Obligatory Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon.
Thanks again for the review, Nauran. More champions in this one, too.
To the first guest review, thanks for the specifics, I have changed that now. I can say that the TRio's role in this story isn't quite done yet; we'll see how that plays out later.
To the second guest review, thanks. In terms of future Pokémon appearances, I would like to include as many of Ash's old Pokémon as I can without crowding them all out, including ones that he doesn't keep at his lab, where appropriate. As for human appearances, well, if I said any more it would be too big of a spoiler.
To the third guest review, thanks. Shipping of certain types will play a more prominent role in future chapters, but I do not intend for any kind of romance to become the primary driving force behind this story insofar as it could supersede the overall plot; Venatus will still be adventure with just a dash of mystery.
Incidentally, I can say from personal experience that it is a very, very bad idea to discover a new anime – say, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, for example – and end up binging on it when you're trying to finish a long chapter of a story. Really, really bad idea.
The flight to Sinnoh took nowhere near as long as the journey back to Kanto from Unova had, but, Ash supposed, that was to be expected given the fact that Unova was nearly three times the distance from his home region than the other regions had been put together.
Flying to Sinnoh was also a definite twist on how he travelled, and not one that he particularly enjoyed. His usual mode of transportation between the regions had been via the ocean, resting comfortably on top of some form of cruise liner or at least a reasonably well-put together transport vessel.
He liked such travelling because it always gave him a little time to reflect on the experiences that he had been through on his immediately previous journey as he returned home, or look forward to new possibilities on voyages to lands that he had yet to be familiar with.
He had never been seasick, either, which had been something that had plagued May, just once, when they had just been starting out on their Hoenn adventure.
He smiled to himself briefly at the thought of his brunette friend, but then his current predicament decided to resurface, and he groaned out loud.
Well, he wasn't being airsick. Just suffering from a rather case severe of jet lag.
He was exhausted, but his body wouldn't let him sleep even as much as he wanted to.
He'd felt the same on arriving – and returning from – Unova, if a little worse given the distance. But Sinnoh was still far away enough from Kanto to have caused his internal clock to be running a little slow, and as it was he had hardly entirely recovered from the last bout of Unova-induced jet lag in the first place.
He only really fully became aware of the paradigm shift resulting from hopping between the time zones so quickly when he discovered that it was still light when they touched down, despite it being dusk upon their departure two hours earlier.
Even then, he'd still been awake, if a little tired by the lack of movement for two whole hours in a cramped, cheap flight – a far cry from the previous one that they had boarded. Lance had conspired to somehow procure them tickets for the last "afternoon" flight out of the South Kanto Islands airport, just before the intermission as the night flight pilots and staff preferred for their shifts.
What had unfortunately subsequently been in store for him, however, had actually created the greatest deal of his misery; a gruelling, four hour car journey out of the Sinnoh airport, located in Jubilife City, all of the way to the "closest" Sinnoh league headquarters in Veilstone City. Which included a nice, bumpy, in actual fact all-round horrible escapade of crossing Mount Coronet. At night.
Cynthia had explained to him on the plane that "closest" actually meant "as far as the board can be bothered to travel to meet you in person at any given time", and had said so with a conspiratorial, if vaguely annoyed, grin across her face. She had retained that expression as they were practically frog-marched into an imposing-looking building marked with the league's trademark insignia, and looked at him sympathetically – and perhaps a tad enviously - as she was led away to an inner room, while he had been held back by the beefy-looking security guards and forced to remain outside.
And that was how he had ended up sitting down outside the room that Cynthia had disappeared into, desperate for sleep, yet coming no closer to achieving that goal with every passing second, waiting for her to emerge.
Waiting for a full hour and a half, as it eventually turned out.
Speaking of his current, only human travelling companion, she had been of little comfort during the car journey to their destination, albeit through little fault of her own. Perhaps more used to traversing long distances in very little periods of time, given her vocation, Cynthia had fallen asleep barely ten minutes after they had been directed to and ushered into the car upon exiting the just-landed airplane that they had flown in, her hair fallen down to obscure her eyes as she snoozed lightly, the backdrop outside once again turning from a late-evening dim light to the darkness of night, illuminated only by a few stars amid the haze above. He had to admit that she had been good company up til then, regaling him with tales of her earliest battles and laughing kindly at his rather attempts to compare them with his own experiences; attempts that even he quickly realised were hardly applicable. It had certainly not been aboring flight, at least.
Pikachu, too, had been fast asleep throughout the car journey. Pokémon didn't become jet-lagged, apparently.
Ash had fixed onto thinking about his first Pokémon as a way to pass the time he spent waiting, first in the car, then outside the room in the league building, having long since given up trying to even guess what Cynthia and her superiors were discussing inside. He had realised it had been a while since he had used Pikachu in a battle, and resolved to give the little guy a chance to see some action sometime soon.
He knew that Pikachu was aware that he had needed to give some of his older Pokémon some practice, and indeed overjoyed at the prospect of seeing some old faces once again. Ash was thankful for his starter's understanding, but knew that it must still grate with the Mouse Pokémon to remain on the side lines for so long, recalling the annoyance that the electric-type had displayed after being left out of Ash's battle strategy for so long back in his gym battle against Elesa in Nimbasa City.
As unfortunate irony demanded, he had only just begun to even think that he might be falling asleep when the sound of angry voices from the forbidden room beyond dragged him back into unpleasant wakefulness. Pikachu's ears picked up and he yawned; the Pokémon had also been alerted to the shouts and came to an uneasy steadiness on Ash's lap.
"Wonder could be going on…"Ash got up, taking Pikachu into his arms as he did so. The security guard at the desk across the room also looked equally concerned.
Ash managed to make out one of the increasingly louder and vociferous voices as Cynthia's, just before the door burst open and the champion emerged into the waiting area.
"Cynthia!" A loud, demanding voice called out after her; a man followed her out of the previously-locked doors, clearly dressed for business and walking with an air that almost screamed self-importance. "Do not do anything rash. We will not stand for this. The board will-"
"I'm not doing anything rash." Cynthia turned her face briefly, cutting across him with an icy tone, having apparently regained volume control, as Ash had to struggle to hear her in his jet-lagged state. "We talked in that room for closer to two hours than one, and we clearly won't agree. And the board won't do anything, because the degree of their authority rather depends on my level of co-operation. Sure, they can make my life a little miserable, but I'll be nobody's pawn for such pathetic aims. I'll see you all after I'm done in Hoenn. Probably." She began walking quickly, then added over her shoulder. "Come on, Ash. We're done here."
"Uh, right." He simply followed her as she stomped through the halls of the building, pausing only briefly to allow the automatic exit door to catch up, then proceeded quickly out into the parking lot.
The man that she had been talking to made no attempt to follow them, and neither did any of the guards or other personnel. They went unchallenged as Cynthia pointed out a familiar looking car parked in one of the most distant bays from the way that they had come; he climbed in to the front passenger seat as Cynthia started the engine and took the wheel, guiding them out, onto the roads and into the night once more.
Ash could tell that she was still angry even if her manner now suggested that she wasn't, and her face betrayed no sign of outward rage either. He realised that he'd never, ever seen her lose control, and this was a mere continuation of that fact – even when facing down Cyrus atop Spear Pillar, and when outnumbered and outwitted by Team Rocket's heinous gambit on the plateau, she had only seethed with a tranquil fury. Nothing more.
Come to think of it, neither of the other two champions that he had seen in a particularly desperate situation – Cameron and Lance – had ever shown themselves to be incandescent with rage seriously. Even Lance had attempted to talk the near-corrupted, deranged Archie down from his ridiculous plans of flooding the world rather than unleashing his own fury against the madman.
Not having a roof on this make of car – the one that Cynthia seemed to prefer – caused the wind to rush past them at an almost frightening speed. It would have been pleasant on a hot summer's day, or probably even at night at any other time.
Not when all he really wanted was to fall into blissful sleep…
"Where're we going?" He asked after a while. The headlights illuminated their path across the roads ahead, but Ash was surprised that she was driving as confidently – or recklessly, as some might call it - as she was now.
"Sunnyshore airport, for the flight to Hoenn." That was her rather brisk reply, though her tone softened with each word she spoke; clearly she had yet to fully adjust again to not speaking to someone who she wasn't angry at. "I got the tickets before we left Kanto; Lance didn't think that far ahead. Don't worry; we won't be going over Mount Coronet again."
Ash sighed in relief, then thought of something else that bothered him slightly.
"Are you all right?"
"Me?" Cynthia blinked, with her eyes still firmly on the road. "I'm a little tired, but with the sleep that I had earlier I can drive just fine. Had a little coffee at the league building, but no alcohol, don't worry about that."
A little too cheerful, really…
Her attempt at levity did little to make him feel better in this situation.
"I didn't mean it like that." He pressed, unsure as to whether she had simply taken the other meaning of his phrase on purpose or not. "What happened back in there?"
"I, uh. Um. Don't really want to talk about it right now."
She was no longer angry, but the way that she said the last sentence brooked no further room for discussion of that topic; he chose not to continue it, and they sat in silence for the rest of the drive.
Crossing Mount Coronet really had lengthened their earlier journey, as they arrived in Sunnyshore just over an hour after their quick departure from the league headquarters.
Even this late at night – or was it the very early morning now? Ash could hardly tell, by this point – Sunnyshore was still as luminescent as it was in daylight, if not even more so; the darkness kept at bay by the high-voltage electrical components spread out across the city, even as it sacrificed the majority of its hustle and bustle as most of the inhabitants got a good night's rest.
What I wouldn't give for one of those right now…
He wondered briefly about the possibility of seeing Volkner again, however briefly for, but as it turned out Cynthia hadn't been exaggerating when she talked about their latest batch of plane tickets. They were flying out within thirty minutes of making it to the city limits.
Evidently Cynthia really hadn't been expecting to stay longer after all…
Whatever.
At last, his sheer exhaustion overcame the foolhardy restraints that his body had placed on him, and he finally drifted off into well-desired rest as the plane soared over the eastern limits of the Sinnoh region, taking it across an impressive view of the actual Sinnoh league headquarters as it did so.
A view that a certain blonde-haired, grey-eyed passenger took in with a vague, detached disdain as she too succumbed to the call of a little more, long-avoided rest.
That mess'll be fun to deal with when I get back.
Oh well.
Bump.
Hey, Ash.
Bump.
Ash?
Whoever the voice calling out to him was, they were female. He could tell that, at least.
Bump. Bump.
"Five more minutes…" He kept his eyes shut tight.
Misty, May, Dawn or Iris? He couldn't tell.
Ash, you might want to…
Bump. Bump. BUMP.
"Aaaargh!" He finally, properly awoke, clutching his head and feeling at the bruise that was quickly emerging from where he had been smashing his head into the side of the car door in his sleep. He saw Pikachu sitting on his lap as he opened his eyes, staring amusedly at his trainer's misfortune.
"Good morning." He looked left at the sound again, and that brought him back to reality.
Ah. Right. Cynthia.
"Morning… I guess." Indeed, the daylight had returned, and its presence was hardly comforting even if he felt a little better from finally getting some shut-eye, given that he felt like there was a rather significant portion of his memory that seemed to be missing… "Uh, how'd we get off the plane?"
Cynthia smirked, which seemed to confirm his worst fears.
"You didn't, uh, drag me off, did you?"
Now she laughed fully out loud.
"No, no." She reassured him after settling down. "You moved under your own power. Don't think you were quite awake, though."
Ah. So that explains the dream about trying to run away from zombie Pokémon but only finding himself able to walk. Huh.
"So long as it wasn't embarrassing…"
"No promises there."
Ash shrugged as her smile returned, assuming - hoping - that she was joking.
He looked around, still a little dazed and groggy from his unexpected return to the waking world. His companion had dropped the jacket she had worn throughout the previous day, returning to only the light blue sleeveless top she had donned since first arriving in Unova.
"Where are we now? And where are we going?" He had literally no idea at this point, given his awakening in completely unfamiliar territory. It was one thing to travel a region on foot, and another entirely to go through it by car.
Cynthia flicked the built-in GPS before responding.
"We're not far from Rustboro City now, that's where we're headed; we touched down in Lilycove City three hours ago."
"Wow, that's a pretty long trip."
"Hoenn's a pretty small region, especially compared to Sinnoh. You clearly needed the sleep, though."
"Yeah, you sure you don't need more too?"
"I'll be fine. I've had my coffee."
He shrugged, not entirely convinced, but accepted it for now… and decided to try a different tack.
"So, feel a little more like telling me about what happened yesterday now?"
"Not… really."
She wasn't looking at him again, concentration etched across her face. Whether or not her gaze was averted solely because of the need to watch the road, or also because she didn't want to look him in the eye… He wasn't entirely sure.
Ash sighed. Talking to Cynthia didn't come as easily as talking to his other friends did. Perhaps it was down to the age gap, or her clear current superiority as a Pokémon trainer, maybe… She almost felt like a mentor, more often than not, far more than an equal.
But whatever the cause, he was never quite sure how hard to press when asking about things that she seemed reluctant to indulge him in.
He'd felt the same when asking her if what Cameron had said was true, back in Undella Town, when to him she had seemed upset. He hadn't felt that it was his place to interfere, there.
Not this time, though, because – indirectly, at least - it very much involved him, this time, and he wanted to be a part of it.
After all, if one of his friends was unhappy, wasn't it his duty to try to help solve the problem?
That's what friends are for, right?
Friends certainly don't just leave friends behind.
Putting that little frustration behind him, he tried again.
"I'm sure you can tell me at least the gist of what went on in there. Maybe if you vent you'll feel a little better?"
"I said-" She started to refuse him again, but he kept the pressure up.
"Come on, Cynthia. It's not like I'll tell anyone else. And I'm sure you'll feel better, I promise."
"Why would you be interested?" She asked, vaguely intrigued. "Boredom aside, at least…"
"Well, you looked pretty upset, and it isn't really good if you just stand by when your friends are unhappy." He suggested. "I want to help, really…"
A brief silence passed between them as they slowed to a stop at the top of a rather steep hill. Looking across the horizon they could see Rustboro City, the skyscrapers easily making it identifiable from afar, particularly the tallest one denoting the Devon Corporations's headquarters.
It was Cynthia's turn to sigh as she shifted gear and sent them off down the hill.
"All right, Ash Ketchum. You win. I'll share." She took a moment longer to decide how to start. "Okay, first off. How much do you actually know about how the individual leagues operate?"
"Not much." He admitted. "I mean, I know each region has a champion, and four trainers who make up the Elite Four, but other than that…"
"Well, all of the leagues technically answer to the actual Pokémon league; that's why Mr. Goodshow comes to all the regional conferences that he can attend." She explained. "But that's of less importance right now. Each regional league has its own staff, and its own board of directors, who work with the champion to make the league actually run; funding the gyms, finding sponsors for the tournaments and important battles, all of that stuff."
"So that's where the problem is?" He already knew the answer.
"You really are pretty quick, Ash." She smiled grimly. "Yes. To put it very bluntly, I've been having a bit of a… disagreement, with the Sinnoh board."
"Why?"
"Putting it as a conflict of interests is probably the fairest way of describing it. They've all got connections to businesses that would stand to gain a lot from having a champion go around helping with some good publicity."
"That seems a little… unusual." He commented. "Isn't being a champion all about Pokémon; finding inner strength, caring for them, and such?"
"Yes, it is." She agreed. "And looking after people, too. Looking after your region, defending ideals. It's all about that. Having champions actually advertise products is banned for a reason, y'know." She took a last, sharp turn with expert skill and they were finally out of the greenery of the Rustboro outskirs and into the city proper. "Not money or fame, and that's a distinction that my board doesn't seem to see."
"I can see how that would be annoying. Don't the other champions have this problem, then?"
"Not really. They don't really have boards that care quite as much about this kind of thing as mine do. And, I suppose, to be fair, they do tend to stick to their regions a little more than I do."
"Huh?"
"I came to Unova for that exhibition match, I followed you and the others to Kanto to see about the stone; just two examples among others. And they really weren't happy with me going to Hoenn so soon. I'll probably end up paying for that pretty hard."
"How?"
"Oh, they'll find a way." She shrugged, seemed almost resigned to her fate.
"Well, it seems to me that you only keep leaving because you have to." He said, trying to reassure her. "You wanted to be sure that the stone wasn't something that could threaten the world. This could be really important, too. And I'm sure that the exhibition match would've been pretty good publicity too."
"You sure about all that?"
"I am. You're a great champion, Cynthia, and you shouldn't listen to them."
She didn't break her poker face any more than allowing a slight smile to slip across her features, but he could tell that she seemed much, much happier now after what he had said.
It became evident to Ash that they had received pre-set instructions for their destination when they parked rather unceremoniously outside a drab-looking building and the GPS promptly shut off. They debarked from the car, stepping out onto the pavement and surveyed their surroundings. There didn't appear to be anything special about this particular block that differentiated it from any other part of the bustling city.
"Thanks, Ash."
"No problem. What are friends for, right?"
Pikachu reinforced his words with an enthusiastic agreement.
They became slightly side-tracked after Cynthia discovered a nearby ice-cream stand, and just had to go ahead and purchase one.
And that was how Ash also came to find himself licking a frozen treat outside a few buildings in Rustboro City. As did Pikachu, too, who took great delight in realising the potential of ketchup-flavoured ice-cream.
It seemed like Cynthia was opening up to him, and he felt better now that he'd been able to cheer her up.
All in all… He decided. Apart from the jet lag, this has been a pretty good day so far.
Proceeding inside a little later on, they were directed into an elevator that climbed a respectable number of floors before disgorging them out into a high-rise, window-view office. With an apology, the lift attendant told them that their host would be alerted to their arrival, and would see them shortly.
And shortly really did mean "shortly" this time, as Wallace walked out of the lift not even two minutes later, beaming at their presence.
He hadn't changed at all from when Ash had last seen him at the Wallace Cup in Sinnoh. He still walked with an air of modest grace that betrayed no hint of arrogance, his expression of kind benevolence as unchanging as Cynthia's poker face, Cameron's stoic scowl or Lance's jovial smirk.
The pleasantries were also remarkably swift, though not because any of the involved parties disliked each other, but because all seemed to understand that brevity was what was needed at the present time, at least when it came to such trivial matters. Still, Wallace expressed delighted surprise at Ash and Pikachu's presence, who explained Lance's request while Cynthia gave the Hoenn champion a discreet, troubled look.
With that out of the way, they went on to business, and, specifically, the reason that Wallace had asked them to come to Hoenn in the first place.
"I'm aware that Cameron has informed you of his and Steven's little quest up into the northern mountains, and what they found there." Wallace told them, pulling up a map onto a holographic computer screen built into the office. He pointed up to an area north of Fallarbor Town that Ash did not recognise; his previous journey through the region had not taken him so far up towards Hoenn's geographical zenith.
"That's right, we heard about the base there." Cynthia confirmed.
"Then you haven't heard the more recent news." Wallace continued, now bringing up images that were presumably of the scene. "Steven took a team of league agents back up there after Cameron returned to Unova… And took these pictures of the area."
"I don't see anything." Ash said, confused.
"Exactly."
"They dismantled the base." Cynthia determined quickly.
"Not even a trace of its existence remained, so I'm told." Wallace replied. "They did it in less than three days, and from their first description it was a rather sizeable base too."
"Could it be Team Aqua or Magma again?" Ash pointed out, remembering his last encounter with the crazed groups.
"It's unlikely, but it's a possibility we're looking into." Wallace replied.
"Which is interesting, if not a little unsettling, but none of this explains why you asked us here." Cynthia said, referring to Wallace's previous point and attempting to return to the most important part of the conversation, and Wallace shook his head.
"But it is relevant. After that incident, I had the most trustworthy Hoenn league agents under my command investigate any leads that they could find about potential criminal activity in this region. They uncovered very little, and that gave us great cause for concern; there will always be threats in regions of such size, and it is the duty of the league to handle them." He pulled up a few more files to show them, and then carried on. "But then we received a tip-off from a very reliable source, who promptly disappeared shortly after passing this information to us. We have no idea of their current whereabouts, but it would be wrong for us to not capitalise on what we have learned to our advantage, out of respect, if not for justice.
"What did you learn?" Ash asked. Wallace seemed able to ramble on at a rather astonishing length.
"That there is something hidden in the forests around the north of the city. Something that could be dangerous, or useful or even valuable."
"There seems to be a lot of mystery regarding all this unrest about the regions…" Cynthia mused.
"Too much." Wallace replied gravely, and for a brief moment Cynthia caught a glimpse of a very haunted look in his eyes that she found familiar. She'd seen it in Cameron, before they'd left Unova. She'd seen it in Lance when he had arrived at Oak's lab.
She'd seen it in the mirror.
"But why are we needed?" Ash asked. "Surely you could just flood the area with your league agents?" It was a good point.
"Normally, we would, but we cannot be as discreet as normal. There is a very encompassing media presence around Rustboro City at the present time, as a result of the annual Festival of Summer that is crossing the region, as is customary. I would be here, anywhere, you see." He smiled at Cynthia in particular, who nodded in understanding.
"Sending in the agents now would be too risky, you'd alert the target." She surmised. "You want to find out what it is first, or if it even exists, without worrying the public."
"Shrewd as ever. But you, on the other hand... We've purposefully kept you away from the main streets; your GPS co-ordinates specifically did so."
"We noticed."
"Just the two of you, and Pikachu, of course…" Wallace added, patting the Mouse Pokémon's head, and Pikachu squeaked happily at the recognition. "You could slip into the forest and search more discreetly."
"But what are we looking for?" Ash still wasn't sure.
Wallace smiled widely again, with only a hint of desperation beneath.
"Anything."
They really hadn't expected to find anything so fast, if at all.
They had just intended to walk out into the forest and do a quick sweep, and then spend the rest of the daylight they could get on a more thorough search before returning to Wallace. Ash gave Staraptor a chance to stretch its wings, telling it to scout out from the air and to return if it found anything suspicious.
Not even ten minutes after he had sent it off, his Pokémon returned, wings flapping urgently. It swooped over them, circling for a little while, before squawking loudly and leading them, running on the ground below, in the direction it had come.
When they finally caught up, huffing and puffing slightly, Ash returned his flying-type with a word of gratitude, and trainer, champion and electric-type all stared down at the interesting sight of a manhole, covered over not at all carefully by anything but the standard metal cover; entirely out in the open of the clearing that it was situated in.
"A manhole?" Ash scratched his head. "That's not that suspicious." Cynthia looked at him, amused.
"Ash, have you ever seen one of these in a forest before?"
"Good point."
"Well, only one way to find out where it goes." They carefully lifted the cover off the top and climbed down into the dark depths below, unsure as to what they might find.
Thousands of miles away…
She wasn't sure what she had found, but it looked big. Real big. Possibly the biggest find out of all of the so-called "safe houses" that they had hit and cleaned out so far.
Or, she noted, brushing an obstructing, bushy chunk of brown hair out of her eyes, it could just be a tunnel. A real big tunnel.
Still, it was worth a little further investigation…
Might keep him off my back for a little while, anyway…
Her Xtransceiver chose that moment to rather inappropriately chime off with the sound of an incoming call; her rather inappropriate ringtone blasted out into the still night air. She hurriedly muted it before glancing around to see that her cover had not been compromised, then, satisfied, picked up the call.
Or maybe not…
As she had expected, he wasn't very happy with her prolonged absence.
"Where are you?" It impressed her sometimes how he could drag words out so far and yet not sound shrill. "We're only two hours away from the next assault and you haven't reported in."
"I've been a little busy." She knew he'd hate that.
"With what, exactly?"
"Well, dinner for starters. I had to miss it in the afternoon because I went on patrol, and then-"
"Fine, fine." She knew he wouldn't let her babble for too long. "Where are you now, then?"
"I found this weird tunnel."
"A tunnel?"
"It looks big. Real big, actually."
"Real big, you say?" She could tell he didn't care at all, but chose to play along and ignore the sarcasm.
"Yeah. I thought I'd check it out with Zee. Hope you don't mind."
"It's up to you, not like I can force you anyway." Damn right you can't.
"Mhm."
"But please, be back for the raid, all right?"
"Maybe." She cut the call. Yeah, maybe I will, Cameron. If I'm back in time. No promises.
Well, it was time to get moving at any rate.
"Zee?" She called out quietly, and smiled at the responsive growl from just above her.
Her Pokémon was pretty good at blending in, despite what one would think, given his stature. Not to mention the inability to camouflage…
"Time to go. Oh, don't give me that, I'm sure there'll be something at the end of this tunnel. Look, it's real big, all right? Yes, real big."
Anyone observing would have thought her completely mad to be talking to her Pokémon as if it was talking back to her, but this was no ordinary Pokémon.
She climbed on its back and patted its scales appreciatively as it took off, wings humming slightly with a small crackle of higher-than-average voltage.
Hopefully, there would be something at the end of this tunnel and it wouldn't be just a complete waste of time…
Back in Hoenn…
"This tunnel must be huge!" Ash exclaimed. It was hard to tell, given that their only illumination came from Pikachu generating a small amount of electricity at its cheeks, but from what they could see it seemed that Ash was correct.
There was no end in sight to the underground path, which went down in both directions from where they had entered it. It seemed that the manhole had been an access shaft to the larger construction, and they had no idea how far it went.
It was also wide enough that they could walk easily without obstruction; at least thirty metres in diameter.
They edged forward, bit by bit, with the Mouse Pokémon leading the group so that they could see where they were going. They noticed quickly that there were lights built in above, but they were either not working yet, broken or simply just not turned on.
"I can't believe that no-one noticed this before… But it can't have been recently constructed." Cynthia commented, pointing again at the railway tracks that had been the first things they had noticed upon entering the tunnel. The tracks went on in both directions too; two sets of tracks, likely for transportation each way.
But transportation of what? And for whom?
So many questions…
They had been walking for nearly twenty minutes when Cynthia suggested that they turn back, or look for another access shaft; they could be stuck down there forever otherwise.
"Wait a moment, look at this." Ash pointed ahead at an area of the tunnel were the tracks on one side – their side – seemed to diverge off, but vanish into the wall without a trace. "That's weird, maybe this wall isn't actually here…"
"We can take a look again when we come back with reinforcements; this is enough of a discovery." Cynthia pressed, and Ash reluctantly agreed.
"Just one more minute of walking, first?" He pleaded, and she accepted the bargain.
That "one more minute" ended up proving vital, of course.
"Is that light, up there?" Cynthia was the first to notice, and Ash strained his eyes to see further into the gloom. It was hard to be sure when compared to Pikachu's illumination, but it did seem to be brighter up ahead…
"Can't turn back now."
"Fine…"
They sprinted to the light that increased intensity as they ran, until they finally arrived at a portion of the tunnel, just around a bend, where the lights were on.
Pikachu sighed in relief, stopping its efforts towards producing electricity which had been steadily exhausting it.
Ash opened his mouth to shout something back to Cynthia, but found himself ending that attempted sentence in a strangled cry as the Sinnoh champion placed her hand over his mouth and pulled him to the ground.
"Stay low." She whispered, removing her hand as he looked at her indignantly. "Look there." She carefully pointed over to an unmarked door, and he saw why she had silenced him.
They were not alone in the tunnel.
Across the width of the tracks stood two others dressed in dark garb, speaking care freely and loudly, as though wanting to be heard on the other side of the door.
"Let's give her some food in a couple of hours." One said to the other.
"Yeah, let the kid see what it's like to go hungry. That'll stop her from being a pain." With that, they simply walked off up the tunnel, chuckling at somebody's expense.
Ash, Cynthia and Pikachu waited a little while to ensure that they were actually gone before running over to inspect the door.
"A prisoner?" Ash asked quietly.
"Looks like it. Could be Wallace's source."
"Did you recognise that uniform?"
"No. Let's get this door open… Garchomp, battle dance!"
Her powerhouse exploded onto the scene in a flash of light, but had the sense, from their hushed tones, not to roar loudly for once.
"Break the lock on this door, please." Cynthia whispered. Garchomp complied with a swift Brick Break, and the door resonated slightly as it swung open from the force.
The cell – for that was what it obviously was – was dark, damp and very, very small. There was no light as there was in the tunnel for them to see inside, so Pikachu charged up once again and went in first.
"Pi… ka? Pika! Pika pika pika!"
Something was up judging from the electric-type's excitement, and so Ash followed his starter into the tiny cell to see for himself.
Out of all the people Ash could have imagined that could have possibly been in that cell…
Somehow, he didn't actually expect…
Didn't see coming…
"May?"
If the presence of evil were obvious, it wouldn't be nearly as dangerous.
- Hidden Horror, Graveborn