"You are my son and you will do as you're told! You are not to leave this place under any circumstances. Do you understand me?"

"But-"

"I said, do you understand?"

"Y-yes father."

"Hey, new guys! Wake up already!" Tony grimaced as he was pulled out of sleep. Instantly, he was hit with the fatigue and ache from the day before. Every part of the Pancham's body ached. He couldn't be bothered to even open his eyes.

That is, until a certain someone upped the ante. "I said, wake up! All of a sudden, Tony felt something hard collide with his forehead. he sat up immediately, eyes wide open. There was a rock lying right next to him. A pretty large on at that. His expression was set in a fierce glare, but sort of came off as adorable. He was a pancham after all.

"All right! Who threw that?" Tony's eyes landed on a pokèmon standing at the foot of his... haystack. He had grey skin and a very muscular figure. Tony could have sworn those muscles were larger than his head. He had a bunch of yellow bands going across the top of its head. It stood on two feet as well.

The pokèmon matched Tony's glare with his own. It was a lot more intimidating. "Me. The name's Machoke. Now get the hell out of bed already. I don't want to miss out on breakfast because you two wanted to sleep in." With that, he turned and marched off.

Tony rubbed his eyes, trying to clear up his vision. Jeez, what's his problem?"

Ken sat up on his bed. "Who knows? But we should probably head back to the mess hall. Chesnaught might eat everything." Both boys snickered at the comment and left from their door.

As luck would have it, no one else was out in the Housing Floor. They were either all at breakfast already or still asleep. Part of Tony wished it were the latter option. For one, they'd have more food. Two, they wouldn't be the over sleepers. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. As soon as Ken and Tony approached the stairs, they could hear the sound of many pokèmon talking from upstairs.

Ken sighed, defeated. "I bet all of the good stuff is gone by now... I guess no Red Gummis for me then..."

Dejectedly, the two pokèmon climbed the stairs and walked through the guild's Main Hall and made their way to the Mess Hall. Plenty of pokèmon were already done with their breakfast and going about their business for the day. Several were already at the job request board or heading out.

Upon reaching the Mess Hall, Ken and Tony were greeted with a disheartening sight. The room was devoid of pokèmon, and in their place was a mess of trash and discarded food. Ken grimaced at the sight. "You'd think that professional Explorers would be a bit cleaner than this."

"Um, excuse me?" Tony jumped at the voice. He whipped around to find the source of it. He hadn't even realized anyone was behind them. He was greeted with a pokèmon that was obviously a ghost. Her dark purple, ethereal body was a testament to that. However, a stump of wood with holes filled with red eyes acted as her head. Odd sticks extending from the sides. But what really caught Tony's attention were the two plates of food in her hands.

She turned her eyes toward the ground upon meeting Tony's eyes. "You're the new guys, right? I saved these for you."

Ken and Tony joyously took a plate each. "Wow, thanks," Tony replied. "I'm Tony, by the way. And this is Ken. Who are you?"

The Phantump back up a little, but Tony barely noticed. "Oh, Leilah. Nice to meet you, but I have to go now." She rushed off without another word, very quickly. Once again, Tony failed to notice this. He was focused on his breakfast after all. The cooked berries and Gummis smelled great to him. Both pokèmon were quick to make their way to the table and dig in.

Fortunately, there were no interruptions to their meal, and they exited the mess hall full and satisfied. "So, now what?" Tony asked.

"We should go see the Guildmaster," Ken replied. "He'll probably have the rest of the stuff ready for us. I hope."

The two walked through the noticeably less-occupied main hall of the Guild to Chesnaught's room. Tony knocked as hard as he could, the bangs resounding throughout the hall. After a moment, the wooden door swung open, revealing a yawning Chesnaught.

"Who is it?" He looked down, barely looking any more alert. If anything, he just looked annoyed. "Oh it's you two. Thanks for interrupting my after breakfast nap."

Tony shifted his weight back and forth between his legs. "Uh, we're here to finish our Guild-entry stuff. Remember?"

The Guildmaster looked no more entertained. "Yeah, yeah." He took a step to the side to allow the two pokèmon in the room. Tony and Ken stepped in, once again noting the piles of junk lining the walls. However, there was something different this time; a familiar gray pokèmon apparently sorting through one of the larger mounds. "Machoke! Can you get the team registration... thing for me?"

Machoke turned around, standing up straight. "Right away, sir." He and Tony met eyes, but only a flicker of recognition spread across the larger pokèmon's face. He went over to a shelf that was partially hidden by trash and pulled out a piece of paper and a vibrantly- colored quill pen. Upon coming over the two prospects, he dropped it in front of them.

"Just write your names and team name here, and you're all set." Tony noticed that Machoke, though odd, was much less rude than that morning. He was somewhat friendly, if not gruff. Was it because Chesnaught was there?

Suddenly, Ken was there, waving a hand in Tony's face. "Hey! Quit zoning out. What do you think our team name should be?"

Tony blinked, wracking his brain for an answer. "Um… how about Power Rangers?"

"… No."

"Yeah, that was pretty dumb…"

"I was thinking something more like Team Shadowflare."

Tony's first reaction was to shoot down that idea—it sounded kind of weird at first thought. But then it sunk into his head a little and he found that he actually liked it. The name fit somehow. "Yeah, let's go with that," he said with a nod.

Ken moved to write it, but hesitated for a moment. "You don't think it's dumb?"

"Of course not. You think I could have come up with something better?"

Ken chuckled. "Yeah, good point." He used the pen to write it and Machoke took it away.

The large fighting type then began to usher them out of the door, seemingly eager to get rid of them. "Well, now you're set. The Guildmaster is very busy, so-" Suddenly, a loud snore tore through the room, making Machoke's eyes go wide. "Just get out." THe door slammed behind them just as he went back to his previous demeanor.

"Well that was... strange," Ken remarked after a moment. He looked back at the door, confused as to what had just happened in there.

Tony began to saunter away, Ken following. He had his paws behind his head, definitely not as bothered as Ken was. "Yeah, that Machoke was acting really weird. But hey, it's not our problem."

"I guess you're right. It was still really weird though. Is Chesnaught really in charge?"

"Somehow." Tony stopped and turned to face his friend. "So, now what?"

A grin crept onto Ken's face. His entire demeanor changed. Gone was his hesitation and confusion. He seemed to exude confidence once again. "What else? We take a mission."

Okay, so yeah. Cooldown chapter that I took way too long to write. But I'm back now and still going. BTW, Leilah is a character from WesleyDragon.