Thanks for the comments, VCJ and Placeholder!
Chapter VII: All That Glitters…
Leo insisted getting ahead of his human self and Sally. If there was danger ahead, he was better equipped to handle it. Not so much Lonny, but she was sticking by his side, if not also trying to get ahead of him and Blaze. Chalesti was ahead of all of them, though.
After a turn of the new, short tunneled passage, the end was obvious by the amount of light. Not outside light, but after making a second turn, he could already tell it opened on a much larger chamber, where Chalesti was waiting at the threshold. She looked…stunned…or amazed, from what he could tell from her unmoving winged backside.
Racing with the others, he was soon looking out into just what he expected: a large chamber apparently having been carved from inside the hill. Perhaps a good thirty feet high, it ran at least another thirty back into the hill, and forty the other way to straight outside. It was instantly obvious what caused the shaking: two massive doors opening the chamber to the outside, leaving a pile of rock and sand that fell from above in front. Morning sunlight was streaming in, giving everything the usual soft, orange morning glow as the musty smell was dissipating by the second by the fresh outside air. Even a slight breeze could be felt from the tunnel behind with both ends now open.
All this was ignoring what was in the chamber though, and at which he was staring with everyone else. And that was a single, rather large…object. He felt Lonny brushing against him and his large rear fin in trying to slide past out of the passageway.
"What is that?"
At first he couldn't answer his mate. Whatever the large metallic gold and yellow object with red highlights buried under much dust was, immediately baffled him. But on thinking it bared some resemblance to things he'd seen on Earth: "What is that?" repeating the question to his human self.
Both his other self and Sally moved into the chamber slowly, dropping the packs off their shoulders. The red head was quickly pointing, "It's got windows and wings, so…"
"An…airplane?" Blaze exclaimed, obviously remembering such things from Earth. "But there's no such things here!"
"Technology…" Chalesti was whispering, more to herself.
"It looks like no airplane I've ever seen," Grovyle said, following the two humans by partly climbing on the wall leading out of the tunnel, and causing the rest of them to start moving again.
Leo silently agreed it looked like a plane in many respects, but…
"It's looks like no plane I've ever seen, though," his human self added, just behind Sally as she cautiously walked the many steps to the side of it. "Not exactly, anyway."
The red-haired human touched the somewhat rounded, though still somewhat squarish side, just in front of where the right wing joined the body, "More like…um…" Rapping it with her knuckles, it sounded thin. "Sheet metal?"
"Sorta resembles one of those old space shuttles. I mean, look at the wings: they go from the rear to half-way up the fuselage. There's no horizontal stabilizers."
"But there are rudders," Leo added to what his human self just said, getting a semi-surprised look from the other Pokémon. "I do know about airplanes." And it wasn't just what he had picked up while on Earth for a year. Somewhere in his few fractured recovered memories, he had an image of an airplane or two…and even felt he had some knowledge of how they worked. There was an airplane model he put together once when he was young… As soon as he tried to focus on it, the memory evaporated under the increased focus though. Damn.
"This metal is…layered with gold? I think," Sally continued, brushing off some of the considerable dust with her hand.
Leo got up to the side along with his human self to get a even closer look. The bright golden color revealed where she had brushed certainly looked like gold in the direct light of the morning sun, but his own rap on the side re-enforced the fact it was a thin metal, with a familiar sound to it. Oh…what did they call that material on Earth?
"Gold electroplated on aluminum maybe," his human self said, doing the same inspection after brushing off some more heavy dust. "It'd be corrosion resistant then; quite effectively, probably."
Sally was suddenly patting her hand against it: "Hey…if this is aluminum, then this thing might really be intended to fly!"
Her statement would've certainly gotten his heart going by itself…but there was a bigger reason why it was suddenly pounding, and by the look on the other Leo's face, he was experiencing the same sudden dizziness…faintness…
"Oh…" was all his other self could get out before he started falling.
Leo quickly braced himself against the side of the object to steady himself, but never felt it as the long dormant Dimensional Scream ability fully took over.
Twilight…?
Shadowed in partial darkness, the hill loomed in front of the dim western glow, a cavernous opening leading inside between several palm-like trees. Many torches were illuminating the chamber where it appeared fresh and clean, while a small team of Pokémon…and humans, were pushing a brand-new looking golden "aircraft" inside.
"Carefully!" someone shouted in some strange human dialect.
Several Pokémon acknowledged in their own language as a gentle, pleasant breeze blew against his skin. Some cricketots were signing nearby…and campfires burned in various places.
Over the seconds, the rear of the aircraft reached the threshold and started rolling in toward some blocks, which seemed meant to bare the craft when the wheels became retracted.
The view begun slowly rotating until the nearest of the other hills came into view…
…where a large shadowed form was standing on the very top, though appearing tiny from the distance, apparently watching everything. It's silhouette was as a large, yet elegantly shaped dragon, though again distance prevented any certain identification.
It watched motionless as the scene faded, almost with a somber air about it as it bowed it's head…
"Leo!" a human female voice screamed.
"Leo!" an infernape voice followed.
Directly in front of his nose was a small pile of dirt…which he was breathing in. He rose, sneezing as human and Pokémon hands helped him up. "I'm alright," saying after a second sneeze delayed it. Next to him, his human self was also getting up, Sally and Grovyle helping.
"Was that the Dimensional Scream?," Blaze asking before anyone else.
He nodded, and to both his partner and his human self: "We haven't had one of those for a while."
"This one was intense, like I was actually there…" the other Leo commented, turning to the plane while holding his head. "Even felt the wind."
"Sure you shouldn't be laying down?" Sally asked both of them.
"I'm fine!" Leo replied in unison with his other self.
Shaking her head, Sally sighed but kept a hand on his other self anyway, much like Blaze and Lonny were on him.
"What the heck was that Pokémon on the hill?" his other self asked after a slow shake of his head.
"Don't know," Leo replied. With everyone still looking at both of them with concern and expectation, he explained along with his human self what they saw, each adding details the other missed.
"You think that might have been…Dialga up there?" Blaze asked, hope evident on his red, heavy-browed face. "Or maybe Palkia?"
"It was too dark and too far away," Leo reiterated to his friend. "I'm sorry, I just couldn't tell."
Face still with hope, Blaze turned to his other self, but the human just shook his head, apparently guessing the question.
"Alright, you two sit down for a while in here while the rest of us gather the stuff from camp," Sally said, pointing to a spot by the wall. "I think in here is an excellent place to make camp while we figure this all out."
"I'm fine!" Leo protested, giving one of his green gills a rub to get the dirt off...
…which Sally promptly started pulling, effectively making him yip and jerk toward where she was pointing. "I don't care! You fell from that Scream thing, so just sit for a few minutes." Then pointing to his human self: "And don't you give me any grief either, mister."
"Yes ma'am," his human self back talked, but complying in going over to the wall.
Which Leo figured he better finish doing as well.
"Lonny, please watch them and make sure they stay there."
Lonny nodded her light blue and green face, smirking.
"Come on Blaze, Grovyle, Chalesti, let's gather our stuff and bring it in here."
The three Pokémon either nodded or shrugged in following the red-head out the large "front" doors and around the hill, disappearing into the morning sun.
"She's over protective," Leo told his other self as they sat on the dusty floor next to where they had dropped their packs and satchels.
"But I love her anyway," the human replied with a smile.
Indeed, Leo thought. So did he.
Joining them on the floor, Lonny looked suddenly deflated. "How can this…plane thing, make me a swampert again? Was there anything in your vision…any clues?"
Reaching an arm over, he started rubbing the back of the other one he loved. "We only saw a group of humans and Pokémon pushing this thing in here, plus that other Pokémon or creature on the hill," Leo replied in reiterating what they'd already said. If there was anything else to it, he didn't know what.
"I assume it was just before they sealed this chamber," the other Leo added. "Whenever that was. Five thousand years ago, the same age of the map? Assuming Chalesti's guess of its age is correct."
Under his hand, Leo felt as well as heard Lonny sigh heavily, and they all stayed silent until Sally and the others returned a few moments later.
For the next while, they concentrated on cleaning a spot on the semi-smooth rock floor and laying out their sleeping bags and blankets. Blaze and Grovyle gathered some of the numerous rocks from outside to set up a small fire ring just inside the massive doors…which looked as if they were simply carved from the hillside, giving them a natural, camouflaged appearance from outside.
Which made sense, considering everything else.
"So you saw humans," Grovyle said thoughtfully after they finished, his face contorting as if with considerable puzzlement while tugging on his wrist leaves. "But humans didn't have the ability to make something like this five thousand years ago. Or even five hundred years ago. At least not on Earth." Directing his question to Chalesti: "What do you know of this?"
The clefable didn't answer right away as the humans, including Lonny, went over to the object. Instead, she looked deep in thought.
"Chalesti?" Leo prodded.
Eventually she snapped out of it. "Advanced technology. But doesn't look like anything other clefables might have had so long ago. There's only one other known species who could have made such a thing…but not back then…that I know of."
"Humans?" Blaze prodded.
Chalesti nodded with her body.
"But how can this be thousands of years old?" Sally exclaimed from the side of the plane. "Did it maybe time-travel to back then, to be found now?"
"If Dialga could do something like that, then maybe," Leo heard his other self answer.
Leaning against the dusty side, the red head strained on her tip-toes in an attempt to see through one of the nearly opaque dust-caked windows: "OK, so we have one possible explanation…" saying while brushing off more dust.
"Well sure, but that would mean he would've contracted with someone to build it," the other Leo answered while likewise brushing away dust in apparently trying to see where a red metallic stripe was leading to. "That I can't picture."
Sally laughed. "You think Dialga showing up on Earth to place an order at one of the aircraft companies would make news? Wow, it's rather empty inside…"
"Indeed," Grovyle added, turning back from what the humans were doing. "And it would've been Dialga from the past."
"Maybe," Leo countered, giving a gill a rub while checking out the other end of the stripe his human self was following. "We…really don't know if he's still alive though, remember?"
"You know…" Blaze started to say before halting and swishing his tail. Then under their stares: "This might seem silly, but we don't know if Dialga himself actually can travel through time. He said he regulated it, controlled it, and could move people and things through it. But we never saw him move himself, even Primal Dialga. And he had plenty of reason to travel himself with Dusknoir to try and stop us at the ruins at the base of Temporal Tower."
Leo thought on that for a few seconds. Blaze was right…
"Small meaningless point, though," the infernape continued with a sigh, his shoulders sagging.
"Not some bad reasoning, Blaze," Grovyle said, giving him a pat on the back. "Let's just say it'll be a lingering question."
"Sure wouldn't mind meeting this Dialga," Lonny added. "Going back in time could solve a few problems, right Leo? It allowed you to save the two worlds."
That was quite obviously true. But time travel had it's complications, as Lonny also well knew from knowing his and Blaze's story.
Cocking her body a little: "Temporal Tower?" Chalesti asked. "And you seem to know a lot about Dialga…"
Oh, that was right! They never told her anything about their adventures!
"AH HA!"
With a start, he turned with Blaze, Grovyle, Chalesti and Lonny toward the humans.
"I think this is the hatch!" his human self exclaimed.
Under everyone's watchful eyes, Leo Hanson finished brushing off what he and Sally thought was the embedded hatch handle located under a cover. Then with little effort, it turned smoothly in his hand and the entire door popped open of its own accord, a slight swoosh of air coming out amid some falling dust and dirt from the outside.
"Smells stale," Sally commented, backing up a step and nearly into Chalesti.
With his counterpart, Leo opened the door upward and after a quick look inside, stepped up and into the almost completely empty, perhaps ten-foot-wide cabin. Not even any seats, but it was very clean: no dust anywhere! "Definitely airtight," commenting as he stooped to run a finger on the floor…which came away utterly clean.
The Pokémon only spoke a few words among themselves as they spread around the interior, Lonny coming in last. He knew what she had been hoping for, and this plane wasn't it. But then…what was its purpose?
Well, obviously to transport goods and people places, assuming it was truly functional. And in the course of finding that out, he looked around for anything that might indicate such.
"This is the cockpit, I guess," Sally said in moving with him to the front of the cabin where some light was making it through the windows despite the caked-on dust, largely since the morning sunlight was directly hitting them. The brownish glow was somewhat eerie on the slightly curved, foot and a half wide panel that stretched from one side to the other just in front of the windows.
The stone-colored control panel (he guessed) looked very simple with not much on it: a handful of buttons with some strange symbols, a large dark rectangle (screen?), some dark spots that may have been indicator lights (obviously unlit), and smack in the middle, the same sun-like symbol that had glowed on the mural back in the passage…along with a recess in the middle of it that had a familiar shape…
Chalesti seemed to spot it immediately and after shouting in unintelligible Poke language, ran back out of the plane. The other Pokémon rushed up to take her place near the panel.
"A spot for the crystal?" his swampert counterpart asked, giving the recess a close look including running a large blue finger in it.
"What kind of language is this?" Leo asked, pointing to the letter-like symbols on the buttons.
To his question, Grovyle leaned in, but ended up shaking his head before speaking.
"It's not Unown," his counterpart translated.
Hovering over the large dark rectangle, Sally was gently pressing a finger to it. "I think this is a screen; it flexes like an LCD, but seems…different."
Taking the cue, Leo followed his mate's action, discovering an almost fluid-like swirl beneath where he pressed on the thin glass. Similar to an LCD, but there were no discernable pixels, and the fluid seemed more…fluid. In any case, it appeared to be the most advanced thing on the plane, at least at first glance. "Must be a display of some kind."
"Maybe it's a different form of an LCD?" Then with her green eyes widening: "What if it's a more advanced version…that hasn't been invented yet?"
Which would have certain implications…
"What's an LCD?" his counterpart asked, his wide blue face questioning along with Blaze's red infernape one.
"Liquid Crystal Display," he quickly explained, though was sure Blaze probably wouldn't understand. Grovyle knew what it was, as he remembered explaining the technology to him on one occasion back in the University lab. "It forms a picture, like what's used in televisions. But it's advanced technology; there's no way it could have made built so long ago. But…this doesn't look like any LCD I've seen, though I'm still guessing it's a display of some kind."
"If it is a display, then it's still something pretty advanced," Sally pointed out.
"But we saw the vision," the swampert said. "And all the dust on this thing means it's been here for a long time." Blaze yipped something to which the swampert nodded. "The only possibility is someone moved it back in time, and obviously for us to find it now. It had to of been Dialga. There's no one else. Not even Celebi."
"Then why bring it back that long ago; why not make it appear now?" Sally asked. Leo watched the swampert eventually shrug, looking to both Blaze and Grovyle. Neither said anything. Lonny was…just watching, also without any input. "Alright, so as well as you knew Dialga, do you think he would of done something like this, or any reason why? Remember, this thing appears meant for us."
Another shrug as Chalesti came running back in. And without any warning, she quickly moved past everyone to slam the crystal home into its socket on the panel!
Gasps, his included…
…but nothing happened…except…where Grovyle had his claw resting…
"That red light came on," Lonny observed, leaning over his shoulder.
Which was apparently it as they waited breathlessly for several moments.
"Well, there's some kind of power," Leo finally stated. "Not bad for something thousands of years old." Then before Chalesti could stop him, he grabbed the crystal from the socket. The light went out and the clefable frowned. Handing the crystal to her: "We really should study this thing first, huh? We have no idea what that was supposed to do!"
The clefable responded by folding her arms across her body with a deeper frown.
"Well, maybe what we should do now is clean off the outside," Sally suggested with a gesture to the windows. "Then we can look this thing over top to bottom and maybe find out more about it."
Which sounded like an excellent plan to him. Except to do that, they needed water, and there was only one source around… Moving toward the hatch, "Come on everyone. We're going to need a lot of water for this, which means a few trips to the spring today."
Moans all around.
Washing was a chore. Top, bottom, sides, wings, windows, rudders, and everything in between. With the few towels they had between them, it took the entire rest of the day with many trips back and forth to the spring. On the plus side, it was cooler inside the hill than outside under the strong desert sun, and working with all the water certainly helped his skin, restoring it to a healthier shade of blue.
When it looked like a two-day job, Leo decided using his water pulse might help. It did (nothing like a power wash), though he also had to make several trips to the spring to refill right along with the canteens. Although he used energy to propel the water, the water itself still had to come from somewhere!
The water had to go somewhere too. Sure, they were in the desert and it evaporated fast, but the floor of the cavern still became a sloppy mess faster than a pikachu's quick attack, forcing them to move their packs and stuff to someplace cleaner. And that happened to be inside the craft…which also wouldn't make a bad sleeping room, he'd thought.
Sighing wearily, he looked into the chamber while the others were preparing the nightly meal outside. The reward of the day's effort was worth it, though none of them knew what exactly they were supposed to do with the now clean and shiny golden object. In the light of evening, the plane shone with a brilliance he'd never guessed it had, even in the indirect light with the setting sun behind the hill. The Dimensional Scream vision hadn't done it justice.
Also raising his spirits was that Lonny had looked a little happier, as least while she had been working. Though now… Next to the fire, she was staring down, looking barely able to stir the pot. Sadly, they hadn't found even a clue as to how to reverse her transformation…
By contrast, Blaze was sounding hopeful. His infernape friend was now fixated on the fact there seemed to be some connection with Dialga in all this (and by relation, Palkia), although if there was, it seemed to have been in the ancient past. Except…there was the question of when and where did this aircraft come from? The level of technology it represented should not have existed so long ago!
On which subject, Chalesti was then fixated. Technology excited her. Technology that was connected with humans, more so. She, more than any of them, had been was eager to clean the craft's gold-plated skin, hoping to reveal any secrets. Removing the thick dust and dirt layers did uncover what may have been lettering of some kind, but she wasn't able to decipher it.
Same for Grovyle. That fact seemed to be driving the green skinned and leafed grass-type nuts. He once said he took pride in having studied ancient Unown writing on Earth. His other self, the one that had actually come to the Poké world in the Future That No Longer Exists (and subsequently no longer existed himself), had studied more of it while in that dark future. Not that it would have mattered. The writing wasn't Unown, and didn't really resemble anything anyone present knew.
Chalesti at least mentioned one of her colleges across the sea might be able to read it, but they were a month and an ocean away. Still, they had some hope that with all the dust and dirt off the craft, the morning sun would provide some power to the ship and it might begin to work…whatever that meant.
Turning away from the chamber, Leo took his place in the circle around the fire next to Blaze, while Lonny, Sally and his human self filled bowls with stew and handed them out.
"I still want to know what exactly powers that thing," Leo heard his human self say between gulps.
That was a puzzlement, Leo admitted. There was no obvious means of propulsion about it. Human aircraft had engines from what he and Blaze had seen while on Earth, having either propellers or jets (or really large blades in the case of helicopters). This craft had neither, nor anything that even looked like a power source. Of course, there were a lot of smaller areas of the plane where they couldn't see in, like under the floor.
"Maybe like we said," Sally replied with a glance to both him and Blaze, "could be the same thing as what powered that Rainbow Stoneship you two said took you to Temporal Tower." After another bite: "Leo, Blaze, you said you thought it was a relic fragment that powered it, right? A small stone essentially?"
"That's what activated it," Blaze replied. "Don't know about powering it."
Leo translated the clarification, adding: "We don't know what actually powered it."
"Some weird kind of Pokémon energy maybe," his human self said thoughtfully. "Since we haven't seen anything else, we have to assume that's what the power is."
"Or maybe it's just some thing designed to look pretty and doesn't do anything," Lonny said dourly, before draining her bowl by titling it and her head back. Setting the empty dish down, she braced her head on her knees with a sigh.
"That wouldn't make sense," Sally countered.
"It looks to me like it has a definite purpose," Grovyle added almost simultaneously in Poké speech as Sally said the same in human.
Getting up, Chalesti faced the chamber and the golden craft while twitching one of her brown-tipped pointed ears. "It's a flying machine, so we go somewhere in it." Twisting back around, "Doesn't that excite you?"
"What would excite me is being a swampert again," the former swampert replied glumly.
Leo noticed his other self staring at her, as if forming some words. Finally: "If we were meant to find this plane, then I bet we're meant to go somewhere in it. Otherwise why lead us to a plane?"
"I've been thinking about that too," Blaze said. "Where are we supposed to go?"
"Chalesti," Grovyle said, turning his agile body around to face the pink Pokémon. "You said you came from across the sea. What other lands are there on this world?"
The clefable started smiling just slightly before she sat back down on the sand, the humans looking on questioningly. "Well, the continent I'm from is a little smaller than this one, but is otherwise similar. There are some magical places, bunch of places to explore…even a few ruins, but not as many as on this continent. As far as I know, every interesting place has been already explored many times. That's why we've been going to other lands to research."
Leo started translating about half-way through, thankful Chalesti paused to let him catch up.
"So nothing you know of would warrant us going there?" Grovyle asked.
"Not that I know of, not to my continent." Then gesturing to the golden craft, "But no one knew what was here, laying perfectly hidden, until yesterday either."
"Are there other continents on this world?" Sally asked the clefable from across the fire.
"Oh, of course! Many others scattered all around the planet! But I haven't been to most of them, nor have any of my colleagues. A good many of them are, to us, unexplored." Twitching her six wings: "This world is too vast."
Leo started scratching the base of one of his fins at the same time Lonny started with one of hers. Only she kept scratching; she'd been doing a lot of that lately… "So, plenty of places we could go, but no indication of where," summing it up he thought.
"In any case," his human self said, "the first thing we need to do is figure out how to operate it. And before we can do that, we need power. I think."
"And before that," Sally said in getting up, "I need a clean change of clothes." With that, she rose and started walking toward the chamber and the craft inside.
Even as the dust, dirt and sand was being cleaned off the craft, a seemingly equal amount had gotten plastered to the human's clothes, and in the end they nearly blended in with the plane before the cleaning was complete. It was a problem Pokémon didn't have, fortunately.
As it was, in the fading light of evening he could see the red head starting to change through the now clear front windows…just before she dropped out of view.
"Thank you," he breathed in relief as his heart was racing. She was the only other female that could do that to him besides Lonny. The only other female that he had loved…when he was still a human.
Though technically, that had been a different Sally: the Sally who had been in the Future That No Longer Exists. As such, she also no longer existed…right along with the other Grovyle, Celebi…and even Dusknoir and Primal Dialga.
Now Lonny…she most definitely wasn't going to disappear on him (at least not by a change in timelines). Yet fate had to go and make her human!
Feeling more somber, he glanced to his light blue-skinned mate sitting beside him, wondering if there was anything that fate wasn't going to take away from him in one form or another.
At least they were able to have a child first… Oh, how was Chip doing back at Treasure Town?
Wondering about that, he idly watched his human get up after a moment to enter the chamber and the craft as well. After several more (long) moments, they both came out, looking quite a bit cleaner…relatively.
"I think we'll be going to the spring tomorrow to do laundry," his human self said as he settled down with his mate.
Brushing her long red (and still dirty) hair back, "Yeah, but none of you really need to come with us for that," Sally added, smirking just a little. "You guys can just rest."
"Ha ha, but one of us needs to protect you!" Blaze said, twitching his tail straight out and sounding alarmed.
To which Lonny instantly burst out laughing, nearly doubling over a heartbeat later.
The infernape's mane puffed as he stared back like she had lost her mind. "Huh? What's so funny? If a Pokémon attacked them…"
"Someone…didn't watch…enough television!" was all she managed to get out.
Thankfully it was in Poke speech, though Leo fought hard the urge to translate as the two other humans looked on quizzically. Chalesti was also staring at the blue hued human with something akin to cluelessness, though Grovyle seemed to get it, sitting with a smirk he was obviously desperate to hide.
Finally leaning close, he whispered a few words into his partner's red and purple ear, and the infernape's face turned a new shade of red. At least he was grinning, right after he raised his brow ridge about as far as it could go with his widening eyes.
"Private joke," Leo explained to Chalesti, deciding to spare her a red face that would be all too noticeable on her pink skin. Unless…such things didn't embarrass her. But he wasn't going to take the chance. To everyone in human speech: "I think they'll be fine by themselves; we've only seen small and weak Pokémon around. And I'm sure Lonny will let them borrow her spear just in case."
Lonny nodded, having finally gotten control of herself again.
He had to smile; it really was good to see her laugh that hard again, the first time since she arrived on the Poké world.
"That…probably wouldn't be a bad idea," his human self admitted, in a tone of some suspicion as he looked at everyone in the same manner.
"So tell me you two," the clefable suddenly said, pointing to Leo and Blaze, "how do you know so much about Dialga and Temporal Tower? I heard a rumor once about that tower being the cause of that weird time stoppage over three years ago. Do you know about that too?"
"Ha ha! Now that's a long story," Blaze replied as he sat up straighter, his mane puffing again behind his back.
Chalesti clapped her hands, smiling. "I like long stories!"
As Blaze started on the story of a mudkip and chimchar meeting and how they eventually saved two worlds, Leo felt Lonny laying across his upper back. "You make a nice cushion," she whispered, before he felt her pull a blanket partly over them and rest her chin between his head fins.
Although he enjoyed her touch and warmth as Blaze continued the story, he couldn't help but shed a couple tears at certain parts. Some things still just hurt…and some things still made him happy.
Leo Hanson enjoyed the warmth of the morning sun streaming in through the windows of the plane, helping to chase away the coolness of the night. With the strong light and with the exterior fully washed, maybe also whatever energy the craft needed would now be available. Assuming it needed the light like the crystal did on the mural wall.
His heart began racing in anticipation of what would happen. "Let's try it now," he said, prompting Grovyle to call the other Pokémon in. In another moment, Chalesti had the crystal out of her satchel and in its socket in the control panel. Once again the one red light illuminated…and nothing else.
"Maybe it's broken," Lonny mumbled after they waited a good moment.
"Or it needs something else," Leo's swampert counterpart suggested.
Reaching past Chalesti, he removed the crystal and reseated it, getting the same result. Then after mentally debating the possible ramifications for a good two seconds, pushed one of the buttons.
Nothing…except for the sudden chorus of alarmed-sounding Poké speech.
"Try all of them," Sally suggested.
Glancing back at her to make sure he heard right, he found her shrugging. "Got to find out what they do one way or another, short of taking this thing apart, which we don't have the tools to do anyway."
Her sudden cavalier attitude surprised him, but she did have a point. As he reached for the buttons, his counterpart beat him to it though, in pushing the remaining ones in rapid sequence with all of his large blue fingers. Which got his heart going a little faster…until he realized that still had no discernable effect. "Maybe it is broken, or really is just supposed to do nothing other than look pretty. But that one light works."
Letting out a string of some obviously strong-sounding syllables, Chalesti bent her arm and made as if putting them on her hips (if she would have had such) and kicked the lower part of the panel, the only result of which was a mild "ow" like sound from her.
"You would think there would be some instructions around," the swampert said. "Even the Rainbow Stoneship had such written on a plaque near it!"
"Well, no plaques around here," Sally replied in a disappointed tone. "We checked, remember?"
"Clebba narf ran able!" With that, the clefable moved toward the open hatch and hopped down to the ground outside as if she had an idea.
"She says she wants open a few panels with her pry bar," Lonny said dryly.
With got him immediately chasing after her along with Sally, his counterpart, Blaze and Grovyle!
Yet…he only got a couple steps before the hatch suddenly started closing in front of them on its downward arc. His first thought was maybe Chalesti had put her hand on it to swing it down after her, except only scarcely a second later, he felt a weird vibration…
"The panel!" Sally shouted, pointing.
Swinging around, he saw all the lights on the wide forward shelf were suddenly aglow, including the formally large dark rectangle! And the sun-like symbol around the crystal…it was glowing with sun-like radiance, just like it had on the mural wall! The sound of a seal being made drew his attention back to the hatch as it finished closing behind him, followed by the sound of latches. He raced the final steps to try turning the handle to get it back open, but even with his counterpart helping and grunting, the large lever wouldn't budge! "What the hell…"
The vibrations rapidly grew worse along with the new feeling of movement…and a quiet humming coming from somewhere growing quickly in decibels. Through the door's small window, he found Chalesti standing against the chamber wall, mouth agape and staring back with widened eyes. She was growing shorter…
"We're moving!" Lonny shouted from the front, joined by Grovyle and Sally.
"Get it open!" Sally yelled, fear in her voice.
"Infra ner na reee!" Blaze tried adding all his strength to the hefty lever as his mane puffed greatly, but it was still firmly stuck…
"Remove the crystal!" Leo shouted up front, about to give up on the hatch.
But his wife was already pulling on it. "It's stuck!"
Through the window, the wall of the chamber was now slowly floating past, a small amount of dust being blown around as Chalesti was walking…running alongside as the plane made it outside, screaming something… She fell behind as the plane's speed continued increasing and the ground was already falling away as he ran to the front, heart threatening to come out of his chest.
"Chalesti!" his counterpart yelled behind him through the door as he pounded against it.
What to do…what to do… God, they were trapped! Was the plane going to crash, since none of them were controlling it? His singular thought became getting everything to stop so they could get out! "Maybe one of these buttons will stop it," he thought out loud with the sensation of acceleration increasing.
"Or make us crash!" Sally countered.
"We might crash if we don't do something!"
Which would have been really bad by that point, considering they were already above the highest of the hills in the desert valley, heading toward the coast of the Eastern ocean and straight toward the sun. As they all stood clutching the front panel and watching out the front windows, that coast soon disappeared underneath and behind them, and then it was just water for as far as they could see!
"OK, OK…" Leo said, trying to get his shaking, breathing and heart rate under control so he could think. Still clinging to the front panel, he resisted the urge to pace against the gentle force of acceleration. "We're flying…it took off on its own…and we're flying straight and level…OK, maybe going up a little," hitting his fingers against the panel on each point. "Even closed the door and locked us in. So…"
"It must be programmed," Sally said in finishing his thought, seemingly trying to get her own breathing under control. "But to just fly straight, or to take us somewhere?"
Realizing her state was like his, he put a hand on her shoulder to give her some comfort. She responded by gripping it…tightly.
"Then where would it be taking us?" his counterpart asked after Blaze yipped. "We guess it's taking us somewhere, considering everything else?"
"What's east of here?" Sally asked in return.
All three Pokémon looked at each other. "We have no idea," the swampert answered. "If Chalesti was with us…"
"Oh…wait…did you notice this thing started up the second she jumped off?"
Although there were bigger issues, Leo thought on what his wife pointed out before taking another look at the lights on the forward panel. There were, in one group by themselves, a set of six…three blue and three green. All currently lit. Three and three…as in three humans and three Pokémon? Could it have been waiting for the six of them to get on board, and only them?
"Hey, this display is showing what's looks like a map!" Sally announced after another moment, hovering next to him over the rectangle they'd previously thought was a type of LCD. With everyone quickly crowding around for a look, it's purpose was now confirmed. A simple green field in the layout of the landmass was receding downward with blue stretching out to the top, while in the dead center a tiny yellow outline resembled the shape of the golden plane. "There's no pixilation; it's almost fluidic," Sally noted. "Never seen anything like it."
She would focus on that, he thought. But what stood out to him was the color was pale and washed out, like a see-through liquid, and definitely proving it was a completely different technology from anything they'd seen before. "Ha!" he thought. Leave it to a couple of engineers to pay attention to that considering what else was going on! "So, do we want to try and land this thing, or see where it takes us? Personally, since we don't know what any of these buttons do and we're pretty high up, we should probably let it do what it wants to do?"
Blaze looked undecided, Grovyle was examining the displayed map with Lonny, but his counterpart shielded his eyes with a large three-fingered hand in trying to look out the forward windows.
"Since it took off by itself, it should land by itself…right?" the swampert asked with a good dose of uncertainty in his semi-deep voice.
Many moments passed with nothing seemingly changing about the operation of the craft. With the ocean still out as far as the eye could see (which was a considerable distance, considering the plane was still pitched slightly upward and they had to of been quite high by this point), Leo settled in the back next to everyone's packs, Blaze and Grovyle joining him on the hard, metal floor. Patting the surface in front of him, he tried getting Lonny to join them, but she stayed in front next to his human self and Sally, at least for a short while.
Since nothing seemed to about to change about their current situation, it afforded the opportunity to think clearly. First thing was, the craft's operation struck him as very similar to how the Rainbow Stoneship operated. Stick in a relic fragment or a crystal, and it starts all on its own. Which he said as much to Blaze and Grovyle.
"At least we don't have to save the world this time…and you don't have to disappear."
He smiled at his best friend's remark and debated whether to voice the obvious or not, maybe sparing his partner a small amount of worry.
"Well, we're being transported for some reason…whatever it may be."
But Grovyle voiced it for him.
Sighing, he fell silent in listening to the air rushing past outside the craft's metal skin and indicating decent speed, but except for the mild hum and vibration, there was little else to suggest they were now moving. Up front, his other self and Sally debated a few things about the technology; he paid a little attention, but was mostly enjoying the sun shining on him as it streamed in through the front windows. Grovyle seemed to enjoy it more, laying back against one of the packs and spreading himself out, almost like a plant absorbing every bit of light he could. The grass-type even gave a contented sigh as he closed his eyes.
"You sure are calm," Blaze remarked to him. "I'm as jittery as a leaf in the breeze."
Grovyle barely shrugged. "No use worrying. We're in someone else's control right now and there's nothing we can do about it. We might as well rest and save our strength."
"Easy for you to say!"
Opening an eye: "If whoever built this ship wanted us hurt, they already had ample opportunity for it; they could have set traps in the chamber. Besides, why build something so long ago to do harm to someone who wouldn't exist for thousands of years? I believe all this is being done because someone needs our help. That's the most likely reason."
Leo looked to his infernape partner. "He has good reasoning." Although he hadn't quite thought through that far, Grovyle's answer made perfect sense to him.
"Dialga?" Blaze asked.
"A lot does seem to be pointing to him," Leo answered. "Still, there is at least one other with time travel ability."
"Celebi," Blaze blurted.
Grovyle raised his head a little. "Yes. There also might be others that we don't know about…or maybe someone was simply able to see the future…maybe with the aid of a Dimensional Scream."
"Mine never worked that far in the future…" And immediately, Leo had to correct himself, "…until I touched this plane…and saw being put into place so long ago…"
Nodding, "We're just going to have to wait and see what the answer is," Grovyle said. "So like I said, no use getting ourselves worked up right now."
Just as it was over four years ago, Grovyle was helping to keep them calm. That was a different Grovyle of course, being the one who ceased to exist when The Future That No Longer Exists ceased to exist, but they really were one and the same.
He closed his own eyes, trying to take his green friend's advice, but sensed the warmth of the sunlight gone a few seconds later…along with someone settling down. He smiled. "Finally joining us?"
Hands started rubbing his forehead, quickly going to his fins; she was shaking. "So there's nothing for us to do but wait, Grovyle?" Lonny asked, a slight tremble in her voice.
"Basically," he answered.
Leo opened his eyes to take one of her hands, but she instead moved between him and Blaze, laying down against him. Reaching an arm around her, "We'll be alright," he said as soothingly as he could despite his own lingering fear.
"I…" She turned her head to look straight at him. "I shouldn't be scared, but I am. I wouldn't have been before…is this another effect of being human?"
"I don't know," he answered. Although one thing he noticed after a being on Earth for a while was he tended to be more emotional than his human self, and he sometimes wondered if that was because he was now a Pokémon, or because of the experiences he'd had since being turned into one. "But Grovyle must be right. I'm sure we're going to be fine." Although he didn't know what was going to happen, he at least tried to sound sure for her even if it wasn't easy.
"We're absolutely going to be fine," Blaze said, putting a purple hand on her shoulder. "Grovyle usually isn't wrong."
Grovyle made some non-verbal sound on the other side of him, as if conveying amusement. "I appreciate your confidence, Blaze," he finally said. "But Lonny, you have us three to protect you if anything does happen. And you aren't bad with that spear."
Lonny gave a quick glance to the side, where the primitive weapon and walking stick was resting on the floor. She then sighed, seemingly more calm. "Thanks." Doing her own reaching, she snagged Blaze and got him to lay down next to her, effectively sandwiching herself between two Pokémon. "Ah, warm in the sun."
"I see you guys are getting comfortable," Sally said from up front.
"We could be traveling for a while," Leo replied.
"Yeah, I still can't see anything ahead except water, and that's what the display is showing too," his human self added. "Nothing but the blue of ocean. So I guess we might as well all rest back there."
"And it's getting warm enough in here we don't even need blankets anymore," Sally added.
"Not just yet," Lonny answered, reaching behind Blaze to brush Blaze's long red and yellow mane so it laid on top of her neck, making for a sparse scarf.
"Looks good on you," Leo said to her with a grin to his partner after raising his head a little.
"I wonder if this thing is going to take us half-way around the planet," Blaze seemed to muse with a hint of worry.