Ch 38

Before I could return to the Hidden Sand or to my secret base, my team needed to recover. Wikstrom's burns were healing nicely, Diantha was back up on her feet of course, but was in the dumps about losing again, while Cynthia was brooding off by the outside of camp. I kept busy by using my portable berry blender to make pokeblocks, a kind of snack/ninja tool. Depending on what berries and powders you added, the blocks would assume different colors, and different colors did different things.

Blue pokeblocks facilitate chakra recovery, and while the dryness left your mouth a bit on the chalky side, they didn't taste bad. A batch of blue pokeblocks slid out of the blender, so I placed them into my pokeblock case and studied them. "Blue+," I murmured, "Oran berries don't disappoint."

Cynthia screamed in frustration behind me, pulling all of our attention to her. "What?" Diantha asked.

Cynthia stomped over to her, and said, "I'm tired of running into this brick wall! I want to be capable of Mega-Evolution already."

I shrugged, but Cynthia remained unsatisfied. "You mastered Mega-Evolution in how long? A month? A week?"

"Six months of rigorous training," I answered, "It was all Temari and I did for the first half of the year we spent in Kalos. You've got missions, ninja training, and grocery shopping… point is: this isn't an easy thing."

Cynthia dragged her hands down her face and fell backwards onto the sand dunes. "It's just starting to feel like an excuse. I'm tight with my pokemon. I can borrow their moves, even their forms, but I can't Mega-Evolve?"

"It's not about the bond between you and your pokemon, the first time," Wikstrom cut in, "It's about desperate need of pokemon and trainer, uniting and exploding into new heights of power. We're not strong enough to really push Lord Brendan to his limits, so how can he push us to ours?"

Diantha plopped down next to Cynthia and put an arm over her shoulder, "He just rolls over us, but if we keep fighting…."

"We'll gain experience," finished Cynthia, "because the only way to get stronger is to battle."

I smiled, and winked. "Just so. I don't doubt that you three will surpass me some day," I paused, "That's the goal, remember? Besides, soon we'll be able to train with Temari's team. Without you three to keep them from passing the Forest of Death, they'll pass with flying colors."

The three of them smiled at the memory. In the Hidden Stone's Demon Canyon, my team identified Temari's team, and attacked in the middle of the night. Cynthia turned Siebold and Malva against each other while Diantha and Wikstrom brought down the mighty Drasna.

Even better, Temari lost the bet, and had to buy them dinner in the best restaurant in the Sand Village. Cynthia grinned and punched her hands together. "If they don't win… I'll kick their asses."

"Verily," Wikstrom said darkly.

Diantha nodded, but then said, "They'll be looking for revenge. We've got to work on our combos, and I wouldn't be surprised if they came at us at night."

I chuckled, "Oh, come on, they're Temari's students…" I paused, "They'll poison your dinners."

We shared a chuckle, and an amicable silence took over. Five minutes in, Jiton, legs up to facilitate levitation, crested the nearest sand dune, to land next to me. Its eyes glowed red, and projected the image of a mousey woman, with long, brown hair in two pigtails, a pair of specs and a green apron. Her mouth moved, and a gravelly voice emerged from Jiton, "Interesting artifact. We still can't translate it. Maybe we know someone who collects other… artifacts."

"Lanette… she knows that these psychic recordings can't be intercepted, right?" Cynthia asked.

"I think she likes to play spy," Diantha mused.

I shrugged, "If it makes her happy and it doesn't hurt us…"

"Which of our acquaintances keeps ancient languages?" Wikstrom asked, "Do we have any friends with archeological dispositions?"

"President Stone," Cynthia murmered, "He likes fossils. Maybe he's come across something like this language."

I leaned back onto the sand, and considered the starry sky. "This conversation would need to happen face to face," I said, "I'd prefer not to meet him face to face."

"Why not?" Diantha asked, "he's our friend, right?"

Cynthia narrowed her eyes at me, and everyone waited. "President Stone is the father of my old sensei. I'd rather not have to talk to him." I said.

I'd never told them about Steven-sensei. It was like a past life. An age ago. Why bother talking about a problem that was beyond fixing? The wound had been deep, but it healed well enough. Diantha's eyes glinted mischievously. "We've got the fossils, and the need to talk to them. We have to do it. For the village."

"And if we get to meet your old sensei along the way…" Cynthia supposed.

"Well," Wikstrom cleared his throat, "Not all tragedies are preventable."

I rolled my eyes, and Cynthia offered me her hand. I took it, and she pulled me up. "We headed to Rusburo?" she asked.

"Fallarbor is closer," I answered, and started towards the north, "and I hear they're making good progress. I'd put money on him being in the area to oversee it."

My chunin climbed onto Jiton, who kept pace behind me. On the northern border of the Land of Wind, Devon had built a new city: Fallarbor. The settlement was in the middle of a desert, literally the middle of butt-fuck nowhere, between sand dunes. It didn't even have a river. That was the point, however.

Fallarbor was founded to see if Pokémon could make an environment hospitable, even when the environment was sand and heat. Water Pokémon had been called in to make a reservoir of water, and then connect that reservoir to the nearest river to the west, near the Land of Rain. By the initial reservoir, grass Pokémon began to grow small plants, and ground Pokémon turned those plants and sand into decent soil.

The soil was red, and while it was never made clear to me why that was, the soil was undeniably rich. Only a year after its founding, Fallarbor was a green and red oasis. Diantha shuddered at the sight of it. "Remember when we had to clear out the Trapinch?" she asked.

"Most vile of vermin when they are young," Wikstrom assented, "hard to imagine they can evolve into such noble beasts as Flygon."

Jiton tilted, upending my chunin, and I returned him to his scroll. While my students un-piled themselves, a sight which brought me some amusement, I strode into town. Two women in business suits were waiting at the edge of town to greet me. "Brendan of the Sand," they said with a bow, "Devon is always happy to see you. Is this about your special order?"

"It's perfect," I said, and walked into town, "why?"

"Rustburo alerted us that Junpei of the Sand didn't come on his usual day," the second woman said, "we were a bit worried."

"Junpei… won't be stopping by anymore," I whispered, "for classified reasons. I'd like to talk to President Stone, if you don't mind. I'll talk to him for you?"

"How did you know that President Stone was here?" the first woman asked.

"Lucky guess," I said with a chuckle.

Devon had built a tent in Fallarbor at first, but the success of the project's fauna led them to building a larger, more permanent structure. For Devon, that meant a skyscraper, even in the middle of the desert. Next to it was one of my contest halls, but I walked right by that, and into the Devon building.

A veritable army of contractors, trainers, engineers, and scientists, all in business formal of course, waved me through the building to the central elevator. I held the elevator for my chunin, who followed me at a trot with gaping mouths. As the elevator went up, Cynthia whispered, "This was a tent six months ago."

I chuckled, "You should see Slateport now, three years ago it was impressive, but now it's… sprawling isn't enough of a word."

"Calling it New Castelia, aren't they?" Cynthia asked.

"Nothing compares to Lumiose City," Diantha whispered.

I sighed at the memory of that metropolis. "That's a hard city to beat. It was a bit hard to get around, but the cafes… oh the cafes…"

Diantha beamed, "And boutique coture?"

"Exquisite," I sighed, "No beating it."

"Who are you?" Cynthia asked, "And what have you done with my grumpy, sarcastic, sensei?"

"Lumiose could calm the furies of a tempest," Wikstrom assured her, "Not even our master could rage in the City of Light."

Cynthia grunted, "Sinnoh has Mt. Coronet. Natural beauty left me speechless. Ancient ruins too. Place was crazy."

The elevator opened, and I walked out, but not before Diantha could quip, "But it didn't have a café, did it? I think not."

I shushed them, and we went across the room to the desk of President Stone. He had a few more wrinkles, his hair was a bit more grey than blue, but his eyes still glimmered with intelligence. "To what do I owe the pleasure?" he asked.

I flipped open my pokenav, and showed him a picture of the ancient writing. "I'm hoping you might have an artifact like this one. I've got a few fossils you'd love, if we could barter."

President stone stared at the photo, and held out his hands, so I handed him my device. He zoomed on the photo, and hummed. "I recognize this," he said, "I found it on a tablet while I was spelunking in the Land of Stone. Is this all you found of the tablet?"

"It was a solid piece of stone, totally unbroken," I answered.

President Stone's eyes widened, and then he handed me back my pokenav. "I thought they were a form of decoration. They surrounded an older version of Elemental Nation characters. You've got yourself a mystery, Brendan, my dear boy."

I pulled out the claw fossil, and Cynthia the root fossil. President Stone groaned at the sight of them. "Steven will be so cross with me for trading it without consulting him, but I've almost assembled an entire Anorith and Lileep."

"We got a deal?" I asked.

President Stone sighed, and pulled a tablet/computer out from his desk. "Lanette wanted me to test her new teleportation tech anyway. I'll see that it's sent to her at whatever undisclosed location you have her working in."

I rolled my eyes. "You're not still mad about that, are you?"

An eyebrow climbed up the President's forehead. "You poached my foremost researcher on teleportation for your shadow/ninja work. Bad enough I lost my son to that nonsense."

"Without ninja/trainers," I insisted, "You'd be out of the job."

He nodded his head in agreement. "I can't really be that mad, can I?"

I put my fossil on his desk and offered out my hand. We shook, and President Stone asked, "Don't suppose I could convince you to stick around, could I? Steven would love to see you."

I shook my head, "I've got a world to save," then I pointed over my shoulders at my chunin, "and monkeys to raise."

President Stone smiled sadly, but didn't stop me when I turned to walk away. Before I reached the elevator I turned my head over my shoulder and shouted, "Tell Steven-sensei… tell him I said "Hi.""

As the elevator's doors closed, Diantha whispered, "Your sensei was Steven Stone?"

"Champion of the Elemental Nations?" Cynthia asked.

"Steven of the Steel Resolve?" Wikstrom inquired.

"That Steven?!" Diantha demanded.

"Yeah," I muttered, "And I'm pretty sure he's still disappointed I defected. Don't need that guilt trip."

The rest of the elevator ride was silent. I hadn't told them about my defection, but everybody knew the story. The Sand called it the score of the century, and the Leaf called it the mistake of the millennia.

Once we were outside, Wikstrom asked, "Which direction now, my master?"

"Secret Base," I said, and we headed along Fallarbor's growing river for a time to the East, and out of the Land of Wind, towards the Land of Waterfalls.