The second saddest thing about Venice was how pretty it was. Ash, Brock, and Misty did not really deserve to see the city in all of its glory, but, sadly, no vengeful water spirit was available to impress a thick blue filter over everything for the purposes of ruining the visuals. And thus they were forced to walk among the many canals, the many towering feats of renaissance looking architecture, and the not so many statues of the mythical guardians of the city. These statues did not seem to fit in with the rest of the city, and had an unnerving air about them, as if they were watching you when your back was turned. Wes swore that he had noticed one of them move its eyes, but this was attributed to the sun.
Of course, their journey to the city was not just for quickly glancing at historical artifacts and riding in gondolas. The first place they intended search for clues on their quest was the oldest, most mothballed library they could find. To this end, they decided to ask for directions. And it seemed as if the thought had only just entered their heads when a teenage girl materialized seemingly out of nowhere. She had brown hair and a face that invited all kinds of physical violence with her arrogant smile. Wes, being more in control of himself than his traveling partners, decided to ask her for the whereabouts of the oldest, most mothballed library in town. The girl did not say anything, but pointed towards a smallish building wedged in between two cafes. Upon entering, they found many dusty old books about everything but religion, and many dusty old other things about everything but ancient religious artifacts. Upon exiting, they found that same teenager waiting for them. She looked exceptionally pleased with herself.
"Well, since you're here, I just hope it wouldn't be too much of us to ask if you could tell us…" Wes began, but the girl did not let him finish. She began sprinting into an alleyway, and it was only due to the best of their abilities that Wes and the others could keep up with her. She ended up leading them to the second oldest, second most mothballed library in the city. Upon entering, they found many dusty old books on religion that were written with the express purpose of not mentioning anything having to do with ancient religious artifacts. Upon exiting, the teenager was again waiting for them, and she was now in the possession of the biggest shit eating grin imaginable.
"Now, maybe this might be a little clearer," Wes began with a noticeable hint of venom in his voice, "but could you tell us where we can find information on ancient religious artifacts? Those related to a Ho-Oh?"
This rather specific request seemed momentarily damper the girl's good mood. She beckoned for them to follow, and led them through another labyrinthine ally to the most recent, all-covered-in-postmodernist-glass library in the city. They followed her inside, where she ran over to a not at all dusty row of books, and picked out one that had a rather conspicuous piece of paper marking a page. Bizarrely, the marked page only contained one sentence.
and take the ashes from the first graveyard, and bequeath them upon our Father, so that he may scatter them upon the winds
Even Ash could have recognized those italics anywhere. "Did you see that fucking bird?! I need to catch it!"
"Ash, be quiet! This is a library!" Misty replied, being her usual contrary for the sake of being contrary self.
"I very much admire the female form." Brock said.
Wes briefly thought about the passage, and then turned to the girl. "Do you know where we might find this graveyard?" he asked, now audibly excited.
"You have to go to Rome, of course. There aren't any catacombs in Venice; the sea level is much too low." The girl gave another smug grin when she was finished talking. She was exceptional at doing that.
The party felt great relief once they boarded a train heading south, as they made damn well sure not to invite the girl along with them. Thinking they were safe, they entered their room and decided to relax for the time being. However, after a couple minutes had passed, they suddenly noticed that the girl was with them, even though there was no way she should have been able to get in unnoticed. Ash was the first to jump on this tangent.
"How did you get here?"
The girl gave off yet another awful smile. "I went through the window, obviously. Smart people always lock their windows."
Wes, already annoyed from her previous escapades, got right to the point. "Why have you been following us?"
"Are you on a mission from God, Wes?"
"How did you know my name? I never-"
"I said: are you on a mission from God?"
"… well, yes. But what does-"
He stopped speaking, as the girl had suddenly stopped being a girl, and now was something else entirely. She looked like one of the foreboding statues brought to life, with a long grey body that ended in two large red wings, with small red arms complete with talons that could skewer a rat. Her skin was rough like sandpaper, and cold to the touch. Her eyes resembled those of sharks, and whenever she opened her gaping jaw to talk it was impossible not to notice the many, many, many teeth lining it. It was a little unsettling. Ash was not fazed by this, however, as he was busy formulating a plan for catching whatever the hell she was. Ash was truly a Pokémon trainer at heart.
The creature continued talking, though it no longer sounded anything like a smug little girl. "I am on a mission from God as well. The same mission, in fact. One of His servants had asked me to watch for a man wearing a strange machine on his arm. You see, I am the guardian of Venice. I know many things about the city, and I have a good guess as to what we're looking for. For now though, we should rest. The angel I saw was quite reserved when I questioned him on what obstacles I might face in the very near future, so he was obviously hiding something important. There's no doubt that those old catacombs have attracted something unpleasant, to say the least."
When the train arrived, the sun had just recovered from its morning hangover, and was now shining brilliantly. So brilliantly, in fact, that the streets were so hot that you could fry an egg on them. The guardian, who had taken the form of the teenage girl again, led them to an old church that was empty save for a few spiders. In the entrance hall, she stopped at a seemingly innocent section of the wall, and produced an iron key.
"Now, I'm sure you've never encountered anything like this before, so let me explain. This is a door you can't see, and I'm going to use this key to open it." She paused to wink condescendingly at the others. "Do you understand now?"
It might have been the case that Ash and Misty failed to grasp the concept of the invisible door, but they continued on anyways. The door led to an ancient staircase leading downwards, and they soon found themselves in the kind of catacombs perfectly suited for hiding clues about ancient religious artifacts. The mold, the oppressive chattering of vermin of all kinds, the darkness, and the sloshing murky water all seemed to have been placed by someone with the intent of creating the most memorable catacombs he could possibly make. Everyone was thankful the guardian could see in the dark when she took on her other form. Thankfully, whoever had indeed built the catacombs did not bother to design them in any particular mazelike fashion, and they soon came across some unlit torches that had been helpfully stacked in a corner. When Wes took the liberty of lighting one with some help from Pikachu, it revealed that the entire room they were standing in was host to a large collection of paintings by some renaissance artist. It was abundantly clear why this artwork had not seen the light of day, as it depicted a romantic venture between two handsome men, starting at a lovely breakfast meeting and ending with the physical act of love taking place beside a riverbed while a full moon looked down upon the couple. The next room after that had portraits of the male gods of the classic Roman pantheon, all of whom were not depicted with enough clothing to be considered, among other things, 'safe for work'. The next room was a dead end, containing shelves holding various objects. The room appeared to have been visited recently, for many of the objects had been scattered across the ground, and there were faint footprints visible on the floor. Indeed, a few seconds after they entered the room, they heard a distinct thud from behind them. They turned around and saw the ever familiar trio of criminals: Jessie, James, and the obnoxious cat.
"Team Rocket?! How could you guys have followed us here?" Ash yelled.
James, who was holding a small red velvet pouch, decided to explain. "I don't know how the hell we managed to get here before you despite not knowing of this place, or of this venture until five minutes ago, but we did. We had to make our cameo appearance somehow!"
Jessie and James then began to state their motto.
"To protect the world from devastation!"
"To unitARGH!"
The guardian had taken a large bite of James's shoulder, and was now violently shaking him like a ragdoll. Jessie and Meowth took off running almost immediately. Once James dropped the velvet pouch, she let him go as well, whereupon he also began running and screaming.
"Good thing the pouch wasn't opened. We need it to stay closed for now if we want to proceed any further." The guardian mused, her teeth still bright red and dripping.
The others were a bit shaken by this sudden outburst of violence, but they deemed it prudent not to mention it when the guardian was in earshot. And given her unerring ability to be in places she shouldn't, the possibility of place that was out of her range of vision seemed to be out of the question.
The train ride back to Venice was a quiet one indeed. It seemed the guardian was well aware of the effect she was having on the general mood of the adventurers, and probably was secretly laughing at them. Eventually, Wes decided to speak up.
"Look, about what happened with the Rockets…"
"Yes?"
"Look, you could have killed or seriously injured that man…"
The guardian smiled. "Aren't you silly? If I was trying to kill him, I would have gone for his neck. All the good blood vessels are there."
Wes was already regretting starting the conversation, but he decided to press on. "You said that we were on a mission from God, right?"
"Absolutely."
"And isn't one of His commandments, "Thou shalt not kill?"
"I don't know why you're so very afraid of me. Why, I could very easily have killed all of you scores of times by now, but I haven't done so. Wouldn't you say that reflects well on me?"
"I can't say it does."
She laughed.