《Chasing Darkness》Chapter 9
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A town lay out before Lilith’s eyes. A dirty run down town, but evidence of civilization nonetheless.
Calling it a town was a bit of a stretch however.
‘It’s so small.’
Four main structures lay before her. One large road cut the complex in two. The road led to a Hut nestled right inside the plateau. To her left were two buildings, one really tall building that looked residential, and the other a Pokemon Center. It had a large Pokeball right above where the door should have been. Despite the greenery that covered the building, a bright red paint-job could be easily seen.
It had all the indicators of a Pokemon Center.
‘There should be a Pokemon Center in every Town, right?’
To the right was a long flat building that served an unidentifiable purpose. It was so wide that its base more than doubled the two buildings it sat across from. Despite its width, the building was only tall enough for a ground floor.
No more than a hundred people could have lived here at some point.
Despite the sheer cliff of the plateau, some small footpaths were in place, leading down to the ground. They wound down the mountain, and in some places her feet barely fit on the ledge.
‘This could be a goldmine.’
Lilith tried not to get her hopes up. The place looked wrecked. Glass was smashed, vines grew on the sides of buildings, and grass even grew on top of buildings.
‘I’m no historian, but this place hasn’t seen people in decades. Not unless some Pokemon accelerated all this.’
The footpath down the mountain took longer than expected. It did lead right to the base of the road. Lilith inspected the road. It was flat and smooth as anything she had seen on Earth.
Her attention then turned to the Hut it was connected to.
Two blue pillars held up either side as the building emerged from the cliff wall. Above the door sat a large black and silver pickaxe.
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‘So a Mine of some sort. Pokemon really do love their pictionary. I wonder what they were digging for.’
After peeking inside, Lilith decided to stay clear of the area. Everything about it screamed danger. The last place she wanted to be was in a dark linear tunnel. No place to hide, and only one direction to run in. Lilith had no idea how deep it went or how dangerous it could be.
‘So this is an abandoned mining outpost.’
Lilith turned her attention to the other buildings.
The order ultimately didn’t matter because she had no knowledge to back up any particular decision.
Lilith approached the wide building with only one floor, as it was the closest. The road did well to keep the grass back, so approaching was easy. The windows were large, and low enough for her to look inside.
‘Nothing?’
Shelves lined the room. They all stood empty aside from the occasional empty box turned on its side. Dust littered the room. It appeared to be some sort of storage facility. The facility was removed of all objects before being left to rot.
‘No one will miss it.’
Lilith grabbed a carabiner from her bag. Using part of the bag as a glove, her hand descended upon the window.
Unexpectedly, the carabiner bounced right off.
“Ahh” Lilith cried as her arm started to tense up from the impact.
She swore and stared at the carabiner. This only made the previously broken ones all the more troublesome.
Instead, Lilith had to find a fully broken section before she could enter. This had been easy, the window right next to it missed its glass. Once one had been found, she climbed over the window, into the warehouse. There was no evidence of Pokemon in the room. The dust was so thick, Lilith had to wipe it away before she could even try and read anything. The boxes were her first stop.
‘What?’
The writing was unfamiliar to her. Strange symbols dotted the box.
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‘Are those Unknown?’
The symbols slowly became legible. The language read like English, but was based on the Pokemon Unknown. The species bodies were morphed into different shapes, forming an alphabet.
‘Poketch?’ Lilith read the box.
Each box she went through had the Poketch logo. The company was known to produce wristbands that functioned like cellphones; it was odd to find them in charge of an operation of this sort.
Lilith continued to scour the room. In one box, she even found half of a disk.
‘A broken T.M.?’ Lilith identified the object that helped teach Pokemon how to learn moves they normally wouldn’t in the wild.
‘Are they single use, or was it broken by different means?’
Either way, it could not be used. Lilith tossed it aside. Nothing of value was found in the area.
Lilith walked towards the door at the far end of the room. The hallway it led to had three other storage areas exactly like the one she had just left. She estimated that the storage rooms took up most of the inside of the building.
The hallway eventually opened up into another large space. Chairs and desks were thrown aside. Few were even up right. Cubicles lined the walls.
‘Office space.’
Nothing of value was found in the cubicles, just like the storage room.
‘This might make a good base.’ Lilith evaluated the area.
This section eventually led to a reception area. The main entrance was to the left with a central lobby. More offices lined the left wall as one entered. Those doors had name tags that were barely legible.
These offices were just as plain as the areas before. It was as if Lilith had walked into a ghost town.
The last office in the building proved fruitful. Its door was initially closed, but the door swung outward once turned. The office had a much larger desk than the previous. After fumbling through the side cabinets.
Nothing so far. Lilith checked the desk drawers.
It appeared that someone forgot to clean it out. Shards of something were scattered in the central drawer above the sitting position. The one to the left creaked open and revealed nothing. Lilith did the same for the right.
The Desk held broken Type Gems. Each increased the lethality of one attack of the corresponding type. Even if unbroken, they would not have helped her.
The gems appeared to have been used long ago and thrown to the side.
‘Damn.’
Lilith started to grow frustrated. This place held nothing of physical, or educational value, only more questions. She brought her fist down on the table in a fit of rage. The desk shook and made a grinding sound. Desks didn’t make that sound.
After much scrutiny of the desk, a small button underneath the central panel was found. Once pushed, a false bottom fell out.
Inside were many good things.
‘Jackpot.’ Lilith’s pulse grew.
What caught her eye first were the multiple colored tablets. One was light green, the next was light blue, and the last was a dark black.
‘Are these Type Plates?’ Type Plates boosted the use of moves that corresponded with the Plate’s Type. The Flame plate boosted the use of Fire Type moves. Each Type had a corresponding Plate it was compatible with.
The last one gave off a fuzzy feeling she couldn't quite place. It was hard to turn her eyes away from it.
Two other objects sat within. One was a sharp crystalline diamond. It gave off a pale yellow glow, with a thunderbolt down the center.
‘Z move.’ An overcharged attack that needed a primer from a special glove. Useless to Lilith.
The last was oval-like. It was both bumpy and shard like with a slate gray color.
‘Moonstone.’ A special stone that Evolved certain Pokemon
An evil smile spread across Liliths face.
‘These must be what they were mining for.’
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