"If you don't believe me, you can try it yourself," Gary said, looking at Azelf with a calm, easy smile.
Even though he had no intention of keeping the Lake Trio as permanent battle partners—their duty was to guard Sinnoh's three lakes, and that responsibility was non-negotiable—building a genuine friendship with three Legendary Pokémon was an opportunity Gary would never pass up. Regardless of whether there were immediate practical benefits, having the goodwill of beings who embodied Emotion, Knowledge, and Willpower could prove invaluable in the future. The Pokémon world had a way of presenting crises that demanded exactly this kind of connection.
"Azelf!" Azelf nodded sharply, its blue eyes alight with curiosity. It decided to take Gary up on his offer.
Despite its small, unassuming appearance, Azelf was the most combat-oriented of the Lake Trio by a significant margin. While all three were Psychic-types, Azelf's natural movepool was heavily weighted toward offensive techniques. Its base stats favored Attack and Special Attack over defense, and it was the only member of the trio capable of naturally awakening Explosion—a move of absolute, devastating finality.
"Give me your hand," Gary said, extending his palm.
Azelf drifted forward and placed its small hand on Gary's open palm. The contact was light—barely there—but it was enough. The moment they touched, Gary's system activated, and Azelf's complete data profile flooded his vision.
[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, Extrasensory]
[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 studied the data with barely concealed disbelief.
Fourteen natural moves in tens of thousands of years of existence. He ran the numbers again, certain he'd misread. He hadn't. Azelf had existed since the dawn of sentient life on the planet—a span of time measured in millennia—and in all that time, it had only learned fourteen moves. The teachable moves column, by contrast, listed sixteen techniques that Azelf was capable of learning but simply… hadn't.
These Legendaries are incredibly lazy, Gary thought, equal parts amused and exasperated. Tens of thousands of years, and they barely bothered to expand their movepools. They spent their entire existence sleeping in subspace dimensions and occasionally popping out to look at the scenery.
But from a practical standpoint, this was excellent news. Every move Gary taught through his system increased a Pokémon's Friendship value by ten points. With sixteen teachable moves available and Azelf already knowing two of them—Protect and Rain Dance—that left thirteen moves Gary could teach. Thirteen moves at ten Friendship points each meant 130 points, bringing Azelf's Friendship from 120 to 250.
Not quite the maximum of 255, Gary noted. If only Azelf hadn't already learned Protect and Rain Dance on its own, I could have pushed it to full. At 255 Friendship, I might have been able to convince it to actually travel with me.
Still, 250 out of 255 was extraordinary for a Legendary Pokémon he'd known for less than a day.
Gary didn't hesitate. He channeled the system's teaching function through the physical contact and began transferring moves in rapid succession.
Thunderbolt. Thunder Punch. Ice Punch. Reflect. Taunt. Shadow Ball. Hyper Beam. Fire Blast. Iron Tail. Endeavor. Signal Beam. Drain Punch. Dazzling Gleam.
Thirteen moves, transmitted in the span of seconds—each one imprinting directly into Azelf's cellular memory, bypassing the months or years of training that would normally be required to master even a single new technique.
"AZELF—!!"
Azelf's eyes flew wide open. Its entire body trembled—not from pain, but from the sheer overwhelming rush of suddenly possessing thirteen completely new combat techniques, each one fully formed and battle-ready. It could feel them—the crackle of Thunderbolt humming beneath its skin, the biting cold of Ice Punch coiling around its fists, the searing heat of Fire Blast simmering in its core.
In the span of a heartbeat, Azelf had gone from a Legendary Pokémon with a relatively narrow offensive repertoire to one of the most versatile attackers in existence—capable of striking with Electric, Ice, Ghost, Fire, Steel, Normal, Bug, Fighting, and Fairy-type coverage on top of its native Psychic-type arsenal.
"Uxie!" Uxie drifted closer immediately, its perpetually closed eyes somehow radiating intense curiosity. Through its psychic link with Azelf, it had felt the sudden expansion of its sibling's capabilities—and wanted in.
"Mes! Mesprit!" Mesprit was right beside it, practically vibrating with eagerness.
Gary grinned. "Don't worry—there's enough for everyone. Who wants to go first?"
"Uxie!" "Mes!"
Both Legendary Pokémon reached for Gary's hands simultaneously. He extended both palms, and Uxie took the left while Mesprit took the right.
The three Lake Guardians had hatched from the same Pokémon Egg at the beginning of creation. Their move compatibility was nearly identical, with only a few key differences. Uxie could learn Solar Beam but couldn't learn Fire Blast or Ice Beam. Mesprit could learn Ice Beam but couldn't learn Fire Blast or Solar Beam. And Azelf was the only one who could learn Fire Blast, Endeavor, and who naturally awakened Explosion as a species move.
Beyond those distinctions, their teachable movepools were virtually the same.
Gary taught Uxie and Mesprit their respective available moves—the same comprehensive set of coverage techniques he'd given Azelf, adjusted for each one's individual compatibility. The process took barely a minute for both of them.
When it was done, all three Lake Guardians hovered in a loose circle around Gary, their small bodies practically glowing with the energy of their newly expanded arsenals. The contrast between their combat capabilities five minutes ago and now was staggering. What had taken tens of thousands of years of natural existence to not accomplish, Gary had achieved in a single sitting.
"Uxie!"
"Mes!"
"Azelf!"
All three cried out in unison—sounds of genuine satisfaction, wonder, and something that might have been gratitude, though it was tinged with the mild embarrassment of beings who had just been reminded how little effort they'd put into self-improvement over the past several millennia.
"Happy with the results?" Gary asked.
The unanimous response was emphatic.
Gary also noted the held items each Lake Guardian carried. Uxie held the Uxie's Claw. Mesprit held the Mesprit's Plume. And Azelf held the Azelf's Fang. In the games, these items were crafting components for the Red Chain. In this world, their function appeared to be different—likely serving as resonance conduits that connected the Lake Trio to the Red Chain's power and, by extension, to the summoning of Dialga and Palkia.
Those items are the reason Charon was able to forge Red Chain fragments in the first place, Gary realized. The Fang, Claw, and Plume contain traces of the Lake Trio's spiritual essence. Team Galactic must have obtained samples at some point during their research.
He filed the information away for future reference.
Gary spent another hour with the Lake Trio, simply enjoying their company. Despite being ancient beings of cosmic significance, the three of them were surprisingly playful—chasing each other across the surface of the lake, playing elaborate games of psychic tag that involved Teleportation and invisibility, and occasionally trying to drag Eevee into their antics. Eevee, for its part, watched the proceedings from Gary's shoulder with the patient dignity of a Pokémon that considered itself far too sophisticated for such childishness—right up until Mesprit used a gentle Psychic to lift Eevee into the air and spin it in slow circles, at which point all dignity was abandoned in favor of delighted squealing.
When the games wound down, Gary cleaned up at the lake's edge, retreated to his tent, and fell asleep to the sound of gentle waves lapping against the shore.
The Lake Trio departed quietly during the night, Teleporting back to their respective lakes without fanfare. They didn't ask to travel with Gary—their duty as guardians of the Sinnoh region was absolute. Uxie would return to Lake Acuity. Mesprit would remain at Lake Verity. Azelf would go back to Lake Valor. The lakes were their homes, their sanctuaries, and their responsibilities.
But the friendship had been forged. And friendship, Gary knew from experience, had a way of proving its value at precisely the moment you needed it most.
The next morning dawned clear and bright.
Gary packed his tent with practiced efficiency, stowed his gear, and climbed onto Garchomp's back. With a powerful beat of its fin-like wings, the land shark launched into the sky, banking east across the Sinnoh region.
His next destination: Crown City.
Crown City was a large, prosperous urban center in eastern Sinnoh—famous for its lush greenery, its elegant architecture, and its deep historical connection to Legendary Pokémon. But Gary wasn't going there for the tourism.
He was going for Celebi. And the Legendary Beasts.
Gary's knowledge of the events that would unfold in Crown City came from his memories of the anime's movie timeline. The thirteenth Pokémon movie—Zoroark: Master of Illusions—was set in Crown City and featured three central Legendary Pokémon: Celebi, the time-traveling Mythical Pokémon of the forests, and the three Legendary Beasts—Raikou, Entei, and Suicune.
But the Legendary Beasts that appeared in Crown City weren't ordinary. They were shiny variants—Pokémon with alternate coloration, extraordinarily rare even among their already legendary kind. A shiny Raikou, a shiny Entei, and a shiny Suicune, all serving as guardians of Crown City's natural environment.
Gary had already captured a Raikou during his earlier journey through the Johto Region. If he could add Suicune and Entei to his collection here, it would complete the Legendary Beast trio—and the system rewards for completing a full set of Legendary Pokémon were always substantially greater than the sum of individual captures.
And then there was Celebi itself. As a Mythical Pokémon—the same classification as Shaymin—capturing Celebi would trigger the system's highest-tier reward structure.
The timing needs to be right, Gary thought, reviewing the sequence of events as Garchomp soared over the Sinnoh landscape. In the anime timeline, the Crown City incident occurs after Ash finishes his Gym circuit and is traveling to the Lily of the Valley Conference. His Monferno evolves into Infernape before the Sunyshore Gym challenge, and the Crown City events happen on the route between Sunyshore and the Conference venue.
Ash is heading to Sunyshore right now. Once he gets his eighth Badge, he'll pass through Crown City on his way to Lily of the Valley. That means the events haven't started yet—I'm early. I can position myself and wait.
The key figure in the Crown City incident was a man named Grings Kodai—a powerful media mogul and the CEO of Kodai Network, the largest media conglomerate in the Sinnoh region. Kodai's public image was that of a charismatic, self-made businessman. The truth was far darker.
Twenty years ago, Kodai had stumbled upon a Time Ripple—a natural phenomenon generated by Celebi's time-traveling abilities. Upon touching it, Kodai had gained the power to see visions of the future. He'd used this precognitive ability ruthlessly, making flawless business decisions that catapulted him to the top of Sinnoh's corporate world. Every market prediction, every strategic acquisition, every perfectly timed investment—all of it powered by stolen glimpses of events that hadn't happened yet.
But the power was fading. Twenty years of use had eroded Kodai's precognitive abilities, and he was growing increasingly desperate. Through his weakening visions, he'd learned that Celebi would return to Crown City, and with it, a new Time Ripple would appear. Kodai intended to touch the Ripple again—to renew his power and secure his empire for another two decades.
The problem was the consequences.
When a human absorbed the energy of a Time Ripple, the process released a wave of dark, corrupting energy that destroyed all plant life within a massive radius. The last time Kodai had done this, twenty years ago, Crown City's vegetation had been devastated. It had taken the city nearly two decades to recover, and the scars were still visible in the uneven age of the trees and the patches where older growth had never fully returned.
If Kodai touched the new Time Ripple, it would happen again. Every tree, every flower, every blade of grass in Crown City would wither and die. The city would be reduced to a barren wasteland that would take another decade or more to heal.
Kodai doesn't care about any of that, Gary thought grimly. He'd burn an entire city's ecosystem to the ground just to keep his business edge. And he nearly succeeds in the movie—only Ash's intervention stops him at the last moment.