Pokemon Heroes: Sinnoh Saga [Book 1]

Chapter 72: Earthquake! Rowan's Theory

"I knew as soon as Nilama gave us the artefacts in Celestic Town that Team Galactic and us would come to a final confrontation. Team Galactic was heading towards their endgame; Cyrus made this clear at the Shrine in Celestic. Nothing was stopping him, not us, not the authorities, and not morals or rights. He would do whatever he had to achieve his goals. Nilama would not have given us those artefacts if we had had to use them. You don't part with thousands of years old relics for nothing. No...she knew what was coming—so did we, but perhaps not to the same exact extent. The only downside to it all was that we knew what was coming, but not when or where they would strike next. We had a feeling they'd go for the Lake Guardians, and Valentina was able to double police guard around the three lakes. But...that wasn't going to stop Team Galactic it seems."

"Why have you called us here Professor?" asked Alyssandra as everyone settled into a seat around a large wooden table.

They sat in the highest floor of Canalave Library, one of the oldest libraries in the Sinnoh Region. It was said the records at Canalave Library had some of the oldest, most complete history of the Sinnoh Region in its vaults.

Rort, Roark, Gardenia and Byron sat on one side of the table, next to Palmer. While Alyssandra, Niya, Jeremy, Sam, Sakura, and Pikachu sat on the other.

Aurelio stood beside Sam.

Sitting crunched together at the far end of the table were Dawn and Lucas Oak, and their friend Barry, who had apparently come to Canalave City at Professor Rowan's request to be part of the proceedings to come.

Professor Rowan stood at the head of the table, frowning, his face creased with worry. "Team Galactic's been silent lately," he grumbled.

"This is a problem?" asked Roark, "It's been nice not having to worry."

"It's a major problem," interjected Palmer, being serious for once, "Because we don't know what they've been planning. We haven't even heard from Looker recently, and he was supposed to have infiltrated their base."

"We know they'll likely go for the Lake Guardians next," explained Sam, "We learned this in Celestic Town."

"You mentioned last time you called," noted Professor Rowan, "But we've put up guards all around the Lakes of Sinnoh and have seen no attempts to try and circumnavigate our barriers."

"Did they give up?" suggested Jeremy, though it sounded more like a cautious line of questioning—perhaps hoping.

"Not likely," answered Rowan, "More likely they're planning something, and they've done their best to keep it a secret."

"And they've succeeded," added Palmer.

"So, what do we do now?" asked Sam, "If they've kept it a secret, and we can't get a hold of Looker, is there anything we can do to mitigate an eventual strike?"

"Not eventual, soon," corrected Professor Rowan, "They're going to strike soon. They've been this quiet this long, and they can only delay so long before they strike, or we do."

"So, you called us in to plan a method of attack," stated Niya, picking up on what was going on.

"Precisely," Palmer stated, clapping his hands jokingly, "One of us needs to strike first, and Rowan and the League would rather it be us. Then we could attempt to stop them before they do undue damage to Sinnoh, or the world."

Sam placed a hand on his bag. He could feel the weight of the Azure Flute. He had neglected to mention to Professor Rowan that he and his friends had been gifted powerful, spiritual artefacts by Nilama.