Authors note: I'm not that great with Old English, so if I made a few mistakes with Ho-oh's lines, sorry.

Well, I had been with Krystal for some time now. She had used a water stone on me to make me a Vaproeon, and I had grown in levels quite a bit. Now I was at level 40.

We had taken a train back to the Johto region the day Krystal adopted me. She lived in Goldenrod City and was on a Pokemon Journey to get all these badge things. We came up to Ecruteak City, Krystal was ready to claim her next badge. Little did we know, there was quite a commotion going on. I walked by Krystal's side as she stared at the large crowd gathered around a large tower. Krystal became overrun with curiosity and dashed over to the tower, with me running at her heels.

The crowd around the tower was cheering wildly. Krystal turned to her right and asked a nearby stranger, "What's going on?"

"What's going on? How could you not know?" he responded. "The great Pokemon is returning! Ho-oh is coming back to the tower! It's not every day we get to see Ho-oh!"

Krystal's face glowed. "Ho-oh! Really? Oh, wow! We get to see Ho-oh!" Krystal started hopping with joy. "Suicune, we get to see the Ho-oh! Isn't that amazing?"

I had no idea what this 'Ho-oh' was. I'm a little slow when it comes to naming Pokemon. But this 'Ho-oh' thing sounded great. I decided to play along.

"Poreon!" I responded, spreading a fake smile across my face. Krystal smiled back.

"You're excited too! Oh boy, I just can't wait!"

"Don't get too excited," the boy next to us said.

Krystal turned to the boy. "Why?"

"Well, Ho-oh doesn't let just anyone see him. Only those who give their lives to serve Ho-oh are guaranteed to see him. Only if he says so can we all go in and meet him ourselves."

"Oh.." Krystal drooped. "So we might not even see him. Darn."

"I've been coming here every year since I was born, and I still haven't seen him. Every year I stand here and hope he'll let us visit him, even if it's just for a few seconds. But so far no luck."

After hours of standing around waiting, Krystal got tired. "We could have spend the day training, but no! We had to wait for a bird to tell us we can't look at it's pretty feathers!" She turned and watched the sun slipping beyond the horizon. "One whole day of my life wasted."

Just then, a man wearing a brown robe came out of the tower.

"May I have your attention!" the robed man shouted. "I have just returned from the chamber of the Great Ho-oh! I have asked for his permission for all of you to visit him in his chamber.."

"Alright, this is where he tells us if we can see him or not." The boy next to us said excitedly.

Krystal just continued complaining with her back to the tower. "You know, I bet Ho-oh isn't even here! It's all just some big trick to get us to waste our day..."

"And the Great Ho-oh has agreed!"

"Ya-wa?" Krystal snapped around.

The crowd began cheering wildly.

The boy next to us began crying. "After all these years, I finally get to see the Great Ho-oh!"

I thought that boy was being a little over-dramatic. How great could one Pokemon be?

I think Krystal was thinking the same thing. I looked at her face and she was just staring at the boy with a concerned expression.

"Now, I must ask you to put all of you Pokemon into their Pokeballs. For Ho-oh's safety, all Pokemon must be put in their Pokeballs. If your Pokemon wish to see the Great Ho-oh as well, then you must come see me."

Another man in a similar robe appeared. "Now, all those who want to see Ho-oh without their Pokemon viewing, please follow me!" Nearly all of the crowd started walking toward the door, following the robed man. But Krystal hesitated. I knew she was anxious to see ho-oh, but she knew I wanted to see him too.

She walked over to the first robed man.

"Excuse me, my Pokemon here wanted to see Ho-oh too."

"Aw yes," he responded. "Sorry for the inconvenience, but you and your Pokemon will have to wait until all the others leave to see Ho-oh. Pokemon going in must be carefully watched, we don't want them to start attacking Ho-oh for any reason."

"Oh sure, that makes sense. That's fine."

I wasn't as excited as I had been before. In fact, I had lost all interest. Who cares about this "great Ho-oh"? It's nothing more than a Pokemon. If they want to see a great Pokemon, come look at me! Yeah, I know I sound a little like I'm bragging, but that's the way I was when I was with Krystal. I lay down next to her out of pure boredom.

Krystal was obviously still interested. "So how long do we have to wait?"

"Most likely an hour," he answered. "If you'd like, you can leave and come back then and we'll be getting ready to take the trainers up to the top."

"That would be great!" Krystal was getting that I-wanna-go-train look in her eye, so I stood up. "Let's go train until then, Suicune!"

I knew it. Krystal, you are SO predictable! We walked off in search of wild Pokemon for me to beat up.

As we walked off into the grassy route outside of town, we saw two boys. One had a Raichu by his side and the other was followed by a Houndoom. Krystal walked over to them.

"Hey, I'm Krystal. Those two your Pokemon?" she pointed to the Raichu and the Houndoom.

"Yeah, their ours." One of them answered. "The Raichu's mine and that Houndoom is my friends'."

"They look really strong." She complimented, kneeling down to their eye level. She stared at them for a few seconds with that cute smile she has, then stood up again. "So how does a Pokemon battle sound to you guys?"

They looked at each other, smiled and turned back to Krystal. "Sure."

"I'll fight Raichu boy first, so you get the advantage."

"That's pretty dumb!"

"No it's not, I'm here just to train my Vaporeon. And when he kicks your butt, you'll see how 'dumb' this is!"

We were about to start the battle when we heard a horrifying shriek come from the tower. I looked up at Krystal and saw the terror in her eyes. Both she and I knew something was terribly wrong.

We ran back to the tower to find all the people from before tearing out of it, screaming. There was also smoke pouring out from the top of the tower. We saw that boy from before dashing out and Krystal stopped him.

"What's happening?" She asked, clearly displaying fear in her face.

But the boy wasn't trying to hide his fear either. "Some thieves came to capture Ho-oh!" he cried. "They used some Pokemon to try and catch it along with some high-tech gizmos! Ho-oh was enraged and tried attacking them but set the tower on fire!"

The smoke that continued to bellow out of the tower, which was soon followed by a hungry fire.

I naturally have a heroic nature, and I guess Krystal did too. I charged right into the tower, with Krystal close behind (either she's being heroic or she's trying to stop me, I'll never know which). The fire was spreading quickly, but so far the first floor wasn't affected. But, jeez! Did all these people have to make it so I couldn't get past them? I mean, I know they're scared and all, but did they have to trample me?

I'm a very dedicated Pokemon, and won't stop doing something until I've finished it. So I was soon able to weave through the legs of the screaming humans. Unfortunately, Krystal couldn't do the same. She was stuck trying to push the others aside to catch up with me.

The second floor was brightly lit, but there was no fire. It must all be on the third floor, I thought as I charged toward the stairs. As I climbed up, I saw Krystal finally emerging to the second floor.

"Come on!" I yelled at her, but she only heard it as "Vaporeon!" Sometimes I wish I could speak in human so these people would know exactly what I mean.

Krystal saw me and ran closer, but I quickly scurried up the stairs before she reached me.

I was right, the third floor was lit with flames. How many damn floors does this building have? I dashed through the raging flames to the next set of stairs. The fourth was crawling in fire, so I assumed that the next would have Ho-oh.

Man, I am SO smart. My guess was right. Ho-oh was there, and I couldn't take my eyes off of his beautiful rainbow feathers. He screamed in anger at three men who were standing in a corner. Ho-oh fired a powerful shot of flames at the three, but they dodged it and ran screaming down the stairs, knocking down Krystal.

The boy that trained the Raichu caught her. "Are you alright?" The Raichu and the Houndoom were standing next to the two boys.

"Yeah, thanks." she responded.

I had to help Ho-oh, I couldn't worry about Krystal at a time like this. Let her fall down the stairs for all I care, this Pokemon needs help!

"Ho-oh! You need to calm down!" I yelled to the big bird.

"Calm down? How can I calm down?" It screeched back at me.

I noticed quickly why Ho-oh said that. It had a hole in it's left wing. A bullet hole.

"I've come to help you!"

"I don't need your help, I'm about to get out. Thou should do the same, run back downstairs! Quickly, before thy tower collapses!"

Ho-oh flapped it's mighty wings and started charging against a wall, trying to break it. When he did, he burst through and flew out of the dying tower.

Collapses? It's that serious? I thought. Taking Ho-oh's warning, I dashed back down the stairs and nearly knocked Krystal and her new boyfriends down.

"Suicune! Could you wait for just a second for us to catch up?" She yelled at me, annoyed.

I stopped but jogged in place to show I wanted them to hurry. They ran to catch up with me and I took off again right before they reached me.

When we reached the third floor, Krystal suddenly stopped running. "Hey wait! I've got an idea!" She reached into her backpack and started looking for something.

I heard a loud crack and looked up. There was a large support column on the ceiling that was falling off. The bad part was, it was right above Krystal, who just kept standing there!

"Krystal! Get out of the way!" I shouted, but all she heard was, "Vaporeon! Pour, Poreon!"

"I'm going as fast as I can, Suicune, be patient!" she had no idea what I just said.

And it was too late to try telling her again. The column snapped off and fell. Krystal finally found what she was looking for and pulled out a Pokeball. "Abra! Tele-"

I tackled Krystal out of the way before she finished her sentence, and she landed on the two boys. The column came crashing down on my back. Nearly paralyzed, I lifted my head up to find the two boys and Krystal gone. All that was left was me, the Houndoom and the Raichu.

"Krystal!" I cried out.

"Kyle!" The Houndoom copied.

"Matt!" followed the Raichu.

We had all lost our trainers, but the only difference was I had no chance of escaping the building myself.

The Raichu ran down the stairs, trying to escape.

"Raikou! Come back here! We can't just leave this Vaporeon here by itself!"

"Just watch me, Entei!" It cried back.

The Houndoom, whom I now knew was named Entei, pushed his nose under the column and tried to lift it, but it was too heavy.

And here comes that heroicness again.

"Forget about me, save yourself." I told him. "I'm done for, there's no way I can make it out of here."

"Don't say that!" he coughed. He must be heroic, too. He was determined to get that column off of me.

"No! If you stay much longer you -cough- won't make it!"

"How could I not 'make it' in a fire? I'm a FIRE Pokemon!" Entei exclaimed.

"It's usually not the fire that kills you, it's the smoke. -cough, cough-"

"I can -cough- take it."

"No! Get out of here! -cough-"

The Raichu, named Raikou, came running back up the stairs.

"-cough, cough- The exit's blocked, there's no way out! -cough-"

"Then we can make an exit!" Entei yelled. "Help me get this off of that Vaporeon, we'll need his help!"

It's too late for me... I thought, unable to speak any longer from the smoke and the weight of the column. Everything started going dark and fuzzy, like I was passing out. No, this can't be happening... I'm dying, I just know it's too late... Krystal, why did you have to leave me?

My body ached from pain, the light around me went out like someone blowing out a candle. My lungs wouldn't work, my vision was gone, and I could hear the others collapsing onto the ground before me.

The last thing I remember was the fiery words of Ho-oh.

"Fools!" He screamed at the humans. "Thou knows not of the great enemy made this day! I have spent all thy life protecting thee, and you throw away all that was built. Thou shall never know the joys of protection and freedom, for now thou must be watched, yet not served. Until thou kind can prove your worth, you will not speak to the true hearts of Pokemon."

I couldn't completely understand what he was saying, nor did I try to, but I could hear it clearly. But I suddenly felt new life rising within me. New, painful life. I screeched in pain as my body morphed into what I could only hope was humane. I could faintly hear screams similar to my own, but I did not think much about them. My tail split, my legs grew longer, my head mutated, and my wounds slowly healed.

When the pain was finally over, I glanced around at flaming room, which at that moment, collapsed onto the lower floor. The upper level fell upon us, but pillars still able to stand kept it from reaching our heads. I looked at the others to make sure they were alright, but did not recognize them. Entei, now brown with a long mane, flowing smoke, and huge paws stood beside the bright yellow, sharp toothed, thunder-bound Raikou.

I didn't even want to know what I looked like.

I heard another piercing screech from Ho-oh, knowing he was telling us to escape. Before I knew what I was doing, I charged into the wall, ramming it and creating an exit. Entei and Raikou did the same.

I flew out of the tower and landed softly on the ground. Without paying anyone or anything attention, I dashed away from the building with a thought running through my mind, as if placed there from some outside force.

Thou is only to watch thy prey, never strike. Stay hidden where their kind can never see thee. And only return when I call thee. When thine task is complete.