The Four Mirrors
Sequel to ‘Legacies’
By MMM/AJ
Chapter XX - MI
It had only been a few hours since Satoria and Tamista had left, and Melicia was already spiraling into deep depression without them. The two of them had given up on looking for Shakara, but she had refused to go with them back home. She was unwilling to admit that her mom could be dead, so she continued searching through the caves of Mount Moon. They had assured her that they had explored all the passages in the cave completely, but she wasn’t convinced. She continued wandering through the passages alone now, her lantern the only source of light. The caverns twisted and turned as she delved deeper into the mountain.
The three of them had drawn up a map of the passageways during their initial sweep, and Melicia held it out in front of her and followed her route on the map as she walked. She wanted to recheck the dead ends on the map that were caused by cave-ins. She was sure that Shakara could have sealed herself in behind one of these cave-ins.
Most of the cave-ins turned out to be real dead ends however, Melicia used her telekinesis to lift the boulders and clear them out to check what was behind them. She hadn’t forgotten that the humans might detect her when she did this, but she was too depressed and determined to find Shakara to care. It wasn’t until several more hours later that her suspicions suddenly felt a little justified. Behind a cave-in she found a huge new passageway that spiraled deeper and deeper into the earth. She started out down it with a new flush of excitement; she couldn’t wait to prove her sisters wrong!
At the bottom of the passage, the cave gave way to metal stairs! Melicia felt a lump of nervousness congeal in her stomach as she descended the stairway, and it nearly doubled in size when she reached the bottom. The stone walls ended and were replaced with steel, and a large steel door blocked the passage before her. It wasn’t entirely closed either, it looked like it had been blasted open partway with an explosive of some sort; there was a huge charred hole in it just large enough for her to squeeze through. It wasn’t smoking or glowing with heat, so obviously the explosion had occurred quite some time ago.
Melicia poked her head and lantern through and peered into the gloom beyond. She saw long branching metallic corridors, lined with sliding doors and covered with red painted symbols. There were dozens of scorch marks on the walls and old dried out skeletons piled on the floor. It took Melicia a moment to recognize the symbols as the three bloody swords of Ares’ old empire, and she realized that she must have stumbled upon one of his old abandoned secret bases! Apparently it had been the site of a major battle as well, judging by the large amount of skeletons and burn marks everywhere.
Melicia wasn’t exactly afraid of a few skeletons and she knew that there couldn’t be anyone left alive inside the base, so she mustered up her courage and crawled the rest of the way through the remains of the door and began investigating. She followed a systematic grid pattern as she explored the facility, keeping her eyes and ears open for any trace of movement. She noticed an equal number of human skeletons as there were skeletons of Ares’ Acolytes, all were bare of flesh and scattered wildly. Some of the rooms were completely empty; their occupants either fled or joined the battle when the violence started. In one of the office areas she found documents from over 60 years ago, which meant that this base had existed even before Ares had conquered the earth. It must have been one of his earliest secret facilities where he had concocted his plans for conquest!
Eventually Melicia stumbled across a strange looking door between a pair of utterly dark windows. She opened the door and saw that there was a massive cavern beyond it. A huge chamber opened hundreds of feet in every direction, including downward. There was a little metal platform underneath the door and a set of stairs that descended deep into the blackness below. The light from her lantern couldn’t penetrate deep enough to illuminate the outer walls of the chamber; but it did barely reflect off of a few huge rusted metal beams that filled the center of the chamber.
Melicia felt irritated at her limited line of sight now, so she created a little orb of psychic energy and used it to brightly illuminate the entire cavern. With its light she could see that the cave had been used as a massive starship construction facility. The center of the cavern was filled with a massive network of old rusted scaffolding and construction equipment. There was a half-finished cruiser class ship suspended inside the scaffolding; its inner support beams stuck out into the air bare and rusted like ribs of a rotting beast. There were at least 7 other small buildings on the wall and floor of the cave, one of which appeared to be a mining facility. The whole place was covered with dust and rust, and the pale ghostly light from Melicia’s psychic light source gave it a creepy washed out look.
Melicia extinguished her light as a chill ran up and down her spine. She could now feel a terribly frightening atmosphere in this place. It was almost like the feeling that comes with being stalked by a malevolent ghost Pokemon. Melicia felt very uncomfortable with the idea of staying here any longer, but she knew that if her mom was still alive that it would be a great hiding place for her.
Melicia tried to climb down the stairs to the bottom of the chamber, but they proved too rusty and unstable to be trustworthy. She hovered down to the bottom instead and began searching the buildings down there next. Three more hours of searching down there proved utterly futile, and Melicia felt strong waves of fatigue kick in and dull her determination. She realized that it was probably getting into the early AM hours, so she needed to find some place to sleep. By sheer coincidence she stumbled upon a barracks that had been used by Ares’ old Acolytes; there were dozens of pre-prepared bunk beds stacked against the walls. They each had their own digital alarm clocks, but there hadn’t been power here for many years so Melicia would have to wake up on her own. She took a deep breath and blew the thick layer of dust off of the blanket and peeled it back. The sheets were pristine underneath, almost as if they had just been cleaned. She set her lantern on the end table next to the bed and turned it down to its lowest setting. The light fell to a soft touch of a glow.
The bed wasn’t padded very thickly but it was soft and the proper size to fit Melicia. She still felt that unshakeable sense of being stalked by something, but her tiredness was beginning to overwhelm it. She spent 15 minutes staring out at the other beds around her before falling into a gentle sleep.
Melicia’s dreams were haunted by violence. She saw her mother in the dream, fleeing desperately from a huge group of human pursuers. They were firing energy rifles at her as she ran, mostly missing but a few struck their marks. Shakara’s body was covered with burns but she kept running wildly, not caring where she ended up. Melicia felt a rage boiling up inside her and she flew towards them to save her mother. The humans never saw her coming; she sliced and diced them like lunchmeat with energy swords. But more were pouring out of the landscape around her like termites emerging from woodwork. They seemed inept and stupid, they hardly fired at her at all and those who did always missed. She cut them to pieces in hordes, almost forgetting about her mother who seemed to be standing by not doing anything.
Melicia’s dream was interrupted by a loud thump and a clang from somewhere in the barracks. She sat straight up and banged her horns against the metal bars supporting the bunk above her, causing her skull to vibrate painfully. She clutched her head tightly and scanned the room around her quickly to find the source of the noise.
The room was pitch-black though, her lantern had been turned off somehow. She fumbled for it in the dark and accidentally knocked it over. It wasn’t made of glass so thankfully it couldn’t shatter, but Melicia cursed nonetheless. She bent over the side of the bed and reached around for it wildly. Then she saw something on the floor that made her freeze in fear. There was a glowing spot on the floor of some kind!
Melicia stared in fear and curiosity, not daring to move. As she watched the spot seemed to grow and open up like a portal of some kind. It radiated warmth and seemed to have this terrible aura of fear and pain. Then something began to emerge from it. Ghostly ethereal horns and then a head rose up from inside it, and Melicia scrambled back away from it in horror.
“Grandfather?!” she whispered in horror
The ghostly form of Ares had risen up from the floor in front of Melicia. He was clearly transparent and mist-like, and his body was covered with iron chains and hooks that were hanging from the flesh of his soul. He stared into her eyes with an unparalleled intensity and spoke.
“Melicia, my granddaughter. I have come to deliver a message to you.” Ares’ voice had a low rumbling quality to it; it felt tickly in Melicia’s ears.
“Ever since I was a child, I harbored an intense hatred for humanity deep in my heart. Those scumbags who created me had no problem treating me like garbage, but I let their words turn me into a mass murdering monstrosity. These chains that you see hanging from me are a representation of the torment I’ve endured for all the people I tortured and killed during my life.”
“I want to warn you not to let the crimes that you’ve endured at the hands of humanity turn you into what I was. You have a golden heart of kindness Melicia; don’t let them tarnish it with hate.”
Melicia stared at him in awe. “Grandpa…can you tell me if mom is dead?”
“Shakara is a strong one, she wouldn’t go down quietly. But now, she no longer resides on your plane.”
Melicia sighed heavily and frowned with sorrow.
“I must go now Melicia, I don’t have any time left here. But I may see you in the afterlife. Since I was willing to give up my power to save Shakara right before my death I was not sentenced to an eternity in the underworld, only to a period of time equal to all the suffering I caused during my life. Goodbye and good luck.”
Ares slowly vanished into the darkness and Melicia bent over the bed to look at the spot where he had emerged from. The glowing circle had vanished, and now she had been plunged back into darkness.
Melicia grabbed her lantern and turned it back on. She now knew that she had to leave this place behind and find her sisters. She didn’t know what time it was at that point, but she knew that it was time to go home. She would psychically contact Cygnus and Nolus soon so that they could meet up again.
Chapter XXI – NV
“Wake up sleepyhead!” Asha’s voice chimed cheerfully from the darkness. Nolus groggily opened his eyes and stared up at Asha.
“Morning already?” He grumbled.
“Your brother has been up for an hour already, now come on! You know what today is!” Asha said excitedly.
Excitement surged through Nolus’ mind and body as he remembered what was scheduled for today. He sat upright and gave Asha a big grin. “This is going to be great!”
The two of them climbed the stairs out of the basement of Asha’s home and emerged into the kitchen where Ashley and John were finishing breakfast. Ashley was busy stuffing scrambled eggs down her throat as quickly as possible, while John was sipping a cup of black coffee gingerly while writing furiously on a digital pad.
“Morning all!” Nolus said with an excited tone.
Ashley waved at him cheerfully as she finished wolfing down the eggs; little bits of yolk were getting caught in her long black hair now. Some stuck to the plain grey shirt she was wearing as well. It was a Saturday, so she didn’t need to dress up and go to work teaching students at the university. She still loved to dress extra-casual, and it showed in the pair of scraggly jeans that she was wearing. Granted it wasn’t the ancestral pair that her father had given her, but it had its own unique patterns of wear and tear.
Ashley had aged much more gracefully than her husband. Her hair was as still as purely black and messy as ever, and she had only gotten a few wrinkles to show her middle age. John however, was becoming jagged and grey like a cliff.
Over on the counter Asha’s Espeon was washing the breakfast dishes with its mind, using telekinesis to remove every bit of grime and dirt. Shiannah was providing a fresh stream of water to wash the dishes with, and together they seemed to be having a lot of fun.
“When are we going to go?” Nolus asked enthusiastically. “I can’t wait much longer!”
Asha ruffled the fur on Nolus’ shoulders and grinned. “To think that less than a minute ago you weren’t even willing to get up out of that bed!”
Ashley finished gulping down her eggs and said “I’m done! Now where’s Cygnus?”
“I’m coming!” Cygnus’ voice called from the stairs to the second floor.
They heard heavy thudding footsteps on the stairs as Cygnus sprinted down them haphazardly. He emerged around the corner from the den, panting and covered with sweat.
“What’s with you? You look like you’ve been running laps!” Nolus asked.
“Did you know that John has a treadmill hidden upstairs? I found it this morning and I’ve been running for 30 minutes. It’s a great substitute for jogging since we can’t go outside.” Cygnus panted with a grin on his face.
“Well you’ll have to mop yourself up during the flight; we’re ready to head out!” Asha said excitedly.
John finished his last sip of coffee and tucked his pad under his arm to lead them out to the garage. The garage was cluttered with all sorts of antique gadgets and assorted bric-a-brac; it was neatly piled around the family’s two vehicles. John owned a sleek little hover-car on the opposite side of the garage and Ashley owned a huge hover-van the size of a small shuttle. It was fortunate that it was so large; they would need every cubic inch of space to fit everyone inside. Nolus had to practically fold himself in half to fit through the side door and crawl into the back seat. The interior was made from smoothly molded dark grey plastic and the seats were padded with fake fur of some sort, and Nolus had to hold his tail in his lap when he sat. Cygnus crammed into the seat next to him and they had to squeeze against each other to fit in the same row. Asha sat in the row in front of them and Ashley and John sat in the front at the controls. Nolus had to struggle to find the female buckle for his seat belt and then tug to get the belt to reach it.
“Can we listen to some techno please?” Asha begged with a pouting lip.
“No, it’s time for the morning news and I heard that there’s going to be an interesting story on the plague in New Saffron!” Ashley said as she turned the ignition and the van rumbled to life.
The van soared out of the garage and gained altitude quickly. They turned away from New Celadon City and flew northwards, towards Mount Moon. The glowing steel towers of the metropolis vanished quickly as the van reached maximum speed. Nolus squinted through the heavily tinted windows at the countryside as it sped by underneath. The tint was so strong that he could barely make out the shining spots of sun reflecting brightly off of farm domes.
The radio crackled loudly for a moment as John fiddled with it, looking for the news. He stumbled upon the correct frequency and passed it in his haste, causing a spattering of the newscaster’s voice to croak through between jolts of static. He quickly turned it back and they listened intently.
“-return to 12News at 9. In today’s top story, officials have announced that the culprit responsible for the New Saffron Ebola plague escaped last night at around 11PM. The military still refuses to release the man’s identity, but speculation continues to run wild. Here’s a report from Geraldine Delane, our special reporter inside the quarantine zone:”
“Roberta, things are getting pretty well under control here in New Saffron now. It’s been a week since the first cases of Ebola-gamma were reported in the city, and the miraculously quick reaction of the Japanese Government has helped minimize the deaths involved. No cases as of yet have been reported outside the city, and the number of new cases inside the city have been on a steady decline since Saturday. It appears that the new nano-robotic treatment system that has been administered to the public has been a staggering success. As for the culprit’s escape, there’s no word as to where he was headed when he broke out of Coalinger Labs, but rumor has it that he’s involved with the fugitive Shakara Et Benca and her family.”
A little light bulb clicked on in Nolus’ brain. “Hold on a moment! What if Venius was the one who did all that?”
Ashley immediately turned the radio down so she could speak. “How could he have? It’s not like he could have just walked into that city and sprayed people with samples of virus!”
“Think about it! Ebola was the kind of Virus that we all got infected with that one time. Venius could have changed it to infect humans, disguised himself with a cloak and hood and snuck into the city to release it! His capture would explain why we couldn’t find him at home on Tuesday!”
“Do you think he’d really do something so terrible?” Asha asked with a horrified expression.
“I…well, father’s death hit him much harder than any of the rest of us. Maybe we shouldn’t have left him alone at home…” Nolus said in a guilty tone.
“Wait, listen to this!” John said excitedly and turned the volume of the radio back up.
“-Investigation into Admiral Angelo Dupree came to a conclusion today. In a startling new scandal it was revealed that the admiral was a member of a secret extremist group known as “The Psi-Slayers”. This group is known for their extreme hatred and distrust for Shakara Et Benca and her United Protectorate, and they are believed to be responsible for the attacks against her fleet a week and a half ago. Admiral Dupree was also found to be falsifying multiple documents and statistics in order to make the Protectorate sounds like a dangerous terrorist organization in order to justify going to war with them. His private documents also implicate a large number of other members on the UN as members of this group as well.”
Nolus was shocked to hear that the Psi-Slayers had so thoroughly infiltrated the UN, but also satisfied that they had been brought into public scrutiny over what they had done.
“Admiral Dupree was found guilty of multiple crimes including conspiracy, falsifying justification for war, perjury, and many others. A temporary executive Triumvirate is also considering holding him accountable for all the casualties caused by his false war. Such a dire charge would most likely result in the death penalty if he were convicted. An International Committee is being assembled to handle further investigations of other UN officials, which will begin later this week.”
Nolus felt a grin cross his face. He normally thought of the death penalty as abhorrent, but in Dupree’s case he was willing to make an exception. He saw that Cygnus had an equally large grin on his face too.
“Whoo! I hope they incinerate that piece of human garbage!” Cygnus hooted.
“Do you think he was behind the bombing attack on your house too?” Ashley asked.
“I’d bet my life on it.” Cygnus said stoically. “I think he’s behind all the crap Shakara went through in the Protectorate too.”
The radio news turned to less interesting stories, so Asha, Cygnus and Nolus chatted quietly while Ashley and John listened to it. They theorized about what could have happened to Venius for a good ten minutes before Mount Moon loomed up over the horizon to greet them. Somewhere the sisters were waiting in one of the cave entrances to meet them; the trick was going to be finding the correct one. Ashley gently adjusted a knob to turn down the tinting on the windows so that they could see clearly and scan the various caves for them.
Mount Moon was littered with passages and cave openings, so they wandered around it for nearly 20 minutes searching for any sign of the three sisters. Groups of wild Gravelers rolled down the mountainside as they passed various holes in the rock and a flock of wild Fearow rustled their wings in indignation as they flew past a nest. They were near the peak of the mountain when the headlights shone across Satoria inside one of the smaller caves. She waved at them enthusiastically as they descended to meet here. Asha threw the door of the van open and she climbed in, followed by Tamista.
“Hey guys! It’s wonderful to see everyone again!” Satoria said cheerfully.
Ashley frowned at Melicia, who was still standing in the cave trying to squeeze herself in. “Hey Melicia, do you mind if we come back and make a second trip to pick you up?”
Melicia looked a little dispirited but nodded in agreement. “That’s ok, I’ve got time.”
“Don’t worry, we’ll be back in two hours!” Asha said with a reassuring pat on her shoulder. “Take my PDA, it has games on it you can play in the mean time.”
Melicia waved at them as they flew off; less energetically than how Satoria had to greet them. She strode back into the cave as they sped away, and Nolus felt a little sorry for her for a few minutes.
“I’m sorry you girls couldn’t find anything.” Ashley said suddenly.
“It’s alright, we’re ready to accept that mom’s gone now. This search was really just a kind of denial for us.” Satoria said,
“Melicia told us about a vision she had 2 nights ago too, she said that she was visited by the spirit of Ares!” Tamista added.
“You’re kidding!” Ashley said with a shocked tone. “What happened?”
“Melicia told us that he said that Shakara was gone and that we should move on with our lives and try to be happy.” Satoria said with a little awe in her voice.
“That’s some deep advice coming from him.” John said offhandedly.
“That night Melicia refused to come with us when we climbed back down the mountain and went to camp in the forest. The following morning there she was, shaking us awake to tell us about what happened. Next thing we know we end up contacting you Nolus and arranging this pickup! Whatever he said to her, it caused her attitude to pull a complete 180. She’s been going on and on about how great it will be to see you guys again.” Said Tamista. “I can’t say that I wasn’t excited either, but she seemed practically ebullient.”
Nobody really knew what to say about that, so for a few moments the van was mostly silent. Then Cygnus broke in to tell the sisters about the incident at New Saffron and the awkward silence disappeared. After several comfortable minutes, they drifted onto the subject of Admiral Dupree.
“Guess what we heard over the radio on the way to pick you guys up!” Cygnus said excitedly. “One of, if not the biggest conspirators in the attack against your mom’s fleet just got exposed!”
“No kidding!” Tamista said ecstatically, “Fill us in!”
“They’re going to hold him responsible for every single human that died in the war he caused; he could face the death penalty for it!” Cygnus continued, “They also found a list of a huge number of other Psi-Slayers in government positions, and they’re all going to be investigated too!”
“Wait, maybe that means we can use our powers freely again without worrying about those hunter-seekers tracking us down!” Satoria said.
Before anyone could say anything, Satoria teleported the whole group straight to the site of their old home where they were headed; van and all. She looked a little pale and fatigued when they re-emerged, the distance they had covered was a little less than a hundred miles so it had taken most of her psychic energy to perform. The leafless trees and rubble of the house grew as they descended.
“Satoria, we don’t know for sure that all the Psi-Slayers have been rooted out yet! Now there could be an entire battalion of those robots after us!” John said angrily.
“Maybe, but we ARE in a hover-van, we can just fly away if they come after us!” Melicia pouted.
Nolus saw that Venius was running across the yard, past the wreckage of the house to meet them as the van landed on the yard. There was a procession of unfamiliar Pokemon following him, all electric type. The van settled onto the brown grass gently and the doors popped open with gentle hisses.
“Well look what the Ketchums dragged in!” Venius said with a smile as they climbed out.
“You’re alright!” Satoria said happily, running over to give him a hug.
“We heard about what happened to you in New Saffron.” Nolus said emotionlessly.
Venius’ expression instantly melted from happiness into shock. “What?”
“It was just a guess…” Cygnus said, looking shocked as well. “I didn’t really think we were right…”
“How did you escape?” Asha asked, one of the last ones to emerge from the van.
“With a little help from my friends here.” Venius said, gesturing towards the Pokemon that were following. “The Manectric is named Tiri, the Jolteons are Ayden and Kyden, and I don’t really have names for the Shinxes yet. There was a Raichu with me too but he went his own way after we escaped. They all helped me escape by frying the power grid of the place with their electricity to bring down their psionic disruptors. Especially this little fellow!”
Venius picked up one of the Shinx cubs to show them. Nolus had never seen a shining Pokemon before, the Shinx had yellow fur where it should have been blue, and all its fur had a dazzling sparkle about it like its skin naturally produced glitter.
“He created a thunderbolt strong enough to take down the entire grid by himself!” Venius said proudly, as if the Shinx were his own child.
“I think you should name him-” Asha began
“Her!” Venius corrected suddenly.
“I think you should name HER Luxxy.”
“Why’s that?” Venius asked.
“Well, one day she’s going to grow into a big strong Luxray, and it’s very lucky that she was able to help you escape, so why not combine the words? Lucky Luxray, Luxxy?”
“I like it! I think it sounds strong!” Satoria chimed in.
“Luxxy it is!” Venius said happily, and the Shinx looked at him and smiled cutely.
“I’ve never seen so many shiny Pokemon together at once!” Ashley marveled, bending down to look at the rest of the litter. “I thought the gene for a shining coat wasn’t genetically inheritable, that it was only a random point mutation in a Pokemon’s genome!”
“They were experimental subjects being held at a lab!” Venius said. “I think they were genetically modified to express the shiny gene!”
Ashley looked up at Venius suddenly with puppy eyes. “Can I have one of them?”
Everyone seemed shocked at Ashley’s request. “But…but you’re a 40-ish year old college professor, you quit training Pokemon years ago!” Cygnus blurted out.
Ashley looked hurt at his remark. “Hey, I still raise Pokemon! You know my Shiannah and Megawatt are the healthiest Pokemon of their ages, for their species at least. Usually Eevees and their evolutionary variants only live for about 25 years, mine are 37! I’ll be damned if my age has any kind of impact on my skill at Pokemon handling!”
“Easy there hon.” John said, laying a hand on Ashley’s shoulder.
Cygnus looked mortified, but thankfully Venius took the heat off of him by speaking. “Then I think you’re the best person for me to give one to! Go ahead and pick one yourself.”
The Shinxes were still so young that they had no idea about the world around them; they didn’t know what was happening as Ashley looked over them to choose. One of them playfully wandered out of the group to explore, and Ashley smiled and picked him up.
“I’ll take this one, since he seems to love wandering off to get into to trouble!” Ashley said. “I think I’ll name him Milo.”
“No problem. You can have one too if you want Asha.” Venius offered.
“No thanks, I’ve already got too many kinds of Pokemon as it is. If I take anymore different species I’ll have to apply for a Trainer’s License on top of my Breeder’s License!”
“So where are Melicia and Opulous?” Venius asked curiously.
“We couldn’t fit Melicia into the van and we don’t really know where Opulous is.” Nolus said, still emotionless in his tone of voice.
“Hey, is something bothering you Nolus?” Venius asked in a softer voice.
“We’ll talk about it later.” Nolus whispered.
