Chapter 12

"He found it."

As soon as he heard these words, Silver and Alioth who looked a bit worn from the use of Malevolent Darkness, both turned to look at the small steel-type pokemon sitting lazily beside the legs of his brother.

The pokemon in question simply nodded towards one of the walls before giving a cute screech.

Steven glanced at Silver before looking at the group and Silver nodded in understanding.

Silver turned towards Ash and said, "Stay away and keep an eye on them, will you? We found something we have been looking for a while for the league, and these are team rocket-members don't let them go."

Ash glanced towards Brock who nodded before looking at Silver and nodding with a smile, "Of course!"

Steven, meanwhile, pressed a button on his pokedex, which released a white giant that Silver was very familiar with. As soon as the false legendary came out, he looked towards Steven, his eyes glowing in the familiar blue light he used for communicating with his brother.

Metagross then turned towards the wall they thought where the stone was hidden. The blue glow in his eyes changed to a pink one and chunks of stone slowly started getting pulled apart by what Nathan recognized to be the move Psychic.

It took Metagross around twenty seconds to pull out all the stones, opening a path into what Silver imagined had been a mausoleum in the past when the Steelix had been buried in the granite cave.

As the last stone was removed, an expansive hall opened up before them, with a majestic staircase leading to an altar at the far end. Metagross confidently entered the grand hall, Steven closely following.

Silver hesitated before following his brother along with Alioth.

As they walked up the stairs, Silver could see Alioth looking agitated. So he asked, "Are we in any danger, Alioth?"

Alioth shook his head before nodding towards Metagross and giving a "Reon….." as if saying,'Not until that monster is here.'

Silver nodded with a wry smile, not many things could endanger them when they were with Metagross.

As they walked higher and higher, Silver started feeling worried since they were probably moving towards the highest point within the cave system.

'Makes sense that the strongest steel type in the vicinity is buried there protects his nest from being flooded with seawater,'- The Granite Cave was very close to the ocean and it would not surprise Silver if it had been flooded when the water level rose before. It was about three to five more minutes of climbing that they came upon what looked like the highest level of the cave system. There was an altar upon which the corpse of a pokemon that Silver knew as Steelix was lying.

The pokemon must have been a behemoth of it species when it had been alive. The steel coat of the dead pokemon as one would expect, was completely rusted and falling apart. The silver body looked completely reddish-brown.

Silver heard Steven say as his brother looked at the corpse with an unusually grim look, "This is a problem."

The words confused so he asked what his brother meant by that and Steven said, "The corpse is centuries old and it hasn't decomposed completely. Why do you think that is Silver?"

Silver frowned before he looked at the giant corpse again, and realised what his brother meant. The corpse was in too good a condition for being so old.

Steel-type pokemon did not decay like a human and more often than not were feasted upon by other steel-type pokemon to get easy metal to feed upon. And the cave was full of the Aron line, then how was the corpse in such a pristine condition?

Alioth suddenly growled towards the ceiling of the cave and Silver got the answer to his question.

Perched at the pinnacle of the ceiling, a sinister Sebleye lurked, its eyes resembling perfectly cut diamonds, glinting with a malevolent gleam. Emanating an eerie aura, tendrils of mysterious miasma oozed from the gaps between its menacing teeth, adding an otherworldly allure to its terrifying presence. With an unnerving focus, the ghostly Pokémon fixated on them, exuding an unmistakable aura of malice that sent shivers down their spines.

The pokemon opened its maw and a rasping laugh that sent chills through Silver's back left its mouth.

"Dark Ball," Silver commanded, and Alioth was about to send one at the Sebleye, when a crackling beam of Rock type-energy rushed towards the Sebleye.

'Meteor Beam,' An attack that Metagross used often. The attack was very precise and Silver expected it to connect against the Sebleye and vaporise it but instead, one of the pokemon's eye-gems was torn from where they were lodged and rushed towards the meteor beam and was impacted by it.

The explosion from the collision power gem and meteor beam created a shockwave that nearly knocked both Silver and Steven but it was held off by Metagross using Psychic.

"It is a very old ghost, heck it is probably as strong as the ace of many gym leader's teams."- This statement from Steven made Silver frown, the ace of Ace-level Trainers were very strong. Heck, even after five years of training as an Eevee and Umbreon, Alioth is still considered a high-level intermediate ace pokemon only. While Silver would be a high-level rookie trainer at best.

Steven nodded to himself before saying, "The Sableye had the Steelixite attached to its chest. Clear the dust, and knock the Sableye out."

The glow of pink light lit up in the pseudo's eyes again, as the dust was suddenly blown away.

"Dark types are really troublesome to deal with even for Metagross, despite his hammer arm." - Steven nodded at Silver's comment his focus still on the battle, the only pokemon type that could hide from a psychic's senses was a pokemon that could use dark-type energy.

Steven clicked his tongue and said, "Well, looks like I was right."

"About what?" His questions were answered when the corpse of the Steelix suddenly pulled itself off the ground. Its red eyes were coloured in an eerie purple as it looked towards Metagross, before giving a challenging roar in their direction.

Silver winced at the noise even as the Pokemon rushed towards Metagross who still stood there waiting for Steven's new orders.

"Hammer arm. Possessing a corpse? Foolish ghost gave up its intangibility in exchange for more power."- Silver grinned as Metagross practically teleported with his speed and hit the pokemon in the face. The resulting shockwave from the hit was strong enough to make both Steven and himself lean forward to avoid getting blasted away.

Steven glanced at Silver before saying, "Ask Alioth to use a mean look. The Sableye has the mega-stone, we can't let it get away."

Silver nodded at Alioth whose eyes glowed in a purple glow as he looked at the Steelix corpse showing the use of the move. Silver then added, "Shield up, will you? My bones feel like they have been through the grinder."

A green shield lit up around them even as another hammer arm went off on the Steelix's body, cracking its armour. Steven's eyes glowed blue showing that he was communicating with Metagross.

Silver looked at the fight and could see the Steelbleye gaining a focused look even as Metagross prepared another hammer arm to hit him with. As soon as the fighting move landed, Steelix opened its maw with a very malicious and mocking look in its eyes as what looked like a spear-tip-shaped ruby erupted from its mouth and rushed towards Metagross.

Metagross's eyes glowed pink again and the power gem was halted in the air in a fraction of a second after its release by Metagross's psychic. Silver could feel the pressure of the psychic-type energy even as Metagross pushed the ruby back into the Steelix's mouth before he flew back at a rapid pace coming, to rest in front of Steven even, as the power gem went off inside the mouth of the Steelbleye blowing its own head off.

'That power gem was at least four-five times stronger than the previous one.'- Corpse possession was a tactic used by ghost pokemon. It was not common by any means, due to the trade-off that the ghost in question suffered. A ghost's greatest advantage against normal and fighting types was the inability of said pokemon to land an attack against something that could become intangible with a thought. Possessing a corpse took away said advantage and any damage dealt to the corpse would also damage the ghost, though the damage would in no way exorcise it.

Possessing Steelix had allowed the Sableye to make use of the pokemon's incredible defenses and incredibly strong rock, steel and ground type attacks in exchange for giving up its tangibility and the possibility of getting weakened due to the corpse getting damaged.

"I want Alioth to get out the mega-stone, Metagross doesn't like to touch dark or ghost type pokemon."

"You know, we might just have desecrated the corpse of an ancestor of ours, seeing as the tribe's leader was from Rustboro."- The thought should have made Silver a bit disgusted, but he somehow found the idea hilarious.

His brother remained quiet as before, he moved towards the corpse.

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[AN: If you liked the chapter, then shower me with powerstones will you?

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