Chapter 6: The Lorekeeper

~ Sea Spirit's Den ~

"The Hoenn region? But...we already have Kyogre and Groudon. What could you possibly need from their home region?" Petrel inquired.

Aqua Admin Matt's expression did not change. "There is a very important girl who lives there. I don't have the time to tell you why...just bring her to me. You have proven to be a valuable ally in this ordeal, Petrel...and I assume you'd like to maintain that reputation."

– –

~ Azure Bay ~

Team Piplup was quickly flying their way to the Sea Spirit's Den on the backs of Dawn's Togekiss, Iris' Dragonite, and Alain's Charizard. Everyone was excited and they were all confident that they would be able to take down Team Magma.

"Wow, Alain, your Charizard is really something!" Trevor shouted amongst the powerful winds breezing past them.

Alain smiled and nodded his head. "Thank you. We take great pride in our strength. Not tryna sound cocky, though," he said. Although he seemed composed on the outside, inside he felt overwhelming feelings of stress and concern. It had been a long while since Mairin had ever done anything dangerous, and back then he had been with her. Now, he had no idea what could be happening to her. He knew she was strong, and she had matured considerably...but he still couldn't help but worry about her safety.

Diantha remained relatively silent as she stared off into the distance behind them. Perhaps she was concerned about leaving Kalos' capital city guarded only by Professor Sycamore, who wasn't much of a battler. Or, perhaps she worried for Ash and his companions, wishing that she could be with both teams at the same time. Whatever it was, it was not apparent to anyone else in the group.

As she flew on the back of her Dragonite, Iris began to feel slightly uncomfortable from being within such close proximity with Dawn's Togekiss. She had gotten over her fear of Ice-types years ago, only to learn when she was twelve that a new type had been discovered, one that completely shut down the Dragon type. Yes, as childish as it may seem, she now had a newborn fear of Fairy-types.

May seemed to be a little more on the quiet side at the moment, in contrast to her usual chipper self. Dawn and Brock both seemed to notice this. Dawn called over to her, "Hey, May! Something the matter?"

May looked up and shook her head. "No, no need to worry, Dawn!" she teased, winking.

Dawn laughed. "That's my catch phrase!" she said as she turned and continued the conversation she had been having with Kenny.

May smiled at her fellow Pokemon coordinator, but then immediately went back to staring at the water below them, deep in thought. Why would Team Magma come out to a place like this? she wondered. It doesn't make sense...

Misty pointed and shouted, "Over there! I think I see a building!"

Gary looked up from his Pokedex, trying his best to see through the clouds. "I think you're right, Misty. Maybe this is their hideout or something," he said. In the distance, a faint outline of a huge structure was coming into view.

"How will we land without being detected?" Trevor asked, holding his camera in his hands, which were trembling slightly with anticipation.

Alain frowned. Shit, he thought. I didn't think about that part.

Brock noticed a cluster of large rocks in the water to their right. He pointed them out, shouting, "Over there! We can land and swim the rest of the way!"

– –

~ Lavaridge Town, Hoenn ~

"Sweetie, your grandmother's bones are ailing her, I must take a long rest in the hot springs. I will be back soon to make dinner."

"Okay, Grannie!"

Smiling at her grandchild, the old woman slowly made her way out the front door, headed for the famous hot springs of Lavaridge Town. When the door closed behind her, the teenage girl turned to her beloved Pokemon with excitement in her eyes.

"Hey, Aster...wanna sneak out and have some fun?" she asked, petting her Pokemon on its head affectionately.

As it always had, Aster replied with standard Whismur speech. But the Lorekeeper had come to understand it just as well as the English language.

"Don't worry, we'll be back well before Grannie comes home. From the way she sounded, I can tell she'll be relaxing in the springs for at least a couple hours. That's plenty of time! C'mon, I know you wanna see some more epic battles!" she said encouragingly.

Aster cheerfully nodded her head, unable to resist the excitement of another adventure with her trainer. She followed the girl as they both snuck out the back window of their small house, closing it carefully behind them. They walked out of town unnoticed and began making their way through the woods of Route 112, alongside Fiery Path.

When they reached an isolated clearing, the girl brought out one of her Pokeballs. "Salamence, perform your duties as one of the Draconid!" she exclaimed as she released the Dragon Pokemon from its capsule. Her mighty Salamence appeared, calm and collected. The girl picked up her Whismur and mounted the back of her Salamence, gently petting its rock-solid head. Salamence then took flight, flapping its red, intimidating wings and ascending from the ground below.

"What do you think, Aster? I say we go explore that island this time!" the girl said, pointing at a small island in the distance, just south of the Battle Resort.

Zinnia the Lorekeeper was a free spirit now.

– –

~ Sea Spirit's Den ~

"Your Blastoise remind me of an old rivalry I used to have with my friend," Alain said to Gary and Tierno. Everyone else besides Alain had a Water-type of their own that they were using to stealthily infiltrate the Sea Spirit's Den. Alain was on the back of Gary's Blastoise.

"Oh yeah? What's his name?" Gary asked, thinking about his own past rivalry with Ash. Man, that sure brings back a ton of memories, he thought to himself. To this day, he still owned his half of the Pokeball that he and Ash had fought over when they were kids.

Alain smiled. "You've already heard of him: Siebold of the Elite Four. I chose Team Piplup because I want to help save him. He and I go way back...it took me a long time to defeat his Mega Blastoise. See, when I was younger, I traveled the world in search of other trainers who were capable of using Mega Evolution. My goal was simply to defeat every single species of Pokemon that could Mega Evolve. Sadly, I still have yet to reach that goal," he explained, feeling a strong sense of nostalgia.

Gary seemed slightly surprised. "Really? With a Charizard as strong as yours, you still haven't beaten them all?"

Alain nodded with a smile. "Unfortunately, I haven't. There was one Mega Evolved Pokemon that I had numerous chances to battle, but all of them resulted in a loss."

Gary knit his eyebrows, trying to think of a trainer stronger than Alain. "Was it Diantha's Gardevoir? I get the feeling that she's pretty strong," he said.

Shaking his head, Alain was about to reply when suddenly Misty called out, "We're almost there, guys!

"Everyone, stay close! We need to stick together," Kenny called out. This should be a piece of cake, he thought as his Empoleon glided through the surface of the water.

They reached the shore and dismounted their Pokemon. There was a light fog in the air, making it a little difficult to see up ahead, but the humungous facility in front of them was in plain sight. Suddenly, the tiny waves surrounding the island began to grow in size. With each second, the waves began reaching further and further up the shore.

Team Piplup kept taking cautious steps away from the rising waves toward the building ahead. Alain looked around them, noticing that the amount of land was decreasing considerably.

"This isn't right...I thought Team Magma were Fire-type users who controlled the Continent Pokemon. Why is there so much water here?" Alain asked, beginning to think that something was terribly wrong here.

"That's a pretty good question, my friend," a voice spoke from the direction of the building. A voice familiar only to May, and her heart sank. I knew it... she thought, her hands gripped into fists.

"Who's there?" Kenny shouted, his Empoleon standing beside him, battle-ready.

"Yeah, show yourself!" Dawn added. Piplup stood next to Empoleon, raising its chest to look as tough as possible.

Laughter seemed to echo through the air all around them. No, it wasn't echoing...there were more people, people behind them, to their left, and to their right...they were surrounded.

Fuck, was all Alain could think at the moment. All around them, men and women were closing in, forming a circle around Team Piplup. Trevor shook nervously and dropped his camera. Tierno tried to look tough, but ended up doing a light dance in an attempt to calm his nerves, which must have looked very strange in a situation like that.

Diantha's eyes met Alain's, and they both realized that they were not in the position they thought they would be in.

"C'mon, Team Magma! We're not scared of you! In fact, you should be scared of us!" Gary shouted, turning to the rest of the group. "Guys, what the hell? What's the matter with all of you?"

Misty pointed at the rising tide, which had caught up to them and was swaying violently. "I don't think that's Team Magma, Gary..."

And then they heard the deafening cry of the Sea Basin Pokemon.

– –

~ Lavaridge Town ~

Zinnia snuck back into the house through the window, carefully carrying Aster with her as they closed the window behind them. "Ah, that was fun, wasn't it, Aster?" she said, petting her Pokemon.

She walked into the kitchen to get herself a snack when she saw her grandmother sitting in her usual rocking chair in the corner of the living room.

"Oh! Grannie! I didn't know you were-"

"My dear Zinnia, where have you been? I was worried sick," the old woman replied.

Zinnia frowned a little. "You're...not mad?" she asked cautiously, taking a seat on the couch.

Her grandmother replied, "Oh, no, Zinnia, I'm not mad. In fact, I have some fantastic news!" she said, smiling sweetly at Zinnia.

"What is it, Grannie?" Zinnia asked, only half paying attention. Usually, 'good news' had something to do with hot spring renovation or a new restaurant opening in town...things that Zinnia found little to no interest in.

"Well, I'm not one-hundred percent certain, but I hear that Legendary Pokemon have been sighted in a region not terribly far from here called the Kalos region," the old woman said. "Which leads me to believe that Rayquaza will make an appearance," she added.

Zinnia's eyes lit up. "Wait...Rayquaza? Appearing once more? This is a dream come true! I must go see it for myself! This is exactly what I've been waiting for! As the Lorekeeper of the Draconid people, I have to go see it!"

Her grandmother smiled at her as she held out a small backpack. "I've already packed your things, my dear. Just be safe, and remember, do what's best for yourself!"

Zinnia laughed out of pure joy and hugged her grandmother. "Thank you, Grannie! Thank you! I won't fail you, I promise!"

And with that, she was out the door, with Aster cheerfully following her. "Kalos...a nice name for the birthplace of my reborn destiny," Zinnia said as she mounted her Salamence and took to the skies.

– –

~ Sea Spirit's Den ~

Before anyone could react, a huge wave of ocean water swept through the island. Everyone was forced to grab hold of their Pokemon as the powerful force of the current pushed them away from the island.

Kyogre raised from beneath the surface of the water, its massive body causing huge waves to bash Team Piplup repeatedly.

Matt and the entirety of Team Aqua stood on top of their Pokemon, floating beside Kyogre. Although they were fairly shaken up from the wave, Team Piplup had managed to recover and were hanging onto their Pokemon.

The most glaring issue was apparent: How were they going to fight if they were completely surrounded by water?

Matt raised his hands up high with a smirk on his face. "Surprised? I thought you'd be. It's amazing how gullible you people are. It really is. Right about now, you're friends should be running into quite the surprise as well. I wonder how they will fare against Team Magma when their best chances of defeating them are all here?"

Diantha did her best to remain calm, although on the inside she worried for Ash and Team Dedenne.

Alain gripped his hands into fists. "How did you fool us? Siebold himself told us you were at Terminus Cave!"

And then he realized that Siebold had yet to show himself.

"That wasn't Siebold...he wouldn't lie to us, no matter what," Diantha said, her voice beginning to tremble ever so slightly.

Matt laughed. "You're quite right, actually. We couldn't get him to send the message himself, so we...ah, nevermind, it's a long story. Let's just say...we outsmarted you," he said arrogantly, extending his hand outward. "Now, Kyogre, attack!" he commanded.

The battle of Sea Spirit's Den had begun.

– –

~ Lavaridge Town ~

"Zinnia?"

Zinnia's grandmother opened the door to their house, having just come back from a nice bath in the hot springs.

"Zinnia, are you home? I'm sorry I was gone for such a long time. Time flies when you're relaxing, doesn't it?"

But Zinnia wasn't home.

– – – –