When they’d left Mauville heading towards the desert, Brendan was full of vigor and excited to explore a new and interesting part of Hoenn. After nearly a full day traversing the dunes and enduring the frequent sandstorms, however, he could say that it was not nearly as fun as he’d imagined. The bike he rented was nowhere as useful as he’d thought. The particular route he followed led through deeper, sandier areas than the hard, rocky outskirts the bike was meant for.
The route he’d chosen went a short ways into what was known as the Inner Desert, an area of shifting dunes and constant sandstorms. The other parts of the desert were the Badlands, the rocky outermost part of the desert that was quite a bit more hospitable than the rest, and the foreboding Heart of the Desert, where none but the local nomadic trainers usually tread. As he and his team made camp for the night he checked his route again. It was frighteningly easy to get lost in the desert and he had no intentions of becoming a statistic.
He suddenly felt a pang of longing for the days spent on the back of Drift, travelling freely through the sea. He’d had to transfer her back to Alden’s lab; she’d be miserable stuck in the pokeball the entire time they were in the desert. Not that Rogue was doing much better, he thought as he watched the corphish struggle to spit out enough water to make a mud pit to lie in. The ornery water type would never consent to being left behind, though, so Brendan kept an eye out to make sure he didn’t overheat.
Lurantis on the other hand, had never absorbed so much solar energy before. He was nearly manic with so much energy available, so Brendan had appointed him to battle any wild pokemon that decided their team looked tasty. The wild sandshrew, sandile, and scraggy never knew what hit them.
Of the others, Sentry was unbothered by the conditions, spending most of its time practicing a new method of moving taught to it by Wattson’s magneton. It involved sending one magnemite body away from the other two with a magnetic burst, then utilizing the connection between the three to sort of slingshot the other two towards the launched body. It was an odd sight, but seemed to allow the steel-type to move much quicker, a massive help in battle.
Dancer was naturally uncomfortable with the heat and sand, just as he was, but seemed to take it as a challenge to maintain her equilibrium even in such conditions. He was proud of her, but made sure she wasn’t pushing too hard.
Glimmer was probably the most unaffected by the weather, but the poor thing kept sinking into the dunes as she was too heavy, and the sharp points of her legs made her sink faster. Eventually they solved the problem by jury-rigging a few things resembling snowshoes, to help distribute her weight more evenly.
After a week of travel they’d finally acclimated to the unique challenges of the desert. Though Brendan still shivered thinking of the nearly apocalyptic sandstorm they’d had to wait out a few days ago. It had been so bad he’d had Glimmer work with Rogue to form a makeshift shelter with rock tomb so they could be safe from the scouring sands.
Once he’d become more accustomed to it, he could admit the desert held a stark beauty that was incomparable to anything else he’d seen. The vast dunes, as far as the eye could see were almost mesmerizing. The deceptively placid dunes hid quite a number of dangers as well, he reflected. Earlier that day they’d nearly tripped over a sleeping hippowdon that’d been buried in the sand. He’d thought they could handle it all together, but when a single shift from the behemoth had caused a wave of sand to nearly bury them he decided against it and ran away as fast as possible. Rogue had still not forgiven him.
The other wild pokemon they’d seen had increased in strength as well. Solitary sandslash and groups of scrafty-led scraggy were common sights in the Inner Desert. They’d been stalked by a cacturne as well until Lurantis and Dancer had beaten it back in tandem.
Currently he and Lurantis were about to crest the top of another sand dune. Taking another glance at his map to keep on path, Brendan had to do a double-take as he looked up from the PokeNav. On the distant horizon he could barely make out what seemed to be a small tower in the middle of the sand. He rubbed his eyes, checking again afterwards to see that it was still there. He looked back down at the map and there were no structures marked in the direction of the tower. Turning to Lurantis he asked,
“Bud, can you see that tower too?”
His partner looked into the distance, then nodded.
“Can’t be a hallucination then, unless we’re sharing one. A mirage maybe?”
Lurantis shrugged in response.
“Well, it's right on our path forward, so I guess we’ll see if it’s real or not.”
They continued onward, and as the day waned they finally drew close to the tower. Up close, the makeup of the tower became clear. It looked to be made of weathered sandstone, very skillfully put together. Brendan couldn’t make out any kind of mortar used to hold the bricks of sandstone together. He looked up; the tower wasn’t very tall, merely a few stories. He had no idea how something like this could be unmarked on the maps.
As Brendan stepped forward to descend the side of the dune, the ground shook violently beneath him, nearly knocking him from his feet before he was steadied by Lurantis. Turning around, Brendan’s eyes widened as he took in the vast sandstorm that had appeared in the distance, bigger than any they’d seen before. It covered the horizon behind them, swallowing the landscape entirely as it rolled across the dunes inexorably. As it gathered momentum it devoured the low clouds and towered ever higher. Brilliant streaks of orange lightning sporadically lit the storm, as if signalling the dread intentions of a desert god.
Quickly estimating the time left before the storm hit, Brendan found that they had not nearly enough time for Glimmer and Rogue to build a shelter underground, their usual strategy for sandstorms thus far. He looked towards the small tower, still some hundred feet away. It was their only option; hopefully it would stand against the storm. He shouted to Lurantis, who seemed captivated by the fell majesty of the storm.
“C’mon Lurantis, gotta go!”
The two scrambled towards the tower as the churning wall of the storm swallowed the sun, casting them in shadow. For a few moments before they made it inside the tower they were exposed to the flesh-rending winds. Covering his head, Brendan could only bite back a scream as the winds whipped at his exposed arms mercilessly. He stumbled to the ground as a particularly vicious gust hit him. Struggling to his feet his heart sunk as he couldn’t see the entrance to the tower any longer. Before he could panic he was grabbed by Lurantis and dragged forward into the blessed sanctuary of the tower.
“Thanks buddy.” Brendan croaked out from parched lips.
He laid on the cool sandstone floor drained of strength from the short flight. The pain hit him suddenly as the adrenaline faded. His arms bled profusely from the stripes lashed into them by the gale-whipped sands. Gritting his teeth at the pain, he washed out the wounds with water from his canteen, then bound some bandages around his arms. He had to laugh at the result; his arms looked mummified. Looking back out at the entrance, Brendan couldn’t see anything beyond the sandstorm whipping up against the doorway with all the fury the desert could muster.
“Looks like we’re gonna be in here a while buddy.”
Lurantis nodded absentmindedly while picking out all the sand stuck to him. The grass type had fared fine in the storm; the cuts and abrasions he suffered were easily regrown. Brendan shook his head in envy. He looked around at the interior where they found themselves. It was relatively bare, with no decorations or adornment. The layout of the tower was naught but a gently sloping ramp upward.
“Well, if we’re stuck here might as well see what’s up there. C’mon Lurantis.”
The two of them slowly ascended the tower. There wasn’t much interesting about the interior thus far. Just bare sandstone walls and floors. That changed as they reached the top, however. The sloping floor levelled out into a small room with a raised dais in the middle and another exit at the other side of the room, presumably to another part of the tower.
Looking curiously at the dais, Brendan approached it. It was rough and undecorated, par for the course for the tower thus far, but there was an object laid on the dais that caught his attention. It was a rock about the size of his backpack, and there was detail on it, almost like the root of a plant. Something about it seemed familiar to him and he reached out to grab it until he heard a yell.
“Stop right there!”
Whirling in surprise, Brendan saw a younger man rushing out of the other entrance to the room. The man was dressed in gear appropriate for hiking through the desert, but from Brendan’s acquaintance with Professors Birch and Alden he could spot telltale signs that this man was a researcher of some sort. The manic look in his eyes was a giveaway. Nonetheless, he inched closer towards Lurantis who’d taken a defensive stance as the man yelled. The man ran up closer to them on the other side of the dais and seemed to ignore them as he looked adoringly at the rock laid on the dais.
“Finally I’ve found it! A real fossil! I knew I would. Ohhh it’s beautiful.”
He seemed to be having a breakdown in Brendan’s opinion, though as he said the word fossil Brendan was stimulated. The rock being a fossil made sense, many had been discovered in the depths of the Hoenn Desert, and on further inspection the root on the rock did look preserved rather than carved. Brendan could understand the man’s fervor now. Most discovered fossil pokemon were fantastic battlers, though difficult to train. He’d love to add one to his team, he thought as he eyed the fossil.
As if he could feel Brendan’s eyes on the fossil the other man sprung upward out of his admiration and pointed at Brendan.
“I see you eyeing my precious discovery. It’s mine I tell you! You can’t have it!”
Though Brendan wasn’t normally an aggressive person outside of battle, something about the man’s demeanor ticked him off. He was here first damn it.
“I don’t think so. I was here first after all. Don’t these kinds of things go to the person who found them?” he asked much more mildly than he felt.
The man spluttered at the question, not expecting the rebuttal.
“W-well yes, but you merely beat me here by a few feet! Unsubstantial!”
Brendan cocked an eyebrow at the man in derision. He seemed to swell up for a moment, turning quite a nice shade of puce, before deflating.
“Fine, how about we settle it over a battle then?” he offered.
Brendan considered the offer. Although he was well within his rights to just take the fossil, he didn’t want the man to get violent. And the battle could be worth it anyway.
“Okay. We’ll battle. 2-on-2?”
The man nodded in assent and threw out a pokeball. Brendan watched it interestedly, hoping the man had some unusual pokemon. A spinning baltoy emerged, nearly blending into the sandstone floor if not for the red markings on the pokemon. That was interesting. He’d seen a few baltoy here and there on their trek through the desert but had yet to battle one. He nodded at Lurantis who stepped forward to battle. Brendan threw up a rock to count as the signal for battle and as it fell to the ground, the two pokemon sprung into action.
Lurantis immediately dashed toward the spinning Baltoy, who countered with a quick mud-slap. Combined with its spinning, this flung mud everywhere and Lurantis was unable to avoid it. Though undamaged, he lost track of the baltoy in the mud.
The other train called out to baltoy, “Ancient Power!”
It resurfaced and started to spin again, lifting quite a few rock shards into the air and propelling them at Lurantis. The shards hit Lurantis, throwing him back and leaving a few cuts from the sharper ones.
Brendan noted down the tricky nature of the baltoy and its trainer. They wouldn’t be enough to stop Lurantis though. He decided to end it before the baltoy could get another trick off.
“Razor leaf.”
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Lurantis had become increasingly proficient with razor leaf, and it was apparent. The half dozen or so leaves that he shot towards the baltoy moved so fast they could barely be seen, cutting deep gouges in the clay that made up the baltoy. It fell unconscious promptly, to the consternation of the other trainer.
“What? No, baltoy!”
He returned the fallen psychic type with a nervous frown.
“Fine, I see that baltoy wasn’t good enough to defeat you, dastardly trainer. Try this on for size!”
Out of the pokeball came a pokemon Brendan had never seen in real life before. A blue-green bell shaped pokemon, Bronzong. He thought about what he knew of the pokemon: steel and psychic typed, near impregnable defenses, its only flaw being lackluster offensive power. He grimaced, this could be a tough match depending on how well-trained it was. The other trainer cackled in anticipation.
“Bronzong, flash cannon!”
The bronzong obeyed quickly, firing the flash cannon off quicker than Brendan could have anticipated. Luckily, Lurantis’ reflexes were better than his, intercepting the beam with a salvo of razor leaves that diverted the attack to the side.
After firing the beam, the bronzong wasted no time in bringing up its psychic barriers. Brendan knew they’d have a tough time getting through those. He watched as the bronzong fired flash cannons and psybeams at the dodging Lurantis who sometimes returned fire with razor leaves that did nothing but bounce uselessly off the barriers. Even if they could momentarily disrupt the barriers with something like night slash, they’d be right back up before any advantage could be taken. No, they needed to overload them so much that it was a struggle to reestablish the barriers. The only move he could think of that Lurantis could do that with was..
“Solar beam!”
Lurantis stopped short and started to charge the beam, the vast solar energy he’d absorbed over the last week cutting the charge time to the minimum. A brilliantly green beam twice the size of the bronzong’s flash cannons lanced out towards the psychic barriers. The barriers glowed a bright white on impact, the bronzong trembling mid-air as it strained to keep them from shattering. Eventually the power was too much, though, and they did break letting the beam through.
The bronzong was thrown backward, clattering to the ground as it lost focus on its levitation for a moment. Brendan and Lurantis were not accustomed to letting an advantage slip away, though.
“Night slash! Finish it bud.”
Brendan called out the command, Lurantis already moving to close the distance before Brendan had shouted. Lurantis’ scythes turned black as night as he channeled the dark-type move through them. The super-effective move struck the bronzong, interrupting its attempt to reestablish levitation. As Lurantis struck with the other scythe the steel-type let out a deep toll of a groan and fainted.
Brendan congratulated Lurantis, his first partner had never let him down, and looked at the other man who was looking down at the bronzong’s pokeball tearfully.
“I’m sorry Bronzong. I couldn’t get the fossil.”
At that admission, the man broke down completely, falling to his knees and weeping. Brendan was quite taken aback. He started to feel a bit guilty. He personally didn’t care all that much about the fossil. Sure it might be a great addition to his team, but so could lots of pokemon. This guy clearly wanted it for a better reason. Looking at Lurantis, who seemed baffled, he let out a deep sigh and walked towards the crying man.
“Uh, look dude. I just thought the fossil pokemon could be a good addition to my team. I’m really not all that fussed about it, but clearly it means something big to you. So, it’s all yours. Congrats.”
The man slowly stopped crying as he spoke, then sprung up immediately as Brendan said he could have the fossil. Grabbing Brendan by the shoulders he shook him and spoke.
“You mean it? I can have the fossil?”
Pushing the man away, Brendan assented with a strained smile.
“Yeah man, have at it.”
The man nearly collapsed in relief.
“Ohh thank you so much. I’ll never forget this. Oh, right. I’m Professor Myrtle. Well, aspiring professor that is.”
“Right. I’m Brendan, nice to meet you.”
After introducing himself the man went straight to the fossil, looking it over like it was a precious gem. Brendan supposed it might be better than a gem to the man. As soon as he grabbed the fossil, though, the tower started to shake.
“Is that supposed to happen?” Myrtle yelled.
“I have no idea!” Brendan called back, recalling Lurantis just in case.
The shaking intensified, with both of them hanging on to the dais for dear life. Brendan looked up and noticed the roof had started to disintegrate, the sandstone falling apart into pieces of sand. The disintegration spread to the walls eventually, and the whole tower quickly fell apart. Brendan and Myrtle were flung away from each other in the chaos of the collapsing tower. As he fell, Brendan felt the violent sandstorm batting him back and forth. He held onto his friends' pokeballs for dear life as the ground swiftly approached and then all was black.
Awareness came back slowly as it beat back the blissful blackness. Along with awareness, unfortunately came pain. Lying prone on the sand, Brendan felt that every part of his body had been subject to one of Dancer’s force palms. He swallowed a groan as he dragged himself upright to look around.
It had to be early morning with the sun where it was, meaning he had been unconscious all night. He didn’t see any signs of the collapsed tower or of Myrtle, which was… concerning. He let out a hacking cough then, fumbling for his canteen for some reprieve; he had swallowed quite a lot of sand falling through the sandstorm like that and the rawness of his throat was the evidence. Checking through his belt he let out a sigh of relief that all his pokeballs were still there.
With a monumental effort he eventually stood up to check his surroundings. He must have been blown a little ways from the tower as he fell, but the beacons that marked official league routes every few miles should be visible. He remembered that there was one quite close to the tower. Brendan scanned the surroundings and felt his heart sink; there were no beacons in sight, just endless dunes interspersed with boulders that seemed strewn about as if thrown by a giant pokemon. He quickly pulled out his PokeNav and turned it on with fingers made clumsy by dread.
The reliable device turned on and the map of Hoenn appeared, zoomed in on the desert. For a moment Brendan relaxed; the navigation function of the PokeNav could help him return to the route. After a moment of loading, however, the map spat out an error message.
‘Outside of service range, Navigation function unavailable.’
The dread returned in full force as Brendan stared down at the flashing red message. The navigation function of the PokeNav worked in most cases, even off route, including nearly all of the Inner Desert. You really had to be far off-route for it to not work, like far in the Inland Sea of Trees, deep into the Meteor Falls mountain range, or in the Heart of the Desert…
Numb fingers dropped the device into the sand, as the reality of his situation hit him like a tackle from an onix. How on earth could he have been blown this far? It seemed impossible. The tower was nowhere near the Heart of the Desert, only about halfway into the Inner Desert at best. He checked the surroundings again for footprints; perhaps a pokemon carried him here for some reason? He found nothing and as he looked out at the stark dunes he’d seen as beautiful only a day ago they only seemed foreboding now.
Craving the comfort of his friends Brendan thought about releasing them, but a cold thought stayed his hand. The well-travelled route he’d been following made stops at plenty of oases so that water supply was not a problem for trainers, but lost here in the deep desert he did not have that luxury. His team were better off in stasis for now when he didn’t need them, considering his now limited resources.
He eventually remembered that Sentry didn’t drink water and released the magneton, thankful for the company. The electric type gave a worried buzz as Brendan explained the situation to it, but did nuzzle his cheek with an encouraging hum when it noticed how stressed he was.
Giving a strained smile to Sentry, he picked back up the PokeNav, grateful that the compass at least worked. If only he knew where he was in the Heart he could pick a direction and hopefully find the edge to get the navigation working again. He decided to walk east as the desert was less expansive in that direction, from what he knew.
Between the need to conserve water and the terrain that all seemed the same, Brendan’s trudge through the desert this time was excruciating. The sun too was merciless. As much as he’d thought himself acclimated to the beating sun in the Inner Desert, here in the Heart the sun was magnitudes worse. It bore down on his back like searing chains. The tub of sunscreen he’d brought had long since run out and his skin felt as if it would shrivel and peel off at any moment.
He saw scant few pokemon this deep into the desert, and the few he did see were frightening enough that he hoped they didn’t notice him. Packs of hunting drapion, sunning krookodile large enough to make the one he’d seen Isabella use look like a juvenile, and the menacing figures of cacturne in the distance all had Brendan constantly on edge. His nerves were quickly worn raw from the constant vigilance in preparation for if a passing krookodile found him to be a tasty snack.
The first night he released his team long enough to explain their situation and help him dig a shelter for the night. They were understandably worried, with Rogue offering to fill up as many waterskins as he could with his internal water reservoirs, even to his own detriment.
The momentary solace provided by his friends was the only thing that kept Brendan going through the days. He had no idea if he was making progress out of the Heart; everything looked the same, dune after dune after dune. Sometimes he could barely even remember how many days it had been, or when the sun had last dipped, gracing him with blessed relief. With Sentry hovering ever-present over his shoulder, he trudged along, though.
An indeterminable amount of days later and his water supply was wearing thin, and so was he, like butter spread over too much bread. It took everything he had just to keep walking. Sentry hovered closer now, and Brendan could feel its concern. The loyal magneton even supported him from underneath when he staggered now and then.
Brendan could only grimace at Sentry’s concern. Truth be told, if not for worrying about what would happen to his team he’d have quit long ago. The desert was maddening as the dunes extended on forever on the horizon in all directions. He could feel himself fraying at the seams. The feeling should frighten him, but he could not muster enough energy to even entertain that form of dread. His whispered conversations with the ever-present Sentry were the only thing keeping him from crumbling in on himself.
Some time later he could barely remember how long he’d been walking. The water had long run out, and there was still no salvation in sight. He was so parched that he could no longer even whisper to Sentry, his throat so dry that he could barely breathe. That realization had caused him to panic the first time he’d noticed, but now it was just another facet of the diamond of misery he found himself in.
Struggle up the side of a dune, stumble down the other side, the sisyphean task completed again. Brendan could only cling to the simple task of going up and down the dunes as he felt like a walking corpse, his skin cracked and blistered from the harsh sun. He didn’t think he could go on much longer.
Coming down from the latest conquered dune he spied a boulder large enough to cast shade on one side. He hoped it wasn’t another hallucination. He shuffled over to it and sat down. Sentry inquiringly buzzed as it hovered in front of him, all three eyes trained on him in its worry. He summoned all his willpower to speak past the blockade of dryness in his throat.
“It’s alright, bud. Just gonna take a break here.” he lied.
He was so tired. He could feel his eyes drooping as he sat there. Concentrating for a moment, he released the rest of his team. Giving them a smile, Brendan took in the sight of his team, burning it into his memory. They rushed him immediately, able to tell something was wrong.
Lurantis worriedly crooned at him, Dancer had her hands on him, checking his body with her psychic senses. Glimmer nudged him confusedly; she couldn’t tell really what was happening, but she knew something was off. He gave her an affectionate pat. Rogue looked stricken and tried to release some water from his reservoirs for Brendan, growing desperately angry as he failed, dehydrated as he was. He tried to wave them off.
“It’s ok guys. Don’t worry, I’m just taking a break.” he lied again.
He must not have been very convincing, as his team redoubled their efforts to help him. He was just glad to be surrounded by his team, now. They’d slowly become his family, and he really couldn’t imagine being without him. He couldn’t see Sentry anywhere, though, as he looked around. Perhaps it was hovering above him. That must be it.
Brendan rested his eyes for a moment, then opened them to find the sun setting. He must have slept for several hours. Shifting to a more comfortable position alarmed his team who all rushed him again, ecstatic that he’d woken. He weakly smiled in an attempt to be reassuring.
“I told you guys not to worry. See? It was just a break.” he lied, for the third time.
“C’mon, watch the sunset with me. It's beautiful here in the desert.”
His team grudgingly sat and watched with him, if only for the lack of any other option. He said “watched” but he was the only one watching the sunset, the rest were watching him. Again, he thought it was strange he didn’t see Sentry. He tried to ask about the magneton, but nothing came out as he felt his mouth was made of cotton. He tried again in confusion but was so tired he couldn’t even get his mouth to move.
He resignedly relaxed against the rock as he watched the sun disappear behind the dunes. He felt Lurantis to his right and Dancer to his left. It was definitely not the team he’d planned or dreamt about as a young boy, but he’d never trade them for anything else. His journey had been memorable and mostly good, if not nearly as long as he’d wanted. He never did get to challenge his father to battle, to his regret.
He thought of Wattson, who’d been there for him in a time when no one else had. He wondered if his team would bring news of him to the old man. He thought they would. He knew his team would escape the desert; they were reliable like that.
He felt a burst of anger at the world. It was unfair that he would die here. He and his team had come through many dangerous situations no worse for wear, but lack of water would do him in. The anger cooled as quickly as it had flared, and all that was left was a cold fear. He didn’t want to die. He thought he’d come to terms with it in the last few bitter days of journey, but facing the precipice, he found himself afraid, and he clung as tightly as he could to Lurantis, his best friend.
His eyes burned, but his body was so bereft of water that he could not cry. He felt his head fall against Lurantis, his muscles too strained to even hold his head up any longer. He thought he could hear his team shuffling around, panicking. He wanted to open his eyes and tell them he was alright, but he couldn’t fight the exhaustion the desert had wrought on him. He could feel Lurantis laying him down on the sand and Rogue again trying to summon some water, to no avail.
He could hear Glimmer stomping about confusedly, and Dancer’s cold hands on his forehead. He could still not hear Sentry though, and wished that his team could be all together again here at the end. As he started to lapse into unconsciousness he thought he could hear a faint buzz, the kind that Sentry made when it was angry, along with an unfamiliar voice.
“-going as fast as I can!” BZZT “Ow! Ok, ok, I’m hurrying. Damn flying tin-can. What have we-”
His awareness faded to blissful nothingness.