Chapter 37 – Deoxys
The next morning, James was outside, in Roxanne's back yard, training with Swampert. Thanks to the DVD, he had taught his mud fish pokémon how to use Protect, and he had gotten the hang of it fairly well.
"Protect." James told it. Swampert cried and a shimmering green dome formed around him. Blaze, who was helping test the strength of the Protect, punched the shield, without using a specific attack. Swampert's Protect held. Blaze set its foot alight and swung it around. The Blaze Kick went straight through the protect. The green dome faded into nothingness.
"Don't worry Swampert, Its getting stronger." James told it. Swampert looked slightly happier at that, even though it wasn't entirely true. It had gotten stronger then it was the first time it had appeared, in which a simple flick from Blaze had caused it to deteriorate. However for quite a while now it had been unable to hold back an attack, and what other purpose did Protect have?
Roxanne's house was near the city, but in a calmer part of it. Only the occasional car went past on the road. The building she lived in was small, compared to James' larger country house, however it only had to fit one person most of the time. The backyard was also small, not large enough for proper training, but that wasn't necessary.
Last night had gone well, James thought. Although Aria and Roxanne didn't seem to get along perfectly for some reason, they had had fun. They ordered pizza. They watched a movie. They went on the computer and looked up James' facebook page, to show Roxanne pictures and explain them. They were planning to leave this morning, however they were in no rush.
The stone released a burst of psychic energy on contact with the tweezers. The scientists, who were closer, were all knocked off their feet. Steven, used to pokémon suddenly lashing out, braced himself against the wall. The attack took the wind out of him. The stone rose into the air, and shining particles started to collect around it. They grew out, around the base, branching off in long thin tentacles. Once particles attached themselves, they stopped glowing, and took on colours – red and blue. When it had stopped collecting particles, Deoxys turned to Steven. Its tentacles wrapped around each other and transformed into hands. It drifted closer to him, and looked into his eyes. Steven very slowly reached for Metagross' ball. Deoxys saw the movement, or sensed his intentions, and burst backward, changed at once into its attack forme. It formed a Psycho Boost in its hands, and Steven ducked and put his arms over his head. Deoxys shot the attack at the ceiling, causing the floor above them and the roof above that to explode. Deoxys rose up, through the hole it made, and out. Steven took out Skarmory's ball, and called forth his armour bird pokémon.
"We have to follow it, I don't know what it might do." Steven told his flying type, as he climbed onto it. Skarmory screeched and burst into the air after the DNA pokémon. Above the city, Deoxys was staring down at the people below him. A car honked. People started to stop on the path and stare up at Deoxys, as did people in neighbouring buildings. A flock of Taillow and Swellow flew above it, completely ignoring the psychic type and squawking to each other. Deoxys looked quickly from each of these foreign things and, to Deoxys, threats. It shouted its strange cry and formed a Psycho Boost again.
"Go!" Steven said, and Skarmory dived, but not fast enough.
Deoxys shot the Psycho boost downward, and it hit the middle of the road, which exploded, throwing cars and pedestrians.
A siren started to sound. People who were able ran from the street, there cars, and into the buildings. Those who were trapped or injured were suddenly teleported away. Deoxys, startled by the noise, flew up higher, before spotting Steven.
"Go!" Steven yelled, and Skarmory darted away to attempt to loose Deoxys in the maze of buildings. Deoxys didn't give it time though. The DNA pokémon let loose a Hyper Beam, which shot down onto the road, tearing it apart. It moved the beam across Skarmory's path, and the armour bird pokémon was sucked in. Its wing was ripped apart from the attack, and Skarmory and Steven fell.
Their first warning that something was happening was the sound of the explosion. A few seconds later a siren sounded, which rang for a while before it was drained out by the sound of something else. Roxanne turned on the TV. On it, an emergency news report showed live footage of the pokémon attacking the city.
"The pokémon has been identified as a Deoxys, the DNA pokémon," The reporter said, "It can change its forme at will, from Attack forme, what it is now, to defence, speed, and normal." At that moment two more Hyper Beams hit Deoxys in the side. The attacks pushed Deoxys into a building and caused an explosion, which Deoxys fell limply out of, smashing into the broken road.
"Yes!" Roxanne said. The camera swivelled and showed Steven, with his Aggron and Metagross. A second later the camera was obscured by some sort of attack aimed at Steven, and the video turned to static. James and Aria looked at each other. She pulled her two pokémon from her pocket.
A few minutes later they were both soaring above the city, something that is usually not allowed. However, in the circumstances, James doubted that they would mind. Roxanne had made a fuss, telling them that they wernt to go. In the end the only way they could shut her up was to tell her to come too. So they flew in formation, James on Pidgeot in front, Aria on Flygon to his left and Roxanne on Tropius to his right. Soon they could see the destruction on the road outside the wreckage of Devon. Deoxys was nowhere to be seen, however they could make out Steven on the ground, mainly because of the two pokémon that stood with him. The three of them landed on the roof of a building.
"What do we do now?" Aria asked.
"No idea." James admitted.
Hundreds of kilometres away, Samuel the collector sat on a high back chair, flanked by a shadow Suicune and a shadow Entei. Although his favourite, Raikou, was gone he still had two members of the set. This was because these two had been away when James and Aria had purified the rest of his shadow pokémon and set them free. Only these two remained now. He couldn't even make more shadow pokémon, as the machines were destroyed, and he had bought them in the first place, so he had no knowledge of the science. However, he had recently come to believe that having an army of shadow pokémon wasn't what he truly wanted.
He wanted legends.
"Sir?"
He turned around on his chair. His assistant was standing there, obviously unnerved by the unmoving beasts.
"What?"
"Something's happening in Rustboro. They're saying that a Deoxys is attacking."
Samuel thought about it for a moment.
"Fetch me a Master Ball, and a transport."
As the three of them stood on the rooftop, Deoxys suddenly shot past them, too fast to see. As it went, Pidgeot jumped into the air and squawked loudly, and a wind ruffled their hair. They ran to the edge to look down, to see that Deoxys had changed from speed forme to normal forme, and was now floating over one hundred metres up. For a moment it did nothing, but then a blue and pink aurora burst from it and rose into the air, and from it dark figures appeared.
"What are they?" Roxanne asked.
"They're Deoxys, hundreds of them." Aria said.
They were.
Hundreds of shadowy Deoxys clones were now flying down around them. A few of them swooped down to the roof where they were standing.
"They might be friendly." James said. The clone looked at them for a moment, before shooting forward.
"Bullet Seed!" Roxanne shouted. Tropius shot a barrage of seeds at the clone, and the instant the first ones hit the clone it exploded into a cloud of shimmering particles.
"That was easy." James said, slightly taken aback. From their left another suddenly immerged. It flew past them and swiped at Tropius. The fruit pokémon shot backward, spinning, and fell off the edge.
"No!" Roxanne shouted.
"Here!" James shouted, quickly climbing aboard Pidgeot's ready back. The two of them dived off the sky scraper after Tropius. Clones flew down around them, slowing Tropius' decent but readying themselves to stop James completely.
"Air Slash!" James said. Pidgeot screamed, and on the down beat it let lose two blades of wind, which cut through the clones.
"Quick Attack!" James told it, and Pidgeot shot down through the gap, grabbed Tropius in its huge talons, and deposited it on the road. Then it landed a good distance away, on a stretch of road clear from cars or debris.
"Pidgeot, you have to listen to me!" James told it. He could tell that the bird pokémon understood.
"Go, everybody!" James said.
Five flashes of light.
Sceptile, Blaze, Swampert, Umbreon and Rampardos appeared around him, forming a defensive formation.
"Get rid of as many as you can." James told his pokémon as the cloud of clones grew closer. Then they were upon him.
"Protect!" Swampert bellowed, and a green dome shield burst into existence, as though some giant had placed an upside-down bowl on him and all his pokémon. A good number of clones smacked into the shield, and were destroyed instantly. Then the others flew up and around it.
"Fan out!" James said. The shield faded, and Blaze and Rampardos instantly let loose two tongues of fire. James and Pidgeot burst through the Flamethrower attacks, and flew through a group of Deoxys. It flew above the cloud and turned back to face them.
"Gust!" James said. Pidgeot whipped up a wind with its wings, and the clones were pushed downward, becoming caught in the fire and destroyed.
Sceptile jumped, landing on the side of the building. It used Leaf Blade to break an attacking Clone, before charging up Solar Beam and firing. The attack blasted a huge hole in the attacking clones, before one of them came in from the side and hit Sceptile hard.
Rampardos shot a blast of fire at the clones, before running in at full charge. The clones swooped out of the way like strings in water and one of them collided with one of Rampardos' legs. The head butt pokémon went down, and the clones swooped in to finish it, only to be caught by Swampert's Protect. Rampardos, safe, got to its feet and roared, and Swampert roared in agreement. The Protect ended, and Swampert let loose a wave of Muddy Water around it, washing away the clones that had encircled them.
Blaze leapt high into the air, blasted a group of clones with Flamethrower, and sent out a fiery kick to one had had gotten too close. As it started to fall, it went into a Brave Bird, slicing through clones that dared to get in front of it. Approaching the ground, it flipped and smashed into the road feet first. It went down to one hand, but straightened up instantly. Out of the corner of its eye Sceptile blasted a group of clones with Solar Beam, before going down. Blaze roared and sprinted for the forest pokémon, its hand starting to glow as it readied a Brick Break. Sceptile clutched at the building as a clone flew down on it from above. As Blaze reached the building, it jumped up to Sceptile, and brought its fist up to meet Deoxys, transforming the Brick Break into a powerful Sky Uppercut.
Pidgeot and James swooped around, slashing out at clones. James had been able to catch snatches of his pokémon fighting, as well as a quick view of Aria and Roxanne fighting together. Suddenly Pidgeot was hit from behind, and it flipped over. James flew off its back, straight for the ground.
He stopped a metre or so before he made contact.
Umbreon, who had caught James using Psychic, pulled its trainer over to where it was standing, before dropping him. James landed on the road and rolled over.
"Ugh…" He muttered, "Dark Pulse!" Umbreon let loose a burst of darkness which ripped through the ranks of Deoxys. He got to his feet to face a solid wall of clones approaching them.
"Get ready," James told his dark type. He had no idea what Umbreon was preparing to do, just that it should.
The wall stopped.
The clones all started squirming in the air, before every one of them was destroyed. James looked around, confused, before seeing something that he really didn't want to see.
Samuel the collector was standing a few metres away, flanked by a Suicune and an Entei.
"You!" James said, running at the man. The two beasts suddenly jumped forward, however were knocked aside by Swampert and Sceptile. Blaze landed behind Samuel and grabbed his collar, lifting him off the ground.
"What are you doing?" James roared at him.
"Capturing a legend." Samuel said. At that moment Entei broke away from Swampert and fired a ball of flames – a Fire Blast – at Deoxys, who was in attack forme. The Fire Blast connected and exploded. Deoxys fell from the sky again, landing not so far away.
During the distraction, Samuel flicked out a pocket knife and stabbed Blaze in the arm. The Blaziken yelled with pain and dropped the human, who made a dash for Deoxys.
"Blaze!" James screamed. Blaze however seemed fine, and fire blasted from its wrists, sealing the wound shut.
"Stop him!" James told his pokémon. Blaze bent down and picked up a piece of rock about the size of an enlarged poke ball. Blaze lobbed it at Samuel, and hit the collector in the back. Samuel fell over, dropping something, which rolled away and enlarged.
A Master Ball.
James ran for it. Samuel, dazed but with a significant lead, lunged for the ball too. From behind them Umbreon shot a Shadow Ball, which made Samuel fall over again. James got to the Master Ball and picked it up. Samuel jumped to his feet and lunged for James, but the trainer threw the ball automatically.
Straight at Deoxys.
The Master Ball hit Deoxys on the arm, and the DNA pokémon disappeared in a flash of purple light. The Master Ball closed and returned to James' hand. Samuel looked at it.
"Give it to me!" He yelled.
"Deoxys!" James shouted, holding the ball up.
"Get me out of here now!" Samuel screamed to the air, suddenly terrified that James would release Deoxys upon him.
The collector disappeared.
No flash of light, just sudden absence, in the blink of an eye.
Something had Teleported him, James knew that for certain.
Suicune and Entei were gone too.
James looked down at the Master Ball in his hand.
A few days later they were allowed to leave Rustboro. It was a great relief. In the end, it was probably Steven's word that got them away. The police desperately wanted to blame someone for the destruction, and they thought James was a prime candidate. However, after the researcher who aggravated the Deoxys stone in the first pace was arrested and fined, they seemed less eagre to hold charges on James. He still had the Master Ball containing Deoxys. He hadn't let it out yet, not even for food. James was sure that Deoxys would be fine without food, and knew that worse things then starvation would happen if it was let out.
They Teleported home as usual, sending Rampardos back to the farm and exchanging it for Gallade, who sent the pair of them to James' house straight away. There was hugs, there was crying, for the whole of Hoenn – and most of the rest of the world besides – had seen on the news of what had happened to Rustboro. A large section of the city was sealed off now, and it could be years before life returned to normal there.
Later that afternoon, when the relief that James and Aria had made it back (Aria had received some tears and hugs too) James Teleported out once again, to the mountains near Lavaridge town, taking only the Master Ball.
About three quarters up the mountain, on a sort of ridge, James told Gallade that he would call it, and sent the pokémon away. He then placed the enlarged Master Ball on the ground, and took a few steps back. A second or so later, it opened and Deoxys appeared in a burst of purple light. It looked dazed and confused for a moment or two, before it took in its surroundings and came closer to James. Not once had he even felt the DNA pokémon stirring in its ball. Deoxys floated right up to it and looked him in the face. There was definite gratitude in its eyes.
"Now, I know that I caught you," James told it, "But it was only to stop that collector dude from getting you. It wasn't really fair on you. So, I'm letting you go." He paused. "You can of course stay with me if you want." Deoxys looked from James to the sky, which was darkening. The first stars were visible, due to the absence of light pollution.
Deoxys looked back to James for a few moments, as though sealing his face in its memory, before changing suddenly into speed forme, and shooting like a rocket, into space.