On the desk lay a 70 page, college rule spiral notebook. It's pages had yellowed a little with age, and dust had collected on the cover. Well, not dust, but sand. It was quite obvious that this notebook had been around for quite a while. There was a post-it note attached to the front.

Boy, is this late. I went on this mission around a few years ago, in that extensive period I was a way from Snagem. When going through my old stuff, I came upon this. Hopefully, it's worth a read.
-Olimar

~Sometime in the recent past~

Olimar lay down on his bed, reading an ancient book, one with a leather cover and fading gold leaf that was brushed onto where the letters lay. The book was one of fairy tales, tales of 17 people who perfected their arts at each of what is now known as the elements. His favorite was always that of the Desert’s Hermit, the one who could make the sands blow and the earth crack, the one who co-

“For the love of Arceus, if you are that fascinated by the man and the element, go and find him!” came the voice that shattered his thoughts, straight from Absol, who wanted his owner to turn out the lights. “It’s 3 in the morning and I’m a Dark Pokémon. Do you know what that it means?”

“That early in the morning you can’t suppress your inner emo and whiner?”

“No, moron, it means that I like the friggin dark! Especially when it is supposed to be that way!” the grouch replied, completely missing the sarcastic tone his owner used. Perhaps he was just desensitized to it.

“Well, anyways, even if I wanted to chase this hermit, there is something blocking the way. Ya know, the fact that HE DOESN’T EXIST,” Olimar shook his head, continuing. “All it says in his tale is that he lives in a big desert. Thus, he’s the desert hermit.”

“Yeah, I’m not stupid, I get it. How many deserts are there?” Absol asked, somewhat condescendingly, as if he knew something Olimar didn’t.

“Welll, there are quite a fe-“ he began, but was quickly interrupted.

“The story was written before Hoenn and Shinnoh were discovered. The man lives in Orre. It’s an ancient story, and the only time that it could possibly match up with is the expansive Orre desert," the Disaster Pokemon replied smugly.

“Fair enough, I guess, but ya don't have to be so cocky about it.” Olimar said, reaching for the lights. “At the crack of noon tomorrow, we’re going searching for the hermit. “

Absol groaned as the darkness took over the room, but finally got his peace, curling up in a ball at the foot of the bed.

~The next day, around noon~
Olimar was in his room, sifting through his Pokemon. Obviously, he needed to bring Ground types. So he picked out Flygon, Rhyhorn, Donphan, Gligar, and Sandslash, all of his Ground type Pokémon. Of course, Absol would come, just for somebody to talk to. That made six. He loaded the Pokéballs into his bag, as well as 6 Max Revives, 6 Revives, 6 Hyper Potions, and 6 Max Potions, so his Pokémon would not faint. He hesitated as he dumped the potions in though, worrying that it might show a lack of confidence in his Pokémon to bring these along. He tossed in some fresh Human Potions as well, so his training would be able to go on no matter how long it took. He second guessed himself again with the human potions, wondering if that showed a lack of faith in himself. After all the second guessing, he added to the back a journal, a pencil, a sharpener, and a pair of Go-Goggles, to battle off the desert sandstorms. He walked outside with his hoverboard, and after some adjusting to the weight, he boosted off, heading off at high speeds to the vast Orre desert.

Olimar was no fool. Leaving from HQ meant it would take a day to get there by hoverboard, but getting that high up on Flygon felt unnatural, to say the least. About halfway to the region of Orre, he made a pit stop in Olivine City, just a couple of hours after night fall, around 8 at night or so. He pulled up in front of the Pokémon Center, crossing his fingers that he wasn’t too late.

“Good evening!” Nurse Joy responded emphatically as he approached the counter, “You’re out late. Welcome to our Pokémon Center, we can heal your Pokémon to full health. Would you like us to heal your Pokémon?” She had this down, like all of the other Nurse Joys out there.

“Um, no, no thank you. I’m actually interested in getting a room for the night. Could you help me out?”

“Why, sure. That’ll be 100 Pokedollars, and then just go on upstairs. The bedrooms will be on your left.” She responded very cheerfully, and a bit creepily. She smiled as she examined the bill given to her for authenticity, as if a billion kids had tried to pull this trick off on her before.

Before Olimar could say anything sarcastic, his stomach rumbled. “Hey, is there a restaurant here? I’m kinda hungry…”

“There’s one down the street, called the Iron Works. But first, here’s your key,” she said as she dumped a brass key with a plastic tag that had a giant number 3 painted onto it.

“Thanks.” He said, walking out without putting the stuff into his room first. He followed Nurse Joy’s somewhat helpful directions, walking to the Iron Work Barbeque Restaurant, ordering a Fanta (orange, of course), and a pulled pork sandwich with fries. Olimar began to bite into the sandwich, when he was interrupted by a familiar voice.

“Hey man, how’ve you been?” Terrence said, sitting on the barstool next to Olimar. Terrence was a prodigy he had met on a fossil dig quite a while ago. Olimar had discovered his friend's bizarre ability when he handed an Old Amber to his friend- the Old Amber had become an Aerodactyl on contact.

"Hey man, pretty good. How's raising the dead going for you?" he replied, stifling his urge to laugh by taking a big bite out of his sandwich. It was clear that Terrence hadn't planned on taking a shower- the kid was caked in dirt, and what looked to be a bone was jutting out of his shoulder. "That yours?" he asked, pointing to the bone.

"No, no it is not. Let's see who this belongs to..." he said, grabbing and pulling the bone out quick. As soon as he had it out, the bone was surrounded by a flash of light. The light quickly dissipated, and where the bone once was a Pichu now was there, standing on Terrence's hands before scampering off.

"Yeah, that still creeps me out. You wanna eat or just raise an army of Pichu to take over the world?

"Eat first, I guess. I'm actually heading out to Orre. Some dude there who can apparently help me move the earth. So I can find fossils without the digging." Terrence shook his head, and rubbed his hands. "I get all these sores and my hands ache and you know it's really tedious wo-"

"I get the picture. I'm actually looking for the same guy.