Pokémon: Deoxys
Sex: None
Type: Psychic
Ability: Pressure (When the opposing Pokémon uses a move, it consumes additional energy and stamina.)
Aptitude: Gold
Basic Moves: Leer, Bind, Night Shade, Teleport, Knock Off, Psychic, Psycho Shift, Zen Headbutt, Cosmic Power, Recover, Psycho Boost, Hyper Beam, Taunt, Superpower, Zap Cannon, Amnesia, Counter, Swift, Agility
Egg Moves: None
Item: Deoxys Core
Function: Hatches after absorbing sufficient energy.
Auron froze. This was the first time he'd ever seen one object pop up with two separate information panels.
And Deoxys's core, after absorbing energy, hatches? Not "recovers" or "reconstitutes"? And the color was blue? Shouldn't it be purple or green?
In that case, this Deoxys would be in an infant state—something like the way ordinary Pokémon are before they hatch inside an egg?
"Mm. Are you interested in this?" Flint Jonas leaned over and asked, peering at the blue crystal.
Auron nodded. "Yeah, kind of. What exactly is it?"
"This thing?" Flint seemed to slip into recollection. "I picked it up years ago when I was doing fieldwork in the Xing'an Range."
"Picked it up?" Auron asked, surprised.
"Yep. Picked it up. It's a long story—hear me out."
"Uh-huh. Go on." Auron nodded, eyes shining. He loved hearing the old-timers tell stories.
"That night, I was alone—young and headstrong back then. Research, travel, everything—I did it solo.
"That night was no different. After pitching my tent by a lake, I was in the tent having tea with Metagross when we suddenly heard something splash into the lake outside.
"That immediately piqued my interest. Metagross and I rushed out, but by the time we got there, only ripples remained on the surface.
"Still, I thought, since I'd already come out, wouldn't it be embarrassing to go back without figuring it out? So I decided to go straight into the water to search."
He cleared his throat. "Not me, of course—Metagross and Starmie. The two of them dove in together and, after a little while, brought this crystal up.
"But that's not the point. The point is what happened afterward—you'll never guess."
Flint grew more animated as he spoke, strange light glinting in his eyes.
"Two alien-looking Pokémon showed up—orange bodies, and they could transform!
"They seemed to be searching for something, but they were too far away to see clearly. Then our Dragon Nation's contracted guardian beast, Rayquaza, arrived.
"Wow, you cannot imagine how handsome Rayquaza looked. A black Rayquaza, in the sky—absolutely took my breath away. Deserves to be our Dragon Nation's divine beast."
Watching the excited Flint, Auron quietly edged a little farther away, worried about getting showered with spit. Inwardly, he grumbled:
Tch, it's just Rayquaza. Back in my previous life, I couldn't even be bothered to catch one.
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…That said, if a Rayquaza were in front of him right now, Auron's attitude would definitely not be the same.
"Rayquaza showed up and went straight after the two Pokémon—after all, it's tasked with guarding the ozone layer, and those two were clearly intruders that had come through it.
"So it wasn't strange for Rayquaza to attack them. The two Pokémon barely had any room to fight back. Even when one changed into a rounded shape—must've been a defense form—it still couldn't withstand Rayquaza's assault.
"Then, when one of them got smashed up, the other hurriedly pulled it away and fled—looked like it switched to a speed form, streamlined shape, very fast. Rayquaza couldn't catch up.
"Later Rayquaza looked a bit miffed, then shot off into space—probably like you said, to munch on some meteorites. That meteorite outside should be one it dropped from its mouth when it returned."
After listening, Auron pieced together the useful bits of Flint's story and formed a rough, coherent picture in his mind.
This battle must have involved two Deoxys—their child, to be more precise. Well, probably a child; Auron had no idea whether Deoxys reproduced in the usual sense, but the system's information was pointing that way.
This Deoxys's child—the blue crystal core—had fallen to Earth for some reason.
The two Deoxys had come searching for their child. But because they passed through the ozone layer without permission—and landed in what the black Rayquaza considered its home turf—Rayquaza moved to eliminate them.
Rayquaza hadn't expected them to be that fast, so they got away. Frustrated, Rayquaza headed into space to snack on meteorites.
On its way back, Rayquaza must have had something stuck in its teeth—the meteorite fell out of its mouth, and Flint found it, assuming it was some rare Rayquaza-related object.
As for the Deoxys core—the child of those two Deoxys—Flint had picked that up as well.
Ironically, Flint treated the meteorite that fell from Rayquaza's teeth as a treasure, while the real treasure sat gathering dust in his storeroom. Then again, considering the fate of Arceus's Plates around here, Deoxys's core getting this treatment didn't seem all that surprising.
Auron stared at the Deoxys energy core for a long while, utterly tempted.
If he chose this, once it had absorbed enough energy, he'd have a Mythical on his hands—one with extremely high combat power, at that.
The problem was: what energy did it need? How much? If he brought it back and failed to meet its requirements, it would just become a showpiece.
Auron glanced across the other shelves in the vault. The rest looked fairly ordinary by comparison. He clenched his teeth and said to Flint:
"Grandpa Flint, I'll take this one."
Flint blinked. "You sure? I've got all kinds of great things, and you want this?"
Auron nodded. "Yeah. My Aura tells me this is what I need most right now."
Also, it's the best thing in here (besides Arceus's Plates).
He didn't say the last part out loud.
"Alright then—your call."
Flint lifted the soft pad that cradled the blue core and started for the door.
Auron followed, delighted, already picturing himself unleashing Deoxys and sweeping the field.
"Hey? Wait—don't rush your choice. Put it down first."
(End of this chapter)