Chapter 8: Rogues on the run

Liza shot trough the water like a jet on her way out of town. In fact, it almost felt like the water itself was pushing her forward. Though Latias and Latios bought the excuse that she had to head home, she thought it was just a matter of time before those two were able to track them down.

As she approached the spot where he was supposed to be waiting, she surprised herself as she shot out of the water. She soon found herself two meters above the ground, having just a brief moment to panic before unceremoniously face-planting into the sandy beach.

"So, you've started experimenting with Aqua Jet." Gates chuckled as he stepped out of the thicket he had been hiding in. But his smile quickly vanished as he saw the panicked look on my Liza's face.

"We have to go NOW!" Was all she said.

The trip back had them both speeding back to the cave in silence. Gates wanted to know what had her so worked up, but keeping up with Liza proved to be a hard enough task in of itself. It seemed like a human soul didn't remove a buizel's instinct of being excellent swimmers. After only about twenty minutes they were back where his cave was located. Liza couldn't quite remember the location of the entrance, and finally slowed down to let Gates take the lead.

"Phew!" Gates gasped as he finally emerged from the dark tunnel, with Liza right behind him. "You picked up swimming fast, that's for sure."

"Just how certain are you nobody knows of this place?" Liza asked, clearly not ready to relax even back in the cave.

"Gods, what happened in town?" Gates asked, still catching his breath after the trip back.

"I met two explorers in town. They are looking for us." Liza responded quickly.

"Us? I get me, but why you?" Gates asked. "Did someone see me fish you out of the river last night?"

"No, they were looking for a human, but didn't know who. But some kind of foresight told them to take the job on you." Liza explained, having to slow herself down to not swallow her sentences.

"Foresight? Find out anything about who those weirdos are? I have evaded rookie-teams for a long time, and my bounty is too low to attract the pros." Gates asked,

"Their names are Latias and Latios." Liza answered.

Gates eyes widened at this.

Without saying anything he stormed over to his supply crates, pulling out two bags. One seemed to be full already, and he quickly ran through his supplies filling the other one as well.

"We can't stay here any longer." He explained as he packed. "I had an emergency bag ready for me, and I'll get some supplies for you as well. Then we leave, getting as much of a head start as we can."

"Where are we going?" Liza asked.

"I have no idea. But with team Eon after us, we need all head-start we can possibly get." Gates answered, still in a hurried tone.

"They're that famous?"

"Famous? Try legendary!" Gates responded. "Latias and Latios are minor deities."

Liza gulped. With the whole new world, new body situation, one wouldn't think this day could get any weirder. Now she just learned that the friendly girl she had been book-nerding with at the library had been a demigod, and she was now on the hunt for her.

She was snapped out of this train of thought by Gates shoving a bag into her arms.

"Here!" he snapped at her. "Lets go!"

Wasting no time, Gates ran through the room and dived into the tunnel. Liza was slightly stupefied by Gates more brazen personality swing, but assumed that this whole situation was hard on him as well. After a slight hesitation she followed him. Having picked up on swimming very quickly, she had no problem catching up with Gates, and soon found herself slowing down to let him take the lead. Gates seemed to be keeping full steam ahead, a shadow of fear still in his eyes.

Hirise Coastlands

The coastlands west of Azureport are a beautiful sights. Lush cliffs, beaches and clear blue waters. Though the plentitude of cliffs both visible and underwater, makes it dangerous for ships to get close, making the occasional swimmer the only mons to be found there.

They had been swimming for about two hours, this time the opposite direction of town. The sun had set a while ago, and it was getting hard to see where they were going in the dark. Suddenly Gates started to head towards the shore. He seemed to be headed for a seaside cliff, before leading Liza into a small cave in the wall.

"All right. We will be stopping here for a short rest, then we eat a Chesto Berry and keep moving under the cover of night." He said, climbing out of the water. Putting down his bag on the ground, he pulled a weird jewel out of it, with what looked like black fog swirling inside it. He showed it to Liza with a dead serious look in his eyes. "Might as well tell you now. This jewel is our life from this point on. If we get separated, the one without it is as good as caught."

"What?" Liza asked him, just after shaking water out of her fur. "How?"

"It's a Blackout Jewel. Anyone within five meters from this is invisible to psychic senses. It also prevents anyone from teleporting nearby." he explained. "And we just happen to have two demigods with psychic powers after us."

Liza gulped when she heard this. The adrenaline of the situation had almost dulled the seriousness, but his reminder pulled all those thoughts back to the top of her mind.

"I'll take the first watch. Get some rest while you still can." Gates ordered her.

She wasn't willing to argue with his orders. Though she struggled to find a comfortable spot on the cave floor, and to get everything of her mind, her sheer tiredness soon took hold and let her drift into a deep sleep.

'I must be dreaming' Liza thought. Not the first time she had thought that the last day, but now she knew for sure. She couldn't really see anything other than a white haze, neither could she feel her body. The only thing that kept the dream from being an empty white void, was the voices.

"How fare the search?" Came from a deep, commanding voice.

"I have received news about the whereabouts of one human from an old friend. This one does not require any interference for now, he is in good hands." Came from another voice with a firm, but gentle tone.

"I managed to briefly establish a psychic link with another, but could not fully pinpoint the location, nor have I been able to restore the link. I have sent the Eon-twins to retrieve her, but even my Future Sight gave only a vague lead." Came from a third voice. This one was more feminine, and Liza recognized it as the one she heard before she woke up in this world.

"Even you couldn't see anything more useful Dialga?" The first voice asked.

"The wheel of fate is still damaged from the recent distortion. I will not risk interfering with it until it has stabilized." Came from a fourth voice. "Not without very good reason."

"Very well then. Regaining the link and getting the second human will remain your mission Mew. Failure is not an option." Came from the commanding voice.

"Has it ever been?" The voice from her dream answered in a joking tone, though the silence that followed hinted at the joke not being well received.

"Palkia, have you finally got any number of how many we are dealing with in total?" The first voice spoke once again. Seemingly ignoring the last statement,

"I have yet to sort through the entire distortion, but have managed to ensure there is at least three out there. Though it is still very much possible for more to surface." A fifth voice answered.

"Keep searching! I don't want a single human to slip under the radar. Task the trio of mind if you need more assistance." The first voice ordered as a response.

"Yes, father."

"And finally, do we have any news on the origin of this distortion? Or perhaps what the danger it foretold is?" The commanding voice asked.

"We are afraid nothing of note has surfaced. However…" came from a new voice, this one the strangest of them all. Though it was fairly monotone, it sounded like a bunch of people speaking at once. "The distortion has shown consequences. With all of our effort spent on tracking down the source and the humans, the world order is cracking. New mystery dungeons are growing as we speak. The world require us to redouble our effort on our divine tasks sooner rather than later."

"Not what I wished to hear." the commander sighed before raising his voice again. "Palkia, I wish for you to keep analyzing the distortion for now, but make haste. All other major deities will return to their usual post to keep the world stable. As for the rest of you, you have your orders. Proceed as planned!"

Multiple affirmations followed. As the meeting she had accidentally listened in on ended, Liza tried to make sense of what she had heard. Are there someone hunting down humans? Are there other ones like her? And is the voice she heard the one who sent these explorers after her? She couldn't quite make sense of it, but undoubtedly someone wanted her caught as soon as possible for whatever reason. Whoever they were, the voices were fading away fast, and soon there was nothing to heard.

"Nothing particularly valuable here. Guess he is just a small time crook." Latios said, as he rummaged through the storage crates using his telekinesis. Most C-rank teams usually had a more impressive stockpile than this thief, and that without having to steal it.

"We should still report this place to the authorities. Maybe something of sentimental value was stolen." Latias answered her brother.

"All the reports say he has been running around stealing small sums of money and basic supplies, so I doubt it. But go ahead anyway." Latios told her as he put down the crate. Finding the hideout had been a simple job, but somehow the little rapscallion had seen them coming and gotten away. This job was starting to become a drag, and he still had no idea how this was supposed to help find the human.

"Are you able to pick up his aura trail again?" his sister asked him.

"Will probably need some sorting to find the most recent one. You could've helped if you had spent the time learning it as well." Latios answered her. Both aura sphere and the ability to sense aura had been invaluable, as most criminals knew how to make countermeasures against psychics.

"Oh please, you're talking like I have been sitting on my ass the whole time you trained with that Lucario." Latias huffed.

Latios closed his eyes and tuned into the aura around him. Sure thing, that totodile's aura was all over the place, but as he tried sorting through the most recent ones, he found something else.

"Curious. Seems like our little rogue had an accomplice warn him." Latios said.

"What do you mean?" Latias asked.

"There is another aura left behind here. In fact, it's the same one as your new friend from town. The Buizel" he explained.

"Liza? But why would a Huskborn be hanging around here?" Latias wondered. The timid girl she met at the library? Could she had been found by this rogue when she awakened?

"You didn't read her mind back in town?" Latios asked.

"Excuse me? There is this thing called privacy. I don't go around reading the minds of everyone I meet" Latias defended herself. "Please tell me you haven't been doing that."

"Why waste time getting them to tell everything?" Latios answered in an unapologetic tone.

"By Giratina… Anyway, we should probably get Liza away from the bad influence as soon a possible." Latias said. Though she was very disappointed in her brother, this wasn't the time to start an argument.

"By the way, did she act like a normal huskborn?" Latios asked.

"Well, she was very shy, and seemed very lost. But she had no problem with speaking or reading." Latias answered pondering the details of her earlier encounter.

"Well, her aura trails are not older than a day. Must be a real quick learner then. And what was that common interest you bonded over?" Latios questioned his sister further.

"Humans and their presence in this world." Latias answered, before she picked up what her brother was insinuating. "Hold on. You're not suggesting what I think, right?"

"I'm not sure, but the pieces seem to fit into place." Latios mused, with a smile forming on his face. "And if this Liza is the human we are looking for, this job suddenly got a lot more interesting."

It didn't feel particularly rested when Gates had woken her up, and judging from the moons position on the sky, it hadn't been to long either. But he told her it was her turn to keep watch, and couldn't have felt much better than her, as he hadn't slept at all yet. He had simply given her some kind of fruit, and told her to eat it before going to sleep.

As she watched out through the mouth of their small cave, she tried sorting through her thoughts about the dream she just had. Not that she ever considered dreams that important before, but this one in particular felt consequential. Not only did she hear the voice same voice she heard before waking up, but they were discussing something about gathering humans, including the bounty hunters on their trail right now.

What could their purpose be? The voice had been encouraging when she heard it last, and not trying to coerce her into any particular action. But now she was the one who sent Latias and Latios after her. But why? Why were humans so important to those beings? And what was all that talk about there being others? Was there no end to all these questions?

In the end, she lost track of time trying to make any sense of it all. Whether it was minutes or hours, she couldn't tell, until she saw something that broke her out of her train of thoughts.

It was Latias.

Luckily far away, and seemingly not headed towards the shore. But still moving at an alarming speed. Gates had warned her, but now it truly occurred to her why staying hidden was their only choice. They could not outrun her, and fighting was not an option either.

Liza dove down next to Gates, shaking her as rough as she dared without making too much noise.

"Wake up! It's Latias!" She whisper-screamed in her ear.

Upon hearing that, his eyes shot open, he immediately crawled over to the mouth of the cave.

"Where?" He whispered.

"She flew past us. Made no signs of slowing down, or changing directions." She answered him, still in a hush tone.

He made his way into the bag, pulling out another one of the fruits he had given her, and what seemed like a map. He scarfed down the fruit, and he unfolded the map onto the cave floor.

"This is bad! No signs of Latios?" Gates voice was still hushed, but it was obvious the stress was getting to him.

"No."

"Worst case scenario is that Latios is tracking us thoroughly then, while Latias flew ahead in order to do a coarse sweep with her psychic abilities, as well as cutting us off." Gates explained. "Damn it, we have no choice but to start moving by land."

"And why is that bad?" Liza asked.

"We will be traveling a lot slower, and leave more tracks. Only a matter of time before we get caught." Gates answered. A mix of contemplation, desperation and anger flashed through his face while reading the map. "The only option I see is trying to lose them by going through a mystery dungeon."

"A mystery dungeon?" Liza questioned, remembering the things she had read about them while in the library, especially the part about the hostile creatures. "But I don't know how to fight."

"The first dungeon on our path is called Shallow Wetlands. A very easy one, you will have to learn on the way." Gates said. "It could buy us enough time to reach Riptide Ravine."

"Riptide Ravine?"

"It's a harder one. I can't carry you through it alone, so you'll have to pull your weight." Gates answered her implied question. "But jumping into the currents at the deepest part can spit you out just about anywhere in a large area around it. With some luck, even legendaries will need a day or two to pick up our trail again after that?"

"And after that?"

"We keep heading east. Though with the Eons after us we probably won't be off the hook unless we can reach Darkhold, which is all the way on the eastern coast." Gates explained, pointing at the map. Liza didn't really know how large this continent really was, but if that was their destination it looked like they would be on the run for a while.

Gates folded the map, and packed it into his bag. He then headed for the water, and Liza understood they were heading out. They headed out without sharing any more words, and started swimming. Soon, Gates turned towards land, leading Liza up a river. The landscape around them went from beach, to plains, to finally a forest. When they finally stopped, the river gradually transitioned over to a swamp at the forest floor. Not only that, but when they got close enough, a wall of fog covered the swamp.

"We're here." Gates stated.

"Is this the Mystery Dungeon?" Liza asked.

"Yes, but we have no time to lose. Come on!" Gates answered, before running off on her. He ran through the fog wall, completely disappearing from view. Liza approached, but stopped before the wall, looking at it. Gates was determined to force her to rip the band-aid off it seemed.

'Damn it Gates' she thought, before heading through herself.