//------------------------------// // Chapter 38: Trouble in Mt. Moon // Story: Harmony of Heroes: Ultimate Multiverse Explorers // by Lucar //------------------------------// The six gathered in an out-of-the-way place in Pewter City and prepared themselves to battle Brock. "Remember, Water, Grass, Ground, Fight, and Steel. If you don't have enough Pokémon with these types to make teams of six, then you can use any other types as long as it isn't Fire, Normal, Flying, Bug, Poison, and Ice," Sweetie Belle reminded everyone before she looked at her Pokémon to see which ones to choose. "So, let's see... Tank, obviously..." she started to mumble. "Heh! Tank has become so strong that I'm sure that he could defeat Brock's Pokémon by himself if what you said is true!" Scootaloo said. "Better be prepared. I also think that Tank should be enough, but against a Gym Leader, you never know. They aren't like the beginner trainers we fought until now. They're professionals. They must not be underestimated. Even with a beginner team, Brock will certainly have some tricks up his sleeves. Thankfully, at this point, we shouldn't expect TM attacks, only attacks naturally learned by the Pokémon." "Excepted that we don't know which attacks the Pokémon naturally learn," Rainbow Dash said. "And we don't even know which Pokémon Brock'll use," Apple Bloom added. Sweetie looked thoughtfully at Pinkie Pie. "Pinkie, can you do one of your random guesses that end up spot on, please?" "My what?" Pinkie asked innocently. "Don't play innocent, you know perfectly what I'm talking about!" Pinkie giggled at this. "You silly filly. You know by now that they are not random guesses. And it's not up to me to make them." Sweetie grumbled. Writer? Can you make Pinkie do one of her 'random guesses', please? Sweetie remained here, looking at nothing, waiting for something that won't come. Well, buck you! She returned to making her team. "I guess that we will just need to be ready for anything. If needed, we can always try to see which attacks are most often used by Rock-types. It will be better than nothing." Once they were done putting together their teams, the six walked toward the gym. This one was actually a little smaller than the one from Viridian City, and only had one entrance. The reason was the absence of a puzzle-like challenge like in the Viridian Gym, so visitors and staff members didn't need a second entrance to avoid it. From what Sweetie read about the Pewter Gym, it only had a rock garden with a few trainers here and there ready to battle the challengers. And of course, there was the arena at the other side of the garden. However, before the girls could enter the gym, the door opened, and a rather large group of people, easily over thirty, came out. At the lead was a middle-aged man with short, spiked brown hair and narrowed eyes not unlike Frisk. Sweetie immediately recognized him as Brock. She had seen photos of the eight Gym Leaders of Kanto as well as of the Elite 4 and the Champion. Brock quickly spotted the girls, and when his eyes settled on Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie, he became as still as a statue and his face became entirely red. A blond man beside him groaned and slapped Brock on the back of his head. "Pull yourself together, dude! It's not the moment to fall for the pretty ladies!" This got Brock out of his state and he immediately turned more serious. "Right, sorry," he said to the man before he turned back to the girls. "Have you come to challenge me? Sorry, but you will have to wait. Something bad is happening at Mt. Moon and my help is needed." "Uh. What's going on? Maybe we can help," Applejack said. "To summarize: members of Team Rocket are in Mt. Moon." Well, this explained the big group of people. It was certainly a ragtag team of trainers gathered urgently to deal with them. There was a good number of policemen among them. Sweetie Belle silently groaned. She had had the feeling that sooner or later she would run into Team Rocket, but she hadn't expected so soon. She had actually hoped to spend the whole vacation with her friends without running into bad guys. Applejack and Apple Bloom frowned while Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Scootaloo got excited looks. "Can we help?!" the rainbow-haired girl asked. "We aren't against more people joining us," Brock said with a nod. But then, he got a thoughtful expression. "Mmh... how many badges do you have?" "Uh... None..." Rainbow Dash answered. "But don't worry! We are used to fights!" "And we caught and trained a lot of Pokémon on the way!" Pinkie added. "I'm sure that the six of us can do something!" "Woah woah! Six? Ya include Apple Bloom and Scootaloo?" Applejack asked disapprovingly. "Of course! They have Pokémon that can fight for them! and it's not like we can leave them here by themselves!" "And if it can reassure you, I will remain at their side," Sweetie Belle said. "Beside, Red had our age when he fought Team Rocket. And he was all alone. There will be over thirty people with them, including you three, me, and a Gym Leader. Everything will be alright." Applejack grumbled unintelligibly but eventually agreed with a nod. Then, to Apple Bloom, she said, "Ya won't leave Sweetie, understood? Don't go running to play the hero by yerself." "You too, Scoot," Rainbow Dash said to Scootaloo. The two fillies nodded determinedly. Applejack turned to face Brock again. "Welp, ya've six more recruits to kick the butts of these Team Rocket fellas." "Good. Then let's hurry up. I will explain to you the situation on the way." It turned out that the situation at Mt. Moon was... bad. Very bad. Dozens of Team rocket grunts invaded Mt. Moon without warning, literally appearing out of nowhere probably thanks to a massive use of Teleport. They immediately captured all the trainers that were present in the mountain and only one, an eleven years old girl, managed to escape thanks to a wild Clefairy using Metronome resulting in an Explosion. The girl used the diversion to run away, and she ran all the way to Pewter City and told Brock everything. The Gym Leader immediately took action to gather a rescue team to save the captured trainers and possibly capture the Team Rocket grunts. With a phone, he also warned the police all over Kanto as well as the Pokémon League, and by now, Misty from the Pokémon Gym of Cerulean City was probably gathering her own team to attack from the other side of the mountain. Heck, the Champion himself, Gold, was probably on his way right now. And maybe Red if he heard about this. Before the girl escaped, she was able to see what the Team Rocket was doing. Some began to use Psychic Pokémon to hypnotize the captured trainers while the others separated all over the caverns inside the mountain to capture as many wild Pokémon as possible, especially the Clefairy. Adding to this, they were also searching for Moon Stones and fossils, beginning a huge drilling operation with lots of Pokémon with moves such as Dig, Rock Smash, or Dynamic Punch. It seemed that, now that everybody knew that Team Rocket was back, they were becoming bolder. Or they actually expected to not let anyone escape so nobody would hear of their little operation in the mountain until it was too late. Who knew. They weren't sure how many trainers had been captured, but the number probably wasn't exceeding ten. Before long, the group reached the entrance to Mt. Moon's caverns, and they barely made a few steps in it that they found themselves surrounded by about fifteen Team Rocket grunts and four hypnotized trainers. It was easy to see that they were hypnotized because their expressions were blank, emotionless, their eyes unfocused. And of course, they were in civil clothing contrary to the Team Rocket grunts who were wearing black uniforms with the rainbow colored R on the chest. Sweetie Belle was ready to throw her six Poké Balls, the one containing Tank first. Some of her strongest Pokémon were in her current team, like Tank, Smily, and Drako, but there were also some she just captured and barely trained like Calypso the Goldeen, Swirly the Poliwag, and Amanita the Shroomish. She will have to keep an eye on these last three. And on her friends. Their Pokémon were barely better. They were purely and simply beginners. At least Brock was a real veteran, and hopefully, he wasn't the only one in this group. And they had the advantage of number, although the grunt countered it by being armed with whips and batons. The allied trainers only had their fists, excepted the policemen among them who also had batons. And there was that woman who had brought a frying pan. Good choice. "I fear that your little rescue operation will stop right there," one of the grunts said. "You won't get further," another said. Brock visibly frowned. "Give up. Even if you manage to stop us here, more are coming." "We will be long gone by then," one of the grunts replied to this. "It's no use talking to these guys!" Rainbow Dash shouted as she readied a Poké Ball. "Let's start the action!" Brock sighed, but eventually shrugged. "I had to try." Then, he took a Poké Ball and threw it. "Steelix! Go!" The Poké Ball opened, and out of it came a giant serpentine Pokémon, bigger at the head and smaller at the tail. Its body was made of several rock-like section that were actually metal, maybe even steel judging by the name of the Pokémon. Some of these section even had steel rock-like spikes, and the end of the tail was conical. Like Gyarados, it had the look of a Pokémon that you didn't want to mess with. Then, Brock revealed a Mega Bracelet, the Key Stone in it beginning to glow, and a Mega Stone on the Steelix's tail began to glow too, followed by the Steelix's whole body. During several seconds, the Pokémon transformed, and when the glow disappeared, the now Mega-Steelix was much bigger than originally. The rock-like spikes and the tail were now crystalline prisms, and between them with black spots with hollow blue hexagons. A real armored titan. Despite this, none of the Team Rocket grunts seemed intimidated, and they all threw their Poké Balls to release their Pokémon, followed by the hypnotised trainers. Brock's group then did the same, and before long, two small armies of Pokémon of all shapes and sizes were facing each other, and some trainers and grunts were ready to fight personally. Again, Brock's group had the advantage of number, but the grunts didn't seem bothered by this. And they had some freaking Ultra Beasts among them! Darn! From what Sweetie learned about them, they were NOT to be underestimated! These aliens were powerhouses that could give even Gym Leaders, and maybe even members of the Elite 4, some serious troubles! Then, the first orders were yelled, and chaos fell in the caverns. Fire and water and electricity and beams flew in all directions, rocks were thrown, Pokémon charged and jumped. Quickly enough, in the chaos of the battle, the group dispersed along with the grunts, and the battle spread further into the caverns. Sweetie Belle had quickly warned Apple Bloom and Scootaloo to remain close as she mentally yelled her orders to her Pokémon. Working together, they battled a grunt whose Pokémon revealed to be very strong. The grunt, a woman, had a full team composed of a Conkeldurr, a Zangoose, a Salamence, a Nidoking, a Nidoqueen, and a Mightyena. It was hard to focus and give proper orders in what was a 18 versus 6 battle where it was impossible to follow all the Pokémon at once, and this resulted in the Pokémon pretty much having to fight by themselves most of the time. The girls still tried their best. "Tank! Go help Ivy and Calypso against that Mightyena! They need it!" Sweetie Belle shouted. The Mightyena had managed to knock out Apple Bloom's Mankey, Kong, despite the monkey's type advantage. A clear indication of how much stronger the grunt's Pokémon were compared to the girls'. Even at three against one, the grunt was still kicking their butts. Even Tank and Smily weren't faring too well. Only Drako managed to knock out the Salamence, and it was only thanks to Swirly and Scootaloo's Goldeen, Superfish, making diversion with Swirly ending up knocked out. Smily was facing the Conkeldurr, which would be good, but the Conkeldurr had some non-Fighting move that could hit the Ghost, like Rock-type moves such as Rock Throw or Rock Slide. It even had Brutal Swing, a Dark-type move that Ghost-types were weak against, and it knew it. Thankfully, a trainer saw that they were in difficulty and sent his Snorlax to help them. As in, the Snorlax suddenly jumped and managed to crush the Zangoose under its weight, taking the grunt by surprise. Even with this help, Sweetie Belle decided to intervene personally. It was just the first grunt and they were already in difficulty. And a quick look around showed that it was the case for many other trainers. There were some that seemed to go toe to toe with the grunts, and a few like Brock who managed to defeat their adversaries, but a big majority of the trainers who came clearly weren't prepared to face such well-trained opponents. So, as the grunt focused on the Snorlax, Sweetie Belle ran and in the blink of an eye, punched the Conkeldurr in the cheek, sending it flying and crashing headfirst into a wall. The Pokémon was immediately knocked out. Just as the grunt understood that her Pokémon was now half-buried in a wall and not moving anymore, Sweetie Belle ran to her. The grunt saw her coming and used her whip. Sweetie Belle placed her arm so the whip ended up wrapping itself around it, and she violently tugged, sending the grunt toppling in her direction. She then punched her in the gut, and the grunt was out cold. The remaining Pokémon were then dealt one by one, Drako again helping a lot. Swirly was now out. Apple Bloom lost Kong the Mankey, Acorn the Seedot, and Mimi the Spinarak. Scootaloo lost Torch the Charmander and Speedy the Pikachu. If Sweetie Belle hadn't intervened, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo probably would have lost their whole teams. At least, some of the Pokémon also evolved out of this battle. Calypso and Superfish evolved into a Seaking, Amanita evolved into a Breloom along with Fungy who was Apple Bloom's Shroomish, Ivy evolved into an Ivysaur, Remi evolved into a Raticate, Hurricane evolved into a Pidgeot, and Sharp Claw, Scootaloo's Spearow evolved into a Fearow. Dart, Scootaloo's Beedrill (that she got as a Weedle), was already fully evolved. They didn't lose time admiring the evolved Pokémon however. The battle was still raging around, and they immediately went to help the trainer who had sent the Snorlax to help them. He was one of the trainers who had managed to fight well against the grunts, but the guy and a girl at his side found themselves in the receiving end of a powerful Thunder from a Raichu of Alola that another grunt cowardly fired from behind them. Thankfully, said grunt was immediately hit in the face by the girl with the frying pan. But now, the grunt that the guy had been facing was preparing his baton to hit him while his Pokémon were too busy to save him. Sweetie Belle reached him with a high kick in the face that sent him on the floor. Scootaloo was next, jumping before hitting him on the ribs with her elbow. Apple Bloom then finished him with her own kick on the face, leaving the man unconscious. At the same time, their Pokémon came to help too to deal with the grunt's Pokémon. By now, most of the grunts were out, and the few that were still conscious had lost most of their Pokémon. However, many friendly trainers were also unconscious, and many other were busy using potions to heal humans and Pokémon. Brock had gone ahead with a few other trainers to deal with the Team Rocket members that were certainly further in the caverns. The girls joined Applejack who finished a grunt with a good kick in the gut while Pinkie used her party cannon to bury a Durant under a pile of party stuff. Burns were present on Applejack's skin, and Rainbow Dash was half-unconscious and being taken care of by some trainer with a potion. "Girls! Are y'all alright?" Applejack asked upon seeing them approaching. "Thanks to Sweetie, yes!" Apple Bloom answered. "Darn, these guys're well above our level!" "You don't say..." Rainbow muttered from her position. "I miss my wings. If I had them, I would have kicked all their butts to next week." The trainer healing her gave her a weird look. "Some of our Pokémon are out," Scootaloo informed. "Our whole teams are out," Applejack said. "As Bloom said, we weren't ready to fight these guys." "I think that this is the feeling shared by everyone here," Sweetie Belle said as she looked around. "I don't think that anybody thought that these simple grunts would be so strong. I mean, when Red first fought Team Rocket in these very caverns, he only had one badge. The grunts back then were as weak as beginners. I guess that everybody thought that this would be the case now too." At this moment, she spotted a Buzzwole knocking out a trainer and she quickly used her powers to make the ceiling of the cavern collapse on it. Then, there was a huge earthquake that shook the whole mountain, followed by a terrifying roar from where Brock had gone into. Sweetie Belle turned to Apple Bloom and Scootaloo. "Remain here! I will go help Brock!" They both nodded, and Sweetie Belle ran in the direction of the roar, passing beside more trainers and grunts battling. Whenever she had the occasion, she helped knocking out the enemies without stopping running. Eventually, she found Brock kneeling beside his knocked out Steelix. The next instant, she saw whatever managed to knock out this powerful Pokémon, and she couldn't believe it. A massive bipedal Pokémon, skin divided into thick red plates with a black underside, black spikes, and black sharp teeth. It had very intimidating grey claws, the Omega symbol was present on its arms, and the lines between its red plates as well as the eyes and the inside of its mouth were glowing yellow. The temperature around it was like inside a volcano, and magma was seen at his feet. The legendary Pokémon Groudon, in its Primal form. What the heck was it doing here?! Did the Champion of Hoenn reach this place? No, instead, Sweetie spotted not far of Primal Groudon a man with red hair and possessing a pair of glasses. He had a red version of the Team Rocket uniform, however, behind the rainbow R was what looked like a volcano, and he didn't have the hat. Behind Groudon, Sweetie also spotted an orange-haired girl beside a badly burned Lapras. she recognized her as the Gym Leader of Cerulean City, Misty. So her group also reached the mountain. There were some other trainers and grunts around, but the stage was clearly taken by the two Champion and whoever they were facing. And the man yelled, "Groudon! Use Eruption! Let's finish this!" "Nope!" Sweetie Belle shouted. The next instant, she transformed back into her filly-self and flew right to Groudon's face. She punched it with all her strength, not minding the burning pain she received in return in her leg, and she sent the titan flying several meters before it landed on its belly, a Team Rocket grunt barely avoiding being crushed under it. "What the-?!" the man began to shout before he was stopped by Sweetie Belle using her magic to send him crashing on a wall. She landed beside Brock and asked, "Who is this guy?! I thought that Groudon was possessed by Ruby!" Brock looked at her in wonder for a few seconds before he was able to answer. "I'm wondering the same thing about Groudon. All I know is that this guy is named Maxie and that he is known as the boss of Team Magma from Hoenn. But I thought that he had turned a new leaf and that his team was now working for the good of the world with Team Aqua." They were joined by Misty who briefly stared at Sweetie Belle before she turned to face Groudon who was getting up. "I don't understand. If Ruby had lost Groudon, this would have been reported, right?" "It doesn't matter right now. If we don't defeat it quickly, it will turn Mt. Moon into a volcano. We must hurry," Brock said. "Leave it to me!" Sweetie Belle said before she flew toward Groudon. The Pokémon roared back at her before readying its claws. Sweetie Belle easily avoided it before punching Groudon on the cheek again, then on the chin before she fired a beam that sent the Pokémon crashing against a wall, the crash causing the wall and the ceiling to break, burying it in a pile of boulders that quickly melted. Groudon immediately came out of it, enraged. Sweetie Belle silently cursed Primal Groudon's Ability: Desolate Land. In its Primal form, Groudon had the double type Fire/Ground, giving it a double weakness to Water. However, because of Desolate Land, any attempt to use water was rendered null because the water evaporated. In the end, it left him with only one weakness: Ground-type moves. And she didn't dare to use attacks too powerful in fear of making the mountain fall on their heads. Groudon was already weakening it just by its presence. And her hooves were hurting like Tartarus! It was like punching an overheated oven! "Ngh... Groudon! Use Precipice Blades on that thing!" Maxie then yelled once he recovered. Groudon answered with a roar before giant blades of red, hot glowing stone came out of the ground under Sweetie Belle. The filly teleported out of the way and replicated with a barrage of beams that hit the Pokémon all over the body, forcing it to take a step back as it put a claw in front of its face to protect it. Groudon then blindly charged toward despite the beams and almost ram her. Sweetie Belle quickly teleported out of the way before she decided to copy Groudon's move and used Precipice Blades on it. A giant blade of hot stone came out from under Groudon and badly hurt it, even sending it on its back on the ground. Since the move was a Ground-type, it was super effective. Sweetie Belle using Groudon's signature move took everyone by surprise, but she didn't mind it as she used Precipice Blades a second time while it was still on the ground, and the giant blade sent it flying before it crashed this time on its belly. But then, while still on the ground, Groudon turned its head toward her and sent a Fire Blast that stopped with a shield. However, as she protected herself, Groudon used Precipice Blades again, and the stone blade that came out of the ground managed to hit her this time. "Good! Use Rest!" Maxie then yelled. "I won't let you!" Sweetie Belle shouted as Groudon fell asleep and began to heal. Using her magic, she broke the stone blade that hit her from the ground, levitated it above the sleeping Groudon, and smashed it with it, the blade breaking in pieces with the hit. This awoke Groudon, but before it could react, Sweetie Belle sent a ball of energy that exploded on its face. But Groudon quickly recovered from it and used Fire Blast again and again and again, and Sweetie flew all around it to avoid them before hitting it with another Precipice Blades. "How is that thing able to fight Groudon like that?" Maxie wondered to himself as the two continued to violently fight. Suddenly, a powerful Hyper Beam hit Groudon from the side. "What?!" The origin of the attack quickly revealed itself to be a tiger-like Pokémon with two long fangs like a saber-toothed cat, a raincloud-like purple mane along its back, and a lighting bolt-like tail. Raikou. Riding on its back was a young man whose main recognizable feature was a black and yellow cap worn backward. The Champion of the Indigo Plateau himself, Gold, aka Ethan. The man then took two other Poké Balls and opened them, letting out the two other members of the legendary Beasts trio: Entei and Suicune. Just at this moment, Groudon was sent flying by a powerful blast of energy from Sweetie Belle. "D-damn it... We will have to retreat..." Maxie said to himself. But then, a grunt ran to him. "Maxie! We found one! The Fairy one! As the Boss thought!" "About time," Maxie mumbled before he took a communicator. "We found one! Teleport us back quick! The Champion is here and Groudon is being trashed by an unknown creature!" Once he finished talking, Maxie called back Groudon. The next instant, he disappeared, followed by the totality of the grunts, even the ones who had been knocked out. Thankfully, the hypnotized trainers were left behind. Everyone let out a sigh of relief. This battle, harder than planned, was over. But this new Team Rocket revealed themselves to be extremely dangerous, much more than the original team. Also, they now needed to have a talk with Ruby, aka Brendan the Champion of Hoenn, and Team Magma. It looked like the vacation was over...