The Battle Dome was packed with spectators in the seats and trainers getting ready to start battling it out. On Ash's side, he rejoined everyone, and they found a nice place to wait.
He sent enough Aura clones to replace D to take care of Deoxys and also hopefully take care of Darkrai. Now, after that, he was left at about half his reserves, but that would be more than enough. After all, it was more than worth it.
And over on the Battle Frontier's side, Noland rejoined the others to tell them his plan, but unfortunately not everyone was there. Tucker wasn't with them.
Just when he was about to ask, they heard Tucker's voice.
"Heh heh, welcome everyone!" Tucker said as the lights in the stadium pointed high into the sky, and standing at the very top was Tucker wearing his usual suit, "I am Dome Ace Tucker, and I welcome you all to my tournament!" he said as he jumped off and started freefalling.
As everyone watched him fall, he didn't seem worried. After all, the wings on his suit weren't just for show. He extended his arms, and with his wings, he began gliding around, flying over the stands where people cheered for him.
Greta shook her head seeing this, "He always has to be the center of attention, doesn't he?"
"It is his arena." Spenser said, rubbing his beard.
Below, the crowd erupted into louder cheers as Tucker swooped down in a wide arc before spinning midair and landing perfectly in the center of the battlefield. He dropped into a dramatic pose, one arm extended outward.
"Ah...the pummeling roar of the crowd...their furnace-like heat of excitement...This is a wonderful place...To the crowd, we represent their hopes and dreams...We must never fade from their sight...We must burn brighter and more brilliant! We must light all that gather here! We will unleash all the power that we possess! Right here and now!" Tucker yelled out, getting everyone hyped for the tournament.
"Well, I guess it works for him," Noland sighed as he looked at everyone, "It works for me. It's better to show you guys rather than tell you, and I need to get some Pokémon ready."
—
Meanwhile, while the Frontier Brains were talking about the plan that someone would fill Tucker in on later, Tucker himself finished wooing the crowd to hype everything up, and he landed back on the ground to catch his breath and get back to everyone.
But as he walked into the tunnel and away from the eyes of everyone, Scott was standing there waiting for him with a smile, "How's it going, Tucker?"
"Great, Mr. Scott!" Tucker said with a smile.
"Really? Even if you know you might end up battling some of your fellow Frontier Brains? Aren't you worried you'll lose?" Scott asked, pushing up his sunglasses.
"Hmm, well I can't say I'm not a little nervous. I know I'm not the strongest among us. However..." Tucker turned his head to Scott and looked at him seriously, "I don't plan on losing."
Scott let out a low whistle, "You sound confident."
"I am," Tucker confirmed as his voice went low and he clenched his fists, "To me, this tournament isn't about beating challengers. I'm determined to face that armor-clad man again! And in order to do that, I must grow stronger! He might be close by, watching this tournament, and this will show him that the Frontier Brains are not to be trifled with! And that he'll never escape our wrath!"
Scott just smiled and walked past Tucker, patting him on the shoulder, "Well, I'll look forward to it. If you do face him, give him hell," Scott said, walking off to fulfill his duties, and Tucker gave a small smile back.
—
Soon after that, the tournament began, and everyone was off to the races battling their opponents. These first few battles seemed to be only 1-on-1s so that they could get them done quickly and move on to the main show.
Now obviously the main gang in Ash's group had no trouble beating the random people. Even May, who was definitely considered the weakest of them, could beat her opponents really easily since, compared to what she's used to, this was nothing.
Meanwhile, on the other side with the Frontier Brains, they also had no problem taking on their opponents. Enough said.
So that's how they got to the final 8, where the real battles would start. The matches were generated randomly, going:
Spenser vs. May
Brandon vs. Ash
Noland vs. Gary
Greta vs. Green
Tucker vs. Wally
Lucy vs. Brock
Anabel vs. Brendan
And the last one was underwhelmingly Nora vs. some other trainer that joined and got this far. He really didn't matter; Nora could destroy that guy.
But anyway, since all of them had been battling for a few hours now, the announcer said that there would be a 30-minute intermission for everyone to catch their breath.
Over with the gang, May sat down first with a long sigh against the wall, "I know we've fought stronger people before," she admitted, "but battling this many times in a row is exhausting."
"Welcome to endurance tournaments," Gary said while checking over his Poké Balls, "It only gets worse from here."
"Somehow that doesn't make me feel better," May muttered.
"Hey, you're doing great, sis," Max said, running in with water bottles for everyone, "Way better than I thought you would."
"You know, normally I'd hit you on the head, but right now I'm too tired," May sighed and started to drink her water.
Nearby, Wally looked both nervous and excited at the matchup board.
"Tucker…" he whispered, "I'm actually battling a Frontier Brain…"
"You'll do fine," Ash said casually while laying back against the bench with Pikachu sitting on his stomach, "Just don't freeze up."
"That advice is awful," Green said, poking him with her elbow.
"Is it?" Ash asked, gesturing at Wally, whose only thing holding him back was that he shivered more than a wet cat.
Green opened her mouth, closed it, then crossed her arms, "Okay, but still."
That made everyone laugh. Even though they knew they very well might have to deal with more BS coming up, they could have some optimism, couldn't they? This isn't grimdark yet, and besides, even if Malde doesn't show up, making sure no one else gets a literal Wish was also a good thing. And hey, maybe if they were nice, Jirachi could grant them more than one wish.
Also, there was one thing Ash noticed that wasn't relevant, but it was just kinda weird. During the battles, obviously Brock saw Lucy and Greta and had his heart-eyes gag. I mean, did you really expect anything else? He may have matured a little, but he's still Brock.
But what Ash noticed was that when Lucy's eyes met Brock's nonexistent ones, she didn't seem affected at all. I mean, he knew that Lucy saw Brock back when they were at Fuchsia, even if they never actually officially met, but he would've thought that maybe Brock could get lucky and finally get a win. But it looked like fate had other plans.
Shame, really. He was ready to play wingman for him too.
Well, too bad. Nothing he could do about it.
—
{Meanwhile}
When Lucy walked backstage into a private room, she immediately dropped her composed face and started blushing while holding her cheeks. He was here. Brock!
Since Brock was a Gym Leader back in Kanto, he was slightly famous, at least enough to show up in a few magazines whenever he got the occasional sponsor. Because of that, Lucy saw him and immediately fell in love the first time she saw him, effectively becoming her celebrity crush.
But she never had the guts to visit Pewter to see the legendary Brock, so she stayed in Fuchsia, burying her feelings and thinking that he was probably already too busy with fangirls simping over him every day. She would have no chance.
But then one day, while she was fixing up her Battle Pike, she saw him there in Fuchsia. She should have run out to meet him, seeing he was only with a small group of friends, but she got nervous seeing the orange- and yellow-haired girls, thinking they were prettier than her. Maybe one of them was his girlfriend. So again, she swallowed her feelings and could only watch Brock leave Fuchsia without saying anything.
And that's how it was. The next time she saw anything about him was during the Gym Leader tournament in Johto, where she fangirled over him battling and winning. And since after that Brock's popularity became even bigger, people started selling plushies of Brock, and Lucy only bought, oh, a small amount...five...jumbo-sized ones.
And now he was here, and not only that, she was going to face him next. She didn't know how she was going to face him without acting like a blushing schoolgirl. In her eyes, Brock was stoic and always composed. Compared to how she was acting now, it was embarrassing.
As she was blushing into her hands, a knock at her door made her nearly yelp, and she quickly composed herself, getting her aloof face back as she opened the door, seeing that it was Greta.
"Hey Lucy, Noland is calling us so we can see his plan," Greta said, then tilted her head seeing Lucy's slightly disheveled hair, "You okay?"
Lucy nodded, "Mmm, yep, l-let's go," Lucy said, trying to act normal.
Greta looked at her for a bit longer but shrugged and led the way, and Lucy followed.
And when they got into the room, they saw Tucker laughing excitedly, "Isn't this great?! The crowd is loving us!"
"I don't think that's why we're doing this, but sure," Anabel said with a sigh. Then she noticed that Greta and Lucy had arrived, "Oh good, you're here. Noland, you can begin."
Noland nodded, then went into his coat and pulled out a bunch of Poké Balls and threw them out. From them came a bunch of Smeargle that all landed and did a small pose.
"Smeargle?" Greta asked as she walked over and went down on one knee to pet one of them.
"Not just any," Noland clarified, "Where do you think I found them?"
Anabel rubbed her chin, "The Artisan Cave, right?" she said, since Noland left a few days ago to go collect some of the rental Pokémon that were left behind there at the cave.
"Exactly. I went to the spot where you guys were fighting just thinking about getting all the rental Pokémon that were left behind," Noland said, making everyone but Anabel laugh helplessly and scratch their cheeks, realizing, oh yeah, they forgot to bring those back.
"While I was over there, however, I found these wild Smeargle," he gestured at the dozen Smeargle around them, "The cave is their natural habitat, but after what happened, they didn't want to stay there anymore, so I brought them with me."
Then he got to the point, "So if these Smeargle lived in the cave before everything, then maybe one of them saw the move that Jirachi used, since they have [Sketch]."
Now it was worth mentioning that [Sketch] here worked slightly differently. Instead of copying the move and just adding it like Smeargle learned it on its own, it instead copied the move exactly like the Pokémon using it did.
So for example, if Zapdos and a Pachirisu both used [Thunderbolt], the one that copied Zapdos' version would always be stronger since it was done in the exact same way, and the same applied for effects. If one Pokémon glowed green and another glowed purple, then [Sketch] would copy the move exactly down to every detail.
And that was important here since, if Noland's guess was right, if any of them saw Jirachi use a move, they could copy it in the exact same way, no exceptions.
"It's not a bad idea, and it's worth a shot, I guess," Brandon said, rubbing his chin and nodding, "Okay, let's try it."
Noland nodded, then looked over all the Smeargle and pulled out a small picture of Jirachi, "Everyone, did any of you see the move this Pokémon used?"
The Smeargle looked at each other and seemingly convened a council, but after a moment, three Smeargle raised their hands.
"Perfect. Now [Sketch] the move and use it!" Noland commanded.
The Smeargle nodded, and after a moment, they all in unison used [Wish], and the room began glowing with small stars fluttering around, making it look like a lightshow.
"Such a beautiful, elegant move...I've never met Jirachi, but if it uses this move, we should see a flash of light just like this one," Noland nodded.
Brandon rubbed his chin, "Alright, I'll head to the security room to get the security cameras to alert us if they see any light like that."
Just as they were about to get their battle plan ready, Anabel saw Scott over by the doorway wave at her, gesturing for her to follow him.
Anabel nodded, then looked at everyone, "Give me a moment. I need to go speak with Mr. Scott about something," she said as she ran off to talk with Scott about whatever he was going to tell her.
So while everyone else talked together, Anabel saw Scott walk out of the room, and the two walked together.
"So what's this about, Scott?" Anabel asked as she walked one step ahead of him.
But then a voice that wasn't Scott's rang out, one that she recognized.
"I think you can help me quite a lot."
Anabel's eyes widened as she quickly turned, recognizing that voice as Guile, but as she did, she only saw Guile swing down the blunt side of his sword. Then he hit her over the head, and her world began spinning as she tried to stay conscious.
But her body gave up, and she fell forward onto the ground, knocked out.
Meanwhile, Guile looked over her body and put his sword away. As for the Scott beside him, it just stood there until it finally faded away, because it was just an illusion.
Now he could kill Anabel here to make sure she didn't interfere with his plan, but maybe she could be useful, so he put that on the back burner.
Guile looked behind him to the room where the others were and narrowed his eye.
"So they think they can use the Smeargle to find Jirachi before me…"
He had to admit, it wasn't a bad idea, and maybe it would have worked. Too bad for them, he saw them talking about it.
—
{With Ashtwo}
D panted even though he wasn't actually tired. It was more out of habit, and across from him was Darkrai just staring at him.
And all across the room there were now a bunch of statues of him, except they weren't actually statues. You see, after D gave enough Aura to Deoxys, he decided to try and tame Darkrai the easy way. Unfortunately, Darkrai responded to his offer of peace by turning him to stone.
Thankfully, D was just a clone, so he had more attempts, but that led to more of the clone bodies getting turned into stone statues. But it looked like constantly turning things to stone was also starting to tire Darkrai out.
"Okay, did you get it out of your system yet, and are we gonna talk?" D said, looking at all the statues and sighing, wondering what he was gonna do with them after.
Darkrai, however, took another breath and straightened its back, ready to do it again, making D sigh.
"Figured. Then can I get a little help here?" he said as he noticed a certain sleepy Pokémon wake up.
Deoxys finally opened its eyes from its coma and immediately looked confused by the situation around it, but D looked back at it.
"I did heal you and catch you. You mind actually helping out?"
Deoxys blinked and looked at D, then at Darkrai, then back and forth a few times before shrugging, still confused. But hey, if this guy healed it, might as well help. It began floating again and flew next to D as it shifted over to Attack Forme.
D smiled and looked at Darkrai, "Alright, fine. Let's do this the hard way then."
—
Eventually, the break was over, and the announcer started introducing the trainers that were going to participate.
As the announcer spoke, the field began to change. Before, there were multiple small fields to get some quick battles out, but now the small stadiums were replaced with eight bigger fields where everyone could battle at the same time.
Everyone stepped out as the crowd cheered, and they all took their spots.
Ash stretched his arms over his head as he walked onto his field across from Brandon, Pikachu perched on his shoulder looking unusually serious while Vee took his usual spot inside Ash's bag, since there was actually a good chance they might get to fight in this one.
Brandon adjusted one of his gloves and gave Ash a small nod, "Guess we're doing this."
"Looks like it," Ash grinned.
Nearby, Gary stood across from Noland with his arms crossed while Green cracked her knuckles facing Greta.
"Oh, this is gonna be fun," Greta laughed.
"Don't cry when you lose," Green shot back instantly.
"I like her already," Greta smirked.
On another field, Wally nervously stepped into place across from Tucker, who dramatically spun before pointing at him.
"Young challenger! Let our souls clash in fiery brilliance!"
Wally nearly jumped, "O-Okay!"
Lucy, meanwhile, stepped onto her field across from Brock, only for Brock to wave awkwardly at her. Lucy immediately turned her head away before anyone could see the tiny blush appear on her face.
At the same time, Brendan stepped onto Anabel's battlefield and looked around, "…Uh."
The announcer's voice suddenly paused awkwardly, "It seems we are still waiting for one final competitor!"
The crowd murmured in confusion.
Brendan blinked and scratched his cheek, "Did...did she get lost?"
Tucker crossed his arms and looked around, "Should one of us go find her?" he said, getting his normal voice back for a bit, "I mean, I guess we can—"
But as he said that, something flashed in the corner of his eye, a flash of white sparkling light along the windows at the top of the Dome. He immediately recognized it as Jirachi's light.
But what he also saw was a figure in armor there too.
He immediately thought of one person. His eyes instantly darkened as he grabbed one of his Poké Balls and threw it out without even telling the others.
"Salamence!!!"
Salamence flew out of its Poké Ball and immediately shot upward, flying past the crowd before slamming out of a window and flying out of the Dome. Then, while everyone was trying to process what just happened, they saw Salamence burst through the Dome's metal ceiling like it was paper and throw something down.
It seemed like a suit of armor as it fell and slammed right into the center of the field, but Guile immediately started laughing, and slowly he began standing up like he hadn't just fallen almost a hundred feet.
Tucker grit his teeth and was about ready to command Salamence to hit him again, but he did remember that stupid sword and armor had that ability, so he instead looked toward his fellow Frontier Brains.
After the initial shock, they immediately all stood ready to throw out their Poké Balls too, but Guile's eyes turned to them as he raised what he was holding in his left hand, a Poké Ball.
But as they took a closer look, they saw something that made everyone's eyes widen, including the main gang's.
Inside the ball was Jirachi.
It was already captured.
Guile laughed again, "Jirachi is already mine! Hahahaha!"