Rayquaza

Far far above the world, in the space between earth and the cosmos, he flew. He was often the only living thing up here. Clouds rolled beneath him, shining bright under the glare of the sun; where they were not, there were large patches of blue, green, brown, and gray. Above him, there was the endless black of night, or the vast blue of the day, or the shimmering currents of atmospheric magnetism. Sometimes things fell from space, turning into bright fireballs that descended towards the ground. On his level, he could skim the top of the jet streams, getting more speed with less effort. They blew in a constant low roar, endlessly going about their work balancing the world's climate.

If he was inclined to, he could shift those jet streams. He could make them go where he wanted, change the weather on the surface however he liked. And yet, he didn't. It rarely affected him, as he was in constant flight over the storms. And changing the streams would require him to think.

Think. He floated along the top of one jet stream, not really thinking. The air carried him along, rumbling in a way that he found comforting. He rarely stopped, even though he'd flown in the atmosphere since the beginning of the world. At least, it seemed like since the beginnings. Being so constant, he felt no need to think deeply. He coasted along, gulping down high level clouds if he was thirsty. The sun shone on his scales and his lungs filtered out trace elements his body needed. In those simple things, he had all that he needed to keep flying until the ending of the world.

There was no need to think. Immersed in the sensations of the moment, he was there. He could keep flying in the deepest stages of sleep, sleep so deep that his breaths took a year to draw. As long as things were balanced, he had no need to do anything more than be there.

Rayquaza, hear us…

He opened his eyes, seeing bright blue all around him. Rayquaza… that was his name. He tended to forget until he heard it again. That was a fault with not thinking. Rolling out of the jet stream, he took some time to orient himself. In that time, the voice came to him again with echoes of emerald.

We call on you in this desperate hour, hoping to restore the balance of peace. The mover of continents Groudon and the commander of the waves Kyogre have both been awakened. Those who woke them seek to battle each other, but the battle of these two gods threatens to tear Hoenn apart once again. Please, great god of the sky, descend again and stop this madness.

A long grumble sounded through his throat as he found himself and headed towards his tower in Hoenn. It had not been since ancient times that those two were awake at the same time, since the time those non-Pokémon creatures were using tools of stone and wood. How far along were they now… the humans? Sometimes he had noticed machines flying through the air that bore signs of their handiwork. Some machines had actually gotten up to his level and beyond. Yet they still called on him when the other gods were in dangerous states.

But they honored him, prayed to him. At one time, he had been completely mindless, just drifting on the jet streams. Then the prayers of the humans reached him and he changed. He gained a name and the ability to think. At first, it had been strange. But the humans prayed to him for peace, and protection from the other gods who could control the weather. Rayquaza consented, knowing mostly the peace of the upper sky. If they wanted that, then he would attempt to grant it to them.

The surface world was more complicated than the sky, though. He considered it as he began to dive down into the clouds. Down there, there were millions, no, billions of creatures. They were all different, and yet the same at the core. The differences caused conflict. And in those conflicts, sometimes one would rise above the rest with the assistance of a Pokémon god. Sometimes it was to gain control over the others; sometimes it was to ruin all that was around them. And there were reasons besides those too. In the end, someone would call on him and he would descend to force the conflict to end.

Rayquaza, please come…

On his way down, the air thickened. Its pressure started to squeeze his body, forcing him to take more breaths and increase the work his body did. Static and heat began to build on his scales, causing them to glow. Even so, he knew he was descending at just the right pace. There was no danger.

As he came over Hoenn, he found a puzzling scenario. If those two were asserting their powers, the weather here should have been violent. Rain should have poured and hissed against his heated scales, or intense sunlight should have tried to bake him. And in-between, there should be a wall of storm winds and lightning, atmospheric violence caused by the competing weather controllers. There was none of that. A light rain shower over the southern part and clouds strewn over the rest. No storms.

This wasn't right. He thought harder, but he was already draining his energy dealing with the lower atmosphere. In all of his memory, he couldn't recall when he had been called down falsely. What was going on? He flew for his tower, seen by the land dwellers as a brightly glowing stream in the sky.

Rayquaza arrived at his tower and found that someone holding his summoning stone was there. Along with a small crowd of others, human and Pokémon. Blinking his eyes, the sky dragon observed them and tried to remember how to divine their intentions in calling him. They were… they were tense, anxious, nervous… greedy. The humans had called on other gods with dark intentions. Now this group wanted his power under their control.

And steal him from his proper place in the upper atmosphere? To where he would have to live with this heavy air pressure and many-person chaos instead of his constant flight? His lips curled into a snarl, and then he roared in defiance. He had to respond to his summoning, but Rayquaza would make sure that they suffered for their insolence.

…

Ruby entry: Rayquaza lived for hundreds of millions of years in the Earth's ozone layer, never descending to the ground. This Pokémon appears to feed on water and particles in the atmosphere.

I think I appreciate Rayquaza a bit more after writing this. I like how it turned out.