~ Nightmare Guild ~


PART ONE: PRE-GAME

»̶✽«̶


Chapter One: Dream Guild

"...Wow."

Team Overgrow was standing before a castle that was better known as Dream Guild. Although they were still standing outside the hedge that kept the whole world outside, they could see that saying that the guild was a castle in itself wasn't an overstatement. Even the hedge looked beautiful.

Breloom was glancing past Lombre when he realized that she was holding her white Flying V guitar.

"Are ya nuts?" he exclaimed. "Ya brought your guitar here?!"

She tossed her head. "Well, yeah," she said. "What? It's my guitar and it's entirely up to me whether I decide to bring it or not."

Treecko rolled his eyes and led them into the front yard.

The building in the distance was a soft creamy-yellow color. There was a main building, which they were now walking to, and two long buildings that stretched out of either side of it. It had a green roof and red and green banners at the front.

That was when Cleffy glimpsed something coming at them from the sky. She looked up...

And saw a Staraptor flying over their heads before landing on the lawn not far away from them. Then two Pokémon hopped off his back: a Froslass and a Roselia. The Roselia was grumbling about how Staraptor shouldn't have done acrobats in the sky since it gave him the creeps when he noticed Breloom's team.

"Team Overgrow!" he exclaimed happily, showing a sudden change of emotion. Then he started to run over with his teammates bringing up the rear.

"Well, what do ya know. Team Red Bow was also invited," Breloom said, smirking as Cleffy's whole face went fire engine red. For as long as anyone remembered, Cleffy has had a huge and obvious crush on the Roselia.

The Roselia screeched to a halt in front of Breloom's team. "Bonjour!" he said. "I didn't know you were also invited."

"Hi Roselio!" Breloom exclaimed. "We didn't know ya were invited, either."

By this time, Froslass and Staraptor had reached them too.

"Good morning," Froslass said shortly, being the very quiet girl she is.

As for Staraptor, he exclaimed, "Breloom, Lombre, Treecko, and Cleffy are here too? This is gonna be a fricking huge house party! Awesome!"

"House party?" Froslass frowned in disapproval. "I do hope that you remember the main reason why we came here-"

She was interrupted by the arrival of yet another team.

"BRELOOM!" a Magnemite shouted as he raced in through the archway. "Breloombreloombreloombreloom! You're here! Bzzzzt! Yay! We're gonna train together in the next seven days! Yay! Bzzzt!"

"Magnemite. Slow down!"

A Riolu, a Machop and a Tyrogue were running breathlessly to keep up with a small Magnemite. Riolu was shouting irritatedly. Machop was shouting happily. Tyrogue was silent.

"Team DynamicPunch is also here?" Treecko wondered. "Wow. Before we know it, this guild will be filled with all our friends."

The Magnemite had taken a liking to Breloom since Thunderwave Cave and now looked up to Breloom like a little brother. By this time he had reached Breloom, and was beaming happily imagining the seven days to come.

"Hello," Riolu said breathlessly when he finally caught up, followed by Machop and Tyrogue. Riolu, the leader of Team DynamicPunch, is a Pokémon who is sometimes a bit annoying with his "I know better than you do" attitude. Machop, although he's the same age as the others, is very childish. Tyrogue is the most sensible one in the team.

Since Team DynamicPunch and Team Red Bow had never met before, Treecko introduced the two teams.

"Bonjour! Hello," said Roselio in his usual friendly, happy-go-lucky manner, both in English and in his mother tongue.

Froslass merely nodded.

Staraptor said, "Nice to meet you guys!"

...That was when a shadow fell over them. Treecko looked up and saw a Drifblim carrying three Pokémon.

"Told you this guild would be full of our friends," he said to Lombre. "Here comes Team PokéPark now."

The Drifblim landed on the ground and his three passengers hopped down. Roselio noticed them and ran right over, shouting, "Hey! Oshawott, Snivy, Tepig! You three were also invited?"

Yep. Staraptor's house party was about to come true, for sure.

⌣»̶✽«


With Team Overgrow, Team Red Bow, Team DynamicPunch, and Team PokéPark at the Dream Guild, the party was complete. Although Team PokéPark also hadn't met Team DynamicPunch before, it didn't take long for them to hook up with one another. After all the introductions had been made, they went into the Dream Guild itself through the giant double doors.

Which was strangely empty.

The entry hall was actually grand with shiny marble floors and towering pillars. There was a Sphinx statue in the center and bulletin boards and a set of metal doors on the far wall. However, no one was there.

"Umm, isn't Guildmaster C or someone else supposed to be welcoming us?" Riolu said haughtily.

"Or at least meeting us," Tepig offered. Unlike the team leader Oshawott who is action- (and Snivy-) loving, Tepig is timid and docile. However, he values honesty above anything else.

Staraptor glanced at Froslass. "Are you sure you got the date right?"

Froslass looked offended. Since she is a widely-proclaimed genius and a lover of science and rationality as well as a mechanic-savvy, she is very detail-oriented and is hardly ever wrong. "Of course I did not. Even if I got the date wrong, which I am not saying I did, then I suppose the other teams must have gotten it wrong, too?"

"Maybe the guildmaster just isn't ready yet?" Cleffy suggested uncertainly. "Maybe he's gonna come out soon?"

"Maybe," Treecko said coolly. "That means we wait." And the cool, calm, and collected Wood Gecko leaned against the wall with his arms folded in front of him. Waiting.


45 minutes later

"OK, I'm officially done waiting," Riolu complained loudly. "What now? I have a feeling this Guildmaster C isn't going to come out in the near future."

"Maybe..." Oshawott gasped. "This could be a prank!"

As you can see, Samurott's right-hand Pokémon gets suspicious very quickly. His brain is always thinking up conspiracy theories, unlike his teammate and crush Snivy, the princess of PokéPark's Arbor Area. Although she is cold-hearted and has a bit of a spoiled demeanor, she is laid-back and quick-witted.

"Of course not," she scoffed. "Why would he pull a prank on us? The letter he sent us was too sophisticated-looking to be a prank."

"Well, instead of arguing here, why don't we use the time to look around?" Tyrogue said. His message was clear: he thought the argument was silly. Yes, Tyrogue has common sense, and he has lots of it.

"Great idea! Who needs the guildmaster to have an adventure?!" Machop chimed in. Although he is Tyrogue's best friend, Machop is different from him in many obvious ways. "I can't WAIT to explore this guild!"

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Following Tyrogue's advice to look around instead of sitting around doing nothing, they went into the corridor on the left of the entry hall and into the left wing. That was where they discovered the rooms they were to stay in for the next seven days.

Since there were two corridors branching out of the entry hall and fourteen Pokémon, there would be seven rooms in each corridor. They found that each room had been assigned to one Pokémon. In the left wing which they'd gone into, they saw the rooms of Lombre, Riolu, Magnemite, Treecko, Froslass, and Oshawott.

At the end of this wing, there were a library and a lab, to Froslass' silent delight. (Meanwhile, Riolu rolled his eyes and muttered under his breath, "Maybe this is a guild for nerds."). And in the very corner near the lab and library, they found Roselio's room.

"Why is my room here? It's way far from the others'," Roselio groaned.

Staraptor sneered. "Maybe Guildmaster C just wants you to suffer," he teased.

On going into the right wing this time, they found the rooms of Breloom, Cleffy, Tepig, Snivy, Machop, and Staraptor. And at the end of it, there was a huge training gym and a small storage room... And Tyrogue's bedroom.

"Don't worry, at least you won't be suffering alone," Staraptor told Roselio. "Tyrogue's room is far from the others' too." Fortunately, Tyrogue was sensible, so he kept silent.

The door at the far end of the entry hall turned out to lead into the mess hall. There was a long aluminium table you'd find in a cafetaria. On the left there was another door that led into the kitchen, and inside there was another storage room.

And yet they were still waiting for Guildmaster C.

"If he doesn't appear in five minutes, we're outta here," Riolu said to Team DynamicPunch as the others looked at one another, thinking whether or not they should go home too.

That was when they heard the announcement.

A deep voice from the speakers on the corners blared out, "Greetings rescue team Pokémon, and welcome to Dream Guild. This is Guildmaster C. I offer you the sincerest apologies for getting in touch with you late, but I hope you have finished looking around and that you all are pleased with the facilities here at Dream Guild."

"I do have to admit that the facilities here are top-notch," Froslass said, still pleased with the library and the lab.

The others nodded. "OK, this place is pretty good," even Riolu had to admit.

But then things were doomed to go downhill.

"Ah. It's my pleasure to see that you are all satisfied with the place," said Guildmaster C. "That's because it is a vital part in the program you will be participating in. First of all, I need to offer another apology. I know that the letter said seven days, but I'm afraid that is an understatement, fufufu..."

"Huh?" Oshawott's eyes darkened. He didn't like Guildmaster C's sudden strange laugh at all.

"The truth is, this is the place where you'll be spending the rest of your lives."

"Haha. Very funny," Riolu rolled his eyes.

"Fufufu, I know this must sound like a joke, but I'm assuring you this isn't. The door has been programmed to permanently lock once all of you have entered."

"Wh... What's the big idea? You must be fibbing," Staraptor snapped, trying to convince himself that Guildmaster C was joking. However, he had a strange sense of foreboding that he wasn't.

"I'm telling the truth. Fufufu, go ahead and try the door if you don't believe me."

Breloom immediately ran out of the room and jiggled the handle of the double doors that led outside. When he returned, the others could see plainly that his face was pale. "He ain't kidding," he said grimly. "The door really is locked but I don't see any keyholes. And that door is indestructible."

Staraptor turned with wide eyes to look at the speaker. "What's the big idea?!" he repeated.

"Like I said earlier, all of you are going to participate in a program," Guildmaster C continued, "that involves living here for the rest of your lives. You have to live here in peace and harmony without contact with the outside world."

"That's stupid!" Riolu yelled. "That's the most crappy joke I've ever heard!"

"Fufufu... Going out of this guild is theoretically impossible," Guildmaster C went on without paying heed to Riolu's protests. "Unless..."

"Unless what?" Tepig asked.

"Unless you graduate from Dream Guild."

"If that is the case, very well," Froslass said quickly. She was that type of person who didn't have anything to worry about when it comes to any kind of graduation. "And how exactly do we graduate?"

"It's simple, fufufufu~! You just have to be the last one standing."

Now Froslass looked much less sure. "In what?" Tepig asked cautiously.

"In an all-out killing spree~!" was the breezy reply.

...

...

...

I don't know what your reaction would be if you were there too, but for one thing, Riolu burst out laughing.

"That's nuts," he cackled. "You crack me up, Guildmaster. That's the funniest joke I've ever heard!"

However, the others, who seemed to believe what Guildmaster C was saying, looked grim - even Magnemite, who was morphologically emotionless. Now he looked the most grim-faced of all.

Guildmaster C easily ignored Riolu again. "You simply have to be the last one alive. So as you can see, only one of you will graduate from the guild, only one of you will see the outside world again."

"That's PREPOSTEROUS!" Oshawott burst out. "You can't do that!"

"Silly otter, I actually can, because I'm the guildmaster," Guildmaster C said, "and there's nothing you can do about it but cope with it. You have two choices: either you live harmoniously, or you try to be the Graduate. Fufufu, if it's the latter, go find yourselves some weapons and let's see some blood, shall we?"

And the speaker went silent.