The further away from Vermilion we got, the rougher the waters became. I recognized the general route as being towards Six or Seven Island, but no, we were apparently heading out even further than that. At first, my team (minus Silva, for obvious reasons) stayed on the deck with me, but quickly Zuma too decided that they preferred the inside of their ball to the open sea, and retreated back to it. Minako was happily staring over the guardrails, making mischievous eyes at any silhouettes that might have passed underneath us, and Niko too calmly gazed out over the waters while occasionally jumping up to fly alongside us instead. Shanra didn't get close to the edge at all, and I definitely understood due to his typing, so Heracles stuck next to him while he curled up in the center of the deck.
All the while, I was hard at work thinking about how we'd handle a target like this. I stared over the edge of the boat, paced around the deck, sprawled out next to Shanra, and stood with my face up to the sky all with the same contemplative expression. The tales of the lurking creature deeply intrigued me, and I wanted answers so very badly- what it was, first of all, and why it was so hostile. Perhaps it was an undiscovered species and I'd be the first to document it, or perhaps Team Rocket had set another ultimate creation loose on the world after to failing to learn from their previous mistakes with Mewtwo. I just had to know.
"You look like those gears in your head are just a-turnin'," the captain laughed, shooting me a glance over his shoulder while he held the ship's wheel.
I shrugged, strolling over and looking out in the direction he was steering us towards. "They are," I answered. "Cap, how many times have you been out here?"
"Only a dozen or so," he answered. "Those research trips ended pretty fast. Those other trainers that got mystery gifted the Aurora Ticket, same thing happened to them as the rangers and researchers, and they all went runnin' back to the ship as fast as they could go when attacks started raining from the sky. I can tell ya, of all the places I've sailed, this destination here is the one I've gone to the least."
I nodded. "I believe you," I replied. "So strange stuff starts happening around the island, but what's the island itself like? Am I gonna have to go trekking through a giant mountain, get lost in a forest, avoid magma flows…?"
Another laugh escaped his mouth. "Nothin' of the sort, lassie. It's not a big island. Last I remember, there were only a few trees to look at, but who knows what it looks like now. There was a tiny little dock built, but I doubt it's in good shape if it's even still standing. But you got Minako with you, so all else fails, I'm sure she'd carry you out if I can't get close."
Minako perked up at hearing her name and gave a little cry of affirmation. I gave her a grin.
"But what're you thinking, huh?" the captain pressed curiously. "How are you gonna handle this thing if we see it again?"
I leaned up against the rails, staring up at the sky again. "Well, if it's a Psychic-type, then Heracles' Mega Horn can probably handle it… but there's a slight problem in that Heracles is weak to Psychic-type moves, so that's a matter of who can get a hit off first. Silva's Arena Trap can hold targets in place, so if she could somehow get close to it, that would make things easier… but it sounds like this thing can fly, so that's where things get tricky. Niko can fly too, and he's a strong attacker, so I'll probably be turning to him pretty often regardless. Shanra's a real go-getter, and I know I can always rely on Minako… Then there's Zuma if all else fails."
My company chuckled. "Saving your legendary as a last resort, huh?"
I shrugged. "It's not so much that as it is Zuma only battles when they feel like it's absolutely necessary," I answered. "I guess I would too if I were a legendary. They're not like Minako, who just loves battles- they're with me to keep Kanto safe. Part of that is defending our title and making sure everyone knows I'll be waiting if trouble stirs again, so they battle and they're very good at it, but… there's a purpose to it."
Their ball wiggled on my belt in silent affirmation.
"Aye, that makes sense," the captain replied. "I've only seen your league matches on TV a few times, but I know that that Zapdos and that Blastoise of yours can rain some terror on your opponent's team."
"Blast!" came a cry from Minako as she perked up again.
I grinned. "That's right."
Drip.
I felt a splash of water on my head and looked up, where the skies were quickly starting to turn a darker grey color. The clouds opened up, and shortly the deck was getting coated in more rain droplets that came drizzling down heavily but sparsely. Shanra let out a yelp of dismay and darted over, quickly retreating to his ball before he could get splashed by much of it.
The captain laughed again. "Ohoho, here we go again! They all might want to get back in their balls before long, lassie!"
Again my eyes drifted up to the sky. "Is that normal for this route, or is that just a coincidence…?"
"That's no coincidence, lassie. It's been sixteen years, but I remember how this goes."
I nodded, striding away from the helm and back to where the rest of my Pokémon were. Without Shanra for him to playfully pester, Heracles skittered over to Minako and Niko, likewise staring out over the waves. Minako was definitely enjoying the weather, laughing with a smirk while watching the silhouettes underneath the surface.
"… Nite," Niko mused, holding one hand out to catch a few drops.
My glance shifted between the three of them in quick succession. "Either it's always storming by this place, or there's a Pokémon whipping one up to keep us away," I remarked, angling my hat down just a bit to keep my face dry.
"Cross," Heracles piped up, sounding determined.
I reached down and gave my Heracross' carapace a pat, and he went back to studying the water. I too studied something- they sky, since no storm ever rolled in that fast without intervention of some kind. Everything was grey and cloudy where puffy white pillars had been minutes before, and the sea's surface was full of tiny ripples from the rain. However, my eyes locked on something- a fleeting purple glint up in the clouds, one that flashed for just a moment then vanished. Immediately, my eyes narrowed in scrutiny, and Niko must've seen it too, for he took a more defensive position and stared intently at the exact same spot I did.
"Drago!" he cried quickly, his wings giving a little flutter.
"You saw that too, huh?" I replied.
Minako and Heracles perked up at the sounds of our voices, my Blastoise letting out a little growl with a growing smirk spreading over her face. Heracles clenched up his fists (if a tiny hand with two claws could qualify as making a fist, anyway) and released them several times in succession, bouncing just a bit in place.
It flashed again. That time, we all saw it, and something behind it too- a bipedal figure of some sort, made difficult to see from the clouds it hid in. Just as quick, it vanished, and the obscured figure seemed to fly off somewhere else in the clouds at around the same time that a strong gust of wind nearly blew my hat into the ocean.
"Cross!" Heracles cried.
"Blast!" Minako hollered.
Quickly, my eyes scanned our vicinity, but there was nothing more to be seen. No flashes, no figures, no nothing. I turned around and strode back to the helm, where the captain seemed to be working hard to keep the ship going the right direction.
"There's something out there," I said quickly. "There's something up in the clouds."
"Aye," he replied, his voice much less happy-go-lucky than it had been minutes earlier.
He reached over to a radio close to the ship's wheel and flicked it on, where nothing but loud static came through. He flicked it back off moments later, and I took note- it was just as he'd said back in Vermillion.
"So that creature is still out here," he noted.
Indeed, something was out there that had to be causing all the signs we were seeing. I wasn't sure what, but I wasn't letting my guard down after that, and I strode back over to my team standing by the rails. They too were keeping watch, Minako and Heracles scrutinizing the clouds and Niko flying about the perimeter of the ship. A large gust of wind blew through and rocked the boat, making us all grab hold of the rails to keep steady.
"Yeeeaaaaah, this one's wily," I remarked, grabbing the rail with one hand and my hat with the other.
"Blast!" Minako exclaimed.
Another gust of wind hit us from the opposite direction, and lightning flashed overhead with a deafening crash. Heracles decided he didn't particularly want to be out walking on the deck while it tipped so precariously, and back into the ball he went. Minako and I shared a look, and I could tell we were both feeling the same thing- that whatever we'd seen up in the clouds was already trying to throw us off.
About that time, I started feeling something else- an intense feeling of a pair of eyes on me, as if something was right beside me watching my every move. I couldn't help but to glance around my surroundings, but no, there was no one to be seen except for Minako next to me, Niko flying not too far away and looking up at the clouds, and the captain still trying to keep us on our path. Of course, there was no voice telling me a thing, but somehow, I got the feeling that our unseen company was issuing a taunt, daring me to try getting close enough to see it for real. I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel unnerved, having some figure study me from above while I couldn't so much as make out its physical form beyond a very messy silhouette. I had to wonder if that was deliberate or not, if it was just letting me know that it was there and watching, or if I'd just gotten lucky and caught sight of it at the right time. Either way I looked at it, that thing was toying with me, and being fairly brazen about it too. It wasn't hard to guess that, if it was indeed a Psychic-type, some very strong telepathy was stirring the waters and winds to make our journey as difficult as possible.
I reached over and patted Minako's shell. "If this thing starts launching attacks at us… we're gonna need you."
She nodded at me.
Still being careful for any sudden shifts in the boards under my feet, I turned back around and strode over to the captain again, scanning the sky for anything else that might have indicated that creature being close by. It was clear to me that he was trying his hardest to keep the ship from washing too far off course, for the waves pounding against the sides of the boat had to be making it a lot harder to stay on the path we needed to go. He held a firm grip on the wheel and turned it every so often, eyes locked on the waves before us.
"Are we alright out here?" I asked. "I know you've done this before, but that thing might be angry at seeing visitors after so long…"
"Don't you worry, Leaf. I can handle this."
I nodded.
The fact that I had Minako to jump on if the boat capsized and Zuma to fly us out without fear of lightning bolts knocking them out put me at ease, but at the same time, the sight of nothing but dark blue seas on all sides made me nervous if a hostile entity was following us around. Surely, a battle in such a position would be challenging, to say the least…
Thankfully, it didn't turn out that way, although lightning kept crashing and the winds were as rough as could be the entire time. This was exactly the kind of weather that Zuma would've been perfectly at home in, but they still weren't coming out. Perhaps seeing a legendary out flying around would've enraged the creature watching us and caused a battle to break out right then and there, but even if that wasn't the case, I wasn't going to question it. The rain grew so thick that it was hard to see anything more than ten meters out, and I almost worried that we'd get lost out in the ocean, but the utter lack of anything resembling a landmark (if 'landmarks' even existed out at sea) in the first place probably rendered that a moot point. I was utterly drenched by the rain and the whipping of the wind made me shiver, but I put up with it- the chill from my wet clothes was far from my biggest concern, after all. Peal after peal of thunder sounded like an off-beat drumline.
Yet, after a while, I started to see something off in the distance whenever lightning would flash- a small island, and what looked like a tiny beaten-up shed floating out next to it.
"Is that it?" I inquired of the captain.
"That's right, lassie," he answered. "Just like I remember it- a tiny island in the middle of a stormy sea."
"How far away from the islands are we?"
"We're at the very bottom of the archipelago, lassie. We're a little further east from Seven Island than Six Island is, and about as far south from Six Island as Six Island is from Five Island."
"So no one would ever come out here even if it wasn't so rough."
"Exactly."
I nodded. Away from the helm I went again, back to where Minako was still eyeing the clouds, and I patted her shell.
"Almost there," I said in a low voice.
She looked at me and let out a growl, but the look on her face was a grin. That told me everything I could've possibly needed to know- she just couldn't wait to exchange blows with whatever lurked there. I chuckled, giving her another pat.
Perhaps I shouldn't have been walking around the water-logged and slick deck in such conditions, but staying still seemed pretty much impossible, and I wandered over to another edge of the railing with my hands firmly clutching it just in case another gust decided to try knocking us over. Niko was still flying on the opposite side of the ship, and Minako was at the very back edge staring out over the waters and clouds left behind us. Again I couldn't help feeling like there were eyes on me, as if something were standing behind me looking over my shoulder with its face directly next to mine. It wouldn't have been outside the realm of possibility for a Psychic-type to toy with my psychological state, thus I didn't give it much credence…
Crack!
… At least, until lightning flashed again, and a sudden jolt of fright coursed through my body at what I saw several meters in front of me above the water. It was just close enough for me to get a fleeting glimpse of its features for the split-second that lightning lit up the area, and for that short moment, I saw a somewhat humanoid shape floating over the waves that faced towards me with two eyes staring back from its black eye sockets. It was just human-shaped enough to strike me as being familiar to my own form, but the features were off enough for me to instantly know that no, it couldn't possibly be. Whatever it was, it was no creature I knew.
Instinctively I scrambled back from the edge of the boat so quickly that I stumbled and fell, my eyes locked on the place the figure had appeared the entire time. I suppose the thud of me hitting the floor caught Minako's attention, for she perked up and darted over, all the while I was still staring wide-eyed at the space over the water.
"Blast!" she fussed. "Blast?!"
I let out a heavy breath, looking to her then over my shoulder. "Niko!" I cried, a bit panicked. "Get back on the deck!"
Of course, that wouldn't have stopped the creature from attacking my Dragonite regardless, but having Niko get attacked and fainting over the water was something I did not want to deal with, and if our antisocial company was out flying around the boat too, I didn't want Niko accidentally bumping into it and getting into a fight before we were over solid ground. He surely picked up on the panic in my voice, for in moments, he was landing on the deck again.
"Leaf, are you alright?" the captain called, not looking up from the wheel or the course we took.
The lightning cracked again, and nothing was there.
"I just saw it!" I cried back. "It was close! Like, maybe three meters away from me!"
"Really?! What did you see?!"
"I didn't recognize it at all, but it was humanoid, and it was looking straight at me!"
He said nothing back, and I didn't expect him to.
The rest of our trip was made in utter silence, all of us scanning the area for whatever it was stalking us over the sea. I could tell this was something new even to the sailor who had made this voyage before, and that too made my mind race with the connotations and possibilities. Perhaps it had been so long since it had seen visitors that it just had to get a closer look, or perhaps I was different than the ones that had come all those years before and it could tell I was the region's strongest trainer. Whatever it was, it was putting me on edge in ways I hadn't felt since the first time I walked into Pokémon Tower in Lavender Town. There we were, a tiny boat in the middle of a stormy sea, in territory unknown to most anyone else, with a creature that did not want us in that territory stalking us just far enough away that we couldn't make it out. The pure vulnerability was something I wouldn't forget.
As we came upon the island, I could easily tell that the dock had been weathered, for the thin metal sheets of its roof were practically falling off of the frame and had several holes rusted in the top. The wooden beams making up its pier had a few missing, and several were splintered in half from damage I assumed had not been inflicted by the weather. Still, the captain was able to pull the boat up beside it, at which point Minako jumped into the water and Niko started fluttering again, the two of them holding it in place while he tied it up. The logs creaked under our feet, and I almost wondered if they would collapse with each step we took.
"I'll stay here, Leaf," the captain told me, wiping a bit of water from his face. "I'll be ready to get us out of here in case things go south."
"Thanks," I said, nodding. "Give me a yell if something happens."
He nodded back.
I looked to Minako and Niko, the former of whom jumped up from the water onto the wood with a large thud. One of the beams cracked, but it still held.
"C'mon, guys," I said to them, motioning them along.
Oddly enough, the rain let up enough for us to see our surroundings, and the sky was no longer so obscured by clouds that everything was shrouded in dimness. Definitely the work of a Psychic-type, I could quickly deduce. A very short, creaking bridge connected us to Birth Island itself, and with every step me and Minako took, it creaked as if might give way at any second. I supposed that was par- close to two decades was quite a while for a wooden bridge to be holding up anyway. The land was shaped like a triangle, a rather small triangle by island standards, with a tree on all three points. The sides of the island were rocky, but the top surface was flatter and grassy, surprisingly not too overgrown for a place that had gone untouched for so long. By that fact alone I could tell that there was something odd about the place, but given its reputation, I wasn't going to question it.
"You guys can come out now if you want to," I beckoned to the other balls on my belt. "We're on land."
At that, Silva and Heracles exited their balls, a cry of 'Trio!' accompanying Silva as she did so. We all scanned the area, getting a good look at our surroundings while the rain was lulled. Shanra obviously wasn't going to come out while there was still water falling from the sky, and if Zuma wasn't coming out, then they saw no reason to.
There was something else that shortly caught my attention too- a small black pyramid sitting in the middle of the island, less than a meter tall but looking rather out-of-place with its perfectly chiseled form amidst all the other natural features. I strode up to it and studied it a bit in intrigue, Minako sticking close by as I did. It was perfectly slick like carved marble with a polished reflective surface, much different than anything else on the island that I was seeing, and something about it just beckoned me to touch it. I reached out…
It moved. With a very subtle, ethereal dinging sound, it moved. I jumped in surprise.
"Blast!" Minako exclaimed.
Some more exclamation came from the others as the rock zoomed over the grass to the southwestern corner of the island, where it sat still again. The captain hadn't mentioned a weird moving rock, and surely, that would be something of note if anyone had seen it before me. I ran back over to it, wanting to see if I could find some indication of what, precisely, it was or why it was moving.
I touched it again. It moved to the northern corner in just the same way.
I'd solved puzzles before- in gyms, secret hideouts, or the ancient Tanoby Key in Sevault Canyon, but never on a deserted island in the middle of nowhere. Yet, judging from how the pyramid moved, I could tell that was exactly what this was. The pyramid would only move if I touched it from a certain angle, and every time I did anything between touching it- run over to one of my Pokémon, take even a single step in another direction- it would go back to its starting position in the middle of the island. With each successful touch, however, it would change just a bit, going from cold and black to reddish and hot.
I could still feel that creature's eyes on me from someplace I couldn't see as I went about studying the odd stone's pattern, and all the while, I was wondering when it might start throwing attacks at us. Yet, it didn't do so, and the reasons for that were something I likewise wanted to know.
It took a bit, but I finally figured out the convention for the rock's movements- taking the shortest path to it in between each touch would be the only successful way to make it move, and each of its movements outlined another triangle with them pointing upwards then downwards in alternating succession. The pyramid eventually got too hot and red for me to touch, at which point Shanra exited his ball to nudge it for me. The heat didn't bother him at all, and he didn't seem to mind being out in the rain so much when he stuck close to it.
Yet eventually, the pyramid returned to its starting position. I almost wondered if I had made another wrong move, but the red color wasn't fading as it otherwise would've been. I thought that perhaps, this puzzle had come to an end.
Shanra gave it another nudge, and its color stayed a blazing red, but something else changed. The island started to shake just like the boat had in the water, and shortly all of us on the little triangle of land were flocking together to stay steady. Minako stuck an arm around me, Silva nudged up against Heracles and he placed a hand on one of her heads to stay standing, and I reached down to grab Shanra while Niko grabbed both me and Minako from his floating position. Within moments, though, my Blastoise was lurching in front of us all and slightly withdrawing into her shell for a second when the pyramid outright exploded, the shards bouncing off of her tough exterior without leaving more than just a few scratches.
I almost wondered if this creature was outright trying to kill us, but almost as fast as the island had shook and the pyramid burst, everything came to a standstill. In yet another odd move, the clouds over the island opened up and backed off just enough to only drench the edges of it in rain, and a few rays of sunlight shone through that were a welcome reprieve to the weather's onslaught even if everything else around us was still an utter mess.
"Yep, definitely a Psychic-type…" my voice trailed off at seeing the clouds part so suddenly and so precisely.
But from the sky in the northern edge descended a figure, plainly visible without the clouds or rain shrouding it- a humanoid shape with tapering legs, mostly yellow in color with two tapering teal stripes on its upper legs and a black abdominal region. Two white eyes seeming to float within pitch-black eye sockets stared back at me from its teal face, and on either side of its head were two flat protrusions with a tiny teal stripe in the center. Into its chest was set a purple crystalline orb. On one side was a proper arm, mostly teal with a yellow streak that segmented into two on its hand, while on the other side were two tentacles coiled around each other, one yellow and the other teal. A little sparkle surrounded it as it floated down that, at the time, I thought came from the sun beams reflecting off of the rain droplets that surely clung to its body still.
It was nothing I recognized, and with a slight hope that it might work, I pulled the Pokédex out of my bag to see what the creature might register as. However, the device would hardly turn on and I got nothing but static in return.
Me and my team eyed the creature, and it eyed us in turn.
"What are you…?" I breathed to no one in particular.
As soon as the words left my mouth, the creature reached its hand out and clenched a fist, and something within me started feeling wildly off. My body became cloaked in a purplish psychic glow, and try as I might to flail in some attempt to free myself, my body wasn't listening to anything my brain was telling it. Words stopped in my throat, and it felt as though the creature was outright strangling me from afar. My Pokémon gave me startled looks, Minako grabbing and giving me a shake, but I was frozen.
By absolutely no doing of my own, my mouth opened, and some growling words left it. "Are you going to run like those useless others, or do you ACTUALLY think you stand a chance against me?!"
It was easy enough for us to tell that it was the creature forcing my body to talk, since even if it was my voice, it didn't sound a thing like me. I sounded more like something trying to imitate a human voice than an actual human voice. From the feeling I got in my throat, I could easily tell that this thing had no idea how a human body worked either, for even if it wasn't my doing, the words still felt like a laborious process as they escaped my lips. My Pokémon didn't know what to think, but they could obviously tell that something else was making me speak so strangely from the surprised looks on their faces.
"I could tell you were different when you started entering my domain, and surely, you must know what you're getting into to come bothering me after sixteen years. But Leaf, you FOOLISH human, do you HONESTLY think I won't wreck you and toss you aside like the rest? I was forged from the coldness of outer space, and truly, that environment probably suits me better if it wasn't so UNEVENTFUL. But THIS world? It isn't boring, but it's too SOFT, just like everyone who stepped on this island before you. But here I am, and here YOU are, so tell me, Leaf…"
Its psychic grip on me eased up, and I took a big gulp of air and tried to regain my composure. I stumbled slightly, rubbing at my throat as if there were actually something grabbing it. All of my Pokémon turned on the creature, staring it down, but it wasn't budging.
Its form started to morph into something different- something with the same general shape but more black on its body, its arm unfurled into two tentacles, spikes on the leg stripes, and three pointed protrusions sticking off its head as opposed to two flat ones. I watched in uncertain awe.
But its grip on me returned soon thereafter.
"If I destroy you here and now, will things get more eventful around here? Or will everyone cower in fear? One way or another, I want to see what a so-called champion can throw at me. I AM DEOXYS, and I should say… it's NICE TO MEET YOU, foolish human."
Never before had someone, human or Pokémon, so blatantly toyed with me. I could tell it wasn't a bluff, nor was this creature merely trying to look cool- no, it meant every word it said, and judging from the sphere of energy that started to glow between its tentacles, it was actually going to attempt to destroy us.
I took another deep breath, then exhaled, my eyes narrowing on our company.
"… Nice to meet you too, Deoxys."