"Seriously, Dawn, that was a great contest," May told her. "And I loved that new trick Buneary has."
"Thanks," Dawn smiled. "Yeah, we finally clicked with it just a couple of days ago. I've been really impressed with how much she can do with it."
She indicated Ethan, whose Pokédex chassis was still out. "His trick was really cool too, though – how long did that take to work out?"
The hardest thing was ensuring my flight algorithms were accurate, Ethan explained. That took substantial testing. Fortunately Grumpig was willing to act as a catcher.
"I can imagine that wasn't easy," Dawn said. "That was a kind of historical thing, right?"
Correct. One biplane, one propeller monoplane, one early jet, one more modern jet, and one space fighter.
"I wonder if that's how spacecraft will really look," Manaphy pondered. "It sort of depends what Mewtwo thinks looks good, doesn't it?"
"I… suppose it will," May agreed. "Good thought."
"Or what Mew thinks," Max contributed. "But then we'd just end up with shiny ships made entirely of crystal."
"Those do turn up a lot in sci fi," Brock mused.
"Guys?" Ash asked. "Any idea how to deal with this?"
They looked over to see what the problem was, and saw Azelf's spirit hovering in front of Ash's nose.
"Hey!" the Being of Willpower said. "Great, I got your attention. Just wanted to remind you guys that I actually live near here, and I thought I'd invite you over. Bring all your Legendaries!"
He paused. "Well, whoever's available anyway. Other Pokémon can come too. Ready?"
"This is a bit sudden," Max said. "You're Azelf, right? You're going to teleport us?"
"Yep!" Azelf agreed, tails flicking out to the side, and they suddenly found themselves in an underwater cave – shaped like a dome, one with an odd glow from the roof.
"The air should be fine," Azelf said, now physically present. "Don't worry, I checked for Dark types this time… wait, where did your Rockruff go?"
"That must have been Zorua," Brock sighed, unclipping her Pokéball from his belt. "Here."
"Thanks, that'll make things much easier!" Azelf enthused. He took the ball, vanished it, then made it appear again – letting out a confused Zorua, now no longer in her disguise.
"...oh, right," she said. "Maybe I should start going around looking like a Dark type, at least, so people know to give me a moment."
She re-established an illusion, this time as a Purrloin, and sat down.
"Anyway, I had a few things to say," Azelf said. "Mostly this is a social visit, because you're in the area and I thought I'd see how you're doing – make sure you still have the fire I expect!"
"Actually, I have a question," Manaphy told him, one flipper going up to ask it. "How do you handle all the tourists?"
Azelf blinked. "I actually don't have a great deal of trouble with tourists, everyone knows I live in the lake but they don't know where. Why?"
"It's about Samiya," Manaphy explained. "Lots of people are coming to visit it now, and I'm not really sure how to handle it – should I just let everyone in and go wherever, or should I do something else?"
He frowned. "Well, the family who live there help, but I'm not sure if I'm making a mistake asking them to help at all..."
"Then let them know they don't have to help," Azelf counselled. "Maybe charge for admission?"
"But I don't want anyone to be unable to visit," Manaphy said. "Someone doesn't deserve to be able to visit just because they have more money than someone else who can't…."
"There isn't an easy answer, I'm afraid," Azelf told him. "But what you should do is keep trying. See if you can find something that works for you, that works for the others, and that means you think people are getting what they should out of it."
He floated over to shake Manaphy's flipper. "I think it's really brave what you've done with Samiya, and I approve. Don't feel pressured to keep doing it if it's really a problem, but know that you're doing good work."
Manaphy blushed a little, smiling. "Thanks..."
Azelf gave him a firm nod, then returned his attention to Ash. "The thing we wanted to check is to do with this stuff about invisible attackers."
"...wait, you actually know about that?" Ash asked. "How?"
"Invisible attackers?" Zorua asked, looking up. "I didn't know about this."
"Zorua, you were one of the ones they attacked!" Brock told her. "And it's not just that they're invisible, or rather… we can see them fine, Ash and Dawn and I, and so can some of our Pokémon, but others like Zorua and Suicune can't. They don't even know they're there… and they seem to have trouble remembering, even if they're told."
"That's… very odd, actually," Azelf said, thinking hard. "I… no, I'm going to need help on this one."
"All right, let's go through the information we have," Uxie said, some minutes later.
Both tails twitched as the Knowledge Pokémon began to list off. "There's something odd about Team Galactic, and they're able to do things without being seen even when they're out in the open and logically should be seen. Their Pokémon aren't especially strong, but this freaky thing they can do means that almost doesn't matter."
"Accurate summary so far," Mesprit noted. "However, lack of solutions evident. More coffee?"
"I don't think it's a good idea to do too much thinking of this kind while drinking coffee," Dawn said. "You might end up with some odd conclusions."
"Too late. Have already had three cups," Mesprit said matter-of-factly.
The Lake Guardian teleported over to Ash's side. "You have Suicune with you, yes?"
"No, actually," Ash replied. "Hold on… Dexter?"
Out of range error, Dexter told him. That glow overhead is a dimensional portal and we're under quite a lot of water – put together, they mean I do not have a connection.
"I'll handle that," Azelf declared, and teleported away.
The Being of Willpower returned four seconds later, this time with Suicune and a box of popcorn.
"You could have had the manners to ask," Suicune said, a little annoyed. "That was the commentary and analysis from father's Appeal."
"...analysis means popcorn?" Max asked.
"When they show clips, yes," Suicune replied. "What's the problem?"
"It's about Team Galactic," Ash explained.
Suicune looked politely baffled. "...who?"
"Confirmation required," Mesprit requested. "Suicune was attacked by Galactic. Correct?"
"Yeah, that did happen," Ash confirmed. "But they've got some kind of odd memory thing going on. Team Galactic is the reason why I came back in time in the first place… we must have talked about it?"
"If we did, I do not remember it," Suicune replied. "But, then… if what you're saying is right, I also do not remember being attacked. I assume it was recently?"
"A couple of weeks ago, at most," Brock said.
"Why didn't-" Ho-Oh began, then stopped. "...of course, you might not have remembered. And I might not even if told."
"Father?" Suicune asked. "Where are you?"
"In this bag," Ho-Oh explained.
"Oh, are my cards still in there?" Suicune asked, then shook her head. "Sorry… what were we talking about? I assume it's important."
"This is going to make things really complicated," Brock muttered.
Dexter's projector lit up, providing reminders in the air – and for Ho-Oh as well.
"Let's go down the list of who can remember and who can't," Uxie suggested.
Dexter promptly generated another screen, showing the people who had seen and remembered Team Galactic and the ones who hadn't. It also noted that all senses appeared to be affected, including scent, though for obvious reasons taste hadn't been checked.
"Interesting!" Mesprit declared. "Correlation appears evident. Two correlations." The Lake Guardian floated over in front of Suicune. "Have you ever time travelled?"
"There was a thing with Celebi… I think that counts," Suicune replied, sitting down and putting her popcorn aside. "We were in the time distortion for several minutes and returned only a couple of seconds after we left."
"Huh, never really thought about it that way before," Ash said. "I guess that means we travelled slowly in time?"
"May or may not count. Needs further testing," Mesprit declared, and vanished in a teleport.
"Do you guys do this all the time?" Lucario asked. "I mean, it's not bad, it's actually very convenient. But doesn't it interrupt conversations?"
"Actually, we're very telepathic. We're mostly speaking out loud because Ash is wearing his hat," Azelf explained. "That's just manners."
Mesprit reappeared. "Asked Celebi. She didn't know who Galactic was. Then another Celebi turned up and told me to stop giving her a migraine."
The emotion spirit's tails twisted and untwisted. "She was quite rude. Told me it was obvious."
"It kind of is," Dawn said. "It's everyone who Ash has reminded… plus you three, too."
"Everyone who Ash has reminded is what?" Suicune asked, then noticed Dexter's handy floating shorthand. "Oh, right. Sorry."
"So Pokémon who weren't reminded like Ho-Oh and Absol won't know, but Pokémon like Mewtwo and Latios will," Brock said. "And it means we'll have to keep an eye on those other Pokémon, to make sure they're safe in any battles that happen."
"Yeah, we're going to need to be ready to return Pokémon like Zorua," Ash agreed. "And Mawile's going to need to practice it with Tyrantrum, too."
He shook his head. "It would just… be much easier if we knew how they were doing this. Then maybe we could stop it."
"Yes. Most peculiar," Mesprit agreed.
"It seems almost like something Uxie would do," Azelf said, wondering. "Or maybe not even just Uxie… it's like the opposite of what we all do to make Ash able to remind people. He lets people know about something that didn't happen any more, this is making people think something that's happening right in front of them… isn't."
"Hey, think we should hang around here?" Meowth asked, looking into the distance at Lake Valor, as their balloon rose into the air. "Or just go to wherever it was Ash an' the others were goin' next? It ain't like they're shy about teleporting all over the place."
"You have a point," Jessie agreed. "How long would it take us to get to… Pastoria, right?"
"Depends on if you can get Yanmega ta tow us," Meowth suggested. "Or if Abra's awake enough to teleport us."
Weren't you saying something about the hero team teleporting?
"Dat's different, when you do it it's convenient for us," Meowth replied. "Dat's convenient for them, and it's also inconvenient for us. Totally different, see? Sometimes those guys are just inconsiderate."
Clearly, Abra agreed drily, floating around to look out over the forested area from the side of the basket.
"How does that work, again?" Audino asked, looking over from where he was putting a frying pan over the burner. "You're floating. How come the basket lifting makes you rise up as well?"
Excellent coordination. It helps me nap on the move.
"Always comes back ta sleepin'," Meowth chuckled, then frowned. "Hey, what's dat?"
What's what? Abra asked.
"Right there!" Meowth pointed. "Can't you see it?"
"No..." Audino contributed. "Unless you mean the cloud."
"Wait, there is something there," James realized. "It looks like a – hey, Abra, stop that attack!"
I'm not doing an attack.
Further discussion was curtailed when a Ninjask went right through the balloon bag, venting air out both sides.
"Ow..." James mumbled, shaking his head. "What hit me?"
"The entire planet," Jessie replied. "I think you can word it like that..."
"Balloons seem much more fragile than aircraft," James said, rolling back upright and getting to his feet – brushing grass off his uniform. "We only lose an aircraft every year or so, but balloons seem lucky to last a week."
"They're made of fabric," Jessie pointed out.
"What happened?" Audino asked. "Did the balloon fail?"
"Something hit us!" Meowth told him. "Didn't you see it? Some kinda… I think it was a Ninjask!"
I didn't see anything, Abra reported. But if we're under attack…
James threw two Luxury Balls, sending out Weezing and Growlie, and Jessie sent out her Arbok and Yanmega. "Keep an eye out, everyone!"
There was a long, tense pause.
"Meowth?" James asked. "Where'd you go?"
A piece of paper drifted down in front of his eyes. He opened it, then nodded. "Oh, yeah, right..."
Jessie leaned over to see, and James showed her – it read 'ninja'.
Nodding, Jessie pointed up. "Yanmega, see if there's anyone nearby. James, get – good," she said, seeing James had one of his Pokéballs ready.
"Over there!" Meowth said suddenly, pointing. Both the others startled slightly on realizing where he was, then looked – seeing a trainer in the odd uniform of Team Galactic, with a pair of Electrode either side of him and a big Probopass floating behind him.
"Where?" Audino said, following Meowth's pointing paw. "There isn't anything-"
"There is someone there!" Meowth replied loudly. "Just look!"
A Thunderbolt hit him in the chest.
"Meowth!" James called, turning. "Are you all right?"
"I give it a four outta ten," Meowth replied, peeling himself off the bark of a tree, then fwooshed into smoke. He appeared again over the Galactic trainer, and barely avoided a high speed mini-nose.
The two Electrodes combined their powers and blasted Abra – breaking through his shield as it wasn't at full strength – then turned their attention to Audino, knocking him out as well.
Growlie looked at his trainer. "What's going on? Why did Audino just fall down?"
"Okay, this is ridiculous," Arbok stated, diving for the floor, and tripped both his trainer and her teammate. They hit the floor with a thump, and Arbok used his tail to open Cosplay Pikachu's Pokéball.
She came out with a flash, twirled, then looked confused. "What's going-"
"Put on something that lets you speak human!" Arbok told her. "Don't ask why, just do it!"
Cosplaychu blinked, then dove for her bag of costumes.
As she did, Growlie got smacked with a Thunder attack, and howled in pain and confusion.
Arbok sent out Mime Jr. as well, and began speaking urgently to the young Psychic-type. "You can use Light Screen, right?"
Mime Jr. nodded, confused. "Yeah, but-"
"Do it," the Poison-type instructed. Overhead, Weezing evaded an attack with a sideways dodge, then Mime Jr. put up a shield.
"Got it!" Cosplay Pikachu announced, coming back out of her bag with a Victorian frock coat and top hat, and a stethoscope around her neck. "What did you want me to translate?"
"Tell our trainers that there's something odd going on, because half of us can't see the Team Galactic people!" Arbok said firmly. "And if you don't know what I'm talking about, say it anyway!"
The Electric-type frowned in confusion, then repeated what she'd been told to.
"Ulp..." Jessie winced. "It'd be helpful if we had a Dark type right about now."
Yanmega blurred past, firing an Ancientpower attack, and one of the Electrode went whack back into a tree. Then Wobbuffet came out of his Pokéball, saluted, and blocked the attack aimed for Jessie before returning it to the Probopass with interest.
Meowth caught the Ninjask off guard with a Shockwave attack, and landed next to them. "I ain't likin' the look of this," he said. "There's some more Pokémon on the way, an' I saw one of those important Galactic types."
"What are you talking about?" Growlie demanded, then looked over at the balloon – which was now starting to catch fire, the damaged burner flaring up. "Did we just get struck by lightning or something?"
"We're being attacked," Arbok explained.
"By who?"
"This conversation's going to take too long," Carnivine said, interrupting them. "We're going to need to get out of here and let the Boss know, then decide what to do."
"Why do we need to-" Cosplay Pikachu began.
There was a crash overhead, and Yanmega tumbled for a moment before pulling out of her dive. She was scorched along one side, and turned in a flat-spin to face the two Staraptor and the Honchkrow who'd been pressuring her.
Another Ancientpower flicked out, and this time the Galactic Pokémon dodged.
"I'm getting a headache..." Pikachu admitted, one paw going to her top hat.
"Everyone get ready for this!" James called.
"Wait a moment," Jessie requested, readying Yanmega's Pokéball, and waited for a good moment before returning her Bug-type. "Now!"
James sent out Moltres.
"Blast us off!" he told her.
Startled, Moltres complied – launching a Fire Blast directly at the ground, and blasting the whole team high into the air.
"They got away," Jupiter said, frowning. "Did you see who they were?"
"No, sir," the grunt reported. "Just their Pokémon."
He listed off the ones he'd seen, and Jupiter raised a hand.
"I know of them," she admitted. "This could be a problem in future. You said some of them could see you?"
"Yeah, but others were just like normal," the grunt reported. "I hit their Arcanine clean, and their Abra and Audino too, but their Meowth was pretty clearly able to tell what was going on."
"Right," Jupiter said, taking that in. "Well, they're gone now, and nobody should have noticed that. Go and get your Pokémon healed."
The grunt saluted.
Jupiter reached for her radio. "Area secure. Begin the operation."
She lowered it again, and looked out over Lake Valor.
Strictly speaking, this operation shouldn't be necessary. But she believed in being thorough, and so did Cyrus.
"I guess that means the question is… what to do about it?" Ash asked. "I mean-"
There was a bright flash overhead, and Celebi appeared with a Gible in her arms.
Ash checked quickly. "Gible!"
"Yes?" Gible asked.
"How come you brought him early?" Dawn said. "Is something wrong?"
"Don't know," Celebi replied, sounding thoroughly offended by the fact. "It's important, though."
She threw Gible at Ash, who caught him reflexively.
As Ash's palms glowed with Aura and he gave Gible back his memories, the tail and forehead gems of all three Lake Guardians flared up as well. Azelf's forehead crystal lit first, then the tail gems, then the tail gems of the other two guardians lit as well – then, finally, the jewels on Uxie and Mesprit's foreheads lit up with the same glow.
The whole process took just over a second, and when it was done Gible wriggled out of Ash's arms to land on the floor.
"...hey, nice room!" he said. "Whose is it? This seems new."
Dawn's Piplup quietly returned himself.
"We're actually in the past," Ash explained. "It was a time travel thing… but I don't get why Celebi brought you here early. This is months before I met you the first time."
Celebi shrugged, still looking annoyed at herself, and vanished.
"Well, that was worrying," Brock said. "And why did your gems light up?"
"That's normal, don't worry," Azelf replied, examining a tail to make sure the glow had died down again, then explained further. "I've got the closest connection with Ash, but we're all involved – the reminding process flows from him to me, then to the others, then back to him and the Pokémon he's working with. At this point, we've had enough practice to get pretty good."
"I can imagine," May said. "You've done a lot of Pokémon and humans by now."
Azelf nodded, and was about to continue when there was an enormous rumbling BOOOOOM – an explosion which shook the whole area, making the shimmering glow overhead dance like firelight, and knocked half the bipeds off their feet.
"What was-" Ash began, staggering. Then there was an even bigger explosion, and the roof bulged in – then vanished like a soap bubble in slow motion, peeling away into nothing in the space of a few seconds.
"Through there," Houndoom said. "If you knock it through the croquet hoop, you activate all four return lanes and you get a multiball."
"A multiball?" replied the Houndour he was talking to, his younger sister. "But I thought I was trying to get hoops?"
"You score two points for each hoop, but this one also activates the multiball," Houndoom explained. "Then you can use your bonus move to roll four more dice, move two of your pawns into the henhouse, and castle."
"No, you're remembering that wrong," Quilava said. "She can't castle because she's moved her rook, but she can build a hotel instead to earn extra money from anyone who has to step on it."
"But I don't need to step on hotels, I've got a railway," Houndour protested.
"You don't, but someone else might," Quilava replied. "Glalie, for example, he's having trouble producing enough ore to make a railway so his only hope of avoiding your hotel would be to roll Yathzee or get a triple word score."
"I think I get it now," Houndour said, nodding. "Okay..."
She knocked the ball through the croquet hoop, and yipped in delight. "Did it! I'll have to remember that next game!"
"It won't do the same thing next game," Quilava said.
"Oh, yeah..." Houndour remembered. "This is what really confuses me about house rules Pachisi. Why did you come up with it again?"
"They dropped all the board games in a pile… with some of the garden games… and couldn't be bothered sorting them out," Absol called, from some way ahead of the others.
"Isn't it cheating to use disaster senses?" Houndoom asked her.
"It's not enough you roll my dice for me now, you still think I'm cheating?" Absol asked. "I mean – aagh!"
Houndoom and Quilava stared as Absol staggered sideways a step, one paw going to her head. Houndour looked up as well, and Glalie came floating over.
"What's wrong?" Quilava asked, worried.
"I don't know!" Absol replied. "And that scares me!"
"Are you sensing some kind of disaster?" Houndoom tried.
"I don't know!" Absol repeated, shaking her head and trying to regain her focus. "I must be, but I can't tell anything about it except all my catastrophe senses are suddenly screaming at me! But I should have felt something this strong coming for hours!"
Swellow arrived, along with a digital avatar of Damos. "I got him as soon as I heard."
"Good work," Quilava agreed. "Damos, any ideas?"
This seems similar to when Absol Mega Evolved for the first time? Damos suggested. Not as serious, but there are parallels.
"It certainly hurts about as much," Absol managed.
The middle of Lake Valor bulged upwards, rising into the air in a huge plume of spray and water and surprised Water-type Pokémon. A wave spread out to the shores, several feet high, and crashed into the lakeside banks and beaches even as the water from the spray plume rained back down on the Hotel Grand Lake.
"What on earth..." Wallace began, then threw a raincoat over himself. "This is awful weather-!"
A Magikarp hit him in the back of the neck, bounced off, and Splashed a few times in a puddle before starting to work its way slowly back towards the lake.
Wallace shuddered, then looked up at the sky.
It certainly didn't look very cloudy. Not cloudy enough for a waterspout able to lift so much water and so many Magikarp, anyway.
He must have just missed it.
"...did you hear that?" Zoey asked.
"Hear what?" one of the other coordinators replied.
"Yeah, it was a really big bang, right?" Drew asked. "Sounded kind of distant, but really strong as well."
"Okay, are you two listening to the same radio channel or something?" the other coordinator said. "Nothing happened."
Zoey looked down at her Glameow, who shrugged and meowed at her.
"I could have sworn..." Zoey muttered.
"No, there was definitely a noise," Drew confirmed. "Came from back at the hotel, I think… maybe Ash Ketchum's just going for bonus points?"
"Could be," Zoey chuckled.
"What just happened?" Max asked. "Wait, aren't we at the bottom of a lake?"
"It looks like the lake's on holiday," his sister replied, looking around in befuddlement. There were seething walls of water around them at some distance, held back by a spiral-swirl of energy, and a few very confused Magikarp splashing on the ground.
Mesprit's tails twisted as the last wisps of the glowing dome faded into the ground. "Most peculiar. Failsafe in dimensional pocket? Was not in the manual."
"I don't think-" Ash began, then a flicker of pink-and-blue light appeared right next to them.
The revealed Pokémon – a Mega Gardevoir – slammed her palms together, producing a massive psychic shockwave which knocked most of the friends flying, then made a symbol with one hand. Her other hand swept around, flickers of light flying off to hit all three members of the Lake Trio.
"Team Galactic!" Dawn realized. "Ash, look out-!"
Ash drew Kari, blocking a Thunder attack aimed at him, and sent electrical energy fizzing off in all directions.
Deducing something was up and that her trainer/trainee was unlikely to be drawing live steel for no reason, Kari stayed quiet.
"Kris, we need help!" Max called.
Apparently Team Galactic has heard of jamming, Kris replied tersely. I'll let you know if I can get anything through.
"Latias-" Ash began, then there was a shoom overhead and an explosion of Dark-typed energy tried to wrap around Latias' suddenly-visible form. She fought against it, pushing the air to physically blow the attack's power away since she couldn't shield against it directly, then used Dragonbreath to give herself material for a Counter Shield.
"What's going on?" Suicune asked. "Why did everyone-"
A sudden flash of bright light hit her, and her nose began to ache. She blinked, shaking her head to try and see past the spots dancing in her eyes, then felt herself bodily picked up by a pair of strong hands.
She flinched reflexively, and Lucario's voice answered her. "Don't struggle, it's hard enough to carry you as it is! Ash, return her!"
"Bit busy!" Ash replied, and Suicune caught a glimpse of her trainer out of the corner of her eye – rummaging through the Pokéballs on his belt with one hand, without looking, and using the other to spin Kari through the air at nothing.
"Why is he doing that?" Suicune asked, then Lucario stumbled a little and an ache developed in her side as well.
"He's trying to keep Mawile safe until he can return her, and trying to get her to return Tyrantrum, and I just realized you've forgotten what we were talking about again," Lucario told her. "Team Galactic is targeting everyone who can't see them, so we're trying to make sure you don't get hurt!"
Suicune frowned. "I can't see them… why not?"
"Because of some odd memory thing!" Lucario told her. "They're after the Lake Guardians, and-"
The ground jumped, and so did Lucario. He lost his grip on Suicune, who rolled once before skidding to a halt.
She paused, suddenly confused. "What were we talking about again?"
Something hit her very hard under the chin, and then she fell for about four or five seconds before landing on something soft.
"Daughter!" Ho-Oh called to her. "Are you all right?"
"Just flash-blinded, Father though I'm not sure why," Suicune replied, coming to her feet and listening to the surroundings. "Where are we?"
"Ash's bag," Ho-Oh replied. "Something very confusing is going on outside, but I'm sure it's not important."
That sounded odd to Suicune for a moment, but she realized that it had to be something unimportant if Ash wasn't calling on either of the Legendary Pokémon literally in his pocket.
Ho-Oh passed her something, and she sniffed it once to confirm what it was before eating it. The Lum Berry Pastry was sweet and cool, and her eyesight returned to normal a few seconds after she finished chewing.
"Thank you," she said. "From the fridge?"
"Yes, the Rotom was concerned for you," Ho-Oh explained.
Ash returned Mawile, and Pikachu used his tail to flip Tyrantrum's Pokéball to his trainer. Ash put both Pokéballs in his pouch, then spared a moment of attention for Gible.
"Can you go in there for the moment, please?" he asked. "Suicune and Ho-Oh can get you up to date on everything except the Galactic thing."
"Okay!" Gible agreed. "Beat them up for me!"
He jumped into the bag, and Ash closed it up. Turning, he noticed Azelf hovering there.
"Why haven't you run away yet?" he asked. "They've got to be here for you!"
"I'm trying!" Azelf replied, then dodged to the side – barely avoiding being hit by a Dark Pulse coming from somewhere overhead. "We can't teleport!"
"What now?" Ash groaned, then turned to make sure the others were safe. Max's Gallade had a shield up, and Geodude was adding a rampart of rock to it – which was probably going to be enough for now – but May was outside the shield, holding up her Key Stone and Mega Evolving her Venusaur.
"When did you get that?" Ash called.
"Just recently!" May replied, as Venusaur finished Mega-Evolving. "There wasn't a battle in the Wallace Cup which seemed like a good time!"
Blaziken sprinted past, aiming for the Mega Gardevoir, and she hurled him backwards with a focused lance of psychic force. Ash adjusted his grip on Kari's hilt, then charged her with Dark-typed energy and fired a Night Slash at the Mega Gardevoir.
A Dazzling Gleam tore through his attack, and Ash deflected it away into the distance.
"Time it together with Mega Venusaur," May suggested. "She'll use a Venoshock!"
Mega Lucario came sprinting over, Pikachu on his shoulder, and skidded to a halt. "Something sounded like a plan over here," he said. "What was it again?"
"That Mega Gardevoir – she must be the one blocking teleporting," May pointed out. She was about to continue, but then Mega Venusaur's vines grabbed both trainers around the waist and moved them close under her – as her whole body flared green, a Grassy Terrain of enormous power flowing out of her and a Petal Dance thick enough to block out sunlight sprang to life around them.
Ash caught a few seconds of what had prompted Mega Venusaur's switch to defence, and he had to stare – it was like a horizontal tornado of purple-black flames which roared and seethed, seeming spiky and angular where they flicked up from the maelstrom. It was unlike any Pokémon attack he'd seen before.
And, just at the other end of it, there was the silhouette of a Zoroark.
Sis, are you okay?
Latias twitched a little, floating sideways, then stopped herself from moving. She blinked a few times, trying to cudgel herself into some kind of sense, and realized she should respond to her brother.
Okay is pushing it… she replied, then elaborated. I can't see very well at the moment, it's just blue and brown clumps.
Let me see, Latios asked, then began sight-sharing. Okay, wow – what happened to you? Are you okay? What's going on?
I kept being attacked by these really odd Pokémon, Latias told him, blinking hard. I'd hit one, then it'd vanish and another one would turn up instead…
There was a sort of rushing sound in her ears, instead of her normally good hearing, and after a few seconds her brother reached out to her again. What happened to you? Latios repeated. You seem really out of it.
I think… it must have been Night Daze! Latias realized, pleased with herself for working it out. Lots of Night Daze, that would explain it!
Just hold on, sis. I'm coming.
The strength of the mental contact increased, and Latias realized that must mean Latios had Mega-Evolved.
You're not in any immediate danger? Mega Latios added.
Latias shook her head. No, I picked a direction and flew in it for a bit, then I changed directions and flew that way a bit as well. I think I'm up in the air, and I'm invisible as well.
Sounds good, Mega Latios told her. Let me know if you start to see or hear better.
Jupiter watched, impressed, as Zoroark's dark firestorm poured over the dome of rock and the shimmering shield created by the Mega Venusaur.
She knew full well how powerful a Pokémon that Zoroark was, and the simple fact that they were able to stop his attack was a formidable testament to their own strength. It was hard to tell which was more impressive – the work of the Geodude, which had created a solid dome made of some hard bluish crystal that repelled the shadow firestorm by denying it any purchase, or the Mega Venusaur who was just using sheer durability, aided by a fountain of solar energy almost like a wide-angle Solarbeam and an endless-seeming supply of petals.
Shrugging, she took out the blaster she'd been issued and aimed. Her Mega Gardevoir waved a hand, exerting a sudden psychic pressure on one of the Lake Trio, and the shot struck Uxie on the end of the tail.
Petrification was instant, and Uxie dropped to the muddy lakebed to be retrieved by one of her underlings. Mesprit went next, and she was about to aim for Azelf when there was a crackling eruption of light and energy from next to the Mega Venusaur.
Mega Lucario burst out of the protection of Mega Venusaur's shield, electricity forming a dense grid over his body as Pikachu Counter-Shielded them both. The black flames seethed, trying to gain purchase on him, but where Pikachu's brilliance touched they evaporated like water on a hot stove – giving him the freedom to move.
Eyes closed, Mega Lucario swept the area for his objective. The Lake Trio stood out immediately, but as soon as he broke into a run to reach them he was smacked in the side – then stamped on. Whatever did it only lasted a moment, but it was enough to form a small Mega-Lucario-shaped crater in the lake mud.
Mega Lucario sprang back to his paws, Aura flaring as he maintained his footing on the slick mud floor of the ex-lakebed, and caught sight of the Zoroark.
It looked… twisted. Wrong.
"What happened?" he asked the Electric-type on his shoulder.
"I don't even know!" Pikachu replied. "It might have been an illusion, but I didn't think they hurt that much!"
"We'll have to stop him first," Mega Lucario decided, bursting into motion. He hurled an Aura Sphere, and as soon as it left his paws there was a wall of black smoke in the way – a wall which was solid enough that both he and his Aura Sphere ran into it, though it dissolved a moment later as the impacts disrupted it.
The smoke quickly returned, though, and Mega Lucario summoned his Sacred Sword with one arm to help him cut his way through. The Zoroark's shadowy illusions formed and shifted around him, protean and impossible to keep track of as they varied moment to moment, and Mega Lucario kept upping his estimate of how much Aura to use. Aura Spheres burst the moment they left his paws, but big spikes of Force Palm seemed harder to interdict, and Pikachu began expanding his own use of electricity to help Mega Lucario gain fighting room. The Counter Shield he was maintaining developed a second layer, then a third, and the two Pokémon worked together to blunt the worst of the Zoroark's illusions.
Mega Lucario would indicate – subtly, by his body language – where he wanted to go, and Pikachu would extend the area of his electrokinesis that way. That gave the game away, but by lashing the area repeatedly with powerful bolts of lightning Pikachu kept the Zoroark from doing anything too complex in the area by simple dint of disrupting it before it could take shape.
That combination let the two of them move towards the Zoroark, the waste light from disrupted illusions forming a constant nebula around them, until finally Mega Lucario lunged with a burst of Extremespeed to kick the Dark-type to the ground.
The ground surged up under him, forcing his attack to miss, and he looked down in surprise. "Why didn't that-"
"He made an illusion underground, or something!" Pikachu replied, and the note of his Counter Shield changed – blasting into the ground beneath Mega Lucario's paws as well, completing the envelope that was keeping them from being affected by the Zoroark's illusions.
In reply, the Zoroark flicked a Dark Pulse upwards and dropped several hundred tons of water on them.
Much to the dismay of Mega Lucario – and Pikachu – it turned out that the water was, in fact, one hundred percent real, with the only illusion involved being the fact they hadn't noticed Mega Gardevoir levitating it overhead until now.
Mega Venusaur relaxed her shield, the brilliant glow from her flower fading, and the petals slowed.
Ash rolled through as soon as he got a chance, bringing Kari up into ready position, and looked around with one eye closed to get a picture both with regular vision and Aura.
The flames had largely gone from the immediate area, and he could see Mega Lucario and Pikachu battling the Zoroark. It was heavy going, and even as he watched the odd Zoroark did something which buried his Pokémon in hundreds of tons of water.
Then Ash was focused entirely on Kari's blade for the next few seconds, as he blocked a shower of wicked-looking spear shapes before slamming her down into the ground to produce an Aura shockwave and prevent shadowy claws from reaching him.
Something was nagging at him, and he suddenly realized what it was – where were Uxie and Mesprit?
He jumped, evading Zoroark's next trick as the ground exploded underneath where he'd been standing, and landed near where Azelf was – the Psychic-type struggling to escape the telekinetic grip of the Mega Gardevoir he'd seen earlier.
"Azelf!" he called. "Come on!"
Ash reached out to take a grip on Azelf, and the Mega Gardevoir gestured violently. Azelf was yanked to the side, away from Ash's reaching hand, and they only touched for a moment-
-then Ash got hit in the chest by a plume of smoky flame, not strong enough to get through his clothes and burn him but with enough sheer force to knock him back about twenty feet. He landed badly, staggering as he tried to avoid a fall, and a lance of pain in his chest let him know he probably had a broken rib.
Wincing, Ash took Kari's hilt in both hands and blocked the next two attacks, but before he could do anything else to try and sort things out Azelf was hit by a shot from the blaster of one of those high ranking Galactic agents.
The Zoroark howled, a sound which made his ears ache, and slammed Mega Lucario back into the ground with a blast of black lightning. Pikachu's own electrical attacks stayed trapped in his fur, unable to cope with the salt in the water that had drenched them both, and the Dark-type dodged aside nimbly from Ash's own Ice Blade beam.
Then the Galactic leader called out a signal, and her entire team vanished at once in a flash of light. Only the Zoroark was left, and between one moment and the next it shapeshifted into a Pidgeot and flew off at imposssible-to-follow speeds.
A long moment later, the sapphire wall Geodude had built around the others crumbled.
"What happened?" Max asked. "We couldn't see much!"
"They got Uxie, Mesprit and Azelf," Ash replied. "I think nobody's too badly hurt, but..."
He winced, one hand going to his rib, and probed it with a hiss of pain. "I think I need the Pokémon Centre..."
"How did they do all that?" Dawn said. "I don't understand the our-Pokémon-can't-see-them thing, but – I mean, I at least expected it! What was the rest of that?"
"They had a really powerful Zoroark," Ash contributed. "And a Mega Gardevoir."
"She's what stopped Blaziken," May volunteered. "I think it was a trick they had ready, she hit him with about twenty tons of water in a sheet three feet thick… I didn't see most of the rest, though."
"I couldn't wish for anything!" Jirachi reported. "I didn't even know you could do that!"
"None of us did," Max told him.
"Shadow Zoroark," Lucario said, making them all look over.
There was mud all over him, including on the armband which held his Lucarionite, and Pikachu's ears drooped wearily from his position on Lucario's shoulder.
"I was getting the sense when I was fighting him, but the howl confirmed it," Lucario went on. "His Aura was… not nice."
"Great," Brock said, summing up the general opinion. "And half our Pokémon can't even see them."
"Can't see who?" Kari asked. "Is this related to why you've been training so hard the last few minutes?"
"...guys?" Max called. "I think this is about to be a lake floor again."
Roland's palms glowed, and he teleported them all away just before the water rushed back in.
A few seconds later, Latias plunged into the water to retrieve Ash's hat.
"Well..." Giovanni began. "I can't say it's the most detailed report I've ever received."
Persian padded over to the desk, hopping up so his front paws rested on the upper wooden surface, and looked at the report.
It didn't take long.
Found the people who messed with us. Handling it ourselves. Help refused.
"I don't recall offering help in the first place," Giovanni went on. "And, I admit, I do wonder why they would explicitly reject it."
He shook his head. "Well, they're good enough at their jobs. Let's see what they find."
Persian mrowled, dropping back to the floor, and walked over to curl up on the sofa.
"Containment established," Charon noted. "Good. Very good."
He looked up at Jupiter. "Anything to report?"
"That group from the ruins was present, with more humans and Pokémon," Jupiter told him. "In addition, there was a group from Team Rocket. In both cases, some of them could see us but not all of them – in particular, the Suicune was vulnerable."
"It sounds like the operation was conducted later than we would prefer," Charon observed. "But if they didn't have time to mnemonyse the Suicune, they clearly didn't have time to do very much. Good work."
He looked over at the three Lake Guardians, their shared containment circled repeatedly by an Apathy Styler, and nodded. "Yes, very good work..."
AN:
Ah. It seems a substantial helping of plot has arrived.
