Its brain whirred with confusion. The secret passage to his domain had somehow been opened and more intruders poured in from the service. This was horrible news... had he failed in his mission? The mission to wait in hiding and protect this sacred place, to maintain the balance of the Earth. Had Regirock failed his master by being found? By allowing his domain be breached?
Had he let Regigigas down?
A small Espurr leaped forward and from strength she borrowed from her allies she unleashed a barrage of magical leaves. The super effective attack certainly irked him a little, but this opponent was not strong enough to deal him serious damage, she seemed to do more damage to her allies than to he himself. Knocking out a porygon whom accompanied the party.
A shiny Tyrunt ran into follow, it scolded its ally for rushing in... without realizing that the distraction left them both open for assault. Regirock rose its arm and large amount of rocks began to rise once more, a trubbish ran past. Something he could deal with later... just as he prepared to launch the stones however, anothe rocky type came barreling in with a rollout. It conked harmlessly off of Regirocks solid stone chest. He rose his arm up higher and aimed to bring it down upon the insolent intruder, but before he could a large spray of mud was slapped across his seeing eyes. Grunting gently and rubbing the mud away, he turned, now aggravated, towards the small pokémon. He had dropped the rocks upon being distracted... but now in a rage he rose them again, twice as much, with the intention of crushing all of the new intruders.
It was then he saw a familiar Steely face come barreling down the steps to the clearing below... and in utter bafflement, he dropped his weaponry once more.
"STALOR? WHY DO YOU BRING INTRUDERS TO MY DOORSTEP? YOU BETRAY MY MISSION AND MYSELF."
Stalor immediately bowed his head to the golem that stood before him, a sign of respect... yet it was still dignified enough to show a certain level of self-worth and resistance to what would otherwise be a master and servant.
"My Lord Regirock please, you must listen..."
The other pokémon seemed still for that moment, as violence gave way to conversation between two beings whom far outranked the young recruits in power.
"...this is all a misunderstanding. These pokémon are not the presence we have sensed, threatening our home. That was another, another that has been swiftly dealt with thanks to the assistance of these fellow defenders of peace."
Regirock finally lowered its arm at these words. It stared its blank stare into Stalor's eyes and it spoke plainly.
"Explain. Everything."
Gallant was thankfully moving once more, though he was in an awful lot of pain... while Regirock and Stalor had been talking, he had applied heal pulse after heal pulse to himself.
Listening to the conversation that had taken place, it was clear that a massive misunderstanding had taken place. Usually Regirock would be alright with a few random pokémon venturing into his cave, they'd never reach the inner sanctum anyway, not under normal circumstances.
Regirock, however, had recently been detecting a new presence upon the coast... a strange entity with a hostile aura that seemed to be able to duplicate at will. This had inspired great worry in the old rock type, as he feared that this entity would attack his home in search of the information he guarded with his life... information that, perhaps as to be expected, Gallant and the other recruits were not allowed to know. The Steelix had also apparently been blocking the road above ground, in order to force a confrontation with that dark presence... and in the end he got his wish.
The Steelix introduced himself to Gallant as Stalor shortly after and he was revealed to be a kindly old soul. He explained the situation to Gallant and all other recruits present rather plainly. He had once been a wizened guildmaster, leading a team of explorers to better and bigger things. However, he had been banished in disgrace by another pokémon of dark intentions and he had since wandered the World. Eventually he met Regirock, injured after a battle against looters. Stalor in his experience was able to swiftly heal Regirock and the two became friends, Stalor swearing himself to Regirock in order to assist him in protecting the knowledge he kept so hidden from the World.
Apparently, Stalor and the other guild recruits above the ground had encountered the hostile force threatening the coast. A frosslass with many striking resemblances to the scyther that the group had defeated upon the River Bell Path. Working with Stalor the recruits had defeated the dark presence... and the frosslass vanished entirely, as if she had never existed at all... then had the scyther suffered a similar faith? Had it vanished into nothing during the explosion... much like the Frosslass did now?
There were many answers, but each one only seemed to open up more questions... why was Regirock guarding such valuable information? Why did Frosslass vanish into nothing? What exactly is the correlation between these pokémon that care capable of splitting into multiple clones... all with a scar upon the right eye? Gallant didn't know any of the answer, for right then however, he was more lucky to be arrived.
Stalor had offered to ferry all the injured and tired pokémon back to the camp... and with him having moved out of the way of the road, the group could now progress to their next destination.
Gallant lifted the still unconscious Vedder onto Stalor's back using his psychic. He proceeded to place Tyke then, upon Tahni's head, where he was sure the little Joltik wouldn't fall off. ll those not unconscious, he was sure, could climb atop Stalor's back themselves.
"I will bring these injured children to your guildmaster and doctor. You need not worry, I will explain everything myself." Stalor spoke, calmly and firmly, to which Gallant gave a nod. "Are you sure, sir Gallant, that you would not like to come along with us? You too are still injured..."
Gallant shook his head gently.
"There is something I must do here first. I will follow along."
Stalor nodded gently and without speaking another word, he began to slide up the stairs and out into the evening sun, before turning and ehading to the camp, presumably under directions from those same pokémon he had met above the ground.
Gallant found himself alone then, with Regirock. He stood before the huge stone golem and waited until the giant spoke. His voice was much softer than before, when they had first met.
"You are still here... protector. Why?"
Gallant said nothing for a few moments, before opening his mouth to speak. "You did not fail here today."
Regirock shifted ever so slightly.
"You have a purpose my friend... as do we all. Today our purposes clashed momentarily and you were the stronger. You were victorious, you have not failed in your purpose. The only one who failed here today... was I." Gallant stared at the ground in shame, Miles would have never made such a foolish mistake, he had lead his team into what was almost their deaths. He couldn't forgive himself for that.
"You knew your help was coming."
Gallant's eyes widened slightly and he looked back up to see that Regirock was staring right at him.
"You were going to sacrifice. Your life. So that they could be saved. You were throwing yourself away so that they could live." Regirock, nodded slowly, his stone from grinding at its joints.
"None died. Not even you. Assessing the parameters of your purpose... and applying this result. It is impossible to claim that you, Gallant, have failed."
Gallant frowned and looked at the floor momentarily once more and Regirock gently pressed his fist to the ground... to Gallant's surprise, the floor opened and a small pillar rose up from beneath the stone floor. The top of the pillar opened suddenly and Gallant gasped slightly as he felt overcome with a wave of strange warmth... a small amulet sat upon the opened container. It seemed to be a glass or crystal holster shaped like a shield, and within it was a single glowing pebble, that shone brightly in the dark cave with an aquamarine light.
"You wish to become stronger. To do this you must follow what I say... take this, protector, and focus on your desire to take care of those whom mean something to you. Keep those feelings in your heart and when a time of great need comes, when a moment arises where you must protect those whom are dear to you... and as you are you cannot... when that happens... you must shatter this amulet. What happens next will grant you the strength to defeat your foe."
Gallant pondered for a moment, before taking the amulet gently in his hand and glancing over the crystal shell and glowing stone within. "And... what exactly WILL happen next?" Gallant asks puzzled, but Regirock just shakes his head and utters something similar to a laugh.
"You will know that when the time comes... for now, just accept that I am the master of stone and rock and accept my word. Now then protector... you must go. Your allies await you. Perhaps one day, we might meet again."
Gallant looks at the amulet once more... and places it gently around his neck. A warmth emanates from it gently; it fills his heart with hope. "I would like to see that day. Goodbye, Regirock."
And with that Gallant left, walking up the stairs to stand in the evening sun. As he's walking back to camp, a sudden tremor erupts behind him and just like that, the pillar like entrance to Regirock's tomb slides back into the ground to meld with craggy causeway, as if it never existed at all. Gallant gives a gentle smile, before continuing onwards once more. Heading to the tents just visible in the distance, planning to visit his recruits and congratulate them for fighting so valiantly on what in the end, may have been a successful endeavor after all.
NOTE TO ALL PLAYERS
There is now a time skip for your characters. Upon the next post put up, by either Nagi or Myself, the night phase of Act 2 will begin. As in Act 1, you may interact, explore the camp and all manner of other things to pass the time. Develop your characters, progress a personal plot or two, but try not to drag things on too long. Once we are satisfied that the night phase is completed, Act 2 will officially end!
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