Capítulo 40: 47,48
The moment Sheila gave the okay, Lucario exploded into action.
Pushing off with his back foot and using his forward one for a powerful kick-off against the ground, he lunged upwards towards Glalie with one fist drawn back. It burst into fire as he climbed, and he volleyed a Fire Punch at the hovering Ice-type.
Glalie's horns pulsed, and an instant sphere of ice formed around him at about two feet distance. The surface of the sphere included Lucario's wrist, and the sudden addition of the whole sphere's weight threw his aim and speed badly off.
Pryce's Ice-type didn't bother trying to keep the icy sphere solid, either. He simply broke through the top as it fell under gravity, getting clear just before it shattered into a million pieces as Lucario smashed it with a Force Palm delivered by his off-hand.
Lucario stuck the landing with finicky precision, and looked up as he stood up – making sure he could see anything else Glalie might try.
He soon got his answer, as the Ice-type sent up a beam of light into the sky. It got colder rapidly, and then began to hail.
"I can see you're not going to make this easy, precisely..." Lucario muttered, gaming out possible alternatives in his head.
"It is my job," Glalie horns crackled with bluish energy, and then ice began to form out of thin air around Lucario and sweep towards him at speed.
Lucario lashed out at the oncoming ice with a snap-kick, adding a pulse of Aura which shattered that portion of the encircling ring, and jumped clear in that direction as it closed. Paws glowing a shimmering silver, he launched a Flash Cannon shot out at Glalie as he arced through the air – which splashed off another instant sphere of thick, clear ice – and landed on the icy ground, using a pair of Metal Claws from his free paw to brake.
No sooner had he stopped than he had to push off again, launching himself away from another surging wave of ice with a powerful handspring.
"I can see where this is going," Lucario muttered. He landed upright, forming Aura-spikes from the soles of his feet to ensure his grip on the quickly-icing surface of the battlefield, and formed a pair of Aura Spheres – one in each paw.
Glalie spent a moment building his next attack. The blue light of his cryokinesis flickered around his horns, then lashed out – broadening, and widening, until it was a gigantic ball of ice and slush at least ten feet across, and heading for Lucario at speed.
Slamming his paws together, Lucario burst both his charging Aura Spheres, producing a cloud of smaller seeker spheres. As they shot off in all directions, gaining distance before turning to dive back in towards Glalie, he switched his attention to the incoming ice ball.
In the last half-second or so before it arrived, he crossed his forearms together over his chest – then brought them back across-and-down, recrossing one another in a scissored Cross Chop.
There was a blue flash of Aura, bright enough to make the spectators flinch, and the ball of ice exploded into four quarter-spheres which went bouncing off in all directions.
Squinting through the shower of snow and ice as it rained down around him, Lucario saw Glalie's latest icy-shield collapsing – having successfully absorbed all the impacts from the seeker spheres first.
Lucario took a deep breath, regaining his focus, then leapt skywards away from a wave of ice as Glalie returned to the offensive.
"Thanks for the shield!" Misty smiled, as hail rattled off a Barrier screen.
My pleasure.
Ash was focusing on the battle. "Right... so, that ice-shield of his... okay, got it. Lucario!"
"Little busy right now!" Lucario called back, and Ash glanced from Glalie back to his own Pokémon.
Lucario was... fighting a large draconic thing made out of ice. As Ash watched, Lucario slammed two snap-kicks into the thing's neck in quick succession, breaking it off, then fired a Flash Cannon at the remainder and used his other paw to Force Palm an incoming ball of ice into oblivion.
"Right," Lucario said, a little more calmly, and shot a pair of Aura Spheres at Glalie to keep him occupied. "What was it?"
"Get closer!" Ash instructed. "Try close-in combat again!"
"Uh... sure," Lucario said. He lashed out with a spinning kick at the latest attack from Glalie – a four-foot ice sphere – and smashed it into pieces. "I'll get right on that."
"Good," Ash nodded.
"Are you sure that's wise?" Brock asked. "I mean-"
"Well, Glalie's clearly got the advantage right now," Ash pointed out. "Glalie are strong in hailstorms – they heal – and he's clearly good at ranged combat..."
Lucario jumped forwards, into the teeth of the wave of ice surging at him. He pulled both forepaws back right to his shoulders, then pushed them forwards with swirling balls of Aura in them.
The twin Aura Spheres, driven to rotate faster than usual, smashed a hole in the wave, and Lucario's tail just about squeaked through before the ice healed up again.
Aha. That pretty much confirmed it – Ash was right, Glalie didn't want him too close.
That was exploitable, potentially.
Unfortunately, the Ice-type wasn't going to let himself be caught easily. He was levitating well into the air, out of reach – not as out of reach as he might think, but high enough to be mostly safe.
Lucario's challenge now was to work out how to change that.
Glalie fired down an Ice Beam directly, using the blue cryo-energy in a straight-on attack rather than trying to use it to form something solid to attack with.
Not missing a trick, Lucario flipped his left arm up to counter it. His metal wrist-spike glowed an eerie blue as the energy hit it, skating off and hitting the ground in a semicircular arc.
By dint of careful prediction, Lucario kept the spike in the right place as Glalie tried to sneak a blow past, and after ten seconds or so the Ice Beam ran out.
Lowering his left arm, Lucario snapped his right out to the side. His fists crackled, and then caught fire in the precursor to a Fire Punch.
Rather than simply lunge skywards again, though, Lucario brought his flaming fists together and let the heat build on them. He heard the rumbling crash as an ice wave came in, and he kicked out with one foot just as it reached him.
That sent him a few feet skywards, and he used the other leg in a volleyed blow straight away – gaining about ten feet more height.
At the apex of his jump, he brought both paws to his mouth and exhaled. The fires caught, and a rippling jet of flame lashed out towards Glalie.
Startled, Glalie switched to his icy shield. Solidifying out of the moisture in the air in an instant, it took the Flamethrower with relative ease.
That hadn't been the point, though.
As Lucario fell, he snuffed out the blaze on his right paw and formed an Aura Sphere instead. Crushing it, he formed a shower of blue tracer spheres – which came shooting out in all directions just as Glalie's shield expired, making him form it again to avoid being hit.
But that hadn't been the point either.
Knees bent, Lucario absorbed the impact with the ground. His left paw blazed up ever brighter, but his right paw shone a clear, cool blue for a moment – then flashed icy.
Capitalizing on the three-to-four seconds he had while his loosely sequenced tracer spheres hit home on Glalie's defence, he sprang into motion. His flaming left paw traced an orange ribbon through the hailstorm, matched by his cool blue one.
"What's he trying to do there?" Pryce asked, frowning, as Lucario kept running. "Is it some kind of Fire Spin? Or-"
Reaching the centre of his track, Lucario paused for a moment – and punched upwards.
The Flying Dragon Uppercut triggered, sending him soaring into the air in a flurry of snow and a roaring storm of wind.
It lasted two seconds before the wind started to lose its ability to push him bodily into the sky. And at the end of those two seconds, Glalie was down.
The startled Ice-type had only a moment to react. He did well with it, however, conjuring a Blizzard out of nowhere and forming a great, thick wall of ice between him and the incoming Lucario.
Lucario didn't much care.
His paws flashed an intense Aura blue. Slamming his left foot into the ice, then his right, he spiderwebbed it with cracks, and then a lance of palm-delivered Aura blew it to smithereens.
The final barrier was Glalie's spherical icy shield. It was also, however, a mistake – Lucario formed a pair of metal claws, using them to grip onto it, and then smashed an Iron Tail through it before Glalie could get clear.
Glalie was sent straight towards the ground by the heavy hammerblow, dazed, and Lucario landed on top of him a moment after he hit the ground.
"Close Combat," Lucario explained, then delivered another palm strike.
Pryce returned his thoroughly stunned Glalie. "I've never seen that move your Lucario did there before," he said. "What was it? Some kind of Flying move?"
"Kinda," Ash shrugged. "Lucario invented it. It involves a spiral of hot and cold air. I think he used it once or twice at the League last year-"
"Oh, is that what that was?" Pryce asked, nodding. "Right, I remember now. It looked more like a standard Sky Uppercut then. I didn't realize it worked like that..."
"Not many do," Ash agreed. "It's a neat move."
"Indeed." Pryce frowned, as Ash returned Lucario. "Next up – the Pokémon I use to handle opponents who are ready for Ice. You may have some trouble with this one! Jynx!"
"Heracross!"
"Here you are, Jessie," James said, passing her a plate of breakfast. "Just how you like it."
"Thanks, James," Jessie nodded, and started in on her meal. "Ah, it's great being in the field..."
"Yeah!" Meowth grinned. "We hardly ever ate dis well when we was after Ash!"
James shrugged, flipping the next okonomiyaki . "Well, that's mainly because we were too busy selling food to pay for the latest giant robot..."
There was a hiss as he slid the thick pancake onto a plate. "Abra, this one's-"
He blinked at the now-empty plate. "That's impressive and slightly worrying."
"You're tellin' me," Meowth muttered.
Gyarados yawned.
"It's half past ten, ya big lunk," Meowth added, beaning the mammoth Water-type with a toothpick. "About time you got up!"
As he rumbled and shook himself out of the small depression he'd slept in, two Luxury Balls went bouncing across the grass.
"Eh?" Meowth blinked, then hopped down from the table. He spotted a plain Pokéball, a gold-painted Pokéball, and a Great Ball in the grass as well. "Hey, who knocked over da bag full a' Pokéballs?"
"I think that must have been me," Cubone volunteered, looking up from her own okonomiyaki . "I was the one closest to it, sorry."
"Eh, no harm done..." Meowth picked up the balls one by one. "Okay, lessee... da two Luxury balls are for Weezing an' Arbok... those are spare... spare... dat's Gyarados' shiny one what we got him sold in... o' course Growlie has da Ultraball 'cause James' parents are posh... Victreebell... Wob..."
One by one, the balls clattered back into the bag. Then Meowth blinked. "Huh..."
"What?" James asked, looking up from the hissing skillet as he added yet another pancake to Gyarados' stack.
"Well, I tink Gyarados is lyin' on one. Hey, budge up!"
Gyarados yawned again, and slithered out of the hole. A red-and-white Pokéball was half buried in the mud.
"Huh, dat's weird," Meowth added, looking around. "Did we pick up-"
The Pokéball opened.
"Finally!" its occupant said, stretching her wings with a snap-crackle of flame. "That thing wasn't opening no matter what I did!"
Jessie dropped her plate.
James dropped his skillet. This landed on his foot, which produced a fair amount of mostly-muffled swearing.
"...hey, ain't I seen you somewhere before?" Meowth asked, frowning.
"Is that a Moltres?" Jessie asked. "What was-"
The Moltres turned to look at her, and was visibly confused by the tableau that confronted her. "Um... what's going on?"
"Good question," Meowth quipped. "Let us know when ya find out."
"Why did one of our Pokéballs have a Moltres in?" Jessie pressed. "I know we didn't have one last night!"
The Moltres blushed. This wasn't easy for a Fire-type whose plumage was half fire and mostly orange, but she managed it.
"I..." She folded her wings, looking down in embarrassment. "I was... I tripped over the Pokéballs."
James looked up from rubbing his injured foot. "What did they say?"
"She said she tripped over da pile o' Pokéballs what Cubone knocked over," Meowth explained.
"But..." Jessie blinked. "Those were in the middle of our camp. Why was she in the middle of our camp?"
Moltres somehow looked even more embarrassed.
"Oh, dat one's easy," Meowth continued, glad to have a question he knew the answer to without interpretation. "She's got a crush on James, is what-"
"Hey!" Moltres snapped. "That's private!" After a moment, she shook her head. "And I don't!"
"She... what?" James repeated, taken aback.
"Well, I guess you did swoop in and save her from the Pokémon Pinchers," Jessie said. "I mean, I guess this is that one from Mt. Ember."
"Does that mean she's the one who torched Jessiebelle's private army, too?" James weighed in.
"...yes, I am. And I did." Moltres nodded, glancing over at Meowth – having already seen he was the translator on the team.
"Well... thanks, then, I guess," James said.
Jessie nodded her agreement. "Though I'm still not sure why you were following us around..."
"I owe you!" Moltres replied. "I want to make sure you're... well, safe, I guess..."
Jumping off her chair, Cubone walked over to the depression Gyarados had left in the grass. She picked up the red-and-white Pokéball, and held it up. "There's one important question here. What do we do now?"
James frowned, thinking for a moment, then nodded. "I know. Pass it here."
She threw it, and he caught it out of the air with the hand not holding the frying pan.
That done, he put it on the ground and stood well back. "Destroy it if you want to," he said, addressing Moltres directly. "I mean, you could just fly off if you wanted to, and we wouldn't stop you, but..." He shrugged. "It just... seems right, I guess."
Moltres looked from the 'ball to him a few times, then turned to look at the rest of the group.
This was easier said than done – Wobbuffet was behind her, Gyarados was behind her in a different direction, and Abra was – somehow – still asleep.
Then she took a deep breath, bent down to the 'ball, and knocked it back towards James with her beak.
"I'll stay," she said. "For now, at least."
James stared at the Pokéball for a moment, then picked it up. "Thank you," he said, nodding to her – ignoring the throbbing in his foot.
"Now," Meowth interjected, an expression of concern on his face. "Dis is where it gets all complicated. We got enough breakfast for a Moltres too?"
Jynx stood on the battlefield, seemingly having no trouble with the ice or the hail.
She looked across at her opponent, and frowned. "A bug? Oh, that's annoying..."
"I'll try not to be offended by that," Heracross replied. He winced as a hailstone hit his horn. "Right, let's get started!"
Clenching his fists, he jumped forwards and opened with a Hammer Arm.
Jynx held her hand up. "Nope, sorry." A wall of psychic force formed between the two, and Heracross' attack slammed into the Reflect.
"Ow," he said, shaking his fist out. "That was not – whoa!"
Jynx made a circling motion with her other hand, pointing with two fingers and curling the rest up. A pulse of Psychic came off the gesture, clipping Heracross as he jumped into the air and opened his wings, and he went back a few feet before stabilizing and landing again.
"Right," he said, and glanced back at Ash. "Any advice?"
"Just try to get in close for now, Heracross!" Ash called. "And stick to Bug-type or any Dark-type attacks!"
"That I can do," Heracross replied, leaning over and charging forwards again.
Jynx made a clenching gesture with her right hand, turned it so the back was facing her, and opened it again. A small blue orb appeared, expanding out rapidly, and then Heracross was hit by a Water Pulse.
The slap-in-the-face knocked him back a bit, staggering, and he took a moment to recover and continue his forwards charge.
Jynx hadn't been idle during that time, either. With a series of gestures, she formed another Reflect wall between herself and Heracross, then made a heart shape with both hands and blew through it.
The Heart Stamp hit Heracross in the chest, but this time he was ready. Leaning forwards as it came in, he bulled through, and slammed his horn into the psychic shield.
It creaked, then shattered as Heracross slammed a Brick Break into it. Lunging at Jynx as she gestured again, he scored a hit on her metallic chest-plate with a screeeech noise.
Jynx gave ground a step, and flattened both her hands palm up a little in front of her hips. Heracross stabbed forwards with his Megahorn, and nearly hit her again.
Then she used Blizzard. Straight up from the ground.
The storm of ice enveloped Heracross, sending him flying into the air at least fifty feet before he got clear. A Heart Stamp followed, hitting him as he began to reorient himself, and he hit a snowdrift with a crunch.
"Good work, Jynx!" Pryce called, as Heracross staggered out of the snowdrift. "Just keep him at a distance!"
Jynx nodded, hands moving in a complicated gesture and gathering a ball of light between them.
She held it for a moment, then fired out the Secret Power.
Heracross saw it coming, and tried to dodge clear. The staggering impact of the Heart Stamp he'd taken slowed him, though, and the Ice-effect pulse of natural energy swirled around him before flashing to solid ice.
"Ha!" Pryce grinned. "Your Heracross is in trouble now!"
He blinked. "Wait. What are you doing?"
Ash swung the staff off his back. "Did you see the band thing on Heracross' arm?"
"I did," Pryce admitted. "Silk scarf? Expert belt? Focus band?"
"Heracronite."
The staff flashed a bright, clear blue, accompanied by gold-and-silver light from the two feathers below the capstone.
An answering flash of orange light came from the slab of ice containing Heracross, which then steamed and began to melt.
Within seconds, it exploded outwards, and Mega Heracross stood there.
"I've never heard of such a thing," Price said, looking closer. "I... your Pokémon was fully evolved, and then... is that an evolution?"
"It's a Mega Evolution," Ash explained. "It involves a Mega Stone the Pokémon holds, a Key Stone the trainer uses, and a strong bond of love between the Pokémon and their trainer."
"All right, you don't have to rub it in..." Pryce muttered. "I get the point. Why is the ice around your Pokémon melting?"
"Mega Heracross has... kind of a high body temperature," Ash shrugged. "Okay, Mega Heracross, back to the fight!"
Mega Heracross crouched over, and ran forwards. Dark energy streamed from his horn, and he rammed right through the Reflect wall in his way before shoulder-charging Jynx to the ground.
She rolled out of the way of the Megahorn he tried to use, formed a Heart Stamp with hurried movements, and got a little more distance as he shook the effect off.
"Jynx – put him to sleep!" Pryce said. "He can't be frozen, but he can still be put to sleep!"
Jynx nodded. A gesture sent a wave of ice at Mega Heracross as he came charging forwards again, slowing him, and she then formed another heart shape over her mouth before blowing a kiss through it.
Mega Heracross blundered straight into the pink energy pulse, staggered, and measured his length in the snow (which quickly hissed and began to melt away around him).
"Phew," Jynx said, building up a Psyshock attack. "That was close."
"Sleep talk!" Ash called.
Mega Heracross surged to his feet again, horn crackling with Dark-type energy, and slashed the incoming surge of Psychic energy in half as it hit. Part of the attack curved off, carving a long furrow in the ground, and the rest blew a snowbank to bits.
"...of course he knows Sleep Talk," Pryce shook his head. "Right. Jynx, Draining Kiss!"
Jynx kissed her palms, one and then the other. Levelling them, she blew something off each palm in turn at Mega Heracross.
"Sleep Talk again!" Ash told him.
Mega Heracross fired an Aura Sphere off into the distance, some way to the right of Jynx, and then got hit by both Draining Kisses in a row.
"Ergh..." Ash winced, as Jynx visibly recovered. "Try Sleep Talk again!"
This time, Mega Heracross used Pin Missile.
The way he used it, though, was quite surprising to all involved. He levelled his burly right arm, which started spinning, and then a stream of needles rattled out at high speed in a tight pattern.
Of course, they still missed. But it was quite surprising.
"Heracross?" Ash asked, shocked.
Mega Heracross yawned. "What is it?" he asked, blinking. "Oh, right. Sleep-causing-"
"Your arms are like machine guns!" Ash interrupted.
Mega Heracross examined them. "Really?"
"Yeah!" Ash confirmed. "Point them at Jynx, and then use Pin Missile!"
"I don't like this trend," Jynx said nervously.
Mega Heracross duly did so. Both arms spun up, and launched barrages of needles at Jynx.
She formed a Reflect wall with two quick gestures, backing it up with a second layer behind it, and the needles pinged off the wall in a series of spangs and ricochets.
"Hey, this is easy!" Mega Heracross said, keeping the barrage going. "I could do this all day!"
"Really, really don't like this trend." Jynx frowned, then made an upwards gesture to try and hit Mega Heracross with another of the vertical blizzards.
Unfortunately, not much ice was left where Mega Heracross was standing, as his vents warmed the air and ground around him. What little of the attack that did hit him hardly did anything, and he sustained the barrage of pin missiles.
"Hmmm..." Ash frowned. "What about Rock Blast?"
Mega Heracross considered it. His left arm stopped firing, clicked once, and then launched a large rock instead.
"This is really cool!" Mega Heracross decided.
"I don't agree," Jynx muttered. She fired another Heart Stamp with her free hand, and Mega Heracross blocked it with a rock before lumbering forwards – using his twin Pin Missile guns to give himself covering fire.
Jynx was forced to sustain the Reflect shield until Mega Heracross had almost reached it. Taking a chance, she dropped it as he drew back one arm for a Brick Break, and put everything into a grand, sweeping gesture to hit him with Psychic.
The intense psionic blow knocked Mega Heracross back on his heels, and he staggered back a few steps. For a moment, he teetered on the edge of falling over – then recovered, and hit Jynx with a Megahorn which knocked her across the battlefield.
She landed in an awkward pile, muttered something about "Niebulungs", and collapsed.
"Well, I've learned something new today," Pryce said ruefully, recalling Jynx. "Don't suppose you know if there's any Ice-type Mega Evolutions?"
Heracross transitioned back down in a flash of orange light, adjusted his Mega Stone, and then Ash recalled him too. "Not sure," the trainer said. "I think Gary might have mentioned one... Gary Oak," he elaborated, on seeing Pryce confused. "He's researching it."
"Right." Pryce frowned. "Maybe I should contact Samuel, see if he can put me in touch... anyway. Next you'll face my Piloswine!"
Ash thought for a minute, looking at the thickening layers of snow and ice on the ground. Piloswine was... hm.
How'd he beaten Piloswine last time?
Ash blinked. Oh, yeah. Pikachu had electrocuted a Ground-type again. They should probably get that looked at... regardless, that wasn't really an option.
He could send Lucario out, but... Lucario was weak to Ground attacks. And that did leave the question of what the rest of Pryce's team was.
Looking at the ground again, he came to a decision. The ice was thick enough for Snorlax.
"Go!" Ash called, releasing him.
"Ah, the Snorlax again," Pryce nodded. "You know, I've worked out what you're trying with him."
"What's that?" Ash asked, as Snorlax waved amiably at Piloswine.
"You were trying to lure me into a false sense of security, but he's really best on ice," Pryce said. "Piloswine! Earthquake!"
"Yes, Pryce!" Piloswine announced, slamming his forelegs into the ground and producing a rumbling impact that shook the whole battlefield. Snorlax staggered, arms flailing, and the human spectators nearly lost their footing.
The most important thing, though, was what it did to the sheen of ice that had built up over the course of the battle so far. It shifted, creaked, and took on a crazy quilt of tilts up and down and all over the place – leaving no areas for Snorlax to slide around easily on.
"Well, that's just not fair," Snorlax said, and yawned.
"Snorlax, just close in directly!" Ash called. "He's not going to be able to move fast either!"
Snorlax nodded, covered his mouth for another yawn, and lumbered forwards.
"You know what to do, Piloswine!" Pryce said.
"Yes, master!" Piloswine nodded, his shaggy fur shaking about as he did. He fired off an Earth Power, which traced a line of ice-dust and hit Snorlax.
The big bear tilted his head, then just kept advancing.
Piloswine got in one more attack before Snorlax arrived – a surging, freezing Blizzard, which drew in the hailstones already starting to litter the ground again and buffeted Snorlax.
Then the Normal-type arrived. He raised a clawed arm, which burst into flame, and hit Piloswine in the side.
This did not seem to have much effect.
Snorlax frowned. "Shouldn't that have done something?" he asked, glancing back at Ash.
Ash shrugged. "Try again?"
Nod.
Snorlax turned back to Piloswine, who seemed to be more-or-less willing to be attacked, for now.
He tried a Mega Kick, a Mega Punch, then decided to try another Fire Punch.
At that point, Piloswine used Avalanche.
Snorlax was carried backwards by a surge of high-speed, powdery snow, and ended up head first in a snowbank.
Shaking his head, he pulled himself out again, and turned towards Piloswine. "Okay, now I'm angry."
He took a deep breath, and used Hyper Beam.
Piloswine skidded backwards as the attack hit, legs churning to maintain traction. His whole body began to glow an eerie red, and the ground shook – then a compact ball of rock rose out of the ground, hung there for a moment in the path of the Hyper Beam, then shot forwards as the beam ended.
Panting as he recovered, Snorlax was clocked on the forehead by the Ancientpower.
Ash recognized the attack, and groaned. "Oh, here we go again..."
Piloswine evolved into Mamoswine.
"This just happens all the time around you, doesn't it?" Misty asked.
Ash nodded.
Snorlax pulled himself out of the snow again. "That's it!"
Mamoswine hit him with a Fissure.
"Huh," Pryce said, blinking. "That's new..."
"Okay," Ash said, returning the unconscious Snorlax. "Now you have to use someone else!"
"I know, I know," Pryce agreed. "I made the rules. Right... Aurorus!"
"Aha!" Ash grinned. "Good thing I-"
His Fast Ball burst open.
"Dibs," Entei stated.
"...pardon?" Ash asked, lowering Lucario's Pokéball.
"Dibs," Entei repeated. "I want a fight here, and I like Quilava so I don't want it to be a face-off between us."
"Sure, I guess," Ash said, shrugging. "Sorry, Lucario."
Lucario emerged as well. "It's okay. The Glalie was enough of a fight for me to be satisfied."
"Is that Entei?" Pryce asked. "I... I tried to be ready for Suicune or – or the Keldeo, because I saw them on the news! But – Entei as well?"
"What?" Entei asked, miffed. "Is there something wrong?"
"Nothing at all!" Ash grinned. "Okay, off you go!"
Pryce seemed to recover a bit. "Right. Aurorus!"
48
Todd Snap walked through the outskirts of town, sniffing the air. "Ah, this is lovely."
Sneasel shrugged, ears alert for any sound which might indicate a Pokémon about to come out into the open.
"Sorry we missed the ferry," he went on. "We'll catch the next one, okay?"
She nodded, sniffed, then her eyes widened. Moving on quick feet, she ran in front of Todd and pointed.
"What is it?" Todd asked, frowning. He glanced in that direction, and didn't see anything through the line of trees. "A Pokémon?"
Sneasel indicated he was mostly right, and that there were several. She couldn't give him more specifics, but something about one of them confused her.
"Right, thanks," he said, offering his elbow to her. She took it, running up his arm to his shoulder, and then rummaged around in his bag.
Todd took the parts she handed him with easy familiarity. "Thanks... good... might want a sun filter – ah, good, you've already got it."
He clicked the lens onto the camera, the filter onto the lens, and the flash assembly to the top. Just in case – though he left it firmly off.
That done, he passed her the remote viewfinder as she zipped the bag back up again. "You know the drill, take any good shots I miss."
She nodded firmly, sitting herself on his shoulder.
That ready, Todd approached the treeline slowly and carefully.
He reached a point where he could see through into the meadow proper, and blinked. "Hey, Sneasel?" he whispered.
He felt a small nod.
"Are you seeing what I'm seeing?"
Sneasel made a show of looking down the second viewfinder, and shook her head in confusion.
"Because I'm seeing what we came this far south for, on the wrong island, eating a stack of okonomiyaki ..."
"That was lovely," Moltres pronounced, fluffing her feathers out. "You're good at this!"
"Yeah, but now we gotta buy groceries twice as often..." Meowth chuckled. "Ah well, it'll be nice to have some way o' flyin' around without havin' to take da plane everywhere."
"Oh, I saw the plane," Moltres agreed. "It was... odd?"
"Odd doesn't begin to cover it," Victreebell muttered. "Who rigs an old cargo plane with a dozen VTOL engines?"
"I'm sorry, these are our Trainers," Weezing said. "Have you met them?"
"Well, dat might be bizarre enough, but remember da submarines?" Meowth reminisced.
"I only ever heard of the Basculin submarine, but it sounds strange enough without seeing it..." Gyarados admitted.
Moltres looked from 'mon to 'mon. "Oh, dear firelords, what have I gotten myself into?"
"Is the talk of submarines giving you a sinking feeling?" Wobbuffet asked, to general groans.
"Eh, ya get used to it," Meowth shrugged. He turned. "Hey, who's dat?"
There was a pause, as everyone followed his gaze. Then, with a crashing of bushes and long grass, a lanky teenage boy stepped through into the meadow itself.
"Wait a minute..." Jessie said, looking closer. "Is that Todd Snap?"
Everyone gave her a blank look.
"You remember, right?" she asked. "The Pokémon photographer guy who took those pictures of an Articuno!"
"You know we don't read your Contest magazines, right?" James asked.
"This wasn't a contest mag!"
"Uh, hi?" Todd asked, nervously. "I... why do you have a Moltres?"
"I will be honest," Moltres said, "It sort of just happened."
Meowth chuckled.
James snapped his fingers. "Wait a minute..."
He stood, and nodded to Todd. "I have an idea of how we can help one another."
"What would that involve?" Todd asked.
James glanced over at Moltres. "What's your opinion on having your picture taken?"
Entei prowled out into the blizzard, ignoring the snow piling up on his back. "Right," he said, peering through the snow at the large form of Aurorus as it materialized opposite him. "Ice and Rock type, right?"
"That's correct," Aurorus agreed, spreading her sail. "While my typing has some disadvantages, the Fire type is not among them."
Entei shrugged. "Well, now to set the stage... Sunny Day!"
He roared, and a wave of energy pulsed out from him. The snowstorm eddied, the quality of the light improved, and then the clouds parted and a hot afternoon sun beat down.
"Now then," Entei rumbled. He coiled up like a spring, then pounced forwards with fire wreathing his mane. "Flare Blitz!"
Aurorus turned as he came in, tail winding up, then attacked with a whiplash-fast Aqua Tail. That hit Entei at the same time his Flare Blitz hit her side, and there was an unmusical crash-bang.
Entei rolled in the air, and landed on all four paws on the snow. His left forepaw slipped a bit, and he extended his claws to try and reduce the effect – then looked up, as a hailstone bounced off his muzzle.
The sky was clouding rapidly over again, turning a dirty grey, and it was already starting to snow and hail again.
"Oh, come on!" Entei muttered. "Sunny Day!"
The incipient clouds dissolved, rushing away again. This time, though, Entei paced in a broad circle while keeping an eye on them – and growled, irritated, as they halted and came right back in.
"Ice Hyper Beam!"
Entei blinked. "Ice wha-"
What hit him was one of the most powerful Ice-type attacks possible. The Pokémon firing it was no Kyurem or Articuno, but the effect of Refrigerate on the Hyper Beam nevertheless resulted in a blast of supercooled energy several inches across.
By the time it ended, Entei was about twenty feet from his starting position and inside a thick, splash-shaped coating of ice.
Aurorus panted, not foolish enough to believe that would finish a Legendary Pokémon, and began to charge her next attack.
As she did, the ice began to glow.
Entei exploded out in a burst of rose-red flames. "What was that!?"
"Icy you like my abilities," Aurorus smiled, her sail raising again as she gathered more power.
Entei blinked. "Was that a pun?"
Stone Edge snapped out towards him, and he ducked just in time.
"Right, take this!" he snapped, then had to dodge out of the way as Aurorus let out an ear-punishing, bitterly cold, Refrigerated Hyper Voice.
He then had enough time to charge and fire a Fire Blast, which shattered on an instant wall of ice some feet away from her – the blast hitting her even so, but not severely.
"Okay, seriously," Entei added, accelerating with Extremespeed and trying to get somewhere she couldn't just blast ice attacks at him, "What's going on? Those moves don't do that!"
"It's called Refrigerate," Aurorus informed him. "It's one of my abilities."
This time, she fired a Secret Power. This one was already icy from the terrain, picked up more ice from the Ability, and crescendoed in a huge encircling wave of ice that came crashing down on Entei from every direction except his left side.
"Eruption!"
The pulse of heat that resulted from Entei's attack blew the boosted Secret Power away, melted a considerable quantity of the ice and snow all around him, and made Aurorus blink and take a step back.
"Is your other ability why all this snow keeps coming back?" Entei asked, a simmering heat behind his words.
"Yes," she nodded. "Snow Warning."
"I'm starting to have mixed feelings about weather," Entei muttered. He pounced forwards again, paws splashing on the mud and slush, and flames built around him. He accelerated as he reached firmer ground, and aimed for a point at the base of Aurorus' neck.
Aurorus swung her head, sail glowing with power, and fired an Icy Hyper Beam in a jagged line in his path. The impact of the ridiculously powerful Ice attack produced an instant wall in Entei's way, absorbing the momentum of his Flare Blitz, and when he came out the other side he wasn't moving fast enough to do significant damage. He actually came off the worst of the exchange, as Aurorus hit him with another Aqua Tail which sent him right back into the slushy mud.
As he rolled to his feet, coat splattered with mud, another of her overloaded Ice attacks hit the puddle, freezing him and it in an instant.
A familiar rosy glow shone from inside the layers of ice, and then Entei burst out again.
He looked a mess. His coat was caked with mud, some of it charred from the heat of his latest Inferno to blast through the ice as quickly as possible, and his breath steamed in the chill air as another squall of snow rolled in.
"I dislike you," he said cordially.
"Entei!" Ash called. "Ice and Rock are both weak to Fighting!"
"...I knew that," Entei mumbled.
Aurorus inhaled, and shouted at him. "Echoed Voice!"
The pulse of sound picked up moisture from the air, freezing along with it, and what actually reached Entei was a dense wavefront of chill air and ice. He blew it to bits with a fairly casual Ember, and started to charge an Aura Sphere.
Undaunted, Aurorus shouted again. This one resonated deeper in her chest, picking up more power from her brightly flaring sail, and Entei pulsed out a Heat Wave to prevent it reaching him.
Charging done, he fired his Aura Sphere. It rocketed forwards, crossing the intervening space in a moment, and then hit Aurorus on the shoulder, staggering her but not knocking her out yet.
A third Echoed Voice cracked out, wider than the last one. It picked up ice from the ground, this time, and when Entei used Flamethrower on it he found himself instead confronting an oncoming wave of water.
Using Extremespeed with lightning speed, he barely avoided being hit full-force by what was quite a lot of very cold water.
The fourth Echoed Voice was slightly mis-aimed, hitting the ground in front of Entei – but erupted into a shimmering tower of ice actually a little larger than the one the Ice Hyper Beam had produced, the tips of which just barely missed Entei as it grew with startling speed.
No fool he, Entei used it for cover while he considered.
Of course – she was using Echoed Voice to build up to the most powerful Ice attack she could. By now it was even more powerful than her previous Hyper Beam, and when he concentrated Entei could hear the thrumming resonating through the air.
The sheer amount of power she was pulling through her sail was also very impressive. It lit the air for several metres around, and he could see it glittering on snowflakes even though she was out of his direct line of sight.
Then he remembered the downside of using Echoed Voice. The resonance was fragile – if you took your concentration off enough to use another move, it collapsed.
And that meant she'd be reluctant to do it.
Crouching, Entei kicked off in a blaze of flame. Eddies of snow curled off, driven by the wind of his passage, and he was clipped by the solid wall of ice produced by the latest pulse of frosty sound.
Accelerating, Entei dug in his paws on the turn. They skidded and slipped, his traction impaired by the thick snow that melted as he stepped across it, but it was enough to get him around the corner and driving in behind her.
She craned her neck around, firing an Icy Echoed Voice back over her own tail, and Entei jumped through it with Flare Blitz blazing.
The impact hurt – it was like jumping into a pane of glass several inches thick – but Entei was a Legendary, and an annoyed one at that. The pulse of ice fell apart in splinters around him, and he landed exactly where he wanted to.
On her back.
She immediately shook herself, trying to get him off – he was almost as heavy as she was – and inhaled to fire another Icy Echoed Voice.
But Entei was in close now, past the lashing tail which had been a problem for him before. He focused, and fired off an intense Lava Plume – knocking her neck back and throwing off her aim, which sent the icy blast skywards.
Then, still clinging on with three paws, he rammed the fourth one down in a Rock Smash.
Aurorus wobbled, then crashed to the ground – unable to support the extra weight – and Entei jumped free. Rolling, he came to his feet and charged a second Aura Sphere.
Still trying to fight on, the Ice-type turned to try and get a bead on him.
"Aurorus, that's enough!" Pryce called. "He's got you."
Returning her, Pryce chuckled. "Well, well... I don't think she actually managed to hurt him much, did she? But she certainly gave him the run-around!"
"You're telling me..." Entei muttered. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I absolutely need a bath as soon as possible..."
"You're down to just Mamoswine, right?" Ash checked, as Entei padded back over.
"That's right," Pryce confirmed. "I don't have to switch out after a victory any more, too."
"So I've got to beat your Mamoswine, and I've got... everyone except Snorlax to do it with," Ash said. "And I can't send Entei out first..."
He nodded to Entei. "You may as well go and have a quick shower at the Pokémon centre, get the worst of it off."
Entei was gone before Ash had finished the sentence.
"Okay..." that done, Ash considered. Mamoswine was powerful, entirely at home in the cold, and had some strong Ground-based attacks. But he wasn't agile, which could be crucial.
Oh, who was he kidding?
"Quilava!" he called, sending her out.
"You took your sweet time," she grumbled, rotating her neck as she readied for the battle. "It's not as if you've got Charizard or Houndour with you..."
"Clearly this trainer is insane," the alpha said, matter-of-factly. "But he's the good kind of insane, so it's less of a problem."
"You seriously fought Entei again? And your trainer caught him?" one of Houndour's brothers asked. "That's awesome!"
"Yeah, I did," Houndour confirmed. "By the way, dad, thanks again for teaching us Beat Up – it hits like you would not believe when I'm on a team with Pokémon like a Lucario, a Keldeo, Suicune and Entei."
The rest of the pack nodded along.
"So," his mother asked, after a moment. "How do you feel?"
"It's..." Houndour paused, looking for the words. "Awesome," he decided. "Obviously we can't all be with Ash all the time, but when he does do work one-on-one with one of us it's pretty neat. And I really feel like an important part of the team – I'm the only one with Flash Fire, at least that Ash has, and on top of that I'm the only Dark-type."
"And I can see you're fine with being away from us," his uncle added. "Good to see, that. I tried to lone-dog it once."
"You lasted three hours," the alpha chuckled. "Right, thanks for the update. I'm glad you like what you're doing, that alone makes me feel perfectly fine about our move."
"Thanks," Houndour said, wagging his tail. Then he frowned. "Oh, yeah, something cool I learned recently. Uh – we've all got Flash Fire, right?"
One of his sisters, and his uncle, prudently stepped back.
"Right. Anyway – Overheat!"
The two Charizard sat atop a mountain peak.
"Does this count as a date?" Ash's Charizard asked, curiously, as he finished the last of their packed lunch.
"Good question," Charla replied. She frowned. "Did... did we... do this last time?"
"No, this is definitely new," Charizard assured her. "I think it's the Beautifly effect, or something – use enough Fire attacks on enough Beautiflies..."
"That can't be how it works," Charla frowned. "Anyway." She spread her wings. "Remember the rules?"
"Yes!" Charizard told her. "Three flaps, furl wings, first one to spread them loses, whoever hits the ground loses and has to carry the rubbish home!"
Liza looked up at the sound of the double thud-crash that echoed through the valley.
"Morons," she muttered.
"Okay, Quilava," Ash said, glancing up. "You know what to do, right? He's strong, tough – and fast, but not agile. So you'll need to keep moving."
"Right," she nodded.
"And – I'll keep an eye on him for you, and try to warn you when he's about to use Earthquake or something like it."
"Thanks." Quilava gave him a quick look to see if there was any further advice, then walked forwards onto the snowed-in battlefield, balled up, and flashed into her Flame Wheel.
She immediately spun up and dashed forwards, heading for Mamoswine.
"Jump!" Ash called, and she pulsed her flame slightly. In most directions it just blasted off into the air, but the force that went down was reflected by the ground – producing a net takeoff effect, and putting her in the air when Mamoswine's Earthquake rocked the ground beneath.
Quilava bounced back to the floor, dug in for traction, and continued moving fast.
She could tell which direction Mamoswine was, via scent, but it was hard to know what he was doing when she was balled up like this. She was having to rely on Ash for cues-
"Jump, then attack!"
She pulsed fire again, launching herself into the air, then oriented herself mid-air as the rumble of what sounded like an Earth Power went below. She identified where Mamoswine was – closely enough for an attack, anyway – then used Aerial Ace, another heat-pulse launching her forwards and straight at her target.
Mamoswine's thick, shaggy coat bounced her off, but she'd definitely scored a hit.
This was working.
"Mamoswine!" Pryce called. "Slow her down! Scary Face!"
Quilava didn't notice the icy glare aimed at her, because she was already fighting with her eyes closed – looking where she was going would only make her feel a bit queasy.
Skidding around in a tight turn, she launched herself into the air again and hit Mamoswine on what she thought was probably the flank.
This time, when she hit the ground, she did it at a bad time. Mamoswine had just used another Earthquake, and the aftershock bounced her into the floor harder than she'd been expecting.
Stunned, she skidded out of control and ended up in a snowbank.
"Ow..." she muttered, shaking her head, then yelped and jumped clear just before an Ancient Power blew a hole in the snowbank.
Balling up again, she accelerated off.
"Keep going!" Ash called. "And... jump!"
Blasting herself into the air with another pulse of fire, she hung there for a moment. There was the grinding sound of an Earthquake-
"Attack now!"
Quilava fired herself at Mamoswine.
Ash watched as Quilava bounced off Mamoswine's forehead with a blast of flame from the impact, spun straight up into the air, and then attacked again before landing on the battlefield and skidding out of the way of an Ancient Power.
He kept a close eye on Mamoswine, watching for what move he'd try next.
There – Mamoswine was rearing back for an Earthquake.
"Jump and attack!" he called, and Quilava's moving orange form bounced into the air for a moment. She passed safely over the Earthquake, then rocketed into Mamoswine, staggering him.
This was working! Quilava was too fast for Mamoswine to catch, and her way of finding her targets made it nearly impossible for him to hide in the snowstorm!
Across the field, though, Pryce was thinking about that too... so, what would he-
"Mamoswine!" Pryce called. "The hail isn't working! Rain Dance!"
Uh oh.
"Quilava, look out!" Ash called, as the temperature rose noticeably and it began to sleet, then rain. "The slush is going to be harder to move on!"
"You're telling me..." Quilava muttered to herself, feeling the surface change under her as rainwater infiltrated the ice and snow.
The rain itself wasn't pleasant, either. She had to expend more energy to keep up the same level of heat – and the same combat effectiveness – and she could already feel the warning signs of tiredness.
"Quilava!" she heard Ash call. "Don't attack for now – just dodge when I say! Jump!"
This time, Quilava's fire-jump produced a minor steam explosion, and threw her much higher. Caught off guard, she nearly fluffed her landing, and an Earth Power came within inches of catching her as she accelerated again.
She turned, throwing out a great arc of cold water lit by the flickering of her quills, and wondered what Ash was planning.
That he was planning something was obvious, of course...
Ash saw Mamoswine rear back for another Earthquake, and winced. That could produce some powerful waves, now that the battlefield was mostly watery.
"Jump – and attack away from Mamoswine!" he told Quilava.
Surprised, she followed instructions. The Earthquake itself passed beneath her as she rose into the air propelled by the steam blast, and then she rammed home a Flame Wheel into the wall of less-melted ice around the battlefield.
It creaked, cracked – and crumbled. Several thousand gallons of water spilled out as the icy dam broke, and the water level quickly dropped to something more normal.
Misty craned her neck to look. "Where's that going – oh, good, it's going to end up in the river."
Ash's eyes were flicking between the sky and the battlefield.
The rain was starting to slow and peter out – good.
"Head straight for Mamoswine!" Ash called. "If I say jump – just a small jump!"
Quilava took a moment to check those instructions.
Nope, she couldn't see how they made sense.
That thought actually heartened her. If she didn't know, nor would Mamoswine.
Spinning up, throwing up mud behind her, she shot forwards – aiming directly for Mamoswine, not deviating in either direction.
Ash called for her to jump, and she did – a tiny little hop, which carried her over the shockwave of the Earthquake aimed at her.
"Now – come out of Flame Wheel and stop!"
Quilava relaxed, uncurling, Her hind legs hit the ground, and she used them to skid and brake as she would if hit out of her Rollout or Flame Wheel mid-air.
Driving her forelegs into the ground as well, she skidded sideways towards Mamoswine – unable to stop in time, she ended up directly underneath Mamoswine.
He promptly began trying to Stomp her – but he didn't have time. Quilava had worked out Ash's plan.
She grinned. "Eruption!"
The blast of heat radiated out in all directions.
The battlefield, which had been alternately hailed on, frozen, shaken and soaked, now got dried out for several feet around Quilava.
But that was just the side-blast. Most of the fury of the Eruption went straight up, and it was far too much for the already-tired Mamoswine to cope with.
Quilava had just enough time to realize the very particular downside to her of this plan before three hundred kilos of mammoth landed on her.
Ash ran forwards onto the field as soon as he'd seen what went wrong, and gathered up Quilava as Pryce returned his scorched Mamoswine.
"Sorry, Quilava," he said, wincing. "Guess I didn't think it all the way through..."
"Ow," she said indistinctly. Then she shook her head, and shrugged. "I guess I'm the one who actually did it, and I didn't notice either."
There was a series of soft splats as Pryce walked across the battlefield to him. "Pretty good work, overall," he said, frowning. "If you wanted feedback, though, I'd say... it seemed like you need to work with Entei a bit more. I got the sense he's just used to using Fire attacks on everything."
"That's not far off," Ash agreed. "We've been working on coverage moves, but it's the difference between being able to do something and thinking about how to use it."
"Right," Pryce nodded. "You should be quicker to give advice like that, though. And as for that Mega-Evolution..."
He shook his head. "It was impressive, but I got the sense you didn't know everything about it. And neither did he."
"Again, that's about right," Ash nodded. "It's only been an option for a few days. We've run into Mega-Evolutions before, and all the other ones we've seen just make a Pokémon stronger – they don't change things that drastically, so..."
He shrugged.
"Right." Pryce considered that. "Well, you clearly know these things are issues... if it had been a close battle overall I'd have said you should have used your Lucario against Aurorus like you intended, but it wasn't so that doesn't matter. Good luck, Ash – and let me know if you run into a Mega Stone for an Ice-type!"
"I'll keep an eye out," Ash smiled. He turned back towards the rest of the group, and blinked. "What the-"
"Not one word. Not. One Word," Entei insisted, tail lashing and a growl rumbling in his throat.
The intimidating effect was spoiled, however, by why he was insisting on silence. Clearly his shower had turned into something more elaborate.
There were a few clues to that, of course. First, his fur had been combed once clean, and the comb-lines were still just about visible.
Second, there was the faint scent of shampoo as one got closer.
Both of those were less surprising, however, than that his tail had been styled. There were even pink bows.
"That Nurse Joy is an evil-minded individual," he muttered.
A Fast Ball emerged from Dexter's transfer system, bounced once, and flashed open.
"What is it-" Suicune began, blinked, and put a paw to her mouth to avoid laughing.
I thought you'd want to see.
"Traitorous contraption," Entei simmered.
"And done," Todd said, smiling. "You can come down now."
Moltres made a final circuit low over the meadow, flared her wings, and touched down gently. Once down, she walked carefully over, accompanied by the rest of the group of humans and Pokémon.
Already anticipating what she wanted, Todd flicked through the pictures on his camera.
There were several he thought were particularly good – that is, special. The kind of thing he felt privileged to be there to photograph.
One had her just passing in front of the sun, with her flaming tail partially obscuring the disc itself. It produced a lot of camera artefacts in the lenses, but that helped – it conveyed the impression of incredible heat and brightness, in a way another picture might not have been able to.
Then there was the one with her using Fire Spin, the leading edges of her wings just breaking out of the wall of flame and making it look like she was emerging, fully formed, from an explosion.
But the one which was most impressive was more mundane. It was the photo he'd taken just as she set off – firey wings clapping together, producing a shower of sparks, but none of the flame was reaching the grassy meadow below. And yet, the windrush of her takeoff was clearly disturbing the grass, making it bend away in concentric circles from her launch point.
It gave the impression she was at once part of the world and not.
After a few minutes, there was a whispered discussion.
"I don't know either," Todd shrugged to Sneasel, on seeing her questioning look. "They seemed to like that one you did, though."
Sneasel nodded, pleased. That had been a slightly nerve-wracking one – Sneasel had taken the smaller camera, and ridden on Moltres' back for a few minutes.
Being four hundred feet in the air on the back of a firebird had been an interesting experience for a groundbound Ice-type, to say the least...
"Right!" Meowth said, clapping his paws. "We got a conclusion – dat was all pretty awesome."
"Oh, that's fine, really!" Todd assured them. "I'm trying to put together a portfolio of all three Legendary Birds, that's why I came to the Sevii Islands in the first place."
"Really?" Meowth smiled. "Huh. Glad we could help..."
"Apart from Shamouti, there's also one I remember hearing of up in northern Johto," Jessie supplied. "There's a lake there regularly visited by Zapdos, I think."
"Thanks for the advice."
"Oh," James added. "Before you go – I did have the idea of a picture that's not for the magazine..."
Giovanni looked through his morning paperwork.
"Interesting. It seems that Tyson successfully implemented the Mega-Evolution system – and that the Ketchum boy has already got a Mega-capable Pokémon," he said as he read one report.
Persian yawned, and he stroked the Classy Cat with his other hand.
"And... oh, dear. Botch nearly butched the whole operation. His report says that he had his Charizard use Flamethrower on the boy in order to startle him and make him retreat."
A pair of feline ears perked up, and Persian growled softly.
"Of course that's not what he was trying to do. But at least something came of it – we now have confirmation he's capable of using a shield with his Aura..."
Putting aside the matter of discipline for later, he picked up the next sheaf – and found a small memory card with it.
"Hm?"
Slotting it into his air-gapped, disposable computer, he opened it and verified that the only thing on it was a file with Rocket admin-only encryption.
Not a very big file, either...
He entered the correct code, and the file decrypted itself into an image file tagged with the title "new team photo".
Now very curious, he opened it.
For several seconds, neither Giovanni nor Persian reacted visibly.
"Persian?" Giovanni asked, calmly. "Have my top agents somehow finagled themselves a Legendary Pokémon?"
Persian nodded.
"Right." Giovanni nodded, then deleted the file. "I'll ask them about it in person."
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