AN: This story is a continuation of both "Pokemon World Adventures" and Azakael's "Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Starstorm Ultra." We have written this story with newcomers in mind, though, so feel free to start here and go back and read our solo adventures as well!
…An entire year.
Between venturing off into the far reaches of the galaxy to catch interstellar outlaws, trekking through frozen wastelands to retrieve a lost child, or delving deep into caves to quell supposed 'monsters' lying in wait within that posed hazards to folks searching to gather its natural materials, a year didn't seem like all that much time despite the rather large number of days making one up. Days turned to weeks, weeks to months, so on and so forth, but despite the rather hectic nature of the expeditioning profession, life was just fine.
Someone had to keep the galaxy in working order, after all, and that certainly couldn't be left to the faint of heart. During that year, things had calmed down significantly following the scarily successful attempted galactic takeover by a crazed Nihilego, but still, the ones that had stopped her, Team Starstorm, were hard at work, making sure the timeless troubles that did persist were kept in check. Astrid, a rather shy Decidueye with a tendency to become flustered in everyday conversation but found her voice better than anyone in battle, took up at the head of the bunch with her sharp eyes keeping watch on every direction, a loaded satchel on her back and her feather fingers ready to fire an arrow at any foe. Arashi, a rambunctious Greninja with a seeming inability to frown, was typically the one trailing close behind her, smiling with sparkling eyes even in barren wastelands. Raijin, a mostly docile Xurkitree that fired wickedly huge lightning bolts and had his friends' backs above all else, always trailed close behind too, carrying a small bag that housed Gemini the Cosmog so he would not float away in the event that a breeze blew through (which, admittedly, did occasionally happen).
Of course, braving the harshness of Ultra Space, having a run-in with the corrupted Ultra Necrozma and living to tell the tale, climbing the stronghold that was Megalo Tower, besting the tyrannical Nihilego known as Void and her wickedly overpowered Delphox underling, Salem, atop it, and coming back home in one piece got them quite a bit of recognition among the expeditioning front, but Astrid never stayed out in public any longer than she had to. Raijin likewise kept close to her for the most part, not too keen on loudness and hubbub, and though Arashi was certainly prone to go wandering the town or hitting up the pub with their comrades, he didn't leave his friends for long. Little Gemini peeked out of his bag, but likewise didn't stray very far either, not wanting to get swept away by the winds or captured in the beak of a wild Pelipper if one happened to think he looked appetizing. Their base, the Expedition Coalition HQ, was located in Craggy Crossroads, after all- there was a never a dull moment between all the expedition teams that made it their home or the creatures passing through trying to hit up one of the dungeons nearby for sparkling crystals, evolutionary stones, ancient fossils, or even just some tasty chestnuts.
And in being located in an expedition hub, wild tales of far-off or difficult-to-conquer dungeons were prone to crop up. Recent tales claimed a dungeon known as Tapu Tower, located on a remote island that seemed to appear and disappear as time went on, had appeared again after a Gastrodon mentioned she had seen it while traversing the sea to visit some relatives, and the teams went wild. The history books and older expedition logs described it as a place of extreme difficulty, the dungeon-dwellers of the tower all being fearsome foes and the terrain as being akin to a tropical graveyard- warm, damp, and full of vegetation, but dark and shrouded in a perpetual eerie mist through which the concealed figures of dungeon-dwellers could be seen moving before confronting any intruders. Cracked bricks made up the walls and peeked up from the dirt floor, making an uncomfortable hollow thudding sound if they were tread over that alerted any expeditioners to nearby foes but also alerted those foes to any expeditioners. It was a place likely hidden for a reason, and to go hunting it down was sure to end in either a fruitless endeavor or a crushing defeat.
…However, for anyone able to brave it, the reward was great- the island's guardians, known collectively as the Tapus, would show their favor to the tower's conquerors. A tough dungeon, a hard-fought skirmish, a natural disaster, going for a picnic and dropping the picnic basket into a river, whatever it may have been- one of the Tapus would rush to their aid to solve it. Maybe such a thing was far-fetched, maybe it was simply overblown, maybe it was completely made up and the Tapus themselves started the rumor to laugh at anyone who would take it seriously, but in any case, someone had to be the first to clear it in several decades. Expeditioners from all around set off to try, and every single group had failed. Maybe, just maybe, Team Starstorm- the expeditioners that had saved the universe once before- could pull it off, for surely, braving Ultra Necrozma's wrath and a gods-forsaken army of creatures hopped up on Nihilego poison had to count for something.
…At least, they had hoped, but in usual fashion, it wasn't so simple.
[***]
Tapu Tower 99F
"This place is terrible," Astrid said flatly, voice as tired as could be. "I'll take old Megalo Tower with all the poisoned Stakatakas ten times over before I ever think about doing this again."
"I feel like I trekked a desert and ran out of charge ten kilometers ago but somehow I'm still going," Raijin concurred, voice more akin to static than anything else and his glow fairly faint.
"Maybe the last tower guardian is nice," Arashi said hopefully, albeit in a blatantly pained voice. "The other three were giving us a hard time to make us prove ourselves, so maybe all that's left is to reach the top and have the last grant us their blessing."
The dark soil under their feet was soft, which made for easy walking at the very least, but the heavy mist in the humid air made it hard to see exactly where they walked. General shapes and colors- most of them plantlike and green or yellow with bits of pink and blue- were visible for the most part, but occasionally those shapes would move, and a much different silhouette would come into view. Sometimes if the expeditioners stood perfectly still, that figure would back off and retreat down what was presumed to be a corridor, but the flashing eyes of a Luxray or a perpetually angry Tauros wouldn't back down at all.
Being light on their feet was imperative, for stepping on scattered brick layers that were exposed among the dark soil would make a sound that alerted any foes nearby to their presence, and rarely was that solved by simply standing still when a voracious Hydreigon caught the sound. In the corridors, it was even worse, for the mist was so thick that they could barely see a meter in front of them and, on a few occasions, stumbled right into a screeching Tinkaton with a swinging hammer.
The tower's- no, the island's itself- guardians weren't any nicer. Tapu Lele had given them false hope with her soft, friendly voice and beautifully glowing scales that made the Starstorm quartet feel instantly better upon touching them… but she had only healed them in the first place so she could have more fun toying with them, laughing as she disoriented them with Sweet Scents, locked them down with Mean Looks, planted Draining Kisses, and relentlessly attacked with Extrasensory.
Tapu Bulu seemed like pushover for how lazy he was, not even bothering to look the expeditioners in the eye as he lounged on a fallen tree trunk and basked in Grassy Terrain while lightly ringing his bell, but the second they tried to stroll around him to the end of the room, they were instantly smashed with a Wood Hammer and found that he was plenty capable of throwing down horrifying Megahorns and Skull Bashes.
Tapu Fini seemed reasonable enough, claiming that her visitors were unclean and needed to be purified before she would ever consider aiding them… but the way she cloaked herself in Mist, then an Aqua Ring, all to keep herself clean whilst Moonblasting and Hydro Pumping away at her company made them think that they'd probably be better off staying unclean forever than earning her favor. Truly, the Tapus weren't anything to mess with, and it started to seem like the island was hidden to protect its visitors from the inhabitants rather than the other way around.
"I wish I could help you guys," Gemini said softly, his gaseous arms nudging open his pouch slightly so he could ever-so-carefully peek out. "If I were a Solgaleo…"
"Helping isn't limited to just battling, Gemini," Raijin said softly, reaching backwards to give the little Cosmog a friendly pat. "Knowing we can call on you to get us out of here and to a safe place gives us good peace of mind."
"We just might be doing that soon, depending on how this last Tapu sees us," Astrid said tiredly, leaning against the wall for a second as she and her teammates entered into another room. "Unless I'm seeing things, I think we found the stairs."
As her teammates too entered the room, they saw what she was referring to- a rather large structure in the middle of the floor, some pointed and jagged edges giving the indication of old but chiseled steps. If she'd been in Ultra Space, she would've thought it a Stakataka taking a strange shape, but thankfully, hostile living stone structures were many, many light years away, and that shape could only mean one thing on their world.
"Oh, come on," Arashi said playfully but likewise in a slightly hoarse voice. "You really think we can't pull off one more win?"
"Arashi, let's be real," Astrid said haplessly, catching her breath. "I feel like I have to fish around to pull any more pointed feathers out of my wings to shoot, and my Razor Leaf is more 'leaf' at this point. Your Water Shuriken are more water than shuriken, and you aren't zipping around at ridiculous speeds anymore. Raijin's Discharge started losing its charge about twenty floors ago and frankly, I'm amazed we've made it this far. Our bag is empty, you and me could both use a snack break, and the three of us are worn out."
"I think I may have overheated my cores a bit, going this long without stopping, so I'm not channeling my current very well," Raijin said softly.
"Overheated your cores," Astrid haplessly remarked. "Is that even possible with you just, y'know, doing your thing? You hardly have to try to make stuff go boom- you just aim and it happens! But apparently, you've got a limit that isn't related to running out of charge? Did you even know that?"
"Apparently so, and no," Raijin said, likewise sounding hapless. "Thirty or forty floors of bolt-firing is fine, but this… this is a lot of floors. I'm plenty charged up, it's just… not behaving as I'd like it to."
Astrid shook her head, sighing. "… Sheesh. We really didn't see that coming."
"Alright, you got me," Arashi said with a slight chuckle. "What's our game plan? If this last one isn't friendly, then-"
Instantly, all of them shut up when the sound of footsteps across some bricks and the rustling of grass caught their attention. A larger quadrupedal figure perked up, rooting around for a moment in some brush, then apparently made for another corridor- a glance of some large fins on its head and pointed gills on its cheeks gave away that it was a Swampert wandering around. Astrid and Arashi probably could've handled it, being an amphibian and grassy avian themselves, but the prospect of an Earthquake going off certainly would've been bad news for Raijin, and Astrid wasn't so sure that she could muster up the stamina to pull him out of one. The feathers on her wings, while re-growing faster in the midst of a dungeon as opposed to the ordinary properties of the outside world, were getting fairly sparse with all of her arrow-firing and leaf-scattering and her muscles felt sore as it was.
After a few moments, the Swampert vanished out of view, and the Starstorm quartet waited a few moments before moving again just to be safe.
"Our game plan?" Astrid mused softly, eyeing her friends tiredly but earnestly. "We're gonna do our best. I'm gonna have an arrow ready to lock them down, and Raijin, I'm going to stick close beside you so you can give me some coverage to fire it. The second they show hostility, you let loose a Discharge, and I'm gonna go for a Spirit Shackle. Arashi, you stay behind me and out of Raijin's way, and whenever the bolts calm down, you go for an Ice Beam and try to cover their eyes in ice first, then freeze whatever limbs they have next. I'm the best equipped to take a hit among us, so if they rush us, I'm going for a double Steel Wing and shielding you guys with it, and I want you both to take the opportunity to hit them while they're close. If we can pull that off, hopefully we can make quick work of them. If we can't… Gemini, just be ready. If I go down, then Raijin, you make the call if we need to make an escape. Is everyone good with that?"
"Roger that," Arashi easily replied.
"Duly noted," Raijin affirmed.
"I'll be listening," Gemini concurred.
The three of them who could nod shared a nod, and Astrid made for the stairs with her comrades close behind. Gemini nestled back down into his pouch, using his cloudy little arms to shut it again, and Astrid said a quiet prayer to whoever would listen- Arceus to plead for their safety, Xerneas to keep their lives intact if things went awry, and though she thought about maybe praying to Necrozma just to cover her bases, decided that maybe Raijin would be better to do that and likely already was. She rifled around on the underside of her wing for a moment with one hand and found a sufficiently sharp-tipped feather, albeit not as big as she would've liked, and kept it carefully grasped while gently grabbing the vines of her hood with the other. Hopefully, Arashi's optimistic ideas were right- that this wouldn't be a fight- but somehow, she seriously doubted it.
[***]
Tapu Tower Summit
The terrain wasn't much different, albeit with some stones carved to look like monstrous idols with many different faces, wings, and limbs lining the perimeter of the room, and much larger tropical flowers in shades of purples, pinks, and oranges dotting the floor and ceiling. The heavy humidity was still easily felt, but the mist was largely gone, save for a bit of it lingering around the ground but not going much higher than ten centimeters at the most, and a thick cloud towards the back of the room, shrouding what they guessed was the final way out judging by what looked to be a gaping hole in the wall behind it.
In the middle of the room, perched atop a bigger carved stone, was an odd figure resembling a disembodied bird's head made out of yellow wooden planks with eyes and slight details painted on in black, white, and orange, an orange and yellow plume sticking out of the top and the figure's black beak long and sharp. By the look, she had to figure that the avian-like visage insinuated a Flying-type, likely a Flying- and Fairy-type based on the other three all having fairy attributes, and whomever it was, they were not moving. She and the Greninja and Xurkitree at her sides shared a quiet glance before she carefully took one soft, silent step forward, trying not to make a sound in case the figure was fast asleep or maybe deep in meditation as they seemed to be.
The air was not silent for long, however.
"GYAAAAAAAAAH!"
A wrathful scream filled the air and the figure unfurled into a creature much like Tapu Lele, Tapu Bulu, and Tapu Fini- his body was slender and black, the pointed pincers of his hands making up the shell's 'beak,' and his eyes positively full of wrath. Just like Astrid had said, Raijin filled the air with lightning bolts that left black, jagged singe marks on their surroundings, while the Decidueye herself stepped back out of the way and notched her arrow to fire it. She found her opening amid the flurry of electricity and fired… but their furious company clearly wasn't playing around.
He put one arm in front of himself like a shield, hardly bothered by Raijin's Discharge, and caught Astrid's arrow in one set of pincers before it could hit. "You fools!" he hissed, clamping down so hard that the arrow splintered and broke. "You dare to show your faces- or lack thereof- before me?!"
"At least he's inclusive," Arashi haplessly remarked, aiming an Ice Beam next at their foe's outstretched arm.
"Now is not the time," Raijin said, his faceless self clearly not touched.
Sparks danced along their foe's body, the three of them guessing that perhaps Raijin had gotten a good shot with his attack and paralyzed him, but that was quickly found to not be the case when the wrathful one fired back with a Discharge of his own that rendered the Ice Beam more of a slushy than anything. Astrid and Arashi's faces both fell, the Decidueye immediately clutching up her partner to shield him from any stray bolts. She'd taken an onslaught of Raijin's bolts before venturing into Ultra Space for the first time to get used to the wicked firepower of Ultra Beasts, but that certainly hadn't been pleasant, and neither was this.
"That is not a Flying-type," Astrid muttered to herself.
"You were thinking that too?" Raijin likewise mused.
"Do we have the option of calmly talking this out like civilized creatures?!" Arashi called, nonetheless burying himself in Astrid's feathers.
"NO!" their foe thundered, practically shaking with rage and sparking with fury as he stared them down. "I am Tapu Koko, eldest of the island guardians! If you're here in my presence, that means you trampled over my little brother and sisters, and I will not stand for it! As their big brother, I cannot let you triumph! I'll make you regret ever setting foot in Tapu Tower!" He threw his arms out to the side, still with his eyes locked on them. "Come forth, my comrades, and assist me! GYAAAAAAAAH!"
That certainly was even worse to hear, and even worse to see were the so-called 'comrades' he called- from the mist-shrouded hole in the wall came charging a Garchomp with slashing claws, a Volcarona that scattered embers with each flap of its wings, a growling Chesnaught, and a less-than-happy Metagross. The members of Team Starstorm certainly weren't happy to see them either, and Astrid and Arashi both got dismayed expressions while Raijin gave a hesitant twitch. Gemini, of course, stayed buried in his pouch out of the way, but the little nebula wasn't immune from panic either at the sound of things and shuddered a bit within his hiding place.
"Gods above!" Arashi cried in surprise, filling his hands with watery shuriken but looking uncertain.
"Oh, this is ugly," Raijin said flatly, his hands full of sparks.
Astrid wasn't going to waste time- in their state, this wasn't a winnable battle. "Take us home, little nebula!" she hollered, eyes full of dismay.
Gemini's tiny voice called back from within his pouch. "Will do! Uwaaaaa…!" At that, the air behind them cracked and split apart to give way to a wormhole, which caught Tapu Koko by surprise for the way his eyes grew wider. Astrid was the first to jump into it, Raijin close behind.
"Oh, you're running?!" the furious guardian yelled, sparking even more. "That's right, you cowards! You get lost and you don't come back! GYAAAAAAH!"
"Oh, we'll be back to settle the score! And we'll bring the rest of our comrades!" Arashi hollered back, Raijin quickly grabbing hold of him and yanking him along.
"Now is not the time!" the Xurkitree exclaimed, pulling him in as the wormhole closed.
Gemini had opened wormholes before, but somehow, this one didn't feel… quite right. Tapu Tower became a tiny blip at the end of a tunnel through space, but the blip on the other end that they were headed towards didn't look familiar. "U-um, guys, I-…!" the little Cosmog started to say, thrashing around in his bag slightly, but didn't finish the words as if his voice had gone out suddenly.
Astrid felt it too, an odd sensation overtaking her. "Woah, Gemini, what the heck!" Arashi too exclaimed.
Raijin, however, sounded much more panicked. "Astrid, Arashi, are you guys alright?! Hang on, don't-!"
Astrid wasn't sure what, but something… something had gone wrong. Something had gone very wrong.
Meanwhile, in another world at the same time…
A whole year. That's how long it'd been since the trio had met up. Sure, they'd had plenty of video chats, but it wasn't the same as whenever they could all be in the same place. It would be the first time in an entire year that Dylan, Ashton, and Kris would be seeing each other, and what better place to meet up again than in the city where they'd first met?
Just outside of St. Louis, Missouri, a young man sat on a grassy hillside, humming to himself as his Pokémon lulled around in the grass. He wore a pair of grey sneakers, black sport pants, a purple T-shirt with a grey hoodie over it, and white glasses that framed his purple-grey eyes. Dylan brushed a hand through his short brown hair as he sat back-to-back with his partner Pokémon, Aurora.
Aurora herself was unique among Lucario, being what was known as an Ancient Guardian Lucario, a form that had only ever been recorded in the ancient past. While she looked like a regular Lucario for the most part, her dreadlocks were long and wavy like that of a Mega Lucario, with her feet and hands also having those same enhancements with larger and more durable appendages. Her steel spikes were replaced with shimmering purple crystals, a signifier of her altered type into a Fighting/Ghost Pokémon.
"I can sense that our friends are approaching," Aurora said, not opening her eyes as her senses reached out around her.
"Okay then. Everyone, our friends are almost here!" Dylan called to his team.
The Pokémon all gathered around their Trainer: Vex the Noivern (now fully evolved after intense training this past year), Inari the Hisuian Zoroark (and a Shiny one at that!), Poli'ahu the Artic Ninetails, and Mercury the Shiny Zeraora. These Pokémon alongside others had been the ones to take Dylan to the position of World Champion of the Pokémon League, and soon their friends would arrive that had helped him on that journey as well.
"There you are!" a brash voice shouted. A blonde girl wearing jeans, a leather jacket, boots, and fingerless gloves ran up, grinning like a mad woman as she sprinted right up to Dylan. The two shared a fist bump before laughing. "I was wondering where you were hiding out! I was running all over the city looking for ya!"
"I sent you my location, you know," Dylan said.
The girl, Ashton, just laughed. "But I wanted to challenge myself and find you on my own!"
I did try to tell her where you were, but she didn't listen, a psychic voice sighed. One of Ashton's Poké Balls burst open, revealing a Deoxys with a purple core crystal. This was one of Ashton's Pokémon and one of her strongest, Regulus.
"Didn't want to wait for me to call you out, huh?" Ashton crossed her arms. "Oh well, might as well call the rest of the team out too, then!" She grabbed the Poké Balls on her belt and summoned out her personal team: Vulcan the Typhlosion, Phantasm the Gengar, Halley the Clefable, Azrael the Skarmory, and Orochi the Hydreigon.
Orochi gave a shout and thrust one of his heads at Aurora, the Lucario smirking and blocking the attack with a single paw. "I see you still want the rematch, Orochi," Aurora said calmly. "We'll have to have that battle soon enough."
"We should probably wait for Kris to show up first, though. I don't think she'll want to miss this," Dylan said.
"Welp, I see her coming this way now," Ashton said, pointing to a rapidly approaching creature.
It was a Suicune, and on its back was a girl with blue hair held up in pigtails, a white lab coat flowing in the breeze as the Aurora Pokémon sped across the water. Soon the duo of Trainer and Pokémon were right in front of Dylan and Ashton, and with a smile the girl riding Suicune, Kris, hopped off of her mount and gave the two a friendly wave.
"Long time no see, Dylan, Ashton. I hope you've been doing well without me," Kris greeted.
"Same to you, little miss professor," Ashton replied.
"Assistant professor, actually," Kris corrected. "After all that research that Colress and I did, I got an assistant position with Professor Juniper at her lab in upstate New York. It's been so amazing working with a lead researcher in Pokémon!"
"Well, you can save the life story for after the picnic," Dylan chuckled. "How about we get your team out here so we can all enjoy this day?"
Kris nodded and called out her other Pokémon: Shedu the Absol, Sera the Eevee, Chi the Madamefetch'd (a unique Farfetch'd evolution from one of the trio's time traveling adventures), Maui the Kommo-o, and Alpha the Feraligatr. Soon the humans and Pokémon were all enjoying a lovely picnic, making their own sandwiches and sharing stories about what had happened in the year since they had all last seen each other.
"After you beat me in the World Tournament finals, I was still a pretty popular Trainer, enough so that now I run my own battle facility at the Battle Frontier," Ashton said. "I call it the Battle Lair, a test of Pokémon Trainer's skill to hit hard and fast!"
"I think I've seen matches that were recorded there before," Kris recalled. "Do you really drop the floor out from under your opponents?"
Ashton laughed. "The Battle Lair's objective is to break the floor underneath your opponent to drop them into the void before they do the same to you. Sure, you can use moves like Reflect or Protect to reduce damage done to your side of the floor, but it's all about who does the most net damage during their turn that determines the damage done to the floor."
Just to clarify, the "void" Ashton is talking about is actually just a pit filled with foam blocks to cushion the fall, Regulus spoke up.
"Aw, you're no fun…" Ashton sighed. "Still, no one has been able to beat my challenge yet, so they haven't been awarded any of my medals yet! …It's kinda sucks that the only matches I've been able to have are exhibition matches against the other Frontier Brains, though…"
"Well then, we'll just have to battle you out here as well," Dylan laughed. "As for me, I trained with Lance for a few months before heading out on globe-trotting training trip with Keldeo. There's still a lot we don't know about Aurora's Aura Guardian Lucario state, so the Swords of Justice offered to help train her in mastering her abilities."
"You'll have to give me notes on anything you've found about Aurora's unique form!" Kris said.
"We've certainly met a lot of interesting faces on our journey, and helped a lot of Pokémon in need," Aurora nodded. "Like those two rookie International Police members we teamed up with. What were their names again…? Something like… Huge and Smiley or something?"
"It was Hugh and Gladion, I think," Dylan hummed. "Either way, the two of them reminded me of Ashton, actually."
"Because they were awesome battlers?" Ashton asked.
"No, because they were over the top and edgy like you are sometimes!" Dylan laughed. The others laughed at that (even Ashton, who gave her friend a friendly punch to the arm) before a haughty laugh cut in over all of them. "I know that voice…"
"Prepare to be dazzled once more, humans!" the voice exclaimed, and in a flash of fire a Delphox appeared alongside a Shiny Unfezant and a Dragapult, the Delphox waving her wand in the air before giving a flirty wink. "The amazing, all-seeing Delphi has returned to grace you with her presence!"
"I was wondering if she was going to show up…" Kris said.
"And her ego has only grown since we last saw her as well…" Ashton sighed.
Delphi adjusted her witch's hat and approached the group, immediately going over to Aurora and giving her a big hug. "I see my sweet Aurora has only gotten stronger since we last saw each other! Has really only been a year since then? And I see Mercury is still hanging around as well."
"My duties were to aid Aurora in her training, and that has not changed since we last saw each other, Delphi," Mercury said, crossing his arms.
"Oh, I'm not disappointed to see you, Mercury. I'm sure the three of us will have lots of fun now that we're reunited," Delphi laughed. "I should thank you for letting me take Joker with me on my trip, Dylan. We even added a new member to our team. Meet Spirit, alongside his Dreepy companions, William and Clerval."
"Dragapult," Spirit said, giving a nod as his Dreepy waved from their cannons.
"So, what did you get up to since we last met, Delphi?" Dylan asked.
Delphi giggled and took a seat on the picnic blanket, using her magic to create a sandwich for herself. "Oh you know… After I left with Joker we ended up hitching a ride with those Ultra Recon Squad people we met that one time, which ended with the two of us in a whole different world only filled with Pokémon."
"Only Pokémon? How strange…" Aurora hummed.
"You may doubt it, but it's the truth, darling. We met Spirit soon after and formed our own team, Team Mirage!" Delphi continued. "There was a lot of stuff we did in that other world: save Pokémon in need, stop genocidal alien invaders, start my own fan club-"
"What was that last one?" Ashton asked.
"Oh yes, I'm very, very popular in that other world," Delphi laughed. "Watch out, Aurora, or you might have competition for my affection!"
"That implies we have that kind of relationship, Delphi," Aurora sighed. "I thought we agreed to just be friends?"
"You don't have to try to let me down gently, dearie," Delphi giggled.
"Un-Fezant…" Joker sighed.
Mercury nodded. "Indeed, Delphi is living in her own world."
"I was talking about fighting aliens?" Ashton said.
"Oh, yes, that thing. It's a long story- you could probably write an entire book about it," Delphi shrugged. "Either way, it did end with Team Mirage gaining another new member…" The Delphox took off her hat and reached into it, pulling out another Pokémon that took the form of a little nebula with a face. "Everyone, meet Nebby the Cosmog!"
"Cosmog!" Nebby exclaimed.
"Oh my goodness, a Cosmog!" Kris gasped. "I've read about them in research notes! They come from Ultra Space and can even open portals between worlds. How did you get your hands on one, Delphi?"
"A woman never reveals her secrets," Delphi giggled. "But now that we have Nebby, I thought we could use this reunion of friends to explore another world together. We could go and see the time Ashton is from, or even visit my friends back in Craggy Crossroads."
"It would be neat to see another world… What do you guys think?" Dylan asked.
Ashton shrugged. "Sure, why not?"
"It would be interesting for sure," Kris added.
"Then it's decided!" Delphi exclaimed, holding Nebby over her head. "Let's go to a different world, little one!"
"Cos-mog!" Nebby shouted, its body shining with power as an Ultra Wormhole appeared over them. However, energy suddenly spiked out from the portal, sending lightning shocks around the area as a strong suction force came from within.
"Uh, Delphi…? I don't think the portal's supposed to do that!" Aurora shouted.
"Oh dear, this has never happened before," Delphi said with concern as her hat got ripped into the portal. "Nebby, you have to stop this!"
"C-C-Cos-m-m-mog!" Nebby exclaimed, it's body glowing brighter before it got sucked into the portal.
"Regulus, get us out of here!" Ashton shouted, before seeing her Deoxys teleport away. "You jeeeeerrrrrrrkkkkk!" she exclaimed as she and her team were sucked into the portal.
"Can't… hold… on…!" Dylan said as he and his team were sucked in.
"No! Master Dylan!" Mercury exclaimed, jumping to try and pull Dylan away from the portal… but he just barely missed the human's hand as he and the rest of his Pokémon were sucked into the portal.
Kris held onto her Suicune, Queen, for dear life before the portal suddenly collapsed in on itself, the air going back to normal as the distortion in time and space faded away. The blue-haired girl looked up at where the Ultra Wormhole had been, then looked around to see that all that was left of her friends were their Legendary Pokémon. "Regulus, Mercury… what just happened?"
The Ultra Wormhole suddenly became unstable. I instinctually teleported away, but clearly that was the wrong choice here, Regulus said.
"I have only heard of something similar to this happening before," Mercury said. "Whispers of it among other legends. It is an occurrence whenever two portals are opened at the exact same time across different dimensions. Wherever our allies ended up, it isn't anywhere they intended to go…"
When Dylan came to, he was lying in a field, a portal closing above him as his vison faded back in. He groaned and sat up, looking around to see that Ashton was lying face down in the dirt. The way her body was moving indicated that she was still breathing, which was a relief. His Pokémon had been transported back into their balls as soon as they had crossed through the portal, but Dylan couldn't see Delphi anywhere.
Slowly standing up he looked around and found that they had landed in an unfamiliar place, and without Delphi there wasn't a clear way to get home from here either. "Well shoot…" Dylan whispered. "Now what are we supposed to do?"
It was then that Dylan heard a scream, his head whipping around to see another Ultra Wormhole spit out three beings before closing up. Running over to the newcomers he found a trio of odd figures. The first was a Xurkitree, one of the Ultra Beasts he'd seen before that looked almost tree-like and spat out electricity. The second was a young man in what seemed to be ninja attire, stars swirling in his eyes as he was still disoriented from the fall. The third was a girl in a large, oversized green hoodie that seemed to be the most awake of the trio, her eyes darting around until they finally landed on Dylan. Once their eyes met, the two only had one thing to say to each other:
"WHO THE HECK ARE YOU!?"
Author's Notes
Azakael: ...Well, hello, everyone, here I am again with my friend- a bit more up close and personal this time, hehe. It does feel quite nice to be writing my Starstorm lovelies again, and intermingling with the World Adventures bunch in a new setting, no less. We'd been floating ideas around for quite some time, even back whenever I was still in the process of writing Starstorm, and I'm glad to finally be getting into it. You'll be seeing quite a lot of action and battles from me, two things I take great enjoyment in writing (though alas, I must watch my propensity to swear and let things get a bit too unhinged, hehehe).
The idea for Ashton's Battle Lair came to me one afternoon as I was driving home, as me and TheDragonSaver had been jesting about making new battle facilities. I like to think that Ashton's "void" having foam blocks at the bottom was something the Frontier officials mandated she have and she complained to the high heavens about, but she of course does not tell this to her competitors and thus everyone is worried about falling to their deaths if they lose.
TheDragonSaver: I'm back in the world of Pokemon, and this time with a very special friend! As soon as Scarlet and Violet were announced Azakael and I started discussing a potential crossover between our stories, and this is the result of those talks. It'll be a fish out of water story for both teams as they navigate the reigon of Paldea, and it's not going to be following the exact plot of the games either. We both wanted our characters to mature a bit between stories, so that's why we decided on a one year timeskip from the end of both of our stories.
This is my first fully collaborative effort with another author on this scale, so I do hope you enjoy "Starstorm Adventures: Scarlet and Violet" as te journey continues!