And here's chapter four. R&R!
P.S.: No author's notes at the end. I...uh, was kinda lazy.
Shit! Xavier's eyes widened as the electricity headed towards him.
In the little time he had left before the Shock Wave struck him, he struggled to break free from Bajula's psychic powers. He squirmed in his spot, tried to break his arms free and even tried to use one of his attacks, but to no avail. He couldn't let his friends get hurt. Not after all that they did for him – take him in, help him when he was in trouble, especially Zachary. It was then that he used all his strength to open his mouth and spew a fiery red flame that intercepted the shock and created a minor explosion.
"Wha—" The Kadabra's eyes stopped glowing blue and the trio was released from the psi net. They landed on the grassy ground with a thud, and a shock went up Xavier's spine as he felt pain for just a second. The dust cleared out and the cannibals were surprised at this.
"What the—"
"Take this, you idiots!" Yvette quickly ran towards Bajula and slammed into his torso, sending him flying back as he shook his head and winced from the pain. He slammed into the ground as a blanket of embers struck him in the face and charred his whiskers.
"Bloody hell, Xavier," Zachary muttered as he pulled the Treecko back to his feet. "You used Dragonbreath!"
"Yeah, but we don't have time to do all this. We've got to help Yvette!" Xavier exclaimed, and the Croagunk nodded.
"Damn you maggots! I'm going to eat you alive if it's the last thing I'll do!" Bajula yelled as he got back up to his feet.
What happened next was a mini-war. Bajula blasted a wave of psychic energy that struck Yvette and sent her flying, but Zachary thankfully caught her before she slammed into a tree. The Croagunk carefully avoided every blast of psychic energy that headed towards him.
"Eat this! Confusion!" The Kirlia let out a lose blast of psychic energy that almost struck Zachary. He jumped up, his fingers glowing purple, and he then stabbed the Kirlia repeatedly with his fingers until she crumpled and slumped down in defeat. The Croagunk gave a triumphant smirk before a powerful wave of psychic energy hit him, sending Zachary crashing down to the ground.
"I'll kill you!" Bajula shouted in anger. "You made use having our meal harder! I'll crush you!"
"I won't let you!" Xavier opened his mouth again to breathe a fiery red flame that soared towards Bajula. The Kadabra simply smirked and at the last second his silver spoon, which was tipped with blood, bent and the flame curved above him. The Treecko took a step back in shock.
Drat! Xavier cursed in his mind. How can we defeat a target who can manipulate our attacks?!
"Bajula you bastard…!" Xavier and Bajula turned back to see the three Sentret glaring at the latter, and they all stood on their tails. "You used us as bait to kill and eat innocent and helpless pokémon! You're dead!"
"Oh yeah?" Bajula simply smirked. "And what's going to—"
His words were cut off by Xavier crashing into his body. A Quick Attack was so fast that the pokémon could see where you were, and it helped in this situation to catch the ruthless Kadabra off-guard. Bajula's eyes widened as Xavier once again slammed into his torso, and then breathed fiery flames at him that scorched his yellow fur.
"Raaagh!" Bajula turned around to see the Sentret tackling him, sending him face first into the ground. He groaned in pain as another tackle struck him in the chest and his ribcage started to pain.
"H-Hey!" Xavier turned, leaving an angry Bajula duel three Sentret. He saw Yvette struggling against Samson the Snover, even though she clearly had a dual advantage. "I need help here!"
"I'm coming, Yvette!" Without thinking, he ran towards the Snover and slammed into his body. The sheet of ice that he fired was misguided and froze leaves above him. The leaves now grew heavy and broke away from the branch, coming crashing down upon Xavier and Samson. Xavier groaned in pain as Samson fired a punch that froze part of his face. It was clear that the Snover hardly dealt any damage from the frozen leaves.
He was about to spew another sheet of ice, but small flames struck against his body and singed the grass on his arms and even melted minute portions of the ice on his body.
"What the hell!" Samson threw his arms in the air of anger, giving Xavier the time to strike him with a Dragonbreath. He fell on his side to experience another Dragonbreath and he was knocked out after another Ember.
"Uh…" Xavier and Yvette hi-fived each other and walked towards a fallen Bajula.
"Wha…?" Bajula then turned to see three Sentret, a Torchic and a Treecko glaring at him, ready to attack. "Oh, fu…"
"I can't believe it! Cannibals in Razzmatazz Forest!"
They were now in the guild after a tiring walk from Razzmatazz Forest. Bajula, Samson and Elsa were thankfully unconscious, and they weren't going to gain consciousness anytime soon. The three Sentret and Zachary were keeping an eye on them, while Yvette and Xavier were talking about their first victory.
When Guildmaster Zairian came to know about the cannibalism and that pokémon had lost their lives, she was furious. Chief inspector Electro, a Magnezone, had arrived on the scene and had taken immediate action.
"Thank you for capturing these brutes and saving these missing pokémon!" Electro thanked. It nodded in gratitude.
Behind them, the three pokémon were kept in the clutches of three Magneton while a Klefki hovered above them, threatening to attack if they did anything sneaky.
"You're welcome, Inspector!" Yvette replied.
"My, my." Zairian seemed impressed. "Not only did you rescue these pokémon, but you also captured some pokémon! Excellent work, fellas!"
"Aww, what else can be expected from us?" Yvette replied arrogantly.
She's already gotten it to her head, Xavier thought.
"Either way, you've earnt your position at the Zairian Guild!" the Azumarill excitedly exclaimed.
"YES!" the trio collectively exclaimed out of excitement.
"So, before I hand out your badges," Zairian said, much to their disappointment, "you will have to do some paperwork, but before you do that or Electro hands out your reward, have you three decided on your team name?"
"Um…" The three looked at the ground nervously.
"You haven't decided your team name?" Zairian blinked.
It was then that Xavier's mind clicked. "Hey! What about Team XYZ?"
"Huh?"
"Well, it contains our initials! It stands for Xavier, Yvette and Zachary!"
Zachary's face broke out into a smile. "Hey, that's a good name! It has a nice ring to it!"
"Yeah!" Yvette nodded. "I like it too!"
"Then it's settled. Team XYZ it is!" Zairian nodded and put her blackglasses on to look cooler. "We'll make it official in a few moments. Now, Electro – you may present them with their reward!"
"Well, since it is unofficial, you will get a smaller award that usual, but added to the award for finding the Sentret you will get a bigger one!" The Magnezone chuckled robotically. "Lock, get the reward, please!"
The Klefki came to them with a brown pouch. She threw it in the air, and Zachary promptly caught it in his hands. He looked into it and saw it held three hundred and fifty P, who took it with gratitude.
"Wait…that's it? We caught three cannibals and saved three pokémon, but that's all we get?" Xavier blinked.
"Well, of course." Zairian looked at him with confusion. "Since you'll be working for the guild, we get ninety percent of your reward to keep the guild running!"
What the bloody hell?! Xavier blinked.
"Well, I guess we'll be off then!" Electro said. "Goodbye and we look forward to further assistance from you three!"
The Magnezone and its three pre-evolved forms left, carrying the three prisoners with them, with Lock, the Klefki, following behind.
Just as they were about to leave, they were stopped by the rescued Sentret, and the eldest one, Chaz, spoke up.
"Um…We would like to thank you for saving our lives…" He handed a strange bottle to the trio, which Xavier took.
He examined it closely. It had a nice curvature, and the bottle was sealed with a metal stopper. Inside it was a gas that changed color every now and then, and it gave a mysterious feeling.
"It's not much, but…We thought you guys may like it," Otachi said this time. "See ya!"
As the group of Sentret left, Xavier kept on holding onto the bottle until Zachary took him out of his trance.
"Hey, is everything alright?" the Croagunk asked. Xavier replied with a nod and the Guildmaster then spoke up.
"Then I suppose it'd be best if we made everything official!" She winked. "Then I can introduce you to the rest of the guild during supper! You probably haven't seen that many other guild members anyway, since most were probably out doing missions around the same time as you guys, so let's go. Off to fill out paperwork and then to fill our stomachs with food!"
"Yeah!" the four collectively said.
After all the necessary paperwork was completed, the trio sat at the right end of the main table beside Zairian, their food presented by the guild's head chef, an apron-wearing Chansey by the name of Polo.
Xavier was slightly shocked at the number of Pokémon who were in attendance at the tables, although he found it difficult to tell who were explorers and who were just simple employees of the guild.
"Okay, LISTEN UP!" Vicky the Hawlucha roared, silencing the chattering guild-members. With their attention attained, he smiled, gesturing to his superior, "Guildmaster Zairian has an announcement, so stay quiet and pay attention!"
"Thank you, Vicky," a smile graced the Azumarill's face as she got up. "We have good news, my guild members!" She gestured at the trio sitting to her right. "From today onward we will be joined by a new exploration team: Team XYZ! Go on, introduce yourselves!"
"Yep!" Yvette got up and proudly looked at everyone. "I'm Yvette, an awesome person to be with who is gonna kick butt and be a star!"
Next up was Zachary. "My name's Zachary, but people call me Zac. And I'm here to keep her in line." Most of the members chuckled at this.
"And I'm Xavier," the Treecko timidly said. "And…I'm y'know…" He sat down after that.
"Well, they've introduced themselves, haven't they?" Zairian smiled. "So now it's your turn!"
And so the introductions came. Amongst the teams, they saw a Rufflet and a Bidoof, a Growlithe and a Bulbasaur, an Exploud and a Flaaffy and many, many more.
Their dinner consisted of mainly apples, but also a variety of berry dishes. For starter, they had roasted Oran berries, which were delectable, and another dish that Xavier couldn't name but was tasty and to his liking. For desert they were going to have different berries that were crushed together and mixed into custard.
"So the newbies finally found their place, eh?" The newly formed exploration team turned to find a group that they'd actually head of – Team Claws.
Team Claws was a Silver Rank exploration team that was famous for mainly the numerous outlaws they had caught. Their leader, a Weavile with the name of Rachel, was ferocious and had countless, faint scars on her body. She had a sly glint in her eyes and she constantly used to look at the sharpness of her claws.
Her teammates, a Drilbur and a Sandslash, were just as fierce as her but the latter would first go to talk rather than fight. Rumour had it that the Drilbur was Rachel's half-sister, explaining their similar behaviour.
"Oh, don't mind her," the Guildmaster assured. "Rachel is quite known for her incompetence and creating arguments."
They laughed for a bit and continued to dig in their food, filling their stomachs to the brim and destroying their hunger.