The group soared through the air on the Galaxy King as they approached the Kalos region.
"So…what sort of mischief has Team Flare gotten up to?" Ash K asked.
"Hmm. Actually…it doesn't look like they've been causing much chaos in any major city but have been raiding a lot of historical sites." Jet said.
"What? That's…odd." Jude said. "I was expecting them to resurrect the weapon or something. They must be after something else."
"Speaking of which, Jude… What happened to Team Flare after you defeated them?" Leia asked.
"Well, with Lysandre gone and seemingly dead, I was assuming they were either arrested or disbanded." Jude said.
"Any admins to note?" Teepo asked.
"No admins to speak of per se, but there were a bunch of scientists that acted as such. I believe the most prominent ones were called Aliana, Bryony, Celosia, Mable, and the only guy among them, Xerosic." Jude said.
"Malva of the Elite Four was a former member of Team Flare too wasn't she?" Mari asked.
"I'm not entirely sure on those details, but I think she was pretty close to Lysandre." Hope said.
"How is something like that even possible?" Kagetsu asked.
"Well, if Giovanni can keep up his cover and be a Gym Leader, I wouldn't put it past Malva." Tsumugi said.
"But aside from that fact… Jude's right about things being unusual for Team Flare's MO." Adora said. "Lysandre wanted to recreate the ultimate weapon used by a King of Kalos… AZ, right?"
"Yeah, he wanted to use it to wipe out most of humanity, so he could return the world to a more natural state." Jude said.
"3,000 years ago." Rime said.
"Was there anything else Team Flare was interested in? Besides the Ultimate Weapon, Xerneas and Yveltal?" Hope said.
"Well, they did have a bit of an interest in Mega Evolution." Jude mentioned. "The Ultimate Weapon was powered by Infinity Energy, which is what powers Mega Evolution through the Key and Mega stones synchronicity."
"Crazy thought, but maybe they're more interested in Mega Evolution this time. It could be why they raided all those Historical Sites, probably to grab any Mega Stones they could."
"Maybe but…" Jude pondered. "Can't help but feel something more is going on here."
"Why don't we investigate all the sites they hit, see if we can gather some clues?" Sakura recommended.
"Would take too long. It seems they're all coming and going from Lumiose so we'll just hit it and take them by surprise." Jude said.
The Galaxy King set course for Lumiose City as they arrived in great fashion.
"Hey Ash, I heard that before becoming champion of the Alola League, the Kalos League was the closest you've ever got, right?" Hope said.
"Dude. Don't bring up stuff like that." Rainbow said.
"Sorry…I was just…." Hope said as he spotted something shining from an alleyway. "Huh?"
"I said don't bring up losses." Rainbow said.
"No. It's just.." Hope said, looking back again only to see nothing. "Huh…guess it was just in my head."
"In any case, does anyone else notice how quiet it is?" Kieran asked. "The other regions were in the middle of all out chaos, but here it seems peaceful."
"Guess Team Flare doesn't want to reveal themselves until they're sure they can pull off whatever their plan is." Lancer said.
"Speaking of…" Jet said as they spotted Team Flare Grunts moving towards the center of the city.
"They're headed right for Prism Tower!" Jude stated.
They followed after the grunts to find an army of them standing at attention as Lysandre stood before them along with a familiar round man.
"Wait…that's…Evice? So Cipher's keeping him around." Aria said.
"Hmm….well well…you all have been rather busy." Evice said looking at a vast cache of Mega Stones. "Hahahahaha! With the power of Mega Evolution, the whole world will be even more frightened by our power. Especially with what Mewtwo demonstrated as well as those Pokémon of Team Magma and Aqua." he said laughing as Lysandre stood there. "What's wrong? Palpitoad in your throat? Oh wait…I forgot…you can't fight my commands." he said, smacking the leader of Team Flare who just took it without a word.
"Evice has Lysandre under his boot? But why?" Leia asked.
"He said something about him not fighting his commands. Is he under the influence of Pecharunt's poison?" Merrin asked.
Jude then realized something. "Of course…Lysandre…would never agree to something like Shadow Pokémon. He loves natural beauty and for things to not change. He would have never approved of joining them."
"But then why is his team following Evices' orders? Shouldn't he be the one Evil Team Leader who fights back against all this?" Glimmer asked.
"Hahahaha…This was so easy. Using the poison of that creature to take control of Kalos, Alola, Galar and Paldea…the four regions that introduced all those increasingly incredible power up methods. Mr. Ardos was right to suggest using Team Flare, Aether Foundation, Macro Cosmos and that stupid bunch of brats of Team Star. All four gathering these resources for our soldiers! Hahahaha! Nothing but puppets!" Evice laughed.
"So I was right. Lysandre is under Pecharunt's control." Merrin said.
Penny looked enraged and terrified at the mention of Team Star, getting a hand on her shoulder from Mark. "We'll save them. I swear it." he stated. "Besides, I got a few choices words for that walking balloon and his boss when I get to them."
"Now…let us begin with the second phase of…" Evice said before diamonds started raining down on the grunts. "Huh?"
"I think that is enough!" a voice called out as walking into the center was a certain champion being accompanied by a shiny Diancie.
"It's Diantha!" Ash K said.
"Blast…seems you caught on to our operation here. Henchman!" Evice commanded as Lysandre turned to Diantha and tossed out a Pokéball. Emerging from it was a Shadow Volcanion. "And off I go!" Evice said tapping a button as he warped away along with the mega stones.
"Hey, wait!" Aria said.
"We'll deal with him later. Right now, we need to focus on Lysandre." Jude said.
"Right. As soon as we can wear down and snag that Volcanion, we'll cure Lysandre with the antidote." Aria said.
"We need to back up Diantha. So…let's go!" Ash K said as he sent out Greninja.
"Use Shadow Geyser." Lysandre commanded as Volcanion struck its hoses into the ground as it erupted with black shadowy water, dealing major damage to Diancie.
"Gaia Volt, Zap Cannon!" Simon called as Gaia Volt the Sandy Shocks fired an electric blast like a cannon, landing a direct hit.
"Water Shuriken!" Ash K said as Greninja attacked from a distance as it moved around Volcanion. "Now Cut!" he said as Greninja landed a hit on Volcanion before being knocked back.
"Chakravartin, use Electroweb!" Mark called, the spider-like reincarnation using the web to both damage and hold the Mythical Pokémon down. "Good luck attacking with that on you! Now for a quick switch!" he said, sending out a Nuzleaf. "Tengu, keep using Rollout whenever you see an opening!"
The Wily Pokémon then went on the move, rolling into the larger creature whenever he got the chance. After a fifth roll, Shadow Volcanion was left swaying on its last legs. "One more hit should do it! But Tengu's used up his Rollout…"
"(I don't need it.)" Tengu stated as he dug his hands into the ground and pulled out a boulder a few times his size, before hurling it at the Shadow Pokémon. "(A fitting name for the move that defeats you…Rock Tomb.)"
The boulder slammed into Shadow Volcanion, sending it crashing to the ground, allowing Jude to quickly snag it up.
"And now…" Jude said as he ran up and pinned down Lysandre before injecting the medicine into him.
"What… what happened…?" Lysandre asked as he soon was cured.
"Greetings Mr. Lysandre. While we don't approve of your methods to achieve environmental 'saving', we nonetheless rescued you because you are in quite the predicament." Double D said.
"You were being controlled by another organization who was using Team Flare to collect Mega Stones." Jude said.
"Another organization? Yes… I remember now. I was captured by that Cipher organization. The last thing I remember was them forcing me to go before some Pokemon." Lysandre said.
"That Pokémon was called Pecharunt. Anybody who eats the mochi created from the poisons in its body falls under its complete control." Mark explained. "Cipher was using you and your team like literal puppets."
"You wouldn't have approved of their plans otherwise, so that's why they used Pecharunt to force you into servitude." Adora added.
"I see." Lysandre said as he departed as did the rest of Team Flare.
"Not even a thank you?" Hope asked.
"Considering he didn't decide to attack, I think that's thanks enough." Jude said.
"So, according to what Evice bragged about, Cipher's been exploiting teams who didn't comply to their demands so that they could gather resources for stronger Shadow Pokémon. Mega Evolution, Z-Moves, Dynamax, Terastallization, all of it. And Evice got away with a whole cache of Mega Stones." Adora said.
"Should we head to the other regions so we can cut off their supply lines?" Sectonia asked.
"I'm not sure we should leave Kalos just yet. There still may be more we need to do." Jude said.
"But you have both Xerneas and Yveltal, what more could Cipher want here?" Leia asked.
"...There is one Legendary Pokémon in the Kalos region none of us have caught yet." Hope said. "And it's even stronger than both Xerneas and Yveltal combined. Zygarde. It was probably what Evice was gonna go after for phase 2."
"But Zygarde is a huge mass of cells, it's all across Kalos." Miu explained.
"Going on a hunt during a crisis like this is incredibly irresponsible." Jexi said.
"But if Cipher's willing to go after the pieces…" Mark pointed out.
"But…" Hope said before seeing something shining once more. "Aha!" he said going after it.
"Hope! Ugh." Jexi groaned as some of the group went after him. They chased him to an old building where he looked but found nothing but an old folder.
"What the heck is this?" Hope said, looking at it.
"Hmm…looks like a bunch of old project blueprints." Franky said.
"Hmm…" Raine said as she took it. "It's old and most of it is indecipherable but I can make out the title…Lumiose City…Redevelopment Plan? Wait…this must have been the blueprints that made Lumiose City what it is today!"
"So it wasn't always like it was today? Man, wonder what it was like back in its heyday?" Kaibara askd.
"Unfortunately time has worn away at most of its pages. Me and Robin will have to use our spare time to try and decipher this." Raine said as she noticed a couple of letters. "Z…A?"
"Well Hope, your wild senses have led us to a bunch of dusty plans, you satisfied for the day?" Franky asked.
"Yeah…sorry guys." Hope said.
"Well I wouldn't say it was all for nothing." Raine said. "Maybe one day, we'll get to find out more about old Kalos."
"Yeah." Hope said as they departed. However, the only ones to stop were a small group.
"Hey…what's up?" Ash K asked Greninja.
"Something going…." Mark said as they soon saw a small green creature crawling on the floor. "Whoa…what is that?"
"It's…one of Zygarde's cells." Natyal said.
"It led Hope here, so we'd find those blueprints." Rime said.
"Y'know? I think Zygarde will be just fine." Ash K said.
"He's right. Miu said Zygarde's a huge mass of hundreds of Cells. It would take Cipher forever to try and find them all so they could amass his Complete self." David said.
"We'll just have to trust that we can cripple them enough where it won't become a problem." Mark said. "Let's get going. We're overdue in Alola."
"Yeah." Ash K said as they departed as the cell looked on.
"We will meet again…but now is not the time. Or rather…it will not be in this time…" the cell thought before it disappeared.