"It sure is a long way from Ecruteak to Olivine," Brock said, shading his eyes. "Of course, that might be partly because of the route we're taking."
"What's the point going straight from A to B if it means you miss all the stuff on the way?" Ash replied, smiling. "Besides, it's kind of nostalgic to retrace our steps."
Misty nodded. "It lets us get in a lot more training, too. How's yours going, Ash?"
"Still no luck with Sacred Sword," he reported. "But Keldeo and I are getting better at working together with Hydro Pump."
"Yes, I saw the splashes last night," Brock agreed. "You're able to stay on his back for, what, all of forty seconds now?"
"...that's still an improvement," Ash insisted. "Anyway, he's working on Aura Sphere, too, because that gives him a good ranged attack."
"And-"
Pikachu was interrupted by a roar from ahead.
"What was that?" Brock asked.
"It sounded..." Ash blinked. "Vaguely familiar..."
There was a crackle like thunder, and Raikou burst out of the bushes.
"Aha!" he said. "Ash Ketchum, I challenge you to a race!"
Ash raised his hand. "Actually... this isn't a great time."
"Not a great time? Not a great time!?" Raikou shook his head, growling softly. "Well, that's fine then, I'll come back after lunch – of course it's a good time! Come on!"
"No, I mean..." Ash stopped, and started again. "Look, Charizard is part of an exhibition team Liza is taking to Hoenn for talks, Pidgeot's off at Shamouti, and I can't ride Keldeo for any length of time. I can't give you a race because none of my fast Pokémon are to hand."
Raikou blinked.
"...well, damn and blast it. I was looking forward to this!" Raikou slapped the earth with his paw. "Got all worked up for it, and everything..."
Misty cleared her throat. "I've got an idea..."
"Dexter?" Ash asked.
Recording.
Misty bowed to Raikou. "I challenge you, Raikou, to a battle. I will use no more than two Pokémon at any one time, and whoever wins you are free to go."
Raikou rumbled, a sound like thunder on the distant horizon, and nodded.
"Go!"
Misty released Staryu first. "Okay, Staryu! Cutting Water Dance!"
Raikou blinked. "Never heard of that one before..."
Staryu's gem glowed, and it began to shoot thin jets of water from its lower arms – slowly rising into the air on recoil. It then began to spin, quickly accelerating until it was a brown-and-yellow blur.
At that point, Raikou noticed that the water it was jetting out wasn't falling to the ground. Instead, it was being swept along in the powerful vortex generated by the spinning.
"Now!" Misty said, pointing, and Staryu changed the angle of its spin so it was facing straight up before accelerating towards Raikou.
The Electric-type Legendary jumped back, out of range of the attack – no matter it was Water and he was Electric, that was a lot of very fast moving water. "Thunderbolt!" he called, tail snapping with electricity, and whipcracked a bolt of lightning towards Staryu.
The bolt of yellow electricity slashed forwards, hitting Staryu's attack – and promptly vanished.
"What the- whoa!" Staryu's attack slashed at him with high speed air and water, and Raikou was forced to turn and open the distance with Extremespeed.
Slowing down at the other end of the clearing, Raikou charged up another Thunderbolt and threw it, watching closely this time to see what happened.
As the bolt hit the perimeter of Staryu's Cutting Water Dance, it ran into a misty haze of air and water moving at high speed. The thunderbolt vanished very quickly, producing an almost invisible blast of water particles out from the point of disappearance.
"Keep it up, Staryu!" Misty instructed. "And use Power Gem!"
Raikou jumped over the incoming rock, blasted out another bolt of lightning – which fared no better – and used his considerable speed to disengage again.
What was she doing?
Unless...
Suddenly, Raikou realized what it had to be. She was forcing there to be so many water droplets of such small size – barely above an aerosol – that it was drawing all the power he put into the attack off as static!
Well, he could work with that.
Raikou built another charge, and the air took on a greasy feeling. This time, rather than fire it off, he kept it stored in his shaggy thunder-cloud mane and charged forwards.
"Brine!" Misty snapped as Raikou came charging in, the water dance absorbing his charge but not managing to deplete it.
"Hiyah!" Staryu replied, gem pulsing, and a wash of much denser water blasted out from its arms – soaking both it and Raikou in the salty water.
There was a thundrous CRACK as Raikou's Wild Charge snapped across into Staryu, knocking the Pokémon out.
"Nice work, Staryu," Misty said. "Okay, Goldeen and Gyarados!"
Goldeen splashed down into one of the puddles left by Starmie's attack, righting herself with difficulty. For his part, Gyarados crashed to the ground and roared at Raikou.
Raikou snarled back, and snapped off a Thunderbolt – which went nowhere at all, not even leaving his tail.
He blinked, glancing back at himself. "Wha-?"
Gyarados used Dragon Rage, and a torrent of swirling energy rammed Raikou backwards.
Todd Snap trudged up the side of Snow Top mountain, leaning on his walking stick as he walked.
It was certainly cold enough for an Articuno to live here, he supposed...
At least there was a reasonably good path.
As he continued, Todd heard the call of a Pokémon. He turned, adjusting his snow goggles as he tried to work out where the sound was coming from.
"Who's there?" he asked, pitching his voice to carry.
The snow ruffled, about forty metres off.
"Hello?" Todd called. "Don't worry, I don't want to hurt you!"
Slowly, the head of a Sneasel Pokéd up over the edge of a hollow in the snow.
"Oh, you look lovely!" Todd smiled.
The Sneasel slowly smiled back at him, then flinched back when Todd reached for his backpack.
"It's okay," he assured it. "I'm just getting a camera."
Moving slowly, Todd took his backpack off and deposited it in the snow. He took his prized camera out, and raised it – again moving slowly – to his eye.
He snapped two pictures, compared them, and turned on the miniature printer he also carried. A few minutes' work, and he had the better of the two pictures printed.
"See?" he said, holding the small square of glossy paper up. "It's just a picture of you, nothing more."
The Sneasel cocked its head, frowning, and then darted forwards and snatched up the photo. It retreated until it was a few dozen metres away, and inspected the photo – blinking, as it recognized itself.
"Keep it," Todd said, waving, and put everything back in his backpack. "It's the least I can do. Thanks for the photo opportunity!"
He swung his backpack back on, and resumed climbing with a spring in his step.
"This is rather inconvenient," Raikou said, as another blast of dragonfire from Gyarados blazed across his flank.
The salt water drenching him was drying, but there was still enough left to make using Electrical attacks inconvenient – he tried again, and the attack just conducted across his skin into the ground.
But that wouldn't last much longer, and when it ran out then he'd be able to use Electrical attacks again.
"Goldeen!" Misty called. "Drill run!"
Raikou jumped out of the way as a rapidly spinning fish nearly hit him. "Right!"
Shaking his fur out, he leapt after the fish as she splashed back to the water, and pulled in electrical energy once more. It sleeted into the ground, but he kept charging it anew, and he jumped at Goldeen in a snapping, arcing Wild Charge.
"Look out!" Misty shouted.
Gyarados roared, and surged forwards to knock Raikou aside – too late.
The Beast of Lightning connected with a loud bang of discharging electricity, went over, and skidded to a halt on the other side of his targets' pond.
"Right, now-"
Gyarados hit him, right on the heels of a Bulldoze shockwave.
"Thunder!" Raikou roared, and lightning crashed down from the sky.
Not at Gyarados.
Raikou set his paws, digging into the ground, and forced Gyarados off him with an almighty burst of strength before looking around to see what had happened.
"Seaking," waved the newly evolved Pokémon, her horn occasionally crackling with bolts of residual energy.
Then she launched an Ice Beam at him.
"Huh," Misty said. "Lightningrod. That's useful."
"Is it going to be confusing that you've got a female Seaking?" Brock asked.
Misty shrugged, as another huge blast of electricity drained without any fuss into Seaking's horn. "Okay, Gyarados – Earthquake!"
Raikou roared something uncomplimentary as Gyarados slammed the ground with his tail, setting it shaking.
"How's tings?" Meowth asked, then ducked. "Yowp!"
"My apologies," Cubone said, catching the bone on the return. "I hadn't expected to be interrupted."
"I'll be sure ta knock next time," Meowth said. "Anyway, how is it?"
Cubone considered that for several seconds. "Good," she said eventually.
"Well, sure, don't give no details or anythin'..."
"Allow me to elaborate," she smiled. "My marble, as a whole, is no longer so easily accessible. I lack the raw power and fury which brought it entire into the world, and without it I cannot resist the pressure of how things should be for long."
"Dat sounds bad," Meowth said.
"On the other hand," she went on, and formed a pair of bones. She spun them around her hands twice, shifting them from femurs to dewclaws and back again, and then dismissed them and produced a single shield-shaped bone instead. "My lesser shaping is... well, not precisely easier, but... less instinctive."
"...ain't that harder, then?"
"It is." Cubone nodded to him. "But it's like your own speech, I think – with practice, it's learned as well as anything that's instinct, and on top of that it is better understood."
Demonstrating, she formed a wicked-looking sickle-shaped bone.
"What's dat from?" Meowth asked.
"It's not quite Absol," Cubone informed him. "I've altered the shape slightly to make it easier to hold – something I could not do before."
"Dat's pretty cool." Meowth nodded, then raised a claw. "Hey – question. Ya mentioned your entire marble. A reason for dat?"
"Indeed." Cubone beckoned. "Come at me."
"Uh... sure." Meowth nodded, and gestured. Three coins formed between his fingers, and he threw them in a dense pattern.
"They are always with me," Cubone said, and a patch of grass flickered beneath her feet for a moment. When it faded, she was holding a Bronzong-shield, which deflected the coins effortlessly.
"It is a little tiring, but I can summon just enough of the marble that I can conjure what I need instantly," she explained, letting the shield dissolve. "My hope is that, with time, it will become faster and more efficient."
"Fair enough," Meowth agreed. "An' can I just say, it's a pleasure ta see you happy."
Cubone smiled. "It's much nicer on the inside, as well."
Todd squinted into the teeth of the gale, trying to see where he was going.
The blizzard had intensified just in the last few minutes... he had to be close.
Then, with a soft whispering sound, a blue shape came gliding through the hail and snow from his left.
Todd swung his backpack down and quickly readied his camera, fumbling in his haste, and managed to snap a picture before Articuno disappeared.
Unfortunately for him, the flash was engaged. A bright pulse of light illuminated the snowy sky brightly enough to take a photograph of a Sableye in a pitch black cave.
"...uh oh," Todd said, wincing.
As he watched, the Articuno lowered its right wing and raised its left. It turned, banking casually through the snow as if it was nothing, and bore down on him.
"Wait!" Todd shouted, lowering his camera and raising empty hands. "I'm sorry – I'm not here to hurt you! I was only coming up to your nest so I could get a photograph!"
At his words, the Articuno slowed. It alighted in front of him, about ten feet distant, and cocked its head to one side before looking down at the camera.
Todd looked down at it too. "Do you want to see?"
Articuno considered him, then nodded slowly.
Picking it up, Todd disengaged the flash and pointed with gloved hands at the bits of the camera. "This is the lens – it's what focuses the light. I look through here to see what it's pointed at, and I press this button to capture the image."
Under the scrutiny of the Legendary, he went through his bag, pointing out everything. His sleeping bag and tent, several packaged meals, and his other photographic paraphernalia.
"See?" he said, shrugging as he repacked it. "No Pokéballs at all. I'm sorry I was coming up to your nest without permission, I'll be going now."
Articuno cawed – sounding, to Todd's ears, a little puzzled.
"Your... nest?" Todd repeated. "A friend told me a couple of days ago – you live up here on Snow Top Mountain. Right?"
That didn't seem to help – at first. Then the Blizzard Pokémon blinked, glanced upslope, and took off in a flurry of snow.
Todd got a couple more pictures as it left, then frowned. "Wonder what was so hard to understand about that..."
Puzzling it over, he started to head downslope again. It was a much easier task, but he slid occasionally and had to check his downwards slide.
"Hm. Interesting."
A Lucario looked up, and inclined his head respectfully. "Thank you for delivering this."
The Staravia bobbed his head in return, and flew back out the high, open window.
The Lucario examined the letter one more time, and then stood. Folding it up, he exited the building himself and broke into an easy, ground-eating lope across the wide open fields all around.
For all its size, the Lucario Kingdom did not take long to cross – at least, not for those Pokémon for whom it was named. Half an hour saw letter and Lucario alike arriving at their ultimate destination.
"My lord and lady," the messenger said, voice betraying no hint of his run. "We have a letter from one of our fosterlings."
Saying no more, he handed it over.
"Thank you," the female said, with a smile. "I believe we both appreciate your prompt delivery of this note."
Her mate nodded his agreement, opening the letter. "Ah – interesting. It seems that he has evolved, a few months hence."
"So soon?" the female said, blinking. "That was quick."
"It seems we made the right choice," the lord smiled. He continued reading. "Well, he's certainly had an adventurous life thus far. He notes that he is only mentioning the highlights, but they include encounters with almost every Legendary living within a hundred mile radius of Kanto."
"If those are indeed the highlights, then that is quite the life," the lady agreed. "What else?"
"He will be sure to visit us when he and his trainer travel to Sinnoh, though he notes that may be between two and three years from now. So it seems we will have to wait."
"A pity," she agreed.
"...hm, this is interesting." The male Lucario ran a finger along the last few lines of the letter, and gave it to her to read.
"You're right," she agreed after a moment. "Do we have any young ones who qualify?"
"Not at the moment, no," confirmed the messenger. "There are five young Riolu who are training here, and seven eggs – though, of course, we can't tell if an egg will be shiny or not when they hatch."
"So..." the lord said, looking across at his mate. "What do you think? Assuming the option is available, should we take it?"
The lady frowned.
"Not at the moment," she said, eventually. "But I think that someone should examine this candidate – see if she is, as he says, possessed of a good heart."
"And a strong mind?" her mate inquired.
"No, that can come in time. A good heart is the most important."
He nodded. "Very well. I concur. We will arrange to send one of our number to scout the situation at the next meeting."
Turning to the messenger, he waved a paw. "Our thanks for your speedy action. Please return to your duties."
Thus dismissed, the Lucario rose and ran off.
"Until then," the lord added, picking up his pot. "These trees need tending."
Forming metal claws, the highly experienced Lucario started trimming a bonsai tree.
It was an activity which promoted inner peace, especially when done as a couple.
"Hi-yah!" Raikou jumped over Gyarados, avoiding his thrashing tail, and kicked off towards that irritating Seaking.
One powerful blow with Extremespeed, and Seaking was finally out for the count.
Misty didn't miss a beat, returning Seaking and releasing Politoed in the same move.
"Encore! Encore!" Politoed clapped, sending a ball of white light towards Raikou and surrounding him in sparkling light.
Bewildered, Raikou found himself unable to use any Electric attacks. He was still able to use his Extremespeed, and made good use of it to dodge out of the way as Gyarados continued to alternate blasts of intense energy and earthshaking Ground-type attacks.
Raikou had to admit, though, this was marvellous. Who would have thought he'd be getting such a challenge?
Then he had to use another speed boost to get out of the way as an Ice Beam played over the ground near him, nearly connecting with his knee and icing him up that way.
As he landed, he noticed that the sparkling light had faded.
Grinning, he charged up another Thunderbolt and, for once, it worked. Gyarados was blasted backwards across the clearing, clearly unconscious.
Misty withdrew Gyarados and sent out her fifth Pokémon for the battle, her Kabuto.
"...what?" Raikou asked. He sent a bolt of lightning in the direction of Politoed, and prowled forwards to inspect the little trilobite. "Seriously?"
Kabuto clicked, and hit him in the face with a Mud Shot.
"Agh!" Raikou stamped down, paws glowing with electricity, and they crashed to the muddy ground either side of Kabuto. Electricity snapped across the gap, delivering a series of little shocks to Kabuto's cephalon, but the non-conductive shell saved him from any serious damage.
At about that point, Politoed landed on his back from a Bounce.
"Ow!" Raikou pulsed out a Discharge, hitting both Pokémon and sending Politoed bouncing away from him, then pawed at his streaming eyes and flipped Kabuto over before knocking him out with a Thundershock.
He turned, growling. "Is that it?"
Kingdra informed him that, no, it wasn't. By hitting him with a heavily boosted Outrage.
Todd flicked through the pictures on his camera, contemplating which one would look best.
The one he'd gotten with the flash was a bit of a wash from the point of view of showing Articuno as Articuno, but it had quite a nice atmosphere to it – the flash picked out ice crystals in the air, illuminating them and making it extra clear that this was a scene shot in the middle of a blizzard.
So, in a way, it portrayed Articuno as it really was. A Pokémon of elemental air and ice.
Then there were the ones he'd taken later on. One was with Articuno with folded wings, aloof, but clearly there and clearly a Pokémon rather than a barely-scene shape of glacier blue in the darkness.
The other one was, in his opinion, just what he was after. It was Articuno leaning in curiously, inspecting him – and, as such, demonstrating that it was just as curious and real – and had just as much of a personality – as any normal Pokémon.
It was a rarely seen side of the legends, and he liked that.
Movement drew his attention, a little downslope. A moving shape of bluish black, with a little tuft of short red just visible over-
"Oh, hello!" he said, waving. "You're that Sneasel I met earlier, aren't you?"
The mustelid froze for a second, and then nodded.
"I'm surprised you turned up again," he added, walking forwards again slowly and non-threateningly. To reassure... her, he thought, the ear feather was too short for a male... he aimed considerably to the right of her, so he wasn't walking directly at her and as such didn't appear threatening.
To his surprise, though, the Sneasel started to approach him. Still warily, looking around for trouble, but definitely making the first move.
He stopped moving, and sat back to let her approach. Deciding to take a chance, he got the camera out, and took photo after photo as she got closer and closer.
Focusing almost entirely on the view through his camera, adjusting the zoom to frame her as best he could, it took a moment to realize that he couldn't zoom out any further because she was standing, essentially, right next to him.
Hesitantly, he lowered the camera. "Hello?"
The Sneasel cocked her head on one side, took a steadying breath, and then took one final step forwards and touched his hand.
"...oh," Todd said, a suspicion arising. "You... want to come with me?"
Sneasel nodded.
"Well, I'm honoured," Todd told her. He rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment. "Unfortunately, I don't have any Pokéballs..."
She looked a bit disappointed at that.
"But – but that doesn't mean you can't come with me, I guess!" Todd went on hurriedly. "I've never had a Pokémon, but... I guess I could use an assistant?"
Sneasel contemplated that, and then nodded firmly.
A high call drew both their attention, and they turned to look back up the slope.
Todd gaped. "What the-"
The blizzard was fading, the sun breaking through harsh grey clouds to light the entire mountain a dazzling white. And, high overhead, were two Articuno.
Todd's camera came up almost without conscious thought, and he trained it on the two Legendaries overhead. The shutter clicked, and then again as they flew closer together.
"Whoa..." he said softly, as they banked in unison towards the north. Then one of them peeled off and dove, calling in shimmering tones, and the other responded by climbing into the heavens and giving a slightly differently-pitched call.
Sneasel made a noise of sudden understanding.
"Of course," he whispered, as the low one climbed and the high one dove, and they swapped places in a twirling one-and-a-half barrel roll. "That one I met wasn't the one Ash met. And I just told her where to find him."
Swallowing, Todd made sure to get as many photos as he could.
The courtship rituals of a legendary Pokémon were the kind of sight you rarely got one chance to see.
"Thunder!"
Kingdra grunted as the potent Electrical attack slammed down into him, but stayed up – his Dragon typing negating his weakness. Using the shallow water as best he could, the Dragon closed back in for another Outrage, and swallowed his Persim berry to ward off the disorientation it was producing.
The impact sent Raikou skidding backwards across the muddy battlefield.
"All right, enough is enough!" Raikou roared, digging in his paws and coming to a halt. His fur stood on end as he Charged. "Zap cannon!"
There was a very, very loud bang.
When their ears had stopped hurting, the spectators saw Kingdra lying in the mud. Unconscious.
And, panting heavily, Raikou standing in the middle of the battlefield.
Raikou seemed a little dazed by it all. He blinked, focused on the defeated Kingdra, and then shook his head.
After padding a little way towards the humans, he placed his paws with care on relatively untouched sections of ground, drew a deep breath, and roared his triumph to the heavens.
Then he turned back towards Misty, and bowed.
"Uh..." Ash raised a hand. "How come you're frowning like that?"
Raikou's answer was to smile, and then he broke into booming laughter.
"That was marvellous!" he roared, shaking his head and chuckling. "I will never underestimate my sister – or her type – again!"
Regaining his composure, he nodded to Ash. "A fine substitute, young trainer. We will meet again, though, and you had better be ready next time!"
With that, he turned, and loped off.
"...wow," Brock said, finally. "Misty, that was amazing!"
He counted on his fingers. "Okay... I counted Lightningrod, that Brine trick, the Cutting Water Dance, a quick Encore, using mud to make it harder for his attacks to conduct, just plain getting dirt in his eyes, and finally Kingdra's unusual typing. How many ways do you have to neutralize an Electric type?"
Misty shrugged. "We travel with Ash, and I spar with Pikachu. Are you surprised?"
Pikachu grinned. "It was nice to see her using them on someone else for once!"
The door crashed down.
Vicious, the Iron-Masked Marauder, turned with a smile. "Ah, I see that Giovanni has sent me some assistance."
"Think again, Vicious," the Admin leading the group said. "The boss heard about your plan. He doesn't approve."
"Oh?" Vicious sighed, as the Rockets released their Pokémon – Houndoom, Venomoth, Seviper, Skarmory, Machamp and Poliwrath. "And I was so hoping he'd sent me more men... I used up the ones I had."
He tapped his Pokéballs, and his Scizor and Sneasel emerged. "Well, at least it's a nice, unfair fight... five against three."
"Pardon?" the admin said, blinking. "No, it's six against two."
Vicious pulled three of his Dark Balls from their slots. "I disagree. Hm... I don't think the Machamp or Poliwrath will do... oh, nor will the Seviper, it's got a Psychic weakness."
He threw the three Dark balls. "Thank you for the reinforcements."
As the Rockets gaped, seeing their Pokémon turning against them, he smiled thinly. "Inform the Boss I'll be going my own way now."
AN:
Check another requirement off Misty's list.
That Sneasel, meanwhile, is not Todd's. He hasn't caught it, so it is technically wild.
And – I know the Lucario Kingdom isn't quite like that in the anime as such, but I basically assumed that a Lucario Kingdom had Lucario in it.
