Chapter 58 - Arrival at the Frontier Ruins

"Whoo-hoo!" Khrista exclaimed, her hands in the air as Ray zoomed through the sky at high speed. "This is awesome!"

"I knew you would enjoy it," Ray responded, a large grin on his face. "Legendary or not, you can't fly this fast. Besides Latias and Latios, no one can fly as fast as a Rayquaza. We can cross the world in two days without stopping."

"Exactly why I like to fly on you whenever I get the chance in the games," Khrista stated. "You guys are awesome Legendaries."

Ray let out a growl of pleasure at this. "You're saying that because you met me first."

"True, but that still doesn't hinder my enjoyment of watching you in battle." Khrista glanced back at Grace, who had her wings tucked closely against her sides like they wanted to be ripped away from her at any moment. "You okay back there?"

"Other than a little tired from flying, I'm fine," Grace responded. "Do you think we can go a little faster and get to this place sooner?"

"No," Ray responded. "Charizard and Aero can only go so fast with riders, whether we have a Tailwind or not. I'm not going any faster than a quarter of Latios' speed."

"Besides. Any faster and we could all be knocked off," Khrista added.

"Indeed."

Charizard flew up beside Ray's head, Ash waving his hat to get their riders' attention. "We're getting pretty close, guys! I can see the volcano's smoke from here."

"And the ash has been going up my nose for the last minute!" Charizard added. A sneeze followed soon after, a ball of fire zooming from his mouth at high speed toward the sea below. "It's going to take me a little while to get used to that again."

Khrista smirked at the sight of the sneeze Charizard had produced, but it faded quickly. "I hope whoever's on the island didn't see that."

"I wouldn't worry about it," Ash responded carelessly. "If what happened in the tower affected everyone under Cyrus' command, Giovanni won't try to hold us back."

"Giovanni?" Red caught up with Ash, riding Aero. "He's down there?"

Ash nodded. "Cyrus wanted him to be as isolated as possible because he was White's adoptive uncle, so he dropped him on the island."

"Adoptive?" Khrista repeated, looking over at the two Ketchum boys in surprise.

Red nodded. "Yeah. She just appeared one night in Pallet Town with a lost look on her face and a pretty firm idea that she didn't have any parents. I didn't figure out until recently that she'd actually come from some nasty future that a Darkrai had caused - and she had stopped."

"Bad future with Darkrai?" Joshua repeated from the other side of the Ketchum boys. "That sounds like one of the games we have access to - it's part of a series of Pokemon teams for either Rescue or Exploration."

"Guys," Corza spoke up. "We're here."

Khrista looked down from her perch as Ray started to circle the island from above. "When Vapor called this place 'Frontier Ruins,' they weren't kidding," she realized. "It looks like Heatran blew Stark Mountain's top!"

Grace peered down, eyes widening. "There are Legendaries wandering about too! I can see a Latios taking laps around the island!"

Ray let out a growl. "It's Rosa's brother, Triple S. One of the first that got caught, ironically."

Grace frowned. "Triple S? What kind of name is that?"

"SuperSonicSpeed wouldn't fit in the blanks," Khrista supplied sheepishly, guessing as to who the Latios belonged to. "I'd had a but of a fan girl reaction when I saw his blue coloring -"

"That's not important right now," Aero stated quickly. "Where shall we land?"

Ash pointed down to an area of the island that still looked habitable, even though a large, crumbling building towered over it. "We have to land in the Fight Area, or else we'll attract a lot of unwanted attention from the Legendaries. We can meet up with the Rocket grunts there."

Khrista nodded. "Right. Down we go, then." Ray complied instantly, going down in a gentle descent, the others following suit.

As the group landed on the island, Pikachu's ears twitched, and he tightened his grip on Ash's shoulder.

"Something's wrong," he muttered. "It feels too quiet."

Pika, who was also sitting on Red's shoulder, nodded in agreement. "Like the entire island's been evacuated."

"Or everyone is in hiding," Aero noted. "Khrista and Joshua - return your allies to their PokeBalls. They might have scared the locals."

Khrista exchanged a quick glance with Ray, who reluctantly complied, disappearing into his Master Ball, which was located on her belt in the "1st Pokemon" position. Corza disappeared twice as quickly.

"Now to find the Rockets," Grace remarked. She looked around, ears twitching, then asked, "Where do you guys think they're hiding?"

"Probably not the Tower," Khrista responded, motioning to the crumbling ruin. "It doesn't look like it could even stand a bird Pokemon landing on it."

"They left it up as a symbol," Ash explained. "Kind of like 'this'll happen to you if you don't listen'." He motioned to the small one-story huts that surrounded it. "There's most likely where the Rockets are."

"Let's check it out, then," Charizard suggested.

Khrista was starting to move towards the huts when Red stated, "I've got a better idea."

The Kanto Champion leaned into his brother's right ear and whispered something that only Ash, Pika, and Pikachu could hear. When he was done, all four of them exchanged grins that carried a secret joke about them.

Joshua looked between them, confusion clear on his face. "What are you going to do?"

"You'll see," Red responded mischievously. He turned and started for the huts, Ash following after him quickly.

Khrista and Joshua exchanged glances, then looked back as Ash and Red came to one of the huts, paused, and went inside.

A moment later, a loud scream ripped through the air, and an ominous zap! could clearly be heard.

A moment later, a Galactic grunt with orange hair instead of green ran out of the huts looking like he'd been given an afro. Red and Ash followed after him, laughing.

"And that's for what happened in Sunnyshore!" Red called after him. "Man, White looked annoyed after that!"

There was movement at the entrances to the other huts, and figure started to step out in order to see what the noise had been. Most of them were Rockets that looked like they could use a bath, but there were one or two annoyed Galactics scowling and glaring around.

As soon as they caught sight of Ash, Red, Khrista, Joshua, and Grace, the lot of them froze in surprise.

"Cyrus' citadel has collapsed!" Red called out. "We've got him with Darkrai!"

The Galactic grunts glared at Red and started to approach, but Pika released a Thunderbolt that kept them from getting too close.

"You're not in control anymore," Ash growled, pointing an accusing finger at the Galactics. He glanced back at Khrista. "Could you teleport them to the Underground?"

"I might be able to," Khrista replied thoughtfully. Her shirt shifted from the dull red with yellow Master Ball graphic to a bright gold.

"You might want to hurry, though," Joshua added, glancing up at the storm clouds above them. "We may have beat the fire by getting here, but it'll probably start coming down pretty soon."

"Fire raining from the heavens?"

Khrista turned her attention to the one who had spoken and caught sight of a familiar man looking really uncomfortable in a Rocket grunt uniform.

"That shouldn't be possible," Giovanni stated with a shake of his head.

"It is," Khrista replied,taking a few steps forward. "And those huts of yours probably aren't going to last for long. I could Teleport you to the Underground directly and get you out of harm's way."

"You? Teleport?" Giovanni was intrigued by this. "Do you have a Psychic-Type with that kind of power?"

Khrista shook her head. "It's part of me being an Avatar." She looked around the clearing. "We've got Cyrus imprisoned in our HQ, and we're here to take care of Cyrus' top Legendaries, and the least I could do for you guys is get you out of harm's way before things get ugly."

The Rocket grunts started to murmur among themselves out of surprise, a minor look of shock on Giovanni's face.

"Cyrus has been defeated?" the Rocket leader finally asked, as the previous statements finally hit him.

Joshua nodded. "His tower collapsed two days ago, when the storm started."

"So, are you going to take my offer or not?" Khrista inquired.

"I want to know how they're going to react," Giovanni stated.

"You'll get food and shelter," Red responded. "We've been keeping an eye on your Pokemon, as well, so if you behave, you might get your team back and be able to take challenges from other-world Trainers. If you do something idiotic, we'll lock you in one of our makeshift prisons."

Giovanni nodded. "Reasonable. All right, girl."

Khrista smirked. "Next stop, the Underground!" She threw a sphere of pink energy at the group, causing them to vanish in a flash of light.

Spacial Break

"...and so, I believe that Augustine's previous suspicions were correct; there is another Pokemon Type in the world."

"But Birch, that's going to throw my charts out the window!"

Birch shook his head. "Charts, schmarts. Field work is always the best way to find strengths and weaknesses, Samuel."

Professor Oak became flustered. "Well, yes, but -"

The Professor was suddenly cut off when a flash of light briefly illuminated the Square, fading away just as quickly. Oak and Birch soon found themselves bristling as a familiar figure approached.

"Giovanni!" Oak identified. "What are you -"

"We were just teleported here from that infernal island," Giovanni stated, irritated. "Although I am thankful to them for getting us out, I am curious as to who those two children Ash and Red brought with them were."

Birch and Oak paused and looked at each other in surprise.

"Let me guess..." Birch frowned thoughtfully. "One was a girl with brown hair and blue eyes, and the other was a boy with brown hair and hazel eyes with green specs."

"Yes, yes," Giovanni responded. "And the girl's shirt seemed to change color when she teleported us here."

"The girl is Khrista, and the boy is her cousin, Joshua," Oak replied somewhat seriously. "Both of them played a large part in bringing down Cyrus' regime."

"Mere children?" Giovanni raised an eyebrow.

"Need I remind you that White was merely ten when she destroyed you?"

"Besides, the two of them are Avatars, so that makes them more qualified in my book," Birch replied boldly.

"I find that doesn't say much for you," Giovanni replied flatly. He motioned to the other side of the Square, where a large group of Rocket grunts were staying in a tight group in order to stay away from anyone that might threaten them. "We were informed that we might receive shelter and food - perhaps better than what we had been receiving." The last part of his statement came out in a growl.

"We'll see what we can do, but at this point, our stores are starting to run out," Oak replied moodily. "We can only hope that the surface will become inhabitable soon - and have grown at least something."

"Hey!"

The two Professors and the Rocket leader looked back at the cord of grunts. A figure standing in front of them help up two figures by he collars of their strange, space-suit like uniforms.

"What do you want us to do with these guys?" the Rocket grunt demanded, shaking the unconscious Galactic grunts. It looked like one of them had an orange afro on top of his head.

Oak's eyes widened. "We'll need to find Cynthia to keep an eye on those two. She's most likely sparring with someone at this time of day... Follow me, and keep close." With that, the Professor dashed off, Giovanni and his black-uniformed troop following.

As the group ran off, Birch turned to look at Merlin and Rowan, who had been observing the interaction from a distance away. "You two wouldn't happen to know anything about this new Fairy-Type, do you?"

I couldn't resist throwing a little bit of a hint at what White has done in there. ;)