Volume 4
Chapter 37: VS. Unown! "image removed"
It was early in the morning in the town of Solaceon. After a long, drawn out hike, Diamond finally re-reached the town and decided to take a break, resting in a PokeCenter for the time being while he waited for his Pokemon to be fully healed. He sat on a lounge chair, arms folded as he stared outside the window, mainly at the direction of the Hallowed Tower where he battled and defeated the likes of Spiritomb. He remembered how epic and memorial the battle was and wondered if he would ever see Spiritomb again. It had taught Diamond so much and he never got to thank it.
Closing his eyes, Diamond sighed. His beret was currently in his lap, showing off his messy navy blue hair. While Diamond was sitting there peacefully, minding his own business, Pearl loudly sat down beside him, plopping down on the lounge chair beside Diamond, causing the boy to jump a bit upon impact.
"Hey Dia! Some kid just told me about these Ruins just outside of Solaceon. I think we should go check it out!" Pearl had an excited expression on his face, while Diamond's was not too excited, to say the very least.
Diamond opened his eyes as he looked at Pearl from the corner of them. He opened his mouth to disagree with Pearl, but for some reason, he wanted Pearl to have his way. For today anyway. Diamond seemed to be in an upbeat mood now, "You know what? Sure. I'm up for a side adventure." He stood and stretched as Nurse Joy approached from behind her counter with all four of Diamond's Pokeballs, "But once we get out of those Ruins, you have to promise to leave me -"
Ring...ring...ring.
Diamond's speech was interrupted by the vibration and rings of Pearl's Pokegear. The tall, blonde boy took out his Pokegear and pressed the "Accept call" button on it as Dawn's face appeared on the screen.
"Hey Pearl! Is Diamond with you? Please tell me he's with you!" She shouted, somewhat in an urgent tone.
Pearl nodded and said, "Yeah, he's right here! We're in Solaceon Town. Where are you? It seems foggy in the background."
"I'm in Route 210. It's foggy out here, so be careful! Unfortunately, Aves doesn't know how to use Defog so I'm roughing it. Please hurry to the Celes-"
The screen on Pearl's Pokegear went blank immediately, indicating disconnection. Pearl thrusted his Pokegear into his pocket as Diamond blinked, "What does Dawn want?"
Pearl shrugged and explained to Diamond that Dawn was stuck in Route 210 in the fog. Diamond grinned and chuckled, "Hm, everyone knows about that route. She failed to teacher her Staravia how to use Defog, ha. I laugh at that. Luckily, Pilot knows how to use Defog, but we're not going to help her just yet."
"Why?' Pearl frowned, "We have to go help her! It sounded urgent!"
Diamond shook his head as they exited the Pokemon Center, "Noooo. You wanted to go to some Ruins. We're going to the Solaceon Ruins first. You see how your plans always backfire? I mean, you can go on without me, right? Into the deep fog all alone where rabid Lopunnies come out of no where and attack you, right?"
Pearl gulped, "Fine. Ruins it is!"
-----
As the duo hiked to east Solaceon Town, they climbed over rocks, strolled through tall grasses, and weaved through deciduous trees before approaching the entrance of a large cave. Pearl held the map in his hand as he looked back to Diamond who seemed uninterested in the whole experience, but nonetheless, enjoying Pearl's stupidity.
"OK, Pearl lead us to death....I mean victory, excuse me," Diamond said sarcastically.
They walked into the cave quietly. Conveniently, the cave was lit with a few torches posted upon the walls and ceiling. Across the walls were life size portraits of Alphabetical letters. Towards the end of the first room, Pearl noticed a small man with a hunched back. The man was dressed in a lab coat and dramatically large bifocals. His pants were dark black and he sported tap dancing shoes.
Diamond snorted as he folded his arms. Dexter was out of his Pokeball and currently clung to Diamond's shoulder, "Wow, the cave leads to the greatest of all treasures: a crooked man with goggles."
Pearl politely tapped the man on the shoulder. However, the man turned around and sent out a large "Rawr!" at the boys, causing Pearl to fall to the ground in frightment, but Diamond was unmoved.
Pearl got up slowly and dusted himself off, "I'm..I'm sorry we frightened you, uhh...hunch-back-professor-guy. We were just curious about the mysteries of these Ruins."
"You ought to!" the maniac shouted, "You ought to! You ought to! You ought to!"
Diamond blinked, "We ought to what?"
"SHUT UP!" The maniac exclaimed.
A sweat drop appeared on the back of Diamond's head, "O...k."
"These Ruins are very sacred to me and the people of Solaceon. We hate trainers with no sense of willingness, emotion, or intelligence that try to enter this cave. Only deserving trainers should learn of the mysteries of the Unown!" The maniac walked over and studied Diamond and Pearl, "From the looks of it, you trainers have an extended history of adventure together. Friendship seems at an all time high!"
Diamond sighed and said, "Look, mister, I didn't choose to have blonde-boy follow me around. He just does. Along with this other girl whom I'm not too fond of. I just hate people following me and helping me. I can do things on my own."
"Which is why you and blonde-boy are going to enter the deep ruins!" The maniac shouted as he shoved Diamond and Pearl into the next room. Dexter tightly clung onto Diamond's shoulder as Diamond spun around and try to run for the exit. However, the maniac pressed a button outside of the exit, causing rock to slide down and close the exit tightly. Diamond sighed as he slammed his fist onto the wall.
"You see, Pearl? This is why you don't get into the car with strangers." Diamond walked past Pearl, "I guess if we're here, we might as well look around."
-----
After walking through about 4 rooms, Pearl began to notice that the letters of the alphabet were becoming more and more prominent in each room. The first room had "A and B" on the wall. The next room had "A, B, C, and D" on the wall and continued on until all the letters of the alphabet were lined up on the right wall and the left wall.
Diamond noticed this too, and when Pearl asked what they were, Diamond exclaimed, "These Pokemon are called Unown, as the maniac outside said. They are normally native to only Johto, but they say two more Unown originate here, based on some hieroglyphics or somethinig; I dunno."
At the end of the room, Pearl spotted the word "friend" spelled by the Unown portraits. Curious, Pearl touched the "F" Unown with his hand, giving off a blue light upon contact. The F Unown floated out of its portrait and flew above Pearl, "Diamond! Diamond! Look! The Unown came to life when I touched it!"
Diamond turned around as Dexter chattered excitedly. The Pachirisu leaped off Diamond's right shoulder and tried to catch the Unown, but was unsuccessful. Angered by this, it used Discharge on itself, lighting up the cave. The static around the cave awoke the remaining Unown "R, I, E, N, and D". The entire F.R.I.E.N.D. Unown floated around Diamond and Pearl as they had their backs to one another.
Pearl grinned, "They're trying to tell us something, dude!"
Diamond had a plain expression on his face, but agreed, "Yeah, I guess you're right. They're not attacking us or anything." He looked to Dexter was still Discharging himself, "Eh, the Pokemon Center can't even help you." He returned the Pachirisu before the F.R.I.E.N.D. Unown floated to the final room of the Solaceon Ruins.
This room was the largest of all the rooms and had what appeared to be sentence of Unowns wrapping around the room. The ceiling had a large opening leading to the deep blue skies. Diamond and Pearl ran into this room, following behind the F.R.I.E.N.D. Unown. Pearl quickly read the sentence that surrounded the room:
"______SHIP. ALL LIVES TOUCH OTHER LIVES TO CREATE SOMETHING ANEW AND ALIVE."
Diamond's eyes watched as the F.R.I.E.N.D. Unown finished the first word of the phrase. He opened his mouth upon completion:
"FRIENDSHIP. ALL LIVES TOUCH OTHER LIVES TO CREATE SOMETHING ANEW AND ALIVE."
Pearl grinned as he stared at his hands, "When I touched the Unown, it came alive. Is that what it meant?"
Diamond shrugged and calculated the situation and the phrase in his mind, "Sort of. It's saying that everyone has the power to influence somebody in a way; Whether it be positive or negative. Friendship and companionship is the driving force of this influence. They help bring something anew and alive." He thought Sam and their friendship as he approached to center rock formation of the cave. On it, were four Unown. On the side Diamond approached, there was a "D" and "?" Unown. On the side Pearl approached, a "P" and "!" Unown.
At same time, Diamond and Pearl pressed their hands against the Unown portraits. Diamond's hands touching his Unown gave off a goldenrod color, while Pearl's gave off a cerulean color.
The four Unown came to life and circled around the duo slowly before disappeared into the earlier parts of the ruin. Diamond sighed and said, "Alright, we've found out what's in these Ruins. I think we should go now."
"Aww. We just got here!"
-----
In the later afternoon, Diamond and Pearl set out and headed to the north where they met the Psyducks a while back. Sure enough, the thousands of Psyducks were still there, gripping there heads because of their headaches.
Diamond sighed, "We've got to get rid of these Psyducks, man."
Pearl reached into his pocket and pulled out a wallop bottle of something called "Secret Potion". He stared at the bottle and read, "Only use in case of severe emergency."
Diamond folded his arm, "In that case, let's spray it on your brain and call it day."
Pearl scoffed sarcastically, "Very funny. Let's get to spraying..."
(Next: Chapter 38: VS. Psyducks!)
Authors: I really enjoyed typing up this chapter! It has a VS. Spiritomb feel to it.
Anyway, here is a pic of how Diamond would react to someone taking his beret. Found it on dA.