16. A Legendary Capture

Therius and Calista had went back to Lazulis to make sure things were secure there. The others, however, would go to the Pokemon world to capture Palkia and Dialga – or maybe even Arceus, the God Pokemon, who could probably summon Palkia and Dialga for them.

Would this plan work? No one had a clue. These were Legendary Pokemon they'd be dealing with, after all.

Getting to the Pokemon world wasn't the hard part.

Getting to the area where Arceus was, however, was even harder.

But what would be hardest? Probably capturing Arceus. After all, it was a Legendary Pokemon. Knowing that he was the one who created all Pokemon and the world they lived in to begin with wasn't going to make things easier, either.

"Are you ready?" Zael asked, looking toward Red, who nodded. Red took out a flute of some sort, before blowing into it.

There was a pause as the flute's tune turned to silence. Moments later, a whitish figure towered above the group, standing on all fours, feet tipped with gold hooves. Despite having no wings, it floated in the air, and Zael noticed a golden cross-like wheel attached to its body by its round abdomen.

Arceus itself stared down at the group, and a roar left the Legendary Pokemon. Zael noticed the others about to grab their weapons, but what caught his eye most was Red taking out a ball from his pocket. It was purple on its upper half, with two red orbs sticking out the sides of it and a white "M" etched on it.

"Red?" Arganan asked. "What is that, exactly?"

"Master Ball! Never fails!" And with that, Red threw the Master Ball at Arceus itself.

The rest of the group could only stare with some amount of disbelief as Arceus was instantly captured. The ball dropped to the ground, rolling around on the spot for a few seconds, before it finally stopped with a soft clicking noise.

"That's it?" Zesha sounded genuinely disappointed, and Arganan directed a glare toward him.

"You should be relieved! I didn't exactly want to fight a god!"

"I don't think Arceus will be very happy when he gets out of there," Asthar managed, just as Red move to pick up the Master ball with a sheepish grin.

"Yeah, I know, but I figured this was worth the effort given everything going on, so…"

The group had to spend the next ten minutes releasing Arceus from its pokeball and explaining their current situation. The God Pokemon was particularly unhappy about being captured so easily, but since it was now under Red's command, it had little choice but to at least help the group with their current predicament.

"I should be able to summon Palkia and Dialga here." Arceus' voice boomed through the area, and Zael wondered how it was even able to understand human speech – perhaps because it created everyone and everything in the Pokemon world as is? "However, I presume that you will not have it so easy with catching them as you did with me."

"Actually," Red managed after a moment, "I did bring a ton of Quick Balls…"

"Quick Balls?" Zael blinked. "What are those?"

"They have a high chance of catching pokemon upon first battling them. Not as great insurance as the Master Ball, which gives a 100% guarantee of catching them without fail, but still better than nothing."

"We can just chuck a bunch of Quick Balls at them, then." It seemed like a reckless idea, but doable – at least until Zael noticed Red opening up what seemed to be an entire bag's worth of Quick balls. "How many did you buy!?"

"Maybe a hundred!?"

"Oh, no…"

Arceus sighed. "I'm just going to summon them here now. They'll arrive in a few minutes."

A few minutes later, plus fifteen more minutes of chucking Quick Balls at Palkia and Dialga, Red's plan somehow worked and they now had control over both Pokemon.

"Are you going to release them after we're done with them?" Zael asked, glancing at Palkia and Dialga as Red took them out of their Pokeballs. Both four-legged, Legendary pokemon seemed fairly unamused – or at least, that was what Zael guessed based on their odd facial expressions. "They seem pretty upset."

"Maybe." Red casually answered, before looking up at Palkia and Dialga. "Hey! Can you two bring me and all the others to Lazulis Island? Is that possible?"

Palkia and Dialga seemed to look at each other, then….

"Lady Calista!"

"What is it?"

"A fleet of the Gurak is sailing toward Lazulis Island, and they don't look friendly!"

"What!?" Calista's eyes widened. "Could it be…?"

"Zangurak?" Therius frowned. "Is he launching an attack now!?"

"We have no time to waste." Calista frowned, shaking her head. "we need to prepare for battle – and at least one of us should go let Zael or some of the other Smashers know what's going on." She then glanced toward Therius, taking a deep breath. "Therius, can you..?"

"I will, Lady Calista." Therius nodded, bowing once. "I'll come back as soon as I can!"

"Go now! We'll get started on preparations back here!"

As Therius dashed out of the room, Calista swallowed – she knew that beating Zangurak this second time was going to be easy. Hopefully Zael and the others would be back soon – or else Lazulis would be in serious trouble.