We marched through the desert hills in a line like a caravan as the entire expedition moved forward. Professor Birch’s lab was kind enough to provide white desert robes for the people who didn’t prepare well enough for the desert, like Wally and I. The sun bore down on us, and the extremely high temperatures caused us to sweat and see mirages of oases far off in the distance.

I felt a bit guilty for going on this expedition with an Ice Type on my team, since it was unlikely that Ninetales could come out during the day. To avoid the heat, she would temporarily be operating on a nocturnal schedule, and assist with the watch during the night when it was much cooler. Our only time of overlapping consciousness would be in the later afternoon, when the sun had just set enough for the sands to cool down.

Despite how uncomfortable it was to travel through the desert, I did enjoy seeing the wild Pokémon move about and watch us from a distance. Sandshrew played in the dunes, and I could see groups of Cacnea pretending to be plants, trying to lure Pokémon closer with the sweet-smelling flowers on their heads.

A few of the trainers who came along for this expedition talked excitedly about potentially finding a Gible. Considering it was a Dragon Type, I doubted they’d find one, and if they did, they would likely be subject to the wrath of an angry mother Garchomp.

The desert of Route 111 wasn’t that large, but movement was slow since we had to deal with our feet sinking into the sand for almost every step. I was thankful that my Devon backpack had a cooled compartment, since it let me store and cool water created by Azumarill to drink. During the day, I actually stored a number of people’s drinks to cool them down and passed them back when asked or when we stopped traveling for the day. I was the only one with a backpack like this, since the cooling technology was still technically a prototype.

If Steven gave me this backpack as a form of advertisement for a future Devon product, it’s working.

What I was both thankful for and terrified of was that Route 111’s desert only rarely had naturally occurring Sandstorms. The presence of Flygon on the route disrupted the normal winds with their harsh wing beats, creating large clouds of whirling dust. Sometimes, they even took over the rare normal sandstorm for themselves. The famous “Desert Spirits,” as Flygon were colloquially known, were one of the largest threats in this desert and would force us to go around sandstorms or group together and try to weather the storm. Well, it wasn’t like our options would have been that different if they were naturally occurring sandstorms, anyway.

The second largest threat also came from Flygon’s evolutionary line. Trapinch and Vibrava lived in massive underground colonies that we had to take extra care to avoid. Any mysterious pits or dips in the terrain could be a feeding trap for Trapinch to catch prey, so the trainers in the front of the expedition had to test them by throwing rocks into the dips to see if we needed to change our course.

When it came to the route we took through the desert, there was technically a “main path,” but it wasn’t paved or outlined and was difficult to follow. It looped around several known Trapinch nest locations and could only be followed by using a mapping device like my Pokégear or a PokéNav. It was updated frequently by the Rangers that patrolled the route, and while the desert was safe to pass through if someone traveled along the main path, without those devices it was far too dangerous to travel.

It was a few days into the trip when we arrived at the known location of Mirage Tower. The tower was thankfully located along the safe main path, so the journey hadn’t been too difficult so far. We set up a camp near its location to hopefully be ready for it to appear, and to let the researchers take their measurements. Once it appeared, this would be the only time during the expedition people could go out on their own, but they would still need to bring a researcher with them to record details about the inside of the tower. Mirage Tower was known to collapse, but a few of the trainers were Ground Type specialists who came on this expedition due to their expertise, and their Pokémon could detect if the tower was about to collapse. With an early warning system in place, it would be less of a risk to have people go inside.

Luckily, we only needed to camp out for two days before Mirage Tower appeared. Only Azumarill and Swablu came out to train in that time, since the rest of my party was too uncomfortable in the desert sand and heat. Azumarill used the environment to help practice movement under difficult conditions, and Swablu tried to develop his hidden ability, Cloud Nine, a bit further since the hot desert winds were just barely strong enough that he could try to negate them with his weak atmospheric control.

When it came for the Mirage Tower exploration, people were assigned to groups. The Ground Type specialists took turns entering the tower to make sure at least one of them were outside at all times, but everyone else had to be grouped up with a researcher. Wally and I were together in a pair, and we were assigned a researcher named Ernest. Ernest worked with Professor Birch in his research about Pokémon habitats, and specialized in Pokémon migration.

Ernest walked hunched forward and constantly moved his head about erratically, looking around for aggressive Pokémon. He wasn’t used to traveling out of the lab, and was constantly nervous we were about to be attacked.

We chatted a while before it was our turn to enter the tower, and he told stories about his past research to let us get to know him. One story was about how he blocked off a section of Route 102 when he thought he saw footsteps that belonged to a rare Pokémon. He chuckled embarrassedly and explained that it took him a bit too long to realize they were his own footsteps.

That story reflected his personality pretty well, in all honesty.

And finally, on the fifth day of the expedition and a week since we first met up with Professor Birch, Wally, Ernest, and I entered the sandstone tower that was only sometimes there, with the intent of exploration and to see what it had to offer.

Mirage Tower was a decently sized building made out of decaying sandstone. It was four or five stories tall (its interior changed between visits) and was about as wide as an office building, which made it look more squat than anything else. Trainers in the past had reported finding rare treasures on the top floors like fossils and evolutionary stones, so most of the people that entered it were rushing up high to see if they could collect some themselves before other people took them. For Wally and I, we were mostly curious about what the interior of the tower was like and what Pokémon were around since I already had all the evolutionary stones, and neither of us had the money to afford reviving a fossil.

Well, I could revive a fossil if I spent the majority of the funds that Steven granted me after my encounter with Team Magma in Mauville, but I appreciated seeing six digits in my bank account and didn’t want to be forced to drop down to four.

“Since we’re going into the tower, I want to find a Baltoy for my research,” Ernest said as we approached the large, crumbling opening that served as an entrance.

“Is there a specific reason why you want to find one?” I asked him.

“Well, if you haven’t noticed, we haven’t encountered any Baltoy in the desert yet. However, someone already reported seeing a Baltoy within the tower.” Ernest paused while he tapped on the surface of the tablet he was carrying, which functioned as both a research and communication tool. “But what’s strange about that is that Baltoy have only been seen on the lower floor, while Trapinch and Sandshrew are located on the upper ones, and Trapinch and Sandshrew are two Pokémon that normally stay at ground level in the desert.”

Wally perked up.

“Oh! Are you saying it sinks into the ground when it disappears?” he asked.

“I’m not saying that, I’m hypothesizing that,” Ernest explained. “I can’t make such a bold claim without sufficient data. Since you two aren’t interested in exploring the upper floors, we can spend our time down here on the base level. People ignore the lowest floor all the time, there’s so much we could potentially discover!”

Ernest’s eyes were practically sparkling, and Wally’s were too as he was caught up in Ernest’s excitement. I took this moment to look around at the interior of Mirage Tower, finally walking through the entrance.

Mirage Tower’s interior was similar to that of the outside, but the sandstone on the inside was closer to the color brown than the orange of the exterior sandstone. Bits of sand fell from the ceiling and the walls, which made me nervous that the upper floors would collapse at any time. However, there were numerous large, carved pillars and piles of rocks that served as supports to the upper floors. Their presence meant that if there was a collapse, it would be pretty localized since the other supports would stay standing.

Ernest held up his tablet in front of his face and spun in a circle. After a moment, he put it back down to read whatever data he just recorded.

“Yup, there’s a large number of Baltoy here. I think if we approach in that direction,” he pointed off in the distance, deeper inside, “we should start to hear them crying before we approach. Baltoy do that, you know, cry when they get into groups. It’s not really known why they do that since once they’re caught they become much more docile. There’s a theory that it’s because they’re remembering ancient times, and mourning for its loss. Did you know that there’s never been a reported case of a Baltoy dying naturally? In fact, some researchers actually hypothesize...”

Ernest continued to ramble off about what he knew about Baltoy while I decided to send out Florges. It was getting cooler as we went further away from the entrance, and I figured she’d like to be able to stretch her... leaves? She didn't really have legs. Walking through this place without a Pokémon out reminded me of my time in Shoal Cave, so I wanted to make sure we had a Pokémon out before we were ambushed by a Cacturne, Sandslash, or something similarly dangerous.

Florges wasn’t too excited about being sent out into a closed off space, but I wanted to let her have time out of her Pokéball in an area that didn’t make her flowers wilt. I could have sent out Mawile, but she had already willingly exited her Heavy Ball a few times when we were traveling due to her motivation to compete with Azumarill. I wanted to make sure Florges got time outside of her ball.

Like Ernest said, we heard the Baltoy before we saw them. It was a strange set of crying and moaning that sounded more like someone was breathing through a tube rather than the sound of a living creature. Florges became a bit nervous at the sound, so I rubbed her back to calm her down.

Ernest paused in fear before continuing to walk, even more nervous than Florges about encountering the creatures that made the sound, even though we already knew what they were.

When the light of our flashlights went over the Baltoy at a distance, we saw that they were gathered in a large group. There were about a dozen Baltoy arranged in a circle around a supporting pillar, making their haunting sounds. Ernest didn’t say anything but proceeded to type rapidly on his tablet to take notes about the situation. After about half a minute, all of the Baltoy spun in place in unison. When they did so, the group of Ground Types noticed us and proceeded to immediately run away with their spinning, top-like motion. Ernest proceeded to approach the pillar that they had surrounded once they were gone.

“Intriguing. It seems this pillar still contains etchings that resemble the shape of Baltoy. They’re faint, but the shadows from the light make it clear what they are. I think this pillar is somehow important,” Ernest said.

I looked around at the numerous other supports in this room.

“Are you sure it’s only this one? I mean, another one could have those markings too.”

Ernest held up his tablet and walked around it to take pictures. Wally followed while I stayed back to keep watch. Florges had already calmed down and was looking around. It wasn’t often she was sent out in a place with stone over her head.

I heard a brief yelp when Wally and Ernest were on the other side, and immediately ran after them. As I rounded the corner, I saw Ernest on his hands and knees inspecting the pillar.

“There’s a hole!” he shouted. “I found a hole!”

Looking closer, I could see that there was, in fact, a small opening at the base of the pillar. It wasn’t large enough for a human, but it was the perfect size for a small Baltoy.

“What should we do?” Wally asked. “I don’t want to risk our Pokémon by sending them in, and we’re too big to fit.”

Ernest leaned back to move into a seated position. He rubbed his chin then checked his tablet for a few moments before responding.

“Well, we could destroy the pillar - which I do not recommend - or we can break the floor.”

“I, what? Break the floor! Do you want to collapse this place?” I responded, exasperatedly.

“No, no, no. It seems that this pillar leads to a tunnel downwards. Breaking the floor would open that up for us without damaging the carvings.”

Wally grabbed a Pokéball and sent out Gallade.

“Don’t worry, Alex! Gallade is really careful with his attacks, he can cut a hole through the floor safely! Almost as good as, um, uh... a surgeon!”

I shook my head at the pair’s excitement and stood back as Gallade used the blades on its arms to carefully pierce and slice an opening into the floor. As soon as the sandstone was no longer attached on all sides, it fell. It landed on a lower surface about five or six feet downwards with a thump, and revealed a tunnel large enough for a human to walk through.

Wally and Ernest both turned to look at me.

“What?” I asked.

“Aren’t you going to jump in?” Wally responded.

I crossed my arms.

“Why do you assume I’m going to be the one to jump headfirst into the unknown?”

“Gallade told me how you met Ninetales after entering Shoal Cave without a Pokémon.”

“What? That little traitor! ...Wait, you can communicate with Gallade?”

Wally shook his head.

“He can send me simple concepts but he can’t send words or read my mind. It’s helpful to understand what he and my other Pokémon are feeling, but he can’t do much else other than that.”

“Huh,” I said.

That’s actually super impressive. While Kirlia is capable of Telepathy as an ability, Gallade isn’t. Wally must have developed it before his Pokémon evolved, and it kept some of those traits. Once again, I’m reminded how great of a trainer Wally is.

Not really having a proper excuse not to jump in, and since my negative response had been mellowed by the sudden knowledge of Gallade’s capabilities, I lowered myself down then hung off on the side before dropping into the pit. We could have set up a rope to help us out, but we could also just release our Pokémon above us to lift us out. It wasn’t that far of a distance.

I held up my flashlight and looked around. The tunnel ended at the base of the pillar behind me, and I could see indents in the wall arranged in the shape of a simple ladder that lead to the hole that Ernest discovered. The tunnel was level and went far out opposite of the ancient ladder, passing through the full length of Mirage Tower and then some.

I called out to Wally and Ernest above.

“Looks like there’s a long tunnel down here. It’s smooth too. If something carved this, they were exceptionally precise.”

Wally climbed down, followed by Ernest. Ernest approached the wall of the tunnel and ran his fingers over the smooth sandstone.

“This looks to have been dug by a Psychic Type, long ago. It has the properties of once being perfectly smooth, but that has clearly been slightly worn away over the years. Honestly, this is another piece of evidence for my Baltoy theory.”

“So are we going deeper into the tunnel?” Wally asked.

Ernest nodded and without needing to say anything else, we all moved deeper in. I ended up returning Florges as well, since this tunnel was far too tight for her to be comfortable in.

The tunnel was smooth, like Ernest pointed out, and had enough space for four full grown men to stand side-by-side. It took us several minutes to reach the end, longer than the amount of time it took to enter the tower and reach the Baltoy.

Eventually, we reached our destination. The tunnel ended at a wall of loose sand that spilled onto the floor.

“Huh, looks like there’s nothing else,” I said.

“No, no, no!” Ernest shouted. “There has to be something else! Maybe if we dig past the wall?”

Ernest went forward and started to use his hands to tear out chunks of sand and throw them behind him. I stepped to the side to dodge the tosses, but Wally didn’t and got a face full of sand.

“Plbt. Ernest, please stop. Please, we’re right behind you,” Wally said. “Maybe we missed something? Oh! There could be a secret entrance somewhere in the tunnel. That’d be super cool.”

Ernest stood up and wiped his hands together.

“Yes, yes, I supposed I overreacted. I got my hopes up so quickly and-”

The floor started to shake and I immediately started to panic internally.

“Ernest,” I said to him, as calmly as I could, “do you have any reception on your tablet?”

He pulled it out of where he placed it in his coat and held it up.

“Huh, I don’t.”

“So if you received a message from the Ground Type specialists, we wouldn’t have got it?”

He shook his head.

“No, I wouldn’t ha- Oh.”

We all looked at each other for just a moment, before booking it in the direction we came from. Everything was shaking like an earthquake, but the walls held steady. As we ran, a large swarm of Baltoy from the tower suddenly rushed past us towards the dead end we were running from. We were forced to stop to let them move by, then continued our dash back to the hole Gallade cut. Ahead, we could see the rubble from the floor that fell down, but as we neared there was a large blast of sand that briefly obscured our vision, then a massive pile of stone fell into the hole.

We stopped running and wiped the sand out of our eyes.

“It looks like the tower collapsed,” I stated, trying my hardest not to full-on freak out.

Wally looked to be in shock, and Ernest was frantically tapping on his tablet. He kept murmuring about not having reception while I went over our situation to process my thoughts.

“Azumarill can make water to drink so we’re good for that. I have enough food in my backpack to last us a while, thanks to its increased space. The Ground Type specialists should be checking over the collapsed tower to see if they could find us, but judging from how this tunnel was never discovered I doubt they will succeed.”

“Aha! I got a signal!” Ernest shouted.

He had half climbed up onto the collapsed rubble and held his tablet as high as possible. He typed on his tablet for a few seconds, before climbing back down.

“Perfect. I told them to go ahead without us,” he said. “There has to be something to discover here, and there’s no need to make them worry if the tower’s just going to reform within the next couple days anyway. This tunnel is pretty old, and the Baltoy had to go somewhere, right?”

I gave Ernest a flat look, extremely annoyed that he had just sent off the people who could have rescued us with their Ground Types, all in the name of science. I wanted to voice my complaints, but Wally seemed to recover from the shock of being buried alive, and suddenly looked extremely excited.

“Ernest, you’re a genius!” Wally shouted.

“What.”

“What?”

Wally nodded emphatically, making “mhm” sounds as he did.

“You thought the tower would sink into the ground, right? Clearly we’re under the ground right now! If we do as you said, we can go to where the Baltoy are! There has to be a connecting tunnel somewhere! Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go!”

“Wait,” I put my hand on Wally’s shoulder to stop him from running off, “this tunnel was part of Mirage Tower, and if we wait a few days it should lead to the tower once it's reformed. We could just sit here to wait for that and then leave easily.”

Wally crossed his arms and huffed.

“But that’s no fun.”

I know Wally used to be depressed and shy, but isn’t this a little too much of a turnaround?

“I agree,” Ernest said while I shot him a frown. “If we find out where the Baltoy went, we could still return here later, but also potentially make the discovery of the century. Well, not the century, more like the last few months. Did you know someone finally figured out the exact chemicals to make Gloom’s unique smell? They’re actually pretty simple, it’s-”

I interrupted Ernest before he could go off on another one of his rants.

“Not now. Fine, let’s go deeper in. If I seem a bit grumpy right now, it’s because I’m still dealing with the fact we’ve just been blocked into a tunnel, buried under thousands of pounds of rubble.”

Wally pumped his fist in joy and Ernest continued to tap on his tablet in delight. I sighed at their mildly irresponsible reactions, and we walked further down the tunnel to see where it now led.

Wally was right, there was a connecting tunnel. The tunnel was no longer blocked off by sand, and we could only tell where the tunnel once ended by the loose grains of sand that laid on the ground. The tunnel now extended far past the point it did before, lining up so well with whatever it had supposedly moved to, that there was no seam in the connection.

Ernest was ecstatic that his theory about Mirage Tower sinking had credence, where I was just nervous about where the tunnel might lead.

I didn’t want to walk into an underground Trapinch colony, after all.

We ended up heading forward for about ten minutes, the tunnel going far longer than any of us expected. The only light was the light from Wally’s flashlight and mine, but the tunnel was so smooth and straight they weren’t necessarily needed.

I decided to send out Ninetales as soon as we passed the connection, effectively waking her up in the middle of her night, but her low-light vision and advantage over Ground Types would be invaluable to keep us safe. I apologized and took out an extra berry for her to eat while we walked. I had made sure to bring extra berries to give out as treats since there weren’t any places to gather more in the desert.

When we reached where the tunnel ended, it came to a stop almost immediately. Rather than a wall of sand or stone, it opened up into a massive cavern, the tunnel seemingly having been dug through the side of the wall within it.

The cavern was as large as a decent sized town, and the roof was curved upwards, making the room look even larger. Littered around the walls of the cave were patches of glowing moss that lit the whole thing up. Just past the entrance, there was a jungle full of unfamiliar plants and trees, much larger than any greenery I had ever seen, and some of them glowed as well. With all the bioluminescence, this room was basically in permanent daylight. All of our mouths dropped open, and Ernest immediately started to take pictures with his tablet.

I heard a buzzing sound and looked over before freezing in fear.

Above us, on the upper reaches of the curved wall, were several holes containing yellow and green bug-like Pokémon buzzing around. I immediately recognized them as Vibrava, and watched as a few of them flew down into the jungle to harvest plants for the sake of their colony. I tapped on Wally’s and Ernest’s shoulders to silently get their attention to be alert of the possible Trapinch and Vibrava nest nearby.

“Hmm, well we need to enter the forest so I can record more data, but if you look carefully they’re staying in one section on the edge. As long as we stay away from that, we should be fine,” Ernest pointed out.

However, his observation made me pause.

“If they’re staying on that one side, what’s keeping them away from the rest of this biome?”

My comment made Ernest regain his nervousness, realizing that discovering something unknown meant encountering something unknown. His head darted around as he searched for dangerous threats before replying with a shaky voice.

“I- I don’t like it. B- but we have to do it anyway. For the data.”

Wally gave him a reassuring pat on the back and sent out his Gallade now that we were in an open space with light.

“Don’t worry! Gallade and I will protect you!”

I shot Ninetales a nervous glance, which she responded to by sticking her tongue out, and we entered deeper into this cavern.

We walked through the plants of the biome, passing by dense trees and thick foliage. I had called it a jungle earlier, but I wasn’t sure if it was a jungle or just a strange forest, since it looked like a combination of the two. Ernest frequently stopped to collect samples in little plastic baggies he brought with him. There were a number of rare berries he stopped to take small pieces of and advised us to not collect any ourselves just in case they were a new poisonous species or belonged to an aggressive Pokémon.

We continued onwards, following the same actions with Ernest recording practically everything, and eventually Wally shouted out after noticing something.

“Look! The trees open up over there! There’s a clearing!”

We shifted to head towards where he pointed, and he was right, the plants did open up into a clearing.

It was a large lake that extended deep into the wall, the cavern creating an overhang over the back half of the water. Around the closer side of the lake was a beach with a number of Pokémon sitting around. They didn’t reach my knees in height, but scuttled around like little crabs with two large claws on the front of their body. They had red and white feather-like appendages on the sides of their body, as well as two eyes that stuck off the side of their head.

“I’ve never seen that Pokémon before,” Wally said.

Ernest and I looked at each other. We both knew what the Pokémon was. and the implications of its presence.

“Anorith, an ancient Pokémon,” Ernest said. “It was previously thought to be extinct, and only available through reviving via fossils. It seems we have stumbled onto another Grampa Canyon.”

I didn’t recognize the name, and neither did Wally. Ernest went ahead to explain what he meant by it.

“A few years ago, a group of young trainers fell into a pit at an excavation site that was known for the prevalence of fossils. They ended up finding the ancient Pokémon Kabuto and Omanyte living inside, and even a wild Aerodactyl. There was a bit of a scuffle afterwards, but eventually it was listed as a protected site by the League. While the Pokémon there aren’t available to be caught, it’s essential for Kanto researchers to understand behavioral patterns of the ancient Pokémon.”

I nodded my head, remembering the location now.

That was where Ash’s Charmeleon evolved into Charizard in the anime. Charizard was the one who fought the Aerodactyl.

Ernest looked at us with wide eyes.

“If there’s Anorith, we need to leave. If they’re here, there’s likely to be-”

THUMP.

Something big impacted the ground behind us. We turned around and raised our heads to see the towering form of a bipedal insect with a rock-hard shell and two massive claws on the front of its body.

“-an Armaldo.” Ernest finished.

Gallade immediately rushed forward, detecting Armaldo’s hostility, and tried to use a Psycho Cut against it. His arm glowed blue as it dug into the thick shell of the evolved form of Anorith, then jumped back before it could retaliate.

Armaldo crossed its arms to use X-Scissor, but Ninetales created a small flurry of snow with her ability to distract it from its attacks. We immediately started to run away, back into the jungle-like forest, as the Armaldo let loose a deafening roar behind us.

“We have to get back to the tunnel!” I screamed. “It's just barely too small for it, even if it does chase us, it couldn’t follow us in!”

Ninetales used Extrasensory to break a tree behind us and it collapsed in the way of the Armaldo giving chase. The living fossil easily cut it in half with a simple Slash, and continued to run in our direction.

“I’m terrified for my life, but you have to admit this could be groundbreaking news! Imagine all of the discoveries we cou- urf”

Suddenly, a set of large pink vines latched onto Ernest and lifted him off the floor. We turned around to see that a large Cradily, the evolved form of Lileep, appeared from where it had blended into the jungle with its green coloring, and had grabbed him and lifted it above its head. Scared that it might start eating Ernest right this moment, I shouted to get things in order.

“Ninetales and I will handle Cradily, Wally, you and Gallade take out Armaldo! GO!”

We all immediately jumped into action. Gallade went forward to combat Armaldo, blade versus claw, while Ninetales started to use super-effective Ice Type moves against Cradily.

As the Ice Beam impacted Cradily’s dense base, the Rock and Grass Type immediately dropped Ernest, recoiling in pain from the unfamiliar and freezing cold damage it just took. Its reaction was much more violent than it should have been. Ninetales was probably the first Ice Type it had ever met.

“Icy Wind, slow down its movements!”

Ninetales opened her mouth as Ernest ran away, moving to hide behind me. A freezing breeze filled with chips of ice shot out and coated Cradily with frost. It moaned in pain as the Icy Wind slowed it down and dealt even more damage. I looked over to see that Gallade was currently fighting back a Crush Claw with another Psycho Cut. His skill as a trainer’s Pokémon meant he was currently winning, but still struggling to do so against a much larger Pokémon.

Cradily’s tentacles on its head glowed and rocks were lifted off the ground around it. From my experience in Rustboro Gym fighting its pre-evolved form, I knew the move was Ancient Power. Ninetales would be especially weak to a Rock Type attack.

I considered returning Ninetales, but I suddenly got a better idea.

“Run towards Armaldo, Ninetales!”

Ninetales ran away, using Quick Attack to boost her speed and dodge a few of the rocks thrown at her. While the big boulders were easy enough to move out of the way of, Ninetales didn’t have Hail up so she had nothing to hide her. She took some damage from being hit by the smaller pieces of stone that were chucked at her, but she managed to get near where Gallade and Armaldo were fighting.

“Now, Confuse Ray both of them!”

Ninetales, understanding my plan, sent out two cones of light that engulfed both Armaldo and Cradily. Gallade jumped back to Wally’s side and picked him up, carrying the teen like a child. Wally didn’t resist. Gallade could move faster, and it looked like this had happened before.

Armaldo’s eyes glazed over and it looked around in anger. Through Ninetales’s carefully crafted illusions, it turned and stared direction at Cradily. In its rage, it charged towards the other fossil to begin attacking it.

Cradily acted similarly, and while the two large Rock Types began attacking each other, we used this opportunity to escape.

We managed to safely return to the tunnel and sat down to catch our breaths. Gallade set down Wally, and Wally took out an inhaler and used it to help with his asthma. Comfey also left her ball, using her skills to heal Ninetales and Gallade, and did so at a much faster rate than normal thanks to her ability, Triage.

I was the first to speak up after we settled down.

“I vote we stay in the tunnel until Mirage Tower reforms.”

Neither Wally nor Ernest objected.

We ended up camping in the tunnel for two days. Thanks to my expanded backpack, we had plenty of food to last, although I was the only one who didn’t mind a diet of solely ration bars and jerky.

We would have had better food if we were still with the expedition, but we were trapped in a tunnel.

We didn’t have space to train, and we didn’t want to leave in fear of attracting more fossil Pokémon or the Vibrava. It was a boring process, but we spent the time in discussion, talking to each other, mostly about Pokémon.

During the late afternoon of the second day trapped underground (our technology may not have had much reception, but the devices could still tell the time), we started to hear familiar sounds of crying. We stood up to look in the direction of the tunnel’s exit and saw a procession of Baltoy moving towards our position in a single file line.

The crying echoed through the tunnel and ended up harmonizing with itself, creating the sounds of otherworldly music. Ernest used his tablet to record the entire event, stopping himself from making any comments in favor of just watching.

We moved to the edge of the tunnel to allow them to pass us by, then followed them to where we had dropped down, the rubble still blocking the path.

Once the lead Baltoy arrived, it began to glow. In almost an instant, the rest of the Baltoy started to glow as well, creating a chain of lights turning on down the entire length of the tunnel. It was a familiar blue as the Ground Types used their secondary typing to channel Psychic Type energy.

Looking on in awe, we watched the rubble lift itself up and raise itself past the hole Gallade cut days earlier. We shifted ourselves to be positioned underneath the now cleared opening, and watched as the entire Mirage Tower re-assembled itself above us. It took roughly half an hour to finish, before the ground started to rumble and the glow from the Baltoy increased in brightness.

In a familiar shaking motion, we started to feel like we were on an elevator as the entire thing started to lift. It was hard to tell that we were moving, but now that we were staying still it was more obvious than when we had been running before.

It only took a few minutes before the shaking stopped, and the line of Baltoy moved forward and levitated themselves up back into Mirage Tower.

Once the last of them exited, we left as well, not wanting to say any words and ruin the moment.

We followed the same path we took to exit the tower to leave through the same hole as we had entered initially. When we emerged into the desert, we were hit by the bright light of the setting sun and had to cover our eyes. I could just barely make out what looked to be settling sand, the Baltoy probably having created a cloud to obscure the tower being reformed and raised.

The expedition was gone, but Ernest checked his tablet and found their location. Unfortunately, it seemed like we had ways to travel to catch up. Since they were moving as well, we probably wouldn’t be able to meet back up until they stopped at the ruined city to the south.

This time, Ernest was the first to speak.

“This isn’t great, but imagine it. I’m going to be able to write so many research papers.”