AUTHOR'S NOTES:

We're almost done with this hell... Rip...

"Graduation?" Katheryn repeated.

Liz didn't seem too happy. She then said, "Wait, some of us have been here a lot longer than others, and we haven't been given the chance to graduation. Why can they?"

Chester looked at Wigglytuff then back at Liz. He answered, "Take it up with the Guildmaster. However, they've proven themselves an extraordinary team several times over. Should I remind you that they saved the world?"

She frowned, but backed down, going quiet.

"Dan took the exam last year," Nina said, looking back, "and promptly failed!"

Some laughter broke out as Dan defended, "Hey, it's nothing easy!"

Katheryn looked to Chester and Wigglytuff before asking, "What are we supposed to do to graduate?" Excitement was obvious in her voice.

Wigglytuff picked up the explanation. "You need to go to Mystifying Forest, make your way to Luminous Spring, and get the treasure there," he said.

"What's Luminous Spring?" Vicillious seemed interested.

"It's a pond where Pokemon once went to evolve," Wigglytuff said. "Light used to shine on it, but nothing does now, so no one can seem to evolve anymore. Most think it was because time was weird that the light stopped shining, which makes sense considering that the light stopped shining about then."

"Evolution was something that didn't happen too easily in the future," Grovyle muttered.

Blaze looked at him. "How did you evolve, anyways?"

He shrugged. "I was knocked out during that. Everyone always was. I'm not sure why, but you just couldn't evolve when you were awake. I tried asking Janice. I never got a direct answer from her..."

Katheryn didn't seem too interested. She asked Wigglytuff, "So all we need is this treasure?"

Wigglytuff nodded. "Yup!"

"That doesn't seem too hard," she said.

"Well, there's one more thing you should know..." He sounded incredibly uneasy. "There's this guy who lives there. He's called the Grand Master of All Things Bad."

Her ears flattened some. "Wait, what?"

Wigglytuff gave a smile. "Good luck! Get to your work, Guild!"

As everyone disbanded, Katheryn faced the others. "Well that escalated quickly," she said.

Grovyle chuckled a bit. "Ah, I wouldn't worry too much about it. Let's just go get ready for this."

Heading into Treasure Town, Katheryn decided to approach Dan to see what he could tell. She walked up to him and asked, "Hey Dan, what was the Grand Master like?"

He looked over then said, "You're not supposed to talk about it. Sorry. What I can tell you is that you're not in for a good time." He shook his head and walked away.

Discouraged, Katheryn said, "Oh," as she left to go to the Market.

Meanwhile, Grovyle, Vicillious and Blaze were talking with two of the townsfolk, Teddiursa and Ursaring.

"You're going to Mystifying Forest!?" Vicillious exclaimed as she heard where they were going. "But that's where the Grand Master of All Things Bad lives!"

"The whose-what?" Teddiursa tilted her head. "I've never heard of or seen anything like that, and we go there a bunch of times."

She tilted her head. "But the Guildmaster just..." She frowned.

Ursaring put in, "Well, we'll be off. Maybe we'll see you there. Good luck on graduating!" He waved as the two left.

Vicillious looked at the two Grovyles beside her, saying, "That's weird. Maybe this Grand Master isn't there anymore or he's only just moved there."

Grovyle seemed to be interested as well. "Yeah, that is a curious thing. I guess there's really no telling what'll happen until we get there."

Vicillious nodded. She skipped away to catch up with Katheryn and Blaze and Grovyle sat aside. They never did much in a day to prepare to head out, mostly due to the fact that Katheryn wouldn't let them. But it was all right, they didn't need to.

"So what do you think this Grand Master is?" Blaze asked, looking at Grovyle.

Grovyle shrugged. "Could be a number of things. Wigglytuff might've just done it to scare us. There could be something actually there. We'll find out when we're at the forest."

"You seem awfully calm about all this," he remarked.

"I see no point in getting worked up. We can handle it, whatever it is."

"That sure of yourself, eh?" Blaze had a bit of a tease in his voice.

"More of the group as a total." Grovyle leaned back, pressing against a tree. "Let's just hope it doesn't annoy Vicillious, whatever it is, because that girl is a world of hurt if you get her mad enough." He laughed a bit.

Blaze agreed, "Ain't that the truth?"

The two got quiet and watched as everyone went about their business, preparing for their days and getting their things together. When Katheryn and Vicillious came over, they got up and headed out, going to the Crossroads and making their way to Mystifying Forest.

The forest exploration went smoothly. The four ran into practically no trouble at all. Katheryn remained edgy despite Grovyle's attempts to soothe her. Eventually, they arrived in a small clearing.

"There's nothing here," Blaze noted as he looked around. "The Spring is probably just up ahead, seeing how there don't appear to be any other floors."

Katheryn's ears twitched, and she warned, "Keep on guard."

As soon as she said that, some nearby bushes rustled. The four looked over, only to calm when they saw Teddiursa and Ursaring.

"Hiya!" Teddiursa greeted. "Find your Grand Master yet?"

Katheryn shook her head. "We're not looking for him, we're just trying to avoid him and see if he's here."

Teddiursa reported, "Well, we've seen nothing. We're gunna go to the Spring. You wanna come with?"

She smiled. "Sure, that'd be great if you can show us."

Teddiursa nodded. The two began to walk off, the group following quickly. However, as they got near the end of the clearing, Team Renegade suddenly fell through the ground. They went down with a scream and landed on one another.

Blaze sat up with a groan, shaking his head. He then called out, "Is everyone alright?"

"You're sitting on me," Katheryn spat.

"So yes, you're fine." He laughed a bit and looked up, only to raise his eyebrows when something was shoved on top of the hole. The cave grew black.

Shoving Blaze off, Katheryn got up. She quickly located the other three, then asked, "Where are we?"

"You're intruding upon my home," answered someone else.

Katheryn looked over, and stammered out, "Wh-who are you!? Show yourself!"

The thing sighed, and said, "My name's Sterling. I'm a Shinx."

"Sterling?" Blaze repeated. "What are you doing down here?"

Sterling twitched her nose. "Why do I know your voice? You seem familiar..."

He laughed a bit. "Sterling, it's me! Blaze!" He smiled.

"Oh!" Her voice sounded lighter. "Well, who are the rest of you?"

"I'm part of an exploration team called Renegade," he explained.

Sterling commented, "There sure are a lot of you."

"How do you know how many there are?" Katheryn asked.

"It's a bit of a hard-to-explain thing, but I can sense all of you! All... Eh... Twelve of you. Big team!"

Katheryn looked around. "Twelve? But there are only four of us!"

"Then what about those guys behind you?" Sterling asked.

The four turned around as Katheryn shouted, "What!?"

Blaze reached into his bag and pulled out a Blast Seed. He threw it at the ground. It gave them a moment of sight, only to show a group of enemies looming over them.

Sterling frowned. "So they aren't on your team?"

"It's the Grand Master of All Things Bad!" Katheryn screamed as she hid behind Vicillious.

Vicillious looked at Grovyle and Blaze. She then stared straight ahead of her before saying, "Yay! Playtoys!" She put a hand forward and a couple of screams were heard. A couple of loud thuds followed.

Grovyle looked at Vicillious. "What are you doing?"

"Psychic!" Vicillious explained happily. More shuffling was heard.

Sterling tilted her head. "This is a rather odd situation. I'll be back in a moment." She darted away to somewhere, only to come back with a torch. She gave it to Katheryn, who lit it and handed it to Blaze. Blaze held it out, only to see what appeared to be the Guild on the ground and in pain.

Vicillious blinked. "Oh."

Wigglytuff stood up. With a hard glare, he snarled, "You lot... You'll pay for such insults to the Grand Master!"

"Um, Guildmaster, what are you doing?" Katheryn tilted her head.

"I don't know who this Guildmaster is," the Grand Master said, "but you're going to regret this!"

"Vicillious!" Grovyle said. He pointed to the Grand Master. "Playtoy!"

"Playtoy?" Vicillious echoed. She clapped her hands, and said, "Playtoy!" She held her hands out. The Grand Master lit up in pink before rising into the air and slamming hard into a wall. A bit of laughter went through Renegade. Vicillious pulled the Grand Master off the wall before tossing him into a nearby Dugtrio. The Dugtrio grunted but didn't do much else. Vicillious then threw the Grand Master aside, causing him to crash into another wall.

Sterling looked at Vicillious, then to Katheryn, asking, "Is she for real?"

Katheryn nodded. "Yup. She's just found a playtoy."

Vicillious clapped her hands again and echoed, "Playtoy!" She smiled.

With a groan, the Grand Master got up again. He looked around then shouted, "Run!" He took off in a dash. The others follow close behind before they vanished all together.

Sterling twitched her tail, saying, "That was odd."

Blaze looked around. He asked Sterling, "How long have you been here?"

"About three days, but I don't think I wanna remain here." She shook her head. "But, it's nice to see you again! Elet says hi!"

He laughed a bit. "Nice to see you too, Sterling."

Katheryn looked at them then asked, "How do you know each other?"

"We're just friends," Blaze explained. He looked up at the ceiling. The roof wasn't too high.

Vicillious smiled before saying, "Playtoy!"

Grovyle lit up in pink like the Grand Master had. He started to object, "No, Vicillious!" He was cut short as he suddenly shot upward, breaking through a barrier of leaves and landing on the ground above.

Vicillious giggled some. She did the same for Katheryn and Blaze before facing Sterling and asking, "Do you want to go up as well?"

Sterling shook her head. "No, but it was nice meeting you!"

Vicillious nodded. "Nice meeting you too!" She then went up herself, landing on the ground.

Katheryn looked to Vicillious, and said, "Don't do that."

"It got us out though!" she protested.

"But-"

"Let's go get the treasure!" Grovyle said quickly before seizing Katheryn and closing her mouth. "After all, we need it to graduate."

The four started to walk past the clearing. They arrived in silence to another opening, seeing Teddiursa and Ursaring looked at a golden box with a frown upon their face.

"Hiya!" Katheryn greeted as they walked up. "What's this?"

Teddiursa looked at them. "I'm not sure," she admitted. "I've never seen this here before. I wanna open it, but it seems suspicious, you know?"

As Katheryn opened her mouth to respond, Grovyle walked up to the box and kicked it. It fell back, opening up. Inside was a Perfect Apple.

"Well, it's fitting for Wigglytuff," Vicillious remarked as she walked up to the box's content.

"You can say that again." Grovyle picked it up. "This is probably the treasure or whatever." He handed it to Blaze, watching as it got stored in Blaze's bag.

Katheryn looked around. "Well, if that's it," she began to say, but stopped when the clearing suddenly lit up in a bright, white light, a sort of snapping noise bursting in her ears. She stepped back and looked wildly around as the light faded. The others seemed as lost as she was as she asked, "What was that?"

Teddiursa looked behind them. Her face lit up as she said, "Oh! Look at the spring!"

They all did. Shining down on it was a strong beam of white light. They took steps toward it. Katheryn hesitated by the water and carefully put her foot down. To her surprise, though, she didn't sink underneath. She stood on top of it. She slowly reached another paw out before walking onto the water, looking around with confusion.

"The light's back!" Ursaring said as he walked up to it. "I haven't seen it in about a year or so."

Katheryn twitched her ears. "What does it do?"

He looked over. "You can evolve here. You know how you can't evolve normally in dungeons and stuff?"

She nodded.

"This place lets you. Other regions don't have a special place because they don't have Mystery Dungeons, but Luminous Spring is just one more thing that makes this region the best," he boasted.

Katheryn's eyes lit up. "So you can evolve here!" She ran over to Blaze who seemed rather scared to step on the water. She dove into his bag, coming back out with a red and orange stone that looked to have a flame sealed inside of it. She then skidded back toward the light, stopping inside of it and putting the stone down.

"Those who seek awakening..." the trees seemed to whisper as they rustled despite a lack of wind. "This is Luminous Spring. Do you seek awakening?"

Katheryn nodded eagerly, saying, "Yes!"

Vicillious looked to the other two, saying, "You have no idea how badly she wants to be a Ninetales."

"Do you need an item to awaken?" it questioned.

"This Fire Stone," she said, putting her paw on it.

"Do you need another item?"

She shook her head, saying, "No."

"Very well. Let us begin," it said. There was a moment of silence. The light grew harsh, blinding the world from Katheryn. However, it suddenly shrunk away with a sort of repulsed hiss.

She flattened her ears as it shouted out, "No! You cannot be awakened!"

"What!?" she cried out. "Why?"

There was a bit of silence as if it was mulling over the reason before it said, "I cannot determine that. It might have to do with the tear in the fabrication of space."

"The fabrication of space?" she repeated. "So is it just me who can't evolve?"

"No. Those who are not standing on the Spring cannot awaken as well."

Katheryn turned around to see Vicillious, Blaze, and Grovyle, all standing by the water's edge.

"Return if awakening is what you seek," the voice said before the light faded away.

Vicillious tilted her head. "I can't evolve because I'm a legendary," she said, "but why can't you three?"

Blaze answered, "A psychotic Gardevoir in a process I don't really understand basically infused me with an Everstone. I can't evolve if I wanted to. Sceptile are ugly."

"I hear you," Grovyle answered. He held out his hand and the two highfived, causing a small laugh from Vicillious. Grovyle then said, "I am totally happy how I am."

Katheryn glared a bit at them, saying, "You two might be, but I've wanted to be a Ninetales forever! And then I get this crap!? That's just not right!"

Blaze frowned as Katheryn returned the Fire Stone. He then said, "Well, we can't do anything about it now. Let's just go back to the Guild and give them their Perfect Apple."

"Congratulations," Wigglytuff said as he looked at the four, the Guild circled around them. "You've passed the Graduation exam!"

Katheryn twitched her ears. "It doesn't really feel like we actually did anything," she protested.

"Are you kidding me!? You got to Luminous Spring and got the treasure!" he argued. "I'll bet you beat that Grand Master too, didn't you?"

She then said, "Yeah, that's what I don't get. Wigglytuff, how do you know we did that?"

He froze at the question, then said quickly, "Did what?"

"Beat the Grand Master," she said.

"Grand Master?" he echoed. "I don't know anything about a Grand Master! What are you talking about?"

"Err- yeah!" Chester chimed in. "Minions? Maybe you need to sleep."

The Guild ended up in a laugh. Katheryn sighed a bit and shook her head. She continued, "Still doesn't feel like we've done anything."

Blaze swung an arm around her shoulder and said, "Katheryn, we graduated. That's what we did. Just shut up and be happy about it!"

"Um... alright," she agreed.

The Guild threw a small party. However, after that, Team Renegade packed up their things and moved out. They headed across town, arriving at Sharpedo Bluff. Katheryn opened the way to the room down below, and they all came inside, setting down their belongings. There wasn't a whole lot, just a small box each. Blaze didn't have anything outside of his bag, so he just helped with what he could.

It was after all that when the four settled down. It was night by then, and Katheryn had started a fire. They all gathered around, talking.

"So where do we go from here?" Grovyle asked.

Katheryn shook her head. "I don't really know. I guess we just live day to day and do things as they come up." She looked over to Blaze now, saying, "But since we're here and have nothing else to do right now, I wanna know something."

Blaze moved his bag away, saying, "You aren't going through it. I said no."

She laughed a bit, explaining, "No, no, no, not that."

"Oh." He relaxed a bit. "What is it?"

"On Temporal Tower, when we were about to restore time, you attacked Grovyle," she reminded.

"That wasn't me; that was Dusknoir!" he shouted out defensively.

"You said that there, too. What do you mean by that?" she asked.

Blaze sighed a bit then said, "Well, that goes into what happened after I went back to the future."

Katheryn's ears twitched. "Tell us that story, too," she demanded.

"Well, alright," he agreed. "It all started after I went through the portal, arriving into that future of darkness."