Chapter 24 - The Secret of Dawn Mountain...?

The Team were fast asleep, snoring away happily, lost in their dreams when suddenly...

"Listen Up!" A Voice shouted, waking Tommy, Megan and Sammy up causing them all to jump from their beds in surprise.

It's Lucario.

"S-sir, it's like 6 in the morning..." A tired Tommy said with a yawn.

Megan nodded her head agreeing "Yeah, can't it wait?"

"NO!" Lucario exclaimed, with a stern look on his face "This is a matter of utmost importance"

Sammy sighs "what's important enough for you to wake us up at un-arceusly hours of the morning?"

"Dawn Mountain." Lucario said, in a much calmer and relaxed tone.

"..what mountain? I'm confused" Tommy replied with a puzzle expression

"Let's take this to my office" Lucario turned around and walked out the door beckoing the three to follow him which they do.

Megan says to Tommy as they follow him "I wonder what this could be about"

"Yeah, Lucario seems very concerned about this mountain, weird." Tommy replied.

Lucario and the confused trio head into his office, and upon reaching his desk he turns around to face them again.

"Dawn Mountain." He said once again.

"Sir I'm confused, what do you mean by that exactly, what is Dawn mountain?" Tommy asked, incredibly puzzled by the way he is acting.

Lucario sighs and turns to his desk, picking up a book though the three aren't able to see what book it is nor what it says on the front.

"What's that?" Sammy asked.

He turns around and smiles

"The Legend of Dawn Mountain" Lucario replied

Tommy is still confused "I've never heard of it" he said in response.

Lucario laughs before replying "I can't say I'm surprised, considering you are all youngsters. Allow me to explain!"

"Sure!" The three replied in unison.

"The Legend of Dawn Mountain goes back many generations, before you and even I were born, it's been passed down for over a thousand years, but it's not just a legend but a mystery as well." Lucario explained.

"A Mystery?" Tommy asked with his mouth slightly open

"Yes, a mystery. While it is confirmed the mountain does exist it is not known what lies inside as no one has actually ever entered but..."

"You ser-" Tommy starts to say in shock but is cut off.

"Let me finish" Lucario said calmly.

Tommy nods.

"There are rumours of a special stone located within Dawn Mountain, it is said that this stone holds within it great power that will make anyone who wields it incredibly strong."

All 3 of them stare at Lucario in shock, not quite sure how to respond but to them it sounded like the kind of mystery they had waited so long for.

"Wow" Tommy replied.

"Yeah..." the girls added.

Lucario smiles at them "Any questions?"

"This sounds incredibly intriguing but what does it have to do with us?" Megan asked.

"I want you three to go to Dawn Mountain and locate this special stone and bring it back with you to the guild." Lucario beamed.

The three of them gasped in unison, their eyes welling up from happiness.

"R-really, sir?" Tommy replied trying to contain himself.

Lucario kept smiling "Yes, really!"

"This is exactly the kind of adventure we've been looking for!" Megan exclaimed.

"Yeah!" Sammy agreed.

Lucario handed the three explorers a map showing them where to go, as it wasn't marked on their current one.

"Here, this will help you get there, it's not marked on your map so you'll need it"

"Thanks!" The three replied with gratitude.

Lucario smiled "Good Luck out there, make the guild proud!"

"We will, you can count on us sir!" Tommy grinned.

and so.. the three set out for Dawn Mountain.

...

The three explorers slowly made their way through the forest, carefully following the map, thankfully the forest wasn't very aggressive towards them with other Pokemon just minding their own business as the team walked through.

"If the map is any indication the mountain should be up ah-" Tommy started but was cut off by Megan.

"Look, I can see the exit, the mountain must be beyond there!" She said.

She was right, Tommy and Sammy could see a clearing up ahead and if the map was correct that WOULD be where the mountain should be.

The trio walked through the exit into a clearing and there it was, Dawn Mountain.

"We finally made it" Sammy cheered punching the air.

Tommy sighed "Yeah.. now we just have to worry about actually making our way through it..."

"No worries, we can do this. We're a team after all!" Megan smiled.

Tommy looked at the both of them.

"Aren't you worried though? Lucario said no-one has ever been here.. there has to be a reason for that!" He replied with an uncertain look on his face."

Megan wasn't worried at all unlike her best friend, neither was Sammy.

"What happened to that confidence I know Tommy for , eh?" Sammy said with a wink at him.

Tommy groaned "It's just.. I don't know... for some reason I'm getting bad vibes from this place..."

Megan started to become worried for her friend but it didn't dissuade her.

"Well whatever happens we're all together in this, no matter what! Exploration Teams don't run in the face of danger, ever!" Megan confidently told him with a big grin on her face.

Tommy smiled a little "I- I guess you're right, you're always right Meg, I admire you for it."

She blushed deep red from that comment, completely embarrassed, something both Tommy and Sammy noticed causing them to laugh.

"Let's Go!" Tommy said to both of them to which they nodded in agreement and made their way towards the mountain entrance.

...

"THUNDERBOLT" Tommy shouted at the top of his lungs.

He shot a powerful thunderbolt attack at a Zubat causing it to crash to the floor, it had fainted.

They had fought quite a few Zubats as they made their way through the mountain's caves, the Zubats didn't seem to want to leave the trio alone though they found it quite amusing.

"This is less of a Mystery Dungeon and more of a Zubat Dungeon." Sammy laughed walking side by side with her friends, the two keeping a look out for more enemies.

Tommy sweatdropped "Ain't that the truth."

Megan sighed "How long have we been going at this point?"

Tommy looked at his wrist but realised he wasn't a human anymore so didn't have a watch.

"Well I don't know because I have no way to keep track of time but probably about half an hour at least" he told her.

"Oh Man.. how big is this mountain?" Megan asked rhetorically.

Tommy noticed a Pokemon up ahead, it looked like a.. Snorlax? and it looked like it was guarding something!

"That's a Snorlax.. but what's one doing here, this doesn't seem like a place Snorlax would hang out." Sammy muttered, with confusion written all over her face.

Tommy ran towards the Pokemon, his friends close behind.

They came to a half and suddenly noticed Snorlax was FAST ASLEEP!

"It's.. sleeping.. oh no..." Tommy sighed in frustration.

Sammy was confused "Is that bad?"

Tommy nodded.

"But.. Why?" Sammy was very confused.

He turned around to look at Megan and Sammy, he was breathing heavily, clearly stressed and not sure what to do.

"I think..." Tommy began.

"What?" Megan and Sammy replied.

"...this is where the stone is located" Tommy finished.

Megan and Sammy both gasped in shock, if that was true then they were in big trouble.

"Are you sure?" Megan asked.

"Positive!" Tommy said in response.

"How can you be so sure?" Sammy added.

"Why would a Pokemon randomly be sleeping against a wall UNLESS it's guarding a sealed section of the mountain? That has to be where the stone is!" Tommy exclaimed

Sammy and Megan both looked at each other in amazement

"Wow, you have a very good point" The Fennekin said with a smile.

Sammy nodded "Yeah I agree except.. how are we going to get past it?"

"That's the problem" Tommy said with a loud sigh.

Megan had an idea in her head of how they could wake the Snorlax up but it'd be very dangerous and it wasn't even guaranteed to work.

Megan looked at Tommy completely determined.

"We could.. attack it, to wake it up."

Both the Pikachu and the Chespin gasped in shock at the very idea

"WHAT?!" they shouted in unison.

Megan was taken aback by their reaction "It was just an idea.. I mean what other options do we have?"

"I-" Tommy started but was stopped by his Chespin friend.

Sammy didn't look happy at all.

"She has a point."

Tommy didn't like this idea, not one bit.

"Yeah.. I know" Tommy whispered.

"Wait!" A Voice sounded.

The trio looked around to see where the voice had come from so suddenly.

"I'm over here.. you were just talking about me" The voice said again, it was a pretty deep voice.

The three looked back at the Snorlax and noticed it had stood up and was completely awake.

"Snorlax!" The Three said in shock, not expecting it to wake up all of a sudden.

"Ohoho Yes, that's me." Snorlax replied cheerfully.

The three were surprised by how cheerful the Snorlax was, especially being in a Mystery Dungeon and all.

"But you were asleep" Tommy said crossing his arms.

"HA! Nah, I wasn't, I was only pretending, in fact I was listening to your conversation the entire time" Snorlax said with a smirk.

Tommy sweatdropped "I guess we really walked into that one.. well we walked into your trap it seems, what are you going to do to us?"

Snorlax was confused "Trap? I'm not sure what you're talking about.. in fact I've been waiting for you"

"Waiting for us?!" Sammy replied in surprise.

Snorlax shook it's head "Not you and the Fennekin.. Tommy, that's who I've been waiting for"

"Why Tommy?" Megan asked.

"The prophecy foretold his coming" Snorlax replied calmly.

Tommy was confused "Prophecy?"

The Snorlax was about to open his mouth before realising that he shouldn't really tell them anything, as they aren't ready to know.. the truth.

Snorlax replied "Ha. No you aren't ready to know.. yet."

"Know what?" Tommy was even more confused now.

The Snorlax only grinned at the Pikachu.

"You were a human, before, right?" Snorlax asked, with a sort of- twinkle, in his eye.

"Yes.. I was, but how could you possibly know that?" Tommy wondered, raising his eyebrow a bit.

The Snorlax sighed and said "Have you ever wondered why you were turned into a Pokemon?"

All 3 of the young Pokemon gasped in shock, was Snorlax really going to tell them the truth, right here, right now?

"Do you know something?! Please tell me!" Tommy asked, desperately.

Snorlax laughed for a few seconds before compositing himself and responding to Tommy's question.

"Yes-"

Tommy's eyes lit up!

"-but I cannot tell you."

Tommy's eyes that were previously filled with hope lost that hope and he sighed from disappointment.

"but why?!" Megan asked, in shock.

"Because this is part of a fixed timeline, I am not allowed to tell you now as you will find out later, me telling you would disrupt the flow of time itself and possibly rip open this world. I'm sorry." Snorlax replied, genuinely looking sorry.

"I understand." Tommy said with a smile, immediately cheering up.

"Yeah, I'd rather the world not end now thank you very much" Sammy replied, causing Megan to giggle.

"Same" Megan piped in.

"But I will tell you this. Obtaining the stone located in the area behind me is vital in your quest to learn the truth, usually I would fight off anyone who tried to even get near it but.. it is yours." Snorlax said calmly.

"Wait, what?" Tommy cocked his head.

"Yes. It was placed here for you" Snorlax stepped aside to allow them entry "Go on in, and see what awaits. I'm sure it'll be very useful."

All 3 of them were very confused but it was best not to dawdle and just go in to see what exactly this mysterious stone waiting for them was.

Snorlax wasn't guarding the room itself but instead a corridor leading to the room so the three decided to press on forward, with Snorlax following close behind

Megan whispered into Tommy's ear "I wonder what it could be?"

"I have no idea but it sounds incredibly precious, why would someone have placed it here for me. It doesn't make sense..." Tommy said quietly.

Sammy on the other hand was not quiet AT ALL.

"Hey guys, why do you have to Whisper?! I'm pretty sure that Snorlax doesn't care what you are saying."

Megan turned to look at her best friend and said "Well as an explorer you have to be cautious as anyone could backstab you at any moment, remember Bubbles, Sammy? Well I learned from that."

"Right." Sammy replied with a nod.

Tommy could see a gigantic door ahead of them, it definitely looked important, this must be the room that housed the mysterious stone they were here to collect.

"Here we are, guys. Moment of truth then. Well one of them, since it probably won't be the only moment of truth but I digress" Tommy said with a chuckle.

The three reached the door and proceeded to push it open with all of their might. And opening it revealed a huge room, covered in diamonds, it looked incredibly impressive, like something you'd see only in dreams and in the middle of the room stood a pedestal and on that pedestal was an object... from afar Tommy, Megan and Sammy couldn't tell what it was so they moved forward, the object coming closer into view until they reached the pedestal, on it was a stone bracelet of some kind, they weren't sure what it was and certainly didn't see how it had "impressive power" as Lucario had told them.

Tommy turned around to look at Snorlax who was stood behind them, grinning at the trio finding what they were looking for.

"What is this?" Tommy asked.

"That... is a Z-Ring" Snorlax answered.

Megan turned to look at Snorlax "a what?!"

"A Z-Ring" Snorlax answered, again.

"Yeah we heard you the first time but what does it-" Tommy began but heard something pecular from behind him.

"Woweeeeeee" Sammy ogled at the ring, totally not subtly making her two friends turn back to look at her.

"What's gotten into you?" Megan asked, but Sammy completely ignored her. "Hello?"

"I uh.. think she's kinda in love with it. Personally I don't see the appeal." This caused Sammy to stop making her ogling noises and turned around to look at Tommy.

"You don't SEE THE APPEAL? EXCUSE ME?!" Sammy snapped as if Tommy had personally insulted her.

"Well yeah... it's just a stone bracelet, doesn't look anything special to me." Tommy said rolling his eyes.

Sammy grabbed him and shook him violently.

"This is a Z-Ring! How have you never heard of it?! it is said to be able to grant it's user a super powerful move once per battle, like a final finishing blow! I've never seen one up close but I have heard so much about it, you are so lucky! I've always wanted one of these..." Sammy told him her eyes shining from excitement still shaking Tommy making the poor Pikachu feel extremely dizzy.

"S-Sammy p-p-please stop s-shaking me..." Tommy said, slurring his words from how dizzy he was.

"Oh? Oh, yeah.. sorry." Sammy gasped and stopped, letting him go.

Tommy fell to the ground, completely dazed from how much he had been shaken.

"Not gonna lie, I'm surprised by how excitable you got about this. You're the last person I thought would be interested in an artefact like this. In fact I kinda feel embarrassed I hadn't heard about this.. or maybe I did but I just forgot, huh." Megan said, smiling brightly at her Chespin pal.

"Yeah, to be fair a lot has happened so sometimes things just slip by" Sammy said with a smile back.

"Uh... is he going to be okay?" Snorlax asked, with a hint of concern in his voice.

"Oh? Tommy? Yeah he'll be okay" Megan replied "He always is."

Sammy added "Yeah, always."

"A-always..." Tommy slurred from the ground.

Sammy grabbed Tommy's left paw and pulled him off of the ground and put his arm around her neck for support.

"Anyway we should get going." She said "Our mission is complete!"

"Of course, thank you. It's good that we didn't have to battle it out, I would've hated to have beat you down mercilessly." Snorlax said with a booming laugh.

The two girls chuckled, while Tommy was still completely out of it.

"Yeah and we need to get this lug back home, get him some rest, I think Sammy went too hard on him." Megan said, smiling.

"Hey, you don't need to blame me!" Sammy protested.

Megan rolled her eyes.

"K then."

Sammy smiled "I'm surprised this mountain wasn't more dangerous, considering the legends around it, plus Tommy did mention he felt a bad vibe coming from this place."

Snorlax explained "Yeah. a lot of it is over exaggerated. it's just a regular mountain, the reason a lot of Pokemon don't come here is BECAUSE of those legends, but there still needs to be a guardian anyway to protect the legendary Z-Ring as it is such a historic and precious artefact just in case and of course you three came and because you were expected I didn't even need to do anything, and since you guys now have the object my job here is done, I can finally do what I want to do, rather than always guarding that Z-Ring which admittedly is as boring as it sounds."

The girls smiled, Sammy taking the Z-Ring off the pedestal to take it back home and took their leave with Tommy in tow, waving, bidding farewell to the kindly Snorlax as they left, a potentially dangerous adventure but turned out to be pretty pleasant which made a nice change for once was over.

...

After a few hours of walking the team had finally returned home to Destiny Town. And it is pretty safe to say they were exhausted, ESPECIALLY Tommy who was still out of it, it took them longer than normal because the girls had to carry their Pikachu friend all the way back which is definitely not ideal.

The girls entered the mansion, as they had decided not to return to the guild for tonight since it was so late. Tommy was still leaning on Sammy, still dazed, still out of it.

"I'm going to make tea." Megan said with a smile walking into the kitchen.

Sammy carried Tommy to the sofa in the living room and placed him onto it letting him go, he immediately fell asleep, Sammy looking at him with adoration in her eyes. "Sorry about shaking you so much.. sleep well... cutie." She placed the Z-Ring on the armrest next to him.

She giggled as she skipped to the armchair in the corner and continued to look at him, she loved him but he couldn't seem to see that. Heck he couldn't even see Megan's feelings for him either, or at least that's what she thought. Sammy loved Megan but did wish that they wouldn't have fallen for the same boy as because of it while Megan was her best friend she was now basically also her rival, and Sammy really didn't like that but it couldn't be helped.

Megan came into the room carrying two cups of tea, one for her and one for Sammy but none for Tommy as there was no way he was going to be able to drink anything in his current state.

"Here you go!" Megan smiled, handing Sammy a cup.

"Thank you, Meg." Sammy beamed at her best friend, taking a sip "Mm, delicious. You always make the best tea."

"Oh you flatter me!" Megan replied with a blush and a giggle.

Sammy sighed "We'll have to return to the Guild tomorrow morning, I hope Lucario doesn't mind us staying here at the mansion for just tonight."

"I'm sure he won't have too much of a problem with it." Megan replied with a smile on her face.

Megan glanced at Tommy who was still asleep at the sofa, her heart aflutter seeing him like that, she couldn't believe how adorable he is. Sammy noticed this and groaned a bit.

"What's wrong with you?" Megan turned back to look at her friend.

Sammy put on a fake smile "Oh nothing."

Megan fell for it.

"Oh okay."

Sammy looked at the clock at the wall, noticing that it was already starting to get really late.

She gasped "We should go to bed, we need to get up fairly early in the morning for the briefing at the Guild."

Megan immediately jumped up "You're right! But what about Tommy?"

"Oh just leave him to sleep on the sofa, he'll be fine." Sammy said in response to the Fennekin.

The two Pokemon beamed at each other.

And with that the two girls headed upstairs to their bedrooms, another day and mission behind them but what awaits our heroes next? Find out, as the journey continues!

To Be Continued...

Next Chapter - Can You Z Me?
Tommy and his friends return to the Lucario Guild where Lucario challenges Tommy to a battle to test his Z-Power with his newly obtained Z-Ring.

Author's Note: and that's that, FINALLY a new chapter for this story, I apologise for the long wait, real life stuff has been coming up which has prevented me but I am back and hopefully I'll be able to do these more often, a total of 31 Chapters are planned so we're not far away from the conclusion of this story (which is Part 1 of the Trilogy), in fact as a treat I'll exclusively reveal the titles and synopsis for Chapters 26 to 30, but no 31 as that title and synopsis slightly spoils Chapter 30 so I'll reveal that at the end of that chapter.

Upcoming Chapter titles and synopsis:

Chapter 26 - The Popplio and the Circus!

Sammy is interested in the Circus that is coming to Town so she decides to take Tommy and Megan with her, there they meet a Popplio who is planning to put on a show, problem is this is her first time doing so, will Team Ace be able to help her put on the greatest show she can?

Chapter 27 - A New Team in Town, Litten and Rowlet!

Team Ace butt heads with Team Sharp, a famous exploration team that has come to visit Destiny Town.

Chapter 28 - Sylveon Stylist

Tommy and Friends win a free haircut from Sylveon, the town's stylist but Team Hydro comes to ruin everything!

Chapter 29 - Mission Not Possible! (Part 1)

Xatu has gone missing and in order to find him Team Ace are sent on a deadly mission to a mountain where Exploration Teams enter but never leave...

Chapter 30 - Death Mountain! The Truth Revealed?! (Part 2)

Inside Death Mountain Team Ace are faced with a dangerous situation and Tommy learns the truth of why he is in this world...

Which chapter are you most looking forward to? Let me know, and of course let me know what you thought of the chapter, thank you for reading!