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Air continued to dig to his heart's content, delighted by the way an Excadrill's claws could cut through the earth so easily. It was like a hot knife through butter, the way the blades churned up the hard ground all around him. He was so invested in the process of tunneling through the ground, he didn't bother to surface again, enjoying himself too much to spare a thought for the goings-on above his head. He'd left his stone tablet safely behind in the first hole he dug, and was swimming through the dirt, searching for any sign of treasure only offhandedly, much more interesting in testing the Excadrill's skills in any way he could imagine.

Air spent a bit of time digging horizontally, uncertain how far he traveled as he did so. While the Excadrill's claws were sharp, its body was compact, and the Ditto hadn't dared to try spinning himself around yet--the idea of turning himself into a full-body drill made him a little sick to his stomach, especially since he hadn't fully recovered from the Teleport yet. He was about to turn his sights downward when the side of his arm brushed against something up above. Air paused, glancing up to see the edge of something poking out of the dirt he'd sliced through moments before, and he grinned, beginning to work at the ground above him and dislodge whatever he had found. Little did the Ditto-Excadrill realize that, up above, a disaster was about to occur.

Having just managed to clear the dirt around the object, he discovered that it was some sort of glass box, that had been miraculously kept in one piece underground. Gasping with delight at the find, Air began to dig at the corners carefully, watching it shift with each movement of his claws; it was getting close now, he just had to be very careful. The Ditto had just managed to make it loose enough to remove when a sudden noise assaulted his ears, and the ground shook with tremors from the impact of an enormous piece of stone that had landed just above Air’s digging place. His eyes widened with horror as he turned to look up at the glass container, and found it plummeting to the ground below. With a swift hand the Ditto grabbed for the artifact, but he had forgotten one vital detail: his hands weren’t his own, but the claws of an Excadrill. The sound of shattering glass echoed in his ears when the box collided with his outstretched hand and Air’s face went pale as he stared at the object he held, a jagged gash cutting through the bottom of it—allowing it to rest perfectly on the edge of the Excadrill’s blade.

Team Essence: 1 Points

Erinn's silent anguish was disrupted by the sound of stone shattering behind him, and the Paras leaped into the air in terror, crying out before covering his eyes with his claws. It was all over. Arceus had come back to punish the Guild for what their predecessors had done: everyone was doomed. Cowering on the ground, the bug didn't dare to move, not even after he heard the sounds of other Pokemon returning to work. It was only the sound of childish sobbing that prompted the Paras to open his eyes ever so slightly, his heart going out to the children whose families had inevitably been decimated before their eyes. What he saw was a Pichu and Swirlix sobbing on the ground next to a broken machine and plenty of other Pokemon, and when he dared to look around more, he spotted the broken boulder that was utterly free of any spiteful gods or other antagonistic entities. Opening his eyes fully, Erinn suppressed a sigh of relief, quickly managing to piece together what had happened once he gave some thought to the matter. It had just been an accident, there was nothing coming to kill them this time: it was only a treasure hunt. The Paras repeated the phrase to himself over and over again in his mind: It's only a treasure hunt... Needless to say, the matter of digging for said treasures was the last thing on the paranoid bug's mind.

Team Essence: -2 Points

Nightmare soon found a medallion similar to the one his partner had found; however, it happened to be under one of the pieces of rubble that strange Pichu had caused to fly everywhere, so it was broken, albeit salvageable.

Points: 3
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Q blinked as Katherine roughly shoved him off of her, confused and hurt - emotionally more so than physically. Did he do something wrong? After a few moments he decided that she was just cranky, ignoring the small part of him that was still rather upset by her brushing him off. With that settled, he shifted Arturius in his grip and went over to help comfort Stormy, since Katherine seemed to have Rush handled.
Sure enough, Rush seemed to calm down (or at least stopped crying) once he was in Katherine's arms; noting that her forehead seemed a little bruised, he began licking it in a well-meant but rather humorous attempt to tend to it.
Stormageddon calmed down as well once he was in Q's arms, soon returning to digging - he needed to see if he could find any more toys of mass destruction. He didn't, but he did find a shiny-looking Pichu statuette.

Points: 6

Keivera looked around and saw that a few of the teams had let up a little on their work and had begun to converse amongst each other. She recognized some faces from the meet and greet, but she didn’t know anyone’s name or team. Having been late in arriving to the last guild meeting thanks to Arlyn, she had only been able to introduce her team to Claudius, who didn’t appear to be present at the digsite. Among those she saw were two luxio talking as well as a kirlia and some type of pokemon she wasn’t familiar with; the unfamiliar species looked like a steel type because of the white coloring, however looks were often quite deceiving. Then, lastly, she spotted what looked like two bronzor off by themselves. She was unaware that the second bronzor – the one without glasses – was in fact a ditto.

Unaware of his leader’s distraction, Kent continued to work in the hole where they had found, and broke, the unidentified statue. After a few minutes, he heard Arlyn call to him and stopped to go see what the little mouse had found. When he got there, he discovered Arlyn standing next to a pot, which he assumed had been found earlier, and an unknown soggy mass about the size of the Marill. “What is that?” he asked, eyeing the object.

Arlyn looked up at Kent and frowned as he answered. ”I think it was a book...I didn’t mean to Kent. I don’t think it can be salvaged though. I think water is a bad idea for cleaning the aftifacts.”

[[For anyone reading who may get confused by the order, I rolled my numbers and wrote the post three days later. Because of this, Dark's post about the ditto shifting forms was already up and as a result I wrote my post as if I had posted at that point.]]
((And team Catalyst would roll 31, ruined a book this post. Total points: - 1 ))



Without waiting to see if Mortimer listened to her instructions, Viper headed back toward the hole they had started earlier. Except she didn’t make it there. Her limited sight landed her in a hole she had failed to see. Landing upside down, with no room to roll over, she kicked her little legs in the air frantically.”Mortimer! Get me out of here, you mutt!”

Morty couldn’t help but snicker at Viper’s misfortune. Considering the way she’d been treating him ever since they had been paired up, he found it to be a form of poetic justice. He was going to let her stay there and stew for a bit. Perhaps she would reevaluate her outlook on things after this, but somehow he doubted it. Ignoring her completely, he instead walked over to sift through the dirt he had piled up and was surprised to find a coin. He’d take this and turn it in with the torn canvas. Viper would never know that he had in fact seen and heard the entire event. Without a second glance, Morty turned and headed to the turn in.


((And Team Verruckt would roll 6, found a coin this post. Total points: 2 ))



Murdock looked at the tablet that Cerin showed him. ”This is in a language I am unfamiliar with.” He glanced around quickly and saw that there were already several other tablets and books turned in and piled up next to the makeshift identification station the archaeologists had set up. ”You know, I bet we could find something pretty big if we kept looking. There’s already quite a few tablets and books turned in by the other teams. I bet there was some kind of knowledge hub or ritualistic center here.” He looked back at his partner and gestured to the ground between their individual holes. ”Come on, let’s see what we can turn up.” With that, he set to work scratching the dirt out with his claws and shoveling it around with his head. As several hours passed, he would indeed hit something rather large. Perhaps he had been right about there being a ritualistic center, for what he found was an altar. This was going to take more than just him and Cerin to move, if it could be moved at all.

((And Murdock would roll 58, found a small altar. Total points: 10 ))

Demon soon popped out from the ground once more, having found absolutely nothing. Then he spotted Theodore and blinked, staring curiously and examining the strange creature before him. It looked a lot like a Bug-thing, but at the same time it looked a little like some of the cactus-things in the desert. "...What you?" he asked bluntly.

Points: 2
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"Oh, okay." Q accepted the talking sword's words rather easily, returning to digging.
Rush beamed up at Katherine with tongue lolling out, completely oblivious to her grumpy mood. Instead he opened his mouth and said a single word that would no doubt send her into a panic: "Mama!"
Off to the side, Guile overheard the Swirlix and burst into snickers, nearly dropping the chest of treasure he'd found. Fortunately, he didn't, and he soon resumed dragging it over to the other artifacts.

Points: 8

Venari
Katherine & Arturius & Ty
Points: -5

"No, no." Katherine quickly and firmly disagreed with the notion that she was Rush's mother. She was no one's mother. She wouldn't be for a long time if she had any choice in the matter; kids were cute but being a "mother" was an entirely different story and the little thing wasn't going to change that. Though it wasn't quite a perfect fit, she said just about the best thing that came to mind "I'm... more like your aunt. Can you say that? Can you call me 'auntie'?"
Even if she wasn't anybody's aunt either she was certainly much more willing to accept that and while team Oddball was definitely true to their name she didn't mind being friends with them. She didn't even mind taking care of Rush now and then but she was most certainly not his mother. It would be a cold day in hell that she accepted such a designation, especially from a little creature she had only met twice (the meeting of the moment included) and had spent no more than a short period of time with.

...Well, nevermind. Apparently there was something in the dirt... it was another bracelet to match the last one. He slid it up the same arm. They looked nice together.

Cut
Donovan & Theodore
Points: 7

Theodore stared back. No matter how strange Theodore might have looked, Demon was much stranger in comparison. He was an obviously battle-worn Sandslash who had popped out of the ground, stared at Theodore inexplicably and then phrased some sort of inarticulate question. It was hard to do much else other than stare in response. When he finally responded, it was just as simplistic as Demon's own question had been. "I'm me."

Robin
Jessica & Tobias
Points: 1

Dig, dig, dig... Jessica's mind went back into the past. The aches had past and had become something else entirely. It was a dull numbness, a dull sort of ache that no longer had the strength to touch the mind. It left her mind free to wander as she struck the earth time and time again. She wondered vaguely how her parents were doing. They had been doing well when she had left... she hoped they continued to do well.

The Bronzor appeared unresponsive to his greeting, and Air felt slightly disheartened that his gesture of friendliness had gone ignored. It had taken a lot of courage for the Ditto to come over and be sociable, but it seemed as though the dark-colored Pokemon was uninterested. If Bronzor could sigh Air would have done so, but instead a dull chime emanated from him, mirroring his disappointment. Hovering beside the original he'd copied, the Ditto wondered for a moment if the other Pokemon had fallen asleep, since the stranger didn't appear to have moved at all since he'd arrived. That would explain the lack of a response anyway. Well, if the other Bronzor was asleep he didn't want to wake him up... Making up his mind to try one more time, the Ditto-Bronzor was just about to let out another chime when he felt a tug on his form. Wha--?" Air began, his voice tinged with the odd metallic sound that accompanied his current form, before any further sound was silenced by a sudden, unexpected ringing that resounded from his form.

The Ditto-Bronzor found himself swept, unbidden, onto his back, hovering just above the ground and vibrating beyond his control. Air's expression was one of intense alarm as the sound of ringing continued to reverberate from somewhere inside him, and he panicked, certain that the sound would stir the other Bronzor from his rest. Immediately the Ditto began to glow, shifting his form away from that of the Bronzor beside him and back to his normal state, but the sound didn't stop until the transformation was complete. Looking utterly mortified, the Ditto looked at the dark Bronzor desperately, searching for any sign of irritation on the other Pokemon's features. Not only had he almost definitely disturbed him from his break, he'd also shifted back from the Bronzor's form without fully adjusting to it. Everything was wrong about this: everything. "I'm s-so sorry!" The little Pokemon squeaked to the Bronzor, bowing his head in shame. "Let me just deal with this and I'll figure out some way to make it up to you."

Finding the first digging Pokemon in sight, Air shifted again, adopting the form of a Growlithe. The one he'd copied had been standing next to a Sawsbuck and Marill, but a Growlithe had claws, which were undoubtedly better for digging: besides, the form reminded him of his Team, and the little Growlithe who'd just hatched recently, and the thought calmed him slightly. Fully transformed, Air dug into the ground until he found the source of whatever had caused his Bronzor form to go haywire: a silver rod with a crystal globe on one end, and an aged piece of paper tucked inside the globe. He would have been thrilled at such a find if he weren't still terrified that he'd offended his Bronzor companion. Setting the treasure down with utmost care, the Ditto-Growlithe looked at the other Pokemon with a pair of woeful puppy-dog eyes. "Sorry, I didn't want it to happen to you too..." he said quietly, hanging his head again. "I didn't mean to cause so much trouble, I just wanted to say hello..."

Team Essence: 1 Points

((Hey Rae, check out my last post and this one~ Also Barky, your characters might be interested in this since Keivara was watching and it's one of her teammates ^ ^))



Emboldened as he was by his pair of double finds, Erinn thought he might be able to work up the courage to approach one of his fellow Guild members now. He'd been contributing good finds after all, and a lot of people were talking, so it might be a good time to network. Silver would certainly say so anyway, as friendly as the Espeon was, and he supposed it would be good to take a leaf out of his partner's book. The thought caught him off-guard, making the Paras realize that he was finally beginning to think of Silver that way. It was a good thing, he told himself, but the bug couldn't help the twinge of guilt that crossed his mind when he thought of his other captain. If Era and Silver ever told him to do conflicting things, who would he listen to? Erinn shook his head, clearing it of the negative thoughts. A situation like that would probably never happen: Era and Silver got along really well, why would they disagree on something important enough to worry him? That in mind, the Paras surveyed the crowd for available Pokemon, deciding that socializing was the right thing to do.

The bug's eyes settled on a hole with a very strange protrusion sticking out of it as he searched; it didn't take him long to realize that said strange thing was actually another Pokemon. With a gasp, Erinn hurried over to the shape, circling it until he found the upside-down face that revealed the stranger to be a Shelgon. "Oh my gosh are you alright?" the Paras said, eyes wide with astonishment. It was clear from the way her legs flailed helplessly in the air that she couldn't get up, and the bug knew at once what had to be done. "Hang on just a minute, okay?" he said, meeting the Shelgon's upside-down gaze. "I'm going to find someone who'll be able to help me get you out." Unfortunately strength was not one of the strong suits of a Paras--his first attempts at digging proved that much.

Looking around again, the Paras spotted a Metang hovering to the side of thing and smiled. The metal Pokemon would certainly be able to help him accomplish the job. Approaching the white Pokemon quickly, Erinn offered a quick wave in greeting. "Excuse me," the Paras said, "Sorry to ask you this out of the blue, but there's a Shelgon over there who needs some help and I don't think I can help get her out on my own. Would you mind helping me?" He felt guilty for asking such things of a stranger, especially without a proper introduction, but he didn't want to leave the Shelgon in her predicament any longer than he had to; there would be time for formalities later.

Team Phantasm: 1 Points

((Just to cover all my bases, also interacting with Barky and Luna in this second part))

Venari
Katherine & Arturius & Ty
Points: -6

"Yes, auntie." Katherine breathed a sigh of relief as she patted Rush on the head, apparently satisfied that he had taken to the term so easily. She still wasn't quite pleased with it, since she was both too young and too cute to be someone's aunt, but she was willing to settle for it. It was much better than being someone's "mama" with all the awkward trappings, responsibilities of connotations that came with it.
Though she still carefully patted Rush, Katherine let herself fall backwards onto the ground. She was honestly done with digging; it had been nothing but frustration for her and her only effort to improve it all had met her with pain and discomfort. She would have to apologize to Q later too or at the very least thank him. But for the time being, she just didn't really feel like it... She sort of wanted to just go home but that would have to wait until things were done with. She couldn't teleport herself back. She had always been really bad at that kind of thing.

One might ask, "Where was Arturius?" Well, he was still with Q; the Elgyem had never actually let go of him. He could hardly act as a chaperone to Katherine being held as he was and though his combat strength was great enough it came in the sharpness of his blade rather than the force of his power. Or, to put it more simply, while he could do a fine job of struggling against Q he couldn't actually enforce his own release unless he intended to get violent which was very much not the case. He had neither the reason nor the inclination to attack Q, so he simply stayed in his sheath.
But he was good enough at the very least to make a comment to Q. "It is how things are. You would be better if you did not dwell on happenstance."

Cut
Donovan & Theodore
Points: 6

Theodore stared blankly at the Sandslash. He was entirely unsure as to what the strange and inarticulate creature had wanted but he ultimately gave it little thought as he lazily went back towards the spot he left his spade. There was still dirt to be dug, treasures to be found and... blah blah blah, all that crap. He would find something sooner or later.

Robin
Jessica & Tobias
Points: 3

Dig, dig, dig... The past was nice. It was good to think about. It was nostalgic, it was important. There was merit in contemplating the past and there was a certain convenience in letting your mind wander when your mind didn't matter at all. It was only a sharp thunk that pulled Jessica out of her own thoughts and back into reality. What was in front of her was an odd little box that was locked. It was ornate... she wondered what was inside.

Keivera watched in horror as the ditto-bronzor began to make an awful metallic noise. She was about to ask if he was alright when he started shifting back into his normal state. She hadn't been aware that the guild had a ditto member, but it made sense. The guild was one of equal opportunity so long as the the little bow could be retrieved from one of the nearby hostile areas.

Kent, although well traveled, had never seen a ditto before. Though he had heard tales of their transformation ability, it was something else entirely to see it with his own eyes. The sight of the transformation, which yielded an identical copy of himself, startled him slightly. He took a small step back and tilted his head in a curious manner, watching in fascination as the ditto-growlithe dug with ease. The ditto was using his newly formed claws in a manner just as effective as if he'd held the form for his entire life. "You are quite adept with your abilities, my good er.." he trailed off, pausing for only a second before continuing. "Pardon me, is it more appropriate to address you as sir, madam, or something else? I am quite naive of such things as I have never met a ditto before and don't know what is proper. I would hate to offend without meaning to. I hope you can forgive me."

The only indication Arlyn gave that he had observed any of what had transpired was his flattened ears from where the noise, being so close by, had hurt his sensitive hearing. Beyond that, he paid little attention to the ditto and was instead more interested in moving the remains of the book that he had soaked only moments before. He hoped that some of it could be salvaged, but somehow he doubted it.

((And team Catalyst would roll 91, found nothing this post. Total points: - 2 ))



Viper had barely heard the small pokemon that happened upon her struggling form. Being upside down she couldn't really tell who, or what, had proclaimed that they were going to get help. She just hoped they hurried back. She couldn't tell how long she'd been down here. It couldn't have been more than just a few minutes, but even still, it felt as if she was being squeezed more and more as time went on. This was even worse than when she had first evolved and developed the shell she hated so much. "Someone get me outta here! Mortimer! If you're there, just wait till I get out of this hole! You're gonna get it! You hear me?!?!! Just wait till I get out of here! Is anyone listening to me?! Hello?!!"

After turning in the ripped leather hide and the coin, Morty headed over to a different area to dig. An area far away from his partner. He was quite content to leave her in that hole for awhile so he didn't have to listen to her. On his way over to the spot he'd settled on, his paw dislodged a small rock. Upon closer inspection, he found a fossilized leaf. Seeing no reason to wait, he turned around and headed back for the turn in. Turning in an artifact was extremely important afterall. Especially if they wanted to catalog every item in a timely manner.

((And Team Verruckt would roll 14, fossilized leaf. Total points: 4 ))



Murdock was going to be busy clearing away the debris from the altar for awhile. It was a rather big undertaking. After some time he instructed Cerin to stay with it while he went to go get the client, or part of the client's archaeological team at the very least. They would want to see the altar and it was going to take more than just him and Cerin to finish clearing it off.

((And Murdock would roll 41, nothing new this post. Total points: 9 ))