Brock and Falkner were flying in the air, dodging the constant fire blasts from Entei. The Poacher was still holding onto Skarmory for dear life as they were barely dodging the blasts.
"Hey, are you trying to get us killed?! What is your plan!" he said as he was putting out an ember that fell on his pants.
Falkner, not even looking at him, "We can't risk it, we need to get to an opening, it's too comfortable with the current environment!"
Brock nodded as he looked up at a perch above the ground with nothing nearby, "There, that will work!"
Falkner saw it and nodded, "Good eye, let's go," he said as he pulled Skarmory up as Aerodactyl followed behind, dodging another blast of fire.
"Ahhh, move this bird faster, I don't want to be sauteed!" the Poacher panicked as his pants lit on fire, and he smothered them to extinguish it.
"Relax, just wait…" Falkner said as Skarmory made evasive maneuvers, "Brock now!"
"Got it, Aerodactyl [Ancient power]!" Brock commanded
Aerodactyl grunted as he spun around, and stones gathered around him, and he started shooting them like a machine gun.
Entei saw the stones coming and narrowed its eyes as it easily started dodging all of them, jumping from the ground and up as he started using them as platforms and climbed up in the sky, meeting Skarmory as his jaw ignited as he was about to use [Fire fang]
The poacher screamed in terror, but Falkner wasn't scared this was part of the plan, and it was good to see Brock was smart enough to understand this was the best-case scenario.
As Entei was coming down, ready to bite, Falkner called out, "[Agility]"
Skarmory's figure faded into an afterimage as Entei bit down on nothing, and Skarmory appeared behind him, this time, due to the momentum, Entei could not turn around, so Falkner and Brock took advantage.
"[Steel Wing!]" x 2
Skarmory and Aerodactyl rushed in and delivered a duo slash at the lion's back, although it was resisted. The point of this was not to deal damage, but instead, they knocked Entei back onto the perch with no trees or other rocks around or places to run,
As Skarmory and Aerodactyl flew around the rock, Entei couldn't move around as much as it used to since it didn't have a place to run to, though that did not mean they were safe, they knew full well Entei was still a big threat.
And almost if on cue, Entei began splitting apart as it started creating after images of itself as they all started charging blasts of fire that started shooting at them,
They couldn't tell which one was the real one, so they had to switch to defense, moving around in panicked ways, even Aerodactyl got his right wing singed as he barely dodged the real one.
"Not good!" Brock said, "We can't fight like this, we don't even know what we're fighting!"
Falkner grit his teeth, "Dang it, I left my Noctowl at home!"
The poacher heard this and saw that they were panicking. He was useless right now, and he was in the middle, he couldn't just stay here and wait to be fridge as he went to his belt, "Then let me, bro!"
As he took everyone, even Entei, by surprise, he threw out his Hoothoot, which flew into the air, and he yelled with everything he had, "Use [Foresight]!!!!"
Hoothoot's eyes released a red beam as the light came down like a spotlight, and as soon as it covered the area Entei was standing, the after images disappeared, leaving Entei standing alone.
Brock and Falkner looked at each other and nodded. Falkner pulled out another Pokeball and released his next Pokemon, a Pidgeot, and he hopped off Skarmory and onto Pidgeot, taking the poacher with him.
"Alright then, let's do this, let's beat Entei!" Falkner said as he opened his jacket, revealing a Keystone embroidered in his jacket like a button.
He pressed on it as it began glowing, "Pidgeot, Mega Evolve!"
Pidgeot grew as his feathers plumed out, creating a beautiful blue and red pattern flowing against the air, now there was Mega-Pidgeot.
Brock nodded as he swiped his arm, "Aerodactyl [Stone Edge] on the ground under Entei!"
"Pidgeot follow up with [Hurricane]"
Aerodactyl's eyes glowed as he slammed his wings, and the ground under Entei began spiking up, Entei tried jumping around and dodged most of them until a stream of strong air came down on him and slammed him onto the stone where a spike came up and stabbed it.
Falkner didn't give Entei any chance to get up, "Skarmory use [House of Murder!](Double Team + Brave Bird)!"
Skarmory split apart into multiple clones that surrounded the area in its metal feathers, Entei got up, but then he received a stab from the back, he turned around and saw another coming in, he swiped only to see it was a clone, then he got another stab from behind.
This kept going as the Murder of Skarmory was surrounding and blocking the sky with their sheer number each time Entei didn't know if a clone or the real thing was coming, and Aerodactyl using [Stone Edge] and Pidgeot using [Hurricane] didn't help, and due to Hoothoot, he couldn't confuse them.
It seemed against all odds, they were winning.
—
Ash was pulling off the 1v1 against Raikou with Nidoking and Pikachu. The Pressure that Raikou was giving off was almost suffocating, but Ash could resist it with Aura, and Nidoking just said no.
"Nidoking [Earth Power]!" Ash commanded
Nidoking's fist glowed as he punched the ground as golden energy started cracking through the ground and shooting through the tree and shattering it as it went towards Raikou.
Raikou glared down, seeing this, and jumped off the tree while in the air, it charged up an orb and shot a [Aura Sphere] at Nidoking.
As the bright blue orb came towards Nidoking, Pikachu was at the ready and threw himself off, hitting the orb with a [Iron tail], hitting it like a baseball bat and making it crash into the ground in an explosion, covering them in the dust.
As Raikou landed on the ground, it looked around. The dust affected his vision, so it shifted to seeing the bioelectric field around living creatures, just like how all living things have Aura, their bodies also produce a small amount of electricity that Raikou can see.
As Raikou switched, it immediately saw something charging and aiming a fist at it, so it jumped back as the first punch missed, revealing the Pokemon was a Machamp, and it was smiling as it looked at Raikou directly in the eyes.
Another hand came and grabbed Raikou by the foot and pulled it back into a second punch, hitting the sabertooth in the stomach before the force sent it flying to a tree.
As Raikou hit the tree and as opened its eyes, it saw Nidoking shooting another [Earth Power], shattering the ground and shooting toward it.
Raikou tried to jump but was immediately caught when, behind the tree, Pikachu jumped out and hit it with an [Electroweb], tangling its feet. The electricity didn't hurt Raikou, but that wasn't the purpose because now Raikou was trapped, and he lost his legendary resistance due to Pikachu's thing, so he got hit with a hard [Earth Power].
As the blast sent Raikou flying in the air, it also gave it enough leverage to rip the webs holding its feet and landed back safely, but Raikou was starting to show signs of damage, and he was still good to go.
Raikou's eyes glowed bright yellow as it roared in the air, creating a [Electric Terrain], and started Charging back down towards Machamp with a [Wild Charge]
Ash didn't let it happen, although it looked like Ash was overwhelming the sabertooth. In reality, he is playing this safe as hell, Raikou only needed three good hits, so Ash didn't want to let it have that chance.
"Pikachu [Extreme Speed] then [Volt Tackle]!"
Pikachu jumped from the tree and, with extreme speed, ran up and passed Raikou, reaching Machamp and jumping in his hand where Machamp was ready and like he was a baseball. Machamp threw Pikachu at Raikou.
Pikachu ignited in electricity as he met Raikou head-on, and the thing was, while Raikou was resistant, he was not immune, and Pikachu was beginning to steal the electricity from its [Wild Charge] so slowly Pikachu was starting to push Raikou back.
Ash saw this and didn't want to waste it, "Nidoking, use [Thunderbolt] at Pikachu!"
Nidoking slammed his fists together as electricity charged, then from his horn, he shot out a blast of bright yellow electricity that hit Pikachu from behind, and Pikachu started to absorb it as well as Raikou was getting pushed back.
Raikou began to try harder, but the more electricity he released, the more Pikachu absorbed, his original plan was to overload Pikachu; after all, even Pokemon with Lightning Rod have a limit before they self destruct on themselves, but Pikachu didn't even look like he was anywhere close to his limit.
Machamp didn't want to be left out, so even though it would hurt him, he ran up and charged at least 4 [Thunder Punch] and pushed forward the pressure made it hard to move, but he didn't stop as he got behind and put his arm behind Pikachu and started to push hard giving Pikachu all the electricity he had even if the pain was searing his skin.
With the combination, Raikou couldn't help but start to feel something, fear, he was being pushed back, no, he was being overpowered he tried to find something, but it was too late as with one final push, Pikachu broke through, and hit Raikou in an explosion that shook the forest.
Raikou was sent crashing into a tree, and the force broke it, making it fall over and burying it under.
Pikachu fell down and was breathing heavily as he looked up at Machamp, whose hand was now visibly scarred, but even still, he gave a cheeky smile and a thumbs up.
But before they could celebrate, the tree that fell over Raikou exploded in electricity as Raikou stopped out, looking tired but still able to go because now he wouldn't underestimate them like he was.
—-
Yellow and Misty were face to face with Suicune, and none of them wanted to fight as they saw each other, it was almost like something was making them connected with this version of Suicune.
For Yellow, it was obvious, but for Misty, it was different as she felt something specific that she couldn't explain, it seemed like they had an entire conversation in their minds without ever saying a word, sometime between them, Psyduck jumped out of his ball, but Misty didn't scold him, that's how far gone she was.
Suicune gave them a nod as it seemed like it saw something it liked or maybe their Presence matched something it was looking for, it wasn't clear, even when Yellow tried to read Suicune's mind, she could only hear nothing, Suicune's mind was completely clear.
Suicune then looked up in the air, and even though Misty and Yellow couldn't hear anything, Suicune heard the pained grunts from its two companions.
Suicune gave the girls one final look and jumped up to a tree, releasing a loud roar that contacted its comrades.
–
Entei was breathing heavily as it continued getting assaulted by the constant attack of Pidgeot and Aerodactyl as Skarmory kept hitting him with constant [Brave bird], never benign able to hit the real one, and because of Hoothoot, he couldn't use his own afterimages.
Whenever he tried jumping off the rock he was on, he got hit and knocked right back. If he tried attacking Hoothoot, the other Pokemon would defend it.
Entei was considering using something he didn't expect to use for something like this as the fire began to exit from every corner of its skin.
But before that, Entei heard a roar from Suicune and stopped, instead, he stopped and, with all his stretch, released a roar that created such strong changes to the air it made Hoothoot fall back, meaning for a moment, Entei had a chance and created countless afterimages that ran everywhere, Brock and Falkner tried to stop them, but they couldn't get the real one as it escaped.
–
Ash was staring down Raikou. He was weakened, but he didn't think he could get a chance like that again, as he looked at it, he noticed after everything, he might have a glimmer of a chance to do better than he thought.
He came here thinking he wouldn't stand a chance, but looking at Raikou now, he just might, he just needed to use one move.
Ash looked at Pikachu and looked at him seriously, "Do you think you have enough to use 'that'?"
Pikachu had to stop for a moment; he knew what he was thinking, and Pikachu also knew that if he did, they might be able to win, but the cost would be great since he wasn't sure if his own body could handle it.
This move is the very definition of a crash out. Ash could tell if they could pull it off; they could take Raikou down, but he didn't want to risk it if he didn't have to.
Pikachu took a breath and felt the electricity that he stole from Raikou, with it, he was confident he could at least pull it off, but what would happen after is the question.
Pikachu looked at Ash and nodded, "Pika!"
Ash took a breath as his hand reached up to the brim of his hat, "Alright then, let's do this"
As Ash was about to turn his hat backward, he started, "Pikachu use-"
But before he could say the next thing or finally turn his hat back, the sound of a roar came from the trees, and over by the trees, Suicune was standing proud as soon Entei jumped next to it, looking beat up, and Raikou also jumped away.
As soon as they were together, a soothing energy came out of Suicune, healing its comrades, and then they jumped away.
As Ash was looking at them, they jumped away, meanwhile, Misty and Yellow came running over to watch them, and Brock and Falkner came back, by this point, seeing them jump away, Pidgeot went back to base.
"Looks like we lost them…" Falkner said as he jumped off Pidgeot, helping the poacher get off, too.
"Yeah, it seems like it," Ash said, he was definitely more stressed about this since he was fighting Raikou alone, and Nidoking, Machamp, and Pikachu were all tired.
"You guys, ok?" Yellow asked as she walked up to the boys
"I'm fine," Brock said
Falkner nodded, "Yeah, just a bit tired"
"Same here," Ash said as he put Nidoking and Machamp in their balls and grabbed Pikachu to put him inside his bag so he could nap.
"What was that about, I know there the legendary beasts, but why did they show up and attack us?" the poacher said
"I dunno, I guess they might have been testing us…" Misty said thoughtfully, "I mean, Suicune didn't fight Yellow or me, it just looked at us approvingly about.. something…"
"Well, whatever the reason, I'll need to report this," Falkner said, reaching into his jacket and walking up to the poacher, "By the way, before I forget,"
Falkner pulled out a pair of handcuffs and put one on his arm, taking him by surprise, "Hey, what are you doing!"
Falkner pulled out his badge, "Sorry, I am part of the Police and also the Violet City Gym leader, so for illegal poaching, I have to take you in,"
"W-what h-hey come on bro can't you let this one go, I mean, we're comrades in battle now, right? I helped out!"
"Now, now I can't say I didn't appreciate your help. You were useful, so I might be able to put in a good word for you and get you a comfy cell along with a reduced sentence, as long as you help us, you must know where poachers sell their Pokemon, right."
The man thought to himself, "You know what, that doesn't sound too bad, yeah sure, why not, I'll help you out,"
As Falkner put the man on his bird, he looked back at the gang, "You guys, too, you were a huge help here, I hope to see you again, come around to the Gym sometime, and I'll be ready for you," he said specifically looking at Ash.
Then he flew away, leaving them on the ground; they stayed silent for a moment before Ash turned around and looked at all of them, "So, you guys still up for skiing?"
Immediately, their moods changed as they looked excited, almost as if the entire battle had never happened.
Ash was taken from each side on his left, Brock took his arm, and on the right, Misty took his other one, "Let's go!"
They picked Ash up and started dragging him along, leaving Yellow to follow along, chuckling at how Ash looked unamused at being picked up.