"No." Scarlet eyes widened and then looked away. Instantly I felt terrible, "It's because of two things. One I don't know what an exploration team is and two I don't even know who I am! Only my name..." Scarlet looked back,

"What is your name?"

"Marcus." I sighed, and Scarlet thought for a second before brightening up again.

"I know what could help, at least come with me to Marblewell town," Scarlet asked, looking hopefully at me. I looked at her, she looked rather upset, she was really hopeful for this. I sighed, and looked down again at my four silver stumps. If there was a chance that by going with Scarlet I could find out more about myself then I would go with her. But… there was something else in the back of my mind, and whenever I tried to think about it, I lost my train of thought. Scarlet looked at me again with those large eyes and I sighed,

"Ok." I forced a smile out, and Scarlet's tail wagged happily and she leapt around,

"Yay! Thank you Marcus. I promise we will find more about you, as soon as we can..As a matter of fact, I think I know someone who might know about it…" She turned around and walked away still muttering in thought, I rushed after not wanting to be left behind.

As we got out of the dungeon, I found my thoughts wandering as I followed the little black fox. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't remember anything about myself before I woke up here, in this strange world. It was terrifying, the change was unexpected and to be honest, I was trembling in fear about what could happen, maybe I would be stuck here, what about them, they'll miss me, I just want to see them again, more than anything, I will do anything.

The journey was long and arduous; it all seemed like the same thing, follow the carved path which is lined with trees. It was boring and felt like an eternity, Scarlet luckily seemed to know exactly where she was going so I followed her and hoped she didn't get us hopelessly lost, my sense of direction was pretty terrible.

Being quadrupedal took a lot of getting used to and I did fall over a several times, but I seemed to be getting the hang of it. A few other pokemon were minding their own business as we continued our business.

During our journey, the sky went from blue to orange as the sunset glowed over the world, luckily, time was just like Earth, no messed up time schedules for me. I thought with a small laugh, Scarlet looked back, and gave me a strange look before turning away again. In the distance was what appeared to be a city, with towering buildings, with the backdrop of mountains that were black against the sky. It looked like something out of a movie, and a bad one at that. As we got closer and closer, I felt a strange sense of Deja-vu as we neared the town, and nearly bumped into Scarlet when she stopped. With a grin on her face, Scarlet gestured to the town.

"Welcome to Marblewell." She said happily, looking at me, watching my reaction.

"Well, it certainly isn't small," I said chuckle. Walking forward, I looked at the gate that protected the town from creatures that could harm them. It wasn't ornate yet it wasn't shabby, it was average, made of a metal of some kind, maybe iron or steel. As I gazed up at the gate, I nearly walked into another creature, but at the last moment I spun out of the way to avoid hitting it,

"Watch it there kid." Starting from the feet, I raised my head so I could look at the face of the huge creature. It was like a lion, with a jet black mane and blue fur elsewhere. His face was stony and rather intimidating. When I looked away, I noticed a scar that ran down to his paw on the front leg. I looked to Scarlet to see if she would give me any direction, but she was just standing there gazing up at the black and blue lion. There was a deep laugh, and a two-legged creature walked over, it too had black and blue fur but also had white fur around its chest. I noticed, that on the back of its hand, there were spikes but one was shattered on the left. I heard it laugh again and it looked down at me,

"Hello there little one," He gave a hearty laugh and patted his friend on the back,

"Be nice Slant, these kids are just a little lost, we could always help them around!" The creature smiled at us and Scarlet's eyes gleamed,

"T-t-t-team Hunter?" She seemed bewildered and shuddered on the spot.

"The one and only," the bipedal creature said happily, puffing out his chest,

"Don't mind Lucky's boisterous nature," The one called Slant said with a glance up to his partner. Scarlet walked over, and joined me looking up at the tall people.

"Hey...who's Team Hunter?" I whispered to Scarlet.

"WHO'S TEAM HUNTER?!" Scarlet screamed, "THEY AREN'T JUST ONE OF THE BEST EXPLORATION TEAMS THIS SIDE OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM!" She berated me and I looked at her with a deadpan face,

"I've been here for three hours," I looked at her.

"Oh."

"Yeah," Scarlet gave an apologetic smile, and then turned back to Team Hunter who had heard the outburst. The two pokemon looked down at Scarlet with a grin on their faces. I swear her cheeks went as red as a tomato.

"Anyway, want us to show you to the guild?" Lucky asked with a grin,

"Please," Scarlet blushed and looked at them hopefully,

"Well come on " Slant said, gesturing with his head in the direction of what I assumed was the guild. We set off in whatever direction Slant and Lucky were taking us, Scarlet looked at them with sheer adoration, claiming the ground they walked on was sacred and should not be desanctified. I gave her a weird look, but she ignored me and trotted along behind the limping Slant.

The city was impressive, it looked like a futuristic metropolis, the sun glinted off the metallic buildings while they towered high above the group. Behind all the metal buildings was a giant mountain along with a large clock tower, it looked old and stood out from the entire collection of other buildings.

As we neared the mountain, the sun continued to descend behind the horizon, until we were left in darkness. I was surprised that I could still see clearly, although with the lack of visible light.

"Where are we going?" I asked, confusedly looking behind us as we left the confines of the city gates. Slant turned around, and smiled.

"We're taking you two to the Nido Guild."

"Why is it called Nido Guild?" I asked intrigued by the strange name. Lucky laughed, and answered the question.

"Because it's run by Nidoqueen and Nidoking, and they couldn't choose which name to use, so they used Nido Guild."

"Oooh." It didn't really help me much, but I nodded and pretended I understood. We walked in silence for the rest of the way, until I noticed a path in the mountain. Feeling small in the shadow of the mountain, we started to head up the rocky path.

I looked over and noticed that Scarlet had started to shake. I sped up slightly, and walked up to her.

"Are you ok?" I asked, and she gave a nodded and she gulped.

"Yeah. It's just like before in the mystery dungeon, I had tried this before but I chickened out at the last moment." she gulped again, and I gave her a sad smile. Looking at me, she gave a quick shake of the head. "But I can't today. Not this time, especially not with Team Hunter,"

she gave a grin. "Thanks for joining an exploration team with me Marcus," she looked at me and I nodded.

"No problem."

"You two, we're here." I gazed up, to see another gate, however this one was carved into the Rock of the mountain, and inside was darkness. Just in front of the door was a handle and a door knocker. Lucky stepped forward and took it in one hand and hit it against the door. After a couple of seconds, a metal object shaped like an eye on a stalk popped out of a slot in the wall. It shot out a red laser and scanned Lucky; two beeps sounded and Slant stepped up to the scanner and the red laser scanned him too. Once the two beeps went off, Slant gestured for us to step up to scanner.

Scarlet eagerly stepped up to the scanner and the laser covered her body. She grinned but her face turned into one of horror as the scanner emitted a long beep.

"Am I not allowed to become an explorer?" she asked with tears in her eyes, she looked up at Team Hunter hopefully.

"Of course you, it's just recognising you as someone unseen so the guildmaster's assistant is coming to check you out." Lucky explained, crouching down to the Zorua's level. Her face instantly brightened up and I couldn't help but smile, she looked so happy.

Right on cue, an Absol came out of the gate, they studied us and nodded before walking back into the guild. I raised what would've been my eyebrow and followed. Team Hunter went behind us while we stared in amazement at the stone corridors of the guild. It was many winding corridors made of stone. Doors lined the walls and noises sounded from within a few of them.

We went up a staircase and so many pokemon were in the chamber, it was like a lobby of sorts. Boards hung around the room and people socialized in corners. Food was set up in a corner as a forms of refreshment of sorts. A window was on a side wall, causing moonlight to flood in. It was surprising that so many people were up so late.

As soon as Slant and Lucky walked in, everyone looked overjoyed, they all cheered and swarmed the duo. Lucky laughed and accepted the hugs and hi-fives while Slant looked a little annoyed and just let everyone hug them. It was clear who was the most people friendly.

The Absol rolled its eyes and pulled us away towards a door.

"This leads to the guildmaster's quarters, just wait here while I fetch them," the Absol knocked on the door and went in. Scarlet turned to me, her eyes full of worry.

"What if the guildmasters say no," She asked nervously, looking down at the floor.

"I'm sure they won't," I said, not even sure of myself. "I'm sure,"

HEY! So this is chapter two and the introduction of Slant and Lucky, as well as a random Absol. Slant and Lucky were sent in by Reaper of Books and we are very thankful for that :D They are awesome! Hopefully grammar was slightly better, if it wasn't blame her! Lol JK it was both our fault and I hope that it has improved, if it hasn't then I don't care, stop reading the damn thing :) Well thanks, we still need OCs such as Guild Members and random people around town, thank you very much and remember to review!