Chapter 34: Never out of options

There was only one thing that was on Quinton's mind.

It was time for plan B.

Countless lasers of light shot out of Aldrich's halo like arrows and soared high into the sky like a flock of birds, and then descended downward toward Quinton, who was charging after the deity.

Quinton looked up at the oncoming needle-like lasers and began flipping and dashing about to dodge the salvo. It was like watching a mosquito dodge rain. Quinton soon leapt high into the air and began to use the arrows as platforms to get even higher to his target. Then, a shadowy ghost-type aura erupted around the former champion as he began flying past and dodging the salvo of light. The salvo stopped once Quinton drew close enough to be within punching distance of Aldrich.

Instead of striking him, Quinton instead pointed his finger at him.

Dusknoir, who had possessed Quinton's body from the very beginning, arose from his trainer's back then and there. It bellowed a war cry before punching Aldrich straight in the stomach. Aldrich didn't budge or flinch at all upon taking the attack. Dusknoir roared as he punched the unmoving god rapidly, again and again, and again.

"NOIR, NOIR, NOIR, NOIR, NOIR, NOIR, NOIR!" Dusknoir yelled the second half of its name with every thrown fist. "DUUUUUUUUSKNOOOOOOOOIR!" The ghost type's final punch landed directly onto Aldrich's face, which seemed to do no damage. Aldrich smiled as grabbed the ghost type's fist, then chopped the side of its head to send it flying toward the ground like a torpedo.

"Dusknoir!" Quinton cried in worry as he spun to see his ghost type fly past him. The former champion grit his teeth and shot both arms at the newly born god and released a salvo of Shadow Balls. The amount of shadow balls crashing and exploding onto Aldrich was so immense that a cloud of smoke emerged from where he was floating. The cloud of smoke grew bigger as Quinton rapidly fired more and more Shadow balls.

Suddenly, a hand emerged from the smoke and grabbed Quinton by the neck. The old man's cold fingers dug deeply into Quinton's throat.

"Forgive me," Aldrich said. Electricity burst from the hand he choked Quinton with.

"Destiny Bond..!" Quinton cried out as Aldrich's thunder began to coarse through the father's entire body. The former champion raised his hand that shined with psychic energy and placed it on the arm Aldrich was choking him with. Aldrich's eyes widened as the lightning stopped, and he pulled his hand away.

"Drat..!" Aldrich cried. Quinton placed a hand on his chest as he tried catching his breath. "...How dreadfully annoying…" Aldrich said. "You used Destiny bond knowing full well that we'd have to wait five minutes for its effects to fade. However- because time is frozen..."

"That's right." Quinton said. "Time's frozen, so those five minutes will never come. And as long as Destiny bond's in effect, If I lose consciousness, so will you." The two hung in the air as Quinton continued to catch his breath. Sweat began to form on the red-haired man's face.

"You and I may be linked in consciousness…" Aldrich said. His eyes widened in intense madness. "But your Dusknoir isn't a part of our link! All I have to do is knock him out, and your invoker will bring you to the ground."

"You're a fool if you think I'll let you find him," Quinton said.

"What's your plan, anyway?" Aldrich asked. "You can't defeat me, and I can't defeat you."

Quinton smiled.

"You don't know? An old nemesis of mine happens to own Palkia. I know for certain that they're right outside the Roar of time's influence. So, if they find the both of us unconscious, that's fine with me." Quinton's smile deepened.

And so did Aldrich's.

"An extraordinary plan," Aldrich said. "However, there's one hole in it." Aldrich snapped his fingers, and in an instant, the ground below exploded with electricity so strong that it pierced through earth's natural resistance against it. The rocks and grass below started to electrify so much that it changed to a bright yellow.

Quinton's eyes widened as his invoker's weight quadrupled. He was pulled from the sky and fell like a meteor toward the earth. The moment before he touched the ground, the electricity stopped.

Quinton fell all the way to the ground with a thud, and right beside him, Dusknoir surfaced from hiding under ground and collapsed. Aldrich slowly descended from the sky and landed next to Quinton's downed body and sighed.

"Forgive me, my lord." Aldrich said. "I have won only because I have God's power within me. Soon, it will be yours."

"Ugh..!" Quinton grunted loudly as his armor shone and disengaged itself. As Quinton slowly tried pushing himself up, Aldrich kicked him while he was down. The father cried out in pain.

"You must let time move normally again..." Aldrich said as he kicked Quinton's side again. Quinton gasped before screaming in pain again.

"T-Time… Will… Time will move normally again..!"

The blue barrier-like shockwave that stood in front of the group of trainers that were watching on suddenly shattered like glass.

"Whoa!" Lucia cried.

The group ran closer to the shockwave, and then saw what was within it: Aldrich standing beside Quinton's downed body, and Aiden was raising his fist toward Zennon.

"I WILL-" Aiden, shouted angrily, and then widened his eyes, realizing his target, Aldrich, had disappeared. He only saw Zennon lying on the ground shaking.

Electricity from Aldrich's attack coarsed through Zennon's body, and his body shook as sparks flew about his body. He seemed to be completely paralyzed.

Aiden blinked and realized that he wasn't affected by electricity because of Primal Groudon's influence on his body. "What's going on..?" Aiden mumbled.

"It's good to see you all here…" Aiden's eyes widened upon hearing Aldrich's voice. He spun around to see Aldrich and gasped upon seeing his brand-new form. He gritted his teeth as intense jealousy came to him. He looked down at the Paralyzed Zennon. Grabbing his downed ally by the shoulder, Aiden dragged Zennon away as the rest of Lucia's group ran closer to Quinton and Aldrich.

"What happened to you!?" Beatrice roared.

"Spawn of Quinton…" Aldrich slowly flew up into the sky. He pointed down at Beatrice. "In the name of Quinton, you will be-"

Quinton suddenly started to erupt in laughter.

Everyone froze as the former champion's laughter grew louder. Everyone's attention was stolen by the former champion who laughed like he had heard the funniest joke in his life. Slowly, the laughing man rose to his feet. He dusted off his prison jumpsuit's pants. After taking in a sharp breath with his nose, he smiled.

"Dusknoir! Now!" Quinton roared.

Suddenly, Dusknoir emerged from Aldrich's back. The eyes on its stomach shined yellow before grabbing Aldrich's arms and holding him in place.

"Gah..!" Aldrich cried. "What is the meaning of this!? Do you think your Dusknoir can-?"

"Dusknoir! Use Destiny Bond!"

Dusknoir roared as his entire body radiated with psychic-type energy.

"If you try knocking out that Dusknoir, you'll knock yourself out, too!" Quinton cried.

"No..!" Aldrich cried "How!? Why do you have two Dusknoirs!? You couldn't have caught another-"

The Dusknoir that was lying beside Quinton slowly turned into a Ditto. Everyone in the area gasped in unison as Quinton's grin widened.

"Ever since my battle with my Daughter, I've had my Ditto change into a Dusknoir. I decided from then on that I'd have not only Dusknoir constantly possess my body, but Ditto as well! All Ditto'd have to do is turn into Dusknoir, and it could hide in my body, just like the original!"

"So earlier..." Aldrich groaned. "When you and I were frozen in time and you touched my arm, declaring you had used Destiny bond.."

"I hadn't! Instead, when I touched your arm, I sent my real Dusknoir to possess your body without you even knowing about it! I pretended to go down when you knocked out my Ditto- and pretended to lose! So when the time came..!" Palkia roared at the top of its lungs. Aldrich's eyes widened as he saw the spatial beast flying his way. Aldrich could do nothing while being held in place by Dusknoir.

"NOOOOOOOO!" Aldrich cried.

"Palkia! Take him far, far away from here!" Quinton cried.

Palkia lunged and grabbed Aldrich from the air, and with its free claw, tore the fabric of reality and created a rift in space.

"QUINTON..! DAMN YOUUUUUUU!" Aldrich cursed. Palkia leapt into the time and space rift and carried Aldrich along with him.

A prideful grin came to his face. It felt good to outsmart someone. Quinton sighed in relief as the rest of the group approached him.

"Father..!" Beatrice cried. "You're brilliant!"

"Not bad at all!" Lucian said while clapping.

"Just as expected!" Marie said.

Rebecca sighed and nodded in approval.

"That was actually really cool!" Lucia cried.

"...Why you guys are celebrating?" Quinton asked. The happy mood was killed with a single sentence. Everyone grew quiet as Quinton shook his head in disapproval. "It isn't going to take long for Aldrich to beat Palkia and come back to our world. At most it would take an hour...two hours at most. We need to take that time to prepare. We need t-"

Suddenly, an immense weight pulled Quinton to the ground immediately.

"What the!?" Marie cried. "Quinton- are you oka-" In an instant, Marie fell to the ground as though a weight pulled her down as well.

"What!?" Beatrice cried out before she too fell to the ground.

"What's going o-"' Rebecca fell to the ground as well.

"No wa-" Lucian too, fell to the ground.

Everyone was down. Everyone but Lucia.

Aiden, who was now walking toward the group, pointed the remote Zennon had made as an anti-Invoker device directly at them. His look of frustration grew fiercer as he mashed the button on Lucia.

"Why isn't she going down!? Dang it, If I'm going to suffer- I want everyone else to suffer! Why can't she go down!?"

Lucia was looking over her downed comrades in shock.

"WHY WON'T YOU GO DOWN!?" Aiden roared. Lucia turned her head to the man who was screaming at the top of his lungs. "Do you not have weights attached to your invoker or something?!"

"I have no idea what you're going on about," Lucia said, reaching into her pocket and pulling out her Pokéball. "But that function where I go down with my Pokémon because of weights… was removed ever since I started my journey."

"WHAT!?" Aiden roared. "That makes no sense!" Aiden's eyes suddenly widened with pure rage- and then suddenly, a grin came to him. "You know what? It doesn't matter. All I have to do is crush you and have everyone watch…! That'll cheer me up…!" An intense golden aura that radiated with Groudon's primal energy exploded around Aiden. "It's about time I put Groudon's power to the test…! You're DEAD MEAT, KID! YOU HEAR ME?! And for the rest of you on the ground… I'd like to personally welcome you to MY HORROR SHOW! Once she's dead, YOU'RE ALL NEXT. And there's NOTHING you can do about it!"