A/N: Yay the third chapter, finally! Sorry for any mistakes, this chapter is unbetaed, hoping for MysticDragon to regain his muse. Anyway, here ya go!

Chapter 3: The New Guild Recruits

The Wigglytuff Guild was slightly creepy, Haley thought to herself as Alexa led her up the stairs to the weirdly-shaped tent on the cliffside. The tent was in the shape of a wigglytuff head, the eye pupils open to the tent, revealing two X's inside them from the sticks holding the tent up. It created an image of a dead wigglytuff, which seemed to stare right into her soul. She shivered in spite of the warm evening. The tent had an iron grate as a doorway in the only entrance. Haley stared, wondering why the Guild needed something so… protective. There was also a smaller grate with wooden slats over a hole in the ground directly in front of the entrance grate.

"This is the Wigglytuff's Guild, as I'm sure you can tell by the large, creepy Wigglytuff head," Alexa announced humorously, grinning at Haley.

The human-changed-houndour looked at Alexa and gave a wan smile. "Why the iron grates?" she asked seriously, her eyes dark.

Alexa's smile faltered. She looked down at the ground. "Well, like I mentioned earlier… mystery dungeons are spreading, and pokemon are getting wilder. Pokemon like that Koffing and Zubat are becoming more and more common. The gate is meant to keep out dangerous pokemon. They won't let just anyone in."

Haley looked at the grates with understanding. "I see," she said quietly, falling silent.

Alexa looked at her new friend worriedly, but continued on her previous train of thought. "Anyway… like I said before, this is the Wigglytuff's Guild. To form an exploration team, you need to register your team here. Then the Guild trains you until you're a first-rate exploration team." Alexa took another long look at the creepy tent, with the Wigglytuff eyes staring at them.

"Y-y-yikes! Isn't there something just a little creepy about this place?" she said, shivering. Then she shook herself, seeming to steel her courage. "No… I've got Haley with me this time. No chickening out now!" she stepped forward onto the wooden grate over the hole in the ground.

A pokemon suddenly called out in a loud voice: "Pokemon detected! Pokemon detected!"

Another voice, even louder than the first, answered it, "WHOSE footprint? WHOSE footprint?"

"The footprint is… Riolu's! The footprint is Riolu's!" the first voice responded. Haley scooted back a couple of steps, startled by the sudden outburst.

Alexa shivered. "Y-y-yikes!" She looked like she was about to step back, but she forced herself to stay still, glancing back at Haley for reassurance. Haley, seeing Alexa look at her, nodded encouragingly. She may have been startled too, but Alexa needed to be brave now that she was so close to her goal.

"You may ENTER!" the louder voice announced. "Someone ELSE is WITH you. So get that STRANGER to stand on the GRATE!" the voice, a male, ordered.

Alexa stepped off the grate, relieved. She looked over at Haley. "I… I think they meant you."

Haley rolled her eyes. "Of course they meant me; I'm the only one here besides you." She stepped forward, shaking her head.

"Pokemon detected! Pokemon detected!" the first voice announced, the two going through the same motions they had for Alexa.

"The footprint is… um… the footprint is…" the first voice faltered.

"WELL? WHOSE footprint?" the second voice snapped.

"Ummm… the footprint is… maybe houndour's! Maybe houndour's!"

"MAYBE? You aren't sure?!" the loud voice growled.

"Well… you don't really see houndour around here…" the first voice said grumpily. "I can't tell you for certain. I don't know what I don't know."

The second voice snorted. "Whatever, Sentry Diglett. You two! You don't SEEM to be bad pokemon… GOOD ENOUGH! You may ENTER!" Haley rolled her eyes at the drama as the grate covering the entrance to the tent winched up. Alexa looked at her nervously, and Haley smiled in encouragement.

"Let's go," she said, nodding to the entrance. Alexa took the cue and led the way into the tent. The inside was small, only a bulletin board and a ladder leading down into a hole. Haley and Alexa exchanged glances.

Haley held out a paw, inviting her friend to go first. "You're the one with more coordination -and hands. If I fall, you can catch me!" she grinned, showing all of her teeth. Alexa gave a dry chuckle and rolled her eyes.

"Sure, scaredy-meowth, I'll go first!" she retorted, getting on the ladder and beginning the descent. Haley hesitated, looking into the hole. She had no clue how this was supposed to work. She put a front paw on one of the ladder slats. It held her weight, but she didn't really want to go down face-first. She dithered for a moment longer, before steeling herself for a fall and taking the plunge, letting her feet do what they wanted. To her surprise, she made it to the bottom of the ladder without falling over herself.

She emerged at the bottom of the ladder, Alexa a few feet in front of her, taking in the large room beneath with an expression of awe on her face. Haley paced forward beside her, looking around like her new friend. She was surprised to see how large the room inside the cliff was -though in retrospect, she should have expected it -pokemon were much stronger than humans, and there was no way an entire guild could live in one tent, no matter how large.

A large, rounded rectangular room surrounded them. A second ladder led down another hole to the second underground floor beside the ladder that led above. Pokemon crowded around the room. A large group of pokemon were huddled around a counter, behind which a frantic and frazzled Raichu hurriedly accepted and handed out scraps of paper and parchment, clearly an important figure at the Guild. Haley looked to the right and left, and noticed two large bulletin boards nailed to the walls on either side of them. The boards were sturdy, but scuffed up and both had several gouges on them where a pokemon had apparently slashed at them. Bits of paper were sometimes still attached to pins in the boards, and a lone scrap of paper fluttered back and forth on the left board, stirred up by the commotion around them.

"Wow!" Alexa breathed, awestruck. "Look at all these pokemon! You think they are all exploration teams?!" she asked rhetorically.

Haley answered anyway, "I think some are clients…" she gestured a paw at a bulbasaur handing over a bag to a group of three poochyena. Alexa followed her paw and nodded as she glanced at the scene.

"Yeah, I'll bet you're right," she nodded.

"Excuse me!" a voice called. Haley and Alexa turned their attention to a blue and yellow bird pokemon with a head in the shape of a music note as he fluttered up from the other underground floor. He was looking right at them. "It was you two that just came in, yes?" he asked. His voice was high, and he had a strange lilt to his words, his tone going higher at the end of each word, and he had a slight accent in which he would cut the vowels in his words short.

Alexa nodded in response to his question. "Y-yes, that's right!"

The pokemon cast a sharp look at both of them, seeming to size them up. "I'm Chatot!" he introduced himself. "I'm the pokemon in the know-how around here!" he said self-importantly. "I am Guildmaster Wigglytuff's right-hand pokemon!" he puffed out his chest at these words.

Haley barely refrained from rolling her eyes at that. This… Chatot thought he was special for no good reason, and was probably an arrogant jerk -they always were. She blinked, surprised at her own cynicism. Then she scowled at Chatot's next words.

"Now… shoo! Leave the premises! We have no time for salespokemon or silly surveys. Off you go, if you please!" He said, assuming what they were there for.

Alexa's jaw dropped. Then she gathered herself and spoke, "N-no! That's not why we're here! We want to form an exploration team… That's why we came. We want to be trained as an exploration team!"

Chatot squawked in surprise, eyes widening. "Wh-what?! Exploration team?" Haley did roll her eyes at this. "Yes, exploration team," she growled, irritated. "That's what you do at this guild; train exploration teams? If not, then we've obviously gone to the wrong place!"

Alexa squeaked and cast a look of panic at Haley, but Haley just stared calmly back, sure of herself.

Chatot looked surprised that Haley had dared to speak to him that way. He replied stiffly, "Of course we train exploration teams. What kind of Guild do you take us for? I was merely surprised to see such young pokemon wishing to join us. Our training is very rigorous and difficult. If you don't have what it takes, we'll have no choice but to turn you out!" he looked at Haley sternly.

"Young?" Haley questioned quietly, almost dangerously, her eyes narrowing, right side still turned slightly away from Chatot, hiding her scar. She turned her head, revealing her scar. "I wouldn't say that I'm young, in body or mind. I'm fifteen years old, after all."

Chatot let out a faint screech, hopping backward in horror as he stared at the terrible scar marring the right side of Haley's face. He stayed frozen in horror and shock for several minutes, before shaking himself and looking between the two of them, Alexa standing up straight but looking toward her new friend in concern, and Haley, baring her scar defiantly in his face. He swallowed. These were not normal new recruits, that was certain.

He cleared his throat. "Yes… well," his voice was softer, having lost its scolding, hard edge for the moment. "You… should have told us up front that you wanted to join the Guild, and skipped this altogether. If you'll follow me, I'll bring you to the Guildmaster, who will decide if you can join the Guild and help you form your team if he allows it." Which he will, as he always does, despite my advice, Chatot thought to himself as he turned to lead the way to the second underground floor.

Haley and Alexa exchanged glances, Alexa still concerned for her friend; Haley's eyes like iced-steel. "He changed his mind rather quickly, didn't he?" Alexa commented lightly, trying to bring a smile to her friend's face.

Haley's lips twitched at the corners, knowing her friend wanted a smile from her, but not quite able to manage it. The effect on Chatot upon seeing her scar sent bolts of alternating ice and fire through her veins. How could she ever fit in anywhere when pokemon reacted like that upon seeing her whole face? Even Alexa had reacted in horror when she had first seen it. Haley followed Alexa and Chatot numbly.

"This is the Guild's second underground floor," Chatot announced when they climbed down the second ladder. "This is mainly where the apprentices work when they aren't in the field. Team registration is this way. Come along please." He led the way over to a pair of large wooden doors that held a strange, red, painted sign on it. The sign looked like a thick swirl, which looked strangely familiar. Haley cocked her head to the side, thinking. Then it hit her -it was the same swirl as the tuft on the heads of wigglytuff.

"Now, here we are at Guildmaster Wigglytuff's chamber. On no account… I repeat, on no account should you be discourteous to our Guildmaster." he looked at Haley sternly at these words. She waited until his back was turned and then stuck her tongue out at him, causing Alexa to clasp a hand to her mouth to prevent a giggle from escaping.

"Guildmaster!" Chatot announced through the door. "It's Chatot! I'm coming in!"

He opened the doors and they went inside.

Wigglytuff was sitting with his back to them, rummaging around in a large chest.

"Guildmaster, I present to you two pokemon who wish to become apprentices here at the guild. What say you?"

Wigglytuff didn't seem to hear Chatot, and continued to rummage, mumbling to himself incoherently.

"Guildmaster?" Chatot asked warily. "Um… Guildmaster?!"

He hopped closer to Wigglytuff, about to tap him on the shoulder, when Wigglytuff spun around suddenly, causing Chatot to squawk in surprise.

"Hiya!" Wigglytuff greeted Haley and Alexa. "Welcome to the Guild! So you wanna be apprentices? No problem, no problem! Just tell me your Team's name, and we can get down to registration!"

Haley blinked, surprised by the sudden turn of events. Alexa looked taken aback. "Oh… well… I didn't think of a team name. What do you think, Haley?"

Haley looked at Alexa, thinking. "Um… how about… Elpis? It's the spirit of hope in Greek Mythology."

Alexa looked confused. "Greek Mythology?" she repeated. She shook her head. "You'll have to explain that later. But… the spirit of hope. Elpis… Team Elpis… I like it! Yes, let's have Team Elpis!"

Wigglytuff smiled. "OK, Team Elpis!" He produced a clipboard from somewhere and started writing on it, singing all the while: "Registering~ Registering~ Registering! YOOOM-TAAAAH!" Haley and Alexa jumped at the Hyper Voice Wigglytuff used in his excitement. "Congratulations! You're now an official Exploration Team!" Wigglytuff exclaimed. He turned around and grabbed something, and then set it down in front of them. It was a small, golden treasure box. "In this treasure box is all the items you'll need for exploring!" Wigglytuff announced. "Go on, open it!"

Alexa popped the latch, and swung the lid open. She looked inside and smiled. "Ah, these are good items!" she said, excited, pulling out a bag, a couple ribbons, and a strange piece of paper that had dots and lines that seemed to be moving.

"That's your Treasure Bag! Use it to hold all of your items you find on your adventure! You can earn bigger bags by proving your worth as an Exploration Team! Those Ribbons are special; one is a Cobalt Bow, and the other is a Silver Bow! They have special attributes that can help you in battle! And that," Wigglytuff pointed to the scrap of paper, "is a Wonder Map, which is a wonder of convenience! Inside the box are also twenty Exploration Badges; which act like permanent Escape Orbs, allowing you to teleport from a dungeon whenever you are done! Remember not to lose them!" Wigglytuff looked pleased with himself. Haley looked inside the box to see little badges with wings on them and a small button in the middle, the button coming in all different colors.

"Yay! Thank you so much, Guildmaster Wigglytuff!" Alexa exclaimed happily.

"Yes, thank you," Haley added quickly, not wanting to seem rude.

Wigglytuff beamed at them. "I hope we can become very goodly friendly-friends!" he said. "Work hard and enjoy your training!" Alexa nodded, and placed their items back in the treasure box and picked it up.

Chatot stepped forward. "Come, I'll lead you to your rooms, where you'll be staying during your training with us."

He lead the way into the open space, where Haley now took a better look at their surroundings. To the right of them, she saw a hole in the ground, and a vine leading down into it. Next to the hole, a strange contraption was set up that lead through the ceiling, and had a winch. A Loudred was standing by it, talking to a Diglett.

"It is now Closing time, and the Guild is no longer open for visitors," Chatot said, noticing Haley looking at the two pokemon. "Our gatekeepers' jobs are over for the day."

Haley nodded thoughtfully. She also noticed a strange rock shaped like a Croagunk head, where a Croagunk stood stirring a strange pot with purple liquid in it. Chatot led them over to the left side of the room, where a tunnel led into a hallway, lit by little candles that hung on the walls by brackets. He led them down the hallway, past two doors, to the end of the hall, where a single door lay at the end. He opened the door to a surprisingly large room, with a little tree stump that had some papers spread out, and a small basin with water in it. Three beds were arranged from hay and feathers, and they were ruffled, like they had been recently slept in.

Chatot looked around and sighed, shaking his head. "Those three need to clean this place up," he muttered to himself. He turned to Haley and Alexa. "Here is your room, which you will be sharing with another team that also recently joined the guild. They should be back from their mission soon, and then they can help you make new beds. You may stay up as long as you like, as we don't have a curfew; but remember that we get up at dawn to start our day, no exceptions! Dinner will likely be announced soon; we only serve dinner and breakfast, so you'll have to find your own lunch. We only serve each meal at a specific time, so if you miss it, you'll have to fend for yourselves. I think that's it; remember that we all meet in the main room for the morning briefing at dawn!"

With those words, he turned tail and left the room. Haley and Alexa exchanged glances. "What an odd bird," Haley finally mumbled.

Alexa giggled. "I think that's an understatement," she laughed.

Haley smiled, and took another look around the room. A second tree stump was on the left side of the room, just shy of the door. "Let's put our stuff down over there," she nodded to it.

Alexa looked over. "Good idea," she said. She set it down and opened it again. "Let's organize this stuff, shall we?" She took out the Ribbons and fastened two Exploration Badges to them. "Which color do you want?" she asked, looking between the dark blue and the silver.

"Silver, definitely," Haley replied. Alexa nodded and picked it up.

"Here, let me tie it around your neck like a scarf… or do you want it on your head?"

"Nah, around my neck is good," she responded, and Alexa did so. Then she tied her own ribbon around her neck. She then spread out the Wonder Map on the tree stump, examining it. Haley stepped up next to her, looking at the strange scrap of paper. It depicted the layout of the Guild, with dots and names next to the dots. The dots moved around occasionally.

"Hey, there we are!" Haley noted, pointing at two small dots in an oval, labeled 'Alexa (riolu)' and 'Haley (houndour).'

"This is so cool! It'll be so useful when we explore dungeons. If we get the X-Ray attachment, it will even show us where enemies and items are in the dungeon! And as we explore, it will fill in the walls and rooms we've been in, so we won't get lost!" Alexa exclaimed.

She turned the paper over, and a completely different map was displayed; one that didn't move. Instead, it revealed an entire region. It was topographical, showing mountains and forests and deserts, though only a few regions had any names attached. They were currently near the sea, by a town called 'Treasure Town.' Down by the beach, a red dot was in the place where the cave they had fought the Koffing and Zubat. Under the dot, the words 'Beach Cave' was evident in white.

"Even cooler," Alexa breathed. "It not only shows the interior of dungeons and buildings, but it also shows the entire region and the dungeons that we have explored or towns we have been!"

Haley was impressed. "How is this even possible?" she asked curiously.

Alexa looked over at her, surprised. "You don't know what a Wonder Map is?" she asked curiously. Haley gave her a dry look.

"Nope. I've never heard of a Wonder Map. Or, if I have, I don't remember." she stated sarcastically. Alexa's cheeks reddened slightly.

"Oh… right, I forgot," she said in a small voice. "Well… Wonder Maps are said to have been created by the Time Lord and the Space Lord working together. They say that a tiny spirit resides inside Wonder Maps and they take the knowledge from their surroundings to reflect what they know on the Map."

"Time Lord? Space Lord?" Haley questioned, confused.

"Dialga and Palkia," Alexa returned. "Two of the three Temporal Gods."

"oh," Haley replied quietly, processing the information. "Who's the third Temporal God?"

"…Giratina," Alexa whispered the name, looking around, fear in her eyes. "Don't make me say his name again. It's bad luck. He's known as the Agent of Chaos and the Dark. He's the link between the Chaos World and the Real World. The Chaos World is where pokemon go after they die. They go there to be judged for their actions while living. If they've led a good life, they go to the Hall of Origin to live with Arceus. If they haven't… they stay in the Chaos World, forced to spent the rest of eternity in horrible torment, forced to serve the Lord of the Chaos World."

Haley's eyes widened. She swallowed nervously. That sounded… horrible. She shook herself. "Um… let's talk about something happier, shall we?" she suggested weakly, pushing away the dark thoughts that had begun to stir in the back of her mind.

Alexa nodded, looking relieved. She opened her mouth to say something, but before she could, the door flew open and three pokemon stumbled into the room, laughing raucously.

"Did you see his face?!" one laughed gleefully -a male by the sound of it.

"Oh my Arceus, I'll never forget his surprise; the horror there!" Another laughed; this one a female.

"You two are so horrible," another male chuckled, this one a little deeper and more mature than the other two voices. The pokemon stopped in the middle of the room, letting Haley get a better look at them. One was obviously another riolu like Alexa. The other two pokemon were a meowth and a bagon. They turned and looked at Haley and Alexa in surprise.

"Who are you?" This came from the riolu, looking at Alexa. The riolu was female, evident by her higher pitched voice.

"Um… well… we, uh…" Alexa squeaked out, startled. Haley rolled her eyes and stepped forward.

"My name is Haley, and this is Alexa. We're Team Elpis; new recruits today. Chatot showed us to this room and told us that we would share with the team that normally resided here. I assume you are that team?" Haley said calmly.

The riolu smiled. "Nice to meet'cha, Haley! My name is Hailey, too!" She held out a paw.

Haley blinked, surprised, and then touched one of her paws to the riolu's. "Your name is Hailey too?" she asked.

"Yup! And this here is Max," the riolu jabbed the meowth in the side, "And the grumpy one over there is Starflight." she teased the Bagon, whose expression had previously been blank. At her teasing, though, he scowled playfully and smacked her on the arm.

"I'll show you grumpy," he grumbled.

"Yeah, sure, sure, Grumpy," Hailey the riolu replied. Then she turned back to Alexa and Haley. "We're Team Lucky, and we've only been apprentices for a month. Now, since you two showed up, we're not the newbies anymore!" she grinned.

"Maybe not newbies, but we're still rookies," Max, the meowth, grumbled. "Magnus will never let us forget it."

Hailey grinned. "Yes, and I'll never let that loudred forget when I flipped him flat on his back; so we're even!" she laughed. Her team-mates joined her in laughter.

Alexa and Haley exchanged amused glances. At least they're friendly and seem to be good pokemon, Haley thought.

"S-so… Chatot said that you'd help us make some beds?" Alexa said.

Team Lucky looked up. "Oh sure," Max agreed amicably. "We'll move our beds from the center of the room so you guys have some space!" Hailey and Starflight nodded, and the rearranging of the room began.

With five pokemon working, they quickly got the room in order. The three beds were moved to the far corner, away from the door, and two beds were made for Alexa and Haley by their tree stump, under the only window. They were still arranging the possessions when a bell rang through the Guild, and a magnified but musical voice called out, "Dinner is ready!"

Team Lucky cheered, and ran out of the door, dropping what they were doing immediately. Alexa and Haley exchanged glances again, Haley shaking her head in amusement.

"Let's go get dinner, then," Haley laughed, and they set off down the hallway. They emerged in the larger room to see the pokemon of the guild lining up at the other end of the room, where another hallway lead somewhere; presumably the mess hall. Alexa and Haley followed the guild members into the mess hall, where a large table was set up, and pokemon were already sitting down. They sat at the end of the table, by Team Lucky, who were all joking around and poking fun at each other and the other guild members.

"Well at least everyone has been friendly except for Chatot," Haley said to Alexa. "So there was really nothing to worry about."

Alexa nodded, picking up a berry and munching on it. "That's true. It's like one big, happy family here," she said. But though her words were happy, her tone was dark.

Haley looked at her, surprised. Her friend was usually happy and easy-going. What had her so unhappy? "What's wrong?" she asked quietly.

Alexa shook her head. "It's nothing," she replied, turning her attention to Max, who was chugging a tall glass of milk in one go, urged on by Hailey, a bidoof, and the loudred they had seen earlier -likely the one Hailey had mentioned before. Starflight was looking on in disapproval, shaking his head.

Haley exchanged glances with Starflight. "How do we get into crazy situations like this?" she asked him humorously.

An amused smirk cracked his disapproving mask. "We have to love them, or we'd never put up with their quirks," he replied, nudging her. She grinned, conceding the point.

Max didn't puke, much to Haley's and Starflight's relief, and Hailey's disappointment. Soon dinner was over, and Team Elpis and Team Lucky headed to their room together, laughing and joking.

"So which one of you two is the leader?" Hailey asked when the two groups had reached their room and were settling down for the night.

Haley looked at Alexa, confused. "What do you mean?" she asked Hailey.

Hailey chuckled. "Well one of you has to register as Team Leader; the one who takes the blow when you mess up; and who makes the big decisions for the team. For now, with just two of you, it'll just be a formality, but once your team gets larger and larger, you'll need to have an established chain-of-command." she stated this all with a straight face and calm voice.

Haley blinked. She turned to Alexa for guidance. Alexa just shrugged. "I told Wigglytuff to make you leader; didn't you hear me?"

"No, I didn't," Haley replied, frowning, trying to remember.

"I didn't think you would mind; you're a better leader than me anyway," Alexa mumbled.

Haley rolled her eyes. "It doesn't matter to me anyway -we'll just talk everything through together."

Alexa nodded, before yawning widely. "Let's get some sleep," she suggested. "Remember, Chatot said that we have to get up at dawn; and its way past sunset."

Everyone nodded, and the candles were put out. Alexa and Haley curled up on their beds, right next to each other, and fell asleep.