Raikou took us over the mountains and through multiple forests over the course of an hour. We had left during the late afternoon and now the sun was dipping beneath the trees.

The Bell Tower came into view shortly after the sun began to fall out of visibility. Raikou leaped through the woods and jumped down from a cliff, stopping at the entrance to Ecruteak City.

"Ok. We're here. What is it?" Silver asked.

Most of the townspeople had gathered around the pond not too far from the Bell Tower. They were looking up at something.

Some people stared at television screens set up throughout the town that were all focused on the top of the Bell Tower.

I slid off of Raikou and went looking for our friends while Silver trailed behind me. I spotted Eusine and Jess chatting together and I rushed over to them.

"Eusine! Jess!" I called.

Jess looked over at me with a look of worry. "Gold! What's going on? Eusine was telling me the Legendary Beasts were freaking out about something!"

"I-I don't know," I answered. I looked back at Raikou. "It's not like I can talk to Raikou. But it seemed really worried." Jess noticed the Legendary Beast standing not too far behind us and her jaw dropped. "Where's everyone else?"

Jess focused on my question instead of the Raikou behind me. "Morty is heading up the Bell Tower right now with the Kimono Girls for the ceremony once Ho-Oh arrives. Bill and your other friend are also somewhere around here on guard in case any remaining Team Rocket grunts try anything."

I turned to the Bell Tower. "Something's wrong. No way Suicune would freak out that much if there wasn't."

"Suicune is known for being very in touch with nature, so much so that it may get premonitions of impending danger," Eusine added.

"Then what do we do?" Jess asked.

Silver stepped forward and cleared his throat. "We call Bill. I can feel something bad is about to happen." Silver put his eyes on the tower.

Raikou stood with us impatiently while I tried to get a hold of Bill but I kept being sent to voicemail. "Well if it isn't my favorite new trainers!"

I looked up to see Blue strolling over to us. He had some kind of drink in one hand and seemed to be there for the party. "Good to see you guys again!"

"Blue! Something bad is going to happen to Ho-Oh but we don't know what! Suicune said so!" I explained.

Blue set down his drink and put up a hand. "Slow down. Suicune? How would Suicune tell you anything?" I was about to explain when people began to shout and cheer, pointing at the sky.

At first, I wasn't sure what all the fuss was about, then I saw a brilliant light come from the sky. The light came closer and closer before descending to the top of the tower. It was Ho-Oh.

Ho-oh was a magnificent and large bird Pokémon. The feathers on its wings were red and turned to white and green at the ends. Its tail feathers were dark gold and turned lighter at the ends.

Ho-Oh was simply astounding to look at. There was a glow to its body and a regalness that give the Legendary Pokémon such a mystical feeling.

I didn't want to look away but Raikou started to growl again. I snapped out of my trance and glanced at one of the television screens. The close up showed Giovani emerging onto the roof behind Ho-Oh.

I pointed at the T.V. "Look! Behind Ho-Oh!" I shouted. Raikou started to run but Ho-Oh and the people still hadn't noticed Giovani.

Blue reached for his Poké Balls as soon as he saw Giovani. "It's him!"

Giovani pulled back the sleeve on his left arm and revealed his arm was completely drained of color. It had a familiar texture to it and the memories of the Slowpoke Well came flooding back to me.

"That's corruption! He's going to corrupt Ho-Oh!" I realized.

Giovani's snarl grew into a proud grin and the corruption burst from his arm, swirling around Ho-Oh before it could react.

People gasped as Ho-Oh's color drained from its body. The corruption moved through it much quicker than it did through Chikorita. Before long, Ho-Oh was fully corrupted. Parts of it flickered and its movements became sharp and robotic.

Giovani stepped in front of the Rainbow Pokémon. "People of Johto! I, Giovani, the leader of Team Rocket have returned! I destroyed the legendary Raikou not long ago, and have combined with the mighty MissingTwo who ravaged this world ten years ago! Now, I control Ho-Oh with this power! Prepare to be destroyed by the very Pokémon you worship!" He raised an arm and Ho-Oh started to charge up a fire attack.

Blue's eyes widened and he sent out his Typhlosion. "Everyone! Get out of here! That's Giovani!" The townsfolk started to scream and dispersed. Blue looked at Silver, Jess, Eusine, and I. "You guys too! Get out of here!" He demanded.

Ho-Oh fired the attack before any of us could say anything. The move looked like a giant ball of fire but it lacked any color. Typhlosion used its own flames to counter the move and it exploded.

Chunks of the colorless fire landed all around us and corruption started to spread. The entire top of the tower had become corrupted as well and it was showing no signs of stopping.

Ho-Oh wasted no time firing off yet another fireball but this time Typhlosion was struggling to hold it off. The ball started to glow and dissipated entirely suddenly.

Suicune landed next to us and began to converse with Raikou. I gasped. "Wait, Suicune you can reverse the corruption, right?" Suicune nodded. "Then if we can stop Giovani and Ho-Oh, we should be able to fix this!"

"Just one problem with that," Jess said. "How are you going to even get close to that thing?" To emphasize Jess's point, a fireball crashed down somewhere behind us and began to spread further corruption.

I worked up a plan in my mind as quickly as I could. "Simple. We all work together." Someone new said.

Bill and Lillie came running to join us. "Sorry I didn't get your calls, I was so sure something bad would happen if I wasn't on guard that I guess I missed this whole thing," Bill said.

Lillie stared up at the tower in shock. "What's happened to it?" The entire tower was now lost of any color as the corruption continued to spread.

"I've seen it before during the MissingTwo attack," Bill answered. "Seems like Giovani has harnessed some of the corruption for his own nefarious goals. I called in a few friends on the way here and they'll arrive soon. In the meantime though, we need to get Suicune close if it can really cure corruption."

Eusine sent out his Voltorb. "I will protect Suicune with my life."

Another attack came crashing down on the town. I looked around and noticed the corruption had spread insanely quickly.

"Here's the plan," Bill started. "We need to clear a path for Suicune and Raikou to get in, they're the only ones strong enough to even stand a chance against Ho-Oh. The ground around the tower is probably corrupted, so cover them while they get to the roof. We also need to keep the corruption from spreading. In my experience attacking it can hold it off."

I jumped onto Raikou's back and sent out all of my Pokémon. "I'm going up to that tower with Raikou. You guys, help Bill and everyone else in any way you can, and avoid the corruption at all costs," I told them.

Bill, Jess, and Lillie all sent out Pokémon as well. Silver got onto Raikou's back with me and the two Legendary Beasts leaped into the air. Ho-Oh fired another volley of flames in our direction.

Attacks from Lillie's Vulpix and Blue's Typhlosion diffused the flames. Raikou and Suicune made it onto the roof of the nearest building and we looked at the ground around the tower.

Like Bill had predicted, it was completely corrupted. And there were seemingly new colorless buildings like the ones in Ecruteak sprouting up out of the ground.

Raikou and Suicune began to run and I glanced down at the ground. My Pokémon and friends were fending off the corruption to the best of their abilities while also preparing to fight off any attacks from Ho-Oh.

Suddenly I was thrown from Raikou and onto the roof of the building. I pushed myself up and saw corruption where we once were. Silver was hanging on the edge of the roof above the corruption and Suicune and Raikou were nowhere to be seen.

I hurried over to my friend and pulled him up. Did Ho-Oh stop us already? I wondered as I helped him up.

Silver looked away from me and I could see tears were filling his eyes. I was about to ask why when I saw another attack headed our way. This time, it was stopped by a blue sphere.

I curiously looked down at the town to see Alex and his Lucario in the center, running to join the others. No time to focus on that! "Silver, are you alright? Did you get burned?" I asked him.

Silver began to shake. "He's going to destroy everything." He murmured.

I immediately understood Silver's plight and took my friend's hand. "No, he's not. Silver, I'm sorry. I'm not good at helping people when they're sad... I'm not good at a lot of stuff. But I am good at battles so I try and solve everything through them... but that's wrong. I'm your best friend, Silver. And I'm going to help you do whatever you need and I'll help you in a way that works for you this time."

Silver wordlessly made eye contact with me. We stood there for some time and then he embraced me. I embraced him back and when he pulled away we took in our situation. Raikou and Suicune were still missing and we were now stuck on a roof far away from the tower.

Another fireball exploded into the side of the building and I fell over. Silver helped me up and Silver nodded at me. "We'll win no matter what, right best friend?"

I nodded back. "Of course! Now let's do this!" We ran across the roof to get away from the spreading corruption.

Hey Gold, need a lift? A shadow appeared over us and I looked up to see Red and his Charizard descending. Professor Daisy was right next to him atop her Aerodactyl. Bill called us and told us something was wrong, but I didn't think it was this.

Anyway, I think I can help you guys get to the tower. Red hopped off of Charizard and gestured for Silver and me to get on. "W-Wait really? Are you sure we should go instead of you?" I confirmed. Of course! You're the ones with the plan. I don't know much at all about this corruption.

"But what'll we do once we get to the tower?" Silver asked. "Suicune is missing and it was the only thing that could stop the corruption."

Daisy jumped off of Aerodactyl. "Actually, you know that Unown you caught? I was exploring those newer ruins and found that Unown may be capable of reversing corruption. The drawings I found depicted they and MissingNo being created by Arceus together, and the Unown serve as a counterbalance to MissingNo's power."

Silver looked down at Unown's Poké Ball with shock. "W-wow! Alright then! It's worth a try!" We climbed onto Charizard's back and it took off.

Charizard flew through the air and dodged around the fireballs Ho-Oh threw at it. Ho-Oh started to flap its wings and a powerful gust began blowing us back.

A dark cloud appeared above Ho-Oh and a blast of lightning slammed into the corrupted Rainbow Pokémon. I looked back, hoping to see Raikou, but instead, I saw a girl and a Pikachu flying in the back of a Pidgeot not far from us.

The girl had bright yellow hair and blew in the intense wind. She gave us a thumbs up and Pidgeot began to fly back to town.

Looking back, the town was now mostly corrupted except for a small circle everyone was defending to the best of their abilities. We didn't have much time left.

Charizard arrived at the tower shortly after and we jumped off of his back, landing on the Bell Tower right next to Ho-Oh.

It was time to finish things.