~~~ Chapter 63 - Rescue Mission ~~~

In a universe where the total disorder of matter, or energy, is increasing, Ice Type pokemon are endlessly fascinating. These creatures seem uniquely adapted to pulling the energy of the world into themselves, perhaps acting as natural temperature regulators. We find their fossil records, ironically, dated from the warmest eras of the planet's history. Periods of unnatural warmth for when they are the least adapted.

There have been experiments confirming some suspicions—Ice Types tend to absorb more energy faster the warmer the temperature is (within certain bounds based on species, expressed in the table below). They express physical agitation and restlessness when doing so. To the point many experiments had to be terminated early, but the data gathered was still valuable.

Still, we ask the age-old question. For Fire Types: Whence does the heat, the energy, disorder arrive? For Ice Types: Whence does that energy go? A Frosmoth brings a notable chill to an area of cold, but do not be fooled, "cold" is merely the absence of the chaos of heat. There is, only in the unscientific mind, an absence of energy. In this chapter, we will build on the basic physics from chapters one and two, and then the basic biologies we learned in chapters three to five, and now, we will critically examine the various organs within a subset of pokemon's bodies and attempt to explain some of these peculiarities.

Though this text will elucidate much of what we do know, do not be fooled—we are yet far from comprehensive understanding.

- Dr. Anton Colress, Mechanics of Pokemon Biology, Second Edition, Sixth Chapter

~~~

Jacob's hair stood on end, the water and moisture in the air was proving to be terrible for the gods his religion revered. He'd had a bit of hope, actually, that they would prove as powerful as they were clever. But no, Elesa's Meloetta friend had waltzed through his endless dark voids. He was lucky to be awake, really, having been caught in that first wave of black. His noivern's uproar had not yet worn off.

The moon had dimmed and with one last crack of electricity, Meloetta drilled Darkrai in the chest, the static in the air causing Jacob to wince. He frowned- Darkrai was knocked out of the air, Meloetta practically dancing around as she flashed over the earth. Cresselia was about twenty feet away from her compatriot "god". She had been taken out first—her Moon's Blessing and general psychic ability to recover, her own body mending itself, had kept them in the fight for far, far longer than they should have been.

Watching them both, passed out on the ground, seeing Elesa congratulate Meloetta, Jacob's stomach was more than a bit sour. But also, it was kind of nice to see the gods—who hadn't even bothered to learn his name—actually lose a fight. But also, there was bitterness. The two gods had a group of people who were more than willing to help them fight and to train. He'd rationalized it away. They were gods. Top dogs. Why would they bother with the rest of the church?

Jacob thumbed his empty ultra ball, rolling it around in his hand, pressing the front button. Now, he was asking himself—Why had Elesa and Meloetta any better? A mega absol would tear holes through Cresselia's psychic defenses with ease. A mega lucario would give Rai a run for his money. And yet, their attempts at paying respect were spurned at every opportunity.

"Melly, it's over. Down time!" Elesa said, encouraging meloetta to drop the bursts of electricity.

As a good security guard and gym member—though he had no electric types (the writing was on the wall for his future employment at the gym)—he'd watched the battle from afar. Now, he was waiting for the electronic devices in the area to recover from the meloetta's EMP blasts. He'd even taken a few stray shocks, though managed to avoid any paralyzing static. He knew his fellow gym members slash security guards were on the sidelines. Rai and Cresselia were his gods, non-practicing though he'd been since he'd had his daughter.

Three women waltzed into the park, lights still out, illuminated only by the moon. The city had known Elesa had an electric meloetta, and yet the grid still hadn't been appropriately hardened. The engineers in the power stations were probably being called in. Jacob shook his head, clicking on the pokeball repeatedly, waiting for its circuitry to reboot. He cursed the protection laws—strong-enough electric pokemon still managed to make pokeballs useless. Not everyone had been so lucky to put their teams in pokeballs in their hardened lockers, he was sure.

One more press, and his pokeball finally blinked, armed. Elesa had said she wouldn't catch them, but there the lunar gods were, in the middle of the park, paralyzed and knocked out. Pokemon had no catching laws, but the promises were off in the cities. Couldn't have the animals running around. Covered in electrical burns, both silent, the remaining static electricity caused the gods' muscles to twitch and occasionally spasm. What had they been thinking, fighting an electric type? Both gods would be considered supports in a more conventional battle format anyway.

Weak. Made a joke by a fucking two-foot tall meloetta. Gods vaunted, and worshipped, by his family and friends for their prophetic abilities. Sitting there, writhing on the ground. He watched Elesa turn, meloetta pointing in the direction of the newcomers. His gods had lost the fight. Elesa had every right to catch them. And yet, sitting there, the twenty-year-old gym leader did nothing, her face glowing under the light of the minor god that she'd convinced to tag along.

"Eeeuuuuueeee" Cresselia verbalized in her high-pitched, squeaky tone, craning her neck before falling back down to the ground. If Elesa wasn't going to catch them, someone else would. The two were not going anywhere any time soon. The three women who'd entered the park, had been followed by the duo with the espurr. A meganium was following behind them.

"Sorry ladies," Elesa stepped forward, blocking their path—were two of the women growling at her? "But no catching."

Jacob looked around, the city's lights beginning to flicker back on. Even if he did catch one of them, Elesa wouldn't let him get away with it. Even if he hadn't left noivern in his pokeball, anticipating a mass-release event… And if he did catch one, and managed to get away from the meloetta or the rest of Elesa's team, what would he do? He'd have the other one after his ass. Most pokemon you could train or make friends with after catching. But gods? You made friends with them first, then you asked them to join. He knew the stories when that protocol wasn't followed.

His frown deepened—Elesa wasn't tending to the challengers at all.

"Not here to catch, we just heard there was an electric god in the area, and wanted to check… These two have business with a particularly troublesome electric cat." The meganium was looking at Jacob, who sighed, sitting down on a chair from behind a cart, pulling up his bag.

Even if Darkrai or Cresselia had less firepower, and relied instead on sleep and dreams, making either of them mad would be far, far worse than a pokemon that would just kill you. Darkrai had a bit of a… sadistic side, at least in myths. Though meeting him that night didn't do anything to dispel the natural unease. The choice should have been obvious. Catch the god, put the ball into a box so the sensors wouldn't open them when it detected water—then throw the ball into a lake. Wait for the egg to show up, then raise the new-hatch.

Unregistered pokemon had no rights in the city. Elesa was still a new gym leader. She had no clout with the local justice system yet. But seeing them both lying there on the ground, passed out… He might have thought to catch one of them. However, with the meganium staring at him… neither the newcomers nor Elesa nor any of his co-workers, of whom there were at least three still watching, waiting to see what was going to happen. None were making moves to heal either Darkrai or Cresselia.

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He'd brought a few potions, and had begun to carry anti-paralysis potions on him at all times. Jacob pulled out a few single-doses of both. They wouldn't be enough to heal them from the damage completely. He stepped out from behind the shadows, looking around. A fellow, newer gym member stepped out.

"You know, I think we're kind of lucky the digital pokeballs have timers on them," she said, Katrina. One of Elesa's new recruits, her Raichu following by her side. She held an ultra ball of her own.

"Elesa said no catching. Put the damn balls away," Jacob said, walking up to the gods, pulling out his four vials. Cresselia's eyes fluttered. Administering potions and paralyze-heal on powerful, fainted pokemon was always a risky endeavor. Well, at the very least, he wouldn't be falling asleep for quite some time.

"I saw you holding that Ultra Ball, don't tell me you weren't thinking of catching them."

"Can it, Katrina," he said, pulling the plug off the top of his spray. Electric damage was usually internal, and needed the pokemon to ingest it. "I suppose you're right about the timers. Forces trainers to actually have space for their pokemon. Not going to train an onix in a tiny apartment if it gets released from its pokeball in the middle of the night."

"Yeah, exactly!" Katrina said, smirking. "I'm impressed you're not catching them, honestly. I didn't know you had a soft spot for wild pokemon," she'd said, stepping forward, her raichu trailing by her side. He frowned, glancing over at Elesa and the three women talking, the meloetta, the glitching and sudden movements and dripping electricity now gone. He wasn't about to fuck with that demon any time soon. No rock types on his team. The note-like elements adorned Melo's were the only things flashing any more.

If this was what the new league's gym leaders considered an honorable after-battle victory, then—No, Elesa was just young, he told himself. Or she didn't bring any potions of her own. Not like she could take them to a pokecenter without catching them.

Jacob knelt down in front of Cresselia's form, passed out, her eyes occasionally fluttering. The smell of burned fur wafted into his nose.

"Give these two to Darkrai," Jacob said, thrusting out his free hand to Katrina.

"Uh, no? I'm not getting any closer to you. Hey, Tait! Jacob's getting buddies with Darkrai and Cress."

"Yo, Jake, what you doin'? You know they're free catches in the city if Elesa's not gonna take 'em. You're not gonna take Darkrai? Would be nice to send 'em off to a scientist and see if they could put a damper on that passive nightmare field. I bet your daughter's tossin' and turnin' tonight if the storm didn't wake her up. My ears are still ringing!"

"No, we're not catching them," he said. Fine, I'll do it myself, he thought, ignoring Tait's jabs. He popped a potion into Cresselia's mouth, using one hand to hold her lips closed so it wouldn't drip out. The bottle empty, he pulled it out, holding her mouth closed, tilting her head up, keeping her mouth closed. She was surprisingly fuzzy, even behind the electrical burns. His daughter would love giving Cresselia a hug. He knew she'd swallowed the potion when he saw her mouth muscles move, pushing the liquid down her throat. The potion down, he repeated the same process for the paralyze-heal.

Both potions gone, he waited a moment, watching her breathing return to regularity, her eyes fluttering and the random body twitches settle out. Once the ribbons that were extruded from her body stopped twitching, he knew she would awaken soon, so Jacob turned to Darkrai.

His… religion had had debates over and over on catching the lunar gods. They'd been caught before. Darkrai's passive nightmare field was different from the daywalkers and such trying to petition for dreams of bad futures. Visually, the god of nightmares seemed to be in better shape. Were it not for seeing him get pile driven by a flying two-foot-tall missile, he would say Darkrai was probably fine. Jacob sighed, pulling up two more bottles. Darkrai's face and head was set so far back that he had no mouth. How the creature spoke would be anyone's guess.

If a pokemon had no mouth, protocol meant finding the next closest thing. Despite having no mouth, Darkrai clearly had many, many ways to scream. Darkrai only had his eyes. Cresselia just had a mouth and her eyes. Cresselia was lucky in that regard. Would Darkrai ever be able to eat, or taste? For the potion application, it had to be the eyes. Jacob poured a small splash of potion first, on the god's eyes. Then, the paralyze-heal. Jacob stood up, the waning gibbous moon, high in the sky emitting midnight light growing stronger than before. Cresselia's head turned to him as she hovered in the air. Was she smiling?

Darkrai's eyes weren't even open and he'd begun to float once more, his body righting itself. Jacob looked around for his fellow gym-members—both Katrina and Tait were gone. Cowards. He sighed. In front of him, the world shimmered. A hole tore open, a… red and black leavanny? Stood behind, the world warping, as distortion escaped, rolling through reality.

Darkrai's eyes open. "Excellent timing, as always, dear Oust," Darkrai said, his voice rhasping. Elesa and the three women went silent, watching as Cresselia also began to float. "We had fun, Jacob" —Darkrai gave a curt nod toward the guard—"And you as well, Selene, Tyler." Darkrai said, waving at the couple with the Espurr staring at them. "Unfortunately, we are on a strict schedule once more, I am afraid. Please, accept Cresselia's gift for the wonderful night. Adieu."

Darkrai had remembered his name. The lights of the city, the park, all coming back online. Jacob put his hand back into his pocket, and, under the light of the moon, twirled a pink, crescent-shaped feather. Well, he had something to give his daughter, at least. Katrina and Tait both returned from the shadows.

"Cowards," Jacob muttered under his breath, Darkrai and Cresselia both limping—if hovering in the air could be considered limping—into the distortion world.

"Well, with the power back on, and the Lunar gods gone, I suppose we should let the concert attendees out," Elesa said. "It was a pleasure to meet you three, Lyra, and?" Elesa held her hand out, smiling. The model/star's dance outfit had had no room for potions, likely not even a communicator.

"This one's Sam. The other one's Tiffany. Sorry, they're not much for shaking hands." Elesa held her hand out to shake Sam and Tiffany's hands, but they declined.

"So, uh, Jacob," Tait said, pulling his attention away from the gym leader.

"What?"

"The battle kinda stirred up a flock of noibat and noivern the size of a city."

"And? What am I supposed to do?"

"Well, you're the noivern trainer, and they're not native to Unova…"

He turned to Elesa, who waved at him, her meloetta following as they proceeded back to the concert hall. It had probably had energy for a few more blasts, but he wouldn't be surprised if Elesa's partner had burnt itself out from the excitement of a high-powered battle. Still, a blast of electricity would probably pull most of the screaming flock out of the sky.

"Why can't we just let the mass outbreaks die off? The battle, if you want to call it that, was ten minutes long." The moment he said it, realized how terrible the logic was. The size of mass outbreaks had far less to do with the length of a battle, than the total power and resulting noise.

"They've got a kid stuck on the train. Needs hospital evac. Told the conductor to take it slow because of the mass outbreaks of panicking pokemon" —a train's horn blared in the distance— "and so we could land on the roof and pick the kid up."

Jacob grit his teeth. Rangers would be busy deterring pokemon from the cities and stopping cascading stampedes through the entire area. And he was the only trainer there with two fliers that could hold a human. It was also convenient that they were both Noivern—not likely to get attacked by the noibat and noivern flock if they were still fluttering about.

"Fine," Jacob said. Everything Tait said was grating on him, and Katrina wasn't even willing to look him in the eyes. He picked up his trash and bag and headed back to the locker room where he'd left his pokeballs. He grabbed a stretcher-tie that he could use to secure the victim. It could be tied to either of his noivern's back, or his bat's legs; they'd been trained in both. Pulling his pokeballs out of the locker, leaving the pink, crescent feather instead, he went outside and released both of his beloved bats.

Jacob had decided he wasn't going to get sleep any time soon that night. No one deserved to die just because gods decided to have a fight in the middle of a city.