"I can't believe this," Maxim said, humbled by the voice he heard through the debris. "A Protector speaks for the first time in a decade."
"I can't believe this," Creo echoed, far less enthused. Wonder threatened to break through his sarcastic gib. At the very least, he was no longer hellbent on digging, which said more than enough about the intensity of what transpired.
The Protector stepped forward, causing Beetle to squeak, fall back onto the pile of rocks.
"Wow-wee!" The Protector cheered. "I feel like a million bars of gold. Hey, summoner, do I look striking or what?"
It took a second for Beetle to realize he was being addressed. "S-Summoner?" He asked.
"Yeah. You summoned me up so I can protect n' stuff. You also gave me a name, and I will give you credit, it is a stunning and shocking name. All Protectors have two-word names, and you used each word to its fullest extent. You'd need the best words to describe a powerhouse like me, anyway."
"When did you name it?" Creo asked through the wall.
Beetle shrugged, despite there being a wall, and said, "I don't remember doing that," despite remembering the acute sensation of speaking to something. There had been a blue light, too. There was a summoning with no setup and no recollection of how it was performed.
Whatever was happening, the pokemon struck a pose, head hefted into the air on his long neck, carried on his broad shoulders. "You named me... Brazen Star! Brazen Star the amaura! Shing!" He flashed his stomach-gems, causing Beetle to cry out and drop the lantern.
Creo chortled.
"You, behind the debris," Brazen Star growled. "You're not impressed?"
"Oh, I'm impressed, alright." Creo laughed again. "Just not with you. Not until you get my brother out."
Beetle twisted around, mouth agape. No excuse came for the outlandish name. There was excitement. Exhilaration. So much so, truth be told, he forgot all about the quake.
"Y-You should be impressed with me," the amaura said, stung. "My summoner is in jeopardy, so I will show off a skill of mine. I just need to find my insignia... where is my insignia?" Dust exploded out as Brazen Star threw himself onto the ground, neck craning to get a better look at his body. "Um. Okay. Just... just stay ready to be impressed..."
The scribe busied himself with his own thoughts. "The theory is true, then. A Protector matches their summoner's age. This amaura sounds not a year over choosing his own vocation from the Syntopicon."
"Grr..." Brazen star continued to wriggle.
Beetle raised a claw. "I-I see it on your right forepaw." It was a red etching contrasted to the Protector's blue hide. Four diamonds, arranged around a circle: Beetle recalled the image from the entrance into the Moiety, and from what he read in the Syntopicon. Four Protectors, one summoner. Once somebody summoned once, it was their duty to call, and guide, the rest. Afterwards the four separated from their tutor, to defend the Sand Continent on their terms, not coming back to the summoner in but the direst times of need.
Brazen Star rolled back up. "D-Ding! Ding! You're right. It was a... summoner's test. Without further ado, your reward." He planted his forepaw on the pedestal...
The four stone Protectors came to life. The first, a heracross, kneeled down so his horns fell in reach of the second, an ivysaur. The second's vines wrapped around these horns and a red glow flittered through the wall's cracks. Then the third and fourth, a nidoking and solrock, came alive, the former lifting the latter to the point where the crimson light shone strongest. Finally the first summoner, residing in the same mural and depicted as a pidgeot, gave its wing to the light.
The sculpting broke open, revealing itself as two double-doors. A hall led away from the mess made of the summoning room.
"There's a way out!" Beetle cried gleefully. "The Protector opened up the wall."
"Good going," Creo replied. "He better do what's in his job description."
Maxim hummed in agreement. "Those hidden halls lead to rooms once used for celebration, though ferals might be keeping them now. Keep the chief's son safe, Brazen Star. We would do best to seek out the end of their path, Creo. Spread news to the others waiting outside."
"Be smart, Little Beetle," Creo said.
The two ran off, leaving Beetle to smile at his Protector.
"Follow my lead," Brazen Star said.
Beetle tried his best not to lose himself in the moment. A real, live Protector had come to his aid! A ten year drought broken, a lifetime of want ended, his dreams come true. He must have inspected the amaura a dozen times head-to-toe-
Which was easy, seeing how the pokemon stopped occasionally to pose.
Brazen Star jolted forward again, eyes focused on the dark path ahead. He presented the insignia on the bottom of his paw to an imaginary foe-glanced back to gauge Beetle's reaction.
"Evil beware," the Protector bellowed. "The light of my crystal drives you back."
He twisted to the left. To the right. His gems flashed white with fury. "How was that pose?" He asked. The gems relaxed into their natural luster.
Beetle nodded. "I like that one. So... how strong are you?"
"The strongest."
"What kind of power do you use?" Beetle's father and brother used the power of ground. It was the likeliest explanation to how Creo spotted the earthquake in time.
"The coolest," Brazen Star answered. His cryptic tone dared the sandshrew to press him.
Beetle cocked his head to the side, giving in to curiosity.
"Ice!" The amaura breathed a puff of cold air. It refreshed the sandshrew walking through it.
Together they hustled down the hall, now wound longer than the one Beetle entered with Creo and the rest. It looked like it might put them at the exit to the Mystery Expanse.
"The Syntopicon says you have memories from all the other Protectors," Beetle said, the long walk making him restless. "Is that true? Can you tell me a story?"
Brazen Star became skittish. "U-Um. I think that's the usual fare. But... there's a big gap of nothingness in the way. I can't recall a thing. Not my fault... anyway!" The pokemon puffed up his chest. "I don't 'tell' other pokemons' stories. I make my own."
"Sounds amazing," Beetle replied, an answer to fill the silence while he puzzled out the amaura's meaning. A new problem emerged and Beetle put a hold on his puzzle. The end of their walk was in sight.
The Protector took the lead. "We've come upon the dining chambers. That I remember crystal clear."
They arrived at a large room. Beetle had forgotten what spaciousness looked like, stuck in the Moiety for what seemed like years. A flight of stairs led down to a place full of what, sadly, looked to be rotted tables. To their horror, not all the tables had been cleared of their last meal.
At least I think it's food, the sandshrew thought, wanting to gag. There was a fortunate passage over it all, in the form of a wooden stage.
"What happened to my precious Moiety?!" Brazen Star cried. "First a cave-in, now... now this? Has your tribe decided to live in sties?"
"The last four Protectors fell in battle and the Moieties stopped working," Beetle explained. "My father decided to give up on maintenance to focus on actual work. We need everything we can get nowadays."
"A decade of absence. That means... hm. I'll be extra amazing to everyone, then."
All the other gusto from the Protector made him seem larger than life. This shocked the child who had so far been in love with his situation.
"Excuse me?" Beetle began to ask. "Why would you-"
A shadow burst out from under the distant tables. Whatever thing it was chittered and devoured an old apple core-along with half a brittle silver plate. Beetle's eyes adjusted: it was a feral sandile.
His Protector also spotted it. "At least these pipsqueaks will pick the place clean eventually."
The sandshrew nodded. His mouth went drier than the Wastes, if he looked down, perhaps, his cream-colored belly would be bouncing, because his heart thumped harder than ever before. He had seen ferals before. On the way to the Moiety, as soon as that, they were a given of any Mystery Expanse. But his brother, as well as other adults, had been there to drive them back. Tiny ones such as this had itchy legs and fled after a good blow. Brazen Star was a Protector! It was a sure thing that a round with the amaura would leave the thing as hungry for an exit as they were.
His brother's voice echoed in his head. Use your noggin. Avoid attracting attention to yourself. Stay on the second floor, loop around, nice and easy. Why fight?
He accidentally nodded to nothing. "Hey, let's sneak-B-Brazen? Ah!"
Brazen Star was on the ground floor. The sandile reared onto its hind legs, head twisted in curiosity.
One foreleg raised, the Protector flashed his gems. "Evil beware, the light of my crystals drive you back!"
The sandile, although feral, looked to be smiling. A chorus of slithering and snapping teeth filled the room. There were more feral sandile to go around. They, too, had been hidden underneath the table. They had a meal better than rotted apples on the mind.
Why did he go and do that?! Beetle thought, panicking. We could have went around all this!
"Plenty of eyes.. all the better to behold my awesome power."
"Um... um..." Beetle gulped. If they were knocked out, they could pop up anywhere outside the Expanse. Without supplies, an unconscious trip opposite to home promised to be very dangerous. Knowing this, Beetle resolved to stand by his Protector and join him on the ground floor-except the way down was blocked by sandile slithering towards him.
Thinking fast he threw himself down, smashing into a table and its plate of old bones once wrapped in the meat of a cow. He handled the loud noise better this time, but the fall introduced him to the whiffling force of gravity. It took all he had and something else to spur his stubby legs to term. But the sandshrew did manage to un-stick the refuse on his arm and join the Protector.
"We're gonna tussle," Brazen star said. "Know how to fight?"
"I n-never swung hard at anyone before!"
The Protector glanced down at Beetle's claws. "Don't punch at them. You'll break your paw. Slash."
Just then, a sandile flew in to attack.
Brazen Star managed to hop up, one toothy lunge averted. The amaura snapped up the feral's tail, lifting it into the air. One spin, two spins! He tossed the dizzied fiend into a moldy table, snapping it-the table-in half.
Yet two more sandile rushed in, going straight for the legs again. One clamped down around Brazen Star's paw, the one with the insignia-he had attempted the same trick twice. Only Beetle's horrified whimper stopped the second sandile from joining in, perhaps tripping the amaura.
Beetle raised a claw as it approached. "I'll get you good!" He threatened. He attempted a snarl, it was a whimper. The feral gave no thought to it. Its jaw snapped. Open and shut.
Too nervous to swing at a living creature, Beetle smacked a nearby chair. The chair teetered into the feral's path, tangling itself around the beast's neck. It was a moment of pure fortune. Those sharp teeth shook inches from the child's snout. Its breath definitely didn't smell like sitrus spread... and the seat looked ready to crumble...
A great jaw closed around the chair's leg. Brazen Star had shaken off the ankle-biter, who now sat dazed in the open, and had real violent plans on what to do next.
With a cry, the Protector slammed sandile, chair, sandile together, forming the Sand Continent's weirdest sandwich.
"Take a seat, we'll be right with you!" Brazen Star roared. "This Protector doesn't have a reservation. A reservation against beating tail! How was that, summoner?"
Beetle spied how his Protector hiked up his wounded leg. "F-Fine... I guess," he said, panting. "We didn't need to hurt them-""
A pair of spindly legs latched onto Beetle's back. The sandshrew screamed and fell forward into a ball, as a sandile attempted to bust him open as if he was just some prawn. Fangs glanced off his hide, snagged before breaking away, then finally settled into a rivet along his carapace.
Brazen Star ripped the feral off before it could dig in.
"Not cool of you," he growled. "Now this, this will be cool." His chest ballooned with air. The wily creature tried to flee yet found itself unable to navigate the tangle of its defeated brethren. Before Beetle collected himself it was an icestorm unleashed, a torrent of icy air that caused the sandile's joints to lock up. The others cried out in consternation and fled, abandoning their allies to frigid doom.
Clank, clank, clank, clank. Four frozen ferals remained.
The two pokemon didn't mind the foul taste of the air they gulped down.
"You... you like what you see?" Brazen Star asked.
Beetle, after all that waiting... couldn't answer if he liked what he saw. Instead, he clambered up the stairs, retrieved his lamp, and brought it to the sandile, their teeth chattering. Icicles formed on the bottom of their hind legs.
"Sorry," Beetle whispered. He placed the heat source next to their frozen bodies and gestured to Brazen Star that he wanted to continue their trek to the surface.
