This is the third of four chapters today.


"Okay, tracking ready," Blanche stated. "Hoopa, you understand what we're going to do?"

The Psychic-type nodded. "Hoopa understands!"

Removing the ring from his left wrist, he spun it on one finger and began pouring power into it – making it glow with an eerie golden light.

"Ready..." Blanche warned, watching the timer. "And – now!"

"Allez – Hoopa-ring!" Hoopa pronounced, casting it out in front of him until it hovered in the middle of the square – at least five yards from anything else. It spun once, expanding to about a foot across, and then rippled.

There was a moment of uncertainty, and the golden light flickered across the space in the middle of the ring. Then, with a shocking suddenness, there was a grey-black landscape visible through the other side.

"Portal formed successfully," Blanche said. "And there's no air leak – great job, Hoopa!"

Hoopa wiped his brow theatrically. "Hoopa has never made a Hoopa-ring go that far before..."

Grinning, the Psychic-type expanded his ring to widen the scale of the portal. At five feet, something moved – an Aron, who examined the golden ring quizzically.

"Okay, everyone, let's get this moving!" Siebold called. "Start moving those supplies through – who's got the Vaporeon?"

"They're there," Blanche said, nodding to a pair of Pokéball Transporter panniers containing eleven Pokéballs of various types between them. "All of them are trained precipitators."

"Good work," the director said. "That's going to make everything work much quicker."


About two and a half miles over the Mossdeep Space Centre, the most interesting thing was a small cloud.

Then the cloud wavered, disturbed and nearly torn apart by the sudden appearance of a giant sphere of frosted ice in the sky – as if a Glalie had suddenly ballooned to the size of a particularly large building.

For a moment, the most obvious things about the icy sphere were the surface – pitted and cracked on the outer edge, as if it were an irregularly patterned golf ball – and that it had a large circular hole in one edge. Then the bottom of the ball cracked open as a deluge of water fell through.

Damn it, Mewtwo sent, sounding irritated. I had hoped that that would not happen.

The ice shivered apart, smashing into a flurry of ice shards so fine they turned into diamonddust, and dozens of tired Pokémon – mostly Lugias, but not all of them – came flying or hovering out.

The rest were collected on the wings of Destiny, the space shuttle, which Mewtwo lowered towards the runway with great care.


"Look out!" Tate said, spotting the incoming water. "Gallade, Reflect!"

Psychic shields sprang up around the perimeter of the runway, containing the splatter of dirty water as the unfrozen portion of the shield came down in a rush. One or two luckless Taillow came close to being flattened by the instant rainstorm, and it took several seconds for the water to finish pattering down.

"Runway, this is Control," Jin radioed. "What is the status out there?"

"Looks good, Control," Tate replied. "We can see Destiny – and I'm seeing all the Pokémon I was expecting. Looks like they're all back."

"Good. How soon can you have them turned around?"

"The new trainers for Team Two are already suited up, so – maybe ten or fifteen minutes," Tate guessed. "We might be quicker, I'm not sure – the water shield takes a couple of minutes, that's the last step."

"Let us know when you estimate a five minute time," Jin requested. "Control out."


"Control, shuttle is on final approach," Tracking reported. "Landing like this is much easier than doing it the normal way – wait, hold on."

There was a pause, then he spoke up again. "We've got a Salamence coming in, and it's not one we were expecting. I'm letting the runway team know just in case..."

"Show me, Apollo," Jin requested.

The holotank flickered, switching to a new configuration and showing the area around the complex to a distance of several miles. Markers showed the flock of Lugia, now landing all around the area, and Rayquaza – circling impatiently overhead – as well as Mewtwo and the shuttle coming down to land.

Another caret pulsed, showing the Salamence, and a much-magnified version appeared next to it.

There is a rider, Ethan stated suddenly, and the Salamence picture updated itself.

"That's good, it's not a wild one..." Jin said. "A wild Salamence could be a pretty big problem if it decides to try and fight – that's half the reason we have a Metagross here."

"So if there is a rider, why are they here?" May asked. "Coming to help?"

She frowned. "One of Lance's dragons?"

"I'm more worried about if it's Hunter J," Brock said, grimacing.

Hunter J is still in prison – I just checked,

"I'll check," one of the radio operators said. "Champion – this is the control room, there's a Salamence rider coming in. One of yours?"

Before an answer came back, however, the Salamence accelerated suddenly.


Mewtwo slowly lowered the Destiny towards the runway, supporting the weight with care.

It would have been slightly quicker to teleport the shuttle straight down to land, but – truth be told – even he, the World's Most Powerful Pokémon (comparison to Arceus pending) was feeling a little tired. The time on the ground would be useful to let him replenish his strength.

Then a flicker of movement caught his attention, and a large and powerful-looking Salamence came charging up towards the group.

"Rayquaza!" the rider called, both hands around her mouth to amplify her voice. "You need to stop the meteorite!"

And what, precisely, do you think we're doing? Mewtwo demanded. This is a delicate operation, and we're trying to keep to schedule.

Looking down, he slowed Destiny further – landing the shuttle softly on the hard standing, then releasing his telekinetic grip.

"But-" the rider started, then shook her head. "But – I mean, you're not at the meteorite!"

"We were!" Rayquaza thundered. "For the last half hour!"

"Lord Rayquaza?" the rider asked. "I… don't understand what you said. I tried to summon you to the Sky Pillar, but you didn't come, and now-"

Perhaps you should speak to the ground crew, Mewtwo suggested, touching down. I know I am.

Turning his attention to the ground team in question, he accepted an energy drink. Thank you.

There was a white flash as one of the space-suited trainers sent out their Pokémon, a sleek-looking Dragonite, and clambered awkwardly astride.

Once there, the trainer took his helmet off – revealing himself to be Lance – and the Dragonite shot skywards.

"You should really come down," Lance called to the trainer. "I appreciate that you think you're helping, but you're far too likely to get in the way."

"But-" the other dragon tamer began, then paused. "Wait – are you Lance?"

She looked flustered. "I thought – but – well, if you say so then I guess I should..."


"The whole reason I came here was because of the prophecy," the girl explained, watching the hurried activity as Pokémon were swapped in, trainers got in and out of the shuttle Destiny, and as several trainers – Ash and Steven among them – handed Mega Stones over to be loaned out to other trainers with the same Pokémon. "It said there would be a meteorite coming in a thousand years, like the one which destroyed the old city of the Draconids."

"The Draconids?" Philena repeated. "I've heard about them – a culture of Dragon Tamers from the Heian period?"

"We're still around," she corrected. "There's only a few of us left, but – we keep the stories alive. And one of them said a meteorite would strike Hoenn in a thousand years and destroy the whole region."

"That's several orders of magnitude small," one of the scientists cut in. "This would pretty much destroy the majority of civilization."

"Draconid, Draconid..." Lance mused. "It was a long time ago, but I swear I remember-"

He nodded to himself sharply. "That's right – you're Zinnia, aren't you? It's been more than a decade since last time I saw you."

Zinnia blinked. "You mean – but I don't remember meeting you?"

"It was a long time ago," Lance said. "I probably looked different, it was back on my own first Pokémon Journey when I was going all over to seek out draconic lore."

"Right..." Zinnia said, still frowning. "That makes sense."

She shook her head. "But the important bit is – that meteorite! We need to use a meteorite shard – the larger the better – to evolve Rayquaza into Mega Rayquaza and let him drive off this asteroid! I heard Team Magma got hold of a meteorite, that would work!"

Ash coughed. "Uh, yeah, about that… we kind of had to use it to stop Primal Groudon and Primal Kyogre."

Zinnia's eye twitched.

"Oh, come on!" she said, then sighed. "Rrf… well, if we can't have Lord Rayquaza stop the meteorite, what is the plan?"

"We're having Rayquaza stop the meteorite," Philena told her. "Along with all the other Pokémon we can get hold of to help."

There was a flicker in the background as Max and Jirachi fixed up the shuttle.

"Mewtwo teleports them up to near the asteroid, with an air bubble," the Professor said, pointing. "That's where the shuttle was. There's water as well – you can see the Blastoise and other Pokémon over there getting ready to provide it – to protect them from the sun's powerful radiation."

"Up to where-" Zinnia began, then stopped. "How high is the asteroid?"

Dexter flashed. Currently around two thirds as far as the moon. About one hundred and sixty thousand miles.

Zinnia's Salamence blinked, then snickered.

"I… was not expecting it to be anything like that high," Zinnia admitted. "In my mind, Mega Rayquaza would fly up, catch it as it came into the atmosphere, and smash it to pieces..."

"There's all sorts of reasons that's a bad idea," Philena said. "But don't worry, you're not the only one who had that idea."

"Lance!" Tate called. "You're going to need to get seated, we're planning for teleport in eight minutes!"

"I'd better go," Lance said. "Quite a lot of the Pokémon going up there are mine or from the Blackthorn Clan."

"Right," Zinnia agreed, then frowned. "Um – would it help if you had a Salamencite? I've got one, but I don't know if I can get ready to go that quickly."

"We'll put you in the third set," Philena recommended.


"There it is," Gary said, pointing. "Okay, Dragonite, land in front of the entrance – just there."

Dragonite shot his master's grandson a look, then slowed to drop smoothly down by the pool of light at the entrance.

There was just the faintest pink of dawn in the sky, but it was still clearly night – dark enough that Gary winced, then swung off Dragonite's back and patted the Dragon-type.

"Thanks," he said, smiling. "That saved a lot of time."

Dragonite chuckled, and let himself be Returned with a red flash.

Shrinking the Pokéball, Gary hurried over to the doors and pushed one side open. "Excuse me – hello, I'm expected?"

The receptionist looked up from a mug of coffee, blinking, then nodded. "Right, sorry – I'm not used to being up this late. Name?"

She fought down a jaw-cracking yawn, and Gary clenched his teeth to avoid doing the same. "Gary Oak," he supplied, after a moment. "I think-"

"Oh, that's who you are! Yes, the main control room said you were expected," she nodded. "Here's your badge – that'll get you through the door reader."

"Thanks," Gary said, glancing at it – and noticing it read Champion. "I'd better go."

"Go ahead," she agreed, already turning back to her coffee. "Why couldn't this have happened at a more civilized time..."

"I know the feeling," Gary muttered.


"Mr. Oak!" Diantha said, making some of the others in the control centre look around. "It's good to see you once more – I hope there's no hard feelings after your challenge last year?"

"No, it's fine," Gary waved off. "I'm searching up Mega Stones for a rematch, though."

"I'll tell Drasna and Siebold," Diantha promised. "Now, director, I believe you wanted to speak to Mr. Oak?"

"That's correct," the director agreed, extending a hand which Gary shook. "Though the reason we want your help has changed slightly – before, it was because your Alakazam had a power curve sufficient for a two-way lunar teleport, but now that's no longer quite so high a priority."

He indicated one of the areas off to the side of the control room, and Gary did a double-take as he spotted a giant glowing ring with something else on the other side of it.

"That's one of Hoopa's portals," the director explained. "We've got two set up – one leads from here to Dahara City, the other leads from Dahara City to a spot near the lunar pole. We've got several Psychic-types there already keeping an air bubble in place, but we'd like the help of your Alakazam to start setting up the more permanent structures a base will require."

He waved a hand. "And, of course, your other Pokémon will probably be able to help as well – we need water, for example, and I'm sure you can help Siebold with that."

"I think Blastoise at least could help a lot," Gary agreed. "Okay, where do you need us?"

"Through the portals, on the moon," the director said, without preamble. "But you'll need at least a basic space suit first – fortunately it's just one for emergencies so we can use something less durable than a full normal suit."

"I'll get that sorted out," one of the other operators volunteered. "Oh, Mr. Oak, I should ask – do you have any Pokémon on you that you don't have Pokéballs for?"

"No, I've got Pokéballs for all of them," Gary replied.

"Good, that's the emergency decompression protocol for Pokémon – they just return into their Pokéballs," the operator explained. "Steel-types are an exception in some cases, as are a few Ghosts who can survive in null-pressure, but Gastly for example would need to be in its Pokéball."

Gary nodded along. "Right, I understand."

"Director, I need more manpower over here," Blanche radioed.

"I think we might need to skip the suit," the director mused. "Champion, do you feel up to that?"

"I have a solution!" piped up a young man in the corner. "It's a specialized variation on the Clemontic Shelter, worn like a backpack – it'll automatically deploy in low pressure environments, and it'll have the wearer inside it!"

"Well, you are full of surprises," Diantha chuckled.

"From what I've seen, that lad could put together a functioning robot out of a toaster," Wilkstrom chuckled.

"I'll take it," Gary decided. "Thanks."

"Oh, no problem," the young man replied. "I'm Clemont, by the way, Champion Oak. And – uh – if you do need to use it, let me know how it works so I can improve the Mk. 3!"


A few crowded minutes later, Gary finally stepped through the Dahara-Lunar portal at the urging of Blanche.

"...well, this is a lot further than I ever thought our Pokémon journey would go," he said, glancing down at Umbreon as he abruptly felt the effect of the much-reduced gravity.

"Tell me about it," Umbreon agreed, raising her eyes to the blue orb hanging near the horizon. "I could just lift a paw and blot out the sight of where just about everyone else lives..."

After a few seconds of staring, they noticed the hive of activity taking place all around the portal site. Three Psychic-types sitting in a circle, each of them maintaining a separate air shield around the construction site; a whole collection of Water-types under Siebold's direction, shaping water from a hose run through the portal and distributing it to a series of lakes forming a continuous, circular chain at least two miles long; over a dozen Vaporeon, darting back and forth through the water and producing what Gary took a moment to recognize as solid panes of opal; two Machamp and a Conkeldurr, working with one of the other Vaporeon to fasten metal supports to the opal glass-planes starting to form the material of a colossal dome; Ground-types of all shapes and sizes busily turning the lunar regolith into soil.

Mr. Oak?

An Alakazam waved a spoon, looking up from pages of notes which looked like a how-to guide on making a geodesic dome. We're expecting you – if you'll let me know what Pokémon you have, we can arrange them as needed.

"Right," Gary agreed, bounding over in the low gravity. "Furfrou, Sableye, Alakazam, Blastoise, Porygon, Umbreon here and Exeggutor."

Nice variety, the Alakazam complimented him. Exeggutor should be out as soon as possible, that will help our oxygen budget – and you should have Blastoise help with the water redirection over there. Sableye and Umbreon… those two should look into the cave system near that small crater there. And I suggest that Alakazam help with setting up the solar panels.

The Psychic-type indicated a pile of crates. There's about four hundred solar panels in there, but we've not had enough Psychics to spare to set them up quickly – I can't leave the shield, that would make it unsafe.

He paused. And what's with the backpack?

"Emergency decompression," Gary explained simply. "It's instead of a proper spacesuit."

To each his own.


"It seems quite amazing," N said, fingers twined into Zorua's fur. "And worrying."

The Dark-type nodded, for once not hiding in an alternate form, and twitched his tail as they watched the news footage.

"They said Mewtwo was involved," N went on. "And Rayquaza, as well – I suppose that's heartening news."

"Yeah," Zorua said, letting out a high-pitched vulpine sigh. "But I'm scared..."

N gathered his old friend up. "I am too, Zorua."

He looked up at the night sky. "So strange to think that something from out there could do such damage to our world. And… by all accounts, while Pokémon have been very important in trying to save us, it could not be done without humans."

Zorua glanced at the other Pokémon present, a Xatu. "About that… you said you weren't sure what was going to happen, right?"

"The future is clouded," Xatu stated. "Or, rather, it is continually shifting. It is most peculiar."

"Is that a good thing, though?" Zorua asked, then huffed. "Psychic types..."

N chuckled.

"Don't worry, Zorua," he said, with a faint smile. "I believe that we will be safe – it would not be just for this to so harm the world."

"You know, I love how confident you are, but that's kind of… not how it works," the Dark-type replied softly.

"Perhaps it is not, but I choose to believe that it is," N countered. "And if I am wrong, it's not as if I have lost anything compared to if I worry for the next few hours."


"Gary? This is Blanche – is the transmitter working?"

"Blanche – right," Gary said, reaching a hand up to his ear. "Yeah, it is – I guess you're patching into Dee?"

"Dee? Oh, your Porygon – right. Yes, that's correct."

"There doesn't seem to be any time lag," Gary noticed, looking up from where Arcanine was busily fusing regolith into glass with red-hot paws – one of the ways the base builders were reducing the risk from lunar dust. "How are you managing that?"

"We've run a cable connection through both of Hoopa's rings," Blanche told him. "The transmitter is within a few dozen metres of the portal."

He paused, then went on. "Oh, the team at Mossdeep just told us they're beginning another deflection volley in a moment – you might be able to see it."

Gary checked his watch. "Huh – I didn't realize it was so late. How long is there left?"

"A little over one and a half hours," the Kalosian mission controller told him. "Apparently this one's their third mission already – something about nearly fifty Charizard?"

Gary did the mental calculation, and looked out and up from the planet hanging low in the sky – using the diameter of the planet to judge his guess.

For several seconds, there was nothing. Then a faint blue spark flashed for a moment – brighter than some of the faint stars around it, but still barely visible.

"I think I saw that," he reported. "Wow, that must be one powerful set of attacks going on up there."


"Control, we may have a problem," Surgeon stated. "Oxygen levels are holding fairly steady, but that burst has caused a large heat spike. It could be dangerous to the orbiter if we don't develop some way to avert it."

"Understood," Jin replied. "Apollo, get me Destiny. Destiny, this is control – we're going to have to avoid bursts like that for a few minutes, we're working on a solution."

"Roger, Control," came Flint's voice. "We are holding off on mass Blast Burn for now."

Nobody commented on how much shorter the delay was now compared to when they'd started.

"Okay, answers?" Jin added, looking around the room. "Professor?"

"Well – can we reach them with a teleport?" Philena asked. "Glacia, you've got several powerful Ice-types, could they help to control the temperature?"

"Probably," Glacia agreed. "I'll get my strongest team down to the runway now."

"Runway, please," Jin cued the Porygon. "Tate, Liza, I hope you have a teleporter who's not too tired down there."

"Gardevoir hasn't done too much," Liza said. "We can Mega Evolve her, that should work."

"Good – Glacia will be showing up in a couple of minutes," Jin told her. "Get her team up to Destiny so they can control the heat budget."

There may be a problem, Ethan stated. This news will mean the Blast Burns are going to be less efficient than we had hoped – our estimate on the delta-V we can produce has dropped in accordance.

Jin strode over to the holotank, watching as the probability cone dipped back into the planet. "That's not good… well, keep me updated."

Of course.

"We need more thrust," Jin said, turning. "How's that plan to get every Zekrom and Reshiram we can find?"

Going well, but already factored in.

"And most of the Pokémon who are powerful enough already went up in the first three waves," Brock supplied. "Rayquaza's still going, because he's ridiculous, but Ash's Pidgeot wore herself out getting the Charicific Valley contingent here..."

"Any ideas?" Sidney asked, crouching down to his Mega-evolved Absol.

"No, sorry," Mega Absol replied. "I'm doing my best, but Ash's Absol is a trained chance-dancer – I'm just not that good."

"Maybe we can give her another go," Brock suggested, after translating Mega Absol's comments. "I mean, she's had an hour or two to recover, and I don't think Ash has any Pokémon left to go up – well, apart from anyone who manages to have a second go."

"Sounds like a plan," Sidney agreed.


"...doing everything we can," Kuan Yin explained, to the camera. "This is a very difficult task, I don't want to lie about that. But we have the most powerful Pokémon in the world working on it, with the combined resources of many of the world's best trainers. If it is possible to save our world, we will do it."

"Thank you, Kuan Yin," the interviewer said. "That seems to about sum up the situation. That's it from me at Mossdeep; back to you in the studio."

Johanna muted the television, and reached out to pull her daughter into a hug.

"Mom..." Dawn began, then stopped.

"It's depressing," Johanna explained. "I think I want to not watch any more – if we're fine, we're fine, but if we're not, I'd almost rather be surprised by it."

Dawn nodded. "Right…"

She held out a hand, and Piplup took it with his flippers.

"We'll be okay," she said, firmly. "I know we will."

Johanna hugged her closer.


"We'll need to bring the Charicific Valley formation back down soon," Surgeon warned. "They're tiring out, even with the sequenced fire."

"Roger, Surgeon," Jin said, wiping his brow. "FIDO?"

"That's confirmed," the Flight Dynamics Officer said. "There's a fall-off in efficiency of their adjustments – that Mega Charizard has been a real help, as well as the rest, but it's getting to the point we'd do better to replace them."

"At least it shouldn't take too long," Jin added. "We only have time for one more operation, right?"

"That's right," FIDO confirmed. "There's not time for two turnarounds and two deflection sequences, so the next one is it."

"Get everyone we can spare out there," Jin instructed. "I want to make sure we get that new water shield built as quickly as possible."

He tapped a foot. "Apollo, connect me with Destiny. Prepare for recovery in five minutes, Destiny."

"Roger, control," Flint said. "And Misty wants to report that she's guessed about the need for a new water shield, so she's going to have everyone she didn't send out for this operation ready to help rebuild it as soon as she's down."

"Much obliged, Misty," Jin replied. "Control out."

He strode to the window, and looked out over the runway – dotted with black-and-blue Zekrom and bright-white Reshiram, courtesy of an intensive recruitment effort which had tired out their remaining high-capacity teleporters.

"This is going to be a close one," he said, looking up as if he could see the incoming meteorite. "What's the current projection?"

We do not know the precise effectiveness of the Vast White or Deep Black Pokémon in making the deflection, Ethan told him. Once they have begun, we will know better.

The holotank shimmered. Absent any further adjustment, the impact point will be approximately twelve hundred kilometres west of Saipan.

"Wasn't it going to hit Hoenn?" May asked, looking at the map. "That's open ocean."

It was, Ethan confirmed. But the force that has been applied so far has shifted the point of virtual perigee south and somewhat east – a successful deflection would see it make closest approach somewhere near Palau.

"But I guess having it hit the ocean would be not much better than having it hit Hoenn," Max volunteered.

Correct.

"Should Jirachi and I get back down to the runway?" he added.

"No," Jin said, shaking his head. "Neither Rehsiram nor Zekrom require human assistance – we don't have anyone to send up this time, so the shuttle's not needed."

Right, Jirachi smiled, relieved. That's good, I was getting kind of tired.

There was a flicker of light, and two Pokémon appeared hovering overhead.

"Deoxys?" May asked, recognizing them from LaRousse. "It's okay, they're friends – I think..."

Truthfulness. Recognition.

Apology for lateness, the other one added. Assistance.

"Are you volunteering to help?" Brock checked. "Then – I think the way you could help is by helping Mewtwo keep the air bubble going – ask him for details when he comes down. Unless you can deflect that asteroid?"

Regret. Determination.

"What just happened?" Jin asked.

"Hey, I recognized those," Sidney said. "Weren't they the things which caused trouble at LaRousse?"

"It was all a misunderstanding," May said. "And it's kind of complicated, too..."

"Yeah, the main thing I know is that I got there a minute too late," Sidney muttered.

"We're grateful for their help, of course," Steven said. "Where's Cynthia – I missed her leaving."

"I think she had to take her Garchomp to the Pokémon Centre," Brock volunteered. "She tired herself out."

"Transfer ready," one of the technicians said, drawing their attention back to the operations section. "Ten seconds!"


The ice bubble appeared out of thin air over Mossdeep, then shattered into thousands of pieces.

Charizard after Charizard came gliding out of the space it had been, as if they'd been coiled up in far too small a space to hover there normally, and as the orange-yellow wings and bodies got out of the way they revealed the shuttle Destiny and a few dozen other Pokémon alongside or on top.

"That's the hardest I think I've ever worked," Ash's Charizard huffed, transitioning back down from Mega. "Normally fighting involves tactics and different moves, not just wham-wham-wham..."

"Yeah," Charla agreed, head drooping slightly. "Where do we go now?"

"Just land somewhere," her mate suggested. "I'm not sure it matters where so long as you don't land on another Pokémon."

A pause. "Or too near where they're spraying water."


"Ash, good to see you," Brock said, as his friend entered the control room. "I think you've been up there more than anyone else."

"So do I," Ash agreed, wiping his brow. "That space suit is really warm..."

Pikachu jumped up, and Ash caught him. "Hey, buddy… sorry you couldn't come with me last time."

"I wore myself out the first time," Pikachu agreed.

"In case you hadn't heard, Mr. Ketchum," Jin went on. "We're currently unsure if the deflection will be successful – it depends on the amount of push the Reshiram and Zekrom can deliver."

Ash looked over to Sidney's Mega-evolved Absol. "Really? Can't you-"

"It's like I said," Mega Absol interrupted. "Yours is an expert chance dancer, she's spent years learning just how to sift probabilities. I'm just not as good at that."

"We were wondering if we could have your Absol Mega Evolve again, actually," Steven added. "Mr. Slate has been keeping us up to date on what Sidney's Absol can tell us, but yours really is the expert."

"Right," Ash nodded, checking behind his back for his staff – still there. "Okay, uh – where's her Pokéball?"

"Here," May said, handing it over. "She came back from Joy a while ago."

Ash sent her out. "Okay, Absol, ready to give it another go?"

Absol took a deep breath, let it out, then nodded. "I'm ready."

As she spoke, Brock looked out the window at the forming water-bubble, catching sight of Misty's Gyarados Hydro-Pumping to help get it formed, and then Rayquaza – flying into the watery orb once more.

The control room was lit by a flash as Sidney's Mega Absol released his hold on his state, then picked up the small Mega Stone holder with a paw and passed it to his female counterpart.

"That is really tiring," Sidney's Dark-type added, rolling his neck. "You don't notice until it ends..."

"I didn't get tired when I mega-evolved," Lucario said. "But, then, I've only done it once and only for a short time."

"Speaking of tired," Jin said, glancing at the clock. "It's hard to believe how much has happened in the last few hours."

"The bubble's nearly ready," EECOM reported.

There was a brilliant flare of light as Absol Mega-Evolved, furry wings forming and her scythe-bladed head developing extra sharp edges.

She looked around, then promptly lunged across the control room and tackled someone.

"Absol!" Ash said, startled. "What's wrong?"

"Brock, say what you were about to say!" Mega Absol demanded. "He was going to ask a question and you were going to forget it – and that would be very bad!"

Brock blinked, looking around. "What? I was going to say, uh..."

He frowned. "I think it was just that it's a pity we can't get Rayquaza a meteorite. I mean, I've seen them in… museums?"

There was a moment of shocked silence.

"Right!" Steven said. "Jirachi, can you teleport people?"

A few people, several times, Jirachi answered.

"Zinnia, you know how to tell what kind of meteorite Rayquaza will react to?" the Grand Champion asked.

Zinnia nodded. "Yes, it's a simple test if you have enough Key Stones..."

"Max, Jirachi, you need to get Zinnia and I to as many meteorite collections as possible!" Steven said. "You have a Porygon, right, Max?"

Correct, Kris stated. Already searching. The closest collection apart from the Stone collection is in Saffron.

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

Jirachi nodded firmly. "I wish I could take Steven, Zinnia and Max to all the meteorite collections we need to go to!"

There was a bright blue flash, and they vanished.


Okay, skeleton is in place, Alakazam stated. Fuse the girders.

Arcanine, balanced precariously on the side of the dome just below the point of the highest secured girders, fired a burst of flame at one of the newly aligned joints.

Good. Next one.

Hundreds of feet below, the Vaporeon worked together to precipitate the last few opal panes. There were already Ground-types stepping up work on the next stage of dome construction – specifically, hardened glass of a special composition, to replace the expedient opal – and Siebold had a few Water-types outside the dome to spray it with water and check for the larger, more obvious leaks that might still be in place.

"This is much quicker than I would have thought was possible," Gary said, wincing as one of the solar panels going up around the crater rim reflected sunlight towards him. "I mean – this is a pretty huge project."

"You've got that right," Drasna agreed, raising her arm to block out the sunlight. "But if there's one thing I've learned so far tonight, it's that Pokémon and trainers working together can do a lot more than they expect."

"True," Gary nodded.

He looked up at the earth again, frowning at how much the opal windows made it hard to see their home world clearly. "I was rushed here in a hurry – did you hear what the plan was for if the Mossdeep team can't deflect the asteroid?"

"Sort of," Drasna said. "I overheard that as many cities as possible will be put under psychic shields – not many, it's quite a difficult thing to pull off and so there's going to be a need to concentrate resources – and then the base here will be one of the points helping to coordinate everything after that."

She pursed her lips. "I believe there was also mention that Hoopa will be using his portals to take as many people as possible – though I do not know how it would be organized – and that hundreds of Pokémon Centres would be pouring Pokéballs through the portal as well."

"I suppose that makes a lot of sense," Gary agreed. "I mean, it's the quickest way to save as many Pokémon as possible."

Umbreon came padding over, favouring one paw. "That cave system had a lot more sharp rocks than I was expecting," she said, as Gary crouched down to check on her pawpads. "I think it's partly because everything's so light here… it was an unpleasant reminder that things can be just as sharp here..."

"I've heard that there's also going to be an effort to get Pokémon into the cities which are to be protected," Drasna added, after a moment. "I overheard that Dahara was going to be one of them."

"Why's that?" Gary asked. "I'd have thought it would be the place that it'd be the easiest to evacuate, with the portal just over there."

They both looked up as the last opal plate was lifted into place, and secured with a bit of extra precipitation from the head Vaporeon.

"Siebold said that Hoopa cannot leave Dahara," Drasna supplied. "I believe that is why."

"If he can't leave, that does make sense," Gary agreed. "And – the shockwave's going to move slowly, so by the time it gets there we should know how much force is needed. If any – it's a long way, so the blast might have dissipated."

He sighed, lifting Umbreon up – easy in the low gravity. "I hope Ash pulls through, though. Gramps is pretty close to that impact point."

Attention, the Alakazam in charge stated. Attention. We are preparing for an air-tightness check of the dome. We will be expanding the air shield outside the dome to result in half pressure outside – please report any areas you notice with air flowing out of the dome.


Prediction data is in, Ethan stated. Assuming that the current deflection rate is maintained, the likelihood is for a grazing impact in the sea.

"That's not good," Jin said. "What would that mean – I assume a tsunami?"

A very large tsunami, correct. Ethan's holo projection rotated, showing the impact area and the meteor blazing in at a low angle – then impacting, and throwing up a huge blast of water as it scoured out a crater in the ocean and into the sea bed.

We are predicting a tsunami wave chain containing seven or eight mega tsunami, with the highest predicted to reach Hoenn at a wave height of over five hundred metres.

Jin stared for a moment. "Five hun-!"

He stopped, and shook his head forcibly. "Of course. Sorry, I should have been ready for something like that. Is there any chance we can do something about it?"

Close to the impact point and in direct line from it, there is not much, Apollo cut in. The mitigating factors would be things like obstructions, or height – a sudden change in height would make a tsunami batter it and lose energy, but a continental shelf would mainly result in the wave getting higher.

The image of the wave train froze, then rotated – highlighting coastlines in shades of red, yellow, green and blue. Redder coastlines are likely to take much greater punishment. Note that some orange-coded areas are facing wave diffraction, and that in some cases waves are reflecting off other landmasses.

Jin winced. "That's… pretty bad."

He waved a hand, and Ethan obligingly rotated the map. "It looks like Alola's getting off quite lightly."

That is a function of distance, intervening islands, and especially that they do not have a continental shelf as such. The waves do not ramp up. Nevertheless, Alola will be suffering the worst tsunami they have experienced not linked to very local volcanic or subterranean slide events.

Jin shook his head. "I really hope we pull this off..."

Alert, Apollo interjected. An unusual phenomenon has been detected by weather satellites.

"What now – wait," Jin cut himself off. "What..."

"Weather satellites?" Brock asked.

"This isn't something going on down at Shamouti, is it?" Philena said. "I've heard the Legendary Birds there are uncontrollable at the best of times, and if the Lugia that normally keep an eye on them are all lying outside recuperating – could it be that?"

Ethan dismissed the tsunami-impact projection, and replaced it with a highlighted map showing a large area of ocean – running from almost as far north as Mossdeep, down to and past the impact point prediction.

A large rainstorm is developing, Ethan explained, data codes appearing on the plot. We do not know why.

"Very peculiar..." Philena mused. "That's certainly not the Shamouti area."


AN:


I was going for something with truly global scale, here. Hopefully that comes across.

And yes, in this story there are multiple Reshiram and multiple Zekrom. If you count the movies as canon – and I do – there has to be multiples of each.