Chapter 15

Of course it had to be Sideburns.

His name was apparently, as it turned out, not actually “Sideburns”; it was Carlos. And he had been sitting next to Sam for several hours as they navigated the mountainous route 210. The route was unpleasant enough by itself–much of the road crawled around the exterior of Mount Coronet and was protected with guardrails that looked as though they would surrender to the force of a speeding bicycle–but the fog was an absolute nightmare. What fog he had noticed in the background of the picture on Rowan’s desk was merely the malnourished little sister of this mist on the mountainside. This haze around the road up the mountain was very proactive in its enveloping of the truck Carlos was driving; it clung tightly to the hood of their vehicle and gave up little more than a few feet of visibility at best. With every overcorrection of the steering wheel that Carlos had to make to ensure they rounded a curve that they could barely see coming, Sam felt his head grow lighter and lighter.

Carlos (Sam was still struggling not to call him Sideburns, even in his own head) seemed as annoyed to be with Sam as Sam was to be with him. Still, it was less awkward than it would have been if Sam had been forced to travel with anyone that had been on the cargo ship. Sam probably had not helped the situation when, upon seeing a sign on the merge ramp to the highway instructing them to yield to traffic, he asked Carlos, “Do you yield? At this sign, I mean?” and then giggled at his own joke. Carlos had barely said a word to Sam, and he seemed to be just pouting in his seat. Sam felt like reminding him of the time Bree kicked his Hariyama’s butt, but it did not seem wise to instigate further than he already had. Carlos was a foreman on the Phoenix Corporation crew, and that was probably why he had been one of the few to learn Kantoan. Almost no one else on the crew that Sam had been sent to Celestic with spoke a word of it, and it made Sam really uncomfortable when they were all around him speaking a language he could not understand while occasionally shooting glances his way. For all Sam knew, they were planning what the best way to cook him was (Sam immediately scolded himself for the potentially racist thought that all Hoennese were barbaric cannibals; still, he could not help but think they were discussing things that had to do with him, even if he knew that was just paranoia). Sam could understand Carlos’ frustration, though; Sam knew he would not enjoy it if he were a supervisor of a crew and was then told by his boss to take some non-employee along and do whatever he says. Armed with that thought, he’d previously tried to make conversation with his new truckmate, but to little avail.

So it was that they rode the foggy, narrow path to Celestic Town in relative silence until Sam’s cell phone rang out from his pocket. Sam fumbled to retrieve the phone as his seatbelt resisted him; the call had to come from Mr. Alonzo since no one back home in Johto knew this number. While Sam was stuck waiting on customs in Jubilife, he picked up a disposable cell phone just for calls he might need to make in Sinnoh due to the international rate on his regular service being so astronomical. He finally managed to defeat his seatbelt and pull out the phone to see the screen flashing the caller’s identity. Professor Rowan. Sam pounded the “Ignore” button with his thumb and stuffed the phone back into his pocket.

“You are not to answer that?” Carlos asked, looking over at Sam. Perhaps, for as little as he seemed to want to talk to Sam, he wanted some voice to break the silence. Or perhaps he just liked eavesdropping on phone calls.

“No, I am not. Keep your eyes on the road.” If he had taken a moment to compose himself, he’d not have been so sour to the man he was now working with, but seeing that Rowan was attempting to contact him had hampered his mood. It was possible that Rowan figured out what Sam was up to and was calling to dissuade him, but it was too late now; the crew would be in Celestic shortly. Sam tried to allow himself to get excited at the prospect, but the triple beeps from his phone alerting him to a new voicemail gloomed his spirits anew.

Carlos twisted the steering wheel to make it around another mountain curve he barely saw coming through the fog, and Sam felt the remnants of an egg and bagel sandwich he’d eaten two hours ago at a truck stop lurch in his stomach. Convenience store food was never a wise choice on its own, but to combine it with essentially riding a roller coaster seemed to bode ill for Sam. He tried to repeating in his head that at least it wasn’t a boat, but he really wanted little else than to get out of that truck. That was when he saw the marker sign: two more miles to Celestic Town.

“Hey, did you see that? Two more miles.”

Carlos nodded without speaking (perhaps he was upset that Sam had scolded him) and pressed the red button on the walkie-talkie affixed to the dashboard. He spoke into it with Sam still incapable of deciphering what he was saying and then turned the device off. Most likely he was telling the crew in the other trucks behind them what Sam had just seen in case they missed it, but it still frustrated Sam to feel so excluded. 

As the fog started to thin out, Sam could make out a few buildings in the distance. They certainly did not seem to be much, just a few houses and maybe a storefront or two, but it was still a good thought that he’d be free of the terror of route 210 soon. From what Sam saw at the distance, to even call Celestic a town might have been an exaggeration. It was, at best in Sam’s view, a simple rural mountain community. 

“Whoa, hold up. Stop the truck, stop the truck.”

Carlos lifted an eyebrow at Sam, but did as he was told and brought the truck to a halt about a quarter of a mile from the town. “What is this?”

“What is this? I can tell you what it’s not. Stealthy. We’re just–” More foreign words came with a burst of static from the dashboard walkie-talkie. Sam reached over and pressed the button. “The adults are having a discussion. Sit quietly and think about what you’ve done for a while.” Sam flipped the device to off and returned his attention to Carlos. “We’re just going to roll up into their town with six flatbed trucks and a bunch of heavy equipment? You think that won’t get attention?”

“You can to deal with this attention.”

“What? No! I can not to deal with this attention! Think about it. If the trio is here and the town sees us coming, they’re going to try to save them somehow before we even have an idea where in the town they’re hidden. Not only would we be going in blind, but we’d be flashing our arrival as extremely suspect. At best.”

“There is a cave in the back of the town. If the pokemon are here, they are probably to be hiding in it.”

“What? A cave? I didn’t know about that.”

Carlos grinned and started the truck back up. “We know about it.”

Sam cursed under his breath; why hadn’t he been told about this? “Fine, you know about it, great. We’re still playing this my way. Mr. Alonzo said I’m in charge, so keep the truck turned off and radio the rest of the crew. We’re walking in from here.”

“What about our equipment?”

“Leave it here in our little pull-off. If we need it, we come back and get it. But how about instead of going in and dynamiting the hell out of everything, we start off with some old fashioned looking around?”

Carlos huffed and turned the truck back off. As Sam undid his seatbelt and opened the passenger door, he heard Carlos barking angrily into the walkie talkie. No doubt the rest of the crew would not have liked this tactic, either, but Sam just figured that was too bad. He was put in charge of this search, and they were just the hired muscle. It was only a quarter of a mile to Celestic, so that could be covered in a few minutes on foot, but it should also provide security for their vehicles. They were not so close to civilization that people would start messing with them. As Sam predicted, the rest of the crew did not look thrilled to be exiting their trucks. He wanted to say something to them that would reassure them, but then he realized he’d forgotten most of their names. Instead, he just turned to Carlos.

“Everybody ready? Let’s go.” 

Celestic Town was no more impressive up close than it had been at a distance. It seemed as though someone had once wanted to build a settlement, but thought that clearing trees or establishing infrastructure was too much work. Route 210 cut through town, but it was the only thing Sam would really call a road; the homes that were not right on the main route were only accessible by barely-paved, one-lane paths. The storefront that Sam had seen from the distance was just a market and the only business he noticed until he caught site of a medical center closer to the middle of town. Those two were apparently it for Celestic commerce. Sam’s decision to leave the trucks and equipment behind was beginning to seem like a terrible idea; this was clearly not a place that received many visitors, and every eye in town seemed to be on Sam and the crew from the minute they entered. He’d seen enough horror movies growing up to immediately think that this was the kind of place where strangers got chained up in leaky basements and tortured by people who made boots out of human flesh. 

“Before I soil myself, please tell me you guys know where the cave is,” Sam whispered to Carlos. Yes, because clearly the place we want to be is a dark mystery cave in the middle of Jason Vorhees-ville, his own brain mocked him.

“It is in back of the town,” Carlos answered as he glanced back and forth before pointing to his right. “North. It should to be that direction.”

Sam nodded. “Well let’s to be going there then.”

As Sam and the crew cut into a cross-town path that headed in the direction Carlos thought the cave would be, Sam noticed several members of town pulling out cell phones and either sending messages or making calls. This only served to heighten his already prevalent fear of the town even as he wondered how such a backwater village had cell service. Luckily, none of these people approached his group; Sam thought maybe they were as primitive as bears and were as scared of him as he was of them. With that thought, he straightened his back to add to his posture since he read once that if confronted by a bear, you are supposed to make yourself look larger. 

As they followed the road to the north past the houses that made up the bulk of Celestic Town, the path became less of a street and more of a lackadaisical, weed-covered guideline of where to go. Sam was growing less convinced by the moment that Carlos had picked the right direction. He started thinking that maybe it was not the residents of Celestic Town he should be afraid of; maybe good old Sideburns was luring him into the woods for a revenge beating. Sam bent over to fidget with his already-tied shoes just to let the Phoenix crew all get ahead of him so that no one was at his back when he started walking again. 

“Celestic Ruins.”

Sam had been so involved in looking around for danger, he had not been looking ahead, and sure enough, Carlos was pointing to an opening in the hillside.

“So that’s the cave,” Sam said rhetorically as he scratched his chin. “All right. We’ve got our pokemon with us, and we’ve got lamps. I guess we should–”

“Excuse me!”

Sam turned around at the stranger’s voice to see a pair of people coming down the path behind them on an all-terrain vehicle. Sam, Carlos, and the crew exchanged confused glances as the couple pulled their ATV up to them and came to a stop. They removed their helmets, and Sam recognized one of them immediately: it was the lady Professor Rowan had been holding close to him in the photo. She was older, right around Rowan’s age, and had straight, gray hair that did not quite reach her shoulders and wrinkles marking her face. She was certainly spry for her age, however, especially given that she had been driving the ATV, and now that she was on her feet, she moved quickly and steadily. She had not been dressed for her vehicle; she was clothed in a white lab coat and khakis. Her partner was significantly younger, and Sam found her to be one of the most attractive young women he had ever laid eyes on. Her wavy blonde hair hung just below her waist, and she was dressed in all black: black pants, a black blouse, and a black, fur-rimmed jacket. Her features were soft, and she was probably right around Sam’s age, if not maybe a year or two younger. Sam found that seeing her before him was the most pleasant thing Sinnoh had given him yet.

“I’m sorry, but the Celestic Ruins are quite dangerous and are off-limits to everyone,” the older lady stated. It was her voice that had yelled out to them moments before. 

Sam heard grumbling behind him from the crew, but he quickly held up his hand to silence them. Situations like this were why he was with them, after all. “I appreciate your concern, Ms…?” He left the word dangling in the air as an invitation for her to fill in the blank.

“Professor, not Ms. And it is Professor Carolina, young man.”

Sam took slow steps towards her and extended his hand. “I apologize then. And it’s a pleasure to meet you, professor. My name is Samuel Stark.” He found himself hoping the young woman with Professor Carolina was noting his gentlemanly nature. “We appreciate the hazards of these ruins, of course; it’s actually why we’re here. We are studying ancient areas of Sinnoh. My compatriots here are from the south, and we’re doing research on how the northern regions’ geology varies from that of the southern regions.”

The blonde whose name Sam did not yet know spoke up. “That may be–”

“Hogwash,” Professor Carolina interrupted. “What are you really doing here?”

“I just said, we’re here for research. Honestly.” It was honest, even if what they were there to research was the legendary guardians. 

“Young man, we will stop you from entering that cave if we have to.”

“Gram, we don’t know yet–”

“You know why they’re here, Cynthia. Don’t defend them.”

Sam enjoyed briefly imagining that she was defending him from the lady who must have been her grandmother because she thought he was charming, but he realized it was a wasted thought. She probably would not be too impressed with him shortly. “Carlos,” he said, turning to his reluctant partner but keeping one eye of Carolina, “get going. You know what you need to find.”

“I told you, Cynthia.”

“We’re not here to hurt anybody or anything. It’s just research. I certainly don’t want to be upsetting anyone.”

“Mr. Stark, we really can’t have anyone in that cave.”

“I understand that, Cynthia, but we really need to get in there.”

“Cynthia, there’s no more time for talk! Those men are in the cave already!”

Cynthia frowned and pulled a ball from inside her coat. Sam recognized it as an Ultra Ball from its yellow-and-black design. “Please stand aside and allow us to get those gentlemen out of the cave, Samuel. It is imperative.”

Sam chewed the inside of his lip in frustration and pulled Chispa’s Friend Ball from his pocket. “I can’t do that. I’m sorry.” He squeezed the Friend Ball, and crimson energy shot forth from the ball’s outlet, releasing the blue-and-black cub onto the grassy floor of the Celestic woods. As usual, sparks danced off of her yellow, star-like tail in her own personal display of happiness to be out. The rest of the world outside her ball was seemingly irrelevant to her as she intertwined Sam’s legs, rubbing her head on his shins. If Sam had any designs on intimidating Cynthia and Professor Carolina into submission, those were clearly just nixed.

Cynthia’s Ultra Ball released a burst of concentrated energy, as well. Sam braced himself for the appearance of her friend; he had no idea what it could be or what it was capable of. The energy coalesced on the ground and formed a rock. It did not appear to be a rock-typed pokemon–at least not one Sam had ever heard of living in the Sinnoh region–it was merely a cone-like, gray rock with a crack in its top. Sam waited a few seconds that felt significantly longer for the stone to do something, but it did not.

“What is this?” He asked.

“This is your last chance. I don’t want to have to do this, Samuel.”

Sam really wanted to ask her to call him Sam, but this did not seem the time or place. “Neither do I.”

Cynthia shook her head slowly, as if in pity, it occurred to Sam. Still, the rock just sat there, and she did not give it an order. Sam continued studying it, but he could not discern anything of note. It was a rock, and much more than he would describe a Geodude as a rock. It was a blank, cracked stone. It didn’t move. Still, it was impossible to just catch a plain rock in a pokeball, so it had to be some kind of pokemon. Sam nudged Chispa out from between his legs. “Be careful, but investigate that for me, Chispa. Can you investigate the rock for me?”

Chispa yipped back in happy reply, her tongue sticking out the side of her smiling mouth. She sneaked up on the rock, but given that neither she nor Sam could know where its eyes–if it even had any–were, it seemed futile. The earnest Shinx got within mere feet of the stone, and it still had not moved.

“Shadow ball!” Cynthia cried out, causing Chispa to flinch when the trainer’s words broke her silent concentration.

From out of the crack in the stone emerged something Sam could only describe as a colorful, jaggedly round shadow. It was mostly a deep violet, but there were lightning-like flashes of green energy inside it. While most of the flashes swirled about in the shadowy body, two remained steadily in place. They were crescent-shaped and floated in the middle of the strange form like the crooked eyes of a jack-o-lantern. Sam recognized it immediately as a pokemon he’d heard of but thought was only an urban legend. 

“A Spiritomb?” He cried in alarm. “Chispa, get out of the way!”

An orb of violet energy split off from the ethereal body of the Spiritomb and propelled towards Sam’s Shinx. She barely managed to roll out of the way of the spiritual attack. The ball of energy dissipated as it hit the ground where she had stood, and it left no sign that it had ever been there at all.

Sam was stunned; he still never imagined he’d see a pokemon as fantastic as a Spiritomb. He knew he had no choice but to shake himself out of his awe, however; Chispa was counting on him to guide her through this battle. 

“Chispa,” Sam called out before sputtering. He was not even sure what would work against that thing. “Use a spark attack!”

In the space between Cynthia and Sam, Chispa growled her agreement. Her tail, radiating more brightly than Sam had seen it glow before, began shooting off sparks of electricity, and Chispa charged her shadowy foe. Spiritomb–perhaps because it thought it had nothing to fear; perhaps because it was anchored motionlessly to its rock–held its ground. With the distance between them closed, Chispa jumped towards the Spiritomb and twisted her body mid-leap to smack it with her tail. It passed harmlessly through Spiritomb’s cloud-like body, and the Shinx landed on her side, though she easily rolled through onto her paws. The Spiritomb seemed to be completely unaffected.

Sam was undaunted; somehow, Chispa had to have just missed the attack. It was the only thing that made sense. “Bite it, Chispa!” 

Chispa shook her head as if to clear out the cobwebs from her confusion at missing the Spiritomb before lunging again. This time she dove straight into the heart of the creature with her mouth wide, but as before, she passed harmlessly through its incorporeal body as her jaws snapped shut. She landed on her feet after this attempt, but was still as befuddled as she had been after her first failed strike. Sam, however, started putting it together; if Spiritomb’s body was barely physical to begin with, physical attacks were not going to work particularly well on it. He needed to come up with a different strategy.

Cynthia took advantage of the time it was taking Sam to come up with a plan against her pokemon. “Use your shadow sneak, Mouri!”

Mouri–apparently, Sam realized, the name of her Spiritomb–hissed in reply to her command; its green flashes started popping more rapidly and then began erupting with energy inside the Spiritomb’s spiritual form. With a rush of unexpected speed, its body stretched out as far as it could while still anchored to its rock home. Chispa screeched in pain as Mouri’s body overtook her.

“Chispa, come back,” Sam said, wincing at his friend’s agony as her held up her Friend Ball and squeezed it twice. The ball made an electronic humming sound as Chispa reverted to her kinetic energy transport form and was absorbed back to safety. If physical attacks were not going to cut it against Spiritomb, he’d try another path. He grabbed another of the balls in his pocket and released Vlam. 

“Mr. Stark, my granddaughter defeated your Shinx fair and square! Stand aside and let us into the cave to get your friends out of there.”

“I’m not defeated yet,” Sam replied. “Vlam, use your flamethrower!”

“Mouri, withdraw from it,” Cynthia said to her Spiritomb in response to Sam’s command. She did not seem interested in backing up her grandmother’s request that he give up; perhaps she was as into the battle as Sam found himself.

Vlam’s mouth opened, and an uninterrupted stream of fire burst forth from it. Sam was eager to see if Vlam’s attack was any more effective than Chispa’s physical assault had been. The instant before the flaming attack could hit, however, Mouri vanished. The flamethrower passed through the air where the Spiritomb had previously been floating. When Vlam’s attack subsided, there was simply the odd stone on the ground with no sign of Mouri.

“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me,” Sam mumbled. Mouri even had a way around non-physical attacks. 

“You can’t hurt Mouri, Sam. Please let us pass.”

Sam ignored Cynthia’s plea. Carlos and his men had been in the cave for several minutes now; he just needed to buy them a little more time. “All right, Vlam. If it wants to hide in the rock, we’ll just knock it clear out of the forest. Use a double kick on it!” Vlam rushed forward. Sam may not have been able to hurt the Spiritomb, but as long as it was bound to the rock, he could at least get rid of it.

“Shadow sneak!”

As Vlam approached, Mouri emerged from its crack and shot its anchored, spiritual body towards her. As with Chispa earlier, the crackling energy that made up the Spiritomb caused Vlam great agony as it enveloped her. Sam considered taking her out of the battle, too, but she was much more durable than the little Shinx and was able to fight her way out of Mouri’s attack. Free from the shadow sneak, she carefully backed away from Mouri’s range; Sam noticed she was shivering slightly as she did so, but she still appeared to have some fight in her. He also noticed she was still much closer to the Spiritomb than she had been when he first brought her into the battle. 

“Flamethrower!” He called out. Again, she shot a stream of fire towards her enemy. Sam heard Cynthia cry for Mouri to withdraw, but this time it was too close, and the defensive order came too late. The flames tore through the shadowy body, and Mouri let out a piercing, echoing shriek. The sound was so inhuman and loud, Sam instinctively cupped his hands over his ears. “Keep it up, Vlam!” He yelled over the wail. “You’ve got it on the ropes!”

Vlam continued her onslaught of fire, but Mouri must have regained its composure from the initial pain of the attack because it did finally withdraw itself into its stone. Sam cursed; while Mouri had the option of retreat, he and his friends were at its mercy. It could attack when it wanted to attack and hide when it wanted to hide. He was going to have to find a way to work in the windows Cynthia gave him. If he tried an attack in close while it was withdrawn, he risked putting Vlam in line for another shadow sneak.

“Mouri, use your psybeam now,” Cynthia ordered. Mouri again revealed itself and this time released an invisible psychic attack. Vlam yelped and howled, shaking her head violently. Sam knew he had no choice but to bring her out of battle like he had with Chispa. He held out her Dusk Ball and squeezed it twice.

“I’m sorry, Vlam,” he said as she was absorbed safely into the ball, “I thought you could do it.” He had only one option left, but this time he also had a plan. “I know you can, though.” With a squeeze of the Nest Ball, Bree appeared in the clearing. Sam expected another demand of surrender from Carolina, but none ever came. Perhaps she was acquiescing to her daughter’s apparent desire for the match to continue, or perhaps she just thought Sam did not have a chance and was not worth bothering with. That was fine by Sam; people had been underestimating Bree his entire life. 

Cynthia seemed hesitant; she did not call out any attacks or instructions at all. Sam thought about the cave for a moment and what Carlos and the crew were doing in there, but he knew he could not allow himself the mental distraction.

“Bree, I want you to use your bug buzz attack on that Spiritomb. All right?” Bree bobbed in the air in reply and beat her wings so she could zip towards her foe. As she closed the gap between them, she began vibrating her wings rapidly and letting out a disorienting buzzing sound. As she had done with the larger, less mobile Torterra previously, she would begin circling around Mouri too fast for it strike back, and then…

“Mouri, withdraw again until the moment is right.”

“Jackpot,” Sam whispered to himself. Before Bree even really got to begin her bug buzz, the Spiritomb pulled away into its protective rock, just as Sam had wanted.

“Bree, that’s what we needed, girl. I want you to cover that rock in sleep powder now!” In the air above Mouri’s stone, Bree shook her wings fervently. Powder-fine scales broke loose and fell to the area below. With nothing to interrupt her, Bree let the scales fall for several seconds until everything below was covered in them. “That’s good, Bree. Come back over to me.” Sam looked across the field and saw Cynthia grimacing; she must have figured it out. “That’s right. Your Spiritomb’s protective home just became its prison. Bring it out now, and it’s going to absorb all the sleep powder.”

“Well played then, Mr. Stark. But enough fooling around, I suppose.” Cynthia withdrew Mouri back into is ball and placed it inside her coat. As her hand went in with one ball, it returned with another. “Your turn, Perang,” she said calmly. 

Sam felt every muscle in his body tense. That Spiritomb had been dynamite, and it was just what she used to feel him out. Cynthia was clearly a very capable and experienced trainer. There was no telling what else she might have, but Sam already doubted Bree’s ability to handle it alone. He looked back towards the entrance to the Celestic Ruins; all he had to do was keep buying time. What was taking Carlos so long?

He was shocked back to attention on the battle by a roar that made the blood in his veins feel chilled. Before Cynthia was standing a creature several feet taller than she or Sam. It was a dull purple on most of its body except for its underbelly which was half yellow and half red. On either side of its shark-like head were two appendages that looked to Sam like mini torpedoes. Its forearms ended as pectoral fins, and its upper arms and thighs were lined with bony spikes. Behind its stout legs and clawed feet was a tail that ended with a caudal fin. It was a monstrosity Sam recognized as a Garchomp, an extremely powerful, and equally as rare, dragon-type pokemon. Sam and his butterfly pokemon were both in awe.

“Last chance, Mr. Stark,” Cynthia offered. There was an edge to her voice that Sam had not picked up on before. Maybe she really was just fooling around at first. “Give up and let us go get those gentlemen.”

Sam continued looking at the Garchomp. Almost as if on cue to emphasize its trainer’s point, the dragon licked its lips. Sam swallowed and turned his gaze to Bree. “Well, girl. You ready to really see what you can do?”

Bree did a forward somersault in the air and buzzed intently. She was, as ever in the face of a challenge, undaunted. Sam knew that Cynthia could put five Garchomps on the field, and Bree would still be dead certain she could win. He silently hoped that after this fight, that was the only kind of dead she would be. Sam dug his feet into the ground and thought of what he’d need to do just for her to survive this. 

“Bree, go–”

An explosion behind him stole the rest of his command. The concussive force of the blast barreled out the opening of the cave and knocked Sam off of his feet. He rolled over onto his back to steal a glance upwards; thankfully, Bree was still aloft, albeit shakily. For her own safety, he quickly withdrew her back into her ball. Looking over, he saw that Cynthia had grabbed her grandmother to hold her up, but both were still on their feet due to being further from the opening than Sam had been. Other than an obnoxious humming in his ears and a pair of bloody forearms from impact with the ground, everyone appeared to be all right.

“What was that?” He found himself shouting in unison with Cynthia. The look on her face revealed she must have been surprised that he did not already know.

“They weren’t supposed to do anything like that!” Sam shouted over the squeal in his eardrums. “I promise, this wasn’t my intention at all!”

Cynthia began rushing to the entrance of the cave, and Sam instinctively decided to follow her. He had no idea what had just happened; he did not even think anybody on the crew brought anything capable of such a blast. They were just as reckless and foolhardy as they had been at Verity lakefront and on the cargo ship. Before Sam and Cynthia could enter the cave, they were stunned to see three small figures exit it in a blur. They stopped for just a second as they met the sunlight before shooting upwards into the sky.

They were the legendary guardians of the lake. 

Sam only got a full view of them for a moment, but he’d immediately recognized them from the sketches he’d studied. They were small, none of the three could possibly have been much more than a foot tall, and from the neck-down, they were identical: gray bodies with proportional arms and tiny nubs for legs and twin, three-pronged tails. It was their heads that distinguished the trio; they each had a unique crest on their head, and while Mesprit and Azelf had large, yellow eyes, Uxie’s eyes were closed. Uxie, the Being of Knowledge, also had a thick, yellow crest that rounded back around its skull like a bicycle helmet with vertical ridges. Azelf, the Being of Willpower, had a blue crest protruding upwards from its head like a soft pyramid. Mesprit, the Being of Emotion, had a light purple crest that hung down from its head in the form of four tendril-like appendages. Sam did not care how tiny they were in person, at that moment, they were the most brilliant pokemon he’d ever seen in his life. 

From near him, he heard Cynthia give an order. “Perang, Kelaparan, block the entrance to the cave so the guardians can escape!

A new pokemon stood next to Cynthia’s Garchomp, and it was one that Sam had seen back home near Johto. The Snorlax was huge–about as tall as Garchomp, but much more rotund–green with a white underbelly, and had pointed, feline ears. It partnered with the dragon to guard the cavern hole and keep the crew from following the legends. Sam did not care; all that he knew is now that he finally found them, they were using their immense telekinetic power to soar away.

“Please!” He called out them, just hoping they’d hear him. “Please, I won’t let them hurt you, I promise! I need you! I’ve come so far, and without you, my brother will die! Please don’t leave now! He needs you. I need you.”

In the distance of the sky, one of them came to a halt. Sam could faintly make out the crest that marked it as Mesprit. Perhaps something in his voice got through to the small guardian. “Please, I will do anything–anything–for my brother! I would never hurt you or try to catch you, but he means everything to me and nothing will stop me from saving him. Please come back!” With those words, he saw a second stop; this time it was Azelf. As Azelf floated down to its brother Mesprit, Uxie also came to a stop, if only due to curiosity as to what had gotten the attention of the other two. They hovered in the air far from Sam and stared at him. “Please…,” Sam muttered, as he fell to his knees. “Help me.”

Much slower and more cautiously than the trio had flown into the sky, they began coming back down. Above the ruckus from the entryway to the ruins where the crew must have been trying to get past the Garchomp and Snorlax, Sam heard Professor Carolina let out a startled gasp; she obviously did not expect the guardians to stop their flight to freedom. Sam felt her approach his side, but he did not care. All that mattered was convincing the guardians that he meant what he said. The professor put a hand on Sam’s shoulders, but there was no anger in her grip. She was merely lightly comforting him. 

Mesprit reached Sam first, and it had gotten much closer than Sam thought it would. He could have reached out and touched it if he wanted, but he refused to entertain the thought. He needed them to trust him not fear him; it was Tommy’s only chance. The red gem in the middle of Mesprit’s head shone, and Sam could not tell whether it was reflecting the noon sun or if it was Mesprit’s own doing. The spritely pokemon bobbed in the air from right to left, but never took its eye off of Sam. It made a short, songlike hum that seemed to cue Azelf and Uxie, their gems sparkling as well, to come nearer to him. Uxie simply hovered in place, its eyes still tightly closed, but Azelf zipped around Sam’s head and hummed in a low grumble. Mesprit cooed in reply to its brother’s grouchy tone, and Azelf quieted down and settled into one spot in the air across from Sam and along with Mesprit and Uxie. 

“Do you know I’m telling the truth?”

Mesprit looked to its left at Uxie, and the Being of Knowledge squeaked; Mesprit then glanced to Azelf, who simply huffed. Mesprit let out a sound Sam could only interpret as a giggle and then turned back to Sam. Mesprit’s large, amber eyes locked onto his, and the legendary guardian nodded slowly. It trusted him!

The din of mayhem disturbed the moment, and Sam turned to see that a gang of pokemon–led by Carlos’ Hariyama–had battled their way past Cynthia’s Garchomp and Snorlax and had cleared the way of the ruins’ entrance. Carlos himself was right behind the pokemon, and he pointed at the legends and yelled something in Hoennese back to the crew. 

“No!” Sam yelled. He knew they would ruin everything, but it was too late. The battle spilling outside the cave, the frantic yelling of the Phoenix workers, and the sight of them charging towards Sam were all too much for the legends. They took back off into the sky as swiftly as they had fled the cave. Well before Carlos and the others reached Sam, the guardians were out of sight.