A/N:

The second part of the Prologue. It did get a bit heavy on text, but I wanted to properly set up the situation.

Before going into it though, I want to clarify 2 things:

First, I said on my first chapter, this is an AU story. Pokémon might know moves that they can't use in the games, but only when it makes sense. Did you know that Blaziken couldn't learn Close combat until Gen 8? Meanwhile, you got A HORSE that did learn it. Like come on! Additionaly, they might know more than 4 moves, because the Pokémon I write about don't suffer from amnesia. They won't just forget how to spew flames or do a karate chop just because. Sue me

Second, I want to note that at this point in time in the story (the first couple of chapters) only 3 regions exist: Kanto, Jotho and Hoenn. Pokémon from Gen4 and onwards aren't part of the equation either (yet!).

And that was it. On with the chapter! And Merry Christmas everyone!

Prologue: Part 2

The air was heavy at Pristine Arena. The tension could easily be felt looming over. The crowd was in a semi-frenzied state, yelling and cheering at the participants below.

"What an incredible turn of events" Alan's voice could be heard all over the buzzling stadium. "Both participants are down to their last Pokémon. The moment of truth is approaching! Who's going to take it home?"

Down in the field, a Blaziken was staring down at a Metagross. Jin's mind was racing, thinking about anything that could give him the upper hand. Pearls of sweat could be seen in his forehead.

"We couldn't have hoped for a better ending, it's a do or die situation for both champion and challenger" Beth added

Blaziken was heavily bruised and was painting heavily. The Metagross wasn't looking too much better. After trading blows, they had reached a sort of stalemate, neither of them able to triumph over the other.

It was the Champion who broke the stalemate.

"Metagross, let's finish this off! Accelerated meteor punch!"

Accelerated moves, the thorn in the side of Jin's strategy and Melkar's trump card. Metagross became surrounded by a faint pink aura and launched forward, zigzagging towards Blaziken at such high speed it could easily outrun a Rapidash. He wasn't using his legs to move, but instead it was levitating just inches from the ground. Jin needed an answer for that technique, and he needed it now.

"Blaziken, jump up and full force Flare Blitz against the ground below you!"

"Watch out for potential hazards Metagross!" Melkar yelled.

Blaziken obeyed, and the sheer force of the impact launched rocks all around. Thanks to his trainer, Metagross was expecting some sort of interference with his intended move and was able to shift direction and avoid all of the rock fragments, gracefully sliding back from Blaziken.

It was a desperate move, Jin knew it. He was clearly stalling.

"Blaziken is tired, he won't be able to keep up launching such powerful attacks for much longer" Jin thought. "I can't be wasting them on the ground like that"

A smirk creeped up to Melkar's face, surely because he had reached a similar conclusion.

"Metagross, let's keep up the pace. Accelerated meteor punch again!"

Metagross approached again, quickly closing out the distance.

"Blaziken, stay away and kite back with flamethrower"

A fire erupted in Blaziken's throat, unleashing a stream of flames towards Metagross. The attack missed as Metagross was moving too fast for it to land. Jin already knew that.

"Keep him away from you with a sweeping blaze kick!"

Just as Metagross was in range to attack, his front right fist glowing with energy Blaziken performed a wide arc with his left leg in front of him, his foot engulfed in fire that left a fire trail in its wake. Metagross jumped back, landing on his four legs a few meters away, but he quickly began levitating again and resumed his attack afterwards.

"Flamethrower again!" Jin commanded.

"Metagross dodge and keep the momentum! Blaziken's getting tired!"

The flamethrower missed again, but as Metagross was getting close, Jin insisted.

"Sweeping blaze kick again!"

Blaziken obeyed and he forced Metagross to retreat once again.

"Keep baiting his attacks!" Melkar shouted.

Metagross continued dancing around Blaziken, while he was keeping him at bay with his wide attacks and launching flamethrowers once he had put some distance between them. However, the fire streams were getting thinner each time they were fired, and Blaziken's kicks were getting slower and covered less space as well.

"Time to go for the kill, Metagross!"

Metagross lunged for Blaziken again, this time even faster than before. As he got closer, he fainted to the left, clearly expecting Blaziken to do protect himself with another blaze kick.

"Up we go, Blaziken!"

Instead, Blaziken flexed his legs and propelled himself into the air. It wasn't a small jump like the one he did before.

"He's vulnerable while airborne! Finish him off!"

Metagross followed suit and jumped as well, giving quick pursue.

"Its Metagross that's at risk, though" Jin scoffed. "Blast burn now Blaziken!"

"BLAA…" Flames engulfed Blaziken as he was up in the air. He brough his arms close to his trunk and retracted his legs as well, fire erupting from every inch of his fur.

"Watch out Metagross!" Melkar yelled. But it was in vain, since Metagross had already committed into his attack.

"ZIKEEEN!" Blaziken released his fire all around himself, unleashing hell on everything in a 2-meter radius around him, and more conveniently on Metagross. The temperature in the stadium raised by a couple degrees. After a few seconds, the sphere of fire died down, and the two Pokémon fell to the ground. Blaziken managed to land on his legs but fell flat on his face immediately, too exhausted to keep his footing. Metagross was unable to reposition himself after the attack and collapsed into the ground with all of its weight, creating a small dust cloud from the broken rocks. The audience suddenly went quiet. The referee was the first one to notice what was going on and raised her right flag. A few moments later, the dust cleared out and everyone was able to witness the aftermath. Blaziken was still sprayed on the ground but managed to stay conscious. Metagross couldn't withstand the attack together with the fall damage and was knocked out.

The referee spoke: "Metagross is unable to battle! The winner …"

Her words were lost as the stadium erupted in a cacophony of cheers and yells.

"Jin has done it, ladies and gentlemen! He was able to pull it off! WE HAVE A NEW CHAMPION!" The shoutcaster's voice reverberating over the place.

Jin dashed to his Blaziken, who somehow managed to sit up. He hugged him tightly

"We did it Blaziken! We won! You're the goat!" He could barely contain his excitement. All the training and hard work had paid off in the end. His hands were shaking.

Melkar had retrieved his Metagross after apologizing to him and had walked up to Jin.

"So, you figured it out, huh?" He spoke to Jin.

"Well, it was a gamble" Jin responded "When Metagross dodged the first blaze kick, he jumped backwards, and had to reactivate his subtle levitation again upon landing. I thought it might have been because he can only use it right above ground level instead of being a full floating ability"

"I see, so you baited me and Metagross into the air, where he couldn't use his enhanced movement" Melkar said while shaking his head. "That was impressive, nicely done kid. A well-deserved victory"

"Thanks… but I got lucky and had the type advantage"

"Nonsense. True skill comes from making the most out of a bad situation. Sometimes if you see a line that leads to victory, you have to stick with it and trust your instincts. And my Metagross has won countless times against opponents who also had a type advantage. Luck had nothing to do with it." He extended his right arm to Jin. "Congratulations, Champion".

While the battle was taking place, a woman was walking home in Littleroot town, clutching a grocery bag to her chest with her forearm while also typing on her phone. She just came from the convenience store; nothing like chocolate ice-cream to ease her sorrows. She turned left at a crossroad; her focus still set on her phone. And then, two things happened simultaneously. She heard a strange sound ahead of her, and when she looked up from her phone, she saw a small pitch-black ball of energy glowing bluish-purple floating in the air about 200 meters (650 feet) away. The ball began growing and the sound intensified, bearing a close resemblance to a tearing sound of some sort, if electricity itself could be teared. She froze, her brain clearly struggling to process what was going on in front of her. The ball of energy was now taking on more of an oval form, and she gawked at it trying to identify what was going on. After a while, she had a wild revelation. It was some kind of portal, expect you couldn't see anything on the other side. The grocery bag slipped under her grasp and fell to the ground. And then she saw it. A blue paw with steel claws appeared from within the portal, closely by another one. An elongated head adorned with the same steel also started appearing. It was a pokémon, but not like any other the woman had seen before. Once the pokémon had emerged, the woman couldn't help it but fall on her ass, her knees refusing to stand her weight. It was huge, at least 5 meters (16 feet) tall and easily twice as much from head to tail. It had a piece of steel resembling a chest armor covering its chest, with a translucid blue gemstone at its center. Its red eyes noticed the young woman, malice and hatred burning in them. It was Dialga. The woman was terrified, her mouth wide open and her body trembling like a leaf.

The monster raised his head as if looking at the starts and let out a roar so loud it could probably be heard from Oldale town. The ground started shaking as the small earthquake shook all of Littleroot. The blue gemstone started glowing, becoming more and more intense as it kept roaring.

Finally, the woman's survival instincts must have kicked off because she quickly scrambled to her feet and started running, her hands covering her ears to protect them from the terrifying scream. She had to put distance between the monster and her, that's the only thing that mattered to her. But then the pokémon released a powerful pulse of energy that swept in every direction. It struck the woman from behind as she yelled in surprise which launched her forward at high speed against a wall of a nearby house. For some reason, however, she never ended up hitting the wall, her scream suddenly dying in her throat.

You'd think that the result of yesterday's match would be all over the place, occupying the headlines of all the newspapers, with countless articles about it online, a ton of analysts discussing the match and the strategies used and how was Jin able to win the title. It was, after all, one of the most notable events of the year, if not the most. Jin's victory over the 3 years in a row defending champion Melkar however was not the main topic of gossip, nor did it occupy any headlines.

Something else took the spotlight, and it wasn't the cure of Pokérus, or an outstanding research breakthrough. It wasn't good news at all.

Apparently, time had stopped flowing in Littleroot town and its vicinity. Hoenn woke up with an urgent official communicate from the Hoenn league, the governing body of the region. Regardless of the channel you decided to watch on TV, or whichever radio station you tuned in, there was someone talking about it. Everyone was dumbfounded at that unexplainable event, wanting to delve deeper into the matter, discussing in with their family and friends, or flooding the message boards all over the world. For most people, however, morbid curiosity was quickly replaced with an existential fear. The kind of dread that slowly builds up and grows into you, ever unrelenting until it eclipsed every other feeling.

A middle-aged man was glued to the TV, intently leering at the screen as if it was the cause of all his problems. He was watching the Petalburg Prime channel. They were live recording from a small cliff in Route 101, a few kilometers away from Littleroot. The town could be seen in the distance. At first glance, you wouldn't notice anything particularly out of place. The Hoenn league decided to take action immediately and sent out a group to evaluate the situation and gather as much information on the strange phenomena. The group was formed by a lower rank league official and two researchers, also working for the league. Right now, they were walking down the road that traversed the forest in route 101 heading towards Littleroot. They appeared to be doing just fine, but a keen eye could have noticed the subtle changes in their movements and their overall decrease of pace. The closer they got to Littleroot, the more obvious it became. At the beginning, it felt like the live stream featuring the group was being played at a slightly lower speed, 0.9 or 0.85. However, the voice of the reporter wasn't affected at all. The man clutched the controller in his hand, his expression twisted in utter disbelief.

The group was getting close to Littleroot and they were now roughly half a kilometer away. It was apparent then what was going on. It wasn't the live feed that was slower, but the 3 people. They just moved and gestured in slow motion, the kind of effect you can get with some cameras. The league official appeared to be discussing something through her earpiece. Whatever they talk about, the mission didn't get aborted because the official continued forward. The 2 researchers however, stood in their respective places, awaiting further instructions. The painful to watch advance of the official was getting even slower, to the point where it took about a minute for her to do one single step. The man was starting to breath heavily, but he could not aver his gaze from the screen. At a given time, she raised one of her feet to take another step, ever so slower, except this time it never connected with the ground again. A few minutes passed, but the league official just stood still, with one of her legs raised mid-air. Her arms stood at her sides, but they were a bit tensed rather than in a resting position. She would have made a great impression as a living statue in Lilicove city's promenade. When it became clear that she wouldn't move again, the man turn off the TV, visibly shaken. "How… how is this even possible?"

After the failed operation in Littleroot town, two things became clear. First, that for some unknown reason time had indeed stopped flowing in Littleroot town. And second, that there was nothing that could be done to rescue the people that got affected.

The Hoeen league allocated an obscene amount of resources and created various investigation groups to dig out whatever piece of information that could be relevant. The Ace Trainer association was quick to lend their help and put themselves at the league's disposition. Many others followed, either distinguished individuals or influent companies, such as the Devan corporation. Champion Jin together with former champion Melkar also stepped up, as well as other past champions and retired legends. The integrity recorder from doctor Kleid was put under the league's close supervision and was monitored 24/7. The research groups made some fast discoveries, suggesting this phenomenon was caused by an undiscovered legendary Pokémon, referred as Dialga, that allegedly could control time. A spark of hope ignited in the heart of people as the whole region united to combat this newfound threat. However, there was little they could do. The root of the problem wasn't an enemy that you could fight, or a situation that you could navigate. The cause of the incident was unknown, with no recorded evidence of how it happened. Nobody could approach Littleroot town to gather any intel either.

Days passed by, but no further discoveries were made. On the bright side, no anomalous readings were noted by the integrity recorder after it had calmed down a couple of days after the incident. The days quickly became weeks, and without any related incident the nation-wide agitation slowly decreased.

Some optimists began suggesting that the crisis was over. Obviously, it was a tragedy that had taken its toll in Hoenn's population. But despite the casualties (if they could be called that as the affected people couldn't technically be declared dead) and the fact that the area around Littleroot was untraversable there were no further consequences of the incident. All was well again until one night the integrity recorder started twitching wildly again. Despite the fast response, they were no clues as to what, when, or where would it happen. It was Stateport city's turn this time.

A/N:

Thanks for reading. Reviews are greatly appreciated, and constructive criticism welcome.

See you soon!