Chapter 1

Regirock Appears

It was a beautiful day in Littleroot town. The sun was in the process of rising at the east of the horizon, and several little clouds dotted the sky, like white blotches on a light blue canvas. The town itself was somewhat sleepy, few people were out and about and the streets were very quiet, but for the few people that were outside, they were plentifully enjoying the day: children playing with each other or with their parents; Couples out for a walk; trainers getting out of their houses and walking with their pokémon out of town and into adventure. Everyone had something to do today, and Brendan was no exception.

After having eaten, the teenager quickly went back upstairs to get ready. He grabbed his poké ball belt and strapped it on himself, put on his signature white hat and covered his dark brown locks with it, and he tied his red and white running shoes to his feet. He was all set and ready to go. He had fifteen minutes to get to Mossdeep city, so he figured he could stand to leave early. Upon opening the door, however, he realized that he had forgotten something incredibly important.

"Shoot!" he said to himself, slapping his hand on his forehead. "I forgot to tell May that I can't come today! Ohh… stupidity thy name is Brendan! I hope I'm not too late."

It was 9:15, and Brendan was supposed to meet his friend at her house at 9:20. The trip between Brendan and May's house is about one minute, so he wouldn't be late. He quickly dashed out the door and ran all the way to May's house and when he reached the porch he knocked very quickly on the door. Norman answered, and seemed strangely relieved to find the seventeen-year-old on his front porch.

"Brendan!" he exclaimed. "Am I glad to see you."

"Hey there, Norman." Brendan answered. "I'm glad to see you too. By any chance, is M-"

"I was just about to call you" Norman interrupted. "to tell you that May left early with her mother to do some shopping at the Lilycove department store. She told me to tell you to meet her there at 9:30 anyway."

"Oh, that's good to hear, but I'm afraid I won't be able to stay there."

"Oh, well then you'd better hurry up to Lilycove to tell her that."

"Well, couldn't I just call her?"

"Her Pokénav is broken, unfortunately. It's at Devon Corporation for repairs."

"Hm, that's great." Brendan said, before sighing. "Well, thanks Norman, I'd better go quickly then."

"No problem."

As Brendan trotted down the porch stairs, he tossed out a poké ball and Charizard materialized in front of him. After hopping onto his back, he cried: "To Lilycove!" As the fire lizard started flapping its enormous wings to gain altitude, Brendan waved to Norman, and he was soon off to the coastal city.

The tropical region of Hoenn was truly a delight viewed from above. Tall trees could be seen as miniscule green flowers, and the vast mountains (particularly the still active Mt. Chimney) were grand sights to behold. The first time the region is viewed from above is quite awe-inspiring. Of course, Brendan had already seen it several times before, and was too concentrated on what he had to do to be able to appreciate all the little details (he noticed from the corner of his eye, the sight of a group of people assembled near the desert on Route 111, but didn't take too much time to consider it, especially after dismissing it as a manifestation of the region's monthly weather parade). After having passed Fortree City, he had his Pokémon swoop down to a lower altitude, in preparation for landing. The sun was hot that day, and Brendan felt its strong rays on his back. Were it not for the refreshing breeze produced by the flight, he would've felt much more exhausted upon arrival.

As the two entered Lilycove, Brendan checked his watch and saw that it was 9:25. He wondered if May was still at the department store, or if she had already gone to the edge of town to wait for him. From where he was, he saw no one at the coast (at least, no one that looked like May) so he landed in front of the department store. After telling Charizard to wait for him outside, he entered and started looking. He had five minutes to find May, tell her what he had to say, and go see his parents.

The store was very large and spacious; the walls were coloured a bright orange while the floor tiles were more of a light blue. Usually, the store was hustling and bustling, but that day was a weekday and so, there weren't a great deal of people.

Brendan always hated department stores as he found them quite boring, so you can imagine that the idea of looking for someone in a very [i]large[/i] department store didn't exactly enthral him. He decided to just have her paged. Unfortunately, before he could reach the front counter, he had something sprayed into his face, a bitter, pungent cloud of gas enveloped his head and seeped into his nostrils. He immediately started coughing and hacking.

"How do you like it, sir?" asked a young, blonde woman holding a small perfume bottle with a picture of a Skitty in her hand. "It's called Skitty Sensation, and all the young girls love it! It's perfect if you can't seem to find a gift for that special someone."

"Thank you but I'll pass." Brendan replied.

"Are you sure? We're having a two for one sale today and today only."

"Quite sure. But thank you, anyway."

As Brendan moved away he rolled his eyes and muttered to himself: "Skitty Sensation… more like Killer Koffing. Heh, I have to remember that one."

At the counter, Brendan asked if he could page his friend, and the attendant at the counter nicely agreed. Of course, he had to wait a few minutes, but he told himself that if she didn't come after five minutes, he would leave.

As he waited, the attendant asked him if he wanted to try his luck at the lottery, free of charge.

"Sure." he answered as he gave her his trainer ID. "Twentieth time's the charm."

After scanning it, the attendant was pleased to tell him: "Congratulations! The last digit matched!"

"Great! What do I win?" Brendan asked excitedly. He had never won at this lottery before.

The brown-haired attendant reached under the counter and brought out a perfume bottle. "A free bottle of Skitty Sensation!"

Brendan's smile immediately disappeared and almost formed a grimace. Reluctantly, he grabbed the perfume bottle and uttered a forced "thank you," although he tried to appear as grateful as he could out of politeness. Right after he had put in his bag, he received a call. It was his father.

"Brendan!" he said. "Where are you?"

"Uh… right now I'm at Lilycove, but I was just about to leave."

"What are you doing there? Well, no matter. I need you to come here right now! An amazing discovery has just been made and I don't want you to miss any more of it."

Brendan kept looking afar to see if he could spot May as he listened to his father, but when he didn't see a trace of her, he answered:

"Alright, Dad, I'll be there in a minute. Literally." and he hung up.

He quickly walked out the front door and upon leaving, saw that his Charizard was bickering with another trainer's Tropius. The trainer was a slightly podgy, dark-haired young man in shorts and a t-shirt, and he seemed quite angry. Standing next to him, trying to calm him down was none other than May and her mother.

"May!" Brendan exclaimed. "You're here. I thought you were inside."

"We just got here." answered May's mother. "I take it my husband told you we left soon after we did."

"Hey!" cried the podgy trainer. "What's your Charizard's problem? He snarled at my Tropius as soon as we landed."

The two flying Pokémon were staring at each other as if they had a bone to pick with one another. Every once in a while, Charizard would snarl or snap at Tropius, who would back away slightly, and snap back.

"Oh, I'm sorry guy," Brandon said. "He's a bit proud and this is his way of showing it to other Pokémon. I don't know where he gets it. Come on, Charizard, stop it." he told it firmly, as he grabbed its arm. "Sorry, May, but I won't be able to go Wailmer watching today, my father wants me to go to the Mossdeep Research Center with him and my mother."

"Did they finally call him back?" asked May's mother.

"No, that's why he's there now." Brendan said, as he chuckled. "Sorry again, May."

"Don't worry about it so much, Brendan." she replied with a smile. "It's not like we can't go tomorrow or any other time."

Charizard snapped again, and Brendan gave him a firm tug to make him stop. He also apologized to the trainer once more, who seemed to understand but was still a bit bitter. It was at this point, too, that the young trainer left with his Pokémon, who continued staring at Charizard until it was fully turned around. The fire type, however, kept its gaze.

"Yeah, you're right." Brendan continued. "I really need to be going now, but call me whenever your Pokénav gets back from the repair shop."

"Will do. You just tell me the news about whatever it is that your father discovered."

"Will do."

Charizard let out a short roar, and Brendan pulled him away, saying: "Will you stop it! Gosh, what is your problem?" he had to force him to turn his back completely, and even then, Charizard kept his head turned, with his gaze locked at the far-off Tropius, before turning it around as well. Soon after, Brendan hopped on him, and they were both off to Mossdeep City. Brendan waved at May and her mother as he left.

And so, finally, he arrived at Mossdeep city and landed in front of the Research Center where his parents and what looked like a scientist were waiting for him. Soon after getting off his Charizard, his father approached him.

"Sorry about that, Dad." said Brendan. "I kind of forgot to tell May about today and I had to go tell her, it was long but anyway, the important thing is that I'm here."

"Yes it is," replied his father. "and wait until I tell you what it is that you that you missed!"

"The comet landed today!" said Brendan's mother, enthusiastically.

"Really?" asked Brendan, half surprised and half intrigued.

"It landed in the desert near Route 111." said the scientist who was with them.

"Oh, Brendan, this is Professor Klaus," his father said to him. "He's the head supervisor here at the Center."

"Pleased to meet you." said Brendan, as he shook his hand.

"Your father has made quite a discovery." replied Professor Klaus "We managed to catch the irregular celestial activity and the vibrations that the object made upon landing with our machines."

"Do you have any footage?"

"No, but we just sent some of our top experts to go over and verify. They'll call us as soon as they see anything."

"But in the meantime," continued Professor Birch. "We can show you the predicted landing and calculations on the computer."

"Uh…"

Brendan's tentative utterance didn't stop the professor from dragging him through the Research Center's doors and showing him what he indeed had to show him. Mr. Howard and Professor Birch's wife followed suit. It is unfortunate to say that Brendan was right in thinking that today was going to be a long day.

May and her mother were walking back to Littleroot town and were in the middle of walking down route 111. Several campers dressed in green were either hiking uphill or partaking in battles, while several hikers entered and left the harsh desert, hoping to experience a rush in their hike. A little further away, behind a few oak trees, there was a trainer in the middle of a challenge against the Winstrate family in their yard.

In the middle of the route, near the entrance to Mount Chimney, there were a large group of people assembled and speaking. Quite a large group. About 30 some people, which included campers, hikers, beauties, youngsters, what have you. They were all clamouring about something. Curious to see what it was, May and her mother went over and asked someone who was relatively outside of the circle.

"It was incredible!" proclaimed the brown-eyed, red-haired youngster. "A huge rock Pokémon was walking here! Right in the middle of the route!"

"What?" asked May's mother, understandably intrigued. "How long ago was this?"

"Not even fifteen minutes ago!"

"How big?" asked May.

"It looked about twenty feet tall." said a young camper, close by.

"It looked like it would have been a blast to scale!" added a fairly large hiker.

"And where is it now?" asked May's mother.

"It went around the side of the mountain, so we can't see it anymore, but we all think it's going to the top of Mount Chimney, or at least Fallarbor town. Man, it was really something!"

May's mother kept speaking to the other eyewitnesses about this apparent mystery Pokémon, but May was completely silent, looking elsewhere, steeped in her own reflection.

From far away, two people could be seen running quickly toward the group, a woman and a man. The woman was holding a microphone in her hand, while the man had a large camera on his shoulders. As they approached, they became clearer to see. The woman had short, blue hair and was wearing a sleeveless, blue shirt with a white collar and jeans. The man had short black hair with a red cap covering the top of it, and was wearing a basic white shirt with jeans as well. He appeared quite sturdy, especially compared to the woman next to him. He also appeared much more exhausted than her, as he had been lugging that enormous camera with him as he ran. Finally, they stopped in front of the crowd, and the cameraman crouched down, pointing the camera in front of his lady friend.

"Am I ok?" the woman uttered to him as she looked into the camera he was pointing at her. "Is my hair good? O-ok, turn it on, nnnnow!" and she started. "Ladies and gentlemen, this is your trusty reporter Gabby, live on the spot in route 111! We have just gotten word that a very large and unknown Pokémon has been seen trekking in what is usually peaceful route 111. As soon as we got word of it, we rushed right over, although unfortunately, it appears, we are too late, as the creature is no longer within sight; but left in its stead are very large footsteps." As Gabby said these words, the cameraman pointed the camera toward very large, round holes in the ground, placed as if they were footsteps.

The reporter continued: "And a large group of eyewitnesses, that I'm sure are ready to divulge any information they have on this behemoth… this… this colossal rock monster. Let's go see if anyone has anything to say about it."

Gabby started walking towards May, who seemed to rather enjoy not being included in the conversation. It was too late before she could do anything though, as the obnoxious reporter had already parked herself next to her and started asking her questions.

"Excuse me miss…" said Gabby, before pointing the microphone towards May.

"M-May…" she said, hesitantly.

"May, I see you're here with your mother."

"Hello." said her mother, as she peeked her head in to get closer to the microphone.

"Miss May, could you please tell me and the viewers watching what it was exactly that you saw walking here on route 111?"

"Uh… I-I didn't really see anything… I just got here."

"Oh…" Gabby took a quick look at the camera, as she wasn't expecting that kind of answer, before continuing. "Well, I'm sorry to have bothered you miss May, excuse me while I go find some actual witnesses. Excuse me! You there, in the tacky blue hat! How did this colossal Pokémon affect your perspective on life?"

Gabby and Ty moved away from the two women and soon all of the pressure was off of her. She still had a strange look about her and appeared to be deep in thought.

"Well, this certainly is an interesting situation, wouldn't you say May? Where could that Pokémon have come from?"

"I think I know, Mom." May responded.

"What?"

"From what they described, I may have already seen that Pokémon."

"Um… are you sure about that?"

"I'm positive, but to be sure we'll need to check the desert."

"The desert? May, please stop putting me on."

"Mom, I'm serious. If what I think is true then the other two might be awoken as well and who knows what they might do?"

"What other two? May, what is with you?"

"Just come with me, and I'll explain on the way." she said, as she grabbed her reluctant mother's arm and headed for the desert.

"May! Stop! I'm not in the mood for any of this foolishness! Oohh…."

May didn't listen, she kept holding her mother by her arm and ran steadily toward the desert. The massive sandstorm, into which they were now trekking, could be seen from afar.