Dastardly Desires (Chapter 8) (Patreon)

I walk through an Ancient tomb, following along after a tall woman with long blonde hair and the large bipedal Anubis-like jackal that she summoned to walk alongside her.

Courtney is slightly behind me, quietly tapping away at her rotom phone as she seems to be formatting the paper.

"Here it is." Cynthia begins, gesturing towards a large wall of tiles that expand before us.

"Huh..." I note mutely, my eyes skimming across the wall.

"This wall seems to tell the history of the building around us, I'm unsure of this translation, but I'm getting 'Relic Castle' when they refer to it."

Cynthia pulls out a pen and paper. "Can you read the entire thing to me, please?"

"Alright."

"Upon this day, five hundred cycles ago, forgotten by even some of our oldest spirits, the great Kemet empire arose within the lush Oasis of the Kesamu desert. Visited by a weary giant, disheveled and ageless, our kingdom steadily rose under his guiding hand. Ascended from wandering Numel... farmers? to a great and regal people."

"Our lands have thrived throughout bond with our pokemon, even after our elder guide left on his way, we continued to build, to grow, to bloom. This location marks our eternal promise. Our relic castle. To the ageless wanderer... ah.. Uh... Azz?- to peacefully grow our nation, to not incite conflict that will only result in endless bloodshed."

"..."

"That's it." I finish.

"I see!" Cynthia mutters. "By spirits, they likely mean ghost type pokemon... but, this does roughly confirm the age of this 'Relic Castle', in addition to giving it a name. But this... Azz? They assumed he was immortal?"

"I think I mispronounced that. It seems to be shorter. 'Az.' I was just genuinely confused with the name for a moment. As for the farmer thing, I don't think our language really has a word close enough for that meaning. Farmers, Trainers, Watchers. One of the three"

"Oh! I see!" The woman exclaims, the sound of her pen scribbling on paper echoing out across the ruins.

"Are there any other walls of text like this?" I ask as I gaze upon a wall that looks suspiciously like hieroglyphics... I mean, considering what this desert-based ancient ruin seems to be vaguely based on, that sort of checks out. "Oh, and another question... do you think that Heracross on the wall over there is a regional variant, or a normal heracross that has just been gilded with gold and jewels."

"Ah. Yes that has been the discourse of the archeological group... personally, I am in the belief that it is a regional variant as it appears to have wings."

"That's fair." I shrug.

"Come on, there is some more text for you to translate just over here."

We come to a stop in front of another wall of text, I briefly read ahead before nodding. "You ready?"

"Yes." Cynthia nods.

"Pharoh Anbu the fifth, leader of this palace has made a royal decree. A turning point in history is at hand. No longer shall we be the peace-loving fools that the surrounding sand filth take advantage of. We shall strike the cities of man before they can attack first."

"We shall call upon the power of the living sun to smite our enemies, lay waste to their cities, and incinerate any and all opposition. The great Kemet empire shall lay claim to these lands. It is our divine right."

I fall silent as I reach the end of the text, gazing at an image of a Volcarona.

"Volcarona, hm?" I note.

I know for a fact that these pokemon are purchasable, just ludicrously expensive. About pseudo-legendary rates.

Wasn't there a Volcarona in the basement of the Relic Castle in the games?

Ominous.

Volcarona is probably the strongest bug type pokemon...

Well, strongest natural bug-type. Genesect was artificial and-

Hang on...

The Genesect movie...

There was a mewtwo in it...

A female mewtwo.

One that could mega-evolve into Mega Mewtwo Y without a trainer.

Store that information for later. Right now, relics.

"Is there anything else?" I ask.

"There's one final one." Cynthia admits as she leads us through the castle yet again.

We come to another wall, and the woman raises her pen and paper, preparing to take notes once more.

"Our attack failed. Our sun turned upon us, even now it remains up in the sky. The heat is unbearable. Our water sources have dried up. Our home is lost to a spiteful false idol. Our lush Oasis razed and dried. All is lost."

"The deepest depths of the relic castle, shall be locked away, guarded by our strongest spirits. Awaiting the day we might once return and reclaim our birthright."

"To any descendants of Kemet. let this be known enter the deepest chamber and pay our history the respect it deserves, then the path to your birthright will be unlocked."

"There is a secret room within this place?!" Cynthia gasps.

"It appears that way... oh, and that's all that this says."

"I see!"

**Linebreak**

I blink owlishly as Cynthia bows in front of another statue of what looks like a Lucario but clad in ancient Egyptian-style clothing.

This is the fifth one she has done that to...

the lucario next to her seems exasperated by its trainer's actions.

I myself am personally getting a little bit bored.

At least it's cooler in here than outside I guess, my arms were genuinely beginning to get cooked outside.

It's definitely still uncomfortable, but it's manageable.

I watch Cynthia walk to the other side of the room and bow in front of another set of Lucario statues.

Courtney is also stood beside me, watching the woman as well.

She doesn't really wear her emotions on her sleeve, so I am sort of struggling to get a read on her. Is she bored? Annoyed? Barely holding back murderous rage-

*CHRZZZZZZ*

We both blink as stones grind, a large wall before Cynthia slowly crawling upwards.

"Aha!" The woman exclaims. "I finally found it!"

Well, she looks pleased with herself.

She turns to us, eyes practically sparkling. "Let's go forwards!"

"Alright." I shrug, idly wondering if there will be anything of value that I could swipe without Cynthia noticing.

No...

I had better not. Even if it is tempting to nab something to sell on the black market.

There's a few issues with the whole black market thing, though.

One: I have no idea where it even is, or how to get in contact, Two: there's no conceivable way I could protect my identity or myself from the classic 'criminal discount' of threatening my life.

Three: If Cynthia ever finds out, it's game over. I need some sort of criminal identity before I can even think of trying to work in the black markets, I'll need prestige, street cred, Influence, notoriety.

But. I don't want to be arrested the second I poke my head outside, so I must craft some sort of persona for myself. A disguise.

Courtney and I slowly follow after Cynthia as she walks down the halls of the newly revealed secret passage.

The blonde woman's foot sinks into the floor as she steps on a pressure plate.

*THOOM*

The wall behind Courtney and myself slam down, sealing us in this new area.

"..."

I can see Courtney's hands shake briefly as she stares at the wall behind us.

We both turn to Cynthia who stares at the wall blankly, a perturbed frown on her face.

"If I get injured, I want compensation." I deadpan.

"We... are trapped?!" Courtney whispers.

Cynthia frowns at the wall, thinking deeply for a moment.

"Can't you just bust us out of here with your pokemon?" I question, gaze straying towards Cynthia.

She eventually shakes her head. "No... I believe that would be foolish. The wall is nearly a foot thick. The force required to break through would likely shake the entire ruin."

"Ah... dropping the ceiling on us." I frown.

"No! Potentially destroying ancient relics!" The woman exclaims.

Courtney and I stare at her. "..."

"Ah... and likely causing the ceiling to collapse, yes." She admits after a moment. "But I will send a message to one of my colleagues and inform them how to get the door to open so we can get out... but as we are here already... perhaps we should go deeper?"

"Whatever." I relent. "I'm not exactly worried. I can leave at any time, regardless of the wall or not."

The blonde womans pauses giving me an inquisitive look. "Why?"

"Psychic type that can teleport." I admit.

"I see." The woman mutters. "If it becomes too dangerous, we can use that, I suppose."

With that, Cynthia leads us deeper and deeper, now far more cautious after the little pressure plate incident.

I step forwards- eyes widening as my foot begins to sink.

"Get back!" Courtney exclaims as she full-body tackles me.

We thud to the ground as an arrow swishes over our head, thunking into the wall.

I stare blankly upwards.

That arrow was neck-height...

Holy shit I nearly fucking died.

"Are you alright?!" Cynthia questions, looming over us.

"Y-Yes?" My eyes stray to the pink haired girl. "You... saved me... why?"

The girl brushes herself off. "You are the only person at school I tolerate."

"That is... sort of horrifyingly the exact same thought process I have when I think about you as well." I mutter.

Huh.

Cynthia frowns down at us. "You two should leave through teleportation."

My eyes stray to Courtney. "What do you think?

"We... would likely get some extra credit if we record our findings." She mutely observes.

"Is extra credit worth our lives?" I question.

"It could reasonably get us some blueberry points." She mutters.

"Which we could use to convert into items we could then in-turn sell outside of school... or just straight up convert to money." I nod sagely.

"Are- Are blueberry academy students really that strapped for cash?!" Cynthia seems genuinely shocked at our desire for money.

"My mother is extremely controlling and wanted me to follow in her footsteps. Thus, I was forced to take out a student loan just to get into blueberry academy despite the fact that my mother could very easily afford it."

"..."

"I'm just an orphan and I have to worry about my future." I shrug. "So, I need to think about homes, plus whatever I need to buy in order to become a pokemon researcher... and let me just say, lab equipment is horribly expensive."

Courtney nods along slowly.

"Regardless... I did almost die... so... maybe I should bring out my psychic type... just in case." I frown down at the two spheres at my hip.

"You should." Cynthia frowns. "I won't let you stay if you might get hurt or die."

I pull off Merlin's Pokeball, staring at it for a long moment as it grows to roughly the size of a baseball, a frown tugging my lips downwards.

A low hiss leaves my mouth, eyes flicking from the ball to my two observers.

Fuuuuuuck.

Alright.

"Fine."

With a dull flash, the wizard hat wearing Lotad appears on the floor.

The two girls pause, taking in the appearance of the little guy as he looks around.

"What is-" Cynthia begins.

"Oh. I see..." Courtney mutters. "This is why you refrain from using your second pokemon in battles. Understandable."

"What is- What is this?!"

"Regional variant of Lotad." I shrug mutely.

"Loootad." Merlin intones.

His eyes glow slightly.

"Where..."

"Oh, we're in the desert under some ancient ruin, Merlin." I answer. "I nearly got shot in the throat by an arrow so, I'd like it if you could use telekinesis to possibly stop me from dying horribly."

It stares up at me for a long moment, then it floats from the ground, hat ruffling.

Merlin then proceeds to land atop my head like a little hat. "Okay."

"Lotad." He grunts.

"I... I have never seen anything like this!" Cynthia gasps. "You said that he is a Psychic type? Is he still water type? Grass type? Or is he purely psychic type? What sort of capabilities does he have? How powerful is he?"

"Yes, yes, no, no, good ones, and... he has never actually fought anything before, so I am unsure... secondly. You. Do not tell anyone I have this." I point at Courtney, causing the girl to let out a low hum.

"Okay. I understand. You do not want anyone to know for your own safety."

"Why would- why would people knowing cause you to be in danger?!" The champion gasps.

"Murder... mostly..." I shrug.

"What?!"

"Look, Cynthia." I begin quietly. "If you were to discover a brand new one of a kind pokemon, like... just out on a walk, you'd be fine. You have a bipedal dog which can probably bend steel beams like they're pool noodles, a shark dragon which can level a mountain, and a collection of one hundred and eight tortured souls bound to a silly looking rock. People would want it, but you have enough past feats and skills that make people realize that messing with you would end rather poorly."

The Lucario blinks as I gesture to it during my statement. "But for someone like me. With two pokemon to my name. An alternate colored Eevee, and this entirely new pokemon... I do not have this. Loki is would probably be one of the most expensive Eevees ever sold, and don't even get me started on the regional variant one of a kind Lotad."

"Soooo I would deeply appreciate it if you wouldn't say anything about him to anyone... at least until I am able to gain reasonable strength on my own." I smile brightly.

I look forwards. "Come on. We're wasting time... and probably air."

With that I take a step forwards, eyes flicking across the floor. The tiles are uneven, but I can faintly see a greater difference in some of the tiles, some being perhaps half a centimeter deeper than others.

I didn't notice it before, but these displaced tiles are quite rare. A random one every ten feet or so. Some fifteen or more.

My eyes flick to the side, gazing towards the now sunken tile I stepped on.

Perhaps?

"Merlin. I'm going to step on a tile I believe to be a trap just to test a theory."

"Lodad."

"Okay. Will keep... Safe." The psychic type informs.

"Maybe that isn't the best idea?" Cynthia quietly begins.

"If I'm right, we will probably know which tiles are trapped, so that's useful."

I promptly walk forwards and step-

My foot sinks downwards.

*Ffft-* a dart is shot at me, but it is abruptly knocked off course with a low *Ping* sound. The dart flips end over end as it thuds into the floor a short distance away.

"Hm..." I lowly hum. "Once... is a fluke..."

I step on another.

A large blade swings down from the ceiling, but, with a blast of psychic power the sandstone around its hinge abruptly snaps, sending little pebbles raining down upon me as a large axe-like blade soars past me and imbeds into the wall. "Twice... is a coincidence..."

A small smirk appears on my face as I gesture to one in the slight distance. "Hey, merlin, can you push that one over there down?"

He does so, causing the ceiling to open.

A glowing red powder seems to drift down in the distance.

It stops abruptly, as if hitting a wall, then is forced back up into the ceiling, the stone tile rising back up and the hole above grinding closed as I assume Merlin exerts some psychic might upon the trap door.

"And thrice... is a pattern." I note as I turn back to the two girls and the Lucario who is standing relatively in front of them protectively, eyes darting towards the walls, floors and ceilings. "You see all these tiles roughly half a centimeter indented into the floor? Don't step on them."

"That powder..." Cynthia whispers. "What was- it looked a little bit like poison powder?"

"Oh? The butterfree move?" I question, giving the ceiling the powder disappeared into an inquisitive glance.

"Other pokemon can learn it, but, yes, Butterfree can..." The woman notes.

"If I had to make an estimated guess..." I quietly observe. "Butterfree can use Poison Powder to poison, Sleep Powder to put things to sleep, and Stun Spore to paralyze-"

"Are you saying that the powder could be some sort of 'Flame Powder' from a Volcarona?!" Courtney gasps, an awed emotion coming into her voice as she stares upwards at the location the powder disappeared into. "That is... that is possible! The superheated scales of a Volcarona's wings could likely be used in a manner similar to Poison Powder, Sleep Powder, or Stun spore! The main thing, is that those moves produce more powder than a Volcarona's wings regularly produce."

She cups her chin thinking for a brief moment. "It likely could be taught with enough time... Slowly but surely improving the amount of ember scales a Volcarona produces until the pokemon re-learns this forgotten move."

"I... would personally go with 'Blaze Powder', but yeah, that's my general theory." I agree.

"There is an issue with your observations." Cynthia observes.

"Hm?" I hum.

"Poison Powder, Sleep Powder, and Stun Spore could reasonably sit for thousands of years without interaction... but a supposed 'Blaze Powder' would lose its heat relatively quickly, wouldn't it?"

"That is... true." I note, the corners of my mouth turning downwards. "Could it just be an alternatively colored Poison Powder? Produced from the wings of a Volcarona, thus giving it that orange-red color?"

Cynthia gazes upwards. "I will admit, I am vaguely curious at this point... I will have it shipped to a lab for study in the near future."

With that, she leaves a small marking on the wall directly beneath the trap.

We return to walking forwards, now careful of any change in the elevation of the tiles.

After thirty minutes of careful walking, our path slowly carrying us further and further downwards into the earth, we come to a large double door, runes scrawled across it in a circular pattern.

Cynthia turns to me. "What does it say?"

"One second... I'm trying to figure out where this starts." I mutter, eyes slowly circling the door.

"Unbroken Seal of age long past, the relic castle will surely last. The elder guardian within its grave, royal blood, ascended from slave."

I blink slowly. "So, like, are we rhyming now or something? Also, you could probably use those two sentences interchangeably."

After marking down what I said, Cynthia reaches out to the door and gently shoves it open. Stone grinds upon the floor as the door opens up into a frankly massive room.

It's about thirty feet tall, roughly one hundred feet wide and long.

Sarcophagi line the walls, a good ten feet between each.

Towards the center of the room, which is a bit lower than the outside portions, being led down to with stairs on all sides, is a singular coffin.

The walls are made of large blackened stone bricks, each about the size of my torso. The one thing noticeable among them being the evenly spaced golden masks every couple of bricks.

"Cynthia... I- uh- I think all those masks are Yamask." I whisper. "And the sarcophagus might be Cofagrigus."

Her eyes scan the room, her mouth turning downwards, then she looks to the sole sarcophagus down in the dip.

She peers over at Courtney and myself. "You two stay here... in fact."

She reaches down and with a dull flash, her Glaceon appears. "Glacia. You protect these two."

The little fox turns its head to look up at us, an ear quirking slightly.

It turns back to Cynthia. "Glacee-on!"

Cynthia slowly and cautiously walks towards the coffin, fingers brushing on the buttons of her pokeballs as she draws nearer and nearer, her Lucario walking in line beside her as her pokemon begin appearing one by one.

Garchomp, Milotic, Togekiss, Roserade, Gastrodon and finally Spiritomb.

She... uh... is using more than six pokemon...

Is that like... allowed...

Of course I don't mean conceptually, as it's just letting out more than six pokemon at once... I'm just wondering if its... ah... Legal... I'll think about that later, I suppose.

Spiritomb thuds to the floor, its purple spiraling head shooting from its keystone and peering around wildly, a jagged green maw appearing on its face as it grins viciously.

The walls shudder slightly, the coffins rattling at the presence of the tortured soul ghost type.

Ah.

Fuck it appears that I was right.

The coffin in the center of the room explodes outwards, causing Courtney and myself to flinch.

A figure floats out of the coffin, clad in bandages, eyes burning with green hellfire.

It...

Is that... a Lucario?

Darkness pools around the jackal pokemon as it lands on the ground, two large hands wafting off its body sort of like a Cofagrigus.

It is wearing a golden headdress, golden adornments clinging to its arms and legs.

It raises its hands and two more things shoot from the coffin.

The first is a blue and gold crook, but in the crook, a glowing red and black ghostly eye sits.

From the very end of the handle a long shadowy hand seems to protrude.

The other item is... an egyptian 'royal flail' of some sort. A gold and blue stick with long strips of metal that have red and black accents.

The mummy lucario takes both weapons, four shadow limbs swirling around it as it lets out a howl.

The numerous sarcophagi at the edges of the room seem to crack, the faces on the coffins retracting and revealing two glowing red eyes and a vicious jagged smile that seem to radiate malice.

One by one, the masks seem to slide out of indents in the walls, little red-eyed bird-like things being connected to them.

Courtney takes a single cautious step back...

Then the chaos begins. Shadow balls, dark pulses, hexes, moves of all type and power begin surging throughout the room as the little Yamask swarm like bees.

"Shit." I curse as I notice some of them turn their attention onto us.

Courtney and I turn as we begin retreating through the halls, the Glaceon behind us launching Ice beams at the approaching ghosts.

"Do- does your Eevee know any move that isn't normal type?"

"Bite." I admit.

"Maybe you should summon him." The girl orders.

I reach down and push the button on my pokeball to release him, causing the little black fox to appear with a flash.

"Vee?!" He gasps as he looks around.

"Why aren't you calling out your pokemon?!" I call out as we carefully step over trapped tiles

"They're fire types. They- They'd just use up our already limited oxygen!" She replies.

Fuck. She's right. Also they're not as impressive as my own so it's likely they'd get really injured through trying to help.

Loki prances ahead of us, seemingly thriving in the chaos.

Annnnd the Glaceon got tied up fighting four Cofagrigus at once and now the Yamask are getting past her.

Wonderful.

Loki lands on a tile and abruptly sinks, causing Courtney and myself to lurch backwards as numerous spears sprout from the wall and skewer the air just in front of us.

Loki lets out a surprised yipe at that and quickly rushes around us, seemingly apologetic as his ears are down.

He stands in front of us as numerous Yamask begin charging attacks. "A-Ah... Merlin- got any ideas?"

"..."

"Yes."

The lotad floats from my head eyes glowing in pure mythical power. Energy crackles around his form, causing me and my companion to blink owlishly and for the ghost types to briefly falter in their attack.

He lands just beside Loki...

And promptly tackles him.

I am left in mute shock as Loki rolls to the floor falling still as he just lays there prone and crumpled on the floor.

"..."

My eyes flick back to the exact replica Eevee that had appeared, standing in the exact same space Loki was standing in moments before.

It floats slightly off the ground.

I look between the... three? pokemon, my mouth a flat line. "What just happened?"