The desert was dangerous. Wally, Ernest, and I all knew that. Now that we were just a group of three plus our Pokémon, we had to worry about hostile Pokémon attacking us since we didn’t have the numbers of the expedition to scare them off. The primary concern was Cacturne, which specifically sought to take out exhausted targets while rested. However, since Ninetales had already shifted her sleep schedule to be active at night, she would be able to stand guard for us and ward off any Grass and Dark Type ambushes thanks to her dual Type advantage against Cacturne.

Right now, the rest of the expedition was traveling towards the ruins, and we were desperately trying to rejoin them. Unfortunately, despite our faster speed thanks to our smaller group size, we wouldn’t be able to meet back up until they stopped at their destination. We had a few days of travel to reach the ruins anyway, so after the first few initial hours of travel, we decided to take it slow and stay cautious instead of rushing all the way there.

If we had different Pokémon, we might have had a faster method of travel, but neither Wally’s or my team could assist in that manner. Wally’s Gallade could Teleport, but Gallade had lost some Psychic ability when he evolved in favor of enhancing his physical strength. His Teleport only moved short distances, and he could only take one person at a time. Also, if we had two Pokémon that could fly, they could have likely carried the three of us, but we only had Swablu and he wasn’t strong enough to help. So no matter what, we were forced to walk.

I was thankful to find out most desert Pokémon were not that aggressive. Other than the Cacnea that tried to lure us closer, most Pokémon we encountered either fled or stayed still under the hot desert sun.

At one point, a small family of Sandshrew and Sandslash watched us while we stopped for lunch. Wally somehow managed to convince them to get closer, and then shared some food with them. He politely asked if any of them wanted to join his team, but unfortunately, none were interested in separating from the others. Wally took it in stride, and even gave them food to go.

After watching that exchange, I asked Ernest, the resident Pokémon researcher, if it was bad to teach Pokémon that it was safe to go to humans for food. I remembered that feeding wild animals in my old world was strongly discouraged, and wondering what the rules for wild Pokémon were.

"Please. Pokémon know better than to treat all humans the same,” he said. “They’re aware that individuals vary even if they share traits from the same species since Pokémon tend to be the same. If you noticed, that family of Sandshrew stayed at a distance until they were invited over. They wouldn’t have approached if Wally didn’t beckon them."

"Won't people with malicious intentions like poachers try to do the same thing to get them to approach, though?" I asked.

Ernest frowned.

"It’s a possibility, but Pokémon are more adept at reading body language than humans due to how their language works. They’d likely be able to tell if someone had the intention to harm, but even with that there will always be the risk of a poacher going after them. Rangers patrol routes to stop those very people, but some always manage to sneak through. As for Wally’s actions, you don’t need to worry. He didn’t teach them any dangerous habits."

I nodded, accepting his explanation and making sure to remember what he said for my future interactions with wild Pokémon. We quickly finished our lunch and moved on.

There were a few points in our travels where we encountered large pits, but unlike with the main group, we didn't have any Pokémon that could generate stones that could be tossed in to check if those pits were traps. We could have had our Pokémon launch an attack, but since the pits might have been Trapinch nests, we didn't want to enrage them and get swarmed. So whenever we encountered a suspicious dip in the terrain, we were forced to go around, which caused our travel speed to be significantly reduced.

After about two days of travel in our trip to catch up, when there were another two days left until we reached the ruins, Ernest spoke up.

"There's a sandstorm coming," he pointed out.

Wally and I looked to the direction he gestured towards, and saw a towering cloud of sand rushing towards us.

"Can we outrun it?" Wally asked.

Ernest shook his head.

"No, it's moving too fast and it's too wide. I won’t be able to tell if it's natural or Pokémon controlled until we're inside it,” he said. “It'd be best to hunker down and wait it out, and if it is controlled by a Flygon, pray that it doesn't take interest in us."

Wally took out his tent since it was the most advanced one we had, and it automatically unfolded itself using Pokéball technology to expand into a tent far larger than its folded up size would have suggested. We climbed into the sealed shelter and zipped it close. Wally didn't send out any Pokémon, but I sent out Mawile. Her Steel Typing would mean that the sandstorm wouldn’t affect her if we had to leave in an emergency.

The sands quickly approached our position and we heard the winds whipping against the side of the tent. The howling was near deafening, and the sound of sand rubbing against the tent’s fabric made me grit my teeth.

We sat in silence within the protection of the tent as the sandstorm raged around us, but soon the chaotic sounds of the winds suddenly shifted into an almost harmonic tone reminiscent of a woman singing.

Ernest's face immediately paled.

"W- we need to leave. Right now."

Wally looked confused, and it took me a moment to realize what was making him so concerned.

"...the singing of a woman,” I said in realization. “The Desert Spirit. Shit! There's a Flygon out there."

Wally became scared at that revelation, and I turned back to Ernest.

"You said we need to leave, but are you sure that it's best for us to enter a Flygon’s sandstorm? It’s dangerous to enter and walk through even a normal sandstorm like that, and even more so if it’s one controlled by a Pokémon. Will it even notice us if we stay within the tent?" I asked.

He closed his eyes and rubbed his temples to try to calm down.

"I- If we can hear its wings, it already knows we're here. I- I'd rather not stay behind to be at its m- mercy. If we leave, your Pokémon could at least defend us against its attacks."

I returned Mawile against her protests, not willing to risk her against such a strong Ground Type, and sent out Ninetales. She yawned and wobbled on her feet, still not fully rested since it was still the middle of her offset sleeping hours. However, her Ice Type was our best choice against a Ground and Dragon Type Flygon, and quickly woke up after realizing the danger we were in.

Wally, on his part, released Roselia and held her in his arms. While she wouldn't be able to keep up in these strong winds on her own, her Grass Type moves could at least defend us at range.

Ernest explained our plan before we exited.

"Once we leave, we won't be able to hear each other speak. Grab onto the person in front of you and whoever is in the lead, choose a direction and... keep going,” he said, looking hesitant to even vocalize that. “D- don't stop no matter what, even if one of us, um, falls."

Wally and I exchanged a look and quietly communicated that no one would be left behind, no matter what Ernest said.

Since Ninetales was the strongest against Flygon, I would go first, Ernest would follow me, and Wally would bring up the rear.

I unzipped the flap of the tent and was assaulted by a barrage of sandy winds. Our expedition-granted robes were meant to help against sand and sun, but they barely did anything in the face of a sandstorm. We stepped out and Ernest held onto the back of my robe while Wally held onto the back of Ernest’s.

We paused for just a moment to allow Wally to collect his tent as it folded back up, then I picked the direction I thought would be the fastest way out of the storm and walked. While we moved, I kept my hand on Ninetales's back. She was able to slightly reduce the effects of the sandstorm by creating a soft globe of snow around her position. However, unless she suddenly became an elite-tier Pokémon, it would be unlikely she would have the strength to completely cancel out an entire sandstorm any time soon.

I heard a muffled shout and glanced behind me. Squinting my eyes, I could make out the form of Ernest and the dark smudge of Wally behind him. I wasn't able to see or hear either of them that well, but Ernest was gesturing at something.

I turned my head to what he was pointing at, and barely made out the form of a creature floating above a cloud of sand. Creating that thick cloud was a large, green, bug-like Dragon with a natural goggle-like structure protecting its eyes, and flying thanks to a pair of dragonfly-like wings. With it so close to us, the infamous singing sound its wings produced was louder than before, and it brought up its claws aggressively. Ninetales managed to see that through the sandstorm and leaped forward to defend us.

The first thing she did was to expand the snow around her into a personal hailstorm that covered the entire area she planned to battle in. The effects of the sandstorm faded, but Flygon beat its wings even harder and the weather picked back up. Flygon was determined to keep the area it was in inside of a sandstorm.

The Dragon swooped in for a Dragon Claw attack, and Ninetales jumped back to just narrowly dodge. Even though Ninetales was immune to the Dragon Type energy of the move, the Flygon’s claws would still hurt her. However, it was preferable that the Flygon kept using Dragon Claw since Ninetales was mostly immune and would hardly get damaged if she failed to dodge. As long as Ninetales maintained this form of minor deception, the Flygon wouldn’t realize it was using an ineffective move, and wouldn’t switch to something else more damaging for the fight.

A powerful Ice Beam slipped through the weather and impacted Flygon. Its wings frosted over and it wavered midair, suddenly struggling to fly, but it wasn’t just any wild Pokémon. This Flygon was a wild-trained, fully evolved Pokémon. It might not have had a great strategic sense, but to reach the point it was at, it had to have lasted through thousands of battles to develop the strength to reach its final stage. Ninetales had only been with me for about eight months at this point, and just didn't have the same amount of battle experience Flygon had.

The Flygon quickly shattered the ice on its body by vibrating its wings, then turned mid-air to move back and more accurately track Ninetales. I had trouble seeing its actions through the sandstorm, but their battle was disrupting the weather enough to let me watch what it was doing.

The Dragon aimed towards Ninetales then breathed out a Dragon Breath, but the yellow flames quickly stopped when Flygon saw that Ninetales was completely unaffected. It roared furiously, then breathed out once more to shoot out flames of normal fire instead of flames of draconic fire.

This isn't behaving like a trained Pokémon, but if it somehow managed to learn Flamethrower on its own, this Flygon must be a lot tougher than we thought.

The fire coated Ninetales in super effective heat, and she whined in pain. I noticed that Wally was holding back Roselia as she attempted to jump out of his arms, but as much as it pained me to leave Ninetales alone, I agreed with his decision to prevent Roselia from joining Ninetales. My starter still had a decent chance to win thanks to her Type advantage, and we couldn't have Roselia attracting the Flygon towards the squishy humans.

Ninetales fired another Ice Beam while Flygon strafed around her. The Dragon used a Flamethrower to completely melt the Ice Type move, then pushed the flames further out to impact Ninetales once more. Two Fire Type moves she had taken now meant that Ninetales was struggling to stay up.

I suddenly felt something fluffy hit my chest, then looked down to see Swablu being pressed against my body by the winds of the sandstorm.

"Swablu! Why did you let yourself out?! It's not safe! Go back into your Love Ball!"

I screamed at the top of my lungs to make sure he could hear me, but he didn't respond outside of closing his eyes in an intense focus. I couldn’t return him myself since that would risk dropping his Love Ball in the harsh winds of the sandstorm, so I clutched him against my chest so he wouldn’t be blown away.

A third Ice Beam shot out, and this time it hit. The move clipped the Flygon's tail and caused it to temporarily lose control. While it was struggling to maintain its previous height, the Flygon still managed to attack by using Earth Power to cause the sand under Ninetales to erupt in large bursts, tearing at her from underneath.

Ninetales wobbled and fell to her knees, taking enough damage to faint her, but staying up through sheer force of will since she recognized how much danger we were all in.

The Flygon landed on the ground in front of Ninetales, but she was too close to fainting to properly respond. I yelled and grabbed her Premier Ball to return her, willing to risk losing it if it meant her safety, but that was when Swablu left my chest.

He flew forward, somehow managing to fly even through the winds of the Sandstorm, and fired a Dragon Breath at Flygon. I quickly realized that the sands around him weren’t blowing as hard as they were further out. That was most likely thanks to his hidden ability we had been working on, Cloud Nine. Swablu must have been trying to develop it when he was pressed against my chest, and finally judged himself ready to intervene.

The massive green drake was hit in the head by Swablu’s fiery Dragon Breath, and snapped its head to face Swablu. Flygon held out its wings threateningly, then jumped back into the air to zoom towards the bird.

I took this opportunity to return Ninetales and clipped her white Pokéball back to my belt, not willing to take any extra time to do so and risk dropping her ball any longer. I then lifted my head up to look around the sandstorm to try to find where the two Pokémon were battling.

I moved back to walk towards Wally, grouping the three humans closer together, and tried to yell loud enough for him to hear me.

"I can't see Swablu! He can't face Flygon alone!" I screamed.

"Don't worry! Just believe in your Pokémon! He can do this!" Wally shouted back.

I grit my teeth, frustrated that Swablu disappeared into the sandstorm while I was distracted by Ninetales, and desperately prayed he'd be okay. At the same time, I was going over options in my head about what we could do to help Ninetales with her injuries after the battle. My thought process was interrupted by Ernest speaking up.

"Is it just me or is the sandstorm getting weaker?" he asked.

I glanced around to see that he was right, the sands were moving slower, and then realized that I heard Ernest speak that question instead of screaming it.

I watched as the sand flying around us slowed to the speed of a gentle breeze, and looked up at where my Swablu was fighting the Flygon in a battle of dragon fire.

"I believe congratulations are in order," Ernest said. "If we survive this, you'll be the proud trainer of a Swablu with its hidden ability, Cloud Nine. You'll never have a bad weather day again when your Pokémon can literally cancel the weather."

I shot Ernest a glare at his lackadaisical attitude about our situation, but realized he was just using that as a weak attempt at humor to cope. I looked back up away from him, too worried about Swablu’s current battle against Flygon to be happy with his sudden development.

Far above us in the sky, Swablu and Flygon did sweeping runs of Dragon Breath against each other. They would get close but never touched as the sky was filled with the multicolored shades of the fire from Dragon Breath. Swablu, while putting up a good fight, just didn't have the power to defend against Flygon. His Cotton Guard was the only reason he had lasted this long, with it currently burning from the flames since it wasn't that effective against special moves.

Flygon seemed to have had enough of their exchange and rushed directly at Swablu. Its claws extended to a vicious length and tore into Swablu with Dragon Claw. The only reason he didn’t faint right there and then was thanks to the last vestiges of Cotton Guard providing him a bit of extra protection.

My heart stopped as I saw my poor bird start to fall.

I grabbed his Love Ball, hoping, praying that I could return him in time, but then his body started to glow in a blinding white light.

His wings extended and the white feathers fluffed up and looked even more like clouds. His normally small round body elongated, and his neck extended to be almost as long as a swan’s neck. His beak also grew a tiny bit longer, and his form shifted into that of an Altaria, no longer a Normal Type bird, but a majestic Dragon Type bird.

Altaria pulled up at the last minute and swooped along the sand, kicking up clouds of dust around him. I realized that the slow winds around us had almost completely died down as Altaria's previously brand new atmospheric control had experienced exponential growth thanks to his evolution.

He shot up into the air, doing a little twirl just to show off, and an orb of pulsating purple energy formed in his mouth. Flygon, acknowledging another Dragon, opened its own mouth for a retaliatory attack, but it was only using Dragon Breath.

Altaria, in his evolution, had learned the far more powerful Dragon Pulse.

The two attacks were released and flew straight towards their opponent’s. The draconic fire from Flygon sailed forward, but was pushed apart and cut through like butter due to Altaria's stronger Dragon Pulse. Flygon, its view blocked by the flames of Dragon Breath, didn't see the attack coming and was hit dead on with the super effective Dragon Type move. The combined damage of the Dragon Pulse and the Ice Beams from before meant the Flygon wasn’t able to last, and it began to fall.

Soon after, a cloud of sand puffed up where Flygon landed, and everyone stood in shock.

I shook my head to refocus myself, and tore open my backpack to take out healing items for Altaria. Even though he had just evolved, he would still be injured and that needed to be fixed. I pulled out a spare Super Potion and looked up as Altaria got closer, and closer, and closer, until his fluff impacted my face and knocked me over. I pushed his feathered body off of my head while he tweeted excitedly.

"I know, I know," I laughed, "you did an incredible job. While I'm not happy you went off on your own like that, I'm proud of you for evolving."

Altaria preened under the praise and I started to apply the Super Potion. As I did so, I heard a worried voice speak up behind me.

"Um, A- Alex," Ernest said. "It hasn't fainted yet."

Altaria and I turned to the side then looked up, seeing the towering but seriously injured form of the Flygon pushing itself off the ground right next to us. It held out and flexed its wings, opened its mouth, and-

disappeared in a flash of red light.

I looked over to where Wally had thrown the Pokéball and glanced at the ground where the ball was still shaking.

"I'm sorry! I panicked! It was the fastest thing I could do!"

I stared at the glowing Pokéball and our entire group was stuck in silence. Roselia jumped out of Wally's arms and positioned herself in front of him to attack once the Flygon escaped.

It felt like the world had stopped when the ball finally clicked.

"You're kidding me," I said in disbelief.

I had sat up to start treating Altaria, but seeing Wally catch the Flygon made me collapse back onto the sand. I was completely flabbergasted that Wally’s Pokéball had worked. Ernest was speechless, and Wally didn't even realize what he had just done. While my Pokémon had technically done all the batting, I didn’t mind him catching it since I had no plans to do so myself.

However, Wally had just caught a fully evolved Dragon Type with a single Pokéball, and I had no clue how to respond. Such a thing was practically unheard of, and somehow it just happened right in front of me.

Wally was the first of us to recover, and walked over to pick up the ball. He held it in his hands and turned to look back at us.

"Um, should I release it?" he asked.

"No!"

"No way!"

"Wait until we're all rested up. Once I get it surrounded by Fairy Types, we can see what it wants to do," I said.

Wally nodded, the Dragon Type's Pokéball still in his hand while Ernest stood there, unable to do anything else.

We waited until dusk for the next step. Ernest, Wally, and I needed to recover from that entire... experience, and we had Pokémon that needed to be healed. I was incredibly thankful to have helped Wally catch Comfey in the past since its expertise in healing helped everyone get back on their feet. Ninetales had been seriously injured, but thankfully her immunity to Dragon Type moves meant she was healed easily enough and just needed time to rest and recover from the extreme damage she had taken. She wasn’t in a perfect state, but was back up and ready to fight after a long nap.

I sent out everyone on my team; Ninetales, Azumarill, Florges, Altaria, and Mawile, to stand ready for a fight depending on what Flygon would do. Wally was adamant on letting Flygon choose whether or not to stay, and I agreed. Naturally trained fully evolved Dragon Types tended to be headstrong and proud, and wouldn't submit to a trainer unless they thought it was worth it. Even when they did stay on a team, it was difficult to get them to listen to you in battle. Training a fully grown Dragon was almost as difficult as training Ghost Types in general, but instead of the risk of horrible hauntings, there was just the risk of getting maimed.

Joy.

Wally, on his end, sent out his Gallade, Delcatty, Roselia, and Comfey. We debated if it was worth evolving Roselia just for this, but ultimately decided to wait to make sure she was properly prepared.

Ernest, of course, stayed back and hid. It was best if he didn't get into danger.

Wally and Gallade strode forward to be at the front of our group while Wally held Flygon’s Pokéball in his hand. They locked eyes and briefly communicated wordlessly, then Wally sent out Flygon, the Dragon Type appearing in a flash of light.

Flygon appeared with a roar and tried to create a sandstorm with, well, Sandstorm, but Altaria's atmospheric manipulation with Cloud Nine prevented that from succeeding.

The Dragon Type stood up and held its claws out threateningly while flexing its wings. It was still too damaged to fly, but it wasn't too damaged to fight.

Wally took a step forward towards it and stared at it in the eye unflinchingly.

"Flygon. You attacked my friends and I don't appreciate that. I might not have beaten you in battle, but I caught you regardless. I'm not going to force you to stay, but you have a choice. You can either go back out on your own and leave us alone, or you can travel with me and my Pokémon and become my friend too."

Flygon glanced over all of the Pokémon standing around it and took them in. Wally continued to speak calmly and with purpose.

"Gallade is my strongest partner, and he used to be a Ralts that could fit in my hand. While I recognize you’re strong already," Flygon snorted, "I can help you get even stronger. But that’s a choice for you to make. I don’t want to force anyone to be my friend. You can leave if you want."

Flygon looked to be considering it, but Wally wasn't done.

"And if you doubt I'm strong enough to be your trainer, just say so. I'll have Comfey heal you up so we can battle on your own terms."

All of the Pokémon froze when he said that, and I immediately wanted to call out to question him. However, I knew better than to interrupt negotiations with a Dragon, so I bit my tongue and held back.

Wally didn't say anything else, and simply stared Flygon in the eye and waited for it to respond.

It stayed silent for a while, observing Wally's reaction and the Pokémon surrounding it. It started to walk away, but glanced over its shoulder only to see Wally had not moved.

The Flygon stopped leaving and turned back around. It approached Wally and leaned down to bring its head to be at the same level as Wally’s, and positioned it to be just a foot away. Gallade tried to step in front of Wally to protect him, but Wally held out a hand to stop his Pokémon.

After a few more moments, Flygon brought its head back up then sat down. It crossed its arms and grumbled.

"So does that mean you're staying on my team?" Wally asked.

Flygon nodded and waved a hand dismissively. As neutral as that response was, it pretty much confirmed Flygon was here to stay.

Wally let out a breath, and all of his Pokémon cheered around him. My Pokémon either didn't care, like Azumarill and Mawile, or were simply shocked that Wally had convinced it, like Ninetales and Florges. I looked over to where Altaria was, and saw that he had never even looked at Flygon, and was too focused on preening the feathers on his new body.

I shook my head and shrugged. Out of all of the things that could have happened in the desert, Wally catching a Flygon was not high up on my list of expectations.