EVERYONE: The Forgotten Dimension

[Mand"alor te Siit]

First, the background: This is a mix of all canons, with some counterparts being merged and others coexisting. For example, Ash and Red both exist, but game Red and manga Red are assumed to be the same character. This also incorporates all regions except Ransei (too weird, and there's not much info on the English Bulbapedia). All regions are assumed to hold the same relative positions that the regions they are based on exist in the real world. So Unova and Orre (based on New York and Arizona) are pretty far away from all the other regions, which are all part of Japan (I'm still waiting for an in-universe name...). Looking again at the geographic inspiration, I have Saffron City as the capital of Japan. I have the first two chapters here, because they're both more or less an introduction.
***
Part 1
Professor Oak watched the news over his breakfast. Still half-asleep, the newscaster's words barely registered.
"Several prominent trainers, including Brandon of the Hoenn-Kanto Battle Frontier, have announced protest of the Legendary Pokemon Preservation Act, which, if enacted, would make it illegal to capture legendary Pokemon. Brandon is the owner of three Legendary Golems and three Legendary Birds. The LPPA was enacted to prevent the environmental catastrophes such as the infamous Orange Islands Lugia incident. However, critics say some, like Brandon, have caught legendaries with no damage whatsoever."
An assistant handed the newscaster a new paper. "Breaking news! Saffron City has been demolished by unknown forces. This will most likely postpone the LPPA discussions until a temporary capital can be set up." The newscaster picked up the original paper and continued calmly, "In international news, Alder has reclaimed the title of Unova Champion from Iris, the Opelucid City gym leader. It is unclear whether she will return to her career as a gym leader..."
Professor Oak stared at the TV. Who would want to destroy Saffron City? It's the capital! he thought. And anyway, who could? There hasn't been a credible army in Japan since the Treaty of Rota. There isn't a nation in the world that would want to attack us. Is there?

The mayor of Black City sighed as the phone rang. As if he didn't have enough work to do... Then he glanced at the caller ID, and picked up the phone immediately. "Hello. Speaking?"
"Really, Edac? Who else do you know who would call you from the capital?"
"Sorry, it's reflexive. What is it?"
"There's no official accusations yet, but I'm sure you've heard about Saffron City."
"Yeah..."
"Well, we're the only nation with an army capable of doing that, and I'm not sure how to convince them it wasn't us."
"Was it?"
"No!"
"Well, I suppose the easiest way would be to aid the rebuilding, offer help with defense. Make it obvious we want to help fix things, prevent it from happening again. No one would suspect us then."
"Well, some people will still be suspicious, but you're probably right."
"Why are you asking me, though?"
The voice at the other end paused, then said, "Your advice to call in the International Police against Team Plasma probably won me the Unova vote and the election. Your advice has always worked before, and I trust you a lot more than any of those idiots who try to give me advice."
Edac wasn't quite sure how to respond. The voice at the other end said suddenly, "I need to go. Something urgent, apparently. They always say it's urgent..."
They both laughed, and Edac got back to his paperwork.

In the ruins above Michina Town, an intruder arrived. Pushing aside the Time-Space Axis, the intruder began a meticulous search. Finally, the intruder found a hidden compartment on the highest level of the amphitheater Marcus had used in his ambush. Pulling open the ancient, rusty mechanism, the intruder reached in and pulled out the real Time-Space Axis. It was unmistakable: The green sphere at the center, their own universe; the smaller blue and pink spheres of the Spacial and Temporal Dimensions; the flattened, pale green Distortion World; and the brilliant orange ovoid of the Alpha Universe. But what held the intruder's gaze was a small, amorphous black shape halfway between the domains of Dialga and Palkia. Another dimension...one the inhabitants of ancient Michina had tried to conceal, believing the world should never know of it.

Part 2
Bzzt! Bzzt!
Lunick tried to ignore the ringing. The rampaging Golurk demanded full attention.
Bzzt! Bzzt!
The Golurk almost hit him with Heavy Slam. He tried again to calm it with his capture styler, but it smashed the top with Night Shade. Again.
Bzzt! Bzzt!
If the caller was this persistent, it had to be important. He hadn't wanted to do this, but he had to finish up quickly. "Minun!" he shouted, "Use Iron Tail on its chest!"
The Golurk immediately collapsed as its energy escaped. It would be fine, but still...
Bzzt! Bzzt!
"Yes?"
"Headquarters here. We need you to go to Kanto."
"What? Can't you send Solana? She doesn't mind leaving the Ranger states."
"Look, I don't know why they chose you. It's obvious what you need to do, though."
"Oh? What's that?"
"Saffron City was demolished. If it's because of legendary Pokemon, it's our job to do something. If it's not, at least we'll know there's nothing we can do."
Lunick sighed and looked for a flying Pokemon.

Sabrina looked out over the rubble of her city. Her face was expressionless, but that was indication enough to anyone who knew her. Today, not even her cheerfully bobbing Haunter could make her smile. In fact, her Haunter wasn't even bobbing all that cheerfully...
She walked past the ruins of the Silph Corporation's gleaming tower, and found her gym completely collapsed. Not one wall, or even part of the structure, was left standing. Searching apprehensively among the ruins was a Team Rocket grunt. He had thick brown hair under his cap, and a pink bandanna around his neck. Despite the anonymity usually associated with Team Rocket's lower ranks, she recognized him immediately. "Al. What are you doing here?"
He whirled around, but relaxed when he saw who she was. "The boss sent me to confirm your death," he said.
"Why?"
"Well, you are still an inactive member of Team Rocket. How did you survive, anyway?"
"There was a world tournament in Unova. They asked me to come."
"Well, my job is done," said Al. Sending out a Hypno, he said, "Hypno, use Meditate!"
As he and Hypno floated into the air and flew away, Sabrina muttered, "That's impossible. Meditate can't..."
"Excuse me..."
She turned around. "And what are you doing here?"
"I'm Lunick. A Pokemon Ranger. I'm investigating the possibility that this was done by a Pokemon."
"You think a Pokemon did this?" she said, surprised.
"Possibly. Have you ever heard of Pokelantis?"
She frowned. "Pokelantis was a city-state. Ho-oh could have taken all the time it needed. Saffron City was a modern city. To destroy it before anyone could escape or get a message out would take a lot of Pokemon."
Lunick held up a peice of metal. Several holes were punched--no, burned--through it. "If it wasn't Pokemon, someone has a lot of very small lasers."

Deep within Mount Coronet, an intruder arrived. The intruder took out two objects. One was an irregular golden object. The intruder held it up, and a gateway opened. Then the intruder lifted the second object. Six notes rang out through the cave, and four things appeared that had not been there before. The first two were blue and pink disks floating in the air. The third, a gaping black circle in the floor. The intruder stepped through one, then another, then the third. Each time, the intruder threw one of the four purple spheres taken from the rubble of Silph Corporation. Then the intruder ascended the stairs that had been fourth to appear, and threw the last sphere. The greatest obstacles to the intruder's plans were now gone...
***
Okay, so it won't let me use italics. And as for this mysterious intruder, I doubt you can guess who it is, but please don't post guesses. Same for what destroyed Saffron City.

 

[Mand"alor te Siit]

Part 3
Professor Oak sat down to look at his e-mail. Mostly, it was the usual: requests for Pokedexes, questions from other researchers... One, however, was definitely not usual:

From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
We have detected a dimensional breach at a small island between the Sevii and Orange Islands. It's not something that concerns us, but it might be something you should know. It does not match the energy signature of the Temporal, Spatial, or Distortion Worlds, but we do not have data on the Alpha Universe.

This seemed important. He couldn't investigate personally, but he called Lunick. If it was Arceus, that could explain how Saffron City was destroyed, if not why.

Lunick flew over the island on a commandeered Pidgeot. There was some kind of abandoned house, but no sign of anything else.
Lunick noticed someone. Whoever it was had a cloak, and in front of this person was some kind of black shape. The shape was moving...no, there were things coming out of it. He saw strange, twisted black shapes and flat, circular eyes...Unowns! The person turned. The Unowns flew after him, and he turned the Pidgeot back towards Kanto. The Unowns were more like a solid wave than a swarm of small Pokemon, and the cloaked person was riding the wave.
Then Lunick saw land. Indigo Plateau, he thought. That's lucky.
A tall man with red hair came out the main gate. "What's going on?"
"Look out!" yelled Lunick. The man barely got out of the way as the exhausted Pidgeot crash-landed.
The man grabbed a Poke Ball and threw it. "Go, Gyarados!"

The meeting at Indigo Plateau was off to a bad start. The Pokemon League officials, including the Elite Four, Champion, and Gym Leaders, were deciding what to do after the destruction of the Saffron City gym. There was now room in the League for another gym, but some wanted to relocate Sabrina to another city. Others wanted to give newer gyms a chance. Lance, the champion, would be the tiebreaker vote, but he had stepped out to see what was going on outside.
The meeting got much worse when a shiny Gyarados crashed through the wall and flattened the table.
"Lance!" shouted Koga, "What's going on?"
"We seem to be under attack by an army of Unowns," he replied. "They're after a Ranger."
The cloaked figure landed in front of the gaping hole in the wall. The army of Unowns were now up against a Dragonite, a Hitmonlee, a Xatu, an Absol, two Venomoths, a Raichu, a Charizard, a Magmar, an Alakazam, a Golem, a Vileplume, a Starmie, and a Ranger frantically looking for a wild Pokemon to use his Styler on.
"Who are you?" said Lance, "and what do you have against this Ranger?"
"I was only searching for what destroyed Saffron City," said Lunick. "Unless you and your Unowns did it, you had no reason to go after me."
"I did destroy Saffron City," said the cloaked figure.
"Why?!"
"Do you know how the universe was formed?"
"Of course," replied Blue, "Everyone does. Arceus was the first Pokemon--"
"Wrong!"
"It's common knowledge..."
"The Unown was the first Pokemon. A living darkness... until Arceus shattered the darkness into billions of weak fragments! It created its own universe on the ruins of theirs!"
"Dragonite, Whirlwind!"
The gust of air swept away the cloak. The Unowns' leader had dark purple hair, almost black. The black outfit and circular eye logo were unfamiliar, but...
Misty and Brock stared in disbelief. Finally, Misty said, "That's Professor Ivy!" She turned to face Brock. "This is what scared you so badly?! And you didn't think it might be important enough to TELL SOMEONE?!?!"
"Well..."
"This world belongs to them!" shouted Ivy. "They are not the invaders. You are! We are!" She turned, and the Unowns followed her. "We will retake the world, starting today. And Arceus can't stop us this time..."
***
It may seem pretty clear where it's going from here, but I've got a few more surprises planned. I first got the idea for this when I noticed the massive difference between the power of Unowns in a group (M3) and alone (games), and also the absence of their world on the Time-Space Axis.

 

[Mand"alor te Siit]

Part 4
One Year Later...
Kanto was one of the few places still putting up a fight. Team Rocket, surprisingly enough, was the main force behind the defense. As Archer said, "We want to take over the world. We don't look kindly on rivals." Proton gave a different reason: "If the universe is destroyed, we'll go along with you." Lt. Surge's military experience was coming in handy as he trained the grunts to fight the Unowns. Cinnabar Island was the main base for the defenders. Pallet Town was still free, and Route 1 was the site of most of the battles against the Unowns. Cinnabar was too well-defended for the Unowns to attack directly, and Sabrina's Mr. Mime was defending the town with Light Screen, just like Saffron City years ago.
Few people called in from outside Pallet Town and Cinnabar, so Professor Oak was surprised when Kurt called on his videophone.
"Hello, Professor," he said cheerfully. "How's it going?"
Oak just stared for a while. Finally, he said, "You don't watch the news, do you?"
"Um... no... why?"
"I'll explain in a minute. Why did you call?"
"I finally figured out how to open the GS Ball. I'll send it over via the PC System now. You see, the apparently decorative symbols on the front are in fact bioscanners. They are installed in a verification loop with the Poke Ball itself..."
"The short version?" interrupted Professor Oak.
"The short version is, it will only open when brought near the original apricorn tree it came from."
"I thought bioanalysis showed it was made from Lugia and Ho-oh feathers."
"Are you serious?! You can't make a Poke Ball with feathers! The feathers are the outer casing. On most Poke Balls, the outer casing is made of metal and mass-produced for uniformity. Artifacts related to legendary Pokemon usually have special properties, so it probably has some purpose..."
"So where is the tree?"
"The ball is made from an extinct subspecies of apricorn endemic to Ilex Forest. The only tree in living memory was cut down fifteen years ago to build a shrine to Celebi. You need to take the GS Ball to the shrine to open it."
"Depending on what's in the ball, this might be valuable to our defense."
"Defense? What are you talking about? Azalea Town is pretty out of the way, so I may have missed something..."

Sinnoh, too, had their former enemies in their defense. Team Galactic, now controlled by Saturn, together with gym leaders and the Elite Four, were Sinnoh's only defenders. Saturn's tactics were to defend their temporary bases, then abandoning the bases before taking losses. It wasn't making a noticeable difference in the Unowns' numbers, but Saturn kept them moving on a seemingly-random path.
They had just moved into an underground location, and they were scouting out the surrounding caves to make sure there was only one entrance. Roark and Byron would make an exit. Saturn took one of the tunnels, and found it led to the surface. He called out his Kadabra to collapse it when suddenly a loud noise echoed from farther on.
Further in the tunnel, he found a girl running terrified from a huge Unown. At least it seemed to be an Unown. The central eye was almost a meter across, and it easily stood three meters tall. That was another thing--it stood. It didn't float in the air like most Unowns, but stood on two of the long black appendages all Unowns had. Two more appendages, just as long, seemed to be arms of some sort, but it attacked with them as if they were clubs, swinging with little control. The laserlike red blast of Hidden Power shooting from the eye blasted half-meter-deep craters in the wall when they hit.
Saturn realized he should do something, and stopped staring in shock at the monstrous Unown to say, "Kadabra, use Teleport! Take that thing...over a volcano or something, then come back."
Kadabra dashed forward toward the thing, dodging its clumsy attempts to smash it to the ground. When they connected, they disappeared. Three seconds later, Kadabra reappeared alone.
Saturn looked over at the girl who had been running from it, and frowned. He recognized her; she had been with the group of kids who had stopped Cyrus in his last attempt at creating a new universe at Spear Pillar. Dialga and Palkia had been about to destroy the world, and she had been relatively calm. Even some of the grunts had looked more afraid. And yet, that thing had her terrified. He was glad the battle had been so short.

In Johto, the Unowns were completely unopposed. Goldenrod Tower was the center of communications for all of Japan, but since it was down due to "equipment failure," no one knew much about the rest of the world. JNBS, the local branch of the Orre-based international news organization, ONBS, had been the only news source in Johto, so now no one realized there was an invasion. It was an unheard-of situation, and one that could easily change.
Which is why, when they detected an intruder from Kanto, the Unowns responded immediarely.
The residents of Azalea Town saw a swarm of the now-common Unowns rushing into the forest, but they had no reason to worry. The next day, Bugsy was training in the forest.
All he saw that was unusual was a gold and silver Poke Ball lying open on a pile of scorched splinters.

 

[Mand"alor te Siit]

Uh, I just noticed those fake e-mail addresses automatically became links... If anyone actually has those e-mail addresses, I'm completely unaware of it.