Warning: This chapter contains cursing and implied dirtiness.
Fangs bared, the creature leapt at Nikki, who screamed in horror, closing her eyes tightly. "OH FUCK, THE MONGOOSE IS GOING TO EAT ME." No, no, she didn't want to die! Her eyes opened again now, and she realized she was still laying on the beach, and sometime in the night Midori had draped himself over her so that his feet were on the ground to one side of her, his head on the ground to the other. She didn't really mind, she decided. He was sort of like a blanket. "Portable blanket. Keep me warm~" she chirped, remembering the mongoose and scurrying away from him. He jumped at the scream when she woke up, (oh, had that been outloud? Oops.) quickly waking up when he fell onto the ground and letting out a scream of his own, looking around frantically.
"Crap, Midori, look out, there's a rabid-" she trailed off and looked around. After a moment of not seeing the mongoose, she frowned and giggled nervously. "Uhm, wait. Maybe not. Never mind, false alarm." She grinned, rubbing the back of her neck. It was actually much easier said than done. She had never realized that Pikachu's had such short arms. That was weird… Oh well. Midori was now sitting in front of her and frowned, staring at her in confusion. Perhaps Nikki had hit her head after all…
Nikki shrugged, climbing to her feet and bouncing slightly to try and wake up. "Oh, we were gonna make an Exploration team today, weren't we?" She asked brightly, grinning. "Or uh, join… make… join make one thing." She decided with a nod. "Anyway! Let's go, then." She started to lead the way, realized she had no idea where to go, paused for a moment, then turned around.
Midori smirked at Nikki. Nah, he decided. She didn't hit her head- she was just crazy. He decided that he didn't mind. Everyone needed some crazy in their life to stay sane, didn't they? Remembering about the exploration team, though, he perked up, grinning. "Right, this way!" He exclaimed, climbing to his feet. He double checked he had his relic fragment before towards Wigglytuff's Guild. Nikki noticed with disappointment that it was in the opposite way she had been going, but oh well. It wouldn't be in the ocean, she supposed.
Nikki followed him, keeping up with ease. Past the beach, past a busy town, up a large flight of steps (Pokemon had steps? Interesting…), and finally the two stopped in front of the guild. It was a large, pink building. She stared at it for a moment before snorted softly. "Wonder what HE'S compensating for." She smirked, nudging Midori in the ribs suggestively. The Treecko stumbled, blinked cluelessly, then stared in shock at Nikki. Had she honestly just said…?! A blush crept onto his face and he shook his head. "What??"
Nikki stared at him for a moment, trying to decide whether that was a serious question or he was just surprised. "Well, you see, 'Dori, a man like yourself-" she started matter-of-factly.
She was interrupted by the Treecko, though, who took his chance to change the subject of what would become a very awkward conversation. "Did you just call me… Dori?" Nikki slapped her forehead. Midori wasn't big on nick names, was he? Oh well. She'd make something stick. Hehe, stick. Because Treeckos could stick to stuff, sort of. It was punny. Ish. Maybe. No.
"Oh well," she sighed. "Lets go." Blinking, she turned back towards the guild, examining it. The door was blocked by a gate, and a metal grate sat in front of it. This seemed to horrify Midori. Remembering what happened last time, he gave his pouch to Nikki to hold and took a deep breath, closing his eyes and stepping forward.
"POKEMON DETECTED! POKEMON DETECTED!"
"WHOSE FOOTPRINT? WHOSE FOOTPRINT?"
"THE FOOTPRINT IS TREECKO'S! THE FOOTPRINT IS TREECKO'S!"
Midori gasped, leaping off the grate once they stopped talking. His heart was hammering, and Nikki noticed his hands were shaking again. She handed the pouch back to him and patted his head in an attempt to comfort him. "Hey, at least they didn't tickle your feet."
"YOU HAVE SOMEONE ELSE WITH YOU. GET THEM TO STAND ON THE GRATE."
Midori looked at Nikki. "I-I think he means you." Nikki nodded, but hesitated, raising an eyebrow at the grate. Well, alright. She blinked, poking it before shrugging and stepping onto it. After seeing what happened with Midori, the voices that yelled at her didn't startle her.
"POKEMON DETECTED! POKEMON DETECTED!"
"WHOSE FOOTPRINT? WHOSE FOOTPRINT?"
"THE FOOTPRINT IS…? THE FOOTPRINT IS…" Wait, he didn't know? She rasied an eyebrow, wiggling her foot as if thinking it might help. "MAYBE PIKACHU'S! MAYBE PIKACHUS'!" He decided finally.
"…Maybe?" The second voice repeated, along with her own.
"Well, Pikachu's aren't too common among these parts…"
Nikki frowned, staring down the grate. Uh, were they arguing. She dropped to her hands and knees to listen better, calling down into the darkness, "… Excuse… me?" She glared down, feeling slightly annoyed.
"Yes, well it's your JOB to know pokemons footprints, isn't it, Sentry Diglet?" Ah, they were ignoring her. No fun.
"Yeah, but… I dunno what I dunno." This was somewhat muttered, only heard because of how close she was to the grate.
Nikki frowned. "Uhm, excuse me?!" She shouted louder, and she heard an odd shuffling.
"Sorry about that, but he's right. Pikachu aren't common here. At any rate, you don't seem bad, so…" Dang, those words again. Don't seem bad. She winced. "That's cuz I'm NOT!" She snapped under her breath, climbing to her feet again.
More shuffling, and then the gate slid down, allowing them entrance. Nikki exchanged a glance with Midori, then shrugged again, cautiously entering the building. The Treecko swallowed and followed her. There were groups of pokemon sitting together, chatting happily. Midori looked around, grinning. "Wow! Look at all these exploration teams!" He gasped, pointing as if it was hard to see them.
Nikki laughed, nodding. "Come on, lets go find out how to join." She stated, looking around. She led the way to a golden colored ladder. "That is so fake." She muttered, flicking it. It made a DONG noise. Oh well. She carefully gripped the latter. The Pikachu lowered herself to the next level, looking around There was more happy pokemon here, along with a hall to her left and right and a door to her right. To her left and right were two notice boards with notes attached to them, but she didn't get a chance to read them before Midori pointed towards the window.
"Wow, look! You can see outside, even though we're underground!" He gasped in shock. "How did they do that?!" He asked, hurrying over and looking outside in awe.
"… We're on a cliff, you moron," Nikki laughed, shaking her head. Wow, Midori wasn't the brightest crayon in the box, was he? … Wait. That's not how the saying goes, is it? Nikki decided it wasn't important.
Before Midori, who looked slightly dejected, could answer, a voice spoke behind them, high-pitched and somewhat fake-bad-ass. "Excuse me, we're not interested in whatever you have to sell." Nikki turned around, blinking at a Chatot who was glaring at them. She raised an eyebrow. He was half her size- was he trying to intimidate her? She barely held back a laugh.
Midori was the one to answer, which was probably fortunate. He shook his head. "Oh, no, sir! We're not selling anything." He explained. "We want to form an exploration team!" His shaking head started nodding enthusiastically, and it made Nikki rather dizzy. He couldn't keep still for two seconds, could he? Reaching out, she grabbed his head, which immediately stopped moving. A confused expression came over his face, and she grinned innocently.
"You…?" The chatot repeated, turning around and muttering to himself as if this would prevent Nikki and Midori from hearing him. "These kids want to form an exploration team? But don't they know how hard our training is? Many run away from it every day!"
Nikki frowned, starting to realize that this might not have been the best idea. For one thing, this bird was crazy, but she wasn't one to talk. For another… "Uh… Is the training really that hard?" She asked outloud, tilting her head. Midori looked horrified.
Chatot turned around, blinking in shock. They had heard him? Shaking his head frantically, he grinned, fluttering his wings. "Oh, no, no! I don't know what you mean. Our training is extremely easy! You'll love it!" He chirped enthusiastically. Nikki frowned, opening her mouth, but before she could say anything Chatot spoke again. "Come on, I'll take you to the Guildmaster." He hopped off, leading Nikki and Midori to the room Nikki had seen a few minutes ago and opening the door- which looked like the tuft of fur on top of a Wigglytuffs head. Hey…
Wigglytuff's guild- the building looked like a Wigglytuff- this door… Nikki came to the conclusion that this Wigglytuff fellow must be rather full of himself. She nodded firmly at the idea, following Chatot into the room. Her green gaze searched around before spotting the Guildmaster.
Wigglytuff was normal in appearance, however seemed stronger, somehow, than most. He was sitting on a small tuft of straw that she assumed was his bed and bouncing a giant, shining apple on his head. He grabbed it, taking a bite, and then seemed to notice his visitors. Finishing the apple in one bite, he grinned at them. "Hello, friendly friends! Chatot, what do our new friends want?" He asked, eyes glistening excitedly. He bounced excitedly. "Did they bring me perfect apples?!" He suggested.
Nikki then concluded that Wigglytuff had an extremely strong throat (which, she thought mischievously, could come in handy,) and his favorite word was "friend."
Chatot stood at attention. "Guildmaster Wigglytuff, sir!" He greeted. "These two are here to- er, no. I'll get you a perfect apple after this, though!" He added quickly, as Wigglytuff had started to whimper. "As I was saying, though, these two came to form an Exploration team." He explained.
Wigglytuff nodded, getting over the lack of apples and grinning. "That's great! Well, friends, what are your names?" He asked. Nikki realized he was still bouncing.
Suddenly remembering a joke, though, she stepped forward now. "Hey, Guildmaster, do you know how much a Walrein weighs?!" She started excitedly
Wigglytuff copied her grin, seeming beside himself with joy. "No, no! How much?" He asked almost too enthusiastically, and she stopped herself from raising an eyebrow.
"Enough to break the ice! I'm Nikki," she grinned, then pouted when nobody understood her joke, stepping back dejectedly, arms crossed at her chest and eyes on the ground.
Wigglytuff had no idea what she meant, but burst into laughter anyway. Because she was a friendly friend, right? And he was sure it was a funny joke! His laughing lasted nearly two minutes, and he didn't even seem to run out of breath. Nikki stared. Once he was done, Midori introduced himself. "Nice to meet you, friends! What will the name of your exploration team be?" He asked.
Midori and Nikki frowned. They hadn't thought about that. Midori made no attempt to answer, instead staring at Nikki expectantly, so she sighed. "Er… Team… Nikori?" She suggested randomly. Hey, it sounded okay, didn't it?
"YOOM-TAH!"
Nikki winced, stumbling back in surprise. That had probably been the loudest thing she ever heard. Her ears were still ringing. She opened her mouth to say not to get angry, if it wasn't a good name she could come up with something else and there was no need to yell at her, and the people here seemed rather yelly, maybe this was a bad idea, but Wigglytuff spoke first.. "Alright, it's official! You're an exploration team!" He cheered, hurrying forward to put a box in front of him. Nikki wondered where he got it, but decided it'd be a bad idea to ask if he pulled it out of his ass, since she liked hearing, thank you very much- and since she wasn't sure she wanted to know the answer to that question.
"That's your treasure box. You can take it on explorations. Inside are your exploration team badges." He said dancing on the spot. Nikki stared at him and Midori looked inside the treasure box.
"Alright, cool! Look, Nikki!" He said, handing her a badge. Nikki nodded. It was pretty cool looking, she decided, turning it over in her paws and examining it. "There's a bag in here, too. That'll be useful," he noted, slipping the pouch with his relic fragment into it. They both looked up as Chatot spoke.
"Alright, you two should go look around the guild and such. Then get some sleep, you'll need it for tomorrow." He ordered, shoving them out of the room. Once they were gone he turned to look at the Guildmaster and looked as if he wanted to say something. "Guildmaster Wigglytuff, sir?" He asked carefully.
The guild master, though, was asleep. His eyes were still open, but he was snoring loudly. Chatot spent a brief moment looking crushed, then shook himself off and hurried out of the room to keep an eye on everything.