The ultra ball looked like any other ultra ball; nothing about it would have hinted that the ball held Rayquaza the Sky God. Alfgar pocketed the ball and looked at his partners.
"We should go," he said finally.
"How? All our pokemon that can fly are knocked out," Gary said.
"I can try sending Khnum out again. Maybe he's recovered enough to fly us to Pacifidlog Town, at least," Spencer offered.
Alfgar nodded to him. Gary had no fliers, and Apollo would definitely not be in the shape to do anything, let alone fly, for a while.
Spencer sent out his gyarados and the beast materialized with a flash of white light. The towering blue dragon roared upon release, though it also shook its head and blinked a few times to reorient itself.
"Hey! Think you can fly us out of here?" Spencer called to the gyarados. Khnum roared in reply.
"That's a yes," Spencer translated. The gyarados leaned down and let Gary and Alfgar return their pokemon and climb onto the blue, serpentine pokemon.
Spencer sat directly behind the gyarados' head and told Gary to sit behind the first large white fin that protruded from the pokemon's back. Alfgar sat behind the second one and held on to it tightly as Khnum slowly took flight.
As the sea serpent coiled its way through the air, Alfgar's fingers ghosted the ultra ball that was now clipped to his belt. He thought about Ogdun and his two beartic, Steelshanks the metagross, and about his deceased arbok, Wick.
It wasn't the first time Alfgar had lost a pokemon, and it probably wouldn't be the last either. He wasn't very close to the arbok, and Wick was a conniving, greedy, perfidious, and sly pokemon. Even though he didn't always get along with Wick, Alfgar knew that the arbok had still fought with him when he needed him, and that the snake died following his orders. Still, Alfgar found it hard to be overtly sad about the death of the arbok.
Alfgar had done many terrible things in the past, and he was no stranger to suppressing his emotions. He could not tell if he simply didn't care for Wick or whether he was just so good at repressing his feelings that his mind just eliminated any emotions before they could make themselves known to him.
Hours passed and the sun set, leaving the sky a shade of dark purple. Bright white stars twinkled above, and when Alfgar looked down he could see their vibrant reflections in the black water.
After another half hour or so, Alfgar saw a small cluster of yellow lights on the surface of the ocean. As the group neared Pacifidlog, Khnum slowly descended and hit the water a mile away from the ocean town. Though the gyarados had descended slowly, the spray from the water still chilled Alfgar as the gyarados touched down on the surface of the sea. Half of the gyarados' body was now underwater as it swam towards the town.
"I don't think the citizens of Pacifidlog would take too kindly to a gyarados dropping in on them in the middle of the night, so we're going to approach slowly from the water," Spencer called out from the front of the gyarados.
As Khnum swam towards Pacifidlog, Alfgar felt his stomach grumble. He hadn't eaten anything since being inside Sky Pillar, and his hunger was compounded by the sudden weariness he felt. He also hadn't slept since entering Sky Pillar, and he didn't even know how long they had been inside the tower.
Eventually the group reached Pacifidlog, and Khnum swam up next to a large platform made of wood. Alfgar, Spencer, and Gary dismounted and walked onto the platform. As Spencer recalled his gyarados, Alfgar looked around at the town.
Pacifidlog was very small and out-of-the-way, and it consisted solely of a group of wooden platforms connected by wooden walkways and bridges. The platform the group was standing on had three small houses on it, but Alfgar could see other platforms in the distance holding things such as a pokemon center, a pokemart, a shoddy hospital, and more houses.
The group walked along the platform and crossed a few wooden bridges and walkways to reach the largest platform in the town. This platform was home to a large plaza, and most of the light emanated from the street lamps placed alongside the plaza. A large statue of a pack of sharpedo stood in the center of the plaza, and a modest fountain rested in front of the statue. The plaza platform also contained a few shops, and a handful of people milled about.
The group made their way to the next wooden platform, this one smaller than the plaza one. This platform only held the pokemon center, and the three trainers entered the building and were greeted by the familiar interior design that every pokemon center had.
The trainers walked up to the counter and handed the nurse their pokeballs, but Alfgar held on to Rayquaza's ultra ball. He wanted the dragon to be weakened when he next released it, and he didn't think the center would remain calm after seeing that he had a legendary with him. The three then walked over to the cafeteria, ordered food, and sat down at a table.
"You know he's not yours, right?" Gary said when he saw Alfgar fingering Rayquaza's ball again. "We all helped to catch him, so he belongs to all of us."
"He doesn't belong to anyone, Gary," Alfgar shot back. "You think now that we have him in a ball he's just going to start listening to us? I guarantee you, the next time we release him he's going to try and kill us all."
"And we'll be prepared," Gary said nonchalantly as he chewed his grilled spoink sandwich. "We beat him once, we can beat him again. He knows that we're more powerful than him."
Alfgar shook his head at Gary's arrogance. "We brought twenty, yet he still managed to kill five of us and severely wound many others. And I think we got lucky, too."
"You're such a pessimist, Alfgar," Spencer cut in. "We won! We beat a fucking god."
But none of you lost a pokemon, Alfgar thought, though he didn't say anything. He still hadn't felt anything over Wick's death, so he didn't think it made sense to act like he was torn up about it.
"Alright, alright, I get it," Alfgar conceded. "But we should still get going early tomorrow morning. We don't want to - "
"Check that out," Gary interrupted, pointing at one of the televisions that hung from the cafeteria ceiling.
Alfgar glanced at the screen and noticed a news report talking about a conference in Lilycove and how a Unovan and Kalosian representative were killed. It also said that Unova and Hoenn had officially declared war on each other. Alfgar knew that this was coming, but it still felt surreal to see it written out like that.
"Does this really change anything?" Spencer asked.
"No. We keep doing what we're doing, and we stick to the plan," Alfgar replied.
"What exactly is the plan?" Spencer wondered. "We have Rayquaza, now what? Do we go after Groudon?"
"We've got to get Rayquaza to listen to us first, or else he's completely useless. Since Gary here is so confident, I was hoping that he would know how to tame this legendary dragon."
Gary just shrugged and took another bite of his sandwich. "We'll figure it out along the way," he said, his mouth full of food.
Alfgar glared at Gary but chose not to pester him further. Instead, he took a sip of his cold, carbonated drink and felt the bubbles burn down his throat, a feeling that was chilly and spicy at the same time.
He thought about the war. He figured that Unova would probably invade Hoenn, as it had the larger army and could afford to send soldiers overseas as well as keep some reserves at home. He also wondered if he would have to fight and maybe even kill Unovan soldiers, the men and women who had been his comrades in the past. He decided that he would avoid it if possible, but he would definitely not balk if his hand was forced.
He planned to return to the base and then release Rayquaza into the jungle outside the cavern. All the Brothers would have their pokemon out in order to contain Rayquaza if he tried anything, but the dragon legendary would be weakened and hampered by the dense foliage so they hopefully wouldn't have a problem with that.
After a few more minutes of eating and listening to Gary boast about how his porygon-z's hyper beams had been the difference in defeating Rayquaza, Alfgar finished his dinner and returned to the lobby of the pokemon center. The Pacifidlog pokemon center was relatively empty with no one there save for Alfgar. He figured this was due to the small size of the town and the fact that it was close to one in the morning.
"Hi, I'd like to inquire about the health of my pokemon," Alfgar said to the nurse who manned the desk.
The nurse was a plain-looking woman in scrubs, and she yawned before asking for his name. Alfgar gave it to her, and she clicked a few times at her computer before turning back to him.
"Your charizard has a couple broken ribs and a fractured femur, and your tyrantrum suffered a concussion and possibly some bone fractures as well. Those two should probably stay overnight, but the rest of your pokemon are fine. Would you like them back?"
Alfgar nodded and then thanked the nurse as she handed him the three pokeballs. He then headed up to the room he had reserved when he first checked in. Since the pokemon center was almost entirely empty, each of the three trainers were able to have their own rooms.
As he walked into the rather plain room, Alfgar tossed his pack onto the bed and chucked the three pokeballs into the air. While the pokemon emerged from their balls, Alfgar glanced out the window. He could see a few more of Pacifidlog's buildings on wooden rafts, most of them residential houses. Past them, though, there was nothing but the ocean. It was vast and dark, mysterious and foreboding. As it rippled under the moonlight and the gleam of the stars, the water looked eerily beautiful to Alfgar.
He turned back to his pokemon. His kecleon, Randy, emerged from his ball and began looking around, his reptilian eyes darting around the room. He squawked and then darted into the bed and began wrapping himself in the covers. Alfgar heard a growl as Luce, his luxray, approached them. The lion jumped onto the bed, displacing the kecleon and causing him to squawk in anger. The last pokeball revealed Evenfall, Alfgar's glaceon. She preferred the floor to the warmth of the bed and lay down after observing her surroundings.
"This is Pacifidlog," Alfgar announced as he watched Randy throw a pillow at Luce as the kecleon leapt of the bed. The luxray simply batted the pillow away and glared at Randy.
"If you guys would stop fighting for a second," he started, looking pointedly at Randy and Luce, "I have some things to say. As you know, we caught Rayquaza. What you don't know is that the war has begun."
Evenfall stared at him with an uninterested expression on her face, Luce continued glaring at Randy, and the kecleon himself was now rummaging through Alfgar's pack; the lizard had pulled it off the bed and thrown it onto the floor. Overall, none of the three seemed to care about the news at all.
Slightly irked, Alfgar continued on. "Also, Wick was killed at Sky Pillar, just in case any of you missed Rayquaza ripping him in half."
"Good. That snake was plotting to kill you, Master, I am sure of it," said Luce, his eyes glinting with amusement.
"If any of my pokemon were plotting to kill me, I would bet that it would be you, Luce," came Alfgar's reply. He noticed that none of his other pokemon said anything or indicated that they were saddened by the arbok's passing. Was Wick really that bad, or have they all just become like me? He wondered.
"Where are the other two? The dinosaur and that infernal charizard," asked Evenfall.
"Healing. They took a lot of damage, but they should be alright by tomorrow, which is when we return to the base."
Alfgar then remembered how tired he was, and the fatigue hit him in a harsh wave. He lay down on the bed and pulled the covers over himself, only stopping to kick off his boots. Luce growled in annoyance but moved over for his trainer all the same.
Alfgar stifled a yawn. "Will someone get the lights?" He asked, his voice dulled. No one responded to his request, but he nevertheless drifted off to sleep even though the lights were still on.
He then realized that he forgot to feed his three pokemon, but he was too far gone to wake himself now. As sleep overtook him, he hoped that Luce wouldn't go off and kill someone out of hunger.
"It hasn't changed a bit." Edwin smiled and looked over the city, and Poseidon croaked his agreement.
Mossdeep was located on a small island off the coast of Lilycove, though it was far enough away that neither city could even see the other on the horizon. It was a bustling city and quite the opposite of Fortree. Mossdeep was home to the famous Mossdeep Space Station, the only space center in all of Hoenn. The city was also filled with gleaming skyscrapers and corporate buildings, and it was considered the tech capital of the region because of the vast number of scientists, researchers, and inventors that lived there.
Even so, Mossdeep, like almost every other city in Hoenn, was very in tune with nature. A gentle sea breeze could be felt almost everywhere on the island, and a large, green, beautiful park was located in the middle of the city.
Tourism was a vital part of Mossdeep's ecosystem, and after people got tired of looking at the rocket ships and the space rocks they would often take a ride on on of Mossdeep's guided ocean tours, in which tourists were able to get close to and observe a whole array of water pokemon that lived in the ocean surrounding the island.
"It's very pretty," Faustina remarked as she stepped off the boat and walked over to Edwin. "Do your parents live near here?"
"They live next to the space station, so it'll take an hour or so if we walk from here. Come on, we should get going. I told Mom I was coming home, and she'll be worried if I don't show up soon."
Faustina shook her head. "You go ahead. I'll be at the pokemon center. I don't want to intrude on your family reunion."
Edwin sighed. "You're not intruding! After all you've done for me, the least I can do is let you stay at my house." Poseidon croaked, again voicing his agreement.
"No, no, it's fine. The pokemon center isn't bad, and it's not costly either. You go on."
"Alright, suit yourself," Edwin replied. "I think I'm going to visit the space station afterwards, my dad works there. You want to come?"
Faustina's violet eyes twinkled at that. "Sounds interesting. Sure, I'll go."
"Alright, I'll call you, then. See you later." With that, Edwin and Poseidon left the harbor and headed towards the west side of the island, towards the Mossdeep Space Station.
"Mom's probably going to be mad again," Edwin said to Poseidon as they headed towards the trainer's house. "This is only the second time we've visited since we left."
Poseidon nodded, then croaked something in reply. Edwin looked at him quizzically, and Poseidon grunted and pointed towards a tall building in the distance. The space station.
"Oh, that. Yeah, I'm excited too. Dad promised he'd show us a lot more than he did last time, now that we're older. He also said he had something really exciting and important for me to do, but I have no clue what he means by that. Guess we'll find out soon enough, though."
Edwin and Poseidon walked through the city until they arrived at a string of housing developments located only a few miles away from the Mossdeep Space Center. The space station was a compound of buildings all centered around one tall structure. Connected to the structure was a large space shuttle, its fresh white paint gleaming in the Hoenn sunlight.
The pair strolled along, admiring the space shuttle as they walked through the rows of nice but identical houses. Eventually they stopped at one of the homes, though nothing about it made it stand out from its neighboring houses.
The house was relatively large with a medium-sized lawn. The outside of the building was painted a bright white, and the door and mailbox were painted a vibrant red color. Edwin approached the door and pushed the button next to it, and soon enough a middle-aged woman with brown hair opened the door.
Her blue eyes lit up when she saw Edwin and she immediately grabbed him in a bone-crushing hug.
"Mom, stop it," Edwin grunted as he struggled to break free of her grasp.
"Oh, I'm sorry, honey, it's just that I haven't seen you in so long and - oh! Poseidon, you evolved again?"
The swampert croaked happily at being noticed.
"Come in, you two! I was just about to start making lunch. And Edwin, let your other pokemon out, too. I'm sure they're tired of being cooped up in their balls, and we've got enough food for everyone."
Edwin and his swampert followed the boy's mother into the house, and the young pokemon trainer was immediately hit by a wave of nostalgia. Everything was the same, from the hardwood floors to the blank white walls to the faint aroma of flowers that wafted throughout the house. Edwin released his other five pokemon and watched as they began exploring the house.
Shira, Revina, and Elric barked, buzzed, and chirped upon recognizing the house, but Ajax and Elena had never been to their trainer's house before and began looking around quizzically.
"This is my house, for those of you who don't know," Edwin explained to his electabuzz and ninetales. Ajax growled happily at his trainer's words but Elena slunk off and lay down under one of the chairs next to the large wooden dining table.
Edwin sat down as well, and Poseidon rested on the ground next to him. Edwin had noticed that though the swampert was capable of sitting on a chair and eating at the table, he preferred to laze around on the ground. Ajax sat down next to Edwin and Shira jumped onto the chair on the other side of her trainer. Elric flew over and perched on top of another chair, and Revina buzzed around her trainer's head.
"Oh, my!" Edwin's mother exclaimed as she entered the room. "You've got a full team now! Don't worry, I'm sure we still have enough. And Edwin? Your father said to send you over to the space station as soon as you arrived, so after you have lunch you should head over."
Edwin marveled at the sheer size of it. The whole space compound together must take up half the island, and the shuttle itself could probably rival the tallest building in center city. Poseidon grunted next to him, clearly just as impressed as Edwin was.
His blue eyes navigated over the polished black stone of the main building. Edwin decided that he had waited long enough and pushed walked through the automatic doors that led into a large lobby, the walls and floor also set in shining black stone.
He had sent Faustina a text and also tried calling her to tell her that he was going to the space station, but she had not responded. He remembered that they were interrupted back in Lilycove when they were going to buy her a new phone, so he figured that Faustina had completely forgot about it and still didn't have a cellphone. His mother had told him that his father urgently needed to see him, and for that reason Edwin didn't waste time going over to the pokemon center to tell Faustina. Besides, they could go back to the space station at any time. He would be in Mossdeep for a while; his mother would see to that.
Edwin pushed his way through the crowds in the lobby and attempted to get to the welcome desk. The main entrance of the Mossdeep Space Station was always filled to the brim, as tourists often came by to visit the famous Mossdeep Space Museum. After a few minutes of pushing and shoving (though people mostly got out of his way when they saw his swampert), Edwin finally made it to the welcome desk.
"Hi, I'm here to see my father, he should be expecting me. My name is Edwin Willow," he said to one of the secretaries that manned the large welcome desk.
The woman glanced at her computer. She had bright red hair tied into a tight ponytail and wore expensive-looking glasses. She wore a well-ironed white-collared shirt, and her whole appearance spoke of professionalism and efficiency. Her computer was paper-thin and had a minimalistic design, but Edwin knew that it was probably worth thousands of pokedollars and that it was extremely powerful.
"Edwin Willow..." She muttered as she typed some commands into her computer. "Ah. Yes, your father did tell us to look out for you. One moment, please."
The secretary turned to the sleek black telephone that sat at her desk and picked it up as she dialed a number.
"Hi," she said into the phone,"Commander Willow's son is here. We need someone to escort him to the docking area... Okay, thanks a lot." She put down the phone. "If you'll wait here for a few moments, someone will be here to escort you to your father."
Edwin thanked her and stood in front of the desk, looking around awkwardly. Poseidon croaked something, but Edwin didn't understand. The swampert was on all fours, lazing around as he so often did. Poseidon was over six feet tall when he stood to his full height, and he could be very menacing if he wanted to be.
Despite this, Poseidon preferred to spend his time sleeping or resting. This was a large change from his demeanor as a marshtomp, as back then Poseidon was hyperactive and was always looking for an opponent to battle. Edwin figured that now that he was a swampert, Poseidon felt that he didn't need to prove anything by picking fights because he already knew that he was stronger than everyone.
After a few more minutes of waiting around, Edwin saw a tall, muscular, middle-aged man approach the welcome desk. He was wearing a tropical green uniform and had a black assault rifle slung over his back, indicating that he was probably from the military. He also had two pokeballs clipped to his belt.
"Edwin Willow?" The man asked. Edwin nodded, and the man motioned for him to follow.
Edwin followed the soldier through a series of hallways and walkways, passing things such as laboratories, automated machines, strange-looking computer screens mounted to the walls, scientists in lab coats, and engineers rushing around.
Eventually the three reached a set of large steel doors, and guarding those doors were a group of soldiers dressed in the same uniform as Edwin's guide. The group of men stood outside a small booth which Edwin figured to be a checkpoint station.
"Your father is in there," Edwin's guide stated, pointing towards the metal doors, "but you'll need to recall your pokemon first. Also, you'll need this." The man headed into the booth and rummaged around for a bit before pulling out a pass that Edwin could wear around his neck. As Edwin returned Poseidon and put the pass on, the man pushed a button inside the booth and the steel doors slid open.
Edwin walked through the doors and entered a large laboratory with steel gray walls and flooring, apparently made out of some kind of metal. The laboratory overlooked the large space shuttle, and Edwin could see small teams of engineers working in and around the shuttle, their equipment buzzing and drilling.
He also saw two people leaning over the railing and looking at the shuttle. One of them was Commander Leonard Willow, Edwin's father. He was a man of average height and build but of extraordinary intellect, and he wore a lab coat on top of a green uniform. His father was technically part of the military, but he had always considered himself more of a scientist than a soldier. Leonard Willow had blond hair and a blond beard and mustache. He had bright blue eyes which gave the impression of youth, but his wrinkles at the corners of his eyes and his thinning hair provided contradictory visuals.
The other person was a woman with dark hair and a slim but curvaceous build. As she turned to face Edwin, her purple eyes glinted with amusement.
"Faustina? How'd you get in here?"
"I let her in," Edwin's father said with a jolly smile on his face. "It's good to see you again, son."
Edwin returned the smile and gave his father a hug. "You too, Dad."
"Well this is touching, isn't it?"
Edwin pulled apart from his father and glared at Faustina. "You could have at least told me you'd be here."
"I don't have a phone, remember? And if I told you, it wouldn't be as fun."
"Faustina told me all about your travels," Edwin's father broke in, "and based on what she's told me, I'm sure you can handle this little job I have for you."
Edwin watched the engineers flit around the space shuttle like flies. He saw a metagross levitate through one of the doorways on the lower levels and then float up to assist some of the workers. "Job? What job?"
"The Blue Orb. I need you and Faustina to help deliver it to Fortree."
Edwin's eyes narrowed in confusion. "The Blue Orb? It's here?"
Leonard Willow nodded. "The Red Orb was recently stolen, and we suspect that whoever stole it intends to use it to wake Groudon. We need to get this Blue Orb to Winona. She and some other league officials are going to discuss whether or not to wake Kyogre in anticipation of an attack."
"Do you know who took the Red Orb?" Edwin asked.
His father shrugged. "We don't know for sure, but we do know that it was stolen at Slateport Harbor the day those two Unovan spies showed up, so it might be them. However, we also suspect that the Brotherhood of the Black may have had something to do with it. When they attacked the weather institution, they stole documents relating to the transfer of the Orbs."
"Why me? Why can't your soldiers deliver it? Or why can't you keep it here?"
"We can't keep the Blue Orb here because when the Unovans invade, this space station is going to be one of the first places they'll attack. I'm not going to give it to some soldiers because that would look pretty suspicious, and if the Unovans still have spies here in Hoenn, soldiers will always be targets. A pair of trainers, though? Nothing unusual about that. No one will suspect a thing. Who better to go than my own son?"
Edwin had to admit that he was excited about the prospect. If the Unovans were going to invade, as his father had implied, he wanted to be helping his country in any way he could. Delivering the Blue Orb would be something a lot more useful than just resting at home.
"I think we should do it, Edwin," Faustina interjected as she noticed that Edwin had not spoken for a while.
Edwin nodded in agreement. "I'll do it. When do we leave?"
His father clapped him on the back. "Excellent! You two should leave as soon as possible; tomorrow, if you can. Here, I'll give you the Orb now."
Leonard Willow walked into a small room in the back of the large space that overlooked the shuttle. He came out holding a small burlap sack containing a spherical object about the size of a bowling ball. He handed the sack to his son, who held the object gently with two hands.
Edwin pulled the Blue Orb out of the sack and marveled at its beauty. It was as blue as the ocean, and Edwin could feel the energy emanating from within the core of the Orb. It vibrated slightly in his hands as if the inside of the Orb contained the churning sea. Edwin put the sack back over the Orb and carefully placed it into his pack.
"One more thing before you leave," Leonard Willow said as he went back into the room and returned with a well-polished ultra ball. He handed the ball to Edwin, who looked confused at receiving such a high-quality and expensive pokeball.
"What's this for?" The young trainer asked, his confused blue eyes meeting his father's determined ones.
"That ball contains a very powerful pokemon," Edwin's father explained. "You need to deliver it to Winona as well. However, since you are on an important mission, I want you to use it yourself if you encounter resistance. Though it is unlikely, there is always the possibility that someone could somehow figure out that you have the Blue Orb, and there are people who will kill to get that artifact."
"Alright. Thanks, I guess," Edwin replied as he clipped the ball to his belt.
"Be careful with that. Only use it in an absolute emergency," his father cautioned.
"I promise." Edwin looked at Faustina, and then at his father. "Now let's do this."
Dex entry #260: swampert
"Avoid going into swamps if possible. Not only dangerous and hard to navigate, swamps are home to some of the most powerful pokemon in Hoenn: swampert. Though I realize that trainers are attracted to strong pokemon, swampert do not take kindly to having their homes invaded. If they decide you are a threat, swampert will swing at you with their massive arms and can easily break your back without even trying. If you value your life, skip over Hoenn's swamps while on your journey." - Excerpt from A Guide to Pokemon: Hoenn Edition by Professor Daniel Birch
Swampert are large, rare, water-ground types found in the swamps and marshes of Hoenn and in a few scattered swamps across the world. They are extremely rare pokemon and prefer to live solitary, peaceful lives. Despite this, swampert are still extremely dangerous if provoked. Swampert are considered to have physical strength that surpasses that of most fighting types, and these pokemon are even capable of carrying and smashing large boulders. Teams of swampert are sometimes used to drag sunken ships out from the ocean floor, and there have been occasions where naval authorities have used swampert to help bring stranded boats back to shore during storms. Swampert are considered a level three threat on the Pokemon Threat Scale.