//------------------------------// // For The Fate Of The World // Story: Celestia's Rocket Adventures // by Snake Staff //------------------------------// Team Rocket stood there for a moment in silence, poised against one another with smiles befitting their absolute, irrational confidence. Celestia, posed both aesthetically and pragmatically in front of her friends, stared down Lysandre once again, even her rational mind buoyed by the sheer exuberance her friends felt. She really did feel, in that moment, that the lot of them could really do this. The Lysandre standing before her cut a strange figure. An odd metal backpack he wore sprouted a trio of strange buzzing things that looked like nothing so much as glowing red lenses fitted with insect wings and connective cables. A heavy-looking gauntlet occupied most of his right forearm, while a massive red visor concealed his eyes, making his expression harder to read. More than just his odd getup was the obvious battering he had taken. His once-fine suit was torn or dirty in several spots, and he was leaning heavily on his right leg, using Gyarados for support. Team Flare’s leader stared back at Team Rocket in total silence. For a moment, everything was still. No one moved, bound as if by some sort of spell. Celestia wasn’t sure what she expected to break it. But it definitely wasn’t Lysandre bursting into laughter. “Ha ha ha ha ha ha!” he threw back his head and chuckled, a sound more bitter and mirthless than any the princess had heard in a very long time. “Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!” “What’s so funny, bub?” Meowth demanded. “Your little plan here is comin’ to an end, so drop da act.” “Ha ha ha ha!” Lysandre continued to laugh. “Don’t you fools get it? Ha ha ha! What’s funny?” He paused to take a deep breath, letting out another chuckle. “Fate is a cruel wench indeed, for she never seems to tire of throwing you three fools and that little girl’s doll at me. It’s like my life is a cosmic joke today! On the verge of realizing my dreams, the weapon finally charged back to full power, and now suddenly here you are! Ha!” “So, you’ve realized destiny is on our side?” Jessie said smugly. “We’ll accept your surrender right now then, if you please.” “Surrender?! Ha!” Lysandre straightened up, and his voice deepened back to its normal pitch. “The joke, you idiots, is that fate has already thrown Zygarde at me and failed! You’re just the punchline!” “…What’s a Zygarde?” James asked, looking around. “Search me,” Jessie shrugged. “Maybe it’s some kinda fruit?” Meowth posited. Even amidst the rather poor lighting Celestia thought she could make out a vein twitching on Lysandre’s forehead. “I lost Mable and Celosia…” he muttered through suddenly-clenched teeth, “because of three idiots like you?!” “If we’re the idiots, then what does that make you?” Jessie snapped at him. “You’re the ones who keep losing to us!” Bad move. Celestia thought immediately. “You’re quite right, Ms. Jessie,” Lysandre clenched his fist. “This farce has been going on for far too long already. I’ll do now what the Ultimate Weapon failed to do and avenge the loss of good people to scum like you!” Lysandre flung out both hands and threw three Poke Balls faster than Celestia would have thought possible. From the central ball burst a fierce-looking lion Pokémon, standing tall and proud with fangs bared. To that creature’s left and right came a white and purple Pokémon that resembled an ermine, and a dark colored bird with a puffed out white chest and head feathers that resembled a hat. “Pyroar, Mienshao, and Honchkrow,” Lysandre introduced the three of them, gazing out over Team Rocket. “Four on four sounds like a fair fight, wouldn’t you say?” He held up his left hand, a ring with a large and prominent rainbow gem visible even at this distance. “Let’s fix that.” “No fair!” James shouted over at him. “Why do you get to use a Key Stone when the one we have is completely useless?!” “Life isn’t fair, Mr. James,” Lysandre grinned humorlessly as he tapped the jewel with two fingers. “Gyarados, respond to my heart! Unleash our fury and bring about the world’s salvation!” Gyarados roared hatefully at Team Rocket, its voice audible to Celestia not as words nor even a challenge, but simply as a frustrated scream of pure rage. Rainbow energy uncomfortably reminiscent of the Elements swallowed the sea serpent, outline rippling as the Pokémon swelled with new slabs of thick muscle. What emerged wasn’t nearly so sleek and serpentine as its natural form, but twice as thick and well-armored in shimmering blue scales. It gnashed fangs the length of a man’s forearm, hateful eagerness held back only by the presence of its trainer. “So then let’s not play fair!” James yelled. “Go Celestia, Hyper Voice now!” “WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?!” the alicorn promptly screamed, manifesting in devastating waves of sonic energy. “HOW CAN YOU KNOW FRIENDSHIP AND WANT TO DESTROY THE WORLD?!” The widening cone of earsplitting energy caught all of Lysandre’s Pokémon while they were still nice and lined up in a row. Honchkrow was thrown the furthest, sent flying over the top of its trainer’s head and crashing into one of the many pillars of rock thrusting out of the ruined floor. Mienshao was bowled over and tossed backwards a ways. Pyroar dug its claws into the metal, leaving visible lines in the floor as it was pushed back, but it kept its footing. Only Gyarados, with its enormous bulk, seemed almost unaffected by the attack. Which was fortunate for Lysandre, as he was slammed into the leviathan’s thick coils by the force of it. “Yanmega, attack Pyroar with Ancient Power!” Jessie ordered. “Pumpkaboo, Seed Bomb on Gyarados!” The green dragonfly Pokémon flitted forward every bit as fast as the insect predators of Celestia’s world, forming a glowing chunk of rock between her legs and flinging it at the still-reeling Pyroar. It struck the lion Pokémon in the head, doing what Hyper Voice had failed to do and sweeping Lysandre’s creature from its paws. Pumpkaboo was only marginally slower, spitting a cluster of explosive seeds at the largest target. But in spite of its titanic bulk, Gyarados proved fast as a striking serpent, head darting to the side to let the attack pass harmlessly by while continuing to support his trainer with his massive tail. “Celestia, don’t let up! Attack Meinshao with your Psychic!” “Take them down on the double!” Jessie ordered her Pokémon. “Yanmega, Silver Wind! Pumpkaboo, Leech Seed!” “You think it’ll be that easy, do you?” Lysandre shoved himself off his Pokémon’s tail and back to his feet. “Spread out! Pyroar, Flamethrower on Yanmega! Honchkrow, Aerial Ace on Pumpkaboo!” Mienshao had barely got back on its feet by the time it found itself enwrapped by a shining golden light as beautiful as it was painful to the elegant Fighting-type. It shuddered as it felt as though it were being crushed from all sides by some invisible hand. Meanwhile, Yanmega’s wings lit up with silver and beat even faster, kicking up a ferocious windstorm laced with crescents of silver, only to be met with an incoming inferno of red and orange pouring out of Pyroar’s mouth. Pumpkaboo spat more seeds, this time at the black Flying-type, but Honchkrow dodged those by flying in a great arc trailing a shining silvery-white. Its long beak struck Pumpkaboo between its shining chest lights, knocking Jessie’s Pokémon from the sky. “Gyarados, help Mienshao!” Lysandre extended his hand. “Attack Celestia with Aqua Tail!” “Celestia, dodge it!” James cried. Still astonishingly agile despite its vast bulk, Gyarados tensed and then leapt into the air using its tail as a springboard. It flipped once, water rushing from nowhere to surround its fin, and then came crashing down with the force of an enraged meteorite. Celestia threw herself to the side, wings beating wildly, and still only just avoided getting crushed underneath it as it drove hard into what was left of the metal floor. “Don’t let that creature get away! Use Crunch!” “Celestia, stop it with Psychic!” Gyarados didn’t hesitate, transitioning into a lunge with jaws open wide almost the instant it hit the ground. Celestia’s eyes lit up again, and a golden aura took shape around the towering colossus… only to shatter immediately into a gorgeous rain of a million tiny sparkles that did absolutely nothing to prevent Gyarados from lunging forward and snapping its fangs shut right on top of the alicorn. “Don’t you know?” Lysandre lectured as Gyarados madly thrashed Celestia about. “Mega Evolution can effect a type change on the Pokémon that undergoes it. Such as transforming a Water/Flying-type Pokémon into a Water/Dark-type.” “Water/Dark, huh? Thanks for the tip,” Jessie snarked. “Pumpkaboo, Seed Bomb now!” “Celestia, hit it with the harmonious hymn of your Disarming Voice!” The princess hastily intoned a few bars of some half-forgotten opera that had been persistently lodged inside her head for the better part of three centuries, blasting the side of the leviathan’s face with pink, heart-shaped waves of energy. Gyarados recoiled, reflexively spitting her out as it did. This time when Jessie’s Pokémon spat its explosive seeds it wasn’t ready, and it roared with pain as the attack riddled its backside. “Mienshao, Honchkrow, now is the time to strike! Drain Punch and Aerial Ace on the alicorn, now!” “Use Protect, quickly!” Celestia had just about hit the ground, aching and covered in drool, when the black bird trailing silver darted in on one side, the white ermine with a fur-covered arm encased in a green sphere leaping up from the other. The princess squeezed her eyes shut and ducked her head low by simple instinct, calling up a small turquoise bubble around herself. She was just in time, as both attacks struck home a split second later, only to bounce ineffectually off. “Three on one is no fair!” Jessie pointed. “Yanmega, help her out with Steel Wing!” “Honchkrow, squash that annoying insect with your Aerial Ace!” Jessie’s green Bug-type darted forward with wings aglow. Lysandre’s black avian rushed up to meet her, trailing the familiar silver-white. The two struck one another for just an instant, a brief clap and flash of energy the only sign that they had. Honchkrow continued to pull up, and Yanmega to buzz downwards… only for the dragonfly to abruptly stop flapping and simply plummet helplessly back to the earth. “That’s more like it!” Lysandre called out. “Celestia, attack Mienshao with your Psychic once more!” James yelled. Celestia’s hard-working wings beat once more the instant her Protect dissolved away, lifting her from the ground and propelling her backwards to put space between her and Mienshao. It leapt up after her with Drain Punch at the ready, only to be caught in midair by the same aura as before and squeezed twice as hard. It flailed impotently, unable to reach either the alicorn or the ground. “No you don’t! Gyarados, attack with Hydro Pump!” “Yanmega, return!” Jessie stuck her Poke Ball out. “Wobbuffet, get in there with Mirror Coat!” Gyarados arched back, opened its mouth wide, and promptly spat a gushing torrent of pressurized water down at the white equine. Wobbuffet loyally threw himself in the way encased in his mirror aura, only to be pushed back all the way to the princess by the force of it. The collision knocked both from the sky and into one of the craters littering the floor. Mienshao dropped as Celestia’s concentration was broken. Team Rocket’s two Pokémon were continuously pushed back until they hit the lip of the crater, torn steel instead of earth. With something to brace himself against, Wobbuffet pushed back as hard as he could, and finally sent the Hydro Pump soaring back at Gyarados. But the well-trained sea serpent had already twisted aside, and the reflected move simply pressure-washed the walls behind it. Celestia shook her head as she resumed her hooves, clambering out of the crater for a look around. Some distance away she spotted Mienshao struggling back to its own feet, teeth clenched, and then proceeded to blast it with simple, golden telekinetic force. Lysandre’s Pokémon went flying, striking the torn ruins of what had once been a computer screen of some sort, and then collapsed in a heap to the floor. “That’s the way!” James cheered her on. “Wobbuffet!” said Wobbuffet, as he struggled to pull himself out of the crater. “I’ll make you regret doing harm to my friends,” Lysandre said darkly as he recalled Mienshao. “What do you imagine you’re trying to do?!” Celestia spat at Team Flare’s leader. “Pumpkaboo, hit that sea slug with another Seed Bomb!” Jessie ordered. “Teach that overripe fruit a lesson! Blizzard!” Pumpkaboo floated up high and spat a dozen more of its deceptively destructive seeds. Gyarados didn’t even try to dodge this time, instead breathing a massive conical blast of ice, snow, and freezing air. The two attacks met in midair but weren’t even close to evenly matched. The tiny seeds were flash-frozen in an instant, then smashed into fine white powder by an incoming chunk of ice. Pumpkaboo didn’t have time to do anything more than look terrified before the roiling winter storm engulfed her completely and turned much of the wall behind her into a sideways ice-skating rink. Moments later she simply dropped like a stone, thudding into the dirt with a foot-thick layer of ice encrusting her. “Pumpkaboo!” Jessie ran forward towards her Pokémon. “That’s more like it,” Lysandre said. “Pyroar, attack Celestia with Crunch!” The fiery lion Pokémon, in true feline fashion, had been following the hunting instincts of his ancestors, creeping low amidst the torn and uneven flooring while awaiting a chance to strike. The time was now, and he pounced out from behind a jutting stone spike with fangs bared. Celestia spotted the cat out of the corner of her eye and dodged to the side, so his pounce simply hit Wobbuffet just as he had managed to pull himself from the crater. The two of them tumbled back down into the pit, Lysandre’s Pokémon on top, Jessie’s waving his arms wildly underneath. Pyroar immediately leaped agilely out, landing on the side and whipping his head around to regard Celestia. “Wobbuffet can’t do anything against what isn’t an attack,” Lysandre noted. “Gyarados, bury it! Pyroar, Honchkrow, attack Celestia with Flamethrower and Steel Wing!” “Celestia, dodge and use Hyper Voice!” James countered. The princess pushed off and into the air, as roaring red and orange flames licked the ground beneath her. Pyroar tilted its head up to track her as she went, while a dark shape with a glowing silver wing descended from on high. Celestia twisted to the side with the practiced ease of an expert flyer, a black blur speeding just by her head as she did so. She followed up with a devastating shout. “JUST STOP THIS MADNESS!” The expanding waves of sonic energy tearing their way from her throat caught both of her immediate foes. Pyroar flinched, flames disrupted, but as before the feline dug its claws in and held fast by virtue of its powerful muscles. For Honchkrow, already plummeting towards the ground, the effect was much worse. The dark bird lost control, swept up by Celestia’s attack, and crashed face first into the hard metal floor. Celestia tore her gaze from it just long enough to see Gyarados sweep its powerful tail into a pile of rubble, sending it flying into the same crater where Wobbuffet had just managed to get back up, entombing him beneath a layer of rock, dirt, and machine parts. “Wobbuffet! Not you too!” Jessie cried. “Yes, Wobbuffet too,” Lysandre clenched his fist. “And you’re next.” “No, you are!” James snapped. “Celestia, hit Honchkrow with your Disarming Voice! Now!” “LaaaaAAAAAAA…” Celestia obediently intoned in soprano. Below her, Honchkrow was still struggling back onto its four-taloned feet when vivid pink waves of heart shaped energy rained down upon it from on high, blasting it right back onto its face once again. It squawked and writhed, feebly flapping and kicking against the pain. But after a good few seconds it could take no more, flopping down and lying still. “You’ll pay for that…” Lysandre said through gritted teeth, recalling Honchkrow. “Your Pokemon wouldn’t be getting hurt if you weren’t trying to kill us all!” Celestia yelled down at him, to no visible response. “Gyarados, Pyroar, avenge their suffering!” Team Flare’s leader pointed up at Celestia. “Obliterate her with Hyper Beam and Flamethrower!” “Defend yourself with Protect!” James ordered. A golden orb of light formed in between Gyarados’ fangs at the same moment that a turquoise bubble encased Celestia. Roaring flames enveloped it almost at once, licking the edges, seeking weakness but finding none. Then a great, bright beam of pure energy slammed into the shield, the pure kinetic power of it taking Celestia by surprise. The barrier did not break, but it was shoved, sheer brute force throwing the alicorn down and backwards. She skidded along the broken ground, grasping as best she could with simple hooves. As the attacks faded away and the bubble dropped, the princess was visibly panting. “Go Pyroar!” Lysandre pointed while Gyarados was forced to take a moment to recharge. “Show Celestia your own Hyper Voice!” Pyroar stood tall and proud, opened his jaws as wide as they would go, and unleashed a deep, throaty, wild roar. Waves of sonic energy crashed into Celestia, sweeping her from her hooves and hurling her about. She landed roughly on her side, skidding several feet backwards until she ran right into another earthen spike. “Don’t let that jumped-up housecat get the better of you!” James shouted to her. “You can do this! Hit it with Hyper Voice!” “Crush the interloper for the sake of the world!” Lysandre countered. “Hyper Voice!” Celestia, dirty, sweating, and breathing hard, forced herself back onto her hooves. It had been a long day, a long battle, and she had taken far more damage than she cared to. But her sense of duty refused to let her fall here. A world depended on her victory, and she would not be the one to fail it. Pyroar roared. Celestia screamed. Twin sets of all-consuming sonic devastation raced to meet one another in the middle. The room around them shook as the two attacks clashed, rattling the nest of wires and cables attached to the unmoving Yveltal, shaking tiles from the ceiling, and forcing the humans to their knees, hands on ears. “Come on, Celestia!” James shouted above the din, just barely audible. “Stump that punk and leave him sunk!” “Pyroar, the fate of the world rests on this battle!” Lysandre yelled back. “Destroy her!” Celestia closed her eyes, screaming louder than she had ever screamed in her life. Her jaws ached, her teeth rattled, the vibration felt like it was splitting her head asunder. But on she screamed. She would not fail. She would not lose. Not here. Not now. There was a sudden thunderclap, and wild sonic energy splashed out in all directions, sending a wave of dust before it. Celestia braced, shielding her face with her wing, and was shoved roughly back still further. Pyroar was simply picked up and thrown, crashing headfirst into yet another of the many rock formations. “Pyroar!” Lysandre cried out from where the explosion had flattened him. “Are you alright?! Say something!” “I…” Pyroar forced himself back onto his paws, wincing and then growling. “I am not done.” “You… will be,” Celestia said to him, between deep breaths. “Urrgh…” James, and the rest of Team Rocket, were also picking themselves up from being tossed around by the sonic boom. “Celestia, are you okay?” “You… could say that,” she acknowledged her trainer with a pained smile, struggling to get her racing heart back under control. “Don’t stop now, she’s all that’s left!” Lysandre had managed to get back to one knee. “Pyroar, Crunch! Gyarados, get back in there with Aqua Tail!” In spite of his injuries, Lysandre’s lion Pokémon shook his head a few times, then bounded forward in a leaping, predatory charge. From further back Gyarados, now fully recovered, tensed and once again launched his titanic form into the air purely on the strength of his tail. “Celestia!” James cried with an outstretched hand. “Hurry, use Psychic to defend yourself!” “You idiot…” muttered Lysandre. But Celestia saw what her trainer had meant. Gyarados reached the pinnacle of his leap at the same moment Pyroar finally got into striking distance. The lion Pokémon leapt with fangs bared, his cry a primal roar that had been the last thing prey had ever heard for countless generations. Gyarados was coming down with his mighty fin enveloped in a crushing cocoon of water, eager to finally strike her down. In the face of these predators, Celestia flared her wings and her eyes lit up. A golden aura reached out, not to Gyarados, but to Pyroar. Catching the feline mid-leap, the alicorn yanked her neck up and hurled Pyroar upwards as hard as she could. Right into the path of Gyarados. The blue leviathan, in the half second that it had, tried hard to twist out of the way. But it had no leverage, and no time. Its own massive weight for once worked against it. Its water-encrusted tail caught Pyroar as it fell. Celestia threw herself bodily to the side, only just missing being crushed herself. But the entire weight of the mighty Water-type moved pummeled Pyroar straight into the ground. “Pyroar! NO!” Lysandre cried out in horror as the loyal Pokémon he had raised from kittenhood was revealed, motionless, head driven half into the ground. Team Flare’s boss forced himself back to his feet, clutching his chest. “You’ll pay for that!” Celestia, panting heavily, was slowly getting up from where she had landed, looking up at the towering Gyarados now before her. He was looking back with absolute rage and disgust in his eyes. “I’m sick of this and of you!” Team Flare’s leader declared with a sweeping gesture. “Gyarados use your Crunch! Devour the alien right now!” Roaring, Gyarados reared back and lunged again, so much faster than the exhausted Celestia. “PROTECT!” James screamed at the alicorn. “Enough of you!” Lysandre screamed. “My dream will be delayed no longer! Yveltal!” he pointed. “Oblivion Wing! Obliterate them all!” “NO!” Celestia had just enough time to scream before Gyarados’ jaws enveloped her. The alicorn shrieked in desperation and denial as the gargantuan blue Pokémon bit down as hard as his monstrously enhanced muscles could manage. Ivory fangs clashed with a dangerously thin-looking bubble of turquoise energy as the princess put her all into preventing herself from being eaten, but for those few, crucial seconds, she could do nothing but watch. The massive red and black Pokémon that had so far motionlessly sat out the battle reacted at once. The claws at the end of its wings flexed without tearing off their wiring forming a sphere of dark energy twice the size of a man directly in front of its dead-eyed face. Lysandre smirked. Scattered on the floor, Team Rocket cowered. Celestia screamed in denial. Yveltal fired. The crimson-lined black beam raced across the floorspace in a heartbeat. Jessie, James, and Meowth held each other close, eyes shut and screaming, certain that the end had come for them at last. They screamed. And screamed. And screamed. “Urgh… now what?!” Lysandre’s voice could barely be heard above the roar of the incoming attack and the trio’s own screaming, but it did at least alert even them that they were not, in fact, dead yet. When Team Rocket reluctantly began peeking their eyes open again, they immediately screamed and snapped them right back shut. Yveltal’s life stealing beam was right on top of them, about to swallow them whole! And then when another second or two had passed and that didn’t immediately happen, it began to occur to even them that something weird was going on here. By the time that the trio finally mustered enough courage to actually open their eyes again, Oblivion Wing was a scant ten feet from where they lay and getting closer by the second. Now easily three times the height of a man and getting stronger all the time, it ought to have left all three of them and a considerable portion of the wall behind them as nothing but a few grey ashes floating in the breeze. And it would have too, were it not for a lone figure standing between Team Rocket and utter annihilation. Jessie held a hand over her eyes and squinted. “W-Wobbuffet?” Jessie’s Wobbuffet was absolutely puny in comparison to the titanic and growing Oblivion Wing before it, but there it stood. Or, more accurately, there it was being inevitably and increasingly quickly being pushed backwards. Coated from head to toe in a rainbowed mirror sheen, his fingerless blue arms were flung wide as if in futile attempt to grasp the attack and pull it into his own chest. The total mismatch would have been comical if it weren’t so deadly serious. “Wobbuffet!” Jessie screamed, shoving the others off her in a desperate panic. “We have to help Wobbuffet!” Without hesitating for even a split-second Jessie ran forward directly at certain annihilation. She braced against her Pokémon, shoving her own arms and back against his and digging her heels into the floor as hard as she possibly could. James and Meowth were right behind her, falling in behind Wobbuffet and pushing and shoving as hard as they could. Their miniscule strength was as nothing compared to Yveltal’s – the whole sorry lot continued to be pushed back towards the wall with barely the faintest dip in speed. “Come on, you… blue blabby blob,” Jessie managed through clenched teeth as her heels were worn away against the floor. “I… believe in you.” “You can… urk… do this Wobbuffet…” James strained as he pushed back with all his might, ankle almost twisting as it got caught in one of the innumerable small holes in the floor. “Ya got ‘dis, buddy!” Meowth shouted, his shoulder braced just above Wobbuffet’s black tail. “Wooobbb…” Wobbuffet groaned. “What rank nonsense,” Lysandre said as he watched them get pushed ever closer to the room’s curving edge. “What can selfish, thieving, petty criminal vermin like you know about friendship?” His visor looked over at Yveltal, the sheer size of its beam attack now blocking his view of Gyarados. “Finish them off and let’s be done with this.” Yveltal thoughtlessly obliged, pouring even more of its immense, enhanced strength into the attack. Wobbuffet, Jessie, James, and Meowth were pressed back towards the wall even faster now, boots and paws leaving visible scuff marks across the ruined floor as they went. It didn’t take long before the trio started to feel the cold press of steel against them, finally hitting the smooth cylindrical barrier. The pressure didn’t ease up just because they had something firm to brace against. If anything, it redoubled, squashing Wobbuffet more and more into the trio, and the trio harder and harder against the unfeeling metal. It was to their credit that only when their faces were being crushed against the wall and an overwhelming beam of raw death was only inches away from them that Team Rocket started to scream again. A sensible Pokémon might have been prepared. Dodging to the side and firing off a second attack from another angle was a reasonable tactic, one which could easily hit the humans at an angle where there was no chance of the doubtlessly exhausted Wobbuffet being able to protect them in time. Yveltal, with its mind and sense of self-preservation hollowed out by a Dark Ball, was anything but sensible. Its only response to resistance was to pour in more raw power without even a moment of hesitation or doubt. As for Lysandre himself, Team Flare’s leader suddenly found himself rather distracted by the abrupt crash of his Gyarados toppling over onto its back with smoke pouring from its mouth. The sound of his oldest friend crying out in pain kept him from thinking of Yveltal again until it was suddenly, terribly, all too late. Oblivion Wing reversed. The effect was as swift as it was unforeseen. One moment Team Rocket and their blobby blue Pokémon were invisible, buried beneath the overwhelming beam of darkness and being rapidly crushed into a pulp against unyielding metal. The very next the red-black beam the size of multiple freight trains had made an abrupt U-turn and was racing back the way it had come. Its return trajectory was just as swift, if not even swifter, than its original attack. Yveltal had no chance to do anything about it – not that it was of a mind to anyway. The blast of super-concentrated energy slammed straight into the Legendary Pokémon with such power that the kinetic force alone would have doubtless shattered the bones of any other target in the femtoseconds before they were utterly disintegrated. But the Destruction Pokémon was at one with death in ways few others could even comprehend, and if there was anything in the world best suited to enduring such a blow Yveltal was surely it. But that hardly made it immune. It goes without saying that those parts of its cradle which were in contact with its body were reduced to ash in an instant, and that it was carried backwards and into the wall on the opposite side. And then through the wall. And through another wall. And another. And another. And the next one after that. By the time Yveltal burst right through the ground on the complex’s first floor, it was still going strong. The reflected Oblivion Wing carried the creature hundreds of feet into the sky before exploding at last in a spectacular firework display that momentarily blotted out the sun. The next moment sunlight, pure and wholesome in spite of everything, shined through a series of warped holes into the Ultimate Weapon’s heart for the very first time. Ignoring all of that, Jessie reached out to Wobbuffet with tears trickling down her face. “Come here, you,” she pulled him in close, sobbing quietly. “That was brilliant! You were brilliant!” A dark blue and black Wobbuffet managed to offer her a weak, shaky half-salute. “That’s… the way… it is…” He went limp.