"HEY! WAKE UP! LET'S GO, EVERYBODY; WE'RE BURNING DAYLIGHT HERE!"

"WAAAAH!" With a loud thump I literally flung myself off the bed and onto the floor, where I crouched with my face against the ground and my front paws over my ears. Yup, I was tooootally giving the others at the guild a good first impression. "Oh please…make it stop!" I pleaded with whatever deities were out there. "The paaaaaain!"

Unfortunately, the voice did not stop shouting. "WAKE UP! IT'S MORNING! UP AND AT 'EM!" Various calls along those lines echoed throughout the corridor until the voice reached its loudest yet. "WAKE—who are YOU two?…And what are you DOING?"

I peered out from under my paws to find a Loudred standing in our doorway, looking dumbfounded. Clearly we had found the source of the deafening wake-up call. Rita, unlike myself, was still in bed but appeared to be in shock and was struggling to reply. I shakily answered, "I'm sheltering from the, um, the noise."

"…Oh," was Loudred's eloquent reply. There was an awkwardly long pause. "Well, I'm LOUDRED, and I'm a fellow apprentice. Now, get your BUTTS in gear and head OUT to the main hall. The morning briefing is going to START in a MOMENT, and if you AREN'T out there, then you'll be SORRY!" We jumped violently at the sudden shout. "So GET MOVING!" He stalked out of the room, but thankfully ceased calling out.

"Aah…." Rita shook her head forcefully to clear it of the last echoes of Loudred's unique voice. "Mmmy ears h-hurt…."

"You're not the one with super sensitive hearing!" I complained irritably, carefully massaging my ears.

She blinked and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. "D-did you c-catch w-…what hhhe w-was ssssaying?"

"Something about a 'morning briefing'…," I muttered in reply.

It hit us almost simultaneously. "We signed up as apprentices at Wigglytuff's Guild!" I exclaimed as Rita let out a squeak of realization. "And we're going to be late!"

Both of us jumped up and ran around the room like headless Torchic. It took longer than we anticipated getting ourselves ready, since Rita was still half in shock because of the Loudred incident and I had to fix my fur from my undignified attempt to shove my face through the floor. And may I point out that licking your fur is an extremely weird experience for someone who was human up until now. Just think how awkward it was going to be when it's time to actually, well, wash myself—ack, bad thoughts, bad thoughts…! Oh, Arceus, never mind! I decided I was going to launch myself in a river or something every day. Anyway, it takes a long time to fix messy fur if you've never done it before. No wonder little Pokémon with fur have their mothers do it for them, because this is hard work!

By the time we finally scrambled out into the main hall Chatot was addressing the group. "—and as I have told you, I expect you to be courteous to and respectful of our new apprentices. They might be young, but that does not make them inferior to you or qualify them as something to vent your frustrations on. They are your comrades, and I expect you all to—oh, here they are now."

Ten heads, plus Chatot, turned in our direction to see us awkwardly hovering in the doorway. I smiled self-consciously, and Rita just stood there looking horrified that she was shoved into the spotlight. Most faces looked excited and approving (and also grateful because Chatot had stopped talking), but others were sizing us up and clearly doubting our capabilities.

"Oh my gosh, they're simply precious! How adorable!"

"Are they tough enough to make it here? They're absolutely tiny, and they look half scared to death already…."

"Come on, guys. The Guildmaster wouldn't have allowed them to join if he thought they couldn't handle it. He must think they're ready."

"More girls? Ugh!"

"Hey, hey! There are more boys than girls here already. Two more won't hurt."

"They are both tiny, aren't they? Younger than we are. They're so cute!"

"Hush, hush," Chatot scolded. The noise quickly died down, but one or two whispers made their way from Pokémon to Pokémon. "Everyone, these are Skitty and Chikorita." I waved my tail; Rita merely ducked her head shyly. "They have already registered as an exploration team, which is called Team Aster. They will be joining us in training from this point onward. I expect you all to show them how things work around here, understood?"

"Yes, Chatot," the guild chorused in sing-song voices. I could have sworn I saw a few of them roll their eyes as well.

"Good," Chatot responded happily. "Now each of you ought to introduce him- or herself. We'll go from my right to my left, starting with the first row. Please state your name at the appropriate time." Chatot nodded to a red figure at the opposite end of the first row.

"I'm Charmander," the Charmander stated, giving us a crooked smile and an almost indifferent shrug. Surprisingly, she was female, just judging by her voice. It was low-pitched, but definitely a girl's voice. "Relax. You'll like it here."

"Croagunk," the frog Pokémon next to her announced very curtly.

"I'm Chimecho," the bell-like Pokémon next to him announced, smiling. "Welcome to the guild!"

There was a moment of silence. Chimecho nudged the Pokémon next to her, indicating that it was his turn. "Oof!" the brown Pokémon yelped, looking petrified as the others turned to look at him during the long pause. "Golly! I, um—I'm Bidoof."

The flower Pokémon next to Bidoof flailed her leaves excitedly. "I'm Sunflora! Oh my gosh, welcome!"

"I'm Pikachu!" the Electric Mouse Pokémon behind Charmander called out with a huge grin. Sparks literally jumped off his cheek pouches, he was so excited. Charmander glanced over her shoulder and rolled her eyes, smirking. "Me and Charmander here are Team Virtue," he added, flicking his ear at Charmander.

"Dugtrio," the Pokémon next to him announced. "We are pleased to meet you."

The red crawfish next to Dugtrio scuttled around excitedly. "Hey, hey! I'm Corphish!"

"I'm LOUDRED!" Rita and I flinched from the sudden assault on our ears. "We met already!"

"I, um, I'm Diglett." I recognized the voice as she quieter one that came from the grate we walked over to get into the guild. "Dugtrio's my dad. Welcome!"

Chatot fluttered his wings to get our attention. "Skitty, please stand beside Sunflora, and Chikorita, please line up behind Skitty next to Diglett. These will be your permanent positions at assemblies."

We quickly obliged, not wanting to press our luck after turning up late. Sunflora turned her head towards me and smiled broadly as I stepped into place. "Welcome to the guild!" she said to me in a carrying whisper, glancing over to Rita in order to include her in the greeting. "I simply love your team's name!"

Chatot looked over sharply. "Sunflora! This is no time for conversation. Pay attention."

Sunflora turned to face front and arranged her expression to look confused. "I have no idea what you're talking about, Chatot!" she replied innocently. Chatot just watched her sternly and, when Sunflora merely smiled, sighed heavily and shook his head, muttering about "newcomers stirring everyone up." I looked over my shoulder and exchanged a grin with Rita, who was already looking more relaxed.

"Now that everyone is present and quiet," Chatot added pointedly, "we may now continue with the morning address." He hopped over to the Guildmaster's quarters and tapped on the door. "Guildmaster! The guild is assembled!" We waited. The other apprentices had begun to whisper again before the guildmaster emerged, but the sight of him was enough to make the room fall into silence.

"Thank you, Guildmaster!" Chatot said. "Please address the crew before we leave for our daily duties."

Wigglytuff swayed on the spot, his head lolling just slightly. "Mmmm…nnngh…perfect apple…pancakes…yummmmmmy…!"

The majority of the group immediately dissolved into stifled giggles. "Look…he seems wide awake but he's fast asleep!" Chimecho chuckled.

"He's sleepwalking and sleep-talking at the same time!" Sunflora added with a not so subtle snort of laughter.

"Are they making fun of him?" I whispered to Rita without looking away from Wigglytuff.

"…Nnnnno…I-I thhhink they're just a-amused." Both Rita and I watched as Wigglytuff sunk slowly to the ground, drooling, and Chatot frantically tried to wake him up to no avail. This was all done to a new chorus of half choking, half laughter from the apprentices. "It is p-p-pretty f-funny." She quietly giggled along with them.

Chatot had given up on waking up the Guildmaster and was evidently intent on playing off the incident as if Wigglytuff were perfectly lucid. "Thank you, Guildmaster, for that…inspiring declaration."

The Guildmaster let out a loud snore, followed by a wild gesture towards a wall and the declaration, "Be quiet, Chatot….The Budew are sleeping!"

Chatot's expression was priceless. He looked very embarrassed before masking it with a look normally only appropriate when sitting at the bedside of someone very sick. All of us laughed and tried to pass it off as unplanned, simultaneous coughing. "Is everything all right there?" he asked, concerned when we all began "coughing."

"Um, yeah, it's just…dust," Diglett replied while Sunflora, picking up on the cue, very unconvincingly flailed her leaves through the air to dispel the "dust."

Chatot stared for a while before he finally just sighed. "I'm just going to forget any of this ever happened," he muttered, bowing his head and closing his eyes in exasperation. Heh. Irritating Chatot turns out to be extremely amusing, I thought, grinning to myself.

After another short wait while Chatot composed himself and Wigglytuff continued to sleep with his eyes open in the background, Chatot finally picked his head up and announced, "Now, Pokémon, let's not forget the morning cheers before you are dismissed!" At the words "morning cheers" were said, the guild suddenly straightened up and gave Chatot their full attention, smiling happily. I tilted my head, confused. Morning cheers? What about them was making everyone so excited?

Chatot extended a wing as if he were a conductor and began to move it in time. "A one, and a two, and a one-two-three!"

"ONE!" the apprentices shouted eagerly, their voices in perfect rhythm. "DON'T SHIRK WORK!"

Rita and I exchanged a glance and smiled; this did seem a little fun. In the meantime, Wigglytuff was finally woken up by the cheers. He jumped to his feet and began to join in.

"TWO! RUN AWAY AND PAY!" Loudred's voice was notably louder than the rest and could probably shatter glass, but no one seemed to mind. They were chanting along quite cheerfully. "THREE! SMILES GO FOR MILES!"

"Okay, Pokémon! Time to get to work!" Further instruction was prevented as we all cheered excitedly. Even I joined in, happy to be accepted into the bunch and as equally energized by the cheer as they were. Chatot continued once the ruckus had died down. "Diglett, Dugtrio, Loudred, and Chimecho, you are to report to your usual duties. The rest of you are to take jobs from the bulletin boards upstairs! Oh, except for the newcomers; you two stay here. Dismissed!"

Another excited cheer rose up from the assembled group, but Rita and I did not join in this time. Staying behind? This could be a bad sign. The rest of the guild scattered, calling "good morning" to the Guildmaster and "welcome" to us as they went, and Chatot wandered a short distance away to speak to Chimecho about something, but we stayed in place. Wigglytuff waved to the other apprentices before noticing us. "Oh! My newest friendly friends!" he trilled happily. "How was your first night here?"

"G- good…thhhhank you," Rita replied with a shy smile, stepping a bit closer behind me. Is she hiding? "…How…how was yyyour nnnight, G-Guildmaster?"

"Excellent!" he exclaimed with a laugh that seemed to be triggered by pure glee. "I had such good dreams as well! So wonderfully wonderful and…perfect! Hm…'perfect'…you know, I could really go for a perfect apple right about now!" He looked around and skipped off towards wherever you get food from in this place.

Chatot returned with not a moment to spare. "Ah. Here you two are. Come along now." He started off towards the stairs. Rita and I hesitated, and noticing it, Chatot paused. "There's no need to look so frightened," he chuckled when he turned to face us. "I'm only giving you a tour. Since you have never been inside the guild before last evening, I assumed you would like to know where to pick out jobs and such."

"Oh!" I exclaimed, and both Rita and I visibly relaxed. "Okay. We thought we might be in trouble for being late, so…."

"Well, as it's only your first day, I hardly expected you to be completely faultless," Chatot explained patiently. "I will let you off this once. Be sure not to make a habit of it. The meeting begins promptly five minutes after the wake-up call, and I expect you to be present at any and all assemblies."

Rita nodded silently. "Of course," I assured him.

"Very good. Now, follow me." Chatot led the way to the ladder leading to the next floor. Rita and I quickly followed. He led us to the above floor and, weaving in between various exploration teams, stopped in front of a bulletin board at one side of the room. "This," he declared, tapping the board with a wing for emphasis, "is the job bulletin board. Pokémon from many different places post notices requesting help with one thing or another." He lowered his wing. "I assume you are aware that crime-committing Pokémon are cropping up in greater numbers?"

"…Yyyyes," Rita shyly replied, and even added more, to my surprise. "It's b-because the f-…flow of time is d-d-d-disrupted…rrrright? It's thhhhrowing ev-everything off b-balance…." Rita glanced at me pointedly. I was confused for a minute, and then it clicked. Oh! Was she doing it for me? So I'd know?

"Indeed it is," Chatot agreed, clearly impressed. "The correlation between time's disruption in some areas and the increase in evildoing Pokémon cannot be denied. In addition to that, mystery dungeons have been appearing in various places." He glanced between Rita and me. "Are either of you unfamiliar with the concept of mystery dungeons?"

Rita didn't say anything and just looked over at me this time. It'd be kind of weird if Rita just randomly blurted out everything she knew in response to a yes or no question, so she was letting me answer for both of us. "I could…use a refresher." Which was a lie of omission, because I had absolutely no idea how these things work, but again, playing it off as if I had merely forgotten rather than saying "I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about" seemed the more prudent option.

Chatot nodded. "Chikorita, since you seem to be quite familiar with geographical information, why don't you explain?" he prompted.

"Ah…um—w-…well…." Rita blushed, unprepared for being put on the spot, but she began to explain in great detail. "Um, y-you know what a mmmystery d-d-dungeon is, Kai….I ex-explained them a llllittle bit y-yesterday…um….I t-t-t-told you that the lll-layout and the items inside ch-change every t-t-time you e-enter it. If you get knnnocked out in a d-dungeon, you'll get sssstuck i-inside it…u-unless y-you have an e-explorer badge, w-which w-…wa-…warps you o-outside. A-all your m-money and a b-bunch of your items will be g-g-gone t-t-too. B-but they're f-fun to e-explore ssssince they're always ch-changing. It's ammmazing what you can f-find in there, if y-you look hhhhard enough," Rita exclaimed, her eyes shining. Her radiant joy was contagious; I couldn't help but smile. I hoped we would get our first job soon.

"Well, well! That's an impressive amount of knowledge you have there," Chatot said. Rita blushed even more deeply, murmuring her thanks. "Most of the jobs we have listed here at the guild take place in various mystery dungeons," Chatot informed us. "Once a job is completed by a team or individual, word is sent out to the client so that that Pokémon is able to meet the team or individual whenever possible." He paused to let this information sink in. "Now…why don't we find a job that is suited for your level of skill?"

"Yes, please!" I exclaimed eagerly.

Chatot rifled though the overlapping flyers pinned onto the corkboard. Flipping through them with remarkable speed, only a minute later he let out a peculiar "hm!" that Rita and I took to mean that he had found something. Sure enough, he emerged with a flyer clutched in his beak. He set it down in front and between us. "Why don't you take a look at this one? I'm sure you two can handle it."

Rita and I exchanged twin looks of excitement. We stared down at the message on the flyer, eager to see what our first task as guild members would be.

It turned out to be written in footprint runes, which I could not read. Of course.

"Um...Rita?" I whispered. "I can't read this..."

Rita glanced at me sideways and nodded, showing that she'd heard me. She looked over the message, which read like so:

Hello, my dear reader of this message! I am Spoink. I am in a state of terrible distress. Only a few days ago, I lost my most precious belonging—the pearl that proudly sits atop my head! I had felt it wobbling but thought nothing of its looseness until it rolled right down my back and down the road. I chased after it, but it rolled and rolled and rolled—right out of Treasure Town! My pearl is all I truly prize in life. I just cannot relax without it, and I feel awfully unbalanced without it there. Thankfully, I have heard news that someone has seen an object that they believe may be my pearl! This Pokémon told me he had seen it in Drenched Bluff, but I know that it is a dangerous place—certainly too dangerous for me! I beg of you—would you be so kind as to go to Drenched Bluff and retrieve it for me? I am willing to offer a generous reward to the Pokémon who returns my pearl. Sincerely, Spoink. Following that was a list of directions to the dungeon.

"W-we're...ssssupposed t-to...g-g-go to D-Drenched Bluff and...f-find a Sssssspoink's p-p-pearl...," Rita said out loud as if she were talking to herself. She was really telling me, but Chatot was listening; even if I'd managed to seem normal so far, needing to be told what a flyer said was just not.

"Wait, wait wait! We're only supposed to fetch a stupid pearl for a careless Spoink?" I asked indignantly. I was kind of offended that Chatot thought us capable of only such a simple, almost mindless task such as this. Did he think we were little kids or something?

Rita frowned, just as unhappy with this job as I was. "…I th-thought we were g-going to do ssssomething that's…we-well…m-more like an…adventure," she complained, but yet somehow she still managed to sound obedient and unchallenging. It was kind of awesome. I really wanted to learn that trick.

"Now don't you start!" Rita and I nearly jumped out of our skins at the angry squawk that came from Chatot's mouth. He was scowling. "You're just rookies. Did you really expect to be treasure hunting and rescuing those in need without ever having learned the very basic skills necessary for said objectives?"

"Um…no?" I said awkwardly, flattening my ears against my head guiltily. Rita turned crimson and looked completely ashamed of herself. "I don't think we thought of it that way…."

Chatot was not quite finished scolding us. "I should think not, the way you two are behaving. I've never, in all my days, seen a more disrespectful pair of apprentices, not even trying to disguise your disillusionment with the system and with my own skill at judging what a Pokémon is capable of. Why, I ought to put you two on kitchen duty for a week!" Letting the threat hang in the air, he stood there, clearly expecting us to think long and hard about what we had said.

"…We were pretty disrespectful," I admitted at last, staring down at my toes.

Chatot gazed at us steadily. "It is for the good of the guild, as well as yourselves, that you work your way up from menial tasks to the true substance of an exploration team. You two are young for apprentices, and these missions are generally of a caliber suited for fully grown members. Even then, it takes lots and lots of practice to be skilled enough to successfully complete even standard missions without getting injured or worse. Considering that you are going to a mystery dungeon where Pokémon are known to attack those who enter, you will be able to have quite enough of an adventure." He paused. "Do you understand all of this, or must I repeat myself?"

Rita nodded. "I-I understand," she squeaked out.

"Me, too," I added meekly.

"Good. Now, if you're quite finished complaining, you are dismissed. If you want to be sure you make it back before dinnertime, I suggest you quickly be on your way."

"Hmph…," I huffed irritably as Chatot flew off to the lower level. "I say he's lost his marbles. We already proved ourselves capable of all this when we got your relic fragment back." Which I only felt was half true—we hadn't proved ourselves to the guild yet, so this was fair—but it made me feel better to complain. I probably should stop, since Chatot was not happy about complaining.

"…W-what's mmmmarbles?" Rita asked curiously.

"Huh?" I asked with surprise. "Oh, right, I guess you don't know. Marbles are little glass balls humans play games with sometimes. 'Lost his marbles' is just an expression meaning 'he's crazy.'" I blinked. Huh, wonder where that knowledge came from. "Do you think it's good that I remember that? I think that's a good sign."

"Y-yeah," Rita responded, her eyes lighting up. "B-but I d-d-don't know if…Chatot's 'llllost his marbles.' He d-d-doesn't knnnow that we w-went through B-Beach Cave," Rita said ruefully, her expression falling a bit. She sighed softly, inching towards the ladder, and looked over her shoulder at me. "Um…C-come on….W-we'd b-b-better get g-going."

AN:/

Hi everybody! So...this site hasn't been very nice to me lately. I finally finish my mini-research paper for a picky professor and at last find the time to update, but what am I welcomed back with? An error message, same as everybody else. Finally I looked up a way to get around it (kudos to the people who figured it out), and here we are. This chapter is kind of uneventful, though, because nothing really happened, so sorry I have to reward your patience with just "OMG guild yay" nonsense. At least it's fun to torment Chatot.

Also, I've got to ask you to pardon the extreme form of randomness presented in the last author's note...I was suffering the head-fuzziness of not having eating all day when I wrote that, so it's kind of...out there. So if it struck you as amusing, then yay for me and I take all credit for it, but if it struck you as really, really weird...it's all the lack of food's fault.

So, reviews!

HikariNoTenshi-San: Ah, Rita's bag...I know where I'm going with that particular plot point, but unfortunately it doesn't come up again for a long time. Like...a reeeeeally long time. Rita's stashed it in some corner where Kai, being the airhead she often is, won't see it and therefore won't be reminded to ask about it. But all will be revealed in due time! Ugh, it feels lame to say that...it's supposed to make people feel better but it really doesn't help, does it?

Melony: Glad you like it so far! The game is pretty awesome. I play my PMD games all the time too! Actually, I started over my PMD:Darkness to use as a reference for this story, so I play while I'm writing. It's fun!

Okay, so, Random Fact #10: Team Virtue (Charmander and Pikachu) was my very first team ever, way back on PMD: Blue Rescue Team! These guys are my loyal minions, sent to the guild to help with plot points. I have plans in mind and none of the original guild members struck me as having the personalities I'd need for that situation, which is why I stuck Team Virtue in this story. They're also our comic relief because they both like pranks, so expect strange things to happen...like friendly hazing, for example. Funny thing is, even though I always thought "Chamander=girl, Pikachu=boy," I never actually put them together, but now that I'm writing them I'm sensing chemistry here...HeroxPartner, anyone?