The Beginning of the N: Chapter 22

Character updates this chapter:

Spoiler:

N and his sisters had made it to the Desert Resort, where they had to walk through an intense sandstorm. To help themselves breathe in the storm, they, and their Pokemon, were wearing face masks. After hours of walking, which seemed like an eternity, they found a giant hole, which must have been hundreds of feet deep. in the middle of the desert. Next to the hole was several giant construction machines, with were digging into the hole.

“What are those things?” asked N, having never seen anything like this.

“They are construction machines.” replied Concordia. “The ones with the large front bucket are called loaders, those ones with the large front boom and bucket are called excavators, and the one with the large front blade, and tracks instead of wheels is a bulldozer.” she explained.

“I wonder why they are digging such a giant hole in the middle of the desert.” said Anthea curiously.

“I'd assume that the Relic Castle is buried deep down there.” said Concordia.

“How would it have got way down there?” asked Anthea, tilting her head.

“Use your head for once. The Relic Castle has been here for over 2,000 years. After so many years, and this harsh sandstorm, it was bound to get buried under eventually.” explained Concordia.

“I guess that means someone saved us the trouble of digging it up ourselves. Let's get a closer look.” said N.

The trio then walked right over to where the hole was, and inside the hole was more construction machines, a bunch of stairs leading to the bottom of the hole, and in the center was a large, green palace-like building, covered in sand, and full of cracks and holes, and many towers that seemed randomly attached. It was clear that this place was here for many, many years. N and Anthea sat on their knees, looking down into the hole with widened eyes, and amazed smiles on their faces, while Concordia was staring at the construction machines, with a puzzled look on her face.

“There's something odd about these machines.” said Concordia.

N and Anthea both glanced back at their sister, not sure what she was talking about.

“What do you mean?” asked Anthea.

“There's nobody inside them, so they shouldn't be able to move.” replied Concordia.

“Are they supposed to require somebody inside them to work?” asked N.

“I've certainly never heard of construction machines that can operate on their own.” said Concordia.

Concordia then stopped studying the construction machines, and looked over at N and Anthea, and gasped in shock.

“What are you two doing, sitting in the sand like that? You're getting your clothes all dirty, get up!” she exclaimed, as she pulled them both back onto their feet.

“Who cares about keeping clean right now? This is an amazing sight! I'll bet that the Relic Castle is full of rare treasures worth a fortune!” exclaimed Anthea.

“So what? We already have a fortune.” said Concordia.

“We've done enough staring and talking, let's go inside now.” said N.

N and Anthea then walked onto the stairs that lead to the bottom of the hole.

“Wait, you two!” shouted Concordia.

N and Anthea both stopped, then turned around, facing their sister.

“What's the hold up?” asked Anthea.

“Do you two not see how deep that hole is? It already took us long enough to get here, and it's clearly a very long way to the bottom of that hole. It will probably take us hours to reach the bottom, and then we'll have to explore that entire castle, looking for something that might not even be there, which will take several more hours, and by then, it will be way too dark and far too late for us to leave this desert and head to Nimbasa. If we do this, we're gonna end up having to sleep in there overnight.” explained Concordia.

“What's your point?” asked Anthea.

“We can't afford to be wasting that much time, and sleeping in a place like that simply can't be safe.” said Concordia.

“We are not turning back, Concordia.” said N firmly.

“You're outnumbered, sis, so just go with the flow.” said Anthea.

N and Anthea both started back walking down the stairs, and with a sigh, Concordia followed them. They continued walking for hours, until they finally reached the bottom. When they got their, all three of them were breathing heavily.

“Bloody hell I'm exhausted.” said Anthea, as she pulled a bottle of water out of her bag, and quickly gulped it down.

“Watch your language!” exclaimed Concordia, swiftly slapping her sisters bottom.

“Ouch!” shouted Anthea, rubbing her butt.

“Are you two coming or not?” said N, as he then entered the Relic Castle.

“Hey, wait up N!” said both Anthea and Concordia, as they ran into the castle.

The inside of the castle seemed to be stone rooms with sandy floors, with cylinder-shaped pillars holding up the ceiling. They were a few Yamask, Confagrigus, and Sigilyph, floating around mysteriously. They were safe from the sandstorm inside here, so they took off their face masks.

“This isn't exactly what I was expecting.” said Anthea, as they walked around.

“This place was truly completely buried in sand, that explains why it looks the way it does now.” said Concordia.

“Maybe the light stone is hidden in the far back.” said N.

As they continued exploring each room of the Relic Castle, and looking carefully in places that the light stone could be hidden, N eventually stopped, and stood frozen, with a worried look on his face. His sisters noticed, and stared at him with concern.

“Is something wrong, N?” they asked.

“I can sense the heart of a hurt and neglected Pokemon nearby.” replied N.

N then quickly took off in the direction where he could sense the Pokemon's heart, with his sisters following behind him. After a while, they found a large, bird-like Pokemon, with a scaly, red face, green scales on the back of it's neck, going to it's forehead, yellow feathers on it's body and blue wings, and green and blue feathers around it's feet and long, red tail. The Pokemon was trapped under a pile of debris, and a fallen pillar.

“An Archeops? Those are supposed to be extinct!” exclaimed Concordia.

“What happened to it?” asked Anthea.

“Hey, are you alright?” asked N, in a gentle voice, as he crouched down near the Archeops.

The Archeops noticed it was no longer alone, then looked up, frightened, but calmed down when he saw N. He had never seen N before, but there was just something about N that made Archeops trust him.

“I can't get out of here! Help me please, I've been stuck here for almost a whole day!” replied Archeops.

“Hang on, we're gonna get you out of here. Anthea, Concordia, help me get him out of here!” shouted N, glancing back at his sisters.

“Right!” they both replied, as they ran over to N's sides.

They then began shoving the debris out of the way, then gently pulled Archeops free. Once he was free, Archeops flew into N's arms, hugging him fiercely. N hugged back tightly.

“Thank you! I don't think I would've ever been able to get out of their if you hadn't showed up.” said Archeops.

“You're welcome. I won't ever sit by idly while there's a Pokemon who needs my help.” said N.

“Y-you can understand me?” asked Archeops, surprised.

“That's correct, me an my sisters here all have the ability to talk to Pokemon. I also have the ability to connect my heart with the heart of a Pokemon.” explained N.

N, Anthea and Concordia all smiled at Archeops.

“I've never heard of humans like that. You're certainly peculiar ones.” said Archeops.

“What are you doing in a place like this anyway? I can sense that your heart is suffering from emotional neglect.” asked N.

Archeops slowly flew out of N's arms, and onto the sandy floor, with a sad look now on his face.

“My trainer had me battle against another trainer's Pokemon, which I did, but I felt as if I was losing, so I got too scared to continue fighting.” replied Archeops.

“That makes sense, Pokemon of your species have the ability Defeatist, which makes you afraid of losing.” said Concordia.

“What happened after that?” asked Anthea, curiously.

“I wouldn't fight anymore, so I lost the battle. When it was over, my trainer was really mad at me, so he released me, and left me on my own. There aren't any other Pokemon like me that I know of, which left me with nowhere to go, so I flew away to the desert, then found this place. I decided to sleep here, but then that pillar fell on me.” explained Archeops.

“That's terrible...I wish humans didn't do such terrible things to Pokemon. If they didn't then humans and Pokemon could live together in harmony.” said N, placing his hand on Archeops's shoulder, a few tears rolling down his face.

“So, where are you going to go now? You can't just stay here by yourself for the rest of your life.” said Concordia.

“Oh, uh, well, I can't go back to my old trainer, and there aren't any other Pokemon like me, so...” said Archeops, staring at the floor.

“You can come with us.” said N, cupping his hand under Archeops's chin, and looking him in the eye.

Archeops blinked in surprise. “I-I can? You're really willing to let me stay with you?” he asked.

“You're an innocent, neglected Pokemon, with nowhere to go. I want to save all Pokemon, of course I'll let you stay with us.” replied N.

“I don't know what to say...thank you! You're so kind and caring, unlike other humans.” said Archeops.

“Uh, guys, if we don't want to be here all night, we're going to have to finish our search soon, so I'd suggest we continue our search here.” said Concordia, clearing her throat.

N and his sisters then began searching this room for the light stone in silence, but weren't having any luck. After a couple of hours of searching, they could hear the sound of footsteps, which meant someone else must be there too.

“It sounds like we're not alone here after all.” said N.

“But who else could possibly be here? We've been searching for hours and there hasn't been a trace of anyone else in here.” said Anthea.

“Keep your voices down. Whoever it is must be the one in charge of the weird construction machines, and most likely won't be happy to see us.” whispered Concordia.

The footsteps began getting closer, and sounded as if they were approaching towards the room where they were.

“We're getting out of here, right now!” whispered Concordia.

She then grabbed N and Anthea by their wrists, and, without giving them a chance to argue, began running back to the entrance. After a while, they couldn't hear the footsteps anymore, so she let go of their wrists, and placed her hands on her knees, panting.

“I think we're safe now.” she said.

“My dear children! What are you doing here?” suddenly said a deep, male voice from behind them.

N, Anthea, and Concordia all spun around simultaneously, and they were now staring at Ghetsis, with their jaws dropped and mouths trembling. They looked like they had just saw a ghost.

“F-Father?” stuttered all three at the same time.

“This is quite a surprise. What are you doing here? You should have arrived in Nimbasa by now.” asked Ghetsis, with disappointment clear on his face.

Anthea and Concordia were both hanging their heads in shame, completely speechless, so N stepped forward and decided to explain.

“I figured that since this place was once ruled by the original hero of truth and Reshiram, then there's a high chance that the light stone might be located here.” he explained.

Ghetsis stared at him intently for a short moment, then let out a laugh.

“Ha, you're quite clever, my boy! However, I can assure you that the light stone is nowhere here. You see, I've already searched this entire pathetic excuse for a castle, and haven't found anything of worth.” said Ghetsis, as he slowly paced to the side. “You three do not need to worry about finding the light stone, that is the job of the Seven Sages.” he said, as he slowly paced to the other side.

Concordia then looked up. “F-Father, does that mean that those machines that dug up this hole belong to Team Plasma?” she asked.

“Correct.” answered Ghetsis. “Only Team Plasma is capable of such advanced technology, hahaha!” he said, with an evil laugh. The only response to this was silence.

“Well then, I suppose it's time to get you three to Nimbasa, where you should be in the first place.” he said, as he walked his kids out of the castle.

Once they were back outside, they could see that the sun had already set, and the sky was now night time dark.

“Hydreigon, come out!” commanded Ghetsis, throwing a Pokeball.

Out from the Pokeball emerged a large, dragon Pokemon, which seemed to be floating in the air, and had six thin, black wings, a blue body with two purple stripes, two very short and thin legs, which looked impossible to stand on, a very long blue tail with a purple stripes, a blue face, with spiky purple hair on it's head, and two black arms, with faces instead of hands. Hydreigon let out a ferocious roar, which could strike terror into anyone's heart.

“Get on.” he said, pointing to his Pokemon, while glaring at his kids.

Once N, his sisters, and all their Pokemon were all on Hydreigon's back, Ghetsis then got on.

“Hydreigon, take us to Nimbasa City.” commanded Ghetsis.

Hydreigon then flew off at high speed, heading towards Nimbasa City.

To be continued....

it was ok pw i gave it 6 out of 10