"Sir Nigrum we have found the first tablet." The grunt said while his teeth rattled with fear.
"Excellent." His superior replied in a disdainful and supercilious tone.
"Nitro, we still have 8 to find, the prophecy shall be fulfilled."
"Yes. Sir, worry not, it will not take us long to find the rest of them." Nitro replied as he bowed in front of his boss.
"It better not, I'm counting on you. Ordo ab Chao, Nitro."
"Ordo ab Chao, Sir."
While searching through the depth of the cavern, he finally came across a large stone, something was written on it in an ancient language, he took out a device from his pocket and directed it above the words written on the stone, the screen came alive.
When the light begins to fade, the darkness shall cut like a blade.
Everything shall turn so cold, no being will be able to hold.
Every flower will wither, everything sweet will turn bitter.
The winds will scorch and turn aflame, women and children will burn, exclaim.
And when the last plate has been found. The darkness will come, inbound.
The following is 73% accurate. He read the screen of the device and sighed.
"Well 73% is still pretty damn accurate, I should find Lance and head back to the HQ." The raven haired trainer muttered to himself. As he made his way out of the cavern.
"Lance?" He shouted in the darkness of the cave as his voice echoed back to him.
"Sup buddy?" Lance said appearing behind him making him jump.
"Are you out of your mind?!" The raven haired trainer exclaimed.
"No, but this was way too much fun." Lance chuckled. "Did you find something Ash?" The man with the cape asked.
"Yeah." Ash replied and showed him what he got from the device with also a picture of the stone.
"For an ancient prophecy, this sounds pretty cliché." Lance said with a bored face.
"Yeah but this is only 73% accurate. We should take it back to the HQ, bill would love to see this." Ash said.
"So would Dan, he's buried himself in the books ever since the start of this conundrum." Lance said.
"What drum?" Ash asked with a blank face. Lance's sweat dropped.
"Conundrum, it means problem." Lance replied.
"So why didn't you just say that?" Ask said with a smirk and Lance sighed.
"Lets just go back to the HQ, okay."
"Sure." Ash said with a smirk.
Underground facility, somewhere in Hoenn.
The door of the elevator slid open as the two trainers walked out, one of them wore a red cape and the other had messy black hair.
"Yo guys!" Someone greeted the two.
"Hey Bill!" Ash greeted the green haired tech expert.
"Find something?" He asked.
"Indeed." Lance replied.
"That's splendid. Dan has found something too." Bill told, the two trainers nodded.
"Guys." Bill said in a whisper.
"Yeah?" Lance and Ash said in unison.
"He's been in the library for the past two days, he's hardly eaten anything." Bill told.
"We're on it." Lance said with a reassuring smile.
Before heading down to the library both trainers headed to the kitchen and took out some cold pizza from the fridge, they microwaved it and headed to the library.
"Lance, it's been almost 6 months, he's still addressing this like nothing happened, he doesn't explode, he doesn't feel. He has just gotten more quiet." Ash said with a sigh.
"There's nothing we can really do Ash. And just let him be and don't talk to him about this. Let him be." Lance said.
"But Lance, sooner or later he will explode and it won't be pretty, y'know."
"Yeah but at that time. It'll be his choice to address his emotions, how he wants them to, not ours." Ash nodded to Lance's reply and both of them entered the library.
The library of the facility was stupendous, with hundreds of shelves and copies of every book which had been written, published or gathered in the world of pokémon and even more including ancient legends, myths and cryptography. The two trainers arrived to one particular table where there was a massive stack of books, some were even on the ground and they found a young man around their age, his head was buried in one of the books, as the book covered his face.
"Hey!" Ash said with a little excitement.
The young man lowered the book which revealed a pale face, a pair of large rectangular black colored spectacles that covered the large bags under his swollen eyes.
"Hey guys. Find anything?" The brown haired trainer asked.
"Yeah. Nice specs, good look for you." Lance said with a smirk and Dan grinned in response.
"Bill told us you found something too." Lance further said and Dan nodded.
"Hey Dan, how're you doing buddy?" Ash asked.
"Okayish, same old, you know." Dan said with a big yawn.
"Want some pizza?" Lance asked putting the cardboard box on the table.
"In a bit, after I tell you what I found." He replied.
"Are you sure you're okay? Bill is kinda worried about you." Ash said with a straight face.
"Yeah he keeps asking me if I want anything, it's really annoying, I wish we had Bridgette here instead of him at least she's hot." Dan said with a sigh and Ash chuckled.
Lance smirked. Well at least he hasn't lost his sense of humor. The dragon master thought.
"The word Hot is an embarrassment to what Bridgette is." Lance said with a grin.
"True that, she's utterly bodacious." Dan said as he opened the cardboard box and took out a slice of pizza.
"Hey, that's actually a good nickname, Bodacious Bridgette." Ash said with a smirk and the other two chuckled.
"So anyways, where is everyone, I feel like us three and Bill are the only ones here." Ash said.
"That's because we are, the rest of they gym leaders, frontier brains and elite four are busy, some of them were out spelunking like you guys, but you're the only ones who have actually found anything." Dan told.
"So what now?" Ash asked.
"Well, I'm gonna set up a conference tonight at 7 here and then we can discuss what I've found, in the mean time you guys update me with your info?"
"Ladies and gentlemen, we have gathered here today for an important discussion, some of our operatives have found some information regarding the secret activities of a certain crime syndicate, this very crime syndicate has been a thorn in our sides for very long. With everyone here, I would like Daniel Abraham to share with us what he along with Ash Ketchum and Lance Stevens have found." Brandon told every one there.
Dan got up from his chair on the conference table, the room was huge enough to hold 200 people, he saw 70 people currently there, all familiar faces. From gym leaders to elite four members and frontier brains.
"Good evening fellow pokémon trainers, as you know we are here to address a very crucial issue. As you all know different incidents have recently occurred through out the world. The Pokémon World Championship was also cancelled mid event because of the incident that happened in Atlantis Island 6 months ago, we had to face a lot of casualties and a lot of innocent people died, including our own." Dan spoke. Ash could swear he saw little drops sparkle in his friends eyes but they were gone the next second.
"And there's this one organization which is responsible for it all. It's name Tenebrosity. This particular organization is causing mayhem through out the world with different operations being carried out in different parts of the world, from illegal pokémon experimentation to human experimentation. These people have learned to use the mystical power of aura for evil purposes. Aura for most of you know is the energy that surrounds us all, only a few humans can naturally manipulate this ancient mystic art but you can also learn and acquire it by training. For the duration of months we were completely in the dark of what this organization was planning but now we have found something that can explain their agenda and motives."
"Ash." The brown haired trainer called hisnfriend as he got up from his seat.
"Lance and I have been exploring different ruins, caverns and mountains looking for secrets and clues. Today while searching I came across a large boulder deep in the depths of the caverns of Mount Coronet. Which said this." Ash spoke and on cue an image appeared on the adjacent wall thanks to the projector, which Bill fired up who was sitting with a laptop on his seat.
An ancient language appeared which then began to translated with the following as a result.
When the light begins to fade, the darkness shall cut like a blade.
Everything shall turn so cold, no being will be able to hold.
Every flower will wither, everything sweet will turn bitter.
The winds will scorch and turn aflame, women and children will burn, exclaim.
And when the last plate has been found. The darkness will come, inbound.
There were several gasps from the table of trainers.
"What does this mean?" Norman Maple, the Petalburg City gym leader asked.
Dan once again got up from his seat. "Because the original text was in an ancient language, this translation is about 70% accurate."
"73%." Bill corrected with a tone of annoyance.
Dan rolled his eyes. "Yes 73%. Bill worked very hard on this device and we thank him for that, now coming back on point. I have been researching for months and recently I came across something rather odd in one of the books I was reading. Ordo ab Chao. Is any of you familiar with this sentence?" Dan asked the group of trainers sitting around the table.
"Order from Chaos." Brandon spoke.
"It's Latin, right?" Claire of Blackthorn City spoke and Dan nodded.
"Indeed, this is Latin, this particularly set of words have appeared and are affiliated with a certain ancient order which has long been presumed extinct. The order of Freemasonry."
"What has this got to do with Tenebrosity?" Bruno of the elite four asked.
"Let me get to that, many believe the freemasons to be a secret cult which worships satan, many believe it was just a secret society which is now extinct, but regularly, the number 9 has had a great significance in the ancient writings of freemasonry which have been found, now you may think what the number 9 means. Well I have a secret contact who is working deep undercover in Tenebrosity and recently became an admin there and he has told me that they are trying to find certain plates, they have found one and they have to find 8 more, which makes the total number of plates 9."
"Wait, if you had this secret contact in the organization, why didn't you tell us before, why didn't he tell us all which they were going to do?" Buck, the fire trainer spoke.
"It doesn't work that way, my contact had to build his way up, it took time." Dan replied.
"How do we know you're not a mole?" Buck asked his eyes starring at Dan's.
"Why don't you come here an.." But Brandon cut Dan off. "Buck that's enough. Daniel continue."
Dan nodded. "The prophecy which Ash found on a stone tablet, I also found this on an old manuscript , I did not find the exact prophecy but I found its interpretation. The manuscript said there are 9 ancient plates of illumination and when these plates are gathered and brought together, through a secret ritual, the lord will rise once more, with his ascent will come darkness, and once destruction and demolition is upon the world, the lord shall create a new world from ashes."
"What the hell is this?" Gardenia of Eterna City asked.
"This is isn't it, there's more." Dan said and looked towards Brandon. Brandon nodded and Dan continued.
"I believe, there's more to this than just Tenebrosity. Recently we came across another syndicate known as Ilustratio aeternum, the members of this organization said they were enlightened human beings who were better, strongly and spiritually higher than all other humans. They mainly used psychic pokémon and their admins and highers had some surreal psychic powers themselves. When we disrupted one of their operations they just disappeared and we haven't heard of them since. And when you translate Ilustratio aeternum it means..."
"Eternal Enlightenment." Bill finished Dan's sentence.
"Do you believe all of this is related?" Lance asked.
"I believe each and everything we have witnessed in the past 8 months is intricately connected, it's like a whole plot which is pulling together as a grand story." Dan told.
"What is our move now?" Norman asked.
"We have to be on alert, even government officials and people of power may be a part of this." Dan told and the others nodded.
"What do we do now Brandon?" Ash asked.
"I need every single operative of PSI tomorrow here at 9 am sharp, even the ones who could not make it here today. I will also contact the rangers and the agencies of other regions, starting tomorrow we are making a joint task force, a task force which is going to bring this global menace down. Everyone dismissed for now. Norman, Volkner. You two stay, along with you three." He said pointing towards Ash, Lance and Dan.
"I need Riley to be on board, tell him to come first thing in the morning." Brandon told Lance who nodded.
"Bill I want you to do a background check on each and everyone who is, or has been an agent or an operative of PSI. I want you to record their history, I do not want us to have any moles." Brandon ordered.
"I understand." Bill nodded and left the room.
"Volkner and Norman. Volkner you are the head of the Sinnoh division now and Norman you have Hoenn."
"We have more divisions now?" Ash asked.
"Starting tomorrow we do. Ash, Dan and Lance you three have to be the special operatives here, I know we have had our disagreements in the past but I know I can honestly trust all three of you, and I know you can get to the bottom of things so you will work independent of the task forces or divisions." Brandon said and the three nodded.
"Okay I'll see all of you tomorrow then."
"Soon Master, soon you will wake up, soon your reign will begun and the chaos will conquer." The man said while looking into a crystal ball which was enveloped in smoke.
"Soon." He repeated.
"Ordo ab Chao." He chanted as he took out a blade and pushed the dagger into his thigh, pulling it out as the blood began to flow out of his newly formed wound.