This is the first of three chapters today.
The site for the meeting was a small, grassy meadow screened from the shore by a line of trees.
Several Aqua agents stood around unobtrusively over by the northern side of the meadow, and looked up as the Magma guard team moved in. Each Aqua agent noted the positions of at least three new Magma arrivals, and Shelly counted them up one by one.
"...there be eight… there be nine," she said, then frowned. "Hey! That be an extra one!"
"What be this, Maxie?" Archie roared, standing up from the table. "Did ya think I wouldn't be noticing, you scurvy dog?"
Maxie regarded the pirate with a cool gaze. "Archie. Good to see you're as loud as ever."
"You'd better be explainin' that extra crewman you got along," Archie said, reaching for a Lure Ball. "Or be I needin' to call off th' deal?"
"Calm yourself," Maxie said, adjusting his glasses. "I simply brought along an extra guard to serve notice that I was not unaware of your own attempt to cheat the system. There's two guards of yours up that tree – and, by the way, you missed one of mine."
A Magma agent with a pair of Houndour emerged from the shadow of a tree, the white bones of her Fire-types glittering in the sun.
"Arr," Archie muttered. "'tis a terrible shame you don't be trustin' me."
"With good reason," Maxie replied smoothly. "Now, are we going to make this exchange or not?"
He lifted the case to table level, and slid it into place. "Given how it's reputed to take over the mind of one who touches it, I'm sure you can see why I won't be opening it to confirm."
"Aye," Archie agreed. "That be acceptable – there be no need for us to be causin' furore before Lady Kyogre be found an' ready for victory."
"Lord Groudon would come out victorious in that clash," Maxie replied.
He reached down to his belt, and several Aqua trainers reached for their Pokéballs – then watched him carefully as he lifted a pair of keys on a chain and placed them atop the case.
"You'll need these," he said, a little smugly.
"Landlubber," Archie muttered. He reached for the keys, and both Houndour growled at a signal from their trainer.
"Not so fast," Maxie said, raising a finger. "Your end of the bargain, please."
Archie glanced over at Shelly. "Be orderin' the chest brought out!"
"You heard the skipper!" Shelly ordered in turn. "Heave away, you scurvy lot!"
Two of the Aqua agents came up, hoisting a heavy chest between them.
"Was this necessary?" Maxie asked, pursing his lips in distaste. "This looks like it's been underwater for decades."
"It be the only proper place for such a valuable piece o' treasure!" Archie informed him, forcefully. "You don't think we'd be hidin' somethin' like an Orb in a rusty box?"
Maxie adjusted his jacket slightly. "Actually, I'd rather hoped you'd use something easier to lift. This is a needless complication."
He gave Archie a cool look. "And the key?"
Archie slipped a hand into a pouch at his belt, and retrieved a large metal key which seemed to be made out of brass. "This be the key, right enough."
The Magma leader examined it, first from a distance and then closer. "Well, this certainly looks about right..."
"Of course it be right!" Archie replied. "How many treasure chests do you think there be on-"
"I'm sure you use one to keep your swimwear in," Maxie interjected.
Shelly reached for her belt, but was stopped by Archie. "Belay that," he said. "Now… if this all be to your satisfaction?"
"Provisionally, yes," Maxie agreed. "Second squad – cover us. First squad, take that chest."
He took his off hand away from the handle of the attaché case, and Shelly spun it around before picking it up.
"It be a pleasure, lubberly land-lover," Archie told him. "Come – we be settin' sail."
Both leaders turned away from one another, and began to walk – their details still glaring suspiciously at one another.
As he walked, Maxie waved the team with the chest over and slipped the key into it.
Opening it with a click, he sighed. "Courtney, team to ready offensive posture."
"Team!" Courtney called, loudly enough for everyone to hear. "Moltres formation!"
"What be this?" Archie shouted, watching as the Magma agents sent out their Pokémon in a flickering constellation of white. "Treachery in parley? To arms!"
"Archie!" Maxie called, as the Team Aqua Pokémon flashed out as well. There was a splash as the cover of a concealed pool was yanked aside, revealing over a dozen Water-types ready for battle.
He tipped up the heavy chest, letting an iron cannonball roll out and hit the ground with a thud. "You've cheated me out of the Blue Orb!"
"Well, of course I be cheatin' you," Archie replied with a shrug. "It be a cunnin' trick on my part!"
Shelly began working on the attaché case with both keys.
"After all," he went on. "I be havin' the Blue Orb, what makes Lady Kyogre stronger… an' now I be havin' the Red Orb too, an' that means I can be controllin' and advisin' her!"
"Skipper!" Shelly called urgently. "Look!"
Archie took his eyes off Maxie, and blinked.
There was a large green bowling ball in the attaché case.
"Why, you treacherous dog," he said, folding his arms. "You be sellin' me a pup!"
"You're one to talk," Maxie replied. "Team!"
He was about to give an order, but Courtney cleared her throat. "Sir?"
"What?" Maxie asked, distracted. "What's so important?"
"If you've not got it," she said, frowning. "Where's the Blue Orb?"
"It be too late now," Archie laughed. "Your trick be amusin', but by now my team be gettin' the Blue Orb to Lady Kyogre! We be knowin' exactly where you be havin' her!"
Maxie glanced at Courtney, who nodded.
"Funny you should say that," Maxie began. "Because, you see… we discovered last week that you had captured Lord Groudon."
"Then that mean..." Shelly said slowly. "That… if the Red Orb be somewhere else… then you be takin' it to Groudon?"
Both groups looked out to sea.
The Magma agent looked down from his lofty perch at Kyogre's prison.
It was surprisingly easy to contain such a powerful Legendary – or, at least, it seemed to be. She was mostly dormant in the salty water bathing her form, and the walls were reinforced strongly enough that any idle thrashing she made would not be sufficient to break them.
He adjusted his outfit, frowning. There was definitely something strange going on…
Then a flicker of movement made him dive for cover, reaching into his jacket for a Pokéball.
Blasts of water lashed out, driving two of his fellow guards into a wall, and the other one lucky enough to reach safety sent out a Numel.
"Vibrava!" the Magma agent called, sending his Ground-type out. "Don't expose yourself for now, okay? Stay in cover."
Vibrava buzzed agreement, and the Magma agent looked around the corner.
"Stop them!" called the Aqua Lieutenant, her Milotic surging forwards with water cloaking its form. "Don't let them release Groudon!"
Milotic used Aqua Jet, speeding up further. She wove deftly around a Solarbeam, smacking the Magmar who'd fired it with a Surf, and coiled for a moment before attacking again.
Glancing around, the Aqua lieutenant tried to spot any reinforcements. Most of her guard detail had gone down to the initial attack, and that was-
She stopped, staring.
One of the Magma agents had just sent out a Magcargo.
And it had just melted a neat hole in Groudon's containment cell.
She grabbed at one of the other Pokéballs on her belt. "That's – Gyarados!"
As the Aqua lieutenant threw the Pokéball, though, the Magma agent in question lobbed a package into the containment cell.
Groudon turned, and slashed it to ribbons with a claw.
A glittering red orb fell out, already glowing.
As her Gyarados systematically destroyed what was left of the strike team, the Aqua lieutenant could only stare as Groudon reached down for the orb.
He took it, and there was a bass rumble which resonated through the entire skin of the submarine.
"Ready?" asked one Aqua agent. "I mean, uh – be things all stowed?"
The strike team leader just nodded, sending out a Crawdaunt. "Crabhammer!"
Crawdaunt cocked his larger claw open, swung it, and snapped it closed just as it hit the glass.
There was a crash as the Crabhammer activated, driving powerful resonance directly into the crystalline surface of the containment cell. It blew a hole four feet across, and cracks spiderwebbed out across the rest of the glass.
"Dragon Rush!" shouted one of the Magma agents, and a high-speed Vibrava hit Crawdaunt before it could make the hole larger.
"Throw, ya scurvy dog!" the team leader shouted, and his subordinate slung the bag he was carrying into the containment cell.
A moment later, Vibrava came back in the other direction. A Bubblebeam whistled past her shoulder, and she jinked left-right to avoid the attack before cannoning into the chest of one Aqua operative.
"Someone tie them up!" called the Magma trainer. "Vibrava, keep it up!"
Two more guards came rushing in, one of them with a Combusken. "Stop that Crawdaunt!"
"It be too late!" the Aqua team leader gloated. "Kyogre be free!"
Lance blinked. What?
He looked again at the hole, which was far too small to release the Water-type… then down at the control panel, which showed no sign of the doors to the ocean being opened.
Then he saw it.
The bag was open, and a sapphire-blue orb was emerging – glowing with streams of azure light, which wafted into the air before drifting towards the blue Legendary.
She inhaled, breaching the surface of the water for a moment, and a river of blue energy flowed into her. As it did, her skin darkened – going from the familiar deep-ocean blue to something more like purple or even black.
A heavy feeling developed in the air, like no humidity anyone had ever felt before – like there was an ocean in the air just waiting to fall out.
Lance began to reach for his belt, but stopped. What did you do? Could he even stop this?
Where would you start?
Vibrava buzzed back over to land beside him, but the Dragon-type had nothing to say.
Kyogre closed her eyes for a moment, and the white markers on her upper body began to seethe with incandescent yellow energy. Lines of light traced back from the larger ones, meeting a new line along her dorsal surface, and a symbol – alpha – formed on her forehead.
Both fins took on a similar unearthly light, and even her four-fluked tail began to pulse.
Then Kyogre opened her eyes again – and they were a similar, unseeing yellow glow.
She flexed, slamming into the side of her cage, and the whole submarine groaned.
"Abandon ship," Lance said.
"What?" one of the Magma agents said, turning to him. "What do you mean-"
Kyogre slammed her fins into the walls again, and there was an audible groan. The power flickered, and everyone staggered as the latching mechanism detached from the ground below.
"Abandon ship!" Lance repeated.
He reached for his belt – the time for deception was over. "Dragonite, get us out of here!"
"Dragonite?" someone said, floored. "How come you've got – you never said you had a Dragonite!"
"You never asked," Lance replied – it was true – and sent out Salamence as well. "Are you coming or not?"
The sub shook as it broached the surface, and Dragonite rolled his eyes before gesturing to Lance to get on.
"Fine, then," Lance decided. He thought about the geometry of the ship for a moment, and confirmed that the containment chamber was high enough that nothing was between him and the top of the hull "Dragonite – open us a path! Hyper Beam!"
Dragonite obliged, roaring and letting out a blaze of orange energy. The blast hit the inside of the pressure hull, taking a few seconds to eat through into the open air, then lanced out into the sky.
Kyogre roared, flukes slamming down hard enough to shake the submarine.
And the heavens opened.
Dragonite burst through the hole with a glowing translucent Barrier around his form, Lance a-dragonback, and Salamence followed with several Team agents who'd decided that maybe flying a mysterious dragon wasn't so bad after all.
Rain thundered down, beating on the Barrier screen hard enough to make it difficult to see, and Lance looked around to try to take the situation in.
Several heavy lift helicopters were taking off from Magma's submarine, probably carrying the remainder of the crew. Most of them were ashore anyway, which meant-
Lance's thoughts were interrupted as Land's Wrath burst out on one side.
Kyogre emerged, flukes beating, and the stricken sub began to founder rapidly.
A moment later, an explosion punished Lance's ears.
"Where was that from?" he shouted, looking around frantically.
Dragonite pointed, and Lance saw it – an enormous plume of smoke and steam erupting from under the surface of the water.
Bits of Team Aqua's submarine floated to the surface, and Lance frowned in concern for a moment before spotting a Gyarados among the Pokémon and trainers heading for shore.
Good.
Then Groudon came walking out of the sea.
"So, it's true," Maxie said softly, ignoring the rain hammering on his shoulders. "Primal Reversion."
He looked between the black-blue Kyogre glowing with stolen power and the noble Groudon standing tall with his massive boost of energy.
Groudon – Primal Groudon – reached the shore and roared, golden omega-symbols flowing with molten lava all across his mighty body, and slammed his enormous tail into the ground.
The stormclouds began to swirl, parting in strips and streaks, and a bright sun shone through – lighting up the raindrops like solid bars of light, bright enough to dazzle.
Primal Kyogre and Primal Groudon bellowed challenge at one another, and the streaks of cloud and sun started to rotate.
"Well, we've screwed up royally," Archie shouted into the brewing storm.
Maxie looked over his glasses. "No blather about barnacles?"
"No point!" Archie called back. "What happens now?"
"I never knew that they were this powerful," Maxie admitted. "I… I'm not sure what happens, now."
"Boss?" Courtney asked. "I have to ask… you realize that last time Primal Groudon and Primal Kyogre fought it created the continents and seas?"
"But I planned for it to be just Primal Groudon," Maxie protested.
"If you'd only let me use Primal Kyogre, this would never have happened," Archie muttered.
"Skipper, you're an idiot," Shelly summarized. "Didn't you think maybe Magma would do exactly the same thing as us?"
The ground shook.
Ash stumbled, using his hand to catch himself on a tree. "What was that?"
"Good question..." May said, picking herself up. "It's too early for it to be…" she slowed. "...Groudon and Kyogre. Isn't it?"
It's two days before it happened last time, Dexter told them. That is not the same thing.
"What do we do?" Max asked. "Where should we start?"
Brock pointed. "Over there!"
Even as they watched, an enormous storm of swirling rain and brilliant sun began to coalesce. Waves whipped up, surging up to their beach, and a volcano began to erupt.
Ash turned to Dexter. "Who's available?"
Counting who can possibly fight Groudon or Kyogre? Dexter clarified. I can give you Pidgeot, Raikou and Absol straight away.
"We need to get over there," Ash added. "Brock, we'll need Flygon – Latios, you too!"
"How are you doing, Pidgeot?" Ash called into the wind.
"I'm-" Pidgeot's next word was drowned out by a rushing, roaring sound, and a cloud of white vapour came cascading upwards from the clash- "-for now!"
"Good work," Ash told her, as she strengthened her air-control. "What's going on down there?"
Pidgeot shrugged her wings, then banked over to the right so Ash could get a better view.
"That looks like Groudon and Kyogre, all right," Pikachu said, raising his tail as a sunshade. "But… were they normally this loud? I swear they weren't this loud last time."
"I don't know!" Ash called back. "Dexter, we're going to need everyone you can get!"
Damos has informed Swellow, Dexter told them. She is going to find where Suicune and Entei were – I believe they were practicing something some way outside Pallet, so it'll be a few minutes. Ivysaur and Houndoom are immediately available, I'll send them as soon as you have somewhere to put them.
"Great!" Ash told him. "What about the others?"
I'm still trying to find some of them, Dexter replied, a little frustrated. And I've no idea where Lugia is at all – to say nothing of someone like Mewtwo, who might be on the moon for all I know.
Groudon's screeching roar punched through the cloud of steam, loud enough to hurt the ears, and they all saw the ground below shake as he used an attack – then Kyogre retaliated, sending out a stream of blue lights which split and resplit to come at Groudon from all directions.
The battle was hidden for a moment through one of the densest rain squalls they'd ever seen, and when it went away they could see Groudon still standing. He sent out a roaring Fire Blast, which cut a hole in the water but did nothing noticeable to Kyogre.
"I'm kind of glad we're up here!" Ash said, then blinked. "Wait – the forest's – look, the forest's actually on fire!"
"In this rain?" Pikachu said, incredulous, then looked. "What's even going on? I know Kyogre makes rain, but come on!"
They saw a bubble of water and white shock rise from the area of the battle. As it reached the trees, they shook back and forth, fronds visibly breaking off.
"Brace yourselves!" Pidgeot screeched, and slammed her wings forwards.
The shockwave of air she produced hammered into the incoming blast, and punched a hole in the wavefront.
Residual turbulence and diffraction slammed them up and down in the sky, making Ash's teeth click together, and he felt Pikachu's claws dig into his skin to avoid falling off.
"Max!" Ash called, looking around. "Are you okay?"
"Right here," Latios squeaked, phasing back into visibility. "I managed to avoid most of it with a shield, and we just flew the other way so it wouldn't hit as hard."
"We need to get on the ground!" Max added. "Somewhere behind cover – so that Pidgeot and Latios can try and make Groudon and Kyogre calm down!"
Oh, no! Jirachi sent, shock in his mental voice.
"What is it?" Ash asked, turning to look. They passed through a squall, which plastered his hair to his head and left his clothes sopping wet, and he wiped water from his eyes. "What's wrong?"
I recognize that! Jirachi told them, pointing. That's called Primal Reversion!
"What's Primal Reversion?" Latios asked. "I've never heard of it."
Nor have I, Dexter supplied. Except as part of a toy line produced somewhere near Unova.
Well, uh… Jirachi tried to sum it up as they lost altitude. The way I heard it is, some Legendary Pokémon like Groudon and Kyogre don't need to be as powerful as they were when they created the lands and the seas – so they're, well, Groudon and Kyogre. But-
"Look!" Max interrupted. "Brock's down there – that looks like a good place to land!"
"On it," Pidgeot replied, climbing briefly and avoiding an air pocket.
But Primal Reversion is when they go back to that kind of power! Jirachi continued. I don't know why, but… it's really bad!
Pidgeot flared her wings, slowing them, and Ash jumped off her back before she'd quite stopped.
"Pikachu, go with her!" he instructed. "She can keep you moving fast enough to stay out of trouble!"
Be careful! Jirachi warned. Most Pokémon don't stand a chance!
"Then who do stand a chance?" Max asked, one hand on Arc's Pokéball as he slid off Latios' back. "Arc has a Mega Evolution, is that enough?"
Uh… I think it is, if he's careful, Jirachi guessed.
Raikou skidded to a halt in the depression, and a green-faced May dismounted. "I am never riding a Beast over rough water again," she said, sitting down hard as her erstwhile mount set off at speed towards the battle.
The ground shook.
"Uh..." Ash frowned, looking at his on-hand Pokémon. "Absol could be a problem. Do I need to go with her?"
Pidgeot took off in a storm of wings, Pikachu on her back and Latios taking flanking position, and a moment later a Dragonite surprised everyone by arriving.
"Ash Ketchum?" asked the rider, throwing his Magma hoodie back as a Salamence dropped some bedraggled Magma agents on the other end of the clearing. "What are you doing here?"
Absol emerged, swallowed, and took a careful stance on the ground. "I'd question what we're doing here, too – but I know it's too important."
"We were a few miles over that way!" Ash said, pointing. "I guess you infiltrated this time as well?"
"You mean-" Lance cut himself off. "Of course. Did this all happen last time, then?"
"Except for the Primal Reversion," Max agreed.
"Hey, come up here!" Brock called. "This little hill lets us see the fight!"
"Dragonite, you and Salamence go and help out as well," Lance ordered. "Concentrate on Kyogre, if you get a chance."
The Dragon-types swept off, and Lance followed them to the top of the hill.
After a moment, he blinked. "Wait. Primal Reversion? What's that?"
Raikou loped steadily forwards, claws digging into the topsoil and throwing up great clods of earth as he ran.
The sky was seething, great sheets of rain coming down lit by incandescent light as clouds formed and rained themselves out in seconds before forming again from the bubbling, hissing steam.
"Well, I'm not going to be able to get the Groudon," Raikou huffed, blasting through a fallen log in a shower of splinters. "So it'll have to be the dashed Kyogre!"
His mane began to crackle and buzz as he charged up electrical energy.
A left turn, a right, and he spotted a sudden shift in the cloudscape over the battle. Skidding to a halt behind a knoll, he let the steam-fuelled BANG expend itself before bursting back out from behind the tree and accelerating.
One final clearing, strangely full of humans in bizarre outfits, and Raikou sighed before shrugging his shoulders. A sign fell off the bundle on his back, and he glanced back to check it was the right one before continuing through the treeline and onto the shore.
For a moment, the century-old Beast was left without words.
Groudon looked like magma seethed just below his skin, emitting a palpable heat even from a distance of a hundred metres. Some of the trees closest to him on the shore were smouldering already, and as he watched one of them burst into flame.
Kyogre sat atop a bubble of water, which was flowing downwards and being continually replenished. There was surf at least three metres high crashing onto the beach, tearing great chunks of sand from it and throwing water across at Groudon – who seemed to barely notice.
Overhead, several of the fliers had already joined the battle. A Dragonite and a Salamence, both of them recognizably Lance's Pokémon, and the high-speed form of Pidgeot flying in on slashing Aeroblast attack runs with Pikachu's thunder blazing from her back.
A moment later, Latios fired a Luster Purge attack which hit the bubbling water across Kyogre's skin. It blew a divot into the shell of water and hit home, but it was hard to see any effect.
Lance's Dragonite threw in a Hyper Beam aimed at Groudon, almost as bright as the blazing sun overhead, and then had to break off as a mammoth blast of flame from the Continental Pokémon forced him to shield.
Shaking his head, Raikou refocused. He spread his paws, reducing the chance he'd be knocked flying by the repeated earth tremors, and then winced as a Hydro Pump hit a Fire Blast and both exploded together in a wash of steam.
"Volt Crash!" he roared, slamming a paw into the beach sand, and a solid bar of electricity lanced out directly at Kyogre.
The impact knocked Kyogre backwards, sending stray bolts crackling down into her water, and spray fountained up in a white column which almost hid her.
"Gotcha!" Raikou said, proud of himself. "Now, let's try-"
Groudon's tail slammed into the ground, and enormous pillars of rock and earth formed all around him.
Raikou took a step back as the Precipice Blades fired at Kyogre, attempting to use her moment of weakness, but then a storm of branching and rebranching lines of brilliant azure light slashed out from Kyogre.
They hit the Precipice Blades straight-on, sending shrapnel in all directions, and Raikou had only a moment to realize where one of the pieces was going before it arrived.
He rammed into it with Iron Head, lunging forwards instead of dodging, and a rock larger than he was shattered into hundreds of pieces.
"Ow," he said, then took a direct hit from Precipice Blades as Groudon deigned to notice him.
"Raikou!" Pidgeot called, thrown off her flight path for a moment. "Is he okay?"
"Can't tell from this distance!" Pikachu replied. "Can you see?"
"No, he ended up in the trees!" Pidgeot said. "We'll need to go down and look!"
"No, not us!" Pikachu replied. He glanced around, and fired a Thundershock at thin air. "Latios!"
Latios appeared out of nowhere just near where Pikachu's attack had gone, and zoomed around to fall into formation. What is it, Pikachu?
"Go check Raikou is okay!" Pikachu ordered. "Then go back to Ash and Mega Evolve – you're not doing enough damage, you need the boost!"
The Dragon-type looked about ready to argue, but nodded. Right – you're right. Okay!
Pidgeot glanced back at Pikachu, opening her beak to speak, but then stopped and dodged abruptly left-right-left to get out of the firing line of an Ice Beam.
"Pidgeot – pull up!" Pikachu said abruptly.
Below them, another great steam explosion blasted through the water. It cut out a momentary bowl as the force blew the water away, leaving only Primal Kyogre and Primal Groudon in a circular open space, then the water flowed back.
Pidgeot let her beak go slack and rode out the blast, then turned around. "What now?"
"Give me about twenty seconds, I'm going to do a full Volt Crash," Pikachu explained. "Targeting both of them."
Latios sighed in relief. "Thank goodness..."
Raikou was slumped against the earth-covered roots of a fallen tree, and looked to be only unconscious. The bundle of signs on his back was basically smashed, reduced almost to kindling, but apart from that he seemed essentially intact.
Picking him up with not inconsiderable effort, Latios turned to carry Raikou back to Ash – then stopped, cocking his head.
That sounded like music…
Salamence wobbled as a particularly nasty air pocket upset his flight regime. His wings thrashed as he tried to recover, then a wave slapped into his right wing and he crashed in a plume of spray.
"Can you return him from here?" Ash asked, glancing at Lance.
"I've never tried from quite this far," the Champion admitted. "But… let's see..."
He held out the Pokéball, and sighed with relief as the red beam brought Salamence back. "There. Right – who do I have..."
He looked at one Pokéball for a moment, then frowned. "I don't think Gyarados is a good choice, not in that water and with Electric attacks like those being thrown around."
Reinforcements on the way, Dexter told them. Charizard should be here in just a minute.
"That's going to be a big help," Brock said, looking down at the tunnel Mega Steelix was leaving through the trees. "If we're going to stop those two from fighting we'll need to beat them both."
"Wait – look out!" Ash called.
Primal Groudon launched a torrent of brilliant flame into the air, aiming directly for the incoming Pidgeot. She flared her wings, cancelling out her attack run, but then Primal Kyogre launched her attack with streams upon streams of blue light towards the Flying-type as well.
Tendrils of energy reached out to englobe Pidgeot, and then an enormous waterspout roared out of the sea and smashed them all aside.
"All right!" Brock called.
"Yeah!" Ash agreed, as the twister exploded. "Just in time, Lugia!"
I am glad to help, Lugia replied over the distance between them. He swept his wings, flying at speed into the air, and shielded his protégé from a weaker attack as she climbed back to a safe altitude.
Suicune pelted through the woods, weaving back and forth to make sure she passed through the gaps between trees. She jumped a log, paws thumping into it and making a hollow boom sound, and soared through the air before landing and pushing off again.
"Not far now," Entei said, voicing her thought, and then they were out of the treeline and into Professor Oak's paddock.
Suicune ran directly across the lake rather than swerve around it, then braked hard and skidded to a halt just inside the Lab.
"Here!" she called, panting, and took a moment to locate her Pokéball. "Right – there it is."
She glanced up at Damos' screen. "Do you want us in the balls now?"
That would be ideal, Damos confirmed.
Suicune held up Entei's ball and returned him as he entered the room, then tapped her own and flashed into it as Tracey reached for Entei's ball.
The long moment inside the ball, waiting for the transfer, seemed to take minutes instead of just a few seconds. Then there was the once-felt-never-forgotten sensation of being transmitted, and Suicune was on her way.
"Look – down there," May said, pointing. "That looks like more Team Magma guys."
"And there's some Aqua agents, as well," Lance agreed. "Wait – there's a lot of them."
He sent out his Red Gyarados. "I'll handle them. Young woman… May? Could you help?"
"Me?" May asked, blinking. "Uh – sure! I guess it's because I don't have any Megas or Legendaries, right?"
"That's correct," Lance agreed. "If you wouldn't mind."
"It's fine!" May agreed, sending out Glaceon and Blaziken. After a moment to switch 'balls, she added Venusaur and Beautifly, while Ethan materialized as well. "What do you need me to do?"
Lance sent out his Haxorus as well. "Well, the important bit is basically to make sure they don't try anything. Hopefully we'll be able to arrest them all – though admittedly that might be quite hard."
As if to punctuate this there was a crash-BANG from the battle.
"Latios, catch Pidgeot!" Ash said hurriedly.
May turned to look. "What-"
After catching sight of the falling Flying-type, she shook her head and turned back to the task at hand. "Uh… how come so many of them are soaking wet?"
"Who are you?" asked one of the Aqua agents, looking at her. "Aren't you some Coordinator I saw on the TV once?"
May nodded, surprised. "Yes – that's me."
The Aqua agent looked at her again, then frowned. "And – uh, what did you say?"
"Why are you wet?" May repeated.
He sighed. "Right. Well… the sub sank."
Lance frowned. "Did everyone get out?"
"Probably?" The Aqua grunt waved a hand. "I dunno."
"And what brought you over here?" he went on.
"Well… the way I heard it..."
"I guess doing what that sign said was the right idea," Shelly said, looking at it again. 'Run for it.'
She looked up at Matt, still wet from his dip in the sea when Kyogre's Revenge sank. "Everyone here?"
"Almost," Matt replied. "There still be one lass missin', not sure what be happenin' to her."
Shelly looked interested. "Who?"
"Oh, come on!"
Shelly looked up – the groan had come from the Magma group trudging along beside them. "What's that?"
"I just saw – there's Lance in that clearing!" Courtney explained, looking over. "Lance – you know, the Grand Champion of Kanto and Johto!"
Shelly sighed. "Great..."
"Actually, I think it might be fate," Maxie said, speaking up for the first time in several minutes. "After what we have unleashed, it's become clear to me that we need to somehow… come to terms with what we've done."
"I hear you," Archie agreed. "Perhaps bein' caught wouldn't be so bad after all."
He looked back at the warring titans, and the Pokémon flying around them. "Besides, I think stayin' here might be bad for our health..."
AN:
And this is The Scuffle of Legends. Except that, you know... Primal Reversion.
Primal Groudon and Primal Kyogre are very, very powerful.
