This is everyone's favorite part of the story - the villain song. Unfortunately, we were running out of Disney villain songs to parody after 10 years of this. Luckily, I was willing to take the challenge of a crowd song. Or, more specifically, "The Mob Song" from Beauty and the Beast.

It was the moment Victor had waited for. The entire Galar region had waited for this moment, but Victor himself had wanted it for years, not just since getting his endorsement.

Stepping out to the field for the last time, he waved as the shrieking of his fans reached a pitch he'd never heard before. Waving at the crowd and almost laughing as they screamed in anticipation, he turned to face his opponent with a smile.

A smile that Leon matched. "Here we are, Victor," he said, the sound of his echoed voice silencing the crowd. "The strongest challenger of the year and the very man who endorsed him. One of us will fall today. The most I can promise is that we'll have a champion time." The crowd cheered again. "I'm ready. My Pokémon are ready. What about you, Victor?"

"We're more than ready," was the answer.

Leon laughed out loud. "Just what I was hoping to hear."

The two trainers started to head to their positions, both focusing more on the field than their surroundings as the ground beneath their feet began to shake. Both looked up as the enthusiastic cheers turned to hushed whispers of confusion, and the monitor above them turned to show the chairman's face.

Rose's hair was messy. His tie was half-undone as if he'd been pulling on it out of frustration or nerves. There were scorch marks in the background, and Oleana was running around with an extinguisher to put out the remnants.

Still, Rose put on a big smile for the cameras. "Greetings, Galar!" he said as if nothing had happened. "This is Chairman Rose speaking. I'm afraid I have a grave announcement to make." He fell silent. Oleana blasted the last flame, cackling madly. Rose ignored her. "Do you remember that light in the sky from when Victor Bradley won his place in the Champion tournament, and I said everything was fine? I lied to you. Everything is not fine. As a matter of fact, everything is the opposite of fine. We at Macro Cosmos were trying to harness the power of a legendary Pokémon in an attempt to create infinite energy, but all efforts to contain this power have failed. So, again, Chairman Rose." The smile vanished, and Rose turned serious. "Run."

Victor had expected a few different things when he won the chance to face Leon. He'd expected the toughest fight he'd ever had, and he'd hoped to emerge victorious.

He didn't expect to be shooed out by exploding pillars of red light. He didn't expect to meet up with Hop, Gloria, Sonia, and the Gym Leaders in the locker room.

And he certainly didn't expect the music.

But here they were, clustered together as they attempted to figure out what to do. Leon had called Rose to demand answers, and now everyone was singing.

It started with Rose. "It seems that freaky beast escaped."

"Now here comes eternal night," Leon continued as if the power of the forest gods themselves compelled him to turn it into a mob song.

Sonia, however, wasn't going to let him suffer this unusual situation alone. "All the Pokémon go bonkers when it shines its crimson light."

And then Hop jumped in. "The whole region is in havoc for as long as it is free."

And then Rose took over once again, and they could hear his regret even through song. "Galar's met its darkest day, and it's all because of me!"

Sonia pulled out a map, pinpointing places around Hammerlocke that were the most likely spots. "In legends lost long ago,

the one they locked away in shadows,

they tell tales of disaster and despair."

Leon stepped up behind her, almost looking over her shoulder at the map. "Now it's returned to throw a fit.

Because Rose poked it with a stick.

Its angered cries are heard from everywhere."

Oleana didn't hear the rest of the song, but she had her own part to play: "Eternatus is running wild, without question.

Now that monster is coming for us."

Rose stood up, thinking of how quickly things went wrong despite his careful preparations to contain it. "Things went wrong,

now we're done.

Tell the citizens to run!

Run for your lives!

Or meet demise!

It's Eternatus!"

He paused for a moment, mildly impressed that he'd actually said the name of the Pokémon without getting his tongue twisted. Then he heard another roar as the beast broke through the walls of Raihan's stadium and remembered the much more pressing issue.

Fortunately for the region, all of its Gym Leaders (and Marnie and Bede, who were apparently roped into replacing two of them) were ready to stand against the monster. Unfortunately for Victor, their battle planning was still in musical mode. "We unite, and we fight."

"We must stop this devastation," Leon added alone before the others kept going.

"We'll work as one to keep this foul beast at bay."

Opal, at least, seemed to be thoroughly enjoying this musical number, much to her apprentice's annoyance. "Through the dark, in the sky,

don't ask me, I don't know why,

but there's something lurking that you don't see every day."

"A dragon from the myths has awoken," Sonia interjected, "and its wrath will reduce us to dust."

Leon struck his signature pose, getting everyone's attention. "Now it's time for us to go

with our Pokémon in tow.

This whole thing's about to blow!"

"Hold on," Victor interrupted, getting the cheering and the Champion to quiet down. "Do we even have a plan for this?"

"The beast was kept in Hammerlocke," Leon stated, "at the plant."

"I figured that," said Victor. "But what can we do to stop it? Leon, you've seen it -"

"Briefly," Leon admitted. "And not well. It was angry and massive, and that's about all I could see."

"Then you're lucky I was studying the Darkest Day," Sonia declared, and pulled a notebook from her bag. It was wrinkled and stained with various sauces from her snacks, and her handwriting wasn't that good, but it was readable. "The sword and shield Pokémon were said to be found in the Slumbering Weald."

"The forest gods?" Hop asked, face scrunching in confusion.

"Stop," said Victor, as if that had any kind of effect on his friend.

Sonia rolled her eyes. "Fine, Zacian and Zamazenta - I found the names. Find them, and we'll regroup in Hammerlocke."

It was the best they had. Victor sighed dramatically and began his own solo. "I don't like that you all are still calling them the forest gods,

but they're our best hope since the danger has increased."

And as Sonia and the three friends prepared to go back to Postwick, they all joined in together. "Zamazenta, Zacian,

Finding them is how we win.

Let the final fight begin!

Defeat the beast!"

"I'll head out to Hammerlocke Stadium," Leon announced. "If that thing is still there, I'll try to restrain it."

Raihan looked to his friend as he flew away on his Charizard. "I know that your Pokémon are as strong as your drive," the gym leader said in his direction, keeping the rhythm of the song. "But, Leon, you better make it out alive."

Bede also looked to the skies, but he kept his eyes on the wild Pokémon that got caught in a wave of Dynamax energy and grew to dwarf the city. Releasing all of his Pokémon, he charged into battle on the back of his Rapidash and sang to the tune of the song. "Hearts ablaze, it's our time!

I have my fairies here to battle!

It's the only time we have to make this cease!"

Gloria rolled her eyes and sent out Ace, who took a moment to be thoroughly confused about the whole musical number before resuming his position as Gloria's seeing-eye lizard, watching in mild amusement as she got a part. "Well, we don't have very long,

so they should move it along.

We're about done with this song.

Stop the beast!"

"We'll never get there in time!" Hop complained, but Victor had an idea.

"We'll take a taxi," he said as he pressed the taxi service button on his phone.

They heard chants of "Stop the beast!" in the background, but all Hop and Gloria could think about was how stupid this whole idea was.

"Th world is ending," said Hop, trying to make sense of this whole situation, "and you want to fly through it?"

"It's much faster than walking," Victor pointed out.

"But it's devastation out there! We might die if we take a cab!"

"Yes," Victor agreed, "but if we walk, we will die.

There were three hums of debate, but it was once again Hop that spoke for the group. "Good point."

And as the four humans ran to catch a cab, the Inteleon leading the way and Snipe Shot-ing anything that blocked their path, the chanting turned into the end of the song without them even knowing.

Back in Postwick, a man was angrily banging on his TV set with a coffee mug while his wife watched with a bored expression on her face as if this had happened before. Ever since their daughter and her friends ran off to get rich and famous, they'd barely heard from her - they heard their pet Zigzagoon had evolved and that Gloria could afford to buy trainer supplies but preferred to run to the Wild Area to find them, and that she had a full team now.

Unfortunately, watching Victor and Hop in the tournament led to the Championship match being interrupted by a dark storm and the set being cut out.

"What have those children been up to?" the man grumbled to himself as the set flickered back to life.

"Do you really blame us for everything?" Gloria's voice asked, and he turned around to see her standing there with a playful scowl, theObstagoon behind her. "We were too busy with the tournament to get involved."

"Even you?" He matched her expression. "The boys, I understand, but you turned down the sponsorship."

Gloria's mock anger broke first. "I came to ask you to pass on a message. Victor and Hop are going into the Slumbering Weald to wake the forest gods and hopefully put a stop to this mess. Tell their families."

Her mother jumped to her feet. "The Slumbering -"

"I know," Gloria interrupted before she could finish the scolding. "But Sonia's been doing research and thinks this might be the answer. They've gone in there before to save a Wooloo. They'll make it."

She didn't fully believe herself. Her parents could tell. Especially when she said that she (and the Obstagoon) loved them and left to meet up with their friends and hopefully save the world.

Knowing that she couldn't stop her, Gloria's mother reached for the phone to call Victor's.

Victor: Dash (Cinderace) Corviknight, Drednaw, Excadrill, Fraxure, Grapploct

Gloria: Ace (Inteleon) Dishwasher (Obstagoon) Rogue (Thievul) Hattie (Hatterene) Harry (Grimmsnarl) Stabitha (Pawniard)