~ Chapter 74 ~
Through the Tunnels of Mt. Coronet
"Team Galactic had made their plans clear. They would strike all three of Sinnoh's sacred lakes, and steal from within the ancient chambers, the Legendary Pokémon that slumbered. The Lake Guardians: Uxie of Lake Acuity, Azelf of Lake Valor, and Mespirt of Lake Verity. Together, these three Pokémon would allow Team Galactic to forge the Red Chain, and summon and control the Creator Gods of Sinnoh and eventually, the one who created them all. But that…that is a story for much later on in our tale; for now, we were still rushing towards Snowpoint City and Lake Acuity, trying—though we knew better—to stop Team Galactic from kidnapping the next Lake Guardian, Uxie. It also just so happened that my next Gym Battle was with Snowpoint City's Candice, so that worked out for the better."
After everyone met up again, a plan was hatched immediately to decide how to proceed.
It was decided that the force at Lake Valor would split up and go to the two remaining lakes.
Crasher Wake, Valentina and Maylene remained at Lake Valor to assist the people and Pokémon who remained, and begin discussing the logisitics of the clean up efforts.
Fantina had to return to Hearthome to deal with both a challenge at her gym, and cancel prior engagements with the Pokémon Contests in Hearthome going forward—at least until further notice. She also wanted to call her daughter, Drasna, home, and put her in charge of the gym until the matter with Team Galactic was sorted out, afterwhich, Fantina promised to head towards Lake Acuity in northern Sinnoh.
Rort returned to his job, and his rest, as his foot was no longer able to deal with the fast-paced action of chasing Team Galactic.
Sakura Oak was sent home to Twinleaf Town, where she would stay with Jeremy's mother and Sam's grandmother until things called down.
Lou was forced to return to the ranch, as he had taken the bulk of his farm hands with him, and needed to reorder work schedules and duties and redistribute who he had with him to ensure the ranch could run smoothly for extended periods of time with his absence to come. Lou pledged himself and some farm hands to the future battle with Team Galactic, and would be ready for the fight and would meet up with everyone at Lake Acuity.
Professor Rowan, Cynthia, Byron and Roark returned to Lake Verity. They took with them Dawn and Lucas.
Barry made his own way up to Lake Acuity—for reasons he refused to share.
Gardenia and Nilama chose to join him, as did Palmer.
They agreed to meet Sam and his friends at the lake, and guard it before Team Galactic arrived.
Sam and his friend's job was to check in at Lake Acuity, and also go to Snowpoint City and recruit Gym Leader Candice, who hadn't been responding to messages sent by the Pokémon League.
Sam figured he would take the opportunity to battle the Gym Leader and take the badge too.
In fact, he disguised his desire to meet Maylene by sending her a Writ of Challenge.
Cynthia proposed that perhaps Team Galactic or someone with sinister plans were attempting to cut communication with the nearest, and most isolate Gym Leader, who was also conveniently closest to Lake Acuity.
Volkner had not responded to the call either. Though a blackout in Sunnyshore City had left the Gym Leader too preoccupied to join the fight—supposedly the explosion at Lake Valor had shattered many of the solar panels embedded into the roads and roofs of the city, causing power shortages and an eventual failure and shut off.
The city was working hard on fixing the issue, but they also closed off all ports of entry until the problem was fixed.
The destruction wraught by Team Galactic's attack of Lake Valor had far reaching circumstances, whether intended or otherwise.
But now, the group was walking through Mt. Coronet once more.
The plan had been set in stone long ago, now they were close to the northern most exit of the Mt. Coronet chain.
Soon they'd be out in Route 216. That would lead to several other routes that sat in the middle of frozen foothills and forests covered in ice and snow for most of the year.
Even when it wasn't, it was incredibly cold and icy almost all the time.
The trip through Mt. Coronet was both unnerving and more calming than last time.
Shortly before entering the mountain chain, while sitting around their camp many days ago, Lucario was talking with Sam's Pokémon, learning—enthralled by the stories—the stories of the group's travels up to that point.
When Lucario heard the legend of the mountain being haunted, he corrected that Mt. Coronet was not haunted by wayward spirits—or even cursed.
The mountain was simply alive, radiating with an aura energy, pulsating and giving life all all around it.
When inspected more closlely, he explained that Sinnoh seemed to be interconnected closely, centering on the massive, central mountain peak.
The Spear Pillar at the top, the centre of all this energy.
Spilling down the mountain spine, towards the north and south.
Then spreading out across Sinnoh.
One anchoring point seemed to sit at the place known as the Hallowed Tower.
Another at the Great Marsh
Another one like a beacon, shone in Celestic Town.
Then Amity Square in Hearthome City.
The Solaceon Ruins formed another anchoring beacon.
Then there were three more anchoring points at Iron Island, and two places that Lucario called Full Moon and Half Moon Island—the fabled islands that were home to Sinnoh's Mythical Dream Duo: Dakrai and Cresselia.
Another anchoring point at a hidden island north of the Pokémon League, in the middle of the sea. Lucario didn't know what this place was, but it was lush with plantlife and mostly untouched by humans.
There was another point at Floaroma Town, but it was stronger in Floaroma Meadow and seeped and leaked into Eterna Forest as well.
It was mainly more plantlife, teeming with creation and life energies.
Another beacon on the Battle Zone that marked Stark Mountain, the ancient volcano of the Sinnoh Region, home to the Mythical Pokémon, Heatran.
A few more beacons at the bottom of the ocean.
One more, even, at Snowpoint Temple, north of Snowpoint City.
But the three largest, shining beacons in all of Sinnoh, the founts of life itself, were the three lakes: Acuity, Verity, and Valor.
Valor was a dim lightbulb compared to its former glory and the other lakes…but there was no reason to lose hope yet.
From what Lucario and it ssiblings could see, the creation energy and life energies that permeated the Mt. Coronet chain and bled down into Sinnoh through the beacons and anchors, were flowing and concentrating all their efforts to healing Lake Valor.
It would still be a long time before the lake was back to normal, but it wasn't a lost cause, and even Sinnoh itself was trying to help. It was reassuring to know.
It was also a little unnerving to know the mountain they were walking in was not only alive, but a conduit for all life energies in all of Sinnoh.
According to Lucario, the life energy/aura matrix across all of the Sinnoh Region was ancient, and set up a long time ago, long before life existed, probably during creation.
It was a signature and web unique to Sinnoh, and it's what made Sinnoh so different from the other regions of the world.
It's what made Sinnoh and its people unique.
They were different from the people of Hoenn, Unova, Johto or Kanto or even Orre.
The life energies of Sinnoh itself permeated everyone who lived here.
It was beautiful to hear Lucario talk about.
"Do you think when the tribes built their ancient towns, or ruins, like Solaceon Ruins, or Amity Square, or even the Hallow Tower, that they knew what they were building on?" asked Jeremy.
"Considering how spiritual the tribes were—including the Celestic Tribe, I can't imagine they were entirely ignorant," proposed Sam.
"What came first do you think? Did they find these anchor points and build on them, or did they connect these points to the Energy Matrix afterwards?" asked Niya, mainly to Lucario than the group.
"Hard to say," responded Lucario, "I can only see the Matrix, I can't tell how long things have been around, or anchored for."
Then Lucario froze, the group paused with him; had the Pokémon noticed danger lurking up ahead?
There was dead silence. Then, a Lucario burst from the dark tunnel ahead, coming into view of the flashlights and the group that held them.
It was Alyssandra's Lucario. The Pokémon stood proudly as she spoke her news. "The exit is ahead," she explained, "Another ten minutes at most."
"Thank you, Lucario," smiled Alyssandra, "Would you like to return to your Poké Ball?"
"Actually, Mistress Lyss, with your leave, I would like to meet up with my sibling at Lake Acuity," explained Alyssandra's Lucario, "They may require an extra hand, in case Team Galactic strikes before we arrive. I shall monitor and relay your progress through my brother, here."
The Lucario meant Sam's Lucario, who nodded as he was mentioned.
"I understand," smiled Alyssandra, "Go on ahead and give everyone our best. Hopefully, we'll get there before Team Galactic."
Alyssandra's Lucario nodded in confirmation, and disappeared down the tunnel, running off towards Lake Acuity.
It would be a few days for a normal human, but Lucario was different.
A Lucario didn't always need food, water or rest. In a pinch, they could sustain themselves with nothing but Aura for a month.
Truly they were amazing Pokémon.
Sam's Lucario looked to its trainer and partner. He was the last remaining Lucario with the group.
Jeremy's Lucario was up at Lake Acuity with Palmer and the others, while Niya's Lucario was down at Lake Verity with Professor Rowan and his group. The Pokémon were communicating with each other, updating each other on progress and information that was coming in from the captured grunts, or news on Team Galactic's possible movements.
The three groups remained in constant contact because of it.
Alyssandra's Lucario had offered to leave her Lucario at Lake Valor to help Valentina, but the latter refused—she felt that Lucario would be needed elsewhere.
True to form, Alyssandra's Lucario had been correct. Within ten minutes, a bright, shining, hole in the mountainside marked the exit and burst through the darkness.
Everyone placed on their snow goggles, to prevent snowblindness, going from the pitch-black caves to the bright, white, light-reflecting, snow-covered fields of Northern Sinnoh.
Jackets, boots and snowpants were already slipped on in preparation for the exit on to Route 216.
The mountain itself had even grown colder on the inside the closer they got to Northern Sinnoh.
Sam's was perhaps the lightest dressed of all, feeling overly cumbersome and too hot in too many layers. A simple winter jacket, some gloves, snow goggles, snowpants, boots, and a hat were enough for him. He kept a facemask just in case, but didn't expect he'd need it for a bit. The cold didn't bother him that much, so he felt execessive layers were just that, excessive.
As they strapped on their snowshoes, and got read to embrace the cold, northern expanse of their homeland, they felt the cold wind blow in from the gaping white portal of white light.
They exited Mt. Coronet together, and stepped out into the blinding white landscape. The orange goggles tinted everything so they weren't so blinding.
The wind howled through the chasm that led from the valley of foothills and out into the ice fields and snowy forests of coniferous evergreens.
The snow crunched beneath their feet.
Lucario was careful where to step, as without looking once, he fell five feet into the snow as it gave out beneath him.
People of the Sinnoh Region seldom travelled this place, and even those who came to challenge Candice for a gym badge came by boat to Snowpoint rather than risk this frozen tundra.
Why they had come this way to try and beat Team Galactic hadn't made sense to Sam at first.
Except, now as he thought about it, it did.
These frozen wastes were seldom monitored, seldom travelled. If Team Galactic were going to use this frozen expanse to sneak up on Lake Acuity, the unnatural luck of Sam and his friends would cause them to stumble upon their encampment.
Team Galactic would come by sea.
And they wouldn't expect anyone to come through this forgotten place.
It may have been slower, but it was another chance to sweep the landscape, and scout out for Team Galactic in case they were lying in wait to strike.
Only time would tell if that would be the case.
Either way, Sam and his friends had already discussed how they knew this was going to go down.
The fight for the lakes would be futile, and the strike on the headquarters of Team Galactic in Veilstone City would prove to be fruitless.
This would come down to a final confrontation atop the Spear Pillar.
Nilama knew this, and Sam and his friends knew this.
The Lucario in the group believed it as well.
Sam had a feeling Cynthia knew it as well, but was still doing everything in her power to help protect Sinnoh from that fate regardless, probably a reflex that remained from her days as Sinnoh Champion.
Sam could feel himself getting closer to the final battle with Team Galactic, every step he took towards Lake Acuity in the crunching, snow, with white flakes falling all around him and his friends.
Destiny was just around the corner…or perhaps atop the mountain he had just left.
