War Champions
| War Champions | |
|---|---|
| Leader | War Diantha |
| Members | War Diantha War Cynthia War Steven War Wallace War Leon War Alder War Lance War Geeta |
| Allies | Bertha Raw Siebold Manager Musrak (formerly) Karsum |
| Enemies | Malva Camera Guy Microphone Guy Kathi Lee Girida War Diantha (briefly) Musrak |
The War Champions, or War Champs, are a team of Warmongers. There are eight members of the team: War Diantha, War Cynthia, War Steven, War Wallace, War Leon, War Alder, War Lance, and War Geeta. After starting without a clear goal besides vague vengeful desires, War Diantha leads the group with the help of the mysterious Manager Musrak for her own gain. After falling out with each other and splitting up on two separate occasions, the group eventually comes together to take down a multiversal threat and learn the value of teamwork or something.
Story
The Team Gathers
Diantha's Warmonger journey begins after some time getting manipulated by her universe's serial killer Cynthia. When Cynthia is about to kill her, Diantha manages to kill Cynthia instead. She starts crying red tears and awakens her Warmonger powers, choosing the Warmonger life and becoming War Diantha. She kills Looker in rage and then instinctively goes through a portal to cross into the multiverse, wishing to start recruiting others into her Warmonger squad.
In a universe where Diantha died in a snowstorm, Cynthia turns to eating ice cream to cure her depression (it makes her drunk for some inexplicable reason). She becomes War Cynthia and fights in a "Hunger Games" event, a battle royale against 47 other people and Pokémon, and manages to win thanks to her icy Warmonger powers that she gradually discovers. She frequents the Multiversal Black Market to purchase her favourite ice cream brand, Casteliocones (a knockoff of Casteliacones made by a Unovan businessman). War Diantha arrives at the Black Market through the portal and the two Warmongers meet. War Cynthia immediately takes a liking to War Diantha, who is initially shaken at encountering another Cynthia. However, War Diantha decides to recruit her due to her powers and find the strongest versions of other Champions to form her squad. First, she contacts Bertha from War Cynthia's universe to be their squad manager.
After this, they visit a universe in which Steven Stone has lost interest in Cynthia and has a crush on Wallace. All seems to be going well for him until his father, Joseph Stone, dislikes that Steven is bi and secretly sends an assassin to kill Wallace. When learning of the coordinator's death, Steven investigates and discovers that it was his own father 😱 so he becomes War Steven and accidentally uses his newfound Warmonger powers and it hurts his dad (possibly killing him but Steven doesn't find out if he died). He is then recruited as the third War Champion.
To console War Steven they look for a Wallace next and find themselves in the Distortion World. War Cynthia befriends Giratina (who can speak to humans but strangely) and makes a pact with it. It helps them find Wallace who has been fused with his Milotic and will soon die due to a failed de-fusion attempt. The activation of his Warmonger powers saves him and he becomes War Wallace (still a Milotic). He joins the crew and quickly befriends War Steven (the only one who can understand his trills).
During the team's travels, they frequently run into Malva, Diantha's evil ex, and her crew (Camera Guy, Microphone Guy, and Kathi Lee). Malva mistakes War Diantha for the Diantha from her own universe and tries to get revenge on her by attacking and ridiculing her. As such, the two groups become enemies, though the War Champs always triumph.
The next recruit is War Leon, who came from a universe in which he was a fraud who used cheap, underhanded battle strategies to defeat his opponents.
In a universe where the Champions were stuck on an island in lockdown, everyone's mistreatment of Alder leads to him becoming War Alder and trying to get his revenge, but he accidentally kills them all in the process. The arrival of the War Champs saves him from being stranded on the island and he is recruited as the sixth member. The team generally dislikes him for being annoying but keep him around due to his great physical strength.
In another universe, Lance goes through a great depression when accused of table theft, feeling hurt that people thought he could be responsible despite him seeing himself as such an honourable person. When visiting the Dragon's Den in Blackthorn City for guidance, it comes under attack from some renegade ex-Team Rocket members and ends up getting burnt down, killing his friend Clair and others. He becomes War Lance and is the only one who escapes the fire thanks to his draconic Warmonger powers, with which he destroys the attackers. He also gains the Warmonger power of time travel (only affecting the universe it is used in), but this power is unstable and he loses it after using it for the first time. He travels some years into the future, when the Indigo League had fallen apart without him, and he is distraught. However, he encounters the War Champs looking to recruit him, and he joins as the next member, feeling that there is nothing else left for him now.
After a mysterious assailant drops a nuke on the Paldea region, almost all of the people and Pokémon in the region are killed. However, Geeta survives by activating her Warmonger powers to create a shield just in time, becoming War Geeta and gaining the powers of all of the deceased spirits. Seeking to avenge all of the people and Pokémon of Paldea and stop more destruction like this from occuring where she can, she travels through a portal.
After several defeats, Malva and her crew have had enough and sic the dangerous universe-hopping mercenary Girida on the War Champs, hoping to finally defeat them. A fight ensues at the Black Market, but just when the War Champs are almost defeated, they are saved by War Geeta. Teaming up with her, they manage to defeat Girida, even when she brings out Giratina from the Distortion World and controls it with her Red Chain. After Girida's defeat, the first one she remembers experiencing, she flees and leaves behind the stolen Pokémon she used, which War Geeta leaves at the Black Market's Pokémon Nursery along with her own Pokémon (except Giratina, which goes back home to the Distortion World). Malva finally realises that she was chasing the wrong Diantha and regrets troubling a Warmonger just before War Diantha kills her and discards her body in some remote universe, ending their rivalry, and War Geeta is recruited as the eighth and final War Champion.
Some time later, Malva wakes up, having actually managed to survive, and begins her Warmonger transformation. However, it is cut short, as the mysterious entity responsible for the Warmongers decides there are already enough, and Malva dies for real.
New Management
With the team now complete, War Diantha is contacted by a mysterious caller by the name of Manager Musrak. He negotiates with War Diantha and becomes the new manager of the War Champions, at which point he somehow gives them all a boost to their powers. He gets along well with War Diantha, but he never speaks to anyone else in the team and no one sees him in person. He makes secret plans with War Diantha for which the team need some more funding. He also gives them a new base in an otherwise barren universe.
War Steven gets the idea to open a coffee shop in their base called War Staryubucks for money, and Bertha is demoted from team manager (which she was bad at anyway) to Staryubucks manager. They initially don't get any customers, but they soon encounter Raw Siebold in the Black Market, who tells them to move the coffee shop there, and they hire him (he works for practically no pay due to his passion for cooking). The coffee shop is more successful at the new location.
With guidance from Manager Musrak, War Diantha leads her team on a number of missions to various universes, mainly fetch quests where they steal blueprints and research notes, and soon they begin stealing objects that War Diantha is using to build something in a secret area beneath the base. Though War Diantha is vague and secretive about her true goals, most of the team either trusts her or doesn't care. However, War Steven is skeptical and secretly tries to figure out what is really going on.
One of the missions to retrieve a part has the War Champions go undercover as the regular Champions in Ash Ketchum's house in order to steal the piece (they can't kill Ash due to him being protected by Arceus, as he is the ‘Chosen One’ in this universe). Another mission has the team walking over conspicuous grass that turns out to be Lawn, allegedly the final form of Dawn after absorbing Lucas.
When the final part has been collected, War Diantha finishes what she was building: the True Ultimate Weapon, an upgraded and edgier (both figuratively and literally) version of the ultimate weapon that is capable of destroying and reshaping the multiverse (causing lots of death and destruction in the process). With the weapon completed, Manager Musrak finally reveals himself in person as Karsum, the being responsible for the Warmongers. Previously, he was defeated in another multiverse by a different group of Warmongers, who had performed a ritual to temporarily remove him from the Dark Aether, the hellish space between universes where he is usually trapped. Upon his defeat, he absorbed the powers of those Warmongers and used a huge burst of energy to shift himself into the Pokémon multiverse (thus permanently freeing him from the Dark Aether), then used his scant remaining power to create new Warmonger powers that he granted to eight strong people in dire situations (the War Champions, as they would go on to become). Since then, Karsum went into hiding in a remote universe, biding his time to recharge his power while keeping tabs on his new Warmongers, who formed a team just as he had hoped. He built the team's base in the universe where he was hiding (he had been living in a secret underground place nearby the whole time) and assumed the identity of Manager Musrak while his power was recharging so that he could manipulate War Diantha into building the True Ultimate Weapon for him, which he now wants to use to rule the multiverse.
Learning all this, War Diantha feels betrayed and wants to use the True Ultimate Weapon herself, convinced it will fix everything that has gone wrong in her life. Suddenly, the rest of the War Champions burst in, with War Steven explaining he gathered them to follow him after spying on War Diantha when she was confronting Karsum. War Steven exposes the truth about War Diantha's motivations to the rest of the team, but War Diantha denies that she was involved and puts all the blame on Karsum.
A final battle ensues between Karsum and the War Champions, though there is much confusion among the team as they aren't sure whether War Diantha is good or bad now. The True Ultimate Weapon's blasts of energy interfere with the battle, causing the fight to move across several universes. Eventually, Karsum is defeated and the True Ultimate Weapon is destroyed, with its pieces scattered across the multiverse. War Geeta manages to channel the energy from the weapon to curse Karsum back into the Dark Aether where he belongs, but War Diantha steals some power to curse herself as well so that she can follow him, as she still sees some good in him and is starting to regret her actions.
The Dark Aether
In the wake of the battle, the War Champions are conflicted on whether to rescue War Diantha. War Cynthia, War Steven, and War Alder feel that she deserves a second chance and decide to rescue her, with Warllace joining as well as he simply wants to stay with War Steven. However, War Leon, War Geeta, and War Lance resent War Diantha for manipulating them and no longer care for the team, so they leave, each going their separate ways and roaming the multiverse alone.
Meanwhile, War Diantha arrives in the Dark Aether, which she is unable to leave as her powers of portal creation aren't strong enough to work there. She goes to Karsum, who is confused that she followed him and seems to have quite a different attitude to before. The two make amends and become friends again, though War Diantha misses War Cynthia (not that she'd admit it).
The four remaining War Champions begin travelling through universes, using spare pieces of the True Ultimate Weapon to make their portals rather than War Diantha's powers. They look for information on the Dark Aether and how War Diantha could be saved, but without as strong a leader as before (and with the constant annoyances of War Alder), their progress is somewhat slow. After a while, they come across a universe where actual Pokémon don't exist and Pokémon cards are all the rage. They learn of a Pokémon TCG tournament where the winner gets a cool-looking rock, and War Steven's intuition tells him it's not just any rock. The four Warmongers all enter the tournament in an attempt to win the prize, but they soon encounter War Lance, who has entered the tournament as well in search of something new to spend his time doing, hoping to win so that he finally feels fulfillment in life. He is surprised that the team hasn't split up yet and rejects their offer for him to rejoin them.
War Alder loses the tournament in the first round (having never played the game before and mistaking it for Yu-Gi-Oh). Warllace is also soon eliminated. War Steven loses to War Lance in the semi-finals, and the final match of the tournament is War Cynthia vs. War Lance. After a close battle, War Lance emerges victorious, becoming the TCG Champion, and he quickly gains fame throughout this world for having won such a prestigious tournament. War Cynthia feels guilty for letting everyone down but begins appreciating War Alder more as she can always be sure she isn't the worst in the team.
War Steven tries to convince War Lance to give them the rock as they have more of a need for it, but War Lance refuses as he wants them to give up on War Diantha, saying he might even consider rejoining the team if they do so. At night, the team breaks into War Lance's new house that he bought with his victory money and try to steal the rock using the stealth skills they learned from War Diantha, but they fail and War Lance discovers them. Realising how determined the team is to save War Diantha, he begrudgingly gives them the rock so that they will leave him alone, refusing again to rejoin them as he is enjoying his new life of TCG-playing fame and luxury.
Back at the base, War Steven takes some time to analyse the rock (using his Warmonger power of determining the origin of rocks) and confirms that it comes from the Dark Aether, having been dumped out of a rift that they can use to safely enter the Dark Aether without cursing themselves to be stuck there. War Steven is able to determine that the rift is somewhere in a cluster of about 50 universes. First, they need to get War Geeta back, as the rift will likely have closed by the time they reach it and they need her help to reopen it (only she can interact with rifts due to dealing with the incorporeal).
War Geeta, wishing to prevent other universes from facing the same fate as her Paldea, has been working with several organisations that aim to help save universes from corruption (a fully corrupted universe is uninhabitable and impossible to save, but partial corruption can be reversed). As such, War Geeta is spending a lot of time in dangerous universes with high levels of corruption, as high as 90% (her powers protect her from the dangerous, potentially lethal effects that spending too long in a corrupted universe can have). The War Champs look for her by following signals that War Steven is receiving from rocks, and they have a hard time travelling through highly corrupted universes, often being attacked by strange organisms that thrive in corrupted environments such as corruptorats. They end up being glad that War Alder stayed with the team due to his usefulness as bait.
Eventually, the team finds War Geeta in a roughly 80% corrupted universe, and she is surprised to see them again. Remembering what happened with War Lance, they decide to not tell her that they are still trying to rescue War Diantha, instead claiming that they have turned over a new leaf and need her to open a rift in order to save a corrupted universe. She agrees to rejoin the team to help them, but only after saving the universe they are currently in from corruption. After several days of the War Champions working together with an anti-corruption agency, they manage to remove the corruption (mostly thanks to War Geeta using her powers while the others fend off corruptorats, corruptosquid, etc.) and the team leaves to look for the rift by finding more rocks in other universes.
Having narrowed it down to about five possible universes left where the rift could be, the War Champions enter a slightly corrupted universe covered by a huge, constantly dark, mostly abandoned city. They run into War Leon and offer for him to rejoin the team, but they find that he has amnesia, with no memory of being in the team and no idea what a Warmonger is. He offers them some of his substances and War Alder excitedly accepts. Gunshots are suddenly heard and War Leon runs off, remembering that he is currently running from a criminal biker gang led by his #1 rival Raihan (the other members being Milo, Nessa, Bea, Allister, Gordie, Bede, and Piers), and War Alder runs after him for more of his substances. The other War Champs don't want to waste time and continue searching the universe, but they are unable to find any clean enough rock samples to look for the rift and are repeatedly interrupted by the ongoing chase, during which War Alder quickly becomes loyal to War Leon and begins helping him out. Eventually, War Steven gets pissed at the constant interruptions and generates a rock to smack War Leon in the head, which somehow restores his memory, and he recalls that his amnesia began earlier when he was dropped off a building by Raihan. War Leon remembers his Warmonger powers and teams up with War Alder (who is performing better than he ever has before) to defeat the biker gang. War Leon apologises to the team for the trouble he caused and tells them he saw the rift in another nearby universe, though he doesn't remember exactly where as he is bad at directions. War Leon decides to rejoin the team, along with War Alder, who has mostly forgotten their original mission and is simply following War Leon.
The team explores the last few universes where the rift could be, looking for rock signals. They find a derelict version of the artificial island Pasio where researchers are attempting to bring back Pokémon battles by mass cloning powerful Pokémon Trainers using DNA samples, but the clones are all made of a gooey substance and are far inferior to the originals, having strange appearances and zombie-like behaviour. While looking for natural rocks (which are hard to come by here), the War Champs encounter the cloning scientists, who want their DNA samples to make clones of them. War Steven detects rocks in the water, so he sends Warllace to retrieve them while the others fight off the army of clones. Warllace encounters Giovanni, another multiverse traveller, and the two fight over the sync stones on the seabed. Warllace defeats him and brings the sync stones to War Steven, and because they are more powerful than normal stones, they allow him to pinpoint the exact location of the rift. However, the group finds that their pieces of the True Ultimate Weapon don't work here due to island-wide technology that automatically deactivates the ultimate weapon (originally installed by Lear just in case Lysandre tried to use it), preventing them from making a portal to leave. Instead, they have to dive underwater and escape through a portal that Giovanni left behind, but the clones chase after them. The clones melt into goo and speed up upon entering the water, but the War Champs narrowly manage to escape thanks to War Geeta's shields.
At long last, the team finally arrives at where the rift was, but it has since closed. They have War Geeta reopen the rift for them, though she is somewhat skeptical as there is no corruption here. After seeing the Dark Aether on the other side, War Geeta realises she was being lied to again and is hurt. The others try to claim that this was all an honest mistake, only for War Alder to blurt out that they were looking for someone called Dimantha or something. War Geeta and War Leon are both upset and angry, as they thought that they had given up on War Diantha for good reason, and War Geeta accuses them of being just as bad as War Diantha for stringing them along with lies. After a big argument, War Geeta ditches the squad again but begrudgingly leaves the rift open, while War Leon leaves to find a better team and War Alder follows him, leaving only War Cynthia, War Steven, and Warllace.
The remaining trio of War Champs enter the Dark Aether through the rift, knowing that they now only have a limited time before it closes again due to War Geeta's departure. They soon find War Diantha, who is pleasantly surprised to see them again, especially War Cynthia. War Diantha offers for them to live together in the Dark Aether, confusing them as their plan was to bring her back out, having assumed her going there originally was an accident. She explains that she deliberately sent herself there in order to follow Karsum, who turns out to be a misunderstood nice guy. She takes them to see Karsum and they all make amends with each other. Karsum is unable to leave the Dark Aether due to his curse but doesn't want to leave anyway, and he explains that he has an ability he doesn't usually use (as he never had any friends before) that lets him bring people from other universes into the Dark Aether (which would've made this a whole lot shorter if he had used it earlier but oh well), and he demonstrates by teleporting War Lance (mid-TCG tournament) onto the scene, to his shock and anger. War Diantha wants to stay with Karsum in the Dark Aether, forcing the others to choose between staying in the Dark Aether with them or leaving them behind.
In the end, War Cynthia and War Diantha want to stay together, so War Cynthia decides to stay in the Dark Aether and live with War Diantha and Karsum. They bid farewell to War Steven, Warllace, and War Lance, who leave through the rift, which closes soon after. After dropping War Lance off at his TCG tournament (he ends up winning and continues his reign as the TCG Champion), War Steven and Warllace decide to find War Geeta again and help her with her mission to save corrupted universes. They manage to find her and, after apologising, explaining the full story, and making amends, they become a trio dedicated to un-corrupting universes. Meanwhile, War Leon and War Alder stick together as a duo and go on wacky adventures, with their attempts to find a better team only resulting in them making enemies and getting into fights. War Alder, his personality and worldview having changed since he started taking War Leon's substances, finally realises that his old friends hated him, but he doesn't blame them for it (also he becomes an author or something).
And they all lived happily ever after. For a while anyway.
