"Wow, but you're fast!" May laughed, as Dragonite zipped back and forth across the path the rest of the friends were taking. "Don't do that too much or I might start feeling ill!"

"Okay, I'll- nite – careful," Dragonite promised, slowing down a bit.

"And watch out," May added. "You got too far from Vulpix, I didn't get all of that – I can guess what you meant, though."

Dragonite giggled, then fell back into formation with the others.

"This must look so weird from down below," Max said. "I know I say something like that a lot, but… this must look so weird."

"People fly around on Pokémon, right?" Ash asked. "Or do you mean because Silver isn't your Pokémon and Articuno isn't Brock's?"

"No, I… never mind," Max decided.

"Still no luck explaining it to him?" Ho-Oh checked.

Pikachu flicked his ears. "At some point you just start going along with it, and once you do that you don't really stop."

Ho-Oh chuckled, then beat his wings again – carrying himself and Ash towards Mossdeep.

"Just think, if we had to take a ferry it'd take days to get to Mossdeep," Brock said. "And, sure, if we'd taken Keldeo's offer we'd have arrived in seconds, but we'd probably have arrived on Alola or something."

"And then it'd take longer to get back, I shouldn't wonder," Articuno agreed.

She banked a little to the left, making sure to keep Vulpix's translation area as close to both Max and May as possible, then frowned. "Blimey. Is… that a submarine?"

"It looks like it, yeah!" Ash called. "I've never seen one that big before! We should go down and have a look!"

They were halfway there when Groudon burst out of the side of the submarine, and then Kyogre smashed her way through the side of a nearby ship.

"You!" Kyogre boomed. "I should have known you'd be involved! This has your clawmarks all over it."

"I'm not going to take that kind of insult!" Groudon roared back, as water seethed up around Kyogre and lifted her up to Groudon's eye level. "I was taken prisoner as well! You take that back!"

"If it was nothing to do with you, then why am I so angry?" Kyogre bellowed, as Groudon set himself. "Because I'm really, really angry!"

She thrashed the sea with her tail. "And why are you not letting me make it rain!"

"I wouldn't let you make it rain anyway, but that's not actually me affecting it!" Groudoun snarled back. "Why else do you think it's not sunny right now?"

"I don't think I understand-"

"Stop!"

Both Legendaries looked up at the source of the shout, then stared.

Ash's Rayquaza held out her hands, one in each direction, and floated down between the angry Pokémon.

"I'm the one who's making it so there isn't any weather going on," she told them, her voice wavering slightly. "And – I know you're both upset, but don't take it out on each other! Or – or anyone!"

She crossed her arms. "If you want to battle, then battle somewhere you won't hurt anyone. If you want to hurt the other Pokémon, then you shouldn't be battling!"

Groudon and Kyogre looked at her, then at one another.

"...so, did you know Rayquaza had turned tiny and a different colour?" Groudon asked, curiously.

"News to me," Kyogre replied.

On the deck of Team Magma's base ship, Shelly threw off her disguise to reveal her true identity.

"Kyogre is free!" she announced. "And she'll destroy Groudon, and that'll show you Team Magma lackeys!"

Opposite her, the Magma grunt she was talking to put his head in his hands.

"I don't have time to tell you how stupid that statement is," he muttered. "I'm too busy trying to work out what I'm going to say to Ash."

That was an odd enough thing to say that Shelly blinked.

"What?" she asked. "Ash? As in, Ash Ketchum? Why would you be talking to him?"

She swallowed. "Is he here?"

The Magma grunt pointed.

"I was there when he caught that Ho-Oh," he replied. "And the Dragonite, baby Lugia and Articuno I already knew about, but the baby Rayquaza is new… it must be his. I wonder if there's an email about it waiting in my official account."

"Official account?" Tabitha asked, coming up on deck. "What are you talking about?"

The grunt shook his head. "This must be what Brock feels like all the time."

He swept his own uniform off in a single dramatic gesture, revealing a cape underneath. "My name is Lance, and you're all under arrest."

"Attention!" Big Rayquaza said, flying down out of a gap in the fluffy clouds overhead. "Groudon! Kyogre! I'm here to – oh, hello Rayquaza!"

Ash's Rayquaza waved.

"I suppose your trainer must be around – there he is," Big Rayquaza said. "Good afternoon. Anyway… Groudon? Kyogre? Were the two of you fighting?"

"She started it!" Groudon said.

"I did not!" Kyogre countered. "You did!"

"I don't care who started it," Big Rayquaza said. "I want you both to do just one thing."

He pointed. "Look at my tiny cousin. Isn't she adorable?"

The two Ancient Pokémon looked.

"...can I be an aunt?" Kyogre asked.

"I insist that Kyogre not be an aunt unless I can be an uncle," Groudon said.

"Groudon isn't fighting," Maxie said, clenching his fist. "He must not think he can win."

The leader of Team Magma adjusted his glasses. "Well. There's only one thing to do."

He reached for a Pokéball. "Lopunny! Pick up the Blue Orb and throw it at Groudon! That will let him unlock his true power!"

His Lopunny gave him a slightly confused look, ears twitching. "Lop?"

"I know what I said," Maxie replied. "Now, hurry before that infuriating Dragon Tamer gets around to checking the rest of the base!"

Lopunny shrugged, picked up the Blue Orb, and used Fling – sending a spark of blue light flying off towards Groudon and Kyogre.

At exactly the same time, a spark of red light came flying from the direction of Team Aqua's submarine.

"Those plagiarists!" Maxie scowled.

"So she used to be a copy of me," Groudon said. "See? That's bonus points for me!"

"I'm not sure how you count as bonus points when Ho-Oh made it so she wasn't a copy of you any more," Kyogre snarked.

Ash's Rayquaza was about to say something, then spotted the incoming orbs.

She flew down as fast as she could to just about where the two orbs were going to cross over, each en route for a different Pokémon, and caught them in mid-air with an oof.

"Are those the Orbs?" Big Rayquaza said. "I didn't know those were still anywhere except deep underground and at the bottom of the ocean."

"I'm pretty sure they've been on Mount Pyre for years," Brock volunteered. "Possibly decades? I know they were mentioned in a book I read as a kid."

"Hmm," Big Rayquaza rumbled.

"Umm…" Ash's Rayquaza began, getting their attention. "I feel funny."

Then she turned into a Shiny Primal Groudon.

Silver and Articuno's eyes lit up as they used Extrasensory, and the now-Primal now-Groudon still-Shiny still-tiny Pokémon halted before she'd fallen more than a couple of feet.

Then she turned into Shiny Primal Kyogre instead, then back to Shiny Rayquaza.

"What just happened?" she asked. "Now my hands are tingly."

"I think you should put those down," Big Rayquaza told her. "Does anyone have any idea what just happened?"

"...in my defence," Ho-Oh said, slowly. "Because I think I was probably involved in some way… she is still not a cat and that is a win."

Some minutes later, down on the shore of the island, Big Rayquaza nodded.

"Well, I think that's pretty much conclusive," he said. "Holding one of the Orbs makes you turn into the associated Legendary, but letting go makes you change back."

"It's a pretty neat effect," Ash pointed out. "But if you don't want to do it, you don't have to."

"I think I could get used to it, maybe," his Rayquaza decided. "But I'm not sure I'd ever have to… maybe I could do it for a battle?"

"Oh no," Brock said. "Isn't there a Water gym in Hoenn? You've already done the Fire gym, but…"

"Actually, that reminds me," Big Rayquaza said. "Do you know how to Mega Evolve?"

Ash's Rayquaza shook her head.

"Don't I need a Rayquazaite for that?" she asked. "Or… Rayquazite? Which is it?"

"It's neither," Big Rayquaza assured her. "I only need two things to Mega Evolve. I don't even need a trainer, actually. The first is that I need to know how to use Dragon Ascent. Do you know that move?"

This time Ash's Rayquaza nodded.

"Ash!" Lance called, as his Dragonite landed near them.

"Lance?" Ash replied, as Big Rayquaza started asking his Rayquaza if she'd been eating a diet rich in meteorite. "Oh, hi, I didn't know you were in Hoenn!"

"You weren't supposed to, I was undercover," Lance told him. "I had to spend months pretending to be a Team Magma Grunt, I arrested the whole organization… the police just arrived, so Dragapult and Aerodactyl are supervising."

He pointed. "And you've got a Shiny Rayquaza now. That is your Rayquaza, right?"

"That's right," Ash agreed. "She's still young, but Big Rayquaza's talking her through Mega Evolving!"

Lance's mouth opened and shut for a moment.

"Please become a Flying Elite Four member," he said. "I won't even insist on the type, just the ability to Fly."

"Do you have any idea how little that would narrow it down?" Max asked. "He and his Pokémon taught my sister's Torchic to fly, and now it's a Combusken it hasn't stopped. His Suicune can fly now."

"I think any Suicune could fly if they thought about it in the right way," Ash said, frowning. "And not just Suicune, either… can't Geodude hover? So why couldn't Onix?"

"This isn't making me not want you on the Elite Four, you know," Lance said, pointedly.

There was a sudden surge of wind as Ash's Rayquaza Mega Evolved.

"There you go!" Big Rayquaza said. "That wind is going to last until you turn it off, more or less, and it cancels Flying type weaknesses."

Lance blinked.

"...I am actually contemplating the possibility that your Pokémon team is too strong for the Elite Four," he admitted. "What is happening."

Some way away, in a very nice apartment in Viridian City, Giovanni finished reading a report.

"I think," he said, after due consideration, "that thoroughly divesting us of anything to do with Legendary Pokémon, Ash Ketchum, or both, was a very good idea… except for those particular agents, but they seem to have an odd respect I don't want to jeopardize."

Persian muttered something, rolling over on his bed.

Giovanni poured himself a small glass of wine, swirled it around, and tasted it.

"Acceptable," he decided, then put it down and got out the accounting paperwork.

These days, there was something very fulfilling about doing the accounting paperwork for a multiregional corporation.

"Congratulations!" King Dragonite said, hugging May's Dragonite firmly. "I didn't get a chance to do this just after you evolved, so you get an extra big one now!"

May's Dragonite hugged back, a bit more feebly, then pushed himself away. "Thanks… I swear that seems like a Dragon type attack sometimes, sire."

"Who doesn't like hugs?" King Dragonite asked. "But it's okay. I make sure to Hold Back at all times when hugging."

He turned to the parliament. "So… here's an important question. Duchy? Principality? Or do we use a different way of thinking about things? It's up to you!"

Several tails went up for attention.

"Yes?" the ChairDragon asked, indicating one particular Dratini.

"I have an idea," that Dratini said. "Am I right in thinking that our trainer is heading to Mossdeep City?"

"Last I heard!" May's Dragonite confirmed.

"Then I move that we adopt a plan based on something Dunsparce said last time he was rotated out," she went on. "First…"

"It's pretty heartening that there's a group of powerful trainers travelling around solving crimes," Brock said, as they left the island – waving goodbye to Groudon, Kyogre and Rayquaza as they went. "It makes you feel… well, hopeful, really?"

He chuckled. "And it means you feel more confident that really strong trainers actually have something to do besides train. I've wondered about that sometimes."

"In truth, a sword overtrained can become oversharp," Zacian said, as her paws left the ground and she carried Brock and Vulpix into the sky. "And thence brittle. It is good to do other things as well."

"Which is why it's great to swap in and out of Ash's team!" Latias added brightly. "Though I think Latios is stuck in trying to finish this new RPG we got. He's been taking notes on the plot. That's usually a bad sign, right?"

She looked left a bit. "Are you doing okay, Max?"

"Yeah, I've got a good grip, thanks," Max assured her. "The harness helps a lot, too."

"So, Mossdeep…" Zapdos said. "I'll be honest, I'm not very familiar with where that is. Suicune?"

"Fortunately, I do know the way from here," Suicune replied. "Follow me, everyone! And shout if I'm leaving you behind."

She broke into a loping run, and the other Legendaries fell into formation around her.

"Next stop, a gym!" Ash said. "I wonder what this one's going to be like?"

AN:

Poor Lance. He put in a lot of effort staying undercover...