I don't know about you, but I love the Hidden Land. It's got great music, a very fitting atmosphere, and eye-catching visuals. What's not to like? Oh right...

"It's a Monster House!"

Chapter 35: Hidden Land

The Hidden Land reminded me of Treeshroud Forest: a very pretty place, with flowers, lush green vegetation, and a clear blue sky overhead. But there was a very mysterious air to the Hidden Land.

It was a very tough dungeon. Pokémon that I'd never seen before challenged us, and it would almost always take more than one hit to bring them down.

One of the first enemies we found was a Garchomp, a large purple dragon that could summon a sandstorm with a roar. It could also use the move Dig, which Grovyle knew as well. It took three hits to make the beast fall.

Later on, we found a dragon called Dragonite. It looked a little goofy to me, with a broad smile and tiny wings. That is, until I saw what it was capable of. One Oran Berry, three Force Palms, and an Energy Ball later, the Dragonite went down.

Many other Pokémon that didn't prove to be as troublesome also popped up. Puruglies would repeatedly scratch us, and Manectrics would summon lightning that would hit all of us. But one hit from Grovyle or I would make them regret messing with us.

Grovyle became increasingly distracted as we continued through the Hidden Land. He kept on glancing around, as if he expected Dusknoir to jump out at him. He didn't speak to us or even look at us. It was as if we didn't even exist to him.

Fifteen floors in, we found a waypoint with a Kangaskhan Rock in the center as usual. There was a slight slope in the ground, as if we were hiking up a gently rolling hill.

After recuperating at the waypoint for a minute, we set off into the Hidden Highland.

The Hidden Highland wasn't that different from the Hidden Land. The same kinds of Pokémon challenged us, and they didn't seem any stronger than before. The only difference was the color of the trees around us; they were now dark green instead of light green.

The air around us grew tighter and more mysterious as we progressed on. Even though this dungeon is beautiful, it hides a dark secret, I thought.

On the eighth floor, I noticed the trees beginning to thin. A few small rocks littered the ground, and there were very few Pokémon that were willing to attack us. It was almost as if they were staying away from something…

We finally found the stairs to the next floor. I walked up them with Jade and a very silent Grovyle following close behind.

At the top of the stairs was a huge temple that reminded me of the Sealed Ruin dungeon in the future. But these ruins were pretty intact. The entrance to the ruins was rather small, and I got the feeling that Grovyle would have a hard time getting through it.

"Whoa! Could these be the Old Ruins that Lapras told us about?" Jade said.

"I think they are," I said.

"Let's go check them out," Jade said, walking up to the entrance.

Inside the ruins were larger than life paintings of various Pokémon. The first picture depicted something that looked like a pink cat with blue eyes.

"Who's that Pokémon?" I asked.

"That's Mew. It's a legendary Pokémon that can supposedly learn every move." It was the first thing that Grovyle said to us since we entered the Hidden Land.

We continued to walk forward through the ruins. Soon we found a second painting depicting Groudon and another Pokémon that looked like a large blue killer whale.

"That's Groudon and Kyogre. Groudon and Kyogre fought a fierce battle may years ago until a Pokémon called Rayquaza calmed them down," Grovyle explained.

Later on we encountered a painting of two Pokémon: one of them looked like Primal Dialga, but it didn't have the orange features that Primal Dialga had. The other Pokémon was pink and stood upright.

"That's Dialga in his non-primal form. That pink one is called Palkia. While Dialga is the governor of time, Palkia is the governor of space," Grovyle said. Then he stopped. "I think we're at the exit now."

We walked outside the ruins and found a large pyramid with many steps leading up to the top. It was about as tall as a mountain and I figured hiking up it would take quite a while.

"I think the Rainbow Stoneship is on top of that," Grovyle said.

"Ugh, so we have to climb?" Jade sighed.

"You survived the climb up that plateau in the future. This should be easy," Grovyle said.

"Yeah…" I muttered.

Grovyle had a very odd definition of "easy". The word "easy" apparently meant "a very long and tiring climb up a huge staircase". That definitely wasn't my definition of easy.

One tiring climb later we reached the top of the pyramid and found a stone tablet with mysterious writing on it. The stone floor below us was emblazoned with the pattern on Jade's Relic Fragment. In the middle of the floor was a small dent in the ground as if there were a chunk of the ground was missing.

"What's up with this weird pattern?" Jade asked, looking at the stone tablet.

"Those are Unown runes. Unown are Pokémon that are shaped like letters," Grovyle said.

"Can you read them?" I asked.

"Yeah. Just give me a second…" Grovyle scanned the tablet slowly and carefully. For a few minutes, he silently looked over the tablet.

"What does it say?" Jade asked impatiently.

"According to the tablet, we're standing on the Rainbow Stoneship right now," Grovyle said.

"We are? Cool! How do we activate it?" Jade said.

"Your Relic Fragment is the only way you can activate the Rainbow Stoneship," Grovyle said, looking at Jade.

Jade took her Relic Fragment out of our Explorer Bag and approached the hole in the center of the platform. But before she could fit it in the hole…

"Stop! You will go no further!" Unfortunately, I recognized the voice.

Six Sableye stormed up the staircase and trapped us in a tight circle. Dusknoir came clambering up the stairway, a broad grin on his face.

"Dusknoir," Grovyle growled.

"Yes. Me," Dusknoir said.

"How did you—"

"Get here? Master Dialga warped me directly to this wretched time period to stop you," Dusknoir said, still smiling broadly.

"D-Dusknoir… We'll fight you if we need to," Jade said slowly. I could tell she was desperately trying to keep her voice from shaking.

"Oh, Jade, you don't know if Grovyle is telling you the truth. He could be deceiving you," Dusknoir crooned, hovering up close to Jade.

"Urk…" Jade groaned.

"I thought so. Now, all three of you. Come with me." Dusknoir began to float down the stairs. His Sableye forced us forward, and we stumbled down the pyramid.

A minute of pushing later, we arrived at the bottom of the stairs. Dusknoir had set up a Dimensional Hole that he was probably going to try to force us in.

"Now, Sableye. Into the hole with them…" Dusknoir said.

"Wheh-heh-heh!" the Sableye snickered.

They pushed us toward the Dimensional Hole…

"Attack them," Grovyle whispered.

With a fierce yell, Grovyle lashed out at the Sableye. Jade and I quickly followed his example, and the Sableye scattered.

"No! You fools!" Dusknoir spat in outrage.

"Wheh? Heh?" the Sableye asked.

"Gah! Never mind! Just get them!" Dusknoir bellowed.

"Wheh-heh!" The Sableye closed in on us, and our battle began.