Looking over the edge Brian gave a whistling sigh of relief. "Looks like it is still calm between them." In front of him was a massive gap between two large masses of solid clouds with the raging storm just visible at the outer edges of the break.
"Are you sure you want to try this yourself?" Pidgeot asked looking over at the small cave-like holes in the formation across from them. "I can still carry you just fine."
"I think I've got it. Worst case you catch me before I hit that," the transformed human replied pointing a wing at the swirling winds below them past the lower edge of the clouds.
"Alright then," the natural bird said with some unease. The two looked each other in the eye for a moment before launching themselves off into the air.
Brian gave an excited chirp at being truly in the air away from anything else. With a couple of flaps and a glide he quickly made it half the distance across the gap. Looking around with wonder as he held himself aloft all on his own the trainer moved to alter course towards one of the nearby openings. With some reluctance he moved to one of the closest and landed, the whole trip barely taking any time. An instant later Pidgeot arrived next to him.
"That was quick," the trainer commented rather sadly.
"You did well for having less than a day's practice. I'd rather you didn't try to go through the storm yourself, but air that calm should be fine," the Normal type replied. "Now, get out our little miser so he can point us to this Legendary."
"He isn't that bad about money," Brian chastised his friend getting the pokeball out of his tightly secured bag.
"You generally don't hear most of it. I say let him ask about this latest plan of his," the larger bird said eying the sphere as Xatu was released.
"Are we across now?" the green bird asked looking back over the gap. "Sir, I could have made that in my sleep," he then said dryly.
"Yeah, a lot easier than I expected," Brian agreed surprising the Psychic. "Can we get to the legend from here?"
Xatu's eyes lost focus for a moment and he turned his head back and forth slowly. "Follow me."
The three avians moved relatively quickly through the cavernous clouds. Constantly empty chambers were starting to take their toll on their nerves as there was no sign that any other creature had been in this place. Xatu remained in the lead, but soon seemed to be using his precognitive visions to distract him from the surroundings. Pidgeot began to noticeably worry, but the starter insisted on remaining out of his own pokeball while they searched. Brian was growing nervous himself, but took the oppurtunity to learn how to better fly through the relatively narrow passages as it was slightly easier than walking in his new form.
After a good time spent traveling they began to feel a powerful energy in the direction they were heading. While there was no actual wind or heat the three could still feel something they could only describe as both at once. Soon after the growing feeling began to increase quickly enough that Xatu's predictions were merely confirming what they could all tell about their target's location.
"Are we sure about this?" Pidgeot finally asked as the sensation reached a point where the three were often checking their bodies to ensure they were physically fine.
"Hello? Is someone there?" a low but still feminine voice asked from far closer than the group expected. The three birds turned towards it and found a large reptilian face peaking out of the next turn in the passage. "Oh, visitors! Father's always said that I might get some. Hello!" the Rayquaza said with a smile wider than the wingspan of any of the group.
"Hello," Brian managed with a bit of fear. "I'm Brian and this is Pidgeot and Xatu."
"Brian? Did your trainer nickname you?" the Legendary asked looking him over. "And did they dress you- Oh!" Her eyes went wide and she looked around at the walls. "I'm sorry I forgot. My father told me how the hard clouds really like Flying types, so sometimes someone who touches it too much that isn't already one kinda turns into one."
"So it's the clouds that transformed my trainer?" the Normal type asked looking at the wall with a bit of a glare.
"Oh, don't worry. It will be fine. You just need to not touch it basically at all for around a day," the massive pokemon said nodding. "Sorry about it being everywhere here, but this stuff is far enough from land that father says only Worthy pokemon can reach it. So if you're here then you must be whatever 'Worthy' means." After a second she moved in close to the trainer. "So, can you tell me?" she asked them somewhat sheepishly. "Because I haven't been outside before to find out on my own, I've only just turned one hundred."
Looking at his pokemon Brian saw they were just as uneasy with the excited Legendary. "Well I guess it means you have to be able to prepare everything to get through the storm. We had to get a lot of things setup just to try."
"The flight itself was hard, between the wind and rain I nearly did not make it," Pidgeot confessed.
"We had hoped to see the rumored home to a Legendary pokemon, and to possibly get some proof of our success," Xatu contributed eying the cloudy walls.
"Proof? Like some stuff that shows you were here?" the Dragon/Flying type asked as the other two tried to send hidden glares at their teammate. "The only thing we really have is the cloud, and it's really hard to move when it gets too big. A piece that's only as big as me is heavy enough that I can barely move it in the storm." The three pokemon looked at the scale of the serpentine pokemon, who was easily larger than most houses they had seen on their travels.
"Xatu would like to take some of it with us," Brian said deciding to back up his pokemon to an extent. "But we would only want what we could manage. It was hard enough getting here in the first place, and there isn't anywhere easy to land nearby." The transformed human found himself blinking at how easy it was to think of himself also trying to land from their height. "We understand that it is your home, so if it is a problem we will have to leave with just memories of this trip."
"Oh, it's no problem at all. Honestly father has to take the stuff to an Articuno he knows all the time to get rid of it. It just builds up and we sometimes have to tunnel our way out. Why it was just a couple years ago that he made his last trip, that time was for three times his body!" she excitedly told them. "I cannot wait to be that strong."
"So, we can have some?" Xatu asked with sparking eyes.
"Sure! I can even help you figure out how much you can take," she replied before looking them over. "Do you think you can stay a bit though? I've never seen the ground or ocean before, and I'd love to hear more about them."
With some reluctance Brian nodded and moved to get his other two pokemon out. The Legendary was fascinated by the pokeballs and the sight of the two other pokemon. Although she did end up in a confused state after getting involved in an argument between Dodrio's three heads that seemed to subtlety shift in who was arguing for what as it went on. After some more discussion of basic things they had seen below the clouds the team found themselves quite hungry, and so they continued to tell the Dragon small stories of their travels as they ate from their stored supplies of dry food. As the day had grown late the Legendary Pokemon offered to have them stay the night, and given how tired the trainer and starter were from the days events the team quickly agreed.