This is the first of two chapters today.
"...still sorry about that, Brock," Ash said, shaking his head. "I can't believe we forgot about her-"
"Really, Ash," Brock repeated. "It's fine. Just remember to keep an eye on future events so this doesn't happen again."
He glanced around. "Speaking of which, what happened around now?"
Accessing, Dexter informed them. He summarized briefly. The next issue is the Lake of Rage – if things are going to schedule, then we'll get there in a few days.
Ash glanced between his friends.
"Okay, who wants to stop that as soon as possible?" Ash asked.
"Count me in," Misty agreed. "Maybe if we get there in time we can stop that poor Magikarp from being forced to evolve."
Brock was quick to agree too. "Sure!"
"Good." Ash then frowned. "Okay, what was there... there was a Rocket base, right?"
"Yeah," Misty agreed. "And there was something else, too – something about an evolution field?"
Pikachu nodded ruefully. "That was painful. It basically meant that, if you weren't a fully-evolved Pokémon, you could barely concentrate. It kept trying to force me to evolve."
"Right..." Ash thought for a moment. "Can either of you two manage an all-fully-evolved team?"
Brock tapped a Pokéball. "Geodude's not, but all the rest of mine are."
"Great," Ash said, already thinking. "Misty?"
"I can do... Gyarados, Corsola, Starmie, Kabutops, Politoed, Kingdra, Seaking, Togekiss. Any six of those."
"And-" Ash broke off. "Okay, I've got a lot of choice, but... we do need to get there."
He opened two of his Pokéballs. "I know you just got back from Cerulean, Suicune, but can you manage another run with one of us?"
Suicune nodded. "I've gone much further before."
"Entei? Do you mind?"
"If I have to," Entei grumbled, good-naturedly. "And I suppose I must."
"Thanks," Ash said, with a grateful nod. "We've got Pidgeot, too... I don't think the Rocket base should be too much trouble."
"Maybe not," Suicune agreed. "But we should still prepare for the worst."
"Don't worry, I am," Ash nodded. "Okay, Electric-type, Flying-type, Fire- and Water-types... and a Bug/Fighting Type... what am I missing?"
"You're bringing Heracross?" Pikachu asked, then corrected himself. "Oh, of course."
He frowned. "I'd say bring Lucario – I might not be able to fight properly, and you need someone with Electric attacks."
"Good idea," Ash agreed. "And I'll bring Meganium as well, just in case." He took out his 'dex. "Dexter?"
Already making the preparations.
"While that's going on, who's going to ride on whom?" Entei asked.
"This is not very much fun," Brock mumbled, clinging to Entei's shaggy mane.
"Count yourself lucky, I'm not going very fast!" Entei told him, powerful muscles bunching underneath Brock's seat. "Of course, unlike my sister I can't control the wind, so I suppose you must be a little windswept..."
Brock pushed himself up enough to glance at Misty, who seemed perfectly content on Suicune alongside, and then up at Ash and Pidgeot skimming along overhead.
"River coming up!" Entei informed him, accelerating. "Hold on!"
The ferry crew were startled and somewhat aggrieved.
About ten minutes later, the two Beasts slowed to a walk, then stopped on a low rise overlooking the Lake of Rage.
Brock promptly got off and sat down hard.
"It wasn't that bad," Entei informed him.
Having had prior experience, Misty was much better prepared for her high-speed trip. She got off, only a little unsteadily, and scanned the lake surface.
"It seems alright," she said. "Nothing moving, certainly not a Gyarados... Ash?"
Pidgeot dropped down to hover just overhead. "Yeah?" Ash called, from her back.
"Can you make sure there's no Red Gyarados down there?" she shouted over the wingrush. "If there isn't, we might have arrived in time!"
"Got it!" Ash called, and Pidgeot duly beat her wings faster. She accelerated a little away from the rise, then dipped forwards towards the lake.
"Wonder how this place got called the Lake of Rage?" Ash asked, as Pidgeot circled at a hundred feet or so and he scanned the lake through both regular sight and Aura.
"I think it's supposed to be famous for Gyarados," Pikachu supplied, holding on carefully. "Just not red ones."
"Really?" Ash asked. "Huh. I don't always remember everything about last time, so... hey, that's strange..."
"What is it?" Pidgeot asked, slowing a little. "Do you need me to hover?"
"No, normal speed is fine," Ash replied. "A bit lower might help, though."
Pidgeot's reply was to drop lower still, until she was barely three feet over the surface and her left wingtip was almost touching. Tiny waves whipped by in a blur, and Ash peered into the lake depths.
"I don't know," Ash said eventually. "There's definitely something in there, but I don't know what. Something at the bottom... okay, Pidgeot, you can pull up now."
Pidgeot gratefully pulled up, rising away from the lake to a more comfortable altitude.
"Any sign of the Gyarados?" Pikachu asked.
"No," Ash said, frowning. "A couple of normal ones, but they didn't seem – wait a minute..."
He pointed. "Pidgeot! Down there!"
"Oh, you want to go back down now?" Pidgeot chirped.
Despite her complaint, though, she dropped lower again. This time, she switched to hovering, producing big concentric ripples on the lake surface.
"There!" Ash said, pointing.
Both his Pokémon looked.
"That's a golden Magikarp," Pikachu said, puzzled. "Why is there a-"
He winced. "Ow ow ow!"
Ash looked around, Magikarp forgotten. "Pikachu? Are you okay?"
"No!" Pikachu replied, clutching his head. "I – Pidgeot! Get us out of-!"
The Magikarp Ash had noticed started to flail around in pain as well. It flapped up out of the water once, then plunged back in.
There was a sudden eruption of water, soaking Pidgeot in spray. Chirping in surprise, she hammered the air to get to a safe altitude.
Below them, a huge red serpent rose from the water. Pained eyes locked on them, and the Red Gyarados inhaled massively-
A white blur shot across between Pidgeot and the Gyarados, intercepting a gout of shimmering green flame.
"Ash!" Togekiss called, as the Dragonbreath ended – having damaged her not at all. "Misty says she can handle this! You and Brock stop the machine!"
Misty ran down the hillside towards the lake shoreline, rummaging at her belt as she did so. "I hope you guys can handle this between you..."
"Misty?" Suicune asked, loping alongside. "Do you need help?"
The Water-type trainer gave that several seconds of thought as she waded through the long grass.
"...I might," she admitted. "If Ash doesn't need you, I'd appreciate the backup."
"He sent me," Suicune explained. "He, Brock and my brother are on the lookout for the transmitter."
"Right," Misty said, as they crashed through the foliage and reached the lakeshore. "Thanks."
As she spoke, she threw her first Pokéballs, and Kabutops and Kingdra splashed into the water.
Togekiss was relieved to see them arrive, as the newly-evolved Gyarados had been blasting Flamethrowers at her after seeing the Dragonbreath attack had failed. She went up-and-around in a wingover, dodging the Fire-type attacks for now, and kept it up until Kabutops arrived.
For his part, the Fossil made it count. Bursting out of the water propelled by powerful jets of water, he brought his scythes across in a pair of Slash attacks which stung the Shiny Pokémon and made it break off attacking Togekiss.
Of course, that now meant that Kabutops was the main target. The Gyarados roared, and blasted a Dragon Rage attack down at him in a stream of bright purple-yellow flame.
Most of the attack's fury hit Kabutops on the heavily armoured cephalon, and he closed his eyes to avoid taking too much damage to them. Some of the blast went on his exposed scythes, flaring off in showers of sparks, and what got past him entirely hit the water and produced a hiss of steam and bubbles.
Kabutops splashed back into the water, and swam away at speed. His opponent followed, keeping up a continual torrent of Dragon Rage.
Togekiss used the distraction well. She spun in the air, turning to face the Red Gyarados, and closed in in a shallow dive. As she did, sparkling blue energy built up on the front of her wings.
She skimmed over the head of the Atrocious Pokémon, and pulled down in an inverted loop. Interrupting the stream of the attack and flying up it, she released the attack she'd been charging. "Dazzling Gleam!"
The Shiny took a shotgun-spread of sparkling Fairy-type energy directly to the face.
Misty gaped, as she saw her opponent shake his head and then start charging a Hyper Beam. "That just made it angrier! How can that have just made it angrier?"
The intense blaze of energy fired. It swept through the sky, scattering the few Pidgey who hadn't made it to cover yet, and then clipped Togekiss on the wing.
Misty's Pokéball came up in a flash, and she returned the lamed Jubilee Pokémon before she hit the water.
As a kind of bizarre compensation, though, Kingdra finished his Dragon Dance at that point. He shot a blaze of his own Dragonbreath at the Red Gyarados, getting its attention, and then Headbutted it in the neck.
Entei braked in front of the pair of steel double doors, throwing up a cloud of dust and a few clods of turf, and Brock got off.
"I am only doing that if it's necessary," he said, breathing deeply.
The Fire-type gave him a brief, mildly offended look. "Not sure how to take that..."
Pidgeot arrived in a storm of wind, and Ash hopped off. "You okay, Pikachu?" he asked, taking care to support the Electric-type as he landed.
"My cheeks hurt like nothing I've ever experienced before," Pikachu said indistinctly. "Just stop the machine. Please."
"You got it, Pikachu," Ash said firmly. He returned Pidgeot, and turned to Brock. "Dexter managed to confirm it – this is where the radio signal's coming from."
"So, what's the plan?" Brock asked.
"I have one," Entei said. "Stand back."
Ash raised an arm, thought about it, and lowered it. "Sure, just give me a second."
He closed his eyes, looking through the metal of the door. No-one on the other side, at least not nearby.
"Go for it," he said, standing back.
Entei's mane crackled with smoke. His tail lashed, producing a smell a little like wood-smoke, and a rumbling grew deep in his throat.
Then he used Fire Blast. The flaming attack hit the wall, detonated, and blew the doors open along a weak seam.
Droplets of cooling steel ran down the doors as the smoke cleared.
"That was pretty cool," Brock admitted. "Right, let's go, Ash!"
"Right!" Ash agreed, following his friend into the Rocket base.
Entei followed, and almost immediately he saw a problem.
This room, the one with the doors they'd just blown up, was a loading area. The way down to the rest of the base was through a long corridor.
One barely high enough for Entei to fit into, top to bottom, and full of statues of Persian which crowded the walls in left to right. It was immediately apparent that Entei would fill the entire corridor, and even then he would probably knock the statues over – if, that is, they were easy to knock over. Otherwise he might just end up wedged.
"...I could probably squeeze through there," he said unconvincingly.
"Sorry, Entei," Ash shrugged. "You'll be with us if we need you."
So saying, he returned the Fire-type.
Deep underground, in the main control room, a Rocket executive blinked.
"Who just did that?"
"I'm not sure," the camera operator reported. "The camera in that room was destroyed by something – not sure what – and we barely caught any speech. They're coming past – oh."
Everyone in the room recognized the boy walking past the cameras concealed in the Persian statues. The Pewter gym leader was just icing on the cake.
"Well, we're in trouble," Tyson sighed. "How did we have luck this bad? Ash Ketchum is within a mile when we start our experiments?"
"Doesn't matter!" Butch said, clenching his fist. "We'll be fine, sir! We've got new and better teams now, and there's no way he's got his A team around on this short notice!"
"I'm well aware you've got a better team," Tyson replied irritably. "But that's Ash Ketchum."
He turned to Professor Sebastian. "How soon can you evacuate?"
"The longer I have, the more equipment we can save," Sebastian informed him. "I'll put some of the grunts onto breaking down what's portable."
"Good," Tyson nodded. "See to it."
Turning back to Butch and Cassidy, he nodded. "All right, you two are going to get your chance to show me just how well you can fight. Don't disappoint me."
Kingdra accelerated, curving out of the way of a green Dragon Pulse from the rampaging Gyarados, and vanished underwater for a moment.
A visible trail of disturbed water tracked his path, and then he emerged behind his opponent before firing a Dragonbreath attack at his back.
Enraged further, if that was possible, the Red Gyarados turned and blasted Dragon Rage at him. Kingdra mostly avoided it, but the energy clipped his tail as he swam for distance, and Gyarados roared in triumph.
He tried to follow up, but Kabutops interrupted with a Night Slash to the back of the neck. His scythes hit hard, Dark-type energy sparking off as the sharp blades scraped along Gyarados' red scales, and he jumped clear just before Gyarados used Twister to try and hit him.
Plunging back into the water, Kabutops swam over to his teammate. "This one is very strong," he said.
"I noticed!" Kingdra replied. "Any ideas?"
Kabutops thought for a moment. As the Twister died down, the Red Gyarados saw that he hadn't caught either enemy Water-type, and looked around for his targets.
"Outrage him," Kabutops decided. "I'll try and distract him until you get the first hit in."
With that, the Fossil swam forwards to give time for Kingdra to get his run-up. He raised one scythe to block the impact of a Hydro Pump, wincing as the water cannoned into him, and managed to escape before being driven too hard into the lake.
As Gyarados prepared a second Hydro Pump, Kabutops lunged. Scythes cloaked in green energy, he rammed a Leaf Blade into the midsection of the big serpent, and then Kingdra arrived with his Outrage in the form of a high-speed blow to the forehead.
The Red Gyarados went back over with an enormous splash.
"Did that get it?" Kingdra asked, as the waves subsided.
"I-"
A red blur crashed out of the water underneath Kingdra, sending him flying into the air. The Red Gyarados emerged nearly to his tail fin, body redder than usual with an ominous red glow, and slammed his jaws down on Kingdra as his opponent dropped back to the lake.
Struggling despite the pain of the fangs gripping him, Kingdra blasted jets of water and dragonfire at Gyarados' face. The Shiny's reply to this was to emit a rumbling roar, then ram his foresection into the shallow mud of the lakeside – carrying Kingdra with it.
The blow, coming on top of a nasty Outrage, finished Kingdra off.
As the Red Gyarados roared his triumph, Kabutops hopped onto his back. Rotating his wrists, he put both scythe tips in with another flash of green energy.
Gyarados immediately began to thrash and try and force him off. Clawed feet holding on grimly, Kabutops crouched, then ran up the back of the other Water-type – using the motion to slice twin parallel cuts into Gyarados.
He got about halfway up to the neck before the thrashing about got too much, and he was thrown at the water as hard as Kingdra had been rammed into the ground.
Reorienting, he disappeared with a surprisingly small plop.
At this point, Starmie announced its presence by firing a Thunderbolt.
That got a reaction besides more anger. Gyarados lit up like a Christmas tree, stray electricity crackling from his fins, and wobbled for a moment.
"Did that get it?" Misty asked, watching closely. "That has to have done some damage!"
"I don't know, Misty," Suicune admitted. "That must have been one strong Magikarp, but I've never seen-"
Gyarados snapped out of it.
There was an almighty boom as he hit Starmie with Payback, which knocked it out of control and crashing through a tree near its trainer. Misty could see from here that Starmie's core was giving the weak warning pulse which meant it was no longer combat effective.
Misty readied to send out her next Pokémon, but what the Red Gyarados did next forestalled her. It plunged back into the water, vanishing from sight.
"Why did it do that?" Suicune asked.
"I don't – wait!" Misty overrode herself. "Kabutops!"
There was a ripple as a large glob of muddy water splashed to the surface, fell apart and collapsed back to the lake. Then another.
Then a rock tumbled through the air just above the lake surface.
"I know what's happening!" Misty said, snapping her fingers. "Kabutops couldn't use his Rock-type attacks because there weren't any rocks, out in the middle of the lake. So he's gone digging for them - those must be Rock Throw or Stone Edge or something!"
This time, the lake surface exploded upwards.
Kabutops emerged first, slashing downwards. This was because he was now the one in the red Gyarados' mouth.
He was thrown into the air, and then a familiar-looking ball of striated water shot up at him from Gyarados.
"Look out, that's Hydro-" Misty began.
Kabutops did hear her, and swiped at the ball as it began to destabilize. He was partly successful in making it detonate wrongly, but even the relatively small amount of force from the Hydro Cannon which hit him finished the tired Eurypterid off.
He landed heavily in the mud next to Misty and Suicune, splashing them both.
"Who are you going to send out now?" Suicune asked. "Do you need me to contribute?"
"I..." Misty glanced down at her remaining Pokéballs. "I can't send Seaking out against that – I brought her in case there was a Thunderbolt around, but..."
She shook her head. "I've only got my Gyarados left. I hope you can win this one."
Before she could throw it, the Pokéball burst open on its own.
The door opened as Ash and Brock approached it.
"Hello, Mr. Ketchum," Tyson said courteously. "I see you're quick off the mark."
"Turn the machine off!" Ash told him. "This is pointless!"
"Well, not really," Tyson disagreed. "See it from our point of view. It's a machine which means that we can make Pokémon evolve on demand."
"Only if they want to anyway," Ash countered. "It's really not very hard to train a Pokémon up to evolving, anyway..."
"Ash, most people take years to do it," Brock pointed out.
Ash blinked. "Really? I – wow, I knew my experience was unusual, but-"
Tyson shrugged, quite happy to talk if it gave time for the Professor to evacuate. "As your gym leader friend says, most people have to spend much longer than you do in order to train their Pokémon to the point of evolution. But really, this machine's useful in more than one way." He indicated the Electric-type Ash was supporting with one hand. "If it does this to all non-fully-evolved Pokémon, imagine how much easier it could make it to steal-"
"It actually sounds like it'd make it harder," Ash interrupted. "It gives a warning, and it also means that any Pokémon stopped by the effect would just have to evolve to be immune to it. If you tried to steal from a newbie trainer with a Mareep, you'd have an Ampharos to handle instead..."
Tyson's jaw dropped. He glanced at Butch. "Why didn't we-"
Butch shrugged. "Not sure, boss. Makes sense, though."
"I can't believe we were so stupid," Tyson said with a wince. "Oh well. At least it'll be useful in speeding up training. And it seems to do something unusual, because that Gyarados was red. That deserves further research."
"Have you even heard of Shiny Pokémon?" Brock asked. "Are you sure you're-"
"But that wasn't a shiny Magikarp," Tyson retaliated.
"Yes it was," Ash told him. "I saw it evolve – I was right overhead when it did."
"Really?" Tyson looked a bit lost. "I could have sworn we checked to be sure there were no Shiny Pokémon in the lake..."
"You're not very good at this, are you?" Brock asked.
Tyson's jaw clenched, but he didn't rise to the jab. "I'm tired of this," he said, forcing calm. "Sundance, Cassidy, handle them."
"That one was on purpose!" Butch snapped.
"Butch," Cassidy hissed. She gestured to his waist, and he took the new Pokéball there. Cassidy readied her own, and Ash and Brock did so as well.
"Charizard!" Cassidy announced, sending the Fire-type out onto the floor of the underground chamber.
Her teammate sent out his new Aggron at the same time, and it took a stance next to Charizard.
"That Charizard is going to be a problem," Ash admitted with a wince. "Shouldn't have left Suicune with Misty..."
Tyson blinked. "Did he just say-"
"Right," Ash decided. "Brock, can you handle the Aggron?"
"Hey, idiots!" Butch called, before Brock could reply. "We're criminals! Charizard, Flamethrower!"
Charizard complied, spitting a blast of orange-yellow flames at the friends.
"You idiot!" Tyson snapped. "The boss doesn't-"
"Wait!" Cassidy interrupted. "Look!"
As the flames died down, Charizard took a startled step back.
Ash lowered his arm, and the Protect vanished.
"Okay, annoyed now," he said. "Entei, get them!"
Tyson took the prudent choice of diving behind some relatively solid looking lab equipment.
Gyarados emerged from his Pokéball. Forewarned by what he'd heard of the battle, he didn't roar in challenge – instead, he approached as quickly and quietly as possible, before hitting his Shiny counterpart with a Dragon Pulse at close range.
Roaring, the red Gyarados turned to face him and slammed its tail into him. The blow knocked him sideways a little in the water, but he endured the impact relatively easily – it felt like the other Pokémon was tired.
That didn't mean it should be underestimated, though. Gyarados was preparing a Dragon Rage when the other Water-type lunged at his throat, jaws snapping, and he was forced to fire it unfinished.
The gout of energy splashed over his enemy's scales, but it didn't seem to really have given the other Pokémon much pause. The big red tail came around again, slamming into his body about halfway out of the water.
Roaring in retaliation now, Misty's Gyarados backed water for a moment and coiled up in an S-shape. Inhaling, he fired a Hyper Beam at the other Gyarados.
The enraged Shiny had had the same idea. Hyper Beam hit Hyper Beam in the middle of the lake, producing a white globe of energy which expanded to enormous size and exploded – knocking both Water-types backwards, and producing a momentary crater in the water which quickly filled back in.
Misty's Pokémon had come off the worse in that exchange, the explosion coming significantly closer to him, and it took him a moment longer to recover.
Misty watched, heart in her mouth. Gyarados didn't look very tired – yet – but it was clear that his opponent was stronger, and it would take something special to avoid him losing.
Next to her, Suicune paced with feline grace – one eye always on the battle, making sure that if she needed to intervene she would be able to leap into motion from a moving start.
Then she stopped pacing, and blinked. "Misty – look!"
Misty glanced over at Suicune, to see where she was looking, and then turned to follow her gaze.
There was an orange-yellow shape descending rapidly towards them. As she watched, it grew from dot to sticklike figure, and then got close enough she could identify it.
"That's a Dragonite," she said, squinting. "Wait. That's Lance!"
"Ah, I see," Suicune nodded, as the Dragon came down and skimmed low over the lakeside. It stopped with a flap of green-skinned wings, floating over the muddy beach.
Lance of Blackthorn, Champion of the Indigo Plateau Elite Four, swung off the back of his partner and stepped to the shore. "Hello, Misty."
"Have we been introduced?" Misty asked, thrown. "I mean – I guess you'd know my name, but-"
"No, you're right," Lance agreed readily. "Sorry. I'd introduce myself properly, but-"
He indicated the ongoing fight, as both Gyarados slammed into one another repeatedly – trying to gain an angle with which to grip with their fangs.
"Are you going to step in?" Misty asked. "That'd be great! Of course your Dragonite knows Electrical attacks – but you'll have to give me a moment, Gyarados is-"
"No," Lance interrupted, shaking his head with a tiny smile. "I'm not going to step in. This is your fight."
Misty's expression went from grateful to startled. "Pardon!?"
The smirk grew a bit.
"Misty of Cerulean," Lance said, with a chuckle. "Do you know who nominated you for your candidacy?"
"No, actually," Misty said slowly, completely baffled. "What does that have to do with anything?"
Lance rummaged around in a pocket of his outfit as he spoke. "I did," he told her. "Based on what the Dragon Clan told me, the few times they saw you at work – and since then you've been clearly throwing yourself into this."
Finding what he was looking for, he tossed it to her. She caught it automatically, and he nodded to her. "Now, show me if you can work that thing."
Misty looked down at it. It was a small bracelet with a hinged clasp, and an adjustment mechanism that meant it could be made to fit a variety of arm sizes snugly. Mostly thin silvery metal, there was an inset band of something crystalline and faintly blue running around the outside.
"What is it?" Misty asked, lost for the purpose.
"It's a Key Stone," Lance told her.
Deep in the Ilex Forest, a flash of light illuminated a shrine.
Hello, Celebi said to Celebi. What's today's work?
Her slightly-future self began ticking off points on her fingers. First one's minor. We've just got to make sure that Sam Oak's thesis mentions the Fairy-type, because otherwise that might affect his overall grade. It should have been handled already, but we've got to check it.
Got it. The Celebi who hadn't done the day's work yet nodded. And the next?
That's the main job for today, Celebi explained to Celebi. Remember that Normal-type gym leader? Before the Fairy-type existed, she had a Clefairy as her lead Pokémon. Good luck fixing that.
Can't you give me any hints? Celebi asked. You're from my future...
Yeah, and it was really frustrating! Celebi replied with a giggle. But it was really fun when I finally worked out how to handle it. Okay, I'll give you one hint – Munchlax knows Metronome.
I'm sure that'll make sense later, Celebi grumbled. Okay, I'm off.
There was a white flash, and Celebi vanished.
I'm glad I put all that practice into quick transits since I met Sammy, Celebi decided. Right, where to go now...
She considered, and decided to go and watch the original performance of the Ode to Joy. She'd never actually gone before, but... well, why not?
Fixing timelines had become a full time job recently – well, recently in metatime – but it did have perks.
"...and you join me here in Cinnabar," Roxy said, looking calmly into the camera. "It looks like there's going to be a full-blown typhoon here, and it's a big one – category three on the Saffir scale. The islanders are already locking up and battening down the hatches, as winds grow above eighty kilometres an hour gusting to one hundred and fifteen."
"That sounds nasty, Roxy," the studio presenter replied. "Are you going to be safe?"
"The Pokémon centre here is well reinforced, or so I'm told," Roxy said. "My Wooper seems to be having the time of his life, though, so I suppose every cloud has a silver lining."
Oli, the camera operator, knew a cue when he heard one. He tracked off Roxy for a moment to show her diminutive starter frolicking in the heavy surf off the wharf.
"He does look like he's having fun," agreed the studio presenter. "But I think you should get undercover, Roxy – we don't want an exclusive that much, after all!"
"I'll see what I can do," Roxy smiled – then turned to the window. "What was that?"
About forty miles out to sea of where Roxy was, Ho-Oh floated in warm, calm air.
He trimmed his wings, taking advantage of the updraught from the eye, and frowned.
Normally a typhoon like this would be nothing to really worry about, for the cities in its path – not with the ability to use Pokémon to help with keeping people safe.
But this wasn't a normal situation. There was a cruise liner below, being driven towards the shoals around Cinnabar, and absent intervention they would not be able to get clear in time.
Ho-Oh's choice was therefore obvious.
He spread his feathers to their fullest extent, making his tail as broad as he could, and charged for several seconds.
Then he used Sunny Day.
Roxy stared, as the storm... vanished.
One minute there'd been a full-bore typhoon barrelling in towards Cinnabar, and then over the next four or five minutes it gradually unravelled until it was nothing more than a series of isolated thunderheads far out to sea.
She caught sight of a cruise ship wallowing in the swell, and tapped Oli on the shoulder to draw his attention to it. Swinging the camera into place, he provided footage while Roxy began to talk again.
As she said her piece, she saw a rainbow forming in the sky overhead. And, just at the end of it, a glittering shape of red and green and gold.
It looked nice. Hopeful.
AN:
Yep, another two part one. This time, the Lake Of Rage Thing.
Fortunately for the Rockets, they have planned ahead for what to do if they're facing Ash. Unfortunately for the Rockets, they are facing Ash.
Also, some of the Legendaries at work.
