The First Test

A few of the scientists murmured about how they didn't want to follow "that little girl", but all of their denails were quickly squashed by the head researcher (with the Magneton.) "We can cover the most ground this way. I'll charge up your Mareep, then you take a few of these idiots with you to the right. Magneton, Thunder Wave." The Magneton pulsed a low voltage into Mareep, just enough to cause her tail to glow. "Alright, gentlemen, let's go. And YOU ALL, you had better not slow this young lady down. Jerry, you'll be in charge until we meet up again." He led his group of explorers down the left path, and Magneton's glow quickly disappeared. "Um, miss? I'm Jerry. I'm more or less in charge at the moment, but... well, if you don't mind, I'd prefer you to lead. I'm a bit claustrophobic..." The scientist removed his glasses, wiping a tiny amount of dust off of them as he waited for an answer.

Lexi gritted her teeth a bit as arguments further ensued. How dare they refer to her that way?! She was the one who found this place, after all! They should be grateful, not looking down on her! She sighed, brushing a strand of hair from her face. If those baffoons didn't want to follow her so be it.

"I'll go myself if they're gonna be that way-" Lexi said with confidence and a bit of spite. Of course, the director quickly retorted by ordering a select few to go anyway. "Whatever," she said, waving them off as she began walking down the darkened hall. Only the glow from Amiya lit their way, though dimly. Lexi knew the charge would eventually wear off, but for now it helped.

"I have no troubles in leading down here. I found my way before, after all," she said to the new 'leader' Jerry. Casually she continued down the path, running her fingers along the wall heiroglyphics as she went. Still, that looming presence put her on edge no matter how cool she acted.

The rest of the scientists followed Lexi meekly, several of them a bit intimidated. They continued walking for quite sme time before the path opened up into an antechamber, ringed with pathways, all of which were flanked by the odd Pokemon statues. One of the scientists sent out an Abra, which moved one of the statues in front of the path they'd just come from. "So we don't get lost..." he mumbled, when the others looked at him questioningly. Jerry stepped up to Lexi. "The choice is yours. Which path should we take? Or should we wait to see if the path the others took will meet back here?"

Lexi entered the chamber, looking up and around in awe of the room. She was tempted to call out for an echo effect, but decided it might be dangerous to compromise the structure. Then she heard the sound of stone on stone, spinning around quickly to see the statue moved in front of their path. There was still enough room for her to squeeze by it, but probably not any of the others without moving it again.

Though wary, Lexi decided to let it go for now. "Waiting is boring," she said, trailing along the edge of the room and passing by a few of the open chamber tunnels. "I say we leave something here so that they know which way we went," she suggested, stopping in front of a tunnel opening. "Let's go this way," she said with a smile, turning and walking on with Amiya. "Of course, if any of you are scared feel free to wait back here."

Jerry began sputtering about wild Pokemon taking whatever they left in the way, but made no move to follow Lexi. He instead released his Muk from his Pokeball to protect him, and sat in the room trying to decipher the mysterious glyphs on the walls. Muk was smart enough to leave a sludge mark on the hallway they went down, but Jerry was...hopeless. The rest of the scientists, including the one with the Abra, followed Lexi, still curious about the innermost parts of the ruins. The path they were taking went on for about a hundred meters before stopping suddenly. The end of the hallway had three doorways - one ahead of them, and one each to the right and left. The scientists began arguing again, but this time it was about who got to go with Lexi, since they HAD to split up. The "Abra Scientist", whose name happened to be Micheal, offered to take a path with someone. "Abra's Hidden Power should give us enough light to work with." Of course, with there only being four scientists, either one path was going to be unexplored, or someone was going by themselves.

"Hmm, hmmm...Alouette, gentile alouette... The acoustics in here are pretty great," Lexi said, meandering down the wide path. Naturally, she was running her hand along the ancient walls. Something about the fact that she probably shouldn't be touching them made her need to touch it that much more. Lexi didn't feel too bad about leaving Jerry behind, especially since he chose to do so himself. Some leader he turned out to be. Whatever.

Finally they came to the crossroads, where the chatter began again. The oh so familiar sounding argument again arising, who was going which way? Sighing, Lexi touched the front doorway's entrance. "I can go by myself. I have Pokémon to protect me, so the two of you can stick with each other," she said casually before stepping into the darkness. It wasn't like she hadn't been alone the night before. Now that she knew there was a way out, she was far less wary of exploring on her own.

A breeze flowed as the doorways opened; clearly, there were exits at the end of each, but who knew how close they were. The walls in this corridor were bare, as though this section hadn't been finished. The flooring was perfectly even, however, if at a slightly upward angle. This path was much shorter than the last, coming to another chamber after only a dozen meters or so. What the previous hallway lacked in markings, this one easily made up for. Decorated with pictures of various ancient Pokemon, including the easily recognizable Ho-oh, Lugia, and Suicune, as well as a few who were not so well known, such as Celebi. The center of this chamber had a pedestal on it, with a single beam of sunlight falling down onto it. The top of the pedestal was roughly egg sized, but there was no trace of anything having taken up the spot atop it; the dust was an even thickness, meaning nothing had been moved since Lexi had disturbed it.

It was almost eerie, the smooth walls in the corridor now. After having felt all the different symbols etched into previous walls, the sudden smoothed feel was ominous and foretelling. There was something down here, there just had to be. "Don't be silly, it's just a bunch of ruins..." Lexi said, trying to calm her fluttering heart. Amiya's tail glow was beginning to fade, but it didn't worry Lexi too much. She figured she could use Deimos if it went out completely.

Stepping out into the opening, it felt as though a whirlwind difference from the rest of the ruins. There was air current here, and not the stale or stagnant ones that came from chamber doors opening either. Her eyes were drawn up to the walls, staring at the ancient depictions of Legendary Pokémon. "I've heard about some of these..." She said softly, as she began to walk around.

She stopped at the hieroglyph of Celebi, curled and serene with vines surrounding. "This one's pretty cute..." She said, leaning in for a better look. Amiya baa'd to get Lexi's attention, the girl slowly turning around. She found it hard to drag her eyes from the pictures. She looked where her sheepish Pokémon was standing, a strange pedestal with a glimmer of light falling on it seemingly with purpose.

"What' this?!" Lexi queried excitedly, rushing over to the center of the room. She kneeled, looking all around the pedestal and examining it as she slowly rose. Finally her eyes fell on the medium sized slotat the top of the structure. It was smooth, Lexi naturally not being able to resist touching it. "Os it a bird bath or something?" She looked up to where the light was trickling from, quickly shielding her eyes and looking back down. "Too bright..." She said, looking to Amiya who shook her head.

"You're right, why would they build a bird bath inside?" She asked her little Pokémon with a chuckle. "But it has to be something," she said, setting down her pack gently. She was examining the spot carefully, while Amiya nosed the bag. It tipped over, the flap opening and the egg within rolling out. Another baa, and Lexi looked down to see the egg aswell as some of her belongings on the floor. "The egg..." She said, gently picking it up. She had found it in the ruins the night before. Maybe it was for a reason?

"Well, what' the worst that could happen?" She wondered, holding the egg over the slot doing an estimated measurement. It looked like a perfect fit. "Other than accidentally setting off an ancient booby trap, of course," her heart raced, as she gently set the egg down onto the pedestal, awaiting any sort of reaction though silently expecting none.

As the egg touched the pedestal, the room began to hum. The images on the walls began to glow, growing in brightness until the light in the room was practically blinding. Suddenly, as soon as the weirdness had begun, it ended. Standing over the pedestal (still holding the egg) was none other than the legendary Pokémon, Suicune. It glared down at Lexi, its eyes dissecting her. After a few moments, it bent down, touching the tip of its nose to the egg. Immediately, the egg began to shine - it was hatching. Suicune launched a powerful Aurora Beam attack at the wall holding its picture, and dashed away. The egg changed shape as it shined, slowly taking form. When the glow faded, a baby Celebi was perched on the pedestal, peering up at Lexi. Natu flew in, and hovered in the air. "Hm... Suicune approves of you. Do not take this gift lightly, Celebi is to be protected and nurtured until she becomes strong enough to protect us all. This is a great honor; do not disappoint us." Satisfied, Natu flew off.

Your Egg hatched into a Celebi! Would you like to give her a nickname?

Lexi panicked when the room began to hum, stepping back and glancing around in a paranoid fashion. This was it, she set off a booby trap! The patterns on the wall began to light up, causing Lexi to freeze as she stared in awe and terror. Her heart was racing- or had it stopped altogether? She couldn't even tell anymore, becoming light headed from the adrenaline being pumped throughout her body.

That was when it happened, the lights vanished just as suddenly as they had appeared. Lexi realized she was shielding her eyes with her arm. Se slowly and shakily lowered it, peering with wide eyes expecting to see some terrifying sight. The opposite was rather true.

The magnitude of what was going on couldn't even hit Lexi at full force. Before her stood the Legendary Suicune, just staring at her as if it were examining her very being. She'd heard from an old PokéManiac that Suicune only presented itself before trainers it deemed worthy. Was this real? It touched its muzzle to her egg, causing the hatching process to ensue. Lexi watched the egg with an intense stare, only glancing away when she heard the blast from Suicune's Aurora Beam. But the dog was gone.

Looking back, the Pokémon's form wass revealed. Se immediately recognized it from the glyphs on the wall, and pulled out her pokédex to find out more information. "Celebi, the Time Travel Pokémon. It has the power to travel across time, but it is said to appear only in peaceful times." Lexi heard a voice and snapped the device shut, surprised to see a strangely colored Natu rather than a human being.

She was astonished, and didn't have time to react. No time to ask any questions, or anything. Natu was gone. She looked back down to the baby Celebi, and pulled out one of her pokéballs. She didn't want the scientists to get wind of it before it was paired to a ball of its own. Touching the baby gently, it was absorbed into the ball. "If you really are...supposed to protect us all...then I'll call you Amunet..."

Clamoring began outside. "Leeeeeeexi!!!! LEEEEEERXXXXIII!!!! Oh my goodness, this chamber is amazing! Did that Suicune we just saw hurt you? You must have awakened it, we have to examine this room further! To think, Suicune was slumbering here... I don't want to shoo you away, but you've been an immense help... and I don't know that you can help here any more. At least, not without giving us too much to research!" The head researcher began chuckling at his own joke, before letting the research team run in and begin to work. "You are okay, right? That had to have been a terrifying experience..." This was Micheal, his Abra on his shoulder.

Lexi jerked at the sudden commotion. She blinked, staring up at the scientist who just went on and on. Talk about a bag of wind, did this guy ever stop to get reactions? Lexi stood up, brushing her knees off as she glanced to the hole in the wall. "No, Suicune didn't hurt me..." She muttered, still stunned and astonished at the whole ordeal. Figuring they 'had enough to study' she chose to leave the part of the talking shiny Natu, and the Celebi hatching out.

"Maaa mareep!" A small baa came from beside Lexi. She glanced down and behind her, her sheepish Pokémon smiling up at her trainer. The glow was dimmed to nigh nothing by this point, but it didn't matter with the gaping hole letting in all the light.

"Oh sorry, Amiya...I almost forgot you were here." Lexi pet her partner, before turning back to the scientists. "And that's fine, I think I've explored enough around here. I'll get out of your hair now," she said. However, being the rather impatient girl she was, she chose to climb out the hole in the wall rather than go back the way she came. "Thanks for everything, guys!" She waved, hopping down on the outside of the ruins.

A few of the scientists waved goodbye, but most of them ignored her. Outside, the ruins seemed much as they should on the surface, and the paths to Violet and Azalea were clear. The Natu and Suicune were nowhere to be seen.

"Fair enough," Lexi said, heart a flutter as she thought of the excitement these few days have brought her. She felt like she'd been on a years journey already, and the thought of showing her father how much she'd accomplished so far excited her beyond what words could muster.

"Time to go home," she said, inhaling a refreshing breath of wind. "And beat Bugsy..." She said, a sly grin on her face as she looked onward. "Come on, Amiya. I know the way," she said, leading her Pokémon back toward Union Cave, and Azalea Town.

End Topic