Chapter 25 – Round and round in circles
The Ruins of Alph. Even after years of study, exploration and research, no one knew why it had been built or what purpose it served. If you walked, it was almost a day away from Goldenrod city, if you went up through the National park and down Route 36. The path went from Violet City to Azalea Town to Goldenrod and looped right back around to Violet City. Even without having to retrace their steps through the forest and Azalea town, it was almost sunset by the time the two girls reached the ruins.
"This is it?" Lilly asked. She didn't sound impressed. Instead, she expressed her disbelief in a little sigh. "It doesn't look like a bad guy's hangout."
Zeannah had to agree. There was really only one building; the buildings which served as gateways didn't really count, the rest of the place was made up of what resembled rocky mounds. If she squinted, they did looked a little like houses.
If houses were made from rock, didn't have doors and grew moss and grass along the sides and over the top.
"Hello Ladies!" someone called waving at them from in front of the building.
Zeannah sighed. She didn't want to have to deal with red-tape of having to explain why they were there.
The man was wearing a white lab coat with the hints of a blue shirt and brown pants underneath. His hair was a dark brown as well as messy and thick. His face was young though, no signs of the wrinkles one would expect on a researcher or professor.
He jogged over to them, still waving, before tripping. He caught himself, after skipping the rest of the way in an attempt not to fall. After a moment of awkward silence, he quickly composed himself.
"Afternoon, ladies," he said with a bow, "I'm Mark Green and I'm currently the man in charge."
"Hello," Lilly said, sounding a little confused.
Zeannah frowned at the man. She instantly didn't like him. He appeared clumsy but a little too over the top for her tastes. Plus, there were people all around them, checking out the ruins and he just happened to greet them? There was something suspicious going on here.
"Not even a 'hello'?" he pouted at her, "and I thought you were the fun one."
"And jus' how would ya know dat?" she asked, putting on the fake accent.
He gave her a wide smile.
"Because, whenever Alphonse talked about you, you could hear the distaste in his voice. Alphonse tends not to like fun people."
"Den, he muz not like ya," Zeannah pointed out. Inwardly, she hated herself. She was starting to sound like Alphonse, even with the accent.
Mark laughed.
"He also mentioned the accent," he pointed out.
"Ey don' care," she huffed, crossing her arms.
"Can you show us the ruins?" Lilly asked, pulling on his coat and pointing at the nearest entrance.
"You have Pokémon, right?" he asked.
"I tought Al told ya all 'bout us," Zeannah replied.
"We have Pokémon," Lilly informed him, pointing up at where Cam was floating around. The Pokémon was high up in the sky, floating around in circles and not at all bothered by the sunlight.
"Good, good," Mark said, placing an arm around Lilly and guiding her towards the entrance. "Only people with Pokémon can go in here. Otherwise you can't keep the unown away."
"Unown? What are they?" Lilly asked.
Mark stopped and Zeannah pulled up at his side.
"You don't know what unown are?" she questioned.
"Where are you from?" Mark asked.
"Hoenn."
"Well, you can really only find unown here and in Sinnoh's Solaceon Ruins," he explained, "although they appeared here first. They're strange Pokémon, shaped like an ancient alphabet. There are about twenty-six or so variations, I think. While they are psychic Pokémon, they only learn one move. Hidden power."
"Twenty-six?" Lilly sounded surprised.
"Trainers like to catch them as souvenirs," he continued, "most trainers will have at least one, although they normally don't train them."
"I have one," Zeannah informed them. "I sent it to my brother though."
Mark turned to smile at her.
"What did it look like?" he asked.
"Dat's none of your business," she replied.
They passed through the entrance as she said that. The air turned cold and stuffy. The scent of mildew hung in the air and the small room was silent. Almost like it was waiting.
Lilly noticeably shivered.
"It's almost like there's something in the air here, watching," she whispered.
"Oh, there is," Mark informed them. He pointed at the walls which were inscribed with lots of strange letters. They were about the size of a human head and shaped a little like letters. Some were noticeably darker than the rest.
"The unown?" Zeannah suggested, kneeling to take a better look.
Mark nodded and pointed them towards a ladder in the middle of the room. It had been placed at the edge of a square-shaped hole. The hole had obviously been cut by humans and the ladder had been attached into the concrete. It looked almost like makeshift stairs.
Lilly swallowed.
"Are you okay?" Zeannah asked.
She nodded, determination shinning in her eyes. She responded by walking over to the ladder and starting to descend.
Although Zeannah was certain that the move was supposed to reassure her, she felt more nervous than before.
Alphonse returned to consciousness slowly. He was certain that he had been having a strange dream, but he couldn't remember it.
Someone was shaking him.
"Alphonse!" a voice cried.
Alphonse groaned. Why was this human shaking him and where was Dustin? He ran his psychic powers over his body like ripples of water. He was covered in dust which he expelled in a moment.
The voice coughed.
But, something was wrong. He sensed hands, and feet. He forced his eyes open against the force holding them closed and pulled himself up.
He could barely see beyond his glowing body. The area was dark and he could just make out silver bars before him. His head started hurting too.
Tears sprung to his eyes as he remembered.
"See, he's fine," another voice said. Finally, Alphonse could place the speakers.
He released his powers to the air, the glow to his body vanishing in sparkling light.
"Latios?" he questioned, as his vision adjusted.
The blue, dragon-like Pokémon was resting in the corner, curled up like a pet dog.
Tom was there too, kneeling by his side. His coat was gone and he was only wearing a blue shirt and brown shorts, both covered in dust.
"Tom?" he was surprised to see the both of them here. He was quick to figure out what had happened. He had been captured. Letting his guard down just because the two trainers happened to be unconscious had proven to be his downfall.
But, what did the trainers want with him?
"We got caught," Tom informed him, "we followed that trainer back to the ruins but, we got careless, and there was a whole bunch of them ready to jump us just as we came in."
"They took us out quickly," Latios pouted, "then brought us here."
A cold shiver went down Alphonse's back.
They weren't...
They couldn't be...
"Please don't tell me we're in the ruins," if he hadn't been so horrified, he would have hated the weak, pleading way his voice sounded.
Trainer and Pokémon both looked at him in surprise.
"Yeah," Tom responded first. "Apparently the ruins aren't just their initiation-"
"-It's their base," Latios informed him.
[Oh no, oh no, no no no no no,] Alphonse was panicking and he knew it. But, he didn't want to be in the ruins. He didn't think he was ready to face them again.
"Hey, are you okay?" Tom asked, shuffling forward.
Latios clamped onto his shirt.
[Something's strange,] he sent telepathically.
"What?" Tom questioned.
Latios let go and pointed his head towards the exit.
[Where did the guards go?] he asked.
"Something's strange," Mark said, stopping.
Zeannah sighed and turned back.
Lilly ignored him. Her hands were sliding along the walls as she tried to find a secret passage. They had walked the entirety of the ruins quiet quickly, around 4 or 5 corridors filled with weird statues, but there hadn't been any people around at all. Not to mention, the corridors only led to dead ends.
"What do ya mean?" Zeannah asked, looking around.
Mark shrugged and started pacing along the corridor.
"I've been in here hundreds of times and something feels off about this time."
"Like what?" Zeannah asked, looking around.
Even though it had been a while since the last time she had been here, everything looked the same as it had been last time.
The creepy statues, which looked like a Pokémon but not a Pokémon anyone knew, were still at the ends of each corridor. The walls were still filled with the strange alphabet and the place smelt like dust and mildew.
"I guess dere are no cobwebs," she commented. It was the only thing she found strange.
"That's not it," Mark said, thoughtfully.
They stood in silence. Lilly had given up on trying to find a secret passage and was just kneeling by the wall.
"It's like there's nothing down here but us," she whined, trying not to cry.
"Maybe Zey're not really 'ere," Zeannah sighed.
Mark was looking around. He dashed quickly down to the end of the corridor and then back to them, only running into the statue once.
"What are ya doin'?" Zeannah asked, curious.
"There's nothing here," he said, throwing his hands out.
He sounded happy, as if he figured out something awesome. However, Zeannah and Lilly only gave him confused looks.
"There's no Pokémon!" he explained, "no unown! Normally trainers encounter so many that they leave after a few hours, at most."
Lilly looked around, in wonder.
Zeannah continued to give him a sceptical stare.
"How does dat help?" she asked.
His smile faded.
"Um, maybe they went somewhere?" he suggested lamely.
Zeannah continued to stare at him.
He pulled out a Pokéball.
"I have an unown," he informed her, "maybe if I release it, we could see where they went?"
Disclaimer: Pokémon towns and characters property of Pokémon company + Game Freak (I think). At the very least they don't belong to me. Any resemblance to existing people (living or dead) and events is a coincidence.