The New Normal - 13-16

The New Normal – 13-16 – A Fight to the Finish

The only warning we had was when Palkia was surrounded by a pink glow once again – causing space to begin disintegrating around us.

“INCOMING!”

And then Palkia slashed down, unleashing a sundering strike that eviscerated reality. A dimensional cut of warped space headed straight towards me, and even though I tried to jump out of the way, I knew I wouldn’t make it.

Fortunately, Regice quickly intercepted the attack with a Protect shield and pulled me out of the way.

The Spatial Rend sliced through the Protect shield like it didn’t even exist, and cut through the Regice. Even after cutting through the Regi, the attack kept on going, and it nearly sheared Lucian’s Bronzong in half before it Teleported out just in time.

Regice was quick to reform itself, but Palkia had already changed targets. With unnatural fury burning in its eyes it dove down towards Drake and his Salamence. Seeing the Legendary coming, Salamence’s forced every last bit of energy into its own Outrage and erupted with pure draconic power.

The two Dragons smashed against each other. Claw grappled against claw as the two Pokémon locked themselves into a battle of strength. But for all of Salamence’s overwhelming strength, this was a battle it was quickly losing. Salamence was quickly losing its footing, with its face contorted into one of painful exertion, and it looked like it was seconds away from having its arms snapped in half by Palkia.

Yet that was when Vordt smashed into Palkia’s side with a Guts-boosted and maxed-Attack Headlong Rush, which was further boosted by a powerful Helping Hand from Lucian’s Mr. Mime. Palkia stumbled to the side as it reeled from the blow, giving Salamence space to disengage and fire off a point-blank Draco Beam.

At this point, Regigigas had closed in again, delivering a devastating Mega Punch that smashed into Palkia’s face. Then Regirock came out of nowhere and threw itself onto Palkia, latching onto the Legendary’s back before suddenly and violently Exploding.

The Explosion sent powerful shockwaves from all directions, knocking all of us back and turning Spear Pillar into more of a destroyed wasteland. Not only that, but the Explosion also sent huge chunks of debris and random pillars flying around in all directions, and one of them nearly hit me right in the face until a Psychic knocked it away.

However, the Explosion was just as destructive to Palkia as it was to us. The Legendary of Space actually let out a pained cry as it fell to the ground once again – caught off-guard by the sudden Explosion. In the meanwhile, Regigigas simply stomped on the ground and Regirock began to put itself back together.

“KIA!”

Now thoroughly enraged, Palkia let out a primal roar as it unleashed more of its power. For a brief moment – almost less than a second – I saw the world flash and twist as the laws of space were overturned. In the skies around us, I swear I saw glimpses of Sunyshore, a random cave in Sinnoh, and even Stark Mountain – and the images looked like they were being pulled together into a combined abomination of all three locations.

I didn’t know exactly what Palkia was trying to do, but I knew it couldn’t be good. Fortunately, a deafening sonic boom echoed throughout Spear Pillar as delivered another colossal punch into the distracted Palkia, interrupting it and keeping it pinned.

Bertha’s Hippowdon and Cynthia’s Garchomp, who just so happened to be where Palkia was pinned down, immediately took the opportunity and unleashed their destructive duo of point-blank Earthquakes right on top of Palkia. Even as it was pinned down, Palkia retaliated with a blinding Dragon Pulse that was far more potent and wider than any that I had seen before.

Yet before the Dragon Pulse could hit our starters, they were Ally Switched out by Lucian, and his Mr. Mime and Bronzong took their place. With their beneficial Typing and a reinforced Light Screen protecting them, they were just about able to tank the Dragon Pulse without going down. It was very impressive, though after that they had to be quickly pulled to the back and healed up.

Meanwhile, Koga’s Seviper bravely capitalised on Palkia’s distraction as it slithered over undetected and bit down hard with a vicious Poison Fang. Drop after drop of paralytic venom was injected straight into the Legendary of Space. At the same time, Phoebe and Volkner both had their Pokémon fire off a barrage of Thunder Waves towards Palkia, hoping to actually paralyse it.

The combination of all those moves actually managed to paralyse the Legendary, though as expected it was far from crippled. It was just slightly slowed down, but that was already a huge win.

I felt a pulse of approval come from my bond with Regigigas, proving to me that we were actually contributing to this battle.

We were more than just spectators.

At this point, our Pokémon had begun to become acclimatised to fighting against a Legendary, with them having gotten used to fighting against the once-terrifying Pressure of Palkia. Therefore, our attacks became much smoother and more coordinated, with our Pokémon able to weave in-and-out and strike in-between the more powerful attacks from the Regis.

Cyrus might have ordered Palkia to focus solely on us, but the Regis were doing an amazing job not letting Palkia’s attention wander too far. Each time it did so, the Regis were always there to give it a painful reminder of why that was a bad idea.

And then came the single most powerful attack of the fight. As Palkia was distracted blocking a Hammer Arm from Registeel, all of our Pokémon that knew Helping Hand collectively used the move on Regigigas – buffing it up to an absolutely insane degree.

“GIGAS!!”

Regigigas did not disappoint. With a booming roar, it launched itself into the air before diving down with an almighty, earth-shattering Giga Impact that came crashing down like it was a manifestation of Arceus’ wrath. Palkia let out a pained cry as the two Legendaries smashed through what little floor remained of Spear Pillar as they tumbled through the skies.

But the attack didn’t just end there. After all of the powerful attacks that had been unleashed, it was finally too much to bear for the summit of Mt. Coronet. The top part of Mt. Coronet that was once Spear Pillar cracked and broke off, leaving us falling out of the sky in a freefall.

Annoyingly, even as the floor broke beneath us, I spotted Cyrus still being tethered in place. He was still floating up in the air, protected by that mysterious energy, even as we all fell.

Fortunately, we were all rescued by our Pokémon and able to mount up before we were nothing more than splatters on the ground. But the battle had been completely transformed.

For what was once a battle between two titans on land, now was a battle in the air. Worse, if the battle remained this way, we wouldn’t be able to use most of our roster.

But as if the Regis were reading my thoughts, platforms of Rock, Steel, and Ice quickly manifested in the air, giving us ‘safe’ places to land and fight on. Most of our Pokémon landed on those platforms, but for safety’s sake, I remained in the air on Port just in case.

In the meanwhile, Regigigas and Palkia continued brawling through the air, but even though Palkia was far more injured, it was clearly more adept at fighting in the air and was starting to land some serious blows against the Legendary Titan.

Regigigas was simply slower and less agile. It wasn’t as noticeable when they were grounded, but in the air, the difference in speed was far more noticeable.

Realising this, we all quickly moved to assist. Making use of the extra space that we now had, Aaron’s Yanmega and Koga’s Crobat circled around Palkia and fired off an unending barrage of Air Slashes in an attempt to flinch Palkia. Likewise, all of Lucian’s Psychic types all used their Helping Hands to boost Cynthia’s Milotic, who unleashed an enormous orb of highly concentrated Fairy energy that exploded on the unsuspecting Palkia.

The impact from the Moonblast actually spun Palkia through the air. That was when a large psychic platform formed in the air right next to the stumbling Palkia as all of our strongest Pokémon were Teleported in via Klaus and Alakazam.

Without wasting a second, each of them unleashed their most powerful attacks right at Palkia – with all of us already buffed up to the max. Gallade’s Psycho Cut, three Giga Impacts from my three bruisers, a duo of Dragon Claws from Salamence and Garchomp, a Close Combat from Lucario and Heracross, a point-blank Dragon Pulse from Magmortar, a Moonblast from Milotic and Pixel, and much, much more all slammed into Palkia.

In this combined series of blows, we demonstrated to Palkia the might and resolve of humanity.

We would not go down without a fight.

And just as Palkia’s pink gem started to flash with power as the Legendary readied a counterattack, Regigigas interrupted that and finished off our combo with another almighty Mega Punch that knocked Palkia through the air once again.

By now, our Pokémon were starting to show signs of fatigue. I had no idea how long the battle had been going on for, but it felt like it had been hours. Even though I was doing none of the actual fighting, I was completely exhausted from the mental toll of the battle, and my Pokémon were not doing much better.

They had been fighting to their absolute limits, and sometimes even beyond that, for who knows how long. Even with all the healers doing their best to keep everyone in the fight, it was only a stopgap measure – and the healers themselves were rapidly tiring out themselves.

Fortunately, our efforts had proven fruitful, and Palkia looked like a shell of its former self. Whereas once it towered over us dominantly and induced terror into us with its overwhelming might, it was now starting to slump over. Furthermore, the once pristine pink gem on its shoulder had noticeable cracks on it, and one of its arms and its tail hung slightly limply from all of the injuries it had taken.

So, knowing that we were making a difference, we soldiered onwards. The battle continued.

We maintained our multi-pronged offensive and slowly wore down the Legendary of Space. Every once in a while, Palkia would retaliate by trying to shift the laws of space around us, but by this point our Pokémon had gotten so used to seeking cover behind the Regis that even the warping of space wasn’t enough to stop our joint offensive. The only attacks that we really needed to watch out for were its Spacial Rends, but our Pokémon had also adapted to them as well.

While the stakes of the battle hadn’t changed, the dynamic of the battle itself had been completely transformed. Now it was more of an endurance test, where the question was whether we could maintain our assault’s momentum without slipping up and falling to one of Palkia’s attacks.

In the back of my mind, I was incredibly proud to see us working together like this – fighting in sync against a Legendary and actually being on the offensive. The once chaotic battlefield was now like an ordered and controlled raid battle, with all of us moving as a well-oiled machine. Outside of the sounds of battle, the fight was practically taking place in silence as we all instinctively knew what to do.

As Regigigas took up Palkia’s attention, our bruisers moved in and pummelled Palkia’s side with a series of devastating punches.

A Moonblast detonated right in front of it before it could fire off a counterattack.

Thunderbolts rained down from above to stun it for longer and ensure it remained paralysed.

Ice Beams slowed it down further.

As it was distracted, a series of quick, poisonous slashes ripped through its back.

Then before it could counterattack, our Pokémon would retreat away and make space for the Regis to take up the attention once more. This cycle repeated itself over and over again.

With every blow that we dealt, we all realised that the spatial distortion that surrounded Mt. Coronet was slowly receding as Palkia’s ability to manipulate and control space began to weaken. The random chunks of rocks that were floating upwards or sideways around the mountain began to fall down as the normal rules of reality reasserted itself on the area.

And, with that, Koga realised something very important.

“LOOK AT CYRUS!” He shouted, pointing towards where Cyrus had been floating in the air. My head whipped towards where he was pointing – and sure enough, I could just about make out that the mysterious barrier that had once shielded Cyrus from our wrath was starting to fade away. His figure was becoming clearer and easier to see, no longer a blurry silhouette.

He was exposed.

Regigigas must have realised what we did too, as it launched itself straight towards Cyrus. I quickly followed after it, and the two of us flew towards the main culprit behind all this destruction.

But Cyrus just stared at us with his hollow eyes as he raised the Red Chain into the air once more.

Reality snapped as Palkia was somehow teleported in front of him. The Red Chain that enveloped the Legendary of Space pulled even tighter against its form, gripping so tightly that it dug into Palkia. Then, they began to pulse and glow ominously, and Palkia’s eyes turned hollow as it became nothing more than a puppet on strings.

Worse of all, the cracks on Palkia’s gem suddenly grew bigger as Cyrus forcefully pushed Palkia to fight to the very end – pushing its spatial abilities to the very limit.

Immediately, a blinding pink light exploded out from Palkia. Even with Regigigas next to me, Palkia’s power managed to overwhelm Regigigas’ neutralising effect, and the space around us began to shrivel and collapse as a large, expansive void formed around Palkia.

A giant black hole had formed. No, not one. But dozens. And they were everywhere.

The world literally began to disappear in front of me. Everything was being sucked into the nothingness that was the black hole. It consumed everything around us, and I was absolutely no exception.

I instinctively tried to scream for help, but air wouldn’t even leave my lungs. My vision quickly blurred, and all I could see were vague coloured spots circling me, and a singular large spot of white that remained standing in place.

In that moment, I had thought that was this was the end. That we had lost. That it was all over.

Until everything stopped.

Time was frozen in place.

Everything turned still.

I was no longer being sucked in. My vision slowly came back to me, even though my eyes were locked in place so that they couldn’t blink. I didn’t even know how I was breathing – no, I didn’t even need to breathe at all. My lungs were held in stasis, just like everything else was.

I tried my best to look around, but my head wouldn’t turn either. But what I saw was beyond my understanding, as random images were flashing through the sky – of places that once existed and didn’t. I caught glimpses of Spear Pillar before our devastating battle against Cyrus, I saw glimpses of Mt. Coronet during what looked like the Hisuian times, I saw glimpses of the ominous darkness of the future where all had been consumed by a black hole.

Nothing made any sense.

But the world didn’t care about my comprehension, as a blue portal suddenly appeared in front of us, before a loud roar echoed throughout the frozen time.

“GUGYUGUBAH!”

A pair of blue metallic legs stepped out of the portal, before the rest of Dialga’s majestic form followed after. The blue gem on its chest was glowing with power, as was its entire form.

Dialga stared at its mind-controlled counterpart, before inclining its head to Regigigas, the only other being that wasn’t affected by the temporal stasis. I couldn’t read the facial expressions of the Legendaries, but from the slight flashing of light from Regigigas’ gems, I could tell that they were communicating something.

Then Dialga turned to Cyrus, who just like the rest of us, was also completely frozen in place.

I thought that Dialga was about to do something, but before it could, something else shattered through the time lock that were under. Suddenly, the world snapped into place, and I fell myself falling onto… the floor of Spear Pillar?

What the fuck?

I blinked in confusion, but seeing the lack of damage as I looked around, I realised that Dialga had likely reset our surroundings to what they were before our destructive fight had taken place, even if the crack in the sky remained. Besides that, my team had also been placed next to me, and quickly recovered from their collective confusion as they moved in front of me protectively, just like the Pokémon of my colleagues’ were doing.

And looming over all of us was the tyrannical form of Dialga.

Regigigas was by its side, alongside the other three Regis, and the five of them faced down against the standing form of the dominated Palkia. But before I could even pull myself off the ground, a tide of darkness suddenly flooded over everything, and a pitch black void opened up in front of us.

Then a shadowy figure emerged from within. Its features were completely unreadable, covered in the inky darkness as it was. The only visible features were two glowing red eyes, and six razor sharp spikes that were attached to the end of its unfurled wings.

As the figure fully emerged from the void, the darkness quickly faded away, revealing the figure of the last of the Creation Trio.

Giratina.

At this point, the combined Pressure from all three of the Creation Trio being present was too much for even the strongest of our Pokémon to bear, and we were forced to remain on the ground and simply be witnesses to this historic event. I just felt fortunate that I was currently not the target of their attention, as I felt that otherwise my heart would burst out from my chest from their sheer presence alone.

No, that ‘honour’ was reserved for Cyrus, who during all this had remained as blank-faced as ever as he tried to force Palkia to move. But no matter how much it was compelled to by the Red Chain, Palkia was locked in place. It was completely suppressed by the three colossal Legendaries staring down at it.

It was then that the gem on Dialga’s chest began to glow once again, and the three Legendaries let out an almighty roar in unison.

“GIYGOGAGOHGWOOH!”

“GUGYUGUBAH!”

“REGIII!”

An audible snap echoed throughout the sky, even louder than the bellowing roars of three Legendaries themselves. My eyes turned to the source of the sound, and I saw the Red Chain being broken in half as it crumbled to the ground.

The barrier that had protected him throughout the entirety of our fight instantly disappeared, leaving Cyrus completely exposed. Palkia, now free of its chains, stood back to its full height, and its wounds began to repair themselves at a rapid rate. Even though its expression was hard to read, it wasn’t difficult to see the wrath in its eyes as it glared its former master.

And finally, after having previously reacted to everything with the same detached expression, the combined attention of all four of these reality-warping Legendaries finally broke through to Cyrus.

I watched with unimaginable joy as the terror finally appeared on his face. His knees wobbled and bent, and Cyrus collapsed to the ground, backpedalling desperately from all four Legendaries. He scrambled over to where the Red Chain had shattered, anxiously trying to pick up the broken pieces of the Red Chain one by one in a futile attempt to repair it.

But then reality must have hit him as he turned to stare at the Legendaries with pleading eyes.

“…please…no…” Cyrus begged pathetically, but he didn’t even get a chance to finish or react when Giratina suddenly swooped forwards, enveloping Cyrus within its massive wings and pulling him into the Distortion World. The two of them disappeared into the darkness.

Dialga let out a small growl. It seemed to be content that its job was done, and it too disappeared into a blue portal that appeared before it.

Which only left Palkia and Regigigas as the only two Legendaries remaining.

By this point, the Pressure had eased up enough that we were able to pick ourselves off the ground, though our movements were slow and careful as Palkia now stared at all of us. Yet its gaze wasn’t hostile, and in fact seemed to be staring at us with a look of approval – signalling to us that it didn’t hold its injuries against us.

A small pink glow radiated out from its gem for the final time, and the sky returned to its peaceful blue as Palkia ended its spatial distortions. Then, it gave us one final inspecting look before a pink portal formed behind it and it promptly disappeared within it, which finally marked the end of our great battle.

It was over. We had won.

I didn’t know who it was, but someone burst out into a large cheer. The rest of us quickly followed suit, and soon all of us basked in the joy of our incredible victory.

We did it.

A.N. The final battle is over. Team Galactic is finally dealt with, and the threat to all life has been exterminated. I hoped that this battle was every bit as good as you hoped it would be. I tried to make sure everyone got the attention they deserved in this battle, though I had to compromise for length. Obviously, there are still a few questions left unanswered – but I hope to answer them soon.

But more importantly than that, I would like to give a big thank you for everyone for sticking with me and my first story up to this point. The end of Team Galactic originally marked the end of the story in my plans, but I still have more I’d like to write about before I’m willing to fully conclude this story. So don’t worry, there are still more avenues to explore. Still, thank you all very much once again for your readership and support. Seriously, it means a lot, and I don’t think I would have managed to maintain the motivation to write all this without you all.