"Well… We're almost there…" Dusty said to himself after he stepped off a lapras' back and onto a wooden dock. The cubone took a few steps and stopped, as he looked out at the road ahead and tightly held his bone club to his chest. Dusty jumped slightly as he felt a hand on his back. He turned around to find a totodile standing behind him.

"Riptide don't do that!" Dusty said, gripping his chest. "Sorry." Riptide said, smiling. "It's just, we have a bit of an issue."

"What kind of issue?" Said Dusty, confused.

"The money kind."

"What the hell do you mean 250 poké each!" A treecko yelled at the lapras. "The sign said 150!"

"Sometimes my twos look like ones… But yeah it's 250." The treecko stood there mumbling under her breath before Dusty rushed over. The cubone reached into his bag and pulled out the required funds.

"S-Sorry about that… Hey Ivy let's get going alright…" Dusty said laughing nervously as he dragged the angry treecko away.

"Sometimes my twos look like ones…" Ivy said as the three walked down a dirt road. "To be fair, it's not like lapras have hands…" Dusty said.

Ivy sighed. "Fine… So how much longer till we get to Cascade City?" Dusty stopped and took a map out of his bag. "Looks like we should be there soon."

"Like about half an hour soon, or about two hours soon?" Asked Ivy "I'd say about an hour." Dusty said, still looking at the map. "I guess we can stop here for now if that's alright with you guys."

"Eh, it's fine. Starting to get kind of hungry anyways." Ivy said, reaching into her bag. "You know… Maybe we should keep going… Don't wanna keep the guild waiting yo know…" Riptide said nervously.

"What's with you?" Ivy asked. "And here I thought you'd be the first to want a break." The treecko jokingly said. "Heh, heh funny… Now let's go."

"Wait a second. What happened to the apples I had in her-" Ivy slowly looked up and turned towards Riptide, who turned to look away from the treecko. Ivy pulled out an apple and held it out towards the totodile. "There were five in here!"

"Sorry…"

Dusty sat on a rock as he watched the two argue. "I should probably stop them before this gets out of hand… But then again… The scenery here is pretty nice…" He thought as he took a book and pencil out of his bag.

The cubone looked around at the trees that lined the road and began to draw. "Cascade City… I wonder how things will be once we get there…" Dusty thought. The cubone was soon snapped out of his thoughts as a bag hit him in the face. "Annnd now it's out of hand…"

"This place is huge…" Dusty said to himself, as he stared in awe at his new surroundings. The three pokemon had finally made it to Cascade City. Many pokemon of all shapes and sizes made their way up and down the several stone streets that lined the city. As the three kept walking, they couldn't take their eyes off the many stone houses and shops facing the streets.

"Damn… Sure is different from home isn't it…" Ivy said, glancing around her. "Y-Yeah… sure is…" Dusty said in a somewhat shaky voice as he started walking closer to his two friends.

"Hey Dusty, that map say anything about where the guild is?" Asked Ivy.

"Excuse me but, you said you were looking for the guild?" The three pokemon turned around to see a lucario wearing a teal guild scarf that was tied around his arm standing behind them.

"If you want I can take you, I was actually heading there myself."

Dusty, Ivy, and Riptide looked at eachother and back at the lucario. "A-Are you part of the Cascade guild?" The lucario smiled. "Yes, and I assume you three are here to apply to the Cascade City Guild?"

"Yeah, how'd you know?" Riptide asked.

"Let's just say I've seen enough applicants to recognize them at this point." The lucario then led them to a tall metal gate. "Here we are, the Cascade City Guild."

The three pokemon looked up and stared at the massive castle-like structure and the waterfall behind it that the city was named for.

The longer Dusty looked, the harder he felt it was to breathe. That is until Riptide grabbed the cubone's shoulders and shook him back to reality. "Hey, Dusty… Are you alright?"

"Yeah… Yeah, I'm good…"

"I should hope so." The lucario said. "After all, I'm the one evaluating the new applicants." The gate then opened and the lucario walked towards the guild. "I'll be seeing you in a few days, yes?"

"Those two were supposed to be here over an hour ago. I hope they didn't get lost." Dusty thought. It was sundown, and the cubone had been sitting outside a run down looking house for his two friends to arrive.

"Then again, knowing those two, they're probably arguing about the directions right now. I guess I should go look for them." Dusty sighed to himself. But right as he was about to get up, he could see two figures off in the distance.

"See, I told you it was this way you moron!"

"Look, I said I was sorry! And how come I have to drag all your stuff?"

"Cause you're the one who got us lost."

"Well that definitely sounds like them." Dusty thought. As the two figures approached, Dusty could make out a treecko and a totodile. His friends had finally arrived.

Dusty sighed, "Can you two kill each other later? You know, so we can move in like we were supposed to over an hour ago."

"Sorry we're late, Rip over here wanted doughnuts and got us lost." Ivy said while glaring at the totodile.

"They had mago berry filling, I had to." Riptide said.

"You have an unhealthy obsession with sweets, you know that." She said, smirking.

"I don't give a fu-"

"Can you two stop?" Dusty interrupted. "Also if I can have one I won't get mad for making me wait out here."

"Well why didn't you just wait inside then? Ivy asked. "Well I… Let's just go inside."

"We're really staying here? This place looks just about ready to fall apart." Ivy said, stomping on one of the many uneven floorboards while scanning the small run down house. "Look at this shit, this is a fucking saftey hazard! And there's barely enough room for someone to be here alone."

"Look, with the amount we spent just to get to this city in the first place. This was the best I could find." Dusty retorted in a tired tone.

"I told you that Lapras overcharged us. This is-" but before the treecko could continue ranting, the tired cubone sluggishly walked across the room dragging his bag and bone club behind him.

"Hey, as long as we still have food money I don't care what the place looks like." The totodile said while dragging in his and Ivy's bags.

"Yeah I bet, cause stuffing your face is all you care about Riptide!" Ivy snapped.

"Says the pokemon too lazy to carry their own damn stuff." Riptide muttered to himself.

"Look guys, I get that we're all a bit stressed and tired right now. But we don't need to start fighting, okay." Dusty said. The two looked at each other and Riptide pulled a white box out of his bag and opened it.

"Want one?"

It had been a long few days, the trio of pokemon had just arrived in Cascade City three days ago to apply for the Cascade City Explorer's Guild. The first day had gone somewhat smoothly, With Ivy, Riptide, and Dusty crashing with a friend of theirs who lived in the area.

The second day, not so much. Due to an "incident" said friend was getting thrown out. The third day was when the guild's testing (and the search for a new place) began. The three were put through a series of assessments at the guild, with today's being battle capabilities. Needless to say, they were all ready to call it a day.

"So when did they say we'd get our results?" Riptide asked.

"Sometime within the next three to four days" said Dusty. "You know this kind of stuff gets. Besides, It's not like we're the only team to apply."

"So we have to wait the rest of the damn week for an answer, great." Complained Ivy.

"This is gonna be a long week." Dusty sighed to himself.