I was NOT procrastinating!
Chapter 32: Not Worth Trying
"Hold on, one last question." This I needed to know. It caught his attention.
"Oh? What is it?" He asked.
"That tree...the giant one, in the middle of Hoenn, it wasn't real was it?" I asked.
"No, that was another illusion that I placed into your mind." He answered.
"But, it felt so real." I responded. "My mother...the mother of this body...I knew her face...her smell...her voice."
"I can assure you that it was only an illusion." I didn't believe him. That moment felt too real.
"I don't believe you." I said.
"Do you need proof? Do I need to show you the area?" He asked.
"No..." He could just block it out as we scanned the area. I doubt Mew can show me. I'll just have to check for myself.
"No more questions? Good, let's do this!" Arceus planted his feet and readied to charge, but Mew had something to say apparently.
"Hey wait! What about that Syther and Sceptile? You made Jason kill the Syther's brother! They swore revenge on him and are probably searching for him right now as we speak. Sure it's not that big of a deal while we're here, but revenge can take a soul far and I do mean FAR!"
"Wait that actually happened!?" I asked a very obvious question.
"Hmph, not my fault the illusions managed to trigger a bad memory. They were just at the wrong place at the wrong time. And you would know how far revenge can take a soul wouldn't you? I could tell you the reason, but you'd just ignore me and get angry. Like every other time." A memory? So it WAS real! If that was real, then so was she.
"A bad memory? Wait, he knew me. If he knew me during the lifetime of the original, then that would mean that giant tree was real! It wasn't an illusion." Arceus can't deny it now!
"Even you know it's not there. You've never seen it during your life as a human, so how could it have sprouted to such a great size in such a short amount of time?" Arceus asked me.
"I...don't know, but it was real! It has to be! It was my home...That Sceptile in my memory knew me...and the name of the original is Linus...That Sceptile knew Linus, not me, Jason."
"Has it ever occurred that you could have known him at any given time on Hoenn? Arceus asked.
"But he-" Arceus interrupted me.
"Never said your name. None of them. Had any of them said your name, your theory would be possible." Maybe it wasn't real. Discovering the truth may make my goal hard to reach. Already I've thought about whether I really wanted to or not.
I shut my eyes and thought a little more about it. Only she called me Linus. Wait...She knew I was taken away! I doubt their tribe would want anything to do with a Treecko who has human connections. Especially not from evil people who only want them for sick experiments or to brainwash and turn them into their slaves. "You say it wasn't real?" I asked Arceus and he nodded yes. "Good." The last thing I need is something to regret in the end.
"You're just going to give up on finding out?" Mew asked me.
"You say that like you know something." My response caught Mew off guard.
"I-I don't..." Mew's stuttering obviously meant she knew something.
"Keep it to yourself. Unless you want to make me have regrets. The last thing we need is for either of us to care." I told her.
"It really makes me wonder, how do you plan on carrying out this, destruction of the world? You can cause damage to an area, but once the inhabitants retaliate, you'll go down. It may not seem like much to you Mew, but don't think I've forgotten about your fights with Celebi and Jirachi. Both of them took you down with little effort. Jason, you could not last very long against the retaliating inhabitants let alone take down even any of the legendaries. Your copy ability will take you only so far. When you left incubation, you weren't complete. By breaking out, you slowed your growing process. Your potential strength is much greater than it is now." Of course Arceus would know this. The more I find out about myself the better.
"Hey Celebi has a distinct advantage over me. If he didn't abuse his power over time, I would have won. Jirachi's ability to take anything from practically anywhere, caught me off guard." Mew cut in. Celebi must be pretty hard to beat if he's jumping through time, but this Jirachi doesn't sound too hard. Mew was a bit late on commenting.
"You of all beings should have known about that. Especially since that wasn't the first time you two fought. Each fight ending the same way." Arceus replied to Mew's comment.
"Shovels hurt...Jirachi is a monster. No one can have a smile like that while madly swinging all sorts of weapons at another living being." Mew held her snout as she said that. A shovel to the face each time? You'd think someone like Mew would learn how to avoid it. This Jirachi sounds like a serial killer. I think I'd rather avoid getting involved with it.
"As I was saying, I don't know how strong you will get, but I can say now that you are growing even as we speak." Arceus asked. I could hear Mew grumbling something about shovels.
"I already knew that. I've only been up and running for what, three weeks?"
"More or less." He answered. "Now quit stalling. I'm getting bored."
I just sighed and said, "Mew you first." while stretching.
"What!? He wants to fight you not me! I say you go first." Mew's not gonna get out of this one. She's going first whether she likes it or not. I ignored her and sat down. "Jason!"
"I'll take you both on if that makes you feel better." Arceus added.
"You have a plan?" She asked telepathically. She must not have known that I was serious about her going first.
You thought I was coming up with a plan? I'm dead serious here. You're going first. I thought back.
"I'm going to get back at you on this one. You'll never see it coming." I'd rather not find out what she calls revenge...
Alright fine. Just throw up a Sunny Day. I'm going to need all the energy I can get.
"There's no sun here. I can't enhance solar rays if there are none in the first place." So much for that.
I got nothing then. Just don't get in my way.
"I should be telling you that."
As if, unlike you, I can fight as if I was still human so I'll be in his face practically the whole time. You can stand back and shoot whatever at him, just don't hit me.
"You want me to stand back and provide support? No way! You can't handle him on your own!"
You have any better strategies!? He'll destroy both of us if we take him head on! The least you could do is exploit his weaknesses. If it involves getting close then do it! All we really need to do is stall him long enough for me to get us back. I hope you have an explanation for that.
"I have a way, but I can't guarantee it will work."
Anything is better than nothing.
I stood back up.
"You two done talking?" He was eavesdropping! "You should be happy I don't like to eavesdrop on conversations. At least not when the ones talking are right there." Or not.
"We're done." I answered.
"Good now we can begin." I wonder if he'll hold back.
I took the initiative since Arceus was only a couple steps away now and threw the first punch. The blow made him stumble backwards which allowed me to follow up with more. Obviously he was letting me hit him, but I wouldn't pass up this chance anyway. I could actually be hurting him. He never tried to retaliate. I noticed a smirk on his face between punches. I wasn't doing any damage whatsoever. In one last attempt at hurting him, I threw the same neck breaking kick I did to that fake Zangoose. Arceus slid back a couple feet. Had he not held his ground, he would have been knocked over.
"That last kick actually hurt a bit. I hope that's not all you can do. It'll take a lot more to beat me!" Arceus charged forward so fast, all I could do was guard. I shut my eyes, bracing for impact and my arms were battered by his attacks. I struggled to push out a Protect and just barely managed to do so. My arms were practically burning after that. I wouldn't be surprised to see smoke rising from them. Arceus paused his attack. "You think this will stop me!?" He screamed and cocked back. Remembering what he said about my Protect being weak because I let it be, I put as much energy into it as I could. My eyes were shut now, but the banging of his fists against the barrier was almost scary. In fact I could almost feel them. What was Mew doing? She's supposed to be helping! Holding this barrier up is really tiring. My arms are still very sore too. The rest of my body was beginning to feel a little sore too. Was I actually feeling the attacks on my Protect? "Just because you've learned how to properly use Protect doesn't mean you can hold it up against everything!" There was one last bang. A burning sensation began coursing through my body, before it went completely numb. I couldn't hold up the barrier any longer, nor could I even move. My body had locked up. "Oh my, it goes even through your Protect. So strong yet with so many defects. How does it feel to be paralyzed?" He asked.
"Ngh...it...sucks." I managed to answer. My body won't respond to anything I tell it to do. There were multiple sparks erupting from my body as I struggled to move. It grew more intense the harder I tried moving. Arceus grinned and cocked his arm back pretty far. Dammit body move! Arceus threw his punch. MOVE!! There was no impact, but the sound of electricity crackling. Arceus was pushed back by something and his arm fell limp, save for a few twitches with each spark.
"Completely defenseless and immobile, yet untouchable. You're full of surprises." What did he mean by that? Didn't Mew do that just now? I can't even move. "Your little electric barrier might protect you from physical attacks, but let's see just how well it holds up against projectiles!" He hopped back and charged up a large Energyball and fired it. Still paralyzed and practically a living generator, I struggled to move. The Energyball curved to the side before it hit me and blew up some distance away behind me. What the hell? I thought while still struggling. I think Arceus was just as confused as I was. "Well then, that doesn't work." He put his arms to his side and began charging up a Solarbeam. How was he charging up a Solarbeam with no sunlight!? Even if that hits, I should still be in fighting condition, well, I'll still be paralyzed. What is Mew doing!? She should be providing support! If only I could move! Arceus launched the Solarbeam. MEW!! The beam began to curve slightly to the side, but not enough. It just still hit my left arm and leg. The feeling in my body began rushing back as my arm and leg were engulfed in the Solarbeam. I managed to roll away, but my arm and leg were hurt. It wasn't too bad, but I'll definitely be slowed down. "Oh I see now. While you're paralyzed, you build up excess energy which repels any contact and creates a current that throws projectiles away from you. In other words, your special ability instantly switches from your current one, to a more powerful static. A fast enough attack can get through easily, but it seems that once you are hit, you're cured of paralysis. Even then though, all it takes is one hit and you're done." He may not have noticed, but there were still a few sparks jumping around him. They grew more intense the moment he tried to move and he fell to his knees. "If I had realized sooner...I wouldn't have made the mistake...of even touching you." Oh how the tables have turned.
"Hah! How do you like that!?" I couldn't help myself. I had to taunt him for his misfortune here. While laughing at his mistake, I noticed he was still moving, but just barely. Hard to tell from the trembling and twitching with every shock. It might have been my imagination, but I could have sworn that the color of his skin began to fade. After pushing myself to my feet and nearly falling over once I put weight on my left leg, I walked over to him. He wasn't bursting at the seams with electricity like I was, but I didn't take that risk. Charging up an Energyball at pointblank range so I couldn't miss even if it was repelled.
"Making sure not to miss? You're not even putting yourself into consideration here? Both of us will be hit if you fire from this distance." I didn't care about that. Arceus is completely defenseless now. This could be my chance to take him down. I might just be able to defeat him! Sure it was by a fluke, but this is freaking Arceus! My name will strike fear in the hearts of all that hear it if I win this fight.
"Whatever, that's not a problem to me. Killing you is all I want." I began to put more into the Energyball. For the first time this short fight, I saw Mew. She was hovering some distance away. I wasn't exactly sure what she was doing, but there was a faint red glow emanating from her body. It looked as if she was holding back fire in her mouth. It was practically pouring out.
"You know that won't do very much at all." He added. I remembered that he was still normal, mostly. Which means he was still grass type. I fired the Energyball anyway, it blew him backwards a fair distance. It seemed to do more damage than we both expected. As a plus, he was still paralyzed. "I...I still can't move!"
"Looks like you miscalculated something. You may have my looks and part of my personality, but you don't have my abilities. All you did was create another Treecko body with the same looks." If he really did create a clone of me, he would still be pink just like I am. He never was pink. However now, his color began to fade white. "An unstable body." I added.
"What!? I took a blood sample! I examined every strand of DNA!! I made sure it was perfect!" All he did was screw up. "Heh...looks like time is catching up to me. I can't even create a copy anymore." I kind of assumed he was basically immortal.
"You should have known something was wrong the moment you didn't come out exactly like me." I'm pretty sure he thought the same thing as me when he first came out.
"No matter, just because I'm paralyzed, doesn't mean you'll win. The paralysis will wear off by the time you can build up any more energy after that last attack." He must not know what Mew is doing. I don't need to do anything right now, but that last Energyball did take a lot out of me.
"Take a good look in the direction you're already facing." I told him. He had fallen on his back and happened to be looking in the same direction Mew was in. I stepped out of Mew's firing range and she let loose what she had been holding in the whole time. The heat from the blast was unbearable and forced me to move back even farther. If Mew's capable of using Overheat like this while she's supposedly weakened, I can just imagine what she's capable of in a normal state. Once Mew was done, she dropped to the 'ground'. Arceus was burnt to a crisp, lying there motionless and smoking. "Well, that was much easier than I thought it would be." I said while walking over to Mew. She was really out of breath. After that, she deserves some rest. "I'll wait for you to catch your breath." She pushed herself to her feet.
"We're not done..." She muttered between breaths.
"What?" I didn't quite catch what she said.
"We're not done!" I heard her that time. I quickly turned to face Arceus, he was giving off a familiar glow.
"Is he evolving!?" He was burnt to a crisp! Completely charred! Probably would have turned to dust if there was wind! How is he evolving right now!? Why is he evolving!?
"Arceus is not evolving, he's going back to his original form." She looked really worried.
"Original form? You mean that blinding light?" I don't want to go through that again. I hate camera flashes, that was like an extended one. Mew never answered. She just watched and trembled. Was his true form that scary? I'm not the slightest bit worried. Then again, I never expected to win until his mistake. Wait shouldn't she be getting us out of here right now? "Mew? Mew!"
...Forgot what I had to say. I wonder if it'll hit me later.