Upon returning to the Ranger Base, we told Cameron of everything that had happened, leaving out anything involving me being from 'the real world', but we did tell him about Gruntilda, her plans, and the fact that she comes from a different reality that I'd seen before in a video game. And that her powers were drastically weaker than what I was used to.
"How are her powers lesser than what you saw?" he asked, not even being surprised at how I knew Gruntilda before meeting her because video games.
"Well, in her own world, she was able to float in the air with levitation, turn people into other creatures like pumpkins and frogs, conjure fire to attack from above, and even separate your soul from your body, effectively killing most people afflicted by that spell. Instead, Grunty decided to attack by running into me with her magic shield, which she is not at all a good runner. And, plot twist, I had to escort her out of the Lyra Woods because she got chased by the Weepinbell into the deeper parts. If she were able to fly or even see things via looking into water like she's used to, she'd have not gotten lost like that," I frowned.
"Anything else to note about her?"
"Two things. One, she has an annoying thing where she rhymes most of her dialogue unless you really get her ticked. And two, despite looking horrendously ugly, even to the point of being reduced to nothing but a skull in her world that could still talk, she was returned to her original body, and she looks... well, her sexy form, which can only happen if she uses a machine to switch ugly looks with beautiful looks," I frowned.
"Hmm... maybe that's why we've noted that we saw a Gardevoir the other day that needed put down? She was barely able to move or even breathe, and she looked almost completely deformed..." Cameron said, me being disgusted by that.
"As expected, she just can't be decent, even with a Pokemon similar in looks to a human," I frowned as I then got a message on my Styler from the professor.
"Calling Beth, I need your assistance with an important mission back in Fall City. It's high time we pay a visit to the heart of the Go-Rock Squad's Styler productions. Meet with me at the Ranger Base as soon as possible," he said, me then smiling at that.
"Welp, time to go and get a major blow to the Squad's pride! Surely getting the productions of Super Stylers halted will make a good number of them quit and make Gruntilda even more ticked," I smirked.
"Okay, but be careful. If what you say is true, the Squad is trying to find Legendary Pokemon in order to destroy things and blame it on the Rangers. If they've gotten another Legendary on their side, they'll surely use it against you. So be careful," Cameron said, me nodding at him.
"I'll be careful, and dangerous," I smirked, explaining everything in almost perfect English with the bigger sentence groups needing to be partially explained with my mind reading device. After this, Emolga and I went to the Dragonite upstairs and requested to go to Fall City, which we were then flown the whole way across the ocean to Fall City and, on the way, my little rodent partner asked me a question.
"So, should we tell anyone else about how dangerous Grunty is? Or about you being from the real world?' she asked, me frowning at her.
"All worlds are real, it's just that my world is more aloof and believes that all the other worlds are fictional... everyone in this adventure is sentient and can think on their own, live their lives, all that. My world is actually worse than this one, as it has a lot more bad in it. Imagine weapons that can destroy a house in a single blast, diseases that are spread intentionally for the purpose of power, and the ones in charge being so bad at their job that they remain clueless to all the bad things going on in their countries, and that's what my world was like," I frowned.
"Wow... so, you expect me to keep quiet too, right?" Dragonite asked, me nodding. "Only if you can promise that this Grunty person is not only dethroned, but you can find a way to get her completely shut down with her magic powers. Nobody needs to be hit with any dangerous spells that could kill us."
"I'll try to find a way to do so, I promise," I said, Dragonite cooing as we then finally arrived at the Fall City Ranger Base and, upon doing so, I went into the base and saw Hastings in there right alongside Joel.
"Ah, I've been waiting for you, Beth. We're going to be going to the abandoned factory to the east of Fall City. According to our captured family, that's where the production of the Super Stylers are done, including the Quad's instruments. We'll need to shut the power down and also try to find anything else important that may relate to Gruntilda or her penchant for evil technology, as your details have stated from Cameron. I'll be joining you in this endeavor, mainly because I don't know of what to expect," he said, me nodding at that.
"I'll be sure that you stay safe, same with Emolga," I smirked, my little flying squirrel nodding at that.
"Let's go and blow stuff up! HAHA!" she smirked happily as we then proceeded on foot to the area in question, us going to the factory's entrance and seeing that the door was locked by a 5-digit code instead of a 2-digit one. But, as I had a feeling of what the code was, I decided to try out three different codes, each from the different release dates of the Banjo-Kazooie games.
"Okay, let's try... 62998?" I asked, me then gawking at how the code was correct and it made the door open! "Oh... I didn't expect it'd be THAT easy! I just assumed it'd be the release date of the games she came from, but I didn't expect it to be the first game, hehe," I admitted with embarrassment to Hastings.
"Hoho, regardless, we should get in there and find a way in," he said, me nodding as we proceeded to capture a couple Pokemon on the way through, me getting a Ratticate, two Voltorb, and a Machoke, using the latter to move a large crate for us to move forward and then going through the next part via the upper levels, which is where we happened to see the Quads outside and practicing, which I then hushed Hastings and had us hunker down so they wouldn't be able to see us.
"Pokemon a-go-go! Even if you're in a hurry, stop in your tracks!"
"Open your ears to our melodic attacks!"
"The Rhythm of... I-I'm sorry, but do we need to?" Clyde asked in concern as I saw that he was the only one who looked not into it.
"Clyde, don't tell me that you're still upset about losing to that Fall Ranger girl? Or that you lost your Super Styler to a Slaking of all things?" Billy asked, which he groaned at. "Why don't we wrap it up here, then? We already have it down pat, we just need to get our new supplies so we can fix yours and Tiff's instruments. So, until then, while we go shopping, Clyde and Garrett will stay behind to watch over the factory's productions with our new hire," Billy said, that making my ear twitch upwards because of Magearna. New hire? Who in the heck could it be? A legendary?
"Okay, thanks, bro. Just remember to get changed before you head out. The rangers are sure to recognize you in town," Clyde sighed, the duo then doing so via the other side of the gate and, afterwards, the other two then went inside of the factory after putting in a key card of sorts.
"It seems that our efforts are already hurting their pride, hmm?" I smiled.
"Indeed, let's proceed to rob more of it," Hastings smirked as we then went inside the main factory and proceeded to capture a Mr. Mime and, afterwards, we found a cage that had something shocking in it. Not only was it containing a Pikachu inside of it that was stealing its electricity, but it had another cage next to it that held another person, me gawking at the sight.
"What the... Humba-Wumba?" I asked, me seeing the sight of the wife of Mumbo-Jumbo from the same series, her looking like she did from the third game, aka, her best look. And she looked like she were getting her magic drained!
"Huh? Human from other side of screen? Please help Humba-Wumba?" she asked, me nodding at her as I then asked the question to Raticate.
"Raticate, can you free both of them at the same time?" I asked, the big-fanged rat nodding as he then bit through the iron bars containing the two and then, after that, the duo then exited their cages and Pikachu ran off to where it came from as Humba-Wumba smiled at me.
"Thank you, hybrid warrior. Humba-Wumba much grateful," she smirked at me.
"Do you know of any other captives that are in this place, per chance?" I asked her.
"Two that I know of, them also of different world origin, come here from same Rocket experiment, different time as you. Each one filled with much magic," Humba said, me nodding as we then moved out through the factory again, but not before I had one of the Voltorb go to the siphoning machines and had him explode them as we went through the room, the Voltorb then being released after.
"Okay, let's get going," I said, but then we were stopped by a group of Ghastly appearing out of nowhere, which made Humba-Wumba gasp and look scared.
"Eep! Ghosts! Stay back, evil spirits!" she shouted in fear, me then holding onto her and having me and her hover our way through the place and through the next door, but not before I caught just a single Ghastly, me speaking to her after.
"We're going to need this Ghastly, just in case the Squad has captured any other Pokemon," I said, her nodding with sweat coming from her shining, bronze skin as we then got to the next area with light, me being surprised that the Houndoom from the start of my adventure was in the room and he looked at me and Emolga in annoyance.
"Easy, Houndoom. We need your help, not a burn," Emolga said with concern, the dog then frowning with a growl.
"What do you need help with? I'll only do it if you can get me out of this nuthouse," he said.
"Done deal. I need you to burn this large blockade of scrap metal that's blocking us from going down to the lower levels," I said, pointing it out to him and him then burning it easily. "Now stick with us and we can get out of here after we make sure this whole place is shut down," I smiled.
"Finally! I can't wait to help more with getting these tacky jerks some comeuppance!" he smirked, us then going to the next place and me seeing that the next area had two more cages. The first captor was an Electabuzz... and the other? A character from another universe, me gawking at who it was.
"What the... Leah Cain?" I gawked, her being from Diablo 3, me gawking at how she was here after she had been effectively killed by her parents in Diablo and the witch Adria!
"Please... it hurts... get me out of here... I need to stop him..." Leah said, me gulping at that... Diablo was in this world? I then proceeded to have Houndom use his fangs to break apart the cages and for him to then burn the generators themselves into melted iron, which Leah then took a knee when she exited her cage, me going over and helping her up.
"Leah... where is Diablo?" I asked, her then seething at that.
"He... He's in Almia... the Black Soulstone... you must stop him..." she said, me gawking at that. Did that mean?... No, I needed to warn Hush before she started her adventure.
"Humba help regain healthy magic to friend," Humba-Wumba smiled as she then used her own magic to heal up Leah, her then sighing in relief after.
"Thanks... is that voodoo?" she asked.
"Ancient shaman magic, taught many things by husband. Not all things, but many," Humba-Wumba smiled.
"Okay, let's get going again. Next stop, the final generator. There's only one left, but the cages will be too big for me to handle. You'll need another strong set of blades to get through it," Houndoom said, me then thinking before I then looked at Ghastly.
"Or, another theory, we could always ask Ghastly to go through them and get them out unconventionally," I smirked, speaking the whole thing in English aside from the final word.
"Oh, that'll be easy for me, heehee!" the Ghastly giggled, me now knowing it was female.
We then got to the area with the big alarm next to the very important door, me then looking at it and seeing that the big red button was an alarm and that there was yet another code underneath it.
"I know the code for door, let me do it," Humba-Wumba said, her then typing out another 5-digit code, me then smirking at how the alarms were then disengaged for the entire place and that the code was 92211. "This code release date of game holding next prisoner. Fair Lady of Souls Dark," Humba-Wumba said, me then doing a double-take at that.
"The Fair Lady?... Then we need to book it!" I said with concern, us then rushing through the next parts of the factory and also using our cuffs to capture two more workers that were in the form of scientists, which they were stunned at me being in the factory and them looking quite upset.
"HEY! What the heck?! Where did you come from? And are those our prisoners?!" the first of them asked, me frowning at him angrily.
"Not a smart idea to imprison innocent bystanders, punk. Especially when they have magic like Gruntilda. No doubt she was siphoning their magic to add to her own," I frowned.
"Exactly that," Leah frowned as we then got to the final generator room and, when in here, I saw that there was a Manectric that was in the one cage. And in the other was none other than the Fair Lady, me being shocked that she was actually on her buggy legs and able to move, but she still looked quite sickly. But I could tell from Hastings expression that he was surprised by her lower half, it being a Chaos Bug as before, but it looking less dead than it was in the actual game.
"Quelaag?... Is that you?" she asked, me looking at the others and them looking at her in confusion and concern.
"You poor thing... what has that witch done to you?" I asked, me then having Ghastly rescue the duo from their cages and, afterwards, the ghostly sphere vanished back to where she came from and Houndoom then melted the final generator, me then helping the large hybrid of Chaos Bug and human off the ground and having her go through the door and seeing that she was able to shrink her body temporarily to fit through the door.
"It doesn't hurt as much now... but I wish I could see your face, Quelaag... at least I can move again..." the Fair Lady cooed, me then speaking to her.
"Question, what is your name? I'm asking because I'm not Quelaag," I asked, her then smiling after.
"Oh... my name is Quincess... may I ask your name? And where is Quelaag?" she asked, me sighing at her.
"My name is Beth... and Quelaag isn't here," I said, her looking surprise. "And no, it's not because she's dead... you were sent here from your original world to one with creatures called Pokemon. You were the only one that was brought here, and your sister is still in your original world," I said, her then sighing at that. And then, we saw that the ones to come out to stop us from leaving were Garrett and Clyde, them looking at us in annoyance.
"So here we are, getting our new and improved Super Stylers, only to see that the place gets shut down! And who should we see but you being the cause!" Garrett growled, me frowning at them.
"Yeah, and you were holding innocent bystanders captive and stealing their magic for your ugly boss. Kidnapping is a very serious crime, same with torture. Would you rather leave us be, or would you like to fight and then get arrested?" I asked, Clyde then getting his djenge drum and Garrett grabbing his base, me then feeling some weird feeling happen.
"We choose the latter. Defeating you with our most recent finds! Pheromosa, Buzzwole, come here!" they shouted, me then gawking at how the duo of bug-fighting Ultra Beasts appeared in their own ways, with Pheromosa circling me like Scizor would and for Buzzwole to come in by breaking down the door!
"Whoa! What are those things?!" Leah asked in shock, me then responding by getting out my Styler and proceeding to use it on them, me being shocked that both of them were much higher than normal Pokemon, both of them needing 20 loops in a row to capture! So, I needed some help from the Houndoom I'd caught.
"Houndoom, I need some fire to weaken them, please," I said, him nodding and assisting by powering my Styler with flames, me then carefully positioning my Styler and circling the duo to make them weaker and, afterwards, circled them 20 times extremely quickly until I then lifted the Styler and they then both got caught, the duo looking back and forth before then joining me on my side as opposed to running off.
"Hey! Who said you could switch sides?! Bah! We need to get back to base!" Garret growled as he was about to run off, but not before I shot a small blast at both his bass and Clyde's drum, breaking both in the process! "ACK! You jerk! We need to get out of-" Clyde was about to shout before Pheromosa rushed in and hit them both in a pressure point on their necks, making both of them fall to the ground, temporarily paralyzed.
"Welp, that's earned you some food from a nearby restaurant, Pheromosa. Same with Buzzwole," I smiled, them looking at me with a raised eyebrow each.
"You know what these things are?... Why are these bugs so huge?" Leah asked in concern.
"They're Ultra Beasts, Pokemon from another part of this universe called Ultra Space. And these two are actually more tame examples of what you can find in that place. There's also a tree made of wires and circuits, a giant brick cube that has tons of eyes, and a tiny origami paper warrior that can cut through literally anything," I smirked. And then the Pheromosa spoke.
"Right... may we ask if we can stick with you? We can't very well return back to our home. The Ultra Wormhole has since shut and we can't reenter until it appears in a week," she said, me nodding at her.
"Got it, I'll allow you to do so," I smirked, me then explaining the situation to Hastings and he nodded.
"Indubitably, and I may be able to research more about Ultra Beasts in the meantime! It's quite rare that they appear in this region, so if I may run some harmless tests? Such as speed and strength?" he asked, the duo then looking at each other and me smiling at them.
"Only after we finish the Go-Rock Squad incident. We need to head back to base for a mission clear, with our new captives," I smirked, the group nodding as well as our new captives groaning at me.
"Ugh... of all the stupid times to get caught, it had to be now... you're going to be in for it when Gruntilda finds out. She's able to-" Garrett was about to say before I spoke up.
"No, not really. She needed to siphon magic from these girls here in order to add to her own, because of how underpowered she is in this one. So I'd say she is not as strong as you think she is... and, we managed to get Gordor into protective custody," Hastings said, which made Clyde surprised, same with Garrett.
"You... You found him and are protecting him?... You better make sure he doesn't get hurt, got it?" Clyde said with concern.
"Oh, you needn't worry about that. He's been quite cooperative. He's even mentioned that he knows of where your secret base is, and where Gruntilda hopes to use her final version of the Super Styler at," Hastings smirked, us then exiting the factory and for Houndoom to howl in pride before then rushing off towards the top of the town. We then finally went to the Ranger Base with our new captured allies in hand and for me, on the way, to speak to the others.
"So, I know how Gruntilda got here... so were each of you three brought here from the same reason? Or because of Team Rocket?" I asked.
"We were brought in by a group of suits called Team Rocket, yes. But we were at a different setting of a lab, run by a duo called Cassidy and Butch. They brought us here alongside a villain from each of our worlds. Gruntilda was brought alongside Humba-Wumba, for me it was Diablo, his Soulstone being hidden away in a cave somewhere, and for Quincess, the villain was a group of evil spirits called the Four Lord Souls, them being sealed inside of a group of golden armor pieces... the locations of which I don't know of," Leah frowned, me sighing at that. So it meant that we'd have quite a problem with the Four Lords, especially if they all combined into one single person. Yeah, having to deal with Nito, the god of Death was bad enough, but having to deal with him, the consciousness of the Bed of Chaos, Seath the Scaleless, and the remnants of fury from Lord Gwyn in the Four Kings?... Or were they from the soul of the Furtive Pygmy? I never understood that boss fight.
"Dang... any others, or is that it?" I asked.
"No, no others, but we were brought here roughly 13 years ago, long before you arrived... wait... I think my eyes are starting to see things again..." Quincess said with surprise, me then going to her and seeing that she was looking at my ears. "I can see two long slabs of something... are they titanite?... Or... why are they twitching?" she asked.
"Those are my ears. Maybe, because this world has a more stable soul system than your own, your sickness is going away?" I smiled.
"Mm... I hope that is the case... if it completely fades away, I'll be forever in your debt, my little heroine," she smiled at me as we then finally entered the base. We then surprised everyone with the size of our new companion in Quincess, especially when she changed her size when going through the door.
"Oh wow! Um... ahem... may I ask who these new faces are? And why the one of them has no clothing on?" Joel asked, Quincess blushing at that and covering herself as best she could at that, me then getting her something from the bag on my back, it being a spare shirt that she could wear, it being the one I had on me when I was sent to this world.
"Here, put this on over your head," I smiled, Quincess then putting it on... backwards. She realized it after and then put it on the right way. "Anyways, we discovered something surprising at that factory. Not only was it the source of Super Styler production, but it also had machines that were siphoning magic away from these three, their names being Humba-Wumba, Leah, and Quincess. Each of them came from different worlds, with Humba being from Gruntilda's world, Leah coming from one filled with demons, and Quincess coming from one filled with an undead curse that makes everyone stay alive and sentient, even after death... as for her appearance, she's partly witch and partly Chaos, as she was part of a coven that tried to save the world, but ended up cursing everyone in their coven with demonic bodies," I explained.
"At least she's not a dangerous one, right? Just... huge," Joel admitted.
"Yes... oh, I just wish I could see how Quelaag is doing... I've been away from her and in this world for 13 years... only recently has my vision been recovering, as well as my strength..." she smiled.
"And I see you got some of my children," said the voice of none other than Gordor, him actually being on the right side by the Save Machine and him looking to be upset.
"D-D-... Um... Boss..." Garrett said with concern as I smiled at him.
"Cut the charade, bud, we all know that he's your dad," I said, him then sighing in defeat.
"We will discuss of what to do with you two, but if you can cooperate, we'll reduce your sentences to community service," Joel smiled, which the duo then sighed in defeat.
"Okay, we'll tell you of where Gruntilda hopes to strike next," Clyde frowned. "She plans to catch two different Legendary Pokemon that can be found in the Panula Caves. The first is Regice and the second is Jirachi," he said, me then gawking at the second part.
"Jirachi?! As in, the Mythical Pokemon that can grant wishes?" I asked, him nodding.
"And Gruntilda foolishly believes she can have Jirachi grant her magic back. But Jirachi can't grant wishes, as it can only teleport things. He can only grant wishes of things that can be warped from afar. So wishing for Grunty to have magic again? That's not going to happen, so Jirachi is in grave danger," he frowned.
"Says the one who whipped a Charizard to the point he couldn't move," Aria frowned angrily.
"Look, we only did that because Gruntilda told us to. We thought that, if we didn't do anything she said, then our dad would've been killed because of her magic," Garrett frowned angrily.
"Welp, I'll just say this. She was tricking you from the start," Leah frowned. "When she was brought here and combined her beauty with a Gardevoir a year ago, she lost nearly all of her magic from the transfer. So, as a result, she's been siphoning our magic to get her back to normal. But when she discovers that we've been freed, she'll stop at nothing to try and find us and hold us captive again."
"And because of that, I request that they be joined by me on my trip to the Panula caves. I need to know the quickest route there," I said.
"Well, there are two options. One, the submarine that Cameron found. He said it's much more expansive on the interior than the exterior. And the other suggestion is repelling down the cliff face from the Krokka Tunnel via a cliff over top the place. Which would you prefer?" Joel asked.
"I'd say that I should use the submarine, but we need to check in with Cameron first," I said, Joel then promoting me to rank 8 shortly after I got the message from him. That the sub was now all fired up and ready to get under the ocean! "And now that I'm Rank 8, I'm going to introduce my new allies to the Dragonite Bus," I smiled, them looking at me in confusion before I had our group then go up the elevator (Quincess was able to shrink her bug body heavily for this) and, after seeing the actual dragon, the duo of Leah and Quincess looked at her in surprise.
"Oh my... she's such a cutie!" Leah smiled.
"Are all of you hoping to go to somewhere at the same time?" Dragonite asked, me nodding.
"Are you able to do that? Please?" I asked, her nodding. "I can, but you need to stay quiet at what I do," she said, me then being confused by that as I then saw the dome open up... and then Dragonite actually grew to the same size as the shadowy Dragonite in the original series! Basically the one where Ash met Bill in a Kabuto outfit. She was now Godzilla size, basically!
"Whoa! Too big!" Emolga gawked as she shivered a bit. We then simply latched onto the long tail and, after that, Dragonite lifted us up to her backside and she proceeded to silently fly the whole way across the ocean and to Summerland in only 2 minutes from her new size! We had to be prepared for quite the journey in order to get to the Panula Caves in order to not only save Regice and Jirachi, but also stop Gruntilda's plans of world domination!
