Chris Waters ("NightFox" / Fennekin) & Natalie Pence (MoneyBunny / Buneary)
Exploration Team Lucky Strike
Exploration Team Dojo
Affected RPers: N/A

Initially, Natalie wasn't keen on the idea for training before starting anything, but Chris knew the way to conquer most video games with little risk was to grind, only now it had a much more authentic feel. Unlike video games of the past, fatigue was very real. There was no being able to fight, jump, run, and attack endlessly without the need for breaks. But before engaging on any missions, Chris wanted to know and hone all the powers and attacks of his Fennekin form before heading out. Not to mention the dojo was barely in use at the moment and there was plenty of free space.

"Good lord, okay, this was more of a workout than I thought," Natalie remarked, having been doing Buneary aerobics for over an hour. "I'm pretty freakin' sure I've mastered Pound attack for the sixty-seventh time over."

"You wanted to focus more on bounty hunter missions, right?" Chris asked, smirking a bit. "Well, we gotta make sure we can beat the stuffing out of them first."

"Well, the dojo is nice..." Natalie remarked, wiping the sweat from her brow with her paw. "But seriously though, dude. I saw an entry-level mission for just beating up and bringing in a delinquent Rattata. That can't possibly be that hard."

"I'm sure it's not," Chris replied, testing out another Ember attack on a nearby stone column target. "But let's face it, it seems lame. I say it's better to work out, get pumped, and take on something a little more interesting than bagging some random rat in the middle of nowhere."

Natalie nodded, though she felt going on entry-level missions here and there wouldn't be such a bad idea after having spent a long time in the dojo working out and grinding away. And then there was the other matter.

"Besides, we need to wait until a GM gets back to Naomi regarding the log out thing," Chris told her, figuring they might as well keep at it. "If we leave town and she tries to find us, well, that'll suck."

"Eh, yeah, fine," Natalie agreed with a shrug. "It's been almost an hour though. I swear, these GMs are slow."

"Probably just bogged down with a bunch of beginning game bugs that need to be worked out," Chris replied, practicing some more exercises. "Heck, they sure didn't spend too much time beta-testing. Usually those tests go on for at least two weeks before they pack up."

Still, Chris couldn't help but wonder and he hadn't seen Naomi for a while. Did she get a response, find a way to log off, and just forgot to tell them? He figured he'd give it another hour, but after that, he felt it wouldn't be smart to just keep waiting for someone who might have totally forgotten about the whole plan to let them know about the log out feature of the game. They would he would have been surprised if Naomi did that. She didn't seem like the kind that would. Or maybe she just didn't know they were in the dojo at the moment, but Chris figured the guild wasn't all that big and she'd find them sooner or later.

After taking a rest for about ten minutes, Naomi had located Chris and Natalie. It seemed she had been running all over the place and was relieved to finally find them.

"Hey!" Chris greeted her. "Welcome back! Did those GMs get back to you?"

"They never did," Naomi let out a hard sigh, beginning to look worried. "There's also a lot of people gathered out in the town square. Everyone's having the same issue and they're beginning to panic. They said we should have been able to log out of the game via the Khangaskhan Rock but it doesn't do anything."

"Did a beta tester confirm that?" Chris asked her, really wondering what the issue was. "If that's the case, that's a pretty big bug. They should have it fixed up soon enough, I imagine."

"Yeah, I hope so..." Naomi muttered. "My partner, my friend Carla who got Flabébé as her Pokémon, is really freaking out over it. Usually she's not like this..."

In a way, doing something besides thinking about the crisis was helping Chris and Natalie to forget about the issue, but the more and more it went unresolved, the more it started to concern them deep inside. Usually newly launched games would have definitely had a feature liked this worked out, and it didn't make sense that the feature worked fine in the beta, but then not work during the actual live game?

"I'll try talking to her," Chris said back to Naomi. "I'm guessing she's at the square?"

"Yes," Naomi nodded, looking a bit anxious. "It's not a pretty scene..."

Despite the warning, Chris and Natalie decided to head out and get an idea of what was really going on. And to hopefully cheer Carla up.