~Chapter Eleven~

Arthur and his companions made their way down the steep hill to the east of Lavaridge town. They continued walking east, and soon came across a sprawling desert. They had seen it before, on their way from Mauville City, but they could not go that way because there was a vicious sandstorm. Now that they had the goggles, they could go through the area.

As they walked through the area, they came across Baltoys, Sandshrews, Trapinches, and Cacneas. Arthur noticed that his pokemon were getting minorly injured by the sandstorm when battling. Peter was having the same problem. The only one who could go through a battle without taking excess damage was Raivis, but that was because he used rock-types.

Soon, they made their way to the north end of the desert. They found a large field of ash-covered grass. As they made their way through the grass, they encountered a pokemon. It seemed to like Peter, and it was shiny steel gray, with red on its wings. It was a Skarmory.

Peter sent out his Torchic, and started slowly bringing down the Skarmory's health. When Peter felt that it was enough, he threw a great ball, and caught the pokemon.

"Yes! I caught my first pokemon!" Peter shouted.

"What about Mew?" Arthur asked.

"Technically she asked me, so that doesn't count."

"Alright then, let's just continue on," Arthur said, continuing his way through the grass. When they came across a few people who wanted to do a double battle, Peter and Raivis worked together to take the win. Arthur accepted challenges, but did not actively search for battles. Soon they came to Fallarbor town.

They healed their pokemon at the pokecenter, and talked to a person in the town. The person said, "I feel bad for Professor Edelstein. Team Magma came and stole the meteorite that he found in Meteor Falls. He's been pretty downcast ever since."

'I wonder if that thing that I found in the machine at the top of the volcano was the meteorite that was stolen. I think I'll go to return it,' Arthur thought. "Which house belongs to Professor Edelstein?" Arthur asked.

The person pointed out which house, and Arthur went over to the house. He knocked on the door, and the door opened. A man with dark hair and a disapproving demeanor stood in the doorway. "Yes? Did you need something?"

"I found this in a machine on the top of Mount Chimney. Is it the one I heard was stolen from you by Team Magma?" Arthur asked, pulling the Meteorite from his backpack.

The man's eyes widened. "Yes! This is my meteorite! Thank you. Here, I found this item atop the volcano a few weeks ago. I never found out what it does. Maybe you will be able to figure it out," he said as he brought out a bright red rectangular tablet.

"Thank you. Have a good day," Arthur said as he walked away from the house. "Did we just get a plate without me tripping over it?" He said to Arceus.

'And here I was thinking that it would be more difficult.'

He went back to Raivis and Peter, and they went to the west of the town, and soon found themselves in a large cave, and there was a cascading waterfall crashing down a wall of pale yellow rocks.

They made their way through the cave, and came across a pokemon. This one seemed to like Arthur. It was a sun-shaped rock type-pokemon. Raivis, the expert on rock-types, said, "That's a Solrock. Along with being a rock type, it's also a psychic type."

"That's an interesting combination…" Arthur said thoughtfully. He sent out Gyarados, and used Dragon Rage on the Solrock, doing only enough to weaken the wild pokemon a bit. Then he used a pokeball to catch the Solrock.

After catching Solrock, the trio continued on through the cave. They emerged at a series of ledges and caught sight of the familiar skyline of Rustboro City.

They rushed into the town, and Peter tripped over a stone. Arthur stared at him, noting that the 'stone' was rectangular. Much like one of Arceus' plates. "Arceus, we found a plate. And I wasn't the one who tripped! Again!" he said, picking up the plate.

'This one appears to be the Stone Plate. It holds the power of rocks. Congratulations on not falling on your face,' Arceus said.

Arthur ignored this comment, and helped Peter get up, taking the Stone Plate. "We now have five plates," he said to himself. "How many did you say that you had Arceus?"

'Sixteen. We currently have about one-third of the plates,' Arceus replied.

"Hm. We're doing pretty well," Arthur said. "We'll keep an eye out for them." He turned to the boys. "Come on then, we should get to the city.

Once they got to the city, Arthur noticed that Raivis was looking at the gym. "Raivis, do you want to stay in Rustboro while Peter and I go to Petalburg?"

"What? Um… A little," Raivis said.

"Then go ahead. You have a place to stay here, right?"

"Yeah, my brother lives here," he said, a bit relieved.

"We'll come back after we've finished our business in Petalburg. We'll see you later," Arthur said.

"Bye Raivis!" Peter shouted. Arthur and Peter walked through the woods and soon made their way to Petalburg. They healed their pokemon at the pokecenter, and then went to the gym. The gym leader was the same woman whom Arthur met at the beginning of his journey, Yekaterina Braginskaya.

"Hello, I believe we met a few weeks ago. I am Arthur Kirkland, and this is my little brother, Peter. I have come to challenge this gym," Arthur said politely.

"Alright. Are you ready now?" Yekaterina asked.

"Yes," Arthur said, pulling out a pokeball. "I am."

Yekaterina sent out her first pokemon, a Chansey, while Arthur sent out Mudkip. Chansey used Egg Bomb, and Mudkip took a bit of damage. Mudkip used Water Gun, and Chansey took a lot of damage, but managed to hold on.

Arthur was ready to defeat the Chansey with a Tackle, but before Mudkip could attack, the Chansey used SoftBoiled, healing herself. Mudkip's Tackle did not do nearly as much as Water Gun did.

Next, Mudkip used Water Gun, while Chansey used Sing. Chansey was defeated, but Mudkip was put to sleep. As Yekaterina sent out her next pokemon, Arthur switched pokemon as well. Arthur sent out Gyarados, and Yekaterina sent out a Miltank.

Miltank used Rollout which would do more and more damage as the battle went on. Gyarados used Dragon Rage a few times, but each time Rollout hit, Gyarados got a little bit more tired. Soon, Miltank was defeated, but Gyarados was just hanging on.

The next pokemon to be sent out by Yekaterina was an Eevee. The little pokemon was so cute, that Arthur felt a little bad about having to defeat her. However, Eevee defeated Gyarados using Bite.

Arthur decided to send in his new pokemon, Solrock. He told his Solrock to use the move Rock Throw, which dealt a lot of damage to the Eevee. Eevee used Bite, which worked well on Solrock due to it being a psychic type. Then Solrock used Rock Throw again, knocking out the little Eevee.

Yekaterina brought out a pokeball with six dots on it; two red, two blue, and two silver. When Yekaterina sent out the pokemon inside, the ceiling opened. It was a good thing that it did too. The Pokemon released was gargantuan.

'Well. This is surprising. Regigigas doesn't usually come outside. But don't worry. She is very slow. If you defeat her quickly enough, you will win without a scratch,' Arceus informed Arthur.

Arthur thanked Arceus, and used Rock Throw on Regigigas, which did not do as much as Arthur had hoped. True to Arceus' word, the pokemon was moving extremely slowly. He told Solrock to attack again, still not doing as much damage as he would have hoped.

Then Regigigas seemed to speed up a bit. Yekaterina told her enormous pokemon to use a move called "Crush Claw." This move did a riduclously large amount of damage to Solrock, and the pokemon went down.

Mudkip was asleep, and both Gyarados and Solrock were out of play for the time being, so Arthur was forced to send out Arceus. Arceus was very small compared to Regigigas, but with her small size, came a far greater agility. Arceus evaded any attack that was thrown at her.

Eventually, Regigigas slowed down a bit, allowing Arceus time to attack. She used Judgment, but as she was not holding a Plate, the attack's type was Normal. Orbs of gray light appeared, and attacked Regigigas. The attack was not the most effective, but it was enough to earn Arthur the win.

"Congratulations, Arthur. You have earned this badge," Yekaterina said, bringing out a badge. "This is the Balance Badge." She handed it to him.

"Thank you. I must go now," Arthur said, turning to leave.

Once they were outside, Peter and Arthur noticed that the sky was getting dark. "Should we find somewhere to stay for the night?" Peter asked.

"Yes, let's go," Arthur responded. They walked around the city, but couldn't find anywhere. They were about to resort to camping again, but then Arthur heard a familiar voice.

"Do the two of you need my awesome help?" Gilbert asked.

"Hello, Gilbert. This is my little brother, Peter. We would appreciate a place to stay for the night," Arthur said.

"You should stay at my place! It's right over here!" Gilbert said to them.

"Arthur," Peter said quietly. "Why does he have a Wingull on his head?"

"I don't know. It wants to be there?"

They soon got to Gilbert's house and they talked about things. Gilbert was particularly interested in Arthur's battle with Ludwig. "Keseseseses! You totally kicked his ass!" Gilbert laughed.

After talking for a long time, they all went to sleep.

~Àuthor's Note~

Aaaand end chapter. 'Sup people? In case anyone was curious Raivis' brother is Eduard, and they're not really brothers that was just the easiest explanation for Arthur.

I just want to let you all know that I know you guys are reading this. I look at the stats. You all are just trying to be ninjas by not reviewing. You're not Black Star. I don't like to keep chapters in once they are done, but I would appreciate having at least fifteen reviews by the next update. That's not asking for too much right? Only three reviews? Please?