The Magma Depths- Part 1

                                    

                                          
Heya, everyone! As of today, it's been one year since I finished this story off, so I wanted to create a little mini-series to celebrate and revisit the world one year later. 
This isn't going to be anything huge, just a little story featuring the world of Malena and its characters. With that preamble out of the way, let's get right into the story!
Zax yawned and opened his eyes as his alarm began to go off. It was time for another day at the Guild.
He looked over at Alpha, who had predictably slept through the alarm, and slid out of his bed. Everyone else had another two hours of sleep, but Zax had lots to prepared before that.
He walked out of the refurbished Guild room and down the hall to his central office. 
The newly rebuilt guild hadn't been changed too much from its first incarnation. The storage rooms were now accessible via the elevator as a basement, instead of a secondary Guildmaster office off to the side there was now a plaque memorializing those who had died in the Shadow Wars, and the bookshelves around Zax's office walls were barren.
Most of the records that were kept in his office had been completely destroyed a year ago and the group was still trying to track down a backup archive Friction had allegedly created at some point.
Zax looked at the agenda of things for today that he had prepared last night. A new group of tourists was coming in, Ellie and some of her Dragon friends were performing some sort of show for the visitors, and Marshadow was set to come home today.
Zax was eager to be reunited with his shadowy friend. The Shadow King had been seeing the sights of the world and written many letters to Zax about it. 
Zax worked through the rest of the two hours until Melanie was up as well. She made the wake-up announcement on the PA system that got everyone else up and the day officially began.
Zax got through his attendance and morning announcements without much issue and dismissed the Guild Members. 
The rest of the morning droned on with teams departing on quests and Zax making sure all of their plans were in order. As the afternoon came closer Zax gathered Alpha, Omega, and Jet and the four of them went to the port where Marshadow's ship was pulling in.
Their friend disembarked the ship with a bag in each hand with an unfamiliar spring in his step-er float. 
Marshadow noticed them and drifted over to the group of four. "Hello, Zax and friends." He said in his trademark soft-spoken voice.
"Good to have you back Marshadow! How was the trip?" Zax asked him. 
The group began walking back to the Guild and Marshadow awed at all the reconstruction that had been done. "It was really great. I got to see so many wonderful things. This world really is amazing. How has everything been here? Any trouble?"
"No more than usual." Jet answered.
Alpha rolled his eyes. "Our usual is fighting shadow creatures from another dimension. I'd say there's been a lot less trouble."
"It's just a figure of speech." Jet shot back.
Zax was relieved they arrived at the guild before the two Pokémon could start bickering with each other. 
Marshadow took in the rebuilt guild. He had a look of childlike wonder on his face. "What a marvelous reconstruction job you've all done."
The Pokémon's unique wonder towards simple things couldn't help but make Zax smile. "Yeah, Ralph really did some amazing work. Your room is the last one down the left hall." Zax said, pointing in the direction of the aforementioned room.