Latias' Journey

by Ri2

With her home destroyed, Latias sets out on a journey to protect herself from the mysterious Ghost King. On the way, she encounters new friends and adventures, and wonders if perhaps the one who destroyed her city is really all that he seems.

38. Rise of the Tyranitron

Okay, here's the second part of the aforementioned chapter. Enjoy!

…

The Ever Grande City Pokemon Center was in the center of the city, in a large open square free of skyscrapers that had become a park encircling the giant, looming remnants of the old oil platform, which had been converted into a museum, office building, movie theater, shopping center, and gambling casino/hotel. The Center itself was tucked into a corner of the park and was a towering structure almost as high as one of the support pillars for the old oil rig itself, shaped like a cylinder lined with large glass windows covering the sides. The top was capped with a dome that had a recessed hollow in it with a giant red P sculpture standing in it. From the sides of the dome extended six silvery metal legs that touched the ground, forming very tall arches almost as high as the building itself.

The center lobby was bright and well-lit from the sunshine streaming in through the giant windows, with a well-polished floor and high benches lined with shrubbery and potted palm trees. There were several trainers and their Pokemon milling about, all of them looking tense and very excited, no doubt looking forward to the Hoenn League Championships, which would officially open that very evening and start early the next day. Many of them were registered competitors for the tournament, and were ready to give their all to win it all.

The Center's front desk was, as always, manned by Nurse Joy, who was looking terrified from the attention she was receiving from the dark skinned, squinty-eyed young man who was tightly clutching her hands and babbling some lame and clichéd pick-up lines. "Oh Nurse Joy, I'm afraid I don't have any Hoenn League badges, but I'm sure I don't need any to enter the tournament to win your heart!"

He yelped as Misty and Max grabbed him by both ears, stretching them out and causing him to feel excruciating (but richly deserved) pain. "Even if there were a tournament, you'd lose the first match," Misty said, dragging him away.

"Wouldn't even make it through the preliminaries," Max agreed sagely. Togetic and Jirachi, who were already hitting it off nicely, giggled at that.

Joy blinked and let out a sigh of relief, glad that the obsessed stalker was gone. Then she noticed the earnest young man with the Pikachu on his hat. "You aren't going to try to date me too, are you?" Joy asked anxiously. "Because I'm already in a relationship-"

"So am I," Ash said quickly. Pikachu nodded his head in confirmation. "I just wanted you to register me for the Hoenn Championships!"

Nurse Joy sighed in relief. "Thank goodness! Your friend's the eleventh person today who's tried to seduce me in an attempt to illegally enter the tournament! As if I would dare do something so foolish and career jeopardizing! So you have at least eight badges, right? I'll need your trainer's license too."

Ash flinched. "Only eight…and boy, were they hard to get!" He opened his vest, pulled the badges off from where he had pinned them, and handed them to Joy along with his Pokedex.

The Nurse laid the badges on top of a plastic panel set into her desk and stuck the Pokedex into a slot right beside it. She typed a command into her computer, causing the machine under the panel to scan the badges and verify their authenticity. (She had had twenty trainers trying to get by with forged badges as well) At the same time, her computer connected with the one inside the Pokedex and read the personal information recorded inside to make sure it wasn't stolen or falsified (FIFTY trainers had tried that).

Moments later, her screen lit up, showing a picture of Ash with the eight Hoenn badges next to his head with little check marks next to each of them. That filled the left half of the screen. The right half showed all of Ash's personal information, with pictures of other badges, victories, and Pokemon he's captured. "Ash Ketchum, born in Pallet Town," Nurse Joy read from the information on her screen. "Fourteen (approximately) years old, winner of twenty-eight gym battles, Champion of the Orange League, one of the Top Sixteen in the Indigo Championship a few years back, made it to the Victory Round in the Johto League finals, has captured about fifty-three Pokemon, eight of which have been released or traded away…" She continued reading for a moment. "Well Mr. Ketchum, it looks like everything's in order with your badges and ID. And I see you've already competed in three different Leagues, so you must be pretty used to this by now, huh?"

Ash laughed in embarrassment. "Yeah, I guess so."

"Well, there's one thing we do differently in this League that they don't do in the other tournaments you've participated in," Joy said, surprising him. "In those tournaments, you were allowed to swap any Pokemon on your team with those that you had left in the care of other Pokemon Centers or Pokemon laboratories around the region. Here, you must register which Pokemon you intend to use in the tournament, and once they are registered, those are the only ones you can use. No switching out or adding a new one in at the last moment, what you choose now will be what you use until you are either eliminated or win the championships. You can have as little as one Pokemon and as many as six, but that's all." She smiled. "So, which Pokemon do you intend to use, Mr. Ketchum."

Ash frowned. He wondered if this had been part of the reason why the Unown had given him a team of all Chosen Pokemon, so that he would have no choice but to use them in the tournament. He glanced uncertainly at Latias, who was once again being uncomfortably examined by Max, Jirachi and Absol. The Unown had mentioned she would have to fight in the tournament…but he couldn't ask her to change to her true form here and now, could she? Not to mention he was uncertain of how other trainers would react to her…

Pikachu seemed to catch the gist of his trainer's thoughts. "I think we should register her too, Pikapi. She could use the experience. And I think we're supposed to…those Unown guys wanted her here, right?"

"I guess…" Ash muttered. "Uh, Nurse Joy, can I have a minute to talk this over with my friends?" He forced a smile. "I mean, it's a big decision after all, choosing which Pokemon I'm gonna use for the entire tournament. And if I make the wrong choice, that could mean I'm out for good, right?"

She smiled and nodded. "I understand. But make up your mind quickly, the registration period ends in about ten minutes, and if you haven't selected your team by then, then I'm afraid you will be unable to enter the tournament."

Ash gaped. "That little time! Aw, man…uh, back in a minute!" He quickly ran the short distance from the front desk to where his friends were loosely gathered, most of them doing their own thing. Brock was hitting on poor, innocent female trainers (with Misty keeping a watchful eye on him) May was sitting off by herself, absent-mindedly stroking the fur of Skitty, who was still surgically fused to the oddly happy Psyduck's head. May looked oddly dejected and miserable, but Ash had no time to figure out why because a matter of minutes was all that separated him from qualifying for the Hoenn League championship and being excluded. Crawdaunt was demonstrating more of his technique on getting the babes to his son Kasurin by seducing a Miltank that oddly enough looked like one Ash's friend/rival Harrison had used at one point back at the Silver Conference. Corsola was talking to Gyarados (whom everyone else in the Center stayed far away from) and Politoed had gone back to his Pokeball to keep from drying out. (He was amphibious, after all.) Togetic and Phanphy were playing around, Charizard was just…well, not doing much, and Bayleef kept having to push Max away from Latias with her Vine Whips, which several times had almost caused the fierce Absol to viciously attack her. Onix and Geodude had been kicked out of the Center because of the horrible sound they caused when they practiced singing for their rock band and were outside, irritating passerby and tourists, who flung money at them hoping that it would make them shut up.

Ash ran up to Latias, pushing Max away. "Latias, we have to find somewhere out of the way for you to transform!" he whispered.

"Why?" she asked, looking confused.

"Ash needs all his Pokemon registered so he can enter the Hoenn League Championships," Pikachu explained. "And I think those Unown guys wanted you to enter too, they told Mewtwo as much, didn't they?"

"Yeah…" Latias recalled. She felt somewhat uncomfortable herself about entering the tournament, she'd have to fight very tough opponents while being watched by strangers. It didn't help that she was a rare Pokemon and as such would undergo even more scrutiny from strangers, and she still wasn't very confident in her combat abilities…then again, if extradimensional beings who could foresee the future thought there was a chance of the world ending if she didn't compete in the tournament, who was she to argue? She looked around. The lobby was full of trainers and their Pokemon. "There's nowhere for me to hide. I can't do it out in the open, it'd be bad enough for everyone to see me, a super-rare Pokemon, but a super-rare shape shifting Pokemon?"

"I believe I can solve this dilemma," Misty said as she dragged Brock away from yet another traumatized victim. She let go of Brock's ear and grabbed the confused Latias' hand, then dragged her over to May and grabbed her wrist too, snapping her out of her melancholy state. "Come on, girls!" she said somewhat loudly. "Let's go powder our noses!" She headed off for the women's room, dragging the two dazed girls behind them.

Brock was gaping. "The legends are true! They really do go to the bathroom in groups!"

Max sweatdropped. "Uh, I don't think that's what they're doing Brock."

"It's not?" Jirachi asked in confusion.

"Pikapi, I think they're going to use girl's room so Latias can transform without anyone noticing!" Pikachu explained to his trainer.

Ash blinked. "Ohhhh…that makes sense!"

"You should probably start registering the rest of us in the meantime. Come on, we've only got a few minutes left before the deadline!" Pikachu urged.

"Gah, that's right!" Ash quickly gathered up his Pokemon (And Crawdaunt, with some difficulty-he was making a lot of headway with the Miltank.) and brought them over to Nurse Joy. He then had to quickly come up with some cockamamie reason for why they weren't in Pokeballs which the Nurse would buy (I don't believe in Pokeballs, they're like my family, a group of extradimensional beings made them immune to Pokeballs, etc.) so she had to get finger or claw or paw-prints from them all.

By the time that was done, there were only two minutes left to the deadline. "Sir, are these all the Pokemon you're going to register?" Nurse Joy asked.

"Uh…hold on, my friends went to get the last one…" He glanced over in the direction of the girl's restroom, thinking for a moment that he might have to exclude Latias from the tournament after all, and was relieved to see Misty and May coming back, with a nervous Latias in between them. He sighed in relief as they approached.

Unfortunately, the trio of girls found their path blocked by a large group of trainers who had noticed Latias and were extremely fascinated to see her, a species of Pokemon none of them had ever encountered before. Max, sadly enough, had also joined this group along with Jirachi, both of whom thought Latias was rather pretty. This did not make Latias' nerves feel any better.

"Wow! What kind of Pokemon is that?"

"I've never seen anything like it…such vibrant red and white down!"

"I bet it'd do great in Pokemon Contests!"

"Is it a bird? A dragon? What type is it?"

"It's so cuuuuuute!"

Latias cringed, on the one hand flattered by the positive attention but on the other hand feeling rather frightened and claustrophobic. May was rather used to this attention, being Norman's daughter, and didn't understand why Latias looked so unhappy from it. She had yet to reach the inevitable point where the constant attention and lack of privacy from her loyal fans would start to tire and eventually disgust her, making her wish they'd leave her alone or that her father weren't so famous so that she could get out from under his shadow and find success her own way. Misty automatically reached for her mallet, thinking to whack these leeches away from her new friend if they got too close, but she needn't have bothered.

A pair of vines reached down from above, wrapping around Latias and pulling her out from the middle of the crowd and over to Nurse Joy's desk, where Bayleef released her. "Th-thanks," Latias stuttered, recovering from the shock.

"You're welcome. Quick, give Nurse Joy your claw-print already!" Bayleef urged.

"Huh? Oh, right." She held her claw out to Nurse Joy, who in return provided a pad of ink and a piece of paper upon which the paw prints of the rest of Ash's Pokemon were displayed. She dipped her claw in the ink, then placed it firmly on the piece of paper, leaving a print of it behind.

Joy took the paper and shoved it into a slot on her desk, feeding the data to her computer. She typed for a few seconds, then smiled and looked at Ash. "Just in the nick of time, Mr. Ketchum! You and all six of your Pokemon are registered for the Hoenn League!"

Ash pumped his fist. "Yeah! All right!"

"Finally…" agreed Charizard. "We can do what we came here to do."

"Kick some a-er, hiney!" Crawdaunt amended, remembering Phanphy was next to him.

"And save the world too," Bayleef pointed out. "Though I suppose it would be fun to fight as well."

"Yeah…I suppose…" Latias said uncertainly.

"Ah, relax Aunt Latias!" Phanphy comforted her. "It's fun fighting in the arena, where all those people are watching your every move and if you mess up, it could mean we're permanently out of the tournament!"

"Uh, Phanphy, I don't think that's helping her nerves," Pikachu said with a sweatdrop.

"N-no, it's not," Latias agreed faintly.

Charizard put a hand on the dragon's shoulder. "Don't worry Latias, it won't be that bad. Just focus on your opponent, and block out all noises but your trainer's commands (and any audio cues that may help you fight your enemy) and you'll forget the crowd's even there! And then, when you finally win, you'll remember that you had an audience the whole time…and they'll be cheering your name!" He got a wistful look in his eyes. "It's…a pretty great feeling…" It was clearly one he hoped to experience again.

"You know," Joy said, catching Ash's attention. "You're the second person today who's registered a Pokemon as unique as that one," she said, pointing to Latias.

Ash blinked in surprise. "The second? Then who's the first?"

"He's right over there," said Nurse Joy, pointing to a figure leaning against a wall on the far side of the room. "Goes by the name of Wes. He said to keep it quiet, but...he has a Ho-Oh!""

Ash and Pikachu gaped. "It's…Wes!"

"Who?" Bayleef asked.

"You know, Wes! That guy I met on Luvdisc Day, who I was hoping to fight but never got the chance to thanks to that weird Berry Stoo guy!"

Charizard rolled his eyes. "Oh, you mean your new rival/friend."

"I'm gonna go talk to him!" Ash decided.

"You do that," said Crawdaunt, scuttling off. "Me, I'm going to go find that Miltank I was talking to earlier. I was just getting somewhere with her…"

Minus one lobster Pokemon, Ash and the others approached the white-haired teen. "Hey, Wes!" Ash called out.

Wes' yellow eyes glanced over to him. A slight smile grew on his face. "Hey, if it isn't the kid. Almost thought you weren't gonna make it, you cut it pretty close there."

Ash laughed in embarrassment. "Yeah, I know…that mean you're in the tournament too?"

Wes stood up straight. "Yep, registered this morning when I got into the city."

"Then what are you still doing here?" Ash asked.

Wes pointed to the crowd of trainers, most of who had gone back to their Pokemon after Latias was snatched away, but some were still hanging around, observing the dragon from a distance. "Keeping an eye on the competition. The majority of these trainers are nothing to worry about, they wouldn't last a second in Orre. You could probably handle them…with some difficulty."

"Hey!" But Ash chuckled, knowing it was a joke. Sort of.

Wes smirked. "I've only seen a couple who look like they'll be much of a challenge. I thought this fat guy named Masamune with a Beldum and some other kid named Tetsuya with a Meowth dressed up in boots and cape-"

Ash interrupted. "A Meowth in boots and cape!"

Wes nodded. "Yeah, he might be a fan of that old fairy tale. They're only marginally challenging though, in my opinion. Then there's this kid named Harrison-"

"Harrison!" Ash, Pikachu and Charizard cried.

Wes frowned. "Are you going to interrupt every time I mention someone's name?"

Ash's face flushed. "Sorry, it's just that he's the guy Charizard and I lost to in the Silver Conference." Charizard nodded.

Wes smirked. "Then this is your chance for some payback, huh? And if it's payback you're interested in, you'll be pleased to know someone else we've both lost to is in the tournament as well."

It took Ash a moment to understand who Wes was talking about, but when he did the look of realization was clear in the narrowing of his eyes and hardening of his mouth. "Berry Stoo," he spat out. Pikachu growled at the name.

Wes nodded. "Yep. He's in. His freaky-looking girlfriend Mariah Susanson too. With the way she looks, I wouldn't be surprised if she could cruise through the tournament by distracting opponents with her physical appeal…I know the type." He grimaced, recalling one of his old foes, Lady Venus of Cipher. "But to make matters worse, I managed to catch a glimpse of Joy's computer monitor as they were registering their Pokemon. All of them have ridiculously high stats in many different areas, and they're all Shiny Pokemon too."

Ash was stunned, as were his Pokemon. "Wait, aren't Shiny Pokemon, like, really, really rare?" Latias asked in confusion.

"Like Aunt Noctowl!" Phanphy agreed.

Ash asked Wes the same question, and the antihero shrugged. "It's another piece of the puzzle that makes up those two…there's something about them that just isn't right. And there's also the matter of what the deal with that girl's Pikachu was…"

"You noticed it too?" Ash asked in surprise. Pikachu's ears perked up, remembering the very strange, very sad female.

"Yeah…" Wes said, rubbing his chin. "Something with her eyes…but she doesn't look physically abused, and trust me when I say I know how to tell the signs of that. I don't know what's up with her…but I'll look into it. Something doesn't smell right about those two…" He grunted. "Anyway, while their Pokemon look pretty strong, here's a bit of advice if-and when-you go up against either of them, if I haven't already wiped them out of the tournament." He grinned. "Blind, unthinking power is no match against good strategy and a little luck. With those on your side, you can take down the toughest Pokemon."

"That's good advice Ash," Bayleef lectured. "You should write it down somewhere before you forget it."

"Hey, I won't forget it!" Ash protested. "Besides, I know that! I've used it plenty of times!"

"I don't seem to remember you using it in your fight with Gary during the Silver Conference," Charizard muttered.

"…Well, we WON, didn't we?"

"Barely."

Wes raised an eyebrow. "Uhhh…okay, I see you and your team are having discussions, that's good, being able to communicate well with your Pokemon shows you have a strong bond with them, makes them react quicker in battles, etc." He glanced at a clock. "I gotta go. I'm supposed to meet Rui in a few minutes. By the way, how did things go with you and your girlfriend?"

Ash blinked. "Huh? Oh, I managed to get her a gift after all. My Crawdaunt found a Big Pearl at the bottom of the riverbed when he was trying to hide from a bunch of angry male Luvdisc because he was hitting on their mating partners."

Wes looked amused and jealous all at once. "A Big Pearl! Awww…all I could get with my lousy fifty bucks was some cheap Pikachu earrings! Lucky kid…"

"She's here, if you want to meet her and the rest of my friends," Ash invited.

"Nah, I have to meet up with Rui, don't want to leave her alone for too long. This town seems nice enough, but I've been enough places that I don't quite trust what you see on the surface…then again, that might just be my paranoia talking." He paused as he turned to leave. "One thing I thing you should be aware of."

"What's that?"

Wes glanced around to make sure nobody was within hearing range, then leaned over and whispered, "I heard from some of my…contacts back in Orre and in other places that Team Cipher's planning a massive assault on this city. That's one of the reasons I came here, other than to enter the tournament."

Ash and the others were stunned. "A massive assault!"

"Don't shout it out!" Wes hissed. "If word gets out, there'd be a panic, and that'd fulfill the Cipher's needs just as much as if they WEREN'T planning an assault…which, come to think of it, might be what they're trying to pull after all." He glanced around. "I sent Rui to the police station with an anonymous tip about the attack, so hopefully they'll be prepared for it. But my faith in the law establishment everywhere is minimal at best…especially after I saw what they let happen to Lilycove." He smirked at the memory of that awful place. "My kind of town…anyway, even if the cops are on top of this, I think I'll stick around and see what goes down too…" He pulled a Pokeball out of his belt and spun it on top one of his fingers, then tossed it up in the air and caught it. "Who knows? Maybe Ho-Oh and I can lend a hand…" He smirked.

Latias felt a sudden wave of apprehension. She knew, or at least suspected, that Wes' Ho-Oh was her father. If that was the case, she might have to fight him in the tournament. What would she do? What would she say? What would be the result of the reunion between father and daughter? She moaned quietly, and wondered if maybe it was a bad idea to enter after all. "Why'd you tell me about this?" Ash asked quietly.

Wes hesitated. "I don't know, actually," he admitted. "There's something about you…something that says you're dependable. I dunno. But I feel like I can trust you. Huh." He looked surprised. "Not many people I can say that to with a straight face…"

"Well then, I'm proud to be one of them!" Ash said, feeling touched.

"You should be." Wes smirked. "I've dallied long enough, Rui'll be pissed if I keep her waiting too long."

Ash nodded. "Yeah, I know how that is," he said sympathetically.

"Well then…" Wes started walking away. "I'll be seeing you in the tournament, kid. Maybe even sooner." He gave Ash a half-wave without looking as he pushed past the other trainers in the lobby and left the Pokemon Center.

"Strange guy…" muttered Bayleef.

"I like his hair!" Phanphy squeaked.

They stared at him. "Why?" Ash finally asked.

"It's a very nice shade of white!" Phanphy said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "And his eyes are a nice color, too!"

They sweatdropped. "If you say so…" Pikachu muttered.

"Hey, Ash!" Brock and the others came over. "Who was that guy you were talking to?"

Ash blinked. "Huh? Oh, that was just Wes."

"Wes?" May asked, not recognizing the name.

Ash nodded. "Yeah, some guy I met on Luvdisc Day…he's pretty cool, actually! I look forward to fighting him in the Hoenn League!"

Brock and Misty sighed in unison. "Oh no…" groaned Brock.

"Not another one…" chorused Misty.

Max looked at them in confusion. "What? What do you mean?" he asked. "Another what?"

"Well," Misty explained. "Every League we seem to go to (aside from the Orange League, which doesn't have a tournament) Ash runs into some other trainer who he really befriends and connects with, then has to fight really hard in the tournament. And both times that's happened, he's lost to that same trainer."

"In Kanto, it was Richie," Brock listed. "In Johto, it was Harrison. And now, it's some guy named Wes?"

"Actually, Harrison's here too," Ash pointed out.

Brock sweatdropped. "He is? Great, that makes two friends you're going to fight really hard."

"And this jerk I met on Luvdisc Day who I'm really looking forward to fighting!" Ash also added.

Brock almost collapsed. "Gah! Two friends, plus a person he really loathes, fulfilling the necessary role of arch-enemy/rival! I never thought you'd find a replacement for Gary!"

"Oh, well, Gary and I are friends now," Ash explained. "So I guess I've found my new arch-enemy/rival!"

They sweatdropped. May sighed. "Most people don't go out of their way to find new arch-enemies/rivals, Ash."

Ash laughed. "Most people aren't me!"

"How fortunate," Misty muttered under her breath. I wouldn't mind if people were a little more like Ash, though…well maybe less dense. A little.

"Hey! I heard that!" Pikachu and the other Pokemon snickered.

"Max, I don't understand. Why is Ash going to fight people who he's friends with?" Jirachi asked in confusion.

"Because Ash is a weird person, Jirachi," Max explained.

"Hey!"

"Actually, it's not that improbable," Absol butted in. "Out in the wild, many Pokemon who are friends compete with each other. Part of it is due to testosterone, part of it is due to the desire to be the best, but deep down it's really because they're such good friends that they want the best for each other, and by fighting they can bring each other to their fullest potential."

"Ohhhh…" Jirachi thought about this for a moment, then smacked Max on the head.

"Ow! Hey, what was that for!" Max complained.

"I wanna fight you so you can reach your fullest potential!" Jirachi explained, slapping him.

"Oh, I get it…well, if it's a fight you want, it's a fight you'll get!" Max cried, slapping Jirachi in the face.

Absol sweatdropped as they started fighting each other in extremely pathetic fashion. "No, wait, that's not what I…oh, forget it." He sagged to the ground. "It's so hard being the guardian of two children. Is this what being a father feels like?"

Togetic glanced at Misty, who glanced back at her warily, but the Happiness Pokemon shook her head. "I'd fight you Mom, but…well, you have a very big hammer. I'll fight Phanphy instead!"

"Okay!" Phanphy agreed cheerfully as Togetic tackled him and they started rolling around on the floor, hitting each other with trunk and limb.

Ash sweatdropped. "I can say for certain I was never like that when I was his age."

"Yes you were," Brock corrected him. "You used to tell us all about your little scuffles and schoolyard fights you used to have with Gary. And this was before you two became rivals!"

Ash sweatdropped again. "Eh heh, you're right. Forgot about that."

"This is very sad, watching two pairs of children beat the crap out of each other," said the bored Crawdaunt. "And they're not even actually hurting each other like me and my sibs did when we were about that age emotionally. This is the second time I've been needlessly dragged away from something more important. Come on boy, let's go find that Miltank again."

"Uh, all right father," Kasurin said warily, hopping after Crawdaunt as the lobster scurried away

"Shouldn't you try to stop them or something?" Misty asked May quietly as Max and Jirachi's play-fighting got a little more violent, with Jirachi pulling at Max's hair while Max tried to rip off the blank wish tags on Jirachi's hat.

May sighed unhappily, not really wanting to face Misty at that very moment. Not until she got her hurt and confused feelings sorted out. "I'm not in the mood right now."

Bayleef looked at Latias. The dragon sweatdropped, looking back. "You're not going to fight me too, are you?"

"Huh? Oh, no," Bayleef said, shaking her head. "I was just thinking, how right you might be. We're the Pokemon who are supposed to save the world? We can't even stop a bunch of kids from beating each other up."

"Kinda makes you wonder if the Unown made the wrong choice in choosing us," Charizard said with a sigh, thinking of his own reasons for believing he didn't really fit the mold for a 'hero.'

"Or maybe the right choice," Pikachu guessed speculatively. "Psychologically speaking, we could all be perceived as collectively nuts. What self-respecting world-destroying threat would possibly take us seriously? Thus our mass insanity lures him into a state of false security, allowing us to surprise attack him and save the Earth!"

Phanphy and Togetic rolled by just then, still beating each other up. As did Max and Jirachi, who were now resorting to punches and kicks. A second later, Skitty decided to fight Psyduck and bit him in the head, giving him a headache and causing her to be telekinetically flung off of the duck's head and right into Nurse Joy's face, causing her to fall backwards and smack her head into the back of the desk counter, knocking herself out. Everyone gasped. "NURSE JOY! I'LL SAVE YOU!" Brock cried, rushing over to help her, as did several other opportunistic trainers.

Everyone sweatdropped. "That, or the Unown are crazy too," Latias said in a deadpan voice.

Pikachu winced. "That's a possibility," he agreed weakly.

…

The scaffolding and catwalks surrounding the Tyranitron had been removed. The diamond panel on the robot's chest had closed up, hiding the Wobbaku statue from view. The Marauder, Anny, Oakley, Bashou and Buson had strapped themselves into their seats in the cockpit and reluctantly lowered the electroshock helmets onto their heads. Jessie, James, Butch, Cassidy, Meowth, and the Pokemon belonging to them and the other Cipher agents onboard were in their places as well. The blue Cipher peon was carefully climbing down the central utility shaft that extended from top to bottom through the entire robot, connecting all its levels and chambers. One of his peculiarly flat hands slipped on one of the ladder rings, and he almost lost his grip, but fear caused him to tighten his other handhold, and, with a bit of swaying, he managed to regain control and continue his climb.

On the bridge of the Shadow Liner, Nascour, Robotnik, Sebastian, Ein, a bunch of scientists and technicians along with a few peons, and Domino were all assembled. Domino had been demoted from her lofty position as Gio's number two to a secretary when Ein took over, and had been demoted even further to "Boss's Personal Slave" now that the Gorgon man was in charge and had to wear a scanty outfit at all times that made her feel chilly and increased her loathing for Nascour. She stood next to the boss, who was seated in the extremely comfortable captain's chair, while everyone else either stood or sat in their own less-comfortable chairs. "All agents have cleared the deck, sir. The wind's blowing in the right direction, and we're all clear for takeoff," a Peon informed Nascour.

Nascour nodded. "Very good! Tell the crew of the Tyranitron that they'll be lifting off for Ever Grande City in just a few moments!"

"Yes sir!"

Robotnik cackled and rubbed his hands together gleefully. "At last! My creation will awaken and DESTROY THE WORLD! BWAHAHAHA!"

"And Team Rocket-I mean Cipher-will finally achieve its goal of global domination!" Sebastian agreed.

"Begin ignition sequence!" Nascour commanded. "Prepare for launch!"

The technicians quickly worked and typed at their stations. Sirens whooped all over the ship, and an intercom bellowed, "TYRANITRON LAUNCH SEQUENCE ENGAGED. LIFTOFF IN 20…19…18…"

Just then, there was a knock on the door to the bridge. "Halt the launch sequence! Someone (meaning you, personal slave) go see who that is!" Nascour ordered.

Domino clenched her fists and gritted her teeth as she stomped over to the door, unintentionally giving all the technicians a view to die for if they hadn't been so busy putting the launch sequence on pause. The peons were not quite as occupied, and enjoyed the view immensely. Domino opened the door, and her sour expression broke into a grin. "Oh look, pizza's here!" she said, moving aside to reveal an unassuming pizza delivery man carrying a stack of about a couple dozen pizza boxes.

Ein took one look at the deliveryman and started screaming and gibbering like a deranged Mankey, hopping up and down and yelling "GEEEEOOOO! GEEEEOOO! GEEEEEOOOOOOOOOO!"

Everyone on the bridge, already used to his ramblings by now, automatically tuned him out. "What!" Nascour cried. "What's he doing here?"

"I have an order of twenty pizzas for one Doctor Robotnik," the deliveryman read off a sheet of paper. "Something about celebrating ultimate victory or something."

"For me?" Robotnik asked in surprise. "I guess I must have ordered pizza to commemorate this momentous occasion; the successful testing sequence of the Tyranitron and the dawn of our new world order! Can't believe I would forget something so important as that!"

Nascour fumed, causing his hair to hiss and writhe agitatedly. He started to open his mouth to berate Robotnik for inviting a pizza delivery boy of all people to their secret robot-carrying ship when the smell of what was in the boxes caught his nose. "That…that smell!" he gasped. "So familiar…is that the smell of…of EVIL toppings!"

Robotnik took one of the boxes off the stack and opened it. Wailing spirits flew through the air, shrieking and moaning and terrifying the technicians. "Yep, smells like evil to me!" He stuck a finger into the sauce and licked it. "Tastes like it too! And there's a hint of something extra…some new spice or whatnot! I like it!"

Nascour's stomach rumbled, and he realized he hadn't had lunch. And the pizza smelled so deliciously EVIL… "Well…I'll forgive it this once…but don't order pizza and risk revealing the whereabouts of any of our secret hideouts again! Is that clear?"

"Yes, yes, perfectly clear," Robotnik said, stuffing pizza slices down his throat.

Moments later, pizza slices had been distributed to all the peons, techies, and scientists, save for Ein, who was too crazy to digest anything as solid as pizza without spitting it up, and Domino, who was too low on the ranking chain to deserve any. And Sebastian, who had said he was on a diet and wasn't interested. The pizza boy was taken away by Peons, who would escort him back to shore (i.e., kill him quietly so he doesn't reveal their evil plans to anyone). With the presence of the unfamiliar deliveryman gone, Ein calmed down and went back to his usual depraved mumbling, secretions, and pacing erratically around the room. "Reftart vhhe ignifun fequenff!" Nascour mumbled through a mouthful of sticky pizza.

With a few button presses, the countdown started over from where it had left off. "LIFTOFF IN 17…16…"

"How exactly are we lifting off, anyway?" Anny asked her companions in the cockpit of the Tyranitron. "Do they have some rocket engine or super catapult or whatever that's going to get us there?"

"They were originally, but from what I hear they ran out on the budget for that too, so they had to find an alternate method," the Marauder informed her.

Oakley laughed. "More budget cuts. What are they going to do, cause the deck we're standing on to shoot up from a giant compressed spring, launching us into the air?"

Buson laughed. "No, nothing that expensive!"

A huge section of deck behind the giant robot opened up, and a tall pole extended from the catacombs below, a pivot at its top attached to another long pole ending in an enormous boot with a rocket in its heel.

Anny and Oakley sweatdropped. "You're kidding."

Bashou sighed. "Unfortunately, we're not."

The pole attached to the boot cranked backwards, as if preparing to kick with it. The intercom voice continued counting down. "5…4…3…2…1…LIFTOFF!"

The rocket in the heel of the boot ignited, and it swung forward at incredible speeds, catching the Tyranitron right beneath its tail and kicking it off the Shadow Cruiser!

"I reeeeaaalllyyy haaaattee buudget cuuuuuuutssss!" Anny and Oakley screamed in unison as the G-force from being launched in such an unconventional manner crushed them into their seats.

The blue peon, in the utility shaft, was jolted from his position on the ladder by the takeoff and fell, screaming, down the shaft.

"WAAAHHHHH!" screamed the less-than-elite Cipher agents from their positions deep inside the giant robot. "Looks like we're blasting off agaaaaiiiiiiiiiin!" they wailed as the robot flew off into the distance and vanished in a twinkle of light.

…

After Joy had come to and kicked them all out of the Pokemon Center for their roughhousing and idiocy, our heroes were wandering aimlessly through the city. It might have been the sight of such a large group of humans and Pokemon traveling together which caused the other pedestrians to stop and stare as they passed by, or it might have been the sight of Latias (who had decided (or been made to decide) to stay a Pokemon so she could get used to people looking at her all the time), a rare one-(well, two, counting her mother)-of a kind of Pokemon that most likely none of them had ever seen before. Or maybe it was Onix and Gyarados, since they were pretty big and nasty-looking and allowed free rein around town without any sort of restraints. In any case, if the odd looks they were getting from everyone else in the city bothered the heroes, they didn't seem to notice or care.

"Now that I'm registered in the tournament, let's go to the Championships!" Ash declared.

"But where are the Championships being held?" Pikachu asked.

"…I have no idea," Ash admitted. "I forgot to ask where it is." Everyone facefaulted.

"Actually, I may have an idea," Brock said, holding up a brochure. "I found this in the Pokemon Center, when I was administering first-aid to Nurse Joy."

"You mean trying to kiss her, along with half the other guys in the room," Misty corrected.

Brock sweatdropped. "Uh, yeah…anyway, it talks all about the history of the Hoenn League Championships and all of the other trainers in there had one, so I guess you must have forgotten to grab yours, Ash. Anyway, according to this for the last few decades the tournament was held on the old oil platform."

"We were just there! We'd better go back then!" Ash said, starting to turn around.

"Hold on," Brock said, grabbing Ash's shoulder. "I said WAS held. After the tournament's popularity grew in the last few years and the city being built around the rig continued to expand, the Hoenn League officials realized that the platform would be too small to host the tournament on, what with the growing number of trainers competing in it. That, and it cost too much to repair all the damage caused by the intense battles held there. They considered having a 'Battle City' tournament, in which trainers wandered around the city, fighting whoever they ran into and gathering pieces of a map that would lead them to where the tournament finals and semi-finals were being held, but that idea was scrapped too for the same reason as they stopped using the rig, too expensive to repair."

"So what did they do in the end?" Misty asked, her curiosity piqued.

"Well, the League was originally going to build a new stadium, but that would have meant adding even MORE land to the island, which was expensive enough as it was to maintain, so they were kind of stuck for a solution. Fortunately, it just so happens that adjacent to Ever Grande City is another small island, owned by business tycoon J.R.S. Ford, founder and president of Ford Industries, which actually used to own the oil rig this city's built around and is one of the leading contributors and shareholders in the city. This island happens to house an amusement park called 'Battle Frontier.'"

"Battle Frontier?" Latias suddenly had a mental image of covered wagons shooting at each other with giant guns.

Max gasped, as did Jirachi. "Oh! Ohhhh, I know what that is!" Jirachi cried happily with stars in all four of his four eyes.

"Yeah! It's like the best amusement park ever! Well, for Pokemon trainers," Max admitted. "The best amusement park for kids would be Pokeland (owned by the Devon Corporation after it was sold by its anonymous owner (Team Rocket/Cipher) due to budget cuts), but Battle Frontier is the perfect place for trainers and their Pokemon to go when they want to have fun!"

May groaned. "Great, now they've gotten started…I wish that stupid commercial wasn't on five times a day!"

The boy and the Wishmaker were babbling about all the wondrous things that could be found on the frontier, quoting verbatim from the commercial. "'Just off the shores of the eternal Ever Grande City lies Battle Frontier, the new and undiscovered territory for trainers of all ages!'" Max recited.

"'Home to seven different and varied Pokemon battle arenas, including shops, an on-site Pokemon Center and hospital, a seaside restaurant and food court, and even a real cave filled with wild Pokemon for all you trainers who just can't get enough of Smeargle!'" Jirachi joined in.

"'Each arena has different rules and restrictions, and different challenges to surprise even the trainer who thinks he or she has done it all!'" Max continued.

"'And, for those who are truly dedicated battlers, you'll get a chance to take on our seven Frontier Brains and win badges which can be exchanged for fabulous prizes in the awesome gift shop inside of the Battle Tower, which is almost as tall (if not taller) as the famous oil rig in nearby Ever Grande City, which can be accessed at any time through our advanced tramway system!'" Jirachi stated. Absol blinked, amazed that Jirachi had been able to memorize all that. Then again, Max and Jirachi had made sure to catch the commercial every time it came on so they could watch it over and over and over and over and over and OVER again, so maybe it wasn't that surprising.

"And then the park's owner, J.R.S. Ford, and his Blaziken appear with a bunch of smiling kids and says, 'Come to Battle Frontier today! Stake a claim in this undiscovered country before someone beats you to it! And if they do…then beat em' up in the arena! That's what they're there for! Hahaha!'" Max concluded.

The group stared at the duo, who had somehow managed to waste enough time to perfectly memorize not only the lines, but the background music of their favorite commercial and were now humming it while doing a little dance. This resulted in sweatdrops for all. "Uh…right," Ash said slowly, backing away from Max and Jirachi when Phanphy, attracted by the tune, joined in their little dance. "Brock, you were saying?"

Brock blinked. "Huh? Oh, uh…right, so anyway Ford owns Battle Frontier and when he heard the League needed a place to host the tournament, he said they could rent his island out every year for their uses as long as he got half of the profits. And ever since then, that's where the Hoenn Championships have been held."

"So, the tournament's going to be at Battle Frontier," Ash concluded.

Brock nodded. "Yup."

"Battle Frontier…I don't understand why it's called 'Frontier', but I kinda like the name," Bayleef mused idly.

"Sounds perfect to me," Crawdaunt grumped. "Seven arenas to fight in, plenty of battles…heck, 'Battle' is even in the name! Sounds like just the place for me!" He quickly glanced at Corsola, who was mesmerized by Jirachi, Max, and Phanphy's dancing. Just the place to show off for the ladies, too!

"It's also just the place for redemption," Charizard said, mostly to himself. If Harrison was here, then so was Blaziken. If they fought in the arena…he narrowed his eyes. He didn't intend to lose to the overgrown chicken again.

"Um…okay then, let's go pioneer this new Frontier or something," Latias said with a hint of uncertainty in her voice.

"Yeah, let's go to Battle Frontier!" Ash agreed. He paused. "Uh, where is it again?"

Brock started to look at the brochure to find out, when there was the familiar high-pitched whine of something falling from a very great height, followed by the sound of a tremendous crash that shook the ground beneath their feet. "Wh-what was that!" May cried.

"An earthquake?" Max guessed, shaken out of his dance and trying to keep his balance.

"I hope not, this island's artificial! Too much seismic activity and it could break apart!" Brock explained, looking worried.

"I think it came from…over there!" Ash guessed, pointing down the street they were walking.

"Down that way is the city's Pokemon natural habitat. What could be going on down there?" Brock wondered.

"I don't know…but I think we should find out! Let's go take a look!" Ash suggested.

Misty rolled her eyes. "Like you couldn't guess he was going to say that…all right, let's go!" Although not all of them were very eager to head towards something that could shake the earth like that, in the end the whole group ran towards the source of the disturbance.

…

The Tyranitron had crashed face-first into the dirt making up the wildlife preserve of sorts on the south side of Ever Grande City and had skidded quite a distance, leaving a trail of devastation and destruction in its wake, killing a few dozen Pokemon and totally obliterating many habitats as well. The giant robot now lay immobile on its belly in the ground, the twisted and broken bodies of trees (and a Sudowoodo or two) lying all around it. Cautiously, the indigenous Pokemon approached the prone mecha, shocked that their homes had been destroyed so swiftly and callously, and wondering what sort of monster would do such a thing.

The blue peon had managed to grab onto one of the rungs on the ladder as he was falling and had held on tightly throughout the tumultuous flight. Now that the robot had stopped moving, and was somewhat horizontal, the act of going downwards was much easier. But he knew that the robot may become upright again at any moment, so he had to hurry. He had missed his original stopping point by quite a ways in the fall, so had some way to go before he could reach his secondary destination instead, now that he was much closer to it.

Inside the robot's cockpit, the five pilots were throwing up in the conveniently placed airsick bags Doctor Robotnik had thoughtfully placed underneath each of their consoles. "Ugh…I never want to do that again…" Bashou moaned. Chimecho, whom had been mistakenly left behind in the control room, continued stupidly ramming into the shield over the self-destruct button, unnoticed by all.

"Let's hope that once we take over the world, we have a bigger budget, so we never have to go through that again," Anny groaned.

"I hear that, sister," agreed Oakley.

The Marauder finished vomiting, wiped his mouth, and put his mask back on. "Okay, enough of that! We're here now, aren't we? Let's get to work!"

"Right." Buson grabbed a microphone, switched it on, and started speaking into it. "Hey, you guys down in the engine room! Get to work already!"

The 'engine room' was a long chamber built into the chest of the Tyranitron, just about below the arms, in which Jessie, James, Butch, Cassidy, Meowth, and the combined Pokemon of all the Ciphers onboard were gathered.

When I say 'gathered' I mean they were chained to exercise bicycles and treadmills with power cables hooked up to them.

"You know Jessie, I'm starting to get the strangest impression that the boss doesn't like us," James said, getting an unusual and surprising idea.

"No! What makes you think that?" Cassidy asked sarcastically.

"Yeah, why do you say that?" Jessie asked, missing her rival's sarcasm.

"Well…I don't know exactly," James said after a moment's thought. "But I think it has something to do with how we're locked down here, chained to machines that, when operated by us, will generate power for the Tyranitron's batteries and make it work. I can't quite put my finger on why, but…I don't know, it doesn't seem quite proper for some reason."

"James, dear, stop trying to use your head," Jessie said sweetly. "You'll only hurt yourself. Look at it this way: the Tyranitron is such a massive weapon it needs every bit of power it can dredge up. Due to budget problems, Team Cipher couldn't afford a proper power generator, so they had to rely on what was available to them. In this case, all that was available to them was us."

"Wait…didn't Doctor R mention something about a Crystal System or whatever that Prof. Sebastian made? Can't we just use that instead of manual labor?" Cassidy complained.

"I'm sure we could, Cassidy," Meowth said. "But since it seems you weren't listening to the doc's explanation of the Crystal System, allow me to elaborate: it siphons energy from Electric-type Pokemon and other electronic devices to fuel its batteries. But since the Tyranitron is so big and so powerful, it would take every last watt in Ever Grande to keep the batteries running autonomously for more than a few hours, unless there is another power supply to be found. And that's what we're here for! We'll generate a constant feed of electricity to the batteries to keep this thing from running down while it totally flattens and devastates the city and everything in it, showing the Hoenn government and the rest of the world what kind of power Team Cipher is packing!"

"Oh, that makes sense now!" James said, understanding. "But one thing I don't get. If it would take the power from an entire city to keep this robot running for more than a few hours, how can we possibly match that?"

As if on cue, Buson's voice rang throughout the room. "Hey, you guys down in the engine room! Get to work already!"

Panels opened in the ceilings in front of each exercise machine, and small robot arms lowered, each holding an item that drew the attention of the prisoners. For the majority of the Pokemon in the room, it was a nice, juicy hunk of meat, dripping with mouth-watering juices that instantly got their attention and made the cries of their empty stomachs resonate with hunger. The Marauder's Tyranitar, as well as Bashou and Buson's Skarmory and Muk, Anny and Oakley's Ariados and Espeon, Butch and Cassidy's Mightyena and Sableye, and Jessie and James' Seviper and Dustox were all Shadow Pokemon and lacked the intelligence to realize they couldn't get the food dangled before them no matter how fast they ran, so strained at their chains while running frantically on their treadmills, generating electricity while futilely striving to fill their bellies. The remaining Pokemon, which included a Sneasel, a Scizor, a Tentacruel, a Cloyster, a Raticate, a Houndoom, a Primeape, and a Hitmontop, were all brutally trained and had not eaten recently, so were too hungry to realize they couldn't get the dangling food and just started running for it.

Cacnea was the only one among them who was able to resist the hunger, partly because she had found some fruit to eat while trailing Wobbuffet on the Mirage Island, and partly because she was not quite so cruelly trained or as far gone mentally as the others, not to mention her heart was opening up again. Instead of futilely running on the treadmill towards the food, she instead tried to break her chains, smashing at them with her Needle Arms and trying to rip them away by pulling on them with the force from a Shadow Rush, but the designers of the chains had evidently made them to be nigh-unbreakable, and so she was, for the moment, stuck.

As for the humans and Meowth, each of them had a different enticement. "Ohhhh!" James cried, pointing at his object. "Look! Look Jessie, look! It's a Limited Edition Solid Gold-colored Yoohoo Bottlecap! The rarest bottlecap in all the world! With that in my collection, I'll be the greatest of all bottlecap collectors! Hahahaha!" He eagerly started pedaling on his bicycle, trying to make it move forward so he could reach the bottlecap. It couldn't of course, since it was an exercise cycle, but James didn't know that.

Butch rolled his eyes at James' idiocy…and halted, his orbs bulging as he saw what was being dangled in front of him. It was a doll of James himself, with a recorder attached to its chest which said, "Botch, Botch, Botch, Botch," in James' voice repeatedly. Butch would have shouted that his name was Butch, but when he had been chained to the bike, they had placed an iron muzzle over his mouth to keep him from talking, so he settled for muffled screams of rage and insane pedaling towards the offensive doll.

Meowth was staring with wide, hopeful eyes at the electronic Pikachu plushie dangling from the robot arm in front of him, with the recorded voice of a real Pikachu on it, going 'Pika pika.' "Look guys, it's Pikachu! He's completely helpless and ready to be captured! Let's get him!" He started pedaling desperately, hoping he could catch 'Pikachu' before he got away.

Jessie rolled her eyes. "Oh come on, what can they possibly use to make me pedal so-oh?" She paused, noticing that the arm in front of her bicycle was holding a doll of Cassidy holding a sign which said, "Jessie, you stink! And you're ugly, too!" Jessie went livid. "WHY YOU LITTLE!" She started pedaling, intending to ride right over to that doll and rip it to shreds.

Cassidy started laughing at her rival until she saw that hanging before her was a doll that looked like Jessie saying, "Your hair looks like a Blaziken's! But a Blaziken could kick your ass!" She growled. "We'll see who's kicking whose ass when I'm through with you!" She started pedaling, soon moving just as furiously as Jessie, who was already outdoing all the Pokemon and her teammates in the amount of electricity being generated.

The kinetic energy from their cycling and running was converted into electricity and channeled through the power cables behind them and into the wall behind them, where they quickly started filling up the Tyranitron's massive XXXXXXXXXXL-size batteries.

The lights in the control room flickered and grew brighter, and all the Tyranitron's myriad displays lit up. "All systems at full power!" Bashou reported, examining a gauge on her control panel.

The Iron Masked Marauder cackled evilly and rubbed his palms together. "Excellent! Let's get this baby moving and start some Snagging and smashing!"

The curious or angry Pokemon outside panicked and ran in fright as the Tyranitron trembled and shifted, its joints creaking slightly as they started moving about. Its tail flexed as the giant robot got its forearms underneath it and pushed off the ground, getting some extra leverage from its legs so that it could raise itself from its prostrate state on the ground into its usual bipedal position, standing upright and towering over all around it. The robot wiggled its arms to make sure they worked properly, then stamped its tail on the ground and kicked one leg out, then the other, and finished up by twisting its head back and forth and looking up and down. All movement systems seemed to be working in full order. If the robot could have grinned, it would have. The five pilots managed to do so quite well in the robot's place, though.

The robot turned to face some of the retreating Pokemon and raised its right arm into the air. A small antenna extended from the machine's wrist and started emitting a high-frequency sound wave virtually inaudible to humans, but all too clear to Pokemon. They stumbled in their tracks or faltered in the air, screeching and rolling about in agony as the sound wave bombarded them with pain. The Tyranitron then extended its left arm and aimed it at the tortured Pokemon. A panel on its underside slide open, and a cannon that looked like a giant Gatling Gun emerged from it. The cannon powered up and started spinning, firing ten Snag Balls per second from each of its numerous gun barrels.

The balls pummeled and weakened the poor, helpless Pokemon, bursting open and sucking them inside with energy beams resembling grasping hands. Many of the stronger ones broke free, only to be beaten and sucked in again by the next round of Pokeballs. In less than ten seconds, over a hundred Pokemon had been snagged.

The Tyranitron activated powerful magnets in various orifices which opened around its metallic body, sucking the Pokeballs, both occupied and empty, into storage tanks deep within its bowels. The empty Pokeballs were recycled for use in the Snag Cannon again, while the full ones were stuffed into tanks, where they would be kept until emptied by workers once the robot's mission was completed. The robot roared, modulators in its 'voice' recordings causing it to rise and lower in pitch, sounding like a diabolical laugh. Continuing its laugh, the great beast stomped off to find more Pokemon to capture.

…

"Did you see what that thing just did?" Max cried in amazement. "It just raised its arm, and all those Pokemon fell down and stopped running!"

Jirachi held his head in pain. "It made this weird noise that made me feel bad…but it's stopped now. Ooohhh, it's started again…"

The humans looked around and saw their Pokemon were all in similar expressions of discomfort. "This feels kinda familiar…" Togetic said, wincing.

"Yeah, but I can't remember why," Pikachu agreed, gritting his teeth.

"So big and so powerful…we saw something like that once, didn't we Ash?" May remembered. "But the Ciphers blew it up before they could use it on us. This thing looks a lot bigger and stronger than that one, though."

"Yeah, I remember that one too," Ash recalled. "I mean, how many giant robot Tyranitars can a guy run into? Still, it's not as big as that giant Groudon we ran into in Firia. I think we can beat it!"

"Yeah, when it stops making that irritating noise," Crawdaunt agreed, rubbing his eardrums. "Then I'll be glad to smash it to pieces!"

"I don't see what you guys are all whining about," Geodude complained. "Sounds fine to me." Onix nodded in agreement.

"That's because you've permanently damaged whatever you and Onix have that passes for ears with all the rock music you two listen to," Togetic said sardonically.

"You sure we can take that thing down, Ash?" Misty asked doubtfully. "It does look pretty big."

Ash shrugged. "So did the giant evil Groudon. And Lawrence III's airship. And the giant Gengar and Alazkazam at Pokemopolis. And the giant monster-thing the Iron Masked Marauder used Celebi to make. And the three-headed undead Phoenix King guy," he added. Misty frowned, thinking that sounded vaguely familiar. "And tons of other stuff we've beaten. No matter how big and bad it looks, it's still just another giant robot…and we've beaten so many of those by now that it's not like any of them really seem like a threat now, do they?"

"I guess…" she said reluctantly. She sighed. "It just gets a little, I don't know, repetitive. It seems like we can't go a day without fighting some giant robot, or aggressive Pokemon or trainer, or Team Cipher/Rocket, or just some other bad guy. Kinda makes you wonder why we can't just do what regular trainers do, instead of always getting caught up in some evil scheme to steal this thing or that Pokemon or take over the world."

Brock shrugged. "Well, we are far from regular. I'm the oldest in a huge family and was gym leader for quite a few years after my dad ran away, Misty's the youngest in a family of performers who don't appreciate her and also happen to be gym leaders, May and Max are the children of another gym leader, and Ash…well, he's always getting caught up in some weird destiny thing. I mean, even now some group of extradimensional weirdoes wants him to help save the world…again!"

Ash laughed. "And that's just counting the humans in our group! Our Pokemon are just as irregular as we are!" Pikachu frowned and gave Ash a nasty electric shock, causing him to dance and flail while glowing like a lightbulb. "I…meant it…in a good way…" he wheezed before collapsing.

"Rude as that sounded, he has a point," Latias realized. "A lot of us either have some messed-up past or weird psychological problem or character flaw that makes us a lot different from other Pokemon. I mean, not all Crawdaunt can possibly have the libido ours does!"

"And I'm proud of it!" Crawdaunt said smugly.

"Yeah…" Bayleef said slowly. "And really, how many Charizard have broken their eggs, suffered severe aquaphobia, and have a sort of conflicting inferiority/ego-complex caused by a year of losing battles to meaner, stronger Charizard as well as having a loving mate who's stronger than you?" she asked, glancing at Charizard.

"You say that like it's a good thing," he grunted, turning away.

"In a way, maybe it is," Pikachu said, a thoughtful look on his face. "A lot of us could be said to have some trait or quality that makes us different from other Pokemon. For instance, I'm stronger than most Pikachu and have a penchant for the psychology channel. Gyarados can fly, something most other Gyarados cannot. Onix and Geodude are addicted to rock music (although I can't imagine why). And as Latias said, some of us have had bad pasts," He glanced at Latias, then Togetic while saying this. "Or had some traumatic incident that changed them in certain ways. Perhaps these seemingly insignificant things that make us different individually are the reason the Unown chose us, because collectively these differences make us in some way more capable to handle whatever threat is going to try to destroy the world than anyone else."

"You think?" Phanphy asked, only understanding half of what half Pikachu had said.

Pikachu shrugged. "Maybe. It's a possibility isn't it?"

"Uh, excuse me?" Corsola interrupted. "Shouldn't we do something about that giant robot out there?"

The Pokemon sweatdropped. "Oh yeah, kind of forgot about that," Pikachu said, feeling embarrassed.

Ash, who had been tended to by the others, was now back on his feet. "Okay…all weirdness and attacking each other aside, something's gotta be done about that robot! I'm going to fight it!"

Pikachu hopped back into Ash's hat. "We're all with you, Pikapi! Right guys?"

"Um…yeah, sure, I guess," Latias said uncertainly.

Misty sighed. "Well, I guess I'd better go with you. I can't imagine how you managed to take care of yourself for so long without me around, Ash, what with how you're always getting into trouble."

"And I should go along to chaperone," Brock joked. "I don't trust your Pokemon to stop you from sneaking off to do whatever."

May rolled her eyes. "Not all guys have the same sex drive as you do, Brock. Ash would never think of doing something like that. Would you?" she asked with a tinge of desperation, praying he wouldn't. At least grant me one last bit of false hope that I can still have him! She begged. Or that he and she won't do anything really inappropriate!

Ash looked confused. "Do what?"

"Exactly!" May cried, feeling relieved.

"If you're all going to take on that monster, then I can't sit back and do nothing." Their heads turned to see Wes walking over, with a girl about his age with blue eyes and red hair in pigtails and Pikachu earrings behind him. He smirked. "I took Cipher down the last time. It wouldn't seem right if I didn't help take it down again, right?"

"Wes!" Ash cried. "And…"

"Rui," said the girl with a smile. "Nice to meet you."

Brock rushed over and grabbed her hands, causing her to cry out in surprise. "It's nice to meet you too, Rui! My name is Brock, and I'd like to-"

"Ahem," Wes said coldly, his yellow eyes narrowing and fixing Brock's slitted ones with laser-like focus. "What. Do. You. Think. You. Are. Doing. With. My. Girlfriend?"

Brock's face paled. "She's…oh. OH. Eh heh. I see." Stifling tears, he stood up and turned away. "I see. Well…if he is truly the one for you…then I will not stand in the way of your heart. I only hope that one day I, too, can find one whom I would defend as intensely as he protects you." He staggered away, sobbing.

They all stared at him. "Don't mind him," Misty reassured the confused Rui. "He's always like that around women. You get used to it."

"Oh…okay," she said, still looking confused.

Wes glanced at the large assortment of Pokemon our heroes had out and chuckled. "Quite a few friends you got here, kid. Let's see how good they really are, huh?" He pulled Ho-Oh's Pokeball off his belt and twirled it on his finger. "And let's see if you guys can beat that thing before Ho-Oh and I do!"

"Not so fast!"

Five figures leaped over the startled humans and Pokemon, flipping in midair.

"Hah!"

"Yah!"

"Huh!"

"Hyah!"

"Hyuh!"

The figures got up from where they had landed and turned around to face the group. They were five humans (at least, they looked like humans) clad completely in colored spandex from top to bottom, with belts displaying a silver buckle of the silhouette of a barking Houndour with some initials and strange-looking guns in holsters at their sides. They wore nearly identical helmets with large black visors and blank silver mouthguards covering their faces, and two red lights on the sides. The same symbol on their belt buckle was also embossed on their foreheads. The red person had a large black one covering the left side of his body, the blue person had a large black two, the green person had a large black three, the yellow person had a large black four, and the pink person had a large black five.

Ash, Phanphy, Max and Jirachi all stared at the five with gaping jaws and looks of utter disbelief on their faces, while everyone else was just confused. "Uh…who are you?" Wes asked, Ho-Oh's Pokeball falling off of his finger. He was too stunned to notice.

Brock's face flushed and he ran up to the yellow and pink ones, startling them. "And would you be willing to take off your helmets so I can gaze into your beautiful eyes?" he asked dreamily.

The two people glanced at each other, nodded, grabbed Brock by the wrists, and flung him over their shoulders. "Whoooaaahhh-oof!" he cried as he hit the ground on his head.

"How did he know they were female?" Wes wondered, amazed.

"He's Brock," Misty said flatly. "He always knows."

"We are…"

The red one bent his knees, thrust one arm out, pulled the other back to the side of his head, twirled around and held out a badge that looked identical to his belt buckle and forehead symbols. "Red Ranger 1!"

The blue one did pretty much the same thing as the red. "Blue Ranger 2!"

Each of the other three did slight variations of the same things as the first two. "Green Ranger 3!"

"Yellow Ranger 4!"

"Pink Ranger 5!"

Then, they backflipped, stood together, and froze in different action positions, then got up and held their badges out. "We are…Poke Rangers, Astro Squad Sigma! Hyah!" Spontaneously, the ground behind them exploded for no apparent reason.

"…Poke Rangers A.S.S.!" Bayleef cried in disbelief. "What is it with people and stupid acronyms these days!"

Ash burst into manic laughter. "I KNEW it!" he shouted. "I KNEW they existed! And you said they were just another thing they showed on television!" he yelled at Bayleef, who sweatdropped.

"Oh boy! Does this mean Berney the purple Tyranitar is real too?" Phanphy asked excitedly.

"No honey," Misty said gently. "He's just a man in a poorly-made costume."

Phanphy blinked. "But-but what about-"

"The Compubellies? They're just people in costumes too," Togetic answered before her little brother could finish his question.

Phanphy's trunk and ears drooped. "Awwww…"

"They're not real?" Jirachi asked in surprise. "But I loved them! How can they not be real?" he wailed, starting to cry.

"There, there," Max said, patting Jirachi on the back sadly. "I felt the same way too when I found out the truth…but at least we know the Poke Rangers are real! That is so awesome!"

Wes sweatdropped. "Uh huh…and just who exactly are you…'Poke Rangers'?"

"We're superheroes!" Red Ranger said proudly.

"We battle criminals from another galaxy on a weekly basis! We're a special branch of the police assigned to protect Ever Grande City and its citizens from the forces of evil!" Blue Ranger explained.

Brock frowned and started flipping through his guidebook. "I don't remember seeing them mentioned anywhere in here…"

"You don't need to trouble yourselves, pedestrians. We can handle this monster! That's what we're here for!" Green Ranger assured the group.

"We can handle it too!" Misty protested.

Yellow Ranger laughed kindly and a teensy bit condescendingly. "Sorry, but you don't have the training or skill needed to take on evil of that magnitude!" she said, pointing to the Tyranitron, which was continuing its vicious rampage throughout the Pokemon habitat, toying with the indigenous Pokemon by scaring them out of hiding with weapons before stunning and Snagging them.

Ash frowned, feeling slightly insulted. "And you do? What, are your Pokemon all that strong then?"

The five Rangers laughed. "Who needs Pokemon when you have super powers?" Red Ranger asked.

Pink Ranger nodded in agreement. "You all just stay here where it's safe. Don't worry, we'll handle things from here!"

"And you won't need to do it alone!" cried an oddly familiar voice from atop a nearby small building.

May blinked. "That voice…why does it sound so familiar?"

Brock looked around frantically. "And my girl-senses are going off, but I don't see anyone other than the darling Rui, and the gorgeous Pink and Yellow Rangers…" Wes growled and the two Rangers made threatening motions at him. Brock gasped and whirled around, pointing to the top of the aforementioned building. "THERE!"

The group turned around in time to see the three figures whom had been standing on top of the building leap down and somehow land on the street perfectly safe, without breaking their knees or splattering open on the sidewalk. Their jaws dropped. Now things were really getting out of hand. "Okay, now this is starting to get ridiculous…" Gyarados muttered, beginning to get irritated.

Before them stood Nurse Joy, Officer Jenny, and Drew. As in, May's rival/semi-love-interest-aside-from-Ash-who-is-taken Drew, whom May hadn't heard from since her dad's hospitalization and her mother's 'clinginess' had kept her from leaving town to compete in other Pokemon Contests. However, they weren't attired as Nurse Joy, Officer Jenny, and Drew usually were.

Jenny and Joy were both wearing tight, form-fitting army fatigues and boots that somehow accentuated their figures and showed quite a lot of skin. They also had many ribbons (something you wouldn't expect to see on a soldier) and they wore tiaras as well as very flashy brooches set in large bows on their necks. Drew was wearing a tuxedo, black pants, nice shoes, a top hat, and a black cape with red interior. He held a rose in one hand and a cane in the other. On his face he wore a mask that looked like a Masquerain, with eyeholes in the wings. Each of them was also accompanied by a Pokemon, Joy and Jenny has an Espeon and an Umbreon respectively, each with a crescent shape on their foreheads, while Drew was joined by his Roselia, who had a mask similar to his.

The group was too stunned to react at first, but the Poke Rangers didn't seem nearly as shocked. "Ah, the Soldier Scouts and Tuxedo Masquerain!" Blue Ranger identified them.

"I was wondering when they'd show up!" said Pink Ranger.

"Soldier Scouts?" Ash asked in disbelief.

"Tuxedo Masquerain?" May queried, looking appalled and confused.

"Yes, it is we!" declared Joy.

"We have come to banish evil in the name of justice and the stars!" Jenny explained.

Drew swished his cape. "And look stylish doing so!" He brushed back his hair in the carefree manner that was so typical of himself. Pink and Yellow Ranger sighed admiringly.

Brock rushed over and grabbed the hands of Joy and Jenny, startling them. "I think you look most stylish! And beautiful too! I'd love to banish evil too, in the name of justice and LOVE! Can I join?"

"Ahem! Get away from them!" Drew said angrily, holding his rose to Brock's neck.

"Hey, can't you share!" Brock asked unhappily, backing off. "There's two of them! Can't I at least have one?"

"Nope," said Drew, brushing back his hair. Pink and Yellow Ranger sighed again. Joy and Jenny smiled and hooked their arms into his. "They're all MINE!"

"Drew?" May asked finally, coming up to him. "I-I don't understand. What are you doing here? What's going on?"

Drew looked startled. He looked around nervously. "Er, Drew? I don't know who you're talking about young lady-who-is-most-certainly-not-my-type, although I'm sure this Drew you speak of is a very handsome fellow."

"What are you talking about?" May persisted. "That lame mask and disguise don't hide who you are. Anyone can see you're really Drew." She got angry. "Is this what you've been up to? I heard you disappeared after you went to Lilycove even though contest officials said it was too dangerous to go there! I was worried something terrible had happened to you! Do you mean to tell me that all this time you've been here, playing around with Nurse Joy and Officer Jenny?"

"Oh, uh, I'm not Nurse Joy," said Nurse Joy. "I'm…Soldier Heart!"

"And I'm Soldier Wisdom!" Officer Jenny said quickly.

Misty sweatdropped. "No, I'm pretty sure you're really Nurse Joy and Officer Jenny."

"Are not," both women said quickly.

"Yes you are," said Max. "You're not even wearing masks! Everyone can see your secret identity! What kind of superheroes are you?"

"Yeah! Your secret identity isn't a secret if your face can be seen by everyone around you!" Jirachi agreed.

"And my girl senses are never wrong," Brock added. "And right now they tell me that there's a Nurse Joy and an Officer Jenny standing in front of me…and I know a Joy or a Jenny when I see them, no matter what kind of getup they're wearing!"

The three 'superheroes' started sweating nervously. "Curses, they're on to us!" hissed Drew. "Roselia, Amnesia Dust!"

"Right, Tuxedo Masquerain!" Roselia leaped into the air and started spinning rapidly, showering the group with thick clouds of dust, causing them to hack and wheeze for air as their lungs were clogged up by the debris. The dust wasn't actually AMNESIA dust of course, no such thing existed, but Drew, Roselia, and their partners believed it did, so that was good enough for them.

"There, that should erase their memories of our secret identities!" Drew said, looking relieved. "Come on girls, let's go stop that robot!"

"Right, Tuxedo Masquerain!" Joy and Jenny chorused.

"Don't forget about us!" Red Ranger said. The Poke Rangers held up their badges, which started flashing. "All right, it's time to use our newest weapon in the field for the first time! Arise, A.S.S. Megaloid!"

Five giant vehicles came roaring down the streets of Ever Grande, causing pedestrians to flee in terror as their giant tires crushed everything in their path, be they signs, benches, fire hydrants, cars, or even living things. There was a motorcycle, a jeep, a police car, a fire truck, and a helicopter, all of them at varying times their regular sizes. They all came to a stop in front of the group, which was still coughing on Roselia's noxious dust, and the five Poke Rangers leaped impossibly high into the air and somehow phased right into the cockpits of the vehicles, which then started to transform.

The helicopter and motorcycle flew into the air, flipped so their noses were facing the ground, and split apart and rotated chassis sections, transforming into a pair of arms. The fire truck split in two, and each half of the truck's cab rotated 90 degrees up as the truck halves stood upright, with their back ends in the air as metal extensions grew out of them, forming a pair of legs. The jeep expanded as its body shell split apart from itself, forming a chest and torso which connected to the metal growing from the legs. Bolts emerged from the two arms and connected to sockets in the rear wheels of the giant jeep. The police car floated into the air and unfolded itself as it slammed down onto the top of the newly formed body, its windshield flipping back to reveal a humanoid face as it formed the head for the new robot. A compartment on one of the legs opened up and ejected a giant gun with three barrels capped by neon lights, which the robot caught and spun in its right hand before holding it in the air and shooting it. "A.S.S. Megaloid!" The Rangers, who had joined together in a large five-person cockpit inside the robot's head cried together.

And as the dust was finally starting to clear from our poor heroes' lungs (good thing none of them had asthma) things unbelievably got weirder. "They're not the only ones with giant robots," Drew said with a smirk. "Girls! Let's show them that new technique we've been working on!"

The girls nodded. "Right, Tuxedo Masquerain!" They touched hands and raised their free hands into the air. "Wonder Soldier Powers, activate!" Joy and Jenny started glowing, until they were veritable balls of light. They leaped into the air and slammed into each other, merging into one giant ball of light which kept growing and growing and beginning to form a distinctly female shape. When the light faded, the heroes were stunned to see that there was now a giant robot about the same size as the other two (approximately twenty stories tall) but unlike the others, looked exactly like a giant metal Soldier Scout, with some weird fusion of Officer Jenny and Nurse Joy's features. It even had somehow sprouted metal hair that, inexplicably, was very long, purple, and blowing in the wind. Drew, Roselia, and the weird Espeon and Umbreon leaped into the air and somehow got into the cockpit inside the giant female robot's head. The robot did a twirl on one foot then stomped both feet down and did a split with both arms raised in the air, hair (somehow) blowing in the wind. "SUPER SEXY SOLDIER SENSHIBOT ONLINE!"

Brock's hormones went into overdrive at the sight of the robot, and he began drooling like mad before finally fainting as his brain overloaded due to the many disgusting sexual fantasies running through his mind. If the other robot could have drooled, it would have as well. The Pink and Yellow Rangers ended up having to smack the male Rangers in their robot to get them back on focus. Everyone else just stared in disbelief.

Finally, Wes broke the silence by screaming and clutching his head. "First, Pokemon and trainers use moves that are physically impossible, and now this! Does nothing in this crazy region make sense!" Overwhelmed, he sat down on the ground and got in a fetal position, rocking back and forth while whimpering. Sweatdropping, Rui bent over and tried to give him a reassuring shoulder rub while whispering encouraging messages into his ear.

"…Humans can't normally transform into giant robots, can they?" Onix asked, looking confused.

"No, Uncle Onix, they don't," Togetic assured him.

"Ah. Sooo…how did they just do that?"

"I have absolutely no idea," she confessed.

"Ash…this isn't a dream or anything, is it?" Misty asked, uncertainly.

Ash shrugged. "I dunno. Most of my dreams end up with me embarrassing myself by forgetting to wear pants." He quickly looked down. "Yep, they're still there."

"Oh," she said, looking slightly disappointed. "Because most of my dreams end with us…never mind."

"…THIS IS SOOOOO COOL!" Jirachi and Max yelled in unison, looking like two three-year old kids being given access to unlimited candy. Absol groaned, imagining the headache he would get from all this madness.

I wonder if Ash would like me if I had a figure like that? May wondered idly to herself, glancing first at the Senshibot, then at Misty. …Nah, it doesn't seem to affect him at all. And I'm pretty sure I've gotten her beat in that category, at least, she thought with a sad smile. For what good it does me…

"This is extremely weird and nonsensical," Bayleef said, shaking her head.

"It's like the laws of reality are being repealed or something, allowing impossible things to happen," the intelligent talking yellow rodent who had the ability to generate thunderbolts speculated.

Meanwhile…

"Molly!" Professor Hale said angrily, pointing at the image on the TV screen, a news report showing the two Scouts somehow fusing into a giant robot. The reporter talking about the event looked confused and uncertain, as if he was questioning his sanity (which he was).

"I didn't do it!" the little girl protested honestly.

Hale rolled his eyes. "That's what you said when Teddiursa and your mother somehow combined into a giant anthropomorphic teddy bear!"

"That was an accident!" Molly cried, which was half-true. "And they're back to normal now. But I didn't do anything this time! What actually happened was that the bright light the Soldier Scouts gave off concealed their giant robot teleporting in, so that their enemies would think that they had somehow gone insane (because everyone knows humans can't just combine and turn into giant robots in real life, only on weird cartoons and anime) and make them either surrender from confusion or at least fight less effectively."

The professor stared at her and blinked. "…Young lady, I'm honestly scared for you sometimes."

Back with the heroes…

"Sort of like in badly written stories with intense randomness," Pikachu concluded. "Or anime."

"Randomness, eh?" Crawdaunt asked, getting a wicked idea. "Well, then…Corsola, I don't suppose you're randomly feeling like making out with me right now, are you?"

The Coral Pokemon stared at him in confusion. "Uh, no, not particularly. Why?"

"Darn," the lobster muttered unhappily. "Well, it was worth a try."

"Okay, guys," the Red Ranger said from the cockpit inside the A.S.S. Megaloid. Somehow, not only did the operators in the other robot cockpit hear him, so did everyone else on the ground. "Let's get that monster!"

"Yeah!" the other Rangers and Drew echoed in agreement. The duo of robots started charging towards the Tyranitron, which had finished capturing every last "wild" Pokemon in the area and had finally noticed the presence of other mechas.

The Marauder chuckled. "Hey, looks like we're not the only giant robot here!"

"Good think the Doctor mentioned these guys to us and said they might have recently gotten giant robots, and programmed them into all our simulator tests, so we wouldn't be surprised if we ran into them!" Buson commented.

"The Tyranitron should be able to take anything they can dish out, even if they come at us all together!" agreed Bashou.

"Let's kick some ass, Oakley!" Anny said ferociously.

"Right on, Anny!" Oakley agreed with a grin. "And show that girly robot out there what a real woman can do!"

The Marauder pressed a few buttons. Down in the chamber containing the statue of Lord Wobbaku, strange machinery came to life, channeling the energy imbued within the statue and passing it on throughout the rest of the robot. A large energy shield flickered into view for a moment around the Tyranitron, making a bubble with a surface that extended twenty feet away from the robot in every direction and roughly mimicked the shape of its skin. If it worked correctly, this force field would ensure that the robot was truly invincible.

"Shields are at full power…let's take em'!" Bashou sneered with a predatory grin.

Armed to the teeth and protected by an invincible force field, the Tyranitar-based robot charged into battle.

…

"The Tyranitron is preparing to engage the other robots in battle," reported one of the technicians.

Robotnik grinned and rubbed his hands gleefully, before stopping, grimacing, and holding his chest. "Excellent! Now we'll see just how powerful the Tyranitron is in comparison to other robots! Those used by superheroes are often top-of-the-line, but I designed the Tyranitron to surpass them in strength!" He began to laugh but coughed and swallowed loudly, looking uneasy. "Ugh…for some reason, I don't feel well."

"You too?" Nascour asked in surprise. "I've been feeling a little odd too." His hair wasn't writhing as much as it had before, and his serpents looked a little listless and tired. "I thought it was the heat. It is awfully hot in here, isn't it?"

"Yes..." Robotnik frowned and pointed to a peon. "You there! Turn on the AC! It's much too warm in here!"

The peon looked at him in surprise. She looked slightly tired and a little haggard. "But…but Doctor, it is on! I was feeling somewhat hot, so I turned it up. Didn't seem to help much. You mean you all feel it too?"

Nascour frowned. A little "danger!" light was blinking in his mind. "Everyone!" he shouted, getting the attention of the other crewmen. "Tell me, do you feel uncharacteristically warm, too?" The response was worrying, an almost unanimous affirmative. Sweat was rolling down his cheeks, and he noticed for the first time that everyone else seemed to be sweating and looking somewhat unwell, too. Everyone save for the slavering Ein, Sebastian and Domino.

Ein, Sebastian, and Domino. Hold on a minute. Something was wrong with that thought. Why weren't any of those three feeling hot and unwell?

His eyes widened as he was struck by a horrible realization. None of them had eaten any of the pizza, which Robotnik seemed to think he had ordered but could not actually remember doing so.

He leapt to his feet and whirled around to face Domino…and stumbled and fell to the ground, his head spinning. "Ohhh…" He tried to get up, only for his head to split in pain as he tried moving his limbs, which felt heavier than lead dipped in iron and dropped into the sea. Out of the corner of his vision, he saw Robotnik and the crewmen holding hands to their heads, staggering about, and collapsing where they stood or sat. Ein stopped his gibbering and erratic movements and glanced at his compatriots in confusion. Domino, on the other hand, was beaming, her face split by a grin so wide it almost reached her ears. Sebastian chuckled, finding the death throes amusing. "You…bitch…" Nascour rasped, trying to reach out at Domino with one of his trembling, shaking hands. His hair-snakes hissed weakly but angrily, glaring with hatred at the female.

"You idiots…" She sneered. "I can't believe you never saw this coming…" She walked over to the door and opened it.

Sebastian grinned and spat in the face of the moaning Robotnik in the meantime. "We'll see who's the most-paid scientist on the team now, Fatman. Heh, Fatman, I like that!" He snickered as Robotnik weakly swiped at him, only for his arm to collapse to the ground in mid-swing.

Nascour was shocked to see the pizza delivery boy walk in, a smug and savage expression on his face. How could he still be alive? What had happened to the two Peons who had led him away? The pizza delivery boy chuckled malevolently as Ein screamed and backed away frantically, bumping into the wall and almost tripping over one of the technicians, who was now lying on the ground, moaning in pain. "GEO! GEO! GEO!" he screamed, foaming at the mouth.

The pizza man laughed. "Yes indeed, my traitorous, mad little scientist. Geo. Or, should I say…" He twirled around, his clothes and the mask he had been wearing flying off to reveal…

A suit of black armor reminiscent of Darth Vader's but thicker, with spiked shoulders and boots, a big red R on his chest in place of a life support control panel, and a black helmet and skull mask with glowing red eyes. Chuckling, the ominous being reached up and pulled off his helmet, revealing a face gruesomely charred and deformed by massive electric trauma, his mouth all but frozen into a hideous smile like that of Death itself, with blackened eyes and burnt hair, and a tiny fragment of purple crystal imbedded in his forehead. But even with all that had been done to that face, he was still instantly recognizable to all.

"Giovanni Sakai Rocketto," said the man in the black armor in a voice that rasped from vocal chords stiffened and damaged by death and electrocution. "Boss Rocket has returned."

And he, and Domino, and Sebastian laughed, while Ein whimpered and soiled himself in fear, and the last thing Nascour and the rest saw as the world began to turn black around them was that ghastly, grinning face…

…

What do you think? And what ship name do we call Psyduck/Skitty?

And did you remember to review both this chapter and the last one? (I'm such a whore.) If you didn't, that's fine. Any reviews at all are good enough for me.