"We're back, Arcy!" Arceus' head snapped up from the newspaper he was reading through, and he put it and the cup of tea floating next to his head aside.
"We are?" the Alpha Pokémon's eyes went wide as he saw the red light. "We are! Of course..."
The Normal Type cleared his throat, while Mew floated up next to him. "Now were where we?"
"Chapter twenty one."
"Right; Enter Galactic," Arceus hummed. "Well, even if the chapter's subtitle is 'after a bit of exposition', we do eventually get to the anticipated part."
Before the conversation could go any farther, the sky was lit up with a bright blue glow. The group, and the entire city with them, looked up to see several pillars of blue light piercing the night sky. But more than that, Jack and Jason both felt a strong Auric disturbance emanating from the lights. They looked up in amazement for a few seconds,
(Dory: It's so... pretty.)
before Jack had the presence of mind to realize that this couldn't be a good thing.
"Come on," he cried, snapping the rest of his team out of their shock.
They bobbed and weaved through Veilstone City, in the general direction of the lights. Then, as quickly as they appeared, the lights faded. The disturbance in the Aura, however, did not.
"Alright," Katana asked, "what was that?"
Jack's eyes glowed gold, "Let's find out."
"And so they do, somehow managing to see the bright lights but not the giant helicopters until they turn a corner."
"Oh, no you don't," Jack muttered, putting on a burst of speed. He arrived at the site just in time to see one of the strangely dressed people, with blue hair instead of green, bring a toxicroak out of a Pokéball.
"Toxicroak," the man said, "Sludge Bomb."
Then, Jack got a good look at Toxicroak's target.
"Team Rocket!" he exclaimed, perfectly in sync with the other voices from across the field.
Jack's mind slipped into warp-drive to do a head count; about a dozen green-haired people, their blue-haired leader and his toxicroak, the three members of Team Rocket, and now Ash, Dawn, Brock, Maylene, and the Pokémon associated with them had also arrived.
"That escalated quickly," he thought.
"Team Rocket," Ash repeated, "are those guys friends of yours?"
Jessie was thoroughly outraged, "Sure; best friends like you!"
"So," Jack observed, "they know each other too. This just gets more and more interesting."
Arceus deadpanned. "Unless if you've seen the episode, in which it's just a retelling with a few changes to dialogue and action here and there."
Then James spoke up, "Those fashion freaks stole our meteorites!"
"Fashion?" Dawn muttered, "Since when?"
Arceus rolled his eyes lightly while Mew snickered into her paws.
"We don't care about your landmarks," Blue-Hair said, "But these meteorites must take the necessary forms."
"Necessary for what?" Dawn asked.
"I'm talking," he said, as if addressing children, "about the forms required to build the new world!"
Jack groaned, "Do the bad guys have some sort of contract? They always go on a monologue and give away their plans; some day, that little tidb it is going to be their downfall."
(Dr. Strangelove: Of course, the whole point of a Doomsday Machine is lost, if you keep it a secret!)
"To be fair to Saturn," the Alpha Pokémon began. "He gave away quite literally everything and nothing with that. But, fortunately for everyone, since Jack seems content to sit on the sidelines for now since no wild Pokémon are being threatened, Officer Jenny arrives to save the day."
Prerecorded audio of children cheering quickly rolled, while Mew looked around in confusion.
"You took the meteorites, right?" Officer Jenny accused Blue-Hair.
"Maybe, and maybe not," he retorted.
(Masamune: Imbecile!)
"All communications are down because of your tricks."
"I'll bet they're responsible for the Pokémon Centre breakdown," Brock said.
"Not just the Pokémon Centre," Jenny corrected him, "but every piece of sensitive electronic equipment in Veilstone."
"Okay," Jack revised, "so they're not as dumb as they look; they planned this out pretty well."
"Unlike me," Arceus began, imitating the trainer's voice. "Who's suddenly stumbled into the middle of an episode of the Pokémon anime, and despite not being seen by the obvious villains and thus having the element of surprise, I think I'll just stand off to the side here and listen to the monologue unfold until my intervention is absolutely necessary. Or until I want to blow something up, whichever comes first."
"And, after Galactic decides to release their Golbat, he does just that."
"Now?" Jason asked.
Jack realized that the rest of his team had arrived without his noticing, and he smiled.
"Now!"
After that one word, Jack lost track of the action; his team jumped into the fray, and began systematically taking down every golbat in sight.
Jack, on the other hand, used the confusion to make a leap for one of the Galactic airships. With much difficulty, he climbed aboard one, took out every Galactic grunt on it, and forced it to drop its meteor.
"Upon which it unfortunately crushed four Golbats and two grunts known only by their codenames of 'stormtrooper' and 'red shirt'."
He then proceeded to the next one; the ships were reasonably close together, so he just jumped from ship to ship.
Grunt: Sir, someone's boarded one of the ships and has completely dispatched it's entire crew within a few seconds, and now he's looking at ours!
Commander: Hm... Maintain formation as tightly and close together as possible, we can't disrupt our light show that's alerted the entire city to our presence.
He noticed that the others had taken care of all the golbat, and were now working on the meteorites as well. Mostly catching them as they fell. Then, as Jack leaped to the last airship, it moved away, causing Jack to drop to the ground. He only just managed to land on his feet.
He looked up, in time to see the airships, one of them still carrying a meteorite, flying away. The Pokémon made one last attempt to stop them, but the ships were out of range.
"They got away, with one meteorite," Jack stated the obvious.
"Yes," Officer Jenny confirmed, "I just wish we knew what they're planning to do with that meteorite."
Arceus sighed. "Specific question for a vague answer, I suppose."
"You know, we never really introduced ourselves properly," Jack said, "I'm Jack Storm,
"And no matter what you saw, I certainly did not just jump from one helicopter to another and start taking out Galactic Grunts that inexplicably disappeared in the aftermath." Arceus cleared his throat.
"So, after introductions are aside, everyone returns to the Pokémon Center where Ash, who is fortunately in one of his more intelligent incarnations, brings up an obvious question."
"Hey Jack," Ash asked, "I was just wondering, why are all your Pokémon out of their Pokéballs?"
Jack hesitated, "Well, I just like spending time with them, that's all."
"And I can see that," Brock said, kneeling, "It's obvious how well you take care of them; they're well-trained, well-fed, and well-groomed." Jack glanced at Katana; he certainly hadn't been grooming them. The Bug-type shrugged, but she was smiling; Jack rolled his eyes.
"But what I really want to know," Brock continued, "is how do you have eight Pokémon?"
Jack hesitated again, "Well, Cap and Katana aren't actually mine; technically, they're wild."
"And yet they follow you," Brock said, amazed.
The Alpha Pokémon deadpanned. "Even someone who has had to travel with Ash Ketchum across four regions is surprised by Jack."
"I have a magnetic personality, I guess."
The second he said it, he realized that it was true; people, humans and Pokémon alike, and even complete strangers, tended to trust him on sight.
"One more mystery," he thought, "but let's test it."
Jack Storm: Quickly; someone get me a giant, neon sign that says 'Gary Stu', put it over my head and let's see if anyone comments.
Mew crossed her arms and looked at Arceus reservedly. "Really?"
The Alpha Pokémon only chuckled slightly. "I couldn't resist."
"So Ash," he asked, "what are you going to do now?"
Ash answered without hesitation, "We're going to Pastoria City for my next gym battle."
"Do you mind if I come with you after mine?"
Once again, Ash didn't give it a second thought, "Sure; besides, I'd like to see your battle with Maylene too."
Arceus rolled his eyes. "Using Ash Ketchum as a test subject to see if you can easily influence other people is setting a very low bar."
Jack's head was not in the game that morning.
He was thinking about the occurrences of yesterday; primarily, the discovery of his 'magnetic personality', and the ramifications thereof. What concerned him the most, was that he had always known, deep down; he'd always been charismatic, but the more he thought about it, the more he realized how unnaturally trusting people were of him.
The Normal Type raised a non-existent eyebrow. "So Jack's slowly turning into the Jedi Exile?" The Legendary Pokémon's gaze turned down to Mew, who only smiled sheepishly.
"Well, he has the robes... And the followers... And he hasn't been around civilization for a long time... And he's being pursued by two powerful legendaries across Sinnoh... And he can use the For- aura."
"Regardless," Arceus hummed. "Jack heads off to battle Maylene with Ash and Co. watching from the sidelines, and I have to say it's probably the best battle yet; it's easy to follow, well described, balanced even. Jason gets knocked out in a duel with Maylene's Lucario, Aura evolves into a Dragonair, and Jack ultimately forfeits to spare his Pokémon any more harm. So yes, Chapter Twenty Two is a very solid battle. The next chapter starts with Jack parting ways with Ash and friends as he decides to stay in Veilstone to train for a while, and somehow one of his Pokémon raises a good question."
Lucy raised a paw, not an easy feet (pun: intended),
"Misspelling: too."
"Jack, I've been wondering; why do you want to collect these gym badges anyway?"
Jack thought about this for a moment, "Actually, I have no idea."
"Oh."
Solomon scratched his chin thoughtfully, "Well, you're looking for an adventure; acquiring all gym badges, and defeating the Sinnoh League, is a challenging, yet achievable goal.
Jack thought for a second, "Yeah, I'll buy that. Okay, can we redo that scene then? 'No'? What do you mean, 'no'?!"
(John Cleese: Zat's not funny!)
"At this point I'm not going to even bother..." Arceus commented with a depressed sigh.
Over the next couple weeks, Jack and his friends trained like they had only trained once before; Eterna. Like then, they received some unexpected help from the Gym Leader that they were training to challenge. Maylene offered them a training course, and bed at the dojo; Jack initially tried to politely decline the invitation, afraid that he was unconsciously coercing her into offering. After a while, however, he realized that it was just in her nature to help in training others; he then accepted. And since his robes resembled the martial arts uniforms already, he didn't even need to borrow a set.
The Alpha Pokémon's eyes lightened up.
"So Jack is going to be spending time with another human?" Mew raised an eyebrow.
"Why're you so excited?"
"Think about it;" Arceus commented, eyes glancing upwards. "Throughout the story, how many other human beings has Jack actually interacted with beyond a few strings of dialogue?"
Mew opened her mouth, but quickly closed it and scratched the back of her head. The Pink Pokémon then crossed her arms and tapped the side of her jaw. "Um... Well, I'm sure he talked with Gardenia more than a few times when he worked at Eterna's Gym."
"That was all offscreen," the Normal Type deadpanned, while the New Species Pokémon smiled sheepishly.
"Well, then... Uh... Zero." Arceus nodded.
"Exactly. Jack's Pokémon have plenty of personality, but it's not healthy or feasible for Jack to only interact with them."
"Huh..." Mew muttered, while the Equine Pokémon hummed in agreement.
"In fact, I actually hope Maylene will decide to travel with Jack once everything is said and done." Mew's head shot back to the white Pokémon towering over her.
"Huh!?"
"Yes. It wouldn't be entirely unprecedented given the amount of Gym Leaders that have abandoned their posts to go on a journey, and Jack and Maylene would make a good team." Mew raised an eyebrow.
"What makes you say that, Arcy?" the owner of the nickname chuckled slightly.
"Well, for starters, they work together quite well;"
In fact, one time when they were sparring one-on-one, Maylene had this to say to Jack.
"You know," she jabbed at his left side, "Your lucario, Jason, is really powerful."
Jack blocked it, and held his ground, "Not as powerful as yours; he practically radiates Auric power."
Jack could've kicked himself for giving that away, but he lashed out at Maylene's right side instead.
She blocked his clumsy attack, and smiled, "Don't worry, I've known you were an Aura Wielder for a while; your secret is safe with me."
Jack launched a left hook, "How did you find out?"
Maylene avoided it, and retaliated with a roundhouse kick, "Lucario isn't the only one who 'radiates Auric power'; I can sense massive potential in you, and in Jason. Certainly more than me, and maybe even more than Lucario."
Jack faltered in surprise, and was knocked off his feet by an uppercut from the Gym Leader.
She gave a small laugh, "You still need lots of work though, before you can reach that potential."
"Thanks for the warning," Jack said sarcastically as he got back up.
"There's also the fact that she becomes something of a mentor to him, and there's already a level of trust between the two;"
He spent the rest of their sparring time in complete silence, pondering Maylene's words; more potential in Jason and himself, than in the Auric Titan, Lucario? Jack looked deep inside himself, but could only find mediocrity; he'd only just learned how to focus enough to form an Aura Sphere. And the next time he saw Jason, he looked at him closely too; he just couldn't see anything like the potential Maylene said she could see.
But then, it came to him; Maylene could see it, but he couldn't. What if it was in the way Jack saw Jason, that was blurring his vision; the same thing that must have been blinding Jason to Jack's potential. Jack then looked at Jason, not as a brother, but as an individual and complex person; someone he might meet on the street.
It was like putting on glasses; all of a sudden, Jack could see exactly what Maylene was talking about. Jason practically glowed with subtle power; it wasn't like Lucario's, open and flashy. It was more quiet, hidden, undiscovered maybe, but there nonetheless. Jack could plainly see that Jason's power was easily as great Lucario's; he realized with a shock, that if Maylene was right about Jason, then she also must have been right about him.
"The problem was," he thought, as he sparred with Maylene, "that Jason and I must have grown up beside each other's power, and it just became normal; 'familiarity breeds contempt' and all that. We got so used to the other being an Aura beacon, that by the time we could have realized it, we didn't think twice about it."
Jack was snapped out of his reverie by Maylene's fist connecting with his face.
"Oh, come on," she said with a smile, "You weren't even trying that time."
The longer Jack stayed at the dojo, the more he liked it there; he felt comfortable, or at least, a lot more comfortable than anywhere else. He still couldn't reveal the true extent of his powers, but no one thought anything of his enhanced agility and strength, or even of his Auric abilities. Of anything, they were more impressed, and even envious, than repelled. After a while, it started to feel a little like home. When the time came for his rematch with Maylene, after several weeks of training, he wasn't even sure that he wanted to leave.
Jack shook his head to clear it, "Think about all that once you've won."
He stepped onto the field, brimming with confidence, and with a smile on his face, "Jason, it's show-time!"
"Yes; Maylene's become something of a friend to Jack. She's taken him under her wing, given him a place to stay, has been someone for Jack to learn from and strive against, has kept his secret, and has all around been a likeable character. Given all the development that has ben devoted to her and her dynamic with our hero, it would actually be quite the waste if she didn't decide to tag along with him, or at the very least come back later."
Arceus concluded his commentary with a nod, while Mew, who was floating out of his line of sight and had grown a slightly sheepish smile, put a stubby finger to her lips.
After Jack opted to send out Jason first, Maylene smiled and sent out Medicham; Jack's team weren't the only ones who had gotten stronger.
The referee made his customary preliminary speech, "THE BATTLE IS GYM LEADER MAYLENE VERSES CHALLENGER JACK STORM OF GREENWOOD TOWN. IT WILL BE THREE ON THREE, AND ONLY THE CHALLENGER IS ALLOWED TO SUBSTITUTE POKÉMON. THE BATTLE WILL BE OVER WHEN ALL POKÉMON ON ONE SIDE ARE UNABLE TO BATTLE. BEGIN!"
[Jason (Lucario) Age: 15. Ability: Steadfast. Moves: Metal Claw, Counter, Force Palm, Aura Sphere, Bone Rush, Close Combat (not mastered), and Focus Punch (not mastered).]
Arceus blinked.
"Changing the format still doesn't change the fact it interrupts the flow of the story. And what does the age of a Pokémon have to do with battling? Will we have to keep an eye on the older ones to make sure they don't throw a hip mid-move?"
"But aren't you ancient too, Arcy?"
"I could say very much the same about you," Mew just crossed her arms and turned her head indignantly. "Right... Well after the opening moves, Jason falls back and... they discuss the plan from the previous night that had somehow escaped the previous chapter?" the Pokémon shook his head.
"Well, frankly being interrupted every two sentences has become the norm around here, but I'll count my blessings that at least Pokémon don't inexplicably evolve in the middle of t-" the Psychic Type behind him pressed a button.
Toby had evolved into a gallade, and the only thought in Jack's mind was, "Not again!"
(Mugatu: I feel like I'm taking crazy pills!)
Arceus turned around to Mew, who quickly hid the remote control behind her small back, and floated up the broken plank from earlier. Mew quickly covered her face and flinched, only to hesitantly open her eyes when no impact came, and saw one of the ends of the board was aimed towards her.
"Please," Arceus began, shoving the wood into her paws. "Hit me over the head with this as hard as you possibly can."
"Toby, are you alright?" was what he said, but all he could think was, "Is it going to be just like the last match?"
Mew was looking downwards, watching one of Arceus' golden hooves unconsciously twitch as he half-groaned, half-mumbled, before his body went limp, and quickly turned back and smiled nervously.
"Uh, don't worry; Arcy's fine," her reassurance was followed by another groan from below the screen, and still maintaining her smile, Mew telepathically picked up the plank and clubbed the Alpha Pokémon sprawled across the floor again. "But let's get onto the battle!"
"Alright then Toby, use Psycho Cut!"
Machoke was prepared for an attack, but he wasn't prepared for Toby; the newly evolved Pokémon extended his armblades with psychic energy, and charged full-tilt at his opponent. Machoke used Brick Break to block the attack, but Toby had some brand-new tricks up his metaphorical sleeves; at the last second, he leaped clean over Machoke, and dealt a tremendous blow to its back.
Machoke, still deceptively light on its feet, turned and launched Dynamic Punch at its smaller adversary, but the Blade Pokémon easily struck first with Shadow Sneak; disappearing completely for a second, and knocking Machoke off its feet from behind like a bolt of shadow. By the time Machoke got up, Toby was on the other side of the field, waiting.
"I don't know about you," Solomon telepathed to Jack, "But it seems to me that Machoke is a bit of a one-trick-ponyta."
"Says the pot to the kettle..." the Alpha Pokémon's barely-lucid comment was quickly followed by another pained cry.
Mew, eyes quickly running over the story after turning back from the legendary, smiled. "And the rest of the battle is really great! Jack and Maylene go back and forth, and then their Lucario's end up in a duel, only for Jason to fall back and Toby to barely squeak out a win!"
"I knew it," Maylene exclaimed, "I knew that it would come down to this; Lucario versus Jason. It couldn't end any other way."
Jack's smirk grew imperceptibly, "We'll see."
Jason, being almost completely healed, lost no time in taking the initiative with Metal Claw. As expected, knowing that it could win a direct confrontation, Lucario responded with Metal Claw as well. However, at the last second, Jason switched to Bone Rush; this not only gave him an advantage of leverage, but also a fulcrum.
Jason, instead of meeting his opponent head-on, used one end of his Auric staff to defend himself, and the other to knock Lucario off its hind paws; an underhanded blow, but an effective one. However, Jason wasn't the only one who could play dirty; Lucario, while on the ground, knocked Jason off his hind paws as well with a sweeping kick that definitely wasn't a Pokémon move.
Eventually though, it became obvious who was better trained, and more powerful. Lucario slowly, but surely began to get the edge, as Jason began slowing down, and making mistakes. After about two minutes of combat, Jason was getting tired, but he kept on fighting.
Then, Lucario delivered a much more powerful blow; throwing all its Steel-Type weight into the strike. The impact snapped Jason's Auric staff in two, and landed a resounding hit on his chest.
Jason flew backwards, and into Jack's arms once again; weak, but in no way defeated. This time though, instead of sending him back to the field, Jack simply pulled out his brother's Pokéball.
"I guess we'll be using the plan after all," Jack said.
"So it would seem," Jason grunted, "I hope this works."
Jack smiled, "You haven't stopped saying that since Solomon came up with it. Like I said; if it doesn't, then you can make the next one."
This elicited a laugh from Jason, "I'll hold you to that."
With that, Jason was engulfed by the beam of red light, and disappeared. The sight still made Jack's stomach turn to ice, but he swallowed the feeling. He had a plan to follow.
Lucario was, at this point, astonished, and a little apprehensive of this seemingly underestimated warrior. However, that wasn't going to stop the Aura Pokémon from winning. Lucario lunged forward with Metal Claw, but Toby simply disappeared.
Lucario half expected this tactic though, and turned immediately with Bone Rush, just in time to be hit full in the face with Psycho Cut. And Toby wasn't finished with one, but kept on landing hit after hit, while Lucario was too stunned to do anything but try, unsuccessful, to block the attacks.
Again and again Toby's psychic blades flashed, again and again Lucario attempted to block them; and failed. Everyone in the room was completely astounded at the Blade Pokémon's ferocity, and berserker strength.
After what seemed like an eternity to Jack, Toby stopped his relentless attack, and backed off to survey his work.
Lucario was now in almost as poor shape as Toby; battered, bruised, and bewildered. However, not beaten. The Aura Pokémon still had fight left, and Bone Rush proved just how much. Lucario charged at Toby with speed born of desperation. Closer and closer Lucario came, and closer and closer Toby let him come, until Lucario could see the whites of his opponent's eyes; eyes that were not afraid.
At the last moment, just before Lucario delivered the final blow, Toby's blades began to glow. Faster than the human eye could follow, Toby ducked and swept his blades upwards in an X shaped Psycho Cut. The attack landed square on Lucario's chest, and threw the Aura Pokémon backwards into a wall. Lucario was out for the count; the battle was over; they had won.
"Yep!" the New Species Pokémon cheered. "And you more than earned it!"
After the referee proclaimed Jack the winner, a hearty round of applause rang out from the benches. Jack released the Pokémon who were in their Pokéballs, then looked around at the people clapping; most of them were his own Pokémon friends, but there were also several people from the dojo, with whom Jack had become familiar during his stay.
However, as he scanned the stands, one face stood out; a face he recognized.
The face mouthed the word, "After," and Jack nodded; his smile broadening even farther. Jack and Jason then walked over to where Maylene was tending to Lucario's injuries, and Jack held out his hand to her.
"That was a great battle," he said, "Thank you for allowing us to train here."
Maylene gave his hand a hearty shake, "It was fun training you Jack; I hope that we can battle again some day."
"Be careful what you wish for,"
Maylene: Even though I won't come back into the story.
Jack then turned, and extended his hand to Lucario, "Master Lucario, I have more to thank you for, than I do Maylene; you've helped me and my br... partner, Jason, so much with our Auric powers; I don't know how to thank you."
Lucario got up and shook Jack's hand, "You just did. And please, call me Lucas. And as for you and your brother..."
Lucas laughed at the expressions on their faces.
"How... How long have you known?" Jack exclaimed softly, surreptitiously switching to Pokéspeak.
"Uh, Jack; there are people nearby," Mew looked up slightly. "Oh well, Lucario tells Jack that his secret's safe with him."
Just then, Jack realized that everything had gone silent; no one was clapping, no one was talking.
Spectator: Did that human just speak to a Pokémon?
Other Spectator: Meh, that's normal compared to everything else that goes on around here.
Mew sighed and looked down. "I just can't do it."
Her head shot back up, brow furrowed and face contorting into one of slight shock. "Wow. I never thought I'd say that..." The Pokémon then shook her head and snapped her fingers, summoning a pail over the unconscious pseudo-deity, before quickly dumping a bucketful of iced water on the Normal Type. Arceus shot up and frantically looked around, before his gaze fell on Mew.
"What... What- Oh, never mind," the legendary sighed out as he resumed his position at the forefront. "Where were we?"
Mew pointed at the computer and Arceus gave a gruff nod.
He turned around slowly, expecting the worst, and saw Maylene holding out a small, simple, metal box to him.
"Jack Storm," The gym leader said, "For defeating the Veilstone City Gym, and for being the best student I've ever trained, I award you with the Cobble Badge; I don't think anyone here would say you haven't earned it."
Jack took the box with reverence, and opened it with quiet excitement; within it, was a small, orange square of metal in the shape of four bricks. Jack took his badge-case from his pocket, took the Cobble Badge out of its box, and placed the badge in the case alongside the Coal and Forest Badges.
Jack placed the case back in his pocket, and made a formal bow to Maylene, "Thank you, Master Maylene."
The gym leader bowed as well, in mock-formality, "You're welcome, Jack Storm."
Arceus sighed forlornly. "Farewell, Maylene; you will be missed. And now I suppose that Jack heads back on the roa-"
"Nicholas."
"Jack!" The trainer exclaimed, "Good to see you again."
"You too," Jack said with a smile, "How have things been going with you?"
Nicholas whipped out his Badge-case, "Three, just like you; I defeated Maylene a while ago, and decided I could stand to wait a while here. Then, yesterday, I heard there was gonna be a gym battle; I decided to check it out, and this happened."
The Alpha Pokémon blinked.
"So, we won't get Maylene, who has become the closest thing to a human friend that Jack has, but we'll get a trainer who had a short cameo a few chapters back whose only purpose was to present Jack with a moral dilemma?" the pseudo-deity performed a motion akin to shrugging.
"I'll take what I can get at this point. So, Jack and Nicholas talk for a while, and though he can't understand Pokémon, Nicholas gets the gist that Jack's Pokémon have warmed up to him and later decides to accompany him. As the chapter comes to an end, Jack begins to suspect a reason for something that has been plaguing this story."
Jack sat awake in bed, thinking about all that had happened that day. However, it wasn't the gym battle he remembered most, or even his conversation with Nicholas. It was the book he bought afterwards; 'The Mysterious World of Pokémon'.
From it, Jack learned that it was true that only a select few Pokémon could learn more than four moves at a time. He also found out something even more shaking; in order for a kirlia to evolve into a gallade, it needs to be in close proximity to a Dawn Stone. Otherwise, the kirlia will become a gardevoir.
Jack knew for a fact that there were no Dawn Stones there when Toby evolved, so what happened? All he could think of was that he somehow caused it, and he didn't like that idea. Maylene and Lucas said he had great power; he wondered if maybe, he was the reason that his team could learn more than four moves too.
"All the more reason to learn more," he thought, "I have to find answers. The sooner, the better."
"Yes, Jack comes to the conclusion that he is a walking McGuffin," Mew crossed her arms but said nothing, while Arceus raised a non-existent eyebrow. "The next chapters are... a continuation of the crossover review with Keldeo!?"
Arceus' head snapped back to the Psychic Type floating behind him, who only gave a nod in confirmation.
Jack woke with a start, and instinctively assessed his situation; he was in a room in the Veilstone Pokémon Centre, it was the middle of the night, and nothing was out of the ordinary. However, this dream was even stranger than the regular one.
"Was it just another dream?" he asked himself, "It seemed so real, but then again, so do most of my dreams... No; it had to be a dream. Keldeo, Dialga, it couldn't be real; there's no way I could cause all that."
Jack quickly realized that he'd never get any sleep at this rate, so he got up to go for a walk instead, in the hope that the fresh air would clear his head.
On a whim, Jack drifted towards the Meteors. The only other time he'd seen them was at night, when they were being stolen. Now, when the rest of the city was still, the meteors glowed with a rippling, ocean-blue light. However, even as he was doing his best to calm down, thoughts of his dream still plagued him.
"But, what if it wasn't a dream?" Jack asked himself, "If it was a dream, it was certainly realistic; everything that happened was improbable, but not strictly impossible..."
Even though Jack usually tried to keep an open mind about what was possible, he found it hard to believe that anything like his dream could have ever happened. However, he'd also learned the hard way to listen to his instincts, and his instincts were telling him that there was something he was missing.
Then, he got it. He didn't know why he hadn't seen it earlier; maybe fatigue had slowed him down, maybe he was shellshocked by what he had seen, but he saw it now. He had gone to bed in his civilian disguise, but changed to his blue robes in the dream, and he was still wearing his blue robes.
"It wasn't a dream," Jack felt a chunk of ice in his stomach, as he remembered what Dialga had said, "Oh no."
Jack hastily flung out a mental probe in all directions, but he didn't have to look far; running towards the Meteor Fields, was a blue, frog-like Pokémon. Greninja was here.
Arceus' eye began twitching.
"Let me ask you this..." the Legendary began slowly, voice low and barely restrained. "What continuity does this story belong to!? Is it in the anime, the games, Keldeo the Critic, Conquering the Dark, or in it's own little world!? Can we expect to see Grovyle, Red and Ritchie all suddenly fall out of the sky together?"
"Um, Arcy," Arceus, however, was too busy ranting to her Mew's comment.
"Can we get some clarification? Some indication? A sign of any kind!?" after that, Arceus' voice became increasingly higher, his demands becoming harder to discern. Mew gritted her teeth and started to rub her temples as the Alpha Pokémon's rant continued, and finally her eyes snapped open.
"ARCY!" his head snapped back around at her shout, and Mew recoiled for a moment at the intensity of his glare, but quickly recomposed herself.
"Arcy, what is this story about?" the Alpha Pokémon quickly calmed down, glancing downwards slightly.
"I'm assuming it's about a boy and his Lucario as they travel around Sinnoh."
"Exactly," she replied with a nod. "And why are they?"
Arceus deadpanned. "There's no given explanation. Even Jack himself admits that."
"Yep!" Mew confirmed cheerfully, something that set Arceus on edge. "So, if there's no reason for the journey, then what is the real point of the story? What're you expecting from it?"
"I suppose... It would simply be a boy finding his way in the world," the Alpha Pokémon muttered, blinking a few times before turning his gaze back to the New Species Pokémon. "Mew, are you saying that, simply because the story doesn't even care for the reason behind it, I shouldn't care when or where it takes place?"
"Pretty much," the Psychic Type replied half-heartedly. "I mean, we've already established that Jack Storm isn't exactly the most believable character, or that there's really any reason for him to go out on a journey anyways, other than to find out who he is. And that's what this story is about; he simply wants to find out more about who he is and his place in the world. He doesn't really know how he'll do that, so he acts as a trainer in the mean time and goes on all sorts of adventures."
Arceus sighed. "Then... I do suppose this story fulfills its purpose well enough, but even then, if this story is only a recollection of the many misadventures of Jack Storm, I still cannot excuse the laziness and lack of clarity, even if it plays to the story."
"Regardless," the Alpha Pokémon carried on with a shake of the head. "Two chapters pass, Jack and Greninja fight, and it ends with Greninja's death."
It took a few seconds for Arceus to register what he had just said, but his eyes went wide the moment he did. "Okay then... To Jack's credit, the guilt begins to eat him alive, even if it was necessary. But, while wondering over this; Matthew, the Gallade from early who sacrificed himself to let Jack and Co. escape J, manages to stagger into their camp with the Mind Plate, which they had used to save themselves."
"And after a heartfelt reunion, another ten chapters is concluded." Arceus finished with a sigh.
"Are you okay, Arcy?" the Pokémon in question nodded.
"I'm fine, Mew... I just... Need to do some thinking..."
Arceus the Critic
We'll be right back!