Chapter 44
Part 4
How clearly I remember…
The conception of time, space, and the universe…
From the light of the Original One's golden hooves,
I was conceived…
Given forme, shape…
Made to resemble him…
I came into being, given a purpose,
It was decided, by Alpha:
our creations were to perceive existence
differently than we, the architects, do…
Unlike the Hall of Origin in which we stood,
Stagnant, existing, eternal…
Creatures would experience changing, passing…
Growing, living, and dying…
They would live, always swept within a force…
A force called "time"…
A force which flowed from my very soul.
Imbued with this force, I came to be…
Realizing this, I turned to Alpha…
I asked,
"Great Originator and Father…
My soul holds this grave power
Which you have bestowed upon me…
How shall I use it to serve you?
What would you have your servant do?"
The Originator replied…
"I have no orders which to give.
Time is to run by your own design;
Govern it as you will.
Create, destroy, meddle, intercede…
All upon your own whim.
For you are creature, not machine,
Your commands come not from me,
But from the core of your being.
May your life and your purpose
never be separate."
The Original One turned his back to me,
Leaving me to stare into the empty void of creation.
Char scraped a claw across the dampened rock and raised it to his eyes. It glowed in the dim, yet familiar, light of his own fire.
When he saw the bloodstains upon his skin, he understood.
"What… happened to me?" he wheezed, humbled by the sight of his own blood blotched across his claws.
Scythe did not answer. He only glared at the Charmander for a moment while scraping together his blades in an attempt to clean them.
With a sharp breath, Char shifted his weight and tumbled from the flattened rock, landing on all fours upon the cave floor. The cave was unpleasantly salty, wet, and cramped, yet the entrance could be seen only several dozen paces back. Char's gaze fell upon that hole, that window to the bizarre outside world, wondering if he could spot any more of the accursed Watchers floating in the night sky.
For the anomaly to be removed… fate must be changed.
The corrupted visage of Saura still lingered in his mind… The disturbing sound of the demon's words, replaying continuously beneath the ringing of his ears, remained just as clear as it had within the dream.
Mortals have not the capacity to understand time.
Past and present are lies.
Char gnashed his teeth, trying to understand… had he found that which had been watching him? Had he found those eyes which had disturbed his soul so deeply, those eyes which he felt watching him even from underneath the fabric of reality, even so long after the Reviver Seed was used?
Or… was it just a dream?
All which exists… is fate.
"What have you seen?"
The sound of Scythe's words snapped the confused Charmander back to attention.
"When we activated the orb to bring you back into the group, there were impalement wounds on the sides of your head, yet you remained alive," Scythe said matter-of-factly. "Your eyes were opened, but you would not respond to anyone. That is when Prince informed me that you intended to ask the ghosts for answers."
Instinctively, Char reached a finger to feel the side of his head above his ear, the place where the Dusclops had seized him. He cringed at his own touch.
"Though I am not happy with the risk that you have made, I will not hold it against you. As long as you tell me what you have seen."
Char noticed how his friends, who had since been staring at the walls, now turned to silently witness the discussion he found himself having with the angered Scyther. Char locked eyes with Saura for a moment as if to draw strength from him, but the way the cave's shadows fell upon the Bulbasaur's face made him appear too similar to the demon from his nightmare, and he was forced to quickly look away.
"The W-watcher told me, he…" Char tried, the conversation still so very clear in his mind. "He- or it- needs to change fate. I said, 'What is your purpose?' and it said, 'To remove the anomaly.' So I asked it if I was the anomaly it needed to remove. It said 'You are not the anomaly. The anomaly is an action. The anomaly… exists in the future. For the anomaly to be removed… fate must be changed'."
Scythe looked away, mulling over the words.
"It said more…" Char continued. "It said something about—"
"Tell me everything," Scythe insisted. "Start from the beginning, and tell me everything you remember."
And Char did.
The group remained somber as Char's story sank in. Saura rubbed his head on the ground, his headache flaring up.
"It does not make sense to me," Scythe replied, gazing out to the night beyond the cave. "A Watcher has never communicated with a victim… And we still cannot be certain it was a true Watcher, or one of the dungeon's tricks. It contradicts everything I've ever known about them."
"It… could have been a dream," Saura offered sadly. "Ever since the Watcher hit me, I've had dreams about other Pokémon… and sometimes they talk to me."
"Hmm… as have I," Scythe said. "In my case, my hallucinations have often pieced together things that I already knew, but have yet to realize. This particular hallucination might be telling you something…"
"…That you can't trust me anymore?" Saura cut in. "That I'm… some kind of a demon now that my head is infected?"
Char's mouth hung open. Saura returned a forlorn stare.
"N-no! That's not it," Char insisted, approaching him. "I don't think that at all! The ghost just… it was messing with me! I think it picked a form that I would trust, so that I would trust it…"
"But maybe it wasn't the ghost putting that in your mind," Saura replied. "Whether you like it or not, it might have been your own mind making that up. Just like how it was for me, when I saw my family…"
"Saura, do really think my mind would have tried to give itself a lecture about how fate and time works?"
Saura shrugged. "Maybe because Temporal Tower is shifting the past and future around, I dunno?"
A vine flicked Saura's nose. Saura jumped back, nearly falling on his side. Lily stood over him, frowning hard.
"Look," Lily said flatly. "First. You're going to stop trusting Char just because he had a nightmare? Really? What kind of a friend do you call yourself, again? Second, can't you save this for later? Like, when we're back home? We just saved Char twice, you know. The last thing we need is to start bickering in the middle of a dungeon exploration. The Watchers that attacked you two just wanted to mess up your life. You're both making them really proud right now, I bet. I know… I was attacked by one, too."
"Whoa? You, too?" Saura cried, looking up at her. "When did it happen?"
"It happened… back before I joined the resistance," she said, closing her eyes. "Back when I had first come to Ambera. My Call got triggered one night, and I… Well, the effect was… it stunned me. Literally, stunned me. I couldn't move for hours. I was just… in complete panic. So yeah, I know how they can mess with you. But you can't let them affect you. Otherwise you're just giving them what they want."
"So, wait a minute…" Ray said. "Lily, if you were hit by a Watcher… that means… everyone in this room got attacked by one?"
There was a pause.
"Yes… that would be correct," Scythe said. "Everyone here… except…"
A dimly-glowing blanket of orange swept over the five as a new light source approached from the back of the cave. The sound of footsteps followed.
Prince.
"Just as I thought," the Infernape called. "The staircase is back in here. It will take us to the next level of the tower. It isn't very far. We should go if we're ready."
Temporal Tower 5F
The next floor seemed like an extension of the same mountain cave: dank, rocky, and utterly lightless. To make things even worse, the path through the dungeon floor was nowhere to be seen. Using the resident fire-type Pokémon to light the way, the team determined they were surrounded by impenetrable rocks on all sides.
As they discussed whether to use a One-Room Orb, a Mobile Scarf, or something else… Lily happened to notice the way forward in the most unexpected direction: up. Using a careful combination of vines, wings, and strong limbs, the group began their slow, cautious grapple up the seemingly never-ending vertical shaft, utilizing every little bump and ledge they could find in the uneven rock face.
"Ugh!" Saura grunted as his vines stretched to their limits, holding Ray's weight and letting him climb to the next ledge. "Couldn't we have just—used one of those warping orbs? You know? The ones that warp us to random places? Anything would have been better than… than this!"
"You mean, such as the top of the abyss, rather than the bottom of it?" Prince joked, tied up in Lily's vines. "Do you think you could have survived the fall?"
Scythe found a foothold and clung to the wall for a moment, resting his wings. "It is true… this is a terribly high shaft. If anyone comes up with a failsafe plan to bypass this, please speak."
Char clung to Scythe's chest, making sure the team's pack of precious valuables did not spill or slip off the Scyther's limbs. "Could we at least use one of those light orbs to see how much farther we have to climb?" he offered.
"Perhaps," Scythe replied. "But then you could look down."
"AHH! WATCHOUT!"
Lily cried out as her second vine failed to attach to the wall, instead dislodging the balance of a very large bolder. It teetered in place for half a second before falling, tumbling straight down toward Prince's head…
Prince swung on the vine, took two ninja-like steps up the wall, and leaped to meet the falling rock head-on. It shattered into many pebbles upon his fiery crown.
Lily gulped hard as Prince descended again, grasping her vine and anchoring himself back into place upon the vertical wall. The broken rock shards made tiny crackling noises as they hit the sides of the abyss on the way down.
"S-sorry," Lily sighed, searching for a different place to anchor her next vine. "I put too much faith in that one. It won't happen again."
"Actually… what is that?" Prince asked, peering into the shadows above. "The shadows didn't fall quite right. There's something up there."
"A Pokémon?" Ray wondered.
"No… a structure," Prince replied. "Scythe… could you confirm this? Fly up by about twelve body-heights, you should run into something. I cannot tell what it was from what I've seen."
"Fine," Scythe replied. "Char, hold on. You'll need to light my way."
Char's limbs were already growing tired from clinging to the insect Pokémon's torso for so long, but he breathed deeply to renew his strength and held on tighter. As he felt the vibration of the Scyther's wings, Char focused on his inner Ember and flared his tail to provide more light.
As he was not used to flying for such extended periods, especially not in the vertical direction, Scythe took frequent breaks in his ascent up the shaft. It felt to Char like he was jumping, using his power of flight to leap from wall to wall, foothold to foothold. With each of the forceful motions, Char felt the tug of gravity upon his body, threatening to disconnect him from the Scyther and plunge him back to the bottom of the abyss… and while he knew he could hold on for a bit longer, he felt his strength weakening.
"Hm…" Scythe grunted, clinging to the subtle cracks and ledges upon the side of the wall. "There is, indeed, something unusual here… Some type of obstruction."
Char craned his head, trying to see. "If it blocks our way, we might have to smash the rock ourselves," he commented.
"It might not even be a rock," Scythe muttered. "Hold on, Char. Give me just a minute more."
With a few more of Scythe's leaps, Char began to make out the shape for himself. It was a wad of grooved, lightly-colored material which, at first, from his angle, appeared to hang in midair with no support from the abyss walls. After a minute of consideration, Char realized it was indeed attached to both of the walls… as though it were an extension of them, perhaps a sideways stalactite of some kind.
"It's a pillar," Scythe concluded. "A fallen one. It seems to have collapsed to its side, and became petrified into the walls over the centuries."
Wasting no time, Scythe flew above the pillar and landed atop it. Char let out a relieved sigh, letting go of his carrier and giving his arms a rest, setting his feet down upon the surface of the irregular rock formation.
It was a large piece of work, larger than the size of Scythe in diameter, but it didn't stop Char from feeling self-conscious about slipping off the rounded surface of the object. He rooted his claws into the grooves and focused on balance.
"Let's get the others up here," Scythe decided, rubbing a blade against the pillar. "We may take a rest."
Char studied the cracked and worn relic, tracing his claws over it. "Are you sure?" he asked. "This thing could break if we put too much weight on it."
"Seems sturdy enough," Scythe decided. "Doesn't seem to cut easily; seems reinforced with some strong minerals. We should be fine. However…"
Scythe turned his attention upward, squinting farther into the vertical tunnel.
"What?" Char wondered.
"Different… sound dynamics…" Scythe uttered. "And a subtle air current. This tunnel may open into something greater. Hnn… I'm going to get the others. Stay here, don't fall."
After a minute or two of holding in place, wisely choosing not to try peering over the edge, a vine whipped just in front of Char's face and around the pillar. Char stepped on it, using his weight to hold it securely in place. Saura soon appeared upon the end of the vinde, scrabbling his way up the side of the pillar. Char caught his paw and helped him up.
"Thanks," Saura breathed. "This… place is a real workout…"
A few more seconds passed, and Lily's vines came up from the abyss. Ray and Prince climbed them and made their way onto the solid surface.
Once everyone was on top, the group took a well-deserved breather.
"Tough…" Lily gasped, dizzied from the weight of so many Pokémon tugging on her vines. "I could go for an Elixir right now… Phew…"
"Indeed, yes," Prince replied, clinging to the round surface with all of his limbs. "I don't know what being or force of nature could design a passageway so cruel…"
"Hmm, maybe a bird?" Ray offered. "This place looks like part of Team Silverwing's rooms. Especially this perch we're standing on."
"Perhaps…" Scythe replied. "However… I'm not convinced we've seen the extent of this place. I think, if we were to continue this same pace for… roughly half the time we've been climbing, we'd emerge into a larger chamber."
"Why do you say that?" Prince asked.
"KAAAIIIIIIAAAAAHHH!"
Startling everyone half to death, and almost causing Char to leap right off of the pillar, Scythe let a menacing screech into the air.
As the team was collectively left speechless, the sound returned to them.
"aaiii – aiii – aiii – aii…"
Prince sent the Scyther a sneering glare, but then nodded thoughtfully. "Good acoustics," he said. "Yes, it sounds like an expansive space. Unfortunately, that doesn't bode well for us in this darkness. In a cramped cave, we can light the way and see any immediate dangers. In an open space… danger could come from any direction, and we'd never see it."
"Yes…" Scythe replied. "I suppose, then… it's time to use a luminous orb. Char, come and dig one out of this bag."
"No need!" Ray replied. "We have two of them in ours! Here…"
Very carefully setting his bag upon the sloped surface of the sideways pillar, Ray began rustling through Team Ember's supplies and soon produced an orb.
"Like Scythe says, try not to look down, okay?" he warned before commanding the orb to activate.
A blinding blast of yellow light, bright as the morning sun, exploded from the glassy sphere. Magically, the sphere lifted itself from Ray's claws, hovering in air for a few moments while the light continued to increase in intensity. Char wanted to watch in fascination, but he found that his eyes would not let him look straight into it.
The brilliant orb shot into the air like a firework and seemed to explode, dispelling the shadows of the cave and flooding every little darkened corner with visibility. In no time, the dungeon looked much like the Gold Division base shining in the glory of all its ghost torches, except without any visible light source. Strangely, no rock or Pokémon seemed to cast a shadow anymore; everything was evenly lit with the gently pulsing yellow light.
After the orb activated, the team had no trouble keeping themselves from looking down…their awed eyes were drawn to what lay above.
A huge chamber, just about as large as the meeting hall in the Gold Division, opened from the tiny hallway. Though it was not completely visible from the angle he stood, the grandeur of the great cave was perfectly clear to Char. He could see some of the room's features – more pillars, some stone fixtures – but something about the great expanse of space did not sit well with him. Something was off. He tilted his head, careful not to lose his footing, and considered the image his eyes perceived.
"It's… sideways," he realized.
"Sideways?" Saura replied, craning his head similarly.
"Yeah… look. The pillars. They're running from wall to wall, just like this one we're standing on. It's a whole temple, or something… tilted on its side. The place we just climbed up must be an access hall… but it's also sideways. That's why we had to go up."
"Hmm… an impressive spatial anomaly," Prince remarked. "Now you're starting to see what happens when the fabric of space becomes sufficiently corrupted. The deeper-level Mystery Dungeons can become deeply disturbing places. Let us… investigate, shall we?"
After a few more minutes, the team managed to ascend to the lip of the great chamber, and its full beauty opened up to them. Twelve ornately-sculpted pillars ran from wall to wall in two rows, like monkey bars for a giant. Between the rows of pillars, there was some kind of middle procession lane, complete with the remnants of a long, bright-red carpet which appeared like a crumbling painting against the vertical floor. Char could only begin to guess at the building's origin and purpose as he walked with his team across the horizontal wall. Though the chamber was showing some wear, it looked like it was built recently; Char had certainly seen ruins and dungeons that showed many more signs of age.
"Anyone recognize this place yet?" Lily called. "I've never been in a place like this, sideways or not."
"Nor have I…" Prince replied, scrutinizing his surroundings. "At first, it reminded me of some architecture from the destroyed Emerald Division, but no… this is something else."
"This rock looks similar to that from the previous floor," Scythe noted. "This floor could be a continuation of the previous. We could be inside the mountain."
"Guys, look!" Saura cried. "Look up there! On the wall!"
At first, it was something hard to notice – it had been obscured from sight by all of the sideways pillars. But after the team had marched a good length of the room and the pillars were beginning to disperse from sight… the focal point of the room became obvious.
A dusty bronze statue of Groudon, the earthen Pokémon, hung from the wall above. With normal gravity, it would have sat upon the ground at the end of the chamber, but here it precariously hung sideways, secured by nothing but a massive metal dais which looked like a picture frame. It lingered above the team, as though it might suddenly detach from the wall and come crashing down upon the Pokémon.
"The Temple of Groudon," Scythe uttered. "It exists far to the east. I've never been there, but some members of my team have been… At least, I am only assuming this is the same temple."
Char wandered a few steps forward, trying to get a better view of the sculpture through the gaps between the pillars.
"With our luck, the statue is going to come alive and we'll have to battle it," Lily said, rolling her eyes.
"Good thinking," Scythe replied, halfway sarcastically. "Groudon is a ground-type Pokémon. Leaf attacks would work best against it, so you and Saura would be our key fighters."
"Or… we could use another item," Ray said. "No reason orbs can't work on legendary Pokémon. We'll petrify him or confuse him or something. Even if we have to use a few Reviver Seeds, we should be able to take him…"
"Not entirely true," Prince noted. "I've fought a few legendary Pokémon in my time. Some of them are able to disrupt the power of a wonder orb. I believe it is because a legendary's psychic presence trumps mine. If I ask the orb to activate, the legend will ask it to belay my order, and my command will be drowned out."
"Yeah, but you can still throw seeds at it," Lily added. "We found that out back when… wow, how long was that ago? We had to fight a Heatran in that one mineshaft dungeon. Rolla was there, and Iel too, I think…"
"…W-wait, hold on a minute," Ray stuttered. "If we're fighting a legendary Pokémon, our orbs might not work?"
"That's what we said, yes," Prince answered.
"Well, what about the Escape Orbs?"
"Those, too," Prince said. "Unfortunate, but true. If you want to get out with your life at the cost of your belongings, activate your rescue emblem. Otherwise… you can't back down from the fight."
The truth seemed to strike Ray as surprising, judging from his blank stare at the Groudon statue. "Wow, I did not know that," he replied. "Fighting a legendary is already really tough, but you can't run away from them? That's… that's scary."
*Thump.*
The ground briefly shook, rattling some pebbles from the floor. The team silenced their banter, shooting glances everywhere.
"It came from above," Scythe reported, a worried gleam in his eye. "From the statue, I believe."
*Crackle.*
More vibrations came. The sound of rock against rock reverberated through the expansive chamber.
Ray's body began shaking. "Um… I'm going to get our seeds ready!" he decided, static sparkling on his fur. "Hmm, can't we use that Speed Brace? Can I use it? If Groudon is a grounded Pokémon, I won't be able to help very much… Wait, don't we have seeds that can turn us invisible?"
"Quiet," Scythe barked to him, his gaze intense and focused. "Let's first see what we're dealing with…"
*Awwwwwwwr!*
The deep, grumbling sigh of a beast came forth, its source unmistakably the looming statue. It sounded like a monster waking up, its quiet sleep disturbed by banter and bright light.
"…But a Speed Brace would help," Scythe decided, slipping the backpack from his limbs without lowering his gaze. "Take it out. Quickly."
*Rumble-rattle…*
*SMACK!*
In the blink of an eye, a large boulder plummeted from somewhere up above and struck the ground with a thunderous clamor, eliciting a collective gasp from the six Pokémon. Several rocks had fallen, actually, as though a chain-reaction avalanche had occurred near the base of the statue...
…As Char stared at those rocks, he noticed that they were, in fact, connected.
And they moved.
A pair of eyes opened upon them.
"Onix," Lily breathed. "It's just an Onix."
"So it is," Prince replied. "And to think we were all worried for a moment…"
The rock Pokémon twitched, uncoiling itself from the knot it had fallen into. Shaking its head and reorienting itself from the fall, it immediately noticed the intruders and reared up into a battle stance.
Though it looked rather intimidating, Char had taken down larger Onix by himself, not to mention a Steelix. He stood confidently, knowing it posed no real threat to the team.
"Saura," Scythe ordered. "Prepare to fire seeds. Lily, charge a sunbeam attack. We will—"
*CRACKKKK-*
A sudden, intense earthquake took the Scyther's breath away. Char looked downward, noticing a series of deep fissures forming in the chamber wall underneath, until…
*Crick!*
A large chunk of the stone, about double the size of a Graveler, rose straight from the floor and levitated in midair. Char balked at the sight, and backed away a few steps…
*Crick!*
*Crick!*
*Crick!*
More large slabs rose from the crumbling surface underfoot, leaving behind oddly-shaped gouges beneath them. Char watched as they rose far past his eye level, shifting apart…
…Until about six of the giant rocks encircled the team. The Onix emitted a grumbling, cocky laugh. The horn on its forehead shimmered with white power.
"This." Prince growled in disgust. "This dirty trick…"
"W—Whats going on?" Saura cried, cowering away from all of the rocks. "What's it doing?"
"Do not approach the rocks," Prince warned. "If you try to approach them, they will fly at you and cause heavy damage. But if you stand still, they won't hurt you. Oh, by the gods… I hate this technique. Hate it. Brings back dreadful memories of dungeons where every Pokémon used it…"
"Thankfully, he's immune to rock damage now," Lily mentioned to Char and Saura, rolling her eyes. "Doesn't have to worry about it anymore."
"Yes… but the sight of it still makes my heart run cold with revulsion," Prince growled. "Char… come with me, let us teach the Onix not to attack with stealth-rocks. The rest of you… stay as still as you can."
Char dropped to all fours. "Alright," he replied. "Just say when."
Char felt a tapping on his shoulder. He turned around to see Ray standing beside him, holding something which looked like a thick, awkward belt reinforced with a copper-colored metal band.
"Quick, put this on!" he offered. "It's a 'Speed Brace'. It'll help you battle."
Char stood up again, accepting the object. "Thanks…" he muttered, slipping the object over his head and wiggling it past his arms. He pulled a strap, fastening it snugly to his torso. Immediately, a sickening feeling came over him, as though all the blood in his body had become twice as saturated and thick.
Char shook his head, warding off a dizzy spell. It felt as though he'd been momentarily suffocated.
"R….. eeee… aaaaaaady…." Prince called. "Chaaaaaarr?"
It took Char a minute to understand what was happening. He'd used Evasion Orbs before, which helped him to dodge enemy attacks… but he'd never used an item that boosted his speed. It made the rest of the world seem to slow down! Glancing around, it appeared as though his friends were limply adrift underwater. Sounds became difficult to tell apart; the world around him emitted what resembled the dull roar of a furnace. It was as surreal as a dream.
I don't like the way this makes my stomach feel, Char told himself, but this could be a very useful item. Let's see what I can do to that Onix!
Nodding in Prince's direction, making an effort to do so slowly so Prince would perceive the message correctly, Char dropped to the ground and dashed between the floating rocks. As fast as he was, Char couldn't outrun them… they instantly moved to catch up with him, slamming together to crush Char from both sides. Char, of course, didn't feel a thing thanks to Prince's mysterious power of immunity, and the rocks soon parted to let him advance.
Char carefully approached the Onix, whose expression turned to a startled one. He almost chuckled to himself at the irony. Very slowly, the monster shifted its weight and uncoiled its tail. Char saw the attack coming with ease, and merely stepped back a bit to watch as strand of rocks sailed harmlessly past his face.
Gotcha, Char thought to himself as he sprinted toward the beast, who had yet to recover from the recoil of its own attack. The Charmander's claws began to glow, remembering the technique he had learned just for a situation like this one. Taking aim, he swiped at the beast's face with metal-infused claws.
The Onix jerked away with unexpected speed, and the attack connected with one of its body segments. A series of impressive gouges was left behind, but the beast's rock-hard skin hadn't been pierced.
Hmm, Char realized, focusing energy in his claws and rearing up to strike again. I guess I can't overestimate my own speed. Enemies can still move pretty quickly when they need to…
Taking aim a little more carefully this time, and anticipating the creature's dodge, Char pounced with gleaming claws… or, at least he tried to, but his feet seemed frozen to the floor.
Looking down, Char found that his body was wrapped in the coils of the Onix, and he hadn't even felt it.
Ugh… no! Char scolded himself, slamming his metal claws against the thick, rock hide of the Onix. Why did I not watch its tail? Why did I think I was too fast for it?
He wiggled, wormed, and lashed at the rock beast with tooth and claw, but the bind did not budge.
*Booooom…*
The dull roar of thunder erupted, the sound of an explosion slow to reach Char's ears. Char glanced up to see Prince's skillful attack, leaping and slamming a flattened hand against the beast's face. While the karate-chop did not shatter the Onix's head, it caused the monster to falter and fall. Char felt the stony coils weakening around his body, and leaped to freedom as soon as it was possible.
Well… I know one thing that works, Char told himself. Maybe this will work just as well as it did against the Steelix!
While the Onix's head was still dipping down from the blow Prince delivered, Char pounced, grasping tightly onto its horn. After a few seconds slowly passed, the Onix tried to recover, rearing back into the air and taking Char with him. Char carefully balanced himself with the snake's movements and kept himself secure.
As he wondered if the Onix even knew he was there, Char took a moment to consider his next move. He knew his fiery fangs weren't going to melt the beast's shell this time, but wondered if perhaps something else would work. He wondered if trying to break off the beast's horn was a good idea.
Then, he heard his name called.
Char didn't really know how he heard it; the voices spoke so slowly that he had no idea who was speaking. It seemed more like someone had called his name long ago, and he had just now realized it. Regardless, Char turned his attention to his other teammates who were still cowering in the middle of the treacherous floating rocks.
Ray. He was trying to get Char's attention. He was pointing to the bag.
He had found something. An item. He was holding it.
Still carefully clutching the horn and shifting his weight with the Onix's motions, Char took the time to squint and ask himself what Ray held. It was small, metallic. Like a metallic spike.
An Iron Thorn! Yes! He remembered slaying rock beasts with those. He had become adept at using them as daggers. They easily cut through the hides of rock Pokémon if he could connect with his attacks. He nodded to Ray, signaling to toss the object over, and Ray obliged.
It took Char a moment to realize that Ray had not exactly followed his command. No… Ray had hurled the spike, pointy-end-forward, straight at him. It was coming pretty fast, fast enough that Char wondered if he could catch it out of midair…
But then he had a better idea. Still holding on tight, Char flung his body from the side of the Onix's head. Feeling the body of the Onix vibrating as it roared in rage, he weighed the monster down to the side, causing it to lean... right into the exact trajectory of the thrown dart.
The thorn sank into the Onix's left eye.
Char tried to reach up, to retrieve the weapon and use it for himself, but the beast thrashed powerfully and Char decided to let go. He tumbled onto the ground and backed away as fast as he could crawl, the Onix now squirming wildly in pain. He watched as Prince jumped to launch a second attack upon the incapacitated monster, wrangling it to the ground and giving it several great blows to the head. After twitching a couple of times, the monster lay motionless; it was out cold.
*RUUUUUUMMMMMMMMBLE…*
In slow motion, the floating rocks all rattled to the ground and became harmless. Char felt the shockwaves of pressure they caused, and soon, everything was still.
Char felt something on his shoulder. Ray was there. He looked concerned. Very concerned.
"What?" Char replied. "I'm fine!"
Ray indicated the object which Char was wearing. The Speed Brace.
"Hey, I think I like this," Char said, grasping it possessively. "Can't I keep it on for a while?"
Ray sternly shook his head. He extended his paws to help Char remove the accessory.
"Fine, fine…" Char grumbled, fumbling with the strap and trying to get it to loosen. "I can do it myself. Here…"
*Slump*
The moment he loosened the belt and deactivated its effect, all of the feeling in Char's body disappeared. He fell limply to the floor, the brace still looped around his torso.
"Char, you can't wear a Speed Brace for more than a few minutes!" Ray admonished him, slipping the powerful item over the Charmander's arms and head. "It makes you sick!"
"SSick…" Char muttered with his numb mouth, feeling all of his limbs begin to tingle. He did feel slightly nauseous, but it didn't feel like motion sickness to him. It felt like the world was simply moving too fast for him to handle.
Scythe's blade slid into the brace, lifting it from Ray's clutches. "Mentally sick," the Scyther said. "More precisely, it's addicting. A Pokémon who wears one for too long will forget how to properly survive the normal flow of time. You become too used to the world running at a fourth of the speed it's supposed to… it becomes a great hindrance to your reflexes and your basic motor skills. Speed Braces are only to be used sparingly, and only when other Pokémon are around to separate them from you by force if necessary."
With a weak grunt, Char found the strength to climb back to his feet. Still feeling very out of place, he settled for standing on all fours. His heart pounded so fast, it felt as though his body was going to burst. He felt his ember burning dimly.
"Wow," he finally breathed, managing to stand again. "It was intense…"
The team picked themselves up from the scene of the battle and continued to explore the grand, sideways temple. For a few minutes, Char felt a vaguely familiar clumsiness about him, like the feel of being trapped in a body that was not his own. At first he had a little trouble walking, even on four legs, but he shortly regained his rhythm shortly.
"I once knew a Pokémon who decided he wanted to wear a Speed Brace permanently," Scythe spoke in a dark tone, handing the item to Prince. "He had trouble speaking, but he proved an asset to my force, and so at first I supported his decision. However, before the end of the second month, he came to me and told me that he wanted to visit a place where time did not flow at all. The next day, I found that he had taken his own life."
Char cringed at the thought, imagining the scenario vividly in his mind.
Prince slung the powerful belt around his arm, holding it safely for the time being. "That was back when you worked for the Master, wasn't it?" he said inquisitively. "I remember you were telling me that story long ago, back when I still worked at the Gold Division…"
"Indeed…" Scythe sighed. "I told you the story when Alakazam had offered to let us use one on the Cane mission. It might have been the same one you're now holding, since he placed that one in the bag himself. But yes… I fear those things. The power of the gods is not something to be taken lightly by mortals."
"Heh… Power of the gods, huh?" Lily laughed. "That's what you call it? It's that bad?"
Scythe glared at her for a moment. "It is not a joke. A Speed Brace is crafted with a shard of Dialga's true power. Each one contains the grain of a fallen scale from the dragon's body itself, coated heavily with spells to draw out its power."
"It is said of the Pokémon who invented the device, that she did not understand how it worked," Prince added. "She merely discovered that by casting an awakening spell upon a relic of Dialga, her perception of time became blurred whenever she would hold it. Even though she could not comprehend the effect, she built an instrument to utilize its power anyway."
"So… it actually lets you control time," Char spoke, still feeling like his body wasn't moving correctly. "That's why it felt so unnatural…"
"Because you are not Dialga, you can't comprehend what you were doing with the power," Scythe told him. "Because it was not meant for you. That is a hard lesson for anyone who seeks power without understanding its nature. The Speed Brace is not even a power most Pokémon require. In pulses, I can already fly faster than most eyes can see. I don't need a soul-consuming device to make me faster."
"Wow. Pretty deep," Lily replied, laughing nervously. "Well! I think that's killed any chance of me ever trying one on for myself. I already have one godlike power to my name, I don't need another one, thank you very much."
"Th—" Saura gasped.
Char stopped walking. He turned to Saura, and found his best friend trailing a few steps back. Tears were building at the sides of his eyes.
"That—," he tried to say. He shut his eyes tightly, rubbing his forehead against the ground. Char knew his headache was acting up.
"Saura… what is it?" Char asked him, afraid to give him a hug. "Are you okay?"
"That's what you said, isn't it?" Saura replied, blinking the tears away and trying to fight the headache. "Or, that's what your vision of me said… in the dream. Mortals can't understand time…"
"Y…yes…" Char said, frozen with a momentary sense of shock. "That… that's right."
Char didn't quite know what else to say. Saura looked upset at him, or upset at himself. Either way, it looked like he was struggling with pain. A quiet moment of tension settled over them, as Char tried to ask himself what it meant.
"Heh… I guess maybe the vision was trying to tell you something after all," Saura said, shrugging. "I'm sorry if I doubted you. Let's keep going."
"Saura… are you going to be okay?"
"Don't worry about me," Saura replied flatly. "I just… don't like this place. Let's just keep going, okay?"
Char opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came to him. Saura walked past him.
… … …
"Check everything again!" Scythe ordered. "I'll fly and explore the opposite end of the room. Check all the walls again. Temples such as this usually have a hidden passageway."
About half an hour had passed. The team found themselves walking circles around the same temple hall, combing the room for any clues or secret openings. The Onix never did wake up again, but Char thought he saw it squirming sometimes, and the stairs were nowhere to be seen. He realized how much more challenging the battle would have been, not to mention the rest of the room, without the Luminous Orb having been used.
Save for the wreckage around the Onix, the scenery itself was bland and featureless; the true floor of the room, which was attached to the wall like a giant tapestry, was much more interesting with its royal red rug and the miniature statues of ground-type Pokémon worshiping the legend.
"Isn't that a door up there?" Saura noted. "Since the room is sideways, wouldn't the exit be on the ceiling, since we came from the floor?"
"That is not a door," Scythe grumbled. "It's an alcove where a statue should be. But if there is a door up there, I will find one. Stay here, and don't do anything stupid. I'll be right back."
"Hey, wait…" Ray said, touching his chin.
Scythe had opened his wings already, but he hadn't taken off. "What is it?" he demanded.
"Um… how about we just use a Stairs Orb?"
"Alakazam packed none of those," Scythe told him. "Are you telling me that you have one in your bag?"
"Yes!" Ray exclaimed. "I packed one of those too. It helped us through Pinpoint Valley once when we were going in circles like this. Since we had a leftover one, I packed it."
Scythe looked relieved. "By all means, Ray. Use the orb."
"Hmm… I'm impressed with you, little Raichu…" Prince said as Ray dug into the bag. "You've seemed to come very prepared. Are you the designated items specialist on Char's team?"
"Not… really…" Ray muttered, feeling around inside of the sack. "Since I'm the strongest Pokémon, I've always had to hold the item bag on missions, so I got used to using a lot of items… Hmm, that's funny. The Luminous Orb lit the inside of the bag, too. Okay, here!"
Ray yanked the shiny sphere from the sack. Char thought it looked larger than most other orbs he'd seen, but figured it was probably just a trick of the light. Ray clutched it with both hands and began speaking telepathically to it.
The orb shot out of his paws, blasting off like a cannonball.
*Ching!*
It crashed directly into the head of the Groudon statue, shattering apart. The shards sounded musical as they fell to the floor.
"…The statue." Scythe said, rubbing his forehead on his blade. "I should have known. There's a secret passage under the statue. Or behind it, from this point of view."
"Now just don't step on the broken glass this time, Char," Ray said. "Last time we used one, Char got a shard stuck in his foot…"
"Question," Lily said. "Apart from bringing the statue to life, and trying to battle it… how are we going to move it?"
"Good question," Prince replied. "Does anyone know how to perform a Hyper Beam?"
"I… used to," Scythe said. "I have not used that technique since Team Remorse was founded. I have since forgotten…"
"Break the wall," Char suggested. "Prince, try to smash the wall like you did the mountainside. Maybe it'll trigger another avalanche and bring the statue down."
"I'd rather not," Prince answered. "Even if I wore the Speed Brace, I don't think I'd be able to get out of the way before it falls on me. And that thing's not made of stone… it's made of metal. It would be another Reviver Seed gone. Ray? Can you suggest any more items that might help us?"
"Maybe…" Ray started. "If we—"
There was a faint sound.
It resembled a windstorm. A tornado. It overtook the entire chamber for just a few seconds, as though a sudden breeze whooshed through a faraway corridor.
Every Pokémon in the room froze at the sound, and then it ended, just as quickly.
"Um… what was that?" Char wondered, breaking the awkward silence.
Char glanced at his teammates. Saura, Ray, and Lily all appeared just as confused as he.
Prince and Scythe, on the other hand… appeared to be breaking into a cold sweat. Panic could be seen in their eyes.
Somehow… Char instantly began to dread that sound.
"Oh… oh gods," Scythe breathed. "No, no, no. No…"
"What? What?" Char stammered.
"You… don't want to know what that was," Prince uttered. "I'm being honest. You do not want to know."
"Wait… how do you know what that is?" Lily asked, looking over her shoulder as though trying to find the source of the sound. "You've never been in this dungeon before, have you?"
"It's… a sound which every dungeon explorer hears eventually," Prince said. "Something's stirring. We have to get to that staircase now. Scythe? Any ideas?"
"Yes," Scythe said. "I wear a Mobile Scarf and fly through the statue. I then use a Rollcall Orb and bring the rest of you behind the statue with me. We proceed from there."
"That will be our last Rollcall Orb, you know," Prince warned him. "We cannot abuse that strategy any longer. If we run out of those… we must stay together as a team from now on. If just one of us gets trapped, they would run out all of our Reviver Seeds before we could rescue them."
"If we wait around here any longer, our Reviver Seeds will be useless!" Scythe shouted. "We have no choice. Ray, Char, or someone. Find our last Rollcall Orb and place it on the very top, so I may be able to activate it. Someone else, tie a Mobile Scarf on me. We must move!"
Scythe's plan worked without a hitch, and soon, Char and his friends were teleported into the ridiculously cramped chamber behind the bronze statue. The staircase to the next floor was in full view, with no tricks or traps standing in their way.
Char could only begin to wonder what Scythe and Prince were so scared of. He wondered what kind of danger was chasing them this time.
Temporal Tower 6F
A minute after ascending the stairs, the team overlooked a long, brutal cliff into dark nothingness. The walls were lined with broken ladders and bent support beams all the way down – like an abandoned mineshaft, it seemed. Some of the rocks in the walls were luminescent, emitting a soft blue glow. Scythe heaved a huge sigh, commenting that his wings were growing tired, and he began brainstorming for ways to descend the pit.
And then Char pointed out that the stairs to the next floor were right behind them.
"Yes, it happens sometimes," Prince said, joining everyone in a nervous, yet relieved chuckle. "Even in places like this, it happens sometimes."
Instead of continuing to the next floor, the team unanimously decided a short breather would be good. Prince punched the rocks in the hallway that led to the abyss, causing a minor avalanche which closed them in a cozy little room so that no Pokémon would bother them. The blue glow-rocks upon the walls mixed with the orange and red light of the fire Pokémon, setting an atmosphere not unlike a seaside sunset.
"Okay, so tell us," Char insisted as Prince poked around in the bag for elixirs. "What was that windy noise? Why were we running away from it?"
"To be perfectly honest," Prince grunted, "Nobody knows. Nobody has been able to see it. Ah, there are five Max Elixirs in here. Alakazam did pack well. Also, if anyone's hungry, we can cut into the last apple…"
"See what?" Saura pressed, just as interested as Char. "What does it do? Does it kill you?"
"It is a force," Scythe explained, sitting against a wall. "An invisible force. If it touches you… you pass out instantly. The Reviver Seeds cannot counteract it. They are powerless to save you. That… is all we know about it."
"It tends to come when you spend extended periods of time on a single floor of a Mystery Dungeon," Prince continued, uncapping a jar of Elixir and eying its contents. "But you can always hear it coming. Sometimes, it sounds like a whirlwind. Other times, it sounds like an earthquake."
"Hmm… I've heard about it, but that's the first time I've ever heard it myself," Lily said. "Which is weird. I've spent long times in dungeons before, and I've never heard… well, whatever it is."
"Remember what it sounds like, and always run for the stairs when you hear it," Prince told her, offering her a drink. "If you can't make it to the stairs, use an Escape Orb. It's that simple."
"I've heard an interesting theory about the mysterious force," Scythe said, staring at the ceiling. "According to some, the wind, and the quake… are the sounds of the Mystery Dungeon changing shapes. The dungeons are different every time you enter them… they change shape when nobody is looking. If you happen to be caught inside a floor when it changes shape… the dungeon brutally rejects you."
"That is a theory I personally reject, but Pokémon are allowed to hold it," Prince said. "I've had my men go into dungeons at almost the same time and have experienced different floor layouts. I highly doubt the mysterious force is the cause of the dungeons changing. It's simply something we can't yet understand with our knowledge of the Mystery Dungeon curse."
"My teammates have claimed to have witnessed spatial distortions before their eyes," Scythe retorted. "We were once trapped in a dungeon when we felt the earthquake coming. Since we had no way to escape, I told my teammates to watch and try to perceive what happens. Although I myself saw nothing, both Markov and Brock claimed to see the dungeon walls shifting and growing before blacking out."
"But you cannot be sure what they witnessed was not a dream, once they had lost consciousness," Prince insisted. "No offense to your team, but you're one of the most perceptive Pokémon I know. If you saw nothing, that's good enough evidence against their case."
Scythe gave an indifferent shrug to the comment. Prince continued to sift through the bag's contents, and he soon lifted the final remaining Golden Apple, which he set upon the sand-covered floor. Char's eyes fell upon it instantly. He was starting to get hungry. Though he convinced himself to hold out for a few more floors, the twinge of hunger had certainly flickered to life down in his belly.
"Oh, Char…," Prince said. "Before I forget, I had something I wanted to show you."
Char reluctantly tore his eyes from the shining apple to find that Prince was untying something. He was opening the small brown pouch which hung from his belt.
That! Char thought to himself, suddenly very interested. He's been hiding something in there since we left Rayquaza's Clutch!
Prince's fingers struggled a bit to unloop the tiny knots in the twine. Char knew that this pouch was something Prince rarely opened. He realized it must be something of grave importance, great power, to constantly keep it hidden from sight as such…
At last, Prince yanked open the small, sagging pouch… He hesitated for a moment, lending an affectionate gaze to what lie within, before lifting it up for the world to see.
Prince held in his palms a sphere-shaped object, made of unblemished, lustrous glass. Within the sphere, suspended at its very center, there existed… a streak of light. It emitted a soft, hypnotizing, icy-blue radiance, as if a perpetual bolt of lightning had been captured and petrified within the glass.
No… not lighting.
Fire.
It was fire, Char realized. A beautiful, ethereal tongue of white-blue fire stood within the center of the orb. Although it produced light, the flame did not burn, flicker, or dance… it simply existed, perfectly still, eternally frozen in the shape of a baby ice-phoenix yearning for rebirth.
The light was warm and welcoming to Char's eyes, somehow. Its glow was like the mark left on the eye after staring into the sun for too long.
It was an item of such simple, eloquent beauty, Char could not help but revere it. He turned to Saura, and noticed both he and Ray were just as captivated by the object as he was, a silvery sheen sparkling in their eyes as they beheld it.
"This… is the 'frozen flame'," Prince announced, "or so I like to call it. This is what grants me, and Char by extension, invincibility from rocks."
"It's pretty…" Saura admitted. "What is it?"
"It's… an object I found in a dungeon long, long ago, a dungeon known as the 'Destiny Abyss'," Prince explained, turning the orb in his hand and admiring it. "It is a 'Fiery Globe', a legendarily rare object which has been previously documented to exist, though only about three of them have ever been found… so I was stricken with the most humbling sense of awe when I stumbled upon it just sitting in the corner of a Mystery Dungeon. However… something is different about this one. Fiery Globes are known to be red in color, and have the property of protecting fire-type Pokémon within a certain radius from being harmed by water. If you had one, Char, you could easily go swimming in the sea, as your flame would continue to burn even underneath the water.
"But this one… I can only imagine that it was altered by the severe spatial anomalies of the Abyss, for it does not protect against water. It does, however, protect against damage from rocks. I suppose I cannot complain…"
Char smiled, his eyes glimmering in the frozen firelight. The sight of this simple orb brought warmth and comfort to his heart.
"Is it fragile?" Saura asked. "That glass looks so thin. Will the fire disappear if you break it?"
"I don't know," Prince admitted. "And no, it does not break easily. Even though the glass looks like a water-bubble, and it's not that heavy, it seems to be very solid. I've dropped it on the floor a few times and it has yet to even gain a dent, although I have not tried to destroy it on purpose. Here, Char. Want to hold it?"
Char accepted the sphere into his claws carefully as he would handle a newborn hatchling. He stared intently into the ghostly, motionless streak of light. He guided his claws over its nearly-transparent surface, and felt nothing. The surface was so frictionless, its touch was like a gentle gust of wind across his hands…
"That's probably the most awesome item I've ever seen…" Ray said solemnly. "You're very lucky to have found it."
"As far as the rare, magical items out there, there are better," Prince said. "I'd have preferred to get my hands on a real Fiery Globe, personally. But yes… I am lucky, especially since a number of Fire-types served on my team back in the day and were able to utilize the globe's effect… Ahh, and it did bring me such strength and confidence to wield. In fact, it was soon after I returned from the Destiny Abyss with this item, that I founded the Silver Division… which I, admittedly, named after the color of this globe."
Scythe scoffed.
"You've never told me that before," he said with a coughing laugh. "Your Silver Division was named after that?"
"Seemed appropriate enough, at the time," Prince returned. "It still does, in fact. A tiny tongue of fire which refuses to die, despite being encased in glass and infused with the color of ice, bringing strength and hope to those who fight…"
"Fair enough, I suppose," Scythe sighed. "It has gotten us this far, after all…"
Even after Prince had dropped the Frozen Flame back into his pouch and secured the tiny knots again, Char could still see a silvery fire when he closed his eyes.