ARC 1, CHAPTER 9

“Alright! We all ready for this?” Lofty adjusted her beret as she turned to everyone. She had waited for everyone else to wake up after getting up at the crack of dawn. She was patient, and went about her morning routine as she waited. Now the sun was high in the sky, and everyone was ready to finish this… hopefully.

After getting confirmation from everyone, Lofty led the group off to their destination. That destination wasn’t exactly clear, though. They just had to have faith.

“L-Lofty, what if someone catches us again?” Stella voiced before they got too far.

“No worries! I got a plan for that!”

“A plan?” Irima asked.

“That’s what bushes are for!” Lofty motioned to a nearby bush. “The path is filled with them! They’re great hiding spots! So if someone comes, we can hide in them!” Lofty looked over the group briefly. “Though, I suppose only you three are the ones that need to hide, huh?”

Stella decided not to comment. Neither did Zari or Irima. The whole situation still flustered them.

---

After a long walk, and numerous situations of hiding, the gang came across something bizarre. A thin layer of snow. In the spring? That was odd.

“This way!” Lofty beckoned, despite the oddity. They soon made it to a small shack, or at least, the remains of one. It was still intact, but a large hole was blown into the entrance.

“Well, this is the place,” Lofty said after a few seconds of silence.

“I-It is?” Irima, as well as the rest of the Dreamsavers were awestruck.

“Now what happened here?” Resmo voiced.

At that time, Ellie noticed something out of the corner of her eye. A triangle in the snow. “…I guess we got a bit of help,” she said, knowing full well what happened.

Stella was about to question it, but she was cut off. “Well, c’mon then! No time to waste!”

“A-Are you sure this is where they’ll be?” Zari asked. Stella just looked away, knowing why she was asking.

“Nope!” Lofty said, almost enthusiastically. “This is the only place we got, though! I have trust!”

Zari knew where this got them last time, but she cautiously had a better feeling about this place. Although odd, there was evidence that this was the correct place. And with no other leads, Zari just had to do what Lofty did: trust.

But as Lofty turned back to the entrance, she saw a Fire Blast coming toward her. She was able to narrowly duck under the blast, which melted the snow that was on the ground. Everyone looked towards the direction it came from. They were under attack.

“Oh, you again?” They saw a Charizard and an Aegislash floating towards them, and on foot came a Toxricity and Kommo-o. Team Ace. “You little criminals just haven’t learned, have you?”

Elysia’s eyes widened. “Ferro… what are you doing here?”

“The name’s Hex now, fowl fowl,” the Aegislash responded. “We were told to guard this area, boss’s orders.”

“Ooh! We’re gonna beat em all up now, aren’t we, Ace? Aren’t we?” the Toxricity said, enthusiastically.

The Charizard brought a fist to his palm. “You bet.”

Stella and Zari backed up. They knew they didn’t have a chance against the strongest team in the region. Was this the end of the line?

Irima planned not to let that happen.

He stepped forward. “You… you aren’t beating anyone.”

Ace just laughed. “Look guys, the pipsqueak wants to fight!” The rest of Team Ace laughed along.

Stella and Zari looked at Irima fearfully. “I-Irima, what-” Zari started, but didn’t finish before Irima spoke up.

“You girls were wondering what Resmo was talking to me about?” he said. “Well, he could read my emotions. He said I was a nervous wreck. And truthfully, he’s right. I just do a good job at hiding it.” A pause followed. “But… he said he was once the same way… and he taught me how to control myself.” He turned to his friends before continuing. “You girls have done so much… it’s time I returned the favor.”

Irima stood up, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. Everything around him went silent, despite the commotion still going on. He was only focused on himself. His team. His future. When he opened his eyes, his fear washed away. Uncertainty, gone. All he cared about now was helping his team.

“Pipsqueak, huh? I’ll show you what a pipsqueak can do!” With that, a fierce tornado seemed to engulf Irima, much to Zari and Stella’s shock. Team Ace, who were still laughing until now, looked on, confused at what was happening. Then, without warning, a Dark Pulse shot out of the tornado, striking the Kommo-o and Toxricity, and knocking them back. At that point, the winds dissipated, and everyone looked towards what had been in the center of it.

What they saw wasn’t a Frogadier. It was a Greninja.

Ace scowled at him, seemingly undeterred. “Come on Hex. Let’s show what happens to people who get too full of themselves.” Kind of hypocritical, but that didn’t matter right now.

Irima summoned a Water Shuriken from his palm, and looked at it, surprised for a moment. “Whoa, this is new! Let’s see what this can do!” Ace and Hex charged toward the frog, but Irima immediately reacted, pulling two shurikens and throwing them both at the same time. They struck their targets, and threw the two pokémon off-course. But they weren’t done, and furthermore, the other two had recovered from the previous blow.

Resmo stepped up next to Irima. “Need some assistance?” he asked. Irima smiled as confirmation. Elysia also flew up, immediately using Twister to throw the grounded ‘mons off balance.

Irima turned to Zari and Stella. “No time to waste. You go on ahead, we’ll hold them off.”

“Come on, girls!” Lofty shouted, as she and Ellie ran towards the shack. Stella and Zari had no time to argue, and they simply nodded to Irima before following them into the building. They hoped he would be okay.

---

The shack immediately led downstairs. At the bottom, the team was met with a large area. The walls and floor were black, but it was pretty well lit. Immediately, everyone knew this was the right place, as they saw Team Moonlight’s symbol on one of the walls. No backing out now. They ventured deeper.

It wasn’t long before they reached a large room. There were staircases on either side in front of them, but in the middle was some sort of glass cage. Inside, they saw many of the missing pokémon, but they had a strange yellow glow around them. What was happening?

“Well, well, well!” came a voice. The team looked up on top of the cage. There they saw a Sylveon. They recognised it as Team Moonlight’s representative, likely their leader as well. She had those same fairy wings as they saw from before, but they could now see that they had a faint, mystical glow to them. She just stared them down for a moment, almost mockingly.

“Hey boooss… we’ve got some companyyy.~”

So she wasn’t the leader? Sure enough, Team Moonlight’s true leader soon made themself known. A fierce and ruthless leader for sure. The mastermind behind the whole thing. The nefarious, robust…

…Jigglypuff.

The balloon pokémon took its place beside the Sylveon, crossing its arms. “So, you’re the Dreamsavers that I’ve heard about.” she said. “In a way, I guess I should thank you. Your little stunt drive kept us under the radar for longer!”

“S-So you’re the ones really behind all this?” Stella said, anger starting to rise from her.

“That’s right!” the Jigglypuff responded, matter of factly. “My name’s Jazzy, and I’m the leader of this team.”

“And I’m her lovely assistant, Phobia!” the Sylveon followed up with an elegant bow.

“You will know our names by the end of today.” What did Jazzy mean by that?

“W-Why are you doing this?” Zari shouted. “You… You can’t just kidnap this many pokémon like this!”

Phobia just giggled at that comment. “Clearly we can!~ We were using these freaks for some biiig energy!”

“You were using these people?!” Stella growled. “Th-That’s disgusting! I…” Stella was so mad that she was just running her mouth at this point. “I demand that you release them!”

“Oh, you want them back?” Jazzy asked with a smug grin. She then stepped forward, then stepped on a button that was on top of the cage. “Take them.”

The cage’s glass window lowered, removing the barrier between it and the room. But immediately after that, something strange happened. All the pokémon in the cage slowly stood up. They all still had that yellow glow around them. They all turned toward the Dreamsavers, their eyes glowing that same yellow color. They didn’t look friendly.

“…Uh oh,” Lofty quickly said.

“Have fun with your little friends!~” Phobia taunted. “We got some more work to do, if you’ll excuse us.” With that, Jazzy and Phobia turned, and walked away, disappearing into a dark doorway.

The captive pokémon all charged towards the team. They were severely outnumbered. At that moment, Stella only had one thing on her mind.

“GET BEHIND ME!” Stella shouted as she jumped in front of her friends.

“Stella!” Zari shouted, but that’s all she could manage. Stella took a deep breath, and blew a fierce Icy Wind toward the crowd. It hit most of them, but it only blew them back a slight way. All of them seemed undeterred, and continued to charge.

Stella gasped. Not even the slowing effect of that move seemed to hinder them. Stella tried and used Icy Wind again, but it had the same effect as before. Zari didn’t know what to do. She could only watch on, as the crowd of hostiles got closer and closer, only hindered slightly by Stella’s attacks.

After a few attacks, Stella seemed to be getting tired. Even so, she refused to back down, and strained herself by blowing more Icy Winds. It wasn’t working. It only dealt minimal damage. Stella only had one other idea.

“GUYS, GET OUT OF HERE!” Stella shouted to her team. She hoped she could slow down the crowd enough for everyone else to escape. “GO, NOW.”

“Stella, no!” Zari squeaked. At that point, one of the pokémon, a Crobat, had gotten close, and lunged toward Stella. Stella yelped, and instinctively tried to shoot an Icy Wind at it.

However, instead of a cold gust coming out of her mouth, Stella shot a chilling blast at the Crobat. That wasn’t Icy Wind, that was Ice Beam! The Crobat got flung back and collapsed on the ground, its body completely frozen.

Everyone stared at it, befuddled at what just happened. Even the possessed pokémon attacking them paused for a moment. But it wasn’t long before they rushed at her again. However, Stella was prepared now. She had a new weapon against them. Her strength regathered, and she took action. Immediately, Stella shot an Ice Beam at the ground in front of her. The ground froze, and became slick, and most of the pokémon charging her slipped and collapsed on the ice. However, there were still flying pokémon zooming towards her, and Stella responded by blasting them with Ice Beams directly.

Zari watched on in fear. Stella was in a better position now, but she knew it wouldn’t last. While she was taking down some pokémon, many were simply getting knocked back, before continuing their onslaught. Furthermore, the grounded pokémon who slipped were now starting to get back up. Stella couldn’t do this on her own. She had to do something!

Zari quickly tried to think of a plan of action. That’s when she noticed the ground, still slippery from the Ice Beams. She got an idea.

Zari acted quickly, boosting herself with her braids and running past Stella. “Watch out!” was the only warning she gave.

“Zari, wait!” Stella pleaded, but was a little too late. Zari hopped, and slid on the ice towards the crowd of pokémon. While sliding towards them, Zari focused, and used a Dazzling Gleam attack. She kept her momentum while attacking, and nearly every pokémon got engulfed in the bright flash as she slid towards and past them. They had already been weakened by Stella’s previous hits, and Zari was able to finish them off with that last attack.

Silence followed as Zari skidded to a stop. She and Stella panted as they processed the fight that just took place. They looked at each other, and they couldn’t help but smile.

“Zari… that was… awesome,” Stella said to her after a moment.

“H-Hey… you were more awesome,” Zari responded, happily.

“You were both awesome!” Lofty blurted out, running up to them. “You guys are so creative with your attacks!” Stella and Zari just beamed at the praise.

They thought it was over. However, one pokémon had snuck past them. A Hawlucha, and it decided to sneak behind them, where Ellie was. Stella was the first to notice, and immediately, she knew what it was aiming for.

“Ellie, look out!” Stella shouted. Ellie turned and nearly screamed when she saw the bird rushing towards her with Flying Press.

Just before she was tackled, though, a blue barrier appeared, which the Hawlucha bounced off of, losing its momentum. Not even a second later, its body glowed pink before twisting and stretching a few times. Then, it got thrown against the wall, fainting it immediately.

Everyone looked baffled at that strange event. They took a moment to process it, but they couldn’t. Except Ellie. During the event, she noticed her tail glowing the same color as the Hawlucha, and she knew what happened.

“Whoa. What happened there?” Lofty asked first.

“Ellie, did… did you do that?” Stella asked, puzzled.

“U-Uh…” Ellie stuttered, trying to come up with an explanation. “That’s, uh… something I learned from a friend of mine!”

“Wow, that’s impressive!” Lofty responded.

“Y-Yeah! I didn’t know Eevees could do that!” Zari followed up. Ellie inwardly sighed. Looks like they forgot about Luna after all…

“Girls!” Stella and Zari recognized that voice, and turned to see Irima running in from the entrance. “Are you all okay?”

“Y-Yeah… we’re great!” Zari said, still beaming from her performance. “Are you?”

“Y-Yeah. Team Spiral sure was a big help,” he responded. He then made a Water Shuriken and spun it on a finger. “Well, these things were too.” He chuckled at that last statement, and so did Zari. Stella just smiled, but that didn’t last.

“Oh, god dammit!” came another voice. The team turned, and were shocked to see Umbra. “We’re too late!”

“Calm yourself, Umbra,” another voice came. That’s when everyone realized that the rest of Team X was there too.

“Calm? How can I be calm?! We missed them, and now the world is gonna be fucked!”

Stella blinked at that statement. “W-What do you mean by that?”

“Oh, great. You’re here too? Can this day get any worse?” Umbra growled.

“Is now a bad time to mention I stole the brownie you were saving in the fridge?” the Dragapult whispered to him.

“YOU WHAT?!” Umbra shouted angrily.

“That’s enough, you two,” Xenilis snapped. He then turned to Stella. “In case you couldn’t figure it out, those pixies are going to take over the world now.”

“H-Huh?” Zari’s eyes widened. “B-But, how are they gonna do that?”

Umbra scoffed. “Well you’re about to see, cause they’re about to do it in like… a few minutes?”

“We were gonna take them out and harness that power ourselves, but it’s too late for that now, isn’t it?” Cascal stated flatly. Xenilis just facepalmed. That was supposed to be a secret.

“Welp. I guess we’re all screwed,” Umbra said. “They can do whatever the fuck they want now.”

“N-No…” Zari whispered. “Th-There must be something we can do!”

“I’m afraid not,” Xenilis responded. “There’s no way you gnats can-”

“Actually… maybe there is…” T-Kai spoke up. Everyone turned to him, curiously. T-Kai was looking intently at the newly evolved Irima. He then approached the frog, which unnerved him a bit. He looked him up and down before finally speaking again. “You have a lot to show, but you cannot show your full potential.” A pause. “I only wish to duel with you at your fullest potential.” Irima was confused at that last statement, but didn’t have time to think about it. T-Kai turned to his leader. “Xenilis, I believe it’s time.”

Xenilis looked confused for a moment, but then he saw what T-Kai was referring to. There was one other thing in the room, a machine of some sort. Xenilis’ eyes flashed with recognition, and he nodded.

“Come,” T-Kai walked over to the machine. Irima was hesitant. He turned to his team, but the only response he got was a shrug from Stella. Against his better judgment, Irima followed the other frog. Xenilis pressed a button on the machine, then nodded to T-Kai, who nodded back.

“On my mark, we rush toward each other.”

“H-Huh?” Irima was getting nervous now.

“Just trust me. This will be better for both of us.”

Irima blinked. He glanced back to his friends, who looked equally concerned. Despite everything in him telling him not to trust him, he felt a flash of recognition from T-Kai. He couldn’t quite pinpoint what it was, but he felt as if he should do this. So, he confirmed his decision with a nod.

A pause followed. T-Kai counted down. “3… 2… 1… Go.” At once, the two frogs rushed at each other. When they collided, however, a bright flash engulfed them both. No one could see what was happening, but there was some action from the machine behind them as well.

It wasn’t long before the flash dissipated. Only one Greninja was left from it.

Everyone but Xenilis looked on in shock. After a moment, Zari and Stella ran up as the Greninja sat up.

“I-Irima?” Stella squeaked.

The frog looked at his palms, then turned to the two.

“Are… are you okay?” Zari asked.

Silence followed, then the Greninja smiled. “Better than before, that’s for sure,” he said. They recognized it as Irima’s voice, and they couldn’t help but smile back.

“What the hell-” Umbra started, but was shushed by a Crush Claw bonk from Xenilis.

“W-What happened?” Stella asked, curiously.

“Well… let’s just say I’m finally one with myself again,” Irima responded. That was a bit cryptic, but Stella didn’t push it further.

Xenilis silently took a vial from the machine and stored it away on himself. It would be useful later, but not now. “Anyway, I believe there’s some pressing matters at hand, still.”

“Oh yeah! But uh… what do we do about it?” Lofty asked, tilting her head.

“Eh, I’m sure you’ll figure something out,” Xenilis shrugged. “Right now, we’re going to barricade ourselves for the apocalypse. So good luck, I suppose.” Xenilis walked back to his team.

“Part of me hopes they won’t succeed,” Umbra mumbled as the Dragapult used Phantom Force to transport Team X away without a trace.

The team stared for a moment, half exasperated, half concerned.

“Come on, let’s get out of here,” Stella said after a moment, starting to walk out.

“Y-Yeah,” Zari said, following. She then turned back to Irima. “A-Are you coming, Irima?”

A brief silence followed the question. “Yeah, I’m coming,” the frog responded. “But um, don’t call me Irima anymore… Call me… Larei.”

---

Jazzy and Phobia walked into another part of the base, deeper in. Jazzy made her way to a control panel.

“Are we all set, Phobia?” she asked.

“Yup! Energy sources are loaded, teleporter is ready, and the bots are on standby!”

“Perfect. Let’s get this show on the road.” Jazzy tapped a few settings on the panel, then after everything was in place, she smacked a big, red button on the panel.

The room shook a bit after the button was pressed, and mere moments later, a big, blue portal appeared on the ceiling. Out of it emerged a large, llama-like creature. The god of the universe itself: Arceus.

Arceus looked around, confused as to where it was. “What the-” was all he could say. But before he could do anything, Jazzy picked up a nearby tablet, and tapped a button on it. Immediately, some small drones flew out of the walls and surrounded Arceus. Arceus was alarmed, but before he could react, the drones shot out bright yellow electricity at him. Arceus roared at the continuous electricity coursing through him, but it had a different effect than injuring him. He struggled against it, but it was no use. After a bit of this, Arceus submitted, and kneeled down at Jazzy and Phobia. Only then did the electricity stop. The two fairies smirked.

“We did it!” Phobia cheered.

“With Arceus under our control, the world can be whatever we want it to be.” Jazzy triumphantly turned to Phobia. “Project Moonlight is well underway.”