Chapter 390: Mirage Tower

Route 111.

Baimu arrived here a day later.

As an extremely special location in the Hoenn region, Route 111 alone contains a great desert utterly unlike the bird-song-and-flower-fragrance, green-shaded Hoenn style.

Massive sandstorms occasionally sweep through here, blocking passing travelers from going further.

It's just that there's no game-style prerequisite requiring goggles to cross the desert, and taking a detour would add at least a wasted day of travel.

In the anime, deep within the desert lies the Miraje Kingdom, which worships Jigglypuff to an extreme degree, isolated from the worldly realm. To become king here one must possess a Jigglypuff, which led to the incident where Misty's Jigglypuff evolved into Wigglytuff and left the team.

Interestingly, the Miraje Kingdom possesses a miraculous "Mirage," seemingly an illusion yet actually a real secret realm, home to a great number of Jigglypuff who grow through spiritual contact with the people above.

Once human hearts grow wicked, the environment of the Jigglypuff paradise within the Mirage rapidly deteriorates, causing the Jigglypuff to fall ill or grow listless.

Incredibly wondrous.

As for the games, this desert has even more to talk about.

Not only does it contain wondrous places like the Mirage Tower, but at its deepest point stands a desert ruin—solve the riddle of the signpost chamber on Route 134 and you can encounter the legendary giant Regirock sleeping within…

Assuming it hasn't been caught by the Pyramid King.

I recall the anime never explained where the Pyramid King's three legendary titans actually came from, only mentioning that the Regice among them came from some ruin.

"How am I supposed to get through this with my bare head?"

Baimu, his head wrapped up like a zongzi, lowered his binoculars and gazed at the sky-darkening sandstorm in the distance—the terrifying natural disaster made one shrink back in fear. Yet according to the travel guide on his phone, passing through the sandstorm would lead to the Miraje Kingdom situated in a canyon.

But though called a kingdom, it's actually only the size of a single town; comparing it with the aerial area map published online, it's even smaller than the old Rustboro City.

The only thing about that place that could attract him was Misty's Wigglytuff, but unfortunately it probably lives inside the Mirage, and he couldn't see it even if he wanted to.

Besides, it wouldn't know him anyway; charging into the sandstorm in the flesh would be pointless.

"Let's go."

Baimu shook his head and chose to give up, saying this to the Aggron not far away.

"Guuu~"

The great beast clad in silver heavy armor responded, its gaze sweeping across the rolling dunes, then looking down at its legs and tail slightly sunk into the gravel.

Although it was well-adapted to this environment—scorching gravel flowing across its body felt not hot but rather quite comfortable—if it could choose, it would still prefer to walk through places with tall mountains and dense forests.

The temperature is way too high.

Aggron swished its thick tail, well aware that its body surface had already been scorched hot by the fireball in the sky; getting close to its trainer might well scald him.

Better to keep a little distance.

It was about to follow its trainer's footsteps when it suddenly stopped, looking toward a hollow pit surrounded by numerous towering dunes in the extreme distance. In the heat-wave-twisted air there was an unusual fluctuation—"Guuu!"

"What's wrong?"

Baimu turned his head, followed Aggron's line of sight, then took out the binoculars in his pocket and took a careful look—"Huh? Emolga?!"

He showed a surprised expression.

From his angle and position, he could just make out the situation inside the hollow—

A humanoid Cacnea was leading two spherical Cacturne to gang-beat an Emolga with wounds on its body; the latter's situation was somewhat dire, constantly trying to take flight but always falling back down.

Why would an Emolga from the Unova region appear in a desert?

Abandoned? Separated from its trainer?

"Go! They've already been beaten to this state, I can't just pretend I didn't see it."

Baimu ran toward the Emolga's location—doing good deeds helps accumulate karma; opening skill boxes and the simulator both require a certain amount of luck value.

"Guuu!"

Aggron let out a muffled roar, its massive body burrowing into the ground and rushing toward there like a shark—clearly digging underground was faster than running across the sand surface.

It could also keep the enemy from figuring out what was going on.

Sure enough.

As the sand trembled wildly, the Cacnea and Cacturne immediately panicked, looking around for the cause of the trembling.

"Sabooo!""Nngh!"

The Emolga, granted a moment to catch its breath, tried to escape, but the wounds on its wings and symptoms of dizziness caused it to be unable to fly high; it crashed into the scorching sand, wincing from the heat.

"Emmo…"

On the other side, the Cacnea and Cacturne finally discovered the ambusher—a mound of rising sand was rapidly approaching them!

"Nngh!"

As the boss, the Cacnea made a snap decision, ordering its Cacturne underlings to attack the sand mound!

Puff puff puff puff!

The three Pokémon, like three machine guns, continuously fired countless pale-green needles at the rising sand mound; dust shot skyward, and the whooshing wind-breaking sounds made one's eardrums feel like they'd burst.

But without question, Bug-type physical moves had no effect whatsoever on a steel behemoth.

"Guuu!

A thunderous roar rang out.

Aggron burst out of the sand with a peng, its massive form blocking out the sun like a mountain peak, casting a shadow that simultaneously brought looks of terror to the Cacnea and Cacturne.

Immediately, that metal maw capable of biting through steel rebar opened like a jet engine, and orange-red Xiong Xiongliehuo surged out like a tidal wave!

Boom—!

The blaze instantly covered most of the sky above the hollow; the Flamethrower's power was greatly amplified beneath the scorching sun, and the terrifying momentum frightened the Cacnea and Cacturne into turning tail and running!

Though they were all extremely slow Pokémon, they displayed terrifying explosive power to save their lives—turning their faces away, they vanished without a trace. Leaving only a wounded Emolga clutching its head with one paw, trembling.

"Nicely done!"

Baimu, poking his head out from behind the sand dune, offered praise. Since he didn't know why the Cacnea and Cacturne had attacked the Emolga, he only needed to drive them off; there was no need to be ruthless.

What if the Emolga had done something out of line?

Though it was nothing more than invading territory, fighting over water sources or food — after all, this was currently an animated background. If one went by the background described in the game Pokédex, then it most likely had something to do with hunting behavior.

He put on the insulated gloves he'd used earlier to touch Lei Gong, crouched beside the Emolga curled up with its paws over its head, and confirmed that this one's injuries were absolutely not faked.

The little paw on the right was fractured, and the wing membrane couldn't spread open — no wonder it couldn't fly.

"It's okay, I won't hurt you."

He said softly, while Boldore climbed out of the crater on guard, to keep Cacturne and the others from running off to call for reinforcements or anything like that.

The two of them were growing more and more in sync, able to do what the other expected without any communication at all.

"Emmo…"

Hearing the human voice, Emolga slightly lowered its paws and tilted its head for a look. Upon seeing it was a friendly-looking human boy, its tense emotions immediately relaxed — then its eyes rolled back and it passed out on the ground.

Baimu: "…a scam?"

He gently pried open Emolga's eyelid and took a look inside its mouth as well.

Mm.

Heatstroke.

Not a scam.

"We need to figure out a way to move somewhere with shade and shelter." Baimu picked Emolga up and said to Boldore.

——

Under the shade of a giant boulder.

Inside the tent.

"Emmo…"

Feeling a moist sensation at its mouth, Emolga opened its eyes and discovered a familiar pink oval-shaped creature using a water bottle cap to feed it water drop by drop.

Had it arrived at a Pokémon Center?

It slightly turned its head, and upon seeing the strange human crouching at the tent entrance, realized that no, it hadn't.

"Happy~"

"Awake? Don't move around — let Chansey bandage you up a bit."

Baimu turned his head and immediately saw Emolga on the cushion screwing up its little face as it tried to get up and failed, looking utterly dejected.

This one's right paw had been medicated and bandaged up, so losing its balance it naturally couldn't get up.

And besides this most serious injury, there were some minor wounds that weren't a big deal; as for the heatstroke, it had just been successfully cured with Medicinal Aroma.

"Emmo."

Emolga looked down at its sorry state, its cute little face utterly dejected, and immediately its stomach let out a series of rumbling sounds.

Baimu and Chansey exchanged a glance and couldn't help but laugh.

A moment later.

Emolga kept stuffing Pokémon food into its mouth as if it were a starving ghost reincarnated, while at the same time a questioning voice came from beside it.

"Why did you appear in the desert? Abandoned? Wandered in by mistake? Got separated from your Trainer?"

"Emmo! Emmo!"

With its cheeks puffed out to the point of nearly bursting, Emolga gestured animatedly, vividly recounting its ordeal.

And Baimu, through Porygon-Z's text translation on his phone, understood this one's situation.

While chasing a wild Vibrava together with its Trainer in hopes of catching it, they had unfortunately run into a violent sandstorm, and in the panic the two had been forced apart.

"Your Trainer took you chasing a Vibrava??"

He looked at his phone and confirmed with Emolga once more whether this content was accurate.

"Emmo~"

Upon the other nodding again and putting on a pitiful expression, Baimu couldn't help but marvel.

Where did this incredible type-disadvantage master come from?

Too bad it ran into a natural disaster it couldn't resist.

He began carefully asking Emolga what its Trainer looked like, and took out his sketchbook to quickly draw based on Porygon-Z's translations — but the more he drew, the stranger his expression became.

A girl, slightly tanned skin, wearing cream-yellow and pink clothes, hair incredibly puffy with a pair of twin tails, the hair ties were golden, and the biggest area could hide a Pokémon like Axew…

"Hiss — is your Trainer called Iris? From Unova's Village of Dragons?"

Baimu set down the half-finished sketchbook and asked with a strange expression.

"Emmo?"

Emolga suddenly heard its Trainer's name, and the Pokémon food in its little paws dropped in shock — "Emmo! Emmo!"

It nodded frantically, its two eyes sparkling like little stars.

It never expected to meet someone who knew its Trainer! How wonderful!

"Type-disadvantage master… looks like your testimony may not be entirely trustworthy."

Baimu knew Iris's Emolga's personality fairly well — this one really didn't bat an eye when telling lies.

He looked at the signal on his phone and said to it: "You'd better start praying that your Trainer brought her phone, and that it has battery or at least isn't broken."

"Emmo?"

Emolga tilted its head in confusion.

Baimu found Ash's number and called it, waving his hand as he said: "It's nothing, you keep eating — if you're lucky, you'll find your Trainer again soon."

A few seconds later, Ash picked up.

"Hello? You actually have time to call me? Can't get through to the Gym?"

"Of course not — you should know Iris, right?"

"Iris!? Ah! Right! She's traveling in Hoenn right now! You ran into her, she's next to you? Quick, let her take the call!"

The noisy shouting made him hold the phone up to Emolga's ear.

Emolga looked completely bewildered.

A-Wu on the other end of the line said excitedly, "Iris?"

"Emol?"

"It's you, right, Iris?"

"Emol emol?"

"……"

"……"

All Baimu took the phone back at just the right moment. "As you can see, Iris isn't here, but her Emolga is."

"……Aren't you bored or what?"

"I'd like to ask you why you're so worked up. Enough small talk — do you have Iris's phone number? I need to get in touch with her."

"That's all? Why didn't you say so earlier? You should have said so earlier…"

"Keep yapping and I'll just ask Great-Grandma directly."

"Wrong, don't, I beg you."

A-Wu, who had been begged to come, apologized; All Baimu, who was asking for help, very magnanimously forgave him.

And the fact that Iris actually had a phone was indeed something to celebrate. One had to know that even in later generations, Ash often had to rely on the Pokémon Center's video call device to contact Professor Oak and Delia.

Iris, who had been traveling with him for so long, was already like a wild child to begin with; in the later parts of the journey she watched Ash's matches sitting up in a tree with a tablet, so it was completely understandable that she didn't have a phone right now.

But she happened to have one.

Very peculiar.

All Baimu glanced at Emolga. Perhaps because it knew he was a Trainer, the latter was now wholeheartedly focused on eating, not bothering to lift an eyelid, seemingly completely unconcerned about what its fate would be.

The call went out.

It connected, but no one picked up.

The second call went out.

Still no one picked up.

The third call went out.

Still no one picked up.

Could the phone have been lost in the sandstorm too?

He began to consider whether he should simply use a Capture Ball to catch Emolga and then send it back to the Long Zhi Xiang in Unova, letting the people there contact Iris afterward.

While he was thinking this over, the phone screen suddenly lit up — it was clearly Iris calling back.

All Baimu hurriedly pressed the answer button.

"Hello? This is Iris!"

A clear voice, identical to anime voice actress Aoi Yūki's, came through. "Sorry, my phone just fell to the lowest level…"

The lowest level?

What on earth is she talking about?

He got straight to the point: "I picked up your Emolga. May I ask where you are?"

"Emolga!?"

Iris quickly raised her voice, successfully causing Emolga, who had been absorbed in eating, to lift its head from the bowl. "Emol?"

All Baimu once again held the phone up to Emolga's ear.

"Emol! Emol!"

This winged electric mouse anxiously shouted a string of cries into the phone.

"Emolga, are you okay? It's so good to hear your voice!"

Iris on the other end breathed a long sigh of relief, then on second thought felt something was off. "Wait, sorry, how did you know my number? I don't think I left my number on Emolga?"

"It's a long story. Better to talk face to face. Where are you right now? Are you coming to find me, or should I come find you?" All Baimu held down the anxious Emolga and asked.

Iris replied, "Of course I'll come find you — I'd love to say that, but I'm in no position to right now."

Her voice carried a hint of distress. "I think I'm trapped in some strange tower."

"Tower?"