"Be careful, child," God spoke with a regal and matronly voice, both eyes fixed on Mesprit who looked back up with eternal gratitude as tiny sparks dissipated around her. God shone like a fire burning in all the colors of the rainbow, a presence on the battlefield only rivalled by Rayquaza. Not moving an inch, God suddenly gave a judgmental gaze towards Lucario, who had so casually thrown the small legendary aside. Lucario felt his heart pounding; not like that of a sinner before the gates of hell, but like a saint being given his first apparition. He could not stop the memories from flooding back, or perhaps they had never been gone in the first place. Perhaps God had always been there inside of him, and he had been too absorbed in worldly desires such as fighting and trying to stay alive to notice their presence. Yet here God was, in front him, inside of him, both in the past and in the present.

Of course, "God" was not the name he had always used. The name he normally used was…

"Ho-Ho-Ho!?" Lucario burst out in shock.

The otherworldly presence stared down at the silly Lucario with mild disdain, regarding him as a petulant child for a perchance for goofy nicknames. Then, there was sudden recognition. Only one person had ever had the gall to give her such a stupid moniker and with such unabashed gusto.

"… Ethan!?" Ho-Oh responded with equal surprise, losing her regal demeanor. Often mistaken for one of the legendary birds by rookie trainers, Ho-Oh was no mere bird or paltry legendary. Ethan remembered his mom bringing him to Ecruteak several times to pay his respect to Johto's guardian deity. No amnesia could make him forget that. Apparently. This revelation was almost too much to grasp.

"You remember!? I remember!? On the tower!?" Lucario continued shouting out trying to make sense out of what he was remembering. To find Arceus, he had sought his patron deity for help, and she had responded in kind-

"It's been decades – Did you find Arceus? You must-" Ho-Oh rambled on in similar fashion before a scream interrupted the two of them. Though Lucario was unsure of who it was, Ho-Oh had no trouble recognizing the anguish of her own child struggling against Rayquaza high above.

"Later. We shall speak later," Ho-Oh said grimly before turning her head skywards, flying like a bullet towards Rayquaza and leaving behind a cloud of dust. There was a loud BANG as she made contact with the gigantic storm beast a few seconds later, a resounding cheer being heard from all three of her children as the four birds worked in unison to bring him down.

Mesprit was left with a stunned expression, failing to compose herself from her recent brush with death.

"Y-You know Ho-Oh?" she asked with the same mixture of disdain and surprise that Ho-Oh had used not long ago, though this time in verbal form.

"Yeah!" Lucario replied hopefully, realizing Rayquaza was finally letting up on frying them to a crisp, "She was like God back in Johto, I went there to make her tell me where Arceus-"

"Lucario!" a voice similar to that of the legendary in front of him made itself known. Looking up, he saw Selphie (or was it Azelf?) rushing down towards them, in a similarly roughed up condition as his sister. The crystal in his forehead was intact, but one of the crystals embedded in his two tails was cracked wide open and leaking some kind of fluid that was dark blue and most certainly not blood. Of which there were copious amounts here and there; he was notably not as fresh out of the bath as Mesprit. Though Lucario figured that taking a dip in salt water with wounds like that was probably not a good idea, legendary or not.

"Where's Zerobi!?" Azelf shouted right in his face. Lucario winced and closed his eyes; saliva was most certainly the least harmful projectile he had been hit by today, yet it still caused disgust.

"Yes, we absolutely need to know where Celebi is," Mesprit jumped in while correcting her stupid brother, conveniently forgetting about herself being sidetracked with less important questions moments earlier. Lucario wiped the slime from his face and looked at the two siblings, eagerly awaiting his response. He felt his stomach drop for a moment, though he wasn't sure why.

"… I don't know, the two of them just vanished," Lucario said dismally. Mesprit and Azelf looked at each other with urgency and the kind of panic you only find in children that have been forced to deal with issues they're not quite capable of handling yet. Wondering if they too would join the fray, Lucario looked up and saw that the four avian were actually handling Rayquaza quite well, deftly dodging its attacks and buffeting it with fire, ice and thunder in response.

"We almost had to fight both of these things with no help, where have you legendaries been?" Lucario asked as he felt his heart rate go down for the first time in about half an hour.

"Sorry. We were held up by Kyogre," Azelf said as he lowered his head in shame. A gash the size of his outstretched palm laid on its top, but unlike the tail wound it had stopped bleeding.

"What?" Lucario responded, the name sounding familiar but not to the point where he'd commit the entity to memory, "Who?"

"You don't know!? How long have you been here!?" Mesprit suddenly burst out before noticing she was too exhausted to even get rile dup anymore and sighed, "Kyogre surfaced south of here and almost made it all the way to Kanto's shores."

"It was terrible! We had to fight her underwater!" Azelf practically screamed as his tail flicked around in agitation, flinging blood left and right. He moved closer to Lucario, who stepped back to avoid another mixed shower of blood and saliva coming his way.

"Yes, it was difficult… But we managed to kill her," Mesprit said bluntly as she approached her brother's tail wound, holding it in place to examine it closer.

"Well… It was mostly thanks to Lugia," Azelf continued while trying to calm himself down, staring intently at Lucario, "But he's hurt quite terribly! We're not good enough to heal him, so we need Celebi!"

Crossing his arms, Lucario tried to digest this new information. Half expecting Lugia to be coming to end him, the constant noise of the battle in the sky reminded him that this probably wasn't the time for their squabble.

"Dunno what to tell you. One second she was here, then poof," Lucario admitted as the faces of the two legendaries in front of him dropped in unison, "I… Never felt her aura fade away though, like Mew's. It just left, like if she teleported. I don't think she's dead."

An explosion was heard form above as Azelf winced, looking up in horror. Mesprit was focusing on her brother's wound and seemed to be making some progress on stopping the flow of blood, but she showed the kind of strained demeanor of someone trying their best to ignore a crime in progress lest they get dragged into it.

"Where's Pikablu when you need him…" Lucario muttered to himself, remembering a certain similar-looking Rayquaza going down a lot easier after a lightning strike or two. He was racking his brains, trying to remember exactly what had happened a few years ago in the hopes that it might lead to serve them now. He vividly remembered tackling that Lucas kid to the ground and getting sprayed in the face for it, and then getting absolutely manhandled by the Garchomp, before being cut open by Zerobi after the battle was over. In retrospect it seemed clear that he was not particularly well-suited for this sort of thing. Maybe Zerobi was right? Maybe it was time for him to turn tail and let the legendaries handle it.

He saw Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres and now Ho-Oh fly around Rayquaza like a group of angry moths, combining projectiles that glanced off its scales with body slams that seemed to be hurting them a lot more than their foe. Mesprit and Azelf were looking too, the former with a sort of resigned determination and the latter with abject terror. They were so tiny, and Mesprit's body had felt soft like a worn-out pillow. Lucario imagined they would be annihilated in a single strike. Surely they wouldn't…

"Hey. Are you two going to fight that thing?" Lucario spoke, never turning his eyes away from the battle above.

"We're too w-" Azelf hastily added, before being cut short by his sister cruelly pinching the end of his tail.

"Yes," Mesprit huffed and let go of her brother, "We are legendaries. It is our duty. Not yours."

She stared at Lucario with ferocity in an attempt to show she wasn't scared. Lucario didn't meet her gaze; he didn't need to. He could feel her fear, penetrating his outer defenses like a radioactive wave of emotion. In fact, emotions seemed to be cascading out of the little legendary, running through the dendrites in his own body. He could feel something that has always been there yet never powerful enough to make itself known, something swimming to the surface of his mind, someone crawling out of its recesses. Normally the entity would've passed by unnoticed, but this was a Pokémon battle, and his voice rang true and clear.

Though scales…
Soft bodies…
Penetrating…

"I see… That's too bad!" Lucario said and raised his voice, clarity striking him and forcing a beaming smile onto his face, "Because I just thought of a plan to beat it in one shot!"


A strong gust whisked over the battlefield, adding to the chill that suddenly went down Zoroark's spine.

"… No capture?" Torana replied with a collected tone.

"Can't risk it," Brendan said while cracking his knuckles; an old habit that showed itself whenever he got nervous, "I've never seen an ability like that before. This Pokémon is far too dangerous to be left alive."

"Over my dead body!" Exeggutor's four heads yelled in unison as he suddenly took a heavy step forward, standing between Zoroark and Torana. The rest of Zoroark's allies followed suit, about a dozen trained fighters making their stand. All Zoroark could see was the woody behind of an Exeggutor, yet she could feel the Blaziken's ferocious stare burn straight through palm tree.

"Master! Let me duel him!" Torana suddenly shouted, remaining unfazed even in front of a crowd of foes. Brendan sighed and put his head in his palm, but smiled regardless.

"… I am still far too lenient with you, Torana," he snickered before throwing his hand out with a shout, "Have it your way! The rest of you, watch in despair as your leader falls!"

"Like hell we will!" Exeggutor growled and decided enough was enough. With a mighty jump, he spewed a cloud of green spores towards Torana. She responded almost immediately with a sweeping flamethrower, burning the harmful powder to cinders, before a powerful psychic attack bore down on her from above. An unseen weight forced her against the ground, and she was forced to brace herself with an arm to keep from being crushed.

"Come one, come all!" Brendan shouted while pointing his finger forward, "Suicune, ice beam!"

The legendary dog gleamed for a moment before firing a beam of bright cold at the Exeggutor who had yet to land. Unable to dodge, it connected with a loud blast and covered the grass psychic in ice.

"Eyahaha, that's what you get! If anyone feels like dying, just fucking try to interrupt their duel again!" Brendan cackled madly as the Exeggutor lay frozen solid. As if on command, another Pokémon came spinning out of the crowd, heading towards Torana like a runaway wheel. No longer held in place by Psychic, Torana deftly jumped as a red flash signaled that Brendan had summoned a new Pokémon.

"Rollout?! Are you fucking kidding me?!" Brendan yelled and looked down at the Breloom that now stood next to Suicune, "Brent, spore."

The rolling Pokémon passed harmlessly under the Blaziken and found itself unable to stop. Coming to a sloppy finish, the Miltank hastily tried to get to her feet for another attack, but before she could do anything she inhaled the strange spores that now filled the air. Instantly her strength left her, and she fell asleep as the Breloom shook his head.

Zoroark saw it all happen and noticed more than a few of her allies taking a step back. The power of Brendan's Pokémon was absolutely overwhelming. These were No Man's Land's finest fighters, yet they were being taken out in an instant.

"Hehehehehehehehe…" Brendan snickered as he sat on top of Suicune, the Gardevoir keeping a barrier to dissuade any would-be attackers and now the Breloom standing nearby with a gaze that spoke of absolute confidence. And then there was Torana, who seemed completely unharmed despite taking a super effective psychic blast and technically still being paralyzed. The writing was on the wall, and Zoroark knew it.

"Scatter!" Zoroark gave the command, and in just a few seconds her allies were running away in every direction. Extracting a vial form her flowing hair, she crushed it in her claws and as its contents oxidized, a cloud of dense smoke covered the area. Instantly she wrapped herself in an illusion, disguising herself as a Leavanny who had already gone off in the other direction, and ran away.

"HAHAHAHA! It's an all you can catch buffet!" Brendan cackled madly again, kicking the sides of his trusty steed, "Torana, get Zoroark! I'll get the rest!"

With a mighty leap, Suicune set off in pursuit of one of No Man's Land's fighters, the Gardevoir and Breloom running to keep up. Zoroark noticed this presented an opening were she inclined to strike Brendan, but at the moment her one mission was to flee. They wanted her specifically; the rest she could break out later or something, but if she was dead there would be no second chances. No Man's Land would crumble, and-

Heavy footsteps. Looking behind her, Zoroark noticed Torana quickly gaining on her. Panicking, she sped up and ran as fast as possible, but as the Blaziken's speed boost activated once more there was no outrunning the bipedal avian. In one final act of desperation, Zoroark made an illusion of her leaping to the left while steering off to the right, but Torana's instincts were just too good. The massive Blaziken slammed into her like a freight train and grabbed a hold of her torso, lifting her up in a hug like she was a puppet.

"No!" Zoroark screamed while flailing her legs in an attempt to break free, "How did you-"

Zoroark made a wheezing noise as all the air was suddenly squeezed out of her chest; her lithe body was no match for Torana's muscular arms. The crushing force cut off her air supply at once, which combined with her earlier running and general fear caused her consciousness to slip away almost immediately. Noticing this, Torana relented and let her go, causing Zoroark to fall on the ground gasping for air. Her chest and arms felt like they had been constricted by an Arbok, and as she fumbled around trying to get back on her feet she was overcome by dizziness, falling on her backside.

Torana stared down at her with an expression of… Something undiscernible. Zoroark tried to scamper away, but the oxygen was still not quite reaching her brain. She leaned back on her hands and stared intently, trying to catch her breath, trying to catch the moment that the fearsome Blaziken would make her move.

"Leavanny has a speed stat of 92. You were moving with a speed stat of 105, without quiver dance," Torana explained calmly while unblinkingly meeting Zoroark's gaze, "Now you owe me an answer."

Zoroark's chest heaved in and out as she assessed her situation. She had never known Torana to choose talking over fighting, but anything that gave her a moment of reprieve was to her advantage.

"Sh-Shoot," she stammered, struggling to find her words and gulping down some more air in the process.

"You will tell me why you have disguised yourself as a man," Torana stated bluntly. Zoroark stared at her in surprise. Was her illusion completely ineffective against this Blaziken? Zoroark gasped and recalled the bear hug she had just been subjected to. Oh.

Seif…

"… Th-The strongest person I ever knew was a m-man," Zoroark spoke between huffs, making sure to maintain an illusion to hide her feminine chest just in case someone else was looking, "I-I just wanted to inspire others to be strong, the way he i-inspired me…"

Torana continued staring wordlessly as Zoroark entered a coughing fit. Something felt off inside; some internal organ might have been broken. Her difficulty in breathing made it clear that this fight was already over. All her training, her will to survive in this hostile world; just a simple hug had mercilessly destroyed her. Faced with the injustice of it all, Zoroark could do naught but laugh to herself.

"Heh. H-Heheh. You're way stronger than ever he was, though," Zoroark admitted grimly, "Had I known the strongest battler was female, I probably wouldn't have bothered."

Regret filled her. Off in the distance, she could hear the sound of Pokémon being captured and Brendan's insane laughter, as well as the fierce battle among the legendaries…


Dark clouds filled Lucario's peripheral vision as the rain beat down on his face. The occasional thunder strike could cause his toes to curl and ears to beg for mercy, yet he did his best to not show fear.

Carrying him on her shoulders was Mesprit, soaring through the darkened sky. Like a Rapidash riding a trainer, she was much too small to actually accomplish this feat, so Azelf hovered above to provide a handle bar in the form of two tails for Lucario to hang on to. Like a car being towed, Lucario somehow found himself in flight on a path heading directly towards Rayquaza.

"Steel yourself! Don't look!" Mesprit grunted, getting the workout of her life.

"I-I think even Uxie wouldn't be able to stop looking," Azelf stammered fearfully, unable to tear his gaze away from the terrifying serpent and the intense pain in his tails reminding him that he was still alive somehow.

"Just keep going!" Lucario shouted confidently, maintaining his balance on top of the much-too-small Mesprit while hanging on to the much-too-slippery tails of Azelf. It was a silly display. Rayquaza was either too distracted taking on four legendary birds at once to pay them any notice, or not dignifying them as a threat, which was a good thing because dodging balls of lightning in this makeshift mode of transportation was more or less impossible.

Focusing on the task at hand, Lucario barely noticed a familiar face appearing by his side.

"Hey, Lucario," Zapdos said casually. Her feathers were ruffled and matted down by a mixture of liquids (most of it rainwater), causing her spiky wings to sheen even more than usual. Before Lucario could respond, another familiar face came up on his other side.

"What the damn-diddly squat are you three doing!?" Moltres shouted with indignation. His wings were still burning defiantly in the middle of the thunderstorm, filling Lucario and the two little legendaries with a welcome sense of warmth.

"Ask him!" Mesprit shouted angrily while signaling to the jackal riding her back, "And tell him to stop squeezing what's left of my feelers!"

"We're going to make Rayquaza retarded!" Lucario yelled while letting go of Mesprit's feelers and grabbing a hold of Azelf's tails again for support, much to the latter's chagrin, "Don't worry, I've done this before!"

"You have!?" Zapdos exclaimed in equal amounts of astonishment and the kind of dumb excitement you get from hearing an urban legend that's clearly false.

"No he hasn't!" Mesprit shouted again while shaking her head in frustration, "And he's not a great champion, he doesn't know Ho-Oh and I don't even know what I'm doing here because this definitively won't work! He's just a delusional little Lucario!"

"Not anymore!" Lucario opened his mouth and the champion of all trainers finished his sentence, "Right now, I'm ETHAN!"

His brain trembled. His soul was set alight. It was an odd but welcome sensation because temperature suddenly dropped with his exclamation. Moltres and Zapdos looked at him with confusion and a hint of anger, and Ethan noticed how they had grown since their last meeting all those years ago. They had been newborn, an opportunity too good to pass up, training three legendaries from birth! They provided no resistance as I put each of them in a Pokéball, and as I left, Lugia descended down upon me. Are they your children?! I-I didn't know! And Ho-Ho-Ho, I never should've-

"LUCARIO!" a voice rung out from reality, snapping Lucario back to his senses, "You're slipping!"

Lucario fell back. In a panic he tried to grab on to his flying steed, which was not easy because there wasn't much of her to go around, and she had cleverly leaned her head forward to keep her feelers out of his reach. On the verge of saying a very bad word before falling to his death, Lucario felt a large wing brush up against his back and push him back into a balanced position.

"He wants to be called Ethan now apparently," Zapdos said dejectedly while pushing the comparatively small fighting-type back in position, "Terrible name, but whatever."

"Enough! Whatever you're gonna do, do it fast!" Moltres exclaimed hastily before flapping his wings and soaring ahead, "Sis, you take the left!"

"Right…" Zapdos said in a bored tone before setting off at unimaginable speeds towards Rayquaza. The giant serpent twisted in rage, spewing lightning and trying to bite whoever came near in half. Articuno stayed low and deftly avoided its giant tail while firing off beams of ice, and Ho-Oh soared above it raining down ferocious fire on its head. With brutal force, Zapdos came in from the left and rammed the underside of Rayquaza's chin, as Moltres came in from the right and wreathed in flames struck the beast's eye. The four legendary birds were agile, but not causing much lastin damage. Rayquaza's scales were just too tough.

"Are you ready?" Mesprit asked as they approached Rayquaza, the flying dragon still oblivious to or ignoring their presence.

"Yes!" Lucario shouted confidently while bracing himself, "Put me on the back of his neck!"

"Leave it to me, sis!" Azelf yelled with feigned confidence as he broke off from the formation and flew at top speed towards Rayquaza. Quickly losing his balance, Lucario felt himself grasped from all sides by an unseen force as Mesprit used her psychic powers to lift him up beside her. Lucario avoided making any quips as he saw her stare intently at her target, calculating distance and force required. They would probably only get one shot at this, so it would have to count.

"Hey! You!" Azelf could be heard screaming in the distance as he got closer to Rayquaza's flailing head. The eye of the serpent suddenly focused in on the tiny legendary and lashed its open jaws towards him, ready to swallow him whole.

"DAAAAAHHHH!" Azelf gave off a shrill scream as the little legendary turned into a huge explosion. The force was truly staggering, Rayquaza rearing back with a loud roar as the shockwave forced all the legendary birds out of the way. It struck both Lucario and Mesprit, and the instant it had passed by, Mesprit's eye twinkled. With Rayquaza's back facing them, she used a blast of psychic to send Lucario flying like a projectile towards the giant. Lucario felt pain ripple through his body and strong winds whip past his sides and into his face, yet he dared not close his eyes. Closer and closer the fearsome serpent came, and Lucario braced himself as he collided with its neck. It was cold and slippery from all the rain, but the scales gave him something to hang on to. The entire world shifted around him and Lucario figured he'd be thrown off in an instant once Rayquaza began moving in earnest again, so he wasted no time and pressed himself up against the neck of the legendary beast.

Inhaling deeply, he let the mitochondria in his body focus itself in his front. Then, in a gallant burst of energy, they all exploded at once. It felt like running headfirst into a lake of lava as Lucario's frontside shot out a wall of blue fire, effortlessly penetrating through Rayquaza's scales and running down its spinal cord, giving the giant a taste of the same debilitating pain.

The effects were immediate. Less of a roar and more a scream of pure primal anguish, Rayquaza twisted in on itself, completely unable to cope with the raw torture running down the length of its body. Panicked, it threw its head to the side in order to dislodge whatever had caused it so much pain, and Lucario, still coming down from shock, made no attempt to hold on. He went flying, thinking the wind would have felt nice on his burns had they not all been internal. Like a dream he soared in the empty sky, far, far away, hearing the primal bellows and feeling the aura of the legendaries grow more and more distance.

Coming out of his haze, there was a certain nagging feeling in the back of his head. Like there was some part of this plan that he hadn't thought through completely. Thinking he'd be caught by one of the helpful flying legendaries, Lucario realized that Rayquaza's desperate throw had sent him flying much further away than expected. Not sensing anyone coming to his rescue, he instead sensed the ground beneath him rapidly approaching.

"OH SHIT!" Lucario yelled, trying to orient himself so he'd at least not fall on his head. Though at the velocity he was travelling and the height he was falling from, it probably wouldn't matter.

"HELP!" he shouted in vain. He looked in the direction of where he was being pulled by gravity, hoping for a lake or some such, yet could only see the rocky plains where they had fought Groudon earlier, promising a slow and agonizing death.

Yet something caught the corner of his eyes, and a flood of new aura filled his senses. Two Pokémon were down on the ground where he was heading!

"CATCH MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" Lucario howled in terror, again trying to orient himself to make for a better landing. He figured anyone knew that standing in the way of a steel-type flying at 300km/h was tantamount to suicide, but he had to try. And to his relief, someone did step up to the plate. He saw a red creature with feathers like a fluffy pillow position itself where he would soon be landing. Almost feeling grateful to the fates for a moment, to his utmost horror he saw that this feathered creature was none other than Torana. Considering Torana was a being of pure muscle built like a brick wall, the rocky ground would most certainly have been softer. Lucario had no time to retract his request though as his date with gravity was about to reach a bone-shattering climax. But right before he hit the ground, Torana sidestepped and grabbed him by the ankle. Diverting his inertia to the side, she began spinning around like a tornado while holding Lucario like a hammer throw as the momentum slowly dissipated. If Lucario's stomach had not been completely empty it would no doubt have been after two seconds of being flung around like this, but he did his best to not embarrass himself and scream out from his leg being tugged off.

The movement died down but the spinning did not stop for Lucario, and it took him a few seconds to realize that the ground was now above him, Torana holding him upside down.

"That is the plan," Torana said with what might have passed for a smile across her beak.