Ever since that fateful day where the interpol first met each other for real and the five of us found each other, certain things had changed as well. For one, I had been assigned to research and investigate Kanto's Legendary Birds, to find a way to enter their nests and summon them back as stated in the ancient records but which methods had been left blank. It may be simply lost to the sands of time or it may have been omitted on purpose, but that that isn't the point. The point is whether I can piece out the missing information, help Indigo find a way to enter the nests of the Winged Mirages, and summon them back to their nests at the same time.

Thankfully, I managed to fill in the missing blanks after several sleepless nights. It's partly thanks to my foreknowledge that I am able to do so, but nobody other than my fellow reincarnators would know that. What is important is that I now found out the way to reach the nests of each legendary bird. From what I found, apparently, finding the way to enter their nests is the same as summoning them back, which makes things a lot simpler on our end.

For my fellow reincarnators, there are other things that have happened on their end as well. The largest find was on Velda's side, because she managed to locate our Flier shortly after the five of us found each other. Her name is Skye Bale, and right now she is Falkner's little sister and a Ranger of Johto's 1st Ranger Regiment. We still haven't managed to find Shadow nor does Skye have the answers we seek, on why we were all brought here into this world, but it is reassuring to have found another one like us.

When I had confirmed and piece out the method needed to reach the respective nests of each legendary bird, I had immediately gone to inform Looker and Volkner of my findings, who in turn informed Lance. Their final verdict was for us to immediately investigate the three nests because on Indigo's end, it is too hard to accurately determine three individuals which they can fully trust, have the time to embark on such a sensitive and dangerous mission, and have the needed skills to venture into the areas where the Winged Mirages made their nests. Even with the comprehensive list of spies Lance now have thanks to our informant, there is no guarantee that the list is complete. There might be other sleeper agents that the informant never knew about. The interpol members, however, definitely have at least three individuals who fulfil all three criterias above, so we were sent for the job.

Velda had gone to the Power Plant to locate Zapdos. Her job is arguably the easiest out of the three of us because the Power Plant wasn't where Zapdos originally made its nest. Hence, Velda has no need to solve the mysterious puzzle if she is simply there to check its new nest at the Power Plant and from there, determine if Zapdos is currently around in the Kanto region. She would only need to solve the puzzle to summon Zapdos back to Kanto if it is obvious that Zapdos had not been roosting at the Power Plant for a very long period of time.

Akamu had headed for Victory Road to seek out Moltres. His mission is arguably the most dangerous out of the three because the area which Moltres had made its nest in Victory Road is the home to many powerful and ferocious wild pokemon. It will be dangerous for anyone not on the level of a Pillar to try and navigate their way inwards to reach Moltres' nest, but this is Akamu we are talking about. He is someone who had been pursued by Ultra Beasts for close to two decades before Mary invented the Faller Cloaking Device. He had been living alongside danger ever since he was dropped into this world. He is the most suited person to go check on Moltres' nest and see if the fire type is around in Kanto.

I am here at Seafoam Islands to find Articuno, which is also the coldest area in Kanto. This is also officially my first time in the Kanto region.

My very first impression of the region is that Kanto is a land full of mountains and flat plains, the perfect environment for rock and ground types. The skies look a lot more vast in this region simply because there's not a lot of things that can obstruct the view, especially when you are in the flatter areas.

'So of all places we have to go explore, you chose to head to the one and only coldest places in the entire region? I'm freezing here! Le Porion hates the cold!'

'I wrapped you up with a scarf, so stop being so dramatic.'

Right beside me are Berg and Sail, who are accompanying me as we ventured down into the bowels of the Seafoam Islands, a place made inaccessible to anyone that is not an Elite trainer of Kanto and the law was further enforced by the local Rangers. The reason for this is simple. This place is simply that dangerous and the Indigo League does not want to deal with needless casualties all because of foolish trainers overestimating their capabilities.

Under normal circumstances I would not be allowed to venture so deep into a restricted place like this, but I have permission from Lance himself. I am so going to abuse this privilege for as long as I can and fully explore this place to my heart's content.

The caves of Seafoam Islands are entirely frozen within and are dotted with many large boulders. There are only two ways to get past them. Either you destroy the boulders completely, or you push them around with your pokemon's help. The first method, however, usually takes too much effort, so the second option is the more popular one out of the two.

I mean, when you have a pokemon like a mamoswine on your team, pushing away a big boulder is like having a puppy casually kicking a tennis ball around. It's not much of a hassle.

'Human, ye Lord is not pleased with this place. I order thee to leave, now.'

'Then do something to help rather than to complain. The sooner we can confirm Articuno's status, the sooner we can leave.'

'Oh come on, I have to deal with another flappy bird? An ice type at that?'

'If you are not helping then keep quiet, I have to concentrate.' I replied as I stood in front of a forked path with three- no, five different possible directions that I could search. The caves of Seafoam Islands is a gigantic labyrinth in itself. Even after so long since Indigo's founding, nobody could have claimed to have fully explored Seafoam Islands and ventured to the deepest part of it where Articuno is said to roost. This is partly attributable to the network of maze within the island, and also partly attributable to the sheer number of dangerous ice types making their homes here. The deeper you are within the Seafoam Islands, the colder the temperature. Powerful ice types love to make their homes in places with the coldest temperatures possible, which means the more powerful ones are always found deeper within Seafoam Islands nearer to where Articuno's supposed nest is.

I adjusted the scarf worn around my neck to cover the bottom half of my face, my hands holding onto a heat pack that I brought along for the very purpose of exploring the Seafoam Islands. Berg stood a little closer to me in an attempt to use his body heat to warm me up somehow as Sail continued to sing a merry tune, happy to come to a freezing place like this.

Now, here comes the million dollar question. Which direction should I take?

'Blob. Now is the time to make yourself useful.'

'Don't order me around, human!'

'Oh, right, allow me to rephrase myself. Please make yourself useful.'

'Le Porion will not be swayed by the wishes of mortals!'

'We are not going back to the surface until we find concrete facts that Articuno is alright and is currently in the Kanto region.'

'You- argh! Fine!' Blob grumbled before going silent for a few seconds. He gave me an answer soon enough.

'Second one from the left, it leads deeper into the island as compared to the rest. If you want to find the ice bird, that's your best bet.'

'Thank you.'

'Hmph.'

The path Blob pointed us on soon leads up to a steep narrow slope downwards, almost like a slide with how slippery the ice path is. Any wild pokemon that wandered too close, Berg will send them running with a Roar. If they still want to stay and fight, Berg and Sail are strong enough to put them down. Even if they aren't, I still have an entire team with me.

'Cold! Too cold! It's freezing cold in here and Le Porion hates it!'

I stuffed another heat pack into the pocket where Blob is taking residence in, shutting him up for a moment.

'Hot! Hot hot hot hot hot! Too hot! What is this abomination that emits heat as scorching as the sun?! Too hot! Take it away from me!'

I simply rolled my eyes and ignored Blob as we continued to make our way downwards.


'Can someone tell me again how is the water here not frozen solid?'

I don't know how deep we had ventured into the Seafoam Islands, only that we are very deep in. In any case, we had gotten so deep that we found a very large water body in the depths of Seafoam Islands. The currents of the water here are so strong and chaotic that simply by watching it gives me goosebumps. The roar of water is loud enough that it could probably drown me out no matter how loud I screamed. The temperature here is absolutely freezing and I had long since hidden myself in Berg's thick fur, riding on his back to keep myself warm.

There are small spits of land jutting out from the water surface across the big lake (?) within the caves of the Seafoam Islands. I don't see any way further down so I really hope that we are at the deepest level, which would mean that we are very close to Articuno's nest.

Sail tried using her ice type techniques to freeze the water solid so as to create a path for us to cross over the water body, only for it to fail when the ice simply cracked under the pressure and force of the water currents beneath. I have no idea if this is natural physics or pokemon logic at work, but I do know that we cannot possibly cross the waters using conventional methods. Even Seis, my whiscash, wouldn't be able to push through the ferocious torrent of water raging about here. We will be promptly swept away the moment we tried to surf across it.

Berg had seemingly come to the same conclusion as I did, for he had already begun to move the earth beneath his feet to create a makeshift bridge to connect the piece of land that we are standing on to the next nearest one. Once we are sure that our makeshift bridge is sturdy enough to handle our weight, Berg slowly lumbered his way over to the next piece of land. We repeated the process over and over again as we crossed from one small piece of land to the next, finally reaching a large and deep cavern that I am sure has to be the entrance of Articuno's nest.

As to why I am so sure? Not only is there a huge ancient emblem of what is unmistakably Articuno carved into a large ice wall right in the middle of the cavern, there are feathers littered around the area, feathers that look as though they are made of thin sheets of ice but yet felt like real feathers. These have to belong to Articuno and they are really beautiful.

'Since we established that the ice bird is not around, can we get a move on?'

'We need to solve the puzzle and enter Articuno's nest in order to properly check on it, and two, summon it back here if it is obvious that it hasn't been around for a long time. This is merely the entrance.' I reminded Blob as I looked around for clues while pocketing a handful of these priceless feathers in my pocket. I have no doubt that the researchers back at Olivine would want to study these, especially Shannon.

And yes, puzzle. The investigations that I had conducted on the Legendary Birds and Zapmolticuno had led me to believe that there is indeed a proper way to enter their respective nests and summon them back to it, which is by solving a very specific puzzle right at the entrance of their nests. The parchment the former leaders of SKIP gave me held a secret that I managed to decipher only very recently, that the Legendary Birds once made a pact with a very ancient tribe to protect Kanto. Seafoam Islands, the area near Rock Tunnel at Route 10 where Kanto Power Plant would eventually be built centuries later, Victory Road, these are the three places where the ancient tribe had built the nests for Kanto's Legendary Birds.

The nests each hold a specific puzzle that serves two functions. For one, It enables whoever that manages to solve the puzzle to properly enter the nests of the birds. Secondly, doing so will also alert the Legendary Birds to come back to their nest no matter how far away they may be when the respective puzzles are solved, that was what I had found out.

"Spark your instinct, call down the storms atop Mt Thunder to strike what most defies all sense of your reason. Prove your valour, consume the fire of victory into your heart to fuel your strength. Show your worth to the Mystics, tame the chaotic flow with your wisdom. Instinct, Valour, Mystic. When the forces of trinity are united, the Winged Mirages will then be truly born, and none will be able to stop them from conquering the skies."

That is the riddle-like puzzle which I managed to piece out after many sleepless nights. It's not very helpful in explaining exactly what the puzzles are, but it is something we can at least work with. I can only hope that Velda and Akamu can solve their respective riddles and puzzles on their end because right here, I'm cracking my head trying to figure out the piece of the puzzle that is related to Articuno.

I soon found what I think is the puzzle. Scattered right across the floor of the cavern are mechanical switches about as big as Berg. The switches looked really old and ancient, and it is obvious that they had been made centuries ago. They can be easily depressed when stepped on but the moment we stepped away, they popped back up. Not only that, every single time the switch is depressed, something would rise up from the waters and block the flow of water in certain key areas, acting very much like a dam. Those dam-like structures helped to tame the flow of the raging currents a little, making it now possible to surf across it should we want to.

Problem is, the switches have to be constantly be pressed on for the dams to stay there. Stepping on them is not a permanent solution in order to help us solve the puzzle.

For someone who had once played the FireRed LeafGreen games a long long time ago, these switches certainly do work in a way that is very familiar to me. It couldn't be, right? Or could it? The riddle did say Show your worth to the Mystics, tame the chaotic flow with your wisdom. In our case, could the chaotic flow refer to the raging waters right here? So if I managed to find a way to calm the waters through using the switches present to control its flow, the puzzle will be solved, is that it?

Only one way to find out.

"Berg, Sail, raise a big boulder and then push it on top of the switches. Find every last switch you can locate and do the same."

Because if these switches really do work as I remembered them to be in the games that I had once played in my previous life…

It didn't take long for Berg and Sail to do as I asked and when we finally put a boulder on the very last switch we found, the waters calmed immediately and the entire cavern shook for a moment. However, nothing else happened even when we waited. Maybe Articuno is currently too far away from Kanto to make it back immediately?

'I don't think ice wings is coming back.'

'We only just solved the puzzle. Maybe it is just too far away to make it back right away.'

'No, I don't think so. Le Porion just sensed something different. To our right. Walk to our right.'

I did as Blob asked and soon enough, we found an entrance to another cave in a wall that wasn't there previously. This has to be the real entrance that leads to Articuno's nest. How on earth did we miss that? How was something so obvious and big hidden from us while we were mulling about trying to solve the puzzle?

Sometimes, ancient technology in this world is really something to marvel at. I could still remember how I first found the stone tablet that would irreversibly change my life and understanding of the world. Either that was mysterious ancient technology at work, or some super powerful pokemon had created that mysterious space that only I could enter like what Blob assumed it to be.

'Look, human. Tell me what is wrong.'

My eyes widened at the sight the moment we entered the area where Articuno's nest is. Right in there is a gigantic nest of ice, one bigger than what I could have ever imagined. That is not all. What got me alarmed are the obvious signs of a huge battle having taken place here and it has to be recent. Blood was splattered all around the area and gigantic ice structures dotted the place we were in. Someone had been here recently. Someone had beaten me and the Indigo to the punch and reached Articuno even before we did.

Blob hopped out of my pocket and began to survey the place, still wrapped up in the red scarf I had given him to keep him warm. Berg and Sail accompanied me as I examined the scene as well. Whoever Articuno was fighting against, it couldn't have been a single person. A large group was obviously here, a group that is most likely assembled for the sole purpose of capturing Articuno.

Problem is, who was the victor of the battle?

'Human? We have a problem.'

'I can tell.' I snarked back as I continued to examine the scene, desperately trying to find clues that might reveal to me if Articuno is indeed safe.

'Ice wings lost, I am sure. That bird must have already been captured.'

'How? How did you know?' I looked up to face Blob, alarmed.

'I am the embodiment of the earth, I am earth itself. All I had to do was to ask the earth what had happened here and I will know.' Blob told me, his voice uncharacteristically grave and serious. 'It is not a power that I can use often in this pathetic state but this situation warranted such an action. I had asked, and the earth had replied. The ice bird lost and was captured by the men in black, the ones who you refer to as Team Rocket.'

My heart dropped. This is really the worst case scenario.

'I know what you are feeling right now.' Blob said as he hopped back to me and climbed on top of my shoulder. 'But not all is lost yet. Maybe Zapdos and Moltres are still free and about. In any case, you still haven't forgotten our other purpose for coming to Kanto, have you?'

'Find the rest of your missing Cells.'

'Exactly. Even at 10%, I am still a formidable foe for any other Legendary pokemon. I had promised you to lend you my power to protect the balance of the world. Le Porion is not going to sit back and watch any longer, Le Porion will act as my duty as Overseer dictates. I will take action but first, I need your help to find my missing Cells. Leave the investigation of sparky bird and burning bird to the other two. For now, we need to make haste in collecting my Cells to prepare for the very worst possible scenario.'

'For once, you are very persuasive.' I admitted before capturing the scene before us using my holocaster. There is no network or signal so deep into the islands, I will have to exit the Seafoam Islands and report this back to Volkner and Looker ASAP. The Indigo League will need to know and prepare themselves for this. Articuno. Team Rocket had actually done the impossible and captured Articuno.

Mewtwo and Articuno. This is a very disastrous situation we have in our hands.

'Is there any other things you can tell me about what happened here?'

'Unfortunately, my power in this state is severely lacking and limited. Whatever Le Porion just told you was the best I could do.'

'I see, thanks. So where are we going next to find your Cells?'

'About that…'


"Of all places, why here?"

'How would I know? Ask my Cells!'

After I got out of the Seafoam Islands and there is finally a usable network connection that I can use to relay to Volkner and Looker about what we had found out at the Seafoam Islands, I made haste to help Blob find his Cells.

As it turns out, Blob's Cells are located at a place that is infested with digletts and dugtrios. The Diglett's Cave, a place where only the diglett species can be found and where they made their gigantic burrow here. You could take a pebble, throw it in any random direction, and your pebble will hit on a diglett or a dugtrio somehow. That is how infested this place is.

Rumble made a low rumbling sound from his little throat before jumping forward, tackling a diglett down, only for the diglett to quickly duck back underneath the ground to make his escape.

"Rumble, come back here. We don't want to anger the entire horde." I said and gestured for the youngest member on my team to return to my side. My entire team is already out of their pokeballs, eyeing the place warily. We are deep in diglett territory and while this species of pokemon isn't all that special or particularly strong on its own, facing an entire nest of them in their territory is a terrifying thing to behold.

Especially if they have the Arena Trap ability. God, that is one annoying ability to be on the receiving end of.

"Alright, you guys know the drill. Roar!"

As one, the members of my team who can use this move bellowed out loud as the effects of the Roar took effect. Many of the younger and weaker diglett and dugtrio fled the moment this move was used, but the stronger dugtrios took it as a sign of challenge.

Yeah, turns out game logic isn't fully applicable in real life. Roar is only useful when the opposing team is afraid of you.

'Hurry and locate your Cells, Blob. We don't have all day and there's no way we can last for too long.'

'I'm already on it. Sheesh, what kind of subjects rush their Lord to do things and order them around?'

Seis took the initiative and started out with a Surf, forcing many of the dugtrios to get out of our way or go into hiding if they didn't want to drown. A few managed to brave through it somehow and I spotted a variety of attacks coming our way. I clicked my tongue when I spotted Tri Attack mixed within that salvo. That particular move is a real pain to deal with sometimes.

"Vision!"

My claydol raised psychic barriers to help us weather through the storm of attacks coming our way. A number of dugtrios had begun to shake the earth with Magnitude or Earthquake but their actions were swiftly countered by us when my ground types wrestled the control of the earth away from them by force.

I would give them an A for effort, but trying to do us in with ground type techniques is laughable when you are not on the same level as us.

My eyes spotted Rumble eagerly joining the frontlines. Unlike the time when we were in the Tower of Mastery, Rumble is a lot stronger now. He can hold his own in a battle like this. In fact, I'm expecting him to evolve very soon. The bigger jaws, stronger hindlegs, growth of protruding ridges on his back, the gradual change in shine and colour of his scales, every part of his body is starting to change and hinting towards the idea of an imminent evolution. When I first captured him back in Kalos, I had expected him to be a krookodile by now, but his growth rate had slowed down considerably all of a sudden ever since we went to Unova. That doesn't mean that Rumble isn't growing, but it's more like he's purposely amassing the power stored within him and waiting to evolve at a much later time instead of doing so immediately. I have no idea why he is doing this on purpose, but I believe in him and there's probably a very good reason why he chose this method.

Or maybe it's because Rumble is one of the rare breeds of sandiles with the Moxie ability. There are cases where a pokemon having a different innate ability from their peers affects their growth rate directly, especially when it comes to evolution. Maybe I should ask Shannon the next time I see her? She would know a thing or two when it comes to Pokemon Evolution.

'I located them! All the way inside!'

"All the way INSIDE?!"

It wasn't just me, even my entire team shot Blob dirty looks that screamed bodily harm when Blob very haughtily informed us where his Cells were. Great. Now we have to fight through the entire wave of dugtrios to reach his Cells. We have no choice but to really anger the entire horde this time, something which we are not keen on doing at all.

"Couldn't you like, I don't know, call them here instead?" I grumbled while continuing to bark orders at my team as we pushed onwards. I'm not sure if I should be glad that no other trainers are in the depths of the Diglett's Cave today at this time. I'm pretty sure nobody would be happy to get caught up in our mess right now.

'Call them here and let them end up being minced meat?' Blob scoffed as he gestured to the mayhem ahead. Well, he has a point. His Cells have close to zero fighting power, that much I know.

"Blizzard!"

With a single move, Berg and Sail disabled a large portion of the dugtrio army that we were facing and temporarily encased them in ice, buying us precious time to quickly move deeper into the infested nest that is the Diglett's Cave.

"Hurry and lead the way, Blob!"

'Just keep going ahead!'

We ran as fast as we could, not at all interested in having a drawn out battle against an entire nest of digglets and dugtrios. I lost count on how many twists and turns that we have to make and how many different tunnels I have spotted within the cave. Who knows where the digglets and dugtrios burrow to in their spare time? I wouldn't be surprised if one of these tunnels lead us back to Johto somehow.

'We are here!'

Blob's telepathic voice caught our attention and true enough, we spotted a bunch of Cells squirming their way out from one of the countless small holes within the Diglett's Cave. Without further ado, I took out the Cube from my pocket and quickly let them crawl their way in. The only good thing is that for some reason, we had somehow left the pursuing horde of dugtrios so far behind that it would take them a while to catch up to us. Like this, their Arena Trap ability has temporarily lost effect until we are in their range once more.

We need to make our escape before they catch us with their Arena Trap again.

"We are done here! Vision!"

My claydol got the cue as it immediately gathered a huge amount of psychic energy in an instant, ready to teleport us out before the dugtrios arrive and trap us in with their annoying Arena Trap ability. A blink later, we are out, the sight of Kanto's blue skies greeting us instead of the dreary dark and damp cave we were in earlier.

"That, is the last time I would ever want to be there."

My pokemon all grunted out their various agreements. Glad to see that we all think the same.

I felt a tug at my jeans and I turned around.

"Yes, Rumble?"

Rumble made a deep rumbling sound from his throat. This time, sounding a lot different than usual. I panicked for a second, worrying that he might have sustained some major injury that I did not notice while we were charging through the Diglett's Cave earlier until he glowed.

Evolution.

It's been a long time since I saw any of my pokemon evolve, but seeing it again with my own eyes after so long still made me feel the same magical feeling as when I had seen it the first time as a child. I watched as right before my very eyes, Rumble grew larger and larger and started to stand on his hindlegs, his forearms growing longer and his snout getting larger and more elongated. Soon, the light died down and a krokorok stood in front of us, letting out a happy roar.

'Oh great, the little snapper grew to be an even bigger snapper.'

I couldn't bring myself to care about Blob's words or berate him for his attitude. All I remembered was me giving Rumble a big hug as my entire team huddled around us, cheering for Rumble's growth to a krokorok.

Rumble's evolution is like a sign to us that there is still hope that things might turn out for the better in the end.

A sign that we really need right now in this bleak period of time.


Character and pokemon list:

Nova Labelle, Age: 26, Female, Ground Specialist, Historian, Niece of Lysandre

Pokemon on hand:

Character and pokemon list:

Nova Labelle, Age: 26, Female, Ground Specialist, Historian, Niece of Lysandre

Pokemon on hand:

1. Mamoswine (Berg), Male

2. Golem (Crust), Female

3. Excadrill (Solid), Male

4. Golurk (Drift), Genderless

5. Garchomp (Core), Male

6. Claydol (Vision), Genderless

7. Whiscash (Seis), Male

8. Marowak (Tinen), Female

9. Torterra (Terra), Female

10. Gigalith (Mantle), Male

11. Tyrantrum (Jaws), Male

12. Aurorus (Sail), Female

13. Sandile (Rumble), Male

14. Unknown creature, self-proclaimed Zygarde (Blob), ?