G'day.

Well, I have finally finished Chapter 57. It is, more or less, the chapter I have been dreading writing for a couple of years now, because I don't like the things that finally have to happen in this chapter, but the time has come to make them happen. Certainly, I have stalled for far too long. You see, this chapter is entitled 'The Beginning' for a reason, because it is a goodbye - or, at least, a beginning of a goodbye - to the delusions that Lisa has been living under all her life, and I'm sad that she has to go through this ... but what must happen, must happen.

I won't say anything more about this (incredibly long) chapter; I'll leave it up to you guys. Despite everything, I did enjoy writing this chapter in the end, though I agonised over it for many, many, many hours.

I hope you enjoy this - one of the final chapters of Book Two of Lisa the Legend!

Cheers!

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Chapter 57 – The Beginning.


With a speed that belied his temperament, Aipom burst forth from the pokéball in a blinding flash of white light. A spinning ball of purple and white fur, he flew high into the air above the group at the base of the cliff. Instantly, three golden stars materialised around him, one star much larger than the other two.

“Aim them at the top of the cliff!” Lisa screamed, thinking that Aipom had forgotten her earlier instructions, but apparently he had not: The stars were already soaring up as Aipom directed them skyward with his mind. The first two stars, the smaller ones, collided swiftly with the shadowy figures on the clifftop, sending them flying; however, the foremost figure relinquished their hold on the device in their hands a moment before they were bowled over by the Speed Star; Lisa shrieked in terror, but the third, larger star was approaching deftly from below. It connected squarely with the falling object –

BANG!

A fireball illuminated the plateau as the object exploded abruptly, ten metres above the ground. Daniel, Nova, Gavin and the others screamed in terror and shock, throwing their hands up over their heads and scattering from their position at the foot of the cliff. Simultaneously, there were loud shouts of fury from the Union agents stationed in the underbrush. They began to charge the plateau.

Lisa saw Aipom land deftly on the ground, his attack completed. She held out his pokéball to return him to safety, but she never got the chance: someone yelled out and grabbed her around the waist, tackling her to the ground. She landed on some sticks and felt them scratch her skin, but that was the least of her pain; the adrenaline was passing now – the agony of her bullet wound, and the other injuries of the night, were flooding back. Lisa gave herself to the pain. She had no energy left to fight the man who was now pinning her to the ground roughly. She knew she had probably saved the lives of Gavin and the others, but she didn’t feel as though she had achieved anything. For how long had she stalled the inevitable? Though she was blinded by pain, Lisa knew that the Union must surely have the others surrounded by now too … they were caught …

“This won’t hurt a bit,” said the person holding her down. There was a flash of green light, but he needn’t have bothered Stunning Lisa; she had already passed out from the pain.

*

Footsteps on rocky ground reverberated in the cave. Distant voices murmured to one another. Somewhere nearby, a fire crackled. Elsewhere, a long way away, a liquid sloshed against the walls of its prison, awaiting its moment.

Lisa woke up. She was slumped against a rock wall. A handful of black-clothed figures surrounded her, none of them yet aware that she had awoken. They were perched on a small landing in what seemed to be an ancient stone staircase, roughly hewn out of the side of a massive cave. The steps ran along one side of the cave, bordered on one side by rock and on the other by an intricate web of stalactites and stalagmites. The Union agents around her were leaning against the web of stalagmites, staring as if mesmerized at something that was happening in the main body of the cave.

Above Lisa’s head, a torch was fixed in a bracket against the wall. There were torches throughout the cave, casting an ethereal light upon the proceedings. The cave was a world away from the events that had taken place on the plateau earlier; it was as though that had been a former life.

Lisa suddenly realised that her back was no longer paining her, at least, not nearly as much as it should have been; there were constant needles of pain in her back, but they were completely bearable, particularly after the agony she had gone through earlier. She reached around to her back and discovered, where the bullet had previously been lodged in her flesh, there was nothing but a raised lump of bandages. Lisa traced her fingers across her back and examined them in the flickering torchlight. To her amazement, there was no blood at all; it had all been cleaned up. Astonished, she looked at her forearms that Veronica had scratched earlier. Sure enough, her wounds had been cleaned, her arms bandaged well.

Her mended injuries momentarily forgotten, Lisa became aware of what was happening in the cave. Through a gap in the stalactite-stalagmite web that bordered the staircase, she caught sight of dozens of people – maybe even hundreds of people – all seated on the ground, like schoolchildren, almost. They were all gazing ahead, at someone who stood in front of them all, delivering a speech in a loud, powerful voice.

She took a detailed glance around the landing, just in case she had overlooked some nook or cranny, but she had not; her backpack was clearly missing, evidently taken by the Union.

Unable to do anything else, Lisa wriggled slightly to her left, in order to get a better view through her ‘window’. A black-clothed man beside her looked at her, kept his eye on her for just a moment, and then refocussed on the going-on in the main chamber of the cave. Heartened, Lisa left her station by the wall and crawled towards the small ‘window’. As she moved, several pairs of eyes were on her, but nobody motioned to stop her.

She settled herself down by the ‘window’ and watched intently. There were hundreds of people seated in the chamber, a small army. They were all staring at a tall man who stood on a raised platform, a natural dais made of red rock. He stood in the middle of two large objects: On his left, a large metal cup, filled with oil and burning with a bright orange flame, illuminating him; on his right, a thickset wooden stand, which had on it a small collection of items, including a small, dark-wooded box. Lisa took a closer look at the box and recognised it: it was the ebony box from her dream last night. Lisa took a closer look at the objects on the stand and realised there was another box, the rosewood box from her dream, right beside the ebony box.

She tried to look at the other objects on the stand, but her attention was suddenly stolen by the man speaking to the crowd. He was tall and well-built, his short hair as dark as pitch. He spoke with authority, waving his hands and gesticulating to emphasise his points. His eyes were black and hard, but blazed as if they were on fire.

“And now, as we progress to the advanced stages of our great plan, we can take heart in the fact that we have, once again, displayed our supreme power to the world!” The man was saying, slamming his fist onto the palm of his hand. As if on cue, the crowd of people roared in support. Even the agents around Lisa were shouting out their agreement.

“I have brought you all here with me tonight,” declared the man proudly, “to prove that there are no secrets kept from anyone. I have heard of rumour mongers among you who have been spreading insidious lies that I have kept secrets from you all, that I have not been honest and upfront with you, my followers and friends, in detailing my plans.” He paused purposely; there was a sudden outbreak of whispering across the cave; the man standing nearest to Lisa was muttering vehement denials under his breath. “Nothing could be further from the truth, my friends!” declared the man standing on the dais, and here he slammed his fist down on the wooden stand. “Contrary to what some may have told you, I have no hidden agenda when it comes to this organisation! I keep no secrets from those I choose to be my allies! No secrets!”

“No secrets!” echoed hundreds of agents.

The man at the front smiled at them graciously, and Lisa was beginning to get a very shrewd idea of his identity. “As such,” he continued loudly, “I have gathered you here to witness the magnificence of my plans. You see, tonight’s operations were three-fold. Firstly, we sought to finally reveal our true colours to the world, which we have succeeded at – the Police have fallen to our ranks! Incidental deaths are but a natural by-product of our mission. Tomorrow, the world will awaken to a new era, an era of the Union’s Supremacy!”

On cue, an almighty roar went up across the cave; all the agents on the staircase raised their hands to the air and cheered in unison.

The man on the dais smiled once again and waited for the noise to die down before he continued.

“Secondly, we sought to fulfil the next step in the Great Legend.”

Lisa’s ears pricked up at the mention of the word ‘Legend’. Despite everything that had happened, she had not forgotten what Professor Oak had told her earlier: “Lisa,” he had said softly, “the Legend involves you.”

She listened intently to the man’s words, however, she was quickly disappointed; he was not going to elucidate anything about the Legend.

“Which we have also succeeded in!” he continued bravely, his voice almost too confident. He was met by a collective roar from the Union agents. Lisa shivered; the fanatical yells were beginning to truly frighten her; these people seemed to be almost brainwashed into supporting the man at the front, their eyes trained on him as if their world depended upon what he said. Yet, even as Lisa surveyed the mass of black-clothed people, she could detect the occasional person who did not scream maniacally at the man’s impassioned speech, people who seemed in control of themselves.

On the dais, the ringleader reached over to the wooden stand and placed his hands on the ebony box. He deftly undid the silver clasp and swung the lid back on its hinge. The crowd of Union agents leaned forward curiously. Lisa’s senses tingled with anticipation; she poked her head through the ‘window’ through which she was watching the curious proceedings.

Wearing a genuine smile, the man on the dais held the base of the box and lifted it up to the rest of the chamber.

Glittering in the flickering torchlight, ancient and resplendent, were two silver keys.

Amid the almighty, deafening roar that went up among the crowd, Lisa suddenly understood why the Union had sieged the mountain.

Over the cacophony in the chamber, the man on the dais was saying, “We did it! We have the Second Key at long, long last!” There was another cheer. When it had died down, the man spoke again, more calmly. “Tonight was a joint effort. As one, we defied the authorities and acquired the Second Key!”

Once again, the organisation revelled as one, but Lisa was deep in thought. She remembered what Derek had said to her and Gavin earlier that night: “Tell Lance and only Lance that I know where the Second Key is,” he had said gravely. Lisa saw now what he had been doing. He had hoped to somehow prevent the Union from succeeding in their siege on Mount Fairfax by finding the Second Key first –

But Derek himself had failed: The Union had still obtained the Second Key. Lisa still didn’t have a clue what the keys meant, but she knew that a Union success wasn’t good.

She watched the man on the dais intently as he closed the ebony box and placed it on the wooden stand again. There was something curious about the way he was talking – something that seemed out of place. Lisa had always understood the Union to be a fierce, aggressive organisation, ruthless in achieving their evil goals. Yet the ringleader of the group was speaking to his agents like a teacher to a student, not like a master to a servant. He presented himself as approachable, despite clearly being the one in the position of power. His speech seemed to be evoking a sense of community among the agents, a sense of triumph and togetherness that wouldn’t be out of place in a Kindergarten.

Before Lisa could comprehend this, the man had begun to speak again, and there was a sudden hush over the congregation of Union agents.

“The third prong of our operations tonight,” he said, a good deal louder than before, “Has yet to be completed, and we cannot succeed fully tonight without the help of an outsider.”

Lisa realised a moment too late what was happening; the agents clustered on the rock staircase around her had suddenly converged on her, two of them clasping her under each arm and hauling her to her feet without any warning. Flanked on all sides by burly, black-clothed agents, Lisa was led down the last few steps and onto the mostly flat surface of the main chamber. The security of the stalactite-stalagmite web gone, she was now exposed to the entire cave.

“Behold,” bellowed the man on the dais, sweeping his hand in Lisa’s direction, “Our unwilling helper, Lisa Walters.”

Hundreds of bodies twisted to face her; the eyes of everyone in the room were suddenly on Lisa. She stared out at them blankly, fighting the urge to flee. One of the men escorting her suddenly gave her a gentle shove in the back, barely an inch below her bandaged bullet wound; Lisa winced, the pain rearing its head like a serpent. Tears sprang into her eyes reflexively but she swiftly blinked them away. Reluctantly, she acquiesced to the man’s shoving and began to approach the front of the cave – alone; the agents who had been flanking her left her to make the approach by herself.

As she trudged down the makeshift aisle down the centre of the torchlit cave, Lisa became acutely aware of the crowd’s reaction to her entrance. Many of them were glaring at her venomously, hissing out of making grotesque faces at her as she passed them. The agents sitting on the edges of the aisle tried to grab at her feet as she passed, however, when one finally did and Lisa shrieked in fright, the man on the dais spoke out deafeningly:

“Nobody is to touch her!” he roared, though his voice was still controlled.

Barely heartened, Lisa walked on. She had no idea what was going to happen when she reached the dais, but she wanted to face it as quickly as possible. If there was one thing she hated, it was waiting in fear.

The rest of her approach was easier only in that there were no hands clutching at her feet, as if to trip her up, but she was still being glared at, hissed at; she was still being watched by hundreds of foes in a kind of silent nightmare.

After what seemed like an age, she reached the dais, upon which were the wooden stand, the cup filled with burning, scented oil and, of course, the man who had been speaking to his followers.

Lisa stared him straight in the eye as she stepped up onto the raised rock platform, and he mirrored her. She had never expected to encounter Joseph Sterling, resurrector of Team Rocket and now leader of the Union, and yet here she stood, a metre from him, their eyes locked.

“Lisa,” he said, his voice smooth as honey, his arrogant smile exuding falseness in all its glory. “Always a pleasure.”

“Not for me,” she said loudly.

For a moment, for the most infinitesimal fraction of a second, Joseph Sterling’s face fell: the flagrant superiority behind his irises flickered; his eyebrows, so expertly lowered in a forced expression of power and knowledge, rose ever so slightly; and his smile, sly, exultant and brimming with deceit, wavered. Lisa had never met him before, she had never come face to face with this man, and yet all at once, inexplicably, she knew his kind, she knew who he was and what he stood for.

Joseph Sterling was responsible for everything that had happened tonight – the deaths, the battle, the terror. He had manipulated – brainwashed, even – hundreds of agents to obey him fanatically. It was on his orders that the Union had sieged the mountain. It was on his orders that the Union had invaded Lisa’s home and attacked her and Marina. It was on his orders that Gavin and countless other prisoners, innocent or otherwise, had been brutally beaten and tortured into submission. It was on his orders that three Union agents had been sent to kill, to destroy, Lisa herself. Joseph Sterling had sanctioned every foul, evil action imaginable, and yet here he was before an assembly of followers, all of them in thrall to his every deceitful word, worshipping him as a hero and his praising his ideas as paragon.

And Lisa despised him with all her heart.

The assembly of Union agents below had fallen into a deathly silence at Lisa’s words. Joseph Sterling eyed Lisa closely, surveying her with those hard black eyes as though she was some kind of species he had never encountered before.

“Your bluntness surprises me,” he said at last, his voice as controlled as ever.

Lisa didn’t say anything in response; she had surprised herself. She remained taciturn.

Sterling looked away from her and faced his army once more. “Lisa Walters is here tonight,” he declared, “to enter the Sepulchre of Entei!”

Amid the renewed roars of support, Lisa felt her stomach turn violently. Of all the things she had been expecting, this was most definitely not one of them. She had never heard of the Sepulchre of Entei, but whatever it was, it didn’t sound inviting.

The assembly settled down as Sterling turned toward Lisa. “Will you help us out, Lisa?”

He was facing her, asking a direct question. Lisa didn’t know what to do: why was this happening to her? Not so long ago she had been rejoicing, jubilant that the Union had been defeated – and now everything had taken the most bitter turn possible – she was trapped, with the Union asking her to do their bidding.

She steeled herself, looked Sterling in the eye again and said stubbornly, “No.”

He looked unabashed; in the crowd, the agents were jeering at Lisa unrestrainedly, calling her names that she couldn’t distinguish from the deafening apprehension in her head. Joseph was no longer ordering the agents to leave her alone.

“I will ask you just once more,” said Sterling, in a booming voice, raising himself up to his full height. “Will you enter the Sepulchre of Entei?”

Lisa tried to think of the best response, but her mind was no more than a useless clutter of jangled nerves. “What is the Sepulchre of Entei?”

A broad smirk spread across Sterling’s face. “I don’t think I will be telling you anything like that,” he said smugly. “No use giving you any information you might be able to use.”

Lisa frowned; he was depraved but undeniably sensible.

“Now give me an answer. Yes or no.”

“Never,” said Lisa defiantly.

Suddenly, unexpectedly, he raised his arm and brought it crashing down on Lisa’s neck; Lisa heard her own squeal of pain as if it was coming from somewhere a very long way away. She reeled back as her bullet wound stung violently, but she did not fall.

“You don’t say no to Joseph Sterling,” said Sterling, so quietly and calmly that only Lisa could hear him. “I believe,” he said, raising his voice now so that his supporters could hear him, “you will be entering the Sepulchre tonight.” He glanced up to the side of the cave that was bounded by the roughly hewn staircase. “Dennis, now please.”

And, before Lisa had realised what was happening, there came the sounds of a man struggling with a load, and then something began to protrude through a ‘window’ like the one Lisa had looked through. It was a person. Lisa caught a glimpse of the face, covered in dried blood.

It was Gavin.

She wanted to scream. She wanted to lunge at Joseph Sterling and tear into him, hurt him in any way she possibly could, just as long as he felt some of the pain that she was enduring now, some of the terror. The night was nothing more than a nightmare that wouldn’t end; one terrible shock followed another. And now the Union had her pinned, they had her defeated. She had no choice but to acquiesce – they had Gavin.

“Two bullets in his brain is all it would take,” Sterling said casually, “if you defy me again. Now, your answer … will you do what I command?”

Her eyes prickling with fury, Lisa nodded.

“No, no, no, Lisa,” Sterling laughed mirthlessly, as his army echoed him, “I want to hear you say it. I want to hear you submit to me.”

Don’t do it! screamed something deep within Lisa, but she slowly opened her mouth and said, “Yes.”

Victory flashed across Sterling’s face. “That is pleasing to hear,” he said simply, as though he had only asked her once, and had not just struck her and threatened to kill her friend. “Then you will go in immediately.” He raised his voice again. “Veronica!”

Lisa knew who to expect; moments later, a woman with platinum blonde hair rose gracefully from among the rest of the assembly; she was seated importantly in the third row.

“I am ready, boss,” she said in a low but confident tone; Lisa noticed a sizeable lump on her forehead where she had struck her earlier.

“Veronica has volunteered her services tonight,” Sterling announced to the rest of the Union. “She will guard Miss Walters as she ventures into what is known as the Sepulchre of Entei!”

Veronica strode up to the dais, hobbling slightly, a tear in the lower half of her black pants exposing a vicious bite mark. She made eye contact and Lisa did her best to glare at her – it felt like the last kind of defiance she could afford.

Sterling surveyed Veronica intently for a moment. “Good luck,” he said quietly, in a rare moment of concern. He pulled out a small leather bag from his coat and handed it to her; there were no words exchanged, though, Lisa thought, Veronica must have known precisely what she had been given, because her eyes glimmered and she bowed her head slightly, as if in reverence.

“Now go!” Joseph Sterling roared abruptly, raising a fist into the air above his head; the Union began to clap and cheer Veronica on. “And make haste, for the police will soon bring their back-up forces!”

It was in these kinds of situations that humans reverted to their most basic instincts – the primal fight-or-flight mechanism – however, Lisa stood rooted to the dais, unable to make herself move. She could not fight such a contingent, nor could she flee from them – the cave offered no escape routes except the high staircase, and that was blocked by agents. To resist would not only be futile, but it could provoke Joseph Sterling into ordering Gavin’s death.

Lisa gulped, feeling a knot building in her throat. She was left with no choice: she had to do what the Union wanted.

Veronica crossed the dais and reached Lisa. With a vile smirk she grabbed hold of Lisa’s right arm, her nails digging in far more than was necessary. Needles of pain began shooting up Lisa’s arm, but she gritted her teeth and did her best not to show it.

The least I can do, she thought, is to be brave.

Amid a cacophony of combined cheering and jeering, Veronica swept Lisa with her to the back of the dais. Sterling fixed Lisa with a victorious grin as she passed. Mustering all her strength, she kept her expression calm and unfazed, despite the lurch of terror within her.

Behind the dais there was a short series of rock steps, roughly hewn from the rock, much like the larger staircase. The steps were quite invisible from the other side of the dais, where the Union sat in assembly. Indeed, Lisa had not even realised that there was anything behind the dais at all.

“Down here,” Veronica said roughly, her hand still clasped around Lisa’s arm.

Lisa felt her stomach turn with a sense of impending doom: At the foot of the short flight of steps, at the point where the floor met the back wall of the massive cave, was a small, dark hole.

Veronica released her. “You go in first, girl,” she sneered, pushing Lisa towards the tiny opening.

Lisa obeyed, as she knew she had to. She sat herself down on the edge of the hole and poked first her feet, then her legs, into the unknown. The hole was so small in diameter that Lisa’s hips nearly caught on the sides. She eased them through gingerly.

“Hurry it up,” snapped Veronica, prodding her back.

Obediently, Lisa squeezed her torso through the gap and, without warning, she felt her foot touch something in the darkness – and it moved.

“Eugh!”

Closing her eyes in fear, she used her arms to propel the rest of her body into the hole. At once, darkness closed in around her – and something furry touched her face. She shrieked and flailed around in the dark hole, until suddenly she realised that whatever floor there had been was now gone. She was falling through the darkness, falling through thick spiderwebs and slimy objects …

“OUCH!”

Something unexpectedly soft – and squishy – broke her fall; her face was pressed into a slimy substance, the nature of which she could only imagine. The huge thing she had landed on began to move slightly, almost pulsating … She clutched for her Buzzball, but it was gone, as were her pokéballs: she had no weapons … there was nobody to help her …

There was a stifled cry of shock as Veronica came falling from the hole above and landed with a soft squish right beside Lisa. The woman struck a match and a tiny orange flame appeared, as if levitating itself, in the darkness. A second later there was a whooshing sound – Veronica had lit a wooden torch, which cast a strong light around them.

Lisa took stock of her surroundings. They were in a long, sloping tunnel, which was large enough for the two of them to walk down side-by-side. Thick, silver spiderwebs lined the sides of the cave, but otherwise, it was quite bare.

“Augh!” Veronica cried suddenly. She threw her arms up and began to scramble away from Lisa. Her eyes were fixed on the thing that the two of them had landed on; Lisa followed her gaze and nearly retched: the thing looked like a massive pulsating blob. It was the size of a car, half-buried in the rocky ground, and it was covered in thick, sticky web, so that it was impossible to see what was inside …

Shrieking, Lisa kicked her way off the blob until finally she fell a few inches onto the solid rock floor. She breathed a sigh of relief.

“What IS that thing?” she gasped, quite forgetting that Veronica was her enemy.

Veronica too, it seemed, had momentarily forgotten their enmity, for she replied, in a clearly flustered voice, “I don’t know …” She shook her head and shifted the torch to her right hand. “Never mind – we must go on,” she added, much more business-like. She jerked her head to tell Lisa to follow her and began to stride down the sloping, torchlit tunnel.

Lisa didn’t need to be asked twice – she would take a dark, winding tunnel over a mysterious pulsing blob any day. Without a look back at the foreign-looking thing behind her, Lisa got to her feet and hurried after Veronica, keen to remain within the bounds of the torchlight.

The tunnel led onwards for a considerable distance, winding constantly in a downward direction. For twenty minutes, Veronica and Lisa negotiated the downward path, ducking through cobwebs when necessary. Lisa said nothing to Veronica, and the Union agent said very little either, other than occasional jeers or commands to “Hurry up”.

Lisa’s mind wandered to what was happening on the surface of the mountain. Would the police’s back up forces have arrived to save the day yet? Was Gavin going to be all right? And what had become of Daniel, Nova, Derek, the Professor, and the others?

“Girl,” said Veronica sharply.

“I have a name, you know,” Lisa said irritably.

Veronica ignored her. “Spinarak web,” she said shortly, waving the blazing torch before her. Lisa peered a few metres ahead: sure enough, the tunnel was completely blocked by a massive, ornately spun Spinarak web. On the sides of the web, clustered in the shadows of the crags and rocks jutting out from the tunnel’s walls, were several large Spinaraks.

The web reminded Lisa very much of the one she and Gavin had blasted their way through in the forest several days ago.

“You go first,” said Veronica sleekly.

“What?” Lisa demanded. “But – but I’m needed … aren’t I?”

“So it would seem,” Veronica replied lazily. “It’s not dangerous work, just break down the web for me – a Spinarak bite won’t kill you …”

“A dozen might!” Lisa shot back grimly.

Her face lit eerily by the flames of the torch, Veronica scowled. “You’d better not argue, girl, and just do what I say.”

Lisa glanced at the thick web and knew she wouldn’t make it – the Spinarak were converging on the edge of the web now, waiting for an intruder to attempt to break it down.

“Don’t you have pokémon to use for this kind of thing?” Lisa asked her as politely as she could.

A flash of anger crossed Veronica’s face. “Unfortunately, no, not one that could break down this web,” she said. “Your friend Gavin saw to that … knocked out my –” She stopped herself, not wanting to lose face. Lisa, on the other hand, felt a burst of pride that Gavin had managed to take out some of Veronica’s pokémon … however, Gavin’s victory was their loss – they had no way of cutting down the web without sustaining dangerous injuries, no pokémon, no tools at all …

… or did they?

Lisa felt as though a light bulb had switched itself on spectacularly inside her head.

“The torch,” she said. “We can set the web on fire, just like we did in the forest, and then just jump through.” She turned to Veronica, who looked unconvinced. “Just hold the flame to the web, it should take hold,” Lisa said, stepping away from the web so that Veronica would be closest to it … but she, too, backed away.

“You do it, if you’re so convinced,” said Veronica in a haughty voice, though Lisa could see that she was actually quite afraid of having to put herself at risk.

“Well … I don’t know,” Lisa said slowly, aware of the advantage she held. “If you don’t want to do it, I’m not going to … maybe we should turn back.”

Her words, far from forcing Veronica into turning back or even setting fire to the web herself, caused the Union agent to whip out a black pistol that she had hitherto concealed. She pointed the gun at Lisa and smiled confidently. “I don’t think so,” she said, her voice much more confident now that she held the weapon. She thrust the torch forward. “You will do it.”

Of course, thought Lisa. They wouldn’t send her in here unarmed …

Reluctantly, Lisa took the torch; strangely, it did a great deal to settle her jangling nerves. She now felt as though she had just a little control over the situation. She spun around and took a few steps toward the web. The spiders clustered at the edge moved in a little closer, clicking their pincers threateningly, ready to strike.

Lisa moved forward gingerly. In the forest, she had had Vulpix’s flamethrower to blast through the Spinarak web … now, however, she merely held a burning torch …

A couple of feet from the web, she realised that it wasn’t going to work. The web wouldn’t ignite quickly enough, and by the time it did, the spiders would be all over her.

She turned back to Veronica, who merely cocked her pistol and sneered. There was no compassion to be found there, Veronica was not going to bow to Lisa’s appeal. There was no way out.

Wheeling back to the gigantic web, Lisa held the torch in her right hand and thrust it mightily into the centre of the web. At once, the Spinarak clicked their pincers gleefully and began to charge toward Lisa, clambering over each other in their eagerness. Lisa wasted no time: she swiped a large, methodical ‘X’ in the web; the fire burned through the thick web, weakening it, but the silvery string was too sticky … it refused to ignite at all …

“Hurry up, hurry up,” Lisa urged the web under her breath, holding the torch to the web, but it scarcely charred the web at all. The spiders were close, now, barely a metre away …

Lisa stole a hurried glance at her ‘X’ – it was not deep enough, it had not destroyed the web itself, but made a weak opening. She slashed wildly at the hole she had made, tearing the web apart slowly … wispy pieces of web began to fall to the ground …

Thwap! Lisa’s arm was pulled back as a single thread of white string wrapped around her arm – and then another – the Spinarak were using their String Shots to immobilise her … they were on her now, grasping at her shoulders …

“No!” she cried. Holding the torch before her, she wrenched herself free of the String Shots and, with a gargantuan effort, pushed herself through the weakened web; for a second, it seemed that it would not give way … that she would be trapped there, entangled in the web for the Spinarak to attack … but then, with a sound like material tearing, the web broke along the ‘X’ that Lisa had burned into it; she went sprawling through the thick barrier to the other side, hitting the ground with a thud.

She whirled around, holding the torch aloft; the Spinarak were not coming after her, even though she was barely a metre on the other side of the web … they remained on the web, clicking their pincers furiously as they spun more thread to cover the gaping hole Lisa had made.

Lisa panted heavily, her breath gone. It had seemed impossible, and yet, she had survived, she had made it through … alone. Her heart leapt: Veronica was still stranded on the other side of the web. Could she possibly venture on alone, and even find a way to escape the Union?

She had taken only a few steps forward when she heard Veronica’s shouted order through the web behind her: “Don’t go on!” she called, trying to maintain the strength in her voice, but she was clearly afraid without her torch. Lisa intended to go on regardless, but all of a sudden, shots rang out in the tunnel behind her; she dived to the ground in panic, but there were no bullets zinging through the air around her … yet, the shots were still ringing out …

Lisa suddenly understood: in her desperation, Veronica was firing at the Spinarak, trying to take out enough of them for her to charge through the gap in the web before it was too late …

Lisa felt a pang of pity for Veronica, that she was so desperate, but she knew better than to turn back and help her out. She stood stock-still, facing the web uncertainly, as another round of gunfire issued from Veronica’s pistol … but no Veronica came.

Without warning, there was a gigantic burst of vermilion flames; the huge Spinarak web, metres in diameter, ignited at once, scorched fiercely by the blaze of fire; Spinarak flew through the air as though they had been hit by a small shock wave –

“Augh!”

With a loud cry, Veronica charged through the smouldering remains of the web, one hand above her head, the other, clutching the leather bag that Joseph Sterling had given her; even in the light of the blazing web, Lisa caught sight of a bright red glow coming out of the bag, though she could not see what was causing it …

Veronica reached Lisa’s side. “Come on, girl!” she commanded fiercely, stowing the leather bag and producing the black gun once more, levelling it at Lisa. All around her, stray Spinarak were scuttling hurriedly back to where the web had previously been, apparently intent to build a new one; remarkably, they did not even try to harm either Lisa or Veronica now that they were on the other side of the web.

“I said, come on,” Veronica snapped, all traces of desperation gone now that she was safe. Without another word, she swept onwards down the ever-declining tunnel, allowing Lisa to keep hold of the torch. Lisa followed her once more.

Another five minutes on and the exhilaration of the incident at the web was quite a thing of the past; the tunnel was as bare as ever, and now quite free of any cobwebs, though Lisa had a nagging feeling that, somewhere ahead, there was something more frightening than spiders.

“Ah, we are nearly there,” said Veronica calmly, as they descended two natural steps. Lisa could not see how she knew this, for the tunnel seemed as bare as ever, but sure enough, a few moments later they rounded a twist in the tunnel and entered a sizeable chamber. Standing before them on a huge rock altar, like an old sentinel, was an ancient golden statue, hewn in the majestic shape of an Entei. Its entire body, six feet tall, glittered in the torchlight; its eyes were large rubies.

“Oh my God,” said Lisa, breathtaken in spite of herself.

“Ah … the Sepulchre,” murmured Veronica.

Behind the statue of Entei, on a thin rock ledge, was a grand archway; it held an arch-shaped oak door, the doorframe of which was laced with gold and encrusted with all kinds of colourful gems. The door itself had a short series of runes carved into it, which looked unsettlingly similar to the ones Lisa had seen higher up in the mountain.

“Amazing,” Lisa muttered, touching the golden statue of Entei; it was covered in dust and dirt but it still maintained a certain grandeur.

“No time for dawdling,” said Veronica harshly, prodding Lisa in the back (thankfully not in her bullet wound). She snatched the torch off Lisa. “Follow me,” she growled, leaping up onto the thin rock ledge and walking along it until she came to the huge oak door. It had no lock, but appeared firmly in place. Veronica pushed the door, gently at first and then with all her might, but the door did not move. Finally, her face red with exertion, she whirled around to Lisa, who was still standing beside the statue of Entei.

“Girl,” she said again, “come here. Now.”

Lisa took her eyes off the statue and jumped up onto the rock ledge and approaching the oak door. Veronica handed her the torch and grabbed her impatiently, jostling her around on the ledge until Lisa stood squarely in front of the door.

“Now stand there and wait.”

Lisa obeyed. She stood, silent and still, for a full minute. Nothing happened. The door remained immobile.

“Try to push it,” Veronica suggested shortly.

Lisa complied, pressing her hands against the wooden door – and, instantly, she pulled them away, shaking her hands wildly. “It’s hot!”

Beside her, Veronica flicked her blonde hair indignantly. “What do you mean?”

“The door!” Lisa insisted, her hands cool now. “It’s scorching hot – I couldn’t hold my hands there long enough to push it open!”

Veronica looked bewildered; clearly, Joseph had not told her to expect this. “Well then, kick it!” she snapped, flustered.

“I don’t think that’s a good –” Lisa began, a sense of foreboding rising within her.

The gun was out already. “I said, kick it!”

Steeling herself, Lisa raised her leg and, with the strength born of her ballet years, she delivered a sharp kick to the right hand side of the door.

As though there were nothing holding it back, the door flew wide open, despite its size and mass. Lisa garnered a fleeting glance of an absolutely massive chamber filled with thick smoke, steam and what looked like lava before an almighty blast of hot air sent her and Veronica flying backwards onto the ground below.

“What the –” yelled Veronica, her voice barely audible over the mysterious roar within the Sepulchre.

“I told you!” Lisa cried back, covering her face with her hands; the heat was unbearable, scorching her skin. Steam was gushing out of the doorway to the Sepulchre now, filling the antechamber in which they stood. Veronica writhed on the floor, her face covered, pistol forgotten.

A burst of foul-smelling gas and dust burst from the door, narrowly missing Veronica; at the same time, with a wave of horror, Lisa saw thin, red-hot lava churning about in the chamber, flowing rapidly towards the door.

Whatever was meant to happen, Lisa thought briefly, this most definitely wasn’t it.

She assessed her options and knew that there was no chance of charging through the Sepulchre itself; her only chance of escape – or survival, even – was back up the tunnel from which she and Veronica had come. She retrieved the mercifully still-alight torch, which had gone flying when the door opened, and made a dash for the tunnel.

As she passed the statue of Entei, Lisa remembered Veronica; spinning on her heel, she caught sight of the Union agent several metres behind her, clutching at the walls of the chamber, her eyes screwed shut against the ash now suspended in the hot air. Lisa teetered uncertainly. A part of her longed to leave the Union agent there, to be consumed by the fire and smoke: Still facing Veronica, Lisa backed slowly away, returning to the entrance tunnel … she deserves it, let her die …

Abruptly, the earth shook wildly; it felt as though the rocks below were sliding haphazardly over each other. Lisa stumbled and fell, losing the torch again. Struggling to her feet, she saw a small wave of red-hot fluid cresting in the doorframe, flowing directly for the blinded Veronica. Her conscience took hold of her like as though she were a fish snared by a hook – she couldn’t just stand back –

Lisa raced forward, one eye on the approaching lava flow, and grabbed Veronica by the underarms.

“What are you doing?” screamed Veronica wildly, her eyes blinded by the ash: she was resisting, apparently taking Lisa’s assistance as some kind of an attack. She kicked out at Lisa as molten lava oozed through the doorframe, into the antechamber. Lisa threw her arm up over her face as a gust of hot air exploded from the chaos within the Sepulchre and grabbed at Veronica’s arm again.

“I – I’m saving your life,” Lisa muttered back sharply. “And if you don’t come with me, you’ll be killed – come ON!”

Blinking foolishly, Veronica stumbled to her feet, ready to run. Lisa grabbed the torch in one hand, clasped Veronica’s wrist in the other and ran for her life: past the doorframe, through which she could see the Sepulchre of Entei blazing with fire and lava; past the statue of Entei, out of the antechamber and into the entrance tunnel …

The earth was rumbling as though it was ready to explode. The ground of the tunnel shook from side to side as Lisa sprinted back up towards the surface, her enemy clinging to her arm all the while. Lisa’s mind was working overtime: lava, inside Mount Fairfax? Just how far had they descended?

The answer, it seemed, was very. Lisa lost her breath after just a few minutes – her heart was thumping, her lungs grasping for air that was rapidly becoming contaminated with foul-smelling gases that were rising up from the Sepulchre below; her legs, already put under tremendous strain that evening, were ready to collapse; and her injuries from the battle were beginning to rear their heads – it felt as though somebody was twisting a knife in her back.

“Keep going, keep going,” Lisa chanted to herself, rounding a bend in the tunnel only to be faced with another stretch of bare rock; she had not even reached the Spinarak web yet. “Keep going, keep going, keep going.”

They had just rounded what felt like the millionth corner when Lisa saw something further up the tunnel – a bright speck of light, hovering off the ground, speeding toward her and Veronica. Lisa paused apprehensively, but she had no option but to let the thing meet her – she had no tools to help her.

The speck of light became a beam of light, and as it came closer, Lisa saw that it was in fact a powerful electric torch, held by a person on the back of a large, flying creature. The flying creature approached swiftly, until Lisa had to avert her gaze to avoid being dazzled by the bright light. The creature reached Lisa and Veronica at last, landing softly on the quaking ground. Lisa squinted her eyes to determine whether the newcomer was friend or for …

“It’s Lisa!” said a jubilant voice abruptly. “Dad, it’s Lisa!”

The wave of relief that swept over Lisa in that moment was so tremendous that she almost felt giddy. There were in fact two people on the back of the pokémon, which was a strong, rose-gold Dragonite – one was a man, seated comfortably with his legs squeezed around the creature’s middle; the other person, who was holding the bright torch, was a teenage boy.

Lance Hudson and his son Darius both wore broad grins, despite the fact that the tunnel around them was beginning to crumble. Lisa grinned back at them in disbelief: how the two of them had come to be here she didn’t care, all that mattered was that she was saved, not just from the volcano, but from the Union, too.

“You’re alive!” Darius burst out incredulously, his dimples pronounced.

“I know!” Lisa replied, equally astonished that she was going to be all right. She glanced from Darius to his father, however, Lance’s expression, though jubilant, was also anxious.

“Lisa,” he said, concerned, “What happened here?”

“It was the Union,” Lisa told him, gesturing to Veronica, who had her hands to her ears, trying to block out the roar of the Sepulchre below. “They attacked the mountain contest, and they fought us, and brought me down here, to the Sepulchre of Entei –”

Lance nodded patiently. A few metres away, a section of the tunnel’s ceiling collapsed to the ground. “Lisa, I want you to tell me about it all later. Right now, you have to get out of here.” As he spoke, his son produced a small red-and-white orb. He held it outstretched to Lisa. “Take Darius’s Stantler and escape,” Lance said firmly. “I will explain everything to you later, Lisa, but there is no time now, you understand?”

“Yes,” Lisa said quietly, taking the ball from Darius, “but where are you two going?”

“To the Sepulchre. You see, Darius needs to go there.”

“But it’s dangerous!” Lisa protested. “There’s a volcano!”

Lance shook his head. “It is not a volcano. We are in no grave danger. Please, Lisa, run!” And with that, his Dragonite kicked off from the ground and flew further down the tunnel, back towards the Sepulchre, leaving Lisa in the weak light of her burning torch.

For the first time in minutes, Veronica was showing signs of life – she was mumbling furiously to herself, apparently unaware that Lisa was still beside her. “We got the wrong one … of course …” she muttered bitterly, her hands clenched.

Without warning, the earth shook violently. A cascade of rocks and dirt fell from the ceiling. Lisa turned on her heel and threw the pokéball Darius had given her. It bounced once on the rock floor before exploding with white light, which rapidly took the shape of a creature. The Stantler had brown fur flecked with white and dark brown, it’s intricate antlers causing it to look much taller than it perhaps was. It reminded Lisa very much of a reindeer.

Stantler fixed her with a kind but urgent look. Lisa nodded compliantly. “All right. I’m coming,” she said. She turned to Veronica. All the venom, all the fight, seemed to have left the Union agent since she had been injured in the antechamber. Lisa grabbed her arm firmly and led her to Stantler’s side. She surveyed the situation, wondering how on earth she was going to lift Veronica’s useless form up onto the deer, but Stantler gently lowered its body to the ground, so that, with a rather forceful prod in the back from Lisa, Veronica obediently seated herself. Lisa followed suit. Stantler stood up, snorted slightly and set off at full-pelt back up the tunnel.

Lisa’s hair flew back as Stantler ran. She had not expected a deer to be so fast, but Stantler ran with extreme pace. Her arms around the deer’s neck, Lisa felt the ride re-energizing her like some kind of magical tonic. The cold air rushing at her face was especially welcome – it was a soothing change from the blasts of hot air down in the antechamber.

Stantler took a hairpin bend at great speed but remained perfectly upright; it wheeled around and began galloping down the next stretch of tunnel. Peering ahead, Lisa saw it: the Spinarak web, still frayed but bordered with dozens of Spinarak.

“Be careful!” Lisa called out.

Still running at full speed, Stantler turned its head to face Lisa and gave her a shrewd, almost cheeky look, as if to say, “Please, as if I need to be told.”

The deer faced ahead again and, lowering its head, sent forth a broad beam of crimson light, which spread to fill the entire width of the tunnel. The beam hit the clusters of Spinarak, so that, by the time that Stantler passed through the web, the arachnids were dazed, turning on each other in their confusion, allowing the deer and its passengers safe passage.

Stantler sped on, bounding up the tunnel with the grace of a mountain gazelle, dodging the rocks that fell from the ceiling as the mountain shook; it was truly a spectacular beast. Upon rounding one particularly nasty turn in the tunnel, Lisa’s torch sideswiped the rock wall, sending the light flying out of her hand and into the passage behind them. Before the light had quite faded, Lisa thought she caught a smirk on Stantler’s long face.

In no time at all, it seemed, they were galloping up the final stretch of the tunnel. The hole through which Lisa and Veronica had first squeezed through was no longer a tiny gap – it had been blasted wide open (for Dragonite to get through, Lisa thought) and now light poured in from the massive cave without. The hole, Lisa saw as they approached, was about two metres above them. Below it, the strange blob was still pulsating; Lisa felt Veronica squirm uncomfortably behind her as she caught sight of the blob, however, Stantler was not intending to make contact with the thing. Instead, the deer increased its speed and, with a spring that Lisa had not expected, Stantler bounded up, soaring into the air and through the tunnel opening, landing heavily on the flat rock floor behind the dais.

“You did it!” Lisa exclaimed, another wave of relief sweeping her, combined with an overwhelming sense of gratitude to Stantler, Darius and Lance. “Thank you! You did wonderfully, girl!”

Stantler swivelled its head around to face her again and fixed her with an incredibly disgusted and affronted look. Lisa realised her mistake at once. “Boy!” she corrected. “Well done, boy!” The deer dropped his sneer, though he still looked quite insulted. Without warning, he jerked his body wildly; Lisa clung on tightly – surely he wasn’t bucking her for her mistake? – but then there was a scream and a thump behind her, and she understood. Turning around, she saw Veronica sprawled on the ground between Stantler and the opening to the tunnel. The woman was breathing but was otherwise quite still; the mountain, it seemed, had defeated her. Stantler’s intelligence startled Lisa: it seemed he had taken Veronica to safety, on the orders of his trainer, but he had dropped her like a hot coal the moment he had the chance.

“Awooo,” he called urgently.

Lisa was dismounting when she understood what he meant; she suddenly became aware of the noise reverberating around the chamber, the flashes of light and shouted commands …

Stantler beside her, she ran up the steps that led to the dais and reached it, obtaining a clear and sudden view of the massive cave.

A battle was raging in the chamber, but it bore almost no resemblance to the battle Lisa had been engaged in earlier, in that the Union was, quite clearly, being defeated. The enemy were in mass-retreat: In the well-lit cave, Lisa could see the hundreds of Union agents scrabbling madly for the staircase that lined the chamber, many of them tripping over as the ground beneath them shook wildly. Several black-clothed agents were falling down the rock staircase, put off balance by the tremors.

Lisa surveyed the dais quickly: there was no sign of the keys or any of the other objects Sterling had placed on the stand earlier, nor was there any sign of the stand, or of Sterling himself; it seemed he had fled the chamber. The oil-filled goblet, which had been burning earlier, was now overturned, lying abandoned on the dais.

In all the commotion, Lisa could see very few people who were not black-clothed; she scouted about the chamber and spotted Derek, several pokémon ranged beside him, warding off a cluster of Union agents. Nearby, a woman Lisa had seen in the clearing earlier was engaged in a fistfight with a female Union agent. Lisa peered through the crowd of fighting or fleeing people, none of whom seemed to have noticed her and Stantler enter. Near the centre of the cave, two people stood back-to-back, a dozen pokémon surrounding them, all simultaneously issuing various attacks to knock out enemies. One of the people, a tall, blue-haired woman, had among her pokémon a Starmie, which was emitting Psychics and Water Guns simultaneously, without any verbal commands from its trainer; a wave of psychic energy slammed into three nearby Union agents, throwing them all to the ground, whilst a jet of water knocked a young red-haired woman off her feet.

Lisa gazed around her quickly, in case there was an enemy approaching, but the section of the cave closest to the dais was rapidly emptying now; indeed, some Union agents were sending out their flying pokémon to make a faster getaway; the entire cave was a scene of desperation. A powerful tremor shook the cave once more.

The woman with the Starmie was still taking out agents at will, as was the black-haired man standing behind her – his Heracross was hurling a burly Union agent into the air, where he collided with several others, sending them all toppling to the ground like skittles.

And all of a sudden, it seemed that the action was over; the last of the Union agents still able to stand were fleeing up the staircase (and for some reason, those who were fighting the Union allowed them to escape), while those who had been injured were strewn across the floor of the cave – like Veronica, they were utterly defeated. Starmie shot out one final Water Gun, sending a man to the ground, and then there was a sudden calm; a near-silence fell over the chamber for just a moment, punctuated by the sound of footsteps sprinting up the rock staircase.

Before there could be any exchange between those who remained conscious, the ground gave an almighty lurch. Lisa felt her feet leave the ground as the earthquake struck with mind-blowing force; she was catapulted into the air, landing roughly on the dais again, Stantler beside her. A second later, there was a deep, terrifying ROAR that came from somewhere deep in the mountain – it sounded as though the Sepulchre was making its final stand – and then, all of a sudden, the quaking finally stopped, and there was silence; the mountain was appeased.

For a very strange moment, nothing happened. Then the people still standing – Derek and the others – began to look around and congratulate each other, calling out compliments and words of praise wearily, great smiles on their faces.

And then somebody cried, “LISA!”

Lisa whirled on the spot. She recognised the voice instantly (how could she not?); something inside her leapt with joy; she had not expected this, of all things … her eyes darted around the massive, almost empty chamber – and then she saw her:

Lisa’s mother, Maria Walters, stood near the far corner of the chamber, tears pouring down her grinning face.

“SHE’S ALL RIGHT – RYAN, SHE’S ALL RIGHT!” She cried, ecstatic, more tears running down her face.

Lisa stood rooted to the dais in utter shock. The man who had been fighting the Union, with his Heracross and five other pokémon, turned around to face Lisa, and she gasped. Her father, Ryan Walters, stared back at her.

“Lisa,” he said, very quietly.

At a loss of anything else to say, Lisa said softly, “Hi Mum. Hi Dad. Fancy meeting you here.”

And then, at long last, she collapsed from exhaustion.