After having finally recovered from a week of rest, Shaymin and Melmetal stood before the entrance to Zeraora's house. It was late enough, so he and Vaporeon should have been at home. But while they stood there, the cyborg blinked and asked, "I was just thinking, how about we go back in time to challenge Dialga and Palkia again? Or at least go back to our time and maybe alter the footage of them stealing their parts back?"

Shaymin sighed, "I didn't say this before because I didn't want to put too much pressure on everyone, but that machine is only good for one more trip. After we return to our time, that's it."

She then pulled out a microchip and added, "I actually have the footage of them raiding Hero Planet right here, so if push comes to shove, I'll expose them with this. But since it means I'll have to reveal our secret, it's a last-minute resort. I'm sure we won't need it, though."

Melmetal nodded before the hedgehog rang the doorbell. After a few seconds, Zeraora answered the door and said, "Hello, who is it?" his eyes wide open at the sight of the two who stood before him. And of course, he just had to call Vaporeon to the door.

Soon enough, everyone was seated in the living room. Drizzile smiled and said, "It's good to see you two up and about," Melmetal replying, "Yeah, to think we missed so much. Though I'm a little surprised to see you here."

The chameleon shrugged and stated, "Well, Gallade and Hitmonchan finally have some time to spend together. I didn't wanna get in the way of that. Besides, right now, getting these two ready for the biggest match of their lives is top priority."

"Couldn't agree more!" Shaymin squealed with a grin, "I imagine you two have gotten a lot of training done today, but we're gonna help you, and we won't take no for an answer!" Zeraora blinking before he shrugged his shoulders and replied, "You have no objections from us, Miss Future Chairwoman."

Shaymin and Melmetal both stared in shock before Drizzile chuckled, "Yeah, Vaporeon kinda spilled the beans last night," the blue fox grinning nervously with a light sweat drop on the side of her head.

"It's fine," Zeraora uttered with a nervous smile, "I already promised I wouldn't tell anyone, so your time line's still safe, at least for now," Melmetal breathing a sigh of relief while Shaymin bit her lower lip, now wondering if she should just show Beedrill the security footage or not.

Once the conversation was over, both headed off to find themselves a hotel suite to stay in. Zeraora offered to let them stay there for the night, but they felt that with Drizzile there as well, they would simply take up too much space. But they promised to meet the trio at the gym that Vaporeon and Zeraora had gone to during this entire event.

And sure enough, they did just that the following day. All five heroes trained long and hard while Zeraora continued to amaze them all with his electric abilities. It was hard to believe that up until his sparring match with Leafeon and Jolteon, he was only able to use them purely by accident.

When they took breaks, Vaporeon explained to Shaymin and Melmetal what they had discovered about Dialga and Palkia. Needless to say, when Shaymin heard of how Rillaboom and Aipom got the upper hand, she groaned, "Of course that would weaken them. And all we did was beat away at them in the hopes that they'd stop fighting back against us!"

Melmetal chuckled nervously as he figured it would be best not to comment on this. As such, he focused his attention on something else and said, "I have to admit, this will definitely be tough. Like you said, I seriously doubt they'd allow themselves to fall victim to such a tactic again. And if my punches couldn't get them to bleed or even flinch, I'm not sure what you guys could do to weaken them early on."

"It's why we're working our hardest to be as strong as possible," Zeraora replied, "We also figure maybe if we can land a really powerful team move early on, it might be enough to make them vulnerable," Vaporeon nodding.

"In theory, that makes sense," Melmetal replied, "Hell, that's probably what I'd try," Shaymin sighing, "But I get the feeling it won't be that easy. Unleashing many powerful attacks is a good idea, but I think you need to at least try something similar to what Rillaboom and Aipom did, especially since you guys don't have an awesome family power to double your strength."

Vaporeon blinked and asked, "Well, if they're not gonna fall for the same tactic, what do you suggest?" only for Drizzile to nod and reply, "I know what they mean, and it's simple, too. In fact, you may have noticed Machoke and Gardevoir actually pulled this off as did Rillaboom and Aipom. What Shaymin's suggesting is that you should start with moves that involve you sending the dragons into each other. Like, instead of smacking them with your tail, grab onto one and hurl him or her into the other."

"You're right, that is simple," the fox said with a nod, "Even so, that almost sounds too easy. I wouldn't be surprised if they expected us to do that," Zeraora groaning, "Damn, and that really does sound like the better option, too."

"Yeah, it really does," Melmetal replied, "You'll just have to make sure they can't retaliate," before gasping, "Maybe you should make them think you're gonna go for direct attacks but then switch tactics at the last second! They'll never see it coming!"

Zeraora and Vaporeon turned to one-another and nodded with a big smiles. This sounded like the perfect plan. At the very least, they would do that until the dragons were weak enough to take in damage from any move they could dish out.

But just to make sure this would work, Melmetal and Shaymin volunteered to spar with them so they could make sure this method was effective enough. After all, they could not just go in blind with a tactic like this.

During this time, Morgrem and Rolycoly were looking around Tokyo, the goblin smiling and saying, "You know, this place is pretty nice, even in the past. We should totally visit when we get back and see how much it's changed."

The golem nodded and replied, "Agreed," before he took a deep breath and whimpered, "Oh god, I miss Geneva so much!"

Morgrem patted him on the back and sighed, "Don't worry. I know Vaporeon and Zeraora will win. Then everything will be okay and you can return home."

Suddenly, their eyes widened when a familiar voice came from behind them and squealed, "Hey, guys!" both turning to see a certain rabbit up and about. Or at the very least, she was awake.

As the doctors had stated, Scorbunny had enough strength to recover quickly, but she would have to spend her time in a wheelchair. Currently, she had Raboot pushing her despite the fact that she had insisted she could move on her own. And while he believed her, he felt this strange desire to take care of her, but why?

Whatever the case, Morgrem ran over to her and leaned forward for a light hug, exclaiming, "It's so nice to see you again!" Rolycoly chuckling, "She didn't visit us that long ago."

"Still," Raboot sighed, "I'm sure you've heard that she won't be able to move her feet for at least the rest of the week. That means she won't get to compete in the finals. I don't even know why that gets to me so much! I'm feeling things I've never felt before!"

Tears welled up in his eyes before Scorbunny used her ears to wipe them off and sighed, "Don't get all soap opera on me. I'm fine. As long as I can watch Vaporeon kick the shit out of those assholes, I'm happy."

At that moment, Rolycoly suggested, "Hey, how about we go and check up on Vaporeon, eh? Give her a little support. Even if we don't help her train, we can still cheer from the sidelines, eh? It's been how long since we were able to do that?"

Scorbunny nodded and replied, "That's a great idea. And best of all, I know exactly where they are." She then told them which gym they went to almost every day, Raboot knowing exactly where to go. As such, he pushed Scorbunny along and had the others follow him.

During this time, Rillaboom and Aipom continued to lie in their bed until something stirred within the gorilla. Her body started to twitch when suddenly, her eyes opened and she bolted upright. She panted and placed her hand against her forehead before she gasped, "My god, what a terrible nightmare! I dreamt the whole world had been enslaved by Dialga and Palkia! And Vaporeon was a skeleton!"

She then looked around and grumbled, "How long was I out for?" before she looked at Aipom and took a deep breath. As much of an honour as it had been fighting alongside the monkey, she could not help but feel as if she had let her down.

Even so, a doctor happened to walk by when he heard her scratch her forehead. Thus he turned and entered the room with a smile, saying, "Well, look at that. You're wide awake as well."

"What do you mean 'as well'?" Rillaboom uttered before the man explained, "Well, we've had quite a few recoveries lately. Not only did that lizard friend of yours recover last night, but that bunny also made a full recovery as did that, um, I wanna say field mouse but I feel like that's wrong."

The gorilla nodded with a smile and replied, "Well, that's a relief. Drizzile got up nice and quickly," before uttering, "Then again, he didn't fight Dialga. Now that I think about it, it's a miracle I'm awake right now."

"I'll say," the doctor replied, "You're up two days earlier than predicted. You are really strong," Rillaboom grinning and flexing her muscles before uttering, "Hold on, did you say Scorbunny was in the hospital?"

"Oh, right, you were unconscious, so you didn't see it," the doctor replied, "See, she was your mermaid fox friend's partner in the semi-finals and suffered a nasty electric shock. She's fine, but she's also paralysed from the waist down, so she can't move her legs."

"Oh, so she's walking around with crutches?" Rillaboom uttered only for the doctor to reply, "A wheelchair, but yeah, she left a few hours ago. Said something about checking up on her friends."

Rillaboom smiled in response and enquired, "So, um, how long is Aipom gonna be out?" the doctor biting his lower lip and sighing, "Well, her body's nowhere near as strong as yours, so she probably won't wake up for at least another four days."

The gorilla nodded and replied, "Well, keep taking good care of her, alright?" before she rose up and stretched, "I need to go check up on our friends as well. I've been asleep for far too long."

She then rolled her shoulder and shifted her neck back and forth before the doctor had a nurse lead her to the exit. Needless to say, she could not wait to reunite with her friends. But after she left, her eyes went wide as she uttered, "Wait, if Scorbunny was injured, does that mean she and Vaporeon lost? Did Machoke and Gardevoir beat Lucario and Clauncher? If they did, then Dialga and Palkia must have been defeated."

However, her tune soon changed when she walked by an electronics store and noticed the various TVs in the window showing a news report about the finals. At first, she was beyond worried when she noticed the subtitles mention Dialga and Palkia competing in the round. The last thing the gorilla wanted was for Toxtricity and Sutorinda to be their opponents.

But when the reporter mentioned that the dragons' opponents would be Vaporeon and Zeraora, she breathed a sigh of relief. And sure enough, she had a pretty clear of idea of where they would be. Thus she headed off with a big grin on her face.

During this time, Vaporeon and Zeraora were in the midst of their sparring match with Melmetal and Shaymin. Despite their best efforts, the cyborg and hedgehog had proven to be surprisingly difficult to take advantage of. Each time either of them attempted to send the other into his or her partner, said opponent would counter with his or her own move.

Vaporeon wrapped her tail around Melmetal's head only for the cyborg to ram his fist into her back, causing her to let go. And when Zeraora grabbed onto the back of Shaymin's head, she formed her thorns and pierced his hand.

However, he refused to let this get to him, but he took a deep breath, lifted her up and tossed her into Melmetal's face, his eyes wide with shock as he backed up. Shaymin rubbed the back of her head after she landed on the mat and grinned, saying, "Not bad. Now let's see if you can both pull that off."

Drizzile cheered for them while Vaporeon rose to her feet and thought, 'Right, I gotta take a page out of Rillaboom's book and try not to let the pain get to me. If I can treat hard hits like a minor inconvenience, I can pull off anything.'

With that in mind, she waited for Shaymin to take on her sky form and fly at her with her ears out. The fox waited for her to get close and latched her hands onto said ears. Sure, she took a light blow to her neck due to the hedgehog's speed, but she ignored it, lifted her up and tossed her into Melmetal.

Shaymin grinned and said, "Not bad. You pulled off a Rillaboom there," Vaporeon thinking, 'Did she read my mind?' before the hedgehog sighed, "Still, while that may be effective against us, I'm not so sure if that would be such a good idea against Dialga and Palkia."

Zeraora blinked before Drizzile sighed, "From what I've seen from them, she might have a point. Shaymin, do those two really hit as hard as it looks like they do?" Melmetal replying, "Oh, you bet. I've never faced anyone with such amazing physical strength."

"Well, to be fair, they're nowhere near as hard-hitting as Eternatus and his friends, but they are really tough," the hedgehog stated, "As such, it would be best not to let them hit you at all. So we still need to practice quite a bit."

Zeraora let out a sigh and groaned, "And here I thought we were onto something," Vaporeon replying, "Well, I figured it wouldn't be that easy."

At that moment, a familiar voice entered the area and squealed, "I knew you guys would be here!" Vaporeon's eyes wide with shock as she slowly turned to see Scorbunny by the entrance along with Morgrem, Rolycoly and Raboot.

The fox had an open-mouth smile when she leapt out of the ring and raced toward the rabbit. She then wrapped her arms around her and squeaked, "It's true! You really did wake up quickly!" showering her in kisses while Morgrem blinked and uttered, "Did we miss something?"

The fox then beamed bright at the other two and exclaimed, "It's so nice to see you finally out of the hospital!" before she turned to Raboot and added, "And it's good to see you too, Raboot."

"Naturally," the male rabbit replied with a proud look on his face, "So, how's your training coming along? You ready to rip those dragons limb from limb?"

'Rip them limb from limb,' Shaymin thought while she tapped her chin, Vaporeon sighing, "Not quite. We know how we'll weaken them, but we still haven't quite figured out a surefire method to pull it off. I mean, we know what to do, but it's much easier said than done."

"You think we could help out?" Rolycoly enquired only for Vaporeon to reply, "That would be nice, but we got Shaymin and Melmetal helping us out, and they've fought the dragons, so it makes sense."

Morgrem and Rolycoly turned to face her before saying in unison, "Hi, Miss Chair- I mean, Shaymin!" the hedgehog tensing up when she spotted Raboot. They had just about revealed her secret to him, the male rabbit now wondering if almost saying the wrong name was a common thing for this group.

The others soon discussed their plan with the others. Raboot simply folded his arms and grunted, "You should just rush them and keep beating away at them until they bleed. That's what I would do," before Melmetal sighed, "Yeah, that strategy is why we lost. Keep up, man."

"Still, there is another thing you could try if that tactic fails," Shaymin stated as the others turned to face her, "Although I imagine this would be even more difficult to pull off. See, Dialga and Palkia weren't this powerful before they fought me the first time around. In fact, each one has a specific power source to grant them a large burst in strength that makes them as threatening as they are."

Scorbunny blinked and said, "Oh, yeah, right, you mean Palkia's wings and Dialga's voice, right?" Raboot and Zeraora uttering, "You mean they didn't have those before?"

Shaymin nodded at them and explained, "Yes, as it so happens, Dialga's power comes from a sphere inside of his body called The Sphere of Time. It also contains his voice, meaning he needs it to communicate, but most of all, it gives him the ability to activate that blue aura he used against us."

Zeraora blinked and uttered, "Oh, wow," the hedgehog adding, "Meanwhile, Palkia's wings are actually detachable. It takes a lot to pull it off, but it is possible. Not only do they grant her the power to fly, but they also increase her strength by a lot and are called The Wings of Space. As it so happens, both of these had been taken from them a few years ago."

Raboot blinked and uttered, "So they got them back, then?" Shaymin nodding and replying, "Yep. Or rather, they stole those parts back. It's where their power comes from."

"Wait, stole?" Raboot asked, "And what's this about these parts being taken from them in the first place? What, are they criminals or something?" Scorbunny nodding and replying, "Yep. In fact, defeating them has kinda been our top priority throughout this whole tournament, mostly because we're the only ones who know their secret. The only problem is we have no proof of the crimes they commited, so we can't just have them disqualified."

"And even if we did, I've been thinking and I realize that probably wouldn't work in our favour anyway," Shaymin sighed, "Think about it. Even if they were disqualified, they'll just be allowed to leave so they can return another day and exact their revenge. The best thing we can do is defeat them. But I also just realized that taking the wings and voice from them might also be the best thing we could do, because without those powers in their possession, they'll never be able to pull this BS again."

Melmetal's eye widened when he heard that. Even he had completely forgotten that was how that worked. If anything, the security footage Shaymin had on her had pretty much been rendered useless now. Both felt ashamed of the fact that they had only just thought of all of this.

Vaporeon nodded and grunted, "Alright, we'll be sure to do that as well. We might have to defeat them first, but if that's what it takes, then so be it!"

Zeraora nodded with a big grin while Raboot uttered, "Oh my god, there have been two criminals in this tournament and only you guys knew about it!? As if my brain hasn't already been overloaded with emotions as of late!"

At that moment, Rillaboom opened the door to the gym with a grin on her face. She then waved to the others who all exclaimed, "RILLABOOM!" and ran over to her to hold her in a tight embrace, save for Scorbunny who waved from her chair.

Soon enough, the gorilla was brought up to speed, thus she nodded and said, "Yeah, that makes the most sense. I actually feel kinda bad revealing that strategy so soon. If Aipom and I hadn't used it so much, they never would have caught onto it."

She then frowned and grunted, "Though to think all this time, things could have been so much easier if we'd aimed for their power sources. If only we'd thought of that sooner."

"Again, it's not as easy as just yanking them away," Shaymin replied, "From what I can gather, Buzzwole absorbed Dialga's voice from him while Nihilego had to use an awful lot of force to knock Palkia's wings off."

Raboot blinked and thought, 'Buzzwole? Nihilego? How is it I've never heard of any of these people?' Zeraora figuring they must have been heroes from the future as well.

Vaporeon nodded and said, "I'm sure we can do it. But until then, we gotta focus on our main strategy."

She then smiled at Rillaboom and added, "Maybe you could help us, eh? You've fought them too," the gorilla nodding and replying, "Hell yeah. I'll do whatever I can to help you beat the shit out of them."

And so, after a bit more talking, Vaporeon and Zeraora resumed training. But while turning their opponents against each other without getting hit sounded easy in theory, they had a lot more trouble with it than they first expected. Despite their best efforts, each time they would send a sparring partner into his or her partner, they would always take in a strike first.

Rillaboom raced toward Vaporeon who prepared to dodge, but just as she was about to do so, she hesitated and took the gorilla's arm to her neck. As if that was not enough, she was unable to fight back after having taken in so many hits prior to this, thus she groaned in pain and fell on her back.

The others gasped before Morgrem leapt into the ring and asked, "Hey, you okay?" the fox grumbling, "Not really," as even Zeraora felt a tad ashamed of himself.

Rillaboom let out a sigh and said, "Well, this is exactly what Shaymin warned you about. You guys took in a lot of hits from us, but trust me, you don't want Dialga or Palkia to hit either of you. You'll get results like these much sooner."

Vaporeon bit her lip and groaned, "I can't help thinking this really should be easier," Scorbunny tapping her chin and suggesting, "Maybe you guys are just overthinking it. Instead of focusing on hurling Dialga and Palkia into one-another, maybe you should just let it come naturally."

The cat and fox blinked and looked at one-another. Perhaps the rabbit was right. Rillaboom, all the while, was impressed. To think Scorbunny was the most rash member of their trio at first.

With all of that in mind, Vaporeon and Zeraora kept at it for the next few days with the others there to support them all the way. And it was during their tenth sparring match with Melmetal and Shaymin that they finally got it.

Melmetal stretched his arm out toward Zeraora and spun his hexagonal nut, shouting, "HARD BUZZ SAW!" only for the cat to lean under it and latch onto his wrist. He then swung the cyborg around and hurled him toward Shaymin.

The hedgehog was just about to dodge only for Vaporeon to take hold of her and toss her right into Melmetal's face. Thus both of them grunted in pain and fell hard on their backs. The others grinned and gave the Atlantic Catfish a round of applause while both teammates looked at each other with big smiles on their faces.

"We're ready for this," Vaporeon said with a big grin before Zeraora held up his fist and pounded it against hers. But, of course, pulling it off once was one thing. They knew they would need to spend the rest of the week practising this just to make sure they would truly be ready to use it on Dialga and Palkia. But one thing was for certain, their confidence could not have been higher.