Welcome to Gaia! ::

Morana looked up when she heard the steps of hard heavy feet approaching her in the courtyard. It was Incultyr. In his had was a sheet of paper.

"Morana, I think it's time for you to lead the next mission. Let's get back to the room."

Stretching, Morana stood up and followed Incultyr as he turned in the direction of the West Wing. She caught up to him easily, looking at the piece of paper curiously, but not asking any details about the mission.

When they entered the boy's side of the team rooms, they saw a large Milotic stretched across the floor, cooing lightly and singing a deep note from its throat. When the door opened it raised its head to look at the new arrivals.

"Mana! Inkity!" He cried out happily. "Welcome home, home!"

Altus was leaning against the baby Milotic's side, reading a book. He looked up when Incultyr and Morana entered, and set the book aside. Rising to his feet, he knew exactly what to expect seeing the piece of paper clutched in Incultyr's hand.

"Ah, mission time? So soon?" Altus was of course referring to 2 days ago when Incultyr had gone off by himself to arrest a giant Tyranitar at the Toxic Waste Dump. Incultyr handed Altus the mission sheet.

"Doesn't matter, I can't go on this one anyways." He's not exactly built for swimming.

After reading, Altus peered back over the paper, a questioning look on his face.

"Do you mean for me to take the client solo?" Altus asked, right away thinking that Incultyr did not mean for Morana to go on this mission. And though Altus had no problems with that, he was curious.

"No, I mean for you to take Morana and Cress with you."

The houndour looked at Incultyr with confusion, before padding forward and wordlessly asking for the mission. Altus handed it to her, and she read it over quickly. She glanced back at Incultyr, eyes wide.

"I can't go underwater!"

Incultyr simply took something out of his bag in response. It was a small glowing blue orb, and he threw it at Morana. It hit her on the back and instead of bouncing off, simply went right in. It was a TM.

"That's Aqua Ring. It'll protect you from the water."

---

So impossibly, somehow, Morana ended up agreeing to go. Crescendo's mentally developed enough to follow simple instructions, and his simple size would probably keep him safe from most enemies. So they took the Milotic with them, knowing that he would be more more at ease in the water than either Morana or Altus.

So they travelled towards the sea, the path well-worn and maintained for the thriving beach tourism in that area. After an hour or so's travel, they arrived at the Client's home, a small shack on the edge of the beach. They found the Wartortle lying in the water, enjoying the sun.

"Ah, excuse me. Are you Kelvin?" Altus asked the water-type. The Wartortle opened his eyes and stretched, not seeming to mind the water that was washing over him with each wave. He scrutinized the members of Team Polaris who came before turning over and getting to his feet.

"Yeah, that'd be me. You an exploration Team?"

Altus nodded, and handed Kelvin the mission sheet.

"We're Team Polaris, at your service. So, you simply want an escort through the area?"

Kelvin nodded, looking over at Morana skeptically.

"Well, let's hope this goes well, I've been thinkin' of moving down there. Your water-type pal there can swim one of you over to Azumarill's island? I can't carry both of ya."

"Milllo!" Crescendo cried an affirmative, even though he hasn't been in water since his evolution. Eager to please, Cress slithered through the sand, leaving S-shaped furrows behind him. He entered the water with a happy cry, and dove in and forward until he was deep enough to swim. He seemed happy about being in the water.

He soon settled at a good depth for Altus and Morana to climb onto his back. Altus watched Morana stare at the water dubiously, and she finally closed her eyes and took a step in. Water hissed and steamed as it came in contact with her fur, but a blue glow came over her and it stopped. She gave a cry of surprise and opened her eyes.

She took another step into the water -the sand feels so weird under the water than above!- and eventually reached Crescendo where Altus helped her get seated. Up until now only her legs was wet, and when she settled down, water came in contact with her belly. A bit more hissing and steaming, Cress shifting uncomfortably, and finally it stopped. Altus climbed on behind Morana, ready to keep hold of the houndour in case she falls off.

"You sure you up to this Cress?"

The Milotic let out a piercing vibrato note, and dove forwards as his answer.

"Took y'all long enough." Kelvin commented, having watched from the beach, but he didn't seem to mind the delay. Fluffing up his tail by batting at it with a hand, he waded into the water and jumped head-in the moment it was deep enough to.

They travelled along the top of the water for about half an hour, taking a leisurely pace. Crescendo swam by twisting from side to side like a water snake, while Kelvin constantly dove under the water and back up, often flipping his tail up over the surface to catch some more oxygen.

When they finally reached the little sandy island out in the middle of the water, Morana stumbled off in relief. She was completely wet, even though her high body temperature has been constantly trying to dry her off. When she finally stumbled onto dry land, she shook her head violently, the motion rippling through her entire body to shake the water off her fur. Altus jumped onto land and repeated a similar motion.

"How are you feeling Morana?"

The houndour simply nodded, afraid she was going to throw up. She was still struggling with the Aqua Ring, the water magic foreign to her, who's never studied magical theory before, which is something very helpful for those who attempt to use TMs to learn moves outside their natural capability. Despite that thought, it had done a good job at keeping her from getting killed by simply being wet, and for the first time in her life, the contact with water was not painful.

They left Crescendo to play by herself in the shallows around the island and they entered the Azumarill's little house.

The house was more of a tiny little hut, elevated above the sand on stilts to ride out the occasional flooding and made of durable wood. The thatched roofs looks like they were wade by weaving the giant leaves of the palm tree together. Inside was a small room, with a bed at the side and a desk. Along the wall hung necklaces of varying sizes, each sporting dozens of little blue orbs.

The Azumarill was at the desk, and looked up from a book she was reading.

"Ah, hello there!" She greeted them, getting off the chair and approaching them. "I suppose you're here for the beads yes?"

Altus confirmed it and the Azumarill happily scurried over to them, checking exactly what sizes of the necklace they needed.

"So, one for you two..." She mumbled as as looked over Altus and Morana.

"Me too please." Kelvin requested. The Azurmarill cocked her head at this, but decided not to comment as she rushed back to her wall. Altus however...

"Why do you need one?" He asked their client.

"I'm water typed, not water breathin'! I store all the Oxygen I need in my tail, but it 'aint gonna last forever."

"How long do you think you'd be down there?" The Azumarill asked as she grabbed a few necklaces off the wall.

"About an hour and a half should be fine." Kelvin replied, and the Azumaril snatched the last one from a low peg.

"Good, good, these'll last for about two hours then." She told them cheerfully, handing one to each of them. "Now, that'll be 300 PD."

Kelvin took out the coins and handed it to the Azumarill.

"Do you need these back afterwards?" Altus asked, putting on the necklace. It was surprisingly light, and he could see the little beads on it were little glass bubbles.

"Oh no, the magic would have run out by then. Feel free to keep it as a souvenir."

After thanking the water-type, the three of them left the little hut, ready to begin their adventure. Unknown to them though, their "adventure" had already started without them. The three of them stared in shock as they watched the water a little ways off from the shore splash violently, and Crescendo leap high above the surface, making a piercing, painful sound. Below them a huge fish emerged from the water, snapping powerful jaws at the Milotic, nearly missing his tail.

"Aw shoot."

As Crescendo slammed back into the water, he could feel the Sharpedeo swimming along right behind him, chasing him as he swam as fast as he could towards the shore. Her natural swimming abilities were no match for the practised hunter though- Cress screamed, head breaching the water as he felt a sharp pain surround his tail and then the numbness of ice. Crescendo hated fighting and violence, but he had to choice.

Snapping around so fast that the resistance against the water hurt, he launched himself at the Sharpedo. Milotics didn't have much of a mouth or teeth, but he didn't need those weapons. The Sharpedeo was firmly clamped onto his tail with an ice fang and couldn't get away fast enough. He wrapped his entire body's length around the fish, squeezing. Cress cried out in pain when he felt the fish's rough scales cutting through his tender skin.

The Sharpedo finally let go of his tail, struggling to swim free. He seemed to have underestimated Cress's size and weight when he decided that the Milotic would make a good meal. Having grown exponentially in his first few weeks as a Milotic, he's already nearing five meters long and well over 300 pounds. Cress simply held on for dear life as the fish thrashed, its scales cutting deeper and deeper into him. Blood flowed from those small wounds as well as the bite marks on his tail.

He started as another figure moved past him, but he calmed when he saw it was the swimming form of Altus. The Riolu took a deep breath -even with the air beads it was a still a reflex- and dived under, swimming over to the tangled Milotic-Sharpedo mess.

Altus, seeing no way to attack the Sharpedeo without hurting Crescendo, brought magic to his paws and waved it frantically in front of the shark Pokemon. It struggled a bit more, but soon its eyes were glued to Altus's glowing paw, which bobbed up and down with him as he tried to maintain his depth.

Cress let go of the Sharpedo when he felt it go limp, and raced around the water to hide behind Altus, which was rather ridiculous looking since the Riolu was about a tenth of his size.

The Sharpedo, having fallen asleep from Altus's Hypnosis, simply drifted off and down, hitting the shallow bottom with a puff of sand. The Riolu struggled to get back up the surface, but did not break it fast enough. He gasped and water went down into his lungs, not painfully as he expected but with relief, if not a bit salty and bitter. A bit unnerved by the feeling, he promptly broke the surface coughing up water.

Crescendo rose up beneath him, buoying him up above the water. He swam back to shore with quick flicks of his tail, trailing blood behind them. On the beach the others were waiting with worried looks, including the Azurill.

"Oh dear, are you two all right?" The azurill asked, glancing nervously at Crescendo's wounds. Morana bounded up to Altus and the Riolu embraced her, whispering reassuring words. She cringed slightly at the water dripping off his fur, but was soon able to ignore it as she buried her face into his embrace.

Kelvin examined Crescendo's wounds, and was amazed to see the blood stop flowing and the skin start sealing itself.

"Well what do ya know, take a look at this." He called Altus and Anna over. The two, concerned about sending Cress back so soon, were amazed to see that he was already most of the way healed. Crescendo gently bugled a soothing note.

So it seems their Milotic was a healer huh.

"Are you still up for this?" Altus asked, and Crescendo responded by smacking his tail against the shallow water, spraying both Altus and Morana with sea water and sand. That was a yes.

"C'mon, let's get going already!" Now that it was established that Crescendo wasn't in any sort of immediate danger, Kelvin was impatient. They've already probably took half an hour off their beads just by standing here.

So after braving themselves, Altus and Morana walked into the water until it was up to their necks, and with a deep breath ducked their heads under. Morana had to do this several times before she managed to get herself to actually breathe underwater. For a moment she made motions like she was choking as the water battled with her inner fires, but then it stopped, the process smoothed along by both the Beads and Aqua Ring.

Both of them scurried over to Crescendo, grabbing onto him and letting him guide them. Bringing Cress ended up being a good idea, for otherwise they would have never been able to have kept up with Kelvin, who was a much faster swimmer than Altus and Morana. For obvious reasons.

"So where do y'all want to check out first?" Kelvin asked, looking left and right as if searching for something. The idea of talking underwater was still a bit of a shaky thing for the explorers, and Altus hesitated more than a little bit before replying.

"I don't really care. We're just here to keep you safe right? Feel free to explore wherever." It was so weird hearing his voice underwater!

They travelled along the sandy bottom, glorious fine white sand. It was a veritable coral reef here, with all of the colours of the spectrum surrounding them.

They stopped every once in a while so that Kelvin could stop and check out something he saw, usually a brightly coloured fish that darts off or weird little animals -are they even considered Pokemon?- that crawled along the floor. They reached an open stretch of water, the seabed beneath them so deep it was pitch black.

"Never knew it was so beautiful down here." Kelvin remarked at one point.

"You've never come down here before?" Altus asked. From the looks of it, the Wartortle lived here!

"Naw, I can't fight. I don't know what I'd do if a wild Pokemon attacks." Kelvin replied. "That's why I'm getting y'all to come with me 'aint it?"

Altus shrugged and looked around from Crescendo's back, staring into the distance which eventually faded into a dark blue. Little splotches of colour swam against this backdrop, and it really was a beautiful sight. After he got used to the whole breathing underwater thing, it wasn't so bad.

There was a bubbly yelp behind him, and then he felt an excruciating jolt run through him. He heard Kelvin yelp in surprise, but was more worried in keeping hold of Cress as his muscled twitched convulsively from the electricity. Crescendo thrashed as the attack went through him, nearly throwing his two riders off.

Altus spun around, trying to see their attackers, but the water was murky and he couldn't see- wait, it was murky?

Morana was more startled than hurt by the attack. Though she was a houndour, her father was a Manectric and her body could store a good deal of electricity without hurting her. She harmlessly absorbed the attack, but in her panic she also let out an attack. In the split second in which she decided what to do, she knew that a fire attack would be out of the question -it might breach the protection given to her and have all the sea water douse her inner fire- and she couldn't exactly use a thunderbolt and fry her friends too. So she opened her mouth and let out a toxic smokescreen, hoping to impair the vision of whatever was attacking them.

Another surge of electricity coursed through the party, the explorers enduring it with gritted teeth. Kelvin yelped in both pain and fright, and withdrew into his shell in a quick motion.

Through the haze of water Morana picked out a dull glow. Squinting her eyes, she tried to make out what it was, before she saw an attack coming her way. With a yelp, she kicked off of Crescendo, getting herself as well as the Milotic away from the attack. The Signal Beam hurled by, the water stirring violently in its wake. As Morana tried to keep herself from spinning along with the disturbed water, she could see the clear path the attack had cut through the smokescreen. On the other side were two blue fish with glowing antennae.

Altus apparently saw them too, before he kicked off from the Milotic and swam towards the fish attackers.

"Protect Kelvin!" Altus told her, and though he didn't speak very loudly, water carried the words well. She nodded and did her best to swim downwards towards Kelvin, who was still in his shell and slowly drifting towards the bottom.

In front of Altus one of the Chinchous opened its mouth and let out a high-pitched screeching sound, which set the water vibrating. Altus gritted his teeth against it, though it wasn't nearly as painful as the sound Incultyr could make.

With that thought in mind, he spun around in midair attempting at a kick, which didn't work out well since, well, he was in water, where he couldn't brace itself. But something interesting happened when he tried to use Blaze Kick though; instead of fire trailing behind his attack, boiling water did. So while he didn't manage to even contact one of the two fish pokemon, a wave of bubbling hot water did.

They tried to scramble out of the way, but the heat descended upon them, burning them all over. As they frantically tried to recover from this attack. Altus grabbed the both of them, one in each hand. They released electricity which went straight into his body, but with a grimace he ignored it and slammed the two Chinchous together. Letting go, the two unconscious fish slowly floated up towards the surface.

By now the water had cleared, and he looked down to see that Morana was in a battle of her own.

When she dived down, she managed to grab onto the edge of Kelvin's shell to stop his slow fall a dozen or so meters underneath the others. The pressure change from such a small change in depth was surprisingly big, and she could feel the insides of her ears starting to hurt.

"Kelvin, please come out." She whined, trying to keep her client from dropping off somewhere so deep she wouldn't dare go. The wartortle stuck his head out, looking slightly shaken.

"Sorry, I'm, afraid I got quite a scare- AHHH!" he ducked his head right back in, and Morana stared at him in confusion before something slammed into her side. She lost her grip on their client as she spun in the water, all four limbs flailing to try to get her right-side up again.

In front of her was a large angry fish. It was also blue with two little glowing things coming out of the top of its head, but these were front and back instead of side by side. Before she could look any further, the light on its head suddenly flashed with blindingly bright light that left spots in Morana's eyes.

She felt the thing tackle her again with enough force that if there wasn't water giving away behind her, her ribs would have cracked. She dug her fangs into the first thing she blindly could -and it was a fin- and she released as much electricity as she could.

The fish seemed unaffected, and threw her right off. When she finally started to get her vision back, the fish's light was pulsing gently. She couldn't keep her eyes off of it, and before long she was simply just floating there, staring at the throbbing light, mesmerized. She knew she had to get away and that it wasn't safe to simply stay there, but it was hard to act on it.

"Milo!" Crescendo cried out when she saw Morana drop Kelvin, and with a flick of his tail, dove downwards as fast as he could. The Lanturn couldn't get away fast enough, and the Milotic dove into him, causing him to spin erratically off to the side. Cress pulled up just under Kelvin, and grabbed onto a bit of his tail which was poking out of the shell with his mouth. Bubbles erupted from his mouth as he released all the air trapped within the fur. The Wartortle popped out of his shell, screaming and failing.

"Oh Arceus don't eat me!" He wailed.

Morana blinked as a purple blur zoomed past her, disrupting the Lanturn's confuse ray attack. Realizing what had happened, she darted forward and latched onto the fish before it could recover and bit down onto the bright lure on its head. Without a second thought she violently jerked her head back, braced against its back.

Both antennas came off. The thing screamed, but the houndour didn't give it any chances. Her hunter instincts took over and she dug her claws into it, flipping it belly-up before sinking her fangs into its throat. Blood and sea water filled her mouth, electricity being discharged from its body into hers at a rate that was painful even to her. She kicked off and watched the fish slowly stop squirming and drift downwards, trailing blood.

Beneath her Crescendo was swimming up towards her, dragging their flailing client along by the tail.

"Good job Cress." Morana told the Milotic softly as she grabbed onto him and he swam towards Altus. The Riolu was staring past them at the bloody corpse of the lanturn Morana had led.

Morana was always such an incredibly shy, easy to scare Pokemon that Altus always gets unnerved when he gets reminded that she was a Houndour, and still very much a fierce fighter.

Altus grabbed onto one of Cress's ears to stabilize himself as he grabbed Kelvin, spun him around, and did everything he could to calm their client down.

"Bloody electrical fish things...I swear to Arceus I didn't even know such freaks existed..." Kelvin was muttering by the end of several long minutes.

"Let's hurry up, we've got another twenty or so minutes on the necklace. We should head back towards shor- AH!"

Altus ducked as something swam towards him at incredible speeds, missing his head by inches.

"SWEET MOTHER OF CLAMPEARL WHAT WAS THAT!?" Kelvin wailed, having lost his composure completely. Again. Altus ignored him and spun around to see a blue and red fish with yellow fins. A Carvanha. It seems the blood that Morana had left drew a crowd.

Turning around, Altus saw dozens more swimming towards them. Damn the water and the constantly sound of waves coming from up above; he would have never allowed an enemy to sneak up so close to him without being seen on shore.

Crescendo let out a loud pure noise, and spun himself in the water, tail smacking the unsuspecting Carvanha that had tried to attack Altus. The poor thing spun away from the group, not even remotely aware of what had hit it.

The rest of the school seemed to hesitate as they saw the first float there, confused and disoriented in the water, but figured that they could take on the four pokemon. Two of them weren't even native to the water!

So the rather large piranhas swarmed in towards the four of them. Morana and Altus was at loss as to what they could do, and Kelvin simply howled and doved back into his shell. Altus grabbed onto his tail before he could sink down into more of the carnivorous fish.

Crescendo however, wrapped its huge body protectively around the explorers and their client, glowing a slight pink. About half of the charging fish suddenly stopped in mid-water, water agape and staring at Cress with a stupid look on their faces. Ah the powers of being beautiful and enhancing it with magic.

The rest of the unaffected fish soon found themselves running head-first into a wall that Crescendo had thrown up. The Milotic let out a long soothing note, and flicked ones of his tails, sending a strong current in the direction of one of the crowds of Carvanha.

"I want to go home! This place sucks!" Kelvin whined, his words oddly muffled by his shell. Apparently he hadn't anticipated the waters being this dangerous.

"We can get out of here right away with the explorers badge, but it means we'll end up at the Guild. You'd have to make your own way back here, is that good with you?" Altus asked, trying to keep his grip on their client's tail as well as Cress's slippery body.

"Yes, yes, anything to get out of here!"

Altus was going to reach over to Morana who kept their explorer's badge in her collar bag when Crescendo suddenly jerked violently to the side, dragging all three of them along with him. He held on for dear life as the Milotic corkscrewed in the water, and brightness suddenly filled his vision.

Morana gaped as the Hyper Beam shot past them, breaking apart Crescendo's barrier and frying more than a few Carvanhas in the way. A heated wave of water rolled over them, sending Crescendo spinning away without control, up down left and right all being mixed together.

"Morana, get us out of here!" Altus yelled, but the Houndour couldn't reach for her collar when she was holding onto Crescendo so tightly. The Milotic struggled to right himself and finally stilled, and four of them staring at the scene before them.

A Gyarados rampaged through the open water, chasing the Carvahnas and fragmenting the school.

"Arceus, that's uh..." Altus has seen enough of the marine food chain for today. He reached over to Morana to dig out the explorer's badge in her collar. She swam a little closer, clamping her jaws on the edge of Kelvin's shell to stop him from spinning free as Altus was preoccupied.

The Riolu finally fished out the explorer's bade, and held it up.

"We ready?" he asked. Kelvin let out a pitiful squeak and Morana nodded. Altus was just about to activate it when one of the Carvanhas clamped it jaws down firmly onto his arm.

The teleporting light of the badge engulfed all of them, including the Carvanha even as Altus screamed with pain. And within a split second during which nothing seemed to exist, they all showed up in Team polaris's Team room, bringing quite a lot of water with them.

"Jesus Christ what the hell is going on!?" They heard a familiar Larvitar's muffled voice from underneath Crescendo. From all the sand that covered them, they could assume they landed onto top of the sand pile Incultyr used as a bed.

Altus threw the Carvanha off his arm and it smacked wetly against the wall, slipped to the floor, and flopped around uselessly. Morana finished it off with a bolt of electricity.

After scrambling off of Incultyr and Crescendo sprayed some water on everyone to get the sand off, the Larvitar looked around at the mess. When they had teleported back, a fair chunk of the seawater had come with them and was currently swamping the room.

"Damn you guys were gone for long. The alarm went off about an hour ago." He grumbled, completely ignoring their clients. (Chapter 15)

---

Altus was the one who opened the door the next day, and blinked at the trio of Pokemon in front of them.

"Uh...recruits?" He asked, already very familiar with the process. Behind him Incultyr's sleepy voice sounded loudly.

"Arceus dammit no! For the last freaking time we are NOT taking recruits!" The Lanturn opened it mouth to protest, but was sent hurling back with a shadow ball. The fish landed with a thud against the door opposite theirs. Altus turned to stare at a very angry-looking Incultyr.

"What the hell!?" The door opened and an angry eevee poked his head out, glared at Team Polaris, the unconscious fish, and promptly slammed the door.

"Oi oi, I don't want to join! Exploring's way too dangerous!" Kelvin exclaimed, holding up his arms protectively. "I was thinkin' I'd invite y'all to the beach. The weather's clearing up and I'mma gonna celebrate my decision to stay on land. I thought you'd all like to come for a week, and yer Milotic there can enjoy the water."

Somehow, against all odds, the team finally agreed to go. When Atra heard about this, he was thrilled, and came along too. Without telling Lillium, since the Cyndaquil seemed intent on having him stop this "dangerous foolish exploration business".

They ended up having so much fun they stayed for another week and returned on Wednesday June 2nd, 2010.

[Back on the Island]

"Hah, you got her grounded! Serves the little Houndour right! Especially after she got all up! in! my! Face!" The Jynx let out a malicious chuckle, clearly pleased that the Justine had been grounded. She grabbed a bag that contained the promised rewards; 3000 PD and the X-Ray Specs. However, instead of simply giving them to the pair, she pulled out the specs and stuck them on Noelle with a chuckle. "You guys look pretty good!" She began intently gazing at the group, her voice much more serious. "So, hey... What's the big city like? I heard there's some great clothes there! I was wondering if I could go with you guys back to the city?"

Two familiar faces popped up as well. Storm and Norman popped out of the oceans, looking very appreciative at the party. "You guys were great! Me and my brother were so impressed that we'd really like to join your team!" Norman nodded happily along side his brother.

A familiar Milotic swam out as well. A Big Pearl was clamped firmly between her jaws. She slithered up onto the island, letting it fall onto the ground near Noelle. "My Daddy said that I should come thank you for the help. It must have been really hard for an Eevee and Pichu to get through the waters, after all! I know this isn't worth very much, but I hope it's helpful." Tessa's gaze faltered for a moment, her eyes and voice expressing uncertainty. "I was really impressed with your bravery! I know my daddy wouldn't like it... But could I please join your team?"

Of course, the guild would only issue one new badge. They could take only one recruit with them back to the city.

((I luffled this. The sense of completeness within the allied characters was wonderful. However, you need to work into things a bit better. You seemed to jump in to some incidents or events way too fast, leaving the connection from point A to B a little bit weak. The part where Noelle says she's lost is a good example. Working that into the text by having her think earlier on that she wasn't sure, or by expressing dialogue in uncertain terms "I think this is the way" or a number of other things would've made this very complete.))