At long last, another chapter. And the introduction of the last OC team (For the time begin). Thanks to Firebird XoX for her submission.

...Not much else to say here. This took way too long for me to get done, and now that I look at it, it is way too long. 13 pages on OpenOffice. 13! And I don't even think that this is my longest chapter in words...

Chapter 10: Training

The rest of our first day back went by mostly uneventfully. We were fortunate to not have to run into Team Hades at all. I had a feeling that if we did, the ending would not have been all too pleasant for Phloe and I.

The following day came all too soon. It wasn't that Phloe and I weren't ready to get back to doing missions, there was just a totally different problem that we didn't want to come back to.

"HEY! I already called you BOTH FIVE TIMES! Now get CRACKIN' or I'm going to SERIOUSLY get MAD!" Loudred was completely indifferent to the fact that we were still getting back on our feet. "Not MY problem," was his answer when I had complained about it to him.

Grumbling, I pushed myself up and off of my stomach, greeting Phloe good morning. She smiled and said the same. "Back to the way things were. Only this time, I'm good as new!" She flexed her arm to emphasize this.

"Let's hope that Wigglytuff and Chatot don't think that this means that we can start tackling B-rank missions or ones like the last one, except going at it solo. If they said that, I would quit right then and there."

"No you wouldn't," Phloe countered. "There'd be nowhere for you to go to."

"Sure there would. I could go…there…to that place…with…everyone."

She smirked. "Come on, let's get going. We'll eat breakfast and see what kind of mission Chatot wants us to do. If we're lucky, he'll let us go and pick whatever we want. Then we can do a simple retrieval mission at the Beach Cave or someplace like that."

I brightened up at this. "Okay, you're right about that. But if we do have some intense mission that requires us to take down a whole gang, I am getting out of this place as soon as possible."

"Team Impact, welcome!" Pin happily welcomed us as we took our usual spots by the rest of his team. Everyone had already begun to dig in as always, but before I took a bite of the Hondew berry in front of me, I felt this unmistakable feeling of being watched. Twisting around in my spot, I looked all around the mess hall even though I knew it was silly to think that someone was staring me down, and that I would even find them was even more laughable.

I could see Team Fulmine down the table from us with Nero slowly eating his meal while Raiga hopped around like a child, ranting on and on about the mission that his team had shared with mine.

Moving on from this scene, I saw the innumerable other teams conversing and eating, some like savages, others like stuck-up snobs. "All different backgrounds, I see. We're just a special kind of motley crew here, aren't we?" I commented under my breath, making sure that no one heard in case someone took offense for some reason. I saw Team Lightwater far across the room minding their own business. Spade seemed to be unsettled for some reason and I could only begin to imagine why. Her partner Pika didn't seem to notice her behavior at all; he just kept eating and prepping himself for the day.

Nearby Lightwater I happened to catch Team Hades. Omen and Demi were busy chatting away about something, the former only nodding his head every so often as he listened to the Weavile yammer with no end in sight. Opposite to them and facing my direction was Styx. The Houndoom had his head lowered and his eyes were narrowed towards me. We made eye contact, resulting in him growling. I thought that I had seen some embers escape from between his teeth. Slowly, I turned away and tried to distract myself by joining in on what Phloe and Team Sting were talking about.

"…Scorp says there's no hard feelings after yesterday's little incident. Isn't that right?" Pin faced the Gligar expectantly. He rolled his eyes at his team leader and snorted.

"You kidding? Tide froze me in a block of ice and – yeowch!" Scorp jumped out of his spot on the bench and clung to the ceiling for dear life. Pin smirked and brandished his drills.

"That's Twineedle for you. Now get down before you cause a scene."

"You already started a scene!" cried Scorp from his spot on the rock above our heads.

Phloe and I took the time to excuse ourselves and leave before anything worse could happen. As we left, it became more evident that others were taking interest in the argument between Pin and Scorp. Turned around and began to walk backwards to watch what happened as I left. Phloe called my name with a tone of warning, but I found out too late what exactly she was worried about.

My shell collided something rock-solid, and when I twisted to see what it was, I instantly regretted it. There was Styx in his irate glory, if you want to call it "glory." Omen was off to the side, and Demi was grinning mischievously as she kept looking from me to Styx. The Houndoom lowered his head to mine and snarled. "Human," he spat. "I have to warn you. I'm not your biggest threat in this guild. There are others whom I shall not mention that would find nothing more pleasing than to kill you by their own hands."

I was taken aback by this. Styx was…warning me? "W-why exactly are you helping me?"

He threw his head back in a laugh, getting Demi to join along with him. "Don't make me laugh. I have no intentions of ever helping you. I just wanted you to be on your guard. You and your little girlfriend there, you're mine to kill. After what you have done to me…"

"For the record, I've done nothing to you," I argued. "Now calm down, Cerb."

Styx shot me a look and continued talking. "Not that you know of. Humans are all alike; therefore none can ever be trusted. That's my problem with you. After what you did to me…" He broke off his statement there and fled. Had he not been so quick, I could have sworn that I had begun to see tears in his eyes. Demi and Omen were alarmed by his sudden leave, and they quickly followed after him. Phloe walked up equally confused as I.

"Girlfriend? What the -"

"Just let it go."

"Fine," she pouted, still miffed by Styx's comment. "But what was up with him at the end? Was he crying?"

I shrugged. "I have no clue really. I thought I was imagining it, but if you saw it too…maybe there's much more to him than we know of."

"No, really?" Phloe gave me a look. "It's obvious he's hiding something. It must have something to do with a history dealing with humans because nothing could have spawned that kind of hatred. And the way he spoke near the end. It almost seemed like he knew you…wait, what was that you had called him?"

I hadn't been expecting the question. To be truthful, I could hardly remember what it was. Struggling to remember, it finally came back to me. "I think it was…Cerb. But I have no idea where that came from. I've never even heard that name before."

Phloe began to think a bit, as if she was trying to piece things together. "Hmm…I have a theory but…nah, it can't be."

"What?"

"Nothing. Nothing important, I don't think. Just a silly little idea that came to me. Now come on, let's go see what we've got to do today."

"Training!" Chatot squawked in our faces. The two of us were standing erect in front of the parrot as he flew around by the wanted board. As we recovered from his outburst, I was the first to ask the obvious.

"Uh, if you don't mind, Chatot but…what do you mean by 'training.'"

"It's simple! The Guildmaster understands that your team was put through a rough time after your last mission with Team Fulmine. While they managed to pull through okay, your team on the other hand...well, let's just say that there was much to be desired."

"So, to put it bluntly, you're saying our team is trash." I sighed.

This caught Chatot off guard. "Er, no no, not 'trash,' just in need of some improvement. So the Guildmaster and I thought it appropriate to send your team for a day of training over at the Marowak Dojo. If tomorrow, your team still needs the practice, then we can send you over again. But for until then, no missions. Just practice and become acquainted to the kind of threats you may have to deal with in the future."

Phloe leaned over and whispered to me. "Well, it's not a mission." Chatot seemed satisfied and took his leave, flying back downstairs to tend to the other teams that were moseying around.

"Should we go?" I asked Phloe. She looked around and shrugged.

"I don't see why not. Chatot is right, of course. We could use that kind of extra training, after seeing what happened on our last mission..."

I stopped her. "Yep, got it. No need to go back there really. It was humiliating for us all, but we still got the job done. So let's move on and focus with what we have to do. Cool thing is, I know exactly where we have to go."

"So this is that dojo you were telling me about?" Phloe and I were currently standing outside of the massive complex that was the Marowak Dojo. The rocky exterior and the creepy skull and crossbones made the place seem more unfriendly and frightening than it actually was.

I nodded and walked beside the open entrance. "Yep, this is the place. Come on, let's go see Marowak."

Inside it was considerably darker. With little sunlight getting in, and only a few torches to light up the main area, it was quite dreary, to say the least. Marowak was nearby, asleep. He had his bone propped up and was currently leaned against it for support as he snoozed. I grinned mischievously to Phloe and quickly scampered over to Marowak's side.

"Tide," she warned. "You better not."

I rolled my eyes "Come on, it's obvious he's bored himself to sleep. This will break the monotony for him." Phloe sighed and walked off, preferring not to have any part in what I was about to do. Taking a deep breath, I cupped my hands over my mouth and leaned next to Marowak. "TIME TO WAKE UP, MAROWAK!"

The skull-headed pokémon snapped his head up and pulled his bone from underneath his arm. "WHAAA! I'm up! I'm up!" He whipped the bone around and accidentally whacked me across the face. This happened so fast that I wasn't able to figure out what had just happened until I was sent sprawling across the ground. I could hear Phloe laugh as I slowly stopped spinning on my shell to get a grip on everything. Marowak realized what he had done and quickly ran to help me up.

"Sorry about that. I didn't expect to have been woken up so suddenly," As he pulled me up, a glint of recognition played in his eyes. "Ah, I remember you! Tide, was it? Yes, yes. You finally came to train in my dojo, did you?"

I smiled. "Yeah, since we almost failed the last mission, Chatot wanted our team to come here and train for the day. And, this is my team," I motioned to Phloe. "Phloe, this is Marowak. Marowak, Phloe."

"Hello, Marowak." Phloe nodded in acknowledgment to him.

Marowak leaned on his bone and nodded. "Okay, so you're here for some training. Good deal, because I've got the best stuff that no one else will have. Specially designed dungeons of only a few floors that will give you training in any area you want. Want to gain some immunity to poison types? Try that area. Don't want to by knocked off of your feet by fighting pokémon? Do the fighting dungeon. I'm telling ya, this place is like no where else."

"Except for the real deal." Phloe pointed out. Marowak fell on his face at this comment, but pulled himself together.

"Er...ignoring that fact, what'll you two do? I've got every type under the sun to train with. Take your pick."

"You know best," I told Phloe. She rubbed the back of her head in thought.

"Well...I suppose we should try out something we know we might have trouble with. How about we do psychic for this time around?" She looked up to Marowak. "Would this be a life-threatening dungeon? We aren't that experienced with battling yet."

Marowak nodded to us absentmindedly. "Yep, yep. It'll be set for you guys when you go in," He pointed his bone down the hallway. "And be mindful, you may meet some other teams in the dungeons. But just go to the one marked for psychic, and you'll get to enter for three levels worth of baddies."

"'Kay, thanks Marowak," Phloe and I waved to him as we made our way to the marked dungeon. It was cruelly painted in a pink hue with the markings that read "psychic." Huh, weird that I could read that. Shoving that aside, I ran excitedly into the dark room before us without thinking. "Come on Phloe, let's get this show on the road!" I yelled. The Treecko sighed at my childish behavior and began to walk in.

"So where are all of the psychic pokémon?" she asked me.

"I don't know, maybe just –" I was cut off when my body was suddenly picked up and thrown across the dungeon. I crashed shell first into the rock that lined around the cave. The worst part was that I had hit so hard that I was stuck in the wall. Phloe quickly made her way over to help me, but took a moment to laugh at my situation.

"You have the worst of luck." She chuckled. I grunted and tried to wriggle my way free from the rock. This didn't work at all.

"Don't laugh at me," I said with more than a hint of annoyance. After a little more struggling I finally gave up and sighed at my inability to free myself. I looked down at Phloe from where I was and gave her an exasperated look.

"What?" she asked me, her voice somewhere between a laugh and a serious question. "What could you need me for?"

"To get me out." I glowered at her and pointed at my current state as if it wasn't enough reason. The Treecko rolled her eyes and began to walk away.

"Aw, I don't think that you really need my help. I mean, you're a human, so you can easily get yourself free from the rocks."

I groaned. Obviously Phloe was in a good mood for messing with me. "Come on, just pull me out of this. I just need you to – Whoa!" I was suddenly ripped out of the rock and thrown directly at Phloe. The Treecko was not prepared in the least for this, resulting in me being thrown into her.

"Ouch." I clutched my head as it throbbed from the impact. Opening my eyes, I saw that I was right on top of Phloe, and she was none too pleased.

"Get off of me. Now."

I blushed, but wasted no time in moving. There were things I feared, and being beaten by an irate girl was just one of them. "So...at least I'm free from the rocks."

"At the cost of humiliation." Phloe's voice told me that she wasn't going to let this go for a bit, even though it was a complete accident. She looked around the cave. Obviously there's something we aren't seeing here though. And whatever it was thought that it was being funny."

"There's such a thing as an 'accident.' Ever heard of it?"

She glared at me. "Look," she said. "I'm not mad at you. Well actually, I kind of am. But ignoring that, I am furious at whoever did that. Now come on, I want to find that miserable roach and -" Phloe growled when a pebble struck the side of her head. We looked across the cave where it came from, spotting a Ralts and a Spoink that looked none too friendly.

"Were you guys the ones who threw the rock at me?" Phloe asked the two, not at all trying to conceal her growing frustration.

"And threw me into the wall?" I added. The two opposing pokémon gave fleeting glances to each other before the Ralts raised its hands. A blue aura began to surround them, and I soon felt myself become picked up off of the ground. "...Crud." It didn't take a genius to figure out what was happening. Sure enough my body was lifted upwards and with a feeling of being let go, the aura disappeared and I fell twenty feet to the ground.

Phloe winced when I landed with a crunch right next to her. "You going to be okay?" She asked. I waved her off, spitting out bits of dirt and rock from my mouth.

"Yeah, just fine. Please don't worry about me, just find a way to take these two out! I'll help when I get the rocks out of my teeth." Phloe nodded and ran at the two psychic pokémon. Using a Quick Attack, she managed to avoid their attempts at catching her with another Confusion. I in the meantime was busy spitting more rocks out of my mouth. "Stinking psychic types. Why must they be so annoying when they are not with you?" I asked to no one in particular.

Phloe had reached the Ralts and Spoink, catching them by surprise due to the speed in which she had arrived. "Stop throwing us around!" She shouted, using a Pound attack to knock the Ralts onto the ground. The Spoink was shocked by her sudden attack, but shook this off and prepared to retaliate against her. Its pearl began to glow in multiple colors and before Phloe could do anything she was hit point-blank by a Psybeam.

"Hey! You can't hit a girl like that!" I stumbled to my feet and ran at the Spoink with a Tackle. I never did get to make contact, as the Ralts had recovered from its earlier shock and was now using Confusion on me again. "For crying out loud...I'm done with this!" I took a deep breath and felt a tickling sensation in my body. I blew at the Ralts, successfully managing a Bubble attack that hit the small psychic pokémon. Distracted by this, the aura faded once again and I fell to the ground, this time only a few feet.

"You alright, Phloe?" I yelled over to my Treecko partner. She was getting back on her feet and going back at the Spoink.

"Doing just fine!" she yelled back over her shoulder. With a grunt she used Pound on the Spoink. In an almost, comical fashion, the pig pokémon stayed in place, only bending back on its spring and rocking back and forth. "I don't think this guy will last too much longer!"

I decided to let her finish what she was doing and turned my attention back to the Ralts. It was having difficulty getting back up, its teeth gritted in pain. I suppose that it had spent plenty of time refining its psychic abilities, but didn't even bother with dealing with what happens when it finally was attack. I ran at him with a final Tackle, ramming the little guy into the rock wall behind it. With a cry, it crumpled into an unconscious state. I smiled at my triumph. "One down and -"

"Gyah!" I saw Phloe use Pound one last time on the Spoink, dropping the small pig onto its back and launching the pearl off of its head. Panting, Phloe took the moment to catch her breath before turning to me. "Both down. Woohoo. Now let's move on through this place. I'm already finding more to gripe about the psychic dungeon."

"So then we can be in a agreement that I pick the type next time we train here?" I asked with a hint of hopefulness. Phloe gave me a look that she wasn't going to say anything right now.

We soon found the ladder to the next floor, having to deal with only another Ralts. This one was a far better fight for us, since it was poorly prepared to fight us. The floor after that started out rather dull, with a good deal of time spent navigating our way around in search of a ladder or at least an enemy. One did finally come in the form of an Abra.

"I'll Tackle it from behind while you go full on with a Quick Attack!" I said going over the short plan I had made to attack the Abra. Phloe regarded my idea with caution.

"You know what the odds are that it will just Teleport away from here, right?"

I stopped for a moment, taken aback by the question. "Er, yeah, I suppose that's always a possibility. But that's why we attack from two different directions. He will be distracted by you while I go in for the kill."

Phloe went along with it, but still remained cautious. "Okay, Tide. I'll trust your judgment here, but I don't think it will work."

"It'll work, it's got to work!"

The Abra snored softly in its sleep. I hoped we had caught it in the middle of its sleep. Seriously though, how long do these guys sleep a day? Eighteen hours? Twenty hours? Man, they miss the whole day and they don't even care.

"Ready Phloe?" I whispered to the Treecko next to me. Sighing, she nodded. I tip-toed away, careful not to make too much noise, until I was just straight across the cave from Phloe. I gave a thumb-up to her and made a run for it. She followed my action and ran at the small pokémon.

When we were a few feet from the Abra, I thought we had had it. But fate is cruel, and the pokémon slipped away at the last second with a Teleport. Phloe and I were too close to slow down and we only managed to knock each other to the floor.

Phloe grunted and pulled herself up. "I told you that this would happen." I grumbled in acknowledgment. Standing up, we looked around for the Abra. "So where did he run off to? If he escaped this entire dungeon, that would be more than cheap."

Neither of us noticed a dark shape on the ceiling above our heads. The small shadow dropped below and landed onto my back with enough force to flatten me on my stomach.

"Move, slave." The Abra demanded. I tried to look back at him to argue, but I could only turn my head so far. Phloe took a step back in surprise.

"I said to move. Carry me like a little transport thingy."

"Transport thingy?" I chuckled and the Abra smacked me on the back of the head. Noticing Phloe hadn't said anything, I gave her a look of exasperation. "You really aren't being much of a help today, you know that?"

The Treecko shrugged indifferently. "Meh. What can I say, I just love to see you get into these things. Seems like the Legendaries just have it in for you, don't they? I bet they're having a grand old time with this, too."

"Ha ha ha, such a wonderful time. Now please stop doing this to me and get this guy off of me!"

"Actually, I think that I'll leave him there. Seems fair to everyone."

"How is this fair to me?!"

"You always seemed like you'd be good as helping others. This is a perfect opportunity to – hiyah!" Phloe broke off from what she was saying and sprung at the Abra. The little psychic type was caught off guard and thus unable to teleport in time. She slammed directly into him and brought him to the ground, allowing me to get up.

Phloe stood up and wiped some dirt off of her arms. Grinning, she motioned to the sitting Abra.

"Woah...my head is spinning...so dizzy...so...tired..." With a thud he fell onto his back, giving us a moment of peace.

"I can't tell whether to thank you or be mad at you," I said. Phloe thought about it and smiled at me.

"A simple thank you would suffice."

"Which is exactly what you're not getting. You could have told me you were going to help."

"Yes, but it should have been obvious. Would I really leave my partner down here, on a training mission?"

I never realized how dense and ignorant towards reality I was until she told me that. I smacked myself for doubting my partner. "Wow, I am really dense. That's just sad."

"Yes, it is. Don't think too much about it, we've all got flaws. Just, you have worse ones than everyone else." With that she ran off, leaving me standing there as what she said sunk in.

"Hey, wait up! And stop poking jokes at me!"

"We can add slow reaction to the category as well!" I heard her shout from around a bend in the cavern. Rounding the corner, I saw her just a short distance down. She had stopped and was watching something. I quickened my pace to find out what.

Phloe silently told me to quiet down when I got to her, and as she pointed into the next opening, I saw why. There were two pokémon, a Cubone and a Totodile, currently locked in combat with a Kirlia and two Beldums. At first I thought that the two were suicidal for even thinking of taking on opponents when the odds were clearly stacked against them. Watching them for just a while longer and I came to the conclusion that this was far from the truth.

The Cubone and Totodile were currently surrounded by the three rogues. The three quickly closed the distance between them, and at that moment they struck. Just as the Beldums tried to use a double-teamed Take Down, the Totodile jumped over them, allowing his partner to gracefully twist around and nail them with a Bone Club at the last second. The Totodile had sprinted past them and to the Kirlia, who was about to take a revenge shot against the Cubone.

"Hang on, Mia, I've got you're back!" He (judging from the voice anyways) launched himself, jaws snapping wildly at the Kirlia until he latched onto his target. The Crunch attack was successful, and the pokémon yelped in anguish. It tried to use Psychic on him, but he let go just in time. Jumping back, he shot a quick burst of a Water Gun during his retreat, infuriating the Kirlia even more. The Totodile looked at the Cubone, who had just thrown a Bonemerang at the two Beldum, dazing them even more.

"Trade?" He shouted over the raucous fighting. His partner was only too eager to oblige.

"Trade! Now!" They ran over to each others' opponents, using attacks of their own to distract attention to themselves. Suddenly they stopped, initiating what seemed to Phloe and I to be nothing more than a stare-down. The Kirlia and Beldums cautiously watched the two for their next moves, anticipating the worst. Suddenly, the Cubone's fist began to crackle with electricity, something I would have never expected in a million years. The Totodile also began his own attack as his claws began to blacked and elongate. They rushed the enemies, whom tried to defend as best as they could, the Beldums using Iron Defense and the Kirlia putting up a Safeguard. I had a feeling it would do no good, and I was certainly right.

The Thunderpunch drilled the stomach of the Kirlia, and with a cry it was thrust to the ground, visibly defeated. The Cubone caught her breath as her partner finished the job, Shadow Clawing the two steel types into submission. The Totodile looked over his work and when he was satisfied went over to his partner to check up on her.

"Doing good?" He asked.

"You know I am. That wasn't so bad of a fight."

At this point I couldn't help myself. Revealing Phloe and mine's presence, I walked out with an expression of pure awe. "You think that wasn't too bad? Are you kidding? Phloe and I would have been lucky to have won!"

I had obviously caught them by surprise. Now, just what gave that away? Either the fact that the Cubone proceeded to scream in surprise and pound my skull with her bone, or that the Totodile grabbed me in a choke hold when she was done.

"Who are you and just what do you think you are doing spying on us?" He demanded. I grabbed at this hand, trying to wrench it off of me to allow me to breathe again. Luckily Phloe came out at this point in time to prevent me from being killed.

"Sorry, sorry! We were coming through on our training session and we came upon you two," Phloe explained. The Totodile began to loosen his grip on my throat. "Tide here just decided to introduce himself, although we see that he wasn't thinking clearly...not that he does much anyways."

"Can we please stop attacking me today?" I choked out. "Both verbally and – ack! - physically?" I could only guess that my face was turning purple at this point in time. Hopefully the Totodile would let go soon...

"I don't believe that they're trying to kill us, Thor. You can calm down and let go of the Squirtle." The Cubone had stepped in and finally reminded everyone that I was slowly dying.

"Huh?" The Totodile, apparently named Thor, remembered that he was still suffocating me. "Oh, my bad," He let go of his grip and let me collapse to the ground. Fresh air rushed into my lungs and I coughed as I regained the ability to breathe again. Unfortunately, as one problem was solved, another soon emerged.

"...Can someone help me get up again? Kinda stuck here, kinda helpless due to this pain in the neck of a shell." Phloe pulled me up into a sitting position, where I stayed for a moment more to get my breathing back to normal. "...Okay...I'm good." I stumbled to my feet, and turned around to greet the team without threats of death this time around.

The Cubone looked at Phloe and I and pointed her bone back and for the between us. "So, sorry but, who are you two?"

"My name's Phloe." My partner extended a hand out and the other two shook it, although I could tell that Thor was still eyeing us warily. The Cubone pointed her bone at me.

"And you are?"

"Tide. We're Team Impact."

Thor grinned and murmured something. The Cubone looked at him. "What was that, Thor?"

"The human."

I let my head drop. Everyone knew, didn't they? If I could just get a little break from being known as "the human" and being discriminated, then I would be alright for once. But this guy-

"You know Tide isn't that bad," Phloe fired back. "Just because he was a human doesn't mean a thing."

Thor put his hands up in defense. "Woah, sorry. That came out wrong. I wasn't meaning to be discriminatory towards anyone. I have trouble saying things the way I want them said. No hard feelings, Tide?" Thor extended a hand out. I took it, but still wasn't positive he was being truthful.

The Cubone decided to break the tension that was steadily growing. "Yeah well, my name is Mia. And of course as you know, this is my partner, Thor."

"'Sup."

"Anyways, we're Team RainSkull."

"So you are a team?" Phloe asked. "Odd, I don't believe I've seen you guys around."

Thor and Mia shrugged. "Can't really explain that. We're usually around, but Chatot will often come and get us to go do some C-rank missions or something. We really don't mind, we love to fight."

"I could see that," I mentioned. "The way you beat those three. You've been battling for quite some time. And just where'd you learn those kinds of moves? Never would I have believed that until I saw it."

Mia smiled. "Not anyone's business, now is it?" she said sweetly. "We have our ways." I decided not to press the question further.

"So you two were training down here, too?" Thor asked us.

"Yep. Chatot told us that this was our mission for today. Looks like we're done." I pointed to the ladder at the end of the cave. How I hadn't noticed it before struck me as odd.

"Well, it was good to meet you both," Mia said. "I suppose we'll be seeing you around the Guild then? At least, if you manage to notice us now," she joked.

"Right," Phloe laughed. "Well...we best be off. I can only imagine how much time has passed since we first came in here."

We waved goodbye and headed over to the ladder. I could see Mia and Thor head off down the way we had come. Before long I could hear crashes and explosions, signifying that they had found more opponents.

"They were certainly an interesting group, weren't they?" I heard Phloe ask me.

"Well, they certainly seemed far more normal than everyone else I've met so far. I can't tell if that's a good or a bad thing."

"Regardless, let's go back to the Guild," Phloe hoisted herself out of the top of the ladder, I scuttled up after her. "Let's let Chatot know we're done. And after that, I'm going to go for a walk around town.

"You do that. Meanwhile, I am going to crash on my bed and sleep the rest of the day away."

Phloe raised an eyebrow in slight disbelief. "Suit yourself."

So a couple of things happened in the chapter, the most important being, of course, the training and meeting of Team RainSkull. Woo. So what does the rest of the story look like at this point? Well, I would say another six chapters of mindless nothing before the main event begins. And then who knows? Well, of course I know, but I won't say anything. Plenty of twists coming your way!

Next chapter will be Deoxys-centric! I haven't brought him up in a while, and he's practically the star of the show here!