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(Please read this chapter while listening to action music! It's a long read, so get comfy!)
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The day the world went away
I'd listen to the words he'd say
but in his voice I heard decay
the plastic face forced to portray
all the insides left cold and gray
there is a place that still remains
it eats the fear it eats the pain
the sweetest price he'll have to pay
the day the whole world went away.
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By the time the planet's defense satellites detected the approaching Eclipse fleet, it was already too late to stop its path. The gargantuan war vessels rushed past the meager capture nets and hailing probes, heading toward the lower atmosphere.
Cypress and Emrett transmitted more orders, in full control of the small army of combat robots in each frigate. Each vessel, unless otherwise commanded, was to reach a single city and raze it to dust. The two Eclipse Lords would emerge from the ashes, and establish the New Eclipse Order under Eternatus's leadership. With the remnants of the Association fleet in Galar, there would be nothing to stop the duo from taking control of the world by force.
Millions would die, yes, but some cities would have to be occupied, their populations spared. Industry would start again, and civilization would progress under the careful guiding hand of a higher will. Bronze Tercano was a risk, but what could a few Association frigates do against such an unstoppable fleet?
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Goldenrod City, Goldenrod Radio Tower
Catcher: PRELUDE
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Crystal was shuffling through papers, registering forms, doing the grunt work for the Association's legislative machine. Even with her position as Johtoian Professor of Pokemon, she still found herself doing the jobs of Tercano's lackeys. And at my age, too!
She heard a roaring from outside the tower, a great, cumbersome boom, and the scream of rapid atmospheric descent. She sent out her Parasect, and stood to take a look outside. "Parasee, let's check what's going on out there."
What she saw shocked her. Three gargantuan battleships slowed from midair descent, and hovered above the city. She heard screaming, shouting, saw crowds of people gathering to see the trio of strange arrivals. On the grey hulls of the war vessels, bristling with armament, was the insignia of an organization that she only faintly remembered. The Eclipse Alliance.
The frigates pointed their noses toward Goldenrod Radio Tower, and fired alternating blasts of energy at its base. Craters of smoldering fire destroyed roads, burnt gardens, and collapsed buildings. More screaming.
No more of this! Crystal thought. I have to fight, somehow. Wait, the Radio Tower!
Her Pokemon were not strong enough to destroy the vessels by themselves, but she could warn people in the surrounding region and contact the Association through Goldenrod's radio airwaves! She turned, limping toward the control room through the alarm-filled halls.
As she neared the maintenance door, executive keycard in her hand, she heard more blasts, but this time nearer to the tower. The rumbling of smaller craft reached her ears, closer and closer. She had to run as fast as her old legs could carry her.
She opened the metal door, found the director of the radio tower stooped over. "Fue!" she yelled. "Get a warning out, anything to make people know something about those warships!"
"Already on it," he said, reaching for the radio controls. "Just need to get us online to the Association network."
The roof collapsed with an explosion from aloft. Crystal turned, and sent out her Arcanine, but the thing that dropped into the control room was too quick for even Archy's strikes. It was a flowmetal robot, covered in spines and glistening pincers, a nightmare out of a Galarian child's dream. It extended a limp arm, which suddenly grew pointed claws. It stabbed the director, blood blossoming on his clothes.
The fighting mech dropped the body, and two more escorts entered the roof, scuttling over the ceiling. Crystal tried to run, but the thing grabbed her, holding her up high. Archy bit its leg, but the flowmetal bot kicked it away. "Ah, dear Crystal..." it rasped, in a horribly human voice. "Unfortunately, I was not able to meet you in person, but time will tell. How old you've gotten! Well, you look far younger than your actual age..."
"Let go of me, mechanical monster!" Crystal yelled. "Or kill me and get it over with!"
"Oh, I will kill you," the mech said. "But not before you know who I am. I am Jonathan Rowell Cypress, returned from the grave! Now, before everyone in this city gets a helping of the wrath of God, I'll need to broadcast a message worldwide. This is the first city we will attack, although the others are on their way. Now, where was I?"
The mech dropped her on Cypress's orders from afar, and lumbered over the radio control panel. It was active now. He put on the holofeed function with a bulky finger, and then summoned a holographic image of Cypress, perfect down to the micropixel. The image took one step closer to the camera, forcing it to refocus. He looked directly into the lens.
...
"My dear subjects," he began. "I am Jonathan Rowell Cypress, the Lord of the Eclipse Alliance. Recently resurrected by the Elohim Eternatus which your brutal mockery of a Chairman, Bronze Tercano, tried to wantonly destroy, I must say that any followers of mine that still remain, and those who wish to join us...we've had quite a long fifty-two years, haven't we?" Now he sneered, sarcastic. "I was deeply touched when I heard the reports of the millions of celebrations that occurred when I died, and at my pauper's funeral in the Distortion World. The outpouring of emotion was no less encouraging to me. Thankfully, that was not my true last hurrah.
"As you know and as I see, there are still major pockets of resistance in this world to my goal of peace and harmony for all, Man and Pokemon. There are even those nowadays that have made a career out of saying the most hurtful, blasphemous, and false statements about me, using terms for me that no person would ever want to be called." His voice went quiet. "Chairman Bronze Tercano, know that your world as you know it is on the cusp of coming to an end."
"I believe, with the usage of this recently obtained fleet, that you will see today what I am and what...I...am...not. You will do well to follow your hands and your hearts and follow me into the New World Order. You will know what you will see, and your eyes cannot lie. I am also eager to welcome into the one world community any former devotees of radical religions such as the barbaric and unforgiving Rorian Orthodoxy, which has long oppressed the world. On the contrary, I might be the very Messiah and object of devotion of their own religion, so I pray that they will seek sanity.
"In closing let me speak directly to the opposition. I have always, without rancor or acrimony, allowed divergent views in my organization, as long as they do not promote intolerance or insubordination. There are those of you still living, however, that in the past referred overtly to me as the 'Antichrist' and that period of history as the 'Tribulation.' You may take the following as my own personal pledge:
"If you insist on continuing your subversive attacks on my character and the world harmony I will usher in and have worked so hard to engender, the word tribulation will not even begin to describe what is in store for you. If my last campaign fifty-two years ago was your idea of tribulation and trial, wait until you endure the Great Tribulation."
...
The mech turned the transmission off. "Fire. Proceed with full-scale bombardment."
Crystal screamed, and one of the combat mechs guarding her activated a pulse baton. "Quiet. You are interfering with the admin's directive."
Archy and Parasee grabbed the necks of both robots from behind, crushed them. Crystal sent out her other Pokemon, but the Cypress-avatar had already crawled away through the hole it had blasted into the roof. Now, the noise of explosions came from all directions...under her.
Crystal had Natee grab her shoulders, and flew, with the others stored in her Poke Balls, into the air. Goldenrod Radio Tower sagged, lost integrity, and collapsed into the city. Fires were breaking out as the vessels went on the warpath. There was nothing to do but watch and scream.
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Lumiose City
Flyer: SKYFALL
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Y heard and saw the holomessage, and saw the ten flying battleships arrive over Lumiose City. "Come on! We aren't going to let those things destroy this city!" she called to the security forces. Being an Association piolet paid well, but in Kalos, mingling with the bulk of the Rorian forces that had led the attack on Macro Cosmos was looked down upon. Y had not participated in the assault, rather, she decided to stay in Lumiose. "Everyone, get your Pokemon, skycopters, wingsuits!"
The dozen-strong 'copter fleet lifted off from the police headquarters, flanked by hundreds of winged-suited trainees and soldiers. Y led the charge, knowing that although the vessels were large, they could be destroyed by a concentrated attack on the engines. Somehow, however, they would have to be moved away from the city...
An aerial battle. Perfect.
Before Y could fully formulate the plan and give orders to the contingent under her command, strange silvery dots spilled out of the distant vessel's hulls, racing over the gabled roofs of Lumiose. Y adjusted her paragoggles, and saw that fast-moving machine craft were approaching by the hundreds. "Damn! Clankers! Repeat, no Pokemon! Break through, break through!"
The two forces collided, and the battle was a bloody one. Hyper Beams from the Kalos City Gaurd from the air and on the ground destroyed automated Eclipse craft by the dozens, but more kept coming, firing pulse blasts. Vivillon and Talonflame could stand against a beam or two, but human fighters in wingsuits and at surface level were destroyed. A skycopter blew, raining firey debris on the city below.
Y saw that the wingsuit fighters were being slaughtered. She swooped low, had her Fletchinder destroy a machine craft, and landed in the open cabin of a skycopter. She grabbed a mobile plasma howitzer from a terrified soldier, and shot a burst at one of the frigates, now near enough to fire on. The blast collided with the hull, shivering the vessel.
Then, ports on the sides of the ten warcraft opened. Beams of glowing orange light shot out into the city. Through the tattered smoke, Y watched hundreds of high-energy thermal bombs go off, blazing flashes and thunderclaps over Lumiose, vaporizing buildings, people, and Pokemon. For blocks upon blocks, even stone melted. Steel turned to ash. Glass vaporized. Nothing could survive.
The skycopter banked up, beyond the city limits at incredible speed. "We need to get back to defend the city!" Y ordered, confused. "Why are we leaving?"
"Ma'am, Pokedex Holder," the pilot said from the cockpit. "We can't."
"Why not?
"There is no Lumiose City, Pokedex Holder."
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Vaniville Town
Loner: FAMILY BOND
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X was feeling his age. Although only the same age as the Grand Bashar, the life-extension treatment offered to him by Bronze hadn't yet prolonged his healthspan. Still, he knew that more days with Emma were to come, in Vaniville Town, away from trouble or war or Jihad. He had escaped his own terrible purpose.
Until the holomessage blared over every Omninet-connected device in the town, until the single warship came.
The blasts followed quickly enough. Buildings turned to slag. Blasts uprooted trees and cars. Wrath came from skies! The screaming! The noise! Where was Emma? He wanted to crawl up in some dark hole, forget his name, forget his peril...
No. He would fight. At this hour of doom, he would not shy away from protecting his family!
He steeled his gaze, and sent out Salamè. The Mega Evolution occurred like a sudden metamorphosis, second nature to him now. He flew to the gunship's prow, high above the burning town. He would have to get the vessel away from the town, but how? The smell of ball lightning was everywhere.
"Rute! Kanga! Marisso!" X yelled, floating around the gunship's rear. "Attack the engines! Push the ship away from the town!"
X's Pokemon grabbed onto the blazing aft furnaces, broke them. One giant engine went dark. Rear turrets fired, to little effect. The frigate groaned, and moved away from the battered town, its shadow now covering the surrounding hills. This was the chance, the golden moment. "Now! Attack with everything you have!"
His Pokemon sent a massive gout of energy into the vessel's fusion reactor. The engines blazed blue, then shut off. Chain reactions tore through the robot warcraft as surge protectors failed and fuel tanks burst. X sent back his Pokemon, sparing them from the ruin of the doomed frigate. Shards of razor-sharp metal whined through the air and embedded themself in the ground. Explosions louder than anything X had ever heard incinerated forests and berry orchards.
Still, the threat was gone. At least, until another warship arrived. X turned, and flew back to the city. He had to see if Emma was okay.
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Ecruteak City
Exchanger: SHADOW WAR
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Silver crouched atop the Bell Tower, seeing the sunset rays turn all of Ecruteak City to golden glass. He would rest here, sometimes, resting from his crime-fighting work. With Team Rocket gone and disbanded long ago, Silver vowed to continue his crusade against evil, even in advanced age. The life-extension treatment had brought him another fifty years, and thirty in good health. Although in his eighties, Silver looked younger than Bronze.
Terrible purpose? Or something else? I cannot tell what is aging him. He had the same treatment as me.
The vessels arrived after Cypress's sudden speech. Silver flew on his Honchkrow, seeing the three gunships. They fired their thermal bombs, and then Silver realized that he was too late to save the city.
Too late.
The Bell Tower collapsed in the heatwave, with Silver a dangling speck over the raging inferno. The woods by Mount Mortar shriveled into charcoal, the fires only stopped near the western coasts. Morty, ever the survivor with his psychic life extension techniques, surely would have perished with his Gym. The hallowed remains of the Burned Tower were incinerated for a second time, never to be rebuilt again.
Silver screamed, and rushed at the cadre of frigates. He sent out his Pokemon on one of the ship's hull, tearing it apart with devastating attacks. The flaming ruin crushed the charred remains of the city further, but Silver knew that anyone it could have already hurt were dead. Dead because he couldn't have acted quicker.
A pulse blast from one of the remaining vessel's turrets locked onto Silver's suspended figure, fired. Honchkrow fell down, and Silver saw the blazing inferno of Heol below him.
It had to end this way?
He felt a thud, then a metallic sheen against his exposed skin. Something was carrying him in a cradle-like object, far, far away. Whatever that something was, Silver didn't care. He just wanted to howl.
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Pallet Town
Fighter: RESURGENCE
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When he returned from his solitary hunt in the ridges surrounding Pallet Town, Red saw greasy pillars of unexpected smoke curling into the sky, and two black bulks hovering above the town. The thick plumes rose from the hamlet and the surrounding farmlands, where his family and friends lived.
He began to run.
Red had spent five days away from his country home, his wife, extended family, and neighbors. He liked to hunt and catch Spearow, or for food, genetically modified gornet birds, one of which could feed a family for more than a week. Gornets, an offshoot of nonsentient turkey, lived high in the dry Kantoian ridges, away from the fertile settled plain, and loved to dive for shelter into the razor-sharp thornbriars.
More than the hunt itself, though, Red enjoyed the solitude, a chance to feel quiet and peaceful inside. Even alone in the wilderness, he could draw upon a lifetime of personal memories, relationships formed and lost, things to regret and things to celebrate...friends, loves, and enemies—all reflected in the same person, over the course of time. His wife, Marlena, had lived decades in happy contentment with him; they had a large family—children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.
Now, however, he saw the fields and buildings of Pallet Town besmirched by orange and black scars, sent from heaven above by the two looming frigates. Buildings lay blasted in the sunset, and bodies littered the streets. Three smaller landing craft had landed in the town square: not attack craft, but blunt, torpedo-shaped vessels designed to hold cargo or personnel. A raiding party! From where? Roria?
The outbuildings around his home were aflame; the small town hall was an inferno. Too late! Too late! He knew all these people, connected by bonds of blood, marriage, or friendship. Now there was nothing he could do but exact revenge.
He sent out Snor, and charged at one raiding ship. The metal hull crumbled in the Snorlax's strong arms, annihilated. The Pokemon lifted the wreckage and threw it at another ship, which exploded into fulgent fire. Red would have to fight the frigates in the air on Aero once he destroyed the ground pods.
Red heard a shot like fizzling meat, and pitched forward onto the ground, stunned. Protected by ray shields, six combat mechs had descended from the remaining shuttle, firing chandler-pistol blasts at everything that moved. The largest one stooped over Red in a curiously human motion, chuckling. The mech grabbed his neck, sent Snor back to its Poke Ball, and forced Red to look at the devastation.
"Look at your town, Fighter," the mech said. "I am Jonathan Rowell Cypress, returned from beyond the grave. See how I control this metal body! You are late in your arrival, Red. See that all your work is reduced to folly and ashes!"
The Cypress-mech pointed a finger at a statue of Samuel Oak, soot-stained in front of the ruined town hall. "You set that up after the old man died a few decades ago, I presume. What a waste of space, honoring the dead!" The mech lumbered over, and crushed the statue's base of support. It then projected a holographic image of Cypress where Oak had been, standing with his hand outstreched over the ruined town. "Much better."
Red cursed, but the Cypress mech gripped his neck as a warning. "No talking while the teacher's speaking. Count yourself lucky, Pokedex Holder. Dear Mbelekoro, it's terrible to see you old...but know that I could have dropped thermal bombs on Pallet Town and annihilated it instantly. Keeping this town somewhat intact is a purely psychological victory. I want you alive, for now."
The mech dropped him, but only after snagging his Poke Ball belt and throwing it into the ruins of a building. "Go fetch."
Cypress then tossed Red away, and boarded the remaining shuttle. Black exhaust belched from engine ports, rising into the mothership's open hull. Smoke and soot stained the air in its wake.
And Pallet Town continued to burn.
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Anthien City
Calmer: PROPHET
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"By the process of directing a system, as in a Pokemon battle, the Will requires a modicum of sentience. However, only sentience can be determined by these actions. As such, when you set the universe in motion, you become sentient...what is that noise?"
A soft hiss like an echo reached Emerald's ears, but only then he saw the vessels above Anthien. Already, people were breaking away from the crowd that had flocked to his ministry, running for cover from the quintet of frigates. Automated turrets and war-Pokemon were already being deployed to fight off the hostile warcraft, with the Anthien City Guard reaching their skycopters to take the battle into the air.
"Follow me, my flock!" Emerald shouted, holding a crystal dagger high, sending out Sceptile. "Fight against the machines under my command! Leave not a single craft intact! Scorch them with the righteous fury of the Rorian Jihad!"
Robot ships went down, one after the other. Pulse-bombardments hit buildings, but were mostly absorbed by ray shields. Anthien City, being in an incredibly dangerous geographical position, was prepared for nearly any kind of assault. The city had endured hardship, and would not be captured or destroyed so easily. The five frigates were too few to overcome the defenses.
The final vessel vomited a glowing orb from its hull before falling beyond the city borders: a thermal bomb. Shields knocked bits of flaming energy off of its bulk, but it landed in the central square, picking up a terracotta glow that shrouded the setting sun in a yellow light.
"Thermal bomb! J-rays!" someone screamed.
"J-rays!" The cry was heard all around Emerald. "I don't want to go blind! Grand Bashar, save us!"
Now a pillar of fire stood where Anthien Central Square had been, a blinding jet roaring at the heavens. It gave off a dirty brilliance that threw into sharp clarity the ballet movements of fleeing people and Pokemon, the dipping movements of retreating skycopters. For every member of this frantic throng, it was too late.
Because it was required of him to spare his eyesight from the radioactive J-rays, Emerald threw an arm over his face and pulled his hood low. People now threw themselves on the ground, knowing that there was no longer any point in running. The damage had been done: they would go blind, their eyes corroding in their sockets.
"Oh, Arceus...a thermal burner..." someone whimpered. "I...don't...want...to...be...blind."
"Who does?" said the harsh voice of a Rorian Commando far down the street. "You can get metal eyes from the Unovans for a few thousand units! Now shut up and wait!"
Emerald remained silent, thinking about what this weapon entailed. Although the flame-dispersion characteristic had been dulled by the shields above the city, it would cut its way into the hypermatter energy core within the square. Such pressures released and out of control would split the flying city in two, scattering lifeless bits and pieces into the sea below.
"The thing's digging deeper," a Rorian yelled, hearing the sibilance of the burner become fainter and fainter. "Don't worry, the skycopters will send help! Do you have any Water-types?"
"Here."
"Got some."
"A Feraligator."
"My eyes! My eyes!" someone screamed. "I can't see!"
"Thermal burners...I can't believe they used atomics!"
"Bah! Thermal burners aren't atomics, fool. They just skirt the edges of the law enough. But who attacked us? And why should they care about regulations?"
"The ground's getting hotter!" Emerald cried. "Hold fast! Those of you that can still see must command your Pokemon to attack the thermal burner and extinguish it!" He heard the thwack-thwack of 'copter wings above. The sound of hurrying feet picked up, and soon a few dozen Water and Ground-type Pokemon were arrayed around the glowing pit where the thermal bomb had dug its way into the city.
Emerald lifted his arm from his eyes, and found that he could see, although his vision was dim. He saw the great fury of the Water-type attacks as they extinguished the delving burner, turning it into a black oil slick. "It's ended!" he cried to the swooping 'copters. "Get down there and rescue the ones that were closest to it! Put up barriers!"
The Preacher stood, and strode down the street to where the victorious soldiers and citizens cheered, seeing the gunships crash into the waves far below on watcheye cams. "Don't become complacent!" Emerald warned, drawing attention with his booming voice. "Another attack could be coming! In the name of the Grand Bashar, Anthien shall not fall to an outside force! We remain the Free Men of Roria as long as this city stands!"
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Berlitz Manor
Understander/Determiner/Empathizer
REVENGE IS FOR CHILDREN
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A frigate hovered over Sandgem Town, and an asteroid-rain of inert armored projectiles shot like lighting from its storage hull into the city and surrounding countryside, including the manor garden. With defeating thunder, the projectiles flattened trees and buildings. But sophisticated kinetic absorption technology protected the deadly cargo within.
Diamond, running out of the back entrance, saw a mechanical fighting mech tear off charred ablation shielding. Mobility systems restarted; arms and legs clicked into place. The robot gladiators lurched out of their drop carriages, dozens at a time. Sandgem Town was awash with flames in the dusk, and screams. A warrior-mech saw two manor guards riding Fearow, tipped back and shot both out of the sky with an arm cannon, then moved on, eerily graceful.
A splendid walker robot, far larger than the six others that accompanied it, gestured with a sharp flowmetal finger at the entrance to Berlitz Manor. "Follow me, loyal servants! There lies the Pokedex Holders Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum! Leave none alive...ah, no, spare one. Preferably the woman. But only one!"
"Are you seeing this?" Wilhem said in the dining room, his eyes wide. "Who's attacking? Is Cypress really back like the broadcast said? What are we going to do?"
"I can't answer your questions," Pearl said, opening a hatch behind a spruce cabinet that he had cast aside. "We have to get out of the manor. These tunnels were made during the War of Succession a few hundred years back: they'll lead you right into the far countryside, to the old Hisuian chapel down south. Go!"
Platinum activated the house ray shields from her bedroom control panel, and then ran back to the escape tunnel to see Wilhem and Pearl vanishing down it, with Diamond already far down the tunnel. "Come on, love! There isn't much time!"
With a clanging sound like an impacting torpedo, a robot burst through the wall to her left, surrounded by the red ozone of a failing ray shield. The morphing end of an arm shaft suddenly sprouted clawlike fingers, grabbed the dining table and threw it atop Platinum, pinning her down, cutting and bruising her. Trapped.
"Heh..." the large robot said, in a definitively organic voice from a speakpatch. "Wonderous, radio control, isn't it? I won't kill you quite yet, or else I won't have anything to show to Cypress. He asked for a Sinnosuian Pokedex Holder to keep for himself. You will do nicely."
He stretched out a grappling arm and lifted her up by the wrist from under the table, studying her face with glittering optic receptors. "Oh, so lovely. Even after fifty-two years of death, I can still appreciate beauty. It's a shame that I am not here in person to show my full appreciation." His sensors glinted cruelly. "I am Emrett. It's a shame that you'll solely be Cypress'. For your sake, I hope he finds you interesting."
"What do you mean?" Platinum rasped.
"Oh, did I forget to mention?" Emrett said. "Cypress has a set of laboratories, ones where he can do some...interesting...things."
The pause was what saved her. A Chatot struck Emrett's metal arm, while a Torterra slammed into the mech's servo with a mighty Wood Hammer. Platinum fell to the ground, and managed to send out her own Pokemon. Emrett converted his flowmetal arm into a harpoon to skewer his foes, but he wasn't quick enough.
In a lightning flash, Empoleon froze Emrett's silvery body, then cut off his head with a single ironclad swipe. "That was for Sandgem Town!"
Pearl grabbed her, and held Platinum close as they went down the tunnel. Empoleon dragged the deactivated warrior-mech over the exit hatch, hoping to prevent any more unwelcome visitors. The sounds of chaos and the manor falling into ruins echoed through the small passage, but they were safe. For now.
"What do we do now?" Wilhem asked in the dark, voice quavering.
"We run, until we can get some long-term transportation," Diamond said.
"Why?" Pearl asked. "Where would we go to escape this fleet?"
"Galar. Bronze has got his armies there. With the resources they have, our enemies won't waste it all on just one town. This is a worldwide assault. Where the weapons are, the safety is."
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Wedgehurst
Breeder: THE RORIAN JIHAD
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Gold was stationed in Wedgehurst, assisting with cleanup efforts in the devastated city, when the attack happened.
With a clatter like a metal hailstorm, hundreds of drop pods came down from the gunship's hull, landing on the earth when the bombardment began, dispersing mechs. "Damn, rollies!" Gold shouted to the other soldiers around him, readying his pool cue with Exbo's Poke Ball at its tip. "Go for the eyes!"
The Rorian soldiers charged, shouting with lusty cries as they crawled up the bewildered combat mechs, smashing their heads in with whatever instruments they could. "For Arceus and Saint Tercano! Courage is our creed!"
The mechs fell quickly, and Gold saw another sight from above: seven ray-shielded Association vessels, training their guns on the single frigate. The onslaught was quick, and soon the unshielded and relatively antique warship was a pile of glistening shards on the surrounding hills. A Commando assistant by the name of Ganarim waved his sword high, shouting praises. "Grand Bashar! The Grand Bashar has saved us! But why have we been attacked?"
"No, those ships saved us," Gold said. "I don't see Tercano anywhere. Whoever sent that ship likely has more to spare if they bothered to go after this backwater place." He poked a fallen mech with his pool cue, seeing Exbo happily tearing out its circuited innards. He breathed, seeing that the chaos of the sudden attack was settling down.
"Ganarim, that's the name, right? Did you participate in the Jihad years ago?"
The Commando stared, looking at Gold with the distrust that Rorians reserved for outsiders. One who had participated in the religiously motivated holy war years ago might be less than willing to divulge the details of what he had done. "Perhaps. Will talk suffice?"
"Yes, thrice may you be blessed," Gold said in the Rorian fashion, sitting down on the grass and watching Pokemon medical teams care for the injured. "Now, I must ask you something that may stir your soul. What do you and your cohorts feel about the Rorian Jihad? Do you now have second thoughts about making a Messiah out of your leader?"
"Ah, most of them don't even consider if it was right or wrong now," Ganarim said, with surprising candor. "They were trained to believe, not to think. I've thought a little, though. I thought of the Jihad as most of them thought of it: a source of strange adventures, experiences, justice, and wealth. I knew many things but did not have to think about them."
He lowered his head, stared across the open town, still smoking with plasma fires. "I had no thoughts in my head when I set out and put men and woman and children on my blade. I only had thoughts in my heart and belly and loins."
"Do you know why I enlisted?" Ganarim said, eyes boring into Gold. "I heard there was a Pokemon called Lapras. I had never seen one. Yet, men I knew had said they saw one. I thought they may have told falsehoods, but that is the reason I joined."
"Lapras are real," Gold said. "I've seen one. Did you find yours?"
Ganarim was silent for a moment, and then spoke. "There was a sunset over the sea in Unova...near a place called Undella, where I led my legions to victory. I saw the bay. The air was sick with water when one of my soldiers pointed to a Lapras in the sea-guard. There it was, as wonderful as the eye could see. Some of us thought that it was holy ground. They drank the water and became sick, for it was bitter."
Ganarim was breathing heavily. "I immersed myself in that water, touched the Lapras. One man went in, and another emerged. I felt like I could look back on a past that never happened. I saw a body of one of the defenders floating in the water, and I felt ill. Then I became confused, for I had been trained to kill without mercy. Then my soldiers watched me with fear as I emerged, dripping wet. They knew that I had become a new man and it frightened them."
The big man's voice was shaking. "The Lapras healed me from the Jihad. I think they saw this."
Healed from the Jihad...he speaks as if the Rorian Jihad was an affliction, a mental virus.
"Thank you, brother-in-arms," Gold said, clasping hands with Ganarim. "I might speak with you again. But that is enough talk. We must find out who sent that ship."
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Aether Paradise
Saver: EMPIRES FALL
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Narrowing his eyes, Sun regarded the various crew chiefs who waited to deliver their reports in the environmentally controlled conference room at Celestial Transportation's headquarters in Aether Paradise. "Make no mistake. I will do anything that is necessary to protect my holdings from the Rorian fanatics."
He paced, trying to contain his anger. "My ancestor controlled this island before his passing, and now I have a share in it. I will not have the success of Celestial Transporation be compromised by Rorian boycotts, simply because I will not kowtow to Bronze Tercano! I was friends with him when we were children! He is no Messiah! And with this attack on Galar, who might be next?"
"We'll do everything we can, sir," Captain Arvo said. "If you wish to contact the Chairman-"
Alarms rang. Beckoning to his guards, Sun left the white tunnels of the lower levels into the sunlit upper decks, seeing three massive warships against the dusk sky. Aether Foundation employees were running, trying to maintain order, but countless vessels were leaving the island, lost in a flurry of activity. "What are those?" Sun growled. "Those aren't Rorian vessels!"
Moments later, a barrage of fiery projectiles rained down on the artificial island. The Conservation floor imploded under the strain of the thermal burners shot at it. The shipdocks were destroyed soon after, killing a staggering amount of people in the firefight. A tiny, unmarked lifeboat drifting away from the island was targeted by a frigate, and then blasted out of the water.
"How do we get out?" Sun yelled. "I won't die here, not now! Where is my shuttle?"
"Destroyed, sir!" Arvo said. "We can't escape, not now. It won't be long before this place is gone."
Unable to believe how much others and his company would lose if he was killed here, Sun ran back to the lower levels, only to find them chocked by debris and torrents of water. There was no way out. The waters around the island were filling with dancing sparks and dark fuel stains. "I don't have any Pokemon that can fly," Sun said. "My Wishiwashi's Totem Form won't form in that polluted water."
"So, this is the end, sir?" Arvo said, strangely calm.
"No, let's break through the debris, see if we can find a boat. Use your Z-Ring. Maybe-"
The island caved in two with a firey blast. A thermal burner had drilled through the center, destroying the supports and suspensor fields that kept it floating. The shipyards on the lower levels imploded under the stress. "Nowhere out now," Sun said, resigned to his fate as he clutched a white thermilamp post for support. "We had a good run, didn't we?"
Then, so close and so suddenly that even Sun let out a cry, a large, glittering white Aether Foundation hovercraft appeared, folding space from wherever it had come from. The cargo doors to the interior were open on the side facing Sun; Lillie was there, with Lusamine in her tank. "I and Lusamine have come to rescue you! Come aboard!"
Without asking how the two women knew to come here, Sun and Arvo quickly leaped inside. The bay doors closed with a thud. The Eclipse frigates noticed a new target, but whatever was navigating the ship was too swift for their blasts to hit. "How did you know to find me?" Sun asked, delirious with relief.
In her wavering, ethereal voice, Lusamine answered. "Tercano has his Bibiolgraphers, but I have my presience. These frigates destroyed my children's home. We must make sure that they do not harm anyone else. Folding space to Wyndon."
Lusamine concentrated her immense psychic powers. With a contraction of the sky, the transport craft winked away and vanished into the safety of foldspace. Behind them, Aether Paradise groaned, and then was lost to the sea.
.
Lilycove City
Charmer: LAST SHOW
.
Ruby, seeing the two Eclipse frigates above the city, knew that the defenders didn't stand a chance.
Lilycove was conquered easily.
The invading machine troops, following an aerial bombardment that blasted parks into blackened fields and destroyed houses into rubble, plodded forward into the Contest Spectacular Hall, where Ruby and his small army of designers and contestants took shelter. Cypress, turning his focus away from the Pallet Town campaign, scanned the topography of the metropolis and located the weaker entrances to the magnificent building.
Cypress, commanding the most monstrous combat mech in the fleet, thundered through the wreckage-strewn streets. This town would be a prize, an incredible psychological victory over the people of Hoenn. With Rustboro already occupied and Fortree burnt to cinders by thermal bombs, the region was now under Eclipse control. The Eclipse Lord reflected that if he had possessed such a force fifty-two years ago, brute strength would have been enough to conquer the entire world and go about his plans to create a new universe unhindered by Association armies. The second time's the charm, it seems.
He grabbed a cinder block with a flowmetal arm, and crushed it, imagining the piece of debris to be the skulls of his enemies. Time to make my grand entrance, Pokedex Holder Ruby. I hope you'll welcome me.
Cypress smashed open the entrance to the hall, and smaller soldier mechs flooded into the building. Pokemon that had been freed and lumped about the antechamber attacked, but the mechs fired at them with capture nets, binding them down with the same material used in Poke Ball liner. Even with their disadvantage in comparative strength to Pokemon, these robots had been programmed long ago with the desire to dominate, and knew how to savor victories.
Within moments, the blond-haired Peter Sumi, the director of Pokemon Contests in Lilycove, had been brought before Cypress. "I claim Lilycove City in the name of Eternatus," Cypress said through a speakerpatch. "Hoenn is now an administrative division of the New Eclipse Order. I would like your cooperation and the cooperation of the other citizens here to help me ensure my victory without further bloodshed."
Sumi, although trembling with fear, nevertheless spat on the broken floor where the weight of Cypress's warrior mech had crushed the tiles. "You're mad. I would never-"
Cypress swung one of his sleek metal arms sideways. He had not fully tested the robot body and was not aware of the magnitude of its strength. He had meant to strike the man on the face, an instructive, furious slap. Instead, the arm delivered a blow so forceful that it ripped the man's torso in half. The two parts of his body shuddered against the ground in a splatter of gore.
"Oh, well," Cypress muttered. "I suppose my demand was a mere formality anyway." He turned the volume of his speakerpatches up high enough so that the entire city could hear him. "Pokedex Holder Ruby! I demand your presence!"
A sudden crash sounded from above. "Careful what you wish for."
Cypress looked up toward the hall dome, saw the fist of a Mega-Evolved Swampert coming toward his face like a truck-sized hammer. Cypress fired chandler-blasts, but his energy shots amounted to little more than pellets. The impetus of the blow crushed the mech's head before it could move aside. Metal scattered over the ground.
The other combat robots quizzically looked to see who the new attacker was...until a psychic blast from a Gardevoir passed through the room, effectively erasing their gelcircutry brains. The mechs crumpled like leaden toys.
Ruby sent back his Pokemon, and had his Milotic lift him back up toward the roof, where he had hidden the other refugees. "The big one is gone, but the city is lost." He pointed to the warships. "We have to leave, somewhere safe."
"Where?" a contestant asked. "Hoenn has fallen! The cities are overrun! Do we head for an old military bunker?"
"How about a whole region acting as a bunker?" Ruby said, holding his head high. "We'll find a skycopter near the docks, and make way for Galar!"
.
Littleroot Town
Conquerer: COLOSSEUM MATCH
.
In a town under a blanket of humidity near Earth's subtropical jungles, Emrett planned to take the historical settlement of Littleroot Town for the glory of the Dark Lord. It would be another home of the Pokedex Holders that he would destroy.
Inside his gladiator form sent out of a drop pod, Emrett strode into the small hamlet. Destroying the homes here would almost be a waste of his time, but the Grand Sorcerer understood the importance of making a point. He activated a flamethrower, torching a hut. He heard screams inside, and realized that he must have burnt some poor souls alive. It's their fault for not running when they had the chance.
Then a Blaziken charged out of the underbrush, fists blazing. No announcement or battle cry proceeded this fight. Ah! She is here!
Emrett loomed over the Pokemon, his robotic proportions grossly exaggerated, like a child's nightmare of a bully. He signaled to the armored walker pads while raising his crablike forearms, apocalyptic discharges running from iron spikes across his conductive body. The Eclipse Lord whipped his grappling arms, hardening into diamond film, striking the Blaziken across the face.
Before Emrett could calibrate himself, an Aggron came from his right, raising an armored fist to smash Emrett's mechanical head. With surprising agility, the combat mech sidestepped the attack. Emrett lunged with another one of his forearms, this one capped with an arc of paralyzing energy that made Sapphire's Aggron shudder. Now, where is that savage woman?
Suddenly a goliath Donphan charged, making contact with Emrett's forearm. Even the diamond film couldn't prevent the blow from tearing the arm out of its flexible socket. The Eclipse Lord dismissed the damage, ejected the useless limb, and swung up a cutting arm that morphed into a flurry of flowmetal blades. The Aggron fell back, and Emrett saw his chance to douse it with flames. The Pokemon fainted, toppling to the ground.
A Gallade appeared out of the smoke, running at the combat mech and bringing up two slicing arms, hacking at the robot's chest with razor-sharp saws. A pair of cables fell apart, useless. Soon, another one of Emrett's arms dangled haphazardly, a jumble of damaged wires and bluish electrafluid. Lighting flared across his metal body, the internal fusion furnace malfunctioning. Sapphire! Always ruining my good time!
Now Sapphire emerged, having expected the blow to have destroyed the robot completely. Blaziken struck the mech's body with a major blow, and the fusion core spilled out, dangling on wires, naked and exposed to the ashen air. "You got yer payback for doin' this to Littleroot Town!" Sapphire snarled, looking forty rather than her seventy years. From the life extension treatment, Emrett surmised. "Who are ya? Why did you come to this place?"
"I need not answer you," Emrett said. "But I will. I am Sorcerer Supreme Emrett of the reborn New Eclipse Order. You may have defeated me, but I have more mechs...and thermal burners. Do you want to go blind, Pokedex Holder Sapphire?"
"Emrett?" Sapphire cried, remembering the man's wicked deeds from long ago. Great Mother! What a beast that robot is! "Yer dead! How didja come back?"
The Eclipse Lord's mind left the ruined hulk at the press of a button and jumped to another combat mech in some other targeted city, but not before disengaging his fusion core. Sapphire sent back her Pokemon, and ran, knowing what sort of trick the man had devised.
The core exploded. Flames roared past Sapphire, charring the ground. The shockwave was sufficient enough to knock down dozens of houses. Amid the smoke and fire of the final blast, Sapphire saw that nearly half of Littleroot Town had been destroyed.
She vowed that, no matter the cost, she would find the man behind the machine...and eliminate him.
.
Space
Trainer: A WAY OUT
.
Caught in the delicious ennui of perpetual coma, Blue received no tidings of the attack of Earth. He floated amidst the brilliant cosmos in his craft, untroubled.
.
Viridian Forest
Healer: THE EDGE OF THOUGHT
.
Yellow heard the rumor of Viridian City burning from afar, but no blast ever pierced the thick spells about her hidden world. She knew that a part was yet there for her to play, but she would not act. Not act.
Lying in her hut, a single tear trickled down the Wise-woman's cheek.
.
Hammerlocke
Evolver/Jailor:
EGO-SPACE
.
Green heard the vessels appear above her makeshift police keep, and then a rumbling sound added to the engine's roar. Her room groaned and shook all around her. Then a blast, followed by a sudden curling of smoke from behind the seat where she sat, caused her to stand abruptly. The flickering of the air told her that the Rorian soldiers had activated a ray shield.
Soldiers leaped to positions at the keep door, but without need. Already, the great Rorian war fleet had felled eight of the robot frigates before they could deploy either their drop pods or thermal burners, with two being followed out to the countryside in pursuit. "What happened?" Green asked. "Those vessels are spaceworthy, they could fall back to the atmosphere and reform! What insignia is that on their hulls?"
"The symbol of the Eclipse Alliance, or Team Eclipse, ma'am," Blake said, his hand pressed to his right ear, a servo-receiver there chattering away a report. "Our diagnostic reports say that thousands of vessels have entered the atmosphere! We're driving them out of Galar as we speak, but an exceptionally large force, three hundred vessels, is en route to the Isle of Armor! Wyndon just repelled an attack of twelve!"
Green whirled, motioning for her people to follow her. "Get to Hammerlocke Hospital. I have duties there."
...
The hospital was filled with disorderly masses of people, scurrying about to do whatever duties were required of them after the sudden, short attack. Green passed through the halls, which eventually resolved into the Emergency Ward. Blake stood at attention, awaiting her leave to return to the field.
To her surprise, Raihan, Leon, and Nessa seemed to have recovered. Melony and Piers slept, but they no longer looked on the verge of death. "Did you get the cure?" Green asked, seeing several dart guns filled with a muddy serum near their heart monitors. "Moon has found a way to reverse the effects of the toxin, after all."
"No, we did not take Moon's cure, and do not intend to," Leon said. "We have overcome the effects of the poison, and found a beneficial ego-memory to stay the tumult of our inner multitudes. That cure would destroy these people that now have a small part of our minds. They will be valuable for the war ahead."
"War? The war is over!"
Nessa chuckled, seeing along Akari's threads of intuition across space and time. "Those vessels say otherwise. Why don't you find out what's happening in the wider world? The Typhoon Struggle is beginning, and this one will make the Rorian Jihad and the Darkest Day look like child's play by comparison."
.
Nimbasa City
Dreamer: White
SHOWBIZ INTRIGUE
.
White knew that something was terribly wrong when the hordes of Rorian protesters outside her studio dispersed, looking to the skies. The fanatics had always tried to disrupt her business for using "dangerous technology," and their absence was troubling. In the dusk, the Pokedex Holder saw four warships suddenly appear over the city, sending a rain of explosive pulse-projectiles. Drop pods crushed everything that they landed on, and ferocious assassin robots and combat mechs spilled out, killing everything in sight.
She swallowed hard, and forced herself to think. This was not the Rorians sending their armies to destroy her. They would never use synthetic fighters of any kind. Here was a new threat, and a brutal one. Although some might call it cowardice, she decided that fleeing the city and leaving for Galar or Roria would be a path to safety.
Then White ran through the studio, heading for her skycopter. Through clearpaz windows, she saw the brutal fighting taking place in the streets between the machine forces and the Nimbasa City Police Department's Pokemon, amid blood-spattered buildings and industrial centers. Flames raged around the desperate fighters. Smashed machines and human bodies and unconscious Pokemon lay everywhere.
And then...Cheren! He saw White, and guided her to a stairwell that led up to the upper floors. Explosions rocked the building, followed by smoke that billowed out of several open doors. "What's going on?" he said. "Are you alright?"
"Yes, for now," White answered. "We need to get to the roof, and hail a skycopter. My Pokemon can't carry me very far in this battle, not even Barbara the Mandibuzz. Think we can make it?"
"We can try."
The open colonnade at the top of the stairwell was already hot with fire that came from the lower levels. A skycopter had already been taken by studio workers, but was now swooping back for another pass. It spotted White and Cheren, hailing them in.
Then, the pilot made a grievous error. Machine watcheyes covering the battle buzzed around it, and the skycoper made a sudden evasive maneuver. It was unnecessary, as the watcheyes would simply move out of the way, but they could not account for simple human error. The skycopter's thrumming blades cut a watcheye in two, and the blade broke. The vessel came on a collision course with the studio.
The explosion seemed to rock the whole world. Cheren threw White aside and turned away. It blew a gaping hole in the building, and destroyed support beams that helped hold up the monstrously heavy roof. But the prospect of a structural collapse was the least of White's concerns.
An assassin robot clambered up to the colonnade, scanning the roof for lifeforms. It eyed White, scuttling closer. She sent out her Servine, hoping to destroy it. Immediately behind the first fighting bot, a dozen more came, leering with glinting red eyes. One raised a chandler-pistol arm, targeting Cheren's head,
An explosion of matter and sound knocked the extermination squad away. A white ship had appeared out of nowhere, bay doors suddenly opening. Sun peered out, seeing the two before him.
"What's this? I thought we were heading for Galar!" He looked at the frigates in the air, wetted his lips. "Well, White, Cheren. I wish we could have met under more pleasant circumstances. Come aboard!"
The two climbed into the ship, followed by a small army of refugees. Lusamine whirled in her cloudy tank. White saw a webbed hand, a flipper, a bulbous head. What was that thing?
"My mother seems to have chosen to rescue you, Pokedex Holder White," Lillie said. "She has her foresight which brought her here. Now, we head to Galar."
.
Aspertia City
Liberator
END OF THE LINE: QUENCHED INSURGENCY
.
As she walked through the halls of her fine establishment, Whitley thought about how she knew all the rumors, and debated if they would ever have a causal effect in her possible disposal as Headmistress of the Trainer's School.
Team Plasma, that's what she was in! Nonsense. She would have been arrested. She was! Not for long. It must have been a minor conviction. The Eclipse Files say that she was! Who can trust Cypress? It might be unreasonable...but still! Team Plasma!
Then, the alarms came on. Odd. There was no drill today, no warning of a possible second Rorian Jihad. There was no announcement over the automated speakerpatch system. The doors to the school did not lock.
It was only when the front doors to the school blasted off their hinges and fighting mechs poured in that Whitley realized that this attack was not like any other she had faced. The alarm was not a fire alert-it had been to warn them of an assault.
Great Mother!
Dozens of mechs spilled into the building, emitting a nasty droning sound. Outside, the humming of a frigate's engines could be heard. From who were these robots sent? Why would they attack the school? No time for answers or wondering, just time to mount a defense.
Think! She pressed her hand against her head. She was trained to fight Pokemon and people, not robots. Think! What are they weak against? Machines are steel, so fire and ice and dragon and rock...no, those are Pokemon! These are made of real materials! But there had to be something I can do!
Then it came to her.
The sprinkler system! These look like older models! Water will harm them, short them out!
She ran over to an alarm to activate them, and water began to cover the combat mechs. They paid no attention to it at first, but then the liquid seeped into their gelcircutry. Machines twitched and fell down, sputtering with dying gasps of sparks. Water! What an obvious vulnerability! She was no technician, but this meant that the city could defend itself against the sudden attack.
Just then, some mechs out of the range of the water began to launch rocks at the students and teachers in the halls from arm cannons. One came in Whitley's direction, and she caught it before it hit her.
It wasn't exactly a rock, though. It was metallic, and had hard, grooved ridges. She had seen something like this in old books: a weapon that no one used anymore, replaced by plasma howitzers and Pokemon. These less modern robots must still use them. She tried to remember the name.
What was it? Oh, right! A grenade!
And in an instant, there was nothing more for Whitley to think about.
.
Undella City
Dreamer: Black
END OF THE LINE: FALLEN WARRIOR
.
At dust, Black stood exhausted and sweating by the city's coast, although feeling intensely alive. He was in his late sixties, but looked thirty. Bronze's life extension treatment, although the most agonizing thing he had ever experienced, had produced great benefits. He was the Champion of Unova...and still he felt as though he had so much more to do, more foes to defeat.
Now under the clear, dark skies brimming with stars, Black stood barefoot on the sand, wiping perspiration from his brow. At the zenith of his abilities, he had fought in perfect synchrony with his Carrocosta, every movement a symphony of perfection. He would have to heal his Pokemon soon, them having used their strength in the training session.
Then he heard a loud, shuddering boom. A trail of fire appeared in the starry sky, a meteor so bright that it traced a path over the cosmic ocean. Sonic booms followed like a chain of percussions after it. It looked like a frigate of some sort, but coming in so hot and fast that Black had to assume that a malfunction had occurred on its route to Undella. Now it plummeted toward the ocean, without any way to stop itself.
Black blinked, and then staggered as a streak of intense orange branded his retinas. The falling object grew brighter, glowing white. The frigate hit the ocean with a blinding flash of impact, and the Pokedex Holder heard the attenuated rumble of the explosion, skipping across the waves from the deep sea. It must have been an older model to have crashed so far from the fledgling space trade lanes.
In the darkness, Black could discern the lights of far-off boats, glittering like jewels. Then one was snuffled out, followed by a second, this time closer.
"Costa, what do you think that was?"
A moment later, Black could discern the stampeding wall of water, an oncoming tidal wave set by the explosive impact. It rolled inexorably across the sea, crushing everything in its path. The roar grew louder.
Black shook his head as the realization of his fate set in, faster than anything else he could do. "Oh, no. Brav, come out!"
The Braviary grabbed Black's shoulders, but the tsunami was too wide, too tall to fly over in the short time remaining.
He wasn't fast enough.
He just wasn't fast enough.
Now Black could only stand by his Pokemon as the wall of water approached.
"I knew I would find this eventually," he said in a hoarse voice. "An enemy I cannot defeat."
...
Minutes later, the foaming brown water receded from the town bay, having exacted its share of destruction on the city beyond the docks. A dwelling now clear of people or plants remained where the wave had been.
Plodding slowly along the beach of the ruined city, Costa lumbered out of the waves that still splashed around it. The Pokemon had been bent, scraped, and scoured, but remained conscious. Each step it took was heavy and labored.
In its two arms, the Pokemon carried the battered body of Pokedex Holder Black, the greatest fighter in the history of Unova, crushed by the hammer of the tidal wave.
Gently, lovingly, the Carrocosta set Black down on the shore, next to the still body of Brav. There would be no Pokemon Center for these two. One of the few living things still on the coast, Costa sat down on the barren strand, and closed its trainer's eyes.
.
Isle of Armor
Mixer: PANOPLIA PROPHETICUS
.
Standing at the Dojo's entrance, Moon thought that they had underestimated Yellow's prophetic words. It seemed that they had both a present and future application: the two servants of the Dark Lord would return, along with Eternatus. Now Bronze's old foes had returned...but where were they?
The watchdog Association fleet of twenty vessels was preparing to depart for the Crown Tundra, where the campaign to find the Rusted Shield would continue with the full backing of the Association. Henry and Casey would have to be brought back to Hammerlocke Hospital to recover, however. The girl was in shock, and there was a risk that Henry might develop epilepsy in his unconscious state, with the serum running through his veins.
Suddenly, an alert sounded from her Rotom Phone's tiny transceiver. She turned it on, a red light filling the screen. Tinny screeching came from its speaker. She reduced the volume, searching across other frequencies. A voice speaking Rorian battle-language came into the Dojo.
"...intel also shows that fighters in Undella are lost! Pokedex Holder Y reports no survivors at Lumiose and Aether Paradise has been sacked! The enemy fighters are combat robots and warships! Watch out for domestic appliances turning against you! This is from Anthien, repeat, Anthien City! We have repelled an attack! The use of thermal burners has been reported!"
Moon, feeling a growing sense of dread, tried the other hidden communication bands. As she moved the small dial, she caught glimpses of more violence in the wider world. "Fall back...try to regroup...trapped in building at...assassin robots...Eclipse..."
And there was no mistaking the victorious exultation of the machine gibberish that poured from other bands. Sharp commands, battle reports. There wasn't enough of it for Moon to understand what these machines were saying, but the tone was obvious.
Victory.
She found Mustard sitting on his tatami mat, showed him the reports. "Do you have any idea what this means? If this is a joke, it's not a very funny one!"
Mustard stroked his beard. "I do not know what these broadcasts are supposed to entail other than a verifiable and sudden worldwide attack. Perhaps we should bring the island's defenses online?"
"Not anytime too soon," Moon said, looking a watcheye footage of the island on her phone. The skies were clear, but she saw shooting stars in the sky. The sun was westering, but it would likely be dusk in most of the world. "Get prepared for some kind of assault, while the day still lasts."
And an assault did come. War frigates, arriving in minutes.
Three hundred of them.
.
Isle of Armor
Warrior: OLD FOES
.
Jake saw the craft arrive, and drew his pulesword, as if he could do anything heroic with it. Henry Sword was still unconscious, although he was stirring in his sleep. Grumbling, the Swordmaster slung the boy over his shoulder, ready to carry him to safety.
Rorian soldiers and Dojo students prepared for battle, and the Association vessels above glimmered with a soft blue haze, their ray shields activated. Instead of proceeding with an assault on the ground, the warships launched drop pods from their hulls, while firing on the Rorian assault craft. The enemy warships were unshielded, but there were so many of them...
The drop pods hit the island with thunderous crashes. It was only as combat mechs started to spill onto the ground that Jake recognized the orange-and-black symbol on the hull of each opposing frigate.
The Eclipse Alliance!
His blood running hot as he passed over the island, Jake suspected that Cypress and Emrett had somehow activated this fleet. That meant they were still close by, and could be killed.
Henry woke with a cough, and Jake roughly set him down. The boy would have to fend for himself, but he couldn't bring him into danger when undertaking his risky scheme. "You, boy! Get to the Tower of Water! It has spells of protection around it, if I've ever seen them, and I have. You'll be safe there until we can get you out."
Without questioning Jake's orders, Henry ambled away to the Tower of Water, his Pokemon following him. Jake looked to the east, saw a robot frigate land in the Girdle of the Sword and Shield, over several uninhabitable islands. There! He gestured for several Rorian Commandos to follow him.
"Sir, if I may ask, where are we going?"
"To cut the head off the snake."
.
Isle of Armor
Seer: FALL OF LOGARIA
.
With Tess blinded by the magnitude of the approaching disaster, Bronze knew that he had underestimated his foes. When the gunships arrived, he realized that he would have never been able to prepare for this even if he had overestimated them.
When he saw the insignia of the Eclipse Alliance branded on the vessels, he realized that something was terribly wrong. Reports came in, detailing the chaos and death in other regions. He felt strangely hollow inside, as if his emotions had been drained by his terrible purpose. Now there was nothing he could say or think that would help him process the situation.
There was little left to do but meet his foes on the open field. A drop pod sent from a frigate landed before him on the Dojo's open lawn, opening to reveal the most monstrous mechanical demon he had ever conceived. This combat mech had been assembled for only one purpose: to be a mindless, unreasonable killing machine. Bronze sent out his Charizard and Sharpedo, knowing the weaknesses of antiquated combat mechs.
"Bronze Tercano!" the mech thundered. "I am Jonathan Rowell Cypress! I am your completion! I am the last word in your unsatisfied, unsavory life! What is a hero without a villain? But now...are you a hero?"
"You!" Bronze said, knowing that the actual Cypress must be nearby. "Do you think I will so indulge you by bending to your wishes? I will kill you as many times as I have to, demon!"
"The verdict for your crimes is thus," Cypress said. "For the Rorian Jihad, you must experience what you cast upon the world. For resisting the New Eclipse Order, the punishment is penance, penance, and death! I am your deliverer! I am your portal into the mysteries of death! I am your Omega, the bringer of infinite peace! You will embrace me!"
"Never!" Charizard blasted the mech with flames, but the ray shields emitting from its servo core absorbed the heat. Bronze felt the panic building, but recited the Litany Against Fear. I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer..."
"Your death is both my verdict upon you and my gift to you," Cypress said, charging mid-sentence. "Accept it with grace. And thus farewell!"
Cypress' combat mech, an oversized replica of Galarian medieval armor, collided with the Grand Bashar's Pokemon. Bronze, although wishing to destroy every last vestige of the Eclipse Lord's presence, knew that defeating a single combat mech would do nothing in the long term. He chose the path of retreat, running away with Charizard while Cypress was hampered by his other Pokemon.
The mech struggled to break free of the vicious melee, but knew that Bronze was too far gone. Still, the warships would kill him. There was no escape from the island. Even if he flew away, abandoning his wife and friends, Bronze would be a hunted man for the rest of his life, eking out a living in the wild while the New Eclipse Order reigned supreme.
In Eclipse Base Lethe, Cypress watched Jake and his squad of Commandos swim through the waters surrounding his island on a Dhelmise, destroying the thin vanguard of combat mechs as they approached the bolthole that led down to the tunnels. No doubt Cypress would have to flee with his equipment and establish a stronghold somewhere else. He disengaged the mech controls, wishing to deal with this upstart himself.
...
Bronze knew that he was doomed. Terrible purpose screamed in his mind, urging him to run. The Association warships had been destroyed, but not after taking nearly half of the three hundred robot vessels with them. Now the Eclipse frigates trained their guns on the island, ready to fire.
And then Moon was with him, with Casey Shield limping beside her, silently weeping. They clasped hands, feeling death approach. "Stay with me, Moon. Hold steady."
"Always."
The glow of a thermal burner enveloped the Dojo. It collapsed into kindling, taking hundreds of soldiers and students with it. Mustard would have surely been killed, unless he had escaped some other way. "I'm glad that I can be with you two," Casey said. "Here at the end of all things."
They hugged, seeing the warship guns glowing white.
...
Just then, a fabulously bright flash blew across at least fifty enemy vessels, vaporizing them in an expanding arc of energy that sent a shudder through the ground.
The robot invasion fleet shifted in a new position, ready to defeat the strange new arrival, but their machine control systems could not comprehend the magnitude of the power they faced. They did not react in time as a white streak spewed out dozens more sunbursts like a flurry of supernovas. Each incinerating burst of light vaporized clusters of the overly complacent Eclipse vessels.
Then, space folded, shimmered, crackled, and disgorged a single vessel behind the frigate's flanks. At first, Bronze thought that Cypress had somehow sent another machine craft, but then he saw the cartouche design on the ship's hull: the Aether Foundation!
The Aether Foundation transport zipped around the machine lines, coming to a smooth halt directly before Bronze and Moon, the doors staying closed shut. The overlapping detonations in the air struck deeper into the robot cruisers, destroying vessel after vessel. As far as Bronze could tell, the line of robot craft had been entirely annihilated into nothing more than scatted debris, floating in the sea.
They had been saved; the island had been saved. But by who?
A set of blast doors on the side of the Aether transport ship opened, revealing a crowd stuffed within. Bronze recognized Sun, White, Lillie, Cheren, and dozens of other terrified people. Lusamine floated in her tank, then spoke directly to Bronze. "I have come here through space to find you. We have done what we can to rescue important fighters for the war effort. Today, we hurt the Eclipse Alliance."
Almost before he could absorb what was happening around him, the bright streak that had destroyed the entire contingent of frigates turned in midair, and then landed by the Aether Foundation cruiser. The light was like a miniature sun, almost as hazardous as a thermal burner. Rorian soldiers clustered from around the island, looking in awe at their savior.
The being was grey with feline features, holding a large metal spoon in one hand, the other bearing three digits that resembled fingers. In the spoon, the unconscious form of Pokedex Holder Silver lay. The creature dropped him on the ground, and then stood tall.
"Bronze Tercano, Moon Berlitz, Casey Shield," the being said, pitching its voice for their minds alone. "I am Mewtwo, returned in your hour of need. Eternatus is my enemy as well as yours, along with all of the fallen Children of Arceus that serve the Dark Lord. Now, there is much to be done: the Crown Tundra calls."
.
.
Let the sky fall
When it crumbles
We will stand tall
Face it all together
At Skyfall