A lot of times I am asked the same question.

“Volcaria, Focus Blast!”

Why the fascination with shiny Pokémon?

“Aggron, use Stone Edge!”

The reason is simple. I was curious about them, and no one had the answers I sought. So, I decided to get them myself.

“Volcaria, return. Take him down, Tiberius.”

Of course, getting those answers wasn’t easy, and required me to make some goals I might never had considered.

“Aggron, Earthquake!”

Slowly, things picked up from there, and next thing I know, here I am.

“Tiberius, Aura Sphere!”

Here I am, taking a multitude of online university courses.

“Aggron, no!”

Here I am, apprenticing to big name Pokémon Professors, all in the name of answering some questions I had since the beginning of my journey.

“Go, Altaria!”

Some would say becoming a full-fledged Pokémon Professor was a bit too extreme to just figure out some questions, but I disagree.

“Tiberius, Dragon Pulse!”

I mean, there’s only so much you can do with a pair of binoculars, a blind stand, and some scent eliminator.

“Altaria, Fire Blast!”

What are you supposed to do; walk right into the middle of a group of wild Pokémon and ask if they got any shiny members?

“Dammit. Tiberius, return. Go, Arctica!”

Okay, it worked for Tiberius, but that circumstance opened even more questions.

“Altaria, Fire Blast!”

I needed tech and equipment that only a professor could be given. Or purchased illegally on the black market, but my curiosity was not worth becoming a criminal for.

“Arctica, Double Team!”

I wasn’t expecting the sheer amount of university courses one needed to take, even if the list was shortened considerably through a practical apprenticeship.

“Now use Ice Beam!”

Do, I regret it? Never, as it was on this path that led me to where I stand now, alongside the love of my life.

“Noooo! Altaria!”

Wait, you want to hear about it? You sure? It’s quite long. Well, alright then, if you insist.

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“Ha-ha, great going Arctica.” Said Cynder as he rubbed his Pokemon’s head and ears affectionately.

“Glaceon!” Arctica cried out in delight from the petting. A crimson laser engulfed the defeated dragon in front of the two, returning it to its pokeball.

“Man, that was a tough battle you gave me.” the trainer complimented. “Your shiny Pokemon are incredible.”

“Yeah, Volcaria and Tiberius are awesome, but that’s just from the amount of training they do.” Cynder responded. “Now then, I beat you, so you gotta hold up your end of the bargain.”

“Oh, right. Man, I almost forgot from that battle. So, check this, word on the route is a large drove of rare dragon type Pokemon is moving through the area.”

“Dude, you’re serious?”

“Sure as a mirror shot.”

“Holy crap! Arctica, we gotta get Professor Birch, now. Thanksforthetipgottagomanbye!” With that, Cynder took off like a rocket.

“Ceon!” Arctica called out, running after her exuberant trainer.

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Cynder Tamarack was considered by most an unusual person. He stood at six foot three, with muddy brown eyes and short, near black brown hair. Despite his very active lifestyle, he still maintained quite the pudgy, heavyset build. Don’t let the love handles fool you though, Cynder was fit as an athlete. Another quirk about him was his choice of clothing. Cynder would never wear denim jeans if he could help it, nor would he wear shorts. Instead, he preferred sweatpants always, in any kind of weather. You would also never see Cynder without a hoodie on. Be it rain or shine, blistering heat, or freezing cold, sweats and hoods were all he would ever wear.

Currently, Cynder was tearing down the mountain trail as fast as his legs could carry him. He was apprenticing under Hoenn’s Professor Birch, who was doing research within the Sinnoh region. The pair had come to the region to compare the habitats of Hoenn Pokémon in their native region and in Sinnoh. Fifteen minutes of running had the young man charging into the camp, and true to his fickle luck, Professor Birch was coming straight out of his trailer, right into Cynder’s path.

“Oh shit! Professor, watch out!” Birch had just enough time to look up at the source of the shout, when Cynder collided right into him, sending them both to the ground.

“Cynder! What’s got you in such a rush this time?” Birch shouted as the two rose from the ground.

“Sorry sir… rare Pokémon… gotta hurry.” Cynder heaved out, his gasps breaking his explanation apart.

“Dad, I heard you shout. Is everything okay?” asked May, Birch’s daughter and other assistant, as she poked her head out the door.

“Yes, May, I’m fine. Cynder here just barreled into me out of the blue.” Birch replied, and May gasped.

“Cynder!? Oh, I didn’t see you there. Um, um, um…” May stuttered as she looked about the trailer for something, anything, to get the boy to notice her. Spying an unopened fresh water on the table, she grabbed it, and hastily exited the trailer. “Here, I got you some water.” she said, offering the boy the bottle.

“Oh, thanks.” he replied, taking the water and chugging it down without so much as a glance towards the now dejected girl. Arctica, who had caught up to her trainer by this point, saw the entire scene unfold, and slapped a paw to her face.

“Ceon.” she grumbled out. As much as she loved her trainer, that boy needed to get a clue. Finishing the last of the water, Cynder smacked his lips and wiped his mouth dry.

“Anyway, as I was trying to say before, sir, I received a hot tip earlier that you’ll want to hear.” he said, getting the professor’s attention. “One of the trainers that frequents the area here told me that a large drove of rare dragon type Pokémon was spotted moving through the area.” At that, Birch got right up into Cynder’s face.

“An entire drove!? How big was it? What was the species? Where was it spotted?” he cried out, shaking Cynder to and fro by the shoulders with every question. “Agh, there’s no time! we got to move, now!” Unceremoniously dropping the now dizzy boy to the ground, Birch dashed to his ATV, jumped in, and took off down the path like a man possessed. Shaking the swirls out of his eyes, Cynder got back up on wobbling legs.

“Wait for me, sir.” He called out, and started running after the professor.

“Glaaaaaaayyy” moaned Arctica, not wanting to have to do more running.

“Whoops, sorry Arctica.” Cynder apologized, and recalled his Glaceon back into her ball.

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Evening had rolled around by the time everyone got situated, the shadows of the mountains bathing the group in twilit dimness. Apparently though, Cynder hadn’t been the only person who was told about the dragon drove. A large squad of Pokemon Rangers, as well as a team from the Aether Foundation were on the scene as well. Apparently with the foundations help, the Rangers were going to make the area a conservation zone if the drove decided to settle. The Aether Foundation itself was there primarily as a relief group, seeing as a couple of poachers had been rumored to be in the area as well. Normally, other people wouldn’t be allowed in the area, but as Birch was a Professor, he was able to enter freely, as well as get May and Cynder in on the grounds of being his aides. Thus, the group was currently found looking for any sign of the mysterious dragon drove. Birch was with the main group of conservationists, while Cynder and May were out with a few Aether Foundation employees surveying the area.

“Well, no sign of any dragons, but it sure looks like they’ve been here.” an Aether member remarked, brushing his hand against a tree with a blackened furrow carved into it.

“As well as the poachers.” Cynder replied, holding up the crushed remains of a drone of some sort.

“I can only hope the drove got away from them. If the dragons are still in the area they are going to be hostile to any human that comes across them.” The Aether employee radioed the situation in, and was soon given his orders. Putting away his walkie-talkie, the employee then addressed Cynder and May.

“You two. We need to spread out and see if we can find any evidence showing the drove is still here.” Nodding, May and Cynder split up with two Foundation employees going with them. Their search continued through the evening and into the night, but no sign of the drove was found by any party. There had been plenty of evidence showing the drove and poachers had come into contact, but nothing indicated that the two forces remained in the area.

“It looks like the drove moved on.” said Cynder, disappointed.

“Yeah, looks that way, but it looks like they were able to get away from the poachers as well.” As the Aether members started relaying their findings, Cynder began packing his equipment to return to camp. Just as he put away the last piece of tech, he heard a strange sound coming from ahead of him. It was faint, very faint, and Cynder brushed it off as his imagination, that is, until he heard it again.

“Hey, did any of you guys hear that?’ Cynder asked, getting looks of confusion from the two conservationists.

“Hear what?” one of them asked.

“This weird gurgling noise.”

“A water source, perhaps?” Whatever the source of noise, Cynder was getting a very bad feeling in his gut.

“Anybody getting a bad feeling about this?” he asked.

“You know, now that you mention it.” remarked one of the employees.

“Hang on, let me check something.” said the other, pulling out a strange device. A few twists and turns on the knob soon had the device beeping and shrieking like crazy. “I’m picking up massive readings on E type psy waves.”

“E type? As in empath?” the first employee clarified.

“Correct. Scans show whatever is causing the broadcast is a short distance ahead of us.”

“Could someone please explain to me what the hell is going on?” asked Cynder.

“We’ve got a psychic type Pokémon on our hands, most likely injured, and it’s using an empathy broadcast as a means of dissuading predators.” answered the second Foundation member.

“Well, what are we standing around here for? We’re going to help it, right?” asked Cynder. With the other two agreeing, the group headed towards the source of the emotion broadcast, the feeling getting stronger the closer they got. Again, Cynder heard that weird rasping gurgle a third time, and this time, the Aether members heard it as well.

“That must be the Pokémon. We’re not far now.” The trio crashed through the underbrush as fast as they could, the psychic reading device having to be shut off due to the sheer level of noise it was making. Cynder burst through some bushes, and screamed in horror, the two Aether Foundation employees having their own reactions to the scene. On the ground was the source of the empathic broadcast. A Latias, a shiny Latias to be precise. That wasn’t the cause of the group’s distress, but rather the state the Latias was in. She lay flat on the ground, wounds and scars of varying age littering her body. Her head lay in profile on the ground, the right side of her face facing skyward, and it was the state of her face that had garnered the horrified reactions of the group. The entire right side of her face was destroyed. Three identical claw marks ran across it, one of which had cleaved through her right eye, completely ruining it. The topmost wound had also continued on to shear off at least half of the Latias’ right ear. The worst thing about these wounds though, was the state they were in. The claw wounds were grievously infected, and swollen to nearly twice the size of what they must have started as. The blistered flesh was an angry red, and yellowish white pus wept out from where the wounds were still open.

Cynder was desperately trying to hold in his dinner at the sight. Finding a shiny Pokémon was always a huge thing for him, but never in his life did he want to find one like this. Snapping out of his stupor, he began to apply what limited first-aid he knew to the Latias while the Aether members radioed in for emergency rescue, hoping that it wasn’t too late for her.

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Twelve hours. Twelve hours of grueling work to save the life of a near dead Latias. It had taken four hours to transport the Latias to the nearest Pokémon center, and another six for the Nurse joy and Aether medical team to get the dragon in stable condition. Being the one who had found the Latias, Cynder had taken temporary responsibility for the Pokémon for her stay in the Pokémon center. Currently, he was sitting beside the unconscious dragon, various sorrowful emotions boiling in his being. Despite the best efforts of the doctors, the Latias would never wholly recover. The entire right side of her face would remain a horrid mess of scars, along with a gaping hole where her eye used to be. Another thing the doctors had found was that this Latias had many wounds across her body the same age as the ones on her face, which according to them, were several days old. These wounds had also been infected, though not to the same state as the ones on her face, but certainly enough to scar. Combined with all the older scars on her body, she would not be able to refract light to turn invisible.

A stab of emotional pain shot through Cynder at that revelation. Losing an eye was bad enough, but without her ability to cloak, she had lost all ability to hunt. Catching a Pokémon was one thing, but being so crippled as to be forced into captivity to survive, that was something else entirely. Idly, Cynder brushed his hand against a patch of feathers not concealed by bandages. It was softer than any down Cynder had felt on any flying type, and as he ran his hand through them, the feathers glittered and sparkled like polished gemstones. Who or what would do something like this to such a beautiful creature? Ceasing his ministrations, Cynder rose out of his seat. Talk had been going around the group that the Aether Foundation wanted to bring the Latias to their conservation paradise in Alola, but what would she have to look forward to there? The least he could do for her was give her as much freedom as possible in her crippled state. Besides, the Foundation’s history wasn’t the cleanest thing if the stories were to be believed. The President was said to own a Pokémon that could barely even be called that.

“I hope you wake up soon.” he said to the comatose dragon, then left the room. He’d need a name for the Latias. It had to be something personal, something that reflected on her being. Thinking about it, he remembered the feeling of her feathers, and the way they refracted the light to look like cut topaz gemstones, shining and glimmering like the stars.

“Starlight.” Cynder decided, “I’ll name you Starlight.”

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