"This is all useful information, but do you have a way to defeat it?" Hala asked.

Colress had basically given us an entire presentation on Necrozma, ranging from its origin as a Legendary ultra beast from another dimension to its psychic/dragon typing when powered up to a description of the Pyschic move it had been using: Photon Geyser.

Colress looked at Hala with a simple smile. "We already have a way. It's in the champion's bag."

Everyone looked over to me, and I started. "What are you talking about? If I had a way to beat it, we wouldn't be where we are now."

"I don't blame you or anything," Colress said. "When faced with such a strong Pokémon, anybody would panic, even the best trainers in the world."

"Can you stop with the backhanded insults and just tell me what I missed?" I asked, exasperated.

Colress paused, before sighing. "A Master Ball, Champion. It may be one of the most powerful beings in existence, but it's still a Pokémon."

I felt a sinking feeling in my chest. It had really been that simple all along, hadn't it? Why hadn't I tried that before? It was so obvious. Apparently, my face mirrored my thoughts, because I felt Lillie's hand on my shoulder a second later.

"Catching it while it's fused with Solgaleo would be unwise," Colress continued. "So we'll have to separate the two."

"And how do we do that?" Gladion asked.

"Fortunately for you all, this isn't my first time dealing with Pokémon fusion. I've already started developing a way to detach Necrozma from Solgaleo. There is a problem with the method, though. A forced separation will require Necrozma to be weakened first."

"That raises the question of how we weaken it," Burnett said.

"That's something you must figure out for yourselves," Colress replied. "My battling skills aren't quite on par with any of you."

"Lovely," Gladion muttered under his breath.

"Psychic and Dragon..." Hau said. "Ghost, Dark, Fairy, Bug...."

"Ice and Dragon," I finished. "But we can discount Dragon from that list."

"Sun and I threw everything we had at it with very little success," Gladion said.

"But we have much more than two trainers here, yeah?" Kukui commented.

"I can't guarantee I'll be able to help you," Hala said. "My duty is with my people. I'll need to stay on Melemele throughout this incident."

"That's still Sun, Gladion, Hau, the professor, and me," Lillie said. "If we all work together, we can completely negate both its Psychic and its Dragon moves."

"It used Smart Strike in my first battle with it," I said. "As for anything else, I'm not sure."

"It's been sighted using Power Gem," Colress said.

"I have Scizor for both of those," Lillie said. "All we need is something that can hit it hard."

A metallic roar echoed through the air, and everyone jumped to their feet.

The great white lion crashed to the ground, and the blackness around us was filled with a dim light, emanating from Necrozma.

Decidueye was out before anyone else moved. "Spirit Shackle!"

Burnett and Colress were quickly guided away by Hala, though Colress seemed eager to stay behind, furiously tapping at the screens on his gloves while staring at the creature.

Necrozma readied a Dragon Pulse, aiming straight for Decidueye, and fired before Decidueye could react. The owl was saved by a Pokéball hitting the ground and a Pokémon emerging from it, completely absorbing the blast. Hau's Primarina flipped its hair back while staring down Necrozma.

"I've got it's Psychic moves!" Gladion shouted, pulling out his Dark Memory.

Decidueye quickly flew up, firing an arrow at the Necrozma. While the arrow barely phased it, one of Necrozma's legs was chained to the ground.

"Darkest Lariat!" Kukui shouted to his Incineroar. Before it had even gotten to Necrozma, the Pokémon swatted away the cat, sending it flying. Necrozma angrily tugged on the chain to no avail, roaring in frustration.

It used Power Gem, aiming for Decidueye, who had been peppering him with arrows. Decidueye was able to dodge most of the rocks, and the last was quickly deflected by a metal claw. Scizor fired back with an X-Scissor against the Legendary, by Lillie's command.

Despite all this effort, the beast didn't seem to be slowing down at all. Eventually, it decided to just ignore the Pokémon attacking it, and fixed its gaze on me, lunging. It was yanked back by the various Spirit Shackles, once again roaring in frustration.

"SUN! IT'S AFTER SUN!" Colress yelled. Simultaneously, Necrozma shattered the chains of the Spirit Shackles with another lunge, beelining straight for me. It was stopped in its tracks by a sparkling Ribombee, and I snapped my head over to Lillie, who was dropping her arms from a Z-Move pose.

"SAVAGE SPIN-OUT!!!" She screamed. Ribombee trapped Necrozma in a ball of string, and Lillie looked over to me. "RUN!!"

"I-"

"You'll draw it away from us!" Colress yelled. "We'll think of something!"

I nodded, pulling out my ride pager and sending out Charizard. "Fly as fast as you can."

We rocketed into the sky just as Necrozma tore itself out of the Z-Move, blasting itself into the sky towards me and Charizard.

I had hoped Charizard could get us a decent distance away from the group before Necrozma caught up, but it approached with a blinding speed. That is, until a dark purple cloud of shadows appeared around the Pokémon. It stopped midair, looking around at the shadows for a second before the cloud shot off into the darkness. The air was still for a second, everybody on the ground looking at each other, wondering who has caused the seemingly harmless cloud.

After a second, Necrozma focused on me again, and started to move. But before it got too far, something launched out of the Darkness, stopping next to Necrozma. I caught a glimpse of what I assumed was a Pokémon: a small humanoid creature whose body seemed to be made entirely of smoky gray shadow, except for the green wisps emerging from its hands, neck, and head. Its orange eyes glowed bright, like candle flames. It's arm was wound up, and it threw a haymaker straight down on Necrozma's head. The crystallized lion was launched towards the ground, crashing into it with such force that the terrain cratered.

I, along with everybody else, stared at the sight, completely stunned. The Pokémon glanced at me before it straightened its legs and arms, plummeting down towards Necrozma before winding up its other arm, which combusted into flames, and landing on Necrozma with a Fire Punch. Necrozma's roar was different this time: it sounded like it was in pain.

Necrozma used Smart Strike, knocking the Pokémon off of it and jumping to its feet, opening its mouth and blasting a Photon Geyser at its opponent. The Pokémon crossed its arms to block the hit, but Gladion's Silvally ran in front of it. The Geyser erupted, and Necrozma quickly flew away before the psychic energy cleared.

The Pokémon looked up, confused as to why it had been unaffected, finding Silvally looking down on it. The Pokémon jumped, melting into a shadow which snaked over behind a tree, where the Pokémon reemerged and peaked out at us.

Charizard lowered me to the ground, and Lillie ran over to me. "Are you ok?" she asked, her hands hovering over me as if she was afraid of hurting me.

I stepped forward and wrapped my arms around her. "I'm fine, Lillie."

She sighed in relief, holding me tightly. Scizor walked up behind her, giving me a small nod.

"What is it?" Hau asked. I glanced over to find him gazing at the small Pokémon behind the tree, his Primarina by his side. Silvally was standing where it had been, cocking its head curiously at the Pokémon.

Gladion walked up by Silvally's side. "Whatever it is, it's clearly strong, given it could go up against that monster so easily."

"Fascinating," Colress said, still furiously tapping at the screens. "I've never even seen a Pokémon like this. Perhaps another legendary?"

"And that move it used is new to me," Kukui commented, rubbing the back of his head. "I wonder what the initial cloud was for? A natural targeting system, perhaps?" Kukui scratched his chin, clearly intrigued by the Pokémon.

The small shadow seemed panicked by all the people and Pokémon by it, hiding itself more behind the tree.

I kissed the top of Lillie's head, softly saying. "How about we check out the little guy before everybody scares him off?"

Lillie nodded, slightly squeezing me for good measure before letting go of me. The two of us joined the others, looking at the Pokémon, whose darting eyes fixed on me when it saw me.

"Necrozma seemed to be drawn to the immense amount of Z-Power the champion possesses. Perhaps this Pokémon is the same?" Colress suggested.

"This one seems friendly, though," Lillie said, lowering to her knee to get a better look at the shadow.

Decidueye flew over, landing next to me as I slowly walked towards the tree, getting down on my knee like Lillie did. The Pokémon kept its gaze on me, only occasionally glancing towards the others. I smiled at it, slowly extending my hand. Hesitantly, it came out from behind the tree, walking over to me, it's eyes flipping between me and the others. The Pokémon was clutching something to its chest, as if scared of someone taking the object. It stopped in front of me, looking up at my face.

"You're Marshadow, right?" I asked, recognizing it from the book I had read in Moon's world. It nodded. I grinned, carefully reaching up and patting its head when it didn't protest. "Well, you're really strong, and you may be our only chance and beating Necrozma. Would you be willing to help us?"

It nodded vigorously, and extended its arms out, revealing the object it had been clutching to be a Z-Crystal. I stared down at the crystal. "You... want me to have it?" Marshadow nodded again, and I took the crystal, setting it into my Z-Ring. "Ah, one second," I said, pulling off my bag and opening it. Marshadow and Decidueye looked at each other, Decidueye giving it a little bow, and Marshadow panicking a second before mimicking Decidueye's bow.

I pulled a Pokéball from my bag offering it to the shadow. "If you'd like, you could join me. After this is all over, we could keep training together and-" Marshadow didn't wait for me to finish talking, tapping the Pokéball and being sucked in, the ball immediately clicking.

I stood up, Marshadow's Pokéball in my hand, and turned to the other trainers. "I think we can continue that strategy meeting now."