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Cody stepped up to a friend that he hadn't seen in a long while. Sean stood before him with two evolved pokemon surrounding him. Pokemon Cody hadn't seen him with before.

The man standing across from Cody knew his team was much stronger than it had been when they met. Even Sean's Castform looked stronger than when they had retrieved it from the weather center outside of Fortree. Back when they were still a team. Back then, it was weak and powerless. Nothing but a lab experiment. Sean had obviously taken good care of his pokemon and trained them well.
"You're making a mistake," Cody retorted, shaking his head as he looked to his ex-teammate.


Sharpedo growled and showed its gleaming teeth before launching itself at the trainer. Cody responded quickly, sending Ifrit to stop the beast. In a flash of light, the now huge fire type appeared before them, grabbing Sharpedo's mouth and holding its chomping jaws at arm's reach. Ifrit charged a blast of fire in its mouth, unleashing the vicious attack at close range, scarring the Sharpedo.
The shark pokemon managed to shake off the attack fairly well, and came back with its teeth beared once more, crunching down on Darmanitan's arm with all its strength. Ifrit cried out, using its free arm to wrench itself free from Sharpedo's grasp. Darmanitan bounced back, but stayed within arms reach as it wound up its fist that was now covered in flames. In one fluid motion, the attack swung forward, nailing Sharpedo with a force it had obviously never seen before.
The Water Type was immobile for a few seconds as it tried to shake off the attack. It struggled back into the battle, having very little energy left, but charged up a huge water attack anyway that blasted Ifrit with an incredible force. The force behind the attack ripped Ifrit from its stance, and sent the fire type tumbling backwards into its trainer, K.O.'d.

Cody grumbled under his breath and grabbed another ball from his belt after returning his first pokemon.
"I can't believe I let that happen," he mumbled under his breath, pocketing Ifrit's ball.

Cody growled at his rival.
"You don't deserve that pokemon!" he barked at Sean, pulling a ball of his own out to combat the Castform. In another flash, Sparks, Cody's Raichu appeared before them, ready to go.
Sparks bounced back on its tail, balancing as it concentrated its energy. Bouncing back on its feet, the pokemon launched a focused ball of raw power at Castform, hitting the tiny weather pokemon harder than expected. The small Normal Type flew backwards, hovering over the edge of the tower. Castform then charged a ball of ghostly energy, blasting the powerful attack at Sparks, nailing it spot on.
Raichu quickly shook off the attack and retaliated. It utilized the static in the air to charge the electricity in its cheeks, and blasted Castform with a lightning fast bolt of electricity. The attack was just enough to run Castform out of energy as it collapsed in front of its trainer.


Sparks smiled, noting that Sharpedo already looked exhausted. This battle was going to be a piece of cake. As a sense of overkill, the mouse pokemon called upon the static in the clouds above. Providing its own static, Raichu shot blasts of electricity into the clouds, overwhelming the gaseous blobs until lightning shot from each of the clouds, surrounding Sharpedo. With a will to live, Sharpedo swiftly dodged each blast of lightning, utilizing its dodging to close the gap between itself and Sparks. Once Sharpedo was in close enough proximity, it unleashed its wrath on the tower's floor beneath them, shaking the whole world violently.
Sparks lost its bearings and was sucked into the attack, nearly losing it all. From its stuck in the ground position, Raichu blasted Sharpedo with another strong electric attack, K.O.ing the Water Type.



Cody smiled, returning Sparks, and freeing her from her stuck position. He complimented his pokemon on such a great battle and returned the pokeball to his belt. He thought long and hard about what pokemon he would use next, finally deciding on one of his strongest. Pulling a ball from his belt, the Aquan released one of his starter pokemon, Fraxure. Fraxure had been with him from the beginning and had battled through a lot. It was rare that Fraxure couldn't get the job done, so when it was go-time, Fraxure was Cody's go to pokemon.
"I hope you're ready," he grinned at Sean, calling Fraxure in front of him.
Fraxure started out by charging at its foe, karate chopping at the two-headed dragon as it got closer. Zweilous was quick, though, and managed to evade every attempt. Zweilous used the adrenaline it had built up from dodging each of Fraxure's attempted attacks to work itself up and raise its attack power.
Fraxure came back with the same attack again, swiping and chopping at either of the two-headed Dragon's heads, and finally landed a hit as its foe attempted to dodge. The hit dealt a critical amount of damage and Zweilous collapsed to the ground, its legs shaking violently as it stood up. In an attempt to hold on longer, Zweilous concentrated its energy, closing its eyes and growling as it make duplicates of its own form that circled around Fraxure.
The shiny dragon shuddered as it looked around, attempting to concentrate to find the correct copy of its enemy. In a last ditch effort, Fraxure allowed its dragonic power to overwhelm its body and mind, sending it into an outrage. Its claws grew and became engulfed in flames as it started attacking each of the doppelgangers, but to no avail. Out of nowhere, Fraxure felt a piercing pain in its side. Zweilous had lowered its head and started to charge at Fraxure while it was attacking at random, utilizing its own dragonic energy to power the force behind its attack. Fraxure's knees buckled and the dragon collapsed to the ground, unable to go on.

Cody pulled his hat over his eyes as he returned his champ pokemon. Sean had trained his Zweilous well, and if the Aquan didn't come up with something, he would lose. He looked to the dragon and noted its weaknesses along with its current state of health. Maybe if he could capitalize on one of its weaknesses, he would have a chance. Without a second thought, Cody grabbed a ball from his belt and tossed it into the air, releasing Mira onto the field. Cody snapped his arm out, pointing at his opponent's pokemon.
"Mira, Ice Beam!" he shouted confidently.
The Staryu's ruby red gem turned to an ice cold blue color and released a lightning bolt of ice directly at its Dragon Type foe, hitting it hard and freezing its legs to the ground. Zweilous cried out as it collapsed, down for the count. Cody returned Mira and looked to Sean.
"You couldn't have won. I'll always be better than you," he said with a confident smirk.


As the smoke cleared, most of the remaining Aqua grunts and admins had left and Cody returned to his team.

Maddy walked up to her allies as they finished their battles. Looking around, she couldn't see Archie anywhere.
"Ugh, he managed to escape." She grumbled.
"Anyone have a cloth I can use?"
She still had her hand pressed to her eye. Blood was streaming down the side of her face and in between her fingers.
"You think it'd hurt more with the amount of blood coming out of it."
She stared up at the green dragon hovering over them. Rayquaza didn't look like an overly aggressive creature. It stared up at the sky, a look of longing on it's face.

Cody returned to his team, panting. What a fight. Sean had obviously trained well in his absence, and had proved to be quite a challenge for the unexpecting Aquan. He slouched over, resting his hands on his knees and took a deep breath, quickly standing up straight to cover his ears as Rayquaza let out an ear-shattering screech. The boy could feel his defense lower two stages as he reached into his bag to grab healing items for each of his pokemon. Feeling the ancient flute shake, he opted to grab it instead. With his pokemon resting inside their balls, a few more seconds certainly wouldn't kill them, right?

Cody peeled open the zipper on his pack, and pulled the flute all the way out. Rayquaza shrieked again as the artifact became visible, and the connection was clear. The flute hadn't been reacting to Groudon and Kyogre, but to the looming presence of Rayquaza. When Rayquaza appeared from the clouds, the artifacts became active. The boy looked over and watched as Allen pulled his flute out as well. The yellow markings on Rayquaza's body started to glow and pulse in tune with the pulsations of the Aquans' flutes. The legendary dragon cried out one last time, louder than ever. The flutes began to shine with a blinding light and emitted a tune, as if Rayquaza itself had started to play. The audible notes became physical, appearing before them as large purple quarter, eighth, and sixteenth notes. The notes danced in rhythm as they floated into the sky, flashing as they collided. Suddenly, a portal appeared before them, sucking Allen and Cody in effortlessly. As the boys fell through the opening, the portal quickly closed and the music stopped. Rayquaza's body stopped glowing, and it floated in the sky as if nothing had happened.

"Yeah, we gotta keep up our end of the bargain." Dark then pulls out a cellphone and makes a call. He seems to be talking to another police officer. He follows Maddy as he talks.

Dark hops in the sub after Maddy and begins powering it up. Once complete, he drives them back to HQ, now with a lot on his mind. What were they going to do for a leader? What about Maxie and Archie? What about his job?

Dark sits outside, on a rock by the beach. He and his Pokemon are staring out at the ocean, which is clear of even clouds today. He tosses a Mystery Stone up and down in his hand.
"Finally, an actual nice day." He says to his Pokemon, who all agree.

Dark turns to see Maddy.
"Oh, hey. How's your eye?" He asks.

"Weird." Dark says and scratches his goatee. "When are we bringing the orbs back anyway?"