Episode 53: The Foolish and The Fools
Since when did you believe that there was nothing left in the world that couldn't take you by surprise?
As the darkness faded, everyone watched as the current Champion of Unova, accompanied by the Legendary Dragon of Ideals stared down a boy with dust, grime, and wearing some slightly singed and torn clothes while a Pokémon made of bones stood beside him.
The challenger had just done something no one ever imagined doing: he and his Pokémon had fought one on one with Reshiram, a legendary creature believed to have the power to destroy the world, and won.
But he was not finished. As the winner of the league, he had just stated his claim to challenge the current Champion of Unova, N, and fight the other legendary Pokémon that was capable of destroying the world.
The green haired Champion stared down the beaten and dirty boy who had somehow come all this way to fight him. Despite how roughed up he looked, he was someone who had defied the odds yet somehow stayed under the radar this entire time.
His entire existence was utterly baffling to the green haired king. All his life was dedicated to saving Pokémon from the evil of humans and their suppressive society. When he finally ascended to the throne, he met the likes of Black who openly challenged his belief.
Yet time after impossible time without utter fail: the amnesiac he picked up so long ago did not fit anywhere in his equations of a perfect world.
His Pokémon…how vibrant they all were. Their quirks, their personalities stood out and shined as they battled—Yes! Battling, one of the most loathsome things imaginable to N's mind because of how it robbed Pokémon of their personalities gave way to showing how vivid and lively the young boy's Pokémon were. It was if that boy only existed to create paradoxes.
But then it came down back to that didn't it? The mute made no effort to truly stop him, yet he had caused more problems to his grand plan than Black ever could with minimal effort.
Anto claimed that N didn't know the world at all. After years of studying and hearing the hurt cries of Pokémon, how could an amnesiac without even a year's worth of memory claim such a thing?
But at the same time, N couldn't properly refute his rather simple ideas. It was such a paradox! Everything Anto did, just confused the king of Team Plasma the more he learned more about him!
That was why there was only one option left: to battle. Black once claimed to him that battling help brought Pokémon and Humans together.
And with the previous battle, Black's claim had some value with how both he and Anto captivated the audience—
"Umm N? Are you like… done just standing there… thinking? We kind of have to battle now."
The green haired young man realized that he was indeed having an inner monologue. He looked back at his challenger who had returned the injured dragon Pokémon back to his previously thrown Dusk Ball because he was indeed too tired from battling Reshiram.
There was the fact that this battle was simply to be a one on one. This meant that Anto was only allowed one Pokémon to battle the other legendary dragon with his remaining Pokémon.
And out of all of them, Anto had brought out Takezo to fight for him.
Is he really going to battle Zekrom with him? N wanted to ask that, but there was an unspoken part of his mind that could understand why Takezo was chosen. That was the very Pokémon that started it all, and in a sense it was clichéd but at the same time there was something poetic about ending this all with the Pokémon that began it, a simple, over looked Pokémon with abilities that rivals even well trained of his kind.
"How?" That was the only word that came out of his mouth when he tried to ask.
The black haired boy tilted his head to the side as a reaction.
"How did you get here? How did you make all my years of calculations, years of planning… how did you just so easily throw them out the window without any effort!?"
Anto and Takezo shared a look with each other before Anto looked back at N.
The brown eyed boy folded his arms and seemed to genuinely reflect on what N was asking for a second. "…To be fair… I didn't really know you that well to begin with until recently. I was just minding my own business and meeting you was pretty much by chance each time."
By chance? Meeting Anto… was an accident? How could he have ever predicted…
"But the more I think about it, the more I'm glad that you and I crossed paths. You're my friend, and if there's anything I've learned over the multiple things in this crazy life, it's that good friends stick together through thick or thin."
Friends? How could a human call him friend so sincerely? Only Pokémon were his friends while cruel humans enslaved…
Flashes of a young N being alone in a room filled with toys filled the mind of the current King of Team Plasma. He forgot that he sought the comfort of other Pokémon because he was so lonely. He cared for Pokémon because they made him feel better; he called them friends. So… did Anto sincerely feel like that?
"You did save my life, so it's only fair that I help you realize that forcing people to succumb to your will is wrong!" What the young mute failed to recall was the fact that he did indeed push N out of the way of a bullet.
N wanted to shout out that Anto was wrong that he was helping the Pokémon and he was the hero in this situation, but as Anto had brought up earlier. He was rather good at pointing out flaws in other people's arguments.
"Bold words, but let us truly see who is right with… a battle." How odd, for once in his life. He said those words with small traces of anticipation and dare he think… excitement? That word had usually brought up horrible feelings in him in how it hurt his friends, but now? He wanted to see it. He desperately needed to see it: the way this boy brings out the best in all of his opponents and himself.
"Zekrom! End this charade once and for all!"
"Takezo! Let's defy the odds one more time!"
Zekrom roared and flew into the air. "I don't know what you did to remove the scent, monster. But you shall soon be destroyed!" He then inhaled and then fired a powerful wave of dragonic energy— "GARF!?" The mighty dragon winced as he felt a pain in his chin because Takezo had uncannily jumped up and slashed his wooden blade upward to make the dragon's attack pierce the clouds and reveal light back down on the battle field.
Takezo hopped back down and performed several flips before taking a stance with his blade. Despite being the most common Pokémon in Unova, everyone saw the little Pokémon was glaring with the ferocity that made even all the legendaries present sweat.
"Legend or not…" Takezo's stance stiffened. "I will not let you harm my friend!"
Anto threw his hand out. "Unluckily for you, we've fought legendaries before! Takezo, bring out your scarf!"
The small Pokémon traced one hand to a piece of bright blue cloth tied to his blade flicked it around his neck. With that done, they pressed on their offensive.
N blinked but quickly found that to be a horrible mistake. Despite being in the air, Takezo had closed the gap between him and the legendary dragon in an impossible time frame and smashed the empowered dark blade right into Zekrom's skull.
The great dragon flinched, but Takezo quickly threaded across his back and struck his right wing only to follow by unleashing a heavier blow on Zekrom's back. These precision hits caused Zekrom to quickly lose his balance in the sky and crash into the ground. Out of the dust clouds, Takezo leaped off and landed back near Anto. Then, Takezo removed his scarf and started performing Swords Dance.
N looked in with surprise. The mighty legendary Pokémon losing to a—no! He had to stop thinking like that! Anto has proven it time and time again: legends, ideas, even truth! They are important in life, but the mute trainer and his Pokémon have shown countless times that what we think is true, what we think is ideal—it's not always the case.
They change.
If he truly did believe in his ideas, N and Zekrom had to work as a team to win!
"Zekrom! Takezo is too fast for you! Use wide spread attacks!"
The Dragon of Ideals roared and unleashed a large area of effect Discharge. Both Anto and Takezo quickly ran towards some debris and hid behind the cover as the shock encompassed the area. In fact, many of the watchers had to create their own means of avoiding the raw power of the attack.
N watched as something move out of the rock towards another fallen boulder. He reacted quickly and told Zekrom where to fire a blast of Dragonbreath. The boulder burst into explosion, but N's eyes widened when he saw nothing behind the boulder. He replayed the image in his head and he quickly realized that the blur he saw wasn't Takezo but it was a rock that was thrown so quickly that he just assumed it Takezo moving again.
N looked back at the previous hiding spot only to see Takezo already firing Blade Storm at the Zekrom. The black dragon resisted the electrical energy swords that hit him, but a good chunk of them landed in the area surrounding the dragon.
Takezo darted towards Zekrom again with one of his blades coated with dark energy. The dragon of Ideals was ready this time and fired a fast bolt of lightning towards the small normal type. Yet the speedy Pokémon jinked to the right and picked up one of the thunder blades stabbed into the ground with one of his free hands while continuing to speed towards Zekrom without missing a beat.
Zekrom and N acted quickly, the legendary made both his arms glow with dragonic energy as Takezo jumped and attempted to bring both blades down on the dragon. However, Zekrom blocked both blades by using Dragon Claw defensively. The different energies clashed, but Zekrom withheld the initial impact and then swung his arm to swat away the normal type into—or rather through—another fallen boulder.
Takezo felt like a skipped stone, his body even hopped along the earth until he forcefully rebalanced himself mid air and slid along the ground and gasped for breath.
N blinked before realizing something. Anto and Takezo have done nothing but battle for a while now, and in their weakened state they were still fighting against legendary Pokémon? He had honestly forgotten about it even though he spotted traces of it during his battle with Black.
The two were fatigued. Anto may not be as physically drained or injured, but the running around and acting he had to put up along with the battling was starting to take its toll on him.
However, their eyes spoke that they were not even close to being beaten.
Zekrom threw itself at Takezo, swiping with large rends of dragonic energy that tore the ground and what was left of the stands apart whenever the agile Pokémon evaded the claws.
The dragon then made a large horizontal swipe, making Takezo jump over the attack, but this time he dug his wooden blade into the ground and launch dirt into the eyes of electric dragon.
The mighty dragon roared in irritation with dirt in his eyes and Takezo quickly slipped under the Pokémon's legs and slammed his blade into the back of the dragon's knee.
Imbalanced, Zekrom toppled forward the same time as Takezo jumped and slammed his blade down on Zekrom's head to add more power to his attack with gravity.
The dragon's body hit the floor again and while it seemed to do more damage, Zekrom was getting far angrier the moment the initial pain wore off.
He forced himself up with a burst of power that threw Takezo off him. The small normal type seemed to be falling towards a pointed rock until Anto caught him mid air and he stumbled forward with Takezo in his arms.
"Man, you're taking a huge beating." Anto managed to tease.
Takezo cracked a grin and made an effort he could still battle by trying to get out of his trainer's arms. "Let us see you deal with a potential diety who seems to be immune to your own attacks."
Anto stood back up as he got Takezo to his feet. "Yeah, unfortunately for us, I don't think we can overpower him even with the Synergy Burst."
Zekrom's eyes narrowed to slits when he spotted both the normal type and Anto together. Lightning coursed though his body at an alarming rate as thunder clouds started to appear back into the sky. Even the other flying legendary Pokémon seemed to be more cautious as the dragon gathered a dangerous amount of energy.
"Zekrom! That's too much power!" N yelled, but it seemed like Zekrom couldn't hear him.
Takezo sighed before looking to Anto. "Ideas?"
"Surprisingly one comes to mind." Anto was oddly calm as the ground started to shake and thunder started striking the ground around them. "Though you should stop him from gathering so much energy in the first place."
"Fair point." Takezo quickly threw his sword with all of his strength right at Zekrom. The dragon simply shattered the wooden blade into pieces as it was thrown at him. But in that time, Takezo had closed the distance between them and wielded two golden energy blades with black electricity. Tempest Laceration was a move that could bypass the thickest of defenses and in the hand of someone like Takezo, it was a deadly combination.
If Takezo put enough effort into it, the attack could cleave off a limb of even a legendary Pokémon like Zekrom. But he knew better than to use it for that. Instead the agile creature sliced open the surface of Zekrom's skin, getting him angry and forcing him to swipe at him. It proved to be fruitless as Takezo would avoid the claws and continue opening surface cuts on the proud dragon's skin.
However, Zekrom seemingly was getting angrier and angrier. More electricity was gathering around him and the wind started to blow hard despite their being three legendary Pokémon able to stop the weather.
"Anto!" N called out to the boy. "You're making Zekrom angry! Stop the match and let me try to calm him!"
"Unless you can literally dodge lightning like Takezo," Anto says this as a bolt from the sky tries to strike the normal type only for him to get out of the way by using Detect and then removing his choice scarf briefly and putting it back on to reset the lock. "I don't recommend that. Besides, I have a plan."
"I do not believe it to be a very sane plan!" Takezo screamed out as he struck into Zekrom's armpit as an attempt to hit his pressure points.
Zekrom seemed to have enough and another powerful burst of energy blew Takezo away into the air. However, just like before, Anto caught the Pokémon from making a bad landing and let him down gently.
Zekrom charged all the electricity around him in what everyone figured was his own version of Reshiram's most powerful attack.
However, in the face of such humbling power, Anto and Takezo walked forward towards Zekrom.
"Ready little guy?" Anto was visibly sweating as his finger reached up towards his Battle AR that continued to show him how 'off the charts' the dragon was putting off. Even if he was struck by lightning, which he wouldn't thanks to Takezo's detect ability, he was still technically immortal. "Zekrom might blow this whole place up if we don't pull this off right." Though, he didn't want to test and see if he could come back to life if he blew up into a million of pieces.
Takezo scoffed despite having a bit of trouble walking. "One day, I would appreciate our plans to not be 'do or die' situations that rely on pure luck."
"It's not luck," Thunder started striking more frequently; it even hit the same place twice around the two! "I'm really hoping you can pull that type of energy out. I only got that idea from Sentinel's battle."
"You expect as if I can even master something like that." Takezo kept walking as Anto came to a stop.
"Says the guy who accidentally caused Fusion Moves."
N stared in shock. What were those two doing!? Zekrom might actually kill them with this much power! They had to hide! Yet… N saw something in their eyes.
He couldn't describe it, but it was something that caused both of them, despite all their fear and fatigue, to stand against an angry deity. Did… did they have that much faith in each other?
Takezo closed his eyes as he drew a blade from the Swords Dance move. He inhaled deeply, letting go of everything at the moment except looking deep within.
He was searching for something that should have been there this whole time, but he never really wanted to access this power before simply due to the fact he wasn't interested in it.
Yet Zekrom, finally gathering enough energy after being interrupted so many times and having to restart after Takezo's first interference, gave a roar that could have deafened a person a few feet from it. The Dragon of Ideals raced off with a much larger version of Fusion Bolt that only grew in size due to the still lingering energies of Fusion Flare from Reshiram's battle.
N's eyes widened. Forget Anto and Takezo, the explosion would cause casualties to everyone here! Soon almost everyone, but those who Anto knew personally started to panic and move, but the green haired teen saw Anto stand his ground and throw his hand out.
It was then N saw Takezo… a bright white light enveloping him—he was evolving as well?
"Now Takezo!" Anto screamed as he activated the Synergy Burst in his device.
Wait what!? The Patrat… he was moving with the light! Takezo was running to meet head on with Zekrom's humongous orb of power even though the light of evolution was surrounding him.
Then the rainbow aura of the Synergy Burst wrapped around Takezo, suddenly boosting the shinning figure to vanish and appear right in front of the attack!
Suddenly, an impossible thought crossed N's mind as he witness something so bizarre in front of him.
Was Anto and Takezo using the power of evolution as an attack amplified by the Synergy Burst!?
The two attacks clashed—no. A bright light shot through the orb like the truest of arrows, shattering all of the destructive energy of the attack like glass scattering everywhere.
In the far end of the battle field, Takezo slid to the ground. He was still a Patrat and still looked fatigued and injured, but it did absolutely nothing to diminish his smile as Zekrom was thrown back from the clash… and fell down unconscious.
For the longest minute, no one said anything. They all simply stared at what had transpired before them as if it was some kind of lucid dream and that they would wake up anytime soon.
But they didn't.
It was then, Black of all people shouted out to the now clear skies, "Ladies, Gentlemen, and Scumbags! I present to you—Unova's newest Champion: Anto the Amnesiac!"
The young teen that was mention looked around as everyone seemed to just stare at him. He blinked before he went to check with Takezo who was gasping for breath and kneeling on the ground.
"So… do we tell everyone that the last plan was actually me just grasping at straws and there was a good chance I might have killed us all if I was just being crazy and stupid?"
"As long as you tell no one that I wasn't even sure if I could tap into the evolution energy."
"Takezo, you've battled like, a lot of Pokémon stronger than you and sometimes you even win. How could the energy not be in you in some way from all the experience you've gained?"
"I… do not believe that is how evolution works."
Anto and Takezo eventually looked towards N who was soothing Zekrom from its heavy injuries from that last attack. It was so weak it seemed barely conscious. It was amazing how much power that non-elemental attack caused.
"… It appears you were right after all." Anto said nothing as N continued on. "Even with the power of a legend at my side, you beat me utterly. All because you and Takezo trusted each other…. Look at what you did: you made one of the most over looked Pokémon in Unova beat one of their greatest legends—no! You beat them both. You didn't just defeat me, you defeated the dragon and hero of Truth of well."
"It was a team effort. None of us couldn't have gotten so far without the other… but yeah it does feel kinda cool beating two legendary Pokémon." Anto rubbed the back of his head.
"Excuse you? Were you the one getting swatted away like a fly?" Takezo narrowed his eyes in a teasing manner.
"Hey! Give me some credit! I totally made that cool plan!" Anto snapped back at his friend before he looked at N and gave a small smile. He placed his hand open out to him and continued, "Plus, I wouldn't think of it like that. N… I thought about it a bit and I do agree with you that there are Pokémon that suffer. But did you ever consider that there are people who suffer as well? There are those bad people who abuse others, but you can't just judge everyone by only the bad influences."
N silently looked at Takezo who gave him a small smile. It looked genuine and compared to the stoic and impassive look when they first met, there was an obvious change in the small sword user besides his strength. The more he thought about it, the more he realized that he truly was foolish than he realized.
The King of Team Plasma was utterly humbled. "How could I have been so blind? All this time I claimed to know Pokémon, when in reality, I was just pushing my own ideas on to them. I truly don't deserve to be a hero. How could I measure up to you or even Black who've met people and Pokémon from all walks of life?"
"Oh that's easy. Live your life." What was meant to be a rhetorical question, Anto answered immediately. "You shouldn't compare yourself to other people; I hear it's bad for one's mental health. So just… be yourself flaws and all. I mean look at me: I still get attacked by my own Pokémon from time to time!"
"I seem to recall Ohko, Super Nut, Sentinel, and Kryx apologizing though."
"I still have nightmares of that one abomination that almost tried to eat my small intestine! I need that body part!"
N found himself laughing. "Do you two hear yourselves? You sound like the closest of friends and even I do not have someone like… that… not anymore…" He tried to look among Team Plasma where he glanced over to one of the Sages, Rood.
Anto finally reached over and grabbed N's hand to help him to stand up. "I would love to be your friend! I mean look at all my friends right now! One's a thief, one's a ranger who comes and goes when she pleases, one was someone I assumed to be a dude for a large portion of my journey and that I may have striped in front of, one is a battle hungry dork, and my only human friend that was even remotely normal left the country!"
"Hey! What about me!?" Black whined as he stood beside a slowly healing Reshiram.
"Do not get me started, Mr. I-Scream-In-The-Bloody-Middle-Of-The-Night!" Anto pointed.
N let go of Anto's hand. "I thank you for the offer, truly, but I need time to think about what I've done and—"
Anto pulled back on his hand with a much tighter grip and an evil glint in his eye. "Oooohhhh NO! You're not getting away that easily, N! Did you really think I would let you go after literally trying a hostile takeover in the League!? If you're really bent on going on that soul searching journey, you'll do it after apologizing for every dang thing you put everyone through!"
Black noticed a look on N's face that he had once more never seen before: panic. He looked pale before but now what little color he had left in his face seemed to be draining at how much damage and terror he spread in this grand show.
Black shook his head with a smile. "Leave it to Anto to bring out… wait… what about Team Snaggem and Hunter J?"
"ANTO, LOOK OUT!"
It took a second for the mute to realize that was Wes screaming and it took another second for the mute to realize that N was pushing him away.
There was a flash of light that forced Anto to close his eyes as he fell to the ground. he quickly looked back up to see N along with Zekrom incased in gold.
Anto looked back up—only to see darkness as he was knocked back to the ground. It felt like there was a foot on his face and he had a feeling he knew who it was.
Hunter J admitted the battle was rather bizarre, but none the less, it worked wonders in allowing her the time to bide her time and strike when everyone least expected it. Her son and the ranger were so engrossed in the fight that they let their guards down.
"Hunter J!" Black made a step forward, only for Hunter J to point her gauntlet at him.
"I don't recommend moving." Takezo drew his blade and tried to attack the woman's blind side, but then he was quickly pinned down by Hunter J's Salamance. With how tired and weak and tired he was from all the fighting, Takezo could muster little strength to resist.
"That heathen has captured Lord N!" Rood from the Seven Sages cried out desperately. "Rescue—" He couldn't finish his sentence when a Solar Beam was blasted near his vicinity.
Wakin chuckled and pet his partner, Gloom. "And here everyone was sayin you'se was only good for Sleep Powder."
"Those plebeians stand little chance against a high class lady such as myself!" Wakin's Gloom huffed proudly.
"Wakin!" Wes shouted up from his flier, but then Gonzap walked up and stared directly at Wes.
The two said nothing as they seemingly had a stare down that spoke volumes without saying a single word.
Screeches of power came from the sky as the Storm Trio of Unova and the Kanto birds all took back to flight in response to the one who desecrated such a victory.
However, even their attention was caught by the flying jet ship that opened up six compartments and fired a golden beam that hit all six lesser legends and froze them mid air.
"Of course! I had no idea carbonite beams could freeze even legendaries in a form of stasis!" The cloaked man who used the mirror to change the Storm Trio's forms was in awe at the display of tech.
The ship shot out a multitude of flying objects that quickly circled the falling legendary statues. It prevented them from falling and created platforms to pick up the frozen Pokémon and bring them to the ship.
The owners of the legendaries were all shocked and in varying degrees of horror.
"If anyone else makes any move!" Hunter J revealed some kind of switch in her free hand up in the air. "I will flip this switch, which will cause those frozen in carbonite to explode! If anyone else so much as twitches, I flip the switch and there will be a significant less amount of legendaries and supposed kings."
As incredible as it sounded, not one person was foolish enough to test if Hunter J was bluffing. Though, in all fairness, no one dared to believe it was a bluff.
"Now then," Hunter J looked down on Anto. "You've put up a fight, but that's all over now."
"Oh? Why stop there?"
That. Was. Not. Anto.
A different voice called out telepathically to everyone's mind that confused even the amnesiac. Whose voice was that!?
Then—in an instant—there was a cloaked figure standing right behind Hunter J that seemed to teleport there. Hunter J tried to defend herself, but the figure already had a palm facing her—
She was then launched into the wall by what many recognized to be psychic powers by someone who was clearly not a Pokémon. The kill switch slowly levitated in front of the man until he made a crushing motion with his fist, making the device destroyed mid air.
Mega Salamance finally snapped out of its stupor and attacked the figure. However, another psychic force froze the dragon and slammed him into a different side of the wall.
"W-What the!" Black stammered but then Reshiram roared with anger.
"YOU! I REMEMBER YOU!" Before Reshiram could react, the stranger summoned a spear of black energy and pitched it right into the weakened dragon's chest.
Reshriram wailed in agony as it fell into the ground, black symbols started to appear on its skin the longer the spear was stabbed into it.
"Reshriam!" Black cried out as he tried to grab the spear sticking out.
That was a horrible mistake.
When Black touched the spear, he too felt the same pain that Reshriam was feeling and soon a dark field surrounded the two and quickly shrunk. It forced Rehsiram back into his orb form with Black inside him!
"BLACK!?" White shrieked from where she was and seemed ready to run, only for Bianca and Cheren to hold their friend back from doing something reckless.
"Then the other one." The stranger threw another spear towards the frozen Zekrom. The spear pierced through the gold casing and once more surrounded the dragon into an orb that swallowed poor N just like Black and Reshiram.
"Black! N!" Anto slowly got back up after watching in horror that his two friends get sucked into their dragons. He noticed both orbs flying towards the stranger who was now standing right in front of him.
"At last we meet, Subject Five. This has been a lloonnnggg time coming." A calm voice spoke out of the figure as he slowly raised his hand to summon another spear above his head.
"Hydreigon, Dark Pulse!"
The man quickly turned and threw his spear right at Wes' attack. The two clashed and an explosion caused dust to kick back up into the field.
The ground beneath Takezo and Anto gave way as Ferland jumped out of the ground and rescued the two of them away from the stranger.
The man noticed this and was about to do something to prevent Anto's escape. However, he noticed that there were other blasts heading right towards him from all around.
"Alright then," With that move, Team Plasma, the remaining trainers, Team Snaggem, Hunter J's mercenaries suddenly went back on a large scale brawl. However, even as everyone started to move back into chaos, his voice still remained in their heads. "I have what I need. Champion of Unova, if you want your friends back… you'll know where to find us."
It wasn't hard to know that this figure was now referring to Anto of all people.
"F-Ferland! Get me back! I have to… help Black and N!" The young mute begged, but the land shark Pokémon knew that Anto could barely put up a resistance to him.
However, while making his way to a safe spot, Ferland was hit by a stray attack and the shockwave of the attack caused him to drop Anto and Takezo and make them both fall unconscious.
The young Amnesiac had done what others could only dream of doing: he had been crowned the strongest trainer of a region, declared the best of the best trainers.
So why was he only feeling regret, helplessness, and frustration after a few minutes of being declared the Champion of Unova?
… Colors… bright colors… slowly, it starts to take form… there's a ceiling now white cream-like color, now with tiles all across. Move… slowly start to see everything… hear distant voices…
It was a familiar sight Anto had honestly pushed to the back of his mind: the ceiling of a hospital room. It was the very first thing he saw when he woke up in what felt to be a life time ago.
"Hey! He's awake!"
There was one major difference this time. The first time, he woke up alone. The second time he woke up, he found the room was filled with around two dozen people, not including all his Pokémon. Where could he begin? There was Summer, Wes, Benga, White, Cheren, Bianca, Tiana, Victor, Trinity (Why was she here?), Sebastion, Arran, Misoka, Aster, all the Unova Gym leaders except the Striation brothers and Roxie, The Elite Four (Why weren't they here!?), Candella with two other people, and Alder.
"Anto, are you alright?" Tiana was the first to speak and she was seen sitting nearby his bed.
The brown eyed boy put a hand up to his head and felt the bandage wrapped around his cranium. "Uhh I had this weird dream that I became Champion of Unova."
"Oh yeah. Congrats, mute, you're the Champion of Unova. Now cash in all that money you're supposed to receive." Leave it to Wes to still state the obvious.
Wait, if that was so…
"N! Black!" Anto shot strait up, making a lot of people pushing him back down and try to calm him down.
After settling a bit and being told to relax by his Pokémon and friends, Anto relaxed into the comfy bed. "What happened after I was knocked out?"
"There was a lot more battling." Summer sighed deeply. "We also had to borrow your Pokémon after you were knocked out to help us hack into the Team Snaggem Ship and save the other legendaries."
A blonde man standing next to Candela spoke up, "It was totally righteous how Kryx made the ship fire at its own teammates."
"I find it both fascinating how advance the technology your Elgyem possess, yet I'm baffled at her personality." A rather androgynous-looking white haired female—Anto hoped—spoke to add to compliment of the blonde man. "Still the data she offers opens up new revenues to physics to the likes no one has imagined."
"Oh right! Anto, meet Spark," Candela motioned to the blonde man. "And Blanche." The Team Valor leader showed the blue themed person. "They're my friends I've been meaning to talk to you about."
A hearty laugh filled the room. The young teen traced it all the way back to Alder. "It's quite amazing to see someone who has made so many friends, including my own grandson!" However, after his laugh, his smile faded. "Unfortunately, we now have a problem on our hands that might have been avoided if I didn't choose to stay away from this year's league."
"Don't be too hard on yourself, master. Just like in Nibasa, we couldn't imagine things escalating that much. If we did at least try to know this, perhaps we wouldn't have had all of the Elite Four to find you." Marshall, one of the Elite Four, tried to soothe his master.
Drayden cleared his throat. "Can we focus at the task at hand? If what the boy's friends said is true, there are powers here that have been silently waiting for all of us to weaken each other just for this moment."
Anto looked over to Summer when Drayden said that. The ranger seemed a bit skittish, but she eventually answered, "We sorta… told everyone in here about the demon in your brain… and that you're immortal… and pretty much everything."
Anto's eyes widened.
"You have to understand: if the implications are even half true then there's someone out there with the power of both Legendary Dragons under their grasp." Drayden continued. "That man that took away the heroes had power we had never seen before, but he also seemed to be aiming for you. You must have some idea as to who that person was and why he was after you."
"Not to mention, where he could have taken Black and N." Cheren added along.
Anto gaped as he looked around. "You expect me to know that? I barely even know what's happening to me half the ti—wait. I… think I do know someone who knows what exactly is going on."
Everyone seemed to tense at Anto's response.
However, Anto finally noticed that something was off and looked around the room. "Hey, where's Jamie?"
Everyone looked around each other as if they were trying to pin the explanation to someone else. It was Wes who spoke out first though, "That's the odd thing. She disappeared during the battle. We haven't seen her since."
Jamie was gone as well? Summer then assured Anto that there was no sign of her being kidnapped by Team Plasma or Hunter J's Mercenaries and Snaggem. But some trainers did say they spotted her running away for some reason, and they just hoped she was alright.
"Please, let's get back on topic. You said you might know someone who can answer all our questions as to what in Arceus' name happened just now?" Drayden pulled the conversation back.
Anto sighed deeply before looking over to his Elgyem. "Kryx, get the dream helmet."
The little alien squealed in delight before pulling out a strange helmet out of her hammer space and putting it on Anto's head with the delicacy of a hammer slamming on a nail. The machine sparked to life and Anto quickly fell back to bed.
Everyone who didn't know Kryx by now stared at the psychic type seemingly taking notes on a strange device. "Log whatever-it-is: it appears that the dream helmet did not work as gently as Anto mentioned it should work. Future note: replace current carrot juice fuel with soy sauce."
There was much to say about that, but everyone became silent as Anto slowly sat back up and removed the helmet.
Wait. Anto didn't have purple eyes.
"My my, there are quite the amount of people in here, I wonder if Anthony would mind sparing a free soul for me to devour." Everyone quickly backed away from the boy with purple eyes. He was speaking, genuinely talking with his mouth but with a voice as eerie as the fog surrounding a forest. "But a deal is a deal; salutations mortals, you may call me Zeed. Now… I do believe you all had questions?"
{Author Notes}
Alright, I'm pressed for time, and once more, I couldn't go over as well as I wanted to with this chapter.
That aside, I am very excited for the next few chapters.
First of all: Anto has become Champion Of Unova—wait what?! How'd he do that!?
Now, I always did think evolution to be a funny thing. It seemed like some inner power was making Pokémon rapidly change into more powerful versions of themselves. With that in mind… what if you used Evolution energy… as an attack? Well for one, your Pokémon might take a while to evolve again, but that I imagine, the power that gives Pokémon a permanent power up, must be a lot on its own. (Add a multiplier like Synergy Burst and boom! You've got an attack that goes beyond understanding! Just who do you think we are—)
I always found N, leaving on his soul searching adventure to be funny after I thought about it. The dude technically runs away from all the responsibility he was supposed to take for pretty much terrorizing people before his epiphany battle with the player. So here, I had Anto try to make sure that he answered to all of his mistakes to everyone else before he ran off being all soul-searchy.
Finally, we are reaching the last Arc of the Unova Saga! The next chapters are going to reveal the main plot of this story! Can you believe it!?
Thank you all for all the support these past two years. My humble goal for this story is to reach 100 + Favs and Follows.
I am excited for the upcoming chapters! Oh wait, before I forget, I would very much appreciate some support for one of my newest fic and what is technically a spinoff of this story.
Bizarre Misadventures: Ultra Hunters.
It's a spin of involving more of the canon characters from the manga, game, and Anime but it is set in a different universe. (Oh like that's going to stop me from brining these two stories together.)
It was created out of a cool idea I would like to try out while I was planning the future chapters of this story. I saw an interesting potential, so I decided to make a spin off to help develop the idea. Here's to hoping it works.
And with that, good luck guys. See you soon.