The terrain became rougher as we travelled further north. Sandstorms became frequent. The flat land opened up into gullies and canyons. Mountains were more jagged and brazen with larger rocks. The sun, unforgiving and dizzying. The nights, bone-chilling and numbing. But amidst this juxtaposition, pokémon still thrived in this extreme quadrant of the region.

Two days into my trek towards Nimbasa City, I came across the ruins of what looked like or used to be a temple. I look around at the dunes all around and some rock strewn hills in the distance. I walk past and between six statues of what look to be the pokémon Nosepass. As I get closer I notice an opening in the ground with a set of stone steps going into the earth. The bottom of the steps are nonexistent to my eyes as the darkness engulfs everything three steps down. I take a look around one more time.

Curiosity will get the better of me one day.

The ominous ruin beckons me to come down. And, against even my rationality, I step down those stone steps into the unknown.

"Magnemite, light the way."

Magnemite whirrs and beeps and makes sparks. The bottom of the stairs is still nowhere in sight as we descend down the narrow shaft.

After some time, we finally reach the bottom. My eyes, somewhat adjusted to the darkness and with the help of Magnemite's light sparks, pick out edges, slabs of stone walls all around as I realize we find ourselves in a chamber. It is eerily silent down here.

My adamant and rational mind shrugs off the thoughts of a terrifying creature lurking around somewhere. Instead, I think about possibilities such as the encounter of a rare pokémon or the discovery of a new one.

Hmm…yes…

I slip and slide down as I take a step forward, falling towards the middle of the sand pit in the middle of the room because I was too busy gawking, looking for a corridor along the walls.

"Magnemite! Ah! Help!" I yelp out as I dive down. I manage to grab hold onto one of its magnets, pulling it down with me as now we both sink.

I fall on my bottom with Magnemite on my lap.

"Ow, ow, ow…"

I stand and look around the chamber we now find ourselves in. This one is much larger in terms of area and in height. I look up at the fine sand seeping in through the ceiling.

"Oh, that's high…"

Magnemite beeps and whirrs at me.

"Yeah but…if we try to fly into that we'll just get chucked back out again. The pressure of the sand and the pocket of air…I felt the strength when you tried to pull me out. It's too strong, at least for you."

It beeps.

"Yeah, now what?"

I look around. This voluminous chamber has what the upper chamber didn't.

"Hey! This way, come on!"

Magnemite flies past me and stops me in my tracks.

"What now?"

It whirrs and beeps, gesturing to me and everything else as it twirls around its magnets. It makes sparks and flies lower to the ground.

"Good idea. You lead the way."

We walk down a long corridor with no end in sight. The stone walls are made of massive blocks, much bigger than the ones used in housing. Hand set and held together with concrete. Oddly though, there is still sand even down this hallway which leads me to believe this isn't the actual floor of this building. Such a small building, no matter what material its made out of, supporting that much earth above it? It must be an enormous structure, but the sand must have been filling it up over time. If so, was that spot in the ceiling the only way in and out?

As I struggle with my thoughts, I don't notice the pokémon that makes Magnemite come to a halt. I bump face first into Magnemite.

"Ow. What? What's wrong?"

I notice the small pokémon in the middle of our path.

"Let's see…the pokédex says…"

The pokédex says, "Yamask, the Spirit pokémon. A ghost type. They wander the ruins of ancient civilizations. Each of them carries a gold mask that used to be their face when they were human. Because they retained the memories of their former lives, sometimes they look at their mask and cry.

"Aw, that's sad."

The pokémon slowly approaches, hovering right up to my face. I get a good look at the face on its gold mask as it moves it's tendril arms about. It caresses my face.

"I(!) have to go. Heheh…heh…bye!"

I back away and move around it. Magnemite and I continue through.

Through near darkness, we trudge. Every foot or so there is a block missing from the rest of the foundation. They run exactly in the middle, symmetrically along the walls which have me thinking what they might be used for. The air is thick and it feels warmer.

I tug at the neckline of my t-shirt to release built up heat. I exhale and say, "Is it getting hotter?…Why?"

We enter a chamber. A large chamber. A chamber more enormous than anything I could have anticipated. So big I'm taken aback a bit and have to take a moment to gather my thoughts. I squint as I take a long look around.

"Magnemite…what is this place?"

Magnemite just floats, staring at me. It beeps once.

The place is illuminated by the roaring flames of two massive fire pits on a ledge on the opposite end of the chamber. The are also torches held on stands along the walls. Between them are more of those holes from the passage I just came through. I also notice Emboar faces carved into some of the stone blocks. The whole place feels ceremonial. Perhaps it was used for some type of ceremony long ago.

I stand atop a similar long ledge that runs parallel to the wall. A single wide flight of steps goes down to the base of the chamber. Other passages are accessible from down there. There is also another similar passage between the two fire pits, accessible from another single wide flight of steps.

After spending some time standing on the ledge and taking in the sights, chittering brushes my hearing. The sound of pokémon penetrates my ears as I walk down to the chamber's bottom floor. The sounds seem to be coming from the passage on the right. I step inside and immediately regret every decision I've made today.

The chamber I've stepped into is being used as an incubation room for pokémon eggs. The pokémon in question are huddled above the eggs, either keeping them warm or warming them up to hatch? I'm not a scientist but, I know enough about my region's fauna to know they are Larvesta.

The chittering ceases as soon as my first step echoes. All blue eyes are on me as I nervously laugh.

"Sorry, guys, I must have the wrong address. Well, you all seem busy. I'll leave you then, haha…ha…"

I pivot a hundred and eighty degrees around but am confronted with a very scary Volcarona. I feel the slight warm breeze from its fluttering wings on my face, arms and legs. It greets me with a shrieking cry. As soon as it begins gathering energy I dash away with Magnemite close behind into the closest passage, the one beside the steps on the right. The flame from the Volcarona's Flamethrower lights the dark tunnel as I feel the hot plasma on the back of my neck, knees and calves.

"Magnemite! Magnet Bomb!"

Magnemite stops to take time to charge up Magnet Bomb. The Volcarona enters the tunnel. Magnemite unleashes its attack. It hits Volcarona square on, though not very effective because of its Fire typing. The impact shakes the walls and rumbles the ground.

"Oh, maybe that isn't such a good idea…"

Volcarona's shrill cry rings throughout the tunnel. Then from the indents on the walls, I find out then and there the Larvesta use them to travel between chambers. I figure there must be a network of tunnels only they use to move around through. My absent mind is quickly reeled back into reality as they stick their heads out and fire fire.

"Aaahhhh!" I scream and dodge the spouting flames by diving to the floor. The flames stop and I take the opportunity to run as fast as I can. Magnemite follows close behind. The shrieking cry of Volcarona sounds one last time as I make a break for it.

I beeline towards the light at the end of the tunnel. It seems like the Volcarona and the Larvesta stop chasing me which strike me as odd because there are still indents along the walls. In that moment, from inside the passageway, there was just no way to tell. My heart sinks into my stomach and twists after taking the first step into the bright day's light as the world around me changes from dark tunnel to open sea then jagged rocks and breaking waves.

"Ah…Magnemite! Mag!"

I grab and hold onto Magnemite real tight after it flies down and does its best to hold itself and I against the gravity. As we descend closer to the ground, one of my pokéballs opens and Lucario comes out. It holds its arms open and stands firm. It catches me under my arms. My feet touch the ground first then my knees get scraped as I tumble down with Lucario and Magnemite.

"Ow…"

After recuperating ourselves, we sit there, or try our best to sit there, on the wet rocks. I look around at Servine, Lucario, Magnemite and Drilbur.

"The whole earth just ends. As if someone cut it off or something." I sigh and say, "What a predicament."

Waves break against the shore. The wind is violent here as it churns the sea.

"I think the tide comes in up to there," I say as I look up at the cliff face, "probably."

I look further up the cliff. "Mhmm, yeah, that is high. It must be about two hundred feet."

I look back at everybody. "You guys got any ideas?"

They all just stare at me then at each other.

"I got an idea." I stand up. "Lucario, what if you use the spikes on your hands to grapple into the wall while Servine holds onto you and uses its Vine Whips to carry the rest of us up? And Magnemite could assist us by helping us up with its electromagnetism. We'll just grab hold of one of your magnets while holding onto the vines with the other hand."

After setting up, we put my plan into action. Servine is secured around Lucario's waist with its vines extended. I take hold of both vines with one hand and grab onto one of Magnemite's magnets with the other.

"Ready?"

Lucario and Servine both nod.

"Ready, Magnemite?"

It blinks.

"Okay, Lucario, you can start climbing."

Lucario digs one of it's spikes into the cliff wall. It follows up with the other one. It takes some time but, after a while, it finally reaches the point where the vines start to lift me up. At this point though, after having climbed up the sheer cliff wall with no footing and only using its upper body's strength, Lucario is visibly exhausted. I only rise about two inches from the ground from the soles of my shoes before beginning to struggle. Servine strains itself under my weight (well, in this case, over) and Magnemite struggles to fight gravity once again. And then, as Lucario digs its next spike into the wall, it slips down and out.

"Ah!" I yelp out as I instinctively let go of the vines. Magnemite comes down with me as I fall flat on my bottom once again for the second time today.

"Magnemite, help them out. They weigh less than me."

Magnemite flies up and spots Lucario as it climbs back down with Servine. After some more time, they make it down safely.

I sigh and say, "This ground is very mushy. It's compacted dirt and sand. It's not hard enough to properly climb but, its also not soft enough to erode away by water or fall under the weight of stone. How did they even build that there in the first place!"

Drilbur cries out.

"Do you think you could dig out a set of stairs going up there back up to that tunnel?"

It just looks at me.

Lucario grunts and points to the side of the cliff. There is an opening, another tunnel, cut off from the rest of the nonexistent temple. It precariously sits in the cliff face above jagged rocks pelted by waves below.

"This is closer but, how are we supposed to reach it? It's nearly at level with us here…"

Lucario grunts again.

"You want to try this one?"

It growls and nods.

"All right, let's give it a go."

We gather ourselves again, ready at a second attempt at trying to return back to the ancient temple we came out from. Lucario moves first, digging its wrist spikes into the cliff and going over the edge with Servine around its waist. Drilbur, Magnemite and I look on from the side. Lucario and Servine successfully make it safely over. Lucario climbs onto the ledge.

If I had two pickaxes, I could do the same. Or maybe not because of my weak upper body strength. I wouldn't have enough power to maneuver myself sideways across the sheer rock wall.

The Vine Whip stretches out just enough. Servine cries out.

"Okay so…Magnemite has no problem flying over there…Drilbur, you go next. Magnemite, help Drilbur."

Magnemite buzzes and they both get into position. Servine wraps the ends of its vines around Drilbur's body and readies itself with Lucario sustaining it. Lucario is geared in a sitting position on the floor of the tunnel with its spikes hoisted down acting as anchors. With its free legs, Lucario holds tightly onto Servine.

"Ready?"

Drilbur gives an A-Okay cry.

"Okay! Go!"

Lucario and Servine prepare themselves for a force of weight and gravity. Magnemite waits off the edge of the cliff for Drilbur to step onto it. Drilbur takes a step forward on top of Magnemite. It fights the gravity as Drilbur and it move downward. As they swing down, they brush just above the sharp rocks. Servine strains itself as the weight of Drilbur and the gravity pulling it down tug its vines. Magnemite beeps and whirrs and buzzes and probably curses in its robotic language as it pushes against gravity and helps ease Servine's temporary suffering. And with Lucario anchoring it in the tunnel, Servine pulls in its vines to reel Drilbur safely in. Magnemite floats down to the ground to catch a breath. Drilbur cries out to me.

From the adjacent ledge, I cry out out, "Well done! Good job, guys!" I laugh, half at how happy I am that Drilbur successfully made it over and half at the realisation that now its my turn and that I weigh more than it.

I inhale deeply. And position myself close to the edge. Servine extends its vines. I take them and say, "Okay. I'm ready! Are you guys ready?"

My pokémon respond to me from afar. Magnemite, too, ready with it's magnets under my arms.

"Let's do it!" It's now or never.

I step forward and take a plunge down towards the rough shore. Through my screams, Magnemite does his best to keep me afloat and cancel the pull of gravity. I feel a scuff on my lower back. Meanwhile, Lucario tenses to keep hold of its position on the ground while keeping and maintaining Servine locked in place. Servine strains, and with Magnemite's help in easing some of my weight off its shoulders, it starts to pull its vines upwards. I begin the slow and tedious ascent.

After some time, I finally place my hand on the ledge. "Lucario!" I feel my sweaty hand slipping but, Lucario manages to come to my aid. With the help of Magnemite and Servine, it pulls me up and onto the ledge, into the tunnel. We all take some time to catch our breaths.

Though they all seem tired, Servine looks the most exhausted as it was the one who strained itself the most. I return it to its pokéball.

"Servine, return. Rest up."

I turn around and am struck with a pain on my lower back. "Ow…ah…"

I lift up my shirt to try and feel what's there. I feel a sharp sting as I touch and rub the spot. Lucario approaches. It growls and places its paw on where the pain came from. I feel another sting.

"Ah…"

A blue light emanates from around its paw. It illuminates the tunnel for a slight moment. It then diminishes as does the pain.

I turn to look back at Lucario and say, "What did you do?"

It just looks at me and growls.

"You can heal others?"

I twist my upper body, feeling no pain anymore.

"I feel much better now. Thank you."

Lucario nods.

From the ledge, I take a peak at the shore below. "If the tide covers that place we were just at, the water level definitely comes above this tunnel and floods this whole passageway. We better move."

I turn around and stare down the dark tunnel. "I wonder where this leads…"

I return Drilbur to its pokéball and attempt to do the same to Lucario but, it places it's paw on my hand around the ball.

"Huh? What's wrong?"

It growls. It's red eyes glow blue.

"…Can you see…a way out?"

It responds with a series of quick grunts.

"Okay. Magnemite, light the way. Lucario, lead the way."

Lucario nods. Magnemite creates sparks to illuminate the way. We move swiftly through, following Lucario close behind. After what seemed like forever down the long passageway, we reach a set of spiral stairs with two ways, up and down.

Down? How far does this place reach down?

Lucario seems unsure as it switches from looking up then down then back up and back down again. It looks back from where we just came from. Then it points to the way up.

"Okay, let's try that way then," I say to it. It nods and growls in agreement. We decide to go up.

After another long while, my legs cry out from the unintentional workout I just put them through. The staircase lead up to where we just were before being confronted by Volcarona and the swarm of Larvesta.

"Huh…so that?" I turn to look at the opening from where we just came out from.

I stand in the middle of the chamber with the two giant fire pits above in front of me. Pointing to the left side, beside the left side of the steps, "That one leads to the stairs." Pointing to the right side, beside the right side of the steps, "That one leads to nowhere. A cliff face." Pointing to the right, "That is a Larvesta nest."

"I wonder, where does this go?" Lucario holds its arm out. "…Of course. You go first."

We step through the passage on the left. It takes a while for my eyes to adjust to the dark room, but even then I can only see so far. It's much larger than the chamber we were just in. I get the impression of it being a pool at first but, upon further inspection, it turns out to be a battlefield. And a big one at that! It's a stadium sized battlefield as marked by the unmistakable pokéball painted in white in the center. The bounds of the field itself are marked out by it being dug out a few steps down and accessed, of course, by a few steps. This is what made me think it was a pool at first. I suppose the idea was to let your pokémon fight on the field while spectators could safely gather around and watch. Whatever this place was used for, we had no time to dwell on it.

"Is there a way out from here?"

Lucario scans around using his aura vision as I'm just now calling it. It growls and shakes its head.

"No. Okay, lets go back."

We return to the fire chamber.

"What about up there?"

After climbing the steps, we step into the opening I first noticed when we came here. It's yet another chamber, this one rounded out, like half of an egg. And in the middle sits a large humanoid-like statue. It sits as if sitting on a grassy field enjoying the day's breeze and the sunshine with its arms helping it prop itself up and its legs extended outwards. It almost looks like a Golurk but, with distinctive differences. One is its enormous size. And the colouration is a bit off. It looks more green than usual, or greener.

There's no way out from in here so we head out and go downstairs.

"There's gotta be another way besides the way we came in."

Lucario scans around, keeping its head held down at the floor. I see it, after a while, following a straight line with its aura vision as it tilts its head and looks off to the side.

"Do you see something?"

It grunts and points to the staircase.

"Back down?"

After nodding its head, I confirm my worst fear: the tunnel downstairs flooding. Because I don't know how long I've been in here, having lost all track of time, I don't know when the tide comes in. If in the event it does happen, we'll have nowhere to run. Between the aggressive Larvesta and the sea, we'll be stuck here for hours without food or water. I shake off the thought and say to Lucario and Magnemite, "Let's head back down then."

Returning to the tunnel below, I notice no water has come in yet.

"The only way is down. Guys, let's waste no time."

They both nod. Lucario heads down first, Magnemite and I follow. We follow the stairwell down, for not too long a time, and enter inside another long tunnel. This one though is filled up to my knees with water. It comes up to Lucario's waist. The humidity in here is just as intense as it was in the fire chamber. Magnemite buzzes and beeps.

"Careful, guys…"

We thread through, wading through stagnant seawater as we cross the long passage. Lucario trips and falls into the water momentarily. It resurfaces and regains its footing.

"Are you okay, Lucario?"

It growls and shakes some water off. We continue through, keeping a close eye at our feet, careful of any large rocks along our path. Though I can't see much through the muddy water even with Magnemite's light, I can feel the rocks through my shoes. My brand new shoes mom got for me before starting this journey.

I sigh. "This is terrible."

On the other side of the tunnel was another set of spiral stairs. Unbeknownst to me in the moment, the drama was well behind us after that lower tunnel flooded with water. We climbed the staircase up and into another chamber. I was ready, expecting to run into more hostile pokémon or get ourselves caught up in yet another precarious situation but, no. Nothing out of the ordinary happened after. We climbed more stairs, moving from chamber to chamber until we reached one where sunlight shone in through round windows. It's filled with sand like that first one was. Enough for me to stand below one of the windows and jump to grab ahold of the opening.

Lucario helps me up by hoisting my feet from below. Once I'm in the large circular opening, I extend a hand down to help Lucario up. We jump down onto the sand below, Magnemite flying close behind. After regaining my footing, I look to my left and notice the temple entrance quite a distance away, but close enough to make out the statues out in front. I look up at the purplish sky overhead.

A moment's hesitation and we would have been stuck down there until morning or until the tide receded. "Lets get out of here, everyone."