Kamon stared at the crystal ball. All that he could see was the dream he had before. But later, something else appeared. It was a message: "Danger is closing in. The more Kamon learns, the more danger he is put in." Along with this was the number 486248.
"What does it mean?" asked Kamon.
The others, however, couldn't decipher it, since it appeared to them to be weird symbols. "I'd better write down the symbols here and see if they're anything meaningful." Duncan wrote down the symbols. Could this be a clue to Kamon's past?
---
Brendan and May searched the cabin. There was no sign of Wally anywhere.
"Where could he be… whoa!" Brendan tripped on something, causing a trapdoor to open. He saw that it was a small lever he tripped on. "A-ha! Maybe they're holding him down there."
"Let's get down then." May then lowered herself down the trapdoor and into a small room, which had passageways leading further.
"Okay, so where do we start?" asked Brendan.
"Let's take this way," May said as they entered the northern doorway.
After entering, they were surprised to see thick trees blocking further entrance.
"How do we get past them?" asked Brendan. "We could try to cut them down, but those trees are kind of large."
"Hey! I know! I'll have Barbecue burn them down! Come on, Barbecue!"
The Torchic puffed a few embers at the leaves of the trees, causing them to go on fire.
"Are you crazy? We could die from smoke inhalation!" Brendan searched around for a window to open. He didn't find any, but did find a vent on the ceiling, he told May, "Quick! Get out of the room! We've got to let the smoke out through the vent."
Brendan and May then ran back upstairs. Thirty minutes later, they went back in. The trees became ashes, but they were still burning. "Let's put out the fire," Brendan said as he used Deep-Six to extinguish the ashes. "I think it's safe to go through now."
The two then continued on. Brendan began to feel uncomfortable. "May, I've got a bad feeling about this…"
Razor-sharp blades came plummeting down above, almost striking Brendan and May. "Wow, that was close," said Brendan. "I don't want parts of my body cut off."
"I think this place is filled with traps!"
"You've got to be right." Brendan also had a nagging feeling that Team Aqua was trying to keep them from reaching Wally for some reason – maybe a possible connection.
"Brendan, look out!"
An Electrike pursued the trainers. "Come on, Deep-Six!"
---
Kamon looked at the symbols that Duncan copied down. He didn't recall seeing these before. Was this some sort of encryption to prevent him from finding clues?
The memories were trapped in his head. He couldn't get them out.
The doorbell rang. "Who could that be?" Kamon headed to the front door and opened it. "Hello? Detective Intem? What is it now?"
"You may be connected to a murder, Kamon."
"What? What's going on?"
"When we found the key card, we also found next to it a skeleton."
---
At the police station, Kamon looked at the skeleton. "It looks like this person's been dead for a long time."
"We found him in a secluded area of Viridian Forest. This person may have been dead for eleven years."
"But that's all the way in Kanto."
"Kantoan police found it and turned the case over to us," explained Intem. "We're the most advanced law enforcement agency in the nation."
"Okay, then, but what does that have to do with the keycard?"
"We found it nearby."
Eleven years! "Maybe this person's connected to me, since I subconsciously drew that logo!"
"There was flesh beneath the fingernails, so the killer may have had scratches during that time."
"I don't know if I had scratches at that time…"
"According to school records, you didn't."
"So I must be a witness."
"It's a possibility. But we haven't been able to decrypt the code on the card."
"That must be very good security," Kamon said, astonished. "I think the company owning the card isn't registered."
"By law, all established companies must register with the Business Inspection System."
"Then they're breaking the law! But since there's no way to find the criminals, there's nobody to prosecute. We're in a dead end."
"And there's the disappearance of the Birch family. Nobody knows who did it or why it was done."
"Looks like another case here."
---
Olivia came into her apartment, home from shopping. She was surprised to see a man sitting in her chair. It was the same man who processed her resignation. "What are you doing here?"
"There's something we should talk about."
"Okay, shoot."
"I ran your keycard through the system to deactivate it, processing your resignation, but the clearance code didn't match your assignment," explained the man.
"Hmm. That's odd."
"I said the same thing. I thought it was a faulty card, but then I found that Pantor was cleared to that level. Strange, considering he's missing and all. What is this you're trying to keep secret?"
"Get out of my apartment," Olivia grunted.
"Are you doing something you don't want the company to know about?" He flashed a folder, handing it to Olivia, and then he left.
Olivia opened the folder. It contained Kamon's child welfare records. "He broke into my safe!" She slammed the safe in anger. "I can't let him tell the company about Kamon."
---
"I can't believe we've got an Electrike," said Brendan. "It's going to come in handy."
"Where did it come from anyway?" asked May. "Is this maze connected to a power plant?"
"Yeah, we can get out that way. Maybe if we call for Wally, he'll hear us," realized Brendan. "Wally!"
"Brendan? Is that you?" asked a familiar voice.
"That echo sounded like Wally," said May.
"No! It's me! Follow my whistling and find me!" Wally called out as he whistled.
"Let's go get Wally," said Brendan as he followed the sound, jumping pits of wires and punching down a door. "There you are! We found you." He also found Rose in there. "Rose? What are you doing here?"
"It's a long story, Brendan, but Team Aqua's up to something sinister…"
"Right now, let's just focus on getting out of here," said Wally.
"We can get out through Mauville City's exit," said Brendan. "This maze is connected to its underground power plant."
"Whose idea was it to let you read the encyclopedia?" asked Rose.
"Now's not the time to rant about my knowledge. Now is the time to get out of here."
---
"I don't get it. Why can you read it when we can't?" asked Duncan.
"Why can't you? It looks like regular English letters to me," said Kamon.
"To us, it's a bunch of symbols," explained Crystal. "Maybe you're seeing it differently."
"'The more Kamon learns, the more danger he is put in.' I think it's telling me to stop."
"But don't stop right now," said Duncan hurriedly. "We'll be behind you if you need our help."
---
"I got dad's note," explained Brendan. "Yes, Team Aqua's up to something."
"We couldn't see the faces of the people who captured me," said Wally. "I was blindfolded. But I thought I recognized one of their voices. I know I've heard the name Geotica before."
"Geotica? Nope, we don't know any Geotica," said Brendan bluntly. "Maybe he knows who Shelly is. Um, May, please be careful…!"
May tripped into exposed wires, shaking and yelling as electricity flowed through her body. She barely managed to climb away, sparks around her.
"Don't touch her," warned Brendan. "You might get a shock."
"That smarts… I've got to watch where I'm going."
After searching for an exit, they found a control room. "Uh, maybe we could call somebody to take us out of here," said Wally. "We're after all not personnel."
"Okay, then," said Rose. "After we get out of here, we run to Verdanturf, through Rusturf, and back home!"
"We're going home now?" asked May, bamboozled. "But we're on a journey!"
"We'll get through that later," said Rose. "Right now, you've got to take me home."
I just hope nobody tries to delay the journey home like in the first Pokémon Quest. Otherwise, it'd be clichéd. Fortunately, they're not going on a boat cruise this time around – just through a tunnel.
Brendan said through a microphone, "Uh, attention, attention. We're looking for a way out of the power plant. We're in the control room and we're not personnel."
Sure enough, an old man with the nametag "Wattson" arrived. He exclaimed, "You're Professor Birch's kids!" seeing Brendan and Rose. "I've had to fight two Team Aqua Grunts just to reach here."
"You're Wattson! Good to see you again," said Brendan. "Could you show us the way out? Team Aqua kidnapped Wally and Rose here, and we just saved them."
"Well, no problem, kid! Follow me!"