Previously on Pokémon: The Lost Child, Empoleon, Sceptile, and Aegislash learned about the history of their universe and how Arceus was sealed away. Now that they have two proper god allies in Deoxys and Victini, it was time for them to prevent Arceus' return before it was too late.
The five were travelling through the lost forest, a treacherous place that very few Pokémon have ever been able to get through. It was the place that they needed to go through to get to what was called the "Sacred Land." The place that was considered some kind of bridge between realities was the place where Arceus was first sealed up.
Deoxys had a feeling that was where Arceus was planning on coming back from. They needed to get there before Arceus himself or someone else was able to free Arceus. They didn't have much time left, and every second counted at this point.
"I am not a big fan of this place," Sceptile commented.
"Why is that?" Empoleon asked.
"This place gives me a very uneasy vibe; it feels like we are constantly being watched. Something that I can't see," Sceptile said.
"You are likely correct," Aegislash said.
"What do you mean by that?" Empoleon asked.
"I can sense that there are many ghost Pokémon around these areas," Aegislash said.
"How could you know that?" Empoleon asked.
"Aegislash is also a ghost Pokémon, just like the ones that are in the forest," Deoxys answered.
"I honestly didn't know that," Empoleon commented.
"It doesn't matter; let's keep moving; we don't have much time left, as Deoxys keeps reminding us," Aegislash said.
"Well, I am not wrong when I say that," Deoxys said. Everyone didn't care and just continued to move on, though.
Little did the group know, they should have been concerned about the ghost Pokémon. Not all of them were friendly; there was one, a Chandelure that was watching very carefully and was malevolently getting ready to spring an attack on the entire group.
The group was making their way through the forest, having to slip through various bushes to continue moving. Deoxys was working on guiding them through the forest, as he was the one who knew the way to the "sacred land."
"It would be much easier if I could just burn through all of these things," Victini said.
"It would be, but we don't want to damage the ecosystem of this place," Deoxys said.
"I still wish that we could," Victini said, pouting.
While Empoleon and Sceptile were trying to get through the various pushes and branches, Empoleon clawed something out of the way. However, he ended up damaging something that opened up and let out some kind of gas. The group saw it right away, and Empoleon commented, "What in the world."
Deoxys took a closer look and, after thinking for a bit, realized what it was and started panicking, "Everyone, get away from that stuff. It is sleep powder gas, it will put you to."
Before Deoxys could finish, he started falling asleep, and the rest didn't react quickly enough to get out of the way, sending, Empoleon, Victini, and Aegislash to sleep. However, Sceptile was for some reason not falling asleep as a result of it, so he went up to the rest of them and said, "Guys, guys, wake up. Oh no."
Empoleon, Victini, Deoxys, and Aegislash were now inside what can best be described as some sort of black void. They were kind of waking up and seeing this but not actually waking up but only waking up in this weird place.
"Where are we?" Empoleon asked.
"This is some kind of dream realm, it seems," Deoxys said.
After that, there was a barrage of demonic laughter all around the place. All four of them were extremely unnerved by this and got ready for something bad to happen. However, something weird was happening, all of them felt themselves getting weaker and weaker. It was slow, but they were starting to feel some negative effects coming from this.
All around the four of them, there was a giant horde of Litwicks and Lampents, all of which had flames in their eyes and were ready to attack. All of them started charging toward the four. This was not good; they were going to have trouble standing up to all of these. They were not about to give up so easily, and the four of them began fighting the horde, launching all of their firepower to keep them at bay for as long as possible.
In the real world, as the four were fighting the horde, their bodies were jittering violently. Sceptile took very quick notice of this and was getting increasingly incredibly nervous. Something was very wrong, and he didn't know what he could do to snap them out of it.
Before Sceptile could do anything, though, a massive flamethrower was launched toward him. Sceptile spotted it just in time and was able to dodge it out of the way. Sceptile was able to get a closer look at his attacker and saw that it was Chandelure.
"So you didn't get put to sleep? How interesting," Chandelure said.
"What have you done!" Sceptile demanded.
"The taste of your dreams will soon turn into a living nightmare; don't try and resist, you are all doomed," Chandelure said.
"That doesn't answer my question," Sceptile sarcastically commented.
"Quiet filthy outsider, your kind's only purpose is to provide us with those tasty dreams, since it is clear the powder isn't working on you, I need to do it myself," Chandelure said.
Chandelure conjured up a pendulum from thin air, and it started waving while pointing at Sceptile. Sceptile knew what this was and that Chandelure was trying to put him to sleep.
Sceptile was able to steady himself, diverting his eyes away from the pendulum and firing off a dragon pulse at Chandelure, disrupting his connection. Chandelure was not down, though; he quickly got back up and launched a flamethrower at Sceptile, which would hit him hard if it hit. Sceptile dodged out of the way and attempted to fire another dragon pulse, which Chandelure also avoided.
"Why are you doing this?" Sceptile asked.
"In the cold, harsh climate of this place, we will do whatever it takes to survive, and you are getting in our way," Chandelure said.
"Yeah, forget I asked," Sceptile launched another dragon pulse at Chandelure while, at the same time, Chandelure launched a flamethrower. The two attacks clashed, and both were trying to break through the other. Chandelure's firepower was far stronger than Sceptile expected, and quickly the flamethrower broke through and hit Sceptile incredibly hard as he was weak to it.
"Give up, you are outmatched," Chandelure said.
"I will never give up," Sceptile says right afterwards, firing a dragon pulse at Chandelure as the battle between the two resumes.
At the same time, the Litwicks and Lampents were continuing to attack the other four inside their dreams, as they were trying to absorb the power of their dreams for nutrients.
The four of them were holding their well, especially with two good Pokémon there to help fend it off, but they were starting to grow weaker as the hordes were seemingly endless. Since it was all a dream they could come forever.
"We can't keep holding them off forever, we need to find some other way to escape," Deoxys said.
"What do you mean by that?" Empoleon asked.
"If I am calculating things correctly, it is likely we are currently in the dream realm. Someone is likely trying to suck out our dreams, likely a Litwick, Lampent, or Chandelure and this is the metaphysical representation of that," Deoxys explained.
"If that is the case, we don't have much time left, and we need to escape before it is too late," Victini commented.
"Instead of attacking the Litwicks and Lampents, we should attack each other; the splash from it should wake us up," Aegislash suggested.
"That actually might work; it is the best chance we currently have," Deoxys said.
Somewhat reluctantly, all four of them started attacking each other with their various attacks, which gave the Litwicks and Lampents the chance to make further progress. The four kept wailing those attacks on each other. Right in the lick of time, the four hit each other hard enough that it woke them all up.
"Is everyone okay," Empoleon said while waking up.
"Yeah, I think so," Deoxys said.
The four of them looked over to see Sceptile battling Chandelure and losing to him. They all jumped in immediately, with Empoleon blasting Chandelure with a hydro pump from behind. Chandelure turned around and knew that he was in trouble.
"You can't possibly take on all of us," Aegislash said.
"You are probably right," Chandelure said before vanishing right away in the blink of an eye. He knew he stood no chance and decided to cut his losses and retreat.
"You guys are all okay; that is a relief," Sceptile said.
"We can thank Aegislash for that; he was the one that came up with the idea that saved us," Empoleon said.
"I have to admit, it is impressive that you managed to stand up to a Pokémon you were weak to for so long as well," Deoxys said.
"It was hard, but yeah, I guess I did," Sceptile said.
"You know I have to admit something. I had my doubts at first but the strength all of your three showed, I think that we have a chance of actually stopping Arceus," Deoxys said.
"Let's hope that it never comes to that," Victini said.
"Yeah, we must keep moving; that delay is very unfortunate, but we still have time before it is too late," Deoxys said.
The five continued rushing through the forest as fast as they could. What was about to happen was going to be big, the Pokémon world as a whole was hanging in a tight balance.