The Eon Academy [S.S. Wishmaker Side-Story]

[[Desolate Divine]]

Spiritwater Episode 13: Pain

Spoiler:

“Look everywhere!” Glimmer called out to Luneth and Jirachi, as she scoured through a set of drawers in the desk containing the Netherlink. Whilst Willow had said that the Netherlink would collapse in on itself if the final reagents weren’t placed in it at the correct time, the Netherlink seemed stable, and Glimmer didn’t want to leave it without finding some way of confirming Willow was correct. Especially seeing as their allies were outside in the most danger, and if there was a way of destroying the Netherlink without just waiting for it to destroy itself, then they wanted to find it.

Alongside Glimmer, Jirachi floated around the room, looking for anything that could have information about it, whilst Luneth sat on a desk on the other side of the room to the Netherlink with a large tome, using her mouth to grab the corner of each page, and turn to the next. Next to the tome, sat the three remaining reagents. The skulls of a Hydreigon, the eyes of Necrozma and the heart of Eternatus. All of which were intentionally placed to not accidentally get absorbed by the Netherlink during one of its growth periods.

“I’ve got nothing!” Glimmer said, after emptying the last drawer she could find. “What are the chances Agatha had this all memorised, or keeps her notes somewhere else?”

Neither of her companions were able to answer, and Glimmer already had a pretty good idea. She didn’t know Agatha personally, but heard a lot of her personality from Willow during her explanation. Agatha was proud and cunning, but she wasn’t stupid. If the Netherlink was simple enough she could memorise the spell, chances are somebody else would have done this by now, and if Agatha had Gail watching over the Netherlink, she wouldn’t have left her with nothing in case of an emergency. They had to be here…

Luneth flicked the page, and noticed something different. This page, unlike the others prior, which appeared to have been made with a primitive printing press, was hand written. Whilst there was no title, she quickly skimmed through the reagents, and saw what she was after. Necrozma, Eternatus, and Hydreigon…

“Here!” Luneth cried out, getting both Glimmer and Jirachi’s attention.

Luneth read through the process listed on the handwritten page, understanding exactly the role of the reagents on the table next to her. Glimmer rushed over, with Jirachi floating behind her, reading over Luneth’s shoulder.

“All the reagents but the ones needed to begin the process fit into one of three categories. Expansion, stability or separation,” Luneth explained. “Those in the expansion category will cause the Netherlink to expand. Those in the stability category will allow it to grow larger without collapsing on itself. And those in the separation category…”

Luneth read the explanation, though having not heard Willow’s explanation of the void, didn’t quite understand it. Glimmer quickly read it and explained.

“The reagents in the separation category are what keep energy from the void from bleeding through the Netherlink into this world when not actually harnessed, and what prevent the void from absorbing those nearby and consuming them…” Glimmer explained, as Luneth nodded with understanding.

“It seems like the reason they need to be added at the exact right times is to keep the balance of these three things in check. It’s like a fireplace…” Luneth explained. “If you have too much fire without the structure holding it being strong, the enclosure will break. If the barrier between the person and the fire is too strong, the fire itself will suffocate and die…”

“So how do we break it?” Jirachi asked, looking at the three reagents on the table.

“The Netherlink even without the expansion reagents will perpetually grow, just slowly,” Glimmer answered. “So if we didn’t have to worry about Agatha potentially beating us, we could just do nothing, like Willow said, and it will eventually expand until the container can’t handle it, and it collapses. But that could take another day or so, and if Agatha beats Triad, and we lose this fight, then Agatha wins…”

“Could we try and suffocate it with that third type of reagent?” Jirachi asked, however Luneth shook her head.

“We can’t,” Luneth said. “Proportionally, there are far less seperation reagents, as using too many will create a Netherlink that is strong, stable but inaccessible, and right now, the only reagents left are one of each. Putting in the heart of Eternatus, and destroying the others would make it too weak and too separated for it to be used, however, all it would need is for Agatha to source expansion and stability reagents to give it enough power to actually use. And the expansion reagent of these three is the Hydreigon skulls, which aren’t too hard to come by…”

“We could try putting in the Hydreigon skulls to expand it, and the heart of Eternatus to keep the void separate. Without the eyes of Necrozma to stabilise it, it would collapse quicker…” Glimmer suggested. “But we don’t know how long the skulls or the heart will take to activate, or the effect of putting them in early. The skulls could be absorbed instantly, while the heart is a delayed reaction. In that case, we risk being absorbed…”

Luneth looked in shock at the three reagents in front of her. They were the key to their success as well as Agatha’s. They could attempt to use them, at the risk of themselves, to destroy the Netherlink, or they could destroy them to prevent Agatha from using them, and risk destroying their only key to victory.

”Jirachi!” Jimmy said to Jirachi telepathically, via the pendant he wore. ”How’re things going in there?”

”We’re weighing our options to break this thing Jimmy!” Jirachi replied, trying to not convey the worry it felt, given that no option seemed to be without huge risks. ”How about you?”

”They’ve seen the three of us, and are now trying to breach our line and get to Triad,” Jimmy answered. ”I can’t keep talking, but stay in touch…”

As Luneth and Glimmer discussed their options, Jirachi considered mentioning another that hadn’t been considered, however, bit its tongue. What Jirachi was thinking of mentioning was impossible because of something out of their control, and it didn’t want to get its friends' hopes up for something that was already impossible. That, and another reason…

Suddenly Jirachi felt another consciousness, brush against its own. Not recognising it, it quickly severed the connection, realising one of the stones must have been found by someone not with the League. However a few moments later, Jirachi felt another consciousness, this one more familiar.

”Jirachi!” said Jon’s voice in Jirachi’s mind. ”We’re here to fight, but we need your help…”

”Jon?!” Jirachi replied, shocked that Jon had sought it out, asking for his help, especially having accidentally seen Jimmy’s memories of the night before. ”I’ll help, but what do you need?”

”I’m near the Megamart, ready to take on Giratina, once that Lugia thing has worn it out, but last time Rayquaza fought Giratina, Agatha came and won Giratina the battle,” Jon explained. ”Are Triad battling Agatha?”

”They’re talking with her now…”

”Good. I’m going to get into position. When they start fighting, let me know. That’ll be my cue to send out Rayquaza…”

************************************************** ************************************************** *****

From where he stood in his place in the line, Jimmy could hear voices from where Triad and Agatha were, and he figured they were speaking, and hadn’t begun fighting just yet. However, as the talking continued, one voice became more prominent over the others. Shouting passionately, he recognised Cassandra.

“Today, the Diamond Ladies rise above their past. Nobody will be able to condemn us and have a leg to stand on. And we do that by stopping you!”

Jimmy couldn’t help but grin.

“Damn right you do…” Jimmy muttered with some pride, before noticing what he had been expecting. Someone entering via the hole made in the battle, and noticing him.

“Hey!” the witch called out. “They’ve gotten into the Megamart!”

Jimmy grabbed two Pokeballs, activating both of them, causing Grovyle and Salamence to materialise. If he had a Psychic Type, he’d have sent that out too to act defensively, blocking incoming projectiles, however, Jirachi was his only Psychic Type and was otherwise occupied.

Despite the enemy beginning to bear down on him, he figured this might be the last not inconvenient time he’d have to talk to Jirachi, seeing as he’d be kept busy from here on out.

Focusing on the pendant, but not letting his gaze slip from the two witches with their Ghost Pokemon who were now making their way towards him, he focused his thoughts.

”Jirachi! How’re things going in there?” Jimmy asked.

”We’re weighing our options to break this thing Jimmy!” Jirachi answered, still sounding chipper, though Jimmy knew that Jirachi would force that even if it were terrified. ”How about you?”

”They’ve seen the three of us, and are now trying to breach our line and get to Triad,” Jimmy answered, though realised that the enemies were now in attack range. ”I can’t keep talking, but stay in touch…”

“Salamence, Dragon Breath!” Jimmy called out. “Keep them at a distance! Grovyle, if they get close, you’re up!”

Salamence roared in acknowledgement, and for a moment, the oncoming force seemed to hesitate, before continuing their advance, all but one of the Ghosts missing the subsequent Dragon Breath attack. One of the witches began muttering an incantation, and knowing he was the slowest target, Jimmy quickly shifted form into a Pikachu, as the projectile launched struck the air where his head had been a moment earlier.

“Weren’t expecting that?” Jimmy called out, knowing full well the attacker likely didn’t understand him anyway. He darted towards Salamence, leaping onto its tail, before running up onto its back and jumping onto its wing.

“Bounce me!” Jimmy called out, and as Jimmy’s feet touched Salamence's wing, it lowered, before flicking up, launching Jimmy higher than he could naturally jump, even in this form. With a gleeful grin, and much practice, Jimmy unleashed a Thunderbolt attack, aimed directly at the witch who had just attempted to hit him.

“You doing okay Avery?” Jimmy called out as he fell back onto Salamence’s wing, knowing that only Avery could understand him as a Pokemon.

“Never better!” Avery called out, as Acacia’s telekinetic barrier blocked another projectile from the attacking force. The attacking witch didn’t get another opportunity before being thrown back violently, by Daybreak’s Flame Charge attack. “Now, Fire Spin!”

Daybreak neighed, before the flames on its back intensified, launching outwards at a nearby Dusclops that was getting too close to Avery, and encasing it in a fiery vortex, before Daybreak launched itself at the trapped Pokemon, striking it with a Megahorn attack.

Between the two trainers, Abital had four witches advancing on him, with Meir using its keen agility to dodge incoming attacks from them, and Abital using all of his own nimbleness, as well as all available cover. Despite having an innate fear of ghosts, he was forcing himself to remain calm, knowing that if he played his cards right, he could deal a heavy blow to the attacking force. It also helped that the cover kept the ghosts out of sight, and temporarily, out of mind.

“Hey, the guy in the middle only has one Pokemon!” called out one of the advancing witches, and Abital had to hide his grin. This is what he was after. He continued to dodge, giving audible commands by snapping fingers and clapping hands to Meir, who held them at bay, as another four witches arrived, leaving him significantly outnumbered.

Knowing he was taking too much of a risk to wait for a bigger group to take out in one move, Abital snapped his fingers twice in quick succession, which Meir understood to be an order to use Discharge and keep all attackers at bay. This was a command that as a Ranger, Abital had issued plenty of times, especially when large herds of Pokemon were attempting to go somewhere they shouldn’t.

Whilst the attacking force were distracted by Meir, Abital withdrew his Ranger Styler, activating the capture disc, but instead of launching it towards the attacking Pokemon, launched it at the ground between himself and the attacking force. It struck the ground, as he lowered his arm, pulling it closer towards him, and drew a slanted hourglass shape with the capture disc’s path. He withdrew the capture disc, as the invisible path it had traced now glowed in a golden light.

Before any of the oncoming force could question what he had done, there was a clap of thunder, and they were blinded by a large bolt of lightning smashing through the ceiling of the Megamart, crashing to the ground where the symbol had been drawn. When their eyes adjusted, they looked in horror at the creature that stood before them, growling.

“Raikou?!”

The Legendary beast would naturally stand a half foot taller than Abital, however this Pokemon was a foot taller than that. In all other aspects, it appeared identical to the Legendary Pokemon, from its yellow and black hide, to the purple mane on its back, reminiscent of thunder clouds, with one notable exception. Its silver eyes…

“Abital has a Raikou?” Jimmy called out, having heard the thunder and seen the spectacle from where battled. “Awesome!”

“Sort of!” Avery answered, unable to hide the grin. Abital was responsible with this privilege, and only used it in the most dire of circumstances, practically never around other people. However, they knew that their husband did enjoy the attention of it just a little.

The Raikou itself, was the spirit of an ancient Raikou that centuries earlier had lived in Teakwood Forest in the Oblivia region. Despite dying of natural causes, its spirit had remained in the forest, protecting it and its inhabitants from poachers and others who meant it harm. Abital however, in his role in stopping a group of poachers in the forest, had earned the trust of Raikou, and been given the symbol to summon the spirit at will.

Raikou roared, as those who were already changing their mind about focusing on this easy target began to step back. Raikou however, darted towards them with an Extreme Speed attack, hitting its target in the midst of the pack, before unleashing a Discharge, shocking all who were unlucky enough to be too close.

One of those who had been out of range of the Discharge attack attempted to sneak up on Raikou, muttering an incantation, however upon touch Raikou, was shocked when nothing happened, causing Abital to chuckle, as the unfortunate witch learnt the hard way that Raikou was even less normal than any other Legendary Pokemon, before Raikou snapped at the would-be attacker with a Thunder Fang.

”So you think I’m the easy target…” Abital thought to himself. ”Big mistake…”

************************************************** ************************************************** *****

Cassandra knew the time for talking was over, however knew rushing in to battle Agatha was a recipe for disaster.

Like Violet and Jarena, attached to her belt were numerous pouches, however instead of carrying many, each containing their own reagents, she had grouped them, so each pouch had all the reagents for a different spell. She reached into one, grabbing some blunt shards of broken mirror, and Wingull feathers in the same handful before muttering an incantation.

She ran at Agatha, hand raised to hit her with a supposed spell, as Agatha, in retaliation, muttered something quickly, before launching her own hand out, attempting to make contact with Cassandra’s shoulder. Cassandra however, grabbed the hand, as she activated her spell. The Expavescimus Charm, which would redirect an attacking spell back at the attacker.

Agatha screamed as the flesh on her left hand began to burn, before chanting a few words, causing it to heal. Cassandra’s eyes widened at that. She knew various healing spells herself, having used them for many years at the Star Glade, and even using one to heal Jon’s broken hand, however they were normally much more time consuming than this.

“Nice trick…” Agatha muttered, looking at her newly restored hand. “But you’re going to need more than that if you want to beat me…”

“What about me?” Violet called out, as she ran at Agatha, with a spell she had prepared earlier, and had at the ready. She swiped at Agatha with an outstretched hand, which Agatha just managed to avoid. However, she was too late to realise that the attack itself was a distraction, as Jarena, despite being the shortest and lightest of the Diamond Ladies, rammed Agatha with her shoulder, knocking her back on her feet, before beginning an incantation of her own. She grabbed a handful of sand from a pouch, which activated upon her touch, and tossed it at Agatha’s face, knowing that if the spell activated, Agatha would begin to fall asleep.

Knowing the trick, Agatha used a shielding spell, like the one Cassandra had used to protect Jon years earlier at Sky Pillar, blocking the enchanted sand, as Violet, in the moment of distraction, took the opportunity to make her next move.

”Cass!” called out Jirachi’s voice in her mind. ”Are you fighting Agatha yet?”

“We just started!” Cassandra said audibly, knowing Jirachi would hear the intent, and not wanting to focus too hard on her thoughts. She began an incantation, of a spell requiring no reagents. Despite the spell being weaker because of the lack of reagents, she hadn’t seen all of Agatha’s tricks, and didn’t want to waste her limited resources in the early game.

”Jon’s outside, and when I tell him you’ve got Agatha busy, he’s going to handle Giratina!”

Cassandra was thankful to hear that the nightmarish Pokemon wouldn’t be joining them if all went to plan, and understood why Jon was waiting to know Agatha was busy. Just like Giratina’s presence would make battling Agatha difficult for them, Agatha’s presence would make battling Giratina difficult for Jon.

”We’ll keep them separated as long as we can!” Cassandra said, taking the risk to focus her thoughts, so as to not give away the bigger plan.

With her spell ready, she began her next assault on Agatha, as Violet and Jarena narrowly avoided a potentially deadly curse…

************************************************** ************************************************** *****

”Jon!” called out Jirachi’s voice in Jon’s mind. ”Agatha is occupied! Now’s your chance!”

Before Jon could respond, his attention was stolen by the piercing wail of Hellshriek, as Giratina placed one of its feet on Hellshriek’s neck, before the wail was cut off, with an audible crack. Willow grimaced at the sound.

Knowing they didn’t have much time, as any time between fights was time Giratina could use to go back to Agatha, or be healed by the witches who had been supporting it, Jon quickly grabbed six Pokeballs from the bag mounted to the back of the motorbike. He handed Willow three of the empty ones.

“We have to go, now…” Jon said, as Willow nodded, surprised herself at her own resolve.

Hellshriek’s corpse lay amidst an abandoned construction site, where Giratina was already surrounded by various witches, one that Willow recognised as Nicodemus once they got a little closer, being healed.

“Now or never!” Jon called out to Willow as the pair jogged. He withdrew Rayquaza’s new, legal Pokeball. “Go Rayquaza!”

Knowing he still had distance to cover himself, Jon threw the Pokeball far harder than he normally would, sending it soaring high in the air, before exploding in a flash of light. Rayquaza materialised with an ear-splitting roar, before diving towards Giratina, who stood to attention at the presence of yesterday’s foe.

Seeing the large Legendary Pokemon racing towards them, the witches healing Giratina scattered like insects, managing to just avoid being caught between Rayquaza slamming into Giratina, as both Pokemon tumbled to the side.

“I’ll try and thin their numbers, but I’m at a disadvantage here with Shadowcraft!” Jon called out to Willow. “Try and pick off their stronger witches, and Latios and Latias, watch our backs! When Marshadow appears, help Willow capture it!”

Jon had no doubt that Marshadow would appear. Giratina was worn out from the last battle, and Jon wouldn’t be letting the witches interfere. Agatha herself couldn’t help, which meant if she didn’t want Giratina being captured, Marshadow needed to come to its aid.

Jon and Willow reached the edge of the abandoned construction site before being spotted, by Nicodemus of all people.

“You! You traitor!” Nicodemus shouted, pouring all his anger and humiliation into his words. “I’ll kill you!”

Jon went to grab Jolteon’s Pokeball, however before he could, Willow stepped forward, surprising him, given her initial comments about staying off the front lines.

“Try it!” Willow called out. “I’ve wanted nothing more than to teach you some manners since I arrived at this dump!”

Jon grinned, before grabbing Jolteon, Blaziken and Nidoking’s Pokeballs. All Pokemon that could be a pest to any attackers from a distance. In addition to Nicodemus, there were twelve other witches, with close to twenty ghost Pokemon. He sent out his three Pokemon, knowing that if he sent out Scizor, it’d more likely be hit by Shadowcraft trying to attack in close quarters. Once they were all out, he placed the Pokeballs back, before grabbing from the rubble of Giratina and Hellshriek’s battle, a short iron bar, that had been reinforcement in whatever building was being built here once upon a time, that still had a sizeable, but not overly large and heavy, chunk of concrete attached. He held it in his right hand, testing the weight, before looking at the crowd of witches advancing on their small team.

“I’ve been waiting for this…”

Nicodemus was the first to act, rushing towards Willow with an incantation ready, and lunging at her with his right hand. Willow however, thought more about her own attack. Muttering a few quick incantations, she held the spell, until Nicodemus was only five feet away from her, activating the simple tripping hex. Jon almost burst into laughter when Nicodemus tripped on his own feet, losing focus of the spell he had readied, as Willow kicked forward, making contact with Nicodemus’ nose, as he tripped forward. She began to mutter her own incantation, however at the last second, stopped to duck behind cover, as a spell projectile whizzed past where her head was, from one of the other witches.

“Nidoking!” Jon commanded. “Sludge Wave!”

Whilst Jon wanted to direct Rayquaza, there was too much going on here for him to not have his focus be on this battle. His plan was to handle the witches and ghosts here, and once they were incapacitated, direct Rayquaza in its battle against Giratina.

Nidoking roared, before spewing a noxious purple sludge hitting one of the witches, but causing two to stumble as they avoided the attack, only to be struck by Jolteon’s Discharge attack.

“Keep the witches off us!” Jon called out to Nidoking and Jolteon, before looking at Blaziken.

The witches commanding Ghost Pokemon had seen Blaziken to be an easy target, its Fighting Type being weak to Ghosts, and they were beginning to surround Blaziken.

“Blaziken!” Jon ordered. “Protect!”

He had a plan, partially inspired by his own battle against Camilla Blakely ten months earlier, as well as Dylan’s battle against Brad Jenkins, and part of it involved one of the twelve Pokemon surrounding Blaziken, however, he needed Blaziken to ramp up its speed first. Surrounding Blaziken were six pairs of ghost Pokemon. Cofagrigus, Haunter, Mismagius, Chandelure, Banette and Rotom, both of which were possessing an oven.

A flurry of attacks hit Blaziken from all angles, blocked by the Protect barrier, before Jon gave his next order.

“Agility, then dodge!” Jon ordered, as Blaziken, whose speed now eclipsed that of the attacking ghosts, growing faster as Speed Boost activated for the second time. With expert agility, Blaziken dodged every attack from the attacking force, making it look easy, though Jon knew this skill was from over a decade’s worth of experience battling together.

“Now Protect again!” Jon ordered for good measure, knowing Blaziken was well and truly fast enough, but figuring if he had the opportunity, why not? Again, a dozen different attacks were blocked by the barrier, as Jon began preparing for his big move.

“Swords Dance and dodge!”

Given Blaziken’s now tripled speed, the time taken to perform Swords Dance was dramatically reduced, allowing the action to complete, before Blaziken dodged an incoming attack from Haunter, and then Mismagius, however, when a Cofagrigus got nearby…

“Stop!” Jon called out, as Blaziken stopped moving, being hit by a Shadow Claw attack by Cofarigus. “Now, Shadow Claw on Haunter!”

Blaziken leapt out of the way of being hit by another attack, striking at one of the Haunter with its own spectrally encased claw. However, as soon as Haunter took the hit, it fell to the ground, still conscious, however unable to move as it normally would. Blaziken dodged an attack from Chandelure, before striking out at the other Haunter.

“Now Rotom, then Mismagius!”

The witches commanding the ghost Pokemon watched in shock as every time Blaziken hit one of their floating Pokemon, it collapsed to the ground, still conscious, but unable to float like it had been. When only one of the Mismagius remained, Jon gave his final order.

“Blaziken, Role Play! Jolteon, Magnet Rise!” Jon said, unable to hide the grin. “Nidoking! Earthquake!”

Nidoking roared, as the ground began to shake violently, and all Pokemon that Blaziken had been battling took damage from the hit. The Rotoms, Haunters and Chandelures all fainted instantly, given their preexisting weakness to Ground attacks, followed quickly by the Mismagius who were already weakened from being hit by Blaziken’s Shadow Punches, that it had used to infect them with the Mummy Ability that Jon had let Cofarigus infect it with earlier in the battle. Blaziken however, had copied Mismagius’ ability before hitting it with a Shadow Claw. This left a pair of Cofarigus, and a pair Banette, both of which were uneasy on their feet. Jon considered having Blaziken dispatch them, but decided against it.

“Nidoking, give us another Earthquake!” Jon called out, and once the ground began to shake again, knocking out the remainder of the Ghost Pokemon that had surrounded Blaziken, called out to Blaziken. “Role Play on Nidoking!”

Nidoking’s ability, Sheer Force, removed the side effects of any attack it had, for the benefit of increasing its sheer attack power by a factor of thirty percent. Blaziken had a lot of moves like Power-Up Punch it could use with side effects, but at this point, Jon had done the prep work. Blaziken was now fast and strong and just needed to knock skulls.

Unbeknownst to Jon, another Ghost Pokemon had slipped into the fight, hiding in Blaziken’s shadow. Latios was the first to notice the form of Marshadow, rising out of Blaziken’s elongated shadow from the setting sun in the distance.

Turning visible, Latios roared, shocking all those there who hadn’t known where the Eon Pokemon had been, before launching himself bodily into Marshadow, grappling the small Mythical Pokemon, and carrying it away from Blaziken.

“Willow!” Jon called out to his partner in this battle.

“I’m on it!”

Willow sidestepped Nicodemus, whom she had been in a stalemate with since her initial strike on him, rushing past Jon, who swung his arm around, holding concrete tipped iron bar out, a matter of inches from the face of Nicodemus, who in chasing after Willow, had almost rushed face first into it.

“Willow’s busy,” Jon said evenly. “You’re fighting me now…”

************************************************** ************************************************** *****

“So here’s what’s going to happen,” the leader of the returning raid party said to Brianna, before walking up to her. “I’m going to kill whatever the hell that thing fighting Giratina is. And I’m going to use the energy in that little diamond of yours to do it. Whether you hand it over now, or I take it from your lifeless corpse…”

Brianna went to speak, and as she did, Dylan took the moment of distraction, and sprinted at the witch nearest him, whilst pressing the button on the Pokeball hidden in his clenched fist. At the same time, Darkrai appeared from Dylan’s shadow, and launched a Sucker Punch at the witch. Not having a spell readied, and taken by surprise by Darkrai’s attack, the witch did little to stop Dylan, who was not small by any standard, from shouldering him to the ground, and making an opening for he, Abbee and Victini to run through, as Metagross and Dakrai began wreaking havoc on the group there. They took cover behind some nearby trees, which was helped by Victini’s telekinetic barriers.

Taking the moment of distraction herself, and not restricted by the time or effort it took to mutter incantations, Brianna quickly placed a hex on the leader of the raid party, causing him to collapse to the ground with his hands grabbing at his head. As the raid party were starting to prepare spells, she took cover behind the shack, readying more of her own spells.

The eleven remaining witches began to go after Brianna, however, one of the more senior members of the raid party took control of the situation.

“Don’t let the others get away!” the new leader called out. “They were at the hospital! That Metagross killed some of our own!”

Hearing the rally, five of them split off, and attempted to fan out around Metagross and Darkrai, trying to get past them to get to Abbee and Dylan.

“Metagross!” Dylan called out, as he pressed the button in his watch. “You’re on defence!”

Metagross grunted in agreement, as it became encased in light, which exploded in a rainbow of colour, revealing Mega Metagross. Now floating and much more agile, its supercomputer-like brain was now even more effective, and paired with its telekinesis, made Metagross the perfect creator of psychic shields to protect its trainer.

“Jon said these were for an emergency…” Abbee said with a grim smile. “Now we can finally use them…”

Calling out her Ampharos, Abbee pressed the keystone in her locket, which caused Ampharos to become encased in an identical light to Metagross, emerging with long, flowing white hair and an equally impressive tail.

Calling out Dusknoir, it joined Ampharos and Victini by Darkrai’s side, to begin holding off the five witches.

Brianna avoided one curse, while blocking another with a Shield Charm, and rebounding a third with an Expavescimus Charm, causing the caster of the third charm to be thrown back, covered with sores and screaming in pain. Her ability to perform Shadowcraft non-verbally dramatically decreased the amount of time she needed to perform spells, however in a normal fight, she wouldn’t be performing them this quickly, for two reasons. The first being that non-verbal Shadowcraft ran the risk of other thoughts interfering, and causing the wrong spell to be used. The second, being that if she kept using spell after spell in such quick succession, she’d run the risk of exhausting herself too quickly.

However, the diamond she held in her left hand disqualified the second reason. She had removed the enchantment on it causing it to stop absorbing energy when she took it, so it wasn’t growing in power, however, she knew they were in range of the diamond near the Megamart, which was still enchanted, and absorbing power from the fighting as the battles continued.

One of the five remaining witches that were attacking her lunged at her, right arm outstretched to place a contact curse on her. She didn’t know the effect of the curse, however didn’t care to find out. Instead of blocking or rebounding it, she instead sidestepped gracefully, slipping towards the man’s left side, causing him to attempt to turn. In that moment of imbalance, she kicked his foot out, before activating a spell she had found from her own time peering into the void. A simple spell would help in this situation.

Without a word, she tapped the stumbling man on the shoulder, and the gravitational pull on his body intensified to triple its normal rate. He went from stumbling, to being pulled to the ground, which he hit with a thud, before struggling and failing to get back up. She grinned. The amount of energy she was using keeping this battle going from the diamond she held was insignificant compared to the amount this battle would be adding to the hidden Megamart diamond. Her grin however, wouldn’t last.

In the forest on the south side of the abandoned Megamart, an inconspicuous tree housed the hidden diamond. A hole had been cut into it, in which Brianna inserted the diamond, before using Shadowcraft to repair it, giving no indication that anything was there. Despite Brianna having decided that today would be the day she retrieved the diamond, which contained enough energy to sustain her goals, but was not yet at capacity, there was something she hadn’t accounted for.

This diamond had filled with energy quickly, as for weeks, it had been in range of the home of a hundred witches, all using Shadowcraft throughout the day, giving a generous and consistent charge. This was how she knew they were in the Megamart. The one she held, had been placed near Heahea City, and despite charging slow initially, in the last week, had gained a great deal of energy from the consistent back and forth of Shadowcraft between Agatha’s followers, and the League’s own Shadowcraft users during the chaos of the Spiritwater Opening Ceremony, and the attack on Heahea hospital the day before. Whilst Brianna knew the Megamart diamond still had room for more energy, she hadn’t considered the sheer input of energy from a large-scale battle here…

The diamond in the tree had reached capacity minutes earlier, and began leaking out energy, seeping out as a slow trickle. However, as more witches got involved in the fighting, the amount of energy being absorbed increased, until the diamond couldn’t contain it anymore.

Brianna was shocked by a loud bang, as something exploded to the south east. Without intending to, she looked to the place where she had hidden the diamond, as the realisation of what had happened dawned on her.

Regaining her senses, she narrowly avoided being stabbed, instead, the knife held by the witch slicing across her upper arm, leaving a narrow trail of blood.

She glared at the witch, deciding this one would suffer…

************************************************** ************************************************** *****

As Luneth and Glimmer considered their options, they stopped talking suddenly as they heard the explosion, and Jirachi felt something. A source of power exploding to life. Before it even knew why, it reinforced its own telekinesis with wish energy, bringing a slight sensation of fatigue, and wrapped the Netherlink in telekinetic barriers.

The Netherlink suddenly exploded outwards, with the trio only saved from being absorbed by it, by Jirachi containing it.

“What was that?” Luneth asked, looking at the Netherlink which had tripled in size in a matter of seconds.

“I don’t know…” Glimmer muttered, before beginning the incantation of an insight spell. Closing her eyes, she saw the familiar glyphs that shed light on the nature of the spell in front of her, and noticed something odd. Most of the time, there were patterns in which glyphs appeared and which glyphs didn’t. There were some combinations of glyphs that were practically impossible to see together, as they correlated to two conflicting types of Shadowcraft that could not coexist. However, looking at the glyphs she saw in her mind’s eye, she noticed a similar abnormality, and began to piece together what had happened.

“Oh God…” Glimmer said, before grabbing the eyes of Necrozma and Eternatus heart, and throwing both in the swirling vortex.

“What are you doing?” Luneth asked. “Won’t that make it harder to destroy?”

“I’m buying us time!” Glimmer answered, as Jirachi, was now able to release the telekinetic barriers. “This is not good…”

“What’s wrong?” Jirachi asked. “What happened?”

“That Brianna Levine had left diamonds hidden all over the island, enchanted to absorb the energy released when Shadowcraft is performed. She wanted to use it to do something big, though I don’t know what. But that’s why she helped us enough that Agatha wouldn’t wipe us out, but not enough to actually help us stop her…”

“So she wanted there to be fighting between witches?” Luneth asked, as Glimmer nodded in confirmation.

“The Netherlink absorbed a heap of energy, but is now capable of absorbing energy from Shadowcraft, just like those diamonds, instead of just slowly growing from the energy in the void…” Glimmer explained. “One of them probably reached its capacity and detonated. That’s what we heard before…”

“So as long as people are fighting out there…” Luneth said, her voice trailing off as she realised just how much more dangerous the situation had become.

“The Netherlink will grow, and it doesn’t matter if Agatha gets beaten or not. It will grow perpetually, until it absorbs everything around it…” Glimmer explained. “Those reagents bought us time, but they only work once, and if we want to buy more time, we don’t know what other reagents will stabilise it and keep us safe from it, that haven't already been used.”

Luneth looked at Jirachi, not knowing of any other options.

“If we wished for it, could you close it?” Luneth asked. Jirachi shook its head.

“Not now,” Jirachi explained. “The clouds that they have summoned block my connection to the stars, which I need to grant bigger wishes. Even then, it would put me to sleep and I don’t know when I’d wake up, but if I tried without that connection, I’d just fall asleep and nothing would happen…”

Glimmer considered what Jirachi had said. She quickly dismissed the thought from her mind. Even if Jirachi could, it wouldn’t be okay of her to order Jirachi to do that without Jimmy’s permission.

“That’s our last option then…” Glimmer said, before looking at Luneth. “I’m going to use another Insight spell, and try and figure out how long we have until the Netherlink will just absorb us, and if there is something we can do to stop it. Luneth, look in the tome again, and see if you can find anything about those clouds, in case Jirachi is our only bet.”

Glimmer looked over at Jirachi, wishing she didn’t have to say this.

“We’ll do all we can, but if it looks like the only thing we can do is wish this away, you should talk to Jimmy before that…”

************************************************** ************************************************** *****

In the visitors room, the leader of the group of attackers grinned.

“This actually works out quite well indeed…” he said, repeating himself, looking between Chris and Lance. “Now that I see you next to each other, I take it you’re family?”

Neither of the dragon trainers said anything, as the leader’s grin widened.

“We just came here because Jon Drake has something we’re after, and we figured he’d be willing to negotiate if we took one of his precious students. But lo and behold, we find Lance, the most public enemy of our kind…”

Chris’ eyes widened at both revelations. They were after him, trying to force Jon’s hand in whatever fight he was in on Akala Island. However, if they were after him, chances are, they had gone after Charlotte and Justin as well. He felt a deep regret at going by himself and leaving them despite their protests, however forced himself to ignore it. He was in this situation because they decided to attack him in a place where he couldn’t carry Pokemon. Even with four of them, getting the jump on Charlotte and Justin, whilst taking them alive, would prove to be a difficult task…

However, Lance didn’t have that same luxury, and Chris could see that their unwanted guests were planning on making the most of that.

“This is an opportunity many of us would dream of,” the leader continued. “The great Dragon tamer, Lance, who tried to kill two of our brethren that were unable to fight back, now defenceless himself, with no dragons to hide behind…”

Chris looked at Lance, who gave no hint of worry. Despite having no way out of this situation, he was not going to give their attackers any satisfaction. Instead, he spoke evenly.

“You talk too much…” Lance said to the leader, who began to laugh, as did his followers

“You’re right,” the leader said. “The time for talking is over. It’s time for action…”

He stood forward, approaching Lance, however Chris stood to the side, placing himself between Lance and the person who was intent on executing him.

“You need me alive, remember?” Chris said. “And you’ve gotta get through me if you’re gonna kill him…”

“We need you alive, not whole…”

“Chris, step aside…” Lance said. He grabbed Chris by the shoulder, and not so gently shoved him out of the way, placing himself face to face with his would-be attacker, as another of the intruders made his way towards Chris.

Chris went to protest, however could hear something faintly. A high pitched whirring sound that was familiar to him. After a second, it registered to him what it was. Chris grinned, before swinging around, and punching the nearby witch in the stomach.

Despite the witch expecting the attack, the blow had winded him, delaying the spell he planned to use, as he grabbed Chris.

There was a flash of light as a large orb of electricity blasted through the door which led to the visitation office, crying out gleefully, before launching a thunderbolt at one of the other subordinate witches, who dived out of the way, missing it.

Taking advantage of the confusion, Lance grabbed the witch in front of him by the shoulders, headbutting him, before shoving him back, as he stumbled backwards, dazed by the blow. However, their element of surprise was gone, and knowing they were likely outnumbered by whoever sent the Pokemon in to help them, they went to their backup plan.

Each of the witches grabbed two Pokeballs from their belt. In an instant, Chris, Lance, and the Pokemon he now recognised to be Regieleki, were surrounded by Chandelure, Froslass, Aegislash, Golurk, Gengar, Dusknoir, Rotom and Banette.

“Chris!” called out a familiar voice, from the hallway where Regieleki had emerged. Chris grinned as between those in front of him, he saw Charlotte emerge, carrying his belt, and tossing it over the heads of those before him. “Get behind cover!”

Chris caught the belt, as he heard Justin call out a command, realising why Charlotte had told him to get behind cover.

“Regieleki, Discharge!”

Lance grabbed Chris, before the pair dived over the table they had been sitting at. Whilst it was barely any cover, the table acted as a lightning rod for all the electricity Regieleki had launched behind it. However, the Pokemon in front of it weren’t as lucky. Though it was spread thin across the eight of them, they were all struck by Regieleki’s discharge attack, stunning them for a moment.

Chris heard the sound of another Pokeball activating as Charlotte called out her Roserade, and commanded a Grassy Terrain attack. Despite the ground being concrete, Roserade blasted it with seeds, which grew into a lush grass, before various Leech Seeds hidden amongst them exploded into life, grappling some of the attacking witches and their Pokemon.

In the chaos, Chris grabbed one of his five Pokeballs, knowing the space was too small for Lugia, and may even be too cramped for Garchomp, Charizard or his Dragonite, instead sending out Ninetales.

“Protect!” Chris shouted, as he saw a nearby witch beginning an incantation, whilst seeming to be focused on himself and Lance. Ninetales cried out, raising a spectral barrier, which appeared in time to block and disperse the attack, before Chris gave a follow up command. “Icy Wind!”

With another cry, Ninetales unleashed a freezing gust of wind on their attackers, before they retaliated with their own, starting with Chandelure.

“Mystic Fire!” one of the witches called out, as Chandelure let out a gleeful noise, and purple spectral flames erupted from it in all directions, Charlotte avoiding the hit by Roserade using Protect, and Justin, Chris and Lance all diving out of the way. They however, weren’t the intended target. Instead, the thorny vines which held many of the attackers in place, were struck by the flames, before burning up, freeing them, and allowing them to move.

“Disable, both of you!” called another witch. “Against Ninetales and Roserade!”

Despite intending to prevent both Pokemon from using Protect, the witch commanding Dusknoir and Gengar had gotten his timing wrong, with Roserade now prevented from using Protect, but the other Disable attack only affected Ninetales’ Icy Wind.

“Froslass, Will ‘o Wisp on Regieleki!” called out another witch. “Banette, Hex!”

Froslass cried out, as a spectral flame launched at Regieleki, burning the Legendary Pokemon, before Banette followed its trainer’s order, struck Regieleki with a Hex, which, despite being used on a Legendary Pokemon, struck hard due to the burn Regieleki had just sustained.

“Golurk, Earth Power!” the witch who had commanded Chandelure called. “Take down Regieleki!”

In his distraction though, he didn’t notice Lance making his way into his blindspot, before boring down on him, and slamming his fist into his head, knocking him out cold. He fell limp, as his own Pokemon launched an Earth Power attack at Regieleki, who, despite being the fastest Pokemon alive, didn’t have the space in this cramped room to avoid the hit, as the concrete erupted underneath it, striking it with jagged edges.

“Aegislash, Laser Focus!” the last witch called out. “Rotom, Hex!”

As Banette did earlier, Rotom used Hex on Regieleki, striking it hard, though not enough to knock the Legendary Pokemon out.

“Regieleki! Zap Cannon!” Justin ordered, seeing the fact that Froslass and Chandelure were lined up perfectly. “On Froslass!”

Despite Zap Cannon not being an overly accurate move, the space was too small for Regieleki to miss, hitting both Pokemon, one after another, and knocking them both unconscious, as Justin grinned, though it was short lived.

“Banette, again!”

Banette hit Regieleki with a third Hex, which was enough to knock the Pokemon out, as Chris’ Ninetales hit Rotom with a Blizzard, and knocked it out. Angrily, Justin leapt at the witch who had given that command, attempting to swing a fist, however was blocked, before being punched himself in the head by the attacker, who had decided to forego Shadowcraft instead for a small, hard plastic knuckle duster. Justin took the hit, collapsing to the ground unconscious.

“Justin!” Chris yelled angrily, before launching himself at the attacking witch, grabbing him and tackling him to the ground. In the scuffle, Chris withdrew a fist, and launched it into the eye socket of the witch, causing him to yell out in pain, before Chris’ second punch found its mark at the man’s jaw. There was a sickening crack, as he fell unconscious.

“Roserade!” Charlotte commanded. “Petal Dance!”

Pointing at Gollurk, Roserade let out a cry, as petals whipped out from the flowers on its arms, launching at dangerous velocity into the larger Ground Type Pokemon, knocking it out, however the victory was short lived, as Dusknoir appeared out of nowhere, striking Roserade with an Ice Punch knocking it out as well.

“Aegislash, Iron Head!”

Chris, having forgotten that Aegislash had used Laser Focus, whilst he had fought against the witch with his fists, hadn’t been prepared for the near unavoidable attack that was aimed at Ninetales.

Aegislash flew towards Ninetales, cartwheeling through the air, before striking the Ice-Fairy Pokemon, which was extremely susceptible to Steel Type attacks, knocking it out.

Charlotte went to grab another Pokeball, however, before she could, felt a sharp pain in her right shoulder. She cried out in shock, as it felt like it had been stabbed, and looked to see blood welling from a wound made by a ghostly, spectral knife, that she realised had been sent by one of the two remaining witches. She slumped to the ground, shocked at just how much the wound hurt.

“One more move, and the next one doesn’t miss!” The leader of the witches called out, nodding to Charlotte as Chris had just grabbed another Pokeball. He looked over at Justin who lay unconscious on the ground, and Charlotte, who, despite the wound she had not being life threatening, was in a lot of pain, and at the mercy of their attackers. Between himself and the two remaining witches, stood four Ghost Pokemon. Gengar, Banette, Dusknoir and Aegislash. Chris scowled, and placed the Pokeball on his belt, with the other four. However, as he did, he realised that something wasn’t adding up.

“You’re all coming with me,” the witch said. “The more hostages we have, the better. But before that…”

He nodded to his only remaining companion that was conscious.

“Come over here, and kill this one if the others try anything,” the leader said, nodding towards Charlotte. The other witch made his way to Charlotte, readying another of the spectral knives that he had launched at her before, as the leader walked to Lance.

“But before we go,” the leader said. “We have to deal with you…”

Lance’s already clenched fists curled tighter, and Chris tried to figure out what wasn’t adding up. Whilst it may have been nothing, there was nothing that they could do to get themselves out of this, so his chances of escaping if he figured out what was bothering him could only be the same, or better.

“As someone who attacked a prisoner who couldn’t fight back,” the witch said to Lance. “I think it’s only fair you die the same way…”

Lance’s fists curled tighter, and Chris realised what wasn’t adding up. He handed six Pokeballs on his belt to the guard. Charlotte threw his belt containing six Pokeballs to him. And now, there were only five, and there had been ever since he had sent out Ninetales, which was right after Lance had grabbed him to throw the both of them out of the way of Regieleki’s opening attack.

Chris looked at Charlotte, and saw the witch who was supposed to be guarding her was watching intently as his leader prepared to execute Lance. He made eye contact with her, giving her a knowing look, before nodding slightly towards the guard's ankles.

“Any last words, Lance?” the witch asked. Chris knew if Lance were going to take action, it was either now or never.

“I do have some, actually…” Lance answered. “Who says I can’t fight back?”

There was a flash of light, as Lance pressed the button on the Pokeball hidden in his enclosed fist. At that moment, Charlotte, from her slumped position on the ground, kicked at the ankle of the witch guarding her, causing it to break, and the witch to cry out in pain.

Beside Lance, a Dragonite, larger than Chris’ own, materialised, and in an instant, launched itself at the leader of the witches, snarling as it struck him with a Dragon Claw. The attack hit the witch in the head, snapping his neck, as the four remaining ghost Pokemon were delayed in their reaction, by the shock of Charlotte’s victim screaming, as well as Dragonite’s sudden appearance.

In the moment of distraction, Chris leapt at the now crippled witch who half crouched with his broken ankle, and slammed his shoulder into him, crushing the witch between his own oncoming weight, and the concrete wall on the other side. The witch collapsed screaming in pain, as Chris, in the heat of the moment, kicked him in the head, concussing and silencing him.

“Dragon Rush!” Lance roared, as Dragonite let out its own roar. It became encased in an aura of draconic energy, before launching itself at full speed at the nearest Pokemon. Aegislash took the brunt of the hit, being knocked limp to the ground, whilst Lance and Dragonite were both prepared for their next move. “Dragon Tail!”

Banette was the next closest, and given the fact Lance was letting Dragonite choose targets, none of the Ghost Pokemon knew whether they would be hit next. Banette took the hit, falling unconscious from the force of it, as Dragonite turned to face Dusknoir and Gengar, who stood by a wall, ready to attack.

“Draco Meteor!” Lance yelled, as Dragonite cried out, charging up the most powerful attack in its arsenal. A purple beam of energy flickered to life between its jaws, before exploding, striking both opposing Pokemon, knocking them out, as well as destroying the wall behind them.

The silence that filled the room with the last enemy beaten was unnerving. Chris checked that Justin was still breathing, breathing his own sigh of relief when he was, before checking on Charlotte. However, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Lance, Pokeball in hand, Dragonite by his side, staring at the hole he had just created in the wall that led out into the prison yard. Chris’ eyes widened as he realised the implications of this.

Standing to his feet, he withdrew Charizard’s Pokeball.

“Don’t,” Chris said to Lance, who turned to face him. “You are here because of your own actions. You don’t just get to walk away…”

Dragonite began to growl, as Lance gave Chris an irritated look.

“Even if you could use Lugia in this space, do you honestly think you could stop me?” Lance asked. Chris remained silent. Should he try to fight Lance, he had every intention of using his Key Stone, and Mega Evolving Charizard, though had kept it a secret this long, and wasn’t going to give that away before a fight where it being kept a secret so long would give him the advantage. Before he could speak, another voice answered.

“Do you really think you could take two of us with just your Dragonite?” Charlotte said, as she stood uneasily to her feet. Chris flashed her a concerned look, which she promptly ignored, before reaching around with her left hand to unclip Deoxys’ Pokeball from her belt. “We aren’t going to let you get away…”

Lance looked between the two young trainers who faced him, as well as the unconscious one on the floor nearby. He noted the pool of blood, collecting from what dripped down Charlotte’s hand from the wound in her shoulder.

“Chris, your friends need a hospital,” Lance said, making eye contact with Charlotte, before nodding at Justin who lay on the floor, groaning as he very slowly came to. “You said yourself, I’m here because of my actions. It’s not your responsibility to keep me here…”

Chris scowled at the comment, and Lance seemed to read his mind.

“You’ve made your own path, separate from me. So don’t act stupidly, thinking you need to do this make up for my actions…” Lance said coldly, before repeating himself. “Your friends need a hospital. A paramedic at least. Don’t let them suffer for the sake of your pride…”

“That’s rich coming from you,” Charlotte retorted, and Lance glared at her. Chris however, placed Charizard’s Pokeball on his belt. Charlotte noticed this and looked over. “What’re you doing?!”

“Let him go,” Chris muttered. “He’s right. It’s not our job to keep him here, and you and Justin aren’t in any shape to be in another fight…”

“You’re not buying this bulls**t are you?” Charlotte asked. “What would Jon say?”

“Who cares what Jon would say?” Chris snapped back. “If he were here and wanted to have this fight, that’s on him. He’s not, but I am…”

Chris looked towards Lance, as Charlotte knew Chris’ mind wouldn’t change, before lowering her own Pokeball. She was barely in a state to fight Lance with Chris, let alone without.

“Why do this?” Chris asked. “If you stayed, and behaved yourself, you might find some redemption. You really think people will change their minds about you if you break out?”

“I can’t give them a reason to, being stuck in here. I’ll never get the chance to prove them wrong…” Lance answered, as he walked towards the hole in the wall. “I’ll prove everyone wrong about me, even if it’s the last thing I do…”

Without saying another word, Lance climbed through the hole Dragonite had just created in the wall, leaving Chris to wonder what Lance would do with his newfound freedom.

************************************************** ************************************************** *****

“Shadow Ball!” Willow ordered the two Eon Pokemon who were battling under her command. At first she had been attempting to coordinate the two Pokemon separately, however after Latias took a heavy hit whilst she was focused on giving Latios orders, she quickly changed course. Her concern with ordering them together was that it would make them predictable, however Latios, who by this point had broken Jon’s initial rule of not communicating telepathically with Willow or Latias, had told her she was doing the right thing.

”Battle as if you’re battling with just Latias,” Latios had told her. ”I’ve been battling with Jon long enough to be able to act on my own. I’ll follow your orders, but adjust them enough that it keeps Marshadow guessing…”

Latias launched her Shadow Ball attack, which Marshadow dodged with ease, just like the one before, however had lost track of where Latios was during the scuffle.

Latios materialised behind Marshadow, launching his own Shadow Ball attack which struck Marshadow directly, throwing it back, as Latios dived in, following Willow’s next order for a Shadow Claw. Despite Marshadow’s Ghost Typing being problematic for the Psychic Type Eon Duo, it was a double edged sword, with both Eon Pokemon knowing some Ghost moves that would wreak havoc on the Ghost and Fighting Type Mythical Pokemon.

Marshadow however was far from ready to give up, and had set its sights on Latias, due to Agatha’s orders, as well as sensing that Latias was the least experienced of the two battling. Whilst Marshadow was sure it could handle Latios in a one on one fight, the fact Latias was distracting it gave Latios too many opportunities.

Marshadow darted towards Latias, striking the Eon Pokemon with a Sucker Punch, causing Willow to seethe at the sight. However, Marshadow was now in Latias’ melee range, and whilst Latias was far from a physical attacker, she knew a few physical moves.

“Breaking Swipe!”

Latias struck Marshadow with one of its claws, dealing damage, but also reducing its attack power, as Latios, having taken the moment between attacks to accelerate, also struck Marshadow with a Breaking Swipe, albeit at high speed.

In retaliation, Marshadow hit Latios with a Shadow Punch, shocking Latios with the intensity of it. He had taken hits from other Pokemon using Shadow Punch before, though never that hard. Even being a Mythical Pokemon didn’t explain it, and the other attack Marshadow had delivered like the Sucker Punch, which by all means should have hit harder, didn’t.

Suddenly Latios remembered Jon’s Scizor, and its ability, that had caused it to hit Latios hard in training. Technician, which caused relatively weaker attacks to hit much harder, and when paired with Scizor’s Bullet Punch, which almost always struck first, it made for a painful combination.

“There they are!” called out the voice of one of the witches from behind Willow. Latios looked around to see two of them approaching her, followed by a Drifblim, Sableye and Dusknoir.

Latios quickly considered their options. Whilst Marshadow would likely have the upper hand against Latias on her own, Willow and Latias would be in a worse position if he kept Marshadow busy while they got rid of their unwanted visitors.

”Keep Marshadow busy!” Latios called out to Willow. ”Buy time while I deal with these guys…”

Willow nodded in agreement as Latios descended on the attacking force, using Double Team.

”What would Jon do?” Latios thought to himself. Part of him considered reaching him telepathically, though he could see Jon was occupied with Nicodemus. However, that didn’t mean that he couldn’t listen to his opponents' thoughts. In a formal battle, it’d be cheating. In life or death stakes, it would be a good tactic.

Latios used Double Team, hoping to buy a little bit of breathing room for when he needed time to think. As he did, he began listening in to the thoughts of the witches that led the attack.

”Foresight will make Double Team useless, though it’s not like Latios is a ghost…”

Latios heard this as he audibly heard the witch command Sableye to use Foresight. He was right. Foresight would allow Sableye to hit Latios easily despite the copies, however…
Latios let the Foresight take effect, before accelerating up and over, making sure not to see any more attacks, and focusing his sights on Marshadow, before using Mimic.

Whilst the ability to hit Marshadow with Normal and Fighting attacks seemed like a waste, Latios knew right now, they needed options, and if intimidating Marshadow using Roar was now possible, that was one more that he had available at his disposal.

“Dusknoir, Shadow Ball!” called out the other witch as Latios descended, now with all three Pokemon in his sights. Knowing that the move was coming, and with Dusknoir not immune to Double Team like Sableye was, Latios dodged the attack easily, before slamming into Sableye with a Dragon Claw attack. Empowered by the velocity, Sableye fell, as its trainer’s thoughts darkened.

”We’ll see how strong it is once we put it on the ground…”

“Skill Swap!” The witch called out to Drifblim. Suddenly, the natural ability to float Latios had held since infancy disappeared, and with a shock, Latios dropped to the ground, now with whatever Ability Drifblim. However, having used Mimic earlier, an idea was already forming. With a telekinetic blast, Latios blasted the witches away, though their Pokemon remained unaffected, but most importantly, Latios was launched skyward, where he caught himself telekinetically, manoeuvring to be able to see Marshadow, where it battled Latias.

”Gotcha…” Latios thought to himself, before using Mimic, and feeling something inside him shift.

Latios knew he had temporarily lost the ability to fly simply, without using his telekinesis to carry himself through the air, and as such, his speed slowed, as did the finesse with which he could use Psychic attacks whilst trying to focus on keeping himself moving. What he gained however, was a boost in attack power for relatively weaker moves by a factor of fifty percent. And Latios knew from years with Jon that chances are, if a move is weak and doesn’t hit hard, it’s because hitting hard isn’t its intention.

Drifblim was the first target for Latios’ new temporary ability, and Latios already had an idea. He lined up his sights on Drifblim, flying above, before facing down and releasing his own telekinetic grip, as Drifblim launched a Shadow Ball, whilst Latios began to drop towards it.

Latios spun to shift aside, dodging the Shadow Ball attack, as he released an electric attack, which normally was hardly stronger than a Thundershock, but now had all the strength of a Shock Wave and then some.

The Charge Beam struck Drifblim, hitting harder than Latios had ever hit with the attack, before Latios’ own attack power for special moves rose. Drifblim was knocked out by the attack, as Latios caught himself telekinetically just in time to pull himself clear of Dusknoir’s Shadow Claw attack. Latios launched another Charge Beam, and this time, empowered by both Technician and the boost, the bulkier Dusknoir fell as well, before Latios roared at the witches, sending a telekinetic message.

”Leave now or die…”

The witches froze in their tracks, before looking back to where Jon fought Nicodemus, as his Pokemon handled the other witches there and the few remaining Ghost Pokemon. Figuring they’d try their chances with them, they ran back the way they came, as Latios chuckled to himself, knowing their chances were better with him than Jon.

“No witch to help you this time!” Rayquaza roared, as it unleashed a Dragon Pulse on Giratina, who took the hit, before retaliating with its own.

“Good!” Giratina roared back. “I’ll have the pleasure of crushing you myself!”

“I’d believe that, given how round you are!” Rayquaza roared, before darting in, and slamming Giratina with a Dragon Tail. “How much does she feed you?”

Giratina roared, with no words, just pure anger, before vanishing, and reappearing behind Rayquaza. Rayquaza however, had fallen for this trick before, and acted quickly, coiling itself around the space that at the time of action, was empty, but only for a split second. When Giratina appeared again, attempting to strike Rayquaza from behind, it found itself grappled, and roared in pain as Rayquaza tightened its grip.

“You’re weak!” Rayquaza roared. “Last time, you had help, but now, everyone, even the humans here to help you, are going to see just how weak you are!”

Jon jumped back, avoiding being hit by one of Nicodemus’ curses, before taking a swing at Nicodemus with his improvised weapon, not even thinking the swing would hit, but for the intention of keeping the space between them. Technically speaking, Nicodemus had Jon beat in hand to hand combat, and other than the weapon he held, which worked better at arm’s reach, Jon had nothing to combat it with. One touch from Nicodemus, and Jon would be subject to whatever gruesome effect he had planned out for him.

“You can’t keep running forever Jon!” Nicodemus taunted, as he darted forward, his outstretched hand aimed for Jon’s head. Jon ducked aside, slamming the concrete laden piece of scrap metal into Nicodemus’ left wrist, causing the witch to cry out in pain.

“Focus less on talking s**t, and more on beating me,” Jon mocked. “This is stuff my three year old knows…”

“I hope you said your goodbyes,” Nicodemus sneered. “You’ll never see her again…”

Knowing that this was an attempt to rattle him, Jon quickly dodged another attempt, this time for his chest, however didn’t get a chance to swing at Nicodemus like he did before, as the witch closed the gap a little. Jon hated being on the defensive, however Nicodemus’ Shadowcraft abilities gave him an offensive edge, and despite the hybrid protection spells Triad had learnt from Brianna, the instantaneousness of this attack allowed no time to do any real preparation.

Nicodemus made another attempt at Jon’s head, and Jon avoided it, by diving under Nicodemus’ arm, and clumsily rolling away, before scurrying to his feet. It was an action that looked better in movies and seemed to hurt less, as small pointed pieces of crushed rock on the ground dug into his arms. However, Jon realised something.

Nicodemus was only going for his head or chest. The brain or heart. He dodged another attempt, swinging again, though missing, just to keep the distance between them, as he considered why. It took him a few minutes to understand. The curse he was using was likely a slow spreading curse. If he hit Jon on the wrist with it, chances were it would not kill him, or at least incapacitate him quick enough, whilst also giving Jon precious moments to strike back. This gave Jon an idea, albeit a reckless one, but he was running out of time. He was not as young as he used to be, functioning on less sleep and more stress than ever. He could already feel himself slowing down.

Nicodemus lunged again, and Jon dodged it, though glancing at Nicodemus’ feet looking for the indicator. After another attempt, he spotted it. Nicodemus would take normal paces, though right before he’d lunge, he’d take a long step onto his left foot, pushing himself forward with it.

Knowing he had to time this right, Jon focused, forcing the thought of all else out of his mind. What would happen to Alyssa and Lili if he failed. What would happen to him if he messed up. What would happen to Abbee and Dylan, wherever they were during this fight. Instead, he focused on the timing of Nicodemus’ steps.

”Now!”

As Nicodemus lunged for Jon with his right hand, containing some variety of ugly curse, Jon reached out with his left, and grabbed the hand with an iron grip, holding it upright, as if it held a firearm. Nicodemus gasped in shock, as Jon did this, and his hand seemed to have blood explode from a dozen small but deep cuts that appeared, and began to stretch up his forearm. However, despite the pain, Jon swung his concrete laden club, hitting Nicodemus at the base of the skull, and causing him to fall limp, as Jon let go of Nicodemus’ hand.

The curse, which looked as if it would have spread to the rest of his body if it held contact for any longer, seemed to stop the moment Nicodemus fell, however it was not a pleasant sight. The skin of Jon’s forearm and hand was bloody and stung, however, the flesh underneath the blood was now near black, and shrivelled as if that of a corpse. He grimaced at the sight and the pain, but knew he had no time for that. He looked over to where Rayquaza had grappled Giratina, and seeing this as his opportunity, dropped his improvised weapon, and with his good right hand, grabbed an empty Pokeball from his pocket.

“Rayquaza!” Jon called out, as he approached, however, any response was cut off by the sound of an explosion from south of the Megamart. Jon glanced over his shoulder to see a group of trees on fire, however, put it down to a stray Shadowcraft Spell.

Jon rushed to Rayquaza, readying the Pokeball, however, Giratina went still for a moment. Surprised by this, wondering if Giratina had given up the will to fight after this long, Jon hesitated for a moment. However, in that moment, Giratina roared, and began to writhe, and try to shake loose Rayquaza.

“What’s this?” Rayquaza roared, as Giratina began making progress to freeing itself. “It’s getting stronger!”

Jon looked in shock, knowing he only had three Pokeballs, and couldn’t afford to waste them. In the back of his mind, where Jirachi was just connected through the stone in Jon’s pocket, he felt a sense of panic.

Jon looked to where Marshadow battled against Willow, Latios and Latias, and despite the three of them wearing it down, he watched as Latios took a heavy hit from a Shadow Punch attack, which had shocked Latios, being more powerful than it was when Marshadow had its Technician ability.

”Jirachi!” Jon called out with his thoughts. ”What’s going on?!”

”It’s the Netherlink! One of Brianna’s enchanted diamonds overcharged, and exploded!” Jirachi answered. ”The energy and the enchantment leaked out, and the Netherlink absorbed it! It has grown huge, and is going to keep growing!”

“S**t…” Jon muttered to himself, having not considered there being a link between the Netherlink, or more specifically, this void that was the source of Shadowcraft, and Ghost Pokemon. However, the results were there. The diamond had exploded, and now Giratina and Marshadow were getting stronger.

”We’ve managed to keep it from absorbing us!” Jirachi explained. ”But we don’t know how to stop it, and the more spells used in this fight, the bigger it will grow, and eventually we won’t be able to stop it!”

”Could we wish it away?” Jon asked, not normally wanting to resort to such heavy handed tactics without considering the implications, however knowing the consequences of failure, he was more than considering it.

”If we could see the stars,” Jirachi answered, as Jon looked up, and saw what Jirachi was talking about. The black clouds that surrounded the island blocked any view of the stars, that at this time of evening, would be becoming more and more visible. ”But without them, it’d just put me to sleep for nothing.”

Jon looked to where Rayquaza was now visibly struggling with Giratina. He knew nothing of Shadowcraft, and whilst Willow may have an idea, they couldn’t abandon their task here. The best thing he could do was succeed, and then give the others a hand ending the fight, before the Netherlink grew too large and uncontrollable…

”I’ll wrap this up as fast as I can, and do what I can after to end the fighting,” Jon replied. ”Giratina and Marshadow have to go down before I can do anything else…”

”We got this Jon!” Jirachi replied, with an upbeat attitude that Jon could see was being forced. ”If anyone can beat them, it’s you! We’ll handle things down here! Don’t you worry!”

Jon felt a sense of guilt rising up at his own previous assessments of Jirachi, hearing the faith the Wishmaker Pokemon showed in him. He quickly put it aside, knowing it was a distraction, before putting all of his focus towards Rayquaza. Rayquaza had the natural strength to act unguided before and be able to beat Giratina, but now, strength alone wasn’t going to cut it.

“Rayquaza!” Jon called out. “Breaking Swipe!”

************************************************** ************************************************** *****

Brianna roared in anger, as she struck the witch in front of her that had sliced her arm with a curse that literally caused his blood to boil. He screamed in pain, collapsing on the ground, as Brianna turned to those who faced her. Without that diamond, and the battle here not powering anything, and likely being the end of either Agatha or the League, her plans for control were now memories. However, she did still hold a diamond, with not enough energy stored for her original plans, but more than enough to make the end of these witches' lives extremely painful.

There were four witches in front of her, two of which who were either very brave, or didn’t understand just how dangerous the woman in front of them was, rushed at her, whilst the other two pretended to notice that Dylan and Abbee had whittled down their numbers until they were now only facing two witches themselves. Instead of going after Brianna like their comrades, they began their own assault on the two League operatives behind their wall of Pokemon. The first joined his two comrades in attacking directly, using ranged spells, which seemed ineffective considering Metagross’ quick and precise Psychic barriers. The other however, went for a more indirect approach.

“Thunderbolt!” Abbee ordered, as Ampharos cried out, launching a powerful bolt of lightning which struck the tree the witch it had targeted had just hidden behind, causing the outer layers of bark to explode and splinter. “Victini, Searing Shot!”

The Victory Star Pokemon let out a gleeful cry before sending a jet of intense flame towards the witch, who had poked their head out from behind the tree, only to realise the need to withdraw it, just missing being seared by the powerful attack.

“Darkrai, now!” Dylan called out, as the Nightmare Pokemon emerged from the shadows behind two of the witches. It had been hiding for a minute, whilst Victini and Ampharos kept them from getting too close, and Metagross kept Dylan informed as to where Darkrai was. “Dark Void!”

Multiple red and black orbs rushed from Darkrai’s claws, striking the two witches, causing them to fall asleep, as Victini finally managed to hit the third, knocking it out cold with a Flame Charge, knowing V-Create was overkill for such a target.

Meanwhile, Brianna had used another Expavescimus Charm to reflect her attacker's spell, but in the moment of reflection, had taken some of the excess energy from the diamond, and overloaded it. The spell which would have caused debilitating nausea in Brianna, caused the caster instead to vomit violently, tearing apart his digestive system trying to bring up what now wasn’t there. As he collapsed on the ground, Brianna kicked him, knocking him out, before ducking aside another spell, and striking the final attacker with the same blood boiling curse she had used on his companion.

It suddenly went silent, as Brianna looked over the mass of corpses and unconscious bodies of her attackers, as well as the unconscious bodies of those that Dylan and Abbee had disposed of. Even with the eleven on the ground now unable to fight, if they were even still alive, Brianna still felt the burning rage inside her. All the years of planning, and the careful preparation she had taken when this perfect opportunity arose, now wasted.

“This is your fault!” she yelled at Dylan. “If you had minded your own business, I’d have removed the enchantment on the other diamond before it overfilled!”

Dylan, who had taken a moment to breathe when things had calmed down, looked at Brianna, shocked at what she just said.

“That explosion, that was your diamond getting too full?” Dylan asked.

“Yes!” Brianna roared, as she stepped towards them. “And now it’s gone, and the League and Agatha will kill each other before I get a chance to place and charge another! And I’m going to make you pay for that!”

Brianna felt herself pushed back by an invisible force, and stumbled backwards, just retaining her footing, though growing more angry. She glared at Metagross, then Dylan.

“You can try and kill us,” Dylan said in disbelief. “But good luck getting past these guys…”

“It’s all your fault!” Brianna yelled, her eyes now welling up with tears. “You had to stick your nose where it didn’t belong!”

“For f**k’s sake, will you shut up?!” Dylan yelled back at Brianna. “Even if I’m glad your f**ked up little plan failed, it’s your own goddamn fault it did!”

“How dare you!”

“There was nothing hidden here! And we’d have never found those indicator stones if you hadn’t shown us! We had no other lead as to where you might have hidden the diamonds!” Dylan yelled back, sick of Brianna. “You could have gone straight there, grabbed it, and had them ready to do the spell whenever you liked, but you didn’t! You came here to gloat, and it cost you everything!”

“Dylan…” Abbee said quietly, not liking the idea of mocking a visibly deranged woman.

“You made it abundantly clear just how strong you are, and how special your Shadowcraft is, and how you know everything about everyone!” Dylan said, his voice still very firm, but now lower. “Your plans are dead in the water, and I’m glad. But honestly, I didn’t do a damn thing to stop you. If you’d been just as careful about executing your plan, as you were about giving yourself opportunities to rub salt in our wounds, and gloat over your victory, then you’d have Necrozma by now!”

“Dylan!”

Dylan looked to Abbee, who was rushing towards him, though unsure what was going on. He stepped towards her, however as he did, she shoved him in the shoulder, causing him to tumble backwards. As he fell however, he saw it. A knife in the space where he had been, being held by the last remaining member of the raid party, who had decided to try and sneak behind his targets.

He watched in horror, as the witch in front of him, knowing his initial target was out of the way, dug the knife into Abbee, stabbing into the flesh just above her top left rib, before pulling diagonally down hard. Abbee felt her mouth go dry, and despite feeling the pain, within moments, felt a numbness, with the exception of the warm feeling of the blood trailing down her chest. She felt her head go light, before collapsing to her knees.

“Abbee!” Victini cried out in shock, as he ran at the attacking witch, hitting it with a V-Create. The witch stepped back, narrowly avoiding the rushed attack, before being hit by Dylan, who had launched himself with full force into the attacker. In shock, the witch dropped the knife, as Dylan pinned him down.

“You f**king a**hole!” Dylan roared, before landing the first punch, feeling the man’s nose break under his fist. He hit him again, before yelling. “She never tried to wrong anyone!”

The third punch hit, and Dylan yelled again.

“She only ever wanted to help people!” he screamed, though the man he hit was already unconscious. Still, he hit him again.

”Dylan!” said a frantic voice in his head, that he recognised as Victini. ”She needs help!”

Realising Victini was right, Dylan rushed off the man, towards Abbee. He quickly took off his shirt, and began putting pressure against her left arm, in a vain attempt to close the wound, whilst he held down the shirt against it with his other hand, however, Abbee continued to go pale, and her breathing became shallow.

“It’s not working…” Victini said telepathically to Dylan. ”Dylan! It’s not working!”

“I know!” Dylan yelled, as tears escaped him. “You think I’m not trying?!”

He quickly sat down, before carefully picking Abbee up, to hold her against himself, trying to put pressure on the wound, and still holding his already bloodsoaked shirt against the gaping wound. However, nothing changed, as Abbee seemed to drift further and further from him, no matter how hard he tried.

“Abbee, please don’t go… Please, stay with me… I love you…”


Christopher Kingswood, as drawn by johnrielduana