Indeed, there was a criminal syndicate at work on the Sevii Island chain south of Johto. This syndicate, known as the Legacy Hunters, had its roots dating back centuries, all the way back to the Great Pokémon War. Every Pokémon-related criminal syndicate in existence to the present day can trace its roots back to the Legacy Hunters. Team Rocket, Team Magma, Team Aqua, even Cipher. You name it, it originated from the Legacy Hunters. Though nearly everyone in the world had heard of these organizations, the name "Legacy Hunters" would be foreign to most people if asked about it.
The goal of the Legacy Hunters since the Great Pokémon War has been to conquer areas of interest to them, such as cities with ancient Pokémon-related landmarks. The reason why they have been so inactive up until now was that they have been planning an invasion of Johto; this way, they could gain control over Ecruteak City, home to two of the most significant historical sites in the entire world.
The night after the news broke about the Sevii Islands falling to the Legacy Hunters, the top executives of the criminal organization were finalizing their long-awaited plans to invade the Johto region. A plan in the works for over twenty years was to be finalized that night. The president of the syndicate walked into the board room of their secret hideout located on Birth Island, a very mysterious island shrouded in a dense fog. "Over twenty years of hard work and innovation...and we are merely a matter of hours from conquering the world! HAH HAH HAH HA!" a short, intelligent-looking black male proclaimed before loudly cackling in an evil fashion.
"Indeed, Travis, sir. After waiting so long for this day, our plan is foolproof!" Maxie, leader of Team Magma, replied. "Though our plan to capture the legend of the earth, Groudon, has failed, we will have enough power to do anything we want after this!"
"Yes," Travis agreed. "If all goes well, each and every one of you leaders present in this board room will have more power than you have ever imagined to this day. Ernest, do you have our plan of attack ready?"
The human resource manager immediately responded, "Yes, sir, I do," then inserted a compact disc into a computer linked to a projection screen. Several minutes later, a modified graphic of the Johto region appeared on the large projection screen at the front of the board room. Travis then got up out of his seat, pushed his tall chair in, and walked up onto a stage where the projected image was located. He then called Ernest to join him in explaining the plan of attack. Travis was anxious to go ahead with the invasion plans, and immediately handed the presentation over to Ernest.
"OK everyone...behind me you see a map of the Johto region. The area circled in green is our main attack target, Ecruteak City. Also note that there are only three main ways to enter Johto... except by flying, of course." Ernest moved the pointer on the screen to various landmarks in Johto, which were circled in yellow on the map: first of all, Olivine City; secondly, Tohjo Falls; and finally, Goldenrod City. He then began to explain the importance of these three locations.
"As you can observe, the only sea route into Johto is via the port in Olivine City. It is also very close to our destination, that being Ecruteak City. If we can take Olivine City, we can put a virtual embargo on all sea traffic into Johto.
Secondly, let me explain the significance of Goldenrod City. As many of you already know, a bullet train runs between Goldenrod City in Johto and Saffron City in Kanto. This is not nearly as important as controlling Olivine Port, especially if you consider that Goldenrod City is a much longer distance away from Ecruteak as opposed to Olivine." Ernest then took a few deep breaths and a few drinks of water before resuming his presentation.
"But, if we do not take control over that train, we could have a huge army of skilled rebel trainers down our throats, including the legendary Indigo trainers known as the Elite Four. I don't know about Travis, but I know I possess some of the strongest Pokémon that the Legacy Hunters have available, and the Elite Four have Pokémon whose strength would overwhelm mine. Let me reiterate that I do not know how strong Travis' Pokémon are, but I don't think they could match up to those of the Elite Four. We may be able to take one of them, but that would really be stretching it.
Thirdly, we should try to cut off Kanto from Johto by taking over the Tohjo Falls checkpoint linking the two regions. It would be best to do this after we have made well-established positions in both Olivine Port and Goldenrod City. That way, if we don't have the resources to hold a position there, we can still attack Ecruteak from the west and the north. This minimizes the number of reinforcements the enemy can get to Ecruteak. But we cannot spread too thin, or we will be attacked from too many sides at once."
Maxie immediately stood up and asked Ernest a question. "Ernest, sir, exactly what are your plans once we take over Ecruteak City, and why would it be necessary to double-team them like this?"
Ernest snapped his fingers for a few seconds, then replied, "Many of the trainers at Ecruteak City are sages who have been training Pokémon since before I was born. These sages live there in great numbers, and have very strong Pokémon. If we divide their attention between our forces attacking from the west and south, we should be able to handle them. As far as your other question, Maxie, only Travis would know the answer to that. You will have to ask him. But please save any further questions until after I finish. Now, for my plan of offense." With that, Maxie took her seat again.
He then advanced the slide show to the next slide, which was a zoomed map of the west side of Johto. "My plan is to perform a night raid on Olivine Port. There is really only one powerful trainer in Olivine: the Gym Leader, Jasmine. If we blitz them well after dark, we should be able to take over the port well before she realizes what's happened, and certainly well before daybreak. Once we have that place occupied with a sizable force, we can move a small portion of them toward Goldenrod City, which isn't too far from water. After that, we can double-team Ecruteak, or try to shut down Tohjo Falls. How is it, Travis, sir?"
Travis was delighted at the idea of a night raid, and quickly approved of the plan submitted by Ernest. He then asked if there were any questions.
Maxie stood up again and asked, "Exactly how are we going to attack Goldenrod City from the water? The shore is surrounded by cliffs!"
Archie, leader of Team Aqua, answered Maxie's question. "I have a school of Lapras that will do the trick. I also think that instead of taking our bulky watercraft to Olivine Port, we should use all of my Lapras. They will be much harder to spot."
"Archie, that's an excellent idea. I commend you for that," Travis complimented.
"Thank you," he calmly replied.
Ernest then asked Travis a question on his mind during the entire presentation. "Travis, could you explain to us how we can rule the world by taking Ecruteak City?"
Travis thought about the question for a second, then started laughing. "Don't you get it? Ecruteak is the homeland of many legendary Pokémon! If we can take over the city, all those legendary Pokémon are good as ours! With that kind of power, no one in the world can stop us! We'll make a fortune and have so much power we won't know what to do with it all!" He then started cackling loudly, rejoicing in the evil cataclysm he was about to revive.
Meanwhile, Josh, Ace, and Aravan wasted much of the afternoon playing with their Pokémon, and of course, battling each other to get stronger. Though they were all strong trainers, Aravan's diverse and well-raised team defeated both Josh's and Ace's Pokémon. The only other notable event was that Josh's Charmander evolved into Charmeleon, a much stronger and much more aggressive fiery lizard than its former self.
For once, Josh was able to get the legend and the recent news about the Legacy Hunters off his mind. After dark, Ace and Aravan started compiling their notes into an outline, while Josh used the outline he made the day before to start writing his research paper. By eleven o'clock that night, Josh had already written three pages of his paper. At that point, he called it a night and went to sleep. That night, Josh, Ace, and Aravan all had dreams. Strange, clear, and very similar dreams.
Each one was dreaming about being in an intense Pokémon battle with a trainer far more skilled than he. None of their battles were going well at all. It seemed that the opposing trainer's Pokémon were ready to counter everything sent at them. All of the dreams were very similar to one another, so it would be sufficient only to narrate one of them.
"Golduck! Finish Manectric off with your Ice Beam attack!" the female trainer cried. The blue, kappa-like monster immediately fired a white, freezing beam at the four-legged electric Pokémon, which was cornered on the right side of the arena. There was nowhere for Manectric to dodge. The cold beam landed its mark, and its target immediately collapsed from exhaustion.
"Manectric, return!" Josh called out as he recalled his Pokémon back into the Ultra Ball he used to capture it. He then began muttering to himself, "Argh... All I have left is Charmeleon, and it's too weak to battle. Ah well. I have never been known to give up, and I'm not about to start now." This gave him a sense of inspiration, the spark he needed to keep fighting. "Charmeleon, let's give this a go!" he yelled as he released his final Pokémon from its ball.
Much to his surprise, a massive, yellow, tigerlike Pokémon appeared in the arena. The six-foot-tall Pokémon, boasting vicious fangs eight inches long, stared down its enemy with its fear-inducing red eyes. Upon being released, it let out an ear-deafening roar that sounded like crashing thunder. Everyone in the vicinity was stunned.
"Oh...my...god..." Josh slowly said, in absolute disbelief at what he had just witnessed. "Could someone tell me what the hell just happened here?" He then fell backwards from the utter shock of the appearance of the legendary Pokémon, Raikou. Without any command from Josh, it began generating a large ball of intense electrical charge.
"Golduck, get away from it and try to counterattack with a Hydro Pump!" the girl suggested. Golduck began to run to the other end of the arena, but it was hopeless. With the electrical sphere surrounding it, Raikou lunged toward Golduck with such incredible speed that everyone there was in awe. The high-speed electric charging attack landed a direct hit on Golduck. Golduck never recovered from the blow for the rest of the match.
"That is awe-inspiring power," the girl reacted. "I know that whatever I do with my remaining Pokémon, they can do nothing when pitted against something like that. I submit." With that, she surrendered the match to Josh.
After she and the spectators left the arena, Raikou walked over to Josh and slowly rubbed one of its paws against Josh's arm. This caused him to regain consciousness.
"What just happened here...GAAAHHH! Where did you come from!" Josh was too scared to say anything else. Raikou turned around, then sat down on its hind legs. Josh looked back at Raikou, still too scared to say anything. The beast looked back to its left, then jerked its head up.
"You're kidding me. Are you saying you want me to...to climb on?" Josh carefully asked.
Raikou did not look back at Josh again; the beast simply nodded its head in approval. At that, Josh overcame some of his fear of Raikou, and climbed atop its back. The huge saber-tooth tiger then stood back up on all fours. It took Josh a few seconds to get comfortably situated atop Raikou; but afterward, he promptly let out a sigh of relief, mumbling to himself, "Now that wasn't so hard, was it?"
Raikou slowly walked out of the arena, carrying a still-nervous Josh on its back. After they left the arena, the Beast of Thunder began to pick up speed and run off into the distance. Then things began to get blurry. It was time for Josh to awaken from his slumber.
"What a strange dream that was," he said as he woke up to a beautiful Sunday morning. "I know I was...wait! Was I indeed just dreaming?" With that, he immediately got dressed and cleaned himself up. After exiting his room, he left a note for Ace and Aravan, to identify where he was in case they needed to talk with him. He hustled outside the building to an open field on campus grounds and released all of his Pokémon. "Come out, everyone!"
He sent out all five of his Pokémon: Charmeleon, a mean-looking fiery lizard about half the size of Josh, boasting a flaming tail; Pidgeotto, a bird of considerable size; Manectric, a four-legged animal constantly discharging electricity from its mane; Poliwhirl, a large land-based tadpole lacking a tail; and finally, Sudowoodo, a rock-hard Pokémon that pretends to be a tree. Josh was disappointed that his battle alongside the Legend of Thunder was but a dream, a fantasy. He was tempted to simply recall his Pokémon and take the long walk of shame back to his dorm, but he didn't. Instead, he walked back to the door with his Pokémon, then went back to his room to get food not only for his Pokémon, but himself as well. After they all ate to their hearts' content, they spent the rest of the morning playing with each other.
Ace and Aravan had had similar dreams that night. They quickly got dressed and left to talk to Josh about their dreams; they had never dreamt about anything even close to what went on last night after they fell asleep. The first place they checked was Josh's dorm. All they found was this note attached to the door: "I am on the southeast side of the campus, playing with my Pokémon. If you need to talk to me, meet me in the open field on that side. It's south of the soccer field. --Josh."
"I thought for sure he'd be talking to the professor about our little discussion Friday night. I guess he's not the overachiever we thought he was. He's slacking off for once!" Aravan remarked.
"'Playing with his Pokémon...'" Ace read. "I think we should go back to our rooms and get our Pokémon. It's been a while since they've been able to spend a lot of quality time together," he suggested.
Aravan was delighted at Ace's suggestion. "That's a great idea, Ace. Let me run back to my room. Meet you where Josh is."
"Got it," Ace responded. With that, the two of them hastily walked back to their rooms. About ten minutes later, Aravan found Josh, sitting under a tree while watching his Pokémon play. Manectric was showing off the beauty of its Spark attack.
"Hey, Josh!" Aravan said, trying to get Josh's attention. Josh flinched, not expecting anyone to find him.
"Aravan, you scared me! I wasn't expecting anyone to meet me out here. How are you doing today?" Josh asked Aravan.
"Wonderful. I saw the note you posted on the outside of your door. When I noticed you said you were playing with your Pokémon, I decided to let my own Pokémon in on the fun. Let's go, everyone!" he remarked as he released his five Pokémon: Eevee, a squirrel-like Pokémon said to be capable to evolve into one of five different Pokémon; Tropius, a dinosaur-like Pokémon that can fly using the leaves on its back as wings; Houndour, a black dog with a skull on its forehead; Croconaw, a water Pokémon whose jaw muscle strength makes that of a crocodile seem like that of a baby human being; and finally, Vibrava, a Pokémon with underdeveloped wings that can be vibrated at over 100 times per second. It is also said to possess DNA belonging to dragons.
"Your Pokémon look good still. I'm surprised that your Croconaw hasn't evolved yet after that rough battle we had earlier this week," Josh noted.
"Thanks, buddy. I can't wait for it to evolve. I also can't wait for my Vibrava to evolve either. Flygon is so cool!" Aravan replied.
"How long have you had Vibrava, Aravan?" Josh asked.
"About...twelve weeks, I guess," Aravan answered after thinking for a few seconds. "Why do you ask?"
"If you continue to train it at the same rate at you have been, I'm thinking it's going to evolve into Flygon in a little less than a month. I think that Salamence is cooler than Flygon in the family of Dragon Pokémon, but Flygon's still awesome. Say, did you have something on your mind? You wouldn't come all the way out here just to say 'Hi.' What's up?" Josh asked.
"I wanted to talk to you about this crazy dream I had last night, but I talked to Ace this morning, and he also had a crazy dream last night. I'm waiting for him to show up. What could be taking him so long to get here?"
Shortly after Aravan asked, both him and Josh could hear something that sounded like a galloping horse in the distance. "What is that noise?" Aravan wondered. As the figure got closer, he identified it as Ace riding a Ponyta. The Pokémon was engulfed in red flames, but they didn't seem to bother Ace at all. "Josh, that's Ace!" Aravan noted to Josh. Josh then yelled, "Ace! Over here!" and began waving his arms. It got Ace's attention, and his Pokémon slowed to a stop, right next to Aravan and Ace.
"That felt good!" Ace proclaimed. "It's been a while since I've done that!"
"I didn't know you had a Ponyta, Ace. But being a lover of fire Pokémon, it befits you to have such a swift Fire-type," Josh replied.
"Sorry I'm late, guys. But I wanted to wow all of you by making an unexpected entrance, as well as have a little fun," Ace apologized. "I guess I shouldn't let my other Pokémon be left out of the little party going on."
"I was wondering what took you so long, Ace!" Aravan remarked as Ace released his four other Pokémon: Scyther, a five-foot-tall preying mantis with scythe-like arms; Growlithe, a fire-type, black-and-orange-striped dog; Ninjask, a flying Bug-type Pokémon with ninja-like speed; and Quilava, another fire-type with the ability to make the quills on its back flare up. All fifteen Pokémon had a merry time while their trainers began to discuss their dreams last night.
Ace began the discussion by recalling and summarizing his dream last night. "In my dream last night, I was in a battle with you, Aravan. But your Pokémon were much, much stronger than the ones you had in our real battle Friday afternoon. My team managed to take them all down--except your final Pokémon. It was a Lapras, and it was using strange attacks."
Aravan noted, "I don't even have a Lapras. But I want one! What kind of attacks was it using?"
"Thunderbolt, for one."
Josh immediately was taken aback by Ace's answer. "Thunderbolt! What the hell have you been smoking, buddy? A powerful electric attack like Thunderbolt can cause severe, even permanent damage to a Lapras! How can it use such an attack?"
"Beats me," Ace answered. "But anyway, that Lapras didn't even use any of its water-based attacks on my Pokémon, and it was still beatin' the crap out of 'em. Yet, I won the battle. And you will never believe how it happened. When I went to send out my last Pokémon, my Ponyta, Ponyta never emerged from the ball. The Pokémon that emerged from the Ball was...Entei."
"Oh my god!" both of them yelled in great surprise. "I dreamt almost exactly the same thing you did...except my Pokémon was Suicune!" Aravan added.
Ace resumed his narration. "Upon the apparence of Entei, everyone in that arena, myself and Aravan included, were in total shock. The battle resumed as normal. Lapras was powerful, but Entei was legendary. Though it could shoot water attacks and Ice Beams and Thunderbolts with amazing accuracy, Entei was so fast that none of the attacks could hit their marks, not even from close range. Entei then let loose the most powerful Flamethrower attack I had ever seen before. That attack caused Lapras to belly up a few seconds after being hit. Aravan then recalled his Lapras, and everyone left."
"When I first heard Ace's dream, I thought it was just a weird coincidence," Josh said. "But now that I have heard the similarities between both of your dreams and my own, I realized this is no coincidence. I, too, had a similar dream last night. Ace, do you remember what happened after everyone left?"
"No."
"Well, I have a hunch that if I tell you about what happened after my battle, it will make you remember what happened. But let me rewind to when Raikou appeared. When I saw the beast that was my favorite Pokémon, I just collapsed from the shock of the fact. Though the enemy Golduck was strong, Raikou took it out somehow; I don't know how. When I got back up from collapsing, Raikou was standing right next to me. It then turned around, sat down on its hind legs, and told me to hop on. I was too scared to do anything else, so I climbed on, got myself situated on its back, and rode off into the distance. That's when I woke up from the dream."
"I remember riding Suicune at the end of my dream. It was a struggle to stay on its back, but I managed to get going pretty fast," Aravan recalled.
"Come to think of it, that's not what I remember happened to me. Entei and I walked out of the arena together, but it never let me on its back," Ace said.
"After hearing about the criminal syndicate last night on the news...this is definitely not coincidence. I believe this series of dreams is a prophecy. Johto will come under attack, and much of the world will be at risk. If nothing is done soon, this syndicate will take over the world. Remember that legend I pieced together Friday night?" Josh asked Ace.
"You mean all that bee-ess I had to put up with that night? Just kidding, Josh. Yes, I do remember." Ace confirmed.
"Well, I think history is trying to repeat itself here. If I am interpreting our dreams and the recent series of events correctly, everything in the legend has been accounted for."
"The rebel army of trainers?" Aravan asked.
"That would be the Johto police force currently investigating these events."
"The empire?"
"The criminal syndicate."
"The Beast Riders? What about them? Explain that, Josh!" Aravan refuted.
"The three of us."