Author's Notes:
Hey there everyone, welcome to chapter 82. Sorry I'm late, I forgot today was Friday.

If you like my work please vote, feel free to comment, and please share this story with your friends. I now present to you chapter 82, enjoy.

"Ok, they've got at least two hundred soldiers, fifty grunts, and four armored vehicles armed with multiple large caliber machine guns," Silver observed from the third floor of one of the buildings near Team Rocket, and reported back to everyone downstairs.

"Thanks Silver, now come on down," William replied as he and the others started working up a plan.

"This isn't looking good," Riley commented after hearing the details of the Team Rocket defenses.

"No, but we can manage. William, Red, and myself have handled things like this before," Delia replied.

"Well that's good for you, but what about the rest of us? Not everyone here has superpowers, or experience to fall back on," Paul commented.

"Don't take it as her down playing it," Red replied. "Those times we had the element of surprise and days of planning. This time they know we're coming and we only have a few minutes before we need to move."

Just then there was a flash of light coming from Team Rocket.

"What was that?" Alain asked urgently.

"Looks like they fired that mind control cannon at Mewtwo," Brendan replied.

"That's not good. I don't think we can handle him too," William commented.

"Don't worry, I don't think it worked on him. It looks like he's still fighting Shadow," Brendan added.

"Good. Now back to how are we going to take that cannon down," William focused as he created an aura map of the immediate area.

"Agreed. By the way, can one of you loan Red and I a Pokémon? It will make things a little easier for us if we're stopped by another Pokémon," Delia asked.

"Oh man, thank you for reminding me," William said as he reached for his two Pokéballs on his belt. "With all the excitement, I almost forgot about them." William removed two pokeballs from his belt and released the Pokémon inside, a Lucario and a Charizard, both old and battle scarred.

"Lucario?" "Charizard?" Delia and Red said in shock upon seeing their old Pokémon. The Pokémon smiled upon seeing their trainers again, and trainers and Pokémon took each other into a heartfelt embrace.

"But William, how did you know to bring them?" Delia asked.

"Riley," William said as he gestured to Riley. "He had a vision of this battle, and you two were here."

"Thank you," Delia replied as she wiped the tears from her eyes, and looked to Lucario with a pained expression. "I'm so sorry for abandoning you like that. I should have been stronger. I should..."

"No master. You do not need to feel sorry. You were suffering a pain I could not imagine. You did what you needed to do so you could raise Ash," Lucario told Delia in a comforting tone through his aura.

"Thank you Lucie," Delia replied then looked back to William. "How did you even get Charizard? He was at Professor Oak's lab."

"Haha, the old man practically shoved Charizard down my throat when I told him Red might still be alive and was going to need him," William replied.

"Listen, as much as I'm sure you all would love to catch up, Ash is going to make his move soon and we don't even have a plan to get past my father's army yet," Silver said in an annoyed tone.

"You're right. We need to get to work now. But if you're Giovanni's son, then that makes me your aunt. After this is all over, I'd love the chance to get to know you," Delia replied.

"I'd like that," Silver replied.

Just then the loud roar of jet engines was heard screaming overhead. Everyone looked out the windows in the direction of Team Rocket, to see over a dozen fighter jets as they began firing missiles at Arceus. All the missiles hit their target, but when the smoke cleared, Arceus was seen unharmed.

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"Do you have a lock?" Giovanni asked one of the grunts operating the mind control cannon.

Currently as Arceus was destroying buildings, Mewtwo and Shadow were battling overhead. Mewtwo was fighting valiantly to keep it a close range battle so he had the advantage in this form.

"Almost......we have a lock," the grunt replied.

"Good," Giovanni replied as he pulled out a device that looked similar to a cell phone. "Shadow, get away now! Fire!"

Shadow knocked Mewtwo back with a powerful psychic blast, as a red beam from the cannon and struck Mewtwo. Mewtwo cried out in pain but remained in the air. When the beam ended, Shadow proceeded to Mewtwo with little caution as Mewtwo floated in place in the air. Once close enough Shadow reached out to grab Mewtwo and bring him to Giovanni, however Mewtwo grabbed Shadow's arm and pulled it in as he threw a powerful Mega Punch. Shadow started to fly back, but Mewtwo pulled it back before sending it flying with a Mega Kick, then flew off after it to continue the assault.

"What happened?!" Giovanni demanded as it was clear Mewtwo wasn't under their control.

"I don't know sir. Running a diagnostic n....." the grunt started to reply urgently, before being interrupted by the image of Colress appearing on every screen.

"Hello Giovanni. If you're seeing this, then I am most likely dead, probably by your order. I never expected to get away from you alive, so in one final act of defiance, I made sure the mind control wouldn't work on Mewtwo. You should never have given me access to so much Pokémon data." A smirk then formed upon Colress' face. "Ironic isn't it? The first Pokémon you created to help you rule the world will no doubt aid in your downfall. I'll see you in Hell, you bastard."

Enraged Giovanni threw his right fist into the nearest screen just as Colress' face disappeared. Just then Torrent Air Force fighter jets fired missiles at Arceus. However the missiles didn't even seem to phase the Pokémon god.

"It seems the Air Force wants to play," Giovanni commented as he pulled his fist from the screen. Blood dripped from the cuts in his hand caused by the broken glass. A medic quickly ran over and began tending to his hand as he pulled Arceus' controller from his coat. "Destroy those jets, and anything else that attacks you before returning to destroying the city." With that, Arceus began to peruse the fighter jets as he used Hyper Beam, destroying three of them while moving the angle of the attack.

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Ash was running down streets and between buildings, all in an effort to position himself that his attacks would draw Arceus away from the mind control weapon, but not in the direction the civilians were evacuating. Once he felt he was in a good position, Ash began jumping back and forth between two buildings until he reached the roof. Just as he arrived on the roof, his attention was drawn away from Arceus by the sound of fighter jets screaming through the sky, and attacking Arceus. Ash then looked in horror as Arceus destroyed three of them in a single attack, and began perusing the others, moving in a direction away from him and towards a direction Miette and the others were helping people evacuate. Ash then released his Pokémon, knowing he didn't have time to chase after Arceus on foot. Lucario, Greninja, Arcanine, Fearow, and Charizard stood before him. Pikachu jumped off of Ash's shoulder and joined the others as they awaited Ash's instructions.

"Today we're going into battle against Arceus," Ash said and he pointed to the side. The Pokémon looked in shock as they saw their god destroying another group of fighter jets. "Team Rocket took control of him, and it's our job to keep him distracted while the others destroy the weapon that took control of him so the other legendary Pokémon can come help." Ash then looked from his Pokémon to Arceus. "This will be unlike any of the other times we've gone up against a legendary Pokémon. Arceus is the most powerful Pokémon ever, and he's out to kill anyone that gets in his way." Ash looked back to his Pokémon with a steeled resolve and enough determination in his eyes to give even the most terrified person courage to fight. "I'm pretty sure I already know your answer, but I'm going to ask anyway. If any of you don't feel up to battle Arceus, tell me now and I'll send you back to Professor Oak's lab where it's safe. But if you stay and fight, we'll all go down in history for battling Arceus and living to tell the tale. So who wants to go home?" None of Ash's Pokémon moved or made a noise. "And who wants to become a legend!" All of Ash's Pokémon cheered with determination. "That's what I thought. I'm going to establish an aura connection with all of you, this way we all can communicate. We're going to keep on the move and keep hitting Arceus with everything we've got while also looking out for one another, and I'll be calling out some Z moves from time to time to deal out some more distraction." Ash took a deep breath as his body glowed blue. "But first, Lucario, Fearow, Arcanine, Charizard, MEGA EVOLVE! Greninja, LETZ GO!"

Lucario and Arcanine mega evolved into their known forms as Greninja took on the Ash-Greninja form, but everyone was curious what a Mega Fearow would look like, and which form Charizard would take. Fearow's mega evolution completed first. His wings turned black with red feathers at the ends and in his tail feathers. His body turned a dark brown, with cream colored feathers around the base of his wings and back of his head. The crest in his head became larger and more pronounced, and his claws and tip of his beak were now black, helping him look even more intimidating.

Charizard however truly surprised everyone. He did not take the X form, nor did he take the Y form. The appearance of his body structure resembled the X form the most, except for the wings that formed on his wrists and the wings on his back which were now larger, those resembling the Y form. But the most unique change was his body color. His underside and soles were sky blue, while the rest of his body was completely white.

This creation was brought to you by SailorMercury15
"Well I think we can call this the Charizard Z form," Ash commented while breathing deeply, and he took in the sight of this new form that appeared to take the best features of both, the power from X, and the flying prowess of Y. The initial stain of mega evolving four Pokémon was still fairly significant for Ash, but he could tell it wasn't as severe as the last time as he recovered quickly.

Ash then shook his head to bring himself back to the task at hand. "Alright everyone, time to go. Use the buildings to your advantage to hide yourselves between attacks. Surround Arceus for now, don't attack until my signal, and be ready for our tactics to change at any point. I'll be moving between all of you to use Z moves, I'm not sure what my limit is yet, but we'll use as many as we can," Ash explained as he climbed onto Charizard's back while his eyes glowed blue to establish an aura connection with each of them.

Charizard then took off with Ash and Pikachu riding on his back. Meanwhile Lucario, Greninja, and Arcanine ran along the rooftops as Fearow flew above them.

"Ok everyone, surround him but stay out of sight. We don't want to risk him seeing us as a threat until after we attack," Ash explained through the aura connection.

As they moved into position, Arceus continued destroying the fighter jets, until they were all finally destroyed. Arceus then settled back down into his original task of destroying the city. Carefully Ash and his Pokémon surrounded him, with Ash, Pikachu, and Charizard taking position behind Arceus.

"Charizard, I want you to use Blast Burn. Pikachu, let's give Arceus ten million reasons to focus on us," Ash said through his aura, as a yellow crystal lightning bolt formed on his electrium Z.

Ash and Pikachu did the synchronized movements as Charizard's tail flame grew to nearly as big as him, and the explosive fire type move began to build inside him as a blue glow was seen from the back of his throat. A dark cloud formed overhead and a powerful bolt of lightning struck Pikachu. Then, just as Charizard's Blast Burn attack had reached critical mass he released it, just as multiple different colored bolts of electricity fired from Pikachu. The two attacks flew through the air and converged just as they hit their mark. Arceus ceased his attack on the city and steadily turned around to face his attackers, seeing Ash atop Charizard as Pikachu started running off in another direction.

"Now that I have your attention Arceus, let's have a battle."

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"That is a horrible idea, these kids will definitely be killed that way," Delia stated as she dismissed another of William's ideas.

"Not if we act as shields. If they stay behind us, they'll be ok," William replied in defense of his idea.

"That's not guaranteed," Delia replied.

As this continued, Paul and Alan were keeping watch out one of the windows to make sure no one snuck in and got the drop on them, while Serena was looking out another window at the Team Rocket forces preparing for an attack.

"Don't worry, I'm sure they'll come with something soon. They're pretty good about coming up with plans on the fly," Red said as he sat down beside Serena.

"I hope so," Serena replied with a worried expression. "Why aren't you helping? I've heard you three used to do this stuff all the time."

"Damaged goods," Red replied as he tapped his head. "With all those years as Giovanni's prisoner, I don't trust myself to think right."

Serena didn't respond as she watched out the window and saw another fighter jet get shot down by Arceus.

"I'm sorry, we were never introduced," Red said as he held out his hand to Serena. Even though they weren't introduced, Delia had told Red about Serena and how important she was to Ash. "I'm Red Ketchum."

"I'm Serena Yvonne. Nice to meet you Mr. Ketchum," Serena replied as she shook his hand.

"Please don't call me Mr. Ketchum, it feels too formal for me. Please just call me Red," Red replied with a small laugh. "Besides, you're probably going to be family one day, so you might as well get used to it now"

Serena blushed brightly at the thought, since that would require her and Ash getting married. "Well Ash needs to propose to me first, and considering where we both are in life right now, I don't think that's going to be happening anytime soon." Serena replied.

"Maybe, maybe not. I wanted to propose to Delia when we were sixteen," Red chuckled at the memory. "However I had enough sense to hold off on that till we were eighteen. Whether it was to challenge a league or to take a mission for her parents, we were still running around through all the regions. My point is there's never really a right point in your life, and if you wait for one you'll be old and grey first." Red stopped and shook his head. "I guess I should really be having this conversation with Ash though, seeing as he's the one who's supposed to propose."

"No it's ok, it's nice to know you support us," Serena said, then sighed as she turned to look back outside.

"Are you ok?" Red asked.

"Oh yes I'm fine. I've just been thinking of a way that I might be able to use my powers to help," Serena replied.

"Wait, powers?" Red questioned as he was still very out of the loop on things.

"Oh sorry. I'm psychic," Serena replied casually.

"Well I'll be damned," Red replied as he shook his head. "Clearly Ash knows, but do Delia and William?"

"My powers woke up recently, and it was William who discovered this and pointed me towards the region's psychic gym leader for answers and help. As for Delia, I know Ash told her," Serena replied.

"I guess they want you to conserve your strength then since they don't seem to be taking you into consideration. I've been told it's easy for new psychics to overdo it since they have a limited amount of psychic energy," Red surmised.

"But I don't have a limited amount, I've been told I'm as strong as a psychic elder," Serena explained.

"I'm sorry, what?!" Red asked with a shocked expression.

"It's true, Eligor told me after I nearly knocked his grandfather out with a psychic blast. And his grandfather was the Torrent Region master," Serena explained.

Red couldn't believe what he just heard. His son's girlfriend was on par with a psychic master and she was barely trained. Nevertheless Red's brain got to work, and with little to no effort, he was putting this new knowledge to use as he formulated a plan.

"Delia, William, is there a reason why you haven't been considering having Serena use her psychic powers to help?" Red asked.

"Well, Serena's not that experienced," Delia replied. "According to Ash, her powers only awoke a few months ago, so she shouldn't have sufficient strength to do anything to a mass effect yet."

"Yes she can," William replied as he facepalmed due to him forgetting all about Serena and her psychic strength. "No, Serena doesn't have experience, but she does have the power. According to Eligor, she's not that far off from him in respects to level of power."

"So then I take it that you two have come up with a plan?" Delia asked.

Red then explained his plan in fairly good detail. Overall it was a simple plan, however it wasn't going to be easy for Serena.

"The key to Serena pulling this off will be control, and knowledge. Serena. what psychic types do you have with you?" William asked.

"Gardevoir and Delphox."

"Ok, we'll need both of them to help you keep your power in check so you don't overdo it. As for knowledge," William replied, his voice sounding hesitant at the end. "Well the only person with detailed enough knowledge would be Red. And really the best way to get that knowledge would be for Serena to dive into his mind and essentially copy it to her own mind. The problem is though, we don't know the condition of Red's mind."

"If I focus on that knowledge, she shouldn't have to go too far in, and should be ok," Red replied.

"Why wouldn't I be ok?" Serena asked, sounding concerned.

"Psychological damage. Red spent nearly twenty years as Giovanni's prisoner. Even if he wasn't tortured, there's no telling the effects of that much time as a prisoner. And you'll be copying information from his mind, so if you copy any of that, you'll feel like you lived it," Riley replied.

"Well then it's out of the question," Delia said sternly. "I won't risk Serena like that."

"Well it's not really your choice. It's Serena's," William said matter of factly.

"I'll do it," Serena said with determination.

"No Serena dear, you don't have to do this. We'll think of another way," Delia replied urgently as she put her hands on Serena's shoulders.

"I know I don't have to, but I want to. Everyone is giving their all, and if anything happens to either of you and I'm not doing all that I can, then I wouldn't be able to live with myself," Serena stated, showing her mind was clearly made up.

"Ok," Delia said softly as she gave Serena a hug then stepped away.

"Alright, let's get this over with," Red stated as he took a seat.

"Ok then. Now Red just remember, keep that knowledge on the surface, think only of that," William said from off to the side.

Red nodded as Serena stepped in front of him. Her eyes then glowed red followed by Red's as she dove into his mind. Serena was only in there for less than a minute when she broke the connection and fell to her knees crying.

"Serena, are you ok?" Delia asked in a panic.

Serena nodded.

"I'm so sorry," Red said as he went down to the ground and hugged her. "I was trying to keep my mind clear of everything else, but something slipped in.

"Serena, are you going to be alright?" William asked.

"I'm fine," Serena replied, her voice shaky. "Red, you went through too much pain. I'm so sorry that happened to you."

"Don't worry about me, I'll live. Were you able to get everything?" Red asked"

"I did," Serena said as she stood back up and wiped away her tears. "And I'm ready. Let's do this."