This is the fourth of four chapters today.
"Anything?" Steven asked, skim-reading the collection directory. "There's a second room downstairs."
"No, no luck," Zinnia replied, picking her Key Stones up again. "None of these are reacting properly."
She looked across at the Hoenn Grand Champion. "You said there was a second room on the floor below?"
"That's right," Steven confirmed. "It's got more meteorite shards, but they're smaller – mostly ones which aren't big enough to be interesting to anyone who's not a scientist anyway."
"Kris, can you record the results?" Max asked.
His Porygon's eyes flashed, as she scanned over the room with a burst of laser light. Scan completed, results logged.
"What's the idea there?" Zinnia asked, heading for the stairs behind Steven and with Max hurrying to keep up.
"The idea is – if Kris can get enough – data," Max panted, "Then we can – work out which ones – will work."
"For that it would help if any were working," Zinnia said, then shook her head. "Sorry, I know we just – we need to keep doing this. And I believe it will work."
Steven pushed the door open ahead of them, revealing a room cluttered with tall chests – all of them with several small drawers on each level, stretching from the floor up to head height.
"This could take a while," Max gulped.
"No, I can do it from here," Zinnia declared, taking the Key Stones out and arranging them. "It'll let us find a few."
"Right," Max said. "Uh – Steven, I just want to check… it is okay we're in here, right?"
"We'll sort that out later," Steven pointed out. "At the moment we're doing something too important to worry about that – not if we're not actually hurting anyone or anything."
"Okay, I guess that makes sense," Max agreed.
"How's Jirachi doing, by the way?" Steven added.
I'm okay, Jirachi supplied, wiping his forehead. Kind of tired, but I can keep going!
"That's good," Steven smiled. "We don't want to find the solution only to not be able to bring it to Rayquaza."
"I've got something!" Zinnia said, drawing their attention. "It looks like there's several meteorites just in this room!"
"At last!" Max replied. "Great – where are they?"
Zinnia was quiet for several seconds, inspecting the Key Stones, then turned and opened one of the drawers. "The most powerful one is… oh."
Steven and Max peered in, and saw a collection of small cardboard boxes – each neatly labelled with a serial number. None of them was large enough to hold a rock even as big as Steven's thumb.
"What did you say your Porygon was going to do, again?" Zinnia asked. "We might need it."
"It's kind of scary, watching that," Tracey said, softly, as the numbers on Damos' screen ticked over past two thousand seconds to perigee. "It's like… well, that moment when you can see a herd of Tauros stampeding towards you, and you can see just how long it's going to take before things get very painful for you."
He shook his head. "Except… this time it's more like four hours of that."
Marill sighed, looking over to the incubator in the corner – holding her just-laid egg.
"Don't worry," Molly said, confidently. "I'm sure we'll be fine!"
She stroked her shiny Flareon, currently curled up in her lap. "After all, Ash and Mewtwo are both helping out to save us!"
Professor Oak chuckled, looking up for a moment from one of the smaller screens. "Your confidence is inspiring, Molly."
He raised his voice. "Damos – try a re-plot assuming we get every recorded Ho-Oh to work in clearing up the debris thrown into the air."
Analyzing, Damos stated. There is a definite improvement. The scale depends on how long the Ho-Oh can sustain Sunny Day and to what extent they can clear aerosols, but it would reduce the folding time considerably.
"That's something," Professor Oak said. "Mark that adjustment as tag H, and apply it to the other ones we've already gamed out."
Complying.
"Thank you, Damos," Professor Oak said, pushing away from his screen. "Molly, any ideas?"
Molly frowned. "Well… what happens if you use Rain Dance on a cloud that's already there and blocking light? Does it go away once it's finished raining?"
"Good question," Oak agreed. "Damos, do we have any data on that?"
Searching.
"What about this one?"
"That's it," Zinnia agreed, checking her Key Stones. "Okay, that's four we've got a good reaction to."
Adding the data to the data set, Kris stated. Performing fast cluster analysis… Do you mind if I think out loud?
"Go ahead," Steven invited.
Her physical form dissolved, and Max caught her projector. A moment later, her screen lit up with plot after plot – showing a two-dimensional slice through a multi-dimensional parameter set, highlighting the properties of the four positive results and the hundreds of negative ones.
"Is that what thinking out loud looks like for a Porygon?" Steven asked.
It's one possible way. Good news, one parameter has been identified – all the successful responses were from recently collected meteorites. It seems the decay time of the effect is measured in months or years rather than decades.
"Is that the only thing?" Zinnia asked, worried.
Negative, Kris informed her. There are other properties as well… I am continuing to run cluster analysis.
After several long moments, she beeped. Done.
"What is it?" Zinnia asked. "What do we need to look for?"
The good news is that the effect drop off seems to be based on the size of the fragment – we can get a large usable fragment. The bad news is that they are quite rare – they are much like moon stones, but seem to have become naturally saturated with Infinity Energy.
"Wait!" Max said suddenly. "How like moon stones, Kris?"
Their basic composition is very similar.
"So… if you got a Moon Stone and charged it with Infinity Energy?" Max pressed.
That would presumably work.
"Max, what are you-" Steven began, then paused as Max dug into his bag.
"Steven, did you say your father had something that could transport something from one dimension to another?" Max asked.
"Well, yes, but-"
"We're not going to use that," Zinnia interrupted.
"No, not to do that," Max agreed. "But – that machine can channel Infinity Energy, right? That's how it works?"
"You're right," Steven confirmed.
Max found what he was after. "Here it is! We were going to use this to evolve May's Skitty if she ever wanted to – but this is a lot more important."
"You've got a Moon Stone," Zinnia said. "Oh, I see!"
Steven brightened. "Right! Okay, we'd better get to Dad's lab right now!"
"Jirachi, can you get us there?" Max asked.
Jirachi nodded. Sure can!
"I wish we were all at the Stone laboratory," Steven said, enunciating clearly.
Jirachi's tags whipped as though they were in a high wind, and they vanished.
A moment later, someone came through the door. "Who's there? I told you-"
He stopped, staring at the mess. Drawers open, boxes lying with their contents beside them…
"...ah, great..."
"Can you repeat that, Steven?" Jin asked. "There was a noise in the background."
"Yeah, that's probably the machine booting up," Steven replied. "The important bit is – we're making a meteorite that Rayquaza can use to go Mega, we should be done in just a few minutes."
"Roger, Steven," Jin said. "We'll start preparations."
The line clicked off, and he turned to the others still in the control room. "Do we have a procedure for this one?"
"Not yet," EECOM said. "We never thought it was possible – and, come to that, we don't know enough information to make one."
"Last time it happened, Rayquaza Mega Evolved after Ash helped him," Brock supplied. "I think that's what we know will work, so we should work on the idea it's going to take Ash to help."
"Right," Jin nodded. "Anything else?"
"We need Ash to get back in a space suit," May pointed out. "If he's going to be keeping Mega Rayquaza mega-evolved, then he needs to be pretty close."
There's a few miles of leeway, Dexter stated. The human - Key Stone gap is the one which can cause a quick reversion, while the Key Stone - Pokémon gap can be quite large by comparison. But yes, orbital distances are too far.
"So – does that mean Ash is going to ride Mega Rayquaza?" Sidney asked.
"He gets to do all the cool stuff," Phoebe joked.
"You'd probably better start suiting up," Jin agreed.
"Right," Ash agreed. "But I don't think I should ride Mega Rayquaza – I'm not tough enough to stay on when he hits a meteorite."
Philena winced. "You're right..."
"The lad's going to have to go up on Latias or Latios," Drake stated matter-of-factly. "Well, Mega Latias or Latios. It's the only Pokémon fast enough, and he can hold a shield to keep air in."
"Latios and Latias?" Ash repeated, stopping halfway to the door. "But they're both still tired out!"
"We'll sort it out," Brock assured him. "Get going, Ash – hurry!"
Ash left, Lucario following him to help him put the clumsy spacesuit on, and Jin nodded. "Good. Now – how are we going to get Rayquaza down? Can Mewtwo teleport him?"
"I'm not sure," May said. "But – we do know someone who might be able to teleport that far."
She nodded at Brock. "You still have their number, right?"
"Yeah, I think so," Brock agreed. "Let's see if they're available..."
"Hey, James?" Meowth asked. "If we're gonna land dis thing, how come we ain't done it yet?"
The Scratch Cat looked out the window at the stern heights of Stark Mountain. "I mean, dat ain't the most invitin' place to land at da best of times..."
"Quiet!" Jessie hissed. "You don't want the boss to hear!"
Meowth Clamperl'd up.
"Mmm?" he asked.
"The idea, Meowth, is that there's a three step plan!" Jessie told him. "First, there's the earthquake – we're still in the air because that way the earthquake won't affect us!"
She ticked the points off on her fingers. "Secondly, once the earthquake's gone past, we land in the secret Rocket base under the mountain – and that way, we're underground during the debris fall and the blast wave!"
"Right, I got dat," Meowth said, nodding. "But what about the tsunami?"
"We're going to take off again, of course!" Jessie told him. "That way, the waves will pass harmlessly below!"
"Wouldn't it be easier to just take a submarine?" James asked, banking them around for another turn. "I don't want to find out that the tunnels have collapsed..."
"Mmm?" Meowth asked.
"Yes, you can speak again," Jessie told him. "And what do you think would happen to a submarine in a tsunami?"
"Hang on, I know dis one..." Meowth said, frowning. "Somethin' about how you find 'em wedged at the top of a mountain?"
"Precisely," Jessie confirmed. "Now, does that sound like the kind of treatment to give the Boss?"
Meowth shook his head.
There was a ringing sound, and James reached into his pocket – taking one hand off the controls.
"Keep driving," Jessie admonished, taking the phone from his hand. "Hello?"
A pause.
"Really?"
She covered the microphone. "It's the twerps – they want to borrow Abra."
"Huh," Meowth said, frowning. "Why?"
Jessie shrugged.
"It must be important," James said. "We should let them have him – if he's okay with it, of course."
"Excuse me," Giovanni called over the intercom, making them all straighten. "Would you be able to sort out this Victreebel of yours? It's asleep on the mini-bar."
"Right away, boss!" James said, standing, and unclipped Abra's Luxury Ball to pass to Meowth.
Jessie grabbed at the controls, then realized James had set the autopilot – not being completely stupid.
Not all the time, anyway.
"I'll just get dat Abra thing sorted out," Meowth said, opening the Luxury Ball.
"Looks good, Ash," Lucario pronounced. "All the lights are green, anyway."
"I think that's how it works," Ash agreed. "Okay, what now?"
"Ash, we've got hold of James' Abra," May explained, sticking her head around the door. "Max and Jirachi just delivered the new meteorite, and Abra's going to go get Rayquaza down from the asteroid."
She waved her hand. "Come on, hurry up – Latias just healed Latios, we need to get going!"
"You know this is heavy, right?" Ash complained. "I'll be a moment.."
He concentrated, taking a deep breath, and a blue glow lit the suit like faint witchfire. Reaching down to pick up his staff, he broke into a jog – heading past May, then down the corridor.
"Left turn!" May said, behind him. "Then it's a right and down the stairs – Latios will pick you up at the door!"
"Thanks," Ash replied. "Make sure Pikachu and the others don't worry too much..."
"There," stated an enormous blue Pokémon. "How's that?"
Not bad, a much smaller one said.
Yes, it's adequate, the second small Pokémon agreed.
Now, the third went on. Just keep it up for another hour or so.
"Why am I doing this again?"
It's the logical thing to do.
And it's the right thing to do!
And, the third one concluded. Because we said so.
"Fine..." Kyogre grumbled, and slapped her tail into the water again. The rain drumming down intensified, and the clouds grew thicker and blacker with every passing moment.
Ash! Latios sent, spotting his trainer as the door opened. Hold on a moment, I'll come down to you.
Good luck, his sister told him, starting on an energy drink. I'd be right behind you, but… you know, Healing Wish.
And I'm grateful, Latios replied.
As he finished forming that thought, he stopped beside Ash. Ready?
"I sure am!" Ash agreed, swinging his leg over Latios' back – not without effort, due to the bulky suit. "Okay, here we go..."
He checked his staff again, then nodded and began to concentrate.
Latios' Mega Stone responded almost immediately, flaring into light – which was followed by the now-familiar orange-and-white wave of transformation.
"I'm starting to get used to this," Mega Latios mused. "Funny thing, really."
"We have been doing it a lot," Ash agreed. "Okay – where's the radio controls..."
I'm handling it, Dexter stated. Suit interface complete.
"Ash?" Jin radioed. "We're having Abra teleport Rayquaza down in just a moment. Do you have the Meteorite?"
"Not yet," Ash replied. "I think I missed hearing where it was."
Located, Dexter told him. Kris and Max have it – they're by the Vertical Assembly Building, the tallest one.
"Right!" Ash said, spotting it and pointing in case Mega Latios had missed it. "Just over there!"
"Ten seconds to teleport," FIDO reported. "Nine… eight… seven.."
Out the window, the various people still in the control room could see Ash and Mega Latios as they shot across the space centre campus – the bright blue light of Ash's staff highlighting their position.
"...two… one," FIDO continued. "Transport!"
There was a whump as distinct air pressures equalized, and Rayquaza appeared four hundred metres over the centre of the runway.
A moment later, Abra blinked into the control centre. Okay, that's it, I'm bushed. Night.
"What?" Jin asked, slightly confused. "But that was-"
He was interrupted by a clatter of shoes as May came in. "Did I miss anything?"
"Rayquaza is down and Ash has the meteorite," GNC informed everyone. "We're expecting Mega Evolution shortly."
"What I'm more concerned over is that Abra's passed out," Jin said, pointing. "How are we going to get Rayquaza back up to the meteorite without interrupting the thruster operation by the Reshiram and Zekrom?"
"I have an idea," Brock began. "The most powerful move Rayquaza or Mega Rayquaza has used in front of us is called Dragon Ascent – it's a power-dive or power-climb, not a beam."
"Of course," Philena agreed, seeing where he was going. "You're right, this could work out better for us!"
A flicker of light interrupted them, and outside the huge windows Ash's staff shone brighter.
Then Rayquaza, still imposing even at this distance, began to glow.
The first change came on the golden lines running from his forehead down to his tail. They lit with brilliant orange light, like fire burning under his scales, and as they burned they seemed to leach some of the colour from his body.
Fins expanded. Circles of brilliant energy developed, like gemstones set into his side. His tail lengthened, developing a pair of whiplike sections, and his whole head reshaped itself into something much more streamlined and dangerous.
The lines running along his flank split off, trailing from the fins forming both sides of his chin instead, and two similar – if smaller – lines of flame sprang from Rayquaza's upper head fins.
After several seconds, the changes slowed and stopped – leaving Mega Rayquaza coiling and re-coiling in the air over the space centre.
Then, like a striking snake, he lunged into the air.
"Wha-" Ash began.
"Ash, follow him!" Jin said urgently. "Remember, Dr. Ivy said the Mega Evolution will revert if you're too far apart!"
Got it! Mega Latios sent, almost before Jin had finished the first sentence, and rocketed after Mega Rayquaza. The force of the acceleration meant Ash had to hold on tight, using Aura through the gloves of his suit to get a better grip, and unlike what usually happened when they took off it just kept going on and on and on – Mega Rayquaza was picking up speed at an incredible rate, and only the bubble of energy Mega Latios projected was preventing hurricane-force winds from hitting Ash in the chest.
"...don't… course..." Jin's voice added, crackling with interference for a moment. "...peat, don't forget to keep him on course! Tracking shows he's not following an intercept trajectory!"
I can handle that, Dexter stated.
"Right," Ash said. "Okay – Latios, can you get us close enough we can talk to him?"
"Sure," Mega Latios agreed, a little strain in his voice. "The hard bit is to keep moving faster and faster like this, but I can do it!"
"Good work!" Ash said, relieved. "How close do we need to get, Dexter?"
If Mega Latios can tow my projector, I can take a streamlined form outside the bubble. In that case a few metres should be easily adequate.
"Okay, what's going on?" Jin asked. "Are they trying to fly to the meteorite?"
"Looks like they are," Guidance agreed. "They're accelerating at a pretty incredible rate – they're going to leave the mesosphere in another thirty seconds, and that acceleration's not tailing off!"
"Apollo?" Jin said, turning towards the holotank. "What's going on?"
It was Ethan who responded, zooming in his main holographic projection to show the area of the space centre – and a sphere around Mega Rayquaza, about two kilometres in diameter. It seems that Mega Rayquaza is going to fly all the way to the meteorite – and he is bringing his own air with him. This may be a function of his ability, but he's dragging a large area of sea-level-density air with him into the mesosphere and I see no reason to assume he will leave it behind after that.
He paused, then began plotting trajectories. Mega Rayquaza's predicted path has altered. It is now following a least-time course to intercept the meteorite at deflection orientation.
"Sounds like Ash got to him," Jin said, sighing. "That's one worry out of my mind… how long are we talking to interception?"
Ten minutes from… mark.
"And time to perigee?" Jin added.
Fourteen minutes, twelve seconds, as of the previous mark.
Everyone in the room winced.
"That's going to be a close one..." Philena said. "Where will it be by that point?"
Ethan's plot changed, predicting the course of both Rayquaza and 1992f2. The dots met somewhere close enough that the Earth fitted on the same plot, though the angle of the rogue asteroid was now getting closer and closer to flat and so it was moving sideways a lot more than it was moving directly towards the planet.
"I really hope this works," Jin muttered.
It's better you rest now than you burn yourself out, Mewtwo counselled. You've done a fantastic job already.
Sure, the Victini replied, stubbornly. But-
He stopped, looking down towards where both Psychic-types knew the world to be. I want to repay my debt – after what I did to Slateport, I feel I can't be forgiven-
I know a lot about that feeling, Mewtwo interrupted. And it's good to feel it, but not good to let it consume you.
Victini paused for a moment, then shook his head. I need to go boost them again.
Mewtwo watched as the Psychic/Fire type flew over to begin empowering the Reshiram and Zekrom – one after another as he flitted between them, making their turbines howl as they continued pushing to deflect the meteorite.
"Mewtwo!" Jin called, voice crackling a little. "Mewtwo, do you read? Mega Rayquaza is incoming – you're going to need to pull your team back!"
"I am?" Mewtwo asked, remembering even now that he had to use his psychic powers to make sound for the microphone to pick up. "I'm not sure why-"
"Mewtwo, his relative velocity compared to you is in excess of eighty kilometres per second!" the guidance control officer interrupted. "You need to get your team clear of the meteorite now! Ten seconds to intercept!"
Mewtwo spread his arms, informing every Dragon-type – and both Deoxys and Victini – what he was about to do, then microjumping them back inside the ice shield. That done, he exerted his telekinesis, separating it from the meteorite and rotating it to turn the hole away – incidentally inclining it so he saw the incoming Mega Rayquaza.
Even at hundreds of kilometres distant, the incredibly fast Legendary was shining like a star – a brilliant green glow which was easily visible against the blackness of space.
The Genetic Pokémon spotted something, stared for a moment, then began to gather psychic power again. Deoxys! Handle the shield for a moment!
Compliance, Deoxys-Green sent back.
Then there was a flicker of teleportation, and a concussion felt even through two kilometres of vacuum. Green light flashed through the sphere's protective layer, lighting it up far more brightly than the sun for a moment, and a Mega Latios with a very familiar rider materialized two feet from Mewtwo's outstretched arms.
Mega Latios, stop! Mewtwo transmitted, with enough force that the Dragon-type only kept trying to accelerate a moment longer before gratefully coming to a halt.
"Interception successful!" Guidance reported. "Mega Rayquaza has hit the asteroid. We're getting some problems tracking the results..."
"Is Ash okay?" Max asked. "What about the Pokémon?"
"We're fine," Mewtwo radioed. "Your warning was timely – I did not believe any Pokémon could move that fast – and I have Ash."
"Good," Brock said, relaxing slightly. "Are Ash and Latios okay?"
"Latios seems to be quite tired, but they seem fine," Mewtwo replied. He paused for a moment, then went on. "Mega Rayquaza has shaken off the effects of the impact, and is pushing on the larger pieces. We are getting close to the planet."
"Wait," May said, looking closer at the hologram. "Pieces – it's been smashed apart! Wasn't that bad?"
You remember correctly, Ethan said. However, as so much deflection has taken place, the problem is not so significant. Dexter, coordinate moving the remaining pieces projected to impact!
Affirmative, Dexter replied. Laser marking pieces with greatest impact risk.
The plot zoomed in closer still, until the dots of the Zekrom and Reshiram could be seen individually. With Mewtwo and the Deoxys spreading the air field, the dozens of Dragon-type Legendaries darted out and began pushing hard on the largest fragments of the meteorite.
Mega Rayquaza's symbol flitted from rock to rock, noticeably elevating the trajectory of each one he reached. The scale was still too small to show the Pokémon as anything but colour-coded markers, as the asteroid had shattered into a debris field already miles across and growing rapidly, but there was an attenuated whack through the radio moments after the Mega Legendary reached each of his targets.
"Mewtwo, be advised your rate of descent is taking you into the mesosphere," Guidance said, one hand on his headset. "You're going to start experiencing significant compression heating inside thirty seconds."
Max looked at the plot, squinted, then ran to the window on the south side of the control centre.
"Max, what is it?" May asked, tearing her eyes away from Ethan's hologram.
"Look!" Max said, pointing out the big windows.
A faint orange streak appeared, moving across the sky with tearing speed, and resolved into a blurry orange blob.
"Mewtwo, abort!" Guidance ordered forcefully.
A crackle of interference answered him.
Ash raised an arm against the bright orange light leaking through the disintegrating ice shield. "Is this safe?"
It is indeed, Mewtwo stated, arms spread and a blue glow suffusing his entire body. The energy requirement to provide this psychic shield is considerable, but I am capable of it when augmented by Deoxys and Deoxys.
Agreement, Purple stated calmly.
All around them there were chunks of the meteorite, some of them tiny and being destroyed completely by the energy they were shedding into the atmosphere – ablated away into a fine plasma which dispersed into the air. Others were much larger, and molten pieces tore away as they compressed the air ahead of them and heated it to incredible temperatures.
Victini grabbed onto Mewtwo's hand, and the shield became stronger – taking on a visibly hazy, opalescent quality which replaced the now-destroyed ice and water layer.
Thank you, Mewtwo stated quietly.
Below, there was nothing but the tops of a blanket of storm clouds – one which got closer and closer as they blazed across the sky… then, slowly, they began to climb back into space.
Ash gasped, realizing he'd been holding his breath without noticing. "Phew – uh, is it over? Are we done?"
It seems we may be, Mewtwo replied, as the orange light of aerobraking began to fade from around them. Shortly we will need to teleport down, and-
He stopped. What?
"What is it?" Ash asked.
A moment later, one of the nearest objects in the debris cloud began to change shape.
Protestation! It stated, arms and legs materializing. Destruction of transport! Not permissible!
Silence! Mewtwo declared, tail lashing. I do not care if the rubble around us was what used to be your way of getting around. It was only by dint of extreme effort that we prevented the obliteration of a substantial fraction of the intelligent life on this planet!
Truth, Deoxys-Green stated, placidly.
"Mewtwo, please respond," the communication officer said, over the continuous crackle of static and interference. "Deflection team, please respond."
"What's going on?" Max asked. "Why can't we hear them?"
"I think it's ionization blackout," Jin said. "That's when the plasma around something doing an aerobrake blocks radio. I hope that's what's going on."
"Deflection team, respond when you are able," the comms officer continued. "Deflection team-"
There was a burst of static, and then Ash's voice came over the radio. "Uh, hi, can you hear me?"
Guidance let out a whoop, clapping his hands, and May let out a relieved sigh.
"That's an affirmative, Mr. Ketchum, we hear you loud and clear," Jin said. "You gave us quite a scare."
"Well – we kind of had to stay in," Ash said, matter-of-factly. "There were a lot of bits of asteroid which looked like they were going to hit. Actually – did any of them get past?"
"Apollo?" Jin requested. "Or Ethan?"
The hologram lit up. Some fragments made planetfall, mostly small – a few metres across. By the time our tracking radar lost sight of them, they had dropped to a normal speed and will likely pose no threat.
"So… we did it," Lance said, slowly. "We actually stopped it."
"You're right!" Misty agreed.
No-one was quite sure who started cheering first, but it spread in seconds until nearly everyone was making noise – cheering, laughing, clapping and just generally expressing their profound relief that they'd won.
"Uh… we might have a problem, though," Ash added, making the command team switch back to paying attention to him. "It kind of seems like Mewtwo, Mega Rayquaza, and the Deoxys from the meteorite are in a shouting match."
"Can you repeat that, Ash?" Jin asked. "A Deoxys in the meteorite?"
"Yeah, Mewtwo's saying he shouldn't have been driving an asteroid near an inhabited planet without a license," Ash said. "But he's talking about how he double-checked his course? And the Deoxys we met in LaRousse are trying to say something too, but it's kind of hard to understand..."
"Only you, Ash..." Misty said, shaking her head with a chuckle.
"I think I understand," Gary said, walking carefully towards the portal in the light gravity. "So the team at Mossdeep did manage to deflect the asteroid? I saw a huge flash of light a few minutes ago..."
"Yes, that's what Blanche said," Siebold agreed. "It was a close-run thing, though, that's what they're telling us – there were about fifteen kilometres in it."
Gary whistled.
"When he said it at first, it sounded like a long way," Siebold admitted. "Until Blanche worked it out for me, and he said it was like a bullet missing your head by about half a millimetre if it was fired from fifteen kilometres away."
"Yeah, by the standards of space that's… no distance at all," Gary confirmed.
He waved a hand around at the dome – half of it still made of shimmering opal, the other half augmented with much sturdier armour glass. "Any idea what's going to happen to this?"
"I've heard that Ariadospace is going to keep it going," Siebold said. "It would be kind of foolish to just abandon it now that it's finished, and even if we can't rely on Hoopa to get here a few powerful Psychic types will do the same."
He reached the glittering golden ring, and waved Gary through. "After you."
"Thanks," Gary replied, and double-checked he'd returned all his Pokémon before stepping through.
As he got to the threshold itself, there was a slight breeze – equalizing air pressure – and then something went floomph and Gary abruptly found himself sprawled on his side, in full Earth gravity, inside a rapidly inflating tent.
"Don't worry!" came a young voice from outside, muffled by the fabric. "I think I know what went wrong with it!"
Gary sighed.
"...and it looks like the heat pulse was mostly diverted by that thunderstorm," Professor Ivy said, looking up from the screen. "Very little of the light got through to the ground, so the pulse didn't set anything on fire, and quite a lot of the heat energy got reflected out into space – and most of the asteroid fragments didn't drop into the atmosphere, they just continued their orbit. So we shouldn't see a return visit in the short term."
"It sounds like we dodged a bullet," Kuan Yin said, with a relieved sigh.
"What about that Deoxys you reported?" Steven asked, looking up at Mewtwo. "That was quite… unexpected."
Indeed, Mewtwo stated. However, in subsequent conversation, it was determined that the initial path he set the asteroid on was not intended to come on close approach to Earth – just take up a periodic orbit. Since his description of our planet includes what seems like ice caps, he has been on this course for a long time.
"So… it wasn't his fault?" Sidney asked, snapping his fingers. "That's ridiculous!"
Karen shook her head. "It'd at least be nice if we had someone to blame, in a way. That way we'd know it wouldn't happen again."
"Speaking of that," Jin interrupted. "We're planning on setting up a full skywatch system – the lunar base is going to help with that."
Several of the assembled trainers looked at him, confused.
"Lunar base?" Misty repeated. "I must have missed something."
"It's what Ariadospace were doing," Jin explained succinctly. "They finished it before the atmospheric transit."
He shook his head. "Anyway, the important bit is – we shouldn't lose sight of what we all did today. Ladies, gentlemen, Pokémon… we saved the world today."
Lance nodded. "Well said, Jin. Will we need to worry about this asteroid again?"
"No, the aerobrake changed its orbit," Jin replied, glancing over at Apollo's screen. "Wow, I already miss the holotank… anyway, the fragments are predicted to go all over the place, but none of the ones that are left that will stay in Earth-crossing orbits are large enough to do more than cause a bit of inconvenience. Rayquaza really did a number on it."
"It's a pity he left," Steven said. "I'd have rather thanked him personally."
"I'll tell him," Zinnia volunteered. "I'm going to try and find him… I spent years looking, it seems right that I should keep doing it."
Lance shook her hand. "Well, if you're ever in Johto or Kanto, stop by Blackthorn. We'll be glad to have you over."
In truth, that is the most troubling aspect of all this, Mewtwo agreed. Not that it happened, but that we did not see it coming.
"I know," Ash sighed. "But… we've changed so many things – a lot of times – and it's hard to know which one could have done this."
He ticked off on his fingers. "The time travel thing with Arceus. The other time travel thing with Arceus. That time that we accidentally created the Fairy-type..."
"Or that time you moved a bit of comet around," May said, nodding to Mewtwo. "Or it could be that Deoxys..."
Suffice it to say that we have more options than answers, Mewtwo summarized.
"Sadly, that's pretty much our usual state," Pikachu quipped.
He flicked his tail back and forth. "Next time something like this happens… I want to be there with you, Ash. I know I couldn't help, but… it was scary, being stuck on the ground and watching you go into danger."
"I know," Ash replied, plucking his best friend off his shoulder and giving him a hug. "It's how I feel whenever you go into a really nasty fight."
"At least I can shoot things with lightning until they stop moving," Pikachu pointed out.
"That's kind of what we were trying, too," Ash said. "Just… less lightning, and more… everything else."
AN:
And that was the Delta Episode.
The next chapter is going to be... well, the aftermath of the Delta Episode.
EDIT: since people have been complaining about it (quite swearily, in some cases, despite not being logged in so I can reply) - here's my justification for why there's more than one Reshiram or Zekrom.
It's canon. It has to be, if you accept the movies (and I do).
So:
In the Victini movie, we know for sure that at least one of Reshiram and Zekrom was sealed away for a thousand years and only unsealed during the film.
And in the Hoopa movie, we know for sure that Hoopa summoned both a Reshiram and a Zekrom to fight him in Dahara a hundred years ago.
Thus, there's more than one of at least Reshiram or Zekrom.
This also handles another potential plothole - at the start of BW Ash and Pikachu met a Zekrom, but if it was Zekrom who was sealed in the Victini movie then that can't be that Zekrom... and if it's Reshiram who was sealed away for a thousand years in the Victini movie, then that Reshiram can't be the one which encountered N as a child.
Either way, the Reshiram/Zekrom in Victini and Reshiram/Zekrom cannot be the only one.
