Chapter 6

A meeting was being held somewhere, a place unknown to most pokemon or humans. Almost all the legendaries were there, except for Latios and Latias. They all were in a large, white palace. Large was an understatement since some of the legendaries were huge, but the ceilings were at least double the height of the larger pokemon there. All the pokemon there gathered closer as Arceus joined the meeting. "The meeting will begin. Lugia, you had something important to say?" The alpha pokemon looked towards the beast of the sea.

Lugia nodded. "Yes Arceus. I was just going to check up on Zapdos, Articuno, and Moltres when I felt a very strong presence in the water currents. It wasn't one I could match to any of us," Lugia gained puzzled looks from many of the legendaries as a response. But Ho-oh was the one who interrupted Lugia. "What do you mean? That a normal pokemon lives in the water who is as strong as a legendary?" She asked suspiciously.

Lugia shook his head. "Please, let me finish my story," Ho-oh grunted a bit, but complied as she remained silent. "Anyway, like I said, I felt a strong presence in the water currents so I decided to investigate. To be honest, the presence was not what I was expecting. There, on the bottom of the ocean, lay a green Latios, who was unconscious, with a very critically injured wing,"

Gasps filled the entire room, as everyone finally realized the implications of what Lugia had seen. The only one that didn't gasp was Arceus, who had a small smile on his face. However, Mew, a close friend of Latias, was completely stunned. "A SHINY LEGENDARY!" She yelled at Lugia.

Giratina rolled her eyes. "Thank you, captain obvious. We've already figured that out, you know,"

Mew pouted slightly and looked back to Lugia. "What do you mean? His wing was critically injured and he was unconscious?"

Lugia quickly explained what happened to the Latios he had seen. Namely, he laid out how the Latios had been attacked by humans, and how he was critically injured by a missile.

Once again, the room was listening carefully to what Lugia was saying. It wasn't an everyday thing that a shiny legendary was seen. This time it wasn't just Arceus who didn't gasp. Mewtwo was actually smirking at the story. "You see? That's what I mean! We should have gotten rid of humans long ago! Now look at what they've done!"

"How can you say that!" Palkia yelled. "You were created by humans!"

"WHAT? Never insult me like that ever again!" Mewtwo acted quickly and held his hands together, forming a dark ball that had electricity crackling around it. As soon as the ball had reached the size of Palkia's head, Mewtwo fired it at Palkia, who instinctively reacted by shattering the shadow ball into tiny, harmless pieces, shoulder gems glowing bright pink as he did so.

"Don't ever say that again," Mewtwo said to Palkia, daring him to do it. His smirk said. 'Say it and you are dead.'

Palkia just chuckled at Mewtwo. "Whatever, dude,"

Rayquaza took Lugia's attention by asking. "What happened to him now? Why isn't he here?"

Lugia shrugged. "He wanted to go to Altomare, so I guided him there. Apparently, Latias had explained everything to…uhm…I believe his name was Michael. Basically informed him of the existence of pokemon and the pokemon world before seemingly abandoning him. I helped him to Altomare after explaining to him how I had found him before he turned into his human form and left to search for Latios and Latias,"

"Where is Latias anyway?" Rayquaza asked, while forcing a small blush back.

Some legendaries chuckled and Arceus decided to answer. "She's back in Altomare with her brother, on duty to protect the soul dew,"

"Why? I mean, Palkia and I should be on duty also. Why can't they come?" Dialga asked.

"Because…there will be some events in Altomare soon that can change a lot of lives," Arceus answered calmly. At those words, two pokemon, Celebi and Palkia shifted uncomfortably. Rayquaza tilted his head slightly, in response to Arceus's comment. "Why can't we help? I mean, it's the first time they'll be in real trouble,"

Arceus nodded calmly. "And it is specifically for that reason that we won't help. They must prove that they are able to be the guardians of Altomare. Besides, they'll have help,"

"From who?" Mew wondered, getting slightly worried about Latios and Latias.

Arceus let out a chuckle. "You forgot that Michael is there in Altomare along with the Chosen One?"

"You think he's gonna find them? And how will he be able to help? He doesn't have a clue how to use his powers yet," Rayquaza asked, worried about the eon guardians of Altomare.

Arceus smiled softly. "Michael has tremendous power. How else could Lugia have felt that from so far away? He will be able to control his powers soon. The only question is, will he be in time…" Arceus seemed to drift off, before suddenly declaring, "The meeting is over!"

Mewtwo groaned angrily. "DID I JUST HAVE TO COME HERE TO HEAR THAT WHINING?"

Arceus frowned. "I thought you wanted to join these meetings? We never force you to come here Mewtwo. What do you expect? That we have to talk about how to save the world every time? Ihe world isn't in danger every day,"'

Mewtwo groaned. "Fine…" And teleported away.

Mew turned to Arceus. "Thanks a lot Arceus. Sorry, he's pissed off," She paused a second before yelling. "AGAIN."

Arceus sighed before letting his ring shine a bright white light. Portals began to appear out of nowhere and almost all the legendaries flew through them, except the ones that were able to teleport for themselves. The portals brought them back to their respective places, however, one pokemon stayed there, wavering in the air uncomfortably. Arceus frowned. "Rayquaza, shouldn't you go back also to the sky tower? Or is there something you want to talk about?" Of course, Arceus knew well enough what was on Rayquaza's mind, but bringing up the subject himself would probably have angered Rayquaza.

Rayquaza sighed deeply, encouraging himself to go to Arceus. He sighed again and chuckled slightly to Arceus. "Why do you even ask what's wrong? You know already what I'm going to ask,"

Arceus nodded. "Yes I do,"

Rayquaza rolled his eyes. "So… is she going to be ok?" Rayquaza knew well enough that Arceus knew who he was talking about.

The alpha pokemon looked to Rayquaza. "I can't tell you, Rayquaza. If I did, you would take actions that would change the future,"

"But what if the future changes into a better one because I helped!" Rayquaza tried to counter but Arceus shook his head in response.

"I'm not revealing anything about the future, Rayquaza. It's too dangerous," Arceus said.

Meanwhile, in the pokecenter

Weakly, I opened my eyes, still feeling extremely tired. "Seven," I muttered while checking the room. I widened my eyes as I didn't recognize where I was. The room just had plain white walls, two beds, one of which I was lying on, and a bathroom.

"How are you feeling?" A male voice said from beside me.

I wasn't really paying much attention to the owner of the voice though, not really hearing it was male and not the female voice of Nurse Joy. "Give me some time to check my wing, will you?" It was only when I heard a familiar chuckle that I looked at the rodent that was on the ground next to me. "Pikachu! How…do you know where I was?" I asked Pikachu.

Pikachu rolled his eyes. "I asked a Chansey, but don't worry! Ash, Brock, and Misty don't know I'm here at the moment,"

"Ok," I simply said while looking at my wing, ignoring the fact I didn't know what a Chansey is. I raised an eyebrow when I saw the bandages, which covered most of my injured wing. "Wow, guess she had a lot of work on it,"

Then, without any warning, the door opened. I was about to go invisible when I saw Nurse Joy coming inside. "Hey Michael, how are you feeling?"

I facepalmed slightly, or at least tried, since my arms in my Latiosform aren't that long, when I remembered I never really answered Pikachu's same question. I heard the rodent chuckling a bit also, letting me know he was thinking the same thing. "I think I'm doing fine, I only feel a slight pain now. How did everything work out?"

Nurse Joy smiled. "I was able to fix your wing, but you'll need some time to recover completely,"

"Can I go into my human form?" I asked her.

She hummed in thought as she was considering if it would be smart to do that. "Well, you can…but try to go into your pokemon form as much as possible. You saw for yourself that going into your human form only stalls your recovery,"

"Ok, thanks Nurse Joy,"' I said as I enabled my levitation again. I sighed in relief when the pain in my wing was quite minimal, and only a small tinge could be felt as I moved.

"Don't forget, I gave you a strong painkiller. You may not feel a lot of pain, but it's still there," She said, breaking my happy thoughts of finally having no more pain. "Here, take this," She grabbed a small bottle with some pills in it and gave it to me. "These are the painkillers, but only use them when you really need them,"

Surprising Nurse Joy, I covered myself in a bright green shower of light while changing back into my human form. I smiled when I finally was back into my familiar form…but somehow, I was starting to feel more comfortable in my pokemon form. I shrugged it off however and nodded towards Nurse Joy. "Thanks a lot Nurse Joy for healing me. C'mon Pikachu, let's go back to Ash,"

"Sure, but how are you going to explain how you went missing last night and suddenly came back in the afternoon?" Pikachu asked.

I widened my eyes. "It's the afternoon already? I slept for way too long… but I always do that," I shook my head a bit to focus and then looked at Pikachu. "So, where is Ash anyway?"

"He's training for the Tour de Altomare for tomorrow. He sure wants to win," Pikachu said, feeling a little sad because he would be useless tomorrow.

"Tour de Altomare? You know what? I'll compete myself!" I stated with a smirk, feeling confident about myself.

Pikachu chuckled while Nurse Joy giggled. "You don't even have a pokemon, Michael," She said.

I mentally cursed my own denseness. "Damn…hmm, maybe I'll ask Ash or Misty if I can borrow a water pokemon from them. But we should go now Pikachu," Pikachu let out a content 'chu' and jumped on my shoulder.

"I hope you don't mind, I've gotten used to sitting on Ash's shoulder,"

"It's ok, as long as you know the way to Ash and his friends," I grunted, once again cursing mentally when I remembered my bad navigational skills.

After a quick goodbye with Nurse Joy, who said I should be more careful next time, we left. "So where to, Pikachu?" I asked the yellow rodent on my shoulder.

"It's that way," He said while pointing to the left, into a near alley. I nodded and took off, trusting Pikachu and his sense of direction. After a few moments of silence, Pikachu decided to start a conversation. "Are you going to reveal yourself to Ash, Misty, and Brock?"

I shivered when I remembered the last time I accidentally revealed myself. "No thanks, I don't want to be blasted apart again," I said drily.

"You can trust them, Michael, especially Ash. He has seen lots of legendaries and never even tried to catch one,"

I shrugged. "I'm not scared of being caught, I'm scared of what villains would do if they saw me,"

"Well, I'm sure that Ash would do everything to defend you, Michael. Also, you should be scared of being caught, by the wrong trainer that is, because many trainers will treat you badly and force you to do battles," Pikachu said. But he stayed quiet after that, giving me time to consider if it'd be smart to reveal myself.

After a long walk, with Pikachu giving the directions, Pikachu and I arrived at a long canal. We could already see Brock standing near the sides as Togepi crawled around in his arms. I ran over to him and grinned. "Good to see you again Brock,"

Brock gave a smile. "Good to see you too, Michael. I'm glad you're back,"

"So, what are you doing here anyway, waiting here all alone?"

My answer came fast though when Ash suddenly passed by on the water. He was standing in a chariot, while Totodile was pulling him forward. I heard the crocodile-like pokemon cheering happily and it was like he was dancing on the water. The chariot stopped and Ash smiled happily. "Hey, you're back Michael!"

"Yep I am, I'm sorry I was away, but I really had to see someone," I said truthfully.

Another chariot passed by and Misty stopped beside Ash, her Corsola pulling her chariot. "Welcome back, Michael,"

"Thanks, Misty. Hey, I was wondering, could I use one of your water pokemon? I want to enter the Tour de Altomare

Ash smiled at Misty. "I'm sure that Misty will lend you one of hers. She is a water trainer after all,"

Misty growled and slammed a mallet hard against his head. "You've got more than one water pokemon as well, you know!" But after she yelled angrily at Ash, she grinned to me. "Sure, you can use one,"

I nodded slowly, trying to get used to her quick mood changes. "I hope she doesn't slam me with that mallet," I said exclusively to Pikachu.

Pikachu chuckled. "Don't worry, everyone gets hit by it someday," That fact made me gulp in fear. Meanwhile, Misty had already taken some pokeballs. I looked strangely at the pokeballs in her hand. "Why are you taking out your pokeballs?" I asked completely confused.

I got a just as a strange look back in return from Misty, Brock, and Pikachu. Only Ash was wondering the same thing as I was, something that worried me. 'I haven't asked something stupid, have I?' I wondered to myself.

Misty sighed deeply and was clearly annoyed. "Maybe cause I was going to let you choose one of my water Pokemon, so you could already start practicing for the race that's in 2 days?"

I gulped and groaned. 'Yep…I asked something stupid,' I scolded myself again. I watched when Misty threw several pokeballs, releasing several Pokemon. A frog-like Pokemon called Politoad, a star-shaped Pokemon called Staryu, and a goldfish-like Pokemon, Goldeen, who was released into the water. All of them looked eagerly at me, ready for a race. I hummed a bit in thought before choosing Politoad. Not really because he seemed strong or so, just because he was the most excited one, even clapping his hands in happiness after I had chosen him.

That night, in a city just near Altomare

"C'mon Oakley! What are we doing in a library, anyway?" Annie complained as they were in the library while it was pitch black. The only light that shined into the room were small beams of moonlight that shined through the windows. Both of them were wearing a black, tight Team Rocket uniforms. You could clearly recognize the Team Rocket logo, which was a big, red R on the chest. Annie had weird, curled hair on each side of her head. Compared to Annie, Oakley had pretty normal hair, except that it was grey. It was rather short, somewhat around her neck and curled to its sides. While Annie was younger than Oakley, they had almost the same height and were both very slim.

Oakley growled at Annie. "Stop complaining sis, we have to stay silent. We don't want another guard trying to catch us, right?" Both sisters look to the entrance of the library, where a guard was laying on the ground in a small puddle of blood, his throat still bleeding while his eyes gazed off blindly into the distance. Annie gulped. While Oakley had no problems with killing someone, she was against killing. During her training, she always excelled in speed, acrobatics, and balance, just like her sister, but when it came to the shooting and combat course, she hated it so much that she refused to do it. It was only after several warnings she had complied to also join those courses because if she didn't do so, she would be killed by Giovanni in person since he paid a lot of money into training both her and her sister. She was just as skilled in killing and combat as Oakley but that didn't mean she liked doing it. Only when it was really necessary, which means she or her sister's lives were in danger, she would kill, but not before trying to knock the person unconscious instead of killing in cold blood.

Annie shivered when she quickly looked away from the dead body and continued in a whispered tone. "Fine, but what book is so important that you have to steal it?"

Oakley smirked slightly as she had just found the book she had searched for. "The legendary book of Latios and Latias," She showed the front to Annie and her eyes widened as the front showed a bright-looking blue crystal, and above were two flying pokemon, called Latios and Latias. "This book tells us everything about Latios and Latias and also how to operate something that's called the DMA,"

Annie didn't really care, and while her sister's explanation did more to confuse her than to clear her up, she was more interested in the crystal that was printed on the front cover. "I don't really mind much about Latios and Latias or that DMA, whatever that is. I just want that beautiful jewel,"

Oakley chuckled slightly at her sister. "Well Annie, it turns out we have to get that jewel to power the DMA, the Defense Mechanism of Altomare. We also need either Latios or Latias to start the DMA. But I'll explain it all later because we have to get out of here quickly before anyone discovers we killed a guard,"

Annie coughed slightly, a bit irritated. "You mean, YOU killed a guard,"

Oakley, however, waved it off. "Whatever sis. Let's just go,"' Both of them quickly and swiftly ran past the dead guard, while Annie dropped a black card with two kisses and a rose on it, before proceeding to run outside and jump into a car that was standing right in front of the library before they quickly drove off. "Hey Oakley, didn't we have to capture one of those Pokemon for Giovanni?"

Oakley nodded slightly while driving. "Yeah, we have to do that. But that doesn't mean we are going to, right? Think about it sis, with two legendary pokemon by our side, nothing will be able to stop us!" She grinned evilly at Annie, hoping that she would comply with the plan.

Annie looked worriedly at her older sister. She knew Oakley sometimes had a problem with controlling power and it often got to her head, making her crazy. Annie also knew completely well the consequences if one messed with Giovanni. He was coldblooded and wouldn't even think twice about killing you, even when you are one of his elite members. She sighed deeply. "We'll see what we're gonna do with them when we actually capture them. They're both legendary, so it's not going to be easy,"

Annie pushed some buttons on the dashboard and out of nowhere, wings appeared out of the car and after a boost of speed, the car suddenly started to fly. She easily controlled the car over the ocean, heading for Altomare. "I know it's not going to be easy, but they don't even know we're coming to attack them, so we'll have the element of surprise. We're going to capture Latios and Latias, and with some luck, we'll be able to steal the Soul Dew as well,"