Chapter 47 - Convergence
Mount Coronet was not regarded by the training population to be anywhere near as hazardous as the likes of Mount Silver, Stark Mountain, Cerulean Cave, or the Sky Pillar. Nonetheless, it was still among the more dangerous pieces of real estate a person could pass through in Sinnoh. The deepest, least explored of the Coronet caverns were inhabited by all manner of wild pokemon, ranging from colonies of zubat to golem and even aquatic predators.
Unfortunately for us, this meant that while the government would have left such entrances to Coronet unguarded, the terrain and its inhabitants were themselves a formidable enough set of defenses. They had sealed off the mountain tighter than a bank vault, so we had no options left but to head in through Wayward Cave.
Sneaking past the handful of guards which they had stationed at Wayward Cave was easy. Where the nightmare really started was once we'd made it past Wayward Cave and into the mostly unknown tunnels connecting the caverns to Coronet's lowest chambers. According to some pilfered geological survery data, it would be a six kilometer trek through those barely known passages before we wound up under Coronet.
"Vanguard reports clear," whispered Fen, as we crept forward along a narrow, sand-bottomed passage. "Fork ahead."
"Kathy, scout the left," ordered Aloysius. "Report back once you find something."
The shedinja silently floated ahead, vanishing into the darkness ahead of us. Our night vision goggles were still functional, and so I could see the faded green image of her papery husk gradually getting swallowed up by the pitch black of the passage.
Aside from our footsteps, the tunnels were mostly quiet. Distantly, there were sounds not unlike falling rocks, rushing water, and any number of things which we could not put a name to. Otherwise, we trudged forward in a dreadful silence that slowly grew into a continuous, shrill humming in our ears.
Strangely enough, we hadn't encountered many wild pokemon, and those which we had bumped into seemed more inclined to flee from us.
"Four more kilometers."
"Compass?"
"Deviating as expected. We're on course for now."
The three of us kept moving forward, drawing closer to the fork in the tunnel which Fen's metagross had spotted earlier. Kathy the shedinja had yet to return from her scouting run. A distorted, muffled roar blossomed in the blackness around us.
"Quintaped, relay for Kathy."
"The passage is widening and the roof rising. Bats on roof. Distant opening on ceiling. Many ground formations. Exit on other side, approaching."
"Kathy, hurry."
Slow, dragging sounds. Something heavy moving through the sand. Barely concealed breathing sounds. All coming from the tunnel behind us.
"Exit clear, leads to ledge running along big lake."
Fen winced. "Oh, man."
Aloysius released Moira, who blasted a large cloud of stun spores down the way we'd come.
"Lake as far as I can see. Movement deep below surface. Concealing self near ledge entrance."
We all knew what that meant; she'd reached the edge of the subterranean lake which lay under Coronet. From there, it was pretty much a straight ascent towards the higher caverns, provided we could survive scaling the rocky walls and navigate the remaining three kilometers or so that lay between us and Coronet's peak.
As we made our way down the left passage, the approaching creature's breathing caught up. It sounded as though it was choking, unsurprisingly - Muriel's stun spores had probably reached its lungs and paralysed its diaphragm by now, if it possessed one.
Up ahead in the distance, the passage's mouth glowed a sickly shade of green.
"Loudred," Aloysius stated calmly, as he recalled Muriel.
Behind us, the suffocating cave dweller fell silent.
xxx
It took us nearly an hour to cross the bat-infested chamber leading to the lake. They were barely awake, it being dead in the middle of their sleep cycle. Still, we moved along cautiously, each possibly careless step carrying the risk of rousing the entire swarm. Fortunately, the chamber's floor was so carpeted with their guano that our footsteps were mostly muffled.
Fen held up his right hand, gesturing for us to stop. We were within spitting distance of the lake exit, but I saw almost immediately why he'd stopped us. On my wrist, my compass was going haywire, its needle spinning in circles and sometimes even reversing direction.
Hesitantly, we edged towards the lake. When we crossed the threshold to the lake, we stopped, but this time, out of awe.
Even as our night vision goggles started to flicker, whitewashing our fields of vision, the massive underground lake stretched out like a colossal mirror.
By the time Kathy had rejoined our party, the goggles had completely shut down. We wordlessly removed their batteries and pocketed them, rendering ourselves electronically invisible to the groups of magnemite and nosepass we were likely to encounter sooner or later. Fen's metagross, hovering above the lake, took over as our eyes. The darkness gave way to a riot of colour as it established a link between its eyes and our minds.
"We part here," Aloysius said softly. "All the best."
Fen and I shook hands with him, and crept along the flat ledge running mere feet above the lake's surface. Not too far ahead, the ledge sloped down to the shore of the lake, and from there, it was only a couple of hundred meters before we reached the rock outcroppings that would serve as our ladder to the Spear Pillar.
Mere seconds after we'd started our ascent, a large shadow passed beneath the water's surface. We picked up speed, clambering upwards as fast as we could. Quintaped, as planned, gave us some assistance by telekinetically halving gravity.
Then she broke the surface, and we all stopped.
Audrey was a legendary beast, known by all who had ever made it through any of Coronet's submerged caverns. She was a freshwater gyarados, easily forty feet in length, wide enough to swallow a rhyhorn whole, completely blind thanks to her lifetime in the caves, and the undisputed queen of anything close to the water's edge within Coronet.
The plan, as far as we knew it, was to use Muriel to lure her out by spewing vast quantities of acid into the water. She'd been close by, apparently, since her appearance had not taken as long as we'd expected.
Her finned head rose out of the dark depths, fanged maw snapping about as she tried to find the intruders who had dared to pollute her domain. Aloysius' pokemon wasted no time. Reaching out mentally, his haunter broke into Audrey's mind. With a bronzong partner amplifying the ghost's telepathic strength, it didn't take long for the massive water serpent to fall completely under their command. One mind took ahold of a savage, barely cognitive one with a grip about as strong as compressed steel, rendering her motionless. For a while, all that we could hear was her labored breathing.
When she finally slipped back under the surface, we continued climbing. Two and a half clicks more, and we would be at the lowest of the guarded caverns. Or, maybe, they wouldn't be quite as guarded anymore by the time we got there, really - through the thick walls around us, we could hear Audrey making her own way upwards.
The government had believed no one would be insane enough to sneak in from below their feet, and they had been mostly right - ours was one of maybe two surviving teams out of six which had entered the Wayward Cave. And of course, there was that nasty bitch of a gyarados acting as an unofficial gatekeeper.
Tough luck for them, though, since we had one pissed off and brainwashed gyarados on our side.
Up above, the cavern's roof seemed to shake as Audrey rampaged towards the intruders which Thomas and Cavendish had directed her to. Pebbles fell, hitting the lake's surface with tinny splashes, causing more than a few dark shapes to emerge just below the surface. Aloysius, assisted by his team, was slowly making his own way up to cover our backs.
We crawled onwards and upwards, even as the echoes of distant gunshots made their way through the rocks.
xxx
By the time we'd reached the first of the guarded caverns, it was no longer guarded, as we'd expected. Audrey wasn't there, either.
What we did find awaiting us were the mangled remains of nearly a dozen humans, pokemon, and digimon. Clearly, Audrey had went completely amok, and had not stopped with them - more and more gunshots were sounding as time passed. Pity for them that her scales were tough enough to repel most bullets.
"Three hundred meters more," gasped Fen, visibly worn out. "Coolant chamber."
I nodded, gesturing to Quintaped. "Return him, and get Tantiss out. We're behind schedule."
He glowered, recalling the metagross. "How the fuck are you still standing?"
"Commando," I offered him a jaunty smirk. "Shall we?"
With a flash of light, his scizor materialised, and we made our way towards the coolant chambers, walking through the wreckage Audrey had left in her wake. Ruined machinery, corpses, abandoned weaponry, and more corpses were strewn all over the place. Barely functional lighting rods outlined our path, and so we junked our now useless night vision goggles. Passing through another one of Audrey's little messes, we saw that the next chamber was almost completely illuminated with white light.
As if on cue, Audrey roared, her fury reciprocated by the thunderous retort of a machine gun. The echoes were deafening, blasting their way about the rocky passages like thunderclaps. Abruptly, Audrey's roaring was cut short, followed by the machine gun itself going silent. There were a few more scattered bursts, and then nothing.
Fen released his metagross once again. "Quintaped, we'll need barrier support. Tantiss, you'll get in there and disable the gunnery crews."
Greenish light barriers solidified before us, moving down the passage as we did. Once we got to the chamber's entrance, Tantiss zipped through faster than a metal-armoured insect should have been able to. Barely thirty seconds passed before the machine gun stopped firing and the panicked screams ceased. We made our way to the cavern, and what we saw froze us in our footsteps.
"What the fuck?"
Audrey's corpse was sprawled out near the cavern mouth, her armoured hide riddled with holes thanks to what appeared to be anti-aircraft ammunition, of all things. Tantiss was bleeding his guts out in a corner, which was shocking enough, but it was the towering block of living ice in the center of the cavern which caught our attention. What was unmistakably the legendary Ice Golem, Regice, was standing half-submerged in the pool at the base of a waterfall, with various pipes and machine consoles plunged into the water around it. Thick cables dangled down from between the stalactites above us, snaking their way around the golem's frozen body.
Despite our shock, it didn't escape me that the cavern was hot. It felt like an oven in there, and yet, patches of thin ice floated about around Regice and tendrils of cold mist unfurled from its crystalline body.
Fen recovered first, recalling his scizor. "Is that what I think it is?"
"Regice," I nodded numbly, even as the machinery Audrey hadn't managed to destroy came to life. Lights flashed, motors roared, and smoke billowed out of vents as the 'coolant' mechanism worked its way into a frenzy.
While the plans we had been given stated that we'd be entering a coolant chamber, they'd certainly neglected to mention that a fucking legendary was part of the works, somehow.
"Look!"
I saw what he was pointing at, still not quite believing that they'd managed to, dared to do such a thing. Regice's body was partially melting thanks to the increased temperature, and the gem-like protrusions on its blocky torso were flashing with multicoloured lights. Almost immediately, the melted bits started freezing over, and waves of cold air radiated through the cavern.
"Holy fuck," I gaped, my breath fogging up as I spoke. "This is..."
"Sacrilege," Fen finished for me, his voice barely a whisper.
The water's surface around Regice was freezing over before our eyes. While just minutes ago the cavern had been as hot as a bakehouse, it now felt like a walk-in freezer. Heat was still emanating from the machinery, but the temperature around us was noticeably falling. Rapidly.
Snapped out of our reverie by the biting cold, we scarpered, heading for the steep, metal stairs which led towards the chamber directly beneath the Spear Pillar. As we struggled to make it up the stairs despite the bone-searing cold, I saw, unbelievably enough, that the waterfall itself was beginning to freeze over from its base. Curtains of brackish cave water surged down over the ice, washing over Regice itself.
"Hurry!"
We made it to the top of the stairs, and dashed down the narrow tunnel leading away from the freezing chamber.
"Quintaped, return!" Fen wheezed, returning the increasingly sluggish psychic even as he released another pokemon. "Richard, be ready!"
His klingklang shifted gears, altering the configuration of its mechanical body. We pushed on forward, and drew close to the next chamber on the plans, which had been simply labeled as the 'generator room'. As we approached it, Fen stopped me.
"No one's come after us from this one. Means they're aiming everything they've got at the entrance. Might want Silas for this one."
Nodding, I released Silas. "Mist."
"Got it."
Instantly, white mist started billowing out from between his outer shells. Fen released his skarmory, which balked at the cold mist. She spread her wings, blowing the mist into the generator room. Silas pumped out more mist, and June kept fanning it into the next room.
"Richard, get in there and run a discharge!"
The gear-like pokemon flew into the white cold, sparks flying. We heard shouts, screeching, and even a few small explosions. Then Richard let loose with a paralytic pulse of electricity, silencing all of them.
When we'd recalled the rest of our pokemon, crossed through the fading mist, and met up with him, my heart just about skipped a beat. "Seriously?!"
Apparently, if Regice could be used as part of a cooling mechanism, Regirock could be used as part of a generator. There it was, the second of the Golem Trio, with all kinds of cables hooked up to it as if it were an oversized pincushion hewn out of sandstone. Arcing electricity lit up the cavern with nightmarish light, zapping between the numerous pylons that had been erected like scaffolding around Regirock's rocky body. Behind the bizarre assembly, I could see a lighted opening.
"Time to send out the signal," Fen snarled, withdrawing his communicator. "Those sick fucks..."
"You sure the guys topside will be ready?" I asked, as another electric flash connected with the rock golem's torso. Similar to Regice, it had crystals embedded on it, which were flashing periodically.
He nodded, his expression grim. "They leaked the plans, and they've been with us since day one. We're already late, so fuck it."
The communicator was activated, and the entire generator mechanism suddenly ceased functioning. Somehow, Regirock's crystals continued flashing. Through the opening, I heard what sounded vaguely like shouts and gunfire.
"To the end, then," Fen deadpanned. "It's been great working with you so far."
"Pleasure's all mine," I replied, as we made our way past the so-called generator apparatus. The shouts and gunfire outside were now very distinct, along with the unmistakable sounds of pokemon attacks.
A tremor ran through the cave, shaking the very ground beneath our feet. Stumbling, we nonetheless pushed forward, making it to the opening just before the sound of rending metal started up behind us.
Taking a backwards glance, I could feel my eyes bugging out at the sight of the pylons around Regirock twisting, snapping, and bending of their own accord. Solid metal they may have been, but the pylons gradually unfurled, reaching for the cavern ceiling like skeletal fingers. The electricity was flowing again, and this time, there were several small explosions of sparks as cracks formed on the golem's body.
"Fen!"
"I know! Move it!"
We dropped to the ground near the exit, peeking out. Behind us, a low, resonating humming had started up.
Before us, we saw the chaotic melee that had taken over the Sky Pillar.
It was no longer clear just who was on our side. Humans, pokemon, and digimon alike were all engaged in close-quarters combat at the base of a skeletal tower which had been built smack in the center of the Spear Pillar. There were wounded and dying scattered all over the place, and fires had broken out in several locations.
By the time I caught sight of Registeel all entangled in the metal girders the tower was built of, I wasn't even surprised any more. The tower had clearly been built around the steel golem, which was already glowing red hot. White fumes drifted down over it, and right at the top of the tower, I could see a bright, pulsating violet light.
"Fuck! How are we going to get in there?" I spat, watching as a bright beam lanced out of the tower and headed for the sky above us.
"My team will do it. You just get the bomb there," Fen answered, releasing his lucario and mawile. "Ready?"
"Let's do it!"
Bruce let loose with a powerful flamethrower that cleared a broad path through the tangle of brawlers. I dashed forward, reaching inside my vest to arm the low-yield explosives I'd been given. I sidestepped a flailing man in a bloodstained lab coat, and got within throwing range of the tower. The explosive sailed through the air.
I dropped to the ground, a split second before the explosive detonated in the midst of the tower's girders. The entire structure shifted to one side, swaying and groaning. Registeel was almost painful to look at thanks to the bright orange glow that had engulfed its body.
Somewhere above everything, I heard a screeching voice. "Damn it, refocus the beam! Charge is nearly complete, you idiots!"
Looking up, I saw that Grand Admiral Rodriguez was still alive up there, clinging precariously to a bending girder and trying to get back on the platform atop the leaning tower.
"We're going down!"
"Shut up and get out of there!" she shrieked, finally making it up onto the tilted platform. "Give me the panel!"
I drew my firearm. She was an avian specialist and conveniently hollow-boned, so a love tap was all I-
The air whistled, and I reflexively ducked. Still, the hitmonlee's spinning kick swept me off-balance, dropping me to the ground and sending my pistol nearly to the base of the tower. A scissor kick from me took out its other leg, and it went down, screeching in pain. Rolling over, I scuttled to the tower, feeling the intense heat from Registeel's abused body washing over me like a wave.
I grabbed my pistol, and nearly dropped it when the heated metal burned me. Gritting my teeth, I backed up and drew a bead on Rodriguez. The angle was bad, but I took the shot.
It missed.
With a shower of sparks, the bullet hit her console, sending her reeling backwards. The beam of light from the tower neatly changed angles, aligning itself with the moon, barely visible in the twilight sky.
"Success!" Rodriguez crowed, before I clipped her in the shoulder. She went down, seconds before everything went straight to Hell.
The beam winked out, followed by what looked like a blinding flash of purplish light from the sky itself. With a final, tortured groan, the tower collapsed, the metal warping and compacting itself like so much aluminium foil around Registeel's still form.
Right about then, time seemed to stop. Everyone and everything at the Spear Pillar ceased in their motions, as the moon started glowing with a faint purple light.
"It's working!"
Fen, bloodied and missing his glasses, ran up to me. "Plan B."
My blood froze. "You sure?"
"No choice."
I released Silas, who fired a barrage of icicles which cleared a wide area. "Where is it?"
He pointed, as Anubis fired a Shadow Ball at some digimon which had been running up to us. "The booth over there!"
With our team laying down a hail of cover fire, we made our way to the booth. It was made of transparisteel, by now badly cracked. Getting within arm's reach of it, I kicked aside a technician's corpse, and yanked the door open. "In!"
Our pokemon vanished into their pokeballs, along with our cover fire. Those surviving guards and technicians who'd noticed us surged forward, firing attacks and weapons at the booth. The transparisteel walls, amazingly enough, managed to hold.
"Fen, faster, damn it!"
"I know!"
With an audible crack, one of the booth's walls split cleanly down the middle. "We're out of time!"
"Done!"
The transparisteel finally gave way, but by then, the long-range teleportation pad had already activated.