The Buizel and Pachirisu stared at the tent before them, one that was topped with what seemed like a balloon in the shape of a Wigglytuff. There was a closed gate at the front door blocking entry into the Guild. It was then when Crawdaunt had confirmed that they got to their destination. "Hey hey, we're here! The Wigglytuff Guild!", the red Pokemon announced to the two.

"We're finally here…", Karen muttered.

Crawdaunt would then head on ahead and eventually stand on top of what looked like a wooden grate in the ground encircled by rocks. Moments after, the party would be greeted with a voice that sounded like it was coming from down the grate.

"Pokemon detected! Pokemon detected!
Whose footprint? Whose footprint?
This footprint is Crawdaunt's! This footprint is Crawdaunt's"

This was followed by a louder, much more gruff voice. "WELCOME BACK. PLEASE PROCEED!", the voice shouted before the gate blocking entry into the Guild opened up. The crustacean Pokemon would then go on and then turn back at the two upstarts.

"W-what was that about?", Colin asked without a clue of what just happened. Karen looked just as confused and somewhat worried.

"That, my friends, is the security system of our guild in action, hey hey!", Crawdaunt answered with a bit of pride in his answer, "What are ya waiting for, give it a try!"

The Buizel just stepped onto the grate carefully before that same high-pitched voice that greeted the Crawdaunt went on.

"Pokemon detected! Pokemon detected!
Whose footprint? Whose footprint?
This footprint is Buizel's! This footprint is Buizel's!"

Through all of this, Colin just stood still. He was too nervous to really do much else, still getting the hang of this system. Karen just watched, nervously awaiting her turn.

"YOU THERE!", the louder deeper voice yelled. This caused Colin to jump in surprise.

"Ahh! W-who's there?", the surprised Buizel replied.

"YOU'VE COME WITH CRAWDAUNT. YOU TWO MUST BE GOOD POKEMON.", the voice judged, "GET OFF THE GRATE AND LET YOUR FRIEND THERE ON."

"Y-yes sir…!", Colin answered before he jumped off right away and signaled to Karen that it was her turn. The Pachirisu would then step onto the grate. Once again, the higher voice sounded.

"Pokemon detected! Pokemon detected!
Whose footprint? Whose footprint?
This footprint is Pachirisu's! This footprint is Pachirisu's!"

Karen was rather nervous as well after this. It seemed like an awkward moment for her standing there as she waited for the Pokemon below to evaluate her footprint.

"GOOD WORK, YOU TWO! NOW PLEASE PROCEED WITHIN THE TENT WITH CRAWDAUNT!", the louder voice finished.

With that, the two Pokemon looked at each other before they went to enter the tent. Inside was a large sign beside a ladder going down through a hole in the floor. The sign had a list of 10 basic explorer rules written on it, presented as the Wigglytuff Guild's Motto. Colin and Karen just continued to follow Crawdaunt down the ladder, not really paying much mind to the sign. They had then reached the first basement floor, where they would walk to the center of the room. Looking around, they noted the hustle and bustle of the guild. The left and right side of the room each had a large bulletin board beside the ladders with some Pokemon gathered in front of each. There were also a few Pokemon in line in front of a stand on the side to their left that a Chimecho manned.

"Welcome to the Wigglytuff Guild, you two, hey hey!", Crawdaunt introduced.

Colin and Karen just looked around in awe. "Woah… this place sure is busy!", Colin noted.

"Yup! Being the Exploration Guild of this region, this is to be expected, hey hey!", the red crustacean Pokemon replied before he continued, "You two should follow me! I'll take you to the Guildmaster!"

The two upstarts would listen and follow Crawdaunt down the ladder to the second floor basement. This floor seemed more spacious, mainly due to the fact there were less Pokemon here. There was a Toxicroak manning a stall that bore his image with a caldron within it to their right, a little bit further down was a purple Pokemon sitting in front of a hole in the ground. Beside the hole that Pokemon was at was a doorway that had a sign reading "Mess Hall" above it. On the other side of the room was a hallway that had a sign saying "Crew Rooms". As the two noted the features of this floor, a Chatot had hopped up to them.

"Hey there! You two are the ones we just let in, right?", the Chatot asked.

"That would bui us!", Colin replied enthusiastically.

Moving his right wing to his chest, he introduced himself in a bit of a song, "I'm Chatot! I'm the Pokemon in the know around these parts! I am Guildmaster Wigglytuff's right-hand Pokemon!" Then following a bit of a pause, he pointed his wing toward the ladder going up, "Now, off you go! We have no time for you darned salespokemon with your silly sales and wacky surveys."

"Wha…?", Colin blinked, unsure of why he said that. Karen was beyond confused as well.

"Uh… Chatot, these Pokemon came from the Coriola continent and want to see the Guildmaster about registering, hey…", the red Pokemon clarified.

After going wide-eyed and being a tad embarrassed about the misunderstanding, Chatot picked himself back up, "Ah, yes… so these are explorer hopefuls?", then with a rather abrupt change toward a cheery welcoming demeanor, "Welcome to the Wigglytuff Guild! Squawk squawk!".

Colin and Karen were both taken aback by the change in attitude. "Well, he sure changed quickly…", Colin whispered, followed by Karen's "Yeah…"

Chatot then switched to a bit of a stern attitude again. "Unfortunately, you must wait before you can talk to the Guildmaster. He is currently in the process of registering a new team as we speak!"

"Woah, really?", Colin blurted out.

"Yes. In fact, you might know them! A trio of Pokemon that also came from the Coriola continent!", Chatot answered.

"Trio of Pokemon…", Colin muttered before Karen finished, "Also from Coriola…?" Then after a bit of thought, the two Pokemon had this somewhat fearful look on their faces. "No way, not them!", Colin said. "Of all the rotten luck!", Karen followed rather annoyedly.

"Oh, so you do know them!", Chatot responded to their reactions.

"Yeah we do… if it's the three we're thinking it is…", Colin remarked, seeming somewhat demoralized.

"Good! That saves the trouble of having to introduce them!", the parrot Pokemon said seemingly joyed about not having to introduce them himself. "Anyway, it'll be a bit before this team's registration is complete. How about ya have a look around in the meantime, squawk!"

"Sure thing, sir!", Colin replied before the two would go and have a look around the room. They seemed pretty curious about the purple Pokemon that seemed to be manning a rather big hole in the ground beside the Mess Hall. Their curiosity ensured a meeting with that Pokemon as Colin opened his mouth to greet, "Uh, hello there!"

The Pokemon turned around in response, who turned out to be an Exploud. "HELLO THERE!", he greeted back before noting something, "OH, IT'S YOU TWO. THE ONES WE JUST LET IN!"

Colin and Karen were absolutely wrecked by just how loud this Pokemon was up close. Their fur would stand on end as they held their ears, "UUUGH! Why are you yelling!? We're right here!", Karen screamed in retaliation to the really loud Pokemon.

"WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!? THIS IS MY NORMAL VOICE!", Exploud went on with that obnoxiously loud voice of his.

"My ears!", Colin yelled as he held his ears tight.
"I-inside voices, much!? You're killing our eardrums!", Karen shrieked at the extremely loud Pokemon.

"WELL EXCUUUUUSE ME!", Exploud responded in a slightly louder tone.

"Ugh, ears are ringing so much...!", the Buizel said rather disgruntled.
"I... I think I'm going to go deaf...!", Karen yelled as she was feeling like her protests earlier weren't really helping.

Chatot was getting sick of all this noise and hopped on over to the source, "Exploud, keep your ridiculously loud voice down! The Guildmaster is registering a team!", he warned in a rather stern tone.

"HMPH!", the loud Pokemon grunted after being scolded. The parrot Pokemon glared at Exploud before hopping back next to the Guildmaster's door.

After a bit of a pause, Colin tried to apologize to the loud purple Pokemon, "S-sorry... I mean no disrespect..."

Exploud responded in a surprisingly soft voice that matched a normal speaking voice rather ashamed, "It's okay. It's my manners that needs work. I forget just how loud I really am..."

"That's better!", Karen blurted out, relieved to finally be able to talk to him normally, "Is it really so hard to talk like this?"

With a sweatdrop, Exploud answered, "Well... it is easy to forget since I'm whispering right now..."

Colin sorta wore a comically confused look as he and Karen looked at each other, "T-this is whispering?"
"It's a bit louder than an normal talking voice...", Karen said out loud.

Hearing all this, Exploud was rather annoyed, "WELL, SOOOOORRY!"

The sudden change to the loud voice caught the two off-guard. "Ugh, jeeez!", Karen retaliated.
"Ugh... I suppose we were asking for that one...", the Buizel said as he laughed nervously.

"Anyway... the name's Exploud.", the purple Pokemon said in a softer voice, "I'm the one that allows Pokemon in and out of this place! Stay out of trouble and you two will be fine!"

"W-we'll keep that in mind!", Colin assured before Colin and Karen walked away and toward Chatot.

Just as they reached the parrot Pokemon, there was a really loud voice coming from the Guildmaster's Office "YOOM-TAH!"

"Eeeek! What's going on!?", Karen shrieked, holding her ears down.

"W-what on Earth was that!?", Colin said after jumping at such a loud noise.

"Oh hush down, you two. That was just the Guildmaster registering our newest team!", Chatot answered.

"Why does it have to be so looooud!", Karen replied as she was still freaking out over it.

Chatot had a bit of a second-hand embarrassment from having to explain his superior's behavior, "You see… the Guildmaster can be quite eccentric…"

"I'll say!", an annoyed Karen responded.

Just then, the door to the Guildmaster's Office opened and out came three Pokemon. The first exiting the door was an Omanyte, the second was a Squirtle, followed by a Shellder. As Colin and Karen looked on to the team, they realized that their fears were confirmed; it was the three Pokemon they thought it was.

"Haha, no way! What a sight for sore eyes!", the Squirtle exclaimed as he saw the two upstarts.

"Hahaha, so you two made it here after all!", the Omanyte followed with a sneer.

"Hey, Collie~", the Shellder flirted with a wink.

Karen immediately grew angry when the Shellder did that. Colin tried to keep his cool, though he had a tad of fear. Dammit, it was them… he thought. Why did it have to be them!?, Karen thought at the same time.

"Oh, what's wrong? You don't seem happy to see us!", the Squirtle teased.

"Hahaha! What, are you wimps still afraid of us?", the Omanyte riled.

Colin didn't say anything, gritting his teeth and trying to keep his cool.

"Afraid of you? You gotta be kidding!", Karen blurted out to them.

The Shellder would approach with a grin, "What's wrong, Karen? Afraid I'll take Collie away from ya~?"

Karen wasn't very happy about that, "Don't be stupid! He's terrified of you! He'd never go with you!"

"Well now, it seems you all know each other quite well!", Chatot would just muse as all this is going on.

"Now listen up, you two! We're not just some playground ruffians anymore!", the Omanyte pointed out, giving a kind of proud gesture, "Feast your eyes on the new awesome exploration team Team Shellshock! Led by yours truly, Kaigoon!"

"His right-hand 'mon of the year, Benny!", the Squirtle pointed to himself full of pride.

"And the beautiful muscle of the team, Lora!", the Shellder proudly declared.

Colin wasn't very impressed, "I see you three are as cocky as ever."

Benny pointed at Colin seemingly in an attempt to intimidate him, "Hey, shut your mouth or we'll sic Lora on you again!"

That seemed to work; Colin appeared to gain a scared look at that thought while Lora was looking at him enticingly, "Your tail is mine, Buizel~"

Colin stepped back in fear holding his tail like he was protecting it, "Aaah! S-stay away from me!"

Karen just wasn't taking this as she moved in front of Colin in a defensive way, "Back off, Lora!"

"Jeez, Karen, jealous much? Hahaha!", the Shellder just giggled teasingly as Karen glared at her.

"Luckily for you two, we won't cause a commotion here! We don't want to mess up the guild with petty fighting, heheh.", Kaigoon sneered before starting to move, "We'll take our leave from here for now! I certainly hope we can get along, heheheh!" And just like that, the three went for the ladder and went on up.

Colin and Karen kept their eyes on them as they left.

Colin, recovering from the fear of getting his tails bit by Lora, let out a sign of relief, "Oh, thank Arceus she didn't bite me…"

Karen just sorta growled, "Ugh, that Lora always makes me so darned mad!"

The two then looked at each other with a worried expression. "It looks like we'll be seeing more of them around here…", Colin said. Karen let out a sigh and replied with a "Looks like it…"

"It appears you have yourselves a rivalry going!", Chatot kinda laughed, "I do hope this doesn't distract you from future guild duties, though. Please wait here while I let the Guildmaster know you're here." With that, Chatot goes into the office.

Colin and Karen were eager to see the Guildmaster, though Karen was starting to worry. She looked to Crawdaunt who was nearby, "Hey Crawly, what kind of Pokemon is the Guildmaster?"

Crawdaunt sort of sweatdropped at the name she gave him, but went with it. "Hey hey, the Guildmaster is a very nice Pokemon! He might seem strange at first, hey, but he's a fun-loving, happy-go-lucky Pokemon!"

Karen was feeling better after hearing that. With a smile, she responded, "That's good to hear! After all the stuff we just had to deal with, I was worried the bad stuff wasn't over..."

Chatot then opened the door, "The Guildmaster will see you two, now." He turned and looked at Crawdaunt, "Ah yes, Crawdaunt. You will be joining us, yes? It was you that brought them here, after all!"

"Hey hey, of course! They helped me out, I'll gladly vouch for them!", the red Pokemon was delighted to accompany them.

"Oh, and one more thing. One very, very important thing.", Chatot sternly warned, "On no account, I repeat, on no account should you be discourteous to our Guildmaster."

"Y-yes sir!", Colin affirmed before the party when into the Guildmaster's Office.

Our future explorers are on their way to see the Guildmaster and quite possibly finally get registered! Seeing as their old childhood bullies just registered before them, they seem to have a rival team right off the bat! It would seem this lively guild is about to get more lively as our journey continues!