[attr="class","adrianwtw"]"And that was enough to drag you out here?"[break][break]

Adrian didn't share Mars' impulsive need to investigate everything that showed up in the Report, but he could understand where he was going with this. What's more, most of those other locations had something unique to them. The Anistar Sundial allegedly came from space, Galar utilized a Dynamax phenomenon said to come from meteorite fragments called 'wishing stars'. They knew enough Ultra Space was, well, some abstraction of space. But what of this 'Hisui'? Or even the 'Distortion World'?[break][break]

They knew next to nothing of these, whatever they meant. As for Turnback Cave, it wasn't something many people claimed to understand.
Adrian himself had only ever heard of it by name as simply a place best avoided. Whether they tied into the theory or not, he couldn't be so sure.[break][break]

"Most of them also had the rotten luck of having a space rock dropped on them." Adrian didn't make it sound as fascinating as those who'd originally discovered these sites, as it was a rather unpopular concept with him.[break][break]

The plan was simple enough. Unleash the swarm of Unown, and see what they managed on their own. Could be they'd all simply take their leave; what was he going to do about it if they did? What's worse, they could be creating the perfect ambush for the Dark Triad, or simply hastening whatever machinations were driving Hoenn towards the far side of oblivion. But fuck it; for science and all that jazz, right?[break][break]

Adrian wears an unconvinced grimace while rubbing a hand over the nape of his neck, mustering the nerve to do something that seemed so blatantly reckless and unpredictable. Though so far as either of them knew, nothing happening was just as likely as anything else, perhaps even more likely. "Guess we'll give it a shot..."[break][break]

It's annoying trying to finangle with all twenty-eight pokeballs, but eventually he does, unleashing a veritable horde throughout the Meteor Falls distortion. Though for his part, he makes sure to keep track of each letter. By now he has experienced enough of them to know which letters correlate to which forms, that he might be able to see which words are forming and find their significance.[break][break]

"That's all of 'em," he looks to Mars expectantly.
[break][break]

[attr="class","textwtw"]

[break]
”Yeah… They sure do.” And out of all of them, METEOR FALLS is probably the worst.
[break][break]
Sure, the ‘falls’ part of the cavern’s name may indeed refer to the waterfalls that ceaselessly crash against rocks, but the fact of the matter is that with a meteor currently falling towards Hoenn, the name of the place where another had supposedly crashed centuries ago results to be all too portentous.
[break][break]
Is that really the reason why this place is an entry in the report or is there something else?
[break][break]
Is this the place that 99943 METENO is headed towards?



These are the sort of questions that have filled Mars’ mind ever since he first saw the Unown Report’s latest update, but he knows well that just pondering on the matter won’t give him any answers. That’s why he had chosen to come here: because it may be his best chance at finally understanding part of the Unown Report. A chance at learning about it beyond mere hypotheses and speculation. A chance to find an explanation for this bond.
[break][break]
”There’s no way to really know what will happen, but if we just sit around and speculate we won’t ever actually learn anything about the report… or about the Unown.” They need to take action. And, admittedly, his actions here aren’t nearly as impulsive as he had originally led Adrian Malcolm to believe. While the Rocket Beast begins to release his Unown, Mars looks at him, watching Symbol Pokémon after Symbol Pokémon appear into the cavern. It’s always a wonder to see them gather, even when these aren’t his.
[break][break]
”Adrian. If by any chance the assassins appear, they don’t have a lot of places where to hide in this cave. I’ll have one of my pokémon use DETECT when we get started, but you need to know that IMPRISON won’t work on their teleportation abilities… Assume the same for similar moves.”
[break][break]
That is, of course, assuming his ability and that of the assassins are indeed the same. He had tested it a few times, and so far he hadn’t found a way to counter or stop his own TELEPORTATION.
[break][break]
”That being said… Let me show you something.” At this point, despite the seriousness with which he had just spoken, Mars smirks, his attention turning towards the Unown-! that had already approached Adrian’s own gathering swarm of Symbol Pokémon. As if it were one of them. As if all Unown were one and the same.
[break][break]
”Call the others,” is what Mars tells Unown named after Anistar City, and although at first it seems as if nothing is happening, one by one, his own Unown begin to appear. All twenty-one of them.
[break][break]
The sight of all the Symbol Pokémon together makes the Rocket Admin smile, taking a moment to watch them before once again turning towards his companion.
[break][break]
[break]
”I had thought that Unown might be able to communicate with each other through distances, and we know they have their way of moving through space-time. Figured they might be able to call each other… Cool, right?”
[break][break]
Out of all people in the world, Adrian may just be the only other person who would consider something like that to be ‘cool’, Unown being somewhat of a shared passion that had brought them both together.
[break][break]
Also, it sure beats having to bring out over twenty pokéballs.



[break][break]

[attr="class","adrianwtw"]"Cool." Maybe even dangerous.[break][break]

As the tools of those who seek to dispatch him and those like Adrian, he cannot help feeling distrustful of these beings. Even as their borderline inert, emotionless bodies levitated around them in oscillating patterns. Even just as they were, he found them highly unusual at best.[break][break]

"Have you ever considered whether they can see through their eyes? Usually they have empty stares, but when they fix their sights on me, I can't help wondering..." It wasn't often he gathered them up, for fear they might be wielded against him. Whether the Unown Assassins controlled Unown, or simply used them, wasn't entirely clear. He had always erred on the side of caution.[break][break]

There are so many swirling eyes all around them, and by happenstance you could see words forming where their meshing together became almost rhythmic. Their gaze was elsewhere for now, mostly, staring a thousand yards into the distance and yet seeing nothing of this world.[break][break]

"There's a lot of things we'd benefit knowing, but I doubt these things know how to give answers." Communicating with them on a meaningful level was difficult. And perhaps Martin's inkling has some truth to it; that they were more like a hive mind, a collective intelligence, and their only way to offer such mundane beings complex thought was through their symbology. Savants without mouths, playing charades with apes.[break][break]

Such a cruelty was mostly the invention of his cynicism, though it wasn't impossible for this thought to have some merit. "You should try asking them something."[break][break]

"Your connection's not wholly unlike mine, at least in practicality, right?" Martin had some strange connection to the Unown not unlike his affiliation with Yveltal, and thusly Adrian was beginning to wonder if bringing all of their collective Unown together was to see what answers they could weave in tha tapestry of their union, and not just a blind forray into a recent Unown Report.[break][break]

[attr="class","textwtw"]

[break]
They are like stars. Like celestial beings looking down upon them from above. Ever the onlookers, eternal observers, but rarely ones to intervene in the affairs of men. Although, that’s not exactly true, is it? They do intervene, just not in the ways some would wish. Create a barrier, open a door, lead somebody back to their world…
[break][break]
Are Unown beings of order after all?
[break][break]
”You think they are also connected to our Unown?” In all of his theorising, Mars had sometimes considered it too. What if being encouraged to gather Unown is a trap? What if those behind the report can control all Unown? What if their own pokémon are turned against them one day? What is their purpose? What is the goal? There has to be a reason why those behind the report want them to gather Unown.
[break][break]
When Adrian mentions Mars’ own connection to the Unown, the admin glances at him, because even this is something of which he is unsure. Is his connection just to the Unown Report or to all Unown? Is the affinity he feels with the Symbol Pokémon something real or something he has convinced himself of? In another world, there was a version of him who shared a true bond with the same Unown-! that is now his companion, does Mars himself have a bond like that too?
[break][break]
”There’s only one way to know.” He gives a smile, fainter than before, and those amber eyes of his turn to look at the Unown. His gaze follows their movement, and with a deep breath, Mars reaches within and tries to capture that feeling he had captured before: back at Mossdeep’s Star Soirée, when he had asked them to guide him to safety, back within the Tree of Life, when he had commanded them to create a portal to Sootopolis, back in the world Cresselia had saved, when he had had the Unown bring him and luka chêne back home.
[break][break]
If he asks for something that isn’t as concrete as that, will they answer?
[break][break]
”Unown. It is said that you can change reality, so right now, as times collide and the boundaries between worlds are thin, I request this of you: what do you know of the Unown Report? Show us what they want. Why is Meteor Falls so important?”
[break][break]
Why Meteor Falls?
[break][break]
If it were just his Unown, Mars would command as he has done before, but being that over half of them are Symbol Pokémon he’s unfamiliar with, a request seems more fitting. Will they collaborate with him? Will they answer?
[break][break]
A place chosen by the Unown Report, during a space-time distortion, feels like the best instance to achieve this, but all they can do is watch and wait.
[break][break]
And, as they do, as Mars watches the way the forty-nine Unown begin to use their power, every single entry in the Unown Report floods his mind, overtaking his thoughts.




[break][break]

[attr="class","adrianwtw"]"A bit wordy, but just as well—"[break][break]

As much as Adrian would have enjoyed digging into Mars over it a while longer, the Unown began to shift. Or rather, they continued doing so, but the significance lied in the ping of a notification. If either of them bothered to check, they would see eleven new entries, but Mars would realize that much sooner than Adrian could even think to reach for his phone. After mulling over the discovery, they would still have fewer answers than new questions to ask.[break][break]

But it at least validated the merits of investigating further.[break][break]

"Did any of those locations stick out to you...?"[break][break]

There were connections between these places, though maybe not in the way they could see themselves, but something had made the Unown share this information then and there, all in one shot. The question was why...[break][break]

Adrian drew up a pictogram to help highlight the locations entered into the Unown Report just moments prior.[break][break]





Adrian could think of a number of things himself: A fair few of these points of interest were involved in various stages of the Ultra Space phenomenon that swept over Hoenn the previous few years. Space-time distortions were also beginning to appear by at least a handful of these areas.[break][break]

But nothing seemed to encapsulate the entire list, at least in his eyes, earning a soft scowl as he scoured his memory in vain. Perhaps there was a bigger picture behind it.[break][break]

One that even Shinigami Eyes wouldn't be able to see.[break]

[attr="class","textwtw"]

”Shh.” Is all Mars says in response to Adrian’s complaints, his golden gaze fixed on the Unown. What a sight they make. All of them together. All of them challenging these circumstances and everything that is logical and possible. Whatever he had expected the Unown to do, it had certainly not been what actually happens, but when it does, it seems obvious.
[break][break]
He feels the vibration of his phone, hears the notification, just as he hears that of Adrian’s own, but before he even finishes reaching for it, one by one, the entries appear in his mind – brought forth by his affinity with the Unown Report.

Sure enough, when Mars looks at the screen and opens the familiar app, there they are: eleven new entries, all of them Unown-!. How? All of their Unown had been scanned for the report already. Is this their answer to his question? Do the Unown actually have power over the report and its entries.
[break][break]
”Huh… Interesting.”
[break][break]
Adrian quickly gets to work on a pictogram, and Mars quietly watches him, carefully considering each and every location. They’re at Meteor Falls right now. Meteor Falls was already an entry in the report. What do these mean?
[break][break]
”The falls were added as an entry again… Do the desert ruins mean the ruins of Regirock’s temple?” Mars had visited them earlier in the year with priam conrad and angelo vestri. All too well he remembers the prophecy spoken by Azelf to the former. Do the Unown agree that there’s a need for the Regis? It’s no more than speculation. After all, they had just pointed out almost every city in Hoenn.
[break][break]
”...Space-Time Distortions have appeared at most of these places, but the same could be said about most of the region. Sootopolis has the Tree of Life, obviously.”
[break][break]
Truly, there could be a logical reason for just about every location there. One too many events come to mind.




[break][break]