As always, snow was falling in Snowbelle City. The powder scattered in the wind over the open-air gym, a colosseum of never-melting ice.
Rocks and puddles covered most of the battlefield, evidence of the hard-fought Gym Battle taking place there.
"Mystical Fire," Serena called, her voice echoing across the open field. "Eryngo pattern."
Delphox raised their wand to the cloudy sky and yipped stoically.
A swirl of fire exploded from the tip, breaking off into two lashes and dancing across the ice.
Wulfric, the Gym Leader, smiled. "You have talent, challenger. Unfortunately, you need a whole lot more than that to defeat me!" he belted, his voice guttural. "Stop holding back. Avalugg, use Rock Slide!"
Serena felt the minerals coalescing in the air before she could see it. This was a make-or-break moment. Her eighth Gym Battle. If she used her powers here, no matter how subtly, how the League reacted would set a precedent.
Delphox understood this. Psychic-types were more aware of such things, as a rule, similarly to their common possession of psychopathic tendencies. She wasn't going to force her trainer to make that decision.
The Mystical Fire bounced backwards, flaring up white before they jumped into the air above Delphox.
The Rock Slide turned into a gentle rain of glass beads that clattered harmlessly to the floor around Delphox.
She waved her wand again, the remaining fire splitting away again and towards Avalugg.
The Ice-type roared and shards exploded upwards, growing from the floor and piercing through the fire, cutting it off entirely.
"Good!" Wulfric barked. "You've trained your Pokémon well, that much I can tell. It's too bad that my job is to separate the mediocre from the exceptional, the Very Best. Avalugg, use Spiky Shield!"
Spiky Shield was a Grass-type move in its default form, and generally accomplished by multiplying spines or, as one might guess, spikes in a defensive formation.
Wulfric had developed a similar technique, instead utilizing shards of ice.
Rock-like formations grew around Avalugg, and as good as Delphox was with fire control, swirling it around the solid ice would only.
Serena closed her eyes in thought for a split second. After which, she said, "Dahlia pattern."
Delphox's eyes flashed with pink light as a new trail of fire burst from her wand.
Instead of moving immediately towards Avalugg, the fire spun in the air like a horizontal vortex. Its diameter shrunk, narrowing as it began spinning faster and burning brighter.
"Go," Serena said.
Like an arrow, the Mystical Fire shot forwards and cut straight through the shield of ice, melting it away in a perfect cone around it.
After the steam cleared, the parka-wearing referee blew his whistle.
"The winner is Challenger Serena, of… Vaniville Town," he declared after a short pause. He scratched his head and looked at his clipboard.
The applause was uproarious, which was a feat of Serena's fan following (Something she didn't make much mention of at home) considering how few people wanted to be outside in the snow when they could be watching something on television.
Delphox bowed to Wulfric as he approached, and she stepped aside as the man walked up to Serena and offered his hand.
"It was a good match," he said. "I will be the first to admit, I can get carried away during battle. I respect that you didn't use your abilities."
"They weren't necessary," she said evenly, meeting him equally with a handshake.
"Ho, ho!" Wulfric barked. That's some confidence you got there. Can you keep up that attitude at the conference?" he asked.
"I'll try my best," she said.
"Well, then. I'll look forward to it." Wulfric pulled a small pin from his jacket pocket. "Your badge."
She accepted it with a nod. "Thank you. I appreciate the-"
Her Holo Caster rang with a familiar signal.
"I apologize, that'll be FLARE. Could you…"
Wulfric gestured to someone in the stands next to an audio set-up.
Serena held the Holo Caster to her ear, not bothering with the hologram.
She listened to Aveline's briefing about an Anomaly approaching from the south, and that its aura didn't seem incredibly Anomalous but that she should still detain it as soon as possible.
"...It's crossing through… there?" she asked. An edge she didn't know she had was sneaking into her tone.
After receiving confirmation, she didn't wait around for the applause to end. She released her Pidgeot from their Pokéball and flew off then and there.
"Go past the Santalune Forest," she said close to their ears. "I'll walk from there. Just where the bridge used to be."
Serena walked down the long-abandoned roads of Aquacorde Town. The river ran brown with dirt and sediment that never quite settled, turned into a creek that drained into the gouge across the Kalosian countryside. She could see where trees dropped away before the horizon, where the ground had been cut from the Earth like it was nothing.
She looked at the fountain that was still drained, where she had found Shauna that night. She walked down the forest path where she'd found Tierno that afternoon. She walked down the sidewalk where she'd found Trevor that day. She poked her head in the abandoned house she'd found her mother in.
All of these places, but she had found only a few others. The League said that only twenty or so people lived in Vaniville Town afterwards. More for Aquacorde, but not nearly as many as she was sure there should have been.
She wasn't alone. She wasn't alone. She wasn't alone.
There was Blanche, she knew. He knew that the world wasn't the way it was supposed to be. He understood that it wasn't supposed to be bloodless and washed out, that it was artificial, that it was practically a dream they couldn't wake up from.
But he'd tried. So she tried too. Harder than she had before.
But the grayscale buildings and ruins did little to convince her.
The whole world was against her. There had to be other like her, weren't there? Blanche believed as much, and while he could be incomprehensible when he was stressed, he wasn't usually wrong. He didn't try to mislead anyone, or did he?
She didn't know what to think. The memories of a childhood that was torn away from her, that struck her down, that called back to her and demanded vengeance and answers and for her blood to run hot-
She took a deep breath and kept walking.
"How interesting," a voice said from all around her, "You're not alone, that's right. Hm… well, your mind may possess some sort of entertainment."
Her eyes widened and a wall of rocks shot up behind her, intercepting the tentacle that had appeared behind her.
Malamar looked down at her with disdain. "Oh. Another like me. How brutish. All of the strength, but none of the technique.
Serena morphed as quickly as she could, cover forming out of the ground as she did, but her helmet only formed in time to protect her head as it struck from behind her.
She rolled through the rubble, looking up at the Malamar as it approached again. Its eyes flashed pink and she forced herself to look away. A headache began pounding inside her skull as her mind was pulled in two directions. She ran back up the trail to Aquacorde.
"That's the Anomaly!" Aveline declared as connection was established.
"Send reinforcements," Serena said, "The Anomaly is Psychic-type."
A Psybeam cut her down, blasting her down the street.
"If you run, the game isn't fun," Malamar said. "You humans complain about instant gratification because you're too weak to take what you want. You hold up your weakness as a virtue and disavow those that obtain the objects of their desires. It's pathetic, really. I much prefer the opposite."
Pillars of earth shot towards it, but its form shimmered as they passed through.
When you couldn't see your enemy, that meant they were where you couldn't see. Malamar was either above or behind her, as she immediately processed.
Serena dropped to the ground, willing a shield to form behind her and block the attack that was sure to follow. The tentacle cut through the wall as if it were nothing and she jumped away before being crushed by her own power.
The attack had come from in front of her.
"What wonders does this mind have to offer?" Malamar asked itself.
Serena woke up in a forest.
"Hey, are you alright? That was a pretty bad tumble, Serena," someone called.
She… recognized that voice, didn't she?
She looked up the rocky outcropping she… she had tripped over, and saw someone leaning over.
His hair was black and straight, his eyes as gray as hers, and his red hat was distinctive as ever.
"I'm fine, Calem, thank you," she said, smoothing a fold in her skirt as she stood up.
He continued crouching on the rock and smiled at her, staying at the same eye level.
"Naturally. Takes something a lot stronger than that to keep you down, doesn't it?" he asked.
Blood rushed to her cheeks and she looked away.
"Of course. I must have misplaced my foot," she huffed.
Calem laughed again. "Ah, what else? I tell you and tell you to buy hiking shoes, but-"
"I won't need them on the contest circuit," she said, beginning to continue down the trail.
She heard Calem hopping down behind her. "But you'll need to catch some Pokémon, won't you?"
"We've had this discussion before," she said, flustered but annoyed.
"And it's very boring!" a voice boomed from the forest around her. "Where's the- Oh, yes, there it is."
Serena whipped around. Who was that speaking? Where were they?
On one turn, Calem was standing there with an easy-going smile on his face.
On the next turn, he was on the ground.
A dull groan echoed through her eardrum, accompanied by a thundering hiss traveling through the air.
She looked down at him and-
Serena woke up in a forest. The foliage had long since been beaten away from the trail, only springing up in the undergrowth. The tree canopy was thick, but not as thick as Santalune Forest.
The scenery melted away and the light beyond the trees blurred blurred.
She found herself sitting on Rhyhorn, bouncing along as they walked down the pavement. She was younger then, much smaller than she remembered.
Calem was leaning against her back, the telltale sign being that he seemed to be fast asleep.
"Oh, they're just so cute," her mom sighed, snapping a few pictures with an old camera. Dad stood next to her, laughing along as they padded down the trail.
Calem's parents were there too, his mom gossiping with her's whenever they got the chance.
There was a parade in Aquacorde that day, wasn't there? It was clear in her mind. That was the day…
They were too young then, not even close to owning their own Pokémon. They didn't know anything of the future, beyond vague dreams and promises.
What were those promises?
Calem muttered something in his sleep. "I'm gonna… I'm gonna be the… Very…" he murmured, trailing off and starting to snore lightly.
His head knocked against hers and the impact multiplied, sending her tumbling across the-
Pavement molded into a forest path before her eyes. She rolled and stopped on the ground with a groan.
She stood up groggily before her senses sharpened painfully.
Calem was laying there, arms outstretched. Smoke was rising from his back.
Serena began to scream, but as the air traveled up her throat, so did bile. With a start, she threw herself out of her slumber, and-
Serena woke up in a forest.
The bark was rough on the tree branch. Even so, it was sturdy enough to support their combined weight. Calem didn't seem to have a problem sitting on it so she didn't complain. They were younger then.
He pointed a finger to an unseeable point on the horizon. "I think I'm gonna go there one day."
She leaned over, trying to find the hole in the canopy he was looking through.
"Where is that?" she asked.
"Dunno. Vaniville is nice, but it's too small for me." He looked at the back of his palm, holding it up to the sun. "I'm thinking I'll start with the whole world, and then figure it out from there."
"I thought you wanted to be a Pokémon Master," Serena said.
"Well, duh, but how can I be a master if I don't know what I'm the master of?" Calem asked.
"Did you lose your Pokédex? The regional Pokédex in Kalos begins with Chespin, then Quilladin, then Chesnaught, and-" she was cut off from her recital of every Pokémon in Kalos.
"No, no, no! I mean," Calem palmed his face, "I've got to master the world before I can master something smaller. I've got to go everywhere, save damsels in distress, fight off the bad guys," Calem said.
"What does that have to do with it?" Serena asked.
"Well, that's what it means to be a hero, right? I'll be a Knight Errant, like the old legends of DRAGON or the Aura Guardian!" Calem said.
"But… why do you have to be a hero?"
"Well, I don't know about being a professional hero," he said, embarrassed. "But if I act like one, then all the strong Pokémon will want to team up with me and then we'll be the best, like, ever! That's just how that works. When you're grown up like me, you'll understand," he said, nodding seriously.
"I'm older than you," she reminded him.
"Details, deta-" Calem wavered a bit, wildly waving his arms before he tumbled from the branch. "Woah!"
He'd fallen many times before, Serena remembered. It was practically a comedy routine.
She looked down at him and it was as if she'd fallen as well.
A gouge had been cut across the trail perpendicularly, digging deep and disintegrating whatever stood in its path.
Calem's jacket crumbled as it slowly turned black, and from there, began turning red.
She stumbled back over the ledge, and saw the stone outcropping as she fell, infinitely stretching on into a pit where she saw no bottom.
Serena woke up in a forest.
The earth was packed beneath her. It was a trail they'd walked many times before. She could feel the scuffs on the soles of her shoes, in an odd way.
The dirt morphed into a patterned brick pavement, and the sound of talk and chatter filled her ears.
She looked up and recognized the strung-up flags that tied Aquacorde together.
She was at an outdoor table, a cup of coffee in front of her.
A girl was tugging on the ears of Calem, yelling something incoherent. Was… was she okay with that? Was she supposed to not be okay with that?
He laughed it off, waving his hands in surrender before she backed off and sat back down.
Another boy at the table sighed, his head barely coming up above the edge. A much larger boy next to him kept up the easy-going smile, relieved that he'd gotten through to the girl.
These were her friends, weren't they?
She stared at the coffee cup and mechanically lifted it to her lips.
It tasted of pepper. Coincidentally, a bottle of pepper flakes was open and half-empty at the center of the table.
She put it back down, pleased at the taste. It wasn't something she shared very often, and it was seldom mentioned by the others.
Calem had said something about the homework being too easy and that Shauna was being an airhead by complaining about it. He'd said it in jest and different terms, but Shauna, as always, was Shauna.
Serena felt oddly distant from the conversation, even though she'd spoken and been spoken to. It seemed like the world was flowing around her like the river between Aquacorde and Santalune Forest.
It felt right, but it felt all sorts of wrong.
She stared into her coffee, trying to snap out of the odd feeling. They only had a few years before their journeys, she had to appreciate them while they were there.
As she looked up, she felt taller. Tierno was more muscular. Trevor was less hunched. Shauna was… admittedly, pretty much the same, but wearing platform shoes.
Calem wasn't there.
There were three additional chairs at the table. Rosa sat in one, seeming like a distant cousin visiting from out of town. Ariel seemed like a misguided tourist. Blanche was…
When she looked at his eyes, she saw the red of Calem's back, and his visage blurred over Blanche's body. The others carried on chatting as he sat slumped in his chair, unmoving and unblinking.
Her vision darkened as she violently threw herself away from the table.
Serena woke up in a forest.
The hill was larger than most of the others, and there was only one trail towards and away from it. The canopy shielded them from the sun when it was higher, but not around dawn or dusk.
"I'm thinking that I'm gonna change the world," Calem said, staring somewhere far off on the horizon. "Can you make me a promise?"
She looked up at the tallest tree they'd ever found, and briefly tried to count the branches.
"That's a pretty big promise," she said. Everyone their age knew that promises mattered more the larger the tree they were made under was.
"Please?" he asked, giving the weakest puppy-dog eyes she'd ever seen.
Unfortunately, they worked.
They locked hands and Calem looked dead into her eyes.
"If I can't ever make it all the way, can you kick me really hard?"
"Alright," she said, without missing a beat.
"Oh. Well, if that doesn't work, can you be the Very Best, even if I can't? You know, be a hero, become Champion, all that stuff?"
She nodded. "I don't see why not."
They shook on it, solidifying the promise.
The weight disappeared from in front of her, and she found herself on the shielded edge of a rock face. She poked her head above the side, wondering where he'd gone.
Calem looked dead into her eyes again.
Serena woke up in a forest.
She was walking, but then she stopped. The rhythm broken, she looked towards the disturbance.
Something was flying through the air, far away and emanating red. Its screech rattled her eardrums, and a dull thrumming began pounding towards them.
"Serena, move!" he shouted.
Those were the last words she heard from him. His last breath was given to protect her.
She felt hands at her back, pushing her over a rock, a natural cover in the trail.
A minute later, when the terrible sound had passed and the ground had stopped shaking, she weakly pushed herself to her feet.
"Calem?" she called, rubbing her eyes with the clean part of her wrist.
There was no reply. The screeching continued, but something fought back against it, sending out waves of calmness. It was distant enough that she barely registered it.
"Calem, are you alright?" she asked, pacing back up the trail and looking around.
Her foot his something that was impossibly cold for the middle of summer.
An icy gust that burned like fire blew up at her in the wind, smelling vaguely metallic.
"Calem?" she said, falling to her knees.
His head was turned to the side, eyes shut tight but not moving at all.
She shook him, ignoring the cold biting at her fingers.
He didn't respond.
It took all that she had to look again from the sheer destruction dealt to his back and the ground she'd been standing on not a minute before.
"Calem? Calem!" she said, shaking him faster as her eyes widened. "Calem! Calem! CALEM!"
Screeching continued in the distance and a heavy slam shook the landscape.
The ground began shaking beneath her.
Serena woke up in a forest.
The world was silent. There was no Legendary in the sky, nor was there a Legendary on the ground. The sound of the forests slowly began to return, but it paid no mind to her.
She was alone.
The ground shook as if under a giant's march.
"Hm. Boring. I've seen it before," a voice said from around her. "The scenery was all the same, it's really quite-"
A pillar of earth rocketed from the ground, followed by another, then another, and then as many as she could muster as tears streamed down her face.
She found herself in an empty void, watching as one of the pillars struck Malamar's body.
It pushed the rocks aside and they crumbled into nothing. It looked at her with disdain and said, "Is that how you wish to do things?"
She willed all the earth around her to slam into it, each and every one of her muscles quaking.
They all dissolved into dust, whisked away into an empty space where she could feel nothing.
It grinned suddenly, and its face was covered in shadows. "In that case, I shall oblige you."
He was the first to arrive, though he knew that the others weren't far behind. Quilladin wrapped himself around his back as Silvally bounded through Santalune Forest. Twigs snapped and crunched under clawed feet as the world became a blur.
There was something floating above the ruins that he supposed were Aquacorde. A giant, squid-like Pokémon with two tendrils and a sneering head.
There was a human shape inside of its torso, floating in what looked like cloudy water.
The bridge shattered under Silvally's footsteps as it screeched and shot forward.
Blanche closed his eyes and listened to the world around him. The sound of the wind whistling around him slowed. It was flowing opposite them, back towards the city. The vibrations from Silvally's sprinting ran up his body and jolted his limbs. Quilladin's vines tightened and loosened with each bound.
Blanche's eyes snapped open and he rose, balancing on Silvally's back with one hand on the collar.
"Geraniums inside the Anomaly," he said to the communicator. "I'm going to try and cut her out."
"Proceed with caution. Its AIAM fields are reading as weak, but it overpowered her. Expect difficulties," Aveline said.
"Right." Blanche leapt from Silvally's back and called, "STRIKE!"
At the peak of his ascent, a white glow enveloped his arm, and he threw it before it cooled.
The thrusters began burning moments later, swinging around and curving towards the Anomaly.
Blanche landed in a half-roll, his suit absorbing most of the shock.
Silvally made contact and scratched horizontally, throwing Malamar back as the STRIKE whirled around it, still computing where to strike.
Malamar swatted it away with a tentacle and it returned to his arm. The sneer on its face became clear.
"Now, really, three on one? That isn't how you play the game," it said, before its smirk twisted. "Though I always like a challenge."
A Psybeam struck Silvally and rolled over him before he could run out of the way. Smoke rose from his feathers, but there was little else.
"Quilladin, I need a distraction."
Though digitized, the order carried through well enough. Quilladin detached himself from Blanche's back and rolled away, picking up rocks and debris as he went.
Blanche scanned the environment for something sharp. Anything sturdy and even a little bit sharp would work, as long as it wasn't iron.
Malamar was a Dark and Psychic-type. Fighting-type attacks wouldn't cut through it and Bug-type attacks were weak in general.
He was working on an old idea, something vague he'd heard. Fairies didn't work well with iron in most myths, and as long as he could channel the Infinity Energy properly…
He lifted a stick still covered with bark and flexed it experimentally. As it held, he said, "Bug."
Hair stood on end all over his body and a tingle ran down his spine.
It was a two-part patchwork plan, but it would have to work.
"Get back!" he yelled.
Silvally looked at him quizzically before jumping away, and Quilladin's Rollout swiveled towards the outskirts of town.
He ran towards Malamar, raising the stick over his head as he inhaled.
"Infestation!" he called. Energy pulsed into the stick as he threw it at Malamar.
It, of course, grabbed the stick before it even touched the main body, and snapped it in two like a much smaller twig.
There was a brief moment of silence before the sound of buzzing filled the air.
From the forest around them, a swarm of Bug-types arose. They were small and weak, yes, and Blanche couldn't even name the species, but there were many.
They swarmed towards Malamar, and it made a disgusted sound as it waved away at them.
Blanche picked up another stick. "Fairy," he said. "Hone it and make it sharp."
A wisp of warm energy ran over it, almost vibrating the bark right off.
He ran towards Malamar again, diving through the swarm of bugs, and made contact with its body.
Blanche slashed away at Malamar's torso, enduring through the muck that poured out of the outer layer. It reminded him more of a jellyfish than a squid at that point.
He grasped at Serena's hand as it emerged floating through. He pulled hard, the Fighting-type drive clicking into place as he kicked Malamar's body away.
Serena fell out, unmoving, but his foot stuck to Malamar like glue, sinking into its body.
Malamar smirked at him, and even through the swarm of bugs, Blanche felt that he'd still been outplayed.
Something inside of its body wrapped around his leg and pulled him in.
"We've lost contact with Amaranth. Geranium's suit is functioning, but she's showing low brain activity," Aveline said. "Rhododendron, I thought Amaranth couldn't be affected by Psychic-types!"
Salem was panicking, and not because of the pure evil she felt emanating form the Anomaly.
"My powers don't work like that! I only tried the one time, but I didn't see anything cool in his head so I didn't think it worked- He's not immune to Psychic-types- It's got nothing to do with aura, because he's still got a brain!"
Gin kicked at the Anomaly, as it struck at him. He went in close, practically immune to its special attacks while agile enough to avoid or parry its physical ones.
The ground was smoking from where Ariel called down the heat of a few thousand stars. She'd only done it once, because she hadn't seen there was someone inside the Anomaly yet.
Ash deflected a Psybeam with Doublade's flat edge, sliding in closer before throwing it as if it were a caught item.
"We've got to get him out of there!"
He woke up in an attic. The roof was spotty in a few places. The holes gave way to tiny flecks of dust and snow. Somewhere far in the distance, a train rattled against the tracks.
His body was burning again.
Scars that had been closed for months tore themselves open as Blanche spasmed within the Anomaly's body.
He pushed himself up faster than he'd ever done before.
Had he done it before? Had he gone through these motions?
"My name… what's my name?" he asked in the stale air.
And he remembered.
"Calem?" He palmed his forehead and felt his hand skip across the skin slick with blood.
He was… in a forest, that was right. There was a cry. Someone crying over him? A screech from far above in the sky?
Where was he now? This wasn't his house. His parents… where were they? Good trainers helped people, so they had gone to do so, hadn't they?
"Why… why do I remember?"
His hair fell into his face, black and straight. They swung over his eyes, and in an instant, he was somewhere else.
A forest. Calem was in a forest.
There was someone else there with him. She was familiar. It was a familiarity born of the time spent with her. Every waking hour, every sleepless night, every challenge they faced. He remembered all of them.
Serena cried. Why was she crying?
Calem was on the ground. Why was he on the ground?
His hand was dry when he pulled it away from his face. It limply fell to his chest.
It was wet. Why was the ground smoking around him?
What was that red Flying-type called? He'd never seen it before. No, that wasn't it. He'd seen it in a fairy tale, one of the many he'd taken seriously. There was so much of the world he hadn't seen, so why would he disregard a possibility?
His hand came away red as he tried lifting it again.
Serena grabbed his hand and didn't let go.
Is this what death feels like?
It wasn't fair. He had so much left to prove. What had he done with his life? Push someone out of harm's way and kill himself doing it?
"Why… why am I doing this again?"
He woke up in an attic. The floor was grainy, made of concrete but covered in sawdust and loose grains. A Joltik web was empty and similarly abandoned in the corner.
He pushed himself to his feet again.
He was in a city. He was smaller. His body was weaker but unblemished. The weight distribution threw him off.
A beam scraped across the earth like a scalpel, white-hot and carving towards him.
A boy stood across from him. His son? Trevor. How could he forget his own child?
He had nearly forgotten his own duty.
He pushed Trevor away from the beam as it came closer.
The boy's eyes were blank as if he'd already forgotten.
He would still make the sacrifice. That was what one did for a loved one.
His retinas burned like a thousand suns before cooling into a cold nothingness.
He woke up in an attic. The boarded-up window cast small rays of light into the room, illuminating the particles that fell through it. Even the boards themselves were decaying.
He stood up as quickly as his torn body would allow.
He was in a home. The brick, the tiling, the stucco; it was all familiar. This was his home. His and his wife's.
Grace stood at the window and covered her mouth in shock.
He was nary a single step away, and put a hand on her shoulder to comfort her.
That woman was him in the street, wasn't it? That was him who had just been vaporized in defense of another.
He turned and shielded his wife with his body as the beam swept towards them.
He woke up in an attic. The door hinges squeaked near silently, blowing in a non-existent wind. The paneling itself was wood, but the paint had long chipped off to a degree that he couldn't determine the original color.
He stumbled upwards again.
He was on the ground. Someone else was close to him as well. A third stood above them, staring somewhere in the horizon and stock-still.
He'd met the boy before, hadn't he?
Tierno stumbled and began running for the forest.
A smile came to his lips before his eyes forced themselves shut.
He woke up in an attic. A pole stuck partially through the floor, a water pipe in the past, but busted open and dry in the present. A puddle of condensation surrounded the cool metal.
He got up once more.
He was standing in a fountain flowing with red. The stone tiles of Aquacorde surrounded him.
There was a girl next to him, bleeding heavily from her ribs.
He splashed more cool water on her, hoping to wash away the fetid scent, before he applied another bandage.
Who was he? Why was he there?
Why were so many people laying still and doing nothing? Why weren't they helping?
A Pokémon walked over to him. Four-legged and with a rocky exterior. A woman laid on its back, covered in debris.
He stared at it for a moment, before dragging himself over to the Rhyhorn.
He wouldn't make it much longer, but he could make it long enough to make sure the others did.
Who was he?
He woke up in an attic. The blanket on his skin was itchy and woolen. Infested with microscopic bugs, most likely. The faded brown was overlaid with red as it soaked him in.
He threw it to the side and stood up.
Modern buildings were blasted out by something, as if spheres had been carved away. A logo of some kind stretched across the concrete. A sign was split in two, saying something of Pokémon Tech.
Something was floating there. Light swirled in from around it, not pure but yellow, tainted by the sun. Rivers poured into it as it grew bigger.
A man was approaching it, his lab coat billowing behind him with each step.
He should warn him, shouldn't he?
But he couldn't. Orange scraps of cloth covered the ground, mixed with red. There were people. There were colors of all kinds.
He saw another one of his friends. It was Lysandre, wasn't it? He had always promised a better world.
What kind of beauty was this?
The glowing, formless light took a shape. It became almost humanoid, copying the shape of the man that approached it.
Something exploded out of his side, torn away by a wing of light. The bone was short but pointed, one of many in the chest.
The light became different, settling on the shape of a girl.
If the world had gone beautiful, why was all of that beauty going away?
He woke up in an attic. The floor was carpeted and soft. His bed was plush and covered with blankets. Curtains hung over the window and let in the calm twilight.
A crowned demon hung above him in the air, smiling with an endless mouth and two beady red eyes.
He screamed.
And he Saw everything.
Every person that had once existed but no longer did. Every Pokémon that became nothing more than a ghost in the shell of the Universe. Every single thing that no longer was and became simply a missing number.
It was him. It was a small part of him. Each and every person that had been lost when the Heavens Shattered. There was a sliver in the furthest reaches of his mind, and that sliver was made of them.
That was what they had lost.
And that's who he was.
The avatar of those that could no longer reach out for their own futures, given in exchange for the futures of others.
His name was Blanche.
And he Remembered.
He woke up in an attic.
He knew nothing of himself.
Something was laughing at him, at his fractured memories.
The attic was pitch black before a spotlight illuminated the dark room.
Blanche found himself sitting in a chair, illuminated by a light without a source, and staring into the darkness.
He folded inwards, clutching his stomach. He would wretch, but his body was permeable, not nearly able to do such a thing.
The Anomaly kept laughing at him.
"You're really something, aren't you? I suppose that is why They keep humans around. Your minds are far too entertaining to snuff out. What is this life? Another world? A dream? Who is to tell?"
It paused, almost thoughtfully.
"Of course, this could not be a dream. My majesty is simply too large to be contained by a weak mind such as yours. Built of inconsistencies like a ramshackle hut, constructed in a scrap heap of worthless trash. You don't even remember your own name. It's pathetic, really."
"You're almost charismatic, for a bastard inside my head," Blanche hissed, clutching his head.
"Again, your mind is too weak. Entering it would be a game for an Inkay; hardly a challenge for myself. You're weak. Weak, weak, weak."
The Anomaly tutted at him, the sound omnidirectional.
"This is simply too much fun. I think I'll keep you here for a while longer. Breaking you and being done with it would be a bore. I think I'll make my own game of it."
The floor beneath his feet dropped away, but he didn't fall. It was the shining darkness of the stars, millions of light years away in space. In front of him was the Earth, spinning idly.
"A piecemeal mind and a tell tale heart. Your only worth is in how you die for others. All you have inside yourself is the memories of the fallen and the weak. Those that could not survive this world of strength and deserved their end."
Tendrils enveloped the Earth, wrapping around it as a Malamar rose behind it, easily twice its size.
Its miles-wide eyes turned on him and it sneered.
"Look at the scale of the world. You are a speck among specks. You could never have hoped to defeat me, and yet you tried because you were worth nothing otherwise."
The Malamar appeared in front of the Earth, much closer to him. Its eyes were larger than he could comprehend, yet he still had the itching feeling that they were staring directly at him.
"What do you say to that?"
Blanche took a deep, raggedy breath.
"You're right."
Shauna arrived as Gin was thrown into a freestanding wall and Ash's defensive efforts doubled as he stood in front of Salem and Serena, the latter of which covered by a dome with Protect.
Two pillars of fire intersected and slammed into the Anomaly, pushing it backwards as it continued to levitate.
Ariel took cover again as a Psybeam swept across the barrier, forcing her behind another patch of suburban remains.
Malamar screeched, arching backwards and showing its gelatinous stomach. Half-embedded in its inner tissue was a suit of pink and red. The paint on the spandex was melting away, showing the grayish base coats beneath.
She immediately felt the surrounding air for an electrical current, focusing more that she did by default. The Aquacorde electrical grid had long since been shut down, but there had to have been some ground wires that remained, even if they weren't connected to anything.
There, she saw it. Beneath the ground, barely there, underneath the ruins of the old Pokémart. A weak wire.
"Rhododendron, I need you to dig somewhere!" she said, running over to Salem and Serena. She clicked a button on the side of her helmet, and in an instant the visor in front of her eyes slid away.
Salem and Meowstic made eye contact with her for a split second before nodding. They ran towards the overgrown rubble as Shauna took up a defensive stance.
She looked closer at the Anomaly. All of their suits primarily ran on Infinity Energy and they couldn't convert to electricity fast enough for use. Except for maybe Blanche, but he was out of the fight until they got him out of Malamar's body.
As she unclipped her bolter, Ash strafed in front of her and deflected a Psybeam into the sky on the edge of his Doublade. He was running ragged, and the ribbons on his Pokémon were sagging.
"Agapanthus, can't you cut him out of there?" she asked.
"The Anomaly is casting an illusion over its torso," Ash said, breathing heavily, "He's not moving at all, and I can't sense him."
"You… you don't think-"
"I do not believe he would die like this, no," Ash said. "I do specialize in the Poison-type, so I may be particularly susceptible."
"He's moving!" Gin called, trying to tie up a tentacle between two light poles while shooting at them, "Give me one of your swords, I can see him!"
"It doesn't work like that," Ash said.
"Then what the heck are we doing?" she snapped. "Serena's already out, what happened?"
Ash slashed against Malamar's tendril as it cracked at them like a whip,
"I believe it got to her first," he said warily.
"Wire's up!" Salem called, levitating a weakly sparking cable behind her and Meowstic.
Shauna focused on the field pouring out of the wire, and on the shape she wanted it to form. An invisible one-sided cylinder formed over her shoulder, pointed straight at the Malamar.
"The strategy is to hit it with everything we've got!" she yelled, flicking a coin into the tube.
With the dull roar of thunder, gelatin-like mass exploded out of Malamar's other side from the equivalent of its shoulder area and sent it spiraling.
An invisible clock ticked overhead as Malamar writhed and raged.
Blanche leaned back against the wooden back and soaked in the sourceless spotlight. He crossed one leg over his knee and smirked.
"You're right. I'm a speck. I'm nothing but a speck that can't do anything but die. But you're not God. You can keep me here as long as you like," he said to the overbearing Anomaly. "It just gives them more time out there to beat you. It doesn't matter what you do to me, because you're not going to see the results. That's what it's about for you, isn't it? The results? The entertainment? Tell me that I'm wrong!"
Blanche stood up as the Anomaly tried to fold the space around him, to suffocate him.
"I know I'm screwed up, I know that I'm not who I think I am, I know that there's something deep inside my heart that isn't mine."
Malamar's form flew back on the end of his fist, writhing away from his punch.
"But so what?" he snarled, walking forwards through space. "I don't need to believe in myself to accept that. I've never been able to. I don't need to! Do you hear that? Are you not entertained?" His voice echoed through the vacuum of space and doubled back on his eardrums.
Malamar's eyes gleamed pink as a wave of psychic energy rippled towards him.
Something on his arm clicked, even though in the dream, it was bare and unmarred. The Psychic-type attack fizzled out as it made contact with him.
The illusion of space rippled and the Malamar shrank, writhing in pain.
"What I think of myself, it doesn't mean anything when I'm flat-out wrong. The whole world has told me I'm wrong, time and time again. I haven't died yet, and because the others haven't let me. This life is all or nothing, but I haven't lost yet. They haven't let me. They won't let me. I mean something to these people, these Pokémon, even if my value is only in how I suffer for them. There's something at the end of the tunnel, and I'm only going to get there by dying and living for them."
Energy started pouring out of his arms, though he could see nothing of the result. He got the distinct impression that he was covered in oil, and that it was burning away around him.
Malamar struck at him with its tentacles, but in the mindscape, they were deflected without a thought by the real Dark-type energy running through his suit.
A small part of him said that it made no sense. Was he still dreaming? Was this in his or Malamar's head?
Another part of his ignored that and rallied his entire being into his voice.
His voice was the voice that echoed across an empty universe, and the voice that would scream 'I' at the heart of the world.
"If my life is really worth as little as you say it is, then I'm gonna break that illusion apart!" he declared, pointing a thumb at his chest.
"Blanche is heating up!" Ariel said. "Keep going!"
Slowly but surely, a murkish light was building up inside of Malamar, surrounding Blanche and spiking outwards, distracting Malamar further.
They could all hear Gin's smirk through the comm-line. "Heh. Alright, Rue, Aga, let's kick some ass!"
"Couldn't agree more," Shauna said, levitating Pokédollar coins in a circle, before they shot off and struck the extremities of Malamar's body.
Ash kneeled for a moment, before bursting forward with a light step, slashing into Malamar's side and rebounding off of a free-standing wall into its back.
Malamar's focus shifted as it screeched, turning its head to throw Ash off its back.
Gin leapt onto its front and yanked the ridge that could be called its collar. He brought Malamar down low, sliding down and kicking off before its tentacles could grab him.
"Do you ever feel like we fight tentacle Pokémon way too often?" he asked, panting. "I thought that sort of thing was more common in Kanto."
"Shut up, Ulex!" Shauna yelled, blasting another scattershot of scrap metal at Malamar.
Ash jumped off of Malamar's neck before it was struck.
"I don't recall such a thing occurring, however-"
"Both of you, shut up and stop being stupid!" Electromagnetic fields crumpled what spare change was left in her hand. She lifted the slipshod orb and said, "Let's finish this!"
There was a light approaching in front of him, no matter where he looked. It reaffirmed what his heart had been crying all along.
"All I need to do, all I've ever needed to do, is believe in the people…"
The orb of metal melted and deformed in the air in front of her, becoming more conic as it began spinning.
A spiral of fire surrounded it, burning the metal white-hot as alternated with the electrical current. A Protect formed at its back, protecting them from the backdraft while providing it a flat end. Tiny bits of metal, toxic ones if they had been consumed, were sucked into it like gravity.
"Heaven Piercing…"
For you, Rosa, she thought. And for Serena. And for Blanche. For everyone.
It was as if her and Gin were in sync. As she released the tension of the field and forced it towards Malamar, Gin appeared behind it. With a wild kick, he blasted it forwards in a plume of murky dust that made the flames burn brighter than before.
"FUSION BURST!"
"...That believe in ME!"
Blanche was awoken from the vision of sheer white by the much stronger impression that he was covered in oil. He held a hand in front of his face, and some gunk splattered onto his visor.
"Huh," he said. A second later, he became aware that he was being dragged. "Hey, can you cut that out?"
He was then dropped to the ground, and while he'd been hurt much worse before, it knocked his brain around for a moment.
"He's up!" someone yelled. Probably Gin, just telling from tone.
He was pulled into a sitting position and it took him a moment to register the colors.
"Who are you people?" he asked flatly.
Someone kicked his leg. "Dude, not funny. We were worried."
"I'm tired, let me have my low-effort jokes." He wiped his face, showing how tired he really was as he smeared more Malamar across his visor. "Oh. Ick. Ew… Is this what touching a jelly- Jellicent feels like?"
"I can make someone try and then I'll tell you!" someone else said, probably Salem.
He slumped over his legs, staring at the ground. "Never mind. Is Serena alright?"
There was an awkward silence.
"No, she's… she's still out. The boss lady is sending out a medical team now," Gin said.
"She was already incapacited upon our arrival," Ash said.
"That sounds about right." Blanche smacked his lips and found they were incredibly dry. All things considered, that was almost certainly a good thing. "Who captured the Malamar?"
"Ulex was able to capture the Anomaly after my systems were cleared of interference," LADY buzzed. "I was able to reconnect after its defeat."
"I did," Gin confirmed. "Closest to it after we dragged you out."
"Alright, so… we're good? No fighting right now?" Blanche asked, his vision becoming spotty as he tried to stay awake.
"I can't feel any other Psychic-types nearby," Salem confirmed.
"Good," Blanche said, before his head lolled to the side and he felt much heavier. "I think I need a nap…"
"Stop passing out after every battle!" Shauna suddenly yelled, shaking him by the wires on his suit with a surprising vigor.
"Give me a good reason to stay awake," he muttered. "I've got a headache, so maybe I could-"
"I'm not giving you a kiss to encourage you!"
Gin, Ash, Salem, and probably Ariel turned to look at her. Blanche laughed. His back hit the ground as the memories swirled through his head.
He still didn't remember his name, but he knew where he came from. He was a person, he did exist, he was human. He had a silver of MissingNo inside of him, and MissingNo was everyone who'd been lost.
MissingNo wasn't just a hive consciousness, though. They hadn't been just a dream. They had manipulated the real world before, when they'd created Blanche's body after years of effort, when they tried to make everyone forget, when they'd been able to change the world when energy was in the air.
Wait.
His headache suddenly got a whole lot worse as a spike of awareness shot through him.
MissingNo had created his body with scattered energy. MissingNo had boosted the Infinity Energy he interacted with, turning it into something else and controlling it.
If MissingNo could create a person with a little bit of energy… what could it do with a whole lot more?
Blanche's hand pressed into the Infinity Battery gently whirring on his chest.
"Holy shit."
Lysandre's face appeared in his mind. What was it that he had said when the false Zygarde attacked?
"Bring them all back," he whispered, before a wicked grin crossed his face.
Somewhere much further away, there was no battling. There was no violence. There was nothing but a boring click.
Colress clicked his pen once more, smiling across the interrogation table at Looker.
"I don't recommend keeping me here. My contributions to science are many, and you have little cause other than a crackpot theory. More people will be calling for my release than my imprisonment."
Looker's brow furrowed but his face stayed even. A plastic wrapper crinkled in his fingers. "That's likely true. Unfortunately for you, that isn't how justice works. There is evidence, and you will be questioned by the UR Council. If they find you innocent, no harm, no foul. I don't particularly care. Hunting you down was more of the kid's pet project than mine," Looker said, biting the stick of a lollipop.
"Sugar rots your teeth," Colress said light-heartedly.
"The wife tells me I should quit," Looker said, closing his eyes. "You'll be kept here until the Unovan authorities can take you."
"Oh, I wouldn't recommend that either. I know all sorts of people, after all," Colress said. "Rare Candy production is rather lucrative, especially when they're paid for in favors rather than Pokédollars."
"Then those that come to your defense will be exposed," Looker said.
"Not quite. "All sorts of people" extends far out of this region. Remnants of Team Plasma exist everywhere," Colress said. "Including a certain city in cowardly Kalos, concealed by the covers of their castled city."
"I'm not impressed by that or the alliteration. You have gang members on your payroll. Similarly, as you might guess, to many others. That's generally how gang leaders play this," Looker said. "Lumiose-3 can defend itself well."
"You're not looking close enough," Colress said. "History doesn't repeat, but it does rhyme. Do you know what day it is?"
Looker didn't bother with making a show or checking his watch. Colress didn't wait for an answer, and just smirked.
"August 1st. How much longer until the fourth anniversary passes? More importantly… Do you have eyes that can see aura? Because I have hired some, and they tell me that the Earth's aura is swelling like the tide in Castelia City." Colress leaned forward, still smiling. "What do you predict will occur at the heart of the world when that tide reaches its peak?"
The air grew thicker in Lumiose-3 as another midsummer night approached.
AN:
Alright, we're in the endgame now. Shit's about to go down, down, in an earlier round; in Lumiose-3. Four chapters left.
And hey, it's like that thing in Evangelion where Shinji gets Fanta-therapy, except a lot worse. As I write more and more of this story, the more I see how the main characters foil one another. I'll call that a fluke of pantstering half of the stuff outside of my outline. Serena's memories are a burden to her, and she'd much rather be rid of them, but Blanche wants his memories, no matter how painful they are. Maybe I'm not as much of a hack as I thought. Blanche, for all intents of purposes, should be broken because of his memories being thrown in his face like that, but instead it inspires him, because it gives him something to hold onto. Serena has no other choice than to hold onto painful memories, and having them thrown back at her violently like that does not do good things for her psyche. That's next chapter though.
If you haven't seen the Evangelion hospital scene, you totally should look it up(not at all lying through my teeth here), because it's like, totally necessary and stuff. You won't regret it whatsoever. In fact, it's so good that I won't be including a parallel scene to it, because I wouldn't be able to do it justice.
No, I'm not trying to scar my audience, why would you even ask that?
Anyway, I'll be back next week as usual. Laters.
