//------------------------------//
// Going In 
// Story: Celestia's Rocket Adventures 
// by Snake Staff 
//------------------------------//

Celestia screamed.

Everything boiling up inside of her – the shock, horror, dread, and above all anger – found its outlet in a single, primal, incoherent wail bursting from the depths of her throat. The shrill, piercing sound was enough to crack nearby orange sunglasses and might even have been deafening had anyone been able to hear it over the ringing in their ears. But while no one could hear, certainly all saw it.

The white alicorn’s eyes blazed with a brilliant golden radiance, lashing out wildly towards her enemies. The Pokémon, piled in wild heaps or sprawled randomly across the ground, were almost impossible for the distraught princess to identify one side from the other, but the humans in their bright clothing and dyed hair were not so lucky. Men and women in their red-orange Team Flare suits were enveloped in auric auras and flung wildly about like debris in a tornado. Some were flung into the now-bare trees, some skidded violently across the ground, some were bashed frantically into the shatter rock face, and some were simply tossed carelessly down the stairwell or elevator shaft by the raging princess, their panicked screams receding into the darkness below.

Celestia was on her hooves again, though she had no memory of getting up. There were others around her resuming their feet, some looking around nervously, some eying the open threshold eagerly, and some dead-eyed and already beginning to resume the fight. The princess had no time for any of them. Another scream tore its way out of her, this one nothing short of a sonic attack in its own right. Waves of energy bowled over the Pokémon attempting to hold the entranceway, some of the rearmost plunging down the elevator shaft after their masters.

She registered, dimly, that among those getting back up was her dark sibling, at the very front of the line as ever. Luna turned her head towards her briefly, teal eyes meeting purple ones still throbbing with barely-controlled energy. A silent understanding passed between the sisters, which was good as neither could actually hear anything.

While Luna smashed aside more of the dazed enemy Pokémon, Celestia’s wings unfurled and beat harder than they had in a very long time. Behind her, a flood of Pokémon was pouring into the enemy’s base.



Staring out through censors at the devastation he’d unleashed, Lysandre couldn’t quite help but feel conflicted. On the one hand, there was a pang of remorse that it had come to this, that he had torn apart the beautiful forest and killed Team Rocket with his own two hands. On the other, he had to confess that the sight of the full power now at his fingertips was… somewhat exhilarating. To hold the power to decide between life and death, to destroy the world and remake it in his own ideal, it was incredible. He wondered briefly if that was how it felt to be a god.

Team Flare’s leader shook his head and did his best to dismiss both feelings. He hadn’t really destroyed the forest, after all, it would be restored and made eternal before the day was done. And it was sad what he had to do to create a perfect world, but there was no other option than a slow slide to oblivion. He also couldn’t let excitement cloud his judgement – not now, when there was so much work to be done.

“Bring the weapon up to maximum power output,” he ordered his technicians, who hurried to make the adjustments. “The test fire was successful. Now we cleanse the world.”

The energy readings in his visor’s display were already spiking when Lysandre adjusted the targeting lock with a mere twist of his hand. He had already decided that the Kanto region would be the first to feel the weapon’s wrath. Team Rocket had given him enough trouble, taken enough of his subordinates’ lives, that their home region deserved to be the first to perish.

“Energy flow at optimum levels, sir,” one of his subordinates called out. “It’s ready to fire.”

“Thank you for the information, but I can see that for myself,” Lysandre told him. He held out one gauntleted hand. “Let’s do this.”

As he locked on target, only a small part of his mind wondered about the tremor beneath his feet.



The once-titanic machine was little more than pieces of scrap scattered haphazardly across the ground, ablaze. Withering red-orange flames hot enough to make even Celestia uncomfortable poured columns of black smoke into the sky. The mech’s torso and lower chest were simply gone, the heavy armor frame wiped from existence as though it had never been. The leg sections had simply toppled over backwards, crushing most of what had once been a modest garden and spreading the fire to the rest of it. One arm had fallen from what was left of the upper torso and head, which themselves were splayed out, slumped and burning, across the ground. The fine white coat and the proud red R were gone, blackened and warped or simply invisible beneath the flames.

Celestia’s heart was already in her throat before she even got close. The alicorn wasted no time at all, wings guiding her quickly to the exposed inner torso. She charged immediately into the raging inferno, heedless of the flames licking at her fur and skin. The interior was unrecognizable from how she remembered it, everything remotely flammable set alight by the kiss of the ultimate weapon’s energies. Even the metal had outright melted and fused in the closest proximity, growing visibly red hot in some areas.

When she slammed into the door leading upwards at full speed, the princess barely felt anything at all. More than a meter thick and heavily reinforced, it refused to budge. Celestia slammed into it a second time without hesitation, and then a third when that likewise failed. The throbbing pain she felt as she staggered back was nothing to her, just as the burning sensation. Eyes struggling to make sense of the picture through smoke and tears she hadn’t even been aware, she did the only thing she could think of and lashed out.

Eyes alight with golden power, the alicorn’s will seized the impudent portal. She screamed incoherently as fear, rage, guilt, and pain pitted themselves against the finest alloys that Team Rocket could steal and manufacture. At first, there was nothing, merely another glow amidst the blaze. Celestia screamed in fury, slamming herself against the door with all the strength she possessed even while redoubling her psychic efforts. Though she merely bounced off the metal again and again, the pain only seemed to feed her determination.

Slowly, with an agonizing shriek of metal scraping metal, the obstinate door upwards began to shrink. Fused to the walls around it by the unfathomable energy of the ultimate weapon, its interior electronics melted to rubbery goop, it tore itself free from its bonds inch by agonizing inch. A rational observer might have thought it looked as though it were being crushed in the hands of some wrathful giant, but the alicorn was far beyond rationality now. To her, at that moment, the door represented everything that was evil in the world, a malevolent conspirator attempting to keep her from those she cared for. She never stopped hurling herself at it with hatred in her heart the entire time. The very instant the last bindings were torn free the door was smashed backwards onto what had once been a stairway wall.

Celestia didn’t bother with little things like delicacy or sanity. She simply barreled through the dark, smoke-filled stairwell like a charging bull, bursting right through any stairs in her path and ignoring the pain, or simply tearing them apart like tinfoil. There was much less fire here, but sharp metal newly coated in white still scraped her oblivious hide. She likewise ignored the open and emptied metal case directly beside the cockpit door, opting instead to simply plunge her horn right into it. It punched right through all the way up to her skull, and with a twist of her neck that she would surely feel later, simply tore the last obstacle out of its socket and flung the whole thing rather carelessly over her shoulder.

She turned around and immediately got a burst of white foam full in the face.

Coughing madly and genuinely surprised the alicorn took her first willing step backwards. Celestia squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head vigorously, missing the sound of someone’s voice over the roaring flames and squealing metal behind her. The next thing she knew she was staggering backwards under the weight of first one, then another, then a third pair of arms all wrapped around her suddenly-aching neck.

The alicorn princess opened her eyes to find James’ face about half an inch from the right side of her own, Jessie’s pressed up against her left side, and Meowth atop her head.

“Thank goodness you’re alright!” James blubbered into her ear.

“And tank goodness yer here!” Meowth sobbed.

“I thought we were goners!” Jessie all but wailed.

“I… I….” Celestia’s words caught in her throat, tears welling up in her eyes again. “Come here!”

A warm golden glow pulled the whole of Team Rocket into a hug to make Cacnea’s seem merciful.



“Target locked,” Lysandre said, as much for his own benefit as his subordinates’. He took one last deep breath, suppressed one last pang of conscience….

And fell over backwards as the floor beneath his feet erupted. 

The bare steel floor split open and burst out as though propelled by the force of an erupting volcano. Heavy shards of metal embedded themselves in the ceiling as earth rained down on the cowering technicians nearby. The whole room quaked, the cables connecting Yveltal to the ultimate weapon shook and many came loose from the unmoved Legendary. From the floor, Lysandre shielded his face from the rain of debris with his right arm, his visor suddenly struggling to pick out anything.

Then, just as suddenly, Team Flare’s leader rolled to the side. A green spike of compressed earth embedded itself into the floor where he had just been. Lysandre resumed his feet at the end of the nimble roll, but still couldn’t see much. A cry was already on his lips.

“Yveltal!”

The reply was immediate. With a shrieking battle cry and the sound of tearing metal, the birdlike Pokémon tore its way from the cradle of wiring and hurled itself unhesitatingly at the silhouetted intruder. Its claws struck hard and fast, enveloped in dark energy, and sent the newcomer crashing backwards into a wall with enough force to rattle the room once more. Yveltal made to follow up, but a sudden blast of green energy sent it flying back the way it had come.

While that was happening, Lysandre was already reaching for the balls on his belt. He had one in each hand when his visor finally penetrated the lingering dust cloud enough to firmly identify the intruder. It was enormous, easily three times his own height if not more, matching Yveltal for size. It had a long, flattened, snake-like black and green body with a protruding head with compound blank hexagons in place of eyes. A fivefold crest flared proudly behind its head, almost as if it wore an ancient feathered headdress. From his research into Kalos’ mythology, he recognized it at once.

“Zygarde,” Lysandre said. 

The titanic Legendary Pokémon looked down at the little human, face expressionless but somehow saying all it truly needed to.

“The supposed guardian of the ecosystem,” Team Flare’s leader gave a snort of contempt. “Where were you when humanity began to consume beyond the world’s limits? Where were you when the Legendary Birds fought the Guardian of the Sea and threatened to tip the world into chaos?”

Yveltal came rushing back across the room with a piercing shriek. Zygarde ignored Lysandre, rising to meet the frenzied assault. Emerald green met shadowy black as the two giants clashed.

“Now at last the senile old fool comes, and it’s to try and halt the world’s one hope.” Lysandre raised his twin orbs high. “Well I won’t allow it! Go, Xerneas and Gyarados!”

Silver and black energies flared simultaneously, forming quickly into the massive blue serpent and dead-eyed fey deer. The former immediately interposed its bulk between Team Flare’s leader and the two struggling Legendaries. 

“Take cover!” Lysandre yelled at his still-cowering technical staff, before touching his ring with two fingers. “Bare your fangs and defend the world’s future, old friend! It’s time to Mega Evolve!”

Gyarados roared its approval as the gem atop its crest blazed in response, engulfing it in powerful rainbow energies. Its formidable muscles stretched and swelled with fresh strength, mighty winglike fins emerging from its back.

At that same moment, green energy overpowered its shadowy opponent, sending Yveltal soaring backwards. It plunged its taloned feet and the claws at the end of its wings into the floor, gouging yards-long furrows into the reinforced steel. The Legendary finally screeched to a halt just in front of Lysandre, then released its grip and flared its wings. Zygarde rose to its full height, unintimidated by the three opponents now staring it down, body enveloped in an aura of emerald energy.

Then it hurled forward with speed far beyond anything its size should be capable of, and the battle was joined.