"Why am I doing this!?" Each syllable came with a violent shake, two, if his arms could manage. The pokémon that was being thrashed about didn't have the energy to try wriggling free. Lost battles are to be ceded, as that's one of the few things she'd been taught by Lane: don't exert effort when the outcome will hardly be better. Thus she didn't try convincing him it was hard communicating with the language barrier, as coming free could make Fomantis his next target. Calming him down when his swirling pupils were rolling round the abyss of his eyes seemed next to impossible, as was doing much of anything besides being the stress ball to suppress his anxiety. "Why am I like this? We're talking! Talking! And then I just—she did look easy to mess with, you know? And she does look easy to mess with when she comes back sopping wet! But I didn't need to say it out loud! I'm attuned to, like, seeing that kind of stuff! Can that stuff even be used for good!?"
Lulu could think of many ways that being empathetic could be used for good but didn't feel like playing charades with her blades (which was a genuine way that her congregation passed the time, miming shadowed figures with their scythes and using moves to create scenarios that amused the children), especially when her arms were pinned to the sides. So the freakout continued, with him basically repeating the same things as loudly as he wanted.
They were on the other side of the volcano so he could destress as violently as possible. Marley had disappeared underneath the ocean's surface again for reasons that she was cagey over and Blaine was doing a gym battle against a kid that was going to lose, giving Lane the space needed to be himself. Trainers generally required plenty of solitude. Besides pokémon who didn't like other humans on principle and the multitude of things that could go wrong with having more warm bodies around magic creatures, relationships growing deeper with the same principle as friends hanging out in more intimate settings, or trainers being enjoying having the opportunity to let loose…there were an infinite amount of unique reasons that it's recommended to have designated 'poké-time'.
Of course, some people weren't typical. Lane hated being without human company. He was only standing on that side of the volcano so he could act his age without having to fear that his multiple personas would crack. Training? Bonding? He didn't need the former and he freely would coddle his pokémon no matter how many eyes were on them.
Another sharp yank made Lulu's head snap forwards, lightly bouncing against his wrist. "Arrgh! I acknowledged it with Red and I'm doing it again! What am I doing wrong? Why do I want to mess with people so bad? Well, because it's fun. Yeah. But it could be fun and make people not hate me, right? Right? I think so! I think so, right Lulu?"
The way that her head was flung back and forth again could've been interpreted as agreement.
"Yeah, I just need to figure out how and treating this girl the exact same way that I treated Red is not the way that I do that! Which, ugh, I can't, I-I don't know. I don't know what I'm doing."
She was finally released, loose clumps of black dirt flying as she landed. Fomantis and Dunsparce were looking in concern from their flat rock, getting waved off by a blade. Somebody needed to be the responsible one of the group. One was a coward and another was a relative baby, and she wasn't going to allow them to have the responsibility of an irresponsible trainer. She'd sooner allow Lane to let them walk inside the volcano before ceding responsibility to those who weren't ready.
A blade ran down his leg soothingly. It wasn't much but the vague comfort made him collapse onto the dirt too. The ocean smelt strongly there, a salty stinging overlaid on years of microbes. Beneath the soil was life abundant. Digging his fingers into the ground felt as if the planet was holding him in comfort. Rainbows of white danced on the niches of water
"Doing is the only way that I'll get better, and I need to get better, but, ugh." The balls of his hands rolled across his eyelids. It wasn't as if tears were near to dropping. It was more of embarrassment, one that forced his lips into a pucker. "I really don't know what I'm doing with this. I guess the issue is that I feel like I'm left behind and I can't stop myself from thinking that it's all my fault. Left behind in, you know, the stuff that matters, like sitting on this island for a whole month or whatever, and it's not like I don't like being here, but I'd rather if we were still traveling which we aren't because I'm a weenie. I don't care about being strong or rich or any of that, but I wanna do stuff with others. It's 'cause we were alone for so long that I jumped on the opportunity to have fun, but everyone's acting like it's such a crime."
He finally took a suggestion. That statement was so ridiculous that Lulu was giving him a stare, trying to communicate everything that she felt with her slitted eyes that had trouble replicating emotions humans could understand. He stared back, thinking, as he tore apart his own sentence.
"You think that it's because I did illegal stuff too? No, that can't be it. Red likes doing illegal stuff or else he wouldn't have broken into the game corner. But, but, hmm." Lane crossed his arms and genuinely started thinking. "I genuinely don't know. I'm not really trained to pick up on these things. Maybe I need to ask another person for their second opinion? But that's so embarrassing. I don't think they're going to give me a real answer."
Lulu smacked her blade over her forehead, deciding to let the freakout pass rather than help. With their stunted communication, it'd be useless to try convincing him that he was wrong when half the attention would be trying to decrypt her movements into words—and how much help could she do when he could purposely misinterpret her directions!? All she could hope for was somebody to come along and smack her trainer over the head whenever he was acting too silly. Pray for that person, hope that person was around the corner, and ignore that everyone in his life at the moment was either enabling him or a victim that wanted to run as far away from the eccentric boy.
If he felt that strongly about this, he would ask people who had the capability and skills of giving him advice—like Blaine, or Marley, or the ladies that would humor him, or the old curmudgeon who was the janitor for all the buildings on the island, or the bored storekeeper who'd always be sleeping when they visited, or the actor who pretended to be a thief in the mansion, or the actual reformed thief who happily took the job as a pretend burglar, or anyone who could give actual advice instead of his pokémon, of which two-thirds stopped paying attention.
A sound made them all jump. Her ears swiveled, trying to pinpoint the thunder that struck during a clear sky. It multiplied as it flew by, turning into the rumbling of the earth swallowing its children. It felt like her adrenaline was amped up despite there being no evidence of danger, and looking around showed that the whole group felt the same way. A freshly dug hole was at the foot of the flat rock, Fomantis stumbling inside when he decided that whatever happened was far beyond his ability.
If Lulu were being honest, she wasn't confident in seeing whatever caused the freak weather either. That in itself was the scary part: she wasn't sure what happened, yet she was sure that it wasn't natural.
It was the most obvious person who didn't seem confused. Blue eyes, the reflections merging into a minimalist painting of broad strokes, had turned to where the explosion happened. No details stood out from the blank horizon that could swallow an unwary victim's attention for years. He felt the changes; his hairs had risen and little arcs of lightning leapt from each end and a presence so strong that it started providing a hallucination of a monster looming over him had taken over.
It also confirmed that the gigantic shadow that had enveloped him when he'd been rejoining society was about as dangerous as he'd been thinking. High in the mountains, a chilly breeze was replaced by the desert's breath within a step, the plants around them seeming to wither underneath a heat multiple notches above what they'd felt in their lifetimes. Suddenly it felt like the sun was breathing onto him. There was yet another time that he felt a similar sensation, but that was practically ancient history. Better not thought of.
There were other questions that were raised but his general theory was confirmed when the curious onlookers leaving their houses didn't seem panicked. He was uniquely attuned (for some reason) to the strange feeling that emitted from these monsters (that emitted for some reason), to the level where he was just as uneasy as his pokémon.
Thrilling tremors made it hard to suppress the grin that started stretching. Eventually he stopped fighting against it and let his lunacy take over. That presence which buffeted against his chest and stomach and face and made his entire body violently shiver was raw intensity that he couldn't get enough of. No amount of bomb threats and threatening fights in the wilderness could compare.
"Lulu, prepare to leave. We've got a time frame of about a few weeks or so. It could very well be tomorrow or another month from now, but it's happening. Probably. Just a guess."
Kanto was unknown to Red. He had to admit that he was yet another young boy who'd proclaim their love for the region while spitting at the mention of Johto, sometimes embarrassingly admitting that he had a song from Sinnoh that he liked. Traveling made him convinced that he was hardly more of the typical Kanto stock than the people who lived anywhere else. It was a big region, a diverse one that brought surprises with every new city that he'd visited. It was a big region that wasn't only the cities, and he thought that lesson was already learned when he'd go running in the forests, Blue leading the charge as he was the more confident one, around Pallett with Professor Oak's pokémon acting as babysitter; their imaginations would dress them as the soldiers from days old, fighting for the glory of Kanto as their graphic-tees of pokéballs would get smothered by grudging around in the pretend trenches.
Searching outside the routes had revealed secrets that couldn't be part of a patriot's consciousness because they were enveloped by the nature around them like a cocoon. What was Kanto when they couldn't even fight back against nature? Every so often a careless lumberjack would get assaulted by a den of Spinarak, a horde of allied ground and rock-types emerging from the ground if their homes were disturbed. It had initially disturbed Red when he'd found a waterfall that wasn't on his maps. He quickly grew to think of himself as the luckiest boy in the world as he camped next to it, thinking of himself as one of the only true Kanto citizens in a whole region of pretenders.
Along with this was a bit more daunting history of the region than what he'd learned about. The amount of old, abandoned buildings that had become the haunting grounds of powerful pokémon were too many to name, many not being significant enough that they even deserved a name. Following a river that worked around the back of Route 10 had brought him to a gigantic building ensconced beneath a section of the mountain that seemed carved away specifically for the metal monstrosity. Wires limply hung from its side. Red could track where they used to suspend, gigantic metal frames standing tall despite their masters having died long ago. Its little amphitheater design seemed to catch sounds like a radio dish. He could hear the coughs of starters and the drumbeats of a thousand shoes mixing together until they seemed to emit from the planet.
There were people out there too. The front of the building was a known battle spot where he got a few good fights against a class of trainers that were stronger than what he'd fought while traveling across the region. Eventually he'd gotten curious over the backdrop to the fights. Nearly the whole entrance that jutted out from the metal base was made out of windows, sturdy enough that they hadn't been broken over the years. Shadows seemed to slip out from their rightful places, staining the bright green grass in front. Standing at the entryway made him feel like he was being challenged. Looking inside didn't intimidate him any: it was a normal lobby area, even if the front desk had been smashed by a rock larger than a Snorlax, and the metal beams that had fallen looked more cool than anything.
He turned to a scientist who was sitting nearby, laptop tucked into his lap.
"Does anyone know what's in there?" Red asked.
The scientist glanced up, still typing. He was a scientist because he wore a lab coat. He was an individual because he wore a red lab coat instead. "A lot of the kids that battle here go inside to train. It's a precarious place. There's no power anymore so you don't have to worry about getting zapped, but the facades have been crumbling for years now and are still falling apart. More than that, once you get past a certain point, the electric-types start getting aggressive."
"Aggressive?"
"They'll start working together to attack you." He looked up, adjusting his glasses. "That's the point you have to return, really. Some dimwits use that assault as a way to train, which is the most foolhardy method I've ever heard. Do me a favor and be a little smarter. Better yet, be the smart one and don't go in at all. It's not unlikely that a piece of the ceiling will fall on you."
The scientist just rolled his eyes when he recognized that look.
Despite what the scientist thought, Red couldn't find the confidence to support his curiosity. His team wasn't the best against electric-types. Every time there were multiple strong electric-type pokémon on his enemy's team, it became a game trying to figure out how to dismantle their strategy while minimizing the damage to his own pokémon. Even Charizard struggled, and he was supposed to be the ace in the hole. Good ol' Charizard! By this time however, he'd developed multiple techniques for fighting against electric-types that he didn't have the opportunity to try in an actual hard battle.
Fingers tapped against his elbow. The soft reassurance of bone hitting back made him centered. Plenty of other places were designated as 'Extreme High Bad Bad Not Good' zones that trainers shouldn't enter unless they had a brigade, and he was traveling on through places that people didn't even know about. If he had to rank them, then it would go something like the northern face of Mt. Moon as the most dangerous, off route 25, the outcroppings in Diglett Cave where there's multiple signs pleading trainers not to spelunk off the main route, the southern coast below route 15, and the forest below route 11 by far being the least dangerous. Surely an abandoned power plant couldn't be more dangerous than those places, even if the rocky beaches that were slightly east were apparently the second most dangerous part within Kanto's borders (a wall of cocky trainer's clavicles and femurs staked out the territory of the Autonomous Ground-Type Sanctuary—AGTS, pronounced by those who believe in it as 'ajeets'—or so Red had heard from a guy with a long beard). Surely it couldn't be more scary than Victory Road. He was intending to try to get all the badges, fight against the Champion too if he could help it. If a fort of wild pokémon scared him off, then he'd better hang up his cap instead of pretending he had a chance.
That was what forced him inside, a chance. His mom and Professor Oak had given him well-wishes and jokingly said he was going all the way. Erika had strangely given them clemency for breaking the law. Morty, a person who should've been biased against him, had implied the same. Sabrina had apparently rushed ahead his appointment, something that surprised her trainers.
People believed in him. Chickening out in front of the Champion's door wasn't going to get him any sympathy. Pretending there was an unavoidable fight up ahead made it easier to cross the threshold of safety and apparently face-zapping intensity.
Massive cracks and rotting pieces of the place's skeleton forced him to tread lightly. Humming came from somewhere, making him more wary about getting near any of the exposed wires that inlaid the whole place. Arcane machines scattered around mysteriously not having a single hand attempt disassembling them for parts. The place was built as inconveniently as it could, with the few doorways that led to the inner sections having collapsed ages ago. He walked around the tangle of hallways, slowly moving towards the heart.
There were a few pokémon that impeded them on the way, though they were so weak that Red quickly taught them that these intruders were a bit stronger than their usual fare. At some point these challengers dried up too.
He started seeing how far other trainers had gone. Leftovers from previous fights littered the hallways. Webs had consumed an entire wall, long stretches of blackened tile from carelessly shot fire, black mold growing in places too deep for the rain to disturb them, and mundane damages of claw marks and craters. Further still these started disappearing alongside the debris. Downright livable is what Red could describe the innards of the power station once the fights had become less common, abandoned items more so.
Another place, at what must've been the back of the building as a whole. It was a long hallway with a near undisturbed floor, the slices of window that were near the ceiling shining down upon him as he walked. Rows of mighty machines, each larger than a locomotive, that once provided power for the area were draped in the black insulated vines that freely hung from the ceiling. The air was easier to breathe here, smelling like the flowers that were growing past the cracked windows. Save for where the lattice girders acting as pillars casted shadows, nearly the whole place was visible. It still was dirty in a way that an uninhabited place generally was, pebbles kicked by down the center aisle of the machines where humans would obviously walk, and the beams of light sludging through a coating of dust. Amongst the corners was a textured layer of grays, black bits sloughed off reminding him of onion that was left in the pan too long. Those few pieces that maintained their full form carried rusted sheet metal like armor.
Yet he knew that there was more to the story. This room was long, long enough to hold both the Professor's lab and his home's length and maybe a little more. The environment that he'd come to associate with ruins was absent, mats of industry (flakes of concrete, the tasty smell of unknown chemicals, little bits of the ceiling that hadn't disintegrated, glass garnish crunchy like pepper) or the carpet of dust that'd make their homes on undisturbed surfaces. It felt like the set of a movie; the essentials were there, complete with yellowing plants sticking from underneath the windows where the little bit of moisture sucked in, yet the tiny details didn't match. It was trying to evoke the imagery of an abandoned factory rather than being the genuine article.
Red looked directly up. There were pipes, bronze with rust, that made a flaking tapestry above the cubed sections of metal frames. Behind those, metal orbs, gleaming like satellites, sticking together in a placenta-like growth. An eye stared through the center of the mass.
He dived out of the way as the first ball dropped. Cracks sprung up around its impact, magnets around its body waving around in sharp jerks. Another, bang, bang, machine guns firing. They were aiming for intimidation, he knew. The pokéball that he hurriedly tossed out opened as the inner parts of the mass started floating down instead, groups of Magnemites stuck together being the last to crown the swarm that had fallen.
Snorting a plume of black, Charizard belted out fire without needing a command. Flames sheared through the horde, leaving behind smoking hunks of steel. Those that reacted fast enough whizzed around them. The horde had awoken. Quickly a gleaming tornado had been formed around them, fast enough that occasionally entire directions became a solid chunk of gunmetal gray. Another pokéball was thrown out, Red leaping onto Venusaur's back before he fully formed. A whisper into his ear made the flower lean slightly forwards, a giant cough of spores cutting into the cloud. He brought up his collar over his breathing holes and pressed himself into the pleasant-smelling muscles. Wrapping his arms around the stem signaled that he was ready. There was a conspicuous hole where the spores lingered, any Magnemite who got too near dropping like a rock. It allowed Venusaur to whip his vines forward, wrapping around the edges of the machines, and slingshotting them forwards.
Venusaur dropped his landing gears. They skidded to a stop right in front of the wall. Red didn't need to look up to know that Charizard was still blindly firing into the crowd like the meathead he was.
"Charizard! Your technique! Do it!" Red screamed.
Charizard shut his mouth. Mountains of Magnemites collapsed onto the floor, mountains more flying around. Little arcs of electricity leapt from body to body, becoming greater with each portion shared between their magnets. That was only obvious if you could slow down the footage. From the perspective of the intruders, it had become a fish's net. Charizard couldn't contain the attack at that point and he wasn't intending to.
Pointing his mouth down, a stream of heat washed around his feet. Gentle manipulation made the flames start working upwards. Splashing flickers worked higher than any natural fire could've made. Pushing all his heart into the attack created a corona of black scarring the metal ground, little marbles of glossy sweat working off the denting parts, as a pillar rose into the sky.
Outside it looked like a tornado from hell had arisen. Wavering pillars nearly touched the ceiling. Magnemites that strayed too close would start spinning like helicopters as they crashed down. Black smog had quickly started flinging off the center, enveloping the flames in a cloak of stormy clouds where only intermittent flashes of red shined through.
The crowd had started becoming confused. Charizard couldn't be seen behind his smoke screen and their other targets had ducked for cover. They would've resolved to continue passing the lightning if the compounding effect wasn't becoming hard to handle. Passes started warping the tips of the magnets, Magnemites groaning in pain as the lances worked through their bodies. They knew that they needed to make a move.
A single Magneton, the strongest of the bunch, took the chain and kept it. Power swirled inside of its connected bodies. They let it sit for a second, appreciating the thrill that made their magnets shudder in anticipation. Another Magneton came with his magnets held out. Two pairs of magnets hovered over each other. It went by so fast that there was a physical ring of blue light wrapped around the tornado until the energy coalesced. They needed to stop moving as the energy started overwhelming them.
A star was born. The bottom of the white ball seemed to be dripping, losing form in between their shuddering limbs. Bright branches flashed against the two pokémon. With closed eyes, they flew straight into the center of the tornado. Nobody could see through there, but the army knew to back away before impact.
The sound was greater than any other. Windows shattered as a sonic boom made the building shudder. Clouds of dust in space, ethereal glows, drifted amongst the room for that crack of a second. Blue more luminous than the sun's birth visited.
Then it was gone. The Magnetons that had carried the payload fainted on the pile of melted metal. The curious Magnemites, those who weren't occupied with the ambush from behind the generators, approached the spot—no Charizard. A few looked up to see a hole burned clean through the ceiling. Those were the only ones quick enough to react when the pokémon swung down the opening, turned into a meteor ready to dispense punishment. Rippling waves engulfed the crowd that had gathered down below. It was like an angered nest; those who weren't completely panicking started going on the offensive, buzzing auras turning into stings that shot towards the weaving target. Charizard dipped low, never taking a moment to make sure that his continual flamethrowers were actually hitting their targets.
Letting them reorganize would be a death sentence. Whenever those recovering Magnemites were starting to gather in another group, they'd scatter as a belch of intense heat would pierce past like a missile. Even tiny blasts were hot enough to leave behind steaming pieces of metal wherever they impacted. It was a sizable power difference from the stinging kisses, irritants brushing past his wings.
It had quickly turned into routine. Weaving between pieces of cover, shooting down targets that would fight back, like a more intense training session where he never really felt threatened. The metal balls whizzing by were discus, attacks from certain angles forcing him into a dodge that he remembered from fighting against Pikachu so many times, all the while his brute force from so many hours of repeating the same attack would take down whoever touched his death beam.
He hovered for a moment, taking in the groups who had managed to regain a semblance of order. His teammates were out by this point. Getting back into the fight was less for the thrill and more to have more notches in his belt than his teammates. Those Magnemites foolish enough to try fighting back were knocked out by icicles and leaves that rammed into their bodies, and those unlucky enough to try stubbing down the ones sniping their comrades would have their lightning bolts redirected by a stubborn Pikachu, and any that tried regathering found themselves at the receiving end of an explosion.
The wild pokémon didn't have infinite soldiers. With them grouping together, more were mowed down by the flames than was necessary. It was like waking up from a vivid dream for the final survivors; there were no more Magnetites, and the remaining swarms could barely form two groups. One of those were shaved down half their fighters when a particularly lucky fire blast engulfed their regiment that misjudged the distance.
It was the final break to the morale. Swathes of Magnemites flew down the hallway, out the windows, through the holes poked into the ceiling and soon left the last brave ones to turn into the last foolish ones. Their piddling leftover resistance was quickly cleaned up.
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Charizard landed heavily on the ground. His tail brushed aside the nuisances as he roared into the air. His claws clenched tightly, feet banged on the metal like a sumo wrestler. What felt like hundreds of wild pokémon were knocked down around him.
Pikachu, Lapras and Venusaur were looking on skeptically, wondering if the big lug even appreciated how many of those knockouts were due to them. Red didn't care. He ran ahead, leaping up onto his pokémon's neck. They spun around, the human laughing as his pokémon's tail thumped against the ground. Dizzying joy churned with actual dizziness when Charizard didn't stop spinning. Red was swaying this way to the next when he landed, until he finally tripped on a ball and fell to his butt onto another ball.
The sudden pains didn't lower him down. His head was swollen, a laughter that couldn't stop no matter how many times the scenes replayed in his head. Textbook, better than textbook! They wrote the whole textbook! The improvised moves, the reapplication of the simple electro-ball into redirecting much more powerful electric-type moves, the clean escape, the way that his pokémon worked together. This was the best battle they'd ever carried out. Team Rocket, heck, even the gym leaders hadn't pushed them like that had. It may have sounded like a clean sweep, but Red knew it was only through their consistent training that they'd gotten out relatively unscathed.
Red remembered when he was young, shriveling his nose in distaste when Blue described all the insane adventures that his team would go on. Too dangerous, too wild, not what his mom wanted. Those thoughts were gone. And from the way that his pokémon were similarly celebrating, they agreed.
Breathing deeply, he picked himself up and started shimmying past the swathes of bodies. The Magnemites who had woken up cowered away as he and his team walked past. Boastful swaggering had the pokémon still nudged away in their hiding places—the dark edges of the room and hovels within the old machine's guts—looking at them like an invading force. Pikachu, not nearly as numerous, let out little sparks from their cheeks as their young hid behind them. Shadows of more Magnemites grew out from the girders'. There was a whole reserve force biding their time. Red knew that if they gave an opportunity, another fight was imminent.
With the great clouds of ash settling over the floor, spotlights giving a dramatic air to his alert team, he nearly became too choked up with emotion to speak. Charizard—his starter, proudly lifting his tail straight in the air, snout raised up as if posing for a portrait. Back when the pokémon was up to his waist, taking such a position would've had Red snort; he was no longer amused. His pokémon cut an impressive figure compared to the wild horde staring at them. This was his greatest achievement, and Charizard was glad to show it. And the rest! No matter when he got them, they were consistently loyal members who had just fought back a horde of wild pokémon. He was proud without description.
Throwing out the remaining pokémon was a precaution when he recognized there was only one room left to explore. Charizard and Lapras stood guard by the opening at the end of the hallway. Hesitantly stepping inside made his shoes echo against the grates. Below was a shaft. He couldn't see the bottom, only the rectangular glass squares of inert lights caged by metal bars and a singular catwalk shaded black. Shoved in the corners were generators three times his height. It was the darkest part of the whole building.
From the entrance he felt like each hair was getting sundried. A horrendous heat without heat. He could walk through despite it suddenly feeling like he was getting air dried. There was a persistent smell like the chemicals that his mom would use on tough stains. Washed over his eyes was a tingling that insisted this room wasn't to be trifled with. He stepped further in, recognizing that he was doing so alone. Behind him his pokémon were all looking upwards. He didn't dare to do it. He walked to the center. He didn't dare look up. It could be seen as arrogance, but he kept his fists lightly beating his sides as the flaps came ever closer. He waited until the tips of its claws had finally entered his vision.
Wind blew across his face. A straight beak, like it was designed for suckling nectar from a thin-lipped flower, stuck out beneath curious eyes. Its feathers clumped together in angry spikes that blew off from its face and tail, tipped its wings—ready to burst. Crackles that didn't seem so obvious when he was standing outside played a concert. His ears popped, and popped, breaths became heavy as the atmosphere changed on a dime. Black feathers drew a border around its body, a shadow of itself that seemed to glare at Red.
Pure yellow. A yellow that sharpened the eyes. A yellow you'd only see for a second before the flash had gone.
Red's head fully rose.
Above him was one of the greatest finds that a person could ever hope he'd be graced with. His quivering arm found itself automatically going to his backpack as the rest of him was kept ever still. Out came the pokédex. He clumsily maneuvered the camera to face the monster. Its beep confirmed that it had scanned the bird, though obviously it didn't spit out facts back at him. This was a legendary. It was a force of nature. And Red had intruded into its territory without having been reduced to smithereens.
He looked back at the electric-type pokémon that were watching. None of them looked so aggrieved anymore, though they were keeping a very healthy distance. Pieces started clicking together.
"You're Zapdos, the legendary bird, and this is your roosting spot, or one of your homes," Red said. He recalled some legend that it lived in stormy clouds, but have those people even seen the bird for themselves? He pointed towards the crowd. "Those are there to defend you, or something of that nature. I'm not intruding, am I?"
He still was breathing, so Red took that as agreement. There was a door against the wall with an iron bar clasped across in the old-fashioned way of making a lock. If Red's internal compass was working then that would lead out the west side of the building.
Trying to work up the nerve to say the next part required their express permission. Each of his team locked eyes with him one by one. Reactions were varied. Most had a determined glare when they realized what he was doing. Blastoise just looked exasperated. He took that as confirmation and looked back at the bird.
"You're Zapdos, and I now know you exist and have seen you with my own eyes. Nobody will believe me though. If I beat you, would you give me proof that you exist?"
Now, though his pokémon knew that he was going to do something brazen, they were expecting him to ask for a feather as proof instead of challenging the bird. Their eyes widened in alarm as they tried pleading for clemency—all except Charizard, who roared in challenge.
His answer was met in a cry that resembled the crackling of a destroyed power line. He could hear it inside as the acrid smell expanded past the room, a wave of uneasiness moving through his body. The little light that had been slipping through the windows had been suppressed as dark clouds rolled into themselves outside. Within seconds these popcorn-shaped nuggets expanded into an invading fleet of battleships. Rumbling rebelled against the thin rooms. The electric-type pokémon scattered backwards for any type of cover.
They didn't need light. With another screech, the bird's wingtips had become the ridges of a parhelion, beak a brilliant crown flash piercing into the moody grays of the factory floor. Amidst this light which reflected off the muddy rudders and the crackling that slid off its feathers, the distant booms as lightning bolts freely showered onto the innocent mountaintops and the cowering battlers who had taken refuge in the factory's lobby, the cheering horde of wild pokémon that had backed up into cover, the Magnemites who had been swept away by their comrades so no collateral damage swept them up, Zapdos dove.
Everyone scattered in different angles. It didn't matter how fast their reaction times were when the bird had already chosen its target. Little Eevee's paws brusquely smacked against the bird's beak as it was carried into the air. The attacks trailing after it came shortly after. Though the hallway was pinched much further down to give him too much room to maneuver, Red got his first look at a pokémon that was beyond elite level when the wall of projectiles couldn't catch up to the bird's speed.
A single flap stalled its momentum, a second one shooting it back towards the attacks. The icicles were easy enough for it to weave between, blasts of fire that took up entire quarters of the room dodged, trail of water that attempted to herd it failing to keep a steady aim on the bird. A jerk of its head sent Eevee flying out a window as it charged towards its next target.
The team realized what its game was however. Before it could reach Pikachu, a barrel of fire intercepted its flight. Zapdos stalled for a mere fraction of a second before taking as high to the roof as possible, dodging yet another rapid fire of icicles.
The bird tilted its angle, belly sailing near the ceiling as the various mechanics provided cover for its escape. Any projectiles that slipped past the girders and pipes were barely worth a tilt of its body since none interrupted its flight path. Zapdos swung around as it became ready to dive towards its next target.
A beam of fire smelted straight through the ceiling in front of the bird's path. Gigantic swathes of the place became a ravine where melted metal was dribbling down. Zapdos stalled itself with a single flap, not having a chance to squawk in surprise as another legion of attacks had been sent where they predicted it to stop. Whatever it may have had in mind was interrupted when a tiny ember flickered to its death on the ceiling, quickly expanding in size until it was ripping apart metal.
Zapdos was knocked back for a single second before a furious cry heralded a Thunderbolt. Red had seen lightning. He'd seen pokémon's Thunderbolts. None compared to the distance shot that barely resembled one, the size that seemed to be a giant's sword knocking Blastoise into the wall, instantly fainted. The rest of the group paused their attacks in shock, glancing at their ally who'd been downed in a single hit.
That was the last mistake that Venusaur made, getting swept off his feet by a Hurricane greater than any he'd felt before. Spirits of wind lifted by his belly and threw him aside. Leaves and vines were sheared, the pokémon laying flat on his back with his tongue lolled out. Another flash precipitating a bolt of lightning made Lapras raise a shield they'd trained for. Mist surrounded the pokémon right as the lightning struck. Instantly a horrific sound like a skyscraper's entire wall collapsing resounded. Thousands of miniature icicles that connected in a dense web, complicated enough only an ice-type pokémon could master it to such a degree, shattered as the mist thinned.
Stunned, Lapras hurriedly put up a Protect, hexagons of light absorbing the electricity. A warbling cry broke out. The center hexagon shattered and he was blasted against the wall too.
Zapdos didn't seem too bothered by the red missile that nearly took its head clean off. Pillars of smoke flew out Charizard's nostrils, the pokémon angrily glaring down at his opponent as he swung around in a wide arc. Fire sprouted from his skin that quickly wrapped around his entire body, leaving only the eyes sticking out from beyond the veil. His wild arcs working around his opponent's lightning bolts meant to keep him at bay, and the spectators were treated to a fight abusing the full range of movement special to those who could fly. Charizard's comparatively lumbering wings didn't matter when he was a deadly force for existing, and Zapdos' faster speed was mitigated by the occasional explosions that would herd it towards the meteor. They swung around each other, planets in orbit. The team who wanted to help were forced back as the gigantic cones of fire would wipe away chunks of the room, arcs of lightning splattering then dissipating in a single second. Reds and yellows strobed out the windows into the stormy evening.
A single shot too wide and Charizard was careening towards the ceiling. It was corrected when he yanked himself back, belly nearly scraping against the ceiling like Zapdos had done earlier. The brief moment gave Zapdos the perfect moment to start flapping its wings harshly. The debris on the floor was picked up as the wind funneled through the tunnel. Charizard's fiery armor turned into streamers flying behind him like tin cans tied to a newly wed's car. An angered roar came with the same blasts of fire that could envelop small towns, yet the plume had only managed to spray beyond his mouth before getting caught in the wind too. His furious wingbeats managed to keep him floating in place and that was only just. Dry wind forced itself down his nostrils and throat. The slight changes in direction made him wobble in the air.
Then came the prickles that worked down his body. His eyes widened despite the gusts drying them out, pain washing over his eyelids and over his brain. The light emitting from Zapdos was reaching a fever pitch.
A brown missile slammed into Zapdos' side. Eevee's claws raked a line across the bird's base, the momentum allowing her to land far away from any would-be retaliation. The bird quickly regained its position, only to be forced to dodge again by another pillar of fire. It quickly expanded to become a cone, then a storm that enveloped the entire ceiling. Whatever attack Zapdos was charging was fully abandoned as it was forced to duck low.
Its eyes locked on the pokémon that was supposed to be its next prey. The mass of metal that had been inert for decades had been repurposed, used for the electric-type pokémon to generate greater voltages for them to enjoy. It wasn't meant to have its wires hooked up to a Pikachu, a vindictive Eevee smirking as it ducked for cover.
Red was behind a barrel, barely peeking over as his pokémon started glowing an incandescent blue. It was a complete bluff. If they fed electricity into the machine, then it'd be lost somewhere along the line and feed back into Pikachu with less than what was invested; he paid attention to science somewhat. Law of Something Demands, or whatever Oak called it.
They assumed that Zapdos would dodge out of panic and provide an opportunity for Charizard to capitalize on. Instead the pokémon's glow became more intense for a brief moment before the power was channeled down an invisible route. Lightning was upon Pikachu. Knowing that he didn't have a choice, Pikachu met the bolt in the center. It wasn't the final attacks between two rivals that one would expect, as there was no obvious line demarcating where Pikachu's and Zapdos' bolts became one or the other. It was a jagged break in reality, leading from the plumage of Zapdos to the heart of Pikachu. Both had yellow auras that slowly expanded. One was quickly forced into a kneel as an invisible battle was carried out, weak gasps coming out with slobber that drizzled out, evaporating.
Light overcame the room. The bridge only became bigger, and the sound of active electricity terrified those who were watching. Their eyes locked through the searing pain. Zapdos had a position of smug superiority, flapping itself higher above Pikachu as free-flowing arcs leapt onto the surrounding pieces of metal. Pants became heavier and heavier. Drips of power, arcs stinging off the ceilings and walls and floor, were forced out in a battle that he knew he was losing. He knew that he was the weakest of them all, only having the advantage of taking down flying-types the easiest until Lapras came along. He knew that it was unimaginable for his benchmark to be the most powerful electric-type in the world. He didn't care that it was unrealistic and he didn't care that he was outmatched. As long as Charizard got an opportunity to do a free attack, Pikachu didn't care. His world melted away until the lightning bolt was the last piece left behind. That's all that mattered.
The bolt shuddered. It became bigger, then bigger again. It swelled to heights that made even Zapdos nervous. Little shards leapt from the main body that created thunderclaps pounding against the room's walls. Charizard had to duck behind cover as a single strike was certain to knock him out. Above them was an epileptic tangle, threatening to transform the entire room into a pylon if it continued expanding.
Pikachu knew it wasn't going to last. There wasn't an evolution around the corner and he didn't have a hidden well of strength. All he could do was push with the last of his strength. The lightning bolt was no longer growing out of control. The limbs wrapped back into the main body as the lightning they were juggling became ever bigger. The pokémon smirked defiantly up at Zapdos, even as he started laying on his belly.
Zapdos knew that the job was done: the very second that Pikachu had regained control, his teammates had started crawling out from their hiding places. Eevee was glowing as stars started orbiting her body. From behind there was a furious Charizard, fire growing in his mouth greater than any attack thrown thus far. On the other end of the room, icicles formed around the Lapras who had barely managed to cling to consciousness. If it stopped struggling against the lightning then it'd be redirected by Pikachu.
Zapdos' eyes closed for a long blink, then silence. The lightning was completely gone. The pokémon that were going to assault it paused, looking around in question as the bird started preening itself.
Only Red understood what had happened. He walked out of his cover with his hands clasped behind his back, a grimace to try to keep himself serious. He stood underneath the legendary whose presence no longer felt so oppressive. Either it could be 'turned off' or he'd gotten used to it. He knew that telling Professor Oak about that detail would have the man going into lunacy.
"You held back," he wryly said. "You definitely were in a bad spot there, though there were plenty of opportunities where you could've pushed your advantage more. Charizard could've been shocked out of the sky at any point in your dogfight and you could've opened up with more electric-type and flying-type attacks. I bet that you wouldn't have even been knocked out by all those attacks. You merely didn't because you wanted it to last longer, and even then we barely made this last for five minutes."
Red could've sworn that the bird's eyes were full of mischief however. Hands on his hips, Red couldn't stop the grin from spreading.
"But we fought you and didn't immediately lose and Pikachu—" he cut himself off, glancing back at the smoking body that had keeled over the second the fight ended—"Pikachu fought you off. Can't say that it's, it's—"
Red cut himself off with a whoop, punching the air in an excited fervor. Looking around wouldn't show why he was so happy as nearly half his pokémon were slumped over and the others were heaving from exertion. Only Eevee managed to walk to her trainer's side, glancing up in confusion.
Red pointed up to the bird.
"You better not avoid us. We're going to get stronger, and we're going to beat you. We're going to train, and if we're still not strong enough, then we'll train some more and come back. We're going to beat you, Zapdos! You're the wall that we'll overcome!"
Chuffing in amusement, a spiked wing flung out. The feather was snatched out of the air before it could dirty itself on the floor. The quill started with a bone-like white at the tip that transitioned into a mustard yellow, the gradient between that and the shocking yellow so sudden that he held it closer to see the individual colors lost in the shift. Above a certain point, the barbs became uniform enough to create sharp edges. The tip of the fluff was the culmination, turned into a quill with how tightly the edges were sharpened. Turning the feather over nearly made him drop it in surprise. Black, sharp as a tuxedo, colored the other side.
Red gently stuffed it into his backpack. Zapdos had lowered itself down, giving him a meaningful look. He looked at the pokémon's back and then back to the pokémon's eyes and then back to the pokémon's back again. His team was recalled except for Eevee, who looked absolutely terrified to be secured within Red's unsteady hands. As for himself, he could admit that his heart was hammering in awesomeness.
He doubted that it was through any reasonable mechanics that they lifted into the air smoother than any mount that he'd ever had the privilege of riding on. It was a gentle sway, only the crackles of a thunderstorm indicating that they had begun liftoff. As they swung out at speeds requiring any other pokémon plenty of liftoff, Red could only tightly clench into his seat as the air brushed past his body like thousands of blades. Eevee was screeching as the hallways were cruised down as with the full control only a helicopter could mimic. Any smaller outcroppings that made the place into an obstacle course were swerved around with the bird barely letting out a huff of exertion.
Eventually there was a hole punched through the ceiling coincidentally big enough for the bird to fit through. This time it summoned a gust of air that swung it upwards, like an air balloon hitting a draft. They flew through the hole as perfectly as a puzzle piece. Red's breath was held for a moment. He regretted it when the sudden speed stole the air. Entire swathes of the region that would've taken him multiple days to walk became indistinct the higher they went, the faster the bird shot forwards. Red didn't fully comprehend that until Eevee was spitting out clumps of clouds that sucked into her throat. Cleaving through the storm clouds that had barely existed for ten minutes was a supersonic UFO. They moved as a zipper, open skies disintegrating the black clouds until there wasn't a hint of the storm.
Mt. Moon was his centering point. First they were approaching it, then it grew distant as the ocean grew nearer. When they reached an imaginary point where the bird's keen eyes could discern, the world became a series of long streaks as they lost altitude. Both of them screeched in fear as they moved faster than any elevator would ever attempt. It had to be the end, surely. Even if they stopped, the carried momentum would surely streak their organs into a pretty splash of color. And even that was defied. The bird stopped just high enough for it to reach its claws into the ground. A small gaggle of onlookers held their ice creams in front of their mouths, some mid-lick. Red slowly dismounted, trying to ignore the shuddering limbs that couldn't support him properly. Eevee had fully given up, splattering out in a bundle of fur immediately upon hitting the ground. Their breaths came out in sputtering gasps. Zapdos seemed entirely too amused.
Red bowed and nearly fell over. "Um, thank you for the ride."
The bird squawked in greeting and flew up. He didn't really look around. His body's movements became automatic. Recall Eevee. Pokecenter? Sure. Walk inside. Nurse talk. Give pokémon that were turned into jerky. Go inside and sleep on provided bed. Eight o' clock? Red wanted sleep. So he slept.
Yet the region didn't go to sleep. That twenty, thirty—who was counting?—minute period of time was mistaken as a strange sound at most points of the region, those nearest remembering the crazy strong electric-type that briefly smothered the sky. It was a matter of those who knew, knew.
At the far reaches south of what was barely under Kanto's jurisdiction, helping Lane to gather all the equipment that he needed, Blaine kept a sharp eye on his instruments that had been inert for years. He wasn't looking forward to writing the reports that triangulate where the massive power spike came from. The way that the needles moved told him that putting off the maintenance made the machines spit out nonsense variables in the middle of real ones.
At a familiar gym where he'd been meditating, Koga cracked open an eye at the distant sound. A grimace crossed his face. Since he hadn't heard of any other absurdly powerful trainer or actionable plan to catch the legendary, he already had a good idea of who that was.
Clear across from that town, Lance was nuzzled in his seat preparing for a long night of overtime, fake overtime since he'd be the only one who knew it was happening. The flashless boom in a cloudless sky made him pause. A few calls afterwards and he was chuckling, trying to remember the last time that somebody challenged a legendary.
Professor Oak didn't register the sound. He was too busy preparing tea the way that he liked it, all of his focus in balancing the proportions. It was only when an assistant walked in, grumbling about the boom shocking him into spilling an energy drink on his shirt, that Oak started laughing.
"Well, I wasn't expecting him to go that far. I guess we're due for a new Champion anyways," he said. The bewildered look from his employee made Professor Oak laugh again.
In the center of the region was Erika and two of her employees sitting seiza, talking over tea. The explosion outside interrupted them. An employee double-checked that there wasn't a storm happening and came back inside without an explanation. Shrugging off the incident, they continued talking.
Marley just happened to have emerged. She nudged off the goggles, double-checking to make sure that she wasn't about to be zapped when trying to dive. Perfection—not a cloud in the sky.
"Not the one that I'm looking for, but—" she shook her head to get rid of the thought. The sigh was impossible to suppress. "If there's somebody else looking for legendaries then I should start seriously looking. Ah well. It was a nice vacation."
Red woke up feeling amazing. He brushed his teeth, brushed back his hair before putting his favorite cap on, had a terrific breakfast and had a great conversation with the Nurse Joy who confirmed that all his pokémon were feeling fine. It was like walking through a dream. There was enough time that he could use the internet to send a few calls from the pokémon center's phone, acting coy with Professor Oak and unloading his exciting month to his equally enthusiastic mom. The nurse was strangely vague and the lobby was completely empty, but it completely glided underneath his attention with how great of a day he was having. He swaggered out the front door with a slight smile facing the world.
Walking out the front door bombarded him with a healthy dose of sunshine that cleaned off the last dredges of sleep still clinging to his shoulders. Red stretched, barely managing to take a step outside before he came underneath a shadow. There was an entire crowd surrounding the front door with their phones absent-mindedly taking pictures of something above him.
The mystery was solved when a plume of air brushed against his loose clothing. Red lowered his cap and turned around, almost feeling like his parents were embarrassing him at school. All he could see were the claws digging into the packed dirt.
There was an invisible barrier that had been set up, created by the trainers of the gym with their leader heading the charge. Surge didn't seem intimidated by the legendary. Barely a raised eyebrow changed his stony face as he got closer. From the cross arms and stiff shoulders, Red couldn't imagine the man was very happy. It didn't help that Surge was built like a skyscraper, hardy boots prepared to stomp down on a pipsqueak like a hammer on a nail.
Surge stood in front of him with a wry smile. "Is this your bird?"
Red double-checked that Zapdos' holy wrath wasn't about to smite the whole town. "Not really? He just wants to show me something."
He wasn't going to be presumptuous and say that the bird would get caught by him. He wouldn't accept it anyways; if he was catching Zapdos, then it would be after he genuinely won a fight.
"So the legendary bird has become a tour guide for you." A laugh was chuffed out, his brick-shaped head shaking. "What're your plans? What badge are you on?"
"Um, my sixth, Surge—"
"Lt. Surge, boy. My town, my rules. When you're my superior, you can call me whatever you want, but here in my town you're calling me by my full title."
Red merely blinked. "Lt. Surge, Zapdos just brought me here. I think that he, or her, wants to bring me somewhere else. After I'm done here I'm going to try fighting against the Elite Four."
He looked back to verify. The bird lowered down again, ready to be mounted.
A heavy hand perched on his shoulder. Staring him down were two burning orbs, the passion behind those blue eyes hotter than what Red was comfortable with.
"Yeah. Yeah, you'll do fine. You're blessed by one of the legendary birds themselves. If you weren't going to finish right away then I would've dragged you there myself." A heavy smack sent Red stumbling. "Go! If you've got the bird's respect then I don't want to see your face again until you've stared down the Champion. Win or lose, stop stalling! There's nothing else that's gonna give you a challenge until you've brought the Elite Four down onto their knees. We'll fight again when you're finished. I'll show you why I was a runner up back when we were figuring out the newest member of the Elite Four."
Bewildered, Red followed the orders and leapt on the bird's back. Surge yelled up another encouragement.
"I'm rooting for you, Red! We need a real Kanto patriot up in the Champion's seat and there's nobody better than you alive right now. Go get 'im!"
It was Zapdos who followed the command instead. Away they flew, just as wildly as before. Red's head was churning with too much information for him to reasonably make conversation, and any attempt to parse through his feelings was delayed in favor of enjoying the moment. There went Kanto, all his adventures flying below him as they were at their destination within an hour, less than an hour—Red's mind was too scrambled for complicated calculations.
They flew straight over the bands of light that glimmered below them, towards the chain of islands that sat off south from Kanto's coast. They were close enough to be manageable (swimmable, of which there was an annual Dewgong Cup where humans would attempt to swim to and back from Cinnabar within two days. This was the most traffic that Cinnabar saw all year.) yet too far for their highest buildings to be visible from the furthest coasts. Zapdos began circling around a smaller chunk of land, twin mountains that hardly had a coast to speak of. Red knew they had names but couldn't dredge them up.
Once again they dropped like a rock. Right above the slithering waves they hovered, claws briefly gracing the sands and repositioning further uphill. Red hardly leapt off the pokémon's back before the sparkling started again. Turning around barely let him catch the yellow dot before it got lost amidst the clouds.
Red could assume why he was left there. Searching around eventually found a cave network. Climbing down deep into the islands' surprisingly tangled ecosystem based on the birds' suggestion never got him discouraged no matter how many dead ends he smashed into. Placid waters awaited him at the lowest points, letting him ride on the back of Lapras as they continued searching.
His breath was visible. Whether naturally or through some other means, the cavern felt subzero. Deep within the islands was a frozen paradise that could've been a photo of thousands of years ago if not for the ladder dropped down into a man made hole drilled through the ice. Ice-types happily walked around in the comfortable temperature while everything else struggled to feel their noses. He hugged the neck of Lapras for security while his legs were hiked on one of his pokémon's outcropped shell pieces. Even touching the water once would force him to call the trip off to warm up at the surface.
He was so close. The bird's wings became visible past the icy wall. Red's heart started beating wildly. More and more of it was revealed. Its full majesty was gently floating above a flat piece of land.
There was a lawn chair laid out beneath the bird with somebody drinking a can of soda. His pokémon was at the foot of it fanning a giant leaf, not looking bothered by the manual labor as she was too busy gawking at the legendary hovering above them. Said legendary was staring back with amusement more than anything. Apparently the legendary birds universally had a sense of humor.
Lane made a laborious movement as if he'd been sitting there for ages.
"Hey, Red. Isn't this place pretty," Lane lowered his sunglasses, "cool?"
