An animated flash of light broke free from the ball. It traveled forward a few feet before deciding to take a more stable form. It was far too difficult to notice anything else before its size; it didn't stand lower than any two of the Trainers put on top of each other. Black on red with a gray belly. The color scheme and its size were intimidating, but neither matched up to the fright of what looked to be hundreds of sharp teeth inside of its monstrous mouth.

As it released a deafening growl, the room was suddenly blasted with a wave of heat. The temperature instantly rose by twenty or thirty degrees, forcing the humans to back off in the hope of escaping some of the overwhelming warmth. Silver, in his dark, heavy clothing, was the most effected, but he managed to hide his discomfort well.

"Son of a..." he muttered underneath his breath.

The only person not bothered much by it was Groudon's master. He found only amusement in his enemies' reactions. "It's glorious..." he gloated, completely ignoring a bead of sweat that ran down his cheek. "After your pitiful show of force here is stopped, the entire world will be bathed in this heat. Relentless until the earth is dry."

The almost dinosaur-like figure that was Groudon's own roared one more time.

"Only now do I realize just how messed up in the head you are," Tabitha stated. "I've done just as much research into that thing as you have, and I ain't scared of it."

"As much research...?" Maxie started quoting. "You cretin. I was learning everything about Groudon before you were born."

"Yeah? Then tell me when it crossed your mind that using a Ground-type in a base like this was a good idea." The Admin pointed at the ground. "If you use any of its moves, this base is going to crumble and we all go squish. That is, if all the water doesn't kill us first."

While those two argued, Dusk was relieving his backpack of items he had no current use for. After tossing enough items on the ground, he was able to put the exhausted Wizard inside. It was the only way he could protect the weakened Pikachu from heat.

When Tabitha reached the part about using Ground-type moves, however, he paused instantly and looked at the Pokéball he was still holding on to.

Maxie obviously wasn't concerned with his son. Instead, he took to laughing at his ex- right-hand man. "You overestimate yourself. Groudon doesn't need to use his specialty moves. I hear they call that overkill."

Of everyone, it was odd that Archie was the one needed to interject. He swiped away from perspiration from his beard before speaking. "Groudon's power has seeped into Maxie's head. Arguing with him now will be pointless. As if it ever wasn't."

Dawn was the quietest one. Just minutes ago, she had given a speech about fear; now she had forgotten every word of it. She tried convincing herself that Umbreon was her strength, but it wasn't enough. She had faced down two legendary Pokémon not unlike this one just a week or so ago. She remembered being terrified then, and this time, there was no option to run.

No option to run. So she had to fight, then.

The Pokéball in her hand popped open, allowing Berlitz to feel the overheated air. She winced as she first witnessed it, but got a hold of the situation quickly.

"Dawn has the right idea," Dusk said, fixing his arm underneath the second strap of his backpack. "We can't stay down here forever. So let's end this sooner rather than later."

"I couldn't agree more," Maxie chimed in.

As Dusk was about to release his Pokémon, he became startled by a chunk of black rock hurled not far from his face. It had come from his left, and the trajectory it was flying at meant that it was going to collide with Dawn's Misdreavus.

Before it could be stopped, it nailed Berlitz in her side. After a confused chirp of, "Misdrea?" the Pokémon itself began glowing white.

Reasonably, Dawn was the most concerned. She glared past Umbreon and Archie, having a good feeling where it had come from.

She couldn't get any words out, though. Not before Silver dropped his arm back to his side and spoke. "It's a Dusk Stone," he stated like it was an obvious fact. "You're welcome."

Dawn wordlessly turned her head back around. Her eyes met with Berlitz's new form. It was similar to her previous one, but bigger, stronger-looking, and her personal favorite part, more purple. There was no way to go back now, and Berlitz realized that before Dawn did. She looked at her Trainer and nodded. "Mismaagius," she uttered.

Umbreon, however, had a problem with it. Not with the thought, but the action. He distinctly remembered Silver jumping on him after he asked why his Electabuzz wasn't evolved. It seemed rather hypocritical that Silver evolved one of Dawn's Pokémon without even asking. Now, however, was a bad time to scold him for that. It could wait until they were outside. For right now, he returned to his original plans and let his Buneary out of her Pokéball.

"What? Nothing to add?" Umbreon asked after a noticeable lack of commentary from Silver.

Silver gripped his own Pokéball a bit harder before responding. "I was expecting you to rely on useless Pokémon, and I was right. If you want to impress me with your stupidity, you'll have to do better than that."

The arrogant Trainer was next. His Pokéball contained the mythical Dragonite, the same one he used in Petalburg. With nothing left to be said, Archie and Tabitha sent their own Pokémon into the fray. A blue- and white-colored manta ray appeared in front of the former, while a purple, four-winged bat defended Tabitha.

"At last," Maxie grunted, "Groudon! Destroy them all!"

In what was either a test of their skill or a moment of blind anger, Groudon made a sweep with the back of its hand across the field of its enemies. It failed miserably. Dragonite and Vesera managed to duck underneath it, while the remaining three simply hovered or flew over it.

"Dragonite, be useful for once. Use Hyper Beam," the Pokémon's Trainer commanded.

Archie wasn't about to let an opportunity go by. Teammates were one of the few advantages they had over Maxie right now, and he didn't see a reason not to use it. "Mantine! Back him up with Water Pulse!"

Dragonite wasted as little time as it could. When it finished charging, the Hyper Beam was loosed. In response, Groudon lifted its arm up to block the attack. To the Dragon-type's frustration, it worked well enough. The Hyper Beam didn't seem to do much at all apart from sliding the monster back a foot or two. The only thing more pitiful was Mantine's attack—the extreme heat evaporated a considerable amount of force that was behind it. Groudon didn't even realize it had gotten hit with anything else.

Being the vaguely-decided leader, Dusk thought it was his place to speak up. "I have an idea how we're going to finish this thing off, but we have to get it weaker. Force isn't getting us anywhere, so we need a tactic that doesn't involve pounding on it."

"Oh, do share, son," Maxie prodded.

Umbreon cursed to himself. Unlike leader, that "son" title is one he didn't crave so much. He forced himself to ignore Maxie. It wasn't worth it. "Dawn, go in high. Vesera, Ice Punch!"

Besides herself, Dusk was more or less surrounded by teammates that were enemies. Still, she appreciated that he had asked her for help. Though still fighting fear, the blue-head pointed towards Groudon's head with a tinge of determination. "Berlitz, blind it with Shadow Balls!"

Even if the last combination attack hadn't done much at all, Maxie recognized that this one at least had some strategy to it. Vesera had to struggle a bit to get her Ice Punch going in so much heat, but instantly dashed forward when she was ready. When her Ghost-type partner saw she was moving in, Berlitz began her own mission. A volley of dark orbs was hurled towards Groudon's head.

The room was a tight fit for the large beast, which made evading almost impossible. Without a way to block in both places at once, Groudon chose to shield itself from the Shadow Balls. Its guard, however, was thrown off when a freezing, if not tiny fist lodged into its torso. After that distraction, Groudon's arm dropped and it proceeded to get hit by the rest of Berlitz's attack.

Vesera landed on the ground, wearing the cocky smile she generally always had on. "Buneary."

Despite the success, Umbreon didn't look pleased. He lowered the brim of his beret, casting shadow on some of his focused expression. "Lucky shot. We won't be able to do that again."

Magma's leader once again took it upon himself to voice his own stance. Realizing that they weren't going to go down so easily, he hid his hands behind his back. It was a self-taught tactic to improve his own concentration. "It's unfortunate you won't join Team Magma. You and I agree on so much."

"Yeah, yeah," Tabitha cut in, "It's my turn, baby! Crobat—"

"Hardly!" Maxie's face scrunched up in disapproval. "Groudon, remove that thing!"

"After all the BS you put me through? Let's do this!"

It was a nearly cliché battle between speed and power. Groudon knew little else but destruction while under the influence of the Magma Ball, unlike Tabitha's Crobat, who was on top of its game. A flame sparked on the legendary Pokémon's fist before it swung it. Crobat dodged, inciting the need for its opponent to step forward to try again. The entire ground shook a bit as it did so. Simultaneously, Crobat's life got harder. Groudon was within closer range, but no less angry. It swung again with its right hand, then with its left, the bat barely managing to dodge them both.

When Crobat finally had the chance to look straight ahead, it didn't like it so much. Groudon's face was in front of it. Its large mouth opened, leaving little time to react in between that and a scorching Fire Blast. Opportunity's window was too small—Crobat took the intense red-hot attack dead on.

The torched creature was pushed backwards until it unwillingly found the wall. It barely managed to scrape itself off, and proceeded to tumble to the ground. The Fire Blast, unified with the already-unbearable heat that Groudon was exuding, dried up all traces of Crobat's willpower.

With only a gasp, Tabitha bolted over to his partner. Crobat's skin color was unnatural after the roasting. The Admin bit his lip and forced tears away as he lifted Crobat's Pokéball up.

Maxie watched it happen and succeeded in making it look like he wasn't interested in it. He was helped by the fact that he really wasn't interested. "One down."

"...One hit..." Dawn muttered so quietly, she was the only one to hear herself say it.

Silver crossed his arms. Even though he was broiling, it was still important for him to look cool. "That's what you get for relying on worthless Pokémon."

That nipped at Maxie's attention. "Then let's see what you've got, boy. Dragon Claw!"

"Dragon Claw?!" he echoed, not expecting a move that his Dragonite couldn't handle.

Once more, Groudon's fist became enveloped in something. This time, instead of fire, it was a blue aura. It swung for Dragonite, missing by a matter of inches due to a quick retreat by the target. Dragonite instinctively fired off a Dragon Pulse in retaliation. It was able to launch the attack, but it didn't see Groudon as it brought its remaining arm down on it, hard. The Hammer Arm command wasn't voiced, which made it a little harder for Silver to scold Dragonite for not dodging it.

"Humbling, is it not?" Archie asked.

"Don't lecture me," he threatened, snarling. Turning to his Pokémon, he saw Dragonite was crushed into the ground. Its attempts to recover itself looked more like involuntary twitching. "Get up! Now!"

The resistance's backs were all turned to it, so there was no way they could have noticed the only door to the room begin glowing blue. Shock was all that registered when there was a sudden pop. They all looked back to see the door lying in three motionless pieces on the floor. Before they were able to stare for too long, a red- and white-colored blur literally flew into the room.

The object's velocity didn't slow down until it had rammed into Groudon's neck. Its movement stopped immediately, showing the heroes that backup had arrived in the form of Eon Dragons. Latias had charged through the broken door in a perhaps vain attempt to knock Groudon over. It did cause the beast to stumble a bit, but the resulting recoil wasn't much different from smashing into a stone wall at top speed. She shook her head, attempting to regain her senses.

Latios's psychic control over the door intentionally faded. Deciding to be a bit more elegant about his entrance, he hovered into the room at a much steadier pace, eventually coming to a stop floating a few feet above Dusk and Dawn's heads.

"Ah, there you are!" Maxie shouted. He had no concern about Groudon getting smacked. He didn't have a reason to. "This should prove entertaining. Groudon, swat those flies down!"

Dawn didn't like hearing those words much, espically when they were referring to Latias. She attempted to give Berlitz an order, but it didn't go far. "No—!"

Almost as soon as her mouth opened, Dusk's arm launched in front of her. Last time that had happened, he blocked an incoming knife. This was a different kind of threat, which made the girl somewhat frustrated.

"Too many cooks can spoil the roast," Archie spoke, having caught on to the leader's intentions. "Besides, do you doubt those two could handle themselves?"

Dawn's big sister instincts screamed no. Logic, however reluctant she was in admitting it to herself, really did appear to not agree with her. Quietly, she faced the battle again.

Yet again, Groudon let his first move be a nearly blind slashing attack at the enemies. Neither could have cared much less; Latias flew over it, while Latios barely had to move to stay under it. To counterattack, they launched a simultaneous pair of Dragon Pulses. With surprising speed, the Ground-type moved its arm back in place to block the one aimed for its torso. The one remaining went on to nail it in the shoulder. Like Dragonite's before it, however, it didn't even seem to notice the pain.

"Now then. Flamethrower!"

It wasn't a surprising call from its master. A direct attack had done nothing, but something a bit more controllable might. With even less effort required than the Fire Blast, Groudon pooled its energy and fired off a Flamethrower.

The Eons evaded the opening sequence easily enough. Neither of them paid enough notice to realize that the stream of fire was constant. As they prepared another counter strike, Groudon simply moved its head, changing the course of the flame. They weren't close enough to hit them both at once, but one of the dragons was luckier than the other. Latias screeched as the burning attack hit her. She was normally good with fire and non-physical hits, but all the perpetual heat that Groudon gave off was enough to push it over the edge. The attack hurt.

If nothing else, Silver saw an opportunity to get another word in. "And to think, I tried stealing that thing. Such a weak Pokémon."

It was bad enough Dawn wasn't allowed to help her friend. She wasn't going to stand by and listen to her take lip, either. "Are you talking about the same Pokémon that broke your wrist practically by thinking about it?"

"She didn't break it," he hissed.

Further banter was interrupted by Latios. His closest friend was engulfed in flames. It was a legitimate reason to be angry.

Latios unleashed Luster Purge for the second time. A piercing beam of light was launched from his mouth. First, it was aimed at the Flamethrower—Groudon's fire was cut off from its target, freeing an injured Latias. With the same tactic its opponent had just used—a simple turn of the head—the Luster Purge began drilling into Groudon's face.

Maxie grunted at the turn of events. This wasn't entertainment. It was annoying. "Take none of that," he commanded.

Groudon obeyed. There wasn't much space in the room for it to move, but it still managed to lean its neck far enough to the side to evade the attack. When it had a clear view of him, Groudon crashed its two hands together like cymbals, only he did it over Latios's body. It gripped hard, crushing the dragon's immobile form.

His other had been shaken up by the Flamethrower, but not shut down. Trying to ignore the exhausting and omnipresent heat that was in the room, she focused her will into a Psychic attack. Groudon froze in place. Unwillingly, its hands began to part until Latios had just enough room to maneuver out of its hold.

The dragon was in pain. After all, he had just been caught between two rocks that really wanted to make him a little flatter. He was freed now, but weary. Noticing the beast was still trapped by Latias, he took the opportunity to fire a quick Dragon Pulse at it. The attack connected, then Psychic broke off.

Both reinforcements trudged back to the line to tag someone else in. Latios was in worse shape; he came close to crashing to the floor. He only barely managed to avoid that situation, instead just hovering past the heroes and insisting on a break. "Raaa," he uttered, looking at them all from over his shoulder.

Latias chirped back a response, but before she could attend to him, she got cut off by a sudden hug. "Latias, I'm glad you're okay!"

She looked down from Latios and saw a body she tended to copy a lot. She squealed and gave a small embrace back.

"What have you been doing?" Dawn asked, pulling away for a moment. "Wait, where's Brendan and May?"

-OAM-

It had been a long while. Whenever May gathered enough moral strength to push on, she only needed to turn around and see the motionless body on the floor to lose it all over again. It was a frightening event, multiplied by her having just been holding that girl in her blood-stained arms moments ago. Brendan, as usual, was her rock. He knew that time wasn't a friend right now, but he couldn't bring himself to shake May off. Gold, meanwhile, was pacing around the small room. He was ranting with an upset tone of voice, though he was pretty sure neither of the other two were listening.

"This sucks, man! No one told me there'd be character death! I'm not next, am I?"

"This isn't a zombie movie," Brendan retorted, glancing halfway back to his friend. Gold was just happy that at least one of them was paying attention to him.

"Be cool if it was, though."

Most any other time, the Hoenn Trainer would carry on with that discussion. Something about tonight discouraged him from being in the mood. Instead, he gripped May a bit harder, hoping it would calm her down faster.

As he was about to mutter some words, his alert ears caught a sound that wasn't sobbing. A subtle, familiar creak. The same type of creak that was made anytime someone stepped foot into this room.

His eyes shot straight over to the door frame. Waiting for them was a Magma almost as tall as Brendan was. A woman, he could tell; the other details were hidden by the cowl most Magmas wore. As a reaction, he did what he didn't want to do seconds before: he gave May a shove, strong enough to push her behind him. "Get back, May!"

Startled, May stumbled into the direction she was forcefully headed towards. She recovered from it and quickly jerked her head back, surprised about the order. Her wet eyes met those of the Magma quickly. "Hey, you're..."

"Lost?" Brendan finished for his girlfriend. It also conveniently doubled as a taunt to initiate a battle.

The dressed lady pulled back her hood. Brown hair, wrapped by a band into a ponytail, was made much more apparent by the move. Her face was the last detail the other woman in the room needed to finish her own sentence.

"Y-you're Umbreon's mother."

Gold took a step forward in an effort to stand by Brendan's side. He was stopped, though. May did that before he could. Her voice was inevitably shaky, but now her mind had something else to focus on, which helped with the tears. "So everything she said is true."

"Everything in that book was true, too," Brendan stated, pointing a thumb back to the dusty table that Maxie's diary rested on.

Johanne's ears were listening, but her eyes weren't. They laid steady on Key. A few water drops leaked from her eyes, but she didn't pay attention to them. "Do you want me to count the mistakes I've made?"

"Waitaminute..." Gold thought to himself. "That voice is really familiar." He tapped his chin, listening intently when she continued.

"Umbreon could have had such a better life. One with his family."

Brendan clenched his fists, hard. "What?! So you're telling me—"

"No," May interrupted softly. "Let her talk."

Johanne smiled. It was hard to see, but she did. Her knees imitated the doorway's creaking sound as she knelt down to stroke her hand through Keerasua's locks. Her eyes stayed on her, and only on her. "There's nothing to say. All the dreams I had while lying awake in bed for endless nights. They can't come true anymore. My daughter is dead. My son is fighting my love for their lives. It's no one's fault but mine that all this happened. All because I thought I didn't want anything to do with this Magma stuff."

"So you ran away..." spoke May, helping Johanne with words. She raised a hand to her heart. "With Umbreon."

Brendan was lost in his own feelings. This was Dusk, his comrade, they were talking about. He wanted to get words out, but they weren't coming to him easily. "You raised a good kid," he warily complimented. "If you kept him here, he would have been a loony tune like the rest of you."

"But he would have had a family." For the first time, Johanne rubbed out the tears in her eyes. Still, they avoided the heroes. "I gave him all the love that I could, but no one can be a mother, father, and sister at the same time. Maybe he would have been a Magma, but at least he wouldn't hate me for all the secrets I've kept from him."

"I'm starting to see something here." May's tone was quiet. Like Brendan, she was trying to add all of this up in her head. "Johanne...Do you really care about Magma? Or, after all these years, did you come back in the hope that you would find your family again?"

Johanne didn't respond for a long few moments. When she eventually did, she stood up from her crouching position at the same time. "I did find my family. It's too bad none of them are on the same side." She paused and closed her eyes. When they opened back up, so did a new topic. "I don't want to fight. That isn't why I'm here. Do any of you have Cherry on you?"

Before Brendan could hum at the unusual question, from the background, Gold snapped his fingers. "That's where I remember that voice from!" he shouted. "You're the one that got me out of that jam with Silver! Dude, I got saved by a Magma? What's the deal?"

"The fact that you were fighting one of Magma's worst enemies had something to do with it," Johanne answered, her grin turning slightly more sinister during the sentence.

Without a word, May grabbed a Pokéball from her collection. Much to Brendan's disconcertment, a small cat popped out of the sphere. With an excited cry of, "Nyyah!" the Skitty tore off in a beeline to reach her original Trainer.

"So did the fact that you're a good mom," May said, setting the ball away.

"All right, let's not get carried away," Brendan intervened, making sure his eyes stayed off of Cherry. "You are talking to the enemy here."

Gold stepped up. Disregarding the need for May to speak, he did it for her. "No such thing as an enemy that doesn't want to fight, bro. She might be wearing their clothes, but she's by far my favorite Magma."

Again, Johanne found herself kneeling to the ground. Instead of crying on her daughter, however, she was giving a warm embrace to the Pokémon. She held her tightly, earning a disapproving squeak when she gripped too hard. "I still love you, Cherry..."

"Nyyaahh!"

"With all that was on my conscience, I couldn't bring myself to take care of this Skitty anymore," she explained softly, still wrapped inside of a cat hug. "She was too innocent to be brought into what I was doing."

Gold and May were the only ones watching her. Brendan turned to his side and stared at the wall, avoiding the Magma and feline entirely. He was feigning anger at her. At least, that's what he was hoping it looked like. The former two were the only ones that noticed when Johanne broke off the love-fest with Cherry, only to set her on the ground and stand up afterwards.

"But, I've wasted too much of our time," the woman stated, beginning to sound more like a self-confident Magma. "You need to go help your friends. I'm not going to try to stop you."

May began a sentence, but couldn't find the last word she needed. "But what about..."

Johanne's head bowed until bangs covered her eyes. She moved to slip the cowl back onto her head, farther shadowing her features. "I need time alone with Keerasua. I'll be following you after that."

"Is that a threat or a promise?" Brendan scoffed.

She turned around without replying to the snarky question. When she reached her daughter, she knelt down, nearly returning to her exact original position. Once she heard Cherry getting recalled into her Pokéball, she spoke one more sentence before the three raced out the door.

"I'm not going to promise you what side I'll be on."

"You know what," responded the male Hoenn Trainer with one foot out the door. "Stand behind us or in front of us. I couldn't care either way.'"

May wasn't very satisfied at how sour Brendan was acting toward Umbreon's mother, but she said nothing. Stomaching one last look at Key, she followed the boys out of the room.

"Alone..." Johanne muttered to herself, and possibly to Keerasua. "Just like our family has always been."

She didn't follow her own schedule. After those words, she got to her feet and stepped toward the open doorway. There she saw Gold leading the other two through an exit on the right-hand side of the room.

Without looking back, she walked straight ahead, first down the stairs, then across the Pokémon arena. When she reached the door that the heroes had taken to originally get into this room, she quietly slipped behind it.

-OAM-

"There must be one. There simply must be."

As serious as it was, the night so far had led to some laughs for the above-water third team. Between creating internal chaos by hacking into the Magma's deepest security systems and having small, fun debates with each other, Max and Jake came to realize just how similar they were. Their night hadn't been any definition of boring, but the time for amusement was over. Jake was entirely in control of the security, which left the Magma techie somewhat baffled about why he could no longer watch over the team with the cameras.

"Down those stairs is the leader's private quarters," he explained while cycling through a list of online, but inactive camera feeds. "It's highly improbable that he forgot to put in cameras there."

His partner in tech-crime hiked his glasses higher onto his nose before responding. "Improbable, maybe, but it's the only answer. You have control of the whole system. Why wouldn't you be able to see through them if they were down there?"

"It's possible they're on a different network...I guess." Jake allowed himself a ten second break and fell backwards. The backrest of the chair caught him before he went far. "It's been three years since I've dealt with this. Maybe he decided to make his own room more secure in that time."

Max was as convinced as Jake was. That is, not very much. Having been pacing around to stop his legs from falling asleep, Max took the seat he was nearest, which was a few down from his friend's spot. "But for only one room? Is there anything else down there?"

Jake thought for a few moments, then tapped a few keys. Once more, various spots of Magma's headquarters scrolled onto the screen one at a time. While spinning around the channels, he found Gold, Brendan, and May running toward the same room the others were in. Max was pleased to see his sister was still all right, but spoke nothing when Jake quickly continued onto the next camera.

Eventually, he reached what appeared to be the end of the line. Channels 041 and 042. Both contained nothing but the words "No feed" written on top of a black screen. "Those have got to be it."

"They're offline," Max stated, not realizing just how obvious it was until after he had spoken.

Jake shrunk the picture of nothing and brought up something else. "I think I can fix that."

Moments of isolated silence passed. The younger Trainer wasn't about to interrupt, which the cloaked one appreciated. Even after announcing a pleased-sounding, "There," Jake continued hitting a few more buttons before the cameras' feeds opened up.

Cameras 041 and 042 provided the same answers from different angles. Groudon's menacing form was the first thing they could lay eyes on. They watched without words as the legendary Latias and Latios threw themselves at it in a nearly vain attempt to take it down. The second of the cameras showed more of the resistance; from that angle, the humans didn't seem very happy with how the battle was going.

Jake returned to the first feed. He got there just in time to see Groudon lean forward and roar an undoubtedly hostile roar. The cameras didn't pick up sound, which was a positive aspect right now. "Maxie resorted to that?"

He knew it was going to be dangerous, but Max was now truly scared for all of his friends' well-being. He bit his lip, but didn't hold it for long. He pushed his chair back, granting him space to move out of it.

Already he wasn't far from his destination. He took a few steps closer to the wall; more specifically, a small table in front of it. Resting on the table was a dull blue, corded phone. He grabbed the device from its base, then punched in a series of numbered buttons that were on the receiver.

It began ringing. While he waited, Max chanced one more look at the computer screen. Groudon was still there waiting for him. By the time the other side of the phone picked up, the boy's hand was shaking.

"Hello?"

"Dad...It's an emergency. You have to come to Petalburg, now."

-OAM-

Maxie put his left hand on his hip. He could see the stumbling band of "heroes," even while behind his behemoth, which gave him the opportunity to stare at each one in succession. "Why won't you let yourselves accept it? This is Groudon's world now."

"Over my dead body."

Maxie's eyes darted off to the side. Likewise, most of the group turned to look at where that had come from as well. Tabitha had been rather quiet since he had sent his Crobat into battle, but that wasn't the case any longer. Fire in his eyes and a Pokéball in his hand, he leered at his old boss like a wolf that just had its prey stolen. He was upset, and rather desperately required revenge. "I'm so sick of that voice, but here. Lemme give you something to talk about."

He launched the orb, sending it spinning into the air. It popped open three feet above his own head, only to swiftly return to him with the creature inside released. It couldn't even properly form before Latias squeaked an useless whimper. She wasn't heard, having been overshadowed by the cry a moment later. "Jolt!"

"Finally," Maxie chuckled, "one of you was stupid enough to attack Groudon with an Electric-type Pokémon. I'm only moderately surprised it was you, Tabitha."

The Admin came close to giving into his desire to outwit the enemy, but it wasn't worth it. The damage that had been done to Crobat, and forcing him to live in a desert for so long...No way, he decided. The only other words he had for Maxie were, "You're finished," and he couldn't say them. Not yet, anyway. "Guys, help me rip into this scumbag! Jolteon, use Agility!"

Magma's boss once again had to put effort into blocking a fit of laughter. "This will get you nowhere," he announced pompously. Both hands disappeared behind his back, grasping one another for a more comfortable position. "Stomp it into the ground, Groudon!"

Umbreon, like Tabitha, wasn't about to let Maxie walk out of here. The world was nice and all that, but this fight went beyond that for him. There was a much more personal stake in this. That overwhelming emotion carried into his voice as he commanded his Buneary. "Vesera, your job is to make sure that doesn't happen."

"Bun!"

Meanwhile, Dawn held in her hands an important item. Pink in color, and not heavier than a pound. She clicked a few buttons on the bottom half of the device, causing the screen to shift on the top. It brought up all the information about Mismagius that she would ever want to know. She skimmed through it all quickly to find the one bit that she needed. Evolving Berlitz was something that had never crossed her mind before, but now she couldn't have been happier about it. She shut her Pokédex just in time to watch Vesera Jump Kick the Ground-type in the chin, but focused more on her own goals. "Berlitz, chant! Cast a spell and transfer some of your power to Jolteon!"

The ghost obeyed, humming its own name to itself in preparation for something. It was drowned out all too soon by Groudon's obnoxiously loud growls.

The Normal-type Pokémon found it difficult trying to focus her power into an Ice Punch. It was too hot to easily get her fist at an appropriate temperature, but "too hard" wasn't an excuse right now. Groudon was about to swing its tail around to make the speeding bullet that was Jolteon come to an unexpected halt. She charged her attack as chilling as she could, then let it fly, driving the punch into Groudon's heel.

Vesera's freezing jab weakened it, or at least stunned it. It howled in disgust, also stopping its tail for a moment. A second was a big enough break for Jolteon—it leaped to get on top of the same thing Groudon tried to attack it with. It proceeded to scale the beast's body from the tail up. At the halfway point, a sudden cry of Berlitz's species name was heard. Jolteon's body began glowing a venomous purple, clashing with its normally bright colors.

"Congratulations," Maxie praised, his voice saturated by sarcasm. "You got on top of Groudon. Now what happens?"

Tabitha didn't get to answer. Archie did it for him. "Something similar to this. Mantine, go! Soak Groudon with your Water Gun!"

"You must be joking," his arch-enemy mused.

Mantine, after a chirpy yelp of its own name, mustered some content up from its bottomless internal well. A continuous stream of water erupted from Mantine's mouth, aimed in the general direction of Groudon's face. Due to the heat, it wasn't all that effective, and some of it had even evaporated before reaching its target. The effect Aqua's leader truly wanted, however, was played out flawlessly.

In part, Groudon didn't even realize there was a four-legged creature on him. His foot still ached from that Ice Punch, and being sprayed with water was just plain annoying. He was a legendary Pokémon that shouldn't have been disturbed; on top of that, the influences of the Magma Ball were beginning to be released in full. All of these things, these attacks, these Pokémon, these humans. Everything was making him angrier.

Tabitha cracked the bones in one fist with his other hand. "Eat it. Thunderbolt that thing!"

"Jolt jolt! Jolt!"

Electricity was gathered inside of the Lightning Pokémon even faster than Wizard could claim to do it. An attack, its signature one, was loosed, frying anything at its height. However, that list included only Groudon. Not only was the lightning its common yellow, but purple and black infused; that was due to the power of Berlitz's incantation, something Dawn made a mental note of to remember. Electric-type attacks weren't able to do much against the mythical creator of land, but both Mantine's water and Berlitz's power insisted on altering that rule. The water conducted the electricity, leaving it with nowhere to go but Groudon itself.

It bellowed. Not much in pain, but only more anger. It was a fresh reminder of just how scary a situation this was. The beast rocked back and forth, swinging its head around. Jolteon took its cue and hopped off. Though the ghostly power disappeared while in the air, it touched ground safely and turned back around to inspect the damage. The towering Pokémon again bent down closer to the floor and roared, its already deafening sound magnified by the proximity.

"Look at Groudon, you curs!" Maxie shouted. He was beginning to share in Groudon's anger. "All of your precious strategies, all this work...and for what? You're only making things worse for yourselves by provoking it! You haven't left a scratch!"

Silver noticed his nose scrunched up. It did that sometimes when he got angry. It was a habit he was trying to break. "You know, Dusk, Dad isn't so far off. We're doing nothing to this thing."

Dusk nearly cringed. He knew getting riled up was the reaction Silver wanted, however, so he did his best not to give him that satisfaction. "I told you, I have a plan," he muttered from behind clenched teeth. It also came to his attention that Silver was the only one who didn't help Jolteon out in that attack, but again bit his tongue to prevent an unwanted nasty reaction.

"That's the second time you've said that," the red-head shot back, "It'd be a great time to fill your 'team' in with this plan of yours."

"Shut up and do your job!" Dawn shouted. She wasn't nervous at all about it, as there were several other things presently to be more nervous about than him. "I'm tired of you always doubting Dusk!"

"Ever since the desert, he hasn't given me a reason to trust him."

"Look, Dusk will let us know what to do when the time comes. But until then—"

She got cut off. Or rather, drowned out.

The room itself shook as Groudon roared.