Dulse and Zossie Strike!

Dulse began pacing back and forth impatiently, his boots digging into the earth from his repetitive movement. He hated standing around and being unable to do anything while his home was under control of that monstrous human! He let out a frustrated growl as he glared through his helmet, his gaze fixated on Ash. "That boy just won't leave that girl's side, it's like they're mates!" He had no doubt they could take him, he was a bit biased towards humans but he wasn't blind to the power radiating off of the electrical mouse. It'd take too much time and waste a lot of good energy to take him down, energy they'd need to take on the Beast King!

"I think it's cute, the two obviously care a great deal about each other!" Zossie gushed while Dulse let out a sigh as he rolled his eyes.

"What those humans feel is of little concern to me and you should feel the same, they could be allies of the Beast King heck the girl looks almost exactly like him!" Dulse spat out.

"I don't think so from what I've gathered from the brief time we've been here is that much like our people these humans are all different. Some are born evil and want to simply profit and not care about any havoc or destruction they'd potentially cause while others are morally good and want to simply help their fellow man and Pokemon wherever they can!"

"I have no idea what you saw when you went to gather up supplies but you're obviously being misled, you're too young to understand these things Zossie."

Zossie fumed beneath her helmet. "You've only got six years on me! Besides Soliera says I'm smarter than most adults!"

"Only on our world," Dulse replied. "Here it's a very different case. We just nee-Oh, it looks like an opening might have just showed itself!" Dulse's attention turned back to Ash as Marnie stepped foot into the training grounds.

"Ash can we talk? Alone?" She hinted, glancing towards Lillie as she said that before beckoning him to follow her.

"Now's our chance, move move!" Dulse hissed as Ash and Marnie soon disappeared into the distance. He leaped through the bushes and raced towards Nebby with Zossie quickly following after her partner and friend.

Lillie looked up at the sound of footsteps and saw two figures in spacesuits standing across from her. "C-Can I help you...?" She asked, finding their appearance weird but perhaps they were just on the way to a scifi convention? Some of Sophocles' other friends dressed in similar outfits on occasion.

"Pew!"

"Huh?" Lillie blinked in surprise as Cosmog looked quite pleased to see them. That was quite odd, the only way they'd know Cosmog was if they knew it before it arrived on earth!

"Oooh so polite! Hi I'm Zossie and that's my best friend Dulse!" Dulse let out a groan at her choice of words. "Oh come on Dulse it's true, nobody else wanted to be your partner cause you're such a sour puss! That Cosmog belongs to us and we'd really appreciate it if-"

"Hand over the Cosmog now, human scum!" Dulse suddenly pushed Zossie aside with a growl. The sensors in his suit confirmed that she indeed shared the same blood as their dreaded foe, she was not to be trusted! A beast ball was in his hands as he focused his gaze on her. "I don't want to hurt you but I will if it means freeing my people from tyranny!"

Snowy burst from her ball upon feeling her trainer being threatened and let out a growl, making things not look good for Lillie in Dulse's eyes.

"Snowy! Hold up maybe we can talk this out-" Lillie tried avoiding the fight but Dulse wasn't having it.

"And leave me defenseless? I know your tricks human! Naganadel, let's go!" A Naganadel burst from the beast ball but it looked very different from the one that Ash owned, the dark purple was a shade of black and the light purple coloring was yellow with it's appearance looking more wasp-like due to the coloring scheme.

"Naaaa!" The Ultra Beast cried out, Lillie couldn't help but notice that the Naganadel looked like it was well taken care of based from his appearance. It's skin was sleek and healthy looking and it sounded rather delighted to see it's trainer and his partner. Though the male spaceman acted tough he appeared to have a soft spot for his Pokemon.

"Dragon Pulse!" Naganadel began forming a sphere of multicolored energy within his mouth before eventually firing it off at his opponent in a dragon shaped beam of energy! Snowy was quick to leap out of the way without waiting for a command, the attack continued flying off before crashing into the walls of the hotel behind them and causing an explosion to be heard.

Lillie didn't dare look bad however as she needed to defend herself. "Blizzard!"

Snowy opened up her mouth before firing off a strong blizzard at Naganadel, the Ultra Beast was pushed back but proved to be strong. Perhaps even stronger than Ash's was? If Dulse was partners with Naganadel for years that'd certainly make sense, didn't look good for Lillie though as her only other battle capable Pokemon was Wigglytuff and if Snowy couldn't take Naganadel then Wigglytuff certainly couldn't!

"An Ice type!" Zossie gasped out. "Use a Fire attack, Dulse!"

"Flamethrower!" Dulse threw out his arm as a stream of fire appeared from his Naganadel's mouth, blasting Snowy and causing the ice fox to instantly keel over in defeat due to how outmatched she was!

Lillie stared in silence for a moment and slowly began to shake as she returned Snowy to her Pokeball before reaching on out for the ball containing Wigglytuff. "W-Wigglytuff I need your assistance!"


"So what did you want to talk about?" Ash asked as he walked alongside Marnie on the beach, not too far away from the hotel and where they were moments before.

"Well I-" Marnie clenched her fist as these were words she never thought she'd say before today. "Ash does Lillie like you?"

"W-What? Of course she likes me, she's one of my closest friends! Why wouldn't she?!" Though Ash did behave oblivious before it was really clear that he was acting the part this time as his face had gone red and his eyes shifted from place to place while a nervous look crossed his face.

Marnie rolled her eyes before turning to him as she crossed her arms. "Please don't insult my intelligence, she loves you doesn't she? I'm not going to hurt her." She calmly explained knowing that Ash was likely just trying to protect Lillie, he wasn't the sort to go dating behind her back.

Ash took a deep gulp before slowly beginning to nod his head. "S-She does..."

"And you like her...?" Marnie questioned as she raised an eyebrow slightly.

Ash paled for a brief moment before he slowly began nodding his head in agreement as he wasn't sure how she'd react. "I-I think so, I mean can a guy even share his love for two different girls like this?"

"If you treat them equally and give them the attention they deserve, yes." Marnie had spied on Zach the past few days just to ensure she wasn't going to make a mistake, he was treating both May and Mallow with an equal amount of love and attention and both seemed rather happy to be with him and didn't mind sharing in the slightest! Marnie took a deep breath before continuing. "Ash do you think you're capable of tha-?"

Boom! The sound of an explosion from the area of the hotel caused both of them to jump up.

"We'll talk later, somebody probably needs our help!" Ash was quick to say before racing off with Pikachu hot on his tail! Marnie let out a frustrated sigh before clenching her fists, whoever ruined the moment was going to pay!

Ash ran to the hotel and looked around, everything seemed okay was only rubble had fallen off the building. Nobody had gotten hurt thankfully but what caused the explosion was his next question, the area of impact looked as if it was an attack and the only attack that could have done that damage from that range would have to be from-

"Lillie!" Ash came to the conclusion, quickly turning to race to the training area just in time to see a yellow and black Naganadel blasting Wigglytuff away with a Poison Jab attack! Wigglytuff collapsed on the ground in defeat before Pikachu was quick to take her place, his cheeks sparked dangerously as he glared at the Naganadel.

"Blast it, that kid's back!" Dulse growled out.

"Aw Pikachu's even more adorable up close!" Zossie gushed out as she placed her hands on the sides of her cheeks.

"Pi?!" Pikachu gasped out in surprise at his attacker's behavior but that didn't stop a blush from crossing the electric type's face.

"Focus!" Dulse snapped. "That Pikachu may look cute but his power levels are over 9000!"

"Look I don't know who you two are but nobody attacks my friends if I have anything to say about it!" Ash growled out as he took his place beside Lillie, not bothering to question the presence of a Naganadel right then. "Pikachu use 10,000,000 Volt Thunderbolt!" Today he didn't seem to be going easy on his foe's Pokemon, partly due to him knowing that Ultra Beasts weren't a joke but mostly due to them threatening Lillie!

"Pika!" Pikachu grabbed Ash's hat as Ash threw it at him, Dulse watched with a weirded out expression across his face while Zossie looked on in amazement as Pikachu and Ash began moving in perfect synch. Storm clouds appeared above Pikachu as he began absorbing the electricity contained within the clouds as his cheeks sparked with more dangerous levels of electricity flowing from them before proceeding to unleash his pent up electricity, sending it flying in multiple different colored streaks of electricity! The attack struck Naganadel, causing the Ultra Beast to let out a painfilled cry as the electricity flowed through it's body, his eyes slowly rolled upwards before collapsing to the ground with Dulse and Zossie immediately rushing out to check on their fallen comrade.

"Naganadel!" They cried out. Ash raised an eyebrow in confusion before looking towards Lillie, at first glance he assumed they might be some weird Alolan branch of Team Rocket or maybe even pirates or poachers but they seemed to be not so different from him and his friends!

"Naganadel, speak to me!" Dulse yanked off his helmet to reveal his appearance, greatly alarming Ash and Lillie as his skin was a light shade of blue and appeared to be natural rather than body paint as his tears didn't make it wear away. His hair appeared to be a natural shade of purple as well.

"Naganadel please don't die!" Zossie cried as the Ultra Beast twitched in response to Dulse. She yanked off her helmet as she too began to cry, showing a similar appearance to Dulse only her hair was longer and had an orange coloring!

Ash felt sorry for them and was about to step out and help only to notice Lillie was already there, reaching out with a max revive in her hand as she held it out for Dulse. "Here, this should make things better!" She offered with a friendly smile despite them attacking her mere moments ago.

Dulse sniffed and merely stared at it cautiously as tears continued flowing from his eyes but before he could make a proper decision or potentially refuse, Zossie had reached out and grabbed the max revive before opening Naganadel's mouth and dropping it in! Naganadel let out a cough as it fell down his throat, the Ultra Beast began to stir before getting up, his wings began beating as he hovered in the air and gazed towards his trainer with happy sounding cry! Dulse sniffled before throwing his arms around the Beast as tears flowed down his face. "Naganadel, you're alive!"

"Naaaa!"

"Excuse me but can you two explain why you were attacking my friend?" Ash interrupted the moment with a questioning look.

"They were after Cosmog, they need her for... something?" Lillie gave them a questioning look. "They don't appear to have been seeking it for harmful purposes like Faba did with Nebby, they seemed to know her and she seemed quite pleased to see them."

"Oh that, I apologize for Dulse but he hates-no that's too harsh, he doesn't like humans." Zossie explained. "You see this mad lunatic showed up one day with a device that was capable of controlling Ultra Beasts without having to capture them, he used it to gain control over Necrozma and used it to take over our world, using an army of various different Ultra Beasts to back him up. A Solgaleo appeared and tried to help us but it got fused attempting to protect our Cosmog, he bravely sacrificed himself to protect us and ensure that we'd get away to return once Cosmog evolved and was capable of rescuing everyone from the man's control. He looks like h-" Zossie felt a hand get pressed against her mouth as Dulse shook his head, telling her that part wasn't necessary as it was likely just a coincidence.

"We need her back so we can get her to undergo the evolution process, it's not harmful." Dulse reassured though he still gave Ash an untrusting look, thinking that Ash had attempted to murder his Ultra Beast. "It's a natural process all Cosmog undergo, this one was born on the dark side of our planet's moon so she'll need moonlight to undergo the process."

"So she'd become a Lunala?" Lillie questioned, Dulse gave her a surprised expression before swiftly nodding. "So a Cosmog born on the light side would become a Solgaleo?"

"How the heck does any of that make sense?!" Marnie questioned as she arrived. "Shouldn't any old Cosmog evolve into a Solga-whatever in the day like an Eevee can evolve into Umbreon at night regardless of it's nature or gender?" Ash merely gave her a shrug in response, Pokemon evolution was just weird with how it worked sometimes.

"Can we focus? The longer we wait the longer my people are suffering!" Dulse growled out impatiently.

Lillie was quick to bow her head as she gave the two aliens a smile. "Of course, I'm Lillie by the way!"

"Marnie, pleasure to meet ya!"

"And I'm Ash!"

"Cause you turn your victims into ash?" Dulse questioned before Zossie elbowed him. Ash let out a nervous chuckle before rubbing the back of his neck.

"Sorry about that, I thought you meant Lillie harm."

"She started it!" Dulse shouted.

"Ninetails just felt threatened, you're the ones who attacked first!" Lillie shouted back.

"Enough!" Marnie shouted. "Can we just agree to work together? Obviously we're not going to stand by while these people are enslaved by a madman. Together we can free them and these two can go back home!"

Dulse let out a huff as he continued to glare at Ash before eventually giving Marnie a nod. "If you're helping then that'd be appreciated, your planet's Pokemon might be immune to the Beast King's control much like Solgaleo. Our Naganadel was only safe cause I was quick enough to recall it, plenty of others are under his control."

"Maybe one's mine!" Ash exclaimed.

"You own a Naganadel?" Dulse questioned with a suspicious look.

"Of course, I set it free to live amongst it's fellow kind though!"

"...you're a strange human." Dulse commented, he was impressed by Ash's action but he wasn't going to show it.

"Anyways how will we go about doing this-"

"Aaaaaah!" The loud unholy screech caused Ash, Lillie, Dulse and Zossie to all shoot up with terrified expressions as they heard the familiar cry.

"What was that? Another of Team Rocket's abominations?!" Marnie asked.

"Worse, it's a Guzzlord!" Ash exclaimed.

"A Guzz-whatnow?"

"The worst Ultra Beast out there, it can't be reasoned with or tamed. It's a being of pure destruction and wrecks havoc on any world it's set upon, more than a handful of worlds have fallen to this beast cause you humans are too selfish to work together and would rather run and save yourself! A singular person is never going to take down that monstrosity!"

"It's not like that here, my friends form the Ultra Recon Squad and they'll be attacking any moment!" Ash stated.

"Aren't three of them all the way across the island on a date and two others hanging out at the ranch? They won't get here in time least of all know about it until it's too late, we need to act now before that thing destroys the city!" Marnie cried out.

"Ash is pretty strong but the three of us can't take that thing on alone!" Lillie shook with a terrified glance towards the towering Ultra Beast as it tore through the city behind them.

"Dulse and I will help, won't we Dulse? Dulse!" Zossie scolded as Dulse had Cosmog in his arms and had Naganadel open up a portal, he froze as Zossie gave him a scolding look before a reluctant sigh escaped from his mouth as he waved his arm for Naganadel to close the portal.

"Fine but if things look hopeless we're leaving." Dulse stated. "And that's a promise, not a threat. I'm not losing my world cause I die foolishly trying to save this one!"

"We won't lose, that's a promise!" Ash exclaimed.


"Primarina use Moonblast!" Lana cried out as she stood on the defense in her Ultra Guardian attire. A bright pink ball formed within the mermaid Pokemon's mouth before she fired it across the street, landing a strike against Guzzlord's body but appearing to do little to no damage at all! Lana let out a frustrated growl before leaping back as Guzzlord turned to them and belched, causing a bright purple cloud of toxic smell to come wavering out. Lana covered her nose with her hand to avoid smelling most of it, unfortunately for Primarina she was right in the thick of it! The Pokemon's pale white skin turned a dark shade of green in disgust shortly before she collapsed onto her side in defeat.

"Lana!" Lana's expression couldn't help but change to that of a smile as a hopeful look crossed her face. She turned to see Ash, Marnie and Lille racing towards her along with what appeared to be two cosplayers?

"Ash you're here! Thank Arceus, Gladion and I couldn't hold it off for long!" She pointed towards Silvally who was ruthlessly attacking Guzzlord with a Multi-Attack as a pink aura surrounded the Pokemon, indicating Gladion changed his type to Fairy which was a notably smart move considering they knew it was Dark/Dragon. Chloe stood to the side and watched Gladion attack with admiration showing in her gaze, Lillie noticed and couldn't help but flash Chloe a glare before returning her focus to the conflict. "Chloe and I are already out so it's essentially up to you guys and Gladion, hopefully the others show up soon I just put out a call a few moments ago but who knows how long that'll be until they get here!"

"Don't worry about it Lana, we'll handle this." Ash spoke before turning to Dulse. "Dulse, can your Naganadel open a portal big enough for Guzzlord to step through?"

"I believe so," Dulse stated as he eyed the Guzzlord. "It looks bigger than most but I believe Naganadel can handle it."

"Great cause it'll be easier to simply send it back to it's home world rather than outright defeat it, less destruction and less chance of something going horribly wrong." Ash exclaimed, Dulse gave Ash a respectful look.

"Right, Naganadel get behind him and open up a portal!"

"Naaa!" Naganadel flew behind the Ultra Beast and opened up a portal, showcasing the remains of a world much like their own with multiple Guzzlord running rampant in it.

"Good work Naganadel, hold it open!" Zossie shouted, praising the Ultra Beast as it let out a cry.

Ash debated rather or not to start off with his z-move but shot that decision down, deciding that it was best to hold off until it was time to give Guzzlord a final push!

"Pikachu use Thunderbolt!"

"Grimmsnarl use Spirit Break!"

"Snow use Dazzling Gleam!"

"Multi-Attack!" Gladion added on.

Pikachu leaped up into the air, his cheeks sparked as he delivered a shocking blast of electricity to Guzzlord followed swiftly by lunging at Guzzlord and attacking it immense force in an attempt to break the beast's spirit! A rainbow colored energy field formed around Snowy and began to expand before striking Guzzlord while Silvally followed up with more heavy blows of his Fairy typed attack! Guzzlord was pushed back but the attacks weren't enough to get him into the portal, the Pokemon let out his unholy screech as his tentacles lit up before being bashed against the walls of nearby buildings causing rubble to fall down towards the Ultra Guardians and their Pokemon. Gladion tackled Chloe away from some falling rubble just in time, the girl blushing heavily as they stared at each other for a brief moment as they laid on the ground before separating.

Ash found himself being pulled back by Marnie with rubble falling where he stood seconds ago. Lillie got bumped away by Snowy into a safe distance but with Naganadel still busy holding up the portal and everyone else being occupied a good amount of rubble continued falling towards Dulse and Zossie.

"This is it, I'm gonna die on some backwater planet." Dulse sighed out as he stared at the pile of rubble quickly descending on them. Zossie grabbed his hand before pressing up against his side as fear filled her bones.

"Thunder Punch!" Could be heard as the other Ultra Guardians arrived, Dragonite flew towards the falling rubble and knocked it away with an electrically charged punch causing it fly go blasting away into the horizon while Kiawe, Mallow, and Sophocles raced forward to join Ash and the others.

"Are you two okay-Oh Arceus, aliens!" Zach couldn't help but change to an excited tone as his eyes laid upon the two.

"Hello strange human!" Zossie cheerfully waved before May grabbed her boyfriend's arm and dragged him towards the others.

"These humans are an odd bunch." Dulse sighed out.

"They could say the same about us!" Zossie replied.

Ash turned to his fellow Ultra Guardians as they all formed the offensive alongside him. Arcanine, Vikavolt, Tsareena, Blaziken and Dragonite stood alongside their trainers and were ready to attack.

"You sure we can't just throw a Beast Ball at it?" Zach questioned, being quick to throw one at the Guzzlord only for it to lash out with one of it's tentacles. The mouth attached to said tentacle opened up and swallowed the ball whole! Zach sweated before hanging his head. "Well that answers that question, let's attack then."

Ash activated his z-ring before giving a nod to the others to do the same.

"10,000,000 Volt Thunderbolt!"

"Subzero Slammer!" Lillie called out.

"Black Hole Eclipse!" Gladion called as he released his Umbreon.

"Gigavolt Havoc!"

"Inferno Overdrive!"

"Bloom Doom!"

May and Marnie didn't have z-moves so they resorted to Mega Evolving Blaziken and Houndoom instead before firing off a combined series of flame attacks as Zach watched on and couldn't help but feel left out as the only gimmick he had was useless outside of Galar.

"I've really got to get a ring of my own..." He sighed out before resorting to having Lucario simply use Aura Sphere while Cinderace fired her Electro Ball and Dragonite used Hyper Beam! The combined moves from all of the Ultra Guardians and their Pokemon caused Guzzlord to get blasted back, the Ultra Beast's body began shaking and shivering as the portal started to suck him in, his body slowly began disappearing through it as everyone let out a cheer. Dulse even giving them all a proud and respectful look before a tentacle suddenly came lashing back out and grabbing onto Pikachu before dragging him on in with him!

"Pikachu!" Ash called out as he quickly dove forward and grabbed onto Pikachu as he was dragged away, desperately prying at Guzzlord's mouth to try and free Pikachu and h succeeded but only after it was too late! Ash noticed the air around him felt different and he looked around to discover he was floating aimlessly through Ultra Space with Pikachu in his arms! Ash let out a panicked sound, looking towards a nearby portal and seeing Guzzlord made it back to it's own planet causing him to breath out a sigh of relief before turning around to try and find a portal back to his own. It didn't take too long before he'd come across a portal that looked remarkably just like Kalos, it was a huge gamble on rather or not it was his earth but he figured it was better than simply floating through space for potentially ever or at least until he ran out of oxygen. He looked down at Pikachu with a questioning look and the electrical mouse nodded before they launched themselves through it. If it wasn't their world then hopefully that world's Wicke or Clemont could send them back!


"Nononono, Ash! Oh Arceus, Ash!" Lillie collapsed to her knees, tears started falling from her eyes as she stared at where the portal was just moments ago.

"Open that portal back up, Ash could be in danger!" Zach shouted as he had an hand on Marnie's shoulder, the Dark specialist just staring off with a broken expression as Ash had disappeared. Incomprehensible words coming out of her mouth as she stared off.

"Naganadel!" An hour ago Dulse wouldn't have bothered but after seeing how these humans were so vastly different than the one that gave his people so much trouble he couldn't dare say no, he needed Ash to help save his people!

Naganadel opened up the portal, showcasing the Guzzlord they just sent through standing there looking confused before eventually rushing off to fight another Guzzlord over the remains of a shopping plaza.

"Your friend's not there," Dulse stated as he looked at the sensor readings on his suit. "He's still alive, just out there somewhere."

"Don't worry, we won't rest until we find him! Come on Dulse, let's just open a portal to a random world one by one until we find him!" Zossie explained cheerfully.

"But that could take ages! Too bad we don't have something we could just ride through Ultra Space on, we'd probably only need a few hours." Dulse's gaze turned towards Cosmog before a light smirk crossed his face. "Actually, we've got the right Pokemon for the job right here! Come on Cosmog, we're going through a brief trip to the other side of the planet!"

"Pew?"


"Ugh, where am I?" Ash rubbed the back of his head. "Are we in Lumiose City yet?" Ash opened his eyes only to discover that he sat on the remains of what appeared to be Lumiose Tower! He let out an alarmed gasp before leaping off of it and casting a quick glance around, Lumiose City appeared to be just massive piles of rubble as far as the eye could see!

"What happened here?!"

"You happened!"

"Excuse me?!" Ash turned around and saw a bizarre version of one of his companions, possibly even two different companions? A version of Marnie with an eyepatch over her right eye and a robotic arm attached to the left side of her body stood across from him. And to her right stood somebody dressed up in a mask and body armor that resembled a Lucario, almost like Blaziken Mask but more advanced. A long scar could be seen coming down the right side of his face or at least the mouth area as that was the only part visible to Ash on account of everything else being behind a mask. There were a jackal and rabbit shaped skull on the man's armor with RIP painted on right above the two, the voice was all it took for Ash to know it was Zach under there.

"Don't play stupid, you killed my best friends! I'd know your aura anywhere!" Zach growled out. "And you murdered her brother!"

"I-I did?!" Ash stood in shock, wondering just what crazy dimension he landed upon but didn't have time to question it as Marnie released a Tyranitar and Zach released a Charizard before the two activated their Mega forms, turning them into Mega Tyranitar and Charizard X respectively. Along with seeming radically different both looks and personality wise these versions of his companions seemed stronger too as Ash could sense immense power coming off of the Mega Pokemon! No doubt he was in for the fight of his life, quite literally!

Ash is back in a rather familiar world and already in quite the dangerous predicament, will he be able to talk or fight his way out of things and get back home?

Next time: Return to the Mirror Dimension. Ash vs Ash!