Inside the attic of a house, there contained three beds. In the beds a helioptile, a houndour, and a shelmet occupied.
A xatu was going through old files on the opposite wall of the beds. He sat in a rolling chair, leafing through piles of paper.
Cortez opened his eyes. His first sight was the roof he had been staring up at, but that quickly changed when he heard the rummaging of documents.
He leaned his head up to see Omex reading.
Upon hearing the movement of a pokemon, Omex quickly turned his head. The xatu's eyes fell on Cortez, who was now standing up beside the bed.
"Good morning Cortez." The xatu said. Cortez realized he sounded extremely tired. He had a good idea that Omex was up all night.
Cortez didn't respond. He stared at Omex sleepily, with the memories of getting slammed up against the wall reminding him of last night.
Omex understood Cortez was upset with him. The xatu faced the ground, trying to figure out what to say.
"Look, uh… about last night." Omex scratched the back of his head, uneasily saying his words. "I apologize for my behavior. I didn't mean to hurt you…"
Omex waited for something better to come out his mouth, but nothing did. Cortez kept giving him a look of guilt.
"Were you honest about not hearing anything?" Omex finally said, even now still concerned his secrets got loose.
"I heard some stuff." Cortez mentioned. "I heard about Arno." Cortez did indeed hear about Arno, but couldn't make out what happened with him. He wanted to see if telling Omex that name would make him think he heard more than he really did.
Cortez was hoping if Omex thought he knew, he would open up, unknowingly feeding him new information.
"What did you hear about Arno?" Omex responded. He was making it clear he wouldn't volunteer any information until he had verbal confirmation.
"That he was you and Bergis's best friend. And he didn't deserve what he got." It was another jab at trying to get Omex to spill. Unfortunately, because Cortez was being indirect, it showed Omex he really didn't know, he had only heard fragments. He saw through it.
"That's all you heard, wasn't it?" Omex breathed.
"More or less."
Cortez was interested on what Omex had been doing on that table sifting through papers.
"What are these files?" Cortez asked, now changing the subject.
"Come see."
Cortez approached the table. Things had been moved around a great deal. Everything looked far more organized than last night.
"My team, Team Madcrack kept detailed documentation on all our expeditions. I've just been organizing everything. It had really fallen into dismay", Omex explained. He caught Cortez eyeing a certain paper.
"Here", Omex said. He picked up a paper with writing on it. "This was on an expedition we did retrieving a cubone's quick claw he lost." He handed it to Cortez, who looked it over.
Cortez studied it. The date went back some 15 years ago. A cubone named Fergo. A quick claw lost in Thornbush Fields, 7F. Scribbled handwriting contained details and opinions on the job, and how they solved it.
"Bergis was the one who wrote these up, I put them away in an organized fashion. We had a system."
"Were you required to document these?" Cortez asked, pretty impressed.
"Nope. We did it for the sake of having a detailed history we could look back at any time. And we recorded every one", Omex said, running his wing down the filing cabinets.
This got Cortez to thinking. If every expedition was recorded, the dungeon in Omex's dream must've been recorded as well. And he had a feeling that could've been one of Madcrack's last expeditions, so it shouldn't be too hard to find.
"That's pretty responsible…" Cortez admitted, handing him back the file. "Why were you organizing it?"
"Oh, well I was just grabbing some files for reference. I thought I might as well get things straightened out as I looked for them. Bergis has a terrible time keeping things clean."
Omex's eyes trailed off to the open window in the attic. A fresh, new sunlight shown in, casting its warm rays on the floor.
"Are you ready for the guild?" Omex asked.
"As ready as I'll ever be."
"You know it was my guild as well? Years ago I had joined when a golduck was the guildmaster. It will be the first time I've been in there in so long."
"Is the golduck still the master?" Cortez asked.
"I doubt it. He was already really old when I got there."
Luke started moving on the bed. He stretched and shifted around before slowly opening his eyes. Cortez and Omex stared at him in silence as he woke up.
Luke looked over at them and blinked hard, trying to focus. "Hey!" He yelled. "What are you guys doing?" Luke hated missing out on things.
"Ready for your first day at the guild?" Omex asked the same question.
"Am I ever!" At Luke's shout, Azoth rolled over. Everyone was starting to wake up.
"We should get there early. You might be able to get an early tour before the other guild members would be up", Omex mentioned.
"Then let's not waste any time!" Luke announced loudly. He jumped on Azoth's bed and began pouncing him. "Geeetttt uuuuppp!" He chanted out as he stomped around.
Omex chuckled at the sight of Azoth getting thrown around half awake, as well as the choice words he had to say.
"Yeah, let's get a move on", Omex finally decided.
Everyone was awake. They grabbed their explorer bags, made the beds, and filed down the stairs. Bergis could be seen downstairs on the couch watching TV.
"Leaving already?" Bergis groggily let out.
"Yes, we're getting a head start to the guild", Omex stated.
"More like a head start on your plans!" Bergis yelled back. Omex ignored him. He opened the front door and allowed everyone to leave before him. As Cortez began walking out the door, Bergis stopped him.
"Hey!" He said. "Good luck out there, kid. If ever need any questions or advice, feel free to visit me sometime." It was the warmest thing Cortez had heard Bergis say yet. As grouchy and mean as he sounded, Cortez felt he might've been lonely as well.
"Thanks, Bergis. I will", Cortez replied.
The pokemon filed their way out. When the three were outside, Omex said "Just a sec." and he closed the door on them
It was obvious Omex had a few more words to say to Bergis before leaving. It wasn't long however, as he kept them waiting for less than a minute.
"Alright gentlemen! Let's roll."
Scarland City wasn't as loud or obnoxious as it had been when they first got there. It was early in the morning, and a few pokemon could be seen slowly walking up and down the streets. Some shopkeepers could be seen setting up their kiosks. The group made it down several streets, along with a few turns. Cortez thought he would have a hard time navigating the place by himself in the future.
Eventually they arrived at the Expedition Society Hall. The place was far more abandoned and quiet than last time. The elegant building casted a detailed shadow on the ground below them. A few pokemon held conversations around the building, but not in the crowds before. Omex was the first to approach the building. He swung open a massive wooden door that was held together by metal sheets. As they entered the main hall of the building, Cortez was more floored than ever.
The roof was several stories high, with a large glass plate holding the top together. Light shown down into the massive hall, that was barely lit. Groups of pokemon dotted the halls, talking amongst themselves.
They were expedition teams. It was obvious. Most of the groups were in threes, held tightly together through conversation. The floor was tiled in marble, not a single smudge anywhere. It looked to have been cleaned the night before. Ahead, at the end of the hall, were two ridiculously large pegboards. Each hung on their own side of the hall, with many, many colored papers hanging off in every direction. Several pokemon were gathered around these pegboards, studying the papers. In the center of the two boards was a leafeon behind a large desk. She hadn't looked up once as Cortez and his friends had entered. She was focused on something in front of her.
After standing around admiring the place, Omex approached the front desk. Everyone followed behind him. As they approached, the leafeon looked up from its paperwork.
"Hi there", Omex said cordially. He leaned up on the desk. "I have some young pokemon here that are fixin' to be explorers." He pointed at Cortez, Luke and Azoth. "They're going to be joining the guild", he explained.
"Oh", the leafeon replied. "Are they registered for the new set of guild members?" Her voice was firm.
"No ma'am. I'm simply dropping them off. They're very enthusiastic, and ready to learn!" He added.
The leafeon was disappointed. "I'm sorry mister. But if they hadn't been registered a month ago, we are not prepared to add them. If you register now, however, we can get them in next month."
Omex's grip tightened. He looked over to the side, waiting for something to come to mind.
"Look, I'm sorry. I didn't know all this registration had to be done. See, we've come all the way from Heroca Town. It's been a long walk, and they have to be admitted today. Can you understand my situation?" Omex asked.
The leafeon was starting to become flustered. "We simply can't bend the rules for you. I understand they are ready to join now, but we have a long process of adding them to our system, and it doesn't happen overnight. We aren't ready to add them into the guild currently. Only the ones who've already signed up."
Omex was losing his patience. "Is Cardron still here? I'd like to talk to him", he tried.
"Cardron? The old guildmaster who was a golduck?" She responded. The phrase alone answered his question. His old guildmaster was gone. And that meant anyone who still knew him would be gone as well.
"Yes… him. We were good friends. I went to this guild years ago. And I don't think an alumnus should be treated this way. This is an expedition society by the way. Since when are things 'registered' now? Anyone who wanted to join just could! What happened?"
"What happened was the guild grew too much! Cardron couldn't keep up with the flow of new pokemon joining, but he refused to use a registration system. He's gone now, and this is how it's runs these days."
Suddenly a humongous beartic entered the room from a side hall. He had heard all the yelling and wanted to know what was going on. He was at least double the size of Omex.
"What's going on Demeter?" The beartic calmly said.
"Oh! Guildmaster! These pokemon here were trying to get admittance to the guild without the proper paperwork done!"
The beartic ignored half of what she said. As soon he eyed the xatu, his eyes widened greatly.
"Omex?!" The beartic roared. This caught Omex off guard. He stumbled, looking up at the huge beartic.
"Yes?" He said. "Do I know you?"
"It's me! Hephaestus!" He cried out, pointing to himself like a child. Omex stared at him for a second is confusion. Within five seconds however, his face exploded.
"Oh my God, Heph?!" Omex shouted in surprise.
"Yeah! It's me!" The beartic roared back.
"Holy shit, you're huge!"
"Yeah, I kinda hit a growth spurt during my evolution!"
"You look great! Man, it's been years! You were that little cubchoo no one gave a shit about!"
"That's it! What in the world are you doing here?! I thought you retired from Madcrack and moved on!"
"I did! But I have things going on again. So, have you been here this whole time?" Omex asked.
"Yessir! I'm now the guildmaster of Scarland! I worked closely with Cardron, and he appointed me when he retired."
"That's incredible!" Omex responded. "Man, I've missed Cardron. How is he by the way?"
The beartic looked down. "He… sadly passed away recently. Everyone who remembered him mourned his death."
"I'm sorry to hear that." Omex breathed.
The leafeon was in total shock. She was gawking at the fact this rude xatu was all buddy-buddy with the guildmaster.
"So what are you doing here today, Omex?" The beartic asked.
"Well Heph, I have some fresh explorers here ready to join the guild. They're young, but full of enthusiasm. I understand I hadn't registered them, but they need to join today, I have things to…"
Hephaestus waived his hand, interrupting him.
"Ah, say no more. They can join today! Anything for an old friend!" He declared.
"B-but sir!" The leafeon stammered. "W-we have a process! They need to be registered properly or…"
"You'll add them, Demeter. And they'll join today's class, is that understood?" Heph stated.
"But, there's so much – "
"IS THAT UNDERSTOOD!?" He bellowed forcefully.
"Yes, yes, of course guildmaster…" She said while blushing.
"Excellent! I knew I could count on you, sweetie!" He finalized, returning to a hardy voice.
He turned his attention to the group. "So, who do we have here?" Heph let out.
"I'm Cortez."
"Luke!"
"Azoth."
"Great to meetcha! We have a great program here, Demeter's really helpful with all that." He said. "Let me give you all the grand tour of the place. The new explorer class technically started yesterday, and they all had a tour. Let me fill you all in briefly." As they started to follow the guildmaster, he turned around.
"Demeter, they'll take the York Hall, okay?" He asked. Demeter ruffled through her papers quickly. "Yes sir", she responded.
The guildmaster guided the four down the hallway.
"Man, this brings back SO many memories!" Omex exclaimed. Cortez noticed he was acting happier than ever. He pointed in several spots of the hall, telling funny stories of what exactly happened there. Heph gave out several ferocious laughs at his stories.
"I remember that!" He cried out. "Mrs. Goldwinn nearly killed us! She thought the whole guild was going up in flames!" His laugh echoed down the hallway. They were having so much fun exchanging stories, he nearly missed a few things to talk about.
"Oh!" He said, trying to get his mind to focus. "That hall goes to the mess room," Heph stated. "Dinner is 6 sharp every night, breakfast is 8 every morning, okay?" He finished, looking at them to see if they were paying attention.
"Didn't it use to be 5 sharp for dinner?" Omex asked.
"Yes, when Cardron ran the place. But I'm in charge now, and I think that's a better time!"
Cortez was truly impressed that Hephaestus used to be a simple guild member, and now he had the power to change anything at a whim.
"There's been several policies I've changed since I became in charge", he explained.
"Stress test day?" Omex mentioned.
"Gone. Everyone hated it. And personally I think we could all live without it. Besides, it was so humiliating. Do you remember me that day?"
"Yes!" Omex snapped back. "You couldn't even hit the dummy! Everyone laughed their asses off at you!"
"Yeah. That. I abolished it. I was always a physical attacker anyways. You can still freely use it if you want, but it's no longer a requirement. What's worse was Cardron made everyone watch. The nerve. I don't know how that ever applied to a real life lesson."
"Yeah, he certainly had some unorthodox teachings!"
The guildmaster guided them down several hallways. "We still have the four halls", he mentioned. "Female and male pokemon are divided up. Senior females get New Hall", he said while pointing down a hallway. It was lined with doors with numbers over them.
"Junior females get Moore Hall. Same with guys. Seniors males stay in Moats, and, well, you'll all be in York." Cortez nodded his head.
"And listen closely!" He yelled. "Males are forbidden in the female halls, and vice versa. If you're ever caught, it will be a serious punishment that I decide, and if my mood's not that good, it'll be severe, ya understand?!"
"Yessir!" Luke shouted out.
"Moving on!" He said.
They cornered a hallway that opened up into a huge library. The ceiling rose exponentially, and bookcases so large that could be only rivalled by their height, stood chock-full of books. Red carpet suddenly lined the floor. Tables and chairs were set up everywhere, with pokemon reading at them.
"This is our own Scarland Library!" He exclaimed proudly. Omex looked more shocked than everyone else.
"Damn, you guys have really expanded! This place use to be so empty!" Omex stated in awe.
"Yes, that's true", Heph replied. "In exchange of making this a public library, we've received a massive number of donations. We have books on every subject! Truly a place to be!" Everyone stood there absorbing the sights.
"Ah, you've got to meet our librarian", Heph added.
"You now have a designated librarian?" Omex asked.
"Oh, yes! Someone needs to be in charge of all this, if it wasn't watched over, our books would go haywire." He looked over at Omex.
"Hey, do you remember Samirah?" Heph asked Omex.
"Oh my, that awkward little shuppet!"
"That's her! Only now she's a banette. She's our librarian."
"Unbelievable. She had a real problem or something." Omex added.
"Ah, she's just shy. She's a hard worker - responsible for how good this library looks." The group approached a door in the corner of the room, marked "LIBRARIAN".
Hephaestus gave a cautious knock. "Samirah?" No response.
He cracked the door open. Inside a banette had an ancient book lying out on her table. It was glowing green, as mist escaped and rose into the air. As she had her eyes closed and reciting an incantation, dark flaming souls circled the ceiling, dancing, and slowly moving in a circle.
"AHEM!" Heph exaggerated a cough.
Samirah's eyes opened, and her eyeballs rolled back to the front. She stopped her incanting, and slammed her book shut. The souls above disappeared.
"O-oh… Hi there… How long were you waiting there? I'm sorry! I try doing that in the morning when I have some free time." Her voice was very soft, but stuttery. She was dearly afraid she had offended the guildmaster.
"It's all okay Samirah. We have some late, new guild members. I wanted you to meet them."
"Yes, of course! Where are my manners?" Samirah rapidly got up from her desk, and went around to shake hands.
"I'm Samirah, the librarian here at Scarland. Please excuse that ritual there, I really should've heard the knocking." It seemed to Cortez that every other statement she made was an apology.
"It's all okay, darling", Heph stated. "You can go back to that… uh… what that was."
"Oh, that was simply an old spell dating back to the 14th era to calm the nerves and help focus the…" She looked up at the xatu.
"You're… you're Omex, aren't you?" She said, ignoring her previous explanation.
"Hi Samirah…" Omex said, looking down at the ground.
"Um, you look well." The atmosphere was getting awkward.
"WELP! We do have other things to attend to! I'm sure you do as well!" The guildmaster cried out, breaking up the tension.
Samirah became flustered. "Oh, right, yeah. Other things…" She said to herself. She slowly made her way back to her desk.
Before anyone else could say a word, Heph closed the door.
"I swear, she does some of the most wackiest things I've ever seen in there", he mentioned to himself. "Okay. We shall continue."
He led them down several more hallways before coming to a massive gym. The ceiling rose high off the ground again. But with flood lights raining down.
Several pokemon could be seen practicing moves on dummies. A loudred blasted a dummy with sound waves, and a number lit up above.
"This is our dojo!" The guildmaster exclaimed. "Here, pokemon can practice moves and fight amongst each other. It's no longer a requirement, but we do recommend you come here often and train with Skoll." Heph pointed at an Arcanine, who was training a kricketune to use his blades.
"Skoll, my man, come over here!" Heph added, getting his attention. The arcanine told the kricketune something, then quickly dashed over.
"Hi, guildmaster! What's going on here?" The arcanine was extremely built, his muscles toned his striped body. His fur was elegant and well kept. Overall, he was quite an intimidating pokemon, one who looked to be always training.
"These are some new late guild members. They couldn't be a part of the tour, so I'm catching them up."
Skoll introduced himself, and got everyone's names. "Oh yeah, here at the dojo, we dedicate ourselves to training pokemon. Knowledge in classrooms is very important, but it's also equally important to exercise your body, and stay healthy. I have several aids when this place is its busiest, so never be scared to come down here. We actually hold competitions as well for huge prizes, and that's really fun. You all look capable!"
Cortez was happy to see they had an area to train moves. He felt he was on a big growing streak, and this would help him excel more.
"I saw a number light up over a dummy when it was struck. What's that about?" Luke asked.
"Yes, that's our special attack calculator. Hit the dummy with any special attack, and it will display how strong it was", Skoll explained.
"I wanna try!" Luke cried out, super excited to hear of it.
"Sure! If the guildmaster has a moment?" Skoll asked.
"I don't mind…"
Everyone approached a dummy, with Luke in the front.
"Stay behind the line, and blast it with your strongest move", Skoll reminded Luke.
Luke stared at the dummy a bit, focusing. In a flash, he bellowed out the strongest flamethrower he could muster. The flames exploded on the dummy, and when he was tuckered out, a number lit up on the screen.
342.
"Whew, that's a hard number to grab while being a houndour!" Skoll exclaimed.
"Really?! Was it good?!" Luke said back.
"And I'm sure with some training you could hit 400!" Skoll encouraged.
"Cortez, you've so got to try this!" Luke yelled. It caught Cortez off guard. He really didn't have an idea to hit it, but he was called out so…
Cortez stood in front of the dummy. He focused as hard as he could. He remembered Omex's tips on how to shoot electricity better. He took a deep breath, and had a current travelling in his muscles. With a quick flare, a thunderbolt blasted out and smacked the target.
Cortez was so sure he had shot a blast so strong it destroyed the target. However, when the number showed, he was more than disappointed.
271.
"That's not too shabby", Skoll reviewed. He made it sound obvious that he would've said any number was good.
"Oh, I guarantee it would be in the single digits before I trained with him", Omex explained. "Even though that number's low, he's made serious improvement."
Cortez was feeling ashamed. Luke had bested him, and he hadn't even cared too much about being a real explorer.
"That's really low…" Cortez sighed.
"Then it's a good thing you came here!" Heph explained. "Skoll will bring that up several hundred numbers, I'm sure!"
"Yeah, heh heh! We got him" Skoll's laugh sounded unsure.
"Omex! Omex! Omex!" Luke started chanting.
"NO!" He replied forcefully back.
"Oh come on, Omex! Just like old times!" Hephaestus coaxed.
Omex looked to not do it, and Cortez knew if there was one thing Omex didn't like, it was showing off or talking about his merits.
"Well, Heph, if you'll do it, I'll do it…" He finally bartered.
"Fine by me!" The guildmaster stood in front of the target, and lunged a brilliant white ice beam. Cortez was surprised to see such a low number for the leader of a guild.
405.
"Trust me, that number is NOT an indication of my strength! It's all in here", he said, patting his muscles.
In agreement of Heph doing it, Omex stood up to the plate. Cortez sensed that everyone was dying to know his strength.
"I'm not going all out", he mentioned before warming up. His eyes flared bright purple. His attack was instant. A colorful beam escaped his wings and punched into the dummy. Even if he wasn't going all out, it was clearly strong.
The number read 983.
Everyone was truly impressed.
"Figures it's right under a thousand", Omex stated.
"Could've you gone over?" Luke demanded.
"I could've hit around 1500 with a seriously charged up attack", Omex said back.
Cortez was floored he achieved that number casually.
"Excuse me", Cortez asked either Heph or Skoll. "What's the highest number some has hit yet?"
It was an interesting question.
"Over 5000. It was achieved using a dragon pulse by a salamence", Skoll stated.
"An actual salamence?!" Cortez was floored, those pokemon are very far from few. He couldn't believe one was here.
"…Elderon", Heph added. "The leader of Team Draconex. A group of dragons. They're rated to be thee strongest exploration team ever. They devote their lives to the safety of other pokemon. One of the few teams that doesn't stay in one region, they travel the entire pokemon multiverse. So it was a real treat when they stopped by a few years ago."
Everyone continued to talk back and forth for a while before Heph had to wrap it up.
"Alright, well it was nice talking. We do need to wrap up the tour", Heph explained to Skoll.
"No problem guildmaster! And Cortez, Luke, Azoth, I expect to see you guys down here a lot, okay?" Skoll finished with.
They left the gym, and soon were down a new hallway. They passed a few doors.
"So, what did ya think of Skoll?" Heph asked the crowd.
"He's a cool guy!" Luke said back.
"Yeah, did you know that Demeter, our secretary and Skoll are married?" Hephaestus asked. It caught everyone by surprise. Before anyone had a chance to say anything, he pointed at a door.
"This is the guild staffroom", he explained. "You can normally find me and the other staff here. If there are questions or concerns, come here and talk to one of us."
They continued walking down the hall. Soon they were on the other side of the facility. They passed two new hallways, lined with doors with numbers above them.
"Here's the male's dorm rooms! This is Moats, York is down there. That's where you'll be staying. You'll get paired up with your team members, and you'll share rooms, okay?" Before Heph continued on, he saw the time.
"Wow, how has time escaped us. It's already almost time for team pairing! You guys are due in the dojo for that in a few minutes."
"Well then, I guess I'll be taking my leave", Omex said. Cortez couldn't believe it was finally time for him to say that.
"I'll miss you Omex", Cortez said. Luke took it a lot worse.
"NOOO!" Luke cried out, rubbing his face on Omex's body.
"There, there", he said. He forced Luke's body off him. "I will see you all again, don't worry about that. And I'm glad you guys all decided to join this guild. You'll become great Cortez, I'm sure of it!"
"Where will you go?" Cortez asked.
"I'm going out to do some exploring. Something I haven't done in a long time." He responded. He looked up at the tall beartic.
"Heph, take good care of them", Omex said.
"I certainly will", he said back. Omex nodded his head.
"Alright then, I'm off. Bye everyone!" Cortez watched Omex's body go down the hall, and disappear from sight. It was the last time he would see him in a very long time.
"Will you all be alright?" The guildmaster asked.
"Yeah, we'll be fine. Just fine…" Cortez explained, unsure of himself.
"Good. Now to the dojo with you. It's time to get paired. You remember how to get there, right?"
Cortez, Luke, and Azoth made their way to the dojo. Where it was once empty, it was now packed tightly with young, pre-evolved pokemon.
Cortez saw a mudkip talking with an abra, a hoppip jumping around, and a machop and timburr punching each other. A grimer was complaining, a mime jr. was panicking. It was like a middle school around here. It was crowded tightly. Cortez made sure to stay close to Luke and Azoth, the only two pokemon he was comfortable around.
Within a minute, Demeter approached the stage. She got up to the pedestal, and cleared her throat.
"Attention!" She said into the loud microphone. The young pokemon didn't stop talking. "Attention!" She yelled out again. To no avail, everyone ignored her still. Cortez watched Skoll get up to the pedestal, looking pissed.
"Everyone shut up!" He yelled ferociously. The pokemon one by one stopped what they were doing and looked up to the front. "Thank you!" He finally said.
"Ahem!" Demeter started. "Good evening first years…" She fell silent. No one said a word. "Sorry, that was my joke for the day. Moving on. Today, we assign everyone into teams. Now, I understand you want to be with your buddies, but this allows you have tolerance for other pokemon, and be more kind. Working with strangers will become a regular thing as explorers! Now when I call your name, please come up to the front of the stage. I have a hat here to draw names out of, and then I will write them down on this clipboard."