Chapter 42: Team Aqua
Chibi Pika
Member
- Joined
- Mar 11, 2019
- Messages
- 73
- Reaction score
- 36
- Thread starter
- #81
I already replied elsewhere, but thanks for the reviews, uA! I'm thrilled that you're enjoying it. ^^
A click and a fizz rang out as I popped the top on a can of energy drink. I grimaced, then proceeded to chug it down. It was sour and awful but I didn’t care. I was gonna need something to keep me going who-knows-how-much longer we had to fight.
I still had to give Lugia the bad news. Couldn’t put it off forever, even if I would have liked to. Since Lugia and Ho-oh were at Sootopolis, they were now the only thing standing between the Rockets and Groudon awakening.
I took a deep breath and said, <The Rockets got the Red Orb.>
<What? How?> Lugia immediately demanded.
<The executive had Entei!> I replied heatedly, my face burning with shame. <I don’t even know how; it’s supposed to be with the Johto force.>
<Are we to assume the Johto force has nothing to do with this?>
<I—> I paused. My gut instinct was to say no, because the two halves of Team Rocket never seemed to work together on anything. But in light of what I knew about Stalker, I couldn’t rule it out. For all we knew, he only warned us about this mission so that he could capture Groudon and Kyogre himself.
<No, not really,> I admitted. <In any case, how’s the situation at Sootopolis?>
<There’s a fleet of airships here. They haven’t made a move on the city yet.> Lugia’s mind was calm, yet tense. Guarded. <We’ve tried attacking them from afar, but our attacks simply glance off their shields.>
<Rudy and Moltres are chasing the airship that left the Magma base,> I said. <He’s gonna keep me updated, but we should assume they’re heading to Sootopolis with the orb.>
I felt an affirmation from Lugia, almost like the mental equivalent of a nod. <Right. No matter what, we won’t allow them to approach the island.>
So that was settled. Nothing more I could do, so it was best if I put the Red Orb situation out of my mind. If I could.
“*How did Lugia take the news?*” Chibi asked, staring intently at me from the nearby snack counter. He’d obviously gotten the hang of spotting the face I made when talking to Lugia.
“Better than I expected, honestly.” I wasn’t even sure what I had been expecting. Anger? We’d failed to protect the orb. It should have been angry. I was angry. We should’ve been expecting that we might have to face a Legendary. We should’ve been ready for it.
I had to keep telling myself that it wasn’t a lost cause. We had Rudy and Moltres pursuing the airship that had left. And Lugia and Ho-oh were ready to stop them once they reached the island. This wasn’t over.
And… at least we were all okay. That was something.
I glanced over at Darren, who was currently raiding the Magmas’ break room fridge. Not for himself, on second look—he was mostly just holding the fridge open and watching helplessly while Weavile shoveled rice balls into her mouth.
The small break had given us a chance to heal our teams at least. No one was too badly injured, aside from Alakazam, who’d suffered some severe burning from Entei’s fireball—the sort of thing that really needed Pokécenter treatment, not just a brief stint on a healing machine.
“Think Rudy’s gonna be okay?” Darren asked offhandedly.
I tilted my head. “Yeah?” Then something hit me about the way he’d said it, and I added, “Why, do you think he’s not?”
Darren shoved a hand in his pocket. “I mean. He is riding a Legendary into a literal warzone.”
Oh. I guess it sounded pretty ridiculous when worded like that. Yet another thing that I just took for granted as reality, without stopping to think about it.
I shuffled a foot against the floor, trying to think of what to say. I finally settled on, “Does it feel weird that this is normal to us?”
Darren laughed. “All the time. I seriously forget that it’s not normal. And then someone like Maxie comes along and is like, ‘Why are a bunch of kids here?’ and I’m like, ‘Oh yeah… this is weird.’”
‘Why are a bunch of kids here?’—that question still felt bizarre. We were just kids. I hadn’t felt like one in a while. Not since that night on Midnight Island.
“Before we went on the Moltres mission,” Darren went on, “when I explained it to my team… everyone was pretty familiar with that kind of situation, y’know? They were just like, ‘oh yeah, this again.’ Except Skarmory—he wasn’t on the Rebellion, so for him, it was like, ‘what the heck, why are we doing this?’” he said, chuckling under his breath.
I took a swig of energy drink. It was slowly becoming more tolerable. “I wish Jet had been like ‘what the heck.’ She’s got it in her head that we’re like, a bunch of war heroes and that this is all some kind of—” I paused suddenly as the realization hit me. “She’s basically us, when we started out. We were like that back then, weren’t we?”
Darren shrugged. “Probably. I know I had it in my head that I was doing something big and important. Not that it’s not, but… well, you know.”
I knew that feeling all too well. I’d joined the Rebellion because I wanted to feel important. Maybe the feeling would eventually pass for her, like it had for us. Although… given what had caused us to lose that view…
“The weirdest thing is that I have a hard time imagining life without all this,” Darren added. “What would I do with myself? Just walking into a building, I start calculating escape routes… imagining how quickly I could react if the person next to me got shot.” He closed his eyes with an ironic half-smile. “Pretty sure if we told anyone else, they’d think we were insane.”
It was the same for me. Seemingly random things still called back those memories and instincts, no matter how much time had passed. Flashes of lightning, and I’d suddenly feel concrete on my skin and acid in my mouth when neither were really there. The heat of flames, and my ears would ring with gunshots and screaming kids. Catching a side glance of my best friend from just the wrong angle, and I’d feel a spike of adrenaline from nowhere and a fist locking around my collar and…
“We’re pretty messed up, yeah,” I said. “It helps not being the only one, I guess.”
Darren nodded distantly. “Yeah.” His mouth curled into a smirk. “But you guys being partnered with Legendaries? That’s still weird. Sorry, I don’t make the rules.”
I snorted. “That’s fair.” Then I glanced at my watch. It’d been fifteen minutes since Rudy left. Each minute we spent here was another minute for things to go downhill at the Aqua base. “Come on. We shouldn’t waste any more time.” Chibi jumped back onto my shoulder. I downed the rest of my drink in one unpleasant gulp and tossed the can before walking toward the door. Darren shut the fridge door with Weavile still inside, waited five seconds, then opened it again, which finally prompted her to jump out from inside and follow us out of the break room.
As we walked down the hallway, I felt Chibi’s paws grip my shoulder. “*I couldn’t understand…*” he said quietly.
I glanced at the hybrid out of the corner of my eye. “Hm?”
“*Before yesterday… when I thought you were trying to hide from this mess,*” he clarified. “*It didn’t make any sense to me. But… you had a life before all this. I forgot because I didn’t have a life before all this.*”
Oh. That did make sense, what with the way that he’d been constantly badgering me for information on Team Rocket for the past nine months. I’d been frustrated at him for being unable to let it go, but… obviously that wasn’t so easy for him.
His paws clenched my shirt. “*I said I wanted to find something else to live for, but then I was angry with you for trying to do just that.*”
I reached over my shoulder to put a hand on his back. Felt his body tense up and then slowly relax. “It’s alright. I understand. And… I’m sorry I haven’t been able to help you move on.”
“*Not your fault,*” he replied immediately. “*I wasn’t letting you. Some things I have to figure out on my own.*” I didn’t necessarily agree with that, but… saying so wouldn’t help, I knew that much.
We regrouped in Maxie’s half-destroyed office where several Magmas were already hard at work cleaning up. Maxie was currently discussing something with his admins, but then glanced up at me and Darren when we entered.
“You two will need to reach the Aqua base as quickly as possible, correct?” the Magma leader asked.
I nodded. How far was that, anyway? I wasn’t too good with Hoennian geography, but if it was off the northeastern shore… that had to be at least 150 miles away. Or even more? Maybe I could text Ajia and have her send Mew to get us? But if they were in the middle of a fight, the last thing I wanted to do was distract them.
Maxie must have seen the dismayed look on my face, because he went on to say, “In the past, our team had… frequent need to teleport to the Aqua base for infiltration purposes. And while those days are behind us, some of our teleporters still have the location memorized.” Good. We couldn’t afford to waste any time flying all the way there.
The admins who’d be going with us—Courtney and Tabitha—stepped forward, flanked by a squad of four Magmas and three Pokémon—a Kirlia and two Claydol. So they’d be teleporting eight humans total, plus Latias, whom everyone had pretty much just accepted was here at this point. No point hiding herself anymore.
Courtney gave one last bow to her leader before taking the Kirlia’s hand. I placed my hand against the rough, earthen surface of one Claydol while Darren did the same with the other one.
This was it. Barely done recovering from our first failure, already rushing into another fight. No way of knowing how much longer the night would last. God, that thought was exhausting.
“I wish you all the best of luck,” Maxie said, nodding.
Then the office melted into distorted light. Two jumps later, we appeared on a wide, rocky platform surrounded by water on three sides. Ocean waves lapped at its edge, and a cool sea breeze swept through the air. The sky had lightened noticeably compared to when we’d arrived at the Magma base—I turned to face the open sea and was met with the first light of dawn peeking over the horizon.
The teleporters vanished and reappeared twice more until all of us were here, including Latias. Courtney gestured for us to follow her before silently leading us down a rough path along the water’s edge, skirting the perimeter of a sheer rock face, past sharp crags jutting up from the shallow sea. We rounded a particularly narrow ledge where the rock protruded out into the path, and there it was, the entrance to the Aqua base—a wide opening carved into the side of the rock down by the water’s edge. How were things going in there? Were Ajia and Starr alright?
The path we’d been following didn’t reach the entrance. In fact, there were no visible walkways at all, just an open waterway for boats or water-types. I was just puzzling over the best way to get in when a grinding, metallic sound suddenly reached my ears. It almost sounded like… a garage door opening, coming from the direction of the Aqua base. Was it inside the waterway, out of view?
After several seconds, the door sound ground to a halt, and in its place, I could hear an alarm blaring, mixed in with the sounds of… an engine revving? No, multiple engines revving. Getting louder.
Then, without warning, a huge blue and black speedboat shot out of the opening at top speed.
“After them!” a voice shouted.
A flock of flying-types bolted out the hangar next, half of them with riders. Following close behind them was a fleet of smaller boats that broke off from each other the moment they exited, swerving wildly, dodging Pokémon attacks. Like half of them were trying to avoid the other half.
“What the heck?” I muttered under my breath. Was Team Aqua… making a break for it? Taking the fight to the ocean?
“Hey! Over here!” Tabitha called out, waving his arms over his head. At first it didn’t seem like any of the boats had noticed him. But then one of them abruptly swerved into a full U-turn, zooming straight at us. It didn’t make any effort to slow down gradually, instead braking hard right as it pulled up. I flinched as a spray of seawater washed over all of us, then glanced up to see that the boat was full of people wearing striped shirts and black bandanas, all staring at us—or rather, the Magmas—in total confusion.
“The hell are you punks doing here?” a tall, burly man called out to us from the helm. He was shirtless, heavily tanned, and wearing the lower half of a wetsuit with a large, stylized ‘A’ tattooed on his chest. So… an Aqua, if that was anything to go off.
“We came here to help you ungrateful whelps!” Tabitha called back, stamping a boot against the rocks.
The man captaining the ship scoffed. “You think we forgot how to fight off invaders? Always managed to send your group packing, no sweat!”
Courtney narrowed her eyes but didn’t say anything. Tabitha shook his head and stammered, “W-well I know you Aquas are physically incapable of taking anything seriously, but these Rockets are bad news!”
“Ha! Couldn’t defend your base?” the man said with a hearty laugh. “Figures!” Tabitha’s face went red.
“Matt, dear, they came all this way to help, the least we can do is give them a lift,” a voice called out. I glanced over at the ship’s bow to see a slender, dark-skinned woman with long, black hair streaked with blue. She was currently leaning against the guardrail, eyeing our group with an amused look.
“If you say so, Shelly,” Matt said with an exaggerated eye roll. Then he turned back to us and said, “Get on board, and hurry it up, will ya?”
One of the Aqua members extended a ladder down the side of the boat. Tabitha started climbing aboard, muttering to himself the entire time, followed by Courtney, the other Magmas, and finally me and Darren.
“More kids? Seriously, what’s with all the kids today?” one of the Aquas asked loudly the moment he got a good look at us.
“Child soldiers recruited to fight a war with the Rockets,” Darren answered without missing a beat.
That caught Matt off guard. He blinked at us for a second before bursting out laughing once more. “Jesus, Kanto’s not as boring as I thought!” Then he whirled around and gripped the wheel tightly with his giant hands. “Alright, we’re setting off. Hang on tight! I ain’t turning this thing around if any of y’all fall overboard!” he called out. I barely had time to cling to the side of the railing before the boat abruptly lurched into a tight U-turn and began accelerating to top speed.
The Aqua ship practically flew across the water, scattering sea spray into my face and whipping my hair around like crazy. Far ahead of us, I could see the rest of the boats, as well as the aerial squads of Rockets. We were rapidly gaining on them.
Tabitha struggled to make his way toward the helm, fighting against the air pushing him back. “Do you even know what they’re after?!” he yelled over the roar of the wind in his face.
Matt scoffed. “They’re tryin’ to get their hands on the Blue Orb, what else? That’s why Archie took it and made a break for it. He knew we’d be way better off fighting back in our element.” He gestured to the fleet of boats ahead of us, now circling around to confront their pursuers.
At once, dozens upon dozens of Pokéball flashes rang out, and I was suddenly staring at an absolute horde of water-types. Wailmer, Carvanha, Sharpedo, Wailmer, even a few Wailord—all launching high-pressure waterspouts outward, crashing into the Rocket boats, toppling half of them, knocking flying-types out of the air. The skies near-instantly filled with a nonstop barrage of water so relentless it might as well have been raining. Heck, in a few spots it actually was raining, as some of the water-types had generated rain clouds to help fuel their attacks.
Gunfire rang out a few times, but the onslaught of waves radiating out from the Aqua fleet kept the Rockets from getting close enough for a clear shot. Bolts of lightning shot out from some of the electric-types, but they were too far to target the heart of the Aquas’ forces, and could only pick off the outliers.
Holy crap. Maxie wasn’t kidding when he said the Aquas in their element were scary effective.
In the midst of the chaos, my eyes locked onto a gray-scaled blur zipping in and out of the Rockets’ aerial lineup. Aerodactyl! Ajia was okay! I couldn’t see her clearly, but I could see the small jolts of lightning that Pichu fired off every few seconds, and the Rockets’ Pokémon falling around her, wings twitching with paralysis. Mew was probably here too, disguised as one of the multitudes of water Pokémon. Not to mention Latias, wherever she’d flown off to.
But then what about—my eyes scanned the army of water-types, struggling to pick out individual Pokémon—there! A Feraligatr and a Gyarados adding to the torrential onslaught keeping the Rockets’ boats from getting close to the Aqua leader—and the latter had a trainer on his back. So Starr was okay too. Thank god. After me, Rudy, and Darren had only barely made it, I hadn’t even wanted to think about the idea that Ajia or Starr might not have survived the Aqua base.
A high-pitched trill suddenly broke the air and my stomach instinctively tied into a knot. I knew that sound. I glanced upward and sure enough, there it was. An icy, cobalt falcon circling overhead, ribbonlike tail swirling snow behind it.
Articuno. God, I was sick of facing down Legendaries.
“Yeah, that thing gave us trouble back at the base,” Matt said grimly, staring up at the ice bird. “Some Kanto girl—a friend o’ yours?—she kept it busy while the rest of us hightailed it outta there so we could fight back on our own turf.”
My mouth went dry. If Ajia had managed to stand up to Articuno, then it was because she had Mew, and no other reason. “Don’t… don’t underestimate Legendaries.”
Matt grinned. “Don’t underestimate Team Aqua.”
Several dozen water-types all fired on Articuno at once, from all sides. It retaliated with Ice Beam after Ice Beam, freezing countless waterspouts into jagged icy spires. But for every attack it froze, ten more filled the air, forcing it to stay on the move, constantly looping out of the way, struggling to control its flight with waterlogged feathers.
Articuno was limited to picking off opponents with single shots. It couldn’t just let a vicious Blizzard rip through the air without hitting its own forces. And now it was stuck spiraling around, struggling to find an opening. It shrugged off a few of the waterspouts, freezing a group of water-types solid, but for each squad that fell, there were five more to take its place. There were actually too many for it to break through. And really, that shouldn’t have been surprising. After all, before the Rockets had legends at their disposal, they’d had to take them down with huge numbers of ordinary Pokémon—this was no different
Matt jerked the boat to the left and I snapped my hands to the railing again as we only narrowly avoided a sudden patch of ice that sprung up from a rogue Ice Beam. Then, with another swerve, he pulled our boat into a wide arc heading straight for the center of the Aqua fleet. The water-type forces parted to let us through, and Matt took us further in until our boat was traveling right alongside the largest ship in the fleet.
“Hey Archie! Get a load o’ the reinforcements we picked up!” he called out.
Archie? Wait, that was their leader, right? I leaned out over the railing and stared up at the larger ship. There he was at the helm—a tall, wild-eyed man in a navy wetsuit with a cape of netting trailing from his belt and a huge golden anchor hanging from a chain around his neck.
Archie turned in our direction and blinked at us for a few seconds before breaking into an amused grin upon seeing that the ‘reinforcements’ were a bunch of Magmas and some kids.
“Ha! You came to help us? That’s rich!” Tabitha folded his arms but didn’t bother responding. Archie smirked. “Appreciate the offer and all, but we’ll be taking care of this lot on our own!” He leaned over the ship’s railing and called out, “Whaddya say, bud? Let’s show these punks we mean business!”
At first, I wasn’t sure who he was addressing with that last bit. But then, several seconds later, a Sharpedo burst out of the water, right alongside his ship. Archie grabbed at the golden anchor around his neck, and in an instant, beams of light burst out of it, streaming through his fingertips in a dazzling array of colors. What on earth? Was that… normal? None of the Aquas looked surprised—they were all staring in anticipation, like they couldn’t wait for what was about to happen. On its next leap from the water, the same rainbow light erupted from Sharpedo—from a polished stone strapped to its dorsal fin. And the instant the light crossed paths with Archie’s, it flared to life, completely engulfing the shark, swirling around it so thickly that I could barely see it, Archie grinning wildly the entire time.
Suddenly, the light exploded outward from the two in a dazzling prismatic flash, fading into shimmering rainbow strands drifting upward from Sharpedo. The Aquas burst into wild cheering. And all I could do was stare openmouthed. It was like a Sharpedo but more, body covered in bright yellow patterns and scar-like markings, with jagged, toothy protrusions jutting from its snout.
“What the hell just happened?” I muttered under my breath.
Archie slammed a foot against the ship’s railing, thrusting a finger toward the Rockets. “Get a taste of Mega Sharpedo.”
Mega… Sharpedo? That light… that was a mega evolution? I’d heard vague stories about it—real important to Kalosian history, practically a myth for the longest time—but I never thought I’d ever actually see it.
Sharpedo burst from the water almost too fast to see, launching itself clear through the air, striking one of the Rockets’ flying-types and knocking it and its rider into the sea. Then the shark fired a burst of water behind it and cut through the sea like a torpedo, honing in on one of the ships that had been stolen by the Rockets, tearing a wide gash through the hull with its jaws.
The sudden counterattack didn’t go unnoticed. With a high-pitched cry, Articuno swooped down and fired, freezing the water in Sharpedo’s path. But the shark barely noticed. It shattered the ice with the spikes on its snout and kept going, tearing through the water at high speed, smashing ice wherever it could, freeing the frozen water-types so they could go right back to launching brutal Hydro Pumps at the Rockets.
“See? What’d I tell ya,” Matt said, a hint of pride in his voice. “My bro’s got us covered.”
They actually had a shot. And even if Raven showed up with Entei, it wouldn’t exactly be a big help at sea, would it? We actually had a shot. This wasn’t over.
And then Lugia’s voice was in my head saying, <It’s awake. Groudon is awake,> and the world came crashing to a halt. I stood frozen, gripping the ship’s railing so hard my knuckles turned white, numbly processing the sudden announcement from nowhere.
<Wh… what?> I asked shakily.
<Did you not hear me?> the legend said.
I shook my head. <No, I—I heard you, but—how?>
<I’m unsure. None of the airships here have made a move on the island. We’ve been watching them the entire time.>
<There is no way in hell the ship that left the Magma base could have made it there by now; it’s clear on the other end of the region. And Rudy hasn’t messaged me yet either, so—> And then the answer hit me. The single, blatantly obvious truth that none of us had considered yet.
<Oh my god, we’re idiots. They didn’t need to get their entire force there! The instant they had the orb, all they had to do was just teleport a single person to the cave to awaken it. They probably already had a teleporter ready to go with the location memorized and everything!>
Lugia’s mind crackled with frustration. It hadn’t made that connection either. <So staking out the entrance was for nothing, then.>
<We would’ve needed someone waiting to confront them inside the cave.> I slammed a fist against the railing. <Damn it.>
Lugia steeled itself, as through suppressing the frustration and trying to focus. <Ho-oh and I will protect Groudon. Do not let them recover the Blue Orb!>
“Hey. You okay?” Darren asked, putting a hand on my shoulder. Though he hadn’t heard the conversation, he’d definitely seen my random outburst and the sudden wave of anger crossing my face.
“Groudon is awake,” I said, holding a hand against my temple.
His eyes widened for a second with surprise. He opened his mouth like he was about to say something, but then froze, processing. “Oh. They sent someone ahead to—”
“Yeah,” I said flatly.
Darren closed his eyes, exhaling slowly. “…Rudy’s gonna be pissed when we tell him.”
“I’m pissed.”
“Yeah, that’s kinda unlike you.”
I was not remotely in the mood to care about that. We couldn’t afford to let them get the Blue Orb too. Even if the Aquas were holding their own now, I didn’t trust for a second that the Rockets didn’t have more tricks in store for us.
“So I’ve been meaning to ask—how do y’all plan on fighting here, anyway?” Matt asked, glancing back at the Magmas. With a smirk, he added, “Unless you’re telling me you finally figured out that water is the best type?”
Courtney glared at him, but then turned and looked out at the waters surrounding us. I followed her gaze and saw that the seaway here was unbelievably shallow, with rocks and sandbars scattered between random pockets of deep water. Matt’s near-constant swerving wasn’t pointless—he pretty much had to do it to avoid beaching us.
“There. Let us off there,” Courtney said abruptly, pointing at a particularly large sandbar along the outskirts of the sea battle.
Matt shrugged. “Suit yourself.”
The boat swerved again, but by this point I was getting used to it. Matt pulled us over as close as we could without getting stuck, and then I immediately bolted down the ladder and jumped off from it to land in the sand. Darren, Courtney, Tabitha, and the Magma grunts dismounted after me.
Matt gave us one last incredulous glance and said, “Y’all are determined, I’ll give ya that. Good luck!” before the boat sped off.
Darren turned around, quickly grabbing two Pokéballs from his belt. “Alllright, I know everything looks good right now, but let’s be real—we know that’s not lasting.” He let out Skarmory and Weavile, then climbed onto the metal bird’s back, with Weavile riding in front of him.
I let out Swift, Jet, and Aros in a flash, keeping Firestorm in reserve—better to not have him out with all the water flying through the air, plus I’d need a backup flier if Swift went down. “Jet, hop in the water and defend those boats. Aros, give them air support, and keep away from the ice. Chibi, go with him—make sure your lightning doesn’t hit the water, we don’t want to fry any Aqua forces. Precision strikes only—no Discharge.”
Jet gave a mock salute and dove into the sea. Aros glanced at Chibi with a look like he wanted to say something but couldn’t find the right words. The Pikachu either didn’t notice or didn’t care, jumping onto his back like usual and clinging tightly. After a few seconds’ pause, Aros turned to face the Aqua fleet before taking off.
I climbed on Swift’s back and said, “We’ll want to stay clear of Articuno. Take us over the Aqua forces so we can support them however we can.” The Pidgeot nodded wordlessly. Then he flapped his wings and we were off, circling the airspace above the sandbar. Below us, the Magmas had sent out all their ranged fighters, and plumes of fire had already begun to rain down on the Rockets. Skarmory swept a flurry of pointed stones into the air that hovered around the Aqua fleet, ready to dig into any Rocket forces that came too close.
Time to enter the melee, then. A burst of Quick Attack and we were off. We flew past a group of Pelipper that was busily whipping up a Tailwind, forcing the Rockets to fight against the wind. I scanned the waters below and spotted a squad of enemy Pokémon that had darted in from behind, zeroing in on Archie’s ship. In one smooth motion, Swift swooped down and nailed two or three of them with Air Cutter, which caught the Aquas’ attention and led to a barrage of Dark Pulse from the Mightyena pack onboard.
No time to stop and focus down any opponents, no time to land any big moves. Just darting in, small strikes, then darting out. Movement caught my eye, and I threw a glance upward to see a squad of Crobat above us, already paralyzed by Chibi, Aros tearing through them in a blaze of dragonfire. To our left, another squad of fliers. Two of them had just gone down to a Hydro Pump, but a Yanmega deftly zipped past the waterjets, eyes glowing as it shot a multicolored beam and took down one of the Mightyena. Swift fired off an Air Slash, knocking it back, and that took the dragonfly too close to Skarmory’s rocks, which immediately dug into it. A Gliscor powered through, shrugging off the rocks, but a rush of Icy Wind from Weavile coated its wings in frost. Then, while it was stunned, Swift dove down and smacked it with his wings, knocking it into the waves, where it was immediately frozen by one of the Aquas’ Walrein.
I felt a burst of cold air behind me—Articuno?—and whirled around in a panic, but no, it was just Weavile, slowing another group of Crobat with Icy Wind. Then a loud crash snapped my attention back to the ship just in time to see a Blastoise ramming the hull with a high-speed headbutt. I pointed Swift downward, and he immediately caught it between the eyes with a blade of wind. And in the moment’s pause while the tortoise was clutching its face in pain, a duo of Lanturn surfaced right next to it and unleashed a flood of electricity.
They just kept coming. We could hold our own, but for how long? Even with the Aquas’ impressive fleet, Rocket forces still kept managing to slip through. Swift struck down a Beedrill, stirred up a whirlwind, and tossed a few more Crobat into the floating rocks. He was just flaring up his wings with light, about to go for an Aerial Ace when something orange glinted in the corner of my vision. A Dragonair, facing Archie’s ship, charging something in its mouth—a ball of orange light.
Oh no. Hyper Beam.
“Guard them with Protect!” I cried.
Swift dove, and the Dragonair fired, and time seemed to slow as the blinding beam lanced straight for the ship. Swift flared his wings at the last second, white light shimmering in front of us. I screwed my eyes shut right as the beam struck the barrier with a piercing screech. Ears ringing, I felt a spray of water from something surfacing beneath us, and dared to open my eyes a crack. Another Dragonair below. Couldn’t Protect.
“Quick Att—”
Too late; a burst of dragonfire exploded from below, pouring over Swift’s feathers and sending a jolt of raw, heatless pain shooting through my arms. I clung to him for dear life as he struggled to regain his flight, firing off blades of air at everything around us. Through blurred vision I caught a glimpse of the Dragonair recoiling backward, then darting in for another attack.
I coughed, eyes watering, and yelled, “Tw-twister!”
Swift whipped up a whirlwind streaked with white flares, catching the dragon in its center and whipping it around mercilessly. But, wait… what about the first one? I spun around and there it was—behind us, its horn crackling with sparks. My stomach curled inward, already anticipating the burst of lightning, already seeing it before it had even—
And then a giant, blue-scaled head lunged out of nowhere, grabbing the Dragonair in its icy jaws and hurling it so far that it was practically a speck when it landed in the water. I blinked in shock at our sudden rescuer, eyes falling on the person riding on its head, who was currently giving me a rather unamused look.
“Starr?” I blurted out.
She pointed forward, and her Gyarados snaked his way through the water until he was alongside us, giving Swift the chance to land on his back and rest his wings. The Pidgeot hummed gently as a healing glow washed over him from Roost.
Starr spun around to face me. “What’d I say about getting yourself killed?”
I flinched. “We were doing fine,” I replied automatically. Then my brain caught up with my mouth and I added, “But… thanks.”
Her expression softened. “Just giving you crap. I’m glad you’re okay.” She turned back to face the same direction as Gyarados, pointing out a few targets that were getting dangerously close. “We’ve been doing alright here.”
“Better than alright. Way better than we did at the Magma base,” I said.
She gave me a sideways look over her shoulder. “Do I even wanna know?”
I wasn’t too keen on sharing the details anyway. “Not really. They got the orb and woke Groudon, that’s all that matters.”
“Does Ajia know?”
I paused. “I’m… not sure.” Both she and Mew had been here the whole time, so not likely. I only knew because my patron had seen it happen.
My eyes wandered over to Ajia’s Aerodactyl as he looped through the air, sending blades of air from his wingtips and knocking the Rockets Pokémon back as they attempted to take aim. Near him, a green blur flickered in and out of shadow, the Pikachu on his back firing bolts at anyone who got too close.
And then, for whatever reason, I noticed that the seas around us were a lot less… hectic than they had been only a few minutes ago. Most of the skirmishes had died down. The Rocket boats had all pulled back, putting a wide berth between them and the Aquas’ forces.
“What’s going on?” I muttered under my breath. Were they… retreating? That didn’t make any sense. Sure, we were holding our own well enough, but there was no way they’d give up that easily. They had to have something else in store.
And then I caught a glimpse of movement out of the corner of my eye and turned to see several large somethings in the air. I squinted, struggling to make out the details. Then my eyes widened—it was a fleet of airships, rapidly approaching us from the northern horizon. Fighting back against Rockets on stolen Aqua boats was one thing, but airships?
“Crap. They’ve got reinforcements coming,” I said, a sinking feeling building inside me.
At my words, Starr whirled around. Her eyes narrowed. “Shit. It’s the Johto force.”
A few of the Aquas started cheering as the Kanto Rockets pulled back, but it wasn’t long before they spotted the approaching airships. A crowd of waterjets fired on the nearest one, but the water just glanced off to the side, deflected invisibly. So the airships had ALR shields, huh? Then again, that did match what Lugia had said. But what was powering them? ALRs were useless without Pokémon energy as fuel.
A large, metallic door on one ship began sliding open with a metallic creak. A flicker of sparks shone from within. And then a gigantic golden beast leapt down from the ship, landing on the nearest boat with a heavy thud that shook it so hard I thought it would capsize. Aqua grunts stumbled back from the impact, toppling over the side and into the water. Those still on board recoiled in fear.
I stared frozenly, mouth hanging open. It was Raikou. The Legendary Beast of Thunder that I hadn’t seen since that night a year ago, when we’d actually managed to save it from the Rockets. And it had a human on its back. A young man wearing an Executive’s outfit, surveying the Aqua forces with a half-bored, half-amused expression.
“Lexx?!” Starr’s voice rang in outrage.
He jerked slightly upon hearing his name, then turned to face us, face splitting into a wide grin. “Oh hey! Nice job keeping the Kanto force busy. But we’ll be taking it from here.”
Raikou crouched low before leaping high into the air, instantly letting a hail of lightning rain down on the Aquas’ forces. Dozens of Pokémon cried out at once before falling silent. And that was just the first attack. Raikou kept going, leaping from Aqua ship to ship, positioning itself behind the Aquas, so the water-types would have to attack their own trainers to get at it. Bolts rained down from above, spreading like a web across the surface of the water, forcing the remaining Pokémon to dive under to avoid it.
My heart sank as I numbly watched it all unfold. “But… he warned us about their attack…” I uttered weakly.
“‘Warned us’ my ass, he was just trying to distract us with pointless bullshit so we wouldn’t know what was really up,” Starr growled.
And what had I been expecting, really? That Stalker sending us here to sabotage this mission meant that the Johto force wasn’t involved? Of course that was a joke.
I was dragged out my thoughts by Starr tapping a fist against her Gyarados’s armored scales, then pointing forcefully toward Lexx. “We’re going after him.” The sea monster nodded sharply, and I had to throw my arms around Swift as our ride lunged forward, cutting a line through the seaway, straight toward Lexx and Raikou.
I stared up at Starr, speechless. She wasn’t serious, was she? But neither she nor Gyarados showed any sign of stopping. I couldn’t let her go after him alone, but… after seeing the devastation that Raikou had just unleashed… I wasn’t sure if I had to protect her… or hold her back.
“*This seems… unwise,*” Swift said, quiet enough that only I could hear him.
“You’re telling me,” I whispered. Then I called out, “Starr, are you sure we should be doing this?”
Starr didn’t respond. Or acknowledge that I’d said anything, for that matter. Her gaze was firmly locked on her brother, who was still antagonizing the Aqua forces. A couple of ground-types had endured the lightning and were attempting to strike back, sending waves of muddy water crashing down on him. But Raikou just raised a Protect barrier around itself and its trainer, the mud splattering off harmlessly. Then it retaliated by opening its jaws wide and launching a volley of shadowy orbs, picking them off one by one before they had a chance to counterattack.
“Hey!!” Starr belted out. She pointed forward, and Gyarados spat out a narrow jet of water that splashed against the thunder beast’s side, only narrowly missing Lexx himself. “Why don’t you get over here and fight me, you little worm!”
Raikou slowly turned in our direction, staring expressionlessly. Lexx gave his sister a crooked smile. “Starr, I want you to think about the fact that you’re challenging Raikou while riding a Gyarados.”
“Like I care,” she spat. “Do you even have the balls to attack me?”
Oh my god, what was she doing. My hand hovered over Firestorm’s Pokéball—I could let him out at a moment’s notice, he could grab her, we could make a break for it. But Lexx ignored her, turning around and focusing on the Aquas once more. Above us, the squads of Rockets pouring out of the Johto airships had grouped together in an aerial formation, with the Pokémon in front putting up Reflect and Light Screen to protect those in the back. There were still a decent number of water-types bombarding their shields with high-pressure waterspouts. At Lexx’s command, Raikou fired another string of lightning from its forehead, straight upward, calling down a bout of thunder from the sky, right in the center of the Aquas’ broken lineup.
Without warning, a hulking blue shape burst up from the water with a violent splash. Feraligatr! Her jagged, toothy jaws dug into the tiger’s leg, staining its pelt red. But the legend only barely flinched. Lexx glanced at her out of the corner of his eye and sighed before motioning to Raikou. Strings of electricity danced across its mane, then flew into the gator, who let out a garbled cry and fell overboard with a splash.
“Really, Starr?” Lexx said, giving her a tired look. “This will all go a lot faster if you guys don’t get in our way. We’re facing a common enemy.”
“Looks to me like you’re helping the enemy right now,” she snarled, recalling her starter.
Lexx paused. “Well… yes. But not for long.”
“The hell is that supposed to—”
But her words cut off sharply at the whistle of something flying through the air, rapidly approaching. Gyarados noticed it first, darting to the right. Swift flared his wings to keep his balance, and I flattened myself to his back right as a hunk of molten earth slammed into the side of the ship, knocking Raikou off balance and nearly throwing Lexx from its back. I whirled around to see Courtney, standing at the edge of the water, arm outstretched. Her Camerupt stood next to her, snorting steam from its nostrils.
“What is it with people wanting to fight Legendaries today?!” Lexx yelled to no one in particular as he regained himself and pointed for Raikou to disembark. “Do you guys seriously not know how strong they are?” The lightning beast gave a mighty leap and hurtled through the air, landing on the nearest island with a spray of sand.
“Strong,” Courtney mused to herself. “Alright then.” She held out the multicolored stone that Maxie had given her. Beams of light suddenly burst out of Camerupt’s collar—the same light that we’d seen from Sharpedo not that long ago. But then, that could only mean—!
The light consumed Camerupt, swirling around it like a raging vortex. And then it exploded outward all at once, dissolving into multicolored strands radiating upward. With a loud snort, Camerupt stamped the sand, melting it beneath its hooves. Its thick, crimson coat ruffled with every movement. Glowing, molten lines of magma traced the volcanic peak that had burst up from its back.
“She can’t beat you… you say?” Courtney asked. The corners of her mouth turned up slightly. “Perhaps I can.”
Lexx let out a low whistle. “Never seen a mega evolution in person.” He smirked. “Well this just got slightly more interesting. Alright, I’ll play your game.” He jumped down from Raikou’s back, gesturing for it to go ahead, and the lightning beast took a few steps forward until it was standing directly across from its opponent.
“I’ve always wanted to know just how much lightning it would take to hurt a ground-type.” Lexx grinned darkly. “Should we test it?”
Courtney’s eyes flickered with interest. “An experiment?” She stepped back and motioned to Camerupt… or rather, Mega Camerupt. “Let’s begin.”
The volcanic Pokémon reared up with a snort and stamped both forelegs into the sand. In reply, an explosion of molten energy burst up from under Raikou, consuming the beast. Raikou kept walking, a twinge in its eyes and the slightest shudder in its steps. Then, with little more than a flicker of sparks as a warning, it unleashed an absolute deluge of Thunderbolts.
I’d seen floods of lightning before. I’d seen Chibi pour his entire power supply in a single move, more than once. But this? It sent me reeling back to that night we destroyed the Thunder Field, giving Raikou that chance to use its full thunderous might against the Rockets. All of that, directed on just one Pokémon. Camerupt staggered back, teeth clenched, pain in its eyes, the air shimmering from the sheer heat of the lightning. But it was enduring, and forcing itself forward, stamping the sand again and generating another eruption beneath its opponent.
This was the power of mega evolution.
Raikou waited for the earth to settle beneath its claws. It tensed itself, strings of lightning coursing through its mane. But before it could strike, a huge chunk of mud crashed into the back of its head, knocking it forward a few steps. What? Where had that…?
The beast threw a glance over its shoulder to locate its attacker. There, on the far opposite side of the sandbar, stood a Swampert, shaking the water from its fins and eyeing Raikou. The only one out of the crowd of ground-types that hadn’t fallen to a single Shadow Ball.
Raikou turned toward it. Then it closed its eyes. The air shimmered and warped, condensing into waves of light that dug into the mudfish. It didn’t even flinch. Raikou blinked in surprise. Then Swampert lunged forward, striking the ground with its palm, sending a rolling wave of sand crashing into the tiger’s legs, bringing it to its knees, which gave Camerupt the chance to call up another eruption right beneath it.
Right. So the Swampert was Mew. Got it.
Starr was watching this all unfold with a look of distaste. Finally, she turned away and said, “Well, the creepy Magma chick is dealing with shithead over there. Come on, we’ve got other problems to worry about.” Gyarados gave a flick of his tail, and suddenly we were moving again.
I blinked in surprise. She was actually willing to let it go? I’d been half expecting to have to drag her away from a fight with him. Still, I wasn’t about to question it. I threw one last glance back at Courtney as we left. We couldn’t waste her distraction—we had to protect Archie’s ship. My eyes scanned the waters around us and—dammit, Raikou had really screwed us over. What little remained of the Aqua forces were regrouping in the center. In the air, I spotted Darren flying on Skarmory, the metal bird stirring up whirlwinds and knocking approaching Rockets into the pointed stones. Saw Aros and Chibi still going strong, along with Aerodactyl and the Pelipper flock, all of them working to keep the Rockets from getting any closer.
I was just about to have Swift take off and help them when a high-pitched whistle filled the air and a frantic voice yelled, “Get down!” I tilted my head back to stare straight upward and—holy crap, what?
Meteors. The sky was full of meteors.
“P-protect?!” I yelled.
Swift leaped into the air, flapping right above Starr and Gyarados before spreading his wings wide and forming a wall of light above us. Not even a second later, dozens of projectiles—sparkling red and blue flares that looked like dragonfire—rained down on the entire seaway, clattering off barriers, knocking flying-types out of the air, and tearing holes in ships. I held tight to Swift’s neck, burying my face in his feathers and flinching with each shock wave and just willing it to be over.
After what felt like forever, the countless impacts began to die down. I lifted my head right as the Protect wore off and Swift leveled off our flight, gliding in a low circle above the water. A chill fell over me—the skies were disturbingly bare. Half the aerial fighters had been knocked into the sea from the meteor shower (what even was that move?) and most of the Aqua fleet now had gaping holes in their boats. I threw a frantic glance back at Archie’s ship to see a Walrein hard at work freezing the openings shut, but the hull had already taken on so much water that it was too late. The Aquas on board were frantically discussing something when Archie suddenly made a hard right turn, beaching the ship against the closest sandbar before they could sink any further.
Crap. This was bad. There went their mobility. And with half the water-types down… I whirled around to see Articuno rapidly closing in on us. No, no no no. If it got too close, that was it, game over. Had to do something.
…Articuno should have taken some damage by now, right? Between all the water and fire and lightning and—
Chibi. He was the only one that could put a dent in Articuno, besides Mew—and Mew was still dealing with Raikou. Even if it was just for an instant, it’d give us the opportunity to get Archie to safety.
“We’ve gotta find Aros and Chibi, fast!” I hissed into Swift’s ear, and the Pidgeot instantly put on a burst of speed. I flattened myself to his back, holding tight as he ducked and weaved around the few remaining fliers, scanning them all with a growing feeling of dread. Aros hadn’t been hit by the meteors, had he? Or the ice? Or any one of a dozen other things that could have taken him down and I wouldn’t have even seen it and—there! A wave of relief crashed over me when I caught the flutter of green wings out of the corner of my eye. Swift had already spotted him, diving down to where the Flygon was helping fish unconscious Pelipper from the water.
“How much power do you have left?” I immediately asked Chibi.
“*Borrowed some from Pichu. I’m at around half,*” the hybrid replied.
Would that be enough? Didn’t matter, had to try it. “It’s a long shot, but we don’t have a choice,” I said, pointing toward Articuno. “Use Mega Bolt!”
The Pikachu turned to face the ice bird, eyes narrowing. He drew himself back, poised to take a flying leap, when—
“*Wait,*” Swift cut in sharply. “*They’ve got hostages.*”
What? What was he sayi—oh crap. Articuno was actually carrying the Aqua admins in its talons. Of all the dirty moves. Couldn’t hurt Articuno without hurting the hostages, at least, not with lightning. But who else could put a scratch on it?
A rush of wind shot past me and I saw the brief flash of red feathers in the sunlight. Wait… Latias! Of course! She could do it—she could save them! Glimmering mist balls formed from thin air, pelting Articuno right in the chest repeatedly. The ice bird recoiled backward with each blow, instinctively retaliating with an Ice Beam that missed its mark completely.
Now they were close enough for me to spot that it had a rider—the executive, Ender. He pointed forward, and the legend sent a rush of cold air from its wings. Frost formed around a jetlike shape in the air, flickering red before Latias snapped into full view, her illusion broken. Shivering, she pressed on through the storm, still forming more mist ball attacks, still pelting Articuno with them, forcing it back from the ship below. And then, when she was mid-move, Ender snapped his fingers, and a jagged Ice Beam split the air, striking her dead-on.
My heart jumped into my throat. No!
Latias cried out in pain, her attack fading into mist. She struggled to bring her claws together for a Protect, but the ice crystals were too thick, her arms frozen solid. Then the ice made its way to her wings, and with a pitiful cry, the crimson dragon went limp, spiraling down into the sea with a splash.
I stared in horror. She’d be a sitting duck! Any one of the Rockets could capture her!
“Firestorm, grab her!” I yelled, opening his Pokéball.
The Charizard materialized in thin air, immediately pitching his wings back into a steep dive. I held my breath as he flared his wings just above the water, then let it out as he reached down to wrap his arms around Latias and lifted her from the sea.
“Don’t let anyone near her!!” I cried.
But the Rockets weren’t paying attention to them at all. Everyone’s attention was firmly on Ender and Articuno. The ice legend spiraled down over us before landing on Archie’s ship, pinning the Aqua admins to the deck with its talons. Archie let out a roar and lunged forward, held back at the last second by four of his crewmates grabbing him by the arms.
“One wrong move from any of you and these two get impaled,” Ender announced to the crowd. “Or frozen solid. Take your pick. Hell, I could even shoot them if you wanted me to give them a clean death, but that’s the boring option.”
Archie’s entire body trembled with rage so thick that I half expected him to throw his crew off and rush the Legendary by himself. But then his eyes slid to the trapped admins, and he slowly deflated, relaxing against his crew’s hold.
“I believe you know what we want,” Ender said, holding out his hand.
Every inch of me was screaming to do something, anything. But what? There were Rockets facing in all directions, watching our every move. Even if Mew just teleported right up to them, all it would take was a slight twitch for Articuno to drive its foot-long talons into the admins.
Silence hung over the surrounding. No one dared to move. All eyes were on Archie, waiting to see what he would do.
“Don’t give it to him, bro!” Matt yelled.
Ender snapped his fingers and a garbled cry of agony rang out from the deck and Archie belted out a desperate, “No!!” and oh god. A daggerlike claw had just pierced Matt’s side. Blood flowed from the wound, dripping onto the deck.
“Whoops. Such a clumsy bird,” Ender said, delicately stroking Articuno’s neck feathers. “Looks shallow, though. He’ll probably pull through. Sure would be a shame if it happened again.” He lifted his face to give the Aquas a pointed look.
For several seconds, Archie didn’t respond. He just stood there, teeth clenched, eyes lit with fury. Finally, he took a few slow, resentful steps back until he was inside the ship’s bridge. I couldn’t see what he was doing inside—all I knew was that it felt like ages before he returned holding a polished, glassy orb of the deepest cerulean. That was it. The Blue Orb with the power to awaken Kyogre. And we had to just sit and watch as he handed it over to the Rockets.
With hateful resignation written all over his face, Archie took a step forward. Then another. Each one forced, like it was taking all of his effort. Until finally, he was standing right before the overbearing form of the giant ice bird. Ender motioned for Articuno to lean down, then held out his hand. There was a moment’s hesitation. But then Archie steeled himself, forcing his arm forward and dropping the orb into Ender’s open hand.
“See how much easier that was?” Ender said as he held the orb up to the sun, admiring the light glimmering off its surface. “Can’t believe it took me that long to think of it!” He tapped Articuno’s side and it spread its wings to take off, ascending from the ship’s deck with heavy wingbeats. Once they’d gotten some distance from the ship, the ice bird released the two admins from its talons, dropping them unceremoniously into the sea, where the Aquas’ Pokémon immediately rushed to retrieve them.
“Show’s about to start, everyone!” Ender called out, releasing his Xatu. Then he and the psychic blinked out of sight.
Next Chapter: The showdown in Sootopolis is nigh.
~Chapter 42: Team Aqua~
A click and a fizz rang out as I popped the top on a can of energy drink. I grimaced, then proceeded to chug it down. It was sour and awful but I didn’t care. I was gonna need something to keep me going who-knows-how-much longer we had to fight.
I still had to give Lugia the bad news. Couldn’t put it off forever, even if I would have liked to. Since Lugia and Ho-oh were at Sootopolis, they were now the only thing standing between the Rockets and Groudon awakening.
I took a deep breath and said, <The Rockets got the Red Orb.>
<What? How?> Lugia immediately demanded.
<The executive had Entei!> I replied heatedly, my face burning with shame. <I don’t even know how; it’s supposed to be with the Johto force.>
<Are we to assume the Johto force has nothing to do with this?>
<I—> I paused. My gut instinct was to say no, because the two halves of Team Rocket never seemed to work together on anything. But in light of what I knew about Stalker, I couldn’t rule it out. For all we knew, he only warned us about this mission so that he could capture Groudon and Kyogre himself.
<No, not really,> I admitted. <In any case, how’s the situation at Sootopolis?>
<There’s a fleet of airships here. They haven’t made a move on the city yet.> Lugia’s mind was calm, yet tense. Guarded. <We’ve tried attacking them from afar, but our attacks simply glance off their shields.>
<Rudy and Moltres are chasing the airship that left the Magma base,> I said. <He’s gonna keep me updated, but we should assume they’re heading to Sootopolis with the orb.>
I felt an affirmation from Lugia, almost like the mental equivalent of a nod. <Right. No matter what, we won’t allow them to approach the island.>
So that was settled. Nothing more I could do, so it was best if I put the Red Orb situation out of my mind. If I could.
“*How did Lugia take the news?*” Chibi asked, staring intently at me from the nearby snack counter. He’d obviously gotten the hang of spotting the face I made when talking to Lugia.
“Better than I expected, honestly.” I wasn’t even sure what I had been expecting. Anger? We’d failed to protect the orb. It should have been angry. I was angry. We should’ve been expecting that we might have to face a Legendary. We should’ve been ready for it.
I had to keep telling myself that it wasn’t a lost cause. We had Rudy and Moltres pursuing the airship that had left. And Lugia and Ho-oh were ready to stop them once they reached the island. This wasn’t over.
And… at least we were all okay. That was something.
I glanced over at Darren, who was currently raiding the Magmas’ break room fridge. Not for himself, on second look—he was mostly just holding the fridge open and watching helplessly while Weavile shoveled rice balls into her mouth.
The small break had given us a chance to heal our teams at least. No one was too badly injured, aside from Alakazam, who’d suffered some severe burning from Entei’s fireball—the sort of thing that really needed Pokécenter treatment, not just a brief stint on a healing machine.
“Think Rudy’s gonna be okay?” Darren asked offhandedly.
I tilted my head. “Yeah?” Then something hit me about the way he’d said it, and I added, “Why, do you think he’s not?”
Darren shoved a hand in his pocket. “I mean. He is riding a Legendary into a literal warzone.”
Oh. I guess it sounded pretty ridiculous when worded like that. Yet another thing that I just took for granted as reality, without stopping to think about it.
I shuffled a foot against the floor, trying to think of what to say. I finally settled on, “Does it feel weird that this is normal to us?”
Darren laughed. “All the time. I seriously forget that it’s not normal. And then someone like Maxie comes along and is like, ‘Why are a bunch of kids here?’ and I’m like, ‘Oh yeah… this is weird.’”
‘Why are a bunch of kids here?’—that question still felt bizarre. We were just kids. I hadn’t felt like one in a while. Not since that night on Midnight Island.
“Before we went on the Moltres mission,” Darren went on, “when I explained it to my team… everyone was pretty familiar with that kind of situation, y’know? They were just like, ‘oh yeah, this again.’ Except Skarmory—he wasn’t on the Rebellion, so for him, it was like, ‘what the heck, why are we doing this?’” he said, chuckling under his breath.
I took a swig of energy drink. It was slowly becoming more tolerable. “I wish Jet had been like ‘what the heck.’ She’s got it in her head that we’re like, a bunch of war heroes and that this is all some kind of—” I paused suddenly as the realization hit me. “She’s basically us, when we started out. We were like that back then, weren’t we?”
Darren shrugged. “Probably. I know I had it in my head that I was doing something big and important. Not that it’s not, but… well, you know.”
I knew that feeling all too well. I’d joined the Rebellion because I wanted to feel important. Maybe the feeling would eventually pass for her, like it had for us. Although… given what had caused us to lose that view…
“The weirdest thing is that I have a hard time imagining life without all this,” Darren added. “What would I do with myself? Just walking into a building, I start calculating escape routes… imagining how quickly I could react if the person next to me got shot.” He closed his eyes with an ironic half-smile. “Pretty sure if we told anyone else, they’d think we were insane.”
It was the same for me. Seemingly random things still called back those memories and instincts, no matter how much time had passed. Flashes of lightning, and I’d suddenly feel concrete on my skin and acid in my mouth when neither were really there. The heat of flames, and my ears would ring with gunshots and screaming kids. Catching a side glance of my best friend from just the wrong angle, and I’d feel a spike of adrenaline from nowhere and a fist locking around my collar and…
“We’re pretty messed up, yeah,” I said. “It helps not being the only one, I guess.”
Darren nodded distantly. “Yeah.” His mouth curled into a smirk. “But you guys being partnered with Legendaries? That’s still weird. Sorry, I don’t make the rules.”
I snorted. “That’s fair.” Then I glanced at my watch. It’d been fifteen minutes since Rudy left. Each minute we spent here was another minute for things to go downhill at the Aqua base. “Come on. We shouldn’t waste any more time.” Chibi jumped back onto my shoulder. I downed the rest of my drink in one unpleasant gulp and tossed the can before walking toward the door. Darren shut the fridge door with Weavile still inside, waited five seconds, then opened it again, which finally prompted her to jump out from inside and follow us out of the break room.
As we walked down the hallway, I felt Chibi’s paws grip my shoulder. “*I couldn’t understand…*” he said quietly.
I glanced at the hybrid out of the corner of my eye. “Hm?”
“*Before yesterday… when I thought you were trying to hide from this mess,*” he clarified. “*It didn’t make any sense to me. But… you had a life before all this. I forgot because I didn’t have a life before all this.*”
Oh. That did make sense, what with the way that he’d been constantly badgering me for information on Team Rocket for the past nine months. I’d been frustrated at him for being unable to let it go, but… obviously that wasn’t so easy for him.
His paws clenched my shirt. “*I said I wanted to find something else to live for, but then I was angry with you for trying to do just that.*”
I reached over my shoulder to put a hand on his back. Felt his body tense up and then slowly relax. “It’s alright. I understand. And… I’m sorry I haven’t been able to help you move on.”
“*Not your fault,*” he replied immediately. “*I wasn’t letting you. Some things I have to figure out on my own.*” I didn’t necessarily agree with that, but… saying so wouldn’t help, I knew that much.
We regrouped in Maxie’s half-destroyed office where several Magmas were already hard at work cleaning up. Maxie was currently discussing something with his admins, but then glanced up at me and Darren when we entered.
“You two will need to reach the Aqua base as quickly as possible, correct?” the Magma leader asked.
I nodded. How far was that, anyway? I wasn’t too good with Hoennian geography, but if it was off the northeastern shore… that had to be at least 150 miles away. Or even more? Maybe I could text Ajia and have her send Mew to get us? But if they were in the middle of a fight, the last thing I wanted to do was distract them.
Maxie must have seen the dismayed look on my face, because he went on to say, “In the past, our team had… frequent need to teleport to the Aqua base for infiltration purposes. And while those days are behind us, some of our teleporters still have the location memorized.” Good. We couldn’t afford to waste any time flying all the way there.
The admins who’d be going with us—Courtney and Tabitha—stepped forward, flanked by a squad of four Magmas and three Pokémon—a Kirlia and two Claydol. So they’d be teleporting eight humans total, plus Latias, whom everyone had pretty much just accepted was here at this point. No point hiding herself anymore.
Courtney gave one last bow to her leader before taking the Kirlia’s hand. I placed my hand against the rough, earthen surface of one Claydol while Darren did the same with the other one.
This was it. Barely done recovering from our first failure, already rushing into another fight. No way of knowing how much longer the night would last. God, that thought was exhausting.
“I wish you all the best of luck,” Maxie said, nodding.
Then the office melted into distorted light. Two jumps later, we appeared on a wide, rocky platform surrounded by water on three sides. Ocean waves lapped at its edge, and a cool sea breeze swept through the air. The sky had lightened noticeably compared to when we’d arrived at the Magma base—I turned to face the open sea and was met with the first light of dawn peeking over the horizon.
The teleporters vanished and reappeared twice more until all of us were here, including Latias. Courtney gestured for us to follow her before silently leading us down a rough path along the water’s edge, skirting the perimeter of a sheer rock face, past sharp crags jutting up from the shallow sea. We rounded a particularly narrow ledge where the rock protruded out into the path, and there it was, the entrance to the Aqua base—a wide opening carved into the side of the rock down by the water’s edge. How were things going in there? Were Ajia and Starr alright?
The path we’d been following didn’t reach the entrance. In fact, there were no visible walkways at all, just an open waterway for boats or water-types. I was just puzzling over the best way to get in when a grinding, metallic sound suddenly reached my ears. It almost sounded like… a garage door opening, coming from the direction of the Aqua base. Was it inside the waterway, out of view?
After several seconds, the door sound ground to a halt, and in its place, I could hear an alarm blaring, mixed in with the sounds of… an engine revving? No, multiple engines revving. Getting louder.
Then, without warning, a huge blue and black speedboat shot out of the opening at top speed.
“After them!” a voice shouted.
A flock of flying-types bolted out the hangar next, half of them with riders. Following close behind them was a fleet of smaller boats that broke off from each other the moment they exited, swerving wildly, dodging Pokémon attacks. Like half of them were trying to avoid the other half.
“What the heck?” I muttered under my breath. Was Team Aqua… making a break for it? Taking the fight to the ocean?
“Hey! Over here!” Tabitha called out, waving his arms over his head. At first it didn’t seem like any of the boats had noticed him. But then one of them abruptly swerved into a full U-turn, zooming straight at us. It didn’t make any effort to slow down gradually, instead braking hard right as it pulled up. I flinched as a spray of seawater washed over all of us, then glanced up to see that the boat was full of people wearing striped shirts and black bandanas, all staring at us—or rather, the Magmas—in total confusion.
“The hell are you punks doing here?” a tall, burly man called out to us from the helm. He was shirtless, heavily tanned, and wearing the lower half of a wetsuit with a large, stylized ‘A’ tattooed on his chest. So… an Aqua, if that was anything to go off.
“We came here to help you ungrateful whelps!” Tabitha called back, stamping a boot against the rocks.
The man captaining the ship scoffed. “You think we forgot how to fight off invaders? Always managed to send your group packing, no sweat!”
Courtney narrowed her eyes but didn’t say anything. Tabitha shook his head and stammered, “W-well I know you Aquas are physically incapable of taking anything seriously, but these Rockets are bad news!”
“Ha! Couldn’t defend your base?” the man said with a hearty laugh. “Figures!” Tabitha’s face went red.
“Matt, dear, they came all this way to help, the least we can do is give them a lift,” a voice called out. I glanced over at the ship’s bow to see a slender, dark-skinned woman with long, black hair streaked with blue. She was currently leaning against the guardrail, eyeing our group with an amused look.
“If you say so, Shelly,” Matt said with an exaggerated eye roll. Then he turned back to us and said, “Get on board, and hurry it up, will ya?”
One of the Aqua members extended a ladder down the side of the boat. Tabitha started climbing aboard, muttering to himself the entire time, followed by Courtney, the other Magmas, and finally me and Darren.
“More kids? Seriously, what’s with all the kids today?” one of the Aquas asked loudly the moment he got a good look at us.
“Child soldiers recruited to fight a war with the Rockets,” Darren answered without missing a beat.
That caught Matt off guard. He blinked at us for a second before bursting out laughing once more. “Jesus, Kanto’s not as boring as I thought!” Then he whirled around and gripped the wheel tightly with his giant hands. “Alright, we’re setting off. Hang on tight! I ain’t turning this thing around if any of y’all fall overboard!” he called out. I barely had time to cling to the side of the railing before the boat abruptly lurched into a tight U-turn and began accelerating to top speed.
The Aqua ship practically flew across the water, scattering sea spray into my face and whipping my hair around like crazy. Far ahead of us, I could see the rest of the boats, as well as the aerial squads of Rockets. We were rapidly gaining on them.
Tabitha struggled to make his way toward the helm, fighting against the air pushing him back. “Do you even know what they’re after?!” he yelled over the roar of the wind in his face.
Matt scoffed. “They’re tryin’ to get their hands on the Blue Orb, what else? That’s why Archie took it and made a break for it. He knew we’d be way better off fighting back in our element.” He gestured to the fleet of boats ahead of us, now circling around to confront their pursuers.
At once, dozens upon dozens of Pokéball flashes rang out, and I was suddenly staring at an absolute horde of water-types. Wailmer, Carvanha, Sharpedo, Wailmer, even a few Wailord—all launching high-pressure waterspouts outward, crashing into the Rocket boats, toppling half of them, knocking flying-types out of the air. The skies near-instantly filled with a nonstop barrage of water so relentless it might as well have been raining. Heck, in a few spots it actually was raining, as some of the water-types had generated rain clouds to help fuel their attacks.
Gunfire rang out a few times, but the onslaught of waves radiating out from the Aqua fleet kept the Rockets from getting close enough for a clear shot. Bolts of lightning shot out from some of the electric-types, but they were too far to target the heart of the Aquas’ forces, and could only pick off the outliers.
Holy crap. Maxie wasn’t kidding when he said the Aquas in their element were scary effective.
In the midst of the chaos, my eyes locked onto a gray-scaled blur zipping in and out of the Rockets’ aerial lineup. Aerodactyl! Ajia was okay! I couldn’t see her clearly, but I could see the small jolts of lightning that Pichu fired off every few seconds, and the Rockets’ Pokémon falling around her, wings twitching with paralysis. Mew was probably here too, disguised as one of the multitudes of water Pokémon. Not to mention Latias, wherever she’d flown off to.
But then what about—my eyes scanned the army of water-types, struggling to pick out individual Pokémon—there! A Feraligatr and a Gyarados adding to the torrential onslaught keeping the Rockets’ boats from getting close to the Aqua leader—and the latter had a trainer on his back. So Starr was okay too. Thank god. After me, Rudy, and Darren had only barely made it, I hadn’t even wanted to think about the idea that Ajia or Starr might not have survived the Aqua base.
A high-pitched trill suddenly broke the air and my stomach instinctively tied into a knot. I knew that sound. I glanced upward and sure enough, there it was. An icy, cobalt falcon circling overhead, ribbonlike tail swirling snow behind it.
Articuno. God, I was sick of facing down Legendaries.
“Yeah, that thing gave us trouble back at the base,” Matt said grimly, staring up at the ice bird. “Some Kanto girl—a friend o’ yours?—she kept it busy while the rest of us hightailed it outta there so we could fight back on our own turf.”
My mouth went dry. If Ajia had managed to stand up to Articuno, then it was because she had Mew, and no other reason. “Don’t… don’t underestimate Legendaries.”
Matt grinned. “Don’t underestimate Team Aqua.”
Several dozen water-types all fired on Articuno at once, from all sides. It retaliated with Ice Beam after Ice Beam, freezing countless waterspouts into jagged icy spires. But for every attack it froze, ten more filled the air, forcing it to stay on the move, constantly looping out of the way, struggling to control its flight with waterlogged feathers.
Articuno was limited to picking off opponents with single shots. It couldn’t just let a vicious Blizzard rip through the air without hitting its own forces. And now it was stuck spiraling around, struggling to find an opening. It shrugged off a few of the waterspouts, freezing a group of water-types solid, but for each squad that fell, there were five more to take its place. There were actually too many for it to break through. And really, that shouldn’t have been surprising. After all, before the Rockets had legends at their disposal, they’d had to take them down with huge numbers of ordinary Pokémon—this was no different
Matt jerked the boat to the left and I snapped my hands to the railing again as we only narrowly avoided a sudden patch of ice that sprung up from a rogue Ice Beam. Then, with another swerve, he pulled our boat into a wide arc heading straight for the center of the Aqua fleet. The water-type forces parted to let us through, and Matt took us further in until our boat was traveling right alongside the largest ship in the fleet.
“Hey Archie! Get a load o’ the reinforcements we picked up!” he called out.
Archie? Wait, that was their leader, right? I leaned out over the railing and stared up at the larger ship. There he was at the helm—a tall, wild-eyed man in a navy wetsuit with a cape of netting trailing from his belt and a huge golden anchor hanging from a chain around his neck.
Archie turned in our direction and blinked at us for a few seconds before breaking into an amused grin upon seeing that the ‘reinforcements’ were a bunch of Magmas and some kids.
“Ha! You came to help us? That’s rich!” Tabitha folded his arms but didn’t bother responding. Archie smirked. “Appreciate the offer and all, but we’ll be taking care of this lot on our own!” He leaned over the ship’s railing and called out, “Whaddya say, bud? Let’s show these punks we mean business!”
At first, I wasn’t sure who he was addressing with that last bit. But then, several seconds later, a Sharpedo burst out of the water, right alongside his ship. Archie grabbed at the golden anchor around his neck, and in an instant, beams of light burst out of it, streaming through his fingertips in a dazzling array of colors. What on earth? Was that… normal? None of the Aquas looked surprised—they were all staring in anticipation, like they couldn’t wait for what was about to happen. On its next leap from the water, the same rainbow light erupted from Sharpedo—from a polished stone strapped to its dorsal fin. And the instant the light crossed paths with Archie’s, it flared to life, completely engulfing the shark, swirling around it so thickly that I could barely see it, Archie grinning wildly the entire time.
Suddenly, the light exploded outward from the two in a dazzling prismatic flash, fading into shimmering rainbow strands drifting upward from Sharpedo. The Aquas burst into wild cheering. And all I could do was stare openmouthed. It was like a Sharpedo but more, body covered in bright yellow patterns and scar-like markings, with jagged, toothy protrusions jutting from its snout.
“What the hell just happened?” I muttered under my breath.
Archie slammed a foot against the ship’s railing, thrusting a finger toward the Rockets. “Get a taste of Mega Sharpedo.”
Mega… Sharpedo? That light… that was a mega evolution? I’d heard vague stories about it—real important to Kalosian history, practically a myth for the longest time—but I never thought I’d ever actually see it.
Sharpedo burst from the water almost too fast to see, launching itself clear through the air, striking one of the Rockets’ flying-types and knocking it and its rider into the sea. Then the shark fired a burst of water behind it and cut through the sea like a torpedo, honing in on one of the ships that had been stolen by the Rockets, tearing a wide gash through the hull with its jaws.
The sudden counterattack didn’t go unnoticed. With a high-pitched cry, Articuno swooped down and fired, freezing the water in Sharpedo’s path. But the shark barely noticed. It shattered the ice with the spikes on its snout and kept going, tearing through the water at high speed, smashing ice wherever it could, freeing the frozen water-types so they could go right back to launching brutal Hydro Pumps at the Rockets.
“See? What’d I tell ya,” Matt said, a hint of pride in his voice. “My bro’s got us covered.”
They actually had a shot. And even if Raven showed up with Entei, it wouldn’t exactly be a big help at sea, would it? We actually had a shot. This wasn’t over.
And then Lugia’s voice was in my head saying, <It’s awake. Groudon is awake,> and the world came crashing to a halt. I stood frozen, gripping the ship’s railing so hard my knuckles turned white, numbly processing the sudden announcement from nowhere.
<Wh… what?> I asked shakily.
<Did you not hear me?> the legend said.
I shook my head. <No, I—I heard you, but—how?>
<I’m unsure. None of the airships here have made a move on the island. We’ve been watching them the entire time.>
<There is no way in hell the ship that left the Magma base could have made it there by now; it’s clear on the other end of the region. And Rudy hasn’t messaged me yet either, so—> And then the answer hit me. The single, blatantly obvious truth that none of us had considered yet.
<Oh my god, we’re idiots. They didn’t need to get their entire force there! The instant they had the orb, all they had to do was just teleport a single person to the cave to awaken it. They probably already had a teleporter ready to go with the location memorized and everything!>
Lugia’s mind crackled with frustration. It hadn’t made that connection either. <So staking out the entrance was for nothing, then.>
<We would’ve needed someone waiting to confront them inside the cave.> I slammed a fist against the railing. <Damn it.>
Lugia steeled itself, as through suppressing the frustration and trying to focus. <Ho-oh and I will protect Groudon. Do not let them recover the Blue Orb!>
“Hey. You okay?” Darren asked, putting a hand on my shoulder. Though he hadn’t heard the conversation, he’d definitely seen my random outburst and the sudden wave of anger crossing my face.
“Groudon is awake,” I said, holding a hand against my temple.
His eyes widened for a second with surprise. He opened his mouth like he was about to say something, but then froze, processing. “Oh. They sent someone ahead to—”
“Yeah,” I said flatly.
Darren closed his eyes, exhaling slowly. “…Rudy’s gonna be pissed when we tell him.”
“I’m pissed.”
“Yeah, that’s kinda unlike you.”
I was not remotely in the mood to care about that. We couldn’t afford to let them get the Blue Orb too. Even if the Aquas were holding their own now, I didn’t trust for a second that the Rockets didn’t have more tricks in store for us.
“So I’ve been meaning to ask—how do y’all plan on fighting here, anyway?” Matt asked, glancing back at the Magmas. With a smirk, he added, “Unless you’re telling me you finally figured out that water is the best type?”
Courtney glared at him, but then turned and looked out at the waters surrounding us. I followed her gaze and saw that the seaway here was unbelievably shallow, with rocks and sandbars scattered between random pockets of deep water. Matt’s near-constant swerving wasn’t pointless—he pretty much had to do it to avoid beaching us.
“There. Let us off there,” Courtney said abruptly, pointing at a particularly large sandbar along the outskirts of the sea battle.
Matt shrugged. “Suit yourself.”
The boat swerved again, but by this point I was getting used to it. Matt pulled us over as close as we could without getting stuck, and then I immediately bolted down the ladder and jumped off from it to land in the sand. Darren, Courtney, Tabitha, and the Magma grunts dismounted after me.
Matt gave us one last incredulous glance and said, “Y’all are determined, I’ll give ya that. Good luck!” before the boat sped off.
Darren turned around, quickly grabbing two Pokéballs from his belt. “Alllright, I know everything looks good right now, but let’s be real—we know that’s not lasting.” He let out Skarmory and Weavile, then climbed onto the metal bird’s back, with Weavile riding in front of him.
I let out Swift, Jet, and Aros in a flash, keeping Firestorm in reserve—better to not have him out with all the water flying through the air, plus I’d need a backup flier if Swift went down. “Jet, hop in the water and defend those boats. Aros, give them air support, and keep away from the ice. Chibi, go with him—make sure your lightning doesn’t hit the water, we don’t want to fry any Aqua forces. Precision strikes only—no Discharge.”
Jet gave a mock salute and dove into the sea. Aros glanced at Chibi with a look like he wanted to say something but couldn’t find the right words. The Pikachu either didn’t notice or didn’t care, jumping onto his back like usual and clinging tightly. After a few seconds’ pause, Aros turned to face the Aqua fleet before taking off.
I climbed on Swift’s back and said, “We’ll want to stay clear of Articuno. Take us over the Aqua forces so we can support them however we can.” The Pidgeot nodded wordlessly. Then he flapped his wings and we were off, circling the airspace above the sandbar. Below us, the Magmas had sent out all their ranged fighters, and plumes of fire had already begun to rain down on the Rockets. Skarmory swept a flurry of pointed stones into the air that hovered around the Aqua fleet, ready to dig into any Rocket forces that came too close.
Time to enter the melee, then. A burst of Quick Attack and we were off. We flew past a group of Pelipper that was busily whipping up a Tailwind, forcing the Rockets to fight against the wind. I scanned the waters below and spotted a squad of enemy Pokémon that had darted in from behind, zeroing in on Archie’s ship. In one smooth motion, Swift swooped down and nailed two or three of them with Air Cutter, which caught the Aquas’ attention and led to a barrage of Dark Pulse from the Mightyena pack onboard.
No time to stop and focus down any opponents, no time to land any big moves. Just darting in, small strikes, then darting out. Movement caught my eye, and I threw a glance upward to see a squad of Crobat above us, already paralyzed by Chibi, Aros tearing through them in a blaze of dragonfire. To our left, another squad of fliers. Two of them had just gone down to a Hydro Pump, but a Yanmega deftly zipped past the waterjets, eyes glowing as it shot a multicolored beam and took down one of the Mightyena. Swift fired off an Air Slash, knocking it back, and that took the dragonfly too close to Skarmory’s rocks, which immediately dug into it. A Gliscor powered through, shrugging off the rocks, but a rush of Icy Wind from Weavile coated its wings in frost. Then, while it was stunned, Swift dove down and smacked it with his wings, knocking it into the waves, where it was immediately frozen by one of the Aquas’ Walrein.
I felt a burst of cold air behind me—Articuno?—and whirled around in a panic, but no, it was just Weavile, slowing another group of Crobat with Icy Wind. Then a loud crash snapped my attention back to the ship just in time to see a Blastoise ramming the hull with a high-speed headbutt. I pointed Swift downward, and he immediately caught it between the eyes with a blade of wind. And in the moment’s pause while the tortoise was clutching its face in pain, a duo of Lanturn surfaced right next to it and unleashed a flood of electricity.
They just kept coming. We could hold our own, but for how long? Even with the Aquas’ impressive fleet, Rocket forces still kept managing to slip through. Swift struck down a Beedrill, stirred up a whirlwind, and tossed a few more Crobat into the floating rocks. He was just flaring up his wings with light, about to go for an Aerial Ace when something orange glinted in the corner of my vision. A Dragonair, facing Archie’s ship, charging something in its mouth—a ball of orange light.
Oh no. Hyper Beam.
“Guard them with Protect!” I cried.
Swift dove, and the Dragonair fired, and time seemed to slow as the blinding beam lanced straight for the ship. Swift flared his wings at the last second, white light shimmering in front of us. I screwed my eyes shut right as the beam struck the barrier with a piercing screech. Ears ringing, I felt a spray of water from something surfacing beneath us, and dared to open my eyes a crack. Another Dragonair below. Couldn’t Protect.
“Quick Att—”
Too late; a burst of dragonfire exploded from below, pouring over Swift’s feathers and sending a jolt of raw, heatless pain shooting through my arms. I clung to him for dear life as he struggled to regain his flight, firing off blades of air at everything around us. Through blurred vision I caught a glimpse of the Dragonair recoiling backward, then darting in for another attack.
I coughed, eyes watering, and yelled, “Tw-twister!”
Swift whipped up a whirlwind streaked with white flares, catching the dragon in its center and whipping it around mercilessly. But, wait… what about the first one? I spun around and there it was—behind us, its horn crackling with sparks. My stomach curled inward, already anticipating the burst of lightning, already seeing it before it had even—
And then a giant, blue-scaled head lunged out of nowhere, grabbing the Dragonair in its icy jaws and hurling it so far that it was practically a speck when it landed in the water. I blinked in shock at our sudden rescuer, eyes falling on the person riding on its head, who was currently giving me a rather unamused look.
“Starr?” I blurted out.
She pointed forward, and her Gyarados snaked his way through the water until he was alongside us, giving Swift the chance to land on his back and rest his wings. The Pidgeot hummed gently as a healing glow washed over him from Roost.
Starr spun around to face me. “What’d I say about getting yourself killed?”
I flinched. “We were doing fine,” I replied automatically. Then my brain caught up with my mouth and I added, “But… thanks.”
Her expression softened. “Just giving you crap. I’m glad you’re okay.” She turned back to face the same direction as Gyarados, pointing out a few targets that were getting dangerously close. “We’ve been doing alright here.”
“Better than alright. Way better than we did at the Magma base,” I said.
She gave me a sideways look over her shoulder. “Do I even wanna know?”
I wasn’t too keen on sharing the details anyway. “Not really. They got the orb and woke Groudon, that’s all that matters.”
“Does Ajia know?”
I paused. “I’m… not sure.” Both she and Mew had been here the whole time, so not likely. I only knew because my patron had seen it happen.
My eyes wandered over to Ajia’s Aerodactyl as he looped through the air, sending blades of air from his wingtips and knocking the Rockets Pokémon back as they attempted to take aim. Near him, a green blur flickered in and out of shadow, the Pikachu on his back firing bolts at anyone who got too close.
And then, for whatever reason, I noticed that the seas around us were a lot less… hectic than they had been only a few minutes ago. Most of the skirmishes had died down. The Rocket boats had all pulled back, putting a wide berth between them and the Aquas’ forces.
“What’s going on?” I muttered under my breath. Were they… retreating? That didn’t make any sense. Sure, we were holding our own well enough, but there was no way they’d give up that easily. They had to have something else in store.
And then I caught a glimpse of movement out of the corner of my eye and turned to see several large somethings in the air. I squinted, struggling to make out the details. Then my eyes widened—it was a fleet of airships, rapidly approaching us from the northern horizon. Fighting back against Rockets on stolen Aqua boats was one thing, but airships?
“Crap. They’ve got reinforcements coming,” I said, a sinking feeling building inside me.
At my words, Starr whirled around. Her eyes narrowed. “Shit. It’s the Johto force.”
A few of the Aquas started cheering as the Kanto Rockets pulled back, but it wasn’t long before they spotted the approaching airships. A crowd of waterjets fired on the nearest one, but the water just glanced off to the side, deflected invisibly. So the airships had ALR shields, huh? Then again, that did match what Lugia had said. But what was powering them? ALRs were useless without Pokémon energy as fuel.
A large, metallic door on one ship began sliding open with a metallic creak. A flicker of sparks shone from within. And then a gigantic golden beast leapt down from the ship, landing on the nearest boat with a heavy thud that shook it so hard I thought it would capsize. Aqua grunts stumbled back from the impact, toppling over the side and into the water. Those still on board recoiled in fear.
I stared frozenly, mouth hanging open. It was Raikou. The Legendary Beast of Thunder that I hadn’t seen since that night a year ago, when we’d actually managed to save it from the Rockets. And it had a human on its back. A young man wearing an Executive’s outfit, surveying the Aqua forces with a half-bored, half-amused expression.
“Lexx?!” Starr’s voice rang in outrage.
He jerked slightly upon hearing his name, then turned to face us, face splitting into a wide grin. “Oh hey! Nice job keeping the Kanto force busy. But we’ll be taking it from here.”
Raikou crouched low before leaping high into the air, instantly letting a hail of lightning rain down on the Aquas’ forces. Dozens of Pokémon cried out at once before falling silent. And that was just the first attack. Raikou kept going, leaping from Aqua ship to ship, positioning itself behind the Aquas, so the water-types would have to attack their own trainers to get at it. Bolts rained down from above, spreading like a web across the surface of the water, forcing the remaining Pokémon to dive under to avoid it.
My heart sank as I numbly watched it all unfold. “But… he warned us about their attack…” I uttered weakly.
“‘Warned us’ my ass, he was just trying to distract us with pointless bullshit so we wouldn’t know what was really up,” Starr growled.
And what had I been expecting, really? That Stalker sending us here to sabotage this mission meant that the Johto force wasn’t involved? Of course that was a joke.
I was dragged out my thoughts by Starr tapping a fist against her Gyarados’s armored scales, then pointing forcefully toward Lexx. “We’re going after him.” The sea monster nodded sharply, and I had to throw my arms around Swift as our ride lunged forward, cutting a line through the seaway, straight toward Lexx and Raikou.
I stared up at Starr, speechless. She wasn’t serious, was she? But neither she nor Gyarados showed any sign of stopping. I couldn’t let her go after him alone, but… after seeing the devastation that Raikou had just unleashed… I wasn’t sure if I had to protect her… or hold her back.
“*This seems… unwise,*” Swift said, quiet enough that only I could hear him.
“You’re telling me,” I whispered. Then I called out, “Starr, are you sure we should be doing this?”
Starr didn’t respond. Or acknowledge that I’d said anything, for that matter. Her gaze was firmly locked on her brother, who was still antagonizing the Aqua forces. A couple of ground-types had endured the lightning and were attempting to strike back, sending waves of muddy water crashing down on him. But Raikou just raised a Protect barrier around itself and its trainer, the mud splattering off harmlessly. Then it retaliated by opening its jaws wide and launching a volley of shadowy orbs, picking them off one by one before they had a chance to counterattack.
“Hey!!” Starr belted out. She pointed forward, and Gyarados spat out a narrow jet of water that splashed against the thunder beast’s side, only narrowly missing Lexx himself. “Why don’t you get over here and fight me, you little worm!”
Raikou slowly turned in our direction, staring expressionlessly. Lexx gave his sister a crooked smile. “Starr, I want you to think about the fact that you’re challenging Raikou while riding a Gyarados.”
“Like I care,” she spat. “Do you even have the balls to attack me?”
Oh my god, what was she doing. My hand hovered over Firestorm’s Pokéball—I could let him out at a moment’s notice, he could grab her, we could make a break for it. But Lexx ignored her, turning around and focusing on the Aquas once more. Above us, the squads of Rockets pouring out of the Johto airships had grouped together in an aerial formation, with the Pokémon in front putting up Reflect and Light Screen to protect those in the back. There were still a decent number of water-types bombarding their shields with high-pressure waterspouts. At Lexx’s command, Raikou fired another string of lightning from its forehead, straight upward, calling down a bout of thunder from the sky, right in the center of the Aquas’ broken lineup.
Without warning, a hulking blue shape burst up from the water with a violent splash. Feraligatr! Her jagged, toothy jaws dug into the tiger’s leg, staining its pelt red. But the legend only barely flinched. Lexx glanced at her out of the corner of his eye and sighed before motioning to Raikou. Strings of electricity danced across its mane, then flew into the gator, who let out a garbled cry and fell overboard with a splash.
“Really, Starr?” Lexx said, giving her a tired look. “This will all go a lot faster if you guys don’t get in our way. We’re facing a common enemy.”
“Looks to me like you’re helping the enemy right now,” she snarled, recalling her starter.
Lexx paused. “Well… yes. But not for long.”
“The hell is that supposed to—”
But her words cut off sharply at the whistle of something flying through the air, rapidly approaching. Gyarados noticed it first, darting to the right. Swift flared his wings to keep his balance, and I flattened myself to his back right as a hunk of molten earth slammed into the side of the ship, knocking Raikou off balance and nearly throwing Lexx from its back. I whirled around to see Courtney, standing at the edge of the water, arm outstretched. Her Camerupt stood next to her, snorting steam from its nostrils.
“What is it with people wanting to fight Legendaries today?!” Lexx yelled to no one in particular as he regained himself and pointed for Raikou to disembark. “Do you guys seriously not know how strong they are?” The lightning beast gave a mighty leap and hurtled through the air, landing on the nearest island with a spray of sand.
“Strong,” Courtney mused to herself. “Alright then.” She held out the multicolored stone that Maxie had given her. Beams of light suddenly burst out of Camerupt’s collar—the same light that we’d seen from Sharpedo not that long ago. But then, that could only mean—!
The light consumed Camerupt, swirling around it like a raging vortex. And then it exploded outward all at once, dissolving into multicolored strands radiating upward. With a loud snort, Camerupt stamped the sand, melting it beneath its hooves. Its thick, crimson coat ruffled with every movement. Glowing, molten lines of magma traced the volcanic peak that had burst up from its back.
“She can’t beat you… you say?” Courtney asked. The corners of her mouth turned up slightly. “Perhaps I can.”
Lexx let out a low whistle. “Never seen a mega evolution in person.” He smirked. “Well this just got slightly more interesting. Alright, I’ll play your game.” He jumped down from Raikou’s back, gesturing for it to go ahead, and the lightning beast took a few steps forward until it was standing directly across from its opponent.
“I’ve always wanted to know just how much lightning it would take to hurt a ground-type.” Lexx grinned darkly. “Should we test it?”
Courtney’s eyes flickered with interest. “An experiment?” She stepped back and motioned to Camerupt… or rather, Mega Camerupt. “Let’s begin.”
The volcanic Pokémon reared up with a snort and stamped both forelegs into the sand. In reply, an explosion of molten energy burst up from under Raikou, consuming the beast. Raikou kept walking, a twinge in its eyes and the slightest shudder in its steps. Then, with little more than a flicker of sparks as a warning, it unleashed an absolute deluge of Thunderbolts.
I’d seen floods of lightning before. I’d seen Chibi pour his entire power supply in a single move, more than once. But this? It sent me reeling back to that night we destroyed the Thunder Field, giving Raikou that chance to use its full thunderous might against the Rockets. All of that, directed on just one Pokémon. Camerupt staggered back, teeth clenched, pain in its eyes, the air shimmering from the sheer heat of the lightning. But it was enduring, and forcing itself forward, stamping the sand again and generating another eruption beneath its opponent.
This was the power of mega evolution.
Raikou waited for the earth to settle beneath its claws. It tensed itself, strings of lightning coursing through its mane. But before it could strike, a huge chunk of mud crashed into the back of its head, knocking it forward a few steps. What? Where had that…?
The beast threw a glance over its shoulder to locate its attacker. There, on the far opposite side of the sandbar, stood a Swampert, shaking the water from its fins and eyeing Raikou. The only one out of the crowd of ground-types that hadn’t fallen to a single Shadow Ball.
Raikou turned toward it. Then it closed its eyes. The air shimmered and warped, condensing into waves of light that dug into the mudfish. It didn’t even flinch. Raikou blinked in surprise. Then Swampert lunged forward, striking the ground with its palm, sending a rolling wave of sand crashing into the tiger’s legs, bringing it to its knees, which gave Camerupt the chance to call up another eruption right beneath it.
Right. So the Swampert was Mew. Got it.
Starr was watching this all unfold with a look of distaste. Finally, she turned away and said, “Well, the creepy Magma chick is dealing with shithead over there. Come on, we’ve got other problems to worry about.” Gyarados gave a flick of his tail, and suddenly we were moving again.
I blinked in surprise. She was actually willing to let it go? I’d been half expecting to have to drag her away from a fight with him. Still, I wasn’t about to question it. I threw one last glance back at Courtney as we left. We couldn’t waste her distraction—we had to protect Archie’s ship. My eyes scanned the waters around us and—dammit, Raikou had really screwed us over. What little remained of the Aqua forces were regrouping in the center. In the air, I spotted Darren flying on Skarmory, the metal bird stirring up whirlwinds and knocking approaching Rockets into the pointed stones. Saw Aros and Chibi still going strong, along with Aerodactyl and the Pelipper flock, all of them working to keep the Rockets from getting any closer.
I was just about to have Swift take off and help them when a high-pitched whistle filled the air and a frantic voice yelled, “Get down!” I tilted my head back to stare straight upward and—holy crap, what?
Meteors. The sky was full of meteors.
“P-protect?!” I yelled.
Swift leaped into the air, flapping right above Starr and Gyarados before spreading his wings wide and forming a wall of light above us. Not even a second later, dozens of projectiles—sparkling red and blue flares that looked like dragonfire—rained down on the entire seaway, clattering off barriers, knocking flying-types out of the air, and tearing holes in ships. I held tight to Swift’s neck, burying my face in his feathers and flinching with each shock wave and just willing it to be over.
After what felt like forever, the countless impacts began to die down. I lifted my head right as the Protect wore off and Swift leveled off our flight, gliding in a low circle above the water. A chill fell over me—the skies were disturbingly bare. Half the aerial fighters had been knocked into the sea from the meteor shower (what even was that move?) and most of the Aqua fleet now had gaping holes in their boats. I threw a frantic glance back at Archie’s ship to see a Walrein hard at work freezing the openings shut, but the hull had already taken on so much water that it was too late. The Aquas on board were frantically discussing something when Archie suddenly made a hard right turn, beaching the ship against the closest sandbar before they could sink any further.
Crap. This was bad. There went their mobility. And with half the water-types down… I whirled around to see Articuno rapidly closing in on us. No, no no no. If it got too close, that was it, game over. Had to do something.
…Articuno should have taken some damage by now, right? Between all the water and fire and lightning and—
Chibi. He was the only one that could put a dent in Articuno, besides Mew—and Mew was still dealing with Raikou. Even if it was just for an instant, it’d give us the opportunity to get Archie to safety.
“We’ve gotta find Aros and Chibi, fast!” I hissed into Swift’s ear, and the Pidgeot instantly put on a burst of speed. I flattened myself to his back, holding tight as he ducked and weaved around the few remaining fliers, scanning them all with a growing feeling of dread. Aros hadn’t been hit by the meteors, had he? Or the ice? Or any one of a dozen other things that could have taken him down and I wouldn’t have even seen it and—there! A wave of relief crashed over me when I caught the flutter of green wings out of the corner of my eye. Swift had already spotted him, diving down to where the Flygon was helping fish unconscious Pelipper from the water.
“How much power do you have left?” I immediately asked Chibi.
“*Borrowed some from Pichu. I’m at around half,*” the hybrid replied.
Would that be enough? Didn’t matter, had to try it. “It’s a long shot, but we don’t have a choice,” I said, pointing toward Articuno. “Use Mega Bolt!”
The Pikachu turned to face the ice bird, eyes narrowing. He drew himself back, poised to take a flying leap, when—
“*Wait,*” Swift cut in sharply. “*They’ve got hostages.*”
What? What was he sayi—oh crap. Articuno was actually carrying the Aqua admins in its talons. Of all the dirty moves. Couldn’t hurt Articuno without hurting the hostages, at least, not with lightning. But who else could put a scratch on it?
A rush of wind shot past me and I saw the brief flash of red feathers in the sunlight. Wait… Latias! Of course! She could do it—she could save them! Glimmering mist balls formed from thin air, pelting Articuno right in the chest repeatedly. The ice bird recoiled backward with each blow, instinctively retaliating with an Ice Beam that missed its mark completely.
Now they were close enough for me to spot that it had a rider—the executive, Ender. He pointed forward, and the legend sent a rush of cold air from its wings. Frost formed around a jetlike shape in the air, flickering red before Latias snapped into full view, her illusion broken. Shivering, she pressed on through the storm, still forming more mist ball attacks, still pelting Articuno with them, forcing it back from the ship below. And then, when she was mid-move, Ender snapped his fingers, and a jagged Ice Beam split the air, striking her dead-on.
My heart jumped into my throat. No!
Latias cried out in pain, her attack fading into mist. She struggled to bring her claws together for a Protect, but the ice crystals were too thick, her arms frozen solid. Then the ice made its way to her wings, and with a pitiful cry, the crimson dragon went limp, spiraling down into the sea with a splash.
I stared in horror. She’d be a sitting duck! Any one of the Rockets could capture her!
“Firestorm, grab her!” I yelled, opening his Pokéball.
The Charizard materialized in thin air, immediately pitching his wings back into a steep dive. I held my breath as he flared his wings just above the water, then let it out as he reached down to wrap his arms around Latias and lifted her from the sea.
“Don’t let anyone near her!!” I cried.
But the Rockets weren’t paying attention to them at all. Everyone’s attention was firmly on Ender and Articuno. The ice legend spiraled down over us before landing on Archie’s ship, pinning the Aqua admins to the deck with its talons. Archie let out a roar and lunged forward, held back at the last second by four of his crewmates grabbing him by the arms.
“One wrong move from any of you and these two get impaled,” Ender announced to the crowd. “Or frozen solid. Take your pick. Hell, I could even shoot them if you wanted me to give them a clean death, but that’s the boring option.”
Archie’s entire body trembled with rage so thick that I half expected him to throw his crew off and rush the Legendary by himself. But then his eyes slid to the trapped admins, and he slowly deflated, relaxing against his crew’s hold.
“I believe you know what we want,” Ender said, holding out his hand.
Every inch of me was screaming to do something, anything. But what? There were Rockets facing in all directions, watching our every move. Even if Mew just teleported right up to them, all it would take was a slight twitch for Articuno to drive its foot-long talons into the admins.
Silence hung over the surrounding. No one dared to move. All eyes were on Archie, waiting to see what he would do.
“Don’t give it to him, bro!” Matt yelled.
Ender snapped his fingers and a garbled cry of agony rang out from the deck and Archie belted out a desperate, “No!!” and oh god. A daggerlike claw had just pierced Matt’s side. Blood flowed from the wound, dripping onto the deck.
“Whoops. Such a clumsy bird,” Ender said, delicately stroking Articuno’s neck feathers. “Looks shallow, though. He’ll probably pull through. Sure would be a shame if it happened again.” He lifted his face to give the Aquas a pointed look.
For several seconds, Archie didn’t respond. He just stood there, teeth clenched, eyes lit with fury. Finally, he took a few slow, resentful steps back until he was inside the ship’s bridge. I couldn’t see what he was doing inside—all I knew was that it felt like ages before he returned holding a polished, glassy orb of the deepest cerulean. That was it. The Blue Orb with the power to awaken Kyogre. And we had to just sit and watch as he handed it over to the Rockets.
With hateful resignation written all over his face, Archie took a step forward. Then another. Each one forced, like it was taking all of his effort. Until finally, he was standing right before the overbearing form of the giant ice bird. Ender motioned for Articuno to lean down, then held out his hand. There was a moment’s hesitation. But then Archie steeled himself, forcing his arm forward and dropping the orb into Ender’s open hand.
“See how much easier that was?” Ender said as he held the orb up to the sun, admiring the light glimmering off its surface. “Can’t believe it took me that long to think of it!” He tapped Articuno’s side and it spread its wings to take off, ascending from the ship’s deck with heavy wingbeats. Once they’d gotten some distance from the ship, the ice bird released the two admins from its talons, dropping them unceremoniously into the sea, where the Aquas’ Pokémon immediately rushed to retrieve them.
“Show’s about to start, everyone!” Ender called out, releasing his Xatu. Then he and the psychic blinked out of sight.
~End Chapter 42~
Next Chapter: The showdown in Sootopolis is nigh.
