to the wall. He looked up at me. We were both panting in weariness. We were waiting for one or the other to fall.

A new wave of dizziness passed over me, and I went down on one knee. I looked back up at Wigglytuff. He had started to approach me.

"Are you still conscious?" he asked. I looked at him and nodded. The Grand Master came over to me and patted my head. Then he turned and climbed up a rope that one of the minions had tossed down.

I went over to Timothy who was just starting to get up again. "Did… did we win?"

"I don't know," I said. I looked over to the side. The rope was still dangling from above. Tim and I climbed up to the top and looked around. No one was to be seen any where. So, we decided to continue on to the Luminous Spring.

Summer and Quinton were waiting for us, smiling. "Great job you two," Summer said.

"Wait, you knew what was going on?" Tim asked. Team Sapphire nodded. "Then why didn't you say anything?"

"Uh, hello?" Quinton said. "We're under oath not to tell any other apprentices about the graduation until they have graduated."

"But what about all of the other Guild Members who we fought?"

Summer thought for a moment and then replied, "I think that they will be doing something different for their graduation. But that's only a guess,"

We stood in silence until I remembered something. "We are supposed to bring back some treasure if I'm not mistaken?" I asked.

"Yes," Summer said, "But Wigglytuff usually does a pretty good job of hiding it. We are not allowed to help you find it- not that we even know where it is,"

"Oh, great," Tim said. We started to look around. We each found a box, though. One was richly decorated with gold leaf while the other was simple and wooden we were arguing on which one to open first.

"Here's an idea," I said. I laid one paw on the ornate box and concentrated….. After a short period of time, I switched to the other box. Not even five seconds later did a Dimensional Scream start.

Wigglytuff was holding the plain box, looking around. He seemed to spot a good spot for the box, so he set it down.

The vision ended. Tim was looking at me expectantly. "Well?"

I opened the lid of the plain and simple box. Inside there was a Perfect Apple and a note. Tim read it (because I was still learning how to read their language). "Great Job, Team Diamond, you have found the treasure of the forest! Get it back to the guild as fast as possible- we're waiting for you! ~Guild Master W."

"Hm," was all I could say.

"Well, that's that," Tim said. "Hey, Sapphire, you coming?"

There was no reply from either of them. I looked beyond them to see what held their attention captive.

"This is the Luminous Spring," a mysterious voice said from somewhere nearby. "You may evolve here if you wish,"

All of our jaws dropped to the ground. "E-evolve?" Quinton said. "You're not pulling our legs?"

"I am not the one to 'pull a leg', as you call it," The voice said. "So, have any of you met the requirements to evolve?"

Summer and Quinton immediately stepped up to the plate while Tim and I stood back. "We are ready," they both said.

"One at a time please," The voice said. Quinton nodded to Summer.

"You first…" he said. Summer shook her head, but stepped out into the spring. Quite surprisingly, the water never rippled- she actually was floating on the water. She turned around and smiled in an odd way. It was kind of creepy, actually. A pillar of light shot up from the bottom of the pool.

"Let us begin," the mysterious voice said. I watched closely. Summer closed her eyes. Slowly at first, then faster, she was changing.

Soon, it was over. Summer walked out of the spring. She had a very cocky smile on her face. "Well?"

Quinton whistled. "Wow…" he said. Summer was now an Ivysaur. I wondered blankly why she hadn't fully evolved. Any way, she looked stronger- much stronger. She had gotten taller, too.

"Ok…" Quinton said. "All right. I guess I'm ready," And he took Summer's place in the center of the spring. And, just like, Summer, he evolved.

"Sweetness!" he said. He also had only evolved into the second evolution, but whatever. "Oh, dude! This is awesome!"

Gosh. Needn't go all psycho on us, now…

"Ok, my turn," Tim said.

"Hold your Rapidash, smart one," Summer said. "Both you and Alex have requirements to evolve,"

"Oh," Tim said.

"If I remember right, Tim needs the Sun Scarf and Alex needs a Fire Stone," Quinton said. "I know that we had a Sun Scarf at one point-"

"Oh, please let us use it!" Tim said. "We'll pay what ever you request for it, just please let me use it to evolve!"

So, Summer and Quinton searched through their bags. Finding nothing, they went over to the Kangashkan rock that I had not noticed before.

"Found it!" Sumer said triumphantly. She handed the scarf over to Tim as he reached into our bag to pay her.

"Keep it," Summer said. "Just a little bit of thanks for saving the world," she winked and then turned around. "Ok, Quinton. We have to go,"

"Stay a while," I said. I turned and looked at Tim. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

He nodded. "I'm certain." He then walked out onto the spring, the scarf wrapped around his wrist.

The mysterious voice said, "So, you too wish to evolve?"

Tim nodded. "I'm ready," he said calmly.

"Ok. Let the transformation begin," the voice said. I closed my eyes, imagining the newly evolved Timothy in my mind.

Nothing happened.

"I am sorry. Evolution is impossible for you," the voice said.

"What?" Tim and I both shouted. "Why?"

"It is because of a distortion in the fabric of space, of which you are the cause. But it is not only you. The other one, behind you,"

"Me?" I asked. If I could have seen the owner of the voice, it probably would have nodded.

"There is no need for you to be here any longer," the voice said. "If you wish to evolve, come back when this distortion is fixed." And with that, the light disappeared, leaving the four of us to ponder what had just happened.

"Well, there's nothing we can do about that for now," Quinton said. He gave a small frown. "But that does bother me quite a bit. Oh well. All right, you two had better get off to the guild now. See you later,"

"Oh, yeah. I kind of forgot about that," Tim said. "Ok, let's get back to the guild, Alex,"

"Congratulations!" Chatot whistled. "You have done it! You passed Guild Master Wigglytuff's Graduation Exam!"

We were all assembled in the lower level of the guild, and every one was patting us on the back and congratulating us on such a good job.

"Yep!" Wigglytuff said. "You beat the Grand Master of all things bad and brought back the treasure of Luminous Spring!"

"But that's the thing," I said. "How would you know that we beat the Grand Master? We never told you anything."

Complete silence. Somewhere, there was a Kriketune chirping.

"Well?" Tim said. Wigglytuff thought for a while, then said,

"Who is this Grand Master of all things bad that you speak of? I've never heard of such a thing,"

"Oh no, not this again," I mumbled. Not surprisingly, everyone had their own excuses for it- including Sunflora's 'Oh my gosh! I don't know any Minions!'

I just shook my head and smiled. "Well, now what?"

"Now that you've graduated," Chatot said, "You are no longer restricted by the Guild's harsh training regimen, you no longer have a specific time to get up every morning, and more dungeons are open to your team!"

"What about payment?" I asked. "Do we still pay the guild 90% of our profits?"

"No, that does not change at all," Chatot said. "Because you are still affiliated with the guild in that you graduated from this guild, you still have to pay up 90% of your earnings for every job that you do,"

"Well, then this is just like still being at the guild!" Tim said.

"No it's not!" Wigglytuff said. "Graduating from any of the guilds is a very special occasion! Don't forget that!"

"Whatever you say, sir," I mumbled. I took a deep breath. But yeah, Tim was right. It was if nothing had really changed. The only difference was that now we had to feed ourselves for dinner, we no longer had an alarm clock, and we could no longer sleep at the guild.

The last problem was soon fixed, though. After grabbing the few belongings that we kept with us in the guild, we moved to the perfect location- Sharpedo Bluff.

"Well, Alex. Welcome to Home Sweet Home," Tim said. I was surprised when he scooped me up and carried me over the thresh-hold. He deposited me at the bottom of the stairs leading down into the cavern and looked around. "Hey, look here," Tim said.

I looked in the general direction he had pointed. The stacks of old newspapers still stood in a corner. "Remember?" Tim said, picking one up gently. It ripped a little bit as he did. "Marowak gave these to us…"

I went over to the other pile and picked up another paper. The front page had a date from over thirty years ago. I read the head-lines. Not that well, mind you; I was still learning how to read and write. "Team Topaz Run out of Town," I finally managed to read. I passed it to Tim to read the rest of it out loud.

"Team Topaz, a recently formed Rescue Team, was run out of town early this morning by the mobs of Pokémon threatening to toss them in jail. The riot was started soon after they appeared in the main square. Team Meanie's Gengar had been telling the legend of Ninetails, and had stated flatly that Team Topaz's own Toni was the human from the story. Go to page A2 for the legend of Ninetails."

"Well, go on," I said.

"Can't," Tim said. "Newspaper's ripped,"

"Well then, I guess we'll have to go and see Sensei Marowak about that." I said. I was just about to leave when Tim grabbed me.

"Hold on, Alex," He said. "Before we go, let's see if we can find any more clues. Ok?"

"Yeah, what ever," I said. So, for the rest of the day, we sifted through old news papers, reading of the exploits of Team Topaz. Most of it was pretty interesting, too, but it is too long to put in this story. Perhaps next time I'll tell you, Chase.

By the time we were done, it was the middle of the night. We ended up falling asleep and not waking up until late the next morning. The buzz of the town was the fact that Luminous Spring was operating again. Teddiursa had evolved into Ursaring but now it was hard to tell her from her boyfriend. We went to go see Marowak, but according to the rest of the town, she had left several days ago to go on a journey. The dojo had been closed for the time being.

Well, other than that, we just went on a rescue/outlaw mission with Myuki and Sikyatavo out to some plains beyond Mt. Bristle. Then another mission the next day, another two the day after that.

At some point in this time, we did buy a Thunderstone from a Keckleon Store in a dungeon. After that, poor Sikyatavo kept begging for us to let him go evolve from Pichu into Pikachu, and then use the Thunderstone to get to Raichu. We discussed it as a group in the Café, and we decided to go ahead and let him evolve. I mean, for a Pichu, the move set he had was pretty good- Volt Tackle, Discharge, Quick-attack, and Thunderbolt. Really not bad at all. So, after we were done at the café, we headed over to Luminous Spring. And there, Sikyatavo was evolved into Raichu.

Well, not even a week later, Myuki and Sikyatavo ran off and supposedly got married. We didn't see them for about a month, but some very interesting things happened in that one month.