Chapter Two: Rocks Cryot



Abraham Eustace Baobab, commonly known as Abe E. Baba by his enemies (mostly a jerk named Blue Oak and his psychopathic Vaporeon), sat by the side of the road on Route 4 and examined his new favorite rock.



His team was rather shaken up from the latest PC trip. Certainly Abe -- and everyone else on his team -- had wanted the Trolliswag Brothers reunited, but swapping out Growlizard for Poliswag hadn't been Abe's intention at all. Something really weird had happened ever since he'd captured that Pidgey, which had since disappeared from the PC without so much as a tail feather's worth of a trace.



The Voices seemed to fear the PC. But, then, the Voices also seemed to fear the Dome. Which was the rock he was examining, the rock that the Voices seemed to believe to be either evil or their savior, he wasn't quite sure which.



Except it wasn't a rock and he knew it. It was a Gem, one of the legendary, immortal, and powerful beings that had for long ages protected the mortal realm. And this particular Gem, Acidy Brome by name, had been the parent of a certain young Gemling, Marion of Foot, that, according to news reports, had first summoned the Voices in his head to his world to begin with. And those Voices had somehow started a war between Kanto and Almia, ending in bombing, bloodshed, and the establishment of the Gatekeeper Society, which ruled over Kanto with several iron fists, with at least one Gatekeeper in each city.



And now those Voices were in his head.



"So, Abey..." his Kakuna, Matata, said, speaking up. "About that Dome Fossil. What makes the Voices so crazy about putting their trust in a rock?"



A large dark shadow passed over Matata and Abe as Shaquille O'Nix pulled himself up to his full height, all twenty-eight feet of him. "Excuse me?"



Abe didn't even know bugs could sweat until that point. "Y-You know what I mean, Shaq!" Matata insisted. "A rock that doesn't talk, slither, or play Baccer!"



Abe sighed. "Matata, Gems like the Dome have been symbiotic with the mortal world since the dawn of time. Helix, Dome, Marion, Gyro, Scroll, Sanae... they've all depended on the love and faith of mortals to maintain their power. In return, they have kept our world in balance since time immemorial."



"Balance," Matata spat. "You call this balance? Gatekeepers everywhere, weird Rocket Brigade experiments--" (O'Nix bristled at this point) "--and chemical radiation in Johto mutating the folks there into weird sex-crazed abominations?"



'Weird sex-crazed abominations' would be a good way for Abe to describe those of the Voices that wanted him to do horrible things to Misty, but he kept his mouth shut on the matter. "The Carbuncle War ended all that, Matata. Mortals turned against the Gems, and the Gems themselves turned against each other. It's thanks to Gyro and Hebo that the Gems are no longer among us in physical form."



Matata eyed the Dome Fossil. "Looks pretty physical to me."



"That's one thing I don't understand," O'Nix said softly. "Why would Gyro and Hebo betray the other Gems? All the other Gems? I understand them being upset with Marion for summoning such dangerous Voices and starting a war, but don't you think that's a little bit overkill?"



"Dude," Matata said rudely, "those Voices caused peaceful presidents to declare nuclear war over insults that weren't even their own fault. They weren't thinking rationally. Prolly the Voices themselves started the war and blamed the Gems to cover their own butts."



Abe sighed. "Don't think I haven't asked myself those same questions before -- that is, before the Voices came to me. But now that I know what those Voices are actually like, it's not that easy. Whatever the Voices intended to do that day, I'm not convinced they were even trying to start a war. They just..."



He paused. "How should I put it? It's like a GAME to them. Everything we do, everything they tell us to do, they think it's not real. That it's just some play-acting. That all the world's a stage. At least, that's how it seems to me.



"And anyway, they tried to fix things, didn't they? They're the ones that sent Pika, BoBo, and the others to rescue Surge and the others. They might not have realized the true ramifications of their actions until it was too late, but they tried to protect Kanto. And right now? Call me crazy, but I think they're still trying to fix their mistakes."



"You're right," Matata said.



Abe turned to the Kakuna in surprise. "Really? Than--"



"I should call you crazy."



Abe froze in disbelief, and from behind him, Trolliwag did another of his stellar drumset impersonations. "Badum-Tish!"



Abe shook his head in disbelief. This was going to be another one of those days.



TO BE CONTINUED...