I’m glad you finally made it, Caldar.

- Uh-huh.

I would just let you by, but I’m bound by the rules. You must defeat me in a battle, here, in order to enter the hall of fame.

- Yeah…

Are you ready?

- Yup.

Go Spiritomb!

- Go Talia!

- Flamethrower!

Silver wind!

Talia scorches spiritomb with red hot flames. Spiritomb blows a gust of glittering wind that irritates Talia.

- Nasty plot!

As Talia carefully plans exactly how she’s going to incinerate her opponent, spiritomb gets a dose of full restore from Cynthia.

- Flamethrower!

Silver wind!

Talia spews intense flames at spiritomb, incinerating it until only a keystone remains.

Go Milotic!

- Talia return! Go Lennier!

Surf!

Lennier enters the arena and is greeted by a wall of water crashing down onto him.

- Leaf blade!

Surf!

Lennier charges his blades with a green energy and slashes at milotic who keels over and flops to the floor.

Go Togekiss!

- Lennier return! Go Cern!

Air slash!

Sharp air pockets glance off of Cern’s body as it leaves it’s pokeball.

- Thunderbolt!

Aura sphere!

Togekiss launches a ball of focused aura at Cern, striking it head on with a loud clang. Cern points it’s magnets at togekiss and pierces it with spears of lightning.

- Thunderbolt!

Cynthia sprays a full restore on togekiss but Cern undoes the healing with another well aimed lightning bolt.

- Cern return! Go Na'Toth!

Aura sphere!

Na'Toth enters the arena but is caught unaware and is smacked across the face with a bright aura sphere.

- Na'Toth return! Go Draal!

Air slash!

Draal is assaulted by a series of sharp air pockets as they’re launched right at him upon his exit of the pokeball.

- Ice fang!

Aura sphere!

Draal speedily hovers over to togekiss and chomps on it’s wing with it’s ice cold teeth. Togekiss falls to the floor, frozen solid.

Go Lucario!

- Draal return! Go Lennier!

Stone edge!

Lennier is met by a flurry of sharp rocks being flung at him, he guards against most of them but a couple leave a mark.

- Drain punch!

Shadow ball!

Lennier bounds across the arena to lucario and punches it in the gut, draining it’s life to heal his wounds.

Go Garchomp!

- Leaf blade!

Dragon rush!

Lennier slashes at garchomp with his blades glowing. Garchomp grabs ahold of Lennier and runs him into the wall. After letting Lennier go, garchomp swallows a sitrus berry it had stashed away.

- Leaf blade!

Dragon rush!

Lennier leaps at garchomp once more. Garchomp grabs Lennier by his arm blades, the sharp edges cutting into garchomp’s arms but it doesn’t care as it charges forwards and drives Lennier into the arena wall.

- Lennier!! I… I’m sorry…

Aw man, I kinda liked the one with swords for arms…

- Draal, go!

- Ice fang!

Flamethrower!

Draal zips across the arena, baring his frozen fangs and bites into garchomp’s neck. Garchomp flinches in pain before being sapped of it’s body heat and freezing solid.

Go Roserade!

- Ice fang!

Sludge bomb!

Draal wastes no time and quickly takes a bite out of the petals on roserade’s head, frost quickly spreads from the wound and roserade topples over.

Mmm, crisp salad!

Congratulations, you’ve bested me.

I walk over to a nearby wall, take off my backpack and sit down with my back to the wall. I take a fresh water bottle out of my backpack and take a sip from it.

Hey, we’re not leaving yet?

You’re not heading into the hall of fame?

- Not yet… I just want to rest a little.

I see, you’re hesitant to go home?

- Sort of. Every time I’ve used one of those machines my friends get left behind or taken away or something.

And it drains my battery for some reason!

It didn’t happen to me when I tried it.

- Exactly.

There’s a short moment of silence, I take another sip of water.

So why do you do it? Travel in time, that is.

- I don’t know, really. Part of me just wants to go home and hope my lost friends are at least in a happy place. But I really want to track down the one responsible for all of this.

You mean Ce–

- The Doc, Professor Oak.

Oh, of course. Yes, he’s the one who builds all these time machines isn’t he…

- Yeah…

You mentioned wanting to go home, where is home for you anyway? I don’t recognise your accent…

- Oh, well I’m from–

The doors to the arena burst open, policemen in full riot gear, more than I can count, swarm the entrance. At the front stands a familiar face.

Caldar! I’m here to place you under arrest!

- What?!

What?!

What?!

You are wanted in connection with the disappearances of Kanto Gym Leader Giovanni and the brief Unova Champion N.

- Who?

Along with many counts of assault and criminal damage you are also wanted for the murders of Team Rocket Executives Proton and Archer, Team Magma employee Bob of Hoenn, Lysandre of Lysandre Labs, Ghetsis Harmonia of The Seven Sages and most recently Cyrus of Team Galactic!

Cynthia looks over to me, a complete look of shock is frozen on my face.

I don’t believe it!

- I don’t even know who half those people are!

Come quietly, there’s no need to make this any harder than it already is! We’ve waited for this exact moment so your pokemon are exhausted, if you force them to battle us it will only be worse on you!

Cynthia turns so me.

Run! I’ll keep them busy!

She feeds a star shaped pill to her garchomp, it immediately defrosts and it’s wounds close.

Flamethrower!

Garchomp spits fire at the riot squad, forcing them to back off.

What’re you waiting for? Go!

Without thinking I leap back to my feet and run into the hall of fame, I place my pokemon onto the slots on top of the time machine.

- Um.. destination, I need a destination!

I hear footsteps behind me. I turn to see Looker passing through the doorway and limping towards me, his jacket singed and smoking in places. He’s holding a pair of handcuffs.

I won’t let you get away!

In a blind panic I hit the control panel, the time machine whirs into action, electricity arcs all around me and I’m engulfed in a familiar bright light…

Meanwhile, outside the Pokemon League…

Wow Professor, we’re really here to see Caldar’s championship battle?!

Not exactly. I’ve been assisting Looker in his investigation and I’m here to see the culprit being taken in. I like to see justice take place first hand, you see.

But you said we were here to see– oh…

You lied to me! And why is Caldar being arrested?!

It’s a long story, I’ll explain later.

But he saved us all!

I have my doubts about that, and just to think I let him have that Turtwig…

Rowan walks into the building, muttering to himself.

Well I’ll have no part in it!

Dawn starts to faintly glow blue, electricity arcs from her in all directions.

What’s happening?! I feel tingly!

The light intensifies for a moment and fades. Seemingly from nowhere a silver ball has appeared in her left hand. She lifts it to her face and a shadowy figure appears above it. It speaks silently but Dawn seems to hear it just fine.

This is Agent 12 reporting in. Time slip complete, disguise accurate to 98%.

The shadow in her palm speaks silently.

I’ve arrived at the closest point possible given the safety parameters. It would appear it was a long shot, the local space/time has returned to normal however the scanner shows the target entered a time displacement roughly 5 minutes ago local time.

Awaiting instructions.

The shadowy figure turns away briefly as if listening to something else unseen. It turns back to Agent 12 and gives her silent orders.

Sir? You mean to jump me there directly?! Is it that much of an emergency?

The shadow explains without sound.

He did what?! Understood, orders received. Preparing for time displacement.

Caldar’s adventure will continue in: Back to the Nuzlocke 4!