Chapter 22

Outmatched

"It's now or never" Nigel thought as he emerged from his secret tunnel, this was his last chance, if he failed now, there was little to no chance he would get another opportunity. He had heard Azelf was about to recharge the failsafe, but he knew the rumors were false. What he did know however was that Azlef would be here, and that would be his opening. He would be going for a quick, precise kill this time. He had no desire to end her life, but there was no choice, he was running out of time.

"I do this, or everyone dies, it's just how it is" Nigel whispered to himself as he came up to the center platform, Azlef was waiting for him.

"Nice try, but you're not fooling me" Nigel said before throwing a trapbust orb down. As anticipated 4 rows of traps between him and the lake guardian were deactivated.

"Nothing gets past you" Azlef sighed.

"Sorry, but I don't have a choice" Nigel said, it sounded almost like he was about to cry.

"You've fallen right into the trap!" Azelf replied, on cue, Wave jumped out of the lake and threw a stun seed, Nigel was prepared and dodged it, the seed hitting Ivan who was hiding behind him, invisible until it hit him. Nigel slashed the dusknoir with two leaf blades, then shoved a blast seed into the stomach on his mouth. There was a small puff before Ivan fell to the ground, smoke pouring from his body.

Paul dropped down from the roof, but once again Nigel beat him to the punch and hit with a blast seed, the explosion sending him flying before being frozen in place by another stun seed. Nigel then one-shotted Wave again, it was clear he was in no mood to mess around.

"Vine!" Azlef yelled, causing a frenzy plant to erupt from the ground, Nigel mega evolved in response and sliced through the attack. He then dug underground, a few seconds later Vine was thrown up from beneath the crystals.

"ENOUGH!" Nigel yelled before charging at Azelf with his blades glowing, however there was one final opponent he wasn't ready for.

"YOOM TAH!" a booming male voice said as a hyper voice sent Nigel flying towards Azlef, this opening allowed Azelf to blast him back with psychic energy. He was flung several feet into the air and landed in front of a very dopey looking Wigglytuff with a guildmaster ranked badge pinned to his fur.

Nigell went wide eyed, Wallace was heralded as the greatest explorer of his generation, every story in the future mentioned the powerful Wgglytuff who had never failed a mission, even in the harshest of environments.

"Hi thief, prepare to get pummeled!" Wallace greeted before activating his inner power, a pink aura of energy swirling around him as he blasted Nigel dozens of feet away with a pink hyper voice. As Nigel stood up his ears were ringing, too dazed to even hope of counterattacking. Wallace rushed forward, slamming him again. He threw a luminous orb to buy time, blinding Wallace temporarily and crushing a reviver seed in his hand. Nigel was ready for round two with his mega form recharged.

He unleashed the most powerful dragon pulse he had ever used, Wallace countered with a pink hyper voice. The shockwaves of pink energy collided with the blue beam, they were at a standstill, much to Nigel's shock.

"How is he so strong?!" Nigel's thought.

Wallace's mouth opened wider as he amped up the hyper voice, the pink shockwaves began to push Nigel's dragon pulse back, the beam coming closer and closer to its sender.

Nigel couldn't believe what was happening, all he could think of was "That's impossible!"

He stopped his dragon pulse and jumped away, narrowly avoiding the hyper voice. He was off balance, and that was all Wallace needed to end the fight. Wallace rushed up even faster than Nigel could see and punched him in the gut with his tiny numb arm, the hit was so powerful that it deactivated his mega form instantly. With the wind knocked out of him, Nigel coughed up blood, falling to the ground in a pained heap. Wallace grabbed his badge and shot the containment beam, restraining Nigel in a cage of light above the ground. Where three legendary Pokemon and five master ranked explorers had failed, Wallace had finally succeeded in defeating Nigel.

"That's that!" Wallace exclaimed, his pink aura dissipated immediately. Wallace then tossed reviver seeds at everyone present, healing them up.

One by one, Ivan, Paul, Wave and Vine came to and gasped at the sight of Nigel unconscious and restrained in the air. Despite everything they had heard about Wallace, they couldn't believe he had succeeded.

"So, what now?" Paul asked.

Wallace smiled and grabbed the bag off of Nigel's unconscious floating body, he poured it out on the ground revealing the four time gears and a few more medical supplies.

"Now we get these back where they belong!" Wallace explained happily.

Paul then noticed Ivan floating away and said "where are you off to?"

Ivan held up a purple glass orb and said "I need to contact my guildmaster in the future and arrange my trip home, keep him contained until I get the details roughed out, i'll arrange the portal to appear in Treasure Town soon"

Wallace waved him off as he floated away and then turned to Paul saying "Its finally over"

"All this stuff about the future is crazy," Wave admitted.

"Not that much crazier than a human from another world altogether!" Wallace countered, getting a dumbfounded look from Team Go-Getters.

"How did you know?" Paul asked nervously.

"You need to whisper a little lower! Don't worry friends, your secret is safe with me!" Wallace assured them.

"I know it is," Paul replied.

"Um, what did I miss about these three?" Azelf asked as she floated closer, finally chiming in.

All four explorers couldn't help but laugh!

Ivan's eye socket curved into a smile as his orb lit up, revealing a pair of glowing red eyes.

"I have aprended the fugitive Master Dialga," Ivan revealed.

Dialga didn't speak, rather he simply spoke telepathically through the time orb, his words rough and informal.

"Portal now" Diagla replied silently.

"Forgive me master, but not yet, I need to delay my return, send Garnet and her fellow Sableye when possible" Ivan requested.

"WHY" Dialga demanded, his voice was filled with rage even when it was mentally spoken.

"I have to make our exit properly, there is another target in play, the portal must be in treasure town square" Ivan explained.

"48 hours," Dialga said before the orb deactivated.

"That's all the time I need" Ivan muttered, it was about 11:30 at night, he would make the preparations tomorrow and return to the future the following day.

Nigel's luck had finally run out, and Ivan couldn't be more satisfied. However, he had one more loose end to attend to….

Author's note-thoughts on this alteration, it made no sense to me how Ivan and the lake guardians trapped Nigel when we know he easily bested the lake guardians. It may seem odd having Wallace win so decisively but if Paul essentially bested him with a mega evolution, I think the greatest explorer if this generation could. Team outriders don't count as they wouldn't have existed before Nigel came back.

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