Sorry for the slightly late update everyone. I recently started my first semester in college, so updates are going to be even slower now than they were before. Don't worry, I haven't given up on this story or Shadow and Light!
New characters (it's starting to get crazy):
Riley Poole: National Treasure
Ben Gates: National Treasure
Indy: Based off of Indiana Jones. Think of Jones in the newest movie. That's more like Indy
House: Oh, please. If I need to tell you who this is...
And so...on with the show.
8.
Absolutely no light filtered in from the outside world, leaving the room with only artificial sources of light from the dozens of computer screens that flickered on the walls. Riley wondered if the design of the room meant that he was becoming a vampire, since he had now taken up residence in the room to work on his latest project with his younger cousin Max.
He leaned back in his desk chair, checking his cell phone for text messages. Only one flickered on the screen, asking him if he’d like to meet up at the local Starbucks to reminesce over old times. He shook his head. It had been years since his…adventures in New York and Washington. He now had a stable job and a project that could make him and Max rich.
A loud knock on the door jerked him out of his thoughts. He didn’t bother to yell before Max burst in, carrying two Starbucks coffees. Max and Riley looked more like brothers than cousins, with the same tussled dark brown hair and deep blue eyes. However, Max just graduated from the Sakuragoaka Academy in Ever Grande and worked part time for Professor Rowan in Sandgem.
“Dude, guess what?” Max said, plopping down on a chair next to Riley. “The Professor just called me. He’s been in Rome for like the past week or so, and he said he needs you and your computer system for Shadow Follower survellience.”
“At the Vatican? After all that happened, the Shadow Followers are still there?”
“Apparently they are.”
Riley paused, then picked up his cell phone. “What’s Professor Rowan’s cell number again?”
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“Riley Poole? What could we use him for?” Langdon asked.
“He’s built a computer program that can lock onto Shadow energy in the surrounding area, plus keep tabs on anyone we want to track. His cousin Max graduated with Katharine,” Rowan explained.
“They’re both geniuses,” Katharine added.
“Next are Detectives Zach Nichols and Serena Stevens of the Major Case Squad in New York…”
“Cops?” Langdon asked, raising an eyebrow.
“They work in the Shadow Follower Case Division,” Rowan explained. “They deal with homicides committed in human districts by Shadow Followers. They know the inner workings of the criminal’s minds. Unfortunately…their captain was recently killed on the job, so they’re dealing with some departemental issues and won’t be able to come right away.”
“Who’s next?” Langdon asked.
“Professor Indy Jones…of no relation to Cyrus….”
“I know him…I work with him at Harvard! He’s in the anthropology department!”
“Yes…anything we need to know about legendary Aquapolian artifacts and symbols…he’ll be able to tell us. As you know, Langdon, he’s spent a lot of time exploring the ruins and caverns in remote places of Aquapolis.”
“So remote he’s almost gone crazy,” Langdon muttered. Katharine found Professor Jones’ description interesting, like a sort of modern day Indiana Jones. She wondered if he was actually named after the famous archeologist…or the other way around. The names were too much alike for it to be a coincidence.
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Professor Indy Jones might have been able to speak five different languages from all corners of the globe, but he definitely stood out wherever he went. Not only was his personality eccentric, in that he would charge headfirst into certain danger or do odd things like wear boots to a department meeting and leave messages on his own answering machine in different languages, but his powers were eccentric as well. He was a normal-type, signaling one of the most diverse types of Aquapolians on the planet. Like their Pokemon counterparts, they could use various moves borrowed from other types to fight in their arsenal.
Usually, normal-types could control what types they could utilize at which moment, but Professor Jones was born with a slight defect that changed his type once every day to another random type. Every morning, he woke up as a different power, one day a fire-type, possibly a dark-type the next day. His eccentric personality allowed him to go with the flow, his exceptional brain allowed him to master every advantage of every typing so that he would never be caught off guard if he needed to defend himself.
This particular day, Indy, as his friends knew him, was sitting in a department meeting, patiently waiting for it to get over with. His phone vibrated in his pocket, and he nonchalantly picked it up, reading the text off of the screen. “Meet me in Vatican City. Strange symbol you need to see.”
“Professor Jones?” Indy’s head snapped up to see the head of the department staring at him. “Would you care to share with the class?”
Indy froze and looked around carefully. “Actually, I’ve got to be somewhere else right now…” With that, he bolted up and left the room.
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“We’re going to need a doctor…” Rowan muttered, looking at the list. “One healer is not going to be enough.” He looked up at the camerlengo, who looked away.
“Who do you have in mind?” Langdon asked.
“Bare with me here…I have a friend in New Jersey who is one of the best…”
“Oh, God…not him…”
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Unlike Riley’s office, Lisa Cuddy’s office was bright and sunny, though her mood at the moment was not. She glared up at the doctor in front of her, not believing what she was hearing. “You want a vacation? When do you take vacations?”
“I have been called recently to perform an act of service for my country…or mainly Aquapolis. I feel like I have to go…”
“Yeah…right…Aquapolis called on YOU to serve.” Cuddy sighed. “What about your patients?”
“I have no patients right now.”
“But you WILL, and then what?”
He hesitated. “Then we’ll refer them to someone else.” He looked at his watch. “Got to go. I have a flight to catch.” With that, he limped out of the room, leaving her exasperated.
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“It’s almost sacrilegious to have House here…” Langdon muttered.
“Well…you’re not going to like the last person on my list, either,” Rowan sighed.
Langdon looked up. “Who is it?”
Rowan took a deep breath. “Ben Gates.”
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Amongst the many tourists who visited the marble temple, Ben was the only one who knew the true history and wisdom behind the man whose memorial was so famous in America and throughout the world. He may have disagreed with some of the man’s policies throughout the years, but he had experienced the ingenuity behind the keys and secrets the man had employed to hide the nation’s brightest treasures.
Ben shifted to the right to allow a group of school kids to climb up the stairs and gaze in wonder at the huge president who sat yards above them, looking out at the Reflection Pool that lay between the marble temple and another memorial yards away. They were of high school age, he guessed, and they clumped together in pairs to explore the quotes on the walls at their own pace, most of them simply passing over the words to stare at the statue in the middle of the memorial.
Ben kept his eyes on one girl, bundled up in a fluffy brown leather coat and brown boots. The school group she was with talked in various levels of Southern accent, so he guessed they were from the Deep South, judging by the way they had put on heavy layers, not used to the chilly atmosphere of D.C. The girl had dirty blonde hair and grey-blue eyes and was of medium build, a little heavier than the slender girls that ran around her. She stood carefully studying the words as if taking in each deep meaning. She went from one quote to another, savoring every sentence.
A red-haired girl that stood an inch or two taller than her ran up to read what she was looking at, but only passed over the sentences with a glance. She spoke excitedly to the blonde girl, motioning to the frozen Reflection Pool outside. It seemed as if neither had seen a frozen body of water before. In fact, several boys out of their class had started throwing around ice chunks in front of the pool.
The girl nodded, then turned in Ben’s direction, glancing back at the presidential statue and nodding. Ben wondered what she thought of this particular president. Most kids in the South grew up in conservative Republican homes, but this girl seemed to look past party lines as she smiled at the statue and followed her red-haired friend past Ben, freezing for an instant as she seemed to recognize him.
“Sarah, Sarah,” She tugged at her friend’s shirt as her eyes widened. She was clearly looking at him now. Sarah turned around, and her green eyes grew just as big as her friend’s. “It’s Ben Gates,” the blonde girl whispered, digging in her pocket for something.
Before Ben could say a thing, both girls were standing before him, excited and shy as the blonde girl held out a piece of paper and a pen. “M…Mr. Gates, could you sign this copy of the Declaration of Independence for me?” He laughed, instantly realizing that she knew the full irony of the situation. These two girls were smart cookies.
“Of course, I will.” He took the pen and paper, glancing down at the Declaration of Independence and signing it on the front, turning over to the back, slightly chuckling to himself. Unlike the original Declaration, this copy had absolutely nothing on the back, in plain sight or hidden. “Who do I make this out to?”
“Katie!” The blonde girl squeaked as Sarah fished inside her own pocket for her copy of the Declaration for him to sign. After he signed both and gave them back to their owners, she spoke again. “My mom is an AP U.S. History teacher…and she’s your biggest fan. Thank you so much!” With that, Katie and Sarah said good-bye and scuttled off, wisely not telling any of their classmates that Ben was there, allowing him to duck into the shadows to take a phone call. He chuckled to himself about Katie’s mom being his biggest fan. She would be one of the only history teachers that liked him. Judging by her daughter’s actions, she was quite smart. The girls would have their time later to brag to their classmates, and Ben would be long gone.
He held his cell phone up to his ear, listening in for whoever was on the other line. “This is Ben,” he said. He never said hello anymore. He had broken out of that habit after he left the CIA. Or rather…been forced out of the CIA. He would rather tell people he left of his own will as relations went sour.
“Hey, Ben.” It was Riley, his longtime friend and partner in crime. “I just got a call from Professor Rowan about a new job in Rome. He’s asking for you to come along for your expertise in fighting Shadow Followers…”
“Woah, woah, woah. Rome? Shadow Followers? You don’t mean there’s been backlash from last week’s events, do you?” Ben couldn’t believe it. Most Aquapolians had caught wind that the group that had kidnapped six cardinals from the Vatican had been part of the Shadow Followers. Though Aquapolis was strongly warning most of its citizens to refrain from investigating these sightings in Rome, they were still encouraged to vacation in the city and visit its churches and landmarks.
“Believe it or not, we’ve had another Shadow sighting…but the Professor said that we’ll be working with some old friends, so it’s worth it, right?” Riley laughed. “Only thing is is that you’re going to have to say hello to your old roommate.”
Ben sighed. The last person in the world he could get along with was his roommate for four years at Harvard. Unfortunately, they had gone into fields of research that occurred in the same radius of study. Though they couldn’t get along half the time, he knew that deep down, they were still as close as they had been that first year at Harvard.
“I’ll be there in a few hours. Count me in.”
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Rowan’s cell phone rang loud and clear in the Basilica, startling the other three Aquapolians who were standing around the ashen star. Katharine glared at him, still shaken from the previous night’s experience and jumpy to any kind of loud noise. Rowan humorously glared back before answering the call. Katharine’s eyes dropped back to the star, trying to clear her mind of everything and think of the six powers, letting their names and auras calm her mind.
Land. Sea. Sky. Time. Space. Dimension. Groudon. Kyogre. Lugia. Dialga. Palkia. Giratina. She recited the twelve words over and over again, feeling calmer and in more control by the second. Rowan had taught her to use this trick during training to become calm and centered enough to use her powers efficiently and accurately. Now that she was cool and collected, she could focus on this new team Rowan was pulling together.
Langdon, on the other hand, was not calm at all. From the instant Rowan had said Gates’ name, he had tensed up, years of disapproval crashing down on him as he remembered his and Gates’ past. Millions of protests jumped to his mind in a second for why Gates should not even be allowed near the Vatican, but he refused to voice his mind until he was certain Gates had agreed to fly over to Rome.
He nervously watched as Rowan hung up his phone and nodded. “Riley says that Ben will be here later on. Everyone should be here in the next few hours, provided that they can make excuses to get out of work….”
“I heard Gates doesn’t work anymore,” Langdon scoffed. “He was recently fired from his last job. Figures, though, after everything he’s done in the past few years.” He looked over pointedly at the camerlengo. If he could convince the priest that Gates was no good, maybe the camerlengo would refuse for Gates to help fight these new Shadow Followers. “Let’s see…stolen the Declaration of Independence…kidnapped the President of the United States…and now…fired…burned by the CIA…”
The camerlengo was only half listening, lost in his train of thought. He snapped out of it just in time to hear Langdon’s complains about Gates. “Wait…what?” Langdon inwardly smiled. Now was his chance.
Unfortunately, Rowan was running interference on this particular day. “Now, now, Langdon. You know as well as I that those acts could have been committed by someone who would have destroyed the Declaration or assasainated the president. No need to get hysterical about it.” He rolled his eyes. Langdon sighed. His idea had been shot down.
“In the meantime…while we’re waiting for this team to arrive…maybe we should get them cleared by security?” Rowan suggested. Langdon smirked. Rowan glared at him. “And there is absolutely no way we’re not going to get Gates past security for this job, right Langdon?”
Langdon grumbled as he followed Rowan to the Swiss Guard’s office.
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Katharine sat on the Basilica floor, her eyes on the symbol, lost in thought. The camerlengo had been pacing around it for hours.
“Is this it?”
Katharine lifted her eyes to see a man about the camerlengo’s age with brown hair and blue eyes. He wore a plain black shirt and black pants over black boots.
“Yeah, this is it…” She muttered, not knowing who he was.
He stepped around her, examining the symbol from all angles. Finally, he came to a stop right beside the camerlengo, nodding at the star.
“I’m Dr. Cyrus Jones from Yale University. Rowan called me about the Shadow Follower problem…”
“Cyrus? It’s been a while!” Rowan called from across the Basilica. He shook hands with Jones before turning around to look at the symbol. “What do you think?”
Jones looked up as Langdon approached. “I think our resident symbologist already knows what this symbol is, though I thank you for pulling me out of my recent project…”
“Yeah, I heard about that,” Rowan said. “Every human walk out?” Jones nodded. “Don’t worry. The project will run more smoothly without the humans arguing every step of the way.”
“You need to get checked in with security,” Langdon said. “Follow me.”
Katharine stood up, watching Langdon and Jones walk away. She turned back to Rowan. “Are you sure he has fighting experience with Shadow Followers?”
Rowan nodded. “He’s one of the best, even if he keeps himself in a classroom all day.”
“Hey, hey, hey!”
A commotion from the other side of the room pulled Katharine’s attention away from the ashen star and toward a small group of Swiss Guards clustered together near the main entry. Several held hardrives and computer equipment in their arms, slinging them around as if they were merely crates. They were followed by a worried Aquapolian guy who was easily only six years older than Katharine. He had floppy brown hair and soft brown eyes and sported a small brown goatee on his chin.
“That’s thousands of dollars worth of equipment there!” He protested as they hefted his computer equipment away. “Hey, Professor! Can you help me out here?”
Rowan laughed. “It’s okay, he has clearance.” The Swiss Guards hesitated, then looked back at the Aquapolian.
“Where do I put my equipment, Professor?”
“Langdon will show you where, Riley,” he responded. Riley nodded, following Langdon out of the Basilica.
“Looks like everyone is showing up pretty quickly,” Katharine muttered.
“We know our way around transportation,” Jones said, appearing beside her and glancing at the star once again. “Everyone should be here within another hour or two.”
Just as he spoke the words, a man around Langdon’s age appeared in the hall, a satchel slung across his shoulder. He had brown hair and blue eyes and was dressed in a black shirt, brown coat, and blue jeans. He looked up at the ceiling with wonder, taking in everything.
“Long time, no see, Ben,” Jones said as the man approached the group, staring at the star on the floor for a few seconds before standing beside Katharine. The camerlengo looked at him with an interested expression, thinking about the things he had learned recently about Ben’s past.
“Yep…sorry I dropped off the grid there for a few years. I went to work for the most insane employer on the planet,” Ben muttered, tilting his head to look at the symbol more closely. “Is that butane?” He whistled. “Indy is going to have a breakdown when he sees that this marble was scarred in such a way.”
Katharine blushed, hoping that the camerlengo or Rowan wouldn’t give away the true cause of the symbol until everyone was there. She would be so embarrassed once everyone learned that she was the one who had set the butane on fire, and she wanted to get it completely overwith, stares and all, at one time. She hadn’t even introduced herself to any of the men who had shown up that day. They wouldn’t know who she was, anyway…
“Hey, you’re in Max’s class, aren’t you?”
Katharine nearly jumped backward when she heard Riley’s voice issue from just to her right. During her deep train of thought about Indy and the supposed breakdown he would have upon seeing the beautiful marble floor of the Basilica scarred, she had completely zoned out, even when Jones and Ben had walked away from both sides of her.
She nodded. “Yeah, we graduated together.”
He nodded. “He’s talked a lot about you. How you’re the best trainer in your class.”
She blushed. “Well…I just enjoy training and battling, that’s all.”
He laughed. “As do we all, but you’re better than most.”
“What happened here?!”
Katharine looked up to see a middle-aged man with silver hair staring at the symbol on the floor in horror. She gulped and stepped back, hoping no one would call her out in front of this man who was probably the Indy they were talking about.
Riley cleared his throat. “It was like this when I got here, I swear.”
Langdon appeared beside Indy and shook his head. “It’s a shame, isn’t it?” He looked up pointedly at Katharine, who glared at him.
Indy stood staring at the symbol for a few minutes until he heard a whistle echo from beside him. “That left quite a mark…” He turned to glare at the whistler, a man about his age with gray hair who leaned on a cane. “What? I’m just stating the obvious…”
“Are we all here?” Rowan appeared, obviously trying to calm down the storm that was threatening to brew between members in the group. Katharine’s heart lifted when she saw Eric standing behind him, backing up from the fight that was about to ensue.
“I believe so,” Langdon commented, ignoring Ben completely. Ben shrugged, falling into step behind the professor as they exited the Basilica.
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Everyone sat around a table inside a room in the archives, talking to each other and catching up after years of being apart. Eric and Katharine talked about upcoming tournaments, including the SoulSilver Conference.
Finally, Rowan stood up in the front of the room and cleared his throat. “Now that we’re all here, a few announcements…”
“Who died and made you leader?” The man with the cane shouted.
Rowan sighed. “Just keep all of your comments until the end, House.”
House rolled his eyes.
“First of all, I know some of you have drifted apart during the years, so we’re going to do this like old times. We’ll go around the room, stand up and say your name, where you’re from, your type, and what you specialize in.”
This caused several people in the room to groan. Rowan rolled his eyes.
“Fine, I’ll go first. My name is Professor David Rowan. I’m from Sandgem Town in the region of Sinnoh in Aquapolis. I am a psychic-type, and I specialize in the study of legendaries.” He turned to Katharine. “You’re next.”
Katharine stood up and blushed, obviously scared of even this small public speaking part. “My name is Katharine McKenna. I was originally born in Rome, but I also call Ever Grande City home. I believe I’m classified as a light-type, and I specialize in…actually using legendary power…”
“Hey, Chosen One!”
Katharine’s head snapped around to House.
“I believe you’re classified as the number one specialist in legendary power…”
“What did I say about not speaking?” Rowan asked.
House rolled his eyes as Katharine sat down and David stood up.
“My name is David Reed. I’m originally from Ever Grande City. I’m a fire-type, and I specialize in archery.”
And so it went…
“My name is Dr. Cyrus Jones. I’m originally from Sunyshore City in Sinnoh in Aquapolis. I’m a psychic-type, and I specialize in Aquapolian physics.”
“My name is Ben Gates. I was born in Fuschia City, Kanto, but grew up in Washington, D.C. I’m a fire-type, and I specialize in…American and Aquapolian national treasures.”
“And stealing them…” Langdon muttered to Indy.
“My name is Vittoria Vetra. I am from Venice, Italy. I’m a psychic-type, and I specialize in Aquapolian physics.”
Katharine did a double take, wondering when Dr. Vetra had arrived at the Vatican and if she were really on Rowan’s list. Apparently, she was, otherwise she wouldn’t be there. She wondered how the physicist was connected to the others on the list. Maybe she and Dr. Jones knew or worked with each other before? She sat still and listened quietly as people continued to introduce themselves.
Riley stood up from behind the computer desk he had set up in the corner beside the large screen in the back of the room. He accidently tripped over the wires, catching himself before he crashed into his own equipment. House snickered and the young geek shot him a killer glare.
“My name is Riley Poole, and I am from Petalburg City, Hoenn, Aquapolis. I am an electric-type, and I am apparently a computer expert.” He gestured to the electronics beside him. “Right here, we have what amounts to an entire government computer database in a smaller form. I’ve actually helped work on the Aquapolian government’s computer database, but between us, this is a lot more powerful.”
Eric whistled, raising his eyebrows. Katharine and he had grown up with Riley’s younger cousin Max, who was just as electronically inclined as Riley was. Max had built a similar computer database, and both Aquapolian teenagers knew exactly how powerful it was. The group would have no problem organizing anything with this piece of art.
Riley sat down, managing not to trip over any wires in the process. Langdon was the next to stand up, shooting a glance at Ben before speaking. “My name is Robert Langdon. I am from New York originally, and I am a fire-type. My specialty is Aquapolian religious symbols.” Katharine counted up the number of fire-types in the room so far. A total of three fire-types and three psychic-types. Interesting…
“Is symbologist a real occupation now?” Ben ventured to ask, stoking the fire that seemed to rage on between him and his former roommate. “Or is it a fancy new way to refer to teachers of certain subjects at Harvard?”
“It’s more real than your apparent job of stealing national treasures and kidnapping presidents,” Langdon shot back, sitting down adruptly. Ben rolled his eyes, refusing to comment on Langdon’s retaliation.
The man whom Katharine presumed to be Indy stood up next, obviously hoping to distract everyone in the room and pull their attention away from Ben and Langdon’s silent fight. “My name is Dr. Indy Jones. Erm….no relation to Cyrus. I am a normal-type and I am originally from Celestic Town, Sinnoh, Aquapolis. I specialize in ancient Aquapolian artifacts.”
Finally, House stood up. “My name is Gregory House and I’m from New York originally. I’m a psychic-type, and, apparently, I specialize in Aquapolian diagnostic medicine.”
Cyrus frowned. “Don’t you have a patient to attend to right now.”
“Ah…don’t worry. There’s pretty much zero chance he’ll die on me.”
