Chapter 10: Ultra Invasion

Lusamine cackled from the platform, the strange box still raised above her head. Blue energy continued to stream from it, and the screams the box was emitting slowly faded away.

That's not good... Ash thought, grimacing.

The blue energy surged into the air and gathered in one spot directly above the arena. It hovered there for a moment, before exploding and tearing open an Ultra Wormhole so huge it blocked out the sky above the stadium. Mixed screams and calls could be heard emanating from its depths.

"H-holy shit..." Ash murmured, wide-eyed.

There were mixed reactions from the crowd. Some people ran for the exits. Others oohed and aahed at the Wormhole, thinking it was all some hologram that was part of the tournament.

"NO!" A voice ripped through the air. Ash looked across the battlefield to see that Gladion had gone ghostly pale. He was gaping at the wormhole, shaking violently. His eyes were wild. "Mother, please don't do this!"

Ash turned to Gladion, his eyes wide. "Mother?!"

Lusamine turned her attention to Gladion. Darkness flickered across her expression for a moment, but she regained her composure and laughed. "And why should I listen to you? Insolent fool. All you and Lillie did was betray me when I gave you all the love I had. Why should I listen to you, you sniveling little-"

"LOVE?!" Gladion screamed. The fear in his voice was immediately replaced by fury. "What do you know about love?!" He pointed an accusing finger at the woman. "You never loved us. All you ever did was-"

"Nihilego, dear," Lusamine cooed, glancing at the Ultra Beast at her side. "Silence him. He does not deserve to speak."

"Brrr..." the Beast rasped. It immediately turned to Gladion and summoned several jagged crystals. They floated around the Beast for a moment before launching themselves at Gladion.

"GLADION, MOVE!" Ash screamed. Gladion turned towards him and began to run in his direction, but it was too late. The stones pummeled his body, forcing a scream of pain from Gladion's mouth.

"STOP! Greninja, use Water Shuriken!!" Ash commanded, sprinting towards Gladion. Greninja yanked the Giant Shuriken off of its back and hurled it at the Ultra Beast. The shuriken exploded on impact and knocked the Ultra Beast into a wall behind the platform Lusamine was standing on.

As Ash was running, something heavy thudded down a few yards away from him. He turned to see an enormous Ultra Beast had landed not too far away. It's enormous dark blue body was mostly taken up by a giant, seemingly endless mouth. Two smaller jaws emerged from inside the larger one, snapping at whatever was near. A tiny head and two small arms perched on top of the body.

The beast spotted Ash, Gladion, Greninja, and Type: Null and began lumbering towards them, its jaws snapping maliciously.

Ash threw himself over Gladion. "Pikachu!" He exclaimed "Thunderbolt! Greninja, follow it up with Aerial Ace!"

"PikaCHUUUU!" Pikachu shouted as it shot a stream of electricity at the Ultra Beast. The Thunderbolt was weaker than it usually was, as Pikachu had barely recovered from its battle, but even if it was at normal strength it most likely wouldn't have made a difference. The Beast continued to charge at them.

Greninja, still synchronized with Ash, streaked towards the oncoming Beast. It's hands and feet glowed white, and it quickly delivered a flurry of punches and kicks to the Beast. The beast roared in pain, signaling that Greninja had actually done some damage.

Good, so they're not invincible, Ash though. They can just tank any damage dealt by a Pokémon weaker than a Mega Evolution.

Ash sent a confident glance in Greninja's direction. Greninja turned towards him, nodded, and went back to fighting.

While Pikachu and Greninja kept the Beast busy, Ash turned to Gladion, who was thankfully still conscious.

"Can you stand?" Ash asked urgently.

After coughing a few times, Gladion replied, "Yeah, I think so." He winced as Ash helped him up, but managed to stand firmly with the help of Type: Null.

Out of the corner of his eye, Ash just managed to make out Lusamine turning around and leaving the balcony.

Suddenly, the Beast that Pikachu and Greninja were fighting managed to throw both Pokémon off, smacking Pikachu with one jaw and slamming Greninja in the stomach with the other.

Ash doubled over in pain. He felt as if all the air had been forced from his lungs. His knees buckled.

"Ash!" Gladion exclaimed, catching him. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah," Ash muttered, his voice strained. "Just a little side effect of the synchronization."

"Synchronization?" Gladion inquired.

"I'll explain later. Right now we've got bigger problems."

Lillie was screaming. She was covering her head with her arms and had curled up into a ball in her seat.

Latias leaped out of her seat and grabbed Lillie by the shoulders. "Lillie! Calm down!" She exclaimed frantically.

Lillie was clearly terrified. She had started acting this way when the first few Beasts had begun to emerge from the Wormhole.

Said Beasts had descended upon the League and had begun wreaking havoc, attacking the spectators and causing massive damage to the stadium.

"Guys, what do we do?!" Sophocles yelled.

"We've got to get you all to safety!" Burnet exclaimed.

"One Ultra Beast is strong enough," RotomDex screeched. "Who knows how much damage this many could do!"

The moment the words left her mouth, a shadow appeared behind her. It was an Ultra Beast. The Beast's skin was an odd shade of green, a long, thin white neck protruding from a strange hull-like body. Strange bamboo-shaped cannons levitated at its sides.

The creature made a sound, echoing with a metallic screech.

It raised one of its cannons.

"MOVE!!"

Latias grabbed Lillie and dragged her away. Light flashed against Serena's closed eyelids, and a thundering shockwave launched her and Lillie forward. They tumbled violently to the ground.

After a few seconds, she tentatively opened her eyes to find a giant scorched crater inches away from her feet.

She sat up and winced, coughing. There were several other people nearby who had also attempted to escape the blast. Some were fine, others were nursing a few small injures. She glanced back at the crater. No sign of a body. . . so either no one was dead or the blast-

Latias shook her head. Don't think about that. . .

She then turned to Lillie, who had curled up in fetal position on the floor. She was shivering violently and her screams had diminished to incoherent blubbering.

"P-please no... n-n-not a-again... p-please..."

Latias began inching towards Lillie but jolted to a stop when her ankle screeched in protest. She looked down to find it burned, blistered, and slightly bloodied.

"Latias!"

She looked up to see Bonnie running towards her. To Latias' relief, Bonnie looked alright, except for a few scratches and scrapes.

"You're hurt!" Bonnie called out at the sight of her ankle. She tugged her backpack off her back. "Hang on, I might have something . . ."

"Don't worry about me," Serena replied, wincing despite herself.

They were interrupted when a multitude of screams tore through the air. They turned to see that the Beast that had attacked them had turned its attention to a crowd of spectators.

"Oh no, you don't!" Bonnie exclaimed. She unzipped a certain pocket on her backpack and held it out in front of her, brandishing it like a weapon.

"SQUISHY!" She exclaimed. "TWENTY PERCENT FORM!"

A glowing green streak flew from Bonnie's backpack. It darted throughout the air, then threw itself towards the attacking Beast.

'Roger that!' Squishy exclaimed.

Countless other glowing green streaks began sailing into the stadium, snaking around the gathering Ultra Beasts, converging around Squishy, and forming a single ball of pulsing green energy. The ball began to take shape.

A beak jutted outward. Two symmetrical feathered wings. A long flowing tail.

"What's that?!" Mallow screamed.

Kukui's eyes widened in shock. "Impossible! That's-"

He was cut off when the still forming mass of energy let out a wave of green light. It faded a few seconds later, revealing a fully solidified Zygarde Forme.

Squishy had taken the form of a large eagle. Its body was composed of several green and black hexagons. A thick strand of said hexagons branched off of its head, and another strand formed the tail. Its belly was covered in a patch of white hexagons. A single red hexagon was situated on its chest. Its white eyes gleamed.

Squishy let out a booming screech.

"Zygarde . . ." Kukui murmured.

RotomDex was beside itself and started snapping photos of Squishy despite the perilous situation they were in.

"Do it, Squishy!" Bonnie exclaimed, throwing her arm out. "Dragon Pulse!"

Squishy opened its beak, unleashing a torrent of blue and purple energy. The torrent crashed into the Beast from above, slamming it into the ground below the stands. Despite taking heavy damage from the attack, it still managed to stand upright.

'What are these creatures?' Squishy exclaimed. 'I've never felt such a hostile and foreign aura!'

"Ultra Beasts," Bonnie replied, tossing a bandage roll towards Latias.

"Okay, I won't question how you got your hands on a Legendary Pokémon," Kukui grunted, grabbing Bonnie's arm. "But we need to get out of here!"

"No!" Latias exclaimed, "Ash and Gladion are still down there!" She thrust her arm out towards the battlefield, where several Ultra Beasts had begun to converge.

"You don't have-" Kukui began.

"We have Squishy," Bonnie interrupted, prying Kukui's hand from her arm. "We have our other Pokémon. We're going down to help him." Her determined glare made it clear that she wasn't budging.

Suddenly Ash released Arceus and some other legendries to battle and as quickly as the Ultra Beasts came they went with the legendries' power.

Soon enough everyone realized and stopped panicking, and started celebrating.