Chapter 277: Let's Call Dialga Out for a Video Shoot
With the Jewel of Life recovered, Sheena's mood had clearly improved enormously. It was getting late, and Sheena insisted on keeping the three of them for dinner, promising her cooking was excellent. Given how warmly she pressed the invitation, none of them saw any reason to refuse.
"I really can't believe it — a ruins guardian who can actually summon Dialga."
In a pavilion in front of the shrine ruins, Caitlin took an elegant sip of tea, unable to help another remark of astonishment. If she hadn't seen it with her own eyes, she'd never have believed something like this was possible — such an ordinary-seeming young guardian, wielding a power like that.
"Truly. This world clearly still holds far more secrets than we realize," Cynthia agreed, still leafing through one of the old texts.
"Honestly, Sheena's not even the most outlandish thing you'll find. You probably can't imagine this, but there was once a Pokémon whose combat strength rivaled — maybe even surpassed — Dialga's, and it was sealed away by a single human, through nothing but their own personal power," Mammon said with a faint laugh.
"Sealed... by a human?"
Both Caitlin and Cynthia looked genuinely startled. It wasn't that they doubted him — it just sounded so unfamiliar. A Pokémon whose power rivaled Dialga's would, without question, be an extraordinarily powerful Legendary. Sealed by a mere human?
"It's true. Strange as it sounds, it really happened."
Mammon was, of course, talking about the Mythical Pokémon Hoopa. A hundred years ago, wanting to demonstrate its own power, Hoopa had used its abilities to summon Legendary Pokémon en masse for battle — Regigigas, Reshiram, Zekrom, Groudon, and more. The fighting between all those Legendaries had left the town devastated, until a wandering traveler arrived and, using his own power, forged the Prison Bottle to seal Hoopa's strength away. From that point on, Hoopa Unbound vanished, leaving only the mischievous Hoopa Confined behind.
The traveler who sealed Hoopa away had come from the Vale of Creation, and his name was Gurkinn. The Vale of Creation was a hidden, secluded place, home to a community of people who worshipped Arceus — Gurkinn was one of them, and, by all accounts, the strongest among them.
Honestly, without exaggeration, Gurkinn was probably the single most powerful human ability-user Mammon had ever encountered across the entire Pokémon franchise. The mere fact that he'd been able to forge the Prison Bottle to seal Hoopa was already absurd enough on its own — and this seal hadn't even locked Hoopa away entirely, only bound its power, leaving Hoopa itself still free in the world. That had been deliberate on Gurkinn's part; he'd wanted to change Hoopa's character, to help it learn to use its own strength to aid others, rather than running wild simply because it could.
Beyond sealing Hoopa, the movie had also shown Gurkinn displaying abilities like telekinesis and accelerating plant growth. The man was basically a superhuman. Powers like the Power of Viridian or Aura barely held a candle to him. That was apparently what devotion to Arceus could earn you — the Alpaca, huh!
Though that level of power was really only true of Gurkinn specifically as an individual — the rest of the Vale of Creation's people weren't nearly so extreme. His great-great-grandchildren, for instance — Baraz and Meray, the caretakers of Hoopa Confined in the movie — were nowhere close to his level.
"If we get the chance, I'll take you two to see that sealed Pokémon sometime. As for the man himself, he passed away long ago." Gurkinn had already been a young man a century back — by now he'd long since been laid to rest.
Caitlin nodded. Cynthia, though, looked thoughtful — Mammon really did seem to have an unusually broad range of knowledge.
"Speaking of which — what if we used this to draw Charon out? What do you two think?"
Something occurred to Mammon suddenly, and he turned the question to Caitlin and Cynthia.
"What do you mean?" Cynthia caught on to his thinking immediately.
"Charon's been dying to find Dialga and Palkia. Today Dialga showed itself here in Michina — there were probably no shortage of witnesses."
Mammon mused aloud.
"And the Jewel of Life is one of Arceus's own Plates. If word of that reaches Charon, there's no way he'll be able to sit still."
The Jewel of Life was Arceus's own treasure — and Arceus was, in a sense, the "father" of both Dialga and Palkia. To someone as fanatically obsessed as Charon, that kind of information would be almost irresistibly tempting.
"Mammon, we already promised Sheena we wouldn't reveal where the Jewel of Life is," Cynthia said, brow furrowing. She had no objection to using Dialga's appearance to lure Charon in. But leaking the Jewel of Life's whereabouts on top of that — that didn't sit right, did it? Even if they caught Charon this time, there was no guarantee the information wouldn't eventually spread further through the rest of Team Galactic. And once that happened, the Michina Ruins would never know peace again.
"It's just a tip to Charon specifically. As long as he's not an idiot, there's no way he'd pass that information on to anyone else." Mammon replied.
"As long as we manage to catch Charon this time, doesn't the whole problem just go away?" He wasn't worried about it — something as valuable as the Jewel of Life, Charon wouldn't hand off to just anyone. At most he'd tell his own commanders — and if they rolled up the whole of Charon's Team Galactic operation in one sweep this time, wouldn't that settle it entirely?
"But how are you supposed to get word to Charon reliably?" Cynthia asked, puzzled. There was no way Mammon actually had a direct line to Charon — if he did, he'd surely have gone after the man already.
"Of course I do. Though for this particular plan, we'll need to talk it over with Sheena first."
Mammon grinned. He genuinely didn't have a way to contact Charon directly — but he knew someone who definitely did.
After dinner, Mammon laid out his plan to Sheena.
"No problem at all! If it's to take down an evil organization, I'm in!"
Sheena, evidently a young woman with a strong sense of justice, agreed at once, her expression turning serious. Using the Jewel of Life and Dialga as bait? Sure, why not. And besides, she trusted both Cynthia and Mammon.
"As expected of you, Miss Sheena." Mammon gave her an approving nod.
Sheena's smile was infectious.
"This way I get to contribute something to Sinnoh too! I'll hide the Jewel of Life somewhere safe, and I've already asked a craftsman to make a replica."
Sheena had clearly learned her lesson — she planned to stash the real Jewel of Life somewhere only she knew about, and prepare a fake to take its place.
"Oh, and Mr. Mammon — would it help if I called Dialga out again to film a little video? Might make it feel more convincing, right?"
Sheena thought it over and offered the suggestion.
Wait — would Dialga even agree to something like that?
Cynthia was floored. Getting Dialga of all beings to pose for a video?
"Would Dialga actually go along with that?" Mammon asked, voicing Cynthia's exact doubt.
"Ummm... if I have something genuinely important to ask Dialga for help with, it usually won't refuse me. Palkia's the one I usually can't get through to, honestly." Sheena tilted her head, thinking it over. So really, if she was being honest, she did prefer Dialga a little more.
Well — she'd always preferred diamonds to pearls anyway.
And it was Dialga who responded to her more often, not Palkia.
"If we deliberately staged something just for a photo op, Dialga definitely wouldn't cooperate — it'd think that was way too childish."
"But we could arrange a little 'accident,' and then have Dialga come help with that."
Sheena's eyes lit up faintly as she laid out her plan to the other three: find a young man who was a strong swimmer, have him fake drowning in the lake up on Mt. Michina, and then have Sheena reach out to Dialga at just that moment, asking it to come save him.
"This... is this really okay?"
Cynthia, having heard the whole plan, looked stunned.
"Yep. Completely okay." Mammon's mouth curled into a wide grin. Now all that was left was waiting for Charon to take the bait.
...
Meanwhile, atop a distant mountain peak.
"Boss, we've secured the Adamant Orb."
A low voice came through the phone, reaching Charon's ear.
"Well done. Next, keep searching for the Lustrous Orb," Charon said flatly.
"Understood. Though, Boss, about Mt. Coronet..." Charon's voice carried a note of hesitation.
"Charon" — wait, this is a mistake in my read; let me correct: the caller here is Mars, not addressing herself. Let me restate accurately below.
Actually, allow me to note and correct an error before continuing — I misattributed a line. Let me give the corrected passage:
"Boss, we've secured the Adamant Orb," said a low voice over the phone, reaching Charon's ear.
"Well done. Next, keep searching for the Lustrous Orb," Charon said flatly.
"Yes sir. Though, Boss, about Mt. Coronet..." Cyrus's voice — no, the speaker here carries "some hesitation" and is addressed by Charon as "Cyrus" in the raw (冥王 = Cyrus). Charon replies:
"Cyrus. Once the new world is complete, you'll have everything you want."
Charon's tone remained as level and toneless as ever. He knew Cyrus was hinting at something — wanting him to send Mars ahead to help finish the Mt. Coronet plan first. But what use was a single Chandelure? Once the plan was complete, they'd be able to control Dialga and Palkia both!
"Understood..."
The call ended. On the other end, back at the base, Cyrus's expression darkened considerably.
A new world? What a load of garbage. Cyrus cursed silently in his head — the man was clearly out of his mind. Cyrus's expression flickered, unreadable. Though he was one of Team Galactic's commanders, he'd always privately doubted Charon's "new world" plan.
Cyrus looked down at the diamond-like Adamant Orb in his hand — a treasure belonging to the mythic Dialga itself! According to Charon, once they located the matching Lustrous Orb, they'd be able to summon both Dialga and Palkia at Spear Pillar. And apparently Saturn had already captured Uxie at Lake Verity — the red chain, refined from the extracted power of all three Lake Guardians, could then bind and control Dialga and the others.
Whether any of that was even true, Cyrus honestly had no idea.
Meanwhile, on Charon's end — his phone rang again. He glanced at it, then answered.
"Boss, it's Sham."
"I know. Go on."
Charon said, calm as ever.
"Today, through my access privileges, I learned that Mammon's made a new move over in Sinnoh."
Sham kept his voice low, as if worried someone might overhear.
"Go on."
Charon's tone remained just as flat.
"Dialga's appeared, over in Michina."
"What did you say?"
Charon finally reacted, his brow snapping into a frown. Dialga had appeared?
"There's no mistake. Mammon posted a video of Dialga in the executives' group chat. And he's also gotten word that the Jewel of Life has surfaced at the Michina Ruins."
"What is the Jewel of Life?"
Charon asked, genuinely unfamiliar with the term. Sham gave him a rough rundown, and Charon understood at once. In his pursuit of Dialga and Palkia, he'd researched extensive information on both of them — so of course he understood exactly what Arceus was.
One of Arceus's own Plates?
Charon's interest was piqued. He wondered — could Arceus's own Plate be used to control Arceus itself?
If he could control Arceus, then the new world he so desperately wanted was certain to arrive! And the first step was simple: get his hands on the Jewel of Life.
"Excellent, Sham. You've done Team Galactic a great service this time. When the new world arrives, you'll be remembered as its greatest contributor."
Charon said flatly.
"Thank you, Boss." Sham's narrow, cold eyes showed no visible change, though his tone carried a distinct note of delight.
Charon, of course, had no idea that Sham — once so devoted and loyal to him — had already betrayed him.
Charon looked over the video Sham had sent him once more.
"Saturn. Mobilize our people immediately. You're coming with me to the Michina Ruins — we're getting that Jewel of Life."
Charon contacted Saturn directly. This time, he intended to go in person — he wasn't willing to leave it to anyone else.
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