"What? I can't go? But why?"
"I have to maintain a human illusion with the Haxorus, and thus I would have to be wary of all conscious minds around me. Your presence would distract me."
Latias's face is inscrutable as she denies my request to attend Rue's prosthetic testing. Frustrated, I ask, "What am I supposed to do, then, stay home for another day?"
"I'm afraid so," she answers curtly.
I groan and lie down on the sofa. "But I told Rue that I would go watch! This isn't fun…"
"I just want to remind you: you're not here on a vacation. Once the testing is done and the prosthetic tusk is fitted, you two will return to the island immediately."
I don't answer as I ponder about actually leaving. Sure, the human world is fun, but it seems rather messy and even scary. Latias told me that if my psychic powers were to be revealed, then there would be many human organizations clamouring over me for various unethical reasons. Society is complex and humans moreso, she said.
"I'm going to head out now. If everything goes smoothly, we may be done by the evening."
"Okay," I answer absentmindedly. I have been missing from home for quite a few days already, and it frustrates me. I've once left them for months, and that did not do good for my image in their eyes - now, even when I am away for legitimate reasons, they might think poorly of me.
"See you." Latias has slipped out of the door as I was lost in thought. The door shuts behind her as I am left alone in this spacious apartment.
It is only morning. I have so much time to kill.
I've already spent too much time on the computer yesterday. I was trying to find information on Latias's species, but other than what I already know, there is nothing useful. So I continued to try and search about what possibly could cause a psychic Flygon, but the results were mostly nonsensical. Then Latias came home and caught me. She scolded me rather harshly, saying that the human government can track what I input and perhaps put me on a list for suspicious behaviour. How was I supposed to know that?
Instead of returning to the computer, I simply turn on the television and see what is interesting. I spend most of my time on a human game show, watching their mannerisms and studying their body language, before I move on to a news channel about an upcoming election. By the time I finish eating the leftover berries, the television program has moved onto a boring beauty contest. What right do humans have to judge Pokemon's beauty? I simply turn off the volume and lie down on the sofa and stretch out my limbs.
What will my goals be do when we return? I had mostly been occupied with taking care of my younger brother, but now that he's gone…
Wait. If I have the ability to search for information that the human world provides me…
A quick search of "How to bring back the dead" gives me a bunch of results about 'zombies', which I discover are fictional. Then I type "How to bring back the dead in real life", and am instead given a lecture about brain death and how memory and personality cannot be retrieved after that.
Of course. If it were so easy, wouldn't Latias still have a brother?
Enough about that. I need to worry about the people still alive. When I head back, I am going to get Phendrene and the children as far from danger as possible. Only after that will I agree to plan on assaulting their palace with my father, and in that case we better be more prepared. As much as thinking about that Scyther brings me bloodlust, the image of Rue lying tuskless in a puddle of blood is enough to stop me and make me think about what my priorities are.
Where will I take Phendrene to, then? The desert certainly isn't hospitable enough for any species that's not Flygon. We could only stay at the Shallows due to the lake, but that place is not safe enough. What about the heart of Novaria? Would the other Charizard leave the Gible and Bagon alone? Maybe I should just bring her somewhere else altogether, far away from the conflict, like the west of the mountains, where Latias's lair is located. No dragons live there.
An idea suddenly pops into my head and I enter my search term, "Evitern Nature Reserve". While I am greeted with an interesting introduction, I decide to defer reading it in favor for a more detailed look at the map.
It takes me a minute to find the southeastern corner of the island, where there is a conspicuous desert surrounded by forests and mountains. The shore goes diagonally down in what appears to be canyon-like landscape, past the edge of the mountains, and into some green-white snowy region.
The sea is close on the west, but I am surprised how much farther north the island goes. From the satellite image, the northern lands seem very lush and green. On the western side, I estimate Latias's cave to be less than a day's flight from the shore. It's closer to the sea than it is to Fen's cave. I guess that's why dragons don't live there, then.
Most conspicuously, there are other islands off the coast. I never saw anything off the coast when we went down to the shore. Maybe it would be too far out to see, even though it doesn't seem like a long flight. But few dragons would fly over an ocean with the destination land out of site. The largest of the subsidiary islands is to the southeast of Novaria, so I could try reaching it.
The northern territory and the southern island both seem like potential safe havens. Although, Phendrene would not be able to defend herself against aggressive Pokemon, so I may have to stay with her? Could I just have Rue watch them as I go fight with Father? No, a Haxorus can't fly…
I'll figure out the logistics once I return. In the meanwhile, I'll read the article to gather whatever information I can.
Evitern
Evitern is an archipelago located in the Southern Hemisphere which currently serves as a Nature Reserve. It borders the Antarctic circle and is surrounded by the Southern Ocean. At 110,154 square kilometres, it is the fourth largest island not connected to a mainland continent, and the largest condominium behind Antarctica.
Evitern has a wide variety of climates, resulting in rich biodiversity in its flora and fauna. It currently contains Pokémon native to Hoenn, Johto, Kanto, and Sinnoh, as a legacy of national restrictions when humans occupied the island.
Evitern used to be a sovereign island state before year 3622, when the Eviternian Civil War erupted. Due to the detonation of a nuclear weapon, the International League intervened and evacuated all humans. Since then, the estimated human population has been estimated to be as low as zero and as high as twenty throughout the years.
Evitern is a de facto condominium, governed by parties that have consulting status in the International League. In 3624, the parties expanded Evitern Nature Reserve to be territory governed under the centuries old Antarctic Treaty. The treaty prohibits military activities and mineral mining, prohibits nuclear testing and waste disposal, supports scientific research, and protects the island's ecozone. However, a special clause to Evitern was declared as part of the Nature Preservation Initiative, which further barred any and all human presence and activity on Evitern's landmass and within 50km of any islands belonging to the archipelago.
Data on Evitern's state for the past five centuries are limited due to the lack of human observation and interference. Pokémon have been employed to conduct scientific study of the region, though results are scarce and unreliable.
Contents [hide]
1 Etymology
2 History of human occupation
2.1 Cultural legacy
3 Geography
3.1 Main island
3.2 Sea's Edge
3.3 Other islands
4 Geology
4.1 Geological history and palaeontology
4.1.1 Palaeozoic era (540–250 Ma)
4.1.2 Mesozoic era (250–66 Ma)
4.1.3 Gondwana breakup (160–23 Ma)
4.1.4 Neogene Period (23–0.05 Ma)
4.2 Present-day
5 Climate
6 Biodiversity
6.1 Pokémon
6.2 Plants
6.3 Fungi
6.4 Other organisms
7 Political disputes
7.1 Treatments of trespassers
7.2 Tourism
7.3 Pokémon transfers
9 See also
10 References
Etymology
…
Glancing at the table of contents, I realize that this article has far more information that I am looking for. I don't even know what the word etymology means. So I simply scroll down the page and check the relevant portions.
The Geography section doesn't describe much more than what I saw from the map. The Geology section starts with "More than 170 million years ago" and talks about tectonic plates. Climate is mildly useful, but saying that it gets colder and drier down south in two huge glorified paragraphs is hardly efficient.
But the text begins catching my attention at the next section, biodiversity. Particularly, one paragraph mentioning dragons.
In 3967, Sierra reported high populations of dragons in the southwestern region of the main island. Scientists have theorized that due to the radioactive remnants, there has been mutations which inadvertently increased the low fertility rate of dragons, but there is no conclusive proof. In addition, Flygon have been noted to reproduce with members of the Dragon Egg Group. The biodiversity was observed to be similar to the Kanto-Johto and Sinnoh region elsewhere on the island.
In 4024, Mypheus reported a surprising lack of psychics, again in the southwestern region. There is currently no link established between this phenomenon and others, and research was halted when Mypheus did not return from a 4028 expedition.
I wonder why no one ever found psychics. Surely there must have been dragons that flew north and then back south.
But wait. That dragon could be me.
A smile comes to my face as I remember my days of exploring what was then the unknown mountains. It was with Latias's illusion, but even aside from that, just the experience of diving through snow, finding the end of the mountain range, and discovering the sea… It was such a mesmerizing adventure.
I decide to not spoil myself of the surprises and almost exit the page before I remember something that caught my attention on the table of contents.
Pokémon transfers
There have been transfers for Pokémon that originated in human territory but expressed a desire to head to the Nature Reserve. Such transfers are rare and approval of them is even rarer still. There have been disputes within the International League on whether to allow transfers. Currently, it is allowed as long as the transferee is a Pokémon.
The list of transfers known to the public is are noted below.
…
4100-present:
Cyril
Miracle
Arya*
Mypheus*
Sylvia
Tabion
*These Pokémon were not approved for transfer but are presumed to have settled on the island.
Sylvia's link appears purple, which by now I know is because I have already read it. Cyril was a wild Haxorus with unusually large tusks, who had several attempts on his tusk by poachers until a public petition got him to Evitern. Miracle was a Scolipede that had received accolades for his charity work in a Pokémon sovereign state and wished to retire in comfort. Arya was an Zoroark who was a fugitive in the same Pokemon sovereign state, known as a deadly assassin, and she was said to be sighted by Mypheus. And Mypheus himself was the Swellow that reported back to human scientists but one day disappeared, presumably flying off to live on the island. The text for Tabion is black, which meant I can't click on it and discover what species they are, but I suppose that means they're insignificant.
Cyril the Haxorus is probably the only one of note, anyway, since I bet Rue would love to meet him, if he is still alive. I suppose I should be wary of Arya too, if she is truly on the island. Perhaps she is with those non-dragons… Nah, I didn't notice any Zoroark. Surely they would have deployed her against the psychic Flygon.
With all of my newfound knowledge about the island, I become anxious to return. I am pondering where I should explore as I finish some leftover berries when I hear the door open.
I dash over to the entrance, only to find myself face to face with a human girl. Her eyes are dark as her black hair dangles down below her shoulder, covering up her red-white dress. It takes me a moment to spot the Haxorus behind her, with a thick, silvery blade attached to her face.
"Yo, Nova!" Rue calls as she runs inside. "This thing is sick! It's heavier than my real tusk, but way stronger! The humans really have unbelievable technology."
"Wow." I step over and run a claw along the blade flat. It's surprisingly smooth and cool to the touch. "This is impressive. Thank you, Lat- I mean, Alice," I say as I turn to the girl, who has stepped into the living room.
Rue shakes her head. "No, she's not Alice, she's-"
"I am." In the blink of an eye, the girl disappears and I find Latias standing before me. Rue stares at her, stunned, before she says, "I posed as a regular human to ensure you would act normal in public. You would probably behave abnormally if you knew I was actually a Latias."
"Oh, well, that was smart." Rue scratches her neck as she looks away. "Um, thank you for getting me this prosthetic tusk. And for saving my life."
"I owed Nova a favor," she says and turns to me. "Now, I believe you are ready to return to the island?"
"This soon?" Rue says, but I raise my arm to stop her.
"You're not here to take a tour of the human world. We should go back before the human authorities find out," I tell her, remembering Latias's warnings to me.
"Wait, what do you mean? How does that-"
"Enough." Latias's voice silences both of us. "You two may continue conversation after I teleport. Where would you like your destination to be?"
Seeing Rue's silence, I answer. "Ah, I think above the cave would be good. The cave where we lived?"
"So, the place where you slashed me?" Latias answers in a polite voice.
"…Uh, yeah, that's the place." I glance over to Rue to try and alleviate some of my discomfort, but she seems to be zoning out.
"Are you two ready, then?"
"Rue?" I call out.
"Sorry." She shakes her head, apparently trying to refocus her attention. "Okay, I'm ready." The Haxorus steps forward. "I'm just thinking that a detachable yet deadly prosthetic might be a bit conspicuous. Maybe we should have got something simpler."
Latias shrugs. "Too late now," she says before levitating forward. "Now, may please you hold your hands together?"
Rue and I lock arms as we assume the position that we are in when I prepare to teleport the two of us. Except this time, Latias is the one that circles around to my back, and upon pressing her paws gently to my waist, I feel the familiar environmental shifting of teleportation. A gust of cool air hits me as I feel the soft dirt beneath my feet, as I blink and see the mountains in the distance, the setting sun casting a long shadow in these skies. I remember my evening dances with Phendrene…
"We're back!" Rue says and raises her head. I follow her gaze and find the small stream that flows from the mountains, the one that we've drank from for so long. "Thank you again, Latias."
"This favor is now done," Latias says in a cordial yet formal tone. "I'll be taking my leave, then."
"So, I guess this is goodbye?" I say, somewhat reluctant. "Will I see you again?"
"If you require me, you have my contact method," she says with a nod. "But I will not assist you to this degree anymore."
"Okay. I understand." I stare at Latias, thinking of what else I should say to her. "Take care of yourself."
"Thank you. Farewell."
And then she vanishes.
Rue's paw on my shoulder makes me flinch. "Are you all right?"
"Yeah," I mutter, and turn around. "Let's be more careful from here onwards. We need to stay alive."
"Of course," Rue says, and gives me a firm pat. "We have Nova the psychic prodigy with Rue the upgraded tusk dragon. We'll make it through anything."
I smile at her and put my arms on hers. "Let's head home, then? Phendrene's waiting."
"Of course."
Rue readily climbs onto my back, and I begin to glide over the cliffside. As I turn around, though, I find something amiss. The vines that are supposed to obscure the door are gone, and the place where the door was supposed to see is just solid rock.
A Haxorus paw squeezes my shoulder as we land, but I ignore her. She leaps off by herself as I walk over and put my paw along the wall.
"It… it got filled up?" Rue exclaims. "What happened?
I ignore her words and find an unease growing in my heart. Focusing my gaze, I tear the entire slab of rock off to reveal a small opening… and find the room filled with dust and rubble.
My arms move instinctively as I rapidly digging through. I excavate half the room within seconds but it doesn't feel like enough. The walls are barely recognizable, and I can't even tell where the ceiling was. Was there a cave in? How? I force the earth aside to clear a path to where the beds would be, and in fact, I do find the bedpost. Feeling a sense of dread, I uncover the debris above the beds, and only rocks and dust on them. No bodies.
Sighing in relief, I look back and realized I am rather far into the cliffside. Rue is looking in from the opening, her head and tusks silhouetted against the sky.
"They got out. No bodies here," I tell her. "Let me check Fen's room, too."
It doesn't take very long to get to the door, and I realize that this room is rather well preserved. However, with the displaced rocks nearly clogging up the entrance, I barely have any light to see. I puff a small flamethrower, and in the wake of the flame's aftertaste I see only the furniture and nothing else.
"Yeah, they definitely got out!" I shout to reassure her, and maybe myself. "Fen's books and supplies are all gone. They're definitely safe."
"Good. Now hurry up and get out here before it caves in!"
"Flygon aren't afraid of cave-ins," I tell her as I emerge outside, and pat the dust off my scales. "What in the world happened?"
"Maybe they realized that it's dangerous to live here," Rue suggests as she begins fiddling with her real tusk nervously. "But they should have left us a note or something…"
"But they wouldn't need to cave it in. Something's wrong. We need to go find the other Charizard!" I exclaim. "Where else could they be? We were only gone for four days!"
"Yeah, they'd be with the Charizard. Let's go find them!"
As soon as she gets her arms around my neck, I speed off into the rocky hills.
My eyes dart around the ground as I fly eastward. I keep on thinking that maybe I haven't reached Charizard territory yet, and that is the reason for the lack of any Charizard, but by the time I reach the empty square that the Charizard's New Year festival had been held, I know it in my heart that something is seriously amiss.
I spot a signpost in the middle of the square, and glide down onto the ground.
"Dragon territory hereon," I read off of the post as Rue climbs off. "Isn't this Charizard territory? Or did other dragons move here?"
"Forget about that. Where is everyone?" Rue says from behind me. "How could they just… disappear?"
"I don't know," I answer as I stare at the stage. So many Charizard had been gathered here on that day.
"I'm worried. If they're all gone, whether because they escaped or they were annihilated… Isn't this place unsafe for us, too? No, it can't be ice-types, Charizard wouldn't fear them…"
I never thought I believed in the supernatural, but the barren landscape gives me morbid thoughts. "What if… there was some ghost apocalypse…"
She tugs on my arm roughly. "Stop being dumb! That's not possible. Hey, why don't you check if there are minds of non-dragons here? Is it just that the Charizard are gone, or all creatures?"
I pause. Rue is right. I should have done that first. Carefully spreading my consciousness, I first detect Rue and her thoughts, and then…
I shudder as I am overwhelmed with the presence of countless hostile minds. Their attention focused on us. "Rue. We need to leave. Grab-"
"Halt!" A piercing screech interrupts me, and our eyes turn to the source of the sound. At the top of the neighbouring hill stands a Charizard, his face, wings, and abdomen painted with many battle scars. All of a sudden, the entire hills around us are surrounded with Charizard, Salamence, Garchomp, and even Sceptile. There must be at least ten- no, twenty of them. "Who goes there? How dare you infiltrate dragon territory?"
I frantically glance around as Rue and I lean against each other, facing opposite directions. "Watch my back," she whispers, before assuming battle stance. "We are dragons," Rue announces loudly.
"Yet you have not aided us in the war effort," the Charizard answers coldly. "You are not welcome here."
War effort? What is he talking about? I manage to read his surface thoughts but they mirror his words. He believes that we do not deserve hospitality because we did not help them.
"Head west and do not turn back. And you will remain unharmed."
"Who the fuck do you think you are?" Rue explodes at his outrageous threats. "Are you all brainwashed?"
"Watch your mouth, Haxorus. Another insult, and-"
I decide that enough is enough. With a gesture of my hands, I bring up a piece of earth and ride it as it rises up, forming a terrace that gives us equal elevation to the Charizard. Rue gives me a confused look from the center, but steadies herself and gives me a nod before keeping watch of my behind. I survey the tense dragons before turning to face the leader of the Charizard. "I am the psychic Flygon," I declare and stare him in the eye. "And I demand to know what is going on."
There is a period of silence as murmurs sound in the crowd, as the Charizard leader stares at me in disbelief. "No. You're bluffing."
I scoff and I leap up into the air. Some dragons rise in response, but they stop as they see my unmoving wings. "Would you like me to levitate you as well? Thought not. Now. Tell me what's going on."
The Charizard murmurs something to a Garchomp beside him, who flies off immediately. "Stay put here. We will wait for your identity to be verified."
His quivering voice does nothing to quell my discontent. "Do you really think you're the one giving orders here?" I strengthen my arm and dive down, striking the floor. A strong series of quakes centered around me begin to disperse, and the surrounding dragons begin to stumble and even fall over as I stare down the leader. "Tell me what happened to the Charizard here. Or I'll make you."
The Charizard leader begins glancing around unconfidently at his comrades. Taking a moment to look behind me, Rue is crouched and carefully watching the line of dragons that surround us from behind.
"Well?" I tear off a boulder from right below him, and juggle it tantalizingly. "I'm waiting."
"You… you could be an illusion," he finally says. "I'm waiting until Jet comes to verify your identity."
"Jet, hmm." I pause for a moment. "That is a familiar name. Tell me, what is he up to?"
"I'm afraid I cannot," he says nervously as he turns his head elsewhere. "It is under General Blight's orders that our activities are kept secret from outsiders."
General Blight? I glance backwards at Rue, and she also glances at me curiously, indicating that, yes, we did hear it right.
"What do you mean by General Blight?" I answer, becoming more desperate to know the truth. "How are you calling him a general?"
The Charizard becomes more and more disengaged, now whispering an entire conversation to the Salamence at his side. Since when did different dragon species get along this well? And how were they all together, waiting to ambush us?
"Nooovaaa! Ruuuee!" We turn our heads to the sight of a Garchomp flying over. I cannot distinguish him by sight, but that familiar snarky and suave voice is Jet all right.
Neither Rue nor I take any action as he lands on the terrace next to us. "It's really you two! You're alive! Oh, Blight will be ecstatic." He takes a few moments to catch his breath, as I glance over his body. He seems to have gained a few scars on his flank. "I heard you lost your tusk, Rue! What's that replacement?"
"It's a prosth- Actually, that's not important." Rue stands upright from her crouching position. "What the hell is going on? Where are all the Charizard? Why is our home in rubble?"
"Blight convinced Fen to evacuate Phendrene and the children," he explains. "That location was far too close to the rebel's territory to be safe for living. And… the Charizard are still here, we just have taken the other species in."
"Taken them… what?" I can't manage to comprehend what's going on. "What happened while we were away?"
Jet frowns and tilts his head. "How do you not know? Where have you two been all this time? We… we all thought you were dead. Even your father gave up."
"What? How could you possibly assume that?" Rue answers, splaying her arms out. "And you actively searched for us?"
"Of course we did," Jet says, panning his gaze back and force between us. "Do you know how much time and effort it took? Blight just… wouldn't give up, until he had to."
I pause and exchange glances with Rue. "What? We were only gone for a few days. …Right?"
"A few days?" Jet says, an incredulous expression on his face. "Are you joking?"
"Stop being cryptic!" Rue orders with a wave of her arm. "It was less than a week. Right, Nova?"
"No. No, that can't be." Jet shakes his head slowly as the answer comes. "Nova, Rue. You two have been gone for three years."