Chapter 7
Fox woke up in a strange but comfortable bedroom, well-furnished it appeared to be personal quarters rather than a hotel room. The window was a video screen of some far off destination and the door itself was locked when he limped over to check it. There was a call button by the bedside, an item he jammed the button down in frustration waiting for a response.
"Oh, Fox, you are awake; I apologize for the rudeness of both your arrival and your room. The Prophets of Renewal have secrets to keep and our location is amongst them, as for the door, well I wanted to ensure that I was by your side before you started exploring for yourself." Ro seemed sincere before he signed off.
Fox waited nearly seven minutes until footsteps approached the door. He noticed that his pokeball and phone were both waiting for him on a nightstand. Pocketing both he waited for the lock to click.
Ro opened the door gesturing him out into the hall; Fox warily stepped out and was greeted with an underwhelming hallway.
"Where am I?" Fox looked about for any indication of what might be.
"You are in, as we Prophets call it, The Tower of Mystics. It is a safe haven of knowledge." Ro made a broad sweeping gesture as they approached an elevator.
"What is this place for though, it looks mostly like a hotel."
"We have been conducting research for the last two and a half decades, all that we have learned is nearly upon us. We will soon be ready to move on to our next stage." Ro selected a floor and they soon began descending. Fox discovered they were on the top floor which was curious to him.
"If that was the top floor, why were there no windows?"
"The top three floors are guest chambers either for Prophets that are passing through, or potential new recruits that have yet to decide what path they wish to take. We wish this tower to be a secret to the rest of the world. By outward appearances, this looks like a private business no one is going to be any wiser."
"But what is the purpose of it all?" Fox questioned to the accompaniment of the floors dinging.
"The knowledge we have been gleaning over the years will help rebuild this world; we can start anew and guide our people to new growth in mind, body and soul. It is for the good of all." Ro spoke with a sincerity that was almost convincing enough for Fox.
"But that could kill millions of people and Pokémon, what about them?"
"As terrible as the loss of life will be, the Prophets and I will scatter to the far reaches of our planet; we will usher the people through their grief and assuage the hearts of the masses." Ro's words bordered on fanaticism.
"What of the Pokémon?"
"They are far more durable than you give them credit for; as a trainer, you should know this. You yourself have witnessed Pokémon survive strikes from claws coated with dark energy, point blank blasts of hyper-active ionized energy beams, not to mention the host of other elemental attacks. Trust me when I say they will not suffer from this."
"How do you mean to instigate this change?"
"I will not be showing you that, I'm sure you understand, this is something that outsiders cannot see. I can show you about the other areas."
"Understood. Please let us continue."
Ro took him through the building once they got off from the elevator. Most of what he showed was of little consequence. A library on lore from every region contained an astounding amount of knowledge. Seven sections for seven regions were organized alphabetically by region and Fox's mouth gaped at the spread of knowledge before him.
He stepped away from Ro, the closest section to the door was a spread of six shelves with an assortment of titles. Rare books from Professor Juniper dotted the shelves on a number of topics. There was lore from across Unova and Fox looked down the rows, the sight of the other regions piqued his curiosity. Merifos wasn't infected with legendary lore and as such there weren't many stories about their actions in correlation with his home region.
"While you get acquainted with the Prophets of Renewal, this library is yours to come and go as you please." Ro offered a key card to Fox.
"Thank you, there is much I wish to learn about the other regions; this library must have taken you ages to collect."
They wandered from the library and down the hall. The cafeteria was free to eat from but it was more like a restaurant than anything else. The smell of food made Fox's stomach growl and they sat in quiescence enjoying the meal. After dinner he was shown to a place where he could get clothes and other supplies he needed.
"I have some work to attend to, please excuse me; you may return to your room or to the library." Ro excused himself.
"Wait, is there a place that I can let venusaur out?"
"Of course, there is a garden on the ninth floor. Please enjoy."
Fox watched the man walk away as he debated how best to spend the rest of his evening. Heading back to the eighth floor, Fox opened the library and started perusing the sections. He would need to figure out a way to remove this library when everything eventually went awry. Fox wanted to keep looking through the Unova section but there were more important matters to look into.
In the Sinnoh Region section, he found what he was looking for; a book titled, The Dragons of Creation authored in partnership by Professor Rowan and Professor Manchineel. Heading back towards the elevator Fox made his way up to the park. With venusaur out from his pokeball, the two rested together as he began reading.
"Professor Manchineel, how are we looking on the output?" Ro watched the empty arch, waiting for a reaction.
"All the readouts are showing the gate as stable. If you are ready Father Ro, please take the honor of firing up the gate." Professor Manchineel deferred to the leader of the Prophets of Renewal.
Ro knew the firing sequence to activate the gate and pressed three different buttons before flipping a switch. Professor Manchineel smiled, there was always a switch to flip. The next floor down directly under the arch, a globe contained three misdreavus screaming in agony before they could no longer hold their corporeal forms. They burst apart in an explosion of dark energy.
In the room above, the screams of the Pokémon could not be heard but to the mismagius hiding in the shadows of the room she felt the pain of her brethren deep in her essence. The arch in the room above flickered at first and then solidified in a poisonous purple color. A thick glob of energy was spat into the room.
"Shut it off! Quick before it gets through!" A person was standing up after having been launched out into the room.
A terrible bellow roared through the gateway and Father Ro caught a glimpse of something trying to push through. He hit the safety release and dumped the energies of the gate back where they had come from.
"Security! Initiate feedback dampeners for the building! I don't need any signals getting out. Make certain the feedback loop is in place. We cannot alert the agency." Ro shouted into an intercom on the console.
Mismagius watched the energies fill the globe but they were inert. She tried pouring some of her energies into it but there was no response. Drifting up through the ceiling and the walls, she continued moving up unseen; she would have kept going but there was a trainer sleeping against a venusaur that caught mismagius' attention.
He had a book that was resting open against his chest; she woke him up, startling him to the point Fox fell off of venusaur. Mismagius giggled and Fox got the notion that the mismagius needed something. He gestured for the Pokémon to follow him and follow she did.
That evening when Fox fell asleep, he had bizarre dreams of flickering laboratories and screaming Pokémon. When he woke abruptly from them, mismagius was staring intently at him. Fox checked the time on his watch, it was a little after three in the morning. Fox took the hint and put on proper clothes, forgoing any shoes to better sneak around.
He crept like a zoroark in the night looking for the exit stairwell, not wanting to chance security being alerted by the chiming of the elevator. As it was, the elevator only appeared to go to the first floor. Fox would have no need to check each floor, mismagius was leading him on to where they needed to go.
When they got to the ground floor though, the Pokémon drifted through the wall while Fox was left looking for a way through.
"Why does every organization always have a secret set of floors? The House of Valor has no secret passages or anything else like that. I wonder if there is some sort of catalogue I should be subscribing to for this sort of thing." Fox muttered to himself as mismagius poked her head through the wall checking on him. She gave a strange cry and a portion of wall opened up.
There was no sinister lighting, no diabolical music or any other indicators that Ro and his organization were engaged in anything illicit. The first room in the corridor was filled with nine blue-grey pupas, they rocked lightly causing an alarm to chime softly. A hiss of gas crept into the room and the pupas stilled.
Fox closed the door quietly, lest anyone notice he was creeping about. He shouldn't have worried much about that at all, mismagius was causing havoc in the inner workings of the surveillance system.
Fox found the room containing the arch but he found nothing that would explain what it was or what it did. Mismagius led him to another stair well that took him deeper under the building. He found the room with the remains of the three misdreavus and a terrible keening filled the room.
Their energy was boiling as if someone was keeping the energy active to reuse it but the Pokémon themselves were no more. An alarm went off, causing Fox to flinch.
"We need to go; can you take me back up to my room?" He asked mismagius, who in response wrapped a streamer of her billowing essence around his wrist and yanked him intangibly through the floors.
They ascended in an expeditious fashion, Fox thought he saw something familiar on their way through the floors but it was only a fraction of a moment. After landing back in his room, his stomach betrayed him and Fox lurched for the bathroom; the remainder of dinner fled from him.
He washed up and took a moment to consider the evening while mismagius looked on with concern and interest. It was most likely a hallucination brought on by the Pokémon changing his bodily structure, same reasoning behind his violent expulsions.
Fox attempted to send a message to Otter but his phone had no signal, there was not even a wireless network he could tap into. He was on his own in this tower and just had to hope the House of Valor could see the operation through to success. Fox spent the next month in similar fashion, though they applied far more discretion as the scoured through the building for answers.
Precious and ninetales were resting against each other satisfied with Otter's grooming. Arcanine was getting his turn, he had grown into a laid back and easy going Pokémon; something Otter was grateful for as he had reached his full height. Jolteon was regarding her from a food induced stupor having gotten into Otter's pack and raided the Pokémon treats.
They were facing the third gym leader on their portion of the list tomorrow and he was one of the oddballs going in for a six on six match. The last two gyms had been sympathizers and with the aid of zoroarks brought in from route twenty in Kalos, the gym leaders and students were replaced with operatives from the House of Valor.
Anelle of the Galsin City Gym was the last stop on their hit list and Otter's six would be going up against. Originally a trainer from far off lands, Anelle ran a team of dark Pokémon; a typing that was uncommon in Merifos. Many trainers, only needing eight gym badges to enter the biannual Pokémon tournament, usually avoided her gym as the moves of many dark types were underhanded tactics. Rumor had it that the government would be shutting down her gym after this year.
Unlike the other gyms, she had no students of her own; no trainers had stepped forward to learn from her or have any desire to take on her legacy when she retired.
Hank had not yet beaten this gym leaving him unable to give any solid advice on what to expect. He pounded on her door the next morning five minutes before her alarm was set to go off. Arcanine was taking up a vast potion of the bed; despite his at ease demeanor ordinarily, he was far from a morning Pokémon. A blast of fire struck the door, despite the safety regulations it still heated the handle and a yelp from outside left the Pokémon chuffing happily.
"That's not polite arcanine, entertaining, but not polite." Otter chuckled despite Hank's muffled swearing.
She let her and Fox's Pokémon out so Hank could get them fed before the match. Otter finished getting ready for the day, joining them for breakfast. It would take every ounce of strategy she and her Pokémon could muster but they would triumph.
Since her growlithe had come into his full growth from his puppyhood, Otter had found he preferred running with her on his back than her riding the bike. With the government stipend, she hired someone in the last city back to craft a saddle and bags for even distribution. After that, her bike had been used sporadically only in areas that deeply frowned upon Pokémon outside of their pokeballs.
Hank would catch up to Otter shortly, the match did not start until noon so he would have time to get back. Anelle wanted to have tea before the match in civility before their battle commenced. It was odd, the majority of the books said those that favored dark type Pokémon were reclusive and antisocial; as far as Otter had seen though, the Gym Leader was amicable and of such friendliness that it was endearing. Leading arcanine out from the lodge she hadn't bothered with the saddle given the short trip from the Pokémon center to the gym.
Anelle was waiting on the steps for her to arrive, Otter had caught the barest hint of loneliness on her face before it vanished with an ear to ear smile. She had barely stepped down from arcanine when the Gym Leader gave her a mighty ursaring hug, before greeting arcanine with equal enthusiasm. A shadow fell over them with an enormous gust of wind and a hydreigon dropped out of the sky to nuzzle up to Arnelle. The size of it led Otter to believe it to be a male and she circled his body warily as he floated next to his loving trainer. Most likely it had internal gas bladders that allowed it to float as the wings did not appear as if they could lift the hydreigon otherwise.
"That is an impressive Pokémon." Otter complimented.
"Thank you, my starter Pokémon and I found his egg being carried off by a fearow when we had moved on to Unova and were heading up to the Pokémon league tournament. He's been with us ever since. What about that arcanine of yours?" Arnelle asked as she placed a hand on the small of Otter's back, guiding her into the gym.
"I spent two months in the wilderness out beyond Pine Coast City while the arcanine were weaning their growlithes and earned their trust. This one took a shine to me and the parents let him follow me. They're such majestic creatures but I saw one take down a stantler that must have wandered down from the far north; that was a frightful sight I will not soon forget." Otter understood that it was the food chain but being that close to the raw, visceral display was entirely different than getting food from a market place.
She was led to a room with a door large enough to admit hydreigon and arcanine comfortably. Arnelle pulled out Otter's chair as hydreigon drifted slowly to the floor and settled into a terrifying ball. Arcanine sat behind Otter's chair and they both watched as Arnelle poured some tea, brought out biscuits and sandwiches as well as bowls with separate Pokémon friendly treats. Arcanine's bushy tail made a soft susurration as it swept across the floor in contained excitement. Once Arnelle sat down both Pokémon dug into their snacks and Otter began hers. The tea was a lovely chai spice and the sandwiches seemed to have a thick, spicy hummus like spread on them for the protein with crisp spinach leaves providing an enjoyable crunch.
"I understand you have some questions about my affiliations outside of Galsin City?" Arnelle cut straight to the point.
"Are you in association with an organization known as the Prophets of Renewal?" Otter appreciated the direct approach, they could engage in pleasantries after.
"No, in fact, I faced the man in charge of it in a battle back in Unova. This was after the organization there known as Team Plasma had been forcefully disbanded. This man, Ro, was only midlevel in the organization but rumor had it he had his own vision of how the world should be.
After he lost to another trainer, sweet Hilda, near the end of the tournament; the young woman who should have been my opponent was found dead and all her Pokémon released back to the wild.
Hilda had just gotten back from far off regions too, I had met her in Kalos some time ago and it was the first time we had seen each other in a good while. We were anticipating the opportunity to battle each other once more but that man ruined our plans.
Ro vanished after that and I've been chasing after him since. That man is dangerous and left unchecked could ruin everything." Anelle's heart gave a pang of regret, she had gotten to know Hilda well and Ro had taken all that from her.
"I'm sorry to hear that Anelle, you're from Kalos originally?" Otter reached across the table, patting Anelle's hand. The gym leader held onto it a moment longer before reaching for her tea.
"Born in Santalune City and raised in Lumiose City. I led a good life there but I always wanted to see more of the world than just Kalos. It is part of why I am here now."
"I represent the House of Valor, our goals appear to be the same and your strength would be appreciated in the days to come. We would welcome you amongst our numbers."
"Even though you came under different pretexts, I am glad to have a challenger; not many come through here. It seems the people of Merifos hold a bit of reserve towards dark types bordering on superstition. We shall battle first and then I will decide from there. We should begin soon; the media will be arriving momentarily." Anelle finished her tea and stood up to clear the table turning away so Otter couldn't see her face.
Anelle loaded the empty dishes onto a tray and carried them into the next room where she took a moment to compose herself before the match. She could hear hydreigon crooning in the parlor and bet that Otter had convinced him to accept her as well.
The other trainer squealed as a commotion broke out. Anelle ran in to find arcanine, hydreigon and Otter caught in a tumble rolling on floor. She had a laugh that was amongst the sincerest Anelle had felt in a long time, she reached a hand into the kerfuffle and helped Otter to her feet.
"I suppose we should get the match started?" Otter asked.
"The media should be arriving soon, and your friend as well. Follow me." Anelle led her towards the arena.
Hank walked up to her and introduced himself to Anelle, he was unable to battle the gym today as Anelle did not have the same Pokémon capacity as the other gyms. He had registered to battle the day after next to give her Pokémon time to recuperate. Anelle didn't care if he watched the battle, she was assured enough in her Pokémon's strength that left her confident it would make no difference to Hank.
"Is it dark in here or is it just me?" He joked.
"Lame, I've heard that one before. Surely a man of your talents could come up with something better." Anelle groaned. Hank merely shrugged and settled into a lean against the railing of the opposing trainer's box.
The referee settled in while the media outlets got caught up and ready to broadcast. Precious and jolteon were sitting in the trainer box with arcanine, waiting for the match to commence. Otter looked over the arena; an outer ring was a wide stony, outcropping while an inner ring contained a grassy field.
The two were separated by a deep pond encircling the inner ring. The arena was something her team would be able to adapt to. Checking with the trainers, the referee ensured they were ready for the match to begin.
Starting with sableye, Otter sent down Precious, his pure normal typing would keep any ghost type attacks from having any effect. He couldn't use some of his stronger attacks like hyper beam or giga impact but the persian held his own admirably. His claws were coated in that dark energy as black as a moonless night and his slashes eventually wore down the Pokémon.
In retaliation Anelle sent out pangoro who managed to clinch the match in a single seismic throw. Otter withdrew Precious before he landed and sent out kangaskhan in response, after a series of dodges and attempted throws, kangaskhan focused energy into a fist unleashing a mighty punch that sent the pangoro sprawling.
Anelle's zoroark was sent out next and with a devilish payback took down kangaskhan. Jolteon entered the field forcing the zoroark to dodge back when Otter's Pokémon unleashed a missile like barrage of needle sharp pins. Jolteon though was already moving, the static building up to a visible energy that when he wildly charged in created a massive discharge that left zoroark struggling to stand. Another flurry of vicious needles struck zoroark; snapping the needles loose with his claws jolteon's opponent readied to begin the attack anew.
Casting an illusion as jolteon was preparing another attack; the zoroark took on the image of Otter forcing the Pokémon to stop her attack. Jolteon was only confused for a brief moment but that was all it took. Zoroark's sucker punch struck her across the jaw sending her sprawling. Otter withdrew her jolteon and arcanine leapt down. In a blitz of extreme speed that no one was able to follow he took down zoroark in one attack.
Greninja took the field and immediately dove into the water. Now began when field advantages would come into play, arcanine took a surprising page from Precious' book; gathering energy in his maw arcanine unleashed a beam of hyperactive energy that boiled the water.
Greninja leapt from the water, unleashing hydrokinetic bolts of water shaped like shuriken. Arcanine still recovering from the blast could only stoke his internal temperature as high as possible. The water shuriken struck but weakly as they were already turning into steam as they got into the proximity of the beast.
Arcanine's fur bristled with static electricity as he used his speed to get close; the electricity pooled around his jaws and greninja barely avoided the electrical attack. The two rebounded off of the rocks trying to get in close to striking distance. Splashes of water filled the air along with the thunderous sound of clacking jaws; the rocks were getting dangerously slick despite the heat radiating from arcanine.
Losing footing once was all it took. Greninja darted in close and spewed a torrent of water like a gushing pump at point blank range. Fainting from the rapid cooling arcanine was withdrawn with praise being heaped upon him.
Tauros came out in a one Pokémon stampede, smashing through many of the rocks that were jutting out. Greninja dodged out of the way but enough obstacles had been cleared away that when the energy built up in tauros' fur was unleashed in a shockwave, it didn't miss greninja and the Pokémon went down. Weavile came out, dashing in rapid movements that made the slower tauros consider his opponent with care.
With an icy breath causing a frigid wind, the water that was splashed about the rocky portion of the arena began to freeze and tauros found his footing unstable. With a quick motion, weavile gave a low kick that sent tauros skidding across the ice and into the water.
Breaking the surface, tauros swam for the inner circle of grass field. Weavile attacked in pursuit leaping gracefully over the water. Barreling at the falling Pokémon, tauros caught the weavile with his horns and tossed the Pokémon away.
The Pokémon landed crookedly but not terribly enough to cause injury. In a hurried surge of movement, weavile closed the distance again and released a dark pulse that caused tauros to flinch. In a follow up attack, Anelle's Pokémon swung down on tauros' head with a chop that was strong enough to break bricks. The mighty bull fell unconscious and Otter withdrew him.
Lapras was her last Pokémon, to Otter's surprise she hadn't realized she was already down to her last though instinctively she must have known. With a deep breath lapras went straight for the bottom of the circular pond out of reach of weavile.
Moving the rubble above with an ancient power, lapras flung it at weavile; the dispersion of the attack produced a wide screen that Anelle's Pokémon was unable to dodge. Weavile was withdrawn and hydreigon floated down from behind her. He didn't have a type advantage over Otter's lapras but that meant little when it came to the versatility of dragon types.
As if to prove Otter right, the hydreigon charged up and raked the water with three beams of electricity fired from each of his heads. Lapras had sensed the electrical build up and was already breaching the surface.
Gracefully arcing out of the water, she fired an ice beam wildly; the hydreigon snapped his mouths shut, cutting off the beam and winged away. The ice beam struck a light and froze it over before the bulb exploded within the ice from the cooling. Splashing back down, lapras caught her breath, circling around trying to find an opening with the aerial Pokémon.
Hydreigon dove into the water at lapras trying to latch onto her with his maws, leaping from the water she slid across the grass. With an icy breath she tried to freeze hydreigon in the water but he was already out and back in the air. With a voice filled with hyperactive energy she disoriented the dragon. With better aiming she shot another beam of ice that unfortunately due to hydreigon's quick recovery was only a glancing blow grazing the top of his left head. Lapras continued her slide back into the water, circling once more.
Otter was gripping the handrail of the trainer's box tightly, her nerves frayed by the standoff. Hydreigon circled counter to lapras waiting for the Pokémon to come up for air or attack. Lapras sensing the predator above tried only poking her nose from the water but the hydreigon was already in motion, gripping her by the neck with the main head, the edge of the shell with the right head and her right front flipper with the left head.
He let loose a jarring shockwave that pulsed out from them at the epicenter before dropping her unceremoniously onto the grass. Hydreigon was charging up for another beam of electricity but Otter withdrew lapras. She stared in bewilderment at the fainted Pokémon tray, incredulous that she had managed to lose.
The brutal hydreigon was drifting slowly with exhaustion back to Anelle after the referee called the match. Hank was staring in stunned awe at both women astounded by what he had just witnessed. He was debating about his match with the gym leader after what he had just seen.
"I am sorry for the pain I have inflicted upon your Pokémon; we are both in need of visiting the Pokémon center. I hope you will stay with me for dinner tonight while you wait?" Anelle offered as she approached the trainer box.
"Thank you, we would enjoy that." Otter came down from the box as they rushed out from the arena for the Pokémon center the next block over.
"We will need to hold all your Pokémon overnight; I trust that will be of no concern?" The nurse raised an eyebrow making them aware that it was an order of fact and not something they could question.
"No ma'am." They muttered, humbled.
"Good, we hope to see you again; bright and early they will be ready for you. You should rest up too now as well." The nurse's face broke into a bright and cheery smile, "We hope to see you again."
Dinner that evening was spent giving attention to Fox's Pokémon while they conversed and played games. Hank was reticent to reveal his team to Anelle as he wanted to maintain some semblance of an advantage. His match was scheduled for the day after tomorrow to give Anelle's Pokémon time to rest up.
Fox's Pokémon were enjoying the attention, gyarados in particular had taken a surprising liking to Anelle, something that gave Otter a twinge. Surprised at herself, she was astounded to find that she was jealous; gyarados had yet to show the same affection for Otter despite the fact she kept him fed. The night passed in pleasant companionship, Anelle had taken the liberty to send a porter to retrieve their belongings from the lodge and they wound up staying the rest of the week in the gym before a report from Zeke had them packing up to leave.
Hank's match against Anelle had gone about as well as Otter's and he lost the match despite his best efforts.
Sending abra with the details, got some news, send a picture of the gym. Zeke's message had read. Otter had sent a picture in response and a moment later, the Pokémon appeared with a sealed canister.
Hank took the canister from abra and with a small key on a necklace unlocked the tube. He read over the message twice with a barely concealed grin before passing the note to Otter. Anelle's curiosity was waging war with her patience as she waited to see what the news was. Otter didn't leave her waiting long.
"While we still have not received word from Fox regarding his whereabouts, the House of Valor has captured a repository building the Prophets were operating out of. Zeke wants us to leave right away, abra will be teleporting us back to him. Are you joining us?" Otter and Anelle had been talking long into the night on more than a few occasions about what she planned to do after the two operatives of the House had left.
"I feel that I must, for Hilda."
"Are you packed?"
"My travel pack has always been packed and ready. I never know where life will take me, usually I go where the wind takes us."
Abra was bobbing gently in the air waiting for them to be ready. Hank, Otter and Anelle clasped hands and took hold of abra's shoulder. For a terrifyingly brief and disorienting moment, it was as if they ceased to exist. They reappeared in the bright flash of day, all three splitting off to vomit profusely.
"I will never get used to that method of travel, absolutely never. Do you girls want a lemon scented wet wipe? I carry extra." Hank reached for them with an unsullied hand.
Zeke was approaching them, having seen his abra appear with the three of them in tow. They were standing outside an abandoned library in a defunct town that was more necropolis than anything else. The town had long since been left to rot after the mine had been bled dry, it was a tourist destination nowadays. From what Otter could see though it had to be weeks or even months since a tourist had been here.
"Breath mints?" Zeke offered as they finished cleaning themselves off. Grateful, they each took one and followed after him. The library was mostly a museum but there were still a handful of shelves that had been hermetically sealed to preserve the old books.
"Why do the bad guys always choose the old spooky places?" Hank muttered in a stage whisper.
"Can you imagine trying to run an organization of questionable morality in a place that has normal people going about their daily lives?" Anelle elbowed him playfully.
"Excuse me normal people, I must go about my nefarious deeds." Otter joined in the teasing as Zeke led them to the back of the museum.
"Down here." Zeke opened a door marked for employees only.
Leading them to a corner of what appeared to be employee offices, Zeke grabbed the handle of a drawer in a filing cabinet and tugged. The whole wall pulled away with the cabinet attached and a draft wafted up from below. Stairs led down into darkness before harsh fluorescent lights flickered into existence washing it away.
"It makes you wonder, is there some sort of catalogue that a secret organization gets that provides deals and sales on hidden rooms?" Otter whispered, not wanting to completely break the hush that had fallen over them.
"I think Fox might say the same thing. You people from Matpa Town, you're all alike. The House of Valor could have done with some secret offices." Hank whispered back as they descended.
When the stairs opened up into a spacious basement, it was equal parts laboratory and classroom. Chalkboards still covered with equations and notes spanned an entire wall, globes the size of a haunter hooked up to strange machinations on another wall. There were journals lining an entire bookshelf next to the chalkboard.
"What were they trying to do?" Anelle mused out loud as she studied the impossible equations.
"We don't know yet; we have some scientists that we're bringing on board to see if we can translate some of this. Right now, the House of Valor is setting up shop; our source told us the Prophets of Renewal were coming back to clean this place out. Our movers will be here in thirty minutes. I wanted to show you this untouched before we moved everything out. Does any of this look familiar?" Zeke gestured around him.
"There's a few things here that stick out to me, yes; the first journal on the shelf is marked, The Distortion World. What I have heard of such a place does not paint it in a good light." Hank was holding the journal he was talking about and leafing through it as he spoke.
"This place was just abandoned when you found it?" Anelle asked grabbing another journal from the shelf marked The Dragon of Antimatter.
"Not exactly, no; we, ah, retrieved the information from one of the Prophets which led us here. There were a couple of guards in the area which was odd given that this place was shut down last month. We threw down jammers to keep the signal from getting back to the Federal Observation Committee and we extracted more information once they stopped trying to fight back."
"Well, Zeke, did you get anything other than that?" Otter was exasperated, for a man who enjoyed taking information he was certainly reticent to give it.
"They were heading up north, the guards had yet to be given the exact coordinates though and they were to wait until someone came to retrieve the work from the laboratory."
"Alright, well that's something; north is a fairly broad direction, Zeke get all of this cleaned up and shipped to operations. From there, lay in wait for whomever is coming; we need more information. Meet us once you have more to go off of." Otter barked out taking on a commanding persona.
The sound of idling engines from above alerted them; they all reached for a pokeball and ran upstairs. They settled though when they saw it was from their operation that had been teleported in by a small horde of abra. Two score of men exited the cavalcade of vehicles and they ran up to find out where they were needed.
Zeke directed them downstairs with packing supplies in tow. Otter watched with Hank and Anelle as the men packed up in a storm of motion; the laboratory was disassembled with clear notes as to where everything came from while scientists were teleported in to take high resolution photos of the chalkboards.
After which they applied a clear drying sealant and carefully packed those up as well. Once they were finished packing the hidden room up, they set charges of a special type of cement that would expand exponentially when exposed to an electrical charge. They checked the laboratory once more, if there was one secret room, there potentially could be another but after one of the scientists' trevenant found nothing from drifting through each wall, they left and detonated the cement charges. The ground rumbled beneath their feet before settling.
Closing the filing cabinet door, they had a machamp hold it tightly shut as the cement pushed against it. After it had taken time to dry, they opened the wall to find the smooth face of cement staring back at them. The trio watched as one by one the trucks and scientists vanished until they were left with Zeke alone. The hairs on the back of his neck prickled and went on end.
Zeke reached for his hip pouch releasing an arcanine from a pokeball on a hunch. Arcanine despite his size was stealthy and a human yelp reached their ears. Carrying a woman, probably in her late twenties, arcanine had a careful grip on her neck and she held perfectly still.
"Are you with the Prophets of Renewal?" Zeke grinned.
"Suck an egg, you stupid offspring of a garbodor!" She shot back angrily.
"We have jammers in place, an entire abandoned mining town to hide a body and you still want to be mouthy? Especially considering that all I have to do is give arcanine a simple command and it is game over for you." Zeke mused, "So tell us, are you with the Prophets of Renewal?"
"I am."
"Good, you three head on out, she and I will be having a chat. I can send you the detailed report with abra afterwards." Zeke tossed Hank a pokeball. "I think Otter's arcanine could do with only having the one passenger. I know my salamence has always enjoyed your company more than mine. I would be happy if you took her with you."
"Thank you, I will take good care of her." Hank released the salamence who nuzzled up against him.
"Oh and you're going to want the saddle as well, abra, could you bring me the saddle please?" Zeke asked kindly of his abra. The Pokémon vanished and reappeared a moment later with the saddle in question.
Salamence did not make it easy to get the saddle on her, she was excited to have Hank as her trainer. She had belonged to another trainer the prophets had killed; Zeke had kept the pokeball after he was too late for the trainer but Hank had been the one to get her to start eating again. Zeke had tried to convince her to respond to him but she had been reticent and unreceptive to his commands and questions.
"We have the twin cities north of here; Aurora and Borealis City. Where should we start?" Anelle asked.
"I have a prior engagement in July in Borealis, we can spend the month of June working in Aurora but I need to be in Borealis come July. Fox is going to do his best to be there as well, we still plan on taking the gym; for Rabbit." Otter explained.
"Okay, I think we can arrange for that. Race you both to Aurora then?" Hank gave the salamence a pat and she flapped her wings eagerly.
"If we're talking speed there's nothing that can compete with arcanine." Otter boasted.
"Be that as it may, you two are constrained by the path of the earth whereas Hank and I have the skies to ourselves." Anelle teased.
"Zeke, let us know what you find out. First one to the south entrance wins, losers by lunch and dinner. Agreed?" Otter released arcanine, pulled out the saddle from the pack and the saddle bags; redistributed everything and hopped up onto arcanine's back. Anelle's hydreigon was released and they were soon ready to be on their way.
Zeke was left with his prisoner and a cloud of dust as the trio made great haste in their departure.
"Well then, Miss Prophet; why don't you and I get acquainted then, shall we?"