{With the gang}
"Hmm...well, this puts a damper on our plans…" Ash muttered.
It had been a while since they left Eterna City. Ash had spent a few hours teaching Dawn and Verity how to ride a bike, and there had been some setbacks. They had fallen more than once, but Ash always gave them a smile and told them to try again.
With Ash's encouragement, they managed to learn enough to go through Cycling Road, which, even with the extra time they took learning how to ride bikes, still took less time than it would have if they had gone on foot.
But when they got all the way down to Route 207, they went over to check Mount Coronet to see if they could just go through it. However, when they did, they saw that the tunnel running through Mount Coronet had collapsed in on itself and was closed off to the public.
Apparently, about a week ago, something had happened and the tunnels had collapsed, basically closing off their access to Route 208.
So that left the plan to go through the mountain out of the question, which did make Dawn a bit dejected. She had wanted to see and go through Mount Coronet. That was one of the main things she wanted to do. Other than Contests, she also wanted to explore a lot of places, and Mount Coronet was one of them.
But Verity was pumped. That meant they had no choice but to take a ship, so she quickly ran off to the dock to find out when the next ship would come around.
Meanwhile, Dawn and Ash walked back like normal people, pushing their bikes. Dawn sighed, her mood obviously down as she occasionally glanced back at Mount Coronet, "I really wanted to go through there…"
Ash looked over at her, then followed her gaze toward the mountain, "Well, it's not like the mountain's going anywhere. We can always come back later."
"Yeah, but that could take forever!" Dawn complained, "What if we don't get another chance to explore it?"
Ash shrugged, "Then we'll explore somewhere else. Sinnoh's got plenty of places to see, right?"
Dawn puffed out her cheeks, "That's not the point!"
Ash chuckled, "I know, I know. But hey, look at it this way. If we take the ship, we might get to see some Pokémon we wouldn't normally encounter on the road."
Dawn tilted her head, "Like what?"
"Dunno. That's the fun part about exploring, isn't it?"
Dawn thought about it for a moment, her mood improving slightly, "...Okay, I guess that's true."
"Besides, they just said this tunnel is blocked off. There are probably other tunnels going through Mount Coronet, so how about we find one and go through there!" Ash suggested.
Dawn perked up, "Really? You think so?!"
"Yeah, and hey, if there isn't one, then how about I just fly you to the top?" Ash put a finger to his lips, basically telling her to keep it a secret, as he winked.
"Okay, I'll hold you to that. You better not break your promise, or I'll be really angry!" Dawn huffed and crossed her arms.
Then Verity suddenly came running back toward them, waving her arms, "GUYS! GUYS! I FOUND SOMETHING!"
Ash turned toward her, "What, did you find a ship?"
"YES! Well, sort of!" Verity skidded to a stop in front of them, slightly out of breath, "There isn't a ship going to Hearthome City exactly, BUT I asked around, and there is a ship going to Alamos Town! And when we're there, we can get a ship to Hearthome!" Verity said proudly.
She looked expectantly at them, as if waiting to be praised.
Ash blinked, then gave her a thumbs-up, "Nice! Good job, Verity!"
Verity immediately puffed out her chest, grinning proudly, "Heh, of course! You can always count on me!"
Dawn tilted her head, "Wait, Alamos Town? Isn't that the place with the giant space-time tower?" Dawn pulled out her little book and started flipping through it.
"Yep!" Verity nodded, "I heard about it before! Apparently, it's a really beautiful town, and there's a huge garden there, too!"
Dawn finally perked up, "Yep, here it is. Oh, it looks really nice! Wait, there's a Contest Hall there?" Dawn blinked in surprise, but she quickly read more, "Oh, never mind. It's an unofficial Contest. Even if I win, I won't get a Ribbon. Still, it might be good for practice!"
Ash stopped and looked like he was lost in thought, but then Dawn poked his shoulder, making him perk up.
"O-oh, right! Yeah, I'm down. Let's do it!" he said quickly.
"You alright?" Verity asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Me? Oh yeah, I'm fine. I was just thinking about stuff, nothing important really." Ash waved his hand, "Anyway, let's go get those tickets!"
"Yeah!" Dawn and Verity said in unison, high-fiving each other before going to get the tickets.
But meanwhile, after they left, Ash's smile fell, and he went back to thinking. Alamos Town. That was the place where the events of The Rise of Darkrai happened, as well as the clash between Dialga and Palkia.
If he remembered correctly, Dialga and Palkia had begun to fight because of distortions in both space and time, and it was revealed later in the Arceus movie that the distortions were caused by Arceus starting to wake up.
But the problem was, he didn't really know if he could even fight against Dialga or Palkia because they were considered greater deities. They were in the top ten of the verse.
For those of you who are uninformed, the rankings of the top tiers of the verse go as follows: True Form Arceus, True Form Giratina, the Original Dragon, full-power Eternatus, then Ultra Necrozma. If we want to place Dialga and Palkia, they're probably around eighth, depending on who you ask.
But just because they were so low didn't mean they were weak. They were still the Gods of this world. Ash wasn't even Champion rank yet. He was close, but he wasn't there yet.
He reached into his jacket and pulled out three Poké Balls that he kept hidden: his two Deoxys and his own Darkrai. He might have a chance. Was it a good chance? Probably not, but it looked like he had to work with what he had.
Well, then again, maybe it wouldn't happen to him. But as soon as he thought that, the ground began shaking. It only happened for less than a second, so the people around him just thought it must have been a mini-earthquake and went along with their day. But Ash felt like cursing under his breath.
Ash sighed. Why did these things have to happen to him? But so what? It wasn't like crying about it would fix anything, so he quickly ran after Dawn and Verity. He might as well enjoy things before he had to deal with this BS, and maybe he could prepare something for them.
—
{In another dimension}
Dialga and Palkia were in the middle of another clash. They didn't even remember when the battle had started, but they continued to fight.
The battle had raged on for so long that they burst into the space between dimensions, a location where all three individual worlds converged into one pathway.
And within this space, there were countless other timelines and dimensions. Each of them had their own individual Dialga and Palkia, and each pair looked out from their respective dimensions and watched the battle between these versions of themselves.
There, they all watched the two clash. Even though these weren't the strongest variations, their battle still caused all of time and space to shake.
At this point, in our Ash's dimension, the Earth shook, but everyone just assumed it was a small earthquake since it happened for less than a second.
And in Alamos Town, a man was sitting in his laboratory, reading a book on time and space. It was a book written by someone named Godey, his great-great-grandfather.
As he read it, he pushed up the brim of his glasses and continued, "Palkia, the Pokémon said to control the boundaries of space, and Dialga, the Pokémon said to control the boundaries of time. These two, whose meeting should be an impossibility, now confront each other through a rift in the space-time continuum…"
This man was named Tonio, and he was humming contentedly to himself. But just as he wanted to continue reading, the earthquake suddenly hit, and his room began shaking, causing the hourglass on his desk to fall off and shatter on the ground.
When it stopped, he looked around in shock, "W-what just happened…?" But he didn't get an answer.
Back in the battle between dimensions, the clash between this Dialga and Palkia was starting to cause tears to form between worlds, causing the barriers between them to begin tearing. Across the neighboring universes, wormholes began to appear.
—
{In Hoenn}
Liza was walking through town, trying to help with the repairs after the Groudon and Kyogre incident. Tate was busy on the other side of town, working at the Space Center to try and locate any meteorites around the region that had fallen when Meteor Grand Delta exploded.
Liza sighed, thinking about everything as her Lunatone floated next to her, helping her. She couldn't help but feel bored. After everything was over, everything felt so mundane.
Especially since...you know, the way things were, everything got so exciting while Ash was-she immediately stopped her thoughts and quickly shook her head, trying to get that thought out of her head. No, nope, that didn't mean anything. She wasn't thinking about you-know-who. You couldn't prove anything!
As she shook her flushed face, a portal suddenly ripped open in front of her. She opened her eyes when she felt the force and saw the wormhole.
Her mind immediately yelled at her to step back and call Tate, but something about this portal spoke to her. Her body and her heart told her that this wormhole felt familiar, and she heard the call of...something. She didn't know what, though.
Despite her mind telling her this was a bad idea, her body moved on its own, and she reached her hand out, going through the portal, where she felt something cold and hard, like metal, and pulled.
It took effort, but first, a metal rod came out. Then it turned out that the rod was actually an entire metal pillar. Before long, a head emerged, and the whole Pokémon came out. It was a Celesteela, and not just any Celesteela. It was the Celesteela that Liza had met when she was in the Ultra Dimension. It had been waiting for her every day.
And even though Liza didn't remember Celesteela or even know what a Celesteela was, her heart told her to reach her hand out, so she did. Celesteela looked at her hand and pressed its head against it.
Then it looked and saw the Poké Balls on Liza's waist, so it reached out and pressed the button curiously, turning into red light and going inside. Remember, regular Poké Balls can catch Ultra Beasts; they just have a 0.1x catch multiplier. But that didn't matter if the Pokémon was willing.
The ball rolled three times, then clicked shut. Celesteela was caught. Liza still blinked a few times, trying to process what had just happened. She pinched herself slightly to check if she was asleep, but no, the pain was real. This was all real, and she didn't know what was going on.
—
At the same time, at the League headquarters in Hoenn, Wallace was doing paperwork at his desk, although his mind was still a bit preoccupied.
He was thinking about trying to start over with Winona, as well as still checking in on Steven, since he remembered that his best friend had literally been dead for a few seconds before Ash revived him.
That by itself wouldn't be too bad, but unfortunately, as soon as Steven got up and was able to walk again, he used his injury and near-death experience as an excuse to explain to Wallace why he couldn't take the Champion position back. Then he immediately went off to go cave diving to look for more rocks.
Again, Steven was his best friend and all, but man, sometimes Wallace wished he could revoke Steven's Hoenn citizenship. That man cared more about rocks than anything else. He was half-convinced that he was Rocksexual.
And no, he wasn't joking, because one time a while ago, they had tried to set Steven up on a blind date. Roxanne had even been the one to suggest the person and managed to convince Steven to go. But according to Roxanne, he looked more disappointed, as if he had been expecting the girl to be made of rocks or something. Those were her words, not his.
And Roxanne had even tried to catch up with said friend to figure out what to say and pack as much information about rocks as she could, but it wasn't enough to match the rock-obsessed freak of nature.
He swore, sometimes he wished Roxanne were older so they could try to set her up with Steven, for no other reason than that she was probably the only girl in Hoenn who also liked rocks, though nowhere near as much as Steven did. But then again, knowing Steven, he might also be disappointed that she wasn't made of rocks.
And this wasn't even Wallace's idea. Mr. Stone, Steven's dad, was the one who had suggested it because he was getting desperate. At this point, he just wanted his son to get married before he died, but with the way things were going, his hopes weren't high.
Wallace sighed into his hand and slid it across his face. Thinking about Steven gave him enough aneurysms. He put the paperwork down and stood up, walking off to do something else. He did have to set up the next Wallace Cup, which was happening this year, but he hadn't set anything up yet. He had to do that.
Wallace sighed as he grabbed a clipboard to check when he would have some time off so he could figure out when the Wallace Cup would take place.
He walked out of the building and headed toward the river near the back, but as he did, a tear in space suddenly appeared beside him. Wallace's instincts told him to move, so he jumped back just in time to see something reach its hand out and pull itself out.
The hand was pure white with a purple sleeve. Then the figure pulled itself completely out, revealing a ball it was balancing on its neck, and a Blacephalon emerged from the portal.
Wallace looked at the figure doing a little dance. It looked like a clown, but then again, he had never seen a Pokémon like this before.
But his duties as Champion dictated that any potential danger had to be dealt with, so he got into a stance and grabbed one of his Poké Balls, "Return to the world you came from, you-"
But he stopped when Blacephalon grabbed its own head and pulled it off. Then Blacephalon threw it into the air. The ball flew up and exploded into fireworks above them, and a new head appeared on its shoulders.
Wallace blinked, then slowly raised his hands and clapped, "Ahaha! Wonderful!"
"I didn't just feel the enormous impact of your explosion, I also sensed the beauty of it!" Wallace put his hands down and nodded, closing his eyes, "What a glorious performance! I'd even call it the artistry of flames!"
Then he opened his eyes, "If that's the case, allow me to show you the artistry of water!" He threw the Poké Ball he had into the air, "Milotic! Illusion time!"
Milotic flew out and created a mist, which it moved through in a dance before landing gracefully on the ground.
Blacephalon watched and clapped its hands.
Wallace and Milotic bowed, "Did you like that?"
Wallace finally stood up, and he felt better than he had in weeks. He smiled, "I suppose you understand that there's no need for us to fight."
Blacephalon spun around, continuing its little dance and showing off for Wallace. After all, in its dimension, Blacephalon was an entertainer for the other Pokémon, so getting an audience was always great for it.
But suddenly, the portal started to flicker. Wallace noticed, "Oh! You need to go back now, or the Ultra Wormhole will-"
But before he could finish, the portal closed, and both Wallace and Blacephalon cried out in surprise.
"Oh no! How could this happen?" Wallace said.
After that, Wallace took Blacephalon back to the League office, and they sat down to talk. Since they were both entertainers, there was a certain understanding between them.
All Blacephalon wanted was to perform in front of more people and Pokémon, and that was something Wallace understood, so he offered his hand out with a Poké Ball.
Blacephalon understood, so it reached out and touched the button, going into the ball and shutting it. Blacephalon was caught.
—
{In Kanto, in an underground base}
Giovanni was packing a bag. After he received the photos from D, he and Ariana had made plans to go to Sinnoh as soon as possible. Ariana had gone off to call Silver to make sure he also went to Sinnoh.
He and Giovanni hadn't been on speaking terms ever since Silver found out the truth, but Silver was still willing to help for the sake of an apparent sister he had. After that, though, they would be enemies again. Those were his own words.
Even though Giovanni never planned to force him to become the heir to Team Rocket, he didn't correct him. If it meant he could fix everything, he would take all the hatred upon himself.
As for his Gym Leader duties, he had already submitted the appropriate paperwork and set up a hologram system that would battle the Trainers who came in to challenge him.
With that, he could leave to search Sinnoh. This was the first lead he'd had in years, so anything else came second.
He sighed, rubbing his hand over his face. Soon, this would all be worth it. Then everything else could come second. He just wanted his family to have their happy ending. He didn't matter.
But as he finished packing, he turned, and a wormhole opened up in the room. A black hand burst out, pushing its way through. The hand turned out to be a claw, and the figure dragged itself out. The large Pokémon opened its jaw, revealing its yellow mouth. It was a Guzzlord.
Giovanni frowned. He knew a little more about Ultra Beasts, but he still didn't know much. However, he could tell from the wormhole that this was likely one of them, especially thanks to the research Blaine had been conducting after Ultra Beasts appeared in Johto while he fought against those fake 'GODs'.
But Guzzlord turned its eyes toward Giovanni and narrowed them, letting out a low growl. It opened its mouth, getting ready to devour everything, including him, and began sucking in the air.
But Giovanni didn't even look worried, nor did he move against the powerful airflow. He kept his hands in his trench coat. He was strong enough on his own to resist something of this level, but this thing was still blocking the door, so he decided to deal with it.
He pulled his hand out of his coat, revealing a Poké Ball, and casually threw it out. The ball was caught by the suction and flew toward Guzzlord.
But before it entered its mouth, it opened, and out came Nidoking, which stepped out and caught Guzzlord by grabbing its upper and lower jaws. Guzzlord tried to clamp down, but it couldn't.
Giovanni, meanwhile, turned and sat on his desk, resting his head on his hand. He looked at Guzzlord, "You come here on the day I leave to look for my daughter. You have some nerve, but I see you aren't completely worthless, so I'll give you one chance. Impress me."
And for Guzzlord, who was the apex predator in the dimension it came from, it was the first time it had felt fear. Maybe this time, it had bitten off more than it could chew.
—
{Finally, back in the world between dimensions}
All across the worlds, tears in reality began opening, creating unstable rifts, and even then, the two still didn't stop fighting.
But soon, that came to an end because Dialga raised its head and fired a [Roar of Time]. Palkia tried to move or cancel it, but Dialga reversed time, leaving Palkia back in that vulnerable position, so it had no choice but to try to block the attack.
The attack crashed into it, causing Palkia to go flying backward. Not only that, but the gem on its shoulder was now cracked, so space around them began distorting. But of course, none of the other Palkia stepped in to help. That wasn't their problem. They just had to make sure it didn't affect them, and they didn't care.
Once that happened, Palkia began running away, dodging frantically as Dialga continued firing. Palkia had no choice but to try to open a portal back home, but its destroyed gem made its powers go haywire. Even so, it still managed to open a portal and escape Dialga just in time.
However, Palkia still needed to choose a destination. At first, it tried to return to its original dimension, but it couldn't find it. Its injuries were too great, so it couldn't see where it was going. Instead, it directed itself toward the strongest location where it could feel its own energy, which led it to our Ash's dimension.
But there was something you needed to understand: that was not its original dimension. This Palkia came from a different one. It was significantly weaker than the Palkia of this dimension, and that was the energy it felt. However, the Palkia of this dimension was still asleep. It couldn't kick it out, so this Palkia entered a world where it didn't belong.
And its very existence began to warp space around it, and no one knew this was happening. Well, all except one.
In the distance, a single shadowy figure watched the disturbance and knew it had to do something to protect this world. It was another Darkrai, and now it was on the move.