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The Beginning... And The End! New
  • DumbDomDeluxe

    Youngster
    Pronouns
    He/Him
    The hard snapping of twigs and the soft ruffling of overgrown bushes being pushed finally gives way to a steep fall for anybody unsuspecting.

    “Ah, shit!” Victor shook as the ground near the ledge of where he was running started to give way, quickly making him plummet to the bottom.

    CRACK!!! “AHH!!”

    Victor painfully landed onto his back with an agonizing crack on his leg, his right leg had landed onto a pointed stone and pierced through his jeans.

    “Ahhh… fuck… fuck fuckfuckfuck…”

    He slowly started to move his injured leg as he moved it closer to him to reach into his pocket to grab his phone to call for help.

    “Dad's gonna be pissed, man I should've just waited until the road was clear.”

    Victor couldn't see the sky very well to surely know sundown was approaching, but he could hear the pidove and other pokemon making sounds and getting back to their nests and hiding places.

    He mustered the strength to bend his leg to reach for his phone. His hand gently swept the edge of the case until he bent his leg just enough to finally push it out so it would fall onto the ground.

    As he reached down next to him to grab it, he could feel a small stream of blood flowing from the wound on his calf. “Oh god damnit… c'mon, Vic. You've read Haxet” Victor reassured himself, his tone filled with worry. “I'm just like that kid but probably not gonna die.”

    He finally managed to get a grip on his phone and wiped the blood onto his jacket to put in his passcode. With his left hand holding his phone and right hand putting pressure onto the wound he managed to put in the code.

    “I know when to go out, I know when to stay in!”

    His phone blared the song at max volume, but fortunately he paused it from his home screen with just a tap. “Thank Arceus I'm too dizzy to get scared…”

    He raised his phone to the air to get some semblance of a signal but nothing came up. “Oh you have gotta be kidding me man. First Dad won't let me have a pokemon now I'm trapped in the middle of nowhere without a signal.”

    He let go of his wound and used that arm to help himself sit up and lean against the wall behind him. As his pain spiked he gave himself a slap to the cheek hard enough to imprint blood onto his skin.

    “Okay, I'm getting up in three…..two……..ONE!” Victor groaned and bit into his left arm's sleeve to help with the pain management. His legs attempted to buckle under the weight; but they oddly felt pretty light. It wasn't any sort of precursor to fainting; but it just didn't feel too bad.

    “Hey wait, where's my backpack?” Victor muttered as he muttered to himself in wonder. He looked around in the forest and spotted it hanging from the branch that had made him fall. He growled slightly and said “well I ain't that anytime soon; that has all of my film equipment…”

    He stood and thought for a moment, unknowing to the setting sun just behind him warning of the dangers and cold of the night. He turned to walk further into the woods as he thought to himself. ~I guess if I remembered to put my spare phone in there, it should be traceable later.~

    As he walked through the thinning woods with his phone raised into the air, he started to get something resembling a signal on his phone. But he was much more interested in something right In front of his eyes; he wasn't lost at all! He was surprisingly headed the right way all this time.

    Dragon Spiral Tower stood tall in front of Victor's eyes. It pierced the setting sun just above the top almost as if the sun was being impaled and bleeding a mix of pink and orange.

    Victor's original plan was to start filming shots for his movie in this very tower but it was all thrown out the window. He lowered his phone's brightness in an attempt to conserve power and that's when he noticed something odd. The signal bar was constantly switching from no bars to full bars in an instant.

    He tried to dial the number of his father and it did sound as if he picked up but the sounds came up as a jumbled mess of static, mechanical whirring and… deep roars? Before he could listen much more the call suddenly cut, and his phone started to emit those roars from before but it was lower, much lower.

    The bird chirping brought a slight comfort to him as his leg wound started to slow and my movement started to increase towards the huge tower in the distance.

    After around half an hour he eventually reached the bridge of the main entrance. An uneven bridge of stairs keeping him from plummeting down below into the water was constantly creaking from recent years of constant use.

    “Okay Vic… alright….. don't look down, don't look down.”

    As an attempt to not fall off of the bridge, Victor steeled himself and quickly sprinted across the rest of the way so his fear couldn't catch up to him.

    The first thing that happened as he neared the end was that he suddenly felt the whole tower shake and something blocked the light coming in through crumbled walls for a split second.

    He looked absolutely everywhere but found absolutely nothing. He quickly finished getting to the other side and checked if the added elevation helped his phone's signal.

    “Damn it!” His voice echoes into the entrance as the phone signal bars were going back and forth between full and no bars even faster now.

    If he were to call for help; he would probably need to make it up as far as needed to get just enough signal to phone the police. He would probably get into massive trouble considering the route here is completely impassible normally, naturally making being here pretty illegal without permission

    He ignores the thought of punishment and continues into the first floor. It seems to be flooded everywhere but the straight path to the second floor.

    Victor walks to the next floor while firmly planting his shoes so he would not trip on the wet ground and potentially get some sort of ancient disease from the water below. There was some sort of low rumbling sound distracting him from his goal. It wasn't the same as the disruption from when he first entered.

    “What's that noise?” He asked himself before stopping before the set of stairs. It was that rumbling noise again, but not just that anymore; there were heavy stomping sounds filling his ears now.

    “Oh you're kidding me man” Victor whispered as his breath hitched. “It's… right behind me, isn't it?” He turned around and his eyes met with an absolutely colossal Druddigon. Even if it was far across the room from him, he could feel its unwavering energy seeping into his very being.

    Without missing a beat, Victor quickly sprints up the stairs as the Druddigon gives chase while breaking the tiles of the floors and ramming itself into walls. The tower shakes with an absolute and radical attack from Druddigon. As an attempt to catch up with Victor it used an iron head attack to launch itself directly at the wall opposing the staircase, all the way from across the room. It's already catching up.

    As soon as Victor's feet lands on the second floor he runs over to fallen pillars and dives under the one being held up by another fallen pillar. He hides behind them and prays the rampaging dragon notices his gone looks away from him.

    As soon as he feels he is safe, he pulls out his phone. It was hard to tell if the signal was getting better or worse, but if he tries to make the call from here; the dragon would definitely hear and tear him to shreds

    Victor hears the stairs being put under intense strain and eventually crumble. He realizes he is actively watching the destruction of one of the world's most important landmarks. And he knows he is to blame, this place was closed off for a reason.

    The Druddigon was here, it got up the stairs and was approaching the falling pillars. He puts a hand over his mouth and slowly makes his way towards the next set of stairs.

    Through the fallen rubble and dust Victor makes his way to the third floor. It's a bunch of ramps, and if he fell the water below would definitely be his death. He took a running start and quickly dashed and jumped off of each ramp. He tried his best to land quietly, but it seemed it was enough to not catch the attention of the Druddigon.

    As he made his way to floor 4, Victor felt a different pain this time; there was a clear open wound on his left shoulder and a piece of rubble piercing into his waist. It's bleeding like absolute hell and shows no signs of stopping like his leg injury. The adrenaline from the Druddigon made him unaware that diving under a pile of rubble is likely not the best move.

    He held his wounds the best he could. Right arm on shoulder and left arm pressing on the waist, but doing it too hard as to not put the object deeper and killing him faster.

    “Oooooh… yeah it's so over, sheesh…. Fuuuuck…” Victor grinded his teeth as he spoke through his pain. He heavily questioned why he decided to wear cargo shorts and a raggedy jacket on this trip, which has to be the worst combination of clothing ever conceived.

    The multiple flights of stairs were doing their part to wear him down to the bone. Each step was like rubbing salt into the wounds and dowsing it in hot sauce. For some odd reason; as he starts to near floor 5, Victor could clearly hear the words

    “Burn, baby burn!” Echos from all the way up from the final floor. Victor's expression grew worried when he thought he would be Happy to hear some sign of possible help in this tower. But he pushes through the fear and calls out. “Hey! I-I need help! I'm injured!”

    No response

    The heavy winds started to Roar within the castle as the altitude rises with each step. The sun finally set as Victor was left pretty blind. He would bring out his phone flashlight, but he had to preserve every bit of battery life possible. He was getting weaker, much, much faster each step.

    `Hopefully that Dragon doesn't smell my blood… it would probably collapse the whole tower if it got up here` Victor thought himself, distracting himself from his impending collapse by steeling his gaze to the next floor.

    As he tried to not fall over from the pain and exhaustion he made it up to floor 5. “Oh you gotta be kidding me!” Victor yelled in frustration as he realized this was a maze-like floor intended to waste time for whatever reason.

    “I'm not dealing with this! Whatever God is after me can just leave me alone.” Victor said as he slowly backed up, let go of his wounds briefly and jumped across every gap. The ground cracked and settled with each jump.

    The floor was crumbling. The wall the Druddigon had bashed into had completely ruined the delicate structure of the whole tower.

    Without missing a single beat, Victor jumped around every corner that wasn't in Immediate danger of collapsing. Eventually before he got fully worn out he made it onto the stairs to the 6th floor.

    Running as fast as he possibly could with his injuries he didn't even get a good look at floor 6 before the outer pillars crashed down onto the floor, leaving the 7th floor without support.

    Dust was erupting from every rumbling crevice of the tower and coating surroundings in gray.as those in the nearby town watched in a mix of awe and fear. Unknowing to them, a young soul was about to lose his life in this tragedy.

    Before Victor knew it, his life had ended. And he was confused.

    ‘Just that fast? And I didn't even see what killed me?’ He thought as his being floated through a deep and vast black void. Maybe the world Arceus was said to bring you when you died was real? He could think and feel himself get heavier and heavier.

    A vision started to come through, no not a vision. It was like witnessing a scene from a movie. He could see almost camera-like shots changing scenes and angles until it settled on a town, in the middle of spring.


    Early spring - 5 years ago in Aspertia city

    Team Plasma had been thwarted, it was done and the Unova was going to rest. But what was wrong? He thought about sealing Zekrom back into the stone; but he was tired. Something about his battle with Ghetsis and N had absolutely worn him out.

    The trees and flowers in the surrounding area were blooming back into life, almost like some kind of sign that life was going to be normal. He awoke in his bed and almost couldn't get up, if it wasn't for the fact he offered to volunteer in the Pokemon Trainer School in Aspertia City he would've just rotted in bed.

    He forced himself from the comfortable hotel bed and walked over to the dresser and pulled out some clothes. He wore this same brand of clothing every day during his journey and it just felt natural to teach about pokemon in it.

    He thought about what he was going to do, it was pretty straight forward. He would arrive early to discuss with the school faculty what's and what's not okay to talk about with the children. Of course he knew he shouldn't be talking about that time his Samurott completely sliced a Team Plasma grunts left arm off, but there were probably more specific examples to talk about.

    Just as he was going to grab his hat, the phone by his bed rang. He stumbled over there as he was busy putting on his pants without messing up with the belt this time. He picked up the phone praying in his mind it wasn't the school canceling or something.

    “Hello?”

    “Hi honey!” A feminine voice spoke from the phone. He sighed a sigh of relief as his mom continued to speak. “I just called to remind you to put on your good suit! It was your father's, he wore it when he died.”

    “Yeah… my bad, I'll put it on right now.” His mother was always weird about his father. It was always “Your father did this when he was your age!” and “honor your father in the tournament by using his favorite pokemon! I already sent you the Stunfisk!” And many such cases.

    He opened his nightstand to see a neatly folded funeral like suit. “Hey mom, I thought Dad died from a…”

    “Bye honey, Don't hurt yourself!” A phone clatter could be heard for a split second before the call cut.

    “...A hyper beam accident, Love you mom”

    He put the suit back into the drawer and closed it, and he carefully made sure to tighten his hat correctly. a sudden knock on his hotel door rang across the empty hotel room he was staying at.

    “Mister… how do I say this name…” the voice of one of the staff sounded confused. “Just call me Black!” I raised my voice just high enough for her to hear.

    “Ah, okay.” She cleared her throat as a negative atmosphere started to form. He opened the door to see her holding his backpack.

    He quickly tensed up. His backpack was left in front of his bed, and he should have noticed if it was gone, especially in the morning.

    “What? What the hell happened?” He said in pure worry as she stretched out her arms to give the backpack back to him “It was found fallen out of your window this morning, and a pokeball is missing.

    He started to Internally freak out, it better not have been his Master Ball. He should've sealed Zekrom back up ages ago. “Mister Black, are you feeling alright? You've been so pale and sluggish since the first time I saw you yesterday.”

    He scrounged through his backpack as he hastily responded full of stress. “Yeah… yeah…! I haven't been feeling the best but it's all good. The doctor said I don't have any symptoms, just said to relax and reduce stress.”

    “Oh, alright I guess…”

    “SHIT!” He yelled at the top of his lungs. The Master Ball was empty and Zekrom was loose. Was it going back to its counterpart? Was it going to get revenge for something, or does it just not like being stuck? He pushed past the women and practically glided down the stairs while attempting to put the backpack on his back.

    He opened the front door and looked at the sky to see if it was angry. It didn't seem that way, there were no storm clouds. He started to slightly wheeze as his chest felt heavy. He didn't want to have another fainting spell, as he had a recent surge of those recently. So he started to calm himself down by talking to himself

    “Okay… Okay… what's the highest point of the town? The bench overlooking the horizon, I'm pretty sure.”

    He quickly started to sprint north of the town, and quickly past the school he was supposed to go to. There were white petals spread across the city block, shifting in a rush as his footsteps gradually got weaker, weaker… and weaker…..

    As he approached the path with the bench he had to put his hands on his knees and breath. He never had to take a breather from such a short run before. It was getting worse. After a minute, he lifted his head up and saw it.

    Zekrom was standing just by the bench, staring at the pond ahead. The wind started to slow as He stumbled forward, holding onto a railing. “Z-Zekrom… get back in-” he collapsed forward as his body failed to respond to his attempts to stay upright, sending the Master Ball he was holding falling off the side of the railing into the forest below.

    “Mortal, your doctor said to rest.” A deep voice came from the direction of the Zekrom as Black laid still on the ground. Surely it couldn't talk, right? It never said a word to him, even in the recent events. Maybe this is what N hears or something?

    “I've been alive for many Millennia. Lost many I used to know as true companions. My nature lies in relationships, but I must leave those I know.”

    Black didn't even have the strength to speak or be in shock as he lifted himself just enough to fall over onto the bench. A soft buzz came from Zekrom as he turned around from his view.

    “That is why I have broken the boundaries Arceus has set for humans and Pokemon. I am speaking to you, not as your companion, but your friend.”

    Zekrom flexed an arm and claws on his right as he looked down, a hint of shame and a sliver of pride on his face. “I've had many partners. None of them stayed around more than a year like you have. You are my only friend. No matter what the consequences for my actions are, I will be by your side.”

    Forevermore
     
    Miss Demeanor New
  • DumbDomDeluxe

    Youngster
    Pronouns
    He/Him
    V has come to


    A van going across the Skyarrow bridge speeds past other cars going past it. Citizens were going about their day, it was early Fall and many were finally starting to get over the beating sun. Sure it was still 80 degree weather, but for how hot Summer was? It was like a freezer.

    As the van started to near the entrance to Castelia City the clock struck 12:30. It was lunch time for most of the city, and In a matter of seconds the streets were packed with starving office workers and school children hanging out with friends. And to top it off, it was cloudy for the first time in months. Making those sensitive to the sun come out and make it even more packed.

    “Alright, before their little break ends we need to get a hold of that research!” The leader of the group yelled within the van to his lackeys.

    “Sir, why do you think Miss Demeanor will even have what you think? Just tell us what we're looking for, man.”

    “Boss specified the orders were kept secret from you guys. I'll go in and get her research while you look out for her or anybody coming back. And if you really got to, subdue her and hold her for ransom or something.”

    Another grunt spoke out “And if she's in there, What do we do?”

    “Then I'll go in first and act as if I'm interested in her work, then hold her up and make her give me the research. But her not being there is the best case scenario.”

    “Isn't it true her research is just based on random religious texts? It's got no merit if so.”

    “This is different. She's from the Kalos region! Her folklore is actually real!”

    “But sir, how about Sinnoh and Alo-”

    “Arceus isn't Folklore or a myth.”

    The room grows quiet as the rumbling of the engine takes over the silence of the van. The grunts turned to each other in awkwardness. Some of them chuckled at the combination of the stress and awkwardness.

    A grunt finally decides to break the silence with some icebreakers.

    “So… why did you all join Team Providence anyways?”

    “To make Unova a Better place.”

    “To pay for my children's college, he wants to be an astronaut”

    “Just to get by in life”

    They're icebreaker distraction was suddenly shattered by the yelling of the leader of the group.”Alright, grab your weapons! I'll go in first incase she is in there” he walked over to the van door and took off the latch that was locking it.

    “First, we say a prayer to Lord Arceus.” He folded his hands together and put them in front of his face, eyes closed as he walked towards the front door

    “What's up with the boss and Arceus, Is he just extra religious?” A grunt whispered as he followed.

    “Yeah I dunno actually.” Another grunt sighed. “as long as I get my pay and it makes the region better, who cares really.”

    The leader's eyes shot open in a rush as he put his arms back down at his side. “Stay back, grunts.” He said with clear disdain towards them. “I don't care what you guys do as I get the information I need, just don't shoot your guns wildly and be jackasses”

    “Wait, boss. Instead of just using guns, why not just a Pokemon to sneak in and steal whatevers needed?”

    “This group better than anyone should know, using Pokemon is a sin. That is why Team Plasma lost Twice.”

    “The hell did I sign up for man? This guy's on something.” A grunt mumbled to himself.

    As soon as the rambling between grunts stopped he turned to the door, twisted his head halfway towards them in a shushing motion. And then he steeled himself with a breath and cracked his knuckles.

    BAM!! BAM!! CRACK!!!

    The door went down with the cracking sound and he ran in, gun aimed all around the room. “FREEZE!” He shouted at the top of his lungs.

    “I thought he was gonna try to be nice to her for a moment, didn't he say that?”

    “You can't make sense of these religious types. Don't even try to reason.”

    “Oh damn, dude you see-” his mouth quickly got covered by another grunts hand.

    “Don't be so loud… you'll wake her.”


    Unfortunately for his plan, Demeanor was sleeping right in her chair. Dead asleep despite the loud break in. He slowly inched towards her, gun aimed directly at her in case of sudden retaliation.

    “Boss…? I gotta tell you something”

    “Don't you see this is the worst time for that? Let me just finish this and you can show me whatever” he whispered towards the grunt.

    “Yeah… yeah…. Do your thing” Each of the grunts slowly moved back, until they were out of the building.

    “Seems like she's gonna stay asleep, pretty convenient” he gently scooted over her office chair with his foot and kneeled to be face level with the computer. He plugged in a USB stick and started to go through her files to move into the USB storage.

    “Reports on Pokemon behavior, that's sin…”

    “Focus Punch…”

    “Hm?” His head snapped to the supposedly asleep Miss Demeanor, His surprise overriding his attention to rumbling behind him. He quickly scrambled to his feet and pointed the gun at her, finger on the trigger. “Repeat that, Woman.”

    “GROOOOOAR!” a piercing roar came from a Pokemon directly on his heels. He could hear it breathing. His breath hitched as he quickly spun around and emptied his entire gun magazine onto the monster. “Stay back! Get the hell back you beast!”

    He watched in pure horror as he saw a hulking Aggron directly in his face. The bullets he shot hitting the rock and steel type and falling off like they were fake bullets. He looked at its raised arm quickly gathering Fighting Type Energy and quickly bolted. But the Aggron quickly caught on and snatched him with its free arm.

    Demeanor got up out of her office chair and swiped the USB stick from his hands. “You really didn't see this giant metal Behemoth in the corner of my office, really?”

    “Grunts! Get in here! Shoot to kill, shoot to kill!” He turns his head over to the front door to see the van hurriedly driving off. His team had left him “I'm never training recruits again, May Arceus curse them!”

    “Alright man, there's been a lot of you guys strolling around. I'm gonna knock you out and call the police, alright?” She went to her computer to close all of the tabs, and plugged the USB in to delete everything off it.

    “Aggron, Focus Punch. But not too hard.”

    “You sinner! You defy-” SMASH!



    Fall - Present day

    The faint humming of the machines flared to life in Victor's mind. He thought he had passed on and went to the afterlife, or whatever happens when you die. But it seemed he was somehow alive. but the tower crushed him, right? How did they even find him under the rubble in anything but a bloody mess?

    He almost begrudgingly opened his eyes, his next thought immediately landed at his consequences for the towers destruction. And most importantly, his father's anger. His father never got violent with him; but each time he got into trouble he would contemplate more and more about that adventure fad that's been going around for the last decade.

    Victor was never the adventuring type. Of course it might've been hypocritical of him considering the whole tower incident, but it was only supposed to be a quick ordeal of filming some scenery shots of the tower and leaving. It would have taken 30 minutes at most.

    As his gaze started to unblur he saw what he didn't really expect when he gained consciousness. He expected bandages upon bandages, a ventilator, and nurses by him just in case he started to die.

    But there was only a heart monitor. Is he not injured? The fact that he actually wasn't in too much pain solidified it for him. Either he was in a long coma or he just wasn't injured. He sat up in the bed in contemplation, the person in the dream felt oddly familiar. And that location; he went to school there around 5 years ago… but he just can't seem to remember there being a guest speaker that was supposed to come.

    “Oh, You're awake!” A Nurse walked through the door with a clipboard in hand. Victor noticed that she seemed pretty surprised that he was awake.

    “Your father is coming here to you shortly, I won't lie… he's pretty mad.”

    “So… what's he mad about exactly?”

    “Well you forgot to finish your homework- you snuck onto a closed off historic landmark, idiot! You're lucky the extent of your injuries was from some black rock hitting your head. I guess you're so hard headed your head managed to split a rock.”

    “How did anybody find me anyways, didn't the tower collapse?”

    “...Not yet anyways. And you walked yourself here, we got Security footage of you arriving here half naked and just collapsing. It's not the most surprising you don't remember

    The entrance door suddenly slammed open. “Ey! The fuck did you do? I left you home alone for just a day and you tried to collapse a national monument?”

    “Dad, I just wanted some-”

    “You're coming home, alright? Let's go.” He said in a suspiciously calm tone. “We need to discuss some things…for your future.”

    He sighed, Victor got up from his bed as the nurse turned off the equipment. He was still pretty dizzy, But it seemed the worst injury he got was just a concussion and injured neck. Before he could exit the room the nurse suddenly grabbed his shoulder.

    “Here's part of that rock that fell on you, as a souvenir.” She handed Victor a chunk of a pitch black stone in a bag. It was oddly smooth to the touch as he gently rubbed it within the bag like it was some genie lamp.

    “So I was holding this when I came here-”

    “Vic, hurry up!” a voice came from the hall

    “Yeah, coming dad!”

    Victor suddenly looked to the side, seeing some large dark figure barley in his line of sight. But it was gone as fast as it was noticed. He walked down the hospital halls in some cheap and worn lost and found clothes they've probably had for at least a half a decade.

    He walked out of the hospital and got into my father's car. Victor knew one of 2 things was going to happen.

    The first one was probably the quiet treatment. The last time he had witnessed his father go completely silent after an event was around 3 years ago. One day as he was walking from school, a Neo Team Grunt stole his late mother's Deino, straight from his bag.

    And then there's the yelling. This is a more frequent strain of it and it's incredibly self explanatory.

    “Listen, Victor…” His Father put a gentle band onto his son's shoulder. Gently squeezing it every time he tried to subtly pull away. Victor was a bit surprised by this behavior, but he had seen it earlier in the hospital room.

    “I know you want to make things right for… Me and your mother, alright? I'm sure you know already that I've done my best. Maybe not every single day, but every day I could manage.” He let go of his son's arm and started up the car “When we get home, we're going to talk. No more depressing stuff, alright? Hell, I'll even throw in an early birthday gift.”

    “Thanks, Dad.” Victor had a slight slump as the car smoothly drove home. The crisp Fall air was just cool enough to ease up his fear of disappointing his father further.

    When the car pulled into the driveway, He slowly got out of the car and opened the front door, holding the door for his father.

    “Go wash up now, I'll speak to you in the morning, I still have to clear up a bunch of stuff.”

    Victor went to his shower. For some reason the cool air felt almost frosty on his skin, in fact it was almost biting at it. He quickly turned on the shower to ease it but he had to wait a few moments for it to finally warm.

    When he got out he put on some old shorts and threw them lazily and threw himself in bed. He knew he should ask about that dream he had when he thought he was dead, what the hell was it? He tried h
    is best to sleep off any remaining pain he had but it seemed absolutely impossible. But eventually, he managed to doze off, even if it was for a moment.
     
    And I Got Kicked Out... So What? New
  • DumbDomDeluxe

    Youngster
    Pronouns
    He/Him
    “Victor, it's time to get up, You can't miss your surprise!” A loud shout echoed from the hall. Victor already felt his stomach drop to his knees, was this the surprise he was talking about? He got out of his bed and put on something that resembled a style.

    The shirt was light blue and he had gray sweatpants, good enough. He sighed to himself as he went downstairs. “Yeah dad? I-.... Whos that?” Victor stared at some women in a white lab coat. She wore shades even though it was cloudy outside. Not to mention her faded cyan hair was blocking her eyes from under the shades anyway.

    “Victor, I want you to meet Professor Demeanor. She's not the surprise, but pretty related to it”

    She leaned over the kitchen counter, drinking some water that was probably offered. Victor could feel this had everything to do with his Dragon Spiral tower stunt. The fact that a region renowned professor casually made herself comfortable made him even more worried, how long has she been here?

    “It's pronounced Dem-en-yoor, but that's not what matters here at this moment” she set down her drink and speed walked toward Victor. She seemed pretty pissed as she grabbed my shirt and pulled me forward.

    “The hell did you do? You destroyed a national landmark!”

    “But I thought it hadn't collapsed yet.”

    “Yeah well it's about to. And it's too risky to send anybody in to repair it.” she sighed to calm herself and continued, her index finger twirling in her hair. “Look, Victor, right? I was told you wanted to shoot some kind of video.”

    “Yeah, I wanted to document what both Team Plasma incidents did to Unova.”

    “While that is a respectable goal, why didn't you at least bring a Pokemon there to protect you?”

    Victor's father intervened into the conversation from the living room couch. “We don't use Pokemon in this household, professor.”

    She froze for a second, gears turning quickly in her mind. “Are you guys with those cultish guys… by any chance? Do you think my research is sinful?” She said with a hint of uncertainty and the sense that she shouldn't have said that.

    He sighed and got up from his seat on the couch. His patience was running thin for whatever he had planned for Victor. “No, that's not sin.” He said in an annoyed voice.

    “Demeanor, what do you study anyways? I know Juniper studied Pokemon origins and mythology and stuff” Victor asked

    “Well… there's no real simple term for what I study like the other professors. It's best I just show you, come outside for a moment.” She briskly walked outside, her left hand clutched on a pokeball on the belt hidden by her lab coat. She opened the front door to a bitter cold and almost seemed to seize up in the unexpected bite of the frost

    “Does it always get this cold here, kid?” She started some small talk as she held open the door for Victor.

    “Yeah, Brycen was the Ice Gym Leader here until he retired a few years ago. He's some movie star now.”

    “And you look up to people like him, right? He sounds like somebody who you would strive to be.”

    “It would be nice, sure. But just don't for motivation, going to Dragon Spiral tower already took all it out of me. Not even mentioning what I actually did there.”

    “Speaking of what you did there, young man…” she searched within her coat pockets and pulled out the piece of that smooth black rock. “You do know what this is right?’

    “A rock?”

    “Yeah sure kid. It's just one of the most boring rocks to ever exist, I'm sure of it.” She sighed and suddenly clapped her hands quickly to get herself to focus again.

    “There was an evil Pokemon in here kid. He did something that went against any God or Legendary should do.”

    “The hell do you mean a legendary? Like Suicune or Latios?”

    “No kid, a god! You released a fucking god!”

    “WHAT??”

    “You know what? Forget about this. Expert trainers are taking care of it. Let's get on with the explanation.”

    She unlatched a ball from her belt and released the pokemon inside. The air immediately grew stiff as the blinding light revealed itself to be an Aggron.

    Victor backed away from the hulking Pokemon and spoke with a slight edge in his tone “Don't Pokemon Professors usually have small and cute Pokemon with them, like an Emolga or something?”

    She stood next to her Aggron, raising her hands to its neck, seemingly tightening something. She took a moment to think about his words before her response. “Well, yeah” She paused for a moment to focus on the Pokemons neck. “He's part of why I even became a Professor honestly. This is an Unusual Aggron.”

    “Hm, what's up with him?” “I'm not good with Hoenn pokemon but he looks fine enough”

    “Just wait a moment…”

    CLICK

    “c'mon dude, show him your uniqueness” The Aggron backed away from Demanor's presence. He took a breath and opened his mouth, no attack came out but there was a faint tingling in Victor's chest

    “W-what's he doing exactly?”

    “I found out that Aggrons metal plates let it bounce extremely faint signals, so I created a collar that helps me input frequencies and send messages. Let's see what's on the radio…” She went back up to the Aggrons neck and turned the knob. With each turn of the knob, static blared from the collar's speaker. Not even a hint of music.

    “Kid, do you get Signal here in Icirrus?”

    “Of course I do, I-” Victor thought about it for a second. It hasn't been working for him since yesterday, around that tower.

    “My phone yesterday when I was near the tower, the signal was acting up too. But now the whole town's signal is acting up?”

    “You know… if this means what I think it means, then Zekrom is still around.”

    The Aggron suddenly growled menacingly, and he was looking straight at Victor like he was the most vile being ever conceived. The atmosphere grew tense and she held the rock in front of the Aggron to see if he maybe just wanted to see it.

    “Is it the rock, Aggron?”

    Aggron sniffed the rock and gently moved the professor stepped closer and closer to Victor, each step with a more surprised expression. As if he couldn't even believe what he was doing

    “Stay still, Aggron doesn't attack unless I say.”

    As soon as the Aggron got too close, suddenly the collar started to play whatever was on the radio. The signal disturbance disappeared instantly.

    Aggron wasn't satisfied and it seemed like he was in some sort of pain. It didn't seem like it was the collar since he would definitely be trying to rip it off.

    “I-im sorry, something must've gotten into him.” She snatched up her pokeball and returned the Aggron “Thank you, come back.”

    The collar seemed to float in the air for a moment before clattering down onto the grass below. She quickly walked over to the device and picked it up to turn it off, then folded it until it fit back in her coat pocket.

    “Alright, alright. Enough showing off.”

    She latched the pokeball directly to her belt with a sigh from her mouth. She was worried Aggron was genuinely about to hurt somebody.

    “I'm sure you've at least caught on to what your father wants for you, and I'm here to provide exactly what he wants. You're still young, and have plenty of time to explore-”

    “I'm honestly not too sure about this idea, I'm probably gonna die.”

    “Well what do you say? We walk around the town then.”

    “There isn't much to do-”

    “Exactly, kid, How are you even going to achieve your dream of making a film if you stay in this boring place?”

    Victor thought the hardest he ever thought. He had crunched grade deciding tests and plenty of tough choices, but nothing like this. He could stay and make a name as a Pokemon Fanclub Member, maybe make some cash managing the windmills nearby. As he thought about it even more, a feeling within him suddenly struck.

    “....I'll do it, I'll go on the journey. But first, can you go help me get my film stuff? I accidentally left it near Dragon Spiral Tower.”

    “No chance, even I'm not allowed near there anymore. And they probably confiscated your stuff.”

    “Won't they just return it soon then?”

    “Pretty high chance the Unova Police Department found it. The UPD infamously just steals and pawns off stuff they find at crime scenes. They stole my Aggrons favorite plushie recently even though it wasn't even touched by the thieves. There is nothing you can do.”

    She took out a pokeball with ineligible writing on the front of it, probably just some weird scientist handwriting. She pressed the release button and an energy shot straight from the center, beaming onto the ground.

    The light dissipated quickly, revealing a short, ball shaped Pokemon. Demeanor walked over to the pokemon and crouched in front of it, Gently explaining some things. “Now I know he may not be the brightest, but it wouldn't hurt to try and bond a bit with a trainer.”

    She noticed the visible confusion on my face and stood back up, preparing a small speech on the Pokemon being given to me. “This here, is a Sinnohian Pokemon named Gible.” She picked up the small shark like it was an everyday object. “While she may<<<<< look dangerous at first sight, she's actually been pretty docile in my experience training her.”

    “I thought Unova starters were a trio, and specifically meant to represent us. N-not that I'm mad about receiving a Gible of course.” Victor asked.

    “Oh well that's pretty easy.” She took out a small bundle of cash from her coat pocket. “Your Father paid me more to get you a stronger Pokemon, he must've really wanted you to be safe.”

    “Isn't that a form of bribery?”

    “Nah, not when I need funds for research right now. The government canceled my insurance right before the break-in into my office so I had to pay for everything.”

    Victor wanted to ask about the break in she's been mentioning, but who knew how recent and how traumatic it was to her.

    The Gible nervously made her way to him. She wasn't scared of being hurt, if he really felt threatened she would show it. It was more of an anticipation thing.

    “Alright, now I need you to pick up the Gible, I swear she won't bite you.”

    Victor kneeled down in front of the Pokemon. The Gibles expression was actually really cute for something that could probably tear his face to bits.

    “C'mon, I don't got forever.”

    He quickly grabbed Gible below the underside of her arms and raised her Into the air. Internally he was freaking the hell out, but again, something in him was making him suppress his fear like a pro. Demeanor walked over with a grin on her face, lifting her shades to get a better look as if it would help.

    “See? It's really not bad, most Pokemon aren't stupid. Even wild cave Dragons know enough to not attack humans unless they're desperate or feel unsafe.”

    She took the Gible from Victor's arms and set the Pokemon onto the ground. She swiftly returned the Pokemon back into the Pokeball and put it into my hands. It smelled like Caramel apples and dish soap, which meant she probably took good care of the ball, even with odd soaps.

    “I could tell it was getting too cold for the Pokemon. It's not your fault for not knowing, but it's one of the many things you'll be forced to learn if you want to make it outside here.” She said as she adjusted her shades with that silly grin still on her face.

    Victor tried to stuff the ball into his pocket but was quickly stopped.

    “Wait a sec, kid. There's still the matter of your outfit.” She walked over to the front door of the house to retrieve the dropped backpack. It was an extremely durable material that was fit to travel every biome possible. Deserts? Not a speck of sand on it. Dropped it down a ravine? Victor's stuff might be done but the backpacks is ready for more.

    “Oh I think I've seen these!” Victor said with excitement as his eyes landed on the backpack. His favorite band toured with this brand regularly and he never knew where to find one. “Where did you get one? I could've sworn they didn't exist.”

    She turned the backpack towards her and read the brand label. “Oh these aren't normal backpacks.” She said smugly. “The Materials were tested and improved upon in Mount Silver until they could withstand the full force of a Tyranitars stomp attack 50 whole times. And those legs level mountains<<<<<< kid.

    Victor took the backpack from her arms, and it was almost frighteningly soft. Like they got the finest wools and leathers just for one backpack. He hurriedly opened it and waited for Miss Demeanor to explain further.

    “Well, the starting kit you got here is stuff I really don't have to explain. 5 Pokeballs, 8 potions, 10,000 Poke dollars, that's more money than an entire month's funding for me…” She said in a jealous tone as she tried to refrain herself from nabbing a bit of it for research's sake.

    Victor was extremely grateful, He was actually feeling ready to do something for once. He was never a bed rotter, but he never found anything interesting to do. In fact part of his tower visit was just an urge to do something new.

    She suddenly stuffed a small note into the backpack. “If you see Zekrom, or even any sign of that thing and it doesn't attack you…” she took a deep breath. Part of her didn't want to get some rookie involved in this, but she remembered who even started this whole thing. It was Victor, he needs to play some kind of part in this. “Call me. I'll be there as soon as I can, remember you're the whole catalyst for this event, kid.”

    He took her words silently and zipped up the backpack awkwardly. He was about ready to go actually. He tried to go back inside the house but the door was locked. “Dad! I need to set up more, lemme in!” He started to knock, nothing.

    Demeanor stood behind him and sighed, she's seen a few instances where a trainer's parent just doesn't care about the child and wants them to leave.

    “I don't think your dad likes you man. He just paid for the Gible to keep you away longer I think.” She presented her words surprisingly blunt to rub the fact in.

    “He was actually being kind of nice yesterday, I guess I know why now.” Victor wanted so badly to break that door down and teach his father a lesson with his new Gible, but he was pretty much old enough to be arrested now, and his journey would end before it even started. And top that with the fact he's never even commanded a pokemon…

    Demeanor inched closer and placed a hand on Victor's shoulder. She wanted to cheer up the kid somehow, but was never good with teenagers. The only time she was maybe decent was when she was Victor's age.

    “What a prick. Is that along the lines of what you wanted to say?”

    “Close enough I guess.” He didn't have many words to say, it was a cold early morning and this life-changing event was suddenly ruined.

    “Is there anything you need to ask me before I go? I don't have much time.”

    Of course Victor has questions, but he knew he shouldn't flood a busy professor with a bunch of dumb questions. He assorted the questions in his mind from most Important to least, it was surprisingly easy to choose one.

    “What's that one place with the school and bench overlooking a forest?”

    “Hm, You wanna go there?”

    “No no, I just wanted to know if somebody died there.” His eyes suddenly widened and his face flushed a bit in embarrassment, why the hell was he so direct?

    “Well, uhhh…” She didn't really know how to respond to a question like that. She's been asked all sorts of odd questions but this one just seemed weird AND off topic. “Say that again, kid?”

    Victor had to bounce back from this and act like he never said that. “So… where do I go from here? Which way?”

    Demeanor seemed to want to forget too as she easily allowed the subject to be switched. “If you look on your map that was provided, there's an easy way to Mistralton city from route 7, it's a pretty decent starting gym if you're looking to do that. But if you're looking for a place to further your filmmaking stuff, taking the Tubeline bridge to Opelucid City is a safe option. But just be careful of the 2 short routes between, those Pokemon will kick your ass right back home.”

    “Do you know how much quality and small film equipment is?”

    She almost wanted to share my excitement, but she knew she had to shoot it down. “That stuff is going to be insanely pricey, 500,000 Poke Dollars on a good sale. I think taking Route 7 is your best bet, Opelucid City probably charges per step now because of how dystopian it's become.” She said the last part without even a hint of jokingness on her face.

    She checked the watch on her wrist and bit her bottom lip. “His retirement party is in 4 hours…how the hell do I get there?” She said to herself with stress building. “Y-yeah dude, I gotta leave now. If I miss this then they're all gonna think I'm a rude professor.” She hurriedly swiped at her belt and unlatched a pokeball.

    “Alright, you're about to see a new experiment I've done! Ju
    st don't tell anybody I can do this.” She sent out an abra and put a hand on its head. “Alright Abby, I need you to teleport me home.”

    “I don't think teleport can work that far-”

    BLIP

    “well damn”
     
    Broadcast Difficulty's... Be Right Back! New
  • DumbDomDeluxe

    Youngster
    Pronouns
    He/Him
    “Alright, you stay right there, and I'll just… sleep here.”



    …..

    ……..

    “Fine, just don't touch me.”

    It was another rough night on Route 7, Victor was still pissed off about his father but he tried to not let it affect his journey. Even if with every toss and turn in the sleeping bag was some random thing preventing him from sleeping.

    That one time he ordered well done steak at a fancy restaurant and the table beside him laughed. He's a medium rare guy now.

    Then there was that time his Gible tried to sleep next to him, but he wasn't too fond of having anything touching him while sleeping- which was right now.

    ‘I can't just kick her off me, who knows if she'll just leave and if she leaves then I'm probably going to die… that tower was just a pure fluke.’

    Victor sighed and turned over to Gible “Sorry, you can't come into my sleeping bag, you'd probably rip it.” Gible walked forward suddenly and attempted to hug his chest with her rough scales. “Hey, hey…! Stop that, please.”

    Victor sighed annoyingly and stood up from his sleeping bag “Gible!” He pointed at the other side of the line he drew with a stick multiple times, his whole body was just tired. “Stay in your area! You got yours and I got mine, please just let me sleep…”

    The two stared at each other for a good minute. “No, don't.” He backed away while Gible slowly waddled over with a playful grin on its face. “Y-you do realize you'll hurt me, right?” Victor's back hit a tree as the Gible moved ever closer to his position like a predator. (Which it was)

    “GIB!”

    SCRUNCH SCRUNCH SCRUNCH

    “OH FUCK!”

    Victor swiped his backpack and bolted away from his campsite as the small landshark dove into the ground and gave chase. As he ran he tried to remember anything that could possibly help him now.

    ‘Demenor didn't say anything about my Gible being violent towards me! Is that why they're not starters?’

    Victor swiped the pokeball from his belt and pointed the Pokeball behind him mid-sprint and pressed the return button. “Alright, in you go!” The clear red laser shot from the center directly into the ground.

    ‘Oh she's still in the damn ground!’ Victor's pace slowly but surely started to lose speed, the carelessness causing him to stumble on a branch and faceplant. He brought a hand to the ground and turned over to see no trace of a fin racing in the ground.

    He got up to his feet and dusted his body of dirt with his hands. There was absolutely zero way to tell where he ended up, he was honestly just glad to not fall off a cliff again. “Im an idiot, I really thought for a second I could make it an entire route?” He spoke to nobody in particular. ‘may as well try and get to that tower and get a ride back home or something’

    Thoughts of Victor's father being even more disappointed in him rang hard in his head. Would he even be let in? The Pokemon fan club would probably not accept him given he just released an apex predator onto route 7.

    Oh shit, he just released an apex predator. Onto some random traveling route in Unova. He may as well quickly go report it to lessen the prison sentence he might get for Pokemon abandonment and dangering people and Pokemon.

    After a good while of walking he felt the ground suddenly rumble with a whirring sound in the distance. “Gible?” Victor dashed forward with all his might until he hit a steep hill, where he lost balance and braced.

    “Ah!” THUMP CRASH!

    He felt the rumbling get stronger and struggled to get up from the ground. “U-urk…!” His hands tried to clasp something on the ground for support but it was oddly smooth like concrete. In fact it was even getting bright.

    Wait, it's getting closer and louder.


    VRRRRRR…. Victor slowly turned his head and examined the scene playing out in front his eyes.

    Plane. Huge. Going… Directly at him…..!

    Victor, having no time for an inner monologue, froze like a deerling in colossal headlights. Not even diving out of the way could save him, he would probably get blown away and get injured. Not that he had time to even think about anything that could save him.

    ……….

    He suddenly felt time slow, he once again got that feeling he felt when he was forced to start his journey. It wasn't quite bravery, it was some kind of determination and will. It's like it was empowering him, like it needed him to live somehow.

    a sense of guilt washed over

    “Braviary!” a voice called from within the loud sounds of the plane. A set of strong talons clamped just above his wrists and hoisted him into the air, just in time for the large cargo plane to pass below safely

    SWOOOOOOOSH!! The plane took off into the sky without incident. It quickly disappeared into the distance with a cartoon-like twinkle within the stars of the night sky. “O-oh my god. Oh my god.”

    The sudden thrill of being several feet above the ground made him snap back to reality. He was this close to being a red mist, and his mind somehow froze double. He was never very good under pressure and it seemed like being a trainer was way too much pressure. He would rather be under pressure of strict deadlines.

    ‘I am so done with this journey thing, I just want to go home. I'll build my own damn house in the wilderness if I have to.’ He thought as the wind brushed past him.

    He watched the ground get ever closer until the Braviary let go and he fell to the ground, his ass probably gaining an extra crack. But it really wasn't as painful as the events before all this.

    He slowly situated his mind as he was sat on the ground, which made him look more like he was lobotomized than thinking. ‘Why does nothing hurt?’ He checked his arms, no injury. His legs, the one he hurt last week doesn't really hurt anymore.

    Then his chest.

    “Oh god are you okay?” The woman who owned the Braviary said something to it and the bird Pokemon flew off to some building in the distance. It was bright, that's all he knew.


    Shining stars in the sky helped him focus as he heard sirens closing in. He wasn't dying, if he was dying then he would be in pain or unconscious right now, this is just fatigue.

    Oh wait now he couldn't see, and now his vision is fading to black. If he could say something it would definitely be something like “I hate this shit!” But his voice would be shot if he yelled that anymore.


    “Not again.”


    The Next Day

    He was in a hospital again, but on the upper side, he got to Mistralton City. And it wasn't cold and dry everywhere like his hometown, Iccirus City. As Victor came to, he couldn't help but overhear some nearby doctors

    “Have we got the kid identified?” A nurse asked

    The doctor took a second to think, then responded. “We looked at the Dex app on his phone, and found out he's some new Gym Challenger from the town next to us.”

    Victor's tired expression immediately perked up when he heard they went through his phone. He didn't have anything weird on it… but it was pretty rude to him.

    Through all the stress he forgot a pretty vital part of himself- he was incredibly thirsty, like really thirsty.

    He picked up a room temperature glass of water and started to chug it in pure thirst, a bunch of it landing all over his hospital gown. He still didn't feel an ounce of pain, even if he was drugged up to the max in pain relievers he would still be able to feel something

    The nurse put a hand on her head in thought. “I didn't see a Pokemon in his possession, did he abandon it?”

    “If he abandoned a Pokemon the app would register it as released, it said he has a Gible and he left home last week. “

    beep beep…!

    A small transceiver device sounded in her pocket “Yeah that's pretty odd, I'll go check on the kid now. His vitals seem to have risen”

    ‘Damn! They're gonna arrest me or something, what are the laws again?’ Victor put down his cup of water onto the nightstand next to him and put the covers over his body, pretending to be asleep.

    Footsteps rang softly down the hall until the nurse got close enough to slide open the door. She entered with a small sigh and gently slid the door closed. “Are you feeling okay? Our chef is available to cook you a meal.” She observed Victor's obvious fake sleeping form and giggled to herself silently.

    “I know you're awake, I've been at this for 12 years and this is one of the fakest sleeps I've seen.”

    Victor slowly sat up trying to convince the nurse and himself to an extent that he was in pain. For some reason, he was slightly scared he just couldn't feel pain again for the rest of his life. Pain is something necessary to live, weirdly enough- how else would you know touching fire is bad or waving around knives is dangerous? (Besides experience)

    There was that thought again. It felt there was some snarky ass response ready to go off in his head sometimes and he was getting kinda sick of it. It didn't have a voice or personality behind it, it's just there sometimes like a melted, expired sundae after his main course. (His thoughts)

    “Are you okay? Something seems to be bothering you. If I have to send in my Hypno to help you, I will.”

    She was obviously trying to help by mentioning Hypno therapy, but Hypno scared the living crap out of him- especially after that popular hoax when he was kid about Hypno kidnappings. It wasn't real, but it sure was scary to think about.

    She seemed passionate about healing, just like every good nurse should. How he knew this was odd but he just could.

    “Alright, Hy-”

    Snapping from his overbearing thoughts once again, Victor shouted “NO!”

    Not even letting the silence linger, he got up and slapped himself in the cheek as a desperate way to not let his thoughts wander again. Before slowly sitting back down and staring at the ground, not letting the nurse see his red face.

    The nurse was taken aback at the sudden shout and released the grip from the Pokeball in her bag. She was incredibly confused at how he even had the energy to stand and shout

    “Agh, it seems like your chest is bleeding again.” she said in a jokingly exasperated voice. Instead of running out of the room or getting him restrained she attempted to alleviate the situation by just acting like he never did this.

    “Oh, my chest?” He lifted his hospital gown that he was wearing. “It should be fine now ri-”

    There was a small bandaged wound right where his heart is. It seemed like it was halfway to being a damn cupholder because of how deep it is. There was not a hint of blood, unlike what the nurse said.

    He wasn't really worried. He honestly felt like he couldn't die because he probably couldn't; even if he was playing Russian Roulette with all 6 chambers filled. (You wouldn't) go away

    Completely ignoring the fact the wound somehow didn't bleed, she asked the burning question that was on her mind. “Do you mind telling me where your Gible is? You didn't abandon it did you…?” She knew the answer was probably yes, this trainer wasn't in his right mind,

    “Uh, no. She started to chase me, probably wanting to bite my ass off and I lost her somewhere on route 7.” Victor said with clear annoyance in his voice.

    “Wait wait wait, you introduced a dragon type to an ecosystem full of invasive animals?”

    “Yep” Victor leaned against the wall, arms around his neck as a makeshift cushion. He definitely cared, but he wanted to act like he was cool enough to even own a Gible.

    “Oh god are you fucking kidding me?”

    “She's really weak though.”

    “As if that's gonna help, you gotta get her back now!”





    ……..

    “I'll tell my manager you're all healthy and can go if you recapture the Gible.”


    –ORION–


    Nothing could be seen, muffled voices were heard like his consciousness was submerged into a deep lake.

    “You demon child! You really think you've won? You've been beaten by a foolish teenager and you're satisfied? If you were capable of trying you could have your Dragon annihilate every single living being in this room!”

    His voice was full of toxic venom, capable of putting an Arbok to shame. It didn't take a genius to tell he was exhausted and pissed.

    “That's enough from you, Ghetsis!” All that was able to be heard was shoes on the tile and a swift strike to somebody, causing them to slam into the ground.

    The man's name was Ghetsis. Wasn't this the same guy responsible for both Team Plasma terrorist organizations?

    (Right) The voice's tone rang, and he could actually feel a bit of life behind it.

    He could much more easily communicate with this voice, it didn't give him a headache or force him to focus. His family never had a history of schizophrenia and he hadn't done much to cause it. He never thought it was anything like that, but he was pretty stupid and was probably wrong. (No)

    He couldn't speak, he didn't have a body. He couldn't even see black, as he didn't even have eyes. It was like being blind, but probably worse.

    But he could think, he had a mind but no body. Maybe it was enough to communicate? He would be stupid to not at least give it a try.

    He thought for a second and tried to shoot out a thought, imagining he was sending a text with his mind or something. It was just something to help him get his thoughts across.

    ‘Voice, what the hell are you?’

    It did not respond, and instead he heard somebody else speak up. It was extremely similar to the other muffled voices.

    “Black, I want to talk to you about something.”

    ‘Black…?!’

    Black walked up to the young man speaking.

    “When I first met you in Accumla town, I was surprised to know what your Pokemon was saying about you. It said it wanted to be with you forever. You just started out at that time, correct?”

    “It blew my mind that there were Pokemon that loved their trainers. Up until that singular moment I never thought they could work with each other. But I opened my eyes just a bit more, and I saw them helping humanity without being forced. And they were happy.”

    “I needed to confirm my beliefs by battling with you. I caught every single Pokemon in the areas we battled.”

    The voice took a deep breath, almost not believing what he experienced.

    “Each and every one of them appreciated me, even when we did lose. You helped me confirm to myself that Pokemon can be our friends.”

    “There was no way somebody like me, somebody that actually understands Pokemon- I didn't understand them like you could. You made so many close friendships with your Pokemon and I couldn't keep up.

    He heard the man's footsteps get more distant, before he shouted not just to Black, but to everybody willing to listen.

    “Black! You said you have a dream… That dream… Make it come true! Wonderful dreams
    and ideals can give you the power to change the world! If anyone can, it's you! Black!”

    He heard a resounding thump on the ground as the voice seemed to raise higher.

    “Well then… Farewell!”
     
    The Anxiety, The Captured... Let's Dance! New
  • DumbDomDeluxe

    Youngster
    Pronouns
    He/Him
    “Victor? Hey, Victor?” The nurse spoke worriedly towards him. “My Hyp-”

    Victor's head bolted upward as he woke from the dream… Vision….fever dream, whatever the hell it actually was. That was real, he's convinced now he really did have something inside him. And it had to be connected to both of those visions he's experienced, and there was a faint idea in his mind of who it could be.

    He got up and started to make his way towards the sink to wash his face, why did he sweat so much during that daze?

    “Nope, no Hypno therapy for me, thank you for the offer!” He said desperately as he turned on the faucet and splashed his face. “By the way, where are your showers? I gotta take one before I go.”

    The Nurse sighed. “Your Gible’s probably eating half the forest now.”

    “True…” He grabbed his backpack from beside his bed and flung it behind him, gently tugging his shoulders as it seemed lighter than what it should be. “Did you take anything from my backpack? He asked.

    “I've had no reason to, I'd be fired if I took anything.” She rebuttaled

    He took the backpack from his back and zipped it open, everything was in there just fine. His supplies, food, water. “N-nevermind then”



    Victor exited the hospital without much trouble, a few of the staff questioned him but they didn't seem to care as long as he seemed better. The town seemed to be lively.

    The midday chills reached him, but he was more distracted by the bustling town. Iccirus City constantly seemed lonely after Brycen left, the only tourists just wanted to scope out Dragonspiral Tower, which they couldn't even do anymore thanks to emergency construction to save it from crumbling further.

    Kids ran across the streets as they had masks of popular Pokemon on their faces. There was a Lucario Mask, Haxorus Mask, and a Reshiram mask. They ran across the streets as stands were placed right across the Hospital he was outside of.

    ‘That building, I need to remember that big building that glowed.’ He cemented that description in his mind as he walked across the street. A few more kids passed him by with a Riolu mask, and a Sneasel mask. The kid with the Riolu mask having a Rufflet on his shoulder. “Hey, Riolu mask, do you know the biggest building in this city?”

    The Kid turned around and slid his mask to the top of his head like a welding helmet. “I guess that would be Miss Skyla's Gym Battle stadium. She's having a battle right now with some gym challenger and all my friends are watching, but I don't really care for it.”

    ‘The Gym Battle Stadium, nice! That was pretty fast.’ Victor thought as he mentally wrote it down in his mental notebook he just thought of. Before he went on, there was actually one more question he wanted to ask. “Why is there such a big event here today?”

    The kid smiled and happily rambled on. “The champions here today! He's not really as cool as Cynthia or Leon but I still like him!” The kid excitedly continued as he happily hopped up and down in anticipation of what he would tell him. “A-and he's going to fight Skyla soon! It should've already happened but it had to be delayed until tomorrow because she's too busy.

    “Wait, how busy? I need her help”

    “Well she's battling trainers all day, no breaks. It happens a lot I think”

    ‘Damn! There goes my plan, I need my Gible back as soon as possible!’ Victor took a seat by the curb and the kid followed suit. “You didn't have to copy me y'know, this isn't very comfortable.” He said.

    “Yeah… But you're interesting, and my Rufflet likes you.” His Rufflet sharply chirped in Victor's face. It's unblinking eyes staring him down until it seemed like his soul was examined it seemed

    Wanting to change the topic to somewhere that was about that creepy Rufflet, seemed interesting enough. “So, where'd you get him? Looks…goofy” The Rufflet Continued to stare.

    The kid reached into his pocket and got out 2 half melted chocolate drizzled granola bars. “Here.” He raised the bar to Victor's face.

    “Oh, thanks dude.” He took it and immediately ripped it open. Most of the chocolate was melted onto the plastic, rendering it kind of not a chocolate snack… because he'd have to lick the plastic. Even with the missed flavor combination with the chocolate, he still ate it. A granola bar can't be bad if it's at least a little covered in chocolate. Oh, and Rufflet’s still staring.

    Going back to his previous words, the kid speaks up. “I won him this morning at the gameshow. I got 3rd place.”

    Wait, a place to win a Pokemon? He wouldn't need help from a gym leader if he got first place prize. “So what are the prizes?” He inquired.

    The kid opened free palm and started to count his fingers, staring with his thumb. “5th place is 10 rare candys” he brought down his thumb and moved on to his pinkie “4th is an elemental stone of your choice, he followed suit with his other fingers. “3rd is Rufflet, like mine, They all seem really weird.” He took a good bite out of his granola bar and chewed it for an oddly long time. “2nd is a 2 tickets to some random band.”

    Victor heard one of his activation phrases, band. He LOVED live music, but never got a chance to go to a show. He looked at the kid with wide eyes before quickly peeling them away and acting normal once again. “Go on…”

    “First place is a Gible, I was really hoping to get that one…” The kid sat sadly on the curb as other kids-

    “WHAT?” Victor shot up off the curb as he threw down his wrapper as it quickly blew away in the chilly wind.

    “Yeah, I know right? So stupid…”

    “No you don't get it, that's MY goddamn Gible!” He may have been too hasty, but who the hell would give away a Gible? Where would they even find one in Unova? “Did it lack a chip in its final? Was it female?”

    The kid was a bit frightened and stood up as well, following Victor's cruel unintentional littering and tossed the wrapper into the wind. “W-well yeah, the man running it described the Gible as a she”

    ‘Oh that was easier than I thought, now I just gotta go and show them I own that Gible, It should be in my Trainer ID when scanned.’ Victor smiled for the first time in a while. “Put out your hand.”

    The kid meekly put out his hand and before he could hesitantly pull back it was met with a BLAP. Victor had aggressively hand shook the kid. “Thank you for telling me that, you have no idea how much that helped!”



    Having now gotten some vital Info, he headed off to get his Gible back. The middle of the town square was somehow even more packed, food stalls lined up long enough to feed all of Unova if need be. There were some traditional carnival games that seemed to be as rigged as the shows made them seem, and they had plushies of cute and small Pokemon like Pichu hanging as tempting prizes.

    “Step right up!” The Booth Worker yelled enthusiastically at the crowd as children lined up to earn the cheap plushies that would be stuck in a winners closet forever. The groans of parents who knew they had to spend way too much money to get nothing seemed to only heighten the will of the children.

    But the food was even more appealing, there seemed to be an infinite amount of fried foods available to gorge on. There was even fried Pokemon food available to buy your Pokemon, but oddly enough it was never said what brand it was or what type it was made for, a serious health code violation. But who even cared? He just needed to get to where that gameshow event was hosted.

    Suddenly out of nowhere, a sales woman accidentally purposely bumped into him, not enough to go to court but also not enough to call it more than a mild inconvenience.“Woah, watch where your goin’ man.” Victor muttered to himself.


    She turned around and said, “Free sample, sir?” she got him, hook, line, and sinker.

    ‘Fuck, that smells amazing.’

    “Yeah sure, whaddya got?” He willingly sold his soul and wallet to food of all things. Oh what is he kidding? He knew this was going to happen.

    She raised the plate and pointed at each fried consumable object on a stick. “This one is fried Oran Berry!” It was golden brown, but with a blueish core within that could maybe convince somebody it was remotely healthy for somebody to eat

    He picked it up and unhesitantly put almost the whole entire toothpick in his mouth. Yeah it was fried Oran Berry, but he could only really taste grease and fryer oils. He would rather get his daily recommended calories all at once in a giant milkshake or something.

    In sudden realization, he swallowed the fried snack and tried to gently get himself away from this situation. It wasn't really that good, he tasted dirt better than this. (I agree)

    “Hey uh, I got somewhere to be, thanks for the sample.” He took the toothpick out of his mouth and gently flicked it back onto the big plate. ‘Yeah this shit sucked.’ He thought, semi- pretending to talk to the voice.

    “No problem! Now would you like to buy a whole fried Oran Berry?”

    “No.”




    With the unexpectedly easy to get out of food distraction out of the way, he made his way even closer to where this event would take place. He was a bit closer to the middle of this whole thing now, and probably nothing could stop him.

    The sun was completely overhead in the sky now, but it didn't really matter since it was around the beginning of Autumn anyways. The heat could be felt, but there was no burn to it. Which In turn was the perfect weather for starting a journey, beside Iccirus City, that place just sucked.

    “Step right up! Answer these questions and win an assortment of prizes!” The host looked behind him briefly. “...Like a Gible for first prize!”

    This immediately caught the attention of Victor. ‘Oh shit that's it!’ They seemed to be using a real building for this, and just installed some stands in front with buzzers; Costing a whopping 120 bucks. (Not far off)

    “Hey, hey! I need to talk to you for a second.” He shouted at the weirdly stylized host. The colors reminded him of a priest with the white and gold but the actual getup the guy had going was just a stereotypical suit with a cape. almost like he searched up Gameshow Host and went to images.

    Victor walked up the creaky wooden steps and walked up to the man.

    “...Oh great….” The host muttered in spite before getting back into character. “So, you think you can win the game, eh kid?” He was dramatically posed, his back facing Victor. “THIS game is meant for the champion to test his Pokemon training knowledge, not for you to have fun”

    “What are you talking about? My friend nearby said he got a Rufflet from here this morning, and he's no champion. And also I-”

    Rudely cutting off his soon to be contestant, he tugged his cape for a split second to make it flow better in the air, then he dramatically flipped himself around. “.....Let me go talk to my superior.” In a quick burst, he gently shoved Victor and ran into the back room.

    “Hey, asshole!” Victor gave chase but the door was slammed directly in his face, causing him to stumble back and clumsily tumble off the stage.



    “BOSS THEYRE FUCKIN ONTO US!”

    The boss dramatically slammed his cheap wooden desk, making every cage in the room vibrate for a split second from the aftershock. “THERE IS A VERY, VERY SIMPLE SOLUTION!”

    The host watched him clear his throat “A-AH-AHEM!....AHHHHHHHHHHEM….. GRRRRRRAAAAGH……. WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN WE GOT FOUND OUT!”

    “I-I don't know man!” The host cowered in fear of his bosses pure genius and brilliance.

    The boss got up from his seat, his face as red as a red velvet cake. In a fit of rage he picked up the chair he was just sitting on.

    “FUUUUCK!” SLAM!! “FUUUUUCKK!!!! FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK!” He repeatedly slammed his seat against the cages filled with Pokemon, frightening them greatly in the process. In his mind since his whole operation was busted, the Pokemon didn't really matter.

    “Oh my god boss stop! Stop!”

    BANG BANG

    Terrified Pokemon cries reverbated throughout the whole room.“WHY SHOULD I! HE KNOWS WE'RE TRYING TO-” His rage was to be expected. Lots of research for the development of the ultimate weapon was relying on this.


    At around the same time…


    “Hey, HEY!” An enraged teenager gripped the shoulder of an older teenager that was just a bit smaller than him. “You asshat! Literally, who the hell wears a visor? Bwhaha! What's your name anyway?”

    The older teenager turned around and met the other guy's gaze with a mildly confused look and put a steady hand on his belt. “It's Nathan, or Nate for short.” He put out his hand, fishing for a handshake to hopefully sort things out. “What's yours?” He asked.

    The rude teenager's jaw nearly hit the floor when the face of the champion hit him, he was just looking for weak new trainers to battle and get cash from. “W-well um…”

    Nate put his other hand on his visor in adjustment and leaned his head back, looking faintly towards the sun so he could properly block it. “Whew, is somebody running a Sunny Day team around here?”

    “Ha… yeah yeah, it's preeetty bright.” He said with his shirt now pulled over his belt to hide his Pokeballs.

    “Oh and did you want a battle? I got time for a practice round. And I'm still waiting on your name.”

    “It's Mike, and can we not battle maybe?”

    “Oh, so you're scared.” Nate said disappointingly with his hand not reaching for a shake and his hat finally adjusted.

    This was a silly way Nate came up with to get more challengers, all it took was some subtle gaslighting. Though it mainly seemed to rope in mediocre trainers.



    “The battle between Mike and Champion Nate will now be underway!” The battle announcer yelled.

    “Alright alright let's do this!” Mike slapped his cheeks to focus and widened his eyes. “...” He put a slightly shaking hand on his belt and got out his strongest Pokemon. “Alright, go-”

    “Wait! Let me choose first, it's only fair.” Nate butted in from across the field.

    The announcer was caught off guard for a second but cleared his throat. “A-alright, Champion Nate, send out your first Pokemon…. And don't ruin our fine battle area we have here. Deliveries to other regions depend on this.”

    The area was the airstrip just outside the festival area, It was never used for battling but since there's no room, it would have to take place here.

    Nate took a breath and unlatched a random Pokeball from his belt. It smelled faintly of…whatever Lucario smelled like. “Alright! Go, Lucario!”

    The crowd roared in excitement over the choice.

    “Oh my god, he hasn't used Lucario since last month! I hope it's not all rusty…”

    “Dude, I'm still waiting to see his Black Haxorus again, that thing is a beauty!

    “I mean he used it for the Semi Finals of the Masters Tournament last year”

    The bystanders continued to talk to each other loudly as Lucario's white shine from the Pokeball fizzled away.

    “Strike a pose, Lucario!” Nate shouted a command to get the crowd pumped as the Lucario looked back at its trainer with an assuring nod

    Lucario closed its eyes, put a paw on top of its left leg. It then used its free paw to place a fist on the ground and then crouched slightly.

    The crowd cheered even louder with enthusiasm, the makeshift barricades couldn't hold them if this level of hype kept up.

    Mike observed the Lucario, and remembered its Steel/Fighting typing. It was one of the most popular Pokemon to exist, wasn't much thought to be had at all really. He knew he would get wiped like a fresh stain with any Pokemon he chose, so he sent the one already within his hands.

    “Krokorok, GO!” He yelled with everything he had. He would not go down without a fight, he had to at least do something to at least graze this thing. He was surprised it wasn't considered a national level threat, which it sort of was in a way.

    The ball opened and out came the Pokemon, the crowd was completely silent.

    “The battle between Mike and Champion Nate starts now! It's Lucario versus Krokorok!”

    Lucario got up from its dramatic pose and stood stoically, menacingly. “Lucario, use your aura now.” Nate said in deep focus.

    The field suddenly seemed to burst with flowing energy, blue streaming ribbons appeared from thin air and seemed to flow into it. Lucario suddenly clenched every muscle in its body like it was trying to keep something powerful within it

    “Wait, this is the move that always makes Lucario win, right?” A bystander chatted with another.

    “Yeah, it takes a moment though… and it looks stressful as all hell, I never thought I would see Lucario's veins pop out.”

    Mike's Krokorok veered its head at him in pure shock, there was a force that was unknown to both Pokemon and trainer. Its mouth stayed agape as tears of pure horror seemed to be almost coming out of its eyes.

    Mike almost couldn't even believe it. This was even scarier than seeing it on a Livestream of an actual professional battle. Why the hell is it being used? Does the Champion hate Krokorok? Why is there even a move out there that can instantly win a battle? Why is it not banned?

    The wisest move would be to drop out of the battle immediately, since that was probably what was being suggested to him at the moment. The crowd watched the ribbons go from blue to a pure and elegant white, and get thinner, and thinner, until they eventually went away, all while Mike stood there in fear.

    “Lucario,” Nate took a deliberate pause “U-”

    “SAND ATTACK!” Krokorok snapped out of fear and looked at the ground, there was only concrete and no sand. “God damn it!” Mike mentally slapped himself for that blunder. He had to think of something.

    Lucario started to pant in exhaustion as its capacity seemed to reach a breaking point. But they both seemed… happy about it? Why would he want his Pokemon to exert itself like this?

    “Use-”

    “Krokorok, Swagger, NOW!” Krokorok quickly took out a claw with a sadistic gleam in its eye and started wagging it in an act of unsportsmanship.

    “Swagger…?” Nate muttered to himself in confusion, breaking his battle persona for a moment. He hadn't really used status moves that much. He just relied on raw strength to make up for stuff like Swords Dance. “Lucario, Use that Aura Sphere!”

    The crowd's chatter went silent just when the command was called. Some of them stared at Mike in worry for his Krokorok and some of them seemed to await how much damage it would do.

    “Get out of there, Krokorok! Get out!” Mike raised his Pokeball and before he could click the return button, he realized that… Lucario wasn't moving…?

    Nate seemed to be the first to notice and gently called out. “Lucario, are you alright out there?” He was worried he took his special move too far and made the poor thing crack under pressure.

    Lucario broke its even stature and started to shake as if it was freezing. “L-Lucario? Do you want to forfeit, buddy? I didn't mean to do this I-I…

    Nate's personality seemed to do a total 180 as he ran up to Lucario and put a hand on its shoulder. “Ah! It's burning!” He swiftly took his hand off as Lucario started to stumble back and forth, until it started to cough.

    Lucario's Aura levels seemed to be even more dense than what should be possible, it was like overfeeding a coal machine. “How did it…?”

    Mike halted his forfeit and looked at Lucario, it seemed to be incredibly dizzy and sick looking. “Krokorok, D-did the Swagger land?”

    “Krok!” It responded with a resounded yes.



    Lucario fell over, fainted.

    The announcer seemed to want to report Mike for cheating somehow, even seeming to raise the flag representing Nate somewhat before swallowing his pride and raising Mike's flag.

    “The winner!” He looked Nate kneeled over his Lucario in worry, in case he was dreaming this. “Lucario has fainted! The winner is Mike and Krokorok!”

    The crowd went wild and the barrier crashed down, then it went silent again.

    “Holy Shit!” Mike ran and embraced his Krokorok in a tight hug. “I knew it!” He let go of the hug and stared deeply into its eyes. “Dude, we can win a million bucks from this, I can buy you the good shit now!” he gripped its arms and shook it wildly. “No more fast food for me, and no more slop for you! I'll buy a house by the ocean in Alola and-”

    “Mike, Krokorok.” Nate seemed to appear right in front of them. And spoke in a very polite tone considering what just went down.

    Mike got up from his fantasy's and held out his hand. “T-thanks for throwing, you threw, right? You had to!”

    “Nope, you won fair and square.I forgot Swagger confused and raised the attack of my Lucario. It…got overloaded and fainted, that's a clear win in my book for the both of us.

    Nate took the offer and shook his hand.

    “For the both of us?”

    “Well, yes, I learned a clear weakness that everybody's going to be trying to use on me now.”

    Mike pointed at himself with enthusiasm. “And I get loaded right?!”

    “It'll be in your account by tomorrow morning, I assure you.”
     
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