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Afternoon,

The next day

Strong winds raged through the entire town.

Ash and his friends had just climbed down the Space-Time Towers after using its grand music-playing feature, when a bright, pink star appeared in the sky, pulsating with blinding flashes.

In Tonio’s lab, both the scientist and Red Sun looked at the off-chart readings, feeling the tremors.

However, more than Tonio, it was the Contestant who was shocked to the extreme, a chill running down his spine.

Red Sun slowly looked up as if he could see through the ceiling, his gaze going to the sky right above the Space-Time Towers.

A feeling of utter doom welled up in his heart.

Pokemon’s attacks might not mortally wound a storyline character, as Timeline’s Providence protected them. It was especially true for Bubbles like Pokemon, which had an extremely low storyline death rate, with most timelines driven by an adventurous plot rather than a murderous and villainous one.

The same wasn’t true for the Contestants, though.

The number of Contestants who had died from Pikachu’s Thunderbolt numbered in the hundreds of millions, at least, with most of them belonging to the 1st Set. The same Thunderbolt that only gave Ash an ashy look was enough to burn the HP out of newbies instantly, ending their tales even before they could begin.

Red Sun knew this well, as, in that regard, Pokemon and the Digimon Bubble were almost the same.

The Palkia who had arrived in the timeline at this moment felt... stronger than Captain Red.

Red Sun knew that the Captain’s trump cards had no limit. Also, if it came to a one-on-one fight, Captain might not lose against this Palkia. Still, even if Palkia felt stronger than Captain Red only in raw strength, that was not something Red Sun could ignore.

"Let’s go!" Tonio grabbed his laptop and ran out of the lab.

Red Sun took a deep breath. Once Darkrai attacked Palkia after some time, the Space Pokemon would send the entire town to a different dimension.

Until then, he needed to stay quiet and play his part as an innocent bystander.

So, letting out the breath, Red Sun stormed behind Tonio.

...

By the time Tonio and Red Sun reached the town’s center, Darkrai had already attacked hundreds of Pokemon, putting them to sleep.

All the characters gathered at the Pokemon Center with their Pokemon, Nurse Joy checking up on them.

Suddenly, spirits of Pokemon began appearing all around them.

"What’s happening?!" Alice gasped.

Tonio began punching keys on his laptop when Ash returned after chasing Darkrai through the alleys.

"Where’s that guy... Alberto?" Dawn asked, looking behind Ash. "Didn’t you two go after Darkrai together?"

"Oh..." Ash took a moment to breathe. "I don’t know. I lost him. More importantly... You wouldn’t believe what I just saw..."

Ash was about to tell them about hallucinating ghosts when even more Pokemon spirits began appearing around them.

"The dream world is merging with the real world," Tonio explained, looking at his computer screen. "There’s a boundary around the entire town causing a spacetime anomaly."

Suddenly, more Pokemon Trainers appeared and informed everyone about a strange fog around the entire town.

Together, Ash and the others reached the edge of the town, where a bridge led to the mountains, the fog covering half of it.

"I will check it out!" Ash shouted, running toward the fog, shocking everyone. "Let’s go, Pikachu!"

Red Sun casually remained standing amid the crowd, following his plan not to stand out.

It was then that two yellow crystals danced in his ears, spewing words in his head.

[Collect data regarding the spatial boundary,] the Echo directed. [Go.]

Red Sun’s mouth twitched.

"Wait!" he shouted as he ran onto the bridge. "I can’t let an innocent boy like you go alone!"

"..."

Before anyone could say anything, Red Sun had already disappeared into the fog.

A few moments later, Ash and Pikachu came running out from the bridge, their eyes widening in shock as they looked at the people. "What?! But we never turned around!"

"Did you meet Desmond?" Tonio hurriedly asked. "He chased after you."

Ash shook his head and looked over his shoulder, all eyes landing on the fog lingering over the bridge.

Yet moments passed one after another, showing no sign of Red Sun.

Coincidentally, Baron Alberto appeared among the crowd, then. "What are you all waiting for?!" he shouted. "It’s that damned Darkrai. Let’s get him, and the fog will clear by itself! Follow me!"

As if forgetting about Desmond instantly, the angry crowd followed Baron Alberto back to the town.

On the bridge, Tonio, Alice, Ash, Brock, and Dawn kept waiting for Red Sun.

"Darkrai is not behind this," Tonio suddenly said, catching others’ attention. "Alice, you remember how you fell from the mountain when we were children?"

Alice nodded. "You saved me..."

Tonio shook his head, getting embarrassed. "It... was Darkrai," he admitted. "I just wasn’t sure at that time. But, after reading Godey’s diary, I am sure of it. Darkrai isn’t an evil Pokemon. Look..."

Tonio showed them his laptop and played a video. "Drifblim (-Tonio’s Pokemon-) recorded this footage before Darkrai attacked today..."

The laptop showed a bright pink, but extremely blurry, blob of light.

Slowly, it zoomed in, and its resolution was enhanced.

And a figure began taking shape within the blob of pinkish light, all the characters gasping at the sight.

"That’s the same thing from my dream!" Ash shouted.

"It’s Palkia!" Brock exclaimed. "The Pokemon said to live between dimensions and rule space..."

"That’s it!" Ash said. "It must be Palkia who’s behind the fog! Darkrai is acting against him, not us!"

Tonio nodded. "We must help Darkrai..."

"I am here!"

All heads snapped toward the fog and saw Red Sun running out, Tonio sighing in relief.

They hurriedly told Red Sun everything and ran toward the town center, hoping to stop the town’s people from attacking Darkrai.

But the Mythical Pokemon had already retaliated, putting all Pokemon to sleep once again.

Now, Darkrai was shooting straight toward the sky.

"He’s going for Palkia!" Ash shouted.

"Go..." Darkrai gathered energy into his hands and fired. "... away!"

The Dark Pulse landed on something invisible in the sky with a BOOM.

In the next moment, the invisible boundary vanished, revealing the thing within, making everyone step back involuntarily.

ROAR!

Palkia let out an enraged roar.

The fog surrounding the town disappeared instantly.

And in the very next moment, the entire town appeared in a different dimension.

Red Sun grinned, taking out his Beast Balls immediately, as he didn’t want to waste a second before Dialga appeared, too.

Someone... was much, much faster than him, though.

Someone who had been waiting for the same moment.

Someone whose target was nowhere as ridiculous as a Mythical Pokemon, but an ordinary man.

As the entire sky filled with black, spatial swirls, Baron Alberto, standing far away a moment before, blinked right behind Red Sun.

Critical Pain —

Baron Alberto’s right hand moved with such insane speed that time literally stalled in his surroundings, everything graying out.

Black tendons and fire-red strands of muscles became a storm as his right arm exploded.

Then, the 12th Floor Contestant pushed the entire swirling black-red mass forward, thrusting it into Red Sun’s back, blood splattering in all directions.

— Devastator!

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