Chapter 192: Awakening

"Then do you know what place this is?" Huo La pursued Gengar.

"Even the words can't be read, how could I know." Gengar shook its pale purple body, its tone casual.

It suddenly lowered its voice and added a small sentence: "But it looks a bit like an altar of a certain country I dealt with back then..."

It was just that the voice was too light, Huo La and Bilan's attention was all on that huge skeleton, and they didn't hear it at all.

"Huo La, look at this skeleton being so big, if it were sold as a fossil, could it make a lot of money?" Bilan stared at the Aerodactyl skeleton, her eyes shining.

Huo La suppressed the trace of covetousness in his heart for this complete Aerodactyl skeleton, and shook his head: "Don't think about these, this thing has to be left to Professor Oak and their professional team to deal with. The most important thing for us now is to find Ash and the others."

He paused, his tone carrying a bit more vigilance: "Especially those three from Team Rocket, who knows what kind of outrageous things they will do, in case they destroy the ruins, it will be troublesome."

"Gengar, go ahead and scout the way, see where Ash and the others are."

"Already looked, no need for you to order." Gengar floated to the front and pointed to the darkness ahead, "That kid Ash and the others are not far away, walk forward and there is a corner, you can see them after turning, but they seem to be unconscious."

Huo La and Bilan looked at each other and immediately quickened their pace.

Following Gengar's guidance, after passing a narrow rock wall corner, an open space indeed appeared in front of them—Ash, Misty, Brock, Gary, Lilian, and Pikachu were all lying on the ground, motionless, as if they had lost consciousness.

And the Team Rocket trio were also lying not far away, Musashi's hair was messy, Kojiro still maintained the posture of reaching out to grab something, Meowth was lying on his back, clearly also unconscious.

"Ash! Pikachu!" Huo La ran over quickly, squatted down and pushed Ash's shoulder gently, but the other party had no reaction.

Bilan also hurriedly went to shake Misty: "Misty, wake up! What's wrong with you?"

"They are just simply unconscious, not hurt." Gengar floated over and circled around the crowd, "There is a faint hypnotic gas in the air, they should have triggered some mechanism, and fainted after inhaling it."

Huo La looked up and scanned the surroundings, a square stone platform stood in the center of this open space.

Three stone statues were curled up on the stone platform, he recognized at a glance that it was the form of Aerodactyl, and the walls around the stone platform were covered with Kabuto, Kabutops, and Omanyte fossils, layer upon layer, almost covering the entire rock wall.

"Huo La, I have a bad premonition." Bilan lowered her voice, holding Bellsprout tightly, her eyes full of nervousness.

Huo La shook his head, signaling her to be quiet: "Keep your voice down, these fossils on the wall might be alive!"

"Ah?" Bilan couldn't help but exclaim.

Huo La leaned close to her ear and whispered: "They are just in a state of petrified dormancy, once disturbed, they are likely to wake up."

He secretly felt lucky in his heart.

In his memory, there were only a few scattered fossil Pokémon, but now they were entrenched here in pieces, even Aerodactyl had three.

The thought of wanting to capture Aerodactyl before seemed particularly naive at this moment, a little carelessness, and all of them might become the prey of these ancient Pokémon.

"Bilan, release Blastoise, use clear water to gently splash Ash and the others awake, let them keep quiet." Huo La whispered.

Bilan nodded hurriedly and released Blastoise.

Blasto

Huo La activated the system, scanning all the petrified Pokémon on the walls.

They were encased in a thick layer of stone shells, and not a single attribute could be seen on the system panel; clearly, they were still in a state of deep hibernation.

"Huo La." Ash walked over, rubbing his groggy head, with Pikachu swaying unsteadily beside him, its little head still wobbling slightly.

"Glad you're awake. Are you hurt?" Huo La asked.

"I'm fine, just a bit dizzy." Ash rubbed the back of his head, looking around curiously, "There are so many fossils here..."

"Don't stare too long, we have to leave as soon as possible." Huo La pulled him along, his tone grave, "It's too dangerous here; these fossils could wake up at any moment."

Just as the two were talking, a crisp "tap-tap" sound suddenly rang out, breaking the brief silence.

Huo La whipped his head around, locking his gaze on the source of the sound—the archaeologist Sato, who had fallen down with Ash and the others earlier, was squatting before the rock wall, holding a small hammer and carefully tapping at a Kabuto fossil, seemingly trying to chip off a piece.

"Stop!" Huo La shouted in a low, panicked voice.

But it was already too late.

The moment Sato's hammer chipped off a small piece of stone, a faint red light suddenly flashed across the Kabuto fossil's eyes.

Immediately following, with a crisp "crack," a fissure appeared in the stone shell encasing the Kabuto.

A chain reaction erupted instantly.

Cracks appeared one after another on the surrounding fossils; "crack" sounds echoed incessantly as the Kabuto and Kabutops on the rock wall shook off stone debris and slowly opened their scarlet eyes.

The three Aerodactyl stone statues on the stone platform also began to sway, their thick stone shells peeling away to reveal the dull gray skin beneath.

"What is that? What kind of monsters are these!!!"

Musashi had just been woken up, and before she could even wipe the water off her face, she saw the dense mass of fossil Pokémon on the wall breaking free from their shells, their scarlet eyes gleaming with malice. She was instantly terrified, her face turning pale and her legs going weak, nearly collapsing to the ground.

Sato was also scared out of his wits; the small hammer in his hand clattered to the ground, and he backed away repeatedly until he hit the stone platform, his voice trembling with a sob: "H-how could this happen? These are clearly fossils, how are they alive?"

"Isn't this all your fault!" Bilan glared at him fiercely, "If you hadn't used that hammer to tap the fossils, they never would have woken up!"

"I-I just wanted to take a small sample for research..." Sato cowered, his face full of regret.

"It's useless to talk about that now!" Huo La barked, his eyes sweeping rapidly over the awakened fossil Pokémon.

Fortunately, these Kabuto and Omanyte that had just awakened from petrification were not high in level or stats, so they wouldn't be too difficult to handle.

The truly troublesome ones were the few fully evolved Kabutops and Omastar, as well as the three Aerodactyl on the stone platform that were ready to strike.

"Prepare for battle!" Huo La gripped the Poké Ball of his Kingler, his eyes sharp as blades.

In a chaotic group brawl, type advantage is always the key to breaking the deadlock; the Water-type's suppression of the Rock-type was exactly the advantage needed at this moment.

"Bring out every Pokémon you can use."

"Kabuto and Kabutops are good at close combat, Omanyte will use long-range Water Gun, but the most troublesome ones are those three Aerodactyl—they're fast and can fly!"

Amidst Huo La's urgent shouts, Poké Balls of various colors burst open one after another.

Huo La glanced at the Team Rocket trio huddled in the corner and spoke sternly: "Team Rocket, if you want to leave here alive, hurry up and bring out your Pokémon to help!"

Musashi and Kojiro exchanged a look; though terror still lingered on their faces, they understood that this was not the time to settle old scores.

"Damn it, I can't believe I have to team up with these brats!" Musashi gritted her teeth and threw her Poké Ball, "Arbok, go!"

Kojiro followed closely behind: "Weezing, Gyarados, don't let me down!"

Meowth even bared its claws: "Meow~ I guess I'll fight alongside you guys for now!"