Under Solana's lead, they followed the narrow forest path and arrived at a Pokémon Center deep in the woods.
It was easy to tell that this Pokémon Center was different from the usual ones.
It looked more like a research outpost than an ordinary service station.
Still, that was not strange.
Compared to places with a lot of people, a remote Pokémon Center like this was more likely built to support research and emergency response than to serve passing Trainers.
Otherwise, it would not have been placed in such a quiet forest.
But one thing never changed.
The person in charge inside was still the familiar Nurse Joy.
Just seeing her face made the place feel welcoming.
As soon as they met her, Solana asked impatiently, "Nurse Joy, is the system working any better now?"
It was obvious that Solana and this Nurse Joy had already met before, or at least spoken over the phone.
Otherwise, Solana would not already know so much about the situation here.
"No, it still won't work," Nurse Joy sighed.
"All the equipment is still down.
The main power system is also offline.
We're using backup power right now, but if this keeps up, it won't last much longer."
Whether the geomagnetic disturbance was caused by Deoxys or not, this alone showed how serious the damage could be.
Solana then told Nurse Joy about their encounter with Deoxys.
"Eh?" Nurse Joy froze for a moment, then suddenly understood.
"I see.
So the strange geomagnetic activity that started last week really was caused by it?"
"That should be it," Solana said with a nod.
Then she stepped aside and introduced the person behind her.
"But it's okay.
Now that Natsui is here, we should be able to resolve this smoothly."
As soon as she said that, Natsui met Nurse Joy's surprised gaze and then glanced at Solana.
He could not help wondering if it was just his imagination.
Compared to the last time they met, why did Solana suddenly seem so... impressed by him?
It felt a little unreal.
Still, whatever the reason, this was clearly a good thing.
"I'll just do what I can," Natsui said.
Then he looked at Nurse Joy.
"Nurse Joy, can you tell me exactly what happened here?"
Nurse Joy thought for a moment before answering.
"It started about a week ago.
For some reason, a geomagnetic disturbance appeared in this area.
After that, our equipment began malfunctioning, and normal work became impossible.
We contacted Ranger Headquarters, and then Solana was sent here."
Solana nodded as well.
"That's right.
I came here after receiving orders from headquarters to investigate the disturbance.
But until just now, we had no real clues.
Only after seeing Deoxys did we finally understand what might be involved."
Natsui understood.
In other words, both Nurse Joy and Solana only knew the broad outline of the problem.
What they knew was probably not much more than what he already knew himself.
Before coming here, Natsui had simply assumed that Deoxys had appeared by chance and caused the aurora.
But now that he connected that with the geomagnetic disturbance, it seemed that there was a deeper reason behind all this.
Rubbing his chin, he thought for a moment before asking, "Nurse Joy, has a meteorite ever fallen nearby?"
"A meteorite?" Nurse Joy blinked in surprise.
"Are you saying the disturbance here is connected to a meteorite?
But... there really was one.
A meteorite fell nearby about ten years ago."
As expected.
As the Trainer of a Deoxys, and as someone who understood this Pokémon very well, Natsui realized what was going on the moment he heard the word meteorite.
He exchanged a glance with Solana and May.
Then, after giving Nurse Joy a polite smile, the three of them moved to a nearby dining area.
As soon as they sat down, Solana asked in surprise, "Natsui, do you already have a lead?"
"That's right," Natsui said.
Since the dining area was empty except for them, there was no need to lower his voice.
"It's connected to that meteorite."
"But..." Solana hesitated.
"But Nurse Joy just said that meteorite fell ten years ago.
If so much time has passed, how could it only be causing a geomagnetic disturbance now?"
Natsui smiled.
"The meteorite fell ten years ago.
But the thing inside it probably only woke up recently."
Solana was sharp.
The moment she heard that, she understood what he meant.
"Are you saying... there's a Deoxys inside that meteorite!?"
Natsui did not answer right away.
Instead, he asked, "How much do you actually know about Deoxys?"
Solana thought for a moment.
"I only know that one appeared in LaRousse City before.
According to the report on Professor Lund's research that the Rangers obtained, Deoxys came to Earth through space inside a meteorite.
So... it should be a Pokémon closely connected to meteorites."
"That explanation is partly right, though not completely," Natsui said.
"Deoxys really does use meteorites to travel through space.
But it isn't some kind of 'meteorite partner' Pokémon.
And that's also why we saw one here just now."
From the way he spoke, Solana could tell that Natsui was not guessing.
He knew what he was talking about.
That made her instinctively more willing to trust him.
Still...
She frowned and asked carefully, "Natsui, why do you know all this?
Even a League Champion or someone from the International Police shouldn't know so much about Deoxys, right?"
It was not that she wanted to pry into his private affairs.
It was just that the whole thing felt unbelievable.
The Rangers had only managed to get copies of parts of Professor Lund's research after a great deal of effort.
Those records were kept at headquarters, and only high-ranking members were allowed to read even part of them.
And yet the man in front of her seemed to know even more than that.
In fact, he sounded like he knew even more than Professor Lund himself.
But how could that be possible?
Faced with Solana's question, Natsui paused.
Should he hide it?
Or should he reveal a little of his own information?
After thinking it over, he decided it did not matter much.
The enemy already knew most of his public information and what kind of Pokémon he had.
Telling a righteous organization like the Rangers something like this would not hurt much.
If anything, it would only make them take him more seriously.
With that thought, he took an Ultra Ball from his waist bag and quietly placed it on the table in front of Solana.
Solana blinked in confusion.
"What's special about this Ultra Ball?"
Natsui smiled.
As if he were mentioning something completely ordinary, he replied calmly, "There's a Deoxys inside."
Solana froze.
It took her a full second to process what he had just said.
"What!?"
She shot to her feet so suddenly that even Nurse Joy in the distance turned her head to look.
Her voice had been far too loud.
"You're way too loud..." Natsui said helplessly.
Even though he had expected her to be shocked, her reaction still startled him a little.
Solana quickly realized that her reaction had been inappropriate.
She sat back down immediately.
But from that moment on, her eyes stayed fixed on the Ultra Ball in front of her like a child staring at treasure.
"There's really a Deoxys in there!?" she whispered, though her voice still trembled with excitement.
"How did you even do that?
I mean... how did you meet it?
And how did you catch it?
That's unbelievable...
This is a Mythical Pokémon! I've never even seen one in person before!"
Natsui put the Ultra Ball away again.
"That part involves some privacy, so I can't really explain it," he said with a shrug.
"I only told you this so you would understand one thing.
Professor Lund may have researched Deoxys for years, but no one in this world understands Deoxys better than a Deoxys Trainer."
If Misty had still been the one traveling with him, she would probably have given him two big thumbs up for how cool that sounded.
But the one beside him now was May.
And just like Solana, May was looking at him with eyes full of admiration.
It really was hard to believe, no matter how many times she heard it.
The man beside her was the owner of so many Legendary and Mythical Pokémon.
After calming down a little, Solana's opinion of Natsui rose even higher.
And now she also understood why he had found Celebi so easily back then.
For someone like him, that was probably not even difficult.
At this point, even if someone told her that Natsui also had a Celebi, she probably would not even be surprised.
"I understand," Solana said.
"Then I'll go check the impact site of the meteorite right away."
With that, she stood and left.
Meanwhile, Natsui and May stayed behind long enough to order some food.
A short while later, Solana returned.
Not only was she carrying a document, she also had several devices attached to her gear.
Since they wanted to reduce the effects of the disturbance as quickly as possible and bring the incident to an end, they did not delay any longer.
The three of them left the Pokémon Center at once and headed toward the deeper mountain area.
To be honest, this reminded Natsui of the Deoxys incident in Hoenn, when he had helped solve the meteorite problem there.
He had not expected to run into something so similar again after all this time.
Following Solana, they moved deeper into the mountains.
As they went farther in, the dense forest gradually thinned out.
The ground rose higher, and loose rocks became more common underfoot.
Clearly, they had reached the foot of the mountains.
However, Solana did not lead them up into the mountains.
Instead, she took them to a cave beneath a cliff.
The entrance was about two people high.
It was impossible to tell whether it had formed naturally or had been widened later.
Standing at the mouth of the cave, they could feel cold air flowing out from within.
The end of the tunnel could not be seen at a glance.
"It's inside," Solana said, comparing the document with the readings on her Capture Styler.
Then she turned back to them.
"If nothing is wrong with the old records, that meteorite should still be somewhere in this cave."
"In a cave?" May asked in surprise.
"But meteorites fall from the sky.
Why would one be inside a cave?"
Solana smiled.
"That's right.
But this one happened to hit the top of the cave.
It smashed through the rock and fell straight inside."
"That really is some coincidence," May said.
While the two of them were talking, Natsui was not really listening.
His eyes had already fallen on the Capture Styler in Solana's hand.
"Your equipment isn't affected by the geomagnetic disturbance?" he asked.
All the way here, almost every electronic device had failed.
Pokédexes, Poké Balls, even other tools had stopped working properly.
Even the Plusle resting on Solana's shoulder looked sluggish from the effects of the disturbance.
And yet, surprisingly, the Capture Styler still functioned normally.
Especially now that they were getting closer to the meteorite, the interference should have been worse, not better.
So why did the Styler still work?
"Well..." Solana said, sounding a little proud.
"Because Pokémon Rangers often work in extreme environments and deal with all kinds of dangerous weather and unusual conditions, the Capture Styler was designed with those kinds of problems in mind from the beginning.
Geomagnetic disturbance just happens to be one of them.
So after a lot of testing and redesign, it can still function normally in conditions like this."
As she spoke, she also took out another device and showed it to them.
"It's not just the Capture Styler.
This tool is specifically for detecting geomagnetic activity, and it works fine too."
Natsui nodded.
No matter how small the organization might be compared to other institutions, Ranger technology really was impressive.
"So that's how it is," he said.
"I didn't expect Ranger equipment to be this convenient.
If ordinary Trainers had something like that, we'd never have to worry about getting lost again."
He had said it casually, almost to himself.
But Solana clearly remembered the remark.
Even though she did not say anything out loud, the words stayed in her mind.
Under her lead, the three of them stepped into the cave.
It really had to be said that Pokémon Rangers were both brave and capable.
Even without standard Poké Balls or powerful teams at their waists, they still dared to travel all over the world with nothing but a Capture Styler.
Wild Pokémon were not something they feared.
On the contrary, almost any wild Pokémon could become their ally.
The beam of a flashlight cut into the darkness and lit the path ahead.
Inside the cave, that small light was the only thing keeping the world from going completely dark.
May stayed close behind Natsui.
As she carefully watched the ground beneath her feet, she also kept glancing nervously into the deep darkness around them.
It was normal for a girl to be afraid of the dark.
Of course, it was not only the darkness she feared.
She was also afraid of anything that might suddenly jump out and attack.
But fortunately, perhaps because of the geomagnetic disturbance, or perhaps because of Deoxys's pressure, nothing happened even after they had walked for quite some time.