The darkness of the cavern wasn't just an absence of light; it was a physical weight, smelling of wet stone and the metallic tang of blood-starved history. In the center of my Kadabra's psychic glow, the Aerodactyl stood. It didn't roar like the Pokémon in the anime. It let out a sound like two tectonic plates grinding together—a screech that vibrated in my marrow.
[Data Scan: Aerodactyl (Prime)]
Rank: CHAMPION
Level: 55
Aura: Ancient Malice / Starving
"Nelly, full combat sync," I hissed, my hand hovering over the Luxury Ball on my belt. "We don't survive this by playing nice. This thing hasn't eaten in ten thousand years, and we're the first steak it's seen since the Ice Age."
The Aerodactyl's wings snapped open, catching the psychic light. It was massive—easily twelve feet of leathery wingspan. Its eyes, burning like twin suns of yellow sulfur, locked onto me.
"Nugget, center stage! Show him why the future is hotter than the past!"
In a flash of crimson light, my **Combusken** appeared. She didn't flinch. Even with a seven-level gap and a Rank difference, Nugget lowered her center of gravity, her exotic crimson feathers ruffling as her inner heat began to shimmer.
"**Magma Spit**! Now!"
Nugget unleashed a glob of white-hot, molten fire. The Aerodactyl, still sluggish from its long sleep, took the hit square on its chest. The prehistoric hide sizzled, but it didn't back down. It lunged, its shovel-like jaws glowing with the jagged energy of a **Crunch**.
"Kadabra, **Telekinesis** on Nugget! Move her!"
As the jaws snapped shut on empty air, Kadabra hoisted Nugget ten feet to the left.
"Sky Uppercut!"
Nugget launched herself, her fist wreathed in kinetic energy, slamming into the Aerodactyl's jaw. The impact echoed through the chamber like a cannon blast. The Ancient King staggered, blood—dark and thick—dripping from its gums.
Realizing it was trapped in a confined space with a fire-demon and a psychic, the Aerodactyl did something I didn't expect. It didn't fight to the death. It fought for the sky.
It unleashed an **Ancient Power**, summoning floating boulders that slammed into the cavern walls, widening the shaft we had sealed earlier.
"It's escaping! Nugget, Kadabra—on its back! Now!"
---
### The Ride of the Valkyrie
In a blur of psychic static, Kadabra teleported Nugget and me directly onto the Aerodactyl's leathery shoulders. I grabbed the **Togepi Egg** from the nest just as the beast's wings beat downward with the force of a hurricane.
The Aerodactyl tore through the loose rubble Kadabra had used to seal the hole. We erupted from the earth like a volcanic explosion, soaring into the orange-tinted sky of Grampa Canyon.
Below us, the scene was chaos. A crowd of trainers, several Officer Jennys on motorcycles, and the trio of Ash, Gary, and Misty were all staring up, their mouths hanging open.
"IS THAT REGINA?!" Ash screamed, pointing a shaking finger. "SHE'S RIDING THE DRAGON-BIRD!"
"It's not a—oh, forget it!" Gary yelled, his eyes nearly popping out of his head. "She's actually doing it! She's taking it down in mid-air!"
High above, the wind whipped my hair into a frenzy. I gripped the Aerodactyl's neck ridges with one hand, clutching the Togepi egg to my chest with the other. Nugget was still on the beast's back, relentlessly hammering at its wing-joints with **Double Kick**.
"Nugget, keep the pressure! Don't let it stabilize!"
The Aerodactyl shrieked, rolling in the air to dislodge us.
"Kadabra, **Teleport**! Get us to Fearow!"
In a flash, we vanished from the Aerodactyl's back. I materialized sitting behind the neck of my **Fearow**, who had been circling the canyon in anticipation. Kadabra sat behind me, his eyes glowing as he maintained our balance.
"Fearow, stay in its blind spot! Nugget, **Flamethrower**!"
From her position on the Fearow's back—a feat of balance that only a Pseudo-Champion could manage—Nugget unleashed a continuous stream of fire. The Aerodactyl, its wings charred and its stamina depleted from the "Primeval Starvation" debuff, began to spiral.
"This is it! Nelly, trajectory lock!"
I reached into my bag and pulled out a **Heavy Ball**, a specialized capture device I'd picked up in Fuchsia for high-mass targets.
"GO!"
The silver and blue ball cut through the wind, trailing a streak of light. It struck the Aerodactyl's head just as it reached the apex of its climb. The ball expanded, dragging the massive prehistoric predator into its core.
The ball fell toward the canyon floor.
"Kadabra, fetch!"
With a flick of his spoon, Kadabra teleported. He reappeared on the ground, holding the clicking Heavy Ball, and then teleported back to the Fearow's back in a split second.
*Ding.*
The Sky-King was mine.
---
### The Primitive Panic
We descended slowly, Fearow's massive wings beating steadily as we landed in front of the stunned group. Ash and Gary looked at me as if I had just stepped out of a spaceship.
"You... you caught it," Gary whispered, his usual bravado completely shattered. "A real Aerodactyl. A Prime specimen."
"Regina, that was the coolest thing I've ever seen!" Ash cheered, though his eyes quickly darted to the canyon floor. "But look! You weren't the only one who came out of that hole!"
I looked down. In the chaos of the Aerodactyl's escape, the structural collapse had dragged several other ancient Pokémon to the surface.
A **Kabutops** was currently dragging its scythes across a rock, its eyes cold and predatory. An **Omastar** was snapping its beak at a nearby Officer Jenny, its tentacles writhing. A **Kabuto** and **Omanyte** were scuttling through the dirt, looking for something to sink their fangs into.
Ash and Gary looked at each other. The rivalry, dormant for all of five minutes, reignited like a wildfire.
"I am NOT letting her be the only one with an ancient Pokémon!" Gary yelled, lunging forward with a Great Ball. "Kabutops, you're mine!"
"No way! I'm getting the spikey one!" Ash screamed, throwing a Pokéball at the Omastar.
Misty, her eyes wide with "Water-type obsession," dived for the Omanyte. "It's so cute and prehistoric! Come to Misty!"
Brock, ever the researcher-in-training, cornered the Kabuto. "The shell structure is fascinating! I must study this!"
Within seconds, the remaining fossils were bagged and tagged. The group stood there, panting, clutching their new prehistoric prizes.
I blinked, looking at the vicious creatures they were now holding. "Guys... you do realize what you just caught, right?"
"Yeah!" Ash grinned. "A super-strong Omastar!"
I sighed, clicking a button on my terminal to project the G-Pro data for everyone to see. "Kabutops is a vicious apex predator. It uses those scythes to rip open prey and literally sucks the fluids out of them while they're still alive. Omastar? It uses those tentacles to crush shells and its beak to tear through armor like it's paper. Even Kabuto and Omanyte are survivalists that will crush your hand if you hold them wrong."
"So what?" Gary smirked, though his hand was trembling slightly. "You have the most dangerous one of all! Aerodactyl was the creature that even Kabutops feared. If you can handle that, I can handle a little fluid-sucker. I'll train it to be the best in the League!"
"Yeah!" Ash shouted, pumping his fist. "I'm gonna dominate the Indigo League with my ancient Omastar! It's got a shell like a tank! Nothing's gonna stop us!"
Misty hugged her Pokéball. "As a Water-type specialist, being afraid of a prehistoric water Pokémon is the last thing I should do. I'll show it the beauty of the modern world!"
Brock nodded solemnly. "As a Breeder, this is a unique opportunity. I can't just call myself a professional by caring for tamed, domestic Pokémon. I need to understand the aggressive roots of the species. This Kabuto is my new challenge."
Ash then looked at me, a cheeky grin on his face. "Besides, Regina, your giant dragon-bird thing is a hundred times more scary than our shell-guys. If anyone should be worried about getting their fluids sucked or their rocks crushed, it's you! You're the last one who can talk about danger!"
I looked down at the Heavy Ball in my hand, then at the mysterious egg in my arms. I scratched the back of my head sheepishly. "Well... I guess you've got a point. Pot, meet kettle."
I pulled up my G-Pro to check the stats of their captures through the shared local network. My eyes widened. "Check your levels, guys. These aren't just fossils."
Gary checked his Pokedex. "Level 45... Pseudo-Champion?!"
Ash's jaw dropped. "Mine too! Level 42!"
Misty and Brock checked theirs—all of them were hovering around the Level 40-45 mark, and not a single one was below Pseudo-Champion rank.
"It makes sense," I said, my 'Researcher' voice returning. "Only the strongest individuals could have survived the stasis of the fossilization process. You guys just accidentally jumped three levels in your team's average power."
The Law and the Legend
"ALRIGHT, THAT'S ENOUGH!"
The sharp, authoritative voice of Officer Jenny cut through the celebration. she marched over, her hand resting on the hilt of her baton, looking at the prehistoric Pokéballs with a look of deep apprehension.
"These Pokémon are S-Level threats," Jenny stated, her voice trembling slightly. "They are biological anomalies that have been extinct for ten thousand years. They are aggressive, unpredictable, and frankly, too dangerous for roaming trainers to handle. I am confiscating these captures for 'Public Safety' and transporting them to the League's containment facility."
The temperature in the canyon seemed to drop ten degrees.
"Confiscating?" Gary's voice was dangerously low. "My grandfather is Professor Oak. I think he knows more about 'containment' than a beat cop."
"Hey! You can't do that!" Ash yelled, stepping in front of his Omastar. "I caught it fair and square! It's my partner now!"
Misty and Brock stepped up beside him, their faces set in angry glares. "This is a legal capture under the Kanto Wilderness Act," Misty hissed. "We used standard-issue League balls in a designated capture zone."
Officer Jenny didn't flinch. "The 'Wilderness Act' didn't account for the resurrection of prehistoric apex predators, young lady. These are—"
I let out a long, weary sigh and stepped forward, the G-Pro terminal on my wrist glowing with a cold, blue light.
"Officer Jenny," I said, my voice calm but carrying the weight of a doctoral lecture. "I suggest you take a breath and reconsider your next words. Catching wild Pokémon—regardless of their geological era—is not against the law. In fact, under Article 4, Section 12 of the Trainer's Charter, a capture made with a registered ball is the private property of the trainer until proven otherwise in a court of law."
I leaned in slightly, my eyes narrowing. "What you are doing right now... demanding the surrender of legal property without a warrant or a direct order from the Indigo Plateau... could be legally defined as Theft under Color of Authority. Are you prepared to lose your badge over a Kabuto?"
Jenny gasped, her face flushing a deep crimson. She opened her mouth to argue, but the sheer logic of the threat stopped her. She regained her composure, though her eyes remained hard. "These are S-Level dangerous beasts, Miss Regina. If one of them escapes and levels a town, it's on my head."
"Then let's shift the responsibility," I said, tilting my head. "Fine. You want to talk about safety? Let's talk to the people who actually pay for our licenses. Talk to our sponsors."
I looked at the group. "Brock, call your father at the Pewter Gym. He's a League official. Misty, get your mother on the line—she's a former Gym Leader and a world traveler. Gary, Ash... you call Professor Oak. He's the most celebrated researcher in the world; I'm sure he'd love to hear how the police are trying to 'confiscate' his student's research specimens."
I tapped my own terminal. "And I'll call Linda. As the head of G-Pro and a lead researcher for the League's technological sector, I'm sure she'd love to hear why her 'Elite Researcher' is being harassed after a successful field discovery."
Officer Jenny looked at the four of us, her eyes darting between the angry teenagers and the high-tech terminals in our hands. The names we had dropped—Oak, Linda, Waterfower(misty mom), Harison(Brock dad)—were the pillars of the Kanto power structure. She realized she wasn't dealing with four kids; she was dealing with the legacy of the Kanto Elite.
"Fine," Jenny muttered, gesturing toward her squad car. "But you're coming with me to the station. We will resolve this over the monitors."
As we walked toward the police station, the five of us—usually rivals, usually bickering—walked in a tight formation. We were the 'Prehistoric Five,' and as I looked at the egg in my arms and the Heavy Ball on my belt, I knew one thing for sure:
The Indigo League wasn't ready for what we were about to bring to the stadium.