"This photo came from an old colleague of my dad's. He was a ruins surveyor and adventurer,"
Chengjie recalled.
"Once, he came to our house to ask Dad for help. He said he and a team of archaeological researchers had landed on an isolated island and discovered some ruins there. But after surveying the site and exploring deeper inside, they found nothing at all, nothing that could tell them what the ruins were."
"But the strange thing was, once they went deeper into the ruins, magnetic interference appeared out of nowhere and cut the entire team off from the outside world. All their communication equipment stopped working! So he concluded that something in those ruins must have altered the magnetic field and hidden their true nature."
"Magnetic interference?"
Yong thought for a moment, then asked,
"Was it caused by people, Pokémon, or something natural?"
"That was exactly the problem!"
Chengjie said earnestly.
"I remember Dad asking the same thing back then. After all, he'd been to plenty of strange places and encountered similar situations!"
As he spoke, he picked a few more photos out of the pile and handed them to Yong.
"Look, these are photos of the ruins!"
Yong examined the photos closely. They showed shattered stone pillars and rubble, with a huge stone platform in the middle covered in strange patterns. For some reason, those patterns looked a little familiar to him.
"It looks more like a temple!"
"Right? That's what I thought too. But when I asked Dad, he didn't tell me anything, then left with that man."
Chengjie shrugged, looked at the photo of Regirock, and continued,
"It was a long time before Dad came back. He brought this photo with him. I thought this Pokémon looked really powerful, and he told me it was Regirock, one of the guardian deities of the Hoenn Region!"
"Didn't your dad tell you where he'd gone?"
Yong asked curiously.
If he encountered the Rock-type Regirock, he still had a chance of catching it, just as Brandon, the head of a battle facility, had done in the anime from his previous life.
"No! That was all he said. Then he stayed home for a day and left again. He still hasn't come back, and it's been two months!"
Looking a little worried, Chengjie turned to Yong and asked,
"Do you think something could have happened? I feel like there's something seriously wrong with those ruins!"
Your instincts are right. That's where the Legendary Titans sleep. I just don't know what caused Regirock's seal to break and wake it early. As for those patterns, those circles and crosses that look like symbols-aren't those Unown, the most mysterious Pokémon in the Pokémon World?
Of course, I can't tell you any of that...
Yong had his suspicions, but as someone who had been reborn, he was better off keeping many things to himself. Seeing how downcast Chengjie looked, he offered some reassurance.
"It's fine, don't worry! Your dad is an experienced observer, and he's got other people with him. You said yourself that there's magnetic interference in the ruins, so it's perfectly normal that they can't send any messages! Maybe they've made some major discovery and can't come back yet, right?"
Chengjie forced himself to believe those words, then managed a smile.
"Yeah, that must be it! Maybe the next time Dad comes home, he'll have caught Regirock! Haha!"
Yong was speechless.
Just then, Chengjie's mother called from downstairs, telling them to come down and eat.
They gathered themselves and put the photos back where they belonged, then Yong followed Chengjie downstairs.
At that moment, dark clouds had shrouded all of Mauville City. Amid flashes of lightning and rolling thunder, savage winds swept across the land, and rain poured down as though a heavenly river had burst its banks!
"This isn't normal. Not normal at all! There wasn't even a warning!"
On the top floor of Mauville City's Gym,
a burly middle-aged man with a mohawk and a full beard stared gravely at the sky and said,
"Are we sure it's coming from New Mauville?"
Beside him, a man in an investigator's uniform nodded. Looking at the information on his computer, he replied,
"There's no mistake. That's what the Weather Institute's report says. The thunderstorm came from the southeast, but the southeastern waters haven't been affected at all. It seems to be targeting only Mauville City!"
"What does the old man say?"
Ignoring his choice of address, the Pokémon League Investigator handed the information to Wattson.
"The higher-ups want us to investigate New Mauville first. They think there might be a problem with the power plant!"
"Hmph!"
He gave a contemptuous laugh.
"No one knows New Mauville better than I do! It's nothing but an abandoned power plant! What problem could there be? They're just after Raikou!"
Watching the silhouette flicker in and out of view among the clouds, Wattson fell silent for a moment, then instructed his subordinates,
"Tell them humans must not be the first to break the agreement. Raikou isn't something to fear, but this one is off-limits! The consequences would be more than they could bear! After all, this is the one from the Bell Tower!"
With that, he took out a Pokémon Ball and walked to the window.
"I'll go talk to Raikou. I'll leave things here to you. Notify every member of the Electric Gym and have them spread out. Don't let any lightning strike the city and cause damage!"
"Ah! Yes, sir!"
With a flash from the Poké Ball, a disk-shaped Pokémon with a pair of magnets on its body appeared.
"Magnezone! Magnet Rise!"
"Bzz-brr!!"
Magnezone
Wattson leaped onto Magnezone's back. At his command, Magnezone used the magnetic field to rise into the air and raced toward the clouds in the southeast.
Inside the room, the investigators and Gym Trainers exchanged looks, shook their heads helplessly, then went off to carry out their tasks.
Southeast of Mauville City, the clouds were even darker than those above the city. Thunder and rain raged, lightning ran wild, and a rare patch of Electric Terrain had actually formed!
Below lay an estuary. Under the thunderstorm's influence, huge waves surged through the bay, forming enormous whirlpools. Through the gloom, a deep cave could just barely be made out in the coastal cliffs.
From top to bottom, the tall mountain beside the sea acted like an enormous lightning rod, drawing all the surrounding lightning toward it. As though restrained, the thunderstorm was prevented from advancing toward the city.
"Just as I thought!"
Standing on Magnezone's back in midair, Wattson watched the yellow figure on the mountaintop and sighed in relief.
"Thank goodness you're on our side!"
"Magnezone, head down. Let's go see an old friend!"
"Bzz-brr~rr~!!"
Lightning surrounded Magnezone, but an aura held it back, keeping every bolt from touching its body. With a low response, Magnezone floated toward the summit below.
Boom!
"Roooar!!!"
A thick bolt of lightning crashed down from the clouds, only to be intercepted once again by another bolt from the summit. The two forces collided in midair, canceling each other out amid a dazzling flash and a thunderous roar.
"What incredible power! Enough to stand against the might of nature!"
Watching the scene, Wattson marveled, then angrily cursed certain people.
"I'd love to have it strike you with a bolt of lightning! Let you get a proper taste of power you can't control! Hmph!"
Wattson jumped down from Magnezone's back and gazed intently at the figure.
As an electrical expert and a Trainer well versed in Electric-type Pokémon, he had once been deeply drawn to the Pokémon before him. But after understanding the significance of its existence and witnessing its immense power, Wattson had finally convinced himself not to dream of controlling a power beyond his reach!
Sometimes he wondered whether, if it weren't the one from the Bell Tower, if it didn't bear Ho-Oh's mission, perhaps... they would already have been partners!
"Roooh!!!"
"Ah, it's certainly been a long time... Raikou!"