The sun beat down on the wooden deck of the S.S. Anne, warming it so that it scorched barefoot passengers and sent them back into the pool for the relief of its cooling waters. Around the edge of the ship, below and beyond the metal guardrail, another kind of water dully broke against the ship's steel hide in smooth waves that caused the vessel to undulate in a slow, soothing rhythm.

The climate it had sailed into over the past day was far different than from where it had started. While the temperature in Kanto was warm, it couldn't compare to the heat and humidity of the Alola region. Most of the passengers on the famous cruise ship were taking advantage of the clear skies and unfettered sun by lounging on the deck and in the pool to tan, hoping to return to their homes several shades darker.

Two passengers, however, were not participating in the activity. Leaning against the guardrail of the ship, Red, the famous league champion from Kanto, sipped a soda pop while he stared idly out ahead, waiting until their island destination came into view. To his right, his rival since childhood, the Viridian City Gym Leader, Green Oak, flipped through a travel brochure, trying his best to memorize the map before they made land.

"No mention of the Ultra Beast incident we heard about," Green muttered, scanning through the list of attractions.

Red shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe they haven't updated it yet."

Green checked the date on the brochure. "No, this is from after."

Red sipped from his drink and shrugged again. "It's something they don't want potential visitors to know about, I guess."

"I read some more about it. There were apparently two kids who got caught up in it," Green added. "Dexholders. Just about as young as we were when we left on our journeys."

"Even more Dexholders," Red laughed. He shook his head in disbelief. "That's crazy. How many are there now, then? Twenty?"

"Twenty-one," Green corrected.

Red shook his head again. "Twenty-one. Jeez. It sure has come a long way from just the three of us from Pallet, hasn't it?"

"Two of us, if you don't count that pesky woman."

"Why do you call her that?" Red wondered. He sipped his soda again and clarified, "Pesky woman, I mean."

Green lowered the brochure, a halfway dangerous flash in his eyes, warning that this was unsafe territory. "She's a woman, and she gets on my nerves. It's nothing more than that."

"Not so annoying that you don't spend a lot of time with her," Red teased with a smirk, gently elbowing his companion in the ribs. He often ignored Green's subtle warnings.

"That's only research projects," Green countered, a little too defensively. "You know that. She builds devices, and she needs my help implementing them. That's all there is to it." His tone made clear he wasn't in the mood to discuss any further.

"Okay, okay," Red relented. "Just research projects, I get it. But, uh…" His normally relaxed expression suddenly turned serious. "This specific research project, or whatever you call it. What's it about again?"

A month ago, the 'pesky woman,' Blue, had gotten an urgent summons through Professor Oak from a mysterious lab in the Alola region. She'd left a letter behind explaining that she wouldn't be gone for long, and that her involvement in the research was completely safe, to address any worries her close friends might have. But the haste with which she'd left and the new message Red and Green had received two days ago, which had motivated this trip, didn't make things any less concerning.

Green closed his eyes in pensive thought. "I don't know that much about it. She sent a report to my grandpa, which means it's important. All he told me was that she and her associates in this lab have been finding some anomalies in the space-time continuum, and she needs us to get there as soon as possible to help out."

A moment of grave silence followed his words, the severity of what he had said seeming to darken even the bright tropical sun and chill the merriment of the children and Pokémon splashing about in the pool.

Red shivered. "Sounds bad, but…" He drained the rest of his soda and tossed the can into a nearby trash receptacle. "If the crisis hasn't started yet, I don't think we have much to worry about right now. I'm just looking forward to seeing Yellow again."

Red and Green's mutual friend, Yellow, had traveled to the Alola region half a month ago to help Professor Oak's cousin, Samson Oak, with the cleanup from the Ultra Beast incident, since a large part of the region had been wrecked or consumed during the alien creatures' rampage. The younger girl was staying at Samson's lab, which was on the island the S.S. Anne would be stopping at first.

Green nodded. "I'm sure my gramps' cousin is glad to have her around. She has a way with Pokémon that should be useful in restoring the ecosystem."

"I hope she isn't feeling homesick, though," Red worried. "Long times away from the Viridian Forest have always been difficult for her."

The forest that was both Yellow's home and the source of her powers had proven integral to the girl's wellbeing time and time again, and extended absences had been detrimental to her health, something which Red was very familiar with, since he was often involved in caring for her when she started to feel those ill effects.

"It hasn't been that long," Green pointed out, shrugging. "I'm sure she's fine."

Red grunted. "I hope so. I don't like the thought of her feeling bad."

"Whoa!" came a young boy's voice from behind the two trainers. They turned to find a young boy, no more than ten, staring up at them in wide-eyed awe. "It is you! Red, from Pallet Town!"

Grinning, Red knelt down so he was at the boy's height and extended a hand. "That's me," he affirmed as the boy shook it vigorously. "What's your name?"

"I'm Jimmy! I'm from the Unova region!" The boy grinned wide. "My town got frozen a few months ago, but we're all okay now!"

"O-Oh." Red wasn't sure exactly how to respond to that. "That's… good to hear, I guess?"

"You got frozen a long time ago too, didn't you?" Jimmy wondered.

"Yeah, for a little bit." Red chuckled. "How'd you know that?"

The boy's eyes grew wide again. "I've been reading all about you since I was three!" He held up three tiny fingers to demonstrate. "You're so cool! My favorite story is when you won the Kanto league when you were a kid!"

Red glanced up at Green, who was smirking at the conversation. "Well, Jimmy, the guy I battled against in that tournament is actually right here. Say 'hi,' Green."

Green didn't kneel like Red. Instead, he gave the young boy a cool nod and said, "Hello."

Red was afraid Jimmy's eyes might pop out of his skull. The kid's mouth stretched to its breaking point in an awe-stricken grin. "Wow! Mister Green is here too? That's so awesome! You two are, like, my favorite trainers ever! I wanna grow up and battle Pokémon just like you!"

"That's a great goal to have, Jimmy," Red said with a smile. "I'm sure if you put your mind to it, you'll be an incredible trainer."

"I'm gonna battle you when I get really strong," the young boy told him seriously. "I wanna get good enough to battle you someday!"

"You'll have to be very strong," Green warned, offering a rare compliment to his friend. "Red is a great trainer. He's the strongest of us. It takes a lot to beat him."

"I know!" Jimmy exclaimed, his enthusiasm still through the roof. "But I'm gonna do it!"

Red laughed good-naturedly, ruffling the kid's hair. "And I'll be looking forward to the day we battle."

The S.S. Anne's intercom system crackled to life above them, interrupting the conversation. "This is the captain speaking," it projected across the deck. "We are about to pass by another ship. You should be able to see it straight ahead. The passengers look like they're waving at us, so if everyone on deck would be polite and wave back, I bet it'd make their day."

On the captain's prompting, the people and Pokémon in the pool waded out and gathered at the guardrail, while the passengers who were tanning slowly got to their feet, rousing those who had fallen asleep in the soothing sunshine, and ambled over behind them to look over the shoulders of anyone shorter.

Red stood to his full height and looked out at the ship, which was rapidly drawing closer, squinting to see the passengers. He saw many people on the other vessel's smaller deck waving their arms, but upon a closer look, he noticed quite a bit of running back and forth and distant screaming that was quickly getting louder. "Uh, I don't think they're waving."

"And there's why." Green pointed toward the water just in front of the other ship.

Red squinted some more and made out a jumble of blue, red, and navy figures. When one thrashed around and shot a beam of water at the other ship, knocking it sideways, he saw a jumbled mess of tentacles, and realized it was a large group of familiar Pokémon. "It's a pod of Tentacruel."

Green nodded. "Sharpedo too, if I'm not mistaken."

"Ah crap. They're gonna do some serious damage if they keep going like that." Red glanced at his friend. "We've gotta do something."

"You can do it, guys!" Jimmy cheered, excited to see his heroes in action. "You two together can do anything!"

Red gave the boy another smile. "Thanks, kid. Don't worry, everything is gonna be okay."

In the distance, the three heard a young, female voice cry out, "Decidueye, leaf blade!" and an ever-so-slightly deeper male voice shout, "Dong, hit 'em with an avalanche!"

As they watched, a small, birdlike creature dived from the ship and slashed repeatedly at the water type Pokémon causing havoc with its wings, which it seemed to have sharpened with a coat of foliage. A giant feature that, strangely, resembled a very furry crab, jumped from the ship as well, slamming into the water, where it floated on a self-made iceberg, and proceeding to hurl large chunks of glaciated water from the surrounding at the sea, which crashed into the Pokémon and knocked several of them out.

"Who are they?" Red wondered aloud, trying to get a good look at the two trainers who had started to fight the attackers. Though it was almost impossible to distinguish any one particular figure from the mess of limbs and bodies on the deck, he swore he made out a girl with short hair and a boy with an overlarge pair of shorts commanding the Pokémon.

Suddenly, a loud, high-pitched pinging noise came from both his and Green's pockets, and they simultaneously pulled out their Pokédexes, which were the source of the noise. In the distance, cutting through all the screams of terror from the other ship and the now-worried muttering from the passengers on their own vessel, identical pings sounded from the other ship. He and Green exchanged a glance, and the serious trainer stated, "They're Pokédex holders."

Jimmy was practically catatonic at this point. Clutching his head, he choked out, "There are more of you here?!"

"But… huh?" Red wondered, bewildered. "Pokédexes only do that when they're from the same region, right? Is this a new thing or…?"

Just then, a human voice shouted from the mass of water Pokémon. Red wasn't sure, but he thought it was a young man exclaiming, "Ah screw it!" As he squinted to try to see the source of the voice, the crowd of Pokémon began to gyrate fervently, stirring the water around them into choppy waves and creating foamy bubbles everywhere, like the water was boiling.

Too late, Red realized what they were doing, but by the time he shouted, "They're using rain dance!" the sky had already swarmed with clouds that blotted out the sun, wind had begun to howl, droplets of water were starting to fall from above, and a bolt of lightning and almost simultaneous thunder split the sky and threw the crowd into a panic.

The waves instantly grew to ten times their former size, tossing even the massive SS Anne around like a child's playtoy. If it wasn't for the guardrail, several passengers would have gone overboard in seconds.

"All passengers, proceed to the lower decks immediately!" the captain ordered over the PA, though the order was unnecessary, since everyone was storming the staircase. Red and Green barely managed to hold on to the guardrail, and Jimmy snatched onto one of Red's pants legs to avoid being thrown off the boat completely.

"Oh no!" the boy wailed. "Oh no, oh no, oh no!"

"Get below deck!" Red ordered, shouting over the deafening wind and rain and rumbling thunder. "Find your parents! We'll keep you all safe!"

"Oh no!" Jimmy said again, but he followed the instruction and sprinted across the deck and down the stairs once it was flat enough to move.

Red joined Green in staring down the Pokémon, which were now much closer than before. "You got a plan?"

Green shook his head slowly, keeping his cool. "Not one."

"Great, just how I like it." Red gritted his teeth and threw a Pokéball. "Poli!" From the ball, Red's Poliwrath appeared in a puff of smoke and quickly latched onto the rail with one arm, gripping on tight as the ship hurtled uncontrollably through the stormy waters. "Get a little closer and use ice beam on as many of them as you can!" Red instructed. The Pokémon saluted and dove overboard. It would have no trouble swimming through the dangerous waters.

"I'll wait until we get closer so Golduck can unleash its full power on them," Green informed Red. "Until then, there's nothing we can do."

"Will all passengers please proceed below deck?" the captain pleaded over the PA. In response, Red simply waved back toward the tinted glass room that he knew the captain and main crew were in. This was his and Green's job. They were of infinitely more use above deck than below.

Across the water, now alarmingly close, the two passengers still on the deck of the other ship, the boy and girl Red had seen earlier, were still commanding their own Pokémon to attack the ones causing trouble. As he watched the owl-like Pokémon dive bomb again, he thought he saw, for a split second in a flash of lightning, human forms riding on the top of a few of the water Pokémon, but then the thunder roared and it was impossible to tell one shape from the next.

The boats continued to creep closer. "Now might be a good time to unleash that psychic power," Red shouted to Green, trying desperately to keep the panic out of his voice.

"They're not in range yet!" Green shouted back. "The most Golduck could do is give them a headache!"

Red gritted his teeth and thought desperately for something-anything he could do. He hated feeling helpless like this. Without any sun or solid ground, Saur wouldn't be able to help; he didn't want to risk sending out Aero because of his type disadvantage-one wrong wave or one stray bolt of lightning would knock him out of the sky; Pika would have the super effective edge, but he was small and would get tossed around; Gyara could swim, but with that many opponents, if any of them knew ice beam, he was toast… He was out of options. Desperately, he turned to the tinted glass room again and waved both arms, trying to signal the captain to change the boat's course, but it was no use.

Then, out of nowhere, a massive wave struck the ship from behind and it lurched forward. Red, with his hands off the guardrail, lost his balance, and his feet slipped off the deck. In the air, he heard Green shout, "Hold on!" and then a deafening crunch that shattered the world.

Their boat had finally crashed into the other.

Red's head slammed into the guardrail, and he was instantly unconscious. Green watched in horror as his friend flopped like a ragdoll and slipped under the rail, tumbling down into the waters below.

"Red!" he roared, fighting the urge to leap over the edge and pull his friend out of the ocean as the ships continued ripping each other to shreds. If he dived now, he'd be killed before he could even start to search.

"Sun!" another voice, young and female, wailed. Green looked up to find the girl he and Red had seen before, the one commanding the owl Pokémon, gripping desperately onto the shirt of a boy her age, shaking him in an effort to rouse him from the unconscious stupor the crash had induced.

The girl's dark hair was matted with water, twin braids hanging in disarray. Her purple eyes were terrified, her expression fiercely protective. The boy she clung to had messy hair of the same color that flopped around as his head lolled back and forth.

"Hey, you!" Green shouted over the tumult, gripping the guardrail for dear life as the hulls collapsed. "We have to get out of here!"

The girl looked up in a panic. "Who are-?" She trailed off with wide eyes as Green finally pulled the device from his pocket he'd been fumbling with since he opened his mouth. "A Pokédex! So it was-"

"Proximity sonar, yes," Green cut her off. "We have to work together-do you have any Pokemon that can fly?"

"Yes, I-" This time the girl interrupted herself, turning toward the mass of water Pokémon and shouting, "Decidueye! Dong!"

Before Green could question what she'd just said, the owl Pokémon swooped over the edge of the other ship's guardrail, followed by a hulking mass of white fur that somewhat resembled a very muscular Crawdaunt. The owl, which Green now noticed seemed to be wearing a cloak of leaves, landed and folded its wings, swaying evenly with the ship's deck like it wasn't bothered, while the furry crab landed with a thud, nudged a Pokéball at the unconscious boy's belt, and vanished inside in a puff of smoke.

Green shook his head and made a mental note to ask about these strange new Pokémon after things had settled and they'd fished Red from the waters. "Can it carry your friend?" he asked the girl, who nodded. "Good. Stick close to me."

He returned his Golduck and sent out his Pidgeot in its place, which ruffled its feathers to keep them from getting waterlogged. "Let's move," he told it as he slung himself onto its back. The Pokémon screeched and took off in a flurry of tan feathers, and the girl's owl followed suit with her on its back and the boy's arms clenched in its talons.

Two conflicting priorities clashed in Green's head as they flew out of the storm. His first instinct was to flee from the bad weather and crashing ships, alert the nearest authorities, and head up a rescue party to keep casualties to a minimum. But one of those potential casualties was his best friend, who was drowning in the ocean. If he waited too long, Red would certainly die.

While he was debating, though, a flash of lightning lit up the sky, and before he could register what was happening, blistering pain shot through his system and then he was spiraling… spiraling down to the dark waters below…

...

The deep unconsciousness lasted forever. When Green finally awoke once again, his body was on fire with pain. His eyes could barely open. Through his squinted lids, he saw brilliant blue sky above. But as two strong arms reached down and lifted him out of the water, his muscles froze, his vision darkened, and he slipped into the depths once again...