Chapter 25
"Looks like I win," Ash paused for a moment to catch his breath. "Now, free your Pokémon from those Dark Balls."
"Did you think I would let you win that easily?" asked Nigel, "If you care about my Pokémon so much, why don't I just take you instead?"
Misty, Brock, Professor Oak, and Professor Birch watched, unable to do anything as Ash was captured in the Dark Ball. Then, just as quickly as it happened, the vision faded, and they found themselves back in the cave.
Misty leaned on one of the walls to reorient herself. "What just happened?"
Birch's eyes widened. "That must be what the prophecy means. 'Evil's greed commits a sin the Chosen alone cannot shun,'"
"If we're ever going to help Ash, we need to solve this puzzle first," said Brock. "Where were we?"
"Something that describes what we can trust," said Oak, "Four letters…"
"How about 'true'?" asked Misty.
"That could work," Birch typed the word 'true' in his phone. "What about the other word?"
"I've been thinking about the second word," said Brock, "'Lati' doesn't make much sense, but if the first word is 'true', then the second word could be 'eons' since Latios and Latias are Eon Pokémon."
"But what about the last clue?" Misty put Togepi in her bag as a draft of cold air blew past.
"I have a feeling that it's not meant for us," said Birch, "It sounds like something an author would put in a book for the reader."
"Huh?" Brock raised his eyebrows.
Birch shook his head. "Never mind, I don't want to bore you with my multiverse theory."
"Let's try it out," Oak looked at the keypad on the wall. "True Eons… 20, 18, 21, 5, 5, 15, 14, 19."
The keypad beeped, flashed green, and disappeared. The cave shook as one of the walls retracted, revealing a hidden passageway.
~~~
Well, that's lucky, thought Pikachu, just gotta get this bag down.
Pikachu had been fortunate enough to find a supply room quickly. Trying to walk when every bone in your body is aching isn't fun. Add carrying a belt that weighs half as much as you do, in your mouth, and well… you get the point. The room looked like it hadn't been used in a while, so hopefully he wouldn't run into any Team Void grunts.
Pikachu smacked the medicine bag as hard as he could with his tail and fell to the ground in exhaustion. He sighed in relief as it wobbled once, twice, and fell off the shelf. But his relief soon became panic, as he realized where the bag was going to fall.
"Oww," Pikachu moaned, rubbing his head. He slowly picked himself off the floor. "Oh well, at least I got it."
After a minute of untying some annoying knots, he managed to get the bag open. A collection of different potions spilled out along with some revives. Whipping sweat off his forehead, Pikachu took a potion and sprayed it on himself.
Ok, maybe he shouldn't have done his face first.
~~~
Where am I? Ash looked around. A strange man wearing a black and purple outfit was in front of him, adjusting a machine. For some reason, it looked oddly familiar…
"Come over here, Latius." The man waved him over.
Latius? Is that my name? Ash assumed it was because there was no one else in the room. Seeing nothing else to do, he did as instructed and hovered over to the man.
"My name is Nigel," he pointed to himself, "I am your master, and you will obey me."
Ok… sure, why not? Ash thought. He nodded.
"Good. Now, I need you to fly over to that platform over there."
Ash flew over to the platform, which had several ring-like patterns around it. He wondered what it could be for. Also… hadn't he seen something like this before? Come to think of it, what had he seen before? He racked his brain for memories but found nothing.
He watched as Nigel pressed a button, and the machine he had seen whirred to life. The circular patterns on the floor rose and formed a sphere around him. He reached out to touch one. "Owch!"
~~~
"Don't move, you'll only hurt yourself," said Nigel. He frowned. Latius shouldn't be feeling any pain. Had something gone wrong with his ball? He looked back at the orange eon who was obediently staying still. Oh well, as long as he obeyed, it didn't matter what he felt.
Normally, Nigel liked to 'have fun' with his enemies before brainwashing. However, he couldn't afford to mess around this time as he needed Latius to be in top condition. Nigel gave an evil chuckle as he admired his machine. It was a near replica of the DMA at Altomare but had a few differences. There was no place to put the Soul Dew, and the entire machine had been painted black, Nigel's favorite color.
Nigel knew the DMA had immense power, and his machine was designed for much more power than that. Of course, that power could only be supplied by the most powerful Lati in the world. The mythical Latius. Flicking a lever, he stepped into the machine as the hatch opened. Just to test it out, he tried a simple command. "Fire."
Instantly, the machine responded, letting out a loud bang as it shot a powerful beam of dark energy at a few large blocks of solid iron Nigel had set up. With a loud explosion, all that remained of the iron was a few pieces of smoking rubble. Nigel laughed. This was more like it.
~~~
"He did what?!"
Pikachu covered his ears. After healing everyone, he told them what happened to Ash. They took the news about as well as he did.
"We have to go help Ash right now!" said Latias. "Where is he?"
Skye nodded. "I won't let that evil dude do anything to my trainer!"
"Guys, calm down," Pikachu tried to settle his friends down, even though he felt like panicking as much as they were. "Even if I knew where Ash was, we can't just charge in there. We need a plan."
"Pikachu's right," agreed Latios, "we can't afford to be captured as well. If we're going to save Ash, we need to do what he would do."
"Maybe not exactly what he would do, though," Pikachu knew that if their roles were reversed, Ash would probably just charge straight in without a thought in the world except saving them.
"Good point," Latios scratched his head. "Um… any suggestions?"
A pen fell on the concrete floor on the other side of the room.
Pikachu sighed. How could they save Ash?
~~~
Kudos if you solved the riddle before Misty, Brock, and the Professors did!
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