Once clear of the flaming wreckage of their once-great mech, Team Rocket did the only thing that they could do. They bolted straight for the shattered front entrance to Team Flare’s base, ignoring the virtual field of humans and Pokémon lying sprawled out on the ground before it as well as the occasional protest when they stepped on someone. The trio and alicorn princess raced down the main stairwell braced for a fight… only to discover a dark, dank hallway with most of its lights out, water leaking from ruptured pipes, wires sparking in broken walls, and bits and pieces of miscellaneous torn items strewn about everywhere.
“Geez, this place is a dump!” Jessie put her hands on her hips. “Is this what happens when they don’t have us around to do all the cleaning?”
“And where is everyone?” James peered around. “Surely we can’t have been stuck in there for that long?”
“How could ya tell over the two a you whinin’ da whole time?” Meowth piped up from his current place atop Celestia’s back.
“Hey, we weren’t whining! We just had smoke in our eyes!” James protested.
“And you were blubbering and hugging against my leg the whole time, you ingrate!” Jessie snapped back at Meowth.
“Was not!”
“Were too!”
“Was not!”
“Were too!”
“As much as I’m sure this is important, perhaps we should settle this little spat after we deal with the world-ending superweapon below our hooves, hmm?” Celestia managed in a strained voice, trying to pick out which way the nearest stairwell leading further down might be.
“Eh, good enough point!” Meowth kicked his feet into Celestia’s sides as though he were a cowboy wearing spurs. “Onwards, noble steed!” He pointed in a completely random direction.
“I’m only willing to tolerate your antics so far, you know,” the alicorn muttered to him, right before taking off at a full-fledged gallop.
Meowth was very nearly thrown off by her sudden burst of speed, grabbing desperately onto the princess’ folded wings with both paws as the darkened hallway zoomed past. Celestia ignored his yelp and the tug on her feathers, thoughts fully given over now towards finding the battle, her sister, and her student. Wherever the fighting was Luna would be at the front, and the critical systems would be close to the bottom. It took her only seconds to find a stairway with its door ripped asunder and signs of battle scarring its walls. She paused for just long enough for the humans scrambling to keep up to catch sight of her, then leapt right over the listing railing.
Meowth screamed and clutched her white-furred neck as the both of them plummeted several stories right through the center of the spiral stairs. At the last second she flared her wings wide, coming to a controlled and graceful landing born of centuries of practice. The first thing she did upon touching down was look back up, only to see that Jessie and James had only just reached the very top.
“Hold up a second!” James panted as the two began jogging down the stairs. “Not all of us have four legs you know!”
Celestia’s response came in the form of her eyes shining a brilliant gold, lanterns in their own right amidst the gloomy half-dark. Both humans jumped a little as their bodies were enveloped in a warm golden glow, then pulled off the ground and simply over the railing. The ensuing descent was quick, but the landing was as gentle as touching down on a feather bed.
“Hey!” Jessie protested as the aura faded away. “Ask permission next time why don’t you?”
“Wasting time in a battlefield situation is never wise,” Celestia replied calmly, her ears twitching. “I hear combat nearby.”
“Oh?” Meowth sat up from where he’d been shivering against the back of her neck, his own off-white ears craning. “Oh yeah, I hear it too!”
“Hear what?” asked Jessie.
“She’s sayin’ dere’s fightin’ near here and dat’s why she’s in a hurry.”
“Oh really? Where is-” James began, but the alicorn was already off.
A better-prepared Meowth hung on marginally more successfully as the alicorn tore through a somewhat better lit hallway, rounding three corners and passing through another smashed doorway in a breeze. A menagerie of Pokémon clashing in front of two humans in red suits and one in a white lab coat and goggles was abruptly revealed, but Celestia’s charge didn’t slow for a second. She simply jumped right over the heads of most of the combatants, crashing down with all her weight and speed right atop a dead-eyed Crawdaunt. Meowth yelped as he was pitched forward, only to be cushioned by a golden aura of his own.
“It’s another one of them!” the lab-coated man yelped at the sudden interloper. “Crawdaunt, use-”
“Fury Swipes!” Meowth cried at the top of his lungs, taking a running jump right off of the princess’ head. The man screamed as the cat Pokémon suddenly landed right on his face, raking across it with sharp claws. He staggered back, shredded bits of his goggles scattering to the floor.
Celestia was already pounding on the shellfish Pokémon with a glowing silver wing, right in the head. Once, twice, three times, and then a slam into the wall. She was breathing fire on it just to be sure when Jessie and James finally caught up.
“This fight is over for you losers!” Jessie shouted at the two grunts trying to help the unfortunate man with a semi-rabid cat on his face. “Seviper, Glare attack!”
She threw a red and white Poke Ball directly at the melee, and out burst her long, black, knife-tailed snake. Seviper appeared coiled and hissing, eyes almost immediately glowing a sapphire blue. It locked gazes with one unfortunate grunt, who all but immediately froze up in an awkward pose, teetered, and fell over onto her backside.
“Let’s go Roselia!” the other grunt frantically pointed in their direction.
“Inkay, Psybeam attack now!”
James hurled a Poke Ball of his own, and his own little floating squid burst onto the scene. Inkay all but instantly flipped upside down, a white spot glowing, and fired a multicolored beam of psychic energy straight at the miniature plant Pokémon. Roselia went flying backwards into its trainer, and both hit the wall behind them.
“Seviper, Poison Tail!”
“Celestia, Psychic! Inkay, use Psybeam!”
“Get it off me!” the luckless man screamed.
“For Robo Mega Meowth!” Meowth screamed back.
Seviper sprang forwards with its tail glowing purple, Inkay fired another multicolored beam, and Celestia blasted the backs of the remaining few Flare Pokémon with a wave of mental energy. The enemy, now bereft of direction, stood no chance. Seviper’s strike took down a Marill, Inkay’s a Gloom, and the alicorn simply swept aside the rest. What half a minute before had been a deadlock became simply one man screaming about a cat he couldn’t pry off his noggin before a Helioptile, perhaps mercifully, zapped him with enough of a jolt to send him slumping to the ground as well.
The motley assortment of wild Pokémon were taking a moment to catch their breath while Jessie and James finally caught up to Celestia and Meowth hopped off the down man in the lab coat.
“Well dat wasn’t so bad!” Meowth put his paws on his hips. “We kicked ‘dere butts all good an’ proper!”
“Speak… for yourself…” James wheezed, as adrenaline finally wore off enough to let the two humans realize how fast they’d been running.
“The sign behind them reads ‘Detention – Authorized Personnel Only’,” Celestia read aloud as she strode calmly towards it, unwinded by the brief exertion. “I don’t know if they would have kept any prisoners this late, but any reasonable chance to save lives should be taken.”
Without even bothering to wait for Meowth to translate, the white alicorn ignored the keypad and thumbprint scanner entirely and breathed fire right where the lock ought to be. After giving the metal a little time to heat up, Celestia focused a psychic grip on the internal mechanisms, reared back her head, and yanked as hard as she could. The reinforced mechanical lock and deadbolt strained against her for a few seconds, but ultimately neither were strong enough. They shattered, and the door swung violently open.
“Now hold on a second, we can talk about th-” an unpleasantly familiar voice began, before cutting off in a sudden gasp. “You?!”
“What’s huh?” Meowth poked his head into the doorframe, then a moment later burst out laughing. “Ba ha ha ha ha ha ha! Hey, Jessie! James! Come ova here an’ see who it is!”
The two humans were still breathing a bit heavily when they wandered up to Celestia’s side to see what was up, but that still didn’t prevent them from bursting out into laughter of their own when they did. Nor did it stop them from striding right past the princess and into the other room with grins on their faces.
“Well well well,” Jessie crossed her arms and smirked. “If it isn’t Cassidy.”
“And Burt,” James joined her.
“My name is Butch!”
In truth, though, it was more than just those two. Crammed into a pair of cells obviously built for a much smaller number of people were a fair number of men and women in battered and dirty Team Rocket uniforms, looking disheveled. A third cell hosted a much taller man in shabby clothes, though he was curled up towards the back of his cell and not saying anything.
“How the heck did you morons make it all the way down here?!” Cassidy demanded, only to get immediately shoved aside by her partner.
“Never mind that, get us out of here before that psycho blue-haired lady comes back and terminates us like she said she would!” Butch told them.
“And wit’ dat kinda attitude why should we?” Meowth walked right up in between his human partners and put his paws on his hips. “You guys don’t sound very grateful ta be rescued.”
That launched a storm of protest – from the assorted grunts of Team Rocket, who were just tired of passing the days in cramped cells with not enough to eat and had no stake in the grudge match between the duo and trio. While they were busy with assorted sucking up, Celestia was talking to the wild Pokémon that remained.
“If you last saw your lady leading the charge down the nearby stairwell, then you ought to go after her at once. She may need reinforcements,” the princess glanced over her shoulder, “and we’ll be along shortly.”
“Why should we listen to you?” a Golett demanded.
Celestia just glared at it. It wasn’t long before the hallway was cleared.
“Well we’re not convinced that you really want to be busted out all that badly,” Jessie was saying when the alicorn turned back around.
“So, I guess the two of you will just have to show us,” James said.
“What do you want?” Cassidy managed through gritted teeth.
“You shouldn’t waste so much time on gloating,” Celestia spoke up, but none of the trio appeared to be listening. Even battle wasn’t enough to erase the memory of their recent humiliations.
“Let’s see…” Jessie put a finger on her chin, “get on your knees…”
“Tell us we’re da greatest Team Rocket agents of all time…” Meowth added.
“And beg us to let you out,” James finished for them.
Celestia sighed and stepped forwards, prepared to just ignore the trio and finish this so that they could continue, when Butch slowly, reluctantly took a knee. Cassidy for her part had to be all but pushed by the grunts surrounding her. Both of them were forcing words through teeth clenched so tightly the alicorn wondered if they would crack.
“Y-You’re…” they managed, “the grea… the g-gre… the greatest Team Rocket agents…”
Celestia could practically see steam coming from their ears, and even in these dire circumstances couldn’t restrain a small giggle, immediately covering her mouth with a wing in hopes that no one saw.
“Of… all… time…” the duo just barely made themselves finish.
“Now please let us out!” Butch grabbed the cell bars, while Cassidy was frantically trying to scrape her own tongue clean. The trio looked at one another and smirked.
“Eh, close enough,” James shrugged. “Now let’s see that ‘dolly’ of mine in action! Celestia, use Psychic!”
“Gladl- I mean, finally!” Celestia corrected herself as her eyes flared.
The cell doors shook for just a moment, then cracked with a suitably dramatic loudness. First the tall man’s, then the grunts’, then the cell with Cassidy and Butch and more grunts swung open with locks crushed by psychic force. The members of Team Rocket all but stampeded past the trio and alicorn, weeks of captivity driving them onwards and upwards. Seviper stuck its forked tongue out at Cassidy and Butch as they passed.
But Celestia quickly noticed that in the mad dash for freedom, one figure was conspicuously absent. The tall old man in the last cell sat unmoving, head buried in his hands, not even reacting to the open cell door. Not wanting to waste any more time but also not wanting to leave someone behind, she walked briskly over and blinked in surprise. She recognized him – the same strange old man who had given her directions on the road!
“What’s da matta, old timer?” Meowth voiced her thoughts as he joined the alicorn where she stood. “Don’t ya wanna get while da gettin’s good?”
“Why bother?” he said in a raspy voice. “I deserve to be in here. This whole nightmare is all my fault.”
Zygarde surged forward at Gyarados, its emerald aura still undiminished in spite of all the damage it had undoubtedly sustained so far. The sea serpent carried its wounds more visibly, but remained incredibly tough, strong, and well-trained. The two seemed set for another collision.
“Yveltal, use Sucker Punch!” Lysandre called out suddenly.
Yveltal’s clawed digits at the end of its wings curled into something vaguely resembling a fist and swung it rapidly. A shadowy impression leapt out and vanished immediately. Just before Zygarde collided with Gyarados, the dark echo suddenly blindsided it. Zygarde staggered and did not fall, but its momentum was disrupted. Gyarados slammed into the Legendary Pokémon with the full force of its Return, and the emerald serpent again was sent sprawling.
“Quickly, finish it off with Blizzard!” Lysandre pointed with his right hand.
Gyarados reared up, generated a cone of cold, and unleashed it, but even injured as it was the guardian of the ecosystem was fast and strong. It dove into the earth once more, and this time it burst out directly beneath the sea serpent only a few heartbeats later. In spite of its massive bulk, Gyarados was hurled upwards with such force that it actually hit its head on the cavernous ceiling several stories above. It had a second to flail before crashing back down onto what was coming to resemble not so much a floor as an artillery range.
Zygarde’s crests flared again, a thousand tiny shards of jagged stone and green energy taking shape around it. A second phantom fist from Yveltal struck it in the face, but the storm of projectiles launched anyway. They swarmed over Yveltal, exploding to powder against its tough red-black hide, but still so numerous and so intense that the embodiment of life’s end plummeted from its place in the air.
The emerald serpent turned again, this time back to Lysandre himself. The crests behind its head lit up yet again, and a thousand more tiny arrows coalesced rapidly. It fired them right at the human – but once again the ever-loyal Gyarados imposed itself. This time the teal bubble of Protect formed around the Pokémon, weathering the rocky storm with stoic fortitude.
“You see?” Lysandre gave a pained grin from behind the protective bulk of his oldest friend. “Your sheer power is no match for the bond of our friendship that exists between us.”
If Zygarde heard, or cared about, the man’s words then it gave no sign.
“Yveltal, use Phantom Force!” Team Flare’s leader commanded.
Yveltal managed to pick itself up off the ground, still flush with stolen vitality, and vanished into the shadows once more. Zygarde pounded its tail into the floor again just as Protect and Thousand Arrows alike were fading away, unleashing another Earthquake. Gyarados couldn’t defend its trainer here – it was all it could do to avoid crushing him with its own bulk as they both fell once again.
Yveltal chose that moment to burst from the ghostly realm of shadows, swooping back into being from directly behind Zygarde and falling on it in a berserker rage. It screamed a ghastly war cry as its vicious claws tore madly into the other Legendary’s back. The emerald serpent was driven face-first into the ground by the weight and sheer ferocity of the avian now perched directly atop its back.
“Urgh…” Lysandre moaned from the floor, shaking his head. “Now’s your chance! Gyarados, Blizzard right now!”
Gyarados, unlike Xerneas before it, had its free will intact, but the loyal Pokémon proved it could match the brainwashed one for ruthlessness. It fired the massive icy attack straight into the frantic melee, catching both Yveltal and Zygarde in the wild blast of snow and ice. Both Pokémon were especially vulnerable to it, but only one was sane enough to care.
Zygarde shrieked again in its inhuman way, writhing like a maddened worm and slamming Yveltal repeatedly with its own face. Also weakened by the ice, the avian was thrown clear after the fifth such blow, landing a good few yards away. Zygarde flung itself away even before Blizzard was finished, landing roughly with ice crystals clinging stubbornly to huge sections of its vast bulk.
Yveltal was already rising, shaking off the frost on its own form with a few swift shakes. But where it was fueled by the stolen vitality of Xerneas and Zygarde alike, the emerald serpent was having visible difficulty doing the same thing. Sensing weakness, Gyarados lunged with predatory instinct – but vulnerability was not the same as defeat. Zygarde’s crests shone with a guttering burst of emerald energy, calling up another row of rocky spikes from the earth. Several smashed into Gyarados, points bursting against its armored belly with enough impact to throw it back.
The guardian of the world’s ecosystem looked frantically around for Yveltal, but the avian had already returned to its shadowy realm. Zygarde whipped its head around to check behind it, but this time Yveltal simply exploded back into the material realm directly in front of it. This time the first blow from the shadowy claws was backed by enough force to send the ice-crusted serpent skittering along the floor, ending in a heap on its back.
“Blizzard one more time!” Lysandre almost shouted himself hoarse.
Zygarde was trying to rise when Gyarados’ latest attack struck home, but it had been badly weakened. Between the separate poundings from Xerneas and Yveltal, the energy stolen by two Oblivion Wings, and the strikes from two prior Blizzard attacks, it just wasn’t fast enough this time. It shrieked again, pulling away as best it could and attempting to shield its head with its tail, but ice crystals were already solidifying across its entire body. They moved rapidly up its smooth body and across its chest while its entire world shrank to just the blinding whiteness that engulfed it. The protector of the world’s balance gave a final haunting, mourning wail before the ice swallowed up its eyeless head.
“Finish this now!” Lysandre screamed. “Aqua Tail!”
Gyarados roared, using its powerful tail to launch itself into the air like a vast spring. It seemed to hang in the air for a heartbeat, churning blue water condensing about its tail and thick white fin. Then reality reasserted itself, and the sea serpent was plummeting tail-first right for the frozen Pokémon. It struck like a wrecking ball, leveraging all its weight into a single blow right to the crown of its enemy’s head.
Zygarde shattered.
The emerald serpent’s head, proud crests, and much of its upper chest simply dissolved before the mighty blow, too weak now to withstand it. Chunks of ice-coated green and black substance rained down across the wrecked control room as Gyarados drove right through Zygarde and into the ground. There was no blood – the alien substance of its body was far beyond the need for such things.
As Gyarados stared, the remaining chunks of Zygarde’s body simply seemed to dematerialize. Green and black flesh returned to bright emerald energy, shooting wildly in all directions. The sea serpent looked around and saw that the bits and pieces scattered across the room were doing likewise, streaks of emerald seeming to pass effortlessly through wall and chunks of machinery and back into the earth from which it had come.
Soon, all that was left was an icy cast of the part of its body that was not physically pulped by Gyarados. That hollow façade likewise crumbled away without support. As Lysandre picked himself up from the dirt and rubble, his ruined control room was all but silent.
Luna was at the front. That wasn’t simply a description of a particular situation, as her sister could well attest, it was a simple fact of life. Whenever there was a charge that needed doing, the dark alicorn was always at the forefront. Many explanations had been proposed over the years, from a propensity for glory-seeking to a latent bloodlust to an aversion to traditional command. But the truth was quite simple: the princess had never truly been able to countenance sending her subordinates into more danger than she endured herself.
Today was no exception to that rule. Though the dimensions had changed, though the species at her back was different, Luna was as ever at the very tip of the spear. And what a spear it was. Once they had broken through the main entrance, nothing had been able to stop her, precious little to slow her down. She swept through hallways like a thunderbolt, blasting wildly at any humans she saw in red or white along with any Pokémon they had with them, trampling those she hadn’t already beaten with the sheer force of her own charge. That, coupled with the tide of Pokémon inevitably surging at her heels, had seen her smash her way through the first several floors of her enemy’s underground base.
Luna was, vaguely, aware that the highly-segregated tribal horde she led was not a disciplined military unit and was almost certainly splintering behind her. But that didn’t matter. Speed was of the essence, as long as her personal presence served as a kind of living banner and rally point for enough Pokémon to continue the attack then everything was alright.
The princess of the night was at that very moment engaged in a full-body tackle of an Umbreon and the white-suited woman just behind it, whom they had caught attempting to flee down a flight of stairs. The much heavier alicorn easily smashed the smaller black catlike Pokemon into its trainer’s back, leaving both to tumble down the staircase in a heap. Luna leapt over their prone forms as a courtesy to a fallen foe, though the Pokémon – largely Houndour – at her back were not quite as considerate. Her hooves touched down first on the metal of a new floor. The seventh, by her count.
Luna had barely blasted the door ahead open with Dark Pulse when gouts of flame and globs of acid began coming through from the other side. She fired back wildly at these and was rewarded with the sounds of something exploding. She didn’t even hesitate to head right through the door, knowing hanging back in this situation was worse than useless anyway. The moment she got a good look at the hallway beyond, she knew resistance was picking up.
Men and women set up behind improvised barricades dotted the long hallway, backed by dozens of Pokemon from assorted species stretching down the stark white corridor and out of sight around the next corner. The dark princess grinned even as she charged. Increased resistance was good. It meant she was nearing something of importance, something that they couldn’t let her destroy.
Luna jumped on top of an overturned desk set up in the middle of the hall, ignoring the glob of acid that struck her side. While it sizzled and burned, she concentrated on the Swalot taking cover there that had done it. She pounded on the purple blob with a pair of glowing forehooves until a snarling Mightyena leapt at her. She took the painful bite in the foreleg, then headbutted the hound with her own sharp horn. That hurt it enough to release her limb. Mightyena fell back to the floor. Luna simply jumped off the desk and glided right over it, leaving the tide of Pokémon that had caught up it to her to swarm over the desk and dogpile it and Swalot.
As she rushed passed several sealed doors towards the next barricade, Luna saw their game. Space out their barriers to give the Pokémon behind plenty of time to unleash distance attacks on the enemy as they made their way from one to another. It wasn’t a bad plan for defense in depth, and it certainly beat the scattershot resistance she’d seen before, but it didn’t count on just how quickly a motivated alicorn could move.
“She’s here! She’s here!” one of the red-suited humans was shouting frantically into a mechanical device behind a tall stack of metal crates.
This time a Manectric and Golbat were waiting to greet her on the other side with electricity and acid. Even while she was firing a pink-white ball of energy into Manectric’s face, Luna was obscurely pleased to note that the humans and Pokémon further back had stopped trying to attack her while she was in up close with their comrades. At least they had some concern for someone’s life beyond their own.
“Golbat, use Confuse R-” the human here was trying to direct, before the alicorn smashed him hard with her own skull.
Luna was aware that she couldn’t best every single Pokémon in this hallway on her own, but she also knew that she didn’t need to. All that was necessary was for her to disrupt the next barricade in the line long enough for the Pokémon at her heels to catch up and mount it. Moonlight enveloped her right then, just as her followers did so. Some of her vitality returned while a brief but frantic melee ensued. Then it was on to the next one.
The humans, while hardly the greatest tacticians in the world, were not completely oblivious. By the time the fifth barricade fell to her pattern of charge, disrupt, melee, recover, the occupants of the sixth were already retreating. Incoming fire intensified as the defenders towards the end of the hallway sought to cover their comrades’ escape. But even though several wild Pokémon behind her fell, with Luna at its head the press was inexorable.
Then something happened that surprised her. As the charge neared the end of the first hallway, rather than mass for a single great defense the humans scattered, taking their Pokémon with them. As she neared the last barricade the alicorn realized that it wasn’t protecting a single corner, but rather a four-way intersection. Team Flare’s members were running into three separate directions, with doors opening up to allow them to split up even further into what seemed like subsidiary halls and chambers. When Luna mounted the final barricade, she realized she had only a split second to pick a direction – any longer and the sheer momentum of the charge would carry her forces right past her and doubtlessly cut them to pieces.
She wished she could read any of the signs.
Failing that, the alicorn princess simply picked what looked like the largest concentration of foes and followed them down the hallway to the right. Anchored by her presence, most of her followers continued on after her, though she had no doubt that some of them would be drawn off in different directions by sheer predatory instinct. Some of the enemies ahead were breaking off and fleeing into doors on the sides of this new hall, but not too many.
In truth, it wasn’t too much of a chase. The humans had two legs and Luna had four. Even with a head start for them, it wasn’t long before she got close enough to blast the floor out from under the rearmost human and send her tumbling. One of her compatriots turned to try and help her up, which only gave the alicorn a chance to blast him too. Under other circumstances, she might have felt bad about that. But the humans kept running, and she kept picking them off, until they came to an end to the corridor with perhaps half their original number. Some took the two splits to the left and right, but most just kept running into the room at the end of it.
Luna didn’t even hesitate to throw herself in after them, crossing the threshold hot on their heels – and immediately twisted to the side as a grey-black sphere passed directly over her head.
The alicorn lost her balance and fell, her sheer momentum carrying her skidding along the floor and into a nearby table. It toppled over, smashing some kind of chemical apparatus against the tiled floor. Luna looked promptly up from where she lay, spotting a man in red pressed right up against the wall next to the door where she had entered. He was already reaching for a second Dark Ball around his belt, but she didn’t give him the chance. The Flare grunt went down to a beam of purple-black energy before he had the opportunity to try again.
Even while that human was slumping limply to the floor, Luna saw the entrance behind her sealing itself shut with surprising alacrity. Mechanical locks clicked automatically into place, separating the princess from all but the swiftest of her forces – the bare handful of Pokémon that had managed to truly keep pace. As she rose to her hooves, she saw that the remaining humans and perhaps a few extra had stopped retreating and turned to call out more Pokémon. The door on the opposite side of the room was sealing shut as well. This was their idea of a trap? The princess pitied the poor fools.
“With me!” she yelled at the two Houndour and lone Absol that were in the room with her. “Show them the world’s wrath!”
With that, Luna attacked. Her first target was a Scrafty just emerged from its Poke Ball. She launched a Moonblast right at its face.
“Dodge and use Brick Break!” its trainer commanded.
The yellow-orange Pokémon jumped nimbly over the pink-white orb, bringing its right hand down into a ferocious red-hued karate chop. Luna darted back, the blow shattering tile, and immediately charged the enemy. She hit Scrafty in the face with her horn, tossing it backwards and into a screen of some kind. Before the princess could follow up, another Mightyena tackled her in the side. She fell over onto her back, the wolf pounced. Her hooves caught it in the chest as it frantically snapped for her throat. The contest of strength went on for just a moment before a silver scythe of energy took Mightyena in the back of the head, throwing it off. Luna nodded her thanks to Absol for a quick moment before blasting the incoming Scrafty with a second pink-white orb. This time it crashed through a microscope display and did not get up.
Things weren’t going all her way, though. One Houndour fell to a strange purple starfish its trainer was calling Starmie, half-drowned under a torrential deluge. Luna made that her next target, battering her way past the ailing Mightyena with sheer force before firing off a Dark Pulse at it. Starmie countered with another jet of water, and for a moment the two were locked together in a midair struggle. That moment lasted until a Heliolisk pounced on Luna from behind, jumping on her back and unloading a point-blank electrical discharge into her flesh. She cried out in pain, only to find herself choking beneath a tide as Starmie’s attack struck the both of them at once.
Luna and her attacker were both carried backwards by the jet, smashing right into a glass display case full of immaculately organized cellular growths. Broken petri dishes rained down on them, and the first thing the alicorn did when the water abated was to gasp for breath. The second was to seize the dazed Heliolisk’s head in her hoof and smash it three times into the hard steel of the cabinet’s rear.
In spite of the pain, the princess threw herself right back into the fight. She mounted a table, trampling racks of test tubes beneath her hooves, then threw herself off with wings open wide. She glided easily through the air, descending on Starmie like a guided missile.
“Psychic!” its white-suited trainer screamed out.
The red gemstone at the center of the Pokémon’s many arms lit up brilliantly, shining like a star in the sky. An identically-colored red aura appeared around Luna’s body… for an instant before shattering to no effect whatsoever. The princess bowled over the starfish with her flying tackle, pinning it to the ground beneath her weight. Before it had a chance to recover, she unleashed another beam of dark energy right to the center of its jewel. Then she immediately dodged to the side as a nearby Swalot flung a Sludge Bomb at her.
Getting a glimpse around as she hit the floor and rolled nimbly back to her hooves, Luna realized that the other Houndour had fallen to something and that Absol was being heavily pressed by three more Pokémon. Never one to abandon an ally, she ignored Swalot and fired a Moonblast into the back of a Stunky at Absol’s back, flinging the little purple creature up and into a nearby sink, breaking the faucet open. Her ally flung another scythe of silver energy from its curved horn into a second Mightyena’s face before dodging back from a Toxicroak’s blow. It darted backwards towards Luna.
Acting in concert, the two of them ducked behind a nearby overturned table to dodge a trio of incoming attacks, which scoured and sizzled away at the polished steel surface instead. Both Luna and Absol were breathing heavily. Even together they were still outnumbered around three to one. The odds weren’t in their favor, but Luna didn’t even consider giving up.
“We have them right where we want them,” the princess said through a tight grin.
“I’m with you all the way,” the white-furred Pokémon nodded.
“Wait…” Luna’s ears were up. “Wait… up and over, now!”
At the precise moment the incoming attacks withered away to nothing, the pair leapt right over the top of the table and fired in midair. Absol’s scything attack caught Swalot in the midsection, while Luna’s purple-black beam raked along the ceiling and cut into a piece of exposed piping. Just as she’d hoped, high pressure water gushed out onto the heads of two of the humans, taking them off their feet.
The princess landed directly atop the second, charging Mightyena. They tumbled together to the floor, and Luna bashed it right in the face with a glowing hoof. She followed that up with a headbutt, and followed that up with a scream of pain as Toxicroak drove a poisoned wrist spike into the small of her back. She rolled with the blow, allowing it to carry her over the top of the entangled Mightyena and into the floor of that enemy’s other side. With the wolf now between her and her other assailant, Luna kicked hard with all four legs and sent Mightyena crashing into Toxicroak’s face.
It was at that precise moment, when the princess was picking herself up off the tiled floor, panting hard and sporting several fresh injuries, that the door opposite where she had first come in hissed and slid open. Luna narrowed her eyes as she recognized the pink-haired woman, the Houndoom standing before her and the Chandelure at her back. She could do little with that information right then, as Toxicroak chose that exact moment to throw off the unconscious Mightyena and pounce at her on powerful legs. Luna reeled backwards, narrowly avoiding several swift, poisonous jabs aimed for her neck.
“I think that’s enough softening up,” Malva declared with a smile on her face. “Houndoom, time to Mega Evolve.”
Her red and black Pokémon howled as rainbow energies enveloped it, swelling its body with new muscle, thick chest armor, and a tall crown of horns. Luna meanwhile spotted an opportunity as Toxicroak overextended in its latest jab, smashing its face with a glowing hoof and all the force she could muster. She barely had time to register that victory before she doubled over under the sudden weight of a Liepard coming down onto her back. Sharp fangs dug into the base of her neck.
“First, let’s take out the trash.” Malva pointed. “Flamethrower!”
Houndoom turned its head to where Absol had grabbed on to the backside of Swalot’s body, slashing at the rubbery purple Pokémon with its horn and sharp claws. Showing no hesitation, the Elite Four member’s ace breathed a massive cone of red-orange flame that engulfed both Pokémon and the steel cabinet behind them. When it was done a few seconds later, the metal was warped and both Pokémon lay charred and unmoving on the floor.
Malva turned her attention back to the alicorn, who was busy slamming her back and the purple feline on it into another cabinet with all the strength she possessed. The Flare Pokemon couldn’t maintain its grip for long. The moment it fell off, Luna struck the underside of its chin with the glowing hoof of her Mega Kick. Liepard was flung across the room, hit the ceiling, fell to the floor, and lay still.
“Go Houndoom, use Flamethrower!”
“Croagunk, Poison Jab!” one of the other Flare members ordered.
“Gloom, Acid!” a different man ordered the last Pokémon.
Houndoom breathed another jet of flame, Gloom spat a glob of purple acid, and Croagunk launched into a wild charge. Luna simply bolted, fire licking at her long tail when she threw herself behind another table to take cover. She could feel the withering heat of the flames even through the industrial-strength metal she hid behind – it was almost a joke when Croagunk rounded one end with a glowing purple hand. She took it out with a single Moonblast before it even got close.
“Now, Fire Fang!” Malva commanded.
“Gloom, Acid one more time!” the last grunt with an active Pokémon ordered.
Malva’s Houndoom effortlessly cleared the table in a single bound, seamlessly transitioning into a snapping lunge at Luna. Its blazing fangs grazed the side of Luna’s neck as she frantically retreated, burning away fur in an instant and blackening her already dark skin. Houndoom stayed right on top of her as she did, giving the alicorn absolutely no breathing space and forcing her quickly towards a corner.
Gloom chose that moment to spit another sizzling purple glob, but it misjudged its aim. Instead of Luna, Acid struck Houndoom in the side as it advanced. The minor letup as it faltered was enough to let the princess bash it in the face with one of her hooves, sending it staggering back. She made to follow up, but Houndoom quickly breathed red-hot fire across the floor between them, halting her countercharge in its tracks. The black hound whipped its head around to the hapless Gloom, spitefully breathing fire all over the soon-to-be unconscious Pokémon.
“Fire Fang once more!” Malva yelled.
Houndom leapt right through the lingering flames separating it from Luna, gaining for an instant a truly hellish aspect. The next moment it crashed into the princess, burning fangs just missing her neck and clamping tight to her right shoulder. She screamed as she went down, Malva’s Pokemon right on top of her. Luna wrestled desperately to pry it off, Houndoom clinging on with the force of beartrap. The Elite Four member meanwhile gazed slightly over at her Chandelure, smirked, and gave it a small nod before returning her attention to the contest of strength.
Screaming with fury and pain, Luna drove a shining hoof right into Houndoom’s gut, finally dislodging her assailant and hurling it onto its back. Both rose as one, but one of them was fresh and the other covered in increasingly-numerous injuries.
“Quick Houndoom, use Smog!”
Houndoom immediately breathed out a cloud of thick purple fumes, engulfing Luna and a considerable portion of Xerosic’s now-ruined laboratory in choking, blinding, poisonous gas. The alicorn coughed and sputtered, countering with a wild Moonblast that Houndoom simply ducked underneath.
“Follow up with Flamethrower!”
Her Pokémon breathed another jet of flame almost at once. But Luna was ready and dodged to the side by a rather comfortable margin. The attack soared right by her and it would have been the perfect counter. Except for one thing.
Houndoom’s fumes were highly flammable.
The human Team Flare personnel that were still conscious backed frantically away as perhaps a third of the entire room was consumed in fire. Malva alone remained where she was, smile growing wider. The blaze had no effect on Houndoom itself, its Flash Fire ability granting it total protection from its own maneuver. But the alicorn? Luna screamed as the blaze engulfed her entire body almost instantly. She couldn’t see or breathe and bolted wildly away from the epicenter of the blaze. Malva’s Pokemon leapt right through the blaze and on top of its blinded foe, pinning the struggling alicorn to the ground with fangs gripped tightly around her neck.
“Chandelure, now’s your chance!” Malva called out. “Confuse Ray right now!”
The ghostly chandelier-like Pokemon had been creeping carefully around the sides of the battle, careful to avoid drawing any attention to itself while Luna and Houndoom clashed. But now it heeded its mistress’ call, surging forward even while a small sphere of yellow energy formed between its eyes. It launched the attack at the thrashing princess with well-trained accuracy, striking her in the flank.
Luna had barely blinked half the lights out of her eyes. She could hardly breathe. Her neck was held in a burning, vicelike clamp. And now her world dissolved into a wild and confusing morass of contradictory sensory impressions. Everything blazed in kaleidoscopic waves of color, a thousand and one voices shouted into her ringing ears, and mounds of writhing worms crawled over her skin. Fuzziness assaulted her brain with incoherent jumbles of memory and deranged imagination.
She never even saw the grey-black orb that struck her in the head.
“Whaddya mean it’s your fault?” Meowth demanded of the old man. “How is any a ‘dis your fault an’ why aren’t ya scurryin’ like ya should be?”
“You won’t believe me, but I made this abomination,” he hissed back. “Thousands of years ago now. Everything that’s happening here… it’s all because of me.”
“Den why are ya sittin’ around mopin’, ya lazy bum?!” Meowth barked at him. “If all a ‘dis is ‘cause a you, den you ain’t got no right ta just sit ‘dere an cry about it!”
“Meowth is right,” Jessie put her hands on her hips, “I don’t know if you’re telling the truth or just crazy, these last few weeks have been too loony to be sure. But if you are the one responsible for putting us all through this nightmare, then you owe it to us to get up off your sad little behind and help us fix it.”
“If there’s one thing that I can’t stand it’s a quitter!” James clenched his fist. “So what if you fail and fail and fail and fail and fail and fail and fail and fail and fail and-”
Celestia gave him a gentle tap on the back with her wing.
“Er, fail?” James cleared his throat. “The point is, you never give up and stop trying! Just look at us!”
“I wanted to do good, and this is the result,” the pathetic shell of a man mumbled. “I bring nothing but pain and death to anyone around me. The smart thing for me to do is give up before I somehow make this even worse. Just go and leave me here.”
“Da smart ting?” Meowth balled his paw into a fist, sounding genuinely upset. “Da smart ting ta do woulda been for Team Rocket ta quit chasin’ after Pikachu years ago, but did we? No!” He swiped his claws along the cell bars, causing a nasty screech. “When somethin’s worth doin’, it’s worth doin’ through to da end! Ya never give up! When da odds are against ya and da world has got it out for ya and da smart ting is ta give up an’ crawl away, whaddya do?” Meowth raised his fist. “I say ya take da Team Rocket route! Ya face da impossible odds and laugh! If da smart ting ta do is give up, den ya just gotta be dumb enough ta face down da odds! Otherwise you’re nothin’!”
“Yeah!” Jessie and James had clenched their own fists.
“Who’s dumb enough ta face da impossible odds?”
“We’re dumb enough!” Jessie and James both cheered.
“Now let’s go an’ kick some Team Flare butt!”
“Yeah!” two humans and an alicorn all cheered.
The group turned as one and ran right back out the way they had come, leaving a bewildered old man staring at their wake.