"Mr. Edward, you already submitted a reservation request yesterday. Here is your ticket. Please keep it safe."
At the summit of Mt. Pyre, Edward received a ticket—an entry pass to visit the Red and Blue Orbs. The price of the ticket wasn't expensive, only ten pokedollars.
But correspondingly, there wasn't much to actually see. Even from the entrance, Edward could already make out the things situated atop the mountain. There was a structure resembling a shrine, and beyond that—nothing.
The ten pokedollars was mainly used to help maintain the building. After all, this place stood at a high altitude, constantly battered by strong sea winds, which were highly erosive to the construction materials. It required regular maintenance and upkeep to prevent it from falling into disrepair.
"But this place…" Edward glanced around. Although it appeared vast and spacious on the surface, he could faintly sense the presence of people hiding in the shadows. These were likely agents from the Pokémon League, sent to protect the Red and Blue Orbs.
Edward walked forward. There was nowhere else to visit apart from the shrine in the center. The surrounding area was just open space dotted with stones. So, Edward headed directly into the shrine.
Inside, he saw two elderly individuals carefully cleaning something. At the center of the room were two crystal display cases, within which rested the Red and Blue Orbs.
At first glance, the orbs didn't appear particularly extraordinary—one red, one blue, they looked somewhat like gemstones: translucent, glistening under the light, exuding a radiant brilliance. Aside from their color and clarity, they didn't possess any unique visual features.
However, Edward noticed a plaque below them, engraved with myths and legends regarding the two orbs.
He skimmed through the writing. The story was long, but the core meaning could be summarized into a single, simple statement:
[Long ago, Hoenn was struck by an unprecedented downpour and a massive drought. The people suffered immensely. One brave hero, after enduring countless hardships, found the Red and Blue Orbs and used them to put an end to the cataclysmic rains and the scorching drought. Eventually, the hero succumbed to exhaustion and fell into the mouth of Mt. Pyre, dying there.]
[The hero's body transformed Mt. Pyre into a dormant volcano. In memory of this great sacrifice, the people of Hoenn enshrined the orbs at this very location and built a shrine around them.]
"Groudon and Kyogre, huh…" Edward murmured thoughtfully.
In truth, aside from a few god-tier legendaries such as Giratina or Arceus, most legendary Pokémon actually had species lines—like Kyogre. One existed in the Hoenn region, while another had apparently been fished up somewhere else in the world.
However, the Groudon and Kyogre of Hoenn were clearly unique. These two were super-ancient Pokémon, capable of undergoing Primal Reversion using the power of the Red and Blue Orbs, allowing them to transform into their origin forms.
To put it in simple terms: their strength would skyrocket—similar to Mega Evolution.
"Sir, would you like to purchase any merchandise?" An elderly lady walked over with a cheerful smile. She opened a box revealing various souvenirs and collectibles. Edward even noticed miniature versions of the Red and Blue Orbs among them.
The prices weren't particularly steep—quite affordable, actually. Edward picked out a few items he liked, including the two miniature Red and Blue Orbs, which he intended to take back for research purposes.
"Granny, have these Red and Blue Orbs ever been displayed elsewhere?" Edward suddenly remembered the reason he came here and hurriedly asked.
"Displayed elsewhere? No, never. The Red and Blue Orbs have always been enshrined here and cannot be moved. Doing so might invoke the wrath of the sea," the old woman replied, a bit stunned at first, but then smiled as she answered.
Edward nodded. It seemed taking the Red and Blue Orbs away wasn't going to be an option.
Having finished his tour of the orbs, Edward prepared to leave. Honestly, there wasn't much to see here apart from the orbs themselves. And if even moving them wasn't feasible, then the entire operation became immensely complicated.
These two orbs carried significant mythological weight, and the League clearly had no intention of relocating them.
Edward couldn't quite grasp what the League was thinking. They clearly understood the connection between the Red and Blue Orbs and Groudon and Kyogre, yet they still blatantly kept the orbs here on display. It was practically inviting disaster—deliberately dancing with death.
Unless… the League had other motives. Perhaps they were using the orbs as bait.
From the moment Edward entered, he noticed the extremely tight security in place, and even detected hidden guards stationed out of sight. It was entirely plausible that the League was using the Red and Blue Orbs to lure out Team Aqua and Team Magma in one swift strike.
While it's true that Team Magma and Team Aqua were, at best, minor nuisances to the massive Pokémon League, the problem was that both teams were like persistent rats—constantly hiding in the shadows, making it difficult for the League to eliminate them in one fell swoop.
So, using the Red and Blue Orbs as bait to draw them out was actually a reasonable strategy.
"But they almost failed at fishing… and nearly took all of Hoenn down with them," Edward muttered with a smirk. He didn't have much faith in the League's baiting plan.
In the games, Kyogre and Groudon were successfully awakened. Despite the League's vast resources, it still required the player—the protagonist—to clean up the mess. But this was the real world. Maybe the League wouldn't be so incompetent here.
Edward had no idea how the plot surrounding the Red and Blue Orbs would develop in this world. He only intended to do what he could to prepare, so he could better handle the affairs of Team Magma and Team Aqua in the future.
His plan was simple: first, have someone search for the entrance to Team Magma's secret base near Mt. Chimney, then closely monitor the underwater submarine project—because Team Aqua needed that submarine to locate Kyogre.
Once the entrance to Team Magma's base was found, Groudon's sleeping chamber could be accessed. At that point, both Team Magma and Team Aqua's plans could be effectively disrupted.
As for the impending meteor crisis—Edward didn't yet have a solid solution. Maybe, just maybe, he could negotiate with Giratina and have it transport the meteor into the Distortion World.
After all, Giratina could influence the real world. Retrieving a meteor shouldn't be beyond its capabilities.
Though Edward vaguely remembered something else about that meteor—it was said to contain an extraterrestrial Pokémon: Deoxys.
Deoxys had arrived alongside the meteorite, crashing down into Hoenn. Edward only remembered this part of the storyline, and that capturing Deoxys required playing a triangle-pushing puzzle game. Deoxys also had exceptional speed.
But Edward wasn't particularly worried.
If he recalled correctly, Deoxys's base Speed stat was around 180. But as long as Q consumed enough fear candies, its base stats could be increased by 200 points in total. Battling Deoxys wouldn't be a problem.
And with proper planning and maneuvering, Edward might not even have to encounter Deoxys at all.
He walked back to the spot where he had previously encountered the elderly man and his Charizard. They were gone now, but two new gravestones had been placed there. They were blank—no names had been etched onto them yet.
Edward looked at them for a moment, knowing full well that, in the future, those stones would bear two names.
(End of Chapter)