章節 43: 53

"Okay, here goes," James said, sitting himself firmly down in the back seat. "You two ready for this?"

"Good question," Jessie muttered. She glanced out the window of their modified C-130 Machamp, and looked down the beach on beautiful Five Island. "Uh – is that clear enough?"

"Should be, we landed on it a couple a' weeks back," Meowth quipped.

Jessie double-checked, then flicked a few switches. "Right. Self Test... good. Engine oil levels are fine... Meowth, how's the fuel?"

"All good!" Meowth reported. "We got several hundred miles in dis thing!"

"Good," Jessie said, concentrating. "Okay, injectors ready... mix is rich... I think we're ready to start."

"Remember, we're testing a sudden takeoff," James hinted.

"Right." Jessie clicked a toggle, and a plastic cover unlatched. She slid a fingernail under it and flipped it up, then rested her finger on the switch.

"Cover your ears, guys!" Meowth called. "Dis is gonna be loud!"

Jessie hit the switch, slamming the throttles forwards with her other hand.

In each engine, several small explosive charges went off. They spun the engine rotors to full heat and power in an instant, and the engines coughed, then caught and began to run steadily.

"Flaps down..." Meowth reported.

"Right," Jessie confirmed. "Pitch going to coarse – we're rolling!"

Moltres tried to put her wings over her ears. "This is so loud!"

"Don't worry," Arbok said, shrugging with a sinuous flick of his body. "You'll barely notice it after a while."

"I'm not sure how I feel about that..."

"I think Abra has some earplugs," Victreebell suggested.

The aircraft surged forwards, then tilted back to the accompaniment of a roar from the engines.

"Good work, Jessie," James complimented, as they levelled out. "How was that?"

"...unexpectedly complicated," Jessie admitted. "I thought it would be more like those robots we have. You know, four buttons and a joystick."

"The robots used ta last about twenty minutes once we got in dem," Meowth said, shrugging. "So it might be a good ting."

"True..." Jessie nodded.

"Right!" James said. "Two more things to try out before we head back to Honshu. Well, three. Anyway – which of the first two should we do first?"

Jessie waited.

James looked expectant.

"James..." Jessie said slowly. "What are these mysterious things?"

"Oh, right." James winced. "Okay. The first one is to give Meowth a go flying."

"Me?" Meowth asked, blinking. "Why me?"

"Don't worry," James shrugged. "I won't try to have you land. It's just so you can keep the plane orbiting if we need it."

"I guess..." Meowth said, looking with trepidation at the yoke. "I'm more of a copilot cat... what's da second one?"

"Testing the hover capabilities," James explained. "The third one's... well, basically, seeing if Moltres can catch someone when they jump out the back."

"...and how is that useful?" Jessie asked, banking slightly as they spiralled slowly up to cruising altitude.

James took several seconds to answer. "If we need to jump out in a hurry and one of us forgot their parachute?"

"Sure," Meowth said, unconvinced.

Raikou jumped from rock to rock, approaching a steep drop. As he arrived, he took in the valley below at a glance, and kicked off for a point about a third of the way down the far wall. Reaching it, he turned inside his own body length to jump back across the valley – arresting his fall to the river below.

Pidgeot shot overhead, turning in a three-quarters-circle to drop into the steeply sided valley as Raikou reached the bottom. Balancing briefly on a rock outcrop in the middle of the river, he jumped again to pelt downstream.

Glancing back, he spotted Pidgeot – her wings slightly folded back, to make her narrower in this constricted airspace – before turning back to the river and accelerating.

A few miles downstream, the valley sides began to flatten out, and there were farms. Raikou went blazing past, relishing in the glory of running flat out, and as he made each turn he caught just a glimpse of the steady Bird Pokémon following him – swinging wider on the turns, banking over to avoid oversteering too much, and keeping pace without too much difficulty.

Another turn, and then Raikou was out of the hills and onto a plain. He saw a bridge coming up, and quickly verified that there was more than enough room underneath for him to pass.

But that was boring!

The Electric-type's legs bunched up, and he launched himself entirely over the bridge in a prodigious leap – passing over the covered footbridge, and the higher roadbridge suspension cables.

Landing again in a great splash of water, he dug deeper to make sure he was properly skimming across the surface rather than sinking – and, glancing back, he spotted that Pidgeot had also done the reverse of what was expected by going under the bridge.

She was getting uncomfortably close. Raikou spotted a wier coming up, and used the broad spill surface to spin around and snap off a Thunderbolt at her.

It connected, but Pikachu's Lightningrod caught it and drank it in without letting any through to Pidgeot. It did startle her instinctively, though, and she let off the pace slightly.

Spinning around again as he reached the base of the spill surface, Raikou kicked off again.

The river was becoming swiftly broader and flatter, now, as it reached the sea. There was another bridge, and then another – which Raikou jumped over, sometimes landing in a mud-flat before accelerating back to full speed – and then with shocking suddenness the land just ended and he was running over an inlet of the sea.

There seemed to be an airport on an island to his left, though, which was peculiar...

Returning his attention to where he was going, Raikou was somewhat surprised to discover he was about to run into a yacht. Managing to turn away in time (though getting the owner of the yacht quite wet with spray), he settled down for the long run south.

"Hey, Max," May said, standing up. "Come with me for a bit, okay?"

Max blinked. "What?"

"Come on!" May insisted. She sighed. "Look, I'm not trying to take your lunch money, or anything..."

"...why would you even-" Max shook his head. "Okay, I guess, just – why?"

"It's a surprise!" May told him. "Come on!"

Max sighed. "Okay, I guess you're going to pester me until I say yes..."

"That's about the shape of it," May agreed readily. She glanced down at her belt, checking Blaziken was with her. "Okay, let's go!"

"Are you going to explain why we're out here yet?" Max asked.

"Ssh!" May admonished.

Max rolled his eyes, sighing. "I could have been reading or something."

"You'd prefer this – aha!" May stuck a hand out, stopping Max from moving past the bush she was looking through.

"What?" Max asked, more quietly this time.

May peered through the bushes for a moment longer, then nodded to herself. She picked Blaziken's Pokéball off her belt, shoved it into his hand, put another Pokéball in his other hand, and gave him a shove that sent him staggering around the bush.

Blinking, Max glanced down at his hands. "What the-"

A bark interrupted him. Looking down – and not very far down, given his height – he saw a green Electrike staring at him, growling softly.

"May?" he asked. "What in the-"

Blaziken's Pokéball burst open. He stared impassively back into the bushes at May for a moment, then turned to Electrike and knelt down.

This rather wrong-footed the little Electric-type, who stopped growling in confusion. "Rike?"

Blaziken shook his head, smiling slightly. "Ken."

Max glanced at his pocket. "Kris? What are they saying?"

It seems May planned this without actually telling Blaziken what she wanted him to do, Kris postulated.

"Hey!" May called.

You did, though, Ethan's synthesized voice pointed out.

"Well, yeah..."

The two Pokémon appeared to have worked something out. Blaziken stood, coming back to Max's side, and took a stance. Electrike matched him, hunching down again and growling.

"May?" Max asked, a little plaintively.

"It's a Pokémon battle, Max!" May told him. She came out of the bushes, the pretense now so threadbare it wasn't worth keeping up. "You know how those work."

"Well, yeah, but – why?"

Blaziken looked back expectantly, and said something.

Apparently the Electrike is fine with this, Kris supplied. I think you're supposed to tell Blaziken to do an attack now.

"Uh...Ember?"

Blaziken duly used an Ember.

With a crackle of electricity, Electrike launched itself forwards and out of the way of the Ember. It Thunder Fanged Blaziken's leg, and the Fire-type responded with a vague shake.

He gave Max an encouraging look.

"Blaze Kick!" Max instructed, then frowned as Electrike let go. "And – uh, Fire Spin!"

Raising his fists, Blaziken summoned fire from his wrists and directed it forwards in a pair of swirling motions. The flame formed a tornado around Electrike, who yelped, and had noticeable scorch marks when the flames died down.

"That's weakened it!" May said, as the Electrike started trying to bite at Blaziken's hand and Blaziken retaliated by lifting his hand out of the way. "Now, catch it!"

Max blinked. He glanced at May, then at Electrike, and then at the empty Pokéball she'd given him. "...oh, right."

"Took you long enough," she said, shaking her head.

"You didn't exactly warn me," he pointed out.

"True."

"But – I mean, is this okay?" Max asked. "I don't know if-"

He said he was fine with it, Kris repeated. That's what he and Blaziken were talking about.

Over the intervening time, Electrike had started biting at Blaziken's ankles again. His teeth crackled with a Thunder Fang, but Blaziken endured it relatively easily.

"Right!" Max said, more firmly. "Pokéball, go!"

The red-white sphere spun across the intervening space, opened, and sucked Electrike in. It wobbled for a moment, slowed, and clicked.

"See?" May asked. "Not so hard, is it?"

"...it would have helped if you'd given me any sort of warning at all," Max muttered. He picked up the Pokéball, and let the passenger out.

"How'd you know?" he asked, kneeling down to the green Electric-type. "That I was considering Electrike, I mean?"

"...right," May said, blushing. "I was cleaning your room, and-"

"May!"

"It was right there!" May protested. "Under your textbooks, closed, with a note on it telling me not to read it!"

Blaziken gave his trainer an amused look.

"Oh, shut up," she said to him, unable to restrain a snort of laughter.

Electrike yapped something.

You're his starter, Kris informed him. I don't count.

The Electric-type considered that, scratched, and then jumped up and licked Max's face.

"Hey!" Max said, flailing. "Gerrof!"

Blaziken exchanged a glance with May, and both nodded – satisfied.

They may not have planned it ahead of time, but they could tell when something had worked.

Pidgeot rose slightly, steering around a small and startled flock of Wingull, then dropped back down towards the surface of the sea.

"Good work, Pidgeot," Ash said, one eye on Raikou. "Easy does it for now-"

Raikou jinked to the right, then left, and snapped another thunderbolt up at Pidgeot as he slowed briefly. The blast of electricity came in, hit her wing, and flowed up the thunder-armour enshrouding it into Pikachu's cheeks.

"Ah!" the Flying-type said, flinching slightly. "That was-"

"It's okay," Ash reminded her. "Just focus. He can't-"

He stopped. "Okay, left!"

Pidgeot turned on her side and banked, wings hauling around in a sharp turn, and the rainbow-coloured beam of light just about missed hitting her tail.

"What was that!?" she asked, turning back across her base course to stay a difficult target.

"Looks like Raikou's been teaching himself some new moves," Ash explained. "That was Extrasensory. Pikachu can't block that!"

"No kidding," Pikachu muttered. "But you can, Ash."

Ash nodded, taking the big blue hat off and placing it on Pidgeot's head. He had to hold it on, as her crest wasn't very well suited to keeping a hat that size on, which meant he was a little startled when she made another sharp turn and dove seawards.

Spinning in a tight, wings-in roll, Pidgeot spun off two layers of air which intensified and sharpened. They curved gracefully down and along until parallel with the sea surface, then sliced in towards Raikou from both sides.

He saw them coming, jumped, and got hit by a Gust from behind.

The slug of air wasn't very damaging, but it did blow him forwards and foul his landing. He skipped off the water at several hundred miles an hour, rolled, straightened out in mid-air and resumed running.

"Nice work," Ash said, then Raikou skidded around and fired another blast of Extrasensory. It splashed off Pidgeot's breast, negated by the Dark subtype the hat gave her, and she powered forwards while he was slowed.

She shot past him at a few feet distance, kissing the sound barrier as she did so, and the SLAM of her airstream hit Raikou like a sledgehammer.

Growling, he snapped a thunderbolt after her – which Pikachu absorbed – and darted off in a different direction.

Pidgeot came out of her shallow, U-shaped dive-and-climb. "What now?"

"Try and push him towards an island!" Ash said. "I – there's one there! Uh..." he glanced skywards. "To the southwest! Nearly at the horizon."

"I see it." Pidgeot banked around, describing a three-dimensional arc through the sky, to come in on Raikou's right side and push him towards the small island.

Excuse me.

Oak looked up, startled. "Wh – Mewtwo?"

The grey-purple Psychic-type nodded. I hope I am not interrupting anything.

"Not much," Oak sighed. "Just – be careful when you're teleporting directly indoors, okay? Most people prefer it if their guests knock."

Sorry, Mewtwo 'pathed, contrite. I can see I still have to internalize some things.

"No, it's not... oh, never mind." The Pokémon Professor leaned back in his chair. "So, what brings you here?"

You are aware I am writing a book? Mewtwo inquired.

"I think you mentioned, yes..."

He was provided with a manuscript. As and when you have the time, I would appreciate a proof-read. It's mainly nerves, I hope.

Oak took it, noting the title – The Other Side of the Pokéball – and flicked through. "Anywhere in particular?"

Please, start from the beginning, Mewtwo requested. I hope you enjoy it, and maybe even find it useful.

Nodding, the professor found the start of the first chapter and began reading.

The Circumstances of One's Birth – wild, tame, artificial

One of the most important moments in the life of anyone, human or Pokémon, is the very first.

Almost all Pokémon hatch from eggs. They are born to a mother of the same evolutionary line, and to a father who may be a very different Pokémon. While they may hatch alone, with a family, in a small house or a big hatchery, or even at the inducement of another Pokémon, for the purposes of this chapter I will consider two categories – wild, and tame.

A wild-hatched Pokémon is one which has been born into a natural environment, no matter what it may be. Examples of wild Pokémon are all around you – the Pidgey in the trees, the Butterfree overhead. Almost without exception, Pokémon caught in the wild are wild Pokémon.

To be a wild Pokémon is to grow up mostly apart from humans, and among one's own kind. They teach the wild Pokémon things it may not learn from humans – how to survive alone, for example, or how to find food. Wild Pokémon also must learn self-reliance – the wild is not for the faint hearted.

This very unsafeness, however, is why those Pokémon who tend to live on the fringes of human settlements tend to be the smarter ones. They are more able to tell that humans are – for the most part – not very dangerous, will pick up the languages of humanity much more easily, and many of the smartest will carefully weigh up the pros and cons of becoming caught. Ask your caught Pokémon about it – they may surprise you.

Tame Pokémon, on the other hand, are those bred by humans or born to Pokémon partnered to the same. As a rule, they are comfortable with humans, and tend on average to be more intelligent than the average wild Pokémon (though not necessarily the average captured wild Pokémon.) They are part of the social contract of society and often understand this, expecting to be treated well, fed and kept safe – and, in return, they are willing to perform quite impressive tasks for their human partners and friends. That said, no Pokémon will do anything, and most tame-born Pokémon are quite capable of coming to conclusions about a poor trainer by comparing them to prior experience.

Tame-born Pokémon will tend, on average, to need more attentive training than wild Pokémon – being less able to figure things out for themselves, at least at first – but over time there comes to be little distinction.

Some Pokémon blur the lines between these two categories, being born into a civilized community of Pokémon. One of the most commonly known is the Lucario Kingdom in Sinnoh, whose noble families are born into a community as centralized as any human village. They are taught to fight and to learn, and are thoroughly pleasant individuals.

There is a third way a Pokémon may come into the world, however. I am one of this third kind, the created Pokémon – one not born to parents, but made. In my case, it was through cloning and genetic manipulation of the DNA of a Mew. Many of my companions were similarly created, though not all.

Other examples of created Pokémon are those Porygon who have started to appear more often in the world of late, as technology becomes more up to the task of their creation, as well as the three Legendary Beasts – created by Ho-Oh – and the Dragons and Fairies of Sinnoh, all of whom were directly created by Arceus in an act of extreme direct power.

Created Pokémon tend to be powerful – we are made artificially, so weakness can be factored out – and tend not to have a childhood, since in all cases to date they have been made fully grown. We are unconventional, but we are not fundamentally different from other Pokémon – indeed, clones of my acquaintance have themselves laid eggs, and their young are a delight to play with.

Case study one: Wild Pokémon

For this case study, I have elected to examine the starter Pokémon of a friend of mine. This starter is one of those relatively rare starters who was caught, not bred, and his initial attitude to his trainer was...

Finishing the first chapter after about twenty minutes, Oak looked up.

What do you think? Mewtwo asked nervously.

"It seems... very level-headed," Oak said. "You've clearly put in a lot of effort to be objective – and there's some nice personal touches. I couldn't see any particular errors."

Thank you, Mewtwo smiled. Let me know if you do spot anything.

Nodding, Oak went back to reading.

Pidgeot's belly skimmed inches over the sea, as she closed in on Raikou's position. The highest point on the small island they were headed for was now visible, and she judged distances-times-speeds to make sure she had the right moment.

Her mouth opened, and she sucked in air towards a swirling sphere held just outside her beak. It grew, building up, and then she tilted her wings and popped up.

Raikou had just reached the island, and was turning to launch an attack off at her – exploiting the solid ground it provided. Just as he was about to get off what looked like a Signal Beam, though, Pidgeot fired.

The Aeroblast hit a little off-target at first, smashing into the shallow waters of the beach. It slid quickly onshore as Pidgeot corrected her aim, blasting a long furrow in the ground, and connected with Raikou as he dropped his attack and turned to dodge.

Pidgeot held the attack for a second more, then dropped it. The moment she did, a Hyper Beam speared back out of the dust cloud, and she rolled hastily out of the way.

Raikou's Hyper Beam blew the dust away, revealing him to be standing in a respectable crater. He turned his head, sweeping the beam around to follow Pidgeot, and she just about managed to stay ahead of him by shedding height for speed and pulling in close to him.

Ash winced as the g-forces drove him into his seat, then Pidgeot rolled and soared back up into the air. Wings spread wide to catch as much air as possible, she shed speed and came down again to land.

Jumping off her back, Ash sent out Houndour, Lucario and Meganium. "You know what to do, guys!" he called, as Pikachu jumped from Pidgeot's back to join them.

Lucario nodded for all of them, and they set off at a sprint.

He turned to Pidgeot, and sent out Donphan. "You two – like we planned."

Pidgeot nodded, picking up Donphan by the tusks, and set off skywards.

There was a crackling BANG as Raikou launched a Thunder attack at Ash's team. Pikachu darted out in front, drinking the energy into his Lightningrod, and then retaliated with a quick Aura Sphere.

Raikou darted aside, evading it, and dug his paws into the beach before pouncing forwards – ramming home a powerful Bulldoze attack aimed at Pikachu.

Lucario scooped Pikachu up on the run, getting him out of the way of the Ground attack just in time, and rammed home a kick on Raikou's flank – producing a crackle of electricity, and a whoof of air. For his pains, Lucario got a Rock Smash to the shoulder, and was knocked back a step.

As he gave ground, Houndour darted in and lashed out with a Foul Play. Raikou called down a stream of lightning from the cloudless sky, not all of which Pikachu managed to absorb, and lashed out at Houndour with a paw before darting away from a Bone Rush staff-blow.

The Electric-type beast blurred across the beach, skidding to a halt on one of the few high spots on the small island. "Right, now-"

Meganium unloaded a Petal Dance on him.

"Ow! Right, you first..." Shaking his mane, Raikou charged forwards for a direct melee attack.

Unfortunately for him, he'd missed keeping track of Pidgeot. The Flying-type came screaming in at low altitude, and released Donphan on an intersecting trajectory.

Donphan proceeded to use Earthquake directly on impact with Raikou, sending him skidding off-course, and then bounced back into the air where he was caught by Pidgeot once more.

"...right!" Raikou said, shaking his head as he came back to his feet. "I can see this isn't going to be easy..."

"Shadow Ball!"

Alakazam's spoons crackled with greyish, ghostly energy. As his opponent's gloves crackled, building up a Dazzling Gleam, he swirled one spoon around and defined a circle in the air.

Placing his other spoon in the middle, he let go, and it hovered there.

"Get on with it!" Gary called.

Alakazam didn't deign to respond. He reached up, tapped the hovering spoon, and the whole circle of shadow energy flashed to it before the spoon shot forwards as though fired from a cannon.

It beaned Valerie's Mr. Mime on the forehead, sending her staggering back, and the Dazzling Gleam earthed into the floor.

Moustache bristling, Alakazam gestured again. The spoon came back from where it had ricocheted, sparkling with shadowy energy again, and slammed into Mr. Mime from behind as she tried to get a shield up.

That did it, and she faceplanted into the floor.

"Right!" Valerie called, making a sweeping gesture with the wing of her outfit. "Good. Now, the final match of the Laverre gym is against Sylveon!"

"A Fairy-type, right..." Gary frowned, recalling Alakazam. "Who-"

"Dibs," Umbreon said.

"Really?" Gary blinked, as Dee fed him the translation. "I mean-"

"I know, I know, type advantage." Umbreon shrugged. "I can take her."

"If you insist..." Gary nodded her forwards, as Valerie sent out her Sylveon.

Umbreon rolled her neck. "Right, let's do this."

"A Dark type?" Sylveon asked, looking her over. "Ew. And I could have turned into you?"

Umbreon was silent for a moment.

"Right, you're going down," she said, claws scraping on the gym floor as she got a good grip. Her ear and forehead rings flickered in an odd, disjointed way.

Sylveon frowned. "What is it? Surely you're not offended by- by-"

She looked suddenly very confused. "My head hurts..."

Umbreon pounced forwards, kicking off from the ground and performing a forwards roll. Her tail flashed silver, and she slapped an Iron Tail into the back of the slow-to-react Sylveon.

"Ow!" Sylveon said, snapping out of it. "What did you do?"

Umbreon grinned tightly. "That would be the Confuse Ray." Her rings started to flicker again, and Sylveon looked away.

"I don't have to see you to beat you, ruffian!" Sylveon insisted, her furry tendrils gaining a coating of blue-pink sparkles. Keeping her eyes closed, she turned to face Umbreon. "Dazzling Gleam!"

The attack shot across the intervening space, and detonated.

"Missed!" Umbreon informed her cheekily. Another Iron Tail slammed home, making Sylveon stagger, and the Fairy-type lashed out with her tendrils and got nothing but air.

Gary winced. "What did she do, insult your mother?"

"As it happens, yes," Umbreon replied. "Now, excuse me while I see what effect Toxic has."

Palms glowing, Lucario rammed home a one-two Force Palm kata into Raikou's side. He followed that up with a scything axe kick, and Raikou responded by firing Extrasensory at him.

The blast of psionic energy streamed off Lucario's body, pushing him backwards a step, before he rallied by firing a Dark Pulse from his off hand.

Raikou growled, knocking Lucario back with a physical blow, and turned abruptly to hit Pikachu with another Extrasensory.

Pikachu wobbled, already fatigued from the buffeting he'd taken earlier in the combat, and fell backwards.

"Right," Raikou said, shaking his mane out and turning back to Lucario. Lightning crackled all along his body. "Let's get this bally show on the road!"

Thunder surged out, hitting Lucario's crossed arms and grounding on his metal wrist-spikes. The Fighting-type formed a pair of Bone Rush staffs, sweeping them down-and-across in a reverse scissor blow to intercept the thunder, and Raikou rolled his eyes before pouncing forwards with a Wild Charge.

The bones went out of Lucario's hands as he was knocked physically over by the impact, and Raikou delivered another blast of electricity.

Dazed but not yet out of it, Lucario shook his head to focus it. He pulled his legs in and kicked up, forcing Raikou off him, and came back to his feet.

Houndour contributed with a Beat Up, swarming Raikou in duplicates for the time it took the Beast to clear them out with electrical attacks, and then shot a Flamethrower at him.

His reward was a bolt of electricity several inches wide.

As Houndour collapsed, finally out of the fight, Raikou rolled his neck again. "Looks like I'm starting to get a grip on this dashed fight!"

Lucario summoned a pair of Bone Rush staves again, and took up a guard stance.

"Wait just one minute..." Raikou frowned. "I could swear there were more of you..."

His tail cracked, and he fired an Electric attack at the incoming Pidgeot.

It didn't hit her.

"What now!" Raikou roared, thoroughly annoyed. He whirled, and saw Pikachu running determinedly towards him.

Behind the Electric-type, Meganium smirked and fired a tornado of petals.

Jumping clear of the four-way pincer attack, Raikou shot an Extrasensory skywards. Pidgeot was hit, wobbled briefly, and was unable to swoop down and catch Donphan again.

"How are you still doing this?" Raikou asked Pikachu, swiping at him with a paw and missing.

Pikachu ducked in under Raikou's guard and hit him with a Force Palm. "I'll let you figure that out."

"...wait one minute!" Raikou batted at the ground with a Bulldoze, which hit Pikachu but didn't knock him out, and jumped off.

Another storm of petals came his way, and he fired a Signal Beam back up the Petal Dance whirlwind at Meganium.

She flinched, keeping the attack going for as long as possible, but finally gave up and slumped.

"She knows Heal Pulse, doesn't she?" Raikou said indignantly. It wasn't a question. "I knew I should have kept track of the blighter!"

Donphan came spinning over a hill at speed, and Raikou unlimbered the tattered bundle of signs that had been on his back this whole time. "Wood hammer!"

Donphan was hit for six.

"...did you plan that?" Ash asked, from the rock formation that was the closest thing on the island to hard cover.

"Why do you think I was still carrying the things?" Shaking his head, Raikou charged down on Lucario and hit him with a Bulldoze. Lucario's counter Counter blow was powerful enough to knock him backwards, and then a chirping, snapping sound drew his attention.

Pikachu's tail was a shimmering silvery colour.

"...Iron Tail?" Raikou asked, uncertainly. "Are you all right in the head there, Pikachu? That's not going to-"

Pikachu charged forwards, lightning enveloping him, and jumped at the baffled Raikou. He spun, bringing his tail down for an almighty blow. "Volt Tail!"

There was a very loud bang.

Ash ran forwards and caught Pikachu as he fell from the sky. "Nice work, Pikachu."

"Ow," Pikachu said faintly.

"What the blasted hell was that!?" Raikou asked.

"It's a combination attack," Ash explained, setting Pikachu down and watching Raikou carefully. "It's something we've only ever used on Pokémon resistant to Electricity, but it still seems to work pretty well. We're careful with it."

"Oh," Raikou said, nodding. "That makes a deal of-"

He fell over.

Ash blinked, then glanced over at Lucario – who was still standing.

"I... guess I win?"

"Presumably," Lucario agreed. "You should probably use that Pokéball now."

"Oh, right!" Ash nodded, and threw the Fast Ball. It was still for a moment, then began to rock wildly.

Ash watched it, hoping. Raikou was clearly awake, and if he wasn't as weak as he'd guessed...

The ball gave one more shake, then subsided. There was a quiet click, and the capture registered.

"Well done," Suicune said. "Three for-"

"Gah!" Ash spun. "Where did you two come from?"

"We have been watching since about halfway through the battle," Entei informed him. "I suppose it was a bit loud for you to notice..."

"We wanted to make sure our brother didn't mess around this time," Suicune explained. "It seems he did not – a well earned capture, Ash. You should be proud."

Pidgeot came skimming in for a landing, and Ash nodded. "I guess so..."

"So," Suicune went on. "You mentioned Altomare when we set off. Are we heading there next?"

"Yeah," Ash agreed. "I – how far is it from here?"

"Not far, actually," Entei informed him. "About twenty or thirty miles."

"Thanks – I guess that helps," Ash nodded. "We were there for my birthday last time, and that's coming up – and..."

"Your birthday?" Suicune said, interested. "How fortuitous! You've caught... is something wrong?"

"Kind of," Ash agreed. "Sorry, I – it wasn't a very happy one for me. See, there's a Latias and a Latios who – who are the guardians of Altomare, and someone came after them while we were there."

He sighed. "Latios died. I couldn't save him. And..."

"I see," Suicune said, nodding sombrely.

She shook her head. "Well! That will not be happening this time!"

Entei nodded, embers flashing briefly in his mane. "Whoever this is, they won't stand a chance!"

"But-" Ash stopped, swallowed, and started again. "Thanks, guys."

"We'll sort it out, Ash," Pidgeot chirped. "After all, last time you didn't have us with you."

Her wing sweep took in herself, the three Beasts and Lucario.

"Good point," Ash agreed. "Okay, I promise to try to enjoy my time there. I mean, we'll keep an eye out for Latias and Latios, because we could stop the whole thing, but... yeah, trouble comes to me, I guess."

"That's the spirit." Suicune then blinked down at Raikou's Fast Ball. "Is he alright?"

Ash opened the Pokéball, and Raikou staggered as he materialized.

"...I was hoping to come out in a Pokémon Centre," he muttered. "Oh – when can I learn that Volt Crash move from Pikachu?"

"I can barely credit you've been obsessing over that for this long," Entei said. "We should probably head to Altomare as soon as possible, then, to get looking."

"Brother?" Latias asked. "Can we go out into the city again?"

"No," Latios instructed her firmly. "If there's even the slightest risk, we have to remain safe. The best time to go out is when the city is busy with a festival, because then people don't notice strange things happening so much."

"Awww..." Latias sighed. "But... fine."

She paused. "But I heard there was someone who has Legendary Pokémon!"

"Where did you learn that from?" Latios asked, alarmed. "If you've been going out without permission-"

"I haven't!" Latias said quickly. "Bianca told me. When we were painting."

"I'll be checking in on her to make sure," Latios warned. He sighed. "Well, I suppose going out would be fine... but during the festival only!"

Latias pouted.

"Don't do that," Latios said. "That hasn't worked on me for years."

Latias just pouted more.