The Hood flew, without sigil or marker, on the back of a Salamance toward the approaching Sinnoh Battle Tower, the moonlight shining on the sheer sides of the building. The Hood hated the architecture, the inhabitants, and what it stood for. Countless ounces of suffering had been shed in the name of entertainment, and the Hood wanted nothing more than to rage and rage until it was leveled to nil.
But the Eclipse Lord had a assignment, and it could not attract too much attention. Many precautions had been taken in order to conceal his identity. His Salamance has retroreflective panels attached to its underside, and the Hood himself could not been identified by any other than his servants.
The Salamance glided to the roof, the Hood dismounting onto the steelweave ground. Placing a sophisticated molecular disintegrator on a exposed vent flap, the metal washed away like one thousand degree honey. The Hood had his Salamance cool the metal with Icy Wind, before rappelling down into the topmost floor of the Tower.
The man waiting in the highest room noticed the new visitor fall through the ventilation duct. "Well? Why can't you just go through the bottom floor, just like everyone else?"
The Hood laughed. "Do not trifle with me. I would kill you where you stand, but I need you alive, unfortunately. I challenge you to a single battle, my chosen Pokémon against yours. Palmer of Sinnoh, father of the Pokedex Holder Pearl, I know that you are not one to shy away from a challenge. You once fought Darkrai in the Distortion World, nearly singlehandedly. You are a worthy fighter, and we must begin!"
Palmer could see that by setting the terms for the duel, the stranger was trying to see Cresselia. Palmer had met his share of interested parties that wished to control the Dream Pokémon for themselves, and some of these encounters had turned quite aggressive.
"Of course!" Palmer said. "Death threats aside, if you beat me, you will be given the sticker of the Battle Tower. However, you will never see Cresselia! Milotic, go!"
Palmer sent out Milotic, while The Hood sent out a Typhlosion. Palmer wondered why he had picked a Pokémon with a type disadvantage, until the Typhlosion used Roar.
Milotic was sent back, and the Hood launched a metal bolt from his wrist gauntlet at Cresselia's Master Ball. The device shattered, forcing Cresselia out. The Hood grinned under the veil of shadow covering his face.
"Cresselia, from this point onward, no longer has a registered Poke Ball. Now, it is completely fair game for anyone to capture it, and when I beat you in battle, its loyalties will surely change in my favor! Yah!"
The Hood threw a Master Ball at Cresselia so quickly that Palmer could do nothing. However, the Dream Pokémon sliced the ball in two with a blade of energy, the twin edges falling steaming to the arena floor.
"Disappointing..." The Hood said. "This one needs to be weakened first. Really, Palmer? You know that I am going to utterly defeat you, and yet you spare your other Pokémon, hiding behind Cresselia? Cowardice!"
"I don't think so." Palmer said. "If I sent out any of my other Pokémon, then you would just use Roar again. That Typhlosion is definitely Hyper Trained, I have rarely seen such a fast-moving Pokémon. Cresselia is my strongest fighter, so I should go with it...but this is no longer a battle within rules. Everyone, go!"
Palmer sent out the rest of his Pokémon, while the Hood sent out a Empoleon and Chesnaught.
"I think that you will be sorry that you forced me to resort to a triple battle." The Hood said, eyeing the fight. "There are many sources of Knowledge in the world. Have you ever heard of the three Special Moves?"
"Of course!" Palmer replied. "Hydro Cannon, Blast Burn, and Frenzy Plant! Only Ultima of the Sevii Islands can teach a Pokémon any of the three moves, and she would never have any dealings with you, in case that is what you mean."
The Hood's distorted voice became as sharp as iron. "Incorrect. Who taught Ultima how to teach others those moves? She may be the only known source of the Knowledge...but I have strange, supernatural allies, ones that possess such great amounts of Knowledge that you could never understand or comprehend. Now, you shall see what you think is impossible before your waking eyes! Blast Burn! Hydro Cannon! Frenzy Plant!"
The three Special Moves launched from the Hood's Pokémon, merging in the air, stabilizing each other, giving each the most possible power. A tidal wave of opposing forces ran through the room, energized sparks of pure condensed energy scarring the arena. When the acrid smoke cleared, all of Palmer's Pokémon had been defeated, although Cresselia still could fight.
The Hood sent out a burly Machamp, imprisoning Palmer in a headlock. Cresselia tried to dodge another Master Ball sent from the Hood, but the Capture Device hit in on the forehead, comfortably encapsulating it.
Picking up the Master Ball, the Hood stunned Palmer with a portable taser, and sent back his Pokémon. The Eclipse Lord climbed up the ventilation shaft, and boarded Salamence again.
Both master and Pokémon flew into the night sky. The Hood crooned to Cresselia, comforting it as he held the Master Ball in his gloved hands.
"Go to sleep, my precious. It's okay, it's okay...I never really hurt your master. You can trust me, my dearest. I know that you would be of no use to me if you saw me kill another, poor thing. Lady Irmo, Mistress of Dreams...I shall make good use of your power. Be still, my most ravishing and increasingly lovely elohim. Be still..."
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"Fury Swipes!"
"Fire Fang!"
The double-battler's Froslass fainted, his last Pokémon spent. In the wake of the battle, a wonderous thing happened.
A blinding light enveloped Bronze's Charmander and Jake's Chimchar, and after it subsided, the Pokémon had different forms.
"Charmeleon...and Monferno." Bronze murmured. "Thanks be to Arceus Elyon! It was about time for these two to evolve, ever since that encounter along the UMV ride."
"A double evolution!" The opposing trainer said. "These occur when Pokémon of similar evolutionary levels get competitive, thus accelerating the chance of evolving. Your Pokémon are definitely bonding, slowly but surely."
Jake had captured a Eevee earlier, and it had been shaking every time it had been sent out of its Poke Ball. Bronze assumed it also was going to evolve soon, as the Pokedex estimated its level at middling-low.
"So," Bronze began, looking at his Pokedex-installed map once he was sure there were no prying eyes. "We are about a league north of Lagoona Lake, and two leagues south of Rosecove. Night is approaching, and the Poke Finder says that a hotel with vacancy is about half a mile from here, on the way to Rosecove. I think we should get a meal and room for the night, unless we want to sleep with the ants and bears..."
On the grassy route, Bronze saw, atop a hill, the lands beyond Rosecove. The port city was bright, but the gloom of the forests beyond devoured the optimistic light. The Taur-I-Melegryin, the Great Forest, it once stretched across the entire continent. The axes of the ancient Logarians had diminished the northern borders, but it still remained an unpassable barrier to any inexperienced traveller. Few safe routes through it existed, and all were expensive and tedious to travel.
A western spur of the Frostveil Mountains, the Cragrock Cliffs, cut through the primeval forest, white-capped peaks jutting out of the thick foliage, like the tips of alien strongholds. Mount Cragrock, also known as Cragonos Peak, was the site of a airport that allowed travellers to travel to Anthian City, or to the further north, out of Roria and past Alola, to the Alpha Continent and beyond. That would be Bronze and Jake's next target, after a period of tarrying in Rosecove.
After another half-hour of walking, Bronze and Jake came upon the hotel. The little building was built into a hill, its rooms extending downward into the earth. It looked like a hole of the Dwarrows, the hole-builders of fairy-tale, who, in legend, had Pokémon build them living spaces in the side of hills and inside mountains.
Stepping inside the circular swing-door, Bronze ran the iron desk bell, surprised at the system's antiquity. Then, a scruffy man dressed in a sailors outfit and smoking a foul pipe came out of a little door left of the reception desk. "Welcome to the Diglett Dug Hotel, young masters. How long will ye be staying here, eh?"
Bronze recognized the man, a faint memory of a picture in a old book that he had read. "You're Drake, of the Hoenn Elite Four! You helped defeat Kyogre and Groudon when they awoke, when I was far younger. Also, you participated the the destruction of Grand Meteor Delta! Technically, it was a worldwide effort. Anyway, what are you-"
Drake cut him off. "Let me guess. What am I doing at a small, nearly unnoticeable hotel in the largest region in the world, out of Hoenn? Well, young master, I'll tell you! Turns out, after them' Ultra Beasts attacked, I started to reevaluate my priorities in life! I've been part of the 'o Elite Four for so long, that I began to think what would happen if I took some time off fightin' in the league, and begin runnin' my own establishment! The Championship ain't going to be in Hoenn for some time, anyhow. Again, how long will ye lads be staying here?"
"One night." Bronze said, paying a lump sum of three hundred units, half the required price. "You get the second half when we leave."
Bronze sent out Charmander. "Charmeleon, lead Jake to the nearest vacant room. Do not lose the key!"
Jake was rushed away, leaving Bronze with Drake. "Charmeleon?" Drake mused, taking a seat in a rocking chair. "No nickname, eh, boy? You might get disparaged out in the field for that."
"My Pokémon have no need for nicknames." Bronze said. "They are loyal to me regardless, and I will call them by the names that Arceus gave them. Jake,, the other boy, thinks about the issue in a similar matter. I have no personal disdain for trainers that name their Pokémon, but I will stick to my principles."
Drake blew out a smoke ring, a perfect O. "And...why aren't you goin' to your room like your friend? Do you have something that you want to ask of me, or are ye inclined for some light conversation?"
"Yes on both counts," Bronze said, also sitting down. "And please put that pipe away! Really, I can't stand the smell of it."
Drake obliged.
"First...I want you to tell me if you noticed a change in the world, about twenty years ago. This is something that I have been investigating, among folks...who have reached their golden years, if you understand what I mean."
A shadow fell over Drake's face. "Perceptive, boy. A change...twenty years ago...there definitely was one, but not for the better. It's like a huge 'ol weight, crushing me down if I think about it. Pure evil, I tell ye. Don't go around messing in things that you don't understand."
"Tell me, what was it like?" Bronze asked. "Did it get worse over time, or could you feel it immediately?"
"It definitely started the first year," Drake said, a flash of suspicion in his eyes. "It was small, at first. You thought you were coming on with arthritis. But then you started to talk to others, the older they were, the more they noticed it. We told people about it, all over the world, but it just led to a bunch of new discussions about 'muscle fatigue' and 'gene pool degeneration.' No young folks cared, because they didn't notice it or even feel it, not a little bit. Hardly anyone talks about it anymore, or ever even did."
Drake's voice became low and fey. "Tell me...have ye ever heard of...the Evil Djinn?"
A dark chill swept through the room. Bronze shivered, and outside he heard a Stoutland barking. He had read about the old nemesis of Arceus, the Mbelekoro, Master of the Fates of Earth, the first Dark Lord. It was a cradle-myth, meant to frighten disobedient Rorian children. Take good care of your Pokémon, or the Evil Djinn will drag you to Hell!
Bronze nodded, and the frosty wind died. The Stoutland stopped barking.
"Good. Because, you see, I have a curious tale..."
Drake began to tell his story.
"It was nary five years ago. Strange thing were happen' to the world, and they haven't got any better. Heh...anyways, I was going around in some newly-found archeologist sites with Steven Stone, Champion extraordinaire. We found many things of a 'scientific' nature, including some Logarian ruins, ancient Hoenn relics, or whatever you could call them. But that isn't what concerned me, I'll have you know."
"There was a strange little mural in the ruins, if that is the best way to describe it. Steven said that it was a Hoenn-Hisuian creation myth, but I wasn't so sure. It looked like two warriors strangling a serpent, a snake with limbs, mind you, holding a massive hammer of all things. Marking the two warriors were the Logarian words for Space and Time, Ilmin and Lu. That reminds me of two very certain legendary Pokémon, doesn't it?"
"Of course, I had to touch the damn thing. How couldn't I? Oh, yes, I touched it. And...it was like a diabolical force ran from the image of the serpent into my arm! I could feel the entire weight of the Heaviness in all its torment. The only thing that I could do was to call out to Arceus, and the feeling passed, thank the Original One! When Steven found me, I had been unconscious for two hours. Two hours! And at my age, to! That was one lengthy medical observation, I'll tell ye."
"From that point on, I always felt like something was watching me. It was less of that something was following me because I touched that blasted picture, a better way of describing it would be that I could finally sense something that had been tailing me all along. I sometimes even see...them. You might call them spirits, demons, the souls of Pokémon, elohim. But they are real. And they are rallying, recalling lost strength. I don't talk about it much. Nobody does. Hardly any young folks notice, folly of follies. I'm thankful that young men like you sit to hear the ramblings of a old man. That is all I have to say."
Bronze got up, feeling more awake then ever. "I am sorry, sir. But I think I know what you are talking about. And there is something else I know, too. Not all the things that you sense are evil. There are good ones out there, trust me, and they have a part to play in everything. And something big is brewing, waiting to spill over, and I dread to be in its path when it does. But this time, the war-road of this sceme may be the entire world."