And so, now our heroes will get to the rescue guild, and can begin their dungeoneering career!

Chapter 3: How does this "Rescue Guild" work?

We emerge from Pollendust Forest to view...

… More forest. There was much more distance to go before we would get to Galvan City. We promptly get started, slithering, bouncing and walking on. I recall that I never asked Kakuna's name, so I ask, "Hey, I never seem to have got your name. What is it?"

Kakuna replies with, "Oh, it's," And emits a short pattern of buzzing. "But since only Bug pokemon can really pronounce it right, everyone just calls me Kakuna."

Well that's easy, I guess... I think to myself. We keep moving and eventually it starts getting late. Glide announces, "Well, it looks like this is a good enough place to rest for tonight!" and so we find some comfortable spots to rest. Glide lays in the crook of a tree, I find a spot of soft ground, and Kakuna just leans up against another tree. After a bit, we all fall asleep.

"Ha-ha! We have you surrounded! Your money or your life, suckers!" I look up blearily to see us encircled by Skorupi. One of them, larger than the others and wearing a red scarf, looks to be the one who spoke. Glide, also having woken, states " We don't really have any money, we spent it all on supplies to get through Pollendust Forest."

The lead Skorupi says "Well give us the supplies then, missy!"

"We kinda used them for getting through said forest." Glide replies, causing the leader to ponder briefly, before shrugging and saying, "Well, your life it is then!" and starting to scuttle forward with his lackeys. I decide this is the moment to hit the leader with an Ember. It catches him off guard, flipping him onto his back and blackening him considerably. He flips himself upright, and screams, "OUCH! RETREEEEAT!" and the bandits all begin to scuttle off, with the leader shouting "This isn't the last you've seen of the Skorupi Gang! We'll meet again!" before going out of earshot.

"Well, that was a thing." is the only thing I could think to say. Glide simply nods agreement. Kakuna shakes a little, then goes "Zzz... Huh, you're both awake already? Did I miss something?"

"Other than the world's least impressive bandit attack, no." I answer.

"Hunh?" Kakuna looks confused.

"Don't worry about it." I then turn "Anyways, We should get moving."

And so we do.

After yet more distance covered, we finally hit our destination, Galvan City. Colorful, oddly shaped buildings are visible along a main road, which seems to continue to a huge building in the distance. Oddly enough, there seem to be colorful strings of lights everywhere, like there's some sort of holiday going on. I shrug and continue walking, only to realize that my companions are not following me. I turn around, to see both of them simply standing, looking dumbstruck. Glide proceeds to say "Whoa. I've never seen so many electric lights before..."

I tilt my head. "What? It doesn't seem that impressive..."

Glide looks shocked "Not that Impressive? Electric lights are rare! Usually only Electric pokemon have them, since they require electric power to use. Galvan city though, there are so many Electric pokemon, they can make enough to light up the whole city!"

"Well, anyways, we ought to get to that Rescue Guild place you mentioned," I say, "That is the reason we're here" I look at her.

Kakuna shakes himself, then says "Yeah..."

"Where is it anyways?" I ask.

Glide points to the large building at the end of the street.

"That?" I look at it, "Why's it so large? It can't need to be that big."

"It's the main headquarters for the entire guild! It's the whole reason this city's so rich!" Glide says.

Kakuna adds "It's also doubles as city hall, since the head of the Rescue Guild has been elected mayor for every election since he started running."

"Really? How does he even manage both?" I give a baffled look.

"Because he's super smart and doesn't need to sleep!" Glide enthusiastically states.

"What kind of pokemon even is he?" my baffled look grows deeper

"He's the only one of his kind anyone even knows of!" Glide explains, "Everyone just calls him Guild Leader or Mayor, depending on which they're needing him as."

Great Gravy! Is the Guild Leader a Legendary? That! That's impressive. I think to myself, then say "Well, let's go to him." And so we head down the main avenue.

We arrive at the the guild headquarters, entering the front door, to find a small waiting area, with a Lopunny behind a desk in the corner. Otherwise, the area is empty. The Lopunny looks at us with a bored expression and says "If you're here to complain about the pavement on Volt street, We're already trying to make a contract to have it fixed."

"Uh, no," Glide says, "We're from out of town. We came because I found one of those amnesiac pokemon you were offering a reward for."

The secretary winces "Ooh... The Guild Leader just put out an order to cancel that yesterday. But, since you probably couldn't have known that, I'll get you a meeting with him."

She pulls out a sheet of paper from under her desk, as well as an ink pot and some sort of small stamp, uses the stamp on the paper a few times, then she leans back down to do something I can't see (because I'm shorter than the desk...) and a "Whump!" issues forth and she straightens back up. "You'll need to wait a moment, go sit on one of the cushions over there." So we do so.

They must use one of those pneumatic tube systems in here, I think, that's pretty much what would explain the noise. After a minute, another "Whump!" is heard, and the Lopunny secretary says "Okay, the Guild Leader will see you now." and gets out from be hind her desk to guide us to another room, which is empty except for another desk. We look about, wondering where the leader is, when there sounds a light buzz, and in a brief glow a Porygon-Z appears. "Hello, I Am The Guild Leader!" it states, "Are You The Ones Who Found The Amnesiac?" he (it?) asks in a voice that somehow managed to be perky and monotonous simultaneously.

"Uh... Yes?" Glide looks a little confused, I suspect she's wondering if this is really the guild leader. The Guild leader perks up "O Frabjous Day! Callooh! Callay!" he says, still in a cheerfully toneless voice, "Oh! But I Canceled That Order Yesterday!" he made a gesture that gave the impression of a chin-scratch. "However, Since You All Likely Would Not Have Received That News, I Will Give you The Reward Anyways!" he states. "Which One Of You Is The Amnesiac, Anyways?"

I speak up and wave my nubby arm a little "Me," I state, "I-"

"Well I Am Sorry To Say That Your Memories Are In All Likelihood Irretrievable!"

"Uh..." I become confused at the statement delivered in the same tone one would expect to hear of a lottery win in.

Kakuna speaks up at that, "Irretrievable?" he asks.

"We Psychically Scanned Those Brought In For The Reward, And Their Memories Seem To Be Completely Erased," the Guild Leader states, "Absolutely Gone, As Opposed To Merely Repressed!"

"Oh, that's..." I start, only to be interrupted by a sound.

Have you ever heard the sound of glass shattering? Surely you have. Well, suffice to say, that's exactly what this sound doesn't sound like. And it's loud, very loud. As I watch, I see cracks race through the very air around us. The cracks don't look special, they don't glow in ethereal colors, but that doesn't change the fact that they are cracks racing through empty space. Everyone in the room jumps back, with Glide stammering "W-what's going on?" The guild leader looks just as startled as the rest of us, and replies with "I Do Not Know, This Has Never Happened Before!" still in his cheerful tone. (Seriously, is something wrong with him?) As we are looking around at the fractures, one begins to widen, revealing a glimpse of a strange landscape for a second, before it was filled with a glassy-looking white obstruction. As we stared at it, the white object slowly oozed through the still-tiny gap, as a single white tendril. "gET bACK!" the guild leader suddenly shouts in a far more serious tone, "i tHINK iT'S dANGEROUS!" he shouts as he interposes himself in front of the tendril. The tendril promptly proves him right by shooting out a few beams of whitish light, which cause the actual walls to gain a few cracks to match the ones zigzagging impossibly through the air. "rUN!" the guild leader shouts.

So, we promptly run out the door and back into the lobby, where we find the secretary struggling with a thick, red, chitinous arm protruding from another crack that is directly in front of the door. The arm had managed to grab one of her fluffy ears, and her punches were not affecting it in the least. I promptly rush up and launch an Ember at it, which seems to cause whatever creature is connected to the arm to wince, but it only tightens it's grip. "AHHH! That's not helping!" the secretary screams.

"Well what do you want me to do? There's not much else that can be done!" I shout back. Glide flaps onto the arm and tries to lever the hand off to no avail, while Kakuna peppers it with Poison Sting needles, to no effect. Our efforts seem to be fruitless, while the crack the arm is protruding through gets wider and wider, revealing more chitin plates. I slide up beneath the arm for a closer look, and see that certain sections of the arm and torso are in fact clear sacs of an orange fluid. I poke one, finding it a little softer than the chitin, but likely no less durable. I focus a little, then reach through the thick membrane to feel the oily fluid. Then I chuckle. Let's see how flammable this stuff is, I think, then launch an Ember directly at one of the sacs. That gets more of a reaction, causing the arm to release the secretary's ear and come groping for me, only to pass right through. "Now RUN!" I shout, and we all get out of that room. The secretary leads us out a side door, and we don't find any more cracks big enough for anything to fit a limb through, until we get outside.

Outside, however, we see a horrifying sight, a massive fissure spanning the air of the main road, with glassy jellyfish-like beings, insectile humanoids, and many other bizarre beings rushing through. As we watch, a thudding starts to reverberate through the air. A truly enormous dragon-like monstrosity squeezes itself through the fracture, the entire front of it's body taken up by a gnashing maw, with pincer-like appendages continually darting in and out and snatching up anything in reach. Large chunks of buildings, the other beings pouring out of the hole, even portions of the ground itself, all vanishing into the snapping maw.

We prudently decide to take a side street out of the city, ducking behind rubble to avoid more of the beings that were pouring out of the fissure. We eventually come across a small group of pokemon, standing in the middle of the street. "Thank goodness!" the Lopunny shouts, and rushes out to the small mob. As she approaches, a Cacturne staggers out from the mob. She runs up to it, and is met by a Needle Arm attack. "W-w-why?" she stammers, bleeding from several small punctures. The Cacturne runs towards her, then grabs her and lifts her up. "W-why are you doing this? WHY?" the secretary starts to scream, as the Cacturne pulls back an arm, it starting to glow a light blue. There's a sickening crack as the Focus Punch impacts, and the secretary's head snaps back, then lolls at an unnatural angle. The Cacturne then notices us. I prepare to launch an Ember, but it drops the secretary and closes the gap to smash a darkly glowing arm into me before I can fire it. I fly backwards, and through some rubble. Well, I certainly don't seem to be capable of fighting it, I shake myself and ooze upright. Well, in that case running sounds like a good plan. Lacking any better plans, I start oozing away as fast as I can. Glide follows suit, scooping up Kakuna and rushing behind me. The Cacturne staggers after us, still dead silent.

We manage to make it out of the city, with the Cacturne still following us with it's stumbling gait, and rush back down the path to Pollendust Forest. Even there, cracks still zigzag crazily through the empty air, actually growing denser as we approach the forest. The Cacturne steadily staggers after us, it's longer legs ensuring that it moves just fast enough that we can't really stop to rest. Exhausted, we get to the entrance of the dungeon, only to find that the entire area the dungeon occupied was encompassed by a giant, jagged hole in space itself, showing only impenetrable blackness. Crack radiate out from it like the rays of an evil sun, but nothing seems to be coming out of it. We stop just before the point where space is entirely consumed by the darkness, and the Cacturne keeps lurching after us. Kakuna looks at the Cacturne. "Glide, set me down."

"What?" Glide looks at him,

"You guys are too exhausted to fight or run anymore, don't tell me you aren't." Kakuna looks at us, "I'll hold off the Cacturne, you two try and escape through the hole. It's the only way."

"How are you going to hold off the Cacturne? You can barely move!" Glide seems nearly hysterical. Kakuna looks determined for a second, then starts to softly glow. Two spikes, glowing a bright white, punch through the sides of his shell, and with a wrench, tear the shell apart. A glowing figure stands in the shell's remains, which as the glow fades, resolves itself into a Beedrill. Kakuna (Beedrill now?) looks up at Glide. "I will hold him off". And so, as Beedrill turns to face the Cacturne, we jump into the abyss.

Author's note: Yeah, I lied. AHAHAHHAHAHAHHAAHAHAHHAHHAHAHHAAAA! *Cough cough*, sorry. But yeah, this is not going to be quite like a standard mystery dungeon fic, and things have now officially gone off the rails. See you next time!