[ti]quest[/ti][Q][C/Alicia] Invasive Tide

It wouldn't take Alicia long to arrive astride the psychic fish. When she arrived, she would see a Celesteela floating above Ulysses and the rider atop the sea lion Pokémon. His skin tingled when Alicia triggered his mind to recall a particular name from Jarzick. He hesitated before uttering the name in question.

"Necrozma." It was a terrifying dragon and psychic Pokémon that wielded light itself as a weapon. "If you've gone about your Ostellia exploration, all the clues seem to point to Necrozma as the next raid boss -- and the next legendary Pokémon we can hatch. It would take maxing its moves out, but... could you imagine how fast you'd go on one?" he asked, specifically referring to Ultra Necrozma's yellow and white dragon form. Josh shuddered to think how harsh such a grind would be to attain a level high enough to fly on a Necrozma.

"I mean, are you surprised?" Josh returned Alicia's smirk with one of his own. "Necrozma is a dragon, and it's got light elements to it. With one of those, who needs fast travel?" Clearly anyone who got sick from how fast the Pokémon could fly. Any turn on it at speed would be gut-twisting. Even so, the scout welcomed the idea and looked forward to it were the opportunity to arise. "That'd be a way to get me to spend 400 BYTES on maxing out Sweeper moves, I give you that much."

As Alicia activated the quest, a slew of objectives would appear at the top of the duo's HUDs:

Information> New objective! Document Invasive Species carrying lights across the sea
Information> New objective! Photograph spiral constellation
Information> New objective! Photograph whirlpool marked "Dragon's Den"

The mention of a whirlpool was a bit unsettling. "Hopefully Ulysses is strong enough of a swimmer to be able to evade this Dragon's Den's suction. With Aqua Jet in his arsenal, he should be able to... at least in theory." They wouldn't know until they tried. "Let's ride!" With the two of them on their aquatic Pokémon, Apollo and Venex watching over them, the duo would be able to combat any Invasive Species that wanted to pick a fight with them.

"I think you'll be able to, if what happened with the Kyogre was any indication,"(1) Josh brought to Alicia's attention. "Of course, it's all speculation, but my theory is those kinds of forms get lumped in with Mega Evolution. Of course, I don't have a Mega Evolution Pokémon yet, and after I get into the Identity Parlor, I've already got 800 Bytes tied up. I told you I'm going to raise not one, but two Zapdos, didn't I?"

If he didn't, the revelation may have come as a shock. Why would Josh need two? He could only ride one at a time, and he was way too low of a level to even think about mounting a legendary Pokémon.

Josh, on the other hand, hadn't seen too many personalities; his team's PokéSpeech had thus far been limited to Pokémon that were special to him: his starter, his first steed, and the like. Ulysses hadn't spoken a word since the day they fought in the Arena -- not even as a Seel. Alicia's demonstration of what the Swimmer class could do made Josh raise his palm to his forehead. "Riiiiight..." he sighed, forgetting that Swimmers' Pokémon could do that. He pulled upward on the Dewgong's reins, Ulysses leaping above the water's surface and swimming through the air above. "I didn't think to use it to travel over water."

Nushi's comment about Nihilego made Josh shiver inside. He had heard horror stories about it. "Yep, I ran into them when saving Shalin Nariya out here once. We've become good friends since, but man is she messed up in the head. How she does what she does with that Pheromosa... I can't wrap my head around it. Wouldn't vibrations like that hurt?"

As Josh's trusty steed floated above the waves, he caught sight of a whirlpool on the horizon. Ascending to maximum height, he began bobbing up and down exactly ten feet above the water's surface. "Nihilego ahead. And don't disturb any of them. Shalin told me that they can inflict a status ailment that you can't heal at a shrine."

"Indeed," Josh answered. "I'm planning on buying only a couple things from the Arena Shop. Legendary DNA and Huge Seals. Legendary Pokémon inevitably make the best mounts. And since Raikou isn't available in the game yet, Zapdos is the closest I'll get. I PVP regularly enough that I can just hold the AP for when the Pokémon drops in the game." A sly smile was wrought upon the racer's face as he thought about it. "And when it does... buckle up."

For he fully intended to push the Beast to the limits of its speed. Given that all three of them knew how to use Extreme Speed... redlining would be an understatement.

"You see, I've got this vision where I want all my Pokémon to be in the 5 to 8 foot range, regardless of the average size listed in the Pokédex. It's why maxing out Swimmer is on my list of things to do, so I can splash into Gardener. I've seen what you've done with Tikani and want to take it a step farther."

He did recall Shalin having difficulty controlling the Pheromosa. "That's why I don't take Izoni out of Ostellia," Josh answered, feeling he was one of the few that was a good boy, rather than letting the Naganadel out of its Poké Ball and stinging anything in sight. "Built different is certainly a way to put it," he laughed, still unable to envision how she did what she did. One, how did she get the saddle on the wing, and two, the vibrations. Just the vibrations.

He shook his head; there would be time to ask her later. For now, Josh needed to focus.

He, too, had a camera function for the mission, its use restricted to the Drowned Harbor. While he was waiting for the more heroic and brave Gardener to snap some photos of the Ultra Beasts, the racer guided his Dewgong back to the water's surface, pulling back on Ulysses' reins to get him to tilt upward. While it made keeping his balance a little harder, Josh didn't have to crane his neck as high to look at the cloudless night sky. There appeared to be all kinds of Pokémon constellations in the sky, one of a Zekrom catching his eye. He snapped a photo of it to show Alicia at the end of the mission, knowing that the image would disappear once the Quest was completed.

Getting to work, he scanned the sky's other side. It took a few passes, but Josh was able to locate the constellation requested, reminding him of an Omastar's shell. When they returned, they would see that two of the three objectives were marked as complete. He tried to load the image of the Zekrom constellation, but he could not; it seemed the images they had taken were in a format that could not be read. The game seemed to be looking for the actioni of taking the photograph, rather than the quality of the photograph itself. "I found a Zekrom constellation while looking for the spiral one. I took a picture of it, but it seems we can't even view our own pictures. Probably encroaches upon TOS."

Now, only the hard part of the Quest remained...

Josh shrugged at Alicia's humor, not seeing it as funny; he was serious about his plans. "It makes sense, though, doesn't it? Imagine a Jolteon big enough to saddle!" Of course, it would require a very special saddle to prevent those quills from poking into anyone who rode it, but once all needed precautions were taken, the speed at which one could travel across the world would be breathtaking.

Hearing the progress Alicia was making with Venex was equally mindblowing. "That's impressive. I can't even get Izoni to change her battle tactics, let alone understand a word I say. Even if I was level 28 right now, I don't think I'd even try to fly on her. I can't imagine what a thrust of her sting would feel like for someone riding her. Almost like a Tauros trying to buck you off, I imagine."

Josh listened to Alicia's musings about getting close enough to the whirlpool to photograph it. "I spent some time talking to her about it. It seems that whatever curse they've laid upon her Pokémon only takes effect in the presence of Nihilego," he relayed to his friend. "Honestly, I think our best bet is to use our Naganadel as distractions. It's not clean, but it's the best I've got. Unless you want to sit around and brainstorm some more, then that's what we'll do." He didn't like the idea of engaging so many of them in combat. He had also failed to consider whether or not other Invasive Species were vulnerable to Nihilego poison...

Not only was it semi-permanent, but it ignored the poison typing, as well. What a potent neural venom. "I don't know, either, and I'd rather not find out. We don't need our most powerful Pokémon turning against us," Josh reiterated before cooing at the cute Tatsugiri. While the small fish wasn't a Pokémon he appreciated, due to it being too small to saddle, such was the beauty of the franchise.

With over a thousand species, there was something for everyone.

Listening to the plan, Josh called upon his own Naganadel, Izoni. "I'm actually going to keep my third active Pokémon slot open in case we get attacked directly. That's something I've learned from all my solo adventures. The fastest way to get wiped out is having three Pokémon out of their Poké Balls, all far away from you." While it didn't apply to him as much now, it would soon. For the Bolter class, and the Player class by proxy, was not far away.

When Alicia and Nushi surged ahead, Josh likewise slammed his heels into the Dewgong's blubber. While Ulysses' AQUA JET wasn't nearly as powerful as Nushi's, it was still plenty fast, the rider hooting and hollering as though he was on a wild carnival ride. "Wheeeee-haaaaaa!!" he whooped, inadvertently attracting the attention of a Nihilego that Izoni looked ready to sting.