Unbroken Disguise

Solaceon was a relatively small settlement, probably around the size of Floaroma if N were to guess. The town seemed to be focused along one main road, serving as the connection point between routes 209 and 210, nestled in between the eastern edge of the Coronet range and some smaller cluster of mountains that didn’t have a proper name on the map he’d been using. Much of the western portion of the city looked to be flat and cleared of trees, instead being used as some sort of ranch. The eastern portion of the city rose right up into the unnamed mountains, various buildings standing alone atop cliff faces. He worried about the stability of such structures, but perhaps if they had the assistance of local Ground and Rock types they’d be safe.

And then there was what looked like the main attraction of the town. Right in the center of it was a large purple building shaped like a keystone, and while all the signage and idle talk of the people they’d passed so far pointed towards it being no more than a contest hall, he couldn’t help the shudder it sent down his spine.

Having the hall shaped like that while being so close to the Hallowed Tower probably wasn’t a coincidence, and he wasn’t exactly over the encounter just yet.

And on top of that, it made his mind wander to how Dawn was doing…

He wasn’t able to get lost in those thoughts for long though, as shortly after entering into the town proper, a familiar face came running towards them.

“Yahoo! Hey, Lucas!” Barry smiled as he skidded to a stop in front of them. “...and the cheater,” he added with a glare.

N rolled his eyes and ignored Mimikyu’s quiet chuckle. Hadn’t Lucas been the one accused of cheating? How had he managed to go from being a “cheerleader” to a “cheater”?

“Anyways, I got something cool,” the boy continued. “I’ll show you as a special favor!” Reaching for his belt, he quickly tossed a Pokeball into the air, a Staravia landing on the dirt between them with a flash of light.

Barry seemed surprised, though. “Huh? What the… What’s this about?”

N shared a look with Lucas as the blond inspected his ball, but neither seemed to have a clue what they were meant to be seeing.

Barry let out a defeated sigh. “...I got some seals, but I forgot to put them on.” But the boy wasn’t one to slow down for anything, perking right back up. “Oh, right. It’s because I was at the ruins. The ruins here are cool. You have to check it out. I even found a hidden machine, it was Defog! I’ll battle you another time, see ya!”

Quickly returning the Staravia, Barry sped off down the road from the same direction he came from.

“...bzzrt. That boy confuses Rotom.”

“I think ‘e confuses us all. I dunno where ‘e gets all the energy from…” Mimikyu agreed.

“One confusing part in particular stood out to me,” N chimed in. “He said that he found the HM for Defog in the town’s ruins? That seems like an odd place for one to be if Fantina’s explanation was true.”

Lucas only shrugged.

“We could always check it out for ourselves,” Mimikyu suggested. “I figure Lucas is gonna wanna check it out even without the promise of a HM hidden in there.”

That was probably correct. A place that was referred to as a ruin was bound to have items left behind in it, though N had a feeling he’d have to stop the boy from picking up any ancient artifacts that they might stumble across. Disturbing archeological sites was a good way to upset the powers that be.

“You have a point. Though before that, there was one place I wanted to investigate first…”

Taking the lead, N let his eyes wander to the shadows up against the buildings and in between the foliage.

He didn’t see anything out of the ordinary.

Yet he knew that something was there.

Having the Shadow Triad tagging along was going to take some getting used to.

“We were raising your Pokemon, and my goodness, were we surprised! Your Pokemon was holding an Egg!” A bald old man exclaimed. “We don’t know how it got there, but your Pokemon had it. You do want it, don’t you?” He asked, offering said egg out to a young trainer.

The boy looked at him wide-eyed before carefully accepting the egg. With a quick thanks, he started making his way towards the Pokemon Center, if N’s map was accurate.

“You take good care of it!” The old man shouted after him. That’s when he noticed their group. “Ah, hello there! Always good to see new faces,” he softly laughed with a smile. “I run the Day-Care with my wife, is there anything I can help you with? Of course, if you actually want to leave your Pokemon with us you’ll have to go inside, but I can answer any burning questions you might have.”

N had been afraid of this. Ranches and farms were one thing. The Moomoo Farm in Johto was renowned worldwide for their milk, and back home the Floccesy Ranch sold wool on a much smaller scale. In the past, N had been worried about their potential for Pokemon exploitation, but he’d quickly learned that the Pokemon at those sorts of places were eager to be involved. They enjoyed sharing what they could with other Pokemon, and with the help of the ranchers they were able to help a lot more Pokemon than they could on their own. In a way, it was really the Pokemon exploiting the humans. The Pokemon got treated like royalty to ensure the best product available would be produced, and most of the profit went right back into giving Pokemon a better life.

But what N had assumed to be yet another of these locations upon entering the town had something off about it. Instead of the land being filled with one species in particular that had some sort of product to offer, it was instead filled with a wide assortment of different Pokemon, some that were familiar to him, and many that weren’t. Add the scene that he’d just witnessed, and, well…

“Be honest with me. Is this one of those disgusting breeding mills?”

“Even if ‘e were, do ya think he’d say yes after ya call ‘em disgustin’?” Mimikyu muttered into his ear with clear disapproval. “‘Ave some tact…”

The old man’s eyes went wide. “A breeding-? Oh, no, no, I assure you this is just a humble Day-Care! Lots of trainers hit their carry limit and don’t like the idea of having their friends cooped up inside the PC system, so they bring them here so they can run around and make new friends! We charge them a modest rate to cover the upkeep and all the food, but it’s nothing like a mill!”

“Then what was that just now?” N pressed further. “If you’re not a mill, then are you just handing off random eggs for free?”

He could picture it now. Away from prying eyes they’d have a mill set up, selling off egg after egg for profit and quickly handing one over to any unsuspecting trainers to keep them distracted.

“Well it’s just as I told that young man! I don’t know how it got there, but his Pokemon was holding an egg, so I made sure to pass it on to him!”

N gave the man a disbelieving look. “You expect me to believe that you don’t know how it got there?”

“I don’t know what you want me to say!” The old man looked a tad offended. “It doesn’t happen all the time, but occasionally when a trainer leaves two Pokemon with us, one day we’ll wake up and there will be an egg! It’s all very mysterious. I’ve heard a rumor that Professor Elm over in Johto was looking into it, but if there’s been any findings I haven’t a clue…” Slowly, the old man’s eyes started to widen. “Hold on just a moment. The way you’re talking about it… don’t tell me you know the secret?! You simply must tell me! How exactly are these eggs coming to be in my Day-Care?”

With all offense gone in an instant, the man looked at him with the same wide-eyed wonder that the trainer from before had shown, and Lucas quickly joined him, eager to get the answer as well.

N squinted. “Is this some sort of a joke?”

Mimikyu laughed. “N, I think ya might ‘ave ta give ‘em the… ah, what would ya call it ‘ere… the Pidgeots and the Beedrills, maybe?”

What was happening? The man before him was ancient. He said he had a wife. How could he possibly not know where these eggs were coming from? This had to be some sort of attempt at deflection.

“Bzzrt. If you are unwilling to explain, Rotom will!” His flip phone hissed out an odd electronic laugh. “You see, when two Pokemon-”

N quickly clamped his hand over Rotom’s speaker.

He looked into Lucas’ innocent eyes.

He couldn’t approve of this. Perhaps… Perhaps this old man was telling the truth, and this really was just a place for captured Pokemon to escape the PC system…

“...I’m afraid it’s just as much a mystery to me.”

Mimikyu broke out into loud, obvious laughter.

“If it makes ya feel any better, he wasn’ lyin’ to ya or anythin’.” Mimikyu tried reassuring him. “It really is just a place for Pokemon to stretch their legs.”

“Not. Another. Word.” N blushed as Mimikyu brought it up yet again.

“Bzzrt. Perhaps N really is also lacking in such knowledge! Which would be odd, given that Rotom is the one who-”

“I believe our Lord said that was enough,” one of his Shadows spoke up, imperceptible to vision but heard clearly enough.

“Thank you,” he quietly showed his appreciation as the Pokemon stopped tag teaming him.

They had explored Solaceon a fair bit more since the Day-Care incident. Lucas had gotten ahold of some of the seals that Barry had spoken about, though N was a bit surprised to find that it was just the usual contest supplies that he’d grown used to with Dawn. He couldn’t see either of the young boys having an interest in the scene, so the two of them collecting items for contests didn’t make much sense to him. But then again, Lucas did seem to be a bit of a hoarder, so that might explain it…

Though he should probably be less worried about the hoarding and more worried about the fact that Lucas had just barged into that poor woman’s house. How she had gone so quickly from shock at the brat’s sudden intrusion to handing over a seal case, N wasn’t sure he’d ever understand.

After that he’d been more watchful of his travelling companion, but Lucas managed to get around the “no breaking into strangers’ houses” rule by finding the one building that actively invited people inside. Though that was less of a house and more of an office of sorts? They’d claimed to run Sinnoh’s biggest newspaper, but they didn’t have a printing press nor even a simple home printer as far as he could see. Perhaps it was only available digitally? Trying to establish market dominance early could be helpful once personal devices with bigger screens like the C-Gear were publicly released… but in any case, Lucas had managed to get some Great Balls and a Heart Scale in exchange for letting them write an article on Torterra.

Now, though, they found themselves investigating the ruins that Barry had mentioned.

“Bzzrt!” Rotom floated out in front of the group. “The Solaceon Ruins refers to the entire structure, but in actuality it consists of two separate sites! The maze-like cavern system beneath the ground is said to have existed first, and the temple on top was built much later, but still far into the past. The older caves are full of branching paths and dead ends while being a home to many Unown, while the temple reportedly has a simple layout and lacks any Pokemon, even if it is much more visually impressive.”

Two ruins? One stacked on top of the other? That was an interesting way to do things, but he couldn’t claim to understand the thinking of ancient civilizations. “I suppose we should explore them both, then. Which should we start with?”

“Can we maybe skip the bit up top?” Mimikyu instantly interjected. “All the good stuff is gonna be down below ‘n’ I ain’ too keen on that temple.”

Not keen on the temple? Why would that be? N let his gaze drift into the distance, towards the entrance of the temple… and spotting two large statues. One for Palkia, and one for Dialga.

“Perhaps you have a point…” N eventually agreed. Besides, even without that, it wasn’t like a simple layout with no Pokemon inside was very appealing in the first place. “The caves it is, then.”

Lucas gave them all a questioning look, but eventually shrugged and led the way, following the path to an obviously man made cave entrance.

As they entered, a chill went down his spine. Was it because the Shadows and their Ghost would be in closer proximity in an enclosed space like this? Or was there something else already in here setting off his nerves?

The walls of the ruins looked to be made up of brick, and though there were no obvious sources of light, the ruins were bright enough that the whole room could be made out, including three separate stairways leading deeper inside. Against the far wall was some sort of inscription.

Lucas marched right up to it, tilted his head in confusion, and shrugged his shoulders.

“What, you can’t read it?” N asked.

The boy shook his head no.

“Can you read it?” Mimikyu asked.

Taking a step closer, N took a look for himself. The text looked familiar, yet alien at the same time. Each character had what looked to be an eyeball incorporated into it, and yet it almost seemed like…

“Is this some sort of ancient Unovan? That first word looks like TOP, but after that… maybe that’s a ‘P’? Then an ‘I’, but I have no idea what the next one would be…”

“It seems to be written in Unown, Lord N,” one of the Shadows whispered, though the words still echoed a bit in the cave.

Unown? Huh. He had been taught that it was the script often found in ancient ruins, but this was the first time he’d actually seen it.

“Top right, lower left, top right, top left, top left, lower left…” Mimikyu mumbled. “I think these are instructions? Followin’ ‘em probably leads to the deepest part.”

N blinked. “You can read this?”

“Yeah?” Mimikyu confirmed as he quickly dug out his notepad and pen from N’s belongings, writing down the instructions. “I told ya that before, didn’ I?”

Now that N thought about it, Mimikyu had claimed such a thing, hadn’t he? Unown, Unovan, and apparently some League… What an odd combination. Though if Unown was really this similar to Unovan, perhaps it wasn’t that hard to learn once you got past a few of the odd ones.

“These are some odd instructions, though, bzzrt.” Rotom chimed in. “What use are top and bottom directions when this level is a flat plane?”

“I’m thinkin’ that they make sense if yer lookin’ at each room from a top down view. If ya draw it out like this….” Mimikyu quickly sketched out the layout of the entrance, “then the top right would be this stairway.”

N frowned. “A top down view? What, like you’re looking at a map or something? Do people map out caves like that?”

“I dunno, it just makes the most sense ta me,” Mimikyu replied, making his way down the staircase he’d decided was the top right.

The rest of the group followed behind, but once they made it to the next level, they found the little Ghost frozen in place, staring down the surprisingly bright hall.

Floating through the air all throughout the hall was a group of Unown composed entirely of one letter. It sort of looked like a stick figure, but with a sort of… beak? Coming out of the side of its eye-head.

Mimikyu sounded tense when he spoke. “Right… just the letter F…” Turning back towards them, he continued. “Translate for me, will ya? I highly recommend ya don’t touch ‘em, and you absolutely should not request anythin’. Er, no… they read ‘er mind or somethin’ didn’t they… shit… I guess if Barry came through it should be fine, shouldn’ it?”

By the end, N wasn’t sure how much of that was a command and how much was Mimikyu muttering to himself. “Did you want me to translate all of that?”

Mimikyu sighed. “Just be careful around these things. Some of the weakest Pokemon out there on their own, but together… scary stuff can ‘appen.”

Well, wasn’t that ominous. Given what had happened with Mimikyu’s last warning, N saw fit to take this one seriously.

Travelling with N could be annoying at times.

Initially he’d been good about speaking in Sinnohian so that Lucas could understand him, but those ninja guys seemed to only speak Galarian and so their mutual travelling companion seemed to be switching between the two sometimes at random.

And speaking of the ninja guys, they needed to show him how to do their hide-y thing! Lucas had sort of thought they’d left, but they kept speaking from the shadows! Super cool. Maybe a little scary when he wasn’t expecting a random voice, but still, super cool.

For now, though, Lucas was on his own.

Well, not really. He still had his Pokemon with him. And he could get back to N any time he wanted! It was just that after figuring out how they were navigating the ruins, Lucas had realized how many paths were going to be left untouched, and… well…

He couldn’t just pass up on potential treasure!

And what a haul he’d had so far!

He’d found not one, not two, but three different evolution stones! Eevee would really be spoiled for choice now! He’d initially been worried that he’d have to go out and buy one at the crazy prices they charged in stores, but his treasure hunting had really paid off!

He only wished this place could pay off in the other way that a trainer would appreciate. These Unown looked pretty weak, maybe even the perfect opponents for Togepi to try out some actual battle on, but after that confusing warning from Mimikyu and N…

Well, Spiritomb had taught him a lesson.

It’s best to understand things at least a little before you go messing with them.

He could hold back, right? Just the necessary amount. It’s not like he was Barry. Or actually, Barry had already come through here, hadn’t he? So getting through these ruins without issue was the bare minimum…

“...something anew and alive?”

“Kyu, Mi-kyu!”

The conversation echoed out from the staircase he was approaching.

Had he caught up with them already? Maybe this place wasn’t as big as he’d thought. Though since this cave was man made, he supposed it made sense. Even with the help of Pokemon, this would have been a huge pain to make, so getting bigger unnecessarily didn’t make much sense.

“It doesn’t make much sense to me, either… Oh, hey Lucas. How nice of you to join us again.” N shot him a look as he took the last steps down into the final chamber.

An annoyed N was bad. Best to avoid that by scouring for loot.

Strangely enough, there seemed to be a small pile of it towards the back of the room. Or was it the front? He’d technically entered from the back…

He pushed those thoughts aside as he picked up a gold nugget and some sort of weird incense. Alongside them was the HM for Defog, just like Barry had said, and… one of those weird plates he kept finding?

There was an engraving. “The Original One breathed alone before the universe came.”

More nonsense, then. Just like the rest of them.

Oh well, he’d store it away anyway. Might be somewhat important later.

“Kyu?”

“How should I know? I didn’t dig through it before he got here.”

“Kyuu…”

Lucas shot N a questioning look. The green haired guy sighed. “It’s probably nothing, Mimikyu just didn’t remember the weird plate thing being there before you arrived.”

…so Mimikyu was eyeing up Lucas’ potential loot, and not even doing a good job of it. Lucas would need to keep an eye on the little Fairy.

“Still though, I wonder how they replace the HM if they intend for people to come get it from here? Such a weird spot for it, especially since Fantina said the League typically has to approve of your skills before letting you get them… but I suppose that’s a question for another time. We’ve reached the end, might as well go back up to the surface.”

Lucas didn’t get how he could say such a thing without having explored the whole place like him. But Lucas supposed that he had explored the whole place now. Might as well.

And so N led the way back up the stairs, Mimikyu on his shoulder, and Lucas followed behind.

Except, a flash of light caught his eye before he actually ascended.

When he looked back, he saw that the goodies had been replaced. Teleported there, maybe? That would explain the flash. Part of him wanted to test his luck and go back for seconds… but he didn’t know how powerful the Psychic responsible was, and he might get in trouble…

Fighting against his instinct to collect, Lucas continued on behind N.

One thing did bother him though, even beyond the whole leaving items behind.

He’d seen another nugget, an incense, a HM…

Why hadn’t the plate been replaced as well?