Arms of Arceus

“I must apologize,” King Logan said as he led his guests down the dark, cold corridor. It was the only secret passage within his castle, and only his family knew of it. That’s what he had told Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armor when he had opened the wall in his bedroom.

“Don’t worry,” Shining Armor said as he and his wife followed the king. “We fully understand. If we were in your shoes, we’d do whatever it took to get our people out of here safely.”

“You speak of these Skrull and Kree with some… hesitation,” Cadance said, carefully. “Are they trustworthy?”

“In this case, they’ll have to be. Their Reality Gem turned out to be a very convincing fake, so they need us.”

“Is your gem real?” Shining Armor said as the king pressed on a moss-covered brick and the wall opened. A brilliant light shone from out of the secret room. Hundreds of machines glowed and whirred, and in the middle of the room was a gem floating in the air above a circular dais. A black haired boy and an armored robot stood next to the gem. The boy bowed before the king as he entered.

“Doom left us with this jewel, trapped in a powerful stasis field that we haven’t been able to break, until three nights ago. That’s when the Kree and Skrull contacted us. With their help, Hiro has been able to examine our gem in secret. It’s legitimate.”

“Why would Doom leave you with an artifact this powerful?” Cadance asked. “From your explanation of the gem earlier, he should be searching for things such as this to protect his throne, shouldn’t he?”

“He did, at first. Though he kept it secret. He didn’t do it because he feared the Infinity Gems would one day overtake him. He’s too powerful and too arrogant for that. He found, and collected, Infinity Gems for fun. It was his way of stroking his own ego. When I discovered the game he was playing with the lives of his people I tried to use the gems against him. He only laughed. When he punished us, we were left with this gem trapped in stasis. It was salvation, forever out of our reach. That’s changed, though.”

King Logan stopped at the foot of the stairs and looked down at the black-haired boy and the red-armored robot. The boy smiled as he gently took hold of the gem and handed it to his monarch.

“You seem as healthy as ever King Logan,” the robot said in a friendly voice. “Your friends are equine creatures. I am not outfitted with veterinary medical instruments, but I will do my best. If you would remove the armor the male is wearing, I will change the bandages on his back.”

“It’s ok, Baymax,” the boy said as he turned and motioned toward the back of the room. “Our other guest is waiting.”

“Logan,” said a tall, armored alien who stood statuesque next to a suit of armor. “It wasn’t easy getting through that shield. I hope my mission was not in vain. We strongly believe your gem to be real, but its true test has yet to come.”

“So long as you’re here, that’s all that matters Ronan. Our deal stands?”

“It does. The use of your gem for the evacuation and safety of all living survivors in Ashes. Are these ones satisfied with your decision? They will not be coming with us.”

Logan turned to look at the prince and princess, his eyes shining with tears of regret. Cadance put a comforting hoof on his hand as she and her husband smiled.

“Don’t worry about us,” the princess said. “We’ll be fine. I promise.”

“Those bird creatures broke the southern walls outside of Houston, and the zombies are advancing. Millions of them are expected to be here by tomorrow morning.”

“We’re prepared for them,” Shining Armor said as his wife put a wing around his back and he laid his head against hers. “Our forces are already dealing with the creatures falling from the sky. Was that your doing, Ronan?”

“We withdrew our defensive lines and made way for them,” Ronan said, his voice clipped and impatient. “They broke through Doom’s force field on their own. I hope your people are prepared, Logan. We must leave before Doom’s battle ends if we hope to escape him.”

“My people are ready,” the king said as he knelt to address the ponies. “I can’t thank you enough for all you’ve done. You, all of you, have helped us beyond what we could have imagined. Our people were hungry, scared, and hopeless. You changed that.”

“It is time to go,” Ronan said. King Logan bowed before Cadance and Shining Armor. Then Ronan pushed a button on his gauntlet, and the room was emptied except for the ponies. Hiro, Baymax, Logan, and Ronan had all disappeared.

“The two cities are empty now, I guess,” Shining Armor said as he looked around the lonely room.

“Our army is the only thing in this kingdom, now. We’re alone with the darkness that threatens this land.”

“And we’ll face it together.”

The ponies turned and walked back through the secret passage. They glowed with the gentle light of love, even as they entered into the heat of battle.

The sky rained Tyranids, Daemons, and Orks. From her place near the castle’s peak, Rose could see the entire battle unfolding in the streets of Dallas and Fort Worth. Her new binoculars, provided by King Logan several days prior, could zoom in to make figures clear up to fifty miles away. The castle towered over every building in Ashes, easily reaching three thousand feet at its zenith. It had been built during the period of peace, when Doom had first come to rule Battleworld and the king and queen had accepted him. Even when the Pokémon had first arrived in Ashes, the massive structure had been full of life. Now only the factions warring for dominance and survival could be found here.

“I see Thorn has engaged a number of Orks,” Rose said as she peered through her binoculars. She watched as her mate and fifty of his fellow Nidoking rampaged through a squad of Def Dreds. They tore the metal suits apart as bullets and explosions rocked their armored bodies. Such was their rage that none of them slowed down in their assault, despite the injuries they suffered. Rose saw Harmony lead a group of nurses in casting Heal Pulse, Milk Drink and Softboiled on their injured allies. Thorn waved his gratitude as he and his warriors charged another group.

Teams of electric rodents ran between areas of cover, using Nuzzle on their enemies and Helping Hand on their allies as they went. Every street corner was ablaze for miles around as Lord Son and his fire-types tore through entrenched enemy positions with controlled bursts of flame. Sasha led her dark-types as they hunted enemy psychics and powerful daemons through the streets. Boss Niccolo led the flying-types as they fought to maintain air superiority. The fat Honchkrow looked down occasionally to keep tabs on the cocky Scrafty, Marco. The Shining Murder Gang and the Rainbow Crest Gang continued their rivalry in the heat of battle, helping each other out as often as they could just so they could say the other side owed them. Rose smiled. The battle was glorious, and it was going well.

“Are we going down?” Gil asked as electricity crackled through his fur. The Raichu had been firing massive Thunderbolts into the sky for the last five minutes. Clumps of ash and charred bodies fell to the earth around the tower, evidence of his assault.

“We might as well. The daemons are approaching the castle, now.”

“Thanks to those fancy adamantium walls they’ve got, there’s only one way in and out of this castle at ground level.”

“Then I suggest we go to the entrance and let our foes know how unhappy we are with them.”

“Still mad over that assault on the primary daycare?”

“Aren’t you? I know those monsters were more than just reflections created by a paradox. There was a power… an intelligence driving them that was greater than they were.”

“Agreed, and yeah, I’m still pretty angry. Piku helped defend the children. She and the other surviving nurses were found half dead and still fighting. If it weren’t for the reinforcements from the four zones, they would have all been slaughtered alongside the young ones they were caring for.”

“We can take our anger out on the real monsters, this time,” Rose said as she set her binoculars down.

“Sounds good to me,” Gil said as he leapt on her back.

The building rocked as an explosion shook the courtyard below. An enormous Bloodthirster stood from the crater his landing had made and lashed out at the crystal ponies and poison-types nearby. Rose had already leapt from the building. She stormed down its side, beating away hordes of clawing Tyranids and gibbering daemons that were climbing up the castle floors. Teams of Ariados, tasked with defending the castle, aided her as she and Gil broke through the horde. In the courtyard below her, the guards were frantically dodging the Bloodthirster’s swords.
The Nidoqueen leapt from the castle at six hundred feet and crashed into the Bloodthirster, the full force of her weight and momentum driving the beast into the ground. The daemon roared in pain as it pushed itself up. Rose had hurt it, and she wasn’t going to let it regain its footing. Warnings from the psychic-types in the castle ran through her mind, and she listened. She absorbed their predictions, planning her next steps even as she tore the daemon’s head from his shoulders and dragged it before the palace gates to parade before his thousand underlings. The lesser daemons barely had the time to register their own shock before Gil’s Thunder incinerated them.

The ponies shouted in triumph as they ran before Rose to engage the next wave. A second squad of crystal ponies ran through the streets past the gates, crashing through a group of chaotic mutants as they made their way to the palace. More enemies fell from the sky, only to be struck down by the lightning summoned by thousands of unicorns and electric-types. Lord Hal ordered volleys of Future Sights to be cast on the sky while commanding his steel-types to reinforce weakened positions. The Mega Metagross led the psychic-types and steel-types with ease as he calculated the ever-changing battle conditions.

A line of tornadoes appeared on the southern horizon. The crystal pegasi were busy building a wall of destructive wind to tear through the advancing zombie hordes. In the distance Rose could hear the laughing of Pestilence and Miasma as they fought two titanic Great Unclean Ones.
As she charged into the next group of daemons, Rose couldn’t help but feel that an end was coming. She longed to return to her children, but it was for their sake that she and her mate fought. She kept this in mind as her army slowly conquered Ashes.

Buakaw and Namsak were exhausted, but that didn’t seem to matter. Their Speed Boost abilities had made them so fast during the course of this battle that no enemy could touch them. Trixie watched in amazement as they slowly regained their breath between strikes so quick she couldn’t see them.

Their second wind has long since come and gone, Trixie thought as she cast another healing spell. This must be their seventh or eighth wind. This fighting has gone on for so terribly long…

As tired as Trixie was, she knew that fighting was the only way forward. It was all they could do at this point. The northern zombies had been wiped out, and now the sky was raining monsters. The shades of Dark Arceus had stopped their advance and were regrouping far to the north.

“What are they doing?” Trixie said as she walked up to five abandoned Pinsir shades laying on the ground. They had been hit by a Thunder Wave attack, and were twitching uncontrollably. The nearby electric-types gathered around Trixie, joining her as she watched the enemy march north.

“They’re going back to the mountains!” Ragnuk said from atop Trixie’s back.

“I can see that but for what purpose?”

“Uh…” said an Ampharos standing next to Buakaw. “The sky is getting even darker.”

“That’s no surprise. Rom and Rem have been fighting Lugia and Ho-oh across the entire kingdom for days. All that wing flapping from Lugia has made quite the storm.”

“I think he means there are big, scary shadows coming out of the clouds, sis,” Ragnuk said as he pointed upward.

His neck was craned so far back Trixie thought he might topple over, but he was right. There were three massive shadows descending through the cloud cover. Each one was several miles long, and they had shields that absorbed the lightning strikes with ease. One landed far to the north, its ramshackle construction covered in red spikes and guns that dripped blood. A shimmering ship whose hull changed color and composition at every angle landed in the countryside a few miles north, and a rotten, green colored ship landed a few miles west of its partner. Trixie could smell its putrid odor as a toxic gas trail dispersed in its wake.

“It was bound to happen,” said the calm, metallic voice of Lord Hal. Trixie turned to see the Mega Metagross hovering above the heads of her troops, surveying the newly arrived ships.

“This is a full Chaotic invasion, now,” Trixie said as she bowed before the council member. “No doubt they’ll unload and attack us with all they have.”

“A fourth ship has landed to the south, the zombie horde. My calculations showed it to be the greater threat, but I may have been wrong. Not enough data was collected on the full extent of our enemy’s capabilities in battles prior.”

“And what do your calculations suggest we do now, lord? I know what I’d like to do.”

“Attack?”

“Is it a sound idea?”

“Yes,” Buakaw, Namsak, and Ragnuk said simultaneously. Their tone was so eager and confident that Trixie couldn’t help but smile.

“So be it,” Lord Hal said.

He began rocking back and forth in the air in a methodical rhythm. He spoke to himself quietly as he made his calculations. Then he turned and flew high in the sky where Trixie saw Lord Ra and Lady Sakura floating peacefully among the clouds. The three nobles talked briefly, their discussion too distant for Trixie to make out. Then they descended. As they came, the clouds rained monsters once more. Millions of them followed Ra and Sakura down to the ground. Suddenly, the four hundred Pokémon Trixie had been leading were greatly reinforced.

“Are you surprised?” Lord Ra asked, a hint of amusement in his voice.

“So many ghost-types!” Trixie said, awestruck.

“Many have gone to rest in their graves over the long years; all of them still loyal to king and cause. Now that we face the end, the dead have risen and taken new forms. Though only a small fraction of each generation has chosen to remain tied to their graves, it is more than enough. Even those who perished on Octaria are among them.”

“This is but half of our host of souls,” Sakura said as she smiled down at Trixie. In the distance, they could hear the sounds of the ships rapidly unloading their forces. “The other half is in the south, following the prince and princess into battle.”

“Against what?” Trixie asked as she watched the enemy take notice of the Pokémon army.

“The Swarmlord,” Sakura said, simply.

“I can’t believe they’re actually going to land here,” Cadance said as she watched the massive Tyranid ship from the western outskirts of Fort Sina. The empty fort town sat to the south of the DFW Metroplex, its gun batteries set to stationary automatic. The A.I. controlled gun suits were the only things left of the warriors that had manned the fort. Cadance thought the lonely whirring of their motors was almost sad, but she was glad that the people of Ashes had escaped their torturous land. Millions of ghost-types made up the majority of her army, all of them eager to end this battle so they could return to their eternal sleep.

“That thing is ten miles long, ten miles wide, and as tall as a mountain,” Shining Armor said, his voice dull with disbelief. They had watched as the ship cleared its landing zone of zombies through controlled bursts of explosive biomatter. They had watched it land, and it was still beyond belief. “Its size is insane! How did it even land without breaking apart?”

“Lord Hal says these are powerful strains of Tyranids that have yet to be seen in the galaxy Octaria occupies. The ones that are landing are merely transport vessels.”

“Well dear, how do we deal with this?”

“We need to begin our assault before they close in,” Cadance said as she walked out onto the open road. “The tornadoes have died down, but our pegasi are prepared to make more in an instant. How do you want to attack?”

“First, we should put an end to that ship. It can make more monsters, right?”

“Yes. If we don’t end it we could easily be overrun. We should send in the pegasi after our attack on the ship. Their tornados can clean up the little ones that will charge our lines.”

“Great idea. Are you ready?”

“Yeah.”

Shining Armor walked to his wife’s side. She put her head on his shoulder and they smiled. Then, as one, they cast their spell. The ground beneath the ship erupted as dozens of massive crystal spikes rose from the ground beneath it, impaling the creature where it sat. Its pained cries tore through the night sky as the beasts it had been carrying joined in. There was no blood, however. The crystals glowed with power and immense heat, cauterizing the ship’s wounds as they pierced vital organs.

“That was exhausting!” Shining Armor said as another ship breached the clouds above them.

“We’ve got one more,” Cadance said as the ship began launching salvos of large transport cocoons. Each one broke open upon landing to reveal dozens of angry Tyranid creatures.

“And more after that,” Shining Armor said, his voice a mixture of frustration and concern. “We’ll have to face those ones on the ground. There’s really no end to them, is there?”

“So long as we’re together, there’s no need to worry.”

“Of course,” Shining Armor said as his fears subsided.

The couple smiled, looked deep into each other’s eyes, and kissed. Then the clouds surrounding the second ship turned to crystal and the tyranids gave another collective cry of agony.