CHAPTER 3 - ANCIENT RUINS
"He's still following us," Terri mumbled uncomfortably to her friend.
Carter nodded. They looked backwards to see a skinny black-haired boy in the road, who took this opportunity to wave at the pair. Carter looked pleadingly at his glaring partner, and who knew what he was about to do.
"Hey, Jeremy!" Carter called. "If you're so determined to follow us, then just come up here."
They had been traveling all morning, after all, only making a quick stop at the Pokemart in Mauville City to buy some Ultra Balls. As Jeremy approached, Terri began to wonder if Carter was sticking around because he liked her, or because he was just nice to strangers.
"I just want to see one of the Regi pokemon," Jeremy explained his mission in that high-pitched voice of his. "I've heard the stories ever since I was little and to see Regirock in real life would be so cool!"
Carter and Jeremy looked to the north to find that their friend in the navy blue tank top had never actually stopped walking to greet the newcomer. The fisherman was about to run to catch up with her, but Jeremy held him back.
"I know how to completely shock Terri," he said, winking at the boy before taking off after the girl at a skip.
Carter shrugged and jogged behind him until Terri was close.
"Now I have something to show you guys," Jeremy said proudly, eliciting a groan from Terri.
She looked up at the cliff walls on either side of her, noting with defeat that there was really no way to escape from this nightmare. A sudden bright flash drew Terri's attention back to the spot where Jeremy had been standing. When her eyes could focus again, she could see that Jeremy was no longer there. In his place was a girl with long black hair with some sort of odd floating pokemon next to her that resembled a mirror.
"Surprise!" the unknown girl said in the same voice that Jeremy had.
The other two trainers just stared on, not sure how to react to the situation. When it became apparent that neither one was going to figure out her revelation, the girl sighed and explained.
"This is my pokemon Bronzor," she said, "and it has the attack Reflect, which normally would bend light waves in order to reduce damage done to it in battle. But with a little training like I have done, Bronzor can bend the light waves in certain special ways to create an illusion. I've been disguising myself as a gym trainer named Jeremy for the last month or so!"
Terri gained an immediate distrust of the girl. If she had been so easily fooled by this disguise, the girl could be hiding other secrets as well. She could have some ulterior motive for wanting to see Regirock. Her thoughts were interrupted by a loud, hearty laugh from Carter.
"That's hilarious!" he grinned at the girl. "Who are you really, then?"
"My real name is Elea," she said. "The Trick Master lives in my hometown of Slateport, and he showed me the Reflect trick. He's basically my idol."
If such a complex magic trick was so easily given away, Terri wanted to know exactly what other illusions the Trick Master himself had known of.
"Can we just keep going?" she tried to end the awkward situation. "I can see the desert ahead."
She noticed with resignation that Carter had chosen to walk next to this Elea girl now. The strange reflective psychic pokemon floated around lazily in between them.
If she wasn't so pretty then he wouldn't give her the time of day, Terri convinced herself. It doesn't help that she's wearing a miniskirt. That's almost cheating when it comes to attracting boys!
Yet another surprise came to the Johto native as the group reached the edge of the desert. Some sort of sandstorm covered the entire area, making it impossible to see once a trainer entered.
"How are we supposed to find anything in there?" she asked.
Carter and Elea looked at her like she was stupid.
"You didn't know this was here?" the dark-haired girl asked. "Everyone knows that a sandstorm covers the desert region."
With a flash of red light, Terri saw the pokemon that had creeped her out previously. Carter was now holding a familiar blue jellyfish pokemon in his arms. He walked out into the swirling mass of sand and dirt, only to be surrounded by a small halo of water falling from the sky. It served to beat down the wind around him and provided a small amount of visibility.
"Tentacool's Rain Dance attack should let us get through here well enough," he smiled at having solved the problem.
As the two girls joined him, getting soaked in the process, Terri noticed how Elea was conveniently wearing a white t-shirt. What a flirt.
*****
Vincent looked around in dismay as a blinding sandstorm prevented him from seeing anything at all. He tried squinting his eyes to see, but it was no use and little particles of dirt still blew into his eyes.
"This is what I get for not growing up in Hoenn, I suppose," he heard Rowan shout a few feet away. "I couldn't have imagined that this stupid little obstacle covered the desert!"
There was honestly nothing Vincent could do except stick close to the man and hope they came across the giveaway domed rock soon. He had assumed Rowan knew about the sandstorm and had a plan to counteract it, but apparently not.
This was going to be a lot more difficult than Regice's capture had been, he decided. But they essentially had all the time in the world. No one else would be attempting to open the cave of Regirock.
By pure chance, they managed to stumble upon a young boy who seemed to have a pokemon with him, although Vincent could not see either for the life of him.
"You guys were stupid for coming here without goggles," the boy said bluntly.
"Goggles?" Rowan asked the boy, who couldn't have been more than seven or eight by the sound of his voice. "Where did you buy goggles?"
Vincent smiled to himself as he knew the boy's answer before it even came.
"We live in a country that's half ocean. Go figure."
At this point Rowan took out a pokeball from the jacket of his suit and released the familiar blue snail.
"Gastrodon," he commanded, "use Headbutt on the little boy if he won't give up his goggles."
And of course the threat worked. The middle aged man triumphantly put the goggles on his face while the little boy ran away crying. Vincent was reminded of how his older sister used to pick on him before she left home to become a pokemon trainer. She had gotten out while she could, that lucky girl.
"I can see much better now that I don't have to squint," Rowan commented. "We should be able to find the ruins now."
Both men were silent. They really didn't have much to talk about anyway.
*****
As the trio of pokemon trainers carried on in their slow-moving journey through the desert, the collective mood had worsened due to Terri's complaining. Her legs were tired, just as they had been from swimming, and she was sick of the wet sand and mud that was plastered to her body as a result of Tentacool's rain combined with the natural wind.
Elea didn't seem to be much better off, but she had taken the silent pouting route as opposed to Terri's loud mouth. The girl's Bronzor, on the other hand, was floating along next to Carter, who seemed to actually be talking to his Tentacool.
"After this, the next cave we check out is up north," he addressed the two pokemon. "I'm so excited to fish up there! It's prime Feebas territory, you know."
The flat blue levitating pokemon made a screeching noise and turned to Elea, who was shivering. She nodded, somehow able to figure out what it wanted to say.
"We saw a Feebas once," she told the fisherman. "There was this gym leader that visited Slateport last year that had one."
Carter's eyes widened in shock. Both girls thought, judging by his serious expression, that he had something extremely important to say next.
"You saw Wallace," he informed Elea. "He is basically the water pokemon master, and I really want to meet him someday!"
Rolling her eyes, Terri pushed the wet hair out of her eyes and resumed looking for their cave. This time, at the edge of her field of visibility, was a faint domed structure, and she wasted no time in making sure they went that direction. Up close, it was apparent that there was no entrance into the large boulder.
"This has to be the right place though," Terri said adamantly. "We've looked everywhere in this desert."
"If there was an obvious way to get in," Carter reasoned, "someone would have captured Regirock a long time ago. I bet we have to break through the side."
A familiar green dinosaur pokemon appeared at Terri's feet as she summoned it.
"We need you to dig into the side of this rock wall," she knelt down to speak to it, then remembered its last digging experience, "...cautiously!"
Terri glanced triumphantly at her traveling partners as Larvitar began scraping its claws to bore into the rock.
See, she thought, I can have a bond with my pokemon too. Just as good as Tentacool or Bronzor!
As probably should have been expected, judging by the consequences of Dig in the underwater cave, the entire dome of rock collapsed once the small dinosaur pokemon cracked into the inner chamber. Terri screamed, watching her pokemon get instantly buried under many layers of stone rubble.
Elea was just about to ask what they were supposed to do now when the blinding sandstorm that surrounded them suddenly quit. A quick glance to their north revealed that the winds had stopped blowing over the entire desert region as well. In confusion, Carter returned Tentacool to its pokeball, as its services were no longer needed.
"Larvitar!" Terri screamed at the small mountain before them. "Can you hear me?"
A deep rumbling noise from seemingly within the earth itself was enough to silence her.
*****
Vincent and Rowan exchanged a look of bewilderment when they could suddenly see clearly for no apparent reason. The former whirlwind of dust started to settle down upon them like a blanket, and when it did, the location of Regirock's cave became easily identifiable.
It was right off to Vincent's left, and he was sure they were just over there, but then again they could have easily been turned around in the sandstorm. What shocked him was that the domed rock seemed to have crumbled away.
"They destroyed it!" Rowan was angry. "Those damn kids dug into the wrong side of the wall!"
The pair quickly darted over to where three pokemon trainers were standing, staring at the pile of rubble. Vincent recognized Terri and Carter as the ones who had helped him back in the Sealed Chamber, but he didn't know the third girl, or recognize her floating reflective pokemon. He supposed they had been inspired by their previous little adventure into searching for the actual Regi pokemon themselves.
A bass-pitched rumbling noise seemed to come from within the rock pile, and without warning the large boulders suddenly began levitating. These were promptly thrown off to the side, exposing an oblong blue spiky pokemon laying on the ground.
"Pupitar!" Terri cried out, rushing to it. "You evolved to save yourself!"
A much more foreboding presence was in the center of the cleared area. A tall stone figure, mostly tan with hints of orange in the rock, stood perfectly still for a moment as the dust settled. Rowan smirked at this point, taking another Master Ball from the pocket in his suit.
Then without warning, an H-shaped pattern of orange lights appeared on the statue's head as it was awakened fully. Raising two jagged limbs, it shot forth a smaller-scale Sandstorm attack that blasted all five humans back several feet flying end over end. The dense Pupitar, however, was able to weather the attack and stood its ground.
"Take Down!" its trainer shrieked and the coccoon pokemon wasted no time in hurling itself toward the menacing creature.
With a grumble, the rock monster swatted at Pupitar with one of its arms, sending the pokemon flying. Regirock's defenses were obviously too high for regular pokemon attacks to harm it.
"Give me one of the Ultra Balls," Elea quickly motioned for Terri to toss her one. "Bronzor, Reflect!"
The blue capsule in hand, Elea and her psychic type seemed to vanish into thin air. It was a crazy stunt, but it was the only hope of capturing this legendary pokemon. The man in the black suit, who had been standing back till this point, must have realized what the girl was trying to attempt, for he cried out desperately.
"No!" Rowan screamed, chucking the Master Ball in Regirock's direction.
The purple sphere seemed to stop in midair as some invisible force caught it. Elea was about to put the ball in her pocket, but then it occurred to her that she could just capture the legendary pokemon in it and still claim it as her own. She aimed the Master Ball correctly this time and the large rock monster vanished inside instantly.
"Give me the pokeball," Rowan instructed the invisible girl, "or your friend dies."
The middle aged man sent out a purple ghost pokemon, who hovered menacingly above Carter's head. The Haunter's tongue hung lazily out of the side of its mouth as if waiting to use its deadly Lick attack at any moment. The two detached hands held the young trainer in place by his shoulders.
There was a sigh from the area where Regirock had once stood, and Elea reappeared with her Bronzor.
"You can have it," she said, "if you tell me why you want to capture all the Regi pokemon."
The man in the black suit rolled his eyes and turned to look at her.
"It doesn't work like that," he growled. "I don't have to tell you anything. Someday, when I am the ruler of both Hoenn and Sinnoh, you may figure it out yourself, but I won't be giving away any hints. Now hand over the pokeball if you want this boy to live."
And of course she was going to obey him. Rowan smiled cruelly as he pocketed the ball that held Regirock next to the one holding Regice. He then looked to Vincent.
"You were a great deal of help to me in translating," he said, "but now your mission is done. I recommend you go home and take care of the situation you have there."
With that comment, the man and his Haunter turned and walked off until they were out of sight in the now-calm desert.
*****
It was the mutual agreement for Terri, Carter, and Elea to continue on and try to catch the final Regi pokemon before Rowan could. They had rented a room in the pokemon center to stay the night, planning to turn in early in order to get up before sunrise to make some progress toward Lilycove City. Wanting to make sure that they had enough supplies to make the trip, Carter left to go check out the Pokemart.
His hand hovered briefly over a box of Repels before realizing that most of their trip would be on the ocean, and wild pokemon never dared to bother a Wailord. That was assuming the girls agreed to his suggested route, which he was sure they would. He eventually settled on a dozen Hyper Potions and exited the store after paying.
In the row of houses to his immediate south, Carter spotted a boy sitting on the curb by himself and immediately recognized the face. As he approached the old, run-down house, it became apparent that the boy was actually crying.
"Vincent?" he asked, "are you okay?"
The brown-haired boy looked up at his visitor quickly, as if ashamed for someone to see him at the moment.
"My parents," he explained. "They're... gambling addicts, and we were in a lot of debt. T-that's why I had to work for... R-Rowan. He paid me today, b-but they had to go and spend all that ****ing money at the Game Corner."
Carter sat down beside him. He had lived a pretty easy life in comparison to Vincent, it seemed. But he did know a couple important things to say.
"That shouldn't be your problem," Carter said. "You need to get out of this place, Vincent, for good."
The boy shook his head, staring downward again.
"I wouldn't make it as a pokemon trainer," he said. "I-I... I'm not good enough... I don't even have any pokemon..."
Carter walked away at this point, and Vincent sat in silence for a few minutes. He then noticed the small red-and-white sphere that the fisherman had left by his side.
END CHAPTER THREE
Okay, in retrospect the goggles scene was awkward and doesn't really make sense how they would let you see better... but hey, it works in the games!
