XI: The Visit

The morning sunlight shown through the bedroom window. My eyes slowly opened as I yawned myself awake. I looked down at the Lucario lying against me. She had curled up toward my chest and snuggled me. She looked so peaceful. I crawled out of bed, trying not to disturb her. I sat up and stared out of the window. It was very early in the morning. I began to smell a disgusting stench. It was me. I still had a bit of dried, crusted blood and cum on me. I then remembered the events of the day before. I quickly shook the terrifying thoughts from my mind and got up to leave. As I did, I saw Katie squirm a bit in her sleep, groping for something beside her that wasn't there. I smiled slightly as I realized that she was trying to find me in her sleep. I felt bad for having to get up and leave her alone in bed, but I needed a shower. Bad.

I left the room and descended the stairs. I exited out of the back door and walked towards the makeshift shower. As I approached, I began to hear the sound of running water and noticed that the curtain was closed shut. I kept my distance from the shower and sat down on the ground; I didn't want to disturb whoever was inside.

But, nevertheless, a male's voice called to me from the shower, "Good morning, Richard."

I chuckled at the fact that he knew I was there, "Hello, Alex. Did you sleep well?"

He said, "Well seeing as I am up at the crack of dawn for once in my life, I guess I did."

The water shut off and I heard the Lucario shake. After awhile, he opened the curtain and stepped out. His fur was puffed up.

I smiled and said, "Your mother had trouble with that as well."

He looked down at himself to discover what I was talking about. He quickly began groaning and straightening his fur.

Once he finished, I motioned for him to take a seat next to me. With reluctancy in his steps, he did, and I said, "I know that you are not completely on board with me being with your mother. But that's alright. I want to earn your love, but to do that, I need to know how."

He gave me a surprised and confused look. He then glanced forward towards the fields and said, "I don't know. I know that you are a good guy. I mean, I have Aura abilities now and can read your Aura. You seem pure." He paused for a second, then chuckled. "I guess I owe you for that. You did help me evolve." He smiled at me and I returned the smile.

I replied with, "Don't give me credit for that, buddy. You did that on your own to help your mother, which l am grateful for." I leaned over and hugged him, which he surprisingly returned. We broke it and I looked into his eyes and asked him a question, "Would you be alright with me marrying your mother?"

His eyes widened. He was truly shocked. "I… I mean… You two just met!"

I nodded and told him, "I know, but yesterday, when we died, Arceus came to us. He told your mother to protect me. I can only guess that means that we will be together until we die. So, I am asking you if you would be comfortable with me as your father."

He said, "But I already had a father. He was strong and kind and caring towards my mom and I. Can you be like my father? Truly?"

I sighed and stared forward, away from his glance. I said, "You know, Alex, I can only hope I can be as amazing as Lucas."

He asked, "You know about my father?"

I nodded and said, "I do. Your mother told me everything. He's a hero, you know."

He sighed and nodded slightly. "I miss him. Everyday, I miss having a father in my life." He began to tear up.

I leaned over and hugged him again. I said, "I am willing to be that father, if you'd like."

With tears in his eyes, he nodded. I broke the hug and patted him on the back. He calmed down and smiled at me.

"Thanks, Dad."

Hearing him say that filled me with pure joy. My smile was so large that he laughed.

Alex got up from the ground and said, "I'll leave you to your shower. See you later, Dad!"

He walked away and I got up. I walked towards the shower and stepped in.

After my shower, I tried to find Alex. I had formulated a plan. I walked around the outside of the house and found him in the front yard. He was charging up Aura Spheres and firing them at the birds flying in the sky.

I called to him, "Practicing?"

He turned his attention towards me and said, "Yeah, I still haven't hit anything though."

I walked over to where he was and said, "Well, are you leading your shots?"

He looked at me with a confused look and said, "Am I what?"

I laughed and said, "When firing at moving targets you have to predict where they are going to be when the Sphere will cross its path. Oh, and try not to kill the birds. They didn't do anything to you."

He laughed and said, "Okay, I understand."

He then charged up a tiny, non-lethal Aura Sphere and waited. After a few seconds, a bird flew out from a nearby tree. Alex moved his arm farther than where the bird was and fired. The bird flew right into it. It faltered, but quickly regained its composure and flew off.

I smiled and said, "Alright! You got him!" I held my hand out for a high-five. He smiled and gave me one.

"Thanks, Dad! Haha, you're already teaching me things!"

I chuckled. I had forgotten that he was still a child for a second. That was easy to do, seeing as he had become much more mature when compared to himself from the day before.

I then remembered why I was trying to find him. "Hey, Alex? Could I ask you a favor?"

He looked at me and asked, "What is it?"

I replied with, "If you could, please talk with Mia and ask her to fly into town and get an engagement ring for me. I saw a jewelry store in town yesterday."

He said, "Sure thing," and rushed inside to find Mia. On his way in, another Lucario passed him. Alex said, "Hi, Mom," before bolting past her.

Katie walked over to me and asked, "What in the world has gotten into him?"

I lied and said, "No clue."

She walked up behind me and hugged her hands around my waist. She put her head on my shoulder and said, "We should get to work, honey."

I turned my head and kissed her cheek. I then said, "Yeah, let's go."

We walked over to the fields holding hands. When we got there, she placed her hands on my bare chest and pumped me with strength. We blew through a couple of patches of blueberries in no time. We made a great team. Our job was finished early, even before breakfast. I decided that I needed to distract Katie to ensure that she didn't find out about the plan.

I said, "We should go get some more water for the shower. We don't have much left in the barrel."

Katie said, "Alright. I'll race you."

She placed her hand on my chest and gave me speed, then she took off towards the wheelbarrow by the shower. I followed. We both grabbed one and then sped towards the well. I felt like a kid playing 'Mario Kart.' The wheelbarrow rattled violently and its wheel struggled to keep up with my speed. It couldn't revolve fast enough. The wheel suddenly buckled sideways and I was bucked in the air. I flew over the wheelbarrow and landed flat on my back.

Katie laughed at me from ahead and yelled, "You need to work on your footing, honey."

I chuckled and sat up. I got onto my feet and walked back over to the wheelbarrow, which was upside down. I repositioned it and continued to run. I eventually made it to the well, but Katie was already there waiting.

I said, "Sorry for your wait, I had a slight mishap back there."

We both laughed as we filled the wheelbarrows. We slowly walked back, for if we ran, the water would spill everywhere. She chatted with me about her old life, but I wasn't listening. I was lost in her face.

After awhile, she glanced over to me and said, "Are you even listening?"

I snapped out of it and mumbled, "Wha…?"

She laughed, as she knew that I was daydreaming about her. She said, "Nevermind, carry on your dreaming." I did.

This love was so strange. I hate to say it, but it wasn't like the love that I had with Sarah, my late wife. The love Sarah and I shared was a love that we felt we wanted. What Katie and I had was a love that we felt we needed. It was special. I couldn't wait to marry her.

We returned home and dumped our water into the barrel. Once we finished, we went into the house to find the whole group waiting at the dining room table. They were all hungry, as we had all skipped dinner last night. Katie and I looked at each other, worried.

"Do we have more cereal?" I whispered.

She replied with, "Enough for one more meal."

I nodded and helped her get the bowls ready. Once they were filled with dry cereal and a spoon, we picked them up off of the counter and entered the dining room. I helped her pass them out to everyone. I noted that Mia was back, meaning that she probably had the ring. After all of the meals were passed out, I took my seat and began to eat. All of our meals went by with relatively no talking, but this one was full of chatter. Many of the Pokémon were talking amongst themselves while Katie and Alex occasionally talked to us humans. It was mainly small talk, which was unusual for us to have. I began to get suspicious. The whole room must've known that I was going to propose. I prayed to Arceus that it was still a surprise to Katie.

I quickly finished my bowl and left the room, hoping that Mia would follow. Somehow, she got the message and did. While we hid in the living room, she revealed a box that she was hiding in her feathers. I opened the box and it revealed a silver ring with sparkling rubies encresting the top. It would match her eyes beautifully. I looked back up at the Staravia and bowed to her. She understood my motion of thanks and returned a bow before she went back into the dining room to finish eating. I tucked the box into my pants pocket and sat down on the couch. I was so nervous.

As my mind began to wander, a voice called to me from my mind, 'Hold on to that stake, Richard.'

I recognized it as the voice of Arceus. My back became stiff as anxiety flowed through me. What would I need it for? I followed his orders, nevertheless. I went up to our bedroom and took the spike that I impaled myself with and found a way to conceal it in my pants without it poking me.

I returned downstairs in time to cleanup from breakfast. I entered the dining room and retrieved my bowl. I went to the sink. By the sink was a little cup of water and a cloth. I dipped the cloth into the water and began to scrub out my bowl and wipe off my spoon. Unfortunately, this is the best we could do in terms of cleaning dishes, but I had plans of making a machine that would do it better. Brian filed in next to me and began doing the same. He glanced over at me, giving me a smirk. It seemed devious, coming from a Cacturne, but I knew there was no malicious intent. I knew that he knew about the ring. I nervously smiled back and continued scrubbing. I needed to get it over with before Katie found out, but it needed to be at the right time. Katie then joined beside me and began cleaning up as well.

As we stared into each other's eyes, a loud banging made us all jump. We were confused. I said, "It sounds like the front door." I put down the rag and walked over to the door. I opened it up to see a floating pink glob of evil in the doorway. Behind it was the punk Yveltal.

The ugly pink thing said, "Hello, loverboy."

She charged up an Aura Sphere and launched it at me. Without Katie's speed, I couldn't dodge it. It smacked me in the chest and launched me backwards. I slammed into the wall and fell to the ground. The wind was knocked out of me.

I gasped for air and said, "What… The hell do you want, Mew?"

Katie ran over to me and tried to comfort me, giving Mew a death stare. Mew laughed maniacally and said, "I heard that there's another Pokémon here that can understand humans. We need a new leader for a group. I'm here to take him."

Both Katie and I knew that she was there for Alex. We became panicked.

Mew floated past us and began searching the house for him. He was still in the dining room eating. Mew found him and used Psychic on the poor kid. We could hear his agonizing screams as his brain was being tortured. Mew led him back towards us, which was followed by our scared and enraged group.

Mew faced us and said, "Well, I think we'll be leaving now. We have what we came for."

Pure anger raged through my body, as I remembered Arceus' words to me:

'Hold on to that stake, Richard.'

'Richard, do what you have to do to make it work.'

I sent a mental message to Katie, 'Give me all of the Aura you can, now!'

She quickly placed he hand on my chest and delivered an insane amount of Aura. My veins seemed to squirm inside me and I got chills from the sheer power coursing through my body. I felt different, as if I was a new person. I felt like a Lucario. My eyes turned a shade of red as I shot up from the floor. I let out a battle cry as I unsheathed the stake from my pants. I sprinted towards Mew at the speed of sound and jabbed her head with it. Her blood spilled all over my body and the floor as she stopped floating and fell lifelessly to my feet. Alex was released from his torture and ran to his mother, barely maintaining his footing.

I had killed a God and I felt no remorse.

Yveltal went ballistic at my assassination and used Air Slash on me. He tore the front part of the house clean off, but I dodged it. Rage guided me straight towards Yveltal as I was ready to strike with the stake again, but he waited until I was close and used Sucker Punch. It hit me dead-on. I flew backwards and skidded on the grass. I got back up, but realized that my stake was no longer near me. Yveltal advanced towards me and I saw the stake behind him. 'This is where I die.' I thought to myself.

I braced for my ending, but it never came. I opened my eyes to see Zandra atop of Yveltal, holding the stake which was jabbed into his head. Yveltal's head shook and spasmed as the color drained from his eyes. Zandra jumped off of him as his head slammed into the ground.

Zandra said, "Y'know, I'm getting really sick and tired of bitches tryna kill us."

I chuckled and said, "Thanks, Zandra, you saved our lives."

Zandra looked at me and said, "It's what I do. After all, my name does mean 'the defender of mankind.'"

I smiled and got up, as my Aura powers began to fade. I ran over to Katie and Alex and hugged them tight. They returned the hug and I whispered to them and said, "I am so glad that you two are safe." Mew's blood smeared onto their fur in globs, but neither of them cared. I departed from the hug and stared into Katie's eyes.

'There's no time like the present.'