"Phoebe?"
Steven looked at the girl in front of him, and then looked at the girl behind himself, not knowing what to say for a moment.
Phoebe was even more shocked, looking at the face that looked exactly like her own, only with a little more vicissitudes of meaning, appalled.
Rope's face was even more unusually ugly...
He had guessed wrong. At least it wasn't a complete guess.
"Who is Arceus?"
Rope asked grimly.
Steven at his side suddenly realized something, and his face suddenly changed.
A sneer appeared on Ms. Ghost's face, "Aren't you smart? Can't you guess?"
No one present had ever fought with Mr. Arceus. So they looked at Rope in unison.
And of course Rope knew who it was...
As long as these three people from Servants of God were the same as Phoebe, then Mr. Arceus' identity wasn't hard to guess at all.
"...Red."
"Rope... what kind of person is him anyway?"
Red swept the Arceus mask off his face. Beside him lay a brown Plate. the very Earth Plate. and the brown bead on his wrist was glowing brown. There was a faintly visible band of brown light connecting the bead to the Plate.
Ms. Psychic looked at Red's face and said, "Are you... okay with the mask breaking?"
Red shook his head, "There's no way Phoebe can hold up against the other side. When she said Rope had arrived, I knew our identities were bound to be revealed."
Red recalled Rope's feats in the intelligence and how powerful Rope was in that sparring match. He couldn't help but sigh, "If our world had such a Rope, then maybe it wouldn't have been destroyed..."
"What are you thinking...the world with you was destroyed, this world won't be spared because of Rope."
Ms. Psychic seemed gently relieved. But Red could hear the coldness that came from the bottom of her heart as she reached out for Supernatural's words.
Ever since the world had been destroyed, Supernatural had been like this, speaking seemingly meekly and softly, but colder and harder on the inside than anyone else.
"But, the last world we failed to save, but this one we're destroying..."
"You regret it?"
Red's words were interrupted by Supernatural before he could finish.
Beneath the mask of Mew's smile, eyes that looked like swords of metaphysical ice pierced Red's body.
Red shook his head, "I only regret not being able to save them back then."
Suddenly it was like he thought of something...
"Sabrina, you said... our world... is there really a Rope?"
"What the hell happened to your world?!!!"
Rope was nearly frantic as he lifted the collar of the otherworldly Phoebe, his hair turning as much as it could into billowing flames, and there were flames burning in his eyes.
"What's it to you?!"
The otherworldly Phoebe still had a disdainful smile on her face. Even though her lips were chapped under the steaming heat and she was sweating profusely as if she had been dipped in water.
But her smile remained.
It was as if she was mocking Rope's incompetence.
Steven and the others watched from a distance. The searing heat all around them kept them from getting close to Rope's perimeter of them.
Rope still knew to try to control the temperature near himself and the otherworldly Phoebe. But a little farther away there wasn't that control in mind.
"Rope... so scary..."
The Phoebe of this world gulped as she looked at herself being lifted in Rope's hands and ducked behind Drake.
Drake patted the little girl on the shoulder for comfort. But he was just as half as surprised inside. There was even a bit of worry...
After all, if that world was destroyed and only these three people escaped... then does that mean that the world itself is also dead...
Drake couldn't help but shiver at the thought.
It wasn't that he was afraid of death. An old captain who could ride the waves of the sea naturally wouldn't be afraid of death.
But you think about it that way, back then not realizing that while you yourself were eating, sleeping, or doing something else, another world of you was enduring death. He may be calling for help, crying out, or fighting it.
But you don't know any of this.
Norman was obviously thinking with Drake, so the two men's faces were as hard as they could be.
Steven, on the other hand, was looking at Rope, his eyebrows knitted together.
Just then, a shout came out.
"Steven!"
Steven looked up, and sure enough, it was Winona and Wallace.
Winona hadn't deliberately controlled her speed, but they were still late.
It wasn't the same as Rope. After all, Rope's move wasn't that simple this time. That said, it was thanks to Hoopa, a guy who had some friendship with Celebi. So had been to the sub pro forest. Otherwise Rope would have to move to The Crown Tundra and teleport again.
After all, as a very prosperous country in ancient times, Hoopa had certainly been to such a fun place.
So Rope really did have the right time and place this time. After all, Rayquaza wouldn't have chased Deoxys around for so many days if he was really that good-natured.
So Wallace was, unsurprisingly...late.
"I'm late aren't I."
Getting off of Tropius, Wallace smiled bitterly. His face looked much better. After all, resting for so long wasn't useless at all.
If there was still a big battle going on right now, then he could immediately get into it.
"Unfortunately...the battle is over."
Steven said with more celebration on his face as he said pity. If Rope hadn't come quickly, then only even if Wallace had come, there would have been no way out against a Champion-level Ghost-type Pokémon trainer who was bent on running.
Wallace looked at the green dragon coiled over there, as well as a small, interesting looking Pokémon, he knew that the unassuming Pokémon was Hoopa, a powerful Pokémon that could shake people, evoke negative emotions, and even mind control, and was itself the strongest of the Pokémon.
Then he looked over to Rope who was throwing a tantrum over there.
"He really is only ever to be trusted..."
Wallace sighed a bit.
Earlier, he heard that Rope had run off to Galore to catch Malkin the Bandit. Now, although he didn't know if he had arrested Malkin or not, he had accomplished the feat of going from the Zi Kissing Forest to the Delivering God's Mountain in less than an hour... this person was no wonder that he had so many people's trust.
"It's..."
Winona, however, stared blankly at the man Rope was carrying by the collar, her eyes slightly glazed over.
"It's Phoebe...it's complicated amongst other things, I'll talk to you guys when Rope's done."
Steven shook his head somewhat helplessly.
These are things that he himself knows little about, it's better to wait for Rope to come and give everyone an explanation.
"Don't pretend, you're a good actor, but you don't even get mad at these little things. Every seemingly feeble question from you is baiting me into revealing information."
The otherworldly Phoebe suddenly paused, then the smirk on her face grew even wider, "I've seen this tactic a lot."
"So... does it make sense for you to hide this from me?"
Rope said somewhat helplessly.
The seeming anger in Rope's heart had actually largely dissipated. The anger he felt at the beginning wasn't at all because of something as trivial as guessing wrong on his own, either...
That angry, as if deceived look was just to fool Phoebe.
He could see that this otherworldly Phoebe in front of him was extremely twisted...
So normal questioning would definitely not ask for any information.
So he feigned anger, so that this person who couldn't see much of himself would be induced by himself to reveal some information.
Unfortunately, he didn't know what this person had been through, and Rope guessed that he wouldn't be able to pry her mouth open.
But the otherworldly Phoebe herself, would be very useful information...
Rope spread his hands. Letting the otherworldly Phoebe fall to the ground. The flames dispersed, and the surrounding temperature returned to normal.
Steven and the others came over immediately afterward, "Did you ask anything?"
Rope shook his head, "Figure it out..."
With that, he looked at the woman in front of him and shook his head again, "Don't get your hopes up."
After saying that, he simply left the spot. As he walked, he said, "Wallace, help call a meeting...things are starting to get a little out of my control."
Wallace and Steven, the two people who knew Rope well, first froze when they heard those words, and then the expressions on their faces both became ugly.
The others didn't know Rope well enough, but just by looking at the expressions on the two current champions' faces, they knew...something was wrong...
At that exact moment, a 'rumble' of thunder sounded, and then raindrops fell.
Everyone knew it was Rope's pot. But there's no time to argue with Rope right now.
Wallace glanced at Steven and then went ahead and walked to the side to start calling those in charge involved.
Steven, on the other hand, shook his head helplessly, and then arranged for Drake to bind the Phoebe of the other world, so that the Phoebe of this world could go and rest first.
Looking at the rain falling from the sky. Steven let out a sigh.
"So troublesome..."
"Things are troublesome."
Rope sat at the table, looking at the light screen in front of him, his tone was helpless.
He had told these champions basically everything. They looked equally headstrong.
"You guys are saying that little girl Phoebe... already has champion level fighting power?"
Phoebe wasn't even an Elite Four known for its battle power. or rather the entire Elite Four of the Plenty Edge looked a bit lost under Steven's suppression alone.
"To be precise, it's the otherworldly Phoebe that's very strong, this Rope and I can guarantee."
Steven said with the same helplessness.
"Let's not talk about Phoebe...we already know the identity of Arceus. Not sure about Ms. Psychic's identity yet, but from experience, it's just those guys..."
Diantha was in a bad state of mind. She had skyrocketed after dropping most of the movie aspect of her job and then throwing herself into elf training.
Diantha's got a lot of talent, she just doesn't work hard enough. Of course...Steven was similarly not working hard enough, Leon was busy, Cynthia was also accomplished in her research.
"Red... can he be stronger too?"
Lance's head was spinning...
He and Rope were the only ones in the crowd present who knew Red's battle power best.
That guy was already strong. His Pika, Snor, Gyara, Aero, Vee...
These guys Rope had seen often and knew exactly how strong they were.
On its own...Pika should be a shade stronger than even Cynthia's Garchomp...
"But from my last sparring session, I can't tell it's strong. But come to think of it, their goal shouldn't be to defeat me either, but to let the two Plate pieces finish absorbing the otherworldly law power. So it shouldn't have gone all out with me."
Rope rubbed his Save Point.
"But even so, as you guys saw... it's really strong. And that Blastoise... I think it was Green's Blasty... those wounds on them... they're exaggerated, and with a life and death confrontation like that, I don't think he's going to be as simple as he was when he fought me before."
The more Rope thought about it, the more his head hurt. It wasn't like he was stupid. Since Blasty was in Red's hands, the odds were that Otherworld Green was also gone...
He just didn't know if the Charizard of parallel Blue would be in his hands as well... The power of these three royal families was something that Rope had experienced one by one.
It wasn't just Rope either, even Cynthia couldn't help but feel bad when she heard the news...
An enhanced version of Red...
"Alright that's enough about the situation, let's think of something and adjourn for now. I'll get some more clues."
With that said, Rope nodded towards the crowd and closed the light screen after getting their approval.
This was official business, so he didn't say anything more to Cynthia.
Surely a girl as beautiful and kind and powerful and lovely as Cynthia wouldn't bother with Rope about such trivial matters...right?
"Where are you going to look for clues?"
Steven asked suspiciously.
"...I really didn't expect...those clues to be in my hands."
Rope rubbed the Luxury Ball in his hand, feeling genuinely helpless.
——————————————
"Come on, talk about it."
Rope looked at the Poipole in front of him.
"There's no record of Ultra Beast sightings yet, and even the Oak family has been poorly served in Alola to find out what's going on."
"Yet you showed up in Pallet Town..."
"You come from the same place as them, don't you. Poipole."
"Tell me everything you know, everything."
Poipole looked at Rope in front of him, and a bunch of Pokémon, especially at their menacing gazes, and his head got bigger...
"Poi... poi. (I'll tell you...calm down.)"
And so Poipole took a deep breath, recalling the horrible images in his memory...
"Poi poi. (Our world... was swallowed up.)"
Rope nodded, waiting for him to follow.
The result was a long silence in the room, except for Poipole's face, which looked pained.
"Poi...pole? (Want to? I'll take you to one that can talk?)"
Rope looks at Poipole for a moment before silently shaking his head.
Turning his head sideways, he says to Hoopa, "Let's go, to the Pallet Town neighborhood."
Hoopa salutes towards Rope, then immediately opens the portal.