Xu Qingqing was stunned!
No way. Articuno had shown up just like that?
"Auntie, wait here. I want to take this guy on!"
With that, Xu Mu sent out Charizard and leaped onto his back.
"Xu Mu, wait. I'm coming with you—"
Before Xu Qingqing could finish, Charizard took off, racing toward Articuno in the distance.
Xu Qingqing wasted no time. As his elder, there was no way she would stand there and wait.
"Aurorus, let's go!"
She sent out her Pokémon and followed without another word.
Besides worrying about Xu Mu, Xu Qingqing wanted to see the legendary Articuno for herself.
As an Ice-type Trainer, she adored Articuno as fiercely as any devoted fan adored a star.
Up in the sky, Xu Mu's shout woke Articuno, and he was furious.
Articuno were generally gentle by nature. They often saved people stranded in the mountains.
But there were always exceptions. Just like the Lugia at Meteor Falls, members of the same species could have very different temperaments.
This Articuno was one such exception. The ice cavern had once been a dark cave.
Gravely wounded and needing to sleep to recover, he had landed here and turned it into an ice cavern.
Articuno had never imagined that his attempt to heal had inadvertently killed tens of thousands of Pokémon native to the dark cave.
Thousands of years passed. As Articuno's wounds gradually healed, more and more Ice-type Pokémon came to live in the cavern.
But no one knew that once Articuno recovered completely and left, the abundant Ice-type energy here would vanish.
The ice would melt, and the Pokémon living here would face another catastrophe!
So the Damn System was not entirely heartless. It had learned what had happened here and given Xu Mu this special mission.
As for that earlier