"Hey. Derrek, wakey wakey! Although not literally, I'd like a chat." I heard, I immediately recognized the voice, "Hey, WAKE UP!" He yelled.
"I'm awake, what's up?" I asked, shaking my head awake, just holding it with my right hand.
"Nothing, I wanted to ask you what was up… You've changed… Quite literally." Shawn said, smiling, shaking his head, although it seemed like more of a shake for himself.
"What are you…" I started, but then cut myself off, when I saw that the reflection was of my human form. I Stepped back, startled, Shawn chuckled.
"Nothing much, also that you have evolved, that's hard to do, only a few can actually evolve without any source of tranquility, or area balance. I know that there's neither for you, because one, I used to live there, and two, you're there to save the world! Don't ask how I know two." He said, smiling.
"Really? Huh, maybe you'll evolve when you come back! I heard somewhere that it's kind of based off of experience right?"
"Sometimes, most of the time it isn't though. I hope I evolve, it'll certainly help out…" He trailed, "Anyways, what's going on? Tell me a story!"
"Me? Okay… Well…" I said, then went on to describe anything and everything from the beginning of the big dungeon. During the story Shawn payed the most attention during the parts where I talked about the guild. He smiled, and frowned, and occasionally put his own input into the story.
"So wait, you are the leader of a guild? That's… Erm. Yeah. There's not much I can say about that, other than cool I suppose. Good to know that Jordan's doing well, I hope I can come and join you guys when this is all done…"
"So do I, you're my only friend from my childhood now. Everyone else is out of contact." I said, dropping my head, and frowning.
"Don't worry! I'll be there for you. Even if only in spirit." He said, coming next to me and sitting down.
"Yeah, we'll see each other eventually. I guarantee it." I said, nodding my head.
"I'll be seeing you. Later, keep Jordan alive, okay? Bye!" Shawn said, nodding, then trotted off. His form vanished from sight, and a wave of fog rolled in, absorbing the surroundings, and reducing my sight.
Gina had woken up, she went over and shook Pikachu awake. "Hey, wake up, let's get started!" Gina said, in a soft voice, still haven't learned to project, and basically muttering. Pikachu rolled over, shaking her head and murmuring something. "Come on, wake up!" Gina said, a little louder this time, still not getting her to listen or wake up.
"Five more minutes. Only five."
"NO wake up!" Gina yelled.
"Fine! Let's go, it's time to go! What ever Mary!"
"Who's Mary? I do actually wanna go and complete a request though… Wanna leave?"
"Yeah, let's do that fast! I'd rather not talk about Mary… It'd be improper." Pikachu said, shaking her head.
"That's fine, let's get a move on, let's just go somewhere new anywhere really." Gina muttered, shaking her head. She was interested, but she thought it rude not to push the subject.
"So we're going to go do a couple requests, and ship off, right?" Pikachu said, nodding came from Gina, who didn't really know why, but had a strange suffocating feeling. They left to the request board, and picked the easiest request.
"So wait, what are we doing?" I asked, shaking my head.
"We're sparring, it's not that hard to think through, I'm going to attack you, and you're going to attack back. Try and prevent any and all damage, while attempting to damage me." Jordan said, shaking his head, "Not that hard."
"How do you use TMs as well?" I asked, confused as to how it worked last time.
"It's 'a think about' use process, no one knows how it works, and no one knows how they came to be, they're just strange occurrences, maybe they're from a precursor or something." Jordan shrugged, then started attacking, the entire earth rumbled.
"What the?" I said, getting hit by small stones, I then charged a Shadow Ball in my hand, throwing it, I targeted Jordan, aiming to knock him off his feat.
"Hey, nice toss," He said, dodging off to the left, only just missing the Shadow Ball, "good speed, too! That nearly hit me!" He exclaimed, then rushed at me using Metal Claw. I ducked, and tripped him, using a move I had never seen before. He slid along the ground on his face.
"Ow, that was a nice Night Slash, caught me real off guard." He said, getting up.
"GO DERREK!" Urist cried, watching the battle. Jordan caused another Earthquake, while I used my Shadow Ball to attempt to remain off the ground. It nearly worked, as I only got the tail end of the quake.
"NIGHT DAZE." I cried as an explosion of energy exploded out from me, something inside told me to use that attack, but I didn't know I had learned it.
"I yield! STOP!" Jordan cried, as I walked closer, "That was good, you have a bunch of strong attacks."
"Thanks? I don't know. It's confusing, but this world is… different, I don't think I like it's constructs any more. I really like the people though, I am regretting being here instead of back at my world. There's people who put time into me, I wonder how long I've been gone…" I said, shaking my head, remembering my 'family' and what they've done for me. Even though I didn't like my step-dad he did attempt to do me some good.
"It must be a long time, we've accomplished so much. I don't wanna even know what is currently up in your world, it seems like your world is so mean, and horrible." Urist said, resting on the ground. His wings flapped lightly, while he rested on the ground. Jordan walked over to Urist and sat down, he whispered to Urist something, then walked back over to me. He shook my paw, and looked behind me.
"What's up with all this? Why are there so many buildings?" San asked, speaking from behind me. I jumped, confused as to what really was going on.
"Oh, this? We're running a guild… It's kinda small. It works, and it's self sufficient. I've been making sure it follows every rule stated by the union." Jordan said, smiling.
"Really? Huh, I didn't know that people were still interested in these, thought they were all into independent exploration teams." Cherry said, shaking her head.
"Those aren't actually a thing this far out. There's no real reason for there to be independent groups, it's actually safer this way." Jordan said, I was sitting and staring, San tapped me on the shoulder, and I turned and looked, he knocked his clenched paw into an open paw three times.
"Is that Rock, Paper, Scissors?" I asked, unsure if it was an interdimensional construct. I made sure it was quiet.
"Yeah, they'll be going on quite the while." He replied, so it was an interdimensional construct. We started playing, I returned to listening.
"...But the worst idea of that is actually the cost, most people are scared away by the total cost of these guilds, whose exorbitant fees, are at the lowest, sixty percent, and the highest, ninety percent." I had won by doing scissors compared to his paper, it's a good thing we both have a vague idea of how it works.
"We only charge fifty percent, and the area we're in is basically new frontier, so there's all kinds of requests available. All kinds of requests means more and more availability for gain for the exploration teams." Jordan said, responding to Cherry's argument, San won using paper to my rock, I was hoping it wouldn't go on for too much longer.
"Okay, so how do you pay for this land? How do you pay off the fee to the Guild Association?" Cherry quickly spouted, San peaked his head, not actually listening to the past conversation up 'till now.
"I already own this land, and there's a guild association? They haven't contacted us, and Pelipper would have told us about it. I think who ever told you about them was getting scammed, or scamming." Jordan said, shaking his head, I was watching with full attention, Urist had been sleeping, as I could now hear a faint snore.
"They're real, they're an agency to collect information, and distribute the info to those who request it." Cherry muttered, she flicked her head and flapped her wings.
"They haven't come to us, do we have to go to them first?" Jordan asked, "If they're official then they should have some sort of contact with up and coming guilds right?"
"They're not in this region. Due to the barrier they can't get in either. Impossible to get around, and even harder to bring down." San said, shaking his head, I walked over as Cherry got up in the air. She was flying, San was standing right there, shaking his head. "She's going to be angry for a while, let her fly off."
"Alright, I can deal, she'll come back eventually." I said, looking off to where she flew.
"This area is so strange, it's called Flower Meadows, but all I see are holes, and burning… What is going on here?" Pikachu asked, shaking her head.
"I don't know, but it is certainly different. I feel at home with all the heat… Must be due to my type." Gina smiled, comfortable in her current environment.
"Still no monsters, just like last time." Pikachu said, while Gina nodded in response.
"Yeah, we're right next to the request floor right? Just this set of stairs?" Gina asked.
"Yeah, we're on floor 12, the stairs shouldn't be too far…" She replied, walking into the stairs, and up them. Gina followed her up, and a Mightyena was standing at the top of the stairs.
"Ah, yes, finally, I see Milord has sent someone, I'll reward you when we get back." The beast said coldly, "Thank you for your time, I'll let master know to spare you." Both the girls exchanged glances as they listened to the Mightyena. They quickly teleported back, and went through the reward routine that they did yesterday. Then Brian took fifty percent of the cash rewarded, and they went home to HQ, no welcome, just straight to bed.
Author's Note
I may or may not do some horrible things to some characters next week. As my plans are coming to a close, I see more and more pain and suffering during this winter-month. Only this one though, no other months. There is no real reason as to why I am so late. Sorry!