Two

West 25th Street

"The orientation will be held upstairs in the cafeteria," the Guildmaster said, leading the quartet of new recruits to the back of the building. "Right this way, please."

"We'll be taking an elevator, I presume?" Hans asked while walking.

"You are correct," the Guildmaster said, continuing to her destination. "How did you know?"

"Well, travel by elevator is one of few forms of cross-floor transportation that can be accessed by all morphologies," Hans replied. "The Guild seems like it's wealthy enough to afford elevators."

"Once again, you are correct," the Guildmaster said. "Impressive deduction, Hans."

"Thank you, Guildmaster," Hans replied.

"Um…" Shinji said, stopping in his tracks. "We're going on an elevator?"

The Guildmaster turned backwards to face Shinji. "Indeed we are," she said. "What's wrong? Are you claustrophobic?"

Shinji tilted his head to one side and then the other, not looking at anyone. "What's an elevator?" he asked.

The Guildmaster chuckled to herself. "Not to worry," she said. "It's perfectly safe. Imagine a metal box that carries us from one floor to another." She turned around and continued walking. "There's a system of pulleys and wiring," she continued, "but it's far too lengthy and complicated to go into now."

"Huh," Irina said. "Guess we only have one person who's never heard of elevators before."

Armstrong considered speaking up, but decided that it was best to remain silent for now.

By now the group was in a hallway, painted blue like the rest of the Guild, lined with six elevators on each side. "Since only certain Pokemon have the morphologies to operate a button panel or a lever, we instead created three sets of six elevators each, with each set traveling only moving between two specific floors." She motioned to one of the elevator-lined walls. "These elevators travel between the first floor and the second," she said. "To summon an elevator one simply has to stand on a pressure plate in front of the elevator for five seconds or so."

Armstrong looked at a spot of floor in from of an elevator and noticed a black and yellow-striped square placed right where one would stand. She would have to remember to stand there only when she wanted to.

The Guildmaster stepped on one of the striped tiles and a moment later the light above the elevator blinked on, and the steel doors parted, allowing the five Pokemon waiting outside to step in.

As the quartet and Guildmaster stood inside the elevator waiting to reach their destination, Armstrong noticed that Shinji was shuddering.

"Shinji," she asked, "are you okay?"

"I-I'm fine…" he said, looking away from Armstrong. "It's just…" he returned his gaze to Armstrong. "It's just that I haven't been on an elevator before."

"I thought that this city had lots of buildings with elevators," Armstrong replied. "Do you come from here?"

"No," Shinji said. "I'm from a region that's east of here."

The elevator doors opened top show, in contrast to the bright blue walls of the ground floor, a hallway with bright magenta wallpaper scattered with fleur-de-lis and interrupted by pale silver doors, each one with a number plate attached to the top. The floor was of a deep purple fabric carpet, its texture soft on the feet.

"The cafeteria is this way," the Guildmaster said, turning down one wall, not waiting for her newly christened subordinates to follow her. The quartet hurried their feet to catch up the Guildmaster's quick pace, barely managing to keep up.

"Although you are the only group so far to fight past feral pokemon," the Guildmaster said, "another group has arrived here before you."

"Aw, dammit!" Irina yelled. "I thought we were so boss! Dammit, we're only second best!"

"Not necessarily," Armstrong said. "Guildmaster, you said that we were the only group to fight ferals, right?"

"You are correct," the Guildmaster replied. "This group only arrived here before you because they took the main route before it was blocked."

"Still wish we got here first," Irina muttered to herself.

"Here is the cafeteria," the Guildmaster said, gesturing to an open space leading to a large, open area where the walls and floors suddenly abandoned colorful fabrics and bared white tile floors and cream-colored walls. The expanse was packed with olive-green tables with built-in benches. At the back of the room was a steel-gray portion of wall featuring an opening in the center. Armstrong presumed that that was where food was served, and she began to wonder if guild workers had to take kitchen duty occasionally.

Armstrong suddenly became aware of a group of four pokemon sitting

"The cafeteria occasionally doubles as an auditorium," the Guildmaster said. "As I said, this is where the orientation will be held…"

"Sorry to interrupt, Guildmaster," Armstrong said, "but are the pokemon sitting at that table…"

"They're the group that arrived earlier," the Guildmaster answered. "I was about to say that since the orientation won't begin for another fifteen minutes, you may feel free to have a little 'chat' with them if you'd like. It would do you well not to interrupt me again, Armstrong."

Armstrong bowed her head and placed a hand on it. "Uh…sorry, Guildmaster," she said. "Won't happen again."

Irina nudged Armstrong. "Don't bow down to this gal," Irina said. "She's kind of an as-"

"Guildmaster," Hans said, cutting off Irina and allowing Armstrong to fire an angry glance in the Cubone's direction, "you said that orientation will begin in fifteen minutes, but we're the only ones to arrive here. Are the audiences normally this small?"

"Oh, no," the Guildmaster said. "The main road was restructured ten or fifteen minutes ago. With any luck, the new recruits will swarm the front desk."

"Well, this guild is popular," Hans replied.

"I'll leave you four here to bond with your predecessors," the Guildmaster said, turning around to walk out of the cafeteria. "Get to know each other — a familiar team is a cohesive team, and a cohesive team is a team that survives in the field."

As the Guildmaster left the quartet to their own devices, the foursome made a collective beeline for the foursome already sitting at one of the tables. As the quartet got closer, Armstrong made out a Salamence in a scarlet-red dress and black eyeliner standing in front of the table's attached bench; a Scraggy in a tattered brown jacket and blue jeans; a Grotle in nothing but a black pair of shorts; and finally an Audio in a purple dress with a pattern of daisies adorning it.

"Oh, hello!" the Audino said, turning to face the newcomers. "I take it the bridge is fixed."

"You heard about that?" Armstrong said.

"Indeed," the Salamence answered. "We only got across the bridge half an hour before it collapsed." She stretched her hind legs, placing one of her forelegs on the bench. "I take it that we can expect more recruits to arrive here," she said. "How come you four in particular managed to arrive earlier?"

"Oh, dude, you should've been there," Irina said, walking in front of Armstrong. "We are dropping ferals left and right, I punched a Fearow that tried to dive-bomb me-"

"I'm pretty sure it was a Pidgey," Armstrong interrupted.

"Yeah, well…details, details," Irina said. "You four haven't fought any ferals yet, have you?"

"Please," the Grotle replied. "I've been to the run-down parts of this city before."

"I've dealt with one or two of those wild pokemon myself," the Salamence replied. "Though those times I was in the countryside. I admit, I've never been to a city like this one before."

"I've gotten attacked by one of those angry pokemon before," the Scraggy said. "I only managed to scratch its face before running back to my house, though."

Silence filled the room as quartet — or at least Irina — stared expectantly at the Audino. He weakly smiled. "Guilty as charged," he said. "I haven't fought a feral pokemon in my life."

"I take it that we'll be taking a basic training course soon," Hans said. "After all, the guild wouldn't send a bunch of pokemon with no fighting experience into the dangerous parts of this city."

"I hope so," the Audino replied. "From the looks of it, I'm the only one here who hasn't fought any feral pokemon before." He paused before continuing, "I'm sorry, I haven't introduced myself." He extended a hand to Armstrong. "I'm Rael," he said.

"And I'm Armstrong," the Nidorina said, taking the Audio's hand in a firm yet gentle grip and giving it a soft shake. "Glad to meet you."

Rael smiled, his eyelids forming arcs and one end of his tiny mouth curling upwards under his button-like nose. "I'm pleased to meet you too!" Rael said. "Hopefully we'll get assigned to the same team."

Armstrong scratched her head and smiled weakly. "Uh…about that," she began. "I already spoke to the Guildmaster before coming upstairs, and according to her I'm going to be in a team with the pokemon I came here with."

"They're assigning teams already?" Rael replied. "Hm…well, I did hear that the team assignments were more-or-less random. I guess there's not much about it we can do right now, but maybe we'll be allowed to change teams in later weeks. I heard that the most changes to the team lineups occur within the first two weeks of the Guild's enrollment period."

Armstrong smiled. "Well," she said, "if any of my new teammates turn out to be kleptomaniacs, I'll be sure to keep an eye out on your lineup."

Rael laughed. "I think I'll do the same thing," he said.

As Armstrong rose from her seat, Irina was sprawled on a seat on a table across from the Salamence.

"In all the years I've gone into infested forests, I've found that the battle strategy that will serve you well is a complement of a melee attack and a ranged attack," the Salamence said. "The ranged attack will serve the best, of course — it can bring down ferals with long-distance assaults of their own and large pokemon that can't be brought down by simple fists and claws. Even so, it's hard to aim at someone charging at you at high speeds — that's where the melee attack comes in."

Irina nodded. "Cool advice, miss, uh…"

"Honduras."

"Honderas," Irina replied. "Anyway, cool tactics. Most of the time I just pull out my pipe and start hitting anything that moves."

"That's it?" Honduras replied. "You just stick to a melee attack?"

"Yep," Irina answered.

"Well then," Honduras said, "how do you deal with ranged attacks? Do you briefly show yourself to lure the offending feral to you?"

"You mean baiting?" Irina said. "Good lord, no. I try to get behind 'em, or at least keep moving so that they can't hit me."

"Always on the move," Honduras replied. "A viable strategy. You must be very physically fit in order to move so much and incapacitate ferals with simple melee attacks."

"Oh, yeah," Irina said. "I lift like hell whenever I can; even had my own set of equipment back at my old place." She flexed an arm as she said this, revealing prominent biceps and triceps. "Gotta keep them muscles up."

"You seem like you'll do well in combat," Honduras said. "I imagine that you'll receive high marks in basic training."

"I better!" Irina said. "But all this fighting stuff is making me hungry. When's breakfast?"

Honduras blinked in surprise. "Well, it would be tomorrow, wouldn't it?" she said.

"Bummer," Irina replied. "Hey, have you been here before? Where can I find the hot guys?"

Hans and the Grotle were sitting at their own table near the others. The Grotle laid across the wide bench, taking up nearly her entire side.

"Wait, so it's the south section of this city that has the feral problem?" Hans said, his arms sitting side by side on the table in front of him. "I thought it was the eastern section."

"You wouldn't be the first to think that," the Grotle replied. "The east section of the city is only known as a bad place because of the crime rates there — all of the criminals that would normally be in the south section of the city have migrated to the east because the ferals make it too dangerous to live there."

"But I imagine that some criminals must still make their home in the south section," Hans said. "After all, what better place to hide from the law than somewhere most police officers won't go?"

"You're absolutely right, Hans," the Grotle replied. "Yeah, a lot criminals still make their home in the south of this city. Those that do are supposed to be the most dangerous — anyone who lives amongst the constant danger of a feral attack has to be."

"You weren't kidding when you said that you've been to the bad parts of this city, Sheila," Hans said. "You certainly have much knowledge on the feral infestations and crime rates of this city."

"Oh, I had a place on east seventh street," Sheila replied. "I had to sell it, though — the whole area I was in was kinda rotting away. Really, lots of parts of this city are."

"The south can attest to that," Hans agreed.

Meanwhile, Shinji walked up to the Scraggy.

"Hi!" he said. "You're gonna start as an adventurer here like me, right?"

"Um…yeah, I'm new here," the Scraggy said. "I'm Ari. What's your name?"

"I'm Shinji!" the Mareep replied. "Where d'you think our first adventure will be in? D'you think we'll go to a cave, or a forest — or maybe even someplace underground!"

"This guild is surrounded by a massive city," Ari said. "Our first missions are probably gonna be in some rotting apartment complex overrun with ferals. And that's another thing, I don't think we'll be on the same team."

"Oh," Shinji said, "I forgot about that. Still, won't it be exiting?" His beady eyes beamed as he spoke. "We're gonna be able to rescue pokemon, fight criminals, and go exploring! It's gonna be amazing!"

"Yeah…" Ari replied. "Yeah."

Shinji turned his head. "You don't seem very happy," he said.

"Yeah," Ari said. "Well, I've been thinking…we're gonna be fighting feral pokemon, right?"

"Yeah," Shinji said. "They're everywhere these days."

"Okay," Ari said. "Well, I've fought one before, in the countryside with my sister. I can certainly say that if my sister wasn't there…" Ari shuddered. "I don't wanna think about what would've happened."

"It wouldn't end that badly," Shinji said. "The worst that a feral can do to us is give us a nasty scar, right?"

Ari stared at Shinji. "I don't think that they would be that soft on us," Ari said. "Haven't you ever thought that a feral could…you know…"

"Could what?" Shine asked.

"Aren't you afraid that you'll-"

"Hey, Ari," Rael said, turning around to face the Scraggy. "Could you come over here for a second? Armstrong here would like to hear about that battle you had with that feral."

"Um…alright," Ari said, turning around to face Rael before turning back to Shinji. "Sorry that I have to stop here," he said. "I have to talk to that Nidorina over there-"

"Can I listen?"

"Huh?" Ari asked. "Uh, I guess. Come with me, we'll sit with that Nidorina…"

A clamor of voices came from outside the cafeteria. Oliver walked into the view of the cafeteria's mouth, leading several pokemon behind him.

"Settle down, everyone," Oliver said, entering the cafeteria with the newcomers in tow. "Pick any seat you like; the orientation will begin in just a minute."

The pokemon flooded the cafeteria floor, grabbing any seats that were empty. By the time twenty seconds had passed, all of the tables were filled.

"Well, it certainly didn't take long for this room to get crowded," Raed said, speaking slightly louder in order to have his voice be heard over the cafeteria's newly created din.

Armstrong nodded. "Tell me about it," she said.

"The sooner we're all quiet, the sooner I can explain the rules of the guild," Oliver said, clasping his hands together as he stood in front of the windows into the kitchen. The clamor of the cafeteria grew quieter, but some pokemon kept talking.

"Well, I guess that this is good enough," Oliver said. "Those of you who aren't listening, just ask your friend who is after the presentation." Oliver brought his hands together again, smiling slightly. "Now, allow me to begin with some basic background for those of you who aren't natives to Paradise.

"The district that this guild is stationed in, as some of you have learned already, is the central west district — or just the west district, as some pokemon refer to it as. Each building in this city is — and has been, ever since the collapses began — provided with an emergency two-way radio that sends signals to the guild.

"If you've never been in any sort of combat against a feral pokemon before, then you'll have eight weeks of basic training before you're introduced into a more experienced team as an 'intern adventurer', as they're officially called by the guild administration. Those of you who have experienced combat with a feral pokemon will go through a quick evaluation session where your skill level will be determined. Make no mistake, you'll still be an intern adventurer — but that's just for you to get some experience. After some time you'll all be sorted into teams based on skill level. You'll all be put on ten-day shifts with four-day weekends.

"According to the Guildmaster, a few of you will be sorted into teams as soon as this orientation is over — in which case, just come to me and I'll give you your room number and keys; if your uniforms aren't in your lockers then you'll get them tomorrow. Normally I'd say that having someone fight ferals the day after registering is a less-than-cautious move, but then they're the Guildmaster's orders.

"Now, about feral pokemon: even if it's just a Pidgey, it should still be treated as if it can end you — because it can. Feral pokemon are hyper-aggressive and lack the ability to think on the same level non-wild pokemon can. Rest assured, most of the feral pokemon you'll be fighting are just wild pokemon, but a select few are pokemon that, thanks to a predisposition to aggressiveness and brain damage or mental illness, have become feral. Of course, the chance of that happening to any of the students at the guild here is highly unlikely…"

"Alright, everyone," Armstrong said as the automatic door slid open, "this is our room."

The room contained two bunk beds, one placed against each wall. A window was built into the wall across from the door and a set of four lockers were placed against the wall left of where the team was standing

"Good lord, what a night," Hans said, entering the room and immediately throwing himself onto a bed. "I team up with a bunch of other Pokemon I barely know to fight my way through a feral-infested building just so that I can get hired as a rescue worker." He flipped himself over, exposing his front to the ceiling. "Arceus, that evening assembly was long. I'm gonna need a whole lotta sleep to recover from this night."

"This is the best night ever!" Shinji said, hopping into the room in excitement. "I can't believe I finally got to join the Guild of the Star and become an adventurer! It's finally happening! My dreams are coming true!"

"Hey, Armstrong," Irina said following behind Shinji, "Where're the combinations to the lockers? I don't think I heard where we could find them through all of the assembly's boredom."

"The combinations weren't in the assembly," Armstrong replied as she entered the room and pushed a button in the room's interior to close the door, "I got the locker combinations from Oliver." Armstrong placed four pocket-sized cards on top of the lockers. "Pick whichever one you like," Armstrong said. "But please make sure to show it's yours somehow — write your name on it, maybe."

"Grahsee-ahs, Armstrong," Irina replied as she made her way to the lockers.

Armstrong decided to look out the window and see what the streets outside her room were like. The view was over a rain-slicked street whose block was home to one Rose's Pizzeria and a Beats Palace store.

Looking out on the neon-coated streets, Armstrong couldn't help but feel an ominous, vague fear bubble inside of her — as if there was something wrong with the Guild, the city — but it was impossible to tell what. Must be first day nerves, she thought to herself. Still, the fear remained.

Deciding to unpack her things like everyone else, Armstrong made her way to the lockers.