Earth's Protectors IV: Blast to the Past

by nld200xy

Two dangerous villains, Dialga and Palkia, have gone to the past to a time when the heroes of the world would not be strong enough to oppose them with the soul intent of wiping out the entire hero population. Thus Shaymin creates a time machine and gathers the heroes of Edmonton to follow them and stop them. Can they pull it off?

38. Chapter 38

Just as it looked like things were truly over, the Atlantic Catfish were given another chance to end this match. But now that everyone knew that Dialga and Palkia were evil, they no longer had any reason to hold back. Could the cat and blue fox win or would their efforts prove fruitless?

Dialga smirked at the heroes and said, "I'll admit, this is actually comical now. Do you honestly believe all your efforts in this ring are worth it? All you're really doing is delaying the inevitable. I mean, seriously, what is it with you heroes and your persistence?"

Zeraora gritted his teeth as Vaporeon retorted, "We spend months training super hard to endure many battles on Earth. We take classes and risk our lives day in and day out. We're Earth's protectors! We fight for duty and pride! You can tare us limb from limb, but we'll always rise to our feet and keep fighting until the end!"

The crowd cheered while Scorbunny beamed bright and sniffed, "That's my girlfriend," Raboot still trying to get over the fact that he had been hanging out with his great granddaughter this whole time.

Of course, everyone else shouted their own words of encouragement for Vaporeon and Zeraora. Sure, these two may not have been as strong as Machoke or as graceful as Gardevoir, but they seemed like the right ones to take on the dragons. There was no doubt these two could prevent the horrible future that Dialga and Palkia planned to create.

Naturally, both wished to prove this, so they waited for Dialga and Palkia to race toward them before they leapt to the side. Once again, Zeraora's tail was covered in electricity while a ball of ice formed on the tip of Vaporeon's. The blue fox swung hers into Dialga's gut and Zeraora sent a fierce slash into Palkia's waist, both heroes shouting, "LIGHTNING FLAIL SLASH!"

Blood squirted out of the purple dragon while the blue dragon winced in pain. And things only got worse for them when Vaporeon latched her tail around Palkia's neck, leaned backward and lifted her up, shouting, "ICE FRANKENSTEINER!" ramming the back of her head into the canvas.

But of course, Dialga was not exactly off the hook either. Zeraora flipped him upside-down and leapt high into the air. Sparks formed on all of his claws before he jabbed them into the blue dragon's legs and upper back. And when he descended toward the mat, he wrapped his tail around Dialga's neck, sent electricity through it and shouted, "FELINE PILEDRIVER!"

When the blue dragon's skull hit the canvas, the crowd cheered wildly. As if that was not enough, his head seemed to be stuck in the material, thus Zeraora turned to Vaporeon and exclaimed, "Hey, what say we show them our ultimate move!?"

Vaporeon blinked and turned to see Dialga's predicament, thus a big smile formed on her face just in time for Palkia to rise to her feet. The blue fox leapt over to her and wrapped her arms around her. She then curled her tail like a spring and leapt high into the air.

Zeraora, all the while, took hold of Dialga's ankles and leapt high up himself, setting him up for the same move he just used. However, this time, he positioned himself under Vaporeon just in time for her to flip one hundred and eighty degrees and planted Palkia's head up against her partner's feet.

"TRAMPOLINE THUNDER CAT DRIVER!" both exclaimed while the cheers from the crowd became deafening. Their friends watched in anticipation as they felt like this might just be enough to end the match for good.

However, at that exact moment, Dialga's eyes widened as he grunted, "I don't think so!" before he lifted up his arms and latched them onto Zeraora's legs. He also moved his legs inward, and while this caused him additional pain, he ignored it and pressed his feet up against the cat's neck.

Palkia, meanwhile, latched onto Vaporeon's wrists and dug her claws into them. Dialga's aura formed while Palkia turned dark purple, her claws becoming bright pink. Then with little effort, the dragons managed to flip themselves and their opponents one hundred and eighty degrees and exclaimed, "TRAMPOLINE DRIVER REVERSAL!"

Sure enough, Vaporeon's skull hit the canvas hard while Zeraora's pressed up against her feet. Both coughed up blood before the Time Space Squad released them and allowed them to collapse. Panic spread through the area as Rillaboom groaned, "Oh, come on! They were doing so well!"

It did not end there, though. After all, Dialga and Palkia had planned from the start to make an example of the two heroes and kill them. As such, the purple dragon picked up Zeraora and tossed him on top of Vaporeon before she flew toward Dialga and scooped him up by his shoulders. Both rose high into the air before the blue dragon lashed out the claws on his feet and pointed them toward the heroes like a drill.

Palkia rose her body up until her feet were latched onto Dialga's shoulders before he smirked and said, "This may have failed to kill them before, but this time will be different." He and Palkia spun while they descended downward and shouted, "SPACE TIME DRILL TWO POINT O!"

As he suspected, the Atlantic Catfish were barely able to move, Drizzile gasping, "Come on, guys! Get up! You can still win!" Morgrem and Rolycoly holding onto one-another and trembling.

The crowd winced, many members covering their eyes when Dialga's claws made contact with Zeraora's gut. And while he and Palkia continued to spin, blood flew from the cat like a fountain. There was no doubt this would go all the way through, and once that happened, Vaporeon was next.

Megumi stared at this and panted heavily, whimpering, "No, my son," trying to hold back her tears. After all, she did not want to believe that this one move would really be enough to end his life. She truly believed he was better than that.

And just as Zeraora was about to black out, he tilted his head back toward that part of the crowd and noticed this. Just the sight of his mother that distraught was more than enough for him to ignore the pain to his gut, therefor he gritted his teeth, formed sparks around his claws and jammed them into Dialga's ankles, growling, "You will not have your way!"

Dialga and Palkia's eyes widened as this caused blood to fly from the ankles in question. However, the dragons were even more alarmed when this proved just enough to stop them from spinning after roughly twenty seconds. Zeraora took many deep breaths while the crowd stared in stunned silence, Megumi blinking and staring at this in shock.

That shock soon turned to a big smile when the cat rose up and held Dialga's feet up on his shoulders, grunting, "You know, when I decided to master my abilities and join this tournament, I only did it to gain respect from those who used to pick on me! But now I have something much more important to fight for! This is my chance to thwart evil and be a real hero, and nothing is going to stop me from achieving that!"

But of course, the most shocking thing of all was the fact that this skinny cat could support the weight of two powerful dragons as if it was nothing. But a few seconds later, this did not seem to be the case when he felt his shoulders start to cave in, panicked and thought, 'Right, less talking, more action.'

With that in mind, he threw the Time Space Squad forward and slamming their bellies into the canvas. He then lifted Palkia up not by her shoulders or feet, but by her wings. He lashed out his claws and planted them into the parts in question, grunting, "I was told these body parts of yours give you a huge amount of your power! If I can get rid of both of these, you won't be a threat to us anymore!"

Palkia's eyes and mouth were wide with terror as she struggled to free herself. She swiped her claws against the cat's skull, and while this drew plenty of blood, he ignored it and leapt into the air, barking, "FELINE POWERBOMB!"

He threw his arms downward and planted Palkia into Dialga's gut, but while this caused the blue dragon to cough up blood, unfortunately, this did not have the desired effect. Palkia's wings had loosened a little bit but were still attached to her shoulders and Dialga's voice was still inside of him.

"Oh, come on!" Shaymin cried as she clutched onto the sides of her head, "That was brilliant!" only for Melmetal to pat her on the shoulder and reply, "Hey, it's alright. That did have some effect. I'm sure with a few more moves like that, he can at least remove the wings."

"I dunno," Leafeon groaned, "I hate to be a buzzkill, but I get the feeling Palkia and Dialga aren't gonna let him try something like that again."

Scorbunny bit her lower lip and said, "I'm sure they can still win anyway. After all, those monsters were prepared for their opening strategy and yet Vaporeon and Zeraora still managed to weaken them. I'm sure they'll be able to land a hit like this again, and I bet it'll succeed next time."

Unfortunately, that looked highly unlikely. After the damage Zeraora had taken in combined with the weight he had allowed his shoulders to succumb to, he felt weak. And Dialga could see this after he rose to his feet, thus a smirk formed on his face when he noticed Vaporeon still had not yet recovered.

"It's like I said before," he grunted, "You're only delaying the inevitable. Admit it, you two never stood a chance. Machoke and Gardevoir may have lost to us, but they came much closer to victory than the two of you have. I almost feel bad for you."

However, once he stopped talking, he noticed many people staring awkwardly at him. Thus he looked among the crowd and asked, "What?" before he suddenly noticed his voice crack. He placed his hands up against his neck while Palkia stared at him and uttered, "Dude, isn't it way too late for you to go through puberty?"

"Shut up, it's not that!" he retorted before a look of terror formed in his eyes, "Oh my god! Palkia, he's managed to force my voice orb up into my throat!"

Everyone stared in shock before Drizzile nodded and said, "Okay, looks like that move had even more of an effect than I thought," Rillaboom grinning and exclaiming, "Damn! Zeraora's awesome!"

"In your face, you dick!" Morgrem and Rolycoly spat, Raboot saying, "You know, I'm actually impressed. Even I couldn't have pulled that off."

"I'm with you," Blaziken replied, "As much as I hate to admit it, that feline's something special," Gallade and Hitmonchan both giving a loud cheer.

Jolteon and Leafeon grinned at one-another while Scorbunny nodded her head in approval. But most of all, Shaymin could not help but feel a sense of relief. Just hearing this gave her hope that Dialga and Palkia could be defeated after all.

As if that was not enough, Dialga soon found that he could not force the orb back down. He tried squeezing onto his neck and pushing down with his hands to no avail. He then tried to swallow as hard as he could, but the orb was truly stuck there. With that in mind, he knew he could no longer afford to mess around. If he did not kill Zeraora and Vaporeon soon, he could very well lose his voice forever.

As such, he took a deep breath and grunted, "Alright, Palkia, let's end this!" Palkia nodding and flying toward Zeraora. The cat attempted to dodge only to feel a sharp pain in his shoulders. This caused him to falter before Palkia latched onto those very spots and lifted him high into the air.

She once again turned her skin dark purple and flipped him upside-down, planting her pink claws into his ankles. She then wrapped her legs around his midsection and descended toward the canvas before Dialga leapt up to their level and planted his claws into Zeraora's cheeks, his aura once again surrounding him.

"You've been a major nuisance, but this ends here!" Dialga growled before he and Palkia shouted, "SPACIAL CLAW DRIVER!" ramming his skull hard into the canvas.

Zeraora coughed up more blood than ever before as his eyes rolled to the back of his head. Megumi tensed up and started to hyperventilate while panic spread through the crowd. And when the dragons released the cat and he passed out, he was no longer moving. He did not even so much as twitch.

Dialga rose to his feet and glared down at Zeraora while Palkia enquired, "Do you think that did it?" When the blue dragon sent a hard kick into Zeraora's side and caused him to roll out of the ring, he noticed no response and replied, "Indeed. I'd say he's done for."

Megumi could no longer keep quiet, therefor she cried, "NO!" and ran through the bleachers all the way to the side of the ring. The dragons watched this with their arms folded as she knelt down over Zeraora and whimpered, "Come on, Zeraora, speak to me! You're okay, right!? That was just a scratch!"

Raikou watched this on the TV before he took many deep breaths and growled, "Screw this! I know I won't make it in time, but I need to be in Tokyo as soon as possible!" before he bolted out the door and called his boss to let him know he would need some time off from work.

The others were equally concerned, so they all rose from the bleachers as well. Raboot pushed Scorbunny down a nearby ramp before they all gathered around Zeraora. And of course, Aipom could not help but feel a sense of dread when she watched this from the hospital. Sure, the cat was not her pupil. In fact, she barely knew him, yet she wanted to be there to support him regardless.

As if that was not enough, Gardevoir and Machoke could hear this on the TV in their room. Thus they started to move in their sleep. Unfortunately, they were still too weak to get up, but right now, they felt like they needed to be there.

Megumi breathed heavily as Dialga chuckled, "I'm sorry you had to see that, Miss, but that's what your son gets for thinking he could defeat us! I'm impressed he managed to slam us both like that, but this was inevitable!"

"Shut up!" the blonde woman retorted with a look of fury on her face, "I swear, if he's dead, I'll march into that ring right now and pry that ball thing out of your mouth! Then you won't be a threat to anyone anymore!"

The blue dragon gritted his teeth and retorted, "Alright, go on! I don't discriminate my victims! If a human wants to play hero, so be it!" Palkia looking a tad intimidated herself.

However, at that moment, a familiar voice growled, "That won't be necessary, Mrs. Rainyan!" everyone staring when Vaporeon slowly rose to her feet. She panted heavily while the dragons slowly turned to face her, Dialga's eye twitching as he pursed his lips furiously.

"Okay, this was funny before, but now it's just annoying!" he barked, "Come on, Palkia, let's finish her off, too!" the purple dragon nodding before she picked him up by his shoulders and flew him toward Vaporeon. He held his claws out as his blue aura formed once again and barked, "METAL DRAGON LANCE!"

At that moment, Vaporeon tensed up and thought, 'Can I really do this on my own?' when suddenly, she could see Gardevoir's spirit appear in the crowd. As it so happened, this was due to a technique her aunt taught her years ago that involved her telepathically sending herself to another location so she could support her friends.

The blue fox stared in shocked as the white woman smiled sweetly and said, "Come on, Vaporeon, you're so close. Don't give up faith now. I know you can do it."

With that in mind, there was no way Vaporeon would lose, not after everything she and Zeraora had done. As such, she watched the dragons closely and covered the tip of her tail in ice. Then when they got close enough, she leapt high into the air only for Palkia to fly up after her.

"Did you seriously think we'd be that careless!?" she quipped only for Vaporeon to smirk and retort, "Nope. I've been tricked by you two enough times in this fight," spinning vertically behind the purple dragon. At first, no one could figure out why she would not aim for Palkia's skull, but all became clear when she squealed, "FRIGID BUZZ SAW!" ramming her ice up against the purple dragon's wings.

As if her tactic was not shocking enough, Palkia gasped in horror when said wings detached from her. A small bit of blood squirted out of her shoulders before she cried out in agonizing pain, Vaporeon quickly flipping her upside-down and wrapping her arms, legs and tail around her.

"FROZEN TOMBSTONE!" she cried before she rammed Palkia's skull into the canvas. Just as Shaymin had said, it seemed the loss of her wings really had weakened the purple dragon significantly when she coughed up a great deal of blood and her flesh came open.

Dialga stared in horror as his partner closed her eyes, Vaporeon releasing her hold and allowing her to collapse. The blue dragon's eye twitched while he gritted his teeth and growled, "No! Hell no! There is no way in Hell that you of all people will ruin our master plan!"

With that in mind, he leapt backward into the ropes, bounced off and spun toward Vaporeon with his claws pointed outward, barking, "METAL DRAGON DRILL!" Luckily, the blue fox hoped he would do that, thus she leapt into the air and formed her ice ball once more, pointing it downward like before.

The crowd watched in awe when she fell toward Dialga and shouted, "FALLING ICESTEROID!" When the ball landed against the bottom of his neck, her let out a loud gasp before a blue orb flew out of his mouth.

The stadium erupted with cheers and applause from the crowd, an open-mouth smile on Shaymin's face as she let down tears and sniffed, "Oh my god, that was beautiful!" Melmetal patting her on the back.

"Way to go, honey!" Scorbunny squealed, "I knew you could do it!" Gallade and Blaziken beyond impressed. This one hero had accomplished what Machoke and Gardevoir failed to do.

Unfortunately, though, it was not over yet, and it showed when Dialga planted his hands against the canvas and pushed himself up. He glared at Vaporeon and opened his mouth to yell at her only a light wheeze to leave his mouth. His eyes went wide as he felt his neck. And when he looked backward and saw the orb on the edge of the mat, he frowned and raced toward it.

Luckily, Melmetal immediately reached out, formed fingers on his hand and grabbed it. He then handed it over to Shaymin and said, "It's not against the rules if I didn't enter the ring, right?" the cyborg already having done the same with Palkia's wings.

Beedrill nodded and exclaimed, "It would seem that Dialga has lost his voice! That means most of his power has left him! There's no doubt this match is as good as over, folks!"

Dialga panted heavily until Palkia placed her hands against the mat and pushed herself up. Everyone stared in shock while she grunted, "Don't you dare give up, Dialga!" the blue dragon staring at her, "We haven't lost yet! Just because we don't have our items doesn't mean we can't win! Think about it! After all the damage we dealt earlier, it's a miracle that Vaporeon can stand right now! One good hit, even at a fraction of our strength, should be more than enough to end this, then we'll get our stuff back and rule this godforsaken planet!"

The blue dragon had to admit, he really was impressed right now. All this time, he had been the one to give Palkia advice and motivation, and yet here she was doing just that. With that in mind, he nodded and ran to her side.

"Do you think Palkia might have a point?" Drizzile uttered, "She's kinda right. Vaporeon has suffered a lot of damage throughout this match," Shaymin sighing, "Well, it is definitely possible. It's not as if those two are completely helpless without their full power. After all, Palkia was able to cut open a door even without her wings."

Sure enough, the purple dragon was still able to turn her body a darker shade and turn her claws pink, thus Vaporeon could tell she would need to be careful. Dialga no longer had his blue aura, but it was not as if he was weak either.

With that in mind, both dragons dashed toward Vaporeon and split up. The blue fox tried her hardest to follow both of them only for Dialga to leap over her head and send a kick into the back of her head. And while this did not hurt nearly as much as it had before, it still dealt a decent amount of pain before Palkia sent her claws downward across her chest and shouted, "SPACIAL REND!"

But even though blood flew out, after everything she had been through, Vaporeon was able to ignore it. Therefor, she smirked and thought, 'Guess Rillaboom's tactic will definitely work now,' before she grabbed hold of Palkia's wrist and tossed her backward into Dialga.

Both dragons winced in pain before Vaporeon leapt toward them and wrapped her tail around their necks. She once again formed her ice ball and grunted, "This has gone on long enough! Your rein of terror ends here!"

She pushed downward and forced the dragons into a crouching formation. Then when she was low enough, she boosted herself high into the air like a spring and spread out her arms. She then flipped vertically until the dragons' faces were aimed toward the canvas, all going silent among the crowd.

"ALASKAN TRAMPOLINE SEAL DIVE!" Vaporeon exclaimed, the Time Space Squad in full panic before they collided with the mat. Blood trickled from their nostrils and their eyelids slowly closed. When Vaporeon released her hold on them, they both collapsed.

Nori started the ten count as Beedrill exclaimed, "It's been one close call after the next, but Vaporeon has pulled off a truly incredible feat! This new move of hers has taken a serious toll on the Time Space Squad! But will it truly be enough to end the match!?"

Once Nori reached five seconds, everyone in the crowd along with Vaporeon's friends started to count along with her. And sure enough, ten seconds passed, thus the black-haired woman rang the bell and shouted, "After one of the most intense matches in history, Dialga and Palkia have been defeated! Therefor, the new champions of the Ultimate World Team Tournament are the Atlantic Catfish!"

After a few seconds, the area erupted with heavy cheers and applause. Vaporeon's friends all beamed bright, Megumi letting down tears and thinking, 'Thank you, Vaporeon.'

All the while, Machoke and Gardevoir suddenly managed to wake up. As soon as they looked at the screen and saw the blue fox standing tall and proud while the dragons lay unconscious, they knew exactly what had happened. Therefor, they smiled at one-another, glad that their efforts had not been entirely in vain.

Vaporeon made her way over to the side of the ring and slipped under the ropes. After all she had done, she did not have the energy to leap over it. Scorbunny smiled at her before the two shared a big hug, everyone soon joining in.

"I am so proud of you, Vaporeon," Jolteon said in a surprisingly calm voice, "To think someone as amazing as you is my great, great granddaughter," her eyelids sagging until she pulled a coffee cup seemingly out of nowhere and chugged it.

Leafeon grinned nervously and chuckled, "You know, the funny thing is, Mommy already kinda knew who you were. It took me a while to figure it out myself, but yeah, I'm so glad that you're my great granddaughter. I couldn't have asked for better."

Vaporeon let down a light tear before Rillaboom grinned and said, "Seriously, that was sweet," Drizzile adding, "Yeah, I certainly wouldn't expect less of Edmonton's first hero."

"Three cheers for Vaporeon!" Morgrem squealed before the others nodded and shouted, "Hip-hip-hooray!" three times.

After a few seconds, the blue fox gasped then turned to Megumi before she enquired, "Hey, how is Zeraora, anyway? He wasn't, um, you know, was he?"

Before the blonde woman could answer, everyone stared at Zeraora when he let out a light cough and slowly opened his eyes halfway. He then blinked and uttered, "What happened? Did we win?" When his eyes opened all the way and he could see Vaporeon nodding at him, he beamed bright and sighed, "Oh, thank goodness. My efforts were worth it in the end."

Megumi nodded and squealed, "Yes, they were! You were amazing, son!" nuzzling her face up against his while he waved his arms around and struggled to breathe.

Needless to say, things had truly turned out for the best. Now all the heroes had to do was figure out what to do with Palkia and Dialga and return home.