“Attack now!” Celosia ordered. “Take her down!”
Electrike, Houndour, Stunky, Snubbull, Spearow, Gulpin, and still more species were all present, and they all roared, screeched, or shouted an incoherent battle cry to the skies. Those that could immediately breathed flames, unleashed lightning, or spat poison. Those that couldn’t charged with mindless ferocity, totally heedless of the attacks of their comrades. The Flare scientist watched with a confident smirk on her face as the princess was blasted from her hooves by the combined force of over a dozen attacks and thrown about like a toddler’s plaything. Excess fire, electricity, and toxic sludge went everywhere, but in that moment, Celosia found that she didn’t care.
Just as she was cheerfully watching the stampede of physical attackers dogpile the weakened alicorn despite some being struck by their own allies, her visor flashed an alert. The woman’s head quickly jerked to the side – and just as quickly she threw herself blindly to the forest floor. She landed painfully amidst leaves and dead wood while a jet of red-range flame passed through the exact space her head had just occupied. It struck a nearby tree instead, which began to catch.
“What in blazes?!” Celosia snarled, looking up.
A Houndoom’s head and chest could be seen emerging from the dark forest a hundred yards or so from Team Flare’s position. There were Houndour flanking it on both sides, and the sound of fluttering wings signaled Flying-type Pokémon on the branches above. As the purple-haired woman looked around, she could make out scores more Pokémon becoming visible amidst the last of the twilight gloom.
“Aw, you brought friends?” she smiled as she pushed herself back to one knee. “That’s so sweet of you! We’ll bring you and them to our master, and he’ll be even more pleased!”
Kicking and flailing wildly against an assortment of brainwashed Pokémon biting, pecking, and clawing at her with the mad strength of rabid animals, Luna had no answer. Team Flare grunts were already calling out Pokémon from ordinary Poke Balls, and the first shots were being exchanged. Golbat tangled with Spearow and Fearow amongst the trees, while Liepard and Scrafty fought Houndour and Electrike.
“Alright, change of plans!” Celosia ordered the dark Pokémon. “Forget the princess! Take down every single Pokémon here not fighting for Team Flare! Now!”
Just as quickly as they had swarmed all over her, Luna’s attackers abandoned their victim. The princess was left to lie there, taking ragged breaths in the dirt, while the small army of dark Pokémon charged fearlessly at her allies. She could do little else but watch as the engagement intensified, fire and electricity lighting up the woods in every direction. For her part, Celosia resumed her feet with a satisfied look on her face.
“You’ve given me more than enough trouble, princess,” she said, Dark Ball in hand. “I’m going to enjoy watching the life drained out of you.”
But once again, a blast of red fire cut her off, this time just barely nicking the edge of her left bicep. She yelped, then frantically patted her sleeve down before dropping to the ground and rolling in the dirt, extinguishing the flame before it could spread. The woman looked up with teeth clenched so hard they almost cracked, quickly zeroing in on the same Houndoom, now grappling with Flare Mightyena.
“Alright, you wanna be first, do you?” she snarled. “Then take this!”
Celosia flung the Dark Ball straight for Houndoom, aim impeccable despite the gloom and growing melee. It soared through the air at it as it struggled to pry Mightyena off its back. Just a second before it hit, a Houndour full-body tackled Houndoom from the side. The bigger Pokémon staggered away and fell, and the black orb struck Houndour instead. It vanished inside the ball, which hit the forest floor crackling with sinister energy.
Mightyena wasted little time going for the throat, but Houndoom unleashed a jet of fire straight in its face. The wolf-like Pokémon staggered back with a pained yelp. Houndoom rolled back onto its feet, then its eyes fell on the Dark Ball. They widened, then narrowed again. It looked over at Celosia, bared its fangs, and growled.
Before Houndoom could do anything more, a Flare grunt yelled out a command, and another Houndoom leapt straight for it. The Flare Pokémon unleashed a Flamethrower on the wild one to no apparent effect, then simply snapped for its foe’s flesh with its prominent canines. Mightyena meanwhile had shaken off the worst of the pain and rejoined the vicious melee despite the charred patches of fur and angry red burns.
“Hmph,” Celosia snorted, resuming her feet and extracting another black ball from her belt. “This is a waste of my time.”
All around her, dark forest blazed with energy. Here, a Liepard was crackling with electricity after a charged tackle from an Electrike. There, a Houndour breathed jets of flame at a dead-eyed Snubbull. A Golbat crashed through a tree branch after being slammed by a pair of Spearow, sending the wood tumbling down to the earth. Seconds later, a stray spark caught some of its fresh green leaves. A Scrafty smashed a Poliwhirl hard enough in the gut to send it flying into a nearby bush, while its trainer cheered.
There were more of the enemy than she’d anticipated, true. And more species represented among their ranks that she had first expected. But ultimately the only issue with that was they might simply exhaust their supply of Dark Balls on hand and have to simply run off or eliminate the excess. The brainwashed Pokemon were proving their worth – she watched a dark-complexioned Gulpin blast a Fearow from the sky – and victory could only be a matter of time.
“Alright you,” Celosia turned back to Luna, struggling to stand after the vicious beating, “Time’s up. Prepare for-”
“Prepare for trouble,” boomed a female, mechanically-magnified voice from overhead, “from up in the sky!”
“And make it double,” said a male voice, every bit as loud, “raining down from on high!”
Celosia looked up past the trees, visor giving her the clearest view that technology could manage. She gasped.
“To protect this world from devastation!”
“To unite all peoples within our nation!”
All across the woodland battlefield, Flare grunts and even some of the Pokémon in their right minds had paused at the noise. Many were already looking up, the smarter ones through the hole in the canopy where the redwood had fallen. One or two were pointing.
“To denounce the evils of truth and love!”
“To extend our reach to the stars above!”
Through what gaps in the trees there were, some of the combatants could make out a deep shadow against the night sky, blotting out those few bold stars that showed themselves first as the sun’s last ebbs died away.
“Jessie!”
“And James!”
The space where the redwood had fallen suddenly became black as midnight as jet engines slowly died away. People and Pokemon scrambled to clear the area as the trees around it creaked and listed, huge branches crashing to the forest floor as something titanic forced its way through.
“Team Rocket blasts off in a shiny new mech!”
“You’re sure to lose, ‘cause we’ve stacked the deck!”
The earth trembled as a massive mechanical marvel hit the ground, knocking over at least two trees as it did so and visibly cracking the trunk of a third. At least three stories tall, perhaps even more, the machine vaguely resembled a Meowth. Only this one appeared to have seriously hit the gym, sporting a heavy physique rippling with mechanical muscle, steel claws as long as a human arm, a lean, whip-like curled tail, and an eager, combative expression etched on its metal face. A huge red “R” was emblazoned proudly across its off-white chest.
“Meowth,” boomed a third voice from its ear speakers, “you’re gettin’ wrecked!”
“Wobbuffet!” an incongruously cheerful fourth voice added.
“What in the world…” Celosia breathed.
Her reaction was largely shared by her henchmen, who most stared, pointed, or backed off a few steps. Even the heated Pokémon battle had largely paused, with only those Pokémon under the influence of a Dark Ball and those immediately engaging them still going at it. No one was entirely sure what was going on, but no one wanted to provoke the giant robot either. Things became even stranger, yet somehow clearer, when two more of the alien alicorns descended through the hole the robot had just punched through the canopy. They landed on either side of the gigantic machine, while a Fearow flew down to perch on its head coin.
“Team Rocket?!” Celosia was the first to recover, shaking her head vigorously. “You’re supposed to be dead!”
“So sorry to disappoint you,” Jessie replied through the speakers. “Oh wait…”
“NO WE’RE NOT!” shouted all three at once, the machine rendering it so loud it almost qualified as a sonic attack in its own right.
“Can anyone but me do anything right?!” Celosia growled as she stumbled back, clutching her ringing ears. After shaking her head again, she released them and clenched a fist. “Well I’ll fix that right now! All dark Pokemon,” she called out, voice loud and clear amidst stunned silence, “scrap that rust heap right now!”
Every dead-eyed Pokémon still conscious – which was most of them – immediately broke off whatever they were doing. Toxic sludge, envenomed stingers, bolts of lightning, and streams of hurdled across the forest, while underneath them more physical attackers stampeded forwards mindlessly. There was no way to miss such an enormous target. Explosions blossomed across its torso and neck as electricity struck home, an inferno rose past its eyes, corrosive chemicals gave off vapor. In moments, the entire machine was covered in smoke.
“Yes!” Celosia pumped a fist. “Master Lysandre will be so pleased that I did Mable’s job and my ow-”
The smoke faded, and the mech stood completely unharmed. They hadn’t even scratched the paint.
“Our Dark Ball bustin’ Robo Mega Meowth 9000 is as tough as it is good-lookin’,” Meowth boasted. “Dis here’s got all da latest an’ greatest Team Rocket technology straight from da boss’s labs!”
“Fireproof, waterproof, corrosion resistant, electricity resistant…” Jessie swooned audibly. “Oh, Robo Mega Meowth, where have you been all of my sad, pathetic life?” She paused a moment. “Wait, let me rephrase that.”
“Now check dis out!”
The Mega Meowth 9000 turned around, with surprising agility for its size. Its metal tail uncurled and lashed out like a whip as thick as a grown man’s waist. In one broad sweep it caught every one of the charging Pokémon, none of whom had the wit to stop, and sent the almost two dozen flying like baseballs in a home run.
“Now dat’s what I call a Tail Whip!” Meowth laughed.
More long-range attacks were already slamming into the mech, to no more effect than before. There were fewer of them, though. The Pokémon they’d been engaging had rallied and, with their brainwashed aggressors targeting the robot exclusively, fell on them in a vengeful fury. Celosia felt a sheen of sweat forming as Team Rocket’s machine strode towards Team Flare, brushing off attacks like light rain and shoving trees aside like they were mere stalks of grass. All around her the battle was rejoined in earnest, as the forest Pokémon found fresh heart in the titanic machine while Flare Pokémon in possession of their senses fought the urge to flee for their lives. Fire and electricity continued to fly in all directions, striking earth or vegetation almost as often as their intended targets. Sparks flew and some caught, leaves withering and wood blackening as fire continued to take hold.
A familiar white-pink light alerted Celosia to another problem. She turned to see Luna, now propped up by two other alicorns, staring at her with naked hate in her eyes. She had a fraction of a second to contemplate the sphere of energy taking shape before it was launched. Moonblast caught the Team Flare Scientist right in the chest. The fey energy hurled her back and across the woodlands and into the air. She struck a branch. And then she struck the earth, and she knew no more.
“Do not slay them!” Luna called out, silvery light encasing her body. “They are victims, not villains! Subdue them, but do not slay them!”
In response, a Houndour and Electrike that had been tearing into an unmoving, dead-eyed Gulpin paused a moment to stare straight at her. Blue eyes met theirs firmly in a brief stare down. Then the instant passed, and both Pokémon bounded off to engage something else. Luna breathed a sigh of relief, unheard amidst the roar of battle and crash of the mechanical monstrosity.
“Can’t believe that needs to be said,” Twilight muttered softly under her breath, while blasting a Flare Golbat from the sky with some sort of multicolored beam.
“Thank goodness you’re safe!” Celestia hugged Luna for the fifth time, then unleashed a golden beam from her horn into a Mightyena. “I was so worried!”
“I am uncertain as to whether I would call our present condition ‘safe’,” Luna replied, as an explosion set another tree alight. “But I acknowledge that we appear to have the upper hand, thanks to…”
“Get your elbow out of my face, twerp!” the speakers boomed as the mech stomped forward.
“Yeah, dis cockpit ain’t designed for eight!”
“That’s the way it is!”
“That,” Luna finished, attempting to hug her sister back and wincing as paralysis locked her in place.
“They’re a bit strange, I’ll grant you,” Celestia said.
“Whoever it is, stop hitting the windshield wipers!” the ear speakers boomed again.
“But I think they are decent folk at the root of it,” the solar princess finished.
“If they are here to aid us, I will voice no complaints whatever their… eccentricities,” Luna answered.
“Uh… your highnesses?” Twilight piped up as a burning branch fell of a tree and her rainbow beam blasted it to tiny pieces.
“What troubles you, dearest Twilight?” the dark alicorn asked immediately.
“I think we may want to get everyone out of here,” Twilight winced as another flaming branch broke off a tree some distance away, tumbling down between a Liepard and a Granbull. Thankfully, both had the presence of mind to dodge. “Ummm… as soon as we can would be good.”
The battle had been waged for several minutes now, and there were Fire-type Pokémon fighting for both sides. Houndour and its evolution were particularly well represented in both camps, and neither side had been particularly restrained in their use. Jets of flame had been flung every which where, and when they missed there was fuel everywhere. Dead leaves and sticks coated the ground, and the trees were dry and primed for it. More than a dozen were already full-fledged infernos, and over three times that number had been set alight at least partially. The number of smaller brush fires springing up across the forest floor didn’t bear thinking about.
On the bright side, the tide had well and truly turned. Robo Mega Meowth had, despite a few stumbles, reached Team Flare. One slash of its claws cut an empty four-wheeler into five pieces, and a punch from its other fist sent a Mightyena and Scrafty soaring out of the park. Its tail lashed out at Pokémon behind it, swatting three more Golbat from the air. Some we still trying to attack it, but one and all they were Pokémon under the influence of the Dark Balls.
Across the length and breadth of the battlefield, Team Flare’s Pokémon were being recalled. Whether they were conscious or not, whether their balls were ordinary or dark, many trainers were taking them back as fast as they could. There was no one left telling the grunts what to do and a giant unstoppable robot currently stomping through their vehicle pool and smashing everything in its path. They by and large did what most people would do in that situation – run away screaming.
Some were able to climb atop Tauros or Ponyta and a lucky few still had intact mechanical steeds, but for many Flare grunts the only viable option was to use their own two feet. Faced with the prospects of being trapped with a mechanical monster backed by an army of wild Pokémon and two more alicorns in a forest rapidly catching fire, many a champion sprinter was being discovered that night. And the effect was much like a dam bursting. Once a handful began to waver and bolt, already shaky morale plummeted in those that remained, and it didn’t take long for them to join in. In just a few minutes, an apparent imminent win had devolved into a complete and utter rout.
“Do not pursue them!” Luna called as best she could to the more eager elements of her forces. “I said, do not pursue them! Allow them to flee!”
Some Pokémon heard her and turned back. Others couldn’t hear above the tremendous ongoing racket – or simply ignored her command.
“Your kin are in danger!” Luna called out, entirely truthfully. “Many of our own are struck down or unable to flee! We must remove them to safety!”
As to punctuate her statement, a burning tree finally had enough and began to collapse. The giant robot hurried to catch the trunk before it could crush the unconscious Electrike and Spearow beneath it, but the tree was so weakened the piece above the mech’s hands broke off anyway. The top of the flaming tree hit the ground with a great thud and split open. Thankfully no one was directly under it, but it provided further vector for the fire to spread on the ground. Robo Mega Meowth’s foot stomped on it as best it could while continuing to hold up the bulk of the tree, largely crushing it to shouldering ash.
“Why doesn’t this thing come with a fire extinguisher?!” Jessie’s voice complained.
“But it does, don’t you remember the one in the stairway?” James’ amplified voice replied.
“I mean one that would help, you moron!”
Meanwhile, Houndour and Poliwhirl dragged the unconscious Pokémon out from under the tree’s immediate drop zone. The latter had to stop and spray Water Gun to clear a path through the underbrush as they went. When they were out of immediate danger, the mech allowed the crumbling, burning tree to slam into the ground, then stomped it out as best it could.
“Seize hold of your comrades!” Luna urged again at the top of her voice. “We must rescue them lest the flames claim them all!”
Some of her subordinates continued to pursue the shrinking members of Team Flare off into the distance or simply fled, but hearteningly the majority seemed to be listening. Pokémon were gathering their fellows onto their backs, or dragging them along with paws, or even picking up smaller ones in their talons as they took flight. However brief, the fight had been intense and the brainwashed Pokémon very powerful, so there were many casualties to be gathered.
“Alright, listen up!” Meowth’s voice ran out from the speakers. “Team Rocket is gonna knock ya a path outa dis mess! Grab yer pals an’ run for it! Don’t worry about us, ‘dis baby’s totally fireproof!”
“DO AS HE SAYS!” Luna added, doing her level best to match the mech speakers for volume and not falling far short. “FERRY YOUR KINDRED TO SAFETY!”
Robo Mega Meowth stomped through the mounting forest fire, totally impervious to the rising flame. Its huge feet alone were enough to crush brush fires and sweep aside tinder, leaving a black but safe path for the others to follow. Its paws and tail seized the branches alight overhead and crushed them until they were so much ash before they could fall. In one case it shoved a tottering tree over in the opposite direction of its trail after making certain there were no friendlies in the way.
“But where is safety?” Celestia asked, as Twilight helped her to hoist her still-paralyzed sister atop her own back. “From the air, this forest stretches for many miles in all directions. It could burn for days.” She winced as another flaming branch crashed down. “Weeks even.”
“Princess Luna, I saw you had members of the Poliwag evolutionary line on your side,” Twilight said, making sure Luna was steady. “How many are there?”
“A fair number,” the dark alicorn said. “Why?”
“Five words,” Twilight answered. “Water Sport and Rain Dance.”
Celosia awoke with a start to the smell of burning wood. She reflexively took a deep breath, and then immediately regretted it as smoke filled her lungs and she doubled back over, hacking and coughing. Pressing her head low to the ground offered some relief, enough to let her get a few lungfuls of oxygen.
The Flare scientist looked around, visor allowing her to penetrate the smoke, and discovered to her mounting horror that there was fire in every direction. Trees that had stood for decades or even centuries blazed merrily like torches in the night, while the forest floor was reduced to piles of grey and black ash where it wasn’t alight itself. There were no people or Pokémon she could see, alive or otherwise, anywhere at all.
A flaming tree not far from Celosia creaked ominously, and her head flicked from side to side in quick succession. She wouldn’t be able to run through this blaze, there was no way she could avoid choking on the smoke. She’d have to crawl through the dirt and pray the air was breathable. But even with the aid of her technology she still couldn’t see very far – couldn’t see a clear way out.
It was just when she was on the verge of picking a direction at random and hoping for the best that her visor detected movement. She whipped her head around, switching through several settings and zooming in to try and get a better look. What she saw was a jet-black hound with prominent horns atop its head and a pointed tail. It had its nose to the ground yet was walking straight through the bright red-orange flames without any apparent pain or injury.
It was obviously a Houndoom, but what was less clear was its allegiance. It was looking for someone or something, but Celosia knew there were members of the species on Team Flare as well as on the alien’s side. She shrank back for a moment, debating briefly whether or not to try and hide from it. But, she decided, things could hardly get much worse.
“Hey!” she yelled as best she could, watching Houndoom’s head suddenly jerk her way. “Over here!”
Things got worse.