Ch 1 – Green Grass and High Tides

---

It was a beautiful day outside in Nova Town. The sun was shining down, as dozens of Pokémon went about their day. The market center was particularly busy, as the local guild’s trainees were just released from their morning briefing and gearing up for whatever dungeons they were exploring today.

Not too far away from the town, a lone Treecko was laying face down in a pile of dirt, grass, and leaves. Unlike the Treecko, a group of feral Mandibuzz were out enjoying the pleasant day to the fullest, and just happened to be circling around the spot where Treecko was lying unconscious.

“Ughh… what the hell happened last night…”

Seeing that the Treecko was not yet dead, the Mandibuzz flew away, leaving him alone in the forest.

The Treecko started moving slightly, managing to flip himself onto his back.

“Huh… a forest?… ugh…”

He brought up a hand to his forehead, nursing his headache.

“How did I even get here…”

His headache receded for just long enough to follow that train of thought to a realization.

“Who… who am I?”

The shock of realizing he had no idea who he was was able to shake off any lingering drowsiness. Unfortunately, it also compelled him to try to sit up, which failed spectacularly as he rolled forward, and ended up on his back again.

“Fuck…”

He paused, rethinking his approach. His arms felt weirdly weak, but his legs seemed functional-ish, so rolled over to his side and pulled his legs in. Putting as little force as possible on his abnormally useless arms, he managed to get onto his knees.

He may have even managed to stand up all the way if he hadn’t made his next big realization.

“Why the hell am I green?”

Once again, the shock sent him off-balance. At this point, he was fully awake, which was helpful in the process of trying to figure out how to deal with the fact his body now resembled a gecko.

He once again tried to rise to his feet, finally succeeding. The giant tail behind him was still annoying though; he could feel it run into every stick he walked past, but still had no idea how to lift it off the ground.

He slowly made his way through the forest, pausing to lean against most trees he came across and clear out debris from his tail.

The journey was not particularly enjoyable. He had no idea where he was, the forest only got thicker the deeper he progressed, and he still had no idea how to move his tail around.

Eventually, he stumbled his way into a large clearing just as the foliage became too dense to navigate. He sat down on the dirt floor, and rested for a moment.

The moment didn’t last long. A Caterpie entered the clearing, and was crawling straight towards the Treecko.

Being approached by a bug around the same height as himself would normally intimidate the former human, however Caterpie wasn’t exactly the fastest Pokémon around. While its intent was clear, the Treecko figured he could wait a bit longer before actually dealing with the problem.

“Alright…” He rose to his feet, staring down the steadily-approaching Caterpie. “So, uh, any reason you look like you want to kill me?”

The Caterpie’s eyes remained vacant.

“Okay, yea I kinda figured that. Uh… hmm…” He started pacing back and forth, considering his options. “It doesn’t look that strong, maybe I could just… stomp it? But it might be stronger than it looks… Hey, if I have to kill you, should I like, stomp on you or…?”

It ignored the Treecko’s words, continuing its advance.

“Right…hmm…”

At last, the Caterpie finished its pilgrimage across the clearing, making an attempt to tackle the Treecko. Unfortunately for Caterpie, this also wasn’t particularly fast, and Treecko just kinda stepped to the side.

“Okay, that was rude.” He backed away a couple steps, then ran forward and kicked it.

It definitely did something, as the Caterpie fell onto its side. It proceeded to curl back up, and kept crawling towards Treecko.

The Treecko didn’t bother with a wind up this time, and proceeded to kick the Caterpie again. If it weren’t for its vacant stare and unyielding desire to tear him limb from limb, he’d feel bad about this.

After a number of lazily coordinated and mildly cathartic kicks, the Caterpie was knocked out.

The Treecko walked around its body, and examined the clearing. There was a small passageway where the Caterpie first came out of. Out of curiosity (and to escape the wind that seemed to be picking up) he descended the corridor.

He paused, as another bug approached him from across the hallway. This one looked slightly more intimidating, its body colored tan and a spike sticking out of its head. It had the same emptiness in the eyes as his last opponent though. Treecko was in the middle of wondering if he could apply the same strategy when a poison dart narrowly missed his head.

“Come on, that could have hurt me, you know.”

He closed the distance quickly, rushing down the Weedle before it had the opportunity to shoot another dart. He delivered another kick, taking care to ensure his foot didn’t touch its horn.

The kick launched it into the corridor’s wall, leaving it open for a follow up. Treecko didn’t pass up the opportunity, and followed up with a jab using his irritatingly-stubby arms.

The punch itself hit a lot harder than he expected. While the various kicks mostly just knocked the oversized bugs around, this attack felt like there was something behind it. He had no idea what that something was, but he was fairly confident it existed.

Before he could get in another follow-up, the Weedle recovered and launched another Poison Sting. This time around, it did find its target, embedding the needle into Treecko’s left shoulder.

“Fuck…”

He jumped for the Weedle, delivering one more punch which managed to fully knock it out.

Once that was no longer a threat, he examined where he was hit. The stinger seemed to have vanished at some point during the fight and the wound wasn’t hurting any more, which he thinks is a good sign.

“What the hell did I get myself into…”

Another strong gust of wind struck him, convincing him that it was probably not a bad idea for him to continue down the corridor.

Waiting for him was another clearing like the one he managed to wander into earlier. This one did have a noticeable difference though, in the form of a staircase leading up over the wall of foliage.

With nowhere else to go and really wanting to get out of the wind, he ascended. The staircase led him up to another clearing and he began to notice a pattern.

Thankfully, the wind died down as he climbed the stairs, which meant he could be a bit more methodical about figuring out what the hell this place was. The room he found himself in now had a couple passageways out, so Treecko decided to go in what he was hoping is north.

The corridor was long, giving him plenty of heads up that there was another caterpillar thing inching its way towards him. He decided to try the new “punch but better” thing he learned against the slightly more familiar foe, and managed to knock it out in a single hit.

He continued down the corridor, which made a 90º turn, then another 90º turn, then…

The Treecko ended up back at the same place he started from.

“Yay…”

He resigned himself to traveling the only direction he didn’t either go in or come from. The next room contained another staircase, alongside a vibrant yellow rock-thing.

Mostly out of curiosity, the Treecko picked it up. To him it felt slightly heavier than a baseball, but he had no clue if that was its actual weight or just a byproduct of his new body. Before he could study it much longer, a shout rang out from the next floor.

Running up the stairs, he found three Pokémon, none of whom had the emptiness in the eyes he’s almost gotten used to.

There was a Shinx and a Chimchar standing next to each other, staring down a Nuzleaf who was looking pretty smug. Neither seemed to have noticed the Treecko yet.

“Hmph, I stole all that Poké and they only send a couple kids after me?”

“We’re… We’re not afraid of you!” The Shinx declared, very much afraid of him.

“We’re stronger than we look!” The Chimchar shouted.

“That’s not exactly a high bar.” The Nuzleaf crouched down, entering into a battle stance.

Treecko looked on as the fight began to unfold. Everyone involved seemed leagues stronger than the bugs he’s been beating up so far.

Despite being outnumbered, the Nuzleaf was easily holding his own. Shinx kept trying to tackle the outlaw, hoping to force him into a spot where Chimchar could land a clean hit with Ember. For his part, Nuzleaf was evading every attack without any real effort. While the team did have the initiative, they were losing steam— tiring themselves out while Nuzleaf hadn’t taken a single hit.

Treecko mostly just stood at the stairwell, trying to process what was happening. It didn’t take a genius to tell that his punches wouldn’t have done much against any party involved here.

Instead, he tightened his grip on the rock-plant thing, thinking of what to do. It was obvious Nuzleaf was an outlaw, and presumably the two Pokémon were here to arrest him. The two Pokémon also looked like they were brand new to this, and could probably use some help.

Coincidentally, so did the Treecko.

He waited until the Nuzleaf slowed down enough for him to aim. This chance came when he managed to nail both his assailants with a Razor Leaf, knocking them down and pinning them in a corner of the room.

“They always do this, sending some random kids against me… Your guildmaster’s probably more of a criminal than I am.”

With a deep breath, Treecko wound back his arm. Nuzleaf had his back to him, though the two smaller Pokémon finally realized there was someone else here. Hopefully clocking Nuzleaf in the head would at least give them a slight advantage.

With all the force his small body could muster, he threw the seed.

Nuzleaf didn’t have a chance to react before it made contact, shattering into pieces. At first, Treecko was worried it didn’t actually do anything, before noticing that the Nuzleaf was shaking, glued to the spot he was standing.

The two Pokémon took the opportunity to shake off their injuries and remove themselves from the corner.

“You’re not feral?” The Chimchar asked Treecko, trying to figure out what just happened.

“Uh, not as far as I know. You three are the first people I’ve met who can talk…”

“That’s good for us then… The not-feral thing, not the never spoken to anyone else before thing. Do you think you can help us with putting down this guy? The stun seed you threw at him won’t last forever, and once one of us hits him it’ll wear off immediately.”

“I mean, I’d be happy to, but you guys have been hitting him with stuff way stronger than anything I could do.”

“Ah, I doubt that. We started not too long ago, what moves do you know?”

“Uh… moves?”

“You know, like, Tackle, Growl, Tail Whip, any of those?”

“Not really sure what you’re talking about here.”

“Hmm… Shinx, can you scan him?”

“Do… do we have the time for that?” she asked, quietly, gesturing towards the still-petrified Nuzleaf.

“Probably, as long as no ferals wander in.”

“Okay…”

The Shinx took out a badge from her bag, and pressed the crystal in the center with her paw. A holographic display shot out of it, which she navigated to a page containing 3 names accompanied by heart icons of varying sizes.

“Uh, Treecko is level 5 and knows Pound and Leer.”

Chimchar turned to Treecko. “Any of those moves ring a bell?”

“Not really- I’m kinda confused about everything here, to be honest.”

While the team was talking to Treecko, yet another lone Caterpie inched its way into the room. It examined the situation: there appeared to be three fully conscious and somewhat strong Pokémon in the middle arguing about something, and one Pokémon off to the corner that was completely paralyzed.

The Caterpie’s homicidal tendencies settled on a target. It slowly crawled up to the Nuzleaf and got into position for a headbutt.

“Come on, every Pokémon knows how to use Tackle, Pound, or Scratch!”

“I can’t even move my tail!”

“How do you not know how-“

“GUYS!”

Shinx’s yell interrupted the discussion, as Nuzleaf lunged towards the Treecko.

Acting purely on instinct, he jumped and spun in the air, nailing Nuzleaf with his tail in a perfectly-executed Pound. Not wasting any time, Chimchar followed up with an Ember, finally knocking out the outlaw.

“See? I knew you could at least use Pound.”

“I have no idea how I just did that.” He looked back at his tail, which was no longer completely limp.

“Before you two keep going, can we bring him back to town?” Shinx interrupted.

“There’s a town around here?” The Treecko asked.

“Yea, Nova Town. It’s around 10 minutes away from the dungeon entrance. Did you not see it on your way here?”

“Not really, I was lost in a forest and I found one of these clearings.”

The Chimchar seemed to consider something. “Let’s talk more later. You wanna come back with us?”

“That’d be helpful.”

Both Pokémon took out badges. Shinx pointed her’s at the unconscious Nuzleaf, while Chimchar’s was pointed at Treecko. A light shined out from the badges, enveloping the two grass types.

When Treecko could see again, he was on a dirt road in the same forest he woke up in, with the outlaw on the ground next to him.

“…what.”

The Chimchar and Shinx showed up soon after. Chimchar bound the Nuzleaf’s arms with rope in case he woke up, and the group walked down the road.

“So you’ve never been to Nova Town before?” Chimchar asked.

“I don’t think so? I don’t really remember anything that happened before I woke up an hour ago.”

“Maybe he’s one of those ex-feral Pokémon?” Shinx suggested.

“Yea, that would make sense, especially since we found him in Overgrowth Woods…”

“Sorry, what are you talking about?”

“You ran into a couple ferals in the dungeon, right? Vacant stare, tries to kill anything that moves?”

“Yea, dealt with a couple of those.”

“Sometimes feral Pokémon can sorta just, snap out of it, and they become a normal Pokémon like you or me. It’s not super common, but I know there’s a couple of those types in town.”

“If you used to be a feral, it would also explain why you can’t remember anything,” Shinx added. “Ferals’ memories aren’t the best.”

Chimchar pondered something. “Sorry if this is a bit personal, do you know if you have a name?”

Treecko paused. Unlike anything else he tried to consider about his past, there was something about a name sticking out in his mind.

“…Blizz.”

It wasn’t quite right though. It felt familiar, and he knows he’d been called that in the past, but he could tell it wasn’t his real name.

Still, a nickname is a good start.

“Hmm, if you remember your name then you’re probably not an ex-feral,” Chimchar noted.

While the information was helpful, it meant Blizz was no closer to figuring out who he was than when he started.

The group eventually made it to the outskirts of Nova Town, marking the first time Blizz saw the city.

The city streets looked to be mildly more well-built than the dirt road the group came in on. This far out, the only buildings were the homes of various Pokémon, with structural integrities ranging from “throwing up a tent and calling it a day” to a full brick and mortar building.

As they approached the town center, the roads and buildings became more refined. They passed a couple niche shops, some restaurants, and an inn, before ending in front of a menacing stone building.

“This is the police station,” Chimchar explained. “This is where we drop off outlaws.”

They entered the main room, seeing a Magnemite behind a desk.

“Team Spark, welcome back. I assume you found the thief?”

“Yep, right here,” Chimchar answered, gesturing to the unconscious Nuzleaf.

“Excellent.” A group of Magnemite entered, and took Nuzleaf away. “Let’s see… he was a C Rank, so your reward is 3000 Poké. I’ll forward the tax to your guildmaster-“

“Wait, we wouldn’t have been able to do it on our own,” Chimchar explained. “The Treecko here was the only reason he didn’t knock us out. If it’s possible, can we split the reward with him?”

Magnemite examined Blizz. “That can be arranged. Are you affiliated with a guild?”

“Don’t think so.”

“Very well, then here’s 1500 for Treecko, and 300 for Team Spark.”

Magnemite placed two piles of gold coins on the desk. The duo took the shorter pile, while Blizz awkwardly took the larger.

No longer burdened by having to help drag around an unconscious Nuzleaf, Blizz was able to actually examine the city.

“So, do you have any plans for what to do now?” Chimchar asked.

“Not really. I’m still not completely convinced this isn’t just a really bad dream.”

They both ignored the last part. “If you have nowhere else to go, then how about joining Lucario’s Guild?”

“What’s that?”

“Well, what we went through earlier today is called a mystery dungeon. They’re all over the place, so we have these things called exploration teams to navigate them. They do everything from treasure hunting to rescuing innocent Pokémon to arresting outlaws. But unless you’re really good, exploration teams need to work out of a guild.”

“And Lucario’s Guild is one of those?”

“Yep! Only guild in Nova Town. They’re always looking for new recruits, and they give food and housing for all their members. Plus, with all the exploration they do, you might end up finding something out about yourself too.”

He noticed Blizz thinking.

“You don’t need to decide right now. The Poké from the arrest should be enough for a couple nights in the inn if you want a couple days to think about it.”

“…I’ll consider it.”

“Awesome! The guild is north of town, built into the cliff face overlooking the valley. If you decide to join, ask for Scizor. He’ll get you started.”

Blizz said his thanks as the duo returned to their guild. He went straight back to the inn they passed, which was being run by a friendly Raichu.

“Room here will be 200 a night, that sound good?”

“Yea, one sec.”

He pulled out two 100 Poké coins, and handed them off to the Raichu, who in turn gave him a room key.

“Room 11, first door on the floor above us.”

“Thanks,” Blizz said, heading up a flight of distinctly non-mystery dungeon stairs.

As soon as the door to his room slammed shut, he dropped any pretense of being presentable. He haphazardly threw his remaining coins on a nightstand and flung himself onto the bed.

He was desperately fighting off the exhaustion of the day, hoping to have a moment to just think about what the hell has been happening. He got as far as considering that Chimchar and Shinx called him “Treecko” before passing out.

---

For precious few moments after Blizz woke up, he could pretend that nothing was wrong and yesterday was just a really weird dream. This illusion shattered when he realized that he was still referring to himself as “Blizz” in his head.

The morning sun was shining in his room, as he adjusted to waking up in the body of an anthropomorphic gecko. After ensuring he could still control his tail, he gathered up every last one of his belongings (13 golden coins) and entered into the town.

At the town center was a series of permanent stalls, occupied by different Pokémon selling various items. He gravitated towards a stall that seemed to be shaped like a chameleon head.

“Hello there,” one of the two Kecleon running the store greeted. “Don’t think I’ve seen you around here before. What can I get you?”

“Uh… You guys got any food? Haven’t eaten anything in a while…”

“Sure do! Apples for 25 Poké each, sound good?”

Blizz looked over the bundle of coins he was awkwardly carrying in his left arm. “Yea, I’ll get one.” He placed one on the stall’s counter.

In response, Kecleon scooped up the Poké and pulled out an apple, a silver coin, and bronze coin. “One regular apple plus 75 Poké in change. Will that be all?”

Blizz quickly realized that the apple was approximately the size of his head. “Yea, thanks.”

“Take care!”

Blizz carried the apple with his other hand and meandered into a nearby alley where he could set his stuff down and try to eat. The apple was intimidating though, with its size and almost cartoony vibrace.

Blizz shook his head. This is what it’s gonna be like to live here. He held it up by the stem in front of himself, closed his eyes, and bit into it.

A couple minutes later, he opened his eyes to see that he ground it down to the core. He’s pretty sure that eating it violated some conservation of mass principle, given that the apple had to have been at least 20% his body weight, but he wasn’t gonna complain. For the first time since waking up he felt full.

After picking up the rest of his money, he went back into town. Carrying the coins like this was annoying, so it would probably be better to get a bag. He stopped by a store selling accessories run by a Leavanny, where he found a leather bag that seemed about the right size for him.

“Are you an explorer?” Leavanny asked, watching Blizz set down the payment.

“Not yet, I was thinking about joining the guild here.”

“Oh, Lucario’s Guild is amazing. Definitely the best guild master in all of Varin…”

“Sorry, Varin?”

She looked at Blizz, confused. “It’s the continent we’re on…”

“Ah, sorry. I…” He paused. While Leavanny seemed nice, he didn’t really feel like explaining that he had amnesia and is pretty sure he’s supposed to be human. He decided to use the theory Shinx came up for him yesterday. “I used to be feral, only woke up yesterday.”

Leavanny looked embarrassed. “Oh, I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have assumed…”

“No worries, it’s fine.”

Leavanny awkwardly finished ringing up Blizz as he slung his new bag over his shoulder.

“Good luck with the guild!” Leavanny called, as Blizz left the store.

With food and getting a bag taken care of, he was out of excuses to not follow Chimchar’s advice.

The guild was a small walk from town, up a road with more than a few switchbacks. At the top was a tent in the shape of a Lucario’s head, positioned right in front of a cliff face. There was another cliff about 100 yards away, forming two walls of a canyon.

Blizz stepped up to the entrance, which had a sign hung up beside it. Unfortunately, the sign was written in footprint runes, which Blizz has no idea how to read. After a brief moment of consideration, he entered anyway, deciding that he could apologize if it was something he should have known.

Within the tent was a couple of lanterns surrounding a ladder. The ladder took him into a large room engraved into the canyon wall. The layout almost reminded him of the dungeon he was in yesterday, with a central room and a couple passageways that branch off. Unlike the Mystery Dungeon however, there were several Pokémon walking around and not immediately trying to kill him.

He remembered the Chimchar and Shinx told him to talk to Scizor, but he had no clue what Scizor looked like, so he asked the first Pokémon he could find. This turned out to be a Tyrogue, walking away from what looked like a mess hall.

“Hey, I’m new here, looking for Scizor, do you know where I can find him?”

The Tyrogue gestured towards one of the doors, then continued on his way.

Given that the door was slightly ajar, Blizz didn’t bother knocking. Inside he found a Scizor sitting at a desk, working on paperwork. He didn’t even bother looking up at Blizz as he entered.

“Here to join the guild?”

“Yea, was hoping to.”

“Take one of the empty badges to your left.” He gestured to a crate full of badges similar the ones Shinx and Chimchar had, though these were all missing the crystal in the center. “There’s a Mystery Dungeon at the base of the canyon, you’ll find the crystal for your badge at the end of it. Come back with the full badge, and you pass your entrance exam.”

Blizz had questions, but it seemed kinda obvious that Scizor didn’t care much for answering given that he never looked up at any point during that explanation, so he opted to just take the badge and set out.

As he climbed up the ladder out of the guild, he ran into his first challenge: how was he supposed to get down the cliff. There didn’t appear to be any roads or trails he could use, and while he could walk alongside the canyon wall until there was a spot where it was low enough to jump down, he had no idea how long that could take.

He settled on a less safe and by extension more fun plan. There were a couple rock outcroppings on the cliff wall that he could probably jump down to and not break too many limbs.

The first drop was only a couple feet, which served as a good benchmark for if this idea would kill him or not.

Given the distinct lack of crippling leg pain as he stuck the landing, Blizz decided to follow through on his idea.

Around the third ledge, he noticed he wasn’t far from a window looking into the guild. He peeked inside, seeing Chimchar and Shinx talking to Scizor and some other Pokémon he didn’t recognize. He knocked on the glass and waved, before falling to the next rock.

He really hoped they noticed because the timing on that was too perfect for no one to have seen.

As he descended down the canyon he began getting into a rhythm, finding that his reduced weight meant he could fall further than expected without hurting himself.

Towards the end, he wasn’t even stopping, jumping from crevice to outcrop to crevice to outcrop-that-was-not-nearly-as-sturdy-as-it-looked-and-slipped causing Blizz to promptly face plant on the ground and eat shit.

At least he recovered quickly.

“Damnit, so close…”

After dusting himself off, he got a sense for his surroundings. The canyon floor was covered in plant life, with a river flowing through the center, a sharp contrast to the harsh gray stone walls on either side.

The actual dungeon entrance was a cave not far from where he landed. Unlike the forest dungeon he was in yesterday, this one looked like it was going to be completely dark.

He tightened the strap on his bag, and entered.

---

Blizz knew the dungeon was supposed to challenge him, otherwise it would be a pretty shitty entrance exam. But he was expecting it to be like, taking on a bunch of strong Pokémon, or navigating through caves with lava or 100 foot drops or something.

Not… this.

“For the love of god, just stay down!” Blizz yelled, slamming Geodude with yet another Pound.

Geodude was knocked back a bit, but was able to land a counterattack, which did virtually nothing against Blizz.

“Yea, because that’s gonna work so much better now than the last 7 times you tried,” Blizz called, lashing out with a basic attack.

It looked like exhaustion was finally getting to the Geodude, as its movements began to slow. Blizz took the chance to finish it with one more regular attack, finally getting the knockout.

Blizz leaned up against the wall of the hallway, looking at the trail of unconscious rock-types he left behind him.

“God this sucks…”

After having caught his breath, he continued down the passageway for approximately 2 yards before running into another Geodude.

“GAHHHH!”

In his brief period of unrestrained fury, several leafs shot out of his body, embedding themselves in the Geodude. He wasn’t quite sure how it worked, but the Geodude collapsed in one hit.

“…Huh, that’s new.”

He stared down the hallway, trying to summon the feeling again. He was able to pull it off, as the leaves made a satisfying clunk against a Roggenrola that he had no idea was there.

“Oh I like that.”

Armed with a move that was super-effective against most of the dungeon’s residents, the pace of his exploration increased significantly. The slugfests he was dealing with before turned into a sharpshooting exercise, being able to knock out Pokémon before they could get close enough to reach him.

While there was a logical part of his brain telling him that spamming his new move on any target that moved (and some that weren’t) wasn’t the best idea, he opted to ignore that in favor of becoming the Mystery Dungeon’s bringer of unconsciousness.

Unfortunately, the logical part of his brain proved to be correct, as he was getting exhausted by the fifth floor. He noticed that his attack was getting weaker, and reluctantly decided to save his remaining energy for emergencies, reverting to basic attacks for the time being.

There was a single Geodude guarding the staircase up, prompting an intense mental debate on if his rapidly dwindling sanity was a worthwhile emergency. Really tired of fighting Geodude by this point, he decided it was, firing off his last Leafage at the feral.

Now he was certain he wouldn’t be able to use it again, he could feel the exhaustion in the final burst. There was no way he could call upon the attack any more, and he would have to manage the entire rest of the dungeon without-

Blizz’s internal monolog was cut off by seeing the next floor, a slightly larger room with a box full of crystals and a tile covered in weird glass-orb things.

The box had a sign in the footprint language that Blizz still had no idea how to read, but he still had a vague idea of what to do. He took a crystal and put it in his bag, before investigating the tile.

As any good investigator does, he immediately touched it, becoming enveloped by the same light as when Chimchar and Shinx brought him out of the dungeon yesterday. When he could see again, he noticed he was on the outskirts of Nova Town, on the road between the town and guild.

He looked over the badge and crystal, tucked away in his bag. After one floor of misery and four floors of immediately fucking up any Geodude he saw, he passed the exam. He turned to walk back towards the guild, when a shout caused him to pause.

“Unhand me you ruffians!”

Mildly curious, he followed the source of the yell– the town center. There, there was a crowd gathered around a Magnemite and a Shiny Umbreon.

“How dare you touch me as such!” The Umbreon yelled.

“Sir, please calm down-“

“How am I expected to calm down when I resemble a nine-year-old’s attempt at drawing a fox?”

“Please, we just want to take you to Chansey’s to be looked at, we’re not trying to hurt you-“

“I abide by none’s rules but my own!”

“Sir, we will use force if needed.”

“You would dare threaten a prince?”

Another Magnemite approached the one who was dealing with the Umbreon. “The chief gave the okay.”

“Understood.” He turned back to Umbreon, who was rambling about… something. It was hard for Blizz to make it out from here. A soft yellow glow shot out from Magnemite, hitting the Umbreon and causing him to immediately lock up.

“Our apologies for the chaos,” Mangmemite apologized, turning to the crowd. “The situation is resolved.”

The two escorted the now-paralyzed Umbreon towards Chansey’s clinic as the crowd dispersed. Having been vaguely entertained, Blizz set back towards the guild.

When he got to the entrance, Scizor was waiting for him outside.

“How much did you know about our guild before coming to see me?” He asked, staring through Blizz.

“Not a lot. Shinx and Chimchar recommended I come here after we ran into each other at a dungeon yesterday.”

Scizor brought up a claw to his face. “For the love of Arceus I can’t handle another one…”

“…Sorry?”

Scizor looked back to Blizz, sighing. “Okay, first order of business, you passed the entrance exam. Congrats.”

“Don’t you need to like, see my badge or something?”

“There was never any doubt you’d pass after what you pulled.”

“What I pulled?”

Scizor sighed yet again. “You didn’t even know, did you? There’s a path through the guild that takes you down into the canyon. There was exactly zero reason for you to have jumped down like that.”

“There was?”

“Yes, there were signs and everything- how did you manage to miss it?”

“I uh… I can’t really read the footprint things.”

“You can’t read footprint runes.” Scizor stared at Blizz, his eye twitching slightly. “Great. Absolutely great. Some random Treecko shows up at the guild, completely illiterate, but because he decided to be a complete dumbass on the entrance exam the guildmaster won’t let me kick him out.”

“Are you talking about me? You kinda switched from 2nd to 3rd person there.”

Scizor stared at Blizz. “Just… shut up and follow me. You passed, so it’s time to introduce you to the guildmaster.”

Blizz was confused, but followed along anyways. They descended down the ladder into the guild, where Scizor led him to a doorway in the main hall.

“You are about to meet the guildmaster; though you passed the entrance exam he gets the final say on if you can join or not, so if you really want to stay here make sure to leave a good impression.”

Blizz nodded, and Scizor knocked on the door.

It was quiet for a moment, before he picked up on a barely audible “enter.”

Blizz opened the door, peering into the pitch-black room. As he stepped inside, the door slammed shut behind him.

“Lucario?” He asked.

“Hm…”

Before he could react, a figure dashed out of the darkness and grabbed him by the neck, pinning him against the wall. Blizz struggled a bit, but couldn’t break the grip, so he settled on a different approach.

He shot out a bundle of leaves at what he hoped was his attacker’s face. It managed to startle them, causing their grip to loosen slightly. That was all he needed though, as it gave Blizz enough range of motion to twist his body for a Pound attack.

Once the attack started, the momentum of the move forced the attacker’s grip to loosen up even more, which served to give Blizz more power for when his tail struck their body.

The attack did virtually nothing in terms of damage, but his assailant did finally release Blizz.

“That’s enough,” the attacker called. “That is exactly the type of shit I wanna see!”

Several lanterns all lit up at once, revealing the interior of the room and more importantly, a Lucario that just jumped backwards.

He quickly recognized him as the Pokémon he saw talking to Scizor, Chimchar, and Shinx earlier. Deciding that this was probably a test or something, he lowered his guard.

“Hey, I’m Lucario, the guildmaster around here.” He extended a paw to Blizz.

After getting over the mental whiplash, he shook it.

“Blizz. I’m kinda new to this area.”

“Don’t worry then, you chose the best guild to join up with. Wait, hold on.”

He walked to his desk, which he dug around in until he found a sheet of paper.

“Welcome new recruit to Lucario’s Guild,” Lucario began reading, with no energy whatsoever. “We are an Explorer’s Federation sanctioned guild, one of four in Varin. As a new recruit, you have a number of rights that yada yada yada… Arceus these bureaucrats need a hobby…”

He tossed the paper back onto his desk and turned to Blizz.

“Federation makes me read off that to any recruit before I make the offer. Basic things are that you live here and we give you food but we take 80% of your mission rewards. You can quit whenever, but you lose your rank and everything unless Scizor and I authorize it.”

He took a breath.

“Now, given the badassery you demonstrated when you decided to just fucking jump down the canyon, I’m more than happy to invite you to our guild. But there are some things I need to tell you outside of that Federation bullshit.”

Lucario closed the gap between the two of them, staring directly at Blizz.

“We are an exploration team first and foremost,” he explained, with a much more serious tone than anything Blizz heard from him so far. “We’re going to be doing things so badass they’ll be writing stories about us years after we’re gone. In this guild, there is not a single Arceus-damned place out of reach. But our first priority is always to help other Pokémon, and if you or anyone else forgets that I will not hesitate to kick their ass into the Distortion World.”

Lucario extended his paw once again.

“If you understand that, then you’re welcome to join us.”

Blizz stared directly at Lucario. The conversation gave him a rough idea of what the Pokémon across from him is like, and he came to a decision.

He grabbed Lucario’s paw. “Let’s fucking do it.”

A smile slowly formed on Lucario’s face. “That’s the type of shit I wish all my recruits were made of.” He released the handshake, then stepped back to his desk.

“WELCOME TO THE GUILD MOTHERFUCKER!”