Nidoking's special training had finally paid off, and Nova had received both the space backpack and Little Love. With everything ready, the schedule for heading deep into the Tamar Desert was set.
To prove to the two old men that he really intended to train in the desert rather than take the easy route, Nova decided not to fly straight from Layered Peaks Gym to Forest City. Instead, he would start from Sand River City, cut through the desert, and arrive at Forest City from the other side.
Thinking about how Taylor had once crossed this same stretch of desert again and again, shuttling between Lune Town and Forest City, made Nova want to laugh.
Mort and Gilbert had never been stingy when it came to spending money on him. Every last supply for this trip had already been bought by the two of them, which left the cash in Nova's pocket completely useless. That, he regretted.
He also regretted buying his Fire Stone so early. If he had waited, he could have simply asked Mort and Gilbert for one instead.
Nova and Aresdra really were a hopeless pair when it came to saying what they meant.
Before setting out, Nova sent his itinerary to Aresdra as he always did, but she hadn't answered a single message in a month.
Elite Lennon had thrown herself into training the newly formed DA Girl Group. Once the final lineup was chosen, she dragged her closest friend, the Psychic-type specialist Luanna, into running the four girls through an intensive training program.
The training was held on a hidden estate belonging to the Yan family, known across the region for their line of Ninetales. The place was cut off entirely from the outside world; no signal could cross the spatial barrier that sealed it in.
Thinking about it, Nova realized his own mentors were much the same setup, one Gym Leader and one Elite Four member training him personally, and now Aresdra had exactly that too.
Quite the promising pair, the two of them.
Over the past two days, though, Nova had been messaging Charlie constantly.
When a father who dotes on his daughter loses contact with her for an entire month, it isn't hard to imagine how close to the edge he gets.
Charlie wanted nothing more than to march his Machamp straight into the Yan estate and demand to know why Lennon wouldn't let the girls so much as call their poor old fathers during training.
Two men, one who couldn't reach his daughter and one who couldn't reach his girlfriend, had nothing left to do but commiserate over their phones, trading complaints about Lennon and her impossible rules.
It was through these late-night messages that Charlie learned, even before his own daughter did, that Thelma's closest teammate happened to be Nova's actual girlfriend.
The good-natured but slow-witted Charlie still had no idea that his precious daughter carried a few feelings of her own for the blond boy on the other end of the line. If he had known, Nova would have gotten a firsthand look at what that Machamp could really do.
Charlie could only sigh at how small the world was, that Nova and Aresdra, this young couple, both happened to be Thelma's rivals. One had beaten her six times running, and the other had somehow won against her too, in a manner nobody could quite explain.
Truthfully, Charlie didn't mind the situation at all. Having strong rivals around meant Thelma had plenty of reason to keep pushing herself and sharpening her skills.
Nova liked the arrangement just as much, mostly because it meant Aresdra had no reason to ever learn about the misunderstanding that Thelma had feelings for her boyfriend.
By the look of things, Lennon's training camp would run for at least two more months, which meant Nova had nothing left holding him back from setting out for the desert.
Before he formally departed, Nova flew home once on Corviknight's back.
It was going to be a long trip, so before leaving he made sure to visit Purrloin, shower it with affection, and collect a fresh batch of the red mushrooms his Paras and Parasect had been growing.
On August 20th, Nova left home.
On August 25th, he set out from Sand River City, beginning his journey into the Tamar Desert.
Compared to the harshness of the Cengluan Mountain Range, it took only a few dozen kilometers into the Gobi-like desert for Nova to feel the full weight of nature's cruelty.
Compasses were useless out here. Setting aside the scattered Magnet Mountains, even a passing Probopass carried a strong enough magnetic field to throw off any piece of directional equipment humanity had ever built.
Fortunately, the Probopass weren't especially aggressive. As long as Nova didn't get too close, they generally left him alone.
The deeper into the desert he went, the stronger the wild Pokémon became.
On just the third day of his journey, Nova came across a level 68 Rhydon patrolling its territory.
Back within the settled parts of the Norlandia Alliance, a Pokémon of that level would already count as a disaster waiting to happen, the kind of threat that would require a Gym Leader to step in personally.
Running into an opponent like this only three days in, Nova figured he was either remarkably lucky, or simply meant to keep crossing paths with Ground-type Pokémon for the rest of his life.
Either way, there was no chance he was letting this Rhydon go.
Even if he couldn't train it himself, Layered Peaks Gym could always use a Pokémon this powerful. He was a registered Trainer of the Gym now, after all, and it was only right to contribute something back.
There were generally two ways to battle a wild Pokémon.
The first was a proper one-on-one duel agreed upon beforehand: win, and the Pokémon went into a Poké Ball; lose, and you owed them food as an apology, or else you'd become the meal instead. That was how Nova had earned Corviknight's trust.
The second was closer to a wild territorial scuffle, no rules, no agreements, just whoever hit harder. That was how things had gone with the Geodude back in the Cengluan Mountain Range.
With this Rhydon, Nova was hoping for the first kind of battle.
Unfortunately, out here in the depths of the Tamar Desert, in land this untouched, the local Pokémon hadn't yet learned the art of negotiating with humans.
To the Rhydon, the sight of one soft-skinned human riding a huge black bird, flanked by an equally soft-skinned green cat and an even softer-skinned blue lizard, probably looked like nothing more than lunch showing up on its own.
There was no getting around it, then.
"Everyone, let's battle!" Nova called out.
He threw out three more Poké Balls, and together with the partners already at his side, the whole team gathered, ready for battle.