Something attached to the Emperor's belt began to beep. It must have been important, because he immediately gave it his full attention. His eyes lit up in excitement and he failed to notice Giovanni take his final breath. The Emperor quickly pulled the tiny thing off of his belt and let it rest in the palm of his hand. After a moment, a holographic figure shimmered into existence.

"Sire, we are ready to begin our attack," the Emperor's young second-in-command said.

"Good work. Everything is proceeding as planned."

* * *

The first rumble was followed by several more. The ground began to shake violently, and the giant, stone pillars began to collapse.

"Quickly! I will teleport us out of here." Mewtwo yelled.

The group gathered themselves around him and were surrounded by a blue light. A second later, they were gone, and the ceiling began to cave in.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Team Rocket hadn't gotten very far when the loud, earth-shaking rumbles began to occur. They soon found themselves running for their lives, as the ceiling was shaken apart. Covered in dust and rubble, they barely managed to make it to safety.

"This," began Jessie, fuming, "is why we always stick with my plans. Every time we do anyone else's, something like this happens."

"Do you think the twerp's friends got out alive?" James asked.

Jessie looked at James, stunned. "Is it just me, or are you conc-" However, she didn't get a chance to finish her sentence, for at that moment the ceiling fell.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As the search team rematerialized, the sounds of battle met their ears. After looking around, they found themselves in the town square. It was filled with their own soldiers as well as the enemy's. Many of the buildings had caught fire, and the loud rumbles were coming from shells hitting the ground after being launched from large airships that seemed to have come out of the clouds.

It only took a few moments, and all of them found themselves immersed in the battle. Brock, who had just called out Steelix and Golem, picked a dropped rifle off of the ground and threw it to Tracy. May and Drew found themselves back to back as they shouted out orders to their pokemon. Rudy, after just having sent Starmie into action, found himself in a grapple with an enemy soldier. Misty called out Marill and together, he and Pikachu charged into the fray.

Misty had to duck as a streak of bullets whistled past her. Standing up and turning to her attacker, she realized that she didn't have a weapon. The red head rolled out of the way of another string of bullets, picked up a flat stone, and hucked it at her attacker. The stone was just the right size and Misty's aim was true, causing the rock to fly through a slit in the enemy's visor and hitting him in the eye. Howling in pain, the man dropped his weapon and covered his eye before Marill tackled him, knocking him out cold.

"Thank you, I needed one." Misty said the fallen soldier as she picked up his rifle and walked away.

Meanwhile, Pikachu had positioned himself on one of the more stable rooftops. From here, he began a battle with the enemy's flying pokemon. A wingull pulled itself into a dive at him, only to meet a bolt of lightning that sent it falling to the ground. Pikachu was suddenly attacked from behind. He turned to see a Raichu, its cheeks sparking dangerously. Pikachu prepared to attack its evolutionized form when a rather loud roar echoed across the square and the two pokemon fell off the roof. As Pikachu got up, he looked towards what everyone else was looking at.

At the opposite end of the square, sat a large, smoking crater. Judging from all of the soldiers that lay on the ground around it, it had been a Rebel emplacement. Then, the thing that had caused the explosion walked through smoke. It was a man wearing silver armor and a black cape. He had a silver helmet with a complete visor, so you couldn't even see his eyes.

"Rebels!" He yelled in a clear, strong voice that carried across the whole square, "Surrender now. Further resistance will only get you killed." Then, looking at May he added, "And I'll have that book if you please."

May, who had gotten the book from Tracy, shook her head. Fear was etched on her face, but it turned to surprise as Mewtwo appeared between her and the man.

"We will not surrender," Mewtwo said as he raised his hand, "and you will most certainly not have the book." His eyes began to grow bright blue, and blue light surrounded him.

The same blue light enveloped the man as well as Mewtwo began his psychic attack. However, instead of the usual Mewtwo throwing him all over the place, he did the exact opposite. The man's body went rigid, like he was fighting the psychic power that was trying to control his body. Then, his body contorted. He doubled over, seemingly in pain, and then he stood straight, yelling. Mewtwo's attack was thrown off him and he began to laugh.

"Ha ha ha ha, the Emperor didn't make me his right hand man for nothing." The now apparent commander of the enemy's forces said. Then, he noticed every Rebel soldier and their pokemon were prepared to launch an attack on him. "Well, if you want to do it that way," he started as his hand went for his belt, pulling out a strange black ball, "then it's only fair that I have some help. Time to show you his Majesty's surprise... Darkrai, GO!"

Everyone in the now rather empty square (as far as living beings are concerned) watched in shock and awe as the black ball released a beam of white light which formed into a large, hovering, black figure. It raised its white head to the sky and yelled in a deep voice, "Darkrai!"

Darkrai's summoner smiled, "Now Darkrai, kill them."