"If you don't believe me, you can try it yourself," Gary said, looking at Azelf with a smile.
Gary had no intention of keeping the Lake Trio as permanent battle partners—their responsibility was to guard the Sinnoh Region, so they couldn't leave with him. But building genuine friendship with Legendary Pokémon was never a waste. If he ever needed the Lake Trio's help in the future, this would matter.
"Azelf!"
Azelf decided to give it a try.
Among the three Lake Guardians, Azelf was the most combat-oriented. Despite being a Psychic-type, its natural movepool was heavily weighted toward attacking moves. It could even learn Explosion.
"Give me your hand," Gary said, reaching out.
Azelf immediately placed its small hand on Gary's palm.
Taking advantage of the physical contact, Gary checked Azelf's data.
[Pokémon: Azelf]
[Type: Psychic]
[Level: 90]
[Potential: Mythical-tier]
[Ability: Levitate (immune to Ground-type moves)]
[Moves: Teleport, Confusion, Rest, Swift, Detect, Psybeam, Imprison, Extrasensory, Nasty Plot, Psychic, Uproar, Future Sight, Explosion, Mystic Power]
[Teachable Moves: Rain Dance, Water Pulse, Protect, Thunderbolt, Thunder Punch, Ice Punch, Reflect, Taunt, Shadow Ball, Hyper Beam, Fire Blast, Iron Tail, Endeavor, Signal Beam, Drain Punch, Dazzling Gleam]
[Friendship: 120 / 255]
[Held Item: Azelf's Fang]
Gary was stunned.
This Azelf was incredibly lazy.
The Lake Trio had existed since the dawn of sentient life. Calculating the time, they had lived for tens of thousands of years. Yet Azelf had only learned a mere fourteen moves.
That meant it had only picked up a handful of techniques in tens of thousands of years. The rest of its time was apparently wasted doing nothing.
But that was actually good news for Gary. Fewer moves learned meant more moves he could teach—and teaching moves increased Friendship.
Gary immediately began transferring skills to Azelf.
One by one, he taught it: Thunderbolt, Thunder Punch, Ice Punch, Reflect, Taunt, Shadow Ball, Hyper Beam, Fire Blast, Iron Tail, Endeavor, Signal Beam, Drain Punch, and Dazzling Gleam.
Thirteen skills in total.
Friendship increased by 130 points, jumping straight to 250.
That was close to the maximum of 255, but not quite there. If Azelf hadn't already learned Protect and Rain Dance on its own, Gary could have taught those too and pushed Friendship to full value. He might even have been able to convince Azelf to travel with him.
"Azelf!"
Azelf was amazed. It suddenly felt a flood of new abilities awakening inside it, almost all of them powerful attacking moves.
"Uxie!"
"Mesprit!"
Uxie and Mesprit immediately came over to ask what had happened. When they found out Azelf had just mastered over a dozen moves, they both turned to Gary with eager expressions.
"Don't worry, I can teach you too. Do you want to learn?" Gary asked.
"Uxie!"
"Mesprit!"
Of course they wanted to learn!
Gary began teaching skills to Uxie and Mesprit as well.
All three Lake Guardians had hatched from the same Pokémon Egg, so their teachable movepools were nearly identical. The only major differences were three specific moves.
Uxie could learn Solar Beam, but not Fire Blast or Ice Beam.
Mesprit could learn Ice Beam, but not Fire Blast or Solar Beam.
Azelf could learn Fire Blast, but not Solar Beam or Ice Beam.
Additionally, only Azelf could learn Endeavor, and only Azelf could naturally awaken the species move Explosion. Beyond those differences, everything else was the same.
Uxie and Mesprit also carried unique held items—Uxie's Claw and Mesprit's Plume, respectively, while Azelf held Azelf's Fang. In the games, these items were used to craft the Red Chain. In this world, however, their purpose was different. Team Galactic had been able to create Red Chain on their own using Charon's technology. These three items were more likely used to control or assist in summoning Dialga and Palkia through the Red Chain.
"I've taught you all these skills. Are you satisfied?" Gary asked.
"Uxie!"
"Mesprit!"
"Azelf!"
The three Lake Guardians were extremely satisfied. In just a few minutes, they had matched what tens of thousands of years of existence had failed to accomplish. They hadn't even learned a handful of moves in all those millennia, yet now each of them had gained over a dozen in one sitting. How could they not be happy?
After that, Gary played with the Lake Trio for a while longer before washing up and going to bed.
The three Lake Guardians also Teleported away during the night. They didn't ask to follow Gary, because their duty was to guard the Sinnoh Region. Leaving with him wasn't possible.
After spending the night beside Lake Verity, Gary woke the next morning, packed up his tent, and rode Garchomp east across the Sinnoh Region.
His next destination was Crown City.
The reason was simple. Gary planned to intervene in the events that would soon unfold there—to see if he could capture Celebi and the three Legendary Beasts.
There were Legendary Beasts in the Sinnoh Region as well. Specifically, three shiny Legendary Beasts that served as Crown City's guardians.
During his earlier travels through the Johto Region, Gary had already captured a Raikou. If he could capture Suicune and Entei here, he would complete the full set.
Celebi was also a target. Like Shaymin, Celebi was classified as a Mythical Pokémon. Capturing it would trigger the system's highest reward tier.
Calculating the timeline, Ash's Monferno should have already evolved into Infernape by now, which meant the Sunyshore Gym arc was complete. After collecting eight Badges, Ash would be heading toward the Lily of the Valley Conference, passing through Crown City on the way.
Gary only had to wait for Ash and the others to arrive. There was no need to rush. Kodai himself would make the first move.
Grings Kodai had gained the ability to see the future twenty years ago after accidentally touching the Time Ripple. Using that ability, he had built himself into one of Sinnoh's most powerful business figures.
But twenty years had passed, and his power was weakening. He knew through his remaining visions that Celebi would return to Crown City, and he planned to absorb the Time Ripple again to restore his fading abilities.
However, when a human absorbed the Time Ripple's energy, the process released a dark energy wave that killed all plant life within a massive radius. Twenty years ago, when Kodai first absorbed it, the vegetation around Crown City had been devastated. It had taken years for the city to recover.
If Kodai touched the new Time Ripple, the same thing would happen again. Every tree, flower, and blade of grass in Crown City would wither and die. The city would be reduced to a wasteland that might not recover for over a decade.