FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

"Oh, Ben! Summer! And you too, Pichu!" Nema greeted the three pokémon as they entered her family's home.

"Thanks for coming. I'm sorry to call you for something so strange," Leanne said. "If Rand were here, he might get angry..."

"Good thing Papa's out, huh Mom?"

"What's going on?" Ben wondered. "Why would Rand be upset?" Nema grinned excitedly.

"Don't get too surprised, but my mom received a love letter!" Ben and Summer looked at Leanne in shock.

"It's not a love letter!" she quickly explained in annoyance. "It's a fan letter."

"Either way, they're pretty much the same thing," Nema said dismissively, much to her mother's chagrin. Summer chuckled softly as Leanne shook her head.

"Ugh, it's not a love letter, okay? Read it for yourselves. It's in that drawer over there." Nema walked to the drawer and retrieved the letter from it. She then handed it over to the Eon pokémon. Pichu jumped onto Ben's back to look at the letter.

"'Oh, my admired Leanne,'" Ben read out loud, "'I remember when I first met you as if it were yesterday.'" They snickered at the wording.

"See? It's a love letter, right?" Nema asked. Leanne urged the latios to continue reading.

"'At that time, I couldn't do anything to help you, and I was so ashamed that I couldn't meet your gaze.'"

"Sounds like a shy, if still nice, young man, huh?"

"We don't need the commentary!" Leanne stated in annoyance. Summer took the letter and continued reading it. Pichu jumped onto her back this time.

"'I heard you are an archaeologist,'" Summer read. "'I wanted to meet you again and have an actual conversation, so I started studying archaeology from the ground up.'"

"The problem starts just past that point," Leanne pointed out.

"'When I did, I found it to be very interesting. I actually started visiting ruins by myself... Then I made a huge discovery! Leanne! I definitely want to get your opinion. I'll be waiting in our Oblivia Ruins, where we first met... I will go in the same outfit that I was wearing then!'"

"Mom says she doesn't remember that person at all," Nema said as she recovered the letter. "It's totally unrequited love on his part."

"Nema! Would you just knock it off!" Leanne demanded, more annoyed by her daughter's teasing. She merely snickered. "I'm interested in the big discovery he wrote about in the letter... but that place..."

"That's the Oblivia Ruins where we were taken when we were kidnapped by the pinchers," Nema reminded them sadly. "Just thinking about that place is scary." Both Eon pokémon nodded as they recalled the event.

"I still have nightmares about the place," Leanne admitted with a shudder. "I suppose, as an archaeologist, that's a little embarrassing."

"Could you three be my mom's bodyguards and chaperone her date with the 'letter boy'?" Nema requested, getting her excitement back.

"This is an investigation, not a date!" Leanne insisted.

"Okay, okay. Will you go with her on her investigation?" The pichu, latias, and latios nodded immediately and saluted.

"You can count on us!"

"Thank you! Let's leave immediately!" Leanne said, relieved.

"With bodyguards like these, Mom doesn't have anything to worry about." Nema beamed at the thought of her friends guarding her mother fiercely.

---

Leanne held onto Summer tightly as they neared the Oblivia Ruins. Once Summer descended to the ground, she dismounted her and looked at the ancient building.

"Coming back here is bringing back the fear from before..." she lamented with a shudder, "but I'm an archaeologist. I must overcome my fear from that incident, and I can't go back now."

"We'll keep you safe," the latias assured her.

"Without a doubt," Ben added. Leanne petted both Eon pokémon and Pichu on the head and smiled.

"Thanks again. I wonder where the person who sent the letter is... They must be in the... mural room..." The archaeologist took a deep breath made her way into said room, accompanied by the latias, latios, and pichu floating after her. Once she entered, she walked to the northeast mural and brushed a hand over it.

"Anything?" Ben asked her a minute later.

"I didn't notice it before," she explained, "but some ancient script is faintly..." She trailed off as she continued to examined the murals, eventually pausing in front of one of them.

"What is it?" Summer wondered.

"Something important is written out mysteriously. It will be hard to decipher it immediately, but it's very intriguing," Leanne replied. Pichu suddenly cried out in curiosity, and she blinked. "Oh my, I'm sorry. I completely forgot I was going to meet someone." The room suddenly dimmed for half of a second, and everyone tensed. The pokémon headed to her side, ready to defend her if need be. "What's going on... It's getting darker and darker..." The room darkened completely before regaining its light. A swirling mass of purple clouds appeared in the middle of the room, getting everyone's attention.

"What's happening?" Summer questioned. Something shadowy came out of the clouds and landed on the ground, shaking the structure with its tremendous weight. The shadows covering the figure disappeared, revealing the being to be Giratina. It roared at the four.

"Look out!" Leanne shouted, retreating to the wall. Ben and Summer drew their Stylers and encircled the Renegade pokémon with their capture discs. Giratina shot two Shadow Balls at them, but made no other aggressive moves.

"This seems strange," Ben said as the second Shadow Ball simply sailed past him. "Giratina doesn't seem too keen on attacking us. I wonder why..."

"Perhaps it isn't trying to hurt us," Summer suggested. Both rangers withdrew their capture discs as they completed the capture, though they were unsure of Giratina's intentions. Suddenly the massive ghost dragon roared at them, pushing them away a small distance from the force.

"What's going on? Your feelings of friendship didn't get through to it," Leanne said. "Staying here is dangerous. Let's get out of here!" With that, she and the three pokémon headed out of the room, leaving Giratina behind. Surprisingly, it made no attempt to pursue them.

"Something's off," Ben muttered. "It wasn't even trying to hurt us."

"That was close. Are you three okay?"

"We're fine," Ben replied. "There's not a scratch on us. Why didn't the capture work?"

"A capture not working... What in the world was that pokémon?" the archaeologist wondered.

"Apparently, that was the legendary pokémon Giratina," Summer's Styler explained.

"Giratina?! Usually that pokémon lives in a different world, so why did it come to the Oblivia Ruins? Compared with the pictures of Giratina I've seen in history books, the shape looked somehow different..."

"Maybe it's another Forme," Summer posited. "I heard it takes on a different form in our world."

"Perhaps the big discovery mentioned in the letter has something to do with Giratina. I know it's dangerous, but let's thoroughly investigate the ruins. Ben, Summer, and Pichu, please be my bodyguards a little longer, okay?"

"No threat will make it to you on our watch!" they declared. They exited the room, arriving outside. They then went down the stairs, arriving in a water-filled room with transparent floors. On the other side, they saw what appeared to be a steelhead.

"Hey, I recognize that Pichu! And those other two pokémon! Why are they here?!" the pokémon heard him mutter frantically. "They couldn't be here to arrest me, could they? Oh, man! I wasn't expecting this! I won't let them get me!" He ran through the other exit as quick as his armor would allow him.

"Hmm... there are still pinchers that haven't taken off their armor. That's kind of scary... but I'm more worried about the guy who wrote the letter. We have to go forward..." Ben floated downward and nudged Leanne.

"I can fly you over there if you want," Ben offered. Leanne accepted and climbed onto the latios's back, arriving on the other side momentarily. Once they went into the hall with the steelhead busts, Leanne asked them to stop. She got off of Ben and examined the busts.

"The steelhead icons! There are... five altogether. They are very old. Let me look at them for a moment." Two minutes after examining them, she stopped.

"What's up?" Summer asked her.

"It's just as I thought. These icons form some kind of device," Leanne explained. "Another thing that interests me is... Only this icon," she pointed to the middle bust, "is missing pieces of its armor. If there are pieces of armor somewhere that we can use in place of the missing parts, the device might move..."

"Maybe that steelhead might be willing to part with the armor he's wearing," the latias suggested as they moved through the corridor. "After all, there's no reason for him to keep wearing it, is there?"

"It is if that's all he has," Ben joked. Everyone chuckled at the absurd scenario. In the next room, they saw the same steelhead from before.

"Hey, steelhead!" Leanne called. The man jumped at the sound of her voice.

"I'm not doing bad things anymore!" he shouted, clearly scared out of his mind at the sight of the Eon pokémon. "And despite that, you brought those weird-looking pokémon along somehow!" He ran upward and suddenly cried out in surprise. No further sounds were heard from him.

"He just said something a little interesting," Leanne noted. "I have an idea as to who that might be."

"What?" Summer wondered. Suddenly they heard him screaming in the distance.

"Let's follow that steelhead! Carefully, though. He was probably abducted by those claydol patrolling the place." Ben and Summer used their invisibility to distract the claydol and clear Leanne and Pichu's path, regrouping at the other exit. Once they reached the room below, they searched every other room until finally arriving in the southeastern room. The steelhead looked at them worriedly as he sat on the floor.

"I finally found you," Leanne stated to the nervous steelhead.

"It's all over now," he resigned, shutting his eyes and tensing up. "Do your worst. But before you take me away... there's something I have to say to Leanne!" He opened his eyes, but still maintained a tense stance.

"So you know my name! You are the person who sent me that letter, then?"

"That's right," he confirmed. "I said I'd be waiting in the same outfit as when we met. But this is so mean, Leanne! Bringing those pokémon along, and..." Leanne stopped him.

"You're misunderstanding! These rangers and Pichu came along as my bodyguards. For me, these Oblivia Ruins are a scary place that brings back memories of being kidnapped. You should know that just as well as anybody."

"They're rangers?! W-well, um... I'm very, very sorry about back then," he said, ashamed while he dropped his guard. Leanne looked at him in shock.

"Could you be... That steelhead who tried to stand up to Purple Eyes before?"

"...You remembered me! That's right! I'm that steelhead!" he admitted. "I felt so sorry for you at that time, but I was so afraid of my leader that I wasn't able to help."

"So that's what was going on," Ben said, startling the man. The steelhead quickly realized it had come from the latios and sighed in relief, glad to have earned their trust. All the same, he looked down in shame.

"I didn't think about your feelings, Leanne, and I wore the same armor from that awful time... I'm sorry. I'll strip this tin can off right now!"

"W-wait!"

"I'm wearing clothes underneath, so there's nothing to worry about!" Ben chuckled to himself, recalling the joke he made earlier. He tore off his armor and dropped it on the ground, revealing a standard pincher uniform as his clothing. "I'm not a pincher anymore, but these are the only decent clothes I have at this time."

"That's actually relieving. Now that we've been acquainted, what was the big discovery you wrote about?" Leanne asked him.

"Oh, right! Wasn't there some hard-to-read ancient script on the walls in the top part of the ruins?"

"Yes, but it would take an entire day to decipher them."

"Only one day?!" he questioned, amazed by the archaeologist's skill. "You're amazing, Leanne! It took me an entire week!"

"No way... You've managed to decipher that ancient script?"

"Yes! I was so absorbed in it, I forgot to eat!" he admitted. "Speaking of which, I'm hungry."

"That's really amazing. Would you mind telling me what was written there, then?" He stood up and took a deep breath.

"The ancient steelhead hid a certain item somewhere in this wide world," he explained. "It's called a Griseous Orb."

"Griseous Orb?" Summer wondered.

"That's right. The ancient steelhead summoned Giratina from another world in order to defeat the young hero who was trying to defend peace."

"Weird," Ben mentally said to his partner. "I don't recall Giratina ever appearing in the past. Maybe we just don't have that memory."

"Then," the man continued, "in order to keep it from leaving, they stole the Griseous Orb from it."

"In other words, Giratina has always been searching these Oblivia Ruins for the Griseous Orb?" Leanne posited.

"I don't think it's always been here. I'm sure it has been searching the whole world."

"Hmm... we encountered Giratina not too long ago."

Wow, really? I just heard a really loud screech... So that's what that was."

"Your ancestors did something really terrible," Leanne said, crossing her arms.

"Wait! They weren't any ancestors of mine!" the ex-pincher defended, holding his arms up. "The five steelhead who summoned Giratina and I are not connected in any way!"

"You were more than happy to wear that evil armor, so you can't say there isn't any connection at all..." she reminded him. "Take a hard look at what you've done." He looked down again, but she interrupted him before he could lament. "You just said... there were five ancient steelhead, right?"

"Yes, according to the ancient writing."

"I have a feeling I know where the Griseous Orb is hidden. You do as well, right guys?"

"It has to be in that corridor," Ben said.

"Perhaps we can use your armor to fill in the missing pieces of the steelhead icon." The ex-pincher looked up and smiled in admiration.

"That's Leanne for you! What a great idea! I'll carry the armor there immediately!" As he picked up the armor, Ben flew behind him and put him on his back, surprising everyone.

"It might be easier to just fly to the room," he suggested, amused by the ex-pincher's nearly falling off of him in shock.

---

"If we take these pieces of armor," Leanne explained as she moved the armor, "and put them in the missing pieces like so... The device should move, but..." A flash of light and the sound of a stone slab being moved confirmed her suspicions. "Bingo! Just as I thought."

"That's incredible, Leanne! I mean Professor Leanne!" the ex-pincher corrected. A golden-colored portal appeared before the party. She disappeared into the portal. The rangers and Pichu quickly chased after her, leaving the man behind.

"I can't believe there's space like this!" Leanne exclaimed upon arriving in a new room. "It's surprising."

"Where are we?" Summer wondered. Her Styler immediately sounded off at her question.

"Confirmed current coordinates," it announced. "Your location is currently north of the previous room."

"That means this must be a hidden room. Let's see if something is there in the next room." She and her bodyguards proceeded into the next room.

"This place reminds me of the Sky Fortress," Ben commented, looking at the designs. "Look! We can even see the sea!" Leanne, however, was intrigued by the large statue in front of them.

"Picking up a special energy signal from that icon," Ben's Styler alerted.

"I imagine the Griseous Orb is here," the archaeologist said, feeling around the statue. "We have to investigate..." Suddenly Pichu and the Eon pokémon sensed two magnezone approach them and readied their Stylers, quickly dealing with the invading pokémon while the professor worked. They turned to face Leanne upon hearing something slide out of place. Leanne now held an oddly shaped object.

"Oh, this is quite the gem! I'll bet this is the Griseous Orb!" Another portal appeared and they jumped into it, finding themselves in the armor corridor once more.

"Professor Leanne! Rangers! I was shocked when you suddenly disappeared!" the ex-pincher cried.

"Thanks to you, we obtained the Griseous Orb!" Leanne announced. She held the golden object in front of him as proof.

"B-because of me?"

"Well now, let's deliver the Griseous Orb to Giratina. I hope it's still in the same room."

---

They now stood before the room they last saw Giratina in. To their relief, it was still there.

"Giratina is likely very agitated from having to search for this," Leanne advised. "You might have to try capturing it again."

"Maybe we can reason with it once it has that orb," Summer wondered. They entered the room and noticed that the ghost dragon had not left the spot it was in since they ran out. Leanne slowly approached it, presenting the Griseous Orb as a peace offering. It gazed at her curiously, its anger interrupted by the gem.

"Giratina, can you hear me? It's okay now! The Griseous Orb you've been searching for is right here!" She placed the orb on the ground and backed away. Suddenly it disappeared, and the room grew dark once more. As the darkness disappeared, Giratina's entire body shape changed.

"Wow," Ben commented.

"Giratina has returned to its Origin Forme with the power of the Griseous Orb," Leanne said. "This is what it looked like in the history books. Unfortunately, it still seems to be enraged."

"It's understandable," Summer stated as they readied their Stylers. "Giratina was tricked and trapped here for years."

"We'll do our best," Ben reassured the archaeologist as she and her partner found some cover. Giratina roared and launched a barrage of Shadow Balls this time, some of them hitting the Eon pokémon and knocking them away. Ben was the first to recover from the super-effective damage and launched his charged capture disc. Summer retaliated by firing a Mist Ball at her foe, detonating it before it hit. Giratina stumbled back, slightly confused by the non-damaging attack. Summer flew around Giratina at high speed to hold the legendary in place within a vortex.

"Go for it, Ben!" Summer urged her counterpart. She flew to Leanne's side to keep her safe from any more attacks. Ben nodded and looped his capture disc around it while Pichu played his instrument. Giratina shot blue fireballs and Shadow Balls from its mouth in a bid to hit the latios, but the vortex severely reduced the chance of that happening. One of them, however, managed to barely hit Ben as he had finished his ninth loop. He was knocked away with a small burn mark on his left side, but he countered with a Luster Purge, temporarily blinding Giratina.

"Ben! Are you all right?" Leanne asked in concern.

"I'm fine," Ben replied. He winced as he rubbed the area. The Styler had absorbed most of the damage from the attack, to his relief, but could not do away with the burn inflicted upon him.

"I'll take over," Summer said. As they traded places, Summer shot another Mist Ball at Giratina, this time allowing it to hit her foe. Once it stumbled, she charged her capture disc and cloaked it in red energy before deploying it. After fifteen loops, she withdrew the disc, having completed the capture.

"Thanks, Summer," Ben said as he rested on the ground. Giratina looked at the two with curiosity before generating a purple portal and disappearing into it with the Griseous Orb. At that moment, the ex-pincher ran back into the room.

"Professor Leaaanne!" he cried, getting everyone's attention. "Are you okay?"

"Thank you," she replied. "I'm thanking you on behalf of Giratina."

"So that means Giratina took the Griseous Orb and went back to the world where it came from," he concluded. "That's great!"

"All of this is thanks to you and these rangers. It's definitely a Mission Clear!" Leanne congratulated. "Still... That means Giratina was searching all over this world for the Griseous Orb for more than a thousand years. Well now, former pincher. Do you know why Giratina, in its search for the Griseous Orb, reached these Oblivia Ruins? This is a test." She crossed her arms as she waited for his response.

"A... test? Well, the way I see it..." He pondered his answer for a few seconds. "When that fortress rose from here, it was just like when Giratina was summoned into this world, and that must have gave it some sort of hint."

"...You might just have what it takes to be an archaeologist," Leanne commended. "The Sky Fortress should never have been brought back into the world, but that was the only clue Giratina had about how to get back to its world."

"It's awfully tragic," Ben commented, wincing slightly from the burn. Everyone nodded in agreement.

"By the way, Professor Leanne. What was that test about?" the ex-pincher wondered.

"The test was to see if you would be good enough to be my assistant... and the result is... a passing grade, I suppose," she responded with a smile.

"M-me? Your assistant?"

"Thanks to you, I was able to overcome the fearful memories I had in this place. I'm grateful for that. Of course, this is only if you're interested..."

"I'm definitely interested!" he said excitedly. "I have interest to spare! Writing that love letter was so worth it! Uh, er, well..."

"Fan letter, of course!" Leanne supplied, chuckling to herself. "That's enough silly talk. Let's start investigating these ruins right away."

"Y-yes! Of course!"

"Ben, Summer, and Pichu, thanks for your help. Will you be all right, Ben?"

"Sure," the latios replied, lowering himself onto the ground. "I'll rest here and catch up later."

"I'll stay behind and help," the latias added. Leanne and the ex-pincher smiled at the sight of her using Heal Pulse on him before getting back to inspecting the ruins.