Boom—
Sparks sprayed across the clearing. The front of the machine buckled inward under the impact, a deep, ugly dent driven into the reinforced casing. The whole structure lurched and came down hard, throwing Iron-Masked Marauder off the platform and onto the ground.
Steven looked at the machine — still mostly intact despite everything — and let out a low breath.
"That casing really is something."
"Hammer Arm."
Bang!
Metagross brought all four limbs down simultaneously. Parts flew. Panels buckled and tore free. Metagross caught Iron-Masked Marauder with Psychic before he could crawl away, holding him pinned without looking, and set about dismantling the machine piece by piece.
Steven swept his gaze across the clearing.
The controlled Pokémon were all down.
Empoleon had handled both Houndoom without much difficulty, its Brave nature carrying it through cleanly. Aggron had overpowered Nidoking on raw strength alone — there had never really been a contest there. Skarmory and Lucario had taken a little longer; Scizor and Tyranitar were still exchanging blows, but the outcome was no longer in question.
Steven walked over to Iron-Masked Marauder and crouched down beside him. Still held fast by Psychic, the man couldn't move. Steven reached into his vest and removed the remaining Dark Balls — all six of them.
He tossed them over his shoulder without looking.
"Aggron — crush those."
They scattered across the ground in front of Aggron.
"Kao!"
Aggron brought its foot down, and the Dark Balls crumbled under its weight one by one.
The moment the last one broke, something shifted across the battlefield.
Tyranitar went rigid mid-swing. The grey, churning energy that had been wrapped around it since the start began to peel away. Grey flames flickered up across its body — not real fire, but something being burned out of it — and it let out a single, strained cry.
The same thing moved through the other five at the same time, wherever they had fallen.
The grey faded. The flames went out. And the hard, narrow vertical pupils that had replaced their natural eyes slowly, gradually, returned to what they were supposed to be.
"That should be the last of it," Steven said quietly.
He looked back down at Iron-Masked Marauder.
"I'm technically a public official now — though I haven't been formally sworn in yet."
He tilted his head slightly.
"Article 66 of the Pokémon League Statutes: I'm not permitted to execute you. I'm required to place you under arrest and deliver you to the League." Steven's tone was almost conversational. Iron-Masked Marauder let out a slow, shaky breath.
Steven smiled faintly.
"That said — the Statutes do allow me to take reasonable measures to protect my own safety."
He stood up and stepped aside.
"Aggron. Both arms. Both legs."
Iron-Masked Marauder's eyes went wide. His mouth opened. Nothing came out.
Steven watched with quiet satisfaction as Aggron approached. Iron-Masked Marauder had just enough time to register what was about to happen before the pain took him and he went limp.
He wouldn't be going anywhere. And even with the medical capabilities available in the Pokémon world, recovery from something like this would take months, at best. Whether full mobility ever returned — that was a different question.
Steven turned back to Metagross.
The machine had been reduced to a scattered field of components, none of them recognisably connected to anything else.
"That's enough, Metagross."
Steven and Metagross released their Mega Evolution state together.
Steven crouched down and picked up one of the larger metal fragments. He turned it over in his hands.
"This really is a rare alloy. No wonder it held up as long as it did."
"Kao?"
Aggron had gone very still. It was staring at the scattered casing parts with an intensity that could only be described as longing.
"I know," Steven said, with a helpless smile. "But let Lucario check it first."
"Kao!"
Aggron turned and charged toward Lucario at an alarming pace.
"Luca—"
Lucario threw up a hand.
I know, I know. Give me a moment.
It pressed its palms to a few of the larger fragments and read them with Aura. No residual darkness. No contamination. Just metal.
Ordinary, very dense, very expensive-looking metal.
Aggron didn't need to be told twice. It sat down in the middle of the wreckage and began to eat with the focused enthusiasm of a Pokémon that had been patient for a long time.
Steven's own stomach chose that moment to remind him that he had not eaten since before leaving for Johto.
"Everyone should eat something while we can." He looked at the scattered fragments and began loading the larger pieces into his bag — rare metal acquired for free was not something to leave behind, and Aggron would want it later.
"Tyran!"
Steven glanced up. Tyranitar was standing a short distance away, scratching the back of its head with one claw. Something in its posture — the angle of its shoulders, the particular way it was not quite making eye contact — made Steven blink.
Female, then.
It looked at him for a moment, then turned its head away and made a low sound that was, apparently, its version of thank you. Then it walked off into the forest.
Nidoking, the freed Scizor, and the Houndoom woke up one by one over the next few minutes, looked around in evident confusion, registered Steven's presence, and departed in their own ways — some with more dignity than others.
In the undergrowth a short distance away, a very small Larvitar lay in the bushes with its eyes spinning. A piece of the machine's casing had apparently flown that far and landed beside it at some point. It was not clear when.
Once Steven had eaten and the bag was full, he recalled everyone except Metagross into their Poké Balls.
"Metagross — do you remember the village we passed on the way in?"
Metagross considered this.
"Metagross?"
It nodded.
It was possible to perceive the outside world even from within a Poké Ball, if only dimly — and on the flight in, Steven had caught a glimpse of treehouses built high among the branches below, clustered together. A small settlement. Remote, but inhabited.
"Then let's go there first."
Steven pulled himself up onto Metagross and they left the clearing.
He had already decided: he would leave Iron-Masked Marauder with the villagers and write a note explaining the situation. They could bring him to the nearest town the following day and hand him over to Officer Jenny from there. It wasn't the most elegant solution, but it was the one available.
After that was handled, Steven and Metagross turned toward the heart of the forest.
The Lake of Life. That was where Latias had taken Celebi.
There was no signal out here — no way to reach Cynthia, no way to update her. He didn't like that, but there was nothing to be done about it now.
He thought back over the night. The controlled Tyranitar and the machine's armoured hull had both been genuinely difficult obstacles — either one would have given an Elite Four member serious pause. Tonight had stretched the limits of what his team could do at full output. It had been close enough that Steven was not inclined to underestimate Iron-Masked Marauder's resources a second time.
But it was over now. And once Celebi recovered at the Lake of Life, the forest would recover with it.
There was still one more thing that needed answering.
He had questions for Latias.
And for the first time in a very long while, he thought he might finally be close to the answers.
"larv..."
Back in the bushes, Larvitar groaned its way back to consciousness, one small hand pressing against its head. It lay there for a moment, dazed.
Then it noticed the metal plate beside it.
It kicked it. The plate slid a few centimetres.
Larvitar's stomach rumbled.
It sat up, took a bite of the earth, chewed, and swallowed.
Then it looked ahead, into the deeper part of the forest, with the particular expression of a small creature that has a destination in mind and intends to reach it.
It got up.
And kept walking.