Chapter 111; A solidified alliance
This was not just another regular day for professor Cosmo. This was a dream come true.
The representative from Devon would be there any moment.
And what they were bringing him as their subject for potential collaboration was something he had been looking for for ages.
That mysterious rock that professor Cosmo suspected was linked to the mystery of the long lost Rayquaza.
Professor Cosmo had heard many stories regarding the end of the great war and the disappearance of the two gods as well as Rayquaza. One such story talked about Rayquaza offering a mysterious stone to humanity before the end of the war as a pact.
And he had serious reason to believe this rock that was being brought was the same one Rayquaza had offered humanity.
How it had come to be owned by Devon he didn't know. But if it really was the same stone then adding research on it to the research on his Mikado meteor, the possibilities were endless.
Maybe they could find Rayquaza. Maybe they could solve this ancient mystery. Maybe even learn from Rayquaza in humanity's journey to explore space. After all Rayquaza was known to live in the ozone layer, in other words on the edge of space.
Maybe even finally get a lead on professor Robotnik's old project.
Professor Cosmo's assistant knocked on his lab's door.
"Enter" the professor eagerly said.
His assistant, a young girl named Alice entered.
"Professor, the representative is here".
"Excellent. Let them in".
Alice nodded and walked out.
A few moments later a black haired chubby young man dressed in a business suit holding a briefcase entered the lab.
"Professor Cosmo. Such an honor to meet a renowned scientist like yourself in person".
"The honor is all mine Mr…"
"Tabitha. Representative Tabitha".
"Tabitha. Let's get down to business. Did you bring the stone?"
Tabitha nodded, setting the briefcase on the lab counter.
Cold drops of sweat generated by excitement rushed down professor's Cosmo's neck as Tabitha unlocked the two locks of the briefcase, turned it around and opened it so that the professor was the one seeing inside.
Inside laid the stolen cracked stone from the museum.
"It's… different… than I imagined. Kinda familiar too. A few tests ought to verify the authenticity though".
He turned and, after making sure that Tabitha wasn't looking, typed the code to unlock a safe built into the wall.
Inside the safe was glass encasing. And inside the encasing was the Mikado Meteor, being held in place by a small holding ring surrounding it.
Carefully, maybe a little too carefully, Cosmo took out the Mikado meteor and turned around.
"Everything's set" he eagerly said as he placed the encasing on the counter "now I just need to put both samples in the scanner and…"
The door to the lab opened.
In walked Alice with what looked like a leaf blade on her throat.
"P-professor…"
Cosmo was so shocked he almost knocked the encasing off the counter.
"Alice? What's going on?"
Alice was shoved forward by the Sceptile holding the leaf blade to her throat, both followed by…
"The enforcer!" Cosmo whispered in horror.
Shadow grinned underneath his mask and hood.
"If you value the life of your assistant" he spoke with a malicious smile as Sceptile's arm wiggled, slightly scratching Alice's neck "I suggest both of you set the rocks inside the briefcase and push it over to me. No sudden moves though. Sceptile is a bit on edge today. Wouldn't want to upset it".
"Scept" Sceptile cried out as the blade positioned itself on Alice's skin.
"Professor…" Alice was crying from fear.
Cosmo was torn. The choice was already made for him but it made every movement feel like an impossible task.
He had spent ten years tracking locations rumored to have been impacted by the Mikado meteor rain shower in pursuit of one.
And now he was being forced to give up his life's work.
With regret tearing at his heart, Cosmo opened the encasing and set the meteor in the briefcase.
"You" Shadow barked at Tabitha "set it down SLOWLY and push it to me".
Tabitha grabbed the briefcase by the handle and laid it down on the ground before pushing it towards Shadow.
Shadow grinned as he picked up the briefcase.
He then tossed Tabitha a rope that was hanging around his shoulder this whole time.
"Tie him up. NOW!"
Tabitha took the rope and headed towards Cosmo.
"Wait. I gave you what you wanted. Just please leave my assistant alone".
"Hmph. Why? So you can call the cops? I think not. Do as I say or else!"
"Please. She's innocent".
Shadow spat.
"Last chance. Tie him up and don't make another sound".
"Please".
Shadow's patience ran out.
Taking out another pokeball he called out Machamp.
"Dynamic punch!"
Machamp winded its massive upper right fist and delivered a powerful dynamic punch on professor Cosmo knocking him out.
"Are you insane?! This wasn't part of the plan!" Tabitha berated Shadow.
"Whatever! Sceptile! Lock this chick in the closet and we're out of here!"
Sceptile obeyed. Protruding a leaf blade from its other hand it forced Alice to move towards the closet.
Once there, Alice was forced to open the door before being roughly shoved in by Sceptile. The door was then shut and the doorknob was bent by a dynamic punch from Machamp, effectively sealing her in.
Alice made sure Shadow and Tabitha were no longer audible to her before started banging on the closet window.
Her hands began bleeding from the constant banging until her fist pushed through the glass, badly cutting her.
"Help! Somebody help! Thieves!" she screamed again and again, hoping, praying for anyone to come and help her, help the unconscious professor.
She heard someone walk into the building.
From the shadow entering in the room from the small gap between the door and the floor, Alice recognized a silhouette with spiky hair.
"Oh no" she cowered in the corner "the enforcer is back to finish the job".
A knock on the door then was heard.
"Anybody in there?"
It was not the enforcer's voice.
"Help! Please! I'm in here!"
"Alright miss, calm down. Step away from the door".
"O-ok" Alice replied, not sure why.
A loud bang echoed in the building as the door was broken open via the use of a homing attack.
"Are you ok miss?" Sonic asked the injured assistant.
"You're… you're the hero of Kanto!"
"Are you ok?" Sonic repeated his question.
"I'm fine but the professor is not! He is unconscious!"
Sonic rushed to the lab and found the unconscious professor Cosmo.
"Professor?! Professor Cosmo?! Professor wake up!"
Cosmo groaned as his eyes opened.
"Professor can you hear me?"
"They took it…"
"Who took what?"
"… they took my Mikado meteor".
Alice then rushed to the professor's side.
"Professor you alright?"
"Alice… you're bleeding".
"I'll be fine professor. We need to get you to a hospital".
The professor nodded but turned to Sonic again.
"Please… retrieve my Mikado meteor. It is my life's work. I can't bear the thought of it being at the hands of enforcer".
"Say what?! The enforcer stole it?!" Sonic exclaimed.
"He had an accomplice. Someone claiming to be a representative from Devon corporation. Someone named Tabitha".
Sonic processed the discovery for a moment.
The rumors were true.
Whatever team Magma was doing here had to do with this Mikado meteor.
"I'll get your meteor back. Get some rest professor" Sonic said before rushing out of the lab.
Immediately upon exiting the lab he was met by an army of officers.
"Woah woah! Friendly fire!" Sonic raised his hands instinctively.
An officer Jenny identified him.
"Is the professor ok hero of Kanto?"
"Both he and his assistant are injured. This is the work of the enforcer".
"The enforcer?" a male officer questioned him "we were informed by radio of team Magma causing trouble at the west of town and then retreating heading for Meteor falls".
"Then why are you not pursuing them?"
"Because we received a call from Devon claiming someone was going to pull a stunt by pretending to be a representative from the company. But the company hasn't had any authorization for collaboration with professor Cosmo as of the present".
"Who made that call?" Sonic asked.
"I did".
Sonic knew the voice. And he couldn't be more glad.
It was Blaze.
"How did you know?"
"I was going through this week's schedule of external collaborations and found a forged document describing collaboration with professor Cosmo regarding his Mikado meteor. The document contained this photo".
She handed Sonic a photo. Sonic and the officer Jenny looked at it.
"What am I looking at?" Sonic asked Blaze.
"The mysterious rock belonging to captain Stern, stolen during the museum brawl a few weeks ago".
"Son of a… and they used it to lure professor Cosmo into exposing his Mikado meteor to Sha… the enforcer's greedy hands".
"That was my thought exactly. So I made the call and came here right away on my Charizard".
"I got word" the same officer said while listening to his radio "that team Magma was spotted heading towards Meteor falls".
"The enforcer must be with them, planning to use them to delay any pursuers if need be" Sonic surmised.
"I'd join you but I need to take care of the legal stuff here. Attempting to frame Devon is a huge mess".
Sonic quickly called out his Tropius.
"I'll look for them from the sky. You do what you have to do Blaze. Let's go Tropius!" he said as he quickly rode Tropius and the fruit pokemon soared to the skies.
Quickly heading west, Sonic took out his binoculars and looked through them as carefully as he could, looking for anything out of the ordinary.
He noticed a couple hiking on the hills, a couple of trainers having a battle, even several wild pokemon including an altaria.
And then he saw them; a group of people dressed in red racing up a path.
Their hoods brandished horns.
"There you are! Let's go!"
On the ground the grunts were growing exhausted.
"Sir no one is pursuing us. Can we… ?"
"No! No one rests until the mission is seen through!" Shadow shouted over his shoulder without even letting his underling finish his sentence.
"But we're exhausted sir. We ran here all the way from Fallarbor in record time" a female grunt objected.
"Then you can stop but no one will come for you if you do" Shadow calmly said, trying hard keep his cool after the constant complaining.
The grunt that had spoken first stopped.
"I can't go on anymore. I demand a 5 minute stop".
Shadow stopped. The rest of the grunts also stopped, shocked that Shadow had actually listened.
Shadow, with a dead calm face, approached the grunt.
He placed his left hand on the grunt's right shoulder.
"You want to rest?"
"Y-yes sir".
Shadow smiled.
"Feel free to get some rest then. Some eternal rest!" he shouted the final words as he pushed the grunt off the edge of the cliff.
The rest of the grunts were horrified.
"Listen closely you lot! You have orders and they will be followed until they have been seen through! No resting, not eating, hell no shiting until we are done! Do you understand?!"
The grunts didn't utter a word, not sure whether to speak or not.
"DO YOU UNDERSTAND?!"
"YES SIR!"
Shadow lip curled upon hearing the terror in their words. Power felt good.
Suddenly something landed at his feet.
It was the grunt he had pushed over the cliff.
"What the…"
Flapping of wings was then heard next to him.
"Missed me Shadow?"
Shadow's eyes widened.
His head turned so fast some grunts even though they heard bones cracking.
Sonic had found them, riding on the back of his Tropius.
"So… will you hand over the Mikado meteor nicely, or will I have to go through you?"
"Go through this hedgehog!" Shadow fired back as he called out his Salamence. The dragon and flying type fired flamethrower at Tropius.
Sonic, harnessing his bond with Raichu, jumped off Tropius, recalling it in the process, before calling out Raichu just as they peaked at their jump.
"Combo quick attack with thunder punch!" Sonic called out the combo as he went for a homing attack.
Raichu followed suit, using quick attack for a quick launch first before charging its paw with electricity.
Shadow was taken aback at the quick thinking and wondered if his plan would actually work.
"Hold him!" he yelled to the other grunts before recalling Salamence and fleeing further up the hills.
The grunts reacted chaotically, some of them calling out pokemon like numel, poochyena, grimers and two even a camerupt. The rest tried to decide which way to go to flee.
None of them or their pokemon were ready for the impact of the homing attack and the thunder punch.
The ground shook violently, the impact of the landing reaching even the foot of the hills.
Shadow of course felt it and was unnerved.
He only hoped that Maxie would let go of his pride and actually help with the grand plan right now.
Half the grunts were knocked out on impact. The rest scrambled ro their feet, commanding their ground type pokemon and any other pokemon that withstood the impact, to attack Sonic and Raichu.
Sonic quickly called out his combusken as well.
"Take out those ground types double kick!"
Combusken got to work instantly, knocking out a numel with ease.
"Raichu shall we?"
"Rai rai!"
Bet you I can knock out more!" Sonic heard as Raichu went for quick attack, slamming into a poochyena.
Sonic chuckled and also rushed the grunts, using his speed against them to disorientate them and keep their attention away from the battlefield.
From higher ground, Shadow watched the battle unfold, angry that Sonic's pokemon were essentially on cleanup duty against his forces.
As Sonic tripped another grunt to fall, he noticed Shadow on the higher ground.
He pointed his two fingers in the form of the victory sign to his eyes and then to Shadow, letting him know he could see him.
His lips also moved.
Shadow had been trained to read lips.
And what he saw come out of Sonic's lips enraged him.
"I'm coming for you Shadow".
Shadow cursed and retreated towards the cave of the Meteor falls, still carrying the briefcase.
Sonic and his pokemon quickly cleaned up the rest of their opponents. Raichu and Combusken retreated into their pokeballs as Sonic went fast, racing towards the cave.
Certain Shadow couldn't outrun him, Sonic entered the cave and for a moment was mesmerized.
The cave was extremely big and its inside was showered with light from various openings on the walls.
Massive waterfalls came crashing down on a small lake in the middle of the cave, the roar of the water echoing in the cave like the deep cry of a battle raged Tyranitar.
And at the shore of the lake, stood Shadow, having dropped the briefcase, seemingly tired of running and holding a pokeball in each hand.
"Enough running hedgehog. We end this here! Just you and me!"
Sonic hopped across the boulders instead of taking the path down, landing against Shadow superhero style.
"I wouldn't have it any other way Shadow!"
Shadow chuckled and then burst out laughing.
"What's so funny?!"
"Honestly? It's hilarious how gullible you are!"
Heads started popping up all around them.
Hooded heads with horns.
At least 40 grunts came out of hiding from various hiding spots, some even coming out of the lake soaking wet.
All of them stared down Sonic with malicious intent as they surrounded him.
"What happened to just you and me?!"
"Is it not obvious fool? I lied".
"So you are a coward. I should have seen this coming".
"Don't you dare call me coward you piece of fucking trash!"
"Well boohoo I can't help it Shadow. Unlike you I am no liar".
"Why you little…!"
"Calm yourself, enforcer".
Calm, long and confident footsteps, coming from expensive business shoes no doubt, echoed in the cave.
The grunts, who up until now had been either grinning mockingly or taunting Sonic and cheering for Shadow, all went dead quiet. Not even inhales or exhales could be heard.
Sonic's right ear perked up as even Shadow seemed surprised.
The grunts surrounding them started opening a path as someone was making their way to the center.
The final wave of grunts opened the path.
In walked a man with red hair, dressed in a red outfit with black flames decorating it, red framed glasses and a calm, collected face, borderlining on emotionlessness.
"Sir. You came" Shadow spoke, almost fearing to not address the newcomer with the proper respect.
Sonic picked up on that.
"So you… must be Sonic the hedgehog, the legendary hero of Kanto. I must admit I was expecting you to be a little… older".
Sonic remained steadfast and confident despite being surrounded.
"And you too, President Maxie of Socexp… you're falling shorter of my expectations than I could have ever imagined".
All the grunts, even Shadow gasped at this. Maxie raised his hand to silence them, still calm as he fixed his glasses on his face.
"Confidence. A fool's substitute for intelligence. Present arms!"
The front row of grunts all called out their pokemon, at least two each.
Sonic also called out all of his pokemon, which cried out against the small army surrounding them.
"It's Zugzwang hedgehog. You can either surrender or fight and lose. What's it going to be?"
Sonic looked around and noticed a grimer.
"Aron! Mud-slap!"
Aron fired mud-slap at the poison type. Grimer was struck by the move and fainted.
"So be it. Magmas! Advance!"
The pokemon all began firing their moves at Sonic and his team who suddenly came under a barrage of embers and sludges.
"Spread out! Tropius soar and use magical leaf on our enemies! Aron, combusken you take the left side! Use everything except ember! Raichu with me!"
The team split up. Tropius soared and fires barrages upon barrages of magical leaves to the pokemon belonging to team Magma, taking some of their focus away from the its teammates.
Aron and Combusken then charged their enemies, with the former tanking the brunt of the assault, with its steel type being extremely useful in canceling out the sludge attacks as well as other poison moves.
Combusken on the other hand, became the sword of the duo, landing double kicks left and right. Pokemon like poochyena and numel fell relatively easily. Zubats and grimers required peck and even so, didn't faint without multiple strikes.
As for Sonic and Raichu, they got the attention of most of their enemies, with Raichu's extreme battle prowess showing immediately, as no one pokemon was able to take an attack from the battle hardened mouse pokemon and keep fighting, let alone mount an offensive.
And of course there was Sonic, whose incredible speed and unique moves such as the homing attack and the recently inspired power stomp, put him on a whole other level of power.
Maxie observed the hedgehog's moves and, although he seemed as calm and collected as ever, was extremely intrigued.
With the installed recorder in his glasses, he recorded Sonic's moves, even noticing some similarities in Sonic snd Raichu's attack patterns, as if they were fighting as one entity with two different bodies.
Eventually all the pokemon fainted and Sonic's team still looked to be in prime condition.
"Is that the best you can do?" Sonic taunted Maxie.
Maxie's expression didn't change one bit, making Sonic wonder if he was even human.
"Wave 2! Advance!"
The next wave of pokemon came out. This time at least half the pokemon that stood against Sonic and his team were evolved forms like Muk and Golbat, which immediately put Sonic on his toes.
This was like a video game. Each wave would be stronger than the last. But unlike video games, there would be no reset button. And certainly no extra lives.
"Rai rai".
"You had to ask" Sonic heard in his head.
"I sure did" he thought.
"Stay on your guard guys. Battle's just began".
"Last chance hedgehog. Surrender now. I will not offer you this choice again".
"And join you in destroying nature and pokemon homes?! Never!"
"Pity. And you had so much potential. Attack!"
Wave 2 hit the hero of Kanto and his pokemon a lot harder than the first. Aron tried shielding everyone from the poison moves but it was too small to protect everyone.
Combusken was struck by a sludge bomb just as it was preparing a quick attack on a mightyena and got poisoned.
"Just as is suspected" Maxie told Shadow as Sonic and his pokemon went on the offensive again "he is incredibly strong but even he has his limits".
"It should be me in there. I can take him" Shadow complained in anger as he saw Sonic and his pokemon struggle to fight off everyone.
"You were indeed telling the truth about his abilities. That would make a battle between you and him an unnecessary risk that I am in no rush to take" Maxie tersely explained, ending the conversation without giving Shadow another chance to speak.
The sound of an impact then had them looking at the battlefield again.
A Muk had landed a mup-slap on Aron, knocking it out.
"Aron no!"
"Point proven" Maxie said to Shadow "against a powerful enemy, attrition warfare can go a very long way. It's only a matter of time until he falls and we capture him".
Shadow was pissed at this. That wasn't a fair fight.
Not that he would have played fair but it would have been a one on one battle if he had been allowed to battle.
He would have had his chance to prove his power.
And now that chance was slipping away with every attack that took a toll even a tiny one on Sonic and his pokemon.
When the dust from the attacks settled, Sonic was visibly exhausted as was Raichu. Combusken was still poisoned and Tropius had been burned.
"It will all be over soon. Wave 3 advance!"
More evolved forms. Camerupts, Magcargos, Golbats, Muks, Mightyenas, the whole lot.
Sonic and his pokemon flinched at the sight of the massive pokemon army.
Their odds were slowly but steadily worsening.
"Rai" Raichu cried out to Sonic and its allies.
"To the end!" Sonic heard in his head.
"To the end. Whatever it takes".
They charged their enemies, Sonic harnessing more of his power than ever before, trying to get as many of his opponents' attention as possible, so Raichu specifically could take out the Muks as they resisted his homing attacks and spindashes the most.
Unlike the previous two waves however, this one had immense actual firepower. The camerupts unleashed a barrage of flamethrower attacks, burning Tropius into fainting.
"3 to go" Maxie said wearing a faint replica of a smile.
The remaining 3 combatants fought with all their might, with Sonic and Raichu sustaining major injuries along the way, including but not limited to Sonic jumping in front of a sludge bomb to save Raichu and Raichu tanking a flamethrower by splitting it into two jets of flames using its tail. In both cases the two were still severely weakened as this level of punishment was too much.
Even during the battle of Goldenrod city they were not this overwhelmed.
Just as Raichu landed the final thunder punch on a muk, it spat one final sludge bomb.
Raichu took some of it but Combusken jumped in the way to prevent its friend from getting poisoned, fainting in the process.
The emotional and physical turmoil pushed Raichu to breaking point as Sonic himself also dropped on his knees.
They couldn't go on anymore.
It was over.
They couldn't beat them all.
"It's over. Bring them to me enforcer".
Shadow called out Salamence as the two bore down on the defeated Sonic and Raichu.
Sonic tried to stand up but the exhaustion was too much.
"Don't resist" Shadow mocked him "it will only hurt more".
Sonic tried to punch Shadow but he merely backstepped to avoid it.
"This time it's truly the end of the line for you hero. You are alone. And no one is coming to save you".
Sonic dropped on his knees again as he looked up.
"At least… I'm not a slave…"
"What?"
"I said… That at least… I'm not Maxie's lapdog. Unlike you. You couldn't even face me yourself. You didn't have the guts to do it".
Shadow felt his anger rising. He could easily pulverize Sonic. He knew he could.
But he had obeyed orders instead of doing it.
"Salamence! Silence this fool! Dragon claw!"
Salamence prepared to bring the dragon claw down on Sonic. The latter refused to move and let Raichu get hit instead.
Dragon claw came down.
It was intercepted by the most unexpected move.
An ice beam.
Salamence roared in pain as it was forced back.
"What the hell was that?!" Shadow yelled in anger as he looked at the direction the ice beam came from.
In the lake surface, floated a sharpedo. A sharpedo that bore a familiar scar. A scar that Shadow's Salamence had inflicted personally.
A sharpedo belonging to…
"Swampert! Surf!"
A massive wave came out of the water as swampert surfed on the water summoning the attack.
Sonic quickly recalled Raichu and harnessing the power of their bond and as much stamina as he had left, jumped upwards dodging the attack.
Shadow and Maxie also rushed back avoiding getting swept by the wave. The other Magma members and pokemon were not that lucky.
The wave swept then all away, or more accurately, down. Once the wave cleared, Sonic landed next to the familiar Swampert.
Raichu came out and cried out at Swampert which cried back. Sonic heard the context of the exchange.
"Thank you".
"That's twice I'm saving your skin from this Salamence".
It was then that Sonic knew.
He looked back and saw them.
An entire small army had come to his aid. All brandishing water type pokemon.
Team Aqua.
"Bwahaha! Looks like we arrived just in the nick of time" Archie stood by Sonic.
"A little earlier wouldn't have been so bad either" Sonic joked as he and team Aqua stood down against team Magma.
Shadow and Maxie, leading the remaining Magmas also stood against their enemies.
"Now this just got interesting" Shadow grabbed all of his pokeballs, intending to instigate a free for all.
Maxie stopped him by raising his hand and taking out a singular pokeball.
"Camerupt!" he called out his ace "Rock slide!"
Camerupt fired rocks at the roof, causing it to crack and give away, creating an actual rock slide that rained down on the field, separating the two teams.
"What are you doing?!" Shadow yelled at Maxie.
"Avoiding a pointless fight. The hero of Kanto is not worth the risk of losing the Mikado meteor. We will fight another day" Maxie calmly explained as they left from the southern entrance of the cave.
On the other side of the rock slide, Sonic and team Aqua were helping each other up.
"You alright scumpo?" Archie helped Sonic up.
"Yeah. Or at least I will be. Thanks for the save though".
"Sonic!" Shelly then came out of nowhere and gave him an unexpected hug "that was reckless of you. Taking on team Magma, the enforcer and their leader Maxie at once?"
"I didn't come looking for the fight. I was trying to catch Shadow. He stole something called the Mikado meteor from professor Cosmo".
Archie, Shelly and the newly arrived Matt exchanged a worried look.
"What?"
"We were worried they would pull a stunt like this. Their recent attempts at stealing parts for machinery related to energy harnessing and now the theft of a meteor rumored to contain immense amount of energy? It can't be a coincidence".
"In my experience, cases like this are no coincidence. They must be planning something" Sonic spoke his mind.
Archie nodded.
"They are planning something. And now that we know what they stole, we know where to start. We will stop them before they hurt any more pokemon with their vile actions".
Matt then turned his attention to Sonic.
"You know, I thought you were strong when you took on our challenge the other day but taking on the entire team Magma and lasting this long? Big bro Archie was wrong. You are not able to rival the enforcer. You have the potential to surpass the enforcer".
"Big bro Matt is right!" one of the aqua grunts agreed.
"You are one who will vanquish the enforcer!"
"The Magmas will learn to fear you!"
All the team Aqua grunts kept chanting phrases of support for Sonic until Archie spoke up.
"Bwahaha. My team is right scumpo. What you faced was at least twice, if not thrice the challenge the enforcer faced when he joined their team" Archie complimented him.
But then his face turned serious again.
"But we also need to be real here scumpo. You couldn't take them on yourself. Just as we can't take them on. As long as we fight them on seperare fronts…"
"Save it" Sonic stopped him, surprising both Archie and his two admins.
"I know it. I know I can't beat them all myself. But I also know that I don't have to".
He looked at Matt, then Shelly and then Archie.
"We share a common adversary. Team Magma is a danger to pokemon. Shadow is a danger to Hoenn. So they must be stopped".
Neither of the 3 team Aqua leading members spoke a word.
"I guess what I'm trying to say is, does your offer still stand?"
Archie's face gleamed.
"You mean it?" Shelly was pleasantly surprised.
"I do. Only together can we beat team Magma and Shadow".
"I have no objections as long as you and I have that rematch!" Matt agreed while challenging Sonic.
"You bet" Sonic fist bumped Matt.
Archie then offered his hand.
"Team Aqua!" he said pulling Sonic to his side and raising his hand "let's give a warm welcome to our new comrade; The hero of Kanto, Sonic the hedgehog!"
Loud cheers erupted in the meteor falls cave as team Aqua and Sonic's alliance was sealed.
"Team Magma will tremble in their boots!"
Louder cheers.
"President Maxie will regret messing with nature!"
Even louder cheers.
And then Sonic spoke.
"The enforcer will be brought to justice for all his crimes!"
The cheers were so loud Sonic thought the roof would collapse on top of them.
Team Aqua excited the cave the same way they walked in to help Sonic. Before they could go too far however, Sonic pulled Archie aside.
"Hey. I want to talk some details about joining the team. I want to help you all take down team Magma but…"
Archie stopped him.
"I know. You got your own troubles. I understand that and I respect that. You don't have to stay in the headquarters of the team or follow us into every little mission we do. What we need you for is the big missions. Rallies, battles with team Magma, that kind of stuff. Not the average stuff we could do before you came into the picture. Question is, will you be able to be wherever we need you to be quick?"
Sonic smiled.
"You probably missed that part of the battle, but I have a Tropius. I can take to the skies anytime I want. I will be there".
Archie nodded, smiling as well.
"Then it's settled. We will head back to the HQ. Join us at Lilycove city when you tie up all loose ends in Fallarbor, so that we can prepare you for the future clash with team Magma. There will also be a surprise waiting for you".
"I'll be looking forward to this" Sonic said.
Before he could leave however Archie stopped him one final time.
"Oh and one more thing scumpo. Don't tell anyone you have joined the team. Our constant clashes with team Magma have attracted the attention of the authorities multiple times. We are also not technically legal. You don't need to suffer the consequences of our battle if things go south".
"Wait you serious? Bold move. Thanks for the heads up though. See you all soon" Sonic he bid farewell to Archie and sped away, heading back to Fallarbor town. He had to break the unfortunate news to professor Cosmo and Blaze.