It was 6:55 in the morning the day after Barry's and Dawn's tied battle. Ash was already up as he was looking at his badges he collected so far. Especially his newest addition, the mine badge he won yesterday. He chuckled as he replayed the day in his head, starting with Byron's bombastic personality as he bragged about his iron defense strategy and mining. Staraptor took care of his magneton before it could use an electric type move, and managed to get a hit in on his steelix, but one ice fang did him in. Dusclops didn't have a meaningful way of hurting Steelix directly, but his Will-O-Wisp and Confuse Ray strategy eventually won out, thanks to his own built up defenses. Byron's ace, Bastiodon was able to defeat Dusclops, but not before taking the same burn and confuse tactic it also experienced. But by the time Floatzel came into the picture, it was all over. His defense may have been as tough as iron, but his resolve was as strong as titanium and heat resistant as tungsten. He will make it to the Pokémon league. Putting them away, he went down to the lobby where he saw Barry having some sugary breakfast. "Morning Barry."
"Morning Ash! Congrats again with your victory against Byron yesterday! That was so cool!" He praised his rival, making Ash smile lightly.
"Thanks. So, what are you going to do?"
"I'm going to go to Iron Island to train. You should come with me!"
"That sounds like a good idea. Let me ask Dawn first. Remember the last time we didn't include her in Hearthome City?" Ash mentioned. Barry paled from the memory and nodded.
"Good idea. Go tell her. I'll be done by the time you come back." Nodding in acknowledgement, Ash went to Dawn's room and knocked on the door.
"Huh? Who is it?" Dawn's voice called out, obvious he woke her up.
"Barry and I are going to Iron Island. Need some time to get ready and come along?"
"No thanks. I'd take too long. Go on ahead, I'll catch up when I can." Shrugging, Ash went back to Barry to tell him the news.
After an hour of making herself presentable, Dawn Berlitz came out of her room, and sat in the Pokémon Center lobby. Taking out some breakfast bars from her backpack, she remembered something, which put the happiest smile on her face. Taking out a Great Ball, she brought out the fully healthy Spike, which was now a Togetic.
"Toge!" He chirped joyfully as he jumped into her arms.
"Good morning to you too, Spike!" She said to her evolved baby as they snuggled. "I'm so happy you finally evolved and are now capable of battling. You are my pride and joy." Unwrapping a breakfast bar, she gave it to Spike whom happily chomped down on it as they had breakfast. Thank goodness Prof. Rowan was paying her in full now because with the need for better potions, Pokeballs and human essentials, money was becoming pretty tight. Dawn came out of the Pokemart to see that there was a fishing spot right next to the drawbridge. Smiling, she asked Spike that followed her around, "What do you say? Shall we spend some time together fishing?"
"Toge!" He chirped delighted, and the two sat on a section where it was okay to fish. Taking out the fishing rod, she slung the hook into the water. As they waited, Dawn and Spike played as he hovered around her, having the time of their lives bonding like they always did. Eventually, the line was being pulled and the young researcher was able to react enough to keep the fishing rod from going into the water.
"Come on, you can do it Dawn!" She grunted to herself as she pulled as hard as she could. Spike assisted by jumping and pushing himself into her stomach area, which was enough force to bring up the catch above water. It was a tentacool! A blue jellyfish with big red orbs on the side of its head and two tentacles. After she managed to catch it with Spike using Ancient Power, the young girl was already winded from the struggle. "Whew, that was harder normal. The water type Pokémon must be getting really strong. Maybe just one more and I'll head to the library." Spike looked sad from how his imprinted mother was doing after that, so he decided to help. Wagging his arms, he used Metronome. Noticing, she asked, "What are you doing with Metronome?" After a few seconds, he stopped, glowed green, and breathed in a few times before he sneezed green powder into the water, falling onto his butt.
"Toge." He sighed, sad he failed to do anything meaningful. Dawn picked him up and hugged him to her chest.
"I appreciate what you were doing, Spike. You were just wanting to help. I love you." They stayed like that a few seconds before they heard something in the water. They looked to see an unconscious staryu floating on the surface. "A staryu! You must've knocked it out with Sleep Powder! Quick, get it with Ancient Power!" Creating a white and black ball of energy, he shot it into the water, blasting it into the air. "Go, Great Ball!" The blue and red sphere connected with it, and absorbed the starfish. After a few wiggles, it clicked. "Thank you so much, Spike! We caught a Staryu!" Spike chirped with glee. Taking out her Pokedex, she scanned it.
Staryu, the Star Shape Pokémon; If its body is torn, it can grow back if the red core remains. The core flashes at midnight. Which is untrue as it flashes way more frequently at that.
"Oh Rotom, your sarcasm is always on point." Dawn remarked with her own sarcasm as she put him away. "Well, with that done, let's go to the library."
Dawn has intensively studied the books on the third floor the past few hours, which was about Pokémon philosophy and myths. It's nearly noon and she's read up to six books.
"No wonder Cynthia is fascinated by history. The mystery that shrouds them are so rich." Dawn whispered to herself. Spike was sleeping in between her feet, having gotten tired from running and floating around. What especially got her attention was the lake guardians, protecting Lake Verity, Lake Valor and Lake Acuity respectively. They each reminded her of herself and her two closest friends. She could certainly see Ash as Azelf, as his willpower was immeasurable. She herself seemed to connect to Uxie, as they both centered around knowledge. And Barry was obviously Mesprit, due to being very connected with his emotions. Then again, anybody could be connected to one of the three, but it was like the three of them were perfectly associated with these legendary Pokémon. She would've pondered on this more, but then she heard cries of distress coming from outside. Putting the book down and waking Spike up, they exited the library to see people and miners running away from the docks in panic. "What's going on?!" She asked herself, scared of what was happening. That was when she was approached by a young man wearing dark blue and black clothing and a dark blue wide rimmed hat.
"You, are you Dawn Berlitz?" This was really strange. While she was on the cover of a few magazines, people usually don't recognize her as well as Prof. Rowan.
"Y-yes? What's going on?"
"I'm Riley, and I've been sent to tell you that your friends are in trouble." This shook the poor girl hard. Ash and Barry... in trouble? How was that possible?
"How-how can they be in trouble?"
"Something is going very wrong on Iron Island. Without warning, all the steel type Pokémon are going berserk, attacking people and non-steel type Pokémon alike. Everybody else fled, but your friends stayed behind to see what was going on. Ash asked me to fetch you for reinforcement."
"O-Of course! If my friends are in trouble, I need to go save them!"
"I'm afraid I can't let you go to Iron Island." A voice of authority stopped them. They turned to see Officer Candy of this city. "If all the steel type Pokemon are going berserk, then it's too dangerous for citizens to go there."
"Officer Candy, excuse me, but Iron Island is my home property. My Pokémon are strong enough to survive and train on the island. You know this already." Riley told the officer.
"And I'm on par with my two friends there, and they've beaten gym leader Byron. And my Lopunny knows Jump Kick, so I have ways of fighting off steel types. Please let us go!" Dawn pleaded. After heavy consideration, she grunted and told Riley,
"Once you get on Iron Island, you have one hour before I pull you back."
"One hour is all we need. Dawn, follow me." Riley instructed as he headed to the boat going to the island.
Once on the island, Riley and Dawn were scouting the rocky land, which was very grey and seemed devoid of vegetative life. Dawn had returned Spike on the boat and brought out Lopunny just in case.
"This place doesn't seem very alive in terms of plants, does it?" She asked him, trying to not let the place intimidate her too much.
"No. The rock and soil are too inhospitable for things to grow here. The only natural sustenance is the ore the Pokémon eat."
"I wonder how it hasn't been eaten to the sea floor yet?" That question made Riley laugh.
"Haha, maybe this is just what it looks like after thousands of years eating away at it. It's still a rather big island." Suddenly, digletts by the numbers burst from the ground and went passed the humans in droves, alerting them of what could happen soon. Not long after, a lairon smashed through some rocks, attacking anything that was closest to it. Upon seeing the humans, it roared and charged at them.
"Jump Kick!" Jumping into the air, Lopunny extended her leg and landed her kick right on the lairon's head, driving his head deep into the ground creating a short trench. She hopped off the steel type and returned to her master. But just after that, a metang burst from the ground, punching the lairon high into the air, and started ramming its indestructible head into the rocks instead. In the air, skarmory swarmed the sky, attacking with Air Cutter, nearly hitting the humans. As if that weren't enough, a steelix smashed through a wall and started Hyper Beaming the place, but that was stopped when an aggron punched it away. It was absolute chaos!
"Lucario, Close Combat on aggron and steelix!" Riley commanded as he threw his Pokeball to release his ace Pokémon. Growling as she left the sphere, she ran to the aggron and gave it a good smackdown for a few seconds, defeating it in seconds before moving onto the iron snake and gave it the same treatment along its body until she gave a final kick to the top of its head, sending it into the ground. Dawn was astonished by the display of power by this Lucario. She wondered how Maylene would handle against this guy. "It's getting too dangerous now to just walk. We'll need to run through all of this if we want to get to your friends quickly." Riley told Dawn. The researcher nodded her head out of her daze and agreed.
"Right! Lopunny, use Jump Kick on anything that gets too near!"
"Lopunny!" She replied.
"Lucario, sense out the other two here." Riley told his Lucario. She grunted as she placed his palm to the ground and her head appendages started to float. Sensing them, she started to run along with Riley and Dawn.
"Wait Riley, isn't Lucario a steel type as well?! Why isn't it affected?!"
"She's using her aura to shield herself! She's expressed to me that something of an outer source on the island is the issue, and we're heading straight for it!"
"What is this thing?!"
"We believe its something low frequency, and the steel types are reacting to it like they're tuning forks! It may not seem obvious, but have you ever put a tuning fork in water in on your teeth?!"
"Have you?!"
"Yeah!" Running up to a cliff, the three of them saw what looked like a construction or deconstruction site with scaffolds and crane towers. There were huge pillars with symbols of a long forgotten language and the statues of Dialga and Palkia. Swarming the place were Team Galactic members, and down below was a redhead Dawn remembered.
"That's Team Galactic, and that's their commander, Mars!"
"Familiar with these people?" Riley asked her.
"Ash and I fought them several times, and I beat Mars. We don't know what their goals are, but they're classified as a terrorist group claiming that they're going to make a world a utopia."
"I never this place existed. How could it have evaded my knowledge?" Down below, Mars took what looked like a series of gold pathways and held it up to something with the exact same shape like a key slot. It glowed and floated into the air, before inserting itself into the hole shaped as itself. The pillars and the statues glowed blue. One of the pillars shot a blast of blue energy into the sky, nearly hitting the humans and Lucario, going off towards the horizon. And it wasn't just here, the meteorites in Veilstone City were shooting blue energy straight up into the sky as well. The energy was so powerful that Lucario was blown back.
"Lucario, are you okay?!" But she only responded by growling at them. "She's been affected!" Forming an Aura Sphere, she threw it at the two humans. Putting his arms forward, an aura shield surrounded them and the sphere exploded.
"What?!" The researcher gasped in shock.
"I'm an aura guardian, someone who's trained to utilize the power of aura, and so far, I'm the only one." Forming a long blue bone, she started attacking everything nearby.
"Lopunny, Jump Kick!" Jumping into the air, Lopunny was about to land a hit when Lucario blocked she with her bone staff. While they were fighting each other, Riley held up a Pokeball.
"Lucario, return!" Sensing it, she dodged the red beam and ran to attack them, but was pushed into the ground by Lopunny. "Return!" Successful this time, the blue jackal went back into her ball. Riley growled as he gazed down at Team Galactic. "They're going to pay. Let's wreck what they're doing."
"Right." Dawn agreed. Sliding down the cliff, they attracted the attention of Mars.
"I thought she'd be near if that brat was here!" Reaching the ground, the two threw everything they got at them. For the most part.
"Sparky, Spike, Kirlia, Crystal, show them what you got!" Dawn shouted as they came out of their Pokeballs.
"Absol, Ursaring, Salamence, battle position!" Riley yelled out as he released his own.
"Keep them away!" Mars demanded of her grunts. They released their golbats, but Sparky was able to charge through them with Spark. Spike tried using Ancient Power on one of their machinery, but three Golbats blocked it and took the blow, surprising Dawn. Mars stepped up.
"You're not going to foil our plans, brat! Purugly, use Slash!" Throwing her Pokeball, her signature Tiger Cat Pokémon went on the offensive upon release, landing a hit against Spike, whom chirped in pain. When it seemed like he was going to be surrounded by Golbats, they stopped as a blue outline appeared on their bodies before being slammed into the ground, thanks to the efforts of Kirlia and Crystal.
"Toetic!" Spike chirped happily.
"Kirlia." "Esp." They said while nodding.
"Salamence, use Dragon Rage!" Forming a ball of fire, shot the ball right at Purugly, creating an explosion. Its fainted body flew right into Mars, knocking her off her feet. Ursaring found a specific type of machinery, and slammed his arms into it, destroying it. This caused a series of explosions around the site, even blowing one of the pillars off balance and falling down. Returning her Purugly, Mars got up to see that a Golbat delivered her the golden key. Snatching it from its feet, she sneered. "As long as we have this, our plans aren't ruined. Across the island, all the steel types were waking up from their pained trances and looking around confused.
"Alright you grunts, retreat!" Mars called out to her henchmen. She turned to the people that thwarted her operation. "You may have stopped us from getting all the data we needed, but we always come with a back up plan." She held up a dead switch button. "Try to stop me, and this whole island becomes nothing but rubble. And even then, maybe I'll press the button before you defuse them all. Ta ta." Throwing a small ball into the ground, a puff of smoke obscured her for a few moments before revealing she disappeared.
"Where did she go?!" Dawn questioned. That was soon answered from the sight of a helicopter taking off from the island, Mars laughing sinisterly all the while.
"Dawn, go find your friends! I'll find the bombs! They're likely in the temple!"
"Okay!" The girl agreed as she and her Pokémon ran into the temple. Once inside, she found her friends tied up with their bags away from them.
"Ash, Barry!" Dawn cried out.
"Dawn, untie us, quick!" Barry pleaded as he strongly squirmed.
"Crystal, use Psychic to destroy the ropes!" The crystal on her head glowed, following with the ropes glowing blue before they were ripped to shreds.
"What happened with Team Galactic?" Ash asked Dawn.
"There's no time! We need to leave now!" She insisted instead. Equipping themselves with their Pokeballs, Ash and Barry released their flight capable Pokémon. Coming out of the temple were Ash and Barry on their Staraptor, and Heracross holding Dawn as they took to the air.
"So from the lack of golbats, Mars and her crew retreated?" Ash asked his partner.
"Yes. I wonder how Riley is doing." As if to answer the girl's question, a giant ball containing a massive explosion burst through the temple and went high into the sky. They quickly lowered their altitude as they marveled at the thing before the aura bubble could no longer contain it and released its full size. The teens cried out as they were hit by the shockwave, forced to make a crash landing onto the hard ground. Groaning, they took the time to make sure they were all okay.
"You guys good?" Dawn asked.
"I'm good." Ash replied.
"I'm fining Team Galactic $10 million for the bill, but I'm fine." Barry said.
"How did they catch you?"
"They swarmed us from all angles. Even if we got our Pokemon out, we wouldn't have been able to attack before being overwhelmed." Ash answered. Hearing footsteps, they turned to see Riley and Lucario walk out of the hole they created, but fell forward from exhaustion.
"Riley!" Dawn cried out as she staggered to him, along with her friends. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, just a bit banged up is all." He brushed off her concern.
"What was that?" Ash questioned.
"That was the power of aura." Dawn told him. "He can use aura like Lucario can."
"How's that even possible!" Barry exclaimed. Before Riley could explain, they heard positive cries as they all turned to see all the steel type Pokémon cheering for them, for saving their home.
"So, can anybody tell me what happened while we were incapacitated?" Barry questioned.
"I can tell you." Riley spoke as Lucario helped him up. "Dawn and I saved the day, but it wouldn't have been possible without her help. Dawn, I thank you with my highest sincerity, and all those who live on Iron Island." He bowed, and so did Lucario.
"Heh, looks like you saved the day, Dawn." Ash said, smiling as big as he could. Barry slung his arm around the stunned girl.
"Yeah, you really showed those Galactic losers what's what! Hip hip, hooray!" Dawn couldn't say anything, for she was too overwhelmed by how proud she was in herself as she cried happy tears.
"Th-thank you."