And now, serious plot.
As their taxi flew the group back to Hammerlocke, they were able to see giant Pokémon stomping around the wild areas and even some of the towns, and the closer they got to their destination, the worse it got. Water-type Pokémon outgrew the bodies of water they lived in, the ones on the land were trying to get as much nourishment as they could from the now comparatively smaller berries, and the more aggressive ones tried to take over any territory that they could. But the ones that probably suffered the most were all the Pokémon that weren't changed by the Darkest Day, just trying to survive.
Victor stuck his head out the window to look at the bird carrying them. "Can't this thing go any faster?!" he asked in frustration. Just then, another wave of red energy came through, and the Corviknight carrying them grew to a tremendous size. Gloria shot a glare at the surprised Victor, and she was able to deliver a slow clap before the bird's giant wings shot through the sky at breakneck speed. Once the bird was near its destination, it swooped down and dropped its passengers before flying off into the distance.
As they fell the rest of the way to the ground, Victor tossed out his own Corviknight to catch himself and Gloria. Hop, who left his own metallic bird in his PC because he didn't want to copy Victor, instead tossed out his Snorlax and landed on its belly with a bounce. Once they were all on the ground, Hop shot a death glare of his own. "Never," he said with malice dripping in his voice, "tempt fate again."
"No promises," Victor said as he waited for his own heart to stop racing.
After walking for a few minutes, they came across Raihan and Oleana in front of the tower. His hand was reassuringly on her shoulder, and her normally cold and emotionless face was instead warped from worry. "I feel like I did this to them," she said as they walked away from the stadium door.
"Well, you kind of did," he said in a failed attempt to be reassuring, assuming that he was even trying to. But when tears started streaming down her cheeks, he froze as he realized that he made a terrible mistake.
"What happened?" Gloria asked.
"My Pokémon suddenly Dynamaxed, so we locked them in the stadium," she said as she collected herself. "The champion better hurry up and fix this."
Victor pulled the rusted sword from his backpack to show the adults. "According to legends, Leon stands no chance without these relics."
"Look," Raihan said with a shake of his head. "Sonia made some impressive discoveries, but we're not sure if..." He paused for a moment as he realized that the group was missing a particular redhead. "Where's Sonia?" he asked dryly.
Hop rubbed the back of his head in secondhand embarrassment. "We told her about these old ruins in the Slumbering Weald that the ancient relics were resting in, and she elected to stay to find and study them," he said sheepishly.
Raihan rolled his eyes in annoyance. "Of course she did." He then pushed the thoughts of disappointment to the back of his mind to properly deal with the serious situation. "I'm sure you mean well, but I'm sure Leon's got this."
As if on cue, the group's attention was caught by the sound of a man screaming. Upon looking up, to their horror, they saw Leon falling from the sky as a blur of red light caught him while he was still rather high in the air. "I'm okay!" he shouted just before the creature threw him back up, and he briefly flew across the sky before being caught again. "I'm okay," he said again before being subjected to the torment once more. This time when he was caught, he managed to hold his arms to his face and stomach. "I'm gonna puke," he warned before being thrown one more time. But before the creature could catch him, his loyal Charizard swooped in to save him.
But the last flinging he experienced made him drop a round object down into the bushes. Oleana went to retrieve the object and recognized the Master Ball she gave him, and her face immediately dropped. "Never mind, we're doomed."
"See?" Hop yelped ecstatically. "We need to get up there and help Lee!"
"Well," Oleana said as she nervously bit her nail. "The roof can only be accessed with a special key card. Chairman Rose is the only one who has them. You'll have to go down to the bottom floor to get it from him."
Rose stood in front of what used to be the dark dragon's containment in the room where it all started and wondered how this could have happened. No, he knew how it happened, but he couldn't believe it came down to this. Sure, he had some capsules that were filled with stored energy from Eternatus, but at what cost? He thought himself to be Prometheus, but perhaps he was Icarus, flying too close to the sun.
"Chairman Rose," Victor called from behind him.
Rose turned to face the young boy standing across the room with his friends on either side of him, all of them looking determined. The man smirked, expecting their arrival. "So it's come to this," he said with a bit of reservation. "Vergil, Hugh, and Victoria."
The kids looked at each other in confusion before Gloria looked back at him. "You really are terrible with names, aren't you?" she asked.
The chairman crossed his arms and huffed. "That's hardly relevant now, isn't it?"
Victor took a few steps forward. "No. What's relevant is that you're a crazed up fruit loop who unleashed the Darkest Day on Galar."
Rose glowered at that one. "A fruit loop?" he asked coldly. "A fruit loop wouldn't have earned his way to becoming Chairman of the Pokémon League. A fruit loop wouldn't help make a random kid he met in Postwick the Champion of Galar just because his brother was getting on his nerves. A fruit loop wouldn't be able to capture and store the power of Eterna-tate-teth-ter-ta-ta..."
And he ran out of air before he could finish the sentence.
The group looked at each other in confusion once more. "What did he say?" Hop asked.
Gloria shrugged. "I don't know, but it deserves to be a meme."
"Enough!" Rose shouted. "You know I'm talking about the big dragon! The Champion is going to catch it. And I'll be ready next time so I can-"
"You're going to do this again?!" Victor interrupted. His fists tightened, and his face contorted into one of frustration and anger. "Do you ever learn?!"
"Not easily," Rose admitted.
Hop got even closer to him "I know you want to do good, but this isn't good. You need to stop."
Rose sighed and finally looked directly at the children. His eyes seemed more pleading this time. "You can't stop me," he said with a voice that showed slight sorrow. "It means too much to me."
"Not as much as it means to me," Victor said as he closed the gap and brought out a Pokeball.
The chairman's eyes narrowed at the challenge. "So be it," he said as he brought out a Pokeball of his own.
Then Gloria got between them. "Hi," she said quickly as she brought out a Master Ball. "Sorry to interrupt, but Leon needs this if he's going to catch it, so can I go up to give this to him?"
Rose raised an eyebrow. "Do you have delusions of playing hero too?"
"No. They're the ones who have the forest gods on their side."
"Here you go," he said as he gave her the keycard without hesitation. She then took the elevator to the roof and let Victor and Rose fight it out.
Rose was prepared to fight with his Steel-type team, but that ended up meaning nothing to the boy, who immediately brought out his Cinderace. Not even the Gigantamax Copperajah could withstand Dash's Max Flare for too long. Rose gasped at how easily he was beaten as the champion wannabe stood behind his unfazed Pokémon.
"You didn't prepare for Fire-type moves?" Victor asked, confused.
"It's been a while," Rose said defensively. "I've been so busy that I haven't battled in years."
"Maybe that's the problem," Hop said. "You're trying to save a world you've been detached from."
Rose sighed in defeat as he took something from his pocket. "You're right," he said solemnly as he tossed the second keycard to the floor between them. "Go on and save the world."
When Gloria got to the rooftop, she was greeted with the sight of the Champion and his Charizard puking into garbage cans from fatigue and vertigo. And right across from them was a large red and purple creature that looked like a five horned draconic skeleton. A glowing red light shined in its chest as well. It quickly got closer to the Champion. It grabbed the two figures and held them down as it opened its mouth and began to drain the power of his Dynamax band and consume it.
Gloria instinctively brought out Ace to the field and ordered him repeatedly to use Snipe Shot to get it away from her friend. "Shoo, dragon, shoo," she shouted as it was sprayed. "Bad. Bad dragon." Eternatus backed up a bit to avoid being sprayed again, and Gloria ran to Leon's side. "Are you all right?"
Leon rubbed his head as he slowly stood up. "Yeah, I'm fine," he said with a slightly dazed look. "How's the other guy?"
The dragon then circled back and took a deep breath, and the light in its chest flashed brighter. "Big," Gloria said simply as she stared at it. The light then shot out of its mouth and struck the Inteleon that stood between it and the humans, and Ace felt the effects of the strong attack. "And strong," Gloria said in shock.
Leon grabbed her hand and looked her in the eye. "Get out of here. I can handle this."
"No. You're in no condition to keep fighting."
Leon laughed and brought out a Pokeball. "Who said anything about fighting?"
"Wait!" Gloria shouted, but it was too late. He threw the ball, and Eternatus was sucked into the orb.
It shook once.
Leon held Gloria back with his arm to keep her back.
It shook again.
The Charizard leapt between the people and the ball, and the contraption exploded, and Charizard was knocked back by the impact. Leon rushed over to help his Pokémon partner, and Gloria looked to check on her own.
Ace looked at the dragon and looked back to his trainer with a nod. Gloria nodded back, and they both turned to face the dragon. Knowing that he was still recovering from the blast, she ordered him to use a U-turn attack that hit Eternatus in the face before Hattie was sent onto the field. Though Eternatus's Cross Poison attack made her regret that a bit, Hattie was able to use a Psycho Cut attack to severely weaken the monster before another Cross Poison brought her down.
Dishwasher was then brought to the field but was too slow to avoid its Dragon Pulse attack. The Obstagoon was still well enough to attack with Snarl, and he braced himself for retaliation. But when the dragon didn't move, the words of Zacian rang in her ear. "All you need is to stand up when needed." She took a deep breath, raised the Masterball she inadvertently stole from Leon, and then...
"Lee!" Hop shouted when the elevator door opened.
"Gloria!" Victor shouted just after.
The two boys ran to the people they called out for but stopped for a second when their bands started to glow along with Gloria's, and the energy flew across the makeshift arena and into the mouth of Eternatus. Afterward, the light in its chest shined a blinding light that took over the area. When it cleared, they all dropped their jaws when they saw that the already massive dragon into an impossibly huge beast that took the form of a giant hand attached to an extremely long arm that led up into the sky, and at the top was a core of light that was about as long in diameter as the tower itself. Not even Leon could measure up to its thumbnail, or perhaps it was a head.
Gloria was so intimidated, that she dropped the Masterball and stepped back. "Is there any chance that you two could step in on this one since I don't have an ancient weapon?"
The boys nodded as Hop released Dubwool and Victor released Corviknight. As they attempted to use their Dynamax bands, however, they were shocked to learn that they didn't work. Hop's eyes widened in realization. "This thing took all our Dynamax power!"
"We'll have to fight anyway," Victor insisted. "Corviknight, use Steel Wing!" he ordered, but the bird was too intimidated to move. Victor couldn't blame it since he felt that oppression himself. Eternatus responded in kind with a Max Flare that took the bird down in one hit.
Hop was experiencing similar problems, and the Dubwool was taken out by a Max Whirlwind. While Victor thought it was an appropriate punishment for using a sheep to fight a death god, he knew this was bad. Hop took out his rusted shield and looked to his friend to do the same. "This better work."
In the Slumbering Weald, Sonia was able to find the ruins and was fortunate enough to witness two rocks just beyond the shrine shine with bright lights and reveal the forms of the legendary wolves, who then took off to the skies.
The scientist was in awe for a few moments, but she was able to collect enough composure to snap out of it. "That was totally wicked!" she shouted as he proved that she didn't have that much composure to begin with, and then walked through the shallow water to investigate where the rocks once stood.
As the ancient weapons glowed bright, they came together as the Pokémon they were bonded to arrive at the scene. There, the light of the weapons was cast on the wolves, and they were transformed. Zacian's braids became undone as some of the fur on her back was warped to resemble a pair of wings, and the fur on her forehead resembled a crown. The ancient sword grew giant and gleamed a shining gold in her teeth. Meanwhile, the shield morphed into Zamazenta's mane and puffed out to resemble a red and gold shield. The duo was ready to repeat history.
The Pokémon and the trainers nodded as they turned to face their foe, the boys releasing the Pokémon that Leon gave them. Zacian was able to raise their attack power, and Zamazenta raised their defense, but the thing that really made them feel invincible was the fact that the oppression from the dragon was gone. It was clear that their foe recognized their allies and remembered their last encounter. Eternatus was afraid of them.
Dash was first to hit with a Pyro Ball, and Hop followed suit with a Drum Beating. Eternatus launched a Max Flare, but instead of hitting Jojo, it hit Zacian, which was able to withstand it with her newly raised defense. She then responded with a special move that caused her sword to grow even more and glow a bright blue as she jumped toward her foe. They saw her slash it once, but then she slashed it seven more times in the blink of an eye.
Zamazenta then glowed red as his fur came together to form an impenetrable barrier around his head before Charging right into it, and the two trainers were set up to attack it more. This time, Eternatus used a Max Flare to attack Zamazenta, who was more than ready to endure it. One more round of the heroes' attacks, and the beast was able to fight no more.
"Now's our chance to catch it!" Hop yelled. "We can end this darkest day now!"
Gloria then ran up to rejoin the group, Master Ball in hand. "And for good measure..." Gloria finished the sentence by throwing the ball at the beast, and it began to absorb the overwhelming amount of Dynamax energy surrounding the Pokémon and began to grow. It opened and began to use immense force to suck the Pokémon in, even pushing all the excess energy out of it. Finally, the ball closed with Eternatus inside. It shook once, twice... and it clicked shut with the ball shrinking back to normal, and the fight was over.
Victor: Dash (Cinderace) Corviknight, Drednaw, Excadrill, Fraxure, Grapploct
Gloria: Ace (Inteleon) Dishwasher (Obstagoon) Rogue (Thievul) Hattie (Hatterene) Harry (Grimmsnarl) Stabitha (Pawniard)