Chapter 2: Introductions to the Guild, Part 1.
Drew was lying in a cot in the Guild's hospital wing. He had just regained consciousness when Bartleby and Sherman walked in. "Where am I?" the ghost type asked the two.
"You are in the hospital wing," Sherman replied. "You hit your head and passed out. But you are awake now, so I believe it's time for introductions to the rest of the members of the guild."
"This won't take long will it?" Bartleby asked. "I couldn't find Donna's stash of perfect apples earlier and really need to search."
Sherman sighed in exasperation. "Just introduce yourself and you can leave."
"Okay! Hi I'm Bartleby the guild master which means I'm your boss I hope you have a good time I really love perfect apples and I also love running the guild and making friends and I hope you have a good time if you need anything or need to talk to someone feel free to talk to me but not right now good bye!" Bartleby spoke really quickly and then ran off.
"Sorry about Bartleby rushing off," Sherman said to Drew. "He just really loves those perfect apples. Unfortunately, we can't do full introductions today as an emergency came up involving one of our fellow guilds and we had to send all of the exploration teams except for yours and Team Wishers, who you'll meet in a bit. Some of our workers had to go too, so we are a bit shorthanded around here. But back to introductions, I am Sherman. I am Bartleby's second-in-command and if anything were to happen to him or if he goes anywhere, I act as the guild master. I am also a dear friend of the guild master and the guild members here."
"No you aren't!" a booming voice yelled from the other side of the guild. "I don't like you!"
"Shut up Boomer!" Sherman yelled back. "Anyways, I am also the financial manager of the guild, along with the rule supervisor, personal supervisor, safety supervisor, mission supervisor, pretty much everything."
"So what does guild master Bartleby do?" Drew asked the bird.
"Uhhh… Morale booster. So then, let's get some of the others in here to introduce to you. Team Wishers, get in here!" he called to someone, or some people, outside of the room. Sola came in along with a Pokémon that looked like a big, brown beaver with tan hair around its eyes and on a spot on it's chest along with dark brown fur on its feet and tail. There was also a big red crawfish with a yellow star on his head and white spots on its chest and stomach, with two blue lines going across his chest's white spot.
"Hi!" Sola happily said, waving one of her leaves. "I'm Sola! Oh my gosh, another new recruit! That's four in one day and they are all water-types, that is so amazing!"
"Yo, I'm Walt, the Bibarel," the beaver like pokemon said. "I'm the leader of Team Wishers. Yup yup! Good to meet you. There's something about you that reminds me of some friends of mine from a long time ago. Yup yup!"
"Hey, hey! And I'm Raymond, the Crawdaunt," the crawfish pokemon said. "The strongest pokemon in the whole guild."
"Uh, hello," Drew responded to the three. "I'm Drew, Drew Fitzgerald. So, uh, all of you are evolved?"
"Yup, yup! It was so cool evolving!" Walt said, smiling.
"Well, uh, I can't wait until I can evolve. I guess. So, uhh. Do any of you like cleaning?" Drew asked Team Wishers.
"What?" Raymond's mouth fell open. "Cleaning? I haven't cleaned anything in, uhh. One, two, three. Ever! I've never cleaned anything. Seriously, liking cleaning. What's up with you boy?"
"Oh my gosh! Be quiet Raymond. It's not nice to make fun of others." Sola squealed.
"Yup yup!" Walt agreed. "It's not nice to make fun of others."
"I don't care. I'm so strong that I can make fun of anyone I want. I could make fun of Arceus herself and nothing bad would happen!" Suddenly, a thunderbolt came out of nowhere and struck Raymond, knocking him out.
"Oh man not again," Walt said, exasperatedly. "That's the third time this week!"
"You know it's Sunday right?" Drew said, slightly shaken from the thunderbolt.
"Yeah. He does this a lot," Sherman said, reminding everyone he was there. "I was hoping placing him on a team with Sola and Walt would mellow him out, but it hasn't exactly succeeded. Nurse, some help please."
A nurse came over to the group. The doctor looked like a five foot tall white woman with a white dress that was slit at the front and a large green curl of hair covering most of it's a weird, red stone was attached to the pokemon's chest. "Yes," the nurse said in a very masculine voice, showing that he was a male Gardevoir, something the nurse never quite got over. "What is the problem?"
"Uhh, the electrified Crawdaunt, maybe," Drew said, a tinge of sarcasm in his voice.
"Oh, yeah, him. I had to deal with that twice today already. Heal Pulse." An orange ball of energy appeared in front of the nurse that he then pushed into Raymond. "There, give him a minute and he'll be fine." The nurse then wandered off, leaving the five by themselves.
"Sorry about Raymond," Sola apologized. "He's just so, so, oh my gosh! I can't think of the word."
"Annoying," Drew offered.
"No, that's not it. Wait, I got it. He's so annoying! Wait a second." Sola got a confused look on her face and started pacing around the room.
"Um, we might need to go," Walt said, rubbing the back of his head. "Come on Sola, let's grab Raymond." The two pokemon grabbed their teammate and dragged him out of the room.
"Hey, get your hands off of me!" Raymond yelled, showing that he had recovered.
"Man, that was weird," Drew summarized.
"Yeah, I guess you can see why they stayed behind. Not a lot of synergy with Raymond. The three of them are more used to solo work, but recent regulation changes have required teams. Maybe we should take you to the main room for the rest of the introductions." Sherman helped Drew out of bed and led him to the main room. When they got there the only pokemon there were Bartleby and a small pokemon that looked like a blue ball with red zigzags on its sides and three stubby legs, with a yellow ball like antennae on its head and what looked like a blue wind chime with red on it's bottom third attached to its stomach. The two pokemon were arguing.
"Come on Donna, you have to give me at least one. I need perfect apples," the guild master said to the blue pokemon.
"No Bartleby," Donna replied. "They are mine and it took a long time to get all of them. I will eat them."
"Please, please, please? I'll do anything. I'll even triple your pay," Bartleby begged.
"Triple, you say? Okay, I'll give you half of my stash." Donna walked over to a small chest, barely bigger than an apple, and opened it. She pulled out an apple that was so unremarkable, it was hard to believe it was special in any way. She then pulled out another and another, quickly having to resort to her psychic powers because of her short arms. Eventually, she pulled out close to two dozen apples. :there.
"Yay, perfect apples!" Bartleby ate one, a large grin coming to his face. "Awesome." The balloon pokemon grabbed the rest of the apples and placed one on his head while juggling all the rest.
"I'd say so, that was totally worth triple pay," Donna agreed.
"Actually," Sherman cut in from the doorway. "Bartleby has no control over payment."
"What? But, you can give me triple pay, right," the little pokemon asked. "I mean, you do manage finances, so you must manage pay too, right?"
"Sorry, but the pay is set by the guild organization, we cannot change it," the assistant guild master apologized.
"What? Can I have my apples back then?" At hearing Donna's question, the guild master's ears perked up and he quickly ran into his office and closed the door, somehow managing not to drop one of the about twenty-two perfect apples he was juggling.
"Err, sorry about that. Anyways, Donna meet Drew, our newest recruit. Drew, this is Donna the Chimecho. She's the chef here."
"Hi Drew," Donna greeted, her mood instantly brightening up. She used her psychic powers to lift her chime like a hand.
"Hello Donna," Drew responded, ignoring the chime.
"Hello!" Helm suddenly popped up behind Drew, scaring him again. Luckily, Drew was able to stop himself from jumping into the ceiling again.
"Uh, hello Kabuto," Drew said, trying to slow his heartbeat after the shock. Crap, what was his name? Hal, Hall, Hilm? What was it?
"It's Helm," Crue said, crawling into the room.
Did he read my mind or something? No, he just heard me say Kabuto and told me Kabuto's name. I mean, if he could read my mind then he would know all kinds of things about me like the fact my favorite color is metallic grey or that I love perfume.
"Don't worry," Crue said to Drew. "I'm not reading your mind, I just heard you say Kabuto and told you his name."
Phew.
"So then new guy, how are you feeling? We can't have a brain dead member." Crue's gaze turned to Helm. "Well, not another one."
"I'm fine, umm, don't tell me, Tenta, right?" Drew replied.
"What? That's a terrible name. I'm Crue, new guy. Do you at least remember what species our fourth member is?"
"She's an Omanyte," Drew smugly smiled, knowing he was right.
"What's her name?" Drew's mood fell at his teammate's question. "Oh man, how bad are you at remembering stuff? It's Spiral."
"Hey," Drew yelled at the Tentacool. "I bumped my head hard enough to pass out."
"Look, you spoiled brat," Crue hissed back. "I have seen your type before. I despise your type. You think you are too good for the rest of us. Well guess what? You aren't! I can tell from the way you act, you are rich and were forced into it and hate it. Well guess what, learn to deal with it. Helm is way to nice and Spiral is too cowardly to tell you this, but I'm neither. So get over your attitude quick. We head out on our first mission tomorrow at eight 'o clock sharp. Be ready." The jellyfish crawled off angrily.
"What was that about?" Drew wondered, having tuned out Crue once he started ranting. "Oh well, gotta get to bed for some beauty sleep."