Like the day before; Locke slept soundly on his bed before the persistent sound of knocking began, which caused him to abruptly wake up and get into an awake state.

"Wake up, Locke. You've got to start following the schedule now that you're a member," Espeon said through the closed door.

Locke spent a moment feeling the bandana around his neck. He could feel the fabric with his own paw, confirming that it wasn't a dream, that everything that happened yesterday did indeed happen.

"Coming!" Locke declared as he came out of his room. After opening the door, he once again saw Espeon and a groggy minccino.

"So, what's the plan for today?" Locke asked Tamin.

"I think we should wait until the afternoon before going on any missions," Tamin stated. "I need a little bit more rest and it seems to be the time everyone else is heading out anyways."

"Sounds good. In this case I'll be going on a jog this morning."

"You sure about that?"

"Yee. It's how I make electricity"

"Are you sure about heading off before breakfast?" Espeon inquired, interjecting into the conversation.

"Oh right, that's a thing."

They went on to have breakfast as usual, this meal being no different. After getting their fill, Locke and Tamin split up.

Locke just went straight out of the building and began a usual jog down some of the paths in the guild. The blood pressure from running around warmed him up so the cold temperature wouldn't get to him. He ran for a few minutes, until he began to sense someone running from behind him and catching up.

"Hey! You're Locke right?" Locke heard from behind.

Locke looked back to see a zorua was the one catching up to him.

"Yes?"

"That's nice," the zorua responded, "My name's 'Hunter'!"

"Nice to meet you then," Locke responded as they continued to walk. "Any particular reason you came to talk to me?"

"Just trying to make some friends and meet our newcomers. Is that now a crime?"

"Uh, no. That's okay. Actually the opposite of what I wanting to do at this guild."

"Believe me, the guild is so big that you won't be making friends with everybody and you'll make some enemies within it as well," the zorua said, "But I'd make an argument that having both is necessary for a fun life, if you know what I mean~."

"And what would some of the enemies of yours be?" Locke questioned.

"I kind of have a beef with Sylveon."

"Alright. Wait, isn't Sylveon the pokemon that makes sure everyone follows the rules?"

"Yeah. He ruins all of the fun," Hunter said.

Locke squinted at Hunter.

"So is Tamin your friend?" Hunter asked.

"I suppose," Locke said.

"Girlfriend or just friend friend?" Hunter asked.

"What?" Locke asked.

"I'm curious what your exact relationship with her is," Hunter said.

"Uh, just friends. I only met her really recently," Locke said.

"Ah, okay okay. Think you'll ever become her girlfriend though? Or just stay normal friends forever?" Hunter asked.

"Um, no I don't think I ever will- why are you asking me these questions?"

"Sorry, I'm just curious, that's all," Hunter explained himself. "Do you think she feels the same way to you as you feel for her?"

"Probably. We only met like two days ago," Locke said.

"I see. So like, you think she'd hug you but not kiss you?" Hunter asked her.

"I don't even know how to respond," Locke said, now truly stupefied.

"Apologies, I'm being intrusive. That's something I should do my best to work on," Locke said, speaking in a tone that made it unclear whether he was sarcastic or not. "Anyways, that's enough talking about you. I'm sure you have something you want to ask me."

"Yeah. You mentioned you didn't like sylveon and he ruined your fun, can you expand on that?" Locke asked.

"I just do some harmless pranks on some of the other guild members with my sister. Buckets of water on doors, plastic wrap in various places, tricks with my illusions, stuff like that. And he's always coming down on me for it. Making me stay in one room for a while and stuff."

"Sister? Is there another zorua here?"

"Yuki is a vulpix. Technically she is my half-sister. I don't really consider that too relevant though; family is family."

"Alright."

"Going back to Tamin, would you at all say she likes to have things clean? I remember reading that minccios like cleaning somewhere."

"I think she said she wanted to clean her room yesterday, so I guess she is. Why do you ask?"

Hunter turned his head and smiled a bit before he stated, "I just gotta know what my options for new pranks we can pull are."

"What?" Locke asked, surprised, "You can't just start messing with people just because they joined the guild."

"Is there any particular reason why I can't?" Hunter questioned.

"It just ain't right. I'm going to let you do that," Locke said, his poor grammer leaving parts to be filled in by the imagination.

"It's alright, man. Consider it an introductory rituation. It's flattering to have, actually," the zorua said while smiling. "Also, I think you meant 'not' instead of 'ain't'."

"I don't want to have this conversation anymore," Locke said as he sprinted off onto a different path, getting away from him.

Meanwhile, Tamin was looking around the guild while the day was still young. Many of the guild members were still around the table, most talking with each other.

She was right outside the mess hall and leaned herself against a wall. She perked her large minccino ears up and listened carefully at the different conversations that were in progress. Tamin didn't consider what she was doing to be wrong; she felt she'd need to know her surroundings to be safe.

There were more voices to distinguish between than what she was used to, but every species carried a slightly different accent, so it was manageable. It wasn't even something Tamin needed to consciously plan out to do; she had a certain compulsion to do it whenever she walked by a conversation. To her, it was a hobby.

When Tamin felt she heard enough from one spot, she began moving and traced along the walls while continuing to focus. "Do you think we should get a studio downstairs?", "You did made sure to give Mawile the book back, right?", "We should do some more difficult missions", "How do you think wigglytuff's guild is doing?" and many more unrelated comments and questions were picked up by the minccino's ears.

In her focus, Tamin picked up on a phrase that she could discern was directed towards her specifically rather than conversations between other guildmates.

"Ahoy, up-and-at-em'!" a rockruff said.

Tamin directed her attention to the pokemon, looking into its eager eyes.

"Uh, hello there?" Tamin said.

"You're the new member, right?" the rockruff asked, still with an eagerness in its eyes that was additionally reflected with wags of its tail.

"Well, one of the two new members. I'm Tamin."

"That's great, I'm Scampi!" she replied, "I used to be the newest member here before you!"

"That's neat." Tamin responded.

"It sure is! So, how good did you think you are?"

"If you're talking about how well I can do with missions, then I'll be honest and say I'm not going to be the best here," Tamin said, as she had already succeeded in getting into the guild, she felt her best course of action was to avoid being pulled into difficult missions.

"That's alright, I suck as well!" Scampi declared, "I think Espeon accepts pokemon that show potential most of all."

"Well, that's good to hear, I do hope to stay here for awhile; I'm still feeling out a proper routine to follow through though."

"Have you met any of the other members yet?" Scampi asked.

"Not too many," Tamin said as she tilted her head upwards to think, "Armin, Max, and Rustin from when we were initially found, Espeon, Niot,and Froslass. Besides them I don't think I've directly interacted with anyone else."

"Well, let me show you around then!" Scampi said as she stepped forward and grabbed one of Tamin's arms, "Come with me!"

"Uhh, I don't think this is necessary," Tamin awkwardly pleaded as the rockruff began to pull her around.

"Trust me, there's a bunch of great pokemon here for you to meet!" she said as her voice began to accelerate in speed from enthusiasm.

They went into the mess hall together where they were faced with the numerous scarved pokemon inside.

"There's Dwebble, he's kind of shy. There's Ludicolo, he's always fun. There's the twins Nidorino and Nidorina. There's Mawile, she just likes to be by herself and isn't very fun-."

"Scampi, stop-" Tamin said to Scampi as the rockruff continued to speak.

"Dewott's always butting heads with others for fun, Armin's reclusive-"

"I don't need to hear all of this-"

"Buizel preaches about stuff I don't really get, Mienfoo's always with Dewott-"

"Scampi!" Tamin raised her voice to ensure it would be heard.

"Yeah?"

"I- I just don't want to be paraded around like this," Tamin explained, "I don't want everyone to be looking at me and attracting attention."

"But this place's like a family. You've got to get to know everyone."

"And I'd rather be passive here then be treated like family," Tamin said as her tone suddenly got a bit more aggravated, "Sorry, I just… I think I'll keep working on decorating my room; I still have things to do with that."

The minccino turned and began walking off, leaving Scampi behind as she was confused by the reactions and changes of emotion.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah. I appreciate you trying to help, but I just need a few minutes," she said as she walked off.

While Tamin walked back to her chamber, Locke changed his course and began heading back to the guildhouse after he had spent enough time to walk and travel around, as he felt he had spent enough time out.

But as he made his way back, a flying pokemon suddenly flew down from the skies and landed right in front of the shinx. He slammed his paws down to stop himself so they didn't collide, and the two looked at each other.

The pokemon was an emolga, with a pair of goggles on her forehead, and black scarf around her neck. Shortly after landing, she stuck an odd pose with making a peace sign and closing one eye.

"Heeeyaaaaa!" the emolga said.

"Uh… hey," Locke replied.

"I'm Olivia! But you can just call me 'Olive'," she said.

"Hello there… I, uh, I'm Locke," he said, stunned on what to say.

"I know! Hey Locky!" she replied.

The emolga started approaching Locke and reaching a paw out to her.

"Let me say, you look so adorable in that scarf!" Olivia said while walking up to him.

Locke didn't move his feet, but did flinch back. "Uh, who are you? Well, I know you're Olivia-"

"-Olive."

"Olive. But, like, why are you coming at me right now?"

"Oh! Sorry, I just forgot to really introduce myself. Sorrysorrysorry," Olivia said. "I've been the only electric type at the guild for a while now! They have been needing me so much since I'm the only one they had.

But when I heard about a shinx joining the guild- well, I'm an electric type, you're an electric type, we're perfect for each other! What do ya say?"

What did Locke want to say? The shinx didn't know himself, he was too stunned about the situation to know.

"Oh, I just can't get over how cute you look in that little scarf! I just want to snuggle with you so much~" Olivia said as she started to step forward again.

"Hey, stay back," Locke managed to say. "I'd rather not be touched."

"Oh, sorry. Can I just chit-chat with our new guild member then?" Olivia asked.

"Okay, I can get into that," Locke said as he began walking forward to go around the emolga, but she followed him, "What do you do?"

"I'm a craftsman! Or craftswomen- er- WHATEVER!" she said, still sounding overly energetic as she slid the goggles on her forehead down to her eyes, "I mainly work with wood and I was the one who carved out the current hand railings in the guildhouse. I've made some crossbows, I make a lot of the guild's flares, I've made a lot of furniture and-

Oh silly me, I'm hogging the conversation! Tell me about the stuff you do!"

"Uh, I've just been going through mystery dungeons my whole life. Not much else," Locke explained as Olivia once again got right in front of him, millimeters from his face, "Not much else for me, personally. To be frank I'm exactly the kind of type that would die in the middle of a random dungeon without any poems and songs, and have an unmarked tomb in the dirt. But that's okay, I like minimalism."

"Oh, that's alright then! I'm sure we'll have a bunch of great things to do together while you're here! You and I are the only electric types here, afterall."

"I suppose that makes sense, they might want us more if we're the only of that type," Locke said, trying to take another step backwards to get some more distance from the emolga, "Huh, I wonder if that means Tamin will get a little overworked since she apparently the only normal type explorer here."

"You mean that minccino? Eh, don't worry about her. Don't cha just think electric types are better cut out than the rest of 'em?

Tell you what, we can go out into town and get to a nice restaurant together. I know several places that you'll just adore- absolutely electrifying on the tongue~" Olivia said as she took another step forward to re-enter Locke's personal space.

"I'm going to be saving my money up carefully; winter is coming up soon so I want to be careful how I spend my stuff," the shinx told her. "I think I can do that pretty well, though. Metal coins stick to your skin pretty well in the bitter cold."

"Don't worry, it can be my treat! You deserve it just because of how absolutely adorable you are~" the emolga said as she grabbed Locke's cheeks to slightly squeeze them, and then pet his head, "Come with me and we'll cast off to town right now. We have time to look all around for whatever you want the most, and I can be paying for all of it! Trust me: You'll. LOVE. It."

Locke looked up towards the emolga's eyes. Through the goggles she was wearing he could make out a twinkle shining in her eyes. At the time he assumed this was the twinkle of enthusiasm, but there was also a strong possibility it was the loose sparks from the sanity wires inside of her brain short circuiting.

In that moment of Olivia touching him, Locke could feel his fight-or-flight instincts beginning to beg him to make some action. The shinx no longer wanted to talk in the situation he felt was getting creepier by the second; so he acted quick with something else.

Locke shoved Olivia off of him, then immediately made a dash towards the guildhouse.

"H-huh?! Wait, where are you going!" Olivia said as she was shoved back.

A few seconds into Locke's full-on sprint, the emolga began running after him. She built up speed with her legs then jumped into the air and spread out her arms. The wings were opened up and she began to glide towards him. It became a chase, with Olivia's speed outmatching Locke's to allow her to gradually catch up to him, but the guildhouse was becoming closer at the same time.

While only a few meters were left between them, Locke closed in on one of the building's side doors. He delved inside and promptly ran into the guild's halls, where he spotted a familiar looking minccino looking away. He got towards them and lowered his speed to stop.

"Tamin!" Locke called out.

"Oh, hey!" they said as they turned around to him, "Are you okay? What's been going on with you?"

"Having a bit of a wacky morning," Locke said between heavy breaths, "There's this crazy emolga that I think is wanting to force me on a d-"

"Locky! Where are you going?" Olivia said as she came into the building.

"Oh my gosh- okay, look: maybe we could do something together later today, but so far you've given me a horrible first impression of you," Locke said as he turned his head back towards the emolga, "I just wanna be with someone I can trust right now; like Crystal or Tamin."

Locke felt a paw being placed on his shoulder in a reassuring and warm manner.

"I don't really know what's going on; but I got your back in this."

"Thanks a lot, Tamin," Locke replied.

Olivia stood in front of them for a few seconds, starring, studying. She didn't speak, but her face communicated how she felt well enough. Confusion and disappointment were palpable on her face.

"Alright. Then I shall wait ever so patiently for later today so we can be together again," Olivia said.

Locke let out a sigh. "Thanks, I just-"

Before he could finish, he himself suddenly get hugged from behind, and saw a minccino tail wrap around him.

"T-Tamin, what are you doing?" Locke asked as he got tightly hugged.

"Don't worry, I've got you,"

Locke blushed at getting tightly cuddled like this, and looked around some. Olivia wasn't the only pokemon in the room, there were a few others witnessing this bizarre series of events. After looking around, he looked back at the emolga, and saw that jaw had fallen. She was shocked beyond words.

"Please stop," Locke said.

Suddenly recovering from the shock, Olivia's mouth shifted into a pout. She turned around, and began stomping away.

"Olivia wait!" Locke called out, making an effort to push forward, but being held back. "I swear this ain't what it looks like!"

The words were useless, she was already stomping away. Once she turned the corner, it was all too late.

"Dang it," Locke said to himself while pushing the paws off of him. Even though he wanted Olivia to go away from him, he didn't know what she would do if she was jealous of Tamin. It was a scary thought.

Suddenly, he heard the minccino behind him start giggling to herself, placing their paw on their mouth to try and keep it in.

"What's funny?" Locke questioned as he turned to look at her.

"You thought I was Tamin this whole time," She spoke in a voice much different from her normal voice. "But it was me, HUNTER!"

All of a sudden the facade of a minccino dropped as the fur turned black and the image of a zorua formed with purple energy going around as he jumped to the side.

Locke stepped backwards in surprise, and his face reflected that surprise as well. While his mouth stayed closed, his eyes told the full story.

"HA! I got you good!" Hunter exclaimed, "I only had one conversation to know you and I still managed to get enough meterial to get THAT face out of you. Oh man…"

While the zorua continued to laugh to himself, the shinx decided that he had his patience tested enough. He stepped forward and supplanted his paw on Hunter's chest.

"What are you doing?" Hunter asked as he looked down on the shinx's paw.

"This."

Locke extended all of his claws from their sheathes on his paw, each one stabbing towards the zorua's body. A split second later, he channeled electricity through his claws into him. It wasn't enough to lead to serious damage, but more than enough to make a point.

Hunter stepped backwards to get some distance again. He could easily deal with the pain, but it was surprising nonetheless. While the zorua stepped back, Locke took a moment to discreetly withdraw his claws back into his paw and gave a disdainful gaze.

"Never try that again," the shinx uttered.

Hunter looked back at Locke, giving a smile that circumvented any change in expression that was caused by the pain.

"Oh I think that was completely worth it," Hunter said.

"Why you little-"

"What's going on here?" the authoritative voice of Sylveon interrupted as he marched the room.

Both Locke and Hunter stopped to turn their heads to the voice, seeing Sylveon stand taller than them with a stern gaze and his feelers extended a bit farther than they normally were.

"He hurt me," Hunter said. It wasn't a voice that was scared or surprised, rather it was a logical tone stating a factual series of events.

"He was disguising himself as my friend to trick me, and made me look bad" Locke told Sylveon.

"I know, he plays that as 'pranks' on the other guild members quite often, even though I've been explicit with him to not do so," Sylveon explained as he stepped closer, "But even so, harming another guild member is never justified. If you have a problem you are to always consult me or the administrators of this guild, but never are you to physically harm another member of the guild. Do I make myself clear?"

"Um, yes, Sylveon," Locke awkwardly replied. "You have made yourself clear."

"Good," Sylveon spoke. "As this is just your first official day in the guild you are to be let off with a warning. But do not hurt anyone else in this guild again.

As for you, Hunter, come with me. I do believe there's an incident report to be written up."

"Alright, alright, yeah, I'm coming."

Sylveon turned and walked off while Hunter went to his side. Locke stayed put to watch them, until he heard a voice call to him.

"Locke?" Tamin's voice was heard.

The shinx turned his head to see the minccino, feeling thankful that he knew this had to be the real Tamin this time.

"What's going on here?" She asked.

"Um. A lot's happened, and I don't really feel like going in detail," Locke responded, "Just a chaotic morning."

"Okay…" Tamin responded, "I just heard some commotion and I noticed your voice within it, so I got out of my room to head over."

"I appreciate the concern, but I guess it's over now. Say, do you know what time it is?"

"Eight sharp," Tamin answered.

"Wow, it's only been an hour? Okay then… Anything you want to do together before lunch?"

"Not really, I just wanted to keep spending time in my room," she said.

"What do you do in there?"

"I mainly have some cloth sheets that I like folding up, then unfolding so I can fold them up again," she said, "I don't know, it feels very therapeutic."

"Uh, okay?"

"Never heard of that before?"

"Yeah. Doesn't sound too appealing to me, to be honest."

"That's fine, but that's what I plan to do."

"Got it. Hmm…"

Locke thought to himself, wondering what he would do to kill time. He didn't want to head outside again for at least a few hours and what Tamin described sounded mundane to him, so those two possibilities were both out. After further contemplation, he remembered there was another pokemon in the guild that was kind to him. There was that dewott that he had interacted with the day prior when he had an eating competition with him.

With that in his mind, Locke left the hallway to search the guildhouse for him.

After only a minute in the search, he managed to see the pokemon he was looking for in the foyer. He was with a mienfoo, a fraxure, and a mawile, with them all wearing backpacks.

"Hey Dewott!" he said to them.

The water pokemon turned to face him. "Oh, ahoy Locke!"

"Is there anything you want to do?" he asked as he came to a stop.

"Well, there's a lot, but unfortunately I'm about to head off on a mission," he explained. "Sorry, I just enjoy going off in the morning."

"Could I join you then?"

"Afraid not, pardner. We've already got a full team of four," he replied as he turned his head away from Locke to the three with him, "Hey, do any of you want to drop out to give room for him?"

"Sorry, but I would like to stick with Dewott," Mienfoo told Locke.

"Nah," the fraxure said.

"No. I'm already prepared, I'll be staying in this," Mawile said.

"No-go on that then. Sorry, Locke," Dewott said as he turned back towards the shinx, "Tell you what, you can think of some competitions or games we could do together and I'll try to make sure to do that with you when we get back. Yesterday was pretty fun with that eating competition we did."

"Mmm. Okay then…" Locke replied, a tinge of disappointment setting in his voice again, "Say, you seem to like competitions quite a bit."

"Dang right I do" Dewott said slamming a fist into an open hand.

"Why's that?"

"Well, to put a long story short, I grew up in a family with two siblings and we would constantly get into competitions with one another. We always did whatever we could to get the best of each other and we kept track o' the score," Dewott explained, shifting his stature into a prideful one as he did, "At the end, I came out as the family champion. And now I'm here working here, so it won't be long before I become the guild champion as well."

"Nice~" Locke replied, "Well, best of luck with that. You seem to have the demeanor for it down quite well already."

"Thanks, you too. Anyways, we should really be heading off on our mission now; so cya!"

"Cya!"

The four turned to walk off to their mission, and Locke watched them depart.

End of chapter 5.