Hall of Origins

  The hall was nearly pitch black, for Arceus was draining energy from even the realm itself. Portals surrounded him, opening from all corners of the universe to drain energy for his own use. He admittedly did not feel right doing so, but right now, Necrozma left him with little options.

  His eyes were closed, focusing on nothing but the energy and obtaining more of it, but there was much strain painted on his expression.

  Arceus’s eyes shot open suddenly. A horrified scream escaped the Alpha Pokemon’s core, and he collapsed to the ground. “No…!” The connection he had with the energy was severed, cutting off their flow and causing the portals to suddenly spark and then shut. Arceus was left in complete darkness, panting desperately for air.

  His eyes were wide, and he desperately tried to shake his head to deny it. “Not him…! NO!” Rearing to his hind feet, Arceus raised his mighty hooves and bellowed.

  “NOOOOOOOO!”

  He crashed back into the ground, making the entirety of the Hall quiver from his might. From his forehead, he shot a brilliant golden beam that pierced through the dimensions themselves and opened a portal to his world.

  Shock gave way to anger, and anger to absolute unrelenting fury. His eyes burned a fiery, hellish red with rage, as did the constant swell of energy that he emitted. Arceus’s power became so fierce that the chairs of the Hall were crushed underneath from his presence alone. He burst through the portal with impossible speeds, tearing apart the Hall even further, and let loose an agonized wail.

  “NEEECROOOOOZMAAAAAAAA!!!”

  Underneath Necrozma’s Mothership

  With the mere swipe of his finger, Necrozma destroyed an oncoming Flamethrower from Groudon and retaliated with a crimson ball of energy of his own. Rayquaza quickly intercepted, flying in the blast’s path and managing to hold it in place with a Dragon Pulse.

  “Not a chance!” Roared the serpentine Legend. “Now, Groudon, get out of the way!”

  Needing no further incentive, the Legendary creator of the lands nodded and turned to get out of the way of Necrozma’s attack when the voice of the dark demon rang out.

  “There is no escape! Die!”

  Rayquaza’s eyes shot wide open as the ball of energy suddenly doubled in size and power. In turn, he unleashed even greater power with his Dragon Pulse, but it paled in comparison to Necrozma’s might.

  Thinking to abandon holding off the attack, Rayquaza looked back at Groudon to see how far away he had gotten. The draconian Legend cursed when he saw the land Legend slowly lumbering away, still well within the attack’s blast radius.

  So, he turned back to focus on keeping Necrozma’s might in place for as long as possible, grunting from the continuous exertion of power.

  Necrozma chuckled. “Trying to protect your ally, are you?” He extended his hand down at the crimson blast and laughed. “You should be more concerned about yourself, but if you insist on needlessly dying, allow me to obli-“

  Necrozma was cut off by the sound of a tremendous explosion. On the ground, the trainers and Ultra Beasts were all swept off their feet by a tremor, and a series of smaller explosions began running down the underside of the mothership.

  Necrozma gaped up at the ship with wide eyes. “Wha- What in the-?!” The ship’s barrier began sparking violently, and suddenly, a large pulse ran all throughout the shield and completely dispelled it.

  Turning away from the Legends, Necrozma summoned a barrier around himself and tapped on his right crystal to summon the holographic image of Xurkitree, who was hurriedly running about the main control room while an alarm blared in the background.

  “Xurkitree! What is the meaning of this?!” Demanded the dark lord.

  Meanwhile, Mewtwo warped in front of Rayquaza, grabbed hold of the large blast with Psychic and dispelled it by tearing it in two.

  Rayquaza let out a tired sigh of relief. “Thanks,” He said, bowing his head, “Had you not arrived when you did, it would have gotten ugly.” His head perked up as he remembered something. “Oh, by the way, what happened with that girl? Are she and that Hydreigon well?”

  Mewtwo looked up at the sparking underside of the ship. “The Hydreigon is fine, as far as I know, but the girl...well, I assume she is responsible for what is currently happening above us.”

  The Sky High Pokémon looked up at the ship with wide eyes. “That is…! ...I knew that girl was strong, but this…” He shook his head. “Where is she anyway?”

  Mewtwo stifled a growl in his throat and turned toward Necrozma to hide his expression. “I am not sure, but I do not assume the luxury of dwelling upon that in comparison to him.”

  In truth, the clone Pokemon had an idea of what happened, though he dared not to give mind to it. The way she spoke made it seem like she knew she was about to…

  “WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE ENTIRE FLEET IS GONE?!”

  Xurkitree nearly fell over as his lord pressed his face straight up against the crystal, giving the Ultra Beast an uncomfortable stare into his eyes as well as a headache from the volume of his voice.

  “E-exactly what I said, sir,” Stammered the wirey beast, “That lifeform I told you about managed to drag the entire fleet into some kind of gravitational field and decimate them all in a single explosion! What’s more, the effects of whatever it did completely destroyed the shields of the mothership!”

  Necrozma balled his hands into fists furiously. He growled, increasing in pitch until he could no longer hold himself back. “THEN FIX IT AND ERADICATE THAT LIFEFORM!”

  The force of Necrozma’s rage could be physically felt all the way up in the mothership’s helm, knocking Xurkitree off his feet. Quickly getting back onto them, the beast replied, “A-actually, sir, I’ve already scanned the area that the explosion took place in, and there isn’t a single life force! It appears that whatever destroyed the fleet ended up destroying itself as well.”

  Mewtwo’s eyes went wide, overhearing that. “No…”

  “Pah,” Scoffed Necrozma, his fury subsiding for the most part. “Fine, then. Just get to fixing the shields.” He tapped his crystal, ending the call with Xurkitree, dispelling the barrier and turning back to face the Legends. “Guess I’ll pay another visit to Ultra Space after this to restock my forces. Hopefully more beasts evolved themselves back into existence there. I knew I should have left some ali-“

  Mewtwo hurled a Shadow Ball at the dark demon, which was easily caught and subsequently crushed. “I suppose I’ll think more on that later. For now, there are insects that need crushing.”

  Rayquaza scowled at the dark demon. This battle was becoming far too tedious, and his remaining stamina was fading. So, he turned around toward the battlefield and called, “ALL LEGENDS, YOU ARE NEEDED AGAINST THE BATTLE AGAINST NECROZMA! IMMEDIATELY!” Though it certainly went against his morals to leave the humans without the aid of the Legends, there was little in the way of options. Surely, they could hold out against the beasts until then, right?

  Braixen, along with the rest of Serena’s Pokemon, stood over her defensively, facing away from her and toward the surrounding beast horde. There were so many of them now that they nearly blotted out the skies, and there had to be thousands around them on land as well. However, that came with its own benefits. With so many enemies crowded together, they had nowhere to dodge.

  “Braaaiiii!” Cried Braixen, downing a paper beast with a Fire Punch. However, another immediately took its place and tried swiping at her, to which Braixen fried it with a Flamethrower.

  She looked about and, finding that most of the beasts were preoccupied, looked back at Serena. Her condition was...unstable to say the least. Serena was crouched over, staring at the ground with wide eyes. She was hyperventilating, unable to cope with Ash’s fate, and completely blocked out the world around her.

  The fennec fox Pokemon looked down at her sadly. She herself felt horrible over Ash’s demise as well to the point it was gut-wrenching, but the desire to protect Serena gave her the strength to focus on the fight.

  A white roach beast stomped its foot, forcing Braixen to shift her attention toward it. The beast smirked down at her and chuckled, mocking her and the rest of Serena’s Pokemon for their dire position.

  Braixen scowled at it and blew a Fire Blast from its mouth. The roach beast easily dodged it, allowing it to sail past and crash into a multitude of other Ultra Beasts. Furious, the beasts that were struck turned toward Braixen and roared while the roach smirked her way.

  Taking a step back, the Fire-Type Pokemon continued snarling their way, but was unable to conceal its fear of them. The angered beasts rushed toward her, and the roach crouched down, preparing to blitz Braixen with a cruel grin on its face.

  An explosion of intense, red-hot flames from behind the roach, as well as the agonized screams of the beasts, wiped that grin away. Whipping around to see what had happened, the roach was sent flying into the air by a lightning-fast Mach-Punch.

  Braixen’s eyes widened, and both her and the rest of Serena’s Pokemon gasped as Ash’s Infernape appeared before them, surrounded in a blaze of flame. Upon witnessing Ash’s demise, it snapped, and its Blaze ability activated. Its eyes had gone completely red, and it wore an expression of unbridled rage.

  Craning its head up, Infernape roared and unleashed a Flamethrower. Though with how intensified it was, it was more of a red laser than fire. The roach screeched in fear, but was unable to dodge before it was completely consumed by Infernape’s attack.

  Infernape roared to the skies, beating its chest savagely in some kind of primal, instinctual act of victory. “FERNAAAAPE!”

  Serena managed to lift her head up at Infernape’s voice. She stared at the monkey Pokemon, but was unable to emote on any other way than a barely-audible whispering hum.

  A terrified imp beast stepped away from Infernape, accidentally knocking away a pebble with the back of its foot, which caused Infernape to snap its gaze toward it, let out a bloodcurdling guttural roar, and dashed the small beast across the ground with a Mach Punch.

  This caused a frightened gasp from another group of nearby beasts, and thus, the slaughter continued. Serena’s team of Pokemon stared at Infernape, though not even they knew if they should be awed or horrified by the powerful Pokémon’s display.

  A particularly large insect beast took advantage of their distraction and blindsided Clefable. The Fairy-Type Pokemon gasped in fear, but was paralyzed like a Deerling in headlights.

  “Go-ro!” Pangoro stopped the insect beast with a Bullet Punch to its gut. Its large stinger was mere inches away from the terrified Pokémon’s face before being pushed away and subsequently assaulted by the rest of Pangoro’s attack.

  “GOOOOOO- GORO GORO GORO GORO GORO GORO GORO GORO GORO GORO! GOOOOORO!” Pangoro unleashed a flurry of Bullet Punches across the beast’s body, creating literal dents all over it before sending it flying.

  The giant panda Pokemon snorted and grinned, proud of its work. This left it open to an attack from a paper beast from behind that was quickly thwarted by a Flamethrower from Braixen they forced it to dodge out of the way.

  It buzzed angrily, sharpening its arms when Pangoro whipped around with another Bullet Punch. The beast, however, managed to deftly dodge every single one of his punches, much to Pangoro’s chagrin. It then decided to show just how completely overwhelming its speed was in comparison to the Pokémon’s and slashed at his hands, knocking him backward and causing him to hiss in pain.

  A substantially large gash ran down Pangoro’s knuckles. Were it not for Bullet Punch’s Steel typing creating natural armor, its likely that the Pokémon’s hands, and possibly arms, would have been cleanly sliced down the middle.

  Pangoro glowered up at the beast, hugging his now-bleeding hands against himself to try and stop the leakage. The beast, in turn, sharpened its arms once more. Braixen prepared to use Fire Blast against it when a mosquito beast crashed down behind her. She whipped around, but wasn’t quick enough. It crashed its fist into her side, making her gasp out in pain and sent her flying across the ground

  Braixen, managing to keep her wit in spite of the painful strike, unleashed the Fire Blast meant for the paper beast at her assailant. The mosquito looked behind itself, down at the still-helpless Serena and smirked as a devious idea struck it.

  Looking back at Braixen, the mosquito flew out of harm’s way, allowing the Fire Blast to sail past it at Serena. Braixen’s eyes widened, and she let out a horrified scream, futilely reaching out to her trainer.

  Serena looked up at the incoming attack, life finally rekindling in her eyes as her survival instincts took hold. However, she had no chance of dodging the attack. Sylveon, Clefable and Pangoro, who had been occupied with the paper beast, could only look on in horror.

  A flash of white obscured Serena’s vision for a split second, and when it was gone, she could have sworn she still saw some kind of white Aura around her. Sprinting back to her feet, Serena managed to dodge the attack, albeit only barely. The edge of the Fire Blast scraped against her arms, making her wince.

  Realizing what she had just managed to do, Serena stared down at herself in awe, but the Aura had gone as fast as it had appeared. “What just…?”

  Braixen and the others ran to their trainer to see if she was alright, blasting away the paper beast and shoulder-barging the mosquito in Pangoro’s case when they attempted to intervene. They worriedly crowded around her, noisily barking their own names in their own odd Poke-language Serena didn’t understand, though she knew they were worried about her.

  She smiled at them kindly to assure them she was okay. Her eyes glinted with a tiny, lingering white ember. “Thank you for worrying about me,” She said gratefully, “But I’m fine now.”

  Braixen looked at Serena’s burnt arms, whimpering. Serena’s smile remained unfaltering and she crouched down to meet her starter’s eyes. “Don’t worry about it,” Serena said. “Everyone makes mistakes. You were just trying to protect me, so it’s no big deal. If anything, I should be the one apologizing to you for making you all worry while I was just moping on the ground.”

  She ruffled Braixen’s head and giggled, causing the Fire-Type’s eyes to water. She jumped up into Serena’s arms, to which Serena giggled and returned the embrace. This caused the rest of her team to join in, eliciting even more laughter from their trainer.

  Though, her mind quickly wandered away from the touching moment as she looked back at where she’d just been crouching. Looking down at her burned arms, she wondered, ‘How did I dodge that back there? And why don’t my arms hurt?’

  What was more concerning to her was her own sudden shift in mood. Ash’s death was still fresh in her mind, which was what caused her paralysis to begin with, though now, she didn’t seem bothered by it. Ironically, the fact that she was no longer bothered by it bothered her even more.

  The mosquito beast from earlier crashed down from the skies before them once more, now annoyed. Serena forced these thoughts from her mind to focus on the battle in front of her, and motioned for her team to attack.

  However, the ground suddenly trembled beneath their feet, catching everyone’s attention. Another tremor occurred, with this one greater than the last. Then another, and another. Serena and her Pokemon tried balancing themselves to not fall over, but the mosquito, instead of using the distraction to attack, began looking around. Flying up into the air, it soon realized the cause, and its blood ran cold.

  The world-eating Guzzlord was getting closer to the battle far faster than it had anticipated. A massive swarm of beasts began flying away at breakneck speeds, with the mosquito eagerly following suit. This left the trainers and wild Pokemon bewildered until they, too, saw the approaching goliath.

  Seeing the Ultra Beasts fleeing, Necrozma pointed his finger at them and sent a dark ball of energy toward them. It completely obliterated every beast and wild flying Pokemon it came in contact with until it came to the hoard’s head and plummeted into the ground. Upon making contact, a colossal pillar of black flames suddenly erupted from the ground that grew by the second.

  It spread outward, curving around in a circle until the entirety of the trainers, beasts, and Pokemon were surrounded. The flames then rose, towering higher and higher until they met with the bottom of the mothership.

  “I don’t recall giving any of you permission to flee,” Hissed Necrozma darkly, paralyzing his minions with fear. “Ordinarily, the punishment for attempted desertion would be unending torture, but I’ll make an exception for the sake of having a grand spectacle of a battle. Now fight! It doesn’t matter if Guzzlord consumes you! I command you all to fight!”

  Seeing as they were trapped, the Ultra Beasts turned back toward the Pokemon and hissed ravenously. Fear was just as evident on their faces as their usual primal fury as they descended upon the trainers once more.

  Guzzlord craned it’s head up to look at the Ultra Beasts and stretched the mouthed tentacles toward then. Hundreds were snatched up in a single sweep, screaming in fear as they were forcefully dragged into the colossal beast’s main mouth. The large beast chomped down once, and when it opened its mouth again, there wasn’t a single trace left of what it had consumed. There weren’t any blood stains, or remains whatsoever. It was as if they had never existed to begin with.

  “How awful!” Remarked Clemont as he witnessed the beasts being mindlessly eaten. “Necrozma doesn’t even care about his own soldiers! They’re just toys for his amusement!”

  Paul scoffed, preparing himself for battle as Guzzlord turned its hungry sights upon the trainers next. “They’re still our enemies too. You should worry more about yourself than them.”

  Alain nodded. “I have to agree. It shouldn’t take long for the beasts to be upon us once more, so pity for them will only serve to get in our way.” He looked up at his Mega Charizard, patting its neck gently. “Plus, I doubt they’ll have the same hesitation about killing us.”

  Gary, his usual smirk adorning his face, stepped to the front of the group alongside his trusty Mega Blastoise. “Then I say we hit ‘em first! Blastoise, use Hydro Cannon!”

  Nodding, Gary’s Blastoise crouched over and pointed its massive cannon up at the incoming beasts. “Blaaas-toise!” The ground beneath the powerful Water-Type Pokemon’s feet crumbled under the sheer power of Blastoise’s attack. From its main cannon, a large jet of hyper-pressurized water blasted outward. It had so much force that it was causing friction with the air, and tore through any beast unfortunate enough to be caught in its grasp as if they were paper. However, it wasn’t enough to stop all of them, and the massive swarm of Ultra Beasts crashed down upon them once more.

  Gary quickly hid behind Blastoise, shielding himself as best as he could with his arms. “Stick together! Don’t let them separate us again!”

  “It’s too late for that!” Cried Clemont. “Serena already disappeared somewhere, and I haven’t seen Iris, Cilan or Dawn since the fight began!”

  Luckily for Ash’s friends, they now already had their Pokemon out, and they were able to create a living shield around them to prevent their separation this time.

  “Alright, Luxray,” Cried Clemont, “Use Discharge!”

  “Ray!” Replied the electric wolf Pokemon with a nod. It stepped out into the crowd of beasts, immediately catching their attention. They attempted to swarm it, despite the fact that Luxray’s body was sparking. This proved to be not only a great mistake, but also their last. Luxray unleashed an omnidirectional blast of lightning that struck the surrounding beasts, frying them alive.

  However, Luxray’s stamina was far from infinite, and the beasts managed to push their way closer and closer until the Pokemon’s strength left it, and the beasts were left without any hindrance. Seeing this, Max quickly decided to act. “Jirachi, I wish for Luxray to be saved quickly!”

  Jirachi smiled up at him and nodded. The Wish-granting Pokemon closed its eyes and hummed, letting some kind of white energy surround itself and, suddenly, Luxray appeared in front of them. It looked around in a confused daze, then let out a relieved sigh as it realized where it was. Clemont and Bonnie immediately ran to it, crouching by its side. Meanwhile, the rest of Ash’s friends turned back to face the beasts at hand.

  A fortress beast managed to ram straight through their initial defenses, knocking down many of the trainers and their Pokemon in the process. Riley and Lucario quickly intercepted, each holding an Aura Sphere in their hands, but suddenly abandoned the attack, using it to propel themselves backwards just in time to avoid a particularly massive mosquito beast crashing its fists down upon where they’d just been standing.

  Turning around, the mosquito suddenly rammed its fist straight through the fortress beast, plucking out the black brick containing its eye and planting it on its own chest. The fortress screeched, its eye darting around in confusion. It was promptly silenced when the mosquito pinched it with its massive fingers, threatening to crush it and causing small cracks to form.

  May stepped backwards, her eyes going wide. “What is it doing?!”

  Max shook his head, just as lost as she was. “Beats me! It looks like its trying to destroy the other beast, but I don’t have a clue why!”

  Their question was soon answered when the fortress beast slowly started to cover the Mosquito from head to toe in armor. Its bricks soon lined every inch of its body, save for the face. It beat its fists together, breaking the bricks on them to the point they became pointed and jagged. When the process was complete the Mosquito beast pounded its chest menacingly and quickly turned its gaze towards May and Max.

  An imp beast attempted to sneak behind the brunette, giggling as it positioned itself to sting. However, the mosquito beast rushed past the two trainers and buried its jagged fist into the imp’s face, reducing it to nothing more than a purple stain on the ground. It then looked around at the other surrounding Ultra Beasts, hissing at them and forcing them to back away as it swatted at them with its arms.

  “Now what is it doing?!” Cried Misty. “Is it trying to make more armor out of them too?!”

  Brock shook his head. “More likely, it’s just trying to get them to back off.” The Pewter Gym Leader’s face creased up, narrowing his eyes at the beast. “...So that it can take us on by itself.”

  Satisfied with the distance the other beasts now had between themselves and the group of trainers, it turned back toward May and Max, glaring at them. Both of the siblings looked on in fear as they imagined what this beast had planned for them. Max quickly attempted to ask Jirachi to wish it away, but the beast was too quick and delivered an armored punch straight to the wish Legend’s face, burying it in a small crater. May and Max looked on in horror, which only allowed the mosquito the chance to follow up on his assault with them.

  It raised its mighty arms, preparing to slam them down upon them when Lucario and Riley stepped in, forming an Auric barrier around the four of them and managed to stop the attack in its tracks. The Aura Guardians winced from the sheer force of the blow, gritting their teeth from the strain of keeping it in place.

  “Get out of the way!” Yelled Riley. “Lucario and I won’t be able to hold it for long!”

  May snapped herself out of her stupor. “R-right, sorry!” She grabbed Max’s hand and pulled him away from the two, then issued an order to her Blaziken. “Help them out, Blaziken!” She called to it. “Use Blaze Kick on its head!”

  Quickly nodding, May’s Blaziken leapt up and delivered a flame-encased roundhouse kick to the side of the large mosquito’s head. Unfortunately, this only managed to make the beast’s head move slightly, thanks to its new armor. It slowly turned its gaze to the Fire-Type Pokemon, who gave it a fearful chuckle. Abandoning its assault on Riley and Lucario, it whipped around, grabbed Blaziken’s legs and brought it over its head to slam it into the ground.

  “Oh no you don’t!” Declared Brock. “Sudowoodo, use Hammer Arm on that thing’s wrist!”

  The false tree Pokemon saluted to Brock, then sprinted over to the mosquito beast. Sudowoodo pumped its arm back, which began glowing red immediately after. Just before Blaziken was about to be slammed into the ground, Sudowoodo delivered a punch straight to the beast’s wrist which resulted in the formation of a crack.

  It shrieked, releasing the Fire-Type and allowing it to land safely back on its feet. As May ran to check up on her starter Pokemon, the beast looked down at its wrist, it noticed that a large crack had formed all the way from its wrist to its chest. The fortress beast itself shrieked in pain, and the brick containing its eye writhed in place.

  Enraged, the beast quickly turned towards Sudowoodo, aiming a devastating punch at its head. Brock, meanwhile, simply smirked. “Steelix, use Dig.” Before the mosquito beast’s punch could land, the floor beneath it suddenly exploded outward and Steelix barreled straight into the Mosquito beast sending it flying in the air.

  “Now, use Iron Tail!”

  At hearing this the snake Pokemon’s tail began to glow so bright to the point it was nearly blinding and proceeded to slam the beast over the head sending it sprawling back into the ground. However, the beast managed to land back onto its feet, kicking up the ground around it. Glaring up at the iron snake Pokemon, the beast lunged up at it.

  Its fists began vibrating, creating a buzzing noise somehow. They became so fast that it looked as if there were dozens of its fists. The beasts shot its arms up at Steelix, cascading it in a barrage of punches that created dents all over its body.

  Brock’s face contorted into a grimace. “No! Marshtomp, use Mud Bomb, quick!”

  In response to its trainer’s order, the mud fish Pokemon craned its head up to the mosquito, opened its large mouth and fired a ball of concentrated mud up at it in an attempt to save its teammate. However, the beast had a different idea. Grabbing hold of Steelix’s tail, it swung the large Pokemon like a bat, slamming its head straight into the mud bomb and causing it to get caught up in the ensuing explosion, all while leaving the beast itself completely unharmed.

  Brock clenched his fists angrily, glaring up at the mosquito. “This thing...it’s different from the other ones!” Above him, the beast dangled Steelix by its tail, swinging it around in one hand mockingly. It then threw Steelix up higher, catching it by the nape of its neck and bringing its arm back, aiming the Pokemon at them. “This one’s not just strong. It’s smart too.”

  Alain stepped forward and snapped his fingers. The beast was about to throw Steelix down upon the group, but the familiar form of Alain’s Mega Charizard descended down upon it, striking the mosquito in the shoulders with a powerful Dragon Claw. The attack staggered the beast, making it lose its grip on Steelix. A few of the trainers screamed as the large Pokemon nearly crashed on top of them, but Brock managed to return it to it Pokeball before that could happen.

  “You did good, Steelix,” Brock said to his starter Pokemon. He clipped it to his belt for the time being, with the rest of his Pokemon jumping in near their trainer. “You deserve a good rest for now.”

  “Indeed,” Remarked Alain, catching Brock’s attention as the black-clad trainer stepped past him with a Pokeball of his own in each hand. “Your Steelix put up a good fight, but this fight has gone on long enough.”

  Alain threw the two Pokeballs into the air, letting loose a Metagross and Bisharp, after both yelled out their respective names they took a battle stance awaiting their friends orders. “Bisharp, hop onto Metagross. Metagross, fly up behind that beast. Don’t let it see you!” Nodding, the Bisharp leapt up on top of Metagross’s metallic head, and Metagross soared up into the sky in pursuit of the beast.

  Brock looked over to him and said, “I heard you were able to defeat Ash at his strongest, so you’re incredibly powerful. What do you plan on doing?”

  Alain smirked. “I’m going to finish this in one shot.”

  Brock looked at the trainer in confusion. “And how do you plan on accomplishing that?”

  Alain smiled. “With this!” He held his arm into the air, watching his Charizard battle the beast anxiously.

  The mosquito attempted to ram its jagged fist into Charizard’s face, but Charizard evaded the attack by merely tilting its head and then retaliating with a Flamethrower to its face. In turn, the beast turned away, so the flames only hit the fortress beast’s bricks and made a blind grab for the dragon’s neck. Charizard flapped its wings, pushing itself away to avoid it.

  Growling in annoyance, the beast reached behind itself and tore off one of the bricks, causing the fortress to beep in pain. Its cry was cut off when the mosquito knocked on the eye brick with its free hand. It then hurled the brick at Charizard, who turned around and smashed it with its tail, but when it turned back around, the mosquito already had its fist inches away from the Pokemon’s face.

  It looked to the sky and used Flamethrower once more, which pushed its head down just enough for the rocky punch to only scrape by. The momentum ended up carrying the beast pass Charizard. A smirk crawled its way up the dragon’s face. It zoomed at the beast, catching the other arm and, before the beast could react, began spinning around in the air with it and hurled it toward Metagross and Bisharp.

  Alain brought his arm down. “Metagross, Psychic! Bisharp, Guillotine!”

  Metagross’s eyes glowed blue, and the beast’s unintentional flight path was cut short. Metagross had trapped the beast with Psychic, binding its limbs together tightly and holding it in place. It buzzed angrily, attempting to squirm out of the invisible hold. Bisharp, meanwhile, summoned two blades of white energy that encased its arms. They were so sharp that they cut through the air itself.

  Grinning, the sword blade Pokemon leapt off of Metagross’s head and descended upon the helpless beast. Both the mosquito and the fortress screeched in terror, but the sound was suddenly cut short as Bisharp used the powerful One-hit KO move to slice straight through the beast.

  Ash’s friends gaped up Bisharp’s feat of power. “Guillotine is an instant kill if it hits!” Remarked an awed Brock.

  “Does that mean...we won?” May asked hesitantly.

  Alain chuckled, returning Bisharp to its Pokeball to avoid the damage from its fall. “I think it’s fair to say so.”

  Above, the mosquito beast trembled. Its eyes widened, it began buzzing erratically. The fortress, however was silent. The brick that had its glowing eye was now completely dark. The trembling of the mosquito continued, becoming more and more spastic until it, as well as the fortress, appeared to explode into a cloud of grey dust and falling rubble.

  Charizard and Metagross flew back down to the ground, with the latter floating above him to shield him from the aforementioned rubble. The other Pokemon did so as well, protecting their trainers as best as they could.

  Gary, from underneath a crouching Blastoise, looked up in shock as he hastily dodged the falling rubble from the now dead fortress beast. After narrowly surviving the debris he looked back up and was quickly shocked by what he saw. The mosquito beast that should’ve been completely annihilated, had no visible sign of damage.

  “No way…”

  The beast, coated in grey dusty spots from the fortress beast’s explosion, attempted to dust itself off. Across its body, there was no apparent damage. No cut, no bruise, nothing. It hadn’t been injured or wounded at all. Its armor had been destroyed, but it was otherwise unaffected.

  Paul scoffed, crossing his arms. “It was too good to be true.”

  “Then it just needs one last swing!” Declared Alain. “Metagross, Bisharp, repeat!”

  Metagross nodded, turning toward its trainer, but once it looked back at the beast, it was suddenly smashed into the ground by a powerful punch. Before Metagross could get back up, the beast buried its hands in the ground and flipped the ground Metagross was buried in completely over and promptly buried it even further by slamming both of its hands into the ground.

  “Metagross, no!” Cried a wide-eyed Alain.

  Behind the beast, Bisharp drew closer with its Guillotine. It looked as if it was going to slice the beast clean in half when it suddenly whipped around and crumpled Bisharp’s face with a devastating blow. Before the force of the attack could send Bisharp flying, the mosquito grabbed hold of the axe-like blade on its head. The momentum, combined with the beast holding the Pokemon in place, made Bisharp’s body crumple in on itself.

  It then turned toward Gary, who was still on the ground huddled underneath Blastoise, and hurled the now-unconscious Pokemon his way. Gary’s eyes widened and he scrambled to his feet, but nothing he could do would be fast enough. Blastoise jumped in front of its trainer, and just barely managed to swallow a pained yelp as the blade on Bisharp’s head was buried in its shell.

  “Blastoise!” Cried Gary with worry. He hopped up to check on the wound. “Are you oka-” He cut himself off suddenly, gaping at what he saw. Bisharp’s battered body hung limply from Blastoise's shell by its head. As for Blastoise itself, long cracks ran up all across where it had been struck, and part of the blade had pushed completely through. Small streaks of crimson ran down that area.

  A red beam shot out at the unconscious Bisharp, returning it to its Pokeball. “Gary, are you alri-” Alain stopped in his tracks, his eyes becoming just as wide as Gary’s once he saw the full extent of what his Pokemon had done. “…Please, forgive me. I didn’t mean for-”

  Gary shook his head, chuckling dryly. “Don’t worry; it wasn’t your fault.” Taking off his bag, he shuffled through it until he pulled out a bright pink spray bottle. “Frankly, I’m just glad you didn’t try and pull it out yourself.”

  Alain’s face wrinkled in confusion. “What? What kind of idiot would do that?! That would just make it worse!”

  Gary rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment and chuckled. He didn’t dare to say anything more on the subject. Turning around, Gary hovered the spray bottle over the wounded area. “This might hurt a bit,” He warned. Blastoise nodded, closing its eyes and awaiting the pain. A single spray from the bottle was enough to make the proud Water Pokemon hiss in pain and stumble forward.

  Seeing as the trainers were now distracted, the mosquito beast looked around at them, deciding on who the best to strike would be. Then, another devious idea struck it. The beast turned to the crowd of Ultra Beasts and quickly laid its eyes upon another fortress that immediately recoiled and began beeping fearfully. The beasts around it quickly backed away, leaving it open and alone.

  The mosquito chuckled. This made it all the more easier. It bent over, putting its hand on the ground before taking off toward its new target. Screeching in terror, the fortress beast froze up and closed its eye. A powerful jet of water suddenly crashed into the mosquito beast from behind, sending it sprawling facefirst across the ground.

  Upon coming to a stop, it quickly looked up to locate its prey. The fortress beast had already disassembled itself, and had disappeared into the crowd of other beasts. Pounding its fists into the ground furiously, the mosquito whipped back around to find who had dared to interfere with its plan, and found Misty surrounded by her team of Water-Type Pokemon.

  “As if I would just let you waste Alain’s efforts!” Misty said, a confidant smirk planted firmly upon her face. “Your not going anywhere after what you did to those poor Pokemon.”

  The mosquito let out an annoyed buzz and made a mad dash towards Misty in hopes of ending her life quickly. Her Pokemon, however, had different plans. Upon getting close, the mosquito was quickly blasted in the side by another Hydro Pump by none other than Starmie. Brushing away the jet of water with its arm, the agitated beast rocketed at Starmie.

  “Stop it with Confusion!” Misty ordered.

  The starfish Pokemon hopped off of the ground, spinning like a razor in the air. Its gem began glowing, and all of a sudden, the mosquito felt incredibly dizzy. Managing to shake it off, the beast dug its hand into the ground as it flew and hurled a rain of stone at Starmie, blocking its view. Starmie, in turn, stopped the rocks with Psychic, but the mosquito burst straight through the stones and, before Starmie could react, sent the Pokemon skidding across the ground with a punch to its gem. When it came to a stop, the gem was cracked, and the light emanating from it darkened periodically like a broken lightbulb. Brushing off its hand, the beast turned back around at Misty with a fearsome glare.

  However, Misty was more preoccupied with her Pokemon. “Starmie, no!” Pulling its Pokeball, she called out, “Return! You’ve done enough for now.”

  The beast intercepted the Pokeball’s returning laser and dispelled it with a backhanded swat before lunging at Misty and her Pokemon.

  Misty growled in annoyance, putting away Starmie’s Pokeball for the time being. “This thing really is a pain! Gyarados, use Waterfall!”

  The still-Mega evolved Pokemon, at its trainer’s command, coated itself in swirling waters and rushed at the mosquito, who in turn pulled back its fist. The two collided, sending water and stone flying high into the air. They pushed against one another, with neither managing to gain the upper hand. Then again, neither was willing to give up either.

  Misty took out another Pokeball, looking down at it. “This may hurt Gyarados’s pride, but we need this thing taken down as quickly as possible.” Her reflection showed on the ball’s top, a grin crawling up her face. “But...I’ve been meaning to use my newly-caught ace anyways. Go-” The sound of another Pokeball opening from her back pocket cut her off, making her stop in her tracks. The ever-meddling Psyduck appeared in a flash of light, holding its aching head.

  “Psy?”

  Misty blinked at it in surprise, but that surprise quickly turned into fuming rage. “Ooooooooh! Psyduck, how many times do I have to tell you?!” She bellowed, nearly knocking the small Pokemon off of its feet. “You always do this! Why?! It’s dangerous out here; there’s a war going on! This isn’t the time to-”

  Her rambling was interrupted by her own scream as she ducked down just in time to avoid her Gyarados’s body flying over her head. “G-Gyarados?!” The mosquito, having finally overpowered Gyarados, now set its sights back on the annoying girl. It ripped through the air with its speeds, nearly uprooting the ground as it flew.

  Misty’s eyes went wide. She instinctively went to scream, but from her fear, no sound came out. The beast was about to grab her with its mighty fists when it noticed Psyduck, who simply stared up at it blankly. It stopped just before Misty, blinding her with a cloud of dust, and grabbed the yellow Pokemon by its head instead.

  “PSY-AI-AIIII!”

  “Waugh!” Cried Misty, shielding her eyes from the dust. Though blinded, she still heard Psyduck’s pained cries. “Stop! Leave Psyduck alone!”

  The beast, of course, didn’t listen. Holding the duck Pokemon up to its eyes, it squeezed its head harder. The pained shrieking that ensued brought a warped grin to the mosquito’s faced. It squeezed even harder, which in turn furthered the Pokemon’s agony. Psyduck furiously flailed its small body in a vain attempt to free itself from the Ultra Beast’s grasp. Deciding to end this, the beast, made a move to crush the Pokemon’s skull completely.

  “PSYYYYYY!”

  Psyduck’s eyes widened, completely overshadowed by a brilliant blue glow. The beast was suddenly blown backwards by a powerful Psychic pulse from Psyduck. It screeched, utterly baffled by what happened, but was silenced when it crashed into the ground once more. Psyduck, meanwhile, was dropped back to the ground once its headache had worn off. Misty dove to the ground to catch it.

  “...I take it back,” She said, returning Psyduck to its Pokeball. “You’re pretty cool.” Upon pocketing the Pokeball, she took out Gyarados’s and Starmies and promptly returned them as well before glaring at the motionless body of the beast.

  “Is it over?” Asked Alain tentatively.

  His question was answered when the beast lazily flipped itself onto its stomach, pushing itself back off the ground. The blood in its body swirled from its rage, making its body pulsate and become a deep crimson red. Raising its fists into the air, it let out a mad scream, unable to contain its fury any longer. Turning back down to the trainers, it crouched over and prepared to strike. In turn, Ash’s friends gathered their remaining Pokemon together.

  An Ursaring appeared behind the beast and before the mosquito beast could react, hit it violently over the head with a Hammer Arm sending it sprawling into the floor. Enraged, the mosquito attempted to lift itself up, but was suddenly stomped further into the floor by Gary’s furious Blastoise who was not so quick to forget the pain that was inflicted upon its shell.

  The mosquito beast shrieked in pain as it was subjected to the torment it put all its victims through. As Blastoise continued to crush the insect he couldn’t help but grin in satisfaction at getting its revenge. He then raised his foot preparing to finish off the creature when suddenly in the blink of an eye the mosquito shot a fist straight into Blastoise’s jaw making a cracking sound instantly rendering him unconscious.

  Without thinking twice about the danger he was putting himself in, Gary rushed up to Blastoise and crouched down next to it. “You did a good job,” He said, returning it to its Pokeball, “Now, you should take a long rest.”

  The second he looked back up, the mosquito already had its fist pumped back and ready to strike. Gary reeled backwards, his eyes widening. He would have likely been killed on the spot, but another trainer’s order saved his life.

  “Everyone, take it out, now!”

  The Ursaring from before leapt up behind the mosquito beast, both of its arms coated in the light of Hammer Arm once more. The beast whipped around to smash its head in when an Aggron stepped in and used Flash Cannon, forcing it to shield itself with its arms instead. Hearing a slight buzzing noise besides its own, it looked to the side. It saw a Ninjask rocketing toward its face and, before the beast could blink, the Bug Pokemon used its claws to slice at the beast’s eyes.

  Gripping at its face in agony, the mosquito reeled its head back and let out a shrill screech that was promptly cut short by Ursaring landing the Hammer Arm to the back of its head and knocking it flat on its face. Before it could get up, a Torterra stomped down on its back. It quickly became surrounded by a Drapion, Electivire, and the other Pokemon that had attacked it. Ruthlessly, they beat every inch of the beast’s body.

  The trainers and their own Pokemon, meanwhile, watched with faces wrinkled in some sort of emotion they themselves didn’t truly know how to describe. Even though it was their enemy, they couldn’t help but feel almost...bad for it. Only when it stopped moving entirely were the six Pokemon brutalizing the beast returned to their Pokeballs.

  “That’s enough,” Paul said simply.

  With the Pokemon now gone, the trainers were given a gruesome sight of the beast. Within seconds, Paul’s team of Pokemon had reduced it to a broken mess on the ground. Its arms were crumpled at multiple impossible angles, and its chest now dented inward. Many holes were torn all over its body, allowing the bubbling blood that normally flowed through its body to leak outward onto the ground in a steaming pool. The beast’s remains occasionally twitched, but it was certainly dead.

  Alain was the first to break the awkward silence that ensued with a whistle. “Well...I suppose that’s one way to beat it…”

  Paul raised an eyebrow at him. “Are you complaining?”

  Alain shook his head. “No it’s just that I don’t want us to stoop to their level. We can't lose who we are or else we may become monsters just like them.” All he could think as he said this was Lysander’s wild eyes as he nearly ended the world on a broken dream.

  Paul gave him an annoyed look. “This is war, there is no morals we do what we have to do to survive and win. Those who think otherwise...perish.”

  As the two bickered, a paper beast managed to slip by Brock’s Crobat and infiltrate the group, zooming toward Clemont with its sharp arms. Clemont looked up in horror, unable to react in time. May, however, wasn’t about to let this slide.

  “Blaziken, use Flameth-”

  “Blaziken, Blaze Kick!”

  May stopped herself, surprised by the command. She, along with her equally-confused Blaziken, turned around to the source of the voice only for the former to nearly be swept off of her feet as Blaziken Mask’s Mega Blaziken rushed by and sent the paper beast flying with a brutal Blaze Kick. Blaziken mask himself soon made his way over to Clemont and asked, “You alright, kiddo?”

  Clemont let out a relieved sigh. “Yeah, thanks to you, dad.”

  Blaziken Mask’s face scrunched up uncomfortably, and he looked around at the surrounding trainers for fear of his identity slipping loose. In the end, he simply sighed, conceding that it didn’t matter at a time like this. Smiling, he leaned down and ruffled up his son’s hair. “Anytime, kid.”

  Their little bonding moment was cut short by an impossibly loud screech. Everyone, man beast and Pokemon alike, tried in vain to protect themselves from it. The roar shook them to their cores. Every single one of their senses was assaulted by the sound, forcing them to their knees. Whether or not the trainers themselves screamed, they didn’t even know. If they had, it was drowned out by the roar.

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  Every minute that passed felt like an hour to them, but eventually, it subsided at last, and everyone collapsed to their knees.When everyone turned to the source they found that the massive ultra beast had turned its sights on the group of trainers with a look of hunger in its eyes.

  Without delay, Guzzlord turned its massive body toward the trainers in hopes of finally getting a taste of a new meal instead of the same old Ultra Beasts that was fed to it for thousands of years. A large black tongue decorated with jagged spikes exited its mouth, licking the edges of its lips hungrily. The fanged tendrils coming from its mouth lunged out at everything in sight as it slowly walked toward the battlefield.

  It scooped up beasts, trainers, Pokemon, even the ground itself up into the mouths of its tendrils before lazily flinging whatever it had taken into its main mouth. Thousands of screams rang out from the lives it was mindlessly ending in its eternal hunger as they rained into its mouth. At the hands of Guzzlord, there were no sides. There was no battle. Their screams were indistinguishable from one another.

  Ash’s friends gaped up at the beast in horror. They couldn’t even bring themselves to move, and the same could be said about the other trainers as well. They were all paralyzed with terror. The silence was eventually broken by Gary, who rubbed the back of his head and attempted to hide his fear from even himself by chuckling. “Man...we’re screwed…”

  Paul was the first to truly recover, pushing himself back onto his feet alongside the rest of his Pokemon. He looked behind him, glaring in annoyance at the surrounding pillars of black flame. “Well, we obviously can’t escape, so I suppose our only real option is to fight.”

  Misty guffawed, her eyes somehow widening even further in disbelief at what Paul had just said. “WHAT?!” Paul winced at the volume of her voice. “You want us to fight that thing?!”

  Standing back up as well, Brock winced at the colossal beast. “Where would we even strike?”

  Max’s head perked up as an idea struck him. “Maybe we don’t need to fight it at all!” Turning down to Jirachi, who had recovered from the nasty punch delivered earlier by the Mosquito beast, he asked, “Could I wish that thing away?”

  “Um-”

  Before the small Legend could answer, May jumped back to her feet, her eyes sparkling. “That’s right! In fact, we could probably just wish that Necrozma was defeated too!”

  Jirachi shifted uncomfortably, its eyes darting back and forth. “Uhh…”

  Paul grimaced. “By the look on its face, I’d say that’s a no.”

  The wish-granting Pokemon hesitantly nodded, affirming Paul’s words and making everyone else’s faces fall. “Y-yes...I’m sorry, but there are some wishes beyond my power.”

  Bonnie waved it off. “That’s fine! Maybe we can just wish Guzzlord and Necrozma away somewhere, right?”

  Jirachi shook its head. “I’m sorry, but that’s a no as well.”

  “What?!” Cried the young girl. “Why not?!”

  Jirachi’s gaze continuously shifted under the pressure of the trainers’ expectant gazes. “W-well...you see, my power of wishes is reliant on my own power, and if my wishes interfere with someone that has greater power than I do, then...they can resist my wish.” It looked up at the immense beast, adding, “What’s more, this particular beast appears to have many similarities to a Dark-Type Pokemon, and since my wishes are based on my Psychic-Type attributes…”

  Paul groaned. “Then your wishes wouldn’t have affected it either way.”

  The Wish Pokemon nodded, floating up above the group. “That’s true, but my Doom Desire attack is Steel Type. I’m sorry, but I won’t be of any more help than that.”

  “That’s fine,” Chirped Misty. “We have the power of teamwork on our side, with all of us working against that thing it won’t stand a chance!”

  Suddenly, a random trainer spoke up. “But you heard Necrozma! That thing has eaten entire species’ down to their last speck! If Guzzlord is that strong what chance do we have!?”

  “Because we’re united and we have each other!” Misty yelled proudly. “Remember it’s not just us! We have the power of Pokemon and the Legends on our side, with all of us working together, we’re capable of anything!”

  All the trainers and Pokemon looked on with awe at Misty’s rallying speech and now had a new look of determination in their eyes.

  “I’m not gonna die today!”

  “We’ll all get through this!”

  “That creature doesn’t stand a chance!”

  “If I perish, I’m not going down any other way than fighting!”

  All the trainers then thrust their arms towards the quickly approaching Guzzlord, pointing its way and ordered their thousands of various Pokemon to attack. Attacks of all elements shot out from the thousands of various Pokemon like a tidal wave that covered most of the battlefield. They raced forward, striking against the colossal beast like hail, but it didn’t appear to be perturbed in the slightest. In fact, it didn’t seem to notice their attacks at all.

  One after another, the thousands of would-be powerful attacks from the united trainers bounced off of Guzzlord’s skin as if they were nothing. Its left tendril arched upward, pointing its mouth down at the trainers below before plunging into them not far away from Ash’s friends.

  May looked on in horror. “It doesn’t even notice our attacks! How are we even supposed to scratch that thing?!”

  Her question was answered when Guzzlord was suddenly hit straight in the eye by a Luster Purge. The massive ultra beast tilted its head back in pain and let out a loud pained screech that forced the trainers and Pokemon to cover their ears. Guzzlord furiously turned its head towards the perpetrator and found none other than Tobias’s Latios who was giving the beast a savage glare.

  “Leave those people alone!” Latios roared.

  Guzzlord shot out one of its huge clawed tentacles, and before Latios could react, it clamped down and trapped the Legend within its grasp. Latios attempted to struggle out of its grip, but quickly discovered it was futile. A grin slowly crept up Guzzlord’s face as its prey desperately tried to escape. It slowly brought its tentacle over its mouth and Latios could do nothing but look on in rising terror.

  “Release me this instant, you vile beast!”

  But Latios’s demands fell on deaf ears as Guzzlord slowly lowered its tentacle towards its massive mouth.

  A red streak zoomed over the trainers’ heads, rocketing at breakneck speeds toward Guzzlord’s eye. It was none other than Latias, who wasn’t about to let her brother die twice. “LET HIM GO, YOU MONSTER!” Opening her mouth, she unleashed a powerful Hyper Beam that crashed into the massive beast’s already-stricken eye, making it let out another pained shriek. Unwittingly, Guzzlord opened the mouth on its tendril, allowing Latios to fly away just in time.

  Latios immediately went onto the attack once more, materializing another Luster Purge until he spotted Latias. ‘I see,’ He thought, ‘They must have rescued me...now that I think about it, they look similar to me.’

  Flying up to meet her, he said, “Thank you very much for the save. If you hadn’t done something, I would have been killed for sure.” Latios bowed. “My name is Latios. I don't believe we’ve met before. Might I ask who you are?”

  Latias reeled back in shock, but then quickly remembered that this wasn’t the same Latios that she had grown up with. “W-well my name is Latias.”

  Latios looked at her in confusion. “Latias? That sounds very similar to my name. We wouldn’t happen to be related would we?”

  Latias’s face lit up. Finally, she had her chance. “Well, you see-”

  “Hey, Latios!”

  The two turned down and found Cresselia floating just a little ways beneath them, and Tobias atop her back. The black-haired trainer pointed beneath him to the ground, where the rest of his team were waiting on the ground. “Thank Arceus you’re all right! When I saw that thing grab you, I assumed the worst.” He smiled up to Latias, an action she didn’t really know how to react to. “I saw you save him, and for that, you have my thanks.”

  Without waiting for Latias’s response, he turned back up to Latios once more and grinned. “Now, I’ll need your speed for my plan to work.”

  Latios bowed his head to Latias. “I apologize,” He said, “But my trainer requires my presence. If you’ll excuse me…”

  With that, he flew back down to Tobias, who hopped onto his back. Latias’s eyes widened, and she instinctively reached out to her brother. “Wha- hey!” But in a flash, Latios and Tobias zoomed back down to the ground, leaving her alone once more.

  Guzzlord, after having recovered from the strikes upon his eye, turned its furious gaze towards the quickly approaching team of Legends and shot out its two tentacles in hopes to subsequently trap and consume them.

  They all quickly noticed the approaching tentacles and made moves to evade. Tobias then commanded his Pokemon to attack. “Latios, hit it with another Luster Purge; aim for the eye once more!” Latios nodded in affirmation and unleashed the attack only to have it get swiped away by Guzzlord. The ultra beast retaliated with a Brutal Swing that threatened to completely annihilate Latios..

  “Latios, no! Darkrai help Latios by delivering a Focus Punch straight to its tendrils!” Darkrai charged up the attack and delivered the powerful punch into Guzzlord’s right tendril. Though it did no apparent damage, it did manage to stop the blow in its tracks.

  ”Great work Darkrai,” Commended Tobias, “Now, Volcanion, hit that beast with a Steam Eruption!” Two cannons emerged from the ring on the legends back and proceeded to fire burning water straight into Guzzlord’s face making it cry out in pain. “Perfect! Everything is going exactly as planned! Now, Meloetta, hit it with a-“ Tobias was suddenly cut off when the Ultra Beast turned its sights on him and Cresselia and shot a massive glob of flame their way from the mouth of one of its tendrils.

  “Cresselia, watch out!” Before the Legend could react both her and Tobias were shot out of the sky and quickly began plummeting to the ground. It seemed all was lost until Latios was quickly able to catch the trainer in his hands and Cresselia on his back. Seeing that they were both safe, Latios then looked down in concern to see if Tobias was okay, the trainer smiled at him in response and patted his head. “Thanks buddy, I don’t want to imagine what would happen if you weren’t here.”

  He returned Cresselia to her Pokeball for the time being, glaring up at the colossus. “Still, though…this thing is insane. I suppose Necrozma doesn’t call it the planet eater for nothing.”

  The colossal beast stepped backwards and turned away from Tobias. It snatched at the air with its large tendrils and started grabbing any ultra beast it set its sights upon. The ones that were grabbed could only scream in horror as they were drawn into Guzzlord’s colossal mouth used as nothing more than energy for the massive creature.

  The beasts surrounding Ash’s friends slowly backed away before flying elsewhere, all the while trying to avoid Necrozma’s ever-watchful eye. The ebony wall of flames surrounding the battlefield forced them to stop in their tracks, though with all of the beasts stopping at once, they crashed into one another. The ones closest to the flames were suddenly pushed into them and subsequently reduced to ashes before they could even scream.

  The beasts did not know what to do. If they stayed and fight they would eventually be eaten alive, but if they turn and ran they would be hunted down by Necrozma for desertion or incinerated by the colossal circle of flame. So, they did the only thing they could think of. Faced with complete annihilation of either the inhabitants of this world, their leader or his pet, they turned back around and faced Guzzlord.

  One after another, they charged, bellowing to the skies. The skies were once again blotted out by their sheer numbers, and the trainers instinctively prepared to battle. However, the beasts flew past them, not even bothering to look their way.

  “What?” Asked a trainer. “Where are they going?”

  Their question was answered when they piled onto the beast, clinging onto every inch of it and viciously attacking it. Unfortunately for them, none of their attacks seemed to do any significant damage. Guzzlord simply reached up and grabbed its equivalent of a handful before lazily tossing them into its massive throat.

  Ash’s friends and the trainers looked on in disbelief. “No way,” Uttered Clemont, “The beasts are attacking it?!”

  Misty clapped her hands together. “This is perfect! Now, we can take it down!”

  Paul eyed her judgingly, sneering. “And just what do you plan to do?”

  The orange-haired girl gave him an odd look. “What do you mean? Attack it, of course!”

  “Why waste your breath?” Scoffed Paul. “If they’re attacking it for us, then we should sit back and allow our Pokemon to regain their stamina before attacking.”

  Brock shook his head, chuckling. “I never thought I’d hear the day when you of all people would say something like that.”

  Paul merely turned away from him, looking on at the colossal beast. “Are you complaining?”

  Alain, after already having dug up his Metagross and returning it, leapt onto his Charizard’s back. “On the contrary, now is the perfect time to strike.”

  When the purple-haired trainer gave him an odd look, he reiterated, pointing at the colossal beast. “Right now, those things at least pose an annoyance to the big one. Better yet, they’re a distraction.”

  Bonnie snapped her fingers as she caught on. “While the big guy is eating them, we can attack it without worrying about getting attacked back!”

  “I have to agree,” Added Riley. “As it looks right now, that ‘Guzzlord’ creature will probably just end up eating most of the other beasts anyway so why not take advantage of it while it’s distracted?”

  Blaziken Mask chuckled. “I can see no better option,” He said, grinning up at the beast, “And there’s no time like the present!”

  “Of course,” Said Riley, looking around at the other trainers, “We’ll need everyone in on this.” The Aura Guardian crouched down, placing a hand to the ground to allow his Aura to flow freely across the battlefield. Once he had covered it completely, he relayed a message to the trainers.

  “Now is the time.” He felt many of them jump at the sudden sound of his voice. “Like it or not, the Ultra Beasts appear to be our allies against Guzzlord for the time being. We must use this chance to strike, for it could be either the greatest one, or our only. Once more, we need to fight!”

  The sudden roar from the trainers and their Pokemon shook him from his focus, and he stood back to his full height. Chuckling, he remarked, “Well, that appears to have worked.”

  Paul let out an exasperated sigh and shrugged. “You lot are hopeless, you know that?” Misty opened her mouth to retaliate with what would have been a snide remark, but Paul held up his hand to stop her. “But...If we’re doing this your way, then me sitting on the sidelines will only weaken us as a whole. Let’s take it down.”

  Necrozma grabbed Uxie and Azelf by their tails and smashed them together, then promptly sent them careening elsewhere with a bright red blast. He was about to give chase to splatter their remains when he noticed that he had received a call from Xurkitree, sighed in annoyance, and tapped his crystal.

  “What is it now, Xurkitree?” He demanded. “What could possibly be so utterly important that you need to interrupt me for a- what is this, the third or fourth time?”

  Xurkitree was hesitant to answer, as he knew what he was about to say would only serve to drive his master into even further rage. Frankly, he believed his own life was in danger at this point, but continued, knowing that being silent after bothering Necrozma with a call would lead to an assured end.

  “L-Lord Necrozma,” He stuttered, shakily bowing, “I’m sorry to have to report this to you, but…it appears that the Ultra Beasts have…” He cut himself off momentarily, shuddering. “W-well, in s-spite of your warning, they s-seem to have...defected…”

  Necrozma’s eyes widened, and Xurkitree bowed even further to try and make himself appear as small as possible. The beast expected his lord to fly into a fit of rage and either go into a raving monologue, or simply destroy him or the Ultra Beasts in an instant. Part of him believed that Necrozma would just up and end the world on the spot, destroying the ship, Xurkitree, the beasts, obviously the planet’s dwellers and even Guzzlord in the process. To his shock, he heard only a chuckle from his lord.

  “I see. That is quite interesting indeed.”

  Xurkitree managed to summon the courage to look up at Necrozma, seeing that his lord was now staring down somewhere. Likely at the beasts. Hesitantly, he asked, “...Milord?”

  “When did the beasts gain such spine?”

  Xurkitree shuffled uncomfortably. “Erm...I don’t...understand the question, sire.”

  It almost looked as if Necrozma was smiling to Xurkitree, though by the look in the dark lord’s eyes, the beast knew it couldn’t have been good. The glint in the demon’s crimson eyes betrayed an idea, and one that could only lead to more suffering knowing him.

  “I’m surprised, is all,” Necrozma admitted, shifting his gaze to look at the black flames encircling the battlefield. “I warned them twice before, and even demonstrated my power by trapping them with those flames, and yet…” He looked back to where the beasts piled on top of Guzzlord, bringing a prismatic hand to his face in thought. “Still, they betrayed me. Why do you think that is, Xurkitree?”

  Xurkitree carefully mulled over his next choice of words. “Well...perhaps they simply went mad from fear, being driven into a corner like that. They’re like animals, lashing out at everything from their terror.”

  “Went mad?” Repeated Necrozma with a laugh. “Is that the best lie you can come up with?”

  The beast flinched at that. “M-milord? Whatever do you mean?”

  “You know full well what I mean,” Replied the demon. “I have known you for millions of years, to the point that I no longer need to even read your mind to tell exactly what you’re thinking. I know what you really think whenever you hastily try and come up with an answer to my questions you believe will appease me.”

  The light emanating from Necrozma’s crimson eyes intensified, though his demeanor appeared to be calm. Despite this supposed calmness, the demon spoke with a certain piercing venom in his voice. “What will appease me is the truth. Speak your mind, Xurkitree.”

  Xurkitree hesitated for a few seconds, pondering what he should say next. He then let out a long-winded sigh, turned up at Necrozma and replied with a bravado he’d been lacking for millions of years. “If reading me is that easy for you, then you already know the answer.”

  “...I suppose so.” Xurkitree could have sworn the invisible grin on Necrozma’s face had increased in size, and the demon turned away from him. As he looked back down upon the beasts, he said, “I will spare them for now, then. Their act of rebellion will serve as nothing more than further entertainment for me.” He let out a chuckle. “It’s ironic, is it not? They fight against me out of spite, yet in doing so, they serve my wishes.”

  “...It is, Necrozma. Very ironic indeed.”

  It took mere minutes for everyone to seemingly forget about the death of Ash Ketchum. The ones who could only call themselves strangers to him, yet looked up to him as their chosen one. His traveling companions, who had ventured with him across entire regions through thick and thin, and whom had their lives saved by him on many occasions. Even most of the members of Ash’s teams only seemed to care for a short while, and though the fact that the Ultra Beasts had attacked shortly thereafter was a forgivable excuse for them to focus on other things...it was still unnerving. It seemed like there was only one who was still remotely disturbed by his demise, that being Pikachu, who still stood over the motionless body of Greninja.

  Pikachu looked on, with tears still in his eyes, as all the trainers and their Pokemon started to attack the giant Ultra Beast with everything they had. He had noticed that no one had showed much reaction to the death of his trainer and that made him confused and more so furious. How could all these trainers and Pokemon that had known Ash one way or another completely ignore the fact that he was dead? It felt like a betrayal for them to not even acknowledge what had happened.

  Pikachu continued to look at the rubble where Ash had been killed. How? How could his best friend who had survived nearly drowning, almost suffocating, and being turned into energy for a massive tree be killed with the flick of a finger. He couldn’t believe it. He refused to. But denial of reality proved difficult for the yellow rodent. Over and over, he witnessed the scene of his closest friend’s demise in his head. Greninja’s reaction only proved it further.

  Like clockwork, two puddles beneath the small Pokemon gradually became bigger as Pikachu looked down at the ground. “Pika…”

  His thoughts were interrupted when he saw a certain individual going through the rubble where Ash had disappeared. Anger soon began to swell within him as he realized who it was. Noivern with tears in its eyes, was desperately looking through the rubble for any sign of the man who had raised him from birth when he heard the sound of someone approaching. He turned around and found none other than Pikachu. A relieved smile quickly came to Noivern’s face and he couldn’t help but to dash right up to his friend and envelope him in a deep hug.

  Unexpectedly Pikachu savagely shoved the bat Pokemon away which caused it to yelp in surprise. A now-enraged Pikachu gave the wyvern a death glare that made its blood run cold. How could its friend push him away like this? Then it saw the tears in Pikachu’s eyes, and fully understood the hatred in his expression. Its wings sagged, and looked down at the ground.

  “Pika-Pika Piiiii ka Pika! Chuuu!”

  Pikachu demanded to know why Noivern had dared to act sad now of all times, especially after the way the wyvern had acted to Ash before his death. Noivern recalled growling at Ash when he extended his hand toward it. Lost in its rage over Hawlucha, it had thought of nothing more than vengeance.

  It had obsessed over the matter, to the point it had no longer cared about anything other than tearing apart the Ultra Beasts for even being affiliated with Hawlucha’s killer. Before Noivern knew it, two more friends were gone, and to one, it had given undeserved spite when he only tried to help. It might even be three with how Greninja looked.

  Pikachu sparked his cheeks, threatening to electrocute Noivern. The wyvern Pokemon didn’t move, merely bowing its head and nodding in acceptance. The fury Pikachu felt toward it was well-deserved. The rage and hatred it could practically feel radiating from the mouse Pokemon nearly overshadowed the hatred Noivern felt for itself.

  Pikachu’s glaring at Noivern narrowed until, suddenly, he closed his eyes and turned away from it to overlook Greninja once more. It knew better than to attack a...friend, though in his rage, he couldn’t quite tell if it was right to call Noivern that anymore. Attacking Noivern would only lead Pikachu down the same path Noivern took, and Pikachu knew it. So, he let it go, and ignored the wyvern.

  For minutes on end, neither Pikachu nor Noivern dared to move. Pikachu, for fear that his rage would drive him to do something he would surely regret, and Noivern for many reasons. The two heard the movement of a pebble suddenly, making their heads perk up. It happened again, and now that they heard it a second time, they realized it had come from directly in front of Pikachu.

  Beneath the yellow rodent, Greninja’s limp body twitched. “Piiika!” Gasped Pikachu. Noivern couldn’t help but lean his head to the side in order to get a better view. Though Greninja’s eyes did not open, his body continuously twitched at different intervals. Eventually, Pikachu sent a small shock his way, which made Greninja leap onto his feet with wide eyes, gasping for air.

  Pikachu quickly enveloped the frog Pokemon in a hug and Noivern couldn’t help but frown slightly. Ignoring the wyvern, Pikachu asked the frog Pokemon if he was alright and if he had been hurt. Greninja stood still in his own thoughts before turning to the yellow rodent to reply. Greninja explained that he wasn’t completely sure what had happened and that when Ash...disappeared, the bond was severed.

  Yet, he was still alive, and that could only mean one thing. Pikachu and Noivern’s faces lit up once they realized it. If Greninja still lived, then that must mean that, somewhere, Ash did as well. Greninja looked down at his hands unsure. He attempted to transform into his bonded state, surrounding himself with swirling water, but he collapsed to his knees shortly thereafter, with the water splashing down uselessly.

  The ninja Pokemon balled his hands into fists in frustration, but Pikachu wasn’t eager to give up this sliver of hope just yet. It was the only one they had, after all. He pat Greninja on the back, telling him not to worry about it. Him simply being alive was good enough for now. He suggested that he couldn’t access the bonded state because Ash was too far away.

  Upon hearing this, Noivern perked up. So does that mean there’s a chance his best friend was still alive? Is it possible that Ash was just teleported away? He had to believe it. He needed to tell Ash how sorry he was for everything he’d done. He’d be damned if his last memory of Ash was of hissing at his friend in rage.

  Pikachu was about to reply when a deafening roar from Guzzlord made the three of them double over. Upon looking over at the beast, they saw that the rest of their fellow mons had engaged the massive Ultra Beast. To their shock, from what it looked like, the other Ultra Beasts were attacking it as well. Their faces wrinkled in confusion, Noivern decided to get to the bottom of this. It lowered its wings and offered to give the two of them a ride.

  Greninja eagerly hopped aboard, though Pikachu was hesitant to say the least. Noivern gave it a pleading look, to which Pikachu looked away for a moment, growling to itself before eventually hopping aboard as well. Thus, Noivern took to the skies and raced toward Guzzlord. The search for Ash would have to wait for the time being, though they were confident he was still alive. That confidence would have to keep them satisfied for now.

  “Charizard, use Dragon Claw!”

  Upon Alain’s command the dragon Pokemon’s three claws began to glow with a violent green energy, and it dove down, dragging its empowered claws across one of Guzzlord’s enormous tendrils before flying high to look down upon the damage it had done. Alain scowled when he saw no apparent damage.

  “That one didn’t work huh?” Alain turned his gaze away from the tendril and up toward the eyes. Unfortunately for him, they were already swarmed by other beasts, and even though they were technically allies at the moment, getting caught in the middle of them would certainly end up ugly. Thus, he looked around at other parts of the body for potential weaknesses.

  Going near the mouth was out of the question, obviously. If they went anywhere near it they would most likely be sucked in and swallowed with no hope for escape. Along its back were a series of spikes, but they didn’t appear to have anything that could be used as a weakness. Its entire skin looked to be armored—like this beast was made to be completely invincible.

  Alain had his thoughts interrupted when Guzzlord’s tendril suddenly turned around and shot a purple glob of what looked like sludge straight at the dragon. Alain’s eyes shot open, and he hastily yelled, “CHARIZARD, DODGE!” His Charizard was barely able to evade it in time by mere inches. When he looked back to where Charizard once stood he noticed that the ground had become a massive, hissing sludge pool. Alain tried not to imagine what would’ve happened had that hit him.

  Meanwhile on the ground, Gary, alongside many of the other trainers, were launching attacks at the beast’s legs to try and topple it. “Electivire, use Thunder! Dodrio, Tri-Attack! Arcanine, Flame Blast! Nidoking and Scizor, Hyper Beam!”

  In response to their trainer’s order, Gary’s Pokemon unleashed their attacks alongside Misty, Brock, Clemont, Blaziken Mask and the hundreds of Pokemon from the other trainers, which crashed into the colossal beast’s leg with a thunderous explosion. The trainers covered their eyes due to the resulting cloud of smoke that came after it.

  “Did we get it?!” Gary asked loudly, trying to raise his voice over the volume of the detonation. He got his answer when some of the accompanying Flying wild Pokemon blew away the smoke with Defog. Not only was there no mark whatsoever, but Guzzlord appeared to have not even noticed the attack.

  Gary sighed. “Seriously?” He looked down at Blastoise’s Pokeball, regretting being unable to use it any longer, but he would have to be either insane or heartless to allow it to battle with those wounds.

  “This thing is quite sturdy,” Remarked Blaziken Mask. “My Mega Blaziken’s Blast Burn had no effect.”

  Misty was quick on the uptake. “We can’t give up that easily!” She chirped. “We probably just need to give it a few more tries!”

  Chuckling, Gary retorted with, “Who said anything about giving up?” Readying themselves into position once more, the trainers prepared to attack. Their Pokemon charged up a colorful array of attacks, holding them until their trainers commanded otherwise. Gary held out his arm at the large beast and cried, “Once more, attack!”

  Not too far away from Gary and the others, the six Champions watched with amusement. They had sent most of their Pokemon off to aid the trainers however they could, leaving them with only their aces at their sides.

  “They’re trying quite hard, aren’t they?” Remarked Cynthia, her Garchomp at her side..

  “You got that right!” Barked Alder alongside his Volcarona. “ If only my old friend could see us now. All of us working together, he would be proud.”

  “I believe it’s time we joined the fray,” Suggested Diantha, her Mega Gardevoir awaiting orders.

  Atop his mighty Dragonite, Lance nodded. “I agree. We’ve left it up to the ordinary trainers for far too long.”

  Wallace’s Milotic encircled the secondary Hoenn Champion protectively. “It wouldn’t do for us Champions to idly sit on the sidelines.”

  Steven Stone stood on his Mega Metagross’s flat metal head, jotting something in a journal before closing it and putting it into his coat. “I believe you all are correct. Let us topple this mighty beast and swiftly move on to Necrozma himself.”

  United, the greatest trainers of the world faced off against the greatest of all Ultra Beasts. Atop their Pokemon, they faced Guzzlord, the Planet eater, racing up to meet it. It appeared to not even notice their presence amidst the masses of smaller beasts it was feasting on. Its bright blue eyes scanned the skies hungrily, thoughtlessly consuming all in its sight.

  “Let’s teach it a lesson!” Roared Alder. “Volcarona, use-”

  “Hold it-” Interjected Cynthia suddenly, pointing down at Guzzlord. “There are Ultra Beasts all over it. If we attack thoughtlessly, we’ll only end up hitting them and likely return them as enemies.”

  To Cynthia’s confusion, Alder laughed at that. “You don’t give me enough credit,” Retorted the old Champion. To match Cynthia, he pointed down at Guzzlord as well, only he was pointing slightly higher. Cynthia narrowed her eyes, trying to find what he was talking about. Whatever it was, it was mostly obscured by the swarming Ultra Beasts. Cynthia could scarcely get a glance at it with the occasional gap between them, but then, suddenly, she was able to see it for a split second.

  “Is that...a crown?”

  Alder grinned brightly. “Not only that, but it has a secondary set of eyes!”

  “I saw it as well,” Added Diantha with a nod. “The crown appeared to turn, signifying that it uses it as a another use of sight.”

  Cynthia quickly caught their meaning. “If we destroy it, then we can potentially injure or even cripple the beast!”

  “So we have our objective?” Inquired Lance. “If so, then let us not waste any more time than necessary. Let us not forget that once Guzzlord runs out of Ultra Beasts to eat, the trainers and Pokemon will be next.”

  Wallace placed a hand to his chin, narrowing his eyes at the cloud of smaller Ultra Beasts. “How will we get past that swarm, then? If we try to force our way through, I doubt that they will hesitate to mark us as enemies once more.”

  “Then let’s make them our allies instead,” Suggested Steven. There was a glint in his eye representative of an idea. “I’ve been watching them for a while and, judging by Necrozma’s words, it seems to me that they’re being forced to fight.”

  “Oh?” Inquired Diantha with interest. “Yes, I suppose you might be right. If we can establish some kind of trust with them, or a gesture of good faith, then we might be able to establish them as allies even after Guzzlord is defeated.”

  The Hoenn Champion nodded her way with a smile. “That’s exactly what I thought as well. You know that old saying keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Well, I say that would apply very greatly in a situation like this.”

  “Not to rush you or anything,” Lance Interjected, “But if befriending those things is our new objective, then, well…” He motioned below them, and upon the Champions looking down to see what he was pointing at, they bore witness to Guzzlord snapping up another round of Ultra Beasts before bringing the tendril to its mouth and throwing them in. “...We should probably start off by preventing that.”

  “Agreed,” Replied Steven, turning his gaze back upon Diantha. “I believe your Gardevoir and my Metagross would be best suited for this.”

  Diantha nodded. “Though our Psychic-Type attacks don’t affect Guzzlord, they do affect the other beasts, as far as we know anyways. Thus, we can prevent that titan from consuming them altogether.”

  “Precisely,” Commended Steven. “Should we rescue them, then that show of good faith might let us act without their interference.”

  Lance crossed his arms, smirking down at the swarm. “In other words, we help them and they stay out of our way?”

  “Well, that’s a crude way of putting it,” Replied Cynthia, resisting the urge to plant her hand on her face, “But essentially, yes.”

  “Well alright then let’s not delay further.”

  Steven nodded hastily. “Right you are. If you would, Diantha?”

  Returning the nod, Diantha flicked her gaze Gardevoir’s way, which was the only signal she needed. Gardevoir, along with Metagross extended their Psychic reach down to the beasts below. A group of Ultra Beasts screeched in panic, hurriedly flying away as fast as they could as the massive maw of Guzzlord’s tendril closed in on them. It quickly became apparent that they weren’t going to make it.

  The beasts shut their eyes and let out one last terrified shriek as the tendril’s mouth surrounded them and went to shut itself tightly. However, a blue glow suddenly surrounded the beasts, and they were yanked out through the gaps in the tendril’s teeth before being whisked away to the Champions’ location. Unknowing of this, Guzzlord retracted his tendril and opened it inside of its mouth. When it realized nothing had actually dropped into it mouth, it looked at the interior of the tendril questioningly, shaking it as if it would drop anything. When nothing happened, Guzzlord dismissed it and went back to reaching for more.

  The rescued beasts flailed against the Psychic hold fearfully. The terror of nearly being eaten by Guzzlord still plagued them, driving them to furiously thrash at everything in sight. They shrieked and screamed, until one by one they noticed the trainers and Pokemon before them, and glowered at them darkly.

  “Are you sure it’s wise to free them?” Questioned Lance apprehensively. “Don’t forget that, until only about half an hour ago, we were mercilessly slaughtering one another. Judging by the looks on their faces, I don’t think they’ve forgotten either.”

  Alder simply crossed his arms, laughing heartily. “Well, change will never occur if we’re not going to show them trust. Breaking down walls and building bridges, or something like that.”

  “You read that in a fantasy novel, didn’t you?” Teased Cynthia with a smirk.

  Once again, the redheaded Champion laughed. “Guilty as charged! Though, it’s not exactly wrong, is it?”

  Cynthia shrugged, turning away from him. “I suppose not.”

  Steven snapped his fingers, and Metagross released its Psychic hold on the Beasts. Looking at Diantha, he said. “Let’s not keep them waiting any further. If we hold them any longer, the last thing they’ll want is peace.”

  Diantha nodded wordlessly, merely flicking her gaze Gardevoir’s way. The pink glow surrounding the beasts, now that Gardevoir ceased its grip, faded. Immediately, the beasts tensed up, raising their fists, pointing their needles and generally showing hostility toward the Champions. Cynthia noted that they seemed reluctant to do anything, though if that was out of fear or gratitude from their earlier save, she couldn’t discern.

  She did, however, take notice of an injury one of the roach beasts carried. It was a large red gash running from the left side of its abdomen all the way down to its foot, which Cynthia guessed had been caused when it was yanked out from Guzzlord’s tendril-mouth. Perhaps either Gardevoir or Metagross had mistakenly dragged them against the teeth when rescuing them, which was a result of Guzzlord’s bodily similarities to a Dark-Type interfering with their Psychic-Type. Upon seeing Cynthia staring at the wound, the beast growled at her and attempted to conceal the wound. A few of the other beasts held their arms over the roach defensively.

  Turning back around to the other Champions, Cynthia asked, “Do any of you have a Pokemon that can use Heal Pulse?”

  “I’m afraid not,” Answered Lance. “And if you’re asking me, I assume it’s safe to say you don’t have it either?” Wordlessly nodding, she looked to Wallace and Alder, finding similar replies via the shaking of their heads. The blond Champion next turned to Diantha. “What about you?”

  The Kalos Champion shrugged. “Though it is certainly possible for a Gardevoir to learn it, mine has not, though I suppose we could try and force it, given the circumstances.”

  “Hold on a moment,” Interjected Lance, “Are you planning on healing the beasts?”

  Cynthia gave him an inquisitive stare, crossing her arms. “Why yes, I am. I noticed one of them had been wounded, and thought it might get us some good ground in the trust department.”

  Lance narrowed his eyes at her. “Are you sure that’s wise? We still don’t know if we can trust them.”

  The Sinnoh Champion sighed. “Well,” She said, “We can’t exactly get to Guzzlord’s crown without going through the swarm, and we can’t speak their language to get them to part.” She nudged her head in the direction of the beasts, pointing her thumb at them. “But if we can establish some kind of trust with them, like I’m trying to do by healing them, then perhaps they could get the swarm to part and we’d be free to attack the crown.”

  A sly smirk crawled up her face, and her eyes seemingly darkened. Her irises became sharp, like a dagger. It would have been unnerving to just about anyone, save for Cynthia’s fellow Champions. “And besides...if it doesn’t work out and they become hostile, we can simply eradicate them and penetrate the swarm by force.” She smiled brightly, completely wiping away her fearsome expression in an instant. “But there’s no need for that if we can get them as allies, right? Right.”

  Lance blinked. He hadn’t even realized his jaw had gaped slightly from Cynthia’s terrifying display, and quickly regained his composure once he did. Clearing his throat, he replied, “I-I see. Yes, I suppose it’s for the best, then. Please go ahead.”

  With that, Cynthia nodded to Diantha, who in turn did the same to her Gardevoir. Returning the nod, Diantha’s Mega Gardevoir slowly approached the beasts, causing them to tense up and hiss at her. The Champions noticed that they were trembling more and more the closer Gardevoir got to them. It stopped suddenly and raised its arms out at the frightened beasts.

  The beasts knew they didn’t stand a chance seeing that many of their brethren were completely slaughtered by this Pokemon alone and they didn’t even have the energy to put up a fight. They snarled at Gardevoir threateningly, trying to make themselves look as big as possible, though the Psychic could read their intentions and still acted in spite of their warnings.

  They shivered in fear as they saw some sort of blue aura surround their bodies. They quickly closed their eyes awaiting the end...but the end never came they slowly opened their eyes and were shocked to see that their injuries all over their bodies had completely healed not one scratch could be found. They looked up to the Psychic Pokemon in confusion and it simply smiled back.

  As Gardevoir returned to its trainer, Cynthia lulled her head back and sighed, preparing for what came next. “This’ll be fun,” She said sarcastically. Looking down at Garchomp, she ordered, “Bring me closer to them.”

  Garchomp nodded his head in affirmation.”Chomp Chomp Garchomp!” The Dragon Pokemon slowly started walking towards the group of ultra beasts with Cynthia in tow. The Ultra Beasts tensed up for what they thought was coming next.To their shock the Sinnoh champion merely held up a hand towards them. The beasts tilted their heads in confusion until she then started pointing towards the massive Guzzlord and made what looked like a parting motion with her hands repeatedly.

  They stared at the champion for a long time contemplating what she was trying to tell them until the roach beast that had the nasty cut from earlier perked up with a thought. It turned to the other beasts and explained that she was trying to tell them to part from Guzzlord so they would not get harmed by any attacks, explaining to them that the Champions likely had some kind of plan.

  At hearing that the beasts became even more confused, why would their enemies be even remotely concerned for their safety not even five minutes ago they were ruthlessly fighting to the death. Even though they had temporarily declared a truce, who was to say that they wouldn’t just turn on them again after Guzzlord was defeated? They were invaders after all, and this planet’s natives had sustained heavy losses.

  The roach continued chittering with the other beasts in its odd alien language. Diantha noticed that her Gardevoir was attempting to read their minds to decipher what they were saying, though from its expression… “No luck, huh?” Gardevoir sighed, shaking its head.

  The roach suddenly turned toward Guzzlord and it, along with the other beasts, rocketed toward the swarm at breakneck speeds. When they got close, the roach let loose a very loud chittering screeching sound which caused many of the Ultra Beasts to stop attacking the colossus for the moment and turn their heads back and look at it.

  It, along with the other beasts the Champions had saved, from what they could understand, began speaking to the other beasts, and anxiously awaited what was to come from this interaction. After what seemed like a minute of the Roach beast trying to explain what the trainers had in mind the swarm looked towards the champions and nodded. They all quickly started to pile off of Guzzlord giving the Champions their chance to strike. Now that their window was open, the crown was revealed, and they quickly ordered their Pokemon to attack.

  “Finally!” Roared Lance. “Dragonite, Hyper Beam”

  “Metagross, Flash Cannon!”

  “Milotic, use Hydro Pump!”

  “Volcarona, my friend, let’s finish this with Bug Buzz!”

  Diantha wordlessly blinked at Gardevoir, who nodded and raised its arms, creating a massive Moonblast over its head and throwing it down toward the crown with the rest of the attacks.

  Cynthia smirked. “Special moves, huh?” She crouched down, patting Garchomp’s head. “Garchomp and I prefer things up close and personal. Now, burst right through that crown with Dragon Rush!”

  The five elemental attacks from the Champions raced down at the crown with immense power. So much so that the nearby beasts, despite being nowhere near them, were nearly dragged along with them. The crown noticed an odd light and turned toward it. Its eyes shot open once it saw the approaching attacks, and Guzzlord itself tilted its head up to stop them. However, it wasn’t fast enough.

  The Champions’ power crashed into the crown at full force, eliciting an unbearably loud cry of pain from it that nearly deafened the nearby trainers and beasts. Waves of crackling plasma were sent in all directions, scorching the land and skies. Guzzlord stretched its massive mouth, preparing some kind of attack as it screamed. That scream was cut off by Cynthia, who, alongside Garchomp, barreled straight through the crown and landed back on the ground behind it.

  Guzzlord was rendered frozen stiff, only being able to occasionally twitch. Its bright blue eyes went wide, slowly inching them to look up to its crown. The ornament on its head barely existed anymore, with a massive hole having been punched through it thanks to the Champions’ efforts. The hole occasionally sparked from the lingering energy before letting loose a violent explosion that destroyed the crown for good.

  The colossus threw its head back, wildly flailing its tendrils and smashing the ground as it let loose an agonized wail. The nearby trainers were forced to flee for their lives to avoid its wild thrashing. Slowly, it came to a stop and turned its head toward Cynthia and Garchomp. Its blue eyes narrowed at her, and with speeds that caught everyone off guard, it fully whipped around and the tendril closest to Cynthia descended upon her.

  Elsewhere, May and Max looked on at the beast from the back lines. Frowning, May remarked, “Even the Champions couldn’t take it down… Without Jirachi’s wishes, this thing is going to be tough to beat. I doubt that Blaziken would even have any effect.” She quickly looked up at her starter Pokemon apologetically. “N-no offense.”

  Her Blaziken simply shrugged indignantly, though its pride had taken a bit of a blow. Jirachi shrunk slightly as well, saddened at its inability to do more. “I’m sorry…”

  Max crouched down by its side, smiling at her reassuringly. “Aw, don’t worry, Jirachi! Even though your wishes don’t work on it, I’m sure everyone else is trying real hard!”

  “I’m not so sure about that.”

  The two trainers and Jirachi turned around, finding none other than Paul. His cold stare made Jirachu’s skin crawl. “What do you mean by that?” Asked May. “You don’t think we stand a chance?”

  Paul shook his head. “No- well, yes, actually.” He looked up at Guzzlord, or rather the Champions sans Cynthia. “Seeing as not even those six could take it down and the rest of the Legends are off fighting Necrozma himself, I think our chances are slim.”

  May resisted the urge to scoff. “What, is that all you had to say?”

  Once again, the purple-haired trainer shook his head. “Initially, I was referring to Jirachi.”

  Max looked down at the aforementioned Legend by his side. “Jirachi? What do you mean?”

  “I mean that Jirachi’s wishes aren’t useless just because they can’t directly affect Guzzlord,” Replied Paul flatly. “Just think about it. There are infinite possibilities for wishes, and you just give up on using them because they can’t kill or transport it?”

  May tilted her head at him incredulously. “What are you getting at?”

  “Oh for the love of-” Paul closed his eyes, forcing himself not to plant his face in his hands. Ignoring May, he stomped over to Jirachi. The Wish Pokemon’s eyes widened, intimidated by him. It instinctively backed away from Paul, but the trainer approached faster than it could flee. “Hey you,” Said Paul abruptly, “Wish away the ground beneath one of Guzzlord’s feet, will you? About to the point that half of its body would get submerged, but not anything more or less.”

  Jirachi reeled in shock at the trainer’s sudden request, but decided to comply nevertheless. It hastily turned around and closed its eyes to prepare for the wish. A bright whitish-blue aura surrounded it before disappearing completely and, when its eyes next opened, May, Max and Paul heard a distressed shriek from the colossal beast.

  When they looked up at it, they, along with the other trainers who chattered amongst themselves over what they were seeing, found Guzzlord half-sunken into the ground and squirming desperately to get out. Upon falling, its tendril was yanked away with it before it could bite down on Cynthia. It shrieked and whined as it ate the ground it was trapped in, not realizing with its limited mental capacity that it was only digging itself deeper and making its situation worse by doing so.

  Paul’s expression softened in satisfaction, though the difference was barely visible. “So, that one worked.”

  Without saying anything else, Paul began to make his way toward Guzzlord when Max suddenly stepped into his way, looking far from pleased. “Hey, you!” He shouted. “So, you just scare Jirachi into making a wish and then leave without even thanking her?!”

  “Listen brat,” Snapped Paul, “I don’t have time for this. Every second we waste is another second that thing has to get out of that hole, so get out of my way.”

  He took out a Pokeball and threw it over Max’s head. “Ninjask, stand by for battle!” The Pokeball let loose the Bug-Type Pokemon, Ninjask, who fluttered in the air by its trainers’ side upon being released. “Ninjask, go find some of those flat-looking Ultra Beasts and lure them toward Guzzlord. You should easily be able to figure out what to do next.”

  Ninjask nodded hastily and zipped away toward the main swarm of beasts. Paul was about to step around Max and make his way toward the colossal beast when, to his chagrin, yet another annoyance stopped him in the form of May who asked, “Wait, why didn’t you just make the entire ground disappear beneath it?”

  Paul whipped around, having long since lost his already normally-thin patience. “If I did that, where do you think it would end up?”

  “Uh...underground.”

  “The core, you moron!” He roared, making May and Max flinch. “Were you even paying attention to what Necrozma said about this thing? It eats entire planets, for crying out loud! If it got to the core, it would probably take it only an hour, and that’s being generous, to completely eat away at it!”

  He turned back away from them, pointing at the hole he’d trapped Guzzlord in. “Look there. With the way I had Jirachi erase the ground, Guzzlord is only halfway stuck, and what’s more, it’s positioned in such a way that eating its way out will be awkward and difficult for it to do without digging itself deeper.”

  He next pointed at the trainers and wild Pokemon closest to Guzzlord. They had already seized the opportunity to attack. “This gives us time to act, as those trainers who are clearly smarter than you two have already figured out.”

  He stormed away, muttering, “Next time, stay out of my way,” under his breath, leaving May, Max and Jirachi completely stunned.

  Ninjask, meanwhile, set off to complete its mission. Though Paul had certainly become kinder to it and the rest of his team after his loss to Ash at the Lily of the Valley conference, Paul’s strictness was still well intact. Failing him would not end pretty. The scolding it would receive for disappointing him sent shivers down the Bug Pokemon’s spine.

  With its immense speed, it quickly bridged the gap between itself and the nearest paper beast, slapping it upside the head with one of its front claws the second it came close. The beast whipped around, rubbing its now-aching head and glaring at Ninjask. It raved and hissed at the Pokemon, and though Ninjask hadn’t a clue as to what exactly it was saying, it wasn’t hard to tell that it was demanding to know why it had been stricken.

  Ninjask’s response was to hit it with another False Swipe and quickly zip out of harm’s way once the small beast retaliated with the swipe of its razor-sharp arm. Hissing at Ninjask, the beast flew toward it. Ninjask flew away, and the beast gave chase.

  The Bug Pokemon went around from paper beast to paper beast, repeating what it had done in the first place with every one it found. Soon enough, it had a miniature army of them flying behind it, all grinding their arms together to prepare to slice Ninjask to ribbons. That only made Ninjask’s job easier. The sharper their arms were, the better.

  The non-paper beasts looked on, having absolutely no idea what was going on with the cloud of paper beasts. It looked dire for Ninjask, but its Speed Boost ability combined with Agility let it move at lightning fast speeds or even faster. The only reason it looked as if the beasts were catching up was because Ninjask was letting them do so.

  Once Ninjask was satisfied with the number of paper beasts it had on its tail, it swerved around toward Guzzlord with them quickly following in hot pursuit. The other beasts, seeing the cloud of paper ones approaching, quickly flew out of the way for fear of being sliced apart. Ninjask zipped up to the base of one of Guzzlord’s tendrils, turned around to look up at the furious paper beasts, and waited.

  Not even five seconds went by until the massive swarm of paper beasts blotted out the sky right over Guzzlord and made a mad rush right at Ninjask. The Bug Pokemon hunched over and flapped its wings spastically. The paper beasts stopped just before Ninjask, raised their arms, and slashed. Ninjask evaded the attacks with its immense speed, disappearing from sight in an instant.

  The combined slicing attack from the paper beasts cleaved straight through Guzzlord’s right tendril, severing it. The colossal beast howled in an agony nearly as great as what it felt when its crown was destroyed. It attempted to thrash about due to its pain, but its left tendril was already mostly crushed against the ground it was trapped in, and thus could scarcely move. The right tendril flopped around uselessly on the ground, though it nearly ended up crushing the nearby trainers who frantically fled from it.

  Ninjask, as nothing more than a blur, appeared by its trainer’s side once more, now adorning a satisfied expression on its face. Paul turned his head to the side, covering a smile with his fist. “Good work,” Commended Paul, returning Ninjask to its Pokeball, “You take a rest for now.”

  “That was some strategy,” Applauded Serena, walking up to him alongside her team.

  Paul was about to reply, but whatever he was about to say was cut short when he saw the state Serena was in. Her clothes were shredded, littered with claw marks all over. She appeared to have burn and dust marks all across her body as well. This was shared with her Pokemon, but despite this, Serena adorned a bright grin.

  “...What the hell happened to you?”

  The bluntness of that question made Serena laugh. “Well, getting caught in the middle of a beast swarm would do that to you.” She looked over at Guzzlord. “Luckily for me, they seem to be occupied with that huge one over there now, so I’ve been spending the last half-hour resting, though…” She looked down at her tattered clothes, giggling in slight embarrassment. “...I’m gonna need one heck of a shower after this…”

  Paul sighed, only being able to shake his head at her. “Well, I guess it’s your lucky day, then. Guzzlord is trapped, and one of those tentacle things it uses to eat has been cut off, thanks to me, so that just leaves Necro-”

  Their conversation was cut short when the ground beneath their feet began trembling violently. “W-what the-” Cried Paul. “What’s happening?!”

  Guzzlord let loose its most violent roar yet, one that uprooted the ground around it and sent the closest trainers to it flying, as well as shattering their eardrums. It was lucky that the friends of Ash had already distanced themselves from it in the wake of the paper beast cloud, or else they’d have been deafened or worse.

  Those who were not quick enough had their bodies sprawled across the ground at best, and crumpled like a metal can from the sheer force of the roar at worst. The stub where its right tendril used to be began twitching, and suddenly, a mass of black, bubbling flesh began crawling up into the air from it. Eventually, the bubbling flesh melted off, falling to the ground and melting through it like acid. Another tendril had been formed, and a mouth emerged from its tip soon afterwards.

  Paul’s eyes shot wide. “N-no,” He stammered in disbelief. “It can regenerate?!”

  Serena’s jaw dropped. “Can this thing...even be killed…?”

  Guzzlord dug its tendrils into the ground around it, managing to free its left one by tearing it off against the surrounding ground and generating a new one. It squirmed against the hole violently, trying desperately to pull itself out. It eventually stopped shaking itself against the walls of the hole and went stiff. Slowly, it opened its jagged maw more and more, to the point that loud cracks, presumably from the bones in its jaw being snapped, were heard all across the battlefield.

  The blue glow from its eyes and mouth disappeared, being replaced by a harrowing fiery red. Crimson sparks of plasma appeared and disappeared all across Guzzlord’s body, scattering themselves. They eventually crawled up its tentacles and into the mouths on each one where they formed into massive balls of energy. Another one that was utterly colossal in scope began forming in Guzzlord’s main mouth as well.

  Rayquaza halted his battle with Necrozma for the moment, sensing the incredible energy welling up within Guzzlord. He turned away from the dark demon and toward the colossal beast. His eyes wide, he asked, “Wh-what is...what is this power?!”

  Necrozma looked past Rayquaza at Guzzlord and chuckled. “My, my. For Guzzlord to be resorting to using this...those peons must have truly angered it…”

  To Rayquaza, this threat was now far too great for the humans to deal with alone. He coated himself in the emerald light of Dragon Ascent, crouching his body like a spring about to launch himself at Guzzlord when a translucent wall appeared in his way. Rayquaza looked around for a way to go around it, but it reached out in every direction as far as the eye could see.

  Behind him, Necrozma floated down with his index finger outstretched. “Ah, ah, ah… Don’t forget, worm, that your quarrel is with me.”

  Seemingly materializing from thin air, red rings of energy continuously closed in on the massive ball within Guzzlord’s throat, making its size increase greatly with every passing second. It became so grand in size that Guzzlord’s jaw began tearing as it stretched to accommodate it. The heat around the colossal beast increased drastically as well, making the earth surrounding it swelter and melt. The bodies of the trainers, their Pokemon and the beasts that had already fallen burst into flames before swifty being reduced to blackened ashes that blew away in the wind.

  A low, growling noise escaped Guzzlord’s throat, as did the high-pitched whistling that came with the very molecules that comprised the oxygen being burned to a crisp from its heat. That low growl escalated in pitch gradually as the beast craned its head toward the sky. The plasma surrounding it became more frequent, eventually becoming a literal storm that ripped through anything it touched.

  A blinding flash of light ensued, and the ball of energy erupted into the sky in the form of a massive laser. Instantaneously, it crashed into the underside of the ship and sent an explosion outward in all directions. The shockwave from it dwarfed anything Guzzlord had done previously in terms of raw destructive might, obliterating everything it touched.

  The trainers stared up at it in horror, knowing they would never be able to escape it. Their Pokemon released themselves from their Pokeballs and forced their trainers to the ground, using their bodies to protect them.

  Noivern’s eyes went wide, still carrying Pikachu and Greninja on its back, as it saw the impending blast, and turned on its heel to fly away. However, it wasn’t fast enough.

  Infernape, still blinded by its rage alongside the effects of Blaze, swung wildly at the air and ground. It ruthlessly attacked any beasts it saw, even when they went to fight Guzzlord, but now that they were gone...all it could do was rage. But that rage dissipated once its eyes landed upon the shockwave. The rest of Ash’s Pokemon embraced one another, with the larger shielding the smaller ones.

  Then, as the shockwave approached, everything went white.