Chapter one – shadows rising

A few weeks before the tragedy, a class of teenage girls ran a muck in a teacherless classroom. It was the brief interlude between lunch and the sixth lesson of the day, where the kids herded themselves into a classroom. Some walked around the classroom, gathering pieces of gossip from other cliques which were near the same popularity status as they were, other wrote rude things on the board, hoping the teacher would find them, thus cutting a few minutes of the unpopular lesson Unown and Creation Theory. Most of them would rather be outside playing sports, or in one of the more likeable lessons, such as Battle Calculations or Art.

However, a few students felt themselves quite at home. Although the Unown were unpopular amongst most teens due to the fact that they weren't too good in battle, and the fact that nobody would ever own a legendary, an odd few found the study of them quite interesting.

Lariana Montauge, affectionately known as "Larry", watched her peers, some of them her own friends, with a weary gaze. She was altogether happy with her class this year; most of them treated her quite well, with the exception of a few who though her to be nothing more than an odd heretic. However, even those who did treat her well got on her nerves occasionally when they acted up like this on a sugar filled high. Although not always quiet, Larry was respective of her elders, and didn't like the fact that this is what poor old Mr. Nier, who was close to loosing the plot anyway, had to come back to after a lunchtime of pulling kids down from trees in the primary section, and getting pecked by a few confused Hoothoot whose peaceful daytime slumber had been so rudely interrupted. Larry had watched him as her friends gossiped about boys (Being separated from the boys in classes made girls only talk about them more), not knowing wether to laugh or get angry at the students.

Mr. Nier walked into the classroom to find that all his students had been seated (having been warned by his Unown entering the classroom a few minutes earlier than the teacher himself) , shooting each other glances across the room and trying not to laugh. His bald, shiny scalp had a few red, oozing sores, and his glasses were slightly crooked. He leant his tall, thin body against the wall, looking perfectly insane.

Larry smiled at the sight of her favourite teacher.

"Well, I'm sure you'll all be excited to learn what we're studying about today, girls."

He turned to the whiteboard, revealing a "Kick me" label, which set off a few giggles from the middle row, where all the most popular girls sat. Nier's Unown sighed, and mentally detached the sign from its owner, crumpled it, and threw it in the bin.

The giggles turned to groans as they saw what he had written on the whiteboard: Our Town and the Significant of the Unown

"I knew you'd like it," Nier muttered.

Larry was indifferent. It was a topic that didn't involve calculating EVs or thinking up strategic movesets, so she was pleased. But nobody like learning about town heritage.

"Righto, who can tell me the names of the four known Unown Sites?"

A hand shot up in the first row, where all the really nerdy girls sat.

"There's the Ruins of Alph in Johto, the Tanoby ruins in the Sevii Islands, Solaceon Ruins in Sinnoh, and the Lunaceon ruins, which are obviously here in Lohto."

"Correct. And what do we notice about the names of these Ruins?"

Another hand shot up, this time in the back row.

"Alph is the start of alphabet, which I think has something to do with the fact that the Unown look like letters of the alphabet. Tanoby is an anagram of Botany, which is because all the chambers are named after plants, I think. But that makes no sense, seeing as the Unown have nothing to do with plants. I don't get it."

"Of course plants have nothing to do with the Unown. There were a lot of botanists around that area of Sevault Canyon, studying the species of grass native to that area. The chambers were named by them, but "Tanoby" was a kind of joke from ages ago, when anagrams were popular."

"That's lame," Piped up a middle row popular

"To you, perhaps. But anagrams were all the rage back then,"

Even Larry found this amusing.

"And we all know that the other two ruin names are named after their towns," concluded Nier. "It's also obvious why we are sister towns with Solaceon Town in Sinnoh,"

A girl yawned rudely. Nier ignored her.

"Now, I'm really sorry about this, girls, but I seem to have left my other documents in my office, and I really can't be bothered getting them, and I need Felos here to keep his eye on you,"

Felos the Unown rolled his eye at the man's bad joke.

"So, let's do some work on Arceus,"

The class perked up slightly. This was slightly more interesting.

"Until the discovery of Arceus, Religion and Science have remained separate, contradicting each other. But now we can both realise the power and majesty of such a beast, and worship it, and assess our universes very beginning in scientific terms. I'll briefly rehash you on the Arceus tale"

No student complained. This was hard to remember, there were so many legendaries, and they knew that this would be included in one of their many tests.

"First of all, there was only thing in existence: Arceus. It possessed awesome powers, but it had no space to use them, so Palkia was born, and it ruled the vast realm its birth had created. Then, for about a million years, nothing ever changed, so Dialga was created, and it ruled the time that had begun when it was born."

Then, for another million years, It was just the three creatures floating around in space, wasting their time away doing nothing, until Arceus created the earth. Firstly, it was a huge orb of yellow metal, and Arceus created Moleo to live in there."

Still, he was bored, so he fashioned two other beasts, who became mortal enemies. Groudon made the land and magma form over the core, and Kyogre covered the earth with seas."

For centuries they fought, Groudon creating land and Kyogre seas, until Arceus saw that their purpose had been fulfilled, and created Rayquaza, who created an atmosphere for the planet, and sealed the enemies away from each other."

The world lacked life, so Mew was created. It became pregnant and laid many eggs, which hatched into the Pokemon we have today."

The world was barren and Mew's children were dying, so Arceus created Shaymin, who made vegetation, grow all around the globe. Now Mew's children had something to eat."

Then he created more legendaries: Articuno to rule over ice and snow, Zapdos to rule over lightning, and Moltres to rule over flames. Raikou, the tiger, was fashioned to control thunder, Entei, the Lion was to rule over volcanoes, and Suicune the leopard ruled over the rivers and lakes of the world. A beast, Lugia, was made to control the birds, and a bird, Ho-oh, was created to control the beasts. Celebi was created by Dialga to travel through time and help the needy, and Manaphy was created by Palkia to keep peace on the sea floor."

Arceus created us, the humans, and gave us Heatran, who helped us master fire and metalwork, and Cressilia, who taught us how to document time. With these tools, we created a world where humans and Pokemon could live in peace."

But the humans could not learn from the many mistakes they made, they had no emotion, nor did they have any willpower to make them wish to do things. So the trio of Uxie, Mespirt and Azelf were created. As you know, they all have their respective talents, which you leant last year.

Then Aruceus made the mistake of creating Giratina, a beast supposed to keep Dialga and Palkia in check, but who became corrupt and created Jiriachi, who taught humans greed though his ability to grant wishes. In a hopeless attempt to kull humans, he created Darkrai, to posses our souls and kill us slowly. But this was foolish in the eyes of Arceus, who sealed Giratina away in another dimension."

Jiriachi was not an evil creature; he only wished to grant mankind's greatest desires. So Arceus sealed him on a comet, where he was allowed every thousand years to grant the wish of a pure hearted human."

"Well, there you go."

A discussion erupted in the popular girls area, but was quickly silenced by Felos's sharp aura change.

"But where do the Unown come into this? They aren't mentioned," Commented Neir.

Larry felt a sudden urge to answer something, so she raised her hand.

"Yes, Larry dear?"

"The Unown are pretty, well, unknown. We don't know even know whether the language came first or the Unown came first,"

"Thus the saying: 'Which came first, critters or the symbols?' One may argue that the unown came first because they can't just appear and happen to look like a random series of letters on the wall, in other words, the unown must have come first. But, in contradiction to that, one also may argue that Pokemon are amazing creatures that adapt to their environment, and an Unown's natural environment is ruins lined with these symbols, so as Pokemon do, they adapted their bodies to look like the symbols, thus stating that the scriptures may have come first. Scientifically, though, we have no proof,"

"Now," Nier checked his watch. "We have about thirty minutes left, so I'll give you a short writing assignment."

More groans.

Felos dropped a sheet of paper on each of their desks. Larry dragged her towards her, slightly discouraged by the surly Unown's lack of enthusiasm after she had thanked him.

Write a 500 – 600 word essay on the significance of Unown our lives. Include their roles as our guardians, our friends, and of their attraction for tourist. Also include your own reflection of the fact that you will be receiving an Unown partner in a few weeks time and how this will affect your life, and how this has been a tradition in our town.

Whatever is not done this lesson will be completed for homework.

Easy peasy.

Despite her usually rebellious opinions, Larry shared a common opinion: she rather liked the Unown. She'd spoken to a few of them, namely her mother and father's own guides, and they seemed sweet, caring creatures ready to help humans if they needed to. Besides, she did not mind that they were not as good as other Pokemon in battle, as she was far from a strategic player.

Her father was an accountant, so she had a pretty good knowledge of maths. Yet the prospect of breeding a living creature "to perfection" seemed a little weird to her, and she didn't enjoy the idea of spending pointless time fighting the same creatures repeatedly for a few measly stat increases.

She had finished the paper by the time the bell rung at the end of the double lesson, at which time she slowly packed up her books and pencils; she always hung back after class. Her classmates observed her with curious and amused eyes.

Larry's friend, Amber, was amoung them. She stepped forwards towards Larry, her mouth hanging open stupidly. Her ashy brown hair was twirled around her finger as she watched Larry with curious, sea blue eyes.

"Why are you taking so long?"

Amber had an extremely long, dull, drawn – out way of saying "Why?" It irritated Larry senseless. Yet her annoyance did not show when she replied.

"Because that's when the interesting stuff happens. Teachers drop stuff, swear, and complain about students when they forget you're there."

Amber cocked her head on the side, an expression common to Noctowl. "Why would you want to do that?"

Larry grinned a slightly disturbing grin. "Because it's funny."

Amber's loose mouth contorted into a wide smile. "You're so random,"

Larry raised her eyebrows and turned away. "Don't I know it…" She muttered.

Amber gave another one of her cheesy, too-wide smiles. The corners of her eyes crinkled. "Seeya tomorrow!"

"Bye."

Even though she was slightly annoying, Amber was friendly and loyal. Larry liked her.

As soon as Amber left, Nier walked out of the small office that adjoined the classroom, followed by his Unown. Nier's face was blank and expressionless, but Felos was wearing a frustrated aura. Larry dived behind a chair and listened.

"What is your problem? Report it to the police!" Felos's voice was as annoyed as he looked.

Nier was trying ever-so-hard to keep a straight face, but pain and worry showed through. "Felos, you know how I feel about the police. They're untrustworthy…"

"… Swinub. Yes, I know, Arthur. But this is serious. Lives are at risk here. How would the school feel if they knew that one of their most longest-serving teachers was keeping such a secret? You'd be sacked!"

Larry felt slightly more affectionate towards Felos, who had been one of the few Unown she mildly disliked. As it always was with his species, he showed genuine care for humans, even though they weren't the nicest of creatures.

"How much harm can one Persian do?"

"This is a Shadow Pokemon. The police have been keeping it quiet, but the Unown back in the Ruin have hacked into their minds. They want us to think we're safe, that the Rockets can do no harm anymore. That way, they keep our respect, and our dollars."

Nier snorted. "Typical."

"Indeed. But seriously Arthur, we need to tell them. Shadow Pokemon gain a Dark-type element. They are dangerous and uncontrolled. If that Persian gets into the ruins…"

"I know. It could kill an Unown. But it's not like they'll believe me."

Felos sighed mentally. "Look. I don't like the police any more than you do. But this is serious. Please, Arthur. I don't want to see you lose your job over this."

Nier pursed his lips. An awkward silence fell over the room, like a blanket of ice.

"Okay," The ice shattered. "I'll do it. But only for the Unown's sake,"

"Thankyou," Muttered Felos.

And they left the room, leaving Larry to digest what she had heard.