As Tabitha and Amber clashed, Tabitha tried looking for an opportunity while also dodging one of the Volbeat's [Signal Beam], making him almost fall into the water.
But as the two kept dodging, and Amber did too, he got an idea, a smirk forming on his lips.
Tabitha immediately barked out a command, "Torkoal, use [Heat Wave]!"
Torkoal inhaled deeply before unleashing a massive blast of scorching heat across the area. The air warped violently as flames and burning wind exploded outward.
"Move!" Amber commanded.
The Volbeat scattered instantly while Amber dove to the side just before the attack tore across the submarine deck, leaving scorch marks everywhere.
Tabitha smirked, "Too slow."
Using the opening, he turned and bolted toward the submarine hatch.
"Get back here!" Amber shouted.
But Tabitha ignored him. Since he was much larger, he quickly shoved the hatch open and let Torkoal climb down first, placing the Blue Orb carefully onto Torkoal's shell and letting the turtle jump in first.
Then Tabitha started climbing down the ladder himself with a smug grin on his face, "Heh...as long as I stay in here, you can't touch me."
He reached up and slammed the hatch shut above him, locking it.
"Now then," Tabitha chuckled while climbing down, "good luck getting through—"
Suddenly arms wrapped around his neck from behind.
"What—?!"
Amber appeared out of nowhere and locked Tabitha into a chokehold while hanging onto the ladder with him, "Got you," Amber smirked.
Tabitha's eyes widened in shock as the two nearly slipped from the ladder during the struggle.
"H-how did you even get in here?!" Tabitha growled while trying to pry Amber's arms off him.
Amber just grinned, "You left the hatch open for Torkoal too long."
Tabitha snarled and slammed his elbow backward, but Amber held on tightly.
Below them, Torkoal looked up while the Blue Orb rested on its shell.
Tabitha suddenly laughed despite the situation, "Heh...you idiot. Even if you got in here, you still can't take the Orb."
Amber raised an eyebrow, "Oh?"
Tabitha smirked wider while gripping the ladder tightly, "If you try getting close, Torkoal will blast you with a [Flamethrower] immediately."
Torkoal growled in agreement.
"So go ahead," Tabitha sneered, "Try it."
But Amber only smirked back, "I don't need to."
Tabitha blinked, "What?"
Amber tilted his head slightly, "Volbeat," he called calmly, "Use [Trick]."
From outside the ship, one of Amber's Volbeats began glowing, and in the next instant, the Orb vanished from Torkoal's shell and was replaced with a random rock the Volbeat had been carrying.
The real Blue Orb appeared in the Volbeat's hands instead, right there outside the ship, and it began flying away with it.
Tabitha stared at it in disbelief, "What?!"
In his shock, his hand slipped off the ladder.
"AHHH!"
Tabitha fell downward toward the floor of the submarine, but Amber was still wrapped around him, still holding him down, "Haha, I did it, boss!"
Because outside, right about now, from the side where Team Aqua was before, Archie finally arrived, walking out calmly as Volbeat flew up to him to hand him the Blue Orb.
He smirked as he finally held it, "So this is the Blue Orb...and this beautiful glow has to be the power to control Kyogre."
Now that he had the Orb, he suddenly heard Amber call out, "Hey boss, can you help me out here like you promised? I can't hold onto this guy alone, he's too fat!"
"I'm not fat, I'm big-boned, you wannabe pirate!" Tabitha struggled against Amber, "Let me go!"
But Archie only smiled as he lowered the Orb and pulled out a small controller, "About that~" he pressed the button.
Suddenly the submarine's alarm went off inside, and the hatch locked as the submarine began going down.
"Thank you so much for all your hard work, Amber. Have a nice trip! Enjoy your deep-sea tour!" Archie said.
At that point Amber let go of Tabitha, and they both immediately rushed to the controls to try and stop this, but it was locked on autopilot, even when they both tried pulling the lever to stop it.
And Archie smirked and pulled out one more thing from his coat, "But you'll notice…" he pulled out the special core, "I took the liberty of removing the special core. I'm afraid the submarine might not be able to withstand the pressure anymore. I guess you'll find out," he sneered.
So the last thing Amber and Tabitha watched before they descended into the water was Archie smirking at them as the submarine took off. Their only hope now was that the submarine would reach the surface before the water pressure crushed them like a tin can.
Meanwhile, after the submarine was gone, Archie smiled and held the Blue Orb in both of his hands as it began glowing.
"Now that Maxie and I are on an equal playing field, we can finally settle the question of which one is stronger, Kyogre or Groudon, without anybody interfering!!"
He gave the command for Kyogre to finally start moving and not just sit in one place.
But at that moment, he heard footsteps coming from the tunnel. He turned and saw Maxie walking out with the Red Orb and all the Team Magma grunts behind him.
"Maxie, look what I have now~" Archie said mockingly.
Maxie looked annoyed, but he tried to hide it, "Hm. It was to be expected. I should have known better than to trust Tabitha. If only I had brought Courtney instead, she is more reliable and more expendable," he spoke, "But don't think this changes anything."
"Oh, I think it does." Archie kept holding the Orb with one hand as he snapped his fingers. Then from the tunnel all the Team Aqua members marched out, standing behind him, "Now we can play fair, and you'll lose."
Then Maxie adjusted his glasses slightly and spoke calmly, "You truly never change, Archie. Even at the end of the world, you still insist on acting like a child."
Archie barked out a laugh, "And you still talk too much."
Around them, the Team Aqua and Team Magma grunts slowly spread out, Pokémon being released one after another.
Then both leaders raised their free hands, "Attack!"
Pokémon charged forward from both sides as attacks lit up the underground cave like fireworks, both sides beginning to fight like crazy because to them this was apparently the final battle.
But meanwhile behind that rock from before, Zenith saw his chance. So when he saw this, he threw Audrey away from the grapple and started running full speed.
Audrey took half a second to recover, but then she realized what he was doing.
"You psycho!" she said as she also took off running to take this chance.
Neither Maxie nor Archie noticed at first because they were too focused on controlling the Orbs. No, actually that wasn't completely true. It was more like they couldn't notice each other, like they thought everything else around them disappeared.
Zenith reached Maxie first and Audrey reached Archie at almost the same moment. Both of them grabbed the Orbs with their bare hands, and immediately the cavern shook violently.
"GAH—!" Zenith's eyes widened as burning energy shot through his arm.
Audrey bit back a scream as freezing pressure surged into her body.
The Orbs reacted instantly as the red and blue light began shining even more violently, covering the entire cave with light.
Everyone nearby froze. Even the Pokémon stopped fighting for a moment.
"What are you DOING?!" Archie barked while trying to yank the Blue Orb back.
Audrey gritted her teeth, "Taking this from you!"
Maxie's glasses cracked slightly from the pressure around him as he looked down at Zenith gripping the Red Orb.
"You truly are insane," Maxie muttered.
Zenith laughed despite the pain, "Look who's talking!"
But then something changed, Archie suddenly smiled, but it wasn't his normal grin. It was too wide and toothy, like he was going insane, and Maxie got the same smile.
Zenith's confidence faltered immediately, "Wait," he muttered. He may be crazy, but he valued his own self-preservation more. Then he looked and saw something, and Audrey noticed it too.
Something was wrong with their hands. The Orbs were fusing into their hands. The red glow spread across Maxie's arm like veins while blue markings spread up Archie's arm the same way.
Audrey immediately tried pulling away, but the moment she moved, Archie's free hand shot forward and grabbed her by the throat.
"Ack—!"
At the same instant Maxie grabbed Zenith by the neck with unnatural speed.
The two leaders slowly turned their heads toward them, and their eyes no longer looked normal. Archie's pupils glowed deep blue and Maxie's glowed red, and they kept that same creepy smile.
"You wished to take the power of the gods…" Archie whispered calmly, but that wasn't the way he used to talk. He was speaking differently, and his tone was just wrong enough to be uncanny.
"Then witness it," Maxie finished.
Zenith struggled against Maxie's grip, "L-let go—!"
Audrey clawed at Archie's arm while choking, "Something's wrong with them!"
"What was your first guess?!" Zenith choked out.
Then suddenly the Key Stones on Maxie and Archie's bodies began to glow, and the Orbs began glowing too. It was just as Archie read before resonance. The cycle that had been set in motion can not be stopped.
The Orbs glowed brighter, then cracked, breaking into new forms. The Blue Orb now looked like it was made of pure sapphire and had an Alpha symbol on it, and the Red Orb looked like it was made of ruby and had an Omega symbol on it.
Once they had their new forms, Maxie and Archie began glowing again. This time they started floating. Yes, actually floating as they both kept smiling.
Then they looked up like they felt something calling for them, so without letting go of Zenith or Audrey they both covered themselves with red and blue energy respectively and flew upward, breaking through the cave's roof and shooting through the water while dragging those two with them.
They moved so fast they actually passed the submarine, but neither of them cared, and for a bit they were flying together, but eventually they both made a sharp turn going in separate directions.
Meanwhile back in the cave, the grunts were trying to process what just happened. Their bosses just left without them and broke the roof, so the cavern was starting to flood.
They quickly looked over to the submarine, but the submarine wasn't there. It was only now they realized that they were trapped here in a collapsing cave that was also sinking. They were going to die here.
As everyone started panicking and trying to think of something, suddenly something came through the hole in the roof of the cave and slammed down in the center.
When they got a good look, they all saw that it was a Swampert, and on its back was a boy.
It was Ash. He had to use Swampert to get all the way down here. Thankfully he made sure he was prepared for this, but now that he was here he looked around but didn't see any sign of Archie or Maxie.
And based on the looks of all the grunts here, he could piece together more or less what happened. They must have left, and based on the water flailing around it looked like he barely missed them, which was annoying.
He looked at his phone and just like he feared, no signal because of all the water over them, so he couldn't text the gang to warn them, and he couldn't use a teleporting Pokémon to get him out of here since, like he said before, teleporting through water, especially this much water, was like trying to teleport through lead. It wasn't happening.
But based on what he was seeing around him, all of the Team Aqua and Team Magma members were looking at him like maybe he might have a way to save all of them. Ash got an idea. These people were useful.
But first, Ash had to get one thing. He looked at all of them and narrowed his eyes, "You're all gonna tell me what I want to know and do what I say, and I'll consider helping you all get out of here alive."
They all immediately had no objections and all the grunts nodded quickly in unison. Good, that made things easier.
As for how he was gonna get them all out, well, he had Swampert, didn't he? He'd just need a little boost. He smiled as he reached into his bag and pulled out a small blue stone.
—
{Meanwhile in the Association Base in Ever Grande City}
In the main base, which was different from the one the Chairman was using, this one was much bigger.
Jaern had already decided to fly and get to the tower now, but while he offered Professor Yanase Berlitz the chance to come with him, she refused, saying she would only drag him down, and he agreed immediately and left.
That left Yanase alone, and she immediately ran to the lab and pulled something out of her coat pocket, a small green shard. It was a shard from the Green Orb. This piece had fallen off during the refinement process, and she kept it.
Then she started working on it, using the Association's equipment to try and develop something, a countermeasure for Jaern's plan.
But while she was working, you might be wondering why she even stayed this long.
Well originally, the Green Orb project was made as a counterpart to the Red and Blue Orbs to control Rayquaza in order to prevent any future disasters that would come about if Kyogre and Groudon were awakened again.
And this project was suggested by Jaern himself, the President of the Pokémon Association. He suggested this plan, and it impressed the House of Berlitz, her house, getting them to help fund the project.
At first it was just the sunk-cost fallacy. They had put in too much money to want to let this fail.
But then the incident of the Rayquaza capture mission happened, and everything that followed happened too.
Most of the researchers quit, and Yanase would have left with them, but even after all that Jaern had another trick up his sleeve. He had blackmail material on them, and for Yanase he told her that he knew where her niece Dawn was, and if she left he couldn't be blamed for what happened.
So she had to stay, and so did most of the other researchers. Some left, and they hadn't been heard from since.
But then the start of this year happened, and suddenly the researchers involved with the project were found dead.
One after another until Yanase was the last researcher standing from the original team, and Jaern told her if she wanted to stay safe, she would finish the Orb and he'd make sure both she and Dawn would always be safe.
Now obviously Yanase didn't believe him, but she had no choice except to pretend she did.
But even while helping him, she never fully accepted his plan, because while she recreated the Orb, she deliberately made it the same as the original: incomplete.
And since this time Jaern didn't have anyone to force to do this for him, he had to do it himself. He had already burned too many bridges.
Meanwhile Yanase worked as fast as she could, doing what she did best: creating a contingency plan for Jaern.
But while she was working on this, on the other side of the Association building, D was working his magic.
And by "working his magic," he meant beating up Pokémon Association guards, the ones up here nice and safe while all of Hoenn was sinking.
As far as D knew, until he got evidence otherwise, these security guards were just as responsible as the President. After all, being able to do something and doing nothing was worse than actively choosing to do something bad.
And he wasn't alone.
The original gang came with him. Enid, Jay, Helena, and Domino basically forced themselves to join the raid, and of course Orm, Oakley, and Annie tagged along too. Though Oakley and Annie joined because they thought this would be interesting, and Orm just joined because he saw everyone else joining.
D ducked under a baton swing before slamming the guard face-first into the wall with a Muk punch hard enough to crack the plaster.
"Night night," Domino chimed cheerfully as she casually twirled her black staff and zapped another guard trying to sneak up behind D. The man twitched once and collapsed onto the floor, smoking slightly.
Jay whistled, "Bro, remind me never to piss you off."
"You already do that daily," Helena muttered quietly while standing near the back.
One of the Association guards suddenly screamed as purple shadows wrapped around his legs.
"H-HEY WHAT IS THIS?!" he panicked.
Helena slowly raised her hand and pointed down as the shadow grabbed him and slammed him into the ground, knocking him out.
Jay and Todd the Meowth blinked owlishly at her, "Since when can you do that?"
Helena immediately shrank slightly under the attention, "W-well, D started practicing, so I thought I should start practicing too," Helena said quickly, as Stephen the Haunter slowly pushed his head out from the ground giving Helena a knowing look, making her quickly stomp on him and shove him back underground.
Meanwhile Enid kicked open another door dramatically.
"Nobody move!" she announced while pointing forward heroically, "The protagonist has arrived!"
The room was completely empty.
Enid blinked as she cleared her throat and tried to act serious, "H-ha, I guess they all already fled."
Orm nodded and clapped for her as he held a guard under his arm.
Oakley meanwhile was peeking through scattered papers on a desk while Annie leaned halfway over her shoulder.
"Hm," Oakley muttered, "There's definitely weird stuff happening here."
"That's because we're literally invading the Pokémon Association," D deadpanned while walking past them.
"No no," Annie grinned while nudging Oakley, "She means weird even for that."
D paused slightly. That actually got his attention. He walked back and looked at it with them.
"What did you find?" he asked, not surprised the sisters found something. They were experts at this kind of thing.
Oakley held up a file, "Transfer orders. Massive resource movement toward the upper tower labs."
Annie grabbed another folder, "And a bunch of emergency lockdown codes."
Jay scratched the back of his head, "Okay but like...why would they move resources UP during a disaster?"
D nodded as he rubbed his chin through the mask, not that it really mattered. Then he started moving again.
"Wait up bro!" Jay shouted while running after him.
The others followed quickly as alarm lights flashed across the halls around them, but then a speaker above them started blaring.
"Warning. Intruders leave immediately and—"
But it didn't even get to finish as Domino threw one of her Black Tulips at it, short-circuiting the speaker and alarms for that area.
"Wow," Domino hummed while tossing one of her black tulips upward and catching it again, "This place is really falling apart huh."
"That tends to happen when corrupt organizations run things," Enid said confidently while dramatically pointing ahead, "Corruption always collapses beneath the weight of justice."
Jay looked at her, "…Did you rehearse that?"
"Yes."
"You know what? I respect the honesty." Jay genuinely clapped for her.
Meanwhile several more guards rounded the hallway corner ahead of them alongside multiple Pokémon.
"Mightyena!"
"Golbat!"
"Ariados!"
But this time from Helena's shadow something came out and jumped the three Pokémon before they could attack. A Banette appeared and grabbed the Pokémon, throwing them back into their so-called trainers.
D looked at the Banette for a moment while everyone else quickly beat the guards while they were down, "Isn't that the Shuppet I gave you before?"
Helena immediately got a sheepish look, "Ah, yeah. I trained her a lot. I didn't get to show you back then because of...I'm sorry."
"Don't be. It's fine, really," D waved her off as everyone finished with the guards.
Banette floated back over toward Helena proudly while she awkwardly patted its head as the others walked back.
"Banette~" Annie grinned while crouching in front of it, "You wanna help me prank people later?"
Banette tilted its head like it was genuinely considering it.
"Please do not encourage the ghost Pokémon," Oakley sighed while adjusting the papers in her hands.
"But it likes me," Annie defended proudly.
D ignored the chaos and looked farther down the hallway. The deeper levels of the Association tower looked almost abandoned now. Emergency lights flashed red across the walls while distant alarms echoed through the building.
But then another automated announcement suddenly played through nearby speakers.
"Warning. Upper laboratory access restricted to authorized personnel only. All remaining staff are ordered to evacuate immedia-"
BZTT.
Domino casually stabbed her staff upward into the speaker as electricity burst from the tip. The speaker exploded with sparks.
"Oops," Domino smiled sweetly, "My hand slipped."
Jay snorted, "You say that every time."
"Because it keeps happening."
D crossed his arms, "Focus. We don't have a lot of time here. We need to find the Association's main computer and I can get everything we need."
D started walking again, and the others followed behind him
As they moved farther into the tower, the halls became cleaner, quieter, and way more expensive-looking.
And while they did that they also notice that it went from less guards and security, to non at all, while the walls became almost pure white
And on top of that, the entire atmosphere just seemed to get creepier overall, and that was coming from them, you know the ones from Team Rocket, so yeah that should tell you a lot, and everyone else also seemed interested or put off in there own ways by this
Oakley narrowed her eyes slightly, "This area's different."
Annie peeked around curiously, "Ooooh, rich people evil."
Domino tapped the wall with her staff, "Definitely rich people evil."
Helena hugged Banette slightly closer, "I don't like this floor…"
D glanced toward her, "Why?"
She hesitated for a second before quietly answering, "Too quiet."
As she said that, they walked deeper in and heard a click. From the walls, what looked like missile launchers slid out and aimed directly at them.
"Ah...so this is how this day is gonna go...no, that makes sense…" Jay sighed.
The missiles fired, but D raised his hand and his Muk burst out from his sleeve, spreading its massive sludge body wide enough to block the blasts. Explosions rocked the hallway as energy slammed into Muk's body.
But by the end, he was fine and slipped back into D's sleeve, and they kept walking.
But Annie looked at the missile launchers on the wall and noticed something, "Huh," she muttered.
Oakley walked over too, "What?"
Annie pointed inside the machine, "These aren't normal security systems."
Enid glanced over, "Meaning?"
"These are military-grade combat systems," she said quietly, "The Pokémon Association shouldn't legally have this level of weaponry."
Oakley looked over and pulled one of the launchers off the wall to inspect it, "Not black market either," she muttered, "This stuff is official production."
Jay scratched the back of his head, "Bro...why does the Pokémon Association have actual war machines?"
"Because rich people are crazy," Domino answered immediately while twirling her staff over her shoulder.
"That is not a real answer," Oakley sighed.
"Not wrong though," Annie nodded.
D ignored them and kept walking.
The deeper they moved into the upper tower, the stranger everything became, because there was less security, like someone conveniently forgot to add cameras here.
When they got near the end, Jay finally muttered, "This feels like a final dungeon."
Enid pointed at him immediately, "I WAS THINKING THAT."
"Oh no, please don't tell me Enid's thing is contagious," Helena whispered.
But as they were about to start bickering about this, D raised his hand to stop them.
"What?" Domino asked.
D slowly looked toward a large set of doors farther ahead. Unlike everything else in the tower, these doors were matte black with glowing blue lines running across the edges.
"That's the main lab," D said, looking back at them.
Oakley got serious and walked next to D, looking at it, "Looks like it's locked by a biometric lock."
"There is also a keycard and password input," D pointed out.
"Ah, I didn't even notice. Can you tell from here?" Oakley muttered, "It might be a problem to get into. Do you have a way to get in?"
"I can get in no problem," D said, "And in there should be the main system. Once I get that, we can leave."
"Ah, of course. I didn't think of that," Oakley nodded.
Annie immediately grinned and pointed at Oakley, "See? They're literally made for each other."
Oakley's face instantly turned red, "W-WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?!"
"It means mysterious hacker boy plus genius tech girl," Annie said while counting on her fingers, "Enemies of corrupt society. Forced proximity. Shared computer screens. Tension."
Domino immediately pointed at Annie, "No."
"Absolutely not." Jay said
"No!" Enid and Helena immediately said in unison.
"THANK YOU," Oakley said in relief.
Annie looked betrayed, "Orm, back me up."
Orm looked between D and Oakley for a few seconds, then shrugged.
"SEE? ORM'S GOT THE VISION," Annie said excitedly, but everyone looked away from her, making her deflate.
D walked to the door and put a hand on it. Then he reached down with Muk, and it slithered under the door and inside. When it got to the other side, it opened the door for D, letting him go in.
"I'll stay here and break into the network." Then he looked back at them, "The rest of you can either cover me or search the upper floors. I don't care."
Oakley looked around the hall, "There are probably hidden labs nearby too. If this is the central floor, there's no way everything important is stored in one room."
Annie immediately grabbed Oakley by the shoulders, "OR you could stay here with D."
Oakley nearly died on the spot, "ANNIE."
"What?!" Annie defended proudly, "You're both computer nerds! You could dramatically type together!"
"We are NOT dramatically typing together!" she exclaimed.
Meanwhile, Helena quietly looked toward D, "…Are you sure you'll be okay here alone?"
"I'll be fine, as long as you all cover me too," D nodded as he went inside, leaving the others to banter.
When he got in, he immediately found the main computer, and he walked up to it and let Porygon enter it to find what he wanted. It would take a bit since this was the biggest system he'd ever asked Porygon to get into.
Now just to clarify, Team Rocket's system wasn't as big, it was just better encrypted, so it shouldn't take more than like 10 minutes.
But as he was thinking and waiting, he heard the sound of something falling to the floor.
D slowly looked back, and there on the floor, holding a beaker, was an older woman that looked a lot like a certain blue-haired girl he knew: Professor Yanase Berlitz.
And for a moment, they both just stood there looking at each other.