Chapter 14
A/N: School's busy. And the story's edited to suit the next chapter. ;) Thanks Queenofinsanity, for your geographical help!
"Nepal? We are going to Nepal?" exclaimed Dawn, her eyes bulging out of her sockets.
Bryan nodded curtly. He had just told them that the Book revealed the Draco plate to be kept in a shrine in the highest mountain in the world –Mt. Everest. He had also told them that the three of them were going to go there themselves, because Jarlo and Bryan both have their own duties to do. Suddenly, Carla spoke up.
"Can I follow them, Dad?" she said, pouting. However, she seemed to know the answer already. She braced herself.
"No, dear. You must stay here. The place's too dangerous, and you just barely gotten your pokemon. How about staying here with me?" Jarlo said this slowly and calmly as he could. Carla's emotional outburst was not something you would want to experience first handedly.
Carla turned to Bryan. All he had to do is to say 'yes' and her father would surely agree. Bryan seemed to struggle for a moment before he closed his eyes and shook his head slowly. Carla's head drooped down and she slumped away to her room. Ash, Dawn and Brock looked at her with much sympathy. They then looked at Bryan, whose hands were now holding three pairs of orange spectacles and three silver cylindrical capsules. He handed the spectacles and capsules to them.
"Each of you gets one. The spectacles are the newest version of ViewCams and the capsules are electromagnetic heating capsules to keep you warm at the mountains. Everest Mountain isn't called the 'third pole of the world' for nothing, you know," said Bryan, smiling. Jarlo, on the other hand, were already typing feverishly on the computer. Beside him, a machine started to hum. Ash and co saw a portal being opened on the metal table.
"You're taking the portal to the mountains. It's safe and non-troublesome as you don't need to bypass all those customs and such."
"Are you sure it's safe?" asked Dawn, frowning. The portal looked menacing and it seemed to threaten to suck them all up into it.
"It's 100 percent safe."
"What if we get caught?" asked Brock worriedly.
"You won't," assured Jarlo. "The mountains are a secluded place and anyone who saw you would probably think that it's just a hallucination from the extreme cold anyway."
"It's not a very good assurance," commented Brock.
"Now then, can you three please position yourself on the table? The portal is going to be completed. Oh, by the way, after you have retrieved the plate, give me a call on your ViewCam or using your Poketch," continued Jarlo.
"And how do we do that?" asked Ash.
"The ViewCam has a very advanced Artificial Intelligence. Just say 'VC' before issuing a command, like 'VC call Jarlo'," answered Jarlo.
Ash helped Brock and Dawn onto the table before climbing up it. The portal buzzed and crackled with electricity. Time and Space seemed to warp before it. They hesitated for a moment before stepping through the portal. Their bodies were swallowed hungrily through it.
"Good luck, Auraers," muttered Bryan before taking his Gardevoir out for teleportation, leaving Jarlo alone in the discussion room.
-
Ash, Dawn and Brock materialized thousands of kilometers from their initial location. They landed on their feet. Ash started by looking around him. Everest Mountain was a bare place, only snow and rocks as far as the eyes could see. The ViewCam registered thirty degrees below zero. Ash thanked Bryan for his heating capsules silently. Without it, he might be frozen to death in this place where hell might actually freeze over. He turned to his friends, who were examining carvings on an ancient-looking stone block. Miraculously, it seemed to not accumulate any snow on the top of it. He stomped his way through snow for a few meters to reach them. They turned at the sound of crunched ice under Ash's shoes.
"Hey Ash, check this out." Brock motioned him to read the carvings. Ash moved closer. He read the carvings aloud.
"In the mountains the councils awaits, for the next generation of the Auraers that came, those who are worthy to read this stone, must prepare themselves for the great battle,"
"Now that's not really hard to interpret," mused Ash.
"Yeah, one thing though, isn't supposed to be written in Nepalese, instead of English, considering that we are in Nepal," Brock said while scratching his chin, his brow was furrowed in deep thought.
"Well, maybe there is a magic in that stone?" asked Ash.
"Yeah…and there's probably Magikarp swimming around you," said Dawn sarcastically, while rolling her eyes.
"Really, how come I couldn't see it?" replied Ash wryly.
"It's probably because you don't have eyes." Dawn smirked.
Brock cut in before they could argue further. "No matter how did it happen, we must find this 'council' the stone was talking about."
Suddenly, Jarlo's voice came to their ears. "Hello, I trust everything is alright?"
"Do you count being alive, and finding a stone block with carvings that with legible words on it alright?" said Ash.
"A stone block? Let me see…Dawn, could you issue the command for the ViewCam to zoom in and send a video to me?" Dawn was the closest to the stone block.
"VC zoom in and send video to Jarlo?" said Dawn uncertainly. The machine replied with a beep. Seconds later, Dawn's ViewCam narrowed into the stone block before a video message notification appeared in Jarlo's computer desktop. Carla, who was on the other computer doing other things her father asked her to do, now leaned in interestedly for a closer look.
There was a moment of silence, flipping of pages, and scribbling of a pen before Jarlo spoke again. There was a touch of mysticism in his voice.
"Now then, the council of Auraers…"
-
Commander Salium breathed a sigh of relief as his ship landed on the shores of a vast underground cave. The Team Elphar mother ship had dived into the deep Hoenn Sea two minutes before the frigates sent by that traitor, Cyrus, came to investigate. It was a very close call for them, too close.
"Now then," Ellen thought.
Suddenly, the computer beep once more and the whole control booth darkened. The transparent viewing glass pane tinted black. Every body jumped as Galaxian's face filled the booth. His face wore a grim smile.
A/N: Mysteries again, eh? Sorry it came this late.
Next, the sun and the moon, Cyrus and Cynthia.