A Reminiscence

Chapter Eighteen

Recovery

()()()

After what seemed like hours, or seconds, or at least something, my eyes opened again, I found myself in a great, empty white void, nothing around me but a total vacuum.

"Hello?" I cried, hoping I would get some response, but none came. "Is anybody there? Anybody?"

"Larch?" a voice, unrecognizable and omnipresent, came down to me, which barely helped my situation.

"Where am I?"

"Wake up," the voice said again.

"Excuse me?" I asked, now confused.

"Wake up, asshole!"

The white void disappeared, and I gasped, water pouring out of my mouth as I sat up on the beach of Hatara Lake. "My god!" I said, taking a moment to collect myself before looking at my surroundings. In front of me was Rembrandt, who did not seem terribly pleased with my little stunt.

"The first time I get let in this place, and I find out you did the stupidest goddamn thing of all time?" he asked, crossing his arms and tapping his foot. "What the hell were you thinking, moron?"

I smiled. "Good to see you too, Rembrandt, as ever."

"Good to see me?" he asked, baffled. "You nearly drowned in that lake! We were barely able to pull you out!"

"We?" I was suddenly aware of the presence of something behind me, and turned around to find that Slick and Jon were also present, but they seemed far more pleased, as well as soaking wet. "You all saved me?"

"Yep," Slick said, deserved pride well apparent in his voice. "Dragged you out of the lake ourselves, after we hauled ass after that helicopter."

"You ran all the way out here to save me?" I asked.

"Hell yeah, we did!" Slick said. "Hell of a workout, too. I had to carry these two guys, but it was worth it, I think."

I stood up completely, some more of the lake's water running off of me. "Believe you me, I am incredibly grateful, and I do not know how I could possibly repay you for this."

"There is one way," Slick said.

"That being?"

"Kick my brother's ass."

I smiled. "I was fully planning on doing that anyway…wait."

"What?" Slick asked.

"I…had a vision, just before I woke up, a white void. Am I dead, and this merely an illusion?"

"Let's find out!" Rembrandt yelled, kicking me quite strongly in the shin, which, thankfully, hurt quite a bit.

"Agh!" I cried, clutching at the strike before I realized what it meant. "This…this is the truth! I am alive!"

"Rembrandt, stop being a douche," Slick warned.

"Er, yes, that may be a recommendable course of action," I said, realizing something else. "How are we going to get back? I hardly think we can all run back to the city."

"Don't worry, we've got it under control, too," Slick said, pointing up to the sky. I looked to where he was guiding, and surprisingly enough saw Bill, Anne's Charizard, coming into the fray, leaving a streak of smoke behind him.

"Bill!" I said, running over to his landing spot. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm going to be the transportation!" he said proudly, standing full and upright. "Where do you need to go?"

"Let's go kick Zerus' ass!" Slick proposed, but I had better ideas.

"No, we should regroup at the hotel and then go kick his ass. Perhaps that Latias of Jack's can take us to him. By the way, did you notice where he was going?"

"Yeah, north, somewhere," Slick said, pointing in that direction.

"North it is, then," I said. "But first, it would be wise to go regroup at the hotel, so we can have a larger force."

"Good plan," Bill said. "I can take us there right away."

"Can you handle such a large distance?" I asked, recalling what had happened all the way back in Kanto.

"If the safety of the world itself is on the line, then yes, I can handle it. Come on!" Bill turned around and we all climbed on his back.

"Hold on, guys!" Bill said as he gave a powerful flap of his wings and took off, carrying us back to the city at incredible speeds, me screaming along as he did…

()()()

With Bill's astonishing strength and ability, we found ourselves back at Black City in almost no time, noticing a few very peculiar things as we touched down on an apartment building near City Hall. For one, a massive crowd had gathered around the hall, holding up several large signs that I was unable to read.

"A protest?" I wondered as I climbed off of Bill.

"More like a riot," Rembrandt said. I looked closer and saw he was right; several objects were being thrown at the building, many of which looked quite heavy.

"What on earth is going on?" I wondered aloud.

"Let's go find out. This could be important later," Slick suggested.

"Down there? With those lunatics? Have you lost your mind?" I asked, frankly horrified by the thought of it.

"What, you'll jump out of a helicopter, but you won't go near a couple of pissed-off guys?" Rembrandt asked.

"I…well…oh, fine," I conceded. Rembrandt, Slick, and I made our way to the fire escape, as Bill flew off to reconvene with Anne.

"I do not have a good feeling about this," I said as we made our way to the crowd. As we drew nearer and nearer, the crowd somehow seemed to grow even larger, an endless sea of people that were chanting and raving. Many of the signs became readable as well, saying such things as "Reform now!" and "Is this really safety?" Most of said signs looked incredibly crude, as if they had just been made a few minutes ago with cardboard and a Sharpie.

"Excuse me!" I cried, attempting to make my voice heard above the utter din around us and failing miserably. "Excuse me, may I speak with somebody?"

"Hey, assholes!" Slick yelled, his hands cupped to his mouth like a crude megaphone. "This guy wants to talk with somebody!"

Although we remained mostly ignored, somebody who was simply chanting along and not carrying any sign noticed us and walked over, seeming quite glad to see us.

"Are you here for the protest?" he asked, seeming genuinely curious as to the answer.

"Er…not really. In fact, I just noticed it now. What is going on?" I asked.

"We're sick of the government intruding on our daily lives, and that stunt with the Chinook earlier was the final straw!"

"Oh, really?" I said, nearly choking as I recalled the role I had in that.

"Yeah! We're tired of the government putting us in danger to protect us from invisible enemies! Down with military control!"

"This is getting ridiculous," Rembrandt said, pinching his nose. "How do you do these things? Why couldn't we have just stayed in Kanto? It was nice there! Things made sense!"

"I would never have stayed in Kanto if I knew this business was going on," I said, "and I am glad I did not. Come, we should go with the others. They are in the hotel, right?"

"Yeah, they're in the hotel," Slick answered. "Wait, are those police sirens?"

I listened for a moment, and just barely heard the sound of law enforcement coming to theoretically defuse the situation, but I knew they would not do anything helpful for it at all.

"I think perhaps we should go before this turns south," I suggested. The others readily agreed and we made haste away as the police came in, but unfortunately, one of the policemen noticed me and pulled over, leaving his comrades to deal with the riot.

"Erm, what seems to be the problem, officer?" I asked, frozen in shock, as he made his way towards me.

"Weren't you that guy getting chased around by the helicopter earlier?" he asked, subtly reaching for his weapon.

"No, why do you ask?" I lied through my teeth.

"He's still at large, and very much so, at that," he said, looking to his right at the crowd. "I mean, look at this mess!"

"I hardly think that this catastrophe is his fault," I defended. "The law enforcement clearly overreacted to a nonexistent threat. Absolutely embarrassing, if you ask me."

"Are you saying you side with these guys?"

"Perhaps I do!" I cried, rushing forward and punching the cop in the face, sending him straight to the floor.

"Holy shit!" Rembrandt cried in horror. "You just took out a cop!"

"You're really not helping the situation, Larch!" Slick chided.

"Oh, come on, they have their hands far too full to care about me," I said, pointing at the crowd, in which several fights had started to break out between the cops and the protesters.

"That doesn't give you free reign to act like a crazy person!" Slick shouted.

"Considering you are the one attracting the most attention, I would be more cautious," I said. "Come on, let us go to the hotel, I have had enough of this."

The others walked off, but I lingered for a moment, looking at the unconscious policeman before following.

()()()

In the hotel's lobby, something else was going on as well: a number of policemen were escorting the agents and valet out of the building. I carefully avoided them, remaining unseen as the three would-be assassins kept their heads down to prevent anybody from seeing their face.

"What an absolute terror!" somebody society women cried, looking at them with fear.

"What do you mean?" I asked, stepping closer to her as they were removed from the building entirely.

"Well, such vicious beasts on the top floor of the building?" she said. "Oh, it makes me sick just thinking about it!"

"Well, you needn't worry about them any longer. They are being quite thoroughly removed, and I doubt they will be making a return."

"Those were government agents, I tell you!" another man in a large cowboy hat, bolo tie, and such associated things called out. "They're trying to take us out to restart that war!"

"That's ridiculous!" the woman objected. "Our own government would never do something so…so heinous as this!"

"I would not be too sure," I interjected. "Just a while ago, the vice president pushed me out of a helicopter into a lake."

"What? Oh!" the woman fainted, hand held to her forehead, and I rushed forward to catch her.

"I told you it's the government!" the cowboy cried. "That Chinook should have been proof enough, but you have to believe me now! Just look at the protest!" He pointed out the window at the large group of people, and several people around us mumbled in approval of the notion. "Well, I won't have it! No matter what they try to do to start that stupid war over again, I won't have any part of it!"

"You won't?" I asked, pleased that Zerus' plan may not have been as perfect as he thought.

"No!" he cried, taking off his hat and throwing it to the floor. "If our own government isn't able to do something without going behind all our backs, why should we trust them in a war situation that they caused!"

"Yeah!" some unseen person cried out, followed by many others.

"I'm damn glad that war is over, and so is everyone in this room! No more war! No more war!" The entire room joined him in the chant, repeating the phrase over and over again, louder each time.

"Let's get out of here," Slick suggested, barely heard over the chanting around us. "This is getting kinda freaky."

"I could not agree more."

()()()

There were, luckily, no more police at the top of the hotel where our penthouse was, allowing for easy access to the grand room. Of course, when we opened it, the others were quite surprised to see me, even if they did know about my little plan. Anne was probably the most glad to see me, judging by how she ran up to me and seized me in the most powerful bear hug I had ever received.

"You're okay!" she cried, squeezing tighter and tighter. "Never do something that stupid again, do you hear me?"

"Anne, I rather like my ribcage, so if you would be so kind as to release me…" I said, my voice strained.

"What? Oh, right, sorry," she said, allowing me to breathe once more.

"Thank you! Now then, I am safe and sound, so what shall be done?"

"I say we go straight to that asshole Zerus' place and shove that ponytail of his up his ass sideways!" Jack suggested, his face red with fury.

"Uh, Jack, that might be a tad on the…unnecessary side…" I warned.

"He threw you out of a helicopter and you're telling me you don't want to kick his ass?" Jack asked, completely disbelieving. I did have to admit that Zerus was hardly my favorite person in the world at the moment.

"Well…we shall see what happens when it comes to that. For now, we must go North, and quickly, lest he complete his plot."

"Would it even work?" Ralph asked. "I mean, with that riot out there, people don't seem particularly willing to listen to anybody higher up at the moment."

"The consequences could still be disastrous," I noted. "It could possibly even lead to a civil war on top of the old one, and that would just be horrific."

"Okay, now you're just being absurd," Slick admonished. "There's no way it's going to go anywhere near that far."

"You never know," I said. "Is there any way to get north quickly enough? We should probably make haste."

"I think there might be something…" Jack said.

"What would that be?" I demanded, stepping closer.

"Latias!" he shouted triumphantly.

"Latias?" Slick asked. "You have a Latias?"

"Yeah, I totally kicked her ass," Rembrandt claimed. "It was pretty awesome."

"You did not and it wasn't," I said, turning back to Jack. "How can she help us in this endeavor?"

"God, you talk like an asshole," Jack said. "But seriously, she can travel stupid fast, and she's telekinetic. She'll help us out."

"That could prove useful," I noted. "But it could also be dangerous. They could well detect a supersonic aircraft, and that would not end very well for us at all."

"What, you think they're gonna have missiles that can shoot down a Psychic Legendary? I'd love to see them try!" Jack boasted.

"You would put your own Pokémon in the face of death to prove yourself worthy?!" I cried, shocked at his implication.

"What? No! That's the stupidest…what the hell are you talking about?"

"I will not let you risk a Pokémon getting blown up by a missile!"

"You'll risk yourself getting killed, though?!" Rembrandt cried. "God damn it, you scared me when you pulled that little stunt!"

"What?" I asked, surprised by the admission. The conversation would have continued, if not for a sudden explosion from somewhere outside. We all recoiled, expecting something terrible to have happened, but as we all remained intact, it was clear something very different had happened.

"Now what's going on?" Jack asked, walking over to his room and looking out the window. He gasped in shock when he saw what had transpired outside of the hotel.

"What is it? What happened?" I asked as we all ran up. It became obvious when we saw that smoke was wafting up from the massive crowd, seemingly from the shells of several ruined police cars.

"Holy shit, it's turning south!" Slick yelled.

"Dear god," I said. "Look at this mess!"

"Let's get out of here before we get shot or something," Jack suggested, an idea that was met with widespread approval.

"But where would be a good place to get the Latias out?" Slick asked. "If we do it on the ground, we'll get noticed for sure."

"Can we get on the roof?" Anne wondered.

"Of course!" I cried. "The roof would be perfect for this. Good job, Anne!"

"Uh, thanks?" she said, unsure of it as we all ran off to find a way up.

()()()

A search of the hallway turned up only the same elevator that had already led us up, so we figured that would be the best place to start. We all tried to cram ourselves in there, finding that although our numbers were great, we could still fit in and have at least some room to move around.

"Okay, let me see…" Slick said, looking at the button panel for anything that would help us get up to the roof. "Well, there's an emergency fire button, that could be useful for a distraction if we ever come back here…"

"Stop making up future plans and focus on the present, please," I requested. "We have a job to do and only a limited time to do it in, stop wasting time."

"All right, all right, get off my back, already!" Slick defended. "Geez, rude…hey, there's a panel here!" He started fiddling around with it, eventually releasing a hidden latch that revealed an entirely new panel of buttons, likely an engineering panel for firefighters or something.

"Damn, I'm good!" Slick said as he pressed the button labeled "maintenance access". The doors violently shut and the elevator lurched to life, gears that were probably used only rarely taking us up to another room just below the roof, some sort of engineering area with all manner of boilers, pipes, and other such things scattered throughout it. It looked as if it was not often used, but more importantly, it had a staircase that could only have possibly led to one location.

"About time we got out of this place," Slick said as we ascended the stairs to the roof, which was surprisingly devoid of anything, save for a few air conditioning units and a TV satellite. "All of that decadence was starting to make me sick."

"I can sympathize," I said. "Jack, would you care to do the honors?"

"Hell yeah, I would!" he said, pulling out his PokeBall and pointing it at the roof. "Trust me, this is going to kick ass like you won't believe!"

"You seem excited," I noted.

"Shouldn't I be? This is gonna be sweet!"

He pressed the button, and the strange shape of the Latias appeared, outlined in red energy before converging into the expected red-and-white dragon we all recognized, save Slick, who seemed about ready to bow down in reverence.

"Hello," he whispered, outright shocked.

"Hm?" Latias asked, getting a grasp of her surroundings and noticing Slick at last. "Oh, hi, guys! Who's the black guy?"

"Latias!" Jack cried, running for her. "That's kind of inappropriate…"

"I'm Slick," he said, ignoring him and walking forward, cane shaking. "How am I today?"

Anne slapped her face. "What are you doing?"

"Uh, hello?" Latias asked, putting forward her hand. "Slick, right? That's certainly an interesting name."

"Do you like it? I chose it myself," he said, shaking slightly. "Have you seen my monocle? It's lovely." He attempted to take off said item for her to take a closer look, but it merely fell to the floor after he fumbled with it for a bit.

"Jesus Christ," Jack muttered. "What the hell is that?"

"I'll…I'll just go over here now," Slick said, awkwardly slinking off to another part of the roof.

"That was strange," Latias said. "So, now what?"

"Latias, we're going to need you to do something very special for us," Jack explained.

"Does that include the black guy?" she asked, ignoring the earlier advice.

Jack sighed, closing his eyes a bit. "Yes, that includes Slick, and I'm sorry in advance that you have to spend any more time around him."

"Hey!" Slick cried, turning back. "I heard that! I'm still up here, you know!"

"Oh, right, sorry!" Jack said, leaning down to pick up the monocle. "As long as you're still up here, do you want this back, Casanova?"

"I panicked, okay!" Slick cried in indignation. "Like I'm sure you never have!"

"I do better than that!" Jack yelled, stepping past Latias and very intentionally getting in Slick's face. "I don't go around dropping shit and saying even stupider…shit!"

"Aw, couldn't think of another word, smartass?" Slick countered, pushing against Jack's shoulder. "I guess you must really be good at this, huh?"

"Guys, please stop fighting," Latias admonished.

"Shut up, we're talking," Jack quite rudely blew off. "How do I know you're not working for your brother and you're trying to sabotage us?"

"What?!" Slick yelled, nearly snapping his cane in two in his anger. "Why would I do that? My brother is an even bigger asshole than you are!"

"Enough!" Ralph yelled, pulling out his stolen handgun and firing several shots into the air. I instinctively ducked down and covered my head, but Ralph was hardly done yet. "You're both acting like little children, and it's embarrassing."

"ER, thank you, Ralph," I said, trying to get back on track. "All right, then, Latias, we believe that somewhere north there is a military base holding a very unpleasant person who is trying to kill us and take over the world, and we will need you to take us there."

"What the hell have you been getting up to since Kanto?" she asked.

"Very interesting things, that is for sure," I said. "Is it possible for you to psychically detect someone at such a distance? He is a Zoroark, like Slick there, in the event that helps."

"Hm…" She carefully observed Slick for a moment, who was now very awkwardly trying to remain unknown. "That's a pretty specific psychic signature, I should be able to…aha!" she cried. "I've got him!"

"Where is he?" I demanded.

"Well, he is quite a bit to the north, but I should be able to take you there no problem. If I just do this…" she focused for a moment, and a slightly distorted bubble of air appeared, some sort of psychic method of protecting us along the journey. "Hey, sweet, I got that on the first try! Okay, if you just step inside of this bubble, I'll be able to take you there at the speed of sound!"

"Literally?" I asked, choking slightly.

"Well, yeah, he's pretty far away, and you want to get there as fast as you can, right?" Latias asked.

"Well, yes, but…are you sure this is safe?"

"Larch, stop being a wimp and step in the bubble," Jack chided. "This is going to work perfectly and you have nothing to be afraid of. Besides, I came up with this, and she's tested it quite a bit. It's fine."

"You have done this before?" I asked.

"Hell yeah, I have!" Jack said with pride. "No reason to have a car or a plane or something when you can go wherever you want at the speed of sound!"

I stared at him for a moment, surprised he would do something so obscenely dangerous, but shook it off and stepped inside the bubble, my skin tingling a bit as I did so. When I was completely absorbed by the psychic power, I noticed the distinct smell of ozone as well, probably a side consequence of it.

"Will we be able to breathe in here?" Ralph asked as he joined me inside. "Smells kind of funny…"

"I've done this for an hour at a time before," Jack explained. "I've never had any trouble at all."

The others all took a place inside, and although it was rather cramped, it was obvious that we would be fairly safe within the bubble.

"Okay, we're going to be accelerating by, um, a lot," Latias warned, "so be ready for that. I tried to keep it fairly pressurized, but it still might be a bit bumpy." She floated up above the roof, taking us along with it. I do admit that the feeling of standing on something while floating in midair was quite strange indeed, and I nearly did throw up at first when I realized what was happening. However, that was nothing at all compared to what happened next: we accelerated at an absurdly rapid pace, exiting the city's limits in less than a minute and flying across the countryside to our destination. Despite such incredible speed, within the bubble, it was quite impossible to feel any of the forces that should have been there.

"Holy shit!" Slick yelled, as he observed the ground passing beneath us in a massive green blur.

"Don't you fucking throw up in here!" Jack warned.

"I am afraid I might be unable to comply," I said, clutching my stomach.

"Well, comply, dumbass!" Jack yelled back.

"Uh, guys?" Latias shouted, or more likely, thought to us. "You might want to hold on."

"What?" I said, as she suddenly span us around in some manner of evasive maneuvre. I saw the reason soon enough, as a large missile passed beneath us, before turning back and exploding. She immediately decelerated and landed in the forest beneath, releasing us from the bubble just outside some manner of military compound, which was indeed very well hidden and looked well-equipped to address the whole nation at once.

"You all right?" she asked. "That was a close one!"

"Oh, dear god," I spat out, hastily running to a nearby bush to throw up. Upon my stumbling return, we all convened to determine what should be done.

"I think we should take a few minutes to recover from that," Anne suggested. "That was…interesting."

"Sorry," Latias apologized as we took some time to collect ourselves. Once we had finished, though, there would be no more waiting; we had to stop Zerus or else the entire world might have been plunged back into war…