The landscape on Mt. Ember was hot and desolate. Rocks were choked with dried grass and weeds, and giant puffs of steam occasionally erupted from the rock piles. A couple of lonely trees dotted the land.
Tia took a deep breath and wiped the sweat off her brow. It was the height of summer on the Sevii Islands, and despite Mt. Ember being several thousand miles above sea level, the heat the volcano gave off increased the outside temperature by at least 10 degrees.
Tia and Aidan hiked along the outside of the mountain until they came to a fork in the trail.
“Which way now?” Tia asked.
“Hmm…” Aidan tapped a couple of buttons on his Pokegear, bringing up a map of the mountain. “The left trail leads toward the peak,” he said, “and the right leads toward a group of caves.”
Tia thought a moment. “If we go toward the peak, we could run into Moltres by nightfall.”
“But if we go to the caves,” Aidan added, “we might be able to find the Ruby for Celio.”
Celio was the administrator of One Island’s Pokemon Center, and was currently elbows-deep into repairing the Center’s Network Machine – the machine responsible for Pokemon storage transfers throughout the entire Sevii Islands. In return for detailed maps of Mt. Ember, Celio had asked Tia and Aidan to keep an eye out for a Ruby – one of the special gemstones needed to power the Network Machine.
“Let’s go to the caves and look for the Ruby,” Tia answered, “It’s the least we can do to help Celio out.”
Aidan nodded, and they took the path to the right.
The sweltering, humid air outside eventually dampened as they entered another series of caves. As they walked, Aidan held out the Itemfinder, sweeping it to and fro like a dowsing machine. They moved through the cave system, traveling lower and lower until they entered a large, spacious chamber filled with tall stone slabs.
Tia approached one of the slabs and ran a hand along a series of dots carved into the stone.
“It looks like… Braille?” Tia murmured.
Aidan looked at another stone slab. “It is Braille,” he said, excited. He pulled out a small notebook and flipped through some pages. He jogged over to the stone slab closest to the chamber entrance and translated.
“Everything has meaning,” Aidan read out. He then moved to the next slab. “Existence has meaning. Being alive has meaning. Have dreams. Use power.” He finished reading off the last slab.
Tia looked at him, confused. “Interesting. But what does it all mean?”
Aidan shook his head. “Who knows.”
Suddenly, the Itemfinder pinged, and Aidan pulled it out. It pointed toward an opening on the far side of the chamber. The two walked through the opening, and found themselves in another, smaller chamber, with a shining, red gemstone in the middle of the room.
Tia and Aidan approached the gemstone. “This must be the Ruby,” Aidan said excitedly.
Tia carefully picked up the gem and turned it around in her hands. It was warm to the touch. “Only one way to find out,” she said, wrapping it up in cloth and placing it carefully into her pack. “We’ll bring it to Celio after we’re done with Moltres.”
When night fell, Tia and Aidan camped along the outside of the mountain. While eating from a bowl of Aidan’s signature meat stew, Tia looked up at the peak. Her eyes widened at what she saw.
“Wow…”
The sky near the peak lit up with flashes of flame, flowing in and out like a god’s ethereal dance.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Aidan whispered.
“Yeah…” Tia murmured. She looked over at Aidan and realized he was looking straight at her. She blushed, and turned her attention to her bowl of stew. She took a few bites, then looked over at the flames again.
“It’ll be a shame that after tomorrow, no one will see these flames again…” Tia said softly, “If we catch Moltres, that is.”
“When everything is over,” Aidan replied, “We can let Moltres choose. To stay with us, or to fly free again.”
Tia nodded. They had both decided, long before starting this project, to give each Legendary Pokemon they captured the same choice. Secretly, Tia hoped that they would choose freedom. To assume control of such powerful Pokemon felt like more responsibility than she could imagine taking on.
The next morning, Tia and Aidan woke early, retracing their steps back to the fork in the trail and taking the left path toward the peak.
As they reached the peak, the temperature suddenly increased, and the air grew hot and stuffy. They walked onto a flat, rocky plateau.
On the far side of the plateau, nestled against a large rock wall, sat Moltres, slumbering in a large, glittering nest.
Tia stared at Moltres in awe. Though it was sleeping, it looked magnificent, with its glowing, flaming wings folded against itself in repose.
Tia looked over at Aidan and nodded, then carefully stepped closer to the sleeping Moltres. She tried not to make too much noise, but her footsteps dislodged a stone that rolled across the floor, its noise echoing across the plateau.
Moltres’ eyes flew open, and it let out a cry as it came fully awake. It spread its wings and rose from its nest, staring straight at Tia and Aidan. With another trilling cry, it made its challenge known.
Tia and Aidan immediately sent out their Pokemon.
“Go, Emi!”
“Tatra!”
A Dewgong and a Tyranitar appeared with flashes of red light. Moltres soared high above them. As it neared the rock wall that shielded its nest, Aidan looked over at Tatra and nodded.
“Tatra, Rock Slide!”
The attack caused large rocks and boulders to slip down the mountainside and fall directly on top of Moltres. Moltres dodged most of the falling rocks, but a few clipped one of its wings, causing it to tumble through the air.
Moltres gave an angry cry, and flapped its wings, whipping up the surrounding air currents into a Hurricane.
Tia immediately saw a chance to use Moltres’ attack against it. “Emi!” she called, “Rain Dance!”
As rain began to fall, the Hurricane conjured up gale-force winds, creating a small, contained tropical storm on the mountaintop. The temperature dropped several degrees, mist swirled, and electricity began charging through mini-thunderclouds.
A cocky smile appeared on Tia’s face. An environment this damp would surely reduce Moltres’ firepower.
Aidan looked around at the storm, feeling slightly uneasy. The mist blocked his view of Moltres, making it difficult for him to give Tatra another battle command. He also wasn’t quite sure how all the physics of this battle worked, but somehow he felt something unpleasant would happen if they weren’t careful.
He was about to say something when Tia called out to Emi again.
“Waterfall!”
As the charged beam of water shot upward toward Moltres, the Fire Pokemon glowed brightly. The temperature around Moltres increased exponentially, causing raindrops to sizzle. Then, an enormous blast of heat erupted from Moltres’ body, directly hitting the Waterfall.
“Watch out!” Aidan ran over and yanked Tia away from the colliding attacks.
There was an explosion as the Overheat collided with the Waterfall and converted the water beam into a massive blast of superheated steam. The steam rushed over Emi, trapping her in a pocket of hot air. Emi cried in pain as the steam burned her.
“Oh, no!” Tia shouted. “Emi, return!” Emi disappeared in a flash of red light as she returned to her Poke Ball.
As the steam faded away, the rain continued to fall and thunder boomed. Tia looked up at the hovering Moltres, her mind whirling, then sent out another Pokemon.
“Luna!” The violet-fleeced Ampharos emerged.
Tia waited a moment until the thunder boomed again and a flash of lightning emerged. If they could take advantage of the lightning…
“Thunderbolt!”
The attack merged with the lightning tearing through the clouds, and hit Moltres with a loud crackle. Moltres cried out and fell from the sky. It tried to flap its wings to slow down before it hit the ground, but to no avail.
“Now’s our chance!” Aidan shouted. “Tatra, Rock Slide!”
“Power Gem, Luna!” Tia called out.
Both attacks hit Moltres directly, soon after it hit the ground. Moltres glowed, then let out a cry of pain. It looked as if it were hanging on by a thread.
Tia looked over at Aidan and nodded. Moltres had just used Endure, and there wasn’t much time left before it fainted. She pulled out a Legend Ball and threw it. It sailed through the hot, damp, steamy air, bounced against Moltres’ molten hot body, and sucked it inside with a flash of light.
The Ball wobbled once, twice, a third time… then went still.
With a sigh of relief, Tia walked over to the Ball, waited a moment for the Ball’s cooling circuit to kick in, then picked the Ball up. It was warm to the touch.
Aidan approached her and put a hand on her shoulder. “That battle… was amazing. You manipulated the elements like a goddess!” He squeezed her shoulder.
Tia smiled and looked around as the rain and thunder faded away. “It was nothing,” she murmured.
She let out a gasp as Aidan suddenly hugged her to him.
“Just don’t overdo it,” he said into her hair, “I want you to make it through this in one piece.”
Tia hugged him back. “I will. I promise.”
Tia and Aidan watched as Celio carefully installed the Ruby into the Network Machine. He closed a panel, screwed it shut, then hovered over the Power button with a finger.
“Moment of truth,” Celio said. He pushed the button, and the machine immediately came to life. His face lit up in excitement, and he rushed over to his computer. “This is Celio from One Island, calling Two Island,” he said, “Are you receiving the transfer signal?”
A Nurse Joy appeared in the video window. “Yes,” she answered, “We’re receiving.” There were similar acknowledgments as the Pokemon Centers on the other Islands confirmed the transfer signal.
“All right,” Celio said with a sigh of relief. “Great! Pokemon transfers throughout all the Sevii Islands should resume shortly.”
He turned to Tia and Aidan. “You two are amazing. Thank you for going out of your way to help us.”
“No problem,” Aidan said, “It was the least we could do.”
“I heard you were able to meet and battle Moltres,” Celio said, excited. “Were you able to catch it?”
Tia held out the Legend Ball containing Moltres. “We did!”
Celio stared back at them in awe. “Wow. I wish I could’ve seen the battle. It must have been amazing!”
Aidan nodded. “It was.”
After things had settled down, Tia set up her workstation and plugged in Moltres’ Legend Ball.
Moltres
Level 70
Element Type: Fire
Maximum Temperature: 550°C
Capture Rate: 6.50
Tia nodded to herself. The effects of Rain Dance, besides weakening Moltres’ flames, had also lowered its ambient temperature a couple hundred degrees, making it fall well within the Legend Ball’s temperature threshold.
She pulled out the Pokedex, reviewed the pages on their most recent captures, and smiled. They had captured all three of the Legendary Birds of Kanto! There was still much more to be done, of course, but it was a noteworthy achievement, nonetheless.
“I’m ready for a vacation,” Aidan said, yawning. “Someplace cold this time.”
“I’d prefer someplace that isn’t a cave or a mountaintop,” Tia remarked.
“Maybe another trip to Sinnoh is in order,” Aidan said thoughtfully. “We can search for Ursalunas.”
Tia smiled. It was one of Aidan’s dreams to rediscover the long-extinct Ursaluna.
“Let’s do that.”