The dense Petalburg Woods faded away around him as Brendan walked. The journey from Rustboro through the woods had only taken a few days. It was a bit disappointing, however. The trainers infesting the woods were no challenge to his team; only a few trainers passing through were stimulating to battle. They’d doubled up on their training to make up for the disappointing challenges. He’d not given his team their new moves yet, though, waiting until they were out of the forest for that.

That evening they camped on the coast to the west of Petalburg. Brendan gathered his team together to give them their TMs, while Drift swam excitedly in the water nearby.

“Alright team, got something for you all. These are TMs. They’ll teach you how to use a new move. I’ve got one for each of you.”

They all looked excited at this, even Sentry made an inquiring buzz.

“Let’s see, you first Lurantis.”

He returned Lurantis to his pokeball, then connected the disk. After a moment the pokeball flashed purple, and the machine dinged. He released Lurantis and said.

“Alright, bud. Lets see it.”

Lurantis nodded, concentrating for a moment. Poisonous purple energy covered the lengths of his scythes, and he gave experimental swings, slicing into a nearby tree, that promptly withered from the poison.

“Nice. You’re next, Rogue.”

He repeated the process with the ecstatic corphish, releasing him after the move was implanted.

“Shoot it into the water, bud.”

Rogue nodded, then a bright blue orb formed in front of his mouth, ice crystals surrounding it. After a moment, a thin blue beam shot from the orb into the water, instantly freezing a large chunk of it. He looked satisfied at the frozen water, puffing his chest out and trilling happily. Brendan laughed.

“Good job, buddy. Let’s do Sentry next; he’s got two, and I don’t want to do them both at once.”

A few moments later, he released Sentry again after applying the reflect TM.

“Try it out, Sentry. It’s the physical counterpart to light screen. Eventually you should be able to combine them into one barrier.”

Sentry popped up a pink light screen, then a light blue reflect. It took a bit longer to conjure the reflect, but that was just down to practice. Brendan then recalled Dancer, giving her the double team TM.

“Ok, Dancer. Double-team.”

She cried out softly, concentrating, and forming several clones of herself. Brendan could spot many imperfections, but it was a good start.

“Alright, last one, Sentry. Electroweb.”

After receiving the TM, Sentry formed a net of electricity, flinging it at a nearby tree where it laid, sparking for a few moments. Brendan was excited, he could see a whole host of potential uses for it.

“Awesome! We’ll put these moves into our training, along with the new moves you’re all learning.”

Even with the new TMs his team didn’t slack off on their other training, they all had projects to work on. Lurantis was still learning to adjust to his new body, and mastering solarbeam and petal blizzard. Rogue was attempting to learn night slash. Sentry was practicing gyro ball as an option for when pokemon got too close. Dancer was honing her psychic energy with psybeam and calm mind.

His pokemon were all quite motivated after their near disastrous battle with the Team Aqua admin. It pained Brendan to think about, but he could do nothing but support them, and make sure they didn’t overwork themselves. Rogue in particular was very hard on himself, he noticed. Regardless, he enjoyed himself watching his team practice their new moves.

The next day he set out on the sea for the first time, cresting wave after wave with Drift. The sea breeze and the splashing water were refreshing, and he could tell Drift enjoyed the wide open ocean. It was a calming experience for Brendan; he’d never felt so free. It wasn’t far from the mainland to the island where Dewford Town lay, and true to Hoenn’s nature as an archipelago, there were many smaller islands to stop at along the way.

By day he rode Drift through the waves, stopping sometimes to battle other trainers on the route. Rogue saw much use in these battles, given that most of them had no land for his other pokemon to stand on, though Sentry made a few appearances. By night they camped on one of the many islands that dotted Hoenn’s coastline, savoring the relative peace of the mostly uninhabited isles. With each passing day he felt a return to normalcy, the memories of the Devon raid fading away as he got further and further from the city.

On their fifth day out from the mainland, Brendan spotted several dark shadows in the water, moving quickly towards them. He spurred Drift on towards an island he could see in the distance; while those shapes could be something benign, like luvdisc, it was much more likely to be something like carvanha. As the gap closed, the shadows speeding towards them, he cursed. He spotted the telltale orange fins of a shiver of carvanha, led by the dark blue of a sharpedo, cutting their way through the waves toward them. He urged Drift to move even quicker, but knew they wouldn’t make it to the island before they were intercepted, so he released Rogue and Sentry behind him.

“Carvanha and sharpedo behind us! Trap the carvanha Sentry; Rogue, engage the sharpedo.”

He barked orders as Drift curved around, allowing him a better view to command his team. Rogue needed no encouragement as he rocketed forward, his speed in water far outstripping anything he could do on land. He slammed into the leading sharpedo, disrupting their hunting formation. Sentry took that opening to form an electroweb in the air, dropping down on two of the carvanha, shocking them into unconsciousness.

With Rogue keeping the sharpedo busy and Sentry cleaning up the carvanha, it was only a matter of time until they were victorious, Brendan thought. Something was bothering him though; he’d read up on the dangers of Hoenn’s waterways many times, and sharpedo/carvanha were mentioned amongst the most deadly, because they hunted in larger than normal groups, with at least.. two.. sharpedo…

Eyes widening in realization, Brendan whipped around, searching the nearby waters and hoping that he was wrong. He glimpsed four more approaching shadows and his heart sank.

“Guys, more approaching!” he yelled to Sentry and Rogue, who were still engaged with the other sharpedo, with the carvanha thankfully unconscious. He urged Drift to start swimming again as the new group of pokemon headed straight for them. He and Drift turned towards where Rogue and Sentry were struggling to finish off the first sharpedo. Sentry turned and launched a salvo of thunder waves over him to slow down the carvanha, following up with precise thunderbolts. With the carvanha out of the way it was a showdown between them and the two sharpedo.

It wasn’t a fight Brendan thought they’d win. He’d gotten a better look at the sharpedo now, and they were in their prime, with a plethora of scars from victorious battles to boot. Hopefully they could make it seem like they weren’t worth the potential injury to fight.

Rogue continued his one-pokemon crusade to rough up the sharpedos, with Sentry floating above the melee intervening when necessary. The only thing keeping Rogue from being crushed and torn apart by the sharpedo were Sentry’s barriers and Rogue’s use of protect, though they wouldn’t last much longer. If his team couldn’t drive them off, the only option would be a desperate race to the island in the distance.

The sharpedo were starting to slow down, most wild pokemon didn’t have the stamina for extended battles, when a crunch from the one of them shattered both Sentry and Rogue’s barriers. It bit down on Rogue, thrashing him around. Brendan returned him as quickly as possible and turned Drift to try and escape; they wouldn’t be able to drive them off now. When he went to return Sentry, however, the magnemite buzzed loudly at him, then started to dig through Brendan’s pack.

“Not really the time, Sentry; we need to go!” he urged.

Sentry ignored him, using its control over magnetism to levitate all his spare pokeballs, along with his pokedex, in the air. Brendan had no idea what the magnemite had planned, and was thus shocked as Sentry started to glow a coruscating white. The pokeballs and pokedex started to glow as well, separating into pieces of metal and electronics. Brendan could see the materials swirling around Sentry, before the light became too bright for him to stare at it any longer.

Finally, the light dispersed with a flash and Sentry, now a magneton, wasted no time in blasting both sharpedo with overpowered thunderbolts, causing them to turn and flee. As the sharpedo faded into the distance, Sentry floated over to Brendan, stopping to hover in front of him.

“Awesome, bud! You really saved us there.”

Brendan heaped the praise on Sentry, taking in its new form. The three parts of its body revolved in sync, and the strong electromagnetic forces present raised the temperature nearby. He could feel prickles of static electricity just being near Sentry now. It was uncomfortable, but he would endure much more for his friends. As they leisurely approached the next isle, a thought struck Brendan.

“Ah man, I gotta get a new pokedex.”

Sentry merely whirred in acknowledgement, though Brendan thought he could sense some embarrassment from the normally detached magneton.

Brendan could see Dewford Island in the distance; its mountainous features had been on the horizon for several days now during their trek from isle to isle. Dewford Island was one of the larger islands in the Hoenn archipelago, covered in small, rugged mountains mostly, with tropical forests filling in the lower areas. The only inhabited part of the island, Dewford Town, was situated on the eastern part of the island, and housed a fairly busy dock for supplying the western mainland. That said, it was a rather remote location, and very rural, meaning that the town didn’t get many visitors outside of trainers challenging the gym.

Drift swam up to the shoreline as far as she could, just outside of town. Brendan rolled up his pants, hopped off into the shallows, and returned Drift, promising the gluttonous fish some berries later. He waded up to the beach, shaking off a small krabby that’d grabbed his shoe.

Walking along the beach towards town, Brendan released Rogue. The water-type had been in a funk since their encounter with the sharpedo. His inability to drive them off, coupled with Lurantis’ and Sentry’s evolutions, had the corphish feeling down. Rogue thrived on his competitive nature, and the thought that he was behind the rest of the team in any way was upsetting to the water type. Hoping to help his friend perk up, he spent the rest of the walk into town suggesting new training ideas to Rogue.

They walked into Dewford Town for the first time, and it honestly didn’t feel much different from the beach they’d been walking on. The town sprawled out over the eastern tip of Dewford island and it had a very relaxed air. What people he did pass were friendly and welcoming, and some of the children crowded around Rogue, ooh-ing and ahh-ing. Brendan watched amusedly as Rogue had no idea what to do with the children, but eventually he took pity on the water-type and shooed them away. They wandered for a while, seeing the town, before finding the Pokemon Center.

He returned Rogue and walked into the center, handing his pokemon over to Nurse Joy for a checkup. He asked her to specifically look at Sentry since it’d evolved recently. Then, after renting a room, he went to call Wattson on his pokenav. He’d not spoken to the man since he arrived at Rustboro and had been putting it off ever since the Devon raid. He dreaded disappointing the gym-leader who had done so much for him, but he not at all ready to open up about what happened. He steeled his nerves and clicked the call button. The line rang- once- twice- before the gym leader picked up.

“Brendan, m’boy! I’ve been worried sick. Are you alright?”

Wattson anxious face appeared on his pokenav, making Brendan feel terrible. He hadn’t meant to worry the man.

“Sorry, Wattson. I just needed some time. Me and my team are fine though. I assume you spoke to Roxanne?”

Wattson frowned.

“Yes, I did. She was very complimentary of your efforts in saving Mr. Stone. She was quite worried about you though, as am I. What happened at Devon was… an awful ordeal. Are you sure you’re alright, m’boy? You can always come to me.”

Brendan closed his eyes for a moment, as the memories of Devon flashed through his head again, leaving him slightly queasy. He pushed down the nausea with practiced ease.

“I’d rather not talk about it right now, if you don’t mind.” he breathed out shakily. Wattson sighed, before seeming to cheer up.

“Alright, but when you’re ready please talk to me, or someone. How is your team? Young Roxanne informed me that your fomantis evolved in the battle.”

At that, a genuine smile crept onto Brendan’s face; he could talk about his friends all day.

“He did, and we were able to barely beat her tyrantrum. That thing was a beast.” he chuckled.

“You’ll never guess what happened on the way here. Sentry evolved! We were fighting a shiver of sharpedo and carvanha when Sentry grabbed my spare pokeballs and my pokedex and used them to evolve. Ah, speaking of which, do you know how to request a new pokedex?”

Brendan scratched the back of his head sheepishly. Wattson laughed uproariously.

“Wahaha, I’ve never heard of a magnemite evolving that way. Splendid, splendid!”

After he’d calmed, the gym-leader continued.

“Ordering a new pokedex can sometimes be quite the ordeal, but given your story I think I can just issue you one. It should arrive there in Dewford in a week or so. You won’t be able to challenge the gym without it, though, so you’ll have to find something to spend your time on until then.”

Brendan thought to himself, remembering the letter from Mr. Stone he had tucked away in his pack.

“I think I’ll check out the Granite Caves here. I’ve heard they’re supposed to be fairly treacherous, with some strong pokemon inside. We might find a new teammate there.” he mused.

“Oho, yes the pokemon there have a shocking reputation, wahaha.” Wattson laughed.

“The tribal leaders of Dewford trained there for generations, and Brawly’s family has continued the tradition, training their gym-leaders there. If you go in, make sure you bring the right gear. These are not like the caves of the Meteor Falls path that are brightly lit and fairly free of threats. The Granite Caves are pitch black, and many strong pokemon fill their depths. They’ve never been fully mapped either, so be sure you don’t get lost.”

Wattson became serious as he warned Brendan of the dangers in the caves. Brendan listened intently, committing the information to memory. They chatted about other things for a while, with Wattson giving some advice on training Sentry. Nurse Joy’s voice came out of the intercom, informing him that his pokemon were ready to pickup, so he said goodbye to Wattson and went to get his team. He spent the rest of the day buying gear for his descent into the caves and buying more spare pokeballs, spending the night in the Pokemon Center there in town.

Early the next morning Brendan set out for the caves. There were many entrances to the caves all over the island, but the entrance traditionally used by the native islanders was about a half-day’s walk from town into the mountains. His best chance at finding Mr. Stone’s son was to enter there, he thought.

Later that day, Brendan and Lurantis stood in front of the cave opening, looking down into the darkness.

“Guess this is it, bud. Good thing I brought a lantern.”

They entered the cave into a sloping tunnel downwards. Quickly, they found themselves in a maze of cramped tunnels, interspersed with rare larger caverns. Brendan soon realized that his lantern wasn’t going to cut it for their main source of light, so he released Sentry, who was more than powerful enough to light even the larger rooms fully. After a moment of thought he just released the whole team, barring Drift. It would be nice to spend some time with all of them together; they weren’t able to do so much during the journey to the island.

Brendan and his team spent their first day in the caves keeping to the upper floors, exploring the areas nearest the entrance, and familiarizing themselves with the caves in general. Calling the network of passages labyrinthine would be an understatement. Brendan never knew when a tunnel they’d been following would be a dead end, and orienting themselves was difficult underground. Sentry was a lifesaver there, again. The magneton’s magnetic abilities were very useful for determining the direction of tunnels and generally keeping them from getting lost.

After the first day, they delved deeper into the Granite Caves, into the domains of the more powerful pokemon. They battled groups of makuhita and hariyama, the fighting types being very enthused to battle the whole team, but Dancer especially. Lurantis was a whirl of petals and sharp scythes, and most of the rock and ground types that were ubiquitous in the caves learned to fear the grass-type. He relied on Lurantis and Rogue the most, their elemental advantages and honed moves allowed them an advantage on the most common of the caves’ pokemon.

Brendan got an up close and personal look at aggron that he’d only seen from afar at the valley of steel when they stumbled upon an aron nursery. Luckily the aggron was fairly amiable when he apologized for disturbing them and promptly left. On their fifth day in the caves they had to flee from an ornery mawile that took exception to them waking her. Lurantis, Sentry, and Rogue had all fainted before they could make their escape. After that Brendan and his team became a lot more careful about things, and he made a mental note to avoid mawile.

The deeper caves were nothing like the upper levels. On the upper levels sometimes they would run into a cavern with shafts open to the sky, letting in some light. On the other hand, the deeper levels were oppressively dark, and for some reason even Sentry struggled to fully light some of the caverns. There were strong pokemon around every corner, and there were times when his team was pushed to the limit. Ghosts also roamed the lower levels; several times a sableye played tricks on him and his team, though most of them stayed troublesome and mischievous rather than outright hostile. The easiest of the obstacles were the packs of zubat and golbat. Sentry only had to spark at them menacingly to get them to back down. As a whole it was easy to see why generations of strong trainers from Dewford trained here.

Brendan walked through a large tunnel, Sentry floating behind him and lighting the way. For the past few days he’d been slowly exploring further into the caves, looking for Mr. Stone’s son. He was fairly sure they were somewhere closer to the ocean than inland; they’d run into several caves with underground lakes and streams.

After exiting a tunnel into a larger cavern, Brendan stopped to have a short break and sat down on a rocky outcropping. As he sat down, though, he could see a large shape approaching from another tunnel, though with Sentry’s lights casting it in shadow he couldn’t make out what it was. He released Dancer in caution. The pokemon shuffled into the cavern and Brendan got a good look at it. It was a large pokemon seemingly made of blueish rocks, with an array of orange crystals growing all over its body and three pincer-like limbs tipped in darker, almost red, crystals, a boldore.

Brendan hadn’t seen any boldore in the tunnels yet, though they’d seen a few roggenrola so he knew they must exist. As he was inspecting the pokemon it turned the front-facing yellow rocks toward them. He knew those were ears, as boldore had very bad sight and mostly relied on their hearing. Dancer shifted from foot to foot, and that small noise gave them away, prompting the boldore to roar, a sound like scraping rocks against each other, and charge at them. He decided to let Dancer fight this one, but he was interested in how it fought.

“Put it through its paces, Dancer.”

She nodded at him, then leapt forward with a soft cry, psychic energy running through her body; she’d gotten much better at keeping that up. The boldore and meditite charged at each other. Just before they met, Dancer hopped up, putting one hand down on the boldore’s rocky exterior. She pushed off using force palm, simultaneously hand-springing over the charging rock-type and slamming it into the ground with the recoil.

The boldore got back up, roaring in pain and anger, and turned toward Dancer again, this time not recklessly charging in. Instead it stood still and its crystals lit up with a bright glow, before a brilliant orange beam of energy shot towards Dancer, catching her by surprise, and directly hitting her. Luckily she was able to weather the blow, but before she could rush at the boldore again, Brendan noticed its crystals were still glowing bright.

“Dodge! It’s shooting again.”

The boldore stood there in the middle of the cave charging and firing beams, while Dancer dodged around them, slowly circling around the rock-type. Brendan was impressed by the sheer power the pokemon held; the beams it shot were powerful, and it didn’t have to charge very long to shoot more. It stopped shooting the beams and swapped to launching waves of rocks at the speedy Dancer, hoping to sweep her aside with an avalanche of rocks. Used to this tactic from their time in the caves battling other rock-types, Dancer leapt up and over the rocks in a psychic-power-assisted jump. She came down right atop the rock-type outstretched foot gleaming with power from her newly learned jump kick. The boldore crumpled to the ground again, small hairline cracks running through its rocky carapace.

Before it could get back up, though, Brendan thought he’d seen enough and threw a pokeball at it. It impacted the stunned pokemon and rocked once- twice- and dinged a capture.

“Thanks, Dancer. Looks like we’ve got a new teammate. Let me get my pokedex- oh.”

Brendan fumbled through his pack for his pokedex before remembering what happened to it. He looked dryly at the floating night-light that was Sentry right now, before chuckling and sitting back down. He looked down at the pokeball containing the boldore and decided not to let it out just then. He’d prefer to wait until they were out of the caves before initiating the rock-type into the team, but he was quite excited about the capture.

Boldore were solid battlers, and their evolution, gigalith, had a reputation as very versatile pokemon. They had the size and power to do well in physical battles and, thanks to the crystals storing energy on their body, had ranged power in spades, almost like a mobile turret. With their mono-rock typing and thick armor they were tough to take down at worst, and unstoppable juggernauts at best. He remembered seeing a battle from the rock type master Olivia of Alola, whose gigalith was an absolute monster, with an array of options for both close-up and ranged battles. His team thus far leaned a bit too far into speedy, precise battlers, he’d thought. The bulky option of boldore would be a good thing to have in his opinion.

Figuring he’d had enough of a break, he stood up and motioned to Dancer and Sentry, starting their trek down the next tunnel.

Brendan dashed desperately through the winding tunnels, Sentry’s light bobbing up and down behind him as the magneton struggled to keep up. They’d been in the deep caves for a few days now, and Brendan almost despaired of ever finding Mr. Stone’s son. They were in the deepest parts of the caves now, and most of the pokemon they met, his team had no way of handling, leaving their only option as escape. They’d run into a viciously territorial golem, and were barely keeping ahead of it. He saw the tunnel open up into a larger cavern just ahead and he readied himself to release the rest of his team, including his new boldore, to make a stand there.

When he rushed into the cavern, though, he stopped dead, instincts freezing him in place as he looked at perhaps the largest pokemon he’d ever seen. It was a massive aggron, filling nearly half the cave with its bulk, with long sharp horns and many gouges and rents covering its iron armor. Brendan prayed that it was merely sleeping, but was disappointed and scared out of his wits as the gigantic aggron opened its eyes, staring at him and Sentry, before snorting and closing them again.

He sighed in relief, before remembering the chasing golem. He heard it rolling down the tunnel behind him, and leapt to the left, away from the cave entrance. The golem rolled into the cave, before uncurling to look for Brendan. The aggron opened its eyes again at the new interruption, before narrowing them at the golem. It rumbled, sounding eerily like the groaning of the slowly collapsing Devon Headquarters to Brendan. All of a sudden as the aggron and golem stared at each other, the aggron punched out a claw, causing a thin spire of rock to telescope from the ground, impacting bluntly on the carapace of the golem, launching it back down the hallway and into unconsciousness.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

After dealing with the nuisance, the aggron turned to Brendan again, looking distinctly less friendly. Quickly throwing his hands up, Brendan attempted to placate the mountain of a pokemon.

“I’m sorry for disturbing you! I didn’t know you laired here, and we were just running from that golem. I wouldn’t even be down this far if I wasn’t looking for somebody down here.” he hurriedly explained.

The aggron paused at this, sitting back down and making a rumble that Brendan could only describe as curious.

“Ah, yeah. I’m looking for a trainer down here. I’ve got a letter for him from his dad, Mr. Stone. You haven’t seen any trainers wearing a suit down here have you?” he asked the aggron, not really expecting a response. He was surprised, then, as the aggron promptly stood up and motioned for him to follow. He stood there blankly for a moment as the aggron shuffled away, each step causing the cavern to shake, then scrambled to keep up, not believing his luck.

The aggron lead them through a few more tunnels, before stopping at a seemingly innocuous section of wall. Brendan stared at it in confusion, before the aggron held up its clenched claws, and mimed pulling something apart. To Brendan’s awe, a new tunnel opened up in front of them, as the wall split in two. Clearly this wasn’t natural, someone had blocked off this tunnel purposefully, and he could only fume at having come past this wall several times already. He again followed the aggron down a steeply sloping tunnel, just barely big enough to accommodate the large pokemon.

The tunnel ended, depositing them into the largest cavern Brendan had seen yet, with a vast underground lake, dark as the abyss, stretching out in front of them. Further ahead, built into the lake, was a short stone walkway with a large stone tablet resting on a raised dais built into it. Standing there examining the tablet was a man who Brendan assumed was the trainer he was looking for. The man was of average height and shared the same silver-grey hair that Mr. Stone had. He was indeed wearing a very nice suit, somehow pristine despite being in an underground cave for who knows how long.

As they entered the cave, the aggron rumbled loudly to the man, causing him to look up at the two, clearly surprised. He walked over from the tablet towards them.

“Hello there, Aggron, nice to see you. And I don’t believe we’ve met.” he said turning to Brendan.

“Ah, I’m, uh, looking for you, I think? Aggron helped me find you, and saved me from a golem, thankfully.”

“Are you, now? Hmm. Well, thank you Aggron. I can handle it from here, you can return to your nap.” the man addressed the hulking steel-type, who rumbled in- affection? Brendan waved to it thankfully as it lumbered away back up the tunnel, leaving him alone with the impeccably dressed man.

“So, you’ve been looking for me you say. But, for what? I don’t know you, I’m afraid.” the man addressed Brendan blandly.

“Oh, right. If you’re Mr. Stone’s son, I have a letter from your dad.” Brendan responded, looking through his pack and handing him the thin, metal-enclosed envelope. Unexpectedly, this seemed to amuse the man, who laughed loudly for a moment.

“Oh, apologies. It’s just been so long since anyone has referred to me as ‘Mr. Stone’s son.’ It took me off guard for a moment. Ah, I’ve been rude, my name is Steven Stone, pleasure to meet you..?”

“Ah, right. I’m Brendan Yuki, trainer from Littleroot. I just started my journey this year.” Brendan scrambled to introduce himself, inwardly thinking that the name Steven Stone sounded familiar. Ah, it would come to him eventually.

“Brendan Yuki, hmm? I’ll remember that. So, why did my father have you deliver this letter? I’m sure I wouldn’t have been down here much longer, and then he could have just called me.” Steven asked.

“I’m not sure, honestly? I’d gone to the Devon HQ to visit Professor Cozmo after I helped save him from a group of Team Magma thugs, and he introduced me to your dad, who asked me to deliver the letter. I guess it was because I was headed this way already, and maybe Cozmo vouched for me?”

Steven’s face grew stern at the mention of Team Magma.

“Wait a moment. You rescued him from Team Magma? As far as I am aware they are merely an ecological movement funding research into expanding landmasses.”

Brendan was taken aback.

“Uh, I’m not sure about that, but the last few times I’ve run into them, they’ve been doing some awful things: kidnapping, extortion, and they tried to kill Cozmo and us that time.”

Steven’s frown only became more pronounced at that.

“Hmm, there were rumors they’d been involved in some kind of terrorist actions but I had hoped they weren’t true. Perhaps this letter is important, then. Thank you for the delivery. How is my father by the way?” he questioned, this time more fondly.

Brendan froze at this question, and Steven was quick to notice.

“Has something happened?” he said quickly.

Brendan could only breathe deeply, steeling himself to retell his nightmares.

“The day I visited Devon HQ, it was attacked. Another group calling themselves Team Aqua stormed the building. My god it was awful. They set the building aflame with hyper beams, and caused a ton of damage, not to mention the invading trainers. I helped your dad escape down to the bottom floor, but one of the sub-leaders cornered us, killed your dad’s metang and stole some secret parts from him. Last I saw he was injured, but okay. He was getting treatment the day I left.”

He told the story stoically, with very little inflection, fists clenched and teeth gritted the whole while. As he ended the tale, Steven firmly squeezed his shoulder in sympathy.

“Breathe, breathe. It’s alright, you are safe here. I’m sorry to have you retell such a traumatic event.” Steven tried to soothe him. Sentry dipped closer to him, nuzzling his cheek with one of his bodies, shocking him with a little static. Brendan tried to calm himself, unclenching his fists and counting backwards from ten in his head. He let out a deep sigh, feeling much better.

“Sorry about that, it’s just.. an awful memory.” he chuckled hollowly.

“I can see. I apologize. You said Team Aqua, though?” Steven asked.

Brendan nodded his head in assent.

“Another ecological group, this time more interested in preserving the ocean. I wonder if there’s a link.” Steven mused.

“Nonetheless, such lawless actions cannot be tolerated. I had no idea things had degenerated to this point in my absence.” he shook his head.

“Thank you for protecting my father, we’re both in your debt for that.” at this he bowed to Brendan.

Brendan merely shook his head.

“I didn’t do anything that anyone else wouldn’t have done. And besides, I couldn’t even protect him well enough.”

“Regardless, you did as well as you were able, which is remarkable for a beginning trainer. This is dire news, however, and I believe I’ll have to cut my vacation short.” Steven said with a rueful look at the surrounding caves. He released a pokemon, a claydol.

“Will you be alright to return to the surface by yourself?” he asked.

“Yeah, we’ll be fine. It’s not too far from here to some of the less dangerous areas. We can handle everything but these deepest caverns.” Brendan assured him.

“Impressive for a rookie trainer. If you’ll excuse me, I believe I should make haste to Rustboro. It was nice to meet you Brendan Yuki, even under such circumstances. I believe I’ll keep an eye out for you at this year’s Ever Grande Conference.” Steven chuckled, before nodding at the claydol. The claydol’s inscriptions glowed a deep purple, and with a flex of psychic energy, they were gone, leaving Brendan and Sentry alone in the vast cave.

Brendan let out a deep breath, happy to have finished his delivery, and somewhat anxious to get out of the cave. Before they left, though, he turned curiously towards the tablet that Steven had been examining when they found him. He walked up the walkway to it, and examined it.

It was old, very old, and looked like a cave painting, or mural. It depicted a fierce ocean storm, and huge waves, and what seemed to be some kind of pokemon at the center. It was painted in a deep blue, and looked nothing like any pokemon Brendan had ever seen. Regardless, there was something about it that seemed.. alive, as if the painting were animated. As he stared at the painting, he could almost hear the swell of the ocean, the crashing of the waves, and the torrential rain… All of a sudden Sentry lightly shocked him, causing him to come to his senses. He shot Sentry a disgruntled look, before looking back at the painting. This time the pokemon depicted didn’t give him any strange feelings and he could hear nothing. Maybe he’d hallucinated it. With a last look at the mural, he and Sentry made their ascent up the tunnel, and began their trek back to the surface.

Two days later, Brendan and his team crested the last rise in the tunnel and spotted the light streaming in from the cave exit. Anxious to see the sun, Lurantis sprinted ahead of the rest of them, spreading his leaves out for photosynthesis as soon as he exited. Brendan and the rest of the team weren’t far behind him, and Brendan had to admit that he was glad to see the sun as well. He let the team luxuriate in the feeling of the sun warming them, before recalling all but Lurantis. His starter definitely needed as much time in the sun as possible after being underground for so long.

Brendan and Lurantis slowly made the trek back to town, savoring the sunlight and ocean breeze. He went straight to the Pokemon Center upon reaching town, handing over his team for a checkup, and picking up his new pokedex delivery. He settled in to wait for his team, looking over boldore and its evolution’s pages in the pokedex. They had very bad vision until evolving to gigalith, so it would need more guidance in battle than most of his team. Fortunately their hearing was very fine-tuned, and they could find their way around just fine that way.

After picking his team back up, he went slightly outside town to find an isolated place for some relaxation and to introduce Boldore to the team. He released the rest of his team, minus Boldore.

“Alright team, we’re finally out of those caves. Also, I finally have my replacement pokedex.”

At that statement he shot an amused look at Sentry, who merely shifted its bodies’ eyes around, as if to say ‘who, me?’

“Which means we can challenge the gym here now. We’ll challenge it tomorrow, after we’ve had a chance to rest for a bit. I brought us out here for some time to relax, and to introduce a new teammate. It’s the boldore that fought Dancer down in the caves. I haven’t released it since it was captured, so be nice, but be cautious. We don’t know how it will react.”

His friends all nodded in assent, trying to look unintimidating, reluctantly on Rogue’s part. He released the boldore and backed up a few steps to give it some space. As it was released, the boldore turned around a few times, tapping on the ground to get its bearings, then froze as it spotted Brendan and his team. Brendan took this chance to try to calm it down before it panicked.

“Hey, Boldore. Don’t worry, we’re not gonna hurt you. I captured you down in the caves, do you remember?”

He tried to soothe the large rock-type, using a soft voice and making his presence a constant for the boldore by tapping his foot on the ground rhythmically. The boldore snorted, seemingly calming down, and turned towards Brendan, ignoring the rest of the team.

“Since I captured you, you’re one of my teammates now. I’m working to be one of the best trainers out there, and to help the rest of the team be as strong as possible. I captured you because I thought you’d be a good teammate and battler. What do you think?”

The boldore snorted again, but didn’t seem bothered. It didn’t seem enthusiastic either though. It was content to just stand there. Hopefully it would warm up to them. Brendan pulled out his pokedex.

“I’m glad you’ll join us. I’m going to scan you with this.”

He scanned the unmoving pokemon, reading the prompt the pokedex gave him on completion.

Boldore, the Ore Pokémon and the evolved form of Roggenrola. Because Boldore cannot contain its massive energy, orange crystals form on its body. They glow when Boldore's energy overflows.

This Boldore is female. It knows the moves: Tackle, Harden, Stealth Rock, Power Gem, Mud-Slap, Smack Down, Iron Defense, Rock Slide, Rock Blast, and Headbutt. It knows the egg move Heavy Slam. Its ability is Sturdy, giving it a thicker carapace than others of its species.

Brendan looked over the moves; Boldore had a fairly varied set of moves, and he had a clear idea of how to develop her.

“Welcome to the team Boldore.” he said with a genuine smile. He motioned towards the side where the rest of hist team had been waiting patiently.

“This is the rest of our friends; well there is one more, but she can’t come out on land. There’s Lurantis, Rogue, Dancer, and Sentry.” he pointed out each one as he said their name. After the introduction, Lurantis approached with a piece of sliced berry, as was his tradition. Boldore looked suspiciously at the berry, and sniffed it cautiously, but eventually decided it was ok and bit into it. She must have decided it was delicious, as after she finished the piece, she made a high pitched keening sound until Brendan gave her another. He shook his head amusedly, his whole team were just berry gluttons in disguise as battlers.

Fortunately that seemed to have broken the ice, and Boldore approached the rest of the team much like a curious puppy. Brendan eyed Lurantis. Who knew his berry tradition was so powerful? They spent the rest of the afternoon and evening just playing around and relaxing. Sentry seemed to have discovered a new prankster side to itself, as it enjoyed dumping sand on the sun-bathing Rogue, who categorically did not enjoy it. After a few times of this, Rogue started a rampage through the local wild pokemon. Brendan did have to call him back a few times, however, as he was getting much more vicious the closer he got to evolving. Boldore had clearly never seen the beach before, and was alternately inspecting the shore, and then running away as the tide surprised her, then doing it over again.

Brendan just sat and relaxed, watching Lurantis go through his dance-like movements. It reminded him of the sword-dances of Johto, graceful and elegant, but with the threat of danger hidden in the smooth motions. All in all it was a wonderful time, and Brendan could feel the stress of the past few weeks melt away.

Late that evening as they were winding down, Brendan was rubbing some warm water on Boldore’s joints; he’d read that it helped sooth the muscles that could be strained by holding up the rocky armor. She had come around to him and the team, and was making an odd, rocky purr now at his ministrations.

“So, do you want a nickname, Boldore?” he asked as the team relaxed around their campfire. The rock-type rumbled her assent and so Brendan started the laborious task of finding a fitting nickname for her. She was quite picky, moreso than all the rest of the team had been. The names referencing her crystals were the most palatable to her, and they finally decided on ‘Glimmer.’

“Glimmer, huh? I like it.” he said, thinking about the brilliant glow of her crystals in the light.

Later that evening as Brendan made the trek back to town and the Pokemon Center, he reflected on the day and made a note to set aside another day here and there for relaxation. It was good for him and the team to bond like that outside of training.

The next morning found Brendan, accompanied by Rogue, outside the Dewford gym. Built on a seaside cliff right outside of town, the gym resembled native Dewford architecture as an homage to their heritage, all craggy finishing and rough angles like the mountains covering the island. He entered the gym to find a sleeping boy at the receptionist desk. Brendan coughed a few times in an attempt to wake him up, to no avail. Eventually he got irritated and rang the bell on the desk, right next to the boy's ear.

“Ahh! What- oh, uhhh, can I help you?”

The boy flailed around as he woke up, before noticing Brendan and attempting to preserve his dignity. Brendan merely smiled, though Rogue thought it was hilarious, going by his trilling.

“I’m here to schedule a gym-battle.”

“Oh, well we don’t have any other challengers today so you can go on in, Brawly should be working out right now.”

Brendan nodded at the boy and went through the door, finding himself in a large room with a floor made of compacted sand. At the other end a blue-haired man of similar age to Roxanne, maybe ten years older than Brendan, was doing handstand pushups along with a machop. A medicham sat cross-legged to the side, and a hariyama was striking a dummy, causing gusts of wind that blew the sand around. The man saw him enter and flipped right side up, walking over to him and Rogue.

“Sup, dude? You here for a battle?” the man, who Brendan supposed was Brawly, said.

“Yeah, I am.” Brendan replied, looking amusedly at Rogue who was already clacking his claws in anticipation.

“Sweet! We’ve been pretty bored here, not many challengers recently. What's your name, dude? And how many badges?”

“Brendan Yuki, and this will be my fourth.”

“Alright, that’s the kinda confidence I like around here!” Brawly praised. He stopped mid laugh and gave Brendan a penetrating look for a moment.

“Brendan, huh? Roxy called ahead about you. Told me you’d give me a good battle. Lemme tell ya, that got me pumped up! How does a 2-on-2 sound?”

“Sounds good to me!” Brendan grinned fiercely, the familiar surge of excitement at the prospect of a good battle filling him with vigor.

Brawly leapt backwards, taking up his position at the other side of the sand arena. He pressed a button and moments later the receptionist staggered in, freshly awoken again, to officiate. Brawly’s eyes flashed in anticipation as he released his first pokemon, a lithe hitmonlee. Brendan analyzed the pokemon; it seemed well-trained, but small enough that it should have evolved recently. Brendan had planned on using Dancer at this gym since she could learn a lot fighting other similar pokemon, and this seemed the perfect chance. As he released her, Brawly’s smile got even wider.

“Awesome! Roxy said you had a mean little meditite, glad to see it! Now let’s fight!”

At his exhortation, the hitmonlee sprung forward, going for a low sweep. Brendan didn’t need to tell Dancer to dodge, her muscle memory had her leaping over the incoming kick with no hesitation. Both pokemon descended into a furious melee for a few moments. Dancer dodged the hitmonlee’s strikes gracefully, but was equally unable to land any of her own as the hitmonlee contorted its body in strange ways to avoid them. Brendan decided to test out a relatively new move for Dancer.

“Mind-Reader!”

Mind-reader was a strange move. For most fighting types it involved memorizing the opponent's movements, and predicting their next move. Psychic types usually manifested it by actual telepathy, picking their opponents intentions out of their mind. Meditite, however, uniquely blended the two approaches, resulting in an exponential increase in effectiveness. A properly trained meditite or medicham could use the move to devastating effect.

Dancer proved this as all of a sudden her blows started to land on the hitmonlee. No matter how it twisted and turned, Dancer was already there waiting with strike waiting. Her blows seemed to shake the hitmonlee as well, disrupting it with the psychic energy flowing her body. Brendan was content to let Dancer slowly wear her opponent down, but Brawly had other plans.

“Pull out the sucker punch!”

Hitmonlee was suddenly shaded in an aura of dark energy, ending the overt effects of Dancer’s mind reader and allowing it to land a strong blow on the disrupted Dancer. It used the blow to make some distance between it and Dancer, as the meditite recovered from the sucker punch. Brawly called out again.

“Fake Kick!”

That sounded like a combo move to Brendan, and he had no intentions of letting it land. He decided it was time for Dancer to put her psychic energy to some different usage.

“Psybeam.” he ordered.

The hitmonlee blurred towards Dancer, utilizing some combination of moves involving double team layered on itself, causing dozens of phantom kicks to fly out. Dancer merely held her ground, charging a prismatic beam and letting it loose. It caught the hitmonlee mid kick, sending it sprawling. A follow up beam took the fighting-type out of the fight. Brendan congratulated Dancer while Brawly recalled the hitmonlee.

“Wow, Roxy was right. She normally doesn’t have an eye for the fighting types, that’s what she’s got me for, but she said your little meditite was a natural and I’d agree. Don’t see that kinda talent in most fighting types, don’t let it go to waste. Let’s step it up a notch though, Heracross!”

Brawly praised Dancer, then released a heracross in its prime, with a gleaming carapace and wicked looking horn. The behemoth of a bug stood almost even with Brawly and cut an intimidating figure. Nonetheless, Dancer stared at it uncowed, and even looked a bit eager to test her skills again. Brendan needed to guide her more in a battle of this caliber, however. As mind reader wouldn’t fully work due to the heracross’ bug typing he went for a different idea.

“Go in for the force palm, feint.” he murmured to her, keeping his voice low enough that Brawly and heracross hopefully couldn’t hear. She sprung into action, leading with a glowing palm. The heracross dodged lazily out of the way, but she swung around with the real force palm, as the fake glow from feint faded away. The force palm collided with the heracross’ carapace with a resounding smack, but to Brendan’s dread, Brawly called out another order.

“Counter!”

The heracross seemed to smirk, as it took the absorbed energy from the force palm, and returned it to Dancer twofold.

Brendan only had time to yell out, “Endure!” before the meditite was launched across the arena. Luckily Dancer was quick enough to use the move, enabling her to cling to consciousness. She slowly got back up and got back in her stance. Brendan could tell the heracross wasn’t taking them seriously, and he was determined to give it a surprise. He lowly ordered Dancer again.

“Go for the feint again, reversal this time though.”

Dancer dashed at the heracross, slower this time, fists aglow. As before, it dodged the obvious feint and prepared to counter her attack. This time, however, it wasn’t prepared for the sheer power packed into Dancer’s reversal. The attack broke heracross’ control over the counter technique, exposing it to the full effect of the move.

At the point of impact its carapace fractured, sending small hairline cracks shooting through the fighting-type’s chest. The heracross trumpeted in fury, smacking the exhausted Dancer with a horn attack, knocking out the meditite who was already barely clinging to consciousness. Brendan recalled her quickly, thanking her for the battle, while the heracross raged across the sand, furious. He stared at the heracross, thinking about which of his team members would be best suited to take the gargantuan bug down.

He made his choice and released Sentry. He watched as the heracross rampaged for a moment, showing a berserker-like nature more suited for a primeape. He took this moment to order Sentry to bring up its barriers. After the pink-and-blue barriers had formed he ordered Sentry to go on the offensive.

“Thunder wave, overlapping!”

Sentry buzzed, then unlinked its bodies, making a triangle around the heracross. It then sent out a thunder wave from each body. Brendan had worked with Sentry to enable it to separate its component bodies, both to dodge certain moves and to make strategies such as this possible. When it was separated, each body had much less electrical capacity, even less than a normal magnemite, but it was ideal for moves like thunder wave that were low power.

The heracross, even in its rage, attempted to dodge the incoming waves of electricity. It was able to dodge one- two- but the last hit dead on, inflicting the fighting-type with electrical spasms. Sentry reconstituted itself, and they watched warily as the heracross seemed to calm from its rage. Brendan had hoped to keep it angry, it was much less frightening that way. Now that it was calm again Brawly commanded it.

“Get your head in the game, bro. Clones, ironworks!”

The heracross snorted, then separated into a half dozen charging clones. Sentry had a perfect answer to the swarming illusions though.

“Shock wave!”

A dome of electricity expanded outward from Sentry, dispelling each of the illusions and revealing the real heracross in the back, in the midst of some kind of boosting move. The shock wave hit the concentrating heracross, only making it grunt in pain. Right then it completed its boosting, with its carapace flashing grey, and snorting loudly. It looked like a combination of iron defense and some other boosting move. Whatever it was, Brendan knew that it was much more dangerous now. It stood there, patiently waiting for Brawly’s next order, which came just then.

“Rush it, break those barriers!”

The heracross dashed toward them, much faster now. It reached Sentry very quickly, its glowing horn carving straight through Sentry’s screens as if they weren’t even there. Its horn continued onward, smacking Sentry backwards into the psychic barrier surrounding the arena. Sentry recovered, hovering sluggishly back up. The heracross gave no room to breathe, however, charging again. Brendan yelled out a quick order to Sentry in the hopes of making some space.

“Gyro ball, get it off you!”

As the heracross bore down on it, Sentry started to rotate in the air, becoming a spinning orb of silver metal. The two pokemon clashed, with the heracross being thrown backwards by the force, and Sentry using the momentum to put some distance between the two. The heracross almost immediately recovered and dashed in close again, but this time Brendan had another plan.

“Flash Mirror, blind it!”

A blinding flash of light erupted from Sentry, followed by an equally brilliant beam of steel energy, throwing the heracross back, and momentarily blinding it. The combination of flash and mirror shot was another technique that came from their training to utilize each body individually. One body emanated the flash, the other two charged the mirror shot. The actual damage of the beam was negligible used this way, but it was still useful. Taking advantage of the stunned fighting-type, Brendan called out another order.

“Tri-Attack!”

Three disparate beams of energy emanated from Sentry, bathing the stunned heracross in a hellish concoction of ice, fire, and electricity. Roaring in anger, the badly wounded heracross leapt up towards Sentry, horn blazing with fighting energy. It had slowed perceptibly, though. In its wounded state it was unable to repress the spasms caused by the lingering thunder wave and exacerbated by the tri-attack. With this opening Brendan called another order to Sentry, to hopefully end the battle.

“Thunderbolt, full power!”

Sentry whirred, shooting out an immense bolt of electricity at the heracross, launching the pokemon across the arena to land in a blackened heap. The magneton sagged mid-air after spending so much of its charge, but quickly recovered. Brendan stared at the downed heracross, hoping it wouldn’t get back up; Sentry was running on fumes.

Fortunately, it did not rise, and Brawly recalled it. Brendan smiled widely, turning to Sentry. They’d won, and such a hard fought battle was very satisfying. He recalled Sentry, promising to buy it a whole day at the Pokemon Center’s charging station in reward. Brawly walked over, brimming with excitement.

“That was a killer battle, dude! That meditite of yours is a natural battler, and that magneton is tricky, not to mention it packs a punch.”

“Thanks!” Brendan beamed, “It was a great battle, that heracross was crazy strong. What was that move it used? Ironworks?”

Brawly winced at the mention of heracross.

“Yeah he’s got potential, but he spent a little too much time with a friend of mine’s primeape. Picked up a few bad habits. Ironworks? Oh yeah, it's just a combination of iron defense and work up. Gets the adrenaline pumping and hardens the skin to take some killer blows. It's a great technique for newer fighting pokemon. I’d offer to teach it to your meditite, but from experience I know they do much better with something like calm mind.” he said, tossing a look at the still-meditating medicham nearby.

“How so? I know about calm mind, but I thought it just boosted a psychic’s focus, allowing for more precision.” Brendan asked curiously.

“Well,” Brawly started to explain, “Normally you’d be right, but in the hands of a meditite or medicham it can do so much more. Their power comes from their calm focus and meditation, yeah? Its why their training is mostly passive meditation and knowledge of their body, more like a psychic than a fighting type. With the boost to focus from calm mind, they can infuse their body with psychic power much easier, causing a much greater effect. Medicham, show him.”

The medicham threw Brawly an annoyed look at interrupting its meditation, but nonetheless stood up, approaching a boulder in the gym. It punched out, leaving a small crater in the boulder from the strength of the punch.

“Now with calm mind, just the normal boost.” Brawly said.

The medicham concentrated for a moment, then glowed bright blue. It punched out again, but this time the strike nearly shattered the boulder entirely. Brendan could only gape in astonishment. Brawly seemed very pleased, and explained again.

“See? The secret to a medicham or meditite’s power isn’t solely in training the body, although that is important. It lies in honing their focus. If they lose focus during battle, then all they are is a fighting-type, and a weaker one at that. But, with a pinpoint focus and the right training they can explode with amazing power. I may not be as much of a fighting master as Elite Four Bruno, or Gym-Leader Chuck, but I’d wager I’m the best in the world with medicham.” he boasted.

“Your meditite has potential to be a great one, though. She’s got pretty good focus already, and has a natural sense for battle. After you make the circuit, come back for a rematch and I might teach her a few things I’ve discovered over the years training with Medicham. I owe you that much after you helped Roxy out.” he said sheepishly.

Brendan was nearly salivating at the thought of Dancer getting to train with the fighting specialist.

“We’ll definitely come by, then!” he responded.

“Awesome. Oh yeah, here’s your Knuckle Badge. You definitely earned it.” Brawly chuckled.

“See ya some other time, bro. Keep up the good work. Dunno why Norman’s such a stick in the mud about it, but don’t let it get you down, bro.”

Giving Brendan a thumbs-up, Brawly went back to his exercising with machop. The mention of his father soured Brendan’s mood for a moment, but a look at the badge in his hand quelled any further thought about his dad.

He left the gym, Rogue in tow. The corphish had been disappointed to not participate in the challenge, but was mollified by being able to watch the battle. He’d taken a liking to watching other people battle recently, and loved to sit with Brendan and watch recordings of old Elite Four and Master-tier battles.

They returned to the Pokemon Center, giving over Sentry and Dancer for healing. After they were healed, he released his team outside and told them about the battle and congratulated Dancer and Sentry for the win. He spent the rest of the evening planning the next leg of their journey. He would ride Drift again, making their way northeast to Slateport City, then from there head on to Mauville City again, then onward to Fortree City and the gym there. He’d still not decided on a route from Mauville to Fortree, but he wanted to get Wattson’s opinion on that.

As he plotted out his travels, he felt that familiar excitement for travelling begin to bubble up. It had been a nice few weeks here in Dewford, but he was ready to resume his journey.