Gain Of Trust

CHAPTER 2

"No way..." Steven uttered, shocked as he recalled his Metagross. Across the field, Leader's charizard reverted back to its normal look, disappearing into the light of its pokeball as well.

"Well, looks like my win, champion," Leader called out, stepping across the field with Jack close behind. "And since you knew I was coming, you know what I'm going to ask of you."

"...You know you won't get away with this," Steven said, hesitating before unclipping each of his pokeballs from his belt.

"Oh? And who is there to stop me? All that remains between me and the position of greatest trainer in the world is Cynthia," Leader smirked, Steven's grip tightening on his pokeballs.

"You defeated the rest of the champions so easily...?" Steven asked, the man giving a nod.

"Of course he did, and even if any Pokemon League winners or Frontier Brains in Kanto challenged him, he would still crush them," Jack added, arms crossed behind his head with a smirk.

"So, after you defeat Cynthia...What then? Issue a global release of pokemon?" the Hoenn champion asked, the pair giving a nod. "Then what? You know humans and pokemon will stay together, despite not being contained by pokeballs."

"We are aware of that, but that is not our real objective," Steven gave the pair a puzzled look, watching them walk away from him.

"Wait! Then what exactly are you hoping to accomplish?"

"All I will tell you, Steven...is that the world will be much better off after we succeed."

"Well, that wasn't so bad," Max sighed, looking back up behind them. A rope was cast across the chasm upwards attached to a tree where they had started, then each of them had ziplined down the rope to the ledge they were currently on. Looking ahead of them, there was a large crack in the side of the cliff which acted as the doorway.

"Well, no time to waste," Gary said, the group stepping into the cave one by one. With Gary and Brock carrying flashlights, after moving through the narrow passageway, they flashed the lights around to see themselves in a large room. Flashing it across the cave's roof, high above them, they noticed spears of ice hanging down. "Careful, I'll keep an eye on those so they don't fall on us."

"Alright," Brock flashed the light around, looking for the continuation of their route. They moved from room to room carefully, Gary always flashing his flashlight at the ceiling to watch the large icicles.

"So, does anyone know if anyone has actually...you know, found this dragon?" Dawn asked nervously.

"I can't say I've heard anything. There haven't been any maps drawn of this place, so maybe no one's even explored the full cavern yet," Gary said, the blunette getting more nervous.

"Or maybe someone has, but they found the dragon when it was hungry..." she said quietly, only May hearing her. The brunette put her hand on her friend's shoulder.

"Relax, no need to worry, right?" Dawn flashed a weak smile, then they stepped into the next room. However, this one was familiar.

"Hang on...This is where we started, isn't it?" Gary flashed his flashlight around, noticing a crack doorway with a bright light on the other side. Flashing it around the room, he noticed several doorways. "Oh, no...We've been going in circles."

"But how? We've been moving straight this whole time!" Max exclaimed, the others feeling nervous.

"We can't really say that for sure, it's not like a compass would work in here. It would probably freeze, or the metal in the walls will throw it off," Brock told him, the boy giving a frown. Gary looked at the roof again, counting the icicles.

"Hang on," everyone waiting, watching the man stare at the ceiling curiously. "...I think there's a system to the rooms."

"What are you talking about?" May asked, Gary gesturing to the ceiling.

"There's nine icicles on this ceiling," he told them, the others not understanding. "I've been looking at the icicles in every room, and I think there was another room with a different number of icicles."

"You think the rooms' layout are based on number of icicles?" Dawn asked, the researcher giving a nod. They moved to another room, Gary looking up at the ceiling and counting.

"This one's got seven," he said.

"So we missed a room? Shouldn't there be eight?" Max asked, the researcher pondering.

"Maybe...but I don't remember seeing a room with just one icicle..." he trailed off, wondering what this meant. Then something occurred to him. "If a compass won't work here, then maybe there is no sense of direction. Maybe you have to walk through each room in order."

"So if the first room had nine, then we have to find eight, then seven, and so on?" Dawn asked, Gary giving a shrug of his shoulders.

"What else do we have to go off of?" the others looked at each other hesitantly, then agreed. Moving through the rooms, they counted each icicle on the ceiling of each room, remembering it. Time seemed to pass slowly as they tried to follow this plan, taking multiple tries.

"There's three...But I don't remember where two was," Max groaned, rubbing his head.

"Does anyone?" everyone shook their heads, Gary feeling nervous. "So who feels lucky? If we mess this up, we'll have to start over again..."

"I think it's this way," May pointed to the doorway closest to her, everyone giving her a curious look. "I've been noticing the rooms have been getting colder as we get further."

"But there's less icicles? That doesn't make sense," Dawn said.

"Maybe the cold is just focusing on a smaller range. The first room had nine icicles and was chilly, and now in a room with three icicles it's actually really cold," Max said, holding his arms close. Hesitating, everyone moved through May's suggested doorway.

"Fingers crossed..." Gary said, aiming his flashlight at the ceiling. Two icicles. He sighed in relief.

"Alright, so now where's one?" Dawn asked, Gary flashing his light around the room and noticing something at a certain doorway.

"I bet it's that way," he said, everyone looking at the doorway he had illuminated. Different from each other doorway, there was a single icicle protruding from the wall above the crack.

"So this is it?" Max asked, looking around the fairly smaller room. The group had finally reached the final room, looking above to see one massive pillar of ice looming above them with an almost-mystical glow inside at the base. Looking around, they noticed there was nothing else. "There's no more doors, it's a dead end."

"Maybe that counting method wasn't what we had to do, after all?" Dawn suggested, giving a sigh as she crossed her arms tightly. "Not to mention it's really cold in here..."

"Here," the blunette was surprised to feel something wrap around her, noticing Gary stepping past her and putting his hand against the wall. She glanced back to see his own jacket around her, leaving the man with just a t-shirt. "This ice...This stuff never melts, it's almost as if it's frozen with the molecular structure of steel."

"So you're saying there's steel in this ice? Well that's safe, and no wonder this place hasn't melted yet," Brock stated, putting his hand to the wall and yanking it back. "Jeez, how are you still touching that? It feels like that alone could give you frostbite."

"But it won't. See?" the researcher pulled his hand back and showed it to the man, revealing no redness or signs of frostbite at all. "This may be ice, but it lacks basic molecular structure found in ice. It's weird, it looks exactly like ice in every physical way, except it's not somehow..."

"Okay, thanks for the science lesson, but what's your big solution on what we do? And it's not like the dragon can be hiding behind these walls, unless it's a baby dragon," Max said, Gary giving a sigh as he crossed his arms and closed his eyes.

"Ice that never melts...Doesn't give you frostbite, and the temperature remains below zero no matter what...I just don't understand this," he sighed again, rubbing his eyes. "This shouldn't be possible. There's no way that a small room like this can contain ice that can't melt, no matter how cold it is. It's like an electric oven can't produce heat without electricity."

"Electric oven..." May pondered to herself, staring up at the ice pillar above them, focusing on the seemingly-glowing coming from the base. "...What if this room is like an electric oven, but the opposite?"

"What do you mean? Dawn asked.

"An electric oven can't produce heat without an energy source, in this case electricity, right?" they nodded. "So, say this room can't produce cold temperatures without an energy source either, but it's not electricity."

"But what source could constantly produce energy without stopping? There's nothing here that never cha-" Gary stopped, looking at the brunette in surprise. "The ice..."

"So the ice produces these temperatures, given how it never melts. And maybe it's the same situation with the ice, whatever produced it in the first place is the only reason it's able to stay," she explained, her younger brother raising his arm.

"Okay, question. What's been here since before the ice? As far as local history goes in Lacunosa Town, this cavern has always been frozen over as long as it's been here," the young boy stated, activating a lightbulb in the researcher's head.

"But think of how long this cavern has been here. Remember what Iris and Drayden said, the Giant Chasm was never actually discovered until the meteor touched down here."

"So the meteor created and sustained these frozen caverns? Then that would mean the meteor was really like an iceberg-"

"Hang on, that script they deciphered never said anything about the dragon itself, did it? Like its powers or physical shape?"

"No, not really...But if what we're thinking is correct, then the dragon must have been able to withstand the most extreme frigid temperatures. Or maybe even the meteor wasn't frozen at all."

"That's it..." everyone looked at May. "The meteor is the most likely option to have created these caverns, yes. But say the meteor wasn't frozen over. That would leave only one other possibility."

"The dragon itself was frozen! So the dragon froze the meteor, then when it crashed into this area, it gave off a sort of pulse of frozen energy, flash-freezing the caverns as soon as they were formed! With the amount of force from the impact, mixed with the power of that dragon, that would explain how this ice was able to freeze and condense so strongly, and why it's never melted!" Brock exclaimed, the researcher giving a nod.

"That does make sense...But that still leaves one question. Where is the dragon now?" everyone looked around, unable to answer the question. "Given that is how this cavern was created and maintained, as logical as it is, there's no explanation as to how this dragon remains in this area unseen. The legend says the dragon rests in the Giant Chasm, but we've been through every room and haven't seen a clue of where it could be hiding."

"He's right. As far as we know, the answer to where this dragon is right now could be right over our heads," Dawn said, May giving a quiet sigh as she crossed her arms and stared at the frozen walls in thought.

"She's right, it just doesn't make sense...If the rumors say that the dragon eats people who come into this cavern, then it can't be behind the walls because they've never melted..."

"Aaaggh, why are there so many riddles?! Why can't they ever just have some way of pointing you in the right direction, like in the movies?!" Max groaned, his sister smirking.

"I wish it were that easy...Just the slightest sign, to show us the w-...The way..." May looked up, her eyes focusing on the very clue they were searching for. The single ice pillar. "A single clue...to point the way..."

"May? Did you think of something?" Brock asked, noticing the peculiar expression of the brunette. She looked at him, then at the ground, lightly stomping her feet on the ground where she stood. No sound. "Did you?"

"It's like Max said. We need that one clue to point us in the right direction," she said, stepping forward and stomping again. The slightest echo.

"What do you mean?" Dawn asked, the brunette pointing up. Everyone looked at the ice pillar, the truth dawning on them as May stepped forward again, standing in the center of the room and bringing her foot up.

"Are you saying...?" Max started, his sister giving a nod.

"That ice points the way," and with that, the brunette brought her foot down and releasing a peculiar echo through the small room. Distinct cracks ripped through their ears.

Then the ice collapsed beneath May.

END