There was a night where the boy had a nightmare.
He awakened in his childhood home, the light shining through his window the dull blue of an approaching dawn. His feet hung off the foot of his bed, which he had long since outgrown. It did not occur to him to wonder why it had not been replaced.
After rolling out of bed, he stumbled downstairs to find the bathroom. The house was entirely silent, with not even his mother's Glameow stirring at his movement.
This too, he did not notice.
He entered the bathroom and caught his reflection in the mirror.
It took him a few seconds to notice that his eyes were black in the reflection, rather than brown. They reflected light like dull, oily rubber.
For a brief moment, he tried to remember what they were supposed to look like.
No sooner than the moment he realized this, the reflection slipped away from his vision, starting with a hole in his heart until it faded away entirely.
His spirit took its place, appearing as a crackling mass of black lightning with only bolts of blue to show him where the eyes had been.
His spirit raised its hand. Startling, light-destroying black. Three claws sharpened to an atom-wide edge.
It reached out of the mirror and slashed across his face, tearing away hair, flesh, skin, bone-
Hilbert woke up in a cold sweat. It seemed that despite their best efforts, Shuppet was doing little to warm him up. He looked over at the open-shuttered window and tried to blink the sleep out of his eyes.
Had that crack been there when they checked in?
The Lights in the Sky Are Thunderbolts - XVII - The River
It shouldn't have been possible for a motel room to become as messy as a typical dorm room in less than two days, and yet, that was exactly the case.
On the small dresser topped with a smaller television, there was a box filled with glass bottles of hot sauce, tubs of IcyHot, and plastic bottles of laxatives. It was labeled with something written in permanent marker, though Cheryl couldn't tell what.
That was one of the many things that covered every available surface in the room. There were training weights leaning against a wall (He worked out, too?), spools of copper wire hanging off a chair, and on the desk was a Galarian-Unovan to Sinjohan-Japanese Dictionary and Thesaurus.
Quite a mouthful. More of one than the hot sauce for sure.
Admittedly, Cheryl had let her notes clutter her side of the room, but she was still curious about Hilbert's ways. He was Sinnohan-born but had grown up across the world! It was exciting by nature, and she liked to imagine that he'd gotten into all sorts of adventures when he was growing up, the sort that she was only able to hear of from her grandfather and read about in her books.
She looked over at the boy, who was scrunched up on his bed and had his hands in a tub of scrap metal which rested in his lap. Every thirty seconds or so she'd hear him scrape around as if looking for something, but by her guess, the only thing he could get was tetanus.
Maybe it was a cultural thing? She wasn't up to date on modern Unovan culture.
"What is written on the box?" she asked. She was aware that asking too many questions was impolite, but what was the point of politeness when there was so much to learn!?
Of course, there were limits, but…
"For Sinistea," Hilbert said, brow furrowed as he stared at his tub of junk. He picked out what looked like a motherboard, considered it for a moment, then shook it around until the silver and gold bits flaked off before throwing it in the trash.
Cheryl tilted her head and looked back at the box. She could read Galarian-Unovan.
"Does it really say that?"
Hilbert turned slightly red and coughed, "I, uh, have bad handwriting."
"Ah," she said apologetically. She looked over to Sinistea, which was upside down on the coffee table and, as previously stated by Hilbert, trying to keep their liquid from spilling out. "What is it for?"
"Sinistea's got the ability to change their Poison-type to something else by drinking stuff," Hilbert said. "I don't think it's a standard ability, but they're able to. I think it's because you use vodka as a mixer? Sugary drinks turn them Fairy-type and ice cream turns them Ice-type, so I wanted to test some other stuff. I think it's more associative than chemical…ative?" Hilbert guessed, before shaking his head. "The stuff doesn't have a lot of spiritual essence by itself, so I think the type change comes from the feeling that it gives you. Sugar rush, brain freeze, that kind of thing. It might even be at will, but we haven't gotten that far."
"I see." That was fascinating! She had to hold back her excitement a little bit, for sake of appearing proper, but it was rare that specific instances of a species could change type when that wasn't a generally shared ability. "Have you tried blood, yet?"
Hilbert blinked before his expression shifted to one of confusion. "No. What the- Why would I do that?" he asked, sounding curious rather than anger.
"Blood sacrifices are fairly common in ancient religions," Cheryl said with a smile. "Maybe there's an association that could assist you."
"Oh, right." Hilbert glanced at the Ghost-type then looked back at Cheryl. "I think Sinistea prefers drinking things that taste good."
There was a warble from over on the coffee table, though the Pokémon didn't move.
"You never know until you try!" Cheryl said, pumping her fist as she recalled the catchphrase her grandfather had drilled into her mind from day one. "The spirit of adventure is trying new things!"
A smile seemed to try and force its way onto Hilbert's face. "I'm not sure that'll work out so well, but if you say so."
Sinistea warbled worriedly and screeched against the tabletop as they inched further away.
Hilbert had gotten to an internet cafe soon enough and was able to write Professor Rowan an email. The translation was run internally by Porygon, though he still tried to be intentional with the syntax. With any luck, he'd get a reply before the battle and with a little more, he'd actually get to follow through on the idea. Calling wasn't an option for him since his translation abilities didn't work through digitization, so he was stuck waiting.
The TMs would likely be cheap as they came, but it was better than nothing.
He was walking down one of the side streets in Eterna City, getting a feel for the place as well as heading back to his training area on the outskirts, when something caught his eye. There was a house among many, equally old though not quite decrepit, which had a yard. The yard wasn't anything significant, but the number of signs covered in bright painted characters and illustrations of gemstones was astronomical.
It looked vaguely earth related, and as something of a Ground-type himself (and in the process of doing nothing much at all), he felt obligated to at least take a look.
At first, he felt that he had just walked into a cave. After a moment, he recognized that the walls were far too smooth to be natural, were plastered with diagrams, and displayed pickaxes and similar tools.
A few moments after that, he realized that in the far corner of the room there was a tunnel which seemed to go only downwards, and that he actually had just walked into a cave, though a well renovated one.
"The hell?" he muttered. From the way the earth's spirit pulsed through the building, he figured it had just been reinforced with concrete, not actually dug out.
The ring of the doorbell, as well as his swearing, attracted something's attention, as a massive clang emanated from the tunnel seconds later.
Someone yelled something in Sinjohan-Japanese, which was curiously not translated by Golett.
Why do I keep you around again? Hilbert asked his heart.
Clank.
Well, that and your stunning personality, I'm sure.
An old man rumbled out of the tunnel moments later, tracking even more mud into the house. Given that the floor seemed to be solid ground, he wasn't sure that was possible. A dozen tools and then some hung from his belt, each clanking against another with each step the man tool. His hair, including his beard, was a solid bush of stony gray, though it was turned brunette in some places by patches of dirt. Concealing most of it was a mining helmet that must once have been white, but had tanned with age.
"M' apologies for the delay," the man said. "Geode breaking is tedious work, and this is a pretty slow season for tours- never mind all that! If you're here for a tour, I'm afraid the rates will be greater. Less people to spread the start-up costs across, y' understand."
Hilbert blinked. "I'm illiterate. I'm a Ground-type specialist and I saw cool rocks outside. What is this place, exactly?"
"Oho?" the man said. "What is this place? Well, let me tell y', sonny. I'm the Underground Man, and this is my base of operations. I offer guided tours of Sinnoh's Grand Underground to all that are interested- and can pay, of course. I've personally mapped out sixty-eight percent of the Underground, and counting! If you need an expert, look no further."
Hilbert looked at all of the maps on the walls. He couldn't read the scales, but the thickness of the lines representing tunnels told him enough.
"Wow. That's a lot," Hilbert said, exuding intelligence of the highest order. "That's, like, at least a mile."
"Kilometer," the Underground Man said.
"I was raised in Unova," Hilbert said.
"No excuse to use the wrong units," the Underground Man replied. "What's your name, sonny?"
"Ah, my name's- Well, call me Hilbert Kuroiwa."
"Kuroiwa?" the Underground Man said. "Hm… Roark was just telling me about a fellow named Kuroiwa. Said Gardenia called him back and told him Kuroiwa was in Eterna City. Roark's my grandson, so I suppose it was natural that he called me about a Ground-type specialist named Kuroiwa. Their name is Kuroiwa, if you didn't catch that."
He most certainly did. Was the old man messing with him or did he have serious short-term memory loss?
"That's me," Hilbert confirmed, so he could stop thinking about whether he should be laughing with or pitying the man.
"Hm." The Underground Man sniffed the air. Then, suddenly, he punched Hilbert in the chest, right where his heart was.
Hilbert blinked.
"Hm," he said again, before withdrawing his fist and shaking it out. "I thought he was exaggerating about the Stoneheart."
Hilbert wanted to know why he could hear the proper noun in the man's tone.
More importantly: "He told you everything?" Hilbert asked, feeling somewhat betrayed that Roark, after all of the praise, had done the one thing he asked him not to.
"Oh, everyone's got secrets like that," the Underground Man said. "Trust me. Having a Pokémon fuse with your heart is strange to be sure, but that's only the tip of the iceberg. The League isn't officially aware of what you've been dreaming of, but many of the higher ups are, along with some members of law enforcement and consultants such as myself."
Hilbert felt a record scratch in his mind.
"What?"
"Roark tells me that you're something of a wandering hero. Gardenia as much as confirmed it. The reason you've gone that path is because you've been having dreams and nightmares about the end of the world. How long?" the man asked.
Hilbert took a step back. The spirits of his dreams had said there were others like him, but for there to be so many people aware and to have someone right in his face questioning him…
"Three years. Give or take a few months," Hilbert answered, trying to keep the quiver out of his voice.
"Hm. You got off lucky, then," the Underground Man said. "The Champion's been having them since the Kalo-Hoennian Conflict ended. She was… a researcher, and she wanted to help in the effort even if she wasn't put on the front lines. After the disaster in Coumarine and the hostilities cooled, she dropped off the face of the earth for a year then won the next League Conference. Swept through the Elite Four and previous Champion like it was nothing right after. Most people swore off violence if they survived the Conflict. Others, like gym leaders do, embraced it as a fact of life. She started living for it, Kuroiwa. Started telling people that we needed to be ready for the next storm."
"Ah…" Hilbert said, mainly because he couldn't say much else. There were other people like him, and while he wasn't particularly well adjusted (not at all well adjusted), the idea that someone else had been having the same dreams and nightmares as him for thirteen years made him feel like he had it that much better.
"There are others, of course," the Underground Man said. "But I'm not the person you should talk to about that. I won't tell them about your burden, but you're not alone, sonny."
"Right. Yes, sir, I'll keep that in mind," Hilbert said, voice stilted.
The Underground Man exhaled and began moving throughout the room, turning his back to Hilbert. "I've been made aware of a particular sight that you dreamers have. There's something beneath Sinnoh. Ancient. As old as the Underground but much deeper."
Hilbert's mind flashed with images of a moving mountain that held up the world, a leviathan that swam through underground seas like they were ponds, and a flame pinned beneath the weight of Heaven and Earth that refused to go out.
He seemed to take Hilbert's silence as some sort of answer. "I've seen it with my own two eyes. I'll take you there." He offered Hilbert an explorer's kit. "Suit up and we'll get going."
"I didn't mean to dump all of that on you at once, sonny," the Underground Man said, before repelling further into a nearly vertical cave. The cables they were using were strong enough to take the tension but smooth enough that they wouldn't get caught on anything "These things, they're better off told right away. Better to rip the bandage off as soon as possible."
Hilbert waited until he heard the man's boots touch down on the floor before descending as well. Maintaining control while in not-quite-freefall was hard enough without worrying about hitting someone else.
Reel spun with a mechanical shriek for half-minute before his headlamp illuminated the man again. "It's alright," Hilbert replied, landing in a crouch before detaching his harness from the rope. "The spirits told me that there were others, you just caught me off guard. It's a little hard to believe that there's an upper-level governmental conspiracy of borderline schizophrenics."
"I've not heard of the Full Moon and New Moon speaking directly to anyone, I'll admit, but I wouldn't call it a conspiracy. It's more like one of those self-help groups."
Those didn't sound like actual names for Pokémon. Were there location superstitions about calling their attention?
"Do you have pamphlets?" Hilbert asked.
"Sonny, why in the blue hell would we have pamphlets?"
"All of the cool conspiracies and cults have them," Hilbert said. "I want pamphlets."
The Underground Man shook his head and grumbled under his breath. "Kids these days, can't take anything seriously."
They trekked down a long stretch of tunnel which was mostly unbroken except for the occasional exposed support pillar. Somehow, they seemed to be going deeper and deeper, but Sinnoh's energy seemed to dim, almost. When he looked up, it was much denser.
"How far are we now?" Hilbert asked, checking a handheld dial and not being able to make sense of it.
The Underground Man checked his own and said, "Seventeen kilometers. We're more than twice as deep as the official Underground areas. Deeper than the deepest point in the ocean but still in the asthenosphere. This is a route I've been keeping secret. You'll notice that heat and humidity is increasing but air quality is remaining about the same."
Hilbert blinked. They'd made a lot of vertical progress in the last few hours, but he hadn't thought they'd gone more than ten miles already. "I can't actually tell about the air quality," Hilbert admitted, "Mineral poisoning can't really happen to me, I don't think. Golett regulates it."
"Hm. Handy." The Underground Man waved around a flashlight before shining it on a blazer. "This way," he said.
Sinnoh had been a living, moving thing, once. It had bones. Where were they now, Hilbert wondered. Still outside its body? Inside its blood vessels? Just traveling along one of the trails?
He got the distinct impression that he was entering into the belly of the beast, figuratively if not literally.
More tunnels, more drops in elevation, and they came across a massive slant in elevation.
It was a cavern on its own, but what was worse was that he couldn't make out a top or bottom. The walls had a slight trapezoidal decline to either side of him, while the opposite wall was maybe a hundred feet away.
"This is one of the smaller arteries," the Underground Man said. "At least, that's what I call 'em. Not actual arteries, mind you, I don't think any Pokémon could grow that large."
Hilbert didn't have the heart to obliterate the man's worldview, so he held his tongue.
"You ever see those vents around Sinnoh, sonny?"
"Yes, sir." They were every few miles in the wilderness, so spread out that they acted more as trail markers than indicators of civilization. They were much more common in towns and cities.
"The vents exchange air with the Underground and topside," he said. "But there are small leaks in the Underground that lead into these larger tunnels. It's fine if steam gets trapped in the wilderness and causes a natural landslide or sinkhole, but if it builds up under a city… not a good sight, I'll tell y' that much."
"Where does the steam come from?" Hilbert asked. "I get that the Earth's core is hot, but the tunnels can't go down that deep, right?"
"You would be correct. That's not where the heat comes from," the man said. "Ocean currents wash up into caves. The water gets trapped, occasionally, but sometimes it finds a way down, and down, and down. Multiply that by the coastline and thousands of years…"
They stopped at a small cavern which seemed to function as a rudimentary secret base. It was cleared of rocks and debris and actually had a small hand-crank lantern on the floor near the entrance. The Underground Man wound it for a few seconds and turned it on.
Immediately, Hilbert could clearly see the light steam rolling upwards into the room.
He beckoned Hilbert over to the center of the cavern, which was reinforced with a net of rebar and a trapdoor. There was a heavy pylon in the ceiling that he attached his repel to before taking Hilbert's and doing the same.
He pulled the panel open and let it slam against the ground. It was to his credit that there wasn't any dust left in the cavern to shake loose.
"Last chance to back out, sonny."
Hilbert looked down into the abyss, then back at the Underground Man. He clenched the repelling rope tight in his hands and said, "When you're scared, it's all the more reason to move forward, right?" he asked, before awkwardly laughing.
He shook his head and grumbled a bit before gesturing for Hilbert to take the first step. "Full brightness on your headlamp. You're going to need it."
Hilbert rotated the bulb and grabbed on tight before dropping down into the darkness.
For a split second, he had the sensation of falling before the rope's tension returned to him.
Then descending.
And descending.
And descending.
Still barely able to make out the distant floor, he looked around. Hilbert couldn't see the walls. Not in a physical sense, in a literal when-he-looked-for-Sinnoh's-spirit sense, he couldn't see them.
Were they below Sinnoh?
He looked up and saw a ovuloid globe of faint Grass and Ground TE. Had they just dropped out of a hole in the shell?
A hundred feet ahead and behind him, he saw the ridge of a shell-like formation that smoothly sloped upwards to the west, and downwards to the east.
Holy shit, they were below Sinnoh.
They were below an honest-to-god-of-your-choosing continent.
Not that Sinnoh was large enough to be called a continent, but island just didn't cut it when the island in question used to be able to walk.
Was Hilbert freaking out? Yeah, he was freaking out.
Hilbert descended further before seeing something shimmer on the ground.
That wasn't ground. That was water. A flat, inescapable plan of water that likely stretched on for hundreds of miles-
Hilbert curled his toes as he flinched away and tried not to immediately pull himself back up.
As something of a Ground-type himself, though really, as a living being with rational, independent thought, he was terrified that the water would swallow him up and he would never be heard from again.
"How," he gulped, "How deep does the water go?"
"I'm not interested in finding out," the Underground Man said. "Nothing that big gets that way without being territorial."
"What being what big?" Hilbert asked.
No sooner had he said this than did the air begin to rumble. It was like each individual molecule was quivering in fear of something they ought to have the sense to recognize but couldn't.
A droning roar washed over them, much deeper than the normal roar of the ocean.
Hilbert saw a light flicker in the distance. Initially red, quickly burning white.
The water just beneath him rippled.
He heard another rumble begin, though it was more like a series of waves lapping up against each other very, very quickly.
He'd watched recordings of tsunamis on PokéLeak before, but why was that what he was reminded of?
"UP, SONNY! UP!"
Hilbert immediately yanked the wire with both his hand and his spirit, willing the metal within it to reel back in as fast as possible.
Seconds later, water rushed past where he had just been with a great breeze of air that blew the both of them halfway horizontal. Hilbert wondered why he felt deaf and realized that it was probably the sonic boom that something had just made out of water.
He wasn't sure if physics even had a word for that.
He tried to keep an eye on the flame that he had seen as the wind died down, but it was quickly fading away into cinders.
He saw something move in front of it. The silhouette was highlighted by the light it was blocking, along with the crown with an innumerable number of prongs.
Accounting for distance, the relative height of the cave, the shape…
That Empoleon had to be at least a twentieth of a mile tall. Three hundred feet. However many meters, he couldn't bring himself to calculate.
"What the fuck," Hilbert whispered.
Knowing theoretically and somewhat spiritually that what you were walking on was a living thing was completely different than seeing something you could actually comprehend make water move faster than sound, all without even noticing you were there.
Or maybe it had.
He really didn't want to think about which was worse.
"Yeah, I'm done, let's get out of here."
"Sorry, about that, Sonny," the Underground Man called, reeling himself back in as well. The water was still roaring beneath them, though no more than it would during a hurricane. Which was still too much for any sane person to take, but it was much easier to understand. "I don't think there are any churches left in Eterna that you could go to. Maybe there's a Sinjoh Orthodox priest you could speak with."
Hilbert pulled himself over the lip of the frame and back onto solid ground. His legs were shaking. Along with his torso. To hell with it, his entire body was shaking.
"I need a drink, old man," Hilbert said weakly, before coughing into the dirt. "Damn it…"
AN:
Warning, canon is getting tossed out the window quicker than Piplup did in III. You, too, can create a conspiracy of dreamers with a little bit of willpower and the power of friendship. Just be careful about which Legends you let become your patron.
The Empoleon was named Leviathan in the Satellites apocrypha, but the name doesn't really fit here so I'm leaving it ambiguous for now. I now realize I haven't posted the apocryphas on FFnet. Will rectify this at some point. Fun fact, though, there's a lake in Hokkaido, Japan, that has a version of the Loch Ness Monster called Kussie. The more you know.