This is not my first time visiting a desert. I had visited the one back in Hoenn before where I met Snap and found the fossil which Lily was revived from, so I had an idea of what to expect when I headed out with Nova and Skye towards Unova Route 4.
Unlike the other parts of Unova that are all currently experiencing the winter, the desert at Route 4 is scorching hot with the heat of the sun blazing down on us in full force. When night falls, the temperature rapidly drops to freezing levels, which was also something that I had experienced previously when exploring the desert back in Hoenn. Even so, the daily temperature change in Unova's desert was still a lot more drastic as compared to the one I remembered visiting in Hoenn.
"So what kind of ruin are we looking at here?"
"One from a very ancient civilisation over 2,500 years ago. Legend has it that there was a city here that was built by one of the Twin Heroes and one of Unova's dragons," Nova explained as we continued traversing the vast desert in search of the ruin that Nova had brought us here for. Her research on this ancient civilisation was what led her here.
"So we might be able to find clues about either Reshiram or Zekrom?"
"I'm not too sure if we would be able to do that, but one can dream," Nova shrugged as the three of us sat on the moving platform of hardened earth that Kratos had conjured to move us along the desert at high speed. I knew it was the right thing to do to train Kratos to be the pokemon version of Gaara. His skills really came in handy here.
"I think I see a sandstorm incoming," Skye pointed out ahead and true enough, a huge sandstorm was coming our way.
"Can you disperse it?" I turned to look at Kratos, who merely released a haughty huff. He stomped his foot once and immediately, the massive cloud of sand parted way to allow us through.
"Wow, impressive," Skye whistled in appreciation of what Kratos had done. He had made it look easy, but I knew better. It took Kratos a lot of determination and hard work to be able to reach this level of control over manipulation of rocks and sand.
I knew Skye's praise must have inflated Kratos' ego when he puffed his chest out in pride. Snap was flying above us, having a better view of the desert from up above and acting as our scout. I could tell that he's happy to be back in the desert once more from how excited he seems to be.
"It should be around this area," Nova stopped us after a few more boring hours of travel. It had been two days since we stepped foot in here and while it's been relatively peaceful so far, none of us really have a clue just what kind of dangers lurk along Route 4 because hardly anyone stepped foot in here. The wild pokemon here tend to give us a wide berth when they see the kind of pokemon accompanying us, but not all dangers come in the form of ferocious wild pokemon. I have a vague idea of what to expect based on my previous experience in Hoenn, but in the end the two deserts are two very different deserts altogether. Unova's desert has its own unique brand of danger too.
"So we start digging?"
"We start locating before we dig," Nova corrected Skye as she released her entire team. Skye only had her skarmory and aerodactyl out as these are the only two pokemon she has that could easily brave the elements in a desert. As for me, I simply released the pokemon I have that are of either the rock or ground typing to assist Nova and her pokemon.
Skye volunteered to look for a good spot to set up a temporary camp nearby while Nova and I got busy with trying to pinpoint the exact location of the ruins. Skye's skarmory flew high up above in circles, constantly keeping an accurate track of our individual locations just in case something happened within a moment's notice. Telecommunication signals are not as reliable in this part of the region, so it's best to fall back on the old school methods to be on the safe side.
"You are really liking it here, huh," I cannot help but remark when I noticed how Lily was quite literally vibrating in excitement from how much sunlight was basking down at us. She's probably the only one other than Snap who enjoys being in a desert.
Lily excitedly waved her tentacles at me in response. Meanwhile, I'm hiding myself under the shade of the shadow casted by Ness' larger figure.
Our pokemon continued with their search as we accompanied them. Skye returned to us halfway during the search, telling us that she didn't manage to find any good spots nearby that we could possibly use to set up camp. She did spot a few places with quicksand though, so we would have to take great care to avoid these places if we did not want to get caught up in a sticky situation.
I lost track of how much time had passed, but it probably took hours until Bigblue excitedly called us over with a loud bellow. His head fin must have picked up something.
"He says there's something huge below at least a few hundred feet down. As to how huge, even he cannot fully map it out with his fin," Nova kindly translated what she understood from Bigblue with her ability after we gathered around. Finally, our efforts were not in vain.
"Good job," I patted Bigblue on the back in praise, who simply seemed excited at the unexpected find. He's looking forward to the excavation as much as we do.
The excavation took hours, mainly because we have to be very careful not to accidentally damage anything in the process. The difficulty level went up a few notches when nearby wild pokemon had tried ambushing us a few times, and in the process there were twice when the sandstorm suddenly returned and blew past our current location. Still, we managed to overcome these challenges.
Night had fallen by the time we finally saw the ruins for ourselves. We had dug really deep into the ground, pushing away huge quantities of sand in the process. We were all a little tired by the time we uncovered what looked like a huge ancient castle, but seeing the castle for ourselves made everything seem like it was worth all the trouble we had been through.
Now, I think I could understand a little why Nova loved excavation projects.
"This is a freaking goddamn castle."
"It is," Nova agreed with Skye's assessment as she walked up closer to what we presumed to be the entrance of the castle that we uncovered after shifting so much sand away from this area. As for me, I wasted no time snapping pictures of this magnificent ancient architecture wonder, trying to put this memorable experience into picture.
"Those statues are really lifelike," Skye casually remarked as we walked past the five huge darmanitan statues placed near the entrance of the castle in some sort of formation that we could only guess the reason for. I took another closer look at those statues after hearing her remark and ended up agreeing with her statement. These statues are really lifelike.
"Maybe they were once worshipped by this ancient civilisation?"
"Who knows? Ask Nova," Skye shrugged as we joined Nova up ahead, who was busy deciphering what I presumed to be some sort of ancient language inscribed onto the walls of the castle entrance.
"If what I understood from the writings is correct, the name of this place is the "Relic Castle"," Nova told us when Skye and I joined her.
"Relic Castle? What kind of relics are in there?"
"That's for us to find out."
"Annnnnd… let's do that tomorrow morning. I don't know about you guys, but I'm beat," Skye brought up a very good point because it's way past midnight. Now that the adrenaline from the excitement has faded I'm also starting to feel the exhaustion setting in. Now that I think about it, we had probably skipped dinner too without realising it.
"Let's set up camp here," Nova pointed at the sheltered entrance of the castle. At this spot, we will be sheltered from the wind and also not at the risk of being covered by sand when we wake up tomorrow morning. The entrance of the castle is huge enough to accommodate all three of us and several of our pokemon as well.
"My ghosts can keep watch, they don't really need much sleep," I offered, and my offer was quickly taken up by Nova and Skye. Nova and I started feeding all of our pokemon using the pokemon food we had brought along. As for Skye, she had taken out a huge pot from her backpack together with an electric stove cooker and soon, we were starting on cooking a quick and simple meal in the desert. Got to love foldable space technology for allowing us to bring so many things with us.
"Instant noodles, best invention ever," Skye declared as she easily took a mouthful of instant noodles with her chopsticks and placed them in her own bowl.
"Better than dry rations," I agreed, recalling the times when I was exploring Hoenn's desert where my meals mainly consisted of dried packed rations and mineral water.
"Romantic, isn't it? The cloudless night sky, having a picnic in a desert at the entrance of an ancient castle built more than 2,500 years ago," Nova said as she took another mouth of the noodles and chewed on her food.
"Yeah, imagine if we were 2,500 years back into the past and the king of the castle saw what we were doing, picnicking at his doorstep," Skye said wryly before suddenly turning her voice deeper to mimic what she thought a king might do. "Insolent commoners! How dare you eat at the entrance of my palace!"
"So what would the punishment be? Execution? By hanging or decapitation?"
"I was thinking something along the lines of being boiled alive since we were, you know, cooking instant noodles, but that works too."
We didn't take long to finish our meals and clean our utensils. We were preparing for sleep, taking out our sleeping bags, wiping ourselves down and changing into clean dry clothes. I was about to zip up my sleeping bag when I heard the sound of plastic wrapper being ripped, prompting me to open my eyes.
"What's that?" I asked Skye, who had opened the plastic wrapper of something that looked like a bun to me while she was observing the scenic view outside the entrance. We were planning to go deep down to explore the castle tomorrow morning.
"Rage Candy Bar. Never heard of it?"
"Isn't that the local specialty of Mahogany Town?" I asked, and Skye nodded while taking a bite out of her candy. I never really did have a chance to properly tour Indigo thanks to the untimely Team Rocket uprising and by the time we had dealt with the situation our journey to Unova had already been set. I never had the chance to try the many things I had planned to try when I was at Indigo.
As if seeing through me, Skye took out another Rage Candy Bar from her backpack.
"Try it, you won't regret it."
I sat up and took the Rage Candy Bar and quickly tore the wrapping. From the name alone you would expect the sweet to be a candy bar, but in actuality it looks nothing like a candy bar and looks more like some sort of bun or rice cake. Names can really be misleading at times.
Skye's right on one thing about the Rage Candy Bar, it really is sweet. Not to the extent that it's sickening, but enough to make you feel refreshed and content.
I was pretty absorbed in savouring the sweet goodness of the famous Rage Candy Bar, so Skye's sudden exclamation came as a shock.
"Holy- The hell was that?!"
"What is it?" I asked and looked in her direction. Skye's sudden outburst had caught our pokemon's attention as well.
"T-T-The statues! I swear, their eyes just looked in my direction!"
I looked at where Skye was pointing at one of the darmanitan statues. I squinted my eyes really hard, but I could not see anything out of the ordinary.
"I think you are just too tired," Nova yawned, having gotten out of her own sleeping bag as well to check what the commotion was about when Skye had made a din earlier.
"I knew what I saw! I wasn't seeing things!" Skye insisted. "They… Look! Their eyes moved again!"
Nova and I immediately turned our heads back to look at the darmanitan statues but again, they looked the same as we remembered them to be.
"Skye."
"Their eyes moved the moment you took your eyes off them! I swear!"
"You know, if they are coloured, they might very well look just like the real thing," Nova commented with an exhausted yawn as the three of us walked closer to inspect the nearest statue just about twenty or so metres away. No matter how we circled around it and touched it the statue remained as still as… a statue.
"I don't think darmanitans are able to grow into this size though. I don't recall ever seeing or hearing a darmanitan growing this big," I said after taking another closer observation, and had to pull Fuzzy back by his tail when he was trying to gnaw at it with his front teeth.
"No, Fuzzy, this is an ancient relic."
Fuzzy's only response was to pout.
"It's still incredibly lifelike," Nova cannot help but praise after observing the statues closely. "Even for me, this is the first time I saw such a lifelike statue of a pokemon, much less five of them."
"Darmanitans are really rare, right?" Skye asked.
"They are," I answered. "As far as I'm aware they can only be found in Unova and even then, they are very rarely encountered in the wild. Most people can only get their hands on one through a breeder. This is one species of pokemon that can only largely be found in captivity, almost on the same level of rarity as a regional starter."
"See? You were seeing things," Nova told Skye when Nova waved her arms right in front of the darmanitan statue with no observable response from the stone sculpture.
"I'm not!" Skye insisted, her frustration clear in her voice but seeing as how the statue did not even blink or budge an inch no matter what we did to it, at this point I'm more inclined to believe that Skye was really seeing things in her exhaustion. It's been a long and tiring day for all of us.
Skye and Nova began to walk back towards the castle entrance where we had set up a temporary camp for the night, their bickering filling the silence of the desert as their pokemon lazily followed after their trainers. Meanwhile, I continued to observe the statue. I had already taken quite a few good pictures of the five statues but no matter how I look at it, this statue really was too lifelike. It's hard to believe such a level of craftsmanship existed more than 2,500 years ago. Considering that we are in the middle of a desert and the length of time the statues have been buried here, I'm surprised that the statue had not eroded in the slightest.
"Very fascinating, isn't it?" I said out loud to Bigblue who was standing beside me, also observing the statue curiously with a slight tilt of his head. I took out another Rage Candy Bar that I had swiped before walking over here.
"-was real! They were really looking at me!"
"Yes, yes, time to go to sleep, my dear."
Geez, those two are still arguing about that?
I continued to tune out the argument and easily tore open the wrapping of the Rage Candy Bar. I was about to take another bite of my second serving of the delicious sweet when I noticed a very small difference between what I'm seeing now and what I remembered seeing just a few seconds ago.
Where I remembered the eye pupils of the darmanitan statue was looking straight ahead earlier, it's now looking downwards at me.
My body froze without me meaning to, still holding the Rage Candy Bar in my hands and my mouth still partially opened and about to take a bite into the Rage Candy Bar. However, my body had frozen in shock. For some reason I didn't dare to move, I could not bring myself to eat the sweet no matter how I tried because holy shit Skye really wasn't seeing things.
Judging from how Bigblue had frozen in place as well, I'm sure that I'm not the only one who saw what I had seen.
I blinked my eyes twice slowly and as if trying to mock me, the statue mimicked my actions and blinked twice at me as well in slow motion as its reply.
Holy shit, the statue's alive.
"-there's no way that a statue could look-"
"And I'm telling you that it can!"
"Guys?" I called out weakly and started to take a few steps backwards, the Rage Candy Bar already dropped onto the sandy ground as a very sinister premonition started to fill my body and a creeping chill crawled up my spine. I don't care what this statue really is, but we are currently too close to it for comfort and I'm starting to have a very bad feeling about this.
"There's no way a statue can be alive."
"But it clearly is!"
I knew that I wasn't imagining things when the surrounding temperature started to get noticeably hotter. I could see steam silently sizzling from the surface of the statue as colour started to return to the once grey and dull darmanitan statue.
"Guys? Guys!"
"You know what, we can investigate the statues tomorrow morning-"
"I'm not sleeping next to what could possibly be a dangerous living statue for one entire night!"
The fingers of the darmanitan statue started to twitch. Its mouth which was once closed shut started to spread wider in a sinister and predatory grin.
Okay, this is really bad.
"Guys! Get away!"
I quickly backpedalled as far as I could. Bigblue also finally snapped himself out of the shock of seeing the impossible happening right in front of our eyes. He quickly placed himself in front of me and erected a huge shield of Protect. It was just right in time when a powerful blast of hot flames washed over us. That was Incinerate, and it would have either severely wounded or outright killed us at this distance if it wasn't for Bigblue's quick thinking.
I heard Snap roar and he was already by our side at the next second, having been alerted to the sudden danger and ramming the enormous darmanitan away from us with a Dragon Rush. The darmanitan simply rolled harmlessly on the sandy ground before righting itself, hot sizzling flames licking across its body as it answered us with a roar of challenge.
That was no statue. It's a freaking living and breathing wild pokemon.
I heard more roars and to my horror, the other four statues were starting to come to life as well.
"What the-"
"See?! I told you they were real!"
"We can argue about it later!" I snapped back at Nova and Skye. The darmanitans are at least two times larger than the average size of their species and from the brief exchange we had with the first one earlier, they are no pushovers either. These wild darmanitans are really powerful pokemon.
Bigblue unleashed a powerful torrent of water with Surf, forcing the darmanitans to keep their distance and buying time for Nova and Skye to get their act together and call out their better fighters. My ghosts had appeared as well, quickly swarming the five darmanitans in their attempt to overwhelm them through superior numbers but most of them were easily beaten back when one of the darmanitans unleashed a powerful Psychic.
To force ghosts to keep away with just one use of Psychic, the power of the darmanitans was nothing to joke about.
I heard powerful footsteps approaching, turning my head just in time to see Nova's tyrantrum charging in and crunched on a darmanitan with its powerful jaws. The darmanitan shrieked and struggled, its body immediately igniting in fiery blue flames that I recognised to be a sign of Flare Blitz being used. I had seen red or white flames being unleashed before when Flare Blitz was used by a pokemon, but blue flames are another thing entirely because it is a colour that can only be formed when flames are being heated to the extreme. This is something that you would only expect to see from very powerful fire types.
This is not good news.
The heat of the blue flames forced Nova's tyrantrum to release the darmanitan in its jaws and two other darmanitans immediately took this opportunity to gang up on it. Skye's dragonite managed to get in their way with a timely interference. The darmanitans are unexpectedly powerful, but I have no doubt that the three of us can still emerge victorious despite the surprise being sprung on us. We just have one problem.
Our current location was really not suited to hold a battle here. Just one wrong move on our part and all the sand that we had piled at the sides during our excavation could come crashing back down at us in one huge tidal wave and bury us alive. Already, the huge piles of sand around were starting to trickle down at an alarming rate. If nothing is done, the sand will collapse on us and we will be drowned in sand. That is definitely not how I want to die.
"We need to switch the location of the battle!" Skye cried out, obviously having recognised the same problem that I did as she released more pokemon to push the darmanitans back and to buy us some time to come up with a solution.
"I can get my pokemon to harden and stabilise the sand and earth around us, but it's not a failsafe solution! We need to get these darmanitans away ASAP!" Nova agreed as her ground types immediately worked on doing just that while erecting stone barriers between us and the battle ahead for our safety. We need to quickly come up with a plan soon.
"I can get my ghosts to transport them further away with Shadow Sneak, but I don't think I can fight them alone. These darmanitans are not just powerful, they are a little insane," I pointed out after observing the darmanitans' reckless berserker style of battling. I have seventeen pokemon and I can assign an average of three pokemon to handle each darmanitan, but not all of my pokemon are battlers even if they can hold their own. We also cannot allow the darmanitans to destroy the Relic Castle in their mindless rampage, which adds to the difficulty of being forced to battle in a desert.
"I can join you soon enough, have faith in my speed," Skye promised.
"Take my golurk with you. My garchomp and tyrantrum will be right behind," Nova added. I guess there's our plan.
"Alright, see you guys later," I replied and with a mental command, had my ghosts warped the darmanitans to a safe distance away from the Relic Castle. Far enough such that they wouldn't be able to destroy the ruins by mistake unless they managed to get past me, but also close enough to the Relic Castle that I wouldn't get myself accidentally lost in the desert.
I released Kratos immediately now that I don't need to worry about him accidentally destroying anything. In fact, I released my entire team out for battle.
"Take them down! They are really powerful, so be careful! Kratos, lead the charge!"
Kratos charged in with maniacal glee with Toothless close behind, physically clashing with the darmanitans as the sands around us started to swirl and rise in response to his power. Chill started a Rain Dance which Bigblue took advantage of to fire rapid consecutive blasts of Water Pulse. Lily and Ness stood between us as our line of defence, easily blocking any attacks the darmanitans tried to hurl our way.
It didn't take long for me to realise that these darmanitans are largely physical fighters. Their physical strength is tremendous, allowing them to match Kratos blow for blow. Hulk proved to be indispensable here as one of the best physical fighters on the team, forcing one of the darmanitans to constantly pay close attention to him lest it wanted to be flattened by his fists.
Dragon Pulse started to rain from the sky and I looked up, spotting Skye's noivern firing its attacks from a safe distance above. Skye's dragonite crashed down as well, instantly pushing another darmanitan back through its sheer strength.
The ground below us trembled and Nova's garchomp announced its arrival with a bestial roar, its jaws clamping shut around the feet of another darmanitan and proceeded to drag it down underground with it like how its species hunted their prey in the wild. Good, the tides were starting to turn in our favour.
I realised I spoke too soon when the heat was turned up another notch, quite literally.
"How are they still able to produce such hot flames?!"
I had to agree with Skye because ordinarily, no fire type pokemon could constantly release such hot flames without quickly wearing themselves out. Most fire type pokemon have to pace themselves and learn some semblance of control in order not to burn themselves out prematurely before the battle is over, but these darmanitans fight as if they are going at a hundred percent from the get-go without worrying of ever running out of fuel. Not only that, they are starting to produce even hotter flames that, by all means, shouldn't be possible with how fast they are supposed to be burning themselves out.
These darmanitans don't make any sense, period.
Even water type attacks were starting to lose their intended effects as the darmanitans simply turned them into fizzling steam with their hot flames. Even the sand around them started to glass and melt under the heat and I realised that the darmanitans were probably only starting to get serious in the fight now.
"They have to be on the same level of a pillar level pokemon," Skye groaned in dismay when she realised just how much we had underestimated these living statues.
"Yeah, Nova better hurry," I agreed, hoping that Nova can join us as soon as she can after she finished stabilising the sand and ground around the vicinity of the castle. Nova's garchomp emerged from beneath in a furious roar with burns around his body, the darmanitan which it had dragged down previously also emerged similarly in a huge ball of fire. It seems that Nova's garchomp had failed to subdue the darmanitan as well, but at least it is still alive and more than capable of continuing its battle. It's just very furious and I do not want to know what the darmanitan did to piss Nova's garchomp off so badly.
"I can take care of two of them," I stated when I noticed that Nova's tyrantrum and golurk were here as well. "Skye, can you take another two? Like this, garchomp, tyrantrum, and golurk can handle one of them."
"Doable. You guys?" Skye turned to ask Nova's pokemon, who quickly voiced their agreement as well.
"Then let's do this. Dolly, Wacky, Curse."
Dolly and Wacky launched our offensive as the battle exploded into action once more. I knew they managed to inflict Curse on the two darmanitans that we took on when the darmanitans howled in pain and retaliated in equal anger. Now, we are right back to what we are familiar with. Drag the fight out and wait for Curse to take effect.
"Dolly, Snatch! Kel, Taunt!" I quickly ordered when I noticed one of the darmanitans was trying to recover with Rest. Dolly quickly healed up through snatching the healing effects of Rest that the darmanitan was trying to do, angering it in the process. Kel fell back into her usual role of being an elusive saboteur and slinked away into the darkness once Taunt was casted, keeping a close eye on the battle and ensuring that Taunt will always remain in effect.
Kratos and Hulk took on one darmanitan each with everyone else supporting them. Even then, the flames released by the darmanitans were really too hot for it to be natural and we were soon forced to keep our distance from them because Hulk and Kratos were already sporting some nasty burns. The darmanitans knew where their advantages lie and tried to force us to constantly be engaged with them in a physical battle while on the other hand, we have to try and force them to keep their distance.
We cannot get physical with the darmanitans if we want to win. The combination of their intense flames, overwhelming physical strength, and reckless berserker style of battling made them very formidable close range fighters that none of us were suited to deal with. At this point I'm convinced that none of my pokemon can stand up against any of the darmanitans in a one-on-one battle. That's just how unbelievably powerful these darmanitans are.
Fuzzy rained electric attacks down on the darmanitans but all of his attacks seemed to bounce off the darmanitan's skin harmlessly. The darmanitans were being constantly cloaked in fire which acts as a form of defensive armour. The flames were so hot that even Bigblue and Chill weren't able to douse them.
This… really isn't looking good for us.
Just when I was racking my brain to try and think of a solution, help arrived in the least expected manner.
It was dead into the night, so it really wasn't hard to notice the bright balls of light that suddenly dotted the skies and falling onto our location at an alarming speed. The two darmanitans that I was battling against noticed that as well and we all quickly shifted ourselves to avoid that unknown attack. I soon recognised these balls of light for what they were when they came closer. These are Aura Spheres.
The flurry of Aura Spheres seemed to have a mind of their own as they suddenly swerved and homed in on the darmanitans, causing them to screech in pain upon the impact. Rena, who was loyally standing by my side for the entire duration, suddenly went on alert when two figures rapidly closed the distance with one single powerful leap. I could swear that they weren't there before and I had no idea how they evaded detection until now.
The two figures are a huge man and a lucario. The man was being covered entirely from top to toe in a scratchy looking dark blue cloak. His face was being covered entirely with a long scarf and even the top of his head was being wrapped with a bandanna. He only left enough space to reveal a little of his eyes but I couldn't really observe much considering how dark it currently was.
The most striking feature of the man would be how large and muscled he was. His arm looked as if it's thicker than both my thighs combined. The lucario by his side looked incredibly powerful too and most likely, the one that fired the barrage of Aura Spheres earlier.
I could feel the unknown man glancing at me and for a short moment, it felt like he was surprised at seeing me given how his body had frozen for a split second, but that disappeared as soon as it came. It may have been my imagination.
"You don't mind if I take over from here, do you?"
"Go ahead," I gestured, understanding that he's definitely more than capable of handling the darmanitans on his own if the Aura Spheres were anything to go by. This unknown man is undoubtedly a very powerful trainer, someone that has to be on the same level of a Pillar, even if that begged the question of who he might be.
"Thank you," the man nodded once in my direction before speaking to his lucario. "Let's go."
The man and his lucario vanished in a blur and the next thing we knew, they were right in the thick of the battle with the darmanitans. I could feel my jaw dropping in shock. The lucario, I could understand, but the man was so fast that it clearly surpassed the limits of what a human could possibly achieve.
My jaw dropped further when I saw how the man grabbed onto the arm of one of the darmanitans and proceeded to throw it with a shoulder throw. The darmanitan let out a startled yelp, obviously not expecting for a human to possess such strength either or to choose to fight it with his bare hands, but that did not prevent it from being thrown by the man like an oversized baseball. The darmanitan was cloaked from head to toe in blazing flames but yet the man was not hurt or burnt in the very least.
Who on earth is he?
The lucario easily wrapped up the battle within a minute, showing us the difference between us and the lucario. That lucario was in another different league entirely, easily capable of handling the two troublesome darmanitans while my entire team was having troubles trying to even approach the darmanitans when they were cloaked with fire. Furthermore, the lucario was facing a type disadvantage thanks to its steel typing.
The man took out two pokeballs and lazily captured the two darmanitans after they had fallen unconscious. He gave another look at his lucario, who fired another barrage of Aura Spheres into the night sky as the sparkling balls of light curved in a beautiful arc in the air before falling elsewhere. I soon realised that the Aura Spheres were falling towards where Skye and Nova were having their respective battles with the darmanitans.
"Thank you," I thanked the man because he was obviously getting his lucario to help out Skye and Nova with their respective battles as well. The man simply shook his head.
"It's my duty to help a person in need and these darmanitans are dangerous. You did well in staying alive for as long as you did. Not many can claim to be capable of such a thing at your age," the man slowly spoke, his face still obscured by his scarf, but even I can tell that he's observing me closely.
"Uh… Is there anything wrong?" I broke the silence when his gaze started to feel a little uncomfortable. My words seemed to have broken him out of his silent stupor because he shook his head thereafter.
"I apologise, you just… reminded me of someone I knew. Your friends have ended their battles too, you should rejoin them."
"Are you an Ability Holder?" I quickly asked before the man could take his leave, because that was the only logical explanation that I could think of to explain how he could fight a darmanitan barehanded without suffering any burns that could hurt even Kratos. The man stopped in his tracks after hearing my question, proving that my suspicions were true.
"You can say that, although I prefer to use the term Aura Guardian," the man replied, his face turned back to look at me once more and for a moment I felt something mystical gently washing over me as if I was being scrutinised. I cannot explain it, but I just knew that he had done something to me.
"I see… You really are a holder of a Ghost type ability. It's a very rare ability to have but be careful, your kind are highly coveted by the wrong sort of people."
"You…"
"What you sensed was me using Aura to observe you on a closer level, that's all. I apologise if it felt intrusive but I had to be sure, because certain abilities might produce some unexpected and devastating results when mixed together," the man patiently explained. "You know Looker, am I right?"
"How did you know that?"
"Aura, I sensed his presence on you," the man pointed a finger at me as he said that. "Faint, but there, telling me that you had interacted with him recently. I wasn't aware that he's currently in Unova," he was about to take his leave again before he paused in his steps and left me with another piece of advice.
"You should ask him for more details about Ghost type Ability Holders. After all, not only are Ghost type abilities extremely dangerous and prone to running out of control, his teacher is a Ghost type Ability Holder as well. If anybody knows how to train a Ghost type ability, it will be him."
"Wait-"
The man and his lucario disappeared with a powerful leap, easily disappearing into the darkness of the night and blending in with the sand dunes of the desert. There's so many questions I have after encountering this man but it doesn't seem like I would be getting them. I could ask Looker, but I have a feeling that he will be responding with half-truths even if I asked.
'Mistress, do not worry. I do not sense any ill will from him.'
Rena's words were the only thing I could take solace from. If Rena doesn't think that the unknown man harboured ill intentions, then I supposed he can be trusted.
However, there's one thing that the man said which caught my attention.
The man said that Looker's teacher is a Ghost type Ability Holder as well. He knew very well how I was seeking to find information on the ways to better hone my ability.
So, was there a reason why Looker didn't tell me anything about it?
The moon continued to shine overhead, providing the faint glow that lit up the vast and empty desert. A huge man walked along the empty desert, a lucario beside him, as they left their footsteps on the sands of the desert.
The man cannot help but release a huff once he's certain that they were out of earshot. What an unexpected encounter.
They reached a huge boulder soon enough and as if defying all logic and common sense, a huge hole magically opened to allow the man and his lucario entry into the boulder before closing back shut once more.
"You're back? That was faster than expected."
"It's just darmanitans, how long would it take?" The cloaked man retorted as he pulled off his scarf and bandanna, finally revealing his face. His companion didn't seem too impressed as he continued to brew his tea in the surprisingly nicely furnished hidden space within the boulder. Once again, the trainer of the lucario cannot help but marvel just how incredible Secret Power can be under the hands of a master.
"You wouldn't believe who I just met."
"You say that every time you met somebody new," was the reply received by the Aura Guardian but he had long since gotten used to his companion's callous way of talking. The Aura Guardian walked past a sleeping exploud, the pokemon partner of his companion, to get closer to him.
"No, seriously, I met a Ghost type Ability Holder. A little girl."
The Aura Guardian knew that his words had the intended effect when his companion froze in his motions of brewing his tea for a short while before resuming.
"Ghost type? You sure?"
"Oh, that's not all, I sensed… What's the name he goes by nowadays again? Ah- Looker's aura on her as well," the Aura Guardian mentioned nonchalantly as he dropped himself down onto a beanbag to kick back and relax, knowing that his companion will pick up on the unsaid piece of information that he was hinting at.
"Look- He's in Unova? Wait, that means that the girl-"
"Yup."
"... You gotta be pulling my goddamn leg."
"And what would I get from doing that?"
"Fair enough," he conceded, but a part of him was still reeling in disbelief. "But… if the boss knew about this…"
"The boss probably already knew this would happen a long time ago."
"Boss really wasn't lying, and all along I thought the boss was high on drugs-"
"Don't say that in front of her."
"I know, I'm not stupid," the tea brewer groaned and tiredly dragged a palm across his face. "Dammit, you couldn't have chosen another time to visit this forsaken desert?"
"Hey, I finish my task early, we can all go back early. Come to think about it, we really should start on wrapping up our tasks and return to the organisation. It's been a long while."
"It's been a long while," the tea brewer agreed as he took out a black and gold plated card, idly flipping it around with his fingers. On the front of the card was a printed image of a man and a pyroar. With a quick idle flick of his fingers, the back of the card was now facing him. A golden opened eye that was printed on the black background of the card stared back at him. That's the insignia of the organisation that they belong to.
His train of thoughts were rudely broken by that damn Aura Guardian.
"Mind sharing some of that nice tea?"
"Damn freeloader."
"Hey, don't be stingy. I thought we were friends after knowing each other for so long."
"You are in self-denial. Get your grubby hands away from my tea."
Character and pokemon list:
Velda Vera, Age: 14, Female, Pokemon Trainer, Member of the International Police
Pokemon on hand:
1) Rapidash (Flamel), male
2) Swampert (Bigblue), male
3) Banette (Dolly), female
4) Flygon (Snap), male
5) Absol (Kelsa), female
6) Charizard (Toothless), male
7) Cradily (Lily), female
8) Espeon (Rena), female
9) Pachirisu (Fuzzy), male
10) Tyranitar (Kratos), male
11) Clefairy (Joy), female
12) Nidoqueen (Ness), female
13) Pangoro (Hulk), male
14) Porygon-Z (Jarvis), genderless
15) Scizor (Archer), male
16) Lapras (Chill), female
17) Gengar (Wacky), male