Episode 13
Matt looked skyward at the large mountain in front of him. Since he lived so close to the mountain, he could easily see it from his house. But it was a whole new story up close. "Can we go around it?" Matt asked.
Tyler's head was craned up just as much. "Nope."
"So then we gotta go through it, huh?"
"Yep."
"Let's get to it, then," Matt said. "The sooner we get in, the sooner we can get out the other side."
"Everything ok, Matt?" Tyler asked, sensing his cousin's haste. The two just entered the cave.
"Yeah, I'm fine. It's just that the battle I had with that Donald guy…I couldn't do anything! And what Lucario said back in Jubilife; I was supposed to be the one to stop them. They had my picture and everything, like I was a threat. I was supposed to stop them. But I couldn't."
"It did seem like something was up with Donald's Spiritomb, though. It seemed like you were never going to hit it."
"Thanks for the cheering up," Matt said.
Tyler was taken aback. "No, uh, I didn't mean you were weak or anything, I just, uh, meant that his Spiritomb was being protected or something. Something that prevented you from hitting it."
Matt stopped for a second. "You may be onto something actually."
"So all we need to do is figure out what that is, and we'll be able to stop him, right?"
"I hope so. But for now, all we can do is just move forward, right?"
Tyler nodded. "Right."
The two were in the middle of the mountain now, the ending not in sight. "We're going the right way, right?" Matt asked.
"I think so," Tyler said, pulling out his map. "Maybe if we-" Tyler was cut off by a loud cry. "What was that?"
"It sounds like a lot of Zubat," Matt said, looking behind them. "Almost like they're attacking something."
"We gotta go check it out," Tyler said urgently. The two ran back, looking for the hoard of Zubat. Suddenly, Matt saw a cluster of blue and purple over a rock and pointed to it. Matt and Tyler ran as quickly as they could. When they got close, they could hear a voice on the inside.
"Hey, get off of me!" It was a young voice, and Matt recognized it easily.
"Alex, is that you!?" Matt called out, extremely worried.
"Matt! Help!" Matt could hear Alex start to cry.
"Go, Raina!"
"You, too, Luxray!"
The Water and Electric-Types leapt out of their balls, facing the wild Zubat.
"Raina, use Water Gun and douse all of the Zubat!" Matt called out.
"Bui Bui!" The Buizel sprayed water over all of the Poison-Types.
"Now, Luxray, use Discharge!"
"Luxray! Lux….ray!" The Electric Lion shot multiple lightning bolts at the Zubat. Since they were wet, the electricity affected them a lot more. They all scurried away. As soon as they did, Alex got up and ran to Matt, clinging onto him.
"They were everywhere!" Alex said. "I just stepped in the cave and they started attacking me!"
Matt bent down and held his brother close. "What are you doing here, Alex? You should be at home."
"I…wanted to come with you…" Alex said, tears falling. "You left so soon and I didn't want to say goodbye so quickly and I wanted to travel with you and Tyler…"
"You should have stayed home with Mom," Matt said. "I'm sure she's worried sick about you!"
"I-I'm sorry, Matt!" Alex began to cry more. Matt sighed.
"It's ok, buddy. We'll get you to a safe place, but for now, stay close to us, ok?" Alex nodded, and they stood up. To Tyler, Matt said, "We're too far away from Oreburgh to go all the way back there. Hell, I don't even know where we are in this cave. Do you think that when we get to Hearthome, he can stay at your parents' house?" As he was saying this, he called back Raina.
"Sure thing. You can stay there as long as you'd like, buddy." Tyler said. "Let's try to find our way out, shall we?" Matt nodded. The trio travelled a bit before getting into a really dark part of the cave.
"Man, I can't see anything in here…Luxray, use Flash." The Electric-Type lit up its tail, pointing the light forward. "Thanks Luxray." They were able to see a little better now, but still had a really hard time finding their way out of the cave.
"Are we lost?" Alex asked.
"At least for now," Tyler said, as they stepped into a somewhat deeper part of the cave, into what seemed like an underwater pool. "This looks like a good of place as any to rest for a bit, though. What do you guys think?"
Matt was already pulling a small lantern out of his backpack. "I'm up for it." Matt set the lantern down, stretching. The light would give Luxray a chance to rest. "Time for lunch, too?"
"I'd say so. This is such a beautiful cave, though, I've never seen anything like it. If only I had my camera on me."
"Come on out, guys, lunchtime!" Matt said, releasing his three Pokémon.
"Busken!"
"Bui Bui!"
"Roselia! Rose!"
Raina immediately jumped into the pool. Matt was sure it was relaxing for her. Flint and Shade remained on shore, crowding around Matt and Alex as Tyler prepared lunch. Luxray was sitting high up on a rock, watching over them all, like a protector. He felt good up there, as his eyes scanned all around the cave. Suddenly, his eyes came across something in the pool, something that glowed slightly. "Lux! Luxray!" He shouted at Raina, telling her to swim down to it.
"What's going on, Luxray?" Tyler asked, looking up at his Electric-Type.
"In the pool!" Matt said, point to where Raina was. She swam down and pressed what seemed to be a switch. A rumbling was heard, and the wall farthest from them started to open up. Raina popped out of the water, looking at the opening wall.
"What's over there?" Alex said, no light shining to the newly discovered cave. Matt picked up the lantern and shone it over, and revealed some sort of shrine. It was a remarkable sight.
Tyler walked over to it, immediately taking out Rowan's journal. As he got closer, he could make out a triangle. On each corner was a Pokémon: Dialga, Lord of Time on the bottom left, Palkia, Lord of Space on the bottom right, Giratina, Lord of Dimensions on the top. A vivid drawing of Arceus stood in the center of it all. "This is amazing…but why would they hide something like this?"
"I'm not sure," Matt said coming up behind him. He walked up close to it, running his hand over the painting, feeling it under his fingers. A bit of light shone seemed the shine through each corner of the triangle. "I wonder…" Matt put his hand on Palkia, putting a bit of pressure on it. To his surprise, it moved! "Tyler, you might want to come look at this," Matt said.
The two cousins examined the wall, looking for more things like Palkia's drawing. They pressed in Dialga and Giratina's corners as well, but it nothing seemed to happen.
"Arceus?" Matt asked, pointing to the large painting in the middle.
"Might as well try," Tyler replied, as both of them put their hands on the giant Arceus painting. The pushed in, and it began to glow a very regal gold. "This is incredible!" Tyler jotted down as much stuff as he could about their find into Rowan's journal. He couldn't imagine what they had just discovered. Maybe it was built by an ancient society. Or maybe it was made by the Legendary Pokémon. Whatever it was, the answer was right behind the glowing wall.
The wall split in two, and began to move apart, revealing a chest just behind it. Matt went up to it. "I wonder what's inside," he said. It looked like the stone hadn't been moved or seen for who knows how long, but the chest remained in perfect condition. He ran his fingers on the lock. "Hey, Flint, come on up here!" Matt called over to his Combusken, who was with Alex. The Fire-Type trotted up to his trainer. "Try using a small Ember on this lock to see if you can melt it off."
"Combusken," Flint said, nodding. He blew out a really weak flame at the lock, making it a little warmer and warmer as time went on. No matter how hot Flint got, though, the lock stayed on.
"Bummer," Tyler said. "All of this for nothing. There must be something really important in that chest."
Matt stood up. "Maybe someday we'll find out what's in here. But for now, we should probably keep heading through the mountain and get out so I can call my mom and tell her about Alex."
"Good idea," Tyler replied. As soon as the group left the underground pool, the walls closed behind them, sealing the secret off.
They started through the cave again, heading to the exit of the mountain. "See it anywhere?" Matt asked, searching for outside light.
Tyler glanced far off to the other side of the cave. "Yep, not too far now," he replied.
The three exited the cave not far later. "Nice to be outside," Matt said. Hearthome City was just ahead of them. After saving his brother from a horde of Zubats and finding a secret cave inside Mt. Coronet, Matt was ready to relax a bit in Hearthome before his next gym battle.