This is the first of four chapters today.


"Ash?" Steven began. "I need your help."

"What's going on?" Ash replied. "Why did the League get cancelled – Mega Absol said something about a falling star!"

"She did?" Steven said, surprised. "That's – well, your Absol is right."

There was some chatter in the background, barely audible to Ash over the noise of the crowd.

"Ash, are you still there?" Steven asked, a moment later. "We need to get to Mossdeep right away – it'll be quicker to explain there. Drake says he has two Dragonite and a Salamence he can get hold of – I know you have a Latias, is she with you?"

"Yeah, but – what about my friends?" Ash said. "Shouldn't they come?"

"I don't – wait, hold on a moment," Steven asked.

"Ash?" Mega Absol said, still panting. "You need them with you. I can-"

She broke off for a moment, frowning, then raised her head again. "It's hard to tell, but I think you'll need at least two of them."

"Right," Ash said, thinking, as the PA asked everyone to please make their way to the exits in an orderly fashion. "Latias is here – so I'm going to need Latios and Pidgeot, they're fast enough. Dexter, can you-"

Already on it, Dexter interrupted. Should be here in a moment.

"Good," Ash told him. "Mega Absol, do you need to-"

"I have to stay like this," she interrupted. "It's how I can tell when – if – one of us might make a mistake."

"Ash?" Steven said, reopening that conversation. "If you can get them to Mossdeep with us, they can come. We're setting off in a minute."

Ash sent out Latias. "Latias – let Brock, May, Max and Professor Ivy know to come down here as soon as you can!"

"Right," Latias replied, seriously. "I'm on it."

"They'll be along," Ash assured Steven. "Where are you?"

There was the sound of scattered conversations in the background – Ash recognized Drake's voice, saying something about a Salamence.

"Well, Drake's about to Mega Evolve his Salamence, so we'll be pretty obvious," Steven replied.

Pidgeot's Pokéball materialized, and Ash sent her out. "Got it. I'll have two Mega Latis and a Pidgeot."

"Okay, Ash," Steven said. "Remember, we're going to Mossdeep, so if we don't meet up – head there."

He closed the connection with a click.

"Mossdeep?" Pidgeot repeated, crouching down. "I understand."

Ash got on and lifted Mega Absol on board, being careful to arrange her somewhere she'd be comfortable, then used Lucario's Pokéball to return him from his position in the crowd. Juggling 'balls, he switched to the blue Cherish Ball that held Latios and sent him out.

"Latias told me it's not good news," Latios said. "Where do you need me?"

"Over with the others for now," Ash said. "You too, Pidgeot."

As he spoke, Pidgeot raised her wings and hammered the air. Pikachu jumped on just as she rose, and got in Ash's bag to leave space for Mega Absol.

"Are you doing okay?" Ash checked.

"Alright for now," Mega Absol told him, moving carefully to keep her sharp bits away from Pidgeot and Ash. "But Steven is right, we need to hurry."


"Why do we need to go to Mossdeep?" May asked, looking baffled.

Latias shrugged. "I don't know!" she replied, speaking both with her voice and her psychic powers. "Ash was talking to Steven, and Mega Absol said something about a falling star..."

"Falling star?" Brock repeated. "A – wait, does she mean a meteorite?"

Philena paled. "That… even a small meteorite could cause widespread devastation across most of Hoenn… but I thought Rayquaza was supposed to deal with things like that?"

Latios dropped to the bleachers just downslope of the friends.

"Get on!" Ash called. "I'll Mega Evolve both Latias and Latios in a moment!"

There was a crack-BOOM as something went supersonic nearby, and a few of the trainers and spectators still in the crowd shouted in surprise.

"Can't Jirachi just wish us to Mossdeep?" Max asked. "Jirachi-"

"No!" Mega Absol shouted down. "Don't – he will need all his strength!"

Jirachi blinked. I'll what?

"Guess that's a bad idea," Max said, wincing. As he spoke, May got on Latias, and he hurried to join her. "I guess you'll have a job later, Jirachi?"

So do I, Jirachi agreed.

Overhead, Ash's staff blazed a bright blue light, accompanied by the gold and silver of his two Legendary feathers. First Latias and then Latios transitioned over to Mega, and rose into the air with their passengers astride.

"Mossdeep, remember!" Ash said. "Everyone hold on tight!"

Pidgeot started to move, slowly at first, letting the twin Dragons match her speed. Then she began to accelerate, faster and faster, and perhaps ten seconds of increasingly painful G-force later they hit the sound barrier and kept accelerating.


"Cancelled?" Barry repeated. "They can't cancel the Pokémon League!"

He paused. "Well, I guess they can – but they should be fined for it! I'll fine them a million-"

"Barry!" Dawn called, waving up at his window. "Your dad's important, right – do you have any idea what's going on?"

Barry shook his head, leaning out the window. "If he knew he didn't mention it to me last time we talked."

"But-" Dawn began, then stopped. "Right, of course – if he does know he's going to be way too busy at the moment, whatever it is."

"Can't you ask your friend Ash?" Barry asked. "You know him, right? Is he involved with this – it was the middle of his match when they cancelled, and he'd just Mega Evolved an Absol – do you think he caused it?"

"I don't think so," Dawn replied, dubiously. "But… well, I guess it's not impossible for him to be involved somehow."

Barry's head vanished back inside his room. "I'm looking online to see if anyone knows anything!" he called down. "Someone thinks it's a conspiracy, someone else on the news is saying it's a national emergency and that anyone with powerful Pokémon should stop by their local Pokémon centre to see if they're needed. They especially want powerful Psychic-types – do you think it's something to do with a super powerful Psychic legendary or something? But if it was they'd just need a Dark-type – wait! Of course!"

Dawn glanced at Piplup, who shrugged – having lost track at about the same time Dawn did.

"It's Ash's Mega Absol!" Barry said, reappearing at the window. "Those are great Pokémon for fighting Psychic types because they're Dark type and they have Magic Bounce – I bet they need her to fight whatever it is!"

"...you got that from a news article?" Dawn asked weakly.


About half a mile above the sea, Pidgeot flew on great white wings of air – making her seem like her wingspan was more in line with a commercial passenger jet than a normal Pokémon – and, just below and behind her, two Mega Dragons kept pace with her.

It was hard to say who was the slow member of the group, as all three were pushing hard to stay this fast. They were leaving behind an almighty sonic boom, three shockwaves merged together into an overlapping BOOOM which rattled windows on the few boats below.

"Can you see Steven, Pidgeot?" Ash asked, looking back as Ever Grande City disappeared behind them – vanishing with stunning speed as Pidgeot sustained flight at three times the speed of sound. "There should be two Dragonite and a Mega Salamence!"

Pidgeot shook her head minutely, most of her attention on flying.

"It's okay," Mega Absol told him. "We're doing fine for now."

She waved a paw. "Well, fine… we're still probably going to die, but it's stuck at 'probably'."

"Right," Ash said, more quietly. "Dexter – I still have no idea what's going on."

From what Absol and Brock have said, I can work out a few things. The key word here is 'meteorite' – if Absol says it's going to hit Hoenn, then, depending on how large it is, it could mean anything from the destruction of a city to the end of all life on the planet.

Ash winced. "Okay, that's…"

Words seemed inadequate.

"Ash, did this happen last time?" Mega Absol asked, suddenly. "You've mentioned things like the disaster at Crown City, but-"

"No, it didn't," Ash replied. "Or – if it did I didn't even hear about it. And the Ever Grande conference certainly didn't get cancelled."

"That's… bad," Mega Absol observed.

Pidgeot tilted down a little. "Hold on tight, we're about to slow down!"

As she dropped from flapping to gliding for a moment, Ash caught sight of Mossdeep – still about twelve miles ahead of them, the space centre barely visible as a smudge. Then Pidgeot's wings tilted, bringing their huge virtual surface area to bear, and the sudden pulse of G-force pressed Ash into his seat as if he suddenly weighed five times as much.

Pikachu squeaked as he hit the bottom of Ash's bag, and Mega Absol let out a grunt of effort – and, as they dropped slower and lower, Pidgeot's wings formed great white shocks against the air.

Both Mega Latias and Mega Latios overshot a little, as Pidgeot began to break first – then the dragons rotated themselves so they were at the right angle and began to brake as well.


"Is it always like this?" Philena shouted, holding on to Brock's shoulders. "I feel like someone's standing on my head!"

"No!" Brock shouted back, the words an effort. "Normally it's a lot more peaceful! Even when we fly from island to island it's much slower than this!"

Mega Latios adjusted his angle a little, controlling their deceleration so he didn't put his passengers through too much, and a white cloud broke around them and was gone in a moment.

"I think that was the sound barrier!" the Professor said. "How much longer?"

Almost as soon as she said that, Mega Latios rotated back to level flight. They were still moving fast, hundreds of miles per hour by the looks of it, but it was no longer the headlong dash from before – and he, his sister and Pidgeot were now coming in on a relatively normal landing approach.

"Not long now," he said, turning so he could see his passengers out of the corner of one eye. "We started braking a second or two too early."

The woods dropped away, and they could see the space centre – a shuttle on the transporter halfway to the launch gantry, flashing lights, what looked like a large Metagross turning to examine them… and three Dragon-types disembarking passengers by one of the buildings.

"Over there!" Brock pointed.

"Got it – and I've let Pidgeot and Mega Latias know," Mega Latios added.

His trajectory dropped again, until they were skimming over the grass, and Philena realized that he'd decelerated all the way down to the kind of speed you'd get on a normal car – then he slid to a halt.

"Ash!" said someone Philena recognized as Steven Stone, with what looked like his whole Elite Four with him. "Fast work – and I think I recognize everyone else except the lady there."

"I'm Professor Philena Ivy," Philena told him. "Orange Islands – I was spectating."

"Well, it'll be good to have all the help we can get," Steven said, lit for a moment by orange flashes as both Latias and Latios reverted to their normal forms. "Come on inside – I know some of the details, but there's going to be a briefing now. Only – Ash, I need to ask as soon as possible because time could be precious. How quickly can you contact Mewtwo?"

Ash thought for a moment. "Pidgeot, Latias – you know where he lives, right? Which of you is fastest?"

"Without a Mega Stone transformation?" Latias said. "Pidgeot, definitely."

In response, Ash returned his Flying-type, and the Pokéball dematerialized. "She'll get him," Ash said, confidently. "And Dexter, in case he's out – Sabrina."

On it.

"Sabrina?" asked Phoebe. "Why Sabrina?"

"She's friends with the Rota Mew," Ash explained.

Phoebe visibly decided it wasn't worth asking.


"I found out about this about a minute before the League was cancelled," Steven explained, moving at a fast walk through the corridors with the others following him. "Mossdeep Space Centre is one of the locations which maintains a sky watch – the short version is, there's a very large meteorite on the way in from space which is going to hit Hoenn in about four hours."

"How big is it?" Mega Absol asked. "I'm having trouble grasping the scale of the problem here – it's like looking at the sun. And about as painful sometimes..."

"Mega Absol asked how big the meteorite is," Ash supplied, after she finished.

"I'm not sure the exact size," Steven admitted, coming to a set of double doors. He pushed them open, revealing a large room with computer screens lining two walls and a window looking out on the launchpad – from a considerable distance. "We've come here to get the information – and plan what we're going to do about it."


"Champion," one of the scientists said, nodding. "It's good to have you here."

He cleared his throat. "How much do you know?"

"There's a meteorite coming in," Steven summarized. "More than that I don't know, though I assume it's bad."

"Correct," the scientist said. "I'm Dr. MacGuire, by the way – anyway, this is what we're dealing with."

The main screen went blank, then showed a starfield. In the middle of the view was a large, bright object – a comet, by the looks of it.

"This is 1992f2," MacGuire explained. "It's a large chondritic body with cometary characteristics, which is roughly six miles in diameter and has a density roughly equivalent to dense rock. It's coming in on a polar trajectory, with an expected time to perigee of 11,230 seconds and an expected perigee distance of four thousand kilometres from the centre of mass of the Earth."

Steven nodded. "So it is going to hit."

"That's our current prediction," MacGuire confirmed. "It's a ten on the Torino scale and has hit twelve on the Palermo – that's a logarithmic scale, by the way. We think it's been pushing itself around with outgassing, so the position isn't quite confirmed, but we do have some error bars. Apollo?"

The screen image changed, shrinking down the picture of 1992f2 to a small window by the side and changing the main image to a graphic. It showed the Earth and the Moon, and also the incoming asteroid marked by a flashing icon. Its predicted path curved down towards the small blue-green orb of the planet, then intersected.

"But – that's as far away as the moon is," Steven objected. "You say it's going to hit in only about… eleven hundred is... three and a half hours?"

MacGuire nodded wordlessly.

"What does that mean?" May asked. "Why is that bad?"

"That means it's travelling very fast," MacGuire explained for her. "Very fast. About three times as fast as last time something this big hit the planet – and that one was a mass extinction."

"Who's Apollo?" Ash said. "Wait – do you have a Porygon here?"

"That's right," MacGuire confirmed. "He's one of the second batch of Akihabara Polygonal Intelligences."

"Right," Steven said, rubbing his temples. "Okay – we need a plan. It'll have to be something good."

"Isn't this normally Rayquaza's job?" Brock suggested. "Wouldn't he be able to stop it from hitting?"

"He's already trying," MacGuire said. "Apollo, back to the first picture."

Affirmative.

The images swapped again, showing the comet, and MacGuire pointed. "There. See?"

Apollo zoomed in, and they saw a faint green light flaring on the side of the asteroid.

"We believe that's his Hyper Beam connecting," MacGuire told them. "The problem is, he needs to move a rock that weighs roughly three hundred and fifty thousand million tonnes so it doesn't enter the atmosphere."

"Can't he just blow it up?" Ash asked. "Well, I know 'just' is-"

"No," MacGuire interrupted him. "No, you can't just blow up an asteroid. Hollywood films have a lot to answer for – what happens if you blow up a rock? Does the rock go away?"

He paused for a second, then went on. "No. No, the rock doesn't go away, it's just been broken up. If you break up an asteroid without making it change course, then the whole asteroid still hits the planet – it's just that it does it in lots of different places, instead of in one big blast."

Ash began to open his mouth, and MacGuire talked over him. "And no, that wouldn't make it better. If anything it would be slightly worse – the energy from the meteorite then doesn't go into digging a big crater. It all goes into heat – heat going directly into the upper atmosphere, so the whole of the Northern Hemisphere would have the entire sky shine like the sun. Plants would catch fire, people and Pokémon would die. So no, this is not a problem you can fix simply by sending up a half-dozen guys and a really big bomb!"

Stunned silence followed his words.

"Sorry," the scientist added, shaking his head. "I just – that's been suggested three times already, and it's a… really bad idea."

"We get the idea," Steven said, raising a hand. "And now we know how bad it is, we can start to work out what to do."

I have a question, Ethan stated. Would it help in planning if we had a better idea of the situation?

"Well… of course," MacGuire said. "You're a Porygon as well, right?"

Almost, Ethan informed him. There was a flash, and he drew himself out of bevelled curves and smooth objects. Apollo, please inform me of the information you require me to project.

"Ethan's a Porygon2," May told them. "We're pretty sure he's the first!"

Ethan's form contracted, then erupted in a silent explosion of light. Instead of his blue-and-pink base form, what unravelled from his projector was a three-dimensional hologram large enough to fill the room.

One quarter was taken up by a holographic projection of 1992f2, rotating slowly as it plunged through the void. Most of the rest began by showing the Earth from space, then tilted and focused on the Home Islands before tracking south.

Refining impact prediction, Ethan informed them, and a series of coloured ovals appeared. They centered roughly on Sootopolis, but the outermost ellipses – blue and purple – reached out as far as Sinnoh and were highly elongated. Yellow circle denotes 50 percent confidence of impact location.

"It's shrinking," Steven said. "Is that you getting more data?"

And refining impact predictions, Ethan agreed. Probability of atmospheric skim now below 5 percent.

"So that's what it looks like..." Mega Absol said, tilting her head. "It's always been feelings for me… it's strange seeing them like that. It's almost like a map of smell."

"Steven?" Ash asked. "How is Mewtwo going to be able to help? I don't think even he can push something that big from that far."

"Well… my hope is that we will be able to come up with something," Steven admitted.

"We're already preparing a shuttle for immediate takeoff," MacGuire told them. "It's going through abbreviated checks – if we need something in space we can get it up there, but we can't get much further than LEO on short notice. Worst case..."

He paused. "Well, let's hope it's not necessary, but worst case we can load a few thousand Pokéballs in the cargo hold and get at least some Pokémon off the planet safely."

"Good plan, keep getting it ready," Mega Absol commented, wincing.

"Mega Absol says that's a good idea," Ash told them, to some surprise.

"She can tell?" Sidney asked. "I thought Absol could only sort of work out what was going to happen… is that the Mega Evolution?"

"She's a chance-dancer," Brock said. "But yes, I think the Mega Evolution is important as well."

"Can't we wait until the meteorite reaches – no," Max interrupted himself. "I'm guessing by the time it's low enough that most Pokémon can reach it, it'd be too late?"

"By the time it reaches the altitude of a passenger jet it'll be two hundred milliseconds from hitting," MacGuire said.

Everyone looked back up at Ethan's huge holographic plots, now showing the meteorite ever so slightly closer.


"Okay, we need plans," Steven said firmly. "At this point, nothing's really a bad idea – we just need the ideas so we can see if there's something in it. Anyone?"

"I have one," Philena said. "It's very much an emergency plan, but – what if we did blow up the asteroid? If we can, I mean," she qualified. "I mean – if we do end up breaking it up so it doesn't impact, but does set fire to this half of the planet… wouldn't that at least give the other half a chance to survive? And give some cities a chance if they can put up heavy enough Psychic shields?"

MacGuire frowned. "I… well."

He stopped. "Can we get a simulation of that? Apollo?"

Simulating, Apollo told them, and Ethan's projector flared. I am making use of the combined processing power of myself and my colleague, and additionally borrowing his projection equipment.

The asteroid tracked in, far faster than reality, then burst and became a cloud of tens of thousands of fragments. The dust rained down across a wide area, covering thousands of miles in every direction from the originally predicted impact point, and coloured indicators appeared.

Prediction: Only a few cities will be able to muster sufficient shield strength to survive beneath the heat pulse. The climate will be significantly affected, but it would be possible with careful weather control to ensure a transition without total collapse.

"Well, that's something," the scientist said. "Do we have a chance of breaking it up?"

Theoretically. The power required would be extreme, however – observations indicate this asteroid is dense and hence durable.

"It's a start," Steven agreed, glancing at Mega Absol. When she didn't have any further input, he went on. "Anyone else?"

"Jirachi?" Max asked.

"...you have a Jirachi?" MacGuire asked, blinking. "How?"

"It's a long story," Max said. "Jirachi, could you-"

Sorry, Max, Jirachi interrupted, looking down. I'm not that powerful even when the Millennium Comet is right overhead. It's the size of a mountain!

"Still, this could be important," MacGuire insisted. "With Jirachi's help, we can streamline things – actually, I do have an idea."

He glanced out the window. "That shuttle's still got three hours of preparation before it can be launched. Could Jirachi help us skip the preparation stages – if we wish the shuttle was ready?"

Um… I don't know, Jirachi admitted. I could? But I'm not sure how much work is involved, and if there's too much then it won't work as a wish…

"Okay, we'll keep it in mind," Steven told him. "Good idea, though."

"Isn't the obvious one just going to be to push it out of the way?" May asked. "I mean, you said it wasn't going to hit at a very direct angle."

As she spoke, Ethan changed the projection again – showing the track of the incoming meteorite (now with a narrower potential impact circle) and changing it a little at a time, until it skimmed the atmosphere and went back out into space.

"If we can manage it, that's the ideal," MacGuire agreed. "The problem is how to do the equivalent of changing the trajectory of that meteorite by about three thousand kilometres in four hours. I think that means we'd need to apply – Apollo?"

If all force is applied immediately, we would need to apply roughly eighty petanewtonseconds of impulse. The later we start the more total is required.

"Then Rayquaza's got the right idea," Steven observed. "Well, if we can get that much force into the meteorite then we've got a plan, but – is there anything else?"

Nobody said anything for a moment.

"Come on, there has to be some way we can do this!" Steven said.

"Would it help if we got people as far as the moon?" Sidney asked. "I know, I know, it's kinda crazy – but come on, it's worth a try!"

"I think Mewtwo can teleport that far," Ash volunteered. "I don't know how many people or Pokémon he can take with him, though, and there's no air there either – or anywhere for people to stay..."

"Ash, the whole world is trying to work out an answer," Steven pointed out seriously. "If sending things to the moon would save something – even if that means sending tens of thousands of Pokéballs there with a few Steel-types – it's better than nothing. And if we can get some Pokémon up there, we can build an atmosphere!"

Steven, Ethan interrupted, as his hologram highlighted the earth-moon distance. Mr. Stone has a suggestion. I am putting him through to you now.

A window appeared, showing Mr. Stone. "Steven – you're at Mossdeep, good."

He looked over his shoulder. "We're looking at everything we've got here, trying to find something useful, and we're contacting other research sites to share ideas. At this point Dr. Akihabara's plan of digitizing everyone he can and sending them to some suitable storage site is sounding like a good one, but I've got another one."

Leaning forwards, the businessman cleared his throat. "Steven, I think we can use the Dimensional Shifter – move the meteorite into a parallel dimension!"

"Nope!" Mega Absol barked promptly.

"...Steven?" Mr. Stone asked, thrown. "What was that?"

"I think Ash's Absol doesn't like that plan," Steven said. "Absol, what's wrong with it?"

"Okay, there's a lot of things wrong with it," Mega Absol said. "Or I wouldn't just have had a massive headache. But the big one is that if you're moving a meteorite into a parallel dimension then the chances are very good that a parallel dimension is going to be moving a meteorite into your dimension!"

She turned to look at Ethan's hologram. "Ethan, translate this please – Mr. Stone, how long does the Dimensional Shifter take to charge?"

"Um, well… at least half an hour," Mr. Stone replied, once he'd heard the question. "Counting the time to transport it into space to get a good lock, it could be as many as two or three hours – and it's not very long ranged."

"Right," Mega Absol went on, tail stiff. "So if you do do this and it doesn't work then we've lost any chance of doing anything else. Right, I suggest another plan!"

"Steven?" Ash said. "Uh – can I have a word for a moment?"


"What did you want, Ash?" Steven asked, once they were in one of the conference rooms.

"Well..." Ash began, and shook his head. "This is going to sound really odd, but – firstly, I've time travelled. More than once."

"That doesn't sound as odd as you think it does," Steven observed. "Your interactions with Legendary Pokémon are well known. I'll admit it's unusual, but-"

"Including back in time from after now to before now," Ash added.

Steven stopped, thinking about that for a little.

"That does sound odd," he agreed. "Did you come back to stop the meteorite?"

"No, it's something else," Ash said. "It's – complicated, it has to do with someone called Cyrus in Sinnoh, but – the important bit is, the meteorite didn't happen last time."

The Champion digested that.

"That's… kind of worrying," he admitted. "Did you change anything that could mean that the movements of comets and asteroids would be different?"

Pikachu sniggered.

"What's that about?" Steven asked.

"Well, we're kind of responsible for the Fairy type," Ash admitted. "Also Mega Evolution."

He frowned. "And I think Mewtwo did something… and there were the Deoxys – basically, it's kind of a long list."

Steven blinked. "I see..."

There was a knock on the door. "Champion Stone?" someone asked. "There's a Pokémon here who wants to speak to you."


I see, Mewtwo stated, looking at the hologram. That is quite a problem – I do not want the world destroyed. After all, most of my stuff is here.

"Can you help?" Ash asked. "You're really powerful – can you just move the asteroid out of the way?"

I'm not that powerful, Mewtwo averred. I can't do much in just three and a half hours – that rock has a fantastic mass…

He paused. But… I think I could teleport a smaller amount of mass as far as the moon. I'm not sure how much at once, though.

"What are you thinking of?" Brock asked. "I imagine you were thinking about going there anyway, if you were going to telekinetically move it."

That is correct, the Psychic-type confirmed. But there are many Pokémon I can think of who would be able to help, if only they could get close enough to affect the rock directly.

"You're talking about-" MacGuire began, then stopped. "Apollo, is this even remotely feasible?"

Clarify.

"No, I see what you mean," Max realized. "You're thinking of using your psychic powers to teleport to the asteroid, match speed with it, and then have other Pokémon you bring along – like, say, Lugia or Rayquaza – attack the meteorite, and use their attacks to knock it higher so it misses."

You have it correct, Mewtwo stated.

"But only a few Pokémon wouldn't be able to affect the trajectory enough, no matter how powerful," MacGuire protested. "There's only one Rayquaza – I think?"

"There might be only one Rayquaza," Philena agreed. "But there's dozens of Lugia, and if we can get hold of all of them..."

She trailed off. "Is that possible?"

"Yes, if we hurry," Suicune agreed.

Several of the scientists, and both Phoebe and Drake, jumped.

"Where did the Suicune come from?" MacGuire asked.

"Ash," May said simply.

"Ahem," Suicune said. "I'm sure that if we can inform the Lugia of the world they will be glad to help. Other Pokémon that can operate as high as you will be travelling are probably a good idea as well – Latias and Latios, for example.

"Right," Steven nodded. "Right. That means we'll need to contact as many of the right kind of Legendaries as possible. What about Ho-Oh, Ash, I know you have one of those as well."

I do not think it would work, Mewtwo contributed. Ho-Oh's abilities involve fire, which is something that is unlikely to work so well in space.

Correct, Ethan said. The air bubble would need to be so close to the target that it would put everyone in it at risk from shards of rock being blasted off by that and other attacks.

"That's a no, then," Steven sighed. "And I suppose it would use up a lot of the air in the bubble as well."

"Then there should be Grass-types up there as well," Brock said suddenly. "They're good at cleaning air, and it'll probably be needed. Wasn't there someone who did a spacewalk like that?"

"You're right," Steven confirmed. "We should see if she's available."

He turned to Suicune. "You're the expert – how quickly can you get all the Lugia in the world together?"

"I'm not sure," Suicune admitted. "If I can work with Mewtwo, we can go everywhere they're supposed to be."

"Hold that for now," Steven said, keeping an eye on Mega Absol – who was breathing heavily, but seemed fine for now. "We should also consider Mega Evolutions. There's at least a few people – and Ash is among them – who would be able to provide a lot of extra capabilities if they were up there with their Pokémon to Mega Evolve them."

"Right," Brock decided. "I think I know what that means – are you going to use the shuttle for that?"

"It makes sense," MacGuire admitted. "It means they have a layer of protection against the vacuum of space – Pokémon with Trainers would be able to recall themselves, if something went wrong, but humans don't have that option."

He frowned. "But what about all the Lugia and Eon Pokémon we're planning on sending up?"

"They're all Psychic themselves," one of the other scientists pointed out. "They could probably help themselves out there."

"How long until the shuttle's ready?" Drake asked.

There was a mutter.

"Two and a half hours," came the answer.

"Too long," Steven said immediately. "Max – I think we're going to need Jirachi's help."

He paused. "That means we have a list of things we need to do. Get all the Legendary Pokémon and very powerful other Pokémon that can help out. Get the shuttle spaceworthy. Collect the trainers of Pokémon that can go Mega – and set up the contingency plans as well."

The Grand Champion pointed at the holographic display. "Ethan, Apollo, can you handle coordinating that?"

We will try, Ethan stated.

Suicune loped over to Mewtwo. "Shamouti first," she stated, and they vanished in a flare of light.

"All right, everyone!" MacGuire called. "Someone show the boy and his Jirachi to the shuttle! I want us to be ready to handle many incoming Pokémon as well – a lot of them will be Legendaries, so there's going to be some media attention as well. And keep tracking that asteroid, refine the position at least once a minute – I want to be able to give Mewtwo some good interception coordinates when he needs them!"


Mewtwo and Suicune materialized with a flash on the slopes of Shamouti.

Suicune dropped two feet to the angled rock, catching herself with sublime grace, and began to sprint around the side of the mountain – jumping from rock to rock, then making a massive leap to land on the stepped path and follow that the rest of the way.

"Lugia, you'd better be here!" she called. "It's urgent!"

Skidding around a turn, she came barrelling up to the main shrine and nearly crashed into Silver.

"Suicune?" Silver asked, startled. "Hi!"

"Hello, Silver," Suicune replied, nodding to him quickly. "I'm afraid it's urgent – are your parents around?"

"Yeah, I think they're at Lightning Island," the young Lugia said.

Suicune growled. "Oh, that's just – right!"

She whirled to face Mewtwo. "I can let them know about it, pick me up with them in a few minutes!"

Agreed, Mewtwo nodded. I will alert Rayquaza of our plan.

As Mewtwo disappeared, Suicune sighted on Lightning Island and began to run straight down the mountainside.

"Suicune?" Silver asked, jumping into the air and beginning to fly down after her – having to work hard to keep up, even in a dive. "What's going on?"

"There's a very large rock going to collide with this planet in a few hours unless we stop it," Suicune summarized. "I need your parents' help for it – as well as every other Lugia we can find, and that's just the start."


"...wait," Professor Ivy said, realizing something. "That air bubble plan – what's going to be keeping them safe from radiation like ultraviolet or cosmic rays? If they're just hanging there in space, the sunlight will give anyone not ready for it sunburns in moments."

"You're right, you're right," MacGuire agreed. "Okay, we need to work something out for that… the humans will be fine, they'll be in a shuttle, but there could be a lot of Pokémon up there."

He turned to the holographic area. "Apollo, Ethan, can you simulate how much of a shield we'd need?"

Simulating, Apollo stated. All the other graphics dropped into low-resolution, fuzzy images as he and Ethan began their calculations, and a large sphere formed – then began to develop various layers or other effects.

For cosmic ray shielding, a potential solution is an intense magnetic field. However, since this is unlikely to be a critical problem for the proposed duration, the primary problem is solar radiation – and for that the best approach is water.

"Okay, so at this point we're basically taking a giant ball of water and ice into space and making it shoot at an asteroid," someone commented. "Might it be a bit much for Mewtwo to control?"

"Not if we send up some Metagross," Steven volunteered. "I've got a Metagrossite, so I'm hoping to be on that shuttle as well."

"Actually, that ice shield idea sounds like a net positive," MacGuire said, tapping a foot. "I mean, by the sounds of things that will provide a useful shield against micro-meteorites as well."

"Are those a big problem?" Brock asked, then frowned. "No, that's a stupid question – of course they are, they'll be making chunks of rock up there."

"Good news!" called one of the technicians. "We've got hold of a half-dozen Leafeon – they should be able to help with keeping the air oxygenated."

"Right," MacGuire nodded. "How soon can they be here?"

"For four of them, right away – they're Pokémon with trainers," the tech said. "The other two are a bit harder – Apollo, can you assign them the first teleporter slot we have free?"

Assigning.

"Two Lugia just appeared on the runway!" called someone handling air traffic. "Where do you want them?"

"Get all the Pokémon over to the hangars," MacGuire decided. "That way we'll know where they are – Mr. Ketchum, can you help explain to them the full situation?"

"Sure," Ash agreed with a nod.

As he turned to go, May stopped him. "Ash – here."

She passed him Venusaur's Pokéball. "She's the best Grass-type we have at Synthesis, so – just make sure to keep her safe."

"I will," Ash promised. "And thanks – both of you."

"Just don't explode up there," May added. "Or if you do, make sure you come back anyway."


"Do you think you can do this, Jirachi?" Max asked.

I don't know… Jirachi admitted. I know my wishes can do things when I don't know how to do them, but this is… really, really complicated.

He pointed at the book Max was leafing through. I don't even know what most of the words in that mean!

"Well, we'll just hope that it works," Max told him. "And I know you'll do okay, Jirachi – don't worry about that."

He looked up at Jin. "How much does Jirachi need to get sorted out? I mean – how should I word it, or..."

The astronaut frowned. "Well, it's already on the crawler-transporter, but I understand Mewtwo's going to just pick it up and teleport it straight into space, so you don't need to move it anywhere… but you do need to make sure nothing's broken and everything's working. That's what most of the preflight is, checks rather than actually doing things."

Max nodded along. "So… if I asked Jirachi to make the shuttle so everything in it was in the best condition it's ever been?"

"That would do it," Jin agreed. "I like that wording, as well."

There was a flicker next to them as an Alakazam materialized, together with Brandon and a trainer Max took a moment to recognize as Sabrina.

"Thank you," Brandon said, as Sabrina and her Psychic-type flashed off somewhere else. "Excuse me – do you know where Pokémon are being sorted out for this operation?"

"Over there," Jin called, waving to the hangars. "It should be hard to miss."

"Thank you," Brandon replied.

As he headed off, Max took a deep breath. "Okay, here we go..." he said. "Jirachi – I wish that everything in this space shuttle was in the best condition it's ever been."

Jirachi's tags began to move as if in a high wind, and a glow built up around him. "I think this is going to be a big one," he said, rising a little way into the air – then, all of a sudden, the glow pulsed outwards.

It passed over the shuttle in a wave, stripping away minor dirt and grime in a cloud of dust, and there were a few creaks and groans as the support struts shifted a little.

Jirachi flopped back into Max's arms. I fancy some ice cream… he said, faintly. Did it work?

"I'll get the techs to run a quick self test," Jin stated. "If it all comes up green – that's good enough for me."


AN:

So, this is what I've been doing for the last few weeks.

Yes, this is Delta Episode... sort of. I've got my own take on it, and that take emphasizes that a rock the size of a mountain is a really tricky thing to move!

Incidentally, MacGuire is somewhat based on Bill McGuire, the master of disaster scenarios in geophysics.