My fellow Arthenians:

Two posts in one day because I feel bad about the quality recently. If my quality is bad I try to do quantity, but quantity is a second priority to quality always.

Just so you guys know.

I'll try to advance the story more, and at some point there will be some explanation. I promise.

Ben and Delaney were at a dead sprint. The Magmortar behind them seemed to float effortlessly through the air in pursuit, as though they weren't even trying to catch up. Flamethrowers littered the airspace, heating their backs and causing Delaney to cry out in alarm at their closeness. And they were running faster than Ben ever had in his entire life, potentially setting a new human land speed record.

A fireball three feet in diameter whizzed past Ben's ear, and he was certain it had to have singed his ear. He cast a glance over his shoulder, and he saw that they were no longer being chased by the freakishly dangerous fire Pokemon with the cannonlike arms. Delaney seemed to notice as well, and together they began to slow to a stop. The fire types were nowhere to be found. They looked at each other with confused expressions, neither saying a word because neither knew what to say. They were utterly alone together, having been forced to separate from the group.

Their peace did not last long.

From the woods to their right came a horrible sound. They both wheeled around to see that it was the sound of a full-grown tree being snapped in half as though it were a twig. The Aggron responsible lowered its head slightly and bellowed a battle cry. Both of the two who were being treated as prey in an inter species cat and mouse game winced, and took off in the opposite direction. The Aggron stayed where it was, but threw the two portions of the tree at them, giving another roar.

They ran for but a few seconds before it as apparent they were not only in the thick brush they had been forced into. As they fought against bushes and tree limbs and evaded roots in a mad dash, they were scared almost shitless by the sound of what had to be a jet turbine directly beside them. A jet turbine with a rock band using a tower of amplifiers ten feet high who were blaring a train horn. The invasive and sudden sound was that violent and loud. They turned their heads to meet with four Exploud, all screaming at the top of their lungs. The sheer force of the air being expelled actually picked them off of the ground and tossed them a few feet through the air.

Ben's ears were ringing, but Delaney was on the ground in fetal position, her expression contorted in pain as she grabbed gingerly at her ears. Tears rolled down her face. It occurred to Ben that the Lopunny-style auditory structures must have been incredibly more sensitive than his were. He shook her violently, urging her to move, and to move now. The Exploud were closing in slowly.

In a surge of adrenaline, Ben bent down and picked the Anthro up over his shoulder in a fireman's carry, and he began running as fast as he possibly could while having to support the feminine figure, which was still strikingly quick. As he took off, he heard the inhaling of air from behind him and braced himself for another Uproar, but it never came. He was relieved.

He was slowing down when, from the trees around him, there was a buzzing. He recognized it immediately as the sound of Beedrill preparing to swarm. He swore under his breath and headed one direction, left, where, almost as though they materialized there, he was met with a cloud of Beedrill. He turned to go back the way he came and encountered a similar result. He did an about face and the same thing. He was surrounded except for one side, the direction he had been heading all along.

He paused for a moment before running again. Something felt off. All of these dangers, and all of these powerful Pokemon, all so close together seemed...unusual. Convenient. Unlikely. He didn't feel chased, he felt...herded. As though he was being driven one way specifically.

The Beedrill were hovering and not attacking. Staying where they were and not moving. Ben frowned, adjusting the weight of Delaney on his shoulders, and walked toward a cloud. They buzzed louder, and they swarmed aggressively, but made no move to go toward him. He was heading in the opposite direction of the clearing provided by the Pokemon when he stepped on something. He backpedaled a few steps to look at it and what did he see?

A Sceptile. He had stepped on the face of a sleeping Sceptile he hadn't even noticed because the bug-type Pokemon had intrigued and entranced him so. One eye shot open and locked onto him, and it rose to a stand, and it did something with its head which Ben would relate to cracking its neck. Ben resisted the urge to cry out for his mother. He was all but trapped.

He backed up at an angle, not even caring he was heading toward an increasingly angry swarm of Beedrill. The Sceptile raised its head, and the yellow orbs on its back glowed with an undeniable power. "Oh, fuck," Ben spat bluntly. He stared, mesmerized until its head lowered abruptly and its mouth opened.

About forty five minutes earlier, back at the Bunny City, as Ben had deemed it upon arrival, Ivan stood in the center of the tents, a spear in one hand whose point was jabbed directly into the ground. He was staring in the direction he knew the Tyranitar were coming from, giving his final prayers to Arceus and asking for his guidance on the battlefield. His eyes opened when he heard a deafening roar directly ahead of him. Eight Tyranitar stepped into his field of view through the trees in a semicircle.

Ivan bowed his head, realizing now that there was absolutely no way he would be surviving this. He had originally thought, 'perhaps I can defeat a Tyranitar or two'. But now, as he stared his fate in the eyes, his head rotating to look at all right who stood motionlessly, waiting for Ivan to make the first move, the Elder Lopunny who had been through countless fights came to terms with the fact that this would be when, where, and how he died.

He removed the spear from the ground and dropped into a defensive stance. The dinosaur Pokemon began closing in from all sides. The ground shook with each coordinated step. Ivan's legs tensed as he prepared to spring into the air to dodge an attack and administer one of his own. He heard the sound of Hyper Beams charging all around him. Waiting for the right moment. His head was down, eyes closed. Relying on his natural instinct and other sense to tell him when.

But the time never came.

He opened his eyes to see the massive, dangerous creatures fading from existence, like smoke that was blown away by the wind. A reddish aura pulsed in the surrounding area, and then there was nothing.

Ivan stood in shock, looking around in bewilderment. The only thing he saw was a blur of a black, furry humanoid creature taking off into the trees. Then there was silence as far as Ivan could hear.

He was alone.

Back with the other two in the present time.

Ben ran along the circular boundary created by the Beedrill as a Solar Beam chased him, occupying the space directly behind him with pure energy. He locked eyes on the clearing and continued along his rounded path, so as not to be melted by the power chasing him, until he reached it, and headed where he probably should have been going all along. Running that way. 'Okay nature, you want me to go this way? I'll go this way,' Ben thought to himself.

He sprinted for what had to be no more than fifteen seconds before the trees abruptly gave way to the open air. He skidded to a stop so quickly that Delaney was thrown from his shoulders. She groaned in irritation but not pain on the ground. "What the fuck...?" Ben's voice was pure amazement and disbelief.

The forest which had chewed him thoroughly spat him out on top of a large, green, grassy hill, which overlooked a massive valley. He was at one of the highest points he could see, but it wasn't where it was that had shocked Ben to the core:

It was what he saw.

Down below, as if it had been lifted from one place and thrown into the middle of a valley surrounded by the forest, isolated from the rest of the world and completely separated by time and space, was a metropolitan city. Advertisements flashed on gigantic television monitors. The honking of unseen vehicles was audible from where he was standing. Delaney sat up and was equally awed.

"I've heard stories about places like this, but..." She took in more of the scene below her visually before she continued, "I never actually believed hat they existed."

An entire city, just like the humans lived in before the Awakening and in the Etherrealm lay before them, populated not by people but by Pokemon, dressed in regular human clothes as if it was perfectly ordinary. Which, to them, it probably was.

Unseen behind the two, a red aura flashed signaling the disappearance of more predatory Pokemon. The dangers of the forest that had pursued them, chasing them to this spot abruptly ceased to exist. Although, they never had actually existed to begin with.

Also unseen, sitting in a tree and watching over the two was a black furry figure. The same creature that Ivan had seen fleeing from his what was to be his final battle. It had red accents in its fur and a strikingly voluptuous feminine figure. Covering its furry body was a tight, black, spandex bodysuit that hugged its curves. It stared at the Anthro girl and the human boy.

A satisfied smirk on its face.

Congrats to anyone who figured out what was going on prior to the end. But yes, there's Zoroark's debut.

Arthenius