Chapter 2 - Battle of Legends

Watching from afar, Sho watched with both concern and curiosity at how the girl just jumped over the railing and was now facing the storm in front of her with a stern look.

"Is she seriously going to fight that thing?"

Turning his gaze over to the tower of raging currents, Sho swallowed a lump in his throat as he wondered how the girl was going to combat such a terrifying creature, whatever it may be.

Meanwhile, Sora was clutching a pokeball in her hand while she eyed the tower of water in front of her.

Sweat slowly trickled down her cheek as her fingers slowly tightened their grip on the ball.

"Nervous?"

"A little bit."

"Do not worry, I am with you."

Sora gave a little nod before tossing the ball into the air, opening it to let a beam of blue light crash onto the sand. Out of the flash of light came the blue stag-like pokemon, Xerneas, in all her gallantness.

The pokemon howled a battle cry that echoed through the air and rippled across the sands.

Sora could feel her heart beat ten times faster, she didn't know whether it was fear or excitement that bubbled within, but she knew that the adrenaline she felt was one she should grasp. So, she clutched her chest and a wide grin then formed on her face, she gazed at the raging rapids with a battle-hungry look before she gave out her first order.

"Xerneas, use Geomancy."

The blue-skinned pokemon howled once again and several spikes of light shot out of the ground around Xerneas.

A rush of water then shot out from the tower, making Xerneas hop back to dodge before hopping again to dodge another. This kept on happening for a bit before Xerneas felt her body suddenly become lighter, making her move around faster than before.

Seeing the change happen, Sora quickly gave out another order for Xerneas.

"Xerneas aurora beam!"

The pokemon stopped in her tracks and lowered her body slightly as she widened her stance and gathered energy into her antlers, eventually making them glow into many different mixing colours.

"Fire!"

Upon her trainer's call, Xerneas then released the energy she had gathered, shooting out a stream of multi-coloured energy that pierced through the tower of water.

From where he stood Sho couldn't believe his eyes at the sheer power that Xerneas displayed, he tightly clutched onto his chest as he stared at the trail of light that the pokemon left behind after her attack.

Back at the beach, Sora eyed the beast that was hidden within the tower, its large hand-like wings, its elongated dinosaur-like head and its piercing red eyes. Though nothing like what a Pokedex may show, Sora had a good idea of which pokemon she was facing.

"No way, is that… a Lugia?"

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Elsewhere, inside a room full of scientists tapping away at keyboards, a woman with dark green hair stood on a platform staring at a large screen in front of her which held a map of the world, her face drowned in a dour expression.

Professor Evergreen was a woman of hard work, she spent her mornings looking over papers and reports handed to her by the many trainers she had come to take under her wing, meanwhile her nights were spent with her team overlooking the safety of special pokemon.

With her time always being eaten by something, she's often presented herself with messy hair and bagged eyes. Those new to her group would always find her glare intimidating when in reality it would've been just her forcing her eyes open as best she could.

"Professor Evergreen."

Turning at the call, the woman now came face to face with a fair-skinned young lady who was bowing to her. A pleasant sight for the professor, as Fauna was her closest aide, the girl was driven and capable to boot, she herself already catching and training a good number of powerful pokemon.

For Evergreen, seeing Fauna was always a joy.

"Fauna, you've returned already? Did you find Yveltal?"

Fauna shook her head.

"We looked everywhere in the hotspot, but there was nothing there."

"Still no good huh?"

Evergreen let out a heavy sigh. Yveltal, one of the three aura pokemon from Kalos, disappeared from its usual resting grounds and Evergreen became concerned that it got into trouble. She sent Fauna to check on it, and hopefully, catch it so that they could secure it further. However, it seemed to have left its territory and was now off radar.

"Xerneas is gone too and Zygarde is still scattered all around the region. On one hand, it's good since there's a chance that damn cult can't get them, but on another, we don't know if those three legendaries haven't been captured already."

Fauna made her way to the woman's side and glanced over, her eyes then softened to a pained look as she saw the dark bags underneath the professor's eyelids.

"You should probably get some rest professor. You've been working nonstop for days."

"I appreciate the thought, but I cannot afford to rest. After what happened with Rayquaza, and now the missing pokemon, there's just a lot of things that must be looked into."

"You won't be able to do that when you're on the verge of collapsing, you should-"

A blaring alarm cut Fauna off, tearing away hers and the professor's attention from each other to the large screen in front of them, which now had three flashing dots on it.

"What's the situation?"

One of the professors manning a computer then spoke up, detailing several signals of powerful Pokemon located in Sinnoh.

"Show me the locations of all the signals!"

A map of Sunyshore then appeared on the large screen, and the two girls on the platform gasped as they saw that the signals were all in one place.

All eyes were glued to the screen, horrified at what they had discovered.

Evergreen's attention was then pulled from the screen by another scientist, this time bringing news that two of the signals were becoming stronger as time went by.

At the end of that short briefing, Evergreen's eyes widened in fear. She then slammed her hands against the railing of the platform, grabbing everyone's attention before shouting her orders.

"Damn it! It has to be them. We need to get to Sinnoh now, prepare some transport for Sunyshore, this is of highest priority, we cannot let those signals fall to that cult's hands!"

Her team quickly followed orders, typing away at their keyboards while Evergreen turned to Fauna.

"I know you just returned my dear but-"

"No need to explain I'll go there as quickly as I can."

Evergreen gave the girl a small smile before telling her to go.

"Grab Sadao as well, this will be a tough job. I'll join you soon as well once these signals are fully analysed."

"Roger!"

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Back at the beach, Sora was still putting up a good fight against the shadow Lugia. With her and Xerneas mostly dodging the flying Pokemon's attacks before striking back.

"Xerneas, Geomancy!"

Xerneas closed her eyes as pillars of light once again quickly shot up around her. However, wary of the move's benefits, Lugia quickly gathered some boulders around itself before launching them at Xerneas in an attempt to stop it from gathering strength.

Luckily, the move ended before the rocks could reach her and Xerneas managed to swiftly slide out of the way of the flying projectiles.

What followed were volleys of rocks being thrown at Xerneas, while the stag hopped around the battlefield, dodging several boulders before finally being struck at the side by one.

The terrestrial pokemon dug her hooves into the sand to prevent herself from skidding too far, but the force of the boulder still managed to push a good distance and nearly even pushed her over.

"Xerneas, are you ok?"

Sora called out in concern, but Xerneas told her that she was fine and to concentrate on the fight instead.

Sora nodded before telling Xerneas to attack with aurora beam again.

"Let us end this."

Xerneas lowered its stance, rooting itself as best it could despite the soft surface it was fighting on. It eyed the shadow Lugia intensely as it gathered energy into its horns, making them once again glow in that rainbow-coloured light.

On the other hand, the shadow Lugia gathered a large number of stones and boulders to its side. At first, Sora and Xerneas thought that it was going to attack by launching a storm of projectiles at them, but they paused when they noticed the rocks beginning to gather and attach to one another.

"Don't tell me…"

Sora shuddered as she watched two meteor-sized boulders form in front of the shadow Lugia.

"Sora, do not falter I can still pierce those boulders with my attack."

"Not if it shoots one by one."

"I can attempt to avoid one, then pierce the other if need be."

"Xerneas, at that size you can still get injured."

"Geomancy is still in effect, I believe I can just avoid enough to not receive significant damage. You just have to believe in me my dear."

Sora was unsure, but she decided to trust her pokemon a readied themselves for an onslaught.

Lugia launched the first boulder and Sora ordered Xerneas to dodge. The stag skipped to the side letting the boulder graze her leg, eliciting a wince off her, but she still managed to stand her ground afterwards.

"Xerneas now, Aurora Beam!"

Without a second wasted, Xerneas released the energy she had gathered in a powerful beam that shot straight for the shadow Lugia.

Seeing that it had no time to move out of the way, the Lugia tried to use its remaining stone to hold the attack back, but its size made it too slow to quickly bring up as a shield, resulting in Xerneas' attack to break through the top of the boulder and strike Lugia straight on its face.

The crumbling stone fell into the ocean as Lugia just stayed airborne, its face covered in smoke.

Sora anxiously watched and hoped that the attack was enough to bring her opponent down, but she still kept her guard up just in case it still had some strength left for a counterattack.

After seconds of silence, Lugia's eyes then shot open before it quickly let out a shriek of anger, causing waves to form and crash onto the beach while gales of wind burst and tossed the sand into the air, blinding both Sora Xerneas. Its ear-splitting noise echoed through the night, making the citizens of Sunyshore panic in fear.

Lugia then locked onto Sora and Xerneas, eyes surging with bloodlust.

It wanted them dead.

Lifting its head Lugia gathered a ton of energy in its mouth in a single moment, causing everyone to freeze in their spot in fear at the amount of power Lugia was showing.

"That's-"

"A Hyper Beam!"

Xerneas quickly told Sora to run while she stood her ground.

"Xerneas what are you doing?"

"I will try to hold it off as best I can, but I cannot protect you. So you must take refuge elsewhere. Take the boy with you as well, he too is in danger."

"Xerneas I can't let you do this!"

"There is no time to argue. Please, my dear, go, I need you to continue to help this world, you must survive."

"Xerneas."

Amidst their conversation, Lugia managed to gather enough energy for its attack and was now ready. It opened its mouth, aimed, and was about to eradicate all that stood in front of it.

Only to then be interrupted by an eruption from the depths.

A geyser, tall and vicious appeared behind Lugia, stealing the attention of everyone.

Not even seconds later a blast of water surged out, striking the shadow Lugia on its back, causing it to shoot its beam straight at the sky.

Then more water came bursting out, adding to the already powerful blast, which then forced the shadow Lugia to crash onto a wall where it then laid unconscious.

Sora and Xerneas stared at the unconscious pokemon, baffled. They then turned their heads back to the tower of water, which then shattered into a million waterdrops revealing a pokemon with a snow-white body and deep ocean-blue spines protruding from the back.

It was another Lugia.