As a result of Athena and Keeper's heroic actions, the destruction of time was stopped and peace returned to the world of Pokémon. Of course, not everything returned to normal right away. Some places remained where time was still out of control, but overall, things were becoming better everywhere.
<Athena> After all, there needs to be some kind of narrative justification for dungeons and recruitable Pokémon to still exist everywhere.
As for Athena and Keeper, they returned to Wigglytuff's Guild and fell back into their daily routine of vigorous training.
<Athena> Yay, filler dungeons! \o/
One morning, several months later in the meeting room of the guild...
<Keeper> Huh? Graduation? :O
<Tails> Yep! Graduation from the guild. You'll have more freedom to do what you want and not get stuck with training all the time. You still have to pass the final exam, though.
<Athena> Sweet, I'm good at tests.
<Luis> But but but.... we've been around so much longer than Athena and Keeper, so why do they get to take the exam and graduate before we do? :<
<Tails> Because they're the main characters, duh. Also, they're like level 47 or whatever now. Oh, I guess there's the whole "saving the world" thing, too.
<Keeper> So, uh, what's the exam like anyway?
<IA> You're going to be exploring a new dungeon, the Mystifying Forest. Within it is a place called the Luminous Spring. There's a treasure there you need to bring back.
<Tails> If you succeed, you'll officially be able to graduate!
<IA> However, you must also beware of.... THE BOSS. He goes by the title of The Grandmaster of All Things Bad *cue spooky music*
<Athena> *facepalm*
<Keeper> Ohgod, he sounds horrifying. D:
<WPM> HE IS. I TOOK THE EXAM LAST YEAR, AND.... WELL, I'M NOT ALLOWED TO TALK ABOUT IT, BUT IT WAS AWFUL. I FAILED.
<IA> So good luck. ^_^
<Keeper> >___>
<Tails> Anyway, meeting over, everyone is dismissed!
Keeper and I looked at each other, shrugged, and then went off to town to prepare for the trip. On the way, we bumped into 2 NPCs we haven't really had much contact with before, Teddiursa and Ursaring.
<Ursa> 'Sup?
<Keeper> Yo.
<Teddi> We're off to the Mystifying Forest!
<Keeper> Aren't you scared of the The Grandmaster of All Things Bad? D:
<Ursa> The who in the what now?
<Athena> It's some super scary bad guy who apparently lives there or something.
<Teddi> Oh, we go there all the time and we've never seen anyone like that. :\
<Ursa> And now that we've said that, our place in the plot is fulfilled, let's go! *leaves with Teddiursa*
<Keeper> Huh, that's weird.
<Athena> Eh, I always figured there were some kind of shenanigans afoot. Let's just get ready and go.
We rejiggered our inventory and prepared for the new dungeon. Among the random boxes that we collected, I managed to snag a Charme-Fang to replace the Char Claw that somehow disappeared. We also used some TMs to give ourselves some more wide-reaching moves, Vacuum Cut for myself and Wide Slash for Keeper. It was time to say goodbye to the faithful Scratch. Finally ready, we popped back in the guild quick to save and then headed off to the Mystifying Forest.
<Keeper> Huh, I wonder what makes this forest so "mystifying". It just looks like a plain old forest to me.
<Athena> The background music is pretty cool and mysterious.
<Keeper> Yeah, true. Oh well, let's go!
The dungeon was, well, if not mystifying, then certainly weird. There were Pokémon of all types and levels, and a large variety of items as well. So many Pokémon seemed to give such little exp that it almost felt not worth it to spend PP fighting, so we focused on getting through the dungeon quickly without doing much exploration. Eventually we reached the end section, and also met back up with our new NPC friends from earlier.
<Ursa> So, found your big baddy yet?
<Teddi> lolololololololololol
<Keeper> Nope, but I'm sure he'll be around soon.
<Teddi> So, why are you guys here anyway?
<Keeper> We're looking for the Luminous Spring!
<Ursa> Ooooh, fancy.
<Teddi> It's just up ahead. There's only one path, so you can't miss it.
<Ursa> In fact, we were heading there ourselves. Follow us!
<Keeper> Oooh, cool!
Just as Keeper and I stepped forward to reach the path to the spring, we triggered a trap! The... thing in front of us that appeared to be some kind of awkward bush was actually a bunch of grass cover concealing a pitfall trap. We stood up in the hole and looked around, but before we could see anything, it was suddenly pitch dark! The hole above us was closing up and we were trapped!
<Keeper> Well, that was unhandy.
<???> MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
<Athena> >.>?
<Keeper> Who's there? >:|
<???> Welcome to the world.... OF DARKNESS.
<Athena> We noticed. >_>
<???> I am The Grandmaster of All Things Bad!
<Athena> Lovely title, btw.
<???> I and my minions are here! You're surrounded! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Prepare to--
Suddenly the roof opened up, filling the pit with light. Standing in front of us was The Grandmaster of All Things Evil himself and all of his minions.... IA and Tails and the other guildmembers.
<Athena> I knew there were shenanigans. *facepalm*
<Keeper> IA? Tails? Everyone? What are you doing here? o_o;
<Tails> Zyflair... what happened to the cover?!
<Zyflair> Oh, whoops, sorry guys. I just thought was a bit too dark in there to see anything so I opened it up... was I not supposed to? >_>
<Tails> *double facewing*
<Keeper> So, uh, IA.... what's going on?
<TGMATB> Huh? Who's IA?
<Keeper> o_o?
<TGMATB> I am the Grandmaster of All Things Bad! I don't know anything about anyone called IA.
<Athena> *sigh*
<Tails> Uh, yes, that's right! And we're, uh, just plain old minions.
<Teal> It's so true! I've never even heard of the name "Teal" before!
<TGMATB> As I was saying... prepare to be annihilated! YOOM...TAH!
And so Keeper and I were engaged in battle against our fellow Guildmates. IA was the toughest of them all, but because they were such a large group, the battle was surprisingly difficult! Both Keeper and I needed to be revived once, and I used a healing berry as well. I focused on keeping IA disabled and then taking care of the other, easier members with Keeper before we combined forces to take down IA at the very end.
<TGMATB> Urk! They got me... everyone, abandon your posts! *flees*
Keeper and I climbed out of the pit as everyone else spring up and ran for the hills.
<Athena> Well... that was weird.
<Keeper> We did good though, right?
<Athena> I think so?
<Keeper> I guess we should continue onto the Spring now...
We continued on ahead, eventually coming to the Spring and running into Ursaring and Teddiursa again.
<Ursa> Hey, what kept you guys?
<Keeper> ... I'd rather not get into it. But, uh, what's up?
<Teddi> We found a treasure box!
<Ursa> We've never seen this here before, so it was kind of weird.
<Teddi> I thought about opening it, but I have a bad feeling about it...
<Ursa> So we're not sure what to do. It could be a trap!
<Keeper> Oh, don't worry about that. That treasure is why Athena and I are here! We'll open it up.
<Ursa> Oh, cool.
<Athena> I guess I'll do the honours, then, but first, just in case... *touches box* Yeah, IA put this here, so it should be safe.
I opened the box and out popped...
<Teddi> ... a Perfect Apple?
<Athena> Leave it to IA to decide that a Perfect Apple is worthy of treasure status. *sigh*
<Keeper> I guess we ought to bring it back to the guild then. *grabs apple*
As Keeper grabbed the apple, suddenly a bright shaft of light broke through the gloom and down into the spring!
<Ursa> Oh, cool, the spring must be back to normal now after the time shenanigans.
<Teddi> Hurray! I knew it would happen eventually. And now I can evolve again! :D
<Keeper> Evolve?
<Ursa> Yeah, this place gives some Pokémon the power to evolve somehow. Or something.
<Athena> Yeah, evolving is weird in this world. I just don't even bother pretending to understand it. Go stand in the light and do your magic evolution thing, little bro.
<Keeper> I don't even know what evolution is... ._.;
<Athena> Man, the quality of education around here mus be pretty lack. I'll tell you about it later, Keeper.
<Teddi> Or you can just watch me!
Teddiursa walked over to the lightbeam, spoke some words to a mysterious entity, and suddenly he involved into Ursaring!
<Ursa> 'Sup?
<Ursa> Congrats! :D
<Keeper> Ohgod, I can't tell them apart... @_@;
<Athena> I'll start calling the one that used to be Teddiursa NewUrsa then.
<NewUrsa> Sweet, I'm fancy.
<Keeper> Man, I wanna try evolving! *runs into the light*
<LightBeam> Hey, you wanna evolve?
<Keeper> Yes please!
<LightBeam> .... well, sorry, no can do.
<Keeper> What?! Why not? D:
<LightBeam> Dunno. Probably because plot, I guess. The little orange one can't evolve yet either.
<Athena> Damn.
<Keeper> Are you sure you can't even give us any vague hints or anything?
<LightBeam> Very well then. You cannot evolve because of the "distortion of space".
<Keeper> But that doesn't mean anything!
<LightBeam> Hey, you're the one who asked for a vague hint.
<Keeper> *sigh* Fine, whatever, let's just go.
Keeper and I used our badges to teleport back to the guild. Everyone was in the main room waiting for us as we walked in and presented the Perfect Apple to IA.
<IA> You've passed the graduation exam! Congrats! ^_^
<Everyone> Hurray! :D
<Keeper> So, are you finally going to admit to being The Grandmaster of All Things Bad now?
<IA> Huh? I'm sorry, I'm afraid I have no idea what you're talking about.
<Athena> *facepalm*
<Everyone> *nervous laughter*
<Tails> Anyway, since you've graduated the guild, you can more or less do whatever you want now.
<Keeper> So we can finally keep all the money we make on jobs, sweet! :D
<Tails> Actually... no. You still owe a debt to the build and therefore we still take almost all of your money.
<Keeper> So... not much really is changing then, is it.
<MtC> Tonnes of things change for you! Like, uh...
<SR> You get this sweet larger bag!
<WPM> AND SOME MONEY, HERE.
<Tails> Also, you get kicked out, so you'll have to go live somewhere else now. Ta-ta!
Keeper and I waved to everyone then moved our stuff over to the Sharpedo cave where we stayed with TGK. It was a nice place, so might as well. It was time to start a new series of adventures!