Chapter 25

"Looks like I win," Ash paused for a moment to catch his breath. "Now, free your Pokemon from those Dark Balls."

"You think I would let you win that easily?" asked Nigel, "If you care about my Pokemon so much, why don't I just take you instead?"

Misty, Brock, Professor Oak, and Professor Birch watched, unable to do anything as Ash was captured in the Dark Ball. Then, just as suddenly as it happened, the vision faced and they found themselves back in the cave.

"What just happened?" asked Misty.

"Ash is in trouble," said Brock, "we have to hurry!"

"That must be what it means," said Professor Birch, "'Evil's greed commits a sin the Chosen alone cannot shun',"

"Well if we're ever going to help Ash, we need to solve this puzzle first," said Misty, "Where were we?

"Something we can trust.." said Professor Oak, "four letters…"

"It's not necessarily something," said Brock, "the riddle said it describes something not that it is something."

"How about 'true'?" asked Misty.

"That sounds reasonable," said Professor Birch.

"I've been thinking about the second word," said Brock, "'Lati' doesn't make much sense, but if the first word is 'true' then the second word could be 'eons' since that's Latios and Latias' category,"

"What about the last clue?" asked Misty.

"I have a feeling that it's not meant for us." said Professor Oak, "It sounds like something an author would put in a book for the reader."

"Huh?" asked Brock, confused.

"Never mind," Professor Oak, "I don't want to bore you with my multiverse theory,"

"Well, let's try it out," said Professor Birch, looking at the keypad on the wall. "True eons… 20, 18, 21, 5, 5, 15, 14, 19."

The key beeped and flashed green. At first, nothing happened, but then, suddenly, one of the walls retracted, revealing a hidden passageway.

'Well that's lucky,' thought Pikachu, 'Just gotta get this bag down.'

It was a good thing he had been able to find a supply room pretty quickly. Trying to walk when every bone in your body is aching isn't fun. Add carrying a belt that weighs half as much as you do, in your mouth, and well… you get the point.

The room looked like it hadn't been used in a while, so hopefully he wouldn't run into any Team Void grunts. Making one final effort, he smacked the bag as hard as he could with his tail and slumped to the ground in exhaustion. After rocking back and forth for a moment, Pikachu sighed in relief as it finally fell to the ground. His sigh of relief soon became one of panic, however as he realized the bag was right above him.

"Oww," Pikachu moaned, rubbing his head. He slowly picked himself off the floor. "Oh well, at least I got it."

After a minute of untying some annoying knots, he managed to open the bag. A collection of different potions spilled out along with, thankfully, some revives. Whipping sweat off his forehead, Pikachu took a potion and sprayed it at himself.

Ok, maybe he shouldn't have done his face first.

Where was he? Ash blinked. A strange man wearing a black and purple outfit was in front of him, looking at some sort of machine. That was strange. It looked oddly familiar…

"Come Latius, over here," the man said.

Latius? Was that his name? He supposed it was since there was no one else in the room to call. Seeing nothing else to do, he did as instructed and hovered over to the man.

"My name is Nigel," he introduced himself, "I am your master, and you will obey me."

'Ok… sure, why not?' Ash thought. He nodded.

"Good. Now, I need you to fly over to that platform over there."

Ash flew over to the platform which had several ring-like patterns around it. He vaguely wondered what it could be for. Also… hadn't he seen something like this before? Come to think of it, what had he seen before? He racked his brain for any memories but found nothing.

He watched as Nigel pressed a button and the machine he had seen whirred to life. The circular patterns on the floor rose and formed a sphere around him. He reached out to touch one. "Owch!" he yelped.

"Don't move, you'll only hurt yourself," said Nigel. He frowned. Latius shouldn't be feeling emotions like pain. Had something gone wrong with his ball? He looked back at the orange Eon who was obediently staying still. Oh well, as long as he obeyed, it didn't matter what he felt.

Normally Nigel liked to torment anyone who stood in his way before brainwashing them to follow his orders. However, he skipped the first part because needed Latius to be in top condition. Nigel gave an evil chuckle as he admired his machine. It was almost a replica of the DMA at Altomare but with a few minor changes. There was no place to put the Soul Dew and the entire machine had been pained black, evidently Nigel's favorite color.

The DMA at Altomare had immense power, Nigel knew. But this machine was designed for much more power than that. Of course, that power could only be supplied by the most powerful Lati in the world. The mythical Latius. Flicking a lever, he stepped into the machine as the hatch opened. Just to test it out, he tried a simple command. "Fire."

Instantly, the machine responded, letting out a loud bang as it shot a powerful beam of dark energy at a few large blocks of solid iron Nigel had set up. With a loud explosion, all that remained of the iron were pieces of rubble. Nigel laughed. Now this was more like it.

"He did what?!"

Pikachu covered his ears. After healing the entire team, he told them what happened to Ash. They took it about as well as he did. Not well.

"We have to go help Ash right now!" said Latias, preparing to fly off. "Where is he?"

"Yeah, let's go!" said Skye, "I won't let that evil dude do anything to my trainer!"

"Guys, calm down," said Pikachu, although he felt like panicking as much as they were. "Even if I knew where Ash was, we can't just charge in there, we need a plan."

"Pikachu's right," said Latios, "we can't afford to be captured as well, if we're going to save Ash, we need to do what he would do."

"Maybe not exactly what he would do though," replied Pikachu, knowing that if their roles were reversed, Ash would probably just charge straight in without a thought in the world except saving them.

"Good point," said Latios, "um… any suggestions?"

Everyone was silent.

Pikachu sighed. This was not going well.

Chapter complete!

Yes, the riddle was kinda lame, but it was pretty fun to write.

If you didn't get the last clue of the riddle, go back to chapter 1.

Anyway... If you like this story so far please leave a review telling me how I did and consider joining my discord server! (discord . gg/eX4k3bV2au) (or check my profile page if the link doesn't work)