Gijinka Renamon:
A good metaphor for the Destiny Stones' purpose is trying to lift a heavy object. It's easier to lift something when multiple people are helping you, right? It's the same idea with the Sovereigns. Maintaining Digital World balance puts a great burden on the Sovereigns. If they can get some of the Stones back, they don't need as much effort to ensure balance.
Sylvia Viridian:
I must say, I'm flattered that I'm an inspiration for you. I hope to see it sometime.
Ninetalesuk:
You asked me in a GT:AoA review when I would do a Frontier fic? I'm planning a Pokemon/Frontier crossover as a sequel to Stones of Doom. One of the things I have planned is introducing fan made Fusion & Unified forms for the elements that don't have them yet. I have not heard of any official ones being released, and frankly, I don't think they'll ever be released.
Disclaimer:
Toei and Bandai own Digimon, and Nintendo owns Pokemon.
The Stones of Doom
By: RB3
Chapter 19: The Legacy of Alph
Back in Mahogany Town, Ash stayed at the side of Misty, who had been genetically altered by Team Rocket. "All this time, I never knew you felt this way about me... Could I have saved you if I knew sooner?"
Sora and Biyomon looked on and James came to check on Ash. "Is he going to be alright?" he asked.
"I don't know," replied Sora. "He feels like it's his fault that this happened."
Jessie and Meowth approached. "Poor guy," said Meowth.
"Why don't you talk to him?" Jessie suggested.
"Me?" asked Sora.
"Yes you! Who else?" asked Jessie sarcastically. "You're the Digi-whatchamacallit of Love."
Sora pouted. "That's Digidestined..."
"Whatever... Anyways, I'm saying that you know love better than any of us, so talk to him already! Teach him about love and all that other mushy stuff!"
"Oh, alright!" Sora entered the room as Jessie made everyone else leave. "Ash, don't blame yourself for this. You weren't responsible for turning Misty into what she is now."
"Am I? I was the last person to know. All this time it was in front of me and I didn't even notice; not with Melody, not with May..."
"You know now, right?" asked Sora.
"Yeah, but now it's too late. Look at her. She's lying in a hospital bed and might never wake up ever again. I couldn't save her."
"You DID save her, Ash, more than you realize," corrected Sora.
Ash was puzzled. "What do you mean? You're not making any sense!"
"We saved her soul. Even after being filled with hatred, a part of her was still alive inside of Marilith. You know what that part was? It was her feelings for you. She was willing to do anything to protect you, even put her own life at risk. If we didn't do anything, I know that Misty would have been gone forever."
Ash was puzzled by Sora's explanation. "How do you know all of this?"
"It was when Biyomon Digivolved to Mega for the first time. My Crest of Love glowed and I experienced Misty's feelings as though I was her. It was so scary, so overwhelming, but it was so warm and tender too."
"Pretty weird," said Ash.
Sora nodded. "The important thing is that we saved Misty. We can always change her back some other time. Right now, we have a war to stop and a world to save!"
"Yeah!" exclaimed Ash, now feeling reenergized. "You're right! Let's get the next Stone!"
After returning to Goldenrod, the Johto Team, Team Rocket, and Lance met in a meeting room within a police station to discuss progress on the search for Hypocrisy. So far, the police had no luck in finding the stone, but did succeed in capturing four of the five Doppelgangers. These busts triggered many ugly scandals that news stations across the country latched onto. This was only aggravated further by a shocking event in Hoenn; the destruction of Lilycove City by nuclear weapons. The Johto team was appalled by this turn of events.
The news switched to some footage of the carnage. Buildings were smashed into pieces and charred black by intense flames. The reporter stayed well away from the city itself, which had been contaminated by fallout and deemed too dangerous to enter without protective gear. He was reporting from a medical camp for those exposed to radiation. It was a miserable place and the victims' wounds brought them great suffering. One by one, paramedics would return to the camp with new survivors. Hoenn's authorities vowed retribution for this attack.
The news returned to the Johto governmental scandals. "Military sources suspect that Kanto had acquired some of its nuclear technology from Johto. This scandal comes just on the heels of other scandals involving impostors infiltrating the government and the cover up of unethical genetic research."
Lance shut off the TV. "We've been trying to find out where the Stone of Doom is, but so far, the prisoners haven't been cooperative."
"I'm sure it is somewhere in or near this city, since we found the Doppelgangers here," said TK.
"Who's going to lead Johto now that the President is a fake?" asked Meowth.
"I still wonder where the real President is," admitted Jessie.
"Good questions," admitted Lance. "Unfortunately, the police have no idea where they are. For all we know, the President and his aides could be dead at the hands of the Doppelgangers. The military had to place Johto under martial law until new leaders can be elected. They're not going to let this slide. This was an act of war."
A few days passed. The captured Doppelgangers shuddered at the coldness of their holding cell. In fact, their cell was more of a freezer than a holding cell. A thin layer of frost lined the walls of their cell. They had been encased in ice due to the freezing cold of their cell. Their lower bodies were pinkish ooze, but from the waist up, they were no different than ordinary humans. An interrogator in heavy winter clothing entered the cell and began to question them.
At first, the Doppelgangers were extremely uncooperative. In fact, they were quite hostile and sarcastic. To elicit more cooperation, the interrogator had the Doppelgangers hung upside down for extended periods of time. It was quite discomforting to be in such a position, which caused their liquid interior to rush towards their head. Eventually, they caved in and told the interrogator everything he wanted to know. The Stone of Doom was hidden in the remains of a mysterious ancient civilisation northeast of Goldenrod; the Ruins of Alph.
The Johto Team immediately travelled to the ruins. Lance waited outside in his jeep while the Johto Team and Team Rocket explored the interior. The Ruins of Alph was the civilisation's main temple and its only remnants. The Alphans, the people of this civilisation, had a mysterious relationship with the Unown species of Pokemon. The clergy worshipped this species of Pokemon and received mysterious powers from them. The Johto Team pierced the darkness with their flashlights and the flames of Torchic and Cyndaquil.
The temple was in fairly good shape, despite the lack of maintenance. The interior was a vast labyrinth of sandstone corridors. Despite having flashlights and Fire Pokemon, the Johto Team found it a dark and claustrophobic place. They combed deeper into the ruins until they found a vast chamber with hieroglyphs on each of its walls. At the centre was a stone altar with a square slot in it. Within this slot were sixteen tiles that created a picture once placed in the right positions.
"Hey, that's one of those sliding tile puzzles!" remarked Mimi. "You slide the tiles into the right place to make some sort of picture."
Mimi moved to solve the puzzle, but Joe stopped her. "Uh Mimi, I don't think it's a good idea to be fiddling with that..."
"Why?"
"Whenever there are ancient ruins, there are usually booby traps." Mimi immediately withdrew her hand from the puzzle.
Meowth glanced around as he walked along the sides of the walls. As he passed the wall in front of the puzzle altar, he felt a faint draft seemingly coming from the wall itself. At first, Meowth thought it was just his imagination. After carefully examining the wall, he noticed an outline of empty space. Following the outline, he discovered that it formed some sort of door. He tried to push it open, but had no luck doing so.
"Hey guys, I found a secret door! Help me open it!" called Meowth.
The team pushed and pulled the door in every direction imaginable, but it wouldn't open. "Torchic, melt the wall open with Flamethrower!" ordered May.
The flames struck the wall as predicted, but instead of melting the wall, it exposed a barrier of violet light. It surrounded the wall like a protective coating. There was no way it could be a natural phenomenon. Ash suspected that this was the work of powerful Psychic energies, but found it odd that this energy manifested itself with purple light. Normally, Psychic energy manifested itself with azure light. Even with multiple Pokemon and Digimon attacking the shield, it still wouldn't collapse.
"No go. We have to try something else," said May with disappointment.
"This shield..." mumbled TK as he approached the wall. "I can feel the Powers of Darkness from it. Maybe we should try solving that puzzle."
The Johto Team huddled around the altar and began to slide the tiles into position. After a few minutes of manoeuvring, they formed the picture of a Kabuto. Kabutos were the Pokemon World's equivalent of the horseshoe crab. The Johto Team waited for the wall to open, but a trap door opened underneath them instead! They screamed as they tumbled into the darkness below.
****************************************
"Priestess, are you okay?" asked an unknown voice.
Mimi groggily turned to look at the speaker. He was a tall, buffed man with bronze skin and black hair. He was clad in leather chest armour, sandals, and carried a sharp, dangerous spear in his hand. This man looked like a guard from an ancient civilisation. He had a look of concern on his face and his hand was outstretched as an offer to help her. Mimi grabbed his hand and the man lifted her onto her feet.
Mimi was still groggy from the fall. "Thank you. Who are you? Where am I? Where's Palmon?"
"I'm not sure what you mean by 'Palmon,' but I'm Abdul, one of the guards for your temple. We came under attack by the Betans, but drove them away. You were knocked out during the fight by an explosive device and I found you here, lying on the ground."
"Hold on! I'm not a priestess!" objected Mimi.
"Ah, but you are!" replied Abdul. "You came here earlier to get the tattoos to advance in rank. It was a momentous occasion, and you were quite proud of yourself."
Mimi looked at her surroundings. She recognized the masonry of her room as being consistent with that of the Ruins of Alph. However, it was much cleaner than she remembered it with the sole exception of the blast hole in the wall. She gazed at herself through a mirror and was surprised by what she saw. Mimi was a in a loose fitting satin dress that covered her entire body. Though it was modest as far as clothing was concerned, she thought the dress was actually stylish.
The thing she disliked the most were the strange symbols tattooed onto her body. Each symbol was black and seemed to be an abstract representation of the letters of the English alphabet. They had a mysterious, supernatural aura to their appearance. The only other thing common amongst these symbols was that each had what looked like an eye designed into it. Each of the eyes had a piercing, distant gaze about them.
"Ugh! What are these things doing on my body?" complained Mimi as she tried to remove them.
"I told you, they're the tattoos that symbolize your rank," replied Abdul. "You can't remove them. They're permanent."
"Why couldn't they be flowers or something in pink?"
"Sorry, but these tattoos have religious significance. You have to have them in order to be considered a true priestess."
Mimi sighed. "I need some air..."
"Sure, just don't get in the way of the soldiers. They're cleaning up after the battle."
The temple itself was lined by effigies that resembled the tattoos on her body. It seemed that the Alphans placed great religious importance in these symbols, possibly to the point of revering them. She began to wonder if she was in some kind of dream, or that she had travelled back in time to the era of the Alphan Empire. Mimi walked through the hallways of the temple, noticing the bodies of the soldiers that fell in battle. As Abdul said, they were cleaning up the bodies of those who had fallen during the fighting.
She soon found a familiar face among the guards; Joe. "Hey Joe!" she cried.
"Mimi! Am I ever glad to see you! Do you know what's going on here? First we were falling into this hole and then I suddenly find myself as a guard of the Alphan Empire."
"I don't know anything either. I just woke up and found out that I was a priestess."
"Yeah, I could tell by the tattoos on your body. Jessie and James have the same thing on their bodies. James said those tattoos are of Unown, a Pokemon species."
"Where are they?"
"They're outside having a look around. I'll take you to them."
The two Digidestined walked out and as Joe said, Jessie and James were there, looking down at the sprawling capital city of Alph in bewilderment. Like Mimi, Jessie wore the same religious vestments as Mimi did. James on the other hand, wore a white robe that was cotton rather than satin. He also had a crown-like headdress adorned with Unown effigies. The two Team Rocket members were glad to see familiar faces.
"You're alright!" remarked James.
"Yep, have you seen any of the others?" asked Mimi.
"No," admitted Jessie. "We only found you and the glasses twerp."
Joe was miffed at that comment. "I do have a name, you know. It's Joe. We should look around town and meet back at the temple if we find anyone."
Alph city was a beautiful place with sandstone buildings lining the sides of the stone streets. Everywhere they looked, they saw merchants advertising their wares to the public. Mimi, Joe, Jessie, and James searched through the town, asking if the people had seen anyone matching the descriptions of their friends. They found no leads despite a few hours of searching. Mimi found only one thing of interest; the Emperor and his aides were coming to the town square to make an announcement.
The town square was abuzz with activity as Alphan citizens gathered to hear the announcement. At the very centre of the square was a raised stage for the speakers to stand on. Mimi looked on as the people began paying homage to the Emperor and his court. She played along to avoid drawing suspicion until she spotted two familiar faces approaching the stage; Ash and May. Mimi didn't even recognize them at first. It wasn't until she examined them very carefully that she finally recognized them.
From their appearance, Mimi concluded they were members of the royal family in this world. May was no longer wearing her Pokemon-style sports wear. Instead, she was well kempt and wore a glamorous, frilly white dress. It took her some time to become accustomed to such a change in May's appearance. Mimi had actually thought May was a totally different person. She was quite jealous that May got to be the princess and not her.
It wasn't only May that had changed. Ash had been changed a lot as well. He was clothed in a regal, loose-fitting white suit. On his belt was a jewelled scimitar holstered within its sheath. He looked like a charming prince from an Arabian love story. Mimi could swear that he was going to make a grand entrance and sweep a girl off her feet. Ash was so dashing that Mimi became enamoured with him.
The Emperor himself was a man with a great air of authority and a stern expression. He was a muscular man with a light skin tone and black hair. He wore a suit similar to that of Ash's, but it had a pattern similar to the Unown tattoos on Mimi's body. His golden crown and black sceptre were adorned by an Unown effigies made of a diamond and onyx. He raised his sceptre into the air and the crowd fell silent.
A second man stood forward to make his speech. He was a thin man with black hair and a pleasant demeanour. Like Mimi, he too had Unown tattoos on his body, which indicated that he was a religious man. He wore priestly robes and a headdress similar to ones James wore, only more ornate. He carried a staff with ornaments designed with the likeness of the Unown.
The MC called the High Priest to make his speech. "We, the people of Alph, have prided ourselves on following the word of the gods. Today, our pride as a people was treacherously attacked by the Betans. They have desecrated our holy temple and murdered our people right before our very eyes! We will not tolerate this! The Emperor has declared war on the Betans as retribution for this wrong."
Mimi managed to catch the attention of Ash and May, who waved back in response. Jessie, James, and Joe found Mimi. "Hey, I found Ash and May!" Mimi pointed to them at the stage and the two waved back at them. After the Emperor's speech, the two groups met at the rear of the stage. "Am I glad to see you guys!" exclaimed Ash. "I woke up and found out I was a prince of the Alphan Empire and May was a princess. Where are the others? Is Pikachu alright?"
"Slow down, Ash!" demanded Joe. "We're just as clueless as you are. All I know is that we were in the ruins, fell down a hole, and then became people in this weird world. We haven't been able to find Sora, TK, or any of our partners yet."
"Maybe we're the only ones here," suggested May.
"There's no doubt about it. This is the Alphan civilisation," noted James. "I recognize the architecture from history books I read as a little boy. Mimi, Jessie, and I are part of the church because of these tattoos on our bodies." James pulled down his sleeve to reveal the Unown tattoos that marked his arm.
"I'm some sort of soldier or guard," said Joe.
"The Stone of Doom must have trapped us in some sort of dream, or alternate dimension of some kind," said Ash.
"Tell me more about Alph, James," asked Joe.
"Well, from what I remember, the latest records described everything we saw today; the attack on the temple, and the war against the Betans that came after. After that, there were no more records. It's like the people of Alph just vanished without a trace."
Jessie was unnerved. "Vanished without a trace?" James simply nodded.
"Now, I'm really scared..." admitted May.
"No need to be scared. We'll just find a way out before it happens!" proclaimed Ash.
For a month, Mimi and her friends looked for ways to free themselves from this illusionary prison. However, they could not find any way of escaping. The war between the Alphans and Betans raged on and many Alphan soldiers returned home wounded. As members of the clergy, Mimi, Jessie, and James were supposed to give medical attention to the soldiers. To do this, they used the Psychic powers of the Unown species of Pokemon.
Mimi walked around the isles of an infirmary set up in the temple. All along the wall were cots filled with injured men and women. All had bandages wrapped around their bleeding wounds. Some were worse off, having been maimed or having a limb severed during battle. Mimi channelled the Unowns' power, causing her eyes and the eyes of her Unown tattoos to glow with azure light. Her patient's wounds resealed themselves at an astonishing rate.
The now healthy soldier was grateful. "Thank you priestess!"
"No problem!" replied Mimi.
Another month passed by before the Emperor declared victory over the Betans. They pillaged the Betan capital before burning it into ash. The Alphans captured the Betans that had survived the war and brought them back to work as slaves. This victory sounded the alarm for Mimi and the others. The end of the Alphan Empire was quickly approaching and time was growing short. This triggered a prompt meeting among the Johto Team in the market place.
"We're running out of time!" warned Joe. "We have to find a way to get out of here!"
"Don't you think we know that already?" asked Jessie sarcastically.
Suddenly, a flash of light came from the direction of the temple! "Over there!" cried May.
A massive wave of pure Psychic energy raced along the ground. Its deafening roar was like that of a tidal wave about to overtake a hapless coastal city. In its wake was a trail of destruction unlike anything anyone had ever seen. Everything the wave touched was obliterated, leaving nothing behind but barren earth. The team fled in terror, but even they could not escape their inevitable destruction. Once the wave finally subsided, all that was left was the temple. The civilisation of Alph was no more.
****************************************
Mimi opened her eyes and found herself standing just outside of the temple with Jessie, James, and Joe. Everyone was wondering what just happened. "Where are we?" asked Joe.
"Is it just me, or is this the place we first found each other?" asked James.
"Yeah, I remember standing here and talking with you guys!" noted Mimi.
Indeed, Mimi could not be more accurate. Joe was standing near Mimi, having just escorted her to Jessie and James. Jessie and James were standing at the edge of a hill overlooking the Alph capital. From their location, they had a panoramic view of the sprawling city. This sense of deja vu elicited a sense of revelation and surprise.
"You're right..." mumbled Jessie.
"Well, now I know why the Alphans disappeared, but this was not the way I had in mind," commented James.
"The last thing I remember is that energy wall swallowing me, and now I'm here," said Mimi. "How can we still be alive?"
The group decided to find Ash and May before doing anything else. The High Priest held his speech for a second time. He denounced the Betan attack as act of treachery and praised his people's accomplishments. Again, Ash and May were on the stage, and rejoined the group afterwards. They too thought this was unusual and wondered what happened. Joe raised an important point; that the group had been sent back in time by the Psychic wave.
"How is possible for us to get sent back in time?" asked Ash.
"From what I read, Unown were known to have powers over time and space," lectured James. "It wouldn't be too difficult for them to send us back in time."
"Yeah, but why us, and why weren't we brought back to when we first came to this place?" asked Ash. This stumped the whole group.
"What about that wave?" asked May. "Before we got zapped, I saw the wave coming from the temple."
The group was still stumped, but before they did anything, they made two agreements. The first was to meet up outside of the temple if they ever got separated. The second was to find out what had caused that mysterious wave. It seemed that the temple was at the centre of this. Two months passed and the Alphans had predictably won the war. This time, the group met outside of the temple to find out what was happening there before the wave hit.
The courtyard of the temple was abuzz with activity. Slaves were hauling a massive but unusual gemstone up the stairs to the top of the temple. This stone had a somewhat disc-like shape and an orange lustre about it. Around its circumference were sharp protrusions that made the gemstone look like the sun. Ash recognized it as a Sun Stone, but one that was much larger than the one he had won at a Bug Catching contest in the Johto National Park.
"When Alph won the war, I heard they had taken a giant Sun Stone from the Betan temple," informed May. "...But why is it being brought to the temple?"
"That's what I intend to find out!" exclaimed Ash, as he ran to question the slaves at the base of the temple. The slaves immediately bowed in reverence upon becoming aware of the presence of their prince. "Can any of you tell me what's going on?"
"We're moving the Sun Stone to the top of the temple, your Highness. The High Priest needs it for a special ceremony he's about to perform," replied the slave. Content with the answer, Ash relayed the news to the group.
May realized something terrifying. "What if that ceremony was what destroyed Alph? That wave came from the temple, remember?"
"Why would the ceremony be of any harm to the city?" asked James. "Unless..."
"Unless what?" asked Jessie.
"Well, you know that we as priests channel Psychic power from the temple, and that the temple acts as an amplifier for the Unown's power, right?" asked James.
"Yeah, so what's the big deal?"
"I was thinking, what if they were using the Sun Stone as some sort of second amplifier? If that was true, what if they lost control of all that power?"
The Johto Team now realized that the wave was a result of this accident. "We have to stop the ceremony!" declared Ash.
The group ran up to the top of the temple as fast as they could. They could hear light chanting in an archaic language from above as the ceremony began. A priest and a priestess raised the Sun Stone aloft with a pulley system to face it towards the light of the sun. The High Priest continued chanting to the Sun Stone and his prostrate priests and priestesses echoed his words. They waved their arms up and down in reverence to the Sun Stone. At the halfway point, a pair of guards barred their way.
"Get out of my way!" screamed Jessie. Her eyes and tattoos glowed with azure light as she telekinetically shoved the guards into a pile.
The group continued to run up the stairs of the temple. A second pair of guards barred their way just steps away from the top. James took the honour of removing them by using Psychic powers to fling them into away. Several guards came from the rear, but Mimi cut them off by placing a Psychic barrier in the guards' path. Ash, May, and Joe ran the last leg of the stairs but it was too late...
The High Priest had finished his ceremony and the results were disastrous. A wave of Psychic energy burst from the Sun Stone, swallowing everyone near it whole. It rumbled as it spread out and devoured anything and anyone hapless enough to be in its path. The wave left nothing but barren earth in its wake. All traces of the Alphan civilisation were wiped out, leaving only the temple behind, the origin of Alph's destruction.
****************************************
"Priestess?" asked an unknown voice.
"Huh?" asked Mimi blankly. Mimi gathered her bearings and found herself in an infirmary in the temple. The speaker turned out to be her patient; a soldier she had healed.
"You kind of blacked out there... I said I'm okay now. Thank you priestess," said the soldier.
"Oh sure, anytime," replied Mimi.
Mimi took a break from her medical duties to get some air outside of the temple. "Hey!" cried Jessie, as she gestured to Mimi.
After several minutes the group reunited for an important meeting. "Okay, we now know that the ceremony is what caused that wave," began Joe. "Every time we restart the loop, we get closer and closer to doomsday! We need a plan and we'd better get it right or else we'll be trapped like this forever!"
"Those stupid guards keep getting in my way!" complained Jessie in anger.
"What we need is for someone to destroy the Sun Stone. If only we had someone on the inside who could do it for us," noted May.
Jessie got a sneaky idea, one that was befitting of her role as a Team Rocket agent. Jessie proposed it as the group huddled up to hear it. The war raged on once again, and many Alphans and Betans died as a result. As usual, the Alphans won the war and plundered the home city of the Betans before burning it. The Alphans took the Sun Stone from the Betan temple and brought it back to their temple. This time, the team executed Jessie's sneaky plan.
At the top of the temple, a priest and priestess raised the Sun Stone into the light of the radiant sun. Only this time, Jessie had stepped in as a replacement for the original priestess. Jessie had arranged for her predecessor to be "tied up" with other duties. The High Priest began chanting to the Sun Stone in an archaic language. His prostrate priests and priestess echoed his words as they waved their arms up and down reverently. Jessie could hear the sounds of a commotion coming her way.
This was her cue to sabotage the ceremony. She channelled her Psychic powers and flung the priest that helped support the Sun Stone into the High Priest. The High Priest stumbled off the top of the temple into a pair of hapless guards who came to investigate. Jessie telekinetically lifted the still dazed priest once again and slammed him into the panicked priests and priestesses. The others entered the scene once Jessie cleared the area.
"Destroy the Sun Stone while we hold them off!" cried Ash.
The High Priest recovered from that sneak attack and was furious. "I'll get you for that you little brats!" His body changed into pink ooze before coalescing into a Dragonite.
"Doppelganger!" cried Ash.
The Doppelganger took to the air and the group prepared to fight it. It was going to be tough since they didn't have their monster partners for assistance. Golden energy gathered in the Doppelganger's maw and streamed outwards as a powerful beam. The beam collided harmlessly with a Psychic barrier that Mimi and James erected in defence. The Doppelganger moved closer and swiped at Joe, but he protected himself with his shield.
Ash and May flanked the beast and slashed it with their scimitars to no avail. The Doppelganger had scales that were as hard as steel. His tail suddenly lunged into the two and put them flat on their backs. He sent a flurry of swipes at Joe who was forced to hide behind the safety of his shield. The Doppelganger's head lurched back as a pair of concussive Psychic blasts smashed him in the face.
"Annoying little pricks!" cursed the Doppelganger, who fired a second Hyper Beam.
Again, Mimi and James erected a barrier in defence, and the beam grinded against it harmlessly. However, the Doppelganger sustained the attack, forcing the two to channel more power to maintain their defence. In the corner of his eye, the Doppelganger noticed the Sun Stone being dangled dangerously above the sloped side of the temple. He immediately aborted his attack and transformed into an Alakazam.
The Doppelganger wasted no time in using his newly acquired Psychic powers to hold back the Sun Stone. Jessie increased her power to combat the Doppelganger, who did the same in an effort to counter her. It became clear that she was no match for a Psychic Pokemon as powerful as an Alakazam. The Sun Stone returned to the temple's roof gradually. Mimi and James launched telekinetic attacks against the Doppelganger to force it to divert its attention onto them.
The Doppelganger redirected enough energy in time to create a momentary barrier to defend himself. James and Mimi kept the pressure on, pummelling the Doppelganger's barrier with repeated telekinetic blasts. Eventually, they won out as the barrier collapsed and the Doppelganger was smacked into the ground. Jessie telekinetically drove the Sun Stone hard into the temple's side.
The Doppelganger's face filled with horror. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
The Sun Stone bounced down the temple's side like a rolling tumbleweed and pieces of it broke off with each impact. As the Sun Stone cracked and shattered, the Doppelganger's face began to melt. Pink ooze gushed out of the tears forming in his body like blood from a ruptured artery. Wisps of mist billowed out his decaying body as he struggled futilely against his end. The Doppelganger plopped into a heap on the ground as it finished melting into a puddle of pink liquid.
The world of ancient Alph shattered around the group, who was dropped into an unknown chamber within the Ruins of Alph. In front of them were several Pokemon that resembled the tattoos Mimi, and Team Rocket used to have. They were the Unown species of Pokemon. The Unown were floating around the air to form a spherical pattern. On the ground were shards of what looked like obsidian or onyx. After a brief moment, they crumbled into data and vanished.
"Hey! There you are!" cried Gomamon as caught Joe in a big hug. "Everyone they're okay!"
The others ran into the chamber. "We were worried sick about you guys!" said Sora.
"What happened here?" asked Ash.
"After we fell in the hole, you guys went missing!" said Meowth. "What happened to you?"
"It's a long story..." replied Joe.
"Un... nown... un... nown..." chanted the Unown. A Psychic buzz filled the minds of the Johto Team. "Thank you, humans. We are the Unown. We were corrupted by the evil influence of a cursed artefact, a Stone of Doom. By using its own power against it, you destroyed the artefact's illusionary counterpart, the Sun Stone, and freed yourselves from its prison. In doing so, you have also freed us from its corrupting influence. Listen as we tell you the tale of Alph's doom."
An image of the Alphan Empire at its peak appeared in the space between the Unown. Several people were prostrate in worship before the Unown. "Long ago, the people of Alph worshipped us as gods. As a result of their worship, they harnessed our Psychic powers and used them to create a peaceful society."
A new image formed of the High Priest. "Peace and prosperity lasted for many centuries, but everything has its end. Though the clergy was meant to help the Alphan people and promote a virtuous way of life, the last High Priest developed an unquenchable lust for power. He discovered that the Betans owned an artefact of great power known as the Sun Stone."
An image of the Betans attacking the temple appeared. "He hoped to use it to amplify our power and increase his own. He knew he couldn't take the Sun Stone as long as the Betans were able to protect it. He disguised several slaves with Betan armour and ordered them to attack his own temple."
The image transformed into the Alphan Empire's doomsday. "He went before his people and deceived them into war with the Betans, all for the sake of his power lust. The Alphans won the war and the High Priest claimed his ill-gotten spoils. Just as the High Priest was about to reap the rewards of his lies and hypocrisy, fate delivered poetic justice onto him."
"He used the Sun Stone to amplify our powers further, to the point where he couldn't maintain control. This release of power killed the High Priest, but also annihilated the Alphan people, leaving only this temple as a reminder that they ever existed. Thank you, humans, for freeing us from the Stone of Doom. We know you seek to destroy the others of its kind. We shall transport you out of our temple so you may continue your quest. You are our world's only hope! Farewell..."
The Johto Team glowed with the azure light of the Unowns' Psychic powers and suddenly found themselves in front of Lance's jeep. He nearly fell out of his seat from surprise. "Whoa! Where did you guys come from?"
"You wouldn't believe me even if I told you..." replied Mimi.
A good metaphor for the Destiny Stones' purpose is trying to lift a heavy object. It's easier to lift something when multiple people are helping you, right? It's the same idea with the Sovereigns. Maintaining Digital World balance puts a great burden on the Sovereigns. If they can get some of the Stones back, they don't need as much effort to ensure balance.
Sylvia Viridian:
I must say, I'm flattered that I'm an inspiration for you. I hope to see it sometime.
Ninetalesuk:
You asked me in a GT:AoA review when I would do a Frontier fic? I'm planning a Pokemon/Frontier crossover as a sequel to Stones of Doom. One of the things I have planned is introducing fan made Fusion & Unified forms for the elements that don't have them yet. I have not heard of any official ones being released, and frankly, I don't think they'll ever be released.
Disclaimer:
Toei and Bandai own Digimon, and Nintendo owns Pokemon.
The Stones of Doom
By: RB3
Chapter 19: The Legacy of Alph
Back in Mahogany Town, Ash stayed at the side of Misty, who had been genetically altered by Team Rocket. "All this time, I never knew you felt this way about me... Could I have saved you if I knew sooner?"
Sora and Biyomon looked on and James came to check on Ash. "Is he going to be alright?" he asked.
"I don't know," replied Sora. "He feels like it's his fault that this happened."
Jessie and Meowth approached. "Poor guy," said Meowth.
"Why don't you talk to him?" Jessie suggested.
"Me?" asked Sora.
"Yes you! Who else?" asked Jessie sarcastically. "You're the Digi-whatchamacallit of Love."
Sora pouted. "That's Digidestined..."
"Whatever... Anyways, I'm saying that you know love better than any of us, so talk to him already! Teach him about love and all that other mushy stuff!"
"Oh, alright!" Sora entered the room as Jessie made everyone else leave. "Ash, don't blame yourself for this. You weren't responsible for turning Misty into what she is now."
"Am I? I was the last person to know. All this time it was in front of me and I didn't even notice; not with Melody, not with May..."
"You know now, right?" asked Sora.
"Yeah, but now it's too late. Look at her. She's lying in a hospital bed and might never wake up ever again. I couldn't save her."
"You DID save her, Ash, more than you realize," corrected Sora.
Ash was puzzled. "What do you mean? You're not making any sense!"
"We saved her soul. Even after being filled with hatred, a part of her was still alive inside of Marilith. You know what that part was? It was her feelings for you. She was willing to do anything to protect you, even put her own life at risk. If we didn't do anything, I know that Misty would have been gone forever."
Ash was puzzled by Sora's explanation. "How do you know all of this?"
"It was when Biyomon Digivolved to Mega for the first time. My Crest of Love glowed and I experienced Misty's feelings as though I was her. It was so scary, so overwhelming, but it was so warm and tender too."
"Pretty weird," said Ash.
Sora nodded. "The important thing is that we saved Misty. We can always change her back some other time. Right now, we have a war to stop and a world to save!"
"Yeah!" exclaimed Ash, now feeling reenergized. "You're right! Let's get the next Stone!"
After returning to Goldenrod, the Johto Team, Team Rocket, and Lance met in a meeting room within a police station to discuss progress on the search for Hypocrisy. So far, the police had no luck in finding the stone, but did succeed in capturing four of the five Doppelgangers. These busts triggered many ugly scandals that news stations across the country latched onto. This was only aggravated further by a shocking event in Hoenn; the destruction of Lilycove City by nuclear weapons. The Johto team was appalled by this turn of events.
The news switched to some footage of the carnage. Buildings were smashed into pieces and charred black by intense flames. The reporter stayed well away from the city itself, which had been contaminated by fallout and deemed too dangerous to enter without protective gear. He was reporting from a medical camp for those exposed to radiation. It was a miserable place and the victims' wounds brought them great suffering. One by one, paramedics would return to the camp with new survivors. Hoenn's authorities vowed retribution for this attack.
The news returned to the Johto governmental scandals. "Military sources suspect that Kanto had acquired some of its nuclear technology from Johto. This scandal comes just on the heels of other scandals involving impostors infiltrating the government and the cover up of unethical genetic research."
Lance shut off the TV. "We've been trying to find out where the Stone of Doom is, but so far, the prisoners haven't been cooperative."
"I'm sure it is somewhere in or near this city, since we found the Doppelgangers here," said TK.
"Who's going to lead Johto now that the President is a fake?" asked Meowth.
"I still wonder where the real President is," admitted Jessie.
"Good questions," admitted Lance. "Unfortunately, the police have no idea where they are. For all we know, the President and his aides could be dead at the hands of the Doppelgangers. The military had to place Johto under martial law until new leaders can be elected. They're not going to let this slide. This was an act of war."
A few days passed. The captured Doppelgangers shuddered at the coldness of their holding cell. In fact, their cell was more of a freezer than a holding cell. A thin layer of frost lined the walls of their cell. They had been encased in ice due to the freezing cold of their cell. Their lower bodies were pinkish ooze, but from the waist up, they were no different than ordinary humans. An interrogator in heavy winter clothing entered the cell and began to question them.
At first, the Doppelgangers were extremely uncooperative. In fact, they were quite hostile and sarcastic. To elicit more cooperation, the interrogator had the Doppelgangers hung upside down for extended periods of time. It was quite discomforting to be in such a position, which caused their liquid interior to rush towards their head. Eventually, they caved in and told the interrogator everything he wanted to know. The Stone of Doom was hidden in the remains of a mysterious ancient civilisation northeast of Goldenrod; the Ruins of Alph.
The Johto Team immediately travelled to the ruins. Lance waited outside in his jeep while the Johto Team and Team Rocket explored the interior. The Ruins of Alph was the civilisation's main temple and its only remnants. The Alphans, the people of this civilisation, had a mysterious relationship with the Unown species of Pokemon. The clergy worshipped this species of Pokemon and received mysterious powers from them. The Johto Team pierced the darkness with their flashlights and the flames of Torchic and Cyndaquil.
The temple was in fairly good shape, despite the lack of maintenance. The interior was a vast labyrinth of sandstone corridors. Despite having flashlights and Fire Pokemon, the Johto Team found it a dark and claustrophobic place. They combed deeper into the ruins until they found a vast chamber with hieroglyphs on each of its walls. At the centre was a stone altar with a square slot in it. Within this slot were sixteen tiles that created a picture once placed in the right positions.
"Hey, that's one of those sliding tile puzzles!" remarked Mimi. "You slide the tiles into the right place to make some sort of picture."
Mimi moved to solve the puzzle, but Joe stopped her. "Uh Mimi, I don't think it's a good idea to be fiddling with that..."
"Why?"
"Whenever there are ancient ruins, there are usually booby traps." Mimi immediately withdrew her hand from the puzzle.
Meowth glanced around as he walked along the sides of the walls. As he passed the wall in front of the puzzle altar, he felt a faint draft seemingly coming from the wall itself. At first, Meowth thought it was just his imagination. After carefully examining the wall, he noticed an outline of empty space. Following the outline, he discovered that it formed some sort of door. He tried to push it open, but had no luck doing so.
"Hey guys, I found a secret door! Help me open it!" called Meowth.
The team pushed and pulled the door in every direction imaginable, but it wouldn't open. "Torchic, melt the wall open with Flamethrower!" ordered May.
The flames struck the wall as predicted, but instead of melting the wall, it exposed a barrier of violet light. It surrounded the wall like a protective coating. There was no way it could be a natural phenomenon. Ash suspected that this was the work of powerful Psychic energies, but found it odd that this energy manifested itself with purple light. Normally, Psychic energy manifested itself with azure light. Even with multiple Pokemon and Digimon attacking the shield, it still wouldn't collapse.
"No go. We have to try something else," said May with disappointment.
"This shield..." mumbled TK as he approached the wall. "I can feel the Powers of Darkness from it. Maybe we should try solving that puzzle."
The Johto Team huddled around the altar and began to slide the tiles into position. After a few minutes of manoeuvring, they formed the picture of a Kabuto. Kabutos were the Pokemon World's equivalent of the horseshoe crab. The Johto Team waited for the wall to open, but a trap door opened underneath them instead! They screamed as they tumbled into the darkness below.
****************************************
"Priestess, are you okay?" asked an unknown voice.
Mimi groggily turned to look at the speaker. He was a tall, buffed man with bronze skin and black hair. He was clad in leather chest armour, sandals, and carried a sharp, dangerous spear in his hand. This man looked like a guard from an ancient civilisation. He had a look of concern on his face and his hand was outstretched as an offer to help her. Mimi grabbed his hand and the man lifted her onto her feet.
Mimi was still groggy from the fall. "Thank you. Who are you? Where am I? Where's Palmon?"
"I'm not sure what you mean by 'Palmon,' but I'm Abdul, one of the guards for your temple. We came under attack by the Betans, but drove them away. You were knocked out during the fight by an explosive device and I found you here, lying on the ground."
"Hold on! I'm not a priestess!" objected Mimi.
"Ah, but you are!" replied Abdul. "You came here earlier to get the tattoos to advance in rank. It was a momentous occasion, and you were quite proud of yourself."
Mimi looked at her surroundings. She recognized the masonry of her room as being consistent with that of the Ruins of Alph. However, it was much cleaner than she remembered it with the sole exception of the blast hole in the wall. She gazed at herself through a mirror and was surprised by what she saw. Mimi was a in a loose fitting satin dress that covered her entire body. Though it was modest as far as clothing was concerned, she thought the dress was actually stylish.
The thing she disliked the most were the strange symbols tattooed onto her body. Each symbol was black and seemed to be an abstract representation of the letters of the English alphabet. They had a mysterious, supernatural aura to their appearance. The only other thing common amongst these symbols was that each had what looked like an eye designed into it. Each of the eyes had a piercing, distant gaze about them.
"Ugh! What are these things doing on my body?" complained Mimi as she tried to remove them.
"I told you, they're the tattoos that symbolize your rank," replied Abdul. "You can't remove them. They're permanent."
"Why couldn't they be flowers or something in pink?"
"Sorry, but these tattoos have religious significance. You have to have them in order to be considered a true priestess."
Mimi sighed. "I need some air..."
"Sure, just don't get in the way of the soldiers. They're cleaning up after the battle."
The temple itself was lined by effigies that resembled the tattoos on her body. It seemed that the Alphans placed great religious importance in these symbols, possibly to the point of revering them. She began to wonder if she was in some kind of dream, or that she had travelled back in time to the era of the Alphan Empire. Mimi walked through the hallways of the temple, noticing the bodies of the soldiers that fell in battle. As Abdul said, they were cleaning up the bodies of those who had fallen during the fighting.
She soon found a familiar face among the guards; Joe. "Hey Joe!" she cried.
"Mimi! Am I ever glad to see you! Do you know what's going on here? First we were falling into this hole and then I suddenly find myself as a guard of the Alphan Empire."
"I don't know anything either. I just woke up and found out that I was a priestess."
"Yeah, I could tell by the tattoos on your body. Jessie and James have the same thing on their bodies. James said those tattoos are of Unown, a Pokemon species."
"Where are they?"
"They're outside having a look around. I'll take you to them."
The two Digidestined walked out and as Joe said, Jessie and James were there, looking down at the sprawling capital city of Alph in bewilderment. Like Mimi, Jessie wore the same religious vestments as Mimi did. James on the other hand, wore a white robe that was cotton rather than satin. He also had a crown-like headdress adorned with Unown effigies. The two Team Rocket members were glad to see familiar faces.
"You're alright!" remarked James.
"Yep, have you seen any of the others?" asked Mimi.
"No," admitted Jessie. "We only found you and the glasses twerp."
Joe was miffed at that comment. "I do have a name, you know. It's Joe. We should look around town and meet back at the temple if we find anyone."
Alph city was a beautiful place with sandstone buildings lining the sides of the stone streets. Everywhere they looked, they saw merchants advertising their wares to the public. Mimi, Joe, Jessie, and James searched through the town, asking if the people had seen anyone matching the descriptions of their friends. They found no leads despite a few hours of searching. Mimi found only one thing of interest; the Emperor and his aides were coming to the town square to make an announcement.
The town square was abuzz with activity as Alphan citizens gathered to hear the announcement. At the very centre of the square was a raised stage for the speakers to stand on. Mimi looked on as the people began paying homage to the Emperor and his court. She played along to avoid drawing suspicion until she spotted two familiar faces approaching the stage; Ash and May. Mimi didn't even recognize them at first. It wasn't until she examined them very carefully that she finally recognized them.
From their appearance, Mimi concluded they were members of the royal family in this world. May was no longer wearing her Pokemon-style sports wear. Instead, she was well kempt and wore a glamorous, frilly white dress. It took her some time to become accustomed to such a change in May's appearance. Mimi had actually thought May was a totally different person. She was quite jealous that May got to be the princess and not her.
It wasn't only May that had changed. Ash had been changed a lot as well. He was clothed in a regal, loose-fitting white suit. On his belt was a jewelled scimitar holstered within its sheath. He looked like a charming prince from an Arabian love story. Mimi could swear that he was going to make a grand entrance and sweep a girl off her feet. Ash was so dashing that Mimi became enamoured with him.
The Emperor himself was a man with a great air of authority and a stern expression. He was a muscular man with a light skin tone and black hair. He wore a suit similar to that of Ash's, but it had a pattern similar to the Unown tattoos on Mimi's body. His golden crown and black sceptre were adorned by an Unown effigies made of a diamond and onyx. He raised his sceptre into the air and the crowd fell silent.
A second man stood forward to make his speech. He was a thin man with black hair and a pleasant demeanour. Like Mimi, he too had Unown tattoos on his body, which indicated that he was a religious man. He wore priestly robes and a headdress similar to ones James wore, only more ornate. He carried a staff with ornaments designed with the likeness of the Unown.
The MC called the High Priest to make his speech. "We, the people of Alph, have prided ourselves on following the word of the gods. Today, our pride as a people was treacherously attacked by the Betans. They have desecrated our holy temple and murdered our people right before our very eyes! We will not tolerate this! The Emperor has declared war on the Betans as retribution for this wrong."
Mimi managed to catch the attention of Ash and May, who waved back in response. Jessie, James, and Joe found Mimi. "Hey, I found Ash and May!" Mimi pointed to them at the stage and the two waved back at them. After the Emperor's speech, the two groups met at the rear of the stage. "Am I glad to see you guys!" exclaimed Ash. "I woke up and found out I was a prince of the Alphan Empire and May was a princess. Where are the others? Is Pikachu alright?"
"Slow down, Ash!" demanded Joe. "We're just as clueless as you are. All I know is that we were in the ruins, fell down a hole, and then became people in this weird world. We haven't been able to find Sora, TK, or any of our partners yet."
"Maybe we're the only ones here," suggested May.
"There's no doubt about it. This is the Alphan civilisation," noted James. "I recognize the architecture from history books I read as a little boy. Mimi, Jessie, and I are part of the church because of these tattoos on our bodies." James pulled down his sleeve to reveal the Unown tattoos that marked his arm.
"I'm some sort of soldier or guard," said Joe.
"The Stone of Doom must have trapped us in some sort of dream, or alternate dimension of some kind," said Ash.
"Tell me more about Alph, James," asked Joe.
"Well, from what I remember, the latest records described everything we saw today; the attack on the temple, and the war against the Betans that came after. After that, there were no more records. It's like the people of Alph just vanished without a trace."
Jessie was unnerved. "Vanished without a trace?" James simply nodded.
"Now, I'm really scared..." admitted May.
"No need to be scared. We'll just find a way out before it happens!" proclaimed Ash.
For a month, Mimi and her friends looked for ways to free themselves from this illusionary prison. However, they could not find any way of escaping. The war between the Alphans and Betans raged on and many Alphan soldiers returned home wounded. As members of the clergy, Mimi, Jessie, and James were supposed to give medical attention to the soldiers. To do this, they used the Psychic powers of the Unown species of Pokemon.
Mimi walked around the isles of an infirmary set up in the temple. All along the wall were cots filled with injured men and women. All had bandages wrapped around their bleeding wounds. Some were worse off, having been maimed or having a limb severed during battle. Mimi channelled the Unowns' power, causing her eyes and the eyes of her Unown tattoos to glow with azure light. Her patient's wounds resealed themselves at an astonishing rate.
The now healthy soldier was grateful. "Thank you priestess!"
"No problem!" replied Mimi.
Another month passed by before the Emperor declared victory over the Betans. They pillaged the Betan capital before burning it into ash. The Alphans captured the Betans that had survived the war and brought them back to work as slaves. This victory sounded the alarm for Mimi and the others. The end of the Alphan Empire was quickly approaching and time was growing short. This triggered a prompt meeting among the Johto Team in the market place.
"We're running out of time!" warned Joe. "We have to find a way to get out of here!"
"Don't you think we know that already?" asked Jessie sarcastically.
Suddenly, a flash of light came from the direction of the temple! "Over there!" cried May.
A massive wave of pure Psychic energy raced along the ground. Its deafening roar was like that of a tidal wave about to overtake a hapless coastal city. In its wake was a trail of destruction unlike anything anyone had ever seen. Everything the wave touched was obliterated, leaving nothing behind but barren earth. The team fled in terror, but even they could not escape their inevitable destruction. Once the wave finally subsided, all that was left was the temple. The civilisation of Alph was no more.
****************************************
Mimi opened her eyes and found herself standing just outside of the temple with Jessie, James, and Joe. Everyone was wondering what just happened. "Where are we?" asked Joe.
"Is it just me, or is this the place we first found each other?" asked James.
"Yeah, I remember standing here and talking with you guys!" noted Mimi.
Indeed, Mimi could not be more accurate. Joe was standing near Mimi, having just escorted her to Jessie and James. Jessie and James were standing at the edge of a hill overlooking the Alph capital. From their location, they had a panoramic view of the sprawling city. This sense of deja vu elicited a sense of revelation and surprise.
"You're right..." mumbled Jessie.
"Well, now I know why the Alphans disappeared, but this was not the way I had in mind," commented James.
"The last thing I remember is that energy wall swallowing me, and now I'm here," said Mimi. "How can we still be alive?"
The group decided to find Ash and May before doing anything else. The High Priest held his speech for a second time. He denounced the Betan attack as act of treachery and praised his people's accomplishments. Again, Ash and May were on the stage, and rejoined the group afterwards. They too thought this was unusual and wondered what happened. Joe raised an important point; that the group had been sent back in time by the Psychic wave.
"How is possible for us to get sent back in time?" asked Ash.
"From what I read, Unown were known to have powers over time and space," lectured James. "It wouldn't be too difficult for them to send us back in time."
"Yeah, but why us, and why weren't we brought back to when we first came to this place?" asked Ash. This stumped the whole group.
"What about that wave?" asked May. "Before we got zapped, I saw the wave coming from the temple."
The group was still stumped, but before they did anything, they made two agreements. The first was to meet up outside of the temple if they ever got separated. The second was to find out what had caused that mysterious wave. It seemed that the temple was at the centre of this. Two months passed and the Alphans had predictably won the war. This time, the group met outside of the temple to find out what was happening there before the wave hit.
The courtyard of the temple was abuzz with activity. Slaves were hauling a massive but unusual gemstone up the stairs to the top of the temple. This stone had a somewhat disc-like shape and an orange lustre about it. Around its circumference were sharp protrusions that made the gemstone look like the sun. Ash recognized it as a Sun Stone, but one that was much larger than the one he had won at a Bug Catching contest in the Johto National Park.
"When Alph won the war, I heard they had taken a giant Sun Stone from the Betan temple," informed May. "...But why is it being brought to the temple?"
"That's what I intend to find out!" exclaimed Ash, as he ran to question the slaves at the base of the temple. The slaves immediately bowed in reverence upon becoming aware of the presence of their prince. "Can any of you tell me what's going on?"
"We're moving the Sun Stone to the top of the temple, your Highness. The High Priest needs it for a special ceremony he's about to perform," replied the slave. Content with the answer, Ash relayed the news to the group.
May realized something terrifying. "What if that ceremony was what destroyed Alph? That wave came from the temple, remember?"
"Why would the ceremony be of any harm to the city?" asked James. "Unless..."
"Unless what?" asked Jessie.
"Well, you know that we as priests channel Psychic power from the temple, and that the temple acts as an amplifier for the Unown's power, right?" asked James.
"Yeah, so what's the big deal?"
"I was thinking, what if they were using the Sun Stone as some sort of second amplifier? If that was true, what if they lost control of all that power?"
The Johto Team now realized that the wave was a result of this accident. "We have to stop the ceremony!" declared Ash.
The group ran up to the top of the temple as fast as they could. They could hear light chanting in an archaic language from above as the ceremony began. A priest and a priestess raised the Sun Stone aloft with a pulley system to face it towards the light of the sun. The High Priest continued chanting to the Sun Stone and his prostrate priests and priestesses echoed his words. They waved their arms up and down in reverence to the Sun Stone. At the halfway point, a pair of guards barred their way.
"Get out of my way!" screamed Jessie. Her eyes and tattoos glowed with azure light as she telekinetically shoved the guards into a pile.
The group continued to run up the stairs of the temple. A second pair of guards barred their way just steps away from the top. James took the honour of removing them by using Psychic powers to fling them into away. Several guards came from the rear, but Mimi cut them off by placing a Psychic barrier in the guards' path. Ash, May, and Joe ran the last leg of the stairs but it was too late...
The High Priest had finished his ceremony and the results were disastrous. A wave of Psychic energy burst from the Sun Stone, swallowing everyone near it whole. It rumbled as it spread out and devoured anything and anyone hapless enough to be in its path. The wave left nothing but barren earth in its wake. All traces of the Alphan civilisation were wiped out, leaving only the temple behind, the origin of Alph's destruction.
****************************************
"Priestess?" asked an unknown voice.
"Huh?" asked Mimi blankly. Mimi gathered her bearings and found herself in an infirmary in the temple. The speaker turned out to be her patient; a soldier she had healed.
"You kind of blacked out there... I said I'm okay now. Thank you priestess," said the soldier.
"Oh sure, anytime," replied Mimi.
Mimi took a break from her medical duties to get some air outside of the temple. "Hey!" cried Jessie, as she gestured to Mimi.
After several minutes the group reunited for an important meeting. "Okay, we now know that the ceremony is what caused that wave," began Joe. "Every time we restart the loop, we get closer and closer to doomsday! We need a plan and we'd better get it right or else we'll be trapped like this forever!"
"Those stupid guards keep getting in my way!" complained Jessie in anger.
"What we need is for someone to destroy the Sun Stone. If only we had someone on the inside who could do it for us," noted May.
Jessie got a sneaky idea, one that was befitting of her role as a Team Rocket agent. Jessie proposed it as the group huddled up to hear it. The war raged on once again, and many Alphans and Betans died as a result. As usual, the Alphans won the war and plundered the home city of the Betans before burning it. The Alphans took the Sun Stone from the Betan temple and brought it back to their temple. This time, the team executed Jessie's sneaky plan.
At the top of the temple, a priest and priestess raised the Sun Stone into the light of the radiant sun. Only this time, Jessie had stepped in as a replacement for the original priestess. Jessie had arranged for her predecessor to be "tied up" with other duties. The High Priest began chanting to the Sun Stone in an archaic language. His prostrate priests and priestess echoed his words as they waved their arms up and down reverently. Jessie could hear the sounds of a commotion coming her way.
This was her cue to sabotage the ceremony. She channelled her Psychic powers and flung the priest that helped support the Sun Stone into the High Priest. The High Priest stumbled off the top of the temple into a pair of hapless guards who came to investigate. Jessie telekinetically lifted the still dazed priest once again and slammed him into the panicked priests and priestesses. The others entered the scene once Jessie cleared the area.
"Destroy the Sun Stone while we hold them off!" cried Ash.
The High Priest recovered from that sneak attack and was furious. "I'll get you for that you little brats!" His body changed into pink ooze before coalescing into a Dragonite.
"Doppelganger!" cried Ash.
The Doppelganger took to the air and the group prepared to fight it. It was going to be tough since they didn't have their monster partners for assistance. Golden energy gathered in the Doppelganger's maw and streamed outwards as a powerful beam. The beam collided harmlessly with a Psychic barrier that Mimi and James erected in defence. The Doppelganger moved closer and swiped at Joe, but he protected himself with his shield.
Ash and May flanked the beast and slashed it with their scimitars to no avail. The Doppelganger had scales that were as hard as steel. His tail suddenly lunged into the two and put them flat on their backs. He sent a flurry of swipes at Joe who was forced to hide behind the safety of his shield. The Doppelganger's head lurched back as a pair of concussive Psychic blasts smashed him in the face.
"Annoying little pricks!" cursed the Doppelganger, who fired a second Hyper Beam.
Again, Mimi and James erected a barrier in defence, and the beam grinded against it harmlessly. However, the Doppelganger sustained the attack, forcing the two to channel more power to maintain their defence. In the corner of his eye, the Doppelganger noticed the Sun Stone being dangled dangerously above the sloped side of the temple. He immediately aborted his attack and transformed into an Alakazam.
The Doppelganger wasted no time in using his newly acquired Psychic powers to hold back the Sun Stone. Jessie increased her power to combat the Doppelganger, who did the same in an effort to counter her. It became clear that she was no match for a Psychic Pokemon as powerful as an Alakazam. The Sun Stone returned to the temple's roof gradually. Mimi and James launched telekinetic attacks against the Doppelganger to force it to divert its attention onto them.
The Doppelganger redirected enough energy in time to create a momentary barrier to defend himself. James and Mimi kept the pressure on, pummelling the Doppelganger's barrier with repeated telekinetic blasts. Eventually, they won out as the barrier collapsed and the Doppelganger was smacked into the ground. Jessie telekinetically drove the Sun Stone hard into the temple's side.
The Doppelganger's face filled with horror. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
The Sun Stone bounced down the temple's side like a rolling tumbleweed and pieces of it broke off with each impact. As the Sun Stone cracked and shattered, the Doppelganger's face began to melt. Pink ooze gushed out of the tears forming in his body like blood from a ruptured artery. Wisps of mist billowed out his decaying body as he struggled futilely against his end. The Doppelganger plopped into a heap on the ground as it finished melting into a puddle of pink liquid.
The world of ancient Alph shattered around the group, who was dropped into an unknown chamber within the Ruins of Alph. In front of them were several Pokemon that resembled the tattoos Mimi, and Team Rocket used to have. They were the Unown species of Pokemon. The Unown were floating around the air to form a spherical pattern. On the ground were shards of what looked like obsidian or onyx. After a brief moment, they crumbled into data and vanished.
"Hey! There you are!" cried Gomamon as caught Joe in a big hug. "Everyone they're okay!"
The others ran into the chamber. "We were worried sick about you guys!" said Sora.
"What happened here?" asked Ash.
"After we fell in the hole, you guys went missing!" said Meowth. "What happened to you?"
"It's a long story..." replied Joe.
"Un... nown... un... nown..." chanted the Unown. A Psychic buzz filled the minds of the Johto Team. "Thank you, humans. We are the Unown. We were corrupted by the evil influence of a cursed artefact, a Stone of Doom. By using its own power against it, you destroyed the artefact's illusionary counterpart, the Sun Stone, and freed yourselves from its prison. In doing so, you have also freed us from its corrupting influence. Listen as we tell you the tale of Alph's doom."
An image of the Alphan Empire at its peak appeared in the space between the Unown. Several people were prostrate in worship before the Unown. "Long ago, the people of Alph worshipped us as gods. As a result of their worship, they harnessed our Psychic powers and used them to create a peaceful society."
A new image formed of the High Priest. "Peace and prosperity lasted for many centuries, but everything has its end. Though the clergy was meant to help the Alphan people and promote a virtuous way of life, the last High Priest developed an unquenchable lust for power. He discovered that the Betans owned an artefact of great power known as the Sun Stone."
An image of the Betans attacking the temple appeared. "He hoped to use it to amplify our power and increase his own. He knew he couldn't take the Sun Stone as long as the Betans were able to protect it. He disguised several slaves with Betan armour and ordered them to attack his own temple."
The image transformed into the Alphan Empire's doomsday. "He went before his people and deceived them into war with the Betans, all for the sake of his power lust. The Alphans won the war and the High Priest claimed his ill-gotten spoils. Just as the High Priest was about to reap the rewards of his lies and hypocrisy, fate delivered poetic justice onto him."
"He used the Sun Stone to amplify our powers further, to the point where he couldn't maintain control. This release of power killed the High Priest, but also annihilated the Alphan people, leaving only this temple as a reminder that they ever existed. Thank you, humans, for freeing us from the Stone of Doom. We know you seek to destroy the others of its kind. We shall transport you out of our temple so you may continue your quest. You are our world's only hope! Farewell..."
The Johto Team glowed with the azure light of the Unowns' Psychic powers and suddenly found themselves in front of Lance's jeep. He nearly fell out of his seat from surprise. "Whoa! Where did you guys come from?"
"You wouldn't believe me even if I told you..." replied Mimi.