A New Chance For Adventure

by ARCEUS-master

Sequel to A New Chance At Life. Finishing the Johto region while traveling with two Legendary Pokémon, Latias and Latios, was certainly a joyous experience for Ash. With that region behind him, Ash has now set his sights on a new tournament: The Hoenn League, a journey that promises new challenges, new friends and rivals to be met, and a powerful evil ready to rise…

4. Night Of Distress

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon.

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

"Telepathy"

Author Notes:

Here's chapter 4 of A New Chance for Adventure at last! How will Team Magma do against Ash? Read to find out!

Chapter 4 - Night Of Distress

---

Latias strolled across Oldale Town at a sedate pace, humming a happy song to herself and enjoying the cool night breeze as she walked towards the Pokémon Center in her Bianca disguise. She found herself liking the town a lot; it was so calm and peaceful, just like her home Alto Mare had always been. After a few minutes she got to the Pokémon Center and entered, giving Nurse Joy and a girl she was talking with a silent smile and a friendly wave before making her way to the lounge where her best friend was. She walked towards her, noting Bianca was very absorbed in a drawing on her sketchbook, it seemed like nothing could distract her from it. Latias blinked. It had been a long while since Bianca had been so lost into one of her drawings, she seemed like she was having fun and clearly enjoying herself.

Latias grinned to herself, glad to see her friend so happy. "Hey Bianca, what are you drawing?" Latias asked, the curiosity of what could Bianca be drawing finally making her interrupt the artist. She walked over to the table Bianca was sitting at after being left alone by the parting of everyone else.

Bianca actually jumped slightly in her seat from the surprise and interruption of the sudden voice in her mind and looked up to Latias' mirthful expression. She quickly lifted the drawing of herself commanding Latias in a contest battle a little nervously to hide it from the dragon girl's sight, not really sure how the Psychic dragoness would react to the image she had been working on. "Hi Latias," Bianca greeted awkwardly, something she found odd to feel around the dragoness she had always trusted so closely.

Latias tilted her head curiously as she took a seat, facing the young brunette artist. "What's wrong Bianca?" Latias asked tentatively, sensing her discomfort and nervousness through her empathic abilities. It was odd that the artist would react like that when asked about her drawings since she was generally very proud of her works, did this one have something that made her uncomfortable?

"It's just… I'm a little nervous about showing you this one," Bianca answered shyly, something that was definitely uncharacteristic in Bianca's regular firm and strong adamant attitude.

Latias smiled cutely. "It's okay you know, we're best friends. You can show me, maybe it's not as bad as you're thinking," the disguised dragoness said nicely. "But if you want to keep it to yourself, I understand and won't pry anymore."

Bianca took a deep breath and steeled herself, realizing that Latias was right and maybe an image of her using Latias as a Pokémon of her own in a battle wasn't really that bad and Latias wouldn't take any offence from it, so she showed the Legendary Dragon her sketchbook. Latias grabbed it and looked at the drawing, her face neutral for a second as she gazed at it. And then, to Bianca's surprise, she grinned cheerfully. "This is awesome!" The Dragon commented, gazing at it intently and taking in every little detail of the wonderful picture. "I'm still jealous of your skill for painting. Wish I was that good." Latias pouted.

Bianca couldn't help but giggle at Latias' adorable pout, even if it was her own looks, though pouting like that was something she usually didn't do. "Really?" Bianca asked, just to make sure.

Latias nodded immediately, without a single doubt. "Yeah, I don't know why you were nervous; it's a neat contest battle. I'm so beating Pikachu in it," she said telepathically, then laughed.

Bianca smiled and found herself laughing along with Latias, even if her sound was projected mentally and she just made the physical gestures. "Glad you liked it Latias. I was a little nervous because… well, there I'm the coordinator and you're my Pokémon, following my lead and not Ash's. I was just nervous how you'd react to that," Bianca explained.

Latias handed Bianca her drawing back and shook her head. "I like it a lot, and I'd happily follow your commands Bianca, be it in a regular battle or a contest or whatever, we're friends after all," Latias told her softly, picturing how that would be. "I'd gladly do so."

"You would?" Bianca asked in surprise.

Latias nodded. "Sure, why not?"

Bianca grinned. "Cool," she commented, and then resumed drawing while Latias watched her intently. "I don't have any regular Pokémon to begin with, yet a Legendary Pokémon's willing to fight for me." She giggled. "That's interesting."

Latias smiled. "That's friendship for you."

The lights flickered slightly and suddenly went out, casting darkness on the lounge of the Pokémon Center. Everyone there looked around in confusion at the sudden lack of electrical power in the Pokémon Center. Bianca frowned. "Figures, the Center must be having a blackout; I wonder if it's the whole town or just here..." She whispered, tucking her sketchbook into her bag slowly. "I can barely see a thing in here."

"I can see perfectly fine," Latias spoke telepathically.

Bianca rolled her eyes. "You're a Legendary Pokémon Latias… hey; you can do lots of tricks with those feathers of yours, think you can glow in the dark or something?"

Latias nodded, even if Bianca didn't see it. "Yeah, I can glow quite brightly if I want to, but there's other humans here, and to glow I have to be in my true form, obviously."

"Aw, right," Bianca said, frowning.

"Hey what's going on?" A trainer called confusedly, standing up from his seat. Several of the people in the longue stood up as well, trying to look around the pitch-black darkness. "Anyone got a flashlight?"

Latias narrowed her eyes and looked around. Something was wrong, she could feel it, even in the blinding darkness of the powerless Pokémon Center, her enhanced eyesight allowed her to see clearly, and now that she was paying closer attention to the feelings her powers felt from the environment around them, she noted some people entering the Pokémon center, negative intentions rolling off from their bodies like a cascade, all of it picked up by her empathic abilities. She flinched, not that it could be seen in the dark. 'Oh no, this is bad! How did I not notice them? Oh right, my human form limits my powers, and to top it all off I wasn't paying attention…' Latias thought, mentally smacking herself for being so careless. She felt the people divide quickly once they had entered the Pokémon Center in a well-coordinated fashion which meant this was more dangerous than she first thought, and tensed when four of them approached the lounge where she and Bianca were.

"Latias?" Bianca asked slowly in a silent whisper, and jumped in fright when the door of the lounge was tackled down violently by a large and vicious-looking Houndoom clad in golden armor. Bianca gave a slight cry of fear and shivered at the sight of the demonical canine Pokémon, the darkness only heightening the terrifying image, almost like the Houndoom and darkness were made for each other. She knew she had no Pokémon with her if she had to defend herself, her only protection was her best friend, Latias.

The disguised Dragon girl reached towards Bianca's hand and tightly grasped her wrist, pulling the artist against her back so she was behind Latias. "Relax Bianca, I won't let them hurt you, or anyone else," she told her steadily, glaring at the intruder and their Pokémon defiantly.

Four people, their forms barely seen in the darkness, entered the room after the demonic canine had opened the door, the only clear sight of them were their ominous red glowing visors. "All right, everyone!" One of the hooded figures shouted as three other Houndoom entered the room, adding to a total of four Dark Pokémon. "All of you, to the center of the room now, and no one will get hurt," he roared out, the canine Pokémon growling harshly at the echo of his command. The night vision visors of the intruders allowed them to see easily in the dark, in contrast to the rest of the humans in the lounge.

'Can you fight them off Latias?' Bianca thought, peeking over her shoulder as the people of the lounge stood fearfully and complied with the order. In the total darkness and not knowing how many Pokémon they would be dealing with, those few trainers with Pokémon decided to obey out of fear and not risk their Pokémon or themselves, and others didn't have any in the first place, all of them given to Nurse Joy for treatment. 'What do I do Latias?' Bianca asked, still hiding behind her. The feeling of danger reminded her so much of that night in Alto Mare, when the Team Rocket agents attacked, and by how tense and serious Latias was, it was clear the same memories coursed through her.

"No, they have four Pokémon out, and all are Dark-types. I can't touch them psychically, which means most of my current abilities are out of the question. I could knock the humans out with a thought, but I don't know how those Houndoom would react to that… there's too many other people here and the room is too small, I can't fight here Bianca, someone could get hurt…" Latias answered her best friend telepathically.

Bianca nodded, knowing Latias was right. 'So, you mean…'

Latias signed and pulled Bianca along to the center of the room, guiding her silently towards where the mysterious villains were rounding everyone up. "Yes, we'll follow their demands for now. If they try to harm anyone, I'll step in. I'm worried about the things they have over their eyes though, if they know who I really am it'd be very troublesome. Annie and Oakley used something over their eyes to see through my disguise…"

Bianca looked at Latias' human form in concern. 'What about Ash? And Latios! We need them!'

"I already sent a telepathic distress message to my brother," Latias answered. "They're on their way here. But they can't fight inside the center for the same reason I can't. Latios said that they'll be waiting for the bad guys outside, but if they try to harm anyone, they'll burst in."

'This feels so much like that night at Alto Mare…' Bianca thought, shivering slightly at the memories that had grown dominant on her mind, intense panic running through her.

"Yes," Latias admitted while keeping her mental voice still calm and collected to keep Bianca calmed down as well. The last thing Bianca needed was that her only form of protection was scared too. Latias' empathy was bombarded by the intense fear coming from the rest of the people in the longue, and she felt saddened that she couldn't do anything for them at the moment, but she knew that if she was patient the time to help would come to her. "But there is also one big difference now than Alto Mare."

'What?' Bianca thought, wondering what Latias was thinking about.

Latias smiled slightly to herself, unseen by anyone. "This time, I'm not defenseless. And my brother is a lot stronger. We'll get through with this, you'll see." Latias pulled on Bianca's wrist slightly, pressed Bianca against her back and let her feel the comfort that she was there.

The hooded people were talking among themselves and one of them, a woman, looked at them. With a press of a side key in her visors they shifted from night vision to thermal sight. She had wanted to get another look at the group of captives from another mode, just in case they could pick something out the first hadn't. Much to her surprise, she saw something the night vision hadn't seen. One of the humans in the room was reflected oddly on her visors. "Why does she have a low body temperature… that's illogical…A human wouldn't be able to live with that body temperature…' She turned to the other hooded grunts. "Round them up and take them to storage, and keep a close eye on that one, she's… different," she ordered, then clicked her visors back to night vision as she pointed directly at Latias, who looked back at her defiantly. She couldn't help but feel that even in the darkness and behind her visor, the look Latias was giving her wasn't a friendly one, and the power behind her stare made her feel very uncomfortable. She wondered… how did she know she was looking directly at her?

The female grunt was interrupted out of her trail of thoughts by another of the grunts. "Alright, move it!" the tallest one shouted, making a few of the humans jump in fright. To accent his claim, some of the Houndoom barked viciously and another growled loudly. "Move it!" He shouted again, pointing to the hallway leading to the storage area.

…

Meanwhile, May and Professor Alden had been talking about the ruins and his research in general. She'd been wandering around the Pokémon center getting to know the place and eventually stumbled into Alden's office. Both had been extremely surprised when the lights had gone out. "Lights out," May muttered.

Professor Alden frowned. "This is strange, the Pokémon Center has a backup generator for emergencies but it hasn't kicked in…"

"And it won't kick in anytime soon," an ominous voice said, chuckling darkly. Both May and Professor Alden whirled around quickly at the sound of the voice and saw the door burst open, and in the darkness of the electricity deprived treatment center saw four human figures and three very scary Pokémon. The only stand-out trait of them was their visors, glowing an eerie red as the night vision mode was active.

"Who are you?" Professor Alden demanded angrily, glaring at the figures.

Field Commander Tabitha chuckled. "Ah, seems like we have a feisty one here, good. You don't need to know who we are, all you need to know is that you're coming with us," he said simply, his voice neutral. "We need a little favor out of you."

Professor Alden growled. "I'm not going with dirty crooks like you!"

Tabitha shrugged. "Okay. Houndoom, attack the girl," he ordered calmly as both Alden and May's eyes widened in terror at what they had just heard.

The Houndoom charged forwards and prepared to leap at May, jaws shining darkly with a Crunch attack. Alden realized that these people were really dangerous and had no remorse in attacking a young girl, and he was quick to step in the way, causing the Houndoom to skid to a halt. Alden held his arms out desperately. "Alright! Alright! I'll go, don't hurt her, she's just a kid!" The archeologist said quickly, trying to sway the villains from attacking May.

Tabitha smiled mockingly. "I knew you'd see it our way. Take the Professor with us and get his personal computer, as it may have some information regarding our goal with the ruins and also take the tablet with the instructions to open the chamber. Send the girl with the team rounding the people up, leave two guards and the rest come with me," he ordered to his unit.

"Yes Field Commander Tabitha!" The three Team Magma grunts repeated obediently, saluting… and then stifled giggles.

"Such a girly name…" One of the Magma Grunts muttered. Alden struggled to hold a laugh; he'd have found that name extremely hilarious if he and May weren't in such great peril, surrounded by two vicious Houndoom.

A vein of anger appeared on Tabitha's forehead. "Don't start with that again, and follow my orders!" He roared, stomping his way out. "Incompetent grunts!"

One of the grunts grabbed the terrified May's arm, which put up little resistance, her eyes wide in terror and focused on the very scary demonic Houndoom. The fact that she barely saw the Pokémon in the pitch darkness only made it worse.

…

"One more girl and everyone will be locked in," The Team Magma female said, waiting for the other grunt to get back with the girl they had found with Alden so they would be done. Sure enough, a few seconds later the grunt arrived, dragging May by the arm.

The Grunt shoved her inside harshly, causing her to lose balance and trip. She would have fallen unkindly to the floor, but Latias quickly caught her and held the terrified girl reassuringly. "Alright, everyone's here." One of the grunts nodded.

"See!" The confident grunt shouted, causing the other five grunts to look at him. "All this was so easy, they're just a bunch of scared wimps." He turned to the superstitious one. "Where's your 'you jinxed us' crap now?"

The female grunt face-palmed and shook her head sadly. "Not that shit again…"

The Superstitious one frowned. "Don't say that, there's still a chance it might be fulfilled. You jinxed us badly with that strong trainer and trainer with Legendary Pokémon statements!" He said back, and Latias and Bianca raised an eyebrow and looked at each other.

The woman glared at them, not visible through her visors. "Shut up and lets be on our way or else Tabitha is gonna have our heads. Hey, you two!" She pointed to the Grunt that had dragged May to the storage room and another one of the five. "Keep the hostages in check; if they try anything, feel free to attack. Keep your Pokémon out and ready. The rest of you, let's go!" She turned and ran down the hallway, and the confident and superstitious grunts followed her. The two grunts left turned to the storage room and closed the large metal sliding double-door and locked it, their two Houndoom growling menacingly to warn any of the prisoners from trying to do anything while their numbers were diminished.

Bianca looked at May. "Are you okay?" She asked worriedly. She knew Latias wanted to ask that too, but she couldn't do it as her telepathy hadn't assimilated May yet.

May nodded, shaking a little. "A bit scared, but I'm fine…" She answered as she looked at Latias, her eyes meeting the disguised Dragoness. Latias smiled kindly at her, causing May to smile back, feeling secure in her arms. Latias let go of May once her scare had died down and she was strong enough to stand on her own without shaking.

A sudden brightness caused everyone to turn to Nurse Joy, who had lit a flashlight from one of the many boxes on the storage. "We need to restart the power fast!" She cried worriedly.

"Why?" A trainer asked.

The Pokémon nurse looked very saddened. "Many of the Pokémon in the treatment room are connected to equipment that needs electrical power to work; they might be in danger if we don't start the main power or the backup generator!" She answered, horrified.

"Oh no! Will my Pokémon be okay Nurse Joy?" Another trainer asked, walking up to the Nurse.

"And mine?" Another one, a girl, asked with a scared tone in her voice.

Nurse Joy frowned. "Everyone please calm down. We need to work on a way out…"

"Well," A girl that Bianca identified as Janet, the girl from earlier that had mistaken her for a coordinator, started. "Those bad guys aren't directly seeing us…many of us still have some Pokémon with us. We could knock the door down and fight the crooks left to guard us, there's only two of them." she suggested.

Nurse Joy shook her head sadly. "No, that's out of question. So many Pokémon on our side will only affect our coordination, and remember, all we have is this measly flashlight, we can't see in the dark. They have those visors and Houndoom can see in the dark. We can't fight them; it'd only go bad for us and put our remaining Pokémon in danger!" She said miserably. She wanted nothing more than to fight these criminals, but not at the expense of the safety of so many other Pokémon… but if she didn't fight them she'd be putting other Pokémon in danger. She looked to the floor, feeling overwhelmed and not knowing what to do.

Bianca turned to Latias, who was looking relatively calmly at the door that was keeping them locked in. "Latias? What's next?"

"We wait," Latias answered calmly.

Bianca frowned. "But Latias, you heard what they said. The Pokémon in the center are in danger!"

May turned and looked at Latias. "You beat up those bad guys and their robot on the way here; you'll beat up those here too, right?" She asked, looking at the Eon Dragoness hopefully.

Latias smiled and put a hand on her best friend's shoulder reassuringly, then nodded to May. "I never said the wait was going to be a long one. Tell the rest of the Humans to calm down and stop making so much noise, we'll be out soon."

"What are you waiting for?" Bianca asked curiously.

Latias smiled at her. "You'll see, I promise it won't take long. I still need to deal with the guards and their Houndoom, that's why I need to wait for a little something to happen before I can initiate my fight against them. Now calm down everyone… tell May to help you," Latias answered telepathically and closed her eyes, waiting patiently. Bianca nodded, trusting Latias like she had always done and motioned to May. Both turned to the group of arguing trainers and the disheartened Nurse and walked towards them to calm them down.

…

Tabitha walked towards the Pokémon Center's reception area and waited patiently while the grunts finished locking the people in the storage. Professor Alden was behind him along with the two other grunts. Shortly afterwards the other grunts entered the reception area, having finished their previous task.

"Prisoners secured, commander!" The confident grunt answered. "And we weren't jinxed," he added, throwing the superstitious one a glare.

"Whatever," Tabitha said uninterestedly. "Let's go to the ruins of Oldale now. Alden, you've got a secret chamber to open up for us."

Alden growled. "I'm not opening such a wonderful ancient place for bad guys like you!" He shouted stubbornly.

Tabitha chuckled. "Well, remember we left two agents watching the prisoners in the Pokémon Center, and they're well armed with powerful Pokémon. If you don't open it I guess that's because you wouldn't mind reading tomorrow's newspaper headlines saying 'A dozen people die roasted in a Pokémon Center' right?" He questioned, glaring at the archeologist from behind his visor. "If you don't open the ruins, I'll order my men to burn the Center down along with everyone inside."

Professor Alden's eyes widened. "N-no…" he muttered weakly, shaking at hearing that. "You wouldn't, yo-"

"We would," Tabitha said firmly. "It's your call, Alden."

"I'll do it…" The archeologist said weakly. "You're… heartless…" He muttered angrily.

Tabitha shook his head. "We aren't heartless, if we were we would have burned the center down already and killed everyone and then forced you to open that chamber through torture," he said with a shrug, and then grinned darkly. "We're not so bad are we? We're offering you a nicer solution where no one comes out hurt and we still get what we want. Team Magma doesn't seek to harm people; our goal is to make a better world by correcting ancient mistakes done by powers that are above humanity. Killing a dozen people here won't help us nor hinder us; it's the same thing for me. Let's go!" He ordered as he began to walk away. The five grunts with him followed their commander, along with a disheartened and hopeless Alden.

As they got to the trail that would lead them to the ruins of Oldale Town and the secret chamber Team Magma was so desperate to open up, they noticed a lone figure standing in their way. It was a boy, not looking any older than ten with a Pikachu sitting on his shoulder.

Tabitha raised an eyebrow at this. The Team Magma group stopped a dozen feet away from the boy, a challenging air around him as he looked defiantly at the Team Magma squad. "Move it kid, we're busy."

"Let him go," Ash growled out in a warning tone.

Alden's eyes widened. "No! Get away! These are bad people! They could hurt you!" the professor shouted desperately, not wanting the young boy to come to harm.

Tabitha nodded. "You should listen to him. You want us to let him go?" He chuckled mockingly. "Well, what if we don't do that?" He sneered.

Ash narrowed his eyes. "I'll beat up all of you and free him myself," he said challengingly.

Tabitha looked at the boy, wondering if he was stupid or something. "Uh, are you all right in the head kid?"

Ash nodded. "Yes, now release him before I beat you all!"

There was a second of silence and then the entire Team Magma Squad burst out loud laughing, which lasted for over a minute. Ash chuckled lowly and shook his head sadly; they were picking the hard way. "Time to make little kids cry then," Tabitha mumbled. "Seriously, what's up with you kids? If you're a starting trainer, don't think a Mudkip or Torchic or whatever Birch gave you will stop our Pokémon!"

Professor Alden's eyes widened. "Ash, get away while you can!"

The confident grunt nodded. "I'd like to be the one to make him cry. Houndoom, use Flamethrower!" He ordered.

The demonic canine that was his took a step forward and spat a torrent of flames towards the boy. Suddenly, to the entire squad's surprise; the stream of flames was torn apart and blasted away from the youth by an unseen force. The Team Magma group looked at the boy in surprise, wondering how the flame attack from their Pokémon had missed.

With a shower of blue sparkles, Latios revealed himself right in front of Ash, a firm and threatening glare in his bright red eyes and his claws outstretched in a combat ready stance.

Time seemed to stop for the entire Team Magma group. All of them had seemingly frozen in time, and as if in a well rehearsed move, they all whipped around to look at the confident and superstitious grunts. "See! See! I told you!" The superstitious one yelled loudly and then glared at the confident one. "You jinxed us! There's the proof! There's the dammed proof!"

"In the name of the holy lord Groudon, the kid's got a Latios!" Tabitha said incredulously, completely baffled at what he was seeing to the point of contemplating taking his visor off to see if he was seeing this right. He paused as a certain memory clicked in his mind. "He must be that Silver Conference boy," he commented worriedly at the sight of the group's new opponent. "No wonder he made such bold claims, things have gotten a lot harder!"

Ash smirked. "I will not repeat myself. Let professor Alden go!" Latios narrowed his eyes dangerously at them to empathize what would happen if they declined.

Tabitha pondered his chances. He had five men and himself along with many Pokémon. If he coordinated his forces right he might be able to pull this off. "You three," he began, pointing at the superstitious, confident and woman grunts. "Fight him and keep him distracted. I and the other two will proceed to the objective."

Reluctantly, they saluted. "Yes sir," they said with little enthusiasm, making it obvious they didn't want to be the ones to fight the kid and the Legendary Pokémon, but they had to as it was their Field Commander's direct order.

Tabitha looked at the boy and the Latios. He knew very well about Legendary Pokémon as his organization was actively pursuing one, the Creator of the land and continents, Groudon. Tabitha subtly reached for his visor and clicked a button, activating a special recorder feature to take a short video of the kid, and most importantly, the Latios. Maxie, the leader of Team Magma, would most certainly be interested in this. "Houndoom, if Latios attacks us in any way, attack Professor Alden," he ordered, knowing that was a good counter. All the Team's Houndoom nodded at the same time, taking in the order of the superior.

Latios growled. "Darn, that makes knocking them out psychically out of question…" he grumbled psychically so he didn't give any indication to the well-organized enemy squad that he was holding a conversation with his trainer.

'Why?' Ash asked. 'I still don't like it when you do that but if it's to free Professor Alden from those crooks, go ahead.'

"It's not that, Ash," Latios answered. "That guy who I presume is their leader is a lot smarter than he looks. I picked up his thoughts, he knew I had the power to knock them all out with a thought, since he ordered the Houndoom to attack the professor guy… if I knock them out the Houndoom will attack Alden. I can't even just snatch their Pokéballs because of that order."

'Can't you knock the Houndoom out psychically too?' Ash asked, eyeing the villainous team closely as three of the grunts the leader had motioned stepped forwards. Ash knew he had to fight them.

"No, they're Dark types. I wouldn't be able to, and even if I improvised something… it'd be too risky," Latios answered telepathically. "And I doubt you'd like me to take a risk with Alden's life."

"Oh right, I remember now, Houndoom are Dark-types," Ash muttered. "I had forgotten."

Tabitha chuckled. "Good luck kid. You'll need it."

The three grunts stayed in line in front of Ash, while Tabitha and the rest entered the treeline, planning on rounding the battle site. 'Shouldn't you try and stop them?' Ash asked.

Latios shook his head. "With Alden so close I can't attack freely in fear of hurting him, and if I do the three in front of you will attack you, and I wouldn't be able to protect you. They were very smart in using Alden as a human shield to get away from me. I think it's best to deal with these three first, and then go to save Alden," Latios explained. "They shouldn't be that difficult. It'd be easier to take them out in groups of three rather than all six at the same time."

Ash nodded. 'Okay. How's Latias?' He asked worriedly, his thoughts drifting to the Eon Dragoness and remembering she too had to deal with the rest of the villainous squad back at the Pokémon Center.

"She's fine so far, we're constantly talking through our bond. Don't worry about her, we're against the clock with these three, we need to deal with them fast so we go after the other three later," Latios responded, narrowing his eyes at the three grunts.

Each grunt hurled their Pokéballs, two per grunt plus the Pokémon each had out already as Ash reached for his own Pokéballs, knowing this was going to be a difficult battle and he was outnumbered…

…

Latias' eyes opened. "It's time."

Bianca perked up. "Really? That was fast."

Latias smiled. "I did say it wasn't going to be a long wait."

"What were you waiting for?" Bianca asked curiously.

"For Ash and Latios to confront the other group," she answered. "If I freed you all too soon, some of them might come back as reinforcements and make it too difficult. Now they're too busy dealing with Latios and Ash to come back. That was our plan."

Bianca nodded. "Okay Latias, what do you want us to do?" She asked as the Humans walked closer to them, wondering how this girl's twin would get them out. They had been arguing when the one with the pack and beret told them they'd be free soon and that they should quiet down. They tried to argue back, but a glare from the other twin was enough to shut them up for some reason… she had an intimidating air to her look that just killed any desire to argue with her, leaving them quietly wondering what she was.

"Tell them I'll open the door and distract the grunts. As I'm doing that, they're going to run for the reception area and get the electrical power and everything up while I'm dealing with the crooks," Latias explained telepathically. "Tell them to just do it and don't ask questions."

Bianca nodded and turned to everyone. "Okay, she says that she'll open the door and distract the guards. While she does that run off to the reception, Nurse Joy, and get it all fixed," Bianca translated. "And no questions, just do it."

Janet, the coordinator that she had met earlier, tilted her head. "But how is she gonna do that? They a-" She started, but was interrupted.

"Shh, no questions, please," Bianca cut her off. "Just do it. Okay, go ahead Latias," she said, turning to the disguised dragon. It was the first time the humans had heard Bianca say her name out loud, and that caused some of them to wonder even more about the twin's identity, especially Nurse Joy, since she knew well what a Latias was.

Latias walked forward until she was in front of the large metal door, and grinned. Her eyes glowed as he was covered in a shower of blue sparkles for a few seconds, completely hiding her form. When the light receded everyone gasped and was shocked to see… the female grunt of the villainous squad that had attacked them.

Bianca blinked. "Um, Latias? What was that for?"

Latias turned around and winked to her, unseen under the creepy visor. The copy of the enemy girl was perfect despite only seeing it once in the dark, though the dark didn't affect her enhanced and powerful eyesight. She focused on the door and her eyes glowed, looking for the locking mechanism. When she found it she began to psychically feel her way inside it, feeling every firm piece and all the movable parts, and once she got a feel of how it worked and built an accurate image of it in her mind, she unlocked it. With a loud click the heavy door began to slide open.

"Wow…" May muttered in astonishment at the Dragon's abilities, each more surprising and shocking than the lost. "She can open locked doors? Cool."

"How did she do that?" Janet whispered in astonishment.

"Um, she's Psychic," Bianca said quickly.

"Oh," Janet said, believing it instantly, as did everyone else. After all, everyone knew Psychics had all sorts of weird powers.

"Huh?" One of the guarding Grunts muttered, turning to the door and setting his visor in night vision mode. "Squad sub-leader? What are you doing in there? How did you get in?"

Latias put her hands on her hips and put on a very annoyed face. The other Grunt looked nervous; the squad sub-leader had a bitchy temper... "H-how did you get in there? Didn't you go out with the Field Commander? Uh, did we lock you in by accident?"

Latias nodded wordlessly, she lifted her arm and pointed down the hallway. The first grunt looked at her in confusion. "What's down there?" Latias pointed more insistently and put on a pissed-off face.

The second one blinked. "Yikes! Is there someone else left there?" He asked, intimidated.

Latias nodded, and made a motion with her head to that direction. "Uh, okay?" The first one muttered, and began to walk in that direction. "We'll go and investigate."

The other grunt followed him. As the grunts walked down the hallway, she noted the two Houndoom were giving her a very distrustful and angry look. Latias glared at them, and the grunts called out to the Pokémon. They slowly followed the grunts, looking extremely suspicious. Latias sighed. 'I can't believe this worked, they're too stupid for their own good,' she thought to herself, laughing quietly.

She motioned her arm inside the storage area and pointed to the opposite side of the hallway, in direction of the reception. "Go, they fell for my trick," she told Bianca.

Bianca nodded. "Alright everyone, follow us up to the reception!" She told them.

They nodded back and began to run out of the storage in a careful manner, not wanting to trip or bump into each other in the dark, running down the hallway opposite to where the disguised Latias had sent the two idiots away. The Houndoom that had been glaring at Latias turned and barked at all the commotion. "Huh?" One of the two grunts questioned as he turned, his visor revealing the scene. "What the hell?"

The other grunt growled. "That can't be the squad sub-leader! Then…" He pressed a switch on the side of his visor, switching it from Night Vision to the thermal sensitive sight, which revealed the low temperature the false grunt had, and behind her all the hostages fleeing. "That's…that's that weird cold human we were told to watch out for!"

Latias shook her head pityingly as she reverted back to her Bianca disguise, villainous uniforms weren't her ideal of a comfortable disguise. The first grunt shook in rage at being tricked. "Houndoom, use Flamethrower!" He shouted, having absolutely no concern that he was ordering his Pokémon to attack humans directly.

The Houndoom opened its muzzle and spat a powerful stream of red hot fire down the hallway, eerily illuminating it. Many of the fleeing people screamed, seeing the attack. But to their luck it wasn't getting past Latias.

She extended one arm and her eyes glowed, causing a powerful wall of psychic powers to form in front of her, completely blocking the Houndoom's attack and isolating it from the hallway to prevent a fire. With a thought, she dispelled it harmlessly. Even with her diminished powers inside the limiting human form, she was more than capable of defending them. Many of the people that had watched the flame attack in shock gazed at Latias warily, just wondering how strong this Psychic was.

There was a light buzzing sound as electricity filled the corridor, and then the lights flicked back on and illuminated the center once more. Latias had to be impressed with Nurse Joy's speed. 'At least the Pokémon are safe now. Well, got to finish dealing with these guys…'

The Grunt growled in frustration. "Houndoom, use Crunch attack!" He ordered. The demonical canine barked and charged at Latias, its teeth lengthening as dark power gathered in them.

"Latias!" Bianca cried in concern, seeing the large canine running up at her. Latias felt Bianca was the last remaining human in the hallway, indicating she had stayed behind while all of the others had gone to the reception with Nurse Joy.

Latias took a few steps back, not from fear, but because her tactic required her too. Once she had passed the storage door, she waited, and less than a second later the Houndoom lunged at her. She gave it a sympathetic smile, causing the Houndoom to wonder for a second what this strange human was. Usually when it lunged at humans with the intent to kill they didn't return looks like that…

Latias' eyes glowed when the Houndoom was in the position she had been waiting for, directly passing in front of the storage door. Suddenly a large supply crate flew through the door, flying with a lot of force from Latias' psychic pull.

The crate smashed into the armored Houndoom violently, smashing it through the corridor wall and knocking it out instantly. Bianca actually winced at the sheer force of the impact; Latias hoped Nurse Joy didn't get mad that she had broken down the wall... "Bianca, get to the reception where it's safe. I'll be fine," Latias told her best friend mentally.

Bianca shook her head. "I'm staying here Latias, I'm not leaving you alone," She said fixedly. Latias smiled, she had always liked Bianca's willful, independent and strong attitude, and felt touched that she was going to stay by her side. She returned her gaze to see the grunt returning the knocked-out Houndoom back to its Pokéball.

"Quick, get back to the hostages and shut the power down again!" The Grunt whose Houndoom had been defeated shouted. "I'll handle this freak!" The other grunt nodded and ran off to the other end of the corridor along with his Houndoom, leaving the single grunt alone with the human-form Latias and Bianca. He grinned darkly, his face hidden in the visor and hood. "You're mine, freak…"

He grabbed two Poké balls from his belt as he prepared to release his two remaining Pokémon, but suddenly both of them slipped from his hands and flew towards Latias, where they stopped in front of her, both surrounded in a light blue glow. Bianca laughed. "Easiest way to beat an enemy trainer ever," she commented.

"Indeed," Latias answered back. "He's not doing much without these."

"Hey," the Team Magma Grunt called out, infuriated. "Give me those back!" He ordered. Latias shook her head and stuck out her tongue childishly. The Grunt fumed in anger. "I'll take them back by force!" he threatened seriously.

Latias shrugged uninterestedly. Bianca looked over at the villainous guy, wondering what Latias was planning. "Bianca, tell him it's best if he gives up and surrenders," the eon dragoness told her best friend telepathically.

"She says that you should give up," Bianca translated, still keeping herself a good distance behind Latias.

The Team Magma grunt scowled, angered that such a little girl was getting the best of him, what a brat. He charged at her. No one would get away with something like this, not even a little girl, never. He was a well built and very tall man, he was confident he could snatch up two Pokéballs from this weird girl. "Give them to me or else!" The grunt threatened again.

Latias shook her head once. The angered grunt lunged at her and threw a punch aimed directly at her face with all his physical might. However the disguised Latias raised a hand calmly and intercepted the punch with her open palm. To the grunt's complete surprise the girl's hand didn't budge even an inch back, it was like his fist had hit a solid unmoving rock wall. "You shouldn't hit a girl you bully," Latias mused to herself telepathically even if she was sure the grunt couldn't hear her, giggling silently at the grunt's face of total shock that the girl had blocked his best punch so easily. Her eyes glowed slightly as she prepared to knock the grunt out psychically, but stopped in interest when he backed off and reached for his belt.

"Okay you little bitch, now you've angered me," the Team Magma grunt said dangerously as he pulled out a very long combat knife from a holster hidden on his leg. Bianca's eyes widened in horror when she saw the weapon, however Latias didn't really seem surprised. "Give me back those Pokéballs, now!" He ordered, holding the knife forward. Latias didn't move nor make any motion to answer. "That's it then!" He lunged at her again, this time he grabbed his knife firmly and stabbed directly at her upper chest.

"Latias!" Bianca cried in concern, terror gripping her.

Latias, however, didn't look very affected by the forward attack. As the grunt neared her, her right hand snapped forward with stunning speed, grabbing the knife firmly before it got close to her right by the middle of the blade and stopped it in its tracks near-effortlessly. The grunt gasped and looked stupidly at the girl's hand and then at her in disbelief. She had stopped his stab by grabbing the blade? To his even greater stupidity and shock, not a single drop of blood fell down from her hand. The girl didn't even seem bothered despite just stopping a very forceful stab with her hand, she didn't even look to be making an effort. "Wh-what are you? What t-the h-hell is g-going on?" The grunt asked in shock, looking into the girl's golden eyes. He growled and applied as much of his physical strength as he could, his arm shaking, but even so the girl's hand didn't even move an inch.

Latias looked at him unimpressed, and tightened the grip on the knife with her hand. With a quick twist of her wrist, the blade was snapped in half, the distinct sound of metal breaking echoed all over the corridor. The grunt gasped in surprise, looking with an idiotic expression between the broken knife, the girl's hand, and then at the overly sweet and cute smile she had that made him cower in fear. Bianca sighed in relief, putting a hand over her chest, feeling her pounding heart. Latias cocked her head. "Bullying a dragon who happens to be a Legendary Pokémon is never a good idea." Her eyes glowed, and the Grunt started swaying to the sides in a dizzy manner, and dropped to the floor, unconscious. "That's why."

Latias whirled around to continue on their way and blinked in surprise when she found herself face to face with a not very happy Bianca. The young artist gripped the legendary's human shoulders tightly and glared at her sternly. "Latias! Don't do that ever again, you worried me sick with that! You could have gotten hurt!" Bianca cried, her voice thick with worry and still shaky from the scare.

Latias tilted her head slightly, but smiled, her empathy picking up all the emotions Bianca felt for her, and how much she cared for her wellbeing. She reached up and pried Bianca's hands off her shoulders, and before the girl could react Latias pulled her into a tight hug. "I'm okay Bianca."

"But Latias…" Bianca insisted weakly, her worry slowly melting away.

Latias smiled as her entire body glowed, and she reverted back to her dragon form, hovering down a little so she was at eye level with Bianca. "Sorry for scaring you, but remember, I'm a Legendary Pokémon," she said soothingly, smiling gently. "I'm not gonna get hurt or killed by something as simple and trivial as a human's knife."

Bianca sighed unhappily, looking directly into Latias' bright and loving golden eyes. After a few seconds she smiled and pet Latias' head gently, scratching her behind the ear. "Alright Latias… just don't scare me like that again, okay?"

Latias nodded, humming in pleasure at the scratch. "I won't," she answered. She reached forward and licked Bianca's cheek affectionately. "Sorry about it."

Bianca fidgeted lightly in surprise by the affection, but smiled gratified nonetheless. "It's okay Latias, you're fine and that's what matters, it's just that it was very scary."

Latias turned and her eyes glowed as she scanned the storage room, lifting a long rope and taking it out to the hallway. She looked at the unconscious grunt and psychically tied the rope firmly around his ankles, wrists and arms. "That's gonna keep him bound."

Bianca nodded. "Yeah, that looks very tight."

"Come on, Bianca," Latias began, turning to look at her human best friend. "Let's go and get the other bad guy before he harms anyone." She wiggled, getting comfortable in the tight and smaller hallway while in her dragon form. "Wow, its kinda tough fitting in, Latios would probably be hopeless in here. Good thing I'm not claustrophobic." She giggled. "Let's go."

Bianca nodded and followed the Legendary down the hallway, looking at her with a fixed expression and thinking back to how she easily dealt with the Houndoom and later the grunt, all without any fear or doubt in herself. As she stared at her she found herself thinking back to the way she was at Alto Mare and how radically different Latias was now. Back then at their home she'd constantly rely on Latios' protection and she always hid behind him in the face of danger… now she was different, she stood fearless when in peril, she wasn't as ill-trained as she was back at Alto Mare, and even if Latios was still stronger and better trained than her, Latias was definitely no weakling either. She was now strong and very capable of taking care of herself. 'Latias…' Bianca thought to herself, her gaze still fixed on the dragoness in front of her. 'She's changed so much… now she's the one doing the protecting… she's so amazing now.'

Bianca blinked in surprise when Latias giggled, turned her head and winked at her. "Thanks," the dragoness said appreciatively, before returning to her path. Bianca shook her head in amusement and followed the dragoness.

…

Meanwhile, just as Latias was beginning her actions at the Pokémon Center to free the hostages, Ash was beginning his ordeal against the Team Magma grunts that had stayed behind to fight.

Ash growled slightly, looking at the lineup of Pokémon the villains had set out against him. "Nine against five… not very fair… as usual, the odds are against us."

Pikachu shrugged at his trainer's comments unworriedly. "Not really, I mean, look at the poor puppies, one of us are worth at least five of them, including the kids." He smiled, looking at Larvitar and Phanpy.

"I'm worth ten at least," Latios commented, glancing at Pikachu out the corner of his eye with a sly grin adorning his features. The electric mouse-like Pokémon glared at him in annoyance.

The confident grunt laughed, not understanding what the two Pokémon were saying. "Legendary Pokémon or not, we're gonna beat the crap out of you, little kid… you're so doomed."

"No! You're jinxing us! Now we'll lose and get beaten!" The superstitious one cried. "Shut up already dammit!"

Ash laughed at them. "True, bad guys always lose."

Pikachu nodded. "Ask Team Rocket. I don't really care about the number disadvantage, it's more than proven that we fight better at a disadvantage, whether it's type-wise or number-wise."

"I've always wondered why that happens, but let's not question it and do this quick," Latios said, looking at the Team Magma Pokémon. "We need to beat them fast so we can go to the Oldale Ruins and get the rest of them, as well as rescue the archeologist guy."

Ash looked at his Pokémon, going over each of them slowly. Latios, Pikachu, Pidgeot, Phanpy and Larvitar, all five of them standing in a clear line in front of him, with Latios at the center, giving the clear impression that if any of the Team Magma grunts wanted to harm Ash, they'd have to get through them first. Ash then shifted his gaze to the enemy Pokémon. In front of them were five armored Houndoom, three armored Mightyena, and one Pokémon he didn't recognize, a large orange Pokémon with what seemed to be two mini-mountains on its back, also clad in the same style of armor as the rest of the Pokémon. Ash took out his Pokédex. The little machine beeped once and read the information on the Pokémon in a mechanical voice while displaying an image. "Camerupt, the Eruption Pokémon. Camerupt have volcanoes inside their bodies, which can erupt and spew lava from the humps on their back when angry."

Ash raised an eyebrow in surprise when he heard what the Pokédex had just said. "Wow… that sounds tough... wait, how does having a volcano inside of you work? That sounds painful," Ash said, wincing while looking nervously at all the Pokémon.

Latios nodded and chuckled at his comment. "They're somewhat tough, I admit." He noticed Ash seemed a little nervous. "What's wrong Ash?" He asked curiously, glancing at his trainer out the corner of his eye.

Ash looked at all the Pokémon and frowned. "Latios, I don't think I can command so many battles at once… its nine against five, I can't keep watch on so many Pokémon!"

Pikachu nodded, understanding. "Yeah, that's gonna be tough to control…" He smiled. "Don't worry about me Ash, I'm pretty sure I can fight without your guidance and take on one of those overgrown puppies by myself, I've had enough experience to be able to do that already," he said confidently, not seeming to care that the Houndoom and Mightyena growled at him threateningly for regarding them so lowly and insulting them.

Latios, not wanting to be left behind by Pikachu's bold claims, quickly spoke up. "Really? I'm sure I can also fight without Ash's guidance, and I'd easily beat two of them."

Pikachu glared at Latios. "Make that three of them."

Latios glared at Pikachu. "Make that four of them."

Pikachu narrowed his glare dangerously. "Make that five. I can beat them."

Latios narrowed his glare dangerously. "Make that six. I can beat them."

Ash, Larvitar and Phanpy sweatdropped collectively at the two's argument. Pidgeot blinked and looked between the two arguing rivals and the enemy Pokémon. "How are you two planning on fighting five and six of them each if there are only nine of them in total?" Pidgeot asked confusedly. "We'd be lacking opponents then."

Latios and Pikachu quickly looked at the enemy and noted Pidgeot was right. "Darn," Pikachu mumbled. "Sorry Latios, you'll have to sit this one out. I can handle it."

Latios shook his head. "No! You'll only get in my way; I've got it just fine."

One of the Houndoom, apparently the biggest and strongest one, barked at them angrily. "Stop disgracing us! We'll show you how weak you all are next to us!" He taunted furiously, small embers flying from his muzzle.

Pikachu grinned at Latios, completely ignoring that the Houndoom had spoken to him. "Alright then, try to keep up with me."

Latios rolled his eyes. "It's you who should be trying to keep up."

The Alpha Houndoom growled in annoyance, a pair of angry veins appearing on his forehead at the fact his threat had been completely ignored. "Oh these little idiots…" he mumbled, pissed off.

Latios turned to Ash. "Think you can focus on two opponents?" He asked his trainer.

Ash nodded. "Yeah, that's considerably easier."

Latios smiled. "Alright, Pikachu and I will take on seven of them, who fights three and who takes on four we'll decide later."

Pikachu glared at the eon dragon as he clearly heard in his tone of voice that he was planning on being the one to fight four. "I'll fight more," Pikachu declared.

Latios rolled his eyes. "Alright alright, let's just fight all seven of them together, okay?" He asked. Pikachu nodded in agreement, so he continued. "Larvitar and Phanpy are not only the weakest, but also the least experienced and youngest of all of us; let them fight just one of them together guided by you Ash. That makes eight… Pidgeot can have the last."

Pidgeot glared at him, offended. "I was a flock leader for over a year, I fought countless battles against powerful opponents, way bigger enemies and outnumbering odds all against me to defend my protégés. I've trained endlessly awaiting the day my trainer came back and you think I can only fight one of them?" She asked angrily.

Latios flew a few feet back from her outburst, holding his claws out. "Hey let me finish! We'll leave you the biggest guy, the Camerupt. Ash wants to train with you to get used to fighting with you again, we'll leave you the biggest opponent for that, and you'll fight with Ash guiding you to accomplish that."

Pidgeot paused when she heard that. "Oh, I get the strongest one? Neat." She nodded. "Okay."

Latios rolled his eyes. "Sheesh, females."

Pidgeot glanced at the dragon for a second after hearing his comment, but she dropped the matter quickly and focused on the opponents. She blinked. "Why do they all seem so angry?"

The Houndoom leader would have face-pawed if he could have anatomically done it. "Well, because all of you have been ignoring us you feather-bag!" He screamed angrily. "Can't you have some decency and freaking pay attention to us?" He roared.

Latios chuckled. "Look who's trying to talk about decency," he commented sarcastically.

Pidgeot tilted her head at the Team Magma Pokémon. "Oh, wait, you were talking?"

The Team Magma Pokémon growled indignantly. "Yes, you sack of feathers!" The leader roared.

Pikachu chuckled. "Aw, how cute... He's angry."

Pidgeot shrugged. "Eh, petty insults won't anger me. You remind me so much of that bothersome Fearow that always tried to bully my flock. I beat him up every time, you're as pathetic as he was," She said calmly. The Houndoom glared at her.

"We'll make you eat those words!" A Mightyena retorted angrily.

Pidgeot again didn't look bothered by the threat. "You're more than welcome to try if you want to," she said, her voice brimming with confidence. The Mightyena growled threateningly at her.

Latios laughed. "What are those tattered rags you're all wearing supposed to be?"

The Houndoom leader growled in annoyance at what he just heard. "They're… custom designed… battle armors…" He muttered angrily, shaking from rage.

Pikachu, Pidgeot and Latios laughed raucously. Ash shook his head; amused Pidgeot was getting into taunting the Team Magma Pokémon and seemed to be doing well. Phanpy and Larvitar looked between the enemy Pokémon and their aunt and uncles and decided not to join into the older Pokémon trash-talk, that and the mean Pokémon looked scary. Finally Pikachu regained his breath long enough to talk. "A-Armor? Are you serious? Are you scared of taking a hit or something?" He questioned, barely holding the laughs back.

Latios nodded in agreement. "You all look very stupid in those worn-out rags."

"Very much so," Pidgeot agreed. The three laughed harder.

A Mightyena growled. "They're not stupid!"

Another Houndoom nodded. "We look badass!"

"And cool!" Another Houndoom seconded.

The Lead Houndoom smirked, agreeing. "And very awesome."

"And very girly, scared and weak," Pidgeot added after he finished.

"Take that back!" A Mightyena barked in anger.

Pidgeot narrowed her piercing eyes at him. "Make me," she dared the canine Pokémon.

"With pleasure…" The Mightyena growled sadistically as he stepped forward while snarling. Pidgeot squawked and spread her wings widely to the sides, talons scratching the ground as she got into an aggressive stance, suddenly appearing to make herself a lot bigger and more dangerously intimidating than she already was. The Mightyena yelped in fear and hid behind the Houndoom leader, cowering. "You handle her boss," he said fearfully.

The Houndoom leader growled at Pidgeot, and didn't back off like the underling just did. "How dare you insult our awesome battle armor, we'll make you pay for that! You will now experience firsthand the might of Team Magma! We will be-"

Pikachu snorted. "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Look, are you gonna bark all day, little puppy? Or are you actually going to bite?" Pikachu asked, interrupting him and then flashing a toothy grin. All the Team Magma Pokémon growled in anger at him, and only growled more in frustration when they saw he wasn't the least bit intimidated by them.

The Team Magma Grunts laughed. "See, our Pokémon have yours cowering!" The confident grunt boasted, not really having a clue what was going on between the Pokémon.

Ash blinked. "Uh, actually mine are much better at trash-talking than yours."

"Lies!" The woman Grunt shouted indignantly.

Ash ignored her and instead looked at Latios. "Be careful… it's seven against two…"

Latios grinned. "Tell Pikachu to be careful, he needs it more."

Pikachu laughed. "Latios, Ash was very right in telling you that first." He chuckled at him.

Ash shook his head in amusement. "So, how do we separate them? Doubt they'll follow our idea of fighting them."

"Not very hard actually," Pikachu said back.

"Yeah," Latios agreed. "Leave it to me."

"Us," Pikachu corrected. Latios rolled his eyes.

Pikachu quickly darted forward and jumped into the air. With a mighty cry he released a powerful Thunderbolt at the Pokémon in front of them.

The Houndoom, seeing the impressive power behind the attack, sidestepped the electrical blast along with the humans, splitting the group as they all dodged to the side it was most convenient for them, isolating the Camerupt, a Mightyena and one of the grunts on one side of the electrical attack and the rest of the group on the other.

Latios took a deep breath and fired a potent DragonBreath towards the isolated group, forcing them out of the road and also further separating them from the main group. Both him and Pikachu cut off their attacks and darted forward until they were between each group, effectively separating them.

"Damn! How did they do that! It was all too fast!" The confident grunt cursed, now cut off from the main Team Magma group and only having his Camerupt and Mightyena with him. He looked at the main group and growled at the sight of Latios and Pikachu in the way, meaning there was no way he could effectively rejoin them. He turned to look at the side, and saw Ash and the three Pokémon with him approaching. "I can't try and break through the Latios and Pikachu… if I do the kid would attack me too. I need to play their separate fight game and focus on the kid's Pokémon," he murmured. He gave the rest of the Team a glance, seeing Latios and Pikachu charging and attacking them head on. If he wanted to help, he knew he had to defeat Ash first. He returned his look at Ash and forgot Latios and Pikachu at the moment, surely the rest of the team could handle them, right?

The Mightyena and Camerupt stepped forward, ready for battle with Ash. Pidgeot laughed when she saw the Mightyena, the same she had scared earlier. "Cute," she commented sarcastically, glaring at him.

The canine Pokémon backed off nervously from the very terrifying avian. The Camerupt scuffed. "Sissy," he mumbled.

The confident grunt glared at Ash. "I'm gonna enjoy making you cry, little baby. Go back to your momma."

Ash laughed. "I'm not scared of you, you're a crook I'm turning over to justice! Pidgeot, get ready, you'll fight the Camerupt thing. Kids, let's get that Mightyena," he said, preparing for the battle. His three present Pokémon nodded.

"I'm ready Daddy!" Phanpy chimed, eager to fight and prove to his adoptive father how strong he was.

Larvitar nodded. "Me too," he said, not as enthusiastically as his 'older brother' had said, but still ready to fight for his adoptive father as well.

The Mightyena and Camerupt looked at them oddly, wondering why they had called the human 'Daddy' but quickly dropped the matter, it wasn't important. "Careful with the Pidgeot, she's tough," the Mightyena advised the Camerupt, though in reality he wouldn't admit he was very glad he was fighting two young kids.

The Camerupt didn't look scared by the Mightyena's warning. "Meh… Sissy Pokémon no compare to Camerupt, Camerupt strong… Camerupt win!"

The confident grunt grinned darkly. "Camerupt, roast them all with a Flamethrower!" He shouted, starting off the battle against Ash.

Ash was ready for the attack, not looking surprised. "Larvitar, use Dig! Phanpy, follow him underground! Pidgeot, counter Camerupt's attack with an Air Slash!"

Larvitar quickly dived forward, using his front paws to quickly dig a hole and disappear underground, and Phanpy followed after him immediately. Pidgeot dug her talons in the ground to get a firm grip and then flapped her large wings with astounding power, sending a pair of wind blades towards Camerupt, who spat a stream of flames from his mouth.

The two attacks collided, and to the Magma agent's surprise, Pidgeot's wind blade cut through the flamethrower with alarming ease. "Dammit, Rock Tomb!" he shouted. The Camerupt rose on his hind legs and stomped, causing a large boulder to emerge from the ground in front of him.

Pidgeot's dual blade collided with the rock, and dissipated. The Eruption Pokémon blinked nervously when the rock split in half and the top part slid to the floor, landing with a heavy thud. "Meh," he said, not sounding very convincing.

Mightyena rolled his eyes. "Told you to be careful!" He barked, and paused. "Wait, where are the other two?"

As if on cue, the ground below Mightyena exploded outwards and Larvitar emerged, punching him in the stomach, which was unprotected by armor. He was sent backwards a few feet, yelping in pain. Ash smirked, knowing he was not done. "Phanpy, use Rollout," he ordered.

Phanpy complied, curling up inside the hole and rolling forward, using the exit of the tunnel as a ramp. He emerged with a speed boost and smashed into the Mightyena, sending him flying and smashing him into a tree, the armor softening both hits and minimizing the damage taken.

The grunt glared at Ash. "It's gonna take a lot more than that to take out my Pokémon! You'll pay for that kid! Camerupt, roast that Pidgeot with a Lava Plume!" The Camerupt roared loudly, his eyes flashing red for a second as the temperature around him began to rise and the two rocky lumps on his back began to spew smoke and embers.

"Pidgeot, use Aerial Ace!" Ash shouted, pointing towards Camerupt. Pidgeot flapped her wings and took flight, quickly aiming towards the Eruption Pokémon.

The Camerupt roared, its lumps erupting violently and a huge plume of flames blasting in every direction. Pidgeot saw the blast of fire but didn't seem too alarmed. Her eyes narrowed as she gave a mighty flap of her wings and flew faster, wind streaks appearing all around her as she sped through the flames and hit the Camerupt in the head, the quick movements of the air around her protecting her from the fire attack. Just as quickly as she hit she flapped her wings and flew up to avoid spending too long in Camerupt's attack.

The Eruption Pokémon roared in anger at the hard hit, the armor covering his head cracking slightly. Pidgeot emerged from the smoke the flames had made. "That was a good hit!" Ash complemented, smirking. Pidgeot nodded in agreement.

"Shut it kid!" The Grunt said angrily.

Ash laughed. "Larvitar, Rock Smash!" He shouted. Larvitar nodded and ran towards the Mightyena, one of his arms covered in a white veil of power. Mightyena yelped, seeing the incoming attack. He braced himself and turned to his side, trusting his armor to protect him.

Larvitar punched the armor hard. It cracked severely under the hit, and Mightyena was pushed back a few feet from the sheer force Larvitar had put into the punch. "Bite!" Ash shouted next.

The Grunt growled. "Mightyena, use Shadow Ball!" He screamed desperately.

Mightyena nodded, and began to prepare to use the Ghost-type move… and then he felt the biggest pain he had ever felt. He yelped and screamed. Larvitar had bitten his tail. "Aaaahhhh!" The Mightyena screamed, trying to run away but he was stopped abruptly in his tracks and landed flat on his belly as Larvitar was too heavy to move, and that only hurt his tail more. "Ahhh! Get him off! Get him off!" He wailed pathetically as he pawed at the ground. He looked at Camerupt. "Heeeeelp meeee!"

The Camerupt snorted. "Sissy," he commented, walking towards him.

Ash smirked. "Pidgeot, use Peck," he said simply. Pidgeot nodded and flew towards Camerupt and started pecking him in spots that weren't covered by the armor. She kept flying over him, constantly bombarding him with pecks with her powerful and sharp beak all over his body.

"Ack! Ow! You sissy, get off!" The Camerupt said angrily, shaking and struggling as hard as he could to intimidate Pidgeot so she stopped pecking him, but if anything, she only pecked harder. "Camerupt mad!" He roared. Pidgeot pecked him harder. This time some of her pecks drew a drop or two of blood. "Arrgghhh!" Camerupt roared out, pissed off.

Ash laughed. "Phanpy, rollout! Larvitar, swing Mightyena into the rollout!" He ordered the two youngsters.

Phanpy nodded and curled into a tight ball, and rolled towards Larvitar. The Rock Skin Pokémon tightened his bite, causing Mightyena to cry, and spun on his feet, dragging the canine Pokémon along with the movement and swung him directly into Phanpy's attack, doubling the force of the impact and shattering some of the armor completely. Mightyena cried in pain as he was sent crashing into the Grunt, causing both to topple over. "Aaahh!" Both of them cried.

The kids laughed. "Take that meanie!" Phanpy cheered, jumping up and down on the spot.

Larvitar nodded, again not as enthusiastic as his adoptive older brother, but still happy. "Yep," he said simply.

The Eruption Pokémon had finally lost it with Pidgeot. "Camerupt smash!" Camerupt roared, rising himself onto his hind legs and stomping down furiously, sending a powerful fissure running across the ground below Pidgeot as he used Earth Power. The fissure trembled and released a mighty shine of yellow energy as the power of the earth burst through in a spectacularly powerful attack.

Overall it was an extremely devastating attack… which had zero effect on Pidgeot because she was flying a few feet off the ground. "Uh… ooookaaaay…" She muttered, having no idea what to say about the Camerupt. Larvitar, Phanpy and Ash looked in confusion at the cracks glowing with energy running across in a line from Camerupt and flowing underneath Pidgeot, who kept flapping her wings to float over them.

"Huh… Camerupt not smash? Camerupt smash harder!" Camerupt roared angrily when he saw his awesome attack had no effect on Pidgeot.

Pidgeot laughed. "Not a very bright one? Ground-type moves don't affect me. Now, it's my turn." Pidgeot's right wing began to glow brightly as it turned solid white, hardening to steel as she used Steel Wing. She shifted her weight and brought her wing downwards, smashing it into Camerupt's head, shattering the low-quality armor and hitting the Pokémon's skull.

"Aaaaaahhhh! Camerupt in pain!" Camerupt roared, thrashing about.

Pidgeot laughed. "Camerupt need talking lessons!"

Ash laughed. "Great work Pidgeot!"

Pidgeot nodded happily. "Thanks!"

Phanpy looked hurt at him. "No praise for me?" He asked in a sad and small voice.

Ash smiled. "Of course, you're great too! You too Larvitar!" Ash said to the two infants. Phanpy nodded eagerly and skipped about, thrilled at the praise from his daddy. Larvitar nodded.

Pidgeot flew and landed in front of Ash with her back turned to him, looking at their opponents and seeing the Mightyena and grunt standing slowly and shakily, and the Camerupt had stopped thrashing and was now glaring at them angrily. "Heads up Ash, we're not done yet," Pidgeot warned, but her voice still brimming with strength and unbending confidence.

Ash nodded. "I know. Let's keep going. Ready?" He called out enthusiastically. His three current Pokémon nodded and responded with their affirmative cries.

Meanwhile, the rest of the Team Magma squad along with their five Houndoom and two Mightyena was trying to fight Latios and Pikachu. Their battle had so far been more chaotic than the one Ash had been fighting against the single grunt with his Camerupt and Mightyena. After a while the grunts had realized that trying to command seven Pokémon was way too complicated, and that with five of them being Houndoom commanding a specific one was hard, so they settled on just sitting back and telling their Pokémon to do whatever they deemed right to beat Latios and Pikachu, an order the Alpha Houndoom found very appealing and he was more than eager to comply. Speaking of him…

"Get back here you pathetic wimp!" The Alpha Houndoom roared angrily, chasing Pikachu and spitting a powerful Flamethrower at him. Pikachu jumped acrobatically over the gush of flames, easily avoiding it.

Pikachu laughed mockingly. "Is that the best you've got?" He taunted, grinning as he landed.

"Oh, hell no!" The Houndoom shouted, running towards Pikachu surprisingly fast. His muzzle glowing brightly as he lunged at the Electric-type with a Crunch attack.

Pikachu sidestepped quickly, evading the Fire and Dark type's attack. However, the canine quickly whirled around, preparing a Flamethrower. Pikachu reacted fast, his cheeks sparkling as he countered the flames with his electricity. The attacks collided and blew up, holding a perfect stalemate between them. "You'll need more than that to beat me!" Pikachu cried as he ran forward, using a Quick Attack to close the distance between him the Dark Pokémon so fast that there was no chance to react.

Pikachu collided against him, pushing back a few inches but otherwise not moving the larger Pokémon. The Alpha Houndoom tried responding by throwing a Bite attack to the Electric-type, but Pikachu grabbed the armor firmly, and used it as leverage to push himself up and slap the Houndoom's face with an Iron Tail attack. The shining steel-hard appendage hit hard, echoing harshly across the woods.

The Alpha Houndoom yelped in pain and was pushed to the side, front paws clasping his aching muzzle from the mouse's attack.

With the Houndoom temporarily out of the way, the two Mightyena ran towards Pikachu, their jaws shining brightly as both of them prepared a double Crunch attack. Pikachu grinned as he saw the reckless head on attack while his cheeks sparkled violently with electricity. "Oh crap," one of the Mightyena muttered.

Pikachu nodded. "Yep," he said cheerily, and then he released a potent Thunder attack, shocking both Mightyena with a powerful bolt and causing both of them to cry out in pain. Pikachu heard a twig snap behind him and saw another of the Houndoom jumping at him, its muzzle covered in flames as it used Fire Fang.

However, before it got the chance to get close enough to Pikachu to connect the attack, Latios rammed into it with a powerful Tackle, making the Houndoom yelp in pain and be sent flying to the side, the armor softening the hit only just a little bit. The Dark Pokémon skid along the floor, wincing in pain. "Careful, I'm not gonna be watching your back all the time," Latios taunted his friend, smirking confidently.

Pikachu chuckled as his electrical attack against the two Mightyena ended. "Oh yeah?" He quickly ran towards Latios, jumped and then used the dragon's neck as leverage to jump farther towards the dragon's right, his tail shining brightly as he used another Iron Tail. He swung the hardened tail and successfully intercepted a Dark Pulse that had been aimed towards Latios, cancelling the Dark-type attack easily in midair. "Neither am I going to be watching yours all the time," Pikachu said back as he landed.

Latios smiled. "Of course."

The Alpha Houndoom finally recovered and along with two other Houndoom, spat a powerful triple flamethrower at them with as much power as they could. Latios' eyes glowed as he created a powerful sphere of psychic energies around him and Pikachu, shielding them from all three attacks effectively. Latios' eyes shined a shade stronger as the shields grew and deflected the fire attacks easily.

The Alpha Houndoom growled. "Stop hiding behind that stupid shield and face us you cowards!" He barked out, glaring at the two Pokémon. The two Mightyena and two of the Houndoom walked to his side, forming a straight line.

Latios shrugged. "Okay." He dropped the shield and charged at them. The five Pokémon immediately looked nervous, clearly not expecting that. Latios fired a stream of white flames as he used DragonBreath, forcing the canine Pokémon to scatter quickly to avoid his attack.

Pikachu quickly picked his target. He ran towards one of the Mightyena and used Quick Attack to speed up his movements dramatically. His tail began to glow a bright white as he readied another Iron Tail attack. The Mightyena barely had time to react, its keen hearing barely alerting it of the incoming attack. With no time to do anything he braced himself for impact.

Pikachu smashed the Quick Attack-boosted Iron Tail into the Dark-type's side very harshly, ripping off a good chunk of the armor and sending the Mightyena skidding several feet to the side, crying out in pain. Almost as soon as he was hit, the feeling of intense heat approaching warned him of the incoming Flamethrower from behind.

Pikachu's cheeks sparkled as he released a powerful Thunder Attack, enveloping his form in a tower of electricity that shot skywards and illuminated the woods that they had turned into a battlefield in a bright yellow light. The stream of flames grazed the electrical attack but was unable to penetrate it, leaving Pikachu completely unharmed.

Latios quickly charged towards the Houndoom that was attacking Pikachu, knowing that its focus was set on the Electric-Type. His wings glowed as he used Steel Wing, and with an extremely fast pass he hit the Houndoom before it reacted to what was happening. The demonic canine cried out as he was sent flying along the grassy floor of the woods until he crashed into a tree.

Pikachu quickly turned now that his attacker had been dealt with, and quickly charged at the Alpha Houndoom. He released a powerful Thunderbolt directly at him, but the strongest Houndoom didn't flinch in the sight of the attack. He opened his muzzle and fired a Dark Pulse, the beam of black and purple rings almost seeming to fade into the dark night.

Both attacks collided and exploded brightly, outlining the battle all around them. Latios flew above the blast, took aim, and quickly fired a DragonBreath at the group of Houndoom behind the leader, hitting them head on and causing some yelps of pain to echo over the forest. One of the Mightyena that hadn't been hit aimed up at the dragon and returned fire with a Shadow Ball, which Latios easily dodged. "Ha!" He laughed. "Gotta work on your aim!"

The Alpha Houndoom growled in anger. "Attack the psychic!" He roared.

All of the Houndoom took deep breaths and spat a barrage of Flamethrowers towards the eon dragon. Latios smirked and flew around the attacks, easily dodging all of them with grace and practiced ease. "You've got to do better than that!" Latios taunted. His body began to glow as he charged up a Luster Purge, which he fired towards the Houndoom.

The Alpha Houndoom laughed. "Stupid Psychic, we're dark-types!" He taunted back as the Luster Purge collided against them, leaving them unharmed despite the rather impressive blast that the dragon's attack had made. However, they were all forced to shut their eyes from the intense light the attack generated. "Ha! See?" The Houndoom said as he slowly opened his eyes once the blinding light died down. "We're alright!"

Pikachu, who was behind them, grinned. "Not for long." The group of Houndoom yelped and tried to move, but it was too late. All five of them were consumed inside a massive pillar of electricity courtesy of Pikachu's Thunder attack.

Latios chuckled. "My Luster Purge was only to cover Pikachu's movement, not attack you."

The two grunts watching the battle growled lowly, seeing their seven Pokémon not doing very well in the battle. "Come on! Do something!" The woman grunt screamed at them. "It's seven against two, dammit!"

The superstitious one looked nervous, as usual. "But we're jinxed, and one of those two happens to be a Legendary…"

The woman rolled her eyes. "Oh shut up."

The two Mightyena quickly charged at Pikachu, orbs of dark energies glistening in their muzzles. Seconds later a double Shadow Ball attack was fired towards Pikachu. Latios's eyes glowed, using his psychic powers to tear both Shadow Balls apart in midair, exploding them prematurely.

Pikachu's electrical attack ended, causing the five Houndoom to drop to the floor, shaking slightly from the massive attack. "You two are next!" Pikachu shouted, charging towards the two Mightyena that had been trying to sneak behind him while he was shocking the Houndoom.

One of the two charged at Pikachu, trying to tackle the Electric-type. Pikachu grinned as his tail hardened to Steel-like properties, glowing a bright white. He took a spectacular leap, evading the Mightyena's tackle. As he did so, his tail smashed against it harshly, causing it to cry out in pain and its armor to crack slightly.

The second Mightyena took a deep breath. A Shadow Ball began to form inside its muzzle as it prepared to attack Pikachu. It fired the attack, sending the orb of shadows towards the smaller Electric mouse Pokémon. Pikachu spun quickly, slashing the attack with his Iron Tail and deflecting it upwards, and making the Mightyena gasp. Pikachu's cheeks sparkled and the Mightyena's ears fell to the back of his head. "Oh crap…" it muttered.

It was shocked with a tremendous bolt of electricity. The other Mightyena cringed from the sheer force evident in the attack. "Ouch…" it commented quietly.

As Pikachu shocked the poor Mightyena senseless, Latios was fighting the Houndoom. A pair of Houndoom cried out in pain as Latios blasted them away with a powerful DragonBreath attack. "What's wrong? Can't keep up with me?" Latios taunted.

"Piss off!" The Alpha Houndoom shouted angrily, firing a powerful Dark Pulse from his muzzle towards the psychic dragon.

Latios smirked, once again dodging the attack acrobatically with a very showy flight maneuver. "You missed!"

"Aaarrhh!" The Alpha Houndoom screamed in frustration. "Get him!"

One of the Houndoom charged towards Latios, maw beginning to shine darkly as he prepared a powerful Crunch attack. Latios smirked, his eyes glowing brightly as he used a Psychic attack. The Houndoom obviously didn't seem alarmed as it was a Dark-type. However, to all the rest of the Houndoom's surprise, he stopped in midair.

"What? I'm a Dark-type! Stupid psychics aren't supposed to be able to touch me!" he wailed desperately as he struggled against the psychic powers.

Latios nodded. "Correct, but I'm not grabbing you. I can't." He smiled. "I'm grabbing the silly armor you're wearing. It's something I learned from my trainer back at a tournament when I was fighting a Shedinja, that a Pokémon may be immune to psychic powers, but…" he grinned darkly as he grabbed the armor with more force and began to press it against the Houndoom, causing it to struggle and cry in pain as his body was compressed by the armor, choking sounds began to be heard from the Houndoom as his ability to breathe was cut off by the squeeze. "I can affect everything around said immune-to-psychics Pokémon. A Dark-type's immunity doesn't protect it from everything around it, now does it?" Latios finished.

The Houndoom cried out harder in pain. He swore that if this continued his chest was going to cave in. "H-h-hel-help m-me!" he choked out in a very pained voice.

The Alpha Houndoom rushed forward quickly and then seemingly disappeared. Not even a second later Latios cried out in pain as he was hit with a direct Faint Attack, losing his grip on the Houndoom's armor. The demonic canine dropped to the ground, quivering and gasping, numerous pains wracking through his body.

Latios growled, he grabbed the Alpha Houndoom with his claws, causing him to yelp in terror, and then spat an extremely potent DragonBreath right into him, sending him flying into a tree and blasting the canine through it. "Oww…" The Dark Pokémon muttered in pain. The sound of something splitting and ripping immediately made him jolt up to a standing position. He barked lowly and ran to the side as the tree he had been blasted through fell onto where he had been.

Pikachu turned to Latios. "You okay?" He asked, a concerned tone in his voice.

"Yeah, I'm fine. It was just a light hit," Latios answered.

Pikachu nodded. "Okay. Are you ready to keep beating up the puppies?"

Latios smirked. "Yep. This is fun."

The Alpha Houndoom stepped forward, flanked by the other six canine Pokémon. "Beating us up, what are you talking about? We'll win!"

Pikachu looked at their clear injuries, their tired looks and cracked armors. "Yeah, sure you will," he said sarcastically.

The Alpha turned to the three Houndoom that were in the best shape, excluding himself and the one Latios had tried to crush with its own armor. "Attack him with Faint Attack; we'll follow after you three."

The three Houndoom nodded and charged at Latios, ready to use the Dark Type move. Latios smirked, and his eyes glowed. None of the three Houndoom saw the tree that batted them away harshly coming, sending them a few dozen feet away flying and sprawled them across the grass. Latios laughed as the tree hovered over him. "What? Am I too tough for you all?" Latios questioned. The remaining Pokémon growled lowly and backed off a few steps. Their two trainers narrowed their eyes, not liking how badly the battle was going.

The tree was hurled at the remaining Pokémon, who all tensed and prepared for the attack. Pikachu quickly ran forwards, using the flying tree as leverage to jump higher into the air while his cheeks began to sparkle brightly as he prepared a potent Thunder attack.

The Alpha growled in anger as his eyes narrowed at the two attacks, wondering how to stop the two seemingly unstoppable Pokémon.

…

While Latias freed the hostages and hunted down the last grunt and the battle between Ash and the grunts carried on, the rest of the Magma squad were in a hurry to get to their destination.

"Damn, getting around that kid was troublesome!" A grunt muttered as they ran towards the Oldale ruins, settling on getting there as fast as possible since they didn't know how long their teammates would last against the kid with the Latios.

Tabitha nodded. "He is a minor setback; we must hurry and open the Oldale Ruins! His intervention won't matter as long as we fulfill the objective and uncover the secrets of the place."

Professor Alden growled lowly as he ran too, knowing that if he refused to give in to their demands they'd attack him with their Houndoom. As far as he knew the keys to the Oldale Ruins had been lost ages ago, so he was fairly confident they would not be able to open the sacred place, but the worry was still there. 'I hope they don't open it… they can't have those keys… can they?' The archeologist thought to himself, panting slightly as he ran.

After a bit of running they reached the Oldale ruins, completely dark due to the night. Only the faint glistening of the moon provided any form of light. They ran up towards the sealed entrance of the chamber quickly. Professor Alden followed them reluctantly, not wanting those scary Houndoom to harm him. Tabitha grinned darkly. "We're here…" He reached for his visor and pressed a small button near the ear, activating a communications link. "Helicopter, lights up."

Alden closed his eyes in a daze as a massive beam of light illuminated the ruins, coming from two large searchlights in the front of a big pitch black tandem-rotor helicopter situated beside the ruins, the large logo of Team Magma proudly painted on its side. "There you go, Field Commander Tabitha," the helicopter's pilot answered through the intercom, and quickly shut the link off so he could laugh at Tabitha's name without getting scolded.

"You're going to open that, Alden," Tabitha ordered, pointing towards the door.

Professor Alden growled, and in a final brave effort to keep the villains from the wondrous secrets of the chamber, decided to play his chances and ignore all his fears. "No. Harm me if you wish, because if you do then you'll never open that door. I am not going to give you the secrets of that chamber. And it won't be long before the Latios kid comes here and beats you all up."

Tabitha laughed. "Feisty are we? I like it. We'll do things my way then. Hostages are such good bargaining chips sometimes." He pressed a button on his visor, activating a communications link. "Team Magma agents, attack the Pokémon Center hostages. I've always wondered what happens if you use Flamethrower on a group of people with no way out, and it seems it's time to find that out."

Professor Alden froze, his eyes widened in horror at what he just heard the villain say. "No! I'll open it! Call them off!" He screamed desperately. Putting the lives of others in danger was something he wasn't going to play with, he had partially forgotten they could still do that.

Tabitha laughed. "Uh, cancel that last order. I'll have to find out another day." He said through the comlink and then turned to Alden after turning it off. "Glad you'll cooperate without us needing to get drastic."

Professor Alden gulped. "Bu-but… There are four keys that are needed to open it, without them, nothing can be done," the archeologist warned. "And they are thought to have been lost across the eons of time; no one knows who made them or what happened to them, or if they even existed in the first place."

Tabitha nodded and motioned to one of the grunts. The grunt stepped forward, holding out a small box and the tablet they took from the archeologist's room. "I know we need those keys. You said that everything needed to open this chamber is in this little stone tablet."

Alden reluctantly nodded. "Yes it is… but without the keys it's of no use."

Tabitha grinned darkly and grabbed the tablet and little box from the grunt's hands and held them out to Alden. The box had a crystal lid, enabling the contents to be seen. Inside, there were four small perfectly spherical stones, each of a different color. "Well, I hope these make up for it," Tabitha commented.

Alden's eyes widened. "The keys! How did you get them? They've been lost for centuries!"

Tabitha grinned darkly. "Team Magma is a lot more influential than you think; we know a lot more about the world and its Legendaries, as well as the humans of the ancient times. These keys are magical, according to folklore they were crafted by humans of the ancient past. How? I don't know… However I do know that they open that door, but I don't know the order they need to be placed in or how. That's where you'll help, Alden."

The other grunt nodded. "Yeah, you know the movies, whenever you try to open an ancient place and get it wrong somehow; it usually collapses, or a trap activates and kills you… or it plain curses you."

Tabitha rolled his eyes. "Shut up, get ready to move in."

Alden reluctantly grabbed the small box and the tablet. He didn't want to open the ruins, but if he refused or got it wrong on purpose, they'd harm the people in the Pokémon Center and himself. With no choice left, he decided to open the ruins and hope for the best. "Alright…" He looked at the door silently and then began to read the tablet.

Tabitha began to grow impatient. "Well?" He pressed on.

Professor Alden nodded slowly, clearly hating himself for what he was about to do. He looked at the four keys, and then looked at the indentations arranged in a triangle. He grabbed the first of the keys, the red one and placed it on the left bottom indentation, and then he grabbed the blue key and inserted it on the bottom right indentation. "These two, red and blue, represent the Earth and Water… The green one represents the Sky…" he mumbled as he inserted the green key into another indentation, this one at the top of the triangle. He grabbed the last Key, a yellow one. "This last one… goes at the center, it represents the world… the balance between the earth, the oceans and the sky…"Alden said, placing the last key in place.

Tabitha nodded. "So that's the correct order?"

Alden sighed sadly. "Yes…"

Tabitha grinned. "Good," he said simply, then turned to look at the ruins expectantly. The ground shook slightly as the large metal door began to glow, and as if by magic, it began to slide backwards on its own, opening the chamber.

Professor Alden's eyes widened slightly. "Wow… it… opened on its own… how? I thought we had to push the damn thing."

Tabitha chuckled slightly. "The marvels made by the humans of the ancient times are more wondrous than what we give them credit for. That's one of the many investigations of Team Magma, discovering the true power humanity once had…aura, magic, psychics… rumors swirl around everywhere," Tabitha answered. He motioned to the two grunts next to him. "Photograph and record the entire place. If there is any information in there regarding our interests, I want to know, and hurry up, remember we've got to evade the Latios kid."

"Yes sir!" Both grunts said, saluting. They both took out digital cameras and rushed inside the chamber.

Tabitha smirked, walking towards the chamber. "What secrets do you hide…" He murmured. "Houndoom, keep watch over Alden. If he moves, attack him," he commanded to the obedient grunt's Dark-type. Without saying another word, Tabitha entered the chamber, taking a deep breath as he saw what it held.

He looked around, activating his visor. "Incredible…" Tabitha mumbled. All the walls were covered in a very rich and complex writing system, carved out on the walls all over the place. "Interesting…" Tabitha muttered as he saw all the stone-carved encryptions and images lining the walls. Nearby were the two grunts that were still with him, quickly photographing and recording the entire place. "Team Magma's science and archeology division's gonna take a while to decipher all this…Hurry up!" he hissed at his subordinates.

"Yes sir!" Both grunts said, trying to document the entire place faster.

Tabitha walked around, examining the chamber's side walls, until he came to the very back of it. There he saw a massive drawing of something that immediately caught his interest. "I want as many images regarding this one from as many angles as possible; this may hold an important hint!" He ordered. Both grunts nodded and walked up to him.

Before all three of them was a carved drawing that lined the entire back wall of the chamber, easily dimming out all the rest of the content inside it. The drawing depicted a human in the bottom part of it, holding what seemed to be a staff while his arms were spread wide, and surrounding him were three spherical carvings. Each sphere had a small inscription beside it. Directly in front of the human, facing each orb directly in perfect alignment, were three very well-detailed carvings of massive Pokémon, whose size was colossal when compared to the human. Each Pokémon also had several lines of text beside it. All over the drawing were numerous inscriptions and directions.

Tabitha smirked. "Bingo! I guess this confirms the existence of the three sacred orbs…" He paused and looked at one of the drawings in specific, a bipedal Pokémon with massive claws and spikes lining its body. "The great god, Lord Groudon…" He bowed slightly. "Boss Maxie is gonna love this."

One of the grunts scowled, turning to see the Pokémon beside Groudon, an equally large whale-like Pokémon. "Lord Groudon, yeah… and there's that little bitch Kyogre…" he muttered.

Tabitha nodded. "Indeed, she is that. This may hold valuable information so we learn how these three Pokémon gods created the planet; oceans so large are a grave mistake. We must fix the mistakes the gods made when crafting the world, expand the lands to turn this into a better planet…" He declared, his gaze set firmly in the carvings.

He stepped forward, looking at the drawing. For some reason when he looked at the lone human facing the three Pokémon, a chill ran down his spine. Tabitha wondered, who was he? Just looking at the carving made the feel of malice around the human very apparent. He frowned when he noticed something else odd in the pictured human. He ran his hand over the image, and suddenly the three orbs carved around him released a small light, causing Tabitha to back up in surprise. The orb facing Groudon glowed blue, the orb facing Kyogre glowed red, and the orb facing the third Pokémon, an equally massive serpentine dragon, glowed green.

Right at the center of the drawing, a small patch of the wall fell down, revealing something stuck inside the wall, perfectly centered between the Human and the three Pokémon gods. "What the…" Tabitha muttered. He pulled at it, and the object came off.

"What's that commander?" One of the grunts asked, looking over his shoulder. He immediately photographed the place where they had found it.

Tabitha nodded to himself, chuckling darkly. "A stone tablet… but this one is very different from the one Alden had… I believe this holds the key to the next step to finding the ancient orbs…" He turned towards the exit. "Finish recording the entire place, I don't want a single square inch of the chamber not photographed. And hurry up!"

"Yes Field Commander Tabitha!" The two grunts saluted, giggled stupidly at his girl name, and then focused on finishing photographing the chamber.

Tabitha didn't pay attention to their mocking of his name as his mind was dead set on trying to interpret the tablet and what it meant, and that large drawing in the chamber and what connection they had… he believed Team Magma's goal was now one step closer to fruition…

---

Author Notes: Well, the chapter's finally done… Woohoo! This chapter was somewhat difficult to write. My main trouble was coordinating all scenes as I had happening all at the same time, it's the first time I've done this, I hope I did okay. =) For those of you who are wondering, yes I changed the order of the chamber keys and the contents of the chamber, why? Because I thought it was cooler my way. XD And also to enrich the plot I've set in motion.