Chapter 37; legends of the ruins

Jet opened his eyes still sleepy. Getting up, he looked at his brother's empty bed. Last he had heard he, Tails and Knuckles had been registered for the gym challenge in Johto as a front to pursue team rocket.

Oh how much he envied them.

Getting to travel to a new place, meet many new pokemon and have a fun adventure in general. For Knuckles especially, Johto was candyland. The region with too much mythology to get enough of.

If only he could have been there with them.

He had even considered running away to join them, but had decided to be patient instead.

Getting out to jog for a while before beginning his daily routine he ran into – oh what a surprise – Amy. And literally outside their house too.

"Jeez. Don't you have anything better to do?"

"I want to talk to Sonic".

"You do remember he is Johto right?"

"Yes. I want to call him. But he has blocked me".

"About time" Jet said and turned to leave. Amy grabbed him by the shoulder.

"Tell him to unblock me please".

"And why would I do that? Do I seem like the kind of person to hate my brother?"

Amy was dumbfounded.

"Look. I know I did some questionable things…"

"Questionable? You were horrible to Sonic before but now… now you are essentially chasing after him while you're dating Shadow".

"…I broke up with Shadow".

Jet wasn't expecting to hear that.

"You broke up with him".

"Yes".

"And now you want to talk to Sonic".

"Yes"

"So let me get this straight… you mean to tell me… you got together with Shadow, breaking Sonic's heart in the process, and now that Sonic is the best version of himself you want him? How much of a whore are you?"

Amy was shocked.

"Take that back!"

"No. And I suggest you stay away from Sonic. And me. And Tails and Knuckles… you get the point. Just stay away from us" Jet said, withholding his anger and turned to leave again.

"You want stop me from talking to Sonic when he comes back".

"Too bad Sonic's not the loser you thought he was" Jet shouted as he jogged away.

He of course wasted no time texting Sonic of this encounter. The latter heard his phone buzz and took it out. Reading the message he recited it to Tails and Knuckles while they continued on their way towards Violet city.

"It's official" Tails commented "she's lost it".

"I can't believe it myself" Sonic answered "she was our friend for so long… and was hiding such a personality. I can't believe I was in love with her".

"I wonder how Shadow is taking it" Knuckles wondered.

"I don't even want to imagine. Getting together with someone, beating the supposed rival to that someone, only to find that the person was just using you… and I still don't know or get why".

"Why?" Tails asked confused.

"Why she would do such a thing. Play with both mine and Shadow's hearts. Like I can't even imagine a good enough reason" Sonic explained.

"And you don't have to. You're beyond that now" Knuckles commented smiling, smacking his friend on his back, just under the quills.

"Thanks Knucks".

Raichu rubbed its head on Sonic's leg to get his attention causing him to almost trip.

"Don't worry raichu we're not forgetting about you" he said petting it while they walked "I owe you a big part of my growth partner".

"Rai rai".

"You do owe it a lot. Like the wake-up call it gave you when you were growing an ego. Oh wait a minute that was me" Tails joked.

The three friends laughed and joked for hours while heading towards the southwest foot of mount tensei. Reaching the foot, Tails realized he had miscalculated and they would be at the city in about an hour more of walking. Sonic and Knuckles were relieved as they were hungry but first decided to stop and rest.

And as if by coincidence, they stopped on the entrance of the dark cave. Or at least what they assumed was the dark cave. It was a logical assumption however, as none of them could see due to the thick darkness.

Taking out their pokemon to stretch, the pokemon got to playing with each other. Sentret was the most playful of the 3 as it was a bit younger than even chikorita and cyndaquil. As Tails fed it some pokemon food he had brought along, he turned to Sonic and Knuckles.

"What do you think we should do at Violet city?"

"I'd suggest taking on the gym leader but clearly we need more training" Sonic said.

"You mean I need more training" Knuckles corrected him.

"Chikorita also needs training Knucks. I want to avoid depending on raichu as much as possible".

"But it's crazy strong" Tails argued.

"Which is exactly why I want to use chikorita and any other pokemon I catch while here. I want an equally powerful team not one super-powered pokemon and 5 more support ones. This is what got me victory in kanto and against team rocket. Strength is not just in numbers".

He was a bit shaken by his own statement, remembering Giovanni quoting this exact same thing at silph co.

Looking down he felt this bondage of destiny that had in a way bound the two enemies together.

And then that kid… that had stolen totodile.

"Why did he look like him?" Sonic thought confused.

"Sonic?" Tails asked him.

"Huh?"

"You ok?"

"Yeah. Just zoned out".

"Well since we need training and therefore it will take us a while to be ready" Knuckles interjected "we should visit the nearby ruins. It's a life's dream to visit them. For me at least".

"Sure" Sonic agreed.

"Cool" Tails also agreed.

At that moment they noticed that cyndaquil and chikorita were sparring. They mostly used their already learnt moves. Until Chikorita unleashed a purple powder from its body. The powder made contact with cyndaquil poisoning it.

"Cyndaquil!" Knuckles shouted in a shocked surprise.

"Was that poison powder?" Sonic inquired.

"I think so. Many grass types can learn this move" Tails verified.

Chikorita didn't let up despite seeing its opponent in distress. It fired a seed towards cyndaquil. Once the seed came into contact with Cyndaquil, vines came out of it and constricted it. Then a small green glow emerged from cyndaquil. The glow then left it and flew towards chikorita entering its body and rejuvenating. Team Sonic was caught off guard but Tails quickly identified the move.

"That was leech seed!"

"What?" Sonic asked in surprise "isn't that supposed to be a rare move?"

"A rare and powerful one for this species".

Sonic looked at chikorita in awe as he asked raichu to stop the battle. Raichu intervened. The pokemon stopped and Tails proceeded to treat the injured cyndaquil.

"Leech seed. A healing move which drains the opponent's energy. Poison powder. Standard damage over time" he thought.

That chikorita had the makings of a powerful defensive wall in his eyes. He wondered what else he could possibly add to the mix. Protect was a good idea. But he would have to think it through before deciding.

After Cyndaquil was fully healed team Sonic recalled their pokemon and proceeded on their way.

Reaching the city, they grabbed a quick lunch. While eating Knuckles began explaining the legends of the ruins.

"So the ruins are called the ruins of alph. Their origin is unknown. Archeologists theorize they were built but the ancient people of Johto".

"Like a city of sorts?" Tails asked while chewing

"That's the interesting thing. No. They don't resemble a city resided by the ancients. It's a complex of buildings like underground temples. With many catacombs underneath them".

"Catacombs?" Sonic asked intrigued.

"Yeah. And trust me you don't want to get lost in there. Unless you're an experienced archeologist or an ancient cave expert, if you get lost down there, game over".

"We should totally descend into those catacombs" Sonic suggested "not too far in. Just look around the entrance or something. Maybe get a picture or two".

"I suppose that can't hurt" Knuckles shrugged.

Eating the rest of their lunch team Sonic headed off to the ruins.

Reaching the ruins, Sonic was surprised that there weren't a lot of people around. He was expecting tourists crawling all over the ruins.

"That's bizzare" Knuckles commented "usually there are plenty of people in such ruins".

While the team was making its way through the ruins, they heard a rustle from a patch of grass. Raichu took a battle stance.

"We've got company" Sonic said in caution.

Out from the grass walked a small blue pokemon. It looked at them in curiosity.

"What is that?" Sonic wondered aloud.

"You got a pokedex ask it" Tails looked at him with a look that read 'I'm not an encyclopedia'.

Sonic scanned the pokemon with his pokedex.

"Species unregistered no data found".

"Wha…?"

"Oh damnit I forgot" Tails face-slapped "this must be a johtonian species. Your pokedex originated from Kanto. Johto species are not in. Give me a moment".

Tails scanned the pokemon with his phone then entered an online database he had discovered during the incident in the orange islands. After a few moments, he got a match with the scan of the pokemon.

"This is a wooper. A water type".

Sonic looked at the small cute water type. He didn't know anything about Johto pokemon. He considered catching it but decided that there would be better water types out there.

"Raichu use thunder punch".

"No Sonic wait!" Tails tried to stop him having just read the other half of wooper's typing.

Raichu attacked wooper with its charged punch.

The attack was nullified.

"What in the world?" Sonic said confused.

"I wasn't done!" Tails explained "it's only part water. The other half is part ground!"

"A ground water type?!" Sonic asked aloud.

The wooper fled, scared of the massive raichu compared to its own size.

Sonic and Knuckles immediately chased after it, both desiring it for their team. This kind of type combination only had one weakness, grass.

The two friends soon realized it had fled somewhere in the tall grass. It could be very far at that point.

"Gentleman's bet?" Sonic asked Knuckles.

"May the best one win" Knuckles agreed heading off in a rush "and it will be me!" he shouted.

Sonic laughed slightly and headed off with raichu to find the wooper.

Tails who was left behind, tried to catch up to either of his friends.

Before they knew it, all 3 were lost.

Sonic, who was focused on finding the wooper, with raichu leading the way, got lucky. Wooper had retreated on top of a small stone monument.

"Raichu is too strong to weaken it, and chikorita will knock it out. One choice left" he said taking out a pokeball.

He aimed and threw.

The ball absorbed wooper.

One wiggle.

Two wiggles.

Three wiggles.

The catch was confirmed.

"Awesome!" Sonic exclaimed.

"Rai!" raichu cried outin excitement.

Sonic climbed onto the monument to retrieve the pokeball, eager to find Knuckles and gloat a bit of his catch.

As he grabbed the pokeball however, his movement moved a loose brick.

The roof of the monument collapsed.

"AAAAH!" Sonic screamed momentarily crashing on the hard rocky floor.

"Rai! Rai rai!" Raichu cried out as it attempted to climb on the monument which was now proven to be an underground dome.

Each movement raichu made trying to see inside, made the structure more unstable.

"Raichu stop!" Sonic screamed "find Tails and Knuckles and bring them here. I'll be fine!"

Raichu hesitated momentarily but rushed off.

At the same time, Knuckles was making his way through the grass and the ruins looking for the wooper. Cyndaquil was at his side, ready to attack at any moment.

A patch of grass rustled in front of them.

Cyndaquil's back erupted in flames as Knuckles ordered the attack.

"Ember!"

Cyndaquil unleashed the ember.

"OUCH!" a familiar howling echoed as Tails jumped from the grass, one of his tails having a small flame on the edge.

Knuckles in a fit of panic tackled Tails to the ground and stomped the tail repeatedly putting out the small flame. Tails got back up rubbing his tail.

"Jeez Knuckles. Why are you attacking blindly?!"

"Sorry mate. Thought you were the wooper" Knuckles apologized.

"You seriously try to strike a water and ground type with a fire move?"

"Hey I was planning to drive it out of hiding".

"Rai rai!"

Raichu came running up to them.

"Raichu? Where's Sonic?" Tails asked confused.

"Rai! Rai rai raichu!" Raichu cried out and rushed off.

"Sonic wouldn't leave it alone. He must be in trouble!" Tails concluded.

"Let's go then!" Knuckles said as the two started running following raichu.

Back in the underground cavern, Sonic managed to get back up after a while despite the pain. He looked up towards the dome. He was impressed by the actual accomplishments of the ancients. He remembered reading about a similar type of building in a faraway land, being used mostly as a tomb.

He looked around hesitantly but saw no coffin or sarcophagus or body container of any sort. Sighing in relief he got up and looked back at the ceiling.

"How am I going to get out? No ladder out of here".

He rubbed his chin wondering how he could get himself out this pickle. As he racked his brain he looked around. The walls of the chamber were covered in weird patterns of carvings.

Letting his curiosity get the better of him, he approached the walls. The carvings were consisting of what looked like a weird shape of letters of the alphabet. Though he couldn't make a lot of the shapes, he did make out one word.

"This is U" he commented examining the carvings "this must be an N. Definitely an O. A W maybe. And another N. Unown".

The moment he spoke the word he felt a presence behind him. Turning around he saw nothing. Turning back towards the wall again, he came face to face with a big eye.

"WHAT IN THE WORLD?!" he screamed jumping backwards.

The echo of his scream caused another loose brick to fall from the ceiling of the dome. Thankfully it fell a good distance away from him. Looking back at the eye, he noticed the rest of the being's body. It was a duo of circles the inner containing the eye and the outer one connected to the inner one via a point that made it so if you took out the outer circle the inner circle would look like a giant lollipop.

"Is that a pokemon?" Sonic inquired aloud.

The newly appeared pokemon attacked using a weird move. Sonic ducked out of the way, sending one of his 2 new pokemon randomly out to battle.

To his surprise, his new capture, wooper emerged.

"Wooper quick! Get that thing!"

Wooper however ran away instead. Sonic, dodging the barrage of power emerging from the body of the wild pokemon, wondered if it could even attack.

"Damnit chikorita help me out!" he said sending it out "vine whip!"

Chikorita used vine whip grabbing the pokemon with its move and easily swinging it around before slamming it hard on the ground. The pokemon however effortlessly got back up and unleashed the same move again.

The move struck the chikorita, revealed to be of fire typing as the moment it came into contact with chikorita it was engulfed in flames. Chikorita cried out in pain as wooper who was hiding behind a pillar to avoid the battle looked on.

"Chikorita are you ok?" Sonic got to its side worried.

The wild pokemon once again used the same move. A part of Sonic wondered if that was all it knew. The rest of him covered chikorita to protect him with his body.

The attack came into contact with Sonic who groaned in pain.

Back on the surface, raichu felt the same pain, momentarily stopping and crying out in pain.

"What's wrong with it?" Knuckles asked Tails.

"It's in pain… oh no! Their connection must be a two way street! Sonic is in trouble! Raichu get us there quick please!"

Raichu immediately cooperated, rushing towards their destination.

Sonic's felt the searing pain on his back.

"Was that a fire attack?" he thought before the attack discharged again.

This time however the wooper, moved by Sonic's resolve to protect his chikorita, took the attack. Its water typing allowed it to tank it fairly easily, countering afterwards by firing a water gun attack. The opposing pokemon retaliated by using the same move again, which again barely affected wooper. This cemented in Sonic's mind that this strange pokemon only knew this weird move.

Wooper then charged its opponent, slamming into it sending it crashing to the wall.

"Was that slam?" Sonic asked aloud.

Wooper cried out responding to Sonic as if it was confirming it.

"I'll take that as a yes. Slam it again!"

Wooper gladly obliged, slamming into the weird pokemon again. The pokemon fainted. While Sonic and wooper celebrated their victory however they witnessed a strange phenomenon occur; the black-eye-shaped pokemon dissolved and disappeared.

"What in the…" Sonic managed to say before hearing his name called out.

"Sonic! Can you hear us?!"

"Tails! I'm down here!"

"Sonic!" Knuckles' voice could be heard "do you have space to take cover?"

"Yeah why?"

"Then I suggest you take cover".

Sonic hurriedly took cover away from the center of the room where the dome was, chikorita and wooper at his feet.

A brick break from raichu brought down the dome, causing it collapse in on itself. As bricks and rocks fell to the ground in front of Sonic, a rope also came down. Knuckles climbed down.

"You ok mate?" he asked Sonic.

"I'm fine. Did raichu get you to me?"

"Yes. You have a very reliable partner".

"Thanks" Sonic said.

As Tails also climbed down the rope and raichu jumped down landing with a small thud, both of them catching up with Sonic, Knuckles looked around amazed.

"Wow. This is so fascinating. You must have landed in a new location for the ruins' experts to investigate. Although a good question would be… how did you manage to fall in?"

"Accident while catching this little guy. Or girl. Can't tell what it is" Sonic said pointing towards the wooper.

"You're kidding me" Knuckles said disappointed.

"That is a good addition to the team" Tails commented.

"Well it does require a lot of work but I believe we will concoct something good right little buddy?"

"Wooper!"

Knuckles got back to studying the carvings on the walls.

"Woah. Check it out. We hit the jackpot. Not literally" he quickly added "these are ancient texts written in the language of the unown".

"Unown… I read that word on the wall while examining it" Sonic said remembering it "weirdest thing is after I read the word aloud, a small pokemon shaped like an O appeared and attacked us".

Knuckles turned around in disbelief.

"You actually summoned an unown?!"

"A what?"

Knuckles went to explain but refrained.

"I'll explain later. Let me read the scriptures for a while, then we should head back. It's getting dark soon".

Sonic agreed and recalling his pokemon, climbed the rope back out. Tails followed. As Sonic brought raichu back out, Tails took the opportunity to examine him.

"Hey what are you doing?"

"Did you get hurt down there?"

"I took an attack from the pokemon I fought. The one Knuckles called an unown".

"So I was right. The connection between you and raichu really is a two-way street!"

"What?"

"We were coming to find you when raichu shivered in pain. Just like you did against Mike in the tournament. Both of you feel each other's pain".

"Wait… so when I get hurt... raichu can feel it?"

"Yes. It must be because of your bond developing further".

Sonic didn't know what to say.

"Why are we connected this way?" he thought worriedly "are we destined to harm each other?"

Knuckles came out of the hole and led his two friends away before experts came along.

Returning to town, as the team went to grab dinner, Knuckles explained his findings causing Sonic to forget about his worrying of his connection to raichu.

"So the cave spoke about legends about the unown. The unown are a species of pokemon with varying forms, shaped like the latin alphabet letters. Lately forms of a question mark and an exclamation mark unown have been discovered. The unown were mostly used by the ancients as a form of communication, since they are mostly harmless".

"Harmless? That thing attacked me. Weirdest thing it only used one move".

"Yes sometimes they do attack. As I said MOSTLY harmless. The unown only know a mysterious move called hidden power. Little is known about it, except for its typing and power varying".

"I guess I got unlucky then. The one I faced had a fire hidden power".

"That sounds like a crazy powerful pokemon species" Tails commented.

"Not really. The many typings of hidden power aren't all that useful" Knuckles explained "they are not a strong species. They are however tied with many of Johto's legends. One of those legends speaks about a spell the unown can cast".

"Spell?" Sonic inquired.

"Kind of. The legend goes like this; when a sacrifice is made, the one who makes the sacrifice will possess the power of the unown, as well as the guidance and assistance of what the legend describes, an ambassador of the unown".

"And what can the power of the unown do?"

"According to this legend? It's like having a genie that can grant unlimited wishes".

"A genie level powerful pokemon?" Tails asked in obvious surprise.

"That means there must be a genie level catch to obtain this power. What kind of sacrifice must be made?" Sonic asked Knuckles.

"The legend doesn't state what the sacrifice is. At least the version of the legend I read when I was young. There was a part of the scriptures I couldn't quite make out earlier. Maybe it contained the cost of the spell".

"Well that's all sounding cool and all but there's no point discussing it further. It's only a legend after all right?"

"Exactly. A story to teach us that we need to be careful what we wish for" Knuckles said jokingly trying to sound wise.

"Good. So do you think we should go look for room at the pokemon center or just go camping again?" Sonic asked his friends.

"Camping all the way. We didn't come out here to take it easy" Knuckles stated "plus we need to train for the gym".

"I agree" Tails added.

"It's settled then" Sonic concluding, going to pay the bill.

After dinner team Sonic headed out to the outskirts of the forest. Setting up camp rather quickly, they all fell asleep like logs.

All but Sonic, who was still thinking about how raichu felt his pain.

"What if this had taken place during our battle with the titans? Our battle with Mewtwo… so many battles it could have experienced so much pain in" Sonic thought worried. He couldn't bear the thought of his partner experiencing pain because of him.

However exhaustion soon set his mind at peace as he had to stick to the present. His two new pokemon would need a lot of training the next day.