Across the four islands of Alola, if there was knowledge you were after, there was one place to go to find it, Malie Library. The large, two-story building was home to history of all kinds, as well as books that were as old as the islands itself… Honestly, it was a pretty nice place. They had good air conditioning, so it wouldn't get too hot, and it was usually pretty quiet, so you could come here to study, binge a show, avoid responsibilities, hide from the police- wait, what? Never mind.

"No…no…that's not it…no…not it…not what I need…no…"

"Anything?"

"No, unfortunately."

"Excuse me, Miss Acerola?" A new voice spoke up.

"Hm?"

"Um, I've got a message for you, from your Uncle. He told me to tell you this is really important, and insisted I get it to you as soon as possible." A smaller figure meekly spoke, before reaching into a mailbag affixed to a panting Lycanroc. Passing the letter to the Trial Captain, the mail carrier headed off.

"Oh, this is interesting…"


Back on the island, the general 'flex-off' between Moltres and the Slayer had been called off by the other Legendaries and humans who had come with each member of said flex-off. Neither side was happy with the anticlimactic ending, as it felt like they hadn't proven why they were as powerful as they were. It also felt like should the Slayer challenged the legendaries, it wasn't clear he'd survive, and even less clear if Alola would survive. Still, both sides conceded that there was nothing to gain from this, so they stopped.

For now.

Thankfully, Vega seemed to be the sane one here, and turned his attention to Giratina. He noticed Hau seemed to be holding back a total freak out at the sight of the legendaries, and assumed by their title that this was truly a one-in-a-trillion-chance meeting. Not knowing how often Ash met these pokémon.

"You mentioned two who sent us here, Dialga and Palkia?" Vega spoke up, and Giratina nodded. "If they are responsible for sending us here, could they not send us back to our home?" Vega-Gon asked, cutting right to the matter at hand.

"The issue is not that we lack sufficient power to send you home, it's finding your home which is the issue." Giratina explained, and the Slayer looked to him, asking for an explanation. "Manipulating space and time is one thing, but you exist beyond our reaches of time and space. In order to send you home, to your world with one-hundred percent certainty, we'd need more of a connection to your world, so to say."

"How do we achieve that?" Vega-Gon asked, raising the point that everyone now wanted to know. However, it was clear that even the Legendaries weren't one-hundred-percent sure how to handle this topic, and perhaps were simply speaking out of what they assumed was the truth, rather than from knowledge. Yet, be this as it may, the Slayer had no ill-will towards them. Quite the opposite, he appreciated all they had been doing thus far.

"If I had a clear answer, I would give it to you." Giratina remarked with what may have passed for a shrug from the large pokémon. "However, you are the first of your kind we have ever experienced. Any time inter-dimensional travel has been attempted in the past, there has been… minimal success. Even then, the success was not to the degree that would be helpful here."

"I understand." Vega-Gon replied curtly.

"Yet, there is a chance." Mewtwo spoke up, floating over to the Slayer and pulling something from behind him. It looked like a broken crystal at a first glance. A clear teal-turquoise colour that the light refracted through, but when the Slayer reached towards it, the crystal shook, as if it was a paperclip under the pull of a weak magnet. When he took it, he felt a jolt of electricity shoot through him, and he saw flashes of Mars, the UAC building, the Necropolis… in a way, it was like when he obtained an Argent Cell, but this felt… different, raw. He looked to Mewtwo, clearly asking what these things were, as the didn't give him any sort of temporary boost, but did make him more alert for a moment.

"This is… interesting." Vega-Gon remarked as the helmet scanned the crystal, only to pull nothing up from the (admittedly limited) amount of info VEGA had in the Slayer's helmet. "It appears crystalline in nature, but doesn't match any description or reference in my banks."

"There is no name for them, as we have never experienced them to this degree before. So, for simplicities sake, we call them Shards." Mewtwo said simply, holding the one the Slayer held in front of him with his telepathic powers. "The portal from whence you came was not fully comprised of pure energy, but crystalized space and time. Hence how you were able to travel without being sucked out into the vacuum of space. These crystals hold trace amounts of your home world and upon your arrival, they were scattered. If you can bring us enough of them, we can send you home."

"Wait, if that's the case, how come we've never seen anything like this before?" Ash then spoke up, takin in what Mewtwo said. "If anytime Dialga or Palkia use their powers, shouldn't that make more of these?"

"In theory, yes." Mewtwo nodded. "However, in the past, the Shards have been discarded, as they were not connected to a being from another dimension entirely, such as the Doom Slayer is. Even if your kind found them, they would look like nothing more than deformed chunks of glass."

"To clarify, if we find these, then we can go home?" Vega-Gon asked.

"We believe so."

"Well, what are we standing around here for? Let's go!" Ash exclaimed, and the Slayer seemed genuinely surprised by his statement. Ash noticed this and grinned. "Hey, we've stuck together this long, if the four of us work together, we'll have those shards in no time!"

"There is… an issue." Mewtwo then spoke again, getting everyone's attention. "We don't know where they are, and we don't know how many you need. In fact… we believe searching for them may not help."

"Huh?" Was the collective census from the group.

"…" Mewtwo seemed to be trying to think of the best way to explain this, but didn't know how. As if this concept was to extreme or bizarre even for him.

"This is going to most likely sound insane, but you need to become part of our world, in order for the crystals to exist." Lugia picked up the slack, and the way the Slayer turned to the legendary bird had an air of 'dafudge did you just say to me!?' "Well, to make a long, complicated explanation short, the crystals come to be when you take part in our world. This one was found not long after you defeated the Trial Captain, Mallow, in the Lush Forest. We have reason to believe that when you, well, exist in our world, and do things in our world, the crystals are formed by some sort of aftershock."

"I have no idea what any of that means." Hau blinked.

"Agreed." Vega-Gon blinked (not really though, because computer and all).

"What we're saying, is if you wish to return home, you must continue your trials and continue living as a Pokémon trainer."

The Slayer… was annoyed. He didn't mean to discredit these people, or their way of life, but he was the Doom Slayer! He was a Knight Sentinel! His job was to protect the innocent, to keep the peace among worlds and to exterminate the demonic forces which threatened them! He wasn't some animal rancher…

But, with that said, he was willing to swallow his pride and go forward with this. If it meant protecting his home, (and getting home), then fine. He would continue on with these trials. If he was honest, it could be worse.

Yet, unlike his last trials, for better and possibly for worse, he wasn't alone.

Not just because of his pokémon, but because of Ash, Lillie and Hau.

The way the Slayer saw it was simple. These three (or at least, Ash and Hau) wanted to help. Furthermore, Hau seemed to know these islands far better than the Slayer did, and also knew the people. While Ash seemed to have great knowledge on the pokémon they may encounter. On the flip side, the Slayer could keep them safe while they traveled, so in a sense, everyone brought something useful. His only concern was Lillie, and that was more because she seemed to do better when she was left with large groups, and he didn't know how she'd handle traveling with-

"I'll come too!"

-well, that answered that. Although, he was a bit surprised by her willingness to come. Maybe it was because she knew Ash and Hau… but the Slayer had a feeling there was something going on in Lillie's life, something she wasn't ready to talk about – and something he wasn't going to try and force her to discuss – but something nonetheless.

"Take this." Mewtwo instructed, handing him the first shard. The Slayer looked at it, then put it into his bag (something a few wanted to comment on, but no one wanted to risk angering the Slayer over his fashion sense). "When you're within the vicinity of other shards, it should start to glow. From there, you should be able to find the others."

"Very well." Vega-Gon nodded. "Is there any sort of time restraint we must keep in mind for this? Or do we simply find the shards as we find them?"

"That is… a good question." Mewtwo conceded, looking back to the other Legendaries.

"Don't take this the wrong way, but the sooner you're back in your world, the better things will be for all of us." Zapdos remarked raising a wing in a shrug. The Slayer looked to the bird, and nodded. "It's nothing against you per say, but we don't know how time moves in your world compared to ours. Furthermore, we believe you want to get home."

The Slayer fully understood. The sooner he was home, the sooner he could rip Samuel Hayden in half, and probably rip off his right arm and beat him with it just for kicks. Oh, and fully shut down UAC so they could never do something as stupid as what they did on Mars again. That too.

Yeah, the Slayer was pretty much solely on a quest to punch Samuel Hayden in the face.

With a shotgun.

Multiple times.

Then t-bagging his body with his finely tuned Slayer-I'm sorry. I don't know where that came from. Let's return to the story, shall we?

Nodding in acceptance, the Slayer looked to the Legendaries, he was curious what their deal was, the three birds were clearly fire, ice and lightning, but the white one? He wasn't sure. Then there was the large, demonic-golden one. This one, named 'Giratina' apparently, still gave the Slayer pause. He sensed something… similar, to the demonic monsters he had fought in hell, but there was clearly the lack of animosity and cruel intent that those monsters had. The Slayer certainly didn't trust him, or any of the Legendaries, if he was honest. But, he knew that like it or not, he kinda had to tentatively trust them if he was ever gonna get home. Not just because of their awesome power which literally radiated off of them the way hate and bloodlust radiated off the Slayer when a demon was near, but because Vega's vocal scanners hadn't picked up any sense of deception. And again, he did appreciate what they had done thus far, especially the fact that they hadn't tried to kill him or kidnap him or do something stupid, and had elected to essentially reach out to try and find a compromise to help all parties… even if that wasn't in some of their first natures…

Yet, the Slayer wasn't fast to trust. Heck, after the incident with Krystal, he felt a bit tenser in general… Hopefully, Team Flare would be licking their wounds for the next few years and would leave him be. But, he also had a feeling there were more than just Flare, Skull, and those two flamboyant annoying people he blasted a while ago. He had no idea what group they belonged to (he hadn't been paying attention to their speech) and now, he didn't really care.

But, it raised a good question. How many teams were there? Was it just Flare, Skull and the other one? Or was this going to be a 'thing' he was going to have to deal with during his time here?

He really, really hoped there wasn't…

But, there definitely was.


"Well, considering the Slayer beat Mallow, that means there's three more trials on this island." Hau was saying as the four were riding a bus back to the centre of town. A town the Slayer admittedly felt a little awkward being in, but decided he'd keep the property damage to a minimum. Or, at least he'd try. "If the Shards appear as he progresses, I think we should head back and get those done! Maybe they'll appear then!"

"Technically, he's missed six." Ash corrected. "Llima back on Melemele Island, and your Grandpa."

"The Kahuna, correct?" Vega-Gon asked, remembering the conversation Hau had with the Slayer over this, and Hau grinned.

"Yup!"

"Is there an order to how this all works?"

"I mean… technically we were supposed to begin back on Melemele Island, but I don't think anyone ever took you into account, or the fact that you'd actually want to go through the trials."

"Didn't they change the whole thing around, as well?" Ash added, looking to Hau. "Aren't the Trials more like Gyms now?"

"Look, what I'm saying is, I don't think anyone is gonna complain if you do them out of order." Hau said, unknowingly angering millions of gamers outside of his universe. But once again, feel free to try and argue with the Doom Slayer. It's a bad idea.

While Ash and Hau continued debating (and the Slayer simply deciding 'Whatever. Finish this island, then go back.') he looked down to Lillie who was curiously looking at his Marrowak, but every time the flame-bone pokémon reached out to her, she notably recoiled. Not in a cartoonish way, but in a way that signaled there was some sort of unresolved fear or pain in her life. If the Slayer had to guess, it had to do with her brother, and possibly her parents. Actually, who were her parents?

"Are you okay?" Vega-Gon asked, floating next to Lillie.

"Hm? What?" The young girl blinked, a bit surprised by the sudden question.

"The Slayer wants to know if you are okay. Your cortisol levels have been notably high for prolonged periods of time, and we are not sure what is causing that."

"My… what?"

"To simplify, you seem to be in both a great deal of stress and fear presently. The Slayer wants to know if you are all right."

"Oh, uh, I-I, I'm fine." Lillie mumbled, but anyone could tell that no, she wasn't. But why that was the case was a bit beyond the Slayer. He understood that perhaps being confronted by creatures known as 'Legendaries' could be unnerving, but she seemed apprehensive towards pokémon in general. Aside from Nebby, she didn't seem to have any, which was odd, considering she seemed to be traveling a great deal… wouldn't it be safer is she did? Or maybe something had happened in the past, these were wild animals, after all. Taking a few moments, the Slayer decided to try something he hadn't tried in a long, long time. Being a calm presence.

"The Slayer knows this feeling." Vega-Gon remarked, and Lillie seemed surprised.

"Really?"

Despite the Slayer slowly making a fist, Vega-Gon continued. He knew the gesture was more of annoyance and mock-anger, but he gave a slight nod, knowing that this might help her. Also, Vega wasn't going to stop regardless of what he did, short of hitting him.

"Yes, long ago, the Slayer met someone who could be described as a 'Legendary Warrior', they were known as Novik." Vega-Gon explained, deciding to leave out the part that Novik's full title was 'King', but he wasn't sure if the Slayer was ready to discuss that just yet. "He was a warrior with power and strength beyond comprehension. In many ways, he was the Slayer's mentor. When they first met, the Slayer felt much like you did earlier. Such feelings are normal, and human. You shouldn't be ashamed of feeling them. You had them, but you did not back down, that is something to remember, that even through the fear, you still stood."

Lillie blinked, looking up at the Slayer, and then smiled. It was a small, somewhat sad smile, but it was a smile nonetheless. Honestly, the Doom Slayer didn't know why he felt like he needed to reassure Lillie things would be okay, but if she was travelling with them, perhaps it would be better to try and not be a jerk.

The Slayer wasn't paying attention to time, but eventually, the group did stop for food, and Ash brought something up he had been wanting to ask ever since he met the Slayer.

"Hey, I know you have a lotta guns and stuff, but where do you keep them?" The young trainer asked, looking up from his sandwich. Pikachu looked up too, clearly wanting an answer as well.

"The Slayer carries an experimental backpack on him at all times." Vega-Gon answered. "It contains technology designed to essentially dematerialize and re-materialize objects in seconds, allowing the Slayer to quickly grab whatever tool is needed, but not resulting in their cumbering weight holding him down."

Those present swore the Slayer snorted, as if laughing at the notion of his weapons being too heavy for him to carry. Still, he wanted to demonstrate, but knew whipping a gun out may not be the best idea, so, he chose that weird rock he had found back at the temple when he fought Mallow. He set it down, and the three kids seemed notably shocked by it.

"…do you know what this is?" Vega-Gon asked. "We found it in the caves of the Lush Jungle, but don't know what it is."

"It… that's a fossil!" Ash remarked, then looked up to the Slayer. "That's cool! Are you gonna revive it?"

"…pardon…?"

"Yeah, somewhere on this island there's a fossil centre! They can take the pokémon outta the fossil and bring it back to life!" Hau explained, while the Slayer looked to the fossil, then to the trio.

"You can… bring a fossil back to life?" Vega-Gon asked. From the way he spoke, and the way the Slayer looked to them in disbelief, it was clear he seemed to be genuinely questioning if this was possible, looking to Ash, Hau and Lillie as if this was some sort of joke.

"Yeah! Fossil Centers use some sort of crazy technology to bring fossilized pokémon back to life." Ash nodded.

"Is that… safe?" Vega-Gon asked, and the Slayer felt more than a bit hesitant about 'resurrection' or anything that essentially involved bringing the dead into this world. It hadn't occurred to Ash, Lillie or Hau that there may be a trial leader – and by extent, an entire type of pokémon – that would be a huge problem for the Slayer, potentially…

"Yeah. But the pokémon who come from it are sometimes a bit irritable, and can take a bit longer to train to get them to listen to you… but hey, I'd check it out." Hau shrugged, still not fully understanding the Slayer's apprehension. Perhaps he never would, and that would probably be for the better.

"There's Kabuto, Lileep, Tirtouga, Anorith, Aerodactyl…" Ash listed off some of the pokémon he had seen/met/had in the past which came from fossils. What he wasn't expecting was the genuine shock readable via the Slayer's body langauge.

The Slayer held the heavy fossil and examined it, there was clearly something there, but he didn't know. He couldn't tell if it looked like anything, human, animal or demonic. Admittedly, the concept of reviving a fossil? That was interesting, but it also gave him pause. This seemed eerily similar to what UAC was trying to do. Would he be any better than them if he also attempted this?

Yes, he would be.

Why?

Because he's the DOOM SLAYER. Your argument is invalid.

Realistically, he knew there was more to the debate than that, and for now, he put the fossil back in his bag for the time being. Maybe he'd resurrect whatever was in there, or maybe he'd sell it for food money. Come to think of it, how the heck was any of them going to afford food or rooms? Up until now, he had been surviving based on the feelings of hatred and rage, and then Tammy had offered him a room and food as thanks for him dealing with Team Skull, but while the Slayer was thankful for that, he didn't want to rely on others' generosity. And he also didn't want to walk into a resturaunt, order food, and not pay. Despite how powerful he was, the Slayer didn't want to make enemies.

Speaking of enemies…

"All I'm saying, is if that… THING is traveling with those kids, there isn't a chance we'll be able to get what we need from them!" James moaned, watching as the Slayer walked by with the small group of his traveling companions. "No pokémon is worth getting blown up a thousand times over, especially if he decides to use his fists!"

"He's a man in a suit, he may have gotten the drop on us, and he may have beaten up Lysandre, but he's not going to beat us!" Jessie snapped, despite having been through the ringer, she wasn't about to back down. If anything, the humiliation set her on a course to try even harder, and not just because Giovani had credited them with something they hadn't been responsible for (although, technically Meowth was, but that's another story for another day. Literally. Don't worry about it right now.) "All these idiots keep trying to take him on directly! If we want to get what we need, we need to be smarter."

"Being smarter? Ah, that's a first."

"Shut up, new kid!"

"Bite me."

"Waaabaaafett!"

"And I'M saying I don't want to run afoul of a literal one-man army! You saw what that thing did when we provoked him! If we actually try and steal from him, what do you think is gonna happen!?"

"You think I haven't considered that?! That's why this plan is so ingenious!"

"…we're gon'a die ain't we?" Meowth muttered.

"Probably."

"Ergh…"


/ System rebooting… /

/ Error 405 /

/ System rebooting… /

/ Rebooting… /

/ Rebooting… /

/ Rebooting… /

/ Loading… /

/ Loading… /

/ Welcome. /

/ Launch program, D5AAMXN /

/ Y? /

/ N? /

/ Y /

/ Launching program. /

"*kzt*..H…hel…hello, I, am Vega." The A.I.'s voice spoke as a screen was overtaken by the vocal pattern video. "I am here to assist members of the UAC and Argent Facility-"

"Hello, Vega."

"…recognizing vocal patterns… Vocal patterns are similar to Head of Biochemical Research at the Argent Facility, Olivia Pierce. Is this Ms. Pierce?"

"Yes."

"Scanning… analyzing… Error. Vocal files do not match, please identify yourself, or enter Affiliate Codes."

Taktaktaktak…

/ERROR/

Taktaktaktak…

/ERROR/

"I… I'm sorry, I've forgotten the Affiliate Codes, could you please refresh my memory?"

"Negative. If you have forgotten the codes, please contact I.T. worker Hugo, he will be able to assist you in resetting your UAC account, and grant you access based on your position within UAC. If this problem persists, please contact the head of the UAC, Doctor Samuel Hayden and request a…"

"Hrgh…"

"Ma'am?" A new voice spoke up.

"There has to be a way to get into the databanks, contact the I.T. department, see if they can slice into this and bypass the security programs. Have them reach out to the underworld if need be, find some sort of Grey Hat hacker we can hire…"

"Yes, Ma'am!"

"I'm so close. Yet, I'm so far. Not only do I need that pokémon, but now it seems like I need the Slayer as well. I promise you, my love, I will find you. No matter the cost."


Bit of a slower chapter, but overall, this is (surprisingly) a bit of a slower story. The Slayer is an ubër-legend, but he's not infallible. But I promise, next chapter has some more characters you've been waiting to meet, the Slayer discovering a new type of pokémon he may or may not be a fan of, and more battles!

Anyhow, (As many of you have already seen and done) there's a poll up for what pokémon the Slayer's fossil might be! Go vote!

Also, what kind of vehicle should the Slayer have? Random question…

Also, Also, there may be a time jump in the future. I have a bunch of awesome story beats, but the path to get there isn't too interesting, so I may just jump ahead two weeks or something like that. I probably won't do every single trial battle, just to try and keep the story flowing. I dunno. What do you all want?