16: Entercards

“Well, well, well… Look who’s up on their paws and out of bed.” I say with a lighthearted chuckle. Umbreon has been recovering quite fast. Faster than anyone should have with wounds that deep. From what I know, they used a salve with the juice of Oran berries and applied it to the wound. And my goodness that stuff is some sort of miracle gel. Seriously! It’s only been three days! And he’s walking around with only a slight limp! Can you imagine what we could do with this stuff back on earth?! Anyway, the whole team had arrived at his room as we were all interested in what had happened to him.

“Yeah. Nice being back up on my feet again.” Umbreon replied. That wound on his shoulder has been bandaged up. And judging by how clean the bandage is, it’s fair to say that the bleeding stopped a fair while ago. “Any word about Espeon?”

“No, sadly.” Thunder answers. “But we’re still searching. It would be easier to find her if we also knew who was after her and why.”

“They were a Purugly and a Toxicroak. Whether they’re affiliated with another criminal organization or working on their own I do not know. But they said they wanted to destroy our research.” Destroy? Well there goes the “sell research on the black market” theory. Also, Purugly? Toxicroak? Is there some codex or something for Pokemon? Because there are so many different species out there that keeping track of them all on my own is next to impossible.

“Did you make any enemies in the criminal underworld that may have held a grudge against you?” Virizion asks.

“None that would go to these great lengths to screw us over.”

“What research were they after? What was it that you discovered?” I ask. Almost immediately, a smirk appeared on Umbreon’s face.

“Something We’ve been cooking up for a long time. Virizion probably knows what I’m talking about.”

“But when you told me it was all theory and conjecture.” Virizion says. “That’s hardly worth… Wait… So… You had to have made significant progress on it to garner this attention.”

“Oh we did. We actually built it. And it works.”

“Built what?” Emolga asks.

“A Magnagate generator. And the Entercards to go with it. You see, mystery dungeons are the intertwining of ley lines. Strings of energy that crisscross the universe. The way they are connected to each other warps the land in those mysterious ways. And each part of the connection influences a different aspect of the dungeon. But what if you could  make  them intertwine. What if you could manipulate them to make a dungeon just like you wante-“

“Huh? Why’d you stop? It was just getting interesting.” I ask. Then the reason becomes apparent. Everyone fell asleep. Like students listening to a dull, monotone lecture. “Oh. That’s why.”

“Perhaps… A more visual demonstration would work better…”

We reach the hill in post town. A nice, open space where we won’t interrupt anyone. According to Umbreon, the perfect conditions for a demonstration. He brings out a rather interesting device. It’s about the size of a tablet. A gray tile with a large purple border around it. The tile has a square indentation in it and had a sort of mystical circular pattern in it. He also had two smaller tiles. These ones had ornate images of the sun and the moon on either side of it. It looks like four of these things would fit in the larger device.

“Ok, so, this, is a Magnagate Generator.” Umbreon shows us. “And these are Entercards. Now, you put the Entercards in the generator like so.” He puts the Entercards on opposite corners of the square indentation in the magnegate generator. There is an audible “click” as they snap into place. “Now, to activate it, you just press the center, stand back, and watch the magic happen.” He puts his paw where the corners of the Entercards meet and presses down. I can hear some sort of energy inside. Per his instructions, we take a few steps back, not wanting to be incinerated or torn apart at the molecular level or whatever this thing will do.

All of a sudden everything darkens, like a cloud passing in front of the sun. But there isn’t a single cloud in the sky. How the… Then something happens. From the magnegate generator a red ring expands outwards. Inside the ring a flash of white, and a portal like thing appears, filling the inside of the ring.

“Holy… What the frick is that?!” I exclaim in shock.

“That, Alex, is a magnegate. A gateway created by the Entercards that leads to an artificial mystery dungeon. One that I can fashion to be how I want it. Or… Are you familiar with wormholes, Alex?”

“Wormholes? Yeah. I know about them. Theoretical points in space that are connected in spite of their distance. You go in one end and come out the other.”

“We can do a similar thing with the Entercards. I can choose to have the mystery dungeon lead almost wherever I want. Like a tunnel between two points. It all depends on how I place the Entercards.”

“No way! That’s awesome!” Thunder cries out. “Where does this one lead?”

“Nowhere. To create a working dungeon you need four cards. I only have two. Espeon has the others. When we were attacked we both took half of the cards and split up.” Suddenly, the magnegate collapses, creating a small vortex of air that dissipates after a few seconds. What remained was an intricate circular pattern where the gate once was, and the magnegate generator and Entercards. “I had thought that we would be able to find each other. We were going to rendezvous at Forest Grotto, but she wasn’t there…” He lets out a shaky sigh. “It was a horrible idea to split up. Now she’s probably out there somewhere, her lifeless body rotting away… Brutally murdered by those… Fiends!”

“Hey…” Thunder puts his hand on his leg. I assume it’s the same gesture of putting his hand on his shoulder, but their size difference prevents that. “Something tells me she’s tougher than that. I think she’s still alive. And we intend to find her and bring her back safely.” I swear, Thunder has the softest heart of anyone I’ve ever met. All he wants is to help. Is it any wonder I consider him a good friend?

“I second that.” I agree. “The moment we hear about her whereabouts, we’re going after her.”

“…thank you.” Umbreon replies. “All of you. I guess you call yourselves New Hope for a reason.”

“That’s the idea.”