For anyone actually exploring the desert, the hours around sunset were the best time to be active. The heat of the day faded, the air cooled, and the light turned gold across the dunes. It was exactly the kind of scenery a genuine expedition team would want to photograph or enjoy.
These people were doing none of that. Every single one of them was huddled inside their tents, keeping out of sight, with sentries posted quietly around the camp. No photos, no wandering, no campfire conversation. Just waiting.
Little Blue had seen enough. Its sharp mind had already worked out that something was wrong, and at that point, curiosity had completely taken over from common sense. The original scouting mission was set aside. There was something far more interesting happening down below.
"A quick look won't hurt. It is not going to slow that idiot Nova down by much, right?"
To avoid drawing attention from the group, Little Blue climbed higher into the sky, circling wide and slow, watching the camp from a distance that kept it well out of sight.
Two hours passed. Then three.
Back in Lune Town, Nova was falling apart.
He regretted sending Little Blue out. He regretted it completely.
What if Team Origin had spotted his Corviknight? What if it had been ambushed and was not coming back? If something happened to Little Blue because of a decision Nova made, he would never forgive himself.
The worst part was that Little Blue was the only member of the team who could fly. Without it, Nova had no way to search, no way to check, and no way to do anything but wait and worry.
That said, Nova knew his Pokemon well. In Harmony City, Little Blue had a habit of wandering off the moment it was given any freedom. It would disappear for hours and always come back looking entirely unbothered, as though nothing had happened. With those steel feathers that barely registered damage even from powerful attacks, and the way its defense seemed to grow stronger the longer a battle dragged on, Nova had a hard time believing something out here could actually bring it down.
"You little troublemaker," Nova muttered under his breath. "You had better have found something out there. But honestly, just come back in one piece. That is more important than any of it."
Little Blue had not wasted the time, as it turned out.
As the sun dipped below the horizon and the sky darkened, its dark steel body blended almost perfectly into the night. Moving quietly, it descended closer to the camp, gliding in like a shadow.
And then it saw exactly what it had suspected.
A loud, restless girl came out of one of the tents and began issuing orders in a rapid and somewhat erratic manner. At her command, the others brought out their Pokemon and fitted them with unusual-looking helmets that Little Blue did not recognize.
Then the explosions started.
One after another, the sounds of massive blasts rolled in from the direction of Lune Town behind it.
Little Blue did not need to think hard about what that meant. Whatever those people were doing with their helmeted Pokemon, it had a direct connection to what was now happening in Lune Town.
And then, with a sinking feeling, Little Blue remembered that Nova was still in Lune Town.
It had let its curiosity get the better of it, and now Nova's plan to slip away to the west before the fighting started was completely ruined.
Little Blue thought about what Nova was going to say when it got back. The scolding alone would be painful to sit through. It ruffled its steel feathers and considered its options.
Perhaps, if it came back with something useful, something that made it clear the time had not been wasted, the reaction might be slightly less terrible.
Its sharp red eyes dropped back down to the camp below. The loud girl had climbed up onto the roof of a large off-road vehicle and was watching the fires over Lune Town with visible satisfaction, arms out, like she was celebrating.
Little Blue made its decision.
It tucked its wings and dove, silent and fast, dropping out of the dark sky. Its talons extended at the last moment and closed around the girl before she had any idea what was happening.
Robbin had been enjoying her moment. She had been about to say something impressive to mark the occasion.
Instead, she was yanked off the roof of the vehicle and pulled straight up into the night sky.
"What in the world is that thing?"
The members of her squad stood frozen, staring upward. The sound of their commander's shouting grew smaller and then disappeared entirely into the darkness above them. For a long moment, nobody moved or spoke.
"Did something just... take Boss Robbin?"
"What do we do? Do we go after it?"
"Go after it how? Which direction? We cannot even see it anymore."
"This is bad. This is really bad."
"Did anyone actually see what that was?"
"Should we call the police?"
"Are you serious right now? Every Security Officer in the region is in Lune Town. Who exactly are you calling?"
Back at Jenny's position, Nova was furious.
"Little Blue, I am not even going to get into how you made me wait and worry for nothing. But grabbing a girl out of the sky and dropping her in front of a hundred Security Officers? What do you think this looks like for me?"
"I know you do things like this, and normally the worst outcome is I have to apologize to someone. But Officer Jenny is standing right there looking at me like I arranged this myself. Do you understand how bad this is?"
"How am I supposed to explain this? You carry someone halfway across the desert and bring her back here? With technique like that? I did not ask for any of this!"
"And now you have gone and made your Trainer look suspicious in front of the one person whose opinion actually matters right now. Wonderful. Truly."
Little Blue endured the lecture. It genuinely regretted a few things in that moment, and one of them was not having a voice to explain itself with. It hopped from foot to foot, wings half-spread, trying to act out what it had seen and what it had done and why. Nova watched and understood almost none of it.
Jenny stepped in.
She had been watching Little Blue closely and recognized immediately that it was trying to communicate something specific. She called over one of her most trusted officers, Pat, who worked with her regularly on field assignments.
Pat was an interrogation specialist from the Forest City Police Department, and the reason he was so effective at his job was that he worked alongside a Kirlia with the Telepathy ability.
In battle, Telepathy allowed a Pokemon to sense the movements of its allies and avoid being caught in their attacks during double battles. That much was well known. But in practice, away from battle, the ability had a far more significant use. A Pokemon with Telepathy could form a clear and detailed mental link with a Trainer, allowing for real communication, not just simple impressions or feelings, but actual language.
In other words, Kirlia could translate.
It was said that in older times, much of the early trust that formed between humans and Pokemon had been built through these rare Telepathy users, who could bridge the gap between two very different kinds of minds.
For Nova, this was the first time he had experienced it directly. Kirlia's voice appeared in his mind, soft and clear, and the sensation was genuinely strange in a way he did not have words for.
Through Kirlia's translation, both Nova and Jenny finally understood what Little Blue had been trying to express through its entire display of hops, wing gestures, and what had at one point appeared to be an attempt to mime throwing a ball.
Jenny looked at the girl in Little Blue's grip, then back at Corviknight.
"You are saying this girl is the one who gave the order for the explosions in Lune Town?"
Little Blue straightened up immediately, chest out, and let out a firm cry.
"Gwaah!"
Nova, Jenny, and Pat looked at each other.
Everything clicked into place. The reason Team Origin's response had been so disorganized. The reason no serious interception had been launched. The reason the whole operation on their side had fallen apart without any clear explanation.
Little Blue had snatched their field commander straight out of the sky. Without orders, nobody had known what to do next.
Nova turned back to his Pokemon, expression completely changed.
"Little Blue. I owe you an apology. I was out of line earlier."
Little Blue made a sound that was somewhere between a snort and a caw, and looked away with great dignity.
Being yelled at first and then praised afterward was not something it was going to let go of that easily.