Draco: A quick little reminder that the Maxie and Archie of the Team Rainbow Rocket which attacked Alola were from separate worlds where they were each on the road to their own success, with no mention of the others being in similar positions.

Pokémon and protagonist © Nintendo. Character designs © Koei. Ransei © somewhere in the middle.


Ultra Kingdom - Rainbow Road: Rampage of Future Past

"Gah, missed again!"

Ujiyasu chuckled at Kai's outrage. "I gotta appreciate how durable you make these things, Yoshimoto," he admitted, "but... Pokémari really does favour a big weapon over a nimble one."

Yoshimoto brought his hands together with a hum. "Technically, you don't have to play it with a weapon at all," he admitted. "If it'll make things more fair, maybe we should all put them away."

"Come now, Yoshimoto," Tadakatsu insisted, "it's all in good fun."

"Says the man with the greatsword for a spearhead," Ina accused.

"Broad, perhaps, but not very thick," Tadakatsu defended. "It doesn't give me much more-"

The door of the castle opened, and one of the uniformed Trainers stepped out. "Ah, good, you're still here." She jabbed a thumb over his shoulder. "He just finished up what he was doing, asked me to come get you guys."

"Excellent," Ieyasu mused, "thank you. We'll be right in." He turned to Yoshimoto. "Looks like the game's over for now."

"Hmm..." Yoshimoto stepped towards the Pokémari ball, seizing it by the rope that was bound in an X around it. He'd thought to bring one on the march for his own purposes, but when his legion had arrived at the fused Violight/Valora castle, their attempts to enter had been halted. Apparently, whoever was in command of this castle was a scientific sort, and had been in the middle of a test when they arrived; he had, by messenger, politely requested time to complete what he was doing, lest everyone on the battlefield be endangered beyond what battle could do to them.

Deciding to oblige him, Yoshimoto had suggested a casual game of Pokémari to pass the time, one which the other Warriors had happily taken him up on. Now, as he slung the ball over his shoulder, he turned to the Trainer, asking, "Is the battlefield enclosed in the castle?"

"Huh?" The woman looked a bit confused by the question. "No, it's open to the sky. Why do you ask?"

"Just making sure." The Chrysalian swept his fan over his head, and Dialga leapt out of the courtyard; then he and Forretress made to follow the Trainer inside, followed by Registeel, Ieyasu, Aggron, Tadakatsu, Metagross, Ina, Empoleon, Regirock, Ujiyasu, Gigalith, Kai, and Darmanitan.

The interior looked rather more like Valora than it did Violight, yet the door they approached looked like the door to the Violight battlefield. Two more uniformed women, and two men, were waiting in front of it; as the Warriors' escort approached, she turned to them. "Ghetsis should have told you, but let me say it just to make sure; no more than six Pokémon, or we get to fight you with everyone we've got."

"Yeah, we got the memo," Kai insisted.

With a nod, the woman turned to the battlefield entrance; her fellow uniformed Trainers pushed the door open, and they all filed inside, prompting the Warriors to do the same.

The battlefield seemed to be a trio of islets in a lake of electricity; metallic walkways connected each of them to one another, as well as to a ring of walkways along the exterior of the battlefield which connected the the doors to one another. Three of the cameras that had patrolled the Valora battlefield were moving on each of those islets, though rather than a watch, they seemed to be returning to small ingresses in the center of each platform.

Standing on the furthest islet was a black-haired man with magnificently well-groomed facial hair that accentuated his square jaw. He was wearing a labcoat over what looked like a jumpsuit - an all-consuming ensemble that nevertheless conformed to his figure very noticeably. It was segmented in different hues of blue and purple to make it look a little less like he was wearing nothing, and it formed prominent footwear with thick soles rather than wrapping around his bare feet; luminescent lines traced every curve of the jumpsuit to further disassociate it from his anatomy, and at first glance, they seemed to be embedded in the suit despite its lack of room for such a thing. Ina's archery eyes quickly discerned that whatever was glowing had simply been woven into the fabric, forming the illusion of something glowing in the man himself.

The weapon in his right hand, however, was no illusion - a heavy pistol shape whose stock and barrel seemed to mostly be formed from a chamber filled with light of some kind.

Floating at his side was a violet Pokémon that seemed to be largely mechanical; its body looked serpentine, but with a pair of arms ending in metallic claws and a pair of jet engines mounted like legs. Its throat was ridged, and seemed to emit a blue and yellow energy of some description, as did most of its tail save for a segment near the tip. Said tail-tip seemed less substantial than the rest, looking less like a part of its anatomy and more like electricity had gathered on the tip, not unlike the flame on a Charizard's tail. Mounted above its tail was a dark slope of some kind, and upon its shoulders were some sort of horn-like fixtures; similar to the tip of its tail, a voltage was being emitted from around its eyes to form shapes like branched antennae.

Said eyes were voids of black, with dots of yellow-and-blue light forming irises upon them.

Tadakatsu started. "That Pokémon..."

The man in the labcoat seemed surprised at his reaction. "I'm sorry," he asked as the uniformed Trainers moved behind him, "are you familiar with Miraidon?"

"Not... exactly," Tadakatsu insisted, "but..."

He turned to Ina, who nodded before turning to the man. "A Warrior from another region has been helping us deal with what Team Rainbow Rocket has done," she explained. "One of her Pokémon is of a very similar nature. Does the name 'Iron Valiant' mean anything to you?"

"Indeed it does," the man admitted. "How interesting..." Then, holstering his weapon; "Ah, but I'm forgetting myself. I am Professor Turo of the Paldea region - though the Paldea region of a different world than yours."

"As Lord Nobunaga suspected," Ieyasu observed. "And I take it both this Miraidon and Iron Valiant are from Paldea?"

Turo shook his head. "On the contrary," he insisted, "they are not from any region in my world - nor yours, I would suspect. They come from the distant future."

Everyone started at that. "The... future?!" Tadakatsu exclaimed.

"Indeed," Turo confirmed, setting a finger upon his temple. "Though I can't say with confidence that it is our future - they may be from another timeline." He shook his head. "They, and other Pokémon like them, dwell in Area Zero, within the massive impact crater at the center of Paldea, but it is not their place of origin. They are believed to be stories, and those who glimpse them are derided as occultists. Even an experienced expeditionary who wrote of them found his records considered fiction rather than fact. Rare are those who believe them to truly exist, and rarer still those who have seen them in person."

He set a hand on his chest. "I have the privilege of being permitted access to Area Zero, and conducted research there on several topics. I have studied them diligently - Pokémon from a future so distant that even the wildest imaginings of science fiction come shy of what it entails and what it can do. But only few of them had come, and I sought to call more to us - so I devised a great machine to reach through time, and bring them to me, over and over, ad infinitum."

"Okay, what? No, hold on." Ujiyasu hoisted up his cane and propped it over his shoulder. "Nobunaga's told us about Trainers. If you wanted to take 'em into battle, you're capped out at six to a man. And if you just wanted to research 'em, I highly doubt you'd learn anything meaningful from the third one of a species that the first one didn't tell you. There'd be no reason for you to do it over and over. Even if there were some that you couldn't find without a machine to pull 'em to your world, where's the benefit past goin' after one of each?"

Turo smiled. "You cannot reshape an entire region with one of each."

The Warriors started. "Huh?"

"For as long as I can remember, I have dreamed of the future," Turo proclaimed. "Where the Pokémon I've read and imagined all my life, the Pokémon said to be found in Area Zero, are such a common sight that no one bats an eye - where they don't even stand out against the world around them." He leaned his head back. "When I discovered the Pokémon did exist, I knew that the future they came from must exist as well. Yet try as I might, I have no means to travel to that future in person. My machine merely sends Poké Balls to that future, to catch the Pokémon therein; it cannot deliver a human, not safely."

He set a hand on Miraidon's back. "So, if I cannot go to the future, I will bring the future to me. The Pokémon of that future will come to Area Zero, and amass in force until they can break free of the Great Crater. They will spread across Paldea, and in their wake will Paldea change, into a paradise for myself, my wife, and my son."

Ina and Tadakatsu traded worried glances.

"Or so I had hoped. But the machine I developed only functions due to the crystallized energy that gathers in Area Zero. And as it ran its course, as it brought forth the Pokémon I needed, the crystals consumed me without warning, provoked somehow. Whether by a natural disaster, or a malfunction in my machine, I cannot say - for I did not see the cause before I awoke adrift in Ultra Space."

Turo turned his gaze to the Warriors. "It was then the man who leads Team RR approached me with a proposition. I would help him in what he seeks to do, in conquering Ransei. And in return, he would deliver me home, with the resources I need to continue towards my paradise."

"You're out of your mind," Kai demanded. "You think you can turn Paldea into the world of the future just by summoning forth those Pokémon?"

"Oh?" Turo gave a smile. "How is what I do any different from what Ransei does? Do you not bring advancements to you, and thereby benefit from them, rather than progress towards them yourself? You carry on as you always have, until something new arrives from distant shores, and then you decide whether to apply it in your own world."

One of the uniformed Trainers stepped forward. "Professor, now's not the time for a debate."

Turo nodded. "True," he agreed. "Let us save further conversation for after the battle. The man who leads Team RR asked me to battle you, in the Warrior fashion, and I can hardly expect him to give me what he promised if I do not do the same."

The Trainers all tossed up Poké Balls before drawing weapons of their own; a Kingambit emerged before a woman who brandished a large cudgel of some kind, and an Armarouge before a man who drew a crossbow. One woman sent out a Revavroom and raised a pair of bolas, while one man deployed a Dachsbun and brandished a long staff with rounded tips; an Annihilape appeared before the last woman, who donned what looked like weighted boxing gloves. Miraidon moved to the fore of the group and roared threateningly, and Turo drew his light-chambered weapon and held it at his side, finger off the trigger.

With a sigh, Ujiyasu flipped a switch on his cane, causing the shaft to withdraw and expose a blade with a speartip that had been hidden inside; Regirock promptly stepped onto the battlefield, followed by Darmanitan as Kai drew her daggertail whip. Empoleon emerged as Ina drew her bladed bow, and Tadakatsu and Ieyasu both brandished their spears as Metagross and Registeel stepped out, followed swiftly by Dialga descending from above. Yoshimoto drew one of his folding fans in his free hand, spreading it open as he regarded the battlefield, and his eyes fell on the Fairy-type.

"Alright..."

His grip shifted on the ropes bound around the giant ball, and none of the opposing Trainers realized what he was doing before he hurled it at them.

"...it's Pokémari time!"

The ball bounced forward, bounced in the lake of voltage, ricocheted off one of the islets, and slammed into Dachsbun hard enough to leave the Dog Pokémon reeling - to the bafflement of the gathered Trainers. As it bounced to a stop, Miraidon gave an angry screech, curling its body into a disc and lashing against the ball with a surge of voltage to send it flying back towards the Warriors; Empoleon moved to meet it and bashed it to one side, slowing it down enough for Metagross to launch it skyward, whereupon Darmanitan leapt up and beat it back at Miraidon for a vicious blow.

Yoshimoto drew another fan, readying both at his sides. "Come on! Let's play!"

Miraidon screeched, advancing forward angrily and soaring through the voltage as the remaining uniformed Trainers and their Pokémon began to charge towards the islets. Turo glared, taking aim at the Pokémari ball as it bounced back towards Yoshimoto; Ieyasu quickly realized what he was about to do, and the head of his lance moved aside to bare the mouth of the cannon barrel.

A blast of light soared out of Turo's weapon, and slammed into the cannonball fired from Ieyasu's, shattering it into sparks.

The chamber of Turo's weapon was now devoid of light; Ina quickly took aim with her bow and loosed an arrow towards it to knock it out of his hand. Miraidon was getting close, now, and lunged at Empoleon with another Electro Drift; the Emperor Pokémon managed to endure the blow, but elected to turn her attentions at the Pokémon charging forth from the islands. Her Hydro Pump slammed into Armarouge in the middle of trying to take aim at Metagross, who finished off Dachsbun with a Meteor Mash. Darmanitan unleashed a Fire Blast to consume Kingambit and Revavroom both, and Regirock and Registeel took aim at Annihilape, blasting him with Flash Cannon and then launching him with Stone Edge.

The woman with the bolas hurled them at Tadakatsu; the mighty Valoran thrust his spear at them, the sharpened blade severing the cord connecting the balls before he twisted it to knock them away with the broadside. The crossbowman took aim at Yoshimoto, who beat the bolt away with one of his fans and then sent the Pokémari ball flying towards him. Ujiyasu deflected and dodged a few punches from the boxer before lashing his blade across her gloves, knocking free the weights and throwing her off-balance enough to get thrown to the ground by a well-aimed kick; the Cragspurist quickly drove his weapon into the ground, causing the cane-shaft to extend over the blade once more before he took aim at Turo.

With a burst of smoke, a dart soared across the battlefield, slammed into Turo's back while he was trying to collect his weapon, and shocked him from head to toe.

"Never take your eye off your opponents, Professor!" Ujiyasu scorned.

Kai tangled her daggertail around the cudgel of one Trainer and ripped it out of her hands as Darmanitan finished off Kingambit and Revavroom. Dialga loosed a Roar of Time at Miraidon, who was winding up for another Electro Drift; the force of ages ripped through the futuristic Pokémon and left it collapsing onto the battlefield. Annihilape hit the ground between Regirock and Registeel, who turned towards Armarouge to find Empoelon and Metagross had made short work of him - though not without the Iron Leg Pokémon getting seared by an Armour Cannon.

"One, two, three, four, five..." Ieyasu glanced around the battlefield before finding Daschbun still unconscious on the walkway. "...six. I believe that's our victory." He brought his lance around, the head having reaffixed itself over the cannon's barrel. "I do hope you're not intending to keep fighting. Warriors who try to fight after their Pokémon have fainted tend to be reminded of why it's the Pokémon who decide the battle.

Silence... and then the Trainers all raised Poké Balls towards their Pokémon, withdrawing them and then dashing towards the exits.

"Ah, good."

Yoshimoto stepped towards his Pokémari ball as the Valorans made to approach Turo. Ujiyasu's voltage stun-dart was starting to wear off by now, though the professor seemed to be suffering muscle cramps in his legs, rubbing one hand against his thigh in an effort to return it to a normal state. He quickly realized the Warriors were approaching him, uttering a hasty "One moment, please" as he drew out a Poké Ball and aimed it at the unconscious Miraidon, withdrawing it with a beam of light.

"You wanted to know how your approach to reshaping Paldea was different from the actions of Ransei," Ieyasu mused. "I ask you back, how are we the same?" He set his spear against the ground. "We do not mindlessly accept anything and everything which comes to our shores, nor do we allow it to run free without regard for the consequences."

"Without regard?" Turo echoed. "I understand full well what consequences will arise when the future Pokémon are let loose upon Paldea. And I look forward to seeing Paldea be so changed, to seeing nature take its course."

"What, then, of the people?" Tadakatsu demanded. "It is the responsibility of the Warlords to ensure that the people of Ransei are kept safe and allowed to flourish. Do you think the everyday men and women of Paldea will be happy to have these Pokémon rampaging? Do you think they will enjoy their lives being in danger from so unprecedented a threat?"

"I'm not expecting anyone to enjoy it," Turo retorted. "Any-

"Then why do you call it a paradise!?"

Ina's demand interrupted Turo's retort before it could begin, drawing his attention. "Excuse me?"

"You did not claim that this paradise was yours alone," Ina observed. "You said it was for your family. Yet at the same time, you claim that you do not expect anyone but yourself to actually appreciate what you are doing to Paldea - what you are doing to the people! Them included! Do you truly believe they want you to work obsessively on this machine of yours, towards this wretched future you would bring about?!"

Turo fell silence, his mouth open but no words emerging.

"You said you had a wife," Ina insisted. "A son. Then the family you claim to be working for is one of your choosing." Her gaze fell. "Yet you choose to disregard them, and fail to consider their wishes. You continue working towards this paradise, not merely ignorant of what they might want, but without caring whether they will enjoy the fruits of your labour." She shook her head. "Can you truly claim that what you do is for their sake, in such circumstances?"

"I..."

Ina lowered her gaze to her bow - its bladed arms having been chosen in memory of one she had thought lost forever. "Whether or not Team Rainbow Rocket achieves its goals, you will be returned to the world you came from," she insisted. "If the man you serve will not do it, one of our allies has the means. And when you do return, if you at all care about your family... you will return to them. You will not continue with what you do, with these Pokémon of the distant future, endangering yourself for this dream."

Her grip tightened on the bow.

"I promise you, they would rather see you return home safely."


Draco: Yes, I had all these grunts make a remark about "no more than six Pokémon to a side [nothing about whose Pokémon they are]" specifically so I could have Registeel, Dialga, and Metagross on the same battlefield as Yoshimoto, Ieyasu, and Tadakatsu without TECHNICALLY claiming that Yoshimoto is linked with Registeel and Dialga is linked with Ieyasu.

Also, one specific Pokémon has a name that is very frustrating for me to spell. I was originally going to have that Pokémon eat a significant bag of Mulch right out of the gate, but decided it would be much more satisfying if I had the entire army suffer a #CurbStompBattle at the hands of the legion headed by Ransei's most ridiculous Warrior.

Miraidon
-Range: 4
-Move: Electro Drift
-Ability: Conductivity | Mountaineer

Electro Drift (Electric)
-Attack area: Five tiles in a cross starting directly in front (i.e. Blue Flare)