Chapter 28 - Convergent Haze
The stiff atmosphere was ripped apart by a burst of heat so fierce that even my fire-type companion impulsively shied away from the invisible source. My lungs were stripped of air and a monumental amount of pressure clouded the rocky clearing and instantly dazed my defenses. My initial instinct was to put distance between myself and the remains of Latias in fear that it was the cause, but the action proved to do no good as the heat only grew stronger from all directions. In only a few seconds, an indistinct burning smell had transformed into a clout that rippled the air with waves of energy.
Our immaculate disorientation would quickly be answered by what manifested as a physical representation of the rising temperature. The ground began to turn a fatal shade of orange in an area barely far away enough from Leah and I to not melt us outright, leading to us both further backpedaling in fright. Out from the ground bubbled a half-sphere of lava and white luminosity that rose taller and wider than both of us combined, blasting me with another wave of unbearable heat. Steam erupted from the flames in massive amounts to settle around the area and cast a humid haze that trapped the energy and made it hotter still. Eventually the spiraling temperature reached a terminal point as its demonic source made its silhouette visible within the mess. As if this canyon hadn't been hell enough for us, now its demonic keeper was emerging for reasons unknown.
"S-Sage?" Leah whimpered, the entirety of her confidence smoldered by the surrounding developments. "I-I think you were right!"
The wind-carried steam would collide with the ambient flames to send most of them away in a whirl, but the heat remained in place. The burning smell was still as potent as ever, and the charred earth glistened under the prevalent beast that now poised over us. The fireball had served as a magical entry from the underworld, and what was left of its raging flow now spiraled around in harmony with its presence.
The beast's maroon body armor violently reflected the glare, and the yellow and red crest donning its jaws glimmered on its own accord. Any one of its four legs were almost as tall as I was, and its conic body comfortably towered over us. Its height was further increased by the mysterious projections that stuck out from either side of its hunched back and converged above it to form a ring. The beast's appearance was divine and the pressure it exuded was otherworldly, but it did not allow us to gape for long. Its gaze corporeally sought purpose as it crisply moved between us, and it flexed its muscled joints as it spoke.
"You impudent fools!" a masculine shout rang furiously through the canyon. "State your purpose in this remote land!"
My heart thumped against my chest with each syllable. "W-we were just here to check if-"
"If your transgressions were a success?!" he interrupted. "Are you cretins behind the murder of the Eon Twins?!"
"No! Of course not!" Leah exclaimed as defensively as she could in the face of such a powerful Pokemon.
"You dare lie to my face?!" he challenged, some of the lingering ashes gathering luminosity again and swirling with increased intensity at the boom of his voice.
I could feel the heat rising still. The arrogance of this eruptive newcomer might've found the traction to irritate us if we weren't so intimidated by his raw presence. It was all so sudden and so explosive that rational thought was unable to break through the fight or flight instinct that had me shook to the core. This was not going to end well if one of us didn't do something.
"I am aware of your involvement with Latios's demise, for I sensed your presence at Mystifying Forest!" he roared, making my heart drop in fear.
He thinks we're the ones who are turning Pokemon to stone?
"Woah, hol-"
He cut me off, not caring to hear. "And now you appear here at the site of his sibling's shared fate! Your carelessness shall be your end!" He reared up and howled into the afternoon sky, the sun's rays seeming to emanate from his proclamation. "I, Volcanion the Avenger, master of fire and water, shall arrange your meeting with the afterlife and put an end to this meddling!"
That didn't sound good.
The cardinal point of the ring sticking out of the beast's back loosened and then separated into two bulky, flexible appendages. They were both lowered towards us like cannons as they began collecting energy at the barrel, revealing their offensive purpose in an absurdly hostile gesture. The surrounding flames convulsed again, but this time into a compressed ball of pure thermal energy that grew from the tips of the pair of pumps. It was a declaration that no more words were to be shared, and that our fate was sealed. The yelling exchange had only lasted a few seconds and a fight had already begun to start. But what could we honestly have done against this legendary beast to deter him? What could we do now? We didn't even get to prepare for this!
I braced myself to leap out of the way, conceding that resistance was the only option, when the flow of time itself quite literally prevented me from carrying out the action.
A blue light brighter than Volcanion's flames materialized out of thin air in the middle of our misunderstanding, surprising everyone, and then pulsed in all directions. As my feet left the ground in my desperate dive out of the way, my momentum was manipulated and I was suspended in the air, unable to further affect my own movement and only able to watch in bewilderment. My airborne motion slowed to a point of near-stillness, and I immediately found it difficult even to form a single thought in a timely manner. It was as if time itself had truly slowed, and I was stuck watching my death in slow motion.
When the proportions of this happenstance were shattered by what emerged from the pulse of light, I couldn't have made sense of the situation even if my cranial processes weren't slowed to the rate of my inching leap. The Pokemon behind the ripple showed itself beneath the shining blue light, and I was able to catch some of its features as it magically appeared out of thin air. I caught sight of its swirling green head first before its tiny fairy-like wings quickly stole away my attention. Those beating wings, along with the rest of the newcomer's body, weren't affected by the slowness at all.
The benign being glanced once at Volcanion's attack, which had been released at the moment of its entry, and floated back a bit. Still moving at an average speed while the world around was drastically decelerated, the newcomer hummed in a notably feminine voice and held her hands out. A ball of pure green energy formed and grew substantially by absorbing the air around us. Letting the attack charge for what might've been a second to her and might've been a year to me, she snapped her fingers and let loose her own attack to intercept.
A snap of her fingers brought the end of the strangest experience I'd ever felt. I wasn't expecting the rate of time passing to return to normal with so little warning, and I fell flat on my face as though it had been flowing regularly all along.
Before I could hastily pick myself up off the ground, the eruption of two malignant forces colliding blasted my ear drums and sent a shock wave throughout the entire area. The energy ball's impact with Volcanion's attack had cancelled out its forward acceleration entirely, releasing massive amounts of energy in all directions instead of the direct destruction that the fireball was intended to inflict on its two targets.
Ears slightly ringing, my head shot up to gauge the threat, still unconvinced that the situation was anywhere near under control. The arduous effort led to my bearing witness of a divine standoff when the sight before me registered. The legendary Volcanion was staring down our tiny green savior; a furious glare of fire crossing the newcomer's icy challenge.
"Enough!" her echoing voice resounded through the area. It sang softly like a bell, but the underlying imposition was not easily missed by the opposition, as intended. "Volcanion autim mons igneus. You dare challenge these innocent souls for their motives at this cardinal scene, and yet you have no more place here than they!"
"Celebi! You- you coward!" the maroon giant snarled right back at her. "These two mettling ticks have been scouring the region all while this has been happening! Evidence clearly points to their involvement!"
The tiny green Pokemon gestured to make a hasty response, but the continuation of Volcanion's rant cut her off.
"Something is going on here, and we both know it! First the guardians' monuments disappear from Primeval Island, and then legendary Pokemon are being turned into stone! And then you! Where have you even-"
"In vita mea! I said enough!" Celebi commanded sternly, cutting off his blaring diatribe. She then floated down towards the ground, where both Leah and I were lying still and watching the bewildering scene before us with widened eyes. The fairy gestured to both of us, shooting Entei another icy glare of accusation. "We all want to know what's going on, and so do these two! Vobis fatuus, observe their badges and equipment! These are not enemies!"
Volcanion squinted his eyes to observe Leah and I closer than he had bothered to before, and what appeared to be reluctant recognition dawned on his face. He cleared his throat and mumbled a few unintelligible curses to himself, most of his aggressiveness mellowing into lukewarm disgruntlement.
"You- hmm," he grunted with pause. "You labor for the Expedition Society on the Water Continent, correct?"
Leah and I both stayed silent and still for an awkwardly long moment. The fact that we were being spoken to hadn't quite registered yet in light of the shock from what just went down.
"Might you be deaf?" Volcanion jeered at our lack of an immediate response, flexing the pumps on his back in riled impatience.
"Uhh..." I stammered, clearing my throat and collecting myself as much as possible. "Oh... yes, we're from the Expedition Society here on a mission. We were out here to investigate something that crashed, and... well..."
Everyone glanced at the stone statue of Latias, and I instantly felt awkward. So much had happened in the past few minutes that it was impossible to comprehend it all in one burst. All of us stared at the reason we were here for one big misunderstood situation to play out, and with no evident culprit present. This was going nowhere.
"Hmph. Celebi," Volcanion beckoned in a half-whispered tone with his eyes narrowed skeptically at us. "Might you be able to purify her?"
"Non pugnes. I have already tried with many victims before and made no progress," Celebi replied with a distressed shake of her head. "I assume that's why you had been looking for me?"
Volcanion grunted in affirmation, and then huffed as his impatience began to show its colors once again. "That is a massive letdown. But... if that is the case, and the culprit is also not here, then my presence serves no purpose."
He turned to give one final threatening glare at Leah and I, baring his teeth as he bid us an ill-tempered farewell.
"Heed my words, young explorers. You have escaped with your lives today, but I recommend that you do not test the boundaries of my patience. It is imperative that you do not involve yourselves further. This business is not for mortals."
The volcanic legendary didn't grant us a window to respond, not that we had anything to say anyway. He wasted no time clearing out after the last of his parting words were asserted, pointing his two cannons at the ground and blasting himself into the air using the force of the compressed water that was pumped out. He flew up and out of sight, showering us with mist residue from the water being sprayed through the air. The chill of the mist presented a fine aternative to the fiery death I had nearly been exposed to moments before, and I didn't think I had ever been that relieved to see anyone leave my line of sight.
The pressure partially lifting from the atmosphere from Volcanion's exit, I found my breath and shook my head, trying not to become overwhelmed by what had just happened. Leah did the same, blinking a few times and twitching her ears subconsciously. I had been holding my breath for what might have been the entirety of the encounter, and self-awareness of the fact burdened me to fill my lungs again.
"Quid faciam...?" Celebi muttered vigilantly under her breath, resting her hand under her chin to ponder the situation a bit herself.
She slowly floated over to Latias's remains, and Leah and I watched in silence as she attempted to perform some kind of process on the stone. She coating it in the same pulsing blue light from before, pouring her energy into the lifeless structure. After a minute passed with no noticeable results, she gave it up and exhaled in defeat. "Nihil operatur, est desperato..."
Leah took a hesitant step forward to talk to her. "Um... miss Celebi, was it?" she spoke up, getting the fairy's attention away from her unfruitful task. "What exactly is going on?"
"Oh! Pardon me," she acknowledged with a small bow of her head. "Yes, my name is Celebi. Who might you be, young explorers of the Expediton Society?"
"You really are Celebi?" Leah gaped with widened eyes, ignoring her question. "I-I've heard about you! You control the flow of time or something like that, right?"
"Well, I actually don't control it, silly," she corrected the daunted Fennekin with an obnoxious giggle. "It controls me!"
"Well it's uh... nice to meet you, I guess," I said rubbing the back of my head. "I'm Sage, and this is Leah. Thank you for saving us."
"Ah! It is my pleasure!" she beamed. "Despite his erratic self-indulgence, Volcanion hasn't always acted this aggressive. But..." She paused for a moment to sigh and lower her head. "...Unfortunately, the Pokemon of exceptional hierarchy have been ill at ease for the past year or so due to some unmanageable circumstances. And now this whole stone business has everyone blaming each other... sometimes I even wonder if I can trust some of those I associate with. It is durrisimos ut vivet."
Leah and I shared a nervous glance, and my heart dropped. Were things really this bad that even legendary Pokemon were becoming overwhelmed? It was bad enough that mythical beings were being targeted by whatever force was turning Pokemon to stone, but I had hoped someone would have a better handle on the situation.
Celebi's expression suddenly changed to stern again, and she frowned slightly as though something in the at the edge of her senses had caught her attention that we couldn't detect.
"I imagine you also bear your own burdens at this moment, but I fear I cannot spare the time for an extended chat. I have important matters to attend to," she said as she floated a few meters higher. She began to glow with the same blue light that had enveloped her arrival, and swayed her arms to extend from her sides.
"W-wait!" Leah exclaimed. "Where are you going?"
"To pursue a goal that hopefully aligns with yours, dearest friends from the Exploration Society. I have work to do." The light enveloped her entirely, and her silhouette gave a parting salute. "Optimus fortuna! Tell Jirachi I said hello!"
The light grew to a blinding potency, and I was forced to shield my eyes. When the glow died down, the mysterious individual had vanished. Just like that, our savior was gone.
The aftershock still remained as the blood rush of nearly being cooked alive finally began to die down. A full minute of silence would slither by before Leah finally turned to me to speak.
"Well... that was something."
I crossed my arms and nodded slowly. "Yep."
"...Hey Sage?"
"Yes, Leah?"
"I don't think I like this continent very much."
I shook my head and exhaled deeply. "We can definitely agree on that. Now come on, let's head back."
A full moon coated the ocean to allow us a bit of restless observation, perhaps for the sake of finding some distraction. But not even the rocking sway of Lapras's buoyant hold on the water's surface, nor its unpleasant effects on my partner, provided enough amusement for peace of mind. There wasn't anything out on the open water other than our vehicle anyway, who wasn't very talkative for extended periods of time. This was where thoughts and idle tasks reigned supreme. The body was drawn to unwind as much as possible while the mind would hopefully follow, but I knew that was a pipe dream. The clarity of completing our Society duties might have helped to filter the stress a bit, but there was still a whole lot to sleep on. Too much to handle at once.
In the darkness of night I scowled from within the grim aftershock of it all. What a ludicrous trap this whole thing had been. One quintessential journey across the sea was all it took to manifest the context of our plight, when we were really supposed to have been backtracking. Oh, sure, we had done what we came to do, and we even stayed the last day to help that damned village even after what happened in the Great Canyon. Their little irrelevant map was completed, and was even saved into the Nexus for the Society's use. We called Dedenne once we could get a signal and we got the hell out of there in sterling fashion. Now we were finally heading back and everything was supposed to be fine, except that it wasn't even in the neighborhood of fine.
All of these events didn't settle right with me. It was that same old disruptive feeling that something was amiss that had become familiar from my final days in Serene Village. Something else was going on here than just Pokemon being turned to stone, and nothing could convince me otherwise at this point. Never mind the defiance of the know laws of the universe. Never mind even the rumors and the reports that share minimal connection but line up perfectly. That was all just an anchor. What bothered me was the underlying intangibles, the whispers beneath the matter that had been turned rigid and lifeless. How does my own dilemma line up so well with all of this? How does a human get dropped into a Pokemon world that immediately begins to fall victim to a cataclysmic series of events that nobody can figure out the answer to? News of indiscriminate incidents in faraway lands was one thing, but witnessing two legendary beings fall from their rightful place in the sky right in front of my face was what I couldn't wrap my head around. The threats tossed my way from that scary encounter in that underground tomb suddenly didn't seem so empty. Coincidences were material of fantasy for me when the big picture showed its true colors, and right now everything was turning a stone-colored gray with no explanation.
I hated to admit it within myself, but I no longer saw any of this as perfectly mendable without some kind of lasting friction. These problems held purpose beyond what could be seen and controlled under law and order, and they clearly weren't just going to go away easily. Not with me around, at least. I knew that was the truth as soon as my obligation to look into this began to form on this introspective boat ride back to the Water Continent. Perhaps I had made a mistake by arguing Leah's urgency to investigate in the canyon; the mistake not being in a desire to stay safe, but rather in a decision to not try and attack the problem. Maybe I really was just cowering in the face of adversity, and my escapist mentality that favored longevity was only hindering my presence here in the long run. Because by the looks of it, my presence here may very well be directing the outcome of all of this. And that absolutely frightened me.
I needed to think about this for a moment... starting with that damned legendary that was inches from killing us. Volcanion was his name? Master of fire and water? He had claimed whatever all of this amounted to was no business for mortals, and I wasn't explicitly disagreeing with him. Just how out of hand was this getting that it would be this way?
I scowled again at the thought. Evidently things were bad enough to justify a massive fireball being tossed our way even though we didn't do anything wrong. What a load of bullshit that was.
And then there was that other Pokemon, the one who saved us with some kind of time-manipulation that was well out of my league of abilities. She... was a bit strange. Her shifty mood had been really unpredictable, and she didn't really give us much to go on besides her sideline confirmation that this stone business was no everyday violation. When she actually bothered to speak the common tongue, she had mentioned discord with "Pokemon of exceptional hierarchy", which could be easily assumed was another way to say 'legendary Pokemon'. That statement did not promise brighter days in any context, especially coming from a primary source.
I'd seen my first two legendary Pokemon with that encounter besides the likes of Jirachi, and I already didn't like their class. As cool and clutch as Celebi had been in that scary moment, sensibility made me pause and wonder if she would've intervened if we had not been Society members. Their attitude appeared to scream in the face of logic and morality in revolting fashion. Was this how most legendary Pokemon acted? Or were they truly just as overwhelmed as anyone by all of this? I was particularly put off by the failure of what could be seen as a granted defense against worldly disorder. I mean, how much can be taken for granted now that the gods themselves are supposedly shitting bricks? Perhaps I'd voice some of my concerns with Jirachi whenever I could catch him awake, since Celebi implied that they had met and were on friendly terms.
A discrete noise poked at my awareness and courted me back to where I was sitting on Lapras's shell. Leah shifted in place a few feet away, gingerly mumbling to herself in her comfortless stupor. I glanced at her and held my gaze. Her second time riding Lapras had been much less troubling for her so far, but mellow uneasiness still assembled in her features every time we swayed in the waves. With little else to do, I stared at her for a period of time lost to the wind and brooded over every experience we'd had. The strategies and games, the hugs and comfort, and even the arguments and disagreements. The good and bad times shared the forefront of my tiring mind, and coalesced into little maxims of how much I cared about her. She was my best friend, and she was still probably the only one I could trust completely. So then was I right to want to keep us away from all of this? Now with the imminent threat of turning to stone and the even bigger threat of some undisclosed plot looming over everything, I wasn't sure. Did I pursue where my answers likely sat waiting surrounded by unseen danger, or did I flee for safety's sake?
And where to flee? The encounter back in that underground tomb made me certain that conflict was inevitable, inviting all the mental preparation I could muster for what would certainly come. But now that it was happening, and I had seen it for myself, I simply didn't want to believe in it. Something malignant and absolute in nature was brewing, something big, and I wasn't sure if I was ready for it. I was still learning how this world worked, but this world wasn't willing to wait on me. Whoever those Beeheyem worked for, whatever was causing all of this, was throwing me into the fire and watching to see if I flourish or flounder. Confidence in myself and those around me wouldn't carry me far when my muscles and nervous pathways were morphed into rock... dammit, where was I going with this?
The sound of my sigh was conquered by the passing wind. Even after sleeping part of the day away on Lapras's back, I was still really tired. I was tired of the increasing uncertainty that the approaching future held, but tired from the fatigue as well. At this point I was resigned that I probably always would be; that was just part of working hard for a cause in life. Although I certainly loved what I was doing now for a living, it still would've been nice to not have all of these misgivings nipping at my tail. The anxiety wasn't helping me get any shut eye, especially since I had a bad tendency to roll off on doubt-ridden tangents like I was doing at the moment.
I consciously blinked in the moonlight, dryly submitting to my own self-awareness. I was too exhausted to be doing this, and we probably weren't far from Lively Town sailing at this rate. So for my own sake I let my doubts trail off with their temporary victory fading into irrelevancy, and I found time to capture some of the vital sleep I had been missing while I still could.
Blissful solitude took the form of a catnap that would last only a couple of hours. It ended when I felt a paw prod my shoulder to draw my mind out of sleep mode. A second nudge succeeded to make me open my eyes halfway to look up at the sky, and a sharper third quickly prevented me from closing them again right before I was able to.
"Time to wake up," Leah whispered as she groggily retracted her paw, lucidly still in the process of waking up herself. "We're here."
I could already detect the patented humidity settling over my exposed backside. The sound of waves beating irregularly against the bank as well as the stocks raising the port coordinated with the sound of the wind that had followed us. Four of my senses indicated that our journey was complete, with sight soon to follow. I grunted and raised my head, the lack of an elongated sleep contesting my attempt to move and acutely confirm our arrival back.
Before me I observed the nighttime ghost of a civilization typically bustling with life, now as barren as could be. It was exactly like returning from the mission with Team Carbon a couple weeks back, only this time not even the nocturnal Pokemon were showing their faces. I stretched my legs as I mindlessly observed what little there was to look at under the illuminating lampposts, and then hopped off of Lapras onto Water Continent land once more. Leah did the same, stumbling a bit, and then performing the same 'kissing the ground' ritual she had done after her first agonizing voyage.
"Haah," she yawned. "I am so happy to be back. I missed this place."
Our voices sounded intrusive on the silence that had settled once we moved into the town and farther from the restless ocean, but I didn't mind. It had all been getting to my head anyway.
"Me too," I mumbled in agreement.
A few more seconds of walking in silence passed before Leah asked, "Do you think they've figured something out from what Archen brought back?"
I mulled over the question as we approached the door to the headquarters, starting my answer with a loose shrug. "I dunno. We'll have to find out, probably in the morning since I doubt anyone is up this late."
"True," my companion murmured, glancing up at the moon as I fiddled with the door lock. "What time do you think it is?"
"Too late to be awake," was the curt answer I gave as the lock finally conceded and I began to walk inside. "I don't know about you, but I'm headed straight to be-"
"Team Prism!" I heard the familiar voice of the chief holler out to us. He was sitting on the floor of the lobby for whatever reason, with a moderate collection of illustrations and documents messily spread out before him. The orbs on his tail and forehead were lit up for the purpose of viewing the makeshift setup, and he held what looked like a mug of coffee in his hand as he glazed over his work.
I rubbed my eyes and tentatively narrowed them. "Chief, uh, what are you doing?"
"Why, I'm working! I was just waiting down here for your return," He smiled at us lethargically, a mixture of welcoming and enervation composing his expression. There were bags under his eyes, but he looked to not mind the exhaustion one bit despite how it tried to dominate his middle-aged features.
"Do you want a chair or something?" Leah asked curiously.
Ampharos just chuckled. "I'm afraid not. Chairs are for the weak! Anyway, Dedenne received the message you sent from Barem Town on your way back, relayed it to me. By the sound of it, you have quite a story to tell."
Leah absently nodded her head a few times. I just rubbed my shoulder and nodded once with a drawn-out yawn.
Ampharos took notice of our debilitated state right away and beckoned us to our room. "But go on, go on to bed. You can tell me about tomorrow when you've rested."
"What about you? Aren't you tired too?" Leah asked him offhandedly, already heading in that direction with me not far behind.
"Oh, I'll be fine," he waved us off. "Sleep will come when responsibility is fulfilled."
The brief exchange ended with that as Ampharos went back to whatever it was he was doing. It was a little weird that he was trying to do his paperwork on the uncomfortable floor instead of his office where he had a chair and a desk, but I didn't pay it any mind. I wasn't puzzling over anything insignificant like that now that we were back. I just wanted to lay down and rest.
My feet carried me through the doorway curtain and to my bed, where I retired once more and embraced the thought of sleep.
"Our trip didn't exactly go the way I thought it would," Leah whispered in the darkness as I heard her settling into her own bed. "But at least we're back now."
"In one piece," I sleepily added.
"Yeah..." she said, going silent for a moment before speaking up again. "You know, we finally got to visit another continent. In some ways that part was pretty cool."
"That's true," I replied softly. "But I still think this continent is better."
"I do too," she admitted after giving it a second of thought. "I've always wanted to leave the Water Continent and explore the world, but finally getting the chance to do it really makes me appreciate what I have here."
I shifted in place to find a comfortable position to face my partner, who was staring at the ceiling in the luminescence filtering through the window.
"I kinda missed this place even though we were only gone for two weeks," she continued. "Hopefully we won't get assigned somewhere else for a while."
"Depends on how this whole stone business plays out," I sighed. "Something tells me we aren't gonna be taking many breaks any time soon."
"Mhm," she mumbled in an acquiescent tone. "Hey... by the way, I'm sorry for yelling at you before..."
"Hm? You mean in the canyon?"
"Yeah."
"Oh," I whispered in a genuine tone. "Yeah, I'm sorry about that too. And also for by the lake... Look, it's no big deal. We're gonna disagree from time to time, and that was a pretty pressing situation anyway. No need to feel bad about it."
"That's part of the problem though," she responded. "It was a pressing situation and I made the wrong decision."
"What do you mean?" In the dark room I squinted my eyes in bemusement.
"Well, we'd be dead if not for that Celebi," Leah presented. "We could've avoided all that by just walking away as soon as we saw the ashes. You were right."
"But then we never would've gotten the information about the legendary Pokemon," I countered. "I... I guess that's a situation where nobody was really right or wrong. If I were you, I just wouldn't overthink it."
I capped off my downplay with a defeated yawn. I was soon gonna pass out talking like this.
"Alright," Leah whispered. "I just wanted you to know that I couldn't be doing this without you. You're smart, and you hold me up. Even when we disagree on something."
"...I will." My voice was muffled by the clump of feathers that my nose was pressing into. The silence around me was slipping into the peaceful haze of sleep, with only my own breathing sounding coherent.
\\\\\
Waking up wasn't fun. Fortunately, Ampharos let us sleep in until noon because of our late arrival, or else there would've been a problem. I'm not sure how I'd have managed getting up for morning announcements after the lackluster amount of sleep we got. It was fabulously appealing sleep, but I would've killed for more. Leah and some of the other early birds thought it was funny how much I hated mornings, but I didn't find it very amusing. Would I ever get used to this?
Alas, Ampharos had coined it best when he was busy working on the floor the night previous. "Sleep will come when responsibility is fulfilled" when you work at the Expedition Society. And right now, our 'responsibility' was to tell Archen about the bludgeoned lifespan of his favorite toy.
"My blood, sweat, and tears!" the flightless bird exclaimed, clutching his head in anguish about the news. He turned to us and angrily gestured to his incapacitated wings. "How am I supposed to fly now, huh?"
The loud sound of biting and chewing a few feet away interrupted his tirade. Jirachi was hovering over by the window of the main Nexus room that we were hanging out in, eating an apple and observing the situation. "You know," he incoherently jabbered. "I'm the one who built it for you, so it's not building like another glider would be any sort of issue. I am a genius after all."
"Ugh, I suppose..." Archen complied, hanging his head a bit and then turning back to Leah and I. "Just... please don't break my stuff again. Please. If I couldn't fly, th-then I'd lose my job here."
Jirachi began cracking up while hovering in place. "No you wouldn't you dolt! You worry too much man!"
"Ampharos doesn't seem like the type to kick you out for someone else breaking your stuff," Leah chuckled.
"I guess not... but still... that thing was my baby..."
"Your baby? Didn't I just remind you that I'm the one who built it?" Jirachi chimed in.
I was in the process of excusing myself from the pointless turn this conversation had taken when Mawile appeared from the hallway and graciously saved me the effort. She was looking a bit better than she had when I'd last seen her two weeks prior, evidently improving her sleep schedule to some extent. But similar to Ampharos, the bags under her eyes remained as a badge to her arduous research that occasionally dragged long into the night.
"Ampharos wants to see the three of us in his office to discuss things," she beckoned, turning back around as soon as she finished and expecting us to follow.
"Alright," I called after her, turning to my partner. I tapped on her shoulder to draw her attention, who dubiously looked away from a disgruntled Archen. I pointed towards the hallway, and then nodded before headed after Mawile.
Ampharos's door was already wide open as we walked down the hallway and through. The chief was studying a map of the world that was plastered to a pegboard on the wall, with various sticky notes tacked in specific places. Some of the tacks had strings wrapped around them that connected them in certain ways and formed a sort of diagram. All of it appeared to be designed as an overview for the operation, with "Project Chisel" scribbled in big red letters on an unused section of ocean towards the top of the map. Upon closer inspection, each note appeared to cite a specific incident that happened at the location on the map it was pinned to. The recorded dates of these incidents were also noted, some of the earliest ones being a few months before the present day. I stared at them solemnly; that was right around the estimated time that I had entered this world.
"Like my board?" Ampharos quipped, amused by the pause I had taken to look over it. "We've been trying to use it to find some sort of pattern to all of these unfortunate homicides."
"You've been hard at work trying to solve this, haven't you?" Leah remarked as she glanced over it, sounding impressed.
"A little too hard sometimes," Mawile told Ampharos with mild disapproval in her tone. "I found you passed out on the first floor this morning with all your stuff spread out."
"Ah... yes," he said with some form of recognition, rubbing the back of his head. "I suppose that wasn't very eloquent of me. But-" He paused in his speech so he could strike his signature pose. "Duty calls!"
He broke the pose and then looked over Leah and I. "And that is why you two are here. You are going to report how your mission went beyond the summarized details you sent Dedenne yesterday morning." He stopped to clear his throat and rub the orb on his forehead. "But before you do that, I wanted to officially incorporate you into-" He stopped and flamboyantly posed again. "Project Chisel!"
Leah's eyes widened. "Really?"
Ampharos nodded and smiled.
Leah turned to me, excitement in her expression. "This is awesome! Oh, Mincinno's team is gonna be so jealous." She was radiating enthusiasm as she bounced in place.
"Now, now, calm down," Mawile giggled. "We're actually initiating the mission for everyone, not just you two. You see, I've finally developed a few theories about what might be causing these disasters, but none of them have been solid until recently," Mawile answered. "The evidence you brought back from the scene was the catalyst to what I think could be our answer."
My eyes widened. "You think you might know what's doing this?"
"I think I might know who's doing this," Mawile corrected with a smile. "This past week I was able to inspect the composition of the stone remains of several victims on a microscopic scale. The individual results all displayed enough consistencies between them to begin developing theories as to exactly how their bodies were transformed into stone. After hours of inspection and laborious thought, I came up with this."
Mawile produced an olive-brown portfolio that was chock full of documents and drabbles. She flicked through a few of the tabs before stopping on a particular one, grasping a folded up parchment to draw it out. She unraveled it and clipped it to the top of Ampharos's board to cover his map and give us a good viewing angle. Displayed before me was detailed illustrations of different Pokemon, about a dozen of them in total, all with fine-print descriptions added to them to provide background information. By the looks of it, all of them were fire-type Pokemon, and I might've taken the time to study each one if one of them didn't catch my eye right away.
Right in the middle of the banner was the printed figure of a beast that would've been foreign to me before a couple of days ago. Volcanion's drawing didn't perfectly capture the ferociousness of seeing him face to face, but the bodily elements made it unmistakably him.
"Now this-" she began, stepping back so we could all view it from an equal distance. "-is a display of various Pokemon that have been recorded to dwell and flourish in volcanic habitats. Some on here might look familiar to you, like Vulpix and Quilava. Others like Turtonator and Camerupt aren't so common."
"Why is this important?" Leah questioned, tilting her head slightly.
Mawile grinned with heavy conviction, apparently enjoying her stint getting to play detective. "This is important because the molecular composition of the victims was profoundly similar to that of igneous rock." She picked up a ruler that was laying on Ampharos's desk and slapped the end of it onto the banner for emphasis. "Now, there are many Pokemon that can cause this kind of chemical reaction with organic matter, small or large, and some of them are shown here. But when we took carbon samples of the ashes that you gathered and compared it to the molecular data of the victims, I came to the conclusion that some kind of near-instant-cooling process must've been involved after the heat was applied."
"Wait a second," I interrupted, holding up my hands. "You think the culprit is cooking the victims alive and then instantly cooling them to form stone?"
Mawile fiddled with the ruler in her hands. "Something along those lines. Unfortunately, the hard part is figuring out what kind of Pokemon is doing it. I was hoping this chart would help, but the only Pokemon who would fit the scientific theory to pull this off would be the legendary Steam Pokemon, who supposedly hasn't been seen for decades." She gazed at Leah and I interrogatively. "Would you two have any idea on a lead based off of this information? You witnessed Latios's fall, after all."
I blinked.
There's no way... is it really Volcanion behind all of this? Were we actually face to face with the culprit?
Even though I'd already begun to piece together the conjecture in my head, my heart still skipped a beat when Mawile pressed her ruler at the Pokemon she was referring to. The tip of the ruler sat right on the crude drawing of Volcanion's head, right on his nose. She had precisely confirmed what I was thinking, and the knowing glance I shared with Leah a moment later proved that we were both on the same page.
"Yes. I think we've got a pretty good idea," I spoke up, unsure whether to be enthralled at the revelation or tremble in fear at what was to come.