Under the relentless pressure, the trainers trapped in the river and the sky were forced into a frantic, all-or-nothing struggle—scrambling to fend off hundreds of Deoxys "splits" in utter chaos.
Then they made a crucial discovery.
For all their numbers, these split bodies were extremely fragile. A single solid hit was often enough to shatter one into a smear of fading shadows. That realization spread through the crowd like oxygen. People who had been seconds away from breaking finally drew a steadying breath, and the suffocating fear eased—just a little.
Thank goodness it worked like this. If every single one of those bodies carried the same combat power as the original, there would be no "fight" at all—only a slaughter. They would have been better off turning around and fleeing immediately. Now it was clear the technique had a trade-off: terrifying presence and overwhelming coverage, paid for with brittleness.
Even so, the battlefield only grew hotter.
Ash, Rafe, and Sid were caught right in the middle of it. And despite Ash being close to Natsui, there was no such thing as special treatment. Natsui had only recently obtained Deoxys; it didn't recognize Ash, and it certainly wasn't going to hesitate on his behalf. More importantly, it had clear orders: drag Rayquaza toward the trainers and grind down their momentum. Unless Natsui explicitly told it to spare someone, Deoxys would treat every trainer in front of it the same—friend or stranger.
Still, Deoxys wasn't attacking with killing intent. It was controlling the situation, not trying to end lives. That restraint—whether deliberate or simply confidence—left the trainers just enough space to maneuver.
Ash and the others released their Pokémon and fought back while pushing hard for the shore. Everyone understood the same thing: fighting in the middle of a river was a disaster. The longer they stayed in the water, the more helpless they became.
But the "splits" weren't even the worst threat.
The real danger was the collateral damage from the battle between Rayquaza and the wild Deoxys. Their attacks weren't aimed at the trainers, but the shockwaves didn't care. High-powered blasts erupted in the river at random, battering Water-types like toys. Above, Rayquaza's massive serpentine body tore through the air like a runaway engine, smashing Flying-types out of the sky one after another.
Between the shockwaves, the panic, and the split bodies that ignored Rayquaza and focused on punishing the trainers, the scene collapsed into pure bedlam.
And yet—despite everything—most of them refused to back down.
To ordinary trainers, seeing a legendary Pokémon with their own eyes was a once-in-a-lifetime miracle. Even if the odds of catching one were essentially nonexistent, that tiny "what if" was enough to erase fear and replace it with obsession. People fell into the freezing river. Their Pokémon were knocked out one by one. They kept charging anyway, eyes locked on Rayquaza and the two alien figures as if nothing else mattered.
In the midst of that madness, Ash's small group clawed forward and became the first to reach the far bank.
"Finally…" Sid jumped down from Blastoise and wrung water out of his shirt, breathing hard. He glanced back at the chaos over the river and shuddered. "If we'd stayed out there fighting those things while Rayquaza was throwing attacks around, we would've been nothing but moving targets."
"Those aren't really 'clones,'" Rafe said. True to his reputation, he had already analyzed the pattern in the short time they had been engaged. "Calling them splits is closer. They're independent, they move freely, and they have real mass—enough to hit with melee strikes."
"Splits, clones—whatever," Sid muttered, still tense. "There are too many. That's the problem."
He wasn't wrong. You could knock them down one at a time, but it didn't change the fact that the sky was still crawling with them. If they wanted any chance of approaching the legends, they had to clear a path. But clearing a path meant fighting a swarm that could replenish at any moment.
A stalemate.
"You're right," Rafe admitted after a brief silence, clearly displeased to say it out loud. "We need to deal with the split bodies first. Only then do we get an opening."
And in his heart, he knew the brutal truth: breaking this deadlock required a Pokémon on their level. Something that could carve through that pressure. None of them had it—Ash, Sid, or himself.
"Quit thinking like that!" Ash said, grinning as if the situation were merely exciting. "We made it to shore, didn't we? That's step one. If we keep moving, we'll find a way!"
Sid's fear didn't disappear, but Ash's stubborn optimism still hit like a jolt of electricity. "Exactly! Why overcomplicate it? We go all in and force it!"
Rafe looked between them, then nodded once. "Fine. For now… we cooperate."
Rivals or not, they had just formed a temporary alliance against an enemy far beyond normal standards.
Deep in the forest, Natsui watched and felt a headache forming.
He had expected the fear to break them. Instead, it only fueled them. The more danger they tasted, the more determined they became—especially Ash, who was now standing at the edge of the woods like he belonged there.
Natsui exhaled slowly. Why couldn't Ash stay back and help Tory work through his trauma? Why did he always have to run toward chaos like it was a festival?
Fine.
If they refused to leave, then he would make sure they understood what they were truly dealing with.
His eyes sharpened. Through the mental link, Natsui sent a new command to his Deoxys.
Show them what real power looks like.
"Pikachu, Thunderbolt! Corphish, Bubble Beam!"
"Blaziken, Flamethrower! Quagsire, Water Gun!"
"Blastoise, Hydro Pump! Magneton, Thunder Shock!"
Ash, Rafe, and Sid stood in the clearing at the forest's edge, firing coordinated attacks into the air. Under their combined pressure, split bodies shattered and dissolved one after another.
In seconds, they had erased more than a dozen. It barely dented the overall swarm—but it did clear a small patch of sky, making their immediate surroundings safer.
Then something blurred.
A Deoxys dropped straight down and stopped in front of them, hovering barely a meter above the ground.
Its coloration was different from the dark split bodies. This wasn't a fragment.
This was the real thing.
"What—!?" Sid froze. He was closest, and the shock hit him first.
Deoxys didn't appear to move. Yet in the next instant, Blastoise was hurled backward by an invisible force. It whipped past Sid's shoulder and slammed into a thick tree behind him.
THUD!
The trunk shattered. Blastoise smashed through another, and another, before finally grinding to a stop. Its shell took the worst of it; after a few agonizing seconds, it managed to push itself upright again, trembling.
"How… how did it get here that fast?" Sid's voice came out tight and hoarse.
Ash barely had time to react before Pikachu was struck by the same unseen force and sent crashing into a tree.
"Pikachu!!"
Ash's breath caught. Pikachu slid down and collapsed at the base of the trunk.
"Move!" Rafe snapped, reacting faster than either of them. He yanked a Poké Ball free and barked, "This is it. If we're going to do anything, we do it now! Everyone together!"
Ash and Sid understood immediately. They didn't even pause to check their partners' injuries. They released Pokémon in a rapid burst—flash after flash of blue light—until Deoxys stood surrounded by more than a dozen.
Up close, the pressure was suffocating.
Deoxys made short, distorted sounds—like signals, not speech. Its face was metallic and unreadable. No anger, no excitement, no hesitation. Just cold, alien indifference.
"Attack!" Sid roared.
His Pokémon rushed in.
Deoxys lifted both arms.
A surge of force erupted outward—and every single Pokémon that had charged was blown back as if they'd hit a wall.
Sid's face drained of color. "That's… that's not normal."
Ash and Rafe struck from the sides.
"Swellow, Wing Attack! Snorunt, Icy Wind!"
The attacks slammed into Deoxys's barrier—and did nothing. Not even a crack.
Rafe's Pokémon hit next, only to be swatted away by a counterforce that slammed them into the ground.
Rafe's eyes widened. He had expected a gap. He hadn't expected a cliff.
Is this… really something a human can catch?
Then a yellow blur flashed through the clearing.
Pikachu.
Even injured, it sprinted on all fours like a bolt of lightning. It launched upward, tail shining with metallic sheen, and swung down—
Iron Tail.
To Rafe's horror—and amazement—the strike shattered the barrier.
His brain stalled for half a second.
That Pikachu can do that? Then why did it look so helpless in the Battle Tower?
There was no time to think. The shield was only down for a heartbeat. Pikachu was instantly hurled away by psychic force—but it had created an opening.
Rafe snapped out of it and screamed, "NOW! Everything you've got!"
His Pokémon—battered, shaken, still breathing—forced themselves upright and unleashed their strongest moves at once.
Half a dozen attacks converged.
BOOM!
The explosion swallowed Deoxys in thick smoke.
"It worked!" Rafe's face lit up—pure instinctive relief.
Then the smoke began to peel away.
Deoxys was still there.
But its body had changed—bulkier, heavier, like it was wrapped in armor.
Defense Form.
Unscathed.
Not a scratch.
Rafe's smile froze in place. His blood turned to ice.
That had been a coordinated full-power volley. It should have left damage on anything. Anything.
And yet Deoxys hovered calmly, as if they'd thrown dust at it.
"What kind of monster…?" Sid whispered.
As if to answer, Deoxys shifted again—back from its armored state to its original form. Its posture changed subtly. The air itself seemed to tighten.
Rafe's skin prickled. "Dodge—!"
Too late.
A beam of black light detonated across the clearing. The earth tore apart. Trees flashed into ash. Pokémon from all three teams were swallowed by the blast—
And when the light died, every single one of their Pokémon had been knocked out.
Two actions.
That was all it took.
"You—monster!!" Sid snapped, voice cracking under the weight of helpless fury. In desperation, he threw a Poké Ball straight at Deoxys.
Rafe understood the gamble instantly. Sid knew they couldn't win—so he was betting everything on the only remaining option.
The ball hit.
Clack.
It bounced off Deoxys's body and dropped to the ground like it had struck a stone wall—no flash, no activation, no response at all.
"Huh!?" Ash and Sid stared, stunned. "The ball didn't even—"
Only Rafe's face changed differently.
He went still, and then the fear hit him fully.
A Poké Ball didn't behave like that unless something was fundamentally wrong.
And there was only one explanation that made sense.
"RUN!" Rafe screamed, voice splitting with terror. "That Deoxys has already been captured—It has a Trainer! A master is controlling it!"
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