Disclaimer: I do not own pokemon and am in no way affiliated with Nintendo or Gamefreak, or other companies that write or produce pokemon. Now that that legal stuff is out of the way, on to the story!
Pokemon Emerald
Chapter Forty
Sky Pillar
"Have I mentioned how crazy this idea is?" Odari asked Alex. "There's no way you're getting past my traps and you refuse my help!"
"If you haven't, then I haven't told you how much I'd love to just drop you into the ocean right now." Alex thought in response. "Since you're apparently hydrophobic as well I imagine that would be a very terrifying experience for you."
"Clearly you have no idea how much a shallow pool of water compares to a shallow sea when you're only a crystal. Nor do you realize how much time I have had to get over that fear as a result. I'll gladly fill you in though..." The emerald glowed in Alex's backpack, projecting an image in Alex's mind of the shallow pool of water from the emerald's point of view.
"ACK! Cut that out!" Alex shouted while hitting himself in the side of the head.
"Alex what ARE you doing?" May asked, pulling up alongside him on Altaria. The two of them were flying south to the Sky Pillar, with Alex on Skarmory as usual.
"Err...momentary lapse in sanity?" Alex replied sheepishly. May gave him an odd look and slowly distanced Altaria from him.
"Screw losing you, I'm SMASHING you!" Alex snapped at Odari.
"Good luck with that. Even Groudon at the peak of its power wouldn't be capable of such a feat." Odari taunted Alex. "The sacred gems are virtually indestructable. Destroying them would be a very bad idea anyway."
"Back to plan A then...conveniently losing you."
"Think Wallace will be ok?" May asked Alex, still keeping her distance from him.
"He's probably already there." Alex replied. "That storm would have been nothing for his pokemon, even with the high seas."
The weather disruptions created by the two titans fighting in Sootopolis was continuing to expand, but Alex and May had already long cleared the storm as they got closer and closer to the Sky Pillar. The pillar, a tall tower rising up near Pacifidlog, was looming in the distance as they drew nearer.
"Alright, take us down there." Alex instructed Skarmory, pointing to the base of the Sky Pillar.
"Odd...I remember that being built into a mountain..." Odari commented.
"Well clearly, things have changed." Alex replied.
Skarmory and Altaria quickly dove down towards the base of the tower, coming in for a landing only a few yards away. The two trainers dismounted from their pokemon and recalled them before approaching Wallace, who was standing by the door of the tower waiting for them. The door was already unlocked and opened, and Wallace was holding a stone tablet of sorts in his hands.
"Glad to see you two finally made it." Wallace said as the two approached. "Rayquaza likely rests at the top of the tower, but there's no telling what dangers lie ahead."
"Someone could probably tell you how to get past every trap thats in there if she'd stop ignoring me." Odari's voice grumbled in Alex's head. Alex decided not to dignify her with a response for once, though he knew she'd know that since she could read his mind.
"You two ready for whatever lies beyond this door?" Wallace asked them. May and Alex nodded in response.
"One question though..." Alex began. Wallace nodded, giving him the opportunity to speak. "Why is she here again? I don't think you ever explained that part to anyone but Norman because he was against it..."
"Like you could get..."
"Ah, ah..." Wallace quickly shushed May. "You two need to work together. May is here with you for that very reason, Alex. You two know each other well and your ability to co-operate could prove useful here. There's no telling what lies up ahead."
"I could give you a very detailed list actually..." Odari began, but was quickly cut off verbally by Alex.
"Would you just shut it already!" Alex yelled angrily.
"Well, excuse me then..." Wallace shot back, crossing his arms.
"Err...I didn't mean you Wallace...I was talking to..." Alex looked between Wallace and May, then sighed. "Nevermind..."
"Lapse of sanity again?" May asked, smirking slightly. Alex just nodded.
"Lapse of sanity...?" Wallace questioned, raising an eyebrow. "Nevermind, lets just..."
The sound of rain hitting the ground began to grow closer until the three of them found themselves in the midst of a heavy rainstorm. The weather distortion had finally reached them.
"This isn't good...its all the way down here now..." Wallace noted.
"Pacifidlog could be in trouble. I'm going to head there now, think you two can handle this on your own?" Wallace asked them while reaching for a pokeball.
"Oh I'm sure I can handle it, I don't know about mister 'lapse in sanity' here." May replied, gesturing to Alex.
"Wonderful, they all think I'm insane. It stands to reason, though, since you ARE driving me crazy." Alex grumbled mentally.
"I don't know what any of that means but you're welcome." Odari replied casually.
"Well good luck you two, everyone's counting on you." Wallace gave the two trainers a salute then took off running towards the shore, in a hurry to get to Pacifidlog. Pacifidlog was a town built on a reef and sitting directly in the middle of the ocean with strong currents on one side and the storm now bearing down from the other.
"Well...lets get to work I guess." Alex said to May. The two of them walked through the open door of the Sky Pillar and wandered into the first floor. They were immediately met with a corridor about 20 feet long that turned at a ninety degree angle at the end. The corridor itself was barren stone weathered by time.
"Kinda feels like Mirage Tower in the desert all over again?" Alex commented to May.
"Except you're not complaining it shouldn't exist..." May replied with a giggle.
"I've been running into a lot of things that shouldn't exist..." Alex muttered. "Talking emeralds for one..." He then noted mentally.
"So...do you think those would qualify as traps?" May wondered, pointing towards several small holes in the walls lining the length of the corridor.
"That looks like a typical cliche arrow trap." Alex stated, nodding. "I was hoping this place would have more interesting traps than that..."
"More interesting?" Odari laughed. "If you know of a way to get passed an entire floor of arrow launchers be my guest!"
"So I guess we just ice the walls and go past?" May suggested.
"I doub't we'll even need to do that." Alex replied, reaching for a pokeball. "Golem, go!"
Alex held up the pokeball and released Golem before him. Golem quickly scanned the corridor ahead before turning to Alex, wondering what it was released for.
"I have my doubts those arrows will even fire, but even if they do they won't pierce Golem's rock shell." Alex explained. "Golem, I want you to use Defense Curl then roll down the corridor."
Golem nodded and withdrew its head, arms, and legs into its rock shell and began rolling down the corridor. Sure enough, just as Alex had expected, no arrows were fired.
"Huh? Its not even firing? What gives?" May wondered, looking to Alex for an explanation. Alex started off down the corridor, stepping into the area where the arrow slits were. Again, none were fired.
"Ok, what'd you do?" Odari asked Alex. "You should have been swarmed by arrows, they were only supposed to ignore pokemon!"
"Huh, so they ignore pokemon? Guess testing them with Golem was pointless then." Alex thought, scratching the back of his head.
"Its simple really, the trap couldn't stand the test of time." Alex explained. "Either other poor souls wasted its arrows or the firing mechanism rusted into oblivion."
"Think this means the other traps won't work either?" May asked him.
"Ha! Don't count on it, girl!" Odari snapped at May, even though only Alex could hear her. "The arrow trap might not have survived but the rest of my traps will definitely still be active."
"Hopefully they'll be more inventive too..." Alex thought, rolling his eyes. He continued down the corridor with Golem still rolling ahead and May following behind. Rounding the bend they found a similar corridor, and again at the end of that corridor. Finally, in the last corridor which would have taken them full circle ended in a flight of stairs instead. Alex recalled Golem and the two trainers went up to the second level.
"Well this floor seems fine, maybe that was the only trap?" May commented when she reached the next floor. The second floor looked the same as the first, only without the arrow slits. Alex bent down to take a closer look at the floor, not entirely convinced.
"I think the floor up ahead is like that one we encountered in the Mirage Tower..." Alex stated, noticing how the stone floor seemed more weathered after a certain point suggesting a weaker material.
"Another common trap I guess..." May sighed, taking a pokeball from her belt. "I have this one then. Altaria, lets go!"
May released Altaria from its pokeball and the dragon pokemon appeared before her, looking out at the corridor. It turned its head back towards May, wondering what it was called out for.
"Altaria, I need you to Ice Beam the floor up ahead. The entire floor too." Altaria nodded and turned to the corridor again, aiming an Ice Beam attack at the floor. It didn't take long for Altaria to have the entire floor stretching out before them encased in ice.
With the floor safe to walk across, Alex and May continued through the corridor. Around the next corner they had Altaria freeze the floor again and continued as such until, like on the first floor, they came nearly full circle and reached a flight of stone steps leading to the third floor.
"Well, your second trap was just as lame as your first trap." Alex taunted Odari.
"You're far from out of danger." Odari shot back.
"Really? I wasn't even aware we were in danger to begin with..." Alex retorted.
When the two trainers reached the third floor they noticed what seemed to be a far more obvious trap. On the walls of the corridor were four images of Baltoy, two on each side, with an image of a Claydol at the end of the corridor.
"Well this is interesting..." Alex commented, taking out his notepad and ripping out a blank sheet of paper. "Bet the eyes fire lasers or something."
"I don't think they had lasers back then." May said in response. "Magic is possible but you don't believe in that. What are you doing with that paper anyway?"
"Watch..." Alex crumbped up the paper into a ball. "Lob this towards them and..." And gave the paper ball a light toss towards the images. To Alex's dismay, nothing happened and the paper ball fell to the floor without incident.
"So...what was I supposed to be watching?" May asked jokingly.
"I thought for sure they'd fire at it..." Alex grumbled, reaching for a pokeball. "In that case I'll just have a pokemon destroy it from here. Alakazam, go!"
Alex released Alakazam from the pokeball he retrieved. The psychic pokemon immediately knew what Alex had planned, wanting her to attack and destroy the Baltoy figures. However, Alakazam didn't attack. It peered about the corridor, as if it could sense something.
"Hey, why aren't you attacking?" Alex asked Alakazam. The psychic pokemon turned to him and pointed at the Baltoy image.
"Yeah, thats what I want you to attack..." Alex stated, thinking Alakazam was confirming his orders. Alakazam slapped her hand against her forehead in exasperation.
"-Language barriers can be so aggravating at times...-" Alakazam grumbled.
"I think Alakazam's trying to tell you something." May said to Alex. Alakazam nodded in agreement and pointed to the image again. Alex rubbed his chin and thought for a moment.
"Alakazam, is there something preventing you from destroying that figure?" Alex asked. Alakazam shook her head.
"Is there any danger, as far as you can tell, in destroying it?" Alakazam thought for a moment, then shook her head again.
"No, I am sure they can get out without my assistance..." Alakazam thought.
"Would you like for me to give you and your mind-reader friend there the answer?" Odari asked Alex. "You'll never figure it out until its too late otherwise."
"Alright, lets try this then..." Alex took a pen from his backpack now, still having his notepad in hand. He flipped open to another blank page and held the pen and notepad out to Alakazam. The psychic pokemon nodded and focused its psychic powers on the pen, a blue aura surrounding it as Alakazam took the pen and began writing on the notepad. When Alakazam was finished, Alex took the note and read it.
"Whats it say?" May quickly asked, trying to peek over Alex's shoulder.
"Alakazam can sense the presence of other psychic pokemon on the other side of these images." Alex replied to her, looking up at the stone images again. "If I were to guess, I'd say there's four Baltoy and a Claydol waiting to attack..."
"You mentioned those pokemon before...psychic and ground types, right?" May asked. Alex nodded in response. "So then I'll use Ludicolo and you use Sceptile and we can lure them out and fight them.
"Was thinking the same thing." Alex replied with a smirk, reaching for Sceptile's pokeball and releasing the grass lizard pokemon in front of Alakazam. Alex watched the images for a moment after releasing Sceptile until he was sure nothing was going to happen.
"Ludicolo, I choose you!" May called out, releasing her own grass pokemon next to Alakazam.
"Alright, wait until they appear to attack." Alex instructed May. "Sceptile? Time to really test out that new attack of your's on that Claydol."
Sceptile nodded, already knowing what attack Alex was referring to. Sceptile's tail began to glow as it slowly absorbed light energy in preparation to attack. Once Sceptile had charged all the energy it needed it expelled it all in the form of a beam. The Solar Beam attack travelled down the corridor, piercing through the thin wall that formed the Claydol image and striking something on the otherside. Soon after all the images, including the one of Claydol, began to crack as four Baltoy and a damaged Claydol burst through the walls and into the corridor.
"Well, I guess I shouldn't be too surprised to see a Claydol survive a Solar Beam after it smashed through the wall..." Alex said to himself. "It won't last much longer now, so lets get this battle started! Sceptile, finish that Claydol off with Leaf Blade! Alakazam, use Reflect!"
"In that case I guess its time for your first real battle in a while, Ludicolo!" May added in her excitement. "Hit all the Baltoys with Surf!"
The three pokemon simultaneously set to work. A wall of water rose up in front of Ludicolo and Alakazam as Sceptile shot forward and formed a large green blade from one of the leaves on its forearms. Meanwhile, all three of them became encased in a blue barrier as Alakazam focused on protecting them. Once created the Reflect technique would remain in effect for a short period of time and hinder physical attacks.
Sceptile was the first of the two grass pokemon to land its attack, slashing the weakened Claydol with its Leaf Blade and instantly knocking it out. Oddly enough the Claydol disappeared afterwards and was resealed behind the wall. Ludicolo's Surf attack swept up the four Baltoys afterwards, sending them crashing into the far wall of the corridor by Sceptile and narrowly avoiding hitting the grass pokemon.
All four Baltoy were still concious, however none moved from the spot they landed in as they began to attack. The Baltoys began to glow then each released a massive blast of energy that engulfed Sceptile as well as half the corridor briefly. Sceptile was blasted back, landing in front of Alakazam and Ludicolo unconcious despite its extra protection from Protect. The Baltoy, like Claydol, then disappeared as the wall mysteriously reformed.
"An explosion trap..." Alex muttered as he recalled Sceptile. "Well I hope thats the last of them then, we might be in trouble otherwise..."
May ran ahead to the end of the corridor to look down the next. Sure enough, there were four more images of Baltoy and an image of a Claydol arranged to mirror the previous corridor.
"There's still more up ahead..." May informed Alex. "I think we could be in a bit of trouble here..."
"Of course you're in trouble." Odari stated in agreement. "You're lucky enough to have survived the first encounter."
"Well if they're just going to Self-Destruct as their first attack then we've got nothing to worry about." Alex replied, moving through the corridor to meet up with May again. Ludicolo followed behind, and Alakazam teleported to the end of the corridor.
"Do you have a plan then?" May asked, then rolled her eyes. "Silly question, of course you do..."
"Yep, already set in motion too." As Alex said this, Alakazam disappeared and teleported into the middle of the corridor ahead. At first. nothing happened. After a moment though, the images broke apart as the Claydol and the four Baltoy came out from behind the wall and moved towards Alakazam. As the five pokemon began glowing, Alakazam vanished again leaving them all to Self-Destruct on nothing and return to the wall. Alakazam reappeared in front of Alex and May again, having used Teleport to escape.
"That shouldn't have worked." Odari said to Alex. "Those Baltoy and Claydol shouldn't have attacked pokemon."
"I knew this, and Alakazam knew this." Alex replied. "In fact, this would have been obvious after hearing about the arrow trap. I suppose that means I'm cheating a bit but whatever. Anyway, Alakazam is smarter than I am so of course she knew to provoke the Baltoy and Claydol into attacking using her psychic powers."
"So I guess there's just one corridor to go." May noted. "Think I could get this one with Gardevoir?"
"You probably could..." Alex replied. "But why?"
"So I feel like I'm doing more than just tagging along..." May replied in a sour tone while reaching for Gardevoir's pokeball. "Ludicolo, thanks for your help but we probably won't be fighting anymore Baltoy or Claydol like that. Return!" May recalled Ludicolo, and subsequently held up Gardevoir's pokeball.
"Isn't that exactly what you're doing?" Alex asked her with a slight smirk on his face. "I mean, we haven't really come across anything that I wouldn't have been able to handle on my own. I definitely didn't need your help for-ow!" Alex's comments were cut short by an elbow to the stomach from May.
"Hmph. You should be thankful for my company." May shot back. "At least you have someone to talk to, a pretty girl who's actually willing to put up with you for some reason..."
"The lass certainly thinks highly of herself." Odari commented dryly. "Should be interesting should the sapphire ever be reunited with her, powers and all. I'm sure Haruka's conciousness will have several choice words for her."
"You can say whatever you like about me, but not May." Alex thought in response to Odari. "Destiny has reserved that right for me. Observe."
"You're right I guess." Alex said to May with a shrug. "Afterall, this would hardly be a quest without the token female." No sooner had Alex finished his statement than had he felt the impact with his face, followed by blacking out.
"Oh yes, you truly have the gift..." Odari said to him sarcastically while he was unconcious. "You have definitely enraged her like I never could, and I have no idea what that was supposed to mean either."
"Jerk, I hope I broke your..." May stopped, watching as Alex suddenly went limp and collapsed onto the floor.
"EEK! I didn't hit him that hard did I?!" May screamed in panic. Lying on the ground, blood began dripping from Alex's nose. May quickly checked Alex for a pulse. To her relief, he seemed fine. Just unconcious and probably with a broken nose.
"Melany shouldn't have been knocked out by that..." Alakazam thought to herself. "She clearly isn't faking it though...perhaps Odari had something to do with this?"
May put Gardevoir's pokeball back on her belt, taking Altaria's pokeball in hand instead and quickly released Altaria from its pokeball. Altaria was confused as to what had happened, looking between Alex and May. May didn't say a word, though, as she reached up to pull off her bandana.
"Altaria, I need some ice..." Altaria nodded and fired a very short Ice Beam at the wall, creating a circle of ice about a foot in diameter. Altaria followed up by pecking at it, knocking off small chunks which May collected and tied up in her bandana.
"Thanks Altaria." May placed her bandana on the ground, then bent over to untie one of her shoes and completely undo the lace and pull it out. She picked up her bandana again, then sat Alex up against the wall of the corridor.
"I overreact a lot, don't I?" May quietly said to no one in particular, taking her bandana and placing it against Alex's nose which she assumed to be broken. She took the shoelace and tied it around his head to hold the bandana in place. "I guess its a good thing mom taught me basic first aid...apply ice for fifteen minutes and sit upright..."
May wiped some of the blood from Alex's face with her glove and sighed. "You'd think I'd be used to it by now...but that one was just really mean Alex. It was still wrong of me to hit you I guess, but...Alakazam, he'll be alright right?"
Alakazam nodded to May, having already thought over everything. Alex didn't seem to be in any danger to her, and as far as she could tell May hadn't struck him with enough force to knock him out. In fact, to Alakazam, it seemed more like Alex had fallen asleep. Which didn't make much sense either since if he was he should have been woken up by May just now, unless it was an unnatural sleep.
"Good..." May replied quietly. "I should probably keep going without him then, one of us needs to reach Rayquaza. I'll come back for him after and get him to a hospital. You'll look after him, right Alakazam?"
"-Of course.-" Alakazam replied, nodding.
"I'll keep going then. Sorry about this Alex..." May gave Alex a quick peck on the cheek, then took off down the corridor. Altaria flapped its wings and followed behind her.
"Well, Melany will be upset she missed that." Alakazam thought. "Though I suppose, had she been awake, May wouldn't have done that..."
May stopped at the edge of the corridor to peek around into the next, the last corridor before she would presumably find the stairs to the next floor. She took Gardevoir's pokeball in hand, this time calling out her pokemon. The psychic pokemon, sensitive to emotions, could immediately feel a stinging sensation of guilt from her trainer.
"Gardevoir, there's psychic pokemon hiding behind those images." May informed her pokemon. Gardevoir nodded.
"-Yes, I sense their prescence.-" Gardevoir replied, then looked back to the other end of the hall to see Alakazam and Alex. She nodded in understanding when she saw Alex sitting against the wall.
"-She must feel guilty for having to leave him behind.-" Gardevoir stated quietly.
"-Actually I think she punched him...-" Altaria corrected her. "-Humans seem so fragile at times. Anyway, I think May still needs you!-"
May said nothing as her pokemon talked, only speaking up again when they were quiet. "Gardevoir, I need you to go out into that corridor until those Baltoy and Claydol come out to attack you. They'll use Self-Destruct so use Teleport to get away when its too late for them to stop the attack."
"-Undoorstood, my lady.-" Gardevoir replied, nodding. She slowly walked down the corridor, continuing until she reached the end. Nothing came out to attack her though.
"Thats odd..." May stated in confusion. "Maybe there's nothing here?" May started down the corridor, and Gardevoir's eyes went wide in fear as the stone images began to crack and the Baltoy and Claydol all broke out of their confines and swarmed May. May gasped in surprise, having thought for sure there was nothing there.
Gardevoir quickly teleported to her trainer as the Baltoy and Claydol surrounded her. The group of pokemon began glowing as Gardevoir teleported again, taking May with her and reappearing around the corridor. They could hear the explosion nearby as dust was blasted into the wall at their end of the corridor.
"Wow...that was close..." May breathed a sigh of relief. "Thanks Gardevoir..."
"-Your welcome, my lady. It seems those pokemon do not attack other pokemon unless provoked, however their energy is now depleted. It is safe for us to pass.-"
"Well, now that the coast is clear, lets go!" May said to her pokemon. The two of them nodded and followed behind May as she took off down the corridor again. May found another flight of stairs and took them up to the next floor. When May reached the top, however, she was surprised to find there were no more corridors. Instead, there was a large room with three statues. Two seemingly guarding a flight of stairs at the northern wall and another standing by the southern wall.
The statues by the northern wall appeared to be some kind of flying pokemon standing upright. They had sleek bodies and tiny feet and hands. They were hardly symmetrical, however, as one stood about four feet tall while the other was a good two feet taller than it.
The third statue was more humanoid in appearance, in fact it seemed like a golem of sorts. It had a large, rounded body and stood at roughly six feet tall. Its arms ended in three claws.
"With how predictable everything else has been here, I'm going to guess those statues come to life and attack." May muttered bitterly.
"-Well that doesn't sound very fun.-" Altaria commented.
"-She is likely correct, however.-" Gardevoir stated, nodding slightly. "-I sense odd emanations from those statues...-"
May reached for another pokeball, this time taking Blaziken's pokeball in hand and releasing her fully evolved starter.
"-Well, welcome to the fully evolved club-" Gardevoir said to Blaziken, chuckling lightly.
"-Heh, thanks.-" Blaziken replied, a smirk forming on its mouth.
"Blaziken, I want you to try attacking that statue there with Brick Break. Since rock pokemon are weak to fighting attacks, then a stone statue should crumble just as well!" May pointed to the statue closest to them, the one that looked like a golem, as she addressed Blaziken.
"-This will be a piece of cake.-" Blaziken dashed forward and brought its fist into the side of the statue. The statue immediately began to crack, as May had hoped, then suddenly burst into a pile of dust.
"Well that was easy..." May commented. The destruction of the first statue, however, triggered the remaining two to seemingly come to life. They began floating and leveled off so they were horizontal instead of verticle and began moving towards Blaziken.
"Alright, Blaziken! Attack the larger one first and finish it off with a Brick Break too!" Blaziken dashed forward towards the larger of the two statues and slammed its fist into it. The statue didn't crack in the slightest. Blazken was then surrounded in a blue aura and tossed across the room and slammed into the far well.
Blaziken slid to the floor in a daze and the two statues attacked again, the larger one firing a beam of white light while the smaller fired a similar ball of energy. The two attacks struck Blaziken simultaneously and briefly engulfed it in a white light. When the light faded, Blaziken was unconcious. May quickly recalled it and the two statues shifted their attention to her.
"Blaziken's attacks didn't work that time..." May thought for a moment. "That was definitely a Psychic attack too...maybe they're actually psychic pokemon?"
"Gardevoir, Double Team! Altaria, Ice Beam the big one!" Gardevoir quickly split into multiple images in an attempt to confuse their opponents while Altaria fired off a blue beam at the same statue Blaziken attempted to attack. To May's surprise, the beam had seemingly no affect as it hit. However, the statue shattered and disinitegrated entirely.
"Wait...maybe specific attacks will destroy them?" May thought to herself, noting the success of the Ice Beam against the last statue and Blaziken's Brick Break on the first. The remaining statue chose to attack Altaria and appeared to spew out a stream of blue flames from where a mouth would be. The attack, which May recognized as Dragonbreath, landed a direct hit and sent Altaria crashing into the ground. Fortunately, Altaria proved to be far more durable taking an effective hit that wasn't ice and got right back up again.
"Now I get it! Those two were dragons, and since dragons are weak to ice an ice attack instantly destroyed the statue! Altaria, destroy this one with Dragonbreath!" As instructed, Altaria answered back with her own Dragonbreath attack. The blue flames it spewed out had no visible effect on the statue itself, but it disintegrated nonetheless as May had predicted.
"Woo-hoo! I was right!" May cried out, jumping for joy. "I actually figured that out on my own with nothing to go by and nothing on the statues to even indicate what type of pokemon they were!"
"-Well, I obviously wasn't that useful in this battle.-" Gardevoir stated bitterly, teleporting next to May as her false images faded away.
"-You didn't miss much...they all went down in one hit afterall...-" Altaria replied, sighing heavily. "-That Dragonbreath attack certainly hurt though, must have been a powerful pokemon...statue...thing..."
"Really wish I didn't punch Alex out now..." May said with a sigh. "Now I can't brag about this to him..."
- Insert Line Here -
"-We meet again...-" Alex heard a male voice saying to him.
"Huh? Who said that?" Alex looked around, but all he could see was darkness everywhere.
"Quiet, it wasn't talking to you." Came the sharp reply of a voice that was all to familiar to him. The source of the voice soon appeared before him in the form of brown-haired female wearing leather armor. She looked to be only a few years older than he was, though a lot alike aside from longer hair.
"Wait...you're Odari?" Alex asked her in surprise, looking her over from head to foot. "You...look just like me..."
"Correction, I look like what you SHOULD look like." Odari shot back, glaring at him. "I don't recall having ever felt the need to show off like you do either. If I were in her shoes I'd probably kill you now while I had the chance."
"So then...who was that other voice I heard?" Alex asked. He soon had his answer as a huge, green, serpent-like dragon appeared floating above Odari.
"-You must be Alex...-" The pokemon, which Alex immediately recognized as Rayquaza, said to him.
"Thats probably a fake name since 'he' has decided to pretend to be a boy for reasons not yet explained to me." Odari informed Rayquaza.
"-Regardless, Odari has told me about you.-" Rayquaza said to Alex. "-Normally I would have you battle me first. However I cannot afford to be at any less than full strength. I would have already attempted to intervene had I known of your arrival.-"
"Wait, you already know whats going on then?" Alex asked Rayquaza.
"-Yes, I know of Kyogre and Groudon's appearance at Sootopolis. They have absorbed the powers of the sapphire and ruby and continue their ancient battle for the Cave of Origins.-" Rayquaza replied.
"Then why are you waiting for me to climb up this tower?" Alex asked. "Why not just go there and try to stop them? Why not spare me and May from having to go through Odari's pathetic excuses for traps?" Odari visibly twitched at Alex's remark about her traps.
"-The traps will serve as your test for now.-" Rayquaza replied. "-Also, there is something at the top of the tower I wish for you to see. Perhaps you will be able to interpret it better than Odari could when she was here.-"
"I highly doubt that..." Odari muttered. "You finished with 'him' now so I can wake 'him' up?"
"-I have nothing more to say.-" Rayquaza said, nodding to Odari. "-Unless Alex has questions for me...-"
"Actually..." Alex began, but was quickly cut off by Odari.
"Too late!" Odari waved a hand and everything went black again.
- Insert Line Here -
"Ow..." Before Alex even opened his eyes he could feel the pain emanating from his nose. He could also feel something cold pressing against his face and tied aroud his head.
When Alex finally opened his eyes most of what he could see was a green cloth bundled up and tied around his head with what looked like a shoe lace. Glancing around over the cloth package he saw he was still in the same spot as before only now it was just Alakazam with him. Alex was sitting on the floor with his back against the wall.
"Alakazam? Where'd May go?" Alex asked her. Alakazam pointed down the corridor, suggesting May went on without him.
"Judging by the pain I'd say May broke my nose..." Alex muttered. Alakazam nodded in agreement. "This is her bandana though, isn't it?" Alex asked, pointing to the cloth ball tied to his face. Alakazam again nodded in agreement.
"I'm guessing that was Odari's doing when I was knocked unconcious too..." Alex muttered.
"Guilty." Came Odari's reply mentally. "Rayquaza wanted to talk with you and that seemed like an oh-so-perfect opportunity to do so as well as making your friend May feel incredibly guilty."
"In other words, you had this all planned..." Alex thought, slowly getting to his feet. He actually felt a bit tired from whatever it was Odari had done to him. "And you're capable of doing that at any time as well..."
"Not quite. I can do very little with magic and used up much of my power to put you to sleep and make it look like you were unconcious instead of sleeping." Odari replied. "I doubt I will be doing that again anytime soon. Until my power is slowly replenished I will be reserving what little I have for communication."
"Or you could just shut up..." Alex thought, rolling his eyes. "Alakazam, you're getting all this right?" Alakazam nodded, it made a habit of reading Alex's mind whenever the opportunity presented itself. Alex didn't often try to hide anything from Alakazam anyway.
"Well I guess now I better get caught up with May and apologize to her." Alex said to himself. "Alakazam, thanks for watching over me but I'll be fine from here. Return!" Alex recalled Alakazam to her pokeball and placed it back on his belt.
"One more thing..." Alex thought. "Odari, I would just like to say that you are a complete and total bitch for putting me to sleep at a time that'd make it seem like it was May's fault. If at some point I am able to tell her about you I will explain this all to her and allow her the opportunity to get back at you in any way she chooses."
"In that case, I won't tell you what she did to you while you were asleep. For your information, she didn't just put ice on your nose."
"Really?" Alex replied, trying to sound surprised.
"Yes, really..." Odari replied irritably.
"Are you sure? I mean you did seem kinda busy in there to notice what might be going on outside."
"Yes, I am sure. I am also aware you're just trying to get me to talk a lot so I'll use up the last of my energy. Well for your information I'm..." Odari seemed to suddenly go silent. Alex smirked to himself.
"Finally, some peace and quiet...and probably no mind reading from her either..." Alex started off down the corridor, finally on his way to catch up with May.
"You know, I'm glad I'm alone here..." Alex thought to himself. "I can imagine how ridiculous I must look right now."
Alex quickly rounded the bend and made it through the next corridor without incident, reaching the stairs to get up to the next floor. All of the Baltoy and Claydol were still incapable of fighting back, allowing Alex to safely reach the next level. Upon arriving on the next floor, Alex could see a Gardevoir moving up a flight of stairs at the northern end of the room. The psychic pokemon felt Alex's prescence and stopped to look back at him.
"Gardevoir? What'd you stop for?" May asked her pokemon from the top of the stairs. Gardevoir looked back and pointed across the room to Alex, prompting May to go back down the stairs to see what Gardevoir was pointing at.
"Alex? You're...awake?" May asked in surprise.
"Yeah...so how long was I out for anyway?" Alex asked curiously.
"It couldn't have been more than ten minutes..." May replied, rubbing the back of her head sheepishly. "Umm...sorry about that..."
"Don't worry about it..." Alex said to her. "I'm the one who should be apologizing, I went a bit far with that one..."
May stared in disbelief for a moment. She had broken his nose and knocked him out, yet he was apologizing to her and didn't even seem the slightest bit upset.
"You're not even mad about it? Even a little?" May asked him.
"Well, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't..." Alex replied, slowly crossing the room to approach her. "My nose hurts like heck, but I probably deserved it. Or at least deserved the punch."
"No...no you didn't..." May replied softly. "I shouldn't be hitting you for something silly like that..."
"May, believe me, I'm used to it." Alex replied, chuckling quietly. "Just don't hit me so hard next time..."
"I'll try not to..." May smiled slightly. "I still can't believe I hit you hard enough to knock you out..."
"I'm sure there's a logical explanation for that somewhere. By the way, how long am I going to be wearing this for?" Alex pointed to the bandana tied to his face. "Its cold, uncomfortable, and getting wet..."
"You're supposed to hold an ice pack to a broken nose for fifteen minutes twice a day." May lectured him, waving a finger. "You can take it off but you still have to hold it there for at least another five."
"Fine, then I'm at least holding it against the other side..." Alex quickly reached back to untie the shoelace then took the makeshift ice pack and held it to the other side of his nose. "I didn't know you knew so much about first aid though..."
"Well we didn't really need it." May replied with a shrug. "There was the time you got stung by Roselia but that was taken care of with an antidote and some bandages. I got paralyzed by Plusle when I ran into it, but a paralyze heal fixed that. Then there was the time Electrike electrocuted me but I couldn't really help myself then anyway..."
"How about the time I was bitten by a Zigzagoon?" Alex muttered bitterly.
"It didn't even puncture the skin..." May rolled her eyes.
"True enough. So was there a trap here?" Alex asked, looking around the room.
"Oh! I almost forgot about that!" May replied excitedly. "There were these statues of pokemon that came to life and attacked and Blaziken knocked out one with a fighting attack so I thought that'd work on all of them but it ended up I had to hit the statues with an attack that'd be effective against that type of pokemon and I figured out the statues were dragon pokemon so Altaria took them both down with one hit! I actually figured that out despite never having seen pokemon like them before!"
"-Well I'm glad you two made up so quickly!-" Gardevoir said, smiling from the feeling of May's enthusiasm.
"Really? Well congratulations! Sounds like you've dealt with the only interesting trap so far all on your own." Alex also smiled, not wanting to ruin May's excitement. "Lets keep going though, we should be almost at the top now."
"Right! You should probably take it easy though." May said to him. "Your nose is probably very sensitive right now and if there was more to you getting knocked out than me punching you it could happen again."
"I'll be fine. Besides, I've got a cute nurse watching over me apparently."
"A-Alex!" May blushed deeply. "What'd you just say?"
"I was referring to your Gardevoir." Alex replied, obviously lying. He quickly brushed past May and started on his way up the stairs, thinking to himself how he just seems to keep digging himself a deeper grave.
"-M-me?!-" Gardevoir stammered, also blushing now.
"Hmph...I should have hit him harder..." May grumbled before following Alex up the stairs.
"-I suppose some things never truly change...-" Gardevoir said to herself with a sigh, following behind her trainer.
The two trainers, along with Gardevoir, made it to the top of the stairs and had finally made it to the top floor. May had already returned Altaria to its pokeball, choosing only to keep Gardevoir out incase there were anymore traps that she would be able to sense.
The floor they reached was much different from any others in the tower. It consisted of one long corridor that seemed to end with a large chamber at the northern end and at the southern end was an opening into the sky.
"Wait, you mean we could have just flown in here?!" May said in dismay when she noticed the opening. "Well that just figures! After all that..."
"I'm surprised no one ever noticed that there before..." Alex added. "Kinda makes that front entrance pointless, as well as all those traps."
"Well there could still be traps on this floor...maybe something to do with all those funny pictures?" May pointed to a line of images carved into the stone, leading down the corridor. The only colored images, which appeared to be different colored crystals, seemed to make up a large number of the images.
"I'm not so sure those are a trap..." Alex moved closer to the images to examine them. "Almost looks like they tell a story..."
"Well if its not a trap lets just keep going then. I think we're almost there." May started down the corridor, but looked back when she realized Alex wasn't following her. He was still looking over the images on the wall.
"...Alex, what are you doing?" May asked him in exasperation.
"Take a look at this..." Alex replied, waving her over with his free hand. "These seem to be several separate incidents, and take a look at these two here..."
May went over to look at the images Alex was referring to. Both showed various images, including the crystals, but one of them had six small spheres aroung the crystals. Every image from that point on had spheres around the crystals, while all the images before didn't.
"So what does this all mean anyway?" May asked. She didn't really understand what the images meant or what Alex found so interesting about them.
"May, whats round and often carried in groups of six?" Alex quizzed her. May thought for a moment.
"Pokeballs?" May blinked. "Wait, so you think those spheres all represent pokeballs?"
"Exactly...so every image from this point on must be depicting an event in our time..." Alex stated. "And every image before would be before there were pokeballs..."
"Can you tell what any of it means then?" May asked curiously.
"Give me a minute..." Alex followed the images from the first one, which seemed to show three designs in the shape of Hoenn, Johto, and Kanto each with a gem in the middle. Emerald in Hoenn, sapphire in Johto, and ruby in Kanto. The next set of images showed only Hoenn, but with both the emerald and the sapphire in it. All instances of the gems had the six spheres around them.
The next 'panel' in the story showed an image of Groudon with a gem on it followed by a similar image of Kyogre. An image after showed the two, still with gems on them, facing each other as if in battle. The image after that showed the same only with Rayquaza above them and the sapphire and emerald above Rayquaza.
"If I was to venture a guess..." Alex thought. "I'd say that emerald is supposed to represent me, since clearly I've been unfortunate enough to have this passed down to me. The sapphire, then, probably represents May..."
Neither the sapphire nor the emerald were in the next image, which showed only the ruby out of the three. It was a far more elaborate image though showing twelve shadowy figures surrounding the ruby. Between the ruby and the figures were three birds, also facing the ruby. An image after showed the ruby and a single, larger demonic-looking figure with a heart seemingly trapped within.
"You know, I have no idea who the ruby is, only that its in Kanto." Alex thought after examining the images. "Though judging by the looks of those images, me and May get off relatively easy..."
Alex continued down to the next set of images which showed an outline of Hoenn with all three gems in it. This image was followed by one more before the entire story seemed to repeat. The finaly image showed the ruby, sapphire, and emerald again only each was facing a demonic figure while a larger one loomed over them. Alex stood back after looking over the last image and thought for a moment.
"So...any ideas?" May asked, interrupting Alex's thoughts.
"I've got nothing..." Alex replied, deciding it best to keep his observations to himself for now. "How about you? Any ideas?"
"Well I kinda thought maybe they represented us..." May replied, rubbing the back of her head sheepishly. "Then I realized that couldn't be it because you've got the ruby instead of the emerald..."
"Thats right..." Alex thought. "I didn't tell anyone about the emerald yet. May also seems to be taking the gems to literally refer to the gems themselves when they actually, or at least in my opinion, refer to the owner of the gems..."
"Speaking of which, you have the sapphire right?" Alex asked her. May nodded and handed the sapphire over to Alex.
"Alright, so I guess the only piece of this puzzle missing is Rayquaza..." Alex glanced down the corridor while using his free hand to put the sapphire in his backpack. "By the way, can I take this off yet?" Alex asked May, referring to his 'ice pack'. May quickly glanced at her watch.
"You should be fine to take it off now." May replied, nodding. "Shouldn't you be asking Gardevoir though?" May added, rolling her eyes.
"-I know nothing of human medicine!-" Gardevoir exclaimed indignantly.
"Your watch, and your bandana." Alex replied, tossing the bandana back to May. May wasn't ready for it though and missed the catch, letting it fall to the floor. She quickly picked it up in two fingers. Much of the ice had melted, leaving the bandana wet with a few spots of blood on it.
"Eww...so not wearing this..." May quickly wrung out the bandana before placing it in her fannypack.
Alex wiped his face, wet from the water seeping through May's bandana, then lightly poked his nice. He winced as even the light poke from his finger hurt slightly.
"Don't touch it!" May scolded him. "Your nose needs time to heal."
"You know, I can just imagine you someday breaking both my legs then being the one pushing me around in a wheelchair." May raised her arm back, as if about to punch Alex. Thinking on what happened earlier, however, she decided against it.
"I'll let that slide for now..." May replied, smiling slightly. "I don't have a wheelchair on me."
"-I hate to interrupt, my lady, but...-" Gardevoir tapped May on the shoulder. May looked back to see what she wanted and Gardevoir pointed down the corridor.
"Right...we need to get moving." May said in agreement. "There's probably no more traps though, so you can rest in your pokeball for now Gardevoir. Thanks for everything." Gardevoir nodded to May, and May recalled Gardevoir to her pokeball.
The two trainers took off and made it to the end of the corridor without being ambushed by anymore traps. Entering the chamber at the end of the corridor they found, to their surprise, Rayquaza was already awake and seemed to be waiting for them.
"Finally, I thought you'd never get to Rayquaza." Alex heard a voice in his head almost as soon as he entered the chamber.
"Great, I see you're back..." Alex thought in response.
"Thats Rayquaza?!" May exclaimed in surprise. Alex was too busy speaking with the voice in his head to take much notice.
"I was never gone. I merely wanted you to believe I was." Odari said to him, a mischevious tone in her voice. "By the way, Rayquaza was technically responsible for your nap earlier. I'm merely a messenger I suppose you could say, and now I'm passing on your findings to Rayquaza myself and claiming them as my own."
"Ok, seriously, and I don't use this term lightly, fuck off." Alex replied, his eye twitching in suppressed anger.
"Hey, Alex! We found Rayquaza!" May said to Alex in an attempt to get his attention. "Now what?"
"Huh? Oh, sorry..." Alex rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, trying to hide any sign of being upset.
"-Odari has informed me of everything.-" Rayquaza stated. Alex was surprised to find he could understand it. "-I thank you for your help. However we must now be on our way.-"
Rayquaza circled around the perimeter of the chamber until its large head was resting next to Alex and May.
"I think Rayquaza wants us to get on..." Alex said to May. May nodded, and the two trainers got on Rayquaza's back. Rayquaza flew up through the open roof of the chamber then quickly took off towards Sootopolis with the two trainers holding on tightly.
"Well, you'll probably be happy to know I won't be talking to you again until this is over now." Odari informed Alex. "Rayquaza is taking his powers back, which means I won't be able to do anything but watch what happens. Have fun."
"Good riddance..." Alex thought. "Well in any case, next stop Sootopolis to save the world..."
- Insert Line Here -
Author's notes: You know, I've apparently made two noteworthy mistakes recently that no one mentioned/picked up on. First, Luvdisc apparently doesn't get Serene Grace. Second, I referred to the Sky Pillar as the Spear Pillar. Neither really have any significant impact on the story but...
Anyway, a bit of a note on the emerald. Basically, Odari can speak with Alex because of Rayquaza's powers stored within. She can also attempt to put him, Kyogre, or Groudon asleep. Of course, she doesn't have a chance of getting Kyogre or Groudon with it. Obviously, Odari really hates Alex/Melany despite being pretty much the same person.
