Sweetie Belle (swapping between her anthro and true forms), Rota and Nikoletta were all training with Kung Lao and Johnny, along with Raiden, the Champion of Earthrealm, and, from what Sweetie could tell, possibly the most humble person to ever exist.

Seriously, he won a martial arts tournament between Earthrealm and Outworld, despite a last minute substitution he couldn’t prepare for… and he still seems surprised when it’s brought up!

At least, he was a skilled fighter, in addition to wielding an amulet that allowed him to command lightning.

For the past 30 minutes, the group had been training in a free for all sparring match while Sweetie Belle’s Pokemon trained with the Shaolin Monks and Marko and Kenshi had a duel of their own.

Rota blocked a left hook from Johnny, grabbed the arm as she turned and threw him over her shoulder towards Nikki, who vanished before reappearing right behind Rota, right arm ready to punch. Rota met Nikki’s punch with a back-elbow strike, the clash sending a shockwave strong enough to force most of the rest of the combatants to brace against the momentary gale of wind.

The sisters broke the clash and began to exchange strikes, blocks and parries, until Kung Lao sent a blunt training version of his chakram hat flying between them, forcing the sisters to break apart. Kung Lao caught his hat and spun into a kick across Rota’s cheek while Raiden paired off against Nikki with an electrified cart wheel. Sweetie Belle had already been engaged with Johnny, deflecting a punch before firing back with one of her own.

At the same time, elsewhere in the courtyard, Sweetie’s Pokemon were having a surprisingly productive training session with the Shaolin Monks. Currently, Volta was working on her speed and reflexes by running a somewhat roughly thrown together obstacle course.

Then again, her options were either that or dodge a staff-wielding monk for three minutes like Ratzo had before her, so she was just working what she felt comfortable with.

Lulla was being taught how to effectively use her Moves that weren’t Sing while Tank was in a spar against another monk, working on his defensive abilities. Smiley was simply being supported through his own self-given task of building a tolerance to sunlight. It was agreed he would be most effectively taught during the night when they would have him utilize both his Pokemon moves and ghostly nature to find and destroy a series of wards that the monks were already placing.

Drako was working on his accuracy with his own moves. His Dragon Rush may be powerful, but it was way too obvious for a sufficiently prepared opponent to dodge, even with evolution increasing his abilities and size. However the Dragonair was trying to find ways to circumvent or at least mitigate the chances of that happening. His current idea was simply to keep them guessing what attack he’d use and it seemed to work well for him. None of the monks training with him had been able to do much since he started doing so, at least.

Such was the plight of one particular monk that was paralyzed with a Thunder Wave then sent flying across the courtyard with a Dragon Tail.

Just as Marko and Kenshi were winding down from their own sword training, the monk that Drako sent flying landed at their feet, still writhing as electricity sparked over him. Looking across the courtyard, the superhuman gave the pseudo-legendary Pokemon a scolding deadpan, causing the latter’s bravado to quell a bit as the groups all ended their training, Smiley returning to his Pokeball.

“Alright, good progress everyone,” Johnny called out as he rotated his right arm to relieve the tension in it. Agreements came from all the others, with Marko even surprising Drako with some praise despite the scolding look just a bit ago.

“Pretty sure Drako’s on the verge of evolution again, given his performance during training.”

Meanwhile, with the Hourglass.

Geras channeled his power into the Hourglass, an artifact which governed the very timeline this universe existed in, searching for signs that the Devourer was either right or wrong. They were notorious for their vague words, and the greater omniverse was vast. There was the chance they were wrong and this wasn’t who They claimed it to be.

“Who are you?” The Guardian of the Hourglass mused aloud. Then he noticed it.

The time crystals the Benefactor was made from.

It couldn’t be…

“They were right,” Geras said in grim shock.

That afternoon, the group were all relaxing when, suddenly, a burst of energy coalesced into the courtyard. The energy seemed to solidify into… a cardboard box? Nikki saw the curious object and smiled.

“Ah, so he was able to deliver my package after all,” she said. “Wunderbar.”

The energy finished solidifying, and what remained as an aura faded into the environment. Nikki went up to the box and opened it up, revealing the contents within. Bracer-gloves, black and gray with purple highlights and screen, and a chest piece, purple with black highlights with white lining on the chest piece, which was attached to a black short-sleeved hoodie.

“Armor?” Sweetie Belle questioned aloud.

“A very special armor I had specially crafted for Rota. I admit, I didn’t think that he could actually do it, but I am glad to be wrong.” She then noticed a tape recorder with a note saying, ‘Play me,’ attached to it.

“Hey howdy hey, Nikki Bage, Benny Sharp here! I don’t normally do deliveries, but something came up and I don’t think I’ll be able to wait for ya’s to get back to my universe while I’m at the garage. Thanks to you paying up front though, I was able to make this hazardous environments suit ya ordered have a trackin’ function so ya sista won’t risk leavin’ it behind in case she gets into a… I don’t know, a freak gravity well or something? Had to have a friend help me get it to fit into and working in just a chest plate, I'll admit. It also blocks that Blutzwave stuff, but don’t ask me how I found that out. Not exactly proud of how I went about it. Also, eh.. My friends’ll be real mad if they find out this next bit, but uh… The gauntlets have the same tech as my Multiverse Jumping Wrist Watch Things in them, letting the user jump between universes and dimensions. I call them the Jump Bracers. The hoodie configuration for the under-suit of the armor acts as a neural interface in place of having the whole darn thing not be able to come off, but also limits the amount of protection it gives her to stuff that don’t come natural with the environment. Silver-lining, she’ll be able to fly in space without a helmet, long as she keeps an energy shield on, which I’d call a net positi-”

“Hello, can you tell our mutual friend Tayrun Janavaar I would like to speak with him?”

“What in the name of common decency are you doing here!?”

The recorded message ended on that… admittedly unsettling exchange.

“Well, that’s something we may need to follow up on later… But for now-” Nikoletta began, looking back to the box, only to see it was emptied of its contents. Looking to their left, the group saw Rota wearing the armor, looking right at the setting full moon. A smile worked its way onto her face as the truth of the recording’s statement sunk in.

As long as she was wearing the chestpiece, she wouldn’t transform into her great ape form.

Before there could be any celebration or further tests, however, a large burst of energy sounded off from the horizon, six pillars of green magic piercing the sky.

Having a bad feeling, Nikoletta held her mechanical arm in the direction of the pillars...

At which point, it began to glow with ecto energy.

Seeing this, Rota and Sweetie Belle dashed off to find Liu Kang.

Author's Note

Short chapter because I wanted to get something out before the month ended.

Also, Benny Sharp is the creation of PopCross Studios on Youtube.

Seriously, go check him out.

Will Benny come into play later?

Maybe.

But that depends on the events of a story I have no say in, so nyeh.

The armor is my way of justifying some later events in the story (Anyone who remembers the next non-pokemon universe to be visited in the original after the arc this one's replacing, you'll understand why that's important.) As well as making sure they can get home after this arc.

See you next chapter.

Stay true to you.