Chapter 42

Ascension: Part 3-Madness

Earth 97, 2050, 7:24 AM

Z's POV

"This isn't getting repetitive" I joked as we sealed the door behind us. Things were going great, for the better part of ten minutes, until a patrolling guard had brushed my shoulder and felt my fur. Unlike Connor's Illusions mine weren't solid and only fooled the eyes and cameras. One touch was all it took to ruin the facade, when Connor was with me he added on to my illusion but i had no such luck here.

That was the 5th door we had to shut and have Nixillium weld together with his fire breath. We had sealed a portion of the ship off from the rest, now it was just us and whoever was left on the bridge.

We came to the door only for it to open automatically revealing a woman who seemed insane from her looks alone. She was wearing a white jumpsuit with a strange black and green triangle broach on the front, her green eyes were wild along with a wicked smile at the sight of us. Most unusual was her haircut, it was so long that it went around her like a cape.

"Oh you're those shifters Giovanni whines about" the woman said as two of the beasts that had attacked in Ecruteak floated two her side.

"You made those things?" Nix asked.

"No she didn't, but she loves to collect them" I explained with a scowled.

"Hump you think you know a lot about me?" She asked innocently.

"I know enough," I replied.

"I am Lusimine, the president of the Aether Foundation. After years of helping Pokémon in my world I came across a new beautiful race of creatures that needed my love as well" she exclaimed.

"The ultra beasts….." I muttered. I remembered all too well the beasts were capable of. Unlike the other dimensions of the multiverse, ultra space existed on a separate plane, out of phase with the rest of the multiverse and thus, chaotic and completely unpredictable.

"Yes, these beautiful Nihilego are the first I found, then the rest were discovered soon after" she explained as she rambled on and on about the creatures.

It was abundantly clear that she was psychotic obsessive about them, and I had had enough of reasoning with psychopaths for one lifetime.

"Shit up, you talk about love and beauty but your as horrid as the poachers and thugs you started the Aether Foundation to fight you bitch!" I yelled to stop her tirade.

"How dare you! You foolish children were never meant to exist in any world as beautiful as the ones I've seen" she whined.

"Says the woman obsessed with blobs of poisonous tentacles" Alveri scoffed.

Lusamine stomped her high heeled foot and said "true beauty is control, and I will show you the power of it" before her body began to thin and get taller. The beast's torso was composed of five thin discs that drooped slightly downward. The widest disc made up its shoulders, the second widest its hips, and the two smallest its chest and waist. There was a gold ovoid inside of the widest disc, where its long, thin neck protrudes from. A long transparent veil flowed down its back.

"A Pheromosa" I yelled.

She disappeared from my view as she began to zip around the room at incredible speeds, I saw Nixillium and Alveri shift only to get knocked down by a white blur. I was helpless as it felt Lusamine's thin leg jammed into my gut, sending me flying into the steel wall of the bridge, shattering my human guise in the process. I heard Charlie in my ear piece announce "All teams this is Charlie, Alpha secure" he had taken his Airship.

"Give us a sec" I requested as Lusimine buzzed around the room.

Alveri and Nixillium got up only to be knocked down again, the albino Houndoom roared and closed its eyes, channeling the power of its mega stone the Houndoom's form was consumed by a red light. When it subsided Nixillium's appearance had changed drastically, the ridges on his back had thickened, and he had gains additional, bone-like rings around the base of his tail. The rings on its tail had small spikes on top, causing them to resemble vertebrae. The ridge at the base of his neck was longer and curved forward towards his shoulders. Instead of a band with a skull pendant, there is a large, toothed structure around his neck. This bone-like formation had two large spikes on either side and three pointed teeth on the bottom. Mega Houndoom's horns now pointed straight up with a small, outward curve in the middle.

Nixillium unleashed an Overheat, the shockwave of blue fire blowing Lusamine back, she staggered only for Alveri to grab her and bind her arms with his arms. Lusamine struggled for freedom to no avail, her body hopelessly weak when compared to the physical strength of a Haxorus.

Alveri held her in place as Nixillium fired a final overheat, incinerating the ultra beast in a searing blue flame. Luckily the attack did little damage to Alvera's metallic hide.

I took a deep breath as I got to my feet, Nixxillum allowed his mega evolution to deactivate, returning to his normal Houndoom form before shifting back to human.

"This is Z, bravo secured" I announced into my earpiece.

There was an awkward silence before Charlie finally asked "have you guys heard from Connor, Kelly or Layla!"

No, total radio silence" I admitted.

"What do we do now?' Nixillium asked.

"We do our job, Connor told me that once we had two ships we opened fire no matter what, lock on to the dome's engine and fire" I ordered.

"Copy" Charlie responded as I went to the ship's console and locked every gun and missile on the dome, however before I could fire the weapons Giovanni's face appeared on the ship's monitor.

"A valiant effort to be sure, but utterly pointless. I had hoped the other leaders would dispose of you, but I also added a failsafe in the unlikely event you won" Giovanni taunted as the ships intercom blared to life.

After a few alarms the ship's computer announced "protocol 13 in effect, self destruct in t-minus 10, 9, 8 , 7"

I acted without thinking, I opened a portal inside the dome's lowest level thanks to the shadow energy in the reactor and shoved the others into it. Then i warped to the others as time began to run out. I barely had time as I grabbed Charlie and Lucina from another portal and yanked them in as the countdown said "4, 3, 2, 1"

The ships began to detonate, i closed my portal just in time, leaving everyone in awe at our narrow escape.

I could only hope Connor and Kelly were ok as well...