After returning home, Beidou came to see Yuga and gave a detailed report about Team Rocket's surprise attack.
Yuga saw that the incident hadn't caused any real damage to the YoYo Day Care, so he didn't take it to heart. After all, he had already thoroughly offended Team Rocket—sending another one of their executives to prison wasn't exactly a big deal anymore.
After that, Yuga brought Altaria to the Dragon Cave sub-ecopark, and it immediately fell in love with the place.
Speaking of which, the reason Altaria had been chased down by Darkrai had a bit to do with a territorial dispute, though most of it was just a big misunderstanding.
The Darkrai Altaria had encountered was the one living on Newmoon Island in Sinnoh. Right next to Newmoon Island was Fullmoon Island, which was home to another Legendary Pokémon—Cresselia.
According to legend, Cresselia and Darkrai are natural opposites, but in truth, the Cresselia and Darkrai living on Fullmoon and Newmoon Islands actually watch over and support each other.
One day, Altaria had accidentally wandered onto Fullmoon Island where Cresselia resided, and was mistaken by Cresselia as a territorial intruder. Cresselia summoned Darkrai, who then launched a relentless pursuit of Altaria.
Altaria had thought it would be safe once it escaped the vicinity of the two islands, but it never expected that Darkrai would be so persistent, chasing it for a long distance and nearly killing it in the process.
"You just rest here with peace of mind. If you need anything, just let me know directly," Yuga said to Altaria.
"Altaria~"
Altaria hopped up joyfully, flapping its tiny wings up and down in an especially silly manner. The feathers on its wings hadn't grown back yet, so it looked like a plucked chicken—really not a flattering look.
After giving Altaria a brief rundown, Yuga went to see Druddigon, asking it to look after Altaria.
Since Altaria had just arrived, it was naturally unfamiliar with many things in the area and needed someone who knew the environment to help guide it.
Druddigon was now obsessed with raising children and had become noticeably more stable and attentive than before, so it agreed to Yuga's request without hesitation.
After Yuga left the Dragon Cave sub-ecopark, Altaria began wandering around the area. Although it couldn't fly, it waddled around and found that Yuga's place was indeed quite nice.
At that moment, a few other Altaria flew through the sky. They were original residents of the Dragon Cave sub-ecopark and part of the earliest group to follow Yuga.
They were just passing through, but when they saw the featherless Altaria, they immediately burst out laughing, nearly falling from the sky from how hard they were laughing.
What… what kind of creature was that?! How could it be so ugly?!
Altaria was in a great mood and initially didn't mind, thinking that these were fellow Altaria. But those few Altaria didn't know when to stop. Seeing that the featherless Altaria didn't respond, they doubled down on the mockery.
Altaria was, after all, a master-level Pokémon. In the wild, aside from a few special cases, it was already at the top of the food chain. No matter how good-tempered it might be, being mocked like this repeatedly was simply intolerable.
Furious, it raised its head and fired off a Dragon Pulse.
Though it had lost its feathers, Altaria's injuries had fully healed, and its strength hadn't diminished in the slightest. That Dragon Pulse was thunderous and intimidating.
However, Altaria hadn't actually aimed it at the flying Altaria in the sky—just wanted to scare them a bit and randomly fired the energy wave off to the side.
Even so, the few Altaria in the sky were thoroughly frightened by that one move from the featherless Altaria. But quickly, they became enraged and retaliated by using Moonblast together against the featherless Altaria.
Four or five silver beams of energy struck the featherless Altaria all at once, but it didn't dodge. When the energy faded, the featherless Altaria was still standing there completely unscathed.
Clearly, when facing the master level bald-headed Altaria, the strength of the few Altaria in the sky was a bit lacking. Although their levels were not low, generally around level fifty or sixty, the bald-headed Altaria's level was simply too high.
Though it wasn't injured, that didn't mean the bald-headed Altaria wasn't angry. It felt it had already shown mercy, yet those guys continued to push their luck — it really couldn't tolerate it.
Boom!
So the bald-headed Altaria fired another Dragon Pulse, and this time it didn't hold back, directly blasting those Altaria in the sky down to the ground.
Not far away, Druddigon noticed the commotion growing louder and quickly placed the Heliolisk to the side, huffing and puffing as it ran over, only to see the Altaria fallen on the ground.
Seeing this scene, Druddigon felt doomed. If Yuga found out it hadn't done its job properly, it was sure to be punished!
The bald-headed Altaria saw Druddigon "charging aggressively" and thought it was also coming to pick a fight, so it immediately shot a Moonblast at it.
Druddigon was stunned — it had only come to mediate!
Boom!
With a loud explosion, Druddigon was sent flying. Although it was an elite level Pokémon, it still had no power to resist against a master level Altaria.
However, this didn't completely render Druddigon incapable of battle. It wobbled and crawled out of the pit again.
Seeing that Druddigon hadn't fainted, the bald-headed Altaria was surprised and began preparing another Moonblast, ready to launch.
Seeing this, Druddigon was scared half to death: "A-again? Noooo!!!" {{{Д"}}}
The silver beam of light was launched by the bald-headed Altaria, and Druddigon closed its eyes, awaiting death. But the expected attack didn't hit it. When it opened its eyes, it saw the tall figure of Dragonite Mama standing in front of it.
It turned out Dragonite Mama had rushed over just in time after hearing the commotion from this direction.
Dragonite Mama blasted out an Ice Punch, scattering the Moonblast from the bald-headed Altaria.
"Dragonite~"
After blocking the attack, she pointed at the bald-headed Altaria, turned her head toward Druddigon, and asked what had happened. Druddigon had no choice but to briefly explain the situation with the bald-headed Altaria.
While Dragonite Mama and Druddigon were communicating, the Altaria carefully observed Dragonite Mama, sensing that she had a strength on par with its own. It was greatly astonished, never expecting that Yuga had so many powerful subordinates.
After understanding the situation, Dragonite Mama directly ordered Druddigon to drag away the few fainted Altaria and told it to instruct the Blissey responsible for this sub-ecopark to cancel these Altaria's welfare benefits for the next three months.
Since the fault lay with those Altaria, accepting punishment was only natural.
The Ecopark had been operating for quite some time and had naturally developed a set of unspoken rules that everyone tacitly followed. Usually, punishments and rewards were decided by the Pokémon managing the sub-ecopark and did not require Yuga's involvement.
Upon hearing this, Druddigon looked sympathetically at the fainted Altaria and thought: Serves you right, talking trash for no reason and even got me hit because of it!
Because it was wary of Dragonite Mama, the bald-headed Altaria only quietly watched as Druddigon led its few kin away and didn't make any other move.
"Dragonite~ Dragonite~"
Since you've come here, follow the rules here. Don't cause trouble randomly! This time it wasn't you who started the mess, so you won't be punished.
After Druddigon left, Dragonite Mama said this to the bald-headed Altaria and then flew off.
Though the bald-headed Altaria was inwardly displeased, feeling it had done nothing wrong, it also found Dragonite Mama's way of handling things very cool, so it remained silent until Dragonite Mama left.
It stood there for a while before continuing its leisurely wandering. Many Pokémon had seen what happened earlier with the few Altaria, so now no one dared to mock it again.
After a while, Druddigon came back. It had arranged a temporary residence for Altaria at the foot of the mountain cliff over there, because Altaria still couldn't fly, so for the time being it could only live at the base of the mountain.
After finishing its stroll around the Dragon Den sub-ecopark, Altaria lay down in a cave to rest, but its mind was full of the dashing figure of Dragonite Mama.
Unknowingly, Altaria fell asleep.
As for Yuga, after leaving the Dragon Cave sub-ecopark, he went to the Insect Paradise and settled Buzzwole and Pheromosa there.
After releasing the two Ultra Beasts, Yuga warned them: "Both of you better behave. If you dare cause trouble, just see how I deal with you!"
Given their past offenses, Yuga had no choice but to give them a bit of a warning in advance.
"Pheromosa ~"
Pheromosa cast a disdainful glance at Buzzwole, clearly having no intention of acknowledging the other. Buzzwole, on the other hand, glared hard at Pheromosa, clearly wanting to punch it, but remembering Yuga's warning, it had to suppress the urge in its heart.
"Buzzwole~"
Afraid that it might not be able to hold back and would end up punching that irritating face of Pheromosa, Buzzwole could only scurry away on its four limbs as quickly as possible.
Thanks to its beauty, Pheromosa quickly became the center of attention in the Insect Paradise. A large number of Bug-type Pokémon surrounded it attentively, trying to flatter it, making Pheromosa feel that life held great promise.
After being subtly influenced over time, Pheromosa had become more or less able to understand the general language spoken by regular Pokémon.
Seeing that the two Pokémon were getting along peacefully, Yuga finally felt at ease and left the Insect Paradise.
Then, Yuga went to see Mewtwo and handed over the machines he had found in Ultra Megalopolis. Mewtwo was very pleased to see these machines, especially intrigued by the giant egg-shaped device.
After fiddling with the machines for a while, Mewtwo said to Yuga, "Come with me. That Heatran is fine now."
"Really?"
Yuga was pleasantly surprised to hear that. He hadn't expected Mewtwo to actually pull it off. It really was incredible!
Under Mewtwo's lead, Yuga arrived at the Volcano sub-ecopark and saw the recovered Heatran at the edge of the magma crater.
At this moment, Heatran was lying on a stone platform at the mouth of the magma vent, frantically absorbing the Fire-type energy emanating from the magma. Moreover, the aura it now gave off was very calm, completely different from the frenzied state it had been in when Yuga first met it.
"It's all thanks to that formula you gave me. I studied it for a long time and finally succeeded in improving it so that it became applicable to Heatran," Mewtwo explained.
"The key still lies in your abilities. If you didn't have the power to modify things, even if I had the formula, it would've been useless," Yuga gave Mewtwo a thumbs up.
Mewtwo didn't respond after hearing that. It knew well that if Yuga hadn't spared no expense to support its research, it wouldn't have been able to develop any of this stuff. After all, research is extremely costly.
Mewtwo really enjoyed this kind of peaceful life now.
"However…" Yuga suddenly said at this point, "The aura of this Heatran…" Hasn't it gotten a lot weaker?
Mewtwo guessed what Yuga was about to say and proactively explained, "This Heatran is a clone, after all. It has major genetic defects. Although the health issues have now been resolved, its drop in strength was inevitable."
Right now, Heatran's strength was only about the same as that of an average master level Pokémon.
"I see... well, there's no helping it then…" Yuga could only accept reality—it was already a great feat to have saved it.
"But don't worry," Mewtwo added, "as long as you raise it with care, Heatran's strength will definitely return. The original body of this Heatran seems to be quite extraordinary, so it's not the same as ordinary clones."
"The original body is extraordinary?" Yuga asked in surprise, "In what way is it extraordinary?"
Mewtwo shook its head and replied, "I'm not sure yet, I'm still researching it."
Upon hearing this, Yuga said, "Then I'll leave it to you."
While Yuga and Mewtwo were chatting, the Heatran that was absorbing Fire-type energy noticed them. It swam directly across the magma pool and came to Yuga's side, looking at him with grateful eyes.
If it hadn't been for Yuga, it would already be dead.
When its body was still riddled with flaws, it thought that since it would die sooner or later anyway, it might as well unleash one final burst of power—but when death truly came knocking, the fear in its heart was impossible to suppress.
When the chance to live was placed before it, it had desperately tried to seize it. Fortunately, it had survived.
Back in Team Rocket's laboratory, Heatran had seen countless clone Pokémon just like itself die from all sorts of causes before even stepping outside the lab.
At the time, it wondered why they had to be born as clones, and why they had to die in such a painful way…
But no one could give it an answer.
The only one who might be able to somewhat empathize with Heatran was probably Mewtwo. That feeling of confusion and uncertainty about one's future as a clone Pokémon was also the reason Mewtwo was willing to do everything it could to save Heatran.
However, Mewtwo and Heatran's situations were not quite the same. Due to technical limitations, Heatran was doomed to die from the moment it was born, while Mewtwo was the only successful case among all the clones—it didn't live with the constant threat of death.
"Congratulations, Heatran! From now on, you can live however you want. This world is a beautiful place—you'll come to like it."
Yuga sincerely said to Heatran. Though he couldn't fully empathize with what Heatran had gone through, that didn't stop him from feeling sympathy for its past and giving it his heartfelt blessings now.
Upon hearing Yuga's words, Heatran happily stirred in the magma, and bursts of flame erupted from the spots on its body.
After bidding farewell to Heatran, Yuga left the Ecopark.