Gaining ground

“Are you sure about this?”

Mark couldn’t believe he got convinced to do this, but no going back now.

“C’mon, if you work here now, it’s only obvious you should start meeting people!” Rose said that with a lot of excitement… Too much excitement, if you asked Mark.

Earlier, Simon proposed the idea of going back to the guild so Mark could meet some of the other teams, as well as the staff. He said that it was also an excuse so that he and Rose could see some old friends again, but if that was the case, why pull Mark into it?

Granted, Mark already saw the guild yesterday, but only the entrance. Simon talked a lot about all the things the place had, but it’s one thing to listen about it and another to actually see it for yourself.

“Okay, fine… You win…”

“You know, I don’t think I ever told you that the guild has a name.”

“Uh… no, you haven’t.”

“Well in that case… Welcome -again- to the Supernova Guild!” Simon made a show of presenting the place again as they entered.

The guild was as enormous as last time. It was one of those places that looked a lot smaller from the outside. Mark’s guess is that it needed to accommodate all the sizes Pokémon came in. Specifically, an incredibly tall rock snake thing he was seeing that towered amongst literally everyone else.

Right at the entrance, the same Breloom as last time (he had to ask Rose for the name) was on his desk, simply looking around. He waved at them, and though the siblings waved back almost instantly, it took Mark a little moment to gain the confidence.

The Breloom seemed… sleepy. Which was honestly fair considering the time it was. “Why did we have to get here so early in the morning? We aren’t in any rush, are we?”

“No, but the teams usually leave later in the day, so it’s the perfect time to check on ‘em!”

“Simon’s right, you know? Don’t be a crybaby about it.” Rose teased. “Now, c’mon, let’s take a tour. I’m sure we’ll see some of our friends on the way.”

Well, it’s not like Mark could deny.

The firsr floor was where most of the activity was centered. There was a decently wide square column right on the center, with billboards and notices hanging from it.

“So that’s where we get our missions. You simply take one, make sure you relay it to the Breloom, and off you go!” Simon signaled to the rest of the huge floor. There were a lot of tables and cushions for teams to gather, even some blackboards with chalk so they could plan ahead and strategize. “Rose and I used to stay here for a while when we were training, we had to go through everything like three times so we didn’t forget what to do.”

“You mean, so you didn’t forget. I never had an issue there.”

“Yeah, yeah, say that to the Vileplume incident.”

“HEY! You swore you wouldn’t bring that up again!” Rose tackled Simon, but he only laughed louder. With an annoyed huff, she turned back to Mark. “Let’s see if Verm is around, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen him.”

Simon was still recovering from the laughter. “Oh, Rose, you should’ve seen your face there… Anyways, Verm, right?”

Simon turned around, but a figure suddenly emerged from his shadow, making him jump back, terrified. The yelp that came out of his mouth was… loud.

“HAH! That’s what Karma gets you!” Rose yelled while high-fiving the figure, revealing itself to be a Pokémon, a floating purple body with a smile that was almost wider than its body.

“You deserve that, my man.” The new Pokémon says. “How are you two doing? I see a new face here.”

“Right. Verm, this is Mark. Mark, Verm. He’s a Gengar, by the way.”

“What, does the newbie not know other species?”

“It’s a long story, but amnesia.” Mark silently thanked Rose for taking the reins of the conversation. “But yeah, everything has been going well! Where are the others?”

Mark was busy helping Simon up but he was listening. He guessed she was referring to the other members of the Gengar’s team, since the ghost was wearing a piece of cloth too.

“Eh, they went on a mission without me. Something about not overworking and needing to take a break. I mean, I like doing jobs with them, but I won’t say no to the free day.”

“Oh, wanna join us then? We’re giving Mark a tour of the place.”

“Yeah, sure! I have nothing else to do, so might as well.” He floated around Simon. “And besides, I gotta learn about all the dumb stunts you have probably pulled.”

“Oh, you have no idea…”

So Verm followed them around as they went upstairs. Nice guy, but very talkative. Apparently, his team used to be one of the worst-performing during training until Simon and Rose decided to do it together with them.

“Wait, Siobhan evolved?!” Simon was in shock. “But they were explicitly against wanting to do that! What changed?”

“I dunno, man. They didn’t even tell us about it, they just went out and when they came back, we had a Vikavolt under our roof holding a stone.”

“Damn… And we missed it? Ugh…”

The second floor was already a lot emptier, but there was still some activity. It had multiple sections compared to the one single huge room the first floor had.

“So, this way is the café. That might be the name but it’s more of a restaurant, really. It’s where the guild members come to eat, and it’s all free, so we come around from time to time.”

“Also, the food is top notch. Verm can testify.”

“I sure can!”

“Why wouldn’t you come here every time if it’s free and good?” That’s what Mark would do, at least.

“Eh, sometimes you want to eat at a quiet place without all the ruckus that forms up here. You saw the lobby, it’s normally even louder in here.”

“Oh, god…”

The room was quiet, there were only three Pokémon eating right now which Rose pointed out were a Sandslash, a Quilava and a Rhydon. Apparently it had been a good idea to get here so early.

Mark, however, was interested in the cooks. It didn’t sound easy to feed all of those mouths. He approached the small window only to see a big yellow Pokémon holding spoons completely immobile in the center while everything else in the kitchen moved on its own.

“Wow…”

The Pokémon slightly opened an eye, and all the items were carefully placed on the tables. It then approached Mark, who just stood there nervously.

Rose got closer to him. “Ah yeah, she’s Lily, the chef. Don’t expect a response, though, she’s mute.”

Lily smiled and moved her claws to speak in sign language. Sadly, Mark had no idea how to interpret that.

“Oh, uh… sorry to disturb, I just… I’m new here and I was surprised…” Lily made a dismissive motion and gave a thumbs up, followed by the same signs as before.

“She’s asking you if you want anything.” Rose, as always, saving Mark the trouble.

“O-oh! N-no, I’m fine. But thanks!”

Lily made the noise of a snort and closed her eyes again, with the tools moving on their own soon after.

“Man, this place is wild.”

“If you say so…” Rose teased. 

Next up was the medical area. The place where guild members went if they got hurt during missions and berries weren’t enough to fix it.

“A bit of a bad decision to put this section upstairs, right?”

“You’d think so, but the nurses are all Psychic-types, so they can just float you upstairs without an issue.”

Right after saying that, Simon pointed at the yellow Pokémon on the desk. “That’s Charlie, a Drowzee. He’s the one that runs this section. Currently on break cause, you know, nobody injured.”

The Drowzee was the perfect stereotype of an overworked employee. Reading something similar to newspapers and drinking a cup of something warm, all while trying not to fall asleep right there and then.

“Is it normally too busy?”

“It depends on the day, but yeah, it can get really active.” Verm floated in front of Mark as he spoke. “I’ve had to volunteer multiple times to help Charlie. I keep telling Gren that they should hire someone else but they won’t do it.”

To be fair, the medical area looked a lot smaller than the other sections of this floor. Speaking of…

“And this is the training hall. Not much else to explain, just that Samurott over there who keeps watch in case something goes awry.”

This hall alone took probably half of the whole floor, it was big. There were some Pokémon around, either attacking dummies or sparring between them. Mark felt weird, it was all so natural for everyone and yet he couldn’t even defend himself.

“In fact, hey newbie, why don’t we fight? I wanna see you in action.”

Mark was trembling, this was the last thing he needed right now. Luckily, Simon jumped in.

“Hey, give him a break, he only knows Normal-type moves, and…” He signaled Verm around. “You know. Ghost.”

“Fine…” Verm groaned. “What about you two?”

“Another day, Verm.” The way Rose answered made the vibe go down a bit. Was there any reason they didn’t want to fight him?

Eventually, the four of them got up to the third and last floor, which was just the dorms.

“This is where the students live. You can technically keep staying here when you graduate, but that means having reduced pay to cover the costs. I think that’s what Verm is doing, right?”

“It may be less pay, but buying a place is so darn expensive, might as well stay here.”

“Can’t argue with that.” Mark said that without really thinking. All this time he’d been quiet when Verm spoke, not wanting to interfere between him and the siblings. And Verm noticed, since he hesitated a bit after hearing him talk.

“See? I told you it was a good idea. You guys should learn a bit from the newbie.” He winked at Mark, making Rose chuckle. Mark, however, was embarrassed as hell.

So, they made their way back to the lobby. They didn’t take that much time, but it was enough for most of the teams there to leave for their jobs. There were still some laying around, but it was a lot emptier than before.

“So? It was fun, right?” Simon seemed happy to show off this place, he was proud of forming part of it. “The Supernova Guild might not be the best of the best, but it’s a great organization and-”

He got cut off by a vine tripping him and making him fall to the floor.

Simon was angry for a split second until he heard the rest of them laughing. He looked at who did it, and his smile returned.

“Guys… It’s the second time today I’ve fallen down, you guys want to kill me or what?”

“Heh, sorry Simon, it was too great of a chance to pass out.” The new Pokémon showed up, a quadruped green dinosaur with a flower on top of it, accompanied by an orange weasel.

“Hey, Sanah, and hey Alphonse.” Rose said, completely ignoring Simon’s attempt to use her as a support to get up. “How’s life going?”

The weasel shrugged. “Same old, same old. Nothing new. We got Dave to accompany us for a mission, but he’s having second thoughts.” He pointed to a corner where a blue penguin was sitting against the wall, hugging its (almost nonexistent) knees.

“Still nothing, huh?” Simon seemed sad now, Mark was curious about all of this.

In fact, Mark tuned out the conversation and focused on the aforementioned Dave. He approached him, sitting next to him.

Dave looked at the Cubone wearily. “What do you want?”

Mark stopped a bit after hearing the hostility in his words. “Oh, I… I’m new here, just… wanted to say hi.” Dave huffed, he was not happy to have company and it showed. “I met your teammates now and-”

“They’re not my teammates.”

He stayed silent for a moment, processing things. It’s true that Dave’s cloth piece was a different color, but now Mark was left wondering.

“Where’s your team, then?”

Dave didn’t respond, just tightening the hold he had on himself. Mark felt bad now, he was getting into things he shouldn’t.

“S-sorry, sensitive topic. I-I should go.”

“N-no, no, it’s… it’s fine. Alphonse keeps saying that I should open up so…” Dave took a deep breath, preparing himself. “My teammate is… gone. No idea where he is but it has been months and we have found nothing of him.”

Oh. That explained a lot. He was now sitting awkwardly. Dave was embracing the silence while Mark couldn’t stand it.

“Were you two… close?”

“Very… At this point, I have accepted that he’s not coming back, I just…” Dave shuffled in place. “I just want to talk to him one last time…”

“Why don’t you?”

The stare Dave gave him seemed like it could kill. “N-no, no, I mean… Why don’t you write to him?”

“Write to him?”

“Yeah, that way you put your thoughts into words, and talk to him like he was there.” Mark was explaining this with a feeling that he might have done that exact thing previously. “You may not get a response, but… it’s better than nothing.”

Dave kept staring at the ground before standing up. “I should check with my friends.”

Right, he messed up. He shouldn’t have said anything, he’s only screwing things up and-

His train of thought was interrupted by Dave putting a flipper on his shoulder. “I’ll try that. Thanks.” He could see a slight but sincere smile on Dave, and that was enough to make the anxiety disappear.

So now he was sitting alone. Or so he thought.

From the shadows, a pair of eyes appeared, making Verm come out of the ground. Mark got startled, but relaxed once he saw who it was.

“Didn’t expect you to be the ‘sentimental talk’ kind of guy.”

“I just wanted to help.”

“And you did, I’m just surprised.” Verm leaned on the wall, not floating for once. “It looked like you were talking from experience, didn’t you have amnesia?”

“And I do, but I remember having felt the same thing Dave was feeling. That feeling of hopelessness, of not caring about anything that happens…” He sighed. “Feeling… lost.”

Verm punched him lightly on the shoulder. “Now, don’t go all depressing on me, you did good.”

Mark smirked, but was suddenly buffeted on the face by a very strong icy wind. Verm suffered the same, it seems.

When he looked, right in the center of the room, there were five Pokémon standing in a battle position. The wind had launched all the others into the walls of the guild.

The leader, a white big monster with some parts of its fur colored a dark green. It spoke loud and clear, wanting to scare.

“We’re looking for Simon! Give him to us and we’ll be on our way. Else, prepare to get hurt.”