"So you don't know what it was?"

"No, I said it was Unown."

The scientists had cornered us in the hospital as soon as we'd woken up. They were interrogating us, and we were demanding answers from them, and none of us were getting very far.

"They're a kind of ancient Pokémon, very reclusive, rarely seen. They usually show up in the Ruins of Alph."

"No way! How come I've never heard of them?" Ty protested.

"They usually don't show themselves in front of people," said a shorter, rounder researcher. "When we say they appear there, we mean every few decades or so."

"And you didn't tell anybody that the Ruins were full of ancient, dangerous Pokémon?"

"That's why they were closed. If you had only obeyed…"

It went on like that for a while. All in all, we were lucky. Between the two of us, we had gotten a sprained ankle, dislocated elbow, and a lecture in responsibility. Apparently the researchers were more concerned with analyzing the data from the Unown swarm than pressing charges. So the next day, we were released from the hospital, bandaged and with strict instructions to avoid doing anything crazy for the next few weeks. They didn't have to worry about that, for me at least. Ty was a different story.

"I'm going to go to the Pokémon Center, get my Pokémon back, and then go challenge Falkner," she said, hobbling along on her crutches.

"Today? Are you sure?"

"I'm fine, my team's fine, and we're not waiting any longer. I'm gonna do this."

The blonde nurse at the Pokémon Center took in our injuries with an indifferent shrug before retrieving our Pokéballs. She handed three to Ty, and two to me—

Wait a minute. "I only have one Pokémon."

"Well, this one's registered to you." She held it out insistently.

"But I didn't catch—"

"Look, kid, I don't know what you're trying to pull, but if you don't want it, you can't just leave it here. Either release it or send it to a rescue; we can't take care of it forever."

Well, she didn't have to be so rude about it.

"You caught a Pokémon? When?" Ty eyed my Pokéball suspiciously.

"I don't think I did," I murmured. "Maybe I forgot?"

"Maybe they gave you someone else's Pokémon by mistake." I blanched at the thought of opening it to find somebody else's Rhydon or Dragonite. The last thing I needed was to face down two giant, angry Pokémon in one week. "Whatever, I've gotta go sign up with Falkner before he gets booked. Come watch if you want." And she was gone again.

I did want to take a look inside Falkner's gym, but before that, I had to take a look at the mystery Pokémon and make sure there hadn't been some horrible mix-up. I walked to the wooded area beside the Pokémon Center and steeled myself for the worst. First, though, I released Eris, who blinked in the sunlight and stared at me with dazed eyes. Of course she was confused, considering I didn't normally keep her in her Pokéball that long and the last thing she remembered was being chased by two scary monsters. She kept eyeing me as I sat beside her, her little brain trying to make sense of it all.

I scratched behind her ears and tried to give her a reassuring smile. "Hey. I know what happened was… We ended up almost getting killed again, and I'm sorry. Again." I sighed. "I'm trying to keep you safe, but things just keep happening. I guess at least some of it was my fault this time, though. Are you okay?"

I knew that she didn't hold grudges. If she wanted to hate me for putting her in danger, she would have left already. Still, I felt a wave of guilt when she climbed into my lap and stared at my injured arm, bound in a sling, with a soft keen. I didn't want her worrying about me; I did that enough already. I picked her up with my good arm and hugged her against my chest, and for a minute, we were silent.

"Some weird things happened after the cave," I finally continued. "And somehow, I caught a Pokémon." Her ears pricked with interest as I held the Pokéball out to show her. "I don't know what it is yet. But you wanted a partner, right? What do you think?"

She leaned in to sniff the sphere, then looked at me quizzically. I shrugged. Only one way to find out.

I raised the Pokéball, hesitated, and threw it into the center of the clearing. I made sure to give it plenty of space, in case it turned out to be another Onix, but as the light faded away, the figure that remained was barely bigger than my Eevee. It was pretty flat, and the shape reminded me a bit of a game controller. It was black and oddly shiny, and as I stared, it slowly opened one huge, central eye…

I swore and jumped to my feet, grabbing Eris again. We had to get away before it saw us—but it had already seen us, and before I could take more than a few steps, it zoomed in front of me, bobbing in the air inches from my face.

"How—How did you get in there? What do you want?" I demanded, backing away. Why had I thrown its Pokéball all the way over there? Its eye circled and darted in every direction, from me, to Eris, a tree, the sky, a Pidgey perched on a branch, and back to me. Then it moved closer again, and Eris bared her teeth and started barking. I knew she could feel it too, the same sort of psychic pressure from the Ruins. This time, though, it was less intense—almost gentle. Against my better judgment, I muttered some soothing words to Eris, shut my eyes, and let it take over my mind.

It was just static at first, but soon focused into soft waves, and eventually what felt like tiny fingers that prodded at my brain. It probed through my head, picking out thoughts and feelings and finally memories. My life was dragged out, one scene at a time, each so vivid it was like living it again. It lingered on a few in particular: a first-grade play about the Brass Tower, the vacation my family had spent in the Whirl Islands, getting attacked by a Staryu swarm years ago. The thing that had saved me—

Abruptly, it withdrew, leaving a vacuum where its presence had been. I gasped in shock as I took control of my own mind again, and felt an alien sensation buried somewhere inside. It wasn't mine, but it was warm, almost happy. I looked at the Unown and saw it staring back; it showed no emotion, but with each twitch of its body and eye I could feel the tiny mind inside mine shift.

I'd never been around psychic Pokémon before, but I'd heard that some could form bonds with humans. Was that what this was? Was it feeling everything I felt right now? Could it read my thoughts? I stared at it, trying to feed it those questions through my head, urging it for some kind of answer. It gazed back calmly and blinked.

Surprisingly, the Pokédex had a lot of information about Unown. It told me that they were most powerful in groups, and weren't nearly as dangerous on their own. With that in mind, I was only slightly nervous about my decision to keep the Unown out of its Pokéball as I made my way towards Falkner's gym. If I was going to keep it on my team, we would have to get to know each other—maybe its psychic mind-melding had told it everything about me, but it didn't work both ways. Pokémon and their trainers were supposed to trust each other, and right now I was gripping its Pokéball in my hand "just in case."

I also learned that Unown were supposed to have come from another dimension, that each form had different abilities, and that their shapes matched ancient hieroglyphs. So I named it Heta.

Heta was content to bob around my shoulders, orbiting my head like a satellite. It was fascinated with everything; its eye flew frantically in every direction, trying to take in all of its surroundings at once. I could tell whenever it spotted something particularly exciting, as the emotion in my head switched from curious, to confused, to anxious. Some of those might have been my own feelings, since I was earning a lot of glances from people in the street, and I wasn't sure how to react to that. Like the scientists had said, most people didn't know much about them. I just turned my eyes down to the road and tried to ignore them.

When I finally entered the gym, I found Ty sitting in the lobby, rolling her Heavy Ball around in her hand thoughtfully. "Did you fight yet?"

"Not yet, Falkner's already got some kid in there so I have to wait a little what is that thing." She pointed accusingly at the Unown floating by my shoulder.

"This… I caught it in the Ruins of Alph?" Still didn't know how that had happened.

"You caught one of those things? And you're keeping it?" Her eyes were wide with genuine astonishment—of course, she would never do something so irresponsible as catching a potentially dangerous Pokémon.

"The Pokédex says they're not dangerous until you get a lot of them in one place." And hopefully, it was right.

"But what if it finds other ones, or calls them, or something?" she insisted. "You don't know, it could—it could…" She trailed off as the door to the arena opened and a depressed-looking boy shuffled out. I could see the change in her face as her mind shifted back to her number one priority. "Get a good seat. I'm gonna kick Falkner's ass."

As she limped towards the door, the receptionist pointed me towards a side door that led to an elevator bay. I stepped on to one, held the door open until Heta decided to follow me, and we were on our way.

I didn't care that much about Ty's weird obsession with Falkner, but I was going to have to face him myself soon, and I wanted to see the way he battled. Gym leaders' teams for low-level competitors rotated constantly, so I probably wouldn't see the same Pokémon I'd be fighting, but it was better than nothing.

How much higher was this elevator going to go?

When I stepped out of the elevator, I was floored. I'd never been inside a gym before, so I probably would have been impressed by anything, but this one was amazing. We were on a roof, open to the sky, at least ten or twenty stories above the ground. The field itself was made of transparent blocks of glass that showed only darkness underneath them. A number of rafters lining the arena served as perches for bird Pokémon. I was sure every inch of it had been designed to psych out challengers and give Falkner the maximum possible advantage.

It was beautiful.

I took a seat in one of the raised bleachers along the side and waited for the battle to start. Ty had already appeared; even from a distance, I could see she was making a point to look indifferent. The far door opened, and out stepped Falkner, looking perfectly cool and composed. When he saw Ty, though, he sighed.

"Again?"

"Yeah, I'm here again, now do your job and fight me!"

"Fine, fine. Two-on-two, same rules as before. Let's get this over with." He pulled a Pokéball from his waist and tossed it casually onto the battlefield. It was a tiny, angry-looking bird—a Spearow. Ty, of course, sent out Jira, who seemed remarkably well-rested for having faced down an Onix just yesterday. I wished I could heal that quickly.

The referee signaled the start of the battle, and both Pokémon lunged towards each other. Falkner ordered his Spearow into the air, while Ty called for a barrage of Embers. And almost immediately, I saw how she could have lost to Falkner so many times—her Charmander couldn't aim.

"Get it! Burn it!" The attack went wide as the Spearow dodged, clumsy on its tiny wings but still fast enough to evade, and landed a peck on the top of Jira's skull. Ty shouted in frustration as her Charmander tried to slash it with his claws, but his stubby arms couldn't reach, and he was left flailing helplessly. It was embarrassing to watch.

"Ember again! Turn around and get it!" Jira snapped his head around, sending out a shower of sparks that singed the Spearow's feathers.

"Get away and use Fury Attack."

"Metal Claw when it gets close!"

For several minutes, the battle continued like this, trading light hits and grazing blows. It wasn't exactly the thrilling, fast-paced battle I'd hoped for. Eventually, the Spearow grew too exhausted to dodge, and went down after taking an Ember to the face. Unperturbed, Falkner recalled it and sent out his second Pokémon. It was a larger bird, a few feet tall, with a sturdy tan body and bright red crest. Pidgeotto.

This round went much more quickly. Ty opened with an Ember, but the Pidgeotto blew it away with a Gust attack that knocked Jira off-balance, then slammed him to the ground with Quick Attack. Jira raked a Metal Claw across its breast, but the bird dodged the worst of it and gave another light-speed Quick Attack. Because it was a larger target, Jira managed to land a few hits with Ember, but as soon as the Pidgeotto began looking worn-out, Falkner signaled for it to land on one of the perches. It folded in its wings and closed its eyes for a moment, recovering its energy.

I could see how that might get annoying.

A few more hits from the Pidgeotto, and Jira went down, breathing heavily. That was what Ty was waiting for. She recalled him, plucked the Heavy Ball from her belt, and tossed it onto the field. I stood up and clambered a few rows higher into the bleachers, not that it would help me if the thing went berserk again. Had she even released it once since catching it? Were we even sure it was sane?

I don't know what Pokémon Falkner was expecting—maybe her Voltorb—but it clearly hadn't been an Onix. For a moment, he lost his poised expression and let his mouth hang open in surprise. Eris squealed and hid in my arms again, and Heta buzzed with anticipation. The Onix let out a roar as it took in the open sky around it. It knew it had been captured, and it wasn't happy.

"Zircon, use Rock Throw on the Pidgeotto!" The Onix heard the command, but didn't obey. Instead, it turned its head around to Ty and slammed its tail into the battlefield, sending out a shockwave I could feel from the sidelines. It narrowed its eyes and gave a long, low growl of building rage. Her grin faltered, and she took a step back; it was the first time I'd seen her look scared.

Then it lurched towards her. Falkner started shouting for her to recall it, but the ball slipped from her grasp. She winced and held out her arms to shield herself, but before the Onix could strike, something else happened. There was a crackling and groaning of glass and steel as the support beams sagged under the immense weight, popping the glass blocks out of the frame and sending them crashing down. The Onix stopped as it felt the ground falling away, just in time for the girders to give out completely. A jagged hole erupted from the field and swallowed it up, its huge head catching on the sides momentarily until the edges shattered and let it through. Moments later, there was a huge crash that shook the whole building, coming from somewhere below.

Falkner stared at the hole in stunned disbelief, then ran for the fire stairs. I got up and followed, though I went much more slowly after nearly slipping on the smooth metal. When I reached the ground floor, Falkner was already there, and so was Ty, who had decided to take her chances with the elevator. The interior of the gym was a mess, with glass littering the floor and a dazed Onix lying on top of it all. Falkner's Pidgeotto had flown in through the hole and was shrieking furiously. When the Onix gave it no response, it dove into a Quick Attack aimed at its head—but as soon as it made contact, it bounced off its rocky skin harmlessly and fell to the floor, unconscious.

Ty had composed herself again, and when she saw the Pidgeotto fall, she broke out in a smirk from ear to ear. "I win."

Can Unown use telepathy? The canon explicitly says they can't, but then, it's also contradicted that at every turn. They can, at least, send and receive electromagnetic waves, which could feasibly work as low-level telepathy (if you're in the Pokémon universe, of course, where EM waves are equivalent to magic).