Chapter 15: How Can I Listen to Telepathy Calls?

1/2/20

9:00 pm

Nearby Charred Chambers

The nighttime sky shined very brightly at this night. The stars felt like it was at its closest to this world. It truly was a sight to behold…

But I, meanwhile, wasn't paying attention to any of it. I was too focused on running nonstop to Charred Chambers.

"Manny, you still haven't told me how we're going to find Abby and get Cord back from the Darkness." Chris moved right next to me after eventually picking up my speed.

Okay, I admit that I overly exaggerated to Chris when I told him I had a plan. "I'm still working on it," I said, responding slowly.

"Then can you answer this question: why are we going to Charred Chambers first?"

I think I should give the warning first.

"Let me say that these ideas have no guarantee of working… The shadow dropped an Escape Orb—which was how I escaped in the first place—just before it attacked Abby. My hope is that was the only Escape Orb it had and must get through the random floors Charred Chambers has."

In case you were wondering what I'm talking about, Charred Chambers has an about forty-seven percent chance of having a random number of floors. This can be as short as two floors all the way to the tallest being ninety-nine floors. The other fifty-three percent makes the dungeon have its default floors, which is four floors. Cord told me about this after our team had a New Year's mission there.

"Okay, what about if that wasn't the only Escape Orb it had?"

"Let's hope not then." After stopping briefly for me to get a quick five-minute power nap, the two of us arrived at Charred Chambers. By the look at Chris' face, he looks afraid of what's going to happen here. "We are going to find her, Chris."

"I know… I just think we might have to face a Pokémon like Bisharp to have a shot of getting her back."

We started walking inside the dungeon as I closed my eyes to focus.

'Let's try not to screw this up.'

9:08 pm

Charred Chambers B2F

Two minutes passed inside Charred Chambers, and I believe I jinxed me and Chris. Three times as many Pokémon I've ever seen in one dungeon were here attacking both of us on the second floor. "I hate Monster Houses," Chris said jumping in the air since we started fighting a minute ago. He fired a Shadow Ball at a Machoke, which fainted soon after falling.

"I know," I agreed. "Especially when the stairs are on this room." I used Iron Tail to block attacks coming from a double team made of a Lycanroc and a Boldore. It was hard to attack two Pokémon while they were attacking at me at the same time, so I relied on defense. I started dodging attacks coming from both Pokémon. After a few moments of dodging, I got scratched by the arm by the Lycanroc. "Think you can help me here?!" I yelled at Chris.

"Hold on!" Chris used Sand Attack to blind the Pokémon he was fighting and went to me. At the same time, both the Lycanroc and the Boldore backed up to fire pieces of Stone Edge straight at my direction. Chris jumped right in front of me and used Protect to block the attack. "Now!"

I jumped in the air to fire a Thunderbolt at the surrounding area of where the hostile Pokémon were. It paralyzed some of them, while the others were taking the damage with no problem. A full-sized Electro Ball formed on my hand, and I threw it into the middle of the area.

I didn't expect to see anyone there faint out this attack. The explosion made a cloud of dust that surrounded all the Pokémon, making our escape to the stairs easily.

"That was exhausting," I said panting soon after.

"What, you've never faced more than one Pokémon at a time? That's complete—." I gave a stare to Chris while he paused himself in thought. "Oh, right. Sorry."

I sighed. "…I need to take a quick breather." Just before the final step before the next floor, I sat down to start taking deep breaths.

Chris decided to sit down as well and look down at the bottom of the stairs, where hostile Pokémon were walking around, fighting each other. Even the Lycanroc and the Boldore that were double teaming me earlier were about to fight each other till one fainted. "These Pokémon are acting like… animals."

"I'll honestly never understand why all these Pokémon have the tendency of fighting anyone, including each other."

"Neither will I… And I've only been here for more than a week." Chris started laughing.

I smiled while shaking my head. "That makes me wonder…" I stood up to look at the next room. With no one there, I entered the room with Chris following behind. "I know your world has regions, so where are you from?" We started to enter a pathway.

Chris hesitated slightly but cleared his throat to answer. "I know it's not the answer you would expect, but I come from Unova."

"Unova?" I said surprised. "You're right, I wouldn't get that you're from there. That, and it's kind of a coincidence…"

Now it was Chris' turn to be surprised. "What's that supposed to mean?"

I paused Chris from moving as two Raticate passed by us in the crossway. We went into the opposite direction of where the Pokémon came from. "In our world, regions aren't a thing. It's basically territories that we call countries. I'm from a country called the United States." We ended up in a room without any other pathways, forcing us to turn back. "As it turns out," I continued, "your region is pretty similar to a major city I live nearby."

Chris went right next to me. "What's the city called?"

"It's called New York City. Pretty amazing place to be if you see it for the first time. Everything there is like your… Castilla City, right?"

"Everything?" Chris said as he was moving more ahead of me toward the next room.

"Well… Not exactly everything." There was only one pathway left in the floor we haven't looked at, and it will probably lead us to the stairs. "For starters, New York is larger than Castilla City. It's a lot more populated too… By, like, thousands of more people."

"Damn… I never thought so many people would be confined into one tiny area!"

'Technically, there's more than one area, but I'll let him imagine about it.'

We entered the final room in the floor, and lo and behold, there was the stairs right in front of us.

That, and a hole in the middle of room was shaped like a Pikachu.

I stared at the hole while Chris was going to the stairs. After realizing what I was doing, Chris stopped moving and looked at me. "What's that?" he asked.

"This was the spot I landed when I was first a Pikachu."

Chris looked repeatedly at the hole and at myself. "That must have been painful from that height."

"I don't think I had any pain when I landed here." I started going towards the stairs.

"How do you know that?" Chris said entering the stairs first.

"The same reason when Cord had a hole in the dream…" I said entering the stairs. "Pokémon logic."

9:13 pm

Charred Chambers B3F - B4F (Stairs)

I think the fifty-three percent of Charred Chamber's number of floors didn't work in our favor, as the final floor was on the fourth floor. We were slowly making our final decent down to the floor when a rumbling shook the entire stairwell.

"What the heck?" I said confused. "What's going on?"

The shaking stopped after a few seconds after. "I have a bad feeling about this."

Someone help me…

"Shut up!" The voice echoed from the room below.

I looked down at the surface of the final floor and looked back at Chris. "Did you hear that?" I whispered.

"The 'Shut up?' Of course, I heard that."

"I'm talking about the telepathy."

"Telepathy?" Chris tilted his head. "Who can do this 'telepathy' here?"

"I have a feeling who could it be." Both of us got down to the final step of the stairs to look at the room. It was only one room, as both pathways extending outward were blocked by gravel. In the middle of the room, an Eevee was laying on the floor with a scar on the stomach. "Is that…"

"Abby… What the hell happened to her?"

I looked at what was next to her, which was a Treasure Bag with a badge on top of the bag. "…Cord took his bag, and had only one Escape Orb in the bag, right?"

Chris looked at me surprised. "Yeah. How did you—… Oh, crap." He moved to right behind me when a shadow on the floor started moving toward Abby. I formed a half-sized Electro Ball on my hand and waited.

The shadow moved around Abby in circles, trying to inspect if Abby was still unconscious. It stopped behind Abby, and got out of the floor, forming a Pokémon.

It took the form of Cord.

I threw the Electro Ball straight at him, and to our surprise, Cord caught the Electro Ball with one paw.

"Really Manny?" Cord looked at the stairs where we were hiding.

"Oh, great." Chris said groaning after.

Both of us entered the room, with stern faces going straight at Cord. His eyes were still on fire, so he's still possessed. "Cord, I don't want to fight you."

Manny, you of all people should know that it's not me right in front of you.

"Where is that voice coming from?" I say out loud.

"Don't worry about that right now." Cord said staring right at me.

He raced to me at lighting-speed to give me a huge punch in the face when I closed my eyes quickly.

'…Laevo.'

Everything started moving in slow motion, with Cord going into normal speed. I was just about to dodge the attack when a loud voice came.

Hey! I didn't give you any instruction to attack these Pokémon. Get back to base!

Cord paused from moving to realize that I was listening to his telepathy. "Yes sir."

He used Teleport to disappear from my face and time went back into normal.

Manny, you realize how I can speak to you now, right?

"…I think I do, Cord."

Chris looked straight at me surprised. "Manny! You have Turbo Boost out again!"

I looked at my paws, which were having bits of sparks falling out to the ground. "Huh. What do you know!"

"What in the name of Arceus happened here?!"

A bright light showed up in the corner of the room, with Harmony coming out of the light and floating towards us. "What are you doing here?"

"The Legendries completely noticed you using Turbo Boost again. I managed to sneak out of my meeting." She looked at Abby, who was still unconscious with the scar. "What happened here?"

"Long story short:" I said quickly. "Cord got possessed by Darkness and attacked Abby, probably causing a scar."

Harmony sighed. "Let's just get out here."

"Chris, you're picking Abby up," I joked.

"What?! Why?"

"Because she picked you up in Misty Mountain, that's why." I reasoned.

Chris muttered to himself—and probably cursed me out—but finally obliged to pick Abby. Harmony meanwhile was preparing herself to use Teleport and looked at us. "I'm ready when you are," she stated.

Both of us touched Harmony's tail and she used Teleport.

9:17 pm

Outside Charred Chambers

Harmony landed us just nearby the entrance of Charred Chambers. 'I'm relieved we got Abby out of here… But after seeing Cord like that, I'm truly clueless how we are going to get Cord back from the Darkness?'

"Guys, I'm going to have to admit something." Both of us looked at each other confused and looked at her. Harmony turned around to yell at the trees, "You can come out now!"

A rumbling in the floor started happening right in front of us as a huge, blue Pokémon started walking towards us. Two silver horns got into view and it stopped just in front of us.

Two horns… Blue… Some cracks in the body… Shit.

It's Dialga.

"Mew! Who are these Pokémon with you?!"

Harmony cringed a bit but got back into normal. "It's a very long story…"

Looks like Cord might have to wait a little while.

*Game File Saved*