I was forced to make an immediate decision when a Tentacruel flanked by a bunch of Tentacool came out of the home zone. The Tentacruel swam towards us while the Tentacool swam past us, toward the exit/waterfall. I knew then that I would have to stop those Tentacool if I wanted to go with the information blockade.
I could feel the tension in the Tentacool and Tentacruel, as well as Tentacruel's determination and readiness, which left no doubt in me that it knew who we were, and that there was a chance that we could act against them. Honestly, more than Tentacruel's vigilance, it was the grim determination I felt from the Tentacool that made me abandon the blockade plan.
Given their emotional situation, I was pretty sure that the Tentacool would take some drastic and life-threatening measures to ensure that they, or at least one of them, could pass on the message they were supposed to deliver. I had honestly never considered killing any of them, and I did not want to force any of them to resort to some kamikaze moves since none of them had tried to kill us. The fact that they were messengers was not enough for me to consider taking lethal measures against them.
Jellicent's fate was one thing, but the battle with the Overlords was going to happen one way or the other, and I did not think that killing the messenger just to delay the fight was a good enough justification. Hence, I let the Tentacool go without any interference and addressed Tentacruel instead. I could feel that it was surprised, but it still replied, and I found out that, unlike my assumption, it was not the home boss.
Apparently, Tentacruel had been sent out to receive us, and probably to deceive us. I had a feeling that the Tentacruel boss had expected us to be hostile and had been ready for a potential (sneak) attack. While some might call its actions/reactions cowardly, I believed that it handled the situation quite smartly. According to Tentacruel, we needed the boss's permission if we wanted to check out their home, so I asked it to either call the boss out or get the approval for us.
Meanwhile, chibi Mothra/Butterfree had used Camouflage, not the type change one but the invisibility one she copied from Kecleon, to blend in with her surroundings, and was scouting the way forward for us. I had asked her to push forward so that she could Teleport us further down the channel on my signal. As it was, no one present aside from me could detect her; Mothra was just that broken.
Who said that we had to brute force the solution? If plans A and B were not viable, then I would come up with plan CM. My confidence in Mothra was immeasurable. Additionally, since she did not bother following our usual S-pattern, her progress speed was pretty high. She managed to travel a kilometer in less than 40 seconds, and that was with her purposely slowing down to avoid causing too much of a commotion since she did not want to get caught.
By the time the Tentacruel had made its decision, went to the home zone to speak to its boss, and came back with an answer, Mothra had already traveled close to 3 km, passing the 15-kilometer mark. She could have moved even further, but she felt grave danger not long after reaching that point, so she retreated to my side since going further on her own was too risky and I had told her to avoid any real risks before she set off.
I was pretty certain that what Mothra had felt was caused by the presence of the Uberboss, and during our telepathic conversation, I had her compare the threat/danger she felt with the one she had felt from the (high) platinum stage Gyarados and Milotic. Mothra shared that the two were miles apart, and her reply only confirmed what I had suspected, but it still made me feel a bit more solemn.
According to Mothra the only other time she had felt something of that level was when we had faced the Elder Dusknoir, and she honestly shared that she was not sure which one was heavier/more dangerous since neither had actively targeted us. This confirmed that the Uberboss was at least at the (low) palladium stage, with a possibility of it being even stronger than that.
Anyway, Tentacruel returned not long after Mothra, and it asked us to follow it. All of us could feel that we were being watched as we toured the home zone, and I was pretty sure that one of those stares belonged to the Tentacruel Boss. I simply chose to ignore it as long as it did not (directly) act against us. The stares and my curiosity towards the Uberboss led me to quickly finish inspecting the formation without bothering to do a more extensive check, so we ended up leaving the home zone less than 5 minutes later.
The stares continued to follow us even as we distanced ourselves from the home zone, and my senses picked up another bunch of Tentacool leaving towards the exit, probably to share the news that we had left the home zone and were heading further down the channel. I let them be, and instead led my group forward without bothering with our usual S-pattern.
Once we were far enough that the feeling of being stared at vanished, I had Mothra Teleport us close to the location she had deemed dangerous. The moment we appeared at the location, I felt what Mothra had described. There was an underlying subtle feeling of pressure coming from ahead, and I was pretty sure that only those who were sensitive to danger and/or energy could feel it since it was not the result of an active release but more of a passive byproduct of the Uberboss's power.
Taking a look at the others, I noted that BossBro/Slowbro had noticed the "aura" as well, but he was the only one, which was why the others gave Mothra inquisitive looks. I directly told them why they couldn't feel anything, which had them feel a bit awkward, though that quickly gave way to seriousness since the potential danger had been confirmed. They exchanged looks before Ignis/Gyarados declared that I had to bring out the others as well to increase our security measures.
The others nodded, and I understood where they were coming from, so I brought out, Stan/Gyarados, Jade/Gyarados, Medusa/Gyarados, Ryujin/Gyarados, Tiamat/Milotic, Abzu/Milotic, and Manami/Lapras. I was really thankful that the channel had grown in size ever since we passed the 10 km mark, or it would have felt rather packed with all of us being side by side.
Yet, despite that, it seemed that my Pokémon were still not satisfied because they all turned to look at me, or rather at Mothra atop my head. It quickly became apparent why, when she asked me to enlist at least one of the platinum ghosts to act as added security for the next bit. In fact, the others chimed in and said the more settled in my shadow the better, and feeling their stares as well as feelings, I decided to do as they asked.
Considering that we were underwater, I chose to ask the two Aegislash of the Boss Trio to join me since Ceruledge's fire type would make things awkward for it. Along with those two (mid) platinum stage bosses, I also approached the two (low) platinum stage Cofagrigus subbosses. All four were very happy to hear that I needed them, and they all agreed to guard me from my shadow, though I made sure that they were aware that they were only allowed to act to block an attack on me or when instructed by me to act.
Everyone saw the ghosts appear outside Utopia, and they exchanged greetings before the 4 platinum ghosts dove into my shadow, joining Hades/Gengar in his/my shadow('s) dimension. Once that was done, my water types surrounded me before we resumed our advance. A minute later I nearly let out an impressed whistle before I stopped myself, remembering that we were underwater.
We came across a giant rock or small hill, at least that was my first thought before I realized that this was not a mere rock, but an enormous Pokémon; Hence, the near whistle. Everyone was awed when they realized that we were staring at a gigantic Relicanth and not some rock. My first thought upon recognizing the Relicanth was that it had to be a Giant, which was then followed by the realization that the Relicanth had not reacted to our presence, or as much as twitched since our arrival.
It seemed the Uberboss, and I was pretty sure that Relicanth had to be the mysterious Uberboss since I realized that the pressure we had felt came from the unmoving Relicanth before us, did not care about our presence. My aura senses told me that the Relicanth was alive and well since its life signature was robust. My psionic senses on the other hand shed a bit of light on the lack of reaction from Relicanth.
Going by what I was sensing, Relicanth's mind was pretty relaxed, showing signs usually seen by sleeping individuals. It appeared that the Relicanth was actually asleep, and either its danger awareness was pretty crap, or we did not register as real threats in whatever danger senses the gigantic Relicanth had.
I was not sure if I should be insulted or thankful if that was the case since it made the next bit a lot easier than it would have otherwise been. I first shared what I had uncovered with my Pokémon since they were starting to get worried/restless after realizing the potential danger we were in. Afterward, I let no2 extend a psionic probe toward it, and the moment the probe came into contact with Relicanth, I used my Observe ability on it.
'Species: Relicanth
Gender: Male
Type: Water, Rock
Potential: Deep Blue'
I let my mind swiftly go through the first three sections before I took a moment to admire the rather impressive potential of Relicanth. Pokémon with natural deep blue potential were very rare, but given the (suspected) strength it had reached, having blue potential was the norm, so his potential was not entirely too startling.
That same strength was why I knew that the rest of the status sheet would be hidden, so I was quite shocked when I saw that the stage section displayed Relicanth's actual stage instead of a "?"-symbol.
'Stage: Palladium-Stage (Mid)'
That was followed by an even greater shock when I realized that given the 6 substage difference boundary I knew about, we should theoretically only be able to see the stage of those at the (low) palladium stage at most. For Relicanth's status sheet to display his stage, my Observe had to either deem our prowess as officially at the (low) platinum tier, or the limit of Observe had been raised to at least 7 substages.
Regardless of which one it was, it was something to be happy about. Yet, I was still very curious what the rest of Relicanth's status sheet looked like, especially his modifier section since I suspected that Relicanth was a Giant or something along those lines due to its incredible size. Comparing a regular Relicanth's size with that of the Uberboss was like comparing a toddler with a 2-meter-tall Gymbro.
I would have to do a proper inspection to get more detailed numbers, but if I had to eyeball it, then Relicanth's height was close to 4 meters. Its width at its widest had to be close to 1.5 to 2 meters, while its length was over 15 meters. I caught myself getting distracted again, so I focused back on the status sheet, and like I had expected, all I saw were question marks.
'Modifiers: ?
Abilities: ?
Talents: ?
Affinities: ?'
However, that did not discourage me. Given Relicanth's lack of reaction at my psionic probe and the steady signals my senses were registering, I decided to approach Relicanth for a proper visual observation.
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