Chapter 82

With Heatran safely tucked away in his sub-space, Jax didn't see the need for the pointless battle anymore so he brought all of his pokemons into the sub-space and high tailed it out of there. Using his psychic abilities, he collapsed the tunnel behind him, effectively trapping the twenty or so grunts in a fiery pit of lava that would serve as their eternal resting grounds.

Once the coast was clear, he brought everyone back out because even if they didn't encounter any pokemons on the way here, that might not be the case going back. After retracing their steps, the five of them finally made it back to where they had first landed.

As the group landed back on top of the canyon, they fell onto the ground; exhaustion finally catching up with them. After walking for hours, they entered an intense, high-tension battle with their lives on the line and then had to walk for hours back. Once they knew they were safe, well, safer, all that pent-up stress was finally released and now our heroes were on the ground panting for breath.

As everyone caught their breath, Jax went around treating his family members' wounds and took out emergency rations so they could fill up their growling stomachs.

"Let's never do that again. I thought I was about to become a fire-type."

"That was fun! JJ, let's go find more of those guys in black!"

"I-I…was so s-scared…!"

"Haha! I feel a whole lot better after cracking those guys' skulls. It sucks that we couldn't find any clues about my mommy but that's thirty less Team Rocket grunts."

"My liege. Take a look at this."

Lancelot, who had been silent this whole time, handed Jax the ball he picked up earlier.

"Hm? What's this? A M-Masterball!? Where did you get this!?"

"Those guys from earlier were going to use this to capture Heatran. I killed their leader and swiped it form them."

'This is crazy! If Giovanni already has Masterballs, how many legendaries have he caught by now? With Mewtwo by his side, there aren't many that would be a threat for him. I have to speed up my plans.'

"Thanks, Lance. With this, I should be able to reverse engineer it and make my own, stronger version. Now, let's go check on our sleeping princess."

Entering his sub-space, Jax was amazed at how far it had come along. What first started out as a small blank space was now basically a whole world. There were almost fifty pokemons living there, all with their own unique habitats, a forest of Apricots, sprawling with other vegetations, and most recently, a giant sleeping Heatran resting in a lake of lava.

Jax still couldn't believe that an actual living, breathing legendary was in front of his very own eyes. In fact, if he wanted to, with the Masterball he just got, he could even catch it for himself!

'Nah. Even if I wasn't a Guardian, I don't want to destroy this world, either. If I catch Heatran, the repercussions would be too huge for me to handle.'

"Hey! Wake up! I have some things I need to ask you!"

"I'm resting, not dead, boy. No need to shout so loud."

"Oh, good, you're awake. What happened? Why was Team Rocket trying to catch you?"

"How should I know? I have been sleeping under the sea for over a century now. Then, some bugs crawled into my home and the rest, well, you already know the rest."

"The sea? So, I was right! The Great Beyond was connected to the ocean. So, you're the reason only that area dried up. Mhm. What are your plans now?"

"I can't exactly go back there, now can I? Since they know where I am now, they will just keep coming back to bother me. This place you have here isn't so bad. I can tell it is of a different dimension, one separated from our own. I'll stay here for now and recuperate."

"You're going to stay here in my sub-space? Hmmm. Okay. But the rent isn't cheap. First, battle me! AND! You have to purposely lose!"

"BOY! Even if I am weakened, I can still turn this whole world into a wasteland. Mock me again and you will become ash."

Taking out the Masterball, Jax just looked at it and then looked at Heatran.

GULP…

"Fine."

After almost a total of three months, Jax finally mapped out the whole Great Beyond, effectively completing his quest! With his easy win over Heatran, he also completed his fourth quest, Survive a fight with a level 100 Pokemon. Now, all that was left was to beat a gym.

Returning back to the academy, Jax spent a month just enjoying his well-deserved rest. He spent every day going on dates with Ally. He had mock battles with George. Visited Alcatrax and trained in his physic abilities with Sabrina alongside Walters Jr. and Olivia. Since it was supposed to be a time of rest, he didn't go out into the surrounding areas to train so his pokemons' levels stayed the same as when they exited the Great Beyond.

After a long time, Headmaster Leon had finally returned to the academy! 'Finally! That old man probably just went on vacation. Anyways, now I can ask him to sponsor me!'

Just like how Leon was sponsored when he was first starting out his journey, if Jax wanted to challenge a gym before turning 10 years old, he would need someone to sponsor him. And what better sponsor than a previous Regional Champion!