I'm starting another semister of college so I might slow down for a while here. Don't worry though, I'm not going to slow down that much so keep an eye out for updates.

This one's a silly chapter to be honest. A good chunk of humor here.

Enjoy.

PMD 2: A Novelization

Chapter 45: Charmed

It was a restless night for Alex after saying goodbye to Manaphy at the beach.

Eve had cried herself to sleep. His own bitter sadness at parting with the little water-type wouldn't leave him alone and Alex had trouble getting to sleep himself.

When they woke up the next morning, Alex didn't exactly feel rested but he had at least gotten a few hours of sleep.

They gave the third bed (which they hadn't the spirit or energy to remove the previous evening) a somewhat forlorn look, wishing Manaphy was still there.

"Hey Alex…" Eve said slowly "I'm already missing Manaphy… was it really the right thing to do? Forcing him away like that."

Alex quietly sighed, trying to gently dismiss his sorrow.

"It's hard to say… but yes, I think it was as Chatot told us. It was for the best…"

He found it hard to admit. He wanted to deny it, to claim that they could've taken care of Manaphy a bit longer and let him go a bit gentler than they had. However, the difficulty of the parting was their own fault (having gotten so attached to Manaphy and Manaphy to them) and he was only too aware of that.

Looking over at Eve, she seemed just as down and so Alex decided to do what he had done every time he'd seen her down like this.

"C'mon Eve… let's get to work. For Manaphy." His partner looked up, curious to hear the words of encouragement "As he grows up, we'll continue to grow into a better and better exploration team. I'm sure he'll return someday. When that 'someday' comes, let's make sure we're the finest exploration team around, okay?" He finished, giving his partner a smile.

She nodded and returned the smile. They clasped paws to seal their resolve, put away the third bed, and then they set out.

o0o

The days went by. Manaphy shifted to the back of Alex's mind, though he never forgot the hatchling. He and Eve quickly got back into the flow of work and it became very routine.

So routine that, one day Alex wasn't paying attention as they checked the job boards. It wasn't until Eve pointed out the unusual circumstances that he noticed that the room of the guild was completely empty.

"Where is everyone?" Eve said, looking around at the barren room.

Throughout all the days he'd been in the guild, Alex had absolutely never seen the job room completely devoid of pokemon. This was a first: there was no one save themselves.

He was about to comment on the emptiness when they heard a commotion downstairs on the second level of the guild. It sounded like the guild was extremely excited about something.

"I guess they're all down there for… whatever it is that's going on…" Alex said shrugging.

"Well, I'm curious. Let's go check it out." Eve said and headed for the ladder, Alex following.

They immediately noticed the entire guild gathered around in front of the Guildmaster's chamber. It clearly wasn't morning meeting: everyone was gathered in a circle around something and were all talking excitedly. Chatot was outside the circle, looking disappointed as if he had been left out when dividing up a prize.

"Hey Chatot. What's going on?" Eve said, getting the parrot's attention.

"What? Don't you know?" Chatot said, sounding thoroughly shocked "Team Charm has come to visit the guild!"

"Team Charm?" Alex echoed, wondering what manner of team that was. He had actually overheard one or two rumors out in town that day but hadn't been paying any attention to them.

Then a gap appeared in the circle and Alex saw the group of pokemon that he hadn't seen before.

That's Team Charm? Was the only thought that got through his mind before it went blank. Chatot took the opportunity to explain who was who on the team but Alex didn't really hear it, as he was too busy staring.

"The gorgeous one in the middle is Lopunny. She's the leader of the group." Chatot started with a wistful sigh. This was the one Alex couldn't tear his eyes off of. He barely caught her name and that was about it.

Lopunny was clearly a rabbit-pokemon, she was somewhat humanoid in shape though and stood on two legs. She had ears that had to be twice as long as Alex himself was tall (ending in fluffs of fur), which hung down behind her head, nearly touching the ground, putting the length of Alex and his partner's ears cleanly to shame. Her hands were up near her face and had ruffs of fluffy, wool-like hair at her wrists (similar to the tips of her ears), making it look like she might've had sleeves. She was pre-dominantly a dark shade of brown and a lighter, tan-like color in places like her belly and the ends of her ears.

"Gorgeous" was a sore understatement of Lopunny's indescribable beauty.

"The graceful one to her right, that's Gardevoir. She's extremely smart." Chatot was continuing, though Alex wasn't catching a word.

"Graceful" certainly described Gardevoir's appearance. She was the most human-like of the three, though like all human-shaped pokemon, there was certainly no possibility of mistaking her for human. She had a green dome-like head that had a sleek curve; it looked like a sort of helmet as her face was white and her eyes were visible just under the "helmet". The rest of her was a pure white and looked like a very slender human woman wearing a gown of some sort with long, thin arms. There was an odd red, protusion from her chest. She was beautiful as well, though hers paled next to Lopunny.

"And the last one to her left, that's Medicham. She knows all sorts of martial arts and is the muscle of Team Charm." Chatot finished, sounding like he would've liked to write a sonnet about them and sing it.

Medicham was humanoid in shape as well. She had massive legs (a hot pink) that looked like she was wearing a set of extremely baggy (or perhaps just over-sized) pants. The rest of her was slender in appearance, having a white body, arms and face. Half of her head was also the same shade of pink as her legs and looked like a sort of hat.

She wasn't exactly beautiful, but she had a certain grace to her appearance as well.

"Aren't they wondrous?" Chatot sighed.

Alex opened his mouth and said something real intelligent.

"Daaah… uhhhhh…" Alex couldn't help noticing his heart seemed to be beating rather audibly.

Eve was also staring (again, Alex wasn't paying enough attention to really notice this) but she glanced at Alex when she heard his mumbling and burst out laughing. She bumped his side and got him to snap out of it.

Though he awakened from his stupor, he still couldn't stop staring.

Meanwhile, the Guildmaster emerged from his chambers to excited greetings from the visiting team.

"Wigglytuff! How you've been?" Lopunny said with an air of cheeriness that matched the Guildmaster's.

"It's been a long time, Wigglytuff." Gardevoir said with a warm smile.

"What?" Loudred said (as loud as ever) "Team CHARM knows the Guildmaster?" he said in disbelief.

"Oh yeah…" Medicham laughed "We all used to go exploring together all the time. Wigglytuff was something else back in the day. Like 'rowr, girl'!"

Wigglytuff was also quite happy to see his old friends again and they spent a minute or two socializing. Then Gardevoir cleared her throat for attention and spoke up, getting to business.

"Wigglytuff, it really is good to see you again, but we've actually returned because we've finally found those sealed ruins we've been looking for."

"You remember we gave you the key to keep safe, right?" Lopunny said expectantly.

Wigglytuff blinked and seemed to think about it for about five seconds. Then he said:

"Key? Nope, sorry. I can't remember." He shrugged as if this were a small matter of no importance.

"What?" Medicham yelled, somewhat furiously "You lost it? We gave it to you for a reason!" But Medicham was the only one who reacted with outrage.

Gardevoir gazed at the Guildmaster for a few moments and then smiled, shaking her head gently.

"You really haven't changed, have you Wigglytuff?" she said with a gentle laugh "Lopunny…" she glanced at their team leader.

"I'm on it Gardevoir." Lopunny said, still smiling as cheerfully as ever. She then reached into their treasure bag and dug around in it for a moment and produced an apple from it. Alex could identify it immediately.

"Here you go, Wigglytuff. Your favorite." Lopunny said, setting the perfect apple down in front of the guildmaster who promptly was overjoyed to receive it and, picking it up, started to bounce it around on his head as he was known to do.

"Now then… about that key…" Gardevoir said coyly. Wigglytuff's eyes brightened.

"Oh yeah! That key!" the guildmaster responded "I remember now! Just a sec."

The guildmaster put the apple away while he went back into his chamber. Medicham blinked, apparently taken aback by the guildmaster's sudden recall.

A few seconds later, there was a loud "YOOM-TAH!" and then an even louder crash! Several guild members jumped as it had sounded like the guildmaster might have just totaled his own chamber.

Wigglytuff stepped back out a second later (looking as if nothing had happened) with something besides the apple in his hand.

"Here you go." He said, handing it over to Lopunny and resuming his apple-bouncing activity.

"Thanks Wigglytuff." Lopunny with a bright smile.

"Say Wigglytuff, you wanna do like in the old times and join us for the exploration?" Medicham asked, a bit excited. However, the offer apparently fell on deaf ears, as the guildmaster was too busy playing with his new perfect apple to listen.

"I think that's a 'no'." Gardevoir said warmly.

"Well, c'mon. Let's go unlock those ruins and find us some treasure." Lopunny said, her mood never changing. The guildmembers surrounding them broke apart to make way for them.

Alex felt his heart speed up as the trio passed them, heading for the ladder going up.

"Hey, can we come along?" Eve called after them hopefully. Team Charm stopped and Lopunny looked directly at them.

"Well aren't you cute?" Lopunny said sweetly, kneeling down slightly (since she was considerably taller than Alex or his partner). Alex felt a little light-headed, like he might fall over.

Lopunny giggled noticing Alex's expression, rubbed Eve playfully on the head and then responded:

"Sure, you can come along! It'll be fun!"

As soon as these words were out, everyone else (sans Wigglytuff) was eager to come too.

Lopunny giggled some more upon seeing all of this.

"You all can come if you want." She said, standing up and posing in a cool and beautiful manner (Alex's heart jumped) "We're on our way to the ruins so you'd best follow us!"

The vast majority of the guild promptly scrambled to get ready to go.

"They're really a nice team aren't they?" Eve said with a smile that seemed would never fade.

"Uh yeah… Team Charm wasn't it?" Alex's memory was still trying to catch up after his mind had run away with him.

"Yes Alex…" Eve said laughing "Lopunny, Gardevoir and Medicham. I noticed how you were acting. Sheesh… how about you get your head out of the clouds now so we can go?" she said, trying to subdue her laughter.

Alex's face started to burn and he quickly looked elsewhere until it went away. They then headed out to get ready.

Alex was quite aware of how stupidly he had acted… and near his partner no less. It seemed she wasn't holding anything against him though and he was grateful to his partner for that.

Soon enough, they had packed and gotten ready. Team Charm had kindly waited at the crossroads for anyone coming along to show up before heading out. Alex kept himself focused this time and didn't stare like an idiot. Loudred, Corphish, and Sunflora had come along for the trip. It seemed everyone else was, for some reason or another, going to stay at the guild.

"Well c'mon everyone. Let's go to the ruins!" Lopunny said, still wearing a bright smile and they set off.