The battle between the Pokedex Holders was finally beginning. Gold had burst out of the water, gliding above their heads on his Mantine and Remoraid plane-like Pokemon. He soared across the sky toward Lugia, ordering half of his Remoraid that were not making him propel himself through the sky, turned forward and act as turrets.
"Get ready!" Gold shouted as Hakel got up and smiled at Gold. He then noticed that there was a shore next to them but, for some reason, he didn't notice that before. The Remoraid that had turned around opened their mouths and pulled their heads back. "Blast away!" The water that came from Gold's Remoraid shot like bullets that smashed into Lugia and began to drive it backward making it close its eyes feeling the pain.
"Wow!" Crystal shouted as Exbo looked into the air, impressed at its Trainer.
However, as Gold began driving it backward toward the shore that he had noticed as well, Lugia's eyes opened back up devilishly, slamming its head into Mantine, Gold, and his Remoraid.
"Woahh!" Gold shouted, quickly calling back his newly obtained Pokemon, slamming into the sand in the process.
Hakel and his Espeon nodded to one another, creating a surface of energy around their two bodies. Hakel called over Exbo and caught him by opening a hole in the shield he was in. Hakel and his Espeon took themselves and Exbo over to the shore, where Exbo exited the shield and ran over to its Trainer.
"He's fallen on the shore!" Crystal shouted, landing on the shore right after Hakel, Espeon, and Exbo. Silver arrived shortly after and looked back up at Lugia, who was flying toward them.
"But he failed to make Lugia fall into the water and stop its air blasts!" Silver said, as Lugia stopped in mid flight, realizing something.
Hakel smiled and said, "No, he didn't, Silver. Look at Lugia's mouth." Silver and Crystal looked up into the air just as Hakel pointed, seeing that Lugia had Gold's billiard cue stuck between its teeth.
"He stopped Lugia's attacks with his own method! Amazing!" Crystal shouted, surprised that Gold could have done this before he fell.
"If the mouth can't open and shut, Lugia cannot attack anymore!" Silver shouted, taking out a Poke Ball. "Croconaw, come out!"
"Megaree, come out!" Crystal shouted, calling out her Bayleef to help with the battle as well. Lugia restarted its descent down to the Pokedex Holders without them even realizing it.
Gold started to get up as Exbo tried to help him saying, "Oh, the onlookers are here! How'd you like that genius attack? I did the trick while I blasted it with water…" Gold showed Exbo the Poke Ball that contained the Mantine and Remoraid glider inside of it. "Exbo… This is… our new pal from the sea… Be friends with it… uh…"
"Are you okay?" Crystal asked, very surprised that he still had enough strength to speak. He should have at least broken some of his bones in that fall.
Crystal started to help Gold to his feet as he said, "Damn… it… I didn't expect to fall from that shit… That hurt like hell…"
As Gold got to his feet, Hakel and Silver turned around quickly to see that a large shadow was beginning to cover them with its large shadow. "It's back! Everybody, stand back!" Hakel shouted as he and his Espeon jumped in the way of Lugia, as Hakel's Espeon used a large, defensive Reflect to block its path. "Espeon, protect everyone!"
"Hakel!" Crystal and Silver shouted, as Hakel and his Espeon struggled to keep the gigantic Legendary away from them.
"Dude, what… in the hell are you doing?" Gold asked, still feeling the pain.
"I'm going to save you three, no matter what! If you three die here, then they'll be no one to take my legacy and the rest of the Kanto Pokedex Holders! Now, Espeon, hold Lugia back!" Hakel shouted as Gold, Crystal, and Silver tried to break through the Reflect to get to Hakel and his Espeon. However, shortly after Espeon and Hakel put up the shield, Lugia slammed its foot onto the shield, breaking through it while stomping on Hakel and his Espeon, making them fall deep underground, unconscious and without movement.
"Hakel!" Gold, Silver, and Crystal shouted, watching Hakel be defeated by Lugia.
Lugia then stomped onto the ground, throwing the three Pokedex Holders apart, throwing Gold under its left wing, Silver under its right wing, and Crystal under its tail. The three of their Pokemon tried to hold each of the body parts up over their heads, however, it seemed it wasn't enough to hold Lugia's insane strength back.
The three Pokedex Holders started to fall into the same predicament until Megaree, Exbo, and Croconaw began to shake and glow a bright, gold light. The three starters began to grow larger. Gold, Silver, and Crystal looked in amazement as their bodies began to grow and change. Finally, when the light faded from their starters, three new Pokemon had finally emerged.
"All three of them…!" Crystal shouted surprised as she stared at his Meganium.
"Are evolving at the same time…!" Gold stated as he stared at his Typholosion.
"To the final stage…!" Silver shouted as he stared at his Feraligatr.
"Unbelievable!" Crystal shouted as Megaree, Exbo, and Feraligatr began to lift Lugia's wings high enough so that each of their Trainers could stand back up. "Megaree has evolved into Meganium! But… why?"
"When Pokemon of similar backgrounds meet, peer pressure pushes them to evolve together. I've heard about this phenomenon but… I've never seen it like this!" Silver shouted, over to his comrades.
"I don't care about the logic of it! We still have a chance to beat this gigantic bird!" Gold shouted, feeling better from his fall already. "Silver, tell me! You were always blabbering about the vital spot where each Pokemon's life energy is concentrated. This bird has it too, hasn't it? I'm gonna capture this bird once and for all!"
"It's the forehead! To ensure a capture, you've gotta aim for that spot! Aim for the forehead!" Silver shouted as Gold ran forward, holding an empty Poke Ball in his hands.
"Leave it to me!" Gold shouted as he stopped and aimed for Lugia's head. "GO!" Gold tossed the Poke Ball at Lugia's forehead, however, it smacked against its nose, missing its "life energy" spot completely. "Oh no! I can't aim without my cue!"
"Don't worry!" Crystal shouted as she began sliding on the ground and then jumped into the air right under the flying Poke Ball that Gold had thrown at Lugia. She then rose her foot and slammed her foot into it, smacking Lugia onto his head in the exact spot that Silver told Gold to. The Poke Ball opened up, released its light and seemed to catch Lugia.
"Yeah!" Gold shouted as the Poke Ball containing Lugia landed on the ground in the middle of the three of them. "Well done, Crystal! The timing was perfect!" Gold smiled at her and she smiled back as Silver picked up the Poke Ball from the ground.
Silver then stared at the Poke Ball and noticed something was really wrong. The Poke Ball had no weight nor anything else that would mean they successfully caught Lugia. Silver sighed, as Gold and Crystal began to walk toward him.
"What's wrong?" Gold asked, as Silver held out the Poke Ball and began to open it.
"Look." Silver said as he completely opened the Poke Ball that Lugia was supposed to be in, however, there was nothing within the Poke Ball.
"It's empty? What the hell?" Gold asked surprised.
"The Pokemon's gone?" Crystal asked, just as surprised as Gold was. "Why is it empty? I thought the ball hit its head and he disappeared?"
"Me too!" Gold shouted. "I thought Crystal had captured it! What happened to it?"
"Maybe we underestimated Lugia." Silver said, closing the Poke Ball. "I figured the cue couldn't stop it for long." He looked to the left of them and saw that Gold's billiard cue was lying next to them.
"Damn it." Gold said, walking over to the billiard cue and taking it out the sand. "Just when we thought we had it, it escaped from our clutches."
"So… the light that came from Poke Ball… was just to fool us right it escaped?" Crystal asked, thinking about the situation.
"Damn!" Gold shouted, turning back to everyone.
"Wait a second…" Crystal said taking out her Pokedex. "If it's escaped, there's a way to catch up with it!"
"Huh? What are you talking about?" Gold asked, as she urged both of them to take out their Pokedex's as well. They did so and she began to explain what she was trying to say.
"The tracking system!" Crystal said, flipping her Pokedex open and bringing up Lugia's page, considering their Pokedex's recorded most of Lugia's information. "It's a function of the Johto Pokedex's. It allows you to track down any of the Pokemon you've but… lost track on in the first place. I'm sure both of you knew about it, didn't you?"
Gold and Silver nodded in response to question, however, inside they both thought,
Crystal then showed them both ways to track Lugia by bringing up its page on the Pokedex and then scrolling over to look at the map. The map showed a small, red blinking light that let you knew where Lugia was right now. The map had a split screen, showing one screen that exhibited Kanto and Johto's map. With that information, Silver walked away from the group and climbed a few of the rocks next to them.
Silver walked to the top of one of the rock formations and then stopped, looking down into an opening to another strange place.
"Hey, Silver!" Gold shouted to him as he walked up to the top of the rock formation. Crystal followed after him along with the three starters who they had not called back yet. "Silver, this tracking system is taking a long time to do. Can't you help?"
"Shutup for a second, Gold." Silver said, already realizing that Crystal had noticed it.
"What the hell is-" Gold started to say but was stopped when he saw what they were looking at. "This cave has… trails of a giant Pokemon's claws and tail! Could it be that… Lugia is here?"
"Yeah, it must be. This must be Lugia's hangout." Silver stated, turning back to Gold and Crystal.
"What?" Gold asked surprised.
"This archipelago is actually made up of four Islands. There are stories that these four Islands are connected by underwater tunnels. It's possible that Lugia made this it's hideout." Crystal said, examining the area. "…There are also signs of a battles and blood stains as well."
"What the hell?" Gold asked, stunned at the signs of explosions and fights that had happened here. "That giant bird Pokemon was attacked by something else before it saw us?"
"Most likely." Silver stated. "No wonder it attacked us randomly. He must be angry with the intruders for attacking it!"
"But who'd-" Crystal started to ask something but she suddenly heard that her Pokedex was beeping. It had finally found Lugia's location. "What?" Crystal shouted as she looked at the screen. "Error? Does that mean Lugia can't be found? Is it like a tracking failure or something?"
"What? Is it busted or something?" Gold asked, looking at his Pokedex, showing that he had the same message on it that Crystal had on hers. Silver showed his, showing that it had the same message on it that theirs did.
"Three Pokedex's can't possibly malfunction at the same time… right?" Crystal asked surprised. "We can't even track down Lugia though the tracking system is working! There… can only be one reason for that, right?"
"Damn it…" Silver said, sighing. "I was afraid of that… I can't believe it."
"Afraid of what, Silver?" Gold asked, not understanding what this all meant.
"Gold, this means that… someone else has captured it before us! Someone other than the three of us!" Crystal answered, opening Gold's eyes to the truth.
"If I'm not wrong, he's the same person who attacked Lugia here! This was all a trap!" Silver said, gritting his teeth. "Attacking us… Taking Hakel down… All of it was a trap and we fell for it. Like stupid pawns that fell into their hands. What a troublesome moment." Silver called back his newly obtained Feraligatr and then started to walk away from Crystal and Gold.
"Don't tell me you're going to go after him alone? Let's discuss this with Professor Pine and Professor Elm first!" Crystal said, pleading for Silver to not go alone.
"Crystal, there's no use in trying to stop him. There's no way he'll talk to either of the Profs." Gold stated, as Silver called out his Murkrow and started to fly away.
"Why?" Crystal asked, turning to Gold. "You're just gonna let him go alone?"
"Yeah…" Gold said, facing his back to Silver's back. "Why not? He's a Pokedex Holder… He can take care of himself. Before this, I'd just shout out basically the same thing you just said. But now, it's different… because we're all after the same enemy and even if we go in different directions, eventually we'll meet when we reach our goals!"
"Same… enemy?" Crystal asked, turning around to see Silver fly out of their sight into the distance.
"Besides, Crystal, we have better things to do! We have to find Hakel! He fell underground and he's waiting for us to find him!" Gold answered, grabbing Crystal and tossing her on the top of her Meganium. As she landed on her Meganium, she felt a strange vibration in her pocket.
"I wonder who that is…" Crystal said as she took out her Pokegear and opened it up.
"Hello, Pine here!" Professor Pine said on the other line.
"Professor Pine?" Crystal asked surprised.
"Why do you sound so surprised?" Professor Pine asked from the other end of the line. "I heard about a strange phenomenon in that area. Are you okay?"
"I'm okay! But… we were attacked by a giant bird Pokemon, trapped in the sea, and I got separated from Hakel…" Crystal explained to Professor Pine.
"Crys, calm down! You said you were separated from Hakel?" Professor Pine asked, extremely surprised. So, with that notion out, Crystal quickly explained how Hakel tried to defend them all with his Espeon, however, they were both thrown underground and they haven't come back up. "Well… You don't have to worry about him. He's used to such situations, despite his looks… A meteorology team is coming there right now. I'll tell them to keep the look out for Hakel. Leaving that aside, Crys, I need you to go to a place."
"A place? Where is it?" Crystal asked him.
"Kanto." Professor Pine stated. "I was thinking about asking Gold, another owner of the Pokedex to do the same thing. But that kid… I wonder where he is… I haven't been able to reach him at all."
"If you're talking about Gold…" Crystal said as she put the screen of her Pokegear up to Gold. "He's with me now."
"Yo!" Gold said, waving at the Professor.
"Huh?" Professor Pine asked, very surprised at what had happened. After explaining a few more things, Crystal and Gold headed straight for Kanto on Professor Pine's orders.