Dimension CS+ST

In the hangar that was the Ultra Rescue Initiative Squadron A (the existence of Squadrons B through Z pending) Skye was getting ready to go out to buy lunch. "I'm gonna go hit up that malasada place in Hau'oli, anyone want me to bring them back anything?" she called out to the rest of Squadron A.

"You mean the one not-so-secretly run by Team Rocket? I'll pass, I don't trust criminal cooking," Elio retorted.

Kris suddenly exploded out of the toilet. "There's a mala-whatever . . place being run by Team Rocket?!"

"Yep," Skye confirmed.

"And you don't think we should do anything about that?!"

"I plan on giving them money in exchange for fried bread on a regular basis," Skye clarified. "If you don't like malasadas, there's plenty of other places to get food in Alola,"

"But -" Kris spluttered. "Team Rocket! Evil!" she finally burst out.

"Also incompetent. These ones, anyway. Trust me, they're no threat," Skye assured her teammate. "Now, I'm hungry. Altaria, I need a lift," she tapped a Pokéball on her belt, and it flicked open with a flash of gold light.

Kris was dumbfounded. "Skye?"

The bluenette paused. "What?"

"You have a Shiny Altaria,"

Skye looked down at the golden cloud dragon she was straddling as though this was news to her. "Huh. You're right. I hadn't noticed," she sarcastically responded. "What's your point?"

"My point is you are ridiculous!" the former Champion declared. "Your partner is a Legendary - not just a Legendary, but one of the most powerful Legendaries in the world!"

"Mega Rayquaza and Arceus might disagree," Skye quietly pointed out, taking a second to consider how incredible it would be to have a Mega Rayquaza on her team. She could dream . .

"You carry around incredibly valuable Z-Crystals in your back pocket, all of which you can apparently use with no difficulty whatsoever,"

"Hey, I only have three, and I earned those. You wanna accuse anyone of hoarding Z-Crystals look at Elio first, he has basically all of them," the Dragon specialist responded. "Besides, were you not here when trying to use one put me in the hospital?"

"Last week you took a day trip to Galar and came back with a powerful new recruit who can turn into an apple-flavoured siege tower just because,"

"There's already two whole video games explaining how anyone can Dynamax under the right circumstances and apparently they're getting DLC. You just don't pay attention," Skye countered. "Do you want a Pokémon that can Gigantamax? We'll go to Galar and catch you a Pokémon that can Gigantamax, would that make you feel better?"

"That's not the point! And now you just have an insanely rare Shiny Pokémon for no reason at all? That's it, I'm calling bullshit!" Kris seemed like she was done listing.

"Altaria isn't rare, not at all," Skye replied. "There are dimensions where normal colours and Shiny colours are switched for some or all Pokémon. One of the first dimensions me and Necrozma visited was like that, and by the time I figured out gold was common and blue was rare over there I'd already caught Altaria. Releasing her just because of a little thing like that seemed, well, petty," she clarified.

Kris blinked. ". . oh,"

"Yeah. Sure, I have Necrozma and he's great, and the Flapple thing was a bit of a fluke, but Altaria, Flygon and Kommo-o are all pretty normal," Altaria huffed, and Skye was quick to reassure her. "Oh, but I mean that your colours aren't what makes you special, you're special for you," This seemed to mollify the Dragon. "Granted, the superpowered Totem Kommo-o that lives in my old digs in Vast Poni Canyon is pretty special, but I haven't caught him and don't plan to, so he doesn't count,"

Something struck Kris as odd about that statement. ". . You only have five Pokémon? Not even a full team?"

"I'm still looking for one more Dragon," her leader confirmed. "I actually haven't been doing this for long, you know. Flygon's the only one I even raised, the rest I caught already fully evolved,"

"Oh," Kris felt somewhat silly now. "Right,"

"But I certainly am in the market for an Altarianite - a Stone that lets Altaria Mega-Evolve. That would really be something special," Skye nodded to herself.

"Hey, can we visit this all-Shiny dimension sometime? It sounds like a good place to look for recruits," Kris suggested.

"Sure. But first I have malasadas to buy. Back soon!"

X

Necrozma blew through an Ultra Wormhole at light speed, Skye and Kris clinging to his back. As they emerged back into a reality, the blue sky dazzled them. From below, the shining dragon would have seemed like a second sun had appeared in the sky.

"Alright, welcome to Shinytown. Three thousand, four hundred and something light years away. Any Pokémon in particular you want to pick up?" Skye asked.

"You seem unenthused," Kris observed.

"Well, I can't catch another Pokémon here. If I do Altaria will get pissy. This is for you," Skye pointed out. "Also, my show's on at four, so let's try to be back by then,"

"Got it," Kris nodded. It had been a month since the loss of her old team, and it still hurt to think about them . . so not a Pokémon that she had trained before. A thought occurred to her. "Do we know all the Pokemon that can Gigantamax?" she idly asked.

Skye shrugged. "It's not quite that simple. Only certain individuals of a species can Gigantamax, so for all we know literally every species of Pokémon can and we just haven't found individuals capable of it yet,"

"Oh. So even if I did go catch my own Flapple or something, it wouldn't necessarily be able to Gigantimax," Kris mused, sounding disappointed. "That's a shame,"

"Y'now, if a Pokémon with a powered-up state is what you're looking for, you could get a Darmanitan or something. Or a Pokémon that can Mega-Evolve," Skye off-handedly suggested. "There'll be a list in your Pokédex,"

The former Johto Champion nodded, opening her pocket computer. "Okay . . hmm . . how about . . a Treecko?"

"Yeah? Alright. To this dimension's Professor Birch's!" Skye commanded Necrozma, who nodded assent and took off.

"Huh? We're not catching one in the wild?"

"Why would we? Birch gives Treecko out as starters to beginning Trainers. We can just ask him for one. Though, knowing our hack of an author, something's gonna happen that'll make things unnecessarily complicated," Skye groused.

"Uh . . I'll be ready to send out Suicune, then," Kris decided was the only reasonable response.

X

"Okay, this is . . not what I was expecting," Skye offered.

They were floating over the dimension's version of Littleroot Town . . except, well, it wasn't.

Instead, there was a crater.

"Uh . ." Skye seemed at a loss for words.

"What the hell?" Kris questioned.

"I, uh, don't know," the Dragon specialist replied. "This is . . new,"

Necrozma growled, and Skye rubbed his neck. "What's wrong, boy?"

A low, defensive growl this time, and a familiar tenseness in his muscles. Like he was preparing for a fight. "Is there another powerful Dragon around here?" Skye frowned, looking around in concern. "Rayquaza is supposed to hang out in Hoenn. I'm sure you could take some silly little Rayquaza,"

Necrozma shook his head.

"Not Rayquaza? Huh . . land, and we'll see if we can -" The Psychic Dragon abruptly thrashed and lifted higher, seeming reluctant to land. "Okay . . I guess we'll have to find a Treecko somewhere else," Skye observed.

"Anything that puts Necrozma on edge is something I want to be nowhere near, thanks," Kris put forward.

"Ahem, we're heroes. If something's going on, it's our job to help out," Skye retorted. "Necrozma, what's going on?"

Necrozma shrugged.

"You're Psychic. Talk to me," Skye groaned. "Where's Hoopa when you need him . ."

With a growl, Necrozma lashed his tail and manifested an Ultra Warp Hole. "I think he's saying it's time to go," Kris pointed out.

"Necrozma, if this dimension is in danger then . ." Skye treadles off as her partner shook his head again. "It isn't? You're sure? Alright . . still, I don't like this,"

Necrozma, though, didn't seem to care what she liked, as he plunged into the Ultra Warp Hole, carrying his passengers with him and leaving the Littleroot crater behind.

X

"Hey, Professor Birch!" Having arrived in another dimension's Littleroot, one that was intact, Skye forged ahead into the Pokémon Laboratory.

"Uh, hello there," the portly Professor raised his eyebrows. "Do I know you?"

"No, but you're sorta famous. Okay, here's the thing, my friend outside was in . . well, a tragedy recently and lost most of her Pokémon. We've finally convinced her to start training new Pokémon, because we kind of need them in our line of work, and she's decided she wants a Treecko. So please tell me that you have one ready for adoption," Skye summarised.

"Oh, um . . yes, yes of course. Just give me a minute," Birch nodded.

"Kris, he okayed it! Come on in!" Skye yelled.

X

"It still bugs me," Kris admitted to Skye as she stroked her new, baby blue Shiny-but-not-really Treecko, who was lying in her lap and looking at her with devotion.

"Dimension OR-MC missing its Littleroot Town? I know what you mean," Skye agreed. "Freak meteor, maybe? No, Rayquaza would have stopped it . . the weird part is that the destruction was so localised. If it was something like a nuclear meltdown or a natural disaster there'd be traces of it for miles around, but everything was fine except for Littleroot. The only thing I can think of is that a Legendary or something might have destroyed it,"

"That would explain Necrozma's reaction, especially if it were a Legendary Dragon," Kris nodded.

"Thing is, it doesn't fit the profile of any of the known Legendary Dragons. Rayquaza and Zygarde are protectors, and the Tao Trio live a hell of a long way away from Hoenn . . unless things are different in that dimension . ." the bluenette frowned.

"Can we rule out that world's Creation Dragons?" Kris checked.

"Probably not," Skye sighed. "And . . why Littleroot, specifically? We just don't know enough,"

Her teammate shrugged. "We should keep an eye on that dimension. See if anything else happens that'd mean they need our help,"

"Good idea. I'll add it to the watch list," Skye agreed.

"We have a watch list?"

"We do now!"