Sorry, this one's late. I had a test and I didn't want to delay another chapter so here it is.
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Ash was currently sitting on top of a sleeping Primeape that Bulbasaur took out, actually there was a whole group but nothing a sleep powder couldn't take care of.
"Are you sure you should be sitting there, what if they wake up?" Verity asked, looking at Ash with his legs crossed.
"It's fine Bulbasaur's spores are no joke, these guys ain't waking up unless you make them get up, or about 10 minutes whichever comes first," Ash said as he was feeding Bulbasaur a cookie.
"Anyway, Sorrel, how far are we from the base of the mountain?"
Sorrel was looking at his map, he also leaned on one of the sleeping Primeape, "Well it should only be a few hours if we walk, though I wonder how we are going to get back."
"Oh you don't have to worry about that, I have my secret weapon," Ash said before Abra climbed out from his jacket and he gave her a cookie too, surprising everyone there, including Bulbasaur.
"I didn't know you had an Abra, how come we haven't seen her around?" Verity said, also petting the little fox.
"She has either been doing her own thing or sleeping in my jacket so it never came up," Ash said before jumping off the Primeape, "Alrighty then if we hurry we might be able to see the Butterfree flying off."
They started running off leaving the Primeape to sleep, although by the time they were far away if you listened closely, you might have heard the sounds of screaming and a glint in the distance.
After some time they reached the base of the mountain and off the cliff the swarms of Butterfree. But on the side of the mountain the pink Butterfree with three guys competing for her affection.
Ash, Verity, and Sorrel watched the Butterfree fly around, Ash also recorded the whole thing for later use. But eventually, all the Butterfree flew off into the sky.
Once the Butterfree were out of sight Pikachu suddenly started glowing and lighting up with electricity. Then they heard a roar coming from above them when they looked up and saw Raikou.
"It's Raikou!" Sorrel said as Raikou started staring at them.
Raikou let out another loud roar and lightning shot from behind him sending a flash at all of them, when they looked back Raikou was gone.
"Well that's not concerning, that makes all three,"
"Yeah I wonder if they are all trying to gather around the mountain for the same reason we are," Sorrel said.
"Welp, we might as well start climbing the mountain," Ash said, taking an overdramatic first step, "Come on my magnificent companions this mountain isn't going to climb itself."
Ash, Verity, and Sorrel started going up the mountain, the further they went the more fog would start to form around them out of seemingly nowhere, and through the mist the sounds of many Pokemon could be heard staring at them, "MAGNEMITERHYHORNNIDOQUEENNIDOKINGELECTABUZZMAGNETONMAGMA,"
"What's up with this place, It looks like something's made the wild Pokemon upset," Verity asked, looking at the Pokemon at the top of the mountain.
"It's Ho-Oh!" An old male voice came out from the mist, "All of them gather here! All of these wild Pokemon want to receive power from Ho-Oh."
From the mist a short man with a big bushy beard jumped down and started sniffing the air around Ash, "It's faint, but I'm Catching a whiff of Ho-Oh."
Ash pushed his face back, "Respect the 6-foot rule," before pulling out his feather, "Here this is probably why."
The man looked like his eyes were about to fall out of his eyes, "WOW! It's the Rainbow Wing!"
Sorrel stayed quiet for a bit thinking to himself before he realized something, "Hey! I know you! You wrote the book! What was your name?"
The man stroked his beard, "Hehe, Why don't you just call me Bonji, for the past twenty years I've been on a quest, searching for Ho-Oh as part of my research."
"Twenty years?" Verity asked.
"You see, I've pulled data from many places, which led me to this mountain for Ho-Oh's next appearance," Bonji said, spinning around.
"Then let's all go together!" Verity suggested.
Bonji stared at the rainbow feather, "Hehe, That shine is the shine of youth. How I missed it. It's almost too beautiful for me to look upon. It's probably thanks in large part to the Rainbow Wing that you were able to come across Entei, Suicune, and Raikou."
"What do you mean?" Sorrel asked.
Before Bonji could answer Ash cut in, "Walk and talk guys the daylight is fading." they all blinked in surprise but also agreed to talk as they walked.
"Ho-Oh wants to know if there is a young person out there suited to be the Rainbow Hero. That means you may have someone guiding you. A guide from the shadows. Have you noticed anything?"
"Well there was something, but surprisingly it stopped appearing a few days ago," Ash said, feeling around in his shadow but it was empty.
"I suspect it's an extremely rare Pokemon. Marshadow, they say it's a guide from the shadows. When the color of the rainbow fades, Marshadow seals it back up and makes it right."
'Yeah right, that manchild mind controlled the entire mountain,' Ash thought as his feather shot out a rainbow light creating a rainbow.
The rainbow flew to the other side of the valley in between two mountains hitting a crystal-like rock, making a very pleasant prism.
Everyone was mesmerized by the sight of the rainbow coming through the mountain, "When a rainbow flower blooms upon Rainbow Rock, Ho-Oh shall appear."
"Well, then we should get over there if we don't want to miss our rainbow bird," Ash said, and everyone agreed, with Verity going ahead of everyone else. Ash and Sorrel sighed and went after her.
Bonji stayed looking at them, "Time flies and rainbows quickly vanish. Yes, young ones. Hurry!" before he also started running after them.
Bonji however in his old age slowed down fast, so Ash ran back and gave him a piggyback ride to catch up, which he did not struggle with.
By the time they got to the crystal, Ash managed to get in front of them with Bonji on his back.
Verity and Sorrel caught their breath and Bonji was still on Ash, "Do I even weigh anything to you?"
"No, it's like holding a couple of berries," Ash said, doing a few squats and putting him down.
Sorrel caught his breath first, "That's where you should place the rainbow wing."
"Alright then let's see Ho-Oh," Ash said approaching the stone but was still cautious in case Marshadow tried anything.
Immediately he felt a tingle in his senses and managed to jump back before an Incineroar came crashing through the mountain, almost hitting him. From behind him, Cross also stepped out with Lycanroc.
"I'll take that! The Trainer who battles Ho-Oh is the strongest, and that Trainer is me!" Cross said.
"Well well well, Cross why might you be here, didn't you learn your lesson the first or second time, I guess I have to try a little bit harder."
"Shut up! Those don't matter, the only thing that matters is that you hand over the Rainbow wing the easy way or the hard way, but do choose the hard way. I want to pay you back for everything you've done."
Sorrel tried to intervene, "That's not how it works! Now look! The one who gets to battle Ho-Oh is the chosen one! The Rainbow Hero!"
"I don't care anymore, might makes right and I will take what I deserve and right now I deserve that feather," Cross said and Ash saw a brief showing of some dark aura around him.
'So that's what happened,' Ash put his arm out to stop Sorrel and Verity, "It's fine, this is the only way anything is getting resolved.
Ash stepped forward, "So I guess you're planning on using Incineroar, well then your fire type vs. mine," Ash said, throwing out Charmeleon.
"It doesn't matter, Flamethrower now," Cross commanded as Incineroar gave a pelvic thrust shooting a stream of fire from his belt.
"Charmeleon Dash forwarded with a Smokescreen," Charmeleon started running forward and as he approached the stream of fire he shot out some black smoke into the air by the time the fire cut through the smoke he was gone.
"Now Dragon Claw!"
"Find him now!"
Incineroar started looking around trying to find the fire lizard before he came from the top ropes and gave a glowing slash straight to the back.
Cross grit his teeth, "Incineroar Throat Chop."
"Slide under him and slash his legs."
Incineroar made his arms start glowing and tried to give Charmeleon a Clothesline, but Charmeleon slid under his attack and on his way through hit his legs sending him on a knee.
Cross grits his teeth and gives a look to Lycanroc, "Incineroar grab him."
Before Ash could give a command Lycanroc tried to dash forward and get to Ash, but was barely blocked by Lucario who came forward.
Meanwhile, Incineroar grabbed Charmeleon in a bear hug and started squeezing as hard as he could, with Charmeleon squirming.
"Hey, what are you doing? This is meant to be a one-on-one Pokemon battle, why did you have Lycanroc try to attack Ash." Verity said getting Piplup ready.
"I don't recall agreeing to a Pokemon battle, besides this is a battlefield if you thought this would be a fair fight, that is your own fault," Cross said as more of the dark aura came from him and some started leaking out of Lycanroc and Incineroar.
"I can take care of him here, can you guys take care of Lycanroc?" Ash said as Pikachu also jumped off and faced the wolf.
"Leave it to us," Sorrel said as Verity, Piplup, and Lucario nodded.
"Whatever Incineroar fire fang," with no time to react he gave Chameleon a good bite on his shoulder.
"Charmeleon use Dragon Breath and break free." Chameleon blasted and shot out a blueish fire from his mouth and shot it into Incineroar's face, meanwhile Charmeleon was pushing with his legs against the fire cat.
Eventually, he was able to break free jumping back as Incineroar had to grab his face.
"Now Dragon Tail," as Incineroar was trying to recover from the point-blank blast, Charmeleon did a frontflip and slapped him with his glowing purple tail, sending him face-first into the ground.
Meanwhile, Lycanroc was pushed back by Lucario as Pikachu also jumped over his shoulder and slammed it with an iron tail making him separate from them..
"Piplup Bubblebeam"
"Lucario Aura sphere"
Both Sorrel and Verity commanded for their Pokemon to shoot a combination at the Pokemon, dealing heavy damage, but the more it was hit the more Dark aura started exuding from him.
Lycanroc quickly recovered and gave a loud howl then dashed forward throwing rocks at them, and as they got distracted dealing with those it came forward in front of Lucario and gave it a good hit to the jaw.
Lucario took the hit then grabbed onto Lycanroc's arm as his fists started lighting up with electricity sending it into Lycanroc, then throwing him over his shoulder to Pikachu who gave another iron tail towards the wolf.
Sorrel was surprised since he didn't know Lucario could do that but snapped out of it since he was still in a battle.
Meanwhile Cross was getting madder since the battle was not going his way, so the being in his shadow started spreading its influence through the mountain, and with the sound of tremors Pokemon started appearing from the top of the mountain and jumping down to join the battle.
Cross meanwhile had a huge smirk on his face and when he spoke it sounded like there were two voices as he said, "" The true battle begins now!""