This is the third of four chapters today.


"How are you holding up, Mimey?" Brock asked, as his Key Stone glowed.

"Fine, fine, fine, fine, fine!" Mimey answered. His hands waved back and forth a little, reinforcing the walls of solid psychic force before making a pushing motion, and he turned to look back at Brock. "A few nasty attacks have come in, but I've stopped them all so far – I'm using a flowing shield trick, where I solidify a wall and then push it out so I can build another one behind it."

"Interesting," Brock replied. "Where did you get that from?"

"Repairing a vacuum cleaner without getting all dusty! It's a long story."

"Okay, this is going to hurt a little," Meganium said behind them. "When you take in the Heal Pulse, it's going to reseat your rib."

"I know," Aaron's Lucario replied. "I am ready."

"Good," Meganium replied. "One, two, three."

Lucario gasped, his muscles tensing up, then relaxed. "That… somehow I expected you to surprise me and do it on one."

"That trick's too popular now, everyone knows it," Meganium advised him. "So I just do it pretty much randomly."

She looked around. "Dragon? What's the report on Togekiss?"

Likely primary cause of injury: wrenched wing due to attempt at flight while ensnared, Dragon reported. The injury can be healed, but she will not be able to fly as well as she could for a while.

"Then she's not going back out into battle," Meganium ruled, and cut off Togekiss' protests with a prehensile vine. "No. We're not going to play games with your health like that, and if you tried to dodge in a way you thought you could but can't any more you could be hit by friendly attacks, let alone enemy ones."


What I want to know is, where did they get their hands on all this military hardware? Lugia asked.

Not sure, Mega Latios replied, twisting and skidding around in a turn – trying to get out of range of the Ice Beams the Shadow Articuno was firing at him. The Mecha Zekrom did its best to distract Shadow Articuno with powerful electric attacks, supplemented by help from Mega Charizard and Lugia himself, but it seemed as though Shadow Articuno was getting more comfortable with throwing around enormous amounts of Ice-typed energy – Sheer Cold style cold-snaps flashed out every few seconds, sapping the energy from some attacks and trapping the others in ice that crystallized out of the air.

Mega Latias made a reckless close pass, barely escaping having ice form all over her wings, but the powerful psychic attack coming out of stealth did what the others could not and knocked Shadow Articuno off course from pursuing her brother.

Maybe they just literally walked in and stole it? Mega Latios suggested, checking on his shield for a moment, then saw a puff of smoke from the ground. Look out, missiles!

At least half a dozen big modern surface-to-air missiles lanced up into the air, and Mega Latios struck quickly – firing out a blast of Dragonbreath, which hit one and destroyed the drive stage, then turning to try and get out of the way.

A second wave of missiles launched from the other side of the area Galactic had originally set up in, splitting apart to home in on different targets, and then all the Pokémon were focused mostly on their own safety – trying to avoid the quick-manoeuvering missiles, wrapping themselves in Counter Shield while they flew as quickly as possible.

As the slowest, Lugia opted for a different approach. He firmed up his personal psychic shielding, hovering and turning in mid-air so he could face down towards one of the rising missiles, and destroyed it with a sharp shotgun-blast attack derived from Aeroblast. The other two that had targeted him arrived at the same moment, smashing into the shield and detonating with enough force to knock him backwards in the sky – then Shadow Articuno got him, slamming him with a Blizzard before wrapping him in the incredible cold of her Shadow Chill.

"Lugia!" Mega Latios called, swerving around to help out, then jumped as an explosion went off close enough to make his ears ring.

The Mecha Latios flew past and down, a chunk missing from the wing, then swerved around and launched flares. The last missile up, one aiming for the Mecha Kyurem, switched targets – peppered by the white-light point-defence lasers mounted to the Kyurem, but not stopped by them – and detonated next to the Mecha Latios as well, slewing it sideways and sending it crashing towards the ground.

There was a foomp and Jessie's Dustox ejected from the cockpit, accompanied by a blue-and-pink Porygon, and the mecha itself hit with a splintering crunch – the sound a kind of counterpoint as Lugia was snatched out of the air by a red recall beam, just before hitting the ground.


Shaking out her wings, Dustox winced. "Okay, that was definitely a good idea, but it didn't feel like it."

She glanced up at Mega Latios, still fighting thanks to her interception of the missile aimed at him, then back down at Apollo. "Nice work with the flares. You got any other tricks?"

I can point you over there, you will be helpful, Apollo replied, flashing up an arrow on his body for a moment. Then a high-speed rock came flicking up at them from the ground, and he blocked it with a Reflect screen.

Below them, May's Glaceon did something – icecrafting a tower with a quick Ice Beam that flicked back and forth like a weaver's shuttle, then skating up the tower to the peak. She stayed there for only a moment before sliding back down again, but that moment was long enough for a blast of water to come crashing out and hit one of the nearby Galactic Pokémon.

Wondering what was up with that, Dustox rolled sideways – noticing that Apollo had switched to forming a kind of virtual armour over her wings and body – then reached the area he'd pointed her at.

"Good to see you," Beautifly said. "Hey, can you use a few powder moves? We're trying to get as much of it into the air as possible."

"Sure," Dustox replied, flapping her wings and sending out a Poisonpowder. That was followed by a Stun Spore, then a Sleep Powder, and Beautifly and Butterfree contributed more of their own as well – building up a kind of haze, hidden in the shadow of one of the still-standing pillars.

"Okay, that looks good!" Butterfree called. "Let's do this! Crobat, any good targets?"

"Yeah, over there," Crobat replied, dropping down from the head of the pillar where he'd been observing the Galactic side of the Spear Pillar's contained space. "Croagunk took a hit from that Bronzor, but he's out now, and he took the others with him – so we can send it over there."

"Good," Butterfree said. "Apollo, you have a Fire move, right?"

I do not, but I can provide one. Babbage's Mecha Reshiram is still flying, or I can emulate something with Mimic.

"Go with that second one," the Bug-type decided. "Okay, here we go!"

He flapped his wings, and the other two synchronized with him – building up a Quiver Dance, increasing their speed and agility, until on an unseen signal they all moved at once. The cloud came with them, following in the eddies their wings produced at the point where all three slipstreams overlapped, and Apollo reconfigured his vectors for maximum speed and shot up into the sky towards Mega Charizard.

Antennae glowing, Butterfree psychically slapped away the first Rock Throw that came their way. There was a brief blur of interference as Mars' Bronzor tried to knock them away, but then Beautifly nodded sharply. "Now!"

They all backflipped, beating their wings once in unison, and the mix of powders and poisons shot forwards. Bronzor levitated higher, right up through it, rather than try and push it away or go around, and Butterfree smirked.

"Bang," he said, and Apollo rocketed back down with Flare Blitz. He pierced through the cloud like an awl, and the whole thing exploded.

The overpressure knocked some of the Galactic Pokémon flying, and Mars' Purugly was directly beneath the blast; her Bronzor was slightly above the centre of the explosion, but got hit directly by the Flare Blitz and knocked into Saturn's Bronzor with a loud clang.

"Nice," Dustox judged. "Though we should probably fly for it now."


"Okay, ready for another one?" Glaceon checked.

"Yeah, I'm ready," Skitty said. She crossed her eyes, blowing on her nose a bit. "I'm, like, Assisting so much it's getting crazy!"

"Guess it is," Glaceon agreed, chuckling. "I haven't really been able to tell what half of them are properly. Okay, hold on tight."

She curled her tail around Skitty's tail, and exhaled sharply – summoning cold to her paws, and beginning to skate along the ground.

Appearing in the same place every time would be a very bad idea – it would let their opponents know exactly where the feline-vulpine duo were going to turn up every time, not to mention it wouldn't get great Contest points – so Glaceon skated them off to the side a little, picking somewhere more-or-less at random before accelerating.

Inhaling for a Blizzard, she produced an icy ramp and skated up it. As she reached the top, she flung Skitty in the air to give her line of sight for using the Assist ball the Normal-type was already preparing.

Skitty was just about at the apex when the ball burst – and a startling orange glow enveloped her, holding her in place without letting her drop back to the catching ramp Glaceon had created. Energy surged into her and through her, more than anything she'd experienced before, and then out again in an intense pulse it was almost impossible to aim or direct.

The orange light rose to the very apex of the pocket-reality that was the Spear Pillar, arcing gradually downwards, then exploded in a flash and became a dozen streaks of pink light – streaks that blazed like lightning bolts, screaming like express trains and falling to the ground at incredible speed.

For a moment, the fighting all but stopped as everyone looked around to see the unbelievable ferocity of the attack – or get out of the way, as the uncontrolled barrage marched across the Spear Pillar almost at random. Each one exploded violently as it hit something, one of them sheering off the turbine tail of the Mecha Reshiram and another slamming Mega Latias into the ground from the recoil as it hit her shield, while a third blew the Shadow Alakazam bodily into the air and a fourth shattered the unused one of Galactic's Red Chains.

Skitty collapsed back to the ground with a thud, and Glaceon picked her gently off the ice ramp she'd landed on.

"Like… ow?" Skitty managed. "What, like… happened?"

"Good question," Glaceon replied. "But let's get you help first."

She crouched and sprang, an icy trail appearing below her paws, and headed towards the medical section.


"What was that?" Zoey asked, blinking. "I… don't think I've ever seen anything like that attack."

She looked down at Rooster. "Is that anything you're familiar with?"

As an Assist-generated attack, it should be one which is normally used by one of Skitty's teammates, Rooster told her. However, no good match can be found for what that attack was.

"That's just bizarre," Zoey summarized, then exhaled in relief as she spotted Mega Latias rising back into the air – carrying Cacturne in her arms, and her shield blocking an Ice Beam attack from the ground before she spun and boosted for the area under friendly control. "Phew, I was worried about her..."

Shaking her head, Zoey checked on the Pokémon she was working with – Buizel was still up and fighting, now helping Misty out, while Staraptor had been sent in no uncertain terms to the medical area, and Torterra-

Something came blurring in towards her, and Zoey dove to the floor without thinking about it – the attack whistling over her head, and pinging off the wall. There was a hard clatter as her earbud fell out, rolling off across the glassy surface, and she gasped for a moment at her lack of breath.

Sableye! Rooster warned, and Zoey rolled over to see – lying on her back would be just as safe as lying on her front. She spotted the Ghost-type, readying a second Power Gem attack in its claws.

A swirl of sand appeared in front of her, blocking her view, and there was a rocky thump as the Power Gem bounced off it.

"Gliis," Ash's Gliscor said, her voice stern, and Zoey blinked – already missing the simultaneous translation she'd been getting from Rooster's earbud. "Cor!"

The sand eddied and then pounced, sweeping down around Sableye, and Gliscor dove through it with her claws raised to X-Scissor the half-Ghost Pokémon.

Wincing, Zoey retrieved the earbud and put it back in – tapping it once to check it was working.

Testing, Rooster stated, and Zoey nodded.

"Thanks," she said, then, directing it towards Gliscor.

"I think it must have snuck through Mewtwo's shields while phased out," Gliscor judged. "I'll go and tell Noctowl to start doing Foresight sweeps in case any other Ghosts do."

She patted Zoey on the shoulder. "Cool reactions, by the way! That was really good."

"Thanks," Zoey said again, not sure what else to say. "I… guess I understand even more what Dawn was going through now?"


Kari glowed a pale green as Ash pushed Aura into her, powering her up with Leaf Blade. The shimmering green energy made his strikes a little faster, allowing him to keep up with blocking the near-continual rain of Bone Rush strikes Shadow Lucario was raining down on him.

Each of the Aura-construct weapons was lasting maybe one or two exchanges of blows before shattering, and Ash's arms ached a little despite Aura reinforcement – the wells of energy in his storage stones letting him keep up the fight for this long.

He stepped back a pace, then another, steadily giving ground to avoid being overwhelmed, and crackling purplish shards of shattered faux-bone fell all around him as Shadow Lucario kept up the assault.

Then, between one step and the next, the shadowed Fighting-type switched from using Bone Rush to close-combat. Both paws came darting in, and Ash swung Kari to block one with an audible krung.

The other whipped past his side at a distance of less than an inch, the seething shadow energy getting close enough to part some of the threads on his clothes, and he twisted away from the forepaw and kicked out at it – just in time, knocking it away as the Shadow Lucario formed an Aura Sphere before smashing it into a cloud of seekers.

Ash pushed hard, swinging Kari across to force Shadow Lucario away, and switched from Leaf Blade to Secret Sword – moving his Honedge in a blurring golden pattern which intercepted every last one of the seeker spheres in the less-than-a-second before Shadow Lucario closed back in with a Force Palm spike. The attack hit a Protect shield Ash raised over his left arm, knocking the main force of it away, and Ash followed up by turning his Secret Sword into a Secret Sword beam.

The impact knocked Shadow Lucario bodily away with a bright flash as the wave of golden-bronze Aura met the seething shadow energy covering Lucario's torso, and he flipped over twice before landing with a scrape of metal claws against glassy substrate.

Crawdaunt advanced up to Ash's side, claws ready, and activated both shellsabers. "Now..."

There was a long moment of silence, as the Shadow Lucario began gathering Aura again.

"Sorry, I've got nothing," Crawdaunt admitted. "I don't do well with good guy quips."

Apparently taking that as a signal, the Shadow Lucario hurled a beam of sunlight at Crawdaunt – which deflected off his crossed shellsabers, flashing up towards the roof of the contained space – then charged back in, flinging two wicked blades of air at Ash before creating two more in his paws and attacking with both at once.


"Yah!" Manaphy announced, waving his flippers. Water pooled around him and around Kingler, then part of it shattered into hundreds of individual tiny droplets – just as the Shadow Zoroark sent a wave of shadow at them which transformed into a Thunderbolt attack.

The voltage blew away the cloud of droplets, but in doing so it expended itself – and Manaphy replenished the water in a trice.

"Okay, now!" he added, and Kingler raised both of his claws. A bubble of water enveloped them both, and Kingler swivelled the appendages once each – producing a faint double click.

Then he closed them, one fractionally ahead of the other.

A twinned Crabhammer pulse burst out through the water, and Manaphy used the force of it to accelerate some of his water to a much higher speed than he could normally manage – sending out a horizontal spray across the whole area.

Shadow Zoroark flinched, then screeched, and most of the shadowstuff it was shaping into weapons or attacks dissolved under the pressure. It hung there for a moment, like purple smoke rather than the more solid material it had been, then began to reform again – and Kingler's pincers slammed closed a second time.

Manaphy kept shifting the water around in other ways as well, shaping lances and other fluid projectiles to keep the Shadow Zoroark busy. The Dark-type Pokémon howled, flinging waves of darkness at Manaphy, and then got blindsided and tackled by Casper.

The Water-type legendary relaxed a little, and panted. "Wow, that was hard to keep up..."

"I think it was very impressive," Kingler assured him.


"How is it looking?" Charon asked. "Are those cross-links in place?"

"Yes, sir," one of his assistants reported. "We're ready to begin the power transfer."

"Good," Charon replied.

Cyrus walked over, unflinching despite the continual rumble and boom of the fighting still going on. "Charon. Are we on schedule?"

"A bit behind, I'm afraid," Charon told him. "The event horizon has crossed over into stability, so we can begin feeding additional power in, but we've only just got the storage equipment hooked back up after the incident earlier. It would have helped more if we had Giratina to aid us as well, but..."

"Of course," Cyrus said, accepting the point. "Then begin the transfer as soon as possible."

Charon hurried to comply. "All right, switching in the generators."

A relay went clack, and the dimensional flux generators began to spool up.

"So what do those things actually do, anyway?" Saturn asked, looking over at them as they began to thrum.

"They're based off the same principle as antigravity," Charon answered absently, as he linked in power reservoirs one and two and a blue glow developed. "Just adapted to provide space warping energy instead of mere antigravity; using them here we'll be able to force the gate open faster."

He examined his console. "There we go… hmm. That's strange-"

A rock bounced across the glassy floor towards him, sliding the last few dozen feet and thumping gently to a stop.

Then it twitched, and moved – rising up by itself, and forming a shield of solid crystal across the controls.

"What?" Charon asked. "That-"

He turned, and spotted a Geodude throwing him the peace-sign. "Stop that Geodude!"

One of the nearby Galactic Grunts threw a Pokéball, sending out a Gastrodon, and Geodude turned – returning himself with a flash of red.

"This is bad, right?" Saturn checked.

"Yes, this is bad!" Charon replied. "Without at least one control console working, I can't transfer in new capacitors. The first pair were more efficient than I expected, but if those are the only ones I can use it'll cause further delays."

He rummaged in his toolset, producing a high-carbon steel tool, and scraped at the surface. Nothing happened, not even a scratch, and he put his fingers on his forehead.

"It's harder than steel," he summarized. "We'd need a diamond or boron drill to get this off..."

"So, what do you recommend?" Cyrus asked.

"Keep Dialga and Palkia charging the portal as long as possible," Charon replied. "And see if I can get something set up to replace the console."


"I'm getting worried about whatever it is Galactic are doing," Cynthia pronounced. "They're not just fighting here because they want to beat us, they want to do something, and the longer we let them do it..."

She shook her head. "I don't like the sound of letting them do it."

The Mecha Lugia shot overhead, turning and using a finely-balanced set of energy shields to divert a potent attack away from it, and Cynthia winced at the bang before nodding to herself. "Okay. Laocoon, can you get me a picture of what's going on over at the Galactic base of operations?"

She studied it for several seconds. "Right. I think that might just work… Gabite!"

Ash's Gabite shoved away the Metang he'd been fighting, and Tyranitar turned to smash it with his tail – knocking it hard, hurling it away from the area. It would be back, but not immediately, and Gabite glanced at it to make sure before running over to Cynthia. "What do you need?"

"See this picture?" Cynthia asked, pointing him at Laocoon's screen. "Do your best to shoot the red things."

"Oh, cool!" Gabite agreed. "I can do that!"

Cynthia nodded, and turned her attention to Tyranitar.

"Just to make sure – you know Hyper Beam?" she asked.

Tyranitar nodded a confirmation.

"Good," Cynthia said, and pointed. "I need you to use a Hyper Beam into that battle there."

Tyranitar looked, was momentarily puzzled, then he began to charge up. A blue light lit up the base of his tail, growing in strength and intensity and jumping from spine to spine, and he set his stance by planting both feet firmly with his tail down as the third leg of a tripod – not so much to stay upright now, but for the recoil.

Then he fired. A beam of bright blue light lanced across the battlefield, passing not far from the Dialga mech Team Rocket had brought along, and hit Casper in the back.

It passed right through him, and exploded with stunning force on the Shadow Zoroark he was fighting – blowing away all the shadows in the area, launching Shadow Zoroark clear into the wall with a thump, and leaving a tracery of blue light along the path before it finally dissipated.


"That's probably not good," Mars said, wincing. "We've still got some tough Pokémon going, right?"

"Yeah, a few," Jupiter agreed. "Though, uh – wait, lookout!"

She pointed, and Cyrus followed her finger.

"Dialga, Palkia, shield yourselves," he instructed, and the glowing orange Draco Meteors crashed into shields of adamant and lustre – throwing orange sparks in all directions, but successfully shielding the Creation Dragons.

"That was aimed for the Red Chains," he said. "Charon. We're going to have to have Dialga and Palkia protecting the area instead of powering the portal. What has that done to your estimates?"

Charon got up from where he'd been working, and inspected the panel. "Hm. That's odd."

"What's odd?" Jupiter asked. "Odd doesn't sound good, doctor."

"In this case, it is," Charon told them all. "With no power source, the portal should be static or decaying very slightly, but it's still powering up. Slower, but noticeably… though having the Dragons helping will make it much faster."


"Okay, here we go!" Swellow declared, wings whirring. She adjusted her grip slightly on the Pokéball in her right foot, and did a quick turn to build up speed before knifing straight towards the core of the area of the field Team Galactic controlled.

She was moving too fast to be certain of exactly how things were going, but it looked to her like the Galactic Pokémon were being thinned out – a lot of her own teammates had gone down to accumulated hits or simply being tired out of battle, but the same was going on for their opponents as well. The two Legendary Dragons sitting in the area around the Spear Pillar were a silent warning that Galactic wasn't out of tricks, and so was the still-fighting Shadow Lucario, and more than that Swellow didn't have time to tell.

Jinking left, Swellow avoided being hit by a high-speed rock. That took her into the path of a massive Thunder attack from the Shadow Zapdos battling overhead, and she cried out in defiance – the electricity flowing over her feathers and boosting her, letting her kiss the sound barrier as she curled into a dive before pulling up again – feet away from the ground – and opening the Pokéball she was carrying.

Torkoal appeared in a flash of white light. His internal flames lit and boosted to full power in just a moment, and he bounced once with a clack before jets of steam burst from all the holes in his shell at the same time.

He flipped around and spun, shrieking like a Catherine wheel, and volleyed out jets of flame at every Galactic Pokémon he could see – blazing a fiery trail through the long axis of the Galactic area, hitting a Vileplume with four Flame Bursts at once to knock him out at the same time as he cannoned a Bronzong into the floor with a Fire Blast.

The Fire-type skidded along the floor with sparks flying in all directions, shooting out attacks and steam alike as the Galactic Pokémon tried to react, and when he finally came to a halt – slammed into the floor by a Golem – Swellow returned him immediately.

Then she sent out the other Pokémon she'd been carrying, and Quilava landed on the floor with a wham before using Extremespeed to dart around the first attempt to knock her out.


"Okay, here goes," Pikachu said. "Again."

He glanced to his side. "Are you able to keep going?"

Buneary gave him a nod.

"Right, then," he decided, and broke into a run. Buneary followed him, then jumped – Bouncing into the air just as Pikachu slowed himself down a little.

Jumping up from the ground, Pikachu gave her a boost using his tail as a spring. The Normal-type went high into the air, taking in the situation around her in a moment and using one of her construct Ice Punches to knock away a Honchkrow coming up to attack her.

Pikachu hit the ground again, tail flexing, and jumped up a second time – this time using Agility to make himself faster, reaching as high as Buneary was just as she reached the apex of her Bounce. He lashed out with a Thunderbolt, hitting the same Honchkrow which had gone after her, then formed an Aura Sphere and shattered one of the rocks fired up by the highly persistent Alolan Golem who'd been trying to operate as a ground-to-air battery all fight.

Buneary used a Fire Punch to deflect an Ice Beam attack that came up at them, then offered her paw to Pikachu. He took it, and she hefted him upwards with a boost of Strength – a boost which sent her plummeting towards the ground, though she Bounced as she hit it and used the recoil to send her right back up to join Pikachu again.

Pikachu's cheeks sparked as he continued smashing the rocks fired by the enemy Rock-type, breaking them down as fast as they were fired up, then twisted around and flicked a Vacuum Wave off his tail. The interruption in his attacks allowed one rock to reach him, but he destroyed it with a Force Palm this time, and then Buneary was giving him another boost to keep him in the air.

The second time Buneary dropped towards the ground, some of the Galactic Pokémon were ready for her – one of them a Nidoking which peppered the ground where she was going to land with Toxic Spikes.

Buneary responded by clenching her fists, surrounding one of them with fire which she punched down with. The resultant explosion blew the spikes away, and she engulfed the other fist with ice before punching the Nidoking in the chin without leaving the ground.

Hitting him a second time to make sure he wouldn't interfere, she turned to face the nearby Lickilicky and hit it with a Thunderpunch. She Bounced, using the Lickilicky as a platform to Bounce a second time, and reached Pikachu to boost him again as she was falling.

"Look out," Pikachu warned, pointing down, and Buneary paused to spot what he meant – some Stealth Rocks being set up down below, where they'd be able to hit her as she fell into them.

A sizzling ring of electricity appeared, and Pikachu grabbed her as they fell into it – a fizz of charge boosting him upwards and carrying her with it, and Buneary recognized it as Pachirisu's work.

"Thanks!" she called towards her Electric-type teammate, and set up a Thunderpunch on one paw – making sure she was a valid target for the boost rings as well, so Pachirisu could continue to keep her airborne even if Pikachu let go of her.

Then the Shadow Zapdos was coming for them, beak glittering, and most of her attention was on Ice Punching.

Most of her attention. Some of it couldn't help but be on the fact that Pikachu hadn't actually let go of her yet.

Pikachu's next Thunder attack was one of the loudest yet, lighting up the room like daylight as he waged a war of electrical power against a Shadow-ified Legendary Pokémon – and, at the same time, kept Buneary entirely insulated, so she didn't get so much as a stray watt.


"Target!" Sudowoodo called. "Left ten degrees."

He held on as Torterra swivelled slightly, turning to face the Grumpig that Sudowoodo had pointed out, then inhaled and fired an Energy Ball. The Ball shot across towards the Psychic-type, hitting its shield with a thump, and Torterra added in a continuous stream of Razor Leaf attacks to keep the Psychic-type suppressed.

It countered with a Psywave, which crashed into Ash's tough Grass-type and sent him sliding back a foot or so, but Torterra was made of tougher stuff and just kept advancing.

"Venusaur!" the Rock-type added from his perch, acting as observer for the whole heavy formation. "Watch out to your front right! Mamoswine, get that Glalie there!"

The faux-tree winced as a high-speed rock slammed into Torterra's shell, pinging off and upwards, and Mega Venusaur's implacable advance continued to their right. Her leaves spread out to drink in the light of an earlier Sunny Day, powering up a Solarbeam, but by the time she had it ready a Galactic Charmeleon had thrown up a Smokescreen.

Mamoswine had better luck with his own target, launching an Ancientpower attack at the Glalie. It knocked the Ice-type back with a chak of rock-against-ice, sending it rotating in the air, and Mamoswine followed up his success with a blast of Blizzard.

The Glalie might not have been harmed very much by the burst of icy energy, but the extra weight from all the ice forming on it was another thing, and it began to sink towards the ground.

Hooves drummed on the glassy floor as the two still-conscious Tauros charged, one of them with hooves of fire to attack the Glalie and the other carrying a Tailwind with him to blow the Smokescreen away, and Sudowoodo pointed.

"Up twenty, that Vibrava. Fire!"


"How much longer do you need?" Cyrus asked. "It had better be quick."

"That depends what I can use," Charon replied. "If Dialga and Palkia can keep us safe indefinitely, then based on these readings it might take half an hour. If I can use them, it might take only about five minutes to get a stable portal – but I can't say for sure, because of that odd effect I mentioned."

Cyrus looked out at the fighting, and came to a decision. "Dialga. Palkia. Put all your power into your shields."

The two Dragons complied, the combined shimmering shield constructed from their power thickening to a foggy, greyish barrier – one which imposed a space-time separation from the rest of the Spear Pillar, so they couldn't even see the outside any more.

"Aren't they kind of important to keep the universe intact, or something?" Saturn asked, a little nervously. "I remember hearing about that."

Cyrus waved his hand. "It is of no importance. We will wait in here until the portal is ready – then, what do we care of the rest of the universe?"

"I guess," Saturn replied. "I just feel like, you know… we're missing something important?"

"We're missing the ability to monitor what's going on, if that's what you mean," Charon said, tapping irritably on the crystal sealing off his controls.

Then something rippled on the glassy, impervious floor, a little way away.

"What's that?" Mars said. "Is that-"

The ripple widened, becoming a hole, and the hole took on a new aspect – and through it came a Pokémon.

"Your evil knows no bounds!" shouted a Squirtle, his voice somehow understandable to them all as he floated there surrounded by streams of spiralling water. "But nothing you can do can stop a hot-blooded Squirtle, leader of the Squirtle Squad!"

"Dialga," Cyrus said, pointing. "Stop him."

"I transcend time and space," Squirtle went on. "That's the Squirtle Squad Way! That's how I referenced a show several years before it even existed!"

A crash sound by Dialga made Cyrus look around, and he saw another portal there – and, to his horror, a shiny Metagross stamping repeatedly on top of the Red Chain trapping the Dragon of Time. An Infernape followed it, punching the Chain with focused intensity, and a moment later the chain shattered.

"Finishing Move!" Squirtle called, striking a pose. The water supporting him moved, snakelike, and began spiralling together into the shape of a drill.

"Palkia!" Cyrus ordered, seeing victory slipping away. "Protect your Red Chain!"

"Giga! Horn! Drill! Break!" Squirtle bellowed, launching himself at Palkia. The Dragon of Space drew in his shield, focusing it entirely on protecting himself and the Red Chain, and the Drill crashed into the shield with an incredible screech – not getting through, but not getting repulsed.

"Where did those come from?" Saturn asked, as Dialga withdrew his shield from the area. "We were cut off, right?"

A third portal opened, and Giratina swam out of it – still in Origin Forme – and dropped off Noctowl, Totodile and Ivysaur directly on top of the cages holding the Lake Trio.

There was a splintering crack sound, and the whole of Team Galactic stared. Even the Pokémon freeing the Lake Trio were forgotten, as they watched Squirtle's drill attack grind against Palkia's shield… and Palkia's shield developing cracks, one by one, until finally the whole thing shattered and Squirtle went right through it.

The Red Chain vanished, sucked into the vortex of water and torn to shreds, and Palkia jolted as he was freed from the chain's control.


Ash swung Kari up to guard, blocking an overhead spin-kick from the Shadow Lucario, then jumped as his opponent landed – getting clear of a follow-up attack on landing, but meaning that the Shadow-powered Aura Sphere the Shadow Lucario launched at him blew him flipping over backwards.

Stabilizing himself and landing with a pulse of blue Aura, Ash caught something that had fallen out of his bag when he was in mid-air. Seeing it was the GS Ball, he frowned for a moment before clipping it to one of the free slots on his belt.

Shrugging mentally, he took the middle of Kari's blade in his left hand – giving him one of the less conventional stances they'd practiced, halfway between sword combat and staff fighting. By the time he'd done it, the Shadow Pokémon was attacking again, a series of lightning-fast kicks and punches, and Ash blocked and dodged without thinking about it. Reacting, spotting the attacks as they came in and avoiding the ones that could be dodged at the same time as blocking the ones which had to be blocked.

Something about the style was familiar, and not from just fighting the powerful Shadow Pokémon, and Ash frowned. Then he kicked out, putting as much strength into it as he could to force his opponent away.

Kari lit up with brilliant golden light as he channelled Secret Sword into her, and he switched his grip to her tassel. Whirling her around, he drew a golden arc through the air, then threw her right at Shadow Lucario.

He couldn't have said why, but it felt like it was the right thing to do – and, in mid-flight, she spun around, point-first then hilt-first then point-first like an oversized throwing knife. She sliced though the Protect shield Shadow Lucario put up, spun once, and hit him on the forehead with a brilliant golden flash.

Shadow Lucario fell, poleaxed, and the shadowy aura around him faded a little – not going out, but becoming quiescent as the Pokémon that had been wielding it fell unconscious.

Kari came whistling back down to land on Ash's belt, exactly where she'd been when he drew her at the start of the fight, and he blinked in mild surprise at how accurately she'd landed.

"Ash!" Mega Lucario called, running over. "Are you okay?"

"I think so," Ash replied, checking himself over. "I didn't take any serious injuries, and…"

He raised his gaze to the battle as a whole. Only a few of his Pokémon were still standing, and the same was true of his friends – most of the teams they'd brought along were back in their Pokéballs or getting medical attention, and at least three of the mechas from Team Rocket's unexpected reinforcements were piles of wreckage on the ground.

But Team Galactic was out of Pokémon, the last one he could see a Shadow Zapdos crashing to the ground surrounded by an almost-solid corona of yellow lightning. He couldn't see a single one of their massive team still fighting, not even with Aura sight, and as he watched Mewtwo gathered up all their conventional weapons with a sweep of his arm and compacted them into a ball of scrap. Pikachu was visible as well, landing gently with a flash of Magnet Rise just in front of the knocked-out Shadow Zapdos.


Brock lifted up a Pokéball and recalled Stantler, and Mawile looked around.

"Oh!" she said brightly. "Has whatever the problem was gone away?"

"That's right," Brock told her. "Thank you both for being brave enough to believe us."

"Okay," Mawile replied. "I trust you, Brock, so it wasn't really very hard to do what you said. Is Ash okay?"

"It looks like it," Brock answered, looking out over the rubble-strewn battlefield.

James had sent out his Grass-types like Carnivine to help taking Galactic into custody, using their vines to tie grunts up before handing them off to Looker.

"Huh, so that's where Looker ended up," Brock said, pointing. "I wondered."

"Oh, yeah, good spot," Dawn chuckled. "I wonder how many pairs of handcuffs he brought along?"

"I hope it's enough," Brock agreed.


"Good work, guys," Gary said, checking the two still-standing Tauros over – both tired, but triumphant. "And you as well, Dee, I saw how much you were doing coordination work."

It is my pleasure.

He looked over his shoulder. "Are you okay, Molly? You seem kind of… subdued."

"I don't get it," Molly replied.

"What, you mean why Galactic was doing what they were?" Gary asked. "Some people are just-"

"No, not that," Molly said. "I don't get how they're doing the memory thing."

She waved her hands, and Gary did a double-take – seeing hundreds of Unown swirling near-invisibly around her, glowing and humming in a faint chorus he'd thought was something else entirely. "I know what it's doing, but I have to be really exact when I give instructions and here I can't tell where it's coming from."

"You mean it's still going?" Gary checked, and got a confirmation. "But… we beat them all."

"I know!" Molly told him crossly. "But it's still there, and it doesn't seem fair!"

Her gaze focused back on the Unown for a moment, and she made a little gesture. More Unown moved into position, going from translucent to opaque, and she frowned.

"That's funny," she said. "It looks like..."

"What?" Giratina demanded, from the other side of the chamber. "What's going on?"


Ash ran over, Mega Lucario with him – the battle over so recently they hadn't bothered to revert him – then slowed to a halt by Giratina.

"What is it?" Ash asked, and Giratina tossed his head – indicating the shimmering portal Galactic had been creating.

"That should be collapsing," he said. "Or inert. But it's becoming more stable – fast."

"Can't you stop it?" Ash said. "Or Dialga and Palkia?"

"They don't even know it's there!" Giratina told him. "Now they're not considered part of Team Galactic, they don't even remember what was happening two minutes ago!"

Mega Absol came loping up, wings fluttering for stability. "That's it! That's what I've been feeling for years! I just… don't know what it is!"

"Wait, that's the big disaster?" Ash asked. "Not… not all of this that just happened?"

"All of what?" Mega Absol asked.

Then the portal everted.

Between one moment and the next, a whole group of people and Pokémon appeared. They stood on the glassy surface of the Spear Pillar, and Ash's jaw dropped – the sight too much to take in all at once.

Because he recognized the humans at the front of the group, and they'd just been arrested. Cyrus, Jupiter and Charon, along with about half a dozen grunts… and behind them, Dialga, Palkia and Giratina. All of them with seething energy flowing over them, of a kind Ash had never felt before, and with Red Chains glowing around their necks.

Ash glanced to his left, confirming that – yes, the Cyrus they'd just captured was still locked up – then back at this impossible second Team Galactic.

"You assured me we would be able to complete the Great Work in peace, Charon," Cyrus said, in tones of mild rebuke.


"That's it!" Molly said suddenly. "That's what's going on! It was them who were doing it, look!"

She pointed to the three Lake Guardians the second Team Galactic had control of, then opened her arms. The entire Unown choir moved with her, spreading out into a ring with four spokes, and she took a deep breath.

"No!" she said firmly. "You don't get to do that any more! It's not fair!"

A pulse of indefinable energy flowed outwards – like the opposite of a pressure wave, where the area the pulse had passed was suddenly free of something which had been bearing down on the whole world for so long and with such subtlety it had become accepted as normal.

The memory effect shattered like sugar-glass, and Molly smiled proudly for a moment before falling forwards – her Espeon catching her just before she landed, and lowering her gently to the ground as the Unown floated down all around her.


"Ash?" Kari began, then paused. "I would like a talk about this, when we have the time for it."

Ash raised Kari slowly into a guard position, her blade perpendicular to the floor. "Where did you come from?"

"I said most people wouldn't be able to notice us," Charon said, answering Cyrus' earlier question. "I wasn't certain it would work on everyone."

"He stopped us last time, and this time he has a sword," Cyrus added, and waved his hand. "Destroy him."

"This time?" Giratina repeated. "Then-"

The Galactic-controlled Dialga roared, diamond shimmering with a captive rainbow, and his roar became a torrent of multicoloured energy. It seethed out towards Ash, and he threw Kari to the side and tried to jump clear.

Dialga's attack hit him about a foot from the floor, almost catching Kari as well, and for a long moment it was so bright and intense that Ash couldn't be seen inside it. Then it faded, and the GS ball bounced to the ground amidst a few scattered flecks of dust.

Lucario, Absol and Charizard all lost their Mega state at once, and Kari clattered to the ground.

"DAD!" Mawile screamed.


AN:


Oh dear.