Disclaimer: I do not own pokemon and am in no way affiliated with Nintendo or Gamefreak, or other companies that write or produce pokemon. Now that that legal stuff is out of the way, on to the story!

Pokemon Legends: Kanto Saga

Chapter Forty Five

It Came From Outer Space

Continuing on their trek across Johto, May and Rina arrived in Ilex Forest. Large trees rose up around them, blocking out much of the sunlight and giving the forest a sleepy, surreal feel to it. Stopped near the entrance, Rina and Pippi gazed at the surrounding trees in amazement.

"Wow...this place is a lot different than Viridian Forest..." Rina commented breathlessly.

"-The trees are so...big! I couldn't climb trees that tall!-" Pippi added.

"Its strange, you know?" Rina said as she turned toward May. "It kinda has this odd feel to it...kind of...mysterious maybe?"

"That wouldn't be too strange at all." May replied with a slight grin. "Its said that a guardian inhabits this forest, watching over it for all eternity. There's even a wooden shrine dedicated to it!"

"I bet its real and its a legendary pokemon." Rina nodded and folded her arms over her chest. "That's the way it seems to go with these things."

"No kidding!" May sighed and her shoulders sagged. "I'm starting to wish they really were just legends..."

"You have quite a bit of weight on your shoulders because of all this, huh?" Rina asked her. May slowly nodded.

"-But it's practically a license to catch the strongest pokemon in the world! It can't be all that bad!-" Pippi said, hoping Rina would repeat it to May in an effort to cheer her up. Instead, Rina shook her head at her.

"I don't think its that simple, Pippi. I mean, how might other people react?" Pippi thought about it while Rina went on to explain. "Some people would see it as an easy opportunity to get those pokemon for themselves and come after May, and she'd be hassled by other people who don't think its right to catch such pokemon, especially since she's so young. Plus, in May's case, she's also a regional champion, but people might accuse her of only having that title because she has legendary pokemon."

"I didn't even think of any of that..." May said, sighing again.

"Times have certainly changed. In my time, someone who tamed such powerful pokemon would be reverred." Haruka said to May. "Your people seem more and more backward all the time, May." May gave no direct response, though Haruka could still tell what she was thinking. "My people are certainly not the backwards ones!" Haruka scolded her.

"I forgot you know what I'm thinking. Can't a girl at least keep her thoughts private?!"

Rina smiled lightly as she turned back to May. "Well maybe you'll be able to find some safe place to just hide the legendary pokemon? Somewhere out of the way yet you'd still have access to them?"

"Like that would happen." May shrugged and straightened up. "Anyway! Enough dwelling on that, let's get moving already!" May started off through the forest before getting a response from either of them. Rina and Pippi shrugged and then followed after her.

"Now that I think about it...there really is something strange about this forest." Rina thought as she continued along behind May. "It almost seems like there's a mist or something in the air ahead. Is that normal?" They continued to walk along until they were closer to the strange mist Rina could see, which was when May finally noticed it and decided to stop.

"Wait...something's doesn't seem right about that green stuff..." May said to Rina as she looked upon the thick, green mist in front of them.

"I was wondering if she would notice that..." Rina thought, glancing over at May briefly. She then looked back toward the mist and peered into it. She began to noticed shapes squirming on the ground ahead. As she watched them for a moment, she realized they were pokemon.

"There's pokemon in there! And they're injured!" Rina cried out and then charged into the mist. She didn't get very far before she suddenly collapsed.

"RINA!" May and Pippi called out to her.

"I...I can't move..." Rina mumbled weakly. "It's like my body is...completely paralyzed..."

"Paralyzed?" May repeated to herself and looked into the mist. "Maybe its some kind of pokemon's technique then? Like...Stun Spore?" May thought for a moment. "Do I have a pokemon that can clear this out then? ...Of course!" She took a yellow and black pokeball from her belt and then turned to the side to release the pokemon nect to her.

"Suicune!" She called out, releasing the recently caught legendary pokemon, Suicune. Suicune then turned and nodded to her when it appeared and awaited her orders.

"Suicune, clear out that stuff with a Gust attack!" May said to it, turning and pointing toward the 'mist'. Suicune nodded and then let out a cry. Its long mane rippled as a blast of wind shot across its body, blowing into the Stun Spore cloud and dispersing it. Rina and the various bug pokemon, including Caterpies and Weedles, were all still paralyzed however.

"We never used 'legendary' pokemon for such degrading tasks in my day either." Haruka said to May.

"Hey! Whatever works!" May replied.

With the spores cleared out, Pippi quickly rushed to Rina's side. "-Rina! Are you ok?-"

"I'm fine...I think it's just paralysis...what about the other pokemon?" Rina said weakly, then slowly lifted her head to look around. With the spore cloud gone, the bug pokemon were slowly crawling away. The paralysis wasn't having nearly as much of an effect on them as it was on Rina. "Nevermind..." She muttered.

"I had that same thing happen to me once. A paralyze heal will fix it." May said to Rina. She then took off her fanny pack and rummaged through it, then emptied it out onto the ground. Pokeballs, food, pokefood, and a few healing items fell out, but no paralyze heal. May dropped her fannypack and grinned sheepishly as she turned back to Rina. "I...don't suppose you have any?"

"There's some in my backpack..." Rina replied.

May breathed a sigh of relief. "Well, guess that's that then. Thanks for your help, Suicune."

"-Glad to have been of service.-" Suicune replied, nodding slightly. May then recalled it and moved toward Rina to help her out, but another green cloud of spores moved in just ahead of Rina.

"WHAT?! More spores?" May cried out in dismay. The pokemon responsible for the spores soon came into view as well, slowly flapping its wings to stay aloft. It was a purple, winged bug pokemon with seemingly human eyes. The bug pokemon seemed to be inadvertedly releasing its spores continually, so May quickly took out her pokedex to scan it.

"Venomoth, the Poison Moth Pokemon." May's pokedex read. "Venomoth are nocturnal--they only are active at night. Their favorite prey are insects that gather around streetlights, attracted by the light in the darkness."

"Rina, hold on just a little longer! I'll deal with this one first!" May said to Rina while she reached for a pokeball. Hearing the commotion, the Venomoth turned toward them, looking rather confused and nervous.

"-You...you'll do what?-" The Venomoth wondered nervously. "-M...maybe you could h-help me with my nervous sporing problem?-" Rina strained her paralyzed neck try to get a look at Venomoth as she heard it talking.

"Good thing I thought to grab this one!" May said, grinning widely as she held out the pokeball. "Blaziken, come on out!" She then called out excitedly, releasing Blaziken from his pokeball. Blaziken cried out loudly when it appeared and stretched its arms over its head, then turned its attention to Venomoth. The pokemon began releasing even more spores and Pippi quickly moved away as the cloud fell around Rina again, hoping to avoid paralysis herself.

"-HEY! Watch it with those spores!-" Pippi growled at Venomoth.

"-S-Sorry...-" Venomoth replied quietly.

"May...don't hurt it...It's not doing it on purpose..." Rina called out desparately, but the paralysis was strengthened by the cloud of spores and made it hard for Rina to talk.

"Don't worry Rina, we've got this covered! Blaziken, incinerate that Venomoth with your strongest Flamethrower!" Blaziken nodded, eager to go on the offense. It opened its beak and leaned forward, spewing a cone of flames toward Venomoth. Rina could feel the heat of the flames as they passed only a few feet over her.

"-Oh...oh no...this is going to h-URK!-" Venomoth found itself engulfed completely in flames. The fire inflicted excruciating pain on Venomoth while also clearing out any spores in its path, burning them into ashes. Venomoth itself soon dropped out of the fire and fell to the ground in a smoking heap, completely unconscious.

"Good one, Blaziken! Couldn't even take one hit from you!" May congratulated her pokemon. Blaziken grinned to himself in smug satisfaction.

The cloud of spores around Rina quickly dispersed again and the paralysis weakened enough for Rina to talk, so she was quick to take advantage of it. "May! That pokemon wasn't releasing those spores on purpose! It's a nervous habit!"

"It...it was?" May blinked in disbelief. "Umm...whoops. Uhh, well, in that case..." May looked around and then grabbed one of her pokeballs off the ground. "Guess I can't just leave it here then." She threw the pokeball at the unconscious Venomoth, which was then drawn inside as it opened up and locked in without any struggle. The ball then glowed white and vanished, sending Venomoth off to storage.

"I bet if Ashley made a mistake like that she would have just left it behind." Rina thought with a sigh.

"Well anyway, looks like you're still in top shape, Blaziken! Good job! You can rest now!" May said to Blaziken, taking his pokeball in hand and then recalling him. She placed the pokeball on her belt and then moved toward Rina to help her with her paralysis. May reached into Rina's backpack and rummaged around, eventually finding a paralyze heal and pulling it out.

Meanwhile, overhead, another pokemon had stopped to watch the scene briefly. Sensing a strange energy from May, it swooped down in a quick burst of speed and grabbed her before she even had the chance to use the paralyze heal on Rina.

"Wh-what?! Let go of me!" May growled, struggling to free herself from the pokemon's grasp. It was no use, however, as the pokemon had her gripped tightly in its thin, whip-like arms.

"May! Call out one of your pokemon!" Haruka said to her. May tried to reach for a pokeball, but her arms were held strongly by the pokemon that grabbed her.

"Pippi! What happened?" Rina asked. She knew something had happened, but couldn't turn to see what.

"-Something just grabbed May and flew off with her!-" Pippi replied nervously, quickly picking up the paralyze heal that May had dropped.

"What?! What was it? Where did it go!?" Rina asked worriedly, quickly forgetting about her own paralyzed state.

Pippi fumbled with the spray bottle containing the paralyze heal, eventually finding she couldn't use it while holding it in her small hands. She moved the bottle next to Rina's head, as it was the only part of her body not clothed, and set it on the ground. She then pressed the trigger and Rina quickly closed her eyes as she was sprayed. A warm feeling spread through Rina's body and she felt her muscles responding again, allowing her to finally sit up and look around. May was gone, but her fanny pack and supplies were still on the ground.

"-I didn't get a good look at it, sorry. It moved too fast...-" Pippi admitted quietly, once Rina had been taken care of. "-I think it went that way though.-" She added, pointing to the west.

"We'll never catch a pokemon that can move that fast, I just hope it stopped somewhere in that general direction..." Rina sighed. "Poor May, that came out of nowhere..."

"-Couldn't you just call Lance and ask for help?-" Pippi asked, remembering the pager Lance had given Rina.

Rina shook her head. "That'd take too long. Let's gather up May's stuff and go after her ourselves."

Rina and Pippi quickly gathered up May's stuff, putting it all in her fannypack. Rina then called out Knight and took after the mysterious pokemon.


After kidnapping May, the creature continued toward the west for some time, eventually flying over a small city on an island. It flew past a large rocky outcropping and landed on the other side, then stopped inside a cave and tossed May to the ground.

"OW! HEY! Just what's your problem anyway?!" May growled at the pokemon.

With her hands finally free, she reached for a pokeball. The pokemon saw this and moved quickly, ripping the entire belt of pokeballs from her. It then used a telekinetic power to pull the sapphire out of May's pocket and threw it deeper into the cave. Keeping May's pokeballs with it, the pokemon then went to inspect the sapphire and poked at it curiously. May saw this and frowned.

"Figures...that thing is nothing but trouble..." She sat up on the ground and folded her arms over her chest. "If I at least had my pokedex I could scan this thing. I've never seen a pokemon like that one before..."

May watched for a moment while the pokemon poked and stared at the sapphire. Unknown to May, the pokemon was none other than Deoxys, a one of a kind pokemon born from a mutated space virus. It had fled in a hurry after Red managed to release it from Galactica, eventually arriving in Johto. It had now taken an interest in May's Sapphire, feeling the power contained within it.

"I think we're near Cianwood...I could leave and get help easily enough." May thought, then looked at the sapphire. "I can't just leave that behind with this pokemon though. I need to get my pokeballs back somehow. Maybe it'll get bored eventually and drop its guard? Or leave?"

Deciding to be patient for once in her life, May sat back and waited for a chance to retrieve her pokeballs. She would find herself sitting there for several hours without such a chance...


Rina, meanwhile, was slowly making her way westward and was nearing Cianwood herself. As she flew over the ocean on Knight's back, she was careful to watch for anywhere the pokemon carrying May might have hid and eventually spotted Cianwood in the distance.

"There's a city there! Knight, dive down and we'll see if anyone saw it!" Knight nodded and began to descend as it approached the city, eventually coming in for a landing on the nearby shore. Rina and Pippi the hopped off Knight's back and looked around. Further up the coast, muscular looking man wearing only a raggedy looking pair of pants. He was standing next to a few rocks jutting up from the sand and facing one that was about half as tall as him.

"Let's try asking him." Rina suggested. Pippi and Knight nodded and followed along behind Rina as she approached the man.

"Excuse me! Have you seen a pokemon fly by carrying a young girl?" Rina asked him. There was no response. The man remained quiet, as if focused on something. "Excuse me! Mister!" She called out to him, but was again ignored.

"-This guy's ignoring us! Rina, forget him! There's plenty of people to ask!-" Pippi growled. Rina nodded in agreement and started to walk away.

The muscled man suddenly let out a primal yell and lashed out at the rock before him, striking it with his fist. The rock shattered explosively, sending shards of rocks everywhere. Rina turned around to see what he was doing when she heard the commotion and saw several rocks coming her way, but Knight quickly moved in front of her. The rocks smashed into Knight's chest, inflicting little harm on the dragon pokemon and fragmenting. Rina stumbled back in shock.

"What was that?!" She said in disbelief.

"HA! That was nothing!" The man replied, turning to face Rina and crossing his arms over his chest. He was grinning widely, looking satisfied with his display. "That is only a small demonstration of my power! You stand before Chuck, gym leader of Cianwood!"

"-Nothing?! You could have seriously hurt Rina with that little stunt!-" Knight shot back, still standing protectively in front of her.

"He's a gym leader?" Rina thought, blinking.

"Now, what was it you were asking before?" Chuck asked her.

"Oh, I was wondering if maybe you saw a pokemon fly by carrying a young girl?" Rina asked him. Chuck shook his head.

"Can't say I have. Though there did seem to be a bit of a commotion a few hours ago. People apparently saw something zip overhead and could hear what sounded like a girl screaming." Chuck shrugged. "Hardly any of my concern. Likely just a trainer showing off their pokemon's speed."

"I wish that was the case, but that definitely sounds like May and that pokemon." Rina thought. "Do you know which way it went?" Rina then asked.

"Kept going west I think. Don't know where it'd go from here, but there is a cave system on the other side of that steep hill there." Chuck pointed to the western side of town, where a large rocky hill jutted up and split the island in half. Only one half of the island was actually settled.

"Maybe it hid in those caves then!" Rina thought, hoping the chase was going to come to an end soon. She bowed to Chuck in thanks. "Thats all I needed to know, thank you Chuck!" Rina and Pippi then hopped back on Knight and flew over to the other side of the island, eager to check it out.

"Hmm...they didn't seem as impressed as I would have thought..." Chuck said to himself, stroking his chin thoughtfully. "Perhaps I should try a different technique..."


"What...what's this thing's deal?!" May wondered, annoyed that Deoxys still hadn't given up poking at the sapphire. "Is the sapphire REALLY that interesting or is the pokemon just easily amused?!"

"May!" May blinked in disbelief when she heard someone calling out to her. She was shocked when she turned around and saw Rina standing at the cave entrance.

"Rina?! How did you find me here?" May asked in disbelief. Deoxys finally seemed to lose interest in the sapphire and turned around to stare intently at Rina, dropping May's pokeballs. Knight, still out of his pokeball after flying Rina and Pippi around, stepped out in front of Rina. Pippi crouched down next to her, cheeks sparking with electricity. Though Deoxys seemed incapable of facial expressions, both pokemon could sense hostility at their arrival.

"I'll explain later! Knight, go! Attack that thing with Dragon Claw!" Knight nodded and flapped his wings, flying forward through the cave. May quickly moved out of the way, joining Rina near the cave entrance.

"-I don't know who or what you are, but this is the end for you!-" Knight called out to Deoxys. Deoxys didn't move at all as Knight flew toward it. As Knight stopped and lashed out with its empowered claws, Deoxys suddenly seemed to vanish. In one quick movement it went from being in front of Knight to standing behind him.

"Knight! Behind you!" Rina called out. Knight turned around quickly and slashed at Deoxys again, but Deoxys was too quick for it. In another lightning fast movement, Deoxys moved out of the way and circled behind Knight.

"Its too fast, a direct attack like that won't work! Just what is that thing?" Rina thought. "Knight, back off! We'll wait for an opening!" Knight nodded and turned toward Deoxys again, but didn't attack. Deoxys saw this as an opening. Deoxys' eyes began to emit a blue glow, and soon a similar glow surrounded Knight as Deoxys used a Psychic attack.

"Now's your chance! Dragon Claw!" Knight summoned his strength and slowly raised a claw while his body was still held in Deoxys' psychic grasp. An orange aura surrounded Knight's claws and Deoxys panicked, releasing Knight from the attack. Knight immediately lashed out at Deoxys and Deoxys tried to avoid again, but this time Knight was too close and had too much of a head start. Knight managed to strike a blow on Deoxys right shoulder as it moved out of the way.

"Good one, Rina! You hit it!" May cheered.

Deoxys, of course, wasn't through yet. The pokemon decided to try a different course of action, backing itself up against the back wall of the cave. It then shot toward Knight, moving several times faster than even its usual impressive speed to strike Knight. Knight growled in pain as Deoxys shot past, striking a hard blow to Knight's side in passing. Deoxys then quickly turned around, getting ready for another pass.

"Wh-what?! What's it doing now?!" Rina wondered in confusion. She shook her head, clearing her thoughts, and tried to think it through. "Ok, its obviously using either Quick Attack or Extremespeed." She said to herself. Meanwhile, Deoxys followed through on its second attack, striking Knight on the other side in passing and hitting him hard enough to spin him around.

"That pokemon has to pause after each attack, so I'll wait it out, and then..." Rina waited while Deoxys turned around to attack Knight again. Using another Extremespeed, Deoxys struck Knight in the head this time, causing the dragon pokemon to lurch forward. "Knight! Now! Attack with Thunder Wave!"

"-Gotcha!-" Knight thrust a hand out toward Deoxys, launching a pulse of electricity while the psychic pokemon was preparing to attack again. Deoxys flinched as the electricity passed through its body, inflicting paralysis on it. Deoxys fell to its knees as its muscles weakened, and Knight soon joined it. Deoxys' assault had left Knight very exhausted.

"Good job, Knight! That's enough for now!" Rina called out, holding out Knight's pokeball and recalling him. She then looked toward Pippi while pointing at Deoxys. "Ok, Pippi! Your turn now!" Pippi nodded eagerly and rushed out toward Deoxys, ready to attack. Deoxys turned around as quickly as it could to face its new opponent.

"Wow, Rina is actually a pretty good trainer." May thought to herself. "I guess she'd have to be, she has Mew afterall. And she hung around with some pretty tough trainers. This is the first time I've actually seen her battle though, and I think she might even be able to hold her own against me!" May grinned to herself. "For a little while anyway."

Before Rina could call out an attack, Deoxys' body began to shift forms. Its long, slender arms thickened and widened and its body became bulkier. Deoxys was shifting out of its speed form and into a more defensive form.

"It changed!" Rina said in disbelief.

"Its still paralyzed though, you can take it Rina!" May assured her. Rina nodded in agreement.

"Ok, Pippi! Attack that pokemon with Volt Tackle!"

Pippi grinned. "-OK!-" Charging electricity around her body, Pippi took off running toward Deoxys. She jumped up as she got closer and smashed into Deoxys' chest like a missile, sending out a shockwave that threw both pokemon back from the impact. Deoxys' body then suddenly shimmered and fired a blast of energy at Pippi, throwing her back with twice the power her own attack had against Deoxys. Pippi cried out in pain when she was hit and was tossed back toward Rina.

"I think that was a Mirror Coat attack!" May said to Rina.

"Really?" Rina blinked. "This thing is just full of surprises, I need to try a different approach if thats the case. Hmm..." Rina thought for a moment, meanwhile Deoxys made another attempt to attack Pippi. It moved into a stance like it was ready to dash, but then suddenly fell over as its body became paralyzed.

Rina snapped her fingers. "I've got it! We can use the same trick it tried on us! Pippi, use Agility!"

"What trick is that and how could it possibly do any more than my Volt Tackle?" Pippi wondered. She then cleared her mind and relaxed her body, easing her tense muscles to allow her to move more quickly while Deoxys struggled to get back on its feet.

"Ok! Now use Quick Attack and don't let up!" Pippi shot toward Deoxys with one Quick Attack just as it was getting back on its feet. She then shot past him, striking him in the side with another Quick Attack. She then repeated this technique over and over, circling around Deoxys and striking repeatedly with Quick Attack. Deoxys couldn't seem to follow Pippi's movements either, leaving it seemingly unable to counter.

"Looks like you've got that thing cornered now!" May said to Rina.

Even though Deoxys seemed to be confused by Pippi's quick movements at first, it didn't take long for it to come up with its own plan of attack. Raising its hands over its head, Deoxys fired out a stream of star shaped rays. The rays followed Pippi as she completed another Quick Attack, striking her from behind as she came to a stop and knocking her flat onto her face.

"Well so much for that..." Rina mumbled in disappointment. When Pippi got back up, Rina could see she was getting exhausted again. "Ok, Pippi, thats enough for now! Return!" Pippi looked back in surprise as Rina recalled her. Rina had never recalled Pippi as long as she was still conscious, but this time Rina was dealing with an unknown wild pokemon and didn't know how it might react to Pippi remaining outside her pokeball. So instead, Rina recalled Pippi and took another pokeball in her hand.

"Ok, Geri, your turn now!" Rina released Geri, a Tangela, from her pokeball. The Tangela bounced around excitedly when she appeared, happy to be out of her pokeball even if it was for a battle. "Geri, attack that pokemon with Leech Seed!" Geri nodded and fired out a seed from within her mass of vines, hitting Deoxys in the chest. The seed sprouted vines and latched on tightly, remaining there even as Deoxys swiped at it.

Deoxys soon gave up on trying to remove the seed and shifted forms again, changing into a sleek form that bore some resemblance to its speed form. Deoxys' thick arms split into two long, thin tendrils. It immediately went on the attack in its new form.

Deoxys began to levitate while an immense psychic aura surrounded its body, focusing the full power of its mind into an immense pink, crackling ball of energy around it. Deoxys then pointed all four arms at Geri, firing the ball of psychic energy from its body. The energy engulfed Geri completely and she cried out in pain as it launched a powerful assault on her mind. When the energy finally dissipated, Geri dropped to the ground. She had been rendered unconscious by the attack.

"Ack! No way! It knocked her out with only one attack?!" Rina cried out in disbelief. She quickly recalled Geri and reached for another pokeball.

"Rina! Its capabilities change based on its forms, this must be an offensive form!" May said to her.

"I think you're right." Rina replied, nodding. She grinned slightly as she held out a pokeball. "I have an unpredictable pokemon of my own, though! Mew, this one's all your's now!" The pokeball opened up, releasing Mew into the air. Mew smiled happily and thrust one hand into the air.

"-Ok! I can handle this one, I know I can!-" Mew said enthusiastically, sounding confident even though it didn't know what it was up against. As soon as Mew was released, Deoxys once again shifted forms. Deoxys' right pair of arms formed into a more usual looking arm, ending in a hand with three fingers and a thumb. The left pair of arms, however, remained largely the same, though a small bulb formed on the tip of each tendril.

"Another new form? Maybe this one is a physical attacker since that last one used a powerful special attack?" Rina thought, counting off Deoxys' different forms in her head. So far, it had used a speedy form, a defensive form, and an offensive form. Aside from possibly being a different offensive form, Rina was at a loss for what its capabilities might actually be.

While Rina was still trying to determine Deoxys' new capabilities, Deoxys took the initiative. Rather than going on the attack, however, it took the time to recover some of the damage inflicted on it so far. Deoxys focused, and its body shimmered briefly, restoring a fairly large amount of its health. The leech seed was still attached, however, and steadily draining it.

"It can Recover? That makes this a bit trickier, but we've already got a bit of an advantage I think." Rina said to herself. "Mew, attack now! Mega Punch!"

Mew raised one fist back and started winding it up. "-Ok! One Mega Punch coming right up!-" Mew flew toward Deoxys while still winding up its fist and then punched Deoxys in the face when it was finally in range. The force of the punch knocked Deoxys back several feet and instantly floored it, dealing considerable amount of damage for an attack that normally wasn't very powerful coming from Mew.

"Ok, so in this form it doesn't have very good defenses. Probably the same in its offensive form." Rina thought.

"Mew is a pokemon that was only rumored to exist, and is thought to be the 'mother' of all pokemon. That Mega Punch can't be the limit of its capabilities." May thought, then looked at Rina curiously. "Rina, doesn't Mew have any attacks that are stronger than that? I mean, you could probably end this pretty quickly after seeing how hard that Mega Punch hit that pokemon..."

Rina rubbed the back of her head. "Well, actually..." She began, but suddenly Deoxys went on the attack again. It quickly stood up and pointed the palm of its hand at Mew. From Deoxys' hand, a wide beam of energy fired out. Mew was swept up by the energy blast and thrown into the wall of the cave, near the entrance. Mew grunted when it hit the wall and then fell to the ground. Mew soon got back up though. It was a heavy hit, but Mew was also a surprisingly durable pokemon for its size. The attack, Hyper Beam, also left Deoxys unable to move.

Rina quickly turned to Mew, concerned for it after it endured Deoxys' attack. "Mew! Are you okay?!" She asked. Mew nodded weakly and floated up off the ground. Rina breathed a sigh of relief and faced Deoxys again. "Looks like I was right then, this thing is in a physical offensive form now. That's why it chose to use Hyper Beam. It can't take physical attacks very well though, and I think its a psychic pokemon."

"-So what do we do?-" Mew asked, floating up next to Rina.

"Use Softboiled for now, heal while you can. Then we'll go on the offense again, but I think we've got it covered pretty well as it is." Rina motioned toward Deoxys. It was still recovering from using Hyper Beam and looked pretty exhausted. On top of Mew's Mega Punch, it was still being drained by Leech Seed. Mew nodded and moved out in front of Rina to face Deoxys again, all while forming and breaking an egg over its head to release a healing energy onto itself.

"Ok! Now use Metronome and attack before that other pokemon can!" Mew began to wave its fingers and tricked itself into using a technique it didn't know. Mew then flew straight toward Deoxys while a cone of air began to swirl in front of its nose, forming into a drill. Mew stabbed through Deoxys with the drill, knocking it over again as it passed by. Once Deoxys was on the ground, Rina immediately reached for an empty Ultra Ball, intent on capturing it.

"Now I'll catch this thing to finish this!" Rina called out, throwing the pokeball at the downed Deoxys. The pokeball bounced off and opened up, pulling Deoxys inside. In its weakened and paralyzed state, Deoxys couldn't put up much of a fight. After briefly shaking with the pokemon's struggles to break free, the ball soon locked shut, sealing it inside. It then vanished, sending Deoxys off to storage.

"Alright! We caught..." Rina blinked. "Umm...we caught..." Blinking again, she looked over at May expectantly.

"Don't ask me! I didn't even get a chance to scan it, I have no idea what that thing is!" May said to her.

"-Hey! I won a battle without transforming!-" Mew said, squealing in delight.

"That's right! Maybe I should take the time to figure out what you can do on your own, huh?" Rina replied, smiling sheepishly. "I wonder what that pokemon was, though. It seemed pretty powerful...you don't think its another legendary pokemon, do you?" Rina then asked it. Mew blinked and then shrugged. It had no idea what it had just fought either.

"I thought I was going to have to find my own way out of this, how did you even manage to find me?" May asked Rina.

"Oh, we just asked around." Rina replied. "How far are we from Ecruteak now, anyway?"

"I don't think we're really and further or closer to it, though we'll have to fly across the ocean back to the mainland now." May replied. She then walked across the cave to finally retrieve her pokeballs. After placing the belt back around her waist she picked up the sapphire off the ground.

"WHAT THE HECK TOOK YOU SO LONG?! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA THE DAMAGE THAT POKEMON COULD HAVE DONE?! WHY DIDN'T YOU TRY TO STOP IT?!?!"

"Err...Rina...would you hold this for me?" May tossed the sapphire to Rina. Rina, caught off guard, nearly dropped it as she fumbled to catch it. Holding the sapphire in her hand, Rina blinked in confusion. Feeling no ill effects from holding it, though, and being completely unable to hear Haruka's voice herself, Rina saw no harm in holding it.

"I'll take the sapphire back when Haruka's had time to cool off I think."


Notes: Ha! Bet you didn't see that Venomoth coming at all! Totally blew you out of the water with that one, didn't I?!

On slightly more serious note, until I was describing Deoxys' change from attack form to normal and used a reference picture, I NEVER noticed its left and right arms were different. The title, of course, is a reference to the fact that Deoxys is apparently a mutated space virus.