Oak Ranch, Pallet Town - 1803 hours local time - Day 162 of Ash Ketchum's journey
"No, Professor, I'm not the one that overrode Ash's limiter code!" Belladonna Ketchum yelled into the handset, her other hand going through her frizzy hair, trying to get it back into a ponytail. "Ash caught a Farfetch'd-Yes, in Orre! A GALARAN one! The one that turns into a sword-leek… thing! He just ran out, screaming at the top of his lungs and then Monferno and Charjabug screwed with the computer and Ivysaur had me in vines! I thought he was going to-" the blackhaired girl paused. "Wait, that's THAT old? I thought it was my generation that had its' mind in the gutter!"
Ivysaur shook his head. "Saur." 'Seriously? THAT'S what she was worried about? What a pervert.' he said before all of Ash's powerhouses marched in, Charizard and Goodra ready to fight the Shadow Lugia.
Krookodile's shades glinted at the prospect. "Dile!" 'You can complain about Ash's sister later! We have a Legendary's ass to hand him!' the croc boasted. "Kroooook." 'I'm going to ENJOY this.'
While fighting the physical embodiment of a god was not something to look forward to… these WERE Ash's Pokemon. This was what they LIVED for.
RMS Olympic - 1604 hours local time
"Thank you, Belladonna." Samuel Oak said as he hung up the satellite phone, all the champions and Kanto's Elite Four all looking at him as they wondered what he was yelling at Belladonna Ketchum for.
"What was that all about?" Lorelei asked as she looked over the planned invasion of Gateon Port.
Oak looked at his former pupil, sighing. "I was alerted to Ash's Pokeball limiter being turned off." he answered. "I assumed his older sister was responsible, but apparently his Pokemon did it instead."
Lance blinked in confusion. "Why would they even DO that?" he asked. "And you know you can override that-"
Oak gave Lance a look that clearly said both 'Ash's Pokemon had a good goddamn reason' and 'no way in HELL'. And while old, Samuel Oak was STILL the better trainer. The champion knew Ash and Oak had some special bond and he would not contest this if he valued his pride.
Besides, Ash was in Orre. Maybe he DID need more help.
Orrean/Ferran border - 1406 hours local time
A beam of death lanced through the pyramid, making the southwest face of it explode as a hand grasped the edge of the massive hole, XD-001 roaring as it made its' way out, before charging up another Aeroblast, the scattering effect of the plasma destroying a third of the complex before it finally took to the air.
"Ok. I will admit we made a mistake." Robin admitted as XD-001 flew over the facility, using Psybeam and Aeroblast to begin leveling it into nothing. "But on the bright side, at least the technology to corrupt Pokemon is gone."
"On the downside, we have an insane legendary that's going to be hellbent on killing us!" Ash said as he pulled out his Pokedex. "This isn't a stealth mission anymore: we need all the firepower we can get."
"There is no way we can take on a legendary, Ash." Robin protested. "None of the Pokemon you have-"
Pikachu shot her a glare before Ash looked as well, only smiling. "You haven't seen all of my Pokemon." he said before transferring all but Riolu and Pikachu back to the ranch as he noticed something… odd. There was no longer a 6/6 limit. Now it was that odd sideways eight.
He then put in a request to bring in Charizard, Gible, Sceptile and Krookodile, hoping they could explain this.
Dratini could not read, but he wasn't in the mood to be left behind.
Charizard, Garchomp, who left behind his clip, Goodra, Krookodile and sceptile were sent through, Mimikyu all but demanding to follow suit, Scraggy and Litten all but demanding to be sent through to help ash. Hell, even Jigglypuff was trying to join the fight.
"Dra!" 'Monferno, Ash is going to need ALL of us!' Dratini implored the fire monkey, who was trying to decide who Ash needed most.
"Monferno!" 'Ash only has 12 Pokeballs on him right now! We CAN'T send everyone!' the ape retorted as he fought the desire to join Ash. All of them wanted to help, but not all of them COULD. Primeape was keeping Heracross from rushing the station, for example, even though he wanted to punch that Shadow Lugia in the face. But it was a Psychic-type legendary, meaning his ability to fight it was almost nil and he knew it.
"Dra!" 'Send me! I don't need to fight the shadow Lugia, but I can keep Cipher's trainers off his back!' Dratini asked, the dragon looking to finally help Ash save the world. He might not be the powerhouse of his later evolutions, but he had to help.
Monferno threw up his hands. "MON!" 'Aarrgh! FINE! Get over here!' he shouted, setting up the transfer process. "Fer." 'Knowing Ash, he's in the middle of a warzone.'
Ash was right about one thing. Robin knew absolutely nothing about the Pokemon he had.
Charizard was a known, but Garchomp, who looked disappointed and annoyed he couldn't greet him, Sceptile and Krookodile were a MAJOR surprise. Then he noticed one of the balls on his spare belt felt different. "What the…" he asked before pulling it out, opening it and releasing the Pokemon within.
And what came out was the snail-like Goodra, who was very angry. "Goo!" 'Time for war!' he declared. "Goodra!" 'I want to see that damn Lugia and BLAST IT FROM MY SKY!'
"Char!" 'You're getting into it!' Charizard said before taking to the air.
"Goo." 'I am merely PISSED OFF at the thing attempting to kill my adopted brother and trainer.' Goodra retorted as he marched into the forest, Charizard heading upwards before another ball felt off.
Pikachu was understandably worried. "Pika." 'I think Farfetch'd told them and they are NOT happy.' he said. Pikachu would know: ALL of Ash's pre-reset Pokemon knew of the many, many, MANY times Legendaries had attempted to kill Ash: from Mewtwo to Kyurem, from Groudon to Hoopa, they were not happy the first time and now they were ABSOLUTELY PISSED Ash was going to have to go through it AGAIN.
"I've never seen those." Robin said as Shadow Lugia fired again, screams of the victims echoing into Ferrum. "What are they?"
Ash pulled out the second odd ball. "Goodra's from Kalos, Krookodile's from Unova, Garchomp's from Sinnoh…" he explained before releasing the Pokemon within, which turned out to be small, snake-like and so very adorable. Also the last Pokemon Ash would expect to want to fight.
"Dra!" 'Ash!' said the first known dragon, who looked like he wanted to hug Ash with a Wrap. but there was no time for friendly greetings, even if Ash wanted to.
"Why." Robin deadpanned as she stared at the snake-like dragon-type. Her Eeveeltions, released to assist Ash's team, all just looked at her in confusion.
It was almost like she couldn't understand Dratini was cute.
Charizard soared high above, Shadow Lugia just ignoring the fire/flying-type, focusing more on the total obliteration of everything in sight. Charizard remembered the only time he ran into a Lugia, at Shamouti, though Pikachu mentioned seeing two at the Whirl Islands.
Regardless, this black abomination was about to have his ass handed to him. According to that weird Farfetch'd, it tried to kill Ash. And while he liked to torch his adopted brother on occasion, causing light scorch marks was not akin to attempting to incinerate him.
And the Diving Pokemon was about to learn not to fuck with them, as he tucked his wings in for a dive on the unsuspecting Legendary, Charizard waiting until he was closer, XD-001 finally stopping only for Charizard to slam into his back, the fire-type's fangs sinking into the Legendary's neck, Metal Claw forming on his claws as he got his arms under the corrupted Lugia's wings, preventing it from shaking him off, just in time for a Draco MEteor to slam into its' chest.
The Shadow Legendary recoiled, using a Psychic pulse to force Charizard off his back. But any victory was shortlived as a shark-like form short up from the ground, jaws open before clamping on the throat of the victim.
Garchomp had entered the fray.
Venus actually felt alive for the first time in decades. Someone actually screwed them over! And she welcomed the challenge.
Perhaps her new enemy would be like Wes, the enemy she was denied defeating in battle.
Dakim roared in pain, Venus finally seeing that her fellow admin was badly burned, the Shadow Aeroblast's plasma having hit him before they teleported out, leaving him horribly scarred.
"YES! STRIFE! PAIN! THIS IS WHAT I HAVE MISSED!" Dakim yelled. "DECADES OF STAGNATION, SHUFFLED OFF!"
Of course, the man got off on pain. So did she, to a point. Defeat was hated, but it made victory so SWEET.
The former diva looked to the skies, finding Shadow Lugia in battle, a Garchomp latched to its' throat, while a Charizard charged up what appeared to be Blast Burn before unleashing it on the shadow Legend.
Venus nearly squealed in indecent joy that would more belong to a worshipper of Slaanesh then an Admin of Cipher. (WHACK!) Their enemy was none other than Crown Prince of Rota, all-but-declared Champion of the recent Indigo Conference and eldest son of the dreaded Delia Sakai, Ash Ketchum!
Venus licked her lips. To face someone like HIM… oh, JOY!
Dakim screamed again, Venus looking to him and seeing a very snake-like Pokemon Wrapped around him, constricting the overly muscled man and overwhelming his pain tolerance. It took Venus a second to recognize it as a Dratini. A second too long before a blue dog-like Pokemon lept out of the forest cover, paw glowing with Aura.
The Admin didn't even get a chance to withdraw a Pokeball before a Force Palm was slammed into her face.
Garchomp's arm fins glowed before he used dual Chop on the Shadow Lugia's wings, taking no small satisfaction when it cried out in pain.
"CHOMP!" 'That's for trying to kill my friends!' Garchomp snapped, if the muffled effect from having Lugia's throat around his mouth meant it didn't have the effect he desired.
Charizard then bodychecked the Shadow Legend, sending it and Garchomp flying into the ruins of the pyramid, but Garchomp used his ramjet horns to make the Shadow Lugia break his fall, concrete and steel rebar snapping and breaking under the weight of both the 750 kilo mach Pokemon and the two and a half metric ton Legendary hitting it at… Garchomp didn't know or care. He just wanted it to hurt the evil bastard!
Vines then wrapped around the Shadow Pokemon before a plant-like abomination dug its' way out of the ruins, biting hard on the Lugia's right shoulder, Garchomp taking his cue to get the hell away before Charizard charged in, exhaling superheated plasma onto the Diving Pokemon's unprotected belly.
"Sceptile!" 'Hit him with everything you got!' Sceptile called as he climbed into the ruins, charging up a newly learned attack he picked up from Ivysaur. As Garchomp had learned, Frenzy Plant was not the best attack. It was more supportive than offensive.
That said, it did open up Lugia for a triple threat of attacks as Charizard unleashed another Blast Burn on Lugia, Sceptile's Solar Beam adding to the pain. Garchomp then righted himself and an orb formed in his maw. "GARCHOMP!" 'EAT METEORS!' he cried before firing off the cluster bomb attack, slamming into the legendary and making part of the building collapse on it, burying the Shadow Legend.
Garchomp stopped making thrust, gliding his way down to Sceptile's position, the archosaurian kneeling to rest as Garchomp landed.
"Chomp!" 'That was easy!' he declared, almost falling back to his form as a Gible before Charizard bellowed above.
(BGM: Resident Evil 5: Winds of Madness)
"CHAR!" 'This isn't over! GET READY FOR ROUND TWO!' he roared as the rubble exploded.
Shadow Lugia's corrupted roar, a mockery of the song of Shamouti, echoing for miles as it took to the air, charging an Aeroblast in its' maw.
Rain then started falling on it before thunder came down on it, striking the Diving Pokemon on the head before a massive rolling form made its' way up the ruins, using them as a ramp before part of it glowed as steel, slamming into the Shadow Pokemon before landing beside Garchomp, onfurling to reveal itself as Goodra, cheer all but gone and replaced with grim determination and an urge to hand this thing its' ass.
"Goo!" 'You know the plan! GET TO IT!' Goodra ordered, frost forming in his mouth before an Ice Beam shot out, striking Lugia in the face.
Garchomp would've facepalmed. He forgot the plan!
Keep attacking and never give it an opening to Aeroblast them. They were nowhere near the level where they could take that kind of hit and walk it off.
Glaceon encased the two admins in enough ice to keep them secure until the blacksmith could deal with them, Jolteon and Vaporeon standing guard. Dratini added Powder Snows to the ice, but Glaceon shooed him off.
The little dragon made his way, snake-like, towards the battlezone. What he saw was awe inspiring.
Charizard carrying Goodra with his hands and feet, flipping forward to slam the one-ton snail dragon into the Shadow Legendary, Iron Tail audibly breaking bones in the corrupted avatar's body before Goodra grabbed its' head and used a point-blank Ice Beam to cover it in ice, the bird-like Legendary slamming into the ground, Krookodile rushing out from the forest to use type advantage on the Legendary, using Crunch to latch onto its' tail, the Shadow Lugia bashing its' head in an attempt to break the ice.
The snake was noticed "Scep?" 'Dratini? What the hell are you doing here?' the saurian asked his fellow reptile. "Tile-tile!" 'You're in no shape to fight a legendary! Go back to Ash; he'll keep you safe!'
Dratini, months before, would have obeyed the more experienced time traveler. But now he had no reason to. "Dra!" 'No! I'm helping you!' he declared, ice shattering as Shadow Lugia finally broke free, opening his maw to form a ball of plasma, preparing to Aeroblast them both.
Dratini summoned the power within him to form a ball of ice in his mouth, firing a weak Ice Beam at the ball of plasma, making it just cold enough for the fourth state of matter to fail and explode, stunning the diving bird. But the snake was not done, crying out before firing a more powerful ice Beam at the Lugia, joined by Goodra, attempting to overwhelm the Legendary, Krookodile rushing at the psychic, Biting on its' left wing while Sceptile spat out another seed, Frenzy Plant preparing to assist in keeping the damn bird down.
Dratini nearly blacked out, his head hitting the dirt, Charizard stomping on Lugia, charging up a Blast Burn, but instead of unleashing it on the Lugia's back, he grabbed the Legendary's head, prying open mouth before shoving superheated plasma down its' throat, the beam no doubt hurting the Shadow Pokemon greatly.
The plasma hurt the legendary, but it was still strong enough to fight back, using an overpowered Psychic pulse to break the Plant, forcing Charizard back, landing on his back, his wings nearly getting dislocated as he cried in pain as Lugia cried out, flapping its' wings before deciding to take the better part of valor and flee, weakly escaping.
Dratini raised his head, trying to fire another beam before Krookodile ran towards him, looking ragged himself. "Kroo!" 'Whoa, kid, don't strain yourself!' he said, seemingly straining to keep the little dragon down.
Sceptile limped towards them, drained. "Scep." 'Listen to him, Dragonair.' said the grass-type. Dratini didn't get it. And why did his tail feel heavier?
He just decided to sleep this off.
20 minutes later
Ash and Pikachu looked at the two Pokemon not part of his team that fought in the battle. Dratini had evolved to Dragonair and was sleeping off the exhaustion brought on by forced early evolution. From the occasional nosebleed-indusing insights he got from having all of his Pokemon in his head at once, Pidgeotto did the same thing back in the other timeline, evolving insanely early as a result of necessity and needing to sleep it off.
The other… was less forthcoming as to how it happened.
"Lu." 'All I know is, one second I was punching some lady in the face, the next, I was… well, bigger.' said the former Riolu, the Emanation Pokemon having turned into the Aura Pokemon, the much taller Lucario. Said Aura Pokemon looked at Ash's head. "Car." 'Shame. It appears Natu is the only one that gets to use your head as a seat.'
Ash sighed. "Lucario, I spent the entire time during that fight trying to explain all of my Pokemon to Robin while keeping her out of the fight." he said, somewhat testily. "And as you might guess, I'm not a Pokemon researcher, so I don't know everything she wanted to know and kept pressing me, meaning I'm a little lacking in patience at the moment."
Lucario nodded. "Lu-io." 'My apologies. At least her Pokemon had enough sense to stay out of it.' he said, noticing the two admins frozen in ice up to their necks, the male one having triple the thickness out of fear he might break out.
That fear was valid: Ash had seen muscle-bound men like him break out of ice like that in the old timeline.
Robin, of course, was just staring at Dragonair. "…It's… I don't have the words to describe it." she muttered as she looked at the Dragon Pokemon, gently snoring. All those years ago, he never thought he'd get a member of the Dragonite line. Kaiser and his revolver put paid to that idea. But now… he had one and it was one step away from the most powerful member of its' evolutionary line. Of course, Ash didn't care about that. He wasn't Paul, who would force a Pokemon to its' final state and leave it there.
The choice always belonged to them.
"Uh, Robin?" Ash stated, getting her attention before gesturing to the two Admins. "Should we get them to the ship?"
The white-haired girl nodded. "Yes, good idea. Two admins in custody would help greatly." she finally said, tearing her eyes from Dragonair. "Though I might suggest using your Natu. I don't think either of us has the muscle mass to carry Dakim."
Oh, so that was the name for Mr Muscles.
Pallet Town - 1723 hours local time
Belladonna was far too young for alcohol, being only 17, but she did not think the Professor would blame her for breaking out the cheap garbage after the file she got from Ash's Pokedex.
Lugia was a new entry. And not any Lugia, but the ultimate Shadow Pokemon, XD-001, the ender of the United Region of Nihon, the killer of the old Emperor, the one that took a fucking nuke at the Battle of Ecruteak to finally stop it before the Shadow Pokemon all rebelled against Cipher's control!
The thing that gave Agatha nightmares, for Arceus' sake! NOTHING gave her nightmares! She gave everyone ELSE nightmares!
And her brother had faced it. And judging by the fact that he put in a request to transfer his Pokemon in and out again, he was still alive.
Shaking hands removed a tab from a cheap can of Unovan beer, the kind the Professor drank during the bad times, like after her father was murdered or the anniversary of his son's death. She downed it without bothering to taste it, seeing as it was garbage beer in the first place and she was going to need a few to handle the idea that her younger brother had faced the avatar of a god and survived.
The phone rang moments after she dropped the can to the floor. And only one person was going to call the lab during a time like this. Still, Belladonna knew better then to not answer the Professor's call. She walked over to the wall-mounted phone, picking up the handset.
"Oak Laboratory." she greeted, knowing damn well who it was.
"Belladonna, I hope you aren't getting into my alcohol stash." Samuel Oak greeted and chided. Busted and he wasn't even here! "That said, I would understand WHY. My wife is currently begging Giratina to spare her the unholy psychic-type that would rip her team apart."
Belladonna chuckled before making a hiccup.
"…I won't hold that against you as long as it's the cheap garbage: touch the wine and you will NEVER hear the end of it." the professor warned.
Belladonna nodded, even if he couldn't see it. "Y-Yes, Professor. I just… It was THAT Lugia!" she shouted. "The one that couldn't be purified! That… THING!"
The was a hmm on the other end. "Yes, I am aware. And your brother survived it. I only wish he caught thr damn thing. He purified that Jigglypuff, why not XD-001?" the old man mused. Belladonna paled at that. She was a conference champion, but that thing would rip her team apart: all of them were poison-types! She'd never be able to keep it in line!
"Please no." she whimpered. She was good. She wasn't THAT good.
Dragonair looked down the length of his body, having been forcefed enough berries to recover his strength.
Two wing-like protrusions on his head, a jewel on his throat, what looked like gold rings attached to his tail… The dragon had only one thing to say.
"Dragonair!" 'Why do I look like a girl?!' he cried, much to the confusion of Garchomp and Goodra, who didn't have a clue what he was talking about. Charizard shrugged as well, Bayleef more focused on getting his wings relocated back to their sockets.
And judging by Charizard's pained roar, it was not fun.
Fortunately, they were going to have help explaining this away, as a friendly face flew towards the ranch, tiny wings propelling him along before he landed with a gentle thud in front of the dragons, type and appearance.
"Drag!" 'You evolved!' greeted the final form of Dratini. "Dragonite!" 'Congratulations! How does it feel?'
Dragonair just looked at his tail. "Dra…" 'Why do I look like a girl?' he asked, Dragonite's face adopting a look of confusion. "Dragonair!" 'I thought I would go straight to Dragonite! I thought only female Dratini turned into Dragonair! I mean, the only one in that colony was female…'
The dragons (or at least the ones paying attention, Charizard being in excruciating pain) just looked to one another and shrugged. Kaiser REALLY didn't want them escaping, so they were kept from evolving. Dragonair, as a Dratini, didn't even know how his evolution went!
Dragonite's confusion faed as he closed his eyes and nodded. "Dra." 'I see. You didn't know.' he said in understanding. "Dragon." 'We all evolve into Dragonair, male and female. I suppose that was my mistake in thinking you would understand immediately. You didn't grow up with a colony of Dragonair and Dragonite.'
Dragonair looked at himself again before looking at Dragonite. "Dra?" 'So… this isn't wrong?' he asked.
Dragonite smiled. "Dra!" 'Of course not! You're fine!' the elder answered. "Dra." 'If you want to end up like me, you'll have to work hard on it. You evolved too early.'
Dragonair didn't get it before Dragonite took to the air, mentioning him to follow. Dragonair then sprung into the air… only to fall to the ground.
"Dra." 'If you evolved at the right time, you would know how to do that by instinct.' Dragonite explained, answering a question Dragonair was only starting to think about. "Dragon." 'Therefore, you will need to learn how.'
Dragonair just slammed his head into the ground, making a low, annoyed groan.
Meltan walked the grounds of the ranch, marvelling at the abundance of life.
Ferrum had done poorly, a fool from a century ago driving away the birds from his region, only for a wave of hungry bug-types to eat their crops. It took over 70 years to correct that mistake.
Meltan was young by legendary standards, only a century old, but what no one knew about Meltan is that they could remember everything the Melmetal they once were did. And the Meltan the Melmetal was. And so on and so forth.
It was so very confusing at times. But Meltan, young as he was, knew Ash's face. He was younger than he remembered, too.
"Geot." 'So. You're the legendary.' Meltan spun his nut-head around, seeing a Pidgeot walking towards him. Odd. He didn't have one back then. "Pidg?" 'Care to explain why you broke one of Ash's rules and forced yourself into his service against his will?'
Meltan nodded at her before answering. "Meltan!" 'I'm a legendary, but a young one. And he needs my help!' it answered. "Melt." 'After all, I've met your trainer long ago. Kind of.'
Pidgeot tilted her head to the right somewhat, one eye slightly more open then the other as if cocking an eyebrow she didn't have. "Pi?" 'Kind of?' she asked.
Oh, this was going to be complicated. "Mel-" 'It involves time travel of some kina and I know you-'
"Pidgeot." 'I believe you.' she cut off.
Meltan would have blinked had he been capable. "Me." 'What,' he said flatly.
The raptor stopped eyeing him like a threat and stood straighter. "Pid." 'We have… experience with time travel already.' she explained. "Geot." 'Some of us have headaches from it-'
"SNOR!" 'FUCK YOU!' distantly cried a Snorlax.
"Pid." 'And some of us just roll with it.' she finished smoothly. "Geot." 'So, yes, it's easy to believe that you know our trainer in the past. We're used to this shit.'
…Just what was the Chosen of Arceus up to that his Pokemon were used to the arcane ability of temporal manipulation?
Most bird Pokemon were flying-types. Some evolved into non-flying-types, like Grass/Ghost Decidueye, but they STARTED as flying-types.
So Noctowl was wondering how the hell this Farfetch'd was a fighting-type. And why he was picking a fight with three of the most dangerous Pokemon on the ranch.
Snorlax preferred to sleep, but was training himself to be more active, with learning the move Sleep Talk as a backup. After all, sleeping or awake, this was a Pokemon to avoid.
Monferno was also a Pokemon not to screw with. That hyper Blaze he had persisted here, too and Noctowl was sure he was two seconds from getting royally pissed and evolving to Infernape again.
Grotle, while never showing well in Sinnoh, was still dangerous, given he was potentially on par with Sceptile when evolved to Torterra. And he had resigned himself to that fact, knowing he would need the power of his final form and with eviolite, he could return to his earlier state if he wanted.
So why in Palkia's name was Fetchy (the nickname all Ashmons applied to the seemingly insane bird) pushing his luck?
"FEEEEEEEEEETTTTTTTTTTTCCCCCCCCCCHHHHHHHHHHH!" screamed the bird, charging at Snorlax with his leek held like a massive club before swinging it at the normal-type, his leek sinking deep into his belly.
Snorlax just puffed out his stomach, forcing Fetchy back, then jumped into the air to slam onto the bird, the force of four metric tons of Pokemon slamming onto the tiny bird.
That said, the bird did NOT give it up, continuing to struggle against Snorlax's mass, screaming his little warcry.
"Noctowl?" 'Can someone explain to me what our newest teammate was doing?' Noctowl asked as Snorlax… contained the odd bird.
"Grotle." 'I have no idea. He just asked who Ash's strongest Pokemon were and when we told him all of them were resting… well. You saw.' the bush tortoise answered.
NS Heart of Indigo - 1529 hours local time
Agatha was still hiding in the Distortion Realm. Lance could not blame her.
He was tempted to go with her, but while he was just as afraid of the Shadow Lugia like anyone with more then one brain cell, he could not succumb to fear. He had to plan around this.
"A shame we can't just nuke it like the Unovans did at Ecruteak." Steven said sourly as he processed the news. "Then again, Nihon never DID have nuclear weapons in the first place."
Cynthia huffed. "A nuke would only hurt US more. We're going to have to face facts, gentlemen: we're going to need to deal with Shadow Lugia." she declared before looking at the old regional professor sitting down in a chair. "Any way we can get your prized student to kill this one?"
Oak scoffed. "Ash is not one for killing. Just ask Gaffery." he said before fixing her with a look. "And don't even think of informing Delia. I don't want two Legendary heads in her study. Her rage was terrible to behold then and the only thing she's lost is time. Besides, you'd need a powerful teleporter like Alakazam to get her here. And I am content to leave her in Pallet."
It was also unsaid that her mere presence was keeping the otherwise-mad Patel from even thinking of trying anything in Johto. Sure, Ash was in no danger, but Patel, crazy or not, was not stupid enough to try. At least, Ariana said so.
Regardless, Oak did not want her leaving Kanto. At all.
Things DIED when she left Pallet for more than a day.
"Still, I would like Delia to-" Cynthia's words were cut off by alarms going off, red lights accompanying them. "You have GOT to be kidding me."
On the Olympic, Anabel pet Eevee, trying to find a way for her to evolve by emotion instead of physical stress. Sadly, that was not to be as Eevee's ears perked up.
"Vui?" went the fluffball before Anabel turned, only to see a large object the size of an old telephone pole heading towards one of the ships escorting the Olympic at high speed, the ship's small anti-air guns firing at it only too late before slamming into the ship, cracking it in two. "VUI!"
Another missile zoomed towards the Olympic herself, the ship's hidden anti-missile guns deploying too slowly. And it was going to hit the hull just under where Anabel was sitting.
She closed her eyes and allowed herself to embrace her fate.
Someone had other plans. "EEVUI!" cried Eevee, firing off a Shadow Ball, which hit the missile and destroyed it, shrapnel impacting the hull and nearly hitting Anabel herself.
Nearly, only because they were stopped in midair, held by psychic might. Anabel opened her eyes.
"Espeon." she looked down, only to see a lavender cat-like Pokemon with a split tail and a jewel on her forehead, twitching her long ears as she held the metal in place, dropping them seconds later, falling harmlessly into the water below.
Affection triggered evolution, this is true, but more often, it is stress and willingness to do whatever it took to keep them and their trainer safe.
Anabel was forced to realize this. That did not mean she liked it.
"What the FUCK?!" demanded Lance as he stormed onto the Indigo's bridge.
"Missile attack, Champion: radar just picked up a formation of destroyers and frigates." Captain Nakajima answered. "They were just beyond range of our radar, probably using an airship to sight in their missiles. CIWS didn't even react until the damn things were right on top of us; we already lost two ships and one nearly hit the Olympic."
THAT was worthy of worry. The Olympic was filled to the brim with 6500 souls, more than four-sixths of which were trainers, nearly a third of their fighting force.
"Do what you can to take out those missiles; I'll take Dragonite to take out those ships." Lance said before more alarms went off. "What NOW?!"
The radar officer looked at the leaders of the trainer and military forces on the ship. "Sir… the contacts are aircraft." he reported, as if shocked. And he was: aircraft in general were basically grounded after the war. Lance pulled out a set of binoculars, looking towards the distance to where the sun was rising to the east…
BGM: "Hells March" - C&C Red Alert 3 Soundtrack
From the rising sun, shapes could be seen over the horizon - with several naval vessels in the water, and in the skies various aircraft soaring above. But most telling of all was a single, large vessel that wasn't in the water - but rather, it was flying in the sky over the fleet itself, like a massive flying battleship. The aircraft flew forward, as they fired a full salvo of AA missiles that soared up into the air towards the clouds - and moments later, were rewarded by an explosion as the hidden airship was hit - and began to lose altitude.
Lance and Nakajima shared a look before asking the question on their minds as once: "Who the fuck are these people?!"
The comms officer then looked at the two. "Sirs, we have a hail from the… airship?" he said, the last word being a term of confusion.
"Put it through, Lieutenant." Nakajima ordered. "I want to know who just saved our asses."
The man flicked a switch before, over the speaker, came the voice of a young man, only a bit older then Ash. "Hello?" said the caller.
Lance walked over to the handset, putting the microphone to his mouth. "This is Grand Champion Lance of the United Region of Nihon." he greeted. "To whom am I speaking?"
There was a brief pause "This is Specialist Kyoji Akamura, of the Ranseian Self-Defense Force Special Forces." A familiar voice came through. "Hope you don't mind us crashing the party, Champ… we've got a chosen one to save after all.
Lance was just stunned into silence. How else would you react to having your asses saved by a practically mythical nation?
On board the aerial battleship Musashi, Kyoji looked down at the massive Nihon convoy. Took long enough for someone to reunite the place. But now he had to deal with the Orrean navy group trying to take out what were more or less Ash's reinforcements. Three converted ocean liners filled with trainers and army personnel, protected by a force of aging ships roughly akin to the Ranseian 6th Naval Squadron.
"I wouldn't mock them, sweetheart." Kyoji nearly jumped. Nearly three months and she STILL did that to him, as Sabrina Natsume walked up behind him, wearing a prototype psionic-enhancing suit. After all, she WAS helping Ransei help Ash.
"I know…" Kyoji sighed "Just… wished they had something more than decades-old warships, Ash needs more help than this…"
"You know as well as I do we were devastated by the war. At least they DID supply a force to help." Sabrina retorted. "And we'll make sure he's safe. We did while we were in Ferrum."
"Gib!" 'Let's go!' Gible hobbled into the room - dipping his hands into a cup of paint, before painting two little black lines underneath his eyes like war paint.
Both of them stared at the land shark. "…That just makes you look cuter." the psychic deadpanned, Gible pointedly ignoring that statement.
"She's right, you know." said someone as she picked up Gible, her pinkish-red hair only coming down to her shoulders. Sabrina and Kyoji were both well-aware this was Lovrina. Like Ash, they weren't blind nor stupid.
But also like Ash, they were also not going to comment on it. If she wanted to distance herself from her past, so be it.
"We need to take out their ships. They can always launch missiles once they get into actual range." Kyoji said, noticing that, once again, Orre was using Ferran-designed and likely built warships. Cipher was well-and-truly in bed with the power hungry fools.
But Ferrum was having issues of their own, thanks in no small part to them: they were at war with both the Republic of Serran, a state that considered themselves to be the real heirs to the name Ferrum, the Ranseian Empire and with themselves. Civil war within and external enemies without.
Needless to say, they were kinda BONED.
And without Ferrum's support, Orre was officially out of allies.
The noose was tightening around both of them.