Walk Into Infinity

by Yoshiman

Just one. . .

Once chance in the universe. . .

I used mine to save it.

Where did it start. . . . It might have started back when my mom told me about my friend Sirus's disappearance. I think that's where it started. Said he never got home. . . I knew nothing about it, and that's all I could tell police. The very least. . . I remember something else. . . it wasn't important, but the winds started picking up violently not but hours after. Skies darkened up, and nothing was right anymore. Clouds surrounded the neighborhood, but I wasn't there anymore. I was searching for him. For my friend. . . if you can still call him that. I looked back. My black jacket kept me from freezing to death, and the only friends I could trust were the pokémon on my belt, but they couldn't help. Not yet.

I walked for what seemed like forever. The grass fields swept down by the wind reflected what little light there was to my eyes, even as night fell. The grass almost weaved itself into a mat, one that I couldn't step over, and my feet just tore through. It marked my way to a destination I had not foreseen, but knew with all my heart and soul was the correct way. What way would that be?

Day never returned. The world was entering a new era. Sirus was behind it. I don't know why he would do something like this ,but he did it. I know, because that's what I was told. Sirus himself told me. Sirus is the only one who knows.

It was Sirus who learned about the last change of the universe. The last time the universe changed to the whims of someone, the pokémon came to be. Before then, there was a different world, one that came to be of another person. That other person's world might have been called exciting, but he was maybe the last person in the universe to entrust with such power. The world became without source of power, nothing mysterious, nothing phenomenal. But it was worlds like that that created dreamers. Then it became our universe. And now Sirus had the power to recreate, and it became this.

I might like to know what this new universe is, not like the others, not like the one I was from. The worlds retraced upon their steps. . .

A world of pocket monsters and journeys. . .

A world of dreamers and war. . .

A world of mystics and magic. . .

A world of strange beasts and friends. . .

A world of change and emotion. . .

A thousand times upon itself, into infinity. And when infinity was finished, it retraced back. The universe stabilized.

And Sirus was there. Yet Sirus was not there anymore. Sirus had become what he wanted, as I suspected, more than anything that he wanted. He became what power was in our world. He became the essence of Pokémon. He was as many as sixty different kinds of the most powerful, all put into a body that you might call humanoid. He hovered above the wildly flailing grass beneath our feet, and pointed one claw of his many hands at me. "Octavian. . ." He said, "It is time."

This was his universe, and I was made to know what he meant. He wanted sport, just to test his power. But not any sport. . . he wanted to see if I could be more cunning than him and a game of one-on-one warfare. He meant to give me power.

The six pokéballs on my belt responded to his words, yet I did not try to stop them. I can remember all of them by heart. . .

Farfetch'd. . . Espeon. . . Lapras. . . Porygon. . . Charizard. . . Marowak.

Each of them. . . all of them. . . were my best friends. Sirus channeled his power to me, and at that time, I was all and nothing between me and my pokémon. All their loyalty to me and my training abilities of them all came together. I became like Sirus, only I became the vague humanoid summarization of my team. In my feathered hands, the twig of Farfetch'd, strengthened to the bone of Marowak. My head overlaid with a helmet of bone, ears of an Espeon with the red jewel on my forehead. . . on my back were two wings, somewhere between reptilian and avian, and a shell that weight surprisingly little. I had a tail that was stiff, and had twin flames from the ends, my feet were like all of them in one. All through the while, my brain computed what to do, and how to win.

But what was I fighting for?

I also hovered several feet off the ground. A blue shield of psychokinetic energy surrounded me, made of nothing but the power of my mind. Sauius and I stared at each other, waiting for the other to make the first move. Lightning, at Sirus's command no doubt, boomed in the distance.

"We shall begin, Octavian." Sirus boomed, "I shall be generous and let you have the first strike."

I had never know Sirus to go back on his word, but I also wasn't stupid enough to do something rash. My shield vibrated, and duplicated itself into another, one that surrounded nothing, protected nothing. And it duplicated itself again. And again. I amassed a thousand such shields at my disposal, and Sirus watched me all the time, planning his move on what I intended to do.

Or he was reading my thoughts all the time. Unless he finally decided it wasn't sporting to cheat. If there was any such thing as cheating anymore.

All my shields rose up into the air as one. They flew above the clouds at my command, and at once, rained down in fire. This was my meteor strike.

Sirus had a protective shield up too, and laughed at my attempt. The grass fields burned, and continued to burn greatly. Dark above seemed darker, and the lights from below shone as bright as fire could be. And Sirus laughed.

I charged from between the flames and struck him with my bonestaff. I had caught him offguard. He had underestimated me, and thought I was just doing something random. And I saw that he didn't read my mind.

I could always beat him in a battle.

Sirus rose up, as if only stung by a rose thorn that he unexpectedly touched. He had flown back a good hundred yards from the sheer force, and looked none the worse for wear.

That was when the real fighting commenced.

Sirus was three six times as big as me, and used his size to his advantage, but the fire all around concealed me from his sight. He located me and attacked, but I was much too fast for him. He might have had all the powers of the most powerful, but he also had their combined weaknesses.

He was fast, and yet slow. He was physically strong, yet physically weak. He was mentally strong, yet mentally weak. He had all the power in the universe at his fingertips, yet at the same time none of it.

Lightning stuck all around me in a thunder attempt, yet it missed. The combined strengths and lack of weaknesses among my team all worked together, in their loyalty, to help fight.

But what was I fighting for?

Sirus chased me out of the spreading fire, over an infinite landscape, yet only part was traveled. I ducked inside an old mineshaft and hid. Sirus came looking.

I caught my breath here, only to realize I didn't draw a breath to catch. Sirus had made this universe with boundless energy, and I was exceeding in it. How did he expect to win? How did he expect me to lose? I couldn't lose this fight.

But what was I fighting for?

I landed on the floor of the cave. Even then I could feel the land giving me power. Sirus had made a vital error. . . I could not lose. He could not lose. The fight would last forever. I walked over to a glassy pool of water and looked at my reflection. Blank eyes stared back. This was what I was going to be forever, me and my loyal friends. I hope there would be an end somehow.

And yet the fighting gave me purpose. Just the thought of battling Sirus made me eager to live. . . to continue. And there was all the energy in the universe and more.

Sirus was coming for me. I dove in the waster and surrounded myself with acid armor. I swam to other parts unknown of the cave, if to come out.

I don't know why I didn't turn to face Sirus. Maybe there was the notion in the back of my head that it was possible to lose this battle. Maybe I just wanted to toy with him.

Then I came back.

As if something clicked on in my mind like a switch, I returned to my body. I was still my pokémon, thought, but I had returned. And I didn't know what to do in that instance.

The entire thing was futile. I was doomed to fight Sirus forever. Wherever I went, I could not hide forever. Just like that, fighting wasn't so enthralling anymore. I retreated to a corner in the center of the earth.

I felt like crying, but couldn't. I wasn't built to cry. I was built to fight. But why fight when I have infinity to stand up to?

And another idea struck me. I could use infinity to my advantage. . . how long could it possibly take?

Once again I came face to face with Sirus. My rival. My friend. We stood on the plains of a ruined city this time. But I had the vigilance to fight this monster that ruined his own existence. And I had one last hope in my blood. And we fought.

Everything he attacked with, I countered. Everything he fired, I counter fired. Everything he blocked, I struck again. We continued on for a hundred thousand years and more.

And it was time.

I had been fighting for an eternity to delay. The universe had decided it was time for a new entrustment of power. There were two people left in the world, and that was me and Sirus. I had been chosen as the only alternative.

The universe bent to to my will. And after a hundred thousand infinities, I returned everything to what I knew. Sirus was vanquished, shortsighted by my willpower. And I finished my search. I returned to my home, let my pokémon out to eat. They had deserved it.

My mom asked me if I had found Sirus. I told her no. . . He was lost to the earth.

And when I look back on it, I wondered in the infinities of worlds before, this had already happened.