And so, after the bloodfest that was last chapter, we've finally come to the moment you've all been waiting for…the great battle between good and evil!

And you'll have to wait a little longer, because the actual fighting doesn't start until the next chapter, but we'll set things up in the meantime, okay? (I am so cheap.)

Buckle your seatbelts, because the show starts here!

Disclaimer: Pretty much all the characters in this chapter are parodies or the property of an overseas company. Please do not sue me, for I cannot pay for them. Big thanks go out to DiamondLatias3000 for editing this chapter, as well as conceiving and writing the backstory for Deoxys' deadliest general of all (with some minor tweaks from yours truly, of course). Thanks to Alex Warlorn and ninetalesuk for editing help as well.

The sun rose the next morning, as it always had in Ever Grande City. Save for the fact that Battle Frontier had been destroyed and just last night a huge tidal wave had nearly engulfed the city, little seemed to have changed in the lives of the citizens of the island city.

For those who were not citizens, on the other hand…well, that's another story.

Delia Ketchum clasped her hands and looked around in wonder as their boat pulled into harbor. "Wow! This is incredible! I don't think I've ever seen such a big city in such a small place before! Especially not one with a giant oil rig in the middle!" She eagerly started taking snapshots with a camera around her neck.

"Yes, I suppose it is a rather impressive view," esteemed Professor Samuel Oak agreed, his brow furrowed in thought. "But…something's bothering me. I expected to see Battle Frontier as we came closer to the city, but I haven't seen it anywhere."

"Perhaps it's on the other side," Delia suggested. "It's a big island, and those skyscrapers and oil rig take up a lot of room. They're probably just blocking it from view."

"I suppose," the famous scientist said, unconvinced. "And yet…I could have sworn it was on this side of the city, on an island just a ways over there…hmm…"

A crewman tapped the scientist on the shoulder of his extremely loud Bermuda-patterned T-shirt. "Excuse me, Professor Oak?"

"Hmm? Yes, what is it?"

"Ah, those Pokemon of yours down in the hold have been causing a ruckus again. The passengers are complaining about it…as are the chefs, the janitors, a good portion of the crew, as well as-"

"Yes, yes, I get the picture," Oak snapped, cutting the man off. "I'll go calm them down. They probably just sense we're coming into port at long last, and are eager to stretch their legs. They'll be happy to get off this boat."

"As will everybody else, sir." The crewman handed the professor a slip. "Oh, the captain told me to give you this."

Oak frowned and glanced at it. "What's that?" a confused Delia asked.

"It's an add-on to the bill for our time on this ship," the professor told her.

"Listing the money owed due to the actions of your Pokemon, sir," the crewman elaborated.

"Oh well, it can't possibly be…THAT MUCH!" Oak's eyes bulged out of his head when he saw the lengthy sum listed on the bottom line. "What the…how can this…this can't possibly be right! Surely they can't have done so much as to rack up an amount this high!"

"I beg to differ, sir. The female Tyranitar and her child alone nearly emptied our daily food stores at every meal, and we barely had anything left after the rest of the Pokemon came after her. You'll need to pay for the extra food we're going to have to replace while we're in port."

"That must be why dinner always seemed so lean…" Delia said to herself. "And here I thought this was a diet cruise."

Oak sweatdropped. "I admit that is an awful lot, but surely the food doesn't cost this much!"

"It doesn't, sir, but food isn't the only problem," the crewman told him. "Extra cash penalties have been tacked on for the numerous other disturbances your Pokemon have caused; namely your Scyther damaging various machines in our fitness center, as well as eating up a lot of our medicine supplies because it constantly aggravated its heart condition and attacking various sunbathing youths for no apparent reason; your Grovyle and Bulbasaur getting into very violent fights which have injured several passengers, and your Umbreon and Misdreavus scaring the elderly passengers into heart attacks with their pranks and scares. That, and your Tyranitar nearly sank the ship when she tried to dive into our swimming pool."

"So that's why there's a big hole in the ceiling and floor of the fifth and fourth-floor lounge!" Delia cried in realization.

Oak flinched. "I see…" He sighed. "Very well…I don't suppose you'll accept a check?"

Professor Oak was still fuming after he had given a check for an exorbitant amount of money to the ship's captain and angrily scolded the Pokemon for causing so much trouble. They hadn't really understood what exactly they'd done wrong, so had tuned the professor out after the first couple of minutes and quietly walked out of the room, save for Tyranitar, who's son was awed by the shade of red the old man was turning, until Oak had all but fainted from exhaustion and had to take heart medicine, which had to be wrestled away from Scyther first.

Now they were all together and walking across the gangplank from the ferry/cruise ship's lobby to shore, ignoring both the ominous wobbling and creaking noises caused by Tyranitar trying to balance on the skinny bridge as well as the cheers and jeers thrown up by the passengers and crew behind them as they were booted off the ship.

"Bye everyone!" Delia said somewhat cluelessly, waving as they departed. "It was fun spending the last couple of days with you!" Turning to Oak, she said, "That was a nice cruise, wasn't it?"

Oak glared at the Pokemon traveling with them as they stepped onto the pier. "Yes, such a nice cruise…and now I'm quite a lot poorer." His eye twitched and he gritted his teeth. "There goes the expanded Pokemon habitat I was going to build, as well as my grandson's college fund…"

"Wowwww…" said the awed Larvitar child. "Mama, look how shiny those mountains are!"

"Those aren't mountains, dear, they're buildings," Tyranitar calmly corrected him. "Mountains built by humans to live in."

"Ohhh…" The concept boggled the young Pokemon, who hadn't seen many buildings larger than a few stories in his very short lifetime.

"Wee, finally we're out of that compound and in the big city, with no yucky stinky skives around!" Misdreavus cheered, doing a loop in the air.

"Don't get too excited," her Umbreon lover reminded the ghost. "We're only allowed here because we're supposed to fight some big evil or something like that. I can't imagine that'll be very fun. So much for a vacation…"

"Yeah, but remember, once we've done that, we'll be rewarded by those eyeball things," Scyther recalled, huffing slightly from his long walk from the ship to the docks. "Youth, here I come!"

"It'll be great to see Ash and Bayleef and everyone else again," Bulbasaur said cheerfully, glad to be back on solid ground again.

"Yep," agreed Grovyle, keeping a wary eye on the smaller Pokemon, who had been acting oddly aggressive towards him recently and noting the emphasis on 'Bayleef'. "I'd like to see them all…and Bayleef, of course…too."

"Don't you think you see her enough on the phone?" Bulbasaur asked abruptly, a surprising amount of venom in his voice.

Grovyle blinked, startled. "Talking to someone over the phone isn't quite the same as seeing them in person. You know that."

"Yes…" Bulbasaur said, glancing away as he nursed his emotional wounds. "I do."

"Ah, there they are!" Delia said, referring to the welcoming committee of Misty, Brock, Togetic, Phanphy, Pikachu, and Bayleef waiting for them. "Hey Pikachu! Long time no see!" she said, picking up the mouse and ignoring everyone else, causing them to facefault because this was so typical of the older woman. "And look how adorable you are, dressed up as a swordsman! Oh, and it's good to see you kids too."

Misty made a smile which didn't quite meet her tired eyes as she got back up. "Hey, same here Mrs. Ketchum."

Brock's reaction, on the other hand, was much more enthusiastic. "Mrs. Ketchum, it's so good to see you again!" he said, taking her hands. "You're looking lovely as always, I see! Even lovelier, if I do say so myself-"

Misty grabbed his ear and yanked him away. "Brock, I don't think today of all days is the time for this," she growled.

"GRANDMA!" Phanphy squealed happily, charging Delia, knocking her down, and joyfully beating her face in with his trunk. "Grandmagrandmagrandmagrandmagrandmagrandmagrandma-"

Professor Oak and the others sweatdropped. "Oh dear."

Togetic sighed. "Phanphy…" She flew over, grabbed her brother around the waist, and lifted him into the air. "Sorry, grandma. He does that a lot."

"My, he's happy to see me," said a stunned Delia, her face red from Phanphy's joyful greeting.

"Grovyle-kun!" The green gecko was tackled by the ecstatic Bayleef, who started constricting him in her vines while nuzzling him affectionately. Bulbasaur's eye twitched and he growled under his breath.

"Ack! Bayleef, I'm glad to see you too," Grovyle gasped. "But…could you…please…let go?"

She hesitated, then crushed him against her chest, sniffing. "No," she whispered, clenching her eyes shut. "Don't wanna let go. Don't wanna lose you too."

Grovyle blinked in surprise. "Huh? Bayleef, what are you talking about?" She didn't answer. She simply held him to her, sobbing slightly.

Bulbasaur shook, growled, and looked away…right into Pikachu's eyes. "I think you and I need to talk…" the yellow mouse said quietly.

Bulbasaur glared at him, not in the mood. "Leave me alone," he growled, stomping past him. "And your costume is stupid."

Pikachu blinked, indignant. "Hey…it is not stupid! I'll have you know my new girlfriend likes it a lot!" He chased after the angry Bulbasaur.

"And nobody notices that we're here," Scyther grumbled, crossing his arms. "Lousy whippersnappers."

"We're minor characters. What do you expect?" Umbreon pointed out. "We're supposed to be in the background, half the time."

Scyther muttered a few unsavory things under his breath. "Arrogant little punks…back in my day…muttermutter…Bet they'll notice me once I'm young and virile again…"

"Aren't Scyther supposed to embrace death or something?" Misdreavus asked skeptically. "Like the other super-predator Pokemon species?"

"I did embrace death," he said flatly. "Until I got hooked on television and fatty foods and realized life was a lot more fun than killing myself." They rolled their eyes.

"It's good to see you two again," the Professor said to Misty and Brock, feeling left out. "Although you look…well, tired. Are you all right?"

"…We've been better," Misty said, rubbing her wrists tiredly. "It's been a very long night."

"Where's Ash?" Delia asked, finally noticing after being here for five minutes that her son wasn't present.

Misty and Brock tensed. "Um…Mrs. Ketchum…" Brock said slowly. "Ah…we have something we need to tell you…"

In space…

Deoxys paused in his preparations for his big speech to the people of Earth. "Did you just hear something?"

"Yes…" said a puzzled Shalor. "It sounded like a faint 'What!' coming from somewhere on the planet below."

"But that's not possible," Mewgle argued. "We're in orbit high above the atmosphere, there's no way we could have heard something from down below."

"In that case, we heard nothing," Deoxys concluded. "Put it out of your minds. We still have much more to do before we are ready…"

In the Ever Grande City Pokemon Center, Delia hugged the tall, glowing tank while sobbing helplessly. Said tank was full of fizzing greenish gel containing an iridescent sphere of light, surrounded by clusters of particles which were slowly starting to coalesce in a vaguely discernible form. "Oh, Ash! I'm such a terrible mother!"

Mewtwo, who was standing awkwardly nearby, sweatdropped. "Ah…"

"I should have paid more attention to you and nourished you and appreciated you more for your achievements! And now you're DEAD!" Delia cried miserably.

"Um, Mrs. Ketchum, he's not actually dead-" Misty started, but Delia continued her tirade.

"And just when I got ENGAGED, too!" Mrs. Ketchum cried. "Just when we could have had a whole family, like I always wanted!"

Brock's jaw dropped as he heard this. "E-engaged!" Despondent, he curled up in a far corner of the room, a dark cloud over his head.

"Married?" asked an amazed Misty. "Wow, congratulations Professor Oak! I always thought there was something between you!"

The elderly scientist gave her a confused look. "Eh? What are you talking about? I'm not the one she's engaged to."

All stared at him. "What?" asked a surprised Pikachu. "But…then who…"

"And you wouldn't have even minded your new father, either!" Delia continued, shaking the tube in her grief and agitating Mewtwo, making him worried she'd ruin the delicate cloning procedure. "Because he's been a part of our household for so long anyway that almost nothing would have changed! I just know that if you had the chance, you would have come to thought of Mimey as 'Dad'!"

There was a long pause. "Did she just say…" Bayleef began, a disturbed look on her face.

"'Mimey'!" Grovyle concluded in disbelief. "As in, Mimey the Mr. Mime housekeeper, who always tidies up everything in sight, living or otherwise?"

"Aren't there laws against human/Pokemon marriages?" a very disturbed Misty asked Professor Oak.

He nodded, looking grouchy. "There are indeed. But they're invalid if the couple gets married in the right place, outside their country of birth. Lucky mime…"

"Would Ash have liked having a mime for a father, do you think?" Corsola asked Crawdaunt, raising an eyebrow.

"No," the lobster said shortly. "And I wouldn't, either. Hell, I can't think of anyone who would. Everyone hates mimes."

"Actually, that's a generalization," Pikachu corrected. "But…I can't really imagine something like this myself. It's just so…weird. I mean, inter-species relationships between Pokemon can get bizarre on its own, but taking it to humans as well? That's just…that's a whole other level altogether. There's a whole branch of psychology dedicated to that sort of thing, and I've only had the chance to learn a little of it from my television viewings, barely the tip of an iceberg."

"Eh, I don't see a problem with it," said the unconcerned Sadic, sharpening her claws on an unfortunate table leg. "Love is love, like my mom always said. And if this 'Mimey' fails to give her offspring, he can always be eaten."

"Humans don't do that," Pikachu said flatly.

"Some do, actually," Grovyle said, recalling something he had seen on television about cannibal tribes.

"Yeah," said Crawdaunt, who had seen the same program. "And let me tell you, the dishes they prepared look mighty damn tasty."

Pikachu sweatdropped. "Well, yes, some humans are cannibals, but most aren't, not the civilized ones anyway."

"Maybe they should be," Sadic said, rolling her eyes. "If people got over their hypocritical inhibitions about how killing and eating other people was wrong, seeing as they do it to other Pokemon all the time for their own sustenance without feeling guilty about it, (as well as learning the proper discipline to keep from running around doing it willy-nilly like that Shining Ranger idiot was going to) then the world would be a much better and happier place."

"But that is wrong," said a confused Bayleef. "…Isn't it?"

"What's wrong about it?" Sadic retorted. "Killing someone doesn't mean anything. Death isn't the end of existence; it's just a transition, like birth. A continuation of life, elsewhere. It's what makes people, all people, (who have souls, anyway) immortal. So that's why any distinctions drawn between killing something for food and killing someone of your own kind (for food or otherwise) are artificial and should be abolished, because if the same restrictions and discipline applied to both kinds of killing then there'd be less complicated rules and less moral conflicts to get people all confused and jumbled up."

Pikachu grimaced. "I, for one, find the thought of eating other Pikachu grotesque."

"That's because you've been among humans for most of your life," the Manyula pointed out. "In the wild, I think a lot of Pikachu eat each other, don't they? As do most other predatory races."

"That's probably true," Pikachu admitted. "But then why am I haunted by the traumatizing image of my mother trying to eat me when I was a kid?"

"Because you've been around humans so long that you've come to think that eating your own kind is wrong, so of course that memory seems traumatizing," Sadic said.

"But I was afraid then," Pikachu countered. "When she was trying to eat me."

"Only because she was trying to eat you alive," Sadic responded. "Who wouldn't be afraid of someone shoving you down their throat while you're still conscious and capable of feeling pain or fear? When you're dead, you—the real you—is gone, so there's nothing wrong with your friends and family eating the husk you came in. (That's what I think, anyway.) Eating someone alive, though—well, that's a whole other thing altogether, which I personally find distasteful. If you want to eat something, it should be dead first. If it's not dead, you can always kill it. Because eating something while they're alive hurts them a hell of a lot more does than when they're dead and somewhere else so can't feel it. There's a belief among my kind that this philosophy is the reason we've evolved to have such sharp, efficient claws and killing speed—to terminate the life of a body swiftly and with minimal pain, to spare the spirit. That's why I was disgusted by the kills we saw last night…because the victims clearly suffered a lot before dying, and the killer clearly had no intention of eating them. That kind of thing, that torture (and waste of good meat), is a huge no-no where I come from." She shrugged. "And besides, if you don't eat the dead, somebody else will, and that someone might come after you next. That's a given, isn't it? So it doesn't really matter if you bury the body, because then not only are you denying yourself a meal you're letting it go to waste by giving it to worms and parasites or letting it become frozen to the point of being inedible."

"What about cremation?" asked Crawdaunt, who had become interested in the conversation. "I hear some humans and a few other Pokemon do that."

Sadic snorted. "Another waste. You can't eat ashes. Ashes are useless. All they can do is sit in a pretty little jar on your mantle where they can be knocked over and spilled all over the floor, or scattered to the winds, or something. (Don't tell that big Charizard I said so, though. I bet I could take her, but I'm not keen on finding out.)"

"The girl makes good sense," the lobster said, nodding sagely, as if he really understood most of what she was talking about, which he didn't.

"Why are we talking about this again?" asked a rather confused Grovyle.

"Oh, we were discussing how bizarre it is that Mrs. Ketchum and Mimey are engaged," Pikachu recalled. "And got sidetracked by talking about the morals behind being a cannibal or hunter/killer."

"And I said it's fine as long as they can make offspring," Sadic continued. "And if they can't, Mimey can always be eaten so Delia can try again."

"I could do that," Crawdaunt offered. "I wonder what mime tastes like? (And if Mrs. Ketchum would be interested in lobster? She's pretty attractive, for a human…)"

"Wait, doesn't eating Mimey screw up your 'love is love' statement from before?" Bayleef asked in confusion.

Sadic considered that. "Dunno. Guess it depends on how you define love. Where I come from, a good mate and lover provide you with offspring. If he can't, then he dies, even if you loved or thought you loved him. We make regular offerings to his spirit on the other side and always remember and cherish him in our hearts as we look for someone else."

"Then I suppose it's a good thing I can provide you with offspring, right?" Pikachu said nervously.

"Yep, you're off the hook," she agreed. "For now."

Pikachu blinked. "For now?"

"Of course. If the kids go hungry and there are no prey animals anywhere to be found, someone will have to be sacrificed to ensure they survive." Sadic shrugged. "I'd give them my own flesh, but until you've proven to me you'd be capable of raising our kids to be the efficient killing machines they're destined to be, you're name's at the top of the list."

Pikachu laughed nervously. "Well…ah…then it's a very good thing our children will be raised in an environment where there's no shortage of things to eat…right?"

"Oh, sure," Sadic agreed. "This southern climate's an interesting change from the frozen north I came from, I don't think I'd mind raising my kids down in these parts. And while we're at it, I can see about training you in proper child care for a wild Sneasel kit."

"And I can see if I can't educate you in some of the benefits of 'civilized' society," Pikachu said hopefully. "I mean, I know you like your wild lifestyle, but even you must admit there are advantages to living in a world where pure survival isn't the most important thing, and you don't always have to hunt for your dinner."

Sadic smirked amiably. "Sure, why not? Sounds like a fair trade."

Bulbasaur, in the meantime, was sitting in the corner Brock wasn't in, glaring darkly at how close Bayleef and Grovyle were. He growled and clenched his toes repeatedly, digging into the floor and making deep scratches.

In the meantime, a very disturbed Mewtwo decided, after Mrs. Ketchum had started rambling about all the hybrid human/mime siblings Ash would have had, that enough was enough and coughed to get the woman's attention. "ahem Mrs. Ketchum, your son isn't dead."

She blinked. "He's not?"

"No. Well, technically, if you consider death as being the point of discorporation (i.e., leaving the body behind) then he is dead, but since souls can't be destroyed a person is never truly dead dead and continues to exist indefinitely, so Ash is indeed still alive."

Delia stared at him blankly. The intrigued Professor Oak took notes. Mewtwo sighed and cursed whatever genes ran through the Ketchum family that made them so, well…slow, for lack of a better term. "He's not dead," he said slowly, trying a less philosophical tack. "He's been ripped from his body (which is now possessed by his dark side formed from his unfulfilled fantasies, lusts, ego, etc.) to save his soul, and I am currently cloning him a new body by synthesizing proteins from the liquid he's immersed in around his spirit, much like how a baby is formed by synthesizing materials around a soul in a mother's womb."

Delia stared blankly. "Huh?" Oak continued to scribble notes.

Mewtwo counted backwards from ten and reminded himself why, despite their innate stupidity, he had decided not to try to wipe out the human race (again). "His spirit is alive, but lacks a body, so I'm making him a new one."

"Ohhhh," Delia said, nodding. "Why didn't you say so in the first place?" All facefaulted.

"This is remarkable," Oak said, examining the cloning tank. "I've never seen a device like this before, and I've visited plenty of labs working on cloning, even ones where they can revitalize fossilized DNA!"

"Thank you," Mewtwo said, pride swelling. "It's my own design, improved upon from a faulty model used by one of the scientists who created me in an attempt to keep his daughter's soul from departing. For the most part I disapprove of a method such as this, keeping a spirit from its rightful place…but since Ash is still needed here, I believe that justifies giving him a new body."

"This is wonderful!" Delia cried, startling the two geniuses. "Now I'll be able to raise my baby all over again! That way I'll be prepared for the babies Mimey and I have!"

All sweatdropped. Oak paled and turned away, cursing all mimes in the world under his breath. Mewtwo counted back from ten again and said, "Actually, since Ash would be more useful at his current age—or should I say, the age his original body is—I've hyper-accelerated the cloning process so that the new body will rapidly mature to the age it's supposed to be within the period of a few hours, then slow down to the regular rate of entropy at which the flesh decays."

"Huh?" Delia said dumbly.

"The clone body will be the exact same age of Ash's original body," Oak simplified. "Which means no baby Ash for you."

"Oh," Delia said, disappointed. She shrugged. "Oh well…he was a biter when he was that young, anyway." All facefaulted, even Ash's soul, which was weird to see considering it was a ball of light in a tank of glowing liquid.

While all this was going on, the rest of the now-enlarged group of world-saving hopefuls were relaxing, or trying to relax, in the rooms just next door, multiple suites which Mewtwo had hypnotized Nurse Joy into giving them to recover from last night's ordeal, as well as have room for the remaining Chosen whom Mewtwo had predicted would arrive that very day and to convert into a cloning lab so Mewtwo could make a new body for Ash, using DNA he had obtained, with great reluctance, from a pair of Ash's unwashed underwear.

Tyranitar sat in a corner of the room she had gotten to herself, watching carefully and protectively as her son played on the bed with Togetic and Phanphy. Larvitar hadn't recognized the siblings at first, but when he realized that Togetic had been the Togepi whom Ash's (scary) friend Misty had carried around during the brief time Larvitar had traveled with the group, he had been more than happy to reunite with his 'step-siblings' and get to know them better, getting over his brief melancholy at not being able to see his surrogate father because he was now a soul in a jar. Phanphy was happy to have a new playmate, and Togetic was happy to regain a measure of innocence as she played with her young friends.

In the next room over, the Pokerockers, after hearing about what had happened at Battle Tower, had blamed themselves repeatedly for not being there to help, did what they could to console their friends (and mourn the passing of those who were no longer with them) and then set out to write a new song dedicated to the late Battle Frontier and those whom had been murdered there. Mewtwo had soundproofed their room after the first ten minutes to keep them from disturbing his experiments.

In the room after that, May was curled up on her bed, listlessly staring at the noise-making television set, surrounded by her miserable Pokemon, while Max, who had absolutely no way of relating to or understanding what May had gone through, was ranting and whining and complaining like the brat he was about how Jirachi and Absol had taken off without him. When Mewtwo (who Max had drooled over when he first saw him) had suggested that Max have faith in his friend and 'wish' (hint, hint) that he succeed in his endeavors, Max had sullenly retorted that he would do so if he knew what the heck Jirachi was doing anyway and if he had been included in it in the first place.

And in the room after that were the remaining Chosen and some of those who had shared last night's ordeal with them. Gyarados was curled up in a corner snoozing, Latias was happily chatting with her old friends Misdreavus and Umbreon, whom she had not seen in ages since she had escaped Team Rocket's attack on Professor Oak's lab, Gardevoir was sitting on the edge of the bed, listening in on Latias' conversation, and Scyther was interrogating Charizard, whom had evolved from Charmander to Charmeleon some hours ago and was sitting in a tired but happy Charla's lap.

And Harrison's Blaziken…stood stoically at the window, looking outside, and trying to deal with his loss. He had known Harrison almost all his life, save the first year he had lived at the Pokemon laboratory near Harrison's home town where the boy had picked him as his starter. He wasn't sure what to do now. He felt a great emptiness within him at his trainer's absence. Latias and the others of the group who had all too much experience with loss had done their best to help him work past his grief, and although he wasn't really that close to recovery (after all, Harrison had died only a few hours ago) he was on his way. (At least he wasn't as catatonic and unresponsive as May had become.) Now the only thing on his mind was…not quite revenge, as Mewtwo had told him that solved nothing…but justice. He knew Shining Ranger had done something horrible and would continue to do more horrible things along with those he was now allied with if they were not stopped. He knew now that Latias and her friends were 'Chosen', or some such thing, to stop this evil. And so he decided that he too would join them, if they would have them. For Earth. For justice. For Harrison.

The others who had been associated with last night's catastrophe were elsewhere, although they promised to be in touch. The police and League officials were making reports to the proper authorities and trying to figure out what to do in light of recent events. The Frontier Brains, after getting staggeringly drunk over the loss of their jobs and workplace, had been carted off by a conscientious Zoro to the city apartments that had been leased to them by Mr. Ford (before his going completely insane and turning himself into a homicidal superhero) and were now sleeping off their hangovers. The masked swordsman himself, along with Wes, had been briefed by Mewtwo about the Chosen deal and how recent events in the world were all being caused by a despicable mastermind from the shadows. Zoro's sense of justice and Wes' thrill for a good challenge had convinced both of them to do what they could to help, and were now 'part of the team' so to speak. Wes and Rui were off checking with contacts on their friends back in what was left of Orre, making sure they'd be okay during the global onslaught Mewtwo had predicted would soon occur, and Zoro and his Pokemon were training and gathering their strength, for they knew that they would need it all on this day of days, in which the fate of the world would be decided.

Umbreon shook her head. "I just cannot get over how…damn girl, you look fine! Do you have any idea how much I wanna jump all over you right now and get some hot yuri action?"

"Hey, what am I, chopped skives?" Misdreavus said mock-angrily as Latias blushed, very embarrassed.

"Nah, more like carrots," Umbreon joked, licking the ghost's cheek. "While Latias here is the prime rib." She glanced at Gardevoir. "Your friend here's kind of cute too. What's her name?"

Gardevoir flushed under her mask, surprised that anyone save Mewtwo would call her cute, while Latias smiled and answered for her. "She's my friend Gardevoir. But she's taken, sorry to say. As am I."

"Yeah, you told us," Misdreavus exclaimed, circling Latias' head. "And do you have any idea how hard it is to believe? I mean, the Ghost King, the fearsome all-powerful ghost all we pale shades are raised to worship and obey, is not only literally alive and in the flesh, but he's marrying you, somebody I actually know!"

"You don't think I don't find all of this strange sometimes myself?" Latias asked, rolling on her back on the bed, her wings folding against her sides. "I mean, it's like something right out of a weird fantasy novel written by a hackneyed author. My spirit, which has been reincarnated in this body, was a royal dragon thousands of years ago and is still connected to my mate from that time, who managed to survive to the present age as a ghost until finding his own way back to life so we could be together. If it weren't true and happening to me, I'd have a hard time believing it myself."

"The world is full of strange things and happenings," Umbreon purred, rubbing against Latias' soft red and white down. "For instance, the fact that I can actually have pussy with a ghost. How many can claim that?"

"Oh, shut up you!" Misdreavus cried, flipping upside-down. "If anything you're my pussy!"

Umbreon laughed and pawed at the spirit. "In your haunted dreams, biatch!"

"Yeah, in my dreams, where you're wearing a collar and chain and getting it on with me and liking it!" Misdreavus retorted, sticking her tongue out at her partner.

"G-girls!" Latias said, blushing madly. "As open-minded and supporting of lesbianism as I am…it still makes me a little uncomfortable to see you acting so, well…blatant!"

The two laughed at her. "Why do you think we're acting this way in the first place?"

Gardevoir chuckled softly, and Latias smirked good-naturedly. "Very funny, guys."

Meanwhile…

"And just like that, you were a Charmander!" Scyther asked incredulously.

"An egg, first, then a Charmander, and now a Charmeleon," the regressed Charizard said calmly, nodding in reply to the old mantis' query.

"Incredible…" he whispered in disbelief. "She…can do that!"

Charla smiled and nuzzled her younger lover affectionately. "He's living proof of it."

"So…just like that…Latias can make a person younger?" Scyther asked, trying to set things straight. "Anyone?"

"Well, one would presume so," the Charmeleon said with a shrug. "Of course, it's only temporary, and done for the purpose of giving a troubled spirit a different perspective on life, so-"

But Scyther was not listening because he was already haranguing Latias. "Latias! Did you make Charizard younger?"

She blinked. "Yes, of course. Why?"

"Do me!"

She furrowed her brow, surprised and wondering if the mantis was aware of the entendre in his statement. "Hmm?"

"Do me!" he pleaded. "I'm begging you! Make me young again!"

Latias frowned. "Why?"

"What do you mean why!" he said in disbelief.

"I mean, why do you want to become young again? What's wrong with the way you are now?" A concerned look came to her face. "Do you have cancer? Or some fatal condition that you think might get better if you were younger? If so, I can probably remove-"

"No, no, that's not it! Well, I do have a little heart problem…but that's under control!" he said, wheezing as his feeble organ struggled to pump blood to his lungs. "I want to be young because I can't stand being old! My joints ache! I tire easily! I can't run or fly as fast as I used to! And nobody respects me!"

"We respect you, old-timer," Misdreavus said gently.

"You see!" he snapped, not understanding the nickname was a term of endearment. "No respect! Make me young again! Then I can fight and prove my worth as a fighter!"

Latias frowned and crossed her arms. "No."

He started. "Wh-what?"

"No. I will not regress you," she said flatly, a regal tone, similar to the one she had addressed Lance with, rising in her voice. "I can read your true intentions from your mind. The only reasons you want to be young again are out of vanity, so you may be as strong and handsome and virile as you remember yourself being; and so you will not die, because you have grown so soft from months of inactivity at Oak's lab that you have lost the razor-edge philosophy your kind used to live by; the same as my friend Sadic's: death is nothing to be feared, because it is a transition, not an end. If you were concerned that your age might hinder your friends in the coming fight, that would be another thing…but the only reason you want to become young again is to regain the figure you once had, and because you just don't want to be old. And I tell you now the only reason you don't have that figure anymore is due to your own laziness and self-indulgence."

Scyther stuttered. "Wha…but…I never! Listen here, missy-"

"'Missy?' I'm older than you are," Latias said, glaring at him. "And died two or three times more now than you have recently, I bet. And I came back each time because I still had something worthwhile to do…unlike you, who only wants to stick around so you can laze around and watch whatever new anime involving scantily-clad females pops up on television. I think your old hive would be ashamed of you, Scyther."

He glared at her speechlessly for a moment. "Then…then you won't do it?"

She turned away. "It's not your age that's the problem Scyther, you only believe it is. Were it not for how you've let your physical condition waste away through sloth, (and aggravating your heart condition) you'd be just as good a fighter as you used to be. If you wanted me to purge your body of all the fats and impurities you've flooded it with, that'd be another story…but I will not turn back the clock for you."

"Besides, it wouldn't last," Charmeleon added. "A few hours, maybe more, maybe less. So if you wanted to stay young, you'd have to keep making Latias do it to you forever. And I think not only your pride, but Latias' own determination will keep that from happening."

"…Fine!" Scyther huffed angrily, ignoring the stabbing pain which was gripping his heart at the moment. "If you won't do it, I'll find someone else who will! I'm sure that Mewtwo chap will be happy to help…" Muttering under his breath about how youth was wasted on the young, he stormed out of the room.

"Do you think that was a little harsh?" Umbreon asked.

"No," Latias said firmly. "This power of mine is not to be used for something as frivolous and selfish as what Scyther wants. It's only to be used to give others a new perspective and help them find balance in their lives."

"Which is why I find myself younger than I should be," Charmeleon said with a nod.

"Do you suppose you could do the same thing to that May girl?" said a concerned Charla. "She looked pretty bad last time I saw her as well."

Latias considered that for a moment. "I suppose I could…but I'm not sure it'll make a difference," she said uncertainly. "The majority of the things May's upset about are indeed rooted in self-confidence issues…but that won't really fix the trauma caused by seeing Drew, who she liked a lot, explode right in front of her. I suppose that could be fixed by erasing her memory of the event, but I already erased her memories of seeing Munchlax and the other Pokemon Alpha murdered die, as well as all the other cruel things Alpha said and did, especially to her. Mucking around too much in a person's head can be dangerous, and even if I did age regress her, the memory of someone you had a crush on have his head explode is just as traumatic, if not more, than seeing it as a teen or preteen." Latias sighed. "What she needs is, well, a lot of therapy, something I'm not qualified to give just as Pikachu isn't. Maybe Mewtwo can do something for her later, once the clone body he's making for Ash stabilizes or all this misery is over. I only hope that it won't be too late for May by then…"

She felt a claw on her arm and looked up to meet the blue eyes of the younger Charizard. "It wasn't too late for me," he told her firmly. "And it's not too late for her. Not yet." Latias smiled faintly and nodded, feeling somewhat reassured.

"Okay, I think that's enough seriousness!" Misdreavus interjected, hovering upside-down jut because she could. "We're going to have enough of that pretty soon anyway, I'm sure! Let's enjoy the time we still have until the big fight we've been waiting for comes!"

"In other words…" Umbreon slapped a paw on the nearby remote control, turning on the television. "Let's rot our minds watching senseless television!"

And so they did just that, becoming immersed in the pharaoh on Lu-Gi-Oh's continuing struggle against the Mankey Thief King Makura, while Charla watched in amusement, Blaziken continued his musing, and Gardevoir…

The Embrace Pokemon glanced at her friend Latias, who she had thought she had been starting to understand before, and was now realizing there was much more to the dragon girl than met the eye. She glanced at the Charmeleon sitting in Charla's lap, and recalled how different, how balanced he seemed in contrast to how he had been before. She thought of Scyther, and his selfish desire to regain his youth. She thought of May, who was truly suffering at that moment.

And then she thought of herself. How most of her life she had hated and despised herself and hid her face behind a mask. How even when introduced to the love of her life, Mewtwo, she had continued to feel hatred and insecurity. How this had continued, even when she had, very slowly, began to make friends with others, namely Sadic and later Latias. How no matter how many times Mewtwo had told her there was nothing wrong with her, she had continued longing for a beautiful face and had intended on asking for one from the Unown once their duty as Chosen was fulfilled. And she thought of how just a few minutes ago, she had been working up the courage to ask Latias to fix her face, certain that it was within the girl's power.

And now…now she was no longer certain she wanted that anymore.

Seeing Scyther being rejected on the basis of his vanity and being reminded of how both May and Charizard had suffered for the first time made her truly realize just how lucky she was. Charizard had lost his wings and his self-esteem had been crushed repeatedly by numerous defeats as well as endless guilt for accidentally killing his firstborn child and feelings of inadequacy as a mate for Charla. May had the same problem with self-esteem, made to feel by numerous people that she was inferior, and now that inferiority seemed to be proving itself true in how she not only could not win the heart of Ash, the boy she had originally loved, but the next boy she had had a crush on was killed right in front of her, as was one of her Pokemon. Compared to that, what was a little face deformity, no matter what other emotional baggage had come attached to it? At least she had people who genuinely cared for her, which was something more than a lot of other people could say. And as long as those people loved her…what did it matter how 'ugly' other people, or even herself, thought she was? Beauty was in the eye of the beholder, as they said, and for the first time in her life she started to believe it.

With only a moment's hesitation, she reached up to her face and pulled off her mask, laying it on the nearby nightstand. She blinked, her face feeling the slight prickling of a rapid temperature change as it swapped the warm face-tight mask for the breeze generated by the overhead fan. She felt a moment of abrupt insecurity and helplessness, as if she had just thrown away her only form of protection, but ignored it, knowing that was nothing but a falsehood. If the mask had protected her, it had been a poor form of protection, one that only caused her to feel worse about herself and even more determined to hide from the world as every day passed. The only way she could truly be free of her self-imposed burden of insecurity was to remove the mask once and for all and face the day…literally.

She saw, peripherally, that both Charla and Misdreavus started at seeing her true face. She was almost surprised to find that she didn't care. It meant nothing to her now. As long as she had people who cared about her in spite of how she looked, it didn't matter what others thought of her. In time they would see what kind of person she really was. And because of that, she had no more need of her mask…not now, not ever again.

Latias smiled without taking her eyes off the television screen, sensing from the change in Gardevoir's aura that her friend was finally on her way to peace.

"Lunchtime!" Nurse Joy chirped, wheeling in a large cart laden with trays of steaming and delicious-smelling food.

"Oh boy! Food!" Crawdaunt cried, splattering drool all over the place as he leapt at the cart…only to be grabbed by Bayleef's vine and smacked face-first into the ground.

"Calm down," the plant Pokemon told him. "Everyone else is hungry, too. Don't take it all for yourself."

"But I want something to eat now!" Crawdaunt whined childishly.

"Then it's good that I'm here, isn't it?" said Chansey, wheeling in a cart with several bowls of Pokemon food. "Eat up!"

Crawdaunt glanced at the brown nuggets with disdain, grunted, and finally said, "Eh, food's food, I guess. Thanks babe."

She winked at him and giggled. "I put something extra special in yours. If it's not to your liking, we could discuss it…in private."

"Maybe later," Crawdaunt said, burying his face in one of the bowls and coming up, chewing loudly with his mouth open. "Right now, I must have food!"

"Does it bother you?" Bayleef asked Corsola. "That he's sleeping with other women?"

Corsola shrugged. "It did at first, until I realized he can't help it and his species are hard-wired to be promiscuous. Then I understood that he doesn't care about me any less just because he loves sleeping with lots of people, and if I just dealt with it and went with the flow, we'd both be much happier. And so I am."

"I suppose that explains what you, he, and the other couple dozen Pokemon were doing together last night, huh?" Sadic said with a wink.

Corsola started. "Y-you heard that!"

Sadic laughed, grabbed Pikachu by the shoulder, and pulled him over. "Rat-boy's cries of ecstasy were loud, but not loud enough to drown out the noise of what you lot were doing!"

Pikachu flushed red in embarrassment. "S-Sadic, they don't really need to know all that, do they?"

"If you keep some personal secrets pent up, it just makes you miserable," Sadic said cheerfully. "Sometimes privacy is more trouble than it's worth! Why not let everyone know the details, so you can all share the joy of it together!"

Grovyle stared at Pikachu in shock, blinking a few times. "You mean you and her…" He glared at the mouse. "Dammit Pikachu, I thought you said you wouldn't have your first time before I did! Now I'm jealous!"

Pikachu sweatdropped in the Manyula's tight grip. "Well, uh…she was very persuasive, let me tell you."

"Yup, threaten to kill a guy a few times, and you'd be surprised what he'd do!" Sadic chirped, nuzzling Pikachu affectionately.

"Awww, don't be like that, Grovyle-kun!" Bayleef crooned as the gecko grumbled and crossed his arms unhappily, winking and rubbing against him suggestively. "We can always…'catch up' with him if you want to." Grovyle blushed and laughed nervously while his friends smiled in amusement, Crawdaunt continued gorging himself, and a vein started popping out of Bulbasaur's head as he began violently gnashing his meal between his teeth, vividly imagining that each bite-sized piece of Pokemon food was Grovyle's head.

Brock, who had snapped out of his depression at Delia's engagement when Nurse Joy came in, was trying to chat her up while stuffing his face. "Mmm, this meal is delicious Nurse Joy!"

"Why thank you, Brock!" the nurse said, flattered.

"Not quite as good as my own, though, but I'm sure if you and I spent more time together we could remedy that!" he said, scooting closer to her while shooting her a wide grin with teeth stained with meat sauce and vegetable chunks from the soup he had been eating. Disturbed, she backed away.

Brock advanced. Joy retreated.

He advanced. She retreated.

He advanced. She retreated.

He advanced- "Okay, that's enough," said the annoyed Misty, grabbing Brock by the ear and dragging him away from the frightened nurse. "Back to your 'sub-par' meal, Romeo."

Blinking a few times, Joy wheeled her cart and the remaining meals over to the cloning vat, where Professor Oak was vigorously taking notes and wishing he hadn't left Tracey behind to watch the lab, Mewtwo monitored the new body's vitals, and Delia was cooing and speaking in baby sounds to Ash, whose soul had compressed and was now inside a slowly solidifying fetus, which was shifting through the gestation period much faster than the usual nine months required for most humans. "Oh my! What's this?" the nurse asked in alarm.

"Nothing," Mewtwo said, his eyes glowing as he forced his will on her. "There is no cloning vat."

"There is no cloning vat," she said in a monotone voice.

"You will leave us and take lunch to our friends in the adjoining rooms."

"I will leave you and take lunch to your friends in the adjoining rooms."

"You will date Brock," Brock whispered into Mewtwo's ear.

"You will hit Brock with Misty's mallet," Mewtwo relayed.

"I will hit Brock with Misty's mallet," Joy repeated, taking the proffered hammer and pounding Brock's head into the ground with it.

"What have we learned?" Mewtwo asked Brock as Nurse Joy unloaded her cart and started wheeling it out of the room.

"Not to try to take advantage of your psychic powers to pick up chicks?" Brock moaned.

"Precisely."

"Fascinating!" said the amazed Oak, taking more notes. "Your mental prowess is so great not only can you speak clear English and assemble stray molecules into any object you choose, such as the cloning vat here, but you can also influence what a person thinks and does! You must let me examine you back at my lab once this world-saving business is over!"

Mewtwo's eyes glowed. "You will not examine me in your laboratory."

"I will not examine you in a laboratory," Oak said in monotone.

"You will be perfectly satisfied to interview me at length at a later date about my powers and nature, as long as it involves no invasive scans or probes. Had enough of that back when I worked for Giovanni," he muttered the last bit to himself.

"I will be perfectly satisfied to interview you at length at a later date about your powers and nature, as long as it involves no invasive scans or probes. Had enough of that back when you worked for Giovanni," Oak recited in a flat voice.

Mewtwo sweatdropped. "Disregard the part about Giovanni." He then turned to Mrs. Ketchum and said, "You will stop making stupid baby noises and content yourself with gazing at your son's fetus adoringly and quietly remembering fondly the years you spent raising him."

"I will stop making stupid baby noises and content myself with gazing at my son's fetus adoringly and quietly remembering fondly the years I spent raising him," she repeated, falling silent.

"Was that necessary?" Misty asked, raising an eyebrow.

Mewtwo shrugged. "I may be leader of the Chosen and a lot fonder of humankind than I was a few years ago, but even I can only tolerate so much stupidity and annoyances in a short space of time."

"But-" she started.

His eyes glowed. "You will cease questioning whether or not my methods are ethical and join Delia in gazing at Ash and remembering good times with him."

"I will cease questioning whether or not your methods are ethical and join Delia in gazing at Ash and remembering good times with him," she said in monotone, doing as she was told.

"Very good." He telekinetically lifted a pear from the dish Nurse Joy had left for him, peeled it with his mind, and started taking small bites out of it. "Mmm, juicy."

For a few moments, the group ate their meals in silence. And then, without warning, the television switched on, startling the Pokemon with strong hearing as static bombarded their brains.

"Ow…what the hell!" said an annoyed Pikachu, folding his ears against his head.

"Lousy electronics," Sadic growled. "Should be more mindful that humans aren't the only ones using em'."

"Mewtwo, did you-" Brock started.

The mutant shook his head. "No, I didn't touch it. Physically or telepathically." He frowned, getting a strange sense of foreboding.

"Hey, it stopped!" Phanphy pouted.

"Huh?" the confused Larvitar said, blinking at the snow-filled television screen. "It's not supposed to do that?"

"No, something's probably just wrong with the channel. It happens." Togetic grabbed the remote and started flipping through the channels. To her surprise, all of them were as equally static-filled as every other. "Huh…that's strange…must be a problem with the cable."

"Oh great, now the TV's busted. What else could go wrong?" Max said insensitively, not thinking about his traumatized and mourning sister next to him.

"Nooo, that's not fair!" Misdreavus whined as the television filled with static. "We were just about to see who won the ultimate Dark game!"

"I'm sure they'll show it again as a rerun some other time," Umbreon assured the ghost. "But that might not be for weeks and weeks! I can't wait that long!" the spirit protested.

Latias frowned at the electronic box, feeling a strange, unwelcome sensation. An omen of some sort…

Gyarados, whose slumber had been broken by the abrupt noise of static, groggily opened his eyes. "Huh? Whaz goin on?" He blinked blearily, looking around the room before focusing on the fuzzy television screen. "Hrm?"

"Latias?" Gardevoir asked, gently putting a hand on her friend's shoulder.

Latias narrowed her eyes. "Something's coming."

Frowning, Blaziken turned away from the window, glancing at the television screen as he did so. Just in time to see the static fade and be replaced by the ghoulish smiling white face of what looked like a demented Mew with a red clown nose, purple bat wings, and an antenna ending in a little round ball. "Heeheehawhawhawhaw! Hello, people of Earth! How are you all doing on this fine day!"

"The hell is that?" Wes asked, looking rather disturbed as he stared at the face filling all of the television screens in the electronics store's display window.

Rui shuddered as other pedestrians stopped and stared at the Mew corruption's face. "Wes, I've got a bad feeling about this…"

The white creature grinned, showing misshapen fangs too big for its mouth, and started speaking in a high-pitched, psychotic voice. "This is your friendly DM Mewgle reporting to you with live coverage of the end of all life as you know it!"

Zoro and his Pokemon team frowned at the television set in his hotel room. "This does not bode well, mi amigos…"

"Drop whatever waste of time you're in the middle of and pay attention to me, because this is nothing less than a preview of your complete and total annihilation!"

El Gato growled and ran a claw over his sword. "There is something I do not like about this clown…"

Lucy, a bag of ice pressed to her forehead by her loyal Milotic, groaned and feebly threw an empty beer bottle at the television, missing it and the crazy cartoon character looking out at her. "Are we still drunk?" Noland, who had drank almost as much as Lucy, asked weakly from the floor, cringing and curled up away from the television's garish light.

"No," she growled, kicking him and causing both their heads to explode in pain. "Would our heads be hurting this much if we were?"

"The end of the world has come for all you weaklings…so cheer up and prepare yourself for your extremely violent deaths, enslavement, and soul rape, (not necessarily in that order) while you still have a few more minutes of freedom. Heeheehawhawhawhaw!"

Phanphy squealed in surprise. "Hey, it's Mewgle! Hi Mewgle!"

Togetic blinked. "Mewgle?" Something about the critter seemed vaguely familiar.

"Don't you remember, Togetic? He pulled us all into that fun video game! Or…wait…was that you or another Togetic there? I forget…" He screwed up his tiny little brain trying to figure it out and quickly got a headache.

"Mama," Larvitar cried. "He's scaring me. Make him go away!"

"Leave my child alone!" Tyranitar roared at the television screen, which unsurprisingly had no effect whatsoever on Mewgle and left the mother thoroughly confused, since that had never failed to frighten off any other threat to her child's health before now.

"So without further adieu, let me switch over to my lord and master so that he may pronounce doom upon all you worthless fleshbags!" Mewgle cheered as happily as if he had just earned an award for Best DM of the year.


The image of the insane, yet almost somewhat in a disturbing way cute Mewgle changed to display a far more serious and disturbing scene. Now, displayed on every television and computer screen in the world, was the view of a nightmarish throne room made completely out of jagged, barbed crystal, with pillars, bizarre and unnatural sculptures, and mind-warping patterns of colors and shapes growing from the walls, floor, and ceiling. Small hovering crystals floated at various points in the chamber, resonating and giving off an ear-rending note of dissonance, which, combined with the blood-chilling tortured screams of utmost pain and agony and roars of sadistic joy in the background, created a symphony of terror not even the most jaded horror movie director would put in their picture.

"Dude, we've got to find out who the composer for this is," Onix commented, nodding at the screen. "We could definitely use him or her on the band."

His bandmates stared at him wordlessly.

In the middle of the throne room was a large enclosure created by arcing crystal ribs with little space between them, forming a roofless cage from which nothing could escape. Standing around the cage, clearly visible to the camera, were a number of monstrous figures, some familiar, some not. Blaziken clenched his fists in fury at the sight of Shining Ranger and Blazeatrice. In her room, May started and stared dumbly at Alpha Ranger. She did not remember the things he had said and done to her, but knew that they were horrible, and that he had killed Munchlax. Pikachu stared in disbelief at the blind, disgusting open-chested figure that looked, somehow, very familiar. "It can't be…Meowth?"

Those four were not the only monsters on screen, of course. There was also a fearsome black-armored creature with four arms, a cape, and a horned death's-head helmet, and a big black canine devil with three heads that looked all too much like a hideous fusion of the three sacred beasts. There was also a shadow being cast over the others, as if by something enormous, but it was off-screen and as such invisible to the average viewer. And then there was whatever unseen horror was making those joyous screams as it tortured some soul, allowing imaginations to run wild as to just what sort of monstrosity it was.

And then there was the most horrifying of them all, the monster sitting on the eyesore of a throne at the back of the chamber, horrifying in that not only was he not disfigured or transformed in any way, but the manner in which he sat…the way his dark eyes drew a soul into their boundless depths of hatred and unadulterated evil and chilled even the boldest heart, causing small children like Phanphy and Larvitar to urinate and burst into tears, respectively.

Latias and Mewtwo narrowed their eyes at the sitting fiend, both of them recognizing him from their respective pasts and from not only a month or more ago, when the Chosen had been gathered in the first place, but from just last night, when he had spoken to them through the fragment of his broken jewel powering HERO. There was no mistaking the masked, orange and blue embodiment of evil for anything less than what he was, now that he was no longer as diminished as he had been at the Chosen's gathering. Then, Latias had feared him without knowing why. Now, she knew why, remembering him as the entity which had slaughtered her family in the past and almost destroyed the world, while Mewtwo recognized him as their true enemy, the one who had almost consumed Ash body and soul, the one whom they had been Chosen to defeat.

"Deoxys," they both hissed.

"Who did you say that was?" Professor Oak asked in surprise, using his scientific curiosity to fight down the urge to flee the room and hide in a closet or the men's room that just looking at the creature on the throne gave him. He was not the only one, it seemed, who had a strange and adverse reaction to the monster, for the hackles on all the Pokemon had rose and they were growling at the television screen, sword and claw and vines and leaf blades and horns bared.

"Deoxys," Mewtwo growled. "He is the one who threatens our planet now. He is the one who almost made our friend Ash Ketchum lost forever."

In the cloning tank, the growing fetus of Ash Ketchum trembled like a leaf. Misty pressed her hand against the vat's side, blocking the fetus from view of the screen and trying to comfort it.

"That's the monster who almost took my baby away from me! Let me at him! I'll murder him! I'll…I'll…" Her anger trailed off meekly as she stared into the cold eyes of Deoxys. Whimpering, she sat down on the bed and hugged herself in fear.

"But…I thought he was one of us," said Bayleef in confusion. "Wasn't he? The Unown Chose him too."

"Yeah, but they also said that one of us Chosen might in fact be the threat to the world," Pikachu reminded her. "Guess they were right. It was him all along."

The door opened suddenly, and an anxious Nurse Joy came in. "Oh no! It's on your screen too?" she said, looking worried. "I've been checking all over the Center, and every television is showing the same thing, no matter what channel it is, or even if it's turned off! Something horrible is going on!"

"Don't worry, Nurse Joy!" Brock said, grabbing her hands. "I'll protect you!" He paused, glanced at Deoxys, and then cowered behind Joy. "After you protect me, that is. Eheheheh…"

It was then that Deoxys began to speak. All went silent as the mastermind began addressing the world.

Latias' eyes were dilated in fury, scaring her friends, as was the fact that the smaller furniture in the room was rattling from psychic emanations of her fury. However, fear of the dragon girl's anger was nothing (well, maybe a little more than nothing) compared to the sheer terror they felt as they stared into Deoxys' eyes and heard his calm, contemptuous voice emanating through the television speakers and inside their minds, pronouncing their doom. "Greetings, people of Earth. My name is Deoxys, and I have come to destroy all that you mortals hold dear."

"For the last few weeks I have made my presence felt on your planet, whether you knew it or not. Every disaster, calamity, and catastrophe which has befallen you recently has been ultimately engineered by me…and much worse is soon to follow."

"Wes, do you think…" Rui started.

"He had something to do with Mt. Battle's eruption?" Wes finished. "Common sense would say no…but something about this guy says…something as little as a volcanic eruption is just the beginning of what he has in store for us."

"This is not a hoax, or a joke, or a clever attempt to get publicity for an upcoming movie or television special. Everything you are about to see and hear is nothing short of total reality."

"What is this?" El Lobo whispered, trembling. "His eyes…so cold, and dark, and full of hate…"

"Si…he cares nothing for us, for our lives and our dreams…he only wants us to die," Rosa murmured in agreement.

Zoro nodded warily, staring at the screen. "Truly, he is El Diablo himself. The real one, not you," he said quickly to his Blaziken, who only grunted.

It was then that Deoxys' agents all over the world acted on their programming. In penthouses and offices and palaces and locales everywhere on Earth, they struck, trusted secretaries and friends and Pokemon and random bystanders abruptly morphing and touching their targets, either teleporting them into space or running them through with a tentacle-spike, disintegrating moments later.

This fate befell gym leaders, celebrities, officials, world leaders, minor leaders, crime bosses, and great scientists across the globe. It happened to people related to those important people, underlings and heirs and next-in-lines.

It happened in the Pokemon Center as, without warning, Nurse Joy's skin crumbled like dry clay and revealed a smaller, weaker, purple copy of Deoxys without eyes and four tentacles in place of arms, which lunged forward and tagged a shocked Professor Oak with one limb and sent him away in a burst of scattering particles, and with the other three arms shattered the cloning vat containing Ash's fetus, nearly skewering Misty as they slammed into the plexiglass and broke it into a million pieces, causing the green liquid to spill out along with the developing and extremely vulnerable body containing Ash's soul. Misty cried out in alarm, but needed not fret, for with a flick of his hand Mewtwo caused the flow of liquid to reverse, flowing back in the tube along with the fetus, and the broken fragments to reassemble themselves, patching the hole the minion of Deoxys had made. The mini-Ash wobbled, more dazed than truly hurt.

As for said minion, it had vaporized right after striking, which was good for it, because if it had lingered it would have been more painfully vaporized by the irate heroes.

"No! Nurse Joy…evil?" Brock sobbed. "It can't be!"

"Calm down," Misty said, smacking Brock. "That wasn't Nurse Joy, just a monster disguised as her. The real one's probably tied up in a closet somewhere."

"Actually," said Mewtwo, doing a quick mental scan of the building and the psychic and empathic traces therein. "She was slaughtered an hour ago, cut up, and served to us in the lunch we had just a little while ago."

There was a pause, and then all the humans in the room threw up profusely all over the floor.

"…You know, I should probably be disgusted like they are," said a disturbed Pikachu. "But…"

"You liked it?" Sadic said with a smirk.

"…Yeah...yeah, I did…I mean, the taste, my ingrained morals are screaming at me to throw it up while another part is telling me not to bother since it's good food anyway, no matter where it came from."

"Oddly enough, I enjoyed it too," said Grovyle, his face pale. "And my species generally doesn't eat humans as a rule. (Mainly because we're satisfied with smaller bugs and animals or by absorbing light through photosynthesis.)"

Bayleef nodded, looking as disturbed as the rest. "It tasted a little…bitter, though."

"It's an acquired taste," said the Manyula cheerfully. "A little seasoning…a few milligrams of blood, snow, or berry juice…and it tastes pretty darn good."

"Still, I don't think I'll eat it again in the future," Corsola said slowly.

"Speak for yourself, I wouldn't mind a little more, I'm still hungry," said Crawdaunt. All stared at him, although Sadic was more amused than stunned. "What?"

Delia finished heaving up her lunch, wiped her mouth, and gasped, suddenly realizing that Oak had vanished in the minion's attack. "Samuel! Where did he-"

"There," Mewtwo said, his face tight and his tone severe, pointing to the television screen, on which at least a thousand humans and Pokemon had materialized in the ominous-looking cage enclosure in the middle of the room. And among all those leaders and crime bosses and scientists and other people, some of whom our heroes recognized, was Professor Oak.

Max gasped. "M-May! That's Dad!" he cried, pointing to one of the trapped, squirming figures buried halfway in the seething pile of warm bodies.

May's eyes widened. She scooted forward on the bed, her Pokemon making room for her to see the screen better. "Daddy?" she whispered.

"Samuel!" Delia cried.

"And my sisters!" a horrified Misty saw almost at once.

"And my little brother Jiroo!" Brock gasped.

"Why do I have a bad feeling about this?" Corsola whimpered.

The prisoners screamed and shouted from fright and desperation, demanding and pleading for freedom, yelling empty threats and bribes which they promised to carry out, if they would just be let go. But it was not to be.

"You see before you the leaders you have chosen or who chose themselves to represent you," Deoxys said calmly, as if a thousand important figures materialized in his living room every day. "They represent the power you hold as a people."

"How is he doing this?" Mewtwo thought out loud. "How did he get that agent in without my noticing? What's wrong with me?" He felt somewhat unsettled. He hadn't been feeling one hundred percent since his 'rescue' of Ash. Could Deoxys be behind that as well?

There was a gasp from the viewers as, without warning, the ceiling slammed down on the cage in the form of a spiked crusher.

Zoro gasped. "Dios mio…"

Rosa sighed, shuddered, and fainted in horror as the crusher slammed down on the helpless prisoners, her elegant flowers wilting. El Gato resorted to spouting every curse he knew, and several he made up on the spot, at the television screen, while his comrades looked away, threw up, or just shook their heads in disbelief.

"WES!" Rui screamed, pointing to the screen. "That's-"

"Eagun," Wes said, struggling to keep the emotion out of his voice as the old sage's face was smashed in by Blazeatrice as he tried to climb out through the gaps between the cage ribs, and was subsequently crushed by the next slam of the falling hammer. "And now he's dead."

Rui collapsed against him, sobbing. And it was all Wes could do not to join her. He had a 'tough guy' image to keep up, after all.

Latias dug her claws into the bedsheets, tearing at them as her eyes glowed and the whole room shook ominously from her psychic emanations, ignoring her frightened friends as she focused all her attention and rage at the alien committing these atrocities, watching calmly from his twisted throne. "DEOXYS…"

The crusher slammed down again and again. Bones snapped, tearing out of the skin. Bodies popped like water balloons, spilling blood and gore everywhere. The generals were laughing and dancing as they ruthlessly slaughtered any who tried to escape their fate (save Meowth, who had thrown up offscreen and was now being mauled by the biggest unseen general).

Professor Oak lost his arm to Alpha, and was then crushed beneath the bodies of his colleagues.

The Waterflower sisters had been near the top and were, by a cruel twist, not killed but only flattened and maimed by the first crushing press. The second one had finished them off, and all the while they had been screaming about how blood didn't go well with their hair.

Jiroo, just a boy, did not last long at all. His frail body snapped like a twig beneath the weight of his fellow prisoners, so his swift death was a mercy compared to that of those around him, many of whom had been speared through the lungs by their ribs or forced to cough up their intestines as their bodies were squished flat.

The Frontier Brains and elite trainers, who had so valiantly fought alongside our heroes the night before, died screaming and begging for mercy, even the usually unshakeable Lucy. An ignoble end for such powerful trainers.

Mewtwo was clutching his head in pain, the result of his attempts to reach out and teleport the prisoners from Deoxys' fortress before all could die. Doing so had given him a splitting headache, must like the ones he had had last night, and his fury at the space demon was tinged with more than a little worry and fear that his powers were so easily being blocked off.

And the others simply watched in silence as friends, family, total strangers, and people they vaguely knew as acquaintances or people seen once in a while on television were slaughtered before them. Even Sadic was shaken by the careless and agonizing waste of lives.

"I suppose Mom and Dad were right," May said quietly.

Max blinked, transfixed by the image of his father, whom Max had always thought of as the bravest man he knew, shoving other gym leaders desperately out of his way as he tried to force himself through the gap in the ribs, screaming for any of the horrible monsters to help him. All they did was laugh and laugh as he was crushed by the falling weight from above. "Huh?"

"There is no loving and caring God. If there were, he wouldn't let this happen."

The crusher slammed down a seventh and final time, finishing off the last tortured soul and retracting into the ceiling, leaving a disgusting mass of gore, blood, bone, and bits of flesh behind, which were then slowly absorbed into the floor.

The Pokerockers stared in silence, all thoughts of music for once barren from their minds. The younger Jigglypuff was in the bathroom throwing up in the toilet, and her older mentor was comforting her and making sure she didn't fall in. Many of the other band members with weak constitutions were not so lucky and had thrown up at various points around the room, causing the chamber to smell quite foul.

"Dude…" Geodude said finally. "That's just…"

"Yeah," agreed Forretress quietly.

"That was just…man, that was just wrong!" Metal Sound said, his metal form quivering from fear and disgust.

"Even worse than when Arrowsmith bit off that Aipom's head onstage in '92," Onix said in agreement. "Which means we're not going to be recruiting these guys for our band."

"Hell no," said the Electabuzz, eyes wide as he shook his head vigorously. "Hell no."

Onix nodded. "Good…because I think they're a little out of our league."

"And so your leaders fall," Deoxys continued calmly, staring out from the TV screen. "You will find that the second, third, and for good measure fourth in line behind all of those who died before you have been assassinated while you were watching, as well as many of the numerous minor functionaries who ran your towns and public works and did their part to keep your societies running, so you shouldn't get your hopes up that a hero will rise from their ranks. I am sure that some of you will be able to find new leaders to represent you or to be thrust forward onto the chopping block, but it is more likely that the majority of you will panic and begin mass rioting and lawless chaos from terror for the few hours you have left before my forces arrive to kill you, capture your souls, and twist your bodies to serve me, not necessarily in that order.

"I am sure that many of you, perhaps those who are particularly religious, moral, or just plain stunned and horrified are wondering why I am doing this and what you have done to deserve this. The answers to both are as follows: I wish to and you exist. That is all the reason I feel I am justified to carry out my plans, and why all of you deserve to suffer at my hands. Enjoy the last few moments of your desperate lives. Use them wisely, although you probably won't. You people rarely do."

With that, the transmission ended and the televisions of the world were filled with static again.

Wes punched a nearby brick wall angrily, his eyes burning from held-back tears.

Zoro bowed his head in grief, turning away as he tossed his cape over the television set, covering it up.

Mewtwo lowered his hand away from the smoking pile of debris that had once been the TV, purple eyes blazing with fury and sorrow. He heard sniffs and sobs around him, and clenched his fists in anger.

"He's gone too far," Pikachu said coldly.

"Indeed he has," Mewtwo agreed.

"And so we're going to kill him, right?" Crawdaunt asked, more serious than he had ever been before.

"Indeed."

Sadic flexed her killing claws. "I look forward to it."

"Count us in, too," said Grovyle, extending his leaf blades. Bayleef nodded in agreement.

Bulbasaur glared at his unknowing rival in resentment, but managed to swallow his bitterness and stand beside him. "That thing, whoever it is, must be stopped."

The television had been reduced to a pile of cinders. Latias closed her eyes, growled savagely, and floated into the air, flying over to the bedroom door—which tore itself off its hinges as she approached—and exited into the hall.

Umbreon, Misdreavus, Gardevoir, Charla, Charmeleon, and Blaziken were quivering in a corner of the room, eyes wide. There was not an inch of the room that had not been damaged by Latias' unconscious psychic fury, resembling a scene from a poltergeist movie more than anything else. The beds had been smashed into bits of timber, the lightbulbs had shattered and the ceiling wires were spewing sparks, the carpet had been torn up and bits of fabric and string wafted down like snow, the windows and picture frames along the wall had shattered, huge slabs of plaster had torn off the walls and ceiling and now lay haphazard around the floor in bits and pieces, much of which was torn up as well. On a final note, the plumbing in the bathroom had gone haywire and was now flooding water across the floor, seeping through the holes that had been ripped open and spilling into the rooms underneath.

Scyther, who had been heading for Mewtwo's room but was attacked by a sudden bowel cramp (common to him, since he hasn't exactly been eating a healthy diet) and was forced to head for the nearest restroom, causing him to completely miss Deoxys' broadcast, entered the room. "Hey, what happened in here?" he asked, looking annoyed. "Did you youngsters have a party while I was out? Lousy inconsiderate kids these days…"

May stared wordlessly at the television set, which she had shoved off the dresser and was now broken on the floor, sparking and sizzling. Eyes dead, she turned and walked to the window.

Max stared dumbly at the wall where the television had been, his young mind seared and traumatized by the graphic bloodbath he had just seen, outdoing any of the violent movies and video games he indulged in when his parents (parent now, he realized painfully, unless his mother was dead now too) hadn't been looking. The sound of the window sliding open snapped him from his catatonic state. "M-May?" he asked, turning towards her…

Just in time to see her climb out the window and jump.

All screamed and ran for the window. "MAY, NO!"

Ivysaur's vines shot out the window, snagging May around the waist and pulling her back into the room. "There you are, safe and sound!"

May struggled violently against her Pokemon's gentle limbs. "Noooo! Let me die! LET ME DIE! I DON'T WANT TO LIVE IN A WORLD WHERE MY HEART IS A GAME PIECE AND THE PLAYTHING OF FATE!"

"May, stop!" Panicking, Beautifly showered her with Sleep Powder, as did Ivysaur, quickly knocking May out and ending her convulsions. She slumped in Ivysaur's grip, like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

Max collapsed to his knees in shock at what his sister had almost done. "M-May…"

Then, as if to complement the mood, all the lights in the Pokemon Center, Ever Grande City, and the world went out as Mewgle's virus activated, permanently shutting down every electronic system and device on the planet. In the land of Metaba, it had a different effect, causing all the giant robots there to go berserk, eject their pilots, and go on a killing spree.

And Earth became a whole lot darker.

Mewtwo and Latias stared up into the sky. The sun had been blotted out and the sky eclipsed by storm clouds, blood red and jet black, rumbling with thunder and crackling with lightning but without a single drop of rain falling from above.

A strong wind gusted by them, causing the fur and down of the two psychics to flutter in the breeze. Neither of them budged or showed any sign of the wind affecting them. "The storm has come," Latias said at last. "As it did in time long past."

"A super-cell," Mewtwo agreed. "Churned by Deoxys' power and hatred, much as the storm I created to wipe out human and Pokemonkind…but this storm is much stronger, and will spare none if we cannot break it."

They had gathered in the park in the middle of the city, of which the Pokemon Center was a part of, and where the city's main landmark, the old oil rig, towered into the air above all other buildings in Ever Grande's skyline. All of them, Chosen and allies, were waiting for the battle they knew was coming.

It was a mere half-hour since Deoxys' declaration of war against the Earth, and the global power failure moments later. The city had been in a panic then, as the inhabitants saw the oh-so-fragile frameworks of their lives collapse around them and fell into chaos, either rioting and looting stores and apartments, surging for the docks to try and escape Ever Grande in whatever boats were available, trampling each other underfoot, or in some cases simply going mad and lashing out at everyone in sight, surrounding themselves in corpses.

This stopped when Mewtwo forced his will on everyone on the city, psychically calming them all down and convincing them to go back to their homes and get some rest, assuring them that whatever was going on was nothing more than a hoax pulled by some powerful Team and once the authorities dealt with it, everything would be back to normal.

Once order had been restored, when asked why he didn't just teleport everyone off the island, he shrugged and said, "And leave myself at a disadvantage for the fight by weakening myself so much? People are going to die this day, regardless, but our chances of minimizing casualties are higher if all of us are as strong as we can be. Callous as it may sound, better the people of Ever Grande City die than lose everyone on Earth because we weren't ready. And besides," he admitted. "The Unown still have to grant those wishes of ours assuming we win. I've spent long enough with them to know they have the capability to fix all this. If we ask them to, they'll 'copy and paste' a large stretch of time from a universe where Deoxys never rose to power onto this one, undoing all the evil that has been wrought both by him and the other forces that threatened the Earth since this adventure started. They'll 'copy and paste' parts from other timelines as well to suit our more specific wishes, and the fragments of time will change each other just enough to match up perfectly, to prevent any continuity errors or paradoxes. I'd do it myself…if I had over a dozen of me and was back 'outside' of time again. We'd be better off delegating this to the Unown if possible. They promised to do it, after all." He had paused in thought for a moment, and then said, "Whether we wish to remember this adventure or not will, in the end, be our ultimate choice. While there has been much pain, there has been much wisdom as well. To keep it or throw it away…in the end, that decision lies with every one of us."

And so they were now gathered in the central park, the logical spot for the beginning of an epic battle for the fate of the world. And in any case, the Unown had specifically said the battle would be in Ever Grande. Since Deoxys had been there when they said this, it only made sense that he'd come here to fight, knowing the good guys would be waiting for him and his minions.

They waited, nerves tense, eyes on the roiling and malevolent sky. Wes checked the Snag Device on his arm for the millionth time to make sure it was undamaged and in perfect working condition, even though Mewtwo had pointed out that because Deoxys was Chosen he was immune to Pokeballs, Snag or otherwise. Wes had said in reply to that, "Doesn't mean those goons of his are too. And if they are…well, let me tell you from personal experience it smarts like hell to get a Pokeball pitched at your head." His Pokemon, including Ho-Oh, were out and were either anxious, looking forward to the fight or, in Umbreon's case, unconscious. (Because he had hit on the Chosen Umbreon, found out she was a lesbian, called her a 'dyke', and…well…you can guess what happened to him after that.)

Zoro and El Gato, fed up with being agitated, had started a mock duel between each other to alleviate tension. Their teammates were watching and cheering on one or the other of the two swordsmen. Pikachu and Lombre watched as well to see if they could pick up any new techniques.

The remainder of the group were in varied states of shock, dread, and anticipation. Misty and Brock were understandably miserable, because they had seen some of their family members killed before them and had little doubt in their minds that the rest were dead too. Misty had no other family other than her sisters, but Brock had tons of siblings along with his parents, and thanks to the power outage had no way of phoning home to see if they were all right, which only increased his certainty that they were dead. At least Misty had some small comfort in keeping Ash's soul with her, since the power outage had forced the cloning vat to malfunction and shut down, destroying the precious body it had been carefully fabricating for the last couple of hours. Mewtwo had been frustrated at first, but rejected Pikachu's offer to power it back up again, deciding that it would take too long to start over from scratch before Deoxys arrived and they'd just have to try again once the battle was over. (And besides, at that moment there were numerous other Pokemon in critical condition suffering because their life-support had failed, and Pikachu was needed to help stabilize them in the chaos which followed the blackout.) Brock had no lover's soul to comfort him though, and he felt too estranged from his rock-star Pokemon (setting up equipment in the Exploudrematic) to ask them for help, so he sought solace in Delia, for once not having a single perverted ulterior motive in mind. (Well, okay, maybe one or two.)

As for Max…

He had gone into shock in response to his sister's attempt to kill herself. He didn't speak, didn't move, barely even blinked. Psychic probes elicited no response from him. It was clear the boy was deeply traumatized. In her own grief, Delia immediately decided to adopt Max, (and May, if she recovered enough to be released from the coma Mewtwo had put her in so she wouldn't hurt herself or anyone else until they had time to help her properly) since he had nowhere else to go. It was questionable whether she did this out of actual concern for the boy, because she needed something to cling to, or because she desperately wanted a son to hold since Ash was in Misty's arms and she wasn't letting go anytime soon. Be that as it may, Delia held onto Max and didn't let go. Brock entertained momentarily the thought of marrying her to become Max's dad, remembered that Delia was engaged to Mimey, considered murdering Mimey, then decided that would be too much effort and he should just drop it altogether. Maybe if he was lucky he could seduce her away from him…they'd be careful to avoid scandal, of course. At least that's what he told himself.

The remaining Chosen and regular Pokemon were lined up behind Mewtwo and Latias, staring up at the sky as well and waiting for their foe to appear. There were no witty or vulgar remarks from Crawdaunt, no philosophical debates from Sadic, no grumbling from Scyther, no romance between any of the couples or jealousy from Bulbasaur (well, not overtly anyway). Even the youngest, Phanphy and Larvitar, had seemingly lost their voices long ago, either from screaming them hoarse at the bloodbath on television, shock, or for once getting it into their heads that now was a bad time to chatter frivolously.

And so they waited.

Mewtwo's purple gaze shifted eastward. "Someone approaches."

"Deoxys?" Gardevoir asked anxiously, clutching his arm.

"No," he said with a shake of his head. "Allies. So to speak, anyway."

Soon, the flapping of large wings could be heard echoing across the city. Ho-Oh flinched. "Oh no…I recognize those wingbeats…you mean to tell me she's part of this too!"

"I'm afraid so," Mewtwo told the phoenix.

A huge silver and blue bird rose over the skyline, followed by a rainbow-colored phoenix and three smaller birds that seemed to be bickering at each other. Spotting the group (and the giant purple robot looming over them) the bird began descending towards the park, followed by the other four.

"That's it," Ho-Oh snapped, turning away. "I'm outta here."

"You can't run from her forever," Latias told him. He hesitated. "The past has a way of catching up with you when you least expect it."

Ho-Oh grimaced, knowing she was talking about his recent reunion with her as well. "…All right. But keep her away from me."

Lugia gracefully swooped down, landing in front of the group. He looked very weary, not just from a long flight, but from some deep, inner turmoil. "I see you made it, Mewtwo. Is everyone here?"

The psychic shook his head. "No, but I expect the rest to arrive sooner or later." He glanced at Ho-Oh, who had landed much further away from them and was visibly sneering at them. The three elemental birds had landed close to her, and had started squabbling again, until she shrieked and struck them with claws and beak, frightening them into silence.

"How'd you convince her to come?" Latias asked wryly.

"It wasn't easy, I can tell you that," Lugia said deadpan.

"The only reason I'm here is so I can get my egg!" Ho-Oh squawked furiously. "The sooner I'm away from you disgusting psychics and freaks, the better!" She scowled, noticing her former mate with the group as well. "And what are you doing here, traitor?"

"I'm here to fight," he said, glaring at her. "And to help those who need it. Which is more than you've ever done for anyone in the last few hundred years."

She sneered at him, noticing Wes by his side. "So the rumors are true…you have been captured! I had thought you at least had some form of dignity, ex-husband…clearly I was wrong to believe you had a scrap of pride at all!"

"I'm guessing she's the reason you don't like women?" Wes asked his bird Pokemon, raising an eyebrow.

"One of them," Ho-Oh muttered in reply. To his ex, he said, "I have nothing to say to you. I am here to protect this world and the few people I have come to share a bond with." He paused, glancing at Latias, before continuing. "Even those whom I have abandoned in the past. I will work with you only because I must, not because I choose to. When this is over, I never wish to see you again."

"Funny, I said the same thing when I banished you," the female sneered in reply. "Forget this. An egg isn't worth wasting my time with the likes of you and these filthy abominations you keep company with! Look at them!" She gestured at Pikachu, El Gato, and Zoro's other masked Pokemon. "Pokemon demeaning themselves with human clothes and weapons!" She glared at the Exploudrematic, where the Pokerockers were testing lights and acoustics placed in the giant robot's mouth. "Pokemon defacing themselves with human designs and using human equipment and technology, none of which springs from nature and is therefore an abomination!"

"Hey, our music is not an abomination!" Geodude said angrily, shaking a fist at the bird.

"Although numerous parents and religious groups would say otherwise," Jigglypuff consented.

"And speaking of abominations…" Ho-Oh continued, turning to Mewtwo.

He rolled his eyes. "I was wondering when she would get to me." He sighed. "Since we're a little short on time, Ho-Oh, I hope you don't mind if I condense your planned insults a bit. Blahblahblah Mewtwo, blahblahblahblah incarnation of evil, demonspawn born of sinful science, blahblahblah Gardevoir, blahblahblah hideous monstrosity that should have been killed at birth, blahblahblahblah we should not be allowed to procreate because our children would be too hideous for this Earth." The unmasked Gardevoir gasped, more offended than actually hurt by Ho-Oh's intended insult.

Mewtwo turned to Latias while Ho-Oh gaped in disbelief. "As for you, blahblahblahblah freak of nature, blahblahblah unnatural evolution, blahblah bastard child of a bastard father (The male Ho-Oh started at this), and she privately wishes you were younger so that she could eat you and keep an unnatural thing like you from ever growing up. Oh, and she also is thinking that you, Lugia, are a coward and weakling-" Lugia sighed, too tired both from his long journey and from the trauma still hanging over him to truly get angry. "And she had a few other unflattering things to say about our group as a whole, also wondering why the humans among us aren't worshipping the ground she's standing on right now." He smiled to himself. "Being able to read minds can be fun sometimes, can't it?"

"Bitch," Misty said scathingly.

"Skank," Rui agreed.

Zoro said something in Spanish consisting of "El Pollo loco" and numerous other phrases that essentially compared Ho-Oh to a Granbull's ass and said that her mother was a drunken Blaziken (no offense intended to his own El Pollo Diablo) who had mated with a Slowpoke to produce her egg, which was dropped several times after being laid and weakened by alcohol in the mother's womb. El Gato added a few choice words of his own, saying Ho-Oh's father's sword had been a blunt rusted butterknife (not the sword you're thinking of, folks), and then Rosa said Ho-Oh's coloring was reminiscent of the drug trip Lewis Caroll had been on when he had written Alice in Wonderland, and El Toro said…well, you get the drift.

"It's a good thing I never subscribed to any major religion growing up," Delia commented. "Because I would be seriously disillusioned right now if I had been worshipping her all my life."

"It's a wonder she gets any followers at all, really, acting like that," Brock said thoughtfully. "Then again, since she never pays any attention to them anyways, I suppose they don't know any better."

Wes patted his Ho-Oh's side sympathetically. "Now it all makes sense. Hell, if I were married to her, I'd probably be a misogynist too."

"I told you, it wasn't just her," Ho-Oh growled. "And she didn't start out this bad…but she certainly is now."

The female had a stunned look on her face from Mewtwo's accurate prediction and mocking summarization of all her planned insults, and how everyone else was now saying rude things to her face. "You…you…how dare you!" she shrieked angrily. "I am the lead legendary of the Johto region! I am Ho-Oh, master of all that lives and walks and breathes around me!" she said as behind her Zapdos, Moltres, and Articunos had gotten pissed off at each other (again) and were now rolling around in a dust cloud, clawing and pecking and biting at each other, occasional bursts of fire and lightning and ice emerging from their melee. "How dare you mock me like this?"

"If you don't want to be mocked, you shouldn't make yourself so mockable," Bayleef said reasonably. "Or act like such a total bitch."

"You know," Sadic said conversationally. "Back home, people like her are detrimental to the survival of the pack because they're so stuck-up and self-centered they do nothing but hold us back in hunts, waste food, take up space, and irritate the hell out of everyone. And you know what we do to people who are a detriment to society, of course."

"Kill and eat them?" Pikachu guessed, insulted that Ho-Oh thought his swordsman getup demeaning.

Sadic smirked. "Yep! The same punishment we give to all major threats in our community."

"Some would say that's a permanent solution to a temporary problem," Grovyle pointed out.

"Only if you believe discorporation is the actual end of someone's existence," the Manyula said with a shrug. "Which it isn't. We figure, 'Hey, since they're probably gonna come back in a generation or two anyway, what's the big deal?' Besides, we only do it in those cases if said individual continues their bad behavior despite numerous warnings to stop."

"Are you suggesting we eat Ho-Oh?" Corsola said in disbelief.

Sadic shrugged. "Sure, why not? She's just another Pokemon, albeit a really strong one. And there are more of us than her, also really strong. If we all ganged up on her, I bet we could put her down real easy."

"Mmm, I wonder what Ho-Oh tastes like," Crawdaunt said, licking his lips. "Like chicken, do you think?"

"I'm a chicken," Combusken pointed out sourly. "And I should hope the two of us don't taste the same."

"You should be honored to taste the same as I do!" female Ho-Oh snapped. She paused while the others facefaulted. "Wait…that didn't come out right…"

"We're getting off topic," Mewtwo said as he got back up. "Simply put, Ho-Oh, if you're going to work with us, you must stop insulting us for our perceived inferiority and for not conforming to your insane specifications. If not, you can leave."

"Well, all you had to do was ask," she sneered mockingly. "If that's what you want, I'm going. I never wanted to work with you pitiful mortals anyway. 'Saving the world.' Hmmph! As if it were in any danger to begin with."

This enraged Lugia. "If you truly believe that, than you are even blinder than we thought!" he roared. "My family died because of this danger you believe nonexistent!"

"Really?" Ho-Oh replied snidely. "The way I heard it, it was you who killed them."

Had this only been the week before, Lugia would have lunged at his antithesis, the bitch that had exiled him to the Orange Islands and kept him from his family for centuries, and ripped out her throat. Were it not for the fact that she was right…that it had been by his own hands that his family was dead…he still would have done it. Feeling a deep, festering wound of guilt, Lugia bowed his head in sorrow.

This, of course, only made everyone feel sympathetic towards Lugia and hate Ho-Oh more. "Okay, I think that's enough," Wes said, gesturing for his Aerodactyl to come forward. "I think it's time you were gone."

"What?" the female phoenix said, glaring at him.

"You said yourself that you were leaving," her ex-mate growled, stomping forward. "Just a moment ago, didn't you?"

"And if that's the case, then you should go," Latias said, her eyes glowing. "As in, right now."

Ho-Oh started, seeing all the Pokemon advance on her, including the giant Exploudrematic, which was now cracking its knuckles. "Y-you dare defy me! Ho-Oh!"

"As far as I'm concerned, the only real Ho-Oh is this guy right here," Aerodactyl said, gesturing to his teammate and semi-rival with a wing. "Then again, I'm only a fossil that's been in this world for a few months, what do I know? But I think my friends here agree with me."

"Yeah, get out of here, Ho!" Bayleef jeered, not bothering to add the second syllable.

"Or we'll eat you!" Sadic said, licking her lips.

"Y-you wouldn't!" an alarmed Ho-Oh cried.

Charla shrugged. "Why not? We were fed Pokemon food with human bits in it at the Pokemon Center. If we've already eaten human, why not eat Ho-Oh?"

"Perfectly logical," said Gyarados with a nod. "I missed out on lunch because I was asleep. I could go for some poultry."

"Mmm…" Crawdaunt said, donning bib and silverware. "Ho-Oh…"

Frightened, the phoenix screeched, backed away, and took off, flying off into the distance. The three oblivious elemental birds stayed behind, still beating the crap out of each other. "Haha, that's it!" El Gato roared triumphantly. "Flee, you cowardly yellow-bellied pollo!"

"Ahem!" said Blaziken, El Pollo Diablo, and Combusken.

El Gato sweatdropped and laughed nervously. "Eh heh, Apesadumbrado mis amigos. I meant no offense."

"This isn't over!" Ho-Oh shrieked as she vanished over the horizon.

"Which means it is," said Brock. "Unless she's like Team Rocket and will come back to bother us in a little while."

"In which case, we'll eat her," Mewtwo said with a shrug. "Although I doubt she'll taste very good. All those years of bitterness, hatred, and hypocrisy have no doubt spoiled her flavor quite a bit. Then again," he mused. "The zombie and vampire Pokemon of the land of Noctylvania have told me that the brains and blood of a truly corrupt and demented individual taste much better than those of an 'innocent', whatever that may be. Hmm…perhaps this bares further study…"

"Speaking of eating, shouldn't we feel worse for eating Nurse Joy?" Pikachu asked.

"Why?" Sadic replied. "We're not the ones who killed her. And we didn't know until it was too late what our lunch really was. So why bother regurgitating perfectly good meat?" She shrugged. "We've done nothing wrong."

"That doesn't mean I shouldn't feel guilty," Pikachu grunted.

Sadic rolled her eyes. "You and your values internalized on you by the 'civilized' world."

"Well, at least the civilized world makes music and art for its own sake," Corsola pointed out.

"I don't honestly see the value in that sort of thing…" Sadic admitted. "But then again, back home we don't really have time to do stuff like that."

"Well then, that's just something I'll have to try to show you when we raise the kids," Pikachu said cheerfully, glad to find something Sadic wasn't confident about, making her seem like less of an author-adopted character. "The value of the arts!"

She looked doubtful that she'd ever understand the value of this so-called 'art', but decided it couldn't hurt. "Eh, if you say so," she grunted.

"Arts, huh?" Crawdaunt mused. "You know, that reminds me…my craw-daddy came up with a few poems of his own after some of his most momentous sexual conquests," Crawdaunt mused. "I'd recite some of them, but…" he paused, glancing at Phanphy who was nearby conversing with Larvitar on the joys of aluminum foil. "I'm not sure all of our audience is fit to hear them."

"Good, because I don't think any of us would want to hear them either," said a disgusted Bayleef.

"I had no idea until recently that you were such a, well, pervert Crawdaunt," said a disgruntled Grovyle.

Crawdaunt chuckled and whacked his friend on the shoulder, almost dislocating it. "You call it perverted; I call it sexually active, as is usual for my species, just like killing without regret is usual for Sadic's species."

"Damn straight," Sadic agreed cheerfully. "And nobody forget that."

In the meantime, Scyther blinked, the clogged synapses of his brain finally sparking with an idea. "Hey, wait a minute…I just remembered something! Damn my senile old brain!" He ran out into the park, screaming at the receding figure of Ho-Oh, who was no more than a speck in the distance by now. "Wait! Come back!" he shouted at her. "Bathe me in your fire! Make me young again, I beg of you!"

"What are you doing?" Gardevoir asked, tilting her head.

"Getting my youth back, that's what!" Scyther replied.

"And getting Ho-Oh to breathe fire on you will do that how?" Latias asked skeptically.

"Ho-Oh's a phoenix!" Scyther reminded them. "Everyone knows that phoenixes are immortal and rejuvenate themselves by bursting into flame and emerging young and whole again! That's what all the myths about Ho-Oh say!"

"Oh, you mean that old story?" said the annoyed male Ho-Oh. "Not true."

Scyther blinked. "Huh?"

"I said it's not true. I have no idea where people got that idea to begin with. Ho-Oh have no more ability to rejuvenate themselves through fire than, say, that Bulbasaur," the bird said, pointing to the miffed little reptile. "When we die, we die. That's it. No big conflagration…well, unless we want to make a show of our deaths. Then we die in fire. Otherwise, we just leave a corpse, which is then cremated by family members in volcanoes according to old tradition. Hmm, maybe that's where people got the idea…from seeing an old Ho-Oh go into the volcano to die and his or her younger family members burning it then leaving the scene."

"But…but…" Scyther stammered. "What about…what about that forest that was burned down a long time ago near Mt. Silver? Didn't Ho-Oh restore that place?"

"No, that was Celebi," Mewtwo told him. "Ho-Oh just took credit for it."

Scyther sagged. "Oh. So…no youth powers?" he asked the male Ho-Oh weakly.

The bird shook his head. "None whatsoever."

"It is said that all legends have a grain of truth, and that may be so," Mewtwo told Scyther. "But it depends on the legend, what the truth is, and where you go looking for it. For instance, there's an old myth saying that Gyarados tears turn lead to gold, but you don't see our serpentine friend here being used for alchemy, do you?"

"Certainly not," said the big blue Atrocious Pokemon.

"See? It's just as much a fantasy as the tears of Pokemon being able to bring back the dead," said Misty. Mewtwo sweatdropped at this and remained silent.

Scyther sagged. "Darn," the bug said with a sigh. "Guess I'll have to try something else...maybe Celebi can revitalize me when she shows up. Hmm…"

"You really should give this up, you know," Latias told him gently. "Your constant quest to make yourself younger will kill you even faster than if you just let things be. I envy you; you've actually managed to grow old. I've died twice now, once when I was middle-aged and the second time just last night. I've never gotten the chance to sit back and rest in my twilight years beside my mate, watching my children and grandchildren playing in peace, free from the hanging shadow of evil Deoxys has held over both my lives. Be thankful for what you have before lamenting what you've lost."

Scyther blinked at her, startled, and was on the verge of reprimanding her for speaking to her 'elder' that way when Latias, Lugia, and Mewtwo abruptly looked up at the roiling sky. Gardevoir sensed the same thing as them moments later and looked up as well. Togetic soon felt it as well, and Rui and any other psychics or empaths a moment or two after her.

"What is it?" Wes asked his girlfriend, noticing her tense up.

"He's here," she whispered, her body beginning to tremble from fear.

And so he was.

The clouds above them churned, twisted, and parted, lightning bolts cracking down as a hole opened in the surface of the super-cell storm above them. But instead of bathing them in the sunlight just past the thick layer of storms, a great shadow fell over them as something…enormous floated down.

It boggled the mind to look at. The object was, as previously stated, huge, maybe five miles in diameter and made totally from crystal. At first glance from far away, it might seem to be a giant floating Morningstar coated in millions of spikes, but a closer examination revealed that every inch of the object's surface was composed of infinitely complex components, billions upon billions of smaller spines and edges that juxtaposed each other in ways and forms that defied all logic and created angles that shouldn't exist and eventually drove the mind to madness if stared at for too long.

If one didn't go mad, and looked even closer, they would see that the surface of all the spines and spikes and edges and joints was covered in carved reliefs depicting scenes of abject suffering; images from a mind driven to insanity, brought back, and thrust into madness again and again. The pictures were sick and twisted, showing cruelty beyond comprehension as angels, demons, gods, mortals, aliens, and all sorts of other things from beyond and between and above and beneath the fragile piece of illusory universe arrogantly dubbed 'reality' inflicted impossible tortures on all forms of life. The entire structure was nothing more than a monument to pain and the ultimate meaninglessness that was existence.

"Are we getting pictures of this?" Jigglypuff the elder asked her protégé in the Exploudrematic's cockpit.

"No. Why, should we?"

"Yes! This thing would look great in our first music video!"

Aside from those idiots, the raw empathic vibes the floating monolith gave off were so terrible that all could feel them on one level or another, Psychics being the most sensitive to its negativity, Dark-types getting a very strong feeling of unease and worry, and everyone else stuck somewhere in between. They could feel that the intelligence inside the structure saw them, their lives, their hopes and dreams and accomplishments, as meaningless. Nothing more than a microbe on a germ on a grain of sand floating in the immense endlessness of eternity. It did not care if they lived or died…or to be more precise, it wanted them to die, wanted their bodies to rot and decay and still live and breathe and feel as they were denied rest, their souls to writhe in burning barbed chains in the deepest pits of Tartarus, their minds shattered, mended, and shattered again repeatedly, their spirits crushed and broken, their very essence raped again and again and again until they had lost all trace of these flimsy and hollow ideals such as love or hope or honor or peace, so that they too would dedicate their immortal existences to suffering and agony.

A small figure detached from the surface of the immense object now hovering just above the top of the old oil rig and floated down towards them, resolving into the form of Deoxys as it approached.

He halted and stood in the air several meters above and away from them, near one of the oil rig's supports. He had changed marginally since last they had seen him in the flesh, in the world of the crystal Unown. The broken crystal in his chest was now almost complete, but still had several clearly visible chunks missing. He held a long, barbed crystal trident in his right hand. Also, a third eye, vertically slanted, had appeared on the forehead of his blue mask, at the top of the purple bulge running down the center of his face. None could stare into the bottomless, pitiless orbs sunken into his head without being reduced to a quivering mass of jelly, so terrible was the mind looking out at the world through them. They stared at him, the architect of all the pain and horror they had gone through in recent times, with equal parts fear and hatred (Well, mostly fear. The guy generated it like wildfire.). Ash's soul jangled and flew down Misty's shirt, trembling in fright. Lugia felt a confusing mix of anger and terror, wanting to rip apart the entity who had tricked him into murdering his family while at the same time wishing not to incur this being's wrath.

His aura, now much clearer to those who could read such things since it wasn't being blocked partially by the thick walls of the crystal fortress, was truly awful to perceive, a googol times that which Alpha Ranger and the crystal shard of HERO had radiated, evidence of the fiend's twisted genius, disregard for all socially constructed inhibitions such as rules or morals, and desires for the destruction of all life and the subjugation of all souls. It was enough to make Rui cling to Wes, Espeon return to his Pokeball, and those who had never experienced it before to feel a strong urge to flee for their lives. None of them did, of course. For where would they go? If they ran, he would hunt them. He would take them. And he would make them his own, forever. That didn't stop some of them (namely, Phanphy) from wetting themselves in fright, however.

Deoxys, reading the fear in their minds with his psychic powers, chuckled, looking amused at the group that had assembled to defeat him. His telepathic voice resonated both through their minds and in the air as audible sound, so those who were Dark could hear him as well. "So we meet again, Chosen. Our battle has been a long time in the making, has it not? Hmhmhmhm…"

"You seem oddly amused, seeing as how we're going to wipe the floor with you," Bayleef said, hiding her distress.

"Is that so?" Deoxys shrugged. "You may be right. I may lose. And I may win. Either way, the ultimate outcome is inevitable." His eyes seemed to smile as he saw Mewtwo at the head of the group, fists clenched. "Ah, my old friend Mewtwo. How has it been out there, beyond time? Have you learned much from your Unown masters?"

"I have learned what I need to defeat you," Mewtwo said, glaring at the alien. He frowned as he examined his nemesis, detecting a subtle difference in the being's aura since last they had met…evidence that Deoxys had gained Dark as a subtype or second type. Could this be how the alien's plans had gone on without his noticing them? Curious…especially since the Unown had also given him a very well-hidden Dark subtype, presumably to give him a more level playing field against Deoxys.

"Good, I would be disappointed if you gave me anything less than your best," Deoxys said with a chuckle, either unknowing or uncaring of Mewtwo's ponderings. "And what is this? Your beloved has removed her mask?" Startled to be referred to, Gardevoir gripped Mewtwo's arm for protection. Deoxys chuckled at her fear. "Such a shame. She seems to have gotten over her self-confidence issues. I was looking forward to toying with her…no matter. There's more than enough of you left to satisfy that urge...like yourself, Latias. You're looking quite well. One of my servants has been dying to meet you."

"Is that so?" the dragon said coldly. "In that case, he'll meet me…and then he'll be dying for real."

Deoxys chuckled. "How droll. He'll be amused you said that. I see you're still angry at me?"

"How could I not be?" she said, narrowing her eyes. "You killed my parents, reanimated them, and had them eat my siblings. That's not something you forgive easily."

"Good, because I would not wish to be forgiven. And Lugia…had any good dreams recently?" Lugia snarled, barely able to keep himself from lunging forward at the monster, certain it would spell his doom. Deoxys merely laughed.

"G-go away, you big meanie!" Phanphy stammered. "Leave us alone!"

"I don't want to," Deoxys told the elephant directly, causing him to squeal and hide behind Misty, who was trying to keep Ash, who was vibrating from raw terror, from being noticeable inside her shirt. "I have come for this battle. You have been Chosen for this battle. Destiny dictates that we must fight. How troublesome that is, isn't it? No matter. We are all here now, and we will do what must be done." He resonated at an ultrasonic frequency, causing Pokemon with extra sensitive hearing, like Pikachu, to flinch at the noise, while the ground trembled somewhat at the sonic vibration.

The fortress above them rumbled, and launched about a dozen small crystal objects in a 360 degree circle, each of them landing at the periphery of the city, opening up, and emitting a strong, pulsating glow.

"What are those?" asked an alarmed Delia as they shot overhead.

"Modified RPGenerators," Mewtwo informed her. "A special device which can alter reality in a small area, changing it to satisfy its controller's whims."

"Whoa," said an impressed Geodude inside the Exploudrematic. "That would make for some great SFX in our concerts, wouldn't it?"

"You're not going to destroy them?" Latias asked her mentor.

He shook his head. "They may be caging us in here, but he's trapped as well as long as the generators are running. He can't leave the mini-reality as long as it exists."

"That's true," Deoxys agreed as beams of light shot out from each of the RPGenerators, arcing above them and colliding at the tip of the uppermost spike of the alien's fortress, expanding to encase all of Ever Grande City in an unbreakable energy dome. "But it also means reinforcements, and the remaining Chosen who have yet to appear, will have quite the difficulty coming in to help you. Which means it's just you all, me…and my accomplices, who will be more than willing to handle you so I don't have to waste my energy defeating you all by myself. Mewgle, if you please?"

"Okie dokie milord!" said the white Mew-Moogle fusion, appearing out of thin air and startling everyone.

"This guy!" Crawdaunt cried in disbelief. "What's he doing in the real world?"

"The RPGenerator field must have given him the ability to leave his digital realm for the one contained here," Mewtwo hypothesized. "Interesting." Misty frowned, thinking the Mew rip-off looked vaguely familiar.

"Hi Mewgle! Are we going to play another game?" Phanphy asked stupidly.
"Oh yes," the clown-like villain said gleefully. "A game which none of you will survive! Heeheeheehee!"

"Oh brother. This guy's one of our enemies?" said a completely unimpressed Wes.

"Si, he does not look like much of a threat," agreed Zoro.

"Yeah, if it weren't for his teeth, he'd make a great plushie," Rui agreed.

"WHAT'D YOU SAY!" Mewgle roared, changing to his enormous, hideous flame-winged monster form and scaring the bejeezus out of the two strong, fearless humans, causing them to leap into the air and land in Rui's arms, making her fall over because she wasn't strong enough to hold two grown men at once. "HEHEH." He whirled and shrunk back to his default state and conjured a microphone, leaving those who had not met him before (and those who had, as well) stunned by his new and grotesque power. Phanphy, unsurprisingly, wet himself.

Mewgle gestured, and the crystal fortress behind them rumbled and fired a huge opaque beam of blue light from its underside, completely engulfing (and possibly obliterating) the oil rig. It made no detectable impact as it hit the ground, so there was clearly no real force behind it. (That didn't mean anyone was willing to touch it, though) "Ladies and gentlemen, Pokemon and humans of all ages! Welcome to The End of the World as We Know It, the Last Show on Earth! On one side we have these…well, losers…who think they have a chance to defeat a power as old as eternity itself!"

"Hey!" the Chosen said in reply to this.

"And opposing them, we have the forces of evil and entropy, led by my main man himself, the lord, source, and embodiment of all evil, DEEEEOXYS!" Mewgle roared, shifting to his monster form for the last word, gesturing to his master.

Deoxys bowed graciously and mockingly to his foes as an invisible audience roared in approval and joy, startling the Chosen as it howled for Deoxys to do several things so mind-bending and impossibly gruesome many of them were automatically edited out by the heroes' auditory receivers. "I have been waiting a long time for this…" He paused, noticing the three elemental birds were still obliviously beating each other up, and sent a finger of psychic strength at the ground beneath them, causing it to blow up and send them flying away from each other in a daze, incidentally stopping their squabble in the process.

"Now, let's introduce the forces of evil, shall we?" Mewgle said cheerfully. "First of all, there's me, the Ultimate Godmoder and DM of Destruction, MEEEEWGLE!" He transformed again and smiled his gross serrated teeth and waved his bloodstained claws at camera flashes which started to go off all around him, taken by nonexistent photographers as the nonexistent crowd cheered loudly. "But I'm just the beginning, folks!" Mewgle said, changing back. "Give a big Ever Grande hello to our first general of evil! In life he was once two separate men, a crime boss and a businessman respectively, both doing their best to spread evil in the world, sometimes without knowing it! But together, they're the Endbringer, the Fusion Warrior, and the Master of Twin Swords…heeeee're's OMEGA!"

A twenty-foot tall humanoid figure clad in gold and black armor with saurian legs, a cape, and a pair of gold wheels on his back leapt out of the column of light emitted from the fortress, landing on the ground hard enough to dent it. Crouched down, he held his arms out, clenching his fists as red laser swords shot out of the holes in his gauntlets. Roaring, he surged to his feet, slashing out repeatedly with his arms as he did so, his blades flaring through the air and leaving crimson trails in the air, before freezing in place, his huge presence enough to make some of the smaller heroes take a step back. There was a pause, and then a pair of trees on either side of Omega trembled and fell to the ground, their trunks neatly cut through. The general chuckled and retracted his blades. There were shrieks and cries of ecstasy from the invisible crowd at his performance.

"My goodness!" Delia gasped in awe.

"Eh, he's got potential," Pikachu grunted, not so impressed by Omega's flashy swordplay.

"Si, we can do better than that," agreed El Gato.

"Lo más definitivamente posible," agreed Lombre.

"Once, I was Shalor and the weakling you called Shining Ranger…now, I am so much more," Omega boasted. Blaziken's eyes flashed, and his wrist flames ignited in anger as he realized he was facing his trainer's murderer in a new form.

What was more interesting about this monster, for those who knew how to tell such things, was that Omega didn't have a soul, and so had no aura, other than the same palpable feeling of malice and hatred that all of Deoxys' creations generated, easily detectable to those who could sense it. But that didn't really surprise Latias, as one of Deoxy's virus-animated corpse minions there was no reason Omega would have a soul. Deoxys would not release a soul once collected unless he had good reason to.

"Speaking of Shining Ranger…what party would be complete without his sidekick/partner? I'm sure all of you who were present at Battle Tower last night remember this guy. For those who weren't, allow me to present…BLAZEATRICE!"

There was more invisible applause and cheers as the flaming, skeletal, winged birdman leaped out of the column of light, landing at Omega's side and causing a ring of fire to flare up as he hit the ground. He clenched his fists, flexed his pectorals, and roared, causing the flames covering his body to flare up in all directions, shining off of Omega's armor. This fiery beast, like Omega, was also lacking a soul or the requisite aura that a spirit gave off, indicating his status as another of Deoxys' pawns.

Charmeleon growled, getting into a fighting position as he faced the fiend who had torn off his wings. Charla joined him, her mouth frozen in a fanged snarl.

"Now, here's a lesser-known guy I doubt most of you know…but I'm sure one of you in particular remembers him!" Mewgle said, winking at the group. "Allow me to introduce…the late General Hanson's bodyguard, Shedinja!"

Togetic and Misty gasped as a plain Shedinja floated out of the light column, to the phantom audience's joy. "General Hanson's dreams of conquest have gone unfulfilled…so I have come to avenge him by finishing what he started, and killing the last Togetic!"
"I don't believe this!" Togetic cried. "You joined Deoxys, the one who's going to destroy the world, for revenge?"

"What else is there for me?" the bug retorted. "I have nothing now. The General is gone, the Ghost Kingdom has rejected me…what's left of it, anyway. All there is now is revenge."

"Don't worry, Togetic," Misty reassured her trembling daughter. "We took him before, and we can take him again!"

"Yeah, I won't let him hurt you," Gyarados promised the frightened Happiness Pokemon, who did not look very reassured.

Latias frowned, displeased at this twist of events. She had not expected the bad guys to have a Shedinja of their own. She wondered where the Soulless general of the Ghost Army had gone off to…and her King for that matter, both of them should be there! She missed him…

"Yes, yes, that's nice," Mewgle said, cutting in. "But Shedinja here isn't the only one out for revenge! Isn't that right, MEOWTH?"

"MEOWTH!" all who had experience with Team Rocket cried in disbelief as the gross, disfigured humanoid feline that Meowth had become lumbered out of the light column, his innards exposed, his eye sockets hollow, flanked by the burning skeleton that was Growlie and the floating fanged…something that was Chimecho. Meowth grinned, showing his overlarge fangs, and waved to the invisible crowd. There was no response. He pouted in disappointment. Even as a general of evil, he got no respect. (I could add that none of them had souls, but I suppose that goes without saying?)

"No way…" said Brock in disbelief. "That can't be Meowth!"

"Meowth…" Latias said, feeling at once both pity and disgust for the foolish creature. "What…have you done with yourself?"

"Allied with the winning side, of course," he told them with a grin. "Not that I had much choice in the matter, I admit…but hey, the benefits of being like this far outweigh the ever-present pain and the absence of a soul. Heck, I never used the thing anyway!"

El Gato shook his head in disgust. "Disgusto…you are a disgrace to gatos everywhere!"

"And what have those gats ever done for me?" Meowth retorted. "Shunned and ignored me, like everyone else! I learned to speak human, joined Team Rocket, and still everyone saw me as a freak or a loser! Well that's all changing now. Now, I'm a big bad general serving the greatest power in the universe! I'm not at the bottom of the totem pole anymore!"

"You sold your own soul for power and respect you believed you deserved…" Mewtwo murmured. "How sad…I pity you, Meowth."

"I don't want pity!"

"That's too bad, because we pity you anyway," Latias remarked, somewhat saddened that the annoying and evil yet relatively harmless Meowth that had pestered her and her friends for a good part of her journey had become this monstrosity. "And your friends as well."

Meowth growled angrily while Growlie barked and Chimecho chimed in confusion. "I said, we don't want your-"

"That is enough, Meowth," Deoxys interjected. "If they wish to waste their pity on you, let them. It does not mean you or they will fight you any less harder."

"Oh…right." Meowth pointed a meaty, diseased claw at Pikachu. "Pikachu, you're mine!"

The mouse blinked. "Huh? Why?"

"Because out of all the Pokemon we've tried to capture, it's you who's haunted me for years, both in my nightmares and in my waking hours! Pikachu…Pikachu…it's always Pikachu! You're always blasting us off, zapping us with a gazillion volts of electricity, and hurting me in general!"

"Maybe that's because you were trying to steal me and imprison me for the rest of my life 24/7," he said sardonically. "And haunting my nightmares and waking hours."

"That's beside the point," Meowth snapped. "And totally different from what I'm talking about. Today, revenge is mine!"

Pikachu shrugged. "Okay. If that's what you want."

Meowth blinked, or would have if he had eyes. "Eh?"

"Hey El Gato, you want in on this?" Pikachu asked his swordsman rival.

"Si! I will take pleasure in restoring the honor of gato-kind!" El Gato said, drawing his sword and bounding to Pikachu's side.

"Hey, count me in too," Sadic said, joining Pikachu. "After all, I have to protect you in the unlikely event that that thing over there proves too much for you. I want my children to have a father, after all."

"Hey Scyther, will you join us too?" Pikachu asked the old mantis, blushing at the same time from Sadic's demonstrating that she cared for him.

"Huh? Hell no, why would I?" the old mantis snapped.

Pikachu blinked. "Uh...well, I don't know, I thought we might have some camaraderie. You know, because you use blades, Sadic has claws, El Gato and I have swords…so, it would kind of make sense if we teamed up. You know, be the Four Musketeers or something."

"Not interested," Scyther said, turning away. "I have my sights set on that big fellow over there. Egg something."

"Omega," the gold and black general said flatly.

"Yeah, right. I think I can take him on."

All sweatdropped. "Well, if you're sure…" Pikachu said doubtfully. "Well, um…Lombre, will you join us, then?"

"Estoy muy apesadumbrado, but I can't," Lombre said sadly over a communicator deep within the Exploudrematic. "I must operate the Exploudrematic's espada skills."

"Oh," Pikachu said in disappointment. "Guess it's just us three then."

"I'd join you," Crawdaunt said, "But I honestly would rather fight someone a bit tougher than Meowth."

"As would I," agreed Mewtwo. "I'm saving my power for Deoxys. I'm sure the three of you can handle Meowth, though."

"I'll help you out, if I can," Grovyle said, offering Pikachu a hand. "I've been practicing my Lead Blade techniques while I've been away…I'm hoping you and I can pull off some great new combo moves together!"

"I'd be honored to fight with you, old friend," Pikachu said, shaking the gecko's hand.

"Don't show off too much, Grovyle-kun," Bayleef called while Bulbasaur sulked. "He's not worth it…it's only Meowth, after all."

Meowth was confused and a little hurt. "Huh? You…you guys aren't scared of me? You're all nonchalant and gung-ho and stuff about fighting me?"

"Why should we be scared?" asked Sadic. She pointed at Deoxys with a claw. "That guy there is scary." She pointed at Mewgle. "That guy…well, he's more creepy and disturbing than downright scary, but still frightening in his own way." She pointed at Omega. "And that guy's just cool-looking." She looked back at Meowth. "You, honestly, elicit more disgust, annoyance, and pity than anything else."

"Si, the lady esta correcto," El Gato said with a nod.

"Yeah, what he said," Pikachu agreed. "You've only lasted a couple of minutes maximum against us before. I honestly don't think that's changed, no matter how ugly you've become."

Delcatty stuck her tongue out. "Meowth ugly."

"More like ugleh," Ivysaur corrected.

"Really ugleh," Beautifly added, giggling.

"Si, one of the el más feo things I have ever seen," Rosa agreed.

Meowth sagged. "Awww…." Growlie nuzzled him sympathetically, burning the cat's flesh, while Chimecho chimed sadly, wrapped his tail around his friend's head, and tried to suck out his brains.

"Yes, yes, that's very nice, PAY ATTENTION TO ME!" Mewgle roared impatiently, reminding everyone he was there. "Now, next on our list of villains we have another familiar face…the shell of a former comrade, the Beginning of the end, I give you…ALPHAAAAA!"

Alpha, mutated from his original white and blue spandex to white and blue scales with gold plating and black spikes, roared as he leaped out of the light column, smashing a fist into the ground as he landed and sending out a wave of electricity which crackled into the air. He then stood up, leaning back slightly, laughing maniacally as his fans in the invisible crowd went wild. Since Ash's soul (now peeking uncertainly out of Misty's shirt) was no longer in him, he gave off no aura, and since Deoxys wasn't directly connected to him as he had been the night before he radiated much less malevolence than he did before. That didn't mean he wasn't dangerous, far from it, if anything he was even more powerful and nasty than he had been the last time he had encountered the heroes, he was just nowhere near Deoxys' level, that's all. Those who had met him before all tensed up, remembering this bastard well and knowing that he could not be allowed to survive this battle. "Hahahahahaha…it's good to see you all again…hahaha…especially YOU, mom…so nice to see that you've replaced me already with that worthless turd there…glad to know I meant less to you than some fucking retard!"

"You're not my son," Delia said coldly as she hugged Max tightly to her chest, recalling how Alpha had savagely torn off Oak's arm on television.

"No, I'm not," Alpha agreed. "And I wouldn't want to come from the anus of such a bitch anyway! Haha!" He glanced around, noticing Ash's soul peeking out of Misty's shirt for a moment before slipping back in, frightened that he had been noticed. "Hey, looks like that ghost that calls itself Ash is here too…well congratulations kiddo, you've finally got where Brock never will! Hahahaha!" Brock pouted at this, knowing Alpha was probably right. "Enjoy this closeness while you can, both of you, because the boss is taking back the freedom he loaned you, Ash, and I'm taking Little Miss Bitchflower for my own! I wouldn't mind groping around that chest of hers myself, even if it is a bit flat!"

"I believe that's enough out of you," Mewtwo threatened as Misty gasped and her Pokemon growled defensively. "We have no interest in hearing your vulgarities."

"Well too bad, pussy, because I'm here to stay. I'm a lot stronger than I was last night…it's time for a rematch, and I'm gonna win it!"

"Heh, we'll see about that," said Crawdaunt, snapping his pincers.

"Yes, yes, that's very nice," Mewgle said boredly. "Moving on, because we only have so much time in the day for this destined showdown…say hello to the Hound from Hades, the Dark Gatekeeper…CERBERUS!"

Out of the blue light bounded a huge canine monstrosity, its fur and mane mangy and filthy, with crystals growing out of the shoulders, three tails (two mouthed tentacles, one a zigzagging barb), crystal armor covering and piercing the legs and masking the monster's three faces, each of which looked a lot like one of the three legendary beasts. It also had spiked collars with chains that looked like spinal cords tangled in its mane. The beast loomed over the heroes, three heads held high, took a deep breath, and roared, shaking the ground and shattering windows as pillars of fire, water, and lightning erupted from the land around it. (And no, it didn't have an aura, but you knew that didn't you?)

"Wes, they look like-" Rui started.

"The three beasts? Yeah, I know. What the heck happened to them!" the ex-thief said in disbelief.

"I did," Deoxys said calmly. "I offered them power, and they accepted it, becoming my slaves. It is a sad thing how greed can affect people, isn't it?"

"I don't believe this," Ho-Oh said in amazement. "You used to serve my ex loyally…and abandoned her for power?"

Cerberus laughed, its three voices blending together dissonantly. "As our master said…greed is a very powerful motivator!"

"Well, at least this proves her wrong once again," Lugia consoled the stunned phoenix. "When I found her, she was vehemently denying that her servants had turned against her and become demonic abominations. Shows how crazy she is, doesn't it?"

"Is the power worth it?" Mewtwo asked Cerberus. "Worth losing individuality and soul, worth becoming what you are now?"

"Yeah, pretty much. Plus, it's fun! Then again, a large part of evil is, isn't it?" Cerberus said with a triple chuckle.

"Yeah, why do you think I stuck with being a bad guy even though I was really bad at it and kept getting beaten up?" Meowth asked.

"Because you're stupid and incompetent?" Crawdaunt suggested.

"And thought you had nowhere else to go?" Bayleef suggested.

"And are too greedy to do something that isn't related to crime or taking stuff from other people?" added Grovyle.

"And you're a meanie?" Phanphy pointed out as well.

"And-"

"Okay, okay!" Meowth snapped. "I get the picture!"

"Yes, I think we all do, (loser)" Mewgle said cheerfully. "But it's time for our next big surprise! Lugia, get ready to meet some faces from the past…because here's the wife and kid you murdered in cold blood!"

Lugia started. "W-what!"

"You killed your own family!" Ho-Oh said in disbelief.

"I-I didn't meant to…I was tricked!" the beast of the sea protested.

"Really? That's not how they tell it…why don't you ask them yourself?" Mewgle asked, gesturing to the light column as a pair of red-eyed, dark purple Lugias emerged to the pleasure of the invisible audience, one big and the other a good deal smaller. It was not their physical appearance that made them monstrous; they actually looked kind of cool and not nearly as terrifying as Cerberus. However, they were extremely frightening in one way (and not just the fact that the mere sight of them reduced Lugia to a quivering heap): they had auras, not just the telltale presence of Deoxys' power. That meant they had souls. That meant, in a way, they were still alive, and not just virus-animated puppets like the rest of his minions.

Rui gasped. "Wes, those are Shadow Pokemon!"

Wes rolled his eyes. "You don't say?" he said sarcastically. "Welp, time to charge up the ol' Snagger," he said, reaching into a pocket for a Snag Ball.

A laser bolt shot down from the heavens and impacted right at his feet, exploding and knocking him onto his back. "Try that again and I won't miss the next time," Deoxys threatened. Wes wisely decided to comply.

"Hello, husband," the larger Lugia, a female, hissed, causing the normal Lugia to whimper in fear. "We've been waiting a long time to see you again."

"No…no…you can't be real," Lugia moaned. "I saw you…I saw you in a dream…you said that you forgave me and were waiting for me on the other side…you're not real!"

"But she is," Deoxys said. "And what you saw was a lie, an illusion concocted by Molly on the Unown's orders to snap you out of the endless chain of suicides I placed you in. I was displeased with that, so I went to her home, destroyed her town and whatever friends she had made, and forced her to destroy herself, removing herself forever from this reality."

Delia gasped. "Then you're the one who destroyed Greenfield!"

He rolled his eyes. "Of course I am. I claimed responsibility for all the recent disasters in my broadcast, weren't you paying attention? It therefore goes without saying that I was behind Greenfield as well."

Delia blushed, embarrassed. "Oh…right…"

"Your wife and child have been with me all along," Deoxys told the cringing Lugia. "I kept their souls and retrieved their bodies after you finished savaging them. I fixed them up and replaced the heads you had torn off or disintegrated, and after a lengthy reeducation process planted their souls back in." He chuckled. "Now, I'm sure one of you sentimental fools will suggest that I am making a mistake in pitting a loving wife and son against their mate and father. But trust me, after what he did to them…and what I did to them because it never once occurred to this coward here that he could save them…there isn't a shred of mercy or love left in them."

"Do you have any idea what we had to go through while you were suffering from bad dreams?" the female hissed. "Do you have any idea what it's like, where we were?" She nodded at Ash's soul, which had peeked out of Misty's shirt again before diving back in to remain unnoticed. "He only got a taste of it. We've been there for only a few real-time days…but time doesn't flow there the same way it does here. And the only reason we were there at all was because of you. Because you clearly didn't love us, your own wife and child, to think for a moment that we could be saved. You killed us and damned us, so it's only fair that we do the same to you."

"I'm sorry…" he whispered. "I'm sorry…"

"Sorry isn't good enough," she hissed in reply.

"We're gonna kill you, daddy," little Silver said, licking his lips with a serpentine tongue. "We're gonna peck out your eyes, and tear off your wings, and eat your heart right out of your chest."

"Sadic, our own kids aren't gonna hate me that much if I were to accidentally kill them, would they?" asked a disturbed Pikachu.

She shrugged. "Eh, depends on the circumstances. If you did it because you were hungry and had nothing else to eat, (and made sure to kill them first) they might be a little miffed about it, but they'd understand. Then again, if by killing them you didn't send their spirits to the Hunting Grounds to be reborn and instead condemned them to an eternity of suffering which twisted them into sadistic evil monstrosities…well, I'd be pretty pissed off at you too."

"Then I'll have to make sure not to kill them," Pikachu decided. "Unless you say it's all right, seeing as how you seem to have more knowledge about this sort of thing…"

"Wow, talk about family drama, folks!" Mewgle said loudly into his microphone, annoyed that nobody was paying attention to him again and wanting to get on to the main event. "You could probably make a sitcom based on this…or at the very least, discuss it on one of those freaky talk shows! And speaking of freaks, we're down to the last two generals, the strongest of the bunch! First up, allow me to introduce the Ghost Eater, the Serpent O' Souls, and, sadly, the only female on our team! (Unless you count the Suicune third of Cerberus) Heeeeeere's LEVIATHAN!"

The invisible crowd cheered as a huge monster slithered through the air out of the column of light, twisting and turning as it wrapped its coils loosely around its master Deoxys, leering down at the Chosen and hissing in disdain.

Leviathan was aptly named, for her serpentine body was a hundred feet long and two meters in diameter. Her body was composed not of skin or scales or armor, but of bodies. Thousands of human and Pokemon corpses had been fused together from the waist down, their upper bodies plastered back against each other like scales, covering each other with their skin and bones and blood, dead eyes staring blankly at the world around them, and—eerily enough—they still held some semblance of life, moaning and flailing their mutilated hands slowly, grasping at the air and at each other, clawing one another's bodies and drawing more blood, which either spilled onto the ground or sank into the crevices between the individual bodies and into Leviathan's innards. Her long tail, like that of any serpent, tapered and narrowed at the end, terminating in a mass of spikes thornier than the tail weapon of a Stegosaurus formed from numerous rib cages lashed together by tendons and viscera, still dripping fresh gore from their sharp curved tips.

Thick spikes emerged from various random spots on her body, in many cases piercing right through the myriad dead forms which composed her skin, goring them on their tips and adding to their suffering. The spikes were made of numerous bones fused together, with skulls peering out at spots on the spike's surface, eyeballs still in their sockets. Two thirds of the way up her body grew a pair of long, lanky arms made from the severed arms of at least a hundred human and Pokemon children fused together and ending in powerful wrists with overlarge knuckles and claws. The knuckles were adorned with the skulls of over a dozen babies, worn like rings, and the claws, like the spikes, were formed from numerous bones fused together, their ends broken and jagged and no doubt unclean.

Leviathan's face was gruesome and vaguely draconic, formed of a great deal of muscle tissue fused together, throbbing a raw red in the daylight. Her gaping jaws contained thousands and thousands of teeth of all shapes and sizes, taken from every species of human and Pokemon and clustered together in such a grotesque display of cavities and decay that any dentist would weep from despair looking upon such a job. A tongue made from numerous livers and intestines wrapped together and bound by tendons drooled acid and blood and licked its cracked, scabrous lips, cutting itself repeatedly on its mishmash of unhealthy teeth and mending itself moments later.

Leviathan had two gaping holes for nostrils, with little black tendrils that ended in snapping mouths lashing in and out with every monstrous breath. A pair of long, curved crystal horns grew out from the back of the head, tipped with an array of spikes. Her eyes were the only things which were not obscene and hideous; a pair of small yellow points set in deep, overlarge sockets. Latias could not help but feel a strange sensation staring into the eyes, one unrelated to the ever-present scent of Deoxys' power, because she already knew this creature had no soul. So what was it?

Well, whatever it was, it was ugly enough to make some of their group throw up, and cause Phanphy to void himself for the umpteenth time.

"D-did you say Ghost Eater?" Misdreavus asked, eyes wide in fear.

"Yes," said Mewgle.

Misdreavus shrieked and hid behind Umbreon, shaking like a leaf.

"Where did you dig up this monster, Deoxys?" Mewtwo asked in disgust.

"Yeah, she's uglier than Gardevoir! Ah, no offense," Crawdaunt said quickly when the humanoid glared at him.

Deoxys chuckled, patting one of the writhing bodies close to him from his comfortable position inside Leviathan's coils. "I shall reveal that soon enough…Mewgle, will you bring out our last ally?"

"Of course, my lord! Okay boys and girls, we've saved the best for last! Put your hands together for what the extinct Christians would call the Antichrist, the Son of Deoxys himself…the nastiest, cruelest, and downright evilest general of us all…DAAAARK LATIOOOOS!"

"Son of Deoxys!" Mewtwo said in disbelief.

"Dark Latios!" Latias cried in horror as her father Ho-Oh started, nearly knocking Wes over with a flick of his enormous wings. No, that can't be right! I must have misheard! She thought to herself desperately.

The invisible crowd went wild as the already malevolent clouds overhead darkened and the crystal fortress and the earth beneath their feet trembled. The blue light column darkened ominously, turning into a purple-black reminiscent of ichor. A thin, rasping voice laughed maliciously, the sound of it sending shivers down the heroes' backs. And Latias paled considerably, for she got the feeling that this voice was laughing directly at her.

Tendrils of black mist rose from the base of the darkened light, undulating and twisting through the air as they came together, coalescing into a single mass which collapsed upon itself, solidifying and radiating an aura nearly as twisted and vile as Deoxys' own…hell, it was almost identical to the alien's, if a trifle smaller, and all who could detect it recoiled in fright, overwhelmed by the all-encompassing power the two auras emitted together.

He was terrifying to behold as his misty form solidified into a whole body, not even remotely as hideous or disgusting as Meowth, Leviathan, or Cerberus, but every bit of him screamed obscenity and the universe's outrage at his anomalous, unnatural existence. His body was covered in black down hardened into serrated scales, with jagged blue stripes and whorls zigzagging across his skin, with a big spiky blue splotch in the middle of this chest with a hollow red right side-up triangle in the center of it. A pair of huge jet black leathery demon wings grew from his back with blue tips on the ends of the sharp finger bones. He had a second, much smaller pair of demon wings in lieu of legs, also blue-tipped. His tail, unlike Latias', was armored in mottled black and blue and ended in a crown of thick spikes burning with dark fire. His arms were long and thick like Latias', black at the top and covered in spiky blue armor on the lower parts, with a flattened palm and three bloodstained jointed talons, one of which served as an opposable thumb, for hands.

His long black neck ended in a triangular head much like Latias', except harder and ending in a sharper point almost like a beak. In place of smooth, streamlined ear tufts he had long curled horns, like those of a ram. A blue hollow right side-up triangle with a blue dot in the center covered his face and forehead, only marred by his eyes, redder than blood, radiating unspeakable malice and hatred equaling that of Deoxys but with less self-control or inner restraint, all of it directed right at Latias, who found herself trembling in fright. His mouth split open in a grin, revealing fangs so encrusted in blood and a hell of a lot more filth and bacteria than the Leviathan possessed that they were a disgusting black. "Ahhh….Latiasssss…I have waited such a long time for this." He ran a forked tongue over his lips as several great black tentacles rose from his back. "I have dreamed of this moment…of the look on your face as we first met…and it exceeds my darkest nightmares. My withered heart weeps with joy at your fright." He cackled. "Dear sister…I will enjoy making you scream." His voice was almost an exact duplicate of Latios'. Ho-Oh's jaw dropped incredulously.

Latias paled. "No…you can't be my brother. He's dead. You're nothing but some monster Deoxys cooked up to play mind games with me."

Deoxys and Dark Latios laughed. It was eerie how much their cackles sounded alike. "Is that what you think? You poor, deluded fool…how could I be anything but your brother? After all, we were born from the same mother," he said, glancing up at the Leviathan.

Latias blinked in confusion. "What? She's not my-" She froze. Her eyes widened. "No…"

Deoxys chuckled and nodded. "Yes. This magnificent creature…is none other than Latias Sr. Now in my employ."

There were gasps all around. "WHAT!" Ho-Oh shrieked. "That…that thing…is the Pokemon I once called wife?"

"Until you rejected her. She wasn't too happy about that," Dark Latios said. "Just imagine…if you hadn't been such a callous jerk and thrown her away, then my father Deoxys might never have found her and I might never have been born. Wouldn't that have been a pity?"

Leviathan glared down at Ho-Oh and Latias. "HUNNNGRYYY…"

Phanphy gasped. "Wait…but that means…" He stuck out his tongue, straining his tiny little brain in thought. "Latias is my aunt…which makes Sr. my great-aunt…and if Sr. is Leviathan, that makes Dark Latios my uncle…which makes…" He gasped in horror. "My great-uncle is Deoxys!" Togetic, Misty, and the rest of his little 'family' sweatdropped.

"Oh, I'm part of your family now. I'm so flattered," Deoxys said sarcastically. "Well, it seems you have a new 'father' to add to your collection, Latias…myself."

"You're not her father!" Ho-Oh and Mewtwo shouted at once.

Deoxys laughed in amusement. "You reject me…how sad. It almost breaks my heart. No matter. I will break all of yours soon enough."

"How is this possible?" Latias whispered. "How can you…you foul, evil thing…reproduce, and with my poor mother of all people? I didn't think you had anything like sperm in you, just virus particles which make up your body."

"So did I," Deoxys admitted. "And yet…"

"Here I am," Dark Latios said. "It's a funny story, really, how I was born. Why don't we tell them, father?"

"Yes…yes, I think I will," the evil one said with a laugh, before telling the morbid and sickening tale.

The sun sank low behind the large monastery. From her small cell beneath the temple, Latias Sr. grudgingly watched the sunset. In spite of the monks' claims that they worshiped Dragon Pokemon, they were more than well-equipped to restrain a Dragon who wasn't interested in contemplating the meaning of life. While the majority of the dragons in the temple were content on spending their days meditating, curling up on beds of hot sand, and taking swims in the heated indoor pool, Sr. had startled the monastery's occupants on her arrival by slaughtering a quarter of the monks and half a dozen dragons on her initial attempt to escape until they managed to put her down and lock her in one of the temple's numerous 'isolation chambers' where the residents who either had problems controlling their rage, preferred solitary spaces for their contemplations, or were just antisocial spent a good portion of their days in hopes that it would calm her down and put her spirit back in balance. Those hopes were crushed when she busted out and managed to cave in one of the monastery nurseries, crushing an eighth of the eggs and human infants inside, before she was caught again and put in a much more secure isolation chamber underneath the temple, usually reserved for the truly unbalanced (which she most certainly was).

She had expected to be tortured, starved, or at the very least ignored. It was extremely frustrating how the humans continued to go against her preconceived biases by being nothing but courteous and helpful to her despite how much she thrashed and lunged and screamed how she was going to kill every last one of them and lick their blood off her claws while the monastery burned to the ground. They had given her hotcakes after that last one, with a penned note from the monastery children professing wishes that she got well soon. She hadn't been sure how to react to that, so just dumped the hotcakes in the corner and sulked against the back wall until she got hungry and ate them ravenously. She now made sure to offer vile death threats she had learned from Missingno daily to the monks so she would get more hotcakes. That didn't mean she still wasn't planning on escaping and killing them all, she just liked the hotcakes.

She sighed and clawed at the strange high-tech collar they had fastened around her neck that restrained her powers in irritation. "One of these days, I'll get out of this damn cell and kill every single one of them. Then, I'll track down that wretched white and purple cat…thing and that human brat and dispose of them!" She sneered and lashed out at the stones on the wall, unable to do any real damage due to the human contraption. The rough stone tore away a small portion of the flesh beneath her claws, leaving bloody lines on the wall, which she knew would just be cleaned up by the monks when she eventually went to sleep. Rage filled her mind as she stared at the bleeding wounds. "It's all her fault. That rotten worm who calls herself my daughter…She stole my power…I'll tear her to shreds when I get out of her!" She screamed in rage and rushed the thick steel door, slamming into it and causing it to shake, but it would not break. The monk guarding her door sighed and shook his head sadly. This was a daily occurrence, and it saddened him that she was so filled with pain and anger that nothing they did seemed to be able to give her peace.

Latias Sr. screamed in rage and charged the door again, her already fragile sanity almost at its end. There was a loud crack and she slumped to the ground unconscious, knocked out by the force of her blow against the steel barrier, which was still completely undamaged. As her vision rapidly faded, she could have sworn that she saw a trio of eyes staring out at her from the shadows of the small room.


Deoxys smiled as he watched the scene of rage-driven insanity. His army was away, attempting to halt a ritual driven by one of his many enemies. It didn't matter if the ritual succeeded or failed. Nothing would make any difference against him. They would all die anyway. His master plan would unfold as he pleased, no matter what surprises the Chosen or Unown thought they had in store for him.

His visions were what drove him to view this scene, of Sr.'s futile rage. He could not sleep, nor could he dream, but by passing into a lucid 'stupor' of sorts his multidimensional mind was capable of penetrating the fabric between time and outside of time, allowing him not only to catch glimpses of events in the future which might be of use to him but also to retain focus by making contact with his other 'selves', so to speak, throughout eternity, giving him the benefit of other perspectives and wisdom to objectively tweak his plan to perfection. He knew a great deal about the red dragon he was spying on, thanks both to the memories recorded on the shard which had come to him after Missingno's defeat but also due to the piece of himself which was within her…the piece which was within all things. Of great interest to him was the knowledge that she had once been a candidate to hold a fragment of his power. However, that power had fallen into the possession of another of his enemies, the dragon's own daughter. But the taint of that power still remained, imprinted on her spirit. Deep in her soul, it was what interested him the most. What had shone like a beacon in his trance, revealing to him the potential for a future in which his ultimate triumph was assured.

It was true that messing with her might be a small, nearly insignificant blow against a few of his enemies, and might only slightly affect his chances for victory, but in the game of fate no opportunity was too miniscule. And there was no reason he couldn't have fun doing it, after all. The elder dragon had tasted his power many times in the past and still longed for it. If he were to… supply a little more of it, crafted by his own hands, it would torture her mind and soul, a thought that he found quite enjoyable.

He chuckled softly to himself. "Very well, little worm. You desire to taste my power again so greatly? I believe it is time for you to taste the truth behind it. And once you have, you will be mine forever. If you survive, that is…"


Hours later, Latias Sr. groaned and lifted her head. Her vision was still blurry and darkness flooded the room due to the loss of daylight from the small cell window. She lifted herself off of the floor and slammed her clenched claws into the steel door. "Let me out of here, human scum! Why don't you come in here and worship me to my face? I'll show you what I am truly capable of!"

She roared in fury and beat her claws against the door again when there was no response. To her surprise, there was a low groan as the great steel door slowly fell backwards from its frame and crashed to the ground.

She stared at the frame in a combination of shock and fear. She had never been able to accomplish anything to that effect in the past. Not to mention that the collar was still restraining her powers. Almost as an afterthought, she reached up and tapped it with her bloodied claw. Adding to her surprise, it sparked viciously and split in two, crashing to the floor.

The dragon continued to stare in disbelief for another couple of moments before breaking out into frenzied maniacal laughter. She had no idea what was going on but it was about time for her to show these monks what she thought about their "worship".

With a roar of fury, she charged out of the room, claws bared and a Dragonbreath forming on her lips. But that fury faded instantly and fear bolted through her body as she spotted the monk who had guarded her, his still form leaning against the wall with a massive slash across his stomach that allowed his organs to spill out onto the floor. A dried trail of blood ran down his lips and his cold, lifeless eyes stared off into the distances, at some horror that only he could see.

She floated back, her body shaking with fear. She shuddered and realized that her newfound freedom might now be her only hope at survival. Whatever had killed the monk might still be lurking nearby, ready to feast on her.

Her heart pounded and she turned, bolting for the way she believed to be the exit. Without warning, time seemed to freeze and a bright flash of light briefly changed the room into a hellish nightmare. Skeletons leaned against the walls and blood flowed like a river across the grey stone floor. Fear getting the better of her, a weak scream escaped from her lips and she turned, fleeing in the other direction.

As she continued further down the hall, the lights dimmed until they finally died completely and she froze, panicking in the darkness. Shaking, she felt around for the wall. Finally, her claws came to rest on a cold steel bar and terror coursed through her body. An eerie red glow shot through the room and she suddenly found herself suspended in a steel cage above a burning pit of fire. Burning arms reached out desperately from the fire, either trying to drag themselves out of the flame…or to pull her down into it.

Attempting to compose herself, the dragon forced a strong, demanding voice. "What's happening here? Whoever is responsible for this trick, I demand that you stop immediately! Come out here so that I can tear you to shreds like the pathetic creature you are!"

A hideous laughter, infinitely crueler and eviler than Missingno's, split the air and the cage suddenly began to plummet towards the fiery hell beneath her. She screamed in horror, her false courage vanishing rapidly. Suddenly, the darkness swallowed her again and she grunted in pain as a cold stone floor rose up, slamming her in the chest. Despite herself, tears welled up in her eyes from the pain and she lay there, sobbing.

Torches burst into flames on the walls, revealing a cold, stone chapel of some sorts. Copious amounts of blood coated the walls and floor, and bones littered the floor. The ceiling was broken and full of holes, and a harsh red light shone through from a sky without sun, stars, or clouds occupying it, only three great orbs which looked oddly like giant eyes far above. Statues, some broken, some not, lined the walls; each depicting a creature more bizarre and hideous than the last, all of them engaged in an act of unspeakable cruelty to figures whose bodies were so contorted in pain they were nearly unrecognizable. It was amazing that they did not scream from agony, even if they were merely cold stone. And yet…if they were stone…why did it look as if the statues were breathing?

At the back of the room, poised over an altar caked with so much blood it had been covered in a dry red surface and beneath a stained glass window which seemed to depict nothing less than the absolute and utter annihilation of all existence, with the souls of all those worlds falling screaming into a hell infinitely worse than the Dark World she and Missingno had controlled was a statue of what could be nothing less than purest evil. It was so vile, so terrifying, that Sr. instantly tore her eyes off it lest she go mad, the sculpture's three evil eyes burning themselves into her memory.

There were no exits to the room save for the holes in the ceiling and a couple of broken, barred windows. The floor barely seemed to hold itself together, bright flames visible beneath the large cracks. Beyond the windows, she saw a hellish landscape and dark shades moving in the distance, along with what looked like the silhouette of some kind of sailing ship. From all around her, she could have sworn that she heard infant Pokemon crying out in pain and loneliness and a foreign emotion began to creep through her body. In her mind, she could see the birth of her children and realized that, whether she would admit it or not, she had been happy and some portion of her heart regretted her foul treatment of her offspring. A cry trembled on her lips and the tears of pain slowly changed into tears of sadness, not for herself but for her daughter. "Latias, I was wrong. If I survive this, I swear, I'll make it up to you. Somehow, some way, I'll fix the way I've acted in the past. Please, just let me live so that I may tell you how I feel."

"Oh, have no fear; you'll be seeing your daughter again soon."

Latias Sr. looked up, fear paralyzing her entire body. A warm feeling coursed underneath her and she realized that she was lying in a puddle of her own urine as her body shook to the core. "Who's there? Leave me alone! I don't want to die!"

The stone wall before her seemed to ripple like water as it rearranged itself, forming an opening out into the blazing hell for only a moment, allowing her to be blasted with a wave of blistering heat as wails of torment and despair washed over her...and then the opening closed, and in its place, a dark figure stood. "Don't worry. By the time this nightmare is over, you'll be screaming for death." His three eyes, so much like the statue's, gleamed evilly, and she knew they were one and the same.

Latias Sr. screamed in fear and tried to pull herself away, accomplishing nothing more than slipping and landing face-first in the vile puddle she had created. She lifted her head, a stinking mixture of liquids running down her face and obscuring her vision. "Go away! Please, just leave me alone!"

The figure laughed and stepped forth, the darkness melting off of its body, revealing the red and white form of her daughter. The younger dragon laughed and slowly floated towards her fallen mother, who was staring in disbelief. "You really want me to leave?" she said, her voice a perfect mimic of the true Latias', cradling her mother's head in her claws. "After everything you just said, you would wish me away so easily?"

Latias Sr. struggled to pull herself away. "You're not my daughter! I haven't been the greatest parent in the world but I know that you're not her!"

"Of course I am. Don't you recognize your own flesh and blood?" Latias chuckled softly and drew her claw across her mother's forehead, drawing a thin line of blood. "I just decided that I should treat you as you have treated me in the past. Isn't that fair?"

Latias Sr. sobbed and closed her eyes, wishing the figure away. She felt the claws beneath her chin vanish and opened her eyes. Rather than her daughter, she found herself staring into the face of her deceased son. "No! No, anyone but you!"

The blue dragon smiled sinisterly and wrapped his arms around her neck. "What's wrong? I thought you would be happy. After you spent so much time attempting to kill me or condemning me to death, you should be glad I'm dead and gone while you're still here. Isn't that what you wanted?" He grinned, revealing a long line of razor sharp teeth.

Lowering his head, he sank them deeply into her neck and Latias Sr. gasped in pain as she felt warm blood beginning to course down her skin. She screamed and jerked herself away from him, falling backwards and hitting the ground with a loud thud.

Latios laughed darkly and pulled himself closer to her. "Do you really think that you could escape from me that easily? After all, we're nothing more than mistakes of yours that you can't get away from." He laughed again and sank his fangs into her flesh again, just above her heart.

Latias Sr. suddenly found herself unable to scream, although her throat vibrated itself raw from the repressed cries from deep within. She blankly stared at the ceiling, her vision rapidly fading as her blood gushed from her body. After a few moments, she felt his claws cradling her face. Her son clicked his tongue gently in a calming manner. He stared deep into her rapidly fading eyes and cooed softly.

"Oh mother, I always loved you. But you wished nothing but pain and torment on me. And for that, I hope you suffer for all eternity."

A scream of horrible agony finally burst from her throat as she felt him penetrate her, forcing himself deep within her. Her body felt as though it was being torn apart from the inside. The cruel claws twisted and her vision went black as her neck shattered into several pieces. She thought, even hoped for a moment, that this was it and she was dead...

But even though she could not move, could not see, could not even feel her heartbeat, she was not dead. She heard the laughter of the thing masquerading as her son as he thrust into her again, the spines on his member extending and ripping through her belly, and then…

And then the pain really began…


He stood back and stared at the broken body before him. Pleasure filled every fiber of his body. What the dragon had felt could be seen by some as an illusion, but for one such as himself reality was not so difficult to tamper with when you knew how. She had really been in the bowels of the place outside of time formed from his own evil soul and those of countless others throughout infinity. As she had suffered, his tendrils had fed her pain and fear into his body. It had tasted so sweet and divine, the essence of purest pain and suffering, much more palatable than the tasteless cowardice provided by James! How he longed for more…and knew that soon enough, he would have all that he could ever desire.

He withdrew his final tentacle, taking care to tear at the flesh as much as possible. Surely the pleasure he received from shredding both her body and mind could only be described by humans as orgasmic! Cackling, he turned away and stared out the barred window of Sr.'s cell. It was a shame to simply toss away something that had given him such pleasure, and which his visions had told him might provide him with something to tip the balance more in his favor. However, what could he do with the broken, empty husk that had once been a proud and vengeful dragon that could give him such an edge? A dark thought crept into his mind and he reached for her body, smiling. The corpse would be perfect for becoming…

Suddenly, he paused. From deep within the dragon, he could feel a truly evil force stirring. His own seed? Was that even possible? Reaching out with his mind, he could sense it, rapidly growing and evolving, expanding deep within her body. He was amazed at the sheer malevolence and hatred of life he detected, so great that he was certain it had to be borne from himself!

He stepped away as, in a grotesque shower, Latias Sr.'s chest burst open and a small creature began to pull itself from the remains. He gazed upon it, interest, bemusement and something akin to pride growing within him.

The creature that pulled itself from the corpse resembled an infant Latios in almost every bodily way. However, its down was the color of midnight blue and darkest black and, unlike the long angular wings its mother had possessed, two great leathery demon wings sprouted from its back. It looked up at him with its red eyes filled with pure malice and hissed menacingly, a forked tongue snaking from its mouth.

It levitated itself up from its mother, shaking the gore from its body. It hissed again and great black tentacles shot from its body towards Deoxys. Without taking a step, his own tentacles shot out and clasped the newborn's, stopping them in midair.

His eyes met with the creature's. "Cease your attack at once. You have no desire to attack me, your own father, do you?"

The creature paused and stared at him. It blinked, semi-transparent film passing over its red eyes. "Fffffaaaaattthhhheeeerrrr?"

"Yes, I am your father...how strange. I have rarely been in a position before to say that and truly mean it. Interesting." He paused, his three eyes scanning the creature, noting how it was already growing rapidly and estimated it would reach maturity in a matter of hours. "Unlike the mistake your mother made with her previous abominations, I am proud to call you mine. I cannot give you love, for that is something beyond me, just as it is beyond you, but that does not mean we are incapable of understanding and respecting each other. Join me, and we shall drag this world into destruction together. Together, as father and son."

"And that is the story of how I was born," Dark Latios said as the tale ended. "Does that answer all your questions, sister?"

"…Was it really necessary for us to hear that story?" Mewtwo asked, looking disgusted.

"No," Deoxys said cheerfully. "Which is why I told it anyway."

"You really are pure evil."

"Thank you."

Latias stared at him in anger and disgust as around her, many of her friends were vomiting from Deoxys' very graphic description of all the things he had done to Latias Sr. "You…how dare you!" she roared furiously, glaring at Deoxys. "Destroying my first family wasn't enough…and now you target my second? There was little love between us, but she was my mother, dammit!"

"And my wife, once!" Ho-Oh agreed. "It's my fault I turned her away and caused all this to happen, I know it! But now I'm trying…I'm actually trying…to make amends for that by acknowledging the daughter I never knew! I may not be that fond of her…my old misogynistic ways won't change that easily…but I still cared for her once, in a way! And she didn't deserve that!"

Deoxys chuckled and stroked Leviathan's sides. "Of course she didn't. But you seem to be working off the assumption that life is fair and everyone gets what they deserve. I assure you from personal experience this is not the case. If life was fair and just, I wouldn't exist at all…and yet here I am, as is my son." He looked at Dark Latios with something not unlike pride. "He is a piece of myself, born from my very soul, given flesh in his mother's womb due to a chance reaction between the virus particles I had injected into Sr. during her torture and the trace of my power still remaining in her…he is the child of my soul, his father's mirror, my own reflection. In him I see me, and in me he sees himself."

"And together, we will crush this reality…and my father's, and therefore my own, ultimate goal will achieve fruition," Dark Latios said with a hideous grin. "Dear sister…why do you look so disgusted with me? Have you not wished for this?"

"What?" Latias asked, startled.

"Don't listen to him-" Mewtwo started.

"Have you not wished upon a star many times for Latios to return to you, to come back from beyond time? Well, wish no more, for here I am. Aren't you happy to see me again?"

Her blood went cold. "You're not my brother. Deoxys said so himself, you're part of him, not my brother!"

Dark Latios laughed. "Hahahaha…dearest sister, in a way all of us are part of him, and he of us. Is it really so hard to believe that maybe, just maybe, in the vagaries of eternity, my soul found his, and through it, was twisted into what I am now?" He smirked. "But of course you doubt…after all, Latios himself gave you that message in the locket you wear around your neck…and that was not too long ago, so surely I could not have fallen in such a short time, could I? But you forget…time flows differently when you're outside it, not nearly as linearly and straight as you would expect. Is it really so inconceivable that I could have changed since then? Is it really so inconceivable that I, dearest sister, am Latios?"

Latias felt a moment of panic as she realized that his words might hold a grain of truth. Could this vile thing be her brother, twisted as Deoxys would have done to Ash, had already done to Lugia's family? Every fiber in her being cried no…and yet, he knew things he could not possibly know…could it be? Could he be Latios reborn? He had an aura, and thus a soul, she could sense it…could it really be his, twisted until it became a mirror of Deoxys' own? Could such a thing happen? The thought chilled her.

"I see you've inherited your father's ability for deception and mind games," Mewtwo said to Dark Latios with a smirk. "Perhaps you are her true brother, Latios. Perhaps you are not. In the end, it matters not, because you are our enemy…and as such, must be defeated if the world is to be saved.

"You may think you have made yourself invincible by gathering such allies, Deoxys, but you have not. You underestimate the power of the human and Pokemon spirit. Working together, there is no tyrant we cannot topple."

Deoxys rolled his eyes. "So a thousand heroes on a thousand worlds have said to me before their deaths. I see through your own attempts at deception as well, Mewtwo. I know you are stalling for time, waiting for some of the other allies the Unown have Chosen to fight with you against me. And I tell you now, most of them will not make it in time. The forces I've deployed around the globe should at least slow them down long enough for me to defeat you."

Mewtwo was startled, as were the others, who had been of the naive opinion that all Deoxys had done after his broadcast had come straight here. "What forces?"

"You didn't know?" Deoxys asked, feigning surprise. "After I shut down all the systems on Earth, I targeted and launched missiles, shock troops, and virus bombs at key locations across the globe. I'm surprised you didn't detect it, Mewtwo, I was almost certain you'd know about it. How very peculiar."

Mewtwo felt his blood run cold as he realized that somehow, Deoxys had outmaneuvered him again. How was he doing this! Could Deoxys' new Dark type or subtype be what was allowing the alien to plot and deploy without detection? But if so, shouldn't he have been able to sense it anyway, because of his own Dark subtype? Or was there something deeper and much more sinister going on… "Which key locations!"

Deoxys shrugged. "Major cities, military bases, reservoirs of important resources…and numerous smaller towns, just for fun."

"Like Hollywood!" Meowth said happily. "No more bad (or good, I suppose) movies, ever again!"

"And don't forget Pallet Town!" Alpha laughed. "We didn't send a missile there, but the virus bombs will be enough to turn everyone there into an infested zombie, who I will then kill at my leisure! Serves them right for never appreciating me enough!"

Delia gasped in horror, her heart almost stopping in dread. "No, not Pallet Town! Not Mimey!"

"All our friends are back there!" said a shocked Bayleef.

"Don't worry, the Professor's Omnian force field will keep everyone at the lab safe, I'm sure," Grovyle assured her.

"Actually, it won't," Deoxys informed him. "That force field keeps out hostile Pokemon and projectiles…but it can't detect anything as small as virus particles. By now, Pallet Town is a ghost town, with not a living soul therein."

Zoro shook his head. "Dios mio…"

"No…" Delia whispered, her eyes tearing up. She had all but lost her son…she had lost her friend Samuel…and now she had lost her home and the mon she loved? It was too much for her. Hugging the stiff Max to her chest, she began to cry.

"Not Pallet Town," Misty agreed sadly, clamping her arms around her chest, hugging the trembling soul of Ash close to her breast.

"Brother Snorlax…Brother Heracross…Sister Noctowl…they can't…they can't really be gone, can they?" Phanphy asked in disbelief.

"Dammit…this is too much!" Pikachu cried. "All those people…our friends! How can you do this!"

"Because I choose to," said Deoxys. "I feed off pain and suffering. By invading the Earth, I have created a never-ending smorgasbord…as well as weakened the power supply of my true enemy, upon whom I am waiting eagerly so we may continue our destined battle."

"Deoxys, you've gone too far!" Mewtwo roared.

"Too far? My dear Mewtwo, I've just started," Deoxys said in amusement. "Just wait until the Mother arrives…then the fun truly begins."

"This is nothing but a warm-up," Omega informed them. "You insects are nothing before us!"

"I can't wait to see what reinforcements come, far too late to help out," Dark Latios said with a sinister smile. "Dearest sister, I believe your beloved King will be among them…I'd love to have a talk with the dragon who wanted to defile my sister before I had the chance…I wonder if he will still accept you after I am through with you? Hahahaha…"

Latias gasped. "The King is coming?"

"More's the pity," said Deoxys. "I sent my minions to slow his revival while I was molesting your mother...but he lives now, as you well know, and will stop at nothing to rejoin you."

"I still have the bruises to show for that attempt," Meowth complained. No one listened.

"Even he will have a hard time getting through the RPGenerator shield, though," Dark Latios continued. "And so the lovers shall never meet. It seems as if your romance is as doomed as you are, dear sister." Latias narrowed her eyes at him furiously.

"I've heard enough of this guy," Crawdaunt growled, snapping his pincers. "It's go time!"

"Si, I think it is time we put a stop to his evil!" agreed El Gato.

"So now you wish to challenge me? Very well." Leviathan uncurled from him and flew back into the light column, followed, surprisingly enough, by all the evil minions save Dark Latios. "Then come and get me…we will be waiting for you."

"Heeheeheehee…you won't stand a chance!" Mewgle cried before vanishing into the light.

"You cannot escape our vengeance, husband," the Shadow Lugia whispered before she and her son retreated, leaving the regular Lugia whimpering behind them.

"Okay Pikachu, this is gonna be our final battle!" Meowth sneered. "So bring it!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Pikachu said, not really concerned. "This'll be a piece of cake."

Meowth's face fell. "Can't you for once fear me and take me seriously?"

"No," said everyone who had ever encountered him, causing him to facefault. Growlie sympathetically bit his tail and dragged him back into the light beam, accidentally pulling him over every sharp rock in his path. Cerberus snickered before following them.

"Latias…" Dark Latios hissed. "You will fight me, won't you? You will kill me, or try to? I would expect nothing less from you, dear sister."

"I will annihilate you until there isn't so much as a molecule left over," Latias hissed.

The dark dragon cackled. "And I will rend your body, rape your mind, and make your soul my personal plaything…hahaha! Come then! I look forward eagerly to our duel!" He flew backwards, vanishing into the column.

"As do I, Mewtwo. Do not disappoint me," Deoxys said, twirling his trident.

"I do not intend to," Mewtwo said, narrowing his eyes. Deoxys chuckled, amused, and floated into the column, which remained the same dark color since Dark Latios had exited it.

"So, I'm guessing we go in there?" Bayleef said.

"No doubt," said Grovyle.

"Then let's go," said Pikachu. "It's time to make this bastard pay for all the things he's done!"

"And bring justice to those he has wronged!" agreed El Toro with a snort. "As a luchador, it is my duty to see this through!"

"And although May didn't actually manage to kill herself…we're going to avenge her anyway! Right, guys?" Combusken asked her teammates.

"Right!" they chorused. Max stirred at this.

"This is going to be one hell of a concert…" Jigglypuff commented.

"But we can take it! We're the world's first all-Pokemon rock band!" Geodude cried.

"Yeah, there's nothing we can't do!" agreed Onix.

"Sr…Leviathan…whoever…I can't let what Deoxys has done to you go unpunished…" Ho-Oh growled. "I'm coming!"

"Don't forget us," Aerodactyl said, smacking the phoenix with a wing.

"Yeah, this guy needs to be taken down!" agreed Plusle.

"Hard!" said Minun.

"Are you and Dad ready, mom?" Togetic asked Misty, fluttering onto her shoulder.

She nodded, taking Ash out of her shirt and holding him tightly in her hands. "I think so…I don't really want to go in there, but…there's nothing else we can do. This is why we're here, right?"

"Right!"

"Then let's do this!" said Brock. "Oh, and don't worry Mrs. Ketchum, I'll be okay!"

"Brock, why are you going?" Misty asked. "You don't even have any Pokemon left. What are you going to do, wail on those guys with your fists?"

Brock sweatdropped sheepishly. "Well, that was the idea…" Misty facefaulted.

"I see we have quite a few friends willing to help out," said an impressed Mewtwo.

"All of them want what we do: a world free of this monster's evil," Gardevoir said with a shrug.

"Or revenge," Latias added.

Gardevoir smiled. "Yes, that too."

Mewtwo nodded. "Very well then…we may not all be here, but there are enough of us to put up quite a fight! Deoxys doesn't stand a chance!" He pointed a ball-shaped finger at the column. "Onward! Into his castle we go!"

They started forward…and came to an abrupt halt as a powerful voice roared, "STOP!"

The air before them rippled and split open, for a moment becoming a hole in space through which three beings came through before closing shut. Latias blinked, surprised not only at the three's appearance—for they looked exactly like the legendary beasts, who she thought had fuses into Cerberus—but because of their strange auras, which had the mark of being altered or changed somehow. "Go no further until you hear our warning!"

Wes blinked. "Rui, am I seeing double or are those the three beasts, which I thought had become that Cerberus freak?"

"Yeah, I see them too," said the confused girl.

"Good, then it's not just me."

"Who are you?" asked Mewtwo.

"And if you want to fight us, you'll have to get in line!" Crawdaunt warned them, earning him a smack from Corsola.

"We are Papa, Mama, and Oniichan," the Entei lookalike said. "Sent here by the crystal Unown to fight alongside you as well as deliver an important message."

Delia blinked away tears. "Papa? Mama? Why does that sound familiar…"

"Are you related to Molly Hale?" asked a surprised Misty.

"Mmm, Molly Hale," Brock said, drooling as he recalled how hot she had looked as a teenager.

"We are her family," the Suicune, Mama, said. "We were made to love and protect her…and we shall do that by fighting Deoxys in her name, since she is unable to do so herself."

"Ah, I remember you now," Mewtwo said with a nod. "Very well. Tell us the message."

"You may not all go into the castle to battle Deoxys and his minions," Oniichan informed the group.

"What? Why not?" asked an annoyed El Lobo.

"Because you'll die," Oniichan said flatly. "Deoxys' castle is filled with the same DNA virus that's spreading across the planet now, infecting and transforming people into horrible monsters. If you all go in there, you'll be affected as well. Only the Chosen are immune, due to a genetic quirk which makes their immune systems capable of repelling the virus. That is why they were Chosen in the first place…to serve as a 'vaccine' of sorts to Deoxys' virus."

"Oh," said a surprised Rui. "That makes sense. I wouldn't want to become a monster."

"So that's why we were really Chosen?" Sadic murmured to herself. "Interesting."

"In that case, who is going?" Lugia asked, hoping he'd be excused so he wouldn't have to deal with his former family.

"All of the Pokemon originally Chosen," Papa said, sending Lugia spiraling down into despair. "Save for Ho-Oh, who has forsaken her duties and fled. You, however," he said, nodding to the male phoenix. "Possess that same unique immunity she did, thanks to a mutation in the common ancestor you both share. Therefore, you have been Chosen now to join us."

"I am honored…I think," grunted Ho-Oh.

"There were other Pokemon who possess this mutation which the Unown did not overtly Choose, so as to surprise Deoxys with their existence, but he somehow found out about most of them anyway and destroyed them. However, a few still remain, and they are either here now or will join us later, if they can," Mama said.

"The remaining Pokemon who possess this rare immunity and will thus be able to battle evil without fear of infection are: Aerodactyl, El Gato, Combusken, Blaziken, Charla, the three elemental birds, and Grovyle," said Oniichan.

Moltres looked up from pecking at Articuno's head while the ice bird clawed at Zapdos' chest and Zapdos was shocking Moltres. "Did somebody say our names?"

What! He's with us too! Bulbasaur thought angrily as Bayleef hugged Grovyle in mixed relief and sadness, knowing he was putting his life on the line. Dammit, stop thinking like that…jealousy won't get you anywhere…ooh, but I hate him so much!

"Sorry guys," Aerodactyl said to the two electric mice. "Guess it's just me and Ho-Oh."

"Don't worry," Plusle assured him. "We'll cheer you from the sidelines!"

"Yeah!" said Minun. "We've been working on a new one we're sure you'll like!"

"Ooh! You guys are cheerleaders?" Politoed asked enthusiastically, stars in his eyes. "This is great! Now I finally have some friends who understand how much I love my profession!"

"You're a cheerleader too?" asked the surprised Plusle.

"That's great!" said Minun. "Then you can help us out!"

"I'd love to!" said Politoed, and a new friendship is born.

"Hey wait, what about us humans?" Wes asked, somewhat miffed. "We can't go in?"

"No," said Papa flatly.

"Why not?" asked an offended Zoro.

"Two reasons: one, you lack the special mutation that would make you immune to Deoxys' virus. Two, you'd die. Horribly. Whatever fighting skills you think you have won't be enough. This is a matter for Pokemon."

Wes grumbled and folded his arms, cursing, swearing, and having a downright fit under his breath before finally saying, "This stinks."

"Oh well, at least we get to be on the sidelines for once," Rui told him. "That's a new experience for us, isn't it?"

"Don't you dare remind me."

Misty sighed. "Nothing new for us, though…oh well."

"Don't worry, mom," Togetic told her mother. "It's safer for you out here. Besides, it'd probably be a bad idea to take dad anywhere near Deoxys in his condition." The iridescent ball of light nodded vigorously in agreement.

"Do not worry, compadre," El Gato told his trainer. "El Raton and I will be unbeatable together!"

"Don't call me a raton," Pikachu said flatly.

"We wish you much strength in battle," El Toro said, bowing his head.

"And this is a little something from me," Rosa said, tip-toeing over and kissing the startled El Gato on the cheek. "For good luck, and to give you something to look forward to when you get back." The cat flushed and nearly fainted, while El Lobo wolf-whistled.

"Rosa, you flirt!" joked Zoro in amusement. "And here I thought you liked me! Ah well, such is life."

"Hey, what about us?" Mudkip asked from inside the Exploudrematic. "We're not Chosen, other than Onix, Geodude, and Jigglypuff. Does that mean we have to stay behind?"

"Your robot's thick hull and self-contained recycling atmosphere should protect you from the virus," Papa told the Pokerockers. "So you may all come if you wish."

"Oh, good," said Jigglypuff in relief. "I would have hated to break up the band."

"Yeah, that can't happen until we've made millions of records and become too arrogant and self-centered to work with each other," the Electabuzz said. "We haven't hit that stage yet."

"Guys, I promise I'll avenge May!" Combusken told her friends.

"We'll be rooting for you," Ivysaur promised.

"Go kill them for Yellow!" Delcatty shrieked, hissing at the thought of the Alpha Ranger, who had unjustly escaped his fate.

"Hey, wait for us!" a female voice cried. A Cacturne and a very morose-looking Wobbuffet came up to the group. "We need to fight as well!"

Latias blinked, recognizing the blue blob. "Wobbuffet? Is that you?"

"Hey, we haven't seen you for ages! Not since we blasted you off on the ferry on the way to Ever Grande!" said a surprised Bayleef. "How are you?"

"…" He looked down at something he clutched tightly in his right hand.

Bayleef sweatdropped. "That bad, huh?"

"You have suffered greatly because of Deoxys, haven't you?" Mewtwo guessed.

Wobbuffet nodded slowly. "He destroyed Wobbuffet's island of birth, killed his people and girlfriend, and kidnapped his sister," Cacturne said sadly.

"That gives us just one more reason to hate the guy…" Gyarados growled.

"In that case, you're welcome to join us," Crawdaunt told the blob. "I mean, other than the fact that you're Chosen and have to come. Yeah. Just don't get in the way." Corsola smacked him for saying this.

"You will have to stay behind, though," Mama told Cacturne. "You lack the genetic mutation which would render you immune to the virus infesting Deoxys' fortress."

"What!" Cacturne said in disbelief. "But I have to come! I-"

"It's okay," Wobbuffet said quietly, startling the cactus. His voice was rough and hoarse from a couple of days without use. "I'll be fine."

"Yeah, we'll take care of him," Latias assured Cacturne. "Right, guys?"

"Do we have to?" Grovyle asked uncomfortably, not very fond of Wobbuffet since it had been the blob's team of incompetent Ciphers that had captured him and doomed him to Shadow Pokemonhood. This resulted in a slap from Bayleef, and a grin from Bulbasaur, which was quickly concealed. "Ow! Okay, okay, welcome aboard!"

"…Thanks." Wobbuffet shuffled over to join them.

"Are we all set, then?" Mewtwo asked, looking around at the Chosen Pokemon gathered around him. He received determined stares from most of them. They were scared, yes, but they knew they had no choice but to do this. (And were also aware that if they tried to back out, they'd be forced to fight, either by the crystal beasts or by those who were more willing to fight.) "Then let us be off."

"Take care of my baby," Tyranitar told Misty, handing her Larvitar. "If anything happens to him, I will eat you."

Misty nodded. "I understand perfectly. I would do the same thing." They smiled at each other, mother to mother, before the large reptile turned and joined her comrades.

"Goodbye! Good luck!" Rui cried, waving to the group of Chosen heroes as they walked or stomped or slithered or flew towards the foreboding pillar of light leading up into Deoxy's castle.

"Yeah, since they'll definitely need it," grunted Wes, still miffed that he was forbidden to go. He paused, getting a sudden thought. "Hey, Lugia, do you have a minute?" He walked over to the cringing seabird.

"El Gato, we are all counting on you!" Zoro cried. "Our honor is at stake!"

"Si! Come back to us!" Rosa called to him.

"And if you die, I'll take good care of Rosa!" Lobo howled, which earned him a thorny slap from the Roselia.

"Say goodbye to our champions, Max!" Delia told the stiff, nearly comatose Max. When he didn't respond, she grabbed his arm, raised it, and waved it by the wrist. "Goodbye, champions!" she said out of the corner of her mouth in an attempt to mimic Max's voice.

This is it, Latias thought to herself, staring up into the dark column as they reached its base. My life's journey, despite its twists and turns, seems to have always meant to come to this point. The thought of Dark Latios flashed through her mind. Dark Latios…whatever you are, I know you are not my brother. In honor of his memory, I will defeat you.

"Is something the matter, Latias?" Mewtwo asked her.

"Hmm? No, just prepping myself," she told him quickly.

"Hmm…as am I," said Mewtwo, who was deep in thought as well, trying to fathom just how Deoxys had managed to work around him so many times already in carrying out his plans. He sighed; realizing if he was ever going to figure it out, it would have to be soon, because they were only moments away from fighting the alien. "Let's go." He stepped into the light and vanished. Gardevoir, not fazed by the column's air of foreboding, stepped in after him, followed by Latias. One by one, the heroes Chosen to save the Earth entered the light, and were whisked up to Deoxys' castle overhead, where their destined battle would take place. The crystal beasts went into the light last, after the immense forms of the Exploudrematic and its companion mecha Gardua, only to run out moments later, grab the three squabbling legendary birds by their wings, and drag them forcibly back into the light, vanishing for good.

Which left their friends and trainers alone, waiting and watching expectantly. "Give me a C!" Politoed cried.

"C!" shouted May's Pokemon.

"Give me an H!"

"H!"

"Give me an O-S-E-N!

"O-S-E-N!"

"What does that spell?"

"Chosen!"

"That's right!" Politoed, Plusle and Minun started shaking pom-poms. "Chosen, Chosen, you're the ones, you're the ones who'll save our buns! Show that Deoxys what you can do, and we'll have celebrations up the wazoo! Goooo Chosen!" Plusle and Minun finished this cheer by firing colorful electric sparks into the air.

Wes groaned and put his face in his hands. "Oy. Why couldn't they be tough fighters instead of cheerleaders?"

"I think they're kind of cute," Rui giggled.

"I know, that's the problem."

"Wobbuffet…" Cacturne said, staring up at the crystalline ball of death floating above them. "Be careful."

"So, this is it," Brock said, staring upward. "The final battle."

"Yep," said Misty with a nod.

"You know, we may not get another chance, so…" he said slowly. "Would you mind having sex with me, since it's the end of the world and all? I'd ask someone else, but Rui's guarded by Wes, Delia's engaged, and I don't want to do a Pokemon, so I have no choice but to ask you, my dear friend, for help in this matter…even if I'd rather do it with someone a little prettier. Will you please do it with me? We'll never get another chance, and I don't wanna die a virgin!"

Misty's eyes flared, and Ash's soul flew out of her hands, throbbing with rage. "Well that's too bad, because I can safely say that that's exactly what's going to happen…right NOW!"

Brock ran, screaming, as the two chased after him. "I thought it was a reasonable thing to ask! WAAAHHHH!"

Delia laughed quietly, looked down at the half-dead boy in her arms, sighed, and looked upwards. "Good luck, all of you," she whispered. "Because you're the only hope we've got left." Mimeyif you're still alive…hang on a little longer…please, for all of us…and for me.

The evil castle hovered above them as the super-cell storm continued to build ominously. Whatever battles raged within left no mark on the structure's twisted exterior. But whatever outcome occurred, for good or for evil, the world would never be the same.

The battle of the Chosen had begun.

And with that, we begin the big war. Witness Deoxys and the Chosen battle it out for the fate of the world, starting…next chapter. See you then!