Several weeks after his gym battle in Lavaridge Brendan found himself looking down at a vast river valley, leading up to a mountain range known as Meteor Falls. Following his battle with Flannery he’d spent a day in Lavaridge recuperating before setting out once more, hiking through the foothills around Mt. Chimney towards Fallarbor Town. He had to suppress a phantom sneeze thinking about those ash-coated hills. They were bathed by volcanic ash from Mt. Chimney year round, causing a unique environment that Brendan hadn’t enjoyed so much.

He hadn’t stayed long at Fallarbor, merely long enough to rest up and resupply, and he was glad to be out of the ash. He knew Fomantis was even more grateful than him. The ash and generally cloudy weather in that region had stymied his photosynthesis, leaving him lethargic and sickly. Brendan looked down at the happily dancing grass-type and reaffirmed his decision to not linger in that area, as much as he might have wanted to explore.

He was looking forward to getting to Rustboro City; he’d be able to visit Professor Alden, not to mention earn his third badge. The gym leader there shouldn’t give him too much trouble, all of his team was quite effective against the rock type, her chosen specialty. It wouldn’t do to underestimate her, however. Gym-leaders were specialists in their chosen type for a reason, Brendan knew Roxanne probably had counters readily available for rock’s weaknesses.

He looked to the mountain range in the distance; he would have to traverse the cave system inside before getting to Rustboro. The range itself extended far to the northeast, while the part he’d have to navigate was only a very small portion of it. That was probably for the best considering the tales of dragon-types making their roost further in the mountains.

Over the next few days Brendan and his team worked their way towards the Falls’ entrance, as always challenging every trainer they came across (as if Rogue would let them do otherwise.) He won a fair amount of the battles, less when it came to the more veteran trainers. As talented a trainer as he thought he was, it wasn’t enough to bridge the gap in maturity and experience, though his team made them work for their victories and ultimately came out stronger for it.

As they entered the Falls, Brendan could only stop and stare. Rather than the dark, dank cave system he’d been imagining, he found a vast, high-ceilinged cavern overlooking a roaring waterfall. The cavern was lit by many rays of sunlight that peeked through the holes dotting the ceiling, supposedly made by meteors over the years. Overall it was a magnificent sight. He could see several trainers already from his position, reminding Brendan that many trainers, chasing the tales of dragon types, congregated here.

Brendan eagerly challenged any of these trainers who would battle him as they travelled the caves. Their dragon pokemon had a natural ferocity and toughness that was beyond what he’d imagined, and they struggled at first, but after some adaptations they fared much better. He, like any young trainer, longed for a dragon-type for himself, but knew from what some of the trainers had told him that the wild dragons were only found further in. Temporarily putting his quest for a dragon on the backburner, he and his team continued their trek.

On their fourth day in the cave system, they’d just entered a small cave that was open to the sky. Needing a break, they’d rested there for a bit, when they heard a noise from the corner. Surprised, Brendan turned and noticed a small blue and white humanoid pokemon levitating about a foot off the ground while meditating. As Rogue often did when Fomantis was too distracted or tired to hold him back, he immediately trilled out a challenge to the wild meditite. The water-type’s challenge was summarily ignored, however, as the meditite made no indication that it had even heard Rogue.

Brendan could barely hold back his laughter at the way Rogue bristled, unused to being ignored. Fomantis had no such tact, his chirping laughter erupting at the sight. Sentry merely hummed, giving Brendan the impression that it’d be rolling its eyes if it could.

After a moment, Rogue’s confusion lapsed into fury and he charged at the meditating pokemon, claws at the ready. The meditite showed no signs of acknowledging the corphish barreling down upon it, until the last moment, when it opened its glowing eyes and reached out a hand to gently divert Rogue’s claw into missing the fighting/psychic type. Brendan’s eyes widened at the proficient use of detect, while Rogue merely shrieked in rage, coming around for another hit. Before the fight could escalate, Brendan called Rogue back.

“Rogue! Come back, wait just a bit.” Rogue looked angrily at Brendan, but calmed as he saw the trainer’s serious look. After Rogue had returned to his side Brendan addressed the meditite.

“Sorry about interrupting your meditation, Rogue here is just a little hot-blooded.”

The meditite didn’t seem to be upset, and merely nodded, staring at Brendan in curiosity as if it could sense he had more to say. And he did.

“If you don’t mind, how about a battle? Fighting types like a challenge right?”

The meditite thought for a moment and nodded, pointing at Fomantis.

“You wanna fight Fomantis? What do you say, bud?”

A little surprised, Brendan looked down at his starter, who nodded eagerly. Brendan chuckled; with Rogue on his team he had nearly forgotten that Fomantis almost as eager to battle as the water-type, just less annoying about it. Rogue looked almost wounded at the thought of not being able to battle, nearly throwing a tantrum before Sentry distracted him by shocking the corphish, starting a spar of their own. Brendan mouthed a ‘thank-you’ to the magnemite before turning back to Fomantis and the meditite.

The meditite bowed deeply to Fomantis and Brendan, and took up a practiced stance. Brendan decided not to interfere too much in this battle, and let Fomantis handle it.

Fomantis began the battle by flooding the area with leafage, hiding in the ensuing storm. Meditite was unphased, however, and simply dissipated the whirlwind of leaves with a deft usage of confusion. Fomantis was revealed, in the last stages of boosting himself with growth. Meditite leapt gracefully towards the grass-type, leading with a glowing palm. Fomantis finished his growth, standing taller than the meditite now, and met the fighting type’s palm with a glowing green scythe, leaf blade active.

The two pokemon exchanged several blows, looking more like a choreographed dance than a fight. Meditite seemed to dodge every blow at the very last second, although sometimes aided by the supernatural insight given by detect. Fomantis dodged most, but not all, the strikes with his innate grace and boosted reflexes. Brendan observed that the strikes that did land on Fomantis were promptly healed, courtesy of his newly mastered move, ingrain, draining the ground of nutrients to fuel healing.

As Brendan analyzed the meditite, he noticed the fighting type didn’t use a very wide variety of moves, he could spot detect, low kick, force palm, confusion, and feint. But, the moves it did use were used masterfully. It seemed this meditite had focused on honing its basics.

Eventually the fighting type did fail to defend against a blow, leaving an opening that Fomantis exploited quickly. The grass-type slashed twice with two powerful leaf blades, leaving the meditite on the edge of consciousness. Brendan called Fomantis back, letting the meditite recover. It stood up after a moment and bowed deeply to the two, trainer and pokemon. Brendan bowed back and Fomantis merely waved a scythe with a chirp.

Seeing the meditites injuries, Brendan fumbled for a potion in his pack, offering to heal the small pokemon’s wounds. It seemed cautious for a moment, before it acquiesced, sitting cross-legged while Brendan applied the medicine. After the medicine had started the healing process, Brendan spoke to the fighting type.

“There you go, that should help you heal up. Thanks for the battle! You’re pretty tough. You like to battle?” he asked.

The meditite nodded, launching into a series of moves, then doing them over again slightly quicker to show Brendan, then mimed to him.

“So you like the improvement. I see. Is that why you’ve focused so much on the basics? You want to master them before moving on to other moves?”

The meditite nodded with an emphatic cry, happy that Brendan had understood.

“Improvement can be pretty slow that way I’d guess, and I’d imagine you’re pretty bored of fighting some of the pokemon around here on your level.”

The fighting type looked a little troubled, but nodded again, miming that it spent most of its time meditating now.

“That’s rough, buddy.” Brendan comforted.

“Hmm, well I may not know much, but I do know that if you never try anything new, you won’t grow. I was stuck spinning my wheels not too long ago, but after I left home and found my teammates, I’ve grown leaps and bounds. That is to say, wanna come with us?” Brendan smiled cheesily, holding up a thumbs up, Fomantis doing the same with a leaf-scythe.

The meditite looked interested and Brendan took this as a cue to go on.

“I want to be the best trainer I can be, and my teammates want the same. We’re travelling all over Hoenn to challenge stronger trainers and eventually go to the Ever Grande Conference where all the strongest compete.”

Springing up from its seated position, the normally calm pokemon seemed fired up. Brendan smiled and said, “So, how does it sound? Want to be a part of the team?”

The fired-up meditite pumped its fist, before seemingly becoming embarrassed, and bowing. Brendan threw a pokeball at the fighting-type, capturing it officially. He pulled out his pokedex and hooked the pokeball to it, scanning the fighting-type inside the ball.

Meditite, the Meditation Pokemon. Meditite undertakes rigorous mental training deep in the mountains. However, whenever it meditates, this Pokémon always loses its concentration and focus. As a result, its training never ends.

This meditite is female and knows the moves: Meditate, Confusion, Low kick, Force Palm, Detect, Feint, Endure, Bide, and Calm Mind. It also knows the egg move Psycho Cut. Its ability is Pure Power, allowing it to augment its physical abilities with psychic power.

Brendan looked over the entry, pleased with the move list. He’d venture that meditite was just too weak to use psycho cut for now, and probably would be until she’d evolved. He released her and introduced her to Sentry and Rogue, who’d finished their impromptu spar.

They got moving again after that, with Brendan coming up with nicknames for Meditite. She tended to dislike most of the stereotypical fighting names. They eventually settled on Dancer, for her elegant movements in battle, at which point Fomantis found another berry to split amongst the team, making sure to remember to grab a battery for Sentry this time.

Brendan and his team continued their sojourn through the caves for the next few days, stopping at a fork in the path when Brendan remembered several trainers telling him of a meteor that had fallen just recently nearby. Telling his team of it, he decided to go take a look, it wasn’t everyday that you got to see space rocks after all.

The meteor’s location wasn’t too far from the main path, and before long he’d reached the entrance to the cavern where it laid. As he approached the cave he started to hear shouting, and one of the voices sounded very familiar.

He entered the cave to find an unforgettable figure in a standoff with some trainers from Team Magma. Isabella and her serperior stood between the Magma trainers and a young trainer holding a ralts, along with a scientist holding what had to have been a meteor. There were three of the villainous trainers, along with what seemed to be another of their leaders, like that Blaise who’d knocked out his pokemon at the Oldale Ruins, only a bit more rotund. The Magma leader had been in the middle of threatening the three of them when Brendan entered, causing both groups to stare at him.

“Oh? Another one? No matter. No one shall stand in the way of Team Magma this day.”

“Kid? What are you doing here?”

The Magma leader and Isabella said, respectively. Brendan had little idea what was going on, but knew if it was Team Magma they couldn’t be up to any good. He ran over to Isabella’s side and stood with them.

“What are you doing? You should have just run. Whatever, keep those grunts off of us if you can, I’ll handle that fat punk.” Isabella ordered him when she saw his determined look. He merely nodded, giving soft orders to his team.

“Ugh, brats should know better than to stick their nose where they’re unwanted. Grunts, kill them, can’t leave any loose ends here or Leader will be disappointed. I’ll handle this nuisance.” The admin pointed at Brendan and the other two, before focusing on Isabella. He released a hulking magmar that screamed in pure fury, shooting a pyre of flame in the air upon being released. As the magmar and serperior started to battle, Brendan’s attention shifted to the three grunts, who released a poochyena and numel each.

He called out orders to his teammates, sending Fomantis, Rogue, and Meditite in to engage the pokemon. He kept Sentry back with him and the two on the ground. The ensuing battle was vicious; the grunt’s pokemon were slavering monsters that cared for nothing but getting through his pokemon to Brendan. His own pokemon held nothing back in his defense, and Brendan almost turned away to be sick as he saw Fomantis slice all the way through a poochyena. He heard a deafening shriek of agony from the magmar, and as he turned to look, he saw serperior's tail covered in the green glow of leaf blade, stabbed right through the chest of the magmar. Turning back to his team, he noticed Rogue’s claws covered in blood.

As suddenly as it had started, the battle was over, and his team victorious. Brendan studiously avoided looking at the bodies of the pokemon as he ordered Fomantis to put the grunts to sleep. He softly thanked his team for their protection before focusing on the battle between Isabella and the Magma admin.

The magmar and serperior were nowhere to be found. Instead a weezing hovered on the admin’s side, oozing noxious poison and fumes. A massive Krookodile stood opposite, snarling in anger. Both looked wounded, although the weezing was much worse off. The two trainers looked up as Brendan approached.

“Tch, useless grunts. Have to do everything myself around here.” The admin grumbled, and then held a hand and snapped.

Brendan heard the scientist yell out from behind him in surprise, and as he turned he saw a malevolently grinning sableye now holding the meteorite. The sableye melted into the darkness, appearing beside the admin, handing him the meteorite. The admin smirked at them, before saying.

“And I bid you trainers goodbye.” he looked at the weezing and cruelly shouted, “Explosion!”

Brendan’s eyes widened in panic, fumbling for his team’s pokeballs, hoping to recall them before the explosion went off. The weezing glowed impossibly bright for a moment and then exploded, ripping apart the cave. Luckily, Isabella’s krookodile was able to raise a small wall at the last second before the explosion, deflecting most of the shockwave. They were all knocked prone by the blast, however, but no one seemed to be injured.

After the blast, the krookodile lowered what remained of the wall, but the admin was already gone, spirited away by his sableye no doubt. It snarled in anger, before being recalled by Isabella, who walked towards Brendan afterward.

“Thanks for the help, kid. Having to concentrate on protecting them and battling with that asshole would have been difficult. But-” she slapped him on the back of the head at this, “What were you thinking? those guys are criminals, you could have been hurt.”

“So could you, I wasn’t about to let you fight them by yourself, especially with you trying to protect people. Besides, it’s not the first time I’ve tangled with them.” He explained his confrontation at the Oldale Ruins to her. She shook her head, then laughed.

“Whatever, I see you’re as thick-headed as ever. Just do me a favor and don’t take them on alone.”

“I’ll try.”

The two walked over to the scientist and the other young trainer, whose ralts was unconscious. Isabella introduced him to the scientist, a thin man, with a prominent nose, and wire-frame glasses. He was wringing his hands nervously, muttering to himself.

“This is Professor Cozmo, Brendan, the husband of a dear friend of mine, and a brilliant researcher. She sent me to find him when he missed his appointed check-in. Professor, are you alright? And who is this trainer with you?”

The professor jumped at the sound of her voice, clearly engrossed in his own thoughts.

“Oh! Isabella, yes I’m uninjured, but oh I feel so stupid. Those thugs approached me to fund a meteorite excavation, and, oh, I let my excitement outstrip my reason. After we’d located the meteorite here they were going to take it and do who-knows-what with me.

“I have no idea what they could possibly require it for, though. It’s just a rock, an interesting rock, but a rock nonetheless… Oh, and this is Wally, a passing trainer on his way to Rustboro who bravely attempted to defend me before you showed up. And how glad I am you did, we’d have been dead, or worse.”

The professor babbled, his anxiety apparent. Wally, meanwhile, was applying medicine to his ralts. Brendan noticed he didn’t have any revives left, and fished one out of his pack for the other trainer.

“O-Oh, thanks. I, uh, ran out. I never thought we’d use so many.” The trainer thanked Brendan, shakily applying the medicine to his ralts. Brendan gave him a once-over, the trainer was dressed poorly for a mountain trail, and seemed to be missing several pieces of important hiking gear. Brendan frowned thoughtfully and turned back to Isabella and Professor Cozmo, who were conversing lowly. They stopped as he approached, the professor going to pick up his scattered equipment; Isabella smirked at him.

“Seems like you’ve picked up a pretty solid team so far, plenty of variety. And Fomantis looks like he’s grown.” The grass-type waved cheerfully at Isabella upon being mentioned; she chuckled. “How many badges do you have now? 3?”

“Nah, only two, the heat badge and the dynamo badge. We take our time travelling.”

“That can be a good thing, gives you more time to grow before challenging the next gym.” She nodded approvingly.

“You headed to Rustboro?”

“Yeah, gotta challenge the gym there, and see a friend of mine.”

“Hmm, well you should be fine at the gym, but don’t underestimate Roxanne. She’s a phenomenal trainer, and a good friend of mine. Maybe I’ll call and let her know about you before you challenge her, she’ll give you a better battle that way. Way too much of a stickler for ‘calculated badge difficulty curves’ or whatever she calls them.” Isabella chuckled.

“Oh, and do me a favor? Take that Wally kid with you to Rustboro, keep an eye on him. I don’t know his story or anything but he doesn’t seem to be well equipped for travelling. For all your faults, kid, -”

“Hey!” he protested.

“Uh huh, don’t give me that Mr ‘I’m gonna travel a veteran route with only two pokemon that I’ve only had for a few weeks.’ Anyway, for all your faults, you’ve got some sense for roughing it. I owe that kid a bit, if he hadn’t tried to protect Cozmo then I might not have gotten here in time. I’d take him, but I need to get Cozmo there asap, I’ll have to fly him.”

“Of course, I’ll get him there safe and sound, don’t worry about it.” he promised.

“Good. You’re pretty reliable, kid. For a rookie that is.”

She smirked at him and ruffled his hair, much to Brendan’s protest. A sound rang out from the cave entrance, and Isabella turned to check it out.

“Ah, that’ll be the ACE trainers and Roxanne. I gave her the frequency of my emergency beacon before I set out.”

She said at Brendan’s questioning look. She then frowned.

“Hmm, I’d wanted you and the other kid to go on and get out of here, but they got here faster than I thought. They’re gonna want to ask you two some questions, and well, I wanted to spare you from that.” She pointed back to where the knocked out grunts were and Brendan shuddered, thinking about what his pokemon had done in his defense. Isabella put a comforting hand on his shoulder.

“Your pokemon did what they had to to protect you. I’m not sure what those people have done to their pokemon, but they’re vicious beyond any natural instinct. Try to focus on the good, don’t dwell on it.” She soothed him, before turning back to the entrance.

From the cave entrance marched several scowling ACE trainers, hands on their pokeballs, and following them was a woman in her mid 20s, wearing red tights and a black dress. A large probopass levitated behind her. As soon as the woman caught sight of them she ran forward.

“Isabella! Are you unhurt? What happened? Did you find Cozmo?”

“I’m fine, Rox. It’s a long story.”

Isabella launched into an explanation of what had happened, gesturing to Brendan and Wally when she mentioned them. After she was done explaining, Roxanne had written down her statement and turned to the other two.

“Well, I must thank you two for being exemplary trainers, but please try not to do anything like that again. If you see those criminals again, just use the beacon on your pokedex and find somewhere to hide, or run.”

Wally nodded emphatically at this, too nervous to speak, his, now conscious, ralts hugging his leg. Brendan could only frown and nod reluctantly.

“I don’t think I can promise that, if I see them hurting somebody I don’t know if I can just stand there and do nothing. But, I’ll do my best.”

Roxanne just hummed in acknowledgement.

“Regardless, I’ll thank you for helping two dear friends of mine.”

She turned to the ACE trainers and started speaking to them, while Isabella smiled thinly at Brendan and Wally.

“Now, you two get out of here. I need to get Cozmo home, and you can still travel a bit today. Saw you had a pokenav now, kid. Here’s my number, call me after you beat Roxanne, I wanna know when to call and rub it in. Later.”

She handed Brendan the number, and turned around after waving them out. Brendan shook his head and turned to Wally.

“You ready to go? Isabella told me you were headed to Rustboro too. Do you mind if I come along?”

Wally looked shocked at that, before looking down at ralts, who nodded.

“S-sure! I don’t mind, I’ve never travelled with anyone else though.”

“Me neither! Let’s get out of their hair here, and then we can introduce our teams.”

The two of them hiked out back to the main path, stopping for a break after returning to the fork in the road. Brendan released his team and introduced them.

“Hey guys, this is Wally. We’re gonna travel with him for a while. Wally, this is Fomantis, my starter, Rogue, Sentry, and Dancer.”

Fomantis waved and chirped cheerfully, Rogue merely glowered and trilled his hacking laughter. Sentry buzzed, and Dancer bowed stoically. Brendan laughed at his team’s antics, and was glad to see that Wally seemed to have relaxed a bit. He’d been high-strung since they left the meteorite cave, which was understandable.

“So, how many pokemon do you have? Just ralts?” Brendan questioned, giving a friendly wave to the tiny psychic pokemon, who’d yet to leave its spot on Wally’s back. The little pokemon shyly waved back, and Brendan could feel the warm, positive emotions the psychic reflected back to him. He’d known the ralts line was famous for their empathy, but he’d never experienced it in person. Wally shook his head in denial, releasing two more pokemon to join them, a skitty and a swablu.

“Um, this is Skitty, and Swablu. I caught Skitty at home in Verdanturf, and Swablu just outside the Falls.”

The skitty mewled, before curling up next to Wally on the ground, while the swablu perched nearby and sang a soothing birdsong.

“Nice team, how long have you been on the road?” Brendan questioned. The other trainer seemed a bit unready for the hard realities of travelling as a trainer, but he couldn’t deny that he had determination, and his pokemon seemed to sincerely like him, which Brendan always thought was a plus.

“Not long. I’ve always been sickly, ever since I was a child, but I always wanted to be a trainer, y’know. So when I moved to Verdanturf with my aunt and my illness receded, I thought I’d give it a shot. Ralts here I’d actually caught when we moved. He’d climbed into the back of our truck to get away from some zigzagoon before we left, and fell asleep. When we were unpacking I found him, and convinced my uncle and aunt to let me capture him. We’ve been partners since.”

Wally smiled warmly at this, and ralts hugged his side.

“We got our first badge from Mr. Wattson in Mauville, which isn’t far from Verdanturf. Then I went with my uncle on a trip to Fallarbor, where he had some business. I thought we were ready to travel like a real trainer, but.. it’s been hard.”

Brendan nodded, understanding why he was so unprepared now.

“Eh, don’t worry about it. It’s an adjustment period for everyone. Luckily I spent some time pestering some veteran trainers for advice right when I started out. I can show you a few things while we’re on the way to Rustboro if you want.”

Brendan offered. He’d taken a liking to the other trainer; Wally was so earnest and naive it was almost painful, but he was nice. And it could be fun to have a travelling partner for a while, Brendan thought. Wally gaped at him, then nodded, thanking Brendan.

The rest of the evening passed quickly, with Brendan showing Wally how to properly set up camp, and several other hiking essentials. Wally and his team even participated in their evening sparring. Brendan was impressed, the other trainer may not have been suited for roughing it, but he and his pokemon had drive. That skitty packed a mean headbutt too.

A week later they arrived on the outskirts of Rustboro. They’d made good time, and Brendan had been satisfied with how well Wally took to the travelling tips he imparted. He was much better prepared for roughing it, and now all he needed was some more equipment.

He glanced down at his team; he was satisfied with their progress. Fomantis and Rogue were still showing more signs of impending evolution. Fomantis was nearly as tall as his waist now, and Rogue’s shell had molted a few days ago, leaving him a little larger. Sentry was a little harder to judge, but it’d taken to learning the higher powered electric moves well, and its capacity for energy had grown. He didn’t know much about Dancer’s growth yet.

As they entered the city, Brendan felt like he was back in Johto. Most of the cities in Hoenn were very traditional, and less industrial than Johto, but Rustboro broke that mold. It was a large city, with towering office buildings and a plethora of people. Even the Pokemon Center was several stories tall, bustling with trainers.

They entered the Pokemon Center and sat down in the lounge, Brendan turning to Wally to ask his future plans.

“So, what are your plans now that we’ve made it to Rustboro? I’m here to challenge the gym, then I’ll probably head down to Dewford Town.” Brendan queried as he stuffed his face with real food once again.

“I want to challenge Ms. Roxanne while I’m here, but I don’t think we’re ready yet. I think I’ll stick around and train for a while before we challenge her. After that… I want to visit my parents in Petalburg.”

Wally responded as he ate, missing Brendan’s wince at the mention of Petalburg. Brendan had been trying not to think about how close he was to his father’s gym. He quickly steered the conversation in another direction.

“Well, I’m gonna go challenge Roxanne tomorrow. If you wanna come watch you might pick up a few things about how she battles.” Brendan offered. Wally looked pleased to be included, and nodded cheerfully.

Eventually they’d stuffed themselves to their satisfaction, and Brendan got up to head to his room.

“Alright, we’re gonna get some rest. See you in the morning, Wally.”

He waved, before heading up the stairs to his room.

In the morning, both Wally and Brendan headed towards the gym. When they entered and spoke to the receptionist, however, they learned that Roxanne would not be able to take his challenge until later in the afternoon, as she taught at the trainer academy nearby.

Brendan was a little frustrated, and was about to walk out and find something else to do, but the receptionist told them they were welcome to sit in on her lesson. Wally was quite enthused at the thought, and Brendan had to admit a little curiosity, so the two made their way to the trainer’s academy across the street.

The building was made in the same style as the gym, and Brendan remembered that Roxanne was purported to be a strong proponent for these kinds of trainer schools. This was an interesting position, as most veteran trainers, even most gym-leaders, felt they offered little of substance that truly prepared a trainer for the lifestyle. Brendan would hold his judgment on the issue, he’d neither been a trainer long enough, or ever attended one of the schools to voice an opinion. That said, however, he did agree with the basic principle that most of what trainers do couldn’t be taught in a classroom, but that didn’t mean it was a waste of time.

They entered the building, quickly finding the auditorium where Roxanne was lecturing. The two had been forced to put away most of their pokemon inside, with only ralts and Sentry accompanying them.

Inside the auditorium they took seats in the back, so as not to disturb the class. Roxanne was lecturing on the concept of type weaknesses and effectiveness to the group of 30 or so aspiring trainers.

As Brendan settled in to listen, he had to admit that the lecture was interesting, and he’d learned a few things. Roxanne had started with the chart of types and their weaknesses, then moving on to the idea that the chart was only a rule of thumb, rather than 100% correct. Certain pokemon were classified as a type, but may or may not share that type’s weaknesses in some cases. Certain fire types, for example, didn’t share the type’s common weakness to water, not to the same extent at least. Those being fire-types with internal combustion sources and no external flames, such as growlithe or darumaka. Certain pokemon may also have traits of a type they aren’t classified as. Skorupi officially loses the bug typing on evolution to drapion, but drapion still manifests some bug-type traits, such as a faint weakness to fire and flying type moves. It was an important lesson to learn for all trainers, rookie or otherwise. The only way to know how to battle a specific pokemon for sure was to learn about it, not just its official typing.

After the lecture had ended, Brendan stayed behind to speak to Roxanne about his battle. He approached her lectern as she was packing her bag.

“Hey, Leader Roxanne. That lecture was really good, I learned a few things I think. I was hoping to talk to you about scheduling a battle.”

The gym-leader seemed a bit surprised to see him there.

“Oh? I’m glad you learned something, that is the point of all this.” She gestured at the auditorium and building as a whole.

“As far as your battle goes.. Hmm, you’ve two badges correct? One from Wattson and one from Flannery?” She mused. He nodded, a little exasperated. If she already knew, why did she ask?

“Well, Isabella has been singing your praises, and when I spoke to Flannery she was quite.. passionate about your battle with her. So, I’m expecting a good battle. I’ll be glad to get some of my non-rookie pokemon a workout. Given my founding and support of the trainer’s academy, I’ve gained a reputation as an easy gym.

“While I admit to being a little more easy-going than some of my colleagues, I never give out unearned badges. Unfortunately, most trainers come here first on the circuit, and my other teams languish for lack of challenges.”

She explained. Brendan sympathized, having to deal with initial badge battles all day all season would wear on anyone, especially a trainer as powerful as a gym-leader.She looked pensive for a moment and then continued.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

“Would you mind allowing my class to spectate our gym battle? I’ve let them see some of my challenges, but I so rarely get a higher level challenge. It would be a great learning experience for them.” She proposed.

Brendan was caught off guard at the idea, but didn’t mind all that much.

“Uh, yeah. That sounds fine, as long as they aren’t too disruptive I guess.”

She gave him an amused look.

“I’m sure they’ll be well behaved, I promise. But, you know you’ll have to get over that to participate in any tournaments. The crowd won’t be silent at those, I guarantee you.”

Brendan winced, acknowledging her point.

“Tomorrow at 10am we’ll have our battle at the gym. I look forward to our battle, Mr. Yuki.”

At that she left the auditorium, leaving Brendan alone with Sentry. He looked up at the magnemite.

“Well, we should get a little more practice in don’t you think? We have to make sure we impress.”

Sentry made a noise and motion that Brendan didn’t understand, but he was sure it was sarcastic.

The next day, Brendan was at the gym waiting, bright and early. He felt confident in his team, but he had to admit a little nervousness at battling in front of a crowd. He’d seen Roxanne enter the gym with her class a few minutes ago, and the waiting was killing him. Wally had entered to spectate as well, wishing him luck, and letting him know he’d be leaving for Petalburg after Brendan’s match.

Finally, the receptionist notified him that Roxanne was ready. He walked through the short hallway to the gym proper. Roxanne’s gym stage reflected her in a way; it was a sparse, flat arena with only a few large rocks here and there to show off her chosen type. Very practical, and no-nonsense, just like her from what he’d seen. The only extravagant feature of the arena was that there was no ceiling, the arena itself was open to the sky, allowing fliers and sun-dependent pokemon much better conditions.

As he entered the arena, Roxanne was speaking to her class. He heard her introduce him as a ‘promising trainer’ and that he had two badges. Taking up his side of the arena, he stood there silently as she finished her impromptu lesson. He really hoped he looked stoic, not confused.

Eventually Roxanne turned away from the crowd and called out in an official tone.

“This will be a 3-on-3, no substitutions. Are you ready Mr. Yuki?”

Brendan felt all the tension fade away as he focused only on the battle.

“Of course, and call me Brendan.”

“Maybe if you win.”

Roxanne pulled out a pokeball and released her first pokemon, a lairon. The pokemon stamped around for a moment, shaking the arena. It then growled, sounding like a landslide. Brendan considered his options; Dancer theoretically would have the advantage, but Brendan didn’t think she had quite enough firepower to break through the lairon’s armor just yet. His hand landed on Rogue’s pokeball and he smirked. Rogue would have a ball with this fight; it was his favorite kind of opponent.

He threw the ball out, releasing Rogue. The corphish clacked his pincers menacingly as he was revealed, the sound echoing through the large room. Seeing his opponent, Rogue made that low, hacking laughter. Brendan shuddered, that sound always set off his primal fight-or-flight instinct, and he could see the crowd of students do the same.

The two pokemon squared off against each other, both trying to intimidate the other as Rogue continued his clacking, and the lairon growled. Roxanne merely stared at him, cocking an eyebrow as if to say ‘your move.’ He obliged.

“Start off with some water guns. Try to make some puddles of water for later.”

Rogue quickly shot off a salvo of water guns at the lairon, who merely grunted in discomfort. Roxanne gave her first command.

“Charge, iron head.”

The lairon shook off its discomfort, then started a lumbering charge, shaking the ground with every step. Its momentum and speed grew, hurtling towards Rogue like a rolling boulder. They’d never battled a lairon, and Brendan was surprised by the speed it achieved in its charge. As such they were caught off-guard and Brendan could only yell out.

“Protect!”

Rogue manifested the dome shield well in time to meet the charge, but the heavy momentum and power of the iron head shattered the shield easily, carrying through to Rogue, who was launched heavily into a nearby rock. Brendan grit his teeth at the hit, but relaxed as he saw Rogue stand back up, dazed and hurt, but still battle ready. Roxanne instructed lairon to circle around and charge again.

This time Brendan and Rogue were ready with a plan.

“Juke to the side, it can’t turn quickly, follow with razor shell.”

Just as lairon would have hit Rogue again, the corphish sprayed an aqua jet to the side, using its speed to dodge the charge. As the pokemon attempted to stop and turn, Rogue covered his claws with blades of water and slashed into the back of the lairon. The blades of water cut deeply into the steel armor, and Rogue rained down strikes as the lairon slowly turned around. Brendan heard Roxanne call out a new order.

“Rock tomb, circle.”

Lairon forced Rogue backward as rocks slammed upwards around it, forming a protective circle. Rogue was about to slice through the rocks to get back to lairon when the next order rang out.

“Rock slide!”

From inside the circle, lairon roared and the rocks splintered, the pieces speeding towards Rogue, as they were launched. Rogue waved his blades of water in an attempt to block some of the rocks, but most got through, impacting his shell and sending cracks through it.

Both pokemon stared at each other again, panting this time, as both were heavily injured. Roxanne called out her last order

“Heavy slam!”

The lairon roared, slowly starting its charge again. When it approached close enough to Rogue where it wouldn’t be able to stop quickly enough, Rogue’s eyes lit up with dark glee as Brendan gave his order.

“Reversal!”

The lairon reached Rogue and reared back to slam into the corphish. As it did so, however, Rogue’s right claw glowed brilliantly white, and he launched a punch that landed in the middle of the lairon’s chest, cracking the armor and launching the pokemon back. The lairon landed heavily, already unconscious. Rogue trilled happily, before collapsing himself, his energy spent.

Brendan recalled him, delighted at his performance. Rogue had learned that move only recently, after practicing with Dancer. It was a fighting-type move that converted some of the damage taken by the pokemon into offensive power. Perfect for final resorts. The only issues being that it required the user be heavily injured, and that it drained so much energy that the user would normally collapse shortly after.

Recalling her defeated lairon, Roxanne gave him a smile, then released her second pokemon, a massive graveler. Brendan threw out Dancer’s pokeball, this was the perfect opponent for her. Dancer emerged from the pokeball cross-legged, before standing up and bowing to Roxanne and the graveler. The graveler merely punched its four fists together, roaring a challenge. Roxanne took the initiative this time, calling out a command.

“Rock throw, keep it away.”

Graveler roared again, ripping up large chunks of the arena and tossing them at Dancer. Brendan didn’t have to tell her to dodge; she gracefully slipped past the boulders, bending her body in a manner similar to a contortionist. He called out the first order.

“Approach, sweep with low kick, follow with force palm to crack the armor.”

Dancer nodded with a cry, then kicked off the ground, speeding towards the graveler. She dodged past most of the hail of boulders, shattering the few that she couldn’t avoid with a quick force palm.

As she reached the rock-type she swept its legs, making the graveler fall on its face. She followed up with a loud cry and slammed a glowing palm on the back of the prone graveler. It impacted with a loud crack, as the graveler’s rocky carapace splintered. It roared in agony, pounding the ground with its four fists, causing the ground to ripple and throw Dancer backwards. Roxanne immediately called out a series of orders.

“Rock polish, defense curl, rollout!”

The graveler stood up, then channeled rock energy, making the rougher parts of its carapace slide off, leaving the graveler’s armor smooth and uniform, along with filling in the cracks made by Dancer’s blow. It curled up, then rolled towards Dancer at high speeds. Dancer used the preternatural insight given by detect to barely dodge the first charge, but, unlike lairon, the graveler could swing around for another charge almost immediately. Brendan shouted quickly

“Confusion, throw it into the wall!”

As the graveler approached this time, Dancer crouched down low, using confusion to lift the graveler slightly, flinging it over her head into the psychic barrier surrounding the arena. The graveler, stunned by the impact, was a sitting duck for her now.

“Meditate, then force palm back to back!”

Dancer closed her eyes for a moment, allowing her to flood her body with psychic power. She then dashed towards the stunned graveler, pounding it with both palms. The already wounded rock-type’s eyes widened in pain, before it fell unconscious.

“Yes!”

Brendan celebrated Dancer’s almost flawless victory. Roxanne merely smirked, however.

“Very well done, Mr. Yuki. You’re every bit as talented as Flannery and Isabella informed me. You won’t find this last pokemon of mine so easy, though. I’m raising her as a part of my true team. Get ready for a challenge!”

An earth-shattering roar filled the battlefield as she released her last pokemon. Brendan could only gape at the figure, his mind racing. The now revealed tyrantrum was massive, with a large, muscled tail, and jaws that could bite through an aggron’s armor. It roared again, stomping the ground aggressively. Brendan forced himself to calm, and noticed that the dragon and rock type was much smaller than the pictures he’d seen; clearly it had evolved very recently. He shook his head in wonder at the fossil-pokemon; he truly hadn’t been expecting something like that. And they called Roxanne a ‘weak’ gym-leader, he thought sarcastically.

He looked at Dancer, thinking about whether to keep her in battle. Dancer stared defiantly back at him, psychically projecting her desire to battle to him. He smiled genuinely. That’s right, no matter how strong, we’ll give them a tough battle.

“Dancer, get close and force palm!”

He ordered, as Roxanne did the same.

“Dragon tail.”

Dancer bounded towards the rock-dragon, palm shining with energy. The tyrantrum only snorted, swinging its tail around deceptively quickly, catching dancer mid-leap, slamming her with a devastating blow that launched her into the psychic barrier. She was unconscious even before impacting the barrier, and Brendan returned her immediately, white-faced at the power behind that tail swipe.

Brendan released Fomantis, his starter would be much more suited to this battle than Sentry. The grass-type was released on the field, and when he caught sight of the tyrantrum, he took a defensive position.

“It’s really tough, bud. Took out Dancer in one hit. We’re gonna have to hit and run, try your boosting moves.”

Fomantis chirped in agreement, activating ingrain and growth simultaneously. The tyrantrum roared again, displaying the aggression intrinsic to most dragon-types. Myriad small rocks were lifted in the air near it, suspended by its control over the material, before flying at Fomantis. The grass-type covered its scythes with the energy of leaf blade and sliced through nearly all of the flying rocks, only being impacted by the dust left behind.

The dragon growled in frustration, before charging forward, its jaws poised to bite down on anything in its way.

“Leafage, wide. Keep away and launch razor leaves.”

Brendan called out. Fomantis leapt away from the charging tyrantrum, leaving whirlwinds of leaves everywhere he stopped. The whirling leaves dug into the dragon’s rocky hide. They didn’t do much damage, but they were painful for the pokemon. The game of cat and mouse continued for a bit, Roxanne allowing the dragon to rage, before she called out another order.

“Earthquake, then dragon tail.”

The tyrantrum leapt upwards, then slammed into the ground, causing an earthquake to ripple through the field, throwing the constantly-fleeing Fomantis to the ground, stunned from the move. It dashed towards the recovering grass-type and pivoted, slamming its tail into Fomantis. Brendan clenched his fists, hoping that wasn’t the end for the battle. He sighed in relief as he saw Fomantis stand back up, severely wounded, but recovering, thanks to ingrain. He was about to order his starter to try to cut through the tyrantrum’s hide with leaf blade, but Roxanne’s next order made him freeze-up.

“End it tyrantrum, dragon breath!”

Brendan couldn’t look, as the dragonfire spewed from tyrantrum’s maw, engulfing Fomantis. The shriek of pain he dreaded from Fomantis didn’t appear, however. As he glanced back to the battle, his jaw dropped as he saw a brilliantly white cocoon of light emanating from Fomantis.

The light-show intensified for a moment, before dissipating, revealing Fomant-, no, Lurantis. His starter now stood nearly as tall as himself, his scythes now long and deadly, and his coloring vivid. The bulb on his head had turned into white ears, and the necklace of leaves into four red, wing-like appendages on his back.

Lurantis stood proudly, though clearly exhausted, and made a melodic cry. Brendan had a wide smile on his face, seeing his starter evolve in the midst of battle, and he cried out his order

“Solar Beam!”

He took a chance, remembering that Lurantis were reported to instinctively know this move upon evolution, utilizing their unrivalled ability to collect sunlight. Lurantis looked up to the sun shining above the open-air arena, and gathered a ball of sunlight in front of him. Roxanne looked a bit dazed at the evolution, but tyrantrum still charged at the grass-type, determined not to let it complete the move. The solar beam finished charging just as tyrantrum neared Lurantis. The beam fired out from Lurantis with a loud bang, the green beam launching the large dragon backwards, and scorching its hide badly. The tyrantrum attempted to get up, but was slammed back down by a second, much smaller beam, as Lurantis drained its solar energy to put down the dragon. Lurantis’ vivid coloring was now muted, its energy gone, but the tyrantrum was unconscious.

Brendan rushed down to the field energetically to celebrate their win, and Lurantis’ evolution.

“You did it, bud! And wow, look at you. You’re so much bigger haha. When I caught you, you were only about shin high.”

Lurantis preened at the praise, even more as he realized the crowd of children were paying close attention to him.

“You can stay here and absorb some more sunlight, I know you need some after that. I’ll go get our badge.”

Lurantis nodded, spreading his leaves out to catch more sunlight. The children oohed and ahhed as Lurantis opened up his scythes and spread out all the leaves, looking to all as a magnificently colored flower. Brendan approached Roxanne, who’d recalled the tyrantrum, and was instructing an assistant to herd the children back to the school. She turned to Brendan and congratulated him.

“That was a magnificent battle, Mr. Yu-, no, Brendan.”

She smiled. Brendan beamed back.

“I’m glad I took Isabella’s advice and relaxed the standard of pokemon for this battle, neither of us would have had much fun had you battled my real 3 badge team. Speaking of, here is your Stone Badge, you’ve earned it. I’d not expected that ending when I decided to use Tyrantrum, your Lurantis must care for you quite a bit to evolve like that, and you’ve clearly taken good care of it.”

Roxanne praised.

“Yeah, he’s the best. Couldn’t have asked for a better starter.”

“Thank you for indulging my request for the children to see the battle, although it ended up being much more exciting than I’d thought. They’ll be talking about nothing else for weeks I’m sure.”

“No problem. You were right; it’s something I needed to figure out. Fortunately once the battle started I didn’t even realize they were there.”

Brendan replied.

“Good. Out of curiosity, where will you go from here? I’ve to imagine you don’t want to see your father.”

Brendan winced, then looked questioningly at her. How did she know who he was?

“Don’t look so surprised. In the last gym-leader meeting, Wattson took your father to task about stifling such a promising trainer, and attempting to keep you home against your will. It was quite something, that old man has quite the presence when he deigns to use it. Regardless, the gym-leaders are at least aware you exist from this.”

She explained. Brendan nodded in understanding, reeling from the thought that Wattson had gone after his father like that. He thought for a moment, then responded.

“I think I’ll head down to Dewford Town, I’ve a friend here in Rustboro that’s keeping one of my pokemon that should be big enough for me to travel there with.”

Roxanne nodded.

“I’ll let Brawly know you’re coming, he’ll be ‘stoked’ to meet you I’m sure.”

She stated fondly, rolling her eyes. Brendan eyed her with intrigue, there were rumors that placed Roxanne and Brawly as a couple, but he’d never believed them.

“I hope to see you return for a rematch, after you’ve gotten all your badges. I’ll use my real team, and I’m sure Tyrantrum will want another shot at Lurantis.”

Brendan’s eyes lit up at the thought and he agreed.

“Before you leave Rustboro, I believe Cozmo wishes to thank you. You can find him at the Devon Corporation’s headquarters. Thank you again for the battle, Brendan. Goodbye.”

She waved as she headed back to the classroom. Brendan walked back over to Lurantis, who was still absorbing sunlight.

“Well, buddy. We did it. Our third badge. Ready to get out of here?”

Lurantis nodded, allowing Brendan to recall him. He headed back to the pokemon center; he wanted to get Lurantis checked out. He’d taken a beating before evolving, and some hidden wounds could be left over. He left Lurantis with Nurse Joy and went out to the fields and released the rest of his team to tell them the good news. His team was ecstatic for the win, though he could sense a little envy from Rogue when he heard of Lurantis’ evolution. He spent some time soothing the competitive corphish, his time would come. After Lurantis was released back to him, the team shared a berry, celebrating their victory. Sentry and Dancer inspected Lurantis’ new form with curiosity. Rogue, as par for the course, demanded an immediate spar from the newly-evolved grass-type; a spar that he promptly lost, causing him to sulk the rest of the afternoon.

A few days later, as he headed to the Devon Corp building with Sentry, Brendan looked back on his visit to Professor Alden’s lab. The lab was a ways out of town, to the north of Rustboro, with a large plot of land for the pokemon that he researched. The man was happy to see Brendan, enthusiastically showing him around the lab. He’d been awarded a large grant for his research after the discovery of the ruins and the relicanth, and he’d used it to build the complex.

He introduced Brendan to his relicanth, of course. It was a mammoth fish, nearly twelve feet long, and wide enough for him to sit on comfortably. That said, it was a gentle creature, preferring to swim away and hide amongst undersea rocks than to battle even a tentacool. He bonded with it well, feeding its favorite to it, and picking algae off its rocky hide. It bore him across the water with little complaint, seeming to enjoy the exercise. After learning it was a female, Brendan named her Drift, as she looked like a piece of floating driftwood in the water.

The professor gave him another gift, as well. He’d reserved part of the land to house any of Brendan’s pokemon over the carry limit, much like the regional professors did for the trainers that earned their starters. It was much better than the alternative of leaving them in stasis until he swapped them back into the rotation, and Brendan thanked Alden profusely. He’d left the professor’s lab, Drift’s pokeball in hand, and in high spirits.

Shaking himself from his reminiscence, he noticed he’d arrived at the Devon building. It was a towering building, a dozen stories tall, bustling with activity. He entered and was accosted immediately by a guard. Eventually he was allowed to go further in, after confirming he was Professor Cozmo’s guest. He rode the elevator to the penultimate floor, stopping Sentry from inspecting the electronics too closely and accidentally draining them.

He exited the elevator into a busy workspace, computers and specimens abound. He pushed his way through the thronging scientists, searching for Cozmo’s office. He eventually found it near the back, and knocked. The professor’s voice called out for him to enter, and he opened the door to a fairly barebones office, where the professor was seated, examining a rock.

“Ah! Welcome, Brendan. So nice to see you, I never got to thank you for your help. Without you, Wally, or Isabella I’d have been toast.” the professor excitedly greeted him. Brendan smiled warmly, the man reminded him of Alden.

“Of course, sir. I couldn’t stand there and do nothing, even if I hadn’t recognized Isabella.”

“Quite, quite. Now, I didn’t ask you here just to thank you, I have a gift for you.”

Brendan looked on curiously as the professor rummaged through his desk drawers, before finally pulling out a small disk.

“Aha! Found it. This is the TM for Reflect. During our meeting, I noticed your magnemite there use light screen to great effect, but not reflect. This will fix that right up.”

The professor nodded at Sentry, and handed Brendan the TM. Brendan blinked owlishly, wondering how the professor could have noticed such a miniscule thing in the confusion. Still, he held the small disk excitedly, the move would patch a hole in Sentry’s defense very well.

“Thanks professor! We both appreciate it.”

“Of course, of course. Now, there’s one more thing, I presume you are headed to Dewford Town after leaving here?” Professor Cozmo questioned.

“Uh, yeah?”

“Splendid, splendid. I had hoped you would do me, well Devon as a whole, a favor.”

“I don’t mind, as long as it's something I can do.”

“Yes, yes nothing too strenuous. The president needs a letter delivered to someone in Dewford; it’s not time sensitive so don’t worry. Ah, we should go see the president, he’ll have more details.”

At that, the professor whisked Brendan and Sentry down the hallway back to the elevator, then up to the top floor. They stepped out into a large stateroom, with an elegant desk backed up against the glass windows overlooking Rustboro. Seated there was an older man in an immaculate blue suit and bowler hat, working through stacks of paperwork. He looked up at their entrance.

“Ah, Cozmo. And this must be young Brendan, then? Happy to meet such a talented young trainer; they call me Mr. Stone. Cozmo has told you about my request then?”

Brendan sat in the chairs across from the desk along with Cozmo.

“Just that you need a letter delivered? Why can’t you just send a message to the Pokemon Center, or call them if they have a pokenav?”

The president chuckled.

“An excellent question! Well, the recipient of the letter, my son, will be in the depths of what they call Granite Cave there in Dewford for at least another month. Not much reception there underground, and I’m afraid he probably won’t even visit the pokemon center there. I would request that you venture into the caves and find him. You should be able to recognize him, he’ll be the only one wearing a suit in the depths of those caves.” he laughed.

Brendan leaned back in the chair; this request made much more sense now. He’d heard of Granite Cave, supposedly fairly tough pokemon lived in its depths.

“I’ll do my best, sir.”

“Haha, splendid. Here is the letter. As long as you deliver it within a month or so, he should still be there.”

The president stood up and handed the letter, sealed in a metal envelope, to Brendan.

He tucked it away into his pack and was just about to say goodbye to Cozmo and the president, when the whole building rocked from some kind of explosion. The three of them were thrown from their feet as the windows shattered from the shock wave. Brendan leapt back to his feet and went to the broken window to see what happened.

From the window he saw a sea of blue uniformed trainers swarming the building like a tsunami, with several pokemon already released, firing moves at the side of the building. In the back, he could make out one trainer next to a massive, scarred blastoise, in the midst of firing another hyper beam. Brendan could see the beam was aimed up near the top floors, and he tackled the president and Cozmo back to the ground as fast as he could.

The hyper beam impacted the floor beneath them, setting the building aflame, and shearing off several tons of metal and concrete with the apocalyptic explosion. Brendan looked at the professor, who seemed to have a concussion, and the president, who was bleeding from a piece of shrapnel stuck in his shoulder. He could see several cuts on his own arms, but was much better off than either of the other men.

“We’ve got to get to the lower levels!” he shouted, as he struggled to his feet and helped the president up. They nodded, but the president stopped to open a safe, grabbing an item from within, before leading the way to the staircase. Brendan released his team at the top of the stairs, heart pounding with fear and underneath that, anger.

“We’re under attack from some criminal trainers, they’re blasting the building with hyper-beams. Protect the president and Cozmo, Sentry. Lurantis, lead the way. Rogue, Dancer, catch anything that slips past Lurantis.” He ordered with deadly seriousness.

Lurantis slipped ahead of him, razor-sharp scythes already shining with leaf blades. Rogue and Dancer took up his flanks, Rogue looking more serious than he’d ever seen him. Sentry whirred, pink barriers shimmering into existence all around Brendan, the professor, and president.

They quickly descended several floors, before coming to a point where the stairs down were buried in rubble.

“Shit.” Brendan could only curse at the roadblock.

“Ah, there should be another staircase at the other side of the building, we merely must cross this floor.” The president informed them.

They entered the floor, into a pitched battle. A few of the scientists had huddled behind the security trainers as they battled a half dozen of the blue-garbed invaders. The criminals used mostly water types like poliwhirl and corphish, along with a smattering of dark types, such as poochyena. The security trainers were slowly being pushed back, and Brendan could see several bodies lying amidst the wreckage. He felt a buzz of rage in the pit of his stomach as he surveyed the carnage. He ordered Lurantis to join the battle.

“Petal Blizzard! Sweep them away!”

Lurantis shrieked, and an explosion of flower petals manifested from him, filling the room. He waved his scythes almost like a conductor, commanding individual groups of petals to slice through each pokemon, leaving most unconscious and some maimed. Rogue and Dancer cleaned up the few that escaped the torrent of petals. Sentry shocked the commanding trainers into unconsciousness with a terse command from Brendan.

The president spent a few moments talking to his security trainers and scientists, while Brendan stared at the unconscious terrorists blankly. Cozmo shook his shoulder, returning him to the present, and they set out, down the staircase again.

Several more times they had to fight their way through invading trainers, who immediately threw themselves at Brendan’s group when they spotted the president. Clearly this attack was about him, Brendan thought with a grim frown. His team was tiring from the constant battles, and thus became more vicious to make up for it. His orders were also more brutal than normal, he noted, not feeling like himself. They’d left more than a few pokemon dead in their wake, and Brendan was sure he’d have nightmares about the burning building and its bodies.

They eventually reached the ground floor, which looked as if a bomb had gone off. Brendan could still see fighting going on outside, but the interior was silent as the grave. They had jogged towards the entrance, wanting to get out of the building, but a shadow fell across the doorway as they found their way barred by a large, bare-chested man with the same symbol painted on his chest as the rest of the criminals wore, an ‘A’ made of bones. He stood next to a feraligatr that seemed to match the stature of the man himself. Seeing Brendan’s team, the man released a vicious-looking mightyena and a massive bug pokemon Brendan recognized as an araquanid. He spoke almost gently, with a voice not matching his stature.

“End of line Mr. President. Hand over the parts and this can all end. You, trainer, get out of here. I’d rather not hurt any more people today.”

Brendan grit his teeth, and nearly ordered his team to attack, but the president stopped him, stepping forward.

“I’ve no idea what you terrorists need these parts for, but it can’t be something good. I’m afraid you can’t have them.” the president stated resolutely, before looking at Brendan.

“Thank you for your help thus far, young trainer. But please, leave now while you can.”

He pulled out a pokeball, releasing a truly gigantic metang almost the size of a metagross, steel blackened with age. The metang gave a cold metallic roar upon materializing. The president laid a hand on the levitating steel-type.

“I need your help today old friend. I can’t let these thugs get their hands on these parts.”

Brendan could almost spit fire, his anger had passed the point of holding it back.

“I’m not leaving you guys now! We’ll help you, Mr. President.”

The president smiled grimly.

“I suppose I’m not in a position to forego help, Metang here will engage the feraligatr. I’m afraid I must ask you to delay the other two. Oh, and call me Joseph; I believe you’ve earned that right.”

He chuckled thinly.

“Alright, get ‘em!”

Brendan declared, spurring his team on.

They sprung into action, Lurantis and Rogue springing towards the mightyena, and Sentry and Dancer engaging the araquanid. The metang gave another cold roar, shooting off an intense silver beam at the feraligatr. The mightyena was a terror, its naturally vicious nature amplified by whatever these trainers did to their pokemon to make them slavering monsters. A claw ripped across Rogue’s chest, tearing three long gashes in his shell. Its maw closed around one of Lurantis wing-like leaves, tearing it off.

“Sweet-scent, slow it down Lurantis! Rogue, protect around you both!”

Brendan’s orders could only barely keep the dark-type at bay, though he did find a few occasions to strike back, as the mightyena’s all-out-offensive left it vulnerable.

“Now! Razor shell! Petal Blizzard!”

After Rogue had intercepted a blow meant for Lurantis with his protect, the dark-type was left stunned by the impact for a moment, a moment that Brendan and his team didn’t waste. Rogue sliced out with his water-blades, delivering a deep cut to the mightyena’s flank, while Lurantis commanded dozens of razor-sharp petals to shred the dark-type. It was only a moment of victory, however, as the mightyena recovered, even more vicious than before. Brendan turned his attention the other side of the battle.

If the mightyena was a double-edged blade cleaving through his team, the araquanid was the precise scalpel to accompany it. Only Dancer’s near-constant use of detect, along with Sentry’s barriers and intercepting bolts had kept both of them whole so far. The bug-pokemon had covered its six spear-like legs with water, striking out with such speed it was nearly a blur. Seeing the bubble of water covering its face, Brendan had an idea, however.

“Sentry, supersonic! Aim for the head!”

His partner buzzed loudly, overlapping several streams of sound onto the araquanid’s head. Brendan could see the water ripple as the sound was magnified by the water. It screeched in pain, falling to the ground for a moment, letting Dancer catch her breath for a moment.

Brendan was about to call for a counterattack, but at that moment he saw a quickly approaching black figure from the corner of his eye. He desperately jumped backwards, tripping over a piece of rubble, leaving him on his back looking up at the leaping mightyena. The pokemon had nearly reached him when a huge beam of wildly forking electricity hit the mightyena mid-air, throwing it up against the far wall. He tried to get to his feet, but his legs failed him as he quaked with fear. He looked up at Sentry, who sagged from the drain of firing that overpowered thunderbolt, and gave it a whispered thanks.

The battle started badly for his team, and only got worse. The small injuries on his partners piled up, and their exhaustion deepened. He was considering desperate moves, and on the edge of recalling his pokemon and grabbing the president to run, when he heard a voice yell.

In the heat of battle, he’d not had time to watch the feraligatr and metang fight. He turned to see the massive water-type holding metang up by both arms. It gave a toothy smirk and then pulled, ripping the metang apart into pieces of metal. Brendan could only stare dumbly as Mr. Stone shouted in grief. In that moment, the terrorist took advantage of their shock, rushing past the battling pokemon to the president. He lifted the man up, grabbed the package, then threw him to the ground alongside Cozmo. He returned the feraligatr, then gave a disdainful look at his other two pokemon, before releasing a swellow that he promptly mounted and flew away on.

Brendan frowned in disbelief, before returning his attention to the battle, trying to keep his pokemon alive. Thankfully at that point he heard another yell.

“Flamethrower!”

A concentrated cone of white-hot fire came from outside, taking the mightyena in the chest. Brendan looked up and an arcanine leapt in, followed by its owner, an ACE trainer. Shortly after, several more trainers and their teams filed in, making short work of the araquanid and mightyena. After confirming that he and the others were alright, they went back outside to rejoin the battle.

Brendan helped the president and Cozmo up, and slowly walked with them to the outer courtyard; it looked like a warzone. Pieces of rubble fell from the building above as it burned, and bodies of people and pokemon alike littered the square. He could see the battles still raging; it seemed as though the blue-clad terrorists were making a retreat now that they had what they wanted.

He turned to where he could see Roxanne atop a rock platform being levitated by a nearby probopass. She was engaged in battle with what had to have been the leader of the invaders, a dark skinned man wearing a blue wetsuit with a high collar and a bandana, stylized anchors all over the outfit.

He commanded a massive Walrein against Roxanne’s armaldo. The rock-type was as tall as a man, with wicked claws that slashed into the thick blubber of the Walrein, staining its white mane of fur with red blood. Their clashes shook the ground, and it seemed Roxanne was winning, but not well enough to stop the invaders from leaving. The leader smirked roguishly at Roxanne.

“Roxanne, darling, why don’t ya give it up. We both know ya can’t keep me here.”

He quipped casually as the two titans of pokemon faced off. Roxanne stood so still and severe that she could be mistaken for a statue, except for the occasion when she barked off a quick order. Her armaldo and the walrein were currently grappling, but the armaldo pushed off to make some space, and Roxanne’s eyes glinted, seeing some sort of chance to make a move. She rattled off a quick series of orders.

“Sink and swim, Skewer”

Her armaldo made a high keening trill, stomping the ground. The earth around the massive walrein softened into sand, trapping the flailing pokemon for a moment. The armaldo swam through the sand almost like a shark, before its keening reached a climax. Spears of rock rocketed from the ground around the walrein, stabbing deeply into the pokemon from all sides, killing it immediately.

The terrorist leader merely clicked his teeth in annoyance, before releasing a flying pokemon to escape on. Roxanne watched him go with rage etched on her face, before releasing the rest of her team to support the ACE trainers rounding up the rest of the terrorists.

Brendan was loath to put his pokemon back in battle, but had Sentry take potshots at some of the smaller scale skirmishes. Eventually the terrorists had all either escaped, or been captured, leaving the streets surrounding Devon HQ silent save for the crackling fire of the burning building.

He helped the president limp over toward where Roxanne was commanding the ACE trainers in the cleanup. As she saw the two, her eyes widened and she called out.

“Mr. Stone, Brendan! Are you alright? We’d hoped you made it out Mr. Stone.”

She questioned them concernedly, as medics began to take a look at the president’s injuries, along with his own.

“Yes, we’re alright, Leader Roxanne. Brendan here helped me descend from my office, at great risk to himself and his team. They were most valiant in my defense.”

The president explained, fondly ruffling Brendan’s hair with his good arm, but Brendan could tell his gaze was hollow with grief for his pokemon and employees alike. Brendan reddened in embarrassment, but didn’t say anything, coming to terms with the happenings himself.

“Unfortunately, I fear these terrorists were able to get what they came for. A secret cache of cutting-edge parts we’d just finished. Nothing they can do with them bodes well for the world.”

He continued grimly. Roxanne grimaced, before turning to Brendan.

“You’ve done well today, Brendan. If you hadn’t been there, the president may not have made it. Go get your pokemon checked out. I know they have to be injured so I’ve authorized full restores for your pokemon. They’ll be just fine. Get out of here and get some rest. I’ll call you in tomorrow to fill you in on anything I can.”

Brendan could only nod, as exhausted as he was. He recalled all his team but Sentry and trudged back to the Pokemon Center, which was extremely busy given the calamity. His pokemon were taken by another Nurse Joy and he went to his room, promptly falling into a deep, dreamless sleep.

The next morning Brendan went to get his pokemon back from Nurse Joy. Thankfully the injuries borne by Dancer and Sentry were minor. Lurantis on the other hand had more extensive injuries, but given his immense regenerative capabilities he was fine after a few hours in the sun. Rogue had the worst injuries of the four, with large portions of his shell missing. Fortunately Nurse Joy was able to induce an early molting, allowing his carapace to recover at the expense of a few days of itchiness for Rogue. All in all, his team was fine, at least on the outside. Brendan certainly wasn’t ok after that, but he pushed those feelings down, focusing on his team.

Later that afternoon, Roxanne sent for him. He headed to the gym, and was escorted by a surly ACE trainer to her office. As he entered, he noticed Roxanne seemed exhausted, he wondered if she slept. But, when she noticed him she perked up.

“Ah, Brendan. Sit down please. How are you feeling?”

“I’m fine, I guess. My team wasn’t badly injured.”

“That’s good. Well, I must thank you again. Without you and your team, Mr. Stone would have been far worse off. Unfortunately he’s undergoing treatment right now, or he’d want to be here to thank you himself.”

“I couldn’t just leave him there. But, who were those people? They reminded me a lot of Team Magma.”

Brendan asked the question that had been bothering him. Roxanne sighed.

“They’re called Team Aqua, another terrorist group just like Team Magma. We’re uncertain of their goals, and if they’re related to Team Magma. Until now they’d been mostly lowkey, like their counterparts, but with this attack.. Well, they’ve become enemy number one. You don’t need to worry about that though, it’s not your job.”

Brendan started to protest, but Roxanne held up her hand.

“I know you feel like you should be involved, but I promise you the league can take care of it. You just need to continue your journey, catch some more teammates, earn the rest of your badges. Things aren’t so bad we need to rely on rookie trainers just yet. I’ll admit you’ve done well the few times you’ve been involved, but you shouldn’t have been involved.”

Brendan felt a lump in his throat, but he acknowledged she had a point.

“Fine.”

Roxanne smiled genuinely, before reaching into her desk and handing him four small pieces of plastic.

“Here, these are gifts that Mr. Stone sent over for your help. They’re vouchers for TMs from Devon. The building may be nearly destroyed, but you can go redeem these at the Pokemart.”

Brendan grinned at this, already planning which TMs he’d get for his team. Roxanne continued, looking worried now.

“The league would normally be giving you a reward as well, but I’ve attempted to suppress your name in the records involving this. We’re still unsure how Team Aqua knew of the secret parts at Devon, but it’s possible there’s a traitor involved, and I don’t want them coming after you.”

Brendan agreed wholeheartedly and said so.

“That’s fine, I didn’t do it for a reward anyway.”

Roxanne smiled, though it seemed more of a grimace to Brendan.

“I know. Well, I’d love to chat more, but I’ve much to do. Take care of yourself, Brendan. I still want my rematch.”

“You got it!”

He laughed as he was escorted back out. Leaving the gym, he beelined straight for the Pokemart; those vouchers were already burning a hole in his pocket.

He looked over the available TMs with a keen eye. He wanted something for versatility in Rogue and Lurantis. He eventually chose Ice Beam for Rogue, a strong ranged option is what he needed. He picked up Cross Poison for Lurantis; it was a versatile move, being able to be channeled in his scythes like leaf blade, or fired in an x-pattern at range. Dancer was more difficult, but he decided on Double Team. It would allow Dancer to approach her opponents much easier. Sentry already had Reflect to learn, but Brendan also picked out Electroweb. It fit Sentry’s battling style to a tee, and would expand his options.

After leaving the Pokemart, Brendan looked south towards Dewford, looking forward to travelling with his team again, with no terrorists to bother them.