The Pokémon of the forest poured into the upper reaches of Team Flare’s base. With an enraged dark alicorn at their head and resistance at the main entrance already broken, there seemed little that the enemy could do to stop them. First dozens, then hundreds of forest dwellers flooded hallways, broke down doors, gnawed on exposed machinery, toppled furniture, and blew out cameras and lightbulbs alike with indiscriminate bouts of fire, electricity, acid, and razor-sharp leaves. Here and there they engaged with humans in red, but resistance was scattered, uncoordinated, and badly outnumbered. It seemed as though almost all of the enemy near the surface had tried to hold the entrance and been blown aside by the force of Celestia’s attack.
To Twilight, this whole ordeal seemed less like an organized military assault and more a chaotic combination of mob arson and barbarian ransacking. The inside of the base was a wild morass of sounds, from screeching alarms and intercoms to the clash of combat and the screech of metal being torn apart. Half of the overhead lights seemed to have been knocked out, shrouding the halls in intermittent darkness. It seemed as though everything flammable had been set on fire, and what emergency sprinklers were still intact were blasting full tilt with water and foam.
Celestia had vanished shortly after the explosion outside, and Luna had seemingly disappeared into the base’s depths at the head of her vanguard. There was seemingly no one left enforcing any kind of order above pack leaders – the Pokémon army flowed where it willed. And here their wild nature was showing, and badly. Very few had the slightest clue about architecture, layout, or electronics. Without anyone giving them clear orders, gaggles of Pokémon were stopping almost randomly at doors, breaking them down, and indiscriminately savaging everything in what amounted to living quarters and storage closets. Signs and maps were being destroyed with equal vigor as cameras, plunging the already disorienting dark hallways into more anarchy. Twilight didn’t know what was going on in the bigger picture, where anyone was, or how to get to anything actually important to the Ultimate Weapon’s functioning.
“Twilight?!” a voice called out from somewhere in the darkness.
“Ash?” she shouted back. “Over here!” The princess fired a weak Psybeam into the ceiling, cutting through the darkness with a shaft of rainbow light.
Pikachu was the first to reach her, his own sparking cheeks providing more illumination for the humans and Pokémon following him. Caught up in the wild tide of the initial charge, they’d been separated for a minute before the surge thinned as their allies spread out.
“There… you are…” Ash was breathing heavily as he caught up to her, his smile a little strained from the effort of sprinting all the way from the forest to the underground base.
“Where…” Serena panted, looking around at the dim corridor extending a good ways in both directions, “where are we?”
“No idea,” Twilight shook her head, as a trio of Electrike ran past them.
“I… don’t know,” Clemont said, “this place… is so big.”
“I told you, they went that way,” one of the Electrike snapped at another one, who was chewing on exposed wires on an open wall panel. “We should follow. Fight!” More lights died as the other Pokémon finished gnawing away the wiring, unhurt by the sparks leaping out.
“This is fighting!” the second Electrike replied, spitting out bits of copper. “Destroying everything that they could use. They can’t fire if they have no power, right?”
“We should be with the alpha. He would know what to do,” said the third.
“We should find more stairs and go down more!” the first one to speak argued. “They must have kept going down.”
“No, they’re destroying everything everywhere,” the second Electrike said, throwing a jolt of electricity into the open wall for good measure before jerking its head at a group of Stunky spitting poison onto some kind of screen in a nearby room, the electronics sizzling and releasing an acrid stench. “It’s what Lady Luna wants us to do, I’m sure of it.”
The first shook its head. “You’re wrong, we should go down below and find her and fight. She must be fighting somewhere.”
“He’s right,” Twilight injected herself. “Luna was in the lead of the charge last I saw her, she should be somewhere below us now. Fighting with her seems like the best choice, if we can find her. Your species has a powerful sense of smell, you should be able to pick her out even in this place. If you could guide us to her-”
Immediately, all three Electrike rounded on her with snarls on their faces and bared fangs. Fur bristled, and sparks danced across it.
“We don’t take orders from you,” the first one growled.
“You’re not the alpha. You’re not Lady Luna,” the third added.
Twilight swallowed the urge to shout at them for being willful now, of all times, and kept her voice level. “I was the one who directed the raining team, remember that? Lady Luna trusts me.”
“Then ask the rain team to help you, we aren’t your minions,” the second one added with a snap of its fangs. “Now come on, let’s find more things to destroy.”
“No, we should find the alpha!”
“No, Lady Luna!”
The three of them went right back to arguing with one another, just as the sprinkler system went off directly overhead, soaking Pokémon and humans alike. The Electrike didn’t seem to mind, though Twilight destroyed the nearest one in irritation. It was just when she was considering picking a direction largely at random that more Pokémon came flying down the corridor – several Spearow and a Fearow. The former were small enough not to have problems, but the latter was having visible difficulty flying in the dark, confined space.
“Lady Luna!” one of the Spearow was squawking. “Lady Luna!” It paused over Twilight’s head. “Where’s Lady Luna?”
“I haven’t seen her for a few minutes, I’m trying to-” Twilight began, only for Spearow to immediately move on to the Electrike and repeat itself.
“I don’t know where she is,” one Electrike told it. “But we should find her.”
“The fight is here,” another argued back immediately.
“But you can smell real good,” the wet, irritated-looking Fearow managed to land right near them. “Smell Lady Luna, take us to her now! We have something important she has to know!”
“We don’t take orders from smelly birds!” an Electrike countered.
“Take us to her now or you’ll regret those words!” Fearow flared its wings wide, while the Electrike began sparking quite visibly in the darkness.
“What is it you need to tell Luna?” Twilight interjected herself again. “What does she need to know right now? Are Team Flare doing something?”
“We shouldn’t just be standing around while the Pokémon talk, every minute could be crucial,” Clemont, having caught his breath, said. He made to move forward, but Twilight stuck a wing out to halt him.
“We don’t-” Fearow began.
“Take orders from me, yes I know,” Twilight clenched her teeth. “But if you have a lick of sense in those feathers…” she looked over at Electrike, “or in that fur, you’ll stop fighting in the middle of a battle and start working together RIGHT NOW!”
Her voice came out as a shout far louder than she’d expected, little less than an outright sonic attack in the tight underground corridors. Before the startled Electrike, Spearow, Fearow, or the Stunky currently sticking their heads out of several rooms could do more than blink, she was in their faces.
“We’re in the middle of a battle and you idiots think this is a good time to get into a tribalistic squabble?! We’re fighting for the FUTURE OF THE WORLD!” Twilight boomed. “Now shut up, stop being stupid, and tell ME what it is Luna needs to know!” There was a brief moment of stunned silence. “NOW!”
“There’s a bunch of the red guys standing around the stone pillars not far from here!” one of the Spearow hurriedly blurted out. “They tied a bunch of the dead-eyed Pokémon to them and they’re still guarding them even though we’re attacking here! Some of us saw some of the Pokémon glowing and the glow going into the rocks right before the big blast!” It fluttered back several steps from both its leader and the alicorn.
“A power source…” Twilight’s eyes widened as the implication clicked. “They’re using the life force of the brainwashed Pokémon as a power source for the ultimate weapon! That’s the only thing that makes sense, the only reason they would stand out in the open while their base is under attack!” She put a wingtip under her chin. “If we can take them out and destroy the Dark Balls keeping them there, then…”
“Then the entire thing would sputter out,” Pikachu offered her.
“Exactly!” Twilight nodded, looking around excitedly. “How many are there?”
“I don’t know, maybe five or six talons?” Spearow hazarded.
“Spearow talons have four digits, so maybe twenty to twenty-five humans?” the alicorn paused briefly. “Did they have many Pokémon not on the rocks? Quickly!”
“Didn’t see many, I promise! No more than the number of humans!”
“So we could win a battle there, in the open, much more expediently than down here in confined, unknown terrain against hundreds of opponents!” the princess sounded excited.
“Uh…”
“Alright, I have a plan!” Twilight announced. “Electrike, you three use your noses to find Luna! Spearow, two of you go with them and relay the news to her! Fearow, your wings are too big to be very effective underground, you and the rest go with us back outside! We’ll round up the stragglers on these upper levels quickly, head back outside and put a stop to that power source before it can fire again! Go, quickly!”
Electrike shook its head. “I told you before, we don’t-”
“DO IT BEFORE THEY ANNIHILATE A CONTINENT YOU IMBECILE!”
Far deeper underground, the situation wasn’t much better. What ought to have been the organization’s moment of triumph was devolving into a disaster. Alarms of all sorts were wailing, security footage showed a veritable tide of angry Pokémon pouring into the upper levels, and something enormous was clashing with Master Lysandre in the middle of the primary control center. The base itself was starting to shake slightly at irregular intervals.
The observation level was in complete pandemonium, a dozen different voices trying to talk over each other and the sounds of battle below. Men and women in white and red suits were pouring over the remaining security footage and shouting themselves hoarse trying to give out conflicting orders over the radio. All available combat personnel should rush upwards to halt the tide – no, they should converge on the lowest chambers to help Master Lysandre – no, they should gather on sublevel five and brace for impact, as long as the enemy was contained to the upper levels they wouldn’t be able to do critical levels of damage. Personnel stationed outside the base near the stone pillars received instructions to return to base at once, then to hold position, then to circle around and hit the oncoming wild Pokémon from behind, then to hold position again. The combination of yelling, alarms, and combat drowned out half of what was being radioed regardless.
And so it went. No one was clearly in charge, and Team Flare boasted few talented tacticians amongst its ranks. Caught completely unawares by the scale and speed of what was happening, they might well have shattered their own capacity to resist completely if a burst of blue fire hadn’t suddenly incinerated a flashing overhead siren in a spectacular blaze. Men and women ducked away from flaming debris, shielding their heads and cringing backwards as a new figure stormed into the room, a Chandelure at her side and Xerosic behind her.
“Shut off the alarms!” Malva barked at the other occupants of the observation room without the slightest hesitation. “The whole base already knows we’re under attack, the damn wailing is just making it harder to coordinate.”
“Who put you in-” one of the bolder admins began, immediately before Chandelure blasted him square in the chest with a ball of ghostly energy. He hit the tough metal wall hard enough to make a small dent, then collapsed in a heap on the floor.
“Now!” the Elite Four member pointed, and the remaining admins, grunts, and technicians all but fought each other to obey. It only took a few seconds at the consoles and a handful of administrator override codes before the incessant screeching and wailing of the overhead alarm system abruptly shut down. Malva walked briskly to the center of the now all but silent observation room with eyes rolling quickly over what security footage was still coming in. She glanced briefly out the window overlooking the roots of the ultimate weapon, where four massive Pokémon clashed, and came to a decision.
“Reroute power through secondary circuits,” she ordered. “Initiate override of primary systems control, passcode F253L769A398R347E. Transfer control to auxiliary station. There won’t be enough left down there to manage power output.”
Under clear direction at last and with a potent Ghost-type hanging over their heads, the technicians that were present wasted precious little time. Power regulation was diverted from the controls near Lysandre towards the imperfect but serviceable models on the observation level itself. While they concentrated on stabilizing the system, Malva was already giving out more orders.
“Order all combat personnel in the base to fall back to sublevel seven. Activate emergency seals on halls four and five but leave one and three open. Channel them down those two hallways where we can pin them in and prevent them from swarming us. Personnel at the stone pillars are to hold position at all costs. Don’t let a single Pokémon get detached. We can still win this but only if we fight smart.”
“Ma’am,” one of the white-suited admins managed, flinching under Malva’s gaze but holding his ground. “What about Master Lysandre?”
“Lysandre can defeat the intruder below, anyone else will just get in the way,” she declared immediately. “We need to focus on stopping that mob.”
Malva narrowed her eyes at the security footage showing a dark alicorn blasting a Toxicroak and Golbat backwards into an admin with enough force to send all three tumbling down a flight of stairs. A pack of baying Houndour were at her back, and a Houndoom breathed a jet of flame upwards. The camera was enveloped in blinding light for a moment before the signal cut.
“And I know just how to do it.” The Elite Four woman clenched her fist, already turning for the door. “Hold your positions and report any developments to me. Xerosic, you’re in command for now.” The pale, red-haired Flare Scientist nodded at her. “I’m going to cut the head off this snake.”
Flaring bursts of brilliant light illuminated the dark heart of the underground base. Zygarde hurdled forward much faster than anything of its bulk had a right to, encased in an aura of shining emerald energy. Xerneas surged forwards to meet it without prompting, rainbow horns glowing a deep crimson. The two Legendary Pokémon collided in a spectacular blaze of energy, only for the blue and black deer to be sent flying by the sheer power of its opponent. It crashed right through a bank of control consoles, sending already terrified technicians scrambling for their lives.
“Get out of here!” Lysandre yelled at those of his staff too committed or senseless to have already fled. “Save yourselves now!”
That order took only an instant to give, but an instant was enough. Zygarde slammed its massive bulk into the ground, and the steel floor was split by a jagged row of glowing green spikes bursting from the earth, heading straight for Team Flare’s leader. Gyarados hurled itself into the path of the attack, crushing stone beneath his vast bulk and roaring in pain as the man-sized spikes drove hard into his armored scales.
“Yveltal, Phantom Force!” he cried out. “Xerneas, use Moonblast!”
Xerneas surged back to its thin hooves at just the same moment that Yveltal vanished into a portal of shadows. A ball of pink-white energy was formed almost instantly between its horns and hurled at the crested green serpent. But Zygarde darted to the side with that same impossible quickness, moving fast enough that it seemed almost to be in two places at once, and all the attack struck was the solid steel of the wall. It reared up impressively over the still-recovering Gyarados – only to suddenly take a massive claw to the upside of its head. Yveltal tore its way out of another dark portal directly over its enemy, claws coated in ethereal energy. Zygarde was forced back as the birdlike Legendary simply went berserk on it, pounding wildly on its body with claws, tail, beak, and talons.
Quick as a flash, Xerneas had already formed a second energy sphere. Without the faintest hint of concern for its ally, it fired right into the melee. With Yveltal grappling directly onto its face it had no chance to dodge, and both Pokémon took the full brunt of the potent Fairy-type attack. The explosion of white energy flung the two combatants apart, with Zygarde sliding roughly along the floor while Yveltal crashed roughly into a wall. Meanwhile, Gyarados rose back to its full height.
“Hydro Pump!” Lysandre ordered.
Gyarados immediately unleashed a torrential jet of water at the emerald serpent’s head, but it was already too late. Zygarde did not burrow so much as dive right through the increasingly-unstable steel floor and into the earth from which it had come, leaving the attack to pass harmlessly overhead. Lysandre and the three Pokémon were given perhaps a second to look around in frantic anticipation of where the Legendary guardian of the ecosystem might come from next before the question was answered for them. With a rending screech Zygarde burst forth from the ground directly beneath the now-deserted control panels, tearing them to shreds and sending bits and pieces of ruined machinery raining down throughout the control room.
It seemed to Lysandre as if everything froze for just a moment. The rain of paneling and wires, nuts and bolts all gave way to the eyeless gaze of Zygarde staring straight down at him. With that, I’ve already won, it seemed to say. Even beneath his eye-concealing visor, Team Flare’s leader resisted the urge to look up towards the observation level. Then the moment was gone.
“Giga Impact!” Lysandre heard himself roar. “Oblivion Wing!”
Xerneas charged Zygarde without hesitation, rainbow horns given over entirely to angry red. Its opponent was already covered in green and surged forward to meet it. The two were quickly locked together and straining against one another, sharp antlers against crested head. Yveltal picked itself up quickly, forming a red-black sphere of energy between its wings. Returning its ally’s callous disregard in kind, it fired a beam of dark energy straight into the melee. But this time Zygarde was clever. The intruder abruptly ceased the struggle, allowing Xerneas to push it back and right out of the attack’s trajectory. Oblivion Wing took the deerlike Legendary right in the back, toppling it forwards. While Yveltal grew grander with stolen energy, Xerneas’ aspect diminished.
While its opponent was in disarray, the emerald serpent took its opportunity. Alit again in its mighty aura, it darted forwards and straight for Team Flare’s leader.
“Gyarados, use Return now!”
The bulky sea serpent flung itself right back at the Legendary, its own body shining a blinding silvery-white. The two snakes collided near the center of the chamber, smashing together with enough force to topple both Lysandre and Xerneas even at a distance. Gyarados was sent hurdling backwards – but so was Zygarde. They smashed into the increasingly-dented walls on opposite sides of the vast chamber, Gyarados tearing through a part of Yveltal’s former mechanical cocoon as it did so. Before Zygarde had a chance to rise, Yveltal hit it square on with a second Oblivion Wing.
“A Pokémon, no matter if it’s worshiped as a deity,” Lysandre forced himself back to his feet as Zygarde’s energy was drained away, “is still in the end only a Pokémon.” Behind him Gyarados rose up and roared. “You’re no match for us.”
It seemed as if Zygarde begged to differ. As Oblivion Wing petered out, it was met with the sight of a wildly-charging Xerneas with horns still aglow. Whatever strength it had lost to Yveltal’s parasitic attack, it was still quick as a flash. Zygarde dove right back through the floor and into the earth, leaving its reckless opponent to swing its antlers uselessly at empty air.
Lysandre had mere moments to sense the tremor under his feet and start to run before the floor underneath him seemed to explode, hurling him from his feet. He hit the ground roughly on top of his left arm, drawing blood. The vast bulk of Zygarde loomed over him for a split second before Gyarados slammed into it from the side in a full-body tackle. The writhing serpents toppled to the floor, wildly biting and slamming into each other.
“Nrgh…” Lysandre gritted his teeth against the uncustomary pain. “Use Blizzard!”
Gyarados immediately detached its jaw from around one of Zygarde’s five crests and received a powerful headbutt straight to the side of its neck. It reared up in pain, but still managed to open its mouth wide enough for a cone of bright white, bone-chilling energy. Entwined as their bodies were, Zygarde had no chance to dodge and took the full force of the attack straight to its face. For the first time, the intruder made a true sound of its own.
It screamed.
Armored glass cracked as the lowest depths of the underground base were filled with a wailing, inhuman shriek of pain. Zygarde flailed wildly as ice crystals formed about its head and upper torso, frantic movements and incredible strength throwing Gyarados from atop it and sending Lysandre’s Pokémon crashing to the ground. But the emerald serpent scarcely had time to rise halfway, shaking vigorously to clear the ice from its head, before Xerneas struck it head-on with another Giga Impact. The deer simply charged and kept charging, pinning the serpent to a wall. Whereupon both were struck by another indiscriminate Oblivion Wing.
“Don’t like the Ice-type much, eh?” Lysandre grinned as he forced himself to his feet, cradling his left arm and doing his best to ignore the pain. “Gyarados, give it to our friend again!”
The blue serpent reared up and fired a second cone of bone-chilling energy into the melee with no regard for Xerneas’ well-being. But if any had thought that a cry of pain was a cry of defeat, they were badly mistaken. Oblivion Wing was fading away when Zygarde’s body was again enveloped in emerald energy. It threw Xerneas off in a surprising surge of strength, then darted to the side with all the astonishing speed it had shown before. Blizzard missed, striking nothing but much-abused steel.
Giving its enemies no time to get another lock on it, Zygarde pounded the earth with its powerful tail. The entire room suddenly shook and convulsed with the force of a mighty Earthquake. Yveltal, floating above the ground, seemed unaffected, but Lysandre, Gyarados, and the charging Xerneas alike were yet again bowled over to the ground.
Fast as a striking serpent, Zygarde pounced onto the downed Xerneas. It crashed into the other Legendary with all the force of a speeding freight train, sending it flying. Following up immediately, it reared back its head and its crests flared. Another row of jagged green stone spikes tore their way up, this time directly at Xerneas. The deer Pokémon never had a chance. One moment it had just crashed to the ground yet again and was struggling to rise, the next an earthen spike twice the size of a man shattered against the side of its skull.
That was its final straw. Xerneas had been beaten, tossed around, clashed directly with Zygarde, and twice had its vitality leeched by Oblivion Wing. Legendary Pokémon or no, Dark Ball or no, there was simply only so much abuse its physical form could withstand. It collapsed in a heap on the floor and lay still.
“Return,” Lysandre growled, holding out the defeated Legendary’s Dark Ball.
For a moment both sides simply stared at one another, catching their breath amongst the pain of throbbing wounds and the distant sounds of more battle above. Then Zygarde surged forward, Gyarados rose to meet it, and the battle continued.