Emrett cursed and screamed and unleashed all the fury he could muster, but the Draconids were too many. Worse, they were determined.

What most surprised the sorcerer was that Renza was among the dragon riders. "How did you recover from the curse of Samael? I tore your life force from your body! No one could possibly come back unscathed from that!"

Renza dove at Emrett, only to have his Salamance thrown aside. "You forgot what heals all wounds! Removes all curses! Chansey's Soft-Boiled eggs! One drop of that medicine, and I was as good as new, Bruno as well! But of course, you wouldn't understand, since Pokémon are just tools to you!"

Emrett raised his staff, giving all his power to kill-

The combined force of dozens of Pokémon slammed into Emrett like a mach truck. The light was incredible, and the smoke covered Emrett's still-standing form.

Emrett was burnt, torn, and bleeding, but otherwise in good condition. Standing with a dull light in his eyes, he dropped his staff, which shattered with a bang.

The wonder worker looked at his foes, smoking with purple energy. Emrett managed to rasp out a last regretful murmur. "But...for you...and your dragon riders! But...for you...and your dragon riders!"

Emrett fell dead, hating them.

The fiery dome disappeared, and Lance checked Emrett's pulse. "He's gone...but I don't think it was that attack. It seems as if...he literally burned up his life force. He should never gone down the path he did...and now it is too late." Emrett's body then dissolved into purple mist, which rocketed back to Cypress.

Cyrus looked at the screaming violet smoke, and guessed at what it was. "It seems that we are not fighting against foes that are not purely flesh and blood. By what means this fallen one performed his arts, the crux of his power has returned to its master, like a piece of iron being melted down into the whole. This battle is far from over, and while we cannot breach the fortress of the enemy, we may only fight his slaves. I will move onward, and you should as well."

The others turned to leave, the only remnant of their enemy a small sprinkling of dust scattered about the soon-forgotten island.

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Koga knocked a grunt to the side, and tranquilized a few more with his Wheezing gas. It seemed that they continued to keep coming, even defeated ones escaping to heal their Pokémon and return to the fight.

The ninja heard a droning sound coming from the rift, and turned to see a floating airship emerge through it. This one was painted red, and bore a gigantic 'R' on its hull.

The piolet of the ship seemed to notice Koga, and the craft banked toward his island as best as possible, given the distortion. The side hatch opened up, revealing a huge blond man with a Magnemite.

"Koga! Get on!" LT. Surge yelled. "Or are you too surprised to see me here to move?!" Koga rolled his eyes and jumped from the island to the entrance door of the airship.

"Surge, where did you get this? I thought all the old Team Rocket airships were scrapped." Surge patted the lamina-steel walls of the smaller craft. "That what you think, mister Elite Four member! But I knew of a certain place that I could find one of these babies...the only thing left was to retrofit it with some missiles."

"Missiles?" Koga queried. Surge gave a insane grin. "Missiles, old friend! You know, the only thing that is keeping us from finishing this fight against Cypress is the energy field, correct?"

"Yes."

"And that gunship is generating the energy field?"

"Yes, again."

"I believe our most logical course of action would be to neutralize the source of that energy field."

Koga laughed. "Just like that old Team Rocket spirit. But we can't solve this problem simply by launching explosives at it. Haven't you seen the footage from Anthien? Those energy shields repelled even the strongest attacks."

"Ah, but then we have to shut down those shields, of course!"

"And how would we do that?"

Surge had Koga follow him into the cockpit. "The legendary and mythical Pokémon Darkrai and Cresselia are on that ship, presumably in some sort of trance. The energy that occurs between nightmares and good dreams is being channeled into a usable source by some dark science, and creates the ability for the gunship to become invisible, have exceptional powerful ray shields, and also to generate them."

"But we can't go inside and free them, if that's what your suggesting. The docking ports are closed."

"How about you get into the copilots seat, and I'll explain it on the way!"

Koga strapped into the secondary seat, and the airship continued to fly through the distortion.

Surge showed Koga some results on the scanner console, explaining his plan. "A full scan of the enemy ship indicates that there are three lifeforms aboard, Darkrai, Cresselia, and one that we can presume to be the former Aether President Lusamine. We are going to have to get all of them out if we are going to destroy that gunship."

Koga eased the forward thrust and came in a quick orbit around the main island. "We cannot get in, anyway. The newer energy fields installed after the attack on Anthien would incinerate us if we managed to, lets say, teleport in." Surge payed his comment no mind and sent out a Alakazam.

"Yeah, Sabrina lent me this one before I flew over here. If we time it right, we should be able to get in and out, as quickly as possible."

Koga assumed that Surge either did not know about the newer safety precautions, or believed that he could outwit them. "And might I ask how we are going to get in without being vaporized?"

The former Team Rocket executive held up five fingers. "About every hour, the energy source switches to solid fuel in order to alleviate some of the strain on the legendries. In only five minutes, we will get a small opening to get everyone out, quick and easy."

That didn't sound particularly easy to Koga, but he trusted Surge's instincts. Carefully rotating the craft around, Surge drove directly into the engine flare of the gunship, and waited.

Four minutes.

The craft groaned, but held. It was a oversight that the only sensor blind spot on the gunship was in its engine trail.

Three minutes.

Koga saw a smaller orange and black craft flying around, firing energy pulses at islands.

Two minutes.

The other craft was flying closer.

One minute.

It had definitely noticed them, and was coming closer to investigate. A message came over the radio comms from the other craft. "This is Admin Eric of the Eclipse Alliance, ordering you to move away from the engines of the flagship. You have 10 seconds to comply-"

"NOW!" Surge yelled. Koga grabbed onto the Alakazam, and then they were inside the ship, Koga grabbed ahold of a blond woman, and the next second he smashed the containment controls of the cell that Darkrai and Cresselia were in. Another flash, and they were back on the aircraft. Surge waved to a very confused Lusamine, and promptly threw her out of the cockpit to a island below.

Two beings burst out of the hull of the gunship, and without any other action, flew out of the rift. The gunship groaned, but it continued to emit the ray shield.

Surge yanked the ship out of the engine plumes, which were growing hotter due to the fuel composition changing. "Alright! Now, turn around and blow this hunk straight to hell!"

Apparently, Surge had forgotten that the comm was still on. Eric had seen Darkrai and Cresselia escape, and now he knew the airship's true intentions. As Surge flew the ship away, Eric was in hot pursuit, firing sporadically.

A pulse hit the aft wing, rocking the airship to its core. "This one is on our heels! Koga, get to the payload controls, I have an idea!" Koga saw that they were losing fuel fast, and readied the missile drop.

Surge banked a hard right, and started flying down a narrow corridor of islands. Eric locked on and continued firing, laughing at the tight position that the enemy had put themselves in.

Another pulse hit the hull, spraying corrosive fuel and sizzling sparks everywhere. Koga ducked as a ceiling panel fell right where he would have been. Surge yelled at him to focus. "Never give up! We're almost there!"

Eric locked on again, ready to deliver a final blast to the engine-

Surge yanked up through a opening just barely wide enough to fit the airship, and Eric's smaller craft zoomed under it. Surge rotated the retrorockets and flew downward, now having Eric's craft in his sights.

Koga launched the speeding explosive, and Eric's ship exploded in a brilliant assortment of exotic fuel and pulses of light. Koga saw a figure bailing out into the void, and Surge whooped in victory.

After flying back to the gunship, Koga directed the rest of the missiles at the engine, and fired.

The hull ripped itself apart, sending hunks of metal and burning shrapnel everywhere. People ran for cover as the ruined gunship started to plow nose first into the abyss.

Surge tried to fly up, but something prevented him from going off their course. They were nearly out of fuel, and heading straight to the wreck.

Sending out a Electabuzz and Manectric, Surge had them charge the engines. The airship flew through the streams of ion-energized air, dodging flaming debris and burning wreaths of fuel, smaller particles ramming against the hull, tearing away the paint job and creating massive pockmarks.

A fireball erupted from the destabilized plasma tanks, creating a inferno that was headed directly toward the battered craft.

Surge released the energy from his Pokémon into the engine, while he and Koga pulled up with all their might, cascading through the waste energy and distorted wreckage.

"I think we're going to make it!" Surge yelled.

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Cypress stood his ground as the ruins of the flagship crushed into the flickering energy shield, creating a incredible grinding noise. The ray field would remain for the moment, but not for long, as it would soon dissipate. How annoying! Entropy would be the first to go from the new world, as his kingdom would not be ruined by the ravages of time.

All in all, his troops were failing. His Admins were all but gone, his Commanders and Captains had fallen as well. And Emrett was dead...he had felt the spirit return to him. But...

It did not truly matter. Everything was in place for the creation of the new world. The only thing that remained was the successful transfer of the Brick.

Why the Brick was in the boy's hands, or even why it was separated from the whole was still a mystery to Cypress. But he had a faint idea...

Cypress turned Xerosic, who was trembling up a storm. "Commander...do the power cells have a substantial amount of energy left?"

"Yes, my lord."

"And do we have a device that is capable of extracting that energy into a usable form?"

"Yes as well, my lord."

"How long will that residual energy maintain the shield?"

"Two hours, if not taxed by any other forces, my lord."

"And, how long will it take you and your peons to get this energy in the usable form?"

"Only a few minutes, my lord."

"Perfect! We will wait for the shield to dissipate, and once the boy and his friends have come through, we will reactivate it, blocking anyone else from entering! Then, we will have a safe environment for the new world to appear in. Dismissed."

Xerosic summoned his technicians to attach the energy canisters to some projector modules, as the ray shield began to twinkle out.