When Sweetie Belle had come to the Pokémon World for some vacation with her friends, the last thing she had expected was to battle a legendary such as Groudon, the Pokémon who made the lands. From what she knew, many of the legendaries were now part of the teams of trainers, mainly Champions and ex-Champions, and she certainly hadn't planned to battle one of them anytime soon.
And yet, somehow, she ended up fighting Groudon itself, but not possessed by the Champion of Hoenn, but by the ex-boss of Team Magma who was supposed to be a nice guy now but was now working for Team Rocket.
Just what the heck was going on?
Also, in parallel of capturing wild Clefairy and getting Moonstones and fossils, this operation was also to find something. This "fairy one", whatever this "one" was. It could be many thing, and Sweetie Belle didn't know enough about this world to guess what it could be. The only object she could think of right now was Arceus' Pixie Plate, and she hoped it wasn't that. She hoped instead that it was something like a statuette of a fairy or a tablet...
Although, deep down, she already resigned that it was the Pixie Plate, which would mean that the Rockets were probably searching the others.
The problem was that nobody knew exactly where the Plates were. It was already a miracle that the Rockets found one, if it really was the Pixie Plate. They could be ANYWHERE in the world. And Team Rocket too.
To be clear, impossible to guess where Team Rocket was hiding, and impossible to guess where they will attack next.
This frustrated Sweetie Belle extremely. She almost regretted the time when all she had to do was to travel some lands, sometimes gathering key objects, to kick a bad guy's butt (if they had one).
"Uh... Hey," a voice then interrupted Sweetie's thought, and she turned to find that Gold was now beside her, on a knee to be more at her level although he still towered over her. He looked at her with some curiosity visible in his eyes, and yet, he was really calm.
"Hey," Sweetie Belle replied.
Gold then pulled out his arm toward her. "You're Sweetie Belle, right? Red told me about you."
"Oh? How much did he tell you about me?" Sweetie Belle asked with an eyebrow raised as she shook Gold's hand.
"Everything, I think. About you being a traveler from another dimension and all."
"Well, at least, I won't have to explain anything to you."
Gold chuckled. "But you may have to explain everything to them," he said as he pointed at the Gym Leaders present.
"Yeah... But before that, how about you gather everyone that has been hurt, humans and Pokémon, so I can heal them?"
"Of course!" Gold agreed before he went to talk with the Gym Leaders. Once he finished to give them instructions, he took a phone, probably to tell the other Gym Leaders and anybody else who was coming to Mt. Moon to help that the Rockets were gone.
Meanwhile, Sweetie Belle was joined by her friends, including Rainbow Dash who had recovered thanks to the potions.
"Seems like you had to fight whatever was here," Scootaloo said.
"Yeah. It was none other than a legendary, Groudon. There was no way my Pokémon could have fought it," the alicorn informed. "Now that it's over, let me heal you."
Sweetie Belle then proceeded to do this as they sat around her and let their hurt Pokémon out.
"A legendary ya said? What in tarnation was it doing here?" Applejack asked.
"I'm wondering the same thing," Sweetie Belle answered before she explained what was wrong.
"Uh. Weird. If that Champion had gotten Groudon stolen, then the news would have spread, right?" Rainbow Dash wondered.
"Exactly. That's why I don't understand how Maxie had it. Also, this worries me. You remember what we heard in the radio, in Oak's lab? About Team Rocket maybe getting their hands on the researches of Team Cipher on Shadow Pokémon?"
"Ya think they'd use it on Groudon?" Applejack asked.
"I'm certain. If Team Rockets got the Shadow Pokémon technology, then I'm 100% sure that they will use it to turn Groudon, and any other legendary they may have gotten, into Shadow versions of themselves. They would become unstoppable, excepted maybe by trainers with the more powerful legendaries like Alola's Champion, or Red."
"That's hoping Team Rocket also didn't get these trainers' legendaries," Apple Bloom remarked.
"I hope not. Mega Mewtwo is already as powerful as Arceus themself, so a Shadow Mega Mewtwo? And let's not talk about a potential Shadow Ultra Necrozma." At least, it wouldn't be close to the level of power of Void.
Still, Team Rocket became a real threat, if not for her then for the many inhabitants of this world. And she hated the fact that there was nothing she could do right now to stop them despite all her powers. Right now, all she could do was wait and see, and help when needed like she was about to do with the healing. And be ready to intervene if the Rockets appeared again somewhere in the world.
If only she had a way to alert her of this so she could intervene immediately when this will happen.
It wasn't long before Gold and the Gym Leaders gathered everyone and Sweetie Belle healed them and their Pokémon. Once she was done, the two groups separated to return to their respective cities. Gold, however, once out of the caverns, let out Ho-Oh, the legendary phoenix-like (without the fire unlike Moltres) bird of the skies, and climbed on its back to fly back to the Indigo Plateau where he planned to have a discussion by video with Ruby to find out what was going on with Groudon. Sweetie Belle decided to follow him while her friends would follow the trainers back to Pewter City to rest in the Pokémon Center and have a dinner.
On the way, they were joined by Red and Blue who were respectively on the back of a Charizard and a Pidgeot.
"Yo! Oh, hey, Sweetie Belle! Sorry we didn't come in time to help against Team Rocket. So, how did it go?" Blue asked
"Rather badly," Sweetie Belle answered. "Their Pokémon were much better trained than we expected. We had to go at two, or even at three to defeat a single grunt. They wiped the floor with many of our Pokémon and they didn't hesitate to intervene personally with their whips and batons. And then, there was Maxie who was there with freaking Primal Groudon. We still managed to get the upper hand but they were able to escape with whatever they were searching along with all they took and captured. At least, we were able to save the captured trainers."
Hearing that Groudon had been there surprised the two ex-Champions, and Blue could only ask, "How...?"
"We have no idea," Gold answered this time. "I'm going to talk with Ruby to get to the bottom of this. You can come with us if you want."
Red and Blue exchanged a look before they both nodded, Blue saying, "We may as well. If it's that bad, then we must know."
Before long, they passed above the mountainous area that surrounded the Indigo Plateau and reached the magnificent, majestic regal red building that decided the fate of the best trainers of two regions.
They landed in front of the large double door of the entrance and opened it.
The entrance hall was huge and of the same regal red than the building outside, giving a feeling of greatness that showed the importance of the place. A red carpet covered several flights of stairs that passed by the center of the room and led to a large doorway at the top level, a Pokémon Center was present at the left, and a Poké Mart was at the right.
Sweetie Belle had already seen a lot of places like this one but was still awed, which amused the other trainers.
"You're a lucky one, you know? The only ones able to see this place normally are trainers who obtained the eight badges from either Kanto or Johto and members of the staff," Blue said.
"My computer is in my apartment, at the top of the building," Gold informed. "We will have to traverse the rooms of the Elite 4 members. I hope you don't mind climbing stairs."
"Pfff! come on! I went through several adventures traversing countries and all! It's not some stairs that scare me!"
So they climbed the stairs to the doorway at the top, passed it, and climbed more stairs before reaching the first room.
The room had yellow tiles and orange walls. After traversing a small passage, they reached the arena of the first Elite 4 member where they could see two giant statues of Raichu at both sides of the exit, their tails crossing above it. Another small passage at the left led to a simple door, probably the Elite 4 member's apartment.
Speaking of, the member in question was present at the opposite side of the arena, waiting for challengers. A middle aged, well-muscled man with short spiky yellow hairs wearing green militaristic clothes.
Lt. Surge. Formerly the Gym Leader of Vermilion City. Sweetie Belle read about him. She actually read about all the Gym Leaders of Kanto as well as the Elite 4 members and the Champions. Surge was well known for his Raichu who was a real beast in battle. They were both from the military, so they had the experience. No wonder he made it here.
"Already back, Gold? Eh. I can't believe you jumped out the window when you heard that Team Rocket was causing trouble."
At his comment, everyone looked at Gold in wonder, making him blush and smile sheepishly.
"I didn't want to lose time climbing down all these stairs. I just jumped and let Ho-Oh out to land on its back."
Surge laughed. "As soon as you were gone, I knew that it was no use for me and the others to go to Mt. Moon! I'm sure that you kicked their asses as soon as you arrived!"
"I didn't, actually. Most grunts were already out by the time I was there, and they teleported away just as I got my Pokémon out to fight their leader."
"Ah!" Surge exclaimed in joy. "That's Kanto for ya! I'm proud of my region! Don't mess with us!" His attention then moved to the ones following the Champion. "Oh! And you brought Red and Blue! And... Is that that legendary I heard about?" He looked back and forth between the members of the group, his demeanor becoming serious. "A Champion, two ex-Champions, and a legendary. What's going on? What did they do?"
"That's what we intend to discover," Red said.
"Then I won't keep you here any longer. And I will pass the word to the others so they don't bother you," Surge said before he opened the exit, took a phone and dialed a number.
Meanwhile, the group passed beside him and climbed the stairs after the exit, eventually reaching the second room.
The room had a similar shape to the first, but was instead colored in various shades of pink. At the arena, there were two giant spoons against the walls at the left and the right, the right one bent. Also, painted on the wall above the exit door was an eye. Finally, there was the door to the Elite 4 member's apartment at the left.
The Elite 4 member here was none other than the feared Sabrina, Psychic specialist formerly Gym Leader of Saffron city. Her eyes partially hidden behind her long black hair could read souls like they were open books, and her Alakazam was the nightmare of many trainers.
She was just finishing talking in her phone when the group arrived. She hung up, nodded silently at the group, and opened the exit, letting them pass.
Then came the third room. This one was covered in grass with the foliage of trees plunging everything in shadows excepted the center of the arena. Said arena was made of stone tiles. A carpet leading to the exit also covered some of the grass, and the door to the apartment was at the left again.
Koga, the Elite 4 member of this room, was also feared but for a whole other reason. He was a ninja master of Poison-type, and he loved to see the suffering that the poisons could cause. His favorite method of battle was to put his enemies to sleep before poisoning them, leaving them no chance. And rumors said that he used his ninja skills and poisons to kill many people in gruesome ways as a spy. But he was still a respected trainer who had a lot of apprentices and made a lot of anti-poisons and other healing potions.
As soon as he saw them, Koga simply opened the exit and let them pass.
Then came the fourth room. Made of golden colors, the room started with two statues of Dratini at the entrance, followed by four fang-shaped statues at both sides of the arena. Then, above the exit was the bust of a giant statue of a Dragonite that shadowed the arena.
It wasn't surprising. Lance, the Elite 4 member of this room, was known for his team possessing no less than three Dragonite, and he even had an Aerodactyl! As one could guess from this, Lance was a Dragon-type specialist, ex-Gym Leader of Blackthorn City in Johto. He was also the most ancient Elite 4 member of the Indigo Plateau, making him the most experienced of all, and he had even been Champion for a time, after Red and before Gold. Heck, he even helped Gold fight Team Rocket in Johto! He was proud, heroic, and very intimidating with his cape. No wonder he had such a huge number of fans. When beginner trainers talked of their idols in Kanto and Johto, Lance's name would often come to mind with Red, Gold, and Blue's.
Lance himself was present beside the exit which was already open. He was actually looking down at his phone from which a voice could be heard.
"News are already spreading," he said as they approached before he raised his eyes from his phone to look at them. "So, Groudon? I suppose you are going to talk to Ruby then?"
"You suppose it right," Gold answered. "Wanna come? Knowing you, you don't want to miss it."
Lance chuckled. "I was just about to say this."
And so, with Lance joining them, they climbed the last stairs to the Champion's room.
Said room was a large hall where the ceiling was actually made of glass letting everyone see the sky. It was also partially filled with water, only a bridge of stone letting them reach the arena. At the left, in the glass ceiling, was a statue of Ho-Oh, and at the right, partially submerged in the water, was a statue of its counterpart, the legendary bird guardian of the seas, Lugia. Both were facing the center of the arena where, painted on the ground, water, fire, and electricity were circling each others (with the Poké Ball symbol at the center like always). Another bridge was leading from the arena to the doorway to the famous Hall of Fame, but instead of taking it, they traversed another bridge at the left leading to the door to the Champion's apartment which they entered.
Despite belonging to a Champion, the apartment was very simple and plain. They entered a living room like you would find in any home. They then passed a door and entered an ordinary chamber where Gold approached a desk with a computer and sat on a chair in front of it. While he turned the computer on, everyone gathered around him and looked at the screen with more or less patience.
Eventually, Gold sent a message to Ruby to warn him that he wanted to talk to him in the computer, and after a few minutes, they could see the Champion of Hoenn.
Brendan, or Ruby as he preferred to be called, looked to be around the same age as Red and Blue, and he had the eyes of someone who lived for challenges, like Red, like Gold, and like Sweetie Belle. However, his seemed to still have the fire of youth contrary to Red and Gold.
"Hey, du-Woah!" Ruby began before he remarked that Gold wasn't alone. However, he probably couldn't see Sweetie Belle because she was sitting on the desk further to the side. "Uh... Did I do something?"
"I don't think so, but there's a mystery that we need to solve and you're the only one who can help right now," Gold said. "Do you still have Groudon?"
"Uh? Of course I still have it! There..." Ruby grabbed an Ultra Ball from his belt and showed it. "I can't let it out to show you become it would destroy everything, but Groudon is definitively still in there! I fed it just half a hour ago! Why?"
"Well, believe it or not, I encountered Groudon not even a hour ago and almost battled it in Mt. Moon."
...
"There's no way... I mean, there's only one Groudon, right?"
"As far as we know, yes," Blue said.
"But that's not all. The one who was using Groudon was none other than Maxie," Gold added.
"Say what?! B-b-bu-Wait a minute!"
Ruby then grabbed his phone and texted something. Not even a minute later, a new video feed was added beside Ruby's, and Maxie was in it... eating some ramen.
"Sorry. You got me in the middle of dinner. Sluuurp! What is it?"
"Apparently, Gold saw you in Mt. Moon with Groudon in your possession," Ruby said.
"And you were working for Team Rocket," Gold quickly added.
The news shocked Maxie as he was in the middle of slurping some pastas, and it caused him to swallow them the wrong way. He violently coughed and spilled his bowl as a result. Once he calmed down, hitting his chest a few time, he yelled, "WHAAT?! What kind of spore were you hit with? I swear that I never went to Mt. Moon! I haven't even left Hoenn since a couple of months ago!"
"That's not him," Sweetie Belle then said. "The Maxie I encountered was less old."
"Hey! I'm not old! Uh, who was it? A little girl?"
To avoid losing too much time talking about Sweetie Belle's nature, Gold grabbed Sweetie Belle and placed her in front of the computer before he said, "An alien from another dimension who helped fight Team Rocket in Mt. Moon."
"Oh. Ok," both Ruby and Maxie said.
"That's all the effect it has on you?!" Sweetie belle yelled.
"One of my Pokémon is an alien," Ruby said.
"And there was the Ultra Wormhole incident in Alola not that long ago," Maxie added.
"With the Ultra Beasts who aren't even native of our dimension," Lance finished.
"Right... I shouldn't be surprised... Dimension stuff is nothing new here."
Gold chuckled as he petted the filly. "Anyway. Now that you say it, I can see the difference between the Maxie we encountered and the one we're talking to. the one in Mt. Moon had less wrinkles and less white hair."
"Hey!"
"How old did he look?" Ruby asked.
"I can show you," Sweetie Belle said before she jumped from the desk and landed on the ground. She walked away from the humans and, using her memories, transformed herself to took the appearance of the Maxie she saw in Mt. Moon. she wasn't certain for the wrinkles, but she did as best as she could. Once she was done, she then showed her face to the camera of the computer.
The humans were impressed, but Ruby and Maxie quickly calmed down and looked intently at the face she was showing.
"Mmh... Looks like you back when you tried to use Groudon to expand the continents," Ruby observed.
"Yeah... Looks like it," Maxie agreed.
The room then fell into silence as everyone thought what it meant.
"So... Anyone has an explanation for this?" Blue asked.
After some more thought, Red began to talk. "So the Maxie you faced was pretty much Maxie if he had won back then, right?"
"Seems like it," Sweetie Belle said. "And, well, I can only think of one explanation for this. Team Rocket somehow managed to bring this Maxie from an alternate dimension where he won and was able to capture Groudon."
Ruby groaned and rubbed his head. "Great..."
"So Team Rocket has some technology that let them summon beings from other dimensions. Probably related to the Ultra Wormholes. The implications of this are actually... scary. If they used this technology to summon Maxie with Groudon, then..."
"Then what is stopping them from summoning other peoples," Red finished grimly. "With other legendaries..."
Maxie paled. "Like Archie with Kyogre if Archie had decided to do like me."
"Legendaries that they could then turn into Shadow Pokémon if they found the researches in Orre," Sweetie Belle added.
More silence followed as everyone understood the full scale of the threat that Team Rocked posed.
"We are SO spreading the news to the whole world," Ruby eventually said.
"Of course, that's a given," Blue said.
"Everyone will have to be ready at all times to intervene. Not only the Champions, but also the Elite 4 and the Gym Leaders. The Rockets can teleport absolutely anywhere. Their plan doesn't seem to stop at just potentially turning legendaries into Shadow Pokémon. They are searching something. I don't know what it is, but whatever they searched in Mt. Moon, they found it, and it's not good news. We must stop them from getting more of these objects they search," Gold instructed.
"And we must also find a way to discover the location of their HQ," Ruby said.
"With their technology, their HQ could be in another dimension," Lance remarked.
"We will have to ask the Aether Foundation and Tommy for help then," Red said to this.
"Tommy... That's the Champion of Alola, right?" Maxie asked.
"Yes. With his Lunala and Necrozma, he can open Ultra Wormholes very easily and use them to explore other worlds."
"Still, searching Team Rocket's HQ in the multiverse would be like searching a needle in a haystack," Gold said. "Our best bet is to use a tracker to see at least where they teleport. Wherever it is, it is at least in this world."
"It shouldn't be hard. I just hope that wherever it is is their HQ instead of just some outpost," Blue said before he groaned. "Uurg... What a mess... Spacetime shenanigans suck."
"If their HQ is in another dimension, then we could ask Dawn for help. Palkia must feel when wormholes are opened," Ruby proposed. "Space is its stuff after all."
"Right. We will tell her to keep an eye once we spread the news," Gold said. "Seems like we have it actually."
"Eh. With the whole League and half the legendaries of this world on their back, Team Rocket won't last long," Ruby said with a big smirk. "We just have to wait for a new group to appear."
"You can add Team Magma. We will help," Maxie said. "And I'm certain that Archie and Team Aqua will also agree to help once we tell them."
Blue smiled. "Nice!"
"Anything else, guys?" Ruby asked.
"Well, I should say this. I suspect that the objects they search are Arceus' plates. I really hope I'm wrong however," Sweetie Belle said.
...
...
"We hope too," everyone else eventually said at once, chill creeping on their back.
"I think that's everything," Gold then said. "Let's not lose time. Time to work."
Everyone nodded.
"I will return to my friends and tell them everything," Sweetie Belle said. "I'm sure they will want to help too."
"Any help is welcomed," Red replied.
"See you, everyone!" the filly then said as she waved goodbye to everyone. Then, she teleported away.