"- that's all I can glean from that guy."
It's with mixed feelings that Looker continued listening to Velda's report. For them to actually succeed in locating the fabled Relic Castle was truly a surprise, but what really caught his attention was Velda's description of their mysterious saviour.
A powerful lucario, physical abilities that far surpassed the human limits, his getup that Velda had described, and how the man introduced himself as an Aura Guardian when asked. There's only one man that Looker knew of that fit each and every criteria, and he still cannot decide if this is good news or not.
"I may be overthinking here, but do you think that guy is a Plasma?"
"No, he's not," Looker's answer was immediate and certain. He knew that the certainty in his reply had caught Velda, Skye, and Nova in surprise at how they were staring at him from the other end of the screen and were silently asking him to explain.
He sighed.
"I know that man. There's no way he will affiliate himself with a group like Team Plasma. He's been on the PWL watchlist for a very long time."
"A criminal?" Skye asked, and Looker simply shook his head.
"Not exactly… but it will really depend on how you look at things. What the PWL does know is that this man is part of a secretive and powerful underground group that very few in this world would know. I cannot share anything further about this man because any more information is classified and none of you have the clearance for it."
"Then the group you were talking about?"
"That…" Looker closed his eyes and massaged the temples with his knuckle, already feeling the onset of a migraine incoming. Of all times, why must that troublesome man make an appearance now? And if he's here, then his usual companion wouldn't be too far away.
How troublesome.
Looker quickly weighed his options and eventually came to a decision. The three of them are his agents, also a part of the PWL like he is. One day, they will learn about such secrets, it's simply a matter of time. In that case, learning in advance about the existence of certain secrets shouldn't be too big of a deal.
"Velda, remember what I told you about during our voyage here? That in this world, there exist many strange things and people, people with unexplainable abilities and skills but at the same time so low profile that hardly anybody knows about them?"
"That man is one of them?"
"Yes, that man is classified by the PWL as a level 10 target to keep an eye on. If he is sighted, then any of his sightings are to be reported to the PWL immediately. That man is an Aura Guardian, which I'm sure the three of you would have already known at least a little about regarding that ancient order."
"That's a very old group from Sinnoh, ain't it?"
"You are right, Aura Guardians have their roots in Sinnoh," Looker confirmed. "But that man is not just an Aura Guardian, he's a man who had comprehended the workings of Aura to an unfathomable level such that he could fight pokemon with his bare fists and still win."
"That's… possible?" Skye's disbelief was clear for all to hear. "I mean, I heard rumours that Elite Four Bruno could wrestle with pokemon with his bare hands, but…"
"In front of that man, Bruno might as well be an amateur," Looker scoffed at the notion of comparing Bruno to that man, because in his mind there really wasn't any contest about who's the better practitioner of aura.
"Alright, objectively speaking, on what level would the three of you rank me as a pokemon trainer?"
"You defeated Executive Archer with ease so you are at least Elite Four level, or maybe even Champion level."
"That's right. And that man we are talking about, even I have no idea if I could beat him if we were to truly fight it out for real. That's how powerful he is."
A brief moment of silence fell.
"For real?"
"He's a Champion level threat whose existence is purposefully being very carefully kept under wraps by the PWL. As to why that is the case, it's because he has no loyalties to any League or any region and as such, is seen by the PWL as an unstable factor to look out for," Looker started to explain. "To the PWL, any such trainers with this degree of strength is an unknown threat that could very easily upset the balance of the world. Just imagine it, if a man like that were to suddenly go crazy and do something like what Giovanni tried to do, just how many people in this world will be able to stop him? What kind of price would we have to pay? A Champion level threat, how are you going to stop that short of mobilising another Champion? We only have five Champions at any one time in this world, losing any one of them would be a huge blow in maintaining this delicate balance."
"So the PWL made his identity a secret in order to not incite unnecessary mayhem?"
"That's one reason. What made things so troublesome was the fact that he's a member of an equally powerful underground faction. I cannot tell you anything more about the man, but I can tell you a little about this group if you guys are interested."
"Please, do carry on," Skye said and Looker had no idea if she was being serious or trying to be cheeky with him from the tone of her voice.
"There's a lot of things in this world that we cannot categorise them to either black or white, but for simplicity sake and for the sake of this conversation, let's just assume that everything can be categorised into black or white. "Black" represents the underworld, the side of the world unseen by the public. "White" represents the good of the world, the things that the world knows of and can see," Looker started off before going further with his story. "The PWL is the representation of the "White" side of the world, the official organisation that upholds the international diplomatic relations regarding humans and pokemon and also the entity maintaining the balance that protects our world's peace. The PWL is the first "White" organisation with an international presence. We can all agree on this, am I right?"
Upon seeing the three heads on the opposite side of the screen nodding in understanding, Looker continued.
"Going by that logic, what is the first "Black" organisation that came to your mind which also has an international presence?"
"I would say Team Rocket, because they were the only underground group with influence spanning over more than one region," Nova replied.
"You are correct, but only officially. Officially, Team Rocket was the first terrorist group with an international presence," Looker agreed. "Unofficially, there's another underground group who already had an international presence long before Team Rocket did, but the only reason why the PWL did not take a stance nor any action to deal with them was because even if they are an underground group, they are not a terrorist organisation by strict definitions. They are more like a conglomeration of highly powerful or talented individuals, many of them having their own individual allegiances and motives. These people came from all over the world and their respective skills were the reason why they were invited into the group. That man is one such individual."
"Conglomeration?"
"If PWL represents the world's "White" and Team Rocket is a representation of "Black", then this group can be classified as "Grey", the in-between of good and evil. Despite being an underground organisation they are not necessarily evil because they have done nothing to actively jeopardise the world's peace. Most of the time, they act as mercenaries for hire. However, they are not necessarily good as well, because it's a fact that this group is a favourite spot for many criminals to gather. However, I also cannot deny that historically, in specific periods of time when the world was in very dire circumstances, even the PWL had enlisted their help at certain points to tide over the crisis. The most recent and famous case was the Mt Coronet incident from about two decades ago. Have you guys heard of it?"
"I think it was an earthquake causing a very massive rockslide, killing many people and trapping many others in the process, right?"
"Yes, that's right. That was a serious problem back then because of Mt Coronet's unique terrain and the powerful disruptive magnetic field surrounding the place. Thanks to that, normal rescue techniques and methods just couldn't work, and the place was constantly under threat of recurring landslides or rockslides. To add on, the wild pokemon there were very high strung and stirred into a frenzy due to the fear they felt from that earthquake and it made rescue attempts a highly difficult and dangerous affair. Even Bertha was at her wits' end and she's the best Ground Specialist Sinnoh boasts. If she cannot resolve the situation, then nobody else could."
"But the situation was resolved eventually."
"It's because the Sinnoh League chose to enlist the help of that group I was talking about. In the interest of the number of lives trapped within the mountain and desperately waiting to be saved, they contacted that group for assistance, paying a very massive fee in the process. That group sent out only one man for the job and the situation was resolved in just a few days after he joined in the rescue efforts."
"It's that Aura Guardian."
"Yes, it was him," Looker confirmed Velda's guess. "Aura practitioners are able to sense life around them to a certain degree but none of them managed to learn how to harness it like how that man did. That man could passively sense all life around him with a radius spanning kilometres and that distance can be further stretched when he bothers to make an effort, that's just how good he is. With him around, the Sinnoh League was able to swiftly locate and extract each and every survivor trapped within Mt Coronet back then and the case was closed. Naturally, the man's involvement was kept a secret. It was both his wish and also the Sinnoh League's."
"Sounds like he would make a great Ranger."
"From what I knew he's one of the more sociable and honourable members of that organisation, but not all of them are like him. Some of them are incorrigible criminals and had been persecuted by the PWL at one point or another. That group I am talking about, you can say that they are a mercenary group on a scale and level that to date, even the PWL had not fully understood just how far their influence had reached. As long as you pay the right price, there is nothing that you cannot get from them, be it objects or information. If it comes to the point where the PWL have to wage a war with them, taking down the members belonging to the outer circle of that group is easy enough, but the higher echelons, the inner members who made the core of their group, none of them are easy pickings. The higher echelons of this group don't deal with ordinary events or requests so likewise, to enlist their service you would have to pay a very hefty price that not many in this world can afford to pay."
"How long had that group been around? Actually, are we allowed to know the name of that group?"
Looker took a pause. Technically, there's no concrete rules or laws prohibiting him from informing his three agents about the name of that group but… oh well, whatever.
"Tarot, that's the name of that mercenary group."
"Tarot? As in, Tarot cards? That Tarot?"
"Yes, that Tarot," Looker affirmed. "As for how long they had been around, the PWL traced its roots back to around 400 years ago, that's how ancient that organisation is." Lies, Tarot was founded about a decade after the PWL was formed. "We are not clear as to which region they originated from, but we suspect it to be Unova as it was about the same time the civil war happened that led to the formation of the Five Weapons." Lies, that timing was merely a coincidence when Tarot truly started to make their presence known on the international stage of the underworld. Tarot was founded in Kalos where its leader first decided to build a powerful faction for personal reasons. "We do not know who the leader of the organisation is." Another lie, he knows very well who the enigmatic leader of Tarot is but that is not a secret that he can spill.
"So we really know nothing about them, huh."
"We do know that their core members have a maximum limit of twenty two members, each of them holding onto a title that corresponds to a Tarot card from the Major Arcana. Within Tarot, these inner members are referred to as the "Cards" of their organisation." This is a truth. "We know that the leader holds the title of The Fool, and that their inner members can be replaced if someone more capable shows up to take over their position," A half-truth, he knows for a fact that about a third of these positions had not changed hands ever since the organisation's founding. The inner circle of Tarot is truly an organisation made up of inconceivable heroes and monsters alike, consisting of people and things truly unimaginable by the human mind.
"You know, now that I think about it, if Tarot is as powerful as you make them out to be, why couldn't the PWL just…"
"Enlist them for the job of averting the prophecy?"
"Exactly that."
"Their prices are too damn high. The rescue operation at Mt Coronet forced the Sinnoh League to fork out a few billion to Tarot just for the down payment alone, so can you imagine just what kind of price they will demand if we ask them to save the world? I wouldn't be surprised if they demanded the entire world as payment for saving it."
Lies, the leader of Tarot will never ask for a price to save the world, but he's not supposed to know that.
"Oh I get it now, we are cheap replacements cos these Tarot guys are too damn expensive."
"I guess you can view things that way."
"Damn, that hurts."
"That Aura Guardian had to be one of those "Cards", right? An inner member?"
"He is one of the few Cards of Tarot that we can confirm the identity of. Most of their identities are still shrouded in mystery. If I recall correctly, the card that corresponds to that Aura Guardian is "Justice", the eleventh card."
And his known companion that is usually seen with him is Strength, the eighth card. Those two boast some of the strongest firepower in Tarot and there's nobody that Looker knew of that could take these two on in a battle and win when they are together.
Seriously, what a troublesome pair.
"If a mere inner member is already so powerful, a Champion level trainer, then the leader of Tarot…" Nova trailed off uneasily.
"Shit, you have a point," Skye agreed with a wince.
"The leader of Tarot can only be much more powerful than Justice," Looker agreed because it is the truth. The leader of Tarot is somebody that could possibly bring down even legends themselves, which was the true reason why the PWL was still reluctant to make an enemy out of Tarot despite the questionable nature of the organisation. There's currently no Champion in existence who is capable of that exact same feat.
Not to mention that the PWL was aware that the leader of Tarot possesses a mythical pokemon although they have no idea just which one it is. Not only that, it was rumoured that a select few other members of Tarot possess mythical pokemon too. Looker knows a little more as compared to the PWL, being aware of just which mythical pokemon are in Tarot's possession the last time he checked and also which members possess such pokemon in their team. However, for everyone's sake, that's also not information that he can reveal.
Looker continued to converse with his agents for a little longer before hanging up the call, reminding them to stay safe and not do anything stupid until Unova forces came to assist in the exploration of the fabled Relic Castle now that the actual ruins had been located. Still, statues coming to life… How bizarre, it almost made him want to see it for himself.
Looker shook his head. No, he shouldn't be thinking about that now. He should be doing something to find out why Justice and Strength are here in Unova. These two are not known to frequent this part of the world. Are they here by coincidence or had they been sent here by Fool? Only Fool has the authority to mobilise and hand out tasks to Tarot's Cards without needing to offer any form of remuneration, even if Fool very rarely does that.
If it's the latter, then things might go out of hand if even Fool deemed the situation dire enough to send Justice and Strength here. That's a worrying thing in itself.
Only one way to find out.
Looker took out his phone and started to dial a number from memory. He's unsure if this number is still in use at all, but it's one of the two options he has in reaching out to him.
The call was eventually picked up.
"Who's this?"
Looker closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose when he heard the unmistakable voice of Justice. It seems that he didn't change his number, again.
"It's me," Looker answered. "I heard you met my agents."
"Wait, this voice…" There was a brief pause on the other end of the line before the man howled in laughter. "Oh, it's you! The crybaby!"
Looker facepalmed. He just knew that this would happen.
"The crybaby giving me a call, now that's a surprise! So, still messing around in the PWL? It's about damn time you leave that messy place-"
"You know that's not happening."
"Huh, the crybaby had grown into an even more stubborn crybaby."
"Can you just stop it?" Looker felt his irritation rising and quickly forced his emotions shut before it could affect his mental faculty to think logically. "Why are the both of you here?"
"Whatever are you talking about?"
"Don't play coy with me. Unova is not a place that the both of you like to visit."
"Ah well, if you really want an answer…" The Aura Guardian on the other end of the line purposefully dragged his words but still gave an answer nonetheless when he realised he couldn't tease a reaction out of Looker. "Who else in this world has the authority to order me around?"
"Fool really sent you here?"
"Star made a divination recently and Fool decided that it's better safe than sorry. Seriously, I don't trust that old quack one bit but… even I will admit that his divinations are the real deal. Star wasn't able to divine much, the future's still murky was his exact words, but Unova might be in very big trouble soon, so Fool sent Strength and I here. Don't ask me for more details because seriously, I'm flying in blind like you are. Fool wasn't being very forthcoming and I don't have the answers."
"I guess a thank you in advance is in order. I might have to trouble you when trouble inevitably strikes."
"Eh, no biggie, your little interpol group is still in the infancy stage, can't expect too much from them," the Aura Guardian dismissed Looker's thanks with a carefree tone. "But just between you and I, I think Lovers took on a commission behind our backs that might or might not put Unova in danger. I'm not too sure about that too, you know just how much they love to get their hands on the so-called "good stuff". Anyway, watch your back."
Looker frowned. Lovers, the sixth Card of Tarot, is a notorious thief that always succeeded in stealing what he set his eyes upon. He is so good in his heists that he had made himself a level 10 threat in the eyes of the PWL because there's nothing that he cannot steal given the right motivation and price. It doesn't make any sense why Fool would turn a blind eye to such thievery if Fool decided to send two of Tarot's strongest trainers to secretly help protect Unova from the shadows. Why allow Lovers to steal when it goes against Fool's intended purpose all along?
"I will keep an eye out for him," Looker replied, hesitating for a short moment before asking another question.
"Is Fool…"
"Boss is alright," the Aura Guardian on the other end of the line answered. "Even told me to get your stubborn ass to stop overworking yourself if I ever see you. Boss didn't say anything much before I left for Unova, but it's obvious that Boss still cares about you a great deal."
"Whatever makes Fool happy."
"Boss is still searching for a cure for you, you know?"
"I don't need it."
"It's not a matter of whether you think you need it or not, it's… nevermind, suit yourself. If only there is a cure for me too…"
Looker let out a soft sigh after hearing Justice's words. Back then, who would have thought that things would turn out the way it did?
"Crybaby, you still there?"
"Stop calling me that."
"Oh there you are. Alright, I really gotta go, don't die in the meantime."
The call ended with an audible click before Looker could get another word out, leaving him to his thoughts. A cure… he's beyond saving at this point, there's no need to be fixated on searching for a cure. If anything, he should be the one searching for a cure for Fool.
You are really such a stubborn idiot.
The edges of his lips involuntarily curled into a small smile at the fond memories when he was chastised by Fool for being stubborn and reckless back when he was younger. Those were good times.
Looker stood up from his seat and walked out of his room. There's still things to be done.
There's still a world to be saved.
86
"For the last time, Dolly, we cannot doodle on these walls. They have historical value."
Dolly whined childishly as we continued to make our way deeper into the ruin. As it turns out, what we perceived to be the "entrance" of the castle was merely an opening on its rooftop, not the real entrance. The main body of the castle was still being buried deep underground and from the looks of it, it's a lot bigger than we imagined it to be. What we found that day was merely the very tip of the castle and the bulk of the real thing was still being buried deep underground, waiting to be uncovered.
It's been days since we discovered the Relic Castle. After the incident with the wild darmanitans Nova had called in an expedition team from the Unova League to take over the case. By Unova's laws, the discovery of any ancient ruin belongs to the Unova League due to its historical value, although the people who discovered it will still be handsomely rewarded for their findings. None of us are in any dire need of money but hey, nobody would say no to more money.
The discovery of the Relic Castle is of an immeasurable historical value. Thus, the Unova League was quick to dispatch an expedition team and a few teams of Rangers within hours after Nova informed them of our findings. Now that we have a lot more manpower, we were able to set up a proper camp right next to the Relic Castle and continue with the excavation efforts. The excavation efforts are still going to take a long while, especially if the goal is to fully excavate those ruins. It's going to take months of effort at the very least and there's no way the three of us are going to stay here for that long. Right now, we are just making use of this opportunity to explore the ruins when we can because this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to do something like that. There's no such opportunity for me to do something like this back in Hoenn.
The ruins had been buried for thousands of years. The air within is musty and at certain parts of the ruins that we had encountered, the air within was actually toxic to a certain extent. Extreme caution has to be exercised whenever we venture into those ruins because as we soon realised, not only were there hidden traps in certain parts of the castle for the purpose of deterring invaders and were somehow still functioning, wild pokemon actually dwelled within this abandoned castle and a majority of them are quite a pain to handle. To make things worse, the entire place is saturated with ghost and dark type energies due to it being the home to an unexpectedly large number of ghost and dark type pokemon. As such, teleportation within the place is close to impossible unless we are able to somehow get our hands on a psychic pokemon closer to the power level of one that is trained by a Pillar. Teleport is thus no longer a viable escape option should things go south in our exploration.
The potential geographical hazard, the fragile state of the castle after being eroded for 2,500 years, the unknown traps hidden within, the hostile wild pokemon making their homes here, the lack of an escape option in the form of Teleport; all of these factors made exploring and excavating the Relic Castle a dangerous and tortuously slow process. Till now, we only managed to map out the topmost two floors of the castle because those two floors are the safest floors to venture in. Anything below that is still a mystery.
The wild pokemon that we encountered within the castle are an interesting mix too. Krookodile, onix, claydols, cofagrigus, sandslash, and of course their respective evolutionary lines. Among those, what gave us the biggest headaches are the onixs, because even if we ignore their massive sizes their species have the tendency to tunnel around which might destabilise the entire structure of the castle. They are going to be bad news if we encounter them within the ruins because trying to fight a massive onix in such enclosed and dark spaces is very difficult even for Elite trainers. I guess we should be glad that we haven't encountered any steelixs yet. That would really be a disaster.
"Let's go back."
I decided to turn and take my leave when I reached another dead end. Even after more than two thousand years the elaborate and detailed patterns of the walls of the ruins could still be clearly seen, proving just how well preserved this entire place is despite being buried under mountains of sands for so long. The colour had faded and not everything was intact, but there's still enough left to tell a vague story about the history of this place.
According to Nova, the civilisation here was said to be worshippers of the sun. Considering that we are currently in the middle of a desert, maybe that shouldn't come as a surprise.
"Watch your step," I reminded Joy when I saw that she was too engrossed in trying to figure out what the murals on the walls meant and had totally missed the steps in front of her. That caused her to trip but she quickly regained her balance. I could still hear the occasional roars and snapping jaws of the wild krookodiles nearby, but after a few encounters with us they had quickly learnt that we are not to be messed with. Still, we have to be careful because this species of pokemon are well-known for their viciousness.
We retraced our steps back to a certain room, our footsteps echoing loudly within the silent ruin. The floor was slightly slippery thanks to the thin layer of sand covering the surface. Once there, I released Lily out of her pokeball, who easily held us with her tentacles before swinging us up towards a large hole on the ceiling of the room, the powerful suction abilities of her tentacles allowing her to scale the walls with ease.
Lily soon brought us back to the first floor. Just another ten minutes walk and I will be back outside where the encampment is. A quick check of my watch told me that I would be just in time for breakfast. Exploring an ancient ruin more than two millennia old was certainly an interesting way to conduct an early morning walk.
I wasn't expecting everything outside to be in a frenzy the moment I emerged from the ruins.
"Skye? What happened?"
"Vel? Oh thank goodness you are alright, we've been trying to contact you all morning. Did you encounter anything or anyone there?"
"No. Was I supposed to?" I asked, still a bit confused as to why everyone was in a visible panic. The Rangers stationed here were already on full alert, their attention trained towards the ruins itself.
"It's a long story."
As it turned out, quite a few things happened while I was having my fun exploring the first two floors of the Relic Castle.
Team Plasma have a vested interest in myths, legends, and history, that is a fact that everyone was aware of. Both the interpol and the Unova League understood that it was simply a matter of time before Team Plasma caught wind of the discovery of something as important and as physically huge as the Relic Castle, which was why they sent in some of their best Rangers and soldiers to guard its perimeter round the clock, and it was also why Nova deemed it necessary to inform the Unova League of the discovery of the Relic Castle the very next day after the darmanitan incident. Apparently, some of the Rangers on patrol spotted some Team Plasma members that had sneaked into the Relic Castle and made moves to immediately arrest them.
The Unova Rangers would have succeeded but in a very dramatic twist of fate, it seemed that Team Plasma were not the only ones who had knowledge of the discovery of the Relic Castle. Team Plasma bumped into a few civilian reporters within the Relic Castle during the chase, civilians who had clearly trespassed into areas that they were not authorised to enter. The Team Plasma members, having turned desperate, quickly took these reporters hostage and forced the Rangers from proceeding with the arrest. However, the Rangers already had all known escape routes cut off, so the Team Plasma members decided that it was worth the risk to take the hostages together with them into the deeper levels of the ruins where we still hadn't mapped or explored.
Not only that, those Team Plasma members had also somehow managed to rile up the wild pokemon population while they were at it, which made things so much more complicated now. I was the only other known personnel that was within the ruins at the time, so Skye and Nova were worried that I might have come to harm as well. I couldn't be contacted due to the poor telecommunication signal in this part of the region and telepathy communications couldn't work too thanks to the heavy dark and ghost type energies present within the Relic Castle.
To keep it short, we now have a very complicated and dangerous hostage situation on our hands, and potentially a rescue operation to take part in very soon. Even if there wasn't a hostage situation we don't know what kind of treasures lie within the Relic Castle, if there is even any at all, but on the off chance that such a treasure exists we definitely cannot allow it to fall into Team Plasma's hands. As agents of the interpol, we have a duty to ensure that such a scenario does not unfold.
"I have to give it to those reporters. How on earth did they manage to evade detection until then?"
"Beats me, but things would have already been resolved if they hadn't poked their noses into things that they shouldn't be poking into. Self-entitled civilians, I swear, are really the bane of all rescue operations," Skye grumbled as we waited for instructions to be passed down from above because this is clearly out of our hands. Nova had immediately gone to inform Looker of the latest happenings and the Ranger commander in charge had also escalated this issue upwards. Now, we were simply waiting for our next orders while preparing ourselves.
"Lots of water, escape rope, potions, let's see, what else…" Skye muttered as she helped to tally and pack the gear we needed for a rescue operation that requires us to venture into unknown territory. Got to leave it to the expert to spearhead the operation in their area of expertise.
"Just this water canteen is enough?" I cannot help but ask as I picked up the unassuming water canteen and shook it a little to get a feel of how much water was stored inside. It felt very light.
"Don't be fooled by its size. That canteen was made with Foldable Space Technology, it can hold an entire tank of water or even more, depending on which model you are looking at. I had to borrow these from the Unova Rangers for this operation, those things don't come cheap," Skye informed me and I took another look at the water canteen. Guess I shouldn't judge a book by its cover, or a water canteen by its cover in this case.
"Did you bring your combat gear?"
"Yeah, thankfully," I nodded, glad that I had the foresight to bring along the combat suit that Mary designed for me because it really is a useful tool to have when embarking on an expedition to unknown places. Once done, we fitted ourselves with the necessary gears and tools. We prepared one set for Nova too so that she could just come back and suit herself up once she was done with whatever she had to do.
"The Unova League is sending in reinforcements. From what I heard, Elesa will be coming down to oversee this rescue operation along with some of the best soldiers from the USF," Nova told us the moment she returned.
"USF? Unova Special Forces?"
"Yeah, that elite force," Nova nodded as both Skye and I shared a look. The USF is well-known across the world as one of Unova's best and strongest divisions in their military. They are the equivalent of the best teams within Hoenn's ACE and are not something to be trifled with. They are the next bastion of Unova's military might aside from their Pillars.
"I wasn't aware that the situation was bad enough to call in the USF."
"It's more than just that. I will skip the specifics, but from what I heard, they will be sending in the best unit of the USF to resolve this situation. They are a secret unit, literally the best of the best that they have. No idea who they may be, but I heard that they will only be sending in three people from that secret unit."
"Only three people?"
"We are also only three people," Nova pointed out with a shrug. "Besides, there's a limit as to how many people we can send into the Relic Castle thanks to the layout of the place. After much discussion, the higher-ups agreed that a small elite team would function better than sending in teams of Rangers to comb the place. After all, if exploring the first two floors of the castle was already so dangerous, we have no idea just what kind of things lurk within the deeper levels. A small team of skilled individuals would have a better chance of success."
"Oh great, more work to do."
"Blame the reporters and the Plasma grunts for making us work overtime."
Elesa was the first to arrive together with more reinforcements from the USF. There was concern that Team Plasma might send their own reinforcements too, so getting additional manpower to guard this area was necessary. Elesa did tell us that the "secret unit" that Nova told us about will arrive soon before she went to search for the Ranger commander in charge of.
We weren't kept waiting for long. Soon, I spotted a hydreigon flying over the area before making a landing near us, ferrying three people on its back. Each and every one of them was wearing a visored helmet and fitting combat suits, and even with just a glance I could tell that all of their equipment is made with state-of-the-art technology. This has to be the secret unit we were told about.
I didn't pay them much mind initially, but when Rena who was standing beside started to frantically paw at my leg to get my attention and told me something through telepathy, I had to take a second and closer look at the man who was currently talking to Elesa.
Rena said that this person has to be Jayce because that is what her psychic abilities are telling her. If so, what is he doing in the Unova military now? From a double agent to a military soldier… For some reason the thought of it amused me a little.
So, I simply walked up to the visored man who Rena pointed out had to be Jayce. He had noticed my presence by now and judging from the subtle change in his body language, he had definitely recognised me too. That meant that he really is Jayce.
"This is not how I expect for us to meet again. I really wouldn't have recognised you at all if it wasn't for Rena."
"Don't tell me that you are happy to see me, because I know you are not," was the reply I received. I simply grinned, because I could tell that he felt very annoyed for being recognised.
"You know each other?" Another operative who was behind Jayce asked, in which Jayce nodded.
"Unfortunately. BSA4, BSA5, you guys head over with Elesa first, I have something in private to say to her."
Those two operatives quickly left and followed after Elesa, leaving Jayce and I alone. Jayce cut to the chase once everyone else was out of earshot, and remembering the kind of history between him and Skye, I decided to give him a friendly reminder.
"We only have a minute, tops, whatever you want to say, shoot it."
"Another two of us are here, including the one you, um-"
"Nearly sent to the afterlife a second time by my own hands?"
Wow, what a great way to summarise their feud.
"To put it simply, yes. The other one has bright orange-red hair, female, Ground Specialist from Kalos, you can't miss her. Her name's Nova. The one I'm warning you about, her name's Skye, dark blue hair."
"She probably won't recognise me when I'm now looking like this, so-"
"Oh shoot, she's already here," I cannot help but say when I saw Skye walking towards us at that very moment. Great, what luck. Of all people that could gather here for this operation, fate just had to put those two together at the same place. Skye hates Jayce with a burning passion, that is something that I am aware of. It's totally understandable why she would feel that way but in such a time-sensitive situation where lives are at stake, it's better if we could arrive at a method where personal feelings would not get in the way of the operation.
In the event that Skye does recognise Jayce, let's just hope that her professionalism as a Ranger would override her personal feelings in this matter. The depths of the Relic Castle will undoubtedly be a dangerous place and I would want to avoid any kinds of internal conflict as much as possible.
If Jayce had any thoughts about this untimely coincidence, he didn't show it. He simply left me with a few words while I was mulling over this dilemma and walked off before Skye arrived.
"Just act normally and pretend that nothing happened. See you."
I really am hoping that Skye remains unaware of his identity at least until this whole operation is over.
The rescue team comprised only six people, namely Jayce and the two other operatives who were with him that hailed from Unova supersoldier unit, EDGE, and the three of us from the interpol.
From what I was told EDGE is a very special existence even within the USF, because the only kinds of people that will be accepted in EDGE are Ability Holders. Each and every soldier in EDGE possesses an ability, and they must have a minimum level of skill as a trainer or some sort of unique talent to be accepted into EDGE.
For this operation, Elesa will be the one in command on the surface and keep an eye on things, especially for any potential enemy reinforcements from Team Plasma. Her job is to be there as a deterrence and issue out orders should an unexpected development in the situation occur.
As for the rescue operation, Jayce will be the one assuming command as he leads us downwards into the depth of the Relic Castle to search and rescue the civilian reporters that were held hostage by Team Plasma. He goes by the codename of BSA6 now, so unless he showed his face by lifting his visor nobody would know that another of us "Seven Sages" had joined the party.
If we assume the worst, by our estimation it's been more than four hours since the hostage had any food or water in this forsaken desert. Thus, time is not a luxury we can afford and we have to locate the hostages as soon as we can. We don't have the time to slowly map out and identify any potential traps, so the only option left is to comb the uncharted territories on the lower level of the ruin in the old-fashioned way. We were effectively brute forcing our way down to the lower levels of the ruins for this operation in hopes of reaching the hostages before it was too late. That is the only thing we can do since none of the conventional methods of search and rescue seem to be effective in this enigmatic castle and we are on a time limit.
The wild pokemon here were not being friendly too, but that was easily solved because Jayce is a very powerful trainer and could easily send them running away. Given that he was one of Team Rocket's Executive he had to minimally be on the same level as a Gym Leader, so his presence was a reassuring one now that he's our ally.
Not that I would admit that to him though.
After much exploration we realised that the way to venture into the deeper levels was to jump into the sandpits that littered around on the current floor. Nova had pointed out that these sandpits were most likely dug by the wild krookodiles as a means of getting around the place. She's the expert on Ground type pokemon and she does have a krookodile on her team, so if she said that these sandpits will definitely lead somewhere, then it will lead somewhere.
Jumping into those sandpits was actually kind of fun. It felt very much like jumping down one of those very huge covered slides and sliding your way downwards. Our only concern was what lies on the other end of the sandpit below and how we should cushion our fall, but my ghosts easily solved that problem for us.
The place was dark to begin with, and even more so as we ventured deeper and deeper into the ruins. Our flashlights could only show us so much. We could have one of our pokemon use Flash to further brighten up the place but that might also attract the attention of the wild pokemon nearby and that's additional trouble that we do not want to deal with when time is of the essence in this rescue operation.
In fact, after a while we came to an agreement that this place was too huge for the six of us to properly comb and locate the hostages. We had no choice but to split our group into two in hopes that this would allow us to locate the hostages sooner. Jayce had split Nova and the other two EDGE operatives to be in one group while Skye, him, and I are in another. At this point we were quite deep underground such that telecommunication devices were close to being useless. As usual, telepathy or teleport were also not an option due to the heavy dark and ghost type energies lingering around the place. In fact, at least to me, it felt as if there's a heavier presence of ghost type energies the deeper we go.
We continued our search and went deeper and deeper, encountering more hostile wild pokemon along the way but Jayce's pokemon easily dealt with them before Skye or I could lift a finger. Ness helped us to burrow into the deeper floors when we could not find any sandpits to use and before long, we found ourselves in a room much larger in size to the ones that we had encountered previously.
This room was clearly different. Its pillars were intricately carved and decorated with faded murals. As usual, the three of us split up to better explore the room, also taking care not to wander off too far away from each other just in case this room was booby trapped just like some of the rooms which we passed by earlier.
"What do you think this looks like to you?" I asked nobody in particular when I stopped by a pillar where one of those very faded murals was painted on. Dolly simply shrugged, obviously not too interested in these paintings. Wacky just took one bored look at it before turning away. Only Rena and Fuzzy continued to observe the mural with me.
'If those weird figures below are humans, it looks as if they were worshipping something.'
"Now that you say it, it does seem that way," I agreed when Rena gave her opinion on this matter. Fuzzy simply flew around the pillar in circles out of boredom and I decided to carry on with my individual search before rejoining Jayce and Skye.
Whatever ancient civilisation that once made its home here was clearly a highly religious one. I just have no idea just what they were worshipping or what deity they believed in. Was it one of Unova's legendary or mythical pokemon, or was it something else entirely? Nova said that they worshipped the Sun, but for some reason I felt that it's more than just that.
I took another glance in Skye's and Jayce's direction. From the looks of it none of them had found anything of use for our search as well. I guess that means that we should continue looking until we finish combing this oversized room.
'I still find it hard to believe that such a place remains standing even after 2,500 years.'
"Honestly, me too," I voiced my agreement to Rena's sentiments. For something built 2,500 years ago this castle could definitely join the list as one of the world's architectural wonders. The technique used to build this place definitely surpassed the technological limits of its time. It was said that one of Unova's Twin Heroes built this ancient civilisation from the ground up, but that couldn't be the sole reason why this castle remained standing today. What little records of this ancient civilisation that's left today paint a very good picture of it, telling us that it was once a very glorious and prosperous civilisation.
But if this civilisation was as glorious and prosperous as history made it up to be, then how and why did it perish? Was it a natural disaster, or did it naturally fall into decline after a long period of time?
'Mistress, this place doesn't give me a good feeling. For some reason I felt as if there was a very sinister reason that led to the downfall of this civilisation.'
"Why did you think that way?" I asked, a little concerned why Rena would suddenly say something so out of character.
'I don't know how to properly put it into words, but the lingering energies that I can feel here-'
Rena suddenly paused in her words, her entire body suddenly going rigid and on alert as she whipped her head in a specific direction and began pulsing her psychic powers outwards as if trying to get a clearer scan of the place. I didn't even have the time to ask what was wrong when a powerful tremor suddenly struck the place and shook the entire ruin with it, causing us all to fall.
"Earthquake?!" I blurted out as my shadows started to swirl around me on its own accord in my ghosts' attempt to protect me from harm.
"No, this is no earthquake! Something is coming!" I heard Skye yelling from where she was. I turned my head in her direction and it was just at this moment when the wall nearest to her was suddenly blasted open in a forceful show of strength.
A gigantic onix had crashed into the room. I have no idea if it was just passing by and happened to bump into us, or it had sensed our presence and was actively hunting us down but only managed to locate us now.
The onix roared in rage upon spotting us. Skye was almost steamrolled when the onix made its sudden appearance earlier and she had barely managed to get herself out of harm's way. I heard Jayce yelling for us to run as he immediately released his pokemon to take the onix's attention off Skye.
Skye was in a very bad spot. Her left arm was hanging limply as she frantically ducked around to avoid the onix's attacks. She is a Flying Specialist and thus naturally at a disadvantage whenever she had to fight in closed and cramped indoor spaces like the one we are in now. With her arm in this condition and the onix constantly breathing down her neck, she wasn't even given any opportunity to call out another pokemon to help defend her and was only able to rely on her sigilyph, hawlucha, and jumpluff for survival.
"SKYE!" I shouted, about to command my ghosts to try and do something while debris started to fall all around us. Rena's psychic barriers were the only reason why I'm still unharmed. We were too far away to be of any use, but my ghosts should be able to reach her before this room inevitably collapses from the onix's rampage.
"VEL, DON'T COME OVER! YOU WILL ONLY COMPLICATE MATTERS! JUST FOCUS ON STAYING ALIVE YOURSELF!"
Jayce ordered me to stay put the moment he noticed what I was trying to do. He was already close enough and somehow managed to pull Skye to safety despite the chaos unfolding around us. I inevitably let out another scream when the floor beneath their feet suddenly gave way and I could only watch as the two of them fell down into a deeper floor with the onix still hot on their heels. More debris began to fall at a rapid rate and closed off the two sections of the room between me and them, disabling me from reaching or seeing them at all.
'Mistress, you cannot go there! It's too dangerous-'
Rena's words were cut off when a gigantic boulder fell on top of her psychic barriers with a deafening crash, proving her point. Rena was obviously starting to feel the strain in sustaining this barrier because a lot of debris was starting to pile up on top of us. We have to move before Rena's barriers give way, we cannot stay here. I can only trust that Skye and Jayce will be safe.
"Dolly, get us down deeper with Shadow Sneak!"
Dolly howled in acknowledgement as shadows swirled and swallowed us all. The shadows disappeared in a few seconds, bringing us into a very dark and unexplored room. It was so dark that I couldn't even see what's in front of me.
"Jarvis? I need a little light here."
Light finally returned when Jarvis emerged from my xtransceiver and shone two beams of high powered light from his eyes with Flash. Rena walked up and gently nudged my leg with her head, telling me that she's here beside me. Fuzzy landed on the top of my head with a soft squeak.
"Dolly, where are we right now?"
Dolly cackled something which I understood as bringing us as deep as she could safely reach without accidentally dropping us down into somewhere dangerous. According to her, she was starting to sense the faint presence of humans at this level underground, which meant that somebody had passed by here recently. That could only be the Team Plasma members and the hostages. We might be able to locate them sooner than Jayce or Skye did, or maybe even before Nova and her team did, assuming that they are all safe.
"Let's just go. The only way left is the way forward anyway," I decided as I released Kel and Lily out as well. Kel would be able to continue to easily function at full capacity in this darkness since she's accustomed to fighting with limited visibility as a dark type. Lily is able to fight well even in such dark and cramped spaces thanks to her defensive capabilities and size.
Well, there's also another reason for me to choose to release her out.
Lily easily picked me up with her tentacles, allowing me to sit on one of her thicker tentacles as she curled them up to create some sort of seat for me as she continued to move forward with the rest of the team. Truth to be told, I was getting exhausted after so much walking ever since this rescue operation started. My body's condition wasn't the best to begin with, and I couldn't release Flamel to ride on his back since many of these passages and rooms were not that spacious. In this situation Lily would be a better candidate to ferry me around and unlike Flamel, she has the capability to easily scale walls and obstacles in this dilapidated ruin where Flamel cannot, even if her way of doing so may look a little awkward.
I don't know for how long we will be trapped here searching for those hostages, but I sure hope that this will end soon.