Autumn: *places down bishop* Alright, your move.
Rocco: ...
Autumn: Rocco? It's uh, your turn.
Rocco: Rocco. Think.
Rocco: *glances at Epsilon while pointing at a pawn* What. Move?
Epsilon: Well, it moves two spaces forward if you haven't moved it yet. After that, it only moves one. It can attack one space on the two forward diagonals.
Rocco: … I. Move?
Autumn: *slightly impatiently* Yes, it's your turn.
Rocco: *moves a pawn*
Epsilon: There we go, good defense. Ah, hello dear readers and welcome back to Roadtrip. Yes, it is I. The 'metal-man' as Tyler refers to me, even though I'm clearly not shaped like one.
Epsilon: Alright, this will be the second to last part of this multi-part arc! It might get a little hectic up in here and that's fun, right?
Epsilon: Just a heads up, BM is going to be starting college by the time this goes up and he has decided to scrap his upload schedule, stating that he doesn't want to make any more promises he can't keep. He says he's sorry and wants you guys to forgive him.
Epsilon: That's enough talking from me, let's get on with it!
Autumn: Huh, let me try… this. *moves a piece*
Rocco: Me. Confuse.
Epsilon and Autumn: *sighs*
"Well I'll be damned…" Tyler muttered in shock, ogling the badge as he turned it around in his hand. His team huddled around him, all of them taking an interest in the badge. As he was about to open his mouth to ask a question, Lucas lifted a finger since he already knew Tyler's question.
"I told Maylene what you did at the Galactic hideout. Thanks to all of your efforts, we managed to clear out and begin restoration on the observatory, along with reassigning it's old team. She concluded while you didn't officially have a battle with her, what you did was great help to the citizens of Veilstone and its surroundings."
Pride welled up in Tyler's chest as he looked over to his equally jubilant friend. The two shared a fist-bump and a high five, their joy highly infectious to the rest. The negative atmosphere around them all but disappeared in that moment.
"Now, on to why we're here. This here is the Solaceon Ruins. You lot know about it, right?" Lucas questioned while jutting his thumb towards the large doorway atop an appropriately large yet crumbling stairway leading into the ruins. Josh nodded.
"Yes, I've read about it. Has some pretty interesting interiors and runes." Josh inquired with a hand on his chin. Lucas nodded and sat down on the grass with his legs folded.
"That's true. However, that may not be all. Using ultrasonic scans from various Psychic types and our own equipment, we've concluded that there are more floors below." He explained while pulling out a tablet. Lucas then showed them what was on it.
It was a line graph which depicted the vertical axis as the speed of the wave and the horizontal axis as the time elapsed. The line seemed to peak at an almost consistent interval.
"See here, these peaks show that there might be parts that are denser than air such as floors. Judging by how they're arranged, it's safe to say that we may have a breakthrough." Lucas boasted proudly, placing the tablet back into his satchel.
"Hold on, how can we be sure that those are actually more floors? It might be gaps in the rock." Josh chimed. Lucas snapped his fingers and pointed at the entrance.
"We're going to dig down, of course!" Lucas exclaimed happily. Tyler gave a worried glance.
"Woah hold on, are you sure that's a good idea? I mean, no offense Lucas. You're the champion and all but that kinda sounds like vandalism of … old stuff." He concluded pathetically. Josh looked at him curiously.
"You mean destruction of cultural her-"
"Heritage! Yes, that's it. Yep." Tyler cut him off. Giving the two a deadpan look, Lucas continued.
"Funnily enough, we've already finished most of the preparations and I've already gained approval from the Ministry of Culture and the Cultural Preservation Group. See, as long as we do as little damage to the surroundings as possible, everything will be fine!" Lucas reasoned which quenched most of Tyler and Josh's worries.
At was then, Cynthia stepped up.
"I have a question, have you all noticed anything odd about Solaceon Town?" She questioned, a twinge of worry evident.
Thought they were not far from the main road, there was a distinct lack of traffic noise. Not a honk or a screech.
Just then, a fairly strong gust blew through the forest surrounding them. The leaves rustled lightly, almost emotionless in tone and pitch. Surrounding Bidoof and Starly scampered and flew away.
Before long, silence fell upon the forest yet again.
"Yeesh…" Tyler commented with a slight shiver. He noticed Jewel's less than happy mood. He reached down and stroked her back, trying to calm her down.
"Ugh, thanks Tyler. The negative energy suddenly spiked. I thought it went away!" Jewel commented with a tone that could be described as 'calm but frustrated'. Cynthia nodded at the mention of negative energy.
"Mhm, that's it. It seems to be particularly strong inside the ruins itself." Cynthia pointed at the entrance. Curious, Tyler himself approached closer. He noted the distinct shift as the atmosphere around him shifted, a bitter and cool feeling descended around him right before he stepped back.
"No kidding, that's weird…" He commented, readjusting to the lighter mood surrounding him as he began to think.
"We should be careful inside. I have a bad feeling about all of this." Tyler suggested. At this, Autumn looked quite a bit more nervous.
"W-wait, we're going i-inside? We don't know what may be in there!" She voiced her concerns pretty strongly. While it was true that Tyler had concerns of his own, he knew something had to be done or else Solaceon Town wouldn't be the same.
It was then he realized an important detail.
"Hold on, Lucas when did you set up the preparations?" Tyler quizzed. Lucas was quick to answer.
"The archaeological team left yesterday evening and I arrived here not too long after. Didn't check on the ruins last night cause I was real fuckin' tired. Though, nobody told me anything about any negative energy." Lucas answered with a shrug.
"That means it must've appeared between late last night and early this morning. What about you, Mom? Did you see anything enter or exit the ruins?" Tyler asked again with Cynthia shaking her head.
"Unfortunately, no. I arrived here last night as well though unlike Mr. Champion over here, I did take a look at the ruins. Felt nothing strange." Cynthia remarked with an affirming nod. Tyler nodded in return and stepped closer towards the entrance.
"Alright, here goes nothing."
…
Unlike other smaller caves in the Sinnoh region, the Solaceon Ruins had been renovated slightly to accommodate visitors, albeit minimally. The Ruins themselves have been around for thousands of years and they were first discovered around a century ago. The renovations made were outdated and it showed.
Old and worn lightbulbs which occasionally flickered hung from the ceiling sparsely. The floor was uneven and damaged in some areas which prompted the installation of crude metal handrails, cold to the touch and rusted away at differing rates.
A less than warm welcome to say the least, the negative energy did not help.
The sound of their footsteps echoed throughout the cave, scaring away nearby Ariados and disturbing a couple slumbering Zubats, who Tyler swore heard one of them cuss as they flew by.
The walls and ceiling of a few sections of the cave were beautifully chiseled limestone. Unfortunately, one of the things limestone does is erode fairly quickly over time. This was proven true as sections of the walls have fallen and turned to dust, revealing the original cavern behind it.
"Holy shit, it's almost suffocating in here." Tyler commented with slight difficulty, the combination of humid cave air and negative energy proving to be a nuisance to everyone.
"That's what being closed off from the public for two years does. Now, this way!" Lucas waved them over to one of the corridors. However, Tyler extended a hand.
"Hold on, I've never seen these inscriptions up close. I'll join you guys in a bit." Tyler said as he eyed the walls carefully. Lucas gave an approving thumbs up as he and Sol went on ahead, their footsteps echoing further and further away.
Cynthia noticed Tyler and his team admiring the walls and structures all over the ruins. He had a twinkle in his eyes as he perused the strange looking patterns and indentations, noticing that they looked Pokemon-like.
His team also took in their surroundings, most of them being quite unfamiliar with the ruins.
"My, how beautifully sculpted. I do wonder how old these are." Noir commented in an impressed tone, running one of her claws across a glyph gently.
"Me too! Wow, look at all of these. Y-you can see how the rocks used to construct these walls and the cave around it are way different. The cave rock is much too strong carve and-and these ones that make up the walls are much softer!" Autumn ogled excitedly, that of which Tyler and the rest have rarely witnessed.
"Heh, glad you like them too. Though speaking of, has anyone translated what these inscriptions meant?" Tyler pondered aloud, loud enough for Cynthia to hear. She stepped up and stood next to Tyler, both of them facing a wall with a collection of even more strange glyphs and depictions.
"Honestly, I don't know. Back when I was still the Champion, I've organized only one expedition here and the team came up empty handed. In retrospect, I should've planned more." Cynthia commented, looking over the glyphs and walls with heightened interest. Tyler nodded in acknowledgement, though he was slightly dejected that his plan may not end in fruition.
"Awh, that's a shame. Well, I-"
Just then, a loud yell sounded from the passage Lucas and Sol took.
"FIRE IN THE HOLE!"
A loud explosion echoed through the cave, ringing ears and vibrating metal exoskeletons of a particularly disgruntled Metagross. The vibrations rattled and shook a few rocks loose, thankfully none of them struck anyone.
As the final distant rocks clattered to a halt, Tyler removed his hands from around his ears. Thankfully, he did it in the nick of time as to avoid disorientation. Unfortunately, a few others were a bit too slow.
"WoooAAoh… OW!" Jewel wobbled through her words before bumping into the wall, knocking her onto her back with swirls in her eyes. While he and the others help her up to her feet, he could hear Ruby panicking about how dirty her fur became in the background.
Josh let off an annoyed huffed and began walking down the passage. Tyler noticed and gestured for the group to continue down the path.
The passage seem to be around the same height as the main entrance way. Different from the walls in the room they were originally in, the walls of the passage seemed to be chiseled in a way that formed lines and some more complex symbols. Tyler swore he could recognize one that looked vaguely like an ancient form of directional arrow, pointing down the hallway.
A short walk later, the group entered a large atrium. The ceiling was massively raised, more than thrice the height of the hallway. The tiles that lined the floor were also arranged differently, some of them cut to accommodate the circular pattern of tiles in the center room.
Currently, it was lit party by a few larger bulbs from the ceiling but the vast majority of which was lit up by a few portable floodlights pointing towards the center of the room. In the center point of the floodlights, a messier looking Lucas stood beside Sol, both of them scratching their heads in confusion. Josh speedwalked slightly to them.
"Lucas! You nearly gave us hearing damage back there! Damn, tell us next time when you're going to use Flare Blitz." Josh scolded in a mostly annoyed tone, still keeping is calm demeanor with him. Lucas apologized with a light chuckle.
"Alright alright, my bad guys! But damn, this thing ain't budging." He apologized whilst pointing at the 'thing' he's referring to.
In the center of the circular pattern was a large, disc shaped tile. It was big with a diameter around four times the length of the surrounding tiles. On it appeared to be a sentence, written in the ancient language they've seen in the previous room. A section of it had been charred slightly by Sol's Flare Blitz though it didn't seem to take much damage, as indicated by only a couple of chips.
"What is it?" Josh asked curiously. Lucas shrugged as he got down to a knee, inspecting the damage, or lack thereof, dealt towards the tile.
"No clue. All I do know is that this is the only spot where the ultrasonic waves could pass through. The other parts are too thick." Lucas reasoned. Tyler moved up and checked the tile as well.
"Curious…" Tyler commented, eyeing the glyphs on it. Just then, Autumn and Epsilon moved up beside him and checked the glyphs as well.
"Aha!" The two almost said in unison, realizing the significance of those glyphs.
"These must say something that might give us a clue to open it!" Epsilon buzzed his theory, which made sense now that they think about it. Noir and Autumn, who for the past minutes had been wandering near the walls of the large atrium, joined back to the main group with some information.
"Though I may be incorrect, I suspect that the inscriptions on the walls may have a correlation with the ones on the circular flooring as well. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find a connection as I don't understand the language." Noir admitted with a disappointed sigh. Autumn on the otherhand, seemed eager to present her info.
"T-There are also some drawings over there! Maybe those can help us?" Autumn pointed out with glee. Sure enough, there were a collection of chiseled bricks on the wall with various illustrations in the distance. Tyler felt satisfied with the boatload of information he'd received.
"Okay! Let's set our priorities straight; First things first, we have to translate what those glyphs actually mean. Then we can proceed to actually getting through this thing. Now, let's go!" Tyler announced, taking the reigns as the leader of the team. Cynthia smiled lightly, reminded of Tyler's father and his leadership abilities as well as her own.
…
An hour later, Tyler sat crosslegged on the floor whilst looking over a photo he took of the glyphs in the center of the round tile. The most important detail seemed to be that every single character had a bulbous point on it, whether it'd be in the center or at the end of the lines. Tyler shook his head, disappointed as he seemingly made no progress and the energy starting to annoy him quite a bit.
He then glanced over to the others, who were also their best to decipher the symbols. During this time, Autumn had surprised pretty much everyone with her eagerness and ideas, though they had made little headway on the matter at hand.
As expected, Cynthia and Josh were deeply invested in solving the problem, even if his Absol companion had little to no interest in it. The two stood in front of a collection of glyphs for around half an hour, presenting their ideas and applying them, only for all to be shot down.
Tyler sighed in defeat, ready to throw in the towel before he tried one more idea.
"Hold on, let's go back. Every symbol has…. whatever that is. What if we… get rid of them." Tyler whispered to himself as he thought, covering the points with his finger. His eyes widened.
"I'VE GOT IT!" He yelled as he jumped up in excitement, thrusting his fist in the air. The others turned and rushed over to see what all the noise was about.
"You figured it out?" Josh asked joyfully. Tyler nodded and the two friends high-fived, wishing Samuel could've been there to celebrate their joy with.
"Hell yeah I did. See, you only need to cover the points with your finger and voila, they're pretty much normal letters!" Tyler proclaimed with a prideful grin. Autumn then piped up as well.
"W-well what're you waiting for, what does it say!?" Autumn yelled in a loud tone, surprising even herself with her volume. Blushing, she cupped her maw as Ava playfully nudged her.
"Hah, alright alright. Let's see here." Tyler responded as he read the glyphs out loud.
"Three connections, wield their power."
Not a moment later, the ruins started shaking once more. The group looked around in a panic as loose bits of rock and dirt fell from the ceiling, some large enough to deal considerable damage. But what was most surprising of all, the tile recessed in its place before slowly sliding into the surrounding floors.
Slowly, a large hole revealed itself below the tile up until it ground to a halt. There was barely any light inside it, limiting visibility from poor to absolutely abysmal.
"Holy…." Lucas muttered in astonishment.
"Shit." Tyler finished, walking up closer to the large hole. He estimated it to be around 7 to 8 meters in diameter, only a tiny bit smaller than the tile that covered it up. Walls extended downwards from the top until an unknown distance with something or rather, things attached to them.
Try as he might, he could barely make out anything inside other than what seemed to be a stone block jutting from the sides.
"Damn, that's far down. Hey uhh, Autumn? Mind giving me some light here?" He called out to the still amazed Ninetales who shook away her dazed look and blew a constant, bright flame from her mouth. Tyler looked for something and found a solid stick nearby. Setting it alight as a makeshift torch, he peered inside.
"Woah." That was all he said as he peered inside.
It turns out that the block that jutted from the side of the wall was the first step of a large, spiraling staircase which lead into a larger chamber. Not much of the chamber below could be seen from where they were, however the group could feel the negative energy getting stronger and stronger as each one of them got closer to the stairs.
"Ah! This is… really strong." Jewel muttered, the negative energy almost overwhelming her. Thankfully, the rest of her team noticed and helped her calm down.
"There, there. You're alright. Now, about the stairs…." Tyler was about to start but was silenced but Cynthia.
"We have to go down them." She blurted matter-of-factly. Tyler was taken aback by the sudden answer but nodded anyways.
"Wait wait, is this really a good idea?" Josh asked skeptically. Again, Tyler nodded though with clear hesitation.
"Look Josh, I'm not too keen either. Have no idea what's down there or what the glyphs meant, but I do know that we have to get rid of whatever is causing the negative energy." Tyler proposed. He was met with silence but eventually, everyone agreed. He recalled Ava and Epsilon before proceeding ahead.
Taking the lead, he stepped down the stones carefully. The walls surrounding them seemed to be in slightly better nick compared to the walls above, possibly because they have been sealed off from any moisture or additional harm by the tile that covered the shaft.
"Tyler, I feel the energy growing exponentially stronger. I recommend exercising caution." Noir warned, assuming a more aggressive stance as they continued down the stairway. Tyler nodded, cautiously keeping his eyes peeled for anything strange.
As they finally reached the bottom floor, the moment Tyler's foot landed the negative energy grew even stronger, knocking him and the others to a knee. Out of the darkness, sinister laughing could be heard.
Cynthia stumbled forwards, heavily affected by the energy. Thankfully, Lucas caught her before she tumbled down the stairs. Then, the two passed out.
A dark purple cloud began spinning around them, intensifying the effects of the energy. Ruby and Noir both tried to attack the gas. However, it was futile as the moment they made contact with it, they were knocked out cold. Same went with Jewel, Autumn, Sol and Rocco, though the latter showed quite a bit more resistance than the rest.
Tyler tried his absolute best to stay awake but he felt his consciousness slipping away rapidly.
"Wh…what…the…?" Tyler groaned before he blacked out
As the last member of the group to pass out, he only caught a glimpse of the malicious entity hovering towards them, a horrendously wide grin on it's round body.
Epsilon: Allllrriiiight! That's all for this one, guess we'll see you guys in the next one (whenever that one's gonna be up). Take care!
Rocco: *places down bishop* Rocco. Win.
Autumn: H-how…. How did you win?
Rocco: Don't. Know.