In Viperia…
"I can't believe this! I'm supposed to be top general, and I get stuck with guard duty?!" Shouted an orange monkey with a long tail. "I was a king, you know! Then she went and robbed my crown!" He said kicking a wall in anger. He punched a board with Leia's face on it, surprised it was still intact and punched again. "Why won't you break?!" He shouted punching it again and again.
"Having another temper tantrum, Monferno?" Asked a voice in the dungeon.
"Shut up! It's none of your business!" Monferno shouted.
"It sounds like you blame someone for your demotion." Another said.
"I said shut up! Oh, how I wanna burn her to bits!" Monferno said.
"Then do it. What's stopping you?" The first voice asked.
"Hmm. Yeah...that's right. I'll lead a battalion down there and take her down...and with her as a prisoner...maybe I can use her as a bargaining chip. I'm out!" Monferno said running out the door.
"That guy's got a short fuse." The second voice said. "But this is our chance to escape with that monkey outta the way."
"Especially considering...he left his keys behind." One of them said pointing to them.
"Heh. Stupid Monkey." The second voice said as the keys were grabbed.
Meanwhile back in Kadic…
"Something's up with Aelita?" Futaba asked.
"Yes. She's been waking up in the dead of night for the past week from these nightmares." Wendy said.
"It has to be connected to The Hermitage somehow. I say we take Aelita there and get her over these nightmares." Sonia said.
"Yes, anything to help ease her mind." Lilianna said.
"But...I don't like going to that place. It has this...scary feeling about it." Aelita said.
"Don't worry. We'll be there to help." Leia said.
It was later, the group headed into the hermitage where they started searching.
"Facing your fears can sometimes lead to great discoveries." Hope said.
"Yeah...if what you want discovered is dust, dust and more dust." Asta said.
"We don't even know what we're supposed to be looking for." Luffy said before Aelita walked ahead of them before approaching a poster which she tore down as she pulled out a small doll version of an elf she had been seeing in her visions.
"Mr...Puck." Aelita said.
"How adorable." Liliana said as she looked at it.
"You remember this thing, Aelita?" Hope asked.
"No. All I know is its name." Aelita said.
"Is this what you saw in your nightmares as well?" Liliana asked.
"Hey, don't keep questioning her. She's...huh?" Jack wondered before he took it. He opened the back of the doll up. "Seems we hit pay dirt." he said pulling out a key and drive.
"That key… It looks like something for those lockers at the railroad station." Mayumi said.
"Let's head down there then." Akira said as they ran out.
Upon reaching the railroad station, Jack unlocked the door with the key before seeing a case inside.
Jeremie pulled it out and opened it to see some discs. He put one into his computer and looked over the data contents. "Guys...what we just found...is Franz Hopper's diary!" Jeremie said.
"His diary? That's big news!" Tsumugi said.
"It's so encrypted though… and there's 13 disks. I've got my work cut out for me." Jeremie said. "We need to get these out of here to make sure no one else gets them." He said heading out before they were approached by an army of purple sludge like creatures and rainbow sludge like creatures.
"Grimer and Muk! Both Kanto and Alola Forms!" Twilight said.
"Viperia's Soldiers, I presume. I didn't think they'd attack preemptively." Ichiro said.
"Hahaha! Well...it's been a long time. But now I've returned...for revenge!" said an orange monkey.
"Huh? You again?" Leia asked.
"Wait...you know him?" Hope asked.
"Come on! She remembers me! I was Ignis's King!" He said.
"You were just a Chimchar back then. I was trying to grab you but you ended up running away." Leia said.
"Yeah...he was a loser but this guy is different." Ranma said.
"I was that loser! Wait, you think I'm a loser?! Forget it. One grudge at a time. Today...I'm here for you!" Monferno said pointing to Leia. "You cost me my throne...and now me and my pals are gonna mess you up!"
"A throne you obtained by sealing Reshiram. Seems this whole payback thing goes both ways." Leia said as she got out her staff.
"Leave our old friend to Leia. We gotta take out our slimy pals." Zephyr said.
"You think you can take em? We just trounced Swellow and Swanna on the way here...two of the Flying Aces!" Monferno said.
"Good. Less problems for us then." David said.
"You're not very bright, Monferno. If you had worked something out with those two, you might've just had us outgunned." Hope said.
"As much as I want to knock him out for that, he's right. It's a little too late for that idea anyway." David said.
"So what? The goal is to conquer all kingdoms! And you all are in the way." Monferno said. "Attack!" he said as the Muk and Grimer of both regions moved in.
"Here they come." Aluche said.
"Let's do this." Gemini said.
"They're Poison and Dark dual types right?" Roy asked.
"The Alolan ones are. The Kantoian ones are just Poison." Tapu Koko said.
"And their weaknesses are Ground right?" Simon asked.
"Simon, I think you should know something. When it comes to fighting the Kingdoms, you don't need to worry about type effectiveness." Hope said.
"Yeah, just punch them!" Rainbow said. "Or you could uh… just summon Baal and make her swallow em."
"He can't summon them anymore, remember? Wait, that's Ace. Look...maybe I better handle this." Dan said. "Go, Arbok!" he said sending out a large cobra. "Use Mud Bomb!" he said as it unleashed a large ball of mud on them before it exploded taking a majority of them out.
"Gaia's Wrath Clash!" Ace yelled as he jumped into the air and pounded the ground causing rocks to erupt around him and another group of Muk and Grimer.
"I...I don't get it. They were elite soldiers. And the Alola Forms were newcomers. I thought we had this!" Monferno said.
"When it comes to you Monferno, it almost seems like every battle you have done is won." Gemini said.
"You might want to take a moment to rephrase that." Leia said as she whacked Monferno upward with her staff.
"Grr. Never should have trusted prisoners to...wait...where are my keys? Damn it! Okay troops, full retreat!" Monferno ordered. "This isn't over!" he said as he ran with them.
"It pretty much is." Aya said.
"Not with that guy. He'll be back, I just know it." Leia said.
"Well at least we're safe, let's see what we can dig up from the diary when we return." Tear said.
"I'm afraid that's not going to happen." A voice said as MagnetMan held Aelita by her throat.
"MagnetMan!" Sakura said.
"Let Aelita go!" Jeremie called.
"Now...I'll be taking that case now." He said. "Either do that or I snap her neck."
"You bastard…. Is there no length you'll go to achieve your goals?"
"We are Gospel...our goals are to make sure robots replace you organics. One girl is a small price to pay." MagnetMan said.
"Fine...you win." Jeremie said tossing over the case.
"Smart move." He said dropping her. "But...also dumb." He grinned as he stomped on the case, destroying all the discs.
"What are you doing?!" Yumi asked.
"Sorry but you could have discovered some big stuff if you read Hopper's diary. So my mission was to destroy it." MagnetMan said.
"Well, we walked right into that one." Ulrich said.
"But...I'm a man of my word. I will let the girl go. But...next time we meet...we will take her." MagnetMan said before he ran off.
"All of that data, gone in an instant…" Aelita said.
"Not quite…" David said.
"What MagnetMan didn't know is that we had already copied the files on the disks into the flash drive." Jeremie said holding it. "However, even if we had the discs, it's gonna take months before I decipher all of them."
"As long as Gospel doesn't know the bait and switch happened, we've got all the time we need to decipher this diary." Connor siad.
"We should probably check up on Swellow and Swanna too. They may be from Avia, but they didn't deserve what happened to them." David said.
"Merciful even to your enemies, huh? I guess that's why a lot of villain reformations involve you." Dark Metaknight said.
The heroes backtracked and found Swellow and Swanna on the ground, Swanna preening herself.
"Oooh…. My beautiful figure has been ruined." Swanna lamented.
"Forget your feathers. We lost our pride today." Swellow said looking to the mass of downed Taillow and Ducklett.
"You two need some assistance?" Hope asked as the heroes appeared before them. "Don't get it twisted, were not here to attack. We're here to help."
"We are enemies...why assist us?" Swellow asked.
"Because even enemies deserve compassion. Come on...let's fix you guys up." Erica said as members of the group started helping the soldiers.
"Hope's Song...Elixir Vitae." Ace said as transparent rings of water along with musical notes appeared around Swanna and Swellow along with their troops as they healed most of their wounds.
"Such elegance." Swanna said.
"Thank you but...do not think this makes us compatriots." Swellow said.
"We know. But… I just couldn't find it in me to let you suffer like that." David said.
"You are a wise person. But..we will not falter that easily." Swellow said as the two flew off with their troops.
"Man, I sure wish that taking the Kingdoms didn't have to result in conflict." Hope said.
"Indeed, sometimes it's not easy to settle conflicts, you'll have to use force if there's no other option." Spade said.
David was looking on at that.
"David?" Ace asked.
"Ah, sorry. What your brother said just now. It just had me thinking." David said.
"I see. Will you be alright?" Ace asked.
"Yeah. Just had some personal thoughts about the past. Not really anything to worry about." David said.
"I apologize for being blunt earlier. But try to keep your spirit up for your comrades." Spade said.
"Now...let's head back to the ship. We have some files to read." Jexi said.
"Indeed." Camilla said.
Later, on the Sunny…
"Well most of the files Cretaceous has are encrypted but there are a few able to be read. Only one pertaining to the Olympos XII." Tails said playing the file as Cretaceous appeared on screen.
"Greetings. File 222: The Olympos XII Part 1 of...who knows. I've been studying these god like beings for a long while. I only have rumors to go off of but no actual evidence. I've come to this town not to just visit my friend Franz Hopper but...well there is some rumor that one of them is here in this city." he said.
"Ah!" Tsuki gasped in shock.
"So this is more than just a simple Redux… one of the 12 may actually be residing near Kadic!" Hope said.
"But the question is, which one?" Locks asked.
"I don't know. We never looked into that the first time we were in this era." Sonic said.
"It could be anyone of them besides Ceresmon and Vulcanusmon." Tsuki said.
"I'm not sure if Hoopa can be of any help either. He knows of their legends, not their locations." Leo said.
"All we can do is just hope things play out and see where it takes us." Jexi said.
"Let's see if there is anymore info on the disc." Lin said as the video resumed before it deleted itself. "What the?"
"Must be a security measure. The moment a file finishes, it deletes itself." Tails said.
"The rest of the files are encrypted. We'll have to wait for Jeremie's input before we find out more." Rantaro said.
"Speaking of… has anyone heard from him lately?" Mineta asked.
"He's busy with the data we got saved from MagnetMan...it's gonna take time and it's only been a day." Jexi said.
"All we can do is wait. So far XANA hasn't made his move yet which is good." Reala said.
"Though, knowing him, it's only a matter of time." Jesse said.
"Yeah...and hope things stay peaceful for a few days." Spectra said. "Course...with our luck...that is not likely."