The team going to fight Groudon met at a cliffside, the volcano visible on the horizon. Gardevoir placed Infernape and Lopunny down as they looked towards their objective. After being briefed on the situation, Infernape asked the all important question,
"Alright, how are we gonna get over there?"
The group fell silent. Clearly, no one thought about how they would all get over there. Gengar came up with an idea,
"We can swim."
"Yeah no," Infernape responded, "I don't think we can swim for kilometers." However, then Gardevoir realized something,
"I can carry all of you." Some of the group had some worries about this idea but the psychic type was insistent, "We don't have much choice." With that, the group was ready for the plan, though Gengar had to jump onto Aggron's back because of his immunity from non-offensive psychic techniques, much to Aggron's despair,
"PIGGYBACK RIDE!" Gengar yelled deliberately childishly, jumping onto Aggron's back, as Aggron grumbled in frustration,
"I'm not an amusement park ride."
"Shut up, Ferris Wheel! Go!"
Suddenly, another roar erupted from the volcano. Lopunny then pulled an orb out from the tuft of fur on her right hand. It was brown with a black and cream catseye pattern. She crushed yet it didn't break, in fact it looked as though it was absorbed into her hand. She was surrounded in a rainbow glow as she transformed into her Mega form. The fur on her arms and legs became rounder as a butterfly-shaped crest of fur appeared on her forehead. Her legs now looked as though she was wearing torn pantyhose.
Infernape stared at Lopunny in awe. Lopunny noticed and she chuckled as Gengar, from his position on Aggron's shoulder, snapped Infernape out of his trance,
"Hey, perv boy! Now is fighting time!" Infernape shook his head to clear it. The group took one last collective breath and jumped from the cliff. The sun was shining from their right as they fell. Just before they landed in the water, Gardevoir grabbed everyone with her psychic energy and they began to fly just above the water. However, about halfway there, a bridge made out of stone suddenly formed.
They started to run to the volcano when Lopunny heard a swarm of voices in the distance, far too many to make out anything distinct but it did not sound friendly.
"I think there's an army there!" Lopunny pointed out excitedly.
"They must've been the ones who made this bridge. We don't have to beat them all, we just have to stall until we can find Groudon's weakness." Aggron said. Suddenly, a Steelix charged towards them from beneath the dirt,
"The squid dude paid us to stop you!" he yelled. Lopunny smirked as she ran in front of the group,
"If we're gonna stall, then we might as well enjoy it!" She said as she dodged a tail swipe from the Steelix and kicked it. She then jumped and kicked the Steelix into the sea. She flipped back into the ice platform and faced more mercenaries running toward them. The group took a battle stance and began to fight.
Some mercenaries charged at Lopunny but were shocked to see her disappear. She reappeared behind them and her arms were encased in ice. She struck one repeatedly before trapping another in ice. A Braviary swept from the sky, hoping to strike at Lopunny with his talons. Lopunny then jumped up, spun around and kicked the bird down into the ice. She landed gracefully and felt someone pressed against her back.
"Don't worry, It's me!" Infernape yelled as he fought another merc. Lopunny smiled confidently as she fought her opponent. Lopunny then ducked in time for Infernape to strike her opponent with his elbow. He then shot fire from his elbow to shoot it into the poor bastard in front of him. He and Lopunny briefly looked at each other and grinned.
Gardevoir flew off into the air as several bird Pokémon chased after her. She shot several psychic attacks at them which were avoided with ease. Gardevoir then abruptly stopped and, after taking a second to recover from the rapid deceleration, flew towards the birds as fast as possible. The leader, a Swana, just smirked as his wings seemingly turned to steel. Just as he was getting close, Gardevoir punched the air, sending a psychic pulse right into him. Then, like they were trash, she just grabbed them and threw them into the ocean. She flew down to the ice and saw several cultists charging her. Thinking on her feet, she grabbed a huge sphere of water and used it to toss away the enemies. Her heart froze for a moment as the men just kept coming,
"How did they manage to buy an army?" she asked out loud, before bracing for another attack.
Aggron exchanged blows with a powerful opponent, blocking and striking at every opportunity. Aggron managed to punch them in the face and slammed them into the ground. Aggron focused on another foe with relative ease. However, he turned around to see him charging a powerful punch. He would be unable to dodge this.
Suddenly, the mercenary's eyes suddenly turned red and snapped his own neck, to Aggron's horror. Gengar popped out from the corpse,
"You're welcome." he remarked as he bowed. To say Aggron was disturbed by the sight would be an understatement,
"What is wrong with you?! Don't kill people, dipshit!" Aggron yelled as he fought
"Eh, he's a goon, who cares?" Gengar argued back.
"CAN YOU SHUT UP?!" Garchomp scolded loudly from across the battlefield. The two stopped arguing immediately and focused back on the fight. Gengar smirked and his fists became enveloped in a bright purple sludge. He threw this sludge around the battlefield like artillery. A mercenary then slashed at Gengar with their claws, which just phased through the ghost. Gengar grabbed his foe by the wrist, threw him over his shoulder, blasted him in the face. Gengar then slashed another cultist behind him with poison dripped claws Gengar then ducked into the shadows and traveled across the battlefield. He jumped onto a cultist and shoved the poisonous sludge into their mouth. They collapsed onto the ground immediately as Gengar continued his onslaught.
Elsewhere…
Ampharos, Blastoise and Sceptile were currently busy evacuating the populace. Luckily for them, it seems that the people were fairly calm. The distance of the volcano meant that they would be safe for a while. However, Blastoise sensed something and looked towards the beach. Waves started receding from the shore, a tsunami was coming. Likely from the eruption. Ampharos picked up on this as well and began to panic, however, Blastoise remained calm, and sprinted towards the sea, demanding that the survivors get uphill.
Blastoise watched as the wave began to rise from the depths. It towered over him, about fifteen meters tall. Gritting his teeth, he planted his foot into the sand and held out his hands. Like he was holding up a wall all by himself. Bending to his will, the wave slowly ground to a halt. Everyone in the city watched in awe as all along the mile long coast, the massive tidal wave slowed down and stopped, not even reaching the lifeguard posts. At that moment, they all knew that the Blastoise that had stopped Mewtwo was still there.
With a simple thrust, Blastoise pushed the wave away. It exploded and splashed harmlessly into the ocean. Blastoise frowned at himself. Looking down at his arm, he opened and closed his fist.
Ampharos' scream snapped him out of this moment. Blastoise turned around and ran back towards him.
A small contingent of mercenaries had burst onto the scene, targeting Sceptile and Ampharos. They paid no mind to the civilians. Sceptile was thrown into a car. The glass shattered from the impact and the car caved in. Freeing himself from the wreckage, Sceptile was just able to dodge another vehicle that was thrown at him. Grabbing the merc with a vine, Sceptile threw himself towards him and swiftly knocked him to the floor with a kick. Another mercenary slashed at Sceptile's back with a weapon, successfully cutting the grass type along his back. Hissing in pain yet resolute in his resolve, Sceptile fought through the pain, swiftly firing a weakened version of the Solar Quick-Draw.
Alas, Ampharos was not having as easy of a time. Surrounded by about five men, one of which had a fully charged blast aimed directly at him. Ampharos had nowhere to run. The gunman smirked at the electric type,
"I'm feeling charitable today. Just lay down and give up and I won't kill you," he mocked. His mind racing, Ampharos eventually found a solution, one that Gengar would be proud of.
"Um-uh w-w-what's your favorite color?"
"...What?" the gunman asked, confused.
Ampharos then yelled frightfully as his forehead then flashed brightly, blinding the gunman and the mercenaries. The merc dropped his focus, becoming just 'man,' and Ampharos unleashed a powerful electric pulse that shocked the mercenaries with ease. As they fell to the floor, Ampharos was quite surprised at himself. He didn't think he used that much power.
Meanwhile, Roserade was frantically looking around the library, looking through as many history books as she could, trying to find something that could take out Groudon. As for Gliscor,
"Ugh, this is boring, completely unfitting for a super cool villain like myself. No if there were ancient tomes of evil magic then I'd be interested," he complained. Roserade rolled her eyes,
"Come on Gliscor, cut the act and help me." Gliscor groaned in annoyance and Roserade decided to take a risk to convince him. "Hey Gliscor." she called out.
"What is it, Rosewad?" He groaned, when he looked towards Roserade, he saw her looking at him with a shy, yet seductive look.
"Oh Gliscor, I am so close to finding Groudon's weakness. It would be a shame if a strong, handsome, intelligent, villain took me prisoner and stole credit for my findings." she whined, hoping Gliscor got the hint. Gliscor visibly blushed and stood up,
"OH HO HO! YOU BEAUTIFUL FOOL! I AM THAT STRONG, HANDSOME, INTELLIGENT, VILLAIN THAT YOU FEAR! I WILL TAKE YOU PRISONER AND I WILL TAKE CREDIT! MWAHAHAHAHA!" Gliscor yelled at the room of his lungs as he began flipping through books at lightning speed. Massaging his ego had worked flawlessly.
Lopunny grabbed a soldier and rolled back, kicking her opponent away. He flew back into Infernape who kicked him into the ocean. As Infernape fought, he got a call from an unknown number which he accidentally answered, trying to dodge an attack.
"Whoever this is, now is a really-"
"HAHAHA! I HAVE TAKEN YOUR RESEARCHER FRIEND HOSTAGE AND I'VE FOUND OUT GROUDON'S WEAKNESS!" Gliscor laughed triumphantly. Infernape, naturally, was excited to hear that they found a weakness,
"Great! What is it?" he asked.
"IT'S SIMPLE, JUST BEAT HIM UP!" Gliscor yelled. Infernape was confused,
"What?! It can't be that simple?!" Roserade appeared on screen, a rope wrapped around her and explained,
"It's the myth of Kaigan, the hero of the coast, who fought Groudon to protect his village from destruction. He stood no chance against Groudon but the god of the land couldn't swim. So, he instead destroyed the land beneath him and defeated the god." Infernape's excitement turned to exasperation,
"That's it? Some myth that's centuries old?" he said
"I'm sorry but that's all we've got." Roserade apologized before Gliscor butted in,
"EXCUSE ME HOSTAGE, I AM THE ONE TALKING HERE! NOW MY DEMANDS ARE-"
Infernape hung up on Gliscor and yelled to Lopunny about the news. He didn't hear a response and worriedly looked behind him. He saw the others but not Lopunny. Growing increasingly worried, he yelled out for her. After a few moments, he heard a loud "HEY!" from the distance. Looking up, his jaw dropped. Lopunny was being lifted up by the ear by a Pidgeot. It was obvious that she was in a lot of pain but she wasn't going out without a fight. She was desperately fighting to grab the bird, ice was crawling up the Pidgeot's legs. The Pidgeot then grinned a sadistic smile and let go of her.
Time seemed to stop as Lopunny began to fall, Infernape was terrified and began to run to catch her.
"Please work! for the love of Arceus, please work!" He mentally panicked as fire began to shoot out of his hands and feet, gaining more and more power. It sounded like a jet was taking off. The others heard this noise and turned to see Infernape lifting his feet off the ground. Infernape then burst into the sky, an explosion of fire behind him as he increased his speed. He rose diagonally up before he turned and flew towards Lopunny at breakneck speeds. He caught and held her tight as they flew towards the volcano.
"You can fly?!" marveled Lopunny as she embraced him.
"I've been thinking about trying it out for a while. Anyway, what happened?" he asked
"I don't know," said Lopunny, "I was about to fight that bird guy and then I just passed out." At first, Infernape was confused. Then, he realized something horrible.
The cult had used the Eclipse Gem. But wait, hold on. If that were the case, how could Lopunny wake up? Surely they would test out their wish for eternal slumber on the town so… what happened. Seeing how this was basically a wish granting orb with a nightmare god it was hard to figure out a solid answer. If he had to guess, either such a wish was impossible, a wish cannot be permanent, or, this was a monkey's paw. Regardless, he quickly relayed his information to Lopunny.
"Groudon doesn't appear to have a weakness, we just have to fight him." Infernape explained. Lopunny frowned but shook her head and looked with determination at the volcano. Gardevoir watched Infernape fly towards the volcano and very quickly read his mind; she then turned to the group and announced the plan. Aggron had a serious concern regarding the cult,
"How are we going to get there with this many guys surrounding us!?" To answer his question, what looked like hundreds of Senshi had arrived to relieve the pressure. Their leader, a Beedrill, flew over to Aggron.
"I knew we should've artillery stationed on the beach!" Beedrill yelled loudly, "You guys go on ahead!" Aggron nodded and the group began to make their way to the volcano.
Sableye and the cult overlooked the eruption as Groudon slowly rose from the lava, molten rock and debris fell off of the land god. Groudon's red eyes pierced through the golden glow of the magma. The whole volcano shooked in his presence. Bisharp grinned as he met eye to eye with the god of land,
"GROUDON, LISTEN UP! SOME GOD OF LAND YOU ARE?!" he yelled. Almost the entirety of the cult was terrified,
"What are you doing, you're gonna get us killed!" Umbreon yelled.
"YOU IDIOT!" Sableye screamed at the top of his lungs. Even Druddigon wasn't thrilled at the chance to fight a legendary pokemon. The only one aside from Bisharp who wasn't shitting bricks was Malamar, who merely smirked and waved goodbye to the cult,
"Looks like my job here is done. Good luck," before teleporting away. Bisharp continued his tirade against Groudon
"YOU ONLY CREATED A FEW ISLANDS, PATHETIC! I COULD DO BETTER THAN THAT!" Groudon's eyes were filled with rage. With a booming the voice that attack your very soul, Groudon roared,
"YOU DARE INSULT ME, YOU UNGRATEFUL MORTALS?!"
Infernape and Lopunny landed on the edge of the vent of the volcano. They looked down upon the legendary Pokémon in a mixture of fear and confidence.
"What are we gonna do?" Lopunny asked worriedly. Infernape quietly assessed the association when he saw Gardevoir flying towards them. He heard her voice in his head,
"What do we do?" Infernape thought of a plan the relayed it to Gardevoir,
"Alright, here's the plan. The rest of you will fight the cult, me and Lopunny will stall for time with Groudon. Once you guys beat the cult, we just try to lure him to the edge of the volcano and sink him." He explained, saying it out loud so Lopunny could hear.
"Infernape, please don't do anything to get yourself hurt," said Lopunny. Infernape nodded and looked back at Lopunny. She smiled at him. Infernape slowly moved towards her for a kiss. She noticed this and shook her head, raising a hand to stop him.
"No, no, no. Save it for when we don't die." She said. Infernape was disappointed but had to respect her decision. Together, they then jumped down into the volcano.