"Whoa! It's so BIG!" Devon exclaimed as he looked up at the giant tent above him.

Lucas smiled. "Yeah, I know. It's pretty impressive, right?"

That doesn't even begin to describe it! Devon thought as he stared up at the structure in front of him. It appeared to be an entire two-story structure made entirely of felt, with a wooden infrastructure which is given away by the windows of the tent. What's more is that it's been crafted in the same visage as a Wigglytuff, which made it even more impressive.

Lucas chuckled and said, "It actually used to be a bit smaller, but after the events of a few years ago, they actually expanded this place by a large amount. Did you know that underneath this tent there are five floors, each with their own, unique purpose, built right into the side of a cliff?"

Devon gazed up at it in awe, and put a paw forward to take a closer look. Suddenly he heard a meek voice cry out, "Pokémon detected! Pokémon detected! Whose footprint? Whose footprint?"

Devon stiffened and was about to back off, when Lucas said, "It's okay! It's just the sentry to the guild!"

"Sentry?" he asked, mostly to himself. He glanced down and saw that he had been standing on a wooden grate, which covered a deep, black hole that looked endless in depth.

"Hey, rookie!" A slightly droning voice called out from within the building. "Who is it?"

"Um, the footprint is..." The voice from below seemed unsure of itself. "The footprint is...Charmander?"

"Not even close!" Lucas cried out, sweatdropping.

"Oh! Whoops!" the voice underneath said. "Then...is it...Vullaby?"

"No!" Devon shouted down, sounding annoyed.

"Er...then it's gotta be Hoopa!"

"Seriously?!" The droning voice called out. "Why would a Legendary Pokémon come here?!"

"W-Well, it's happened before..."

The other voice groaned in annoyance. "Just let me look!"

A few minutes passed, and Devon and Lucas stared at each other, confused. Finally, they heard the droning voice call out from below them. "Now look at that footprint, Morelull. The size of the footprint tells you that it belongs to a fairly small Pokémon, most likely a Basic Pokémon. The general shape of it could easily tell you that it's an organic Pokémon, but at the same time, it's more likely feline or canine in nature, rather than reptilian or avian. But, notice that there are no claws? That means that it's certainly feline, as canine feet always have the claws out. Now for the tricky bit, determining exactly which feline Pokémon. Since that paw is more rounded, that means it isn't from a Pokémon that can stand on their hind legs, like a Meowth or a Purrloin. It's not as big as a Litleo's paw, but it's not as small as a Glameow or Litten's paw, either. And it's certainly not the stubby feet of a Skitty. Therefore, the only thing you can say is...

"The Pokémon is Shinx! The Pokémon is Shinx!" he finished, announcing loudly through the hole.

"Yeah, that's right!" Devon called down.

"Wow, that's incredible, Master Dugtrio!" the smaller voice said.

"Think nothing of it. Now, I know you have a friend up there. Please tell him to stand on the grate to be examined."

Devon moved off and let Lucas stand on it. The droning voice cried, "Pokémon detected! Pokémon detected! Whose footprint? Whose footprint?"

After a minute of silence, the droning voice said, "Well?"

"Oh! M-Me? Okay." The other voice stayed silent for a minute, before saying, "Well, the footprint is small like before, so it's likely a Basic Pokémon, right?"

"Yes. Go on."

"A-And the general shape is like before as well, and organic Pokémon that is more likely canine or feline then anything else."

"Excellent. Now, what else can you tell me about that footprint?"

A short period of silence was broken when the meek voice exclaimed, "Oh, oh, oh! I know! There are claws, which means it's gotta be a canine!"

"Well, not necessarily, but you're on the right track. What else?"

"Um, well, I suppose it's not as rounded, so it might not be a four-legged Pokémon. But, um, what canine Pokémon walks on two feet?"

"Well, there are only three of them, and two of them belong in the same family. And only one of them fits all of the criteria you explained."

"Um...so, does that mean the Pokémon is...Riolu? The Pokémon is Riolu?"

"Yep! It sure is!" Lucas cried down the hole, and the two aboveground Pokémon heard a screech of delight. "Yay! I did it! I did it!"

"You sure did. Now, how about I go back up and let our guests in. I'm sure this has been a huge inconvenience for them."

"No, not at all!" Lucas called down. "It's been nice helping you teach your friend!"

"Thank you so much!" the voice cried. "You've been so nice to me! I really appreciate it!"

Suddenly, the doors began to grind open, rising up and out of the way as the two Pokémon made their way inside. In front of them, they saw a ladder heading down, which seemed to have been fitted with grooves so even quadrupedal Pokémon could hold onto it. With not much alternative for them, the two of them climbed down the ladder, not sure what awaited them below.

Meanwhile, just outside of the Guildmaster's door, an avian Pokémon was staring the opposing threat in front of him, turning his head this way and that to get a better look. Finally, it spotted its prey, and it swooped down to claim its prize.

"Ow!" The bird Pokémon cried out as it pulled feather straight from its head. It stared at the feather clenched within its talons, twirling it around to let the light catch on all of it.

Then, the Chatot sighed and let the feather fall to the ground. "It's turning grey. I knew it! I'm getting old." He held his wing over his eyes and dramatically mourned. "Oh, it's all going by so fast! Once, I was a young, spry hatchling! I was fast! I was strong! And now look at me! I've got grey feathers! Oh, what a cruel and unfair world!"

"Um...hello?"

The voice caught Chatot by surprise, and he turned suddenly and found a pair of Pokémon he had never seen before staring at him. Check that, he realized that he recognized the Riolu from amongst some of the many story tellings he's done for the town's youth. But the Shinx was entirely new to him. Although, there was something about his expression that seemed awfully familiar...

"Can he actually hear us?" the Shinx whispered to his friend.

A scowl formed on Chatot's face. "Of course I can hear you. Don't call me old!"

"Um, neither of us said 'old,' Mr. Chatot," the Riolu explained.

Chatot glared at the two of them, rather flustered at this point. "That's Mr. Chatot, to you two!"

"Um, that's what he said, Mr. Chatot," the Shinx explained.

Caught with his foot in his mouth, Chatot murmured, "Oh, right. Um..." He cleared his throat and began to speak in his official voice. "Right then, who might you two be, and what is your business here? Though, I'm afraid we don't take kindly to freeloaders or door-to-door salesmen, so if that's so, then you'll have to-"

"No, that's not it!" Lucas exclaimed. Putting a paw over his chest, he said, "My name is Lucas, and this is Devon. And we actually want to join the guild!"

"What?! Join the guild?" He turned around and began speaking quietly to himself. "But these two are rather young. In fact, they might be even younger than Team Impossible when they first joined the guild. How come so many children want to become members so badly? Our standards haven't lowered since even before Kyle and Treecky. Perhaps the children nowadays are made of tougher stuff..."

"Um, is there a problem?" Lucas asked.

Suddenly realizing what he was doing, he quickly turned around and, flapping his wings madly, sputtered, "No, no! No problem at all! None at all!" Wagging his tail in an unheard rhythm, he said in a sing-song voice, "Luckily for you, we have plenty of room for you two, what with the recent departure of son of the more elder members of the guild. I'm sure you two will fit right in here! Though, I will have to get the okay from the Guildmaster."

The children cheered. "Yeah! Alright! We're gonna be an exploration team!"

Chatot smiled. "Yes, quite. Now, if you will follow me!" He turned to the door and said, "Guildmaster, we're coming in!"

"Why? I'm right here." The three Pokémon turned to see the large, smiling, pink Pokémon standing behind them.

Chatot cried out. "G-Guildmaster Wigglytuff! What are you doing out here?"

"Well, I was enjoying my Perfect Apple in the office," he said in a sing-songy voice, "when suddenly it bounced off of my head and rolled out the door. I looked everywhere for it. I looked in the dorms, behind the mission boards, in the kitchen. But, I wasn't able to find it anywhere."

If you were in the kitchen, why didn't you just grab another one? Chatot asked in his head.

"But, happily," Wigglytuff continued, "I finally found it hiding in a corner by where Croagunk's Swap Cauldron used to be. So, happy happy endings!"

Chatot chuckled lightly. "Er, of course, Guildmaster. Anyway, about these two..."

"Yep, I heard all of it! I was standing right here!" Wigglytuff slapped the floor with his foot, emphasizing his point. "So, you two want to be an exploration team? I can't tell you how happy I am to hear that! Friends, friends!

"Okay, just tell me your team name, and we'll begin the registration!" Wigglytuff said with a smile.

Devon and Lucas smiled at each other. They had already talked about a team name long and hard the previous night, and they had already figured out what they wanted to be called.

"We want to be Team Pursuit!" The two children said excitedly at the same time.

"'Pursuit?' That's a rather odd name, isn't it?" Chatot asked unsurely.

"Well, we both think that we have some kind of big destiny ahead of us," Devon began.

"And I think that together, we'll be able to accomplish our goals and pursue our fate!" Lucas finished. "That's why we wanna be known as Team Pursuit."

"Ooo, that's wonderful!" Wigglytuff shouted happily. "A very wonderful name, and a very wonderful goal! Okay, come into my office, and we'll get you all set up!"

Wigglytuff moved past them, smiling a giant smile, and Devon and Lucas followed close behind. Wagging his note-shaped tail, Chatot began to follow them inside, when Dugtrio popped up next him, and said, "Sir, Team Impossible is here to see the Guildmaster. They say it's urgent."

Chatot took on a more serious disposition, and said, "The Guilmaster is occupied with other matters at this point. However, I will go see them personally."

He leaned in and announced to the three Pokémon inside Wigglytuff's office that something came up, and he hurried up the ladder to find a Totodile and a Treecko standing in front of the Wanted Pokémon board.

"No, he was bigger than Persian, definitely." The Totodile said to his partner.

"Well, what about him?" The Treecko pointed at an Alakazam with a hefty bounty on his head.

Kevin considered him for a moment, but then he shook his head. "No, he was floating the whole time. I think an Alakazam would need to at least walk for some of the time."

"Well, what about that one?" Treecky said, pointing at another one.

Kevin glared at his Treecko friend. "Why would it be a Florges? I said it was for certain a male!"

"Ahem!" Chatot cleared his throat loudly, causing the two Pokémon to look at him. "Hello, Team Impossible! The Guildmaster is occupied registering a new team into the guild. What is it that's so important?"

Keven then began to relay what he remembered from his dream. With every passing second of listening to the story, Chatot's eyes appeared to grow and grow, until finally when Kevin finished, they appeared as large as a pair Spoink pearls.

"Exploud?! You're saying that one of the best Pokémon explorers around, who, by the way, was one of our strongest members when he was under our employ as a Loudred, might actually have been kidnapped by a mysterious assailant?"

Kevin sighed. "Yeah, that's about it."

Chatot scratched his head with his wing, trying to figure out what he needed to do. "This isn't good. Not only has a pair of young Pokémon come to join the guild out of nowhere, but an embassy from the Temple of Xerneas was supposed to visit today, and they're late. Now we have this on our hands! Oh, what do I do?!"

Kevin and Treecky looked at each other, and nodded. "Chatot," Kevin said, "You should probably take care of the new team and the embassy first. When that's all done, we can talk to Wigglytuff privately about this situation and figure out what to do then."

Chatot nodded absentmindedly. "Yes, I suppose that is the best we can do. Tonight..." Chatot walked away, spouting off random orders to the Pokémon around to tidy up a bit more for their important guests, a wide variety of thoughts racing around his mind like a Seviper and a Zangoose chasing after each other, trying to figure out what should be done about their old friend Exploit, and how they're even going to find him now.

And after about four months, I've finally finished this! And to be honest, the biggest reason for the long wait was because of this story in particular. I wasn't entirely sure how I wanted to end this chapter, and I think I came up with one that, to me, is fairly good. I particularly liked writing Chatot in this one, as he's always been a fun character in my mind, even when I was playing Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky. Plus, the part where he freaked out about himself growing old was absolutely hilarious! And don't forget the whole incident with the sentry! That was awesome, too!

Now, I wanted to explain the biggest struggle about this story in particular, as Escape from Fate has always seemed to come easier to me than Pursuit. You see, like I said at the very start of this story, I meant for it to be more like the traditional PMD story. A human gets sent to this world in the form of a Pokémon, he meets another Pokémon who immediately accepts him for who he is, and they joined the guild and worked there while the bigger plot unfolded around them.

Now, yes, we've all heard this story before, but the reason I wanted to do a story this way was mainly because I wanted to take the same formula, and slowly twist it on its head. Which means that I'm constantly attempting to straddle the line between familiarity and spontaneity, giving you guys something old, but cooked in a brand new shell.

Another thing I'm trying to do new is have it take place from the vantage point of two different groups of Pokémon. Team Pursuit, Devon and Lucas, and Team Impossible, Kevin and Treecky. (Fun fact, the Shinx and Riolu team is based off of my own Explorers of Sky game, while the Totodile and Treecko team is based off of my brother's Explorers of Darkness game. The name 'Treecky' is even what my brother called his Treecko character, and I named him that out of respect for him.) With two POVs, I figured that I could create something pretty new, as the world around them changed and we could see the effects on it from, essentially, a couple of veterans and a couple of rookies.

Now, of course, that isn't the only reason this story took so long, and Escape didn't help either. But, I'll explain why these stories didn't come out for so long in a more general sense in my other story. But, let me just explain it simply in the way many fanfiction authors will agree with me on: life happened. That's it.

Anyway, that's all I have to say. Thanks to everyone for keeping up with my story so far, and hopefully, I will see about trying to keep this story alive. Oh, and please do me a favor and vote in my brand new poll! See, I wanna know which of my stories is the most popular, and hence, should be updated more. I've already had several votes in it, and they're kind of pointing to the two stories I've already pointed out, with this one on the side. So, please vote and let your voice be heard! (By me. ;-P )

So, until next time, stay tuned to find out what happens next!