Chapter 5: The Bunker

The void, as ominous as it was, held great for that of being comforting.

Ruby took a step forward and quickly found herself dipping into knee-deep water, or whatever strange liquid coming from afar that she struggled to make out. This better not be a death sentence. There’s no way this guy is so kind but keeping such a deep secret away from anyone else.

The light was moving away. Slowly, down the tunnel, she inched after it, finding the dark to be worse as she got closer.

The liquid reached up to the bottom tip of her bag, slowing her movements like chunks of ice attached to her feet. Some sort of instinct told her that she was in a small tunnel, as water dripped from the ceiling and splashed over her side.

If Tori or Gabi were behind her, they were being awfully quiet about it. In the pitch-black of it all, it almost felt like she had… transcended right out of the city and into the void, like her feet had tricked her out of position and betrayed her out of sight.

Maybe the light was an illusion, too.

She couldn’t see her own feet in front of her, how was she supposed to know?

…Who even created these tunnels?

The question lingered, sending chills down her side. Something about hidden routes within her own city, just… keeping secrets as deep as this?

The orange light slowly drifted upward, soon stopping and fading into the dark like an ember. Ruby’s feet lurched on instinct as a voice called out ahead.

“Y’all still back there? Or did one of you decide today was a good day to be a coward?”

She sped up, her stomach swirling in a cesspool of worry and anticipation as another light rose from a viewpoint ahead she hadn’t seen before. Similar to that of the candle, but with a fiercer ray that lit up the path in front of her.

Mallku stood in front of the light, one that burst right from an exit similar to that of a doorway. Mud walls covered all sides, below and above, with water trickling from a few holes cut through the bottom sides of the wall and stopping at the Weavile’s feet.

“I knew you had it in you” he smirked.

He stepped through the lighted exit with Ruby following.

“Remember, keep this a secret.”

The darkness stood at the edge of the doorway, forcefully staying behind in defiance.

“It’s a little messy, but it should be fine.”

Ruby squinted her eyes as they adjusted to the lights, coming from lamps placed around the room, some hanging against the walls and some on wooden tables. The room itself was small but compact and mostly empty, with the only ways out being through two tunnels, one that reached back to the surface and the other that led to the rest of the bunker. The walls, just like the same ones from the tunnel, were made of a concrete-like mud that held the wooden roof above them from collapsing. The floor was made of a similar texture to that of the ceiling, being wooden and keeping the same dark-brown color.

Mallku stepped forward to see if the lamps were still intact, glancing back a few seconds later after reassuring. Ruby and Tori stood awkwardly at the door, both too nervous to make a move or even check to see what was behind the other exit.

“Make yourself at home?”

Tori sighed, locking eyes with Mallku. “You sure this is even a home?”

Ruby shifted around the room as he shrugged. “It was the best I could find. Plus, it makes the environment feel safer.”

Gabi squeezed through the door behind Tori, causing her to have to move out of the way.

“Make a larger tunnel next time?” she hissed.

The room in itself was nothing interesting. From the way he was so secretive about all this, it was only right that there was a point in exploring the back room.

Mallku zipped ahead of the doorway before Ruby could walk through.

“Jeez..”

“I-I was just-“

He held up his hands and backed up a little.

“One second, okay?”

“Fine.”

Tori turned her gaze and was immediately caught off guard as an unfamiliar voice rang through the halls.

“Mallku!? Are you finally back!?”

“Y-yeah!” he mumbled.

He slipped inside, completely ignoring the other three behind him.

Ruby, Gabi and Tori waited impatiently by the front door until Tori decided she’d had enough and chased after Mallku.

“Wait Tori-“

She didn’t listen. Of course not, because who would?

Ruby leapt after her, only to trip over herself at the doorway and catapult towards the Whimsicott, smacking into her fluff and knocking them both onto the floor in a mess.

When she looked back up, she saw a different face.

One that nearly made her jump out of her petals.

“I told you three not to come in without my-“

“Chill, we weren’t trying to hurt you” Tori hissed.

The face simply scowled into a frown, one of both disappointment and confusion. A yellow, star-shaped head hanging three blue strips of paper, with blue markings underneath curious but baggy eyes, seemingly concealing some sort of vague familiarity. 

The more she looked at this thing, the more her body started to shake.

“What are you- oh.”

Tori helped her up, trying to figure out what was causing Ruby to be silent suddenly.

Then she looked to her left.

And she saw it, too.

“Stop staring at them weird!” Mallku snapped from the other side of the kitchen.

He shifted toward the pokémon’s side only to be swatted by their left hand.

And soon the both of them found out where the feminine voice was coming from. “Like what the Whimsicott said, chill out Mall.”

He sighed. “S-sorry, it’s just my protective instincts being alerted.”

He rose his claw behind his ear feathers, smiling shyly. “I didn’t properly introduce them did I?”

Ruby and Tori were still focused on the pokémon, standing there like bad house guests until Tori decided to speak up.

“A-are you… Jirachi?”

“Yup” the mon announced, smirking. That seemed to wake Ruby up, as she started to move again and glanced around the kitchen nervously.

“And you just kept this… mythical pokémon, told in legends and folktales throughout the centuries.. hidden beneath this random city in horrible housing, without telling anyone!?”

“Yeah!” Mallku remarked, crossing his arms. “Someone had to. And fate decided I was a pretty decent choice.”

Gabi squeezed through the door, quickly noticing Jirachi right away.

“What else?” Ruby mumbled.

Jirachi walked towards the countertops near the other wall, breathing slowly as they went. “Should we sit them down for a history lesson too?”

“Nah” Mallku replied. “But I’ll give you this. This isn’t someone’s old basement. It’s an abandoned bunker from a previous war that an old friend of mine happened to let me own, since he was moving to a different continent in search of a new place for his retirement. And when I needed somewhere to hide Jirachi I asked him if he had any ideas. This was his idea.”

The kitchen fascinated Ruby. If you ignored the weird placement and the mud walls, the bunker actually looked close enough to an actual home. “So… how did you find Jirachi?”

“It’s complicated. But I’ll just give you the rundown; I was walking back from a recently completed dungeon on my own when I found Jirachi starving in the middle of the forest, so I took them under my wing for a long while and told very few people. You three are part of those people.”

He sighed. “I was just as confused and afraid as you were.”

“Are you the only two here?” Gabi queried.

“Nope. Victini, Heatran and a former human live down here too, but they’re probably sleeping in the basement. I don’t want any of you disturbing them. That’s a threat.”

“Fine.”

Ruby had so many questions flowing through her head that it hurt. She could tell Gabi and Tori felt that way too.

“Anything else?”

Mallku leaned against a wall with his arms crossed, waiting patiently.

“Th-the legends I was told during school state that Jirachi could only be waken up for seven days and slept for at least a thousand years..“ she muttered. “How then did you-“

“That used to be the case” Jirachi interrupted. “But then humans got sent from another universe, fucking up my sleep schedule…”

“A-and what about wishes?”

Mallku’s face drooped into a concerned frowned, but Jirachi did their best to conceal their anger as they attempted to summarize the events.

“Arceus punished myself along with Victini and Heatran, causing us all to lose some sort of power within. I was punished the hardest. Losing both my ability to grant wishes and any form of psychic energy previously capable.”

As to demonstrate, they tried to teleport a far away chair towards them, only for nothing to happen and a burst of pain to course through the mon.

“You can see why. To make it worse I can’t float either…” they muttered.

Jirachi coughed a little as Mallku reached forward and picked them up, carrying them like a small child.

Tori smiled lightly as Jirachi yawned in his arms.

“Sleepy already?” he smirked.

“No it’s just-“

As he walked back, his eyes caught notice of something, causing him to stop and pause.

A tipped bottle of wine lay on the countertop, with a brown liquid leaking out.

“You got drunk while I was gone… again!?” he snapped. He held up Jirachi in the air, furious with rage. “Whe.. Where… Who are you even getting this from!?”

The small steel type scowled while the other three backed away slowly.

“Ari let me have some. He always lets me have some. Life is shitty okay!? I need to fuel my addictions…”

“No you fucking don’t. Does Victini know anything about this?”

“No.”

Ruby started to sweat a little, fearful of a side of Mallku that she, along with Tori and Gabi, had never seen before. It was… fascinating. The way he shifted into parent mode around Jirachi.

The annoyed Weavile let out a sigh before putting the tiny steel type down.

“If this was any other day you’d be put to sleep immediately. But… today you have guests and I want to be nice for once.”

He turned around, glancing back and forth between the other three. “From now on, you are all now in indentured servitude-ish to Victini, Heatran and Jirachi, unless I say otherwise.”

“Wha-what!?” Tori stammered. “We’re… slaves to you now!? You can’t do that!”

Mallku held up a claw. “Not slaves. You will have some freedoms but in return for the knowledge of Jirachi and everyone else in this household, you must follow us and work with us in our journey. And that means all the way. Be here by next Saturday in the afternoon.”

“Unless you want..” he used the same claw to do a small slashing movement. “For me to have to do things the hard way. By even going to visit me at the diner you have already confirmed that you are agreeing to let me chase you down and murder you if you do not comply with us, or regularly skip meetings.”

“And?”

Mallku lowered his claw before crossing his arms with an arrogant frown. “I advise you quit whatever jobs or programs you are currently in, now before things get serious. Even if it means college. You fuck with me, I fuck with you back. Deal?”

“Y-yeah” Ruby mumbled. An excuse to quit college. Finally!

“Sorry if that means leaving your family members too. Call it a pointless suicide mission, I don’t care. I care that you stick to your promise and don’t discuss this with anyone else. If anyone gets a hold of the location of these mons, everyone is going to feel the consequences. The power of a mythical Pokémon, especially two, could lead to another repeat of the human-natural disasters events, but worse, and I know none of you wa-“

Jirachi yawned. “Damn Mall, what next? Gonna recite an entire book to a bunch of mons who just got out of school less than five years ago? I think if you speak any longer you might destroy their attention spans and cause them to explode!”

An awkward silence filled the air shortly afterward.

“I…” Mallku shook his head. “They can take care of themselves, Jirachi. Speak any more or I’ll have to start pulling out the Sleep Seeds.”

“Damn right we can!” Tori muttered.

He simply laughed at the remark before putting Jirachi back in his arms.

“They didn’t explode. Amazing!”

“And I haven’t pulled out the Sleep Seeds.”

The small steel type yawned again, ignoring the cold gaze coming from Gabi. “I think the wine is starting to have its effects now.”

“I guess I should put you to bed then. You spoiled little rascal.”

“But it was a good drink!”

Mallku eyed the others with a slight grin. “Thanks for coming. I assume y’all can leave on your own while I take care of this little one?”

Gabi gave a thumbs up while Ruby nodded. “Of course.”

“Great. And make sure to be back here next Saturday for the first meeting. Regardless of anything else.”

He slipped into another room near the back, leaving the other three alone in the kitchen.

“W-wait, quit our… jobs?”

Ruby glanced back at Gabi. “That’s what he said?”

Tori groaned in response. “This is gonna be a weird week. Having to trying to make an excuse to my boss about why I’m leaving..”

The other two nodded. “Weird week for us all….”