It was the year 528. Not AD nor BC. Just 528. If you want to get down to details, it was the 528th Year After the Grand Apocalypse. I'll be honest, things still haven't fully recovered since then.
I don't exactly remember how the story goes, though. From what I remember, the god Arceus gave a piece of himself to a settlement of ancient humans quite a long time ago. This bit of him came to be called the Jewel of Life because it turned the harsh deserts those settlers lived on into a lush paradise of green. Arceus went to sleep after that, and nothing much happened for the next few centuries. Then he came back to get the Jewel of Life from the humans. Problem was, they wouldn't give it back to him. The story gets a bit blurry at this point; some people will say they lost the jewel and others will say they just didn't feel like handing it over. I couldn't tell you which side got that part right, as if that were even a significant part of the tale. Whatever happened, it got Arceus very angry. He felt it right to destroy everything for about 10 years before disappearing. Most of the humans were killed off after that, and those who managed to bear the blows died off three decades later. The pokemon, however, survived, and began to settle in places not so marred by the destruction. The smart ones salvaged what they could from the human ruins and used those things to the best of their ability. The really smart ones, however, took it a step further and took apart those things to understand how they worked. With a bit of skill, they soon figured out how to make more of those things. To say that helped out a lot would be an insult, and I'd have to kill myself. There's still plenty of ruins to be explored, though. They've made it into a sort of job, and I think that the pokemon in those fields are called Artefactors. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Our story begins on a saturday morning.
R-R-R-R-RIIIIING!
R-R-R-R-RIIIIING!
R-R-R-R-RIIIIING!
*Click*
Richard got up. He wanted to sleep in, but "You can't evolve by sleeping in!" was the mantra of everyone in his family that he had ever met. No, you needed to get out and exercise, especially the fighting types, which he just so happened to be a member of. Richard, against his own will, drug himself out of bed. He wasn't a scraggy, and couldn't imagine being as degenerate as one. Nor was he a machop, though he wished he shared their enthusiasm for strenuous, laborious work. No, Richard was a riolu, though he acted lazier than his peers. This deviation from the norm, however, is expected at times and was no cause for alarm. It didn't matter what he was, it wouldn't change his plans for today, which was doing nothing. At the very least, he would delay the inevitable. He walked downstairs as slowly as he could. His mom was sleeping on the couch and had forgotten to turn off the TV that night for the umpteenth time. "Good, I can skip today's exercise!" he thought to himself, and went to creep upstairs back to his room. His foot was on the first step. One small step for riolu, one gia-
"Don't even think about it." mumbled his mom. Drat. He walked slowly towards the kitchen. "Pick up the pace, rrrmrrrgh workrrrr..."
After Richard had his breakfast, he grabbed his gear. That is, a watch, a backpack with a cell phone, canned oran berries (with the obligatory can opener), a lamp, a knife (Which both his mom and dad urged him not use as a weapon unless he absolutely had to), and a lot more rope than he needed. Today was a unusually nice spring day, being at that point where the day was warm, but not overwhelmingly so. Suddenly, Richard didn't seem to mind today's workout. He also remembered yesterday's experience and the new friend he made. He was jogging around in the forest when he stepped on the most dashing mienshao this side of the planet. Yes, I'm talking about myself. After a brief apology, we talked about various things. I agreed that his parents were pushing him a bit much, but he should just roll with it because they only want the best for him, I'm assuming. With that in mind, Richard set off for the forest again and so did I. I sat in the same spot where I was last time and waited. I must have fallen asleep, too.
This time, however, Richard decided to jump through the trees like the ninjas in those old human cartoons. What a bright idea that was, except he didn't take into consideration that not all tree branches are suited to taking that sort of stress. Sure enough, one of the branches collapsed under his weight and he fell face-first into the side of a hill, where he rolled down to its bottom. Poor Richard took a minute to recollect himself and then looked around. He knew where he was, and had been here a few times. Only this time, he noticed the cave that faced towards the hill, too. He never noticed it, but that's probably because he was more focused on getting his exercise. "I wonder what's in there?" Richard quietly said to himself. He was tempted to go inside, but he had heard too much of those places being like mazes, where people came in, but not out. Richard gave it some thought, and shifted his attention to his backpack. The one with too much rope in it, which would make a perfect escape rope. The only knot Richard knew to tie was an overhand knot, which was all he needed aside from a tree. He pulled the knot around the nearest one to make sure it wouldn't come loose. When he was sure it wouldn't slip, he ventured into the cave.
Richard was surprised at how prepared he was in terms of supply. His dad was the one who told him what to put in his backpack, so he must have at least thought of the possibility of his son wandering into a cave. The lamp worked as well as it needed to, which was also good. Richard wandered on in interest, not even trying to remember which way he went (As if he needed to do that). It didn't seem like anything lived here, so he decided to try something. "Woooooo!" Richard listened closely. "...ooooo!...ooo!...o!..." He chuckled to himself and decided that now was a good time for a break. Richard fished out the canned berries and the can opener and turned off his lamp. He must have gotten carried away with his little adventure, he forgot that the lamp was the only thing keeping the place lit!... Or so anyone else would think. There was another light coming from somewhere, much too dim to do anything, really. But Richard saw it's amber glow. It was coming from somewhere, and lunch would have to wait until he found out what that light was. He didn't have a lot out, so putting his stuff back into the backpack wasn't a challenge. With overwhelming curiosity, Richard set out for that strange light.
It didn't take a lot of walking to find out where that light came from. Richard had to take a step back because the answer had greatly surprised him. The light had led him into an absolutely massive cavern, but that wasn't what caught his amazement. No, he was stunned because there was an entire city in that chasm, the size of which he dared compare to New Black City, the likes of which he saw so long ago that he oftentimes has trouble remembering anything about that place. But he certainly wouldn't forget this place, oh no. And he certainly wouldn't forget the strange chanting, singing, and yelling he could hear coming from the city, either.
Richard wandered into the city and followed the noise. Something was eerie about the the city, though. For the amount of noise there was, there didn't seem to be anyone making it that he could see. He ventured deeper into the city, and found what he was looking for. In front of him was an empty space in the city, a plaza, presumably. Only it wasn't empty. No, it was alive and crawling with pokemon, and something else. I mentioned that all the humans were gone, but it seems they didn't all die as everyone thought. (Perhaps that weird conspiracies show was right about there being some sort of species purging after the Grand Apocalypse) Here they were, holding a massive festival underground. Richard hid behind one of the buildings so no-one could see him.
Hardly any time had passed before the commotion slowed to a halt and everyone there, Richard included, focused their attention on a podium that sat in the corner of the plaza. An old man dressed in robes made his way to that podium, with an infernape at his side and a middle-aged man following them. The younger man carried a massive book (Which Richard described as being bigger than him. For some reason, I hope isn't true) and set it on top of the podium. He then moved to the side and let the old man stand in front of the podium. "Let us hear a reading from The Volumes, so that we may remind ourselves why we are cast down into the earth." And the old man flipped through the pages, whizzing past until he was a third of the way through it. It was at this time that all the humans and pokemon had sat down on the ground and bowed their heads in silence. Then, the old man spoke.
"Book of Change, Chapter 2. The Great Demon gazed upon the world, and despised it. For he saw that it was pristine. In that time, death did not roam the land, wars were not waged, and no tears were shed. Disgusted, he whispered to himself 'This is beauty, the epitome of joy and peace. I shall destroy it, for I hate it utterly and completely.' thus, he descended unto the world, and the ground he landed on became death and famine. From his head came a star, and from that star came many other stars, which flew in every direction. These stars turned the air into smoke, and made the lands infertile, and poisoned the very seas, for this was the fire that burned all and destroyed all. Then everything he could see was burning and dying, but he was not done. From his head came another star, brighter and larger than the first, and it was launched towards the sky and stuck there. It's light melted all but the strongest bonds between humans and pokemon, and replaced those seared bonds with inextinguishable hate and anger."
At this point, Richard could hear a rumbling noise, and the old man closed the massive book. "Hatred does not and cannot touch those who are closest to their pokemon. For that, I am grateful." And he scratched his infernape's head. The rumbling grew louder. "However, that does not excuse the Great Demon's crimes. Nothing can atone for what he has done!" The rumbling thing came into the plaza. It was a cart, carrying something tall and covered in a large sheet. "We will not forget the crimes the Great Demon has inflicted upon us!" Various pokemon and humans began pulling the sheet off of the cart. "And when our Savior comes, he shall pay for those crimes tenfold!" The tall thing was uncovered, and it shocked Richard, more so than it caught me by surprise, I imagine.
It was a large, papier-mâché model of Arceus. Rather, it was supposed to be Arceus. Richard had seen depictions and heard stories about Him, how his might created and ruined the world. He, like all the other pokemon like and unlike him, still recognized Him as God. He may have driven off the humans and nearly destroyed everything, but they still owed their existence to Him. Richard recalled the time he saw a mural at New Black City depicting life before and shortly after the Grand Apocalypse. It showed Arceus creating the world, giving the Jewel of Life to the ancient humans and whatnot. At that time and even now, Richard saw Him as someone to call to for help, someone to nurse your wounds, someone you could trust (Even in the part of that mural where He rained destruction upon everything he saw). This thing, this "Sort-of" Arceus, on the other hand was menacing and had all sorts of details wrong. For one, he didn't have jagged teeth. And that weird gold ring wrapped around his midsection was certainly not two gold swords impaling him while covered in blood. He didn't have talons on His feet, and He could have been colored several shades brighter. His eyes weren't red and dripping with blood, either.
Richard probably missed a few details, but he didn't have much time to look at it before everyone and their pokemon decided to attack it. Yes, they kicked it and threw rocks at it, among other such things. This went on for about 15 minutes, then, they all backed away from the sad, crushed pile. The middle-aged man ran into an alley next to the podium. Before Richard had time to guess where he went, the lights suddenly shut off with a click that echoed throughout the cavern, and the only things he could see were the glow of some of the various pokemon there. "SCREEEECH!" Richard saw the old man's infernape become brighter as it charged for the pile of papier-mâché. It leaped into the air, and crashed down into the pile. The resulting bonfire lit up the plaza as much as those lights did, and the crowd begin to yell and laugh and jeer at the fire. The noise, however, did not last long, and was slowly overcome by a chant.
"LONG LIVE THE SAVIOR!"
"DOWN WITH THE DEMON!"
"LONG LIVE THE SAVIOR!"
"DOWN WITH THE DEMON!"
"LONG LIVE THE SAVIOR!"
"DOWN WITH THE DEMON!"
The entire affair had overwhelmed Richard. He needed to go home. Follow the rope. Into the chasm entrance. Turn on the lamp. Keep following the rope.
"Servant of the Demon! Don't let it get away!"
Richard pulled the knife out of his backpack and looked back. Everyone in the plaza had spotted him and began to barrel towards him. Richard ran as fast as he could, and that was enough to outrun the humans. The same however, could not be said for the old man's infernape. It took a while to the infernape to catch up with Richard, and he knew it was going to happen, anyways. His legs began to tire, and he could feel the infernape swiping away at him. Then, he tripped. The infernape landed on top of him and rose it's fist to strike him. Richard would have probably died if he hadn't pulled out his knife. He lifted his knife and the infernape's punch was halted by the knife. It backflipped onto it's head and squirmed in pain, clutching it's hand. Richard ran again, though he didn't have the energy to run as fast. After a while, Richard could see the entrance of the cave, but the humans had caught up to him. He kept running, and finally made it to the outside. Except he tripped again, and this time, the knife had slipped out of his hands. Richard got up just in time to see the humans approach the mouth of the cave. They jumped towards him, but suddenly crumpled on the ground, writhing in pain. "Demon light!" "It burns!" "Urggaaaah!" They slinked back into the cave.
The threat was gone, but Richard still ran. In fact, he ran right over me. Normally, I would have gotten mad at him because I was tired of him stepping on me, but that frightened look on his face forced me to forgive him. He ran to me and hugged me as hard as he could.
I don't think I ever saw anyone that scared in my life.