Nu
Ash was suitably
impressed by what he saw, but there was a nagging thought beginning to
make itself known “Saliaven” he began “how are we going to get down?”
Saliaven looked at the sky a moment “Hellfire and Damnation. I
forgot the stairs.” He gathered himself “I guess we’ll have to
take the short way down.” He took Duplica’s staff “I doubt you’ll
be needing this.”
Misty took a step back, almost falling off “I hope you don’t mean for
us to jump. We can teleport, you know.”
Saliaven chuckled “You just try.”
Misty flickered a moment and then became solid again. She looked
around and went wide-eyed “What happened.”
“Magical interference, we’ve just woven one of the most powerful spells
in existence. It causes a large amount of problems focuswise for
about a week.”
Vapor interceded “It is a little far to be jumping.”
“Not quite as far as you think. Interference can distort space as
well.” He walked off the edge and almost immediately landed in
the water. “See” his voice reaching them with a bit of echoing
“no problem.”
Ash grinned and yelled “Geronimo!” Taking a running leap off.
Duplica sat on the edge and dangled her feet over. “I can
actually feel the water from here.” She slipped off and joined
the three below.
Vapor calmly walked off the side and hovered for a moment “C’mon,
Blaze. We’ll miss out on the fu–“ the sentence went unfinished as
she fell into the water, surfacing with a look of bewilderment.
“Told you there was instability” Saliaven remarked.
Blaze followed his wife into the waters.
Misty, meanwhile, muttered to herself “this is ridiculous, I’m a water
master. I can’t be afraid of a little dive.” She took a
running leap off the side of the block, and dove headfirst down.
Marlene grabbed Gary “c’mon, handsome.” She pulled him over with
her.
This left the four pokemon. Mewtwo turned and said ‘Lets just see
if psionics are as affected as everyone else.’ He floated over to
the edge and beyond ‘nothing yet’
Mew followed. ‘Maybe telekinesis is unaffected.’
Pikachu whispered in Umbreon’s ear, and they both
became human. “I think its time we joined our trainers. I’d
hate to think what’s happening to Gary, and I just felt an electric
surge, so Ash is probably messing up something.” They walked
sedately up to the edge, where Pikachu pushed Umbreon off.
“That’s for thrashing me last time!” And then Pikachu herself
jumped.
Meanwhile, down below, Misty had turned herself into
a Vaporeon and used Acid Armor to sneak up behind Ash. The
surprise of her landing on him caused him to panic and become a
Pikachu. The only thing that kept Ash from electrocuting everyone
was Saliaven’s quick thinking in putting him in a psi bubble.
What was weird was that there was one very tiny hole, which allowed a
bolt to zap Marlene as she was making advances at Gary. When the
two pokemorphs had arrived, Saliaven yelled “I think we had better
strike out to shore.”
Misty swum over to him and asked “which shore?”
“The island. That is where the last piece goes. The two
mews up there have kindly pointed out that we can still use
telekinesis, so I think we’d best fly there.”
“Where’re the boats?”
“Still docked on the island.”
They rose out of the water and began to fly toward
their destination. <Begin Monument, From Mystery of The Whisper>
Saliaven directed them a spot on the shore and then, looking up,
shouted “Down!” and the slab fell to Earth in the center of the
island. He then took out his staff and began to incant, gesture,
and move his staff. Boulders, floated down to him, and broke
apart at precise places. Misty saw a frieze on one, as it went
by. Ash, attempting to hear what Saliaven was saying caught
“Trust in the power of stone, stone shatters swords, stone breaks bone,
trust in stone.” As ever more stone came in and was directed to
its proper place, a massive ancient looking city began to take
form. Finally, as two huge tablets, inscribed with scenes of
strange things, fell to the ground to make doors, Saliaven looked up
and grinned widely. <End, Monument>
“I call this the City of Nu, named for the only ancient god never to
have a temple.” As he spoke, a portal opened and a giant hand
moved through, carrying a building. The hand dipped into Nu, and
they heard a crash as what the hand was carrying struck earth.
“That would be the special delivery I asked for. Come,
come. We must enter the city and see what we can see.”
At this word, the great doors of the city opened,
and Saliaven walked through. Misty turned to Ash “Why is it that
we are always kept in the dark until the last minute?”
“I dunno, it’s not as if we have much choice.” They followed the
others, who had already made it partway in. Marlene, who was
already pretty sure what was about to be done, caught up with Saliaven.
“Are you sure that they should be involved?”
“It’s their world.”
“But you won’t tell them everything?”
“Of course not. Not yet, at any rate. There would be no
point in worrying them about something that cannot be dealt with.”
Marlene bowed sweepingly and said “So it is written, so it shall be
done.”
“I’m glad I didn’t end up the sarcastic one.”
Marlene stuck her tongue out.
“Get ready, we’re close now.” He stopped in front of the temple
which had been set down by the giant hand. “This is our
objective.”
Misty studied it and yelled over to Saliaven “Where’s the door?”
“Being guarded by those statues.” He pointed to a row of colossal
effigies of humans with strange appendages. Ash could have sworn
he saw one with a feraligatr head.
Vapor walked over to the statues, looked over them awhile and said “I
can see that the way in runs all the way down this side, but the
statues leave no room to get in.”
“They’ll just have to move.” <Start Jackal Head, from Telemetry,
semi-new lyrics>
Saliaven and Marlene took out their staves and began
to make a complicated dance. Every time the music hit a hard
note, they would pound the ground with their staves, releasing large
amounts of free magic. When it hit the part about the
constellations, the temple emitted a column of bright white light out
and encircled the city, showing a new sky. The gods list goes
differently, more like this:
“Thus says Atum, the Father
Thus says Ra, the Sun and the Light
Thus says Amon, the regent
Thus says Aten, the Symbol
Thus says Osiris, the Master of Souls
Thus says Isis, the Magi
Thus says Bast, The Protector
Thus says Anubis the Eternal
Thus says Ptah, the First Light
Thus says Nu, the Beginning and End”
The illusion around the city fell and as each god
was mentioned, they stood aside. All except Aten, who refused to
budge from his spot and thwarted all attempts to pass. Saliaven
smiled wanly and shouted up to the god “Maybe it’s proof you’re
wanting. Maybe you don’t think I am who I claim to be.” He
floated up to the god’s head and took off his lanyard. Selecting
a piece that resembled a stylized picture of the sun, he pressed it
into a place the same shape in the Aten’s forehead. Aten stood
aside, and Saliaven walked through, being quickly followed by his
entourage, most of whom didn’t want to stick around outside, should the
gods stir again. Gary was the only one to stay outside, wanting
to study the statues further.
The others were in the dark, except for one small
light corresponding to a keypad in the wall. Some would say this
is impossible, since they had just come through a huge door from a
sunny day, but no one in the room. They were used to physics
being bent in the presence of their leader. Saliaven approached
the pad and keyed in a combination. There was the hissing sound
of pistons moving, and in the pale light, they saw a door open.
Saliaven motioned them through, and they were in a room, which was
large enough that they couldn’t see where it ended. The only
source of light was a computer terminal nearby, attached to a circular
machine about twelve feet in diameter, and four feet tall.
Saliaven sat in a chair, which rotated around the machine, to the
terminal. He typed a code, and photons coalesced above the
machine, creating a sphere.
“Behold” he pontificated “your world.”
Misty whistled “Our tech is way behind this. We can’t even make a
small hologram with this much detail.” She looked at their
continent in relation to the globe. “The world is much larger
than we expected.” The world turned and another landmass came
into view . . .
End
Author’s note: Yes, I am alluding to Code Lyoko. If you don’t
know what that is, it’s too bad, because Code Lyoko is going to come
back later.