Universe 11. Equestria. The Solar Empire. Nightfall.
"It's been five hours now. 5 years in that dimension. Now, he should appear." Daybreaker was currently ready to retrieve GHetsis from that bizarre dimension where time moves slowly compared to this world. Team Plasma was waiting for their leader to return as 5 years in that dimension accumulates to 5 hours.
Daybreaker lit her horn with a golden glow. With her magic, she was capable of manipulating space to some degree. A degree that was powerful enough to open up a dimension. A tear within the air itself was forming up by Daybreaker's magic with multiple lights flowing out of it.
"Don't let me back out." Just then, replying to Daybreaker was the voice of Ghetsis as it echoed through the tear.
"Ghetsis? What do you mean I shouldn't let you back out?" The Solar Queen replied.
"I'm staying here for a bit longer. It's 5 hours out there, right? I'll take 10 more hours." Ghetsis revealed that his short time in that dimension wouldn't do for him. He chose to extend it. And judging by how long 5 hours was in that world, 10 hours was already a given.
"10 hours?! That's 10 years!" Daybreaker and all the grunts gasped. "What's going on in there?! You were supposed to only be there to help adjust yourself to your magic."
"That too. But there's more I want to do here. Don't call me back in 10 hours or less." With that, Ghetsis ended his communication with Daybreaker and his grunts. The Team Plasma grunts discoured with themselves, reacting to their leader's decision.
"Why would we possibly want to stay there for 10 years?" Daybreaker pondered. "I only stayed there for 5 years as well and witnessed the horrors that come with living in that dimension. But if he wants to stay a bit longer, then so be it. We'll set up other plans in the meanwhile."
"Such as?" A Team Plasma grunt questioned. "We're still focusing on the Reshiram and Zekrom problem, right?"
"We are. But there's another problem we have to deal with soon. Something that threatens us far more than Reshiram and Zekrom could. And that's the Dread League."
Hoenn. Mossdeep City. Battle Carnival. The Pokemon Festival. Day.
The third day of the Pokemon Festival arrived. The first week was not yet close to being finished. After the fun carnival party and parade last night, everyone got some sleep to prepare for today. Some battles within the Battle Carnival had been postponed and would soon continue.
One of which was already about to pick up where it left off. That battle would be Sci-Twi vs Pinkie Pie. Still using the Pokemon that they borrowed from their friends, Sci-Twi currently had Ash's Lucario out while Pinkie Pie kept her Mew out. Sci-Twi had lost two Pokemon and was down to just Lucario while PInkie Pie had a third Pokemon in waiting.
As always, Bertha would watch and witness how this last battle would take place. At the same time, the Battle Carnival received some newspapers for her to read. And once her eyes laid on this information, the Sinnoh Elite 4 Member had some mild curiosity.
"The world is out of Oran Berries? Curious." Bertha commented before looking up at Twilight and the others.
"Rr. Rr." Lucario was stretching. This was the final stretch as he was Sci-Twi's final Pokemon. To claim victory, he had to be ready as Twilight walked over, patting the Aura Pokemon on the back.
"We'll make it a good one, Lucario. You can count on my Aura to win this one." Sci-Twi said.
"Ca." Lucario nodded, trusting Twilight to do so as she looked like a different person since yesterday. But for one final test, Lucario attempted to communicate with Sci-Twi via an Aura Pulse, seeing if she could hear what he had to say.
"Uhh..No clue what that means." Sci-Twi chuckled, making Lucario shake his head. She felt something but was unable to understand what it meant. Somewhat similar to the Arceus Pendant around her neck, only the Arceus Pendant has some form of communication she could almost gather. "Anyway! Let's get started!"
"Luca!"
"Okie Dokie! Let's pull the plug on this one!" Pinkie Pie and Mew were prepared, waiting for their opponents to start. Their battle would continue on the third day with only one of them walking out the victor.
Lucario and Mew, despite being friends, had never battled each other before, so this would make for an interesting scenario, no doubt.
"We'll make the first move! And I'll add two moves in one! Lucario, use Double Team and Force Palm!"
"Luca!" Lucario would go first. By taking off, he duplicated himself by using Double Team with each clone running beside him. Soon, all clones used Force Palm, coating their paws in an orange light.
"Hit them all with Psyshock!"
"Mew-Mew!" Mew formed a ring of purple masses of energy in front of his body, catered to every Lucario clone and the real Lucario. One after the other, these purple masses of energy were launched at each of the Lucarios.
One by one, the Lucario clones were being destroyed, vanishing in a puff of smoke. But while the fake ones had been taken out, the real one moved through the cloud of smoke as a way to mask himself. And with a successful stealth option, he appeared in front of Mew. "Ca!"
"Mew?!" Mew had been socked square in the face by Lucario's paw, dealing not very effective damage but a heavy blow nonetheless, one that was strong enough to push the New Species Pokemon back.
"Excellent! Now, use Force Palm again!"
"Luca!" Lucario was going in for a second Force Palm, this time, charging up a slightly stronger one.
"Yikes! Mew, Dark Pulse, quick!"
"M-Mew!" Mew managed to make a quick evasion. By shooting himself upwards with Dark Pulse, that is. He aimed his paws downwards, sending a turbulent pulse of darkness which sent him upwards. Not only that but it expanded enough to reach Lucario, interrupting his Dark Pulse.
"Rr!" Lucario was blown back by Dark Pulse, returning to the floor and ending his ample airtime.
"Great! Now, use Psyshock again!"
"Mew-Mew-Mew!" The purple waves had returned, this time, each of these masses targeted one Pokemon, moving in a compact space.
"Let's try Reversal!"
"Rrr!" Lucario would strike back with Reversal. Pulling his arm back, he channelled the damage he received from Dark Pulse, albeit minimal to this one attack. Once he thrust his palm forward, the energy that was shot from Reversal met with Psyshock, immediately clashing with it.
It was a fierce clash against the orange and purple beams, lasting for a few seconds. And by watching this battle, a smile met Bertha's face. She then looked at Sci-Twi's Alpha Pikachu as they both nodded in unison. Suddenly, without Sci-Twi and Pinkie Pie noticing, Bertha got up and left with Alpha Pikachu following.
"Mew!" Mew managed to exert some extra power into his Psyshock, overpowering Lucario's Reversal. The Aura Pokemon received a storm of Psychic energy that consumed him.
"C-Caa...!" Lucario growled while being bombarded by the storm of Psychic energy. Attempting to stand his ground, he failed to do so, resulting in the Fighting-Steel-Type being pushed back. "Lu!"
"Use, Aura Sphere!"
"Mew!" Mew would follow up, holding a concentrated sphere of Aura in his paws. With the strength of an Olympic athlete behind it, he launched that sphere like there was no tomorrow.
"Fight back with your own Aura Sphere!"
"Lucario!" Lucario stumbled for a bit before regaining his balance. To retaliate he would create not just one but two Aura Spheres, holding them in each of his paws. By using both of them, he used one to clash with Mew's Aura Sphere. Those two cancelled each other out from the Aura collision, leading the second Aura Sphere to fly in through the blue smoke.
"Mew!" Thanks to that second Aura Sphere, Mew received a direct hit once his own sphere had been dealt with. Perfect thinking on Lucario's part.
"This is where we finish things! Go hard, Lucario! Aura Sphere one more time!"
"Luca!" Lucario would go in for a second Aura Sphere. This time, it would be up close and personal as Lucario leapt in. He began increasing the size of the Aura Sphere in response to Sci-Twi's Aura which was starting to increase.
With his arms up, Lucario was ready to smash this sphere right into Mew, fighting up his body and Mew's body with an azure glow as he slammed it down.
"Psyshock!"
"Mew!" But in the nick of time, Mew managed to shield himself with the power of Psyshock By forming a pink sphere around his body. The two spheres met with a heavy collision, enough to send sparks flying everywhere. Mew managed to save himself narrowly by using Psyshock as Lucario growled at the face of this barrier.
"No good! Try and push through! That might work!"
"Rrr!" A grin met with Lucario's face. Now Sci-Twi was speaking his language.
With some extra brute force, Lucario managed to increase the size of his Aura Sphere just a bit. More importantly, just enough to force Mew to hold it back as well. Mew's barrier expanded to match that of Lucario's Aura Sphere. Eventually, both of them exerted enough power to the point where they cancelled each other out. Or rather, they blew up in unison. An azure and pink explosion went off, consuming them both.
However, both fell out of the smoke with their respective coloured trails, crashing into the floor. Both the jaws of Sci-Twi and Pinkie Pie opened up as they each leaned in to see who emerged victorious.
Neither emerged victorious. In fact, they both fainted at the same time.
"Lucario..."
"Mew..."
"A double knockout?!" The trainers collectively gasped as Sci-Twi was the one to lower her head. Pinkie Pie shrugged as she knew who exactly won this battle.
"Guess that's that." Sci-Twi walked over, kneeling to face Lucario. "Thank you for helping me, Lucario. I guess I have a lot to learn about Aura."
"Rrr..."
"That was great!" Pinkie Pie had already picked Mew up, cradling him like a baby. "I still won by one Pokemon, but great job, Twi. Mew and I had a blast."
"Mew-Mew." The winner of this battle was Pinkie Pie. Despite Mew fainting, she had one Pokemon yet to be used, thus, giving her the lead over Sci-Twi.
"Mhm. What did you think, Bertha?" And it was now that Bertha's presence was no longer here, startling everyone. Without them noticing for a few minutes, Bertha already departed from here minutes ago alongside Sci-Twi's Alpha Pikachu. "Bertha? Pikachu? W-Where'd you go?!"
Equestria. Near the Crystal Empire. The Sea Temple, Samiya. Day.
Over at the Sea Temple, which was still around the Crystal Empire's waters and slowly drifting, ponies from the Crystal Empire were indulging themselves here in the spirit of the Pokemon Festival, conversing with the People of the Water.
Princess Luna had also shown up here but for a different reason. Last night, when within the Hyperdream, the truth about Galaxy Master had been revealed. How he was created via the power of one of the crystals and how he was originally based on Ash Ketchum's father. All of it added up perfectly to Luna. From the way he acted, how he was not a Rift Creation or the light he emits.
"Here it is, Princess Luna." The guard held out the crystal to the Moon Princess. "Each crystal shares various similarities but all of them have something unique to them. This is the one that has the power to bring things like artwork and objects to life."
"So, Galaxy Master was born from this." Luna held the crystal with her magic. By using Lunar Ire's magic, she managed to look further within the crystals. And she got exactly what she expected. Billions, possibly trillions of light particles moving around in one crystal, overflowing with so much power. "Amazing...I can see why your temple was so sought after in the past."
"The power behind these crystals can linger for a long time...so it's not impossible to believe that a mild mistake from Queen Delia led to this."
"Hm. Is there any way to reverse this then? He was brought to life by the power of the Crystal so can they reverse it?"
"Reverse?" The guard pondered before looking at his fellow guards. They all just shrugged. He was just as lost as them. "Oh. Sorry. But I'm not sure we do. The Crystals can make repairs but...not like that."
"Not yet they can't." Appearing before Luna and the guards was the Royal Advisor Alo, showing up wearing a fancy Pokemon Festival hat. He was clearly having fun with this. "Those crystals may not have everything, but that can change."
"Ah! You're saying we can make it happen?!" Luna gasped with a wide smile on her face.
"Oh yes. These crystals were made to fill out countless possibilities. Such as how we used them to invent lightspeed travel for our temple or even how the People of the Vale worked with us to make their own personal crystal. It's all so creative, honestly."
"That's what I love to hear! So, we can make a crystal that can reverse what this one does!" Luna threw the crystal back to one of the guards, getting too excited. The guard caught the crystal but the strength of the launch knocked him over.
"Granted...it is a long process. And an arduous one with high effort. Making these crystals with such overwhelming power is not easy at all. To make it possible, we must go elsewhere to form a new crystal." Alo continued.
"Elsewhere? But I thought these crystals were made here." Luna paused.
"Oh, they are. It's the base of the crystals that are made here. Then, we the People of the Water use our singing to add our power to it. But the limitless power within the crystals is given to us by a third element. The reason why we have this beautiful light. The power of Arceus."
There it was. Once again, Arceus found a way to be involved with all of those. The Light of Arceus continued to have further connections all across the world.
"Arceus, eh? Would you mind if I helped you all make this crystal? It sounds fun and hard work is exactly what I love to tackle." Princess Luna immediately requested to join in on helping make a new crystal for the Sea Temple. First time for everything.
"Very well. We could use some magical skills." Alo accepted it. It was official, Princess Luna would help usher in a new Sea Temple Crystal. One that would not only be filled with Arceus' power and the power from the People of the Water but some of Luna's influence would be involved in the creation of it.
All of this for one fictional character.
Hoenn. Mossdeep City. Battle Carnival.
Over at the Battle Carnival, Ash was currently zooming around, looking for someone new to battle. Along the way, Pikachu and he along with their mythical friends grabbed something to eat. But they were being joined by two other individuals.
Cloudchaser and Flitter, who they had previously defeated. After losing to Ash and his team, the two pegasi remained her, tagging along with the Alola Champion. They had yet to find someone new to battle, but that was all about to change.
Of course, not before they enjoyed the rides here. After all, this was a carnival. They took the time to entertain themselves without needing to battle. Some rides proved to be turbulent for their own good, mainly for Meloetta. After indulging themselves in these rides, they came across one room that had something shocking waiting for them.
"There's gotta be someone in here." Ash opened the door to the next room. This was backed up by the noise coming from this room. Specifically, the sound of a crowd cheering. That was already a good sign. Light rays flew out of the doors as Ash and everyone were met with an interesting sight. A sight no one of them expected to see.
For starters, Bertha was there after leaving the room where Sci-Twi and Pinkie Pie battled. But more importantly, it was who she was facing that was surprising. Or rather, who she just recently faced and claimed victory.
"Six total victories...Not a single one down..." A man wearing the most bombastic carnival clothes out of anyone was on the ground, sulking at his defeat. By his choice of words, it was clear that Bertha not only won, but she absolutely dominated in this battle.
"Hang on...you're the boss of this place!" Cloudchaser and Flitter recognized who this was after first coming here. "You lost?!"
"Mhm..." The boss of the Battle Carnival uttered with a gloomy tone. "She's too strong for me. Who let an Elite 4 Member in here?"
"Don't feel too bad. You put up a great battle and showed a lot of character. As to be expected from the owner of this carnival." Bertha chuckled, bringing some optimism. "But now...I suppose I'm the strongest trainer here. And the one to beat."
"She's right about that..." The boss sighed before standing up. "Right now, Bertha stands at the top."
"Awesome!" Ash's eyes lit up."I picked the best time to show up! So if someone beats Bertha, what does that mean?"
"Well, she took all the medals I had." The boss showed how Bertha was wearing multiple medals. Once belonging to him with different colours, now we're on Bertha. "Beat her and you gain all ten medals. The challenge was that whoever makes it through enough battles can find me and win a total of these ten beautiful medals...But it looks like she got here before any of that."
"It does look good on me, doesn't it?" Bertha showed off the medals.
"Hm. Then I'll do it!" Ash adjusted his gloves. "If I beat Bertha, I win the whole thing, right?"
"Not really. You'll just be another boss waiting to be defeated. But if you wish to leave after this go ahead." The boss shrugged as that was good enough for Ash.
"Alright. I'll take you on next Bertha. I've been waiting for this." Ash stepped up as everyone's attention was locked onto this battle. They could feel the excitement coming from it.
"Hmm...So have I." Bertha smirked. "For a while before we met again, honestly. Ever since I learned about your achievements over the years, I've been interested in battling you again. This is also a good chance to pick up where left off at Sinnoh."
"Yeah." Ash agreed. These two had battled before but that was during when Ash was still somewhat new yet experienced during his long journey. Granted, he did hold his own but ultimately lost. Now, these two will battle once more. Ash was far different than what he was back at Sinnoh and that was exciting for Bertha to find out.
"For this one...I want to use my own Pokemon." Bertha revealed that she wished to use her own Pokemon instead of the ones she borrowed. "Battling you with my true team is something I want to continue doing. How does that sound?"
"Go ahead." The owner allowed it. "You've earned that right."
"And what say you, Ash?" Bertha asked. "Will you use your own Pokemon?"
"Nah. I don't even have the same team as I did back at Sinnoh, so it wouldn't be the same. I wanna stick to this challenge and battle with borrowed Pokemon. And of course, Pikachu's still gonna be with me." Ash would stick with battling alongside Victini, Hoopa, Meloetta, Twilight's Absol and Sci-Twi's Rapidash.
"Bold. But that's what makes you interesting." Bertha couldn't argue against that. "Very well then. Let's have our second battle, Ash. And this time, a serious one. You've already shown me that you are stupendous when it comes to being observant. I can't wait to see how you've grown with it."
"Same here!" Ash grinned as he was already bringing some great energy to this area. The crowd was loving what they were hearing. Any battles ongoing right now wouldn't compare to how exciting this one would be. Pikachu's red sacs flared, ready to take on Bertha and her Pokemon. Of course, once they're all returned to her, that is.
Ash vs Bertha would commence soon here at the Battle Carnival for many to see. And for Ash vs Bertha, it was the perfect time for them to settle things here as the journey continues.
Chapter 877 End.