A scream escaped my lips, echoing around me in the chute. I felt someone bump against me as I slid down the narrow passage. Akemi screamed too, and I felt her hands grip my arm. I imagined her nails were what getting grabbed by a Scizor—Scyther's evolution first discovered in the Johto region—would feel like. Above our heads, I watched as the light was eclipsed by the trap door. Darkness clouded my vision before giving way to Mewtwo's purple luminescence. He must have jumped after us, immediately before the door closed.

My feet hit something solid, and my body tumbled to the ground with a thud. I felt banged up, but it didn't feel like anything was broken. I couldn't say the same for Akemi, as I heard her groan in pain in the darkness next to me. In the pale light, I could see her form crumpled in a heap on the ground, and I heard her say "Ow," repeatedly.

I felt around for my flashlight, but it was impossible to tell what was a rock and what belonged in my bag in the pitch black room.

"Mewtwo, I need light here," I said. His form descended over to me gracefully, like an angel from the heavens. A scientifically engineered, purple angel.

"Broken foot," he said before I had the chance to examine my friend. "It's not a horrible injury, but she will need assistance soon. Nothing pierced the skin, so it's likely a small fracture." He turned to speak to Akemi now. "Do not put any pressure on your foot."

"I feel like I'm gonna throw up," Akemi gasped. "Oh gosh, I'm going to hurl."

"That's what my mom told me it would feel like," I said. I was horrible at comforting people, but I had to at least try. I mustered together what medical knowledge my mom had shoved into my brain. It was all I really knew to do at the moment. "You probably won't actually hurl, but it's going to hurt like hell until we can get you medical attention."

Akemi repeated variations of "Alright," and "Okay," as I began to rustle through my bag for painkillers. The light that Mewtwo gave off was too low, so I released Charizard to help illuminate the area. I grabbed his tail and moved it to where it would be most beneficial to me. With the new light source, it was a piece of cake to find the bottle of medicine at the bottom of my bag. I noted the low supply and made a mental note to buy more once we got to town. Pokémon catching was painful work.

"Take these," I said. I opened Akemi's hand and placed the two tiny brown pills in her open palm. She forced them into her mouth, barely opening her gritted teeth to allow passage. I passed her water bottle to her too, and she sipped the liquid gently.

"Got any bright ideas on how to get us out of here?" I asked Mewtwo.

Etchings made themselves known as he waved his hand over the wall. The crevices appeared to be carved in the stone itself, not into a plate like they were in the room above.

Finally, he spoke. "It's in an ancient tongue, but I can hear the words in my mind. 'Our words shall remain here for the ages. Our clan engraved these words in this place.' I'm not sure what that means."

The building rumbled as another earthquake shook the ground. I shielded my head from falling debris. Akemi and Mewtwo did the same; one showed off his psychic power and created an umbrella over his head while the other shrieked and held her head in her hands. At the back of the room, torches sprung to life with orange fire, and a door opened under the carving Mewtwo had just read. Cool air rushed over me from the new opening, threatening to blow out the newly lit torches. Their ancient fire didn't waver for a second. I stood and walked over to the maw in the wall. I stared down the sloped path. A dank, wet smell rose from the new section of the ruins.

"Can you carry her with your powers?" I pointed at Akemi while talking to Mewtwo. In response, Akemi gently floated off the ground. A purple aura surrounded her body. "Perfect," I said.

Charizard went first as the torch bearer of the group. I followed close behind him, checking the path for anything potentially hazardous with my newly recovered flashlight. The torches had helped immensely in recovering the device. Akemi and Mewtwo followed me closely, both of them floating off of the ground.

Charizard slid the last few feet into the next room, his scaly feet giving way under the loose gravel. I jogged, trying to keep up with my partner before turning to motion that everything was safe to Mewtwo. He continued to bring up the rear, still holding Akemi and himself in levitation.

The room was similar in size to the last, but the materials used were different. Cobwebs hung over the carving on the far wall and in every corner, and roots snaked their way down through the ceiling. A small pool of water congregated in the chipped flooring in the corner. The rest of the floor was in a similar state of decay, littered with broken ceramic pieces and damaged bricks. I moved with Charizard to the back wall to examine this room's unique feature: a mosaic. White bricks framed the damaged picture. The intact fragments reminded me of the Pokémon Kabuto.

"What's your genius idea for this room, Mewtwo?" I turned to ask the psychic type.

He was floating around the room, trying to gather clues to figure out what to do next. I notice he had placed Akemi down on the ground again. She was leaning against the wall. Her head rested against the bricks with her eyes squeezed shut and her teeth clenched in a grimace. She opened one eye and looked at me, then she smiled a pained grin before returning to her former appearance.

"You can help too. I am not required to do all of the work," he replied after a long pause.

His eyes were glued to the wall next to the open passageway. They flitted from marking to marking, trying to make a connection between the runes and the solution to the puzzle.

"Fine, let me see what I can do," I snapped back after understanding that I wasn't going to get a better answer.

I got to work immediately, starting with the mural at the back of the room. Several chips came off when I touched it, leading my eyes down to my feet where I noticed several dozen similar pieces laying in a pile. Disturbed dust rose up from where the newly fallen chips now sat.

"They come off for a reason," Akemi said through shallow breaths. I turned to face her. "Try putting it back together on the wall. It was probably broken when we got in here for a reason." She groaned and gripped her leg, letting her head loll back to rest on the wall again.

"Okay, I'll try it," I said, bending down to collect a handful of titles.

She made a good point. The mural wasn't complete when we walked in. I thought it was because of decay, but upon closer examination of the pieces, there was no dried glue on them in the first place. No residue or caked on concrete, just puzzle pieces fitting together in the wall; a wall with a slight slope away from the center of the room. I got to work, starting with the freshly dusted of tiles in my hand. Mewtwo soon joined me, I noticed, as pieces magically floated into their places. In almost no time at all, the picture was completed. The end result was a Kabuto like I had noted earlier.

The building rumbled once more.

"Here we go again," Akemi sighed when the noise stopped.

Suddenly, the door leading into the room slammed shut behind us, and the rumbling started up again. It was louder this time, accompanied by the roaring we had heard earlier. The floor beneath us split open, slowly retreating into the walls. I jumped back from the crack and scrunched myself as close to the wall as I could get. The mural fell apart behind me. Dusty pieces scattered everywhere. I had to brush a few of them out of my hair.

Mewtwo took flight again, grabbing Akemi while he was at it. I felt my feet slowly rise off the ground too. Purple light surrounded me. The feeling was strange; I was unable to move, but I was still perfectly capable of controlling my body. I waved my arms slightly and allowed my legs to swish back and forth, but I hung resolutely in the air. No amount of fidgeting caused me to budge.

Charizard took flight too, flapping his mighty wings. I coughed at the dust he sent flying up into the air. A good volume of it ended up in my nose, causing a horrible sneezing fit. I felt my feet plant themselves firmly on the ground again while I continued to sneeze. I opened my eyes to see the group returned to their normal positions on the floor with only one major difference to the room: a staircase now rose up from the dark cavern below.

"There's more?" Akemi asked. She groaned in pain and annoyance. "The sign above us was right, we should have escaped while we had the chance."

She and I laughed slightly, but she started groaning again. We had to get out of here soon for her leg's sake.

Silently, Mewtwo took the lead this time. He walked--not floated--down the steps now, carrying Akemi again. Charizard looked over at me, then turned to look at Mewtwo. He huffed smoke and dust out of his nose and started following the new leader.

"Come on, Charizard, I thought I was the leader here," I complained in a joking tone. He only huffed in response. "Screw you too, I guess."

Charizard growled in a boisterous tone. It was how he had always portrayed his version of laughter to me. I smiled as I brought up the rear behind the fire type.

I shone the flashlight around the new room and found myself presently surprised. The room was occupied by scientists. They congregated around a different staircase across the room from us. They hadn't noticed us descending yet since the room was so expansive. Half walls covered the floor too, possibly blocking us from their view. I noticed the walls were covered in the same script that was present all throughout the temple. Only this time, the letters looked like they had eyes.

Immediately upon noticing that little quirk, my head pounded with a familiar feeling. I couldn't place it until I noticed Mewtwo reacting in a similar fashion. It was the same headache from when we first entered the ruins when he mentioned something speaking to him. Only now, I heard it too.

"Unown, Unown," it wailed.

"What is that?" I cried. The pounding feeling was overwhelming. I squeezed my head in my hands, but the pain refused to yield. Nothing could alleviate the sensation.

"The Unown. They lived here long ago," Mewtwo said. His words came off in my head as a scream, and my vision dimmed. "They're angry," he grimaced.

I couldn't take it anymore. I fell from my position on the steps, collapsing onto the dirty floor below. Footprints surrounded me on all sides, probably from the foot traffic of the scientists. It smelled of mildew and rot, mingled with chemicals from the scientists' studies. I heard voices and saw humans rushing over to me now. I could hear their muffled voices, talking hurriedly and at an increased volume. I felt hands pull me up to my feet as one voice whispered "Mew."

Then suddenly, as quickly as it had come on, the vision faded. I was standing over Akemi and the scientists surrounded her, not me. I watched as they placed her gently on a stretcher and rushed away to the main entrance into the ruins. It all happened before I even had the chance to snap out of the daze completely. I looked around at the rest of our group. Charizard had his head raised high, waiting for my command as he acknowledged me with a glance out of the corner of his eye. Mewtwo appeared to be out of it from what I could make of his face. He had tucked himself away into the shadows sometime during that fiasco.

"The Unown spoke to me. They mentioned your name," I told him. I assumed he had heard them too based on his reaction to my voice cutting the silence in half.

"No, they didn't." He shook his head. "They mentioned her."

Without further explanation, he vanished into his ball, leaving me to wonder what he was on about.

I was left with only one question that mattered to me. Who?

----------

The base above ground was no less hectic than it had been when Akemi and I showed up. It was still sweltering outside too, which made everything feel more worrisome. However, with two Paths open--the ancient part of the Ruins that we fell into--the overall tone seemed optimistic. There was something about those buildings and stairs that the scientists wouldn't shut up about. They opened "ancient wonders" some claimed, while others thought it might provide a device that the original inhabitants of the Ruins had used to control the weather. Theories ran rampant.

Three other buildings contained similar altars to what we had found. One had already been explored, leaving two left untouched. I was invited to join an expedition since I was one of the original people to stumble through an altar. I was doing a final check of my inventory when Mewtwo's voice popped into my mind.

"We will discuss it later."

I didn't even have to ask for context to know what he meant. He hadn't been himself since it happened. A question plagued my mind now: Who is Mew?

Thankfully, one thing had gone right since exiting the depths. Akemi was being seen by medical personnel now. One had already come out and informed me that "It was only a minor fracture, and we're expecting her to make a quick recovery."

Charizard was in his ball. I gripped it with my right hand, prepared for anything that might happen. I didn't expect to put it away until after a fight. The energy in the air was just right for something awesome to happen; a legendary was here. I couldn't explain the feeling, but I knew in it my heart. The excitement on the air was set up perfectly for an encounter for the ages.

"Phoebe, I presume?" came a voice from behind me. I spun to see Dr. Suresh approaching me. He was the lead scientist here at the Ruins.

"That's me," I answered. I offered my hand for a handshake, and he accepted. Firm, but not wrist breaking.

"You're not planning on coming with us, are you?" I worried. I didn't mean any offense by it, but he was, to put it simply, old. Akemi had broken her foot, I didn't want to imagine what could happen to this frail old man if he were to fall.

"No, I would not fare well I fear," he said lightheartedly. I sighed in relief at his answer. "I came here to give you this. It's my Pokégear number in case you need to reach me while down there."

He handed me a small piece of paper that obviously came from a crumpled-up notebook page. It had a number written down on it like he claimed it would.

"Thanks," I said, already typing in the number.

"If you need anything, please, do not hesitate to call. The other members of your team have my number as well in the event you get separated."

With that, he walked away back into the house. I pocketed my Pokégear and headed off toward my assigned location. I was in Group B, assigned to Building B.

Building B was identical to Building X—the one I had fallen into earlier. The altar was the same, the ladder in the corner was the same, and the smell of old housing materials was the same. Knowing this, I walked right up to the altar to examine the plate. Why mess around with anything else? The room below, the one with the ladder leading into it, didn't go anywhere according to the people I was with.

Each plate had something to do with the code word inscribed on it. Ours was "ESCAPE," meaning use an escape rope as I had found out accidentally. The one that the other scientists fell through earlier was "LIGHT," meaning use the Pokémon move Flash. Both incidents happened out of pure luck; I could only wish to have seen the expression on the poor nerd's face when his Pokémon had doomed them to the darkness. He had only wanted to see in the dim lighting of the hut, and he had gotten so much more than he had hoped for.

Now, with minimal knowledge of the language to guide us, we could actually think through the two remaining clues instead of begging for luck to continue guiding us.

"Ho-Oh," Mewtwo offered.

"What's that?" I asked in return. I was off to the side from the group, so I didn't need to be too quiet. They were noisy as they theorized together.

Silence. That one word, Ho-Oh, was all I was getting.

I pushed my way through the crowd to come face to face with the altar. "Excuse me, sorry, I need to get by," I muttered as I brushed past the group of sweaty bodies.

I looked at the plaque for a moment, pretending to study it. I placed my hand on my chin, then stroked. I would have made a great guy. I could stroke my beard all day, I thought to myself as I "studied." I just had to pass it off for long enough so that it would be believable when I said...

"Ho-Oh." The voice shattered my thoughts. Did someone seriously just beat me to it?

I spun around to face whoever had just spoiled my fun. A meek woman, probably no older than thirty, stood to my side. She adjusted her glasses a few times before repeating herself. "It says Ho-Oh, like the legendary rainbow bird. I've been doing some research on the language based on the other two altars. I think I've got it decoded." She seemed proud.

"Excellent work, Melissa. We'll send it back to HQ for a double check, but that's exciting if it is true." Another man behind me was already snapping photos and sending it back.

"No need," I quickly intervened. "I can confirm that it says 'Ho-Oh.'"

"Did you study ancient runes during your travels?" Melissa asked. Wonder filled her voice.

"Er, yes. It helped me find Mewtwo," I lied.

Tauros shit, Mewtwo interjected. I ignored him.

"Wow, that's so cool!" Melissa said. Her eyes filled with stars. "Ya know, I always wanted to go on a Pokémon journey of my own. My parents never let me, they said I was too weak, had too many allergies, was too fat, and..." she trailed off. "Yeah, I just couldn't, so I went to school to become an archeologist instead."

"Archeology is cool," I said. It kind of was, but I wouldn't trade my journey for college any day. "I was going to become a biologist had Professor Oak not chosen me for his program."

"Bleh, I hated biology," said another voice behind me. He was tapping away on a tablet and had no part in the conversation. "I liked science, but biology was my worst nightmare."

"That's why you're a physicist, Ray," Melissa said. She crossed her arms and smiled playfully.

The two continued to bicker about which field of study was better while we all waited for the confirmation from HQ. It was fun watching them, Group B, I mean. They were like friends, even family. As I listened in around me, I noticed conversations forming as they went about their work.

Maybe I could be like this too once I'm done here in Johto. Join in on a nerdy family. The thought lifted a little of the weight placed on my shoulders.

"HQ confirms our initial guess, it says 'Ho-Oh,'" said the leader. I just realized that I didn't catch his name. "Problem is, we have no idea what that could mean. The other group has already made it down into the ruins. Their clue was quite a lot easier. All they had to do was place a water stone on the altar. Start thinking of things relating to Ho-Oh we can try."

Forty minutes later with no positive outcomes, we were starting to lose hope. We had tried things like having Pokémon use flamethrower, ringing a bell, placing ash on the altar, and even having one of the scientists native to Johto do a ceremonial dance. Alas, the ground did not reveal its hidden passage.

"I know the answer," said a familiar voice at the back of the crowd. The sea of bodies parted for the newcomer to get through. Small metallic clicks accompanied their uneven steps. I watched the top of a black-haired head bob through the group. When the front row of people parted, I saw Akemi standing in front of me. Her bag was slung awkwardly on her right shoulder, I noticed. Her posture leaned more on the left, away from her injured foot.

"Let me try something," she said to the leader. He nodded his approval, and she dug through her bag.

Seconds later, she drew out a single rainbow feather. She held it up for others to see. I didn't quite understand the awe that everyone beheld this feather with. Satisfied by the reactions, she stretched out her arm toward the altar as far as it could go while still supporting her weight on the crutches. It was barely too short.

"May I?" I asked, gesturing to the feather.

"Go for it," she said with a smile.

I stretched my arm out now with the feather in hand. With the extra length, it was enough for the feather to touch the plaque. The second the feather brushed the altar, the door sprung open to reveal a steep passage down into the darkness.

"I knew that would work," she said as she took the feather back.

"Did you really?" I asked, raising an eyebrow?

She tried keeping a straight face but ended up laughing. "Pfft, no," she admitted. "It was a total guess." She went silent as people jumped in the shoot next to us. "Well, not a total guess. I figured that one of its feathers might have been enough to trigger it."

"I knew what you meant, don't worry." It was my turn to go. I made a mental note to ask her about where she got that feather later.

I walked over to the shoot, then turned back to her. "Hey, go back and get some rest, okay? You shouldn't be up yet."

"I will," I heard her yell after me as I jumped. It felt like something straight out of a cartoon, her voice fading into an echo above me as I slid down.

I landed on my feet this time since I knew the slide down wasn't as long as it seemed. It only dropped us under the floor; no more than five feet, at most. I stood up straight, watching the rest of the group already hard at work. The layout was the same as the other underground section, and the carvings were in the same spot at the back of the room.

After a few minutes of study and deciphering, Melissa read her guess as to what it said out loud. "We humans must learn to walk in harmony with them. We depart for their sakes."

The building rumbled, and the path down was opened. The next room was the same as well. An intentionally shattered picture hung on the back wall. Once completed, it depicted Ho-Oh. That bird, whatever it was, held a huge significance here.

We descended the steps to find the other team waiting for us. HQ had informed us correctly of their surprisingly fast time. They waved from the bottom of their staircase as we emerged from the ceiling.

The two groups reconvened, chatting merrily that they had figured out the secrets of the ruins. Some hugged, some high fived, but all exchanged happy words and congratulations. I stayed outside of the main hub of excitement since it wasn't my party to enjoy. It was theirs. Plus, there was still something bothering me. The air buzzed, even more so down here since the four passages had opened.

Suddenly, the ground trembled again, knocking everyone off their feet. I rose up as fast as I could. A mistake, I soon realized as my head began to pound. My vision dimmed slightly, and blood rushed through my ears.

The Unown chanted the same name again "Mew, Mew, Mew." It continued on and on as the creatures poured out of the walls. They flew toward me at mine boggling speeds, their bodies blotting out the light. It overwhelmed my senses.

"Stop!" I screamed.

Then, as I drowned in their bodies, the vision stopped. The celebrating scientists did too. They had been partying this whole time, oblivious of the horrors I had just seen. Their cheerful expressions turned to concern.

"What's up? Aren't you happy?" the leader asked.

"We've been working on this project for a long time, and we're just now making a breakthrough. We deserve a little celebration," Melissa added.

"It's not that," I said. My head was still pounding. "Something is messing with me. The Unown, they float off the walls and speak to me."

The celebrations were over, and my statement had just proved that. Some of the group were furiously scribbling notes, discussing in hushed tones about what I had just said. They all kept mentioning unfamiliar names in concerned tones. It was all kept very hushed. Like they were trying to keep a secret from me, even though I was right there.

"You need to get out of here," the leader ordered, breaking the whispers.

"Why?" I asked. The sudden change in the atmosphere confused and frightened me.

"That's the exact thing the people that disappeared claimed they saw before they vanished."

"Wait, what?" Worry flooded me now. "I thought the group that had vanished had stumbled into the trapdoor by the altar. We found them."

He shook his head. "That was only one of the groups that vanished this morning. Another group disappeared before them. They called on coms, screaming about—"

"Living letters." It hit me, what the first scientist Akemi and I had met was talking about. People were missing, and the Unown were to blame. They tricked people with visions, then... Then what? I pondered.

The ground rumbled for real this time, shaking me from my thoughts. I knew it wasn't a dream this time since everyone reacted with similar fear. Everyone hunkered down close to the ground. The half-walls around us dropped to form one giant room. The rumble ricocheted off the walls, echoing my pounding heartbeat.

Was the ceiling always this tall? I wondered as the very room shifted and changed before our eyes.

Then, on the side furthest from the entrance, a section of the wall dropped. A crevice was revealed, dark and empty. We waited, watching the dust clear to see what the new passage would reveal. It was agonizing. Time itself seemed to slow down to a halt as the dust floated gently to the ground, tantalizing us by keeping the answers to our questions just out of reach.

Finally, the big secret was revealed: nothing. There was nothing behind the wall except for another dark room.

Or so we thought. Suddenly, the darkness shifted, sending out a wave of head pounding energy. "Unown!" it screamed. The air directly in front of the vault was now full of the tiny Pokémon. It was a scene identical to my vision, except very much real now. A nightmare come to life.

Taking the opportunity, I tossed an Ultra Ball at one of the creatures. It evaporated into red light, and the ball fell to the ground. Amidst the chaos, the catch was rather underwhelming. I had captured the Pokémon with no difficulty at all. If they were so easy to catch, implying a relatively weak power, how were they so frightening? How were they able to overwhelm the missing group?

Behind the mass of Pokémon, four scientists ran out. They were covered in dirt and smelled of sweat and urine. Their eyes were wide as they sprinted from the opening, as if they had never known anything but that singular room.

"They're going to escape!" cried one of the newly released captives.

"Who?" our group leader demanded.

As if answering his question, three distinct roars sounded from across the wide-open room. Their terrifyingly loud cries echoed, magnifying each other. The four recovered scientists continued sprinting up the main staircase and out of the ruins. They knew something about these bestial screams that we didn't. Every inch of me told me to run while I had the chance, but my brain kept me pinned in place. My curiosity drove me to find out what caused these four to run for their lives at the first opportunity.

Three beasts ran out. They looked unlike anything I had ever seen in my life. Quickly, I grabbed my Pokédex from my bag. I noticed the light flashing, and I placed the device up to my ear. It was beeping, but I could only barely hear it above the chaos, even with it right up next to my head. Not just one, but three new entries flashed rapidly on the screen.

New species that neither Akemi nor Ethan had found. I knew exactly what they were too when I heard one of the people in the group scream about "The Legendary Beasts."

These were the three legends that Akemi had just told me about that morning. Entei. Raikou. Suicune.