"Woo."
Cresselia shook her head and refused.
She was willing to let Gary and Darkrai's earlier actions go without pursuing the matter, but she didn't want to leave with Gary.
"If you don't want to, then I won't force you. But I will be taking Darkrai with me," Gary said.
Gary didn't particularly care whether Cresselia was willing to follow him or not.
The truth was, Gary wasn't especially fond of Cresselia. The main reason was that her strengths didn't lie in offense—she leaned much more toward a support role, and her Ability didn't provide any real combat bonus.
Levitate was useful in the games. In reality, the ability couldn't be called useless—after all, allowing a Pokémon to float freely was still quite effective—but the boost it gave to actual combat power wasn't significant.
The key point was that Cresselia's own flying speed was already very fast. And if it weren't for drawing on the power of Moonlight, Cresselia wouldn't have been a match for Darkrai at all.
Cresselia looked over at Darkrai. Although she was angry about Darkrai's behavior, the two of them had known each other for many years—both enemies and friends.
Seeing that someone was finally willing to accept Darkrai was, in its own way, a relief.
"Woo."
Cresselia nodded.
A voice passed directly into Gary's mind.
"Take good care of him. If you can't raise him properly, send him back here, and I'll stay with him."
Gary was slightly stunned.
Cresselia was capable of telepathy—so why hadn't she spoken earlier?
"Alright. Don't worry."
Seeing that Darkrai showed no reaction at all, Gary realized the message had been meant for him alone.
"Woo!"
Goodbye.
Cresselia flew up toward the sky, her body giving off a soft glow. As the light grew brighter, it finally broke apart into countless points of light and dissipated—and with it, Cresselia's figure vanished as well.
"I'm really curious what the hidden realm where Cresselia lives actually looks like," Gary said.
Cresselia were very mysterious Pokémon. They lived in a secret space of their own, but no one knew where it was—it hadn't even been introduced in the anime's storyline.
"Alright! Let's go," Gary said.
His goals for Canalave City were complete. Not only had he caught Darkrai, but he'd essentially won over Cresselia as well.
Although Cresselia was unwilling to leave with Gary, it was practically the same as having caught her. If they ever met again in the future, Gary would be able to call on her too.
Recalling all his Pokémon except Darkrai, Gary released Garchomp and rode it back to Canalave City.
The next day.
After Gary got up, he didn't go looking for Ash and his group to catch up.
Without Darkrai's interference, Ash and his friends had slept soundly at the police station after driving off Team Rocket, and had headed out in the morning to challenge the Canalave Gym.
Gary went to the transfer machine in the Pokémon Center and called Professor Oak's Laboratory.
"Oh! It's Gary."
The person who answered wasn't Tracey, but Professor Oak himself.
"Grandpa! Where's Tracey?" Gary asked, puzzled.
Ever since Tracey had become Professor Oak's assistant, answering the phone had basically been his job.
"Tracey went to wake the Pokémon and organize their morning exercises."
"What is it? Did you need something from Tracey?"
"No, I was actually looking for you, Grandpa."
"Looking for me? What's the matter?"
Professor Oak was suddenly a little curious. Gary usually only called to check in and report that he was safe—he rarely needed anything specific.
"Grandpa, I ran into a Pokémon Hunter here. She has a weapon that fires a beam of light, and any Pokémon hit by the beam gets petrified. Do you know anything about that?" Gary asked.
"Petrification... you're talking about a petrification gun," Professor Oak said, catching on immediately.
"Yes, exactly. Grandpa, you know about it?!"
Gary was surprised. He hadn't expected Professor Oak to already be aware of this—he'd never mentioned the Hunter to him before.
"Yes. Ash told me about it a while back, and I've been keeping an eye on the matter since then," Professor Oak said.
Gary suddenly remembered—Ash had interfered with Hunter J's capture operations several times, and whenever Ash ran into something he didn't understand, he always reported it to Professor Oak.
"Grandpa, have you found a way to deal with it?" Gary asked.
"How should I put it..." Professor Oak hesitated for a moment before saying, "I've found a way to remove petrification, but there's no way to resist the petrification gun itself."
Gary was impressed. He hadn't expected Professor Oak to have actually made progress—truly worthy of being his grandfather.
"What's the method for removing petrification?" Gary asked.
"It's simple: use Hidden Power on the petrified Pokémon. The move's mysterious energy will envelop the petrified Pokémon and dispel the petrified condition," Professor Oak said.
Hidden Power!
Hidden Power was a Normal-type move with a power of 60 and no additional effects, but the move itself was very special.
Hidden Power's type would change depending on the Pokémon using it—though that was just how it was described in the games.
In reality, Hidden Power could be used to attack, to alter conditions, or even to channel unknown energy.
Take Unown, for example. They could use Hidden Power to draw out unknown energy and accomplish some truly incredible things.
"Hidden Power...!"
Gary went through his Pokémon in his head, and it seemed none of them knew the move.
Fortunately, Hidden Power was a move that almost any Pokémon could learn. Gary still had two self-selected permanent TMs sitting unused, which could take care of it.
"Yes, but Hidden Power is a difficult move to master, and very few Pokémon awaken it naturally."
"The one certainty is that Unown can do it. If you need it, you could consider catching one."
Professor Oak was also worried about Gary crossing paths with a Hunter. After all, they were lawless lunatics.
Professor Oak's name meant nothing to people like that. If Gary were captured by a Hunter, they might even use him to extort a ransom from Professor Oak.
"I understand. I'll look into it," Gary said.
"Alright, then be careful. Until you've secured a way to use Hidden Power, if you do run into a Hunter, just stay away," Professor Oak reminded him.
"Got it. Then I'll go sort out Hidden Power first." With that, Gary hung up.
After ending the call, Gary immediately began redeeming the move.
[System, redeem Hidden Power for me.]
[Ding! Skill redemption successful.]
Fortunately, he had saved those two self-selected permanent TMs back then—otherwise, he really would have had to go catch an Unown.