Ganjalf's Story

"Mira can talk through the mechanics of the ball as it was built for them. Rotom love possessing machines so I had the ball made with the same tech the Pokedex is made from in Alola that Rotom can use to talk through. Mira quite likes it. Also, Dialga and Palkia called me here one day and challenged me to an honest battle and I caught them. As for Cyrus... I'm unsure if he ever left the Distortion World. I half hope he did but also don't."

"Zzzt! Yeah! Dawn let me play in thizz ball! The technology izz really rare but she got it for me anyway, Zzt-Zzt!"

Mira stood there and pondered the Xatu's words. What is hungrier? The squid that Hiker spoke of? Odd for a Xatu to even speak of future events. Often they're too paralyzed by fear to even move...

"Haha. But yeah... After I saved them, Dialga and Palkia called me here through the Lustrous and Adamant orbs I picked up inside Coronet. It was really surreal, you know. The looks of gratitude and then the glare similar to a trainer's asking for a battle. They were seriously tough cookies though! Dialga gave Marina a run for her money, and Palkia took out Clefable and Mira... But, for the time being, they deem me as worthy to carry them, and so I do. That's uh... really... it. Yeah. Hey, how's Mom back at your place?"

Dawn had to process this for a good long moment. Hoo boy. Hikari just hit her with a ton of info. "What, that island region on the other side of the world?" Dawn asked, apparently barely having heard of Alola. "...Huh. That's pretty cool, actually. It must make it a lot easier to communicate." she mused aloud. "So you just ... caught them? Just like that?" Dawn went on to ask, bemused by this development. "...Hear that Piplup? We might have the potential for greatness in us yet!" Dawn eventually continued, enthusiastically rallying her pokemon. Piplup gave her a rather shrewd, thoughtful look in response, accompanied by a lightly derisive chirp. Dawn merely grinned toothily at him in response.

"And Cyrus got trapped in the Distortion World?? ...And we just--left him there?" Dawn asked, mulling this over for a moment. She seemed a little concerned by this development, at least at first anyway. "...It's probably for the best. That guy was a monster. --No offense, guys." Dawn went on to dismiss, before promptly apologizing to the pokemon in the room.

At the question about her mother, Dawn hesitated for a good moment as if she didn't know how to answer this relatively simple question. "...I think she's doing just perfect." Dawn eventually replied in slightly distant tone. "I wish I could go see her." she then added. At this, Piplup chimed in, in pokespeak of course for the pokemon present. "She's not around anymore..." the pokemon explained in a slightly concerned tone.

"Kzzrrrt!! Hey uh, bozz-lady? I'm not sure if--"

"No, I think I get it. Sorry I asked if that's the case. And I didn't try to leave Cyrus in there. He ran off after I beat him in there and then I got chased around by Giratina until I took them out too and left with Cynthia. I honestly do not know what happened to him after that. Also, you have to earn the right to catch Dialga or any other Legendary. They can just as easily break free and leave if they wanted to, even from the famed Master Ball. It sounds cheesy, but they choose who lets them capture them."

"Zzzt! It also really doezz help with the talking! I can talk to people like Chatot can but better, Zzzrkt!"

Marina kept glancing at the Xatu. She was rather worried about the prophecy. Xatu can see what is to come so their prophecies aren't something to turn your nose up at... Marina turns to Mira and tells them something in poke-speak to repeat to Hikari.

"The Xatu there said that IT grows hungrier and bolder. It envied us with our closed eyes.. I'm not liking what he means. Xatu aren't far off from their predictions, and seeing as he lives in such a place, so close to the heavens and Arceus, I'm rather worried. I'd like Dawn to be informed about that at the very least, Mira."

"Krzzt! You got it, Marina! Hey hey! Marina said the Xatu there said some weird thingzz! About how thizz 'IT' grows hungrier and bolder and Marina is worried becauzz Xatu are very accurate with predictions. Zzt-zzt!"

"That so? Well that is worrying indeed, coming from a Xatu... Maybe that Hiker was on to something? He talked about a space squid and the only thing that comes to mind that would lead people to say that...is Giratina, but I don't feel his presence here so he might be still in his little world or at Turnback. What do you think, Dawn? Did you come here with anything?"

Dawn was briefly stunned by Hikari's story, mild disbelief hanging over her face for a good moment before she had the presence of mind to respond. " . . . So you just beat him up, then you beat Giratina up, caught a few gods and called it a day?" Dawn replied in a slightly shaken deadpan tone. "--Geez, I'm really glad I didn't fight you. I would've gotten creamed. You're really setting up some huge boots for me to fill, y'know that? Next thing I know you're going to tell me you're the world champion." Dawn went on to remark. At this, Piplup looked between them for a few moments in thought before moving to Hikari's side to signal his apparent bet on that battle. "...It's kind of hard to believe you two are related." Piplup remarked in pokespeak, earning a huffy look from Dawn who at least got the gist of what he was going on about. "--Hey!" Dawn began to protest, before fumbling over her words for a moment as she tried to think of a rebuttal. "...You don't have to take sides, you know!" she sorely chastised. "I'm technically taking your side!" Piplup casually replied, though Dawn failed to gain any meaning from this through the language barrier.

Dawn shifted her attention back to Hikari. "...Cynthia's here too? Oh, yeah. I guess that makes sense. Where else would she be, right? I missed her as much as Mom sometimes. She wound up doing a lot to help me out thinking back on it. Too bad she probably wouldn't even know what to think about me." Dawn replied in a wistful tone. At the question though, Dawn paused and glanced away for a moment in thought. "...Just my pokemon! I think! Honestly, I was a bit busy freaking out the whole way here. That was a pretty crazy show in the sky, though! Also I think it might be talking about me. I'm... really hungry and I've slowly been working up the urge to ask for a sandwhich." Dawn awkwardly replied, apologetically bowing her head.

Meanwhile, Piplup suspiciously gazed at the Xatu for a few moments before running over to it! ...He tripped halfway there, but that didn't stop him from rushing to confront the petrified pokemon. "Hey bird-brother, what's that you're saying about my trainer? I'll give you one chance to elaborate before I peck it out of ya'!" Piplup aggressively challenged, jumping to Dawn's apparent defense. The Xatu held perfectly still once again, and for a brief moment it might not be clear it intended to reply at all. "...Your trainer... is the short one?" the Xatu breathlessly replied. "You're a psychic and you don't already know that?" Piplup remarked rather suspiciously. "...I see... only darkness. No past. NO FUTURE!!" the Xatu replied, abruptly spreading their wings and screaming that last part in a panicked tone. His shrill screech drew Dawn's attention from not far off. Piplup recoiled slightly at the outburst. After a moment, the Xatu lowered their wings again. "...What terrible, innumerable crimes must have been committed... to create such a... deafening silence..." the xatu continued, trailing off into a whisper and lowering their gaze to the ground, their eyes closing. "...Piplup, leave that pokemon alone!" Dawn gently scolded as she listened to what she perceived only as a squawking fit. "--Geez, fine! I think this guy's nuts anyway." a frankly disturbed Piplup replied, sorta slowly backing away from the xatu.

As Piplup eventually turned tail to focus on where he was going, something began to happen. Dawn gasped and gestured back at the xatu to get Hikari's attention. A purple, shadowy aura was beginning to envelop the pokemon. Moments later, Dawn lurched from the ground with a squeak of alarm as a powerful psychic force gripped her. "What's happeniiiEEEEE!!" Dawn began to ask, only for the same psychic force to then shift and violently launch her off of Spear Pillar, tossing her off the mountain itself! Piplup began to run after her in a panic, but he was immensely too slow to do anything about it other than freak out.

"Dawn!"

Without thinking, Marina had dashed over and grabbed Dawn's ankle before she went over the edge. While she could easily hoist her up, she wasn't about to leave herself open to an attack from the Xatu. She simply held onto Dawn and reserved her strength for enduring what back attacks may come. Mira, on the other hand, came out of their ball and shot a Shadow Ball right at the Xatu. Hikari would also get up and toss out her Staraptor. He would move quickly to be underneath Dawn in case Marina lets go or is attacked.

"You JERK! Why would you do that! You're going to regret that! Let's take him down, Mira!"

The Rotom twirled and seemed to glow with power after hearing Hikari's words. Activating Hikari's passive inspiration and giving Mira an all-round boost of +2 to their stat parameters for the time being. Mira made some blip noises and stared down the Xatu.

"Marina, I trust you and Star can take care of Dawn! Piplup, stay with Marina!"

Dawn's scream of fright was abruptly cut off by another yelp as her violent momentum came to an equally violent stop, leaving her hanging there over the abyss from her ankle. Not a position you wanted to be in even if you weren't wearing a mini skirt. She just kinda hung there for a good moment in shock, slightly out of it because of that sudden stop.

The Xatu, meanwhile, pretty much just stood there and took the shadow ball attack, nearly collapsing as the energy passed through it. As it got back up, however, a purple aura finished surrounding its body. The newly descended shadow pokemon opened its red eyes to look at Hikari for a moment before emitting a psychic wave that rushed out to meet the trainer and her pokemon, shoving them back rather harshly, but well--not accomplishing much more than potentially knocking one on their rump.

Instead, the majority of its efforts were focused on Marina. An invisible force rushed out toward Marina and grabbed her as it had Dawn. Rather than attack, the witty psychic pokemon saw fit to violently shove Marina over the edge with her rescuee in tow, putting them both in renewed danger! Could Staraptor carry them both? "--Oooh no!!" Dawn began to squeal as she felt herself start to shift again, though she could do little to help herself. If she owned a flying pokemon, it was currently sitting in her bag ... on the ground where she'd left it.

Hikari stood her ground barely but she quickly shot a look to Marina and quickly returned her so she would avoid the fate of falling off. The Staraptor did drop a bit as Dawn fell on his back roughly, giving a weakened squawk. Hikari was more concerned for the fate of Dawn and her Staraptor than the Xatu.

"Dawn! Starry! Are you two ok?"

The Staraptor stayed behind the cover of the cliff side to avoid more bursts of winds. He wasn't sure of Dawn's well being though but he responded with a screech to let Hikari know he is still airborne.

"Tch... Fighting on two fronts... Also, this can't be a normal wild Xatu to take one of Mira's shadow balls and keep going... Mira, another!"

Mira twirled a bit before firing another Shadow Ball, recently powered up by their trainer.

Whack! Dawn landed on Starry with a thud, promptly clinging to him for dear life. She seemed uneasy laying there on his back though, clearly not understanding how to properly ride a flying pokemon judging by the way she clung to his feathers and dangled her legs instead of trying to sit up or grip him with them. Thankfully, she was a pretty small and light-weight girl. About 71 pounds, to be exact. "I-I'm...I think I'm o-okay!" Dawn replied.

Meanwhile the Shadow Xatu once again stood more or less perfectly still, not even really making a move to dodge as the shadow ball approached it. This time, it collapsed with a rather sickly craw that didn't really translate into anything other than a groan in pokespeak, fainting. This time, it didn't seem to have been able to withstand the attack.

"Heeelp..! I don't know how long I can hold on!" a mildly distraught Dawn cried out. She was certainly doing her best anyway, but upper body strength was frankly not her strongsuit. Nearby, Piplup rushed to the edge of the mountainside and began doing his best impression of an Aircraft Marshall guiding a plane into port with those orange batons using his fins, enthusiastically urging the staraptor in for a landing!

Taking the hint from Piplup to mean there is no threat of attack, Starry flew up to the pillar with ease. Quite used to desparate clinging by now from Hikari when she was first learning to ride him around. Upon landing, he would crouch a little so Dawn had an easy time getting off.

"Oh thank Arceus you two are ok! Marina is fine too, had to pull her back in quickly. Mira, you did good, you can rest up in your ball. You as well Starry."

Hikari takes out the special wing patterned ball and returns the stoic Staraptor to it. Mira possesses their ball and uses their ghostly energy to float it around just like before.

"Zzzt! That wazz scary! That Xatu was a big meanie, you know? Krzzzt!"

"A little more than that, Mira. But I wonder why it suddenly changed like that? It looked like what was described to me in Orre about Shadow Pokemon but... it wasn't right, they aren't wild. They're like, made in a lab or something... I think? I wasn't really paying attention to the curator... But that was odd... odder still that I saw it happen in front of me... What is going on?"

"I certainly don't know. What I do know izz that Xatu was a tough one! That's not normal."

Hikari couldn't put anything together. She only knows enough about 'Mythical' Shadow Pokemon from some history curator in Orre when she visited the big Colosseum, and even then, ignored him most of the time. An act she regrets. But then again, was what she saw even a Shadow Pokemon? It had that blacky stuff around it like the guy described but... This was a wild Pokemon, no way it was Shadow, it had to be something else, right? Yeah, it had to!

"Well um... how about we go inside the mountain before we get attacked by more birds trying to knock us off?"

Dawn emitted a rather distressed yet none-the-less relieved sounding sigh as they landed, shifting to drop off, only for the leg she'd been caught by when Marina grabbed her out of the air to fail her, a sharp burst of pain preventing her from putting her weight on it and sending her to her behind with a little yelp. "Ow--geez... I think I hurt my foot." Dawn whined from where she sat. It kinda stung pretty bad now that she wasn't in full panic adrenaline mode. As she sat there, she did listening to what Hikari had to say. "...Yeah, that was pretty weird! I think that pokemon tried to kill me!" Dawn blurted out in alarm. "...Luckily at least one of us owns a flying pokemon. No offense, Piplup." Dawn added. At this, Piplup just kind of placed his hands on his hip and shook his head a little in disappointment.

At Hikari's offer, Dawn placed her hands on the ground and began shakily making an effort to stand. Her injured leg trembled a bit however, and it didn't seem like she made any progress. "...Yes please. I--...I might need a hand though." she lamented. She could probably stand on one leg, but walk? She might need someone to lean on for that.