Chapter 29: Finding Light in a Nightmare
Waterfall Cave wasn't a challenge for Team Marmalade now. They got through it quickly and came to the gem room. "So, now for that coin," Kip said.
"Right." Stacy brought it out of her bag. It was made of an iridescent metal and stamped with a five-pointed star on both sides. "He said just to flip it." She tossed it into the air, spinning. It clattered to the rocky floor with a tone like a bell. Then the room around them melted, like Palkia's transport had.
When it reformed, they were in a fantastic dungeon. The pearl white floors were glossy. Whimsical plants grew along the paths, strange creations that would never be found in a normal dungeon. The sky was an odd deep violet-blue, but filled with millions of stars. Hanging in the sky was a white, blue, and green orb, almost like the moon, but larger.
"I wonder if that's the Earth," Trey said. "Then that means we're really on the moon!"
"That's crazy talk," Kip said. He looked up at the sky orb. "Although, somehow it makes sense."
They walked along the strange Lunar Fields. There were wild Pokemon even here, as Clefairies, Lunatones, Solrocks, and other mystical Pokemon appeared to challenge them. However, everything seemed quite relaxed here, as if there was no threat to anyone here.
Eventually, they came upon Cresselia by a starry pool. Now that they had a solid look at her, she was quite beautiful, with dream-like colors and a gracefully body built of crescents. She didn't seem too concerned when they approached her. "Greetings, strangers," she said. "I haven't had many visitors lately."
"Well ya should have been expecting us," Kip said.
"Oh? Why?"
"You've been the one bothering us in our dreams for the past few weeks," Stacy said.
Cresselia shifted her wings, as if nervous. "What? No, I haven't touched any of you specifically."
"But you're the one we've all been seeing," Trey said.
"I normally don't go into the dreams of adults. I mostly look after the dreams of children."
"But then why are all the children of Treasure Town and Miracle Sea trapped in nightmares?" Stacy asked.
She was definitely startled at this, backing up a bit. "Trapped? But I haven't sensed anything like that…" She looked down at the pool she had been sitting by. When she tapped it with her beak, it shattered like glass. "Oh drat, of all the times… I need to see this for myself." She caused the air to shimmer, then brought them back to Treasure Town. She immediately set off for the building the children were staying in.
As Team Marmalade got there, they found the staff somewhat bewildered at her presence. "Is that the one responsible?" a Chansey asked.
"We're not sure," Stacy said.
"She can't be," Mr. Fred said. "Her aura is not the same as the one in the dreams. So it must be Darkrai."
"This does look like his handiwork," Cresselia said, coming back over to them. "He'll be somewhere inside the dream of these children. How many explorers do we have around?"
There was Team Marmalade, Bartleby, Charlie, Splice, Garth, and Bubbles.
"Good, I'd like this to go quickly. How many children are there in all that we know of?"
"Fifty-three here," the Blissey doctor said. "And forty in the Miracle Sea village, so ninety-three."
"Ninety-four if you add Palkia," Stacy said. "I know she's not a child, but she's trapped in a nightmare too, so we might find her."
"All right." Cresselia looked to the explorers. "I'm going to bring you all into the dream with me to rescue the children. Drowzee, would you be able to pull their souls out once found?"
"Yes, I'll do my best," Mr. Fred replied.
"Good. You won't be able to take anything with you, but I'll look to support you. And please be careful with anyone that you meet. Darkrai is very good at producing convincing illusions within the dreamworld. He won't be able to make illusions of the children or our guide here, but he will be able to do so of me and all of you. We still have to split up. Just be very careful."
"Okay," Bartleby said. "We'll get the children back."
Cresselia then sent them all into the nightmare world. It was dark and shifting, never the same landscape twice. All sorts of strange things attacked them and tried to hinder their progress. But the explorers split up and went on, searching out the trapped children.
Kip found himself at a dead end of sorts. The only way to go on was down a watery pool with a tunnel at the bottom. "Crud, I had to wind up here, didn't I?" he grumbled. "But the Miracle Sea children might be down here." He took a deep breath. "Well, here goes nothing." He jumped into the pool.
And fell straight down as if it were air. Although he could clearly see it as water, he clearly wasn't getting wet. His paws splashed as they hit the floor, but even that wasn't wet.
"Huh, go figure." He ran down the underwater tunnel.
Going down that, he found two Mantykes, a Clamperl, and a Goldeen. Once he found a child, he used his explorer badge (or at least a dream version of it) to signal Mr. Fred to pull the child out. Then he stayed with the child until they awakened.
He traveled down the watery path for a ways, then heard a cry. Kip ran along until he came to a room with the crying child. It was Manaphy, trapped in a cage and surrounded by a strange water monster. Kip wasn't sure what it was, as its body blended into the dream water almost perfectly. Even its eyes and teeth showed up only as darker areas of water.
"Hey, bog face!" Kip called into the room. "Leave the kid be!"
"Kip?" Manaphy called, sniffling.
The water monster roared, turning around to face the Skitty. "Don't worry, Manaphy," Kip stated. "I've got this beastie licked."
It lunged with a bite that stung something nasty, but Kip used that chance to put it to sleep with Sing. He then tackled the thing twice. On the second tackle, its form dissolved and became regular water again. Kip checked around, then went over and looked at the cage Manaphy was in.
"It's you, Kip, it's really you!" Manaphy cheered, putting his flippers through the bars.
"Yup, it's me. Hang on there." He bit through the ropes that tied the cage door shut, then pulled them through to free Manaphy. "There you go."
"Thank you!" Manaphy hugged him. "Me and the other kids have been in this scary place for a long time. I even saw Azeri, but then that monster dragged me away." He sniffled. "I couldn't fight it with my attacks."
Kip put a paw around the child's shoulder. "Aw, don't blame yourself. You'll grow up and be strong, I'm sure of it."
"Thanks. You're my hero."
For once, Kip found himself unable to come up with a snappy response. He just chuckled. "Well let's get you out of here so this all ends sooner."
-+-
Garth spotted Splice looking around a darkened hallway of the nightmare. "What have you found?"
The Scizor pointed a claw down it. "This place, it's darker than the rest. And it makes me more afraid… yet, it must be the heart of the nightmare."
"Then we ought to go there," Bartleby said, startling them both by appearing behind them. "He might try taking one of them hostage where his power is deepest."
Garth put his paw on his snout. "Bartleby… how the heck do you sneak up on me?"
Giving an extra wide grin, he playfully punched him in the arm. "Cause this place isn't normal, so normal senses won't work right. Come on." He went ahead into the dark hall, soon followed by Garth and Splice.
Although it was dark and getting darker, there were strange luminescent symbols on the walls. They seemed to be Unown letters, but with no sense to them. From these letters, they could tell that this space was fluxtuating. There seemed to be no sense to that either, as the halls randomly became narrow or wide, short or long.
Then they came upon a small white and pink Pokemon; she looked stressed out and afraid. Bartleby still called out to her cheerfully. "Are you Palkia?"
Squealing, she jumped and turned. She clenched her fists when she saw them. "I am, but what are you doing here? You shouldn't be here."
"We're looking for you," Garth said.
"But you shouldn't be here," she repeated. "Not with this going on. You go back where you came from; I'm doing what I can against this ancient chaos, but until my brothers show up…" she cut off in a nervous tone.
"Your brothers are with you," Bartleby said.
"What? They're not here."
"You're not really here either," Garth pointed out. "Your brothers are with you, but you're caught in a dream."
"Dream…?"
At this realization, the nightmare grew shaky. Their visions went blurry and sounds were strangely distant. But then it reasserted itself as Mr Fred's voice broke through to them. "Careful. You've found the one who holds the source of the nightmare, but there's still children we haven't found yet. You'll have to keep her asleep for a while longer."
"Children?" Palkia asked.
"It seems that Darkrai has trapped your mind in a nightmare for several weeks," Splice explained. "And he's recently drawn a number of children into this place. There's others with us rescuing them."
"That explains that thing," she mumbled. "But Darkrai? That's odd. I can't think of anything I've done to annoy him. I may have annoyed a bunch of others, but none of them went to this length to get back at me."
"You don't realize what you have done," a voice from the shadows said. Then those shadows took form, turning into claws, teeth, scales, wings, tail, horns… a dragon made of the shadows. But its eyes were bright blue and its whiskers snow white.
For her part, Palkia seemed to lose her fear. She tensed and growled. "At least I know that you're not one of the chaos. Darkrai, you're going to regret picking on me!" She let loose a massive roar that did not fit her current tiny form. It seemed to distort space itself.
"Is this him or just an illusion?" Splice asked.
"Whichever it is, we can't let her battle it alone," Bartleby said. The other two agreed, so they joined the battle against the shadow dragon of Darkrai's creation.
Upon returning from the dream, the explorers were assaulted by the children who had woken up soonest. There was a merry time of chaos and joy as parents were thrilled to have their children back and everyone wanted to thank Cresselia and the nine explorers. Eventually, though, they found time to gather and speak of one last issue: what had happened to Darkrai.
"We rescued chibi Palkia!" Bartleby said excitedly. "She was so cute!"
"Incredibly strong, but yes, cute," Splice said, while Team Marmalade chuckled to themselves. "So what about Darkrai?"
"She said that was just an illusion we fought," the Guildmaster said.
"I encountered him a few times, but he kept fleeing the scene," Cresselia said. "And a few of you met his mirages. Do we have any clue as to where he escaped after the dream ended? He's not back at Lunar Fields; I would know the instant he returned there."
No one knew, until the next day when they met again to discuss the problem. "Darkrai showed up in our dreams again," Stacy said. "He told me and Sally to meet him at Dark Crater, just us."
"Kip and I had the same dream," Trey said. "And he was in his true form at the time."
"Just you four?" Cresselia asked. "That sounds like a trap."
"Not even a particularly well hidden one," Garth noted.
"Still, if all of us showed up, he would know," she told them. "He would flee, just as he has many times before. Calling for a direct confrontation, even as a trap, this is rather out of character for him. He prefers to use tricks and manipulate others to do his dirty work."
"We should go anyways," Stacy said. "We know where he is and we can defeat him now. So we should take the chance and go with it."
"That's right," Trey said.
As Sally seemed to be in agreement, Kip asked, "So where is this place and how do we get there?"
"Dark Crater is on an island to the northeast of here," Charlie said. "The trip there usually takes a week, though, including crossing the sea between the mainland and the volcanic island."
"I can take you there quicker," Cresselia offered. "I will have to wait for you at the shore, so he doesn't try to escape."
"Okay, then let's get prepared and head out today," Stacy said.
In town, Garth met up with Trey. "Hey, although we don't know each other all that well, it's still good to know that you've grown to be a more noble Pokemon than me," Garth said, putting his paw on Trey's shoulder.
"I had to be that, against myself at times. I would like to know you better, when we come back."
"Sure thing."
Kip and Stacy were the first ones to meet up on Sharpedo Bluff, where Cresselia was waiting. "You seem rather happy today," Stacy noted.
"Oh, I am." He stretched out, then said, "I think I found my light of the darkness."
"Oh, you did? When was this?"
"It happened. I feel like I'm ready to take on the whole world now!" He paused, then sniffed. "I do kind of wish that it had been an actual treasure like I thought, but I'll take what I can get these days."
When they all arrived, Cresselia teleported them to the distant island. "Good luck, and take care of each other," she said as they left the shore.
"Thanks," Stacy called as the group waved. Then they headed down into Dark Crater.
The dungeon was dark and hot, befitting a volcanic island. Occasionally, there were pools and fountains of lava for everyone to avoid. There were many tough Fire and Rock Pokemon around, so Trey had to keep hidden much of the time. Thankfully, that was the Grovyle's specialty. Even so, Stacy could defeat many of the natives herself with just Water Gun.
And then they hit a room where shadows leapt up from the floors, creating all sorts of walls. "Sally!" Stacy called, as the human had been next to her. "Trey, Kip? Can you hear me?"
There was nothing. The shadows even blocked the noise.
In that case, there was nothing to do but move ahead and hope for the best.
-+-
She heard the giggling of Sableyes.
Sally paused for a moment, but quickly composed herself. She could handle Sableyes now. It was nothing to be afraid of. But the fact that she was an outsider no matter where she went…
However, that thought fizzled as soon as it came out. Why should she worry about that? If she was patient, most people grew to accept her despite her strangeness. So far it was only Pokemon, but it wasn't like her fellow humans would be outright mean to her. She wouldn't really know until she met other humans. It was something that she was seriously thinking about doing, going out to find her own people.
There was the problem of how to break it to her friends.
No. They would understand. She was certain of that. Besides, this wasn't the time or place to be worrying about that.
Sally saw the shadows slipping away from the walls around her. Darkrai doesn't have a hold on me, she thought. Good. And she had faith that her friends would pull through as well.
-+-
He heard the whispers of the darkness.
But it was laughable now. Thus, Kip laughed, causing the sound to echo through the tunnels. "Shaddup, you big whiner. I've found great treasures even if I couldn't keep a single item or Poke from my adventures. There is nothing worth losing for listening to the darkness."
The shadows tried a few more feeble efforts, but could not do a thing. They slipped away from the walls and let him pass.
-+-
He saw the bones of the dead.
Trey felt a sickness inside as he tried to make his way through the dark passage. But he had to get through this. This mockery all around him, this was just remains of a future that no longer was. This was not the fate of those around him. And he had been the one to see to that.
And… Stacy had been the one to save him from his own sacrifice. Stacy truly loved him. He couldn't let her down. No matter what Darkrai tried to show him. Trey had to get through, so he could be with her.
For a bit, the shadows tried to animate the dead skeletons. But when it turned out that he was not afraid of them any longer, the shadows slipped away. Trey had a feeling that this would all end soon.
-+-
She encountered nothing.
It caused great worry to Stacy. Where were the enemies? And that worry pulled out many other worries in her mind. How were her friends doing? And her brothers? Was she going to end up badly injured, or even killed? That would break her promise to Matti and Azeri that she would always come back home. Or, what if she came back and something terrible had happened to them again? Maybe she was a bad sister, for going away all the time.
For a moment, Stacy got stopped. But as the shadows seemed to darken the area, she decided that wasn't a good idea. She moved on, trying to swat her worries away. She had started being an explorer to help out her little brothers. And they had no problem with it; they always wished her a safe journey, and always smiled when she returned. Their parents had explained that explorers had great responsibilities and took risks, but it was all for the good of the Pokemon back home.
And her teammates would be fine. They were all great explorers. It wasn't helping her any to worry along the way. In fact, it might help Darkrai if she got too caught up in her own problems. She was doing this for the safety of everyone back home, especially the children.
Things lightened up a bit, but then she got to the next room. Sally, Trey, and Kip were there, but something seemed odd. They weren't prepared as the group usually was in dungeons. In almost a relaxed mood, all three were smiling and sitting around.
"Hey guys, what's going on?" she asked, puzzled.
"Nothing," Trey said. "It's all good."
"Yeah, nothing going on," Kip said.
Sally nodded.
"Something's weird about you guys," Stacy told them.
"It's okay," Trey said, taking her paw. "We talked to Darkrai."
"You did? What happened? What did he say?"
"He's putting the world at peace," Kip said. "Back to how it should be. It's all going to be good now, so… we don't have to do anything."
"What? But he hurt all the kids back in town! That doesn't seem very peaceful to me."
"You don't understand," Trey said. "If you accept Darkrai's ways, you will never feel guilt or pain again. There will be nothing to worry about. Be content and accept what's coming. Then nothing will ever matter again."
Something was very wrong here, Stacy felt. The weird way that they smiled and did nothing confirmed it. "You aren't my friends! Stop this, Darkrai!"
The whole area seemed to ripple and Stacy felt as if her body had suddenly turned to stone. She fell away, leaving the shades of her friends behind. As things got darker and darker, she wondered where they really were.
-+-
"Stacy! Wake up!"
"Huh?" She blinked and the world came into blurriness. It was uncomfortably warm and red in this room, making the rocks appear purple. Kneeling next to her was Trey, with his paws on her shell. "Trey…"
He smiled. "Finally. We were worried."
She sat up and saw that Kip and Sally were nearby. They smiled warm smiles and came over on seeing that she was awake again. "Darkrai got you into something nasty, didn't he?" Kip asked. "I just hope it wasn't that kind of nasty."
"What… no, not that!" Stacy said with a laugh.
The laugh seemed to disrupt the air near them. Near some brightly glowing lava, a dark form emerged. Darkrai appeared to be breathing heavily, as if he'd expended a lot of energy recently. Even his eyes seemed dimmer than normal. It might have been simply drowned out in the lava's glow, or he really was exhausted. Maybe even afraid, although Stacy wasn't sure of that one.
"Hah, we've got you now, villain!" Kip jeered.
"Your spirits are extraordinarily strong," Darkrai said. "Too bad I will have to kill you all."
"What do you have against us?" Stacy asked. "We never did anything to you."
"You ended my era of darkness."
"You're responsible for the bad future?" Trey asked.
Darkrai gave a single nod. "Yes. I took the Time Gears from Dialga, as I knew he wouldn't notice until too late. And I tricked everyone into adding to the collapse of time itself. But then you meddlers went and destroyed all of my hard work. I tried to stop the human and Grovyle earlier by attacking you within your portal back in time. However, you still managed to ruin everything."
"But you ruined life for everyone else!" Trey snapped. Stacy had to grip his arm so he didn't do something foolish like rush towards Darkrai (and the lava) to attack.
Darkrai glared at them. "So what of it?"
"Are you a Primal?" Kip asked, twitching his ears. "Cause you don't seem like an outlaw."
"I am neither," Darkrai said. "The Primals and the outlaws both lose their minds to power, and I prefer leaving my mind intact."
"But then why do you want the destroy the world with darkness?" Stacy asked.
"It doesn't matter what I tell you now. You wouldn't understand, having been brainwashed by the lies and dishonesty of this too cheerful world. You will die all the same." He brought his fist up and clenched it. There was a rumble from deep under their feet.
"Is he triggering the volcano?" Trey asked, gripping Stacy.
Then there was a roar, but not from Darkrai. The dream spirit turned around in alarm just in time for a large four-legged beast to leap out of the lava and tackle him to the ground. Pinning him so he couldn't move, the Pokemon beast grunted. "Not under my watch, vermin."
"Good timing, Heatran," Cresselia said, appearing in the area.
Although pretty much defeated, Darkrai growled. "You couldn't defeat me on your own, could you, Cresselia?"
"And you didn't expect me to do nothing after that awful trick you played on the children?" she asked indignantly. "We're making sure you don't get away this time."
"Are you sure about that?" The Darkrai under Heatran's immense feet vanished, reappearing at some distance from the rest of the group there. He flung his hand out, summoning a dimensional hole.
Trey tensed. "You're a time traveler too?"
"You didn't even set that properly!" Cresselia said.
Darkrai backed into the hole. "I know. It leads to sometime in the past. Sometime when you rats aren't around. I will use this time to bring about my era of darkness once again, and no one will be able to undo it!"
"THAT'S WHAT YOU THINK, BUSTER!" There was a golden flash as Palkia showed up. "YOU'RE NOT GETTING AWAY WITH HURTING MY BROTHER AND ME!"
This time, Darkrai was clearly afraid. "P-Palkia? But you were half dead when I last checked on you."
"I GOT BETTER. NOW TAKE THIS, FOR GREAT JUSTICE!" She roared and released a beam of pink energy. It struck the dimensional hole, shattering it into many fragments. But when the pieces faded away, there was no sign of Darkrai.
"What happened to him?" Trey asked.
"WHO KNOWS?" Palkia said. "AND WHO CARES? I DON'T."
"But…" Stacy tried to say.
She chuckled, though. "KIDDING. THE ENERGY AND BREAKING UP OF THE PORTAL WILL DAMAGE HIS MEMORY COMPLETELY, MUCH LIKE HIS ATTACK DID TO SALLY AND TREY."
"Ah, so when he comes out of that portal, he won't remember a thing about his plans to turn the world over to darkness," Cresselia said.
"CORRECT. WE THANK YOU FOUR HEROES FOR ALL YOUR SACRIFICES AND HARD WORK. EVERYTHING SHOULD COME BACK TO NORMAL NOW."
-+-
Back home at Treasure Town, the heroes came back to a celebration. The children were awake, safe, and happy. The future was unknown, which was a blessing. And all the people that had come to know and love them managed to be there, even Manaphy and the Phiones of Miracle Sea.
So what was to come?
"I'm getting off my parole two days early!" Kip announced. He was prancing around the house, occasionally playing with Manaphy and Azeri.
"That's good," Stacy said with a laugh. "So are you going to get your own Treasure Bag so you don't have to keep borrowing Sally's?"
"Oh sure. I think I can be responsible now."
"You think?" Trey challenged.
"Ah, gimme a break," Kip said, grinning.
Sally made some signs to the others, making Trey surprised. "What, you're going back?"
She nodded.
"Back where?" Stacy asked. "She can't go to the future again."
"Back to the lands where humans live," Trey said.
Sally nodded and explained with Trey translating. "I ran into Mewtwo at the party. He told me that he originated from the human lands as well and was wondering if I wanted to go back with him. We're going to take that ship there. I love you guys and I'll miss you, but I want to know my own people. I haven't spoke to another human for a long time now."
"Will you come back some day and tell us what it's like over there?" Stacy asked.
"I'll try," Sally promised.
"We'll miss you too," Trey said. "But if that's what you want, we won't hold you back."
"Thank you," she signed.
"So what are we going to do now?" Stacy asked, looking at Trey.
"We?" he asked, then winked at her. "You want to run off and elope somewhere?"
"Who says we have to run off?" she retorted.
"Oh really?"
"Oh please," Kip stated with unnecessary drama. "You could at least wait until the rest of us have left the room before starting in on that."
Everyone laughed.
-+-
Dialga stood on the top of his tower, looking over things. Everything in the Hidden Lands was right again. It was all at peace.
For now.
He glanced back at a flash of golden light. "WHAT NOW, PALKIA?"
She snickered. "JUST PASSING BY, THAT'S ALL. GEEZ, YOU ALWAYS THINK I'VE GOT SOME PRANK IN ACTION."
Dialga chuckled back. "WELL THAT'S NORMALLY WHY YOU DROP BY HERE, EITHER TO PLAY A PRANK ON ME OR ROPE ME INTO DOING ONE TO SOMEONE ELSE."
"CAN'T HOARD ALL THE FUN TO MYSELF."
"IF YOU SAY SO."
"You could invite me for more of the fun, though," Giratina said, appearing without warning while floating over the edge of the tower.
"YOU'VE BEEN SUCH A RECLUSE THOUGH," Palkia complained. "IT'S FINE THAT YOU MELLOWED FROM WHERE YOU WERE, BUT YOU NEVER JOIN ME FOR GAMES."
"I can try to be more social, I guess," he said.
"YOU SILLY GOOSE."
Dialga noticed that Giratina still seemed uncomfortable, so he distracted their sister. "BY THE WAY, WHAT BECAME OF DARKRAI?"
Palkia shrugged. "I DUNNO."
"YOU DON'T KNOW?"
"WELL HE'S THE ONE WHO MADE THE UNSPECIFIED PORTAL. HE GOT WHAT WAS COMING TO HIM, I'M SURE."
"I SUPPOSE. BUT THE TWO OTHER TIME TRAVELERS, TREY AND SALLY, THEY REGAINED THEIR MEMORIES AFTER A TIME."
"WELL THEN, WE'LL HAVE TO BE EXTRA WATCHFUL FOR WHEN HE DOES POP BACK UP. BESIDES, I DOUBT HE'S MANAGED TO GET IN THE PAST AND DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT."
"WHY'S THAT?"
"BECAUSE YOU'RE STILL SANE."
"GOOD POINT. SO DID YOU HEAR THAT GIRATINA HAS A DAUGHTER? A HUMAN DAUGHTER."
She squeaked and turned to their brother in shock. "WHAT, YOU? YOU HAVE A HUMAN DAUGHTER? OH MY GOSH, I DIDN'T KNOW YOU WERE INTO THAT KIND OF THING."
Giratina lowered his head and blushed. "It-it's not like that! And what's with you, Dialga? You haven't mentioned anything about that, so I figured you were okay with it."
He chuckled. "I UNDERSTAND WHAT HAPPENED, BUT I JUST WANTED TO SEE PALKIA'S REACTION TO THE NEWS. I FIGURED SHE COULD EMBARRASS YOU MORE ABOUT IT THAN ANYTHING I COULD DO."
"Yeah, thanks for that," Giratina said sarcastically. "And it's your interference that allowed it to happen in the first place."
"HEY WHAT'S GOING ON BETWEEN YOU TWO?" Palkia demanded. "TELL ME!"
"It's a long story," he said. "We needed a hero and I found a human child who had been rendered stillborn from the corruption of Time…"
"HOW ABOUT WE EXPLAIN OVER A GAME OF PING PONG?" Dialga suggested.
She grinned. "OH, YOU KNOW THAT'S MY FAVORITE GAME! WE CAN HAVE A TRIANGLE MATCH!"
"Can you play Ping Pong in a triangle?" Giratina asked, puzzled.
"USE OF OUR POWERS IS COMPLETELY LEGAL," Dialga explained. "SO YES, WE CAN HAVE A THREE-WAY MATCH."
"I'll give it a try."
-+-
A great many Pokemon were gathered on the beach below Sharpedo Bluff. The winds blew strong to the northwest, filling the sail of the ship. On the ship, there were three passengers. Mewtwo was handling the rudder while Sally waved to the friends she was leaving behind. With them was Azeri the Azurill; after completing his Rite of Passage, he had decided to go see the human lands. It was an adventure to a land more distant than most Pokemon dared to travel. But he was the son of great explorers, and he dared to go. That is, after he got the blessings of his older sister.
The ship pulled away from the beach, sending a white wake trailing behind it. The Pokemon cheered and wished the travelers good luck. For who knew? This might be the beginning of a new era, where human and Pokemon became connected again to explore the whole wide world together.
That was a beautiful dream.
THE END
