Sinnoh Arc: The Plan to Outsmart Evil
"Where exactly are the Sinnjoh Ruins?" Mari asked.
"Do you have a map installed?" Cynthia wanted to know. Mari nodded and tapped her Xtranceiver. Cynthia examined the map she retrieved from it. "It's on one of the islands between Sinnoh and Johto. I think the two regions used to be connected by a land bridge, but it partially sank into the sea. Now, only individual islands remain. The one where the ruins are located is in the middle."
Mari scrolled around on the map, then zoomed in on the scattered island area that lay to the east of the Sevii Isles. "Here?",
"Yes, right there." She tapped the longest of the islands.
"Okay...",
"I have to warn you, though... It's really cold there. It's an unusual phenomenon because they're within the Coral Sea, and its water is very warm... It's still a mystery why it's so bitterly cold there, but meteorologists suspect it's because the freezing mountain winds of both, Sinnoh and Johto, meet there...",
"Brr... Time to get out the winter jackets..." Jacky said. Elesa crossed her arms. "We shouldn't waste any time. Is there a boat going there?",
"From Snowpoint. Yes." Cynthia nodded. "However... you will need something. Otherwise, you won't get to the ruins at all. Go to the port of Snowpoint and find the captain of the "Sea Tern". Tell him this code and he'll know." She wrote something on a piece of paper and held it out to Mari.
"...The sky is breaking up in three directions? What does that mean?",
"He knows that. It just means that I'm sending you there. Now you'd better hurry... It can't be much longer-"
A young man with green hair entered the ruin. "Cynthia?",
"What is it, Aaron?" she asked, turning to face him.
"There were eavesdroppers outside. We spotted them and they took off. Flint and Lucian gave chase, I don't know if they caught up with them though.",
"Were they wearing uniforms?",
"Yes. With a big G on their chests.",
"Shoot." Cynthia looked annoyed. "So they sent scouts here. How careless. We're running out of time. Go. We'll search the village. They'll almost certainly want to tell Cyrus about what we're up to.",
"Roger that. But they might see us", Mari thought.
"Go through the underground.",
"The WHAT?",
"Sinnoh has an extensive and vast underground network", Elesa explained. "It's mostly a mining hotspot, but it's also used by Travellers who look for certain Pokémon or people who look for treasures. You can usually get from A to B faster through it because you don't have to cross Mount Coronet. It's too dangerous right now anyway, and Snowpoint is right in its shadow.",
"But how are we supposed to find the way? It sounds like it's easy to get lost down there", Jacky opined.
"There is an app that will track your location and navigate you safely. Enter the underground through the entrance behind the Pokémon Center. Let's go!" Cynthia left the ruins with Aaron. Elesa nodded to the girls. "We gotta hurry, as well. Come on." They took off.
They ran to the Pokémon Center. "Somewhere here should be the entrance... Where exactly?" Jacky asked. Mari looked around. "Maybe this thing here?" She pointed to a metal plate on the floor with a small lever sticking out next to it. She pulled it and the metal plate slid to the right. They discovered a ladder down.
"Looks like it." Elesa climbed ahead and they followed. Mari was last and pulled another lever at the bottom, which pulled the metal plate back to its proper place.
The underground was... completely different than they had expected. High ceilings, fortified corridors and lanterns that illuminated them. It seemed to be a well-maintained network. Nothing here conveyed these walls were about to collapse anytime soon.
"I installed the app on the way," Mari said.
"When?" Jacky looked at her, puzzled. Her friend grinned mischievously. "I'm just the best. Anyway, I hope it works." She tapped her Xtranceiver and opened the app. It took a moment to locate the girls and the gym leader in the grand underground, but eventually, it marked their current position with a red circle. Mari tapped briefly and the map colored out their route to Snowpoint. "Wow. This is really handy. Okay, follow me!" She went ahead and led the other two through the corridors of the underground. They encountered no one except a construction worker making his rounds to make sure nothing was unsafe and the walls stable.
They arrived at the exit of Snowpoint without issue and left the underground. It had felt like an eternity, but they were sure it would have been an even longer eternity had they undertaken the journey above ground. Snowpoint was covered in a layer of snow and it was very cold. They hurried to the Pokémon Center for a short break and to change into winter-appropriate clothes before heading to the port of the ever-white, lonely town in the forest. Snow was still falling, and in places, it had stacked up so high that it touched their knees. At the port, they kept a lookout for the "Sea Tern". It was a smaller shuttle boat that was moored at the pier and already covered by a white blanket. A sailor seemed to be checking something on it. "Excuse me?" Elesa tried to get his attention. The sailor looked up and turned to them. "Yes? Can I help you?"
She nodded to Mari, signifying her to say the password.
"Yes, uh... We're here because... The sky is breaking up in three directions.",
"..." The sailor looked at her for a short moment and then nodded at them. "Come aboard.",
"Thank you very much." Jacky smiled at him and they boarded. The sailor cast off the lines and then navigated the boat out of the quiet harbor. Mari looked at the sea and then back at the shore. Suddenly though, she narrowed her eyes when she noticed something. She glanced at Jacky. 'Hey... Did you see that just now...?' she asked via Telepathy.
'What do you mean?' her friend answered confused.
'I'm pretty sure we kept sailing at the same speed... Yet the waves passed us by slower than before for a split second.'
Jacky paid close attention to her surroundings and then noticed it. At irregular intervals, the waves seemed to slow down... or even reverse a bit. 'Now that you mentioned it, I can see it, as well... This must be a distortion of time...',
'Not only time. Look over there...' Mari pointed at the shore that kept going into farther distance. 'If you look closely, you can see that the proportions of some trees distort for a moment.',
"That's not good", Jacky said, aloud this time.
"What's not good?" Elesa asked.
"We didn't notice it before because it's still quite subtle, but time and space keep distorting, even if only briefly", she explained, trying not to show her nervousness.
"Yes..." Elesa muttered. "This has been going on for some time now, but it seems the effects are slowly getting stronger.",
"It will get worse the longer this whole thing takes, won't it?" Mari asked. Elesa nodded. "Yes. It started with a change of things in the surroundings. Irregularities with the wind or disturbances of the satillites. Now, these distortions are becoming visible to the human eye. If it continues... time may come to a complete halt in some areas because it starts to collapse... and places will start to disappear completely.",
"That sounds horrible!" Jacky held a hand in front of her mouth. Elesa leaned against the boat's railing. "...Dialga and Palkia were never meant to fight, let alone lose their control like this. The world moves within a certain balance between the forces of time and space, but you've got to think of it as a... seesaw. The balance keeps shifting from side to side until the whole concept is so out of balance that it collapses. Only if Palkia and Dialga come back to their senses, they can actively use their powers to restore this balance. That, however, doesn't mean there won't be any lasting damage...", "
"Yikes. Let's hope it's not that far out of contr- huh?" She stopped. "What was that?",
"What?" Jacky asked.
"There was a shadow in the water. I could see it clearly. But it wasn't the shadow of a Pokémon from underwater, it was more as if... as if the water surface itself had mirrored this shadow. Neither from below nor from above, but... you know what I mean? It's kinda hard to explain...",
"What? Where?" Jacky asked. Mari looked over the water's surface. "I can't see it anymore. It's... ah! Over there!" She pointed at something they could see briefly on the water's surface. A shadow... with three long claws on its back.
"Hey...that looked like..." Jacky was reminded of something. "Was that Giratina's silhouette? That's so creepy...!",
"Giratina is inside the Distortion World", Elesa said. "But it can look at the real world through reflective surfaces... hence why we can see it too when it does that.",
"Oh, I see..." Jacky looked at the water. "So it's watching us. It must be very angry with what's going on... maybe, it's trying to make sure we arrive save and sound... At least I hope so. Cyrus has tried to keep it at bay for a while, so I can imagine it's furious.",
"Me too..." Mari sighed and turned her gaze towards the horizon.