Ch. 35 - Something Red, Something Blue

“Writing?” Tully asked, cocking his head at me. He fluttered over and peered up at the wall. “Where? That… that graffiti around those pictures?”

I pointed a paw at the faded yet still legible words written in that strange stick-and-eyeball writing I’d seen several times before, most recently on the island with mew. “Yes, it’s right there.”

“You can read that? It’s actually… what, words?”

“Uh huh, it’s pretty basic stuff. I think it’s more ornamental than anything else.” I cleared my throat, and padded to the apparent beginning of the piece. “Lucky? Can you clear some dirt away for me? Gently as possible, please.”

“Anything for you, sweet-cheeks, I can be gentle.” The croconaw flexed his large, muscular, well-toned body and showed off his deep voice and sharp fangs. I rolled my eyes, but the blue menace did as he was asked. I pulled Shadow closer for some light and, trying to avoid having my fur frizz up too much, began to read.

“One to,” I paused, digging some dirt out, “bring forth? The solid land, one to take the sea in hand… one to guard the frontiers of… space? These three… protect? Shape? It’s not clear… the… maiju race?” I tilted my head as I read the words written around an ancient drawing of three huge creatures depicted in a roughly triangular mural. “That’s not quite right,” I grouched, “but it’s like I can’t read the letters properly.”

“Humans wrote that?” asked Tully, pointing a wing and clacking his beak in thought. Sissy padded her way across the cave and put a paw on the wall.

“I don’t think humans wrote that, or at least not these humans.” She pointed out of the cave. “At least I don’t think our humans would write something like that, in that way.”

“That’s definitely Rayquaza,” I said, pointing to the upper beast. “Or… or a rayquaza. I don’t know how many there are. At least one, she liked my chilli.”

“You know, if that was anybody else saying that,” snarked Tully, “I wouldn’t have believed them. But I know better.”

“Maybe this was done by a smeargle?” suggested Sissy.

“I don’t think there are any smeargle here… aren’t there supposed to be mawiles though? Hey, didn’t you say you were from here?” I asked.

Sissy froze for a second, then slowly nodded. “I… yes.”

“Oh wow! Great! Then maybe we shoul—”

“No! No, there’s no need.” Sissy strode off quickly, looking for more drawings or something as far away as possible.

I stood there for a moment, one forepaw held out, tail high, before I sat down on my haunches. “O-okay, okay, if you say so. W-we, uh, we sh-should—” I stammered out. At that moment, though, I was interrupted by a massive shower of water.

“Hey guys! There are tunnels beneath here!” Monty roared, as he burst from the surface of the underground lake. “I can take you all through the best one! It leads out somewhere!”

Somehow, that sounded like the less scary way forwards than tip-toeing around Sissy’s familial issue, so a few terrifying moments later we all found ourselves holding our breath — other than Lucky, who was screaming with joy in a stream of bubbles the whole time — as we barreled through pitch-black, flooded tunnels mere inches from death, with only brief flashes of light from Shadow that made my fur tingle to break it up. For a brief moment I considered trying a similar trick, but there was something about holding on for dear life that took precedence.

With a sudden burst of speed and a return of gravity, we exploded into open air as Monty slid to a halt and the rest of us took huge gulps of air. I shook myself off from nose-tip to tail, then pushed some of my energy down into my paws and lit up the cave. We were deep, deep underground now, with no apparent way out other than the way we’d come in.

“Can… can you find the way out again?” I asked, trying hard not to shake from the cold.

“Of course,” Monty replied. “I can smell the way back. These tunnels drew me here, this is the deepest part of these caves! At least,” he looked slightly embarrassed for some reason, “this is the deepest we can reach this way.” With some effort, Monty flexed his powers and levitated from the ground. He was big, but so far the tunnels and caves were of a size even he could fit. “At least without more travel.”

“O-okay, guys, let’s… let’s see what we can find,” said Tully. He took up station on Shadow’s back, despite the latter’s best attempts to dislodge him, and with that our eclectic group finished drying itself off and made its way through the cave.

The cave was massive, with only brief bursts of light powerful enough to reach even part way to the ceiling, which was filled with stalactites. Similarly jagged stalagmites reached up from the ground, reaching towards the invisible skies. The rock was dark, volcanic, with sharp edges that sought blood with every misstep. Our steps echoed through the foetid darkness, sounds shared only by the constant, random drip, drip, drip of water.

With a sudden screech, an angry flock of zubat descended on us from the ceiling. They were a hard counter to a lot of generic moves we had, but Tully got heated enough to do his moltres impression, Shadow started trying to weld the cave walls together, and whether it should’ve worked or not, Barb’s double-kick sent enough of them flying that they dispersed soon after. After that, we didn’t see much action for a while, though we did hear noises from wild ‘mon making way.

“We came here for… battles, I guess, but there’s nopoke here,” Tully complained a few minutes later, fluffing himself out.

“Gen-gen-gen… there are pokemon here, but they’re hiding, watching.” Guy flitted around, only his eyes visible, the only one of us perfectly dry.

“From us?” Bart asked, flexing his claws nervously as he glanced about.

“No, not just us, mostly from what’s down there.”

Ahead was… I’d expected darkness, but maybe my eyes were beginning to adjust. We’d been walking for a time, and although I thought it aimless, as I looked back the way we’d come, I realised it was almost the only way we could have gone. A single path, marked by smoothed-over stone as if by the passage of thousands of feet or paws… that led back to the flooded tunnels we’d entered through. Had there been another way, long ago? Had the tunnels been dry? Shaking my head, I looked towards where Guy was pointing, then tilted my head back and forth. Was I imagining things? Was there a light? Whatever it was, he was right, there was a presence. I could feel it, like a weight, a bowling ball on the bedsheet of the world.

As we stepped further and further along the tunnels, deeper and deeper, I saw that there indeed was a blue-green glow from somewhere ahead. The path took a sudden steep downwards trend, and then just as suddenly opened up into another enormous cavern, this one lit up by crystalline formations dotted around the huge tidal pool that dominated the centre. Within the pool was a huge, smooth-skinned form, odd tattoo-like markings all over his deep blue body. There was a massive fin on his broad back, mighty flippers projected from his side, and he had a tail that could create tidal waves. He stirred as we approached, rolling lazily over and over and opening a single great eye.

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“Visitors?” he rumbled, turning easily. “Or are you sacrifices?”

The cave shook, dust and rocks crashing down around us and into the water.

“We came to battle, but we cannot battle you,” Chompy said, slicing her tail in quick snicker-snack moves.

“You could,” replied Kyogre, his chuckles causing miniature tidal waves, “but you would lose.” The legendary rolled around in his pool for a few moments, then spoke again. “I could teach you. I’m in a good mood, my sister brought me some amazing chilli. There wasn’t much of it but…” Kyogre rolled over in shock. “Wait, it’s you! Make me more chilli!”

Tully squawked in surprise as the legendary raised his voice, causing the cavern to shake again. The bird turned to me and fixed me with one very beady eye. “You were saying something about coincidences, right?”

“Wh-what?” I answered, shaking my head, “Oh, oh, wait… uh, yeah. Yeah, this… this would be that.”

“So we just managed to find the one cave, with the one watery pathway straight to Kyrogre? And in lieu of eating us because he’s snackish, he just wants you to make chilli that you already fed to his sister?”

“Umm, uh huh!” I nodded my head. Tully was silent for a moment, blinking as his brain slowly rebooted.

“So how does that work then?” he asked.

“Well, it’s a little like curry, but—”

“I meant the coincidences!”

“Oh! Didn’t I say? Well, there was this little green onion fairy that could travel in time, and she kinda said that now that we’d found ourselves being manoeuvred into all these weird happenings by her, that she’d have to go and do it in the first place. Or the universe would explode. Again.”

Tully head-butted the back of Shadow’s neck. “Why. Did. I. Ask. Every. Time. I ask something. Like. This, I never stop to ask myself if I actually want to know or not.” He fluffed up his feathers, then looked back over at me. “So where is this little onion fairy?”

“Oh I don’t know, it doesn’t really matter. She’ll eventually find out about how she made us come here, and then eventually go and do it. Otherwise we wouldn’t be here in the first place. It’s time travel. She’s either already have been going to here or already will have been gone from here.”

“I wish that didn’t make sense. I think it’s making me dumber. Is this what psychic damage feels like? Well at least my pain’s going to be over soon because you don’t have any chilli. So Kyogre’s just going to have to put me out of my misery.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t say that.” The avatar of the oceans took a deep breath, then bellowed, “MEW! Get over here!”

This time the cave really did shake, as all of our team leaped for safety amidst crashing boulders and sucking undertow from the waves. Just as the horrendous shout faded, there was an audible — or it would have been audible, had anybody still had their hearing left — pop as a small flying cat-gremlin appeared overhead. The pink creature looked decidedly sleepy, her fur all mussy and her eyes only partially focused.

“What? What is it? It’s my week off, buddy! I had this whole trip around Galar sorted and—”

“Sorry, sorry, look, I know I know… when I wanted to watch the conference, when I wanted to visit Lugia and her kid… I ask a lot of you, but this time it’s pretty easy. I don’t need you to cover for me at all, I just need you to fetch a few things. Fluffball, tell my girl what you need.”

All eyes turned to me. I panicked. “Umm, umm, well, I… I helped cook it, sort of shut up Tully, but I don’t know all the ingredients…”

There was a rumbling sound that almost shook the last of the stalactites off the ceiling. “Look, kid, either you come up with the goods, or I’m picking eevee fur out my teeth for the next week.”

“However I know some people who do please don’t eat me and I know who knows where they are!” I said in a hurry. “Uhm, Mew?”

“Yes?”

“Do you know where Rayquaza is?”

“Umm… I think…” Mew took out a little hoop tied onto a thread that had been in a pouch slung around her neck, and she peered through it. “Yeah, I got a bead on her.”

“Can you take me to her?”

“I don’t think she’s busy…”

“And I’d rather keep my friends in one piece. And myself.”

“Good point. Hold onto your tail…”

There was a flash of light, and suddenly I was tumbling nose over nethers with a gigantic blue and green marble floating in the jet black sky beneath me. It was cold, very cold, and strangely silent. I definitely should have been dead, but for a shimmering pink force-field around my body. It didn’t help with keeping my bearings, and kicking my paws around did less than nothing useful, but it did keep me alive. I hoped it would last long enough. I heard a giggle somewhere behind me, and after some amount of helicoptering my body I turned enough to see the pink mew covering her little scrunched up muzzle and trying not to laugh herself to pieces.

“You’re silly!” she said, clapping her little paws together before holding her feet and laughing her non-existent socks off, rolling backwards as she floated.

“Well I haven’t got the hang of flying yet. I can pick up moves, but you’re not really using one I can get a handle on,” I replied, kicking and twirling myself around until I almost faced her. For a brief moment.

“Oh it’s just Confusion. Named because it makes people who see me use it very confused.” She spun upside down, holding onto her hind-paws with her fore-paws.

“I think you all do that just by existing.”

“Of course we do!” She giggled again, then took a deep breath. “HEY RAY-RAY!”

Somehow, despite being in space, my ears rang. Wait, how did I know sound didn’t travel through a vacuum? And why was it doing it anyway? Such deep pondering thoughts were obliterated a few moments later when I felt another Presence looming behind me.

“What are you doing up here? I’m busy, go tease somebody else, you pest.” Rayquaza glared down at Mew, eyes flicking momentarily to me and back again. I tried very hard not to wet myself, with the lack of gravity that would get very unfortunate, very quickly.

“Hey, that’s not fair! Anyway, I’ve got a deal for you.” Mew grinned, wide, showing a surprisingly large number of teeth. They were disappointingly fabulous. Somehow, she’d even got her bed-fur to smarten itself up. Jealousy, thy name is Lux.

“A deal? What could you possibly have that I would want?”

“Chilli.”

Rayquaza’s eyes narrowed, then she fixed her lazer-like gaze on me, boring into my soul. “Go on.” Her gaze never left me. Why did it never leave me? Please make her stop…

“Well, if you can find some people for me… she can persuade them to make more, this little lady can. For you and your favourite little bro. I’ll even get them to make enough that Grody can have some.”

“That… hmm. Fair enough.” Rayquaza’s eyes never left mine, not even then. “I know exactly who you’re talking about. They’re somewhere over Fiore at the moment, I think they touched down at… Fall City. That should be enough for you to find them, right?”

“Fall City? Eeeh! Fun place!”

Rayquaza snorted. “You think every place is a fun place.”

Finally the Legendary’s gaze left mine, and I felt like a deflated balloon.

“That’s ‘cos it is, when I’m there. Anyway, you’ve got yourself a deal, Ray-ray!”

“And don’t call me that!” was the last I heard from the space-faring legendary, as with a lurch, gravity re-asserted itself and my muzzle met pavement. I wasn’t sure if I was seeing less stars or more, but when they cleared, I was blinking in what felt like the evening sunlight.

“Okay, my might-be steed, off we go!” Mew attached herself to my back and kicked my flanks. I growled and turned my head around to look at her.

“Oi! Knock that off! And what do you mean ‘off we go’? Where to?”

“I dunno, go…” she took out the hoop on a string and peered through it momentarily, “that way?” She pointed, waving her paws about. I shrugged.

“Alright, ‘that way’ it is, I guess!”