This gracious peek into the multiverse comes to us from Zarrelion. Not gonna lie, being the fan of a certain franchise and it's most recent game, I found this contribution to be fairly enjoyable. It speaks to me and it is my sincere hope that it speaks to you as well.

Good Game

"And welcome to the greatest tournament in Hoenn where the best of the best will compete for glory! Welcome to the Evergrande Tournament!"

The bright tropical weather of Hoenn perfectly complemented the tense atmosphere of the stadium. Throngs of spectators filed into the stadium among a pumping high-octane hard rock track. But there was something a little different about this stadium. Instead of the classic lines that were the hallmark of a pokémon battle arena, there was simply a stage and two cubicles.

The announcer went up onto the stage and tapped on the microphone. "Today's tournament will be Poké Wars. Please give it up for the Johto champion: the Sky Guardian, Ho-Oh!" Banners and flags waved in support of the Legendary.

Cheers arose as a shadow eclipsed the stadium as Ho-Oh performed a flyover, trailing a glittering rainbow trail. He then he landed in the center field in a plume of fire to screams of adoration and thunderous applause. The Legendary drank in the adulation of his fans and waved to the crowd.

The announcer then cleared his throat. "And the reigning champion, the Chosen One, Ash Ketchum!"

Ash, dressed in his Kanto League outfit (sized up to account for his growth spurts since then) of a black undershirt, white t-shirt and blue vest gracefully descended a staircase made of light. Despite today's battle being completely virtual; Pikachu still rode on his shoulder.

Humans and Legendaries alike cheered for both the contestants.

The announcer then addressed the two. "Competitors, to your positions!"

Ash turned his Pokémon League cap backwards and strode towards his cubicle. Ho-Oh glowed a brilliant white and shrunk down to a more appropriate size as he too entered the cubicle. Within moments, massive screens at all sides of the stadium flared to life with the competitors' information along with the regions they'd be playing on. The only thing missing was which faction they'd be choosing

It was go-time for Ho-Oh, his terminal already had the game loaded up and the map chosen. He looked over the factions available and weighed his choices. He clicked his beak together as he weighed the strengths and weaknesses of each one. Mew was immediately rejected off the bat as his faction was considered something of a "joke faction" with some of the worst units in the game but truly nasty support units. Kyogre was excellent in regions with lots of water but the region they'd be playing in was Kanto/Johto — and his land units were mediocre. Seeing as the clock was ticking, he opted for the LaRousse faction, which he had used to win the Johto League.

The Sky Guardian wasted no time in pumping out pokémon trainers to defend his base. Luckily, a quick check at his region map indicated that he had Saffron City under his control. Seeing as that was an area of vital importance, he quickly switched over to that location. Currently, the base was only being defended by some light infantry. Keeping an eye on his money reserve, he quickly got to work garrisoning the infantry in the buildings.

"Blackthorn City is under attack!"

Quickly switching screens to show Blackthorn City, he could see that his base was under attack, albeit with Uxie's unique unit — brainwashed civilians, very weak, very inexpensive but were equipped with gasoline bombs and fireworks that were distressingly effective against buildings. Checking his money reserves, he quickly queued up a few pokémon trainers, light infantry and got to work repairing the buildings they had damaged.

"Oh and it looks like Ash has gotten the first strike on Blackthorn!" the announcer exclaimed. It was then that some new pokémon trainers and light infantry were created. Ho-Oh immediately set them to work killing the intruders in his base.

"Looks like Ho-Oh's countering with a force of his own but he's outnumbered!"

Again, the crowd roared with approval and support for their gamer of choice.

"Damn it, he's chosen Uxie." Ho-Oh quickly switched tactics. A message came up on the screen indicating that he could now produce LaRoussian Powered Infantry thanks to the research being finished.

He sighed in relief and immediately began cranking several of them out of those out, opting to not use the light infantry any more. Already, Ash's first strike had destroyed the refinery present, killed all the harvesters and nearly destroyed the pokémon gym. Once that was destroyed, the base/city became the enemy's. The moment three of them were ready, he set them on Ash's forces while he started repairing the gym.

Private Gideon Harbing fired his PAR 41A "Manectric" battle rifle full-auto at the crowd that charged him and his two fellow soldiers. Even as the large 10 x 24 mm explosive tipped rounds tore into the charging horde, ripping out chunks of flesh, scattering viscera and turning heads inside out, the crowd simply continued charging. Private Harbing looked at his two fellow soldiers. They too, sprayed down the crowd with a hail of bullets. He heard screaming as one of his soldiers was ignited by a gasoline bomb thrown from the angry crowd. It was a devastating reminder that while the armor protected remarkably well from bullets and similar projectiles, it offered minimal protection from fire.

Soon, fireworks and gasoline bombs fell like hail. As if possessed by some supernatural force, he and his remaining fellow soldier deftly maneuvered around the projectiles and fired at the attacking swarm.

Perhaps he'd make it through after all.

Ho-Oh quickly maneuvered the two soldiers (soon four as the queue of LaRoussian Powered Infantry was finished) around the city. Thankfully, the LaRoussian Powered Infantry were quick and agile and the brainwashed civilians' weapons were slow and inaccurate. And of course, he had a very strong micro-game...it was a trick that he had learned from playing against Cynthia.

He let out a sigh as the game announced that the refinery was ready to be placed. Ho-Oh placed it somewhat closer to the ore fields than where the old one was originally located. Seeing as his base was lacking severely in defense, he queued up several more LaRoussian Powered Infantry. And had them garrisoned in the buildings. That'd have to do until he got some actual defensive structures up.

"And would you look at that! Ho-Oh shows his legendary micro-skills again! But Poké Wars isn't won on micro alone!"

An instant replay was shown on the some of the screens of Ho-Oh's deft maneuvering of two and then four LaRoussian Powered Infantry in killing off a group of twenty of Ash's brainwashed civilians.

The other screens were showing Ho-Oh preparing a force of Makuhita IFVs, Hariyama tanks and of course, LaRoussian Heavy Gunners.

The Sky Guardian swore under his breath. While he was busy keeping Blackthorn from being taken by Ash, he had completely neglected the other cities. Thankfully, he had plenty of forces defending Saffron but he had lost the Lake of Rage.

He switched screens to Blackthorn. He had some Dragonite trainers were queued up to help support the attacking force.

At the same time, he switched over to Pallet Town. The base itself hadn't been noticed by Ash yet. Ho-Oh began cranking out a few Camerupt SPAs and a dozen Ninjask drones. At the same time, he checked how much money was remaining. He swore under his breath; in exchange for some of the strongest infantry and vehicles of the factions, LaRousse's pokémon trainers were both more expensive and not as effective as those of the other factions And of course, their infantry and vehicles were costlier as well. Ho-Oh clicked his beak; Ash's first strike had set him back quite a bit. Hopefully by taking Indigo Plateau he could make up for it.

Izsuara felt a perturbation in the psychic field around Indigo Plateau. As a relatively new Alakazam, Uxie had assigned him to guard Indigo Plateau. It was a simple assignment meant more to give him experience in leading a group of Venomoth. Of course, he was sitting on a valuable ore field but the base was in area that the LaRoussians hadn't yet mapped out. The latest intel he had from Uxie indicated that the Humans still thought the area to be empty.

In his mind's eye, he could see Machoke digging up and hauling the ore to be refined into valuable raw materials to fuel the war effort.

He reached out with his vast psychic powers to try and grasp the minds of the invaders. To his shock, all the Alakazam felt was an empty void. No matter, the Venomoth would make quick work of them.

The Ninjask drones were remarkably quick, covering the distance from Pallet Town to Indigo Plateau in less than an hour with a full weapon load. Almost immediately, they were greeted by a horde of Venomoth.

The quadcopters immediately broke formation as blades of air and psychic beams slashed the air. Machine gun fire soon joined the cacophony as the drones retaliated.

Ho-Oh clicked his beak as Ash had his Venomoth engage the drones. Several more drones were queued up to replace the inevitable losses. Hopefully Ash wouldn't be able to react in time to the bombardment.

He checked on his six Camerupt SPA which were deployed just within range of the base. They were protected by a few LaRoussian Heavy Gunners but the majority of the infantry were the Makuhita IFV. He quickly tabbed over to the research panel — no active research going on. Not a problem as he was running short on money. A warning indicated that Blackthorn was under attack.

The Sky Guardian held his ground. If he could pull this off, he'd deal a major blow to Ash. The warnings grew more and more insistent; this wasn't a simple harassment campaign. It was a full-out battle to take his resource base.

He quickly ordered the artillery to fire into the base. As he did so, he decided to use a few other drones as spotters.

"Fans! This is incredible! It looks like Ho-Oh's betting his all on this attack! And it looks like Ash is pounding Blackthorn's forces! Right now, it could go either way! If either one loses it, they're done for!"

The screens showed Ash's ferocious assault on Blackthorn using a mixed force of Salamence, Gyarados and Golem. The defensive structures and combat units Ho-Oh had scattered around the city were just barely holding on. The remaining screens showed the fierce aerial battle between the Venomoth and the Ninjask drones and the artillery bombardment.

Cheering filled the stadium as the fans watched the fierce virtual battle being waged.

Izsuara let a small smile play across his face as the last of the invading drones was torn apart by a rainbow beam of psychic energy. The Humans' attack was foiled at the cost of quite a number of Venomoth. No matter, bug-types were quick to mature and easily cloned. All he had to do was get more Machoke ready to...

Izsuara swore as his mind's eye saw explosions blossom around the rich ore field. Remnants of Machoke decorated the cratered land. The surviving Machoke fled under the barrage of artillery shells. The refinery itself was a smoldering heap of twisted metal. Fuming, the Alakazam kicked himself as he realized that the seemingly massive aerial assault was merely a diversion. His sanctum shuddered as artillery fire pounded the citadel.

He only had one option left. The Alakazite and the Key Stone. Telekinetically breaking the glass case holding the two items, he slammed them into his two spoons, triggering a bright flash of light.

Izsuara felt his body slacken as his muscles withered away. The walls of his compound became transparent as an infinite universe lay bare before him. The Alakazam floated off of the floor as a luxuriant beard sprouted forth from his chin and his spoons split five copies of themselves that fanned out before him like a deck of cards.

The door to the battlefield outside opened by an unspoken command, letting in the pungent chemical scent of artillery bombardment.

"Fuck!" Ho-Oh yelled. Thankfully the cubicle was soundproofed. He clicked his beak as he ordered his artillery to bombard the Mega Alakazam floating out of the psychic sanctum (Uxie's equivalent of the pokémon gyms).

He tabbed over to Blackthorn, which was still at a stalemate. Luckily, the Dragonite trainers were doing remarkably well against the invading pokémon. Unfortunately, most of the base was completely leveled, the only thing remaining was the pokémon gym and he had to keep feeding it engineers every so often so it wouldn't be destroyed, giving the base over to Ash.

Izsuara saw the Humans' drones attempt to attack him. The explosive bullets merely made his shield flicker. A quick thought and the drones all plunged to the ground as if pulled by an invisible hand.

An artillery shell landed squarely on him, sending him reeling but leaving him unharmed. He levitated further onwards, heedless of the shells that scarred the land around him. Before he knew it, the Alakazam was in front of the six Camerupt SPA. At this close range, their powerful 155 mm cannons were useless but their smaller 10 x 26 mm coaxial machine guns peppered him with explosive rounds. His body was flared with a preternatural blue fire as one of the massive armored vehicles hovered in the air. A quick glance and the multi-ton artillery piece was hurled into the IFV, reducing them both into crumpled wrecks.

Another artillery piece was telekinetically lifted up and slammed into the ground with such force that it buried itself in a small crater. A crewman crawled out of the wreck. Izsuara mowed down the man with another Camerupt SPA that he had seized and tossed with his seemingly infinite psionic powers. If one didn't know any better, it would seem that the Mega Alakazam was enjoying the slaughter. The third artillery piece was lifted up. The Mega Alakazam's face remained a blank slate as the sound of screeching metal rent the air. Pieces of the Camerupt SPA rained down like metallic confetti. The last two artillery pieces were simply thrown at each other as if they were toys at the hands of an angry child.

It was then that the Alakazite and the Key Stone burnt themselves out. Izsuara collapsed onto the ground and staggered to his feet. His feeble muscles barely supported his weight as the psionic shield vanished. He regained his bearings and resumed his usual method of locomotion by hovering off the ground.

He was alone in the scarred battlefield but with nothing nearby, he felt secure.

Ho-Oh clicked his beak. He cursed himself for not studying up on Uxie as the most common factions he faced in the Johto tournaments were the HLC and the faction that bore his name. Amusingly, he regarded his eponymous faction as something of a beginner's faction with units that were good early game and that rapidly fell in usefulness as the game went on.

That said, he deduced that the Mega Evolution was Uxie's superweapon. And it had completely destroyed his invading force. Blackthorn was safe too. Rebuilding that had to wait as he had Ash's Indigo Plateau base on the ropes.

He swiftly queued up some Ninjask drones (armed with grenade launchers this time).

Ho-Oh then checked his research tab. The LaRoussian superweapon — the Doom Desire satellite mounted particle cannon — was available to research. He pondered whether it was worth it or not. It was expensive and it took a while to research but it would let him carve out a large piece of Ash's forces.

In the meantime, the drones were ready. Ho-Oh wasted no time in sending them to attack Indigo Plateau. In the span of a minute (and with the loss of a few drones thanks to the enemy Alakazam's Shadow Ball attack), he had killed the Alakazam, razed the psychic sanctum and placed down a pokémon gym, granting him control over that particular area. He quickly set up the Ninjask as a defensive perimeter while he placed down a barracks and queued up two LaRoussian Frontline Assault troopers.

He had to admit, these units were quite expensive and extremely slow for infantry but they were heavily armored, immune to psychic attacks and their 20 mm rotary cannons with armor piercing incendiary shells tore apart infantry, unarmored pokémon, lightly armored vehicles, aircraft and flying pokémon with ease.

The next building to go up was a refinery.

Cheering from Ho-Oh's fans broke out as he successfully took the base and made it his own.

"Fans, it looks like Ho-Oh has pulled off the biggest upset we've seen so far! But Blackthorn is in sorry shape.

"And it looks like Ash is making a push for it from Mahogany Town! I think this might be it!"

Ho-Oh quickly plopped down as many defensive structures as possible in the ravaged city. Luckily, a few of the Dragonite trainers were still present. Ninjask drones were deployed and a LaRoussian Frontline Assault trooper was deployed to bolster the force of LaRoussian Powered Gunners.

He took a deep breath and clicked his beak. This was going to push his micro skills to the test.

This was it. Sergeant Ashton Raze marched over the ravaged terrain of Blackthorn as he and a few soldiers guarded the entrance from Route 45. The few remaining friendly Dragonite flew overhead. His exoskeleton whirred softly as he hefted his 20 mm rotary cannon. It was a massive piece of equipment better suited for a vehicle but the Aggron Mk. III powered armor he wore made him literally head and shoulders above the other infantry when it came to size and stature.

Already he could see a massive army Golem and Salamence approaching along with a pack of Heracross and a few Donphan scattered among them. And the city had only a pittance of troops, friendly pokémon and defensive structures.

An explosion signaled that one of the Salamence had blasted apart one of the guard towers with a Hyper Beam. Sergeant Raze's rotary cannon spooled up in and in less than a second, he sprayed down the first horde of Heracross with the explosive rounds. Puffs of blood and tissue hung in the air as the Heracross were reduced to bloody smears on the rocky ground.

Despite focusing on the approaching Heracross, Sergeant Raze moved out of the way of a massive boulder that cratered the area he was standing. To him, it was as if someone else had seen that boulder and moved his body for him.

He paid no heed to that as he slowly pushed onward, his rotary cannon roaring like an enraged Charizard as it mowed down Heracross. As for the Golems, they too pushed through the hail of explosive shells.

Orange beams lanced across the sky and gouged the ground as the Dragonite strafed the Donphan and Golem with their Hyper Beam attacks. Salamence retaliated with the shimmering green flames of Dragon Breath. One Dragonite went down in flames.

Ho-Oh's heart pounded as he worked the keyboard and mouse to their limits. His force was relatively small but it was powerful. He checked his cash flow. He opted to empty his resources (even selling some of the structures in Blackthorn) and train two LaRoussian Frontline Assault troopers. It was a gamble that relied on his ridiculous micro skills. If he managed to destroy Ash's forces and push on, he could obliterate Violet City and clinch the game. If not...then he just handed Ash a win.

"I haven't seen this much gambling since Mauville Game Corner hosted poker night!"

By now, the stadium was in a frenzy with both sides cheering for their favored contender.

"And it looks like Ho-Oh might take it! He's forcing Ash back down into Violet City. Oh, it looks Ash just got off a Mega Alakazam! Looks like Ash might just make a comeback!"

Ho-Oh's beak dropped open. In mere seconds, he had lost two LaRoussian Frontline Assault troopers. He kept his remaining trooper away from the Mega Alakazam — not an easy task considering that the LaRoussian Frontline Assault trooper was possibly the slowest unit in the game. Fortunately, with the Dragonite constantly harassing it, Ho-Oh was able to maneuver the infantry unit away from the Alakazam until its Mega Evolution ran out.

Unfortunately for Ho-Oh, he had a total of five units: four Dragonite and one LaRoussian Frontline Assault trooper.

Well, it was now or never. He marched his units into Violet City. Ash was almost defeated but he wasn't looking too good either with barely any money left.

Ho-Oh's keyboard and mouse were practically aflame as he swiftly maneuvered his units to dodge enemy attacks and retaliate. Eventually, all he had left was the LaRoussian Frontline Assault trooper. In desperation, he ordered the trooper to attack the psychic sanctum. As he watched both health bars declining with the infantryman nearly dead and the sanctum at half health, he opted to have the LaRoussian Frontline Assault trooper self destruct.

He let out a breath that he was holding as the explosion took out both the psychic sanctum and most of the defenders.

Unfortunately, he didn't have enough money to place down a pokémon gym and there were still some hostiles present.

But it came, two simple letters and a sentence.

"gg"

Ash has left the game

Ho-Oh nodded and set "gg" back in reply. He leaned back in his chair and waited for the referees to dismiss him. It was then that he realized how thirsty he was.

And sure enough, when the two contestants were dismissed and ushered up to the podiums to receive their prizes, the excited roar of the crowd became a fever pitch. The instant replay of Ho-Oh's winning move flashed back on the screens over the stadium.

Ash proudly bowed his head as the medal was awarded to him. Ho-Oh shook his hand and the two parted ways.

As the two shared one last glance at each other, they had the same thought: "Well played."