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Chapter 117: Caitlin's Participation, Ancient Ruins!
🕑 Added 2025-09-13 12:31:18 +0000 UTC"So Cynthia, does this mean you're finally agreeing to let me come with you this time?"
"Maxim... doesn't know about this, right?"
At Cynthia's inquiry, Caitlin placed her finger in front of her lips in a "shh" gesture.
"Of course he doesn't know! If he found out, do you think I'd be able to get out of there? Come on, Cynthia-sis, you're not going to snitch on me, are you?"
Faced with the girl's playful pleading, Cynthia could only nod helplessly in the end: "Alright, then I'm counting on you this time."
Her tone grew more serious: "Caitlin, my gut tells me something might happen this time, so once we get to the ruins, we need to stay sharp."
Caitlin stretched carelessly.
"Huh, it's rare to see you like this, Cynthia-sis. With both Champions going, what could we possibly run into that we can't handle?"
"By the way, do you have coordinates? If it's not too far, I could just teleport us both there and save you the trip."
At this suggestion, Cynthia shook her head, as if recalling some unpleasant memory.
Once, she had to handle an emergency mission and begged Caitlin to use her psychic powers to teleport her to the target location. But for someone without psychic abilities, even with Cynthia's fairly decent physical condition by normal standards, she spent a full half hour after landing recovering from nausea and headaches.
Since then, she understood that psychic teleportation wasn't something just anyone could handle. Only for psychic-type users could their bodies easily accept that sudden burst of intense psychic energy.
For ordinary people, it was better to stick with traveling by Pokémon or other transportation methods.
With this in mind, Cynthia shook her head and declined: "No thanks, I'll go myself. Garchomp's flying speed isn't slow either, and I still have some things to pack. Let's meet at the Hoenn research facility."
"Okay, okay, then I'll head out first. See you later, Cynthia-sis."
Caitlin looked somewhat disappointed and blinked.
As soon as she finished speaking, powerful pink light waves erupted from her body again, and the next moment she vanished right before Cynthia's eyes.
Cynthia watched the pink particles lingering in the air and the psychic energy that hadn't yet dissipated, lost in thought.
Psychic-type users like her always enjoyed so many conveniences in every aspect of life. She wondered if someday she too might gain a special ability like Caitlin's...
Also... if she remembered correctly, in "Pokémon Emerald," there didn't seem to be any characters with special abilities yet...
If such characters existed, wouldn't that mean players could also possess and master such abilities in the game?
Although it would just be an experience, it would probably be quite fascinating.
Thinking this, Cynthia shook her head.
Forget it, better focus on packing and preparing for the upcoming archaeological expedition.
Exploring ruins was no small matter—there was quite a lot to prepare.
Besides that, she needed to brief her Pokémon team first, informing them of their upcoming mission and objectives. All of this would take time.
With this thought, she got up and headed toward the door.
...
Twenty minutes later, in the villa's backyard.
Cynthia had finished organizing her expedition gear. She tied her golden hair into her signature ponytail and gently ran her fingers across the map spread on the table—one she had just printed out, containing the preliminary exploration report of the newly discovered ancient ruins in the Hoenn region, surveyed by the archaeological research facility using drones and electronic signals.
As expected, these ancient ruins were like the previous ones, containing extremely strong energy magnetic field signals inside. They could only scan the surface layers without exploring the interior. From this blueprint, they could barely determine that the ruins were at least over a thousand square kilometers in size.
This scale was already among the largest of all the ruins she had explored in her lifetime...
Cynthia's hand traced over the blueprint before her, and movement nearby caught her attention. She turned to see a massive figure that had somehow appeared beside her.
"Garchomp, what do you think... will we discover this time?"
Garchomp let out a low roar, its sharp eyes seeming to sparkle with anticipation.
"Powerful Pokémon? That's certainly possible, but not very likely."
Cynthia smiled and returned her gaze to the blueprint, studying it carefully.
This was crucial intelligence. She needed to use these images to assess basic information about the ruins—things like overall layout and elevation—to facilitate their upcoming actions.
"Roar, roar."
Garchomp didn't continue with that topic, but instead produced a small box from somewhere and pulled out a silver necklace with its mouth.
At the end of the necklace was a golden orb pendant with strange markings on its surface.
"This is... where did you find this?" Cynthia took the necklace, and the stone orb felt slightly warm in her palm before quickly cooling, as if it were just her imagination.
She didn't remember ever buying such an accessory.
"Roar."
Garchomp let out another low roar and gently nudged her hand with its snout.
"The study... alright."
Cynthia smiled and casually put the necklace around her neck.
"It's actually quite nice... I'll treat it as a good luck charm."
With that, she patted Garchomp's back fin.
"Caitlin should be there already. Let's go."
...
Half an hour later, when Garchomp's figure landed at a temporary camp in the northwestern outskirts of the Hoenn region, Caitlin was floating in the air with a book in her hands.
When she sensed Cynthia's presence, she immediately looked up, and the floating book in front of her automatically closed and flew back into her hands.
"You're seven minutes late, Cynthia-sis."
Caitlin slowly descended, her pink hair flowing without any wind. She wore a black expedition suit suitable for movement, yet still maintained her aristocratic elegance.
Unlike her behavior when meeting with Cynthia privately, this was how she typically presented herself to outsiders.
Cynthia was naturally used to this by now.
"Sorry, I packed some extra stuff." Cynthia pointed to the bulging backpack behind her. "Where's the archaeological team?"
"They're all waiting for you, the expert." Caitlin shrugged.
As soon as she finished speaking, a surprised female voice rang out behind her.
"Lady Cynthia! You're finally here!"
The newcomer was naturally Sayaka, who had contacted Cynthia on the phone earlier.
Her gaze fell on Cynthia, sparkling with admiration and reverence.
"The ruins are three kilometers ahead of us. We've been conducting further signal exploration on them."
"Alright, good. Take us in."
Just then, Sayaka suddenly noticed the person beside Cynthia, and after a brief moment of shock, immediately bowed respectfully to her.
"Lady Caitlin... how did you come here too?"
"What? Am I not welcome?"
Caitlin glanced at her, and the girl quickly waved her hands and shook her head: "No, no, no, not at all. I'm just a bit surprised."
Cynthia stepped forward to smooth things over.
"Miss Caitlin is here to help me. Her psychic abilities might be quite useful in exploring the ruins. Alright, let's go."
The three walked side by side toward the tent in the center of the camp, with Garchomp following behind, vigilantly observing their surroundings.
Inside the tent, a middle-aged man with graying whiskers and a full beard was operating a device on the table. Countless models made of light and icons materialized directly, rotating and adjusting direction freely in his hands.
This was Maxim, the scientific archaeological team leader for this operation, displaying a three-dimensional model of the ruins entrance.
The model was quite detailed and clear—even small stones in various locations were visible.
Upon seeing Cynthia's arrival, his face immediately lit up with a smile as he approached, pointing to the model behind him.
"Miss Cynthia, your timing is perfect. We've just finished our initial contact detection."
When he noticed Caitlin beside Cynthia, he was obviously taken aback, his expression becoming somewhat awkward for a moment, but he quickly recovered.
"Lady Caitlin... you're here too. Welcome, welcome."
This team leader was, after all, an older man with naturally better improvisational skills than Sayaka had shown earlier.
Caitlin glanced at him and nodded without saying anything.
The man then moved to the model and gestured toward the visible area.
"For safety reasons, we've only sent drones to explore the outer areas so far. The internal passages are sealed by some kind of energy field—perhaps more powerful force is needed to break through."
Caitlin snorted lightly: "Why beat around the bush? If you need my help, just say so."
"Exactly." Maxim forced a stiff smile. "We'll have to trouble you with exploring the terrain of the ruins later."
Honestly, he hadn't expected Cynthia to bring Miss Caitlin along this time.
As the world's youngest Champion and a psychic-type powerhouse, her notoriously difficult temperament made her one of the hardest people to deal with.
But he had to admit that when exploring such massive, sprawling ruins, her powerful psychic abilities were an irreplaceable asset that could help them solve many problems and difficulties.
It's just that being in such close proximity with her naturally made him feel tremendous pressure.
He wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and continued speaking to Cynthia:
"Miss Cynthia, according to preliminary detection, the depths of the ruins may contain numerous clues about ancient civilizations, and even... artifacts from that era might appear."
"As for the treasure mentioned in the deciphered content of the parchment scroll, I remain skeptical. After thousands of years, whether they even exist is questionable. But even so, what I just mentioned already makes this adventure worthwhile."
Standing in the camp, Cynthia nodded slightly.
"How many people did we prepare for this time?"
"The higher-ups take this operation very seriously and arranged for 20 Gym Leader-level trainers as escort personnel. We also have 10 research experts with considerable reputation in the archaeological field coming with us. Additionally, we've prepared sonar scanners, high-definition trace recorders, and numerous other instruments to take into the ruins."
At this point, the man rubbed his hands together.
"But most importantly, of course, is your participation, Miss Cynthia. If you don't mind, you could take full command of this operation."
This time Cynthia didn't speak, only nodding slightly to indicate her position.
The next moment, she walked out of the tent and looked toward the ruins in the distance, her fingers unconsciously touching the pendant at her chest.
For some reason... that inexplicable premonition seemed to be growing stronger...
...
Two hours later, the group stood before a steep rock wall. What appeared to be an ordinary stone surface was carved with weathered runes, with a circular depression about two meters in diameter at the center.
"This is it." Maxim signaled the technicians to start the equipment. "We need to use sonic resonance to open..."
Caitlin raised her hand to interrupt him: "No need for such complications." She snapped her fingers, and the entire space suddenly twisted. Cynthia felt dizzy and disoriented, and when her vision cleared, they were standing in a deep, dark corridor.
"The position's a bit off." Caitlin frowned as she looked around. "We should have gone directly to the main passage."
The archaeological team members turned pale, with two already leaning against the wall retching.
This was exactly why Cynthia had refused Caitlin's teleportation earlier. When she first experienced this kind of transport, her condition wasn't much better than theirs—Caitlin had to help her handle that mission first.
But at this moment, Cynthia looked at Caitlin thoughtfully—if they encountered danger, setting aside these side effects, this spatial jumping ability would indeed be the best means of escape.
However, just as she was pondering this, Garchomp suddenly blocked Cynthia's path and let out a warning growl. The sound of mechanisms turning echoed from deep within the corridor, followed immediately by a row of stone spikes bursting from the ground, charging straight at the group.
Clearly, the traps set within the ruins had sensed their arrival and activated!
"Garchomp, Stone Edge!"
Cynthia reacted quickly, giving the command immediately.
Garchomp swept its claws, and countless massive rocks instantly fell from above, smashing all the stone spikes to dust.
"It's hard to imagine that after thousands of years, these mechanisms can still function normally."
"Everyone be careful from now on. I'll lead the way."
Amid the flying debris, Cynthia stepped forward and waved to the group, signaling everyone to stay behind her.
However, at that moment, she noticed some subtle changes in Caitlin's expression.
The next moment, a voice that only she could hear suddenly rang in Cynthia's ear—it was Caitlin's psychic telepathy.
"My psychic powers... are being suppressed." Caitlin's voice carried a rare note of uneasiness. "There's some kind of force in these ruins interfering with me..."
