"I cannot let this happen to another."
"Agreed, but what can you do about it?"
"I will return to the Hall of Legends and ask Arceus to prevent the Rage Shift from being used by mortals."
"Can he do that? I know he is a god but how can he be sure that nopony else will use it."
"If he cannot then I am sure that Mew can."
"She wakes sister."
Belle opened her eyes, and immediately threw an arm over them. She groaned. "Turn off the sun."
Luna giggled and Celestia rolled her eyes. The solar princess had heard that joke a lot over the centuries, and it was still annoying even in another world.
"Belle!" Gene grabbed her and pulled into a hug.
"Did I miss something?" she asked and looked around at everyone. The Checkmates were in full recovery from the battle and now they were just waiting for further orders. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, who she recognized from Scootaloo's memories, were standing over her with inquisitive concerned looks. Belle immediately forgot almost everything else. "Scootaloo! Where is she!?"
"Over here!"
Belle saw the little orange filly waving at her. She was perfectly fine, and was playing tag with the Voltorb. Belle had a brief moment of panic when Scootaloo climbed ON TOP OF THE VOLTORB, but the Electric type was laughing and playing along.
"Ok someone tell me what happened."
They all looked at each other. Finally Gene asked her what she remembered.
Belle thought for a moment. "That man hurt Scootaloo, and I got angry, but after that Krookodile attacked me I don't remember anything."
"The Krookodile is Valete, the muscle of team Spade in Royal Flush. He rushed you after we cleared the road. You knocked out some of his teeth." Weiss told her.
"I knocked out a Dark type's teeth?"
Weiss reached a hand into his coat and pulled out three Krookodile fangs. "Rouge wanted to make them into a necklace for you as a trophy."
Belle eyed the fangs and imagined going into battle with them around her neck. "Cool. But...how did I do it?"
"According to Xavier you used an undiscovered Psychic move, but that is not the reason why we are here." Celestia said.
"After you struck your attacker you used a spell called Rage Shift-
Belle interrupted Luna. "What? I know I'm a Fairy but I don't know any magic."
-which is now possible for you to do because our magic spells have been converted into pokemon moves along with the introduction of us as the new Magic type." Luna finished with a deadpan.
Belle shrugged sheepishly. "Sorry."
"About that. Why a new type?" Weiss scratched his jaw. "Why not just put each species in a different already existing type? And why Magic as the type when Fairy pokemon can already kind of do that? Seems kind of cheap, like whoever decided it just went with the first thing they thought of."
"Twas Arceus who did it. Maybe you should question him about it." Luna told him.
"Sounds bad for my health."
Celestia used her magic to help Belle to her feet. "The Rage Shift amplifies the power of the one who uses it, but it must burn something as fuel to create that extra power. It uses your own energy as the fuel, and takes as much energy as you are angry so that your power and strength become equal to your rage."
"Okay, so I was really mad, ...how much of my energy did I burn through?"
"All of it."
Belle's eyes widened. Celestia and Luna both watched her carefully. Gene just hugged her again.
Celestia broke the silence. "Normally the spell only takes the caster's magic as fuel, or in your case the energy reserved for your moves, but you were so furious that when your reserves were used up it continued."
"You managed to tear open a black hole and cast your enemies into it." Luna told her. "I am not sure how this would normally effect a living creature in this dimension, but the magic behind the spell allowed them all to survive."
"So I didn't kill them?"
Luna shook her head no, and Belle sighed in relief. "Though they do now seem to be in some other new dimension."
"How am I even standing right now?! If you're right about me using up all of my energy...
"I detected young Scootaloo's dreams while she was sleeping off her injuries." Luna explained. "My sister and I teleported here and healed the both of you."
"I can't thank the two of you enough." Gene told them as he bowed.
"You owe us nothing so long as you and your beloved are good parents for Scootaloo." Celestia smiled. "Though an invitation to the wedding would be appreciated."
Weiss had his own concern. "What about the Rage Shift?"
The sisters gave him a cold look. Celestia spoke. "Fear not for your contract mercenary. I will be making sure that only myself and a select few that I believe worthy can use it from now on."
Weiss shrugged. "Fair enough, but I was referring more to her temper."
"Excuse me? What's wrong with my temper?"
"I'm thinking of a Gardevoir that I met once a long time ago." Weiss explained to her. "Read my mind."
As Belle did as she was invited the others standing nearby all watched. They saw it as her face went from offended to concerned, to worried, and finally horrified. She shut down her telepathy and looked like she might throw up.
"Never mind...I don't want to be like that..." Belle shuddered at the image of one of her kind breaking all the bones in a man's body and taking pleasure from it. "I'll stick to league battles from now on."
"Well it is my job to hurt people who try to hurt you, so I'd appreciate it if you didn't steal my job." Weiss grinned at her. "Now I will leave you alone while I pick my team for the mission."
"You're not bringing everyone?" Gene asked.
"Nah, going in undercover as a trainer. Only reason I kept so many around is because I didn't know who to bring." he explained. "Now that my biggest competition is out of the way I have a better idea of who I need."
So the deviant mercenary left the nice decent people alone and called in his family. He had good idea of who he would need and who would be overkill. The average trainer would get killed trying to battle me...hmm.
Before he could speak he was approached by Doc and Greninja. The ninja bowed to him and nodded at Scootaloo as she was telling the princesses about the battle. Weiss cocked an eyebrow.
"You sure?"
Greninja nodded again. He had stayed out of the battle with Royal Flush so that he could watch from the sidelines and get Gene to safety when he had a chance. But when Joker started shooting his concern had shifted to his own family for a brief moment, and he had had to dodge two of the ricochet bullets. In the time it took for him to recover and put his concentration back on Gene the little filly had already saved Doc and took a bullet to her wins. He had taught her Quick Attack, and if he hadn't done that then she would never have been able to do that. He felt both grateful and guilty. He would train her properly now.
Weiss nodded and looked to Doc.
"I owe the kid." she said simply.
"Okay that's two. Xavier I want you in the sky as usual, Edge stay out of sight unless we need some help or a quick getaway." he thought for a moment. "Any volunteers for battling the trainers who will almost certainly not leave us alone until we beat them?"
Pancha raised her hand.
"Anyone who won't accidentally cause serious injuries to the pokemon in question?"
Pancha put her hand down.
Weiss felt something bump into his legs. Looking down and around his feet Weiss found the Voltorb trying to get his attention. "What do you want?"
"Can I come?" the small Electric type asked.
Weiss raised an eyebrow at the question. "Why would I take you with me?"
"Before all of this...crazy...I was living in a metal scrapyard, and feeding on the electromagnetic energy that built up in the iron. It was boring except for when it wasn't, and when it wasn't I was fighting the invading pokemon who wanted my turf. It sucked and even if I wanted to go back I have no idea where it is."
"That doesn't answer my question." Weiss told the Voltorb. "Why would I bring you with me on mission where I'm supposed to protect someone while pretending to be a regular trainer?"
"I could battle the other trainers for you."
Weiss had to admit that it was a good idea. He wouldn't be using the Voltorb for the actual mission so his life would not be put in danger, and it would help his cover if he had a weak pokemon that he was trying to make stronger. "What moves do you know?"
"Electro Ball, Roll Out, Spark, Eerie Impulse, and Self Destruct."
"Hmm, not a bad starting set, and you can always learn more." Weiss thought about it one last time before he shrugged. "So what do I call you?"
"Scootaloo gave me a name." the ball pokemon said proudly. "It's Sparky Sparky Boom Boom!"
"...Do I have to call you that?"
"Yes!" Sparky Sparky Boom Boom told him. "Well you can shorten it to Sparky."
Weiss shrugged and reached into his coat for a spare pokeball. In the process of rummaging around in his many pockets Weiss accidentally dislodged a very different and unique pokeball. The Luxury Ball fell and rolled on the ground, and stopped just in front of Sparky Sparky Boom Boom.
Sparky Sparky Boom Boom's eyebrows rose up as even a wild pokemon would recognize such a valuable item. He tilted himself forward and bumped the button to expand the ball, and again to make it capture him. Ding!
"Eh?" Weiss looked down at the now filled pokeball, and his right eye twitched repeatedly.
"Hey Rouge?" Pancha whispered to her friend. "Is that the same Luxury Ball that Weiss had hacked to have the inside look like Alto Mare, and was going to give to Latias if ever retired and asked her to stay with him?"
"From the look of his face I'd say yes." Rouge sweatdropped.
Sparky Sparky Boom Boom popped out of his new Luxury Ball with an ecstatic look in his face. "It's awesome in there!"
Weiss carefully smiled as his right eye continued to twitch. "Glad *twitch* you *twitch* like *twitch* it."
"So you are not going to really need many of us for a while, right?" Roll asked.
Weiss sighed, and chose to just forget about the ball. It was not like he would ever actually force Latias to stay in a pokeball no matter how luxurious it was, but the money that had gone into the hacked Luxury Ball was now wasted on a random little Voltorb. He could get a new one, maybe.
"Yeah the rest of you can just-
Roll didn't wait to hear the rest. She turned around, grabbed her mate and ran so fast that Shredder's metal body was flapping in the wind like a flag. As they were both getting smaller in the distance a piece of paper floated down in front of Weiss. He picked it up and read it out loud. "On vacation, be back soon, call if you need us, but don't interrupt private time unless it's an emergency."
"...Like I said, the rest of you can just head back home and wait for orders." Weiss told them all. "I'll send word for two or three more to join us later."
A very loud yawn was heard by all, and many of the pokemon covered their faces expecting it to be the attack Yawn. But it was only Princess Luna.
"Apologies everyone *yawn* meditating for three days has that effect, even for Alicorns."
Celestia glanced at her sister. "So you were just meditating? Nothing else?"
Meditating and training with Darkrai in the dream realm." Luna confirmed. "Why?"
"Well there are a few rumors about what you were doing with him for three days in his private chambers." Celestia said sheepishly. "I refused to believe them at first, but you were in there for three days."
Luna's face darkened as she blushed, and then darkened some more as her temper rose. "Who is responsible for these rumors?"
Back in the Hall of Legends a small group of Legendary pokemon gathered. They were discussing the rumors that had started flying around about Darkrai and Princess Luna. Among them was Hoopa.
Hoopa thought that this was a great idea. By spreading the news that they had locked themselves in his room for three days she only had to steadily push Cresselia into marking her territory and taking him for herself. Her friends would finally be together!
A flash of blue light behind Hoopa stopped the others gossiping in it's tracks. Hoopa blinked and turned around to see what they were all staring at. Her eyes were met with an angry pair of cyan blue eyes.
"Would you prefer a lecture or to be blasted through a wall?" asked Princess Luna.
Hoopa thought about it for a few moments. She then flew away and yelled "You can't catch me!"
"Let the hunt begin." Luna said with a chuckle.
Mew's eyes glew as she scanned Princess Celestia's mind for the Rage Shift spell. After she found it she focused her power inward to find it in her own move set. Once deleted from her the move was automatically removed from being used by any pokemon species that she had created. Her eyes stopped glowing with a ding. All done!
Princess Celestia sighed. "Thank you lady Mew."
No need to be so formal, we're friends! Mew giggled with her paws over her mouth. And you hugged my daddy!
"Yes I did, as a friend nothing more." Celestia shook her head. She saw Mew's ears droop and her eyes get big and watery. The princess chuckled. "I'm surrounded by cute little ponies every day and night, the cute sad face won't work so easily on me."
Aw Rattatas! Mew pouted and kicked a foot paw at the air.
Princess Celestia rolled her eyes and smiled at the antics of the little pink cat. She looked around the room they were in, Mew's lab. It reminded Celestia of Twilight's room back when she lived in Canterlot, except with lots of odd stuffed animals mixed in with the scientific paperwork. In the center of the room was a pedestal that was projecting an image of a dragon.
"What is this?" Celestia asked.
Hm? Oh, I've been trying to figure out what to do with the dragons from Equus. Mew floated next to the image and crossed her arms. I mean they are REALLY BIG and...well you know them better than I do.
The princess smiled warmly as she remembered giving this exact same lesson to her students. "Equestrian dragons share many similarities with other reptiles from Equus, however they have one very important advantage. Dragons are immortal and so they can live forever, but that is not where it ends. You see young one-
I'm older than you.
-dragons, like other large reptiles, continue to grow larger as they age. Being immortal means that they grow very very large. This growth however is possible only because of the great amounts of food that they eat, so at a certain point in their lives they grow so enormous that no matter how much they eat they cannot trigger their growth, and so they seem to stop growing. Of course once they reach such a size nothing can threaten them, and so they sleep for hundreds of years if allowed to."
Mew was about to ask some questions, but was interrupted by a pink and purple pokemon adorned with golden rings flew passed her from out of a portal. Hoopa stopped just before she slammed into the wall and frantically looked around.
Hoopa? What's wrong? Mew asked her.
The answer came in the form of Princess Luna's disembodied head popping out of the portal. "Huzzah! Nowhere left to run!"
"No no no wait!" Hoopa pleaded and waved her arms frantically. "I'm sorry, I apologize, I won't spread rumors as pranks anymore!"
Hoopa could not believe how persistent Luna was when it came to getting revenge. She had gotten a head start and jumped through a portal after the first turn around a corner, but Luna had already gotten close enough to jump through it. This had continued for four more portals, and now Hoopa was going to get blasted through a wall.
"Moon Blast!"
Hoopa flinched and closed her eyes. She felt something bounce off of her forehead. She looked down and saw a rubber bouncy ball that was designed to look like the moon. Hoopa watched the ball bounce for a bit before looking to Luna. "Was that it?"
A flash of light burst forth from Luna's horn and a barrage of rubber moon bouncy balls was launched at Hoopa. When it was over Hoopa lay on the floor of Mew's lab covered in rubber moon bouncy balls.
"We are best prankster princess!" Luna yelled and retracted her head back through the portal laughing all the way.
Princess Celestia just stood there while Mew just floated in place beside her. Both of them just looked at the scene in front of them with their faces frozen in a 'what the fuck just happened' position, their eyes and mouths wide open. They did not move for a few minutes and had no actual thoughts in their minds because they were now broken. Celestia finally shook head head several times, bid Mew farewell, and walked out of the lab muttering something about switching Luna's coffee to decaf.
Mew just continue to float and stare. ...wat?
Melissa Chapman opened the door to her home. She dropped her keys in a bowl on the table next to the door. She walked through the living room, passed the couch, and into the kitchen. After opening the refrigerator and grabbing a drink she called out.
"Dad! I'm home!"
Melissa shrugged and figured that her father was out for work. She walked back out of the kitchen took off her jacket and hung it in the closet. After a bit of stretching to work out the kinks from her journey she walked out to the backyard.
"We're home everyone." Melissa called out and took four pokeballs from her belt.
From the first pokeball came a tall cream colored equine with black hooves, red eyes, a horn in the center of its forehead, and flames sprouting from its neck tail and hooves. From the second pokeball came a tall black and white striped equine with a jagged white mane extending all the way from its head to its tail which ended in a star shaped tip. From the third pokeball came a large bird with brown and cream colored feathers a red tail, and a long red and yellow crest on its head. From the fourth pokeball came a snow white sea lion like pokemon with black eyes, a black button nose, two short tusks, and a small horn on the top of its head.
"Everyone say hello to our new friend!" Melissa told them and threw her fifth pokeball up into the air.
Rainbow Dash hovered in the air at head level with Melissa and looked around at the new place they were at. The other four pokemon all watched her with curiosity. She saw the large stream fed pond that decorated the far end of the rather impressive yard, the flower garden that grew between the pond and the house, and the hedges that grew along the sides as a fence.
"You guys all get to know each other." Melissa told them. "I'll go get some food ready."
Rainbow Dash watched the blonde girl go back inside the house. Then she turned back to the others and waved her right front hoof a little nervously. "Uh, hi I'm Rainbow Dash."
"So very nice to meet you darling, my name is Dew." the seal greeted her in a polite ladylike manner.
"I'm Peck!" the bird said with a big grin on her beak.
"Hello." the striped equine said a little gruffly.
"Ah don't mind him. Strike is just a little slow to warm up to new faces." the fire horse told her. "My name is Rapid, short for Rapidash."
"Rapidash huh? So you're fast?" Rainbow asked with her front hooves crossed and a smug look on her face. "I happen to be pretty fast myself. Maybe we should have a race sometime."
Rapid snorted and laughed. "Ha! Gal unless you can beat one hundred and fifty miles per hour you ain't gonna match me."
Rainbow Dash burst out laughing and clutched her sides. "One fifty is the best that you can do?! I pass that just by getting out of bed."
"Let's see it then." Strike challenged her.
Rainbow Dash was off like a shot. She ran the length of the yard and left a trail of rainbow flames in her wake. When she reached the pond she spread her wings and launched herself up into a vertical climb with a rainbow streak trailing behind. After she reached a high enough altitude Rainbow Dash went into a series of zigzagging patterns at a much higher speed than the pokemon watching her had ever seen. Finally she finished with a full circle loop and a nosedive, and stopped just in front of Rapid's face.
"That. Was. AMAZING!" Melissa screamed from the door. She dropped the containers of food in her arms and ran back into the house. "New routines, better combinations, so awesome!"
"Um, what just happened?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"What just happened is that we won't see her for at least an hour." Strike said. He then looked at the food with an unamused expression. "And I'm hungry."
"So then eat." Rainbow told him.
"None of us can open the food." Peck said and pecked at a container.
Rainbow Dash shrugged and picked up one of the jars and unscrewed the top. "Who gets what?"
"Yay!" Peck flapped her wings and dropped a bowl for each of them on the ground.
Again Rainbow Dash shrugged and didn't try to figure out where the bowls had come from. She just poured each different food into a different bowl and gave herself a mix of what Rapid and Strike were eating.
Inside the house Melissa had gone up to her room to plan out a new contest routine for her new partner. She had promised that they would find her friends, but until they had some better information about where they were she could make plans for the stage. Melissa briefly looked at the note she had found stuck to her bedroom door. Her father had gone on a trip to the Kalos region to work on a high profile legal case and would be gone for a few days.
Melissa sighed and not for the first time wished that she could spend more time with her father, but he had a job and she was set on becoming a top coordinator. Of course there was still the Team, but she had honestly only joined because it was a family tradition.
Location: Kalos regional prison, high security sector, visitation wing.
A middle-aged man in a simple blue business suit sat in a booth on one side of the bulletproof glass. His hair was combed back in a respectable style, his glasses were plain black rimmed pieces that sat lightly on his nose, and he was clean shaven. All together he was a very respectable looking man.
On the other side of the glass two guards walked in with a prisoner in cuffs between them. The prisoner was set down in the booth opposite of the one the other man sat in. The guards left the room. The prisoner did not waste any time and pressed the button that allowed them to talk.
"I don't believe we have ever met, who are you?" the prisoner asked, his voice void of emotion.
"My name is Hedrick Chapman, I'm an environmental lawyer."
"Why are you here Mr Chapman?" the prisoner asked.
"To get you out of prison." Mr Chapman answered.
The prisoner was surprised by this information. "Are you with one of the government organizations that are hiding their connections to me?"
"No, nothing so trivial." Mr Chapman smiled earnestly. "I do however work for a Team of individuals who simply want to prevent harmful changes in our natural world."
"Don't waste time with pretty words Mr Chapman. You are here on behalf of Team Eternity."
"You know about us. Alright, I'll be frank." Mr Chapman mentally threw away the little speech he had planned. "We have a project that we have been working on. The Forever Ball, but we have encountered a few problems with the building and programming. We would appreciate your help."
"What do you hope to accomplish?"
"We intend to build a better world, but in order to do that we must break down the old one."
"And what do I stand to gain from this arrangement?" the prisoner asked emotionlessly. "Aside from getting out of prison that is."
Mr Chapman smiled as he knew that he had the deal sealed with his next line. "Completely unrestrained freedom of your research, provided that you work on what we need."
"I accept." the prisoner said without a moment's thought.
Mr Chapman stood up and pulled out a cellphone. "Glad to have you with us Dr Nurem."