It was unsurprising Shalin had few people to turn to, and this place was not somewhere she would expect even a friend to aid her. Even the exterior was dangerous; the terrain was nasty, and there were highly territorial dragon-type Pokémon in the area. That, of course, wouldn't stop one of the first friends she had made in Hoenn, Isaac Merlo . He was a resourceful little one, as demonstrated by his ability to survive on his own for a week, completely isolated from the rest of the world. Sure, he had Shalin and ollie morales to aid him, but conditions were still rough.

The clanging of a Dhelmise's ANCHOR SHOT heralded the young lad's entrance. It was just as dramatic as the girl's typical buzzing fare. Queen Zing bobbed toward the cave's dragon's-head shaped entrance, giving Isaac plenty of room to climb to the peak said entrance loomed near. Once he was safely up, she had her giant bee land and removed her earplugs. "You're a brave one to answer my call, Isaac," Shalin greeted him with a smile. "A... a lot's happened since we last saw each other. That was...what, basically the entire time the barrier's been up?"

"Just that there was one of those Space-Time Distortions up here," she replied. "It's where my Stantler evolved, though she's not here today. Had to bring much of my A-Team for this one." The girl dismounted and withdrew her Beedrill, replacing her with a majestic-looking Alolan Ninetales that, while it didn't exactly tower over her, was quite a bit taller than her trainer. Her saddle and reins were a cotton candy pink to augment the Fairy-type's ice blue. Seconds after she mounted up, "That was Queen Zing, and this is--" Her introduction was interrupted by her mount suddenly rearing after hearing a loud but distant dragon roar. "Letheia, easy girl!" The rider took a couple of deep breaths after the ice-type was on all fours again. "Anyway, this is Letheia."

With that taken care of, Shalin and her Ninetales led the way. The dimly lit, winding tunnel gave way to a buried, obviously manmade structure with a royal purple color scheme: the same as the Blackthorn Dragon Clan and many other dragon clans throughout the country. The entrance chamber was surprisingly well-lit and imposing, a line of nearly life-sized statues of fierce Dragon-type Pokémon, including Salamence, Garchomp, Druddigon, and Hydreigon giving more timid adventurers a reason to leave. "Wow, these are...something else," Shalin gasped, taking photos of all of them on her phone before continuing on.

The nest chamber, light gray in color scheme, reminded her of the entrance to the Halls of Origin, where she got a lot of her information about her current quest from. When she stood atop a dais taking up much of the center of the room, an image of the legendary Pokémon Rayquaza engraved beneath its surface, ancient script hung in front of her in an effulgent glow:

"You who reach, but cannot grasp,
In failure ever to wander.
Be well prepared for what is to come,
The writings heed.
To your skills and partners be true,
Ere among the Three you choose."

Shalin read the text aloud. "What in the world does this mean?" She stepped off the platform and scanned the rest of the room. On its west, north, and east sides were three sealed doors with altars next to them, each with the relief of a different dragon's head carved into them. To the west, that of a Garchomp; to the north, that of a Hydreigon; to the east, that of a Dragapult. As she approached each, similar-looking words, also in the ancient script, floated in front of each door.

To the west: "Here, make of your STEEL an offering. Honed SHARP in days before Man's dawn, surrender it. Only then the path to tread."

To the north: "Here, make of your WISDOM an offering. ACCORDED Man by His betters, surrender it. Only then the path to tread."

To the east: "Here, make of your KNOWLEDGE an offering. GLEANED for gleaning's sake, surrender it. Only then the path to tread."

The green-haired girl dismounted to get a closer look at the altars. Without thinking about it, she rest both her hands on the northmost one. A large crystal at rest in a hollow on the top of the door frame glowed a pink color and began floating toward the center of the dais. The grey color scheme gave way to a bright purple one, Letheia letting out an unearthly screech as the latent Ice and Fairy mist surrounding her ceased.

"You okay, Letheia?" Shalin asked as the sealed door receded into the wall, the dragon symbols on the other two doors glowing chrome and yellow, respectively. The ancient script near the north door rearranged itself into a short message:

"WISDOM avails you not."

Shalin creeped back into a hesitant Letheia's saddle. "Isaac, I'm...not feeling the greatest right now," she slowly admitted. "What does any of this mean?"

A field of oppressive Dragon Energy envelops the party! Pokémon cannot use Special Attacks!

It seemed Isaac was just as clueless as Shalin was. "Obviously this place was dedicated to the worship of dragon Pokémon. Maybe this was the place the Sky Dragon Rayquaza made its home thousands of years ago?" the rider shrugged. She was grasping at straws. Where was the emerald serpent, anyway? The deity of the sky could easily smash the meteoroid to bits. It wasn't just in the mortal denizens' best interest to smash the meteoroid to pieces; the legendary Pokémon would likely have a hard time surviving without Hoenn, too. "We won't figure out anything by standing around, though. Let's go."

Shalin and Letheia led the way north, immediately met with the stare of two Drakloak, each circling around its own thick pillar near the center of the room. As their gazes met the girl, then Isaac, each dragon's ghostly eyes flickered twice, as though it was going to loose a DRAGON PULSE toward each of the intruders. It was no more than that: a flicker. "Letheia, DAZZLING GLEAM!"

Shalin shielded her eyes as Letheia reared to expose as much of her bright fur as possible toward the circling dragon Pokémon. There was no discharge of light. Their targets' eyes flickered again as they circled the pillar, again looking like a DRAGON PULSE was going to come out of them. "What in the world is going on here?" Shalin asked Isaac, perplexed. "We'll have to figure this out later. This is giving me the creeps."

The explorer guided her Ninetales eastward, emerging in a room of similar size and décor, this one with just a single pillar and Drakloak circling it. The circling dragon's eyes passed over the two, with the same result as in the previous room. "I'm...very confused," Shalin shrugged. If Fairy-type moves weren't working, then what about other types. "Letheia, try your ICE BEAM!" The Ninetales opened her mouth, though no mist foamed from it. The result was no more than a loud, forceful exhale. "Now I'm even more confused." She wouldn't have much time to ponder it, though; four Gabite burrowed holes in the room's soft earth in the southeast corner, charging at them with SLASHing claws brandished!

Before Shalin could issue another command, the two Gabite attacking her and Letheia were already on top of her, raking across her and her Ninetales with their sharp fins and claws. The Ninetales did her best to shield her rider from harm, but one managed to land a strong hit on her. She would have been bleeding profusely if it weren't for the BLUE VEST she wore. Her find from the Mirage Palace had saved her life numerous times there, and proved invaluable here. Had she come here with no such armor... she didn't want to think about it. Isaac's command he gave his Dhelmise made Shalin realize his quick-witted partner was right on the money. She repeated the ancient text's phrase, "WISDOM avails you not." San's POWER WHIP lashed toward one Gabite, not only greatly injuring it, but sending it flying into the other that was chasing Isaac.

"That's it!" While Letheia preferred to fight at a distance, Shalin did have one great tactic for the Ninetales to use at short range. "Letheia, use your AQUA TAIL!" As the two Gabite sharply about-faced, preparing to SLASH across their skin again, so did the Ninetales. The girl held on for dear life as her ride swerved repeatedly, socking both of the Gabite chasing her with volleys of nine Water-type slams, one after another. Seeing they were outmatched, the four dragons retreated, the phantoms in the air harmlessly trying to tag them with more ranged attacks suppressed by the ALTAR OF WISDOM.

With the duo now out of danger, and the south and east doors shuttered with dragon-head-shaped emblems that glowed a pulsating yellow, the only way to head was north. As soon as both of them were inside, earthen slabs rose to cover the south, west, and east entrances to the empty-looking hall. The north door was under lock and key. With no key, there would be no passage.

Passage north would be the least of their worries. The Pokémon and explorers trapped inside, their assailant would be not a Pokémon, but the room itself. One of the room's royal purple floor tiles rose from the ground near the room's center, started spinning rapidly, and went flying toward Letheia with the force of a DRAGON RUSH attack. After one nearly struck Shalin in the side and another harmlessly bounced off her Alolan Ninetales, she had her mount retreat to one of the room's corners and ducked as close to the Ice-type as she could, using her as cover.

The DRAGON RUSHing tiles weren't ignoring Isaac and any Pokémon he may have had out either. While the speed the tiles flew at them at didn't increase, the time between launches grew shorter as the onslaught went on. They also had to contend with shrapnel from impacts with the walls, as well. A few pieces of the thirty-one tiles nicked Shalin's legs, but Letheia was able to keep her for the most part safe.

[player]https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/713972277909389405/1044300456794529812/secret_sound.mp3[/player]

Once the trap had run its course, a white, dragon-head-shaped hole in the tiled floor standing where the it once was, all three doors opened. "You okay?!" Shalin cried, letting out a hiss from the small pieces of stone that had crashed into her legs at fairly high speeds. "No wonder they're telling people to stay out of here!" She stopped to let Letheia catch her breath, too. Though fairy energy trumped dragon energy, she still had to expend quite a bit of it to deflect that many Dragon-type attacks. "I think you figured it out! None of our energy attacks will work while the place is purple like this. That's what 'WISDOM avails you not' means. It's referring to energy attacks. This...this changes our whole approach to everything." Her eyes shifted between the two entrances. "Got a direction in mind?"

While Shalin used her Pokémon's evasiveness as her shield, Isaac's was Sanford, the Dhelmise's remote POWER WHIP slicing the dragon-energy-fueled trap in half. She chuckled at the upbeat young man's humor, making fake pop culture references. While she wasn't much into fictional media, what with her being in locations with questionable cell signal frequently, she did appreciate the effort to lighten the mood.

"Right," Shalin added, reminded of the three altars in the front. If the ALTAR OF WISDOM changed the rules so drastically, and there were two others, they would have to go through this sort of trial and error twice more. Little wonder Rangers forbade rescues from this cave; the ideal Pokémon team depended entirely on which of the three were active, and fiddling with them in the wrong order could easily trap someone within!

Following Isaac's lead to take the west door, it did not take long for Shalin to notice a trap door that blended in with the chamber's floor. There were several ornate etchings of dragon-type Pokémon on the walls of the otherwise empty room. It was becoming more and more clear that this now-underground temple was constructed in reverence of dragon Pokémon. One of the etchings was not of a dragon Pokémon, but of the temple's floor plan. Excited, the explorer took out her phone, switched it to local mode (after all, she wasn't getting any signal down here), and snapped a photo.

You got the DUNGEON MAP! The dark rooms are the ones you haven't been to yet.

"Tari!" Shalin called on her Scolipede wearing riding gear, just like all the rest of her Pokémon. "See if you can pry this open!" Even with Shalin pointing it out, it took Tari a bit of trial and error to find its center, where the poison-type's horn could find purchase. Using her MEGAHORN like a lever, she forced one half of it open, making the other half trivial to flip the other half over.

Shalin withdrew Tari and her mount, then descended the staircase the trap door was hiding. Now on foot, she had found her way into the mountain's dark interior. Before her was a narrow and long, bridge-like rock span that disappeared into the darkness after a few feet. Feeling dizzy, she immediately sent her Pyroar out and mounted up, resting her chin against the base of the fire-type's red mane. Even with the added light of her mane, she was unable to see more than a foot or two in front of her. It was almost unnaturally dark past the start of the bridge and chasm beneath, as though light itself was being suppressed in the mountain's depths.

"Ugh, what a pain," Shalin grumbled, what with being unable to see her mount's feet. "If only Letheia could use her DAZZLING GLEAM here, then we'd be able to see. As is, I'm not comfortable flying blind." Passage would not be simple; she could also hear a pulsing hissing sound. Unbeknownst to her, it was the sound of balls of DRAGON BREATH being suppressed by the ALTAR OF WISDOM. Unless Isaac had a better idea, the brightly-dressed girl felt obligated to turn back.

Isaac's thoughts were right; even from Kiara's saddle, the young, short man was no more than a silhouette to Shalin's sight. She, too, was forced to yield to Isaac's hulking Electivire. The FIRE PUNCH yielded roughly the same result as the Pyroar's mane, though over a wider area. It illuminated most of the near platform they were on, but not much beyond the chasm. There was a faint indication that the path across was not a straight shot, either, making the notoriously difficult-to-control FLARE BLITZ a risky idea, as well.. "Neither do I," Shalin added. "We'll have to keep this in mind and come back later."

Turning back and ascending, she switched rides back to Letheia, her Alolan Ninetales. It was the Pokémon she felt safest astride, given the myriad of dragon Pokémon present. Those securities would be shattered when she led the way east. As she crossed a bridge spanning a deep pool of water, a duo of Dragalge surfaced without warning, slashing at Shalin and Letheia with their POISON TAILs. So much for being defensive! Both of them recoiled; while Shalin's BLUE VEST was able to keep her safe from the venom, the tail's impact threatened to forcefully dismount her and send her flying into the drink. Letheia was not so fortunate; the envenomed tail sliced through the fairy fox's skin. That wound was festering, too.

"Letheia!!" Shalin cried, recalling her Pokémon and landing on her feet in the space it once was. She fled as fast as her feet would carry her, past the intersecting bridges and into a winding tunnel that led to a hidden cliff that would have been nearly impossible to see from outside due to a rocky outcropping obscuring it. Nestled in the corner was a lone Haban tree. While it wasn't quite ready for a full harvest yet, there were four HABAN BERRIES waiting to be picked. "This is a really nice find, Isaac," Shalin said, offering to share the small harvest evenly. "These will be really helpful here. Do you know what these are?"

While they were picking the Berries, Shalin noticed the area was hidden enough that she felt comfortable bringing out Starr to do some patchwork on Letheia. "Starr, make a WISH for Letheia's well-being!" the shiny Espeon's trainer commanded. Closing her eyes and raising her forked tail, she silently made a prophetic wish. The poison was purged from the arctic fox's body. While it didn't completely close her wounds, the psychic power drew the pain out of them. Natural healing would take care of the rest. "At least she'll be okay. Wild dragon Pokémon can be so scary!"

When Shalin saw Isaac was about to chow down on the Berries, he tried to stop him. "Wait! I think these are more valuable for our Pokémon to have. They help Pokémon defend themselves from Dragon-type attacks. Sounds super useful if you ask me. One thing I learned quickly from living in the wild is how to recognize Berries of all kinds. And you can't find a more useful one than this around here."

You got four HABAN BERRIES! When held by a Pokémon, the next Dragon-type attack it is struck with will have its effectiveness reduced by half. Gone after one use.

Shalin gave one to Kiara before switching again from Letheia to Kiara, the Pyroar now healed up as a result of Starr's WISH. Before the two were about to take off, Isaac pointed out an isolated section of the southwest corner of the map they had not been to. "We can't get there yet." She pointed out the flashing, yellow dragon heads covering door icons on her map application. "We need to figure out how to open these doors eventually. So far I'm unsure how to. But we can head north from there," she pointed to the Dragalge room the two had just cleared out.

North of the Dragalge pond was another door sealed by a yellow rune in the shape of a dragon's head. In front of the door was an ornate circle carved into the stone beneath the explorers' feet, almost like a ritual circle of some kind. Within the circle was a carving depicting herbs, liquid medicine, and various kinds of Berries. "Same thing as by the entrance," she pointed at the large, bright force keeping the two from heading further north. She and Kiara led the way eastward, focusing on evading claw swipes from smaller Dragon-types before ducking into another dark tunnel.

"Thankfully, Kiara can brighten this one up for us," she noted aloud, light from the Pyroar's mane behaving as one would expect. While it wasn't a big circle of light, it would be enough for the duo to see a swarm of Woobat and Swoobat flying through the surprisingly wide tunnel. While most of their attacks were blocked by the Shark's Maw itself suppressing energy attacks, it did not suppress one: the deceptively powerful SIMPLE BEAM. There were enough of them that it would be inevitable all of the explorers' Pokémon would be affected if they continued onward.

All Pokémon that pass through the tunnel, including ones in Poké Balls, will be hit by SIMPLE BEAM and have their Abilities changed to SIMPLE for the duration of the next encounter.

Provided the two were willing to keep going, the tunnel would lead them to a secluded corner of the Shark's Maw, the muffled cry of a large dragon Pokémon coming from the east. "Whatever is through there, it's loud, probably big, and probably scary. Brace yourself, Isaac..." She prepared for battle by sending out Tari, her Scolipede, and giving the bug-type one of the HABAN BERRIES she had picked. She kept the Pyroar out purely to remain mobile. After all, the Pokémon inside were not afraid to ignore trainers' Pokémon and attack them directly. She was also far less tough than Isaac was. She had to protect herself, one way or another!