"The coming evil has no one shape, one form. It has spread through its many followers, the hearts and minds of all living beings, and those who sit idly by, observing but never acting. Quoth the transcendent one: 'evil can never go away – but we must try to fight it regardless.'"
"Here we are," Iris said, cheerful as always. "The Ruins of Alph."
The Ruins of Alph were an archeological dig site near the outskirts of Violet City. The place was full of partially collapsed stone buildings as well as shrines and entrances to catacombs excavated from underneath piles of dirt and sand that had buried what was apparently the oldest settlement in either Johto or Kanto.
"...'an ancient civilization supposedly responsible for creating the basis for all modern writing'", Iris read off the Johto travel guide. "Seems the people who lived here worshiped a Pokémon – it doesn't say what – but some sort of natural disaster destroyed their home. Johto was then uninhabited for about a century until another settlement was built to where Ecruteak is now. Fascinating!"
"Yeah, let's pretend that's true," Kris said as she scanned the area, then looked at her PokéGear. "It's almost seven. We better find Blaine."
Chapter Four: Light My Fire
Aside from the old stone buildings, shrines and temples that were barely standing, there were plenty of modern, hastily built wooden shacks were the scientists apparently worked in. However, the sun was about to set and some scientists and other staff were clearly packing the place up for the day.
Due to Kris' prodding, it was Iris who had to ask about Blaine's whereabouts, so she happily skipped over to a technician loading boxes into a van.
"Sorry, we're closing," the technician grunted without even pausing from his work. "I'm sure some other tourist trap will keep you slack-jawed gawkers entertained-"
"Um, we're not tourists," Iris said. "We're looking for a scientist, Dr. Blaine. He works here...?"
The technician dropped his box and finally looked at Iris and Kris, the latter standing uncomfortably on the background.
"Blaine?" he shouted, his voice getting high-pitched. "No one ever comes to see him... oh, jeez, maybe you'll get him to leave. He's over there." He pointed at another small wooden shack not too far from the southern gate, only this one had its door and windows boarded up.
"Oh, that's definitely him," Iris nodded.
"Yeah, but I'm staying at least twenty yards away from that place at all times," the technician said anxiously. "That guy ain't right! Every once in a while he comes to pick up food from the canteen, and whenever he looks at you..." He shuddered. "There's nothing behind those sunglasses, I can tell you that!"
"Thanks!" Iris chirped at the technician.
She started happily skipping towards the shack, as if excited to meet an old friend, while Kris just slouched after her, shoulders slumped, ready to put another penny in the "this is gonna suck" - jar.
As Kris and Iris stood at the doorstep of Blaine's shack, Kris took note of a sign posted above the door:
"Visitors will be probed"
- Blaine
"You sure about this?" Kris asked, this time with genuine concern.
"Hey, you heard it yourself, your professor Elm is friends with him," Iris said. "Yeah, he's eccentric, in the same way all brilliant minds are. But trust me, he is brilliant. And precise, like German clockwork! And a great battler too, he had a gym inside a volcano, after all."
Despite more protests by Kris, Iris knocked on the door, trying to find an area not covered by planks. For a few seconds, there was silence. Then, a crackling, raspy voice came through a small speaker above the door:
"Ah, challengers, no doubt. This is not quite my gym in Cinnabar, but it'll do. Now, if the other side ye wish to see, ye must answer me these questions three. Question one-"
"Dr. Blaine, it's us!" Iris cut in. "Iris, remember, we talked about the you-know-what project earlier this year. And this is my friend Christina! Professor Elm sent us, you're expecting us!"
"Christina?" Kris wondered. "Iris, my name isn't-"
But Kris had no time to finish that sentence, as the dirt underneath the duo's feet disappeared as a hidden hatch opened and Kris and Iris both fell several feet below ground, both screaming in shock.
They barely missed the solid concrete floor of the dark room they ended up in as their fall was broken by a pile of leaves, though it was still not a happy experience.
"Oh, lord..." Kris grumbled as she got up, spitting leaves off her mouth. "That son of a..."
"Did you break something?" Iris asked with concern as she picked leaves off her hair – she hadn't been injured at all, apparently.
"My ass, it seems," Kris said through gritted teeth. "Once your Blaine gets here, I'm gonna-"
The torches around the room were all set alight, and the first thing Kris and Iris saw in the dingy basement that they ended up in was a Magmar, a bipedal Pokémon seemingly made of nothing but liquid hot "magma" and flames. It just stood in the middle of the room, staring at its two guests.
Then, someone walked down the stairs, and based on his deep, raspy voice that came from either years of smoking or inhaling smoke in a volcano. He was tall, rugged and in considerably good shape for a man in his late 50's or early 60's. He was completely bald but had thick white mustache and covered his eyes with sunglasses.
"At ease, Magmar, no need to melt off the faces off these folks," he said as he quickly descended into the basement. "Ah, Iris, good to see you again. That is, if it's really you and not someone who ripped off your face and uses it as a mask... maybe the melting idea isn't too bad after all."
"It's me!" Iris said quickly. "When I first saw you, you asked me that riddle about the Pokémon Rangers!"
Blaine grunted, satisfied with the answer, and turned his focus to Kris who slowly got on her feet while rubbing her backside.
"She hasn't been tested yet, though," Blaine muttered.
"I don't test well," Kris said.
"I ask the questions here!" Blaine said, raising is voice so much it made both Kris and Iris flinch. "Now, then, riddle me this..."
"What is this?" Kris asked Iris under her breath.
"Oh, the doctor loves riddles," Iris whispered, watching Blaine pace around the room, muttering stuff to himself. "He does that to everyone, though, don't worry."
"You sure this guy is a real doctor?" Kris wondered. "I mean, he is wearing a lab coat, but so did I during Halloween. I went as Dr. Tomoe," Kris clarified to a confused Iris. "Well, not so much went as sat in my basement eating candy. Lyra went as Waluigi, if I recall."
"A-ha!" Blaine suddenly yelled, and Kris and Iris flinched again. "Prepare yourself, and listen carefully, I will not repeat it. Well, I will probably repeat it if you want, because this is a real brainbuster. So, a Houndour is sleeping in the middle of a black street that has no streetlights and there is no moon. A car is coming down the road, its headlights off. And yet, the car easily steers around the Pokémon. The question is: how did the driver know the Houndour was there?"
"Ooh, I know this one!" Iris said and even raised her hand before realizing who the riddle was for, and lowered it again, smiling nervously. "Sorry," she said. "Habit."
Kris was just stunned, she looked at Iris for guidance, but Iris just shrugged, leaving Kris to her own devices. Blaine had his arms folded as he waited for Kris to get it.
"Um, okay, Houndour," Kris said to herself, drawing nothing but blanks in her mind. "A canine Pokémon native to Johto and Kanto. But there are no black roads over here, are there? Are there black roads in Unova, Iris? No, wait, never mind, you're not supposed to help me. Suppose it's someone's pet... but why would it be sleeping in the middle of a road? Or was it a street? Why would it be doing it anyway? Isn't that dangerous? Then again, how many people in Kanto and Johto use cars for anything other than transporting stuff and people around? Rich douchebags, maybe, but even they know better and use the electric ones..."
Kris mumbled out possible solutions to herself, though she had gone off the rails already. Blaine just smiled to himself while Iris kept wringing her hands, clearly wanting to show Blaine that she knew the answer.
"Well?" Blaine asked after a few minutes had passed.
"Okay, I think I got it," Kris said and took a deep breath before going off: "So, if the motorist really lives in Kanto, Johto or those other places with no need to own a car, he's clearly an irresponsible douchenozzle, which speaks of poor moral character, which brings me to another question: what he was doing driving around in the middle of the night, in a place with no lights, no less? Was it the seedy part of some big town? It was, so the driver is obviously a man going to cheat on his wife and he didn't steer around the Houndour, he was blind drunk and accidentally took a turn – you just left out the part where he drives off a ramp and dies in a fiery explosion, his wife collecting the life insurance and living on her own happily ever after, doing everything she had wanted to do but his abusive drunk of a husband prevented her from."
Blaine and Iris just stared.
Then, to both Kris' and Iris' surprise, Blaine started laughing. Even his Magmar was confused, as if the sound was alien to it. Iris clearly couldn't hold it in anymore.
"Kris!" she scolded. "It was daytime!"
Kris frowned.
"...oh, right, good one," she finally said. "Though couldn't you have have said it beforehand?"
Blaine just laughed, briefly removing his sunglasses to wipe his eyes, though he quickly put them back before Kris and Iris saw anything. After he finally stopped, Blaine took a deep breath, suddenly walked over to Kris and shook her hand.
"I like the cut of your jib, miss," he said as he squeezed Kris' hand a little too roughly – Kris could feel Blaine had plenty of scars and blisters in his hand, and noticed his other hand was covered by a black glove. "And based on what Elm told me, it's definitely you. So nice to finally meet you! Your name was Kris, wasn't it? Oh, sorry!" he said and let go when he noticed he was accidentally hurting Kris with his jovial handshake.
"'sallright," Kris said, but winced as she cradled her hand. "It takes my mind off the butt pain. Wait, what do you mean, 'based on what Elm told you'?"
"Good to see you too!" Blaine said warmly to Iris, ignoring Kris. Iris was about to hug him, but Blaine took a step back. "Ah, no hugging!" he said quickly. "That's how they bug you... oh, what the hell!"
Blaine practically lifted the giggling Iris off ground as he hugged her. As he put her back down, he waved at Magmar, who nodded and walked over to something resembling a submarine periscope.
"Thanks!" Blaine told his Pokémon, then signaled Kris and Iris to follow him. "Just making sure no one's sneaking about. Come on, let's go upstairs! Iris, how are your studies going?"
"Very well, thanks!" Iris replied as they climbed up the rickety stairs. "That info you gave me last time was really helpful, though I'm not sure all the professors believed me."
"Well, if you convinced even a few, then it was worth it," Blaine said.
The ground floor of the building was smaller than the basement, and lit up by bright lamps scattered about as no daylight got in through the boarded windows. There were computers and lab apparatus scattered about, as well as papers everywhere, scattered on the floor and tables and pinned on the wall. In one corner, there was a makeshift kitchen and a coffee maker, and next to it an open cabinet.
Kris tensed up a bit when she saw a pump-action shotgun in the cabinet – she hadn't seen an actual firearm outside video games, and few owned them as Pokémon did the job better, as did Silph-built energy weapons and Tasers.
Blaine noticed what Kris was looking at. "Ah, the old 12-gauge," he grunted. "Don't worry, I haven't been using it here... yet. I'm sorry that I don't have anything to offer you, I'm a lousy cook and I usually get my food off the canteen... well, I bring it here for testing before me and Magmar eat it. It sleeps over there," he added and pointed at a large fireplace.
Moving around in the room was tough due to how cramped it was, but Kris and Iris managed to find chairs that didn't have a ton of a paper on them.
"So," Kris said, "mister Bl– I mean, doctor-"
"Just call me Blaine," the scientist said. "You too, Iris. I haven't been a professional scientist in years, none of my former colleagues use the title, might as well cut the crap."
"Okay," Kris said. "Professor Elm told me you could help me with something."
"Yes, yes, he told me on the phone," Blaine hurried. "No matter how much I tell him to use a more secure way of communicating. Hmph! Still, gotta love the guy. Anyway, you want to enter the Silver Conference? I don't blame ya: it only comes a few times in a Pokémon trainer's lifetime, and it's better to do it while you're young and hungry than when you're middle-aged and tied with a job and kids."
"Well, I don't want the latter and no one will give me the former," Kris pointed out, "but I'm still taking the chance while I still can."
"I like that," Blaine nodded. "But you have to get in without the usual route of having at least eight badges on hand."
"Well, I have one!" Kris said quickly, but remembered that Iris was sitting next to her when she quietly added: "Not that I deserve even that..."
"I have contacts with the Legendary Pokémon Society!" Blaine announced. "But I must warn you: these guys deal with stuff you're not used to back in your little village. You think you're up to it?"
"Wha...?" Kris was taken aback by Blaine's suddenly grave tone. Then again, the guy was crazy – in a more nice way than others, but still crazy. "Yes, I am! Blaine, this has been my lifelong dream! Yeah, yeah, I know, childish crap or whatever, but it's all I've got."
"You sure about that?" Blaine asked. "You're alive, aren't ya? You have a friend," he gestured at Iris, who wasn't paying too much attention to the conversation as she was feeding her Axew. "You have Pokémon. And you've been... well, maybe not well-fed, but fed anyway."
Kris felt a lecture approaching. "Well, if you're not gonna help me-"
"Oh, I am, I promised to ol' Elm already," Blaine said casually. "Just making sure you understand that this is not going to be easy. And the LPS doesn't look kindly to people entering the trials – even members of the dragon clan had to put up with scorn and hazing. And I wouldn't recommend associating with the monks who run it, anyway. They're dedicated and they'll do it because they have to, but that doesn't mean they'll like it – especially for some pimply little runt from the sticks."
"Blaine!" Iris said suddenly and almost dropped her Axew. "Since when you did become so-"
"No, he's right," Kris said, staring at where she believed Blaine's eyes were – that technician hadn't been exaggerating. "At least, that's how those guys will see me."
Blaine nodded. "But if you're truly as convinced as Elm says you are, I'll make the call and arrange a meeting with them – on one condition."
"Here we go," Kris sighed and slumped in her chair.
"Consider this preparation for those trials," Blaine smiled. "Now, I'm about to tell you something... Iris, you know the deal already," he added. "If you don't want to listen to all this again, there's a healing machine in the back room. It's a bit different from most, you actually have to put the Pokémon inside it, so it only works on smaller ones, but it's the only one I could fit in this shack."
"Well, my Pokémon are all right," Iris said, "and we didn't run into any battles between this place and Violet. But, uh, Kris, I think it would be a good idea to check up on the Sandshrew, don't you think?"
Kris felt a sting in her stomach as Iris said it – it didn't sound like it, but Kris was almost sure Iris was trying to guilt-trip her. Nonetheless, she had a point.
"You're right," Kris said and opened Shrew's Poké Ball.
Iris was indeed right – as the little yellow Pokémon materialized in Kris' lap, it was sleeping but breathing heavily, the bruises on its head still looking bad.
The moment the Sandshrew got out of its ball, a device in Blaine's pocket lit up and started beeping like crazy. Blaine was confused by it for a moment, then turned his head in the Sandshrew's direction, his mouth slightly open.
"What's that?" Iris asked as she took the Sandshrew gently from Kris.
Blaine didn't reply immediately – he removed the battery from the device to stop the obnoxious beeping and then stared at the Sandshrew, slightly frowning.
"Nothing you should worry about," Blaine said tensely, still (presumably) keeping his eyes on the Pokémon. "But it looks like it could use some healing. Go on."
Iris retreated into the back room, and Blaine instantly walked to a radio next to the coffee maker and turned it on:
"...his fate leaving the nation asking: won't anyone look after the most oppressed of us all: the wealthy? We'll answer you that as we cover the 'Aid for the Loaded' benefit concert. In other news, residents in the Goldenrod area have reported sightings of people in black uniforms. The police assure that 'everything is fine' and assure that they're infallible. In our opinion, everything is horrible, so please, be as paranoid as you can, and don't believe what they tell you - as long as you believe us. This has been Johto news-"
"This should be safer, I think," Blaine muttered over the sound of the radio.
"For what?" Kris wondered and suddenly grabbed the sides of her chair tensely. "A-are you gonna murder me and the radio is there to cover the screams?"
"What? No! Sheesh... I'm going to tell you something."
"Something top-secret?" Kris asked. "'Cause I don't know if you can trust me with information like that..."
"In all honesty, it would be good if more people knew," Blaine grumbled. "But there are certain groups who might be listening in... like the committee, for instance. And then there's the – well, you'll see. Speaking of which, has someone tried to make you swallow something recently? Seen any white helicopters that might have been black before a paint job?"
"No and no."
"Good," Blaine said and took a wrinkled piece of paper from his back pocket and showed it to Kris. "Do you know what Pokémon this is?" he asked, referring to a drawing on the paper.
It was an artist's impression of a supposedly mythical Pokémon. It was floating in the air, resembling a sort of pink cat with big, baby blue eyes and with hind legs like a rabbit. It also seemed to have an enormous-
"That's the tail!" Blaine said quickly as he swiped the picture from Kris. "Anyway, I'm guessing you don't know what it is, but I'm sure you've heard the name before. It's Mew."
"That's Mew?" Kris said. "I was expecting something with battle armor and cannons sticking out of its back. It was kinda cute, though – can I see it again?"
"No," Blaine grunted, wrinkled the paper into a ball and put it back in his pocket. "You see, about five years ago, I was… I worked for the Pokémon Laboratory in Cinnabar. I was the lead geneticist of a certain, well, 'project'. Project Mewtwo."
Kris' senses sharpened as she stared at Blaine intently. She had to listen very carefully, as Blaine talked as if the shack was full of eavesdropping people, and the radio was still on, playing some sort of marching music.
"The goal of the project was to create the world's strongest Pokémon," Blaine explained. "I should have known back then that something was wrong, but the idea fascinated me. I knew the consequences, and still I co-operated… with them. Team Rocket."
Blaine spat the last two words, and grumpily folded his arms as he started pacing around the shack.
"Giovanni offered to fund the project," Blaine said bitterly, forgetting to lower his voice. "Even though we all knew what he was capable of, we agreed. We were given more money than any of us had seen in our lives, and I was given the opportunity to work on something that no other scientist ever could. I offered to create an artificial Pokémon, itself something unforeseen back then, as Porygon wasn't created until a while after that. But Giovanni insisted that we use Mew's DNA. We tried to explain to him that it couldn't be done… well, all of us except Junior…"
"Um... who?" Kris asked, reluctant to interrupt Blaine but desperately wanting more info.
"Junior," Blaine repeated and looked at Kris "Oh, right, you don't know… the Pokémon Lab was founded by Mr. Fuji about fifty years ago, to study the mysteries surrounding Pokémon. Fuji was the kindest person I ever met – probably the only one who'd recruit someone like me…"
Blaine didn't seem to mind that Kris didn't really get the nuances of his story, as he seemed to tell it to himself more than others. It was like he hadn't talked with anyone in a long while.
"By the time of the Mewtwo Project, Fuji had already retired, and his son, who we called Junior, took his place as the administrator. Fuji Sr. did live on the island then, but he was mostly just an adviser. He opposed the project, while his own son was its most ardent supporter. Shortly before the project, he had, um… lost his daughter. Junior was very interested in cloning, feeling that it was the key to reviving his lost child. I don't know exactly how he did it, but Junior was able to lead an expedition to some island far away and retrieve something he believed to be a part of Mew…"
"Junior and I shared the position of project leader. He developed some advanced cloning techniques while I created the synthesized tissue for our new Pokémon. Even then, we had surprisingly little contact and I didn't really see any of Fuji's experiments, but there were rumors… rumors that many Pokémon he had cloned had died…"
"It was thanks to me that we succeeded. I, uh… I managed to use a sample of my own DNA and fuse it with Mew's to get the perfect result."
Blaine fiddled with his gloved hand during a few seconds of silence before continuing.
"'We dreamed of creating the world's strongest Pokémon'," Blaine quoted, '"and we succeeded'. Those were Junior's last words. I remember the day well. Mewtwo had been... born a week before. There was a celebration, but I didn't take any part in it. While Mewtwo slept, I educated the creature, told it what it was, told it about its powers, told it bedtime stories... I don't know if it understood me… but I knew already that it had powerful psychic abilities and could potentially kill us all if it wanted to."
"When Junior found out that I was practically living in the lab, he forced me to take a day off. I spent the day wondering what they'd do with my… with Mewtwo. Later that day, it seems that Mewtwo had … grown up. It destroyed the lab and practically everyone in it and escaped. I ran to the lab just in time to meet that slimeball Giovanni… he was furious, but I couldn't care less about him. Only Giovanni, Fuji Sr. and myself know that I had just created a monster… well, monsters. And Mewtwo is still on the run. Fuji was devastated and moved away from Cinnabar. A new laboratory was created, a new staff was hired and now they research boring things like TM's, items, fossils and whatever. "
Blaine didn't sound too sad about the death of his colleagues. In fact, he told the story passionately, and his voice didn't crack once. Apparently he had gotten over the stage of grief – or, if Kris had to guess, he had never grieved at all.
The door to the backroom was opened, and Iris stepped out, holding the Sandshrew in her arms – Kris noticed it was in better shape already, and not breathing as heavily, though still sleeping. Blaine glanced at the Sandshrew briefly before continuing.
"Since then, I've wanted to find Mewtwo," Blaine said. "For the longest time, I've worked alone, but then he came."
Blaine looked at Kris expectantly, and Kris decided to play out her part.
"He?" she asked, knowing that Blaine would tell her anyway.
"Red," Blaine said quietly, and Kris got really interested now, focusing herself entirely to listening. "The legendary Pokémon trainer who defeated Team Rocket when it was on the verge of taking over Kanto. What they were really after was the Master Ball, a prototype Poké Ball capable of capturing any Pokémon in the world without fail. It would be Giovanni's ultimate weapon."
"I met Red when he first challenged my gym – he was one of the few who managed to find the key I had hidden in the abandoned lab, and as I had hoped, he also discovered the journals I placed there that referred to Mew and Mewtwo. He didn't ask me about it then, though. He came, beat me like it was not even a thing and left, barely saying a word."
"I met him again when Cinnabar was in chaos – this was before the volcano erupted. A rampaging Moltres was about to destroy the place, but Red managed to tame the beast and make it return to its nest at Mt. Ember. I knew then that this person could be trusted with finding Mewtwo. And he trusted me with another secret of his: he had amassed a small group of friends and loyal followers with him to investigate two things: the remnants of Team Rocket and a far-reaching conspiracy... something terrible."
Blaine decided it was time for a dramatic pause. Kris stared at Blaine, and even Iris, who had presumably heard the story before, was interested.
"Then what?"
"Mmm... I think that's enough for now, to be honest," Blaine said in a lighter tone. "It's time to talk business. You want me to help you, right?"
Blaine motioned Kris and Iris to follow him to the backroom. Now that Kris saw it in full, she saw a broken, dirty mattress in the corner that Blaine apparently slept on, and a healing machine for Pokémon taking up most of the space. There was also a bookshelf, which Blaine easily moved aside to reveal the mouth of a dark tunnel, supposedly leading down into the catacombs below.
"...okay, our house didn't have that," Iris observed.
"Listen closely," Blaine said. "If you want my help, you'll have to do something for me. There's an item invaluable to my research somewhere in those catacombs, and if those bastard scientists digging out here find it, well, let's just say it's gonna be a real drag for everyone."
"There's gonna be crossdressing involved?" Kris wondered.
"You two have flashlights?" Blaine inquired.
"Ooh, I do!" Iris said.
She placed the Sandshrew on the ground, finally causing it to wake up, as she pulled a flashlight from her bag. Kris just shrugged.
"Sorry, I did seriously consider it," she said, "but I needed to make room for my books."
Blaine handed her a flashlight, as well as a piece of rope.
"I don't know about Iris, but I'm not particularly in the mood for those kind of games..."
"Okay, enough already," Blaine grunted. "And about that rope – you'll never know when you're gonna need one. Haven't you ever seen a movie?"
"...was that a rhetorical question?" Kris asked.
"You want us to go down there?" Iris said with a slight tremble in her voice as she turned on her flashlight and tried to see the end of the tunnel, to no avail. "Well... why can't you go retrieve the thing yourself?"
"Well, I've spent my time at these digs isolating myself from every pencilneck scientist and pot-bellied technician here," Blaine said mildly defensively. "If I go down there, who's gonna come look for me if I get lost? That place is a maze, and I love Magmar and everything, but she can't operate a walkie. Speaking of which..."
Blaine took out one half of a pair of walkies and was about to hand it to Kris, but after slight hesitation, gave it to Iris instead. Kris did not mind this at all.
"Um, yyyeaaah..." she said and gulped. "Listen, Blaine, I really, really, really don't wanna go down there. I..." She glanced at Iris, embarrassed. "I have bad experiences with tombs and catacombs and caves and whatnot..."
"What, did a cave kill your parents or something?" Blaine asked impatiently.
"Unfortunately no," Kris said seriously. "But I – can't I do anything else for you? You said you were a lousy cook – I can boil really juicy water. I just don't like, well, ruins. Are there any Pokémon over there?"
"Shouldn't be," Blaine shrugged, "although I swear I saw something emitting a blue light... maybe a ghost-type Pokémon."
"Oh, great," Kris moaned. "Ghosts were the one thing missing from the equation."
Iris grabbed Kris' hand and smiled encouragingly.
"Don't worry," she said, "I'm not exactly thrilled about going down there, but I'll still be with you! And think of the secrets we'll discover. Besides, we have Shrew with us – Sandshrew are really good diggers, so if anything happens-"
"Nothing's gonna happen, though, I'll be here with the radio," Blaine promised. "And speaking of which... where and when did you find that Sandshrew? I'm curious. It... its wounds look pretty bad, is all..."
Kris wondered why Blaine decided to ask it so suddenly, but as this was the guy who could alter her future, she decided to be honest. "Earlier today," she said. "Right near the Violet City Pokémon Center."
Blaine nodded. "Off you go then," he said and nudged Kris and Iris closer to the tunnel. "Get in the hole – er, tunnel. And, uh, I'd recommend letting the Sandshrew go first. I have feeling he'll help you sniff out what I'm after. Based on my books, it should be in a locked, metal chest, though a very, very old one so one of your Pokémon should crack with ease. Move along, then!"
Kris and Iris glanced at each other, but without any other options, they shrugged and approached the tunnel's mouth. Kris lifted Shrew to let it look at the tunnel, but the moment it did so, it squealed in terror, wrapped its hands around Kris and buried its head in her top, making Kris feel a bit awkward.
"There... there?" she muttered, patting the Sandshrew on the head. "Shrew, it'll be all right. There's no wild Pokémon there – or if there are, they're nothing to worry about. You don't have to fight this time." Shrew blinked and looked up at its new trainer. "I just need you to do something for me: find a metal treasure chest containing an artifact somewhere within those catacombs. Got that?"
Shrew nodded, and, while still frightened, climbed on the mouth of the tunnel and started descending. Iris went after it, showing the way with her flashlight, though Shrew didn't seem to need it. Kris inhaled deeply, but went in after them anyway despite every cell in her body screaming against this decision.
~o~O~o~
It was darker than Kris had ever thought possible inside the underground catacombs. Soon enough, Kris, Iris and Shrew reached the end of the tunnel and were walking on solid stone floor, the light from Blaine's shack long behind them, making the flashlights their only source of light. Allowing Iris and Shrew to walk first, Kris pointed her flashlight on the walls.
There were letters of some sort on the walls – thousands, probably millions of letters, though they didn't seem to form any cohesive words. Even stranger, these letters all had big circles in the middle of them.
They looked like eyes. Millions of eyes staring at them as they walked down the narrow corridor, Shrew walking on all fours and sniffing the ground like a Houndour.
"Kris," Iris whispered suddenly – almost making Kris jump. Kris had no idea why Iris had lowered her voice to a whisper, though. "What do you think this place was for?"
Kris found herself answering in whisper too: "I don't know. Do you know these things on the walls?"
Kris and Iris stopped to read the writing, but couldn't really figure out anything about it. Iris stared at the letters for a moment, then shook her head.
"You know what this reminds me of?" Kris said nervously, trying to keep the tension out. "This game called 'Creepy Catacomb Crawl'. It starts out with the phrase 'you are in a twisty maze of passages'... well, there hasn't been much twists yet, though, but still."
"What happened in that game?" Iris asked.
"Um..." Kris tried to recollect to the last time she had played the game. "It usually always ends the same way. I get killed by a Garbodor or something equally icky before I get to the treasure at the end."
Kris and Iris stared at each other in silence for a while, then Iris cleared her throat.
"We, um, should probably keep moving," she said.
"Quite."
Kris spared one last look at the mysterious writing. Upon closer inspection, it turned out that the "letters" weren't even painted on, but actually engraved into the stone. Kris reached out to touch one of the letters.
Then she felt her head split open.
Kris wasn't in the catacombs anymore – she was above ground, but the sky was hellish red and dark purple and a huge storm threw about trees, pieces of buildings and people – yet Kris didn't feel anything but a splitting pain in her head as she saw people in strange clothing running from a purple, all-consuming ball of fire that kept closer and closer – Kris could almost smell the burning-
"KRIS!"
As she woke up, Kris found herself on her back on the cold stone floor, feeling more pain in her backside. Iris and Shrew had knelt above her, Iris dripping with sweat and looking terrified.
"Are you okay?" Iris asked, relieved as Kris opened her eyes.
Kris wasn't sure how to answer that question. Her head still throbbed like crazy, but there was no trace of what she had just seen... and yet it had felt like a purple ball of fire had just burned everything around her. Holding her forehead with her hands, Kris got up.
"A-are you an epileptic?" Iris asked delicately. "'Cause, it's okay if you are, I just think you could have mentioned than in passing before..."
"Thanks for your concern, but no," Kris muttered. "I'm anemic, though. And lactose-intolerant, though I don't think there was any buttermilk in that wall... and I've been fine since we left," she added to Iris, who looked almost irritatingly worried. "I don't know what just happened..."
Iris shook her head – the mere of sight that caused Kris' headache to get worse – and touched the wall herself, but nothing happened to her.
"We should ask Blaine about this," Iris said, still eyeing Kris with concern as she grabbed the walkie that Blaine had given her. "Blaine, are you there?" she said, speaking into the walkie while pressing the only button in it.
However, white noise was her only response.
"Blaine, are you there?" Iris repeated. "We can't be that deep yet!"
"Just leave it," Kris said, her eyes tightly shut – the headache was subsiding, but she still felt the aftereffects. "We're on our own. We should get going, like you said."
Though not hearing about Blaine made Iris a bit more panicky, Kris was too confused by her sudden experience to even be scared. The two walked in the corridor in complete silence until they came to a fork in the road, one leading left and the other leading right. The trio came to a halt, Shrew getting on two legs and sniffing the air.
Iris looked at Kris for guidance.
"If you're gonna say 'let's split up, gang', I'll end you," Kris muttered, though with a nervous smile.
Iris laughed – in a somewhat forced way, though.
"Trust me, I don't want that," she said. "But... well, I can't think of any other options, to be honest. I could try to use Axew for that-"
Kris suddenly noticed sudden rustling in Iris' enormous bush of hair. So that's where the darn thing had been hiding!
"Axew!" Iris scolded the Pokémon. "I know it's dark and scary out here, but-"
But Shrew had made the decision for them, as it started running towards the path leading to the left. It then stopped and looked over its shoulder, as if expecting something.
Kris and Iris both sighed in relief and started following Shrew. And again, complete silence took over as only the sounds of footsteps were heard.
"Hey, Iris," Kris said after a long period of silence and some more left turns.
"Yeah?"
"Am I the only one who got slightly pervy vibes of us 'squeezing into Blaine's hole'?"
"Um... can't we talk about something else?" Iris pleaded.
"Sure – actually, forget I said that. Uh, what do you wanna talk about?"
"How about that? Just don't touch it this time."
Iris stopped again to point at something with her flashlight, forcing Kris and the suddenly very eager Sandshrew to stop as well. There was another wall carving, but something else than the seemingly endless rows of odd letters. It was a drawing of three Pokémon forming a triangle, with two at the bottom and one, a vaguely horse-like creature with what was possibly the sun surrounding it, at the top. The drawing was made in very simplistic style, but Kris assumed them to be a triumvirate of Pokémon. In the middle of the triangle was an infinity symbol.
"This make sense to you, Miss college student?" Kris asked Iris.
Iris shook her head. "I've read about myths, but mainly Unova ones. Plus this drawing doesn't resemble any style I know. I don't think this is going to help us find the thing Blaine is after, though."
And with that acknowledgment, Kris and Iris traveled on.
After another series of left turns, one right turn and descending down some stairs, Kris and Iris started to worry again – nothing was lunging at them from the darkness, but it was getting increasingly colder and only static came through the walkie.
Finally, Shrew sprinted forward and into what seemed to be a larger chamber. Kris and Iris followed, passing through an archway as they stepped into the chamber that was incredibly large, the ceiling most likely going all the way up to the surface. The walls were full of writing and drawings similar to the one they saw before. The chamber was full of old pillars that didn't seem to support anything, but were also full of engravings.
Kris and Iris searched the chamber with their flashlights, noticing entrances to more tunnels on every wall, which got Kris a little anxious. Iris was clearly thinking along similar lines.
"Why didn't we pull a Theseus or something to mark the way out?" she lamented. "This place goes on forever..."
"I didn't see 300," Kris muttered, "but I don't think that'll be an issue. Shrew'll help us, right Shrew?"
Shrew responded by sudden enthusiastic squealing from the corner. Kris and Iris directed their flashlights there, seeing Shrew sniffing a small metal chest like crazy. On the wall behind the chest was a huge illustration that covered a huge chunk of the wall, reaching up to ten feet, forcing Kris and Iris to back down to see it. Though carved in the same, simplistic style as the earlier pictures, this one was clearer: it was a Pokémon with no discernible facial features, but it clearly had six legs, six wings and six claws, three on each side.
While Iris stared at the engraving in awe, Kris shook herself out of it and focused on the chest. After both Kris and Shrew unsuccessfully tried to jimmy it open, Kris decided to carry it with her, as it was fairly small and light.
"Kris," Iris whispered as she continued to stare at the six-legged creature. "Stop me if this is too random, but seeing all this stuff makes me wonder... do you think there's any truth to all those myths we've heard about? You know, the heroes of Unova, the Original One, whoever inhabited these ruins, that kind of stuff."
"Normally I would stop you," Kris said as she admired the treasure they had just found, "but I'm feeling in a good mood here. And to be honest, I don't really think about it that much – at least not anymore. I mean, yeah, my grandmother is pretty deeply into this stuff and I was too, for a while. She's a true believer, I guess. My parents say they're too, at some point, but I dunno, every action they've taken would say otherwise." After a pause, Kris felt she shouldn't maybe talk about herself all the time. "You?" she added.
"I dunno either," Iris said quietly, still looking at the wall. "I mean, I've been focusing on scientific research my whole life, so I thought there's little room for speculation – turns out half of the stuff I've studied is speculation. And myths have played a large part of that."
"Well, this box sure ain't no speculation," Kris said, and as she couldn't help herself, she added: "Not that it'll do me much good if I fail the actual trials."
"C'mon!" Iris groaned. "Will you stop wallowing already? You won't know until you've tried! And I've said it before and I'll say it again: I know you'll go far. You've got that winner spirit in you, Christine!"
Kris sighed. "I have no idea where you've got that," she snapped. "My name is not short for Christine. It's spelled with a frickin' kay! K-R-I-S!"
Iris took her eyes off the wall carving and stared at Kris. "Wait... with a 'kay'? But... there was a girl with a presentation, her name was spelled Christine - dark hair, pasty, kinda standoffish..."
"Believe me, I was not standoffish in school," Kris scoffed. "Sit-downish, more like. Maybe walk-overish. And I have no idea what presentation you're thinking of! Yeah, mine was a middle finger to the whole school, but more in a literal sense, I was pissing myself with fear when I heard we had to do oral presentations and I hated the place anyway so I just winged it. Hmm, come to think of it, I probably would have tossed myself out, too."
Iris stared at Kris as realization seemed to dawn on her, but was snapped out of it by a sudden loud male voice echoing in the chamber:
"Finally, I was about to crazy in here! You know there's nothing to read in here besides these hieroglyphs? A pity these didn't come up as I studied the ancient languages."
It wasn't Blaine – this voice was more boisterous, with an air of obnoxious pretension. Kris and Iris pointed their flashlights upwards, noticing a tall man standing on top of one of the pillars, though they couldn't see his face.
"Well, let's waste no more time. Ars longa, vita brevis and all that, and I have plenty of ars to chase. Hand over that box you're carrying, will you?"
"Well, I'd like to," Kris said, slowly inching towards the way she came in, "but, well, I actually don't, and we've been searching this place for Arceus knows how long and it would all be kinda pointless if I, well, you know the deal. So no, you're not gonna get it."
"Yeah, I'd really love to make this up for you," the man shouted, "I did observe you coming in and all that, and I've been sitting here waiting to ambush you. It's not easy being me, you know. This took a crapload of planning and all that time would be wasted if you don't give the box to me! Me!"
Kris and Iris exchanged confused looks – Shrew hid behind Kris' leg, and Kris could feel the little Pokémon shaking, wondering just how much all that head damage had traumatized it.
"Yeah, sorry!" Kris shouted at the man, prodding Iris to move towards the exit too. "But no dice, better luck next time, kaythanksbye!"
Grabbing the Sandshrew under her spare arm, Kris dashed towards the exit with Iris in tow, though Iris quickly ran past her as a Sandshrew was surprisingly heavy. But as the mystery man snapped his fingers, a heavy stone door came down from the archway and closed the exit right in front of Iris' face.
"How did you do that?" Iris asked the man.
"Magic!" he announced.
Kris and Iris just stared.
"Okay, fine, I've got my Pokémon minions working the controls of this place," the man admitted. "Impressive hydraulics, by the way. Considering how the people who built this place had their act together, it's like humanity is just getting stupider. Good job, minions! Now, the box please, thank you!"
Kris started breathing heavily – this guy was not part of the plan. Maybe Blaine wasn't so crazy after all. But whatever was in that box was Kris' ticket to those "trials" she heard much about – her once-in-a-lifetime chance was here and she would now blow it.
"Come and get it," Kris spat. "Shrew, attack him!"
But Shrew reacted by hooking its claws into Kris' top and climbing under her coat, attaching itself to Kris' back, making Kris look like Quasimodo's offspring. Kris sighed.
"I'm not using Croc," she told Iris. "Can you...?"
"Okay," Iris said, clearly scared herself, but at least willing to fight. "Axew!"
The green, big-eyed little dragon-type jumped out of Iris' hair and on the floor, growling at the man standing high on top of the pillar, who responded with derisive laughter.
"Well isn't that adorable!" he mocked. "And a rarity, at that. I could make a bundle selling it to one of those pokémaniacs who hang out at the Goldenrod underground, but I'm feeling even more jovial than usual, so I'll just take the box, thank you!"
"Axew, Dragon Pulse!"
But before Axew could attack, razor-sharp leaves flew from on top of another pillar, slashing Axew's face and body, knocking it out with a single attack.
"Thank you, Victreebel!" the man said cheerfully. "Now, as I was saying-"
"We don't care!" Iris snapped, surprising even Kris with her suddenly harsh tone. Iris readied another Poké Ball "Excadrill, g-"
But the man's Victreebel was once again faster, a green vine suddenly emerging and wrapping itself around Kris' neck. Kris dropped on her knees, panicking as she tried to pry the vine off, but it only made it squeeze harder. Kris tried to draw for breath, but failed, and Shrew merely shuddered in fright inside Kris' jacket.
With that, the mystery man jumped down from the pillar and in front of the duo, finally hitting the beam of Iris' flashlight. He over six feet tall and sported an impressive black mustache, and was wearing a fully black uniform and had covered his eyes with a domino mask.
"Yes, 'tis I!" he announced. "The ruler of anarchy, the hero of social upheaval, the master of the oppressed everywhere! Missile! No, it was not what my mother preferred."
"I don't care!" Iris yelled in panic and tossed the metal chest to Missile, who caught it easily. "Let go of my friend!"
"But of course!" Missile said and snapped his fingers again – his Victreebel, apparently positioned on the pillar behind Kris, let go of her neck, causing Kris to gasp for air. Iris grabbed the unconscious Axew under her arm as the Victreebel jumped down next to its owner, showing the duo its cavernous mouth and razor-sharp teeth.
"I wouldn't try anything if I were you," Missile warned. "Victreebel, hammer, please."
Victreebel use its vine to pull something from its humongous mouth – a sledgehammer that Missile grabbed with one hand, as if to show off.
"Who the hell are you?" Iris wondered.
Missile looked confused. "Well, I just told you, didn't I? D-doesn't the uniform give it off...? I mean, I just washed it before this gig. Look at this fine stitching around the huge, fuchsia-colored 'R' in my chest! Ring any bells?"
"You're a Magnet Train conductor?" Kris asked hoarsely as she rubbed her neck – that was the second time today someone had attacked her there and it was really getting old.
"Wait, are you a Nazi?" Iris asked and looked at Kris with concern. "Is this a Nazi, Kris? I mean, does Johto have a thriving community of extreme right-wingers?"
Missile threw his arms in the air dramatically. "Team Rocket! I mean, Neo Team Rocket!" he shouted. "Hello? The scourge of Kanto? Well, I came up with that one myself, actually. We are legion and we're back – with a vengeance. Hence the fabulous 'R'!"
"Yeah, right," Kris scoffed – perhaps not the smartest thing to do to a man with a sledgehammer and a huge carnivorous plant ready to digest anyone by its master's command, but she didn't care. She had lost the goddamn box. "They're disbanded. That guy, that hero Red took all of you guys out! And you can buy those uniforms off the rack in a place that sells Halloween costumes! I bet you're some random freak with no real content in his life who just pretends to be a Team Rocket member to get his rocks off."
"LIES!" Missile shouted suddenly and raised his sledgehammer, causing Kris and Iris to back down. "You will regret those words, young lady," he said as he pointed them with the hammer. "When they find your skeletons here years later, the only thing you'll be remembered for is 'talking smack at Missile'! Speaking of which, time's wasting!"
Without so much as a warning, Missile swung his sledgehammer and cracked the base of the pillar he was standing next to. Kris and Iris looked up and were briefly frozen by terror as the pillar crashed into the one next to it, causing an uncontrollable chain reaction as the whole chamber began to shake.
Iris tried to reach out for a Poké Ball in panic, attempting to recall Axew and dropping her flashlight in the process, stumbling about and causing Kris to lose sight of her. Kris ran in the opposite direction, trying to go for one of the other exits and ignoring the chaos around her.
Thinking she found one, she had to dodge as a pillar slowly fell in her direction, forcing her to throw herself down on the floor as flat as she could, causing her flashlight to hit the ground.
It was now pitch black, and Kris heard nothing but the deafening sound of stone pillars crumbling down for a few minutes. Desperate to get away from the chaos, Kris tried to pull herself up, Shrew still weighing down her back, forcing her to grab one of the walls for support.
Then she remembered why that was a bad idea.
Oh, fu-
For the second time today, Kris felt like her head was being squeezed in a vise.
Again, there was the hellish red and purple and black sky, the storm, the people fleeing in panic, all wearing strange clothes, some wearing armor. There were Pokémon running around, though no Poké Balls or the familiar red flashes that came from them. An Arcanine and a Houndoom were attacking something that most seemed to flee from.
And in the middle of the chaos, there were hundreds, maybe thousands of little black, floating Pokémon, each the shape of a letter and with one, huge eye in the middle. Some were randomly floating around, but most have gathered to form a huge sphere that floated in the air, a purple vortex in the middle of it.
As the Pokémon floated by eerily, they didn't attack and seemingly didn't do anything, but all other noises were drowned out as they seemed to emit a strange, high-pitched sound in unison:
"Uuuuunooooownnnn..."
A young man with dark hair wearing a leather armor commanded a Manectric to attack the gigantic sphere, but to no avail. An older man in tattered clothing ran to him ad grabbed him by the arm.
"Lunick!" the old man yelled, clearly out of breath.
"Did you get the monks?" the young man called.
"Lunick, they're... those creatures that came from the vortex... they ate them all!"
The young man looked away from the messenger, steeling himself. The older man was on the verge of a breakdown, desperately grabbing the younger man's armor by the chest.
"I warned you all, didn't I?" the old man ranted. "The signs were clear! We should have never associated so closely with Pokémon! We're paying the price now! We're going to die!"
"...maybe not all of us," Lunick said tensely and pushed the old man away. "Get a hold of yourself! Search the main area for any civilians and get them out of here, then give the order to retreat."
The old man only half-listened, as something emerged from the purple, rapidly spinning vortex. Kris could barely see it: it was a very small, innocous-looking Pokémon that was barely two feet tall and had long, wavy green hair. But something about it sent chills down Kris' spine, how it just floated serenely despite the chaos around it, its eyes closed.
Then, a reverberating female voice grasped the attention of everyone, human and Pokémon alike:
"All of you. We do not wish any further harm upon you. Give us what we need and the destruction will stop. All we need is the Griseous Orb. The rightful leader of both this world and the one beyond requires it."
"Of course," Lunick muttered. "Go do what I said, now!" he ordered the old man, who stumbled away. "You three!" Lunick ordered two female soldiers and their Mightyena. "Come with me, I have a plan!"
~o~O~o~
Kris woke up with a gasp, this time not even caring about the headache as she got up, then almost fell over again, her senses confused by the pitch-black darkness. The rumbling and shouting had stopped, replaced by utter silence.
"Iris," Kris hissed, whispering as loud as she could manage without actually raising her voice.
There was no answer.
"Shrew?"
A frightened squeal was answer.
Kris knelt and tried to feel her way around the floor, doing her best to avoid where she thought the walls were. Finally, her hands brushed a shivering ball on the floor that she presumed was her Sandshrew.
"It's me," Kris said reassuringly. "It's all right, the danger is over... I hope."
Kris heard Shrew uncurling itself.
"Listen, Shrew. You can sniff your way out of here, right?"
Another frightened squeal. Kris hoped it meant yes.
"Okay, just hang on a second... crap! My stupid flashlight is gone. You're just gonna-?"
"Did you say 'fleshlight'?"
Kris heard the voice echo from somewhere close by. Unfortunately, it wasn't Iris.
"Missile," Kris said, breathing heavily and practically hearing her rapid heartbeat. "Stay close to me," she whispered to Sandshrew. "No, I didn't!"
"Oh, thank goodness! And whoever says your other senses get better in the dark, hah!"
"Just stayed here to taunt me?" Kris said as she quietly backed down, hoping Missile wouldn't find her based on her voice – she wished she had something to throw to distract him. "Or did your subtle plan to trap us here sort of backfire? How much was that 'crapload of time' you spent planning this thing? Half a minute?"
"Au contraire, Kris, this is going exactly like I hoped it would. Well, admittedly, I was expecting to be out by now, but this is more fun. Guess what this sound is!"
Kris stopped and waited, but heard nothing.
"Oh, crap, it didn't go like in the movies! Well, I just pulled a knife out of a sheath. Gotta be careful with these things in the dark, you know... someone could lose an eye."
Kris found it hard to conceal her breathing, and was painfully aware of every minute sound her clothes made as she moved. She felt Shrew clutching her leg – at least Shrew probably could see what was going on.
"Good luck with that!" Kris said loudly, hoping the echo would hide her whereabouts. "You're just as lost as me in here, you know! Did it cross your mind that we should work together to get out?"
"Lost? Oh, please, I memorized the layout to these catacombs weeks – okay, hours – ago. And I have night-vision goggles with me, you know! If I could just get them... ah, here we go!"
"You're bluffing!" Kris said. "You-"
Kris stopped and gulped. A green glow walked past her in a corridor ten yards from her location. Kris stopped moving and crouched, but the green glow just floated by.
Okay, so he's not bluffing. But I doubt he sees past a few feet.
"No, not bluffing. And a thought occurred to me – it'll be some time before I find myself back to the surface with my loot, so I might as well take advantage of this opportunity and find some rare Pokémon. I already got that other one's Axew – she went down pretty quickly, you know. Didn't even scream – though I guess that's what happens when your trachea is sliced apart. Sure was messy, I tell you that!"
Kris gasped involuntarily and had to cover her mouth. Iris... no, he couldn't have...
"But you know, the thing about that is that just because you can't make much of a sound doesn't mean you're dead. I imagine she's bleeding out somewhere in here, and I'd hate for it to happen to you. So, just give me the Sandshrew and I'll make it quick – no, wait, I'll sweeten the deal! Give me the Sandshrew and I won't stab you at all!"
He's bluffing, Kris thought. He's bluffing. Has to be. This can't be happening. Not to me. I just left home yesterday. And she was so young... so nice to me... and I treated her like crap!
Kris heard some distant rumbling and felt a slight tremor. The place was coming apart. Missile felt it too, as his tone got a little more hasty and Kris started hearing his footsteps – was he getting closer? She couldn't see the glow of his night-vision goggles...
"All right, this is all in a day's fun, but it gets old fast. I'm losing my traditionally calm and sophisticated composure here! Do you know what it feels like when someone twists a knife inside your guts? I have! I've eaten at White Castle, you know."
Kris closed her eyes – through her eyelids, she saw a light approaching her. Shrew was shivering like it was freezing as it hugged her leg tightly, and Kris felt herself hugging Shrew right back.
This is it. I was stupid. I pulled Iris into my stupid, childish dream. I left the dullness of my basement without thinking straight. Of course I'd die here like this... a fitting end to my pathetic life.
Shrew squealed. Kris hid her head between her knees.
Just do it quickly, please...
"I'll find you eventually, you know. And I have tons of patience. I sat through the director's cut of Apocalypse, Now and everything!"
Kris was confused. Missile's voice seemed to be going away from Kris. Shrew squealed again and wasn't shivering anymore, but instead tugging Kris' sleeve. Kris opened her eyes and almost gasped again.
The light nearby was blue, and it was coming from a little gray Pokémon that was floating next to her. It was shaped like a big candle, and it just watched Kris, smiling. Shrew stared at the Pokémon in awe.
"H-hello?" Kris whispered at the Pokémon, wishing she had a one-liner for this occasion.
The Pokémon responded by smiling even wider and sort of hopping in the air.
"A-are you here to help me? Can you lead me out?"
The Pokémon did a little circle in the air, then started bouncing into the opposite direction from where Kris was going, then did a right turn to a corridor Kris hadn't realized was there. Trying to make us little noise as possible while still moving fast, Kris followed the Pokémon along with Shrew.
"Fee-fi-fo-fum, I smell the blood of a... crap, gimme a rhyme here!"
To Kris' relief, Missile's voice became more distant, raising Kris' confidence and allowing her to run faster, the ghostly Pokémon adjusting accordingly and leading Kris to safety – she hoped. Right now, anything was a better alternative than that lunatic in a Team Rocket uniform.
Left, right, left, left, another left, right, up some stairs... Kris didn't care, she just followed the bouncing light, ignoring the pain in her sides as she dashed madly, Sandshrew keeping up with her.
Suddenly, she saw a familiar bush of purple hair and flinched so much that she fell, instinctively grabbing on the wall for support.
As expected, the catacombs were replaced by nothing but blurry colors and a spoonful of pain, though less severe than before.
A familiar sight awaited Kris, but this time, she was observing the battlefield from above. Aside from the huge sphere, there were strange shadowy creatures that moved like clouds of smoke, running through soldiers and their Pokémon and causing them to fall effortlessly. Most didn't get back up.
Kris realized she was on the edge of a canyon, and the young warrior, Lunick, along with her Manectric, was right there next to her. He was talking to a fresh-faced, teenaged warrior who nodded frantically at Lunick's words, though he looked horrified.
"Do you understand?" Lunick asked him.
The boy nodded, and Lunick patted him on the shoulder. However, as Lunick was about to do something, the old man from earlier ran to him.
"What are you doing?" the old man yelled at Lunick. "Those are your soldiers on the other side!" Kris noticed the two female soldiers and their Mightyena breaking down some sort of wooden construction, like a dam, on the other side of the canyon. "Are you... Lunick, that's our home down there!"
"It's not that anymore," the young warrior replied coldly as he pointed his Manectric to take position. "And you've seen it yourself. Those things won't stop. When they find out what they're after has been moved... they'll move on to do the same to someone else's home. Trust me: Alph Village will be where this war ended!"
"But... not everyone has been evacuated yet! There are still some people in the underground chambers, plus some families haven't been able to get out of their homes. And what of all the warriors? I ordered a retreat, but almost half of them opted to stay down and fight!"
"Of course they did..." Lunick muttered as he grabbed an ax and swiftly removed some wooden taps near the damn-like construction that Kris noticed was holding back a potential land- or rock slide. "You better get out of here. See you in the next life," Lunick told the old man.
The man uttered some faint objections, but eventually ran away as he saw Lunick raise his ax and swing. The scared teenaged boy did the same, while Manectric fired an electric attack on the third tap. Then, Lunick gave a hand signal to the warriors on the other side, and together, both groups broke the wooden constructions.
The walls of the canyon started to crumble as land- and rock-slides from all sides started to rain down into the canyon below. Lunick nodded at his assistant, who quickly fled the scene, but Lunick and the Manectric stayed to watch.
"Our job isn't over yet," Lunick said. "We have to help our soldiers down there – I want my last moment to be in battle, knowing that we took out every last one of those monsters down with us! You coming?"
The Manectric barked, and together, Lunick and the Manectric descended into the pit below, soon disappearing into a cloud of dust as the vision faded from view.
"KRIS!"
As Kris came to, she felt more tremors, realizing that the catacombs were still on the verge of collapsing. Someone pulled her quickly back on her feet, and Kris found herself looking down at Iris, who looked back with tears in her eyes.
"You're alive!" the girls yelled in unison.
"No hugging, though!" Kris was quick to say, sensing what Iris was going to do. "We gotta get out of here. I don't know where we are, exactly, I was following that thing!"
"A Litwick!" Iris said as she noticed the little ghost Pokémon. "It's a ghost- and fire-type, they mainly inhabit Unova in abandoned places, like old houses or record stores," Iris clarified. "And I think I know where we are – we can get to the surface through an alternate route this way!"
Kris, Iris and Shrew followed the bouncing Litwick up a narrow flight of stairs, having to squint as they arrived into a chamber with plenty of lamps hanging on the walls – apparently the researchers worked there. And, conveniently enough, a sign pointed at another staircase, labeled 'EXIT'. The Litwick stopped right in front of it.
"Thank you!" Iris told the Pokémon. "I'd kiss you if I wasn't afraid of getting burned!"
"Yeah, thank you so much, Litwick," Kris said. "I... listen, I know this is an odd request, but do you want to, like... be my Pokémon, maybe?" She showed the Litwick an empty Poké Ball.
Kris expected the Litwick to fade away or something, but instead, it jumped up excitedly and tapped the empty Poké Ball in Kris' hand, getting sucked in. The Poké Ball shook a few times in Kris' hand, then stopped.
Excited about this turn of events, Kris followed Iris and Sandshrew up the stairs and to the exit, to the light at the end of the tunnel, to freedom-
- and the route blocked by Missile with a big, annoying, self-satisfied grin on his face and the sledgehammer in hand.
"You know, it's rude to leave a guy monologuing there like that," he said.
"Wha... how did you get here before us?" Kris wondered.
"Oh, that's a tedious story," Missile said cheerfully. "I've got a better one in mind – it involves you dying."
"You got that chest!" Iris said, pointing out the metal chest bulging in Missile's pocket. "What more do you want from us?"
"Nothing," Missile admitted, "it's just professional pride, you know. I know, my therapist said the same. Well, they would say that if I could afford one. But nonetheless-"
Missile swung his sledgehammer up, causing Kris, Iris and Shrew to cringe and freeze.
But instead of an impact, only a "KA-CHINK" noise was heard. Missile stared at something behind Kris and Iris.
Kris slowly turned around to see Blaine standing dramatically at the end of the staircase, shotgun pointed firmly at Missiles head. Missile grinned apologetically, and without a word, dropped his sledgehammer, then the metal chest and ran away through the exit, shouting a clichéd 'this isn't oveeeeeer' as he ran.
~o~O~o~
"...I knew you were taking too long," Blaine explained as he was serving coffee to Kris and Iris and Pokémon food to Shrew back at the shack. "And something was disrupting radio communications. Then I saw that guy, Ferdinand or whatever you said his name was, sneaking into the chambers. I then realized that this treasure hunt I put you on became just a tad too risky. I should have blown his head off, but I guess that's a problem I'm struggling with – I'm just too nice, you know."
"Was he really with Team Rocket?" Iris asked, valiantly trying to get the coffee down while Kris had calmly poured hers on the floor once Blaine's back was turned.
"I don't think so," Blaine pondered. "They tend to rely on strength in numbers and hardly ever operate solo. What did you say he was talking about? Neo Team Rocket?"
Kris and Iris nodded. Blaine frowned and folded his arms.
"Well, I'll look into it," he said. "Also... I have a confession to make. Finding that thing for me... it was sort of a test. I hid it there myself."
Iris coughed up her drink and Kris dropped her cup in shock.
"You bastard," she said, stone-faced.
Blaine just shrugged. "I needed to see if you were up for it. I wasn't disappointed. You performed admirably. I didn't know it would turn into a life-threatening situation."
"Kris, calm down," Iris said, holding Kris' hand to prevent her from lunging at Blaine – Kris herself was biting her lip and thinking of words that best described her anger. "Um, Blaine, how'd you know that Sandshrew would be able to find the thing?"
"Maybe she'll explain you," Blaine grunted.
Kris and Iris turned to see a young woman, around Kris and Iris' age, perhaps a little older, with blue eyes and long brown hair, emerging from the backroom.
"Iris, Kris, this is Leaf," Blaine introduced as he sipped his own terrible coffee with gusto. "She arrived here while you where spelunking and she's been helping me with my research for a while now."
"Nice to meet you both, but first things first," Leaf said and tossed something on the table in front of Kris, who was shocked to see it was her wallet. "I found it from the Violet Pokémon Center," Leaf continued. "Some guy with a snazzy blue coat dropped it, but I saw your picture with the ID. And speaking of the Sandshrew..."
Leaf approached Shrew, who briefly glanced at Leaf, then went back to sitting on the table and munching on Pokémon food.
"Needless to say, it's been through a hell of a lot," Leaf explained. "I found it near Lavender Town, half dead, and brought it to the Volunteer House. 'Least I could do, really. Later on, I found out that it came from a place called Navel Rock."
"A research facility near the Sevii Islands, but hidden from the public," Blaine grunted. "Supposedly they make Pokémon medicine, but I don't really see why'd they need armed guards to protect something like that. Well, actually, they made Pokémon medicine – the place exploded not too long ago."
"That's funny, there was nothing about it in the news," Iris said curiously while Kris pulled Shrew closer to herself, worried about what she would hear next.
Blaine chuckled harshly. "News, right! Just like the news were supposed to warn people about Mewtwo's escape. They're not concerned with that! There'd be panic, vigilantism, riots, all kinds of nasty business that'd weaken their grip on the people. What they want to do is to bring us to the point of apathy with horrible things happening elsewhere and with the occasional scare and exaggeration – that way people will be more concerned with maintaining the status quo instead of fighting for what they believe in. Can't blame 'em – fear is a hell of a thing."
"Well, anyway," Leaf cut in, as if worrying Blaine would go off the rails. "It seems that there's a sure connection between this Sandshrew, the Navel Rock incident and Mewtwo. The Sandshrew would be invaluable to our research right now-"
Kris practically hugged Shrew now as she glared at Leaf, who just smiled.
"-but what it needs now is the care of a good trainer," Leaf finished. "At least until it gets its memory back – all those hits to the head may have given it amnesia."
Kris was ashamed, but couldn't help but to feel overwhelming relief as well. She smiled at the Sandshrew, who just blinked and stared back at Kris in confusion.
"So what are you guys researching?" Iris wondered. "And weren't you supposed to finish your story, Blaine – even I haven't heard the end of it."
"I can answer both questions!" Blaine announced and stared pacing around the shack again, ready to spill everything out. "This isn't exactly secret or anything – quite the opposite, actually – but I don't pretend that the media will care about this. Leaf here is one of the few trustworthy people in a small group that Red himself assembled after retiring from his post as a Pokémon League Champion. He formed the group with a very close friend of his, a zesty lad called Yellow. He really seemed to admire Red – probably thinking he was the Trascendent One reborn or something. He was very into mythical stuff. I never really was back in my day, but for the last three years, I've been studying them extensively."
Blaine suddenly lunged towards a thick book, spent a few seconds looking for the right page and then slammed it on the table, allowing Kris, Iris and Leaf to see – it was an illustration of the same, letter-shaped black thing Kris had seen in her vision.
"Unown," Blaine explained, "a Pokémon capable of interdimensional travel. Individually weak, they have psychic abilities that grow at an exponential rate when they link together."
"What else do you know about them?" Kris asked – she had previously asked about the letters she had seen on the walls, but hadn't mentioned her visions to anyone.
"That's all the book says, honestly," Blaine said. "I've never seen one myself, except in the writing around the catacombs, of course. Anyway..."
"Red's group contained a whole bunch of people he had helped in his travels. Two now-former Elite Four members, a girl from Saffron called Copycat, a traveling lad called Emerald, one of Leaf's scientist friends, some Pokémon Rangers all the way back in Almia, secretary to Silph Co's president even... and myself, of course. And I'm sure there were others."
"You knew Red as well?" Kris asked Leaf.
Leaf looked away as she talked, and Kris could swear she was blushing slightly. "Y-yes, I did. We were friends, though I grew up in Pewter City, but we went to the same school and he got me started on my journey and introduced me to Professor Oak, which launched my scientist career as her junior assistant. But he never told me about his secret group until Julia got involved, and even then I was skeptical, too focused on my research, and after Red retired, Professor Oak told me not to associate with him anymore. I joined the group very recently, actually."
"Oak was just following orders," Blaine explained. "And many who associated themselves publicly with Red got silenced – non-lethally," he clarified. "Subtlety and manipulation are far more dangerous tools than outright murder sometimes. The two Elite Four members were fired and replaced and the leader of them, Lance, was promoted to Champion until someone would defeat him – I understand it hasn't happened yet. That Silph secretary lost her job and we haven't heard anything about those Rangers. Fortunately, I was already an outcast from the scientific community."
Blaine chuckled to himself, as if to some personal joke of his.
"Then Julia lost her job, which aroused suspicions," Leaf said. "And then... well, a lot of stuff goes down at the same time. I get fired from my post at the Pewter Museum, for one. Red's friends go and investigate Navel Rock but something terrible happens there and we haven't heard from them since. The former Elites go AWOL, that Suicune massacre happens and Red goes to investigate something and then vanishes without a trace."
"So it's just us two for the time being," Blaine said. "Professor Elm helps, though, but he's not entirely in the know. I hate keeping secrets from the guy, but he's a former student of Professor Oak's and would never suspect him for anything. I don't know what's going on yet, but the sooner we find Mewtwo, the sooner we'll get to the bottom of this."
Silence descended into the shack as all four humans and the Sandshrew were deep in their thoughts.
"So... how does this involve me?" Kris asked.
Iris, Leaf and Blaine stared at her, which made Kris feel awkward.
"Um, I just mean-"
"This may be a shock, Kris, but not everything is about you," Leaf said. "You're in the know because we need trustworthy allies, and we've heard good things about you from Elm – that's pretty much it. Blaine tells me you're on some kind of quest, so-"
"Yes, that," Blaine said and looked at his watch. "It's getting close to midnight, but I think you can sleep at the Pokémon Center near the Union Cave. I've arranged a meeting with a representative of the Legendary Pokémon Society at 10 AM sharp in Azalea Town. Good luck! I'd let you sleep here, but I barely fit in here myself and I haven't washed in days. Besides, there's little time for sleep tonight!"
Kris returned Sandshrew to its Poké Ball and got up, stretching and yawning – she felt the sleepiness hit in the moment Blaine had mentioned the time. She looked at Iris, but the shorter girl just sat, staring at her coffee cup.
"I-I'm sorry, Kris," she stuttered. "But, I... now that I've heard what Blaine and Leaf are doing, I'd like to, um, help them. By staying here. I mean, uh, if that's okay with you...?
Blaine smiled warmly. "Of course it is!" he said loudly. "I mean, damn, it's not like I ever get any visitors here – partly my fault, I guess. Aside from your visit and some calls I've made with Elm and Fuji recently, I haven't had anyone to talk to in, like, four years!"
"You've been alone all that time?" Iris asked, wide-eyed.
"Well, I had Magmar. But yeah, I've had a few boyfriends in my student days, and Fuji was a good friend to me when I worked at the Cinnabar Lab, but that's pretty much it. Without old Magmy here, I'd probably gone insane. Well, more so than now!"
He laughed at his own remark, rather scarily, but Leaf and Iris didn't seem worried. Kris, however, had a sinking feeling in her stomach. Yes, this was something she wished originally – now she had two obedient Pokémon, she got her wallet back and was on her way to the first trial. But Iris had been an invaluable help, which made Kris all the more ashamed that she hadn't come clean about her identity.
Oh, and for all those snippy remarks, I guess.
"B-but," Kris said pathetically. "What about, I mean, my new Litwick, I don't even know what attacks it has!"
"Oh, that reminds me!" Blaine said and slapped his forehead dramatically.
He gave Kris a small package, which, based on how it felt, contained something hard and plastic – almost like an old-school Game Boy, but Kris doubted Blaine would just suddenly give her one. She sure wouldn't give one up.
"This'll help you with you Pokémon problem," Blaine explained, "but uh, don't open it here, okay? Just... well, you'll see."
Iris got up, visibly a little ashamed too, as she wrung her hands nervously and kept shifting her weight around, looking like she had urgent business to the bathroom.
"I'm sorry," she said again. "But, well, I know you don't want me on your journey."
"I-"
"No, no, it's okay, it's probably nothing personal," Iris said. "You're a free spirit, a lonely soul, like a lone... Mightyena, I guess? But don't they move in packs... ah, whatever! But traveling with you, even for a short while, was still enjoyable. Good luck! And when you get to the Silver Conference, I'll come and root for you!"
Iris spread her arms, and Kris felt awkward again.
"I don't usually hug or anything," she said, "and I don't like when people... I mean, you're probably sweating after all that, um, and I don't even know how – oh, what the hell, all right!"
Kris regretted her words and Iris practically tackled Kris with an enthusiastic hug, while Kris just sort of awkwardly patted Iris on the back. When Iris let go, she still had something to ask.
"So, if your name isn't Christine," she said curiously, "what is Kris short for?"
"Oh, it's, um... that's not important, I should really get going-"
"Please? I'm not gonna laugh!"
"It's not all that, I mean, it's kinda dumb – well, all right," Kris sighed. "It's Crystal," she muttered barely audibly.
Iris clearly had to prevent herself from grinning.
"Yeah, people have made plenty of meth jokes already," Kris said before anyone else got the chance.
"It's, um, it's a pretty name," Iris said half-sincerely.
"Crystal?" yelled Blaine, who had been listening to the conversation and started laughing. "Sounds like the name of some hack fanfic writer's OC!"
Kris wasn't amused. "Well, look at the time, I gotta go!"
A/N: All I can say is that I hope you like where this has been going so far, and if not, please tell me why in the review. I can only get better from this! Also, this was seriously too long and I wanted to cut out some parts, but when I passed the 10k milestone already, I just decided to run with it and write the longest chapter I've ever done. Another update coming soon, much shorter this time!
