Aleron nodded and Jolteon vanished. She walked out of the pokemon center and started around to the back of the tower so they wouldn't be seen ascending. She glanced back at Margaret. "Pick a place."

Margaret walked with Aleron to the tower. Both her Espeon and Metang were back in their pokeballs, so Margaret wouldn't have to worry about getting seperated from them. She looked up at the top of the tower once they got around the back.

"The top couple floors looked like they were open," she said. "I guess anywhere back here where we won't be seen would be good."

Aleron nodded and recalled Vulpix before letting out Pidgeot. The pokemon looked at her for a moment, tilting his head to the side.

"Yeah, I know, I'm not your normal trainer. But can you get me up there? Top level would be great."

Pidgeot nodded after a moment, grabbing her and taking her up to the top level, which was mostly open.

Margaret released her Noctowl, who promptly nuzzled her neck with her head.

"It's good to see you too, sweetie," she said, stroking the bird's feathers. "Listen, sweetling, I just need you to get me up to the top of the tower, alright? Just follow the Pidgeot." Her Noctowl nodded and grabbed her by her backpack, pulling her up to the top level.

Aleron patted the Pidgeot's shoulder. "Thanks, Pidgeot. You can stay out for a while if you'd like."

Pidgeot nodded and settled down next to her, looking around and ruffling his feathers a little. Aleron started to look around.

Margaret ran her fingers through Noctowl's feathers once she was set down on the floor.

"Thanks, sweetling," she said affectionately. "You can stay out, but stay alert, alright?"

Moving carefully, she followed Aleron.

Aleron started looking around the tower, frowning. She could see a few shards of wood around, but nothing really looked upset. "Maybe we should go farther down..."

Margaret glanced over the edge of the rafters, to the floor below. The next floor down was just as dusty as the one they were on, and she squinted into the gloom to see if there was anything there.

"Hey, I think I see something," she said. She tugged Aleron over and pointed. In the dust down on the floor were a set of massive pawprints.

Aleron blinked, and her eyes widened. "Pawprints?" she asked, her voice faint. "Seriously? Pawprints?" She paused for a moment. "Those are huge."

"They look pretty fresh, too," Margaret whispered back. The prints looked smudged in a lot of places, as if whatever had made them was running around, or pacing quickly back and forth. "What could have made them?"

"Well, there's Suicune, Raikou, and Entei. Suicune is the smallest and fastest, Raikou and Entei are both big. They're fast too, but one of them could have made it." Aleron shrugged.

"So it could be either one," Margaret replied. She looked down at the floor and hesitated. It wasn't that far of a drop, and she could easily have Metang give her a lift down, but she wasn't sure what she would find down there.

Before Aleron could think better of what she was doing, she jumped down to the next level. She landed solidly on the floor and looked back up at Margaret.

"Seems safe enough. Come on down."

"This is crazy..."

Before she could second-guess the decision, Margaret jumped down next to Aleron, waving away some of the dust that her landing had kicked up."

Aleron grinned at her. "See, not so bad. Now, come on. Let's take a look around." She started walking around, investigating the footprints.

Margaret glanced back up to the other floor and saw the two bird pokemon watching them through the hole that the girls had jumped through. She rolled her eyes, and then followed Aleron.

Aleron jumped down to the next level and found more pawprints, some fairly small and others the same huge footprints from up above. "Two of them?"

Margaret followed her to the next level and saw the different sets of pawprints.

"Three, I think," she said. "Look." She pointed to a place where the two sets of prints intersected with a third. The third set were larger than the second, but still distinctly smaller than the first.

Aleron paled. "All three," she said quietly. "At the same time."

"That's like getting the Zapdos, Moltres, and Articuno together all at once," Margaret said. "They nearly destroyed the entire region, once, except some sort of foreign pokemon showed up and broke up the fight."

"Lugia, I think," Aleron said, frowning. "I've heard of that too. Except the world doesn't seem to be falling apart, and the only thing we know is that they're upset."

"Well, maybe the world isn't falling apart yet," Margaret replied. "I mean, do they have a history of fighting each other? The Bird Trio does. If these three don't, then something else must be up."

"No, they don't. I've never heard of them fighting each other." Aleron frowned.

"Then something else must be happening," Margaret replied. She glanced around when she heard an odd scratching sound from outside. "Do you hear that?"

"Yeah. What is that?" Frowning, Aleron moved over to the wall to try to hear it better, maybe identify the noise.