Dark Ho-oh's eyes glowed a bright, blood red colour as it glared down at Ash.

Ash was to scared to move now. The only thing he could think was that he was happy Dark Ho-oh had blocked off all his pain from Ho-oh.

Then he felt something pick him up off the ground as Dark Ho-oh used Psychic, lifting him up until he was near the roof of the cave. He froze for a second before he felt a pain rush through him as Dark Ho-oh began to crush him with it's Psychic attack. When it stopped, Ash was tossed to the side, slamming his back hard against the jagged cave wall, causing a shallow hole to appear in the wall. He slid down the wall and landed hard on his feet, colapsing straight away.

Before he knew it, Dark Ho-oh had grabbed his arm and lifted him up. It flew up a little before tossing him against another wall.

Ash fell limply to the ground and groaned. As he felt the Psychic take hold of him again, he whispered to himself. "Ho-oh..."

Ho-oh's head jerked up all of a sudden. "Ash..." Without thinking of the others on it's back, Ho-oh took off at high speed.

Rick and the others all got thrown back at the same time and almost fell off, if they hadn't grabbed onto the feathers on Ho-oh's back.

"Ho-oh!" Misty, Pikachu and Raichu all said in unison.

Ho-oh paid no attention to what was going on around him. Something happened to Ash, he could sence it.

All the others seemed anoyed, except Rick. "Somethings not right..."

Pikachu looked at him curiously. [What do you mean?] He asked, but got no answer.

Ho-ohs eyes were fixed on the rising mountain ahead, were the entrance to the Victory Road cave was. It flapped it's wings harder, picking up speed.

Rick narrowed his eyes as they came close to the cave, and then saw something, a shine across the mountain. "Ho-oh stop!" He said pulling on it's feathers.

But Ho-oh didn't stop, he just continued on...until it struck something solid, sending it realing back. Ho-oh shook it's head as it flapped it's wings, keeping itself off the ground, and looked to were it had crashed. It couldn't have crashed into the mountain, it was still a fair distance away. Then he noticed why Rick had told him to stop. There had been a barrier, like a glass dome surronding the mountain.

Ho-oh narrowed it's eyes as it knew this was Dark Ho-oh's doing. It realed it's head back as released a Fire Blast at the dome, flames skidding across it, but not damaging it in any way.

Ho-oh let out a loud screach and dove forward, slamming his claw into the barrier. Black sparks seemed to cross over the barrier for a second as Ho-oh's claw struck it, so Ho-oh struck it again.

More sparks flew across it. Ho-oh continued to strike the barrier with it's clawed foot and slowly growing black sparks continued to shoot across it.

Finnaly, with one last strike, there was a loud shattering noise and the barrier broke away like glass, which broke and turned to balck dust as soon as it hit the ground.

[Way to go Ho-oh] Pikachu cheered.

Ho-oh looked back at the others. "This may be dangerous, I think you should just wait outside"

"But-" Misty began.

"Good idea" Rick butted in. "That way, if you guys get in trouble we'll be ready to help" He took out two Pokéballs and released Charizard and Pidgeot.

When the others were safely off his back and the flying Pokémon were after backing away a little from the angry looking Ho-oh, Ho-oh turned his head to look at the cave. With a sudden burst of speed, Ho-oh entered the cave and was flying quickly through the tunnel, dust flying up from the ground behind it.

Dark Ho-oh looked away from Ash, who was by now covered in cuts and bruises from being slammed repeatedly against the jagged cave wall, and turned to a tunnel, were a faint swooshing sound could be heard. It was the flapping noise from Ho-oh's wings. "Looks like Ho-oh has come to help you...perfect" Dark Ho-oh grinned and flapped it's wings, dissapearing into the shadows near the roof.

Ho-oh entered the area and saw Ash lying motionless in the centre. It landed next to him and poked him lightly with it's beak. "Ash? You ok?" He asked worriedly.

Ash groaned and looked up weakly. "Dark Ho-oh...hiding..." He force out before passing out.

"Dark Ho-oh? Hiding? Ash, what do you mean? Ash?" Ho-oh nudged Ash a little, but got no responce. Ho-oh suddenly got a chill in his spine and looked up. In front of it were a pair of red glowing eyes, but then it saw another pair of red eyes above it. "What the...?" Before Ho-oh knew it, two black flamethrower attacks had shot out from above and in front of it and struck it hard. It stumbled and fell, then all was black.

"Do you think their ok?" Misty asked as Pidgeot and Charizard glided through the air around the mountain, staying so that the cave entrance was still in view.

Suddenly, a black figure arose from the cave. It was Dark Ho-oh! He flew up for a little before it took off at a such a speed that it was just a blur.

"That can't be a good sign" Rick said, ordering Charizard and Pidgeot into the cave.

Ash groaned and opened his eyes. Everthing was a blur or green and blue, until his vision clears and he saw he was looking at the sky through a few trees. He looked down and noticed he had bandages on his cuts, which now didn't sting as much as they had when he had passed out. Without sitting up, he looked beside him and saw Ho-oh siyying not far away. "How'd I get here?" He asked sitting up.

Ho-oh looked over at him. "Misty and Rick came in and got us. They're after heading for the Pokémon Centre for some food and stuff" Ho-oh said before sighing. "I don't get it, Dark Ho-oh could have killed us, but it didn't, I wonder were it went"

Ash thought for a moment. "Well, when Dark Ho-oh and Ditto were talking, I heard them say something about going to Phoenix Mountain"

Ho-oh jumped a little as Ash spoke and quickly turned it's head and looked at him. "Phoenix Mountain?" It asked, sounding slightly paniced.

"Ya, something about the Dark Relm" Ash said.

Ho-oh now looked like it was about to have a heart attack or something. "Ash! They can't go to Phoenix Mountain, they can't!" It said in a paniced voice.

Ash back away a little. "Ho-oh take it easy. Whats so important about them going to Phoenix Mountain anyway?"

"Because I'm the Gaurdian of the Shadow Relm portal that lies within Phoenix Mountain!" Ho-oh practacly yelled.

"Woah, slow down. I have now idea what your talking about" Ash said.

Ho-oh took a deep breath to try and calm down before speaking. "Dark Ho-oh and Dark Ditto are from the Shadow Relm. The Dark Relm is were all the evil Pokémon such as Dark Lugia come from" Ho-oh explained. "There is only one portal in the world that can leed to the Shadow Relm, and that portal lies within Phoenix Mountain. If Dark Ho-oh opens that portal, he could let out all of the Dark Pokémon such as Dark Beedrill or Dark Entei"

Ash was speechless as Ho-oh spoke. He tried to say something, bu Ho-oh stopped him.

"Wait for it, it gets worse" Ho-oh said quietly. "The Pokémon from the Shadow Realm are imortal to almost all attacks. Even if you do distroy them, they'll just come back within a matter of days as long as the portals open. Which means when that portal is opened, even the Dark Legandaries can come back"

"You...you mean theres no way to beat them?" Ash said shakily.

"Theres only won, but it may be inpossible" Ho-oh said sadly. "You and I would have to focus all our power to create my ultimate attack, Rainbow Flame"

"We could do that" Ash said confidently.

"That, I believe, but theres more..." Ho-oh took a deep breath. "To truely banish the evil to the Shadow Relm, we would have to use both Rainbow Flame and....the Solis Sword"

"But...The Solis Sword is destroyed" Ash remebered. "Dark Ho-oh destroyed it back at the Dark Legandary HQ"

Ho-oh stood up. "I know, so we have to get the Phoenix Mountain and stop Dark Ho-oh before it's too late" Ho-oh said, bending so Ash could get on it's back.

"Right" Ash said, mounting the giant bird and gripping it's feathers hard. "Lets get the others and then get to Phoenix Mountain A.S.A.P."