The big reason Shalin had sent out not one, but two Pokémon, is she was also waiting for her partner for the dive to show up. The waters around Sootopolis were deep and unpredictable. She was so engrossed in trying to get to the bottom of Spectacle Rock's location that she almost missed the young man waving at her. "Oh, there you are," Shalin tilted her head to greet Sasha, the explorer's green, fine hair easily blown about by the sea breeze.

"Great to see you in person! Name's Shalin," the lithe female introduced herself, leaving her tacky title off because she had shared that when they had discussed the trip previously. "You came prepared for an underwater journey, right?" she asked, wanting to make sure; otherwise, things might get a bit awkward; Levy would need to carry the two of them, and maintaining a bubble of pressurized air for them both would be quite strenuous for the Milotic. Plus he was a little smaller than the average Milotic, making carrying two people more difficult than with most of his kind.

After finding a seafloor map, it did not take Shalin long to figure out the mystery. "Bingo." Shalin switched back to her satellite map, made a copy of the image, and highlighted the part corresponding to where this Spectacle Rock in Sootopolis was located. "No wonder it took me so long to find it." She showed Sasha the image, including where they would be headed.

While Spectacle Rock was located inside the volcanic ring, meaning it was in Team Rocket-controlled waters, it was not far from the border. "It's cause you can't see it unless you're underwater. We'll need to take a couple of water Pokémon underwater to get there without being noticed." She covered her mouth in embarrassment. "Oh! I forgot your name - I'm so sorry! Can you tell me again, please?"

Shalin kept her face covered. Was it possible she had the wrong Sasha? "Nariya Expeditions doesn't sound familiar?" The explorer was starting to get confused. If this wasn't the same Sasha that contracted her, then who was this one? Wait a minute, she was touring the area? Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all.

"Touring the areas, you say?" Shalin asked. "Well do I have a destination for you - Spectacle Rock under Sootopolis! Hoenn's undersea wonders are almost as vast and numerous as the ones above ground, and both of my Pokémon are great at it!" Artea clapped her fins in excitement of having a partner to make the dive with. "Maybe it was fate that brought us together. I was supposed to meet another person named Sasha here, but they should have been here over an hour ago, and I've not received a word of communication from them. Feel up to a dive to see Hoenn's hidden, undersea secrets?" she asked. If the young man agreed to accompany her, she would offer him a spot on her Milotic. "We won't have to worry about breathing underwater with Levy's help! He's my Milotic."

"Oh, never!" Shalin smiled. The only reason she would hurt another person on the trip would be in self-defense. It could well happen, given they would he heading to the belly of Team Rocket's stronghold, even if only briefly. When Sasha expressed concerns about not having many Pokémon not the skills to help out, she reassured him, "That's okay! Just a second set of eyes will be extremely helpful. Hop right on my Milotic - she'll keep us safe down there!" Both Pokémon splashed in the shallows, Levy exposing her breathtaking, rainbow-colored tail for Sasha to see.

Provided he would agree to help out, the two would take off for the seas below, the Milotic surrounding his front half with a bubble of air so the two could breathe while under hundreds of feet of water. Seeing aquatic Pokémon in their natural habitat was breathtaking, along with coral and various plant life that made its home underneath the waves that normally kept it all from human eyesight. Even rare aquatic Pokémon, such as Relicanth, swam below them in the trenches leading to the Seafloor Cavern. That was a place Shalin would have to explore sometime.

But not now. Shalin had to confirm the location of the "Entrance to Death" that was spoken of inside the Braviary's Nest. She reined the Milotic back when she caught sight of two submarines patrolling the underwater entrance to Sootopolis City, the distinct color of the volcanic island's white crags reaching even underwater. She studied their patrol patterns before making her move, ducking slightly into the trench to evade their sights. It did not take her too much further effort to get inside Sootopolis Lake, where a few banners predominately featuring the black-and-red Rs marked the syndicate's territory. She kept one eye out for more submarines patrolling and another for her destination.

At last, she had found Spectacle Rock in Sootopolis. It was a pair of white spires marking the entrance to an underwater cave. There were no such banners nearby; while she doubted that was the case, she could hope. She guided her Milotic to the cave mouth, navigating its linear twists and turns before surfacing within Mount Sootopolis itself. "This is it." Her heart was racing. If this was spoken of as an "Entrance to Death", it had to be especially dangerous.

Surfacing in an undersea cave, the two had reached the temple-like Halls of Origin. The damp entrance hall was solid white, just like the rock surrounding the island. Twelve large, stone statues lined the large entryway, in six pairs that faced one another. Each pair was of diametrically opposed legendary Pokémon, such as Lugia and Ho-oh, the great gods of Johto. As Shalin dismounted, she would look around the entrance area, finding the eyes of the statues to somehow follow her. It was as though she was being watched. "Holy..." Shalin gasped, recalling her Milotic if Sasha were to dismount. "This is...to say the least, creepy," she slowly added, her heart rate shooting way up. Northward from the six statues was a stone slab mostly receded into the wall, serving as a door frame.

The brave girl took deft, deliberate steps through the door frame, two large, stone slabs blocking passage through door frames surrounding them. In the center of the room was a dais with a yellow, jagged shape resembling the Great Creator's power wheel when in its Normal Forme. Populating the dais' edges were eight pedestals reaching to roughly waist height, four of them at the points corresponding to the locations of the green gems on the energy wheel. The other four were in cardinal directions. Both the shuttered doors were etched with an inscription Shalin had to get a little closer to read:

"The Medallions of Eight?" The only medallion Shalin had in her possession was the Gale Medallion. Each of the eight pedestals had a hollows that perfectly matched the size of the medallion, plus a smaller hollows on one side to easily remove the object if need be. She inserted the green, round object into the hollows on the far south end, but nothing happened. "Are you getting the creeps too, Sasha? It's like some nagging feeling wants me to solve this mystery...but I also feel like we aren't meant to be here."

Still, her curiosity and that nagging feeling in her mind drove Shalin to continue. When she removed the Gale Medallion, she noticed something etched into the hollows beneath. It was faint, but it was definitely an inscription of the bust of a Pokémon...and one she didn't recognize, at that. She examined all eight hollows, and each one had a similar inscription, but of a different Pokémon. She recognized only half: Tornadus, Articuno, Rayquaza, and Entei. With bated breath, she pressed the Gale Medallion into the corresponding hollows. The entire pedestal began glowing with a faint, green light, the sound of a swirling wind echoing inside the room despite there being no wind to feel.

An image of the head of the Great Creator appeared on the dais Shalin stood on, superimposed over the yellow power wheel. Words in an ancient script floated in front of the door frames blocking their path, as well as on top of the hollows of each of the seven remaining pedestals. While the dialect was foreign to her, she was able to understand enough of the base language to get the gist of what it was saying. Shalin gestured toward Sasha before reading the message aloud.

"Ye who seek the forbidden secrets of Hoenn past, locked in these Halls of Origin: show thine power, thine wisdom, and thine courage locked behind the Medallions of Eight. Only then will these ancient Halls open to thee." She paused. "That's what it says. Something tells me we might be getting in over our heads."

She began circling the dais to read the smaller messages.

"One atop a remote peak, passed down by avian-blessed warriors..."

"One in the depths of a wetland snake's belly..."

"One buried in an arctic prison..."

"One in an ancient pharaoh's tomb..."

"One in a mystic palace erected in defiance of reality..."

"One beyond the jaws of a dragon of stone..."

"One in the shadow of the grandest tombstone..."

"One in the hottest, fiercest depths of Hoenn's red earth..."

That was a lot of journeying she was going to have to do. She nearly got herself seriously hurt fighting that wild Alpha Mega Pidgeot, a creature that by all rights should never exist, at the peak of the Braviary's Nest. That was what the "remote peak" had to refer to. She also recognized the "jaws of a dragon of stone" from being caught in the Meteor Falls Spacetime DIstortion. But the others...they were a mystery to her. "Any idea what any of these are referring to, Sasha?" Shalin asked. He probably had no clue, but on the off chance he was a geography buff, he might have an idea.

It seemed Sasha was at least as clueless as Shalin was. Given the apparent age of the Halls of Origin, it made sense that the references to the Medallions' locations would be based more off topography of Hoenn's landscape rather than municipal or county lines. "This is going to require a lot of geographical research, some of which may need to be original," she sighed. If the Halls had stayed sealed for so long, the lengths that had to be gone to for opening them made sense to be so great. There was also the growing sense that the explorer's presence was growing increasingly unwelcome. The silence was just too eerie.

After the girl had retrieved the Gale Medallion, she took ample photographs of the largely grayscale environment, including the inscriptions for her future reference. She turned back toward the south entrance, her eyes shifting among the legendary Pokémon statues. "I don't think there's much else that can be done here. Not until I bring all the Medallions back. And if the Braviary's Nest taught me anything, each is going to be dangerous to retrieve in its own unique way." She sighed again in disappointment. "Sasha, it looks like we're going to have to cut this trip short, sadly."