"Alright. What's the closest one first, then? We can go there and then wander around a bit." Aleron shrugged. It made sense to her.

"Mount Pyre, I suppose," Birch replied, thinking. "Mount Pyre and the Cave of Origin are usually mentioned together in a lot of legends."

"Alright. We can work with that." Aleron grinned briefly. "You want us to come back here and let you know what we find, if we find anything?" Because being friendly with the Professors was never a bad idea in any region.

"That would be fantastic," Birch replied, grinning cheerfully.

"Alright. We'll see you in a few days then." Aleron grinned and headed out.

"So. Mount Pyre or Cave of Origin first?" She looked over at Margaret.

"Mount Pyre," Margaret replied. "According to the map in the lab, it's at least connected to land, and it's closer than the Cave of Origin." She grinned a bit. "That one is inside a town that's in a water-filled caldera in the middle of the ocean."

"...Seriously?!" Now Aleron knew the world was messing with her. She just knew it. "So not freaking fair..." Grumbling to herself, she started walking. "Please tell me Mount Pyre is like a volcano or something."

"Just a mountain, according to the map," Margaret replied. "A mountain turned into a pokemon cemetery." She shuddered slightly. It would likely be teeming with dark- and ghost-types.

"Oh." Aleron blinked. "Well, we're pretty well protected now. Vulpix and Jolteon can keep most everything away from us while we're there."

"We should be alright," Margaret agreed, nodding. "The only pure on my team is Espeon, the others are all dual-types."

"I'm sure we'll be fine. We've got more protection than half the trainers I've seen so far around here, and that's not counting the obvious new kids." Aleron shrugged. She wasn't overly worried, but then again she didn't have the affinity to psychic types, either.

"Seriously," Margaret agreed. She and Aleron could both be considered skilled trainers, and neither of them were any stranger to coming up against unfamiliar pokemon. They would be alright.

Still relaxed, Aleron was quiet for most of the walk, although she did stop once they could see Mount Pyre.

"Well. I guess this is the place."

Margaret looked up at the gate to the mountain and shuddered slightly.

"Yeah, I think so too," she said. The place gave off weird vibes, kind of like Pokemon Tower in Lavender Town.

"Well. Shall we?" Aleron started forward, doing her best to ignore the weird feeling. She could deal with this. It was just pokemon, after all, and she was sure her team could handle anything.

Well. Anything except a pissed-off Legendary, but still.

"May as well," Margaret replied, starting forward as well. The sooner they finished up on the mountain, the better. It gave her the creeps.

Aleron kept heading up the mountain, deftly avoiding the graves. She could only see a few ghost pokemon out and about, but she figured that number would increase exponentially once dark fell.

But it didn't take her long to notice the shrine up at the top of the mountain, and she nudged Margaret. "Hey. Maybe that will be helpful."

Margaret glanced up and saw the shrine. It almost seemed to be glowing, somehow.

"I think you're right," she said.

Aleron hurried up the rest of the hike to the shrine and then stopped outside. It almost looked like it was glowing, which was odd, but she didn't quite want to go in yet.

Margaret, on the other hand, was a bit more used to such things as glowing shines, having dealt with one before in Ecruteak City. Cautiously, she opened the door. Inside, on a cushioned altar, a trio of glowing orbs sat. Red, blue, and green all shimmered with their own light, occasionally lighting up brightly before dimming again.

"Which legends mentioned orbs?" she asked Aleron quietly. "Do you remember?"

"Umm... Groudon, Kyogre, and Rayquaza, I think," Aleron said quietly, inching forward to get a better look.

"Red, green, and blue," Margaret murmured as she go closer. "So they're the right colors. And they seem active, I guess... I don't know what's normal and what's not, but--" she shaded her eyes as the green one flashed particularly bright, "--that seems active to me."

"Yeah, I'd call that active," Aleron muttered. The red orb started flashing brighter and faster too. "Um, what do we do now?"

"I'm not sure," Margaret replied. "I read a legend where someone took these to the Cave of Origin." She looked at Aleron. "Maybe we should try that?"

"Oh crap that means we have to get in the water." Aleron made a face, but she reached over and hesitantly picked up the red one. When nothing happened she shrugged. "Off to the Cave of Origin it is, I guess."