"HEY! RISE and SHINE, ROOKIES!"

"HOLY SHIT WE'RE UNDER ATTACK! BATTLE STATIONS! BATTLE STATIONS! "

That was the first thing I heard in the morning, along with the crackle of a fire. I would've freaked, had I not been too drowsy to think.

"Nnngh...My poor ears..." I whimpered.

"H-HEY! WATCH it! Get those other two UP already!"

I rolled over, sat up, and looked at the source of noise with my eyes half-open.

"Wha...What's going on? Who's there?"

"I'm LOUDRED. I'm a former APPRENTICE here at the guild! And I'M not getting in any TROUBLE just because you two slept in LATE! If the guildmaster gets ANGRY cause of that— "WHOO-WHEE! It gives me goose bumps just THINKING about it! ANYWAY, I'm not waiting for you to get yourselves into TROUBLE! So GET IN GEAR!" He boomed, and stomped out.

I shook my head to straighten my bearings, and stretched out. Boy, I never woke up to anyone's voice like that since—actually, I've never heard a voice that loud.

Hearing that Pablo as a human reminded me of a story I've heard. I remember it was about a human, who, like Pablo, had been turned into a pokémon on this world. He was destined to save the world, and once it was fulfilled, he returned back to his own world. I never got his name, so I didn't really know much else about him.

Pablo was standing in somewhat of a battle stance, with an utterly confused look on his face: well, at least he was present. Roy's bed was empty. Where the heck did he—ah, there he was. Clinging to the ceiling like a Golbat.

"What...the...hell was THAT?! What was that guy's problem?!" Pablo growled, rubbing his head.

"I think...that was our morning wake-up call?" I muttered, as Roy dropped from the ceiling onto his feet. "He said something about being late—oh yeah!"

I snapped back to my senses. "We became apprentices at Wigglytuff's guild! So, that means—"

Silence.

"...OH FUDGE! We slept in!" Pablo blurted, and suddenly shoved us out the door. "Move it, noobs! Move it!"

"You're LATE, rookies!" Loudred shouted at us.

"Hey! Don't make me come over there." Pablo growled.

"Loudred! Hush! Your voice is ridiculously loud!"

Loudred grumbled as Chatot settled back onto his post next to Wigglytuff, who stood before the entire group.

"All right, Wigglytuff! Everyone's here! Now, will you address the crew for us?"

"...Zzzzzzz...*snort*...Zzzzzzz..."
Several pokémon snickered upon hearing Wigglytuff's loud snoring.

"Is he...asleep?" I asked.

"I don't know. Looks like it."

"Isn't this guy the BEST?" a Diglett whispered to us.

"The guildmaster never seizes to amaze me!" A Dugtrio added.

"So he IS asleep." Pablo confirmed.

"Yup. It LOOKS like he's wide awake." A southern sounding voice came from the crowd.

"Eek! He's asleep, but his eyes are wide open! How disgusting!" A high-pitched Sunflora said to a Chimeco.

Chatot finally spoke up nervously. "Thank you, guildmaster! Thank you for your—er... words of wisdom! Remember, everyone, you must take your guildmaster's words to heart!"

"...Is that a trick-statement, or what?" I heard Roy whisper.

"And lastly! Everyone, remember your cheers!" Chatot finished.

"A-ONE! A-TWO! AND A-ONE-TWO-THREE!"

"ONE!" Everyone started in unison.

"Don't shirk work!"

"TWO! Run away and pay!"

"And THREE! Smiles go for miles!"

"Okay pokémon!" The parrot announced, "Time to get to work!"

"Hooray!"

Well, that was interesting. Some pokémon screaming in my ear was supposed to be a WAKE-UP CALL? That was probably the only thing I would've regretted working here for.

"...Um...What should we do now?" Ty asked nervously.

"I dunno. Maybe we should be getting to work, too?"

"Well, of course you're getting to work today!" Chatot suddenly squawked. "Come along, we'll see to your first assignment right away."

He ushered us to follow him upstairs, then showed towards the bulletin board on the left-hand wall as we came up.

"This is the Job Notice board, where pokémon from various parts of the continent post job requests. Now, you know that the flow of time has become corrupt, and since then, jobs here are difficult to manage, correct?"

"Right." Ty said, making sure I got the message, too. "And, because of that, more bad pokémon have been breaking out, right?"

"Wait, the flow of time's corrupted? As in hours and minutes? How is that possible?"

"Nobody knows for certain," Chatot explained, "but that's why there are a number of exploration teams attempting to find the cause. And, also, with time going out of control, there have been a recent outbreak of mystery dungeons."

"So, Pablo, remember that place we got my relic fragment back from?"

"I know, I know. That was a mystery dungeon. I already know everything about those. You told me yourself, remember?"

"Oh, yeah." Ty replied sheepishly. "Sorry, guess I got a little caught up with everything, I forgot I'd already told you."

"So, I'm guessing we'll be doing jobs in mystery dungeons?"

"Exactly!" Chatot sang. "That makes it easier for me to explain! Now, let's see if we can find a job that fits your standards."

Chatot scanned through the job posts, till a small one caught his eye.

"Let's see...Ah! Here we go! Here's your first assignment."

Ty and I both looked at what looked like a poorly written note. And oh, how poorly written it was. Since Roy was too short to see the paper, I started reading it aloud:

"Hi! My name's Spoink! An outlaw ran off with my most prized possession, my pearl, and hid it somewhere. That pearl to me is life itself! If I don't get it back, I don't what I'd do! I've heard it was sighted at a peak of a watery Bluff—"

"Oh, I don't like where this is going." I muttered.

Ty acted like he didn't listen to me, and said, "Just finish reading."

"It's a very unsafe place, and I'm too scared to go down there. Could you retrieve it for me? I beg for your help, exploration members! From – Spoink. "

"...Wait a minute. That's IT? We just have to find some lost item!? That doesn't sound like fun at all!"

Ty's eyes sparkled. "I want something with a little more adventure involved! Finding treasure, exploring unknown places: things like that!"

Chatot's expression quickly turned into a glare, and he snapped Ty out of his daydream. "Hush! It's important that both of you pay your dues! Now, let me run this by you again, just so the rules stick: if one of you is defeated in a mystery dungeon, you'll both be kicked out, and you'll lose half your money and at least half of your items in the process! If that happens, you'll be brought back here. So never throw caution to the wind, lest you have a death wish!"

Ty swallowed a lump of shock in his throat and replied, stammering: "Yes, Chatot."

Chatot returned to his normal expression, then finished "Well, if you know what your job is, I suppose you get to it. Off you go!"

"Wait a minute—"

"C'mon, Ty." Roy chuckled, gripping the exploration bag in his mouth, and tossing it over Ty's shoulder, before he even noticed. "It doesn't have to be all about treasure all the time."

"Huh—wha—h-hey!"

"Yeah, Ty! Don't be selfish!" I teased, pushing him towards the exit.

Ty pulled out the wonder map as we left the guild.

"This is Drenched Bluff, right over here." He pointed to a small ridge of rock next to the beach, the one where we probably first met.

"So, that's obviously a mystery dungeon too, right?" Roy asked.

"That goes without saying. It's just a few miles west of Beach Cave. We'll just make our way from there—are you ok?"

Ty noticed I was looking down at my feet as we walked from the Guild.

"Oh, I'm fine. Let's go."

"Hey, Pablo." Ty asked, as we reached Drenched Bluff's entrance. "Did we try on any of our gear, yet?"

"Not yet. Hang on a sec."

I pulled out the Guts Scarf, and helped fasten it around Roy's neck.

"This will bump up my attacks quite nicely!" He stated proudly, while I pulled out the bow—what was left of it, at least.

"Huh? Hey, wasn't that a bow earlier?" Ty asked.

"Yeah, it was. But bows aren't really my thing, so I undid it and made it an aura scarf—or, bandanna, in my case. So—"

I tied the cloth around my neck, and showed it off. "—How do I look?"

"You look like a charmander with a scarf." Roy chuckled.

"You look great, I guess. But, are you sure that's even allowed?"

"Don't worry! It's our stuff, now, so we can do whatever we want with it."

I turned to face the entrance of the bluff.

"Now let's get this over with...It's probably going to be a long trip."

Drenched Bluff, BF 1

"Ugh...Ty!"

"What?

"I'm hungry!"

"We just got here! *sigh* I'm sorry, we don't have any food on us right now, so can you hold out a little longer?"

Drenched Bluff, sadly, held true to its name. The inside of this bluff was just as cold as Beach Cave, only it had lots of soggy moss covering the rocky floor. And, yes, it was very difficult for me to avoid stepping in it.

No sooner had I waddled several paces behind Ty, I felt something sticky attach to my foot. I tried shaking it off, but it wouldn't budge. I sat down and yanked the thing off my foot to see it up close.

Great. I thought. A rock. Something to ease my trouble. I can probably chuck this at—hold on...

"Guys! Oh, guys! ~ "

"What? What's the matter?"

"I found it! I found the pearl! ~ " I proudly pulled up the object for the both of them to see.

Ty and Roy ran back to me, and inspected the object I found. Ty shook his head.

"No, No. A Spoink pearl is always pink, unless it's a shiny one. You just found a wonder orb."

"Oh. Never mind."

"Wait, wait, wait!"

I was about to toss the orb away, but Ty quickly grabbed my wrist to stop me.

"That orb might be of some use to us. Just put it in here in case we need it, later."

Ty opened the exploration bag's front pocket, and I stuffed the orb inside. "Let's keep going. There's no food on this part of the dungeon, and there's a chance we might get stuck here."

I sighed whole-heartedly, and trudged through the muck. I wasn't afraid to go in these dungeons all by myself. It's just, how come I felt like I was going nowhere with this exploration? And if I did go with someone, why would I go with no one else other than Ty?

It's probably because he was the one I trusted the most. So, why not? I mean it's not like we were going anywhere, anytime soon.

0~0~0

I wasn't expecting an exploration job to be so challenging. Not just Shellos anymore, but Lileep, Anorith, and Chingling tried to confuse us on the remaining floors. Fortunately, Roy's electric-type attacks made short work of them. We encountered most wild pokémon separately, too, so it was usually a short fight. I didn't mind taking on wild pokémon by myself; after all, I knew that I had two friends who could help me when I needed it. Of course, they needed help, too.

"ROY!" I hollered, from another room.

Pablo and I were still fighting off two Lileep and a Chingling on the fifth floor. They didn't seem tougher than us, but they still had him outnumbered. Plus, it was an unfair match-up against a fire- and fighting-type.

"A little help here!" Pablo shouted, desperately using ember to take down a lileep, who countered with constrict.

"I'm on it! Just get outta the way!"

"What are you—?"

"Shock Wave!" he shouted, tensing his fur up with electricity and launching three beams of light blue electricity it at the Chingling and the other two pokémon, zapping all three of them at once. In that one move, all three were down.

Pablo stood up, stared at the remaining current of the attack, and asked, "How'd you learn to do that?"

"My Dad gave me a TM for that move. It's one of my best electric-type moves so far, especially on water. There's a chance that these Lileep here come in packs, so if you wanna leave, let's get going."

"In a minute!" Pablo shouted, running toward the back of the room. "I spyeth an apple betwixt the shrubbery!"

"Uh...is he always like this?" Roy asked me, as Pablo departed for the piece of fruit.

"Hey, what do you expect? We'd just met, after all."

0-0-0

Drenched Bluff Peak

"Ha! I thought this would be way harder than Chatot said it was! All the enemies here were cakewalk!" I boasted, taking another bite of the apple.

"Heh, that's funny. I thought you were still afraid of water-types."

"Yuck it up all you want, Roy." I chuckled. "Just remember, you're yucking to the leader of this team."

I dusted myself off, and observed the room we came into. We were in a rather open-domed room, and, thank Arceus, no mud around. There was also a rather large fountain at the top of a hill in the center, but I veered away from that, having gotten enough water in my system for once.

I felt my foot hit something, and heard a faint rolling, then a small splash. I accidentally kicked another orb into—wait. That thing was pink. That had to be—

"Hey guys! I found the pearl!"

I got on my knees and attempted to reach out for it, while trying to avoid touching the water.

"Well, c'mon!" Ty said, walking over. "Just grab it!"

"I-I can't! It's too far away."

"It's only a few feet from your hand! Are you going in the water or not?"

"Stop that! You're not helping!" I snapped.

"Well, you're the leader. So what if you're a fire-type? Weren't you brave the first time I met you?"

"That was a different story! Now you're asking me to—"

"Ugh! Just let me do it!"

There was an awkward silence as Roy walked up toward the pool, hopped in, and waddled through the water. Then, almost instinctively, he swiped his tail upwards at the pearl, flicking it out of the water, and let it roll at Ty's feet.

"There. That easy." Roy said, as Ty picked up the pearl and put it in the bag.

"Easy for you to say...anyway, we've got our client's item. Let's get back to the Guild before the mutant Feebas start showing up."

Back at the guild...

"...Hang on...Here ya go!"

Spoink started bouncing around, humming a little tune while enjoying the reunion with his lost little ball.

"Thanks so much for finding my pearl! I don't know what I would've done without it!"

"Well, we got soaked just looking for it, so we can thank you for that later." Pablo said jokingly.

I lightly slapped him on the back of the head, then put a paw behind my neck, saying, "Aw, it was nothing, really. We're just happy we could help out."

"Oh! I almost forgot! Here's your reward!"

Spoink gave us three bottles of nutrients, and one bag of poké (the currency of the mystery dungeon world)

"Whoa! Four thousand poké! Man, it's our first day on the job and we're rich already!"

I felt my own eyes bug out at the sight of our pay.

"That's great work, you three! Now, do pay up, if you please! ~ "

"Pardon?"

"Although I hate to ruin your moment of triumph, I'm sorry—"

Chatot suddenly snatched the money away with his beak.

"—the currency that apprentices like you earn must be shared with the guild. That's the rule."

"WHAT!?"

Ty practically fell flat on his face.

"You gotta be kidding me! We've worked hard for that! That's our money!"

Pablo gave a low growl in his throat.

"No, it's OUR money." Chatot replied plainly. "THIS is your money."

Four hundred poké. That's all he gave back.

"Wow, that's only...thirty-six thousand less of what we would get? Woop-de-doo..."

"You three did a great job today! Make sure to keep it up! ~ "

I gave a heavy groan in defeat. I definitely didn't see this coming, either.

"Everyone! Thanks for waiting!"

I turned to see a wind-chime looking pokémon float from the other side of the room, a female Chimeco.

"Dinner's ready!"

The whole guild seemed to make an uproar in cheers, though I still didn't seem to notice.

I looked at Pablo. He didn't seem to pay attention.

"Aw, don't feel so bad, Pablo." I smiled as Chatot hopped away. "Four hundred isn't so bad. It's better than none, right? And besides, we helped out two clients today. Doesn't that seem promising enough?"

Pablo looked at me, and grinned.

"Yeah, you're probably right. Besides, there's probably, like, a TREASURE load of money somewhere here!" Roy suddenly laughed whole-heartedly.

I chuckled, and Pablo added "And who knows? Maybe we'll get some of it for ourselves!"

We all suddenly stared at each other, wide-eyed.

"...Pfft...PFFFTTHAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!"

We were literally on the floor, laughing as hard as we could. I don't know what was so funny about that. It just was!

Finally, pulling ourselves together, we turned to the mess hall.

"C'mon, gang! It's chow time!"

0-0-0

The mess hall. Probably one of my favorite things about this place.

There were about eight tables, some were connected to one another, and in the center was the main table, probably big enough to serve fourteen pokémon.

Tonight, the mess hall was packed with pokémon. Not sure whether any of them stayed here or not, but still, all was fair in variety.
The food consisted of fruit—yes, nothing but fruit. But I didn't mind. I was pretty hungry, after a whole day of craziness.

We took our time with our meals. But I was pretty bored with the course, so—

"Look, guys! No hands!"

"Don't play with your food, Pablo." Ty chuckled, watching me balance the three berries on my snout.

"What? This is fun!"

Before I could lose balance, I quickly flipped the berries in the air, and gobbled each one as they fell back down.

"It's all in the balance. Let's see somebody try and top that!"

"Oh, yeah? Watch this!"

Roy started spinning an apple on his tail, then rapidly chomping it up it until the core dropped onto the table.

"One must have manners, boys. Don't think that we take charge for silliness like that." Chatot said, over several applauds and turned to finish his meal.

"Hey, hey! Your friends' sure have talent with their appetites! Anyway, it's nice to have fresh blood like you joining us, hey, hey."

"Yeah, thanks. You might want to watch out for these two. Once they start eating, there's no stopping them!"

"Oh my gosh! Be careful! When it comes to eating, Bidoof's the one with a cast-iron stomach!"

"Aw, shucks, guys! Don't embarrass me!"

I continued to listen to Ty's conversation with a Corphish, a small lobster pokémon, and Sunflora, a sunflower pokémon sitting in front of us. I couldn't help but smile as I heard them laugh together. Yeah, we were probably going to make some good friends here.

After a good meal, we decided to turn in early. So, we said our good nights to everyone, and headed to our room. Ty hung his relic fragment on the wall, and Roy jumped up onto the nearest bed and curled up on the grass. I felt myself collapse on my bed again, and almost fell asleep on contact.

"Heh, I never knew anyone who could sleep that fast!"

I grinned at Roy. "Well, I'm tired here, so we can just leave it at that."

"So, what happened today?" Ty refreshed, as he sat on his bed. "We had our first exploration, which went okay; we succeeded our exploration, and got our pay, that was great; and Chatot took about ninety percent of it and left us the last ten percent. Now THAT wasn't. But, I was still glad that we could help Spoink out; at least we got something out of that."

"That's just the way the guild works, I guess. We can't do anything about it." Roy sighed. "Still, there's always tomorrow, right?"

Ty nodded, fell onto his back, and slowly drifted off to sleep, while Roy did the same. I thought one more time through my head as I dozed off:

Tomorrow...

If this is what we faced today, what's in store for us tomorrow?