This is the second of two chapters today.


Houndour locked eyes on Gengar, and growled – a few extra fangs showing as his lip rode up.

Gengar looked back, grinning casually, and didn't change his expression as Houndour started to slowly pace around him.

"Houndour," Ash said, pitching his voice low enough that the canine Pokémon could barely hear him. "He's using an illusion – that's not the real him. He's invisible, about twenty feet to your left."

Houndour absorbed the information, and then dug his hind legs in and exploded into motion. He took two loping strides and then lunged, teeth bared and crackling with dark energy, and chomped onto something tangible in the air.

Gengar faded into existence, revealing that Houndour had grabbed onto his arm. He waved it, and Houndour clung on for a few seconds before being thrown off and landing hard on the floor.

The Ghost-type hissed, and floated further into the sky. His double-team illusion faded away.

"Gengar, use Shadow Ball!" Morty called.

Houndour came back to his feet, looked up and started dodging the incoming Shadow Balls as best he could – he ran at a light jog, generally moving in a broad circle, and as soon as the attack fired he sped up, slowed down or turned to get away from it.

One or two connected, but for the most part he was able to avoid them. Because Gengar had to stay so high to stay out of Bite range, it wasn't as hard as it could have been.

"Houndour!" Ash called. "Do you know any ranged Dark attacks?"

"Just one," Houndour replied, skidding to a halt to avoid one Ball – and being hit by the next. "Ow!"

He blasted a small ball of fire into the air, which Gengar casually popped with another Shadow Ball – producing a huge cloud of smoke.

"What-" Morty said, then nodded. "Oh, of course. Smokescreen."

An ear-grating Snarl came from beneath the smoke cloud, making Gengar shake slightly as dark energy crackled over him.

"Nice work!" Ash called. "Keep it up!"

"He's got to be somewhere in there." Morty looked up at Gengar. "Night Shade! Hit the whole area, try to find where he is!"

Gengar nodded, and raised arms with an increasing amount of dark energy clinging to them. His Night Shade attack started well, but gradually dropped in power as it sliced through the smokescreen in a circular pattern.


"Are you guys okay?" Brock asked, looking up at his fellow spectators.

All six Beasts had their paws over their ears.

"That sounds awful!" Suicune muttered.

"That's kind of the point, though, isn't it?" Keldeo asked.

"It's still giving me a headache..."


"Got you..." Gengar said, his Night Shade finally finding a target. "Let's see you keep that up! Spite!"

Ghostly energy flashed down to the doughty Houndour, blowing away the cloud of Smokescreen and also making him break off his Snarling.

"Houndour, are you okay?" Ash asked, seeing the canine Pokémon looking discomfited.

"My throat's sore," Houndour said, in a hoarse voice.

"Great." Ash winced. "Okay, do what you can, I guess."

Houndour nodded, and fired an Ember upwards.

Gengar swooped aside and released a Shadow Ball in retaliation. The attack was pathetic – barely half the diameter of a normal Shadow Ball, it only just managed to reach the ground before destabilizing and collapsing.

"Right," Morty said, seeing the crackling Dark energy still on Gengar's fingers. "Your Houndour neutralized his ranged attacks with Snarl. That's pretty clever."

He pointed. "Pity Gengar's got some other good attacks! Focus Punch!"

Gengar grinned, curling his arm into a fist to move the energy crackling around the fingertips out of the way. His hand took on a white glow, and he lunged down at the Dark-type.

Houndour frowned upwards, then barked out another Snarl as Gengar came down. It hit Gengar, making him lose focus, and the attack didn't complete – and Gengar got another Bite for his pains before rising out of the way.

"I though he wasn't able to use that any more!" Morty said, blinking.

"It hurt," Houndour confirmed in a voice which was barely a whisper. He returned to pacing around in a circle, eyes on the sky.

"Right. Let's try this, then. Drain Punch!"

Gengar's fist glowed with green energy this time. He dove, fist pulled back for a powerful blow-

"Below you!" Ash called suddenly.

Houndour jumped into the air, opening his mouth, and Bit at Gengar's real body as it emerged from the ground. The illusory Ghost-type dissolved, and Houndour's Bite attack closed on Gengar's leg at about the same time as Gengar's Drain Punch hit home.

The Fire-type grinned, and muttered something through his teeth.


Keldeo blinked. "That's... me! And Lucario?"

"Oh, this must be Beat Up," Misty said, then winced as the two Dark doubles of Ash's pair of on-hand Fighting types hit Gengar very hard indeed. "Ouch..."

"Beat Up is that move which uses the strength of allies, right?" the shiny Suicune asked. She glanced between Keldeo and the three original Beasts, then up into the sky. "...well, that's a move which is only going to get more powerful."


"Gengar's unable to battle," Morty conceded, as his Ghost-type started drifting on the breeze and Houndour released him. "Well done, that was an impressive way to mitigate Gengar's ranged tactics."

He frowned. "I'm curious, though, how did you know where Gengar was?"

"Aura," Ash said simply.

Morty snapped his fingers. "Oh, that's right, that was in the interview. That's pretty cool."

Returning Gengar, the Gym Leader switched Pokéballs. "Do you want to keep your Houndour out?"

Ash shook his head. "No, I think he deserves a rest."

"Makes sense."

Houndour went back into his Pokéball, and Ash tossed it to Misty. "Can you give him a throat sweet or something, Misty? Thanks. Okay, Dexter – now."

Transferring.

Ash caught the Pokéball as it emerged. "Right. Tauros!"

"Interesting. Mismagius, go!"


Tauros snorted, pawing the ground, and gave Mismagius a glare.

"Remember, no Normal or Fighting type attacks!" Ash called. "Just everything else."

The bullish Pokémon glanced back at him and nodded, then returned his attention to Mismagius.

Morty pointed. "Okay, use Will-o-wisp!"

Blue-purple fire flashed out from Mismagius' hat, and zoomed towards Tauros.

Tauros faced it down with an impassive stare, drumming his hooves on the floor.

Several eyes looked up at a crack of thunder overhead.

It started to rain. Very locally indeed.

"Huh," Ash said, absently, as drumming rain in a six foot circle around Tauros completely extinguished the Will-o-wisp. "That one knows Rain Dance. I swear, it's like lucky dip with my Tauros..."

Tauros stopped drumming his hooves, and burst into motion. Mismagius gestured, producing a series of glowing rocks which slammed into him as he charged, and he grunted before leaping at her and delivering a Zen Headbutt.

"Not bad," Morty commented. "Magical Leaf!"

The shower of glowing leaves sliced out at Tauros, who reared and stamped before lashing back at Mismagius with a ring of Dark energy.

And that would be Payback, Dexter contributed. You are correct, this is basically a game of lucky dip to see what moves your Tauros have.

The Payback hit Mismagius as she was preparing another attack, breaking it and knocking her back.

"That's going to be a problem..." Morty came to a decision. "Okay, Mismagius. Perish Song!"

"That seems a little extreme," Ash commented, just before Mismagius started.


"Ow!" Suicune winced. "What's with this battle and screechy noises?"

Keldeo shrugged. "At least you've got paws."

Perish Song grated out, resonating in the air, and attacked both Pokémon on the field. It sapped their strength, red energy crackling around both Mismagius and Tauros.

"It is!" Morty agreed, shouting to be heard. "But most of Mismagius' good attacks are Ghost type, and that Payback means the rest are too risky! At least this way Mismagius can beat your Tauros – she's more used to Perish Song!"

Tauros started to stagger on his hooves as the attack drained his energy. For her part, Mismagius gradually sank towards the ground, but she was clearly the better off of the two.

"Fissure!" Ash said suddenly.

Tauros reared up, and slammed his hooves into the floor. Then fell over.

White energy traced a path towards Mismagius, and knocked her out as well.

"...I hate it when people do that," Morty muttered. "Okay, that was impressive. Both sides must pick another Pokémon."


"This has been interesting so far," Raikou said, nibbling on some of the popcorn Entei had (reluctantly) produced for them.

"Yeah!" Keldeo agreed, grinning. "I've not seen Ash fight much before, but if this is normal-"

"There's been a trend," Misty said, looking up at them as Ash pondered who to use next. "Since we came back, he's been getting more and more spectacular, but he was hardly a slouch to begin with."

Suddenly, all the beasts looked back towards Ecruteak.

"What is it?" Misty asked, concerned.

"Someone's coming," shiny-Raikou reported.

Suicune stood in her seat, leaning towards Ecruteak proper... then groaned. "Oh, no. It's him."

"Morty?" a voice called. "Morty? Are you here?"

A man in a cape strode out of the forest, heading straight for Morty. "I was looking for you in the gym, but you weren't there... oh, you've got a challenger?" The caped man looked at Ash briefly, then shrugged. "Whatever. Anyway, I found something important – you're going to want to see it. It's about another legendary trio, the three Forces of Nature from Unova, and it talks about how they interact. It might be the key to-"

Morty shook his head. "Sorry, Eusine, I'm busy. I'll look later."

"But this is crucially important!" Eusine stressed. "It could revolutionize our understanding of the Beasts of Ecruteak! It might even have a clue as to their movements!"

Ash started making a strangled noise, as if he was desperately trying to hold in laughter.

Morty looked at Eusine with incredulous eyes. "Uh... Eusine?"

"What?" Eusine asked. "Oh, now you want to hear?"

Morty pointed.

Eusine blinked at his finger. "What is it?"

Ash's strangled not-laughter got louder.

Morty took two quick steps forwards, took Eusine's shoulders, and physically turned him around to look at the bleachers on Ash's side of the field.

Eusine blinked, focused, blinked again, and went stock still.

"...Morty?" he said, after several seconds of silence. "Why are there two Suicune, two Entei, two Raikou and a Keldeo watching the gym match? And why are three of them shiny?"

"You know what?" Morty said. "I have absolutely no idea whatsoever."

"Right." Eusine swallowed, then started to walk towards the seats.


"Who's he?" Misty asked.

"He's-" Raikou began.

Suicune interrupted him. "He's spent years trying to find me, to get even a glimpse of me, and he chases up any rumour I'm anywhere with a single minded obsessiveness."

Brock nodded. "So, he's a stalker."

"Basically." Suicune shook her head. "And to make it worse, he thinks he's one of the few people worthy of seeing me – let alone catching me, which he wants to."

"Suicune!" Eusine called, drawing their attention. "I challenge you! If anyone should catch you, it's me – I've studied you tirelessly for years!"

Suicune stuck her tongue out. "No chance! I've decided who, if anyone, is going to catch me – and it's not you!"

Eusine didn't understand her. The stuck-out tongue, however, needed no translation. "What? What do you – but – I've tried to find you for years! Always hoping to be so fortunate as to get a glimpse of you – but to catch you would be the crowning moment of my life!"

The water type shook her head.

"What about you?" Eusine switched his focus to the shiny one. "Please! I want to-"

All three shiny beasts barked denials in unison, shaking their heads as Suicune had.

"I think the answer's no," Keldeo supplied.

"But... but..." Eusine grabbed at his belt. "Alakazam!"

A precisely moderated burst of electricity hit his hand, making it jerk away from the Pokéball at his belt. Alakazam emerged anyway, but took in the half-dozen snarling legendaries – and the glowing beam of azure light as Keldeo unsheathed his sword – and decided not to get involved.

"Eusine," Misty said, raising her voice. "Eusine!"

Eusine glanced at her. "What do you want?"

"Eusine, most people never even see Suicune," she pointed out. "I mean, I travel with Ash, so I've met a lot of Legendaries – including several nice Water types."

Keldeo flashed her a grin, then returned to glaring at Eusine.

"But I don't think this is the right way to get to know Suicune," she continued. "Legendary Pokémon don't always remain aloof from humans, but they tend to show themselves to and interact with people they don't think are going to catch them for selfish reasons."

"I don't want to-" Eusine began.

"Why do you want to catch her?" Misty asked.

Eusine gaped. "Her?"

"Case in point..." Suicune muttered. "I'm sure some legend somewhere mentions I'm female..."

"And – it's because I'd be the best trainer for her," Eusine said, trying to regain his equilibrium.

"The best trainers for Legendary Pokémon aren't the ones who chase them," Keldeo said. "It's the people who help them – and other Pokémon – without asking for anything in return."

He nodded towards the boy still on the field. "Ash is a good example of that – he saved my life. So I owe him a debt, and..." Keldeo shrugged.

Eusine followed the logic through.

"So... does that mean that... he is your trainer? Him? A boy?" The researcher shook his head in astonishment. "I don't... I can't believe it."

Keldeo grinned, and vanished in a flash of red.

Ash glanced down at his belt, then opened one of the Pokéballs there. Keldeo emerged once more, and nodded to Ash before cantering back over to the stand.

"Eusine..." Misty said, sighing. "There's no easy way to take this. You've been doing it wrong your whole life, and I'm sorry about that."

She nodded towards the bleachers. "The best thing to do, really, is start over again. This time, why not try focusing yourself on something other than examining legends just to focus on Suicune?"

Brock spoke up. "If you know the legends, you know Legendary Pokémon are often very important – they have jobs."

He nodded towards the half-dozen beasts. "Luckily, here, there's two of each – but if there hadn't been, then even if you caught Suicune you'd just have to let her go again. Did you think of that?"

"...no," Eusine admitted. He returned his Alakazam, and sighed. "I... I can't believe..."

He straightened, and looked at Suicune. "I'm... sorry, Suicune."

Suicune considered that impassively for several seconds. Then she nodded to him, slightly. "Keldeo? Please translate this. I will not allow myself to be caught by you, Eusine – but, through the translation of your Psychic-type, I will consent to talk."

Keldeo duly relayed this, and Eusine let out an explosive sigh of relief.

"Thank you, Suicune," he said, bowing slightly. "I'll... I'll try to do better, I guess."

"Come on," Misty added, nodding to the bleachers. "Why not watch the second half of the battle? It's been pretty cool so far!"


More than a mile overhead, Ho-Oh banked in the sunlight streaming between the clouds.

This was an unexpected pleasure.

Admittedly, he could only see the battles below in tiny, doll-like detail – but it was still better than nothing.

More gym battles should be outdoors, in Ho-Oh's opinion. It was good for wild Pokémon.


"Noctowl, your go!" Ash called, releasing him.

"A good choice against most Ghosts," Morty agreed. "Most. Froslass!"

"Great," Ash winced. "Okay, you know what to do..."

"I do indeed," Noctowl confirmed. He rolled in the air, producing a duplicate, and the two of them flew into the air.

As they did, Froslass raised her arms, and a snowstorm started around her.

"Neat," Ash said, watching the miniature snowstorm. "Is that Hail or Powder Snow?"

"Powder Snow," Morty answered. "Okay, use Ice Shard!"

Froslass drew one arm in towards her body, then gestured towards one of the Noctowl. A large shard of ice shot out, and burst into a spray of a dozen or so smaller shards shortly before reaching Noctowl.

The Shiny Pokémon dissolved in a flash.

"So, that was the double team..." Morty said, frowning. "Okay, hit the other one with another Ice Shard!"

Froslass repeated her attack. This time, however, Noctowl flared his wings and avoided the attack by slowing abruptly – then dipped forwards, gaining speed again by diving.

As he rose back to altitude, he spun off an air cutter which bored in on Froslass. It produced a plume of snow back towards Noctowl as it passed into her powder-snow effect, and she flinched a bit from the blow. It didn't seem to do much damage, though.

"Not bad, Noctowl!" Ash called.

Morty's eyes narrowed. "Something about that... Froslass! Hail!"

"The weather outside is frightful," she intoned, raising her arms, and her snowstorm expanded outwards. As it did, it gained definition and switched from snow to hail, until there were large hailstones pelting an expanding area.

Noctowl took a hit from a hailstone, and promptly vanished.

Eusine gasped. "They were both illusions?"

"There!" Morty said, pointing.

Everyone squinted, seeing that there was a patch of moving air where the hailstones were bouncing off something solid.

"Game's up, Noctowl!" Ash informed him.

"I noticed, what what?" Noctowl returned to visibility, wincing occasionally as hailstones hit him. "Right, let's be about it."

As Froslass charged an Icy Wind attack, Noctowl's eyes began to glow. The hailstones stopped bouncing off him, and instead began bouncing off a spherical bubble of psychic force a few inches wider than his wingtips.

"Tally-ho!" Noctowl called, accelerating and curving in towards Froslass. His Extrasensory knifed through the hail, keeping it away, and his wings flashed silvery with Steel Wing.

Froslass fired her Icy Wind, which Noctowl battered through with his psionic shield, and then exhaled a blast of icy breath just as Noctowl finally reached her.

There was a confused moment of ice and wings and flashing energy, and then Noctowl thumped to the ground with his feathers iced up – having passed through Froslass, there'd been a moment when he'd taken the Ice Breath directly to the face past his Extrasensory shield.

Froslass had hardly escaped unscathed. The icy portions of her body were clearly cracked and chipped, and her arms hung a little limply.

"Nice work, Noctowl," Ash said, and recalled him. "Houndour!"

The canine Pokémon grinned, looking up at Froslass. "Hello."

Froslass contrived to look exasperated. "Yeah, we both know how this is going, get on with it."

Houndour blew a fireball at her.

"Ha!" Frosslass announced, eyes flashing. "Destiny Bond!"

The fireball connected, flashing all over her in a wash of flame.

Froslass frowned, feeling only mildly warm. "Shouldn't that have-"

Her opponent shrugged. "That was barely even an attack. This is, though!"

Froslass didn't quite have time to reactivate her Destiny Bond before the Fire Fang hit.


"Yes, I pretty much expected that," Morty acknowledged.

"By the way," Ash asked, as the gym leader went for a fourth Pokéball. "How did you know Noctowl was using an illusion?"

"I'm used to illusions, Ghosts use them a lot," Morty explained. "The clue was the way the Air Slash disturbed the snow – it should have made a plume out the other side from where the attack came in."

"Huh." Ash nodded. "I'll let Noctowl know. Who's next?"

"Well, I've got to stop your Houndour," Morty said. "Jellicent!"


"Watch out!" Ash called. "That's a Water type!"

"Oh, great," Houndour said, examining the blue Pokémon. "Water type. Here we go..."

Jellicent shrugged his fins, and fired a Hydro Pump.


Ash returned the soaked Houndour. "I forgot those existed, actually.. they're kind of bizarre."

Jellicent looked mildly annoyed.

"Right. Pikachu!"

Pikachu perked up. "Really?"

"Sure thing!" Ash confirmed.

"Right!" Pikachu ran forwards. "Take this!"

Jellicent fired another Water attack, which Pikachu jumped around with a fluid grace. He used Agility, accelerating, and avoiding the Shadow Ball which Jellicent sent at him next.

As he ran, a ring of electricity formed around him.


"Oh, this," Suicune said, leaning forwards. "I remember this."

"What's that?" Raikou asked, blinking. "I... it's an Electric attack, but I've never seen it before."

"Trust me," Brock said, glancing up. "You're in for a treat."

As he spoke, the second ring completed, and the third and final ring formed. They began rotating independently around one another, in a complicated pattern.


"Really?" Ash asked, chuckling. "Is it worth it?"

"Probably not," Pikachu agreed, jumping over a Bubblebeam as his attack continued to charge. "But I feel like it."

"Fair enough," Ash agreed. "Pikachu – Volt Crash!"

The rings locked together, and there was a huge crack of thunder.


Raikou's jaw dropped. "What. The hell. Was that?"

Suicune chuckled. "He said, didn't he? Volt crash."

"Why didn't you tell me about this?" He looked at his sister for a moment, then back to Pikachu – panting slightly, but looking very pleased with himself. "That was amazing! I want to learn it!"

He shot a look at the shiny Raikou. "Hurry up with your training, I want to challenge Ash! No, wait, I want to challenge him and then throw the match! Just to learn that!"


"...well, I guess you've earned the Fog badge," Morty said. He shook his head. "Now I'm going to go home, and... probably sit down for a bit."

Ash caught the Fog badge. "Thanks for the battle!"

The Beasts made noises of agreement.

"Oh, and Suicune suggests you have these outside more," Ash added. "They enjoy watching."

"Right." Morty nodded. "I... okay, then."

He checked all four Pokéballs, and started to walk back to Ecruteak – slightly unsteadily.


"What was it you wanted to ask us, Misty?" Suicune prompted.

"Oh!" Misty nodded. "Thanks for reminding me. I wanted to ask – I'm currently under consideration for a slot in the Elite Four, I just got the letter this morning."

"Ah. Say no more." Suicune looked at her two brothers. "Since I believe you are a Water trainer... you wish to fight my brothers?"

"Or their doubles, yeah. I mean, there's other options, but..." She nodded, and cleared her throat. "Entei? Raikou?"

The two Fire-types and the two Electric-types turned to her, not quite in unison. "Yes?" the original Entei said, speaking for all of them.

"Could I battle one of each of you?" she asked. "Not now, some later time. It's part of Elite Four qualification testing."

Raikou nodded straight away. "I would be glad to."

"As I," Entei added. "We are aware of how this works – Suicune and I fought Malcom, the Grass-type member of the Elite Four."

Misty frowned, then calculated something in her head. She gaped. "That must have been forty years ago!"

"Yes..." Entei nodded. "Yes, I suppose it was. How time passes."

"We will organize something," Raikou said. "I'm sure they will be grand battles!"

"Thanks," Misty nodded. She sighed. "Wow, even knowing how hard it's going to be... that helps, it really does."


"This is like trying to find a needle in a haystack," Gary groaned.

Umbreon nodded, looking around at the hundreds upon hundreds of stones of all kinds on display.

"And we don't even know how to tell which one's a Mega Stone and which isn't," she pointed out.

Gary put his head in his hands.

"Wait one moment," Furfrou said, still in her Debutante trim. "What is this?"

Gary glanced up, and blinked at the case she was patting.

Walking over, he gave it a close look. "That... that actually might be one. It's not cut, but... Dee?"

He held up his Pokédex, scanner pointed at the smooth, river-washed stone.

Engaging deep scan.

There was a long pause.

Deep scan completed. It appears to be a mega stone.

Gary stood. "Right. Right."


"That was far, far too expensive," Gary said, as they sat outside some minutes later. "We might need to start doing the gym challenge purely for funding."

"Well, I'm game," Furfrou pronounced. "Any idea what it was?"

"Not really..." Gary shrugged, examining the distinctively-shaped flaw deep in the translucent stone.

It was pale pink and light brown, sandwiching a darker brown fleck in the middle. "I don't know what the colour means, and it's not like they're labelled. And we do need to get it cut, first, I suppose."

"Why not let us all have a go with it?"Umbreon suggested. "Every Pokémon you've got. That might help."

"A bit," Gary agreed. "And only if it's a Kanto Pokémon who uses it, too."


AN:

Fogbadge get!

I kind of feel sorry for Morty, this has not been a normal day.

Eusine is... tricky. He's obsessed, which is hard for Suicune, and he's arrogant to boot. But... well, he's just been told that his life's goal has been achieved – by someone else. Suicune wants to be caught, and it's not by him.

Hard not to feel a bit sorry for him, too.

As for Gary... well, that Mega Stone is indeed a Mega Stone. But it's not perhaps the most immediately useful.