"No, no, no... we can't win!"
A tall silver giant, his face twisted with fear, stared blankly ahead.
Before him lay a scene straight out of purgatory: corpses of his people scattered everywhere, like a gruesome slaughterhouse.
They had planned to tear their enemies apart, but as soon as they arrived, they themselves were torn to pieces at lightning speed.
At the center
of the carnage stood three massive monsters, exuding an overwhelming aura that felt like three bottomless black holes, ready to swallow them whole and snuff out their chance of ever seeing the light again.
Their numbers and momentum had been impressive, but it didn't take long before only half of their kind remained alive.
Panicked, the silver giant stumbled back a few steps before turning and fleeing without hesitation, abandoning any thought of leadership or loyalty to his race.
Survival was all that mattered now.
With a sudden jolt, the rest of the stone giants gave up their resistance and joined the desperate retreat.
Their only goal was to run faster, no, faster than their fellow tribesmen.
The ground trembled beneath their pounding feet as each stone giant pushed themselves to escape.
Some even resorted to sneaky attacks on their own companions, trying to slow the pursuers and buy themselves a few extra moments.
Chaos reigned as the remaining giants fought while they fled, unaware that their efforts were utterly futile.
Suddenly, Xanadu appeared.
She frowned slightly, gave her skirt a gentle shake, and vanished from sight.
Moments later, she reemerged right in front of the stone giants.
Her rosy red eyes locked onto them, filling them with such terror that their will to survive shattered completely.
They were trapped, attacked from both sides.
Meanwhile, inside the cave, a soft "Ding!" signaled that a Pokemon had been bred.
Larry blinked, momentarily stunned, then realized the breeding bar had reached its end.
He had no idea what Pokemon would hatch this time, but he suspected it was connected to the Bone Clan.
'Could it be a bone-type Pokemon, like Caracara or Garagara?'
'Only time would tell.'
Filled with curiosity, Larry focused his mind, eager to understand what kind of Pokemon this was.
The new Pokemon looked incredibly strange, nothing like a typical Pokemon at all.
It seemed almost two-dimensional, as if it were flat like a paper figure.
Its entire body appeared to lie on a single plane, reminiscent of what one might call a "paper man," which was far from the usual three-dimensional creatures he knew.
The color scheme was simple: black and white.
Around its body was a ring of black wheels, and right in the center sat a large eyeball.
The pupil was a black dot surrounded by the white of the eye, making it look at first glance like a living letter "O."
Its shape was perfectly symmetrical.
Larry realized this must be an unown, a special kind of Pokemon!
His eyes widened in surprise, he hadn't expected to encounter one here.
Judging by its appearance, this unown took the shape of the letter O.
Unown were quite unique, they resembled ancient characters and came in 28 different forms, each corresponding to the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet plus the exclamation and question marks.
Those shaped like question and exclamation marks even had eyes that were half-open and half-closed.
They usually appeared in ruins and seemed to hold the key to unlocking the mysteries of ancient scripts.
As Larry thought it over, the appearance of this unown suddenly made a lot of sense.
It clearly had nothing to do with the stone giants or the abundant ores found nearby.
Instead, it was linked to the Bone Tribe, the culture, history, and everything else associated with them.
Given that, it was only natural for an unown to show up here.
'But why the letter O, and not A or B? That remained a mystery; perhaps it was random.'
For now, Larry couldn't figure out the reason behind this particular shape.
Despite their rarity, a single unown wasn't very useful on its own.
Their individual stats and skill sets were almost negligible, practically useless.
Their skill pools contained only one awakening ability, similar to Pokemon like Ditto and Tutu, which also had just a single skill.
At least Ditto's skill allowed it to transform into other Pokemon and use their abilities, giving it some versatility.
But overall, unown were more of a puzzle than a powerhouse in battle.
After using Tutu's sketching skill, you can copy an opponent's previous ability, which can be really handy.
Larry had actually tried this before during a game, using Tutu's skill to copy some exclusive moves from legendary Pokemon.
In short, a single Unown isn't very powerful on its own.
The only impressive thing about them is their extremely unique origin, they're basically the source of the symbols and text that represent the Pokemon world.
But Unown aren't useless; their true strength comes from working together.
One Unown alone is pretty weak, but when combined, they unleash a powerful force.
Larry vaguely remembered an episode from Pokemon Journeys where just five Unown plunged an entire city into darkness.
They also summoned phantom Pokemon, phantoms as strong as Sirona's Garchomp and Ash's Pikachu.
In the movie, they even conjured the legendary Entei.
So, the Unown's special ability is to materialize what's in your mind, to bring your thoughts to life.
Although they're not powerful Pokemon individually, Larry found them fascinating rather than disappointing.
When he was about to set his usual restrictions and oaths, he realized that Unown didn't need any of that.
Here's what he noted:
Name: Unown Letter O.
Appearance: Floating.
Type: Psychic.
Strength: Undefined.
Skill: Awakening Power.
Their power lies in manifesting whatever you desire mentally.
The more Unown there are, the stronger the effect.
Also, when Unown originate from a certain place, they help trainers learn the local culture and language without any lessons.
And if you manage to collect all the Unown, something surprising will happen...
At first glance, Larry noticed the "Strength" was marked as undefined.
But since there are several Pokemon whose strength can't be measured, he wasn't too shocked.
In fact, he preferred encountering Pokemon with undefined strength.
Looking at all the special Pokemon he had, Ditto, who can perfectly copy and transform into anything it sees; the shedinja with an immortal body; and Meowth, the brilliant technician, they all had extraordinary abilities beyond normal Pokemon.
So, it made sense that Unown were on the same level of uniqueness.
When Larry came across the last column, he felt it confirmed his theory, the unown still held incredible potential.
The illustration revealed that wherever an unown is born, it can easily understand the local language and culture.
In other words, if this totem originated in the Bone Tribe's territory, it would naturally learn their language and writing without trouble.
What intrigued Larry the most was that the unown could bring to life whatever you imagined in your heart.
For example, if you pictured a car, the totem might transform into one.
Even if you couldn't do this right away, having more unown would only strengthen this power.