From the top of the hill the sun looked like fire in the west. I still wasn't sure how exactly I was dragged from the beach to the top of a hill in front of this tent in the shape of a wigglytuff with a grate in front of that. We looked down into the grate. It was dark and deep.
"So uh…" Pip took a deep breath. "No, no turning back. We have to do this!" He shook me. "Tell me we have to do this."
"We have to do this."
"You have to sound more convincing than that!" He shook me even harder.
"I don't even know what we're doing! As far as I'm concerned you're leading me to my death!"
Pip turned away and took a deep breath. "Okay, I'm gonna do this." He didn't move. "Okay now…. Now…. Now I'm gonna do this."
I put my hand on both of his shoulder. "Now you're going to do this!" I demanded, pushing him onto the grate. He shrieked and tried to get away but I wouldn't let him.
"Pokémon detected! Pokémon detected!"
This loud and tiny voice made Pip and I jump.
"Whose footprint? Whose footprint?" This voice was obnoxiously loud.
"The footprint is Piplup!"
"Okay, Piplup you may enter. Next Pokémon!"
Pip turned to me. "I think that's you."
He stepped off the grate and I got on. It felt a lot sturdier than I expected. I expected the grate to fall underneath my weight.
"Pokémon Detected!"
"Whose footprint?"
"Uhh…Um…I don't know. It isn't a common footprint. Maybe Treekos?"
There was a long silence between the two voices. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN MAYBE TREEKOS? IS IT OR ISN'T IT, DIGLITT?"
The tiny voice started to cry. "I don't know!"
The louder voice sighed. "I guess you may both enter!"
Pip looked at me worriedly. He looked like he was going to puke. I grabbed his flipper and pulled him in with me. Inside was just as small as it looked. I gave Pip a questioning look.
"Looks like we have to go down this hole." He peered into it. "You can see the bottom so it isn't that deep." He climbed down using the ladder and I climbed in after him.
Everything was so much bigger now. Pokémon chatted in every corner of the room while some, mostly in teams of three, picked papers off of two separate boards and walks out the way we came in. The atmosphere was inviting.
I ran toward the window, curious of what was outside. Outside was opposite of a fast setting sun that overlooked the ocean. "Oh wow, Pip! Look out here!"
Pip stood on tiptoes to see outside. "Amazing!"
"Are you two the Pokémon that just came inside?"
We turned around and stared at a Chatot. He seemed overly happy and sing-songy but what could you expect from a parrot Pokémon?
Chatot started to shoo us out. "I'm sorry but we don't want anything you're selling." He sang.
"We aren't selling anything." Pip tried to tell him.
"Then we don't want to take a survey."
"We want to create an exploration team!" Pip yelled stopping Chatot right in his tracks.
"Oh well why didn't you just tell me that sooner? Come along." Chatot lead us to the stairs that lead us deeper underground. "This is the second floor. This is where our exploration teams rest and eat." He knocked on a huge wooden door. "Now be very polite. I can't even imagine if you upset the Guildmaster…" He trailed off. "Guildmaster Wigglytuff, we're coming in!" He pushed open the door.
Inside was alight with torches. The room was…kind of plain to say the least. A map hung on the wall behind Wigglytuff and there were two windows facing North and South. There was also a rug and a bed that was folded up to look more like a couch.
"Guildmaster, these two want to make an exploration team." Chatot approached a big pink fur ball looking pokémom.
Wigglytuff turned and started jumping around, cheering. "Yay! Yay! New friends! New friends!" He finally stopped in front of me, staring into my eyes. His piercing and friendly ocean blue eyes sought out my soul. He nodded. "Yep, yep, yep! You'll be a good edition to our team of friendship. I can tell. So, what will your exploration team be called?"
I tilted my head. What was an exploration team? I didn't ask. I didn't want to sound stupid. I could just ask Pip later.
"Ash, you should choose. What's our exploration team name?"
I shrugged and said the first thing that came into my mouth, "Pokémon!"
Chatot laughed. "Oh, child, that isn't a real team name."
"But I like it!" Wigglytuff jumped around. "Exploration Team Pokémon. It's simple, and it fits to everyone's needs and what they look for in an Exploration Team. Here." He shoved a golden box in my hand. "Your starter kit. Please open it and use what's inside. Enjoy, friends, enjoy!"
Pip grabbed the box from my hands and opened it before I could. I immediately grabbed the bag that was inside. There was only one but Pip didn't seem to mind. He fastened a white egg-looking pin, with golden wings and it had a green gem in the middle, to the strap of my bag. He took the golden scarf from it and fastened his pin.
"Guildmaster, you cannot be serious. That is a horrible name for an Ex-" Chatot stopped short on his sentence as Wigglytuff stared in his eyes. The parrot turned suddenly and shooed us to our room. "This is your room. I gave you a window because you two seemed to like to look outside. It's nice to have you two on bored…Exploration Team Pokémon." He winked at us and shut the door behind him. He knew something the two of us didn't know.
I looked at Pip. "Hey, so what is an exploration team?"
"Oh right, you don't know, huh? Well, time has become messed up so more Pokémon have become agitated."
"How is time becoming messed up?" I sat on my bed of hay.
"Nobody knows. In each region there are these things called time gears. Nobody in their right minds would even look at one. It's said that they control time in their respected region. In all there are five around the world. We, as an exploration team, must quell the Pokémon and protect these Time Gears but at the same time. We also explore places that nobody has explored before…I guess in a sense we're just a modern day form of the old Rescue Teams. The best Rescue Team was Team Blue." He started to go on a rant about a Charizard and Blastoise who were long friends. There was a third member but I was asleep before I got to hear her story.