Chapter Twenty: Battle For The League

The Blitzle had grown to nearly full size in less than an hour. It was amazing how fast Pokémon could grow. It was now almost the size of a pony, and had readily adopted Fluttershy as its guardian.

"How did he grow so fast?" Fluttershy had asked me.

"Pokémon stay at a certain size after they are born until they evolve, I think Blitzle is just growing to full size," I'd replied.

Another hour later, Elise's Dragonite again swooped over the city, touching down nearby.

"Hey! How did it go?" she asked, "cool Blitzle!"

"Yeah, just hatched him. We were successful, we found the spot in a warehouse, Serperior sniffed it out for us. We found about a dozen Rocket grunts inside, and we routed them. We couldn't have done it without him." I gestured to Serperior, and handed his Poké ball to Elise.

"Good job, Serperior!" she praised, before returning the serpentine Pokémon to its Poké ball. "I've learned something from my raid. There's been a prison break, and Ghetsis is free again. He's planning to attack the Pokémon League to take back N's Castle."

"And we're going to go stop them, I presume?"

"Well, yeah!"

"But we can't carry all of us on Dragonite's back, can we?"

"He can carry me and you," she said. I glanced at her suspiciously.

"Do you mean-"

"Yes, we can put the ponies in Poké balls. Temporarily, of course."

"Woah, woah, woah, hold on a second. You're not putting me in a tiny ball!" Rainbow exclaimed.

"You two pegasi can fly, we don't need to put you in Poké balls," Elise explained.

"Uh, will this hurt?" Spike asked.

"Not a bit. Just don't struggle." She primed three Poké balls, and threw one of them at Spike, one at Twilight, and one at Blitzle. They were all successfully stored within the Poké balls, which immediately indicated capture successful.

"I'm surprised that worked," Elise remarked. "Pick them up, let's go."

I put the three Poké balls in my pockets. I almost laughed aloud. I had Twilight Sparkle in my pocket. I climbed onto the Dragonite, gripping one of the large Pokémon's horns.

"I'm kind of afraid of heights," I admitted, "are you sure this is completely safe?"

"We'll catch you if you fall, Zach," Rainbow said. It wasn't very reassuring. I weighed upwards of a hundred and eighty pounds, hardly lightweight. However, Rainbow could carry several ponies at once, as she did with the Wonderbolts and Rarity once. I supposed I had nothing to worry about as I thought about it.

"And besides, Dragonite is a stable ride," Elise said. She was always cheery, very cheery.

"Alright, where are we headed?"

"The Pokémon League, of course. They were about to set the plan in motion when I showed up, we should get there as soon as possible."

"Alright, let's go."

The thirty-minute flight across Unova was one of the longest half-hours of my life. I often looked beside me, at Elise, trying to observe how she wasn't afraid. Rainbow and Fluttershy were flying behind and beside us, forming a chevron. Elise wasn't worried about falling, she was just looking straight ahead. I tried to do the same and relax. It didn't work. When the area came into view, I could observe some commotion below.

"This isn't looking good," I said.

"Don't worry, I think we'll be able to do this."

"Rainbow, break and attack," I ordered. She nodded, and sped downward.

We landed, and observed the scene around us. Numerous trainers, including those of the Elite Four, were battling with the combined Plasma and Rocket grunts. I let Twilight and Spike out of their Poké balls.

"Elise, send out all of your Pokémon, tell them to attack at will," I suggested.

"What?!" I found it humorous that she hadn't considered that, and that none of the others present had considered that.

"Just do it, Serperior did it wonderfully in the last battle."

"Alright, if you say so."

Elise sent out all of her Pokémon. It was an impressive array. Dragonite and Serperior we'd already met, she also had a Vanilluxe, a Marshtomp, a Raichu, and a Lucario. How she'd aquired so many powerful Pokémon, I'd probably never know, but she had been here for about four weeks, after all. I guessed she might have travelled after she took the title of champion, which couldn't have taken all of her time.

"Okay, everyone... uh..."

"Fire at will," I finished.

"Yeah, what Zach said!"

The Pokémon went to work, supporting the friendly trainers and Pokémon. Twilight took action as well, firing bolts of her magic at our allies' assailants. More grunts and more Pokémon just kept on coming, but had been pushed back considerably. Other friendly trainers realized what we were doing, and sent all of their Pokémon out as well. The battle had swung in our favor until our opponents too sent all of their Pokémon at us. The friendly trainers' Pokémon were clearly of greater quality, and more of them had multiple-target attacks than their foes did. Rainbow wrestled with the flying opponents. Despite being outnumbered, our side held the line. Elise recalled all of her Pokémon except Dragonite, and climbed onto its back. I ran over to find out what she was doing.

"We've got to get to Ghetsis," Elise said, "if we don't get rid of him, then they'll keep coming."

"A good assumption, but how are we going to find him?"

"Simple, look for the guy that looks like a castle."

"Yeah, that sounds about right. Let's go."

Spike and Twilight came over to us, and I returned them to their Poké balls. I climbed onto Dragonite again.

As we flew over the continuing battle, we were joined by Rainbow Dash.

"Hey, what's up?" she said, non-chalantly. The fight hadn't really done much harm to her so far.

"We're taking out Ghetsis, the leader of Team Plasma," I explained.

"Count me in on that one."

Unova's Victory Road was a series of caves that led up a very steep hill that wasn't quite a mountain. At its base, we saw Ghetsis and his Sages enter one of the caves. There was no rear guard, and we landed at the entrance. Elise returned Dragonite, and handed me a Poké ball again, and sent out her Vanilluxe, a Pokémon that resembled a trio of large ice cream cones. I threw the ball, and Serperior came out.

"Why did you give me Serperior again?"

"He likes you. And you seem to know how to use him," Elise said. Serperior hissed.

"Alright, fair enough." I let out Twilight and Spike.

"Where are we now?" Twilight asked.

"The entrance of a cave. Ghetsis is inside, we're going after him." They both nodded, and Spike climbed onto Twilight's back.

Our journey through the caves was not difficult. All of the wild Pokémon had fled the area as the two teams' forces came through, and there were no grunts to be seen, they were all busy battling topside. We proceeded quickly, and catching up to Ghetsis' entourage wasn't difficult. Four Plasma grunts stopped to face us when we challenged them, and Ghetsis kept going. The grunts were higher-ranked than most, and sent out tougher Pokémon. Though, we quickly found out that they each only had one, even if they were powerful ones. Elise sent out all of her Pokémon, and the grunts, outnumbered, were defeated easily. They retreated. Running through the cave system, we finally caught up to Ghetsis himself.

"Stop!" I shouted.

Ghetsis turned around. "Meddling children, always meddling children. Leave this place at once, or things will become... unpleasant," he said threateningly, bringing his arms to his sides, probably to be ready to throw a Poké ball.

"What is your plan now, Ghetsis?" I interrogated.

"I don't have to answer to you, you can't stop me," he said. I looked at Serperior, who looked back at me with an expression that seemed to indicate mischeivousness. Without warning, Serperior sent out his vines, tripping and binding the man and dragging him toward us.

"Sure we can. I'm champion of the Unova Pokémon League for a reason!" Elise said with pride.

"No! You cannot! My plans can still be put into motion! I was so close!"

"You can't do anything. You've already failed, give it up."

Grunts began to run through the caves.

"I'm out of Pokémon!"

"Retreat!"

The various grunts ran by, paying no mind to any of us.

"Yeah, I don't think your friends would say the same," Rainbow said.

"Did we win?" Spike asked.

"Yeah, I think we have."

*****

The attack had been routed, and many of the members of teams Rocket and Plasma were arrested, including much of Team Rocket and Team Plasma's administration. Ghetsis was sent to a higher-security prison this time, and additional measures were taken to prevent him from escaping again. Wlise had accepted my invitation to return home.

"Well, looks like we've helped out another universe," Rainbow remarked.

"Yeah, it does," I said. "Fluttershy, you have Blitzle?"

"Yes, he's right here." Fluttershy placed the Poké ball in her saddlebag. She was excited about taking care of it.

"We're done here, it seems. Are you ready, Elise?"

"Yeah, I'm ready," she said, solemnly. She wasn't so cheery since she had left her Pokémon with Professor Juniper. She knew as well as I did that she couldn't bring them with us.

"You know, I can take you here whenever you want, if you can get into contact with me," I offered.

"What? Really?"

"Yeah, it's simple when you have universal portal powers. Just ask me sometime. I'll give you my contact information. You'll have to return to this place and tell me before you go when you want to come back, though. I don't want to have to go looking for you again." I took a piece of paper from Twilight's saddlebag, and a pencil from my pocket, and gave her my contact information.

"Thanks, Zach, I appreciate it."

We were in Pinwheel Forest, where we had entered from Equestria. I took us to my world first, and gave Elise some directions so she could find her way home. Then I sent the ponies on their way to Equestria and went home. I still had Twilight and Spike's Poké balls on me. I smashed them. I had no use for them, really. I went to bed that night with the feeling of a job well done. We'd squashed Team Plasma and Team Rocket's ambitions, Fluttershy had a Pokémon, and we'd saved the last missing human. Everything was going according to plan. I could now worry about trivial things, like whether or not Angel would like Blitzle. Trivial things, I thought happily, as I drifted off to sleep.

End of part III