Psycho Monkey
Member of the Literary Elite Four
Six Months Ago
Deep beneath the surface of the Unova region excavators and their Pokémon were hard at work expanding the Relic Passage that extended between Driftveil City and Castelia City. To have a network of tunnels connecting the furthest points of Unova was the dream of the Driftveil City Gym Leader, Clay. Thanks to his ambition, one could travel to and from Castelia City and Icirrus City in half the time it used to in previous years.
“Hey Gurdurr, could you bring me one of those support beams?” requested one of the workers. He wore a brown hard hat, white gloves, and a jumpsuit. The legs of the suit were yellow while the torso and arms were black. A Pokémon resembling a Muppet on steroids came over with a long wooden beam slung over one shoulder. The species usually carried red beams made from steel, but for the tunnel work, wooden beams were more efficient. Gurdurr effortlessly stood the beam against the cavern wall to support the ceiling and prevent a cave in.
“Thanks partner!” said the worker giving his Pokémon an appreciative thumbs-up. Gurdurr grunted with a derpy smile as if to say “No problem Boss!”
Elsewhere in the tunnel a Pokémon with a mostly yellow and white hide with thick brown spines protruding from its back was digging away at a wall with long sharp white claws. The Sandslash swiped at the wall but struck a surface harder than the rest of the dirt around it. It struck again assuming it to be nothing but bedrock only this time the entire wall collapsed on it.
“Claws!” shouted another worker, the Pokémon’s Trainer. “Are ya alright?” he asked worriedly. Claws dug its way out of the rubble no worse for wear. “I’m glad yer fine.” said the worker with relief giving his Sandslash a pat on the head. He looked up at the collapsed wall only to see the slab Claws was having trouble getting through. It looked to be a mural of some kind.
“Tom! Hey Tom! Get over here will ya? I think we got somethin’!” the worker shouted. A man with a thick brown mustache, who was obviously the supervisor by the orange vest he wore over his uniform, came rushing over to the scene.
“What’s wrong Jim?” inquired Tom.
“Whadda ya make of this?” Jim asked pointing to the mural. Tom got a big grin on his face at the sight. He slapped Jim on the back a few times in excitement.
“I think we just made the discovery of the century! Get Clay on the line!” the supervisor said with a hardy laugh.
---------------------------
Present Day
It was only mid-morning but the sun was already high in the sky shining its bright, warm rays on the streets of Nacrene City. A young Trainer with messy brown hair wearing a purple t-shirt, dark blue jeans, and white running shoes had just arrived in the city for the second time heading straight for the Nacrene Gym to face the Gym Leader, Lenora. Shiro had lost to Lenora once before but after doing some training on Route 3 and Wellspring Cave, on top of adding a new team member to his party, he was feeling confident in his rematch. He was so focused in fact, that he barely noticed that Nacrene seemed much livelier compared to the last time he was in town. Any thoughts on the matter were simply brushed off as school being out for summer break and people wanting to take advantage of the nice weather.
It wasn’t until he got to the Nacrene Museum which housed the city’s Gym that Shiro began to wonder if there was more to the morning bustle than he initially thought. A huge crowd of people was gathered at the entrance slowly filing into the double doors atop a flight of stairs. While trying to figure out what could possibly warrant such a crowd, Shiro noticed a large red banner with blue trim hanging above the entrance reading ‘Welcome to the Grand Opening of Ancient Unova!’ in bold yellow lettering. He then remembered there was one exhibit in the museum that was closed off the last time he was here. That must be what was drawing the crowd. And just his luck, today was the grand opening of the new exhibit. This place was going to be packed!
“Great.” he groaned impatiently. Shiro was eager to get to his Gym Battle as soon as possible but he had no choice but to wait in line to get inside. Navigating through the crowd to the arena would probably be no easy feat either. As Shiro approached the front doors, he saw another advertisement for Ancient Unova which went into more details including that Lenora herself would be presenting the exhibit on June 12th, which was today, at 10am. According to Shiro’s Xtransceiver it was 9:32am. “Looks like my battle will have to wait. At least this exhibit sounds pretty interesting.” he mused to himself.
Inside the Nacrene Museum people of all walks of life were gathering. Archeologists, historians, and students in those fields had come wondering what such an exciting and new find could mean and if the artifact was going to change Unovan history as they knew it. Curious people who were simply hungry for knowledge were there hoping for a piece of information pie. Citizens of Nacrene City who had been longing for this day since the new exhibit was first advertised in the hopes that it would give them artistic inspiration for their next song, painting, or sculpture. Everyday people who had decided today would be a good day to take a trip to the museum either by themselves, on a date, or with their families and just happened the pick today along with the unsuspecting Trainers looking to challenge Lenora to a Gym Battle like Shiro. And the press was there to document it all.
All of these people gathered in the east wing of the museum where a large rectangular object of some sort stood in the middle of the room veiled by a large white cloth. Whatever this exhibit was stood about seven feet tall; at least two heads taller than the dark skinned woman standing next to it on the left. Lenora, the Nacrene Gym Leader and director of the Nacrene Museum, had a large afro of black hair tied back with a red and pink striped bow. She wore red shoes, blue pants, and a pink apron overtop a white shirt. Standing on the right side of the mysterious exhibit was a tall lanky man with pale skin, glasses, and thinning brown hair wearing a long white lab coat and brown slacks. He was Lenora’s husband and assistant director of the museum, Hawes.
As more people filed in, journalists standing at the front of the crowd crouched down so those behind them could see while keeping their notepads held out in front of them ready to write every word, every detail, of what was to come. Reporters stood idly at the ends of the crowd with cameras fixated on Lenora, Hawes, and the cloaked object.
Hawes looked at his analogue watch which read 9:59am. He mentally counted down the seconds in his head until the minute hand clicked over onto the hour. “Dear.” he said with an underlying tone of passion and admiration for his wife in his voice.
“Thank you, Hawes.” she responded with a warm and thankful smile directed at him. She then turned to her audience.
“Ladies and gentlemen. And of course, children too.” Lenora greeted in a loud and clear voice giving a nod of acknowledgement to a little girl sitting on her father’s shoulders. “I would like to personally thank each and every one of you for taking time out of your busy schedules to be with us here today on this momentous occasion. As I am sure all of you are aware, the Driftveil Mining Corporation, founded and led by my personal friend Clay xxxxxx, has been creating a series of tunnels beneath Unova to make traveling easier for people journeying the western part of the region. Earlier this year, a team he had expanding the Relic Passage came across this!” Lenora and Hawes both grabbed their respective side of the white sheet and pulled it until the relic beneath had been unveiled.
The up until now secret exhibit was a large stone slab with what appeared to be the Unova Region carved into it. Camera flashes illuminated the room as everyone with a camera or a phone snapped pictures. Lenora waited for the roar of the crowd to die down before continuing her speech.
“For those of you in the back who may not have a good view, this slate bares the oldest known map of the Unova Region that has ever been discovered to date. Unfortunately, the northeastern corner from modern day Pokémon League Stadium down to Humilau City is missing. We do not believe it was damaged during excavation because the edges are smooth. In all likelihood, it simply eroded away. This map is, of course, extremely outdated. Most of the cities we know today are nowhere to be seen and there are settlements marked that no longer exist such as this one here.” Lenora took a laser pointer from her pocket and used it to encircle an area in the middle of what is known today as Route 4 marked with two lines topped by a triangle resembling a house. “It stirs my curiosity to find out what secrets lay within that desert!” Lenora cleared her throat realizing she was getting off topic. “Based on the information this map gives us about the geopolitics of the time, the layer of sediment we found this in, and our own dating tests here at the museum, we have determined that this mural is approximately 2500 years old. That is what makes this such an important discovery. It comes from the time period where the mythological sibling founders of Unova unified the region with the help of the Original Dragon.”
Lenora then pointed to a section of the map near the Route 4 settlement marked with a shape resembling a simplified rook piece from chess. “Further evidence in support of the map’s age is this, which is no doubt the Relic Castle. Today they are but ruins, however based on the artifacts that have already been excavated and uncovered within the ruins, archeologists are certain that the Relic Castle was created 2500 years ago as the seat of the newly formed civilization. We also know there are still plenty of rooms and chambers buried beneath the sand that remain unexplored. It makes my heart throb just thinking about what hidden treasures from a forgotten age still reside there.” Lenora cleared her throat again for letting her passion of archeology get away from her. She then pointed to an island in modern day Undella Bay.
“Over here is a place you will not find on a contemporary map. This island sunk into the sea more than 2000 years ago, but recently divers have discovered ruins that have been given the name the Abyssal Ruins. Once again, these ruins are home to innumerable archeological finds.” she said keeping her enthusiasm in check this time. “Items found inside the Abyssal Ruins are dated as old as 3000 years, but the ruins were clearly still on the surface 2500 years ago.” She then pointed out two more marked areas near modern day Mistralton City and Icirrus City.
“These two areas here are Celestial Tower and Dragonspiral Tower. It is no surprise that Dragonspiral Tower is located on this map as it is by far the oldest structure in the Unova Region. Even I cannot claim to know how old it is. The greater surprise is Celestial Tower. While it is a very old building, we never expected it to be as old as this map is telling us it is. We cannot be entirely sure yet if there was some kind of important structure in this location 2500 years ago that Celestial Tower was built on top of or not. Further research will be needed to determine whether this map is indicating the Celestial Tower we know of or some other ancient landmark.” Lenora took a short pause to give the audience a moment to absorb all of this. She forgot for a moment that not all of the people here were her colleagues is the history and archeology fields. Most of the people were average citizens so she hoped that nothing was going over their heads.
“Now, you all are probably wondering why I took special consideration to point out these four locations.” Lenora teased at. “Aside from the fact they are the only man-made landmarks on the map that still stand today, these four towers are also specially marked with their own individual crests. Celestial Tower bares a crescent moon, a sun denotes the Relic Castle, a cloud symbolizes Dragonspiral Tower, and finally the Abyssal Ruins are emblazoned with a star.” she explained. “Now while that may not seem special, just a way to identify the four towers in Unova, none of the settlements bare any unique symbols to distinguish them from one another. We are still unsure as to what these crests on the towers mean and why our ancestors felt the need to separately mark them the way they did. Maybe it really was for easier identification, maybe it had some religious purposes, we just cannot be sure. If I could, I would love to ask them myself.” Lenora’s joke got a chuckle out of the crowd.
“So far the Celestial Tower is the most visited of these sites and the Relic Castle has been studied continuously for decades. We are only just now uncovering the secrets of the Abyssal Ruins, and Dragonspiral Tower has been untouched for centuries. I would love to get in there to discover its secrets.” She mentally berated herself for getting off track again. “We are also still working very hard to uncover the secrets of this map.”
Lenora took another pause. She looked at her new exhibit with wonder and integrity. After six months of research, she felt she had only scratched the surface of this mural’s mysteries. Still, she wasn’t going to gain much else keeping it in her musty old lab. Something as grand and historical as this deserved to be public where anyone could see it. Maybe some bright young university student with fresh ideas would spot something she didn’t. Perhaps an artist’s perspective would see some aesthetic her scientific mind overlooked. She turned back to the audience with a large smile.
“Well I am sure you all are tired of hearing me yammer on.” she said getting another laugh from the audience. “If anyone has any questions about the exhibit, please direct them to my assistant Hawes. I assure you, he is just as knowledgeable about the subject as I am. If any journalists or reporters would like an interview, please schedule one for after hours. I am a Gym Leader after all, and I am sure there are plenty of Trainers here today who are looking for a match with me.” That earned a cheer from Shiro and several other people in the crowd. “Once again, thank you all so much for coming out today. Please enjoy the rest of your time in the museum and never stop learning! Curiosity is the spice of life! Without it, life is bland!”
The crowd erupted into a roar of applause as Lenora took her leave to her office. Once everyone had settled down, people started dispersing to explore the rest of the museum, to bombard Hawes with questions, or to get a better look at the mural. Shiro waded through the crowd towards the Gym. The exhibit had definitely caught his attention, but he’d be back later to look at it. Hopefully the crowd would have died down by then. Right now he had only one thing on his mind and that was his rematch with Lenora.
Deep beneath the surface of the Unova region excavators and their Pokémon were hard at work expanding the Relic Passage that extended between Driftveil City and Castelia City. To have a network of tunnels connecting the furthest points of Unova was the dream of the Driftveil City Gym Leader, Clay. Thanks to his ambition, one could travel to and from Castelia City and Icirrus City in half the time it used to in previous years.
“Hey Gurdurr, could you bring me one of those support beams?” requested one of the workers. He wore a brown hard hat, white gloves, and a jumpsuit. The legs of the suit were yellow while the torso and arms were black. A Pokémon resembling a Muppet on steroids came over with a long wooden beam slung over one shoulder. The species usually carried red beams made from steel, but for the tunnel work, wooden beams were more efficient. Gurdurr effortlessly stood the beam against the cavern wall to support the ceiling and prevent a cave in.
“Thanks partner!” said the worker giving his Pokémon an appreciative thumbs-up. Gurdurr grunted with a derpy smile as if to say “No problem Boss!”
Elsewhere in the tunnel a Pokémon with a mostly yellow and white hide with thick brown spines protruding from its back was digging away at a wall with long sharp white claws. The Sandslash swiped at the wall but struck a surface harder than the rest of the dirt around it. It struck again assuming it to be nothing but bedrock only this time the entire wall collapsed on it.
“Claws!” shouted another worker, the Pokémon’s Trainer. “Are ya alright?” he asked worriedly. Claws dug its way out of the rubble no worse for wear. “I’m glad yer fine.” said the worker with relief giving his Sandslash a pat on the head. He looked up at the collapsed wall only to see the slab Claws was having trouble getting through. It looked to be a mural of some kind.
“Tom! Hey Tom! Get over here will ya? I think we got somethin’!” the worker shouted. A man with a thick brown mustache, who was obviously the supervisor by the orange vest he wore over his uniform, came rushing over to the scene.
“What’s wrong Jim?” inquired Tom.
“Whadda ya make of this?” Jim asked pointing to the mural. Tom got a big grin on his face at the sight. He slapped Jim on the back a few times in excitement.
“I think we just made the discovery of the century! Get Clay on the line!” the supervisor said with a hardy laugh.
---------------------------
Present Day
It was only mid-morning but the sun was already high in the sky shining its bright, warm rays on the streets of Nacrene City. A young Trainer with messy brown hair wearing a purple t-shirt, dark blue jeans, and white running shoes had just arrived in the city for the second time heading straight for the Nacrene Gym to face the Gym Leader, Lenora. Shiro had lost to Lenora once before but after doing some training on Route 3 and Wellspring Cave, on top of adding a new team member to his party, he was feeling confident in his rematch. He was so focused in fact, that he barely noticed that Nacrene seemed much livelier compared to the last time he was in town. Any thoughts on the matter were simply brushed off as school being out for summer break and people wanting to take advantage of the nice weather.
It wasn’t until he got to the Nacrene Museum which housed the city’s Gym that Shiro began to wonder if there was more to the morning bustle than he initially thought. A huge crowd of people was gathered at the entrance slowly filing into the double doors atop a flight of stairs. While trying to figure out what could possibly warrant such a crowd, Shiro noticed a large red banner with blue trim hanging above the entrance reading ‘Welcome to the Grand Opening of Ancient Unova!’ in bold yellow lettering. He then remembered there was one exhibit in the museum that was closed off the last time he was here. That must be what was drawing the crowd. And just his luck, today was the grand opening of the new exhibit. This place was going to be packed!
“Great.” he groaned impatiently. Shiro was eager to get to his Gym Battle as soon as possible but he had no choice but to wait in line to get inside. Navigating through the crowd to the arena would probably be no easy feat either. As Shiro approached the front doors, he saw another advertisement for Ancient Unova which went into more details including that Lenora herself would be presenting the exhibit on June 12th, which was today, at 10am. According to Shiro’s Xtransceiver it was 9:32am. “Looks like my battle will have to wait. At least this exhibit sounds pretty interesting.” he mused to himself.
Inside the Nacrene Museum people of all walks of life were gathering. Archeologists, historians, and students in those fields had come wondering what such an exciting and new find could mean and if the artifact was going to change Unovan history as they knew it. Curious people who were simply hungry for knowledge were there hoping for a piece of information pie. Citizens of Nacrene City who had been longing for this day since the new exhibit was first advertised in the hopes that it would give them artistic inspiration for their next song, painting, or sculpture. Everyday people who had decided today would be a good day to take a trip to the museum either by themselves, on a date, or with their families and just happened the pick today along with the unsuspecting Trainers looking to challenge Lenora to a Gym Battle like Shiro. And the press was there to document it all.
All of these people gathered in the east wing of the museum where a large rectangular object of some sort stood in the middle of the room veiled by a large white cloth. Whatever this exhibit was stood about seven feet tall; at least two heads taller than the dark skinned woman standing next to it on the left. Lenora, the Nacrene Gym Leader and director of the Nacrene Museum, had a large afro of black hair tied back with a red and pink striped bow. She wore red shoes, blue pants, and a pink apron overtop a white shirt. Standing on the right side of the mysterious exhibit was a tall lanky man with pale skin, glasses, and thinning brown hair wearing a long white lab coat and brown slacks. He was Lenora’s husband and assistant director of the museum, Hawes.
As more people filed in, journalists standing at the front of the crowd crouched down so those behind them could see while keeping their notepads held out in front of them ready to write every word, every detail, of what was to come. Reporters stood idly at the ends of the crowd with cameras fixated on Lenora, Hawes, and the cloaked object.
Hawes looked at his analogue watch which read 9:59am. He mentally counted down the seconds in his head until the minute hand clicked over onto the hour. “Dear.” he said with an underlying tone of passion and admiration for his wife in his voice.
“Thank you, Hawes.” she responded with a warm and thankful smile directed at him. She then turned to her audience.
“Ladies and gentlemen. And of course, children too.” Lenora greeted in a loud and clear voice giving a nod of acknowledgement to a little girl sitting on her father’s shoulders. “I would like to personally thank each and every one of you for taking time out of your busy schedules to be with us here today on this momentous occasion. As I am sure all of you are aware, the Driftveil Mining Corporation, founded and led by my personal friend Clay xxxxxx, has been creating a series of tunnels beneath Unova to make traveling easier for people journeying the western part of the region. Earlier this year, a team he had expanding the Relic Passage came across this!” Lenora and Hawes both grabbed their respective side of the white sheet and pulled it until the relic beneath had been unveiled.
The up until now secret exhibit was a large stone slab with what appeared to be the Unova Region carved into it. Camera flashes illuminated the room as everyone with a camera or a phone snapped pictures. Lenora waited for the roar of the crowd to die down before continuing her speech.
“For those of you in the back who may not have a good view, this slate bares the oldest known map of the Unova Region that has ever been discovered to date. Unfortunately, the northeastern corner from modern day Pokémon League Stadium down to Humilau City is missing. We do not believe it was damaged during excavation because the edges are smooth. In all likelihood, it simply eroded away. This map is, of course, extremely outdated. Most of the cities we know today are nowhere to be seen and there are settlements marked that no longer exist such as this one here.” Lenora took a laser pointer from her pocket and used it to encircle an area in the middle of what is known today as Route 4 marked with two lines topped by a triangle resembling a house. “It stirs my curiosity to find out what secrets lay within that desert!” Lenora cleared her throat realizing she was getting off topic. “Based on the information this map gives us about the geopolitics of the time, the layer of sediment we found this in, and our own dating tests here at the museum, we have determined that this mural is approximately 2500 years old. That is what makes this such an important discovery. It comes from the time period where the mythological sibling founders of Unova unified the region with the help of the Original Dragon.”
Lenora then pointed to a section of the map near the Route 4 settlement marked with a shape resembling a simplified rook piece from chess. “Further evidence in support of the map’s age is this, which is no doubt the Relic Castle. Today they are but ruins, however based on the artifacts that have already been excavated and uncovered within the ruins, archeologists are certain that the Relic Castle was created 2500 years ago as the seat of the newly formed civilization. We also know there are still plenty of rooms and chambers buried beneath the sand that remain unexplored. It makes my heart throb just thinking about what hidden treasures from a forgotten age still reside there.” Lenora cleared her throat again for letting her passion of archeology get away from her. She then pointed to an island in modern day Undella Bay.
“Over here is a place you will not find on a contemporary map. This island sunk into the sea more than 2000 years ago, but recently divers have discovered ruins that have been given the name the Abyssal Ruins. Once again, these ruins are home to innumerable archeological finds.” she said keeping her enthusiasm in check this time. “Items found inside the Abyssal Ruins are dated as old as 3000 years, but the ruins were clearly still on the surface 2500 years ago.” She then pointed out two more marked areas near modern day Mistralton City and Icirrus City.
“These two areas here are Celestial Tower and Dragonspiral Tower. It is no surprise that Dragonspiral Tower is located on this map as it is by far the oldest structure in the Unova Region. Even I cannot claim to know how old it is. The greater surprise is Celestial Tower. While it is a very old building, we never expected it to be as old as this map is telling us it is. We cannot be entirely sure yet if there was some kind of important structure in this location 2500 years ago that Celestial Tower was built on top of or not. Further research will be needed to determine whether this map is indicating the Celestial Tower we know of or some other ancient landmark.” Lenora took a short pause to give the audience a moment to absorb all of this. She forgot for a moment that not all of the people here were her colleagues is the history and archeology fields. Most of the people were average citizens so she hoped that nothing was going over their heads.
“Now, you all are probably wondering why I took special consideration to point out these four locations.” Lenora teased at. “Aside from the fact they are the only man-made landmarks on the map that still stand today, these four towers are also specially marked with their own individual crests. Celestial Tower bares a crescent moon, a sun denotes the Relic Castle, a cloud symbolizes Dragonspiral Tower, and finally the Abyssal Ruins are emblazoned with a star.” she explained. “Now while that may not seem special, just a way to identify the four towers in Unova, none of the settlements bare any unique symbols to distinguish them from one another. We are still unsure as to what these crests on the towers mean and why our ancestors felt the need to separately mark them the way they did. Maybe it really was for easier identification, maybe it had some religious purposes, we just cannot be sure. If I could, I would love to ask them myself.” Lenora’s joke got a chuckle out of the crowd.
“So far the Celestial Tower is the most visited of these sites and the Relic Castle has been studied continuously for decades. We are only just now uncovering the secrets of the Abyssal Ruins, and Dragonspiral Tower has been untouched for centuries. I would love to get in there to discover its secrets.” She mentally berated herself for getting off track again. “We are also still working very hard to uncover the secrets of this map.”
Lenora took another pause. She looked at her new exhibit with wonder and integrity. After six months of research, she felt she had only scratched the surface of this mural’s mysteries. Still, she wasn’t going to gain much else keeping it in her musty old lab. Something as grand and historical as this deserved to be public where anyone could see it. Maybe some bright young university student with fresh ideas would spot something she didn’t. Perhaps an artist’s perspective would see some aesthetic her scientific mind overlooked. She turned back to the audience with a large smile.
“Well I am sure you all are tired of hearing me yammer on.” she said getting another laugh from the audience. “If anyone has any questions about the exhibit, please direct them to my assistant Hawes. I assure you, he is just as knowledgeable about the subject as I am. If any journalists or reporters would like an interview, please schedule one for after hours. I am a Gym Leader after all, and I am sure there are plenty of Trainers here today who are looking for a match with me.” That earned a cheer from Shiro and several other people in the crowd. “Once again, thank you all so much for coming out today. Please enjoy the rest of your time in the museum and never stop learning! Curiosity is the spice of life! Without it, life is bland!”
The crowd erupted into a roar of applause as Lenora took her leave to her office. Once everyone had settled down, people started dispersing to explore the rest of the museum, to bombard Hawes with questions, or to get a better look at the mural. Shiro waded through the crowd towards the Gym. The exhibit had definitely caught his attention, but he’d be back later to look at it. Hopefully the crowd would have died down by then. Right now he had only one thing on his mind and that was his rematch with Lenora.
