By this point in my life, I've learned to 'roll with the punches' as they say. Unfortunately for me that phrase doesn't seem to know there has to be a point where the 'punches' have to stop.
But I'd be repeating myself.
"Yeah, everyone back up but Lily, she's going first." I then turned towards everyone else and tried to coral the others to move away.
Black moved away as well towards the opposite side of where I was standing—I really hope he caught what I was trying to say—then he threw a Ball at Reshiram, which told me that he hadn't officially caught it yet.
It didn't even wiggle once before the sphere returned to Black.
Then there was another muffled sound coming from Ghetsis. "Marf nulf flaf!" I would have probably been more afraid if he wasn't pointing at me with an entire cast and could actually understand what he was saying. "Bleay fu muff biff in thef bamf!"
Still, I had no idea what he was saying. So I looked over to N for some kind of translation.
"He said, 'Not so fast! They too must be in their ball'." N stopped as he heard Ghetsis grumble a few more muffled sounds. "And neither of you must get within fifty meters of me and the gym leaders, or else I will sock them."
"Wait, you'll punch them?" Black looked confused at the crippled man in a wheel chair.
A few more disgruntled grunts signaled N to correct himself. "Apologizes, he said shock them. Not sock."
"Oh that's worse," Black cupped his hands and shouted to the one-eyed-man, "If you weren't crippled, I'd ask Anto to punch you in the face!"
"Why me?" I looked to Black the second I recalled everyone.
"I always believed between the two of us, you were more prone to violence."
I let the thought play out a bit more in my head before I realized I don't actually have an argument against that, "I don't mean to have bad things happen to people."
Black took out a Poké Ball from his belt. "Well, let's get this over with! Bo!" The first Pokémon to come out was none other than Black's starter, Emboar.
And I had started off with Lily, a grass type. Swell.
The fight started. The grass type made the first step into a Quiver Dance, Black reacted faster than all the other trainers I've fought before and ordered his Pokémon to unleash a blast of fire towards Lily. I made a quick glance towards Ghetsis before ordering Lily to use Magical Leaf on herself.
By now, my shiny partner knew how to follow up on that order herself, exploding leaves around the entire area. Still, I was hoping this plan of mine would work.
I did not expect a loud zapping noise.
As the light died down, I was both horrified and surprised.
There was a large dome of energy covering Ghetsis and the gym leaders. I didn't think that he would have something like that—!
"AAAHH!?"
"Sentinel!"
Sentinel was on the ground and blue electricity was dancing all over him. Please be alright; please be alright; please be alright!
I barely even paid attention how Lily and I already got to him.
Ghetsis started mumbling and shouting. I assumed he said something like: I knew you would try something and this fancy fish dome is guaranteed to prevent any of you actually doing things easy! Or at least that's what I assumed. The whole mumbling was confusing and a bit funny at first, but it was really killing the tone of the situation.
I mean look at him trying to laugh right now. His menacing laughter is really diminished by the fact he's in a full body cast.
But my attention was brought to Sentinel; he was coughing so hard.
"Are you alright?"
Sentinel did not stop coughing. I worried over to my friend until I realized that there was more than one shadow over me.
Ghetsis, his snarling and glaring Hydreigon, and his own army of Pokémon were all staring me down with the height of their anger. He mumbled again, but this time, I saw his good eye look at me with what I assumed to be a mix of wrath and ecstasy.
"Hey."
I probably sounded more nervous than I thought I did but I did snap him out of whatever revenge fantasy he was about to have on me.
It looked really bad for me…
If I didn't have a plan B in case Sentinel couldn't make it.
I stared at Ghetsis and revealed my belt containing my five Poké Balls. "Did you know that one of my Pokémon turned their container into a mobile base?"
Ghetsis looked at me with utter confusion before the weight of what I told him caught up.
It was just in time for the force field around the Gym leaders to shut down and release all the captives. Oh thank Arcues, Kryx hacked their system.
I have never been so happy to see them all drop into the floor unconscious—right—that completely slipped my mind. They weren't actually conscious to witness my rather clever moment of saving them.
Brilliant.
Looking back at Ghetsis, the red veins popping up on his last organic eye and I heard his wheel chair vibrating and clattering. It was hard to figure out I ticked him off again.
One second later, Lily catapulted all three of us from being blasted into oblivion by all of the handicapped man's Pokémon by launching us off the ground with Magic Leaf.
"Brav, catch them!"
Black called out before something caught all of us mid flight—I checked to see that Black did seem to get my hand messages after all: "Back me up, I'm going to try and save them." Luckily for us, N and Ghetsis didn't know sign language.
"For the record: if you weren't planning something, I was totally going to do something as well to save them." Black shouted at me before Brav suddenly dropped to avoid a blast of water by his Seismetoad.
I threw out the rest of my Pokémon as did Black. Our two parties readied themselves as N's Pokémon and Ghetsis all quickly came out.
"I'll take on N, you take on Ghetsis!" Black said before we went back to back against our opponents.
Even with Black, I had a feeling that we would be in for a really hard—
I couldn't finish that thought as alarms screeched out loud and made the room flash red.
"What the?" Even N and Ghetsis looked surprised to why their alarm was going off.
Despite the confusion, I spotted a familiar little extraterrestrial appear out of thin air beside me while holding up her modified Poké Ball with psychic energy.
"Hey, Anto!"
I then realized that I made Kryx hack into their computers. Kryx, the Pokémon who once mutated my ice cream tube into a mutant yogurt monstrosity on accident, was sent to this place's main computer system with the order to do whatever she wanted with them.
I did not think that part all the way through.
"Kryx, what did you do!?"
"Huh? I did what you linked me to do, disable the power to free the gym leaders!" The little alien spoke up while the alarms still blared. "Though I was surprised that their computers lacked a self-destruct sequence, so I went ahead and gave them one!" Why was she saying that so proudly!?
"Self Destruct Sequence!? But why is it activated!?" Unfortunately for all of us, the ground started rumbling and it looked like it was getting worse the longer it went.
"Well I had to test if it works!"
"Why didn't you put it off then!?"
"Self destruct buttons can't be switched off, silly! They lock down all the other controls so no one can stop it!"
Kryx did not see me slowly raise my hands to pull on my face.
"Alright, new plan: let's get out of here!" Black pointed to the wall for his Bo to punch, revealing another hallway.
Ghetsis screamed in muffled rage and I assume with how I could even see veins under his cast that he was even angrier than usual. But what really caught my attention was how the ground beneath him was cracking underneath him, so I quickly called him out.
"Ghetsis, look out!"
"Anto, wait! Don't say those words!" Was that N screaming at me? Wait, what did he mean by 'those' words?
An-And why is Ghetsis trashing around in his wheel chair like some kind of demon possessed him!? (Wasn't that my thing?)
It was at this moment that because of his wild trashing, he wasn't able to move out of the way as the ground beneath him opened up and made him fall. His own Pokémon quickly dove in after him.
"Whenever someone tells him the words, Look out, he starts to spasm in agony!" N screamed out to me. "His physical therapist told us to avoid those words!"
Huh, I vaguely recall hearing someone shouting those words before I landed on him—hold up a second. "Wait, are you telling me that's he classically conditioned to feel pain after those words have been said?! I only accidentally crippled him like two times!"
"Anto, crippling someone just once is traumatic to literally anyone." Black deadpanned.
The ground beneath all of us shook, signaling we didn't have enough time for this.
"Alright, momentary truce. Kryx, how long did you set the timer!?" She quickly responded and told me 30 galactic microspans, which she already translated to me before that it basically meant 10 minutes. "Okay then, N, Black! Get everyone else out of the Castle!"
N looked at me weirdly again. "Wait, what about you?"
"Hey, someone's gotta help Ghetsis and his Pokémon. I mean I am the reason he's in a full body cast in the first place." The roof was literally crumbling above us, which meant our time was running short. "My party, with me!"
Without missing a beat, I jumped down the crack Ghetsis and his Pokémon went into even though N and Black still were trying to tell me something that I didn't quite catch. Later on I found out that after my jump, the gym leaders started to wake up and found themselves waking up to an exploding castle.
But as I said, I found that out later. What was supposed to happen was either, Kryx, Lily, or even Super Nut to slow my descent as I fell.
…
Okay that was my fault really. I should have told them to catch me.
There was a very bad sounding bone crunching sound… that didn't come from me.
Instead, something else broke my fall. Despite my deepest wishes, it turned out that I landed on Ghetsis for like the third time in my journey and I may or may not have broken his spine. (He can't sue me, I found out the legal system sucks here!)
"Aww come on! What did this guy even do to deserve this!?" I mean, I subconsciously thought bad things were happening because I had a demon in my head, but what did this guy do to have a teenage kid fall on him and break his bones 3 times in the same year? Granted, he was from Team Plasma, but as I keep saying, I wasn't really invested in them during my journey.
It was only a few seconds later that Takezo jumped in to clash blades with a Bisharp that was aiming for my head.
"You dare attack Lord Ghetsis again!?" The dark and steel type cried out before the rest of the Sage's Pokémon started surrounding us.
"Those were all accidents, Okay!?" I didn't see Super Nut coil one of his vines around me and Ghetsis before he yanked both of us away from a torrent of water by his Seismitoad.
Again it didn't take long for a fight to break out between my team and the now unconscious and hopefully-still-alive sage, but with how bad the building was shaking there was literally no time for this.
I looked around for Ghetsis' wheelchair before I quickly sprinted over to it where it was crushed under some debris. There I had found what I was looking for.
"Guys, pin them down!" I linked to all of them as they quick incapacitated their opponents with team work and blindsiding them. I pulled out the Poké Balls of Ghetsis and recalled all six of them back into their containers.
That was one problem down.
Boom!
But that only left the exploding Donphan in the room.
"Kryx, I know that you said there wasn't a way to stop it, but is there any way to somehow lessen the whole castle from exploding or delay it!?" If my sense of time didn't suck, we would have hopefully five to three minutes left. Having the castle explode with so many people around it would be catastrophic! Not to mention I had to somehow buy time for Black and N to evacuate everyone else!
"If I teleport us to the main core room, Sentinel and Ohko could probably freeze some of the overheating generators so the explosion would only be minimized."
I picked up Ghetsis and slung his body over my shoulder—was that another bone snapping? I just picked him up for crying out loud! "Then let's do that! Kryx get ready to teleport us all!"
In a blink, we appeared in the generator—holy crap they're that big!? All of them are like the size of a Pokémon Center! There's like over a dozen of them too! This cannot be eco friendly.
"Ohko, Sentinel, get to work!" Ohko went in one direction fast, but Sentinel still looked unwell. I was about to ask him if he was alright, but he suddenly disappeared.
There was a computer console nearby that Kryx flew over to and started to hack into it by stabbing her probe into the screen. She said she still couldn't stop the overload, but there was a possibility of her being able to aim the explosion through one direction. With how much heat I felt from being even in here, I told her to aim the energy upward as she started working on the computer.
The ground rumbled again with a lot more force than ever before, even with Sentinel and Ohko working on trying to cool down some of the generators, there were just too many of them and not enough time to freeze all of them fast enough.
However, much to my dismay there was only one minute left until the explosion despite our best efforts.
I called the two back, and I choose to momentarily ignore Sentinel's tired expression because of the more pressing matters at hand. "Kryx! Hurry it up! And get ready to teleport us out!"
"Is this a bad time to tell you that I'm actually a little tired from all the teleporting I've done so far? I'm still tired from that fight with Trinity."
Oh cripes. With everything happening, we actually haven't had that much time resting.
45 seconds remaining!
"Never fear! Super Nut has an ingenious plan!" Quickly, the caped steel type shot out some Stealth Rocks and quickly brought them close to us like a ball.
37 seconds remaining!
Everyone else seemed to get the idea and quickly Kryx brought the boulders all around with her telekinetic energy.
20 seconds remaining!
Lily surrounded the inside with magical leaves that both Sentinel and Ohko froze from the inside out.
12 seconds remaining!
Oh Arceus is this enough? We froze the boulders all around us, but was it really enough!? I started to sweat—my heart was pumping a mile a minute.
10
9
8
"If we don't make it out of this, I want you guys to know I love each and every one of you!"
6
"Oh thanks boss! But why are you saying that now?" (Leave it to Ohko to be Ohko in the end.)
4
3
Everyone else spoke up at the same time with different things, but Super Nut surrounded us all within his strongest Protect.
1
0—
I felt my heart stop when zero was reached. I also felt myself fall into the ground and feeling like we were all shot out of a geyser. The G-force pinned me to the ground and I might have been screaming for the longest second.
Then from being pinned to the ground, I felt as if I was floating up—oh wait I think we're descending. And the rock around us is cracking.
…
"Guys, wake up! We're falling again!"
The rocks started to break off, but Kryx and Lily managed to slow our descent in the air.
I tried to pick up Ghetsis, but I accidentally dropped him and I heard another bone cracking noise.
"What is even the point of a full body cast anyway!?" Seriously they should be made of sturdier stuff or something.
"Anto, I believe it's prudent for you to look around."
What did Takezo mean by tha—are those the legendary Kanto birds? Are those the legendary storm trio of Unova? Is that another flipping Hunter J air-craft carrier!?
"Whoa? What the heck happened out here?"
No seriously what was going on while Black and I were in the castle? This place looks as bad as Nimbasa—oh right snap. Nimbasa was in a bad shape when I left it and now there is a weapon of mass destruction and six legendaries that I happen to be in the exact middle of.
When I saw them all looking at me, I spotted Summer with Caitlyn of all people if a large fight broke out now, there would be a lot of heavy collateral damage.
Slowly everyone was getting over their initial shock over me, but I had to catch their attention or else another fight would break out!
I never tried this before, but here goes nothing!
I inhaled deeply. "Ladies, Pokémon, and gentle folks!" I threw my hands in the air in a staged stance. "Socially upstanding and criminally inclined people from all colors of the rainbow, welcome one and all to the Unova region!"
[Summer]
Leave it to Anto to always make an entrance, but I never knew he was capable of linking with so many people on a large range.
Next to me, I heard Caitlyn Baker gasp as she put her hands near her mouth. "Th-That sounds like my brother's acting…"
Her brother? But Anto is an Amnesiac—oh wait. What was the last name of the boy who died before Anto appeared?
Oh.
[Hunter J]
So the target did show up. Unlike before, he's painting a huge target on himself. I would have fired the encasement on him if the ranger on the Latios didn't spot me trying to freeze him.
"I won't let you anywhere near him, Hunter J!"
Ahh, now I remember him. "You're that ranger during that Riolu Mission. I do believe I owe you for all the trouble you've caused me."
"Oh when it's complete strangers, you give your undivided attention, but when it's your own son you neglect them?"
That sarcasm… no! I thought we locked him up! How did he escape!? … Is it because of that girl he's riding with on his Hydreigon?!
"Whoawhoawhoawhoa! Did you just call the infamous Hunter J your mother!?" The girl gaped at the silver haired boy.
He didn't seem fazed but he was obviously ready to call out an attack to knock me out of the sky in case I did something.
He still looked at me with those intense eyes that I saw Kay use the very few times he was serious. "Let's hear what my mute friend has to say, Mom."
[Anto]
Everyone looked startled in various degrees to hear a voice in their head. I never expanded this telepathy power to this extent before, and it's somewhat nerving with how easy I'm doing this without some drawback, but I have to keep going on.
"For those wondering, you are not going insane with this second voice in your brain! I state my name: Anto, to the world around! And chaos follows me abound!" Okay, I'm catching all their attention. Now what? Bah! I'll just wing it.
I let myself stop thinking and let the motions carry me to do whatever. Strangely enough, I found myself pointing at the direction of both Black and N. "And I am about to do what no sane human or Pokémon dare do: I will challenge the greatest legends of Unova by myself!"
What the heck!? Am I really screwing myself over!?
Even though I was mentally panicking, I still kept up my charade of acting. "That's right folks! I—a random, young trainer boy—am challenging both Reshiram and Zekrom, along with their trainers, on a one on one battle! And you all are invited to watch!"
Black and N were both still riding their respective dragons. Amazingly, I had made both N and Black speechless.
Come on, Black. This was the only way I could think off to pacify everyone. "So how about it, Chosen Hero of Reshiram? I challenge you in single combat for the right to face the current champion, and the Chosen Hero of Zekrom, Natural Harmonia Gropius!"
Huh? Is-Is that howling laughter? Oh it's from Wes—where the heck was he all this time?! And why is he with Tiana? But wait that laughter isn't just him, I think the team Snagem Leader and grunts are also pointing and laughing. Whoo boy! Team Plasma looks ticked off at the bald team.
Oh. And N seems to be grinding his teeth.
"Alright! I accept your terms, Cosmic Bull's-eye!" What?! Wes told him that stupid nickname!? But I've only seen Black talking to Beng—… (and note to self: talk to Benga later.)
"Anti-" Sentinel coughed abruptly. "I wanna fight!"
I argued that. He looked weaker than before and I didn't know why. There was no way I was letting him fight in his condition. But he begged me to, I looked to the others, they would definitely volunteer for him, but why weren't they doing so?
I wasn't going to do let him go, but there was just some desperation in Sentinel that screamed he needed to do this and there was this horrible feeling in my stomach because of how desperate he wanted this. I asked him why but he just paused eerily before just asking again.
With the most reluctance and against all logic, I let my weakened Pokémon face off against the legendary Pokémon of Truth because he asked to.
My Pokémon let me into the battle field gently before I recalled all of them except Sentinel. Then I made another staged announcement that I would challenge Black and they were all free to watch.
This giant show was giving everyone time to regroup and calm down and while it wasn't ideal for enemies to gather up their strength-this was meant to buy more time for Summer and the others to get everyone out of here. In fact, it looked like everyone was taking this time pick up their wounded casualties.
However, after I made that showy announcement I placed Ghetsis near by the edge and motioned over, to my surprise, Aster and Jamie who were nearby by to get this cast guy away from the fight. Jamie seemed like she wanted to say something to me, but I was pressed for time, still trying to catch everyone's attention as a impromptu MC and trying to promote a normal Pokémon battle while in the middle of all this chaos.
Ugh, if it wasn't for the previous injuries and how bizarre this whole situation was, I'd probably be dead.
Sentinel was breathing hard even though he shouldn't have lungs. Black descended on the other side with Reshiram with a look on his face that asked if he really wanted to do this. Honestly, I wasn't sure myself, but at the same time I never really knew what I was doing from the moment I woke up back in Accumula Town.
"And now! We shall attempt to do what no man, woman, child, or Pokémon ever dare do! We shall usurp the very legends of this land!" Again despite my best efforts to keep a cheery and showy façade, I was all kinds of nervous about this.
Sentinel seemed to finally relax as he faced down his opponent. Something odd was happening with the Delta Charmeleon from the Torren Region: in his eye sockets there was a faint purple glow that Anto never saw before.
And so the strangest Unova League Finals began with an ancient dragon against an abomination of science. My abomination of science, and one of the absolute darnest friends I've come to care for so much.
Reshiram started with a burst of grand dragon fire. It was so powerful that I had to duck into a nearby crater to avoid the blast myself. I still saw Sentinel run for the offensive though, even if it was just two Pokémon battling, it looked liked collateral damage was still a thing.
After peeking back up, I spotted Sentinel move faster than I ever saw him before unleashing his Shadow Claws but the intensity he was using them seemed to look a lot like his ghost type version of the Blaze ability. Was he really that weak?
The Torren Pokémon slashed at the legendary before using Specter Step to blink behind the dragon. The impact of the swipe made the dragon stagger right into Sentinel's Shadow Ball. It really looked like he wanted to end this quickly, and I knew he had the right idea about that.
However, despite that brutal combo, Reshiram looked more ticked than damaged. "I do not know you strange creature, but I know you are not a pure being." With that, he spread out a large blast of fire that quickly would have engulfed the Torren Pokémon if he didn't escape into Phantom Force.
Sentinel appeared right above Reshiram, slashing down his empowered claws on the unsuspecting legendary Pokémon. However, Reshiram braced for this attack and unleashed a burst of flame around his body that expelled Sentinel away like a rag doll and made him roll across the ground.
Something was wrong, while that attack looked like it hurt, Sentinel seemed more out of it than usual. In fact, he was already struggling to get back up and seemed to be pushing himself hard.
I looked back at Black, who had the same idea as me to stop the match right now.
Before I could, Kryx 's Premier Ball jumped into my shoulder with its spider legs. "Anto! I just received word from my scanners! Sentinel's DNA Preservers have short circuited! Sen's DNA structure is rapidly deteriorating!" Wait that's what happened when he hit that forcefield!?
I didn't hesitate for a second. "St—" "AAAAHHHHHH!"
Why was Sentinel shouting over me!? In fact, why was he running and still continuing to fight!?
"Sen, stop!" I linked to him as he didn't listen, avoiding a blast from Reshiram and kicking him in the face before being swatted back down.
"Stop dang it!" Why wasn't he listening to me!?
That left me with no choice, I took out the Dusk Ball— "Gah!?"
There was no fooling anyone now. They all saw that. They all knew this was strange, but they never expected it to get even stranger: the Delta Pokémon had blasted a small Shadow Ball to hit the Dusk Ball out of his trainer—out of my hand. Why?
Even Reshiram stopped for a second.
"Sentinel?"
"Anti." Something weird was going on. Sentinel wasn't speaking normally in fact it looked like he was linking to my mind this time. But a part of me really didn't care at that time if my powers were now changing. "I wanted to say thank you."
He blazed up his claws, using the Fusion move of both Dragon and Shadow Claw and launched himself again at Reshiram, who flew up to the sky and started firing at him from above.
"All I knew was hate, anger, and pain… but then you came into my life. You treated me… like someone who actually mattered."
"Stop…"
"I only wanted revenge, but you gave me kindness and friends… those were things I learned that I needed."I could only watch as he used Specter Step again to appear right in front of Reshiram this time and used his claw to somehow punch the legendary Pokémon in the neck.
"St-Stop… please…"
Despite the blow looking it actually hurt, Reshiram was getting more ticked and unleashed a torrent of Dragonbreath on the close ranged Pokémon. My heart literally stopped for a few seconds when that happened. But to my grief, horror, and utter relief, Sentinel got back up.
And his bones were all starting to crack. From his tail to his skull, fractures were becoming more and more apparent. If that wasn't enough, Sentinel… had a trail of dust flying away from him into the air, as if he was fighting until his body literally turned to dust.
I didn't know at this time, but I had captured everyone's attention. From curiosity at my odd actions, now they were all glued to the fight as they saw my own Pokémon rebel against me and seemingly start fighting to the death. Again, they had never seen something like that before and it captivated them all so much that they forgot that a few seconds ago everyone was just battling for survival themselves.
But I couldn't care less about that then.
"I… I know you want me to come back, but I… I've known that my time with you was coming to an end. Kryx only delayed it. And, even I'm smart enough to know you can't escape from death…" He slowly started walking back towards Reshiram's direction, somehow exerting more energy into his claws that was set ablaze more than they ever did before.
By that point, I felt Kryx trying to tell me to do something-maybe it was even about my hand bleeding, but I still stared at Sentinel's back and listened to what seemed like our private conversation.
"Can I ask one more selfish favor? I always enjoyed when we battled. Even when I did lose, I was so happy that it felt like we won each time that we did. So… can we please battle like before? I… I… I want us… to win against a legend. Because that's what I always felt whenever you were behind me: that no matter what, I'd win."
I ended up pulling my hood over my face and bit my lip so hard even though I didn't care it was bleeding. I grabbed Kryx's mobile base and placed it my outer jacket pocket. I didn't want anyone to see me because I really, really, really, really, really, really, really was that close to just losing it.
Black's voice came through. "Anto! What are you doing!? We have to stop—"
"Black! Fight me at your best!"
"Wha? But Anto—"
"You wanted to become Champion didn't you!? If you want a the chance at the champion, if you want your chance at fulfilling the very dream that you poured your body, heart, blood, and soul into with every fiber of your being ever since you were small!" Everyone one, including the legendary Pokémon, heard when I beat my hand on my chest with a thud that resounded through the stunned and silent audience.
"You have to go through Me! … And Sentinel! Now, Phantom Force!" At this point, I could no longer hold back the tears that were falling on my face despite how brave and sincere I made that sound to be.
Sentinel charged as if he was never even tired in the first place. Reshiram had power to spare, unleashing another wave of powerful fire as soon as Sentinel appeared in the same place he disappeared into.
The Torren region Pokémon unleashed a powerful breath of ice to counter the extreme flames. The ice only slowed down the powerful flames, but it was enough for Sentinel to roll under and keep moving in a circle around the legendary.
The look in Black's eye just wondered what was going on with me, but he seemed to realize this battle was going for too long and he quickly ordered Reshiram to use his most powerful move: Fusion Flare.
A large, spherical orb of fire with its own rings of flames surrounding it was blasted towards Sentinel with the hope of ending this fight. It was so powerful and no matter how Sentinel would dodge it, the explosion would knock him out cold for sure.
But we weren't planning to dodge.
I pressed the battle AR and punched the air towards one of the most powerful fire moves in Unova.
"Tri move: Lunar Evisceration!" That was the fusion move taking in the aspects of Dragon Claw, Phatom Force, and Frost Breath. Sentinel's claws came out a harsh blue light that left traces of ice in the shadows it cast.
A burst of rainbow Aura surrounded Sentinel as even his flames and eye colors changed into a beautiful mix of every single color in the world. Then he charged straight for the blast of fire.
As he did, the rainbow Aura started to change; instead of wrapping around him, it started to form… wings at Sentinel's back and increased the intensity of the tri move so much that the claws were ten times his size!
But as he did, he was starting to look like he was going to fade with all that power that was pushed into him.
Time slowed down greatly as Sentinel made his first step towards the attack.
This was it… wasn't it?
This was going to be the end—
(Am I really going to let it end like this? Are you really going to do this?! We made a promise to Sentinel! Don't you remember!? We were too stupid to know the meaning of abandonment! If that's the case … if that's the case! If that's the case, then we're too stupid to acknowledge this as the end!)
"DON'T YOU DARE GIVE UP SENTINEL! GIVE IT EVERY SINGLE OUNCE OF YOUR SOUL, BODY, AND WILL! YOU WILL NOT DIE—"
*The Battle AR suddenly showed a massive spike in energy. Something… Something was detecting that both Sentinel and Anto were almost at the same exact wavelength at this very moment. Was it something to do with the Demon implanted in Anto's brain? Or perhaps… while amazingly unlikely… did human and Pokémon truly break the limits imposed on them by the laws of reality?*
"YOU!" Sentinel jumped towards the attack.
"WILL!" It felt like Sentinel and I both found ourselves reclining our fist back. It was like we were one even though Sentinel was out there fighting. Then I felt… no we felt raw power coursing through us as we punched the legendary flame orb head on a clash that blew away literally everyone watching the vicinity: people, Pokémon, and even other legendaries.
But I didn't care about that!
"LIVE!" We both yelled—yes my voice it came back for that one moment as we both screamed with every fiber of our being, challenging the laws of this world that told us we had no chance; that we were worthless in the grand scheme of things; that gave us the impression we would be nothing more than just a passing thought.
Screw every bloody single one of those sayings!
The mighty clash eventually caused an earth shattering explosion that caused even the legendary Pokémon surrounding us to shelter themselves from the blow.
But out of the cloud, a powerful roar echoed across after the deafening boom that defied all reason.
Sentinel—without ever dropping speed—unleashed the empowered move right into the Dragon of Truth while he was cloaked in a blinding white light.
Reshiram was smashed into an empty part of the arena like a meteor, leaving a huge hole in the bleachers that once held around hundreds of people.
I stared and breathed hard…
Sentinel… Sentinel…
He…
He evolved…
The skeleton was now the size of a proper Charizard with even his own bony wings and a dark rib-cage that was glowing purple.
But something else happened.
Sentinel was still in a Synergy Burst. The Rainbow Aura circled around him once more, raising him to the sky where the impossible happened again.
The storm clouds had long parted from the impact of the attack clash but instead of the sun that was supposed to greet us in the middle of the afternoon, the sky was replaced with a thick darkness that blotted out the sun.
The only light around us was the cocoon of rainbow energy that was surrounding Sentinel as the cocoon exploded and out came a creature from one could consider their deepest nightmares.
Wings that looked like ghostly fire, one spiked and sharpened horned skull, eyes that glowed like purple hell fire, skeleton claws that floated with spectral energy without attached limbs, and a dragonic torso that no longer had hind legs, but held the most other worldly of purple lights like a tail.
Mega Delta Charizard had made his presence known to all.
He gave an otherworldly roar that made even the remaining legendaries shiver in fear and made them think twice about attacking themselves. Everyone stepped away in fear.
Everyone except me.
They all saw some scary, evil, demonic looking being.
I saw my friend was alive.
He slowly descended to me, to others it may have looked like the reaper of death was going to take me away, but for some reason I thought of an angel.
As we stared at each other for the briefest yet longest of seconds I then found myself laughing. I laughed so hard that I was using both my hands to wipe away my tears.
"D-Don't ever do that again, you blasted idiot."
"I'm sorry. I was selfish."
"You were! You owe us big time."
We heard the sound of rocks rumbling to see that Reshiram was slowly getting back up. Even with all of that, the legendary dragon of truth could still stand.
I removed my hood and looked over to Black with a small smile. "Sorry about that, but are you ready to have a true final league battle?"
Black just looked stunned. It looked like so many thoughts were running through his head—
"AAAAAHHHHHHHHH! I WILL BECOME CHAMPION!"
His screamed to the skies above with all of his might before stopping to gasp for breath. As soon as he got his air back, he slapped his face hard with both of his hands before looking at me with a huge smile.
"I finally figured that thinking too hard with you will only get me headaches. So instead of thinking what the heck you're doing, I'm going to fulfill my lifelong dream of winning the league!" He said with a smirk as he fixed his somewhat destroyed cap. He looked behind him towards the Legendary Pokémon. "Reshiram! I'm sorry, but I wasn't giving this battle my all. But that's about to change!"
Reshiram looked deeply into Black's eyes before looking towards me and Sentinel.
"I had underestimated you severely. I will not make that same mistake!" Reshiram roared with flames as he flew into the sky.
I smiled and looked to Sentinel.
"Ready for the battle of your life?"
"I know it's already won with you behind me!" Sentinel flew high into the darkened sky and roared again with his purple flames blazing brightly in the forced darkness.
Black smiled the wildest of smiles and screamed. "You're going down, you cross-dressing Mute!"
I threw my hand out in a swing, adrenaline pumping my blood, "Bring it on, forever in debt!"
And so our dragons clashed!
N just stared in utter and complete shock. He was supposed to save the world, bring Pokémon to their freedom, to save their voices.
Yet that entire battle… he heard the voice of the Pokémon Sentinel: A Pokémon that willing wanted to be with his trainer to the very end.
How? All Pokémon wanted to be free! So why… why was that Pokémon willing to die being with his trainer?
"That's a good look on you."
N blinked before turning his head to see Drayden walking up to him in one part of the remaining bleachers.
Drayden then turned towards the battle were the Dragon of Truth was now battling fiercely against a new dragon—a dragon by at first glance seemed to be the epitome of evil but was fighting for the ability to see tomorrow with his friends.
"Take a look at those trainers, even under what looks to be unholy darkness they're battling like it's the first time they both got their very first Pokémon." He laughed. "They're having so much fun, I think even some of your men are getting into it."
N blinked before looking over towards a group of Team Plasma members down below. They were also watching the battle, but instead of scorn they seemed to be in awe.
"Aww man! Did you see that dodge right there!? I didn't know dragons could do that!"
"Are you kidding me!? Look at Reshiram! Even in the darkness, the fires are enough to brighten up an entire room!"
"Yeah but look at that new dragon! It's sooo cool! It's even taking on a legendary Pokémon! I mean look how they keep trading blows like they're equals!"
N was speechless before he found himself looking over to some Team Snaggem grunts who looked to be cheering at the fight and even making bets?
The green haired king looked again, some of the remaining trainers were watching in awe despite how disheveled they all look and their Pokémon were just glued to the battle in the sky.
Had they all forgotten what they were originally here for because the fight before them was that entertaining?!
"I finally figured something out." N turned back to Drayden who was seemingly speaking out loud and still watching the fight rather than talking to him.
"We all tried to stop you, everyone one of us except Anto. He was always a weird one that boy, he didn't have the same 'Ideals' as you, or pursued the 'Truth' like Black did. He almost looked like he didn't belong here at all. However, he had something that I had never seen before."
He paused for a second as the two dragons clashed attacks and both Trainers yelled out commands to counter the other.
"No it wasn't skill—heck it had absolutely nothing to do with whether he won or lost." Drayden looked to N. "Everyone that boy has battled so far… we all admit that our battle with him was… fun…"
Fun?
N looked back at the battle as he heard everyone coo in awe as Reshriam scored a clean hit on Sentinel. He then looked back at Drayden. "What do you mean by that?"
"You already saw it didn't you? Look at the people around us: even though they've all been hurt and currently in darkness, they're all smiling and enjoying themselves. That boy… it's like he has the ability to bring out someone's inner child." Even Drayden seemed to smile despite his beard covering his whole face. "I know I enjoyed my battle with him unlike so many before."
N thought about that: Anto could make battles—the very thing he hated for Pokémon—fun? But they were nothing but causing pain for them!
So why… why did everyone smile whenever they battled that boy who couldn't even speak?
"Reshiram, Fusion Flare!" Black's voice shouted out as the Dragon of Truth unleashed a far more powerful version of Fusion Flare towards his opponent.
Sentinel inhaled then unleashed a powerful blast of darkness towards the attack and another powerful shock wave parted the skies once more and engulfed the sky with dust.
N looked up towards the sky and his eyes widened.
The Dragon of Truth… fell down from the sky.
Sentinel reverted back into normal Delta Charizard and while he looked injured and tired—he caught Reshiram and gently put him down on the ground.
Anto, a strange and unlucky mute… had just defeated the Dragon and Hero of Truth.
Something came to N's ears that was completely weird.
It was cheering. The remaining trainers, the remaining Team Snagem, even some of the mercenaries and Team Plasma were cheering wildly at the result of the fight they had witnessed.
N watched Black and Anto go up to their Pokémon and talk. Even though Black lost, there was still a small smile on his face. Black, whose entire dream was to be champion, had just lost his chance to for this year to be the Champion. Yet he still did not look broken or miserable.
The King of Team Plasma then decided as he locked eyes toward the brown eyed boy.
He would battle the boy who defied all odds.
Back between Anto and Black, the mute expressed his sorrow.
"Sorry Black, if you didn't sustain that first hit, you probably could have won."
"It's… no big deal. In fact it's my fault for underestimating you in the first place. You won fair and square… and I'm okay with that. But this only means next year, I'm taking the title of champion from you, so don't you dare lose!" Black punched the amnesiac in the shoulder.
Anto laughed before he felt another dragon descend on the battle field.
It was N and Zekrom.
"Anto, from the very beginning, you have baffled me to no end."
"I have that effect on people… and unfortunately myself included."
"But this is where it ends." Zekrom snarled as N said this.
Despite being heavily injured, Sentinel stood in front of the young teen with his new larger form, but Anto responded without taking his determined eyes away from N.
"You're right. This is where my Pokémon and I defeat the second legend of Unova."
{Author Notes}
And here we are! The bumbling, and clumsy Anto has somehow, someway come to the point where he has defeated one of the legendary Pokémon of Unova!
This was quite the chapter, and trust me: it's going to get wilder! I really am excited for the next few chapters because of what is about to happen!
Also, just because I'm evil… I have a little plan involving our characters… MWAHAHAHAHAHA!
Next time, Anto battles the Champion of Unova!