"I know you're there Gary, open up!" Misty had been pounding on the door at the Oak Laboratory for over ten minutes. Her right hand had actually grown tired and she had to switch to her left. Her two youngest children were at her feet, 10 year old Kenny with little 7 year old Sue, carrying her favorite Psyduck plush doll.

Finally the door slowly opened. Gary was holding many papers that looked to be of great importance. He looked worn out and didn't seem to be pleased at the interruption. When he saw the family he looked embarrassed. "Oh hi Misty. Hey kids. Um…I'm kind of busy so…"

Not having heard a word that Gary said Misty walked right through the door and her children followed. "We need to talk" she said flatly. It was not a request.

Gary didn't look very enthusiastic about the idea but also seemed to understand that saying 'no' was not an available option. "Oh ok. Tracey!"

Tracey's voice came from somewhere down the nearest hallway. It sounded very aggravated. "WHAT? I'm compiling that information on Dragon Pokémon as fast as I can you slave-driver! If you want I can just give you one of my arms! How about a kidney? Now that I think about it I probably have more lungs than I really need, how'd you like one of those? Will that makes things easier?"

Kenny and Sue both laughed at this outburst, Sue a little more quietly than her brother. Misty couldn't help but chuckle despite everything that was going on. Gary seemed slightly amused and managed a small smile. "I'm just letting you know that Misty and her kids are here so I'll be taking a little break, but don't worry I'll be back to loosen your shackles soon."

That obviously was not the answer Tracey had been expecting. "Oh…" He sounded embarrassed. "Ok then. Let them know I say hi."

Misty chuckled again. "Hi Tracey" she said.

"Come on we can talk in the study" Gary invited. "Your kids can wait in the living room."

In a few minutes she and Gary stood alone in the study when they were convinced Kenny and Sue were occupied by the television set in the living room. Gary was more convinced that Misty. She knew how likely her son would be to eavesdrop on their conversation and how even more likely he was to coerce his sister into following. He had done it so many times, most recently when Sato had told her that Ash would be heading on a mission and as a result her two youngest children had found out their father was a Guardian of Aura sooner than anyone would have liked. She didn't particularly care this time though.

With the air of a guilty little kid caught with his hand in a cookie jar Gary started. "Well…I'm guessing my son did something to Sato today and that's why he isn't here huh? Look I'm…"

"That isn't it" Misty cut in. "This time." She added the second part with a bit of incrimination. She wasn't happy with the way Gary's son treated Sato but she had even more important issues to deal with.

Gary straightened up and seemed to realize how serious Misty was. "Oh. Then this must be about Ash, and his fight with Rayquaza."

"So you've heard of it then?" Misty asked. It seemed like a pointless question. The whole world had probably heard of it by now.

Confirming the ridiculous nature of this question Gary replied, "Well I do watch TV…and go on the internet…and talk to people."

"Right" Misty said dryly. Her sense of humor had dried up. "Then you know what I want. We need to save Ash."

Gary's eyebrows cocked at this statement. Obviously its simple directness caught him off guard. "Oh…well that definitely sounds like a good idea. Do you have any suggestions about how to actually go about doing it?"

"Why else would I be talking to the Kanto region's most renowned Pokémon professor?" Mist asked impatiently, as if there could be no other answer to the question.

"Friendly visit?" Gary jested as he rubbed the back of his head nervously. A piercing glance from Misty showed him she wasn't in the mood for lightheartedness. Gary took the message and stiffened up. "Sorry."

"So how do we stop Rayquaza then Professor?" Misty asked. She sounded like she was asking how to put a piece of furniture together, as if she expected simple direct instructions.

"Well it isn't that simple Misty."

"I don't care if it's simple. Whatever it takes to save my husband I'll do it. I don't care how hard it is. So break it down for me Professor."

Again Gary could clearly tell this was not an optional request. This irritated Gary greatly and Misty knew it. Still she did not back down. Accepting the fact that he was going to be taken from his research for a bit of time Gary let out a sigh. "All right Misty, believe it or not I've been looking into this since Rayquaza showed up. That's why Tracy has been compiling data on everything we know about Dragon Pokémon for me; so I can analyze Rayquaza's weaknesses."

Misty's patience seemed to have increased a little bit. "What did you find?"

"Well it's not good news" Gary said honestly. Misty remained unfazed. "As I'm sure you noticed on the news Rayquaza is completely invulnerable to manmade weapons. Tracy managed to track down a piece of its hide for me that fell off it during its past battle with Deoxys. When I examined it I found that Rayquaza's scales are many times harder than diamond. You could shoot it point-blank with the strongest Gatling gun ever built for hours and all it would do is annoy it. Not only that but it is a durable enough material to easy absorb the shockwaves created by most missiles. The only weapons that might have a shot at hurting it are nuclear ones, but attempting to use those against it would have cataclysmic environmental effects and would be completely impractical as Rayquaza can fly fast enough to completely evade a nuclear explosion. Any effort by humans to stop it would be completely hopeless."

"Then we stop it with other Pokémon" Misty said simply.

"There are problems with that approach too" Gary replied. "As you might be aware the Dragon type is arguably the most powerful element of any Pokémon type; resistant to many types and with only two weaknesses, the Ice type and other Dragon Types."

"So we find a bunch of Dragon and Ice Pokémon and attack him with them then" said Misty.

"It's not that simple Misty" Gary cut in, sounding guilty about telling the truth. "Any Dragon Pokémon we attack him with will invariably have the same weakness to Dragon type moves that he does and because he is a Legendary Pokémon his stats and power will always be superior to the ones we send after him. So he would almost certainly defeat any Dragon Pokémon we used against him before they could do any good."

"How do you know that?" Misty asked. "We could track down the strongest Dragon Pokémon in the world or something. Maybe they could do the trick."

"That's what I thought" Gary said, "Until I looked into it." He walked over to a computer in the corner of the room and turned it on. "This is a Battle Computer. By examining a Pokémon's DNA it can determine its battle power; its speed, strength and defensive power as well as the moves it is capable of using and compile all this data into an approximation of the Pokémon's all around power on a scale from 1 to 100. These are samples from the two strongest Pokémon of two trainers; Lance, the Champion of our Elite Four and Cynthia the Champion of Sinnoh's Elite four or in other words from the two strongest Dragon Pokémon in the world. Well the strongest non-legendary Dragon Pokémon that is. Lance's Dragonite is level 75 and Cynthia's Garchomp is level 77."

"On a scale from 1 to 100 that's pretty good." Misty said.

"That's what I thought" Gary repeated, "Until I looked into it. Tracy managed to find a sample of Rayquaza's blood that came from that cut Ash gave it on its face. It was much harder to get than its scale especially with the cops snooping around the battlefield. If he hadn't coincidentally been in Tokyo on business he never would have gotten the chance. When the fight started he was sure to try and see every detail. When he saw Ash draw blood he was on the roof of the building where he had the next second with a beaker. With the cops interrogating everyone after the battle it's amazing he got out of there with the sample."

"Why did you need his blood?" Misty asked. "Why not use the DNA in that scale to find out his level?"

"His battle with Deoxys was years ago, we needed a more current sample to get more accurate data" Gary explained.

Misty nodded. "And?"

"And…" Gary began hesitantly. Then his voice turned grim. "Rayquaza is level 100."

Misty's heart sank. Her voice was almost a whisper. "What?"

"I've run countless computer scenarios using the Dragon Pokémon owned by Lance and Cynthia and even those from Gym Leaders like Clair and Drayden. Even when all four of them attack Rayquaza at the same time with all of their Pokémon they lose; Rayquaza takes them all down with one hit too quickly for them to even do damage on the way out." From the frustrated way Gary explained this Misty could tell that he was angry he couldn't find better results.

Misty was now full of fear. Before her determination to find a way to help Ash had pushed it out of her mind but now she was faced with the reality that there might be no way to. Still she did not relent then. "Ok what about Ice Pokémon? Rayquaza will be doubly weak against them since he's a Flying type and they aren't super vulnerable to Dragon moves."

"That's what I thought…until…" Gary began.

"If you say that one more time I will kick you hard enough to insure Gary Jr. never has any younger siblings and your voice goes up a couple of pitche" Misty warned.

Cringing at the thought Gary yielded. "Right…well anyway this sample of Rayquaza's blood shows that it knows Flamethrower and its Special Attack stat is high enough that it would only need to hit any Ice type Pokémon we used against it once. He also knows Thunder so using dual Water and Ice type Pokémon wouldn't work either. We could send hundreds of type advantaged Pokémon against it and we wouldn't do any good. No one fights a level 100 Pokémon and wins except maybe another level 100 Pokémon."

A tight not had formed in Misty's stomach and she was beginning to wonder if she would get sick. This monster that wanted to kill her husband seemed to have an answer for every strategy she could come up with. "Well where do we get one of those? There must be other level 100 Pokémon out there, even ones that aren't type advantaged!"

Gary's voice was full of despair. Evidently he had already investigated this theory too. "No. None; no Pokémon trainer in any region in any part of the world has ever successfully trained a Pokémon to level 100. Those who have come closest always say there's some kind of plateau their Pokémon hit in the 80's that they can't seem to overcome. The only known level 100 Pokémon in existence are Legendary Pokémon and we don't exactly have any of those lying around."

With this Misty's memory suddenly clicked. Her husband had many adventures in his life on his Pokémon journey, many with her many without her. Those he had experienced separated from her he had shared once he returned home and began to settle down. There was one in particular that seemed relevant know. "Wait there is a Pokémon trainer that has some of those lying around! The first time Ash fought in the Sinnoh League he lost to a trainer named Tobias who had a Latios and a Darkrai. Ash's Sceptile was able to beat his Darkrai but it took the rest of his Pokémon to take down Latios and even then it still defeated all of his Pokémon. And Latios is a Dragon type Pokémon so it would actually be able to hurt Rayquaza and even if it wasn't enough Darkrai would be able to help it."

Gary answered this idea with a sad look of disappointment, as if she had made him recall his greatest failure. She understood. "You looked into that idea too didn't you?" she asked.

Gary nodded. "There have been a handful of trainers who have befriended Legendary Pokémon which granted them unbelievable power but currently there are none. I've looked them all up. It wasn't that hard since there aren't that many of them. Every trainer who has ever owned a Legendary Pokémon at some point has released it. While the Pokémon they capture are as loyal to them as any other they always yearn to return to nature eventually. Every Legendary plays a pivotal role in the balance of nature so the few who have been domesticated don't stay that way for long. Any trainer who has ever had a strong enough heart to tame a Legendary understands this and willingly sets them free. Right now there are no known trainers that have Legendary Pokémon in their possession. Besides Tobias' Pokémon were never level 100, that's why Ash was able to defeat them." His eyes widened. His mind seemed to drift to another, much brighter place "Although…"

Misty's heart skipped a beat. Could this be the glimmer of hope she had been praying for? "Although?" she repeated, urging him to continue.

"Defeating a Legendary Pokémon with regular Pokémon is an extraordinary accomplishment but not an unheard of one. Aside from Ash there are a few trainers in the world who have done it." He sounded as if he was finding the answer to a difficult equation that had eluded him for hours.

Misty didn't want to risk getting her hopes up again but she wanted Gary to continue. "Like who?"

"Ash might have told you about one" Gary said. "He set out on his Pokémon journey the same day we did. While I choose Squirtle as my first Pokémon he choose the Charmander, well actually he chose his first." He laughed nostalgically. "Ironic, I chose Squirtle because I thought that would give me the edge over him and immediately challenged him to a battle but I lost and after that I never beat him, not even once. While I always seemed to be one step ahead of Ash this guy always seemed three steps ahead of me. He destroyed Team Rocket the first time around. He also won the first Pokémon League Ash and I ever competed in and went on to crush the Elite Four. He's always been in a class all by himself, Ash and I could never hope to match him. Of course Ash never fought him but it's easy to guess who would've won."

Misty had heard of this illustrious trainer. "Ah you mean Red."

Gary smiled for the first time since the conversation had begun. "Yep Red, he's the strongest Pokémon trainer to ever come out of Pallet Town. He captured all 150 Kanto Pokémon and more. In his entire career he was only defeated once."

Misty hadn't heard of this. "He's been defeated?"

Gary nodded. "Yep a trainer named Ethan from the Johto region beat him once on top of Mt. Silver. He's the guy that defeated Team Rocket the second time when it just wouldn't stay dead." He seemed to become lost in his memories at the mention of this. "After the Pokémon League I hadn't seen Red for years. I didn't even know where he was. Apparently he just stayed at the top of Mt. Silver all the time. It was a place with such strong Pokémon, Pokémon most trainers were too afraid to go near but even they were weak compared to his. Then one day during his endless contemplation a trainer he had never met randomly showed up. Red knew he must have been strong to make it to the summit so without a word their battle began and for the first time ever Red tasted defeat. I never thought anyone could beat him and neither did he. After that he stayed up there for the longest time but eventually he came back down. Now he mostly just stays in his house by himself all the time. He lives right next door to me so getting ahold of him should be easy. I go ever there to visit sometimes but I've given up on trying to beat him; I know it's never going to happen. But he should know how to reach the others."

"Others? There are more besides him and Ethan?" Misty asked.

"Five to be exact" Gary answered, holding the fingers of his right hand up. "The five strongest Pokémon trainers on earth; Red, Ethan, a trainer named Brendan, the Champion of the Hoen region, another named Lucas the Champion of Sinnoh and Hilda the Unova Champion. All five of them make every region's Elite Four look like pushovers. They are famous for their amazing accomplishments and most importantly they have all defeated and captured Legendary Pokémon before."

Misty nearly shouted. "They have?"

"Yes. Of course they're retired now like us but they form an interconnected circle of friends. They're the only trainers who can pose a challenge to each other as well as the only ones who have any hope of defeating one of the others. No trainer within their respective regions has ever dethroned them, not even Tobias against Lucas in Sinnoh. When one of them feels like a battle they contact one of the others. Red has avenged himself against Ethan plenty of times but Ethan has also repeated his success many times. In fact each of them has defeated all of the others at some point and each of them has been defeated by all of the others at some point. They have all entered into an elite class of trainers that stands above everyone else on the planet. They don't have a single level 100 Pokémon among them but if they work together maybe…just maybe…"

Misty was beaming joyously now. "They can defeat Rayquaza!"

"Maybe!" Gary was sure to say. "I'm not promising anything. But they're definitely our best shot. I'll go see Red as soon as I can and he can contact the others. They're used to doing this kind of thing anyway so I doubt they'll be surprised and I'm almost certain all of them will agree to help."

Misty ran up to Gary and clasped her hands on his shoulders. "That's so great Gary! Thank you! The strongest trainers in the world will be fighting for my husband! Thank you so much! Oh if you weren't such a bad father I could almost stand to hug you!"

Gary's expression was a cross between a smile and the expression that appears on most men's faces when they are kicked in-between the legs. "Yeah…you're welcome Misty I'm happy to help."

Misty folded her arms smugly. "Hey since your son started picking on Sato that's the highest I'm capable of thinking of you. You should be grateful I'm came that close to complimenting you."

Gary let out a sigh. "The same as Ash huh? Seems like our friendship ended the day both our sons could walk." He sounded genuinely sad.

"Well you know there is a solution" Misty said. She could discuss this issue freely now that there was a plan to save Ash. She usually left discussing Sato and Gary Jr.'s issues to Ash. She figured since he and Gary were friends they would be better be able to sort it out. But that hadn't exactly worked. "You could discipline your son you know."

For whatever reason the self-entitled, defensive rage that usually followed when Ash suggested this did not come this time. Perhaps it was he was speaking with Misty this time or maybe he felt guilt over Ash's current predicament but for whatever reason he let out another weary sigh. "I just can't. I know what he does isn't right but I guess I just always wrote it off as the same arrogance I had when I was a kid. But deep down I always knew he was being worse than I was. I know I should say something but I just…can't."

Misty gave him a stern look. "Go on."

Gary looked at her with reluctance. He seemed hesitant but relented. "He's my grandpa's legacy. I feel like if I try to stifle his confidence in any way I'm stopping him from exceeding me."

"Exceeding you?"

"He needs to exceed me. I never exceeded my grandpa. I was never good enough. I may have been a decent trainer and professor but I've never broken any ground and as a result the Oak family hasn't improved at all since my grandpa's generation."

"And letting your son push mine around will improve it?"

"No, no. It's just he's so confident and outgoing, even more than I was. I was sure that would be the reason why he exceeds me. I know him being a bully isn't good for anyone I'm just…scared…that…" he trailed off.

"That if you take away what's bad about him you'll take away what's good about him?" Misty finished.

Gary nodded. "Not just that but…with my grandpa gone and…with my wife's death a few years ago…he's the only family I have."

Misty was now a tiny bit less angry at him. "And you're afraid of him not liking you."

Gary nodded.

This time Misty didn't sound scolding. Her voice was full of compassion. "Gary you aren't doing him any favors by letting him do whatever he wants. You're letting his negative side flourish and its choking his good side. He was a nice kid when he was a toddler, before that confidence developed. I'm not saying his confidence is bad but he thinks it makes him better than Sato. As his father you have to do what's best for him even if it means he doesn't like you. You have to put him before yourself." She put her hand on his shoulder. "I know it's hard; I've always been deathly afraid that one of my kids might not like me but something that matters more than that fear is helping them grow into the wonderful adults I know they have the potential to be. I know they'll make me proud. And ask yourself Gary: are you honestly proud of your son?"

Gary looked away from Misty and his head sunk low. "...No."

"Then do everyone a favor and make yourself proud; make your son hate you."

Gary chuckled weakly and looked at Misty with a small smile. "I'm going to go see Red and then I'm going to have a long talk with my son; he's grounded."

"You do all that and maybe one day I'll be able to hug you and keep my lunch down" Misty said, patting his shoulder. "So do you have any questions about how Ash suddenly has superpowers? Everyone else has heard of it so there's no point trying to keep it a secret."

"Oh I already knew" Gary said simply. After he saw the confused look on Misty's face he explained. "My grandpa knew that Ash's father was a Guardian of Aura when Ash's parents were dating. Other than Ash's mother he was the only one that knew."

"Oh I guess that makes sense. Ash said that his parents often hung out around the Oak Lab to get away from Delia's parents. They were always welcome here right?" Misty recalled.

"Yep they were practically family" said Gary. "He found out Ash's father was a Guardian by accident one day when he saw him tossing Aura Sphere's around the backyard, showing off to Delia and some of the Pokémon and instead of pretending it didn't happen Ash's father came clean to him about everything. He trusted him implicitly. My grandpa never told anyone but me and he only told me in case anything like this ever happened."

"Smart" Misty acknowledged. "Since you already know that I guess I should tell you Sato is one too." Gary seemed shocked. "Ash hasn't taught him to use his powers yet so he probably won't be much help this time though."

"Well at least Junior will have a harder time pushing him around now" Gary said.

Meanwhile out in the hallway a bit of a situation has developed. Kenny and Sue had been watching TV in the living room but then Kenny had gone to the bathroom. As soon as he left Gary Jr. had taken Su's Psyduck doll from her.

Driven to tears Sue begged "Give him back give him back!"

Holding the toy above her reach, Junior jeered, "Come on if you want it you gotta jump for it. Come on gotta catch em all right?"

Sue tried in vain to jump up and grab her beloved Psyduck only for Junior to pull him just out of her reach every time. Eventually she dropped to her knees, clasped her hands over her face and started sobbing hysterically.

"What a crybaby!" Junior mocked.

Kenny's voice rang through the hall. "HEY!" Within minutes he was between Junior and Sue. "What are you doing to my little sister?"

"This crybaby is your little sister?" Junior teased.

"Hey I know you" Kenny said with conviction. "You're that jerk who's always calling my brother names!"

Junior laughed. "So what if I am? You're loser brother is asking for it just by being such a nerd."

"You're just jealous that he's so much smarter than you'll ever be you loser! If he saw what you were doing to our sister you would be sorry but with him not here I'll be the older brother." Kenny was full of pride. He may have been three years younger than the person he was standing up to but he wasn't afraid.

"I would be sorry?" Junior repeated as if it was ridiculous. "You're brother never does anything! He's a doormat!"

Kenny seemed unfazed. "He's shy, he doesn't like standing up for himself. But if he saw you bullying our sister he wouldn't tolerate it."

"Oh yeah?" Junior challenged. "And just what would he do?"

Kenny was calm and determined. "This." He balled his right hand into a fist and pulled his arm back.

"Kenny!" his mother called. "You know you aren't supposed to hit other kids!" She raced down the hall and placed herself between them.

"He took Sue's Psyduck!" Kenny pointed his finger at Junior.

"That's still no way to handle your problems!" Misty scolded. "You should have told an adult. Now give my daughter her Psyduck back Junior."

"No I don't have to listen to you lady!" Junior was incredulous.

Misty placed her hands on her hips. "Excuse me?"

"Yes you do!" Gary's voice rang from across the hall. He appeared next to Misty. "Mrs. Ketchum is a guest in our house and an adult and you'll give her the proper respect!"

His son looked like he was the most confused he had ever been. "What?"

"You heard me son!" He snatched the Psyduck out of his hand and handed it to Misty. "You're grounded! No TV and no training your Pokémon for a month!"

Now Junior was enraged. "What? Dad what's wrong with you?"

"I'm finally being a dad."

"But dad this is Ash's family! He's your loser rival; we have to remind them who's on top!"

"We aren't on top he defeated me at the Silver Conference!"

Junior looked as if he was struck with an iron rod to the chest. "What but you said…"

"I lied!" Gary shouted. "I lied to make myself look good! His Charizard beat my Blastoise! I had the type advantage and I still lost that's how much better he was!"

This remark rendered Junior speechless. It was the first one to ever do so in his entire life.

"Come on it's time for a talk" Gary said, taking his son's wrist. "Bye Misty, bye kids." He led his son away.

Misty gave her daughter her doll back. "Are you ok Sue?"

She sniffled. "Uh-huh. Thank you for protecting me Kenny."

Kenny sounded proud of himself. "With our brother on his mission to save our dad it's my job to watch over our family. I'm the man of the house now. Dad and Sato will be able to focus on their mission knowing that there is a man protecting our family. I can't have them coming back and finding out I didn't fulfill my responsibility." His sister hugged him tightly.

"You're a good brother Kenny" Misty said. "A little reckless but a good brother."

"I'm just trying to do what Sato would do." Kenny's voice was full of admiration for his older brother. "I can never be as good of a brother as him. With him being the one in charge of saving our dad our family has nothing to worry about!"

Sue momentarily took her head from her brother's chest to look at his eyes. "Kenny…I'm really scared. What if Sato and daddy don't come back? Daddy fought Rayquaza and…he didn't win."

Kenny merely scoffed as if this was of no concern. "Please! Maybe Rayquaza was able to beat dad by himself but that's only because he was lucky when it comes to aiming his Ice Beam. But there's no way he can beat both dad and Sato! Come on you trust Sato right?"

Sue nodded. "Uh-huh."

"Of course you do! He's our big brother who knows everything! If anyone can figure out how to stop Rayquaza and save our dad it's him! He's the smartest guy in the world Remember that and don't be scared anymore. Dad and Sato will want to see you smiling not crying when they get back."

A small smile crawled onto Sue's face. "Ok. You're right Sato won't let anything happen to daddy. And daddy won't let anything happen to anyone else." She hugged her brother even more tightly.

Misty's heart was warmed by this conversation. Those kids of mine she thought. Sato's so shy and thinks so little of himself but his siblings just adore and admire him so much. Maybe Kenny's right. Maybe I shouldn't worry about Sato. I may not know what's happening to him and he may not seem ready for all this but there's no reason to not believe in him. If Pikachu is right and the Tree did pick him for this mission then he must be read for it. I don't know how he'll do it but I do know that I, that all of us, believe in Sato wholeheartedly. Of course that doesn't mean we shouldn't try to help out.