"… That's her car?"

"Uh-huh."

"It's so… tacky," Kris managed.

"When did we agree Raea had any taste?" Bunny wondered out loud.

The aforementioned car was small, compact, and streamlined. It was mainly a glossy black with two thick gold-and-pink stripes that fizzled into a comet's tail painted on the sides, and large gold Chinese characters adorned the roof of the car. At least, that was what Piez could see of it as they approached – the few humans and even more Pokémon intermingling between the ranks made it hard to see very well.

"It's very Raea-ish though," Piez said.

"I think the next thing she said she was gonna do was customize the wheels or something," Bunny said cheerfully. "That, or superglue glowsticks everywhere."

"Her car needs work," Psycho said dismissively. "It's not nearly as interesting as some of the others. For example," she kicked the wheel of a car they were passing, ignoring the driver's string of angry swears. The car had been painted black, with a white skeleton of what appeared to be a Kabutops juxtaposed onto the frame. It even had scythes coming from the doors on each side, which Piez was careful to stay away from (Tokyo and Jericho, on the other hand, examined it eagerly, Jericho even going as far to leap on top of it and perform a little strut).

"Who cares about interesting, it's tiny," Kris pointed out. "Does it even have a trunk?"

"Only if you count the fact the back seats fold down," Bunny said, sidestepping a burly, bald man, shirtless despite the oncoming chill of the night desert. Narcissus didn't bother, smiling dreamily at the muscleman instead, who hastily backtracked.

"And she ragged on me about my car," Kris muttered.

Out of seemingly nowhere, a Sableye leapt onto Bunny's head, jabbering away rapid strings of gibberish. Bunny reached up and attempted to pull it off her head without tangling its sharp claws in her hair. "Hi, Gimble!" she grinned, holding the Sableye by its armpits. The Sableye then bit her hand, forcing Bunny to drop her with a cry of pain. Narcissus promptly shoved Bunny to the side, planting himself between the Sableye and his trainer, Magical Leaves shimmering into existence at his hands as he did so.

"The hell?" Piez wondered aloud. Jericho and Tokyo stepped forward as one, glaring down the Sableye, who spat something incomprehensible at them, ignoring Narcissus completely.

"Isn't that Raea's crazy Sableye?" Psycho asked no one in particular, not bothering to go for her Pokéballs.

"Yes it is," Kris answered, looking completely baffled. "You'd think she'd train her Pokémon better."

"Gimble, it's not very nice to bite people," Bunny scolded the Sableye, apparently unaffected by the mental trauma of having a Sableye drop on her head and try to eat her. Narcissus slowly relaxed, the Magical Leaves falling to the ground and dissolving into colored powder. Gimble spat a coin at Bunny's feet and leapt away, landing on the roof of yet another indignant racer's car and watching the group with her gemstone eyes.

"In case it's not completely obvious, I think she wants us to follow her," Piez pointed out.

"Narcy, maybe you should go back in your Pokéball," Bunny suggested. The Gardevoir rolled his eyes and recalled himself, disappearing in a flash of white light.

The group hurried after Gimble, who stayed on the car roof only long enough to check that they were following before leaping to another, claws screeching across the metal. She led them to Raea's car, sitting serenely in the center of a prowling pack of three Mightyena, all of which were being glared down by a shiny Luxray, black-and-gold fur glinting under multicolored lights.

"Hey, Solaria," Kris greeted the Luxray cheerfully, reaching up to scratch her ears. Solaria purred at her former trainer, though she didn't take her eyes off the Mightyena. "I can't believe Raea convinced you to actually come out of your Pokéball."

The Luxray let out a quick mrooow of agreement, butting Kris's hand playfully. The girls left him to reacquaint himself with Solaria, circling around the car to talk with the driver.

"Oh, hey, Gimble did find you guys," Astraea Athanasia, better known as Raea, greeted her friends. "So, how's Pyrite?"

"Dry," Psycho said bluntly. "What's with your car's stalkers?"

"Wait, what?" Raea turned in her seat to glance at them. "Oh, you mean the Mightyena. It's normal. See, the drift races usually involve beating the crap out of whoever's fastest so you can get past them. Also involves jumping the gun and stalking out a rival before the race actually begins. Tira, Argyris, and Wicked are doing that for me somewhere around here."

"Sounds lovely," Piez said. "So why'd you give us directions to here instead of your gym anyway?"

Raea shrugged. "Why not? I figured you'd drive into Pyrite around this time anyway. Besides, I never stay in the gym. Duel Square or here, usually."

"Real responsible," Psycho teased. "You got the e-mail, right?"

"Yeah, with all that Sakaki and Cipher crap," Raea said dismissively. "Give me two more days and I'll have conspiracy theories for you by the boatload."

ATTENTION, RACERS. THE RACE WILL BEGIN IN T-MINUS TWO MINUTES. WILL ALL BYSTANDERS PLEASE REMOVE THEMSELVES AND THEIR POKEMON FROM THE VICINITY.

Kris clapped his hands to his ears, wincing at the telepathic call. It wasn't loud so much as… uncomfortable. Invasive, even. Solaria stiffened, eyes suddenly starting to glow gold.

"Oh, hey, they're starting," Bunny chirped cheerfully. "Come on, we gotta get out of the way."

"Why?" Kris asked warily.

"Just do it, you'll figure out why later," Bunny said, grabbing the older teen by the wrist and half-pulling, half-dragging him to the sidelines. Solaria didn't bother to say goodbye, instead turning and baring her fangs at the Mightyena, who were glaring at the Luxray with renewed intensity.

"See ya," Raea waved at the ragtag band as Bunny led them away, not bothering to question why they weren't just using Narcissus to Teleport away from the track. The young Pyrite leader slammed the door shut, then turned to the Slowking sitting in the shotgun seat, reaching across him for the seatbelt.

"This is most undignified," Horace grumbled, curling his tail protectively against his side as his trainer fumbled for the seatbelt.

"Shut up, Horace," Raea snapped at the Slowking. "You have no thumbs and I don't trust psychics with my car."

The Slowking rolled his eyes and said nothing as his trainer settled back into her own seat, having no trouble with her own seatbelt. It was something of a tradition for Horace to bicker with Raea over the seatbelt, though usually his trainer took it with much more grace. "You're in a bad mood," he noted.

"No shit, Sherlock."

"Are you worried about meeting Acacia Sakaki tomorrow?"

"Worried," Raea snorted. "No, I'm trying to decide the best way to hand that bitch her ass without getting into trouble with the law. She tried to sue Kris and Psycho, remember? And I owe Silver a favor."

"Not everyone wants their aunt to suffer," Horace pointed out mildly.

"If I was him, I would," Raea retorted. "Now shut up and get those screens ready."

Horace sighed and closed his eyes. When he opened them again, the pupils and iris were fading to white, blending into his sclera.

RACERS, ON YOUR MARK.

Psycho fished a Pokéball out of her bag, popping it open as they ran. An Infernape with black limbs materialized, loping along easily. "AK-47, go find me some popcorn," she directed him. "Buttered, mind." With a nod, the Infernape leapt away, swinging from one barely protruding handhold to another, ascending the cliff face with astonishing grace.

READY.

"Ready, steady," Raea muttered under her breath, hands tightening on the steering wheel.

SET.

Psycho scrambled up the ladder set into the sheer rock face last, vaulting over the last few rungs with ease. She accepted a plastic bucket filled with popcorn from AK-47, who had returned in record time. No one questioned where the Infernape had gotten it.

GO.

"Go!" Raea sing-songed in time with the call, slamming down on the gas as she did so. Horace's light green Protect shields leapt up in record time, flashing white where various attacks hit in a barrage of color and sound (and, in some cases, unlucky Pokémon and other racers in her way).

As the racers' sped out from the starting position, the Pokémon left behind flew into a frenzy, launching attacks with abandon, all trying to destroy the others. Fire met ice met electricity, fists slammed into rock and steel, razor-sharp leaves and wind whirled everywhere in a dervish of blade. Chaos, in short. Even above and between the cars, the duels continued, the more fleet-footed Pokémon using the cars as tiny battlegrounds or springboards to duel in the air.

"Should we stop them?" Piez wondered out loud.

"It looks like fun," Jericho chirped. "Can we help?"

Bunny shook her head. "No interference from any of the spectators. Part of the race involves keeping the other Pokémon off your own car."

"Ten bucks Strae totals someone's car for the hell of it," Kris said.

"Done," Piez shook his hand.

"I can see why Raea likes racing," Psycho commented. "Popcorn?" she offered.


The Desert Ruin had once been catapulted into fame as one of Duking's "Pokéspots", one of the few places where wild Pokémon were abundant in Orre. That had changed, mostly due to the harsh sandstorms that now circled it constantly, and also because a large rock structure had risen, seemingly overnight, and swallowed up any semblance of friendliness the desert might have once had. The combined presence of the monotonous monolith and the unending sandstorms deterred most visitors, and those that did usually turned back once they saw there was nothing to see.

Not Starfire Shirane.

The brunette resisted the urge to lift her goggles and get a face full of sand, instead shoving her hands deeper into the pockets of her light jacket and trying to ignore the tiny, stinging grains of sand that hurled themselves with abandon at bare skin.

"Mushi, Ty, how ya doing?" she called out, though her voice was slightly muffled due to the sheer white scarf she wore, again, against the swirling sand.

In response, a rock thumped down beside her, nearly missing her foot. Starfire bit back a swear. "Very funny," she said, as the Swampert snickered and pried out another rock from the shattered spiderweb crack he'd put into the Ruin's wall only a few minutes prior.

Ty was not doing as well as Mushi, mostly due to the Typhlosion's lack of a Ground, Rock, or Steel type. He kept pausing to wipe the sand out of his eyes and down a can of Lemonade, though he worked just as doggedly, if slower, as the Swampert, with rhythmic punches of his forepaws to force the rocks to fall away from the two Pokémon.

Starfire checked the time on her Pokénav. They'd been there for nearly two hours, working at knocking a hole into the rock wall, and the sun must have been setting by now. To be honest, Starfire hadn't expected it to take so long, but the rock was tougher and thicker than she'd expected it to be.

"Maybe we should call it a night soon," Starfire suggested. "Come back tomorrow, next week?"

In answer, the two Pokémon stepped back, then Mushi charged at the wall, throwing himself at it, right shoulder slamming into the wall.

"Guess that's a no," Starfire muttered as Mushi stepped back, allowing Ty to crouch on all fours and throw himself forward, fire wreathing his paws.

After another couple of solid hits, the wall gave way with a last creak of protest, rubble falling to the ground. It wasn't a very big hole, and Starfire could see she'd have to stoop to get through. Still, it was an amazing feat – from here, the wall seemed to be at least a yard of solid rock.

Starfire shook her head in amusement. "Okay, the two of you get ice cream when we get back to civilization." Mushi bowed mockingly as Ty recalled himself, disappearing into his Pokéball with a flash of white light. Starfire climbed carefully onto the hole in the wall, making sure not to bang her head against the old stone, Mushi lazily slouching back to rest on his knuckles to stand guard at the entrance.

It was pitch-dark inside the rock, which wasn't really surprising. Starfire, prepared for this eventuality, pulled a flashlight from the backpack slung over her shoulders, flicking it on and panning the cone of white light around her. The rock rose steeply, pointed ceiling jutting high into the air. As she'd expected, the monolith was an immense, hollow chamber. She half-expected to see a horde of Zubat come charging at the source of the light, but then, the chamber was sealed by the stone shell. Nothing could live here.

Reaching for her Pokéballs, Starfire plucked Shiala's from the Velcro straps that affixed it to her backpack. With another flash of white light, the Glaceon materialized, blinking sleepily. "Glaaaaaaaa?" she yawned. The translator thing-or-other Psycho had mailed to all the Orre leaders as a gift fizzled in Starfire's ear before supplying monotonously, "Oh, is it dinner already?"

Starfire slapped her right ear lightly, causing the translator to jump a little. Apparently sandstorms were bad for it or something. Didn't matter. "Nah, maybe later. Mushi and Ty did what they do best and broke the Desert Ruin, so now we're looking around."

"Who wrote on the rocks?" Shiala asked.

"What?" Starfire swept the flashlight around, catching the Glaceon full in the face with it.

"My retinas!" Shiala howled in agony, though Starfire wasn't sure how much of it was real and how much she was faking.

"Sorry!" Hastily, the brunette pointed the flashlight away from the Glaceon.

The Glaceon rubbed at her eyes with one small forepaw. "Anyway, look at the walls," she directed.

Starfire obliged. Her flashlight illuminated etchings in the wall, angular lines of varying lengths that didn't resemble any script she knew. Luckily, it only covered a slim section of wall that was just inches away from being obliterated by the hole Mushi and Ty had created.

"Convenient," Starfire said.

"Especially if you knew what it said?" Shiala suggested perkily.

"That too," Starfire said. "Did I bring my camera?" she asked vaguely, rooting around in her backpack, which was more difficult than it sounded, considering she was still holding the flashlight in one hand.

"Pumpernickel!" Shiala shouted randomly.

"Found it!" the brunette exclaimed, triumphant, and promptly dropped the flashlight. With a sigh, Starfire managed to juggle around her things until the backpack was resting safely against her feet, the flashlight perched atop it, with the camera in her hands. She managed to snap five shots in quick succession with the flash feature, encompassing all the carvings in the wall.

"Are you done now?" Shiala asked, boredly cleaning behind a large ear.

"Probably," Starfire answered, dropping the camera back into her bag after rescuing her flashlight from nearly toppling onto the ground again.

"Good, because I think you wanna go nose around there now," the Glaceon said, indicating a vague area to her right. Starfire flicked the flashlight over, which semi-illuminated a gaping passageway that led presumably down underneath the sand.

"Ooh, good idea," Starfire said enthusiastically. "Come on!"

Shiala huffily shook some sand out of her paws before following her trainer into the tunnel. It descended gently, curving constantly counterclockwise, probably spiraling down.

They came to an abrupt halt, into a chamber as large as (if not larger than) the one they had left, though the ceiling was considerably lower. The flashlight danced across the uneven ground.

"Hmm. That's interesting," Starfire murmured.

A pile of boulders sloppily fixed to each other (for the most part) sat in the center of the room. A pattern of seven unlit dots arranged in the shape of an H winked back at Eclo Canyon's leader.

Regirock.


A/N: Is it really obvious I decided halfway through the chapter to just go "screw it" and throw in translations for the Pokémon because I'm lazy? |D -brick'd-