Armaldo, Swampert, and Whiscash

It flew beneath the seas, its colored membrane wings sending bright warnings of danger. Its rough rocky armor looked tough to break through, even through the wiles of water. Showing no fear, the predator swam in the open, watching schools of small fish for a straggler soon-to-be meal. It was an alien not just to this shore, but to this time; nothing like it existed in the memories of the native Pokemon. And when it got to the sandy shore, it did not hesitate to put down its thick legs and raise up its strong body to walk straight out of the ocean. This beast, the Armaldo, could strike fear into those who saw it for the first time.

If they spent any longer with this creature, they would find out that she wasn't quite so threatening. Buzzing her wings briefly to shake the water droplets off, Armaldo glanced around the beach. She saw a few familiar Pokemon, sunning themselves under a clear blue sky. There weren't any humans about. "Hoooo," she sighed softly. She was supposed to belong to a human, but he had left her here and had not come back yet. Sometimes, she thought of going to look for him.

But for now, she would wait. That, and build a sand castle. It was something she'd wanted to do for a while now. She curled her body downward and began scooping wet sand into a pile. It would be nice if she had one of those shaped buckets that made the turret top so nice, but there were none of those around.

Before long, the surf had crept up and washed over her sand pile as she tried sculpting it. The salt water pushed the pile over, smoothing it out. "Kizzz zibitta zrabbit!" she squealed in the tone of one who was cursing. "Feh." She scuttled further up the beach. The yellow-tan sand was drier there, and harder to form. But the tides wouldn't be demolishing her castle so soon.

Armaldo spent a little while gathering a pile of sand again, then went back to the wet stuff to help compact the dry into a better form. It took more work, but as bricks of sand started taking shape, she was pleased with herself. She hummed and kept at her work, blithely ignoring the other Pokemon at the beach.

That is, until one forced her to pay attention. She must not have meant it that way, but the ringleader of the beach Pokemon, both on the sands and in the shallows, burst out of the ocean at high speed. Swampert shot out like a jet, leaping far above the wet sand and landing right next to Armaldo's line of sand bricks. Much of the piled up dry sand tumbled over, while a few of the bricks cracked.

"Eeee!" Armaldo squealed. Then she glared at the large blue amphibian. "Sccrrii zii bashu zzrribbitt!"

"Oh, sorry Miss Armaldo," Swampert replied, bowing her head. She might have had authority over the rest, but that didn't mean that she wasn't kind. "I'm in a bit of a hurry to take care of things with my nest." She looked over the structure Armaldo had made thus far. It was two lines of bricks almost at a ninety degree angle from each other, with four rows piled on top of each other currently. "I didn't mean to interrupt your project."

"Curzat," Armaldo replied in a huff, then began sweeping the dry sand back into a pile.

I really wish I knew what she was saying, Swampert thought again. Relaxing her fins, she hoped that the strange Pokemon understood her. "I don't think this is a good time to be building things of sand. The ocean is troubled and tense. Something bad could happen. You may wish to move further inland to be safe."

But Armaldo was already focused on her sand castle again, scuttling down to the wet stuff to gather material to fix up the cracks. Swampert sighed. Hoping that her odd neighbor didn't get too badly hurt in what was to come, she dropped down on all fours and hurried along for more supplies. She had a couple of eggs to watch over, after all, and her priority was keeping them safe.

The ancient alien kept on working through the day, slowly building up walls. She didn't know how to put windows or doors in like the humans could, so she contented herself with two walls to decorate in a castle-type manner later on. As time went on, other beach Pokemon started leaving, seeking out holes for shelter or going inland towards the swamp, looking for rock outcroppings to get on. They tried to warn Armaldo too, but she cooed at them happily, or squabbled, or just plain ignored them. Swampert came back, rolling a large rock through the sand and into the ocean. While she warned others away that weren't feeling it, she still couldn't get through to Armaldo.

Then, there was a thumping felt in the ground. Armaldo tensed, watching over her sand brick walls and worrying about cracks. When they lessened, she turned to see a large blue fish from the swamp flopping over the ground. As Whiscash flipped his body about in curves, he forced himself to move forward despite not having true legs. He weighed so much and was so powerful that his movements caused tremors in the ground. And he ruled the swamp areas like Swampert ruled the beach.

But his tremors could have knocked down her sand castle walls. Armaldo hissed at him. "Gochibai zang!" She moved closer to the walls, holding a foreleg up to them protectively.

Whiscash pushed himself closer despite how the sand was sticking to the mucus he used to keep his scales properly wet. "Here you are, Armaldo," he said. "You know, I don't have a clue about what you're saying half the time, but you're not that bad of a neighbor. You kill and eat those parasite fish in the swamp and share ripe berries you find. So, I decided that I had to come out and warn you that you need to come back with me and get to higher ground."

She relaxed at his tone, as he didn't seem to be threatening her structure. She leaned down and patted his head, as her mouth wasn't made to smile well. Then she focused on getting another damp sand brick on top of the walls.

Lacking arms too, Whiscash lightly clamped on her fanned tail with his lips and tugged to keep her attention. He let go again when she looked back. "If you can understand me, then know that the earth is grinding and beginning to shake. Somewhere out to sea, it will release that tension in an earthquake, and then the ocean will respond with a tsunami. I'll be all right when the earth moves and even when the water comes. But you are going to be in trouble if you remain here on the low sands. Armaldo, come back with me."

She tilted her head at him curiously. Armaldo could tell that he felt serious about something. But, she couldn't understand his words. She couldn't understand any other Pokemon on this beach. It usually didn't bother her, as she hadn't been able to understand her human either. Why was he so serious, though?

Then, it struck. The ground trembled and shook stronger than anything Whiscash had been able to pound out. Trees shook back and forth while the water rippled violently. As it was just made of sand and a little water, Armaldo's brick walls crumbled, collapsing into a pile of damp sand once more. It only took a few seconds, but it was so strong.

Armaldo drew her limbs in and hunkered down, shaken by the experience. Then she saw the state her sand castle walls were in. After staring at them wide-eyed for a moment, she wailed. After all the effort she had put into it, her castle was gone, just like that.

"This is not good," Whiscash said, glancing about. "The center of that one wasn't that far off. You may not have long enough to make it to higher ground."

By him, Armaldo put her head down on the sand. She was rattled and a bit hurt after that quake, yes. But she was having such trouble with sand castles lately. She thought she might really get one accomplished today.

Then, Swampert emerged from the ocean again. The tides were receding at an odd time, leaving a large quantity of seaweed strewn about. "You're still here?" she asked. Save for Armaldo and Whiscash, the beach was now vacant. She tensed at seeing her rival for the swamp-beach territory, but then wondered. "Have you been trying to get her away too?"

"Right," he replied, trying to push his head higher off the ground by putting his fins down. "But we have no way to communicate with her. And, well, I can't really make gestures to help."

"She is a strange creature," Swampert agreed. "Still, she's a neighbor and I don't want to see her suffer. I left one of my 'kips to watch over my nest so nothing gets lost to the tsunami. But it's going to come quickly, and it may even return."

Looking over Armaldo, upset over her castle, Whiscash got an idea. "Hey, do you think we can build this pile into a sturdy enough sandbar for her to hide behind? She might understand it as a safe spot when the tsunami appears."

"I don't know how safe it will be," she considered. "But, it's better than nothing." She went up to Armaldo and patted her rocky hide. "Come on, miss, we'll work with you."

Whiscash took a deep breath, then summoned some water to slap into the sand, causing it to turn muddy and splat onto the sand pile. Swampert had rolled large rocks around her underwater nest to protect it, but she was quite used to moving sand about to make a wave break. On seeing them building up her sand pile, Armaldo stopped crying. She cooed, then moved over to help pile sand up. it wasn't as elegant a way of building as her brick method. However, it would get a big structure up quickly.

Then the water line receded quickly. The two modern Pokemon recognized this as a bad sign while Armaldo continued patting sand together to strengthen it. But when the water bulged in the distance, starting to build into an enormous wave, she finally recognized the danger. Had that been what these two were worried about? She ducked down and curled up by the sand pile, quivering. While she could swim underneath the water with no trouble, that amount of water rushing right at her would surely do some serious damage.

Whiscash flipped himself closer to the sand pile too, biting down on one of Armaldo's armor plates to stay in place. On her other side, Swampert put an arm over Armaldo's curled form, hoping that her bulk could take some of the blow for her odd neighbor. The monster wave built, and then roared right over them, blasting salt water all over the beach and the swamp. It was violent, trying to tear them from behind their sand pile in order to shove them along the ground. Much of the sand pile melted into the water, abrasively pouring over them. Whiscash nearly lost his grip, but they all managed to stay in place, even while the water pulled back nearly as hard as it had pushed forward.

Then, it was past. Debris littered the beach, including a battered wooden boat, a lot of seaweed, a lot of swamp weeds, and discarded shells. The sand pile they had hurriedly put together was half its former size. Still, it had been enough to direct much of the water away from the three Pokemon. Armaldo was still curled up, trembling.

Swampert stood up, looking to the ocean. "Wish we had more warning of these things, though."

"The earthquake's been a long time in coming," Whiscash said, after letting go of Armaldo. "There might be more in coming days. The earth is still tense, but it has let some energy free."

"Is that so? Thanks for telling me." She looked down at their neighbor. "Will you look after her, then? Find some Pokemon that can get her to understand and keep her on high ground until things settle down. I'm fairly certain there will be another wave coming, but you should have time."

He flopped in the sand. "All right. I wish I knew why she's like this, though."

Swampert dropped down, nudging Armaldo with her nose. "It's okay for now, but you've got to move. Whiscash, I think I know what the deal with her is. I've heard from some of the young ones that the humans can bring ancient Pokemon back to life. I think she's one of them, originally born in a time before we developed a language for common use. That's why she shows intelligence, yet is not nearly as developed as the rest of us Pokemon."

"They can do that, really?" He looked over at Armaldo, cautiously uncurling. "Still, makes it extra tough for one to be released where they don't belong. Even when, if that's the case with her. I'll look after her, but you'll have to gesture her to follow."

Nodding, Swampert did her best to reassure Armaldo and point her into following Whiscash further inland. Although overwhelmed, she got the point and now was fine with going along with their suggestions. She would have to leave her sand castle building for another time, when things were safer.

And thus an alliance between the river delta swamp Pokemon and the sandy seashore Pokemon began, all because of a strange ancient alien in their midst.

…

Emerald entry: Armaldo usually lives on land. However, when it hunts for prey, it dives beneath the ocean. It swims around using its two large wings.

Swampert Emerald entry: If it senses the approach of a storm and a tidal wave, it protects its seaside nest by piling up boulders. It swims as fast as a jet ski.

Whiscash Pearl entry: As a result of causing tremors by thrashing about, it developed the ability to foretell real quakes.