Shifting Sand Fortress

Team Enforcers stepped into the entrance room to the Sand Fortress. The room was colored sand brown and separated into two parts, a raised floor and a normal floor. Clay jars were scattered about, some broken and lying on the floor. Two large statues of Vibravas were placed on the sides of the room, fierce expressions on their stone faces.

"So, where should we start?" Gaia asked rhetorically, forming the Spirit Sword in his hands.

Seth took one look at the sealed jars and grinned. "I think we should break the jars."

Alice looked at him weirdly, "Why would we want to do that?"

"Haven't you played adventure-action video games? The hero always destroys pots or jars and gets treasure." Seth explained.

"Seth, we're not here for treasure," Alice snapped, "We're here for the Earth pate. Besides, those jars look too dense to be destroyed by a simple sword."

"Aww…"

Since smashing the jars was out of the question, the three of them had no choice but to continue through the large door on the opposite side of the room. The only problem was that the door was sealed off.

"Dangit!" Seth shouted, pounding his fists on the door. He stopped when he found out that repeatedly smashing his hands on a rock slab made them bleed. "I knew we should have smashed those pots!"

"What does that have to do with anything?" Gaia asked.

"Because there are always switches hidden under pots and jars!"

"Or in statues." Alice was standing in front of one of the statues and had her hand in its mouth. She felt around for a button and pressed it.

The rock slab rose up, revealing the entrance to the next room. Seth gaped at her.

"How…?"

"Believe it or not, I play video games too."

XXX

The second room consisted of a large pit of quicksand with floating platforms resting on top of it. There were spikes lined on top of the ceiling.

"Great, quicksand." Gaia muttered sarcastically. He always died on desert levels in video games. "Looks like we'll have to be careful." He took a single step forward and a hidden switch was pressed.

There was a creaking sound, and the spike ceiling began lowering towards the ground level. Needless to say, it was a pretty urgent situation. To make things worse, an iron grate was slowly coming down from the top of a doorway, agonizing centimetre by centimetre.

"Oh shit!" Seth cried and swore at the same time, "Run!"

His two friends needed no further encouragement. They started leaping from floating platform to platform, being careful not to jump into quicksand. If they did, they would be utterly screwed. In other words, they would inevitably be impaled by the spike ceiling.

They ran through the doorway just in time. The metal grate fully covered the door, one second later.

At the very back of the fortress, Sabaku was watching the three explorers' progress through a television-like portal. And she was laughing her ass off, a rare occurrence for someone so strict when alive.

XXX

Gaia leant against the wall with one hand, panting heavily. The room they had just crossed was roughly one kilometre long. Was it a surprise that he and his friends were tired?

"Gaia, I know that you're my boyfriend," Alice said slowly, "But what you did was completely idiotic."

"Yeah, I know." Gaia said, slightly ashamed of himself, "Looks like I'll have to be more careful next time." He started surveying the room. It seemed to be made of sandstone. There were four pillars in the middle of the room. Numerous scratch marks and dents were carved in the scenery, giving the impression that a major fight had occurred here.

"Did a battle happen here or something?" Seth asked to himself.

"Correct."

A massive Sandslash wielding a large iron axe dropped down from a hidden compartment in the ceiling and landed in front of Gaia.

Given the fact that a gigantic Pokemon suddenly appeared in front of the Grovyle, he did exactly what anyone would have done: react instinctively. Since he had the Spirit Sword in his hand, reacting instinctively involved stabbing anything that surprised him.

Which involved stabbing the massive Sandslash. Coincidentally, the sword impaled into monster's heart.

It died.

"You killed my brother! You bastard!"

A second Sandslash dropped down from the roof, this time not landing right in front of Gaia. It looked angry, which was a large understatement.

"I don't care if you are the wielder of the Spirit Sword, I am going to rip you to shreds!"

"Bring it on, assface." Gaia said, charging his sword up with deep brown energy.

"YAAAAAHHH!" The Sandslash charged forward and struck down with its battleaxe. Gaia blocked it with his sword. The two of them were in a lock, each one trying to push the other back.

What the Sandslash didn't know was that, before it had attacked, Gaia had prepared a Counter move. And now he was ready to unleash it.

"Gah!" With all his might, Gaia forced the axe backwards, channelling energy towards the Sandslash. It screamed as the raw power, twice as strong as its own attack, seared into its body.

It exploded into a mass of light, defeated.

There was a brief pause. Gaia noticed that Seth and Alice were staring at him. "What?" he asked. He jerked his thumb to the door, "Come on, let's go."

Seth was in deep thought, That was Counter.Then he realized something. Half my moves are physical ones. And now they're useless! He gazed at his friend in wonder. Ever since Gaia had received the Spirit Sword, his strength had grown in leaps and bounds, what with all those different and powerful attacks. Dark Rush, Hydro Blast, Stratosphere…all those moves came at a high prices, but it seemed that the more plates he received and crystals he smashed, the cost became less and less.

Even thought the Grovyle was one of his best friends, Seth couldn't help but feel a little jealous.

XXX

The fourth room was covered in sand. It could have been a stretch of desert, if it weren't for the fact that it was inside. There were even a couple of dunes.

The air was thick and hot, like a real desert. Gaia struggled against it. Grass-types did not like heat. "Come on, let's go."

The three of them started walking across the sandy plains. It was tough going. The sands seemed to be endless. The ceiling had somehow turned into the sky. A fake sun beat down, radiating heat all over the place.

Once or twice, Digletts and Dugtrio would pop out of the sand and attack them. The battles were somewhat humiliating, given the fact that the moles used their noses to attack. But they were eventually defeated.

Eventually, the three explorers came across a large wooden door in the middle of the desert.

"Oh thank Arceus!" Seth cried, "The exit!"

As soon as he said that, the door disappeared right before his eyes.

"OH SON OF A BITCH!"

"Seth, who are you talking to?" Alice asked.

They struggled on. Unfortunately, their progress was halted by an unexpected sandstorm.

"Dammit!" Alice growled. This was great. Just frickin' great. Her eyes could pierce the sandstorm, being a Ground type, but her two teammates couldn't. "Gaia! Seth! Can you guys see me?"

"We can!" Gaia called back.

"Grab onto my arm! I'll guide the three of us out of here!" Gaia grabbed onto Alice's arm and Seth grabbed onto his. The three of them started slowly moving out of the sandstorm. It took quite some time. The powerful winds seemed no sign of dying down, which brought up the question of why there was a sandstorm indoors.

Eventually, they reached a tall, sandstone arch. A strange, blue light was shimmering through it, visible to all three members. And it didn't disappear as the three of them got closer.

There was no doubt that this was the exit, if not the portal to the guardian's chamber.

The three of them stepped through, and a few seconds later emerged into a large round chamber. Four statues of the same Flygon were placed in four parts of the room, equal distances away from each other.

"Where are we?" Seth asked.

"By the looks of it," Gaia said, glancing left and right at the walls and statues of the room, "I'd say this is the guardian's chamber." He noticed that the wall was inscribed with a lot of carvings. They depicted many things, including the Legendaries and the Spirit Sword.

However, there was a picture Gaia had never seen before. It depicted a Dusknoir, a Grovyle and a Celebi, holding hands and eyes closed. Behind them was a large circular gear with six teeth. And beneath it was scribbled the words 'I'm sorry'.

"What is this?" Gaia whispered, walking over to touch it. For some mysterious reason, he was attracted to this carving.

"Hello." A sudden voice jolted him out of his thoughts. He turned around to see a circular pillar of moving sand. It dissipated to reveal a Flygon. "Nice of you to come." She said politely, "My name is Sabaku, former captain of the UU and BL units of Destonia and guardian of the Earth plate."

"UU? BL? What are those?" Seth asked.

"Ancient strength grading terms. The lowest is NU, then UU, BL, OU and at the top Ubers."

"So, where would I be?" Gaia asked, forming the Spirit Sword in his hands.

Sabaku considered this for a moment, "Low OU, although that's mostly due to the Spirit Sword. Your girlfriend is around high-middle BL, maybe even low OU. Unfortunately, your Sableye friend is only middle BL."

"No way!" Seth moaned, grabbing his head with his hands. He was the weakest

"Don't worry. Middle BL is a great achievement for even your age. Aeros, Wes, Disaster and most of the others had to become over twenty years of age to reach that level. Besides, BL is only a term of strength. It does not measure intelligence." She held up her hands and two white crystals formed in them, "If you truly wish to get stronger, then beat me. In these crystals are pure power. They will enable you and Alice to reach Gaia's level."

"Wow, really?" Seth was excited. Finally, he wouldn't feel left behind.

"Yes. They will also enable you to do normal damage to the Shadow Pokemon. But enough of this." Sand started swirling around Sabaku. She closed her eyes and concentrated. The sand combined together to form a giant fist and a giant shield.

"Let us begin."

Omake

Disaster was watching the above scene in the afterlife. And he was feeling rather depressed.

"Beaten by someone whose younger than me," he muttered, an anime storm cloud forming above his head, "And to think he has a lower base stat total than I do…this is really depressing."

"What's a base stat total?" Aeros asked.