A Mid-Sinnoh Night's Dream Chapter 30: The Destroyer of Worlds, a pokémon fanfic

"We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried. Most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita. Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty, and, to impress him, takes on his multi-armed form and says, 'Now I am become Death…"

J. Robert Oppenheimer

A Mid-Sinnoh Night's Dream - XXX - The Destroyer of Worlds

Within a crystalline drill encased on a crimson chest plate, a swirled translucent marble glowed. Two plumes of dust exploded inside of it, one as white as salt, another as black as obsidian. They wrapped around the minerals encased inside, forming a double helix and only intersecting at the true center.

"THIS IS OUR TRUTH! THESE ARE OUR IDEALS!"

The spiral energy that formed the tip of the impossibly large drill took on a new form. The pure aura took on burning red flames and blue volts of electricity.

There was no true body within the armor, only the aura of those that had created it. It was not a single one of them, it was all of them. A crack on its chest, sealed by the Key Stone. The spine of the armor coming down past the hip, forming a flank almost like a tail. Two jagged edges formed along the forearms, jutting outwards. A crown of spiky stars that rose from the crest of the forehead. A flowering mail that folded over the breastplate and shoulders. A scarab-like set of plates running down the back, with two pieces pointing forward on his collar. Archaic engravings covered the most protective sections.

They looked towards the earth, watching the darkness grow.

Black arms reached around the earth, sucking away clouds and cloaking the world in darkness. They met at the singularity atop Mt. Coronet, where the red eyes deep within the void seemed to grow. The sheer pressure it emitted dimmed all the lights in the sky, and all that there was around them.

Through the license of the Universe itself, I have come.

A mouth opened in the darkness, a deep hole that could lead to the heart of the world itself. With teeth a mile wide, it gnashed, though it spoke with a clearness that reverberated painfully within their skull.

Threads of space tremble in my presence, and time loops backward upon my every breath.

Black threads broke off from its many arms and wildly lashed out into space, encroaching even further as it seemed it would consume the drill that spun hundreds of miles with each turn.

I am the Reverse. I am the opposite of all that there is. I am GIRATINA.

The threads pulled themself together, reaching outwards in a backward spiral, equal in speed.

You foolish humans wish to take control of the Universe itself?

A golden ring flashed between them, almost like a gate. It was shaped like a four-way fractal, spreading its edges diagonally.

If you believe yourself to be of equal strength to all that there is, then come. Meet your doom.

The nebulous shadow rose from the earth, breaking through the lower atmosphere with ease.

For though I am but a sliver of a shred of the Universe's true power, you remain a mere speck.

Then there was darkness. The only lights before them were the lights of their souls, losing all other directions to go but forward.

Truth and Ideals are meaningless before me. Your emotions will not be spared, your intelligence will not apply, and your willpower will not drive you forward.

They cried out, the heat of their souls burning with a mighty flame. Rays of light pierced the shadow, letting the language of the world seep through.

"You better not lose!"

"You can beat that monster!"

"Please win!"

"...You've got this."

"Finish the fight!"

And as the voices of those it oppressed pierced its body, Giratina snarled.

You are (not) alone? Meaningless.

You can (not) advance.

You can (not) re-do.

You are all unified in hubris before me.

And for your hubris, you shall be destroyed.

With a screeching cry, the world was swallowed in stifling darkness.

THROUGH THE LICENSE OF ARCEUS, I HAVE COME.

In the empty void, all souls floated. There was no up or down, no direction, no flow of time, no gravity, nothing that could be called real. Pillars supported earth that was suspended by nothing.

In the void, in the smallest speck of dust, a voice cried out.

"And though the license of all life on earth, so have we!"

A drill forced itself through the barest remnants of reality, tearing through the world of distortion.

The true form of Giratina awaited, a crowned beast that everything had come to orbit. It glared as the aura encroached on its realm.

"You think our spirit can be crushed so easily? You must not understand how we do things around here! We evolve beyond what we were a minute before! Little by little, we advance a bit with each turn! That's how a battle works! That's how a drill works!"

The pure aura took on a solid form, the armor within becoming infinitely larger than it had been before. A blue fire surrounded it, as it grew to the height of the moon itself. On its face formed red sunglasses, and a cape burned into existence along its back.

And it is there, within the Distortion World centered atop the Spear Pillar, that the true soul of all life on earth forms.

Along its arm, infinite numbers of auras pulled themselves across space and time. They spun together like a lance, traced with the fire of every color.

"Mark my words. This drill has opened a hole in the universe, and that hole will be a path for those behind us! The dreams of those who have fallen... The hopes of those who will follow! Those two sets of dreams weave together into a double helix, drilling a path towards tomorrow! Black and white, Truth and Ideals! They become one and swirl together to become that path! Everything that drives us forward, our emotions, our intelligence, our willpower; To have those is what makes life worth it! They make us better than who we were before! That's what it means to be alive! That's Heaven Piercing! AND THAT'S GOLURK-PLATINUM!"

Insolence. Your path is the path that leads to the destruction of your world. Your hubris and ambition is what brought you here.

"Then I'll break through that wall too! If the world really works the way you say it does, then I'm going to smash that illusion apart! We can improve, we can make ourselves better! To destroy the world completely would be your second mistake; YOUR FIRST WOULD BE THAT YOU DECIDED TO FIGHT US!"

They screamed as the drill exploded outwards, energies of all kinds coming together to counter the distortion that sought to tear them apart.

Golurk-Platinum shot forward, leaving vacuum miles wide behind it as it sped towards Giratina.

Six arms unlatched from the Legend before them, and tore through the air, leaving gashes of negative energy.

Antimatter came into contact with matter and obliterated all that they touched. The blue flames fell apart, dissipating, though the drill continued onward, a Golurk that stood a hundredth of the height it was before at its base, though it still dwarfed its original. It accelerated even through the massive explosion, lancing through the pressure.

Pillars of molten earth tore themselves from suspension and slammed into the golem. The armor cracked and broke as it wore down, but the drill never hesitated upon its path.

A suit of armor exploded from the crack on Golurk's chest, the aura rebuilding itself and becoming the crimson suit of armor. Blue-green light traced across the empty skies from its eyes as it moved on, even as it seemed the very weight of the world was against them. The tip of the drill met the outer shell of Giratina's aura, the black ink that floated in the air. The suit of armor shattered and dissolved, the red chromatic soulstone slating off like dust in the wind. They flashed as they disappeared into the air.

"You have my drill." Golurk gave a salute before he faded. The cone took on a more physical form, stone appearing out of the nothingness, the base around his hand the deep blue of Golurk's body.

"You have my energy." Abra's eyes flashed pink, and the drill was laced with a million Psycho Cuts.

"You have our potential." Tyranitar. Garchomp. Two Mega Stones appeared in the air and shattered, the dust flowing into him and into the drill. It glowed with the energy of Mega Evolution, cutting the air with waves of blue and orange.

"You have my gratitude." Shaymin, in its slim form, puffed in the air. Leaf Blades formed along the edges, intercutting the Psycho Cuts.

"You have my aura." Lucario slammed her fists together, as the stone as the base of the drill became a metallic sheen of Platinum.

"You have my blade." Honedge. An arterial red spun along with the blades, wisping outwards with a vaguely spiritual smokiness.

"You have my drive." Whirlipede. It unlatched itself from its round form, its shell breaking off and becoming a purplish-red. Mandibles stacked upon the drills, jagged and uneven.

"FINISH THE FIGHT!"

"You think this wall can hold us for long?" Hilbert shouted as the light around his body faded. His wounds and clothes were healed and mended in an instant but came back different. Shining lights around his eyes faded, and a stripe across his face revealed itself, reaching upwards and splitting his hair and across his vision, a deep black itself. His clothes, in turn, had been replaced completely. It seemed his entire body had been cloaked in Golurk's stone once again, but different. It was sheer platinum, not red nor blue.

"I'm the mighty trainer, Black, you apocalyptic sonuva! JUST WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK I AM?"

The shadow shattered under the weight of a thousand drills, and the true Giratina was revealed inside.

Hilbert's fist, covered in the drills of his comrades and of all people and Pokemon, met Giratina's face such that the sound of the impact would echo across space for eternity.

A hole opened in space and time, a jagged rift that tore across the universe. From a void of purple and blue, Giratina was blasted onto a disk floating in the vacuum of space, a near duplicate of the Spear Pillar that floated on its own. It skittered across the marble in its smallest form, though it still towered over Hilbert as he leapt out of the wormhole.

Galaxies flew around them, as if they were in a dome hurtling through space.

Giratina rose up from the impossibly-bright floor, not even leaving the lightest scratch. Six legs unfolded from its torso and slammed onto the fractalline stone.

"You think you can hurt my planet, my home, my people? Guess again!" Hilbert pounded fists together.

And you believe that one man alone can defeat me. How foolish of you.

"Alone? When are you going to get it through that crown of yours? I'M NOT ALONE! I'VE NEVER BEEN ALONE! AND I'LL NEVER BE ALONE!" He slammed his clenched fist on his heart. "Because my friends are always with me! They're right here!"

Your solipsistic ideals will soon result in your downfall. Even if you are not alone, you are but one man. And one man, no matter how strong, is of no more danger to me than the weakest Magikarp there is. Even if...

"Hey, Hilbert."

The boy whipped his head around, looking for the source of the voice.

"On your left."

A ring that he'd mistaken for one of the hundreds of galaxies in the distance grew, and someone he didn't know stepped out.

A head of shaggy slate-gray hair popped out, cloaked in strange technology he'd never seen before.

Before the other man could completely exit on his own, a pink-haired doll knocked him forward and flew out.

"Wow, looks like I made it in time! Pretty awesome, huh?"

"Sure thing, Hoopa," the man groaned, pushing himself off the floor. "How long has it been? A year or two?"

"Who the hell are you?" Hilbert didn't recognize the man, given the hair and the mishmash of clothes and styles he was wearing. Brown, nearly-black ceramic covered in copper gears and neon blue lights. A handle of some kind was strapped to his belt, with a similar aesthetic that had it clashing against the rusted Pokeball belt on his waist. The red coloring had faded slightly, and the number of scratches was innumerable.

"Hilby… you serious? Do I look that old?" The man seemed amused as he lifted his hair and showed off his eyes. Slate-gray. Just like…

"Lucas?" Hilbert nearly shouted. "What the… how the…"

How touching. However, you seem to have forgotten the situation you are in.

Giratina beat a crescent hoof on the floor, sending a wave of pressure through the air.

An interdimensional invader? Hoopa. We have spoken of this. You are not to bring foreign entities into the Universe's domain.

Hoopa, the pink-haired doll thing, rubbed the side of its head with a ring. "Ah, well… SorryLukeyBoyIGottaGo!"

It opened a portal, shot through it, and disappeared before the blast of jagged dark energy could blast it down.

"That traitor," Lucas muttered. "So, what's the deal here?" He asked, staring down the monolithic Legendary.

"Bastard thinks he can destroy our earth," Hilbert said, moving his gaze back to their opponent and fixing it with a glare. The lights on his armor pulsed in tandem, shuddering with a mix of blue and green.

"Really? He must not know how we do things." Lucas detached the handle from his belt, taking it into one of his gauntlets.

"We're going to talk about your armor later." Cones started solidifying around his hands, sending another shudder through his body.

"If there is a later, naturally." He clicked some kind of button, and with a very distinct 'fwoosh', a blade of green flashed horizontally in front of him. He spun it a few times, recalibrating to the local gravity. Of which there was very little, but it seemed to be favoring Giratina's direction.

"There's always a later. I'll make sure of it." Hilbert cracked his knuckles again, with rings of aura beginning to flow from his wrists like smoke.

"Then I will too. And to simplify… I've seen a looooooot of shit these past few years. Some dimensions are strange. Even stranger than this one."

"I didn't think that was possible. And did you just swear?"

"You don't know half of it. Let's table the conversation and take this fucker down."

Giratina spread its cloth-like wings, filling up half of their vision.

Come then. Measure the worth of your pathetic planet. You will never break the balance of the Universe.

"Balance? I don't care about that. I want to protect everyone from monsters like you."

And will you protect those who bring harm to the Universe? No. You will ultimately act in your own self-interest. That is why I despise you mortals, no matter where you come from. You cannot see on the scale that I see. You can only think of yourselves.

"And you can only think of your own damn ideals! You think what you believe is the be-all-end-all!"

It is. I have seen the birth of every world, every Legendary, every speck of dust like you. I will continue to see these things until the end of time, and I will not tolerate those that believe that they're something more.

"Reasonable," Lucas said, "Hilby pissed me off with his arrogance on occasion as well. But that doesn't mean you can destroy our earth. If we're just specks, why go so far? It's because your reasons are ultimately selfish. What's happened there is a one-in-a-million chance. What sleight have you suffered that makes snuffing out the lives of billions of billions of people and Pokemon justified? Do they just not matter to you? Or is this just an excuse to play around with an untold number of lives?"

My reasons are beyond your comprehension, I see now. I grow tired of this.

Giratina planted its six feet, sending out another great wave of pressure. A ghostly smoke to match that of Golurk's drill began emanating from its center. The lights in the sky, the stars, the planets; they all seemed to blink out as the pressure grew. Purplish flames grew from the borders of the marble slate that seemed to stretch on forever.

PREPARE TO BATHE IN THE EVERLASTING HELLFIRE OF CREATION. PICK A GOD AND PRAY.

DOOM Eternal OST - The Only Thing They Fear Is You.

Hilbert jumped as a black wing tore through space towards him, cutting the air itself and obliterating anything that stood in its way. A pillar collapsed far behind him, making an ear-splitting screech, but when he blinked, it was completely repaired.

He doubled over in the air, the lights on his armor flashing pink as a barrier formed behind his feet. He pushed against the screen, blasting forward and rearing his hand back.

Lucas snatched him out of the air, leaping upwards. Black metal-like appendages appeared underneath his feet, and he pulled some sort of gun out of the hammerspace. It was white, but had three rusted pincers holding a sphere of orange energy. He blasted the floor in front of them, and shot behind Giratina as soon as the sphere reformed as an ocean blue.

The wave of endless flame flew over their heads as they went down, before they exited the other portal upside down.

"Where did you get that gun?"

"Hoopa told me to steal it from a testing facility," Lucas said, flipping them back over and letting go of his collar. "I went to the moon for a few seconds. Don't ask."

Hilbert floated in the air for a moment before repeating the previous motion, forming a Reflect behind him and shooting forward. He landed a glancing blow on Giratina's crown as it whipped towards him, taking a burn on his armor in return.

"The enemy gate is down- Exactly where this bastard's going!" He flicked a thumb towards the Legendary as Lucas jumped back up through the orange portal.

"I don't think Ender Wiggin said it like that. Trust me, I met the guy."

"Just how long were you gone?"

"No clue. Universal time scales are strange." Lucas shelved the gun, and it disappeared as he reattached it to his belt. He reached for something else that appeared only as he grasped it.

"One hell of a toolbelt," Hilbert said, as Lucas pulled out an over-the-shoulder nuclear missile launcher, known to some wastelanders as a Fat Man..

"Hoopa said that nuclear radiation, whatever that is, doesn't exist in this universe thanks to Yveltal. Which is good, because it means I can blow this thing to bits. Cover your eyes."

For a moment, Hilbert's senses only picked up whistling as something traveled through the air, before it seemed like the sun had risen directly inside his eyelids and was giving him a summer burn.

"Ah, for Arceus's sake-"

"I said to cover your eyes."

They looked upon the mushroom cloud, Hilbert's attention captured by the sort of destruction he'd never seen before while Lucas just shook his head.

The orange plume was swept away in an instant as Giratina's wings unfurled. Its metal crown was melting at the horned tips, and the golden ribs around its neck seemed to have partially turned into slag.

Such a disgusting weapon. That is what you mortals are most skilled at, after all. Unleashing pure, indiscriminate destruction.

"Like you aren't trying to do the same thing? Lucas, give me something good. My finisher's still charging."

"Are you serious? The world's ending and you're still trying to be dramatic? Ah, wait, this is you we're talking about." Lucas reached towards his belt again, pulling from it a clubbed sword that didn't seem to be built for human hands. "Ah, wait. I got this one from a Lynel, you probably don't want-"

Hilbert had already yanked the sword out of his hands, dashed forwards, and threw the sword directly at Giratina's face.

He turned back with a hand outstretched after the sword broke on contact.

"Another one."

"Let's try something else. But first." He shot a portal next to him, then another right under Hilbert before one of Giratina's wings could cut him in half.

The brown-haired boy stumbled next to him, managing to right himself in time to not fall on his face. "Got anything else that goes boom?"

His hand flew to his belt, and a rectangular hammer appeared in his hands, sparking with lightning. "Uh… I don't remember picking this one up. This belt is weird."

"What about this situation isn't?"

"You of all people shouldn't be pointing that out. Anyway, you take the little one." He tossed Hilbert the hammer, before a much sharper weapon, a one-handed ax, attached to his belt from thin air. "I'll use Stormbreaker."

"Huh… What's the hammer's name?"

"Mjolnir."

"Should I know that from somewhere?"

"Oh, right, time difference. No, not yet. Shut up and throw the hammer."

Hilbert did, and was pleasantly surprised when it smacked Giratina off of its front four feet, causing the Legendary to bellow out an ungodly screech.

He was somewhat less entertained when Giratina grabbed the hammer off the ground where it fell with one of its wings, and began spinning it so fast it became a blur.

"Oh. Oh, shit-"

Lucas tackled him out of the way as the chosen weapon of a certain god of thunder roared past them like the bullet of a railgun, obliterating the endless rows of pillars behind them. Lucas held out his hand as he and Hilbert rolled off the ground. From impossibly far off, the hammer returned in a glimmer of light, sending him stumbling.

"On second thought, don't throw the hammer. So that means-"

"Hit the problem really hard?"

"Yes, Hilby. Hit the problem really, really hard."

He put the hammer and ax away and pulled out a much larger ax. "I got this one from a Jarl in Whiterun. It's actually quite a nice place when it's not being attacked by dragons."

"What kinds? Garchomp? Hydreigon?"

"...I'll tell you later," Lucas sighed, tossing the zweihander to Hilbert and grabbing something else. "Let's see… he will likely expect nukes again, so what if… oh, wait. Use the force, how foolish of me." Lucas pulled out the ceramic-yet-silvery hilt. A green blade grew from it once again, as lightning sparked in his other hand. "I'm not technically supposed to use this technique, but I don't believe the rules in that galaxy apply here. And Hilby- Why haven't you tried using Scatter Teleport yet?"

The thought simply hadn't occurred to him, as they found out. And the second it did, Hilbert disappeared, reappeared right behind Giratina's neck, and slammed the battleax into its crown.

It made a dull thunk as it bit into the gold, which was a very good sign, until the axe became another one of its horns and it flew straight into a pillar to knock him loose.

He found himself looking straight into the pits of despair, also known as Giratina's eye sockets. It was hard to think of anything else with whatever was being driven into his gut. He Teleported away before it could deliver another headbutt, shuddering as the pillar was completely turned to dust.

"Wow, someone's cranky," Hilbert said, holding his stomach and spitting out blood.

Foolish humans! You know nothing! You see nothing beyond yourselves! The balance of the Universe must be maintained at all costs!

It turned, the spin growing and its legs folding inwards.

You believe this is some game? You believe your actions have no consequences? You believe you know better than I? I HAVE LIVED FOR THE BIRTH OF STARS AND EVERY PLANET THAT THERE IS! EVERY CLUSTER OF GAS, EVERY ASTEROID, EVERY GALAXY! I HAVE WITNESSED IT ALL! YOU ARE NOTHING BUT SPECKS OF DUST! AND SPECKS OUGHT TO KNOW THEIR PLACE!

The darkness of the sky turned into blackened static, only showing the distant galaxies for mere moments.

YOU WISH TO KNOW WHAT I HAVE LIVED? THE INFINITE POSSIBILITIES OF SPACE I HAVE WITNESSED RISE AND FALL WITH TIME?

Lucas attempted to slash it down with his lightsaber, but found himself physically repelled by the pressure emitting from the Legendary's crown of horns.

THEN DO SO. YOU WILL LIVE A THOUSAND OF THE UNIVERSE'S LIVES WITHIN THE LABYRINTH OF POSSIBILITY.

Shadows swirled up around Hilbert, his armor flashing pink but overtaken by a deep purple, and he was swallowed by the hunger of an endless number of spirits.

Durarara! OST - The Sought-after Extraordinary

Birds chirped somewhere in the distance as Hilbert Johansson awoke. It was early in the morning, and he was staring up at his bedroom ceiling with the most splitting headache that he'd ever felt. He'd had the weirdest dream, floating somewhere in space, and he could nearly taste the adrenaline still running through his body.

He tried to recall the dream as the sun's ray shone through a window, but found that it was fading quicker than his attention did when class started.

"Hilby! Wake up!" Called a feminine voice, as something rattled his door. Was that his mom? He couldn't think straight, his mind still cloudy like a nebula.

"Yeah, whatever, mom." He wasn't quite sure why he said the last word with sarcasm, but it might have just been the headache, which was fading as well.

Whoever it was seemed to be sputtering behind the door. "I'm just trying to get you to school on time! We can't be late on the first day!" Another student, then. Since when was he a student? Wasn't he a… what, exactly? Tra… something. Trainer? Trainer of what?

"Yeah, yeah, just let me get up…" He threw off the blanket just as whoever it was busted through the door.

He then noticed that the girl standing in front of him was one; very pretty, and two; actually dressed. Two things which he was most definitely not, as he could feel his bedhead and anyone could see that he was wearing a tank top and boxers.

"Wait a minute-"

"Pervert!"

"Hey, don't-"

Slap.

He fell to the floor, a red handprint on his cheek. "Ow! What was that for…" The name came to him, almost like he'd never forgotten. "Dawn!"

"I told you to get up!" She pointed at his lower half but was still looking away. "Not to get that up!"

"I can't help it! I'm a teenage boy! I gotta go take a whiz, or something…"

Downstairs, Johanna was sipping her morning coffee, petting the cat that was stretched across her lap. One could mistake the common breed's fur to be purple, but it was just a particular mix of gray and black.

"Those two kids…"

Hilbert attempted to swaddle himself in blankets once again as Dawn, dressed in some silly uniform skirt and blazer, attempted to kick him hard enough to get up.

"Ow. Ow. Why are you wearing that? Ow."

She stopped for a moment, making sure he wasn't looking up, and pulled at the silvery cloth. "Because it's our uniform, dummy. Seriously, you wouldn't be able to find clothes in a department store without my help."

"Ah…" He looked over to his desk that he distinctly didn't remember having, just in time to notice a similar jacket and slacks thrown over the chair. "Sorry?"

For some reason he couldn't quite remember, the girl started blushing, before yanking the blankets away from him, running out the door, and slamming it shut. "Sh-shut up! Now get dressed! And comb your hair! And don't wear that stupid hat!"

He looked over to his bedside table and saw a red and white cap with some symbol on it. It was circular, but he didn't understand what it was supposed to mean. Regardless, he put it on anyway, because teenage boys and rebellion are like salt and pepper.

Quickly doing all the stuff he also needed to do, which meant using Axe body spray for a good thirty seconds then throwing on his clothes.

He reopened his door a minute later, forgetting to announce his obvious exit, leading to Dawn, who had been leaning against the door with her arms crossed, falling directly into his arms.

He managed to just barely catch her, but in a way that suggested he was dipping her low for something more romantic.

Johanna sipped her coffee again as her son bounded down the stairs, grabbed his bag, tugged on his shoes, tied them, and started running in less than ten seconds.

"SeeYouLaterMomIGottaGoLoveYouByeeeeee!"

Dawn followed soon after, saying, "Have a nice day, Miss Johanna!" All the while attempting to pelt him with a spare piece of toast.

Johanna petted the cat again, sighing as it let out a glamorous yawn. "Those two…"

Hilbert expected to run into someone on his way to school, given he was running as fast as he could, but nothing ever came. For a slight second, he thought he heard a name on the wind, but nothing came. There were a large amount of tripping hazards though. He found a pocket knife in the middle of the sidewalk, some hedgehog barking or meowing or whatever at him, and an abnormally fast centipede that followed him for a few yards.

"Am I supposed to…" His hand clenched as if tapping some sort of invisible ball. "I feel like I'm forgetting something again."

"Hey! Slow down!"

"Hell no!" He shouted back at Dawn, picking up the pace. How he was going to find his way to school, he didn't know, but he trusted his instincts. It helped that Twinleaf Town was less than a dozen square miles.

That doesn't sound quite right. Wasn't Dawn from Sandgem Town? Or did she just walk an extra half-hour to school every day?"

That damn throbbing in his skull came back again.

He managed to lose her en route to find some place to rest his head. He stopped by the one gas station and bought a cup full of ice before throwing it in a plastic bag and using it as an ice pack. The boy sighed as he sat down outside, knowing he was loitering, but held the pack to his forehead regardless. He could be late, but he couldn't trust himself not to trip.

Trusting himself…? No, he always did that… What's changed?

"Yo, Hilby!"

He looked up, only to see Barry walking towards him, wearing a green scarf and orange-striped shirt beneath his blazer, even though it would be really hot that time of the year… What time, exactly? He doubled back over, shouting something in gibberish that was intended to be a greeting.

"Hey, man, what's wrong? You lose your drill?"

Hilbert felt a stabbing sense of clarity, and his head shot up. "What?"

"I said, did you hit your head or something?"

"Something," he groaned. Must have been nothing. "I woke up to Dawn busting into my room again-" Again? "She slapped me, wrestled me to the floor, then chased me halfway across town. And I've got the most splitting headache."

"Ouch, man. Sounds rough. But you know, a lot of guys would kill to be in your position?"

"What position? I feel like I'm gonna die right here on the curb."

"I mean, if I were you, I'd be ecstatic to have a cute girl wake me up in the morning!"

"Never change, man, never change," he moaned through a laugh.

He never did change. He could remember that.

"Ah, dammit!" He seethed, pushing the ice further into his temple. "Got a Persim Berry?"

"What? I mean, I think the nurse might have some Advil, but…" Barry kicked at the loose gravel on the pavement. "What's a Persim Berry?"

He didn't actually know. Did he?

"I might just skip today…"
"Skipping class? That's pretty unlike you, man."

"My head's killing me, I think I have an excuse. Ask Lucas to bring me the homework."

"Who?"

Another railroad spike shot through his brain. "What do you mean, who?" He shouted. The headache was getting worse and worse.

"Dude, I think you need to get to the nurse's office. The school's closer than your house anyway."

He faintly heard the tapping of a cane approach as he tried to stand up. "Gentlemen, is there something the matter?"

Barry stood ramrod straight, nearly dropping Hilbert, who he was only half-carrying anyway. "No sir, Mr. Rowan, sir!"

"I thought you were a Professor…" he muttered.

"It's just, sir, well, Hilbert here's got a pretty major headache!"

"I see… Well, my car's just about filled up. I'd be happy to give you two a ride, on the condition you don't linger in the nurse's office."

Rowan, showing happiness? He nearly collapsed at the thought, attempting to shove the ice through the central plate in his skull.

Barry managed to drag him into the beat-up sedan, nowhere near as immaculate as he expected, and since when did Rowan own a car? Didn't he have a Flying-"
He slammed his face into the passenger seat headrest. "Mother- God- Arceus-" He doubled over again, choosing to do his best to stop thinking and just curling up and waiting for the pain to stop.

By the time they got to the school proper and Rowan went off to park, Hilbert's pain had dulled to a constant throbbing, though it was still much more manageable.

"What am I forgetting?" He muttered over and over.

Barry got him some pain reliever, which seemed to work despite him not trusting Barry to read the label right for some reason.

"Now come on, man! We can't be late for class."

"This isn't… that's not… something's wrong…" He clutched his head before stumbling to his feet and going off to their classroom.

When they arrived, Dawn was standing next to his desk and tapping her foot, but was otherwise engaged with a conversation with… Cheryl, yes, that's right. You couldn't miss that shade of green anywhere… Or was it just a shade of black and brown?

"Oh, hello, Hilbert!" Cheryl waved at him reservedly, laughing lightly. "Good morning."

"Same to you," he sighed, trying his best not to limp as he sat down. As soon as he did, Dawn snatched his cap right off his head.

"I told you not to wear this! It's! Not! Dress! Code!" She said, tapping it against his forehead for emphasis. He barely felt it, compared to… his headache, yeah.

"Aren't you supposed to be a fashion expert or something?"

"Where did you get that idea?" She looked taken aback. "Wait a minute, are you saying that because I'm a girl?"

"What? No! I thought… contests.." he drifted off, not really sure why he thought that either.

"Dummy."

"You should really be nicer to him, Dawn…" Cheryl tapped the tips of her fingers together, smiling slightly. "He can't help being a bit dumb sometimes, he's a boy."

"Don't defend him!"

Barry poked his back, leaning far enough to reach his ear as the two girls debated how stupid he was. "See what I mean? You're lucky!"

"I have no clue what you're talking about."

"Yeah, yeah, just wait until Marley gets here."

"Well… doesn't she like Luc-" He cringed as the spike in his skull, thumping his knees into the desk. Who? Wasn't he forgetting something?"

Riley walked in, wearing his signature hat. Hilbert noticed something different about him. Was his shirt folded weirdly? It seemed to be filled out a lot more around his upper chest.

"Dude, stop staring at Riley's knockers." Barry slid a hand over his eyes, as if he was some child that needed to be protected.

"Riley's what?"

"Well, see, Hilbert, when girls get older, they start changing in some pretty interesting ways, such as…"

Barry's head was driven into his desk by a slightly, not that you could tell, annoyed Marley, who had a tight grip on his blond hair.

"...I recommend that if you would like to continue living, that you should stop talking…"

"Ah! Ah! It was-" He struggled to free himself from Marley's grasp, "It was Hilbert's fault."

"Barry!"

"...Liar…" She pulled him up just to smack him again. "...Hilby would never act as perverted as you…"

"Ah! Stop! Riley! Help!"

"What did you do? Good morning Hilbert," Riley said, walking over and sitting adjacent to them. His… her… what? Their voice was higher than he expected, but he wasn't sure why exactly that was.

"Good morning," he gasped out, before putting his head down. "Wake me up when it starts raining cats and dogs, I have a feeling that's coming next."

"I thought Riley was a dude! What the hell? And who the hell is Lucas? Do I know him? Why is Barry smart? Why is Dawn angry? Why is Marley so violent? Why is Cheryl… well, she's probably got something different about her."

"Settle down, class," the teacher said, walking in and commanding silence.

"Yes, Ms. Cynthia," replied the class in a cacophony.

"As it turns out, we have a new student joining us for the first term." She turned towards the door, holding out a hand. "Please, come in."

No one came through the door.

There was a stillness in the room. It was like there was no more oxygen to breathe.

"Miss, I don't think they heard you," Hilbert said, raising his hand.

The woman at the front of the room didn't move. Her eyes were fixed on something unseen, and it seemed unnatural how still she was.

Looking around, he realized the other people in the room were the same. Barry was looking a little too far under the teacher's eyes. Cheryl had her pen ready on a fresh sheet of paper, though she had already begun doodling. Dawn's cheek rested on her hand as she had stopped tapping her fingers. Riley was frozen while fiddling with some kind of boxing tape in their lap.

"The hell?"

He stood up, looking out the window. The clouds had stopped blowing through the sky, and the pigeons in the air stopped flapping their wings. Some kid that was late to class was stopped mid-stride, balancing on one leg in a running stance.

It was like an itch on the side of his brain, pulling his attention towards the empty front of the room, where someone ought to have been standing.

A spike drove from the top of his head to his feet, traveling along his spine as his entire body was wracked with pain. No one in the room moved, even as he kicked the desk aside in a rush of adrenaline. It sent the people seated in front of him to the floor as if they were made of plastic. They fell in one piece, like they were carved out of putty in one go.

"Move! MOVE! WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?"

The itch grew more intense, like the grainy static was made of glass and being massaged directly into his brain.

It's just a burning memory.

The world outside the classroom turned black, though it lost none of its light. A single eye was bisected by the window frames, though it still casted him a bright red.

Wouldn't you rather live here? This peace is what you're fighting for, is it not?

"What do you mean, what I'm…" He grabbed his head, another spike driving through his temples. "This is a nightmare, it has to be…"

You would like to think so. After all, it's only an illusion made for someone beyond comprehension. The Universe itself will be pleased should you stay. You can still go home. You simply have to forget the invader.

"Forget…" Forget? Forget who? Invader? Who? Forget? Forget? FORGET FORGET FORGET- "No."

You hold onto the memory of that which you do not know?

"This is wrong! It has to be! There's truth out there!" He slammed his fist into the window, sending pain lancing up his joints. The glass didn't even crack. "I know something is wrong here!"

Is it? Was it not your goal to create the Heavens? Hypocritical, you must know.

"This isn't Heaven! This is an illusory hell!"

And yet, all the devils are out here. To see all of your memories, to feel them all… This isn't the first illusion. There were many before this one. You have traveled Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Unova, Kalos, a million other versions of the journey you have taken before. I have done you a favor.

"A million…"

You have collapsed under the truth every single time. You can't handle it, despite what your ideals may say.

"No, that's not true! If it were, I would remember!"

And yet, you do not. That is the will of the Universe. Your soul may carry its experiences, but it does not carry your memories.

"That's not… I'm not…"

Stay in the Heaven I have created for you. It is the greatest reward that can be bestowed upon a mortal.

"To stay here… My soul would still remember! My heart would still ache for adventure like it always has!"

You say that only to be contrarian. You can live comfortably for millenia, never suffer, never endure pain. You will likely live until the evitable end of the Universe.

"Endure… No! That pain… That's what makes life real! To live in this illusion, this false reality, this… this dream, that would be like dying a thousand times over!"

Stop fighting it. You will be granted a peace unlike any known to man or Pokemon.

"I never liked peace. It's boring, and it's fake. Why… why is that…" He clenched his fist. "Damn you. Taking my memories like its nothing." He grabbed the chair he'd been sitting in, just a minute before, and threw it at the window. The metal made contact, soundlessly leaving a crack in the surface. "I can feel it, even now. If I ever stop moving, that's the absence of my life. Whatever power I have, whatever I can do… I'll use it to beat down monsters like you!"

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann OST - Minna No Peace

Like a tsunami contained by a dam, his memories came flowing back to him, bit by bit.

There was a universe where he never left Sinnoh in the first place.

There was a universe where there weren't any Pokemon, just like this one, only Barry was a girl too.

There was a universe where Johanna had rooted in Unova and never left, where Nuvema was truly his hometown, and he met some strange boy with green hair.

There was a universe where he would put on spandex and get into big robots to fight giant Pokemon he'd never seen before.

There was a universe where he'd never developed his aura, and grew up as an average boy. He'd never met Golett, and he picked Chimchar as his starter. He was closer with Barry, and only ran into Dawn occasionally.

There was a universe where Golett created and explosion that destroyed Nuvema as well, and he'd grown up on his own.

There was a universe where he'd been sucked into a wormhole while he visited Alola, and had his mind torn apart by some strange jellyfish-like Pokemon.

There was a universe where all of these things were true, even in the universes it wasn't.

But none of them… none of them had…

"I see it! I see it now! There's no truth but my own! Minor differences, they don't matter- but you try to change Lucas? You tried to change the people? MY PEOPLE? You try something like that, AND I'LL TEAR YOU TO SHREDS!" A wispy aura tore through his clothes, and platinum armor began to form on his skin. "It's all within my reach… these possibilities… they're all false, but they're all real! They're only inside of me! But the one true reality, that's the one that matters! I'll never accept some sort of dream without struggle or hardship or real people, because that's not living! That's just YOUR damn ideal! You just want a world without aura, without threats to your own power! That's why there aren't any Pokemon here, isn't it? They run on the damn stuff, but humans are as close as you can get to a living thing without it. And even then, that wasn't enough! YOU CAN'T KEEP DOWN OUR SPIRIT, YOU APOCALYPTIC SON OF A BITCH!"

Hilbert whipped his hand away from his heart, pulling every bit of his strength into his arm. Air swirled together and everything in the world became one. The dolls that surround him melted into orange putty and dissolved into nothingness, the glass and walls dissolved into an atomic blue before charging into his drill.

"I'll never live in a false reality again! I'll make my dream reality instead of building a fake one from the ground up! That's the truth! That's what I'll make true! And I'll always defend that truth from people like you. My body is steel, my blood is aura, and metal sharpens metal!"

He floated in the darkness of Giratina's soul, dwarfed by the being in front of him. He may have been just a speck, and its body may have stretched for a million light-years, but that didn't matter.

"My ideals are what creates the Heavens! I'm fighting for the future of reality, not the what-ifs and if-onlys! Truth and Ideals become one- That's Heaven Piercing! THAT'S GOLURK-PLATINUM!

He ran his fingers along the side of the drill that was still forming on his arm. He felt the flow of water, the rush of air, the burn of fire, the grit of earth, the sharpness of metal, the energy of life, the truth of everything that made up the Universe.

"If the world really works the way you say it does, then I'll smash that illusion apart!" He moved his hand behind the drill, orienting his body to line up with its point, and at the end of the world, he shouted.

"Super Heaven Piercing…"

His silver armor reflected a thousand lights, like all the stars in the Universe were held within his soul. A helm grew from his collar, smoothly wrapping around his head entirely and setting in the form of Golurk's head, though his eyes were covered by a sharp visor that glowed with the same lights.

"GOLURK-PLATINUM!"

Crack.

CRACK.

CRACK CRACK CRACK CRACK CRACK CRACK.

An infinite hole opened in the infinite marble floor of the true Spear Pillar, as stone shattered upward and flew into the vast reaches of space. Giratina was thrown into the air, and Lucas would have been thrown clear a few dozen light-years if he hadn't shot a grappling hook around Giratina's horn in time.
"Hey, Lucas! HELP ME OUT!" Hilbert blasted from the hole in space and time, escaping the void Giratina had created below. Only mere moments had passed for the gray-haired boy, but for Hilbert, it was like he'd lived through a thousand Big Bangs.

The boy wrapped in ceramics swung towards Hilbert as Mach Speeds, and they slapped their hands together hard enough to create a shockwave in the vacuum of space.

"Team Black; going past the impossible since 2009!" Hilbert shouted as Lucas's aura joined his own. The visor on his face grew an additional three spikes, shaping itself like a star. Symbols engraved themselves on his armor, and stars appeared on each of his joints.

"Nice to see you again, bro. Been a while," Hilbert thought, subdued.

"You alright?"

"I will be, as soon as we take this bastard down once and for all."

"Right!"

"One last time, everyone!" Hilbert shouted towards everything. Those within him, and those without.

Giratina opened its maw, as if to shout, and he saw the earth within, surrounded by darkness.

YOU WILL NEVER DEFEAT ME!

"BULLSHIT! ALL THE LIMITATIONS YOU'VE TALKED ABOUT, THOSE LIMITATIONS ARE NO ONE'S BUT YOUR OWN! WE'LL GO EVEN FURTHER BEYOND! WE'LL SURPASS YOU, WE'LL SURPASS ARCEUS, WE'LL SURPASS THE UNIVERSE ITSELF! IN THE NAME OF PEOPLE AND POKEMON EVERYWHERE…"

YOUR PATH OF USURPATION WILL ONLY LEAD TO DESTRUCTION!

"AND YOU THINK WE'LL LET THAT HAPPEN? JUST WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK WE ARE?"

I HAVE SACRIFICED THE GREATEST CREATIONS OF THE UNIVERSE FOR THE SAKE OF BALANCE! I WILL NOT ALLOW YOU TO UNDO MY EFFORTS!
"UNFORTUNATELY FOR YOU, THAT'S NOT YOUR CHOICE!

THERE WERE MANY BEFORE YOU, YOU WILL NOT BE ANY DIFFERENT!

"THAT'S WHERE YOU'RE WRONG! WITH EACH OF THOSE ATTEMPTS, WE GREW A LITTLE STRONGER! HUMANS, POKEMON, WHATEVER ELSE IS OUT THERE! IT ALL LED… TO THIS MOMENT!"

YOU ARE A FOOL TO BELIEVE YOU'RE ANY DIFFERENT!

"I'M NOT ANY DIFFERENT! I'M JUST A KID FROM TWINLEAF TOWN! I'M JUST A KID FROM EARTH! BUT AT LEAST I'M THE KID THAT BEAT YOU!"

DO NOT DO THIS! THE UNIVERSE MUST BE PROTECTED! BALANCE MUST BE ENSURED!

"YOUR KIND OF BALANCE ONLY HURTS PEOPLE! YOU'VE NEVER STOPPED TO THINK THAT THERE'S A GREATER NEED BEYOND WHAT YOU DESIRE!"

The drill blasted forward and blasted straight through Giratina, and the wormhole that it contained. It drove their true body through the solar system at lightyears a second. It impacted the moon, tunneling straight through it as if it were air. They slowed to a stop on the other side, the ten-meter-wide trail already closing in and collapsing with an ear-splitting shuffle of mantle and earth. Golurk-Platinum held Giratina by the neck, simply floating through the atmosphere, nearly still.

Then, in a blasted light, they accelerated towards the earth. They charged through the atmosphere igniting and burning nearly white. It slammed Giratina's body into the marble of Earth's Spear Pillar, throwing back the leadership of Team Galactic who had been frozen in time.

There was no explosion, no concave blast of dust, only a crater and a haze of smoke. The miasma that hung around Sinnoh had dissipated, consumed by Giratina's wrath.

Giratina lay sideways, its metal body creaking as it could barely move.

PMD: EoT OST - Don't Ever Forget

Will you… will you protect the Universe? Will you do what must be done? Will you endure that struggle?

Hilbert, his eyes exposed by the cracks in his armor, nodded.

"We're Team Black. We aid those in need, even when mocked as relentless and crazy. Of course we will."

Giratina, though its form was incomparable to a human's, seemed to nod in response.

I… I see. Thank you.

It began to dissolve into stardust, fading away into the sky and returning to the reverse plane.

Perhaps… Perhaps your ideals truly are the way forward.

"It's the only way," Hilbert finished, before falling into a kneel.

The armor fell away in shards. His helmet broke off entirely. The black stripe fell from his face, dissolving into aura before reforming as Lucario. The backplate broke off in segments, and the tail looped outwards, before they separated and reformed as Scolipede and Abra. The fins along his arms broke off and reformed as Garchomp. His crown of stars, from where it lay on the ground, became Tyranitar. The mail that protected the cracks in his armor fell away like spider silk, and became Shaymin. From the engraved parts of his arms and legs came Aegislash. From the Keystone implanted on the chest reformed Golett, now only a mere foot tall, but the stone of his soul having become sheer platinum rather than red or blue.

Lucas walked up behind him and pat him on the shoulder, wearing a post-modern version of his clothes that he'd worn only a day ago.

He heard, distantly, the groaning of a few distinct voices.

"I'll take care of things now. You can rest."

And so he did, right there in that crater, with a tired smile on his face.

A Mid-Sinnoh Night's Dream - END

Turn down your music volume.

Incredibly generic stagehands carried boxes off the stage, as Not-Hilbert looked away from the camera, reading a notepad. He heard the whir as it focused on him, and whipped around, rubbing the back of his head.

So, uh, everyone. That's all. That's it. That's the end.

He flipped over the notepad page, and read what he read aloud.

Or is it?

No, Hilbert's dream is over.

That doesn't mean yours has to.

Never forget your dreams because the world gets you down. I don't think media has to be cynical and edgy to have meaning, and that's why I wrote this. It seems that optimism gets stuff labeled as crack more easily than cynicism, but it was never too serious in the first place.

However, don't try to substitute reality with one you made up in a daydream. Push towards tomorrow, make something of yourself.
That may make me something of a hypocrite. I'm just some guy writing fanfiction, but you know what? I'm a person too, dammit, and so are you. I'm thinking of going into the English field and becoming a professor at some university. Is that optimistic? Yes. Is it unlikely? Maybe. Is it impossible? Hell no.

Even when you get put down, you can always push back. When there's a wall in your way, you don't give up, you push forward until you've won!

I guess that's what Hilbert's journey was about. It was never about the Gym Challenge, because the Gym Challenge was ultimately an allegory. His journey was never to be the very best, like no one ever was, his journey was to do the impossible; Let go of cynicism and logic and go beyond. If you honestly, truly, completely believe in yourself, there's nothing you can't do. I don't care how many disadvantages you have, if you put your mind to something, you can and will achieve it.

Maybe that's just optimism coming from an average guy who's decently well off, but you know what? Who gives a damn? Putting that down because 'it's easy for me to say that' doesn't help anyone. Believe frivolously. Believe in yourself, and believe in the people that believe in you. Even if you think there's no one that does, there is. Trust me. Shit, I'll believe in you if I have to.
Also, listen to some pop-punk from the mid-2000s. Significantly improved my worldview, funnily enough.

And about writing… I'd say the key to writing is the same as the key to being a genius, like Albert Einstein or Alexander the Great. You need to do something that's never been done before.

The only reason I could believe someone made fanart specifically for me is that I couldn't find anyone else that's made Hilbert's partner Pokemon a Gurren Lagann reference.

Major props to whoever did that, by the way, they didn't want credit.

You need people who believe in you to keep moving forward. Whenever I hit a block, I'd think to myself, "There are people out there whose day will get a little bit better when I upload this." Write for someone, and if there's no one following your work, write for yourself.

I'm not an expert. But I'm not a novice. I'm pretty average, heh.

Don't write something safe. Don't write something because you think people will like it. Don't be afraid to get very little traction because the pairing or characters or series is unpopular. Create creatively, create without reason. Art is what keeps the human spirit alive, or something like that. If I can do it, so can you.

Not-Hilbert held up a hand, eyes fixed on the notepad, and the movement behind him stopped. He walked back to the couch, and before two of the stagehands could carry it off, sat down.

Oh, and by the way, this isn't the end. That was just a little bit of trolling. Epilogues will come soon, stay tuned for next week.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you for reading. This dream of mine has meant a lot to me, because I always hoped it meant a lot to you. There's more Pokemon stuff to come in the future, so add me to your Authors Followed page if you don't mind.

And to finish the quote from the beginning, "I suppose we all thought that, one way or another."

Not-Hilbert scratched his head.

Man, this author-guy is a major loser.