Hello!

Since my chapters have been kinda short (thanks to how I'd previously chopped them up), I figured it might be a good idea to put up new chapters of this story twice in a weekend instead of once - I hope you guys can read all the chapters in order rather than coming in next week and finding out that you're probably missing something...

Plus, I really, really need to get this guy posted - there's another story in the works right now, and it's not going to make any sense unless I finish posting this guy before the other one starts to go up.

So, here you are! Enjoy!

Chapter 15 - Return to the Underground

"Birch, those kids have been gone for far too long," Rowan warned, turning his dark, serious eyes to the man next to him. "They might have been discovered."

"Or, they could have found the Elite Fours!" Birch countered, turning to look at the Sinnoh Professor. "They could be conversing with them and..." The still rather ragged-looking Hoenn Professor paused. "...and time flew by."

"But about two hours?" Oak asked with a frown. "Even I would like to stay optimistic, old friend, but I don't know if that's possible."

The three region professors were standing near the tunnel that led to Mt. Coronet, between the two surrogate Gym buildings. At this point in the day, both Gyms were crackling with electricity as Volkner and Lt. Surge answered "the call of duty": two Trainers - one with a Swampert, a Whiscash, and a Quagsire, and the other had a Golem, a Gigalith, and a Sandslash.

Birch frowned. "I highly doubt that they've run into any sort of trouble," he stated. "Cyrus got what he wanted, so he shouldn't want anything to do with that old mountain anymore at this point."

"Then why do you think he left it there?" Rowan countered. "Because, as the myths state, that's where the world began, to that's where he began his. That mountain may still have some importance left to him." The Sinnoh professor let out a sigh. "I wouldn't be surprised if Pika and the others ran into trouble in Deep Coronet."

There suddenly came the sound of something hitting against the smooth, rock floor of the tunnel. The noise gained the Professors' attention, and each turned to face the tunnel while reaching for a belt of PokeBalls that hid under their lab coats.

Dugtrio zoomed out of the tunnel like he'd been shot out of a cannon, leaving a sloppy rut behind him. "We've got company!" the Ground-Type exclaimed.

Much to the professors' surprise, the Pokemon the grinning.

"What sort of company?" Rowan inquired, frowning.

"My kind of company."

The three professors looked at the tunnel, eyes widening in surprise when they saw who had spoken.

"Hey, Prof," Red said, grinning at Professor Oak as he stepped out of the tunnel. "Long time, no see. How have you guys been doing?"

"Been keeping Trainers busy, I see," added the Pikachu sitting on the red-eyed boy's shoulder. The Electric-Type looked around, his ears twitching. "There's a lot of electricity around here..."

Taking note of the professors' speechless, astonished looks, Red continued, "And I'm not the only one Blue found, either." The Kanto Champion stepped to one side, letting the other figures standing behind him step into the light of the Underground.

"Professors," stated a gray-haired young man in greeting. He gave a nod to the three men, one of whom was definitely not composed enough to keep his jaw from dropping in shock. "It's good to see you're still alive and well."

"We've done what we can," Oak spoke up in reply. He looked over at the two other figures who were still standing in the shadows yet. "And who else did you bring with you?"

"They should be able to introduce themselves," came Blue's voice from behind the two figures.

Something clearly pushed the two figures forward, forcing them into the light. Swamp came out from behind and stood next to the two Trainers, looking somewhat amused and pleased with himself.

Birch's eyes widened, and his lower jaw promptly snapped up. "N-no...it can't be..."

"Hi, Dad," the blue-eyed girl stated, giving a slight smile and a wave. If one looked closely enough, they could see the sharpened incisors that clearly weren't part of an average human's array of teeth. "It's been a while."

Birch blinked rapidly, his gaze going between the blue-eyed, brown-haired girl and the boy with ruby-red eyes and a white hat on top of his head. When the Hoenn Professor had finished looking between the two of them in shock, he barreled forward and embraced the two at once. It looked like Birch was about to break down in tears.

Red grinned and tipped back his baseball cap at the sight. "Glad to see Professor Birch is still in one piece," he remarked lightly. "Ruby, you might want to go find your dad."

The boy with the white hat moved his head and looked over at the Kanto Champion with a dry look. "Gee, ya think?" he asked in an equally dry voice.

Birch chuckled and released the two Trainers from his bear hug and clapped Ruby on the shoulder. "I know where Norman is. It shouldn't be too hard to convince him that you are actually here."

"Or of the rest of our company," Victini spoke up. The little V-shaped Legendary flew up from behind Swamp, then turned around to look at the dark tunnel. "Come on out, guys!"

"You need not worry whether we come out or not, Victini," came a second voice. Merlin flew out of the tunnel, followed by Jewels and Lien. The being of Will clearly looked like was starting to enjoy himself.

The three Professors present stiffened upon seeing the Lake Spirits. Oak quickly started to reach for his PokeBalls again.

"Calm yourselves," Lien stated, holding up her paws. "We are not under anyone's control but our own."

"We came here to see if there's anything we can do to help," Jewels added, grinning. "The Underground and Deep Coronet are the only havens in the area that are actually up and running, and we want to make sure that they stay that way until Cyrus eats dirt!"

"Jewels, calm yourself," Swamp rumbled.

The blue-headed fairy waved off the statement. "Yeah, yeah."

Oak relaxed cautiously, removing his hand from his belt. "How -"

"Arctic decided she had spent enough time sitting on her feathers," Lien explained. "And I believe that same feeling is shared among other Pokemon and humans." She looked back at Swamp, who lowered his head a little as Pika scrambled up on top of it.

"All the Pokemon and Trainers in Deep Coronet are members of the Elite Four and either Champions in White's absence or apprentices of some sort," the Explorer Pokemon explained. He readjusted his red scarf, fingering his winged PokeBall badge for a moment. "The tunnels connect us directly to a training room where Khrista's Rayquaza taught other Dragon-Types Draco Meteor. From there, it branches into living quarters and -"

"Did you say apprentices?" Birch asked in surprise.

Red nodded, a smirk appearing on his face. "Yup. Black and his cousin, Trip, have been training with the Unova Elite Four practically around the clock. Saph here has been working with Brendan under Juan and Drake, and Ruby and May have been training with Will and Lorelei."

"We can take on Cyrus and knock him out of his tower!" Gary yelled from the tunnel. He pushed his way out between Ruby and Sapphire, who gave him a glare. Blue appeared from the darkness with Cedar the Sceptile behind Swamp.

"Attack Cyrus? Gary, have you lost your senses?!" Oak spluttered.

"Actually, Grandfather, he hasn't," Blue spoke up. "The Elite Four Trainers have been itching for action, and the Lake Spirits suspect that we may be able to attack soon, if we manage to come up with something."

Merlin nodded. "We have three allies on the inside who can assist us: Khrista, Joshua, and Mist."

"They have retained their free will and are more than willing to strike out when the time comes," Lien added. "However, we will need to make contact with them and speak with them in order to make this work."

"Do you mean to tell us that you already have a plan?" Professor Birch inquired, his excitement building.

"It's still a little rough around the edges," Jewels admitted. "And there is a large amount of information we don't have yet, like how many Pokemon and Trainers are available for the attack, as well as their strengths."

I'm sure that you have some ideas for those statistics," Merlin added.

The professors exchanged glances their thoughts clear on their faces. Eventually, Professor Birch looked back at the group, a huge grin on his face.

"Where do you want to start?" the Hoenn professor asked.

And the Underground and Deep Coronet refugees finally meet up!