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Prologue

She had the sands of Orre in her heart. Its inferno had tempered her, made her tough and unbending—the perfect battler, a top-notch trainer who worked endlessly with her pokemon to make the best team. She could navigate her way around an arena with pokemon as if it were the easiest thing in the world.

And it had taken her years of practice to get this way.

Born and raised in the battleground that was Orre, this young woman had been bombarded with the ideals of the region, the fervor that its people had for watching pokemon fight. Battling was a mainstay of Orre, the pulsing heart of such a desolate and unforgiving land, where few wild pokemon could bear to survive.

Samantha Everett had believed, as every child who spent their childhood in Orre, that battling was the only thing to strive for. She had slowly struggled up the ranks of trainers, starting with two pokemon, each gifts from regions outside of Orre that she'd never been and could not imagine. Of course, she had heard of the Outside from the pansy trainers who came to Orre thinking they knew how to battle. The Outside, where rain was a normal occurrence and the people did not have to worry about surviving sandstorms that blocked out the sun for days.

The Outside had once seemed so foreign, a place she'd never want to go. She had battled for seven years under the harsh Orre sun, and hadn't considered the possibility of going someplace easier on her and her pokemon.

Yet her battling life had come unraveled in the course of a single battle, on platform ninety-two of Mount Battle. That high up, the sun was brighter and harsher than ever, sunlight reflecting off the platform and making it terribly bright, even through the gray haze of her sunglasses. Samantha was both uncomfortably hot and chilled at the same time, due to the wind which numbed her ears and whistled hollowly through the spinning blades upon the underside of the platform.

Her opponent was an elderly man, his weathered face impassive as his gaze sized up her stance and the pokeball she clutched in one hand. He had introduced himself as Roben, and seemed to quiver with excitement. Area Ten did not receive many challengers.

The only other soul upon that platform was a young man dressed in the traditional green uniform of a referee. He held up two flags to indicate that they could begin.

"Knock 'em out, Leo!" Samantha called to the aggron which emerged from her pokeball and threw his head back as he unleashed a fearsome roar. Leo, short for Leonidas, was named for his fearlessness. He was a powerful pokemon, and had been with her for four years, ever since pokemon started returning to the caves in northern Orre.

A similar roar of challenge came from the throat of the aggron that Roben had released. Both pokemon paused for a couple seconds, each aggressive pokemon recognizing an enemy in the other. Samantha thought fast, her eyes narrowed at her opponent's pokemon. It was as thickly muscled as her own aggron, its body polished and gleaming brightly. The two pokemon were evenly matched.

"Double-edge," she ordered. It wouldn't do much damage, but she could get a better measure on the opponent and its trainer's strategy. Leo growled as he lowered the wickedly sharp twin horns on his head and charged, his massive weight shaking the platform with every stride. The other aggron was ordered to do the same.

Steel grated sharply on steel as the pokemon locked horns and scratched at each other's hides with the long claws upon their front paws. Sparks flew from the contact of claws on hide. On his trainer's order, Leo swung his heavy tail around, it glowing with power, and crushed it against his opponent's side. It left a visible dent in its hide, one that Leo soon mirrored as the other aggron did the same.

Samantha wished for many things during that first round—if her aggron knew earthquake, he would have easily won. If she could switch him out for another pokemon, he wouldn't have lost to the other aggron after several long minutes of watching the aggron bellow and scratch, disengage and charge again, even resorting to head butting and biting one another. Leo eventually lost, his opponent swaying unsteadily above his unconscious form as it roared its triumph.

She considered her next move carefully, knowing that her opponent had the upper hand. Roben could not recall his aggron, as Mount Battle rules strictly called for a pokemon to stay in the fight until it fell over in exhaustion or until all its enemies had done so. Her opponent's aggron would be defeated easily now, but then Roben would be able to call upon a pokemon that could counter her own.

Finally, she decided to unleash Aerian. The weavile cried eagerly, his high-pitched voice no longer making Samantha wince, though she saw her elderly opponent was not expecting the weasel's shriek.

Aerian covered his yawn with one paw. His trainer had woken him up yet again, and sunlight sent jolts of sharp pain through his watering eyes. Not that he could complain, as he sneered in the direction of the aggron. He could smell the familiar, acrid scent of aggron blood.

Samantha had motioned for a pause in the fight, and was in her pack, digging up a spare pair of sunglasses for her weavile. She figured the treacherous pokemon thought her an idiot for sending him out in this arena above the clouds, where the sunlight was too hot and far too harsh for him.

The trainer had only won the weavile less than a year ago, back when he was still a sneasel. He had quickly turned into a powerful addition to her team, strongest by night, yet still getting used to fighting by day. Samantha and Aerian were still getting used to each other's… quirks. The arrogant weavile refused to carry a pair of sunglasses, forcing her to do so for him. He did some tactical thinking of his own in a fight, causing her no end of heartburn when he didn't follow her orders.

"Here, Aerian," she said, tossing him a pair of sunglasses wide enough to cover his eyes and dark enough to protect his vision. The weavile leered at her for a moment through the glasses, before turning to the injured aggron, his claws extending to their full length eagerly.

As the referee called for their battle to begin, Aerian sprang into action without waiting for an order. His lithe body was a blur as he rushed forward and punched the aggron square in its chest. He sidestepped the massive pokemon as it pitched forward with a pained gasp. It had fainted.

Aerian returned to her side, and she said in a furious undertone, "I don't care how strong you are, I'll trade you off to a magikarp salesman if you don't wait for my orders."

The weavile simply grinned in reply.

Across from them, Roben seemed torn as to what pokemon to send out next. Maybe he didn't have a pokemon who could counter her weavile—it had happened before. The evolution of sneasel could use a wide variety of moves, and he'd seen brick break, a fighting type move which took down many whom her weavile would otherwise be weak against.

Finally, Samantha found herself staring at a bright purple, bat-like pokemon which glided on the wind. She stuck her tongue out at Aerian, and his trainer could hear him growl in anger. "This is easy. Ice punch," she ordered her pokemon.

Aerian leapt towards the gligar, frost forming upon his wickedly curved claws. He jumped, swinging at the place where his opponent had been, before she disappeared with what sounded awfully like a laugh.

"Guillotine!" A part of her went cold at Roben's yelled order. This gligar was fast and Aerian was obviously underestimating her, as he stood still and waited, sneering, for the bat to stop her quick circles of the arena and swoop down on him.

And she did—behind him. She grabbed onto the red ruff of fur covering his throat and squeezed, suffocating the weavile. His retaliating slashes grew weak until he went limp in her grasp, completely fainted.

Samantha recalled him quickly, before the move turned deadly. His pokeball released a brief white flash as his sunglasses were rejected from the small orb. Even unconscious, Aerian somehow still refused to carry the sunglasses for longer than necessary.

She released her next pokemon as she stooped to pick up the discarded shades. Little thought went into the decision, as she had only one pokemon who could successfully combat in the air.

Scimitar, her skarmory, was silent as usual. His keen eyes regarded his opponent, seeing her while his trainer had lost track of her. Unfurling his wings with a soft scrape, metal on metal, he flexed the wing blades he was named after while waiting patiently for his trainer's orders.

He was the first pokemon she caught, over five years ago, and was once a free spirit over the hot sands deep within the desert. A pokemon of survival, he had been one of the scattering of pokemon who chose to live off the land before it became more hospitable to pokemon. As such, he too had the battling spirit of Orre at his heart, encased as it was within the unfeeling shell of his metal body.

Samantha started him off with agility, watching as he soared upon the air currents and let his muscles relax, until his speed was nearly as sharp as the gligar's. Scimitar hit his opponent upside her head with his wings, flapping hard to steady himself as she threw herself at top speed into his side, cutting her face along the blades of his wings. The skarmory ended the battle quickly, knocking the gligar out of the sky with a sharp blast of wind from his wings.

While they waited for Roben's next pokemon, Scimitar rested his wings next to Samantha, nuzzling into her curly red hair carefully with his sharp beak. She patted his neck, marveling at how cool his metal body was, even under harsh sunlight, knowing from experience that Leo would have been too heated up to touch.

A sandslash was released as their next opponent. She quickly dug into the ground, while Scimitar stepped forward and took to the sky. He knew as well as Samantha did, that the sandslash could hardly hurt him while hiding under the ground of the platform. What neither expected was for the spiky pokemon to leap out of the ground and up into the sky, high enough that she could score her claws over his startled form. She had used brick break on him, creating a dent in the bird's hard shell. Though few things could pierce a skarmory's shell, it could still be damaged, and hurt the tender flesh under the shell terribly.

Still, Scimitar remained silent, bearing what had to be obvious agony without a sound. He swooped down on the sandslash before she could burrow again and held her down with his wicked talons as he pecked at her exposed head. Another round went to him, though Samantha could see he wouldn't last much longer.

The battle had swung into her favor, but barely. The cacturne that filled her skarmory's face with quills was weak against the brief pecking he received.

Both pokemon she had remaining had a single type advantage and weakness against the cacturne, causing Samantha to hesitate for a moment. She would send her strongest pokemon last, she decided, as she released Tulip onto the torn-up battlefield.

The medicham was caught in the position she seemed to spend the most time in. Sitting, legs crossed and hands clasped, her head bowed as she finished her silent meditations, Tulip sent a mental image to her trainer. It was of her hometown, Phenac City, the small waterfalls surrounding the oasis town pouring with life-giving water. An image to calm her, she realized, shaking it off and seeing her medicham now on her feet, stretching her legs as she watched Samantha. Trainer and pokemon smiled at one another.

Tulip and the last pokemon Samantha had ready for battle, Katrina the nidoqueen, had been the pokemon she started out with at age ten. They had struggled together to get this far, enduring crushing losses and sweet victories. It was natural that the three of them had the strongest bond, and Tulip's peculiar telepathic abilities just helped cement them further together.

How're we looking? The thought was transposed into her head as the referee called for the match to begin. Tulip stood impassively, sizing up the cacturne whose arms were glowing purple with the start of a dark-type move. Samantha quickly thought her way through the entire fight, as she said out loud, "Hi jump kick."

The connection she shared with Tulip was both distracting and helpful, as Tulip could often read her trainer's wishes before she could voice them. At that moment, her pokemon was quiet as she jumped in the air and lashed out at the cacturne. The move brought him down, as Tulip used her momentum to back flip and land gracefully a few feet away from her fainted opponent.

One more. Tulip was, as usual, calm and sure of herself. Don't be so tense, darling. Again Tulip pushed Phenac City into her mind. It was an image that always seemed to calm her trainer.

Roben's last pokemon roared as it was released from its pokeball, its voice a deep boom. The air around them seemed to stall for a moment, as the creature gathered power within itself and unleashed a sudden sandstorm within the arena, blowing hot sand in their faces. Samantha managed to be both relieved and worried at the same time. The tyranitar was a deadly opponent, but he had a distinct disadvantage, having two fresh opponents to face.

The tyranitar was a dark shadow within the sandstorm, moving with ease as Tulip nimbly rolled with the harsh winds, never losing her balance. She jumped towards her opponent at her trainer's thought command, but at the last moment she bounced off his heavily armored arms as he protected his face. Tulip landed in the dust accumulating at his feet, out of her trainer's line of sight.

The tyranitar hit the ground with his tail, causing the whole foundation of the platform to rumble and shake. Samantha lost her own balance as the ground quaked and a crack opened up under Tulip. The medicham fell into this crack and down into the tunnel burrowed earlier in the fight by Roben's sandslash, watching as the ground above her split wide open, the tunnel starting to collapse in on itself.

When the shaking stopped, a long swath of the arena was destroyed, and Tulip was visible only by the pieces of foundation she held over her head with her psychic powers. The two massive rocks would have crushed her otherwise, and she shot them at the tyranitar which was standing a couple yards above her.

Tulip leapt and landed facing the tyranitar, from the other side of the ring. She was winded, gasping for air as she looked into the shadowed face of the beast in front of her. This mental image she flashed to Samantha, so the young woman could know how sinister this creature looked in its natural element.

Again came the command to kick the tyranitar in the face. This time she succeeded, but rough paws held onto her leg as the beast caught her and bit down on her foot. Tulip howled in agony as she was tossed in Samantha's direction, unconscious and her foot bleeding freely.

Samantha swallowed hard, pushing her sunglasses farther up the bridge of her nose. She released her nidoqueen, her bulk shadowed in the sandstorm. Katrina beat on her heavily armored chest, growling at her opponent as she paced forward slowly, horn lowered.

Katrina's fierceness in combat knew no limits, making her Samantha's strongest pokemon. The battle was over, and Samantha had won. She knew this even as she earned herself a mouthful of sand to order her pokemon to use the move superpower. With a nod, the nidoqueen charged.

Light began to form in the tyranitar's mouth from an order Samantha hadn't heard. It glowed brightly enough to cut through the sandstorm and form a glowing ball of light—by the time it was charged, the trainer realized it was a hyper beam. A pulse of pure plasma was forced from the tyranitar's mouth, hitting Katrina square in the chest and sending her flying with enough momentum that she should have struck the force field that surrounded platform ninety-two, the field of energy that each platform shared to protect both trainers and pokemon from going off the edge.

Except the force field was not there.

Instead, the pokemon plummeted down to her certain death in the valley of Mount Battle's shadow. Samantha almost fell off herself as she rushed to the platform's edge and called, "Return!"

Katrina was already out of range of the pokeball's beam, having cut through the cloud cover.

She didn't register the sandstorm quitting, nor the presence of the elderly man who kneeled next to her and murmured something supposed to be apologetic to her. Her face was contorted with horror as her nidoqueen's empty pokeball fell from her nerveless fingers.

"N-no," she whispered. Tears stung the back of her eyes as she wailed, "Katrina!"