CH104 (718), I’ll Gang Up On You

A quick reminder of some data of the team members that will be mentioned in this chapter. This part is obviously not included in the word count.

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Horus, Xatu (ghost-variant, ancient gene, energy sense, male), deep purple potential, (high) dark gold stage

Mothra, Butterfree (queen gene, quick start V2, size control, female), light aurora potential, (high) dark gold stage

Moka, Crobat (ancient royal, female), light aurora potential, (high) dark gold stage

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Seb, Nidoking (royal gene, keen hearing, male), deep purple potential, (high) dark gold stage

Gaia, Nidoqueen (royal gene, keen hearing, female), deep purple potential, (high) dark gold stage

Shino, Yanmega (ancient gene, danger sensing, male), light aurora potential, (high) dark gold stage

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Nyx, Umbreon (shiny, stealthy, female), deep purple potential, (high) dark gold stage

Enji, Arcanine (royal, alpha's presence, male), light aurora potential, (high) dark gold stage

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Manami, Lapras (blessed by water, true water absorb, female), deep purple potential, (high) dark gold stage

Tiamat, Milotic (shiny gene, universal, female), light aurora potential, (high ) dark gold stage

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Dilong, Stan, Gyarados (royal, personal pace, male), light aurora potential, (high) dark gold stage

Abyss, Aby, Gyarados (+dark type, female), light aurora potential, (high) dark gold stage

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Ryujin, Gyarados (+dragon type, alpha predator, male), light aurora potential, (high) dark gold stage

Ignis, Gyarados (Blessed by Volcanion, steam core, +fire type, male), light aurora potential, (high) dark gold stage

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Jade, Gyarados (+grass type, photosynthesis, female), light aurora  potential, (high) dark gold stage

Medusa, Gyarados (poisonous water, +poison type, female), light aurora potential, (high) dark gold stage

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Osiris, Skellibra (lightning manipulation, male), light aurora potential, (mid) dark gold stage

Mars, Ursasol (sun's progeny, male), deep purple potential, (mid) dark gold stage

Hera, Pidgeot (composed, one with the wind, female), light aurora potential, (mid) dark gold stage

Parvati, QueenBee, Beedrill (queen gene, female), light aurora potential, (mid) dark gold stage

Abzu, Milotic (daunt, male), light aurora potential, (mid) dark gold stage

Tatsumaki, Alakazam (ability variant, mega mind, female), light aurora potential, (mid) dark gold stage

Hashirama, Venusaur (solar overgrowth, male), light aurora potential, (mid) dark gold stage

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The chapter starts after this.

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I was naturally not planning to underestimate anyone even if the invading boss trio and the leftover 6 (sub)bosses were hurt as well as tired, so I only brought out everyone at the dark gold stage. Even then I made sure to assign the teams in a manner I was sure they could win without risking their lives. As I said, hurt and tired or not, the 6 (sub) bosses were still at the (low) or (mid) platinum stage, so underestimating them would be stupid. The same applied to the boss trio who was at the (high) platinum stage, even if the three were hurt the worst among all the bosses we had to face.

'Horus, Mothra, Moka, you'll take the boss trio. Go all out right from the start, and don't underestimate them even if they seem to be on their last leg,' I telepathically ordered after adding everyone to the telepathy channel, confident that the three could match the (wounded) boss trio even though there was a whole stage between them. Mothra/Butterfree vacated my head as I addressed the others. I saw her return to her original size as she moved toward Horus/Xatu and Moka/Crobat.

'Seb, Gaia, Shino; you three will be facing the Golurk. Nyx, Enji; You two get the Aegislash. Manami, Tiamat; Runerigus is yours. Stan, Aby; You two will take on Chandelure. Ryujin and Ignis get Ceruledge, while Cofagrigus will be left to Jade and Medusa,' I directly divided all (high) dark gold members into viable teams, with Golurk getting some extra attention since it was the only (mid) platinum stage (sub)boss we had to face.

'Osiris, Mars, Hera, Parvati, Abzu, Tatsumaki, and Hashirama; You 7 will spread out and help take out the rest of the invaders,' I finally told the last batch of our participating team members. While these 7 were "only" at the (mid) dark gold stage, they were strong enough to help the defenders sweep through the rest of the dark gold invaders.

Once I was done giving out telepathic orders, I chose to finally speak out loud, but all I said was "Go", which had my Pokemon spring into action. Horus teleported behind Ceruledge and attacked its back, though his attack got blocked by Ceruledge who managed to react in time. Still, Horus definitely got Ceruledge's attention and as I had suspected, he was able to keep up with Ceruledge despite the considerable stage disadvantage, though I was not unaware that this was most likely due to the rather bad state Ceruledge was in.

Anyway, while Horus took on Boss Ceruledge, Mothra literally blitzed Aegislash (Blade) with Flare Blitz before sending a Fire Blast after it as it got flung away by the impact of her sneak attack. I could not help but wonder if that had been enough to take it out since Aegislash (B) had been the worst-off one among the boss trio due to its comparatively bad comprehensive defense. Still, adhering to my decision to not underestimate our opponents, I told Mothra to not let up her attack through the telepathic channel.

While Mothra did that, Moka confronted Aegislash (Shield) and since I reminded her about its absurd comprehensive defense, she went ahead and doused it using moves like Toxic and Sludge Bomb, which Aegislash did not bother dodging. It was probably relying on its steel typing to ignore Moka's poison moves, but unfortunately for Aegislash, it seemed to be unaware that Crobat could have Corrosion as an ability, though I guess that was fair. 

Even if we ignored that Corrosion was the species' third ability, which would require a Crobat to attain light aurora potential at minimum; Just taking into account that Aegislash was an invader from what I suspected to be the Spirit World, would clarify why it was not surprising for Aegislash to be unaware of Crobat's details since I sincerely doubted it got to see many, or rather any of those in the Spirit World. Either way, Aegislash (S) got poisoned much to its disbelief and Moka began to harass it with Venoshock, which Aegislash actually attempted to dodge since it saw that it was not poison-proof after all.

The others rushed at their respective opponents as well and most of them actually got the drop on their opponents even though many of them should have had enough reaction time due to them being spread across the chamber. It was the shock those (sub)bosses felt at their bosses seemingly being manhandled by obviously much weaker Pokemon that caused them to be distracted which allowed my Pokemon to get the first hit in despite having to close in first.

Keeping track of all fights simultaneously wasn't easy even with my multiple thought streams simply because of the size of the chamber and the limits of my sight. Which was why I was moving my head like I was some freaking bobblehead to catch as much of the battles as I could. That way each thought stream could focus on one of the multiple battles I was able to see, though I still chose to prioritize certain battles. Thankfully, the battles I would have expected to be the hardest ended up finishing the fastest, allowing me to stop focusing on those two.

It appeared that Dusknoir had beaten them even worse than I had thought since Aegislash (B) and (S) fell within a mere three minutes after I sicked Mothra and Moka on them. Well, actually it was Aegislash (B) who fell to Mothra first, following which Mothra joined Moka. The two ganged up on Aegislash (S), who joined its fellow Aegislash on the ground in short order. Unlike the Aegislash duo, the Ceruledge that Horus was facing was putting up a much better fight since it was less hurt than its compatriots. 

Still, that did not help Ceruledge when Mothra and Moka joined in as well, turning the battle into 3-vs-1. However, unlike the previous 3-vs-1 boss battle against the guardian, this one was so much in the trio's favor that it wasn't even funny. Ultimately, it took Horus, Mothra, and Moka around two minutes to beat down Ceruledge until it could no longer muster any strength to move, much less resist. Once they had done that, the three boss slayers attempted to help out the others with their mini-boss fights, but all of them vehemently refused their interference.

I would have asked the trio to help them regardless, but during the last 5 minutes they had all proven that they were able to match and suppress their platinum-stage opponents by working together, so I accepted their request to finish their fights on their own. Be that as it may, leaving Mothra, Horus, and Moka with nothing to do but watch the others was stupid, so I told them to help Manami/Lapras and the others take down the invading minions. 

Their addition to that front sped things up quite a bit and within less than 10 minutes only 5 of the (sub)boss battles were still ongoing. Manami as well as Tiamat/Miltic managed to beat Runegirus pretty smoothly, though the mooks had been nearly cleaned up by then, so they did not even get to help with that and were simply asked to wait for the others to finish. The Guardian Dusknoir was another one who finished their fight and I was rather thankful that he was understanding enough to not interfere in the still-ongoing mini-boss battles.

As the big boss of the cave system and the leader of this defense operation that would have been his right, but he proved understanding enough and simply gave orders to the rest of the defenders to remain alert until the gate had been closed. When asked if they should work together to wrap things up, he gave me a look before telling them to leave the battles to us. Dusknoir then simply returned to his position close to the gate, keeping vigil while he observed my Pokemon as they faced the (sub)bosses.

It was likely because they knew that the situation had become hopeless for them after Dusknoir finished his battle as well, but the mini-bosses began to make more mistakes during the battle. Mistakes that ended with them suffering more damage than they should have, accelerating their downfalls. While that was a bit unfortunate since it eased the difficulty of the battle making it less rewarding for my Pokemon, it still beat the alternative of them going full-on crazy and trying to go for mutual destruction. After the move their fellow invaders pulled that had been a justified worry after all.

Anyway, once the last mini-boss had fallen there was a moment of silence which was broken by the Guardian, who clapped for a few moments. The other ghosts began to cheer when he did that, and my Pokemon who had all just bested some rather impressive opponents joined in as well. The cheering went on for a good half minute before it abruptly cut off because Dusknoir chose to speak up.

"We have beaten yet another invasion, and I am once again thankful for the support you all provided me in maintaining the security of the seal," Dusknoir said, causing yet another round of cheering, and this time I joined in as well. Even if no one else knew it, I knew that these guys and gals had protected our world from an invasion. I might not know what exactly was sealed under the seal, but I would rather have it remain sealed than risk it posing a danger to our world, or rather to Hoenn since I seriously doubted that whatever it was could pose a risk to the whole world considering the many very powerful Pokemon that lived in it.

The only way the destruction of the seal could risk the world was if the Pokemon sealed here was an actual Legendary. However, that notion alone was ridiculous for many reasons. Something like that would require the involvement of at least another Legendary, which would bring us to the question of why a Legendary would seal another one like this. That was ignoring the fact that the only two ghost-type legendaries I could think of at the top of my head were Giratina and Lunala. 

Putting aside the absolutely absurd idea that one of the Creation Deities was sealed here, which would require the involvement of at least two other Creation Gods, even the sealing of a Major Deity like Lunala would require the involvement of one or more Major Deities, and I seriously doubted something like that would happen without Lunala trying to destroy the world or something along those lines. Yeah, I just couldn't see it. Wait, actually, there was also Marshadow and Hoopa; Still, while Marshadow was no Major Legendary, it was still one of the top members among the Minor Legendaries, same with Hoopa; Not to mention that Hoopa Unbound was probably equal to a Major Legend, so pretty much the same points as Lunala's applied to it/them as well.

Another rather simple point that spoke against the possibility of a sealed Legend was the strength of the seal. As I pointed out earlier, I could only assume that sealing a Deity would require enormous power along with a very powerful seal. Nothing I had learned during my dives into my super library pointed to an easy sealing method that would allow someone to seal a freaking god, and I was pretty confident in my sealing knowledge thanks to my extensive work/research on ball crafting.

Anyway, there was no way that a seal that could be destroyed by a bunch of dark gold stage Pokemon could be sealing a Minor Deity, much less a Major one. I won't even mention the Creation one, though I guess I just did. This brought us to the final point, the strength of the invaders and defenders. I mean if, and this was a very big if, the previous points for some reason were incorrect, and there was in fact a Legendary sealed here, then why the heck would the defenders of the seal only be at Stage 5 and 6, with a single Stage 7 guardian leading them. I would assume that whoever was capable of sealing a legendary should be able to provide stronger protectors for the seal, which brought us to the invaders.

If they were trying to free a legendary one would have to assume that they were the subordinates of said legendary, so why were they so weak if that was truly the case? Unlike the defenders, the invaders did not even have a single Stage 7 Pokemon. Did that sound like the strength the minions of a Legendary should have? I don't think so. Still, even if it was not a Legendary that was sealed here, I was still very interested in finding out what was in fact sealed beneath our feet, though asking that would have to wait until we had dealt with the aftermath of the invasion.

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