Brendan found himself sitting on the ground later that morning looking over his map of the surrounding area. He wanted to find a new teammate for himself and Fomantis, but was struggling on where to look. His eyes traced the route west from Oldale. He was loath to go anywhere near Petalburg, but as long as he stuck to the route it could be fine.
Back south towards Littleroot was out, there were very few powerful pokemon species out that way. His eyes were drawn to a small dot just southeast of Oldale. Isabella had marked this area as an old set of ruins that had a wider variety of pokemon living there. Her note implied they were a bit stronger than the pokemon around Littleroot or Oldale as well. Coming to a decision, Brendan stood up and put away the pokedex. He’d definitely find his next teammate around those ruins.
Brendan called out to Fomantis, who was practicing razor leaf on a nearby tree.
“Hey Fomantis, let’s go! I decided where we’re headed.”
Fomantis quickly ran over and jumped to his favorite spot on Brendan’s shoulders.
Brendan chuckled, “Ready to go, bud?”
Fomantis chirped excitedly and pointed a leaf-scythe onwards.
The ruins seemed a lot closer on the map, Brendan thought as he and Fomantis fought their way through the thick forest southeast of Oldale. They were only six hours into their journey and it had already been a miserable experience.
They’d accidentally disturbed a field full of sunkern that wailed in distress. Which wouldn’t have been that bad except for their sunflora parents had shown up. He never knew a flower could be so menacing. Fomantis had needed to cover their escape with a leafage centered on them. Brendan still had a few cuts from the leaves.
Then, they’d stopped by a pond to refill his water bottles. There, they were attacked by an aggressive school of basculin. The school managed to drive them away, but not before Fomantis had honed his razor leaf on half a dozen of the water-types.
Currently they were muddling their way through an area with such dense undergrowth it felt like a jungle. Brendan hoped they were getting close to the ruins by now; he needed a break. Just as he was about to call Fomantis back for a water break, he heard the grass-type chirp excitedly. Brendan quickly caught up with him and had to stop for a moment to stare.
They’d crested a hill and stepped out of the forest into what seemed a vast, rolling prairie dotted with several large ponds here and there. Further out into the area Brendan could spot the tall spires of black rock that marked the ruins Isabella had written about. Brendan looked down at Fomantis.
“We finally made it. That was quite the trek.”
Fomantis chirped amusedly at Brendan, he had found the journey refreshing.
“Yeah yeah, laugh it up. We’ll see who’s laughing during training later.” Brendan smiled evilly.
Fomantis abruptly quieted with a shudder. Brendan chuckled before giving the area another once-over.
“What do you say we find a place to set up camp? We might be here a few days. Even if we find our new partner quickly, I wanna look around this place.”
Fomantis chirped and sped off toward the closest pond with Brendan following along sedately. A few minutes later they found a decent spot to set up camp near a different pond further in, inhabited by a (seemingly) friendly pod of slowpoke. Fomantis found the pink creatures interesting. They laid still enough that he thought they photosynthesized like himself until Brendan told him otherwise.
Brendan and Fomantis spent the rest of the day and the next day exploring the fields and ponds in the area. The two met and battled many pokemon, even several that had Brendan tempted to capture them, but he never really felt them click like it had when he met Fomantis. He could almost hear his grandfather calling him foolish, and perhaps he was being too naive, but Brendan believed that you should feel a connection with a pokemon before you caught it.
On the afternoon of their third day near the ruins Brendan and Fomantis were taking a break after they’d battled a particularly tough roselia. They had explored most of the area outside the ruins so far and Brendan was thinking it was just about time to head that way, when another pond caught his eye near a copse of trees. At first it seemed like any other pond, but as he gave it a closer look he noticed there were no pokemon to be found in or around it. Strange. He poked Fomantis.
“Hey bud, see that pond over there? Let’s go check it out. It seems a little strange.”
Fomantis had recovered from the roselia’s poison by now and followed Brendan quickly.
They approached the seemingly deserted pond cautiously. As they arrived at the edge of the pond, Brendan noticed the water was a bit murkier than the rest of the area. Perhaps that was what caused the inhabitants to move? As they were studying the pond, all of a sudden, he and Fomantis were struck by a muddy wave of water. Standing back up and wiping the water from his eyes, Brendan saw a pokemon emerge from the water and glare at both him and Fomantis. It looked like a giant crayfish with vicious claws. Brendan recognized it as a Hoenn-native, Corphish. It made sense for the pond to be abandoned now; Corphish and their evolved counterpart Crawdaunt tended to chase other pokemon away with their incessant desire to battle and general bad attitude. Brendan called out to it.
“Did you want a fight?”
The corphish clacked its claws in eagerness and nodded.
Brendan gave it a once over and noticed it was a large specimen for its breed, with several small scars here and there that had accumulated since its last molting. This corphish clearly was a fighter. He began to feel himself grow excited.
“Alright, if you want a fight we’ll give it to you! Right Fomantis?”
Fomantis let out a low chirp and took up a position in front of Brendan on the edge of the pond. As soon as the grass type took his position, the corphish exploded forward out of the water towards him.
“Dodge and slash!” Brendan called out. The corphish was a lot faster than he’d been expecting, but Brendan had some suspicions on that as he eyed the water that swelled underneath the pokemon.
Fomantis was able to get out of the way of the speedy corphish and swung his sickles down on the back of the water-type. They clashed against the hardy shell, only making a small crack. Brendan frowned at this, but he noticed the corphish seemed much more wary of them now that he’d been wounded, however slightly.
The corphish pulled back into the water for a moment, then exploded back out the same way. This time Brendan was paying close attention and caught the water-type’s usage of aqua jet, explaining the burst of acceleration. Now that he’d figured it out, though, he had a plan.
“Take the hit and throw it out of the water!” Brendan said lowly. Fomantis seemed to have caught on and nodded. The corphish hurtled towards Fomantis riding a jet of water and crashed into him heavily. Fomantis was able to use the momentum to push corphish along further from the water, however, in exchange for the strong blow. Both pokemon struggled to their feet. The corphish had recognized what happened and looked furious as it regarded its much drier surroundings.
The water type was not one to hang back and strategize it seemed, and immediately rushed forward. Without the augmented speed provided by aqua jet available it covered its approach with a steady stream of water guns.
“Obscure with leafage, then razor leaf!” Brendan decisively countered.
Fomantis jumped and spun around the water guns, releasing spiralling leaves as he did so. The leaf whirlwind rushed towards the corphish, forcing it to abandon its reckless charge in order to dodge the super-effective move. As planned however, a blindingly fast razor leaf exploded out from Fomantis towards the still dodging corphish. The move impacted with a sickening crack as it sliced right through the water-type’s shell. Remarkably, the corphish seemed to still want to fight, or it just didn’t know how to quit.
Brendan called out somberly. “Finish it with slash”
Fomantis approached the nearly unconscious corphish to put an end to the fight, but the water-type still had enough fight left to catch Fomantis with a vice-grip just as it fell unconscious. Fomantis shrieked in pain and launched the fainted water-type away in anger.
“Whoa, bud. You alright?” Brendan asked worriedly as he approached.
Fomantis let out a low, embarrassed chirp.
“Yeah, gotta be careful of that final burst of energy I suppose. So what do you think? I think it has the kind of spunk we need on our team. Hell of a fighter too.”
Fomantis looked thoughtful, then chirped positively.
“Yeah, and I know you enjoyed that fight until you got caught unaware there at the end. Not many water-types can give you a good run for it. Let’s see what it thinks.”
Brendan approached the unconscious corphish and started to treat its wounds with a mixture of revives and potions. As it woke up, the water-type scuttled backward quickly away from Brendan.
“Ah, don’t worry, I was just treating your wounds.” Brendan soothed. “Couldn’t do anything about that though.” Brendan pointed to the large scar running diagonally down the corphish’s shell where the razor leaf had impacted. The water-type looked down at the scar and its eyes widened, before it puffed out its chest and displayed the scar with pride.
“That’s the spirit! It was a great battle, not many water types can push Fomantis so hard.” Brendan praised.
The corphish nodded and looked over at Fomantis with much more respect, and a clear willingness to battle again. Brendan took this chance to make his pitch.
“You know, we came out this way looking for a new teammate to join us in our journey. I want to be one of the best, and so does Fomantis. So, we need teammates who have that determination and fight in them. You seem to fit the bill from what I’ve seen. So, what do you say, want to join us?”
The corphish was taken aback for a moment, then stared at Brendan and Fomantis in thought. It looked down at the new scar on its chest and that seemed to help make its decision. It gave a nod.
Brendan whooped. “Alright, welcome to the team Corphish!”
Corphish let out a low trill and banged its claws against its chest. Fomantis chirped and then dug through Brendan’s pack for a berry. He sliced it into thirds and gave them each a piece.
After they ate the berry Brendan almost facepalmed. “Oh, right, I have to officially capture you, ok?”
Corphish nodded and stood still as Brendan tapped it with the pokeball. After confirming the capture Brendan promptly released the water-type and retrieved his pokedex.
“I’m going to scan you with this, alright?” Brendan questioned.
Corphish sat down to rest and nodded.
The pokedex scanned Corphish and pulled up a profile for Brendan to read.
Corphish, the Ruffian Pokémon. Corphish is exceptional in its ability to survive. It adapts to any environment, will drive out its inhabitants, and claim the territory for its own.
This Corphish is male and knows the moves: Water Gun, Harden, Vice-Grip, Bubble Beam, and Protect
It also knows the egg move Aqua Jet. Its ability is Adaptability, which strengthens its ability to wield its natural moves.
Brendan was very satisfied with Corphish’s move list and marveled at his ability. Adaptability only manifested in a few members of the already small list of species it occurred in. In short, these pokemon’s bodies were extremely well suited to wielding the energy of their natural types. So much so that it empowered moves used of those types to a degree beyond that of other pokemon. Effectively, a Corphish with adaptability using water gun would be much more powerful than a Corphish without, all other factors the same. The ability granted a lesser benefit in that it made moves of the same type easier to learn. There was a downside, however, in that moves of a different type would be slightly harder to learn, but that can be overcome with a little longer spent training.
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Silently going over future training plans, Brendan looked over at Corphish and said. “You’ve got a great foundation. You’ll be a powerful crawdaunt someday.”
Corphish trilled, sounding satisfied.
“Oh yeah, do you want a nickname?”
Corphish looked intrigued and trilled affirmatively.
“Hmm, Crusher? No, Riptide? Hmm..”
They went through a dozen options before they landed on one Corphish found acceptable.
“Rogue, huh? Alright, Rogue it is.” Brendan chuckled.
The newly named Rogue trilled excitedly and blew a bubble at him.
Brendan sat down heavily next to his pokemon.
“Whew, I’m beat. Let’s leave exploring the ruins till tomorrow.”
Fomantis chirped in agreement, already perched on Brendan’s back. Rogue scoffed at the mention of rest and attempted to muster the energy to head towards the ruins, but collapsed back down in exhaustion a moment later. Brendan laughed but gently said.
“No shame in taking a rest. Can’t push your body too hard or you’ll just hurt it. Besides, the ruins will still be there tomorrow. We’ll spend the evening making a training plan for you, how about that?”
Rogue looked mollified at that and nodded as Brendan returned him. Brendan and Fomantis returned to camp for the night afterward.
Brendan made good on his promise to make a training plan for Rogue quickly, as the water-type wouldn’t leave him alone until he did. The plan was of a similar intensity to Fomantis’ as Brendan considered them quite close in power for now. He instituted a new evening time drill as well, which consisted of a nightly spar. He thought both of his teammates would enjoy that. They spent the next few days similarly, exploring the prairie and honing themselves against the wild pokemon. The nightly spars weren’t quite enough for Rogue, though, as he challenged Fomantis three or four times a day. One evening Brendan dozed off sitting down at the trunk of a tree next to Fomantis, watching Rogue futilely challenge the slowpoke to battle. This was what a pokemon journey was all about, he thought.
Brendan was suddenly awoken by the sound of a distant explosion. He scrambled to his feet and looked at his watch. 4 a.m. He found Fomantis and Rogue at the edge of their camp looking out towards the spires of the ruins. They seemed uncomfortable, which was strange.
“What's going on guys?” Brendan questioned.
Rogue shrugged but kept his eyes trained on the ruins. Fomantis pointed at the ground outside the spires. As Brendan got a better look he noticed scorch marks and a few bodies of pokemon that he really hoped were just unconscious.
“Did some powerful fire-type move in?” Brendan mused. That was an uncomfortable thought. Most powerful fire-types were aggressively territorial, and wouldn’t let Brendan and his team remain so close. Fomantis shook his head however and started drawing in the dirt with his scythes.
“There were humans going in there?” Brendan realized as he took in the drawings.
Fomantis nodded. Brendan frowned and said.
“Strange, Isabella’s notes implied not many people knew about this place. No one up to any good would be scorching pokemon like that, especially at this time of night. Let’s go get a closer look; I wanna figure out who these guys are. You scout ahead Fomantis, Rogue will stay with me.”
Fomantis nodded and disappeared into the tall grass, his natural camouflage rendering him near invisible. Rogue clacked his claws together and stood next to Brendan. They cautiously approached the ruins. Brendan turned an inquisitive eye to the ruins as he got close enough for the first time. They were clearly ancient; the stone buildings nearly completely broken down from time. The only intact things were the tall spires surrounding the broken structures. As they approached the closest spire, Fomantis appeared out of the nearby grass.
“Did you see them, bud?” Brendan inquired.
Fomantis nodded and marked out two tallies on the ground.
“Two trainers? and Pokemon?”
Fomantis nodded again, but hesitated afterward, drawing another tally.
Brendan was confused for a moment. “Is there another person?”
Another nod.
“Are they not with the other trainers?”
Fomantis seemed hesitant, and then grabbed some grass and wrapped them around his scythes, almost like manacles. Brendan brightened in realization.
“They have a captive?”
Fomantis chirped in agreement.
That put the situation in a whole new light, thought Brendan. He’d love nothing better than to just run out there and attempt to help the captive, but he needed more information that Fomantis probably couldn’t give.
“Let’s get a little closer, guys. Stealthily though, and don’t do anything without my say-so.” Brendan said seriously to his team.
Brendan and his pokemon crept closer, around to the side of one of the dilapidated buildings. As they rounded the corner, they found themselves looking at an open square, surrounded by the broken buildings. In the middle of the square there were two older trainers wearing strange outfits that almost looked like uniforms, a man and a woman. They both wore red shirts and pants with a red vest bearing an unknown symbol that looked like a mountain, or maybe an M, and red hoods with two black protrusions that looked like horns. They each had pokemon at their feet, two houndour and two poochyena that all looked quite vicious. Another man with spiky brown hair pulled into a ponytail and hands tied behind his back was slumped against the side of one of the stone structures. Brendan recognized his garb as that of a Pokemon Professor, but he didn’t recognize the man. The two presumably criminal trainers loomed over him, and Brendan was just close enough to hear their conversation.
“So, will you help us activate the key or not, Professor?” The man said.
“Yeah, we’d hate to have to get physical again, wouldn’t we?” The woman cruelly laughed.
The bound Professor sighed heavily. “Please, no, I’ll do it. As long as you promise to leave me be afterward!”
“Of course Professor, we told you all we needed was your help with the key.” The man responded “Now up, we don’t have much time till Blaise gets here and between you and me; you’d really rather have it done before he arrives.”
Brendan gaped, horrified, as he watched the two drag the bound man down a staircase further into the ruins. This was much, much worse than he had imagined. He quickly retrieved his pokedex and activated the distress beacon included in all models. It would attract the nearest Pokemon Ranger to respond to the signal. He thanked his lucky stars that they weren’t too far off-route for it to work; they usually worked up to a day’s travel off-route.
He could just wait for the Ranger to arrive and sort out this mess, but his eyes kept going back to the staircase where the three vanished. Who knows what they were doing down there. Could he really let those two do whatever they wanted to the other man? Making a decision, he stood up and addressed his pokemon.
“Alright guys, I want to follow them down there and help that man. From what we saw, they only have those two pokemon each. I’m pretty sure you can handle them, yeah?” Brendan asked.
Both Fomantis and Rogue nodded and seemed quite serious, Rogue clacking his pincers together in anticipation.
“Ok, let’s follow them down. If we can, I’d like to ambush them to level the playing field.”
They crept down the stone staircase into a dank cavern dimly lit by glowing fungus on the walls, with a small underground lake to the side. Ahead he could see the trio of criminals and professor in front a large stone door with intricate carvings on it and 4 small indentations on the corners. The professor was in the process of pressing glowing stones into the indentations on the door. As the last stone clicked into place, the carvings on the door began to glow and, with a sound of grinding stone, the door swung open. The woman pushed the professor to the floor as she rushed past him into the room while the man stood guard. Brendan could hear the woman shriek from inside the room.
“What the hell? There’s nothing in here!”
“What? Are you sure?” the man responded.
“Yes, I’m sure! Just a bunch of carvings.” The woman bit out.
While they were arguing back and forth, Brendan thought this was the best chance they would get. The woman’s pokemon were in the room with her, so they had a small window to take out the man’s pokemon before the woman could help. Brendan called out quietly to his team.
“Fomantis, take out the poochyena, double fury cutter. Follow with a razor leaf if that’s not enough. Rogue, use the water from that lake to fuel your aqua jet and handle that houndour. Catch it with your vice-grip to finish it.”
His team followed his instructions immediately, to the letter. Fomantis leapt from the shadows onto the poochyena, who only had time to yelp before fainting. Meanwhile, Rogue dove into the water and then exploded out with aqua jet and crashed into the growling houndour like a missile. As the spray from the water cleared, Brendan could see Rogue standing atop the downed pokemon, claws at the ready.
The man whirled around as his pokemon were taken out.
“What the.. a kid? Where the hell’d you come from?”
The man backed up towards the room where his compatriot was and yelled.
“Hey, get out here, got some kinda hero poking his nose in.”
At this, the woman and her pokemon appeared from inside the room where she’d been.
“A kid? How’d you lose to him? Whatever, sic ‘em!” she pointed and sent her pokemon toward Brendan. Rogue and Fomantis intercepted them mid-air, however, and the four pokemon fell to the ground in a brawl. Brendan could see the poochyena being flung around, with Rogue’s claws clamped onto its leg. Fomantis was gracefully dodging gouts of flame from the houndour, who seemed to be tiring quickly. The battle was finished in another few moments, as his team handily defeated the woman’s pokemon.
“Tch, so the boy wonder has some bite with his bark. This place is a wash anyway. So we’ll just get out of your way then.” The woman said nonchalantly. Brendan glared at her and didn’t move out of the way, his pokemon standing in front of him.
“You two aren’t going anywhere actually. The ranger’s will be here in a bit, and I’ll let them figure out what to do with you.” he barked.
The man just chuckled. “Oh I don’t think so. See our boss will be here sooner than the rangers I’d wager. And he’ll be mad enough that this place turned out to be empty. You don’t want to be keeping us here when he shows up. So be reasonable. We haven’t hurt anyone, just a bit of friendly kidnapping. Let us leave and our boss won’t have to make you.”
Brendan frowned, pondering whether the man was bluffing or not. At that moment, however, he heard from behind him a new voice call out.
“I’ll thank you not to use my name to threaten people, grunt.”
Low flames all of a sudden filled the cavern, and a tall man, with blond hair covering one of his eyes appeared next to the two defeated trainers, a magcargo appearing alongside him. He looked balefully at the two, who stiffened up and saluted crisply.
“I’ll discuss your failures later.” the new trainer said. “We must leave before the ranger’s show up.”
He looked over to Brendan and addressed him. “Be thankful I don’t have the time to stay and teach you a lesson, but if you cross the path of Team Magma in the future I won’t be so lenient.”
Brendan gritted his teeth in anger and said. “You aren’t going anywhere! Fomantis, Rogue, stop them!”
Hesitating but a moment, his pokemon shot towards the trainer and his magcargo. The man shook his head.
“Stupid kid. Magcargo, flamethrower.”
The pokemon breathed in, then released a torrent of flames towards Brendan’s teammates. Rogue shielded Fomantis from the brunt of the super-effective attack, but both were still ultimately knocked unconscious. Brendan yelped, returning both of them, and could only watch as the trio of trainers escaped.
He sighed in defeat, before remembering the still tied up professor. He rushed over to the man on the floor, helping him up.
“Ah, I’m so sorry, I almost forgot you were here.” He said, as he undid the man’s bindings.
The man just chuckled weakly and said. “Understandable, lad. That was quite a bit of excitement. Thank you for trying to save me. I didn’t trust them to leave me alone after they’d gotten what they wanted.”
The man stood up weakly and Brendan got a better look at him for the first time. He was younger than Brendan had imagined, looking slightly younger than Professor Birch.
“Ah, I should introduce myself. Professor Alden Spruce, at your service.”
“Nice to meet you, Professor. I’m Brendan, rookie trainer, and you saw my team, Fomantis and Rogue.”
Brendan responded as he released the unconscious pokemon and began to treat their injuries. They weren’t too badly hurt, he thought, but he’d get them to a pokemon center as soon as possible.
“Yes, they were remarkably skilled for a beginning team.” The professor praised, absentmindedly. “Now, do you see where those orbs I used on the door went? I think there should be more to this place than just that room.”
Brendan gave the professor a hand and they searched the small inner room and found the orbs quickly. The professor took them and showed Brendan some hidden indents along the carvings in the small room.
“See here, I believe we can find something interesting if we place the orbs here.” He mused.
They placed the orbs and the carvings started to glow just as they did on the door earlier. The room shook and part of the floor receded with a groan, revealing a small staircase going further down. The two descended the staircase eagerly and found themselves in a great cavern, mostly occupied by a huge lake. In the lake they could see large brown and tan fish-like pokemon that looked like floating rocks.
“Oh my, are those Relicanth? My word, what a discovery! This would be only the third group of them found in our modern age.” The professor effused.
Brendan nodded, transfixed. He’d heard of the rare pokemon before. They’d long been thought extinct until just recently.
As he was jumping around excitedly, the professor suddenly fell to the ground clutching his leg. Brendan went to go help him up.
“You’re still hurt, Professor. Let’s get you out of here and the ranger’s can help you to the Pokemon Center. You can come back for the relicanth whenever you’re all healed up.”
The professor nodded weakly. “Right, right you are. I forgot myself for a moment.”
Brendan helped the professor up the two staircases and out into the ruined square. The two had barely sat down when a gust of air buffeted them and a massive swellow landed in front of them, carrying a Pokemon Ranger. The ranger dismounted and approached them, looking severe.
“I’m Ranger Gerald, responding to a pokedex distress beacon. Are you the ones responsible for the beacon?”
“Yes sir!” Brendan stood up and replied.
“What seems to be the problem?” The ranger inquired.
With the help of Professor Alden, Brendan explained the chain of events that led to him activating the beacon, along with what happened after. The ranger affirmed that he did the right thing initially in calling the rangers, but cautioned him against his actions in chasing after the criminals. Chastened, Brendan admitted that his emotions got the best of him. Given their proximity to Oldale Town, the ranger gave the two a ride to the Pokemon Center.
Later that morning, after Nurse Joy had treated his pokemon’s and the professor’s wounds, Brendan and Professor Alden said their goodbyes.
“Thanks for your help again, Brendan. I’m sure you’ll make a wonderful trainer. Whenever you challenge the Rustboro Gym, come by my lab there and I’ll show you around.” he yelled at Brendan from atop his noctowl.
“Anytime, and I will!” waved Brendan as the professor flew away. Brendan turned around, with Fomantis on his back and Rogue skittering behind him. He looked at Oldale fondly; they’d had quite the start to their adventure here. But, it was time to start the next leg of his journey as he looked towards where the trail to Mauville began. He jogged that way and called out to his team.
“C’mon guys, let’s go. No time to waste!”