Episode 3: The gathering

There they were, flying over the large expanse of water en route to Alola—again. Niko had heard of the Aether Paradise, but never visited it before. What he knew was that it was, essentially, a very large floating structure somewhere between Melemele and Akala Islands. From Sinnoh, the journey was expected to take half a day at most.

The three of them—plus Cynthia—were boarded on a chartered plane that only Cynthia, in her role as Champion, could access. The flight departed from Veilstone City earlier that evening and would be an overnight flight, with them landing in Alola the following morning.

During much of the flight, Niko sat in a window seat and looked out at the darkened ocean below. The clouds above Sinnoh were expanding, but at a slow enough pace that they only covered most of the region when Niko and his friends departed hours prior. He turned to his left to see Charlotte laying down next to him, curled up in a seat that only she could curl up in and resting in his lap.

"How're you doing?" he asked quietly. Jake was asleep in the row opposite them. Cynthia was in a compartment in the back of the plane, presumably asleep as well.

"Me? I'm…fine," Charlotte said through a yawn. "I'm tired, though."

"I get that," Niko said calmly.

"And you?"

Niko smirked. "I'm doing alright."

"Are you though?"

Niko paused.

"Yeah…I'm fine."

"Do you mean it?" Charlotte asked, only sounding slightly concerned.

"Mhmm, yep."

"You know you should tell me when something is wrong. That's what I'm here for—you."

"And I you," Niko replied. "But I mean it—nothing is wrong."

Charlotte took a moment to respond due to another yawn. "Okay, I believe you. Are you ready for whatever we have coming next?"

"You mean at the Aether Paradise?" Niko asked, feeling Charlotte nod. "I guess so. I don't know what to expect, but I think we'll be fine. This will be fine."

"Your confidence always seems to surprise me," Charlotte muttered, "I don't know why, but it does."

"Oh? Why is that?"

"Well, even when you were at your lowest point you always seemed willing to tackle tough challenges. I've never known you to not have confidence. I've never known anyone like that."

Niko was surprised by this—of course he has lacked confidence and hope at times. But Charlotte was right: he rarely lost confidence in his abilities even after quitting his journey for half a year. To be sure, he had felt unsure of himself multiple times, but he put that discomfort aside to put on a brave face for his friends and Pokémon. There were also times where he knew the odds were against him but tried anyways, but not because of confidence—because he knew that somehow, in some way, he would grow as a result. That does not require confidence, only a willingness to lose.

"That's what makes you such a great person and trainer, I think," Charlotte muttered sleepily. "You're hopeful."

"Thanks, Charlotte," Niko said, noticing his girlfriend smirk before falling asleep in his lap.

He had a lot to think about.

"Wake up, we're here," Cynthia said as she nudged Niko's shoulder. Opening his eyes, he slowly noticed Charlotte and Jake were gone, and that they weren't moving any more.

"Oh, great," Niko said, his hair a mess. He unbuckled himself and stood up to stretch. Charlotte and Jake were sitting at a table nearby eating, which suggested that they had only landed moments ago.

"Morning!" Charlotte said, waving to Niko who joined her at the table. "We're about to head out, but here," she handed him a breakfast wrap. "For the road."

Niko took it and began to furiously eat it as they got up and exited the chartered plane. Immediately, Niko was blinded by the new environment. There was white everywhere around him. Only once he was able to partially cover his eyes could he see the platform they were standing on. It spanned several miles in every direction. Off in the distance Niko could see a large building protruding out of the platform. To its right was a large mansion that was dwarfed by the structure in the center.

"Welcome to Aether Paradise," Cynthia declared. "This will be our base of operations for the duration of this crisis."

"It's a crisis now?" Jake asked.

"Yes. Regardless of the cause of Arceus' anger, it's going to lay judgment upon us in some way. Our job is to both find the cause of this anger and minimize the potential damage it could do."

Moments later a vehicle approached them on the platform, with a woman in a white jumpsuit asking them to board. She was an employee of the Aether Foundation directed to bring them to the headquarters.

While they were driving, Cynthia mentioned that she also directed others to join them. "We need all of the help we can get, so I gathered up a rather large team of Regional Champions, League Champions. I also put out feelers to some who might be familiar faces to you three."

Puzzled by this, Niko sat in silence, wondering who on Earth Cynthia had brought to this. Certainly no one close to him—he was afraid of losing someone in this crisis.

They got to the entrance and exited the vehicle. Their driver also got out and escorted them to the entrance—a set of glass double doors with golden borders on them. After walking down an equally bright white hall, lit up by a mixture of skylights and white lamps on the sides of the hallway, they entered a much larger room with dozens of people—many of them familiar faces—walking about.

Niko immediately recognized the person closest to them—his friend and rival Ian. The hyperactive young man, upon noticing Niko, rushed over to nearly tackle him to the ground. "NIKO!" he shouted excitedly. "Bout time you got here!"

"Ian…what?" Niko asked, looking down at his friend. "What're you—?"

"We're here to help!" Ian said, turning to Cynthia, who quietly nodded before walking towards Diantha and Bonnie, who waved to Niko happily. "I was on my way to Alola when I got the call from Brittany, asking me if I wanted to join in on this."

Niko raised an eyebrow. Just who was invited to this?

He didn't have to wait too long. Soon enough, a small group of familiar faces crowded around him, Ian, Charlotte, and Jake. JJ, Maizie, Warren, Sydney, Brittany, and Fay all stood there, staring at Niko.

"What are you all doing here?" Niko asked.

"Apparently the world is about to end, and no one knows why," Warren said, walking up to embrace his best friend. "We thought we'd help out, just like we always have."

"You have a hero complex, Niko," Fay said with a wink, "always have, and we're here to put you in your place."

Niko laughed. Fay, as always, was correct. He suddenly felt a little better, but not enough to take his mind off of other things. Warren caught onto this and whispered something in Charlotte's ear before nodding, turning back to Niko, and gripping his shoulder.

"We've got this—all of us," Warren said confidently.

"Of course, we do. We did in Unova," Niko said.

"And Hoenn," Brittany said.

"And Kanto," Fay said.

"And Sinnoh," JJ added before walking up to Niko with Maizie. "By the way Niko," he turned to his girlfriend, who was holding an unusually large blanket in her arms. "There's someone I want you to meet."

Niko carefully moved towards Maizie, who unfurled the blanket to reveal a small child inside. The daughter of JJ and Maizie lay there, fast asleep. She had short brown hair that curled on the edges. She was slightly plump in the face, as babies usually are.

"She's beautiful," Niko said softly. "What's her name?"

"Valerie," Maizie said decisively.

"Hi, Valerie," Niko said as he noticed the baby girl wake up, revealing that she inherited her father's blue eyes. "I'm Niko. Sorry for waking you up."

"Oh, you didn't," Maizie said cheerfully, "she usually wakes up around now."

"One of the many times she does, that is," JJ said with a yawn.

"Tired, I take it?" Fay asked, only to received a nod from his longtime friend.

"Now…why did you bring your child here?" Niko asked in a more serious tone. Sometimes, he never quite understood JJ's motives.

"We wanted you to meet her," JJ said, "also—we live pretty close by to the Aether Paradise, relatively speaking," he said, "plus, I wanted to go through this with you—just like the old days," the curly blonde spoke with a determination Niko had not seen in a long time.

Niko simply nodded and turned to the others. Warren and Sydney were speaking with Charlotte, Jake with Fay. Brittany grabbed his arm lightly to get his attention. "What's up?"

"How are you?" she asked.

"That seems to be the question of the day, doesn't it?" Niko asked. "I'm fine, though."

"You seem tense," Brittany, who usually had her finger on Niko's emotional pulse, noted.

"I am fine."

She nodded, and hugged Niko. "I'm glad we're all here together. It seems weird, though, don't you think?"

"What is?"

"That us, of all people, are gathered to fight some unknown problem. Seems farfetched, don't you think?"

"I suppose so," Niko said, breaking away from the hug. "But like you all said—it's better that we do this together. I'm glad you're here."

"So am I," Brittany said. She then turned to talk with Charlotte and catch up. Meanwhile, Niko continued looking around, immediately recognizing a couple more people and proceeding to greet them.

All the while, he considered what Brittany had told him—they were chosen to help out. It didn't seem like a big deal, at least to Niko, but it was odd. It must be because we all seem to have a penchant for danger, I suppose, Niko thought to himself as he walked past JJ and Maizie and onwards to greet some old rivals of his.

"Niko?" Oliver asked as he turned to see his Kalos rival. "What're you doing here?"

"Helping out, I guess," Niko said as he looked around. "I should be asking the same thing."

"Diantha and Bonnie asked me, and I reached out to Wally here. We've, well, become pretty good friends since we were all in Kalos together. How've you been?"

"I've been alright. Spent some time in Alola after the Kalos League," Niko said. It hadn't been a year since he had last seen Oliver, but the young man with a black afro seemed different in a way. He was calmer than normal.

"Oh? I was thinking of going there. How is it?"

"Alola is really nice, actually," Niko explained, "there aren't any gyms, but trials instead," Oliver was about to ask Niko to elaborate when a familiar green-haired teenager ran up to Niko and furiously shook his hand. "Wally! Hey!"

"Hi Niko!" Wally said excitedly. "Oliver and I were asked to come here for something. Do you know what it is?" Oliver also turned to Niko. Clearly, they hadn't been briefed on this.

"Err, well," Niko began, only to be interrupted.

"And it'll have to wait," another voice said. Niko, Wally, and Oliver all turned to see Diantha and Bonnie standing there. "We're about to gather together. Everything will be explained then."

The Champions from each region also seemed to be getting the attention of other folks, as Niko noticed the large mass of people moving from the center of the room into an auditorium of sorts. Bright white lights adorned the sides of each wall, roughly a dozen feet between them. Slowly, but surely, the room filled to encompass some familiar faces, but mostly strangers to Niko. Must've been champions and runners-up for other leagues in the past, he thought to himself.

Niko took his seat in one of the middle rows next to Wally and Oliver. Charlotte, Brittany, and Jake were sitting nearby him. In front of them was a raised stage with over half a dozen individuals, all of whom were familiar to Niko in some respect: Cynthia, Diantha, Bonnie, Steven, Wallace, Alder, Lance, Hau, and Ash Ketchum, plus an unfamiliar young woman. Cynthia then stood up alongside Hau and walked to the podium.

"Welcome. You're all here because you were chosen to help us with an important mission. If all goes right, then there will not be much asked of you. However, due to the circumstances, that is not yet likely.

"The Alpha Pokemon, Arceus, is upset. Someone has entered its domain—the Hall of Origin—without its consent. We believe that Arceus is prepared to perform judgment on humanity for this individual's—or group of individuals—actions. It is on us to protect the world from this judgment.

"I have been working closely with the regional champions, all of whom are present on this stage, to do what is necessary to combat this. We have also been in touch with the gym leaders and Island Kahunas of each region so that they can take necessary actions in their cities and localities. Much of our work is either evacuating or preparing underground bunkers for folks in each region.

"So now we come back to you all. You will be assigned to a region to help protect it with your regional champion. This could be anything from preparing enough food for people, calming down wild Pokémon, or protecting from unforeseen natural disaster using your Pokémon. I, alongside Ask Ketchum, will be assembling a team to go back to Sinnoh and understand just what is happening at Spear Pillar.

"Now, let us split up and make the necessary preparations to maintain the balance of this world."

Cynthia sat down in between Hau and Ash just as Lance stood up and announced who was to go with him. Slowly, each of Niko's friends and rivals were being sent to their respective groups—Wally with Steven and Wallace, Oliver with Diantha and Bonnie, and Warren and Sydney with Alder. Ian went with Cynthia, but for the Sinnoh-specific group.

Cynthia herself then walked over to Niko, Charlotte, Jake, Fay, Brittany, and JJ. "You all are to come with me and Ash to Spear Pillar."

Niko looked up from his seat. He figured he would, but not alongside his friends. "All of us?"

"Yes. I trust the six of you. We'll be leaving tomorrow."

Cynthia then turned and left the auditorium, leaving Niko and his friends alone in the progressively emptying room. Then a thought came to him.

"Hey, Brittany," Niko asked, "do you know if there's a computer I can use to get ahold of my mom?"

"I don't see why not?" Brittany replied. "You need your other Pokémon?"

Niko nodded.

"This way," another voice, albeit less familiar, said. Niko turned to see a spiky-haired man nearly as tall as he was standing there in a black t-shirt and jeans. A Pikachu sat on his shoulder, staring at Niko eagerly. "How're you doing, Niko?"

Niko stared directly at Ash Ketchum before cracking a small smile and holding out his hand. "Hey, Ash."

"So…you ready to, err, save the world?" Ash asked, seeming somewhat unsure, for whatever reason.

"I guess so. I need to go grab my other Pokemon from my mom, first."

"Ah, you and me both," Ash said with a wink. "Let's walk together."

Niko nodded affirmatively and followed Ash, away from his friends and out of the auditorium. They walked in silence for some time before the older, more experienced trainer started to speak.

"Congrats on making it as far as you did in the Alola League," Ash said casually. "I remember when I challenged it. Didn't get that far, and that was also before Hau was Champion."

"When did you challenge the Lanakila Conference?" Niko asked curiously. He had no idea how old Ash actually was.

"When it first opened. I lost in the actual league itself. But afterwards I just kept going—travelling the world and such."

"I do the same thing," Niko said quietly.

"I've noticed. We're a lot alike, you know," Ash said, caressing behind Pikachu's ear as the Mouse Pokemon cooed. "Not in a bad way—you don't seem to be as reckless as I was when I was a kid," he looked up at the ceiling as they entered a hallway. "How old are you, anyway?"

"I'm 23," Niko muttered.

"Oh, yeah you're much older than I was. When'd you start your journey? 15? 16?"

"17, actually," Niko said, surprising himself. It really had been years. To him, time seemed to move by much too fast.

"Wow, 7 years older than I was. I started at 10 and made it to the very top at…gosh, maybe 18 or 19."

"The top?"

"Oh, right. No one seems to have mentioned it to you. I'm the World Champion."

"World Champion?" Niko asked. He had heard of the title before and knew of a World Tournament. But it seemed odd that Ash, of all people, was the most powerful trainer on the planet."

"Yup. It was, wow, maybe 14 or so years ago now. Every 7 years the Pokemon World Tournament is held."

That means that Ash maintained his title around the same time Niko began his journey. Time really does fly by.

"So, you've won the title twice?" Niko asked as he noticed Ash nod. "You must be some trainer, then."

"Well, my opponent last time was sort of a pushover. He had potential, but still so much to learn about battling and raising Pokemon. Being a trainer, Niko, is not just about battling. It's about cultivating meaningful relationships with your Pokemon. They aren't just tools for fighting, but a team ready to go into battle together as one entity."

Niko nodded. That's always been his philosophy, at least as far back as he can remember.

"Anyway, I'm rambling. We're here," Ash said as he moved through a sliding glass doorway and into a small room with some computers set up towards the back wall. "I was joking earlier, by the way—my Mom doesn't have my Pokemon. It's my wife, actually."

"You're married?" Niko asked. Ash didn't seem like the sort of fellow to get married.

"Mhmm. She's in Kalos defending there. Well, defending in her own sort of way," Ash said with a slight smirk. He then turned on the computer and began a video chat with someone. Niko did the same, calling his mother.

It took some time to explain to Daisy the situation—about Arceus, the gathering at the Aether Foundation, everything. At first, she was worried about Niko and wouldn't stop telling him to keep Jake safe. She also expressed concern for Charlotte as well, which took Niko by surprise. Eventually, she surrendered a bag of pokéballs to him.

"Niko, I love you and trust you. But…please be careful, sweetie."

"I will, Mom."

Daisy smiled. "I know, but I just have to say it. And, for the millionth time, please take care of Jake. He tends to get reckless sometimes."

"Jake and I will be just fine," Niko said. "I love you, Mom!"

"Love you too. Bye now," Daisy said before cutting the video feed.

Niko looked around now. He was alone with his bag of pokéballs. Ash Ketchum and Pikachu were out of the room, off somewhere. What now? He asked before looking at the bag. I guess I can at least say hi to everyone, first.

He snooped around the hallway in search of a larger room that could contain all of his Pokemon. Seeing none, he decided on a smaller room and sending out his Pokemon in teams, instead of all at once. Finding a small table to place the bag on, he rummaged around until he found six pokéballs—his Kanto team. He sat down in a comfortable, marble-white sitting chair and threw the six pokéballs onto the ground. Out of them came Venusaur, Pidgeot, Magneton, Shellder, Hitmonchan, and Kadabra.

"Hey guys," Niko said with a warm smile. Each of his Pokemon nodded and said hello in their own way. "So, we've got a problem. You see, the world might be in—"

Niko felt the ground briefly shake. Trying to think nothing of it, he continued.

"The world might be in danger. The Alpha Poke—"

Another shake. This time, Niko got up and ran over to the door. As he entered through the sliding glass doors a third, far more powerful quake threw him off of his feet. Fortunately, Kadabra used his psychic powers to catch his trainer before he hit the ground and brought him back up.

"Thanks, Kadabra," Niko said, running back to grab the bag of pokéballs. "Come on, guys, let's see what's going on."

He led the team of Pokemon as they charged down the hallway in search of answers. The ground shook a fourth time, forcing Niko into the side of the wall. The shaking was getting progressively more powerful. Within minutes he made it into the center room and was in pure shock at the sight.

Everything was on fire. The ceiling had a massive, gaping hole in it. Through the smoke, Niko saw something large and white, with a golden ring around its torso.

Arceus had arrived.

Author's Note: Things are really starting to heat up here! What do you think will happen now? Is the battle over before it even began? Why is Arceus attacking them specifically?