"What's the space-time rift?" Nemona seemed intrigued by Sada's words.
"We have to get out of here," she replied, not eager to tell the truth. "It isn't safe." She shook her head slightly as if trying to fight something.
A little irritated, Nemona stuck out her hip. "What isn't safe? Why won't you answer me, Professor?"
Sada didn't want her to feel like she was ghosting her, so she explained, "Because now's not a good time. We have to leave." She hoped Nemona wouldn't try to pry her again; she was already tired of children (not just teenagers).
Penny pushed Scarlet, Arven, and Nemona forward and said, "You heard her. Move. Let's see if we can find a cave somewhere."
There weren't any caves in the Tagtree Thicket, though. Sada knew that. She held her Terastallized hand out to Arven and shouted, "Wait, help me! I can't stand!" Fear, instead of electricity, coursed through her wires.
Arven screeched to a stop. "Oh, whoops." He returned to Sada and grabbed her hands. "One, two, three."
"Ow!" she yelled. She slipped out of Arven's arms and tumbled to the ground again. Sada kicked her legs and barked, "Work!" at them. She gasped when the infrared sky pulsed. What had she done? Why could Miraidon control his power but not her?
After a third failed attempt to stand, Sada finally waved her right hand and told Arven, "Just leave me. I've frustrated you guys enough."
"No way!" Arven snapped. "Not when you're injured!"
"Please." Sada latched onto his shirt collar and pulled him close. "Y'all have to get out of here before they come. I'm only putting you in more danger."
Arven grasped her hands again. "Who's coming?"
Sada jiggled his shirt. "The Future Pokémon."
The second she mentioned "Future Pokémon," a large, four-legged figure plopped down before her and Arven, seemingly out of nowhere.
It threw its red-patterned trunk off its robotic-like face and glared at the two with its red eyes. Its mechanical body shimmered under the broken sky.
Arven switched from Sada's hands up to her shoulders. He leaned into her ear and questioned, "Let me guess, that's a Future Pokémon?"
Sada nodded. "Uh-huh. They came here from the future through the space-time rift." Gosh, she should have never gone there!
Arven chuckled nervously and saluted at the Pokémon. "Ta-Take it easy, bro. We were just leaving." He dragged Sada away from it and turned her over to his friends.
Nemona fixed her eyes on the Pokémon. "Whoa, what is that thing? It looks sick!"
Sada released herself from her and the others and freed the Violet Book from her coat pocket. She flipped through it and stopped on a page with a black-and-white drawing of the mysterious Pokémon. Sada ran her index finger over the picture's label. "Its name is Iron Treads. It's the Future Form of Donphan, the Armor Pokémon."
Arven stumbled back a step like he was shocked about something, but he held his arms out to his sides to catch his balance. "Let's get out of here," he calmly stated.
Penny piped up. "Um, Arven? I don't think these Pokémon will let us go just like that. Look." She shakily pointed in all compass directions.
Dang it! Sada thought.
One at a time, Future Pokémon dropped out of the rift in space—until there was a whole army of them—and surrounded the party. They included Iron Moth, Iron Treads, and other creatures that resembled Hariyama, Gallade, Tyranitar, and Hydreigon. All were robotic-like, and all had an infrared tint to their bodies.
"Hee, hee," Penny sarcastically chuckled. "We're all gonna die." She and her friends caved in on one another, and their backs touched.
Celebi extended its barrier, creating a bubble-shaped shield around them, but Miraidon and Koraidon remained on its outer layer.
Miraidon tightened his V-shaped arms, and Koraidon stamped his hind feet.
Sada closed her eyes. She made another attempt to stand, and while she managed to, her crystallized legs wiggled under her, and she locked her knees.
She remembered Arven's words: "To be brave is something you learn over time."
Sada opened her eyes. "We have no choice." She drew Roaring Moon's pokéball. "We have to fight. Get your strongest Pokémon. Or, your second strongest, in the case of you, Nemona."
Nemona gulped, but she plucked a pokéball off her belt. She remained quiet while her friends released their Pokémon: Scarlet Skeledirge, Arven Mabosstiff, Penny Sylveon, and Sada Roaring Moon.
The four Pokémon appeared on the other side of Celebi's barrier, alongside Koraidon and Miraidon, and unleashed their battle cries.
Sada looked over her shoulder at Nemona, who had yet to toss her pokéball. "What's the holdup, Nemona?" She thought Nemona loved to battle.
"I-I—" Nemona studied the red and white ball in her palm.
Sada could almost feel her hand shaking under her glove.
Eventually, Nemona said, "I can't, Professor. My Meowscarada." She ducked and covered her neck when a Pokémon attack sailed over Celebi's barrier. It took out a whole line of trees in the thicket, and they all fell like dominos.
Sada knew Nemona wanted to help her friends, but she also knew that—similar to the earthquake—Meowscarada's brutal loss had traumatized her.
Nemona clipped her pokéball to her belt and said, "I'm not battling."
Sada opened her mouth, but another Pokémon attack crashing into Celebi's shield stopped her from speaking. It broke into tiny, green puzzle pieces that became lost in the army of Future Pokémon.
Koraidon and Miraidon hopped in front of the group, and Mabosstiff, Roaring Moon, Skeledirge, and Sylveon mimicked. A new barrier surrounded Sada and her group now.
Penny rubbed the sweat from her brow and studied the enemy. "There're too many of them. We're outnumbered."
There was only one way out, and Sada knew what it was. She nodded at Celebi, and it returned her gesture.
"Bi!" Celebi's eyes glowed up. Using its psychic powers, it picked up the Pokémon and their trainers. Celebi tossed them toward the closing space-time rift and yelled, "Bi! Bi!" at Roaring Moon, Koraidon, and Miraidon.
Penny, Scarlet, and Arven recalled their Pokémon, but Sada kept Roaring Moon out. After all, he had wings, and she needed them. She grabbed his back scales and tossed herself onto him. Sada hugged his rough skin with her legs and said, "Get on Koraidon and Miraidon!" at Arven and his friends.
The Legendaries changed into their mobility forms and brought out their gliders. They knocked an Iron Moth, who chased them, out of the sky, only to see a rabble of them still coming.
Sada saw Koraidon nod at Miraidon.
He cracked a smile when he nodded back.
A pinch of excitement overtook the excruciating pain in Sada's arm. She wondered if Miraidon finally liked Koraidon. She snapped out of her trance at the sight of Scarlet hopping onto Koraidon.
Penny and Nemona got on Miraidon, and Arven joined Sada on Roaring Moon.
He peeked back at the rabble of Iron Moths closing in on them and groaned. "There're so many Iron Moths."
"I'm sorry, Arven," Sada whispered—quiet enough for him not to hear. "This is all my fault."
The crack in the sky was now only half the length of what it was before. Future Pokémon stopped dropping from it, and the sky's infrared tone started to subside. Nevertheless, a bundle of cumulonimbus clouds replaced it. Lighting flashed, and a clap of thunder shook the troposphere. A band of rain crept up on Sada and her party.
Penny glimpsed at Celebi. "Celebi, be quick. Sada can't get wet!"
Oh dear, Sada did not want to shorten out again. There was no way she would be able to control her power if she did.
A drop of rain fell onto her right hand, and a spark popped up from it.
Sada slipped it into her pocket. "Celebi, hurry."
They were almost at the space-time rift but halted when an Iron Moth left the rabble and blocked their path. It tapped its fangs and stared hungrily at Sada's left arm.
"Bastard," she muttered. There was no doubt that was the Iron Moth Turo sent after her. Sada would've attacked it, but all Roaring Moon knew was Flamethrower and three physical attacks: Earthquake, Night Slash, and Stone Edge. Flamethrower would do nothing to Iron Moth, and physical attacks were too dangerous because Roaring Moon carried her and Arven.
Another drop of rain fell.
Scarlet soon moved her hands to her belt and searched her pokéballs. She took one off and chucked it at the perfect angle. "Go, Staraptor!"
"What's her plan?" Sada asked in her head.
The Pokémon that emerged from Scarlet's pokéball was large and bird-like. It had gray, black, and white feathers, a crest on top of its head—it hovered over its right eye—and orange feet with sword-like talons.
"Fly back!" Scarlet called.
"Seriously, what's her plan?" Sada asked again, obeying. And then, it hit.
Scarlet freed her own Tera Orb from her pocket. She held it over her head. At her command, the familiar, crystalline energy sucked itself into it, but unlike Sada's Tera Orb, it did not backfire.
Scarlet threw it at Staraptor. The second the Tera Orb hit it, it glowed up, and a blue, crystalline chandelier that looked like a crown appeared around its head.
"That's a Water-type Tera Power," Sada observed. "Dang, Arven, that Scarlet is one smart cookie."
"Wait, Mom, are you surprised?" Arven held his hand over Sada's head like an umbrella.
"Wait, am I?" What was surprise supposed to feel like? Jumpy, maybe? Sada was a little, but that may have been because the rain started to pick up.
Scarlet held her hand out to Staraptor and ordered, "Staraptor, use Tera Blast!"
"Raptor!" Staraptor roared. Energy poured out of the crystals on its head. A cyan wave emerged, and Staraptor launched it at the Iron Moth.
It screeched when it hit it. Its entire body sizzled under the attack, like chorizos on a grill, and it plummeted for the Earth below, clearing the path to the space-time rift.
"Now!" Scarlet shouted.
Sada could not speak, blink, or even pay attention to her sparking body because she stared at Scarlet. She wasn't programmed to feel surprise, so what was going on? Was what she felt... dread? No, it couldn't have been. It must have been... It must have been... But how?
Sada was so lost in her thoughts that Arven took over for her. "Go, Roaring Moon! We need to get out of here."
Celebi led the way. One more time, its eyes glowed, and it announced, "Ribabi!"
The Iron Moths and blankets of rain folded in on the group. The Iron Moths screeched, and the rain fell harder.
Arven grabbed Sada's shoulder. "Celebi!" he screamed.
"Ribabi!" it announced again, and just like that, it tossed itself, Staraptor, and the rest of Sada's team into the space-time rift.
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End of Act II: The Past
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