"Fay, use Metal Dance again, Luna use Gaia Shield to block it!"

The blue Riolu nodded and turned to face her opponent, a small white psychic Pokémon who was watching her with laserfocus.

Two pairs of red eyes glared at each other, both fighters were determined not to be outdone by the other.

Fay ran towards Luna with a speed faster than before, she slightly glowed white as she ran but the light didn't completely envelop her like Quick Attack does, instead it glowed faintly around her two feet and flickered with every step Fay took.

Luna's eyes glowed red as Fay got close enough to become a threat.

Fay made a small jump upwards and spun around in the air while still keeping her momentum.

Claws flashed to life on all her four limbs and in the process, she slashed at Luna using her feet. Before it could connect a big lump of earth appeared in its path.

Deep scratch marks were left into the rock before it dropped to the ground as gravity finally caught up with the teleported objects.

Fay landed and slashed in front of herself with her left hand, again making a spin as she always did.

All the while, Agility was enhancing her speed and Fay's swipes left glowing white streaks in front of her like ghostly after images.

The attack was blocked again, this time by a big heap of sand that appeared in front of Luna just in time to block it. The dance continued and Fay was relentlessly bullying Luna's defenses with quick swipes in front of her, giving Luna no other option than to keep her guard up.

Agility allowed Metal Claw to be a little bit faster but only if Fay used it on her arms. Agility was a strange move like that.

She had picked up Agility after our battle with Ash and with a little experimentation we figured out how it kind of functioned. It doesn't make a Pokémon faster per se, which the name implied. Agility could make a Pokémon run faster but only while Agility was active, basically making it a temporary status effect that required active usage of the skill. Ash had shown how his Pikachu used the attack.

The yellow mouse used Agility to quickly move around his opponent, shooting between positions with short bursts of enhanced speed.

Ash thought it was simply making a Pokémon faster but I disagreed. Barry's Staravia had used Agility in a similar way to Ash's Pikachu but while being in the air Staravia didn't flap her wings more often yet she moved across the battlefield with an impossible speed. Since Agility doesn't require the user to move physically faster, (it took Pikachu the same amount of steps to cross a field with and without Agility) it involved something with either space warping or time manipulation.

It could be some spatial positioning bullshit, like with one step being able to move you farther than you should but I suspected there was some time fuckery going on.

I personally think that it changes the time an action takes, for example, if a step takes one second, Agility would reduce the time taken to half a second. Like a video being sped up.

The extra speed was a nice addition to Fay's moveset, seeing how easily it could be integrated into her quick fighting style. Fay managed to slash three times at Luna and this time the final strike hit Luna square in the face.

Fay continued her Metal Dance, doubling down on the frontal assault.

"Looking nice," Dawn complimented me.

"Hmm..." I answered, not really paying attention to what she had been saying.

"I bet it would do good in a contest," Dawn continued with a teasing tone.

"It's a tragedy I don't do contest battles," I replied smugly.

She was right though, Metal Dance looked very pretty and definitely had some 'cool' factor to it.

The attack was inspired by Marth's Dancing Blade attack in Smash Bros. A move where the sword wielding character slashed in front of him multiple times within a second, usually stunlocking his opponents if it hit. Despite it being a very linear attack it had its uses, the most important one being pressure.

Luna was noticeably getting slower, the rocks she teleported in for shielding herself at critical moments were missing their timing and those mistakes left her vulnerable during that time frame.

It was truly a pain that she hadn't learned a telekinetic type of move. Teleporting all the rocks around her was surely draining her energy and it required a lot of focus to predict the right time to teleport them.

"Fay, try spacing your attacks a bit more," I shouted. "And Luna, there's no reason to stay still while using the Gaia shield."

Well, there was a reason, mainly it required a lot of focus but it was a roadblock I knew she could overcome with enough practice to familiarize herself with the rhythm of a battle.

The place we were battling at gave Luna a small advantage, mainly all the rocks lying around that could be used to defend herself.

"What's this place called again?" I asked Dawn, just to give her the idea I was paying attention to what she was talking about.

"Na'Al-gal Desert," Dawn said without faltering.

"Yeah, still can't pronounce that." I murmured, already imagining myself struggling with the words.

The whatever-Dawn-called-it desert was one of the examples of how Pokémon fucked with the earth in unimaginable ways.

According to Brock, this entire desolate wasteland was once a lustrous forest filled with life and all that stuff until Victine used V-create here some thousands of years ago and wrecked this place for reasons unknown.

Pokémon continuously messed with the earth's ecosystem which resulted in some weird climate anomalies, like a desert in the middle of Sinnoh.

It was basically a big open stretch of sand that went on for a while. There were some valleys and hills but basically, sand all you can eat.

If it wasn't for the sweet western wind here, I would've died already.

Deciding that both Pokémon had exhausted themselves enough I ended their practice battle.

"Okay, final blow, Luna use-"

Before I could finish my sentence I was cut off by the sound of the earth rumbling, a low sound that grew louder steadily. The earth began to shake.

Fay and Luna both stopped and looked around with confusion written on their faces.

The sound and quakes grew more frantic like something buried underneath the earth was slowly awakening

Dawn yelped and she began to look at her arm in awe, seeing how it was vibrating, a mix of confusion and distress was carved onto her face.

"Pika?" I heard from behind me.

I turned around to see if Ash and Brock were somehow causing this but they seemed to be utterly confused as well.

Brock held a frying pan in his hand, trying to make sure the food wouldn't be ruined which was a very considerate action from him.

Ash was just sitting next to Pikachu, equally surprised.

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"L-L-Luna sense something?" I asked, trying to stop my voice from shaking.

{Nothing special,} she returned telepathically, sounding more panicked than I had heard in a long time.

"What in the world is that?" Fay yelled as she pointed at the empy earth between herself and Luna.

I squinted my eyes to see if there was some invisible Pokémon hiding in sight but I saw nothing.

The rumbling stopped a second later.

Both Luna and Fay stepped away from that spot and quickly hurried towards me.

Pachirisu and Piplup hid behind Dawn's legs while Buneary bravely stood in front of her trainer, ready to fight with her fluffy ears that were dangling in front of her head like boxing gloves.

The ground stirred up and a small heap of sand began to grow.

Before I could even comprehend what was going on a small creature borrowed its way out of the sand like a mole.

It was small, barely reaching my knees and had a red skin with a few patches of black thrown into it as well.

The creature began to gaze around in confusion.

I didn't move, instead, I tried to understand what was going on.

"Larvitar, the Rock Skin Pokémon. Larvitar generally hatches deep within the earth and takes a long time before coming to the surface" a mechanical voice came from my right, I quickly shot a look and saw Dawn had her Pokédex pointed at the creature.

"Wow, this one has a weird color," Dawn mumbled surprised, "And it looks so cute!"

The Larvitar in question turned to gaze at Dawn like it just noticed her. It climbed out of the hole and stared back at Dawn's blue-grayish eyes in a cute fashion.

The red skinned Larvitar made his way towards us with small wobbly steps.

"Are you seeing his Aura?" Fay asked distressed, "It's so-"

Dawn took a step towards the Larvitar like one would approach a lost puppy.

"Dawn no!" I cried out.

Larvitar opened his maw wide and red fierce glowing embers revealed to the world. A burst of flames was launched out of his mouth. The beam of fire was easily ten times the size of itself.

Dawn was about to get toasted but a hand pulled her out of reach just in time.

Staring wide-eyed at the not-so-cute-anymore Larvitar the blue haired girl fell on her butt, unable to pull her terrified gaze away.

Ash pulled Dawn up while Pikachu stood in front of the two in the classical Pikachu pose with electricity crackling around his red cheeks.

"We are friendly!" Ash said while keeping a careful eye on the red demon. His voice was calm and clear. "We are not looking for trouble, just passing through."

I cautiously took a few steps back, closer to our camp.

"Look," Ash went on, his voice filled with conviction. "If there is something bothering you, why don't you try to tell us and we'll see if we can help?"

"Prepare for a fight." I hissed at Luna and Fay.

I myself thought that Ash had way too much trust in strangers, or Pokémon for that matter. Larvitar opened his mouth again.

Without a concern for his comfort, I yanked Ash away by the shoulder and made him stumble, luckily he stumbled into the right direction and narrowly avoided the beam of fire.

Pikachu leaped into action and managed to jump over the beam.

Ash let out a cry of surprise as the air near him became hot.

The boy from Pallet Town was not the only one who reacted, a beam of bubbles and a small but bright arc of lightning shot towards the small red Pokémon, both fired by Dawn's Pokémon who had previously been cowering behind her legs.

They struck and a small explosive blast followed, Pikachu fell down and his tail glowed white, he brought tail down on Larvitar who couldn't escape his attack.

The small Pokémon was drilled away by the multiple hits he was tanking and he left scraping marks over the dry soil as he was launched away,

Pikachu bounced back and waited in front of us.

A flash from behind us followed and Brock released his own Pokémon, an odd looking tree creature I recognized as a Sudowoodo. The pair ran towards us, ready to battle.

"Is it dead?" I wondered as the small creature didn't get up.

Like Fate had heard me, the red Larvitar got to its feet. Dizzy at first but it managed to shake it off a second later.

Yellow sparks began to trail around its body and its eyes started to glow in an electric blue color. It shot a glare at us and suddenly I felt less confident.

"Heaven's Gate up into the sky," I murmured.

"What?!" Brock took a step back, "Larvitar can't use Electric-type moves.”

A fierce emblem began to glow underneath the Larvitar but the Pokémon in question paid no attention to it, instead it kept glaring at us while electricity was ramping up inside it.

The symbol that signified Heaven's Gate glowed brightly but nothing happened, it kept glowing for a few more seconds before fading away.

{I can not teleport him,} Luna shot me a panicked look. {I can not sense his emotions either!}

A burst of lightning suddenly emerged from Larvitar and it was headed towards us.

The air crackled as lightning zipped through the air, there was no visible conductor or reason for how it should work, even in the world of Pokémon this was out of the ordinary..

Larvitar was a Ground/Rock type, it could learn some other moves but not a single electric move.

Bubbles were thrown into the thunder's path but it zipped through it like a hot knife through butter.

A boulder was teleported into its path too and managed to halt the spear of pure voltage for a few seconds before the defense was shattered underneath the pressure.

I realized too late that we should've scattered instead of staying together and forming an easy target, although in that moment I doubted anything would have stopped it from picking us off one by one.

Pikachu jumped into the thunder just before it was about to hit us and a flash followed. He let out a cry as the volts ran through his body and surrounded him in a shell of pure power and heat.

However, Pikachu managed to pull through and did not only manage to absorb the power but he redirected it back towards Larvitar.

The spear was countered and was returned to sender with even greater power.

Pikachu dropped to the ground, his chest heaving and I could see that countering the thunder took a lot out of him.

"Good job," Ash complimented him without taking his eyes off Larvitar.

Lightning arced towards Larvitar and an explosion of blue and yellow erupted around it, the air hissed and cracked but despite all of that Larvitar didn't even whimper.

It simply stared at us while lightning uncharged onto it.

If this were the video games it would've been immune to Electric-type attacks but in this world, it mattered a whole lot less. The strength and nature of an attack also came into play which rendered some Type match-ups completely meaningless.

If Zapdos launches a Thunder against a ground Pokémon it would be fucked, regardless of what Type it has.

And right now Larvitar was just shrugging off an attack that would obliterate rocks, tear through flesh and leave the earth scorched. But Larvitar was just standing there and doing nothing, like it was some kind of anime villain.

The attack ended and the dust settled. A small crater was created around Larvitar and the earth had black scorch marks.

Yet Larvitar came out of it fine, not even bothered in the slightest.

"Fuck what is this thing?" I whispered, knowing fully that no one would answer.

"Dust, we are not alone." Fay suddenly shared with me.

{I am sensing it too!} Luna replied and both Pokémon started looking at Larvitar, or rather the spot above it.

Larvitar opened his mouth and his eyes started to glow again.

A snapping sound followed but it wasn't made by Larvitar.

Suddenly a dart was pinned into its head.

The dart was surrounded by a soft blue glow, Larvitar attempted to look up to see what just happened but midway through its action its eyes shut closed and the body turned limp.

Behind it a woman appeared, seemingly coming out of nowhere.

Semi-long hair in the color blue danced in front of her face, wavering in the wind. I couldn't see her eyes, they were hidden underneath a pair of black shades that covered them and gave her an air of mystique.

She wore a long black coat that also wavered in the wind, underneath it she wore a tactical vest with all kinds of gadgets and weapons strapped to it in a weird but orderly fashion.

She wore a long black skirt underneath it and she had a pair of military-grade boots on her feet.

A small smile decorated her face as she held something that looked very similar to an assault rifle in her hand

The woman brought her right hand to her ear and spoke with a low raspy voice, "The Second is recovered, you can disable the invisibility fields."

Like a blanket was suddenly pulled away around us, reality began to ripple. A big dragon Pokémon flying behind the woman was revealed to our eyes.

The air around us began to change and I felt my stomach drop.

In the air, I saw several spacecraft that should only exist in movies and fiction hovering in the air above us.

The smallest aircraft was only the size of a big truck while the biggest spacecraft that had to be the main ship had the size of three football fields in a row and floated in the middle of the swarm like the queen of a hive.

I counted 11 ships flying in the air total but I couldn't even start to count all the humans and Pokémon that flew in the air.

Dozens of Pokémon, some with and some without riders surrounded us on all sides. I saw gigantic dragon Pokémon in the air but also smaller insect Pokémon. The bigger ones carried people who were armed with weapons and more Pokéballs ready to launch towards us.

"Hunter J!" Fay growled.

The woman looked up and gazed at us like she hadn't seen us.

"Oh hello there, thanks for keeping this one busy," she shot us a small smile. "You saved me a lot of time so let me return the favor."

She pulled the switch on her weapon. "I'll promise to make this quick and painless."