Wes woke up yawning in the middle of the night, "This is the most comfortable dirt I've ever slept on. Wait, I can hear the Orre again."
After playing with his voice to get it to slip back into the Kanto dialect, he turned look at where Ash fell asleep. Ash wasn't there, and neither was his bag.
Right before he called out for Ash, the sound of music caressed his ears.
[Insert Zelda's Lullaby]
Still half sleep, Wes followed the song to the source. After what felt like endless walking to the mostly asleep Trainer, he found Ash sitting next to a tree surrounded by dozens of sleeping Pidgey, Rattata, and Caterpie. Rather than speak up and break Ash's focus, Wes let the soft melody wash over him. The sweet tune enraptured him and encapsulated his attention, making his train of thought come to a slow halt. The paranoia usually present behind his gaze has faded away, and for the first time in years, Wes was at peace.
Soon enough, the tune has faded away, leaving the forest with an unnatural silence. For Ash's song had lulled every nearby Pokémon to sleep, even the nocturnal foragers. Although, maybe it's for the best. If they were awake for what was about to happen, they'd almost certainly faint from the shock.
After shaking off his fatigue, Wes walked up to Ash. Carefully navigating the crowd of sleeping Pokémon, he was soon able to see that Ash's lap was occupied by his Cleffa and Pikachu.
"Why are you up so early?" Wes whispered.
Ash returned Cleffa to his Pokéball and rose to a standing position with Pikachu cradled in his arms.
"I sleep in 3 hour increments, as a maximum. And If I want to sleep again, I have to wait for 30 minutes or an hour. So I woke up for one of my sleep breaks and saw that Pikachu hadn't went to sleep yet. My moving around woke up Cleffa, and he left his ball, so I decided to faint 2 Pidgey with 1 stone and play them a lullaby. Which attracted and put this group of Pokémon to sleep," Ash answered with a whisper.
Wes yawned again before asking another question, "Where did that Ocarina come from and how can you play it so well? That instrument is pretty rare, so there aren't many people that could have taught you."
"I'm not completely sure how I learned to play an Ocarina. I don't remember being taught, and my mom is inept with any instrument that requires her to blow it, so she couldn't have taught me," Ash answered, while staring at the instrument in his hand.
The Ocarina was small enough for Ash to wrap an entire hand around it, and appeared to be made of a smooth, silver plastic. Except for the mouthpiece, the lower half was gold, but the part that Ash wrapped his lips around was made with a blue crystal. On the body, there were tiny words etched into the plastic, although some of them have been worn away through the passage of time. The only readable words were: 'Song awakens and calls.'
Wes snorted and barely managed to stop himself from laughing because of how Ash phrased that answer.
Suddenly, a quiet boom shook the trees as the world was engulfed by a yellow aura. Ash's hand feather began tingling, and Wes' chest feather started stinging.
Ash dropped his head, only a single word managing to escape his lips, "Whyyyyy?"
In a magnificent display of power, Raikou landed in the clearing, stone caving beneath the might of his paws like mud under a Snorlax. The Lord of Thunder radiated pure power from his regal pose, while the air around him began to spark and hum.
Ash stared at Raikou.
Raikou stared back.
The only emotions Ash could glean from the mind of the Legendary Beast were boredom, anger and something that seemed to alternate between pity and amusement every other second.
"No," Ash stated as he spun on his heel and bolted into the forest.
Raikou shook his head and vanished in a yellow blur.
Raikou was back in his previous position before Wes could blink, Ash dangling from his mouth by his jacket. Displaying a great amount of control over its body, as any other Pokémon with tusks like that would have surely ripped Ash's jacket to pieces in the attempt to lift him by it.
Ash soon found himself flat on his butt, and in front of Raikou's paws.
"Did you think running from a Raikou would actually work?" Wes asked, barely stopping himself from howling with laughter.
Ash sighed, "No, but I wasn't about to give up without a fight. I fought, now I reluctantly give up."
Still shaking with laughter, Wes approached the Raikou and was flipped onto the Legendary Beast's back.
The Raikou shot Ash a look, almost as if he were asking 'Any more stupid ideas?'
Grumbling the entire time, Ash reluctantly mounted Raikou and they were rushed to the outskirts of Pewter City on a streak of yellow lightning.
Leaving Rattata and Caterpie sleep in the same field as Pidgey might not have been the best idea, but Ash and Wes would be long gone before that thought crossed their minds.
Raikou stopped in a clearing and shook the duo off of his back.
Ash managed to twist his body to land on his feet instead of his face, like Wes did. Somehow, this athletic feat didn't awaken the Pikachu that Ash had cradled in his arms.
One second, Raikou had his head buried in Ash's stomach. The next, Raikou was a yellow blur in the distance.
"I didn't do anything," Ash whined while rubbing his stomach.
Wes laughed, "You ran away and made it waste time running after you. Sure, it was only .2 seconds, but it was the audacity."
(30 minutes later)
"So, that happened, right?"Ash asked while they walked towards Pewter City.
"Yep."
"It wasn't just my mind snapping from only sleeping 3 hours total, or us sharing a dream?" Ash questioned.
"Nope, I don't dream."
Ash groaned, "What even is our lives?"
"Extremely unlucky," Wes replied, "Most people can live a full life, find happiness, become a respected figure in the community, and procreate without seeing a single Legendary Pokémon. We saw 2 in less than a year, and I'd bet my Snag Machine that we see more."
"So, this is what it's like to have the attention of beings that could end the world with a tantrum. I don't like it; I wish I was the side character of my life, nothing like this ever happens to random side character 8 in my books." Ash mumbled.
"If Ho-Oh has it his way, we'll probably be the main characters of his show for a long while."
"…..I don't like how you said that."
"Good. I don't think either of us wants to know what an immortal Pokémon, that can infinitely revive the dead by the way, will do to keep the humans it finds interesting and entertaining around."
"I don't think Ho-oh would do that, and I choose to ignore that mental image."
"The 3 beasts can attest that the words 'Ho-oh' and 'loss' don't belong in the same sentence unless 'Can't deal with' is wedged between them."
"You're very insistent on killing my hope, aren't you? Let a teen dream of not being immortal until a God-like entity gets bored of him," Ash said.
They spent the next 5 minutes walking in awkward silence.
"….So why do you think Raikou helped us get to Pewter City?" Wes asked.
"Ho-oh probably sent Raikou. Or Raikou wanted to see Ho-oh's latest playthings," Ash grumbled.
"Let an adult dream-"
Ash cut him off mid sentence, "No, you don't get to play that card."
More awkward silence ensued.
"Since you have all this Legendary Pokémon info stored in your head; what's Raikou's story?" Wes questioned in an attempt to break the silence. After not getting a response, Wes turned to look at Ash. What he saw made him break a sweat.
Ash was practically vibrating in place with glee.
"I may have made a horrible mistake." Wes thought as Ash opened his mouth.
It is widely known that Raikou made its first appearance in Johto, alongside Entei and Suicune, after the Brass Tower Blaze. Ho-oh took pity upon 3 Pokémon that lost their lives in the fire and gave them new life as his 3 loyal Beasts. The identity of these 3 fallen Pokémon remain a mystery to this day, but Theorists like to believe that they were the Electric, Fire, and Water type Eevee evolutions: Jolteon, Flareon and Vaporeon.
"This means that there's a living clump of Old Farts that have existed longer than the Beast Trio!" Wes pointed out, not realizing that the Beasts were so young. Orre wasn't the best at keeping civilians updated on world events, and historical texts tended to go missing, so the exact details of the Bell Tower Blaze managed to not pop up on Wes' radar.
He thought Raikou would have been much older.
"Yeah, but that isn't even the best part of the story…" Ash replied, his face practically glowing with excitement.
Due to the proximity of Kanto and Johto, Raikou was known to often butt heads with his Legendary Bird counterpart: Zapdos. This is actually half the reason why, for the most part, the Beast trio and the Bird trio stay on opposite sides of the mountain. Ho-oh and Lugia got sick of the battles and decided to separate their Trios. Lugia moved the Birds' nests to Kanto and barred Zapdos from going to Johto again. Why were these battles so bothersome? The answer is simple.
These battles created storms, filled the air with lightning and the sound of thunder, and could go on for years at a time before the two gave up and reluctantly parted ways. Neither Pokémon managing to gain the upper hand for more than a moment, and no fight having a clear Victor, for they represented 2 aspects of the same ferocious element. He was Lightning on legs; The Lord of Thunder, and his speed made sure everyone knew it. Quite often making sonic booms when he moved at any speed faster than a leisurely trot.
"Just like electricity itself, Zapdos and Raikou were drawn to, yet repulsed by, each other. But they were unable to harm each other in any meaningful way. So, an outside force made the mountains their buffer, in hopes that the fighting and territory disputes would end," Wes mused, "So what happens now that Raikou is in Bird territory?"
"If I were a betting man, I'd bet that Zapdos starts a racket very soon," Ash responded, "And that brings me to the final main part of Raikou's story: his attitude towards people and Pokemon…."
Raikou wasn't very fond of humans, most likely because humanity killed him the first time. This is why most of Raikou's stories and sightings tended to involve other Electric type Pokemon. He saved them from physical danger, treated their ailments and had even been known to 'adopt' Pokémon until they could protect themselves.
The reason for this behavior was most likely a result of his death and resurrection. He was mortal once; before being resurrected as a Godlike force of nature, he knows what being dead is like and doesn't wish it on any Electric type.
Raikou's most famous story about defending Electric types from certain death is the story of Him vs Kyogre.
Kyogre had awoken prematurely, without Groudon to balance out his waves. The rising tide risked flooding a small valley full of his pupils, so Raikou spent 17 days and 17 nights vaporizing the water before it could get close to his wards. He worked himself to exhaustion, combating the power of a Legendary Pokémon centuries older than himself. Some say he nearly died 3 times while defending those baby Pokémon; only surviving through sheer willpower.
"Jerk to most people, friend to electric type Pokémon," Wes summarized.
"Yes, if you want to remove most of the nuance, that's an apt summary," Ash replied.
Neither one of them noticed that they had already made it into Pewter City. The discussion about Raikou's origin making their spatial awareness vanish completely.
"Stop right there!" a female voice yelled, snapping Ash and Wes out of their discussion and making them refocus on their environment.
The duo stopped dead in their tracks once they saw that the voice's origin was Pewter City's Officer Jenny. She's holding a Pokéball with one hand and a flashlight with the other.
"What are you doing walking around town at midnight?" Officer Jenny interrogated, shining the flashlight directly at Wes, "I need to see some identification too."
The League had sent out an alert to every town near Viridian for them to be on the lookout for any suspicious behavior.
Ash immediately handed over his Pokédex and Wes followed suit.
Officer Jenny clicked a few buttons, pulling up Ash's Trainer info and photo, then gave his Pokédex back. Now, Wes's red Pokédex had her full attention.
Officer Jenny hummed after looking at Wes, suspicion levels sky high, she spoke with a tone conveying her suspicion, "what's a guy from the Orre region doing in the Kanto region?"
Wes started to talk, "You see th-"
"I'll explain it, you just sit there and try not to look like you're going to mug somebody," Ash cut Wes off.
"It's my story!" Wes indignantly responded before sitting down and pouting.
Ash sighed and shook his head before responding, "How are you that childish? I remember what you did when you explained your story to me and if you pull that stunt again, I'm grabbing a blanket and letting you talk yourself unconscious."
Then he turned around to face Officer Jenny, "It's a long story, so I'll try to minimize the filler. Yes, he's from Orre and the League probably told you to be suspicious of any Orre Citizen on Kanto Soil, but his only reason for being here is to handle the Cipher situation….again."
A ringing sound buffeted Ash's ears moments before Officer Jenny reached into her pockets to pull out a silver and gold device that Ash immediately recognized as a Pokégear.
"I have to take this," Officer Jenny said, before shifting her gaze down towards Wes, "Don't even think about trying to sneak away."
Ash proceeded to start walking away from Wes, "I'm going to go see if this place has any good snacks, you can handle the rest of this."
"Come on, you can't just leave me with her! I need a witness!" Wes yelled as Ash increased his pace to a light jjog
The store was relatively empty; the only people there were Ash, the half asleep cashier, and a guy with Spiky brown hair. The guy with Spiky brown hair had a Geodude out, it was pointing towards a candy jar full of individually wrapped jawbreakers on a shelf that was just out of its reach.
"Hmmm," Ash said while looking at two boxes of chocolate pocky, "Is 4 extra sticks worth the extra 100 Pokédollars?"
"Not at all," A male voice said from behind Ash, making Ash reflexively swing his right fist towards the source.
"Stranger Danger!"
Ash's fist found itself crashing below the belt, bringing the man to his knees with a wheeze.
The store clerk snapped awake and gasped, "you dropped him in one punch, man!"
"Nice punch," the man squeaked.
"I am so sorry, it was a reflex-" Ash tried to apologize while helping the man back to a standing position.
"No no, I get it. It's the middle of the night and a stranger walked up behind you. I should've knew better," he replied, "I'll just get you back during our gym battle."
Ash felt like kicking himself; he just punched a gym leader below the belt. He should have recognized the voice, he listened to all the gym leader interviews from last year's Pokémon League!
The man rose to his feet, and for the first time, Ash looked his next hurdle in the eyes.
Before him stood Brock: The Rock-Hard Wall.
The bane of every rookie Trainer who chose a Fire or Electric type Starter Pokémon. Rumored to have a Pokémon that can sweep entire teams of 6 by itself.
Staring up at this man with great abs and a friendly aura that still commanded respect, only one thing popped into Ash's mind: "Why are you shirtless?"