Chapter 6-- Into the Unknown Dungeon
Willow and her Pokemon rested outside Mount Moon after their adventure within. They walked slowly toward Cerulean City, looking for any new Pokemon along the way. In the late afternoon, Willow reached a slow-moving stream near Cerulean. She let her Pokemon out to play in the water. The stream looked calm and shallow enough. It should have been perfectly safe. But, as in the old saying, still waters run deep. Willow didn't know it, but she was standing outside the stream leading into a highly dangerous and highly off-limits cavern--the Unknown Dungeon!
After a few minutes, Willow returned her Pokemon. It was getting late, and she had to head on. As she walked along the bank, Willow's foot slipped on a patch of mud. She plunged into the icy water--and was quickly sucked under by a ferocious current!
Before she knew it, Willow was kneeling on the banks of yet another underground stream. Willow groaned. No matter how careful she was, she always seemed to get lost! Willow knew that she would never be able to leave the way she entered. She began to look for another entrance. As usual, she became hopelessly lost. Of course, she didn't know where she was to begin with, so she didn't realize this at first.
Soon, however, she tried to get back to the area she started her journey from. At this point, she discovered that she was lost in a veritable maze of tunnels. This time, she knew that there might not be a way out. Willow shivered. The cavern was cold and unfriendly. Water dripped slowly from some unseen stalactite. The slow, steady sound gave the illusion that time had stopped, and Willow was trapped in an eternal dark silence of fear and hidden malice...the eerie sensation that someone or something was watching her, and growing increasingly enraged by her presence, was unsettling.
Willow coughed loudly to bring herself back to reality. The echoes bounced off the walls, reverberating with such magnitude that the sound, warped by the twists and turns of the caverns, sounded like mocking laughter in Willow's frightened mind. She shrank back, trembling with fear and fatigue.
Willow wondered what time it was, and if anyone would ever realize that she was missing. She was also beginning to feel hungry, cold, and tired. Being soaking wet didn't help matters. Willow continued walking. She was in a rougher cavern, so she knew that it must have been naturally craved out of the rock by water, not made by humans or Pokemon. Suddenly, she heard a noise. Something was creeping up behind her. Willow spun around...looking into the shadowy passage behind her, she screamed.
Willow found herself facing a furious, wild-eyed Dodrio! She whipped out her Pokedex--only to remember that it was broken. The wires sparked slightly. This seemed to madden the irate Pokemon even further! Willow had no way of knowing that this was no ordinary wild Pokemon. This was a feral Pokemon; it had no ability to reason or cooperate with others, and was highly territorial. Feral Pokemon wouldn't even listen to the Guardian.
Alas, Willow thought it was an ordinary wild Pokemon! "Go! Rafael! Use Thundershock!" Rafael tried to do this, but was slammed backwards by the Dodrio before he could move a muscle. "Rafael, return! I'm sorry...I thought you could beat it..."
Willow realized that she had no hope of defeating this dangerous Pokemon. She ran for her life, just as a powerful Drill Peck shattered the floor she had been standing on. Willow ran as hard as she could, but the Dodrio was still catching up! It was faster and stronger than Willow, and being feral had not affected its ability to make decisions. She would never outrun it; she would have to outthink it!
Willow glanced quickly at the tunnel walls. Finally, she saw what she was looking for. A small space, too small for Dodrio to fit inside, branched off the main passageway. Willow ducked inside. Crouching down, she saw that it was longer than she had thought. It was actually a small tunnel itself. Realizing that it was too dangerous to go back into the main passage, she followed it. Willow knew that these wild Pokemon were far too powerful for her. She had to escape--and fast!
Crawling down the tunnel, Willow finally reached a wider area. She stood up stiffly. Looking at the walls, she saw that they were smooth, and cut from blocks of stone. Looking closer, she saw that she was inside some kind of citadel! It was clearly ancient.
Willow had actually left the Unknown Dungeon at this point. She was inside a never-before explored area, accessible only by the passageway she had found by chance. The walls were covered with ancient carvings. Willow's Pokemon (except for Rafael) came out of their Pokeballs to look around.
Willow looked closely at the walls. They seemed to have some kind of ancient writing on them, but even as she looked, Willow realized that she could read the letters. She knew this was impossible; they were not written in English, and they had not changed in appearance. Somehow, she knew what they meant!
Willow looked at the top panel. "The Citadel of the Moon. That must be the name of this place! Hmm...this drawing looks like some kind of animal...it looks a little bit like Mew, but the face and tail are wrong. The color is off too. It's almost like a cat... Who could have made these pictures? And why can I read the writing?"
Willow heard a sound behind her. She turned slowly around...and nothing was there! She heard what sounded like a laugh. "All right, come out, whatever you are! Show yourself!"
With that, a small, pale-blue Pokemon appeared before her. Looking at the drawing, Willow realized that the creature on the wall was very similar to this one. Glancing back at the blue Pokemon in front of her, she mused that this one looked more like Mew than the ancient picture. "Hello...who are you? What are you? And where am I?
You are in the Citadel of the Moon. It says so on the wall. This temple was built by a very ancient people. In fact, today they are called the Ancient Civilization. Their main settlement is in the Wastelands near the Machine City, and surrounding the hidden Lake League, but they also built this temple. There is another like it in the Viridian Forest.
You probably think that I look a lot like that Pokemon on the wall. I have similar DNA to that Pokemon, but I am a hybrid. Researchers in your home--Winter Isle--tried to cross a remnant of DNA from this Pokemon with genetic information from a Mew embryo. The result--me! I'm not as strong as that creature, and I'm too young to be very powerful.
There were lots of Pokemon there, but we weren't treated well. A boy named Thomas saved us, with help from Matt. Since then, I've wandered around. I don't think anyone knows about me, not even the Guardian; most of the scientists who created me escaped custody, and later died in a storm at sea. They called me Mew3, but that's not my name! I'm Katsu!
There's an important thing inside this Citadel; go get it! It's all right--it's only an old Pokeball. It's empty, and you don't have an extra for me. Go on, go get it!
Willow blinked. This creature was obviously very talkative! "Your Pokeball? Am I taking you with me, then?
Katsu nodded. Of course! I don't want to stay in this Citadel forever! I want to come with you! Go get my Pokeball!
Willow smiled. She walked down the dusty hall. The Citadel was filled with dim sunlight, but the effect wasn't frightening at all. Instead, it gave the place an old, tired, friendly look. Willow picked up the blue-white Pokeball lying on a pedestal in the center of the temple. Beside it lay a pure-white stone.
You can take that too. I think it's a Moonstone, but it might be something else. I've never really seen one up close.
Willow picked it up. It was warm to the touch. She clipped the beautiful, ancient Pokeball to her belt. "Katsu? Why is this place called the Citadel of the Moon?"
I think it's because the moon shines straight through that window in the roof on nights of the full moon. There's another connection too; moon Pokemon can evolve with the stone you picked up from the pedestal. That's why I think it's a Moonstone.
We should leave. This Citadel was very large once, but most has collapsed from erosion. This chamber was never damaged, though; it might have something to do with the Stone.
Willow and her Pokemon left the temple together. As soon as they were outside, the entire structure collapsed. Its purpose was fulfilled; Willow, a trainer with a Pokemon descended from a great Moon Lord of old, had taken the Stone of the Citadel.