CHAPTER 3: The Gardener Emerges
Bright sunlight brought day to La Ciudad Dorada the next morning. Of course, considering the current situation, anything but strong sunlight would have been markedly unusual.
In the main hall of the palace, Matt, Eleanor and Ross approached the main gate at a casual pace, discussing amongst themselves their next move.
"Where are we going now?"
"Eleanor," Matt answered with a confident tone, "we have to go back and double-check the bathhouse again. We battled Regice there but we never found a clue to the location of either Regirock or Registeel. There's got to be something there."
"Good deduction!" Wiping the sweat from his brow, Ross then turned to the view of the silouhettes of two guards standing before the front gate. "Now I understand why they wear those skimpy outfits," he said sarcastically.
As the group passed through the gate, the guards moved their staffs so they could pass. Instantly, all three shielded their eyes from the sunlight, but still, they continued on....
...that is, until a voice called to them. "Hey, Matt Chiaki! So it really is you after all this time!"
Matt froze. The voice was instantly familiar, though it was right in that he hadn't met its owner in years. He wasn't fearful, though he certainly wasn't thrilled to turn and see the blue-haired young man in the fedora approaching him.
"Matt Chiaki, Matt Chiaki, Matt Chiaki..." the young man said rather jovially, albeit with a pinch of sarcasm. "The great Sutter Chiaki's grandson has come to La Ciudad Dorada. I never expected to see you here."
"Who is this guy?" Eleanor asked cautiously, backing up several steps.
"Oh, it's just an old classmate of mine... I guess you might call him my rival from the old days. Another archeologist."
"Is that so. Do we have to talk out here though?"
"No, we don't. It's always been like Chiaki to do things the hard way." This wasn't actually meant to offend, and the young man laughed. "Come with me. I've taken a cottage on the outskirts of town."
Ross and Eleanor looked to Matt, who simply shrugged, accepting the offer. He led them off to follow the young man.
Meanwhile, Fernando stood staring down at them from his balcony. None of them had noticed that he was there.
"Carter McKenna..." Fernando said to himself, scowling slightly. "He's here too."
"Did you say Carter McKenna?" a voice asked from inside the room.
"Yeah." Turning back, Fernando stepped back into his chamber, a finely outfitted wood room with many exquisite furnishings, like a huge armoir and plush bed – on which sat Cassy. "Carter McKenna."
"Matt and I went to school with him. He's an archeologist too, the son of renowned archeology professor Howard McKenna."
"I know about his father!" snapped the prince. "Tell me something about him!"
"He's an expert in the Pokémon Shaymin. I guess he came here looking for it."
On hearing this news, Fernando recoiled, then stole quickly over to his armoir, which had an ornate golden scepter with a glass ball on its end leaned against it. He opened one of the cabinets carefully and withdrew a sharp-edged, glowing green orb from it. Holding it in his right hand while Cassy looked on in wonder, he spoke.
"So long as I have this Griseous Orb, the treasure of House Fernando, I cannot be stopped. Even as such, I must get to Shaymin before Chiaki and McKenna do."
Carter's 'cottage' was more like a villa, a clay building much larger than any of the houses in the town. It was just as beautiful inside as out, as he had stocked it with the finest of fineries from all over the world: he possessed shelves carved from the exquisite woods of Canalave City in Sinnoh, lined with dishes from the famed glass crafters of Fallarbor Town. He also owned a remarkable array of furniture, some of which Matt recognized from Veilstone City's Department Store, while others could only have come from mail order. It was at a wide oak table that Carter seated his guests before himself sitting down at its head and resting his head on his clasped hands.
"So, Matt Chiaki, what brings you here? As if I have to ask, that is."
"I think the better question would be why you're here, Carter," Matt answered with a hint of anger. "Trying to steal my glory? Again?"
Ross's eyes widened in surprise, and he managed to speak before Carter could counter Matt's accusation. "Wait, your name is Carter? Are you...Carter McKenna, the son of the prestigious Professor Howard McKenna?"
"You've pegged me," Carter said with a smarmy smile. "Matt, I'm presuming you're here to finish what Sutter started and find the Golden City?"
"Yeah, and why are you here?" The bad blood Matt harbored for Carter could be no less obvious.
"The same reason you are." Despite being sniped at, Carter remained relatively calm as he spoke. "I'm here to finish what my father started in this town and find the Legendary Pokémon Shaymin."
"Shaymin, huh? What connection does your father have to it?"
"My father was a member of Sutter Chiaki's expedition team, uh...."
"Eleanor."
"Eleanor, my father, Howard McKenna, was a member of Sutter Chiaki's team back in the day. He was with Sutter on many of his expeditions in search of the Golden City, and he came to have a vested interest in the Pokémon Shaymin. Shaymin is said to have a strong connection to this city's legend."
"I think I heard of that, Carter. It's something I'm pretty sure I heard from someone at the Ranger Union."
"I'm sure genius boy over here can tell you all about it..." Matt sulked, staring off to the side and refusing to look at Carter.
"Come on, Matt!" It almost seemed as if Eleanor was going to slap him, which caused Matt to back down a little. She didn't, but she did seem agitated. "What's your problem with him anyway?"
"Oh, Eleanor, it's alright. I'll explain, but first let me tell the story of Shaymin's connection to La Ciudad Dorada.
You see, over five hundred years ago, the center of Oceannia was just a barren desert that nobody could live on. People came to the land, but they couldn't survive and struggled to get by.
One day, a pure-hearted man came to the makeshift town that the settlers had made. When he arrived, he gave thanks for the beauty he saw in the town, beauty that nobody else could see. When he gave thanks, the others began to realize the good fortunes that they did have as well, and they also gave thanks.
Soon, a Pokémon embodying gratitude itself appeared, a Pokémon we today know as Shaymin. The Shaymin fed on the gratitude that the people felt, and soon more Shaymin appeared. When enough Shaymin had gathered, they decided to help the people that had made it possible for them to exist. The pure-hearted man came forth, and he made a wish for the barren land his people lived on to become a lush and rich place where living comfortably was possible. The Shaymin all granted his wish and created the paradise he hoped for, and the people crowned him as their king, King Fernando I.
The flock of Shaymin eventually flew away, leaving behind one of their own to watch over the new kingdom. In gratitude for all that Shaymin had done, King Fernando I constructed a fantastic complex, a city even, made completely out of gold – the legendary La Ciudad Dorada."
As Carter concluded his story, he let his eyes drift down to his audience. Ross seemed to simply be letting the information soak in, whereas Eleanor wore a look of surprise that gave away her thoughts quite well. Matt even had been listening intently, though he looked away again when he realized Carter was looking at him, which made the blue-haired young man chuckle slightly.
"Carter..." Eleanor said thoughtfully, "I understand Shaymin's role now. But why did the Golden City just vanish?"
"Nobody knows," Carter answered, shaking his head. "Some say it was abandoned and thieves made off with all the gold. Others say that a great cataclysmic event took place that eradicated the city. In short, there is no definite answer." Looking to Matt's still-scowling face, Carter furrowed his brow a bit. "Come on, Matt, calm down. We may have been rivals of sorts, but if you learned anything from Sutter, didn't you learn that personal differences should never interfere with the thrill of the hunt?"
In truth, Matt actually had stopped paying attention to Carter the moment the story of Shaymin ended.
Suddenly, Carter appeared confused. "Wait, Matt. Where's Cassy? Don't tell me you guys broke up."
This made Matt's mind finally snap, and he stood up angrily. "She was kidnapped, you fool! The guy who brought Heatran here did it!"
"I...I'm sorry then.... it's just that..."
Halting mid-sentence, Carter shut his eyes and thought back to the day he finally fully understood Matt and Cassy...
It was late in the year 2001, at the time when the graduating class was about to leave and head off into the world. Matt and Carter, both in their blue hexagon-pattern Rustboro School uniforms, were rummaging through their old dorm room sometime prior to the ceremony.
"What are we looking for in here, exactly?"
"A suitcase," answered Matt. "I put it in here years ago, and I forgot where I left it."
"A suitcase, seriously?" Carter turned to Matt, hands on his hips, and scoffed. "We should be out having fun at the party, not rooting around in here for a suitcase."
"Look, Carter, what's in there is important to me, alright?" Matt was indignant, almost angry over his motives being questioned, especially considering what actually was in the suitcase. When he thought of that, the important contents of the case, his expression softened, and Carter immediately picked up on that.
"It's something about you and your squeeze, isn't it?"
"DO NOT CALL HER THAT!" was Matt's enraged response.
"Oh geez, just calm down. I don't mean anything by it."
Matt grimaced and shot Carter a death stare, then the two went back to their search. Very quickly, though, Matt had a visible moment of realization and strode over to a mirror hung on the wall. He removed it, and underneath, there was some kind of scanner. Matt removed his glasses and placed his eye in front of the lens, prompting Carter to laugh.
"You seriously hid a suitcase containing love letters or something behind a retinal scan? Knowing you, you probably invented the thing."
"Shut up. Although, I DID invent it..." When the door opened, Matt replaced his glasses, reached in, and removed an old, brown, dusty suitcase from the recess in the wall. He blew off the dust, then deactivated the electronic lock on the case and popped it open.
Inside, there were multiple pieces of paper with crayon drawings on them and a black, craggy rock.
"What are those things?" Carter asked, leaning over Matt's shoulder.
"Some stuff we drew as kids and an old rock we picked up at Mt. Chimney once. We put this stuff in the suitcase and sealed it away as a sort of time capsule."
"For...what exactly?"
"We knew our lives would be very different when we graduated, so when we entered this school, we put away the suitcase to remind us of how things once were. I guess she forgot though..."
Matt knew what Carter was thinking and was almost frozen in time with the world spinning around him. Even though that old suitcase only contained a few scraps of paper and a rock, there was significant emotional investment for him in those items. Just thinking about them made him remember all the good times... and then he remembered that Cassy was no longer with him, being subject to untold horrors at the hands of the mysterious man who wielded Heatran's might.
Enough of these thoughts clouding his mind finally prompted Matt to slam his hands on the table and stand up.
"Look, Carter," he fumed, "somewhere in this city, that guy who's controlling Heatran has her in captivity. Who knows what he's planning to do with her. We have to do something!"
Carter remained cool, though he had a snide tone to his voice as he spoke. "We? Who is this 'we?' Are you going to just forget about the tragedy I had to go through because of you?"
"Tragedy? What are you talking about?" It was obvious Matt honestly didn't know what the tragedy was.
"You really don't know? Listen up then, genius. My father, who was a member of your grandfather's old expedition team, was recruited by someone who had Sutter's blessing to continue the hunt for the Golden City after the doctor was murdered. My father never returned from that trip. You wanna fill in the blanks for me?"
"Someone who had Sutter's blessing...? Sutter took the secrets of what he knew to his grave! He would have never given anyone anything to follow in his footsteps!"
"Ring ring, then, he did. All I know is that the guy who recruited him wanted to investigate a clue in Stark Mountain in Sinnoh."
Matt blinked, a feeling of dread coming over him. "Stark Mountain is where the first confirmed sightings of Heatran were. If there's a connection, the guy who recruited your father may be the person who murdered Sutter, and the one who's controlling Heatran here now!"
Though Eleanor and Ross both stood, both ready to speak up in support of Matt's theory, a loud knocking on the door of the villa distracted them all. All four approached the door and Carter opened it...
...only to find a remarkably beautiful blonde-haired woman standing there with an appearance that completely contradicted her looks. Her tattered brown cloak dragged on the ground while her head was covered by a hood. Overall, she looked like a remarkably destitute woman who happened to win the genetic lottery, yet Carter did not seem at all surprised to see her.
"What is it?" he asked her lowly.
"The 'deshu hotcake' is confirmed," the woman answered in an equally low tone. Handing Carter a rolled up map, she then said, "Recorded location is marked as the Gratitude Shrine in the Berrybell Mountains."
Instantly, a new energy reinvigorated Carter, and he turned to his guests. "Chiaki! We'll have to save our argument for later. Something remarkably important is happening, and we have to move now! Lend me usage of your HR-E, if you've finally completed it!"
"Yeah, it's done. I don't know how I feel about letting you use it but..."
"Save the argument! We have to go now!"
Somewhere underground, deep below the palace, there was a dank, dark dungeon. Dank would actually almost be a compliment, as this place was not only damp, it had water actually dripping from the walls and cracks in the ceiling, not to mention a horrific smell permeating the air.
Two guards were stationed at the entrance of the dungeon, but someone approached them and waved them off to make entrance possible. The lithe figure cut through the inky black darkness of the dungeon – brief flashes of light only revealed a dark suit and part of a yellow top hat – and approached the bars of an equally-dark cell.
"Hey old man," the voice of Dominar sneered, "I've got some news for you."
Almost on cue, a balding man quite plainly getting on in his years appeared near the bars. What was left of his hair indicated that it was once blue, and he wore tattered exploration clothes that obviously had been left on him for far too long.
"What do you want? Usually you don't come down here so often, fiend."
"Ahaha. Well, I have some news for you. It seems that your son Carter is here in addition to the Chiaki boy. This is putting my plan into place quite nicely."
News of Carter's presence made the old man – now identifiable as Howard McKenna – widen his eyes in shock. "My son?! I don't know what he's doing here, but if you harm a hair on his head...."
Dominar just laughed his typical menacing laugh. "Don't you worry, the worst he'll get is roughed up a little. You better prepare for some major father-son bonding time when I have him locked up with you! Ahahahaaha!!"
Suddenly, the sound of another person's footsteps echoed through the dungeon, but who it was wasn't immediately visible, at least to Howard.
"Dear," the voice said, "I just noticed it. They're on the move for the Berrybell Mountains!"
Again Howard gasped. "Cassy, is that you?! Cassy Natsuka from the Rustboro School, after all this time? Come here and help me!"
A snide huff could be heard in the room. "You didn't tell me HE was here."
"C-Cassy? You're not saying that...you're with him?!"
"Silence, old man. You are about to be witness to history."
With that, Dominar stepped out of the shadows, revealing his full, scowling face for the first time.
Dominar's true identity was Count Fernando VIII.
Some time later, HR-E had reached the Berrybell Mountain area outside of the city, and Carter was leading the others on a hike through its heavily overgrown passes.
"What exactly are we looking for in this wooded hellhole, Carter?" Matt questioned angrily. "Some poor woman shows up at your door and you instantly shoot off where you think she's telling you to go..."
"Matt, stop it! I don't know why you keep being so rude to him, but stop!"
Carter looked over his shoulder and smiled at Eleanor. "No worries, there's no need to get worked up. It should be just ahead."
"Carter..." the woman said listlessly, in a way that made it impossible to read her emotions, "...there it is. The Gratitude Shrine."
The woman raised her arm and pointed dead ahead. Though at first Matt could only see a jumbled mess of berry-bearing vines – the range's namesake – by squinting he was able to make out a stone building in their midst.
Immediately upon seeing it, Ross opened his Styler and tapped in a command to activate its voicemail function. "Ranger Union HQ, this is Ross, coming in. Do you copy?"
"Copy, this is Rhythmi," answered a voice from the other end of the phone.
"Rhythmi, let Erma know that I've got a potential 'deshu hotcake,' whatever that is. About to move in."
"Ross? Ross! Misery, give me the line!" There was the sound of someone being shoved, evidently Prof. Hastings taking over the call from Rhythmi. "Ross! Are you there?!"
"Yeah, Hastings..."
"Listen, Ross, listen!!" Hastings had the sound of a child on Christmas morning in his voice. "We already are one step ahead of you. The 'deshu hotcake' is a name that ancient La Ciudad Dorada citizens called Shaymin. Chances are that a Shaymin is inside that temple you're about to enter. If you capture it, send the data right away!"
"Yeah, gotcha. Over and out." Ross shut off the communication, then turned to his sweatdropping companions. "He's always like that. Don't think much of it. So, it's Shaymin you're after?"
"Yeah," Carter replied, nodding. "Shaymin is a Pokémon that harnesses strong feelings of gratitude and uses them as energy. I want to investigate how that connects to the mythology of La Ciudad Dorada and its origins."
"Well then what are we waiting for? Let's go in!"
With her Teddiursa nipping at her heels, Eleanor pushed ahead into the temple. Carter and the mystery woman followed closely, and then Ross and Matt went in last.
The inside of the temple was chilly compared to the heat outside. Brown rock comprised the walls and the cold stone was a major contributor to the low temperature. On the floor tiles there was a giant mural painted in many colors. It depicted Shaymin, a white-and-green reindeer-like Pokémon with a red scarf on its neck and a green spiky mohawk. In the mural Shaymin was floating over a ruined landscape and glowing, seemingly causing brightly-colored flowers to grow.
In the back of the chamber sat a pedestal that had a gold orb sitting on it, and the walls were lined with ancient pottery. Carter approached the orb's pedestal and looked down at an inscription beneath it.
"Sealed by the orb, the gardener of gratitude sleeps. The men who would be king arrive to gain their mandate. The gardener's awakening brings the new day."
"What does that mean?" Matt wondered.
Carter didn't answer, instead, the woman did. "The kings of La Ciudad Dorada must come to this chamber to gain Shaymin's approval to rule the kingdom before they can be crowned."
"So that's why this place is so important..." Carter shut his eyes and began saying a strange prayer. "Show me your secrets, conquer the laws of time and space..."
Oddly, Carter's body began to glow, and soon, the orb did too. Both glows synchronized and grew stronger as Carter's companions looked on in shocked awe.
"What's he doing?!" Eleanor shouted.
"He has some kind of special heightened emphatic abilities. There was an accident in school once that lodged several Mind Plate shards in his skull, which gave him the power to harness the senses we all have. Then we did some experiments on him to see if we could enhance that, and we obviously succeeded." Matt's eyes then widened as he realized something horrifying. "Quickly, stop him! He's trying to seize the crown with Shaymin – HE is Dominar!"
Matt lunged at Carter, defying Eleanor and Ross's attempts to stop him, but he fell just about a foot short of striking Carter and interrupting his ritual. As Matt looked helplessly up from the floor at his old rival, the light from the orb finally got blinding, and he had to turn away.
Moments later, a delicate, female-sounding voice said, "My temple, yes?"
As he stood, Matt was nearly trampled by Eleanor, who was rushing with Ross to see what had appeared on the altar. Sitting there was a tiny hedgehog Pokémon with a white body, four stubby legs and green grass instead of quills.
"IT'S SO CUTE!!!!" Eleanor screamed in absolute joy, hearts in her eyes. "IT'S ADORABLE!!"
The creature looked up at Eleanor and cringed. "You are not going to eat poor Shaymin, are you, yes?!"
"Of course not! Why would I eat something so cute?" Eleanor blinked. "Wait, you can talk?"
"Of course I can talk, yes! Shaymin is amazing like that, yes?"
"This is Shaymin?" Matt said to himself, looking back at the floor mural. "Why did you show up for this fiend anyway?"
"Matt, stop!" Carter snapped. "Shaymin, you have the power to judge peoples' hearts. Look into mine and say if you see darkness."
Shaymin shut its eyes and thought for a second, then reopened them. "Shaymin sees you are a good person, Carter McKenna, yes!" Looking around the room, Shaymin said, "You are all good people, even if Matt Chiaki has some problems, yes?" before seeing the poor woman. Instantly Shaymin lept into her arms and nuzzled her chest. "Shaymin remembers you, yes! You are..."
"HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!!" a voice suddenly called out, getting everyone's attention.
The voice was accompanied by a sudden blast of fire that scorched the floor near where the group was standing. Following the blast, Dominar, holding the staff that now contained the Griseous Orb in its tip, walked into the chamber with a sense of pride in his step, followed by none other than Heatran, prompting fear and shock in Matt and his friends. Matt in particular looked around in panic several times, not believing what was happening.
"Carter...you are...not Dominar?!"
"Not him!" Shaymin squealed. "He wants to eat poor Shaymin, yes!"
"Of course he isn't!" the real Dominar swaggered, not noticing Carter going into another of his prayer states. "I have been Dominar from the start. Your little girlfriend knows that fully now. You see that I control Heatran..." Holding the staff forth, Dominar then said, "...and you see what I possess here. This treasure grants me all the power I need, it..."
"...is the Griseous Orb, treasure of the House Fernando," Carter revealed, snapping his eyes open. "And your true identity, behind those rags....Fernando, the Eighth Count of La Ciudad Dorada!"
Matt, Eleanor and Ross all screamed "WHAT?!" in unison, none of them expecting or even really believing that Count Fernando was Dominar all this time. The anonymous woman simply stood by silently.
"Aha. Ahaha. Ahaahahaa!! So your little psychic power or whatever that is can read my heart? Fine then!" Reaching up, Dominar removed the rags and revealed his face, finally confirming that he was indeed Fernando, much to the group's horror. "I've manipulated you all thus far to find Shaymin and set me on the path to the Golden City. Once I have both, I can rule an empire encompassing all the world!"
"What did you do with Cassy?!" Of course, Matt was concerned about all of Fernando's world domination talk, but Cassy was the first thing that came to his lips. "What have you done to her?"
"Well..." A wry, wicked look crept onto Fernando's face as he considered his options. "Since you all are about to take a dirt nap right here, I may as well tell you. She's going to be my Queen Cassandra."
"NEVER!!" Once again Matt's mind snapped, and he lunged at Fernando aiming to punch him in the face.
Fernando, meanwhile, simply turned and uttered an inaudible command to Heatran, which promptly fired a blast of silver light from its mouth, hitting Matt and propelling him backward into one of the jars on the wall. The jar fell, spilling lamp oil all over the left side of Matt's face and his left arm.
Coughing and attempting to spat out the oil that had managed to drip into his mouth, Matt pulled out a Poké Ball and threw it, revealing a Pokémon whose smiling face was on an orange shape within its plasmatic body.
To join Matt's Rotom, Eleanor released a black birdlike Pokémon called Staraptor, while Carter brought out his white, paper airplane-esque Togekiss. Fernando just laughed, gesturing for Heatran to come forth.
"Do you seriously think you can challenge me? All just for Shaymin? Fine, I'll play with you, but like I said to Cassy before... I play hard! Heatran, Flash Cannon!"
Heatran stomped forth on its stubby legs, let out a taunting roar, and loosed another intense blast of light from its mouth.
"Togekiss!" Carter called out, moving himself to stand in front of the woman holding Shaymin. "Aura Sphere!"
Carter's Togekiss, quite fearlessly, faced Heatran's offense head-on. It folded its wings to nearly meet at a point below its body and formed a pulsating ball of energy between them, then flung this sphere at Heatran. The two attacks collided in a fantastic explosion of red, white and black smoke that also generated a mighty gust, knocking Carter and the woman back and away from each other.
It was then that Fernando's eyes locked on the woman and Shaymin, and a twisted smirk crept onto his face as his eyes filled simultaneously with the fire of hate and ambition. "So it IS you. Trying to eradicate my claim to the throne once and for all, you miserable wench?"
The villainous count took a forceful step forward, prompting the woman to cringe back by an equal amount. The Shaymin in her arms, meanwhile, was near tears out of fear.
"He wants...to eat me....yes...." it whimpered weakly.
"Back away from me, Fernando!" threatened the woman, showing surprising conviction. "I have bodyguards now!"
While Carter quietly went into another prayer, Matt hacked out another spit of oil and asked, "Just who are you, if you know all of this?"
"So she hasn't told you anything?" Fernando scoffed, not allowing the woman a chance to reply. "Typical. This woman... is my sister, the shamed Princess Rosalita!"
"You're a PRINCESS?!!" Eleanor screamed in confused horror, a feeling shared by the others.
The woman sighed and lowered her hood, revealing a full head of long, glistening blonde hair – very similar to Fernando's. "What he says is the truth, but the shameful one is not me. It is him."
"How dare you accuse me, the heir to the throne of La Ciudad Dorada! Who do you think you are?!"
"She is the TRUE heir!" Carter snapped, his eyes flying open. This claim took Fernando back a bit, but he didn't seem overly concerned that it was untrue, either. "You guys, now I have to use one of the abilities I gained from the experiments Matt did on me. Watch this!" He shut his eyes again, and focused with a newfound intensity. "Conquer the laws of space and time, show us all the events of the past!"
As Carter wrapped up his sentence, he accentuated the word 'past' forcefully, and when he did so, a hologram filled the entire chamber. Eleanor and Ross clearly found this strange, but didn't ask questions.
The hologram depicted in the center of the room an old man wearing robes and holding a staff, looking not all that dissimilar to the palace guards. He was standing at what appeared to be the same altar that Carter had summoned Shaymin from, with a slightly younger looking Fernando and Rosalita standing opposite him.
[i]"Fernando, Rosalita, you have reached the age where we must determine which of you will take the crown after your parents. Usually, this ceremony would merely affirm the sole male heir's right to the throne, but as there as never been a female heir of equal age prior to this moment, now is when Shaymin will determine which of you is more fit for the throne."[/i]
Placing his hands on the altar's orb, the old man uttered an incantation in an arcane language, and soon, Shaymin appeared in the orb's place.
[i]"You may each make short appeals to Shaymin before it decides."[/i]
The holographic Fernando stepped forth. [i]"As you know, Shaymin, every generation of House Fernando has produced a single male heir to take the throne. Should a woman take the throne, the kingdom will be tossed into utter chaos. A woman is simply not fit to rule over anything but a kitchen and a belly full of kids. If you don't want the kingdom destroyed you will select me to be the next king."
"I won't beg to be selected over my brother. Choose the one you think is best."[/i]
The old man then set his hands on the altar. [i]"Very well. Now, the gardener of gratitude shall make its decision."[/i]
In the hologram, Shaymin shut its eyes in contemplation, but only for a brief second. When it opened them, it said, [i]"Shaymin chooses Rosalita, yes!"
"WHAT?!! You little ignorant SHRUB! You dare to defy the right of Fernando the Eighth to the throne?"
"Shaymin doesn't like Fernando, yes....Fernando is scary, yes? Shaymin likes Rosalita more because she is pure and nice, yes!"
"Pure and nice doesn't rule a kingdom, you stupid weed! You must be strong and firm in your convictions to rule a kingdom. A woman, which you seem to be too ignorant to realize Rosalita is, is a slave to her hormone-fueled emotions and far too erratic to be any kind of effective ruler!"
"Brother, stop, please! Shaymin selected me, and that's just the way things are. If you're so concerned about the well-being of our kingdom, accept a position as minister in my regime."
"As if I would ever serve a living piece of eye candy! Hmph...you may think this is over, Shaymin, but you have not heard the last of Fernando la Dorada, the eighth king of La Ciudad Dorada!!"
As the holographic Fernando turned and stormed away from the altar, Carter released his focus, and the hologram faded. It left behind the present-day Fernando standing with a smug look on his face as his enemies stared at him in silent rage.
"You...filthy...swine..." Eleanor snarled with her head down. "This is how you treat women...?" Suddenly, she raised her head, revealing a deranged fury in her eyes. "Staraptor! Steel Wing!"
Eleanor's Staraptor – which had disappeared from sight during the hologram – suddenly reappeared behind Fernando, its wings shining like silver, and delivered a swift, crippling blow to his back, knocking him down while extracting just a gasp from him. He quickly stood back up, though, and it seemed as though this was what finally pushed him over the edge.
"So you want to play dirty, idiotic lolita slut, you? Bronzong, we're going to finish up here! Psychic!"
A Bronzong, previously hidden, suddenly emerged from behind Fernando. Immediately its eyes began to glow as it used psychic power, power which it used to wrench Shaymin out of Rosalita's hands. While Bronzong held Shaymin still over its head with its power, Fernando thrust his arm out and pointed forward, smiling wickedly.
"It's about time we finished up here. Heatran, burn this place down and leave no survivors! MAGMA STORM!!!"
Opening its mouth wider than ever before, Heatran simply roared loudly and glowed as energy from all around it collected into its body. Finally, when the light coming from its body was as bright as the sun, Heatran released four giant tornadoes of fire forward.
The fire quickly collided with all different parts of the chamber, creating a massive blaze as the temple crumbled. Carter was seperated from the others as this happened, but nobody noticed it – the blood-curdling screams that suddenly filled the room were what Eleanor, Ross and even Rosalita noticed. Just as mysteriously as everything else that happened, though, the trio was teleported out of the chamber. Luckily too, as it collapsed mere seconds later.
The teleportation dropped the three in another section of the temple, one that was safe from the fire. Looking around, all they could see were some lit torches on the walls and a stone tablet sitting on an altar nearby.
"What is this place?" Ross wondered aloud. "And how'd we get here?"
"It's the basement of the Gratitude Shrine...but how..."
Rosalita didn't need to finish, as the rather surprising answer appeared before them from thin air – a Dusknoir, quite obviously the one seemingly allied with Fernando, as it was able to speak to the three stunned people it had rescued.
"I brought you here. It was by pure chance I managed to reach you before Fernando killed you all."
"Wait, if you're the Dusknoir that was with Fernando before, then..." Ross had to stop for a second to process everything. "...you're on our side? Just what is going on?"
"I have been conflicted all this time, whether to follow what I should do or what I want to do, but I have decided that I cannot let what's going on happen any further. I will reveal everything I know to you.
I have been serving Fernando since...a certain event. He has been planning to seize the throne for a long time, and he's using you all to achieve that end. At the Go-Rock Quads rehearsal, he had me create an illusionary Dominar so it could appear that he was present during Dominar's speech, shifting suspicion off of himself.
The truth is, Fernando brought Heatran here himself as part of his plan. He caused the drought with the intention of ending it himself once he procured Shaymin, earning him the gratitude of the people and thus the right to the throne."
"What happened to our parents, then?"
"That I don't know. Even I do not know it all, but what I do know is the reason why he wants to find the Golden City. It is real. It exists, and a powerful secret sleeps with it, a secret that would allow Fernando to rule the entire world if he obtained it. The secret is so powerful that when I found the Golden City myself..."
"Wait, what?" Now Ross was confused. "You found the Golden City? What are you exactly?"
Realizing what he'd let slip, Dusknoir gasped, then sighed in shame. "I didn't want to tell you this part because I didn't think you'd understand. I appear to you as a Dusknoir, a Pokémon that has the ability to touch the spirit world, but in truth..."
Without another word, Dusknoir began glowing and then shapeshifting. He shrunk in both height and width quite significantly until he took on the shape of a man... but when the glow faded, Ross, Eleanor and Rosalita all screamed in shock at who stood before them.
Standing before them was an elderly, bespectacled man with a sunken face. He was dressed in a sharp blue suit with a green undershirt, and had pale, bluish-gray hair that resembled the appearance of the Shaymin in the temple's mural.
"It... can't be..." Eleanor gasped weakly. "There's no way..."
The man nodded. "Truthfully, I am the spirit of Sutter Chiaki, Matt Chiaki's grandfather."
"Why, though? Why have you come back?" At a loss for words, Ross simply couldn't handle what was happening anymore. "Just what is going on?!"
Sutter looked down. "I can't hide anything from you anymore. Myself, King Fernando the Fifth and Howard McKenna found the Golden City in 1989. However, we also discovered that Regigigas is sealed to it."
"Regigigas!" Ross cried out. "I knew it!"
"Yes. We realized that if we raised the Golden City, Regigigas would revive, and it could possibly cause an apocalyptic seismic disaster. The Regigigas there is different. At the beginning of the world, it existed when Pangea – the single landmass on the planet – existed. Using its power, Regigigas broke Pangea apart, then it created an army of smaller duplicate Regigigas to move the continents into their present places. These are the Regigigas you know, the ones that sleep in places like Gracidea and the Snowpoint Temple.
We agreed to never speak of our discovery. We split the keys among our grandchildren – Matt got the cube, and Rosalita and Count Fernando each got one half of a map indicating the location of the Golden City's entrance. Count Fernando murdered me in an attempt to get the cube and is planning to resurrect Regigigas, because if he can control it, he can reform Pangea and rule the entire world. La Ciudad Dorada sits on what was the very center of the Pangea continent."
"So he wasn't lying when he said he'd rule the world..." Eleanor suddenly gasped as she realized something else. "Where are Matt and Carter?"
"I..." Sutter's expression darkened. "I don't know where Carter is. He got seperated from us during the chaos. Matt, on the other hand, I know exactly where he is... but what happened to him is..."
"Something happened to him?! Please tell me he's alright..."
"Eleanor, he's alive, I can tell you that, but just let me warn you that what Fernando did blew him half to hell..."
"Spare us the speech! Where'd he go?!"
"He's being cared for at the Pokémon Center. By the time I send you there, he should be healthy enough to function again, since I left detailed instructions and the necessary tools. You'll have to hurry though... Fernando plans to crown himself king and launch a manhunt to take Matt down, since he knows the truth." Sutter turned, lifted the tablet from its mantle and handed it to Eleanor. "That tablet is something you need, but Matt will need to decipher it. Pick him up and get out of the city as soon as possible, and don't take HR-E with you because they'll follow it."
"Aren't you coming with us?" Eleanor asked angrily.
"I can't. It's not possible yet for me to openly betray Fernando. Follow my instructions and find the Golden City before he does – it's the only way to stop his plan. Let me leave you with a phrase that always kept me going throughout my career: no matter what, always keep soldiering on. Good luck!"
With that, Sutter snapped his fingers, teleporting the three away.
Howard sat in his cell, staring at the damp ground blankly and listening to the steady drip from the ceiling. He sat up in a start, though, when he heard the guards move aside and the sounds of several heavy sets of feet.
"Unhand me, you brutes! What have you done to my friends?!"
Instantly recognizing the voice, Howard sprang to his feet and ran to the cell's bars. "Whoever is outside, don't you dare hurt my son!"
"Daddy?!"
"Shut up, both of you!" Fernando lit a torch, illuminating the dungeon. Two guards had Carter restrained and standing between the wall and Fernando's Heatran, while the Count himself stood nearby. "You see what I've done, right, Carter McKenna?"
"Why is my father here?"
"Because I captured him? Geez, you guys aren't too bright. Okay, here's the deal, kid. I know about those extrasensory abilities you have because of Chiaki's experiments. I want you to awaken the Regirock that is in this temple."
Carter scowled. "Why should I cooperate with you?"
"Because..." As Fernando said this, one of his Bronzong materialized in the cell and turned on its side, aiming itself like a cannon at Howard's head. "If you don't, I'll have my Bronzong fire a Flash Cannon through your father's head. I'll be leaving you here for a bit to make your decision."
Fernando opened the cell door and gestured to the guards, who threw Carter quite roughly into it. The Count then slammed the gate shut and locked it, then swept out of the room. It was tense and silent for several moments until Howard and Carter were confident they were alone.
"Daddy...what did he do..." Though Howard couldn't see it due to the darkness, his son was staring in his direction with tears in his eyes. Carter knew from the start that La Ciudad Dorada was a land of mysteries, but in no way could he have ever prepared for this turn of events. "What did they do to you? Why did you disappear on Sutter's expedition?"
"Sutter had nothing to do with my disappearance. He was already dead by Fernando's hand by the time that wicked man showed up and asked me to go to Stark Mountain with him. He forced me to help him gain control of Heatran using a tool called the Magma Stone, then locked me up here. What about you?"
[i]"Chiaki really had nothing to do with it after all!"[/i] Carter quickly realized. Now he felt guilty that he had instantly accused his old classmate's family of the act. "I...ran into Matt while searching for Shaymin. He was summoned here by Fernando to solve the problems that we now understand Fernando himself caused."
"And he's not here? He's in danger then! We must escape!"
"What can we do..." replied Carter, bitterly. "If I don't cooperate, they'll kill you, force me to do what he wants and then probably kill me too. The only course of action is to wait for a rescue...wait, that smell..." Sniffing the air, Carter looked around in a bit of a panic. "Is there a dead body in here?"
"I don't know. It's smelled like that ever since they threw out some trash behind the wall over there." Howard pointed in the direction of a nearby wall that had a vague appearance of disgusting green mold around the bricks, visible even in the dark.
Instantly, Carter shut his eyes and began to use his power once more. He illuminated the room with his aura, soon turning right for where Howard had pointed and focusing more. "Conquer all the laws of space and time! Show me the hidden secrets you bear!"
When Carter accentuated the word 'bear,' another hologram illuminated and filled the chamber. This time, it was the throne room of the palace that appeared. A long, red carpet stretched between two grand doors on one end and twin thrones on the other, in which were seated a man in a red cape and ruffled blue shirt who resembled a more dignified Count Fernando, and a woman who had the appearance of Rosalita in a ruffled pink gown. Four red tapestries, two on each side, hung against the walls.
The grand doors creaked slowly open, bringing the king and queen to attention. The figure of their son, Count Fernando, appeared and entered, a fire of rage burning in his golden eyes. He too was dressed in the ruffly blue shirt and red cape.
[i]"Hail, your royal highness, King Fernando the Seventh! And mother, Queen Cassandra!"
"Why did you come here, Fernando?"[/i] the king asked of his son, rather irritably. [i]"Affairs of the kingdom take precedence over your childish games."
"Games? The matter at hand is not a game, father! Shaymin has named Rosalita the heir to the throne!"
"This is old news, Fernando. Don't waste my time."[/i]
The holographic count took an angry step forward. [i]"A woman cannot run this kingdom! How can you abide by this?!"
"Fernando, my son, keep your rage in check. You have been passed over for the role your father holds because of that rage. You must temper it before you will succeed. Why are you wearing the clothing reserved for the king anyway?"
"I have had enough of this nonsense, mother...and that is why, with the authority vested in me as Count Fernando the Eighth, I am placing you two under arrest for the crime of treason!"
"TREASON?!!"[/i] the king thundered, rising to his feet. [i]"Guards, remove this impudent fool now!"
"Heh... you won't be getting help from your little guards, father."[/i]
As if on cue, four guards appeared behind Count Fernando, all of them with dull, drowsy looking eyes.
[i]"I'm giving you two one chance to make right what is wrong. Reverse the decision that the useless shrub made, take away the throne from the walking ovaries I must call a sister."
"You are mad!"[/i] Cassandra screamed. [i]"The die is cast! Give up!"
"So you have decided to defy fate then. Fine!"[/i]
As soon as Fernando gestured with his hand, the tapestries rose to reveal four concealed Bronzong in the rafters. Simultaneously all four Bronzong turned over and pointed their cannons at the king and queen.
Howard could only watch in horror as the hologram depicted the gruesome murder of the king and queen by their own son, who laughed maniacally through the whole thing. Initially his mind was blank but it soon filled with questions. How could Fernando have done such a thing? How did he hide it? What was his ulterior motive?
The image was so horrifying that even Carter's concentration was broken by it. The hologram mercifully disappeared when he opened his eyes.
"I don't believe it..." the young man said blankly. "This whole thing... it's all just one giant coup led by Fernando..."
A red-haired Nurse Joy was sitting at the Pokémon Center's reception desk, and she looked up as Eleanor, Ross and the once-again-hooded Rosalita came crashing in. Some other people were in the wood-framed lobby of the old European-style building, but none seemed terribly concerned about what was going on.
"Can...can I help you three?" the Joy asked nervously. La Ciudad Dorada was usually a relatively quiet place, so she wasn't used to people rushing in like this.
"Yeah," Eleanor answered. "Matt Chiaki. We know he's been taken here for care. Please take us to him."
Joy stood and nodded, albeit a bit hesitantly. " More like appeared here. I'll do so, but I need to warn you, he got blasted pretty badly. Anyway, follow me."
The trio followed the nurse into a narrow back hallway. With each step they took the floorboards creaked under their feet, narrating their trek past rows upon rows of nondescript doors. Finally, though, Joy stopped at one and rested her hand on the iron handle.
"Be quiet, he's resting after some extensive work we had to do."
Joy wasn't kidding – she opened the door, and Eleanor nearly began crying at what she saw, so badly that Ross had to prop her up.
Matt lay unconsious on the bed in the room, the entire left side of his face taped up with bandages along with a purple rose eye patch slung over that side's eye. His left arm was also propped up in a sling and had wires coming out of it.
"I guess his face must have gotten some sort of accelerant on it," Joy stated. "We picked up traces of oil used to light lamps. That oil ignited from a flame and totally burned him. We were able to graft some skin to cover the wounds but he's never gonna look the same. As for the arm, it appears that a boulder or something must have crushed it, but whoever brought him here also left a cybernetic arm to replace it and instructions on its use. They also left a bunch of clothes for him..." Joy pointed to a nearby chair, which had a brown coat with a yellow trim, black lapels and black wrists thrown over it, along with white pants and a blue cravat. A pair of black boots sat next to the chair.
[i]"Sutter, you old coot, you really did take care of him,"[/i] Ross thought.
"Anyway, I'll leave you guys alone for a while..."
As soon as Joy left and shut the door behind her, Shaymin, who had been sitting on a table behind the door, sprang into Rosalita's arms and nuzzled her chest.
"Shaymin's friend Rosalita, yes! Shaymin was scared, yes, but Shaymin was saved by a mysterious man, yes!"
"We know, Shaymin," replied the princess in a soothing tone, "he helped us too."
"But Matt is hurt, yes..."
As the trio neared the bed to have a closer look, the sound of a bell echoed through the open window. Almost instantaneously, Rosalita sighed sadly.
"We must hurry, for it is beginning... the bells of the tower ring a total of ten times when a new king is about to debut. If noone emerges with a concrete challenge of that king's rule before the tenth chime, they become the ruler of the kingdom. Also, it is said that the bells bring rain, so... he's ending the drought he began, and he could have done this from the beginning!"
"The monster!" spat Eleanor. "If that's the case, we have to get Matt out of here and escape, now! But how do we get him up...?"
Without a word, Shaymin jumped onto Matt's face. It then rested squarely upon him and said, "Shaymin wants you to get up, yes!"
Shaymin focused all its energy and began glowing, and soon, Matt's body did too. Eleanor and Ross both stepped back as the light got brighter and brighter until finally it faded. There was only a moment for Shaymin to rest before Matt sprang upward in the bed, flinging the hedgehog across the room.
"Shaymin does not like moving fast, yessssssssssssss!!!!!!" it squealed – then it crashed into a wall, fell, and leaped right back into Rosalita's arms.
"Aromatherapy..." said Ross in wonder. "One of Shaymin's moves..."
"What's going on? Where am I?" Matt asked, puzzled. Either he had been knocked out by what happened in the temple or by the teleportation itself, but either way, he was plainly confused. He suddenly felt the urge to feel the left side of his face, causing himself visible pain despite the bandages.
"Yeah, that's gonna hurt for a while, but something more important is going on!" As Rosalita said this, the second toll of the bells rang out, furthering her panic. "When that bell tower reaches its tenth toll, Fernando is going to crown himself king and launch a manhunt for you. We have to escape at once!"
Matt was unconvinced. "Half my head was burned off and you want me to leave the hospital? Fernando's a villain but he won't do something like that."
"He took Carter."
That news was all the convincing Matt needed. He quickly stood, but then he tottered for a moment out of weakness. Looking around, he immediately spotted a wheelchair in the corner of the room and wasted no time in setting himself up to appear a cripple.
"What's the plan, then?"
Eleanor put her hand on Matt's shoulder. "We get away from here as quickly as possible. Nothing else."
"Fine, but... I need to get data out of HR-E even then..."
"Matt, we cannot..."
Ross cut Eleanor off, realizing she would reveal the truth about Sutter if she continued. "If we hurry from this place now, we can recover anything necessary and escape before Fernando launches his manhunt. Now hurry and get dressed."
Minutes later, Nurse Joy, who had gone back to the front desk, found herself quite surprised at what she was seeing – the suddenly fully awake and conscious Matt, dressed in the clothes left for him, being pushed out by Eleanor in the wheelchair while Ross and Rosalita flanked him.
"How did he get back up so quickly?!" the nurse snapped. She quickly regained her professional air, though, and said, "You can't really take him yet. With the burns he got and the prosthetic arm..."
The bells tolled for the third time. Noting this, Matt firmly replied, "I'm fine! Joy, thank you for taking care of me. I must be going now."
Joy just stared as the group of four left through the ornate double doors of the Pokémon Center. Once they were gone she turned to a nearby window and noticed dark clouds gathering. [i]"The drought, is it finally over?"[/i] she thought.
Outside, just as the fourth bell rang, Matt kicked the wheelchair to the curb and together with his companions began sprinting in the direction of Carter's villa.
"HR-E mainframe, come in!" Matt ordered on a two-way he had pulled from his pocket. "This is Strawberry Commander! Meet at location CMK-125 at once! This is an emergency!"
The four continued to run as the ominous chime of the fifth set of bells echoed through the air.
At a desert cliff outside the city, a very tall and ominous man stood looking over the town. His white clothes were relatively plain, but he still stood out, in a ruffled gray tie he wore at his neck and yellow boots and cape he wore, pinned down with transparent, blue shell-like armor on the shoulders. He also wore a mask that obscured his face above the upper lip, with holes cut for his striking blue eyes. The cape blew in the wind that carried the sixth chiming of the bells.
"I sense... a dreadful aura coming over La Ciudad Dorada. A dread not felt in this place since the last time I was here... perhaps it is time for my legend to once again become real..."
Matt's group had reached Carter's villa to rendezvous with HR-E just as the seventh set of bells went off. Frantically he entered data into the robot's computer while Eleanor and Ross stood guard.
"What are you doing over there?" Eleanor's voice was laced with fear, fear that their time was running out. "We don't have time for this!"
"In order for everything to work I have to program the mainframe's data into one robot, which we can then transport manually. I don't know who brought me to the Pokémon Center but it must have been one of you, because this arm is something I designed. Who saved me anyway?"
"Uh..." Sidestepping the question, Ross answered with one of his own. "What does HR-E stand for anyway?"
Surprisingly, Matt didn't press for a real answer. "It's shortened. The full acronym is HR-EARC, which means 'Human Resource Engine, Analytical Robot Class.' I invented it while in school to be my assistant in the field." Tapping in one last command, Matt finished with a flourish, picked up a ROB and strapped it to his back, then said, "Done. Let's get out of here."
It was a good thing he wasted no time, as toll number eight rang out just as he finished. Matt picked up a laptop and tucked it under his arm as his group departed, running out into the desert. They didn't know where they were heading, just that they had to get there as soon as possible.
"You guys... just what is going on? Who took me to the Pokémon Center?"
Eleanor clearly almost spilled the truth again, but Ross cut her off. "Does it matter? As long as you're alright..."
"Look, I'm not convinced." Clearly Matt was going to press this time. "This arm is technology that I have been experimenting with. I'm glad it works, but I need to know what's going on."
Just as the sound of the ninth set of bells filled the air, Eleanor stopped, prompting the others to as well. She put her hands on her hips as if in anger but the look on her face was one of confusion.
"Why were you making artificial limbs?" she asked, blantantly ignoring the question that had been posed to her.
"Fine, don't answer me, even if I answer you." Matt was indignant. He really didn't appreciate the prying into his life in addition to being ignored, but he decided to answer the question anyway. "My sister Amanda is blind and crippled. I have experimented with artificial body parts for years in the hopes that one day she may be able to walk and see again."
"I see. You are noble for caring so muc..."
That was the moment when it happened. The sound of ringing bells brought dread into the hearts of the four, especially into Rosalita's for she was the one who understood the danger the most.
"Heaven help us all," the princess mused dejectedly. "A madman has now taken the throne."
Rosalita and those she'd advised weren't the only ones who knew what the ten bell tolls meant. Every citizen of La Ciudad Dorada knew that a new king had been crowned, and, all hoping that their problems were coming to an end, were pouring out into the streets in front of the palace. As always, two guards stood at the opening up on the palace's grand balcony, but several more were now guarding the palace's main entrance.
Suddenly, a guard on the balcony turned away. Someone was whispering something to her, which she nodded to before stepping forward.
"Subjects of La Ciudad Dorada!" she announced in a remarkably powerful, loud voice that echoed over the citizens in the square. "Presenting the newly crowned eighth king, Fernando la Dorada!"
The guards parted, and Fernando, clad in the royal clothes seen by Carter and Howard in the hologram, stepped out onto the balcony with the Griseous Orb's staff in his hand. A cheer instantly erupted from the crowd – unknowing of his true nature, the people saw Fernando as a guiding hand in times of trouble. This probably would have held true even if some of his actions were known, as his confident, take-the-bull-by-the-horns attitude made him very popular.
"My loyal subjects!" If one with knowledge of Fernando's actions saw the look on his face as his said this, it would be seen as one of sheer lunacy, but the citizens, ignorant of those facts, saw just the same confident smile. "Subjects, do you recall the last time I addressed you? I promised that the night would be darkest just before the day – and with my coronation, the dark night has passed! Tomorrow will bring this kingdom the brightest dawn it has ever seen, as we bring forth a plan to move into a new era!
I plan to introduce my queen to you in a televised address shortly. What I must tell you now, though, is of utmost importance. There is a rogue within our city, a rogue who unfortunately is my sister, Rosalita la Dorada. She is the one who caused the drought that has ruined our kingdom, and also the one who killed the last king and queen! Her own parents!
This fugitive, who looks like a horribly feminine version of me, is being harbored by Matt Chiaki, Eleanor Laplace and a Pokémon Ranger named Ross somewhere in this city. As my loyal subjects, you must aid us in finding them in any fashion you can!
That's about it for now. As we head into a new and brighter era... all hail La Ciudad Dorada!"
Fernando said this just as the bell tower chimed once again, starting rainfall.
"All hail Dorada!" the people chanted, pumping their fists. "All hail Fernando!"
The chants continued as Fernando looked down on his populace from the balcony. More and more, as he listened to them chant his name, insane thoughts entered his mind. Finding the Golden City...expanding his empire... torturing and killing Matt, Eleanor, Ross and especially his hated sister... when he could no longer contain the madness within, he simply looked up and released a loud, completely insane laugh that mixed with the sound of the chanting in the city.
The rainfall continued into that night, having picked up in intensity quite considerably. It even extended into the desert, where Matt's group had found shelter in a cave.
Eleanor was just staring out at the rain, thinking about nothing in particular. Rosalita and Shaymin were sleeping, and Ross was working with Matt on his computer, analyzing a video that had been posted to the Internet of Fernando's speech.
[i]" This fugitive, who looks like a horribly feminine version of me, is being harbored by Matt Chiaki, Eleanor Laplace and a Pokémon Ranger named Ross somewhere in this city. As my loyal subjects, you must aid us in finding them in any fashion you can!
That's about it for now. As we head into a new and brighter era... all hail La Ciudad Dorada!"
"All hail Dorada! All hail Fernando!"[/i]
Ross's eyes widened as he watched the video; he'd noticed something unusual. "Back up to where the bells rang."
Matt nodded and complied, rewinding the video. "Where should I pause it?"
"Right..." Just as the bells rang in the video, Ross shouted, "Now!"
With the video paused, Matt stared at the screen. The video had been shot with a camcorder held by one of the citizens in the square during the speech, however, Fernando was barely visible in it. Most of the screen was taken up by the backs of peoples' heads.
"I don't get what you're looking at," Matt said, grimacing with the one good, unbandaged half of his face.
"Pull out the last three seconds and next two and play that seperately at slow motion."
Clearly, Matt didn't understand what Ross was getting at, but he complied with the request nonetheless. By tapping several keys he seperated the relevant section of the video from the rest, then played it in slow motion.
"Watch the face that you can see the side of right when the bells ring."
Ross pointed at the screen, to a face that was slightly visible on the right side of the video. Just as the bells rung, the eyes on the face drooped suddenly. Finally Matt had seen it, after Ross caught it immediately.
"What's wrong with that person's eyes?"
"It's Hypnosis," Ross stated flatly. "Seen it all the time in my Ranger duties. At the time the bells rang, I'm theorizing Fernando placed the entire populace under Hypnosis to obey his commands. The bell tower is the key, since he sealed it to keep people out. I think he might have Bronzor or Bronzong in there."
Matt took a moment to think about this. It certainly added up, and he made up his mind to agree. "I think you're right. So, what about that tablet you said you got?"
"Oh, that? Okay." Ross turned and picked up the tablet from the rock he had left it on and moved it to next to Matt's computer. "We got this in the basement of the temple."
"Same language as on the other one," Matt said, examining the dots on the tablet by running his hand over them. "This'll be a snap to translate."
Reaching into the shoulder bag he'd taken from HR-E earler, Matt produced a tiny but quite obviously high-tech camera, which he attached to the computer with several wires. He pointed it over the tablet, then pressed one key on the computer's keyboard with a firm hand.
The camera generated a surprisingly wide blue light, and when it registered seeing the tablet, a graphic of said tablet with the text 'SCANNING: 0%' over it appeared on the screen. That number increased at a great speed as the light moved down the length of the stone's inscription, until, just mere moments later, it stopped at 100%. The computer displayed the fully scanned text, then spoke out with its translation.
[i]"Translation successfully decoded. Message is as follows:
The body of iron rests in the house of the 4491. In the house of the 4491, the 312516 behind the 217 opens the door to the R3G15733L."[/i]
Matt stared at his screen, taking the computer's words with a massive dose of incredulity. "They seriously wrote 'Registeel' in leet speak? On a five hundred year old tablet?"
"If you think that's bad, I had to put up with an actual villainous team that spoke in damn leet." Ross grimaced, thinking back to those...rather lame minions. "Team Dim Sun sure earend the 'dim' part."
"Enough with the jokes, what does this mean? All these numbers... they don't make any sense."
Ross looked closer at the screen. "'The house of 4491'... 4491 could be a street address."
"This town doesn't use those," Matt answered indifferently.
"4491...what else, then?"
"It's got to be an identifying feature on the location somehow. Look, it's late, I'll just have my mainframe run searches on relevant data overnight and see if it matches anything."
After entering one last command into the computer, Matt snuffed out the candle providing light to the cave.
However, outside in the rain, the Bronzor from earlier with the camera strapped on itself floated, secretly watching...
END of CHAPTER 3