"They're Deoxys," Misty said. At this point, she couldn't be bothered to hide it anymore. "A Pokémon from outer space. Its power is enormous—enough to go toe-to-toe with Rayquaza. It's classified as a Mythical Psychic-type Pokémon."
She deliberately avoided mentioning that Natsui owned a Deoxys. Her main reason was simple: she couldn't be sure which of the two battling above the forest belonged to him.
"Deoxys…?" Ash repeated under his breath, his eyes slowly brightening.
He didn't stop to wonder how Misty knew so much. All he could think about was how absurdly rare that name was—and how incredible it would be to catch something like that. After seeing Natsui with so many legendary Pokémon, Ash's envy was practically overflowing.
If I could catch one of them right now… wouldn't I finally be able to close the gap between me and Natsui-nii?
Just as that thought surfaced, the sound of hurried footsteps came from behind them. Ash turned and saw Rafe, Sid, and the twin sisters from earlier rushing over.
"You guys!?" Ash blurted out.
Rafe looked just as surprised to see him. "Are you heading into that forest too?"
Ash blinked. "Huh?"
"Don't play dumb," Sid said with a laugh. "Just look at it—that's Rayquaza, the Hoenn legend. And those other two? If they can fight it head-on, they're on a completely different level. Who wouldn't want to catch Pokémon like that?"
"Hah! So you're after them too!" Ash's competitive spirit ignited instantly. The sting of his earlier loss at the Battle Tower only fed the fire. "I'm the one who's going to catch them! I'm not losing to you!"
"If you're going to argue, do it while running," Rafe said, glancing back. A stream of other trainers was already sprinting toward the area. "We're not the only ones who noticed. Those people are all Battle Tower regulars. If you waste time, the chance will be gone."
Only then did Ash and Sid realize how many trainers were ignoring the evacuation order and charging for the forest. At a glance, there had to be twenty—maybe more.
They both sucked in a breath, said nothing else, and took off at full speed. Brock, Max, and the twin sisters followed right behind.
In an instant, only Misty, May, and Tory remained.
The glowing entity that had been with Tory earlier stayed behind in the park, as though it were bound to that spot and couldn't move far. Tory had originally wanted to guide everyone to the safe room inside his father's lab, but seeing Ash charge toward the most dangerous area made him hesitate. Even with his fear of Pokémon, he gritted his teeth and ran after Ash anyway—pulled along by the sheer force of their new friendship.
As they watched them go, May turned to Misty, her expression tense. "What's actually happening?"
She hadn't followed Ash and Max precisely because Misty had been hiding something. And with Natsui nowhere in sight, May's instincts told her this wasn't a normal emergency. It had to be connected to him.
"To be honest, I don't know every detail," Misty admitted, her eyes fixed on the battle above the forest. "But I'm sure about one thing—one of those Deoxys belongs to Natsui-nii. As for where the other one came from, or why Rayquaza is fighting them… I'm just as confused as you are."
"He didn't tell you?"
"You know him," Misty said, exhaling through her nose. "He's always dealing with big problems. He keeps half of it to himself. And earlier, there were too many outsiders around. Come on—let's get closer and see what's going on."
Above the forest, the battle was escalating rapidly.
As the clash intensified, Rayquaza began drifting—almost by accident—toward LaRousse City's residential districts. Natsui's expression tightened. He had chosen the forest specifically to keep the city out of the blast zone, yet the very outcome he feared was unfolding: Rayquaza was dragging the fight straight toward urban areas.
Through Gardevoir's telepathy, Natsui tried to coordinate with his Deoxys and cut Rayquaza off. But Rayquaza was an apex predator—an existence that ruled its domain by force alone. Even if it couldn't defeat two Deoxys at once, stopping it from moving where it wanted was another matter entirely. If Rayquaza decided to shift the battlefield, few things in the world could force it otherwise.
Worse still, from his vantage point on a thick branch, Natsui spotted a crowd pouring out from the city. Not just Ash and his group—dozens of trainers.
What are they doing?
It didn't take long to understand. The trainers began releasing Pokémon to cross the wide river between the city and the forest. Natsui didn't believe for a second they'd come to stop the fight. The excitement on their faces made their goal obvious.
They were here to try to catch Deoxys—and Rayquaza.
A classic trainer impulse: see something impossible, rush toward it anyway.
For Natsui, it was bad news. Two Deoxys against one Rayquaza meant a controlled advantage. But throw a swarm of overeager trainers into the middle, and "controlled" became "chaos."
He watched Rayquaza continue edging toward the city. After a moment, an idea formed.
If these people wanted a "close encounter" with a legendary clash so badly… he'd give them one. With Rayquaza.
Through Gardevoir's telepathy, Natsui issued a crisp command to his Deoxys.
Drive the battle straight into the middle of them. Wherever the crowd is densest—go there.
Under his direction, his Deoxys stopped trying to win cleanly and focused on controlling Rayquaza's path. After several sharp intercepts, they forced Rayquaza to veer—straight toward the trainers crossing the river.
The trainers hadn't anticipated it. They'd studied the fight from a distance and assumed the trajectory was predictable. Many had even taken detours to avoid being swept into the crossfire, planning to intercept from a safer angle.
But now the legends had changed course—and were accelerating directly at them.
The smart ones felt the danger instantly and changed direction. Most were a heartbeat too slow. By the time they looked up, Rayquaza was already looming over the river like a living storm.
There was a huge difference between commanding a battle from far away and suddenly finding yourself in the blast radius. Some people stayed calm as spectators—but collapsed into panic the moment their own lives were on the line.
BOOM!
Rayquaza fired a roaring blast of energy. It missed Deoxys—but slammed into the water below. The explosion threw up a wall of water that crashed into trainers riding their Water-type Pokémon. Several people and Pokémon were knocked violently into the river before they could even react.
Ash, Rafe, and the others at the front barely avoided the worst of it. When they glanced back and saw half the would-be "hunters" flailing in the water, they went stiff with shock.
"What kind of destructive power is that…?" Sid muttered, riding on Blastoise as he wiped river water from his face. His voice sounded genuinely shaken. "That's Rayquaza? One attack did that. Are we seriously trying to catch something like this?"
"Of course we are," Rafe said, expression unchanged. His eyes remained locked on the sky. "And isn't this perfect? It just cleared out most of the competition. We've got more time before they even scramble back onto shore."
Even so, fighting around open water was a terrible position. Just as the trainers in the river resurfaced and tried to regain control, a second wave of danger arrived.
This time, it didn't come from Rayquaza.
One of the Deoxys—specifically the wild one—suddenly split into hundreds of clones. They weren't the usual afterimages of Double Team. These looked solid, tangible, almost real. They surged outward like a swarm, attacking humans and Pokémon indiscriminately in air and water.
They were darker in color than a normal Deoxys, but they flew just as smoothly. They didn't even bother with refined techniques—just brutal, straightforward strikes with their tentacle-like arms. The blows were messy, full of openings… and still terrifyingly strong. Smaller Pokémon crumpled under the pressure.
By the time Misty and May reached the riverbank, this was the scene in front of them.
May's face tightened as the picture clicked into place. "So… Natsui-san is doing this to stop them from trying to catch Rayquaza."
"Exactly," Misty said, nodding once. "An evacuation order went out and they still came running in to cause trouble. If you're reckless enough to try and catch Rayquaza, you'd better be ready to pay the price."
May hesitated, worry creeping into her voice. "But won't people get hurt? And if they find out it was him—won't that be a problem?"
"Relax," Misty said, waving it off. "Getting injured is part of being out in the world. And as for getting traced back to him? You're overthinking it. As long as Natsui-nii doesn't show his face, no one's linking this to him."
May still looked uneasy, but she forced herself to accept it—until her expression suddenly turned pale.
"Wait. Where's Max!?"
Despite all their bickering, he was her brother. She couldn't stay calm if he was anywhere near that chaos.
A quick scan of the shoreline finally revealed him—standing with Brock, Tory, and the twins. Ironically, because they didn't have Water-type Pokémon, they'd been stuck on land the entire time. And that had saved them.
Watching the clones smash through trainers and Pokémon alike, Max whispered, eyes wide with awe, "That's unbelievable… Hundreds of clones, and it's stopping everyone by sheer force. Is that what a truly powerful Pokémon looks like? Can a human really catch something like that?"
Misty smirked to herself.
If only you'd seen what Deoxys was like back then… facing Team Magma, Team Aqua, Rayquaza, and Natsui-nii's strongest lineup all at once. If you had, you'd understand what "terrifying" actually means.
------------------
Currently on Patreon: 920 chapters available.
My Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/LIZBETH1242