The room was engulfed in bright red light, Candela felt like something was trying to rip her skin off but Arlo had it worse.

His hand was being hit with a searing pain that felt like his flesh was being melted by lava, his hand throbbed in pain and it took every ounce of willpower he had to not remove his hand.

And that continued for 10 grueling seconds, the room that was filled with the screams of both of the former friends eventually quieted down, and both gauntlets were opened making both fall to the ground.

Candela slowly raised her hand with pulsing pain every second, and when she saw it the very thing she feared happened, the mark of Moltres was gone.

After a few moments of silence, Arlo got up, albeit barely due to the pain, and raised his hand almost falling over, "Missing something?"

On his hand was the burn pattern that was previously on Candela's hand was on his hand now.

"He did it…" Sierra said, looking surprised that it worked.

Cliff gave a heavy belly laugh, "That kid actually did it!"

Candela was looking at his hand, which was still bright red from the pain, "I-I can't believe it, you did it."

Arlo smiled, "Yes, and now it's time I show that chicken who the boss is," Arlo said as he nearly limped over to the table he was at and pulled out a Pokeball.

Candela didn't care about the ball she just looked at Arlo, "Wait please you don't know what you're doing."

"Actually I know exactly what I'm doing, I'm destroying everything you've worked for," Arlo said as he raised his hand into the air, "Now come to me MY MOLTRES!"

As he did that the mark on his hand started shining and covering the room, and then fire spawned in the middle of the room and destroyed the window separating Sierra and Cliff.

The fire materialized into the figure of a bird, It has a long flowing head crest and a billowing tail, both made of reddish-orange and yellow flames. It had a long, thin neck, a pointed, brown beak, and small, triangular eyes.

It was Moltres and as soon as it appeared it gave a loud screech that shook the room. If the room itself wasn't insulated then People from miles away could have heard it.

Moltres looked down and saw Candela on the ground and sweating and next to her was a boy that it faintly recognized was also heavily breathing and sweating, but before anything, it felt a small pain from its back.

"Tyranitar [Stone Edge]!" Cliff yelled out.

The green dinosaur stomped on the ground as jagged rockets lamed to the side of the bird, however despite being x4 super effective it looked like Moltres barely felt it.

"Impressive you aren't a legendary for nothing," Sierra said in a monotone voice.

Moltres immediately thought that those two attacked Candela and Arlo so it turned its aggression towards them and sent a blast of fire.

Sierra turned towards Cliff and pressed a button, Cliff nodded and called out, "Tyranitar!

Immediately a wall of heat-resistant metal closed in front of them and a stone wall created by Tyranitar appeared as well, but it was no use as the fire went through like it was melting butter, but when it got through to where they were they were already gone.

Immediately rods from the walls perturbed and started releasing electricity creating strange electrical rings that started zapping into the bird, Moltres shrugged it off and with one flap of its wings released heavy winds that destroyed the rods.

Before it could look for where they were or decide to take Candela and Arlo to safety it felt a small tap on its back.

When it looked back it saw Arlo holding out a Pokeball and tapping it with the button, immediately it opened, and what appeared to be purple and black chains shot out and grabbed Moltres by the wings and neck.

It tried breaking them but every time it would break 1, 3 more took its place, and as time went on it felt like its strength was being drained of its strength, it released a loud cry into the room as it took its final breath before it was forced inside of the Ball and enveloped by the shadows.

Arlo held the ball and let Candela watch as the Ball rolled in his hand 1 Time, 2 times, 3 times, *Ding*.

"I… did it.." Arlo said, but looking back down at his hand the mark began disappearing, leaving it just as he began, "No matter we have what we need."

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"Impressive Arlo, I must admit I didn't think that would work," Sierra said giving a light applause

Cliff walked up to Candela and looked down at her, "So what do we do with this one now?"

Sierra gave a smile, "What else, draw out the other two, after all now it's a fair fight."

—

{In an airship neering Shamouti Island}

A young man with mantis-collared hair was sitting down on his chair looking at a screen, he was the esteemed Lawrence III.

The ship in question was his personal ship called the Hikōkyū (literally, "Flying Palace") this place is his own kingdom, and it is filled with rare artifacts, countless artifacts he gathered from his travels all across the world, but his most prized artifacts was the Mew card.

He found this card in ruins next to ancient text in ruins protected by the residents of the island, but thankfully he has his way to get in, and there he found it, the Prophecy.

The god of fire, god of lightning, and god of ice must not be touched.

Else, heaven and earth will be angered and the world will face destruction.

The god of the sea will appear to stop the destruction.

But, it will not prevent the world's destruction.

Unless an exceptional trainer appears to calm the wrath of the gods....

Of Course, a trainer of legend, clearly Lawrence III, was the chosen one who else could it be, so he would fulfill his destiny.

The so-called gods clearly refer to the legendary birds, and the god of the sea clearly refers to the legendary Lugia, clearly, he should be the one they chose, so he will collect them.

It took countless amounts of time and money, but thankfully he had both, so he managed to find a way, his first goal was Moltres, this is the strongest recorded Moltres so he was on his way to capture it first.

Suddenly one of his 'employees' ran into the room and saluted him, "Sir we are approaching Fire Island."

Without even looking at the 'employee' Lawrence responded, "Very good, now prepare the weaponry."

"A-about that sir," the man said sheepishly, "We received reports that Moltres is gone."

Lawrence looked annoyed but just went back to looking at the screen, "No matter, let us just go for the next one."

"A-about that sir, all the Moltres are gone."

Lawrence looked at his subordinate angrily, "Explain."

"W-well we have sightings all over the world of People seeing Moltres disappear into thin air, there are currently 7 confirmed Moltres disappearances."

Lawrence frowned as he waved for his subordinate to leave, which he did, and then he looked out the window of his ship, "Is someone trying to deny me my destiny?"

As he looked into the sky he noticed the clouds start to slowly cover the sun, "I won't be denied what is mine."

—

{In a port town}

Brock, Misty, and Yellow were sitting at a table, yeah they finally arrived and Ash already went inside to get the tickets they'd be needing if they wanted to head to Cinnabar Island.

Ash also went out and got some things printed on the way as he was coming back waving at them,

"Hey Ash, so what's the situation?" Brock asked

"Well, the next one isn't until 10 days which fits in our schedule since I'm pretty confident on beating Sabrina by then," Ash said as he waved the 4 tickets in front of him.

"Alright then great, let's all hop aboard and go back to Saffron City!" Misty said as she went ahead and grabbed onto Ash expecting everyone to do the same.

Everyone was silent for a moment as they looked at Misty, "You know if you want a hug you could just ask." Ash said with a smug smile.

Misty immediately realized what he meant and jumped off, "N-no I mean, I-i'm sorry"

"Hey there's no harm in it, here let me show you, Brock gimme a hug, my dude," Ash said with a smile as he held his open arms towards Brock.

Brock looked confused but he obliged and gave Ash a hug in a platonic way, don't worry they are both wearing socks.

"N-no I-i-I mean-Abra- isn-she usually with you-so how else would we go?" Misty tried defending herself as she turned red.

"Well that is a very heavy accusation, I mean it's true but you don't know that," Ash said as he moved his shoulder making the fox show her head.

"So I was right!" Misty yelled, "You're the ones making it weird."

Ash looked at Brock and Yellow, "Mmmm, I don't recall anyone saying that, if anyone is making this weird it's you, I mean it's just a hug, why's it gotta be weird, hey Yellow you want a hug too."

"Ah," Yellow said as she strengthened her back and turned red, "S-sure I-if you don't mind."

Ash gave Yellow a hug as she was basically steaming from the ears and Ash made eye contact with Misty the whole time, "See there is nothing weird about it at all."

Misty was red in embarrassment looking at the scene, "J-just, let's go." she said as she put her hand on Ash's shoulder.

Brock also placed his on Ash and Abra took that as the signal for her to teleport, and as they disappeared a Duck that was sleeping under the table was left behind and woken up by the noise.

"Psyduck? Pssyyyy Σ(°△°|||)"

–

{In Saffron City}

The group appeared back near the hotel they stayed at before, and immediately Brock and Misty fell to their knees almost throwing up.

"I still can't get used to that," Brock asked, holding his stomach.

"How are you fine?" Misty asked

Ash shrugged, "I mean it's not as bad as, you know, VIOLENTLY GIVING ME SEVERE BRAIN DAMAGE!"

After a moment for everyone to compose themselves, they got up but Ash heard a familiar voice, "Hey I thought I heard you, how you been."

Ash recognized it as A.J.'s voice so he turned and was about to greet him when he quite literally stopped in his tracks.

He saw 3 People approaching, the one on the back was Jeanette Fisher, but the next two he could hardly recognize, it was both A.J. and Samurai, but instead of how he was expecting them they were both taller and more muscular, they lost any fat they had on them and barely looked like the same people, Samurai even had a new Samurai helmet.

Ash had to rub his eyes, "Are you two the same people?"

"Hey that's rude, we just went through some exercises with the Lieutenant," A.J. said looking insulted.

"What did he feed you, your previous bodies, you look like the result of a 1950's motivational movie."

"I'll admit, his teachings were unique, but it did yield results," Samurai said.

"I mean yeah when I trained with him he broke my arm," Ash said flexing his arm.

"Umm Ash?" Yellow taped his holder, "Do you know them?"

As soon as she said that AJ and Samurai fell over and Ash held back a laugh.

"Do any of you recognize us!?" A.J. asked, receiving a collective head shake from Brock, Misty, Yellow, and even Pikachu.

"It's A.J. and Samurai," Ash said still holding back his laugh,

Immediately they all went quiet"...Ehhhhh Σ(°△°|||"

After Ash wiped away the tears building up in his eyes he finally asked, "By the way, what's the deal with Jeanette over there, one of you dating her or something?"

AJ and Samurai turned red and gave a stupid expression as they played with their fingers leaving Jeanette herself to step forward.

She bowed, "Hello again, I'm surprised you remember my name, but as for your question no I'm not dating anyone we simply decided it might be good to all travel together."

"Ohh so that's how it is," Brock immediately realized something from the boy's reaction as He slid and put his arm around the two, "Don't worry I'll make sure to help you."

AJ and Samurai both looked at Brock with stars in their eyes, "Thank you, sir, we'll follow you forever!! x2"

Jeanette was about to say something but Misty stopped her, "You haven't interacted with boys have you."

Jeanette shook her head so Misty put her hand on her shoulder, "Don't worry, it doesn't get better."

With a loud cough, Ash cut into the conversation again, "So what are you all doing here?"

"What else, we took on the "Saffron Gym," Jeanette said.

"Yeah after Surge took us in we got a huge power-up, and we all beat him and beat the Gym here!" A.J. said flexing his new muscles.

Samurai also cut in with an evil smile, "Yeah, I think we might be strong enough to beat you now."

Ash returned the evil smile, "Oh please try me. I've been training for this Gym battle, and I've been meaning to find a guinea pig."

"I don't actually think that might be necessary." A.J. said, "Their gym leader, Sabrina, has been acting weird almost like she's out of it, like she's just battling to get it over with."

"Huh, that's weird but it explains why Gary won on his first try," Ash said rubbing his chin.

"That's weird when we saw her she seemed fine," Yellow said tilting her head, "I wonder what happened."

As they were wondering, another voice entered, "So you guys are finally back…"

Looking towards the source of the sound there they saw Sabrina standing, "You've been gone for quite a long time, and you never bothered to call."

"...Eh?"