Chapter 90: Ho-Oh Has Arrived! Who's Been Messing with My Dogs?!
"ROOAARRR!!"
Entei bellowed. Did this human not know that Entei was the most loyal of companions?
The location of Raikou? In its dreams.
Entei would throw itself off this mountain before betraying its family. Absolutely. Non-negotiable.
"Admirable principles. Alright — I'll give you a proper fight then."
Mammon raised an eyebrow. He did genuinely respect this kind of Pokémon.
Between the two, he actually liked Entei quite a bit — and while Suicune had the deepest connection to Ho-Oh, Entei was clearly Ho-Oh's favorite in its own way. Ho-Oh had taught it Sacred Fire personally.
"ROAR!"
Entei's body erupted in white flame. The move spread from its body in surging waves — Sacred Fire, the near-exclusive technique shared only between Ho-Oh and Entei. Where Ho-Oh's Sacred Fire burned in multicolor, Entei's blazed pure white.
The white inferno swept toward Armored Mewtwo.
Mewtwo didn't move. The deep violet barrier manifested.
BOOM.
Sacred Fire crashed against it and detonated in a tremendous burst of heat. The barrier didn't shift.
"That technique really is something~"
Caitlin watched with undisguised envy.
She'd asked Mewtwo about the barrier once. Strictly speaking, it wasn't a move — it was an applied variation of psychic force, something Mewtwo had developed by studying Protect and adapting it. Offense and defense simultaneously.
The prerequisite was an enormous base of psychic power — both quality and quantity in combination.
And the barrier wasn't just defensive. Mewtwo could charge with it active and deal serious impact damage.
This had been bothering Caitlin considerably. Of her current roster, only Tapu Lele had even a marginal chance of learning something similar — and only with Caitlin actively channeling her own psychic power into her. Even then, Tapu Lele had managed five minutes before collapsing in an exhausted heap. Completely impractical.
Mewtwo had developed this instinctively because its starting point after awakening was simply near the apex of this world's Pokémon hierarchy — just below the highest tier of legendaries. The psychic reserves inside it dwarfed anything else Caitlin had seen, like comparing a pond to an ocean.
The gap was innate. Nothing to be done.
(Tapu Lele had learned of this comparison and stress-eaten an entire table of small cakes.)
Sacred Fire ended. Entei stared at the completely unharmed armored figure. Its expression had gone very serious.
This one is genuinely strong. No wonder Suicune went down.
Should it retreat?
Entei found itself genuinely torn. It probably couldn't beat this opponent — staying might mean it couldn't protect itself either. And that human had made his interest in its body quite clear.
But running meant abandoning Suicune.
"Having second thoughts, Entei? Don't want to save your companion anymore? So the legendary Entei backs down when things get difficult."
Mammon watched it with a pleasant smile.
Entei's temper could not survive that.
"ROOAARRR!!"
It charged — Flare Blitz, flames roaring around its entire body, momentum and fire combining into something it had never quite reached before. Cornered and furious, this was the strongest Flare Blitz of its life.
It would win. It had to.
Then—
"Nice. Got Entei."
Mammon grinned at the Ultra Ball in his hand.
"Now — will Raikou sense something happened to the other two and come running?"
He wondered this with genuine curiosity.
From somewhere not far away, a shape was already moving toward them at tremendous speed.
And indeed: Raikou, which had been in the vicinity, arrived shortly afterward.
Meanwhile, near Mt. Tensei in Kanto, inside a volcano not far away, magma bubbled lazily in rolling waves. Submerged in the molten rock, a large, multicolored bird was having what amounted to a very comfortable soak.
When you were an immortal legendary Pokémon, the days were long. You took your pleasures where you found them.
Then those comfortably closed eyes snapped open.
That's strange.
Ho-Oh felt it. The presence of Suicune — gone. And Entei — also gone. Both of them, suddenly absent.
It had sent them to observe that human with the Pikachu. What had happened?
A moment passed.
Raikou too?
Ho-Oh was on its feet.
Its guardian corps numbered three. Marshadow helped out occasionally, but Marshadow was shy and needed prompting to do anything. Suicune, Entei, and Raikou were its true inner circle — raised by Ho-Oh itself.
Not that they were possessions. Ho-Oh wasn't that kind of legendary. If the three of them had genuinely found a Trainer worthy of their loyalty, Ho-Oh would have been nothing but glad. Trainers lived a hundred years at most — the three of them would come home eventually anyway.
But that scenario required the right circumstances. Three rapid disappearances in quick succession, back to back, was not right circumstances.
Who is out there messing with my guardians?
Ho-Oh couldn't hold still anymore. The magma churned violently, and the long-dormant volcano let out a tremendous eruption.
A vast, radiant bird burst from the caldera, trailing multicolored light, and flew at speed toward a specific point on the map.
Someone had the nerve to just package up the entire squad? That's not riding my face — that's camping on it.
Ho-Oh was going to have a look. And if that human had forcibly caught all three of them, Ho-Oh was going to make its feelings on the matter extremely clear.
Did this person not know that what Ho-Oh hated most in the world was human greed?
"Another one."
Mammon looked at the three miniaturized Ultra Balls in his hand with mild amusement. He'd been right — Raikou had come running.
Classic rescue-the-grandparent situation. One after another.
Erika: (O.O)
Erika had gone completely numb. The legendary guardians of Ho-Oh, assembling one by one to save each other, falling in sequence—
They're not very smart, are they.
"Congratulations, Mammon. Three new assets."
Caitlin offered him a warm smile. She meant it — with proper development, any of these three would be formidable.
"Thank you. Though I'm not planning to develop all of them." Mammon smiled back.
"Not develop them?" Erika blinked. "Then why catch them?"
She collected Grass-types herself — the Celadon Gym had quite a few — but those were for Gym battles, keeping a variety available for different challengers. Mammon wasn't a Gym Leader.
"Mainly to see if a certain someone would show up when they noticed."
He laughed quietly.
"Personally, I'm only really interested in Suicune and Entei. If I had to pick one — probably Suicune."
The Journeys arc had not been kind to Suicune's reputation, but aesthetically it was still right in his range. And Entei's film had been genuinely affecting — he'd always liked Entei. As for Raikou — free delivery, no reason to refuse.
He added, after a moment:
"Though neither of them holds a candle to Jangmo-o."
"Jangmo-o? What's that?" Erika blinked. She'd never heard the name.
"A rather special Pokémon. I'll show you sometime."
Water/Dragon typing — genuinely excellent. And aesthetically, Jangmo-o was exactly his kind of design.
"Oh." Erika was curious but had the sense not to press.
With the three beasts secured, the group found a nearby meadow and Erika started making lunch.
Classical upbringing, full competency in domestic matters — Erika was, when not being terrorized, quite capable.
They were partway through the meal when a perfect rainbow appeared across the clear sky.
"Keeeeee—!"
A high, sustained cry echoed from the direction of the horizon.
"Hm?"
Caitlin looked up. The rainbow was beautiful — but it was the cry that caught her attention. Had she imagined it?
"Mammon. Something very strong is coming."
Armored Mewtwo stood, eyes fixed on the distant sky. The violet light in its gaze blazed intensely.
It could feel it. A burning, powerful presence moving toward them at speed — and not unfamiliar. The same aura it had once sensed coming off Ash.
"Looks like the photographer does care about its team."
Mammon wasn't alarmed. He wiped his mouth and stood.
Ho-Oh occupied what he would call the lawful-good corner of the legendary spectrum — a Pokémon that had always hoped for an age where humans and Pokémon trusted each other genuinely. It had spent ages searching for humans of pure heart, and even its Rainbow Wing self-selected for worthiness.
Catching all three of its guardians in a morning was admittedly the kind of thing that would get its attention.
Caitlin and Erika had caught the shift in atmosphere. They packed up quickly.
"Keeeeeee—!"
The cry rang out again across the sky, longer this time, closer. On the rainbow above the distant treeline, a shape was descending on broad, brilliant wings.
"It's beautiful," Erika said softly, something distant in her expression.
It was. Gold and iridescent, the subtle radiance around it shifting with the colors of the rainbow beneath it — sacred and magnificent and impossible to look away from.
"Can't argue with that."
Mammon had to admit it. From a distance, Ho-Oh was genuinely awe-inspiring. Luminous. Divine-looking.
Though up close—
☆☆☆
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