A Reminiscence

Chapter Twelve

Discovery

()()()

With Zoroark's illusion dissipated, the forest was now quite lovely, the shadows gone and the topography following standard rules of geometry. With this vast improvement, we were easily able to make our way to the shrine, although we were somewhat concerned regarding the untranslatable symbols on it, and how it might affect our search for Celebi.

"All right, Larch, look," Jack started, as we made our way. "We're pretty smart, right? We have plenty of skills and smarts between us, there's no reason we can't figure it out."

"Look, Jack," I responded, "for the many centuries this thing has been here, nobody has been able to even remotely figure out what any of it means, or even why it was here in the first place, only that Celebi might occasionally be found here."

"Well, yeah, but you have to remember that we were barely able to find any information on it at all, so I'm guessing that there weren't very many people trying. Probably a lot of people just signed it off as some weird prank or a hoax, like…like that skeleton of an ancient human which turned out to just be a normal human skull with a Chimchar jaw stuck on it."

"Ah, yes, that." I recalled that business; it was quite embarrassing for all involved. I could only thank whatever deity appropriate that I managed to avoid it and not further drag my name through the mud. Of course, even if I had, my future presentation would render it all moot, but I had too much to think about in the present, so I set that aside.

"What be you two talkin' about?" Greybeard asked, quite lost.

"A whole business you would not be very interested in," I answered. "It would probably take far too long to explain all the specifics of it."

"Aye, but I can see something I am interested in!" he said, barreling forward. Jack and I looked ahead, and saw something of astonishing beauty: the shrine, cracked and worn with age, but still standing. It was not terribly complex; a circular stone platform jutted from the ground, those damned symbols covering it all around, and two stone arches intersecting atop it, with some lovely inlays that had all but disappeared with age.

"Incredible!" I cried, Jack and I doing our best to catch up. Soon, we found Greybeard staring in awe at the symbols covering the shrine, almost as if he recognized them.

"What is it?" I asked, looking at the intricate carvings. True enough, they were entirely unintelligible, looking like something a drunken person would scrawl out with a half-broken pencil, although I silently remarked they resembled the nonsense scribbles I saw in my earlier vision.

"How fascinating," I said, trying to discern anything from them. "Small wonder nobody has ever tried to solve this mystery, it is quite impossible."

"I think I can read this!" Greybeard announced.

"What?" Jack and I asked simultaneously, baffled by his claim.

"Aye, me crew and I devised a secret code so that we could correspond without anybody figuring it out."

"Is this that code?" I asked. "What does it say?"

"Hold on, there. Firstly, we made up our very own alphabet, and then we separated them in a particular way so that you can only read them out when you're drunk as hell."

"I see!" Clarity filled my mind, which was a welcome introduction. "Nobody could read it because they did not know the cypher, nor did they know they had to cross their eyes to see it correctly."

"Aye!" Greybeard pulled a flask off his belt and took a number of hearty swigs from it, soon becoming quite off. He looked at the symbols, easily discerning their meaning for the first time in centuries.

"What does it say?" Jack asked, impatient.

"Uh…it says, hold on, let me just go around…" he circled the shrine for a bit, quickly determining the full message. "Ah, yes, it says 'Celebi is hiding in the boiler room somewhere'."

"Of course!" I cried. "You must have made this shrine in the past to tell us where Celebi would be found in the future so we could send you back in time, allowing you to build the shrine after the fact and closing a stable time loop!"

"Oh, god, I'm going to get a headache," Jack complained.

"Worry not," I said. "It will all come together soon enough."

"About damn time it did, too," Jack said.

"Of course, to properly close the loop, we will actually need to acquire Celebi." I noted. "But first…" I looked at the symbols around the shrine's base, defocusing my eyes slightly enough for the symbols to form.

"How clever," I muttered. "I might try to figure this whole system out at some point."

"I might have the sheet somewhere on me ship," Greybeard said, quite off-kilter. Jack ran over to support him, heaving under his astonishing weight. "I'll give it to ye, for a price."

"I think putting you back into your proper time period is a fair payment," I said.

"Ah, ye drive a hard bargain!" Greybeard said, convinced. "The secret code for me proper place in time? Deal!"

"Excellent. Now, we had best be off; we may not have much time left." I shook my head, considering the facts. "Actually, we have as much time as we want; we know we will succeed, because we already have!"

"Can I borrow some of that rum, Greybeard?" Jack asked. "Because I'm gonna need it at this rate."

"Oh, hush," I admonished. "This is not really that complicated, Jack."

"Yeah, to you maybe!" he spat back. "You're some supergenius scientist, this stuff is way over my head!"

"You think I'm a supergenius?" I asked, genuinely pleased.

"Well…I mean, look, you made the translator, and nobody's been able to work out how the hell that would even work, not to mention keeping a handle on this stupid situation somehow…"

"Why…why, thank you, Jack." I turned around, now very happy indeed. "Come, we should go get Anne and that Zoroark of hers, it would be very wise to make haste before some other strange occurrence happens."

"Amen to that!" Jack said, lurching forward under Greybeard's weight. Soon, however, the pirate captain pushed off of him and walked himself, freeing Jack from his burden. We were certainly renewed, some more than others, and we wasted absolutely no time in getting back to Anne and the Zoroark.

()()()

By the time we got back inside the cave, the two of them seemed to have reached a beneficial agreement, and were shaking hands on it.

"I see you have devised a contract," I noted.

"Indeed we have," the Zoroark said. "I follow her around, quite specifically outside of a PokeBall—"

"Outside of one?" Jack interrupted.

"Look, Jack, I don't know what the hell goes on in there, and I certainly don't intend to find out. Anyway, no PokeBalls, proper human food, and I also get a nice hat."

"Not a bad deal for you," I said.

"Certainly not. Anyway, we decided on the name Slick. How's things?" He held out a claw, and I hesitantly reached for it, receiving a hearty handshake in return.

"All right, now we have somebody else involved in the group," Jack said. "Now can we please go to the ship?"

"Ooh, a ship!" Slick's eyes lit up. "I've always wanted to go on a ship! Which one is it?"

"The SS Anne," I answered.

"Oh, pinch me, I'm dreaming!" Slick threw himself into Anne's arms, pretending as if he was fainting.

"Do you mind?" she asked crossly, her voice muffled by his massive ponytail.

"What? Oh, sorry." He climbed off her and smiled sheepishly. "Uh, anyway, ship! Yeah, let's go!"

He quickly made his exit from us, leaving us behind in the cave.

"Quite the specimen, that one…" I said.

"Okay, he's kind of weird, but he's just so cool!" Anne gushed, chasing after him. "Race ya there!"

"Be this a challenge?" Greybeard demanded, running after her as well. "I'll never be bested by ye, hear that!"

"Well, that was strange and uncomfortable," Jack said as we two walked out of the cave together. "I don't trust that Slick guy."

"That whole illusion thing was an accident," I countered. "Besides, I found the experience rather…revealing of certain qualities."

"You're afraid you'll blow it?" Jack asked, concerned, or perhaps more confused.

"Well, of course I am! This is the single most important presentation of my life! If I do not do it properly, I will become a total laughingstock! My reputation would never recover from such a severe blow!"

"First of all, you're way overstating this," Jack admonished. "Second, you've been sailing alongside a time-travelling pirate for the past, what, two days, and you're afraid of giving one little presentation? Larch, you're a national hero! You decimated Team Rocket! You threw their leader out of the top of Silph Co.!"

"No, it was Ralph that did that. I just sat there helplessly and shot an AR-15 at the wall!"

Jack recoiled. "Well, okay, but still! You went into the most ridiculously dangerous situation possible and came out at the very top! And with the finest supercar in the world, might I add?"

"Oh, right, the Horizon. Again, that belongs to Ralph."

"Yeah, but guess who isn't here right now?" he asked. "Guess who didn't help you escape that illusion? Guess who won't help us find Celebi?"

I considered this for a moment, breaking into a smile. "I suppose you have a fair point, Jack. Thank you, I quite needed that."

"Anytime." He looked around a bit as we finally exited the cave, suspicious. "Don't…don't tell anybody about that, though. I have an image to keep up."

I chuckled. "Worry not, I have no intention of sharing our little moment."

Jack scowled. "Ew. Look, as I was saying anyway, I'm still not entirely sure I trust Slick."

"I shall give him the benefit of the doubt," I said. "He certainly seemed nice enough, and I entirely trust Anne to keep him in line, given what she has on her team."

"If you say so," he said as we got back on the path out of the forest. "C'mon, let's get the hell out of this forest. I'm sick of this place."

"Well, we have at least one thing to agree on," I noted, making haste as we both followed the trail out.

()()()

It was much later in the afternoon when we finally got back to the town, another member added to our group. We assumed that Ralph was not quite finished yet, and so we simply went straight for the docks, collecting a few looks and gasps from the townsfolk as we walked through, due to how utterly strange we looked all together.

Once we reached the dock, and the massive alternating staircase leading up to the SS Anne, we found that the captain was already there waiting for us, looking somewhat concerned. Of course, when he saw us coming, that concern dissipated, now replaced by what seemed to be an equal mix of relief and fear.

"Captain!" I greeted. "We have returned, and we now have knowledge of where Celebi might be found!"

"Yeah, and you also have that thing!" he said, pointing to Slick, who frowned and crossed his arms.

"This 'thing' has a name, asshole!" he said, turning his nose up.

"It talks?" the captain asked, scratching his head.

"And now 'it'!" Slick cried. "Who is this guy?"

"The captain of the SS Anne," I answered. "I assume he was merely caught off guard by your…appearance."

"What are you, anyway?" the captain asked, looking over Slick.

"I'll have you know, I am a Zoroark, and quite proud of it, thank you very much."

"I thought those were only native to Unova, though?"

"I can't leave?" Slick asked, raising an eyebrow.

The captain shrugged, then shook his head. "Okay, this is getting ridiculous. Where is Celebi?"

"After translating the runes on the shrine we located," I explained, "we have determined that Celebi is, in fact, in your boiler room."

The captain frowned. "First, that makes absolutely no sense at all, and second, it's far too dangerous in there for me to let you in."

"You would prefer leaving Greybeard stranded in time?" I asked.

"Well, no, but…why the hell would Celebi be in my boiler room? And which one would it be, anyway? We have two separate ones aboard the ship."

"Then we had best split up to search them both."

"I'm not letting you into the goddamn boiler room!" the captain insisted. "You'll either get severely injured or you'll press the wrong button and blow a hole in the side of my ship!"

"Have you any faith in us at all?" I asked, stepping closer.

"Considering you're claiming you found some ancient shrine that talks about boiler rooms, I have to wonder if you didn't knick some of that keg for yourself earlier!"

"And just what are you implying?" I demanded.

"I'm going to stop this before one of you gets arrested," Jack said, pushing himself between us. "Look, Larch, you're being kind of an ass right now, but as for you, captain, it's kind of important that we get into that boiler room.

The captain grimaced, and reluctantly conceded. "Fine. But I'm having somebody accompany both groups so you don't screw anything up."

"Oh, very well. Show us the way, Mr. Faith."

The captain frowned, but relented and led our group up the staircase in silence, an awkward stillness between us all. It was not soon enough that we were at the top of the stairs and back onto the ship, in the plush main lobby, where a handful of people were milling about, presumably waiting for other people to come along. My group took a seat, while the captain chose to simply stand.

"All right, here's how it's going to work," the captain explained. "You five are going to wait here while I go get some crew to accompany you inside, and you will do exactly as they say once I get them here. You will not touch anything, you will not press any buttons or levers, and you will leave the instant you find Celebi, assuming you do actually find it. Got it?"

We each muttered vague confirmations, and the captain walked off into the depths of the ship, satisfied.

"Geez, what an asshole," Jack muttered.

"I heard that!" the captain called back.

With that, we found ourselves almost alone in that lobby, quite awkwardly standing there in silence.

"Well, now what?" Slick asked, finally breaking the uncomfortable air. "I'm pretty sure that guy doesn't trust me going down there."

"To be honest, I wouldn't completely trust you down there, either," Anne noted, gesturing towards his massive tail. "This would probably bump into a lot of stuff."

Slick considered this for a moment. "I guess that's fair. So, who else is going?"

"I think it would be best if I went with Greybeard," I suggested. "That would, of course, leave you two together."

"Fair enough," Jack said, inching closer to Anne and grinning.

"Don't even think about it, buddy," she said, pushing him away.

"Come now, behave," I warned. "We would not want the captain to be cross with us."

"You certainly wouldn't," he said as he suddenly came up behind me, causing me to jump a bit. I turned to face him, seeing he had two crewmen with him, both of whom looked somewhat cross.

"This is Johnson and Richards," he said, gesturing to the men to his right and left. "They will take your groups to the two boiler rooms, and you will do exactly as they say. Got that?"

"Indeed." Greybeard and I went to Johnson, while Anne and Jack went to Richards, Slick obviously choosing to stay behind. They nodded, and quickly started walking, as we followed them into the depths of the ship…

()()()

Soon, we were in the deep parts of the ship, where the other passengers were unlikely to ever set foot, and with good reason; it was very tightly spaced, quite hot, and overall a rather unpleasant experience that would sully any proper vacation. Luckily, however, I knew we would only be down here a rather short while, since I assumed it would be me and Greybeard that would find Celebi.

As for the two boiler rooms, they were located on opposite sides of a tight corridor near the bottom of the ship, labeled "A" and "B".

"Say, why do you have two of these, anyway?" I asked. "I would have guessed you would only need one."

"They typically run at half efficiency each," Johnson explained, as he fumbled for his key. "That way, if one of them is damaged or stops working, the other one can pick up the difference. It's a fairly large ship, so having backup is quite important."

"Ah, redundancy!" I exclaimed. "Excellent, excellent, always a good choice in this sort of thing. How large are they?"

"Fairly large. I certainly hope you get lucky and find what you're looking for soon, I hate it down here."

"I confess I'm not fond of it either," Greybeard said. "All of this fancy stuff just confuses me more than anything."

"Ah, here we go!" Johnson pulled out the correct key and put it into the two doors, letting us in. As Richards went with the other two, we went into Boiler Room A, quickly finding that it was large indeed. It was, as expected, a sort of dull brown color, but surprisingly well lit, despite what the films might tell us of such things. Massive boilers stretched from one end of the room to the other, providing steam and hot water to the entire ship, a useful service. Greybeard stared in awe at them, fascinated by such advanced (to him) technology.

"What be all this, then?" he asked, looking them over quite well. "What do all of these do?"

"They boil water and produce steam, which is useful for the ships operations. These do not power the ship, do they?" I asked, turning to Johnson.

"No, we use a diesel engine for that," he explained.

"Diesel?" Greybeard asked.

"Ah, the miracle of internal combustion! I probably could not explain it to you if I tried, so let me just say it will be very popular in the future. Anyway, we had best search for Celebi before somebody else finds it."

"Where do we start?" Greybeard asked. "This room be huge!"

"Good question…" I looked around, determining the best point to start our hunt. "I believe if I look over the right half of the room, and you the left, it would be more constructive overall. Besides, you are a pirate captain. Finding hidden treasure is practically your job."

"Uh…mostly we just shoot at ships until they give us their cargo. I don't know much about 'hidden treasure'."

"Oh. Well…just look around for a bit. We are bound to find something helpful sooner or later."

With that, we separated, Johnson trying his best to keep an eye on us both. I did not notice what Greybeard was doing, as I was too busy carefully observing the large boilers, searching for any sign that something might be amiss. However, soon I found that nothing seemed to be out of place; all the boilers were functioning perfectly well, the ones that were on, anyway, all the wall panels were in place; really, it seemed as if nothing was there, and the shrine was some bizarre trick. But that could not have been, since it was inevitable that we would find Celebi…until I had a terrible thought once I reached the end of the room.

"Greybeard!" I cried. "Come here, quickly!"

"What is it?" he asked, running up to me. Johnson also did so, looking quite concerned.

"I have realized something of utterly critical importance," I began gravely. "Consider that the inscription claimed Celebi would be here, in the boiler room. However, it is entirely possible that a certain Mr. Wolfgang, in fact, stole Celebi elsewhere, figured out your code, and used it to distract us from the true location of Celebi while he gets it for himself, seizing control over everything!"

"Scallywag!" Greybeard cried.

"You might call me that," Wolfgang said, suddenly appearing from the hallway outside. Greybeard and Johnson pulled out their guns, but I simply stared him down. "I, however, prefer the term 'genius', as my clever little ploy worked. While you were all wasting your time looking around in this boiler room, I already know where Celebi is, and fully intend to collect him, considering that I came here from, oh, several hours in the future. Enjoy chasing after me!"

"Where will you be, you bastard?" I demanded, stepping closer.

"You already figured out where my little shrine was; you should have no difficulty whatsoever in finding out where I am! Now, then, I must be off! Celebi?"

From the hall came a green flash, and before I could lunge to grab him, he disappeared, the flash nearly blinding me. When I looked back, he had disappeared.

"Damn it all!" I cried. "He made fools of us all!"

"Clever bastard," Greybeard noted.

"I cannot believe how easily he played us like a fiddle! Something must be done!"

"If you don't know where Celebi actually is, how will you be able to catch him?" Johnson questioned.

"I do not know, but we must try. Such a powerful Pokémon falling into his hands would be utterly disastrous. Greybeard, Johnson, you two go back above deck to get Slick, I shall get the others."

They nodded, and I ran into the other boiler room, finding a very confused Jack and Anne standing right near the entrance.

"Larch, what the hell was that?" Jack asked. "I heard something in the hall, and when I look outside, there's nothing there. What's going on?"

"Wolfgang. He knows where Celebi is and intends to collect it for himself. The shrine was merely a trick he played when he succeeded."

"What?" Anne cried. "That son of a bitch! I went through that weird dream thingy for nothing?"

"You found Slick, remember." I pointed out.

"Oh, yeah. That was pretty sweet."

"There is no time for this, though. We must find him as soon as possible and stop him!"

"How can we stop him, though?" Jack asked. "You're the one who's been going on and on about time loops and causal actions and whatever, if he made the shrine, we know he wins! There's no point!"

"Ah, but there is a point!" I cried. "We know that he gets Celebi, but we do not at all know if he manages to keep Celebi, and therein lies the key."

"You're saying we have to get him after he already thinks he's won?"

"Precisely. Come, we must go back above deck and ready ourselves."

"Right!" Anne and Jack said simultaneously. We all ran down the hall…

()()()

…And soon found ourselves back in the lobby, where all the others, including a very perturbed fellow indeed, stood.

"What the hell is all this, now?" the captain of the SS Anne demanded, quite loudly, in fact. "Are you saying I sent you four down into our boiler rooms for absolutely nothing?"

"We were tricked!" Greybeard insisted. "We couldn't a' known it weren't down there!"

"I didn't ask you, pirate!"

"Calm down, all of you!" I insisted. "There is time yet to stop anything unpleasant from happening, and we all must work together if we are to do so."

"You're the reason this is happening in the first place!" the captain insisted.

"That is a very broad accusation, sir." I spat. "Care to back it up?"

"I'm going to put a stop to this before you two kill each other," Jack said, stepping between us. "Look, obviously, where Wolfgang is, Celebi is too. Knowing him, he'll probably make a huge show of it just to piss us off. This won't be hard, even if he does manage to get Celebi, there's no evidence he'll actually hold onto it."

"A fair point," I noted. "But where might Celebi be, anyway?" I stepped outside of the lobby and leaned against the railing, deep in thought. "And where would Wolfgang have determined such?"

Suddenly, I heard a very peculiar noise, that of a powerful engine and splashing water. I looked around for the source, and soon found it: Wolfgang had hijacked a runabout, himself driving and his two Pokémon in the back seat, quickly making his way out to a clear target: Greybeard's ship.

"Of course!" I cried. "Celebi was above Greybeard's ship the whole time!"

"What?" Jack yelled, the entire group running outside. They soon caught sight of the boat, and the captain grew livid.

"Damn it, now look what he's done!" he cried.

"He is heading for your ship, Greybeard!" I cried.

"Damn him to hell! If he touches a single bit of the rigging, I'll keelhaul him with the anchor!"

"Captain, is there any way to get over there?"

"There's no way to get there fast enough," he said, despondent. "There's no way to stop him."

"We shall have to catch him later," I said. "Quickly, to the shore!"

Leaving the captain and the two crewmen behind, we all ran for the stairs leading down to the dock, hoping we would be able to stop Wolfgang once and for all…