"It's locked. Of course it's locked."
"Did you expect it to be open?"
"Well..."
"Of course he did."
"Hey!"
"Right, I'll handle this. Give me a sec-"
A maintenance hatch dished out with a crunch from a powerful impact, and then fell to the floor.
"Because that's not obvious in the slightest," Ash said, nodding down at the crumpled hatch as he scrambled out of the accessway.
"What did you want?" Riolu asked, following. "We didn't have a key."
"Yeah, but now it's obvious someone's on board," Ash said, then shrugged. "Oh well... where's he keeping the birds?"
Pikachu hopped out of the hole, lightning crackling around his claws. "A room near the middle of the ship, I think."
"Good thought." Ash retrieved his staff, making sure it was ready to hand, and then pulled out Dexter's projector with his free hand. "Okay, Dexter. Anything you can tell me?"
This place has no wi-fi. None whatsoever.
"I'm sure you'll cope," Ash assured him.
No, I mean I can't link into the ship's systems. There's no way in to link with. Dexter made a slight electronic blaat noise. Sorry.
"Oh, right," Ash realized, then shook his head. "Fine. No electronic help. Okay, I can live with that... Pikachu, you said you had an idea?"
"Well, just – we're on the outer edge, so we need to find a door leading inwards." Pikachu hopped off down the corridor, and the others moved to keep up with him. "This is as good a way as any."
In the storm outside, crackling orbs of Ice and Lightning energy shot out of the main gun turret of the Hikokyu. Most of them missed, flicking past the target Zapdos at high speed, but the occasional one connected with a screech of pain.
Zapdos snarled, spitting Thunder back at the orbs as they came in.
He was the master of the skies now!
The power of the storm flowed through and around him, snapping out in bolts towards the towering ship overhead. Some of them hit home, causing scorch marks, but no major damage as the lightning rods drew off the power.
Another orb hit home, and then two more in quick succession as the Hikokyu's targeting computer found the range.
Zapdos staggered in the air, then recovered – wings beating less surely.
The cannon stopped firing and rotating. Instead, a half-dozen square frames of metal dropped out next to the gun. They fell through the air for about fifty feet, stopped in mid-air, then started to spin.
Moving with purpose, they spread out to surround Zapdos.
The Legendary bird blasted the first one with a bolt of lightning sufficient to bring down the power lines of a large city. It wobbled in the air, losing the sure movement that had been controlling it up to that point, then recovered and bored back in.
Zapdos gained height with sweeps of his powerful wings, climbing out of the box.
The loops rose with him, and two – faster than the others – passed either side of him.
An incredibly powerful Thunder Wave attack fired off from them, overwhelming his innate electrical resistance and hammering straight into him.
Zapdos screamed in pain, then shook the effect off – not without difficulty – and blasted both objects as hard as he could.
Two more approached, and lightning played between them as they bracketed him. Some of the power went into him, the rest went through him, and the rings slowed to match his speed.
A final burst of Thunder – the most powerful he could manage – knocked one away, but another took its place, and from there on all his struggles were useless.
Protesting loudly, he was ferried up into the open hold of Hikokyu.
"Impressive," J admitted. "I mean, obviously I've done better, but that's with a crew."
"My glorious Hikokyu needs no aid," Lawrence agreed, stepping from the control platform as Zapdos was levitated into the central room – thrashing about like the others.
"Now..." Lawrence turned to consult the tablet, and quoted. "Bring together all three. Their treasures combined tame the beast of the sea."
J glanced over at the treasures. "How?"
"All will be revealed in time, I am sure... dear sister," Lawrence assured her with a smile. He picked up the red orb and the blue one. "These I caught first. Perhaps they must be combined into one orb, that would be as the greater treasures said to command Groudon and Kyogre."
After considering that, J nodded agreement – she'd seen stranger things.
"How to make it happen, though..." Lawrence mused, touching the orbs together and confirming they were as solid as ever.
"Maybe the rest of the prophecy holds a key?" J suggested.
"No, it's some nonsense about three titans destroying the world," Lawrence replied absently. "Hmm... Hikokyu, contract Moltres's cage and make sure there's a part of it outside the force field."
On his sister's confused look, he elaborated. "Touching the orb to the defeated legendary bird may awaken some power within it – a true test of strength."
"Oh, come on..." Ash whispered, crouched by the door. "Hunter J is here as well?"
Riolu gave the woman a hard look. "We need to stop her somehow."
"No argument here," Ash agreed. "But the first thing is to get those orbs."
"I have an idea," Pikachu volunteered, speaking as quietly as the rest of them. "We let the birds free, and hopefully the chaos will distract them."
"Sounds good to me," Ash agreed, after a moment's thought. "What do we have that's powerful enough?"
"Charizard's Blast Burn. My Volt Crash..." Pikachu thought. "And Squirtle's whatever-the-heck he comes up with."
"Works for me," Ash agreed, and walked back a half-dozen paces before bringing the two out.
"You heard?"
Charizard nodded.
Squirtle took in a deep breath, and then let it out slowly at a glare from his trainer. "Yes," he said simply.
"Okay... Pikachu, start charging," Ash said, still quietly. "Signal me when you're ready to fire."
With a faint hum, Pikachu rose into the air on a cushion of static charge. One by one, three rings of electrical potential formed around his waist and began to spin. Slowly at first, then faster and faster.
"Charizard," Ash went on. "Blast Burn Moltres's cage as soon as Pikachu fires. Squirtle, you know what to do."
The little Water-type raised an arm, which began to coat itself with water. "Meet you on the surface of the ocean, Ash – I don't think I'm going to be able to stop this side of the wall."
Pikachu's tail waved back and forth.
"Okay," Ash said, and took a deep breath. "Now!"
J watched her brother trying to make the red sphere contact Moltres's tail without being singed.
Perhaps he was on to something. The spheres certainly had to be more than just pretty baubles...
He gave it up, and walked back over to the tray to select the bluest of the three objects.
As he did, J blinked as something prickled her well-honed danger sense.
Her reaction was automatic.
"Down!" she snapped, diving forward and knocking her brother's legs out from under him.
A bolt of lightning – one almost as powerful as the ones Zapdos had been throwing around – passed to her left, making her hair stand on end and giving the air a strong smell of ozone. It struck the cage holding Zapdos and exploded, throwing smoke everywhere.
Barely had she registered that when a blaze of fire, so hot and concentrated that it was mainly visible as a blue aftershock in the air, went past over where Lawrence had been standing barely seconds before. It roiled the smoke-cloud, hit the shield holding Moltres, and detonated.
There must have been something focusing the blast, because otherwise it probably would have killed her.
And then, most of a second after that, some kind of drill went over to her right, shedding water in all directions. It disappeared into the smoke, there was a loud clang, then a smashing of glass.
J coughed in the foul smoke, scrabbling at her waist for a Pokéball.
"Did it work?" Pikachu panted, ears drooping. "That's about as powerful a blast as I can manage."
Ash closed one eye, looking through the smoke. "Looks like – yep – whoa!"
He stepped to one side, back behind cover, as Articuno screeched with triumph at his escape.
"I broke out!" he declared, in defiance of the evidence.
Zapdos countered that, wings crackling with electricity again, and Moltres took issue with both of their opinions by blazing up with fire.
"Oh, you're kidding..." Ash sighed.
Articuno took flight first, diving through the hole Squirtle had left in the plate-glass window. His wings spread, and flared, and he sped off towards the nearby Ice Island on wings of glittering blue silver.
That was met by a scream of rage from Zapdos. "No! I claimed the islands! I rule here!"
He blew a hole in the floor and plunged out after Articuno.
Moltres disdained both already-existing holes, instead melting a way through a bulkhead into the open air. "These islands are mine, Zapdos!"
"Wow," Ash commented absently.
"Yeah," Riolu agreed. "What a bunch of morons."
"Aren't you supposed to revere Legendary Pokémon?" Pikachu asked, shaking his head as he recovered.
"I find myself becoming more inclined to be a mixture of impressed and scared," Riolu replied, watching through the floor. "And there goes an Ice Beam... and a Flamethrower..."
Pikachu pointed. "Ash. The orbs!"
"Right!" Ash replied, advancing into the room. He coughed in the cloud of thick, choking smoke, and zeroed in on the orbs. "Here we go – Fire island, Ice island-"
Something very big hit Ash from the side, knocking the orbs from his hands and bowling him over. He let out a truncated cry, broken off with a thud and a roar.
"Ash!" Riolu called, advancing into the smoke with glowing paws.
Pikachu followed without a moment's hesitation.
"Guys-" Ash began, then air whooshed out of his lungs as a powerful weight pressed down on his chest.
He summoned aura to his palms, trying to aim and fire an aura sphere up at his opponent.
"Turn him over, stop him fighting back," J's voice said.
A clawed foot pushed roughly at Ash's side, and he went down onto his face despite his best efforts.
"Now, kill him."
As the master criminal's Salamence inhaled, a bolt of lightning hit him on the cheek with stunning force. He snarled, distracted, and an Aura Sphere smashed into his neck.
"Now!" J commanded. "Kill him now!"
Charizard disagreed. With a body slam.
The Fire/Flying dragon hit his Dragon/Flying opponent like a freight train, sending him flying entirely off Ash and out one of the few remaining unbroken windows on the observation deck.
Charizard followed through, diving out the hole after Salamence. His wings opened with an audible crack, and he roared defiance after the Dragon-type.
Salamence roared back, and started the battle proper with a Dragonbreath. Charizard retaliated with a Flamethrower, and from there they went out of sight behind flying machine superstructure.
"You," J hissed, as Ash got back to his feet, "are too persistent for my liking."
"I almost die a lot," Ash informed her, taking his staff in a sure two-handed grip. "I'm kind of good at not going all the way."
"I've had enough of you," J said, matter-of-factly, and slipped her hand into a pocket. Out came her goggles, which went onto her head and started to glow red.
Then came a gun.
"What?" Ash asked, blinking at it as she levelled it at him. "An actual gun?"
J fired. Ash brought his staff up in a blurring arc to impose it, thankful for the improved reaction time he got from Detect, and the bullet pinged off and thudded into some of the rich upholstery around the room.
"You owe me a ship," J added, making little moves with the muzzle of her gun towards Pikachu and Riolu as they tried to circle her. "I'll take it out of your hide, though."
A humming noise distracted Ash. He glanced over, and saw that Lawrence III had regained his footing, picked up the now-glowing Fire Island orb, and activated his elevating control deck.
The distraction nearly cost him his life. A second bullet cracked out, and it took a hasty Protect to deflect it from a direct hit to a miss so close it cut his hair.
"We should get out of here, Ash," Pikachu recommended, eyes on J. "The treasures are what's important."
"Yeah, but how do I-" Ash began, then stopped talking. His eyes widened.
J scoffed. "That's such an old trick-" she said, then frowned.
"What's that noise?"
What began as a low rumble escalated into a roar. A sound that drowned out the sound of the engines, then the sound of speech, and made a good attempt at drowning out thought.
And, over the top of it, some familiar voices.
"Prepare for trouble!" boomed a PA system.
The PA system was a bit of a botch job, made of a couple of hi-fi stereos bolted to the nose cone of the Rockets' vehicle.
The vehicle itself, on the other hand, was anything but a botch job – a sleek arrow of metal, with two engines blazing away to keep it 'standing on end' in the sky.
"And make it double!" added a different voice.
"What the..." J said, keeping one eye on Ash. "What is this?"
"Yeah, by now we're kind of used to it," Ash shrugged. "Cool plane, guys!"
"Why, thank you!" James' voice said, then he and Jessie audibly cleared their throats.
"To protect the world from devastation!" Jessie opened, which was actually true.
"To unite all peoples within our nation," James continued, which was less so.
"To make sure everyone else is deaf," declared the female Rocket admin, in what was probably an understatement.
"And to fly around in a Flanker-F!" James said, waving from the pilot's seat.
"Jessie!"
"James!"
"Team Rocket, blast off at the speed of light!"
"J, give up now, or prepare to fight!"
The targeting lasers on the nose lit up.
"Good night!" Meowth added from Jessie's lap. "Okay, now where's da cannon controls..."
The nose cannon fired two rounds. One of them smashed the last remaining glass window, the other went inches to J's left and blew a hole in the wall – also starting a fire.
"Run!" Ash shouted, as J turned to return fire at the aircraft.
The minute that there was a solid wall between Ash and J, the young trainer relaxed.
"Seriously, what the hell?" he asked Riolu. "A gun?"
"She is a criminal, Ash," Riolu pointed out. "Besides, we just got saved by a military aircraft."
"Yeah, but a gun..." Ash glanced around as they jogged along the corridor. "Wait. Where's Pikachu?"
The yellow rodent hurried up from behind, body blurred slightly with Agility and a blue sphere in his paws. "Sorry about that – I went to see if the other orbs were still there."
"Good thought!" Ash complimented him, picking up the Ice orb from Pikachu and pocketing it. "What about the other one – Lightning? I know Lawrence has Fire."
"Wasn't there," Pikachu reported, with a shake of his head. "Sorry. I think it fell out of one of the holes."
"Oh, great..." Ash said with a sigh. "Well, guess we're going to have to find it later."
They came to a staircase, with opulent purple carpeting down the middle of what was otherwise quite simple marble steps, and art and paintings lining both walls.
"How much stuff does this guy have?" Ash asked, powering up the stairs with his two Pokémon flanking him.
"A lot?" Riolu tried.
The corridor they ended up in at the top of the long steps was about on the level of the middle impeller bank. Large blades crossed in front of the windows every few seconds, and thunder and fire flashed outside.
"Hope Charizard is okay out there," Ash said, searching for a sign of his burly Fire-type as they continued.
Charizard flew hard, wings beating with the steady rhythm that carried him at combat speeds, and curved up and around a protrusion of the flying ship.
Dragonfire curled after him, going wide, and then he was inside the shadow of the ship and harder to target. He didn't stop, instead making a sharp turn to make it harder for Salamence to track him.
Glancing back, he verified that the other dragon hadn't got him back in view yet, and folded his wings to drop out of contact.
Metal flashed past, then one of the lower engine pods, and after that he was into clear air beneath the Hikokyu.
He had to make a small correction to avoid hitting a fighter aircraft (which was a weird enough sight to earn a double-take, at least until he spotted who was flying it and that explained everything) and then went up under another engine pod and latched on with all four sets of claws.
Charizard curled his tail up inside his wings, and waited.
Twenty or so tense seconds passed, and then Salamence appeared again. He hadn't seen Charizard yet, and instead bore in on the fighter jet.
He was barely seconds away when the jet noticed. It cut engines, gimballed them and reignited them – resulting in a weird, counterintuitive swing-by-the-nose that left it upside down as Salamence passed.
Cannon rounds stabbed out, hitting one wing of the blue Pokémon.
Charizard saw his chance, and took it. His claws clenched, getting a better grip – the engine sputtered and coughed as he finally hit something vital – and then he pushed off, accelerating to Aerial Ace speeds and coming down onto the stalling Salamence in a gushing roar of Dragonbreath.
The attack hit his unsuspecting target hard, and Salamence roared out with pain, then rolled and caught Charizard's Dragon Claw attack with his own Slash, and started trying to both bite and claw at once.
Snarling and snapping, the two dragons gradually lost height.
"That ain't good for the engines," Meowth commented, as they rolled back upright again. "But it's a good thing we got that levitation unit in dis thing, or we'd be worse off."
"And being bitten in half by a dragon would be worse still," Jessie agreed. "Did we get J?"
"No," James reported mournfully. "The cockpit's got a couple of cracks in it, too..."
"What else can we do to help?" Jessie asked.
"I got somethin'!" Meowth said with gusto, tapping away at the controls. "Dat thing ain't gonna have guns any more!"
"Wait," Jessie said, blinking. "Are you going to-"
The Suicune-37 juddered as four missiles dropped off the racks, two at a time. They shot across the intervening space to the Hikokyu's weapons module, and blew huge chunks of metal and machinery out of it.
Secondary explosions followed, and then the whole assembly detonated.
Ash stumbled as the gigantic flying castle shook like a ship in a storm.
"What did we just hit?" he asked, regaining his footing.
"I think something hit us, actually," Riolu corrected.
"Oh, sure, it's obvious now..." Ash couldn't quite suppress a chuckle. "Okay, we must be nearly around the ship by now. Where's the next stairs?"
Pikachu's voice cut in on his question. "Look out!"
Ash turned to look at Pikachu, then followed his gaze out the window.
Lightning stabbed through the stormy sky. Then ice, closer. Fire, closer still...
The three legendary birds, the Titans of legend, approached with startling speed. Their battle scored the side of the Hikokyu with near misses and shots that only partially connected, then Zapdos collided with one of the impellers as he used Drill Peck on an evading target, and Moltres' fire cut off a half-dozen engine pods.
This explosion was both very big, and very, very close. Ash fell over with an oof as an impeller almost under their feet blew up, tearing a hole in the side of the ship and making the corridor floor give way entirely.
Hikokyu shuddered, taking on a definite list, as the lost engine pods canted the ship away from the missing lift capacity.
Then the fighting continued off into the distance.
"Oww..." Ash complained, standing upright again with difficulty. "That was close..."
"I'll say," Riolu agreed, looking with a shiver at the rent metal where they'd almost been standing.
"We're going to have to jump over this," Pikachu decided. He gave the gap a look, then used Agility to boost his speed – then a quick Quick attack followed, and he was over.
Ash went next. He took a deep breath, channelling his aura, then took a run up... pushed aura into his boots, cancelling out most of his weight... and leapt.
Landing with an oof on the far side, he turned. "Riolu?"
"Got it." The Emanation Pokémon stepped back, and got ready to follow-
"Toxic!"
Ash's gaze snapped up.
Hunter J was standing in the curve of the corridor, almost out of view. Her clothes were torn and smouldering, and there was an unsettling triumph in her eyes.
Then her Drapion fired a massive Toxic attack.
Riolu was already in the air when he reacted. He heard the move, and knew that it was intended to kill Ash.
There wasn't even a decision to be made, not really.
Ash had sworn to protect him. Had saved his life. Had trained him further than even his original harsh regimen had taken him.
Had become the best friend he'd ever had.
So he twisted in the air, focusing all the Aura he could into a powerful Force Palm, and moved himself into the way of the attack.
Ash was a human – he wasn't tough enough.
He, on the other hand, would probably survive.
Ash saw what Riolu had to be doing. Time seemed to have slowed, as his body tried to do something – anything – to change what was about to happen.
But he was too slow.
He closed his eyes, not wanting to see-
And a loud clang reverberated through the floor.
"...whoa," Pikachu said softly.
Ash looked up. At the blue-and-black body standing in front of him, now almost the same height.
"As you kept faith with me, so I with you," Lucario said. "Go. I'll handle J."
"Nearly there," Sir Aaron said, with relief. "We've beaten friendship into people the length and breadth of Japan, showed off, showed one another up, and showed up late for at least one battle."
He looked between the young Palkia and the young Dialga.
"Now, time for the final battle."
"Dis gonna be good!" Palkia said.
"Stop it, please," Sir Aaron pleaded. "Your accent is terrible."
"Sorry," the Spatial Pokémon said, insincerely, and pink blades of energy started to form around his gauntlets. "Let's get on with it!"
"Wait up a bit," Dialga asked. "Who's the final boss, dad?"
I'm touched, Arceus said out of thin air. I miss you calling me that.
"Dad?" Dialga pressed.
Oh, right. Well, I originally planned to make it an undead human. But then I had this idea...
Sir Aaron sighed. "No, wait. Don't tell me. I think I can guess."
Ominous music started playing.
"Seriously?"
Ieyasu stepped up beside Sir Aaron. "At last... an enemy who deserves to know the true nature of bonds!"
He cracked his knuckles, making the gloves he wore flash with golden light.
"Did you write all the dialogue?" Sir Aaron pressed, facing vaguely skywards.
Almost all of it. Almost.
"BEHOLD!" a deep, rich voice announced. Like the voices of some Legendary Pokémon, it imposed itself directly on the mind without bothering to involve itself with speech. "The demon king of the reverse world returns to the world of mortals!"
"Hiyah, bro!" Palkia said, killing the mood completely. "Are you ready, guys?"
"So," Sir Aaron addressed the creator of all once more. "You made a Giratina, as well."
Of course I did. How could I not? Giratina is as much a part of creation as Dialga and Palkia.
"Right. And the reason he's not turned up in any of our previous games is?"
...because I created him since this game started. I forgot, okay? I'm omnipotent, not omnimnemonic.
"That's not a word." Sir Aaron faced Giratina directly, watching as the Dragon/Ghost type went from Origin forme to Altered forme. "Nice to meet you."
"Oh, come on." Giratina seemed to sag. "Are none of you going to stay in character?"
Dialga shrugged. His fins extended slightly, and the gem on his chest started to glow.
"Excellent!" Ieyasu said, noticing. "May our bonds shine forever, throughout all time!"
Giratina's crest flashed, and he teleported a hundred feet to the left just before Roar of Time connected with him.
Sir Aaron threw one of his Sacred Swords just on general principle, then Palkia got in on the act with a Spatial Rend, and combat became general.
AN:
I have had Riolu's evolution into Lucario planned to be here since shortly after I introduced him at all. The chaos of the ship's current situation, on the other hand, draws a bit from Avengers Assemble and the progressively damaged heli-carrier.
Also – who else would be Nobunaga Oda?