*Riku's POV*

"Felix..." I thought out loud, once we had all scaled the rock wall.

"I remember meeting a Flygon with that name. It was when I went to find you in the Lightning Field, Alakazam."

"Yes, I remember that well... But I didn't see a Flygon anywhere when you found me," the Psi Pokemon stated matter-of-factly.

But I'm sure he didn't just vanish- that wouldn't make any sense. I'll bet he just went back to that desert or something. He really seemed to be attached to that place. I wonder why...

Shrugging, I dismissed the idea and walked after the others, who had already started down the next tunnel while I was lost in thought.

"Riku, come on!" Risk chided me. I could still feel the pain in his voice, but I couldn't pay attention to that right now.

"Look, in the distance!" he said, pointing a ways down the tunnel. I followed his paw to see something that made my heart race.

I can see light! We're almost out of here! We...

"Not so fast..." hissed a voice from the darkness.

I whirled around to see a massive silhouette cast against the wall. The sight of it terrified me, as it was multiple times taller than me. I looked over at the others, and I saw Alakazam laughing.

"You... you're not afraid of... that?" I pointed to the shadow.

"Riku, let me put it to you this way. That's a reflection. The reflection of a Sableye, to be exact. Now look over there." He pointed, and I followed his finger to a miniature purple Pokemon hiding amongst a few gemstones. Its pointed body matched the one in the silhouette, and I breathed a sigh of relief. I turned back to the cavern's exit, when the Sableye repeated itself,

"Not so fast... I'll be taking that pretty stone that you found!" The Pokemon's eyes sparkled, and he made a lunge at the stone in Risk's paw.

"You and what army?!" the Riolu retorted, shoving the Sableye backwards with a single punch.

Are you sure you should be asking a question like tha...

Before I could finish my thought, the Sableye shattered the green crystal on the wall, cutting off most of the light of the room. Besides the end of the tunnel, all I could see was the eerie blue glare of the Sableye's eyes. Then, the two blue glows multiplied- first to four, then to eight, and, still, it continued, until I could see at least a hundred eyes staring back at me. I realized that an entire horde of Sableye had joined the one, and I cringed.

"Eh... Heh... Heh!" echoed the dozens and dozens of voices in front of us, and fitful laughter soon followed them.

"How about this army?!" The blue glimmers began to draw closer, and the light behind us continued to dim. I was completely frozen by some unknown force, and, looking over at the others, they weren't retaliating, either.

There's... some sort of energy radiating from those Sableye that's keeping us from escaping. But... how? I thought, the minuscule assassins moving closer and closer to us.

When the army of Sableye was only a few yards away from us, I heard a yell from behind us.

"Get down!" roared a gruff voice in the distance. Recognizing the source as Tyranitar, I followed the order without hesitation, as a massive boulder sailed over our heads and rolled through a large portion of the group of Sableye like bowling pins.

Wait... Right through them...

Then, I realized what the Sableye had done.

The other Sableye are fakes! They're not real!

I quickly conveyed what I had uncovered to the others, as another flying hunk of rock plowed through another troop of Sableye's illusions. I looked at Risk, whose pendant had just begun to glow.

*Risk's POV*

They're all fakes? Then, I just need to find the real one!

I concentrated, trying to sense the Aura of the Sableye.

...

Sure enough, Riku's right! Only one has a true signature of Aura! Now, I have you, you duplicating trickster! I thought, running into the army of fakes, my fist held back for the one punch that I needed to deliver. Meanwhile, multiple Sableye clones continued to jump at me, but I paid them no heed, as the attacks went right through me, like they weren't even there.

Once I had reached the back of the "army," I looked at the real Sableye with a smile on my face.

"Your trick's over," I said bluntly, slamming my fist into it with such force that I was surprised that the tiny Pokemon didn't just fall apart in front of me. The Pokemon was flung backwards, soon disappearing into the darkness. Along with it, the rest of the Sableye's clones vanished instantly.

I walked back to the Alakazam and Riku, who had recently been joined by Tyranitar and his group.

"Double Team..." Alakazam muttered,

"I have no words for how embarrassing that was. I shouldn't have fallen for that petty of a ruse." He pounded on one of the crystals in slight anger, which comically offset his rage with a green light. Beta chuckled slightly,

"He's not used to being outsmarted like that," she whispered to me. I was about to say something back when Alakazam started talking.

"Anyway, we have a Felix to find, correct?" he asked.

I nodded my head in agreement.

"We're almost out of the tunnel anyway! Let's press onwards!" I shouted, and, with nobody in opposition, our force of six left the cramped area and walked into the scorching desert that waited for us.

Outside, I took a deep breath of air and looked around for a few moments. My eyes were still used to the dark colors of the cave, so a more vibrant scenario strained them for a brief moment.

Could this be the place? I thought, my gaze darting from one sand dune to another.

Flygon live in the desert, don't they? Perhaps we'll find "Felix" here, too. But how did we even end up in a the desert in the first place?

I turned around to where I thought the exit we had just left was, but it had mysteriously vanished into the sand. Riku was pawing at where it should have been, obviously trying to find it.

"It's OK, Riku. We'll be fine out here," Alakazam said.

"But... But how are we going to get back home?" Riku asked despondently, before resuming his task of rediscovering the entrance to the tunnel. Now, it was Tyranitar's turn to try to calm the Shaymin.

"It's alright. You've got me, remember? This place is the closest I've been to 'home' in a while. If we get lost, I guarantee you I can find a way out of here."

"... Well, I guess you're right..." Riku said, brightening up slightly.

"Wait a second...!" His eyes suddenly portrayed nothing but horror,

"Where are the others- Cedric, Photon, and Charizard? Do you think they made..." He was interrupted by a large fireball whizzing past us. The Gratitude Pokemon looked up in shock, and Charizard smiled.

"Are we late? Thought I'd heard something over here. Took you long enough, slowpokes!" he added.

"Now is not the time for more of your jokes," Alakazam shut him up pretty quickly.

"There's a Pokemon we need to find, and we figured we would look here for him. Now Flygon are said to be the 'desert spirits,' so it would make sense for him to be here. His name was Felix, if I recall."

"We saw a Flygon not too long ago flying overhead, but we didn't really pay it any heed. It wasn't really bugging us, so we didn't mess with it, and..." I interrupted Charizard before he could finish,

"That may have been him! Do you know which way he went?"

The Flame Pokemon pointed towards the east,

"We say him fly a few times to and fro someplace in that direction. I have a feeling he lives there... Hmm?" I was about to turn around when a gust of arenaceous wind swept me off my feet. I tried to open my mouth to protest this new obstacle, but all I got was a faceful of desert sand. I shut my eyes to prevent any damage from the billowing grits, and I had a feeling that the others did, too.

What's causing this? And why is it so harsh- the wind is whipping this sand so hard, it feels like it could penetrate my skin at any moment!

My eyes still shut, I curled up into as small of a ball that I could and waited.

...

...

Several minutes passed, and, still, the gritty whirlwind continued. The sand was beginning to lodge itself in my wounds, and several areas on my back began to hurt.

When will this ever end? I thought, in agony.

Then, I could feel the wind beginning to die down- the intensity of the sand impacting me was becoming less and less. Eventually, it died out entirely, but, even after a few more minutes, I was still afraid to open my eyes. Finally, a tap on my shoulder let me know the sandstorm had subsided.

I opened my eyes, and Alakazam pointed to a large figure to my right- a sort of green draconian Pokemon. It was probably a little over six feet tall, and it looked at me with compassion in its red, beady eyes. Two green wings were situated on its back, and I couldn't help but wonder,

Did that Pokemon just dispel the sandstorm with those mighty wings?

"Is this the Flygon that you were told to find? Is that Felix?"

I had no idea- I had never seen this kind of Pokemon before. Luckily, Riku had, and the "Flygon," the name Alakazam had called the species, seemed to recognize him, too.

"Wait a second... I've seen you here before," the Flygon said, cheerfully.

"You're Riku!" he beamed.

"Remember me? It's me, Felix!"

I breathed a sigh of relief,

Well, we found him- we found Felix! Now what? Wait a second, what about...

Reaching into my pack, I pulled out the stone we had taken from Blade's heart,

"Felix, do you know anything about this?"

He walked towards me and took a closer look at the object,

"That's... I... I never thought I'd ever seen one of these before!" he said in amazement.

"What is? What is it?" the entire group jointly asked. In response, Felix took the stone from me and turned it around in his clawed hand.

"Maybe... But I can feel its power radiating from this rock. It's got to be under the surface of this thing!" he said, and, before I could protest, Felix pried open the stone with a clawed nail. He glanced at what was inside, and I could tell he was relieved.

"Yes, I had a feeling this was in there..." he mused.

"Here," he said, handing me the contents of the rock.

The object was a lavender marble (Photon had previously educated me about what this kind of spherical thing was- I guess it was just one of his hobbies to play "marbles" against Sophia or something), but it had a small design in the middle of it. I decided to show the object to Photon; he probably had the best chance out of all of us of identifying it.

"Look at the vanes on the inside," the Ampharos remarked.

"Those yellow and black colors... They kinda remind me of Alpha and Beta, you know?"

It's true... The colors of the vanes are remarkably close to Alpha and Beta's skin colors... I wonder if there's a connection...

As if reading my thoughts, Felix said,

"Yep. I really do think that's a genuine Mawilite. But how you guys got your hands on it is beyond me."

"Well, what does it do?" Alpha asked. Hearing his name must have brought him into the conversation.

Felix nodded at him,

"Well, let the Mawile hold it. You'll see what it does soon enough when he does!"

What's the worst that could happen? I thought, giving Alpha the marble. He moved it around in his hand for a moment, until he froze on the spot,

"What's this power flowing through me...? It feels... amazing! I feel like I could fight off anyone! What is this thing, anyway?" he asked, handing the Mawilite back to me.

But I don't feel any strange power when I hold it... Does it only work for specific Pokemon? I thought to myself.

"Hmmm... It doesn't seem to be working... Oh, wait a second- we need a Key Stone!"

"A what?" I asked him.

"A Key Stone," he repeated.

"It's a source of untold power said to be able to activate objects like the Mawilite you guys found. Not all Key Stones are natural, though. I've heard that there are ways to activate a Mega Stone without a Key Stone, but I can't really think of how..."

"I'd hate to stop your story short, Felix," Alakazam had had enough of us standing still in the sand,

"But we're currently on a mission to save the world. Do you know anyone by the name of 'Von Spectre'?"

Immediately, the Flygon shuddered,

"That... That name... That Pokemon passed through here not long ago. It was dragging the body of an Absol with itself, muttering curses about that Mawilite that you picked up. He had an aura about him- it's like he was emitting nothing but pure evil as it walked. Another ghost, a purple one, was following not too far behind. I tried to ask what they were doing, but neither of them even looked at me. Then, they just disappeared, Absol and all. Where they went, I have no idea."

"That Pokemon- it's trying to control this entire world through the amplification of a certain forbidden magic known as the Dark Arts. Spectre brought back one of my comrades, and he told us to find you..." I stopped when Felix said,

"Was it that Absol that Spectre was lugging behind itself?" I nodded.

"I do remember an Absol speaking to me. His name was Blade, and he said that there would be a Pokemon named Risk that came looking for me. He said that I would find 'Risk' by the Mawilite that the Pokemon had, and he told me to show you where the Necromancer's hideout was. Then, he gave me a hastily drawn map. I have a feeling that you're Risk, so I might as well give this to you. Here," Felix said, handing me the scrawled-up piece of parchment. I surveyed the map for a few seconds...

More Unown... Hmm... This seems to be a map of the places around the Guild... I can see the desert that we're in, too. So this place is called the Scorched Wasteland. Not a very pleasant name, I must say... Wait, what's this? Vivid Rainforest? There's a big X in one of the trees there. Haven't we been there before? It feels like we have...

Dismissing my thoughts, I reported my findings to the rest of the group.

"The Vivid Rainforest?" Cedric was taken aback, and his surprise was soon replaced by fear.

"That's the place where that snake attacked us! Don't tell me we're going back there! I don't want to be eaten by another one of them again!"

"A snake? I could help with that!" Felix said,

"I see those here all the time- they're no big problem for me!"

The Flygon demonstrated his point by exhaling a stream of fire in front of us, scorching a nearby cactus.
"Oops... Well, we should probably get going. To the Vivid Rainforest!"

Felix was met with a cry of approval from the entire group, and we soon started our long trek through the desert, the Flygon leading the way to keep us on our path.