Akari and Ash finally arrived and headed into the Solaceon Ruins. It was dark inside with slim access to sunlight, but even so, they could see well enough to go into the main room. There they found a small woman dressed in white and pink looking up at a wall carving with a large chunk missing, with a Bibarel standing next to her.
"Oh, there she is." Akari commented. Ash nodded and politely approached her.
"Excuse me? Miss Calaba?"
"Galaxy Team members huh?" she huffed as she finally turned to face them.
"Uh, yes. I'm Ash and this is my partner Akari." He introduced them.
"What is it you want?" she answered with an almost snappish tone.
"We heard about what's going on with Ursaluna. We wanted to see if we could help." Akari explained.
"Yes, Ursaluna has been agitated lately. But what business is that of yours?" Calaba inquired.
"But we just want to help." Ash insisted.
"I want no help from you. The way you Galaxy Team people store Pokémon in those little balls as if they were collectibles is disgusting. And I certainly don't need any help from a young lovey-dovey couple." Calaba shut them down as both of them blushed at the last comment.
"W-We're not-" Ash tried, but Calaba cut him off.
"Now begone. I have real problems to deal with." She turned back to the broken wall carving and continued to examine it as best she could with her small stature and poor eyesight. Ash sighed and took look at it, noticing that while it looked better than it did in his time, there was still a large segment that he knew was there in his time.
"That piece that's missing, did someone steal it?" he asked.
"Looks that way to me." A familiar voice responded from behind them. Both young trainers turned around and saw a familiar blonde walking into the room.
"Volo? What are you doing here?" Akari wondered.
"I heard about the robbery of these ruins through the grapevine so I thought I'd come to check it out. I love ruins so to see them desecrated this way is just awful. Miss Calaba is a great Warden, but at 99 years old she can be a bit...let's say bound to tradition. So I thought she could use some help." He explained.
"I see-...wait. She is 99 years old?!" Ash gasped.
"She is." Volo nodded.
"Wow..." he mumbled. "Well anyway, maybe if we help her find the wall fragment too she'll let us see Ursaluna."
"Good idea but who would have taken it? And where would they be?" Akari posed the obvious question.
"Most likely bandits took it. Carrying such a heavy artifact isn't easy. Their camp probably isn't far." Volo pointed out.
"Good point." Ash agreed.
"Then let's go find it." Akari suggested.
"Indeed we should. But before you go, would you honor me with another battle Ash? I'd love to see the power that took on Kleavor." Volo requested.
"Oh uh, sure thing." He nodded.
"Thanks." The merchant smiled. Akari stood off to the side as Ash and Volo gave themselves enough room in between them to have a battle. Volo was the first to select a pokeball. "I'll start with something familiar." With a toss of the pokeball, he sent out his Togepi once again.
"Then I'll go with this one." Ash responded as he brought out Rowlet in contrast.
"Alright. Start with Calm Mind Togepi!" Volo called the first move. Togepi closed her eyes and used Calm Mind, glowing with a soft light that raised her attack and defense power.
"Rowlet use Razor Leaf!" In response to the command, Rowlet flew into the air and fired Razor Leaf at Togepi.
"Dodge it!" Volo countered. Using her round body, Togepi was able to dodge the attack by rolling away.
"Don't let her get away! Fly in with Aerial Ace!" Ash yelled. Rowlet stopped his attack and instead charged toward her with Aerial Ace.
"Tackle!" Togepi started charging right back at Rowlet and the two attacks collided with power almost completely matched. Both Pokemon stumbled back to their respective sides of the field, having taken some damage but were far from out of the battle.
"Use Razor Leaf again!" Ash ordered. Rowlet flapped his wings vigorously and fired off a Razor Leaf, nailing Togepi this time and sending her stumbling backward. "And follow up with Tackle!"
"Rowlet!" he cooed as he flew towards Togepi.
"Counter with your own Tackle!" Volo countered.
"Toge!" Togepi answered as she charged at Rowlet yet again. Both Pokemon collided once again before retreating back to their sides again.
"Now's our chance! Draining Kiss!" Volo suddenly called. Togepi held her tiny arms to her mouth and then blew out in a kissing motion, launching an array of pink energy toward Rowlet, catching both Ash and Rowlet off guard. Rowlet was hit and some of his energy was drained back into Togepi, restoring some of her own energy.
"Rowlet are you ok?!" Ash asked as Rowlet straightened himself back out before nodding in response.
"Finish up with Tackle!" Volo called, prompting Togepi to run in with her full power behind her.
"Use Razor Leaf Rowlet and give it everything you got!" Ash countered, causing Rowlet to fire off the best Razor Leaf he could. The sheer number of leaves was too much for Togepi and hit her hard, sending her flying back towards Volo where she hit the ground and fainted. "Alright!"
"Row!"
"Well done dear Togepi." Volo congratulated his partner as he called her back to her pokeball. "Excellent work Ash. Let's keep things going shall we?"
"You bet!" he nodded. With permission given, Volo throw his next pokéball and revealed his next Pokemon.
"Gib!" a small Gible cried out, ready to fight.
"How ironic he has a Gible..." Ash thought to himself as he pulled out Rowlet's pokeball. "You were great Rowlet, take a good rest." He returned Rowlet to his pokeball before looking at Pikachu. "Think you can take them, buddy?"
"You bet!" Pikachu answered as he jumped off Ash's shoulder and ran onto the field.
"Start with Bulldoze!" Volo called the first move again. Gible drew his arm back and then slammed his fist into the ground, sending out shockwaves across the ground toward Pikachu.
"Use Iron Tail to dodge!"Ash called to counter. Heeding the command, Pikachu slams his tail into the ground while using Iron Tail and launched himself up into the air, avoiding the Bulldoze with ease.
"Not bad Ash. Gible use Twister!" Volo commanded. Gible swung his arms and whipped up a large Twister which moved across the field quickly and scooped up Pikachu into the funnel while he was in the air and had no way to dodge.
"Pikachu!" Ash gasped. Pikachu grit his teeth and tried to get out of the funnel, but the whipping winds kept him firmly trapped inside, continuing to take damage. That was until Ash was struck with an idea. "Use Quick Attack to get out and then use Iron Tail!"
"Right…!" Pikachu nodded as he used Quick Attack against the winds of the Twister, creating just enough resistance to break free. Once he was back on solid ground, he changed course and ran towards Gible, using Iron Tail on the surprised Pokemon. Getting hit in the face, Gible tumbled backward before he could counter.
"Keep using Iron Tail!" Ash made the call. Pikachu kept on using Iron Tail against Gible, pushing him back with each strike until Gible finally crashed into the back wall. Pikachu backed off a little as Gible struggled to get up. "Iron Tail one more time!"
"Take this!" Pikachu yelled as he struck Gible with Iron Tail one more time, sending his opponent back into the wall where he finally fainted.
"Alright!" Ash cheered as Volo recalled Gible and Akari ran over to him.
"Way to go Ash! That was amazing!" she grinned as Pikachu ran back to Ash and jumped into his arms.
"Thanks, Akari! But it was really all thanks to Pikachu!" Ash laughed. As the group celebrated, Volo walked back over and joined them.
"Well done is right Ash. I can see why Kleavor and Wyrdeer trust you." He smiled.
"Thanks, Volo. It was a great battle." Ash replied with a smile of his own.
"Now let's go find those bandits." The merchant suggested. Ash and Akari nodded in agreement and the three of them headed outside and began looking around for a lead on which way they might've gone. It took a few moments, but Akari finally spotted something.
"Hey look." She said as she pointed a little ways off in the distance. "There's smoke rising about those trees."
"Might be from a campfire." Volo suggested.
"Then that could be where the bandits are at." Ash realized.
"He's right. Let's hurry before they have a chance to leave." Volo declared.
"Right!" Ash agreed as he ran off with Akari and Volo following behind. They all ran in the direction of the smoke and they soon arrived at a campsite that seemed to be abandoned aside from the dying fire that had been putting out the smoke. "Well, this is the place..."
"But it doesn't look like anyone's here…I hope they didn't move on already..." Akari said worriedly.
"Even if they did they couldn't have gotten far." Volo reminded them.
"Well well well." A new voice suddenly joined the conversation. The group all turned around and they came face to face with three women standing behind them. "Seems someone's found our campsite." Ash's eyes widened as he noticed even more familiar faces from his own time.
"Those two look like Candice and Saturn…and the other one looks kinda like Bertha…or maybe Agatha...?"
"Perhaps you're looking for the wall fragment?" the woman in question suggested, snapping Ash out of his own thoughts.
"Of course we are! Are you the ones who took it?!" he demanded, which only made the three women laugh.
"How dare you!" Akari yelled angrily. "Just who are you guys?"
"I bring good luck to my sisters wherever I go and ill luck to anyone who crosses our path. I'm the eldest and I'll be your unlucky Charm!" the older woman announced.
"Thought you spotted a four-leaf clover? Well, I'll soon have you seeing double! I'm the middle sister, and I'm one Clover you can't pick!" the dark-haired woman followed up.
"Heads I win, tails you lose! You've got no chance in this game of fortunes! I'm the youngest, Coin, but I'm definitely not your good luck piece!" the other woman added.
"We're the infamous bandit trio, the Miss Fortune Sisters! And your luck's just run out!" they all announced together as they struck a pose.
"How very…strange…" Volo muttered to himself.
"Give us back the wall fragment! That's an important part of our history!" Akari ordered them.
"Good. Then the Pearl Clan should be more than willing to cough up the money for it." Coin smirked.
"What?! You're seriously holding it just for money?!" Ash growled.
"That's awful!" Akari yelled.
"Sounds to me like we have a couple of kids wanting to fight." Charm commented as she and the others each grabbed a pokeball.
"In that case, I suppose each of us can take one of them." Volo reminded his teammates.
"Right! Let's do it Petelil!"Akari called as she faced off with Coin.
"I suppose it's you and me than miss." Volo mentioned to Charm as he sent out his Togepi, leaving Ash to face off with Clover.
"I got this! Go Abomasnow!" she called as she threw her pokéball, releasing the Frost Tree Pokémon onto the field.
"Snow!" the Ice type roared.
"Let's do this Pikachu!" Ash called.
"Right!" Pikachu nodded as he jumped off Ash's shoulder.
"Razor Leaf now!" Clover called. Abomasnow heeded her command and launched Razor Leaf right toward Pikachu.
"Dodge and use Iron Tail!" Ash countered, prompting Pikachu to duck the attack and then strike Abomasnow in the face with Iron Tail, forcing him back.
"You don't have to take that! Use Icy Wind!" Clover called the next move. Abamasnow took a deep breath and blew out an Icy Wind attack.
"Counter with Thunderbolt!" Ash ordered. Pikachu followed the command and fired Thunderbolt at the Icy Wind, easily canceling it out.
"No no no!" Clover grit her teeth.
"Now use Iron Tail!" Pikachu ran up and struck Abomasnow with Iron Tail once again, forcing him to stumble backward and fall into the rock face behind him, causing him to faint. Clover growled under her breath and quickly recalls her Pokémon as Ash noticed Charm and Coin do the same, meaning Akari and Volo had also won their battles. "You lost so now give us back the wall fragment!"
"Fine. It's probably not worth very much anyway." Charm scoffed as she dropped it on the ground. "But pray you never cross our path again." She suddenly threw down a smoke bomb that covered the entire area. The group coughed and shielded their mouths from the smoke until it cleared, leaving them alone at the campsite once again.
"They're gone…" Akari realized.
"They're very…odd women." Volo commented again.
"At least they left us the wall fragment." Ash said as he went over and attempted to pick it up. "Oh boy, it's heavy..."
"I got you." Akari quickly ran over and helped him lift.
"Thanks, Akari." He gave her a small smile, which she returned.
"Nice work you two. Go ahead and take it back and I'll let the others know back in Jubilife Village." Volo explained.
"Thanks for everything Volo." Ash nodded. The merchant nodded back and headed off as Ash and Akari started carrying the fragment back to the Solaceon Ruins.
Soon enough the duo had managed to carry the fragment back into the ruins where Miss Calaba was still inspecting the damage.
"Miss Calaba! We found the fragment!" Ash called to her, making her turn around in surprise.
"The fragment?! You two retrieved it...?" she asked with genuine shock.
"Of course we did." He nodded as he and Akari carried the fragment over to the wall and carefully inserted it back into its place. "I told you all we wanted to do was help."
"And after I was so rude to you both...you have my humble thanks." She bowed politely to them.
"Don't mention it." Akari smiled.
"What you both said before...you truly believe that Ursaluna may be in trouble?" Calaba asked.
"Yeah. Arezu said he went into a frenzy." Ash nodded.
"I'm still not sure about this frenzy business, but if you think you can help Ursaluna I'll take you to him." The older woman agreed.
"Thank you Miss Calaba." Ash smiled.
"This way children." She announced, walking out of the ruins as Ash and Akari followed her.
After a decently long trek through the swampy marshlands of the area, Ash, Akari, and Calaba arrived at a small arena that appeared to be made from the muddy land around them. It was nowhere near as grand as the one that Kleavor had, but it was apparent that the land was still sacred.
"This is Ursa's Ring, where our Noble Ursaluna resides." Calaba informed them.
"I see. I'm new here to Hisui, but is Ursaluna related somehow to a Pokemon called Ursaring?" Ash wondered.
"He is." Calaba nodded. "All Ursaluna evolve from Ursaring."
"Wow. Never knew Ursaring had an evolved form." Suddenly a loud roar echoed out across the arena, drawing everyone's attention. All three of them looked across the arena and saw a large and hulking Pokemon climb into view.
"Ursaluna..." Akari whispered.
"So that's what Ursaluna looks like..." Ash muttered as he too stepped into the ring. Ursaluna roared angrily at him but he still stood his ground. "Alright, Pikachu. Let's calm him down with a battle."
"Right." Pikachu nodded as he was about to jump off Ash's shoulder, but Akari suddenly called out to them.
"Hold on Ash! Ursaluna is part Ground-type. Pikachu's Electric-type moves won't work." She explained.
"It is? Huh. I didn't realize. Thanks for the tip Akari." He said as he switched to grabbing Rowlet's pokeball and tossing it out. "Help me out Rowlet!"
"Row!" Rowlet chirped as he took the field.
"Rowlet, use Razor Leaf!" Ash called the first attack. Rowlet flapped his wings as hard as he could and fired off a Razor Leaf at Ursaluna. The large Pokemon was not phased by the attack however and reared up on his hind legs. He knocked the leaves down with one swing of his massive muddy paw. "What the?!"
"URSA!" Ursaluna roared before he charged in and hit Rowlet with a Slash attack. Rowlet screeched out in pain as he landed in the mud.
"What power…!" Akari gasped. Rowlet winced in pain but he still got back up and flew back into the air.
"Try using Razor Leaf again!" Ash called once again. Rowlet launched the attack faster this time and managed to hit, making Ursaluna wince in pain as he took the attack. "Alright, Rowlet! Now use Aerial Ace!"
"Ro!" Rowlet agreed as he flew in quickly and struck Ursaluna with Aerial Ace, forcing him back a few feet. Ursaluna shook it off and swung his paw with another Slash, but Rowlet was ready this time and was able to fly up and dodge it.
"Luna!" Ursaluna growled.
"Use Razor Leaf one more time!" Ash yelled. Rowlet fired Razor Leaf again, hitting Ursaluna and forcing him back to the edge of the arena. Then to the surprise of everyone, the anger disappeared from Ursaluna's eyes and he actually whimpered slightly. "Huh?"
"Something's not right…" Akari commented as she studied Ursaluna carefully. She tilted her head curiously until she suddenly realized something. "That yellow glow that Kleavor had isn't around him..."
"Actually…yeah. I hadn't noticed that…" Ash realized.
"I don't think Ursaluna is frenzied at all…" Akari said. It was then that Ursaluna sneezed a little, catching Calaba's attention.
"Hmm..." she wondered as she walked over and examines him.
"Miss Calaba?"
"Ah. Here's the problem." She suddenly announced, gently cleaning out Ursaluna's nose. "There we are. Better?"
"Ur ursa." Ursaluna smiled as he roared happily.
"So there was some kind of blockage in his nose?" Ash wondered.
"There was. And it was so thick that he was having trouble breathing. That would make anyone upset." Calaba nodded.
"Of course. But how did his nose get backed up that badly?" Ash wondered.
"I'm not sure. But there's pollen here. Pollen that could only be from Lady Lilligant." Calaba realized.
"Wait Lady Lilligant? The Lord that Arezu watches over?" Akari gasped.
"The very same. I'd know this pollen anywhere." Calaba confirmed.
"But then…why would Arezu say that he was in a frenzy?" Akari questioned.
"I don't know…but she lied to us for some reason and we need to find out why." Ash answered.
"Right. We should get to headquarters and report this." His partner agreed.
"Good idea. Thank you for your help Miss Calaba." Ash bowed politely before recalling Rowlet and running back toward the village with Akari hot on his heels.
"Good luck children." Calaba smiled as she watched them go.
To be Continued...