Authoress' Note:

Thank you for you kind words, favorites, and follows, everyone! It always cheers my day to see that much interest in this story.

Also, I literally don't know what I'm doing in this chapter. :'D
I'm out of my comfort zone with all the mess… and, it's a bit shorter than usual, but I hope it's still good.~

Chapter 8 'Pulling Out the Aces'

It had been clear to Ash that getting out of the island wasn't an option with the energy shield around it; and even without it, he knew that escaping wasn't going to stop Team Flare from coming after him again. As much as he wanted to respect Slowking's wishes, running wasn't a solution; it was just a stalling strategy. Ultimately everything came down to stopping Lysandre's plan in its track. But for that, they needed to get out of their current situation.

Ash frowned in anxious concentration, as he surveyed the battle zone uncertainly. They were still surrounded by enemy grunts, causing everyone's attention to be divided all over the place. Adding to their problems, the sun was already setting, and the least they needed was to keep battling without sunlight.

"We need to end this fast," Ash commented beside Kiawe, who smirked confidently.

"Leave that to us," he said as he and Turtonator got in position.

"Okay, guys, let's cover for them!" Ash instructed his own team.

As the other two nodded their agreement, Pikachu ran in front of his trainer, and looked back at him with determination. "Pi-pika! Pikachu-chupi!"

"Are you sure, buddy? You still haven't completely recovered from our last battle," receiving a decisive nod, Ash smiled and nodded in return. "Alright! Let's do this! Greninja, Rowlet, I'm counting on you!"

"Charizard, help us out," Kiawe normally didn't ask his grandfather's Pokémon for help in battles, but he knew they would need all the help they could get.

A roar of understanding was his answer, and all three Pokémon rushed ahead ready to protect their trainers.

"Ash! Together!" Kiawe exclaimed; both boys now facing opposite directions.

"Right!"

As they started their synchronized move sequences, they could hear one of the admins growling.

"No! Don't let them finish that!" she cried.

A strong gust of wind filled with static energy let them know, Tapu Koko wasn't about to allow them to interfere either. Any other attempts to do so, were pointedly stopped by well-timed water shurikens, intense flamethrowers, and Leafage attacks.

"Huh, what are they doing?" Bonnie asked curiously beside them.

"That's their Z-Move!" Mallow explained excitedly. "It's a powered up move that works with the help of a Z-Crystal when both Pokémon and trainer share a strong bond."

"Z-Crystals? It's the first time I hear of them," Serena commented.

When visible energy lights flew from the trainers to their Pokémon , Bonnie's curiosity turned to amazement. "Wow! So is it like Megastones and Megaevolution?"

"They do sound like they have similar concepts," Clemont agreed.

"Inferno Overdrive!"

"Gigavolt Havoc!"

"Move away!" Even with the panicked order, most Pokémon weren't fast enough to get off from the direct path of the Z-move attacks. Said attacks went past the battle ground and into the trees, causing destruction in their wake.

"That's incredible!" Clemont exclaimed, watching the paths of destruction in total bafflement.

As soon as he finished his attack, Pikachu returned to Ash looking exhausted.

"Awesome job, buddy," Ash congratulated him as he picked Pikachu up in his arms. "Take a rest."

Pikachu nodded contently and climbed to his trainer's shoulder.

"Keep your cool! Don't panic!" Mable yelled as she tried to regain control of the chaos. "We can't let them get away!"

"If you think your flashy moves will stop us, you are in for a surprise!" Celosia yelled next, sending Drapion back into the battle and returning her not so lucky Manectric. "Drapion, we wasted enough time! Bring that brat over here!"

The Drapion aimed an attack towards the ground right in front of the kids to block their view with lifted dust and debris, before going forward in an attempt to do as instructed, but Greninja was fast to step in the way, clashing with it.

"What do you even want with Ash!?" Serena asked as she stepped protectively in front of her friend.

"Nothing to do with controlling his bond with Greninja this time," Celosia shrugged in apparent disinterest.

"W-What are you talking about?"

"What? You don't know?" the purple-haired woman laughed mockingly. "And to think you were right there!"

"Right there where?" Clemont asked with a suspicious frown.

Kiawe noticed Ash tensing beside him and sent him a questioning look, but he didn't press when Ash didn't acknowledge it.

"I guess it is to be expected," Celosia continued with a shrug, as she turned to look at Ash. "During Zygarde's attack to the city, none of your pesky friends was around when we came to get yo-"

"Greninja, now!" as if guessing his trainer's thoughts, the water-type jumped back and threw a cut attack toward the Drapion, making it fall back in pain.

"Tch! Drapion, retaliate with Pin Missile!"

Kiawe frowned towards his friend in thought. If he didn't know better, he would say it looked as if Ash had deliberately distracted the woman from talking further. But his thoughts didn't linger as a bright light got his attention towards the Greninja, who was suddenly surrounded by a pillar of spiraling water.

"What...?"

.:oOo:.

"Oh, it looks like Celosia and Mable are in trouble now,~" Aliana commented casually, as she observed the battle from a distance.

"That's what happens when you keep playing around, taunting your opponents, instead of taking your mission seriously…" Bryony dismissed the thought. "Shouldn't we have intervened by now?"

"Not yet," Xerosic answered, without taking his sight off the battle. "We'll wait for the perfect moment."

"Ugh… watching is boring," Aliana whined; her fingers fidgeting with Xerosic's invention in anticipation.

"Believe me, it'll be worth the wait."

.:oOo:.

"Don't push!"

"Whoever it is, ya're stepping on my tail!"

"Well you are stepping on my personal bubble."

"Hey! I think I found the exit!"

Within the deeper sections of the ruins surrounding the volcano, one of the rocky tiles forming the floor was carefully pushed aside without anyone's notice. Three pairs of curious eyes scanned their new surroundings from within the underground tunnel before judging it safe to explore the outside.

"What's with this place?" Jessie asked noting the old looking structures.

"These look about as old as the traps in the forest," James commented.

"Hey, whut's that shiny thing ove' there?" Meowth pointed behind them, where a contrastingly new mechanical contraption was standing in the middle of the current area; a bright pillar of purple light was coming from it and going towards the sky.

"Is that what I think it is?" Jessie asked as she looked up.

"It looks like it is, Jessie," James answered, with a hand over his forehead as if to block the sun from his eyes.

"Well, ya know whut that means, right?"

All three of them grinned simultaneously, as they got exactly the same idea.

.:oOo:.

"That's it, Ash-Greninja! Keep it up!" yelled a very excited Bonnie after Greninja had jump in the air; -his double team at works;- to land neatly beside his trainer in eerily similar poses; the doubles finally vanishing.

"Pikaaa!" Pikachu yelled with equal enthusiasm.

"Bzzt-bzzzt! According to my data, that should not have been possible! Greninja does not have any further evolution known to date!" Rotom yelled in alarm, showing a confused smiley, before changing it for a frustrated one. "Ash, why is your Greninja going against all logic!?"

"Huh?" Kiawe asked not quite getting what had been said.

Ash and Greninja both scratched the back of their head and had the grace to look sheepish at the thought of causing the sentient PokéDex headaches and confusions... again.

"Sorry...?" Ash apologized, unsure if that was what Rotom was expecting him to do.

"Why is the Greninja even here?" Celosia complained as she returned her fainted Pokémon. "I thought you said it was left behind."

"That's what our intelligence agent reported," Mable shrugged. "How should I know?"

The odds had been drastically reversed in just a few seconds. Even if Team Flare's number were greater, the kids had managed to overpower them with just a few Pokémon. Mable had to wonder what they fed them with.

"Give it up, Team Flare! You messed with the wrong trainers!" Serena shouted confidently; already fired up by the new turn of events after Braixen knocked yet another Pokémon out of the battle.

"That's right! You, bad people are going down!" Mallow agreed.

Kiawe had to do a double take at his long time friend's cheerfulness. He would have expected Mallow to be a bit more wary of their situation, but she was taking it as if it was just another outdoors lesson from school. Not to mention, the lack of reaction at the seemingly impossible coordination between Ash and his water Pokémon. Even after a life of training and seeing Z-Moves in action, he had never seen anything like it. The both of them moved in total sync, as if they could read each other's thoughts, and Kiawe wondered if that was actually what was happening. During a close call where the blue-haired lady's Weavile graced Greninja's arm with a Metal Claw attack, he noticed both Pokémon and trainer flinching at the same time; as if Ash himself had been hurt. Sudden understanding wash down on Kiawe as that morning's video call came back to mind. What had been discussed then, made a lot of sense now.

"Turtonator…" he waited for his Pokémon to look at him in attention before continuing. "We are not going to be left behind. Let's show them our strength too!"

With a roar of agreement, Turtonator prepared his next attack…

.:oOo:.

Quite a few kilometers away, riding behind Lana in the back of a Sharpedo through the open sea, Sophocles was trying hard to distract his nerves by listening in to others' conversations, but when even the extremely unlikely but interesting story of one of the officers about seeing a mythical pink and black Pokémon passing by at blurring speed wasn't enough to calm him down, he started fidgeting as if in discomfort.

"Is there something wrong, Sophocles?" Lana asked him, noticing his constant twitching.

"N-No…" for all his efforts, Sophocles just wasn't good at hiding his emotions, and his friends were fast to notice he was lying.

"D-Don't worry, Sophocles! I-I know that r-riding these Pokémon is really an e-experience," Lillie told him from a ride beside theirs, where she was grabbing onto Professor Kukui's back for dear life. "B-But we'll be fine! T-This is nothing!"

"I-I'm not afraid of the ride!" Sophocles protested immediately. "R-Really, I'm not…"

"There is nothing wrong with being nervous," Kukui voiced with a patient smile. "Actually, I would fear for your emotional and mental health if you weren't."

Sophocles kept quiet for a few seconds, debating if he should share his thoughts, but reminding himself he still needed the distraction, he relented in hopes of finding comfort with the others' opinions.

"I just never thought… why would anyone want to take Mallow and Ash away from home like that?"

The group felt silent at his question; Kukui himself frowning in thought. When he had to explain to his students what had happened, he had gone into general details about the incident to avoid getting them too worried. He had refrained from telling them anything regarding Ash's possible familiarity with the criminals or how they probably were planning something world-threatening. It wasn't until they had arrived at the station and he had requested to speak with Officer Jenny in private, that he explained to her everything Ash's friends from Kalos had mentioned, including his own confusion as to why such a syndicate would go through the trouble of finding and going after his charge. The thought still unnerved him, and he couldn't ignore the dreading feeling in the pit of his stomach telling him that if they didn't rescue the kids on time, something really bad would happen to them.

"T-They must be feeling very scared right now…" Lillie's soft whispering got him out of his musings.

"Do you think they'll be okay, Professor?" Lana asked; her face uncharacteristically serious.

Kukui regarded her for a second before smiling confidently for all their sakes. "They will."

.:oOo:.

"They are getting overconfident. Perfect," Xerosic smiled turning on his gun-like creation.

"Is it time?" Aliana asked excitedly, not waiting for an answered before turning her own borrowed gun. "Finally! Now who should with test it with first?"

"I say we get rid of the flying bugs first," Bryony suggested.

"Agreed..."