The time in between the meeting of two worlds’ finest and finding Zero was mostly spent discussing how different their realms were. While most of the talk was about Equestria so Platinum and Giratina could familiarize themselves with it, Twilight being the ever curious pony wanted to know more about the Pokemon Earth, particularly what kind of magic could be found there.
“Wait, so how does a Reality Marble work?”
Giratina who knew enough on the subject to answer the alicorn’s questions found herself getting slightly annoyed at the inquiring, her mother had told her that when it came to the various incarnations of Twilight Sparkle and her counterparts that they were to be cautious with her and not release any sensitive information for fear that it may be used against the Pokemon Multiverse. So she only answered what was considered common sense.
“A Reality Marble is a mage’s mental projection onto the real world. Basically, it pulls you and surrounding individuals into a pocket dimension of sorts made by your own mind.”
“Wow!....So do you know how to do one?”
Giratina looked at the pony and smirked before shaking her head, “Sorry, but Pokemon are incapable of using magic, something you can blame my mom for. Also, a Reality Marble is not something anyone can learn, rather it’s something only a few can perform. And finally, it’s not a form of magic your world is capable of, but rather something exclusive to ours.”
Twilight deflated, “Oh, aww...”
Meanwhile, Platinum and Mothra were having an exchange of their own, the changeling's eyes were wide as dinner plates, “Incredible! Your Earth is actually a sentient planet in a physical sense?”
“Yeah, Arceus said that it got that way after what she calls the “Third Time Wave”, she won’t say what that is but nevermind. The Earth doesn’t really have control over its body except for the core where its heart, mind, and soul are kept.”
“And it is the duty of Legendary Pokemon the protect the world, yes?”
Platinum nodded towards her partner, “Yes, Giratina and the League of Legends deal with the many natural and Pokemon related problems that come about from time to time.”
Mothra raised an eyebrow, “Oh, what do what do you mean by that?”
“Don’t get me wrong, most Legendary Pokemon like humans and protect them from time to time, even when they cause the problem," Platinum shrugged, "-but their priority is mostly Pokemon related stuff plus dealing with whatever aspect of the world they represent. Now as for magically related problems that are the job of the Mage’s Association or Heroic Spirits.”
“Heroic Spirits? Sounds a bit vague”
“A Heroic Spirit is the recorded soul of men and women who have left behind legends and marks on history. The Earth itself sends Heroics Spirits to prevent mankind's destruction, you might call it a counter force to whatever threatens our very existence.”
Mothra nodded her head in off thought. She was well aware of the existence of souls, at least right before Toba when one of her ancestors physically saw one. But one coming back was unheard of.
“The closest we have to that is my family,” she shrugged.
“Oh?”, Platinum perked up, “This related to that ‘sentient in a physical sense’ you mentioned earlier?”
Mothra nodded, “Terra is ‘alive’ in a way, but more metaphorically. Its lifeblood was the mana stream, forged eons ago from a planet’s worth of radiation. Its refreshed by lifeforce and cycles through the core. Because of it, my world had its version of magic, to begin with. It was through there that my father’s side of the family could reincarnate and my mother’s side could pass on their memories.”
Platinum raised an eyebrow as they walked along, “You talk about it like you were there. How old are you?”
Mothra giggled, “Oh I’m only eighteen. But all of my predecessors’ memories get passed on. Being a Mothra or Battra is a legacy, so each generation gets the last's experiences. Though even by that standard, the mana stream was around for about hundred and eighty million years before the first Mothra and Battra so it's before even the earliest memories I can get.”
Platinum drummed a finger against her lip, "Sooo if it's so old, who forged the mana stream?"
Mothra visibly flinched. Her pulse quickened as conflicting memories flashed across her mind. Ones of both a benevolent, almost parental teacher whom guided countless generations and cultivated a peaceful world; and that same horned visage wreathed in the ashes and fires of countless generations lost and destroyed.
Before she knew it, several long moments had passed before she gave Platinum her answer, "Reijuu. Consider it the equivalent to your Arceus. It was thanks to the mana stream that magic even existed in a stable form."
Platinum brushed off her moment of worry and tried to play it kindly with a smile as she braced her arms behind her head, "Oh! That's really cool of them. Must be pretty strong."
"Terran sapient races and beyond considered it a deity and it wasn't an exaggeration... So about this champion title and pokemon battles?", Lea muttered with a not so subtle changing of the subject, "This isn't like cockfighting or animal baiting fights right? You mentioned most Pokemon weren't fully sapient earlier, just very smart for animals."
Platinum giggled nervously after a moment of biting her lip, sensing she'd hit a nerve somewhere in there and obliging the altered topic, "O-Oh not at all, don't worry! It's nothing like what those Team Plasma wackos think. Pokemon battle regardless of if humans tell them to or not, it’s part of their biology. Trainers like me just help make sure no one is seriously hurt and they're smart enough to both appreciate that and the strategy we bring."
"Ah, so it's more like an organized fighting sport. They have human boxing where you come from?"
"Mmmmhm, and pokemon boxing. Good analogy really, seeing as that's where the term 'trainer' in Pokemon trainer came from."
"Aaaah, makes sense. Tell me about some of your trials. You mentioned something about a mountain raining exploding gravel?"
Platinum shuddered at the memory of Stark Mountain and it's explosion spamming rock-type Pokemon.
"Gravelers...", she sneered with a shake.
======================
Lights sprung up to the side of Zero's main console, the beep spurring his attention. Zero quickly strode back into the room and turned towards the display, looking towards the projection with bated anticipation.
"Infi, what is going on? I hope this is what I presume it to be," he muttered.
On command, Infi instantly materialized over the projection with millions of lines worth of code flashing across her irises. She blinked and waved her holographic hand, throwing multiple graphs and survey charts over the command room.
"The Magnemite and Magneton have moved into survey zone 10S-4E. I issued the command to Mecha Z0 to focus efforts in 10S-4 to 10-6W on account of the bedrock between those points being igneous rock less than one million years old."
Zero raised an eyebrow and rubbed at his chin, "Igneous, volcanic stone. But this place doesn't look the part for volcanism at all, especially for the stone so relatively young."
Infi nodded, "Indeed Master Zero. However lacking the region might be in volcanoes, the stone shows clear signs of having been molten or partially molten at some point, then solidified. Furthermore, the terrain is flattened out over a three-kilometer range."
The thought occurred to him and a toothy smirk creased the seam of Zero's lips, "Like something dug down and leveled the region out. Looks like our projections were right, Kardas is here. But why the molten rock?"
Infi shook her head, "Unknown, Master Zero. Kardas is not the fire-type Goliath, that honor belongs to its sibling Pyrus, and superheating the terrain during burial would seem unnecessary otherwise, especially after burial procedures. One theory does spring to mind, however."
"Speak."
"Goliath's blood equivalent is an extremely hot, vicious fluid looking the part of liquid light. It could be Kardas suffered an injury that opened a big enough hole for it to bleed into the surrounding rock, in which the blood partially melted it."
Zero's smirk vanished into a puzzling frown. It made sense and that was the part he wasn't fond of. "Plausible, but that implies Kardas was seriously injured by something to had bled that much. Are we sure it's not dead?"
"Negative, Master Zero. The trace signal leading us here indicates life, however, it might be that Kardas entered a coma of sorts to survive."
"Yes that would explain why it didn't return instantly after being damaged."
"Indeed, Master Zero. For Kardas to have been forced down in such a way, the damage was likely to the core processes, such as the soul drive, found in the torso. This may include necessitating a voyage inside to resuscitate it if they have been repaired."
"I see... It'll have to be done quickly, I do not want to risk spoiling this operation if something strong enough to fight a Goliath decides to return."
"A wise choice, Master Zero."
Zero nodded before tapping away at a pullout keyboard, "Have the Magnemite and Magneton concentrate on excavating the region with the thickest region of igneous rock. If the chest was damaged and Kardas has a humanoid build, most of the blood flow would be through and out there. With its “blood of fire” as it was reported to have, any wounds would have melted the stone around it."
Infi bowed, "It shall be done, Master Zero."
She bowed and disappeared in a blink of light, leaving Zero to watch the monitors as all his Pokemon corralled around one point to begin removing massive hunks of rock at a time. He was close, it was palpable. He could feel the power, the enormity, and the greatness which would make him happy to stow away and banish the fossil from earlier into disuse. He'd never need it with that the Magnemite and Magneton were digging up. His destiny!
======================
The Magnemite and Magneton swirled about in a circle, raking electromagnetic waves into the ground in a precise pattern as they floated atop a hill. Like an invisible drill, it started to churn and bore away the earth, lifting away dirt and stone from the tiny micro-fragments of iron imbedded within them. Tons of rock lifted away and was tossed a dozen meters by the intense magnetic waves. Piece by piece, the hill’s accumulated stone, and dirt revealed something unexpected. The tips to a set of four spire-like pillars emerged from the grounds tore out from around them, more being revealed every passing second. At his station, Zero watched with bated breath… which quickly turned to a scowl when a burl of fire magic smacked into one of the Magnemite.
If he was annoyed by that petulant green and purple pony returning, he felt a sneer of rage and shock of dread shoot through him when he recognized whom they were working with. Champion Platinum and the warden of antimatter, his last attempted prize, Giratina.
Zero mashed a button on his lapel, connecting his voice to the communications link in the mecha and his ship.
“All Magnemite, keep digging to get the entrance opened! Magneton and Mech unit, engage the targets. Infi get the ship’s weaponry online and open fire! Keep them away from Kardas!”
The ship’s engines roared as it rushed towards the dig site, Infi swaying her holographic fingers and hands over the systems to bring all the combat systems online. On the ground, Platinum braced as saw the sheer number of pokemon rushing them as the mecha crashed feet first into the ground before them, crackling with power. She drew up a red and white sphere and a similarly sized black-gold and white sphere, a Pokeball and ultra ball.
“Time to call in back-up, come on out! Typhlosion! Mamoswine!”, she yelled while tossing the spheres up.
The orbs popped open and gushed out a brilliance of light that took shape before returning to Platinum’s hands. The first, from the Pokeball, emerged as a creature roughly the size of a grizzly bear but closely resembled a honey badger in coloration and appearance. The Typhlosion, a fire type pokemon, reared up off the ground while snarling as jets of fire burst from ports around its shoulders to form a mane of flames. From the second sphere, the ultraball, a much large form emerged. The quadruped was covered in shaggy brown fur outside of a blue face ringed in white. Twilight Sparkle and Mothra Lea recognized the Mamoswine as resembling a woolly mammoth of sorts in form and size, but sporting a pig-like nose instead of a trunk and a pair of tusks that looked like they were made of ice. It trumpeted loudly and stomped upon the fractured ground.
Twilight Sparkle gave an impressed nod as she readied her magic, “Reinforcements on command, I like it!”
Giratina levitated up above her with eyes trained upon the mech, “They’re dangerous in numbers, keep them divided and then go for the ones still digging.”
“Right, with the digging started Zero can’t be far away,”
The mech went into attack mode, revealing an array of missiles and launchers under flaps and shields. All of them aiming at the Renegade Pokemon, they fired at their target. Having to experience with dealing with Team Rocket’s many many robots and machines, Giratina simply phased in and out of existence using her signature Shadow Force, the physical attacks going through her as a testament to her ghostly nature.
“Mothra, please stand back. I have dealt with these things before.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, I am the firstborn of Arceus," her eyes flashed an eerie glow, "a little robot is an ant to me.”
Lea relaxed, only slightly as she worried the confidence in her ally was going hand in hand with underestimation to her own ability, “Okay, do as you do best."
Giratina charged a Dark Pulse, the energy in her mouth swirling before it shot out at the robot. The impact stunted it but didn’t seem to cause any lasting damage. Giratina immediately followed up with and Aura Sphere the struck its head, rushing forward as her shadowy wings arranged themselves into claws and grabbed the machine, hurled it into the air and tearing its arm off in the process.
When it fell back to the ground, Giratina waited for the dust to settle. The mech was still standing but clearly wounded. It turned to face her menacingly despite the injury.
Giratina smirked, “Heh, they don’t make them like they used to.”
Zero, who was observing from her chair in his ship, saw the arrogant look on Giratina’s face as she let go of the the dismembered appendage and crushed it underfoot.
“Don’t be so smug Giratina, this creation of mine has a few upgrades and abilities from our previous encounter,” he sneered as he pressed the button to release the safeties.
Back on the battlefield, a series of beeps and sounds came from the mech before standing up and holding out its damaged shoulder it detached what little of its damaged arm remained and waited.
Giratina baited for its next move, only to hear something like a rocket in the distance, by the time it got close enough to identify it, it was too late. A fresh new right arm appeared from the sky and attached itself to the mech. It looked different from the one she smashed, less bulky and more streamlined.
Giratina scoffed, “Whatever your tinker toy can be, I’ll just take it apart from the inside!”
Using Shadow Force again, Giratina intended to phase through the armor and rip out its power core, she lunged for the robot once more….
But something stopped her.
“Gah! What!?”, she yelped while being forced back.
The Legendary looked down to see the mech’s right arm grabbing her and holding her in place, and for some reason, it was hurting her more than she felt it should. The arm glowed for a bit before unleashing and shock of purple lighting that arced through the dragon Pokemon’s body. Giratina let out a cry of pain as she was tossed back to Mothra.
“How?” she thought aloud, I have never encountered a machine that could hurt me while using that move, not since…!
Zero grinned in satisfaction, glad the Legendary fell into his trap. His voice came through the com speakers on the machine, “You won’t get off so easy this time, Guardian of the Reverse World. This robot has the same powers I stole from you during our last encounter, it was a miracle to replicate the data.”
The mad researcher pressed a few buttons on his keyboard.
“Oh and I have a dozen more interchangeable legs and arms ready to deploy so long as the core is still active and fighting, but even you do destroy it will be too late,” he smirked.
Infi chimed in, “Digging completion at 72% estimate 5 minutes until contact.”
A charge of thunder built up across the malign machine and hurtled towards Giratina, only to be almost casually deflected. A rune of unknown origin had been burned across the ground before fading, leaving both combatants momentarily confused as to its origin. Eyes still glowing, Mothra ignored requests to stand back and approached, she looked at the Pokemon got back up and glared at her mechanical opponent.
“Giratina?”
“Yes.”
“Are you sure you can handle it by yourself?”
Giratina brushed off the offer for aid from the little bug pony, “Mothra, I am almost as old as my home planet. I have fought countless battles, this is nothing but a pastime for me.”
All of a sudden, the mech started to make a horrible screeching noise of whirling mechanics, then its onboard computer spoke.
“Laser core ready.”
“Wha-”
Giratina didn’t have time to react when the mech's chest exposed itself to reveal a large cannon. Said cannon immediately shot a continuous stream of energy that struck the legendary square in the chest, sending the Pokemon crashing into a few trees until it was done after a few seconds.
Mothra was immediately at Giratina’s side as she slowly got back up.The fact the Pokemon didn’t seem especially hurt gave the former kaiju cause to be persnickety rather than fretting in worry.
“Sooooo, didn't block that one for you.”
Giratina proud eyes narrowed as she grumbled, “Fine, you can help.”
Lea smiled, as they both face the machine, Mothra Lea cracking her neck.
“You should be able to hear me Zero, thus I’ll be abrupt. You like a good experiment as much as I do so let’s have a little adventure,” she paced forward as runes of light trickled across the ground under her hoofsteps.
“You prepared well for Giratina, but how well can you prepare for something like me?”
The depowered Kaiju charged her horn as her eyes lit up.
==================
Twilight and Platinum’s fight with the Magnemite/Magneton swarm was going as well as expected.
“So these things are called Magnemite and Magneton?”, Twilight asked.
“Yes, they are steel and Electric-types, meaning that fire and ground types like Typhlosion and Mamoswine have effective moves against them, fooooor example!”, Platinum smirked and pointed at the horde, “Mamoswine, use Mud Bomb! And Typhlosion, use Fire Blast!”
Both Typhlosion and Mamoswine opened their mouths used their respective moves, the Volcano Pokemon built up a charge of fire before shooting it at the swarm, it took the form of the Japanese character 大 before striking its target, defeating four pokemon instantly. Mamoswine gathered the moisture and dirt in the air until it got a good sized ball of mud and earth to launch it at a cluster of Magneton like a cannonball, taking several more of them out.
Twilight’s researcher mind glimmered and she grinned, amazed and intrigued by the power these Pokemon held. Platinum had told her that her Pokemon were stronger than most, but she did not expect this. She did, however, expect the return fire and wisely threw up a magical barrier as one of the flanking Magneton shot out from behind a tree with its sights trained on Platinum. A ball of lightning collected from the arcs streaming off its magnet and surged forward, only to be smacked aside by a wave of alicorn magic like a baseball clubbed by a bat. The deflected Electro Ball burned a hole through several trees before Platinum’s wide eyes.
She beat on her chest with the side of her fist with a stressed laugh, “Ooooh good Arceus! That’ll get your blood pumping! Thanks, Princess, I didn’t expect them to go for lil’ old me.”
Twilight Sparkle recalled the airship seen earlier, “He probably has a way to communicate with his Pokemon if they’re doing things like survey and digging, and he likely told them to go after you-”
Twilight paused and smacked away another onslaught of electricity, rerouting it to hurl it off into the sky with a magic shroud.
“-yeeep, that just about confirms it. Pokemon can’t fight as well without a trainer, looks like you just became a target.”
Twilight lurched out and got under Platinum’s legs from behind, scooping her up and onto her back. Equines were thankfully very powerful animals for their size and Platinum wasn’t a very large young woman, allowing Twilight to even take to the air with Platinum on her back.
-Note to self, bless Rainbow and Lea for encouraging flight muscle training!-
Platinum flailed for a moment before gaining her bearings. Between the pony’s quick thinking and ability to carry her and make her harder to hit, Platinum honestly colored herself impressed; having expected to do all the work and let the pretty pony princess coast through it. But if anything kicking some bad-guy butt with a friend always made the experience that much more memorable. Plus she was riding on a powerhouse pony princess commanding her pokemon to fight a small army. This was the best day ever! She grinned and punched a fist into her palm.
“Alrighty then! Leave the main artillery fire to me and my Pokemon buddies here, you keep us from getting ganked by a sneak attack. Sword!-”, she pointed to herself and Pokemon and then to a beaming Princess Twilight, “-Shield!”
Twilight saluted with a smirk, “Got it!”
And with that, the battle was joined. Whirling mechanical beings swirling about in a storm of electricity and metal with fire and earth launching back and magic keeping guard. It was, however, harder than either Princess or Champion initially thought. Platinum typically would just use a widespread move like Earthquake from her Mamoswine, hit a huge area for heavy damage to the Magneton; possibly even 1-hit KOs to the lower level ones. But doing so now would be reckless as she would risk hurting herself and her allies or disrupting the Goliath buried below. Similarly, she couldn’t use Typhlosion’s strongest fire attack, Eruption, to call forth magma from the ground for risk of setting the forest on fire and dealing with the smog and flames in friendly fire. Mamoswine, ponies, and humans were quite flammable.
She eyed the ungodly number of Magneton and shrugged, knowing even if they were pulling punches that it had to be done for safety, “Well, just have to keep flinging at them. Quantity of attack over quality. Open fire boys and girls!”
The Typhlosion reared up and howled, before the badger-like creature charged on all fours with the fiery image of fangs engulfing its head. It pounced on a horde of Magneton, using the move Fire Fang to chomp into one Magneton as it tackled it to the ground. More Magneton piled in to save their comrade but were shot in the back while they were distracted by barrages of energized earth that disrupted their circuits. Any return fire was swept up by Twilight’s magic, leading to Typhlosion drawing the Magneton’s attention while they were firing at Platinum and Twilight before dodging about to line up the shots for Mamoswine; rinse and repeat.
However as the battle went on, the swarm began to change tactics. The Magneton that remained began spinning, and in doing so began to summon dark thundering clouds, once they covered the general area, rain began to pour. Once Rain Dance was in full effect, large puddles and heavy rainfall surrounded the heroes. Platinum only needed a microsecond to figure out what was going on.
“Twilight, put us in a bubble shield around us now!”
The alicorn was surprised at the Champions sudden request, but fortunately for them, she instinctively threw one up for them just in time. The Magnet Pokemon all simultaneously used Thunderbolt and Thunder on the now wet ground. The electricity harmlessly passed over Mamoswine, but Typhlosion was unlucky as a large amount of voltage surged throughout its body, deal a large amount of damage to even the high level Pokemon. The badger-like Pokemon shrieked and whined, frantically jumping about to try and get clear but the whole of the puddle-laden ground was electrified.
Platinum winced, “Clever jerk!”
Twilight tilted her head as they flew about, “Pokemon move set up I should know about?”
“They knew Typhlosion was the biggest threat because his speed and fire attacks meant he could dance circles around them while chewing through their Steel typing so they used Rain Dance to cover the area with water. Now their electric attacks have a larger range to almost guarantee hits, not to mention Typhlosion’s fire attacks are now halved!”
“So, I guess we’re in trouble?”
“No, not yet.” Platinum reached into her satchel and took out a circular device, said device extended its middle section and revealed a handle that Platinum now used to hold the device like a gauntlet. Taking out a green disk she inserted it into the device.
Platinum tapped on Twilight’s neck, “Twilight, we need to get closer to Typhlosion!”
“On it!”, the alicorn chirped before banking to swoop closer.
Platinum touched the earpiece in her right ear and called out to her larger pokemon, “Okay, first let's mitigate this lighting, Mamoswine use Mud Sport!”
The Twin Tusk Pokemon, unaffected by the electrified realm about it thanks to its Ground typing making it a living insulator, generated a glowing sphere of energy in its mouth. It them slammed the sphere into the ground, the shockwave began to the elevate the ground was waves traveled along the earth. Mixing with the water to create mud, the electricity that was arcing throughout the area began to subside.
"Alright now let's heal you up Typhlosion!”
Platinum aimed the device on her wrist, the Wonder Launcher, at her Pokemon and fired a shot. The pellet of light flew out and hit Typhlosion square in the center. Once it struck it, the healing properties of the compressed Full Restore did its work, healing any potential paralysis and restoring its health. In moments the Fire-type Pokemon was fit as a fiddle and more ticked off than anything else, a bad choice for something so similar to a honey badger and yet was the size of a large lion. An idea crossed Platinum’s mind.
“Twilight, can you make a field around just Typhlosion and the Magneton?”
The alicorn did some mental calculations and nodded, “Friend of mine showed me just the trick! Just say when!”
“And now let's use this.” The trainer then inserted a red and black disk with the number 6 on it into the launcher and shot it at Typhlosion, power surged through the Volcano Pokemon as its attack level increased to a temporary maximum with the infusion of the X Attack item. It would only last a minute, but that was all that was needed.
“Do it now and duck!”, Platinum yelled as she hung on for dear life. Twilight’s eyes snapped wide as her horn ignited, white light engulfing her eyes. She drew upon teachings from both the most powerful Equestrian of all time and the most powerful magic user of Terra, using the magic of the emotional spectrum and mana at once. A huge symbol stretched across the ground under Typhlosion and the Magneton, much in the same manner Mothra’s family crest would she used her sealing magic; only this time it was in the form of a magenta star matching Twilight Sparkle’s cutie mark. A massive field of energy formed a bubble around the entire battlefield and encased it as Platinum cried out through it.
“Alright let's ends this! Typhlosion use Eruption, MAX POWER!”
The fire type Pokemon gathered all its strength at the command of its trainer, the flames on its back glowing as it absorbed all the heat in the air, to the point where the temperature started to drop even in the cold rain.
Then with a face of determination Typhlosion unleashed an explosion of fire into the air, the heat of the assault evaporated the water and the rain, even dispersing the clouds inside the bubble of magic. After a moment of silence, the fire came back down in a torrent of flames, showing the Magnet Pokemon in what might as well be a magma storm as everyone else fell back for cover. Only smoke was visible as the magical seal and bubble dissipated, revealing a winded but still standing Typhlosion amidst a field of smoking and knocked out Magneton. Typhlosion cackled a victory roar with a smile on his face even as she nearly collapsed from exhaustion. To the creature, it was a damn good fight!
Elsewhere, an artificial Ice Beam in the form of a sub-zero ray flew out of the Mecha’s chest just as Mothra Lea put a barrier around herself, freezing her within a bubble of ice. The machine lunged and smashed a fist down on the block, expecting to have shattered the changeling only to instead be briefly blinded by a flare of light. Dozens of tiny wisps of light resembling butterfly-winged breezies flew out and swarmed about the Mecha like a hive of angry bees. While their tiny bursts of prism beams and energy rays from their antennae barely scratched the cold alloys, the energized breezies that charged through it by going directly into any exposed circuits hailed a shower of sparks. As the machine electrified its hull and forced the breeziefied Fairy Mothra swarm back just in time for a far larger shape to slam into it. Giratina bulldozed into the robot like a mad bull after phasing up through the ground, her Dragon typing resisting the electric shocks to tank through it with only minor damage.
The Iron Head attack kicked in and turbo-charged Giratina’s tackle, bathing her in a white aura as she used the Mecha as a battering ram to collide through several trees before smashing them into a boulder. The Mecha sparked and surged, pieces of its hull being smashed off even as the self-repair functions kicked in. Giratina glimpsed a robotic eye glaring back at her from within the torso. A mechanical whirl, akin to the screeching sound made by the Magneton but much deeper pitched, shrieked and the machine’s powerful arms grabbed her around the torso and throat. Booster jets on one side of it kicked off and spun them both around as it cocked its arms back, one chilled with cold plasma across a fist and the others in a dark haze that formed a shadowy blade across the fingers; a simulated and supercharged Ice Punch and Night Slash. Giratina, a Dragon, and Ghost-type, was naturally vulnerable to Ice and Dark-type moves. And the Mecha could up the ante in threat by being able to use multiple attacks of multiple types at once, a feat difficult for even some Legendary Pokemon.
But thankfully Pokemon move rules only tended to apply to Pokemon. A stylized cross lit up around Giratina and in the instant the Mecha would have impacted her and either forced her to guard or try to phase through the ground to dodge, a golden aura ignited across her body and caused the attacks to bounce off in a brilliant clash of ice, solid shadows, and mana. Mothra Lea, reformed from her fairy swarm, winced from the effort as she hovered above with a golden glimmer raining down on Giratina from her flapping wings.
“You have my protection! If you’re going to attack, do it now! C-can’t hold it forever!”, the Protector of Mortals shouted.
Giratina wasn’t going to let such an opening go to waste. The Mecha could just heal back damage she inflicted on its body and limbs, but she had an inclination there was a part in the middle that couldn’t. Said part being who was controlling it. She swung back her smokey arms with balls of blue fire igniting on the tips of each. With the mecha directly in front of her, the barrage of Will-O-Wisp fireballs all struck home. But rather than an outright attack like Typhlosion’s burning assault, this onslaught was more subversive. The ghost fire didn’t burn, at least not outright, but it stuck to the mecha like napalm and chewed away at its foundation despite its failed attempts to put the fires out. Giratina smirked and crashed the metallic sheen coating her Iron Head into its elbow joint. The machinery caved and fractured, but couldn’t mend as the ghost fires messed up the machine’s ability to regenerate. The new metal came out warped and didn’t fit into each other properly, effectively turning the limb into a stiff cast.
The machine regarded the limb before turning its cyclopean eye onto Giratina and activating its thrusters, launching itself at Giratina with an Ice Punch ready on its remaining arm and multiple cryo-freezing rays, simulated Ice Beams, firing out of the ports on its torso. Giratina was about to dodge and brace when one of the Ice Beams was about to hit her, but the golden glow about her intensified and the cross rune lit up on her chest.
“GO! GET IN THERE!”, Mothra Lea called out as she strained with her hooves together and antennae blazing, “I’VE GOT YOU!”
Giratina took aim at the mecha’s midsection, where she sensed the pilot was, and felt a grin form behind her facial shield when a glowing mass of ice shot out from the side and smashed into the mecha down low as a mass of spiraling flame collided with it up high. The attacks didn’t do much, as even high-level Mamoswine and Typhlosion were no Legendaries; but having a bear-sized badger use Flare Blitz and a mammoth-sized hog use Icicle Crash into you at the same time was more than enough force to know the machine off balance and stumble it even as it threw them off.
Platinum, riding on Princess Sparkle, flew up beside her comrade.
She raised up her launcher and pointed to it with a smirk, “Giratina, I think it’s time was use that move.”
The legendary looked at her trainer a smiled a smile that would make evil sweat. Somewhere behind his console, Zero flinched.
“Hehe, about time.”
Twilight was as urgent as she was curious, seeing Mamoswine and Typhlosion get hurled away and Lea struggling to shield everyone, “What move?! If you got a trump card I think we need it pronto!”
Platinum then pulled out a peculiar looking black wrist ring, what made it stand out were the many colored rhombus shaped crystals around it. Mothra could sense a faint glow coming from them.
Platinum fit the ring onto her left hand, and put a dark black crystal on the center slot, both a rush of excitement and caution running through her mind. The tool that she had in her hand was the result of the power that came from another world, an interdimensional realm known as Ultra Space, and a legendary Pokemon who its denizens refer to as the “The Blinding One”. These crystals allowed trainers to upgrade their moves into power levels previous unfathomable, and now she was about to use that power to upgrade the moves on one of the strongest Pokemon in the world.
“Alright let's do this!! Z-move, Black Hole Eclipse!”, Platinum shouted as she held her launcher hand high as it glowed.
A burning light engulfed Giratina and she and trainer moved together. Giratina lurching forward as Platinum punched her hands out and swung them out to her sides like she was expanding a window before her. In unison, Giratina let out a rumbling roar and sparkled in radiance. Dark purple and gold energy collected in Giratina’s jaws and she shot it skyward. To the amazement and wonder of all, the mortar shell of energy expanded to take the form of a dark void with an encircling aura that rocketed towards the mecha like a black hole shot spiraling out of a cannon. Ripping away and devouring in everything around it from chunks of earth and bedrock to wisps of smoke and scattered flames, the black hole flew over the mecha and expanded. The singularity stripped away the twisted and sparking plated metal and electronics as it devoured the exterior of the machine; ripping it away to expose a large, solid shape that had been housed in the torso. Having absorbed enough mass, the black hole shrunk down in a reddish brilliance before violently exploding outwards. The sole remaining piece that had been within the mecha, the Pokemon housed inside the core, came rocketing out of the singularity and was thrown through several trees before burying itself into a trench carved into the ground.
The mechanical Pokemon, who had been piloting the machine like a massive suit, had a similar color, magnets, eyes, and screw antennae as the Magneton and Magnemite; but was much larger and wider in shape with a large central body and two smaller ones fused to the sides. One could favorably compare it to a pop culture depiction of a UFO.
The Pokemon, Magnezone, the final evolution of the Magnemite line, twitched and let out a weak mechanical whirl before collapsing unconscious. The light faded from Giratina just as she, Platinum, Platinum’s pokemon, Twilight Sparkle, and Mothra Lea touched down to the same patch of ground and shrugged tiredly.
“Phew! What a rush!”, Twilight Sparkle panted.
“Still got the Magnemite to stop,” Platinum muttered as Lea waved her off.
“If we need to and can get back, Twilight and I have a trick to handle them” Lea noted.
“Let’s hope s- LOOK OUT!”, Platinum shouted and got everypony and every Pokemon’s attention. There was a loud hissing in the air and all heroes jumped back and scattered just as a massive discharge blew up a chunk of the ground they’d be catching their breath on. The scream of jets called out from above as they looked up to see Zero’s aircraft swooping back around for another bombing run.
Twilight saw the ship’s size and no doubt the massive armament poised at them and felt a bead of sweat drip down her face.
“Platinum! Giratina!”, she called out while looking about to spot the both of them, Giratina having jumped back into a tree and Platinum rolled to the bottom of the small hill and on her stomach trying to claw her way back up.
“That move, can you do it again?!”
Platinum winced, ducking and covering her face as another bombing run shook the earth. For safety, she recalled Typhlosion and Mamoswine into their Pokeballs with the red light emitting from both. Coughing in the dust, she shook her head, “Not for a while! Dang Z-move needs time to recharge!”
Mothra Lea flew up beside Twilight, “Twily, I know we’re not big on excessive force but I think it’s time to bring out that trick you mentioned!”
Twilight Sparkle’s eyes dilated but another look at the assault ship about to swoop back around for another run steeled her nerves.
“Alrighty then! Lele you get up, everypony else get down!”
Inside the warship, Zero sneered as moved his hands through the holographic display to arm, aim, and fire more barrages.
“Infi what is throwing off the aim?!”, he roared after another near miss.
Infi’s holographic image appeared beside him, “Overabundance of magical radiation in the atmosphere are disrupting the instruments.”
“Switch it to analog then!”, Zero roared in frustration as the holographic display went away for targeting and a pair of control sticks pulled out.
However just before he could adjust his aim and see how well Platinum handled several hundred kilograms of plasma thrown at her, a blinding of golden light flare engulfed the control room. Zero shielded his eyes as machinery around him sparked and groaned. The airship suddenly rocked violently and threw its pilot off his feet. Zero skid across the floor and braced against his captain’s chair just as an insectoid claw dug through the roof.
“Infi what’s happening?!”
Infi’s voice called out through the speakers, her hologram had been knocked offline, “Loss of movement, something has grabbed the ship. Deck 1 is compromised.”
“Compromised?! How is it?!-”, he was cut off when he saw that deck 1, the uppermost hull, dropped down past the front window as a pair of massive butterfly-like wings flapped outside the window.
On the outside, Platinum and Giratina were left with mouths agape at the gargantuan moth that had appeared from where the changeling had been blasted by Twilight Sparkle’s magic; seeing the titanic insect grasp Zero’s aircraft in its claws and cancel out its jet propulsion’s momentum without any effort. Mothra Lea, back in her full form, chirped a booming call as she tore the rest of the first hull off with the intent of finding where the troublesome human inside was hiding.
On the inside, Zero was seeing red as he stumbled his way towards the cargo hold.
“Infi, convert all excess power not in the thrusters to the cargo grid!”, he shouted before kicking the door open.
Growling to himself as the cargo’s lighting brightened to flaring degrees, he tore his way through the room to the fossil containment unit. He was absolutely livid. Livid at Platinum and Giratina for following them, livid at the natives for being interlopers, livid at them for hurting his Magnezone. And if all other options to hold these meddlers back so he could get to Kardas had been expended, he could care less about collateral damage. Mashing the keys to reroute the power in the chamber to the unit containing the fossil, he threw any shred of caution to the wind. This item, a single fragment of a spine or claw, was no ordinary fossil. In fact until he found out about the Goliaths he pondered if this trinket taken from a disgraced Team Magma scientist might be what he’d been looking for to fulfill his ambition of power beyond the Legendaries. He both knew and didn’t know exactly what it was. It’s matter, it’s sheer scale, its destructive potential were all known to him; but it’s origin was not. For while the full entity would resemble the dinosaurian Legendary of Earth, Groudon, it was pure devastation in a living form. No conscious, no reasoning, just destruction.
The fossil cracked, streams of hellish light flickering out from the seams as it started to grow inside its containment unit after finally being exposed to energy. Zero manically smirked.
-And with all the free flowing magic about in this world, it’ll grow even faster than normal…-
If these pests saw fit to meddle with him, then he’d return the favor and let them mourn each other. He picked up the unit and charged to the opened cargo doors. He glared at what was visible of the enormous moth kaiju.
“Time to give you something your own size to deal with! I will have the greatness of a deity and cast my judgment,” he roared through the ship’s loudspeakers as he hurled the now cracking canister free.
“And this world can go to hell and burn!”
The canister tumbled through the air and shattered just before it hit the ground. An eerie blue and burning red light ignited out of the forest it landed on, as the trees seemed to melt into a growing biomass. Drawing in the lifeforce of the trees, any animals caught in the way, and the ambient magic; a vaguely saurian outline formed across the ground. Colored a hazy red and black with searing neon blues outlining and etching runes across it, the mass started to groan as it got up.
Mothra Lea let go of the aircraft as she regarded the emerging monstrosity with horror that Platinum, Twilight, and even Giratina expressed likewise. All the trees around the growing mass withered and died in a way that reminded the Guardian of Mortals all too much of DesGhidorah’s biosphere draining powers, all the confirmation she needed to know what she was beholding wasn’t a lifeform in the traditional sense. More like a virus embodied. Giratina felt a cold settle upon her as it took shape. Bipedal in stance with a wide tail tipped with a row of bladed that arched behind it. It was covered in a red plated armor on its flanks and back that was studded along the side with silvery spines interwoven between glowing blue runes. The eye, or whatever approximate it had, was a solid gold gleam, like a living forge of molten metal or liquid flame. There was no obvious mouth and the front from where the lower jaw would be to the throat, belly, under limbs, and bottom of the tail were covered in a swirling mass of dark energy. When it opened it’s “mouth” it was like parting liquid that revealed a burning interior, like a living volcano caldera. It resembled her comrade and fellow Legendary Pokemon, Groudon, but only in shape and was the opposite in manner. Groudon was usually a calmer entity and responsible for spreading landmass, though sometimes she required balancing from her counterparts of sea and sky, Kyogre and Rayquaza, to keep stable. Plus while she was fairly large, roughly the size of a hill, even in her primal state she’d barely come up to this demon’s ankle.
And never in a million years could she imagine Groudon letting out the chilling, unnatural, groaning wail that came out of The Virus’s maw. Zero had just released a potential walking extinction event upon Equestria, and they all were on the front lines of it.
