A/N: I'd like to thank all of you for reading up to this point. Last chapter reached 100k+ words, and I wasn't even aware until it happened. I was planning on making a fluff chapter where there would be pure Pearshipping between Ash and Dawn, but knowing what's happening by this point, why ruin the momentum? We can save the romance till after the world is saved. But again, thank you for making this story possible by giving me encouragement to, even the occasional criticism. It's the protagonists vs. Team Galactic from here on. Enjoy.
"Now? We upgrade our Pokémon." Ash decided. "Dawn, teleport us to Veilstone City." Realizing what he's talking about, she smiled as she let Gallade out of his ball.
"Gallade, teleport us to Veilstone City." Nodding, he glowed with white energy as they touched the Blade Pokémon, before they were instantly moved to the city where Maylene lived. The transition did make them feel rather uneasy, with Barry even running to a trashcan to throw up. After waiting for him to recover, they ran to the department store and bought every important TM that they needed. Sure, it put a $2771 bill on Prof. Rowan, but they'd figure it was for a worthy cause. Exiting the store, the teens figured where to go.
"See you guys in Eterna City."
"You too." They said before teleporting away. Now alone, he waited. No way were Team Galactic were heading into that inferno now. There was too much heat and chaos to try and go in there. So he waited on the top level of the department store, with plenty of food and water being offered by support volunteers. Within hours, helicopters with the logos of Pokémon Rangers from Fiore, Almia and Oblivia came to stop the wildfire, and likely those of the other lake near Twinleaf. He wasn't expecting this, but he wasn't too surprised either. Pokémon Rangers kept their business out of the major regions like Sinnoh and such, but apparently this was a big enough emergency considering that things are so peaceful it's unusual to have more than ten officers in a region. Sure, there were more than ten criminals, but an officer was supposedly worth ten criminals. But this... bomb explosions of this caliber were way out of their capabilities. From the helicopters, he could see water Pokémon using Rain Dance and then Hydro Pump to put out the fire, flight capable Pokémon using Hyper Beam to blow up the flames, or fire Pokémon creating new fire so that it acted like a barrier. Thanks to their coordination, they managed to keep it from spreading shortly after arriving. By sunset, thanks to their coordination, the area surrounding Lake Valor was nothing but a smoldering pile of ash and smoke, but it was definitely better than what it was around noon. After making sure that there was no nothing more beyond embers, the rangers left the area going back to their respective homes. It was only an hour later when he saw what he was waiting for; a helicopter of Team Galactic. Setting down his water bottle, he headed down and exited the department store and dashed to Lake Valor. By the time he made it to the epicenter, there was nothing, a big crater filled with nothing except for Galactic goons and what looked like a cave that appeared to be untouched, like it was protected by a force field. Dropping off of the lip of the crater, he made his way to the center, summoning Floatzel without a word. Hearing the noise, the grunts turned to his direction and all were alerted. They sent out their golbats, glameows and stunky's, they Ash simply ordered,
"Use Surf." Creating what was a tidal wave, Floatzel unleashed his new power as they all cried out before being swept away by the powerful water move in one shot. Returning him to his Net Ball, Ash entered the cave and trekked down through the Earth to find a cavernous room filled with bioluminescent light. Standing in the center was a man in a custom Team Galactic uniform and had horned blue hair. He turned to Ash upon hearing his footsteps, and grinned.
"At last. I was wondering when I'd meet you face to face."
"Why? Why did you do this?" Ash questioned him, his rage building up.
"Well we had to get to the lake guardians somehow, and submarines weren't doing the thing, so we opted for the next best thing. An explosion. But we couldn't just pour millions of tons of TNT into the lakes. That would've been prohibitively expensive. So our scientists concocted a way to condense the emitted energy of Pokémon evolution into a containment unit to the point we put megatons worth of energy into the equivalent of a one ton crate of TNT. Sure, you brats may have stopped us again and again, and the professors' notes would've helped our plans along better, but you were simply delaying the inevitable. The plan is proceeding with or without your hinderance. Our boss will be pleased. Everything is for everyone, and for the good of Team Galactic."
"You bully the Professor, take over an energy plant, try to destroy a vespiquen's hive for her honey, blow up the Great Marsh, almost blew up my hometown and almost killed my mom." The trainer listed off with increasing venom in his voice. "You are not leaving here undefeated."
"Anything and anyone who opposes Team Galactic must be crushed. I'll tolerate you no more. Golbat, take him out!" A blue bat with purple wings, small feet, and a big gaping mouth appeared.
"Luxray, I choose you!"
"Use Confuse Ray!"
"Thunder Fang!" Baring his teeth, his mouth filled up with electricity before Luxray shot off a blast of powerful lightning, zapping the bat before it could do anything, downing it in one go. The man grunted as he boasted, "No matter. You will not defeat the mighty Saturn! Brongzong, go!" Saturn sent out his second Pokémon. It could be described as a blue-green hollow bell with arms coming out of the sides on the top, and a totem pole face was revealed.
"Luxray, use Superpower!" Surrounding himself in white light, he charged at the Bronze Bell Pokémon and bashed into it, causing the enemy to ring loudly in agony.
"Extrasensory." Its eyes glowing yellow, it aimed the underside of its hollow body at Luxray and fired a rainbow colored circular beam, which passed through the electric lion, but he growled in intense pain.
"Counter with Thunder Fang!" His mouth filling with electricity again, he jumped out of the beam and again shot electricity at the Bronze Bell Pokémon. It fell to the ground with a heavy clunk, zapped out. Both of them returned their Pokémon.
"Vaporeon, go!" His third Pokémon was one of the eevelutions, and this was the water variant. She was light blue except for dark blue markings on her face and ridge down her spine. Surrounding her head was a white fin and three cream colored fins around her head. Two on each side and one on top., like ears and a dorsal fin. It stood on all fours and had a tail like a mermaid.
"Torterra, I choose you!" Ash shouted as he brought out his starter.
"Ice Beam." Shooting what looked like neon bright blue lightning, it made its mark on the grass/ground type's head, causing him nearly unbearable pain as he shivered from the cold. "Please, what did you expect from that. It's a guarantee that water type Pokémon has an ice move. I will commend your Torterra surviving it, but it obviously won't the next turn." But what he didn't expect to happen was for Torterra to gain a green aura, and make a thundering roar in the cavern.
"Tooorterraaa!"
"Seed Bomb!" Opening his mouth, white orbs shot out of the Continent Pokémon's mouth and exploded on contact against the Vaporeon, whom cried from excruciating pain until she fell to her side, knocked out in one blow. "Torterra, return." Ash called back his grass type, not wanting to lose him so early. Growing visibly frustrated, he said,
"Drapion, go!" Now on the field was a poison/dark type that looked like a large purple scorpion. He had two very flexible arms and a tail with pincer claws on them.
"Staraptor, use Brave Bird!" Ash ordered. Upon being released, Staraptor glowed a fiery aura as he flew at the enemy with as much force as he could generate, and slammed into Drapion with tremendous strength, pushing him back a good couple of meters. However, the recoil caused Staraptor to fall to the ground, wincing from the pain.
"Quick, grab onto its wings!" Saturn demanded. Jumping forward, Drapion latched his arms around the stunned Predator Pokémon. "Use Crunch!" With his white mandibles, he sunk his teeth into Staraptor's chest, dealing him great pain as he cried out and tried to escape.
"No! Try to escape!"
"Won't happen. Poision Jab!" Rearing his tail which glowed a deathly purple, he plunged her tail right into Staraptor's back, not only hurting him even more but poisoning him.
"Try to escape with Close Combat!" Now using his struggling as an attack, he pecked at Drapion's eyes and scratched his torso with his feet. He did everything he could to beat back the purple scorpion. Unable to take the attack from being hurt by Brave Bird, his grip gave out and fainted onto the floor with Staraptor flapping backwards. The poison then made him feel more pain. "Staraptor, return." Saturn growled more angrily as he returned his Drapion.
"How are you so strong as to keep taking down my Pokémon in one or two shots?! You shouldn't be this strong!"
"Training. I bet that except for your ace, you only recently got most of your Pokémon just so you'd be prepared for a long fight and augmented for type coverage. Your Pokémon are strong, but mine are skilled with the help of training and TMs. You're outclassed." Ash boasted with determination.
"No. No! You are not my superior or even an equal! Ampharos, go!" Releasing his next Pokémon, she was a yellow bipedal mammal with a white belly. She had a long neck and black rings on her neck, cone shaped ears and tail. Red orbs were on her forehead and tip of her tail. She somewhat resembled like a kangaroo. Ash grinned.
"Torterra, I choose you!" Returning to the field was the Continent Pokémon, who roared his name as his green aura returned.
"Hidden Power." Forming bright blue orbs around herself, she launched them at Torterra, he howled in agony as it was an ice type of hidden power, exploiting his Achilles heel. unable to withstand it, he slumped to the ground, the first to be defeated.
"Torterra, return!" Ash responded as he withdrew his starter. "Sorry buddy."
"You're right, I haven't personally trained any of these Pokémon except for Golbat and my ace, but commanders like me get Pokémon best equipped for whatever the obstacle is. Such as defeating Pokémon they're weak against.
"Well then, maybe I should be a little more defensive then. Dusclops, I choose you!" Summoning his Beckon Pokémon, there was no way he's going down quickly.
"Useless. Thunderbolt." Charging up with electricity, Ampharos at the ghost type, dealing some damaged based from its groan and pained expression, but not too much.
"Ice Punch." His right hand glowing bright blue, he lobbed it right at Ampharos, punching her right in the head. While she staggered, the left side of her head was frozen, giving her brain freeze.
"This can't be happening." Saturn whispered to himself that his Pokémon was immobilized.
"Now, give it the old one-two with Shadow Punch!" His hands glowing grey, he floated right up to the literally and metaphorically frozen electric type and knocked her around with his punches. Unfortunately, this seems to have shattered the ice around her head, no longer incapacitating her.
"Thunderbolt!" Saturn commanded. Charging up, she gave Dusclups quite the shock as he stumbled back with lots of jittering.
"Shadow Punch!" His left hand glowing grey, he gave one more punch to Ampharos's gut, which was enough for her to faint and keel over. Returning his Pokémon, he snarled,
"I must not lose to you! Time for my trump card! Toxicroak, Go!" His last Pokémon looked like a bipedal dark blue and teal poison dart frog, standing on its three toes. She had intimidating yellow eyes, a creepy mouth showing her teeth, and her 'chin' was a big red sack growing and shrinking as she breathed. On the back of her hands were one red claw that was used to channel poisons. "Poision Jab!" Her right claw glowing purple, she stabbed it into Dusclops's body, inflicting just enough damage to defeat him as he fell onto his back.
"Dusclops, return." Ash said as he withdrew him into the Dusk Ball. "Staraptor, you can do this!" On the field again was his bird Pokémon, whom chirped his name while spreading his wings, but cringed from the poison. "Brave Bird!" Producing a fiery aura again, he rushed right at Toxicroak.
"Ice Punch!" Her claw glowing bright blue, the two clashed with their respective super effective moves, unwilling to give in until there was an explosion between the two, forcing their owners to shield their faces from the shockwave. Once the smoke cleared away, both Pokémon have fainted, splayed on the ground. Instead of going into a rage like Mars would, he simply sighed as he returned his ace. "Well, I can certainly see how you think you can stop us, but I was at least able to buy Team Galactic some time. That's fine. A child like you will never be able to stop our true ambitions. Mars has likely captured Mesprit by now and Jupiter is getting to Acuity as we speak. With their power, we'll create an entirely new universe." Stepping back, the ceiling above him caved in by an explosive before a ladder was presented to Saturn. Once he was on it, he was pulled out of the hole and watched from a safe distance as the bombs set around the cavern detonated, collapsing the ground into a sink hole, hopefully crushing the brat. Smiling, he climbed the ladder up to the helicopter. On the ground level, a few minutes passed before Floatzel dug his way out of the ground outside the range of the sink hole, with Ash following suite. He panted from the near death experience, but smiled at that he survived. Returning his Floatzel, he began his trek back to Veilstone City to heal.
After witnessing the amazing stunt of putting out the fire around Lake Verity and leaving, Barry soon spotted the Team Galactic helicopter heading into the area. He grinned as he slid off the roof of his house, landed in a safe position, and made a mad dash to the former lake to run them out of town. Upon reaching the crater, he saw the Professor and Lucas fighting off the grunts with a Porygon-Z for Rowan, and an Alakazam and Luxray for Lucas.
"Hey guys, I'm here!"
"Barry, get to the commander! We're holding these hooligans off the best we can!" Rowan instructed.
"There's a lot of them, but we can handle ourselves!" Getting the message, Barry ran through the massive battle and entered the cavern to spot Mars. She turned to him and sneered.
"Oh, it's you again. Ready to lose like you did on Iron Island?"
"You ambushed us without a battle and why did you blow up the Lake?!" Barry shouted at her.
"You know, I don't have the time to explain all that stuff to you, so I'm just going to take you down here and now. "Golbat, show no mercy!"
"Floatzel, get ready!" Barry shouted as he brought out his Sea Weasel. "Rain Dance!" Creating a light blue orb, Floatzel shot it up into the air before it disappeared. Clouds started to form above them before it started to rain.
"You brat! You're going to ruin my hair! Golbat, use Poison Fang!"
"Counter with Waterfall!" With the air helping Floatzel's speed, he surrounded himself with lots of water and shot like a geyser, practically drowning Golbat with the amount of water that was pushed into the bat's mouth.
"Grr, return! Poliwrath, go!" Onto the field was the water/fighting type that had a big muscular build with a round body and log think arms and legs. Its hands were completely white and had a white belly with a black spiral. "Use Bulk Up!" Glowing white, Poliwrath grunted as he became much more buffer, his muscles becoming more defined. Now use Brick Break!" Jumping up into the air, Poliwrath was now on the attack.
"Dig!" Burrowing into the ground, he dodged the powerful strike as the Tadpole Pokémon, whom hit the earth with enough force to split the ground, though not very deep. Growling before she got an idea, then smiled.
"Keep using Bulk Up!" Tensing his muscles even more, he waited. From below, the Sea Weasel popped from the ground and bashed himself into the Tadpole.
"Dig again!"
"Bulk Up again!" Floatzel escaped into the ground again while Poliwrath got stronger. After landing another hit and going back underground, Mars countered, "Use Brick Break on the ground!" With all of his focused power, he smashed his hand on the floor, this time with much more force as the water/fighting type created a giant crater between the two trainers, and exposed Floatzel when he was caught in between the cracks.
"No!"
"Use Brick Break!" Catching the Sea Weasel off guard, Poliwrath delivered a devastating blow to Floatzel as he was sent flying into one of the walls, leaving a great impact in it.
"Floatzel, are you alright?!" Although he was massively injured and looked on the verge of passing out, Floazel managed to stand up with a giant bruise on his side. "Yeah! Finish this with Ice Fang!" His teeth glowing bright blue, he shot two zigzagging beams of cold at the Poliwrath who tried to block it, but was too weak from the underground attacks as he was pushed back into the ground hard. With a frozen arm, he fainted.
"Ugh! I'll deal with you later!" Mars told her Poliwrath as she returned him, her hair indeed ruined and now dangling down past her shoulders.
("Man, she'd be so hot if she wasn't so evil.") Barry thought to himself. Rain Dance seemed to have worn off as the clouds dissipated. "Floatzel, return." Barry called back his water type. "You did good. I'll save you as a last resort."
"Hmph, without your water type, I can now use her! Flareon, go!" Third up was the fire eevelution. It basically just looked like a fire red dog with a yellow-cream colored mane and tail.
"Stara, get ready!" Going up against Flareon was his Staraptor.
"Use Close Combat!"
"Protect!" Despite Stara's superior speed, Flareon was able to encase herself with a protective green energy field, which protected her. "Now use Flamethrower!" Unable to recover in time, Stara was caught and pushed back by the stream of fire produced by the foe. Even worse, Stara was burned when she combusted for a second and took further damage, screeching in pain.
"Don't give up! Use Brave Bird!" Pushing through the pain, the Predator Pokémon flew back before flying right with a fiery aura. This time, he was more successful in hitting Flareon, but suffered from both recoil damage and burn.
"Ha, your bird is no match now! Flamethrower!" Hit by another plume of fire, it was too much as Stara was blown back by Flareon, landing at Barry's feet looking like extra crispy chicken.
"Return Stara. I'm sorry that hurt so much." Looking at the Flareon, he nodded. "Infernape, get ready!" Replacing Stara was his fire starter. "Use Stone Edge!" Forming white energy rings around himself that turned into grey stones, he fired them at Flareon.
"Protect!" Again forming a green forcefield around herself, she was protected against the barrage of stones flying at her. "Flamethrower, once more!"
"Dodge, then use Shadow Claw!" Jumping over the blast of fire, Infernape charged with a claw surrounded by black aura looking like a claw. Slashing it across the eevelution, it was too strong to take the blow, and she howled in pain as she was sent into the sloped crater wall, defeated upon impact.
"Alright, Infernape! That ought to show her not to mess with us!"
"Heh, that's what you think! Gliscor, go!" Once Flareon was withdrawn off the field, in her place was a blue-purple looking vampire bat with a scorpion tail and huge pincer claws instead of tiny hands. He was balancing on his tail. "Use Swords Dance!" Forming light blue swords around himself, Gliscor spun around as the swords did before clucking his pincers over his head as the swords all touched their tips over his head before they disappeared.
"That doesn't scare us at all! Stone Edge!" Once again forming rocks around himself, Infernape shot them at the flying/ground type.
"Dodge it and use your own!" Using his tail to jump away from the attack, Gliscor formed stones around him and fired.
"Dodge and use Flamethrower!" Cartwheeling out of the path of harm, the Flame Pokémon breathed out a plume of fire.
"Dodge it!" Moving his wings, Gliscor flew out of the way and touched down on the ground with his tail.
"I think our Pokémon are too fast for long ranged attacks! How about we settle this with good old fisticuffs?"
"I prefer that style anyway." Mars agreed. "Use Poison Jab!"
"Counter with Shadow Claw!" With one hand covered in black aura and the other glowing a sickly purple, the two Pokémon clashed with enough force to cause an explosion, but this didn't stop the trainers.
"Use Iron Tail!" Mars commanded. With his tail glowing shiny and grey, Gliscor did a front flip and bashed his tail into the top of Infernape's head, though this proved to be a mistake. The smoke was blown away as Infernape's head went ablaze in a display of explosive power, which burned Gliscor's tail. Infernape roared his name from his ability activating.
"Alright! Infernape, trap Gliscor and use Flamethrower!" Grabbing onto the burnt tail and slamming the panicked Gliscor down on his front, he flipped over his fallen foe and wrapped his tail around the foe's neck, cutting him off from breathing. Infernape breathed so much fire at point blank range, an explosion of fire consumed the both of them with a roar and a howl of agony. Mars was left stunned as her Gliscor was thrown to her feet, a serious burn on his back. Mars snarled as she returned Gliscor and threw out her next Pokémon.
"Bronzong, use Extrasensory!" Upon being released, the Bronze Bell Pokémon aimed his body at Infernape and fired a rainbow beam at the Flame Pokémon.
"Dodge and use Flamethrower!" Jumping into the air, he blasted the steel type with his enhanced fire attack, pushing it into the ground. In one move, Bronzong was knocked out in one hit, glowing red from the heat. After returning her downed Pokémon, she went on a temper tantrum, stomping her feet and flailing her arms in a rage.
"Augh! There's no way my Purugly's going to win this! I can't believe a twerp beat me again! This shouldn't be happening to me!" After letting out a primal scream of fury, she calmed herself down by breathing deeply and talking to herself. "Deep breaths, Mars. You did all you could do. Saturn likely captured Azelf by now. Now it's up to Jupiter." Recomposing herself, she grinned in an evil way at Barry. "I did my job without a problem. I just merely wanted to teach you a lesson. You may have defeated me, but you were still too late!" A piece of the ceiling was blown apart, creating a hole where a ladder dropped through. "Here's my ride. See you later, brat." But just as she was about to make her escape, part of the ladder glowed blue with energy and was destroyed, resulting in the commander plopping down onto her butt in pained annoyance. Looking up, she saw an Infernape, an Alakazam, and a Porygon-Z gazing down at her, followed by Barry, Lucas, and Rowan.
"Well ain't this just perfect." Mars grumbled.
As Mars would being sent away to Jubilife's jail thanks to Officer Jenny, Prof. Rowan was praising Barry for his work.
"Outstanding work, Barry. You managed to take down one of the commanders of Team Galactic. Highly impressive indeed."
"To think that there are criminals of this caliber. They make Kanto's Team Rocket seem like a group of schoolyard bullies in comparison." Lucas commented.
"I'd love to stay and have you continue praising me, Professor, but I need to meet the others so that we can get to Snowpoint City." Barry tried excusing himself.
"Hmph, very well then. Take this so that your Staraptor is in top condition." Rowan gave Barry a Max Revive suppliment.
"Thank you sir." Barry bowed as he went to revive his flying type and flew off to Eterna City.