Chapter 4: Team Exemplar is Born

Thoughts muddled

They are cleared

Eyes opened

Light received

Nearly blinded

"Oh Damien… You poor boy, don't worry… You'll be fine, we'll take care of you."

"Who…?"

"Oh! He talked. Maybe he isn't as far gone as we thought."

"What…?"

"Don't worry Damien, we're taking care of you."

"I… Where…?

"Shh, don't try too hard. Hey, let's see if we can wake him."

"Wait… No…"

Pain shocked

Body shook

Mind blanked

The small Vulpine figure of Damien scrambled to his feet, startled and alert. His body ached, as a residual pain very slowly ebbed away with his quickened heart rate. He looked around and examined the new, dark environment he found himself in.

"Oh dear, calm down, you're safe." A soft, wispy voice spoke through the room, it was a small room, a simple bed of sheet covered hay is where Damien had awoken. "Over here deary, I'm sure you're disoriented, but you are fine." Damien turned to see a Mismagius hovering in the dark room, small glasses framed her yellow and red eyes.

"Umm…" Damien couldn't think of what to really say, despite some questions.

"You're in my little clinic, your friend and Miss Kangha brought you here."

"I see." Damien relaxed considerably at this, he could tell she spoke the truth, so he sat down onto the hay. Relaxed his body.

"So, from what I've been told, you were human, no?"

"I- Seriously is everyone we're gonna meet just gonna find out." The Mismagius giggled, sounding a little haunting.

"Seems so, but there are some more pressing things. You see, you're body is incredibly unstable right now, and I think when you are stressed, it seems to cause adverse effects, such as pain, or fainting."

"I've come to learn… I mean I've felt pain from non-stressful things."

"Oh?" She leaned forward slightly, concern seemed to flow onto her face.

"Uhh, yeah, I think I said something like I can tell if someone is stronger than me or not." Damien mentally braced himself, but no pain came through.

"Hmm, that's interesting… might be linked to your memory loss."

"That's what I was thinking." Damien paused slightly. "So you know about that too." His figure dropped slightly.

"Yes, so it would appear… But don't worry, everything in my clinic will remain confidential for as long as needed." She placed a sleeve-like hand on Damien's head and rubbed the space in-between His ears, displacing some of the fur. Despite the odd contact, Damien couldn't help but smile slightly.

"Okay… umm, what now? Is there a way I can fix this unstable-ness?"

"Ah yes." She retracted hee arm and hovered a clipboard to her with a series of incomprehensible writing. "At worst… you may experience worsening of the pain or fainting, but that hasn't been documented." Her tone definitely shifted to one of professionalism.

"That's good to hear." Mild sarcasm was hidden in his voice.

"And at best… it fades away with time."

"Okay, is there a way to speed things up?"

"Yes actually, there is. You just need to push your body somewhat, like a muscle, you use it just a little beyond what you should, and it grows with time."

"Which means?"

"Go along with Maggy, that'll help you… whatever endeavors you happen to go on, they'll push your body and it, in turn, will recover faster as it gets stronger."

"Ah okay… what will I be doing with Maggy?"

"A rescue team, helping others, fighting and apprehending criminals, exploration at times."

"Oh, okay." While Damien had found himself semi-knowledgeable on fighting, he wasn't very happy to know that it's his gateway to getting better.

"Your friends should be here shortly, dearie. So, remain for however long you feel is needed, I'll simply be at the front desk."

"Uh alright, thank you very much." The Mismagius gave a jagged, yet warm, smile, a nod and floated her way through the door. Damien simply sighed to himself. "Fuck…"

He hopped down to the smooth wooden floor, landing softly. Making his way to the door, pushing on the door. It seemed to be a 2-way door.

Damien pushed into the bright, naturally lit front room, with a row of chairs of varying sizes, the desk placed just to his right where Mismagius seemed to wait, looking at papers, and hovering other various parchment with unintelligible information.

"You can wait on one of the seats dearie." She said without looking up from her papers as she continued to organize them.

Damien simply nodded and went over to one of the lower seats, hopping onto it and sitting down, his mind vaguely wandering to the now evident future for himself. What it will entail… its difficulty and if it really could help him.

Time passed slowly… very slowly for Damien, his mind kept to itself and he seemed to barely move as his mind ran with his predicament. Though after some time, Maggy and Kangha found there way into the seemingly small clinic, where Maggy yelled out to Damien.

"Damien!" This startled Damien out of his thoughts as Maggy bounded herself towards him. She jumped onto the same small chair that Damien had seated himself, basically shoving him slightly. Vines ran around his body as she pulled him into her, holding tightly. Damien being almost paralyzed by the very rapid appearance and approach. She continued to hold Damien as she murmured words of concern.

Kanghaskhan gave a small smile towards the two as she made her way to Mismagius and spoke quietly to her about something.

"You can let go now Maggy, I'm alright." Damien finally said after being somewhat coddled by the Chikorita.

"But like, you know, you just…" She trailed off slightly, released the Zorua, who had to slide to a different seat for comfort. She calmed herself down with a couple deep breaths before speaking again, "I was simply very concerned." She sat herself down facing Damien who was trying to pat down his ruffled fur.

"It sounds like it… thanks… for your concerns." He kept patting on a particular spot that just seemed to not stay down.

"I mean, you're my friend… so of course I'll be concerned about your health and whatnot." Damien looked up from the spot and stared at her, she had a gentle smile, filled with care.

"The fact that you consider me a friend within a day is remarkable… but I can't really say that you're not mine." Her smiled grew slightly, before her face fell to concern again.

"How do you feel? Are you okay?."

"Ehh, I'm alright, a little groggy, but aside from that, I'm good."

"Okay, good, I'm glad." A moment of silence befell the two as Kangha and Mismagius continued speaking. Though shortly after Kangha turned back to the two smaller pokemon had simply begun to watch their conversation.

"It seems you're free to go Damien. Don't worry about any expenses, I got ya covered." Her motherly smile returning to her face.

"Oh uhh, thank you very much." Damien said.

"Wait Really?!" Maggy yelled out, practically jumping from her seated position.

"Ah fuck…" Damien quietly muttered.

"Why of course sweet bean, can't say I haven't fallen for the little knight myself " Mismagius chuckled behind the Kanghaskhan before hovering to beside her.

"Oh Damien, I should say that I would like to see you every few weeks just to checkup on your condition, see if there's improvements." Mismagius said in her professional tone.

"That makes sense alright… should we make an appointment or just like walk in?."

"You can walk in, don't worry about appointments, one of my assistants will inform you if I'm busy or not."

"Alright, and they are…?

"Misdreavus', they are my daughters."

"Ah okay… Where are they?"

"Working, helping other patients. One of them works at the guild in fact, so you might become acquainted with them "

"Oh good, well good to know, thank you again."

"Of course Dearie, it's my passion to help."

"I guess you picked the perfect field for that huh?"

"Yes I did." She simply said before floating back to her spot behind the desk.

"Well, we should go and register our team if you're feeling up to it." Maggy finally said, hopping off her seat and walking towards the door, where Kangha had eventually moved to as well.

"Yes, we should absolutely do that." Damien hopped of his seat and began to leave, but turned to the Mismagius. "Hey, uhh… what's your name if I may ask."

"Oh? Well my name is Meredith."

"Well, thank you very much for everything Meredith." Merdith's jagged smile simply broadened and she nodded as she watched Damien. Once they were all gone, her smile faded as she pulled a sheet out with Damien's name on it.

"That poor boy…" With a moment of silence a Misdreavus came through the wall. "Mavis, please keep an eye on him… he seems strong, but his body, while unstable and can exude power at random, it is degrading… slowly, but it is."

"Of course, I will do my best." Mavis said before leaving again through the wall.

"Oh, this boy… Where do you come from… what happened?"

Damien and Maggy parted ways from Kangha, with her returning to her inn. While the two far smaller pokemon made their way to the supposed guild, Maggy leading the way.

They came to an incredibly large building, spanning maybe three floors in height and seemed to span the same or more distance than Kangha's Inn. The walls were a well built wooden support beams with cobble brick walls, painted a gradient of a darker pink, into a red, into a blue, and ending at the top as a white. The roof seemed to portray a sculpture of a Togekiss, wings spread out. The building itself had its own path that lead just slightly out of town, maybe a couple minute walk at most from the main road.

"Well here it is… got a name yet?" Maggy said, turning to the currently amazed Zorua.

"Uhh… no… no I don't." Maggy let out a nervous laugh.

"Yeah… it's something ain't it, it doesn't look super big from out here, but wait until you go in." Damien finally looked over to Maggy, and her face was plagued with bouts of excitement, joy, but additionally anxiety and a heavy sense of nervousness. Damien placed a paw on her shoulder.

"We'll be fine… we'll think of something and we'll be adventuring or whatever soon." Maggy smiled slightly, before giving Damien a snide look.

"Uhh, it's a rescue team, we rescue."

"Well, we're going places so it's still an adventure, no?"

"Huh… guess you're right."

"Yep, now let's go in, can't keep them waiting."

"Yeah!"

"Ah shit… my ears." Without wasting a second, Maggy moved forward quickly pushing open the large wooden door, with Damien catching up shortly after recovering.

Upon entry, it was clear this wasn't a very populated guild. There appeared to be maybe a series of 4-5 other groups, ranging from 2-4 pokemon of varying sizes. Even the group from yesterday, the Talonflame, Machamp and Kommo-o were present, they seemed to be having a laugh, and talking about there latest rescue mission it seemed.

The other groups weren't as bombastic and seemed to keep quiet as they murmured over their own missions and the possible future.

Evidently, the new arrivals were the smallest of the many 'mons who held themselves present here.

Maggy strode herself forward, dawning a face of confidence to mask her own anxieties, while Damien kept her pace beside her, fervently analyzing everyone in the room… from what he could tell, the three he saw yesterday were the most powerful looking. But even so, he could tell that himself and Maggy paled in comparison to the rest who were present.

"A part of me thinks… this might not be the guild for us." Damien slid up closer to Maggy to speak quietly, hoping that their echoing footsteps would cover up his voice.

"I know this looks kinda tense… but I'm sure we're fine… you-you said it yourself."

"Yeah… I did." From there, Damien stayed quiet as they approached a desk that was positioned in the back middle of the room, where two pokemon were stationed, both quickly reading and organizing various papers, counting coins and divvying them into brown cloth pouches. Where a couple groups strode up, presented a badge of sorts, and then they were given a pouch containing an amount of coins. The two pokemon behind the desk was an Alakazam who seemed to solely use a form of telekinesis to move everything and did it all with expert precision and speed, while the other was a notably slower, but still well paced Dodrio who used its heads as one, never stopping to argue or bicker about another, working as one unit.

As the two smaller 'mons approached, the Alakazam had a brief stop as they took note of the two, before resuming their work, but at a slower pace as they turned to the two.

"How may I assist you two, coming to post a request." They're voice was masculine, and held a sense of age despite, seemingly, looking young.

"Uhh no, no we are not." Maggy said, her own nervousness crashing down upon her, her form shrunk slightly under the gaze of the Alakazam. It wasn't filled with any sort of malice or anything of the sort, but it definitely held a sense of superiority instead.

"We are here to make a rescue team." Damien said, attempting to take the lead on this.

"Ah… I see, young and new eyes filled with aspiration."

"Yes sir."

"Hmm, well, good, we have some easier requests that no one else wants to do because 'they don't give enough of a reward' tch… they don't know what it means to be a rescue team." The Alakazam's work seemed to halt nearly completely at the sudden vent. Even one of the heads of the Dodrio stopped to stare at the Alakazam before one of the other ones nudged it wordlessly and it began it's work again.

Damien cleared his throat, "Well, I uhh, hope we don't disappoint."

"We shall see." He simply said back. Turning to the Dodrio a moment occurred of silence, where the Dodrio then left heading up a set of stairs that was embedded into the wall on the left. The Alakazam seemed to pick up the Dodrio's work and began working much harder, if only briefly as the Dodrio returned within a minute or so.

Though behind the Dodrio was a Togekiss, age was indeterminate, but the way it effortlessly glided, and slowly made its way behind the flightless bird was interesting, it seemed unnatural.

The Dodrio returned to behind the desk where the Alakazam returned to its own work, slowing slightly to recover from the strenuous shifting and counting.

The Togekiss approached the two smaller pokemon, seemingly levitating downwards to the ground, landing with the two small white feet that sat on the bottom of its egg-shaped body.

"Greetings, you wish to become a new rescue team?" Her voice held such heavy leadership in it, superiority and a hint of kindness.

"Yes! Sorry, yes we do." Maggy blurted out. The Togekiss chuckled.

"Eager I see, I'm glad, been awhile since I've seen such eager recruits, well follow me upstairs and we shall get it all worked out then." She then reached a thick wing out towards the two. "My name is Corinthia, some simply call me Thia." Maggy returned the gesture with a vine wrapping it around one of the feathers and shaking like a hand shake.

"My name is Maggy." They released the gesture and Corinthia turned towards Damien with the same wing outstretched.

"Oh uh, I'm Damien, pleasure to meet you, Miss Corinthia." Damien reached up a paw to his best ability to return the gesture, with some awkward movements it was returned. A soft smile was present on Corinthia's face.

"There's no need for such a formal greeting." She then gestured to the Alakazam. "This is one of my team members, Arcturus. And while not a part of my team, they are a wonderful asset to the guild, collectively known as Perrin." A second gesture towards the Dodrio. Both pokemon gave a nod towards Maggy and Damien before immediately returning to their work. "Yes, very busy they are, It may not seem like it, but a lot more pokemon come through than you might think. Follow me and I'll explain as we move along." Corinthia opened her wings and just as she had landed, she seemed to levitate back up, but only hold a little more than a foot over the two smaller pokemon.

She began her way towards the stairs and began talking. "You see, here at this particular guild, we are a middle point in most cases, considering we are somewhat close to the mid-point of the region. So we get a lot of travelers, requesting item recovery, or maybe a travel partner got lost in a dungeon, such things as that. But we also do get a lot of rescue team visitors as well, as they may be covering a great distance to the northern part of the region, so this ends up being their main place to stay and stock up. It's a small little town but we have a lot to provide." The three began their way up the stairs, thankfully the stairs were built with several different size steps, smaller steps available for the smaller pokemon, so it wasn't difficult for Maggy and Damien.

Getting to the second floor the back wall was completely open, held open by an unseen mechanism, and about six perches were present, about half of them had a Pelipper mail carrier. "Here are our mail carriers, to inform pokemon that their jobs have been fulfilled, messages to send to other guilds and just a communications hub." Damien and Maggy remained silent, taking it in. "Though, because this is still a separate organisation from the guild, personal letters and deliveries you still need to pay the normal fare."

Stairs continued upwards even further, but they led to a small platform that had a single door on it. "And this here is my office and my party's living quarters, our third member is currently asleep there, they tend to the night duties, their name is Vernon… He gets cranky when he's woken up." She chuckled quietly to herself before pushing open the door.

The room was well decorated, with what appeared to be various trophies, major awards and souvenirs from places that they had ventured. There laid a desk in the direct middle of the room, and behind it a painting depicting Corinthia, Arcturus and a tired looking Noivern, who the two assumed to be Vernon.

"Well then." Corinthia began, floating herself behind the desk. Using psychic, which Damien has now deduced to be potentially the most useful move for everyday use, she began opening drawers and pulled out a box and a paper. "I'll just need your names written down and signed, and your team name."

The desk was low enough that the two smaller pokemon didn't have much issue in seeing over the desk if they stood with their front legs on the desk, which felt a bit odd to Damien.

Maggy wrapped a vine around a pen and wrote down her name 'Maggy Fullbloom'. This struck Damien hard that he didn't know his surname, only his first.

"This might be an odd question, but what if I don't have a surname." Damien sheepishly asked, gingerly taking a paw-friendly pen.

"Oh that's completely fine, not all families use them." This sent a wave of relief over Damien as he didn't feel it appropriate to continue sharing his predicament.

"I didn't know it was a common thing, cool." Corinthia simply smiled and pushed the sheet over to Damien, who wrote just 'Damien'.

"And finally your team name, got anything in mind?"

"Team…" Maggy began.

"...Exemplar." And Damien finished. Maggy looked over at Damien, face beaming.

"Oh that's a good one, I like it." Corinthia said, taking the sheet and writing it down.

"That's an amazing name." Maggy said.

"Well, hey, if we're doing this, we should strive to be the best." Damien said, returning the smile.

"We absolutely must." Corinthia laughed quietly to herself as she filed the paper away, and pulled out two of the badges that were seen earlier.

"Well, here are your badges Team Exemplar, use these to help pokemon in Dungeons, to escape and to assign requests and missions. And here are your travel bags and a couple things to help start you out."

Maggy opened the box and pulled out two satchels, a couple berries, a couple Damien recognized, and two scarfs. One scarf was red and the other a bright blue. Maggy immediately took the bright blue one and wrapped it around her neck.

"That scarf is a defence scarf, so you should be able to take a hit a teeny bit better, and the Red one there is a special scarf, it makes your ranged attacks a little stronger." Understanding that Maggy really wanted the blue one, Damien took the red one, stared at it only to realise he didn't know how he was gonna put it on. Sheepishly turning to Maggy.

"Do you mind… helping me?" He asked her After she finished tying hers around her neck, she turned to Damien, a soft smile on her face.

"Of course." And with expert dexterity with her vines, tied the red cloth around Damien's neck, the majority of it resting over the collar fur. Corinthia laughed softly.

"Aren't you two just adorable, now allow me to show you your room." She began floating again, returning to the door they came in.

"We get a room?" Maggie asked, having buckled the bag around her waist so it sat to her right side, Damien staring in confusion as to how he's gonna do that.

"Why yes of course, as long as you are a rescue team, and are actively doing missions, all expenses are paid, food too, but of course you don't have to eat or live here."

"Oh, that's actually quite relieving to hear." Maggy, then turned to the struggling Damien as he slid the strap over his head, then pushed his legs through the loop. He looks up at Maggy.

"Look, I'm trying." His voice was disgruntled and mildly annoyed. "It would be easier if I had hands." Maggy failed to hold back her laughter.

"At least you get them when you evolve." Maggy pulled herself back from her fit.

"Oh shit, you're totally right." With an awkward pull on the buckle and a twist of his body, he managed to get the satchel on. Corinthia with a warm smile beckoned for the two to follow again.

With that, the two followed the seemingly floating Corinthia back down both sets of stairs and headed to a door across from the stairs to the back of the ground door opened with Corinthis hovering through and Team Exemplar following behind to the outside. Spanning out behind the building seemed to be several rows of single floor apartments. The buildings built of a simple cobblestone, interlocked air tight. The roofs were flat, some actually appeared to have some furniture, displaying them as small patios.

The group of 3 continued forward until the went down the right path and went three doors down, where Corinthia turned to the right, so the other two stopped and followed suit.

"Well here you go, Team Exemplar. I understand it's small, but hopefully this shall suffice." Corinthia spoke, giving the two an apologetic look.

"This is better than I could have expected." Maggy said before running to the door and opening it with excitement.

"I'm sure it'll work just fine Miss Corinthia, we appreciate it." Damien said before going towards the room which Maggy had already entered.

"I'm happy to hear it, well, I recommend a night's rest before you begin taking missions." Corinthia said before turning to leave.

"Alright, thank you very much."

"Sleep well you two." With that, Corinthia left the two to explore their new home.

The room was quaint, it wasn't very large, but had enough space for accommodation. Near the back wall were two piles of flattened hay, Maggy had already found herself laying in one as she peered around the room, shifting her head like a periscope. Damien surmised these to be their beds. The left side of the room appeared to have some things meant for kitchen needs, including a stone oven to double as heating. The right side of the room seemed to have a large basin to hold water, this seemed to be a bath. I guess privacy is out of the question. Damien thought to himself as he took in the room, the walls were fairly barren and held the same rocky appearance as the outside.

It was only a little past midday, so sleeping at this time didn't feel appropriate, a thought collectively shared between the two as they finished examining the room.

"Isn't this just amazing, it's crazy to think that we already have our own place to live." Maggy began, attempting to fill the silence.

"Well, it would seem odd that they wouldn't have private quarters for the teams." Damien stated.

"True, but still, it sure is exciting."

"Heh, yeah I guess it is." Damien made his way over to the remaining pile of hay. I guess I need to try and keep my thoughts on track, not to overthink.

"So… I've been meaning to ask, do you actually not remember anything other than your name?"

"Umm, not really, except for my seemingly random battle knowledge, which seems to be extensive… I think I might know how to cook, looking at the oven, but I'd have to try first."

"YOU CAN COOK?" Maggy sprang up form her spot.

"HOLY-... Yes, also we should try to be quiet, don't know how well sound travels through these walls."

"Right, yeah, sorry."

"It's fine, but yeah, I think I might be able to make something, given the ingredients for something."

"Oh how about we go get some some stuff and cook some sort of dinner, like to celebrate."

"Uhh, sure… I'm assuming you're a vegetarian."

"You know it."

"Alright, how about a str fry, or something."

Ooh, that sounds really good actually." With brimming excitement, Maggy exited first with Damien joining her shortly after.

With some time and a wandering of the surprisingly expansive market, the two gathered themselves the ingredients needed, Maggy ended up spending the rest of whatever money she had.

Upon returning, they took to cooking themselves the simple, yet well crafted stir fry, pioneered by Damien, almost cooking with instinct. With this they ate their fill, and with the sun setting, they decided to bed down for the night, ready to take on the next day… Starting their new lives as a Rescue Team.

"Hey Damien… I can't sleep." Maggy quietly spoke, the blue-silvery light shining through the door, signifying the time.

"Same." Damien replied, just as quietly, the hay bed being nowhere near as comfortable as Kanghaskhan's beds.

"Do you think… Do you think we are ready for this?"

"Can't know 'til we try, no?"

"Well, yeah, but… you had to save me from a couple of losers, so I don't know if I'm strong enough for this."

"Hm, well, we're new, and they said there's a lot of low rank missions, so let's start out with what seems easiest, and work up from there. Ease ourselves into it, don't try to do too much right away, we should not overwhelm ourselves from the beginning." Damien had sat up halfway through, and stared at the still laying Chikorita.

"Yeah… I guess you're right, that's probably the smart way to do it." SHe shifted herself to face Damien.

"Can't learn to run before you walk… I guess?"

"That's an odd way to put it, but you're right."

"...Yeah, I have no idea where I heard."

"You have no idea about a lot of things."

"Low blow, but true." Maggy just seemed to laugh.

"Sorry if that hurt your feelings."

"No, don't worry about it, just kind of out of nowhere."

"Well, we should sleep, so lay back down."

"Yeha, we really should, busy day tomorrow."

"Goodnight Damien."

"Night."

With this, the two small forms closed there eyes, and filled their heads with the possibilities of tomorrow. Anxiety and expectations of challenge taking full hold of them, they slept, in wait for the next day.