Horizon City, a technological masterpiece where humans and Pokémon live together peacefully. But when an ancient evil threatens to destroy everything, it's up to some very unlikely heroes to stop it before it's too late.
Horizon City, a technological masterpiece where humans and Pokémon live together peacefully. But an ancient evil is hidden within this city, and a newer one is attempting to unleash it.
And it's up to some very unlikely heroes to stop it before it's too late.
Horizon City, a great metropolis built within a large crater. North of it was a small mountain that overlooked the city, in its side was a cave with an ancient temple inside. Currently, the city was illuminated by the man-made lights of streetlamps and buildings, all letting out a soft glow that drove away the darkness of the night.
But in this darkness was a figure flying through the empty streets. They were dressed in a dark blue cloak, blending into the night as they moved through the city, only to reach a bunch of stairs carved into the side of the crater. It ran up them, the stairs seemingly going up forever since the crater itself was large enough to fit a skyscraper and still couldn't be seen. But as they reached the top, the figure found itself standing in front of the temple.
The temple was only really visible from the front, for like the ancient temples that could be found in the far off Crown Tundra, only the entrance was visible. The rest had been built into the mountain, while the entrance was made out of the dug out rocks. It had four pillars holding up the roof, two on either side of a large set of stone doors.
The figure walked up and pushed the doors open, barely able to move them before sneaking through a tiny gap made by the push. And as soon as they were in, the building was suddenly illuminated by proximity lights. The figure kept themselves hooded up as they made their way through, soon reaching the back.
There it saw a statue of a Pokémon, which appeared to be a fusion of a minotaur and an equine that was almost ten foot tall. The top half of its body was that of the humanoid bull, while the bottom half was of a horse's chest and front legs. The rest appeared to be hidden within the wall, the front of its human body sticking out of the wall as its side appeared to be fused with the rock. But the statue also looked very weak, its body looking old and decrepit with long thin arms crossed in front of its chest. It had a wispy beard around its face and tiny little nubs sticking out the top of its head along with a ring on its nose.
The figure walked up to the statue, only to suddenly hear some voices, "I'm telling you, I heard something." The figure turned to the door, now seeing shadows seep in, "See? The lights are on!" They quickly jumped behind one of the temple's pillars just as the door was pushed open, a pair of security guards now appearing.
"Anyone in here?" One of them asked.
"Oh, yeah. Like someone who snuck in here is gonna just answer that."
"Well, I don't see anyone," the other guard replied, "The wind probably just pushed the door open and the lights switched on because of it." He then took out a remote, pressing a button that turned the lights off, bathing the temple in darkness again.
"Maybe we should call the boss and have him bring his Stoutland?"
"You really wanna call the boss on one of his rare nights off? The last time we did that and there was nothing, we had to wash Stoutland's fur of a month! You wanna spend another month trying to wrestle that thing into a bathtub again?!"
"No..."
With that, the pair walked out and pulled the doors shut. The figure waited for a moment, then walked out from behind the pillar. As they did this, they took something out of their cloak, a device that looked like a metal water-gun without a container. It then pulled out a glass one full of a green liquid before screwing it on the gun.
Once that was done, the figure pointed the gun at the statue before pulling the trigger. But instead of the liquid being fired, the gun shot a blast of green lightning that flew out and struck the statue. This caused it to glow green as the liquid in the container slowly began to deplete. And after a few minutes, the liquid was completely drained, and the stature began to glow green...only for the light to fade as it was absorbed into the stone.
"Not enough," grumbled a feminine voice. "I need more power." They moved up and placed their hand on its leg. "At this rate, I'll be discovered before I have a chance to finally awaken you. I need more power. But where am I supposed to get it?"
Silence filled the temple, the statue remaining silent like it always had. But as the figure stood there, they turned to the closed doors, "Wait...the tournament. That's it!" The being then ran to the exit, opening the doors before running to the edge of the crater again. There it focused on a large stadium in the distance. "Yes...with all those battles, I'll be able to gather as much power as I want."
With that, the figure began to laugh before running down the stairs. Soon, Equestria would bare witness to a sight that it hadn't seen in over a thousand years. The return of its most powerful Pokémon as the person whispered, "And it will be mine."
Pokémon, the Movie: Rival and Darkness!
Several days later...
Within the woodlands of an Equestrian Forest, Pokémon were wandering around freely. In the trees, Chickling were nesting with Pipple hanging from the branches while Instick were blending in with the foliage. On the forest floor, Oakid were running around while Pyroom were standing in a cluster under some trees. And in a nearby pool of water, Water-types like Gumigator, Wooper and others were calmly swimming.
There were many other Pokémon, too numerous to count as they all enjoyed life to the fullest. However, as they did this, a new presence began to move through the undergrowth, making them run away so fast that the place looked empty in just a few seconds.
"Ri," Springer the Riolu cheered as he leapt out of some bushes, landing on a nearby rock. Flash Sentry came next, along with his friends, Twilight Sparkle, Spike and Time Turner. The four humans glanced around as they continued to walk through the forest.
"Remind me again why we didn't just transport ourselves directly to Canterlot?" Spike asked.
"Shining Armor said travelling there through this route would be good training," Flash replied, now thinking about the three weeks since they had left the Crystal Empire after defeating Sombra and his evil team. In that time, they had met many strong trainers, Flash fighting them all, claiming victory every time. They weren't easy, but that was what made them worth it to Flash.
And now they were continuing their journey to Canterlot, aiming to finally enter the Equestria League. But along the way, Shining had instructed them to make a pitstop at a certain city: Horizon.
"It won't be long now," Twilight commented as she followed her journal's map system. "Once we're through these trees, it'll be a straight shot to Horizon City." And as she said that, they found the treeline, soon walking out to a far more open area. There was still the occasional tree, but not many as Twilight pointed to a mountain in the distance. "There it is. At the base of that mountain is Horizon City."
Everyone smiled at the sight, Doc speaking up, "If we hurry, we should reach the town right before the sun sets." The others nodded as they began to run for the mountain. But as they did this, they found themselves coming to a stop as they saw a large group of people standing together in the woodland clearing.
"Huh? What's going on?" Spike asked, the others shrugging. And as they got closer, someone in the group turned to them and went wide-eyed.
"HEY! LOOK!" He pointed at them as the group turned to them, "IT'S HIM! FLASH SENTRY!"
"Excuse me?" Flash asked, only for the group to charge at him. "WAIT A MINUTE!" But it was too late as the group suddenly crowded around them, pushing against one another.
"Flash!" One of the girls screamed, "You helped save Equestria! You're amazing!"
"I saw you on TV!" Another teen cried, "My older brother went to the Crystal Empire after he heard you!"
"I went too!" Another yelled, "I was the one with the Thoray! You saw me, right?"
Flash tried to respond, only to find himself speechless as the people kept pushing them back. "What the heck is happening?" Spike asked as he pushed someone back from crushing him.
"Well, Flash did lead the final battle against Sombra," Doc chimed in, "And he was the one to finally beat him. I guess it would be stupid to think that kind of situation wouldn't leave him with a bit of fame."
"But how'd they know Flash was here?" Twilight asked, one of the group hearing this.
"We heard a rumor from someone that Flash Sentry had beaten a friend of theirs a few days ago and that he was heading here. We came to see if it was true."
"Well..." Flash started to backpedal at this, "It's true. Now what?" He got his answer when the trainers all took out Pokeballs, showing him what they wanted, making Flash smile, "Oh yeah." He took out his own Pokeball.
Cue epic Pokémon music.
The group broke up and Flash pointed at one of the trainers, the pair then throwing the balls upward. Flash's choice was his Stagrowth, Prongs, while his opponent unleashed a Mushroast. The two Pokémon stared each other down before charging, Mushroast firing an Ember attack as Prongs easily jumped over it before thrusting his front legs down into Mushroast's head. The Fire-type yelped at this, only to get hit by Prongs' Energy Ball, an explosion consuming the Pokémon.
As Mushroast was sent flying back, Flash's friends smiled before they felt a tap on their shoulders and turned to see three trainers smiling at them before holding up Pokeballs. The three glanced at each other before Twilight and Doc took out their Pokeballs and Peewee hopped off Spike's shoulder.
Soon enough, four battles were taking place, Prongs dodging Mushroast's fire attacks while Twilight and Owlicious were battling it out against a Cauldrula and Doc and Higear were facing off against a Clobberoo. Spike was watching as Peewee and a Skullimor flew around one another, firing Incinerates and Shadow Balls.
Mushroast threw a Fire Punch at Prongs, but the Stagrowth used Bounce to leap over the Pokémon before bucking his back hooves into the mushroom, knocking it into a tree. The blow made the Pokémon slump over, spirals now in its eyes. This made Flash cheer, only for a blast of light to make him turn and see a Vespiquen flying next to another trainer. Prongs stepped forward, but Flash held up an arm before taking out a Pokeball. In a flash, Viper the Vipeacon appeared, letting out a hiss before charging at the bee.
Meanwhile, Higear used Gear Grind on Clubberoo and Owlicious used Sky Attack on Cauldrula, both Pokémon getting blasted back and slamming into each other. This caused the pair to start arguing, distracting them as Higear grabbed Clubberoo's tail while Owlicious took Cauldrula in his Psychic attack.
Both were pulled up while Peewee used Bite on Skullimor's tail and swung it down, crashing them altogether into the forest floor. All three Pokémon were knocked out, the trio celebrating before seeing more Pokémon being released to battle. More than three had sent out their Pokémon, causing Twilight and Doc to unleash the rest of their team. Soon enough, Shine and Owlicious were fighting a Movine and Ghouwail while Peewee fought against a Abearab. Higear, Tockwork, Flitanium and Aggron were also facing a Grattle, Thoray, Boaraurora and Pyruby.
As this happened, Flash found himself battling more and more, Springer against a Mawile while Viper continued to battle the Vespiquen and Prongs was now fighting a Stalorn. Meanwhile, Skyler was battling a Ninjask in the sky, and Astro was slashing away at a Drifblim with Dragon Claw. And on the ground, Riptide was facing off against a Heliolisk.
The battlefield was a chaotic mismatch of Pokémon attacks, explosions everywhere as Flash and his friends smiled at this sight. At this moment, Springer jumped up to avoid Mawile's Crunch attack before forming a Bone Rush and slamming the energy staff onto its head, making it cry out. While this happened, Skyler was getting struck again and again by a super fast Ninjask, only to snag it with its claw before throwing it upward before slamming into the Nnjask with an Aerial Ace attack.
At the same time, Riptide did several back-flips to avoid the Heliolisk's Thunderbolt, then jumping off a tree like a spring board. to shoot forward. He formed as Aqua Blade at this, slashing at the lizard's neck and knocking it off its feet. As the blow hit the lizard, Prongs fired an Energy Ball at Stalorn's face, the opposing Pokémon pushing through the attack and firing a Stone Edge. However, Prongs easily side-stepped the attack and practically teleported next to Stalorn before thrusting his horns into it, draining away its energy before throwing it away.
While this happened, Viper slithered along the ground, avoiding Vespiquen's multiple Power Gems before unleashing a Flamethrower. The bee dodged it, only for Viper to leap at the bee, swinging its body around the Bug-type and biting its tail and using Pyro Coil. As this happened, Astro found himself buffeted by an Ominous Wind, but fought through before charging at Drifblim. Once close enough, he used Crunch on one of its arms and swung it down at the ground.
The others all blasted their opponents down, knocking them to the ground and allowing Flash's friends to turn and see his Pokémon line up. Prongs, Viper and Astro fired their long rang attacks while Springer, Skyler and Riptide charged. A Drain Punch, Steel Wing and Rock Smash slammed into the opponents at the same time as the Energy Ball, Flamethrower and Dragon Rage hit, knocking all their opponents back, leaving them all unconscious.
Music ends.
"No way..." one of the trainers gasped as he returned his Drifblim. "They're really good." Flash smirked at this while the trainers returned all their Pokémon before walking away.
"Well, that was fun," he turned to his Pokémon. "Nice work guys." The Pokémon all cheered before he returned them, promising them a treat later.
As he did this, Spike spoke up, "I can't believe you're famous now."
Doc chuckled at this, "Give it thirty years and you'll probably become a subject in schools." Flash smiled at this, the idea of a kid doing a history report on him now appearing in his head, only to go away as Doc added, "Anyways, we should probably get going before it gets to dark to see the city."
They nodded back before following the trainers that had challenged them. And as the sun drew closer to the horizon, they found themselves getting closer to the mountain...but no city was appearing. "Shouldn't we be able to see this city by now?" Spike asked, getting a giggle from Twilight.
"I doubt that," she replied, "Horizon City is located in a pretty interesting location."
This made Flash, Springer, Spike and Peewee all raise an eyebrow while Doc pointed ahead of them. "See for yourself." The three glanced back, only to go wide-eyed as they saw the base of the mountain drew closer. There they saw it was actually a hole, now seeing it get bigger and bigger.
And as they reached the edge of the hole, they went wide-eyed as they saw that the hole was a giant crater, so large that an entire city had been built inside of it. Multiple skyscrapers that were over fifteen stories tall were there but still didn't reach above the edge along with a large stadium and several parks.
"Wow," Spike whispered.
"Welcome to Horizon City," Twilight told him, "Pretty cool, huh?"
"I've always wanted to see this place in person," Doc added, "Can't believe we're finally here."
"So...how do we get down there?" Flash asked, only to then notice a bunch of stairs on the opposite side of the crater. "Don't tell me we have to travel all the way around there." He turned to Twilight, who shook her head before pointing over to an area of the crater a little ways off. They followed her finger and saw a building that was built upon the edge of the crater, which had several large glass pipes heading straight down the side of the crater.
"Horizon elevators," She commented before pointing in three other directions, now showing a trio of buildings just like the first one that were placed in an X formation around the city. "We can get down using those."
"Awesome!" Spike cheered before running for the building with Peewee, Springer following after them. The others laughed and walked after him, soon reaching the building and heading inside. The place looked like something out of a futuristic movie, the entire building being made of shining metal, looking so clean that you could eat off it.
There was a line for the elevators, the group getting in line before they started to hear people inside now whispering amongst themselves. Flash saw the people were glancing back at him at times, making him feel both smug and a little nervous about what he was supposed to do next.
And as they walked up to the elevator, a girl ran up to them. "Excuse me!" they turned to her. "Can I get a picture?"
"Err...sure." She smiled at Flash before handing her camera to Doc, then grabbing his arm and hugging it. As Doc took the photo, Flash noticed Twilight crossing her arms with a low glare.
"Thank you!" She yelled once the picture was taken and ran off, leaving Flash and his friends free to enter the elevator.
"This is gonna start being a common thing, isn't it?" Spike asked as the doors shut and the machine lowered itself down the glass shaft.
"Not sure," Doc replied as they turned to stare at the city that was beginning to overshadow them. "This could just be a fifteen minutes of fame thing, or it could be permanent depending on what Flash does next." Flash nodded as the elevator reached the bottom, which flew down into another building before opening up, the six riders walking out to find another group of people waiting for the elevators.
They appeared to recognize him as well, but were lucky enough to not get swamped again or being asked for a battle or photos. But it was after getting past the crowds that the group noticed what this place really was.
Flash and his friends marveled at the sight of the city, now seeing the people and Pokémon working so well together. There were garbage collectors that were picking up litter that they placed in a bag being carried by Drifloon. There were cafes with Bounsweet helping the drinks while some Alcremie were baking some sweets. There were also Flying-types soaring above their heads, carrying mail and others items.
But it wasn't just the humans and Pokémon that were amazing. The city itself was technologically impressive, no cars or trucks on the streets, instead being a bunch of strange hovering platforms of different sizes that were flying through the streets without any issues or accidents. The crossroads had force-fields that stopped the platforms from hitting one another, and there were floating trash cans with Trubbish inside that hovered through the street collecting anyone's garbage.
"Wow..." Twilight whispered, "This place is amazing." They walked past some road works, spotting a Machoke pulling up a broken piece of ground to allow the worker to get under the road. They then saw some Joltik charging a machine for some engineers repairing a telephone pole. Above the engineers was an Emolga, the Pokémon sitting on one of the engineer's head, ready to help stop any electricity that could shock the workers.
And as they saw more and more, they found a Pokémon Center and headed inside. There they found the many trainers they had beaten before in the waiting room. "Flash!" One of the trainers exclaimed, "You're here!"
"Yeah," Flash nodded, "I guess I am."
"I guess it's no surprise you beat us," Another one chimed in, "You did save all of Equestria."
"Well..." Flash blushed, "I didn't do it alone." He gestured to his friends, "I never would have gotten to that point without my friends there to help me. And everyone else who came."
The trainers shared a glance at this, some nodding while others stared at him like he was a Legendary Pokémon. As this happened, one trainer asked, "So what are you doing here in Horizon?"
"Isn't it obvious?" Another trainer interrupted, "Here's here for the battle tournament!"
This made Flash go wide-eyed, "Battle tournament?"
The trainers turned to him, some tilting their heads as they responded, "The Horizon Cup. It's a yearly tournament that happens right before the league. It's not anything special, but it's good training for those hoping to take part in the Equestria League."
Flash's eyes went even wider before turning to his friends, Doc shaking his head, "Nope. Never heard of it."
"Me neither," Twilight added, only to cross her arms and shake her head, "Wait...you don't think Shining sent us here so you can compete in this, do you?"
"Maybe?"
Twilight let out a long sigh, "That's Shining for you. I'm guessing you're planning to enter?" Flash nodded, turning to Springer as the Riolu let out a cheer.
"Well, you might have trouble with that," chimed in a trainer, "Most people enter online or over the phone. You can try and enter at the stadium, but I think you'll find it might already be full."
"What?! Where's the tournament being held?!"
"At the stadium," he replied, "If you wanna get there, just use one of the transport platforms. Type in where you wanna go and it'll take you there." As he said that, Flash was already gone, yelling a thank you as he vanished out of the room.
"Flash!" Twilight yelped as they ran after him. When they left the building, Flash got to one of the platforms, now seeing it was a large metal square with a railing on three of the four sides, and a touchscreen connected to one of the railings.
"Alright..." he and Springer climbed on, "So how do we work this thing?" He moved over to the touchscreen and pressed his finger on it.
"Welcome," the device said out-loud before the screen showed a keyboard, "Please enter where you would like to go today."
"Okay..." Flash whispered as the others walked onto the platform. "S...T...A...D-" He stopped when the option for Horizon Stadiums came up. "Nice." He pressed it and when he did, a pair of metal doors closed the gap in the railing before the platform lifted into the air. "Whoa!" They all yelped as the platform jerked up to the road and grabbed the railing, holding onto as the machine shot through the city along with many other people riding platforms. Some were carrying entire families while others carried single individuals and a few shopping bags. One even had an Aipom riding with its trainer that waved at Springer, the Riolu waving back before they took two different streets and sped off.
"Come on, come on, come on!" Flash told the machine.
Twilight rolled her eyes at this, "You do remember he said you could sign up online." Flash turned to her, "that probably would have been faster then actually going there." Flash let out a moan at this, the group turning back to the ride as they watched the city go by until they saw the stadium in the distance. It looked like a lot of the other stadiums they had seen up until this point, though this one more shiny and metallic.
The platform turned to the building and they soon arrived at the front door, the transport turning into the parking lot and finally coming to a stop. "You have reached your destination." The platform deactivated and slowly fell to the ground, landing as the doors popped open.
Flash then bolted through the stadium doors, running up to the receptionist. "Excuse me! Are there any places left in the tournament?"
The woman behind the desk turned to her computer and typed away while the others reached them before she replied, "I'm sorry. The last spot was filled up by a young man about fifteen minutes ago."
"NOOOOOOOOOOO!" Flash cried, falling to his knees as tears began to stream down his face. Springer moved over and placed a hand on his shoulder, while his friends all sighed at this.
"Sorry Flash," Twilight commented, "Don't worry. You've still got a guaranteed entry into the Equestria League."
"Yeah...I know." Flash grumbled as he stood up, "Still, this would have been a great warm-up for it." He then turned to the reception lady. "When's the first round gonna be?"
"It starts tomorrow," she replied, "But if you wanna watch some battling, the contestants are having practice battles out on the field that you can watch." Flash nodded and walked up to the field, his friends following till they reached the stands. There they saw a practice match about to begin.
"Alright, let's see whose facing-" Flash's mouth came to a sudden stop, the others turning to him.
"Flash? You okay?" Twilight asked before glancing down at the field, only to freeze up as well along with the rest of the group.
Flash stood there with wide eyes, gasping as he saw who was on the battlefield, "Lightning..."
Lightning Blitz was in a triple battle, his opponent using A Hitmonlee, Hitmonchan and Hitmontop. The Pokémon he was using were ones that appeared to be new additions to his team, though it was clear where they had come from.
"Row!" A Roglacier roared as it dodged a Fire Punch from the Hitmonchan.
"Close Combat!" He ordered before the Ice Fighting-type charged, slamming its arms and legs into the Punching Pokémon in rapid succession. At the same time, Hitmonlee leapt at an Androrg.
"Rolling Kick!" The Kicking Pokémon swung its leg horizontally as the cyborg just stood there.
"Electro Blade!" Androrg raised its arm and blocked the kick before its other hand started spinning with electricity, swinging the arm in next as it sliced the Fighting-type with the blade of lightning.
Hitmonlee cried out as it was knocked back, landing on the ground next to Hitmontop as Lightning's final Pokémon charged. "Thrash!" Thrashark roared as it ran ahead at the Hitmontop.
"Aqua Jet!" Thrashark was consumed by water, flying past Hitmontop and knocking it off its feet. At the same time, Roglacier dodged Hitmonchan's Mega Punch. "Blizzard!" It pulled down its scarf and unleashed a blast of friged air, which struck the Fighting-type, freezing it up as it sent flying back.
"Chan!" It landed next to Hitmonlee and Hitmontop, Thrashark landing in front of them.
"Now, Tsunami Surge!" Water exploded from around the shark, turning into a wave that washed the three Hitmons away. They all screamed in pain before falling unconscious.
Lightning let out a yawn as he returned his Pokémon, spinning around to walk away. But as he did this, he glanced up at the stands, his seeing Flash for a second before continuing to walk out.
"This little trip is certainly gonna be an interesting one," Twilight commented before all but Flash turned to leave the stadium. Flash remained where he was for a moment, clenching his hands into fists before going after this friends. His mind went back to what Twilight had now said, knowing she was right. This trip was gonna be interesting, but how much was yet to be determined.
With the battle tournament booked up, Flash and his friends had nothing else to do except return to the Pokémon Center. There they all sat around, deciding what to do tomorrow, though Flash was just staring at the stadium in the distance, "Lightning," Flash whispered as he remembered the three on three battle he was competing in.
"You gotta forget about it, man," Spike chimed in from the seat next to him. "So he's here. So what?"
"Spike's right," Twilight added, "I get you probably wanted to battle him, but that'll have to wait until the Equestria League."
"That means you've got more time to train," Doc pointed out. "If you wanna beat him, you will need to be at the top of your game."
"Yeah..." Flash sighed while slowly nodding, "I guess you're right." He punched his fist into his palm, "But he better be ready, cuz I'm taking him down the next time we face off."
They all smiled at that, only for the doors of the center to open up, revealing the trainer they were talking about. Lightning Blitz moved over to the main desk, his eyes darting over to the four before getting to the counter, where he handed his Pokeballs to Nurse Redheart. As he did this, more trainers came in, all handing their Pokeballs over, only for one of them to notice a certain blue-haired teen.
"Wow!" They ran over to him, "Flash Sentry!" The teen let out a sigh, having hoped this would be done for today. The trainers all gathered around him, asking what he was doing there and if he was in the tournament. And as they did this, Lightning glared at the sight before walking away, only Twilight noticing the scowl on his face.
"What's up with him?"
Later that night...
In the streets outside the Pokémon Center, a cloaked figure made their way through the darkness to the hospital. They avoided the light of the streetlamps, disappearing into the shadow of the building before moving around to the back.
There it found a fenced off area, the figure climbing over and finding multiple metal boxes that were connected to the center. Once there, the hooded figure moved over to the boxes and from their cloak, they took out a small coin-shaped device. Attaching it to them, it did the same with the others before walking back and holding up their arm. The arm had a device wrapped around it that had a touchscreen on the top that projected a holographic screen above it.
They typed away for several seconds before the devices all started beeping and lit up. They unleashed an electrical current that flew into the boxes, frying the instruments inside before the coins exploded, leaving no proof they were ever there. "Perfect."
The next morning...
Interested in seeing as much of the city as possible, Twilight woke the rest of them up at an incredibly early hour. In other words, the sun was just now rising as Flash and Spike woke up, moaning in pain as they prepared for the day. But when they went to get a shower, they found the water was ice cold and refused to warm up....along with the lights refusing to switch on, and none of the power sockets were generating any electricity. The entire Center had lost power.
The four quickly headed to the reception, now finding multiple people talking to Nurse Redheart about the power outage. "I know," she told them. "I know. For some reason, all our generators cut out last night. I've already sent a messenger Pidove to Horizon Incorporated to tell them about the problem."
"Are our Pokémon healed up?!" One of them asked, "The first round of the tournament's today!"
"Yes," Redheart nodded. "All your Pokémon are still in top form. I didn't get my medical degree just by learning to push buttons."
The trainers nodded as Redheart's Chansey walked into the room pushing trolleys of Pokeballs. Flash glanced around, only to find no sign of Lightning Blitz. As he did this, Doc moved over to Nurse Redheart, "Would you like me to take a look at the generators? I am kind of a genius when it comes to these things."
Redheart shook her head, "I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I can't. The generators were donated by Horizon Incorporated. Having anyone except them look at it violates the warranty."
Doc nodded right as the sound of the center's doors opened. They turned to see a bunch of people wearing jumpsuits walk in carrying tool boxes. At the front of the pack was a young girl around Flash and Twilight's age, with pink skin and purple and blue hair. She was wearing a green short sleeve shirt under a black open vest and ripped gray jeans, a pink wool hat on her head with black boots on her feet. On her left arm was a wrist band that covered her whole forearm with a glass top.
Besides her was a young pink skinned girl with blue curled hair wearing a white dress and white sandal shoes. She was carrying a large briefcase that was almost as large as she was.
The two girls marched up to the reception desk, Doc stepping aside, "Morning," the older girl told the nurse. "Sorry about the generators. I have no idea how they could have all broken down."
"It's alright," she replied, "But do you think you can fix them? With the tournament about to start, I might end up with some Pokémon needing serious medical care."
"Don't worry," she responded, "We'll get them up and running in no time." She turned to the workers, "Let's get to work people! We have a lot to do and barely any time to do it!" The men all nodded. "What are you all waiting for?! Go! Go! Go! Go!"
The men ran for the generators, Twilight commenting on the sight, "Wow. She's certainly got those guys well trained." She turned to the pair, wondering why a pair of young girls were the ones calling the shots. "Who is she?" This was heard by the pair, who turned to her.
"Name's Starlight Glimmer," the girl their age replied as the younger one handed her a file. She opened it up, reading the information before finishing, "You shouldn't worry. We'll get the generators working soon and your Pokémon will be healed up in no time."
"Oh, don't worry. All our Pokémon are perfectly fine."
Starlight looked up from the folder at this, only to go wide-eyed, "Wait..." she whispered, "Are you-"
"Flash Sentry," he finished for her. "Yeah. I've been getting that a lot."
Starlight smiled and nodded, "I see. Your little speech certainly got a lot of people excited. And I heard you were the one that beat that overgrown lawn ornament." Flash nodded, "Well, its nice to meet you." She turned to the rest, "All of you." Then, a beeping sound came from the band on her arm, holding it up as a holographic screen appeared. "Well, I've gotta get going." She began to head for the door, "Come along Cozy."
"Coming," the little girl replied.
Once they were gone, the six all stared at the door, Doc commenting, "She certainly acted a lot older then she really is."
"You gotta wonder how smart she is if she's in charge of that group," Twilight added, "Anyways, we should get going. This is a big city, and there's a lot to see."
They nodded and headed out, the group beginning their journey on foot instead of using a transport platform. They soon found themselves in a shopping district, finding an arcade, multiple stores selling different Pokémon items and even a small store that sold rugs covered in Pokémon patterns.
Eventually, lunch time came around and they enjoyed themselves at a nice little café full of different Pokémon themed foods. "What to get?" Spike asked himself as he looked through the menu. "So many choices..."
Flash was about to reply, only to hear something from a nearby TV. "Next up in the Battle Tournament, Lightning Blitz verses Conway." Flash looked up at the screen, Twilight and the others soon watching. "What Pokémon will these two trainer use in this battle?"
"Venomega!" Lightning threw his Pokeball and the giant purple lizard with a large frill appeared, roaring as it swung its poisonous claws and tail around.
"So his Frillace also evolved," Doc commented as his opponent sent out a Dusknoir. "That's gonna be tough to deal with in a League match."
Flash said nothing as he stared at the battle. If he couldn't compete, he could at least see how strong Lightning had gotten. And as battle started, the waitress took their orders and soon brought their food over, the group now seeing Venomega easily overpower the Ghost-type.
"Cross Poison!" Lightning ordered as the lizard crossed its arms, the blades on them glowing purple.
"Ven!" It swung its arms, slashing at Dusknoir in an X formation. The blow knocked the Gripper Pokémon flying, eye now turning to a spiral as it hit the dirt.
"That's it! Lightning Blitz wins! He'll be moving onto the second round." Flash then saw Lightning recall Venomega with a yawn, Flash glaring at the sight as he knew what would probably happen next.
"That was good," he turned to Spike and saw he was talking about the large burger he had just finished. Flash looked down at his plate, now seeing it was empty, the teen too focused on the match to realize he was eating. Twilight and Doc had also finished at this, soon paying their bill and left the café.
"So what do you guys wanna see next?" Flash asked as they walked off their meals.
"I'm not sure." Doc replied, "There's so much to see here that it could take a month to see the whole place in detail...:
Twilight snapped her fingers at this, "I know the perfect place." She pointed at a nearby transport platform on the side of the road, all soon climbing on board. She then typed in a location as she said, "I've always wanted to go here. Now's my chance." She hit the enter button and the doors behind them closed before the machine began to fly over the road.
"So where are we going?" Spike asked before Doc looked over Twilight's shoulder, smiling at the sight of the name on the screen.
"Alright! I wanted to check that place out too! This should be fun."
Flash and Spike both shared a glance at this, only to soon see a skyscraper coming into view. It was the tallest in the city and was made out of metal and glass. It actually looked like several buildings stacked on top of one another, each one getting smaller the higher up it went. And at the top was a large flat surface that looked like it could fit several helicopters on it, the very base around the same size as the city stadium, with many people coming in and out.
"Welcome to Horizon Incorporated!" Twilight exclaimed as the platform stopped in the building's parking lot. They all got off as she added, "This place is one of the best tech innovators in Equestria."
Doc nodded, "It's advancements are only rivalled by Silph Co and the Devon Corporation." They moved up to the building and saw a large group of people gathering around the front. "And it looks like we might be right on time for the tour."
"Tour?!" Spike yelped, "You brought us here to take a tour of a building?!" Twilight rolled her eyes and grabbed his collar before he could make a break for it, dragging him along.
"This building had built some of the best technology around the world. And if we're lucky, we'll get to see it in action." She pulled him into the back of the group, Flash and Doc moving up with them as a woman walked over to them.
"Welcome. I'm guessing you're all here to take a tour of our facilities?" All but Spike nodded, "Good. Then please follow me and take a visitors badge," She pointed to a table with multiple key-card objects with strings tied around them. They each put on a badge, the tour guide leading them through the building. "Here are Horizon Incorporated, our vision is to make the world a better place using the power of Pokémon and all their mighty abilities."
They headed down one of the hallways and found a wall to their left was made entirely out of glass, allowing them to see inside. Multiple scientists there were attaching heavy objects to a hook being suspended by a thin string. "This wire is being developed to use on mountain research. Being so high up, one would want a wire that's both strong and flexible. And so, we've been developing this wire using the String Shot attacks of specially trained Pokémon, who have worked hard to improve the power of the attack."
To prove her point, a Spinarak scuttled onto one of the tables and fired a String Shot onto to the roof. The scientists then gathered around and began taking samples while the tour continued on. They then saw a clock that was designed to be as accurate as a Hoothoot. Equipment that was being developed to be used by Rotom, including the normal ones like a washers, freezers and ovens. There were also ones like jackhammers, boomboxes and even a digi-pet, along with a lab where they were developing new forms of medicine using different Pokémon attacks or abilities.
"See that man over there?" The tour guide asked, the group turning to see a man holding a jar of yellow liquid. "He's currently working on developing a new form of antiseptic using the honey of Combee and Vespiquen."
"Honey?" Spike asked, "How is that an antiseptic?"
Twilight smiled and chose to explain instead of the tour guide. "Honey contains hydrogen peroxide, which may account for some of its antibacterial properties. It also has a high sugar content, which can help stop the growth of certain bacteria. Additionally, honey has a low pH level. This works to pull moisture away from bacteria, causing the bacteria to get dehydrated and die off." She turned to her brother, whose brain was now producing smoke, "It just is, okay?"
"O...k," Spike replied as they continued to watch the scientists work. The honey guy placed the jar onto a trolley full of the stuff and began to roll it out to the corridor, passing by the group as the smell of honey filled the air, making both Peewee and Springer lick their lips.
"Well," the tour guide told the group, "we should head to our next destination." As she said that, the scientist pushed the trolley around a corner. But when he did, the cart suddenly jerked and fell on one corner, one of the jars falling off. It thankfully didn't break, instead rolling away as the scientist saw one of the cart's wheels had come off.
"Not again." He grabbed the wheel and put it back on, completely unaware of the jar that rolled around the corner, its lid slowly coming off. And as the aroma of the honey filled the air, it caught the attention of a certain Pokémon.
"Terra?" Peewee turned to the jar and smirked, jumping off Spike's shoulder. The boy spun around at this, following his Pokémon before seeing Peewee land near the jar and started licking up the spilled contents.
"Seriously?! You're gonna eat off the floor?!" Peewee glanced up and shrugged before continuing, Spike letting out a moan. "Great...can we go now?"
"Terra," Peewee jumped back onto his shoulder, Spike looking back at the tour...only to see they had vanished.
"Uh-oh." The pair ran down the hallway and found themselves at a section with three exits, "Oh, come on!" He turned to Peewee, "Don't suppose you can smell them?" Peewee shook his head. "Well that's just great." He turned back to the three possible directions and picked one, "Twilight's so gonna kill me."
Meanwhile...
Twilight was now staring at another room, now seeing someone place a dummy inside a strange looking suit. "This area is dedicated to developing clothing that can withstand different Pokémon attacks, such as trainers who are having a hard time training ones who enjoy setting them on fire or freezing them solid." As she said that, a Snom appeared and unleashed an Ice Beam that struck the suit. But no matter how much it fired, the blue lightning was unable to create any ice on the dummy.
Then, a Geckolar appeared and unleashed a Flamethrower which hit the suit. It too was ineffective against the suit, leaving the dummy untouched. However, when a Joltik appeared and unleashed a Thunderbolt, the suit began to fry, a particular smoky smell now filling the air.
"As you can see, it's, err, still a working progress."
The people on the tour laughed, Flash turning to Spike. "Maybe you should get something like that for Peewee when he sneezes on your-" He stopped as he glanced around, "Huh? Uh...guys?" Twilight and Doc turned to him, "Where're Spike and Peewee?"
Their eyes went wide at this, now seeing that the teen was missing. "Oh no," Twilight whispered as she looked back at the way they had originally come. "They must have gotten separated."
"What do we do?" Doc asked, "Tell the tour guide?"
But before they could think to do that, Springer clapped his paws together and unleashed a burst of aura, soon locking onto to a certain pair. "Ri!" He sprinted off, Flash and the others following without the tour or its guide noticing them leave.
"I just hope he hasn't gotten into any trouble..."
Spike and Peewee were now wandering down the fifth corridor they had gone through. "Ugh....this is so bad." He moaned as he turned another corner, only to see another corridor that looked like the other ones. "Augh!" He ruffled his hair in frustration, "All these hallways look the same!"
"Terra..."
They then took yet another corner, only to go wide-eyed as he saw something at the end of the hallway: An elevator.
"Yes!" He exclaimed as he ran over it, "Maybe this will be able to get us to the lobby." But when he reached it, he found there was no call button, instead just a slot for a card, "Huh?" He looked down at the key-card around his neck, "I wonder..." He slashed it through the slot, but nothing happened. "Oh, come on." He slotted it again, only for still no results. "Please...." Again, but no response. "Come on!" He slashed it again, and this time the elevator actually dinged. "Seriously?"
But as the door opened, the door opened to reveal someone inside. It was the blue haired girl he had seen with Starlight earlier, the girl raising an eyebrow at him, "What are you doing here?!"
"Umm..." Spike muttered out.
"This is a restricted section."
"I'm sorry," Spike bowed, "I got separated from the others and...wait," he looked up at her. "Why are you here? You're even younger than me!"
The girl narrowed her eyes at him, "I might be younger than you, but I'm allowed here because I work here!"
Spike's eyes went wide at this, only for another voice to call out, "Spike!" He turned to see his friends running over, "What are you doing here?!" Twilight asked, "Do you have any idea how worried we were for you?!"
"Sorry guys," Spike replied while slightly glancing away, "Peewee distracted me, and when I turned back, you guys were gone." The group then turned to the girl, who was staring at them all with raised eyebrows as Spike added, "Apparently, we're in a restricted section."
Twilight tilted her head at the girl, "Oh, are you lost too? Need us to help find your mom and dad?"
"I'm not lost," the girl snapped back, "And I work here, so I don't need any parental guidance." They then heard a beeping, the girl glancing down at a device similar to the one Starlight had been wearing. "And now I'm late..."
She turned to run down the hallway, only for Twilight to ask, "Hey! Which way gets us back with the tour?" The girl stopped and let out a sigh, then gestured for them to follow.
A few minutes later, they got to a doorway as the girl said, "Please stay here." She walked inside and returned a minute later, now carrying a small box. "Alright, stay close and don't touch anything."
The others wondered what she meant as she headed back down the hallway, getting to the elevator again. She pulled out a key-card and slashed it, opening the elevator as they all walked in, only to feel themselves moving upward. "Wait...I thought you were taking us back to the tour?" Twilight asked.
"I will," she replied. "But first I have to deliver these parts." They looked at the floor numbers on a nearby screen, which kept going higher and higher.
"Where are we going?" Doc asked.
"To the top floor," she responded, "Where Horizon Incorporated's most high-tech lab is located."
At that moment, the elevator dinged as it came to a stop. They walked out and found they were in an office, the center of the room having a large wooden desk with two people sitting at it. One was Starlight, who was looking at a bunch of different documents while the other was another teen Flash and Twilight's age. He was an orange skinned teen with red hair and glasses, wearing a blue button up shirt with a dark blue blazer and grey pants.
Starlight looked up from the papers, "Cozy, good timing. Did you-" She stopped when she saw Flash and the others step out of the elevator. "Cozy?"
"I'm sorry," the girl bowed. "They got lost and were in a restricted section. I'll take them back to the lobby and-"
"No, no." Starlight got up, "This is quite a rare treat. The hero that saved Equestria, in my office. Such a pleasure." She reached out with a hand, Flash taking it.
"Sorry if we've caused any trouble," he replied, "Unfortunately, this is kinda what usually happens to us."
"Yeah," Twilight nodded, "We usually blunder into these situations and end up getting involved. That's kind of what happened with Team Shadow."
"I see," Starlight giggled, "Well anyway, I'm happy to have you here." She then turned to the boy at the desk. "Let me introduce you to my closest friend and fellow genius inventor here at Horizon Incorporated."
"Call me Sunburst," he responded before pushing his glasses up. He then got up and shook their hands as well, "It's a pleasure to meet you."
"And it's a pleasure to be here," Doc replied, "This company is so amazing. Even more amazing now that we know it's being run by a pair of teens even younger than me."
Starlight shook her head, "It's actually a recent situation. This place was my uncle's, but then he decided to retire and left me in charge. Sunburst and I have been helping since we were Cozy's age, and knew the place better then anyone, so we were really the only choice to put in charge."
"Wow..." Twilight whispered. "You guys must be amazing if you were allowed to help out at such a young age."
The two chuckled before Cozy walked up and held out the box she was carrying. "Oh good. The new part is here. Hopefully this should make it more usable."
"What is it?" Spike asked, Twilight then flicking his ear.
"Don't be rude. It's probably something classified."
"It is," Starlight responded before turning to Sunburst. "But what do you say? Should the hero of Equestria be given a sneak peak?"
"I don't see why not," Sunburst shrugged, "As long as they promise to stay quiet about it." They all nodded, agreeing before the pair gestured for them to follow into the next room, which was another large lab full of different equipment. "Just don't touch anything." Spike instantly pulled his hand away from a floating ball as Starlight went into another room.
"So what are you working on?" Flash asked before Sunburst pressed a button, causing a nearby wall to open and reveal a glass window. On the other side was a man and a Sandslash, the man currently brushing the Ground-type.
"This is Solid Granite," Sunburst explained, "He and his Sandslash are well known around here as having a particularly strong bond, and that bond will hopefully allow them to use our latest creation."
In that moment, Starlight walked in with a metal briefcase. She opened it up and Solid reached inside, taking something inside before Starlight shut the case and left the room. They then saw the man held up his Pokeball and returned Sandslash before holding up the device. It was a kind of curved metal plate with a hole in the middle of it. He placed the Pokeball inside the hole, the red section of the Pokeball still visible as a glass covering appeared out of the device and locked the ball into place.
"Let's hope it works this time," Starlight commented as she walked up to Sunburst as he sat at a computer in front of the window.
"Alright," Sunburst said into a microphone, "Prepare for stage one." Solid nodded, whilst Sunburst reached up and pressed something on the side of his glasses. When he did, a flashing red light appeared next to the lenses. "We're now recording."
Starlight nodded and turned to Solid, as he lifted the chest-plate up. "And...activate!" He pulled the plate toward him and attached it to his chest. As soon as it did, the device lit up and unleashed a bright light that consumed his entire body. Everyone watched as the light around him began to take shape, giving him a very spiky appearance...and then the light began to fade.
Solid Granite was now wearing a set of armor based on Sandslash. He was wearing a white body suit with the chest plate on top of it, now linked to his body by connecting to a metal shell on his back that was covered in brown spikes. His arms and legs had yellow armoring around it, and on the end of his arms were a pair of long white claws. His boots also had claws and his head was covered by a helmet shaped around Sandslash's head. The Mouse Pokémon's nose was sticking out of his forehead with its eyes and ears above it, the man's eyes were where Sandslash's mouth was, with an orange visor covering them.
Everyone's jaws dropped as Spike muttered out, "What...just happened?"
"Did he just...fuse...with a Pokémon?" Twilight asked as they stared at the human-Sandslash Hybrid.
"Indeed," Starlight nodded, "This is what will revolutionize the Pokémon world. The Poké-Arms System."
"Poké-Arms?" Flash asked as he watched the armored figure begin to move around. "I don't understand."
"It's more than just a simple cosmetic change," Sunburst replied, "The Poké-Arms System is designed to allow the user to wield all the power of the Pokémon that the armour is mimicking. Their attacks, their abilities, and even the special powers that that Pokémon possess. In fact, we believe that the system has the power to allow a trainer and Pokémon to mentally communicate with it."
"Incredible," Doc whispered. "Think of the possibilities." The others turned to him with raised eyebrows, "Think about it. Imagine a situation where using this would be so much better than having the Pokémon do the work instead of you."
"Exactly," Starlight nodded. "Imagine that a miner is down a tunnel they can barely fit in and they come across a rock they can't break through. Usually, you'd have a Pokémon like Rhydon use its drill to cut through it, but the tunnel's so small that it can't fit."
"So using the armor would allow the miner to cut through the rock instead..." Twilight finished.
"Exactly." Sunburst nodded before turning to Solid. "Alright, time for phase two." He pressed a button and an opening appeared in the wall, a large chunk of rock being rolled out on a platform. "Try using Metal Claw to cut this thing in half."
"Understood," he nodded before turning to the rock. He held up a clawed arm, everyone seeing the claw beginning to glow. "Metal-AAAAARRRRRHHHHH!" He screamed as the claw started sparking, followed by the rest of the armor. "Get it off!" Everyone gasped as they saw this, Sunburst typing away at the computer. As he did, the chest plate exploded off of the man, the armor fading into light as this happened.
Solid fell over at this, everyone running into the room as the plate's glass covering retracted and Sandslash jumped out of its Pokeball. "Sand!" It cried as it tried to help its trainer.
"I'm okay buddy..." Solid gasped, "I'm...okay."
Starlight let out a sigh as she moved over to the Poké-Arms plate, "Another failure."
"What was that?" Twilight asked, Starlight turning to her.
"That was the major issue we've been having with the system," Starlight picked it up and placed it inside the case. As she did this, Flash noticed a second plate within it. "The system's able to generate the armor, but the synchronization system isn't fully functional yet. So whenever the wielder tries to use a move, it goes haywire and loses control."
"We've been working on this for months," Sunburst went on, "Improving the system bit by bit...but no matter how hard we try, the system just can't fully synchronize the user and their Pokémon enough to use it. We thought using someone that has a strong bond with their Pokémon might work, but as you can see, we're far from completing this project."
"Still..." Twilight added, "The fact you were able to get this far is incredible."
The others all nodded, all now thinking what they would look like in armor based on their best Pokémon as Starlight replied, "Thanks..." She turned to Flash, "Say...why are you actually here? I would have thought you'd be in the battle tournament."
Flash smiled as he scratched the back of his head, "I wanted to, but I missed registration and there weren't any spaces left."
"That makes sense," Sunburst nodded. "Sorry you guys couldn't compete."
"That's alright," Twilight responded, "It meant we had more time to look around this amazing city....and we haven't even seen half of it yet."
Starlight held up a finger, "Have you guys been to the ruins? That's something everyone should check out during their trip here." The others shook their heads. "That's a shame. Say, why don't we show it to you?" She looked down at the Poké-Arms plates. "We've gotta file a report on this test, but after that, our day's pretty free."
"That would be great," Flash replied, "Thanks a lot."
"No problem," Starlight turned to the girl named Cozy. "Why don't you take them down to the lobby so the tour doesn't get worried and we'll meet you there."
"Alright," Cozy nodded before turning to them, "Follow me." With that, she skipped back into the office and headed for the elevator, the others following behind. Their trip to Horizon City had already been one they would never forget, and it was only just the beginning.
After exiting the top floor's office and riding the elevator down to a lower level, Flash and his friends walked out into a hallway. As they did this, the girl known as Cozy Glow turned to them, "Before we go to the lobby, I need to grab something from my lab."
"You have a lab?" Spike asked as they made their way through the building.
"Of course," Cozy replied while skipping through the hallway. "Everyone who works here gets their own lab, where they're able to work on whatever project they want in their spare time."
"Wow," Twilight whispered, "So how did you end up working here at such a young age?"
"Oh, my grandpa was an experienced Pokémon trainer. He travelled all around Equestria and competed in a lot of tournaments. He even won the Equestria League once, but lost to the champion. After that, he got hired by Horizon Incorporated to field test their inventions. One day he brought me in and I wandered off and found a device in one of the labs that the scientists couldn't figure out how to get to work. But then I managed to figure it out. After that, they always asked me how to fix things up."
"Huh," Doc added, "That's impressive."
"Of course." Cozy giggled before gesturing to them, "We're here. Give me one second." She opened a door and walked in before coming back out with a strap bag around her shoulder. "Alright, I'm ready." She started skipping again, only to trip. "OH!" She yelped as she hit the ground, causing her bag to fly open. Several items flew out, books, pens and notepads....but one particular item hit the floor.
"Are you okay?" Flash asked as they helped Cozy up, others picking up things she had dropped.
"I'm okay," she replied before taking everything they handed her thanking them till Spike walked up to her.
"Hey, what's this?" They all turned to Spike as he picked up a Pokeball, this one being purple on the top with a white M on the front and pink circles on either side of it. The older teens saw it and gasped.
"A Master Ball?!" Twilight exclaimed as Cozy quickly took it off Spike and put it back in her bag. "Where did you get that?!"
"It...was my grandpa's. He got it shortly after winning the Equestria League, but never got the chance to use it."
"You know that's a restricted item, right?" Doc added as he pointed at her, "there's a reason it's not mass produced!"
"I know," Cozy winced, glancing away as she tightly held her bag, "But...it's the only thing I have of Grandpa to remember him by. I promise I don't have any intention of using it." She glanced back at them, "So could you maybe, not tell anyone about it?" The four stared at her, only for Cozy to give them the biggest puppy dog eyes they had ever seen.
"Alright," Flash rubbed the back of his head, "I guess there's no harm in it." He turned to the others and they nodded, then looked back to Cozy. "Alright. Just...don't get us in trouble if you get caught."
"I won't." Cozy replied before the group began to make their way back to the elevator, soon getting to the ground floor. They reached the lobby as the tour returned, the four quickly returning their visitors badges before Cozy offered to take them to the cafeteria. There, they got some drinks and waited for Starlight and Sunburst to show up.
Eventually, the pair arrived and they all headed out as Spike asked, "So where are these ruins?"
Sunburst then pointed to the mountain that overlooked the crater, "Right there. It's built into the side of the mountain." As he said that, Starlight typed something into the gauntlet on her arm. A moment later, a large hover platform flew over and they all climbed onboard.
Once on, the platform began to hover over to the main road. "So what's so special about these ruins?" Flash asked as they flew through the city, Starlight smirking back.
"It was built by the people who first created Horizon City. It took place after a great battle between three incredibly powerful Pokémon. The battle was so great that the force of their attacks created a massive hole in the surface of the earth."
The four and their Pokémon glanced around, now realizing what the hole was. "This crater was created during a Pokémon battle?" Spike added, the others nodding as Sunburst continued.
"Afterwards, the Pokémon that attacked was sealed away inside a hole in the mountain. The people who saw this chose to stay here and keep an eye on it, wanting to make sure nothing like what happened could ever happen again. So they built the temple and formed a village in the crater. That village evolved into a town, then into a city and finally into the great metropolis you see before you."
"Wow..." Twilight whispered as they arrived at their location.
"Here we are," Starlight chimed in as the platform came to a stop.
When they got off, Spike pointed at the staircase, "Wait, you want us to climb that?!" Starlight, Sunburst and Cozy started laughing. "Hey! That's not funny! Why can't we take an escalator or something?!"
"It's tradition," Cozy replied, "When you go to see the temple, you have to climb these stairs." Spike let out a major moan, Twilight and the others shaking their heads. "Come on, there's not that many."
"Only three hundred a seventy four," Sunburst responded, Spike letting out another moan before the group began to make their way up the stairs, climbing around the edge of the crater. By step one hundred and nine, they were standing higher then many of the buildings in the city, the teens starting to get winded, Spike panting heavenly as he did so. And by step two hundred and fifty, the other three, Springer and even Peewee were starting to pant along with him. After this, the last few dozen steps made them almost fall over, Spike actually doing it as he then crawled up to the top.
"Aaah," Starlight sighed, "Nice little work out is always good." She turned to the others, "How are you guys doing?" She then saw them all bent over, tongues out in exhaustion. "Don't worry. You get used to it."
"I doubt that," Flash moaned as he forced himself to stand up straight. Once the others had recovered, they looked up at the temple, "So this is it? The ruins that contain an ancient Pokémon?"
"That's right," Starlight nodded. "Sealed within the stone, a great beast of destruction that once rampaged across the land."
The visitors all glanced at one another, only to turn to the temple, now seeing someone they all knew at the building's front doors, "Lightning..."
Lightning Blitz turned to them and sighed, "Just my luck. Dork-fest continues."
They moved over to him, Starlight, Sunburst and Cozy staring at him before Starlight asked, "Is this a friend of yours?" She then flinched as Lightning gave her a death glare.
"Not...exactly," Twilight replied, "But what are you doing here?"
"Not that it's any of your business, but the last I checked, this place was free for anyone to come and look at. Besides," he turned to the doors, "there's supposed to be a super strong Pokémon inside here."
"And there's a reason for that," Sunburst stepped up and pushed the doors open. As he did, Twilight stared at the surrounding stonework in awe, all soon walking in as they saw multiple carvings and murals on the side walls. But then something caught their attention, and the four who had visited the Crystal Empire's eyes went wide.
"Is that what I think it is?" Flash asked as the group walked to the back of the temple, all staring at a giant statue of a Pokémon they had only seen before in stained glass.
"Yup," Cozy nodded as they took in its full image. "That's the Legendary Cataclysmic Pokémon."
"Centirek," Twilight whispered with wide eyes. The creature looked different from how it had looked in the window, but it was definitely the Pokémon in question. "What happened to it?" She turned to Starlight, who gestured to one of the walls.
Everyone turned to an image of Centirek, looking much buffer than the statue. "No one knows where Centirek came from, but it once ravaged the land, searching for the one thing it didn't have of its own. Power." Another image showed the Pokémon attacking a bunch of other Pokémon, then another that showed those Pokémon surrounded by a strange light that was either coming from or going into Centirek's mouth. The next image then showed the Legendary looking even stronger than before.
"Instead of trying to build up its own power, Centirek simply stole power from other Pokémon and added it to its own. It did this to any Pokémon that crossed its path, eventually becoming a monster that only cared about showing off its power." Sunburst commented as the next image showed Alicormony and Dischaos, both appearing out of the sky and charging at Centirek. "It got so bad that even the Legendaries decided to put aside their differences and attempt to stop him." Another image showed the three doing battle, their attacks combining and hitting the ground. The next image then showed a great crater between them.
"So they beat Centirek?" Spike asked, but Starlight shook her head.
"No. They were at a standstill. Centirek could match their power, and if they got too close, it would have stolen their power to."
"So what happened?" Twilight added before Sunburst pointed to the mural on the other wall. On it showed a cloaked figure watching the battle from afar. They were holding some kind of crystal, which they lifted up in the next image. The image after that showed a bright light, followed by the image of the figure fused with what looked like the legendary Zekrom.
"What just happened?" Lightning asked, Sunburst chuckling.
"That's an ancient form of using Pokémon that's been lost to time: Burst Evolution. The fusion of a person and a Pokémon."
"What?!" Doc gasped, "Isn't that like-"
"Yup," Starlight nodded, "That's where we got the idea for the Poké-Arms system. Pretty impressive, huh?" The others nodded as they turned to the wall, the next image showing the Burst Trainer flying at Centirek. "For some reason, Centirek couldn't steal the power of the Burst Pokémon. This allowed them to fight head on and weaken Centirek." The next image showed the Legendaries firing a blast at Centirek and pushing it into a mountain. "Alicormony and Dischaos then drained its power away, sealing it and putting an end to Centirek's reign of terror."
"That's amazing," Twilight whispered before turning to the statue. "So this isn't just stone. It's a real Pokémon?"
"No one's sure," Starlight replied while shaking her head, "Some believe it's really Centirek, while others think it's just a story somebody made up to make the place sound impressive. Honestly, there'll probably never be any proof of the truth. I mean, I doubt anyone's stupid enough to try and free Centirek just to see if it's true, especially after hearing that legend."
The four and their Pokémon blinked before slowly turning to glare at Lightning, the teen growling at them, "What?!" He grumbled before turning away, "Oh grow up. There's no way that thing is actually real. It's just a stupid stone statue!" He turned to the door, "I can't believe I wasted my time here."
He began to exit the temple, only for a voice to call out, "Hey!" he turned to see several people running up, "Is Flash Sentry in there?! We heard he was heading for the ruins!" Lightning growled at this, not answering as the trainers ran past him and mobbed Flash. He glared at the sight, Twilight noticing this before Lightning turned to leave.
That night...
When the sun set and the city was blanketed by darkness, everyone went to bed, all fast asleep. All except one person.
Standing in front of the temple, the cloaked figure was looking over the city. It took out several glass containers, along with a device that was cube with a small satellite dish on it. They placed it on the ground and attached one of the containers to the side of it, then started fiddling with the gauntlet on their arm. As they did this, the machine switched on and the satellite moved in the direction of the Pokémon Center.
In the center, many Pokémon were resting underneath a special kind of lamp that looked like the top of a tanning bed. Each Pokémon had their own tanning bed, which was unleashing a green light down onto the Pokémon, including all the Pokémon that had been used in the tournament that day, such as Venomega, Dusknoir and other strong Pokémon.
In that moment, the light began to stop...only for a new green light to appear...and began to take a light from the Pokémon. They all flinched at this, the light flying up into the lamp, draining them instantly. As this happened, the Center's radio transmitter turned to the direction of the temple and began to transmit something that couldn't be seen by the human eye. The energy drained away from the Pokémon was transferred to the machine the caped figure was holding before going into a glass container, where it morphed into a familiar green liquid.
The container was soon full, the figure removing it from the machine before connecting another to the side of it. This one also filled up, the figure repeating the process until every one of their containers was full to the brim. "Perfect," they whispered before getting up and carrying the several full bottles to the temple. "With this much energy, you'll soon be awake and ready to follow my commands."
The next morning...
When they woke up that morning and went down to breakfast, Flash and his friends were met with a large crowd all hollering at Nurse Redheart.
"What did you do to my Quagsire?!" One of them asked.
"My Pipple was only supposed to be in for a brief rest! Why is he suddenly more exhausted than when I gave him to you?!"
"I wanted to use my Raichu in the tournament today!"
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Nurse Redheart bowed over and over, "We don't know what's going on, but we're looking into it!"
Flash and the others glanced at each other before seeing Lightning staring at the sight. "What's going on?" Twilight asked him, Lightning barely acknowledging them before speaking.
"For some reason, every Pokémon that was left under the Center's care was found completely drained of energy this morning. They didn't even have the strength to use any attacks."
This made them all go wide-eyed, only for Starlight, Sunburst and Cozy to walk out from the emergency room. Starlight moved over to Redheart, "I'm sorry. We checked the system, but we can't find anything wrong with it. The system's in perfect working order."
"Then why is my Musharna completely exhausted?!" One of the teens cried, Sunburst holding up his hands at this.
"We're still gonna look into the system, but please try and stay calm." Cozy nodded at this, using a cute expression as she also asked them to stay calm.
"Enough of this," Lightning turned to leave. "I wasn't planning on using Venomega anyways."
As he began to leave, he heard someone speak up, "Hey Flash." One of the trainers ran over to him. "Maybe you can find out why this is happening!"
"Me?" Flash asked, "Why me?"
"You were able to stop Team Shadow from conquering the Pokémon world, so figuring this kind of thing out must be a piece of cake for you!" Flash scratched the back of his head, unable to reply. As this happened, Twilight turned to Lightning and saw him glaring at Flash before leaving.
And while the situation continued, Twilight ran after the teen, "Lightning!" She called out once outside, Lightning coming to a stop and glaring back at her.
"What?!"
"Are you alright?" She asked while coming to a stop, "You've been acting...grumpier lately."
"I'm fine," Lightning hissed.
"So the death glare you were giving Flash was just...what, your usual amount of anger toward him?"
Lightning growled at this, proving Twilight's point. "I just don't see why everyone's suddenly going gaga over that loser."
"Well, he did stop Sombra and save Equestria."
"He would have been blown to smithereens if I hadn't save his sorry butt."
"True."
"The only reason he's being fawned over is because the champion gave him that stupid spear to stab into that giant's heart. If he had given it to me, nobody would even remember his name. Heck, the way they're talking, it's like he's the only one that fought against that monster." He fully glared at her, "But I know the truth. He barely did a thing."
"You know that's not true. It was Flash who got everyone in Equestria to come to help. It was his idea to ask for help, because he knew he couldn't do it on his own."
"Ha!" Lightning laughed, "Of course he asked for help! I could have taken that guy down without a problem. I saw his battle. It was six on one and he couldn't do a thing against that guy. I would have obliterated him."
"I doubt that." Twilight chimed in, Lighting hissing back.
"I could have done it!" he barked, "I am better than that loser! He's a nobody, a weakling that had to ask for help! A true trainer would have stood their ground and beat Sombra and that giant monster he became."
Twilight just shook her head, "You know that's not true." Lightning growled at her again, but she just continued, "That's why you didn't finish Sombra. All you care about is winning, and that's all you focus on. But Flash doesn't care about winning, and is willing to put other things he sees as more important ahead of what he wants. If he was given a choice between beating someone and helping them grow stronger, then he'll pick helping them. That's why people gravitate toward him. It's why Shining trusted him with ending Sombra."
"Right..." Lightning rolled his eyes. "Keep telling yourself that. It'll mean nothing when the Equestria League comes around. I'll crush him again without trying and then your brother will be next." He leaned down with a giant grin on his face, "So tell your friend to enjoy his fifteen minutes of fame. Because when I'm done wiping him out, no one will ever remember his name again...well, except for the nobody that challenged and lost again to the strongest trainer that ever existed: Me."
"Maybe." Twilight shined a small smile, "Or maybe he'll be remembered better than you ever will. After all, this isn't the first time he's saved the day." She pointed at the teen, "He's Flash Sentry, the boy chosen by Pegasoar who saved the Legendaries Eclixie and Sirenity from psychopaths that wanted to use their powers for themselves, and who led the charge against Team Shadow in the final battle." She turned to walk back to the Pokémon Center. "Honestly, Flash has done so much for the region that it doesn't even matter if you beat him in the Equestria League. He'll always be a real hero."
"Him?!" Lightning laughed again, "A real hero?!"
"Why not?" Twilight replied before glancing back at him. "Real heroes aren't always the ones who land the finishing blow or get the flashiest victories. They're the ones that put everything on the line so that the final blow can be landed. That's what it takes to really be a true hero."
With that, she headed back inside the center, Lightning glaring at her as her words flow through his head, "A true hero?!"
When Twilight arrived back in the Center, she found the crowd had dispersed and her friends were gone. She asked Nurse Redheart and she stated they had gone with Starlight and the others to check on the Pokémon healing equipment. Leading her to the back room, she found Flash and Spike watching Doc helping the others.
"I see," the gym leader nodded as he and Sunburst stared into the open machine, "So this machine was designed by reverse engineering draining moves and reversing the process?"
"Exactly," Sunburst nodded. "We studied the move Absorb, Mega and Giga Drain and determined how the energy taken is transferred into the Pokémon using it. After much hard work, we found a way to mimic the energy and developed these lamps to give that energy to the Pokémon underneath it."
"But for some reason they didn't work properly last night," Starlight added as she used her gauntlet to scan the inside of the device. "In fact, according to the trainers and Nurse Redheart, the Pokémon were in worse shape this morning than they were when they were placed under the lamps. Did something happen when we connected it to the new generators?"
"Weren't you the one who connected this system to it?" Cozy asked, "It's not like you to make a mistake." Starlight hummed as she continued to scan the device, unable to find anything.
"Maybe you just put a single wire in the wrong place," Twilight suggested, "With how complicated this kind of machine is, it wouldn't be surprising that you miss a single wire in it all."
"It's possible," Starlight nodded as they continued to work.
Flash and Spike kept watching for an hour or so, only to get bored and walk out of the room. There they saw a TV by the reception desk, showing the city colosseum. "And Lightning Blitz takes down another Pokémon." The pair then saw Lightning's Pitchawk flying above a downed Movine. "What will his opponent use in its place?"
"Blazard!" He yelled before unleashing the flame lizard Pokémon, the battle starting as Pitchawk flew up into the air. "Flame Burst!" The Fire-type fired a blast of flames, Pitchawk easily dodging it.
"Night Slash!" Pitchawk's wing glowed purple as it dived down and slashed at Blazard's stomach, making it cry out. "Now, use Shadow Ball!" Pitchawk swung back around as Blazard staggered back, the bird firing a sphere of dark energy.
"Dodge it!" Blazard leapt back and the sphere struck the ground, "Fire Spin!"
"Blaze!" Blazard spat out a fireball, which struck the ground and exploded into a tornado of flames that wrapped around Pitchawk.
"Looks like Lightning's in trouble," Spike smirked as he and Flash sat down.
"No," Flash shook his head, "Lightning's winning."
"Really?"
"Check out the corner of the screen." Spike turned and went wide-eyed as he saw that the bottom two corners showed three boxes. His opponent's side were full of the faces of Blazard, Movine and a Bloxx while Lightning's side only had Pitchawk with the other two empty. "Lightning's beaten his other two Pokémon with just Pitchawk. Even if it's beaten, he has two other Pokémon while his opponent only has Blazard."
In that moment, Pitchawk managed to break out of the flame tornado and flew over to Lightning. His trainer held up his Pokeball, returning it before throwing out a Dive-Ball. "Thrashark, Battle Ready!" In a flash of red light, the giant shark Pokémon appeared before letting out a roar that terrified Blazard.
Back in the medical wing, Twilight and the others were still working. "Maybe we need to run a stronger diagnostic," Starlight suggested before she, Twilight and Cozy left the room to grab some equipment. As they did this, Sunburst reached into his toolbox and took out a device.
Doc needed only a simple look to tell what it is, "A diagnostic receiver?"
"Yup," Sunburst placed it inside the bed. "This device is connected to my gauntlet. Once it's connected to the system, it'll tell me everything this bed does." He placed it inside and started typing away at his arm, the connection completing and allowing him to follow everything the system did as the girls returned with the equipment.
"Flame Burst!" Blazard unleashed another fire missile, which shot at Thrashark as the sea predator raised its arms and blocked the flames.
"Aqua Jet!" Thrashark was consumed by water a it charged into Blazard, making it cry out as it was thrown back. Blazard's feet skidded across the floor, almost falling back as Thrashark exploded out of the water. "Crunch!"
Everyone watched as Thrashark charged again, its fangs beginning to glow until the other trainer yelled, "Metal Claw!" The Flame Lizard Pokémon swung its now glowing claws at Thrashark's face, making it cry out as it staggered back, only for Blazard to also cry as it held its claws.
"Looks like Thrashark's Rough Skin ability got it some payback for that attack."
"Enough of this!" Lightning yelled before pointing at Blazard. "Tsunami Surge!" Thrashark swung its arms around, water exploded out from beneath it before firing at Blazard like a wave. The Fire-type gasped at the sight and tried to run away, but was struck by the wave instantly.
"Blazard!" It cried as it was washed down the field. And when the water vanished, it revealed Blazard laid out on the ground with spirals in its eyes.
"Blazard is unable to battle," the ref called, "Thrashark is the winner! All of Cinnamon Crunch's Pokémon are unable to battle, so the winner is Lightning Blitz!"
The crowd cheered as Lightning returned Thrashark and left the field, Spike sighing at the sight, "Another win for him. How many rounds does this tournament have?"
"Four," Flash replied, "That means he has to win twice before he's made the tournament winner...which will probably happen." As he said that, Twilight and the others walked out, the teen turning to her, "Manage to figure out what happened to the beds?"
"No," Twilight shook her head, "They seem perfectly fine."
"I would like to do a test run on it," Starlight added, "But I doubt anyone would let their Pokémon use it until we're sure it's properly working."
As she said that, Flash felt Springer pull on his leg. He glanced down, "You sure?" Springer nodded back, "Alright." He turned back to Starlight, "Springer says you can test it on him if you want."
Starlight smiled at this and nodded, the group returning to the recovery bedroom and putting the Riolu on it. They activated the device and Springer was soon bathed in the healing light that the lamps began to unleash on him, re-energizing him while the others ran a diagnostic. But no matter what they did, they couldn't find anything wrong with the system.
Once Springer's nap finished and they found no issues, they were forced to conclude that last night was likely an isolated incident. They told Nurse Redheart this and when they did, she was worried that the same thing might happen again. Sunburst promised he would find the cause of this if it did happen again, Redheart nodding and addressing the trainers that had returned to get their Pokémon looked at. This included Lightning, who didn't talk to anyone and simply dropped his three tired Pokémon off before heading to train with the others.
Meanwhile, the others decided to spend the rest of the day exploring the city again. They had agreed that they would stay until the day after the tournament, since that's how long they would have stuck around if Flash had been in the contest, giving them three more days to enjoy themselves.
And so, Starlight, Sunburst and Cozy continued to show them all the amazing places in Horizon until the sun began to set and they all returned to the center.
That night...
As the city was once again bathed in darkness, many Pokémon were once again asleep on the recovery beds in the Center. They were all soundly asleep, enjoying the rays that were helping them heal and recover from their long hard day of battle.
This included Trashark, Pitchawk and Venomega, who were all fast asleep. And as they slept, none realized the danger they were all in. Over at the ruins, the cloaked figure stood outside the temple again. They took out the device and placed it on the ground, then took out several containers that they connected to the side of the machine.
Once done, they started typing away at the gauntlet on their arm. As they did this, the device came to life and began connecting to the recovery beds. And once again, the Pokémon felt themselves being drained of energy instead of receiving them. But unlike last time, this event wasn't gonna be done without getting caught.
Inside the top office of Horizon Incorporated, Sunburst was in his and Starlight's lab. Starlight had gone home, but Sunburst had stayed behind. He was busy trying to readjust the Poké-Arms system, hoping to get it properly working for once.
"There has to be a way to make this work..." he told himself as he let out a long sigh, "I know this thing can work, but we're missing something." He pressed a few buttons on the side, but found the synchronization system hadn't changed at all. "Maybe the problem isn't the system. Maybe we just need a trainer and Pokémon with a strong enough bond...but we got no one like that."
He slumped in his chair, only for a beep to ring out from his wrist. The teen pulled his sleeve back, now staring at his gauntlet, "Huh?" He pressed a button, only to see a message from his diagnostic receiver. "No way."
The message told him that something had hacked into the recovery beds and had reversed them, switching them to drain instead of heal. He ran over to his computer and began typing away, logging into the bed's systems and locating the signal from where the hacking was coming from. But when he couldn't, he decided to go a different route, instead trying to follow the energy that was being stolen.
"It must be getting sent somewhere..." he whispered as he locked onto the energy. Latching his signal onto the energy pattern, he watched as a map of the city appeared, and a red line came off the Pokémon Center and moved across the city until it reached the edge of the crater, in front of the temple. "Gotcha."
He moved over to the window and grabbed some binoculars from Starlight's desk, then looked out at the temple. There he saw a cloaked figure standing in front of the ruins with some kind of machine. "Oh, I don't think so." He started typing on his gauntlet, sending a message to the temple's security team.
The figure had filled the last container, causing them to switch off the device and return the recovery beds to normal. But as they began to put the containers away, the sound of a door slamming open caught their attention. "HEY!" They turned to see the guard house located near the temple, which the guards had just leapt out of. "Freeze!" The figure got up and tried to run with the device in hand, but accidently tripped and drop the device.
It hit the ground and broke apart as the guards ran over. The figure managed to get back to their feet and run to the stairs, running down them as fast as possible. The guards followed, but couldn't catch up to the assailant as they made their way down the steps until they reached the bottom.
Once there, the figure rushed into the closest alleyway and vanished before the guards could get to them. Up in the skyscraper, Sunburst watched as the figure disappeared before looking back at the edge of the crater. The remains of the damaged machine sat there, waiting for someone to collect it. He sent a message to the guards, asking them to pick it up and keep it safe until he arrived.
"What are you up to?" He asked the cloaked figure as he prepared to leave. He placed the Poké-Arms back into the case before leaving them on the desk. "Let's find out, shall we?"
The next day, Flash and his friends again woke up to find a large number of trainers screaming their heads off in the reception area.
"This is an outrage!" One of them yelled.
"I thought you said it was fixed!"
"They're in even worst shape than yesterday!"
"I'm sorry," Nurse Redheart kept bowing, "I honestly don't know what happened, but I've already contacted Horizon Incorporated and they're on their way."
"You said that yesterday!" Lightning roared, slamming his fist into the reception desk, "Three of my Pokémon are in no shape to battle today! What if this next round is four or more?!"
"I'm really sorry," Nurse Redheart flinched, "I...I don't know what to tell you."
Flash and the others stared at the situation, all frowns on their faces. But before they could do anything, the center's doors slid open as Starlight, Sunburst and Cozy appeared, Sunburst holding some kind of broken device.
"You! You're from Horizon!" Lightning pointed at him. "What the heck is going on here?!"
"Our apologies," Starlight replied as they walked in front of the group and Sunburst placed the machine on the front desk. "It appears this place was hacked."
"Hacked?" Doc moved over to the device, "By this machine?"
"That's right," Sunburst nodded. "We don't know how, but someone found a way to tap into the recovery beds with this machine and force them to reverse their process. Instead of giving energy, they drained them."
"How is that possible?" A trainer asked.
"Those beds were created by reverse engineering the effects of the move Giga Drain. We originally designed them to drain energy, then simply reversed them. Whatever this machine is, it re-reversed the beds to take energy and transfer it to this device. Then they simply switched it off and caused the beds to return to their normal state, explaining why we couldn't find anything wrong with them."
"So it's not your fault," Twilight chimed in.
"Like heck it isn't!" Lightning yelled as he pointed at Starlight, "If you're gonna make a device that drains Pokémon, the least you can do is make it so that nobody can hack it!"
Flash and the others were about to tell him off, only for Starlight to sigh, "He's right. We're sorry for this." She then turned to Redheart. "Until we find the one responsible for this, it's best you don't use the recovery beds. Whoever they are might have more of these devices."
Redheart nodded as the trainers all growled at them, Starlight giving another apology and promising they would find out who was responsible bring them to justice. Some accepted this, but Lightning just stormed out of the place, the rest following him. As this happened, Starlight and Cozy left, saying they had a lot of work to do back at the company while Flash and the others focused on the device.
"So where did you find this thing?" Spike asked as Sunburst put it on one of the tables.
"It's a pretty interesting story," he replied, soon telling them about how he got an alert on his gauntlet and used his computer to track the signal before chasing the cloaked figure. "Then I headed over to collect it..."
"Weird," Twilight responded as they worked to take it apart. "Why would anyone want to steal Pokémon energy?"
"Who knows," Sunburst sighed as he removed one of the panels on the side. "There's still much about Pokémon that people don't know about. What we do know is that the very life energy of Pokémon, Infinity Energy, is like nothing anyone has ever seen. The energy given off when a Rattata uses Thunderbolt is enough to power a square block of houses for an hour. So pure, unfiltered, Infinity Energy? Who knows what you could do with that?"
"Maybe they plan on selling it on the black market or something," Doc suggested.
"It's possible," Sunburst pushed his glasses up as he removed another part of the machine. "The only thing I can't figure out is how they managed to hack into the recovery bed's systems. They have the best security systems we have. The only way to bypass them is with an executive pass-code."
As he said that, Spike pointed to the side of the machine. "What's this slot for?" They turned to see a hole in the side of the machine that had a screw-like design.
"The person using it was holding some kind of container," Sunburst added, "It wasn't big, but it looked like it was screwed into the machine. That's probably where they were placing the energy they stole." In that moment, he squinted his eyes at the machine, "Wait..." he dug around in the machine with a pair of pliers, "What's this?"
He removed a computer chip, Twilight going wide-eyed at this, "Wow..." she whispered, "That is really advanced."
"Extremely advanced," Sunburst nodded. "I should know. I designed it." They all went wide-eyed as Sunburst continued, "This shouldn't be possible. This chip is still being beta tested right now. There's no way someone outside Horizon could get their hands on it."
"But that means..."
"The one who made this is an employee," Sunburst sighed, "And if they were able to hack into the security system, they must be high up in the company." He put his hand to his chin, only for a light-bulb to go off in his head. "That's it!" He held up his gauntlet and began typing away.
"What?" Twilight asked, "What are you doing?"
"Even if they were able to bypass the security, the recovery beds weren't built with a way to transmit energy. That means they must have been upgraded by someone." He kept typing away, "But that kind of procedure couldn't have been done on the sly. So whoever did it must have done so when we were distracted by something else...like the Center's electricity going off."
The others quickly caught on, "So you're saying that whoever's doing this caused the Center's power loss?"
Sunburst nodded, "And then they pretended to help out in fixing it, all the while secretly upgrading the beds to connect to the center's transmitter so it could transfer the energy to this machine."
"Genius..." Twilight whispered.
Flash raised an eyebrow at this, "So...does that mean you can find out who it was? I mean, there wasn't many of you guys when you came to restore the Center's power."
"Exactly," Sunburst nodded as the holographic screen appeared, "This is a list of all the people that worked on the Center's power." The others crowded around him as he continued typing. "Now I'll run a check of all the people who have the pass-code needed to bypass the security." He did so and multiple names began to disappear from the list...except for one.
"No way," Twilight whispered.
"Why?" Flash asked as Sunburst just stared at the name, his eyes wide as he felt his heart split in two.
"Starlight..."
Meanwhile...
Starlight was in her lab, working on something at one of the desks. The sparking of a smolder filled the room, staring at a device beside a computer that had a bunch of schematics on the screen. And as the sparking stopped, she pulled back and lifted her goggles, lifting up a pistol-like device.
She squinted at the gadget before turning to her laptop and shutting it. She then opened a nearby drawer, pulling out a glass container full of the green liquid, which she screwed into the end. "Perfect," she replied with a giant smirk, "Now it can deliver the energy even faster."
Flash and his friends were now riding the transport platform with Sunburst, all heading for Horizon Incorporated as they tried to discuss why Starlight would jeopardize the reputation of the company and cause Pokémon to suffer the pain of having their energy stolen.
"So what exactly are we gonna do?" Spike asked as they drew closer to the building. "Shouldn't we...call the police or something?"
"I wanna talk to Starlight first," Sunburst replied, "This has to be a mistake. Or at least a reasonable explanation."
They then arrived at the company's office, the platform coming to a stop. Sunburst showed his pass to security, the five heading to an elevator next, Sunburst slotting his pass into it, allowing him to access the top room. But as soon as the elevator doors closed, the elevator next to it opened up and Starlight walked out with her bag over her shoulder. She smiled while heading out of the building, waving back to the many employees that waved goodbye.
As for the others, they continued to ride the elevator until it reached the very top, coming out into Starlight's office. "Starlight?!" Sunburst called out, "Starlight!" But there was no answer, making Sunburst wince, "That's strange. She said she would be working here."
The others began to look around the office, Twilight going into the lab section. She then found a nice shower in the back, but found no sign of Starlight. While this happened, Spike spoke up, "Hey, I just realized something." The others turned to him. "Why would Starlight wanna steal a Pokémon's Infinity Energy when the recovery beds were already full of the stuff? I mean...isn't that what they do? Give a Pokémon the energy they need so they don't need to recover it themselves?"
"In a way," Sunburst responded, "But the energy the beds radiate isn't organic Infinity Energy. It's a synthetic version that the company created. It's not as potent as the real stuff, but it's still able to heal Pokémon enough for them to not be in pain. Once that happens, the Pokémon generate organic energy and filter out the synthetic variant. Taking the synthetic stuff would mean there wouldn't be as much energy gathered. The best results always comes from pure organic Infinity Energy."
Spike and Flash stared at the scientist, their brains sparking as they were fried at the explanation as Doc spoke up, "And that energy can only be generated by Pokémon."
Sunburst nodded back before Twilight yelled, "Hey guys! I found something!"
They ran over to the lab, now seeing Twilight sitting at an open laptop, typing away. "What did you find?" Sunburst asked as Twilight showed him the computer screen. On the screen were a bunch of schematics that showed off a water-pistol device. "Strange," Sunburst replied, "I don't recognize this. Whatever it is, Starlight never told me about it."
"What is it?" Spike asked, Twilight glancing back at the files.
"It's some kind of energy expulsion device. It stores energy and then expels it, like the recovery bed. Only this device is a lot more powerful. It expels the energy at a much faster rate, plus it's portable."
"But it can't store as much energy," Sunburst added, "We found a way to convert Infinity Energy into a liquid form, which is what we use to contain and transport the energy used in the recovery beds. But with this, you could re-energize any Pokémon anywhere. Why didn't she tell me about this?"
"Maybe for the same reason she bypassed the recovery beds security and stole Pokémon energy?" Flash asked, making Sunburst grimace.
That is, till Sunburst said, "The container connection."
"What about it?" Doc asked while staring at the screen, "Isn't that the same connection that was on that machine you showed us?"
"That's right," Sunburst nodded, remembering back to last night and the container he saw the person holding. One which looked exactly like what was in these schematics. "Which means whoever built it did so with plans to use this device on the energy gathered."
"Does that mean what I think it means?" Spike asked, Sunburst slumping back in his chair.
"Starlight's the one gathering the Infinity Energy." He sighed, "But why?"
Over at the temple...
A certain cloaked figure was now behind the temple, glancing around to see there was no sign of any security. They tiptoed into the temple, quickly running up to the statue before taking out the energy gun. They took out the energy container and screwed it into place, firing the energy at the statue. The energy sparked around the stone construct for several seconds before getting absorbed, the liquid in the gun continuing to drain it away until it was completely empty.
But no sooner was the container empty that the figure replaced it with another full one, continuing to fire at the statue. They repeated several times until the last container ran dry, the energy expelled being drained into the statue. However, despite all the energy that had been given to the stone carving, nothing happened.
"Come on..." the figure whispered as they moved over to the statue and placed their hand on it. "Wasn't that enough?" But the statue remained silent, causing them to sigh. "You're close to waking, I can feel it." They then turned to the doorway, "But I can't gather as much energy as I could before." Under their breathe, they cursed Sunburst for informing the guards and taking her device. "Looks like I'll need to do this the old fashioned way." They spun the gun around before putting it back in their cape, soon running out of the temple in search of their next source of energy.
Back at Horizon Incorporated...
Sunburst was still in shock as the group rode down the elevator back to the lobby, having found no sign of Starlight. "So what now?" Spike asked, as the elevator hit the ground floor and opened up.
"I still wanna talk to Starlight," Sunburst replied, "But...I might have to get the police involved and call a meeting with the board."
"I just wish we knew where Starlight went," Twilight added as they passed by the front desk.
"Starlight?" The receptionist spoke up, making them turn around, "You're looking for Starlight?" They nodded. "She left around the time you all arrived. She said she was heading for the stadium."
This made them raise an eyebrow, Doc speaking up, "Let's go!"
"Yeah!" Sunburst responded as they ran out of the building, going to the nearest hover platform. The device was soon shooting for the stadium as Sunburst raised his gauntlet and accessed the television setting it had. As they did, they were greeted with the sight of two Pokémon doing battle.
It was Lightning's Androrg, who was battling against a Lilligant, the machine having trouble against the Grass-type. "Leaf Blade!" The trainer ordered her Pokémon, leaf-like arms glowing as it slashed at the Steel-type. It did practically no damage against the metal body, allowing Androrg to kick it away.
"Electro Blade!" Lightning yelled as Androrg raised its arm and made it spin, sparking as the machine fired a blade of crescent lightning. It struck Lilligant, but all it did was push the Grass-type back.
"Solarbeam!" Lilligant's flower headpiece began to glow as it drew in sunlight.
"Bullet Punch!"
"Androrg!" It charged and threw a punch into the Grass-type's chest, throwing it back. Lilligant cried out at this but managed to regain its footing, landing with a skid before leaping up as its flower finished charging.
"LIL!" it roared, firing the energy into a beam that struck Androrg. The machine cried out as it staggered back, the laser making its metal body begin to heat up. But when the light faded, Androrg just stood there, unfazed. However, Lightning was snarling at the sight.
"Return!" He held out his Pokeball and sucked Androrg back inside, then swapped it out for another. "Roglacier!" He threw it, "BATTLE READY!" In a flash, the Ice Fighting-type appeared on the field, "Ice Punch!"
"Row!" Roglacier zipped up to Lilligant, slamming its fist into the plant.
It screamed as it was sent flying, its trainer they yelling, "Solarbeam!" As Lilligant landed again, its flower began to glow.
"Blizzard!" Taking a deep breath, Roglacier pulled its mouth covering down and unleashed a blast of freezing air.
"LILLIGANT!" It cried as its body was bombarded by the cold, the flower stopping its glow while its arms began to freeze over. And when the Blizzard attack was complete, Lilligant was trapped within a block of ice with spirals in its eyes.
"Lilligant is unable to battle. Roglacier is the winner. Lightning takes the match!"
As cheering filled the air and Lightning walked off the battlefield, the group watching the screen found they were drawing closer to the stadium. The hover platform turned into the parking lot and came to a stop, the group hopping off as they ran inside.
They glanced around the reception area, only to find no sign of Starlight. "I don't see her," Twilight commented, "Maybe she's out in the stands."
"But she's not a battle fan," Sunburst replied.
But as he said that, Flash saw Lightning walking into the room, "Lightning!" Lightning turned to them and rolled his eyes at the sight, "Have you seen Starlight? She's supposed to be here."
"No," Lightning replied, "Haven't seen her. Wouldn't have noticed if I did. Now leave me alone."
With that, he walked past them, heading to the parking lot before leaving the stadium. He was gong for the Pokémon Center as he thought about the battle he had just had. "Just one more...that center better be fixed." He grumbled as he got to a park between the stadium and center.
He came to a stop and took out three of his Pokeballs before throwing them upward. Doing so revealed Gorillamp, Androrg and Roglacier. "Alright, listen up!" The three stood to attention. "We're one win away from taking this whole thing, but with the other three still out of commission, it'll be up to you three! I don't wanna see any lame as heck attacks like I just saw during the last battle!" He turned to Androrg, "That Lilligant should have been easy for you to beat. Its attacks couldn't do squat to you, and you still struggled! It was a Lilligant! Only a loser uses one of those! The fact I had to replace you with Roglacier is embarrassing!"
"Drorg..." Androrg glanced down, the other two turning to their teammate before a hiss from Lightning made them turn back to their trainer.
"We don't have much more time," Lightning growled, "The Equestria League is fast approaching and if we wanna win, then we need all the power we can get!" As Lightning said that, his mind showed him the image of Flash Sentry with a big grin on his face, making him shake as his face turned red, fire now in his eyes, "I am NOT gonna lose to a bunch of losers that don't take this sport seriously!" He yelled before pointing at the trio, "It's not enough to just beat anyone we face! We need to absolutely annihilate them!"
"GORE/AN/ROW!" The three nodded.
"Good. Remember that when we beat this tournament, the league, and Shining Armor!" Lightning finished before reaching for his Pokeballs. But as he did this, someone stepped out from behind a tree. It was the cloaked figure, making Lightning raise his eyebrow.
"My my," they told him, the person a distance away that Lightning couldn't even tell how tall they were. "Those are some pretty strong looking Pokémon you have there."
Lightning huffed at the sight, "A little late for Halloween, isn't it?" The figure laughed at him, "What do you want?!"
"I'm just interested in strong Pokémon," they replied, "And by the looks of things, yours' appear to be incredibly strong. You'd probably win the tournament if everything went right."
"Probably?!" Lightning hissed, "I will win the tournament!"
"No...I doubt that. Not when your Pokémon are completely exhausted." With that, they pulled out the energy pistol from their cloak.
Before Lightning could react, it fired a bolt of white energy. It struck Androrg, making the robot cry out as it was zapped, shocking them as the energy around him turned green along with the bolt that connected it to the gun. The figure smirked as the container began to fill with the energy, which morphed into a liquid state.
"What the heck?!" Lightning yelled before charging at the figure, only for the cloaked person to side-step around the teen. Lightning then saw the container attached to the gun, which was now half full as the sound of metal hitting the ground made him turn to see Androrg on its knees. It panted heavily, groaning in pain before collapsing with spirals in its eyes.
"NO!" He yelled before turning to glare at the figure. "What did you just do?!"
"I need energy," they replied. "So if you don't mind, I'll be taking the rest of your Pokémon's power as well." As they said that, Gorillamp and Roglacier charged at the figure. But before they could reach their opponent, the figure took something out of their cloak and threw it at the ground.
Within seconds, the park was full of dark smoke, Lightning and his Pokémon coughing. But as the smoke blinded them, a scream rang out, "GLAY!" They turned to the noise, Gorillamp now seeing a green light glowing through the smoke. Both Lightning and Gorillamp ran for the light, but it vanished before they could reach it. They then got to Roglacier, now laying on the ground as it was drained just like Androrg.
It was in this moment that the smoke started fading, revealing that the cloaked figure had completely vanished. "Where'd they go?!" Lightning roared, both glancing around. They then looked back at Roglacier and Androrg, seeing they had no physical injuries, but were suffering from exhaustion. "I don't know who you are...but you'll pay for this."
Back at the stadium...
Flash and the others had searched the entire structure, but found no trace of Starlight. They had asked around, but not one person had seen her anywhere. "Where could she be?" Sunburst asked as they met back up at the lobby, the final battle of the day going on at that moment.
"How do we know for sure she's here?" Flash chimed in, the others turning to him. "I mean, she's been keeping secrets. What if she was lying about where she went?"
"But why?" Twilight added, "That's the ultimate question."
The others just shrugged, only for Springer's ears to perk up along with his dangles as he sensed the aura he had been looking for. "RI!" He yelped before turning to the exit. He quickly ran off, the others following him as they got into the parking lot, only to spot the woman they had been looking for.
"Starlight!" Sunburst yelled as he saw his friend walking away.
"Hey guys," she replied as she turned to them, "What are you lot doing here?" She then noticed the frowns they all had. "What?"
"Starlight..." Sunburst came to a stop in front of her, "We know what you've been doing." Starlight raised an eyebrow at this. "We know you're the one who's been stealing the energy of the Pokémon."
"What?" Starlight replied, "What are you talking about?"
"Starlight, we know it was you." Twilight spoke up, "It was your pass-code that bypassed the recovery bed's security."
"And we found the schematics in your office," Doc added, "The energy gun you designed, using the same kind of glass container that the machine Sunburst found was designed to use."
"Energy gun?" Starlight raised an eyebrow before reaching into her bag, "You mean this one?" With that, she pulled out the device in question. "I've been working on it on the side."
"Yes! Why didn't you tell me about it?!" Sunburst yelled.
"What?!" Starlight flinched before glaring at him, "Like you tell me about everything you work on before it's ready! Might I remind you about the eternal fire stone?!" Sunburst grimaced at this before Starlight let out a long sigh, "Besides, I was gonna tell you about it later after I finished the final test."
"What final test?" Sunburst asked, only for Starlight to turn and see someone coming out of the stadium.
"This test," she ran over to them and Flash realized it was the trainer Lightning had beaten earlier. After a small talk, the trainer nodded and took out her Pokeball, summoning her Lilligant. Starlight then pointed the gun at it and fired, the green energy hitting Lilligant and its injuries began to vanish.
Once that was done, she and the trainer nodded at one another before Starlight returned to them. "What did you just do?" Doc asked as she put the gun away.
"Healed Lilligant," Starlight replied. "That's why I came in the first place. With what happened to the beds, I decided to make up for it by using that to heal them. But the trainers were already in their box by the time I got there and I wasn't allowed to talk to them. So I decided to head to a café I really like and have a drink while I waited for them."
"And that's where you've been this whole time?" Spike asked, getting a nod from Starlight.
She then turned to Sunburst, "Now what's this you were saying about my pass-code." Sunburst held up his gauntlet and showed her the list, explaining how she was the only one with a pass-code capable of bypassing the security. "That's impossible," Starlight whispered as she held up her gauntlet. "It wasn't me that undid the security." She typed away, "And I definitely didn't build that machine..."
"But it used one of our latest computer chips," Sunburst pointed out, "One that could only be given to someone if they have an executive pass-code."
"But it couldn't be-" Starlight stopped when her eyes went wide, the others blinking at her, "No way."
"What?" Twilight asked.
"My gauntlet's logs show that someone copied my pass-code from here a couple of weeks ago, then tried to wipe the log so that I wouldn't know unless I was looking for it."
"How could someone copy your pass-code?" Twilight asked, "Wouldn't they need your gauntlet to do it?"
"Yes," Starlight nodded, "And I never take it off. Well...unless I'm taking a shower. I guess it's possible someone could have snuck into my office while I was in there and copied it then...but who?"
Flash crossed his arms at this, "So...it's someone who worked on the recovery beds and had access to your office, right? There can't be that many people that can do both, right?"
Starlight and Sunburst nodded, Sunburst bringing up the list of people again. The pair stared at them, only for a single name to appear when it came to access to Starlight's office at the time she could have been in the shower. And it was a name that made them all go wide-eyed.
In another part of the city, a Psychick was flying over one of the parks. Despite being a nocturnal Pokémon, this one had had trouble sleeping, and was now flying around to try and tire itself out. But despite the flight, it was still wide awake.
And as the Psychick flew up to the tree that it called home and landed on a branch, it was suddenly struck by a bolt of white lightning. It let out a cry before flopping over, falling to the ground as the lightning continued to drain away more of its energy.
Laughter filled the air as the holder of the gun walked up to the now unconscious Psychick. They turned to a container connected to the gun, now seeing it fill up. "Perfect," the figure pulled off their hood to reveal a head of curly blue hair. Cozy Glow stared at the full container, a barrage of unconscious Pokémon behind her as she giggled, "Just perfect."
"Cozy Glow?!" Twilight gasped as Starlight typed away on her gauntlet. "You can't be serious."
"I hate to believe it too," Starlight sighed, "But Cozy's the only one that fits the bill with what's happened." She frowned as she stared at the holo-screen, "But to think she would do something like this is unthinkable."
"Maybe this is a mistake," Spike added, "I mean, we thought Starlight was the one who did this. Maybe we're mistaken again."
"I hope so," Sunburst nodded. "But we need to find her and figure this out." He turned to Starlight, "Where is she?"
"I'm looking now," Starlight replied as she pulled up a map, "Cozy said she had a dentist appointment, so I let her off early. I don't like using this, but I can track her gauntlet's signal." A flashing red dot appeared on the screen, "Found her...and she's nowhere near the city dentist."
"Where is she?" Spike asked, Starlight showing them the map and seeing her head for the edge of the city, "Where's she going?"
"It looks like she's heading out of the city...and to the stairs for the temple." Twilight commented, "You don't think...no."
"What?" Flash turned to her, "You figure something out?"
Twilight grimaced as she said these next words, "Starlight...if Cozy was able to hack your gauntlet, is it possible she could have gotten into your computer?"
"I guess. Why?"
"What if she found your energy blaster schematics and built one herself?"
"Why would she do that?" Sunburst asked, Twilight responding by pointing back at the map.
"I know it sounds crazy, but after everything I've seen since starting this journey, I've learned that sometimes the craziest ideas turn out to be the ones to consider." She glanced back at them, "What if she's planning to release Centirek?" Everyone's eyes went wide at this. "Think about it. You said you saw that figure in front of the temple when they were stealing energy. What if they were there because they planned to use the energy on the statue?"
"Why would Cozy try to awaken Centirek?" Starlight asked, "That's insane."
"No more insane then what Sombra tried to do with the Legendaries," Flash chimed in, "And that wasn't the first time we've found someone trying to use a Legendary for their own psychotic goals."
"He's right," Doc nodded. "As long as there's a source of power in the world, there'll be someone out to take if for themselves, no matter how dangerous it is."
"Ooookay..." Sunburst slowly replied, "But even if that's true...Cozy's not an idiot. She has to know that controlling Centirek would be impossible, especially for a little girl like her."
But as he said that, the others all hummed in agreement...except for Spike. He went wide-eyed as he remembered a certain moment, "Unless she had a Pokeball that couldn't fail to catch it."
The others turned to him, his friends' eyes going wide as Twilight whispered, "Oh no..."
"What?" Starlight asked.
"She has a Master Ball," Flash slowly replied, making Starlight and Sunburst go wide-eyed.
"She-WHAT?!" Starlight yelped, the others turning back to the map, Cozy's dot stopping at the edge of the crater.
"We need to get to the temple! NOW!" Flash took out a pair of Pokeballs and threw them upward. In a flash of light, Skyler and Astro appeared and flew down. "Astro, can you carry these two?" He pointed to Starlight and Sunburst, Astro nodding back. The others took out their Pokeballs and threw them, unleashing Owlicious and Flitanium.
The three birds flew down and grabbed their trainer's shoulders, Spike and Springer climbing onto Skyler and Owlicious' backs while Astro grabbed the last two. The four then shot into the air, following their trainers' directions for the mountain.
It took a while, but luckily Cozy was slowly taking the stairs. But as they got within view of the temple, they saw someone who had just got to the top of the stairs. Someone dressed in a cloak Sunburst recognized.
"Cozy!" Starlight yelled, the figure turning on a reflex and looking up at them. Though Starlight couldn't see her face, she knew in her heart that it was Cozy under the hood. And in her hand was the device she had built, Starlight gasping at the sight whilst Sunburst hit the button on the side of his glasses.
The figure sprinted into the temple, zipping inside as the Pokémon landed and the trainers hopped off. They told the flyers to stay outside, the group running inside. Here they saw the figure raising the gun up, ready to fire. "Springer!" Flash exclaimed, "Extreme Speed!"
"RI!" Springer shot ahead, bouncing off a wall and reached the short figure before they could fire. And with a swing of his foot, he kicked the gun out of their hand.
"HEY!" They yelped as the weapon hit the floor, Flash and Doc running up and grabbing her by the arm. Starlight then ran over and pulled the hood off the head, revealing her assistant.
"Cozy..." she whispered.
"LET ME GO!" Cozy cried as she squirmed, Sunburst picking up the gun and unscrewed the energy bottle. He then turned to Cozy.
"Do you have any idea what you could have just done?" Sunburst asked, "If you had awakened Centirek, there's no telling what could have happened!"
Cozy went wide-eyed at his words, only for her face to switch to puppy-dog eyes. "I don't know what you're talking about. I just came to check out the temple again. I really love this place." She fluttered her eyelashes, but the others just glared at her.
"Nice try," Twilight replied, "But we know what you were planning."
"Yeah!" Spike crossed his arms, "You were gonna use your Master Ball to catch Centirek and use it for who knows what."
"Don't try and worm your way out of this," Starlight added as she reached down and removed Cozy's gauntlet. She started typing at it, sighing as she showed them all a sheet of numbers and letters, "You stole my pass-code and used it to hack the recovery beds."
They all turned back to Cozy, only to see her shine a sinister smile, "Well well well...you guys aren't as stupid as you look." They all raised an eyebrow at this, "Of course I was gonna use my Master Ball. That Sombra guy was a total idiot, planning to catch the Legendaries in those weird energy cages. They might be Legendaries, but they're still Pokémon. Just throw a Pokeball at them and they're yours. That's what I'm gonna do. And when I do, Centirek will be mine."
"Oh no it won't," Sunburst responded as he held up the energy container. "You might be young, but don't think you won't face criminal charges for stealing and meddling with our technology, causing Pokémon pain, and attempting to revive a monstrous Pokémon!"
Cozy just gave him a deadpan stare, "Oh yeah?" She then swung her leg upward, slamming her foot into Sunburst's leg.
"Augh!" He cried, the container flying out of his hand. Cozy then swung her leg around again, kicking the container...right at the statue.
Everyone gasped as they watched the glass smash into the stone of Centirek, the liquid instantly morphing into an energy that began to spark around the statue. They watched in shock as the lightning continued to zip around the body....only for the energy to die down, the statue remaining still.
They all sighed in relief, Cozy's eyes shrinking at this. They then turned to glare at her, Cozy letting out a little chuckle as she fluttered her eyebrows again, "Come on, I'm just a kid. I don't know any better."
"Oh please," Starlight hissed, "Don't try that with us. Just wait until your-"
THOOM!
She stopped as the entire temple began to shake, making them slowly look back at the statue. The whole thing was now vibrating, cracks beginning to appear around its body.
"No way," Spike whispered as they all began to backpedal.
Cozy smirked at the sight, "It's alive!" Her face became one of crazy joy, "IT'S ALIVE!" The shaking intensified, more and more cracks appearing along the statue before small pieces of rocks began to break off. Flash and Doc gasped at the sight, accidently loosening their grip on Cozy as she quickly pulled free.
She then ran for the statue as Starlight yelled, "Cozy, stop! You don't know what you're doing!"
"Of course I do," Cozy cackled, "With this Pokémon under my command, I'll be Equestria's greatest trainer!" More rocks began to fall away from the body, revealing a red and black skin beneath. "I'll become its champion...then everyone will realize I deserve to rule it! Eventually...I'll become the Empress of Equestria!" She laughed as more and more of the body was revealed, the arms of Centirek breaking off the rest of the body.
As this happened, everyone saw it began to grow bigger and more muscular, the same for the rest of its body. And as it freed itself from its rocky seal, its body buffed out, going from looking old and fragile to strong and robust. Everyone's gaze then shifted up to the Pokémon's head, gasping as they watched its horns grow and break out of the stone, transforming the tiny nubs into full-on horns, breaking away more rocks at the same time. And then, the stone masking Centirek's face began to crumble away.
The Cataclysmic Pokémon stared ahead for a second, only to shine a giant smirk that made everyone shiver. "Cent..." it whispered before thrusting its body forward, freeing it from the remaining rocks. It pulled its back half out of the wall, its body now free to grow to its heart's content. Within seconds, it had doubled its original size, now standing over twenty feet, its formerly wispy beard growing into a thick trail of hair. It barely managed to fit within the temple now, its large horn scraping along the ceiling as it glanced around.
"There's no way," Starlight whispered as the giant Pokémon began to move. Every step of its hoof made the building shake, pieces of rock falling from the walls or ceiling. As they did this, Starlight saw Cozy standing to the side of the giant. "Cozy!"
The girl didn't respond, instead going into a bag and pulling out her grandfather's last remaining item. "Centirek!" The beast seemed to hear her, making it look down at the girl, "I am Cozy Glow. It was I who freed you from your prison, and now, you will serve me and allow my dreams to come true!" The centaur's eyes narrowed at this, the Legendary moving its body to face her. She saw the glare it was giving, making her hiss, "What, you think you can refuse me?! Sorry," she held up the Master Ball, "But I'm not giving you a choice."
"DON'T DO IT!" Twilight screamed.
"Master Ball!" She pulled back before throwing the orb, "GO!" The sphere flew through the air and struck Centirek. Everyone watched in shock as the Master-Ball opened up and sucked the Legendary inside, snapping shut before hitting the ground. There was no way...
"YES!" Cozy cheered as the ball wiggled, "It's mine! Centirek is all mine! The ultimate weapon...IS MINE!" The ball continued to rock from side to side, the others staring at the ball as its wiggling slowed down. Then, it came to a complete stop, everyone expecting to hear a digging sound.
But it never came.
Instead, another sound filled the air. The sound of metal breaking apart, a large crack appearing along the top of the ball. Cozy's eyes went wide at this, her jaw hitting the floor, "That's...that's impossible!" More cracks began to appear along the ball, soon covering it in cracks. And when this happened, the whole thing exploded into a million pieces, the energy within now released.
Every eye in the temple watched as the red energy reshaped itself back into the familiar form of Centirek. And when it faded to reveal the Legendary, they could see it did not look happy. "CENTIREK!" It roared as a ball of energy suddenly appeared on its forehead between its horns.
It burned brightly before flying back into its head, the Pokémon opening its mouth to reveal another orb of light that exploded into a powerful beam that struck the ground and carved its way through the stone. The temple shook at this, the stone walls and ceiling breaking apart as the Hyper Beam destroyed the place.
Everyone screamed as they ran for the exit of the temple, dodging the falling debris from the collapsing roof. But as they reached the exit, Starlight remembered Cozy and turned back to the girl. But she had remained where she had been, looking completely horrified by the fact her Master Ball had failed.
"Cozy!" She screamed, attempting to run back in. But before she could, more of the ceiling collapsed, almost crushing her.
"LOOK OUT!" Flash yelled, Starlight feeling someone grab her by the arm and pulling her out of the way.
They all managed to get out of temple before the entrance collapsed, the group running to the side. And as they did this, the entrance of the temple exploded due to another Hyper Beam. Moments later, Centirek smashed its way out of the mountain.
"TIREK!" It roared as it leapt free of the rock, crashing down on the side of the crater and staring down at the city within.
All over Horizon, people came to a sudden stop when the ground shook, making them turn to the temple and see a large Pokémon staring back at them. The sight of it alone made everyone freeze, unable to believe what they were seeing. Centirek, the great beast of cataclysm, was free. And from the looks of things, it planned to complete the work it had started a millennium ago.
In the City's Pokémon Center, Lightning watched as Nurse Redheart took his Pokeballs into the back room. Once she was gone, Lightning moved over to a nearby couch, the memory of that cloaked weirdo that had attacked him floating in his head. He clenched his fists at this, only for a flash of light to come off his belt. It was Gorillamp, appearing in front of him as he glared at his trainer.
"What?" He hissed, the two glaring at each other. And as they did this, the two seemingly had a whole conversation without saying a word, only their faces talking like an almost psychic connection.
"You're right," he grumbled as he stood up. "Sitting here won't solve anything. I've gotta find whoever did this and make them pay. Hard."
"Rill!" Gorillamp replied before punching his fist into his palm. Lightning nodded back, only for the building to suddenly shake.
"WHOA!" He yelped, almost losing his balance, "What was that?!" It was then heard a scream outside, making him turn to the door and see everyone staring upward. Slowly stepping outside, they turned to the direction they were looking, "What are you all-" He stopped when he saw it, his eyes going wide. "No way."
Standing near the edge of the crater, staring down at the city, was the Legendary Pokémon known as Centirek. The Cataclysmic Pokémon let out a growl as it glared at the city that had appeared since its imprisonment, raging anger radiating off it as it let out a low hiss.
And off to the side, Flash and the others were staring at it unnoticed. "I can't believe it's awake," Twilight whispered.
"What happens now?" Spike asked, only to get an answer when a sphere of energy appeared in the spot on its forehead between its horns. A moment later, the sphere phased into its head before it opened its mouth.
"Cen-" Another energy sphere appeared in its mouth, "TIREK!" It exploded into a beam, which shot down into the crater and struck one of the buildings. That building's top completely exploded, sending debris flying into the streets below. Everyone gasped at this, hearing the screams of people and Pokémon as they ran away from the approaching rubble.
Centirek then fired again, destroying another building. Then it fired again and again, reducing many of the buildings to rubble. "STOP!" Flash screamed, but Centirek didn't notice, instead crouching its legs before leaping over the edge of the crater. The group watched the Legendary fall down, causing the ground to shake before firing another barrage of Hyper Beams.
"What have I done?!" Starlight asked as she saw the now destroyed city.
"This isn't your fault," Twilight told her, "Cozy was the one that freed that thing."
"Using a device I created," Starlight whispered, "This is just as much my fault as it is hers."
The others grimaced at this, only for Flash to yell, "We can sit around feeling sorry for ourselves later!" They all turned to him as he pointed at the legendary, "Centirek's awake now and we can't change that. But what we can do is stop it from doing to much damage!"
Sunburst nodded back, "He's right. Just like in the legend, it'll start hunting down Pokémon and stealing their power." Sunburst turned to the others, "If we don't stop that thing here and now, it'll only grow more powerful. If that happens, nothing's gonna be able to stop it."
"That means we gotta try to stop it now!" Flash exclaimed before they turned to the staircase while Skyler, Astro, Owlicious and Flitanium took to the air. "Get him, but don't get too close!" They nodded as they flew for the Legendary while the others began to climb down the staircase.
The city was in total panic, the place now falling apart. People screamed as a building exploded, many Pokémon doing their best to blast the falling rubble. But as they did this, the shadow of the explosion's cause illuminated the dust filled street, a pair of bright red eyes beginning to glare at them.
The dust quickly faded to reveal Centirek, who growled as it reached down and grabbed some nearby Pokémon, a Buizel, Magmar, Clobberoo, Cacturne and Electabuzz, all struggling against the giant's powerful grip. But Centirek refused to release them, lifting the five to its head and opened its mouth. As it did this, a veil of energy began to come of the Pokémon, only for it to inhale, sucking the energy off of them. And as this happend, every Pokemon cried before losing consciousness, blacking out as the energy veil came to a stop. Their energy flew into Centirek's mouth, swallowing it before its body grew a couple of millimetres.
It then dropped the five and began marching through the city, constantly firing Hyper Beam after Hyper Beam. But before it could get too far, it suddenly heard a roar. "GALVERN!" It turned to the sound, now seeing Astro as it fired a Dragon Rage while the other Flying-types flew down to grab the Pokémon it had attacked.
The Dragon Rage hit its shoulder, making the Legendary hiss before shrugging it off as it fired another Hyper Beam. "Gal!" Astro barrel-rolled out of the way, just as Skyler and the others carried the downed Pokémon away. "Vern!" He then fired a Shadow Ball at Centirek, who responded by summoning the energy ball from on its forehead again before it phased back into its head.
"TIREK!" This time, Centirek fired a stream of dark energy rings. It struck the Shadow Ball, causing it to explode and create a smoke cloud that Astro used to escape.
And when the smoke cleared, the Galvern stared Centirek down as Skyler, Owlicious and Flitanium all returned after getting the Pokémon to safety. "Owl!" Owlicious used Psychic to grab some debris and throw it at the Legendary, while Flitanium used Air Slash and unleashed multiple blades of wind. They slammed into Centirek, making it growl as it began to use its arms to cover his face. As it did this, Skyler flew in close and used Steel Wing on its arms, making the Centirek roar in pain.
Centirek then tried to grab him, but he shot away as Astro, Flitanium and Owlicious fired their attacks again. "Cent!" He roared before summoning the forehead orb again, it going back into its head before it fired a Hyper Beam in a semi-circle that struck several buildings around them.
Explosions covered the area, forcing the fliers to back off as Centirek to keep firing at them. As this happened, a piece of rubble flew up and clipped Skyler, making him wince before Centirek reached out and grabbed him. "TORE!" He cried as the hand squeezed him, pulling him back as Centirek fired a Dark Pulse that pushed the rest back.
Skyler turned to Centirek as it opened its mouth and began sucking the energy out of him. The Tornavian cried out as he struggled against the grip, "Tore!" he yelped, feeling his strength fade until Astro fired a Dragon Rage that struck Centirek's hand.
"Cen!" The Legendary roared as Astro flew down, snatching Skyler as Flitanium and Owlicious kept firing attacks at the monster. But as the Legendary recovered, another voice called out.
"Aura Sphere!" It looked around at the voice, only for a sphere of energy to hit its face. It roared, staggering back as Flash, Twilight, Doc, Spike, Starlight and Sunburst ran into view. Springer had been running ahead of them, now on top of a pile of rubble.
"Ri!" He then threw another Aura Sphere, which struck Centirek in the chest, allowing Flitanium and Owlicious to fly past it as Astro landed with Skyler in his claws.
"Skyler!" Flash ran to his Tornavian's side, "You okay?" Skyler let out a weak moan, "Aw no..." He held out his Pokeball, "Take a good rest." He returned him before glaring at Centirek, "You're not gonna get away with this!" Centirek just growled as Flash took out his other three Pokeballs. "LET'S GO GUYS!"
The balls flew up and summoned the three Starters of Equestria. "TIDAL/STAG/VI!" Riptide, Prongs and Viper landed, all glaring up at the large Pokémon.
Meanwhile, Doc and Twilight took out their Pokeballs. "Higear, Tockwork and Aggron, LET'S GO!"
"Come on out Shine!" They threw them and the four Pokémon appeared along with the starters, Springer and the others joining the ground. And they weren't the only ones that intended to do battle.
"There it is!" They turned to see multiple trainers running toward Centirek, Flash recognizing them as the ones he had fought before arriving at the city. "Let's get that thing!"
With that, they threw their Pokeballs up and unleashed their Pokémon. This included the ones Flash had battled, along with the trainers that had been fighting in the tournament and a few he hadn't seen yet. "Use Dragonbreath!" A Steelix fired the beam at the Legendary, it being the only Pokémon larger than Centirek, if only slightly. The blast struck Centirek, pushing it back before the Legendary swung its arms, dispelling the attack before firing a Hyper Beam at Steelix. And as the attack knocked the metal snake down, Flash's remaining Pokémon charged.
"Drain Punch, Rock Smash, Energy Ball, Flamethrower and Dragon Rage!" The ranged attacks hit Centirek, distracting it as Springer and Riptide reached its front legs, the two each aiming at one of its hooves.
"RI/REP!" They roared as they punched and kicked the leg, knocking it off balance.
"Alright Peewee!" Spike ordered his Terragon, "Use Draco Meteor!"
"Terra...GONE!" Peewee formed the orb in his mouth before firing it straight up, the sphere shooting above Centirek and exploding.
"Psychic!" Twilight yelled as Owlicious used his mental abilities to grab the comets, directing and slamming them into the Legendary.
"Flamethrower!" A Mushroast and Pyruby trainers commanded, the pair unleashing the streams of fire at Centirek.
"Gear Grind, Zap Cannon, Air Slash and Rock Slide!" Doc's Pokémon fired their attacks, the rocks slamming down on Centirek from above while the other attacks struck from below.
"Shadow Ball!" Some trainers called out as their Skullimor, Drifloon and Ghouwail unleashed dark energy orbs.
"You too Astro!" Flash added, the Galvern now launching a Shadow Ball.
"Sludge Bomb/Ice Beam/Bullet Seed!" Cauldrula, Boaraurora and Grattle fired their attacks while Springer used Extreme Speed to parkour up the side of a building until he reached Centirek's head height.
"RI!" He roared, firing an Aura Sphere that slammed into Centirek's face.
"CENT!" The Cataclysmic Pokémon screeched, "TIREK!" It pulled its arm back and swung it, trying to punch Springer.
"RI!" Springer leapt out of the way just as the Steelix charged and tried to use Head Smash. Centirek saw this coming and grabbed the iron spikes on Steelix's side. This held it in place, stopping Head Smash from hitting before Centirek began to drain it.
"NO!" Steelix's trainer screamed as the Steel-type began to weaken. The other Pokémon started firing attacks at it, but Centirek simply shrugged it off as it kept draining Steelix. It then dropped the metal serpent and roared as its body glowed, increasing in size.
"Not good," Flash gulped as Centirek's forehead glowed again before firing another Hyper Beam. The Pokémon did their best to avoid it, but several were struck, all sent flying including Owlicious, Peewee and Prongs.
Twilight then noticed a Xatu flying towards it as a trainer cried out. "Zen Headbutt!" Blue psychic energy wrapped around it as it slammed into Centirek. But the energy just disappeared, doing no damage to the beast, only for Centirek to glance down at it, "Teleport!" Xatu disappeared before Centirek could grab it, reappearing next to its trainer. "What happened?"
Twilight's eyes went wide, "It must be a Dark-type." She turned to her Pokémon, knowing Shine and Owlicious's attacks would be useless. "No...unless..." She turned to the trainer, "Does that thing know Miracle Eye?"
She nodded back before pointing at Centirek, "Miracle Eye!" Xatu's eyes glowed before firing a beam of light that struck Centirek. The Legendary growled, feeling itself being effected by the attack. It then turned to Xatu and grabbed it, making it cry out.
It tried to use Teleport, but Centirek's grip made it lose focus. "NO!" Its trainer screamed as the other Pokémon tried to save it, but Centirek spun on the spot and used its tail to create a wave of wind that blew them away. It then breathed in and stole away Xatu's power, dropping it once it got it all.
The trainer returned it, telling it had done great, only to hear Twilight thank her before yelling, "Mind Force!" Owlicious flew up as his body glowed, the bird beating its wings and unleashing a psychic blast. It struck it head on, making the beast roar as it staggered back. Peewee, Flitanium, Astro and some more Flying-types flew up at this, but Centirek swung its arms around, trying to knock them all out of the sky down.
"Vi!" Viper slithered up and reached it legs, Flash seeing this.
"Poison Fang!" He ordered, Viper then sinking his glowing fangs into Centirek's leg. Centirek roared in pain, doing its best of kick Viper off, but the Vipeacon managed to keep a grip on its leg. This allowed Springer, Riptide and Prongs to get close, "Drain Punch, Aqua Break and Horn Leech!"
"Ri/Rep/Stag!" The three roared before preparing their attacks, each slammed them into the other three legs before jumping back as Centirek screeched. Viper took this moment to let go and use Flamethrower to push himself away while burning the Cataclysm Pokémon. And when the three were a safe distance away, Higear and Tockwork charged in.
"Gear Grind and Psyshock!" Higear fired its gear hands while Tockwork raised its gun arm, their attacks hitting the side of the beast alongside multiple other attacks fired by other trainers. "Now," Doc yelled as Aggron charged next, "HEAVY SLAM!"
"AGGRON!" The beast leapt and curled up, spinning and slamming into one of Centirek's legs. This made it fall to its knees, only to reach out and grabbed Aggron's tail.
"TIREK!" It swung the kaiju around before throwing him straight down, making it cry out, Centirek then beginning to drain Aggron.
"NO!" Doc screamed as Higear, Tockwork and Flitanium charged in to try and stop it.
"GEAR/TOCK/FLY!" They roared as they shot shot out a Gear Grind, Zap Cannon and Air Slash. But as the attacks approached, Centirek stopped its feasting and picked Aggron up. The three's eyes went wide as they saw their attacks slam into their teammate, doing serious damage before Centirek reached out and grabbed Flitanium. The bird cried out as he tried to break free, only to get drained as well.
"Cent," it chuckled as its body grew once again before dropping Aggron and Flitanium, flexing its increased muscles.
Doc's eyes went wide as he watched his Pokémon slump over, drained as they hit the ground, "No...its too strong." He watched as Higear and Tockwork fired their attacks again, along with Springer, Peewee, Riptide, Prongs, Viper, Astro, Shine, Owlicious and many other Pokémon.
The attacks collided with Centirek and buffeted against its body, but the giant just shrugged everything off. The beast's forehead then glowed again before it fired another Dark Pulse at the Pokémon in the air, this attack now even faster than before as it began to hit the make Flying-Types. Owlicious, Peewee, Astro and others began to fall at this, all moaning as they hit the floor as other Pokémon ran over to protect them. But instead of trying to grab the downed Pokémon, Centirek's forehead glowed again.
However, it didn't fire a Hyper Beam or Dark Pulse. Instead it jumped up onto its back legs before thrusting its front hooves straight down, creating a powerful Earthquake attack that shook the entire city and knocked everyone off their feet. Buildings all around Centirek began to crack and break apart, causing rubble to fall into the street.
Every Pokémon and trainer tried to avoid them, but one by one they were struck and buried beneath falling rubble. And those that weren't soon fell victim to Centirek's range attacks, getting knocked out of the sky. Only one Pokémon managed to avoid the rubble and the attacks, the Pokémon deciding to attack the Legendary head-on.
"RIOLU!" Springer roared as he used Extreme Speed to shoot through the rubble and run along the sides of the few remaining buildings that existed.
"Springer!" Flash screamed as he watched his partner charge in, using a long angled piece of rubble as a ramp to shoot of the end and fly towards Centirek. But before he could reach it, the Legendary swung its arm and backhanded him. The blow knocked Springer flying, Flash's eyes going wide as he watched his partner smash into one of the nearby buildings. "NOOOOO!"
The others gasped as this, only to see Centirek turned to them. And as the many Pokémon tried to push themselves up to battle again, Centirek opened its mouth and started breathing in...and the Pokémon all began to glow.
"It's draining them!" Starlight cried as the Pokémon were all slowly losing their strength. Being the closest to Centirek, Flash's team were all completely drained first and fell to the ground.
"Guys!" Flash gasped, Sunburst turning to the other trainers.
"Return them!" He yelled, "It might not be able to steal their power while their in their Pokeballs." The trainers nodded and all returned their Pokémon, though not before Centirek managed to drain away some of their power. And as soon as they were inside the Pokeballs, the glowing stopped. Sunburst had been right.
"That's great," Spike commented, "But what do we do now?"
The others gulped as they turned their attention back to Centirek. The Legendary growled at all of them, the many trainers now cowering at the behemoth. "CENTIREK!" It roared before its forehead glowed and fired a Hyper Beam, which shot across the city and blasted its way through several buildings, including Horizon Incorporated, making them explode or crumble.
And over on one of the yet untouched buildings, Lightning watched the whole battle from start to finish. Gorillamp was behind him, the teen staring straight at the Legendary. He rubbed his chin at this, "Hmmm...that thing's tough," he whispered as he watched Centirek stomp around the place, the people returning their Pokémon before trying to escape. "It's gotta have a weak point. I don't see anything obvious..." He then saw the Legendary's forehead glow before it unleashed another Hyper Beam, destroying more buildings as the city started shaking again. The teen crossed his arms at this, "If only I had my whole team. Then I could stop it easily."
He glanced down at this, spotting Flash running up to the building Springer had been thrown through. "Not gonna save the day this time, are we?" He smirked at the sight before glancing back up at Centirek as it roared, preparing to fire another Hyper Beam.
But before it did, it stopped. This did not go unnoticed by Lightning, nor by the trainers down on the ground.
"What's it doing?" Spike asked, everyone watching as the Legendary looked up to the sky. They followed its gaze, only for everyone to go wide-eyed. The sky was warping in two spots, rippling like water that had been hit by a rock. Slowly, the ripples began to swirl around and formed twin disks of purple energy, those familiar with this phenomenon's now gasping as a Pokémon flew out of each of them.
"ALICORMONY!" The Harmony Pokémon neighed as it flew down.
"DISCHAOS!" The Chaos Pokémon roared as it slithered through the sky like a snake in the grass. Centirek glared at them while the two Legendaries floated down to just above the beast.
"No way," a trainer gasped.
"The Legendaries of Equestria!" Starlight whispered, "But how?"
Sunburst let out a laugh. "Those two were the ones that sealed Centirek away before. Of course they would sense if it broke free! And now..." he stood tall, "They've come to defeat it once again!"
As he declared this, Alicormony's horn glowed before it fired a Dazzling Gleam attack. It struck Centirek, causing it to roar in pain while Dischaos flew down and opened its mouth to unleash a Dark Pulse that struck it in the back.
"TIREK!" It staggered back before letting out another roar and firing a Hyper Beam, but Alicormony spread its wings as its horn glowed, creating a sphere of golden energy around itself. The Hyper Beam struck and despite getting knocked back, the attack caused no damage to the Psychic Fairy-type.
"Chaos!" Dischaos charged, its left claw now covered in dark energy. When it got close, it swung its claw into Centirek's chest, but the beast jumped back to avoid the slash. As it did this, it tried to grab Dischaos to drain its power, only for Dischaos to vanish in a flash.
"Cent?" Another flash made it look behind itself and see the Chaos Pokémon floating with a smirk while Alicormony flew down and appeared opposite the Cataclysmic Pokémon.
"CHAOS/CORE!" They roared before firing a Dark Pulse and Dazzling Gleam, the two attacks slamming into Centirek from both angles, completely enveloping the beast in dark and bright light.
Down on the ground, everyone cheered. "YEAH!" Spike cried, "That's the way! Take it down!"
But as this happened, a certain person wasn't cheering. Twilight frowned as she watched the two attacks, biting her lip as she commented, "Something's wrong." The others turned to her at this, "They might be strong, but these are the Pokémon that usually have the power to level cities by sneezing. Centirek's just woken up and even if it managed to steal our Pokémon's energy, it shouldn't be strong enough to stand up to them at max strength."
"Are we watching the same battle?" Someone asked her, "They just roasted that thing!" But as he said that, a mighty roar made them glance back and see the lights explode off of Centirek with a swing of its arms. It looked injured, burns and bruises on it, but far from being beaten.
"CENTIREK!" It roared before opening its mouth and unleashing a Hyper Beam, Dischaos now dodging it with a slick slithering movement.
"What happened?" Spike asked as they Legendaries continued their battles, the ground shaking at the stomping of Centirek as it kept firing beams at the two, "Are those two holding back or something?!"
The others glanced at each other, only for Doc's face to go pale as he said, "Sombra…" they all turned to him at that name.
"What about him?" Spike replied.
"Think about it." Doc responded, "They're not at full power right now because of Sombra." The others all grimaced at this as he continued, "It's only been three weeks since Sombra captured them and used their power to create that giant titan." As he said this, Alicormony fired a Dazzling Gleam, but Centirek held out a hand and blocked it. "Even Legendaries need time to regenerate their power."
"Oh no..." Starlight gulped, "If that's the case, those two aren't at full power."
Twilight nodded at this, "I guess there is a reason the pair usually sleep for a thousand years to regain their strength."
"So does that mean they're not strong enough to beat that thing?" Spike asked as Centirek fired a Dark Pulse that struck Dischaos and knocked it flying.
"It's starting to look like it," Sunburst gulped.
Meanwhile...
Flash had reached the building Springer had been thrown into. "Springer!" He yelled as he ran into the lobby and spotted a staircase. Rushing up it, he stopped when the whole building shook. "Whoa!" He turned to a nearby window and saw Dischaos slam into the ground nearby. And as the Legendary recovered, Alicormony flew down and spread its wings as they glowed. "Steel Wing?" He whispered as the Psychic Fairy-type shot down and slashed at Centirek. The Cataclysmic Pokémon crossed its arms and blocked the attack, knocking it back.
Flash then continued up the building, looking through each of the floors until he found one with a massive hole in the wall. "Springer!" He ran up and found a large pile of rubble, the teen quickly beginning to dig through it. And as he did this, he uncovered his Riolu and sighed in relief to see he was still breathing. "You okay?"
"Ri..." Springer moaned as he creaked his eyes open. "Ri?"
Flash helped him up as the sound of another explosion made them turn to see Centirek fire another Dark Pulse at Alicormony and Dischaos, Alicormony using protect to shield itself while Dischaos used Teleport to get behind it. When it reappeared, its body was surrounded by a strangely colored veil of light before roaring as the energy exploded off of it, taking the form of a dragon.
"Is that Dragon Rush?" Spike asked the others.
"I don't think so," Twilight replied as Centirek turned to face the attack. There was another flash of light from its head, about to fire a Dark Pulse. But before it could reach it, Dischaos's attack exploded into a million spheres of energy, all then colliding into Centirek, making it cry out at the barrage of impacts.
"Wow," a trainer whistled, "What was that attack?"
"I'm not sure," Doc replied, "It must have been a signature move." At the same time, Alicormony fired a Dazzling Gleam at Centirek, but the Legendary turned and fired another Dark Pulse, blocking it. "I wonder if Alicormony has one too?"
"Wouldn't it have used it if it had?" Spike asked.
"No...unless..." Twilight whispered before suddenly cutting into a sprint. She charged into the battle, the others crying out at her to stop. Instead, she got onto a large pile of rubble and yelled, "Alicormony!" The Harmony Pokémon glanced back at her, "We used Miracle Eye on it earlier! You can use Psychic Moves on it!"
Alicormony smiled before turning back to Centirek and opening her wings, a rainbow aura forming around her body. Centirek saw this and fired a Hyper Beam, only for the Legendary to leap up, dodging the attack as the light flew off its body and formed a sphere of rainbow energy that it pointed at Centirek.
Alicormony neighed as the attack exploded off the horn and shot down in a beam, striking Centirek, knocking hit back. The beast roared in pain, ripping up the road as its hooves scrapped against the ground until it crashed into one of the buildings.
"YEAH!" Spike cheered as everyone else applauded, Centirek falling to its knees. Alicormony and Dischaos flew a good distance back and prepared to fire their signature moves again, only for Centirek to turn to the one that had warned Alicormony. And in that moment, it realized the weakness of at least one of its opponents. It cared for others.
"CENTIREK!" It roared, forcing itself back to its hooves as its forehead glowed again. Moments later, it unleashed a Dark Pulse at a particular girl.
"TWILIGHT!" Spike screamed as he and Doc ran for her, the girl just standing there as the attack got closer. All she could do was flinch and close her eyes, waiting for the inevitable. But the pain never appeared.
"CORRRRRRRR!" She gasped and opened her eyes, seeing Alicormony had gotten between her and the attack. The Legendary fell at this, barely able to stay on its hooves, but Centirek didn't give it time to recover.
"TIREK!" It leapt up and slammed its hooves into the ground, using Earthquake that rocked the entire city again. The many damaged buildings began to break apart again, also knocking Alicormony off balance before Centirek grabbed it by the horn.
"NO!" Twilight screamed as Centirek lifted it up. But before it could drain away her power, Dischaos charged at the monster, only for Centirek to swing Alicormony into the legendary.
They both cried out, allowing Centirek to fire a Hyper Beam and hit Dischaos. "CHAOS!" It cried as it was burned, allowing Centirek to charge in and grab both Legendaries by the horns. And before either could recover, Centirek began to drain away their energy and suck it down its throat.
"NOOOOOOOOOO!" The trainers watching cried, seeing the two strongest Pokémon in Equestria being robbed of all their power. And just a second later, it was done. The sight of Alicormony and Dischaos falling to the evil Pokémon's feet made everyone go wide-eyed. They were utterly helpless, everyone knowing that if they fell, then nothing could stop this thing.
"CENTIREK!" The beast roared as its body glowed, then increased in size. Now it was almost as big as the largest skyscraper, which quickly fell as Centirek swung its arms around, smashing the building into rubble. It then turned to the people, making them all scream as it opened its mouth to fire another Hyper Beam. But before it could, a voice called out to it.
"HEY HORN HEAD!" It turned to the voice and spotted a blue sphere, which landed between its eyes and exploded. The beast roared, reaching up to rub its eyes and blow away the smoke. And when it did, it saw who had done this, Flash and Springer standing side by side.
"Don't think you've won this!" The Legendary growled as it began to gallop toward them, "It's all on us bud." He turned to Springer, "You ready?" Springer nodded back as Centirek reached them and pulled its fist back, throwing a punch at this.
The fist smashed into the building, causing it to break apart even more as Flash and Springer leapt onto Centirek's arm. The Cataclysmic Pokémon saw this, growling as Flash and Springer ran up its arm. Centirek tried to drain Springer due to his close distance, but Springer quickly formed an Aura Sphere.
"RI!" He roared, firing it at Centirek's face again. The Legendary stopped trying to drain him and moved its head, its horn deflecting the attack as Flash and Springer reached its shoulder.
"Later!" Flash laughed as they jumped off the shoulder and slid down Centirek's back, reaching its rear and then leaping down the side to grab one of its legs. Centirek's size made it so slow that by the time it had registered all this, the pair had slid down to the ground and jumped off its hoof. "Aura Sphere!" Springer fired the orb again, hitting its leg.
"TIREK!" It hissed before turning around, its head glowing as it prepared to fire a Hyper Beam.
The two saw this and began to run, Centirek firing the blast and hitting the ground behind them. "GYAH/RI!" Flash and Springer cried as the ground exploded, throwing them into some rubble.
They both moaned, but rolled onto all fours and looked up to see Centirek laughing at them. But as they happened, Centirek's head glowed again as it prepared to fire a Dark Pulse. "We're not giving up!" Flash roared as he and Springer charged.
"TIREK!" Centirek fired the Dark Pulse, but the pair leapt aside as the attack struck the ground between them.
"Extreme Speed!" Springer shot up, lightning wrapping around him.
"RI!" He swung his leg into a section of Centirek's body right above the leg. But Centirek barely felt it, instead reaching down to try and grab Springer, only for the riolu to leap back.
"Aura Sphere!" Springer fired another blast, Centirek countering by swinging its hand, creating a wind strong enough to deflect the attack. "Come on," Flash growled, "If we get too close, it'll drain Springer. But at that size, ranged attacks can be easily deflected." Springer then landed in front of him. "There's gotta be a way to stop it. But how?" Centirek charged up a Hyper Beam at this, the two running again as the attack began to run down at them.
In another part of the city, the people were starting to evacuate. With their Pokémon completely drained, many began to panic and started running to the closest elevator out of the crater. Only a select few weren't trying to escape, instead running over to the fallen Legendaries.
"Alicormony!" Twilight shook the giant alicorn, "Please get up."
"Come on!" Spike yelled into Dischaos's face, "You gotta keep fighting! You're the only ones that can beat that thing! Wake up!"
But neither Alicormony and Dischaos responded, completely blacked out as Doc said, "It's no good. Centirek stole all their power."
"And now it's practically unstoppable," Sunburst added, all turning to see Centirek now being led away by Flash and Springer.
"There has to be some way to stop that thing," Starlight commented, "We just have to think."
Twilight frowned, the genius trainer racking her brain as she stared at the monstrosity. With only Springer left that could fight, she felt despair enter her mind. But as this happened, she saw two figures running through the rubble. "Lightning?" She asked as he disappeared behind a pile of debris, "Wait...don't tell me he's going to..." She went wide-eyed before she suddenly whispered, "Please help him."
Flash and Springer both panted as they hid behind some rubble, having chosen to take a hit a run approach against Centirek. The Legendary was now stomping around, blasting any movement as Flash glanced back at the monster, "Ready Springer?" The riolu nodded as Centirek turned around, "Now!"
They leapt out and fired an Aura Sphere, but before it could hit, the beast spun around and back handed the ball away. The force of this swing unleashed a sweep of wind, hitting both flying off their feet.
"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!" Flash screamed as they were flown back, the trainer now seeing Centirek's head glowing as it prepared another Hyper Beam. "Springer!"
His riolu fired another Aura Sphere, the two attacks soon colliding before an explosion rocked the area. The blast pushed Flash and Springer again, throwing them into a pile of rubble, "Augh!"
"TIREK!" Centirek quickly galloped into the smoke, leaping onto its back hooves before slamming them down, creating another earthquake.
"Run!" Flash yelled as him and Springer scrambled to their feet before running, only for Centirek to power up another Hyper Beam.
"Cent...TIREK!" It roared as the attack exploded out of its mouth and struck the ground, making it explode as it sent both Flash and Springer flying. The pair screamed at this, heat and debris buffeting their bodies as they slammed into more rubble.
Centirek smirked at this, only for the smoke to clear...and show the pair still in tact. They were busted up, bruised and bleeding, but remained in one piece.
"Springer," Flash moaned as he pushed some rubble off of him. And as he did this, he heard movement and looked up to see Centirek staring down at them. "No..." he whispered before seeing Centirek's head glow from the orb that appeared. A moment later, the Legendary opened its mouth as it began to charge up another Hyper Beam. "NO!" He threw his body over Springer's, the laser about the fire.
But as the laser beam came, threatening to completely disintegrate them, a massive bolt of lightning shot out from behind Flash. The Thunder and Hyper Beam attacks connected, pushing against one another. Despite the Hyper Beam being charged with the power of so many Pokémon, the Thunder refused to give up and kept pushing.
Eventually, the two attacks reached their critical peak and exploded. As they did, Flash sat himself up and picked Springer up into his arms. "You okay?" Springer opened his eyes and nodded.
"You know, I'm really getting tired of saving your hide." Flash now turned to where the Thunder had come from, eyes wide as he saw Lightning Blitz and Gorillamp. "At this point, I'm gonna start charging." They moved up and stood side by side, Lightning's focus completely on Centirek. "So that thing really was real. Who'd have thought."
"Don't do anything stupid," Flash replied, "That thing's crazy strong. There's no way you can beat it on your own."
Lightning remained silent for a moment, continuing to stare at the glaring Legendary, "Yeah...I'll admit this thing's tough. If I had my whole team, I could beat it no problem. But since the others are all completely drained thanks to those idiots that run the center...I guess I've got no choice." With that, he held out a hand to help Flash up. The teen went wide-eyed at this, only to take it as Lightning hoisted him back to his feet. "Just don't get in my way."
Springer leapt out of Flash's arms, then glanced back at the still recharging Centirek. "Lightning, we have to stop this thing." He turned to him. "If we don't, it'll just keep stealing more power until it's completely unstoppable. And if that happens...Equestria will be destroyed."
Lightning just shrugged, "As I said, don't get in my way." He slammed his fist into his palm, "Besides, this will be good training for Gorillamp."
The two teens and their Pokémon stood side by side, staring down the mighty opponent. They were the only thing standing between it and enough power to destroy all of Equestria. They couldn't let that happen.
The people of Horizon City were in a mad panic, everyone running to the nearest elevator as a mighty roar filled the air, making some look back to see the Legendary Pokémon Centirek stomp around the city. It had almost drained every single Pokémon that was in the city of their power, including the two Legendaries of Chaos and Harmony.
There were only two Pokémon still up and kicking, belonging to a pair of heated rivals that needed to work together in order to win. Flash and Lightning stared up at the beast as it let out a mighty roar, "Alright," Flash turned to Lightning, "Let's take this thing down."
Lightning glared back, "Don't give me orders!" He hissed before pointing at Centirek, "Thunder!"
"Gore!" Gorillamp slammed his fists together as the electricity surged around his body, "GORILLAMP!" He thrust the arms forward, unleashing a blast of lightning that struck Centirek's chest. The blow made it flinch, staggering it back as Flash pointed at the beast.
"Aura Sphere!" Springer fired the orb, but Centirek simply swung its arm, swatting the attack away. It then opened its mouth as its forehead glowed, a Hyper Beam soon exploding out of the Legendary's throat as the pair leapt away, "Extreme Speed!"
"Riolu!" Springer yelled as lightning surged around him, zigzagging up to Centirek. And as the monster tried to punch the zipping Riolu, allowing Gorillamp to get in close.
"Hammer Arm!" The electric ape roared as he slammed his arms into Centirek's long legs. But as this happened, Centirek pulled its legs back before smacking Gorillamp away, knocking it a good hundred feet while bouncing off the ground. "What?!" Lightning yelped as he saw his Pokémon skid across the ground.
Centirek then prepared to use Dark Pulse, but Springer appeared in front of the beast's chest with a Bone Rush attack. "Ri!" He slung the bone into the monster, but it stood strong before trying to grab the Riolu. But as he did this, Springer spun around and kicked off Centirek's chest before firing an Aura Sphere upward. "RIOLU!" The orb smacked Centirek's face, making it hiss.
"I gotcha!" Flash exclaimed as he ran up and caught the falling Riolu, only for Centirek to raise its hoof up to try and stomp them both.
"Thunder!" A bolt of lightning struck the hoof, making Centirek pull back as Flash and Springer ran away. He turned to the source of Thunder and saw Lightning and Gorillamp, nodding back as Lightning just ignored him, staring at the beast.
But as both stared at the monster, they saw that they had barely done any damage to it. "There's gotta be some way to stop it...but how?"
Meanwhile...
Twilight and the others were still with Alicormony and Dischaos. The Legendaries were still out cold, having been drained entirely of their power, and were now sitting ducks since they couldn't be placed in a Pokeball and their size made moving them impossible.
"Hold on," Twilight told them. "We'll find a way to save you."
In that moment, the ground shook and they turned to see Centirek fire a Hyper Beam. Twilight felt her heart tremble as the thought of what might be happening to Flash and Springer entered her mind, "Please be careful." She glanced over to Starlight, "Horizon Incorporated is the leading scientific company of Equestria! Isn't there something you've made that could help us right now?!"
Starlight shook her head, "Not off the top of my head." She took out her energy gun, "If we could fill this up, then maybe we could try and recharge Alicormony and...no. The energy we'd need would be a hundred times the amount this thing can carry."
"But there's gotta be something we can do!" Spike exclaimed.
"Look at Horizon Inc," Sunburst pointed to the building, the building torn in half from an earlier attack, "Even if we had something that could stop Centirek, it's probably been destroyed by now."
"That place can't be the only one with your tech," Doc chimed in, "It's spread out all around the city. One of them must be able to at least slow Centirek down."
Starlight hummed at this, only for a bulb to go off in her head, "That's it..." she whispered, "I've got it! Follow me!"
She quickly cut into a sprint, the others following her as Twilight glanced back at the legendaries, "Don't worry," she assured Alicormony. "We're gonna stop that thing." She then ran after the others, her eyes going back to the battle. "Just be careful. Don't get yourself killed."
"Gyah!" Flash screamed as he and Springer were blasted back by Centirek's Hyper Beam, slamming them both into a pile of rubble.
"Gore!" Gorillamp leapt up with glowing arms, slamming them into the ground and creating a massive crack that zipped along the ground until it reached Centirek's foot. The Legendary suddenly found one of its hooves falling through the crack, putting it off balance as Gorillamp to charged up a Thunder attack. A second later, the Thunder hit Centirek's chest, knocking it back.
"Cent!" It roared before its head glowed, "CENTIREK!" It unleashed another Hyper Beam that struck the ground to the left of Lightning and Gorillamp before swinging it right, carving a massive line between the Legendary and its opponents.
KABOOM!
The ground exploded, the force knocking all four flying back before crashing into a pile of rubble. And as smoke began to seep around them, Flash and Lightning moaned as their entire bodies screamed in agony. Their Pokémon also groaned, slowly pushing themselves back up. But as they did this, Centirek began to walk through the smoke cloud it had created and smirked down at them. It then reached down to grab them, the pair flinching right before getting grabbed.
"NO!" Flash gasped while Lightning's eyes went wide. They watched as Centirek lift them up, preparing to drain them of their power. "Lightning!" Flash took out Springer's Premier-Ball and held it out, managing to fire a beam that struck Springer and pulled him out of Centirek's grasp.
Lightning growled and did the same, returning Gorillamp before Centirek could get any of his energy. The Legendary then hissed at them, both pushing themselves to their feet and running as Centirek's head glowed, about to fire another Hyper Beam. And as the laser shot down, it struck the ground behind them, making it explode and causing the teens to be sent flying again. They flew a good half mile and as they were about to land, they realised they were set to land right into a pile of broken metal.
"Gorillamp!" Lightning threw the ball and unleashed his partner, who appeared between the metal.
"GORE!" It then leapt up and grabbed them both, catching them before they hit the pile.
"Thanks," Flash told the Pokémon before staring at Springer's ball. "It's no good." He looked up at Centirek, who appeared frozen at the moment due to using Hyper Beam so much. "Our long range attacks aren't cutting it, and if we get too close, that thing might grab us and drain the Pokémon of their power."
"Don't tell me you're giving up," Lightning hissed, "Then again, of course you would."
"I'm not giving up!" Flash barked back.
"Yeah yeah..." Lightning rolled his eyes, "Just like you gave up against Sombra. A true trainer doesn't need to ask for any help."
Flash's eyes narrowed at this, "Oh yeah? Then why did you help me earlier?!"
"Cuz I know a loser like you will want to get in my way unless I give you a reason not too." Lightning growled before glaring at Centirek, "If only those idiots at the center hadn't messed up my team..."
Flash opened his mouth to yell back at him, only to sigh as he stared at Centirek, "If you really think you can beat him, then stop whining and think up a new plan!"
"I have a plan. I'll keep attacking till that thing falls." Lightning replied, "That's what a true trainer would do."
Flash glared at him again, only to go wide-eyed as he saw something behind Lightning. "Wait...is that..." he whispered as he stared at a piece of metal was shining right into his eye, making him glance around to see they were nearby the remains of Horizon Incorporated.
He then cut into a sprint, making Lightning yell, "Hey! Where are you going?!"
Flash didn't respond, instead running up to the source of light only to find the reflective surface of a familiar metal case. "This is..." Flash gasped as he pulled it out of the rubble and opened it up, his eyes going wide at the sight. "The Poké-Arms." Inside the case were the twin chest plates, the teen taking it out, "With this I could..." He looked it over, seeing that it didn't appear damaged.
But as he did this, he remembered how that guy and his Sandslash tried to use it with little success. Sunburst had said it was something to do with the synchronization between the trainer and their Pokémon. "Are Springer and I close enough to use this?" He asked himself, only to hear the sound of Centirek roaring again.
"CENTIREK!" Its head glowed as it fired a Dark Pulse, which struck the ground near him, making it explode.
"Crap." Flash grumbled as he flinched from the force of the blast. He then placed Springer's Pokeball into the device. "Here goes nothing!" He put the chest-plate on himself, the device activating as soon as it touched his chest. A bright light consumed Flash's body, the teen feeling the chest-plate unleash a material that wrapped around his chest, shoulders and back to lock the device in place.
Soon, the light began to morph into a new shape before exploding off of him, revealing him to now be dressed head to toe in Riolu-themed armor. It was mostly blue, his arms, stomach and legs from the knees up being that colour, the chest-plate having turned black with the Premier-Ball in the front of it while his lower legs and feet were black. He had a yellow collar around his neck and his head was inside a metal helmet that looked just like Springer. Instead of a mouth, Flash's eyes could be seen looking through a visor with his mouth being the only thing visible. Springer's nose was coming out of his forehead and the black dangles were hanging from the side of the helmet.
Centirek had spotted this light and raised an eyebrow when it saw the human in this new state. Lightning also saw it, going wide-eyed at the sight before spotting the case in Flash's hand. But before he could ask, Centirek's head glowed as it fired a Hyper Beam at Flash.
But as the beam came for Flash...he vanished. The ground exploded next, making both Lightning and Centirek go wide-eyed at the sight before Flash suddenly reappeared away from the spot.
"Yes! It's working!" the teen cheered.
"Heck yeah it is!" yelled another voice, making Flash gasp as he heard the voice in his head.
"What the...Springer?!"
"Yeah, its me. This is awesome. I'm in the Pokeball, but I can see and hear everything you can."
"Don't celebrate yet," Flash landed and put the case down. "The armor worked before." He brought his hands together, "It's using moves that made it spark out."
"Right," Springer replied, "But we can do this!" And as this happened, between Flash's hands came a small orb of spirit energy that began to grow until it was the size of a basket-ball. "It's working!"
"Whoa..." Flash gasped before smirking and glancing up at Centirek. The Legendary prepared to use another Hyper Beam, but then Flash pulled the orb back. "Take...THIS!" He thrust the sphere, the orb almost instantly struck Centirek in the face before he could fire the beam.
KABOOM!
"Raaah!" It roared as the Aura Sphere exploded with three times the force a normal Aura Sphere would unleash.
And as Centirek staggered back, Flash raised an eyebrow, "Wow...did you see that?"
"Yeah," Springer responded, "It's like my attack got supercharged."
Flash smirked as he looked down at his hand, "Could the Poké-Arm's systems be giving us a boost?"
"I...guess? Eh, who cares as long it gives us more of a chance of beating that thing."
And in that moment, the Legendary let out a roar as it wiped its face and turned to glare at him. "You dare?!" it roared, making Flash's eyes go wide again.
"I can understand him?!" He yelped, "The Poké-Arms let's me do that?!"
At the same time, Lightning just blinked at the sight, "How...how..." He stared at Flash as the teen picked up the case and turned to his rival. "How did you do that?!" Flash replied by throwing the case, Lightning catching it before opening it up to reveal the second chest-plate. "What the heck is this thing?!"
"It's our only shot at winning this thing!" Flash yelled back, "I don't know if you can use it, but if you wanna try, then return Gorillamp and put his Pokeball in the slot and attach it to your chest."
As he said that, blue lightning wrapped around him and he shot off using Extreme Speed. And as he ran off to fight Centirek, Lightning stared down at the device before turning to Gorillamp. The pair stared at one another before nodding, "I don't like this...but if that loser can do it, then so can I." Gorillamp let out a snort as Lightning returned him before throwing the case away. He then placed Gorillamp's Pokeball into the chest-plate, which he held up. "Come on!" He roared before slamming the device on his chest, activating it and unleashing a light that surrounded his body.
This light was noticed by Flash and Centirek, but Flash threw another Aura Sphere at the Legendary, knocking it back. And as the light exploded off the teen, it revealed he was in Gorillamp-themed armor. His head was in a helmet designed around Gorillamp's head, Lightning's eyes looking through a visor that was where the mouth should be. His arms were covered in massive gauntlets shaped like fists while his chest and shoulders had thick armor that was a mix of black, yellow and white. Around his neck was a gray metal color, which had several plug sockets in it. His lower section wasn't as armed, allowing him to move around freely. Gorillamp's Pokeball was still visible in his chest, protected by the glass covering. [AN]
Lightning looked himself over, feeling a strange sense of power flowing through him. He held up his giant metal hands, feeling his actual hands inside. And when he opened his hands, the metal ones opened up as well. "Whoa. This is...unreal."
"Sure is."
The teen flinched at this, hearing the deep voice call out to him. "Who said that?!"
"It's me, Gorillamp." Lightning's eyes went wide at this, "This is...freaky. I can see and hear everything you can."
"Yeah...that's creepy." Lightning grumbled before turning back to Centirek and Flash. "Eh, whatever. All that matters is that..." He closed his eyes as electricity began to spark around his body. "I can use your power to fight!" The lightning power surged as he swung his arms, "THUNDER!"
The lightning exploded off his body and shot at Centirek, Flash gasping before leaping out of the way of the blast before it struck the Legendary. "GYAH!" It roared as its entire body was electrified. Lightning smirked at the sight, now seeing Centirek stagger back before regaining his footing. "Impressive humans." Lightning's eyes went wide at the voice, only for Centirek to say, "But this changes nothing. You couldn't beat me before, and those silly costumes won't make a difference! You will not beat me! Hyper Beam!"
"I will beat you!" Lightning screamed as he leapt away from the Hyper Beam, the attack hitting the ground before exploding. "And I'll prove to everyone in Equestria who the strongest trainer around is!" He landed and leapt with glowing arms at the Legendary's leg. "JUST WATCH!"
"Raaah!" Centirek roared as Lightning struck the leg, "You insect!" His forehead glowed before he unleashed a Dark Pulse, "DIE!"
A stream of energy rings shot for Lightning, only for Flash to appear, "Bone Rush!" He formed the energy staff, which he started spinning, forming a gust that the Dark Pulse struck and deflected before he pulled the staff back and threw it like a javelin. "Take this!" Centirek growled as the attack struck his chest before he could react, making him roar as Flash turned to Lightning. "I'll keep him distracted so you can attack at full power."
And as Flash said this, Lightning didn't reply, instead slamming his metal fists together to start charging power. But as he did this, Centirek recovered from the attack before Flash formed a sphere, "Hey ugly!" He threw an Aura Sphere at Centirek that he deflected with his arm before seeing Flash hop onto a pile of rubble, "Wanna dance?!"
"Pathetic!" Centirek hissed as he reached down and grabbed a bunch of rubble, "You can't possibly think you can stop me, do you?!"
With that, it threw the rocks, Flash leaping above the rubble. 'We will stop you!' He thought as he landed, the image of everyone in the city running in terror filling his mind. 'Because there are people and Pokémon that need us to stop you.' He then used some of the rubble to springboard through the air, getting higher until he was in range of Centirek's face. He used his foot to kick a small piece of rock away as he began to form an Aura Sphere. "We will save...EVERYBODY!" Flash yelled as the Aura Sphere was thrown at the beast's face.
As this was happening, Lightning continued to stay in place, building up as much electricity as possible. "More power..." he groaned. "I need...more power."
"Be careful," Gorillamp chimed in, "We don't know how much power this suit can take. Use too much and it could do you more damage then that thing."
"Doesn't matter," Lightning growled, "Just as long as I take it down."
And as he said this, Flash was now falling through the air as Centirek thrust his hand out to grab him. But as this happened, Flash rolled in the air and landed on the back of his wrist. "Missed me!" He laughed before running along his arm.
"Giga Drain!" Centirek roared, starting to breath in to steal Springer's power...only for nothing to happen. "WHAT?!"
"Sorry!" Flash formed an extra long Bone Rush, "But the kitchen's closed!" With that, he thrust the staff into the Legendary's arm and used it to pole-vault over the beast. And as Centirek tried to grab him again, a bright light shined below him, making him look down.
"Come on...come on!" Lightning hissed as his body sparked with a giant covering of electricity. "Just a little bit more..." He then glanced up and saw Centirek pulling his arm back at the teen. "NOW! SUPER THUNDER BLAST!" With that, the lightning exploded off of him and shot straight at Centirek. Flash flew between its horns as the attack struck, making it roar in agony as the teen slid down his back. And when he reached its equine body, he noticed a nearby building that was knocked down but had a part of it intact to form a ramp shape. Leaping off, he reached the building and slid down as Centirek was bombarded by the lightning.
Using Extreme Speed, he parkoured around the rubble until he reached Lightning, the super charged attack now ending. "Did that get him?" he asked as they saw the light from the attack begin to fade, a chuckle filling the air as it did.
"Valiant effort," he laughed, "Impressive strategy..." He then clapped his hands, pushing the smoke away. "But did I forget to mention that I am invincible?!" And as he declared this, he showed his now unharmed body,
"WHAT?!" Lightning and Gorillamp screeched.
"That's impossible!" Springer yelped.
"What is that thing made of?" Flash added as Centirek continued to laugh.
"Now do you understand? No matter what you do to me, I cannot be defeated. I have absorbed the power of Alicormony and Dischaos, not to mention countless other Pokémon. I...am the most powerful Pokémon in existence!"
"Don't make me laugh!" Lightning barked back, "You're by far the weakest Pokémon to ever exist! The fact you had to steal the power makes you pathetic!" He pointed to himself, "Real strength comes from putting everything you have into building your own strength. Taking it from others means nothing." Flash turned to Lightning, wide-eyed at his words before glaring back at the monster.
"He's right! You're just a thief! So give it up and return the power you stole! Do that and we might not seal you away again!"
This statement caused Centirek to laugh again. "You dare make demands at me?!" As he said that, his forehead glowed again, his entire body now beginning to radiate. "Maybe it's time I showed you my true strength. Now that I've synchronized with the energy I've gathered, I can wield more than just the strength of the Pokémon I've defeated."
Flash and Lightning struck fighting poses, both glaring at the monster as it prepared another attack.
Meanwhile...
Starlight continued to lead the others through the city, Twilight's ear perking up as she realized the sounds of battle had come to a stop. This made her glance back, seeing Centirek still standing, the thought of Flash and Lightning being taken down entering her head. But as this came to mind, she saw that Centirek was just standing still.
"We're almost there!" Starlight yelled, making Twilight glance back at her, "Let's just hope it's still standing."
"What's still standing?" Spike asked, only to then recognize the area they were in. "Wait. Isn't this street where-" He stopped when he saw the building they were looking for, which had somehow remained untouched by Centirek's attack.
"The Pokémon Center?" Doc added, "What are we doing here?" They reached the doors, which remained closed as the power was out. He and Sunburst grunted as they pulled them open, allowing Starlight and Twilight to step inside and see the constant shaking of the city had rocked the place into a mess.
They began to climb over the rubble and the others followed after them, only to soon reach the back room with its recovery beds. "Good," Starlight looked them over, "They're still in one piece."
"This is your plan?" Sunburst asked, "Put Dischaos and Alicormony on the recovery beds?"
"Of course not," Starlight replied before pointing at the lamps above the beds. "We're taking those apart and doing what Cozy did." Everyone except Spike's eyes went wide, the boy unable to tell what she meant. "Now come on," she took a tool out of her pocket. "We've got a lot of work to do in very little time."
The others nodded and got to work, Spike just standing there before Doc telling him to help him.
Back at the battle...
The Cataclysmic Pokémon opened its mouth as he roared, "Prepare to witness the full power of the strongest Pokémon in existence!" Fire suddenly appeared inside his mouth, "FLAMETHROWER!" The fire exploded out of his mouth, the pair leaping away at this.
"Whoa!" Flash yelped.
"Since when did it have that move?!" Lightning yelled as the pair landed.
"Thunderbolt!" Its horns unleashed a blast of lightning, Lightning then jumping in front of the attack, holding out his hands to block and absorb as much as he could.
"Remember what he said?!" Flash added, "He didn't just steal the Pokémon's power. He was able to take away their attacks as well!"
"Oh, great!" Lightning growled as the Thunderbolt ended, "Like this wasn't annoying enough."
Centirek's head glowed again before it held up its fists, then opened them up to reveal two very different attacks. "A Shadow Ball in my right hand!" He laughed, "And an Energy Ball in my left!" He then threw them, the Energy Ball heading for Lightning while Flash was being targeted by the Shadow Ball.
The pair began to run, but Centirek's head and eyes glowed seconds before the orbs did. And before they hit the ground, the attacks changed direction and began to chase the pair. "Psychic too?!" Flash yelped as the attack came for him. "Great..."
"You can't outrun that!"
"I know!" Flash skidded to a stop and clenched his now glowing green fist, "Drain Punch!" He threw it into the orb, making it explode. He flinched at the force, but also felt the energy from the attack going into him.
Meanwhile, Lightning saw the Energy Ball getting closer and slammed his arms into the ground. "Heavy Slam!" A large chunk of rubble to flew up, Lightning grabbing it before throwing the rock at the Energy Ball. The attack smashed into the rubble and exploded, leaving him completely unharmed.
"Not bad," Centirek chuckled, "But you're far from safe." His head glowed before he opened his mouth, a familiar ball of energy appearing within it before firing straight up. Flash and Lightning saw it and Flash let out a gasp.
"Oh no..."
Twilight and the others were still working, only for a bright light to shine from the windows. The group turned to it, only for Spike to gasp as he ran up to the screen.
"Draco Meteor?!" The others looked up in shock at this as the orb exploded into hundreds of smaller spheres that began to rain down. "Flash!"
"Hurry!" Starlight cried. "We have to hurry!"
"WHOA!" Flash yelped as he used Extreme Speed to avoid the attacks as best he could while Lightning used Hammer Arm to deflect them. But as this happened, a bulb went off in Flash's head, "Here goes nothing!"
Lightning watched as he leapt straight up and managed to dodge a Draco Meteor, the teen then landing on it before leaping off. He then did this to another meteor, then another and another, eventually managing to get high enough to be equal distance with Centirek and fired an Aura Sphere at the Legendary.
The orb came for the beast, Centirek countered by opening its mouth and launching a Flash Cannon. It struck the orb and made it explode while the Draco Meteor began to crash into the ground, causing whatever it struck to explode. Lightning then began leaping back, smacking some rubble up while he did this.
And as the last comet exploded, Flash landed and began moving again, "He can use any move he wants. How is that not cheating?!" As he said that, Centirek brought its hands together as his head glowed before pulling them apart to form a edge made entirely out of water. But instead of swinging it like a sword, he pulled it back before throwing it like a javelin.
"THUNDER!" Lightning roared, unleashing a bolt the electricity that struck the water blade, causing it to evaporate. He chuckled, "if you're gonna copy moves, maybe use the ones that aren't from total weaklings."
Flash glared at the teen, only for Centirek to chuckle. "You're right," it nodded as its head glowed. "I guess I should be using more powerful attacks." With that, his body began to glow a familiar veil of light.
Flash turned to Lightning, "You just had to goad him on!"
"Oh shut up, you-"
"Dragonic Chaos!" It roared as a light shot off the monster, making the pair turn back to the attack and fired an Aura Sphere and Thunder. "I don't think so!" With that, the dragon-shaped attack exploded before the other two attacks struck it, morphing into multiple spheres of energy. Those sphere shot around the attacks, then bombarding the ground around the teens.
The two growled as they braced themselves, both being blasted back before skidding along the ground. And as this happened, Centirek laughed as its head glowed again, a rainbow veil of light appearing around it. "And now, Harmonic Psyforce!" The light shot off its body and formed a large sphere at the tips of its horns before firing a massive rainbow beam.
The pair saw this and gasped, Springer giving Flash an idea that he nodded to before forming an Aura Sphere. "Raaah!" He threw the attack into the ground in front of them, causing it to explode and send debris into the air that the Psychic-type attack struck instead.
The beam caused the rubble to explode into dust, which rained down upon the pair as they stood up. And as this happened, Centirek began to march up to them, "It's time you realized the truth! You cannot defeat me!" His head began to glow again, "Now surrender...and give me your power!"
Before the pair could answer, he slammed his hoof into the ground and caused a line of rock spikes to shoot out of the ground. They came for the pair, only for the line to split into two and circle around them. Flash and Lightning's eyes went wide as the saw the rock circle complete, trapping them inside. Flash tried to use Extreme Speed to run up the rocks, but Centirek used Psychic to shift the rock, knocking him off while Lightning used Hammer Arm and Heavy Slam...but the rocks didn't break.
"It's over," they heard Centirek exclaimed as his head glowed.
Lightning watched this and as the light faded, his eyes going wide, "Wait a minute..."
A moment letter, Centirek opened his mouth. "HYPER BEAM!" He fired the blast at the pair, the two bracing themselves as the attack flew into the rock circle and completely enveloped the pair.
Back in the Pokémon Center, everyone smiled as they finished their work. "Done!" Starlight smirked as she, Sunburst, Doc and Twilight were all holding one of the energy lamps and a power source it was connected to. "Now we can finally take back everyone's energy Centirek stole."
"Are you sure this is gonna work?" Doc asked, raising an eyebrow, "These things are pretty small compared to Centirek, and that thing is really strong. What if it can't drain enough away?"
Starlight shook her head, "I don't know, but I can't just stand around and do nothing while that monstrosity destroys my home."
"She's right," Twilight nodded. "I know the odds are slim, but I'm willing to trust them if it means we might be able to stop that thing. I mean...Flash is out there risking his life out there. We have to try as well!"
"Then what are we waiting for?" Sunburst asked, "Let's-" He stopped when a bright light suddenly shot in from the window, followed by a powerful shockwave that caused the Center to shake. "What was that?!"
They ran out of the Center, which was still shaking as dust from the ceiling fell upon them. They managed to get out before anything heavier fell, only to see a mighty bright light radiate from an area near Centirek. "Was that...Hyper Beam?" Spike asked, the others nodding while Twilight's fears increased a hundred fold.
"Flash..." she whispered before hoisting the lamp and energy source onto her back, "Come on!" She yelled, "They can't hold on much longer! If we're gonna do this, it needs to be now!" The others nodded again as they all began to ran, Twilight then turning back to the fading light in the distance. "Please be alright. Please...be alive."
Flash moaned as he laid out on the ground, his body battered and bruised. Lightning was the same, their armor slightly glitching as they opened their eyes. "I have to commend you for lasting this long," Centirek chuckled, "But you must realize you're only delaying the inevitable."
"Darn it..." Flash groaned out whilst sitting up. "He's...so strong."
"No he's not...he's a wimp." Lightning moaned as he pushed himself onto all fours, "Forehead."
"What?" Flash replied.
"It's...its his forehead," he pointed up at Centirek. "Every time that thing attacks, there's a bright flash of light from its forehead. It's gotta be where all the power it stole is being stored."
Flash raised an eyebrow at this, "Oookay. So what do we do?"
Lightning let out a long hiss, "Our attacks are useless from a distance. We've got to strike at close range." He shifted onto one knee, "If we can find a way to release the compressed power stored in its forehead, it'll have a sudden loss of energy. Then we can take it out."
"Got it." Flash responded.
"Hang on. I doubt we could do it even with Extreme Speed," Springer stated in his head. "One blast from Hyper Beam and we'd be goners."
Lightning let out a moan as he tried to stand fully up, Flash doing the same. "Here's what we're gonna do, so listen up." Flash glanced at him. "I'm gonna run up and deflect whatever attacks that things throws at us. Meanwhile, you're gonna run up behind me and go straight for the forehead."
"What?!" Flash's eyes went wide at this, "You want me to use you as a human shield!?"
"It's our only option," Lightning grumbled, "My armor's thicker then your noodle body. That and...my body ain't fast in this thing. You're the only one who can do it right now." Flash raised an eyebrow. "My attacks are all super powerful, but they're all for doing major damage against the outside of the opponent. None of them are designed for piecing attacks. Thunder might get the job done...but it's not exactly known for its accuracy. The only move that has a chance of getting this done is your Aura Sphere."
Flash blinked at this, "Are you...sure about this? Who knows what taking a hit like that will do to you."
"I can handle it," Lightning replied while rolling his eyes, "I'm not a weakling...like you." Flash's eyes narrowed at this, only to hear Lightning say, "Besides...a true hero isn't always the one that lands the final blow. It's the one that makes it possible to land the final blow." Flash's stare slightly faded, only to smirk as the two glanced back at the monster.
"Alright, let's do this thing." As they said that, Centirek's forehead signaled an approaching Hyper Beam. "Just one condition." The pair leapt away as the attack fired, striking where they had been. "Don't die!"
Lightning let out a roar as he landed. "What did I tell you about not giving me orders?!" With that, he ran up with Flash right behind him.
At the same time, Twilight and the others ran into the battlefield with the energy drainers in hand. And as they drew closer, they could hear Flash and Lightning's roars and saw Centirek fire a Dark Pulse.
"Hammer Arm!" Lightning swung his metal gauntlet, deflecting the attack.
"PATHETIC!" Centirek roared as he leapt up onto his back legs, "EARTHQUAKE!" He slammed them back down, sending out a violent shockwave.
"JUMP!" Lightning and Flash leapt up, barely avoiding the attack.
But Flash's friends were all struck by the Earthquake, pushing them back as they tried to protect the energy drainers. And as this happened, the rubble around Centirek's body was blasted into the air. "Take this!" The Legendary's eyes glowed along with the rubble, causing them to remain suspended in the air. And as its opponent's landed, he flicked his fingers and sent them flying.
Lightning saw this and glanced back to see Flash was still behind him, "Heavy Slam!" He roared as he swung both his arms right as the rubble got close to him. Every rock was soon shattered, allowing them right through, only for Lightning to let out a moan.
"Don't give up," Gorillamp yelled, "You can do this!"
"I...know," he groaned as he continued to smack away at the rocks. "I...can...do this!" With that, the pair broke out of the barrage of rocks and spotted a large piece of rubble in front of them that was angled perfectly as a ramp pointed right at Centirek. "Come on!" He exclaimed before increasing his speed, Flash doing the same while staying behind him.
At the same time, Flash's friends reached their locations around Centirek and began to set up the devices. As they did, they spotted Flash and Lightning and gasped as they saw what they were wearing.
"The Poké-Arms?!" Starlight whispered.
"It's working?!" Sunburst added as they saw Lightning and Flash begin to run up the ramp, a flash of light from Centirek's head making them gasp as it opened its mouth.
"FLASH!" Twilight screamed, "LOOK OUT!"
Flash and Lightning saw this, Flash yelling, "It's using Hyper Beam!"
"DON'T GET SOFT ON ME!" Lightning roared as he clutched his right fist and pulled it back, his eyes not leaving Centirek. "YOU WANT SOME?!" He leapt off the end of the ramp as Centirek fired the strongest Hyper Beam it could. "COME AND GET IT!" He threw his fist as electricity exploded around it. "THUNDER PUNCH!"
The Hyper Beam reached them and struck Lightning's fist, but the armored teen, only to start cutting through the beam. The two halved beams hit the ground around them, causing a massive cloud of smoke and dust to kick up. The Legendary's rage surged at this, "YOU DARE!" It then pumped even more power into its attack, "YOU CANNOT WIN!"
Lightning felt the beam continued to go into his punch, Flash yelling from behind, "Hang in there!" But as this happened, Lightning's metal fist now getting hot as continued to push through the attack.
'Almost there!' Lightning thought, though he began to feel his and Gorillamp's electrical supply run low. 'I can do this.' But the metal gauntlet began crack, the heat from the attack increasing.
"JUST DIE!" The Cataclysmic Pokémon roared as it used every ounce of power it could muster into the beam, tripling its power. And as this happened, the electrical energy stopped, Lightning now feeling the metal gauntlet shatter.
"AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!" He screamed as he positioned his body so it would take the full brunt of the attack before being pushed back. But as he did this, Centirek's attack ran out of steam and the Hyper Beam stopped.
"RAAAAAHHHHH!" It roared, the Legendary suddenly feeling its entire body freeze up from the backlash of its attack. "NO!" And as the light of its attack vanished, Centirek saw the armored human falling back. "Finally..."
"LIGHTNING!" Flash screamed as the teen went flying past him.
Lightning forced his eyes open as he then yelled, "GET HIM!" Before he disappeared into the dust. Flash's eyes went wide, only to glare back at Centirek as it began to build power again.
"Just give up," Centirek told him despite not being able to move. "Relinquish the power I seek and I'll let you live! If you don't, I'll just take it!"
"You're not taking anything," Flash pulled his arm back as the sphere of energy formed in his hand. "EVER AGAIN!" He finally flew higher than Centirek and brought his arm up, the Aura Sphere growing larger by the second.
"What makes you think you can stop me?!" Centirek asked, feeling itself start to move again. "You're all alone! Dark Pulse!" Using all the energy it had regained, it fired the Dark-type attack from its mouth.
"I'm not alone!" Flash thrust the sphere downward, striking the Dark Pulse and breaking it apart as he fell toward Centirek. "I can feel them!" Through Springer's aura sense, Flash felt the life energy of all his friends. They were all close, watching and cheering him on. And even inside their Pokeballs, Flash could feel the rest of his team. "The spirits of all my friends are with me...cheering me on! That is the source of my strength! As long as they believe...then nothing can stop me!"
In that moment, the Dark Pulse ended and Flash had a clear shot for Centirek's head. "NO!" It roared as it tried to move.
"YOU'RE DONE CENTIREK!" Flash roared as both he and Springer put as much of their power into this final attack. "AURA SPHERE!" They both screamed as the orb slammed into Centirek's head, the spiraling force of the attack drilling into it. And as it did this, the orb exploded, the force of the attack ripping open a hole that the energy could escape out of.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Centirek screamed as the light exploded outward, blinding everyone in the city. It was a sight that nobody who saw it would ever forget.
The people of Horizon had been evacuating the city, fearing the wrath of the Legendary Pokémon known as Centirek. Multiple people had crammed themselves into the elevators, praying that one of the beast's stray attacks wouldn't hit them as they flew up the crater wall. But as more waited for the next elevator, a sound caught their attention. Some flinched at this, others turning to watch the fight at that noise. They knew they had just seen Centirek break the four move rule all Pokémon obeyed, using attacks like Flamethrower, Psychic, Aqua Break along with his other moves.
But that new sound caught them all off guard. A roar, one that wasn't like the roars Centirek had given out before. This one appeared to be more of a scream of fear or a cry of outrage or pain. And as they all slowly looked up at the Legendary, a brilliant flash of light exploding out of him next. The light shot across the city, blinding everyone. But as their eyes adjusted to this, they were able to look up and see the light split apart and whizz around in random directions, looking like a bunch of Volbeat and Illumise dancing through the air.
Twilight and her friends were just as amazed by the sight, though the bespectacled girl was more focused on the teenage boy that had been thrown back from the light. "Flash!" She screamed as she saw him fall.
The teen let out a long moan, unable to move as gravity kept pulling downward. He tried to move his body, only to feel no strength in even his fingers. And as he did this, the chest-plate on his chest sparked and shorted, the armor now glitching as parts on him began to crackle and fade in and out of existence.
"No...just one more," he told himself before glancing down at the ground, making him feel a surge of pain as he tried to point his palm downward. His fingers stretched out, slowly starting to form an Aura Sphere. It was small, but he threw it at the ground, striking the rubble that soon exploded, causing a burst of air that hit Flash. The blow pushed him back up, only to stop just above about ten feet before hitting the ground with a thud.
His body was now laid out in the dirt, the Poké-Arms now dying as the armor disintegrated into specks of light while the chest-plate fell off him. And as it hit the ground, its glass cover holding the Premier-Ball opened up and the ball's lid flipped up to unleash a red light.
Springer appeared and ran up to his partner, "Ri!" Flash glanced up at him, frowning as he already missed his ability to understand him.
"I'm...okay bud," he reached up a hand and patted Springer.
"FLASH!" They turned to see Twilight and the others running up, both raising an eyebrow at the sight of the machine they were lugging with them. "Are you okay?!" Twilight asked as she knelt down next to him.
Flash let out a low cough as Springer tried to help him up, "I'm fine....just got a scratch or two." As he said that, the light shot past them, making them look up. The lights spiraled above them before, only to suddenly go down and strike Flash and Twilight's Pokeballs. "Huh?"
They pulled them out and saw the balls were all pulsing with light. And as this happened, Doc's Pokeballs were also struck and began to glow, along with other balls across the city, hitting every trainer. Everyone gasped at this, now realizing what this meant as a new portion of light shot out...and hit Alicormony and Dischaos.
"Does this mean what I think it means?" Spike asked as one of Twilight's balls opened, unleashing a light that flew onto his shoulder and formed a particularly small Terragon. "Peewee!"
"Whoa...does that mean we won?" Flash added, only to feel the ground slightly shake under him. "Huh?"
"TIREK!" roared a voice, making them turn to see the Legendary, only to see that the Cataclysmic Pokémon had shrunk significantly. It looked like it did when it first broke free, letting out low deep breaths as he glared at the group.
"Spike!" Twilight yelled, her brother nodding before reaching down and switching on the power supply to the recovery bed's lamp. Twilight raised it high, Doc, Starlight and Sunburst doing the same.
As Centirek was beginning to recover, Twilight's lamp fired the green lightning. It flew through the air and struck the Legendary, making it roar in pain. It turned to Twilight and growled, especially when it saw Flash and Springer, only for another voice to call out.
"Hey, ugly!" Another bolt of green lightning struck the beast from the opposite side, making it turn to see Doc with the same device. Then another bolt struck it, followed by another. This formed an X-shaped chain of green lightning, pulling the energy Cozy Glow had granted it from the Legendary.
"Wow..." Flash whispered as he saw the Cataclysm Pokémon's body grew smaller and weaker, going from looking young and buff to old and twiggy. And as he saw this, the sound of flapping caught his attention and made turn and go wide-eyed, now seeing Alicormony and Dischaos, both picking themselves up before taking to the air.
And as they flew over, Centirek looked as old and decrepit as it did in statue form. Twilight saw this and smiled, "Cut it!" The group did as she commanded, the energy chains fading as the four energy bolts soon dispersed. Centirek's legs, now weak and brittle, gave out under its weight, and only its noodle arms just barely letting it stop from face planting. As it did this, the humans turned to the other Legendaries. "Now, reverse." Spike turned the dial, the others doing the same as they pointed their's devices at Alicormony. "Activate!"
Spike hit the power button and the lamp began to unleash waves of green energy that struck Alicormony. Starlight's did the same while Doc and Sunburst pointed their's at Dischaos before the three hit the power button. Soon, all four lamps were channeling the energy into the two Legendaries.
Twilight smiled at Alicormony as she added, "A little something to help you do what needs to be done."
Alicormony nodded back as it turned to Dischaos, the legendary letting out a snort. And as they did this, Centirek tried to push itself up, only to stumble over as the legendaries soon took to the air.
"Cent..." it moaned as the pair began to circle it, "Centirek…"
"Wow," Spike whispered, "It sounds so...weak."
"It is weak," Flash replied, "This is Centirek's true form. Just goes to show what happens when you choose to take something instead of earning it yourself." As he said that, the Legendaries glowed and both fired a blast of energy. They struck Centirek and made it roar in pain, the energy forming a sphere around it before lifting it into the air.
The beast tried to fight against it, but it stood no chance. Everyone watched as Alicormony and Dischaos lifted it higher until it was completely out of the crater before flying it to the mountain, Centirek roaring and trying to attack the sphere. And with one final burst of energy, the Legendaries sent the orb flying to the mountain, Centirek screaming like it had when Flash beat it. It crashed into the hole in the mountain and the energy around it grew brighter, blinding everyone again.
The light shined for several long minutes, only to die down before everyone to see the temple now completely restored to the state it had been in before Centirek had destroyed it. Inside the temple, the Legendary Pokémon of Cataclysm was once again sealed away, now trapped in stone and in the same pose it had been in before, hopefully never to be awakened again.
And laying in front of the statue, unconscious but seemingly unharmed, was Cozy Glow.
Back outside in the destroyed city, everyone smiled at the sight of the temple now back to pristine condition. And as they did this, Alicormony flew above the city, now staring at the damage that had occurred due to Centirek's rampage. Barely a single building was left standing, leaving many people and Pokémon homeless. The sight made it shake its head.
Alicormony spread then its wings wide, its horn now glowing. The Legendary unleashed a blast of its harmonic energy, the light striking the ground before it spread across the rubble and completely enveloped the crater. Flash and his friends all stared at this in shock, now seeing a light glowing below their feet before it exploded upward and consumed them. They gasped as they were blinded, a slight fear washing over them. But when the light began to fade, they opened their eyes and found they were unharmed, Flash now glancing down as he saw his injuries had been healed. And that wasn't the only thing that had been healed.
The city had been completely restored. Every building had been repaired and looked as good as new, with even the furniture and smaller items that had been broken in the attack being repaired. It was like Centirek had never attacked.
The people that lived in Horizon were slack-jawed at the sight, now seeing the town turn back to normal. They glanced up at Alicormony at this, now cheering and screaming their thanks at the Legendary. The Harmony Pokémon smiled at this before looking down at the ones responsible for helping it and Dischaos.
Flash and his friends all stared at her, Alicormony gliding down and hovering just above the pavement. As it did, its horn glowed before a light shined around them, "Once again, I must thank you for saving me."
"Wow..." Starlight whispered.
"Telepathy..." Sunburst gasped as the others turned to Flash and Springer.
"That was totally awesome!" Spike exclaimed, "You and Springer were using the Poké-Arms, right?" Flash nodded, "Awesome!"
"Don't know another word to describe it?" Flash chuckled, making Spike glare at him.
Twilight let out a laugh at this, "I can't believe you saved Equestria again." Flash shrugged back, only to frown. "What?"
"Well...it wasn't me. I might have landed the final blow, but I never would have gotten close enough if it wasn't for someone else." They all blinked at his words, only to realize what he was going to say next, "Lightning."
Twilight and the others frowned at this, only for another sound to ring out. They turned around at this, now seeing a certain figure walk out from behind an alleyway. It was Gorillamp, holding up Lightning Blitz. The teen's right arm was hanging limply, his hoodie's sleeve was no more, revealing that his arm's skin looked like it was extremely sunburned. Gorillamp was also holding the remains of his Poké-Arms, though it appeared to be slightly destroyed.
Flash chuckled at the sight, "I see you survived."
Lightning glanced up at him, "Of course. It'll take more than that weakling to take me down." Gorillamp then threw the chest-plate at them, the device hitting the ground several times before stopping in front of Starlight. She picked it up, Sunburst holding the other one, both staring at the machine as he commented, "Did you two make those?"
"Um...yes?" Starlight replied.
"I figured it was you since it broke so easily."
"Hey!" Flash barked back, the two teen now glaring at each other.
But before anything else could be said, Alicormony fired another wave of energy from her horn, hitting Lightning's arm. The skin began to turn back to normal, not at one hundred percent, but she had just saved him months of recovery time.
"Huh," he glanced up at the Legendary, "Guess we're even." Alicormony said nothing else and spread its wings, taking to the air with Dischaos. Everyone in and around the city watched them fly around for a few seconds as a light appeared around them. They then shot straight up, as a pair of portals appearing above the city before they went inside.
And like that, it was if nothing had happened. Everyone just stood there, some wondering if what they had just been through was real or just a crazy dream. But sure enough, the people of Horizon City would never forget the insanity that had occurred on this day.
The next day...
"You can't arrest me!" Cozy screeched as she pulled to a helicopter sent by the authorities that had arrived. "I'm just a kid!" She then gave them puppy dog eyes, "Do I look like a criminal to you?"
"Sorry kid," Hard Case growled as the officers continued to drag her, "But you're going away for a long time."
"On what charges?!" She barked back, squirming as Hard Case pulled out a notepad and flipped it open.
"Hacking into a private server, theft of trademarked data, destruction of property, hacking into the Pokémon Center's systems, assault on Pokémon and trainers...and of course, unleashing a deranged Pokémon that almost destroyed everything."
"And what evidence do you have to make those charges stick?!" Cozy asked, a smirk now appearing on her lips, only for Hard Case to pull out a device and press a button to create a hologram. The hologram showed a recording of her in her cloak, running into the temple before getting caught by Flash and the others...and admitting to attempting to awaken Centirek before actually doing so, kicking the energy container onto the statue.
"I think that should help the courts decide what needs to be done," Hard Case replied before holding up her gauntlet, "Plus, we have proof of your hacking right here."
Cozy's eyes shrunk at this, "But...where did that recording-" She stopped and glanced behind the officer to see Starlight and Sunburst crossing their arms at her. Sunburst then reached up and tapped his glasses, making her go wide-eyed, "Starlight!" She started struggling again, "I'm sorry! Don't do this to me! I'll be good from now on, I promise!"
"I'm sorry Cozy, but we can't trust you." Starlight shook her head. "This is for the best, and hopefully when you get out, you'll have seen the error of your ways."
And as she said those words, Cozy's eyes narrowed as she hissed, "I'll make you pay for this!" They then reached the helicopter, throwing her inside, "Mark my words! You're gonna pay for this! I'm gonna be the strongest trainer in the world!" The helicopter's door shut as she ran up to the window and banged against it as she screamed. "I'll be the strongest!"
That was the last thing the pair heard her say, the helicopter's blades beginning to spin and drown out the sound of her voice. Starlight and Sunburst watched as the chopper began to fly away, Cozy then being pulled away from the window. Once high enough, the helicopter disappeared into the horizon as Starlight let out a sigh. "This is for the best," she turned to Sunburst. "Right?"
Sunburst nodded. "What else could we do, let her go with a slap on the wrist? She'd probably just build another energy drainer and try to awaken Centirek again. Only this time she'd probably pull off some insane stunt to get it to obey her since her Master Ball was destroyed."
Starlight glanced down before turning around, "You're right. We can't ever allow that thing to awaken again." They walked into the elevator and descended into her office, "We might not get as lucky as we did this time." They stepped into the office and looked over at her desk, the Poké-Arms resting on it. "It was a miracle that Flash and Lightning were able to use these things." She turned to Sunburst, "Any idea how they did? Did you make an alteration the night before all this happened?"
Sunburst shook his head. "No. I was gonna, but then I got distracted by the whole Cozy thing." Starlight nodded as Sunburst picked up one of the plates. "We were able to get a lot of data from them, but nothing that explains how they were able to use it. There's only one possibility." Starlight raised an eyebrow at this, "Flash and Lightning's bond with their Pokémon were strong enough to synchronize with each other through the system. But if that's the case, their bonds must be greater than anyone else in the whole of Equestria. I doubt even the champion and his Galladin could use the Poké-Arms as it is right now...but they could."
"Interesting," Starlight hummed before looking out at the city that had been destroyed the previous day. "Any idea where those two are right now?"
"I might have an idea."
Horizon Stadium...
The people were cheering as they watched the last two Pokémon of the finalists battle it out. Flash and his friends were watching from the top row, now seeing Gorillamp battle against a Steelix.
"Dragonbreath!" The trainer exclaimed as their Steelix unleashed a blue stream of fire.
Gorillamp glared its opponent down and spread its arms, as if to say 'bring it'. At the same time, Lightning was stood behind the Electric Steel-type, his right arm in a cast as he gave the battle a bored stare, "Thunder Punch!"
"Gore!" Gorillamp pulled his fist back as it sparked, then threw it and struck the Dragonbreath as it exploded with lightning. The attack split the Dragon-type attack easily, only for the ape to charge right up to the Iron Snake.
"Hammer Arm!" Gorillamp leapt up with glowing arms, slamming them down onto Steelix's head. The Steel Ground-type roared as it was knocked down, crashing into the ground.
"Dig!" Steelix then smashed its head into the battlefield, drilling into the dirt.
Gorillamp stared at the ground, only for the earth beneath him shook before exploding. Steelix shot out of the ground and slammed its head into Gorillamp, knocking him back.
"That had to hurt," Spike flinched as the electric ape began to fall.
"Gorillamp is still probably reeling from the fight yesterday," Twilight added as Steelix's trainer ordered it to use Head Smash. It shot forward at this, roaring as it slithered along the ground. And as the ape picked itself up, Lightning gave his command.
"Heavy Slam!" Gorillamp punched its fist together, slamming them into Steelix. The Iron Snake began to push Gorillamp back, but the Electric Steel-type dug its feet into the ground until they came to a stop. And when they did, Gorillamp used all it strength to hoist Steelix straight up. Everyone gasped at the sight of the giant Pokémon being thrown into the air, getting a good ten meters high before falling back to the ground.
"Hammer Arm!" As Steelix fell, Gorillamp leapt up with joined hands.
"GORILLAMP!" It roared before swinging them down, smashing the Steelix in the face. The clang of metal on metal rang throughout the stadium, forcing everyone to cover their ears as Steelix was punched through the dirt...and its eyes became spirals.
"Steelix is unable to battle," the referee announced, "The winner of the match is Gorillamp, and the battle and victory of the tournament goes to Lightning Blitz." The crowd cheered at this while Lightning moved over to Gorillamp and patted it on the shoulder.
"Geez," Spike sighed, "I really wanted to watch that guy lose."
"Well I guess you'll have to wait a little bit longer," Doc added, "But it was kind of reckless of him to use Gorillamp, even after everything he went through yesterday."
"I guess Lightning trusted it to win for him," Twilight finished, Flash nodding in agreement. He knew one thing for sure about Lightning, he knew that even though he didn't show it, he and Gorillamp must have been extremely close thanks to him using the Poké-Arms.
Flash watched as Lightning was handed the trophy from the city's mayor, knowing that he'll only be even more powerful now. The sight made him clench his hands, glaring at the teen now raising the trophy, "I will win."
With the tournament over, it was time for Flash and his friends to head out. The group were back at the Pokémon Center, preparing everything they needed to make the trip to Canterlot while Nurse Redhead checked on their Pokémon. As they did this, Starlight and Sunburst arrived see them off.
"So I guess this is it." Starlight commented.
"You can always come with us," Flash replied, "I could always use more supporters at the league."
Sunburst laughed at this. "As much as we'd love too, we've got a lot of work to do here."
Starlight nodded in agreement, "We bare some of the responsibility for what happened. Even with Cozy in custody, her actions have caused a lot of damage to Horizon's reputation. The board's calling a meeting to discuss what happened and what actions need to be taken in the future to restore the trust the city has in our company...and what needs to be done to make sure nothing like this ever happens again."
Twilight frowned at this, "I hope they aren't planning to replace you."
Starlight shook her head. "I'm certain that won't happen. Don't worry. But it's gonna take a lot of work to fix everything." They turned to Flash, "But we'll be watching your matches and cheering you on."
"Thanks." Flash responded just as Nurse Redheart returned with their Pokémon.
Springer and Peewee ran over to them as they picked up their Pokeballs. As they did this, Doc turned to Flash, "It should take us about two weeks to get from here to Canterlot. That'll leave you just a couple of days to train for the tournament. You sure that's enough time?"
Flash smirked as he threw up a Pokeball and caught it, "Hopefully. Every moment we're not travelling, I'll be training with my Pokémon." He turned to Springer, "Right bud?" The Riolu smirked and nodded, getting into a boxing stance and making a few jabs to show how ready he was. "That's the spirit." He put the ball away and reached to grab his bag, only to stop when he spotted someone walk into the room.
The others saw it as well, it was Lightning, who had his bag on his back while remaining silent as he went to the counter and picked up his Pokeballs, thanking Nurse Redheart before putting them away. He then turned to Flash, both glaring at each other, only for Lightning to walk past him...only to come to a stop and say, "I guess I'll be seeing you at the Equestria League."
"Yup," Flash replied, "And I'm gonna win it. Just you wait and see."
Lightning chuckled, "Sure you will. Just remember, you're still a worthless loser and a weakling that had to ask for help." He glanced back, "I'll acknowledge you probably got those badges...but that's it." He pointed at himself, "And as for me, I'm about to become Equestria's greatest trainer."
He began to laugh as he walked out of the center, Spike growling at the sight, "What a jerk."
"Maybe..." Twilight sighed, "But none of us can deny that he did save us yesterday. If he hadn't been there, we all might not be standing here right now."
"Yeah..." Flash grumbled, "But that doesn't mean I'm not gonna beat him." He punched his fist into his palm, Springer mimicking his movement. "Everything I've been through. Every battle I've had and every trial I've faced has helped me grow into the trainer I am. And I'm gonna show him just how powerful I've grown. With me and my friends." The others smiled and nodded in agreement as they all headed out of the center.
They made their way through the town, using one of the hover-platforms that Alicormony had restored to travel to the staircase. Once there, they made their way up the flight of stairs and eventually arrived at the temple. The group looked up at the rebuilt monument, still having a hard time believing that the Legendary they had all fought was actually in there.
And as the sun hovered high in the air, they turned to their new friends and gave a goodbye. Twilight and Starlight hugged while Doc and Sunburst shook hands. Flash and Spike gave the two a fist bump and high five, the two repeating their promise to cheer for him in the Equestria League. And with that, the four trainers and their Pokémon began the last trip of their journey.
A Pokémon Journey that had been filled with many amazing adventures. From saving a city from a Rampaging Champagoon, to saving Pokémon from a broken dam and stopping criminals attempting to steal Pokémon. From exploring a haunted mansion, escaping an underground maze, freeing a trapped Sparaken, traversing the Everfree Forest and fighting a long sealed evil. From saving a lost Fossil Pokémon, to stopping a stampede from crushing a town, freeing another from horrible nightmares and saving a hidden dragon kingdom from a usurper. From capturing a bunch of pirates, stopping a rampaging ooze monster, helping find the legendary Dragonheart Orb, or competing in a sledding race and helping crown a true Gym Leader.
And, of course, their adventures involving so many Legendaries. To helping a lost a infant Legendary to find its way home, to helping a scared girl find her voice and help the Legendary she befriended and now, the adventure they had just completed.
So many events that had helped the four and their Pokémon grow and evolve. They had learned so much together and now, they would soon have to put everything they learned to the test. For even as the journey draws to a close, another adventure is waiting to begin. Here in the amazing world...of Pokémon.
Cue awkwardly shoehorned in pop song that has nothing to do with the plot.