Ash stood at the center of the long-forgotten tunnel, surrounded by smoke and shifting heat.
He faced twelve agents of Shadow, armed with experimental tech and cloaked Pokémon, their auras flickering in corrupted pulses of black and violet.
This wasn't a battle.
This was an execution.
And Ash knew it.
He touched his belt—six PokéBalls.
His team.
His family.
There would be no holding back.
He looked forward, eyes calm.
"Let's go."
Pikachu leapt to his shoulder, cheeks sparking.
Ash threw five PokéBalls at once.
In flashes of light, his team formed around him:
Lucario, fists glowing with steady aura.
Greninja, blades of water forming along his arms.
Dragonite, wings flared, expression calm and focused.
Gengar, drifting like a smirking shadow, ready to taunt death itself.
Charizard, roaring flames into the air, tail burning white-hot.
The air tightened.
The enemy moved.
And hell broke loose.
Round One: Storm Front
The first wave hit like thunder.
Two agents sent forward a Corrupted Honchkrow and a twisted Togekiss, their movements erratic, their eyes wrong.
"Greninja, Aerial Sweep!"
"Pikachu, Electro Web, back the line!"
Greninja darted into the air, slicing through Honchkrow's wing, while Pikachu cast lightning traps across the floor, tripping a trio of enemy Pokémon and detonating in sparks.
Gengar laughed as it phased behind a Machamp, whispering something before unleashing a Shadow Ball into its spine.
Dragonite crashed head-first into a Corrupted Skarmory, sending it into a wall in a heap of steel and smoke.
Lucario was everywhere—blocking, deflecting, countering, glowing with pure blue intent.
Ash called orders faster than he could think.
They weren't commands.
They were instinct.
"Charizard, Flamethrower left! Greninja, shift right flank!"
"Lucario, break the line with Force Palm! Now!"
His Pokémon answered without hesitation.
For every strike Shadow launched, they gave it back tenfold.
But then—
The second wave arrived.
A massive Tyranitar, skin dull gray and warped, with molten cracks in its scales.
An Aegislash that didn't move… until it did, cutting the air with unnatural silence.
Ash's Gengar tried to intercept.
He got struck mid-phase and sent crashing into the stone.
"Gengar!" Ash shouted.
Pikachu darted in, only to be blasted by a Shadow Pulse that cracked the wall behind him.
Lucario threw himself in the way of a charging Hydreigon, only to be hit by an aura-negating strike that sent both of them tumbling.
Even Dragonite was caught midair by black tendrils and slammed downward.
Ash was breathing hard.
Blood trickled down his arm.
He looked at his team.
Charizard and Greninja stood back-to-back.
Lucario rose slowly beside him, chest rising and falling.
Pikachu was panting, but his eyes still blazed.
And that's when—
The floor trembled.
Darkness surged.
From the corridor's rear, a single figure stepped forward.
Cloaked.
Floating just slightly off the ground.
He was tall.
Too tall.
And his body moved like liquid wrapped in skin.
The other Shadow agents stepped back.
Their Pokémon retreated.
This was no human.
This was the leader.
He raised a pale hand.
"You cost me twelve agents. And two prototypes."
His voice did not echo—it pierced.
"But you gave me data I couldn't get otherwise."
Ash clenched his fists. "You think this is a game?"
"No," said the thing. "This is harvest."
From his other hand, he conjured a growing sphere of energy—black, warped, pulsing like a dying star.
"A shadow compressed into singularity," the figure whispered.
"Let's see what the world's Champion is worth."
He hurled it.
A Dark Core.
Massive. Final.
The moment it launched—
Ash didn't hesitate.
"Lucario!"
"Right behind you!"
Ash extended his arm. Lucario mirrored him.
Aura erupted from both.
A perfect, unified Aura Sphere formed between them.
But this one was different.
Lucario's power surged—
—and Ash's aura fused into it like blue lightning wrapping gold flame.
They launched it together.
Aura met Shadow in the center of the battlefield.
And the world exploded.
Aftermath
When the light faded…
The tunnel was gone.
So was the ceiling.
A crater over 100 meters wide had formed in the earth.
Smoke curled from cracks in the rock.
Ash lay at the far edge, barely conscious, bleeding from the mouth and shoulder.
Lucario was beside him, limp but breathing.
Charizard stood like a shield over them both, wings singed but unbroken.
Pikachu sat on Ash's chest, unmoving.
Then…
A shadow moved within the crater.
The leader of Shadow stood in the exact center.
Cloak burned.
Face cracked like porcelain.
Half his body was blackened with aura residue.
But he smiled.
"Success."
His voice was distorted.
Glitching.
"I have what I came for."
He turned to walk into the shadows.
And then—
The air behind him twisted.
A ripple in space.
A pressure that silenced everything.
A presence older than anything in the tunnel.
A new voice.
"That's far enough."
A flash of light.
Mewtwo emerged from the vortex, eyes blazing violet.
He hovered midair, tail flicking behind him like a slow pendulum.
He looked down at the crater.
And the creature at its center.
"You should not exist."
The Shadow leader's grin faded.
"I arrived just in time," Mewtwo said quietly, his power spiking—
—and the chapter ends.