Giovanni's army of mechanical Pokémon, two Deoxys with strength rivaling Mewtwo, and Cyrus, who had brought Dialga and Palkia to join the fray...
For any player, this situation would be nothing short of a dead end.
Giovanni and Cyrus stood leisurely in place, both wearing faint, confident smiles as they gazed at the lone young man standing amidst the ruins of the city.
Caleb remained calm, his expression unchanged despite being cornered. On the surface, he appeared to be deep in thought, but in reality, he was checking his inventory.
Ever since Cyrus appeared, Caleb noticed that a certain item in the corner of his inventory, which had always been dim, was now emitting a faint glow...
- Red Chain (Damaged): A mythical artifact said to be connected to the legendary Pokémon that shaped the Sinnoh region. Effects unknown. Can be taken out of the Instance...
This item, which he had obtained in a previous Instance, had now undergone a strange transformation.
[Red Chain (Damaged): A mythical artifact said to be connected to the legendary Pokémon that shaped the Sinnoh region. Can temporarily control either Dialga or Palkia for 30 minutes. Will break after one use.]
Caleb narrowed his eyes slightly and lifted his head imperceptibly, glancing at Cyrus, who stood between Dialga and Palkia, completely unguarded.
Seeing the young man across from him finally raise his head, Giovanni raised an eyebrow and asked, "Have you made your decision?"
Caleb deliberately furrowed his brows, putting on a grave expression, "Fine. I accept."
Hearing this, Giovanni's lips curled into a smirk. With a light wave of his hand, the mechanical Pokémon surrounding them retreated like a tide, clearing a space to serve as a battlefield.
"The battlefield is all of Vermilion City. The rules are simple... the match only ends when all of one side's Pokémon are defeated." Giovanni adjusted his suit as he spoke in a relaxed tone.
Caleb nodded to show his understanding, his gaze sweeping over Palkia behind Cyrus before taking two steps back.
"Then... let's begin!" Giovanni grinned and tossed a black Poké Ball emblazoned with Team Rocket's emblem into the air.
With a flash of white light, a sharp-eyed Beedrill with gleaming, deadly stingers appeared before Giovanni.
In an ordinary world Scenario, Caleb might have had the patience to battle Giovanni seriously.
But...
The Resistance members suspended above were all badly injured, especially Nozomi. Her face was pale, and blood dripped steadily from her gunshot wound. If this dragged on any longer, she would likely die from blood loss.
Steeling himself, he slowly reached into his 'pocket' for a Poké Ball while simultaneously activating the Red Chain that had been glowing in his inventory, attempting to establish a connection with Palkia.
Seeing the word [Success] flash on his interface, Caleb didn't hesitate to issue the command, "Spacial Rend!"
"Nani?!" Cyrus, who had been ready to enjoy the show, froze at the sudden command.
Giovanni's pupils contracted sharply, and a terrible premonition surged in his heart.
Instinctively, he reacted... the two Deoxys nearby Teleported to his side at lightning speed and whisked him away.
Cyrus, however, realized too late that something was wrong. He whirled around just in time to see Palkia's violet form glaring at him with murderous intent.
A terrifying surge of purple energy gathered in its maw, carrying a force that seemed capable of tearing space itself apart... and it was hurtling straight toward him.
Palkia retained memories of being controlled. It knew exactly what it had been forced to do. Thus, this attack was fueled by its full unrestrained fury.
There was no way Cyrus could dodge.
He didn't even have time to command Dialga, who was still under his control, to react before Spacial Rend ripped through him, reducing him to nothing.
"Mewtwo!" Caleb shouted.
Mewtwo didn't need words. It acted on instinct. Its eyes flashed blue, and its body vanished from the ground, reappearing high in the sky.
A terrifying wave of psychic energy erupted from it, spreading outward in all directions.
The mechanical Pokémon hovering over Vermilion City instantly lost control. One after another, row after row, from the inside out, they exploded into a sea of flames.
Having completed its task, Mewtwo vanished without a trace, reappearing beside the captured Resistance members and Teleporting them to safety.
Watching Mewtwo leave, Caleb finally let out a sigh of relief...
The moment he saw the Red Chain, this plan had formed in his mind: Catch Cyrus and Giovanni off guard, use Palkia to ambush them, then have Mewtwo rescue Reika and the others.
As for himself... he still had one last Escape Rope.
With Cyrus dead, Dialga was freed from control. The two enraged Temporal and Spatial deities rose into the air, their eyes burning crimson as they glared coldly at Giovanni in the distance.
At this point, it was impossible for Giovanni not to realize what had happened.
"Damn it!" Furious, he shot a venomous look at the composed young man below before activating this era's most powerful orbital weapon...
RK50: The Starfall Cannon...
"None of you are leaving here alive today!" Giovanni snarled.
His words were met with Roar of Time and Spacial Rend from Dialga and Palkia.
But with Deoxys at his side, Giovanni was instantly pulled back nearly a hundred meters.
He took one last look at Vermilion City before vanishing without hesitation.
Then, a blinding white light erupted from the sky. The air temperature skyrocketed.
In the next second, the entire city was engulfed by an enormous, milky-white sphere of energy.
Mewtwo, having Teleported to safety, suddenly sensed something amiss. It looked up just in time to see the brilliant flash of light on the horizon.
Frowning, it disappeared once more, returning to the skies above Vermilion City. But all that awaited it was a massive, endless crater.
The entire city had been reduced to nothingness within that sphere, leaving only scorched earth billowing with white smoke...
....
"Hey! Wake up! Are you okay?"
"Pikapi! Pikachu!"
Caleb faintly felt someone place a hand in front of his nose, as if checking for breath.
He opened his eyes to see a boy around seventeen or eighteen years old wearing a red-and-white baseball cap, looking at him with concern.
A Pikachu perched on the boy's shoulder, while a Greninja and a tall, muscular Dragonite stood on either side of him.
Caleb snapped awake instantly, pushing himself up, only to realize he was floating and weightless in a void.
Perhaps his stunned expression was too obvious, because the boy in front of him spoke up, "This is Dialga's temporal dimension..."