Chapter Five - Aqua
I jumped a bit as soon as I woke up.
My body was laid down—probably in a bed. Everything was too blurred to really see about, but I still sat myself up. I leaned onto my left arm subconsciously, looking about with a squint as I tried to make out the scene.
Time took a hold of itself and eventually allowed me to recognize that I was in my own room. I frowned with a disoriented look, kicking my feet outward—off the bed—and onto the floor.
Attention then fell to my arm. Left one in particular. I brought it up into view and wriggled my fingers up and down some, tilting my head. It was fine.
A creak sounded from behind my bed, causing me to look around to where my balcony door was.
Standing right there was a figure—feminine at the very least—in a long, black dress that reached from torso to foot.
Her wide, red eyes looked to me—acknowledged me—before turning around and stepping out to my balcony. I jumped right out of my bed and ran out, stopping outside on the smooth wood that made up my patio. Just like that, she was out of sight—and as I looked from each side to the ground, she was gone. Not to mention that there were plenty of people roaming about.
Stepping back, I oddly looked about my apartment. For an understatement, I was confused. She seemed familiar, but . . . something else was off.
I was just about naked except for the red boxers I had on—loosely hanging to my form. I put my feet back into the carpet and closed the patio door—going to my bathroom.
That girl was probably the least of my concerns. I had nothing to steal except for my sword—which was neatly leaned up on my dresser. Unless she was trying to kill me . . . which I doubt, because she had a very distinct . . . "smile," I'd call it. Couldn't really tell to be honest, however.
Aside from that, my arm hadn't been broken. From that fight with . . . Groudon. And . . . Huh.
Albeit hard to believe, I was starting to fall under the impression that whatever happened was a dream. I mean, it wasn't too hard to believe . . . but damn, that would be a quite vivid dream. Yet, so surreal.
It had that same, lasting effect that any other dream gave to me—ones where I thought everything was real.
Plus, I was in my room. Everything was normal. Definitely enough evidence to prove that what happened didn't really happen.
All this food for thought was taken internally, while externally . . . it was as though I was just getting ready for another day. In the bathroom, I began to brush my teeth and prepare a shower—as any other day would go.
Speaking of food, though—good gosh—I felt damn starving.
Nothing I wouldn't fix later, of course. After I finished thinking over my dream. Or . . . about that girl who broke and entered through my home—then disappeared.
Yeah, the weirder of the two things. Why was she in my home?
She obviously didn't steal anything. She didn't kill me. She just . . . up and left?
Optimistically, I might think of it as an actual encounter with one of those lore-ridden Pokémon around here—the ones specific to the region. And that could make sense. A lot more than other ideas.
Maybe I was being spied on? . . . Who cares, really. There wasn't really anything private I did.
Heaving my head forward, I spit out a glob of toothpaste into the sink, before running the water. I reached to the towel I kept nearby and wiped over my mouth, before stepping back in a stretch. Following, I ran the water for my shower.
You could call it foolishness for brushing off breaking-and-entering so easily, but I honestly felt too tired to care. Even though I slept like a brick—all the way to eleven thirty in the morning—I had that morning-tired sort of thing where you don't really want to do anything.
It was one shower later—and in the middle of myself getting dressed that I heard a knock at my door. Maybe that lady was trying to come in legitimately? Maybe my only friend whom of which always bothers me? Maybe—Maybe.
I pulled up my pants and fastened them with a belt—walking down my apartment stairs without a sweatshirt like I usually wore.
Open the door and surprise: it actually was my friend.
This was different than usual, however. He had two people with him—standing behind. With synergy, the two background-esque people had similar-matching blues in their clothes. One was female-fit to the person, with a simple and reserved button-down suit of blue—which had golden pins for buttons. Her hair was dyed a shiny blue—as though that woman adored blue.
The other, however, was a burly man with a pointy beard that poked out in three different directions—and was also straight-cut. The bandana on his head was a light-blue, accompanied by a white symbol that looked like the letter "A" with a circle in the middle of it. His skin-tight costume was blue, with a cape-like form coming off his waist. That large, anchor-formed necklace of his was definitely an expensive gold—I could feel it. He still probably got odd looks when coming over here, though.
In the front of them both was my friend, Barry. Blond hair, orange eyes, and darker skin than me. Wore a green scarf around his scrawny neck, and an orange-to-white striped shirt with a popped-up collar. Wore gray khakis all around and kept a brown "purse" thing with him. Not to mention that hipster watch of his.
Hyperactive kid, no joke.
"Hey, Daniel! Have fun sleeping?" Barry loudly questioned.
"Uh—"
"That's not really important, anywho! Mind if we come in?"
". . . I guess?"
Without even hinting to hesitation, he grabbed my arm and pulled me up stairs. Courteously, one of the two background people closed the door behind—which I was sort of worried about. Otherwise, Barry quickly brought me around to sit myself on my bed, before quickly seating himself in the middle of my couch. Alongside, the two others sat on opposite sides.
"So before you start asking questions, let me introduce you to my pals!" he told, before motioning to the one on his left—the male one. "This guy is Archie, the leader of Team Aqua."
"Oh, I know a bit ab—"
"AND . . ." he cut in, quieting me and looking over to the lady on his right, "this lady is Nero—Archie's accomplis."
I dropped my head and shot a look at him, waiting some time to speak.
". . . Okay . . . uh, hi?" I greeted with tangible confusion.
Moving upward on his seat, "Archie" set his eyes to me—while leaning his elbows onto his knees.
"So you're Daniel, right? The one they found in the middle of Team Plasma's operating grounds?" he asked.
My eyes took a sharp, wide opening at the mention.
". . . Pardon?" I asked—instinctively, without thought.
He mentioned Team Plasma . . . and he mentioned that they found me there. Where . . . their main-thing happened.
"Are you not the man who apparently stopped Team Plasma's operation?"
I nodded, answering with, "W-Well . . . yeah . . . but. . . ."
"But what?"
"I thought that entire thing was a dream, honestly. Up until you mentioned it back up. . . ."
He frowned and shifted in his seat, asking, "You thought it was a dream, huh?"
"Yeah."
"Well, did you also know that this all happened five days ago, right?"
". . . Really?"
"Yes. . . . After you were confirmed to be all right, you were discharged from the hospital. Report says a family member came and picked you up from there."
My brows furrowed downward and my head tilted away, eyes intensely staring.
". . . Are you sure about that?"
"That's what the report says."
". . . That's . . . that can't be true. I don't have any immediate family—not around here or anywhere. . . ."
Brushing it off, he shrugged, sitting back up on my couch.
"Either way, you're here now. And if we can confirm the claims of what the remaining Team Plasma members said . . . is it true that you defeated the legendary Pokémon, Groudon?"
Lost in this mess of confusion, I scooched back on my bed and looked to my window—wide-eyed. I took a hefty sigh, devoid of any words to say or any answers to give.
". . . Is it?" he asked again.
"Yeah . . . I guess."
He took a hand to his beard and lined it up along, taking interest as he'd shortly call, "Interesting. . . ."
Everything felt derailed—my normal day was definitely gone, at the very least.
"Yeah, I . . . I like that," he said, bringing my attention back to him.
One look over my face, and he himself took a pondering look at me.
"Don't mind myself, Mister Lupo, but you look a bit off-put?" he asked with question in his voice.
"Yeah. . . . I just . . . a lot of stuff happened that day. A lot of people died, but I'm not upset about that all so much. It just all feels so . . . surreal. I mean, that Groudon guy . . . he did tell me I wasn't even human."
Archie leaned in, keeping that same question in his eyes.
"Really? How so?" he would ask.
". . . I'm apparently half-Pokémon . . . one of the legendaries, from how he described it."
"Do you know which one?"
"Not at all."
He laughed a bit, leaning back some.
"Don't feel so bad about that, kid . . . Nero here's got the same thing as you."
I frowned, tilting about.
"Really?"
"Mhm. . . . She's the descendant of the legendary Pokémon Suicune. Got special powers from that whole thing, too."
". . . Faster than the normal person, right?"
"Not just that, but she's got some magic stuff behind it, too. Able to use certain moves that only Pokémon would be able to do."
Looking to her, she kept silent—giving just a nod—which prompted me to slump into place and sigh.
"But my problem here, y'see . . . is that you took on an actual legendary Pokémon. Being only half legendary, that would mean you'd have to be a son of the more powerful ones—and that's really only limited to one: Arceus."
"There's no way."
"It's been written along history before. Even the Alpha Pokémon itself has brought itself to mingle with humankind. Arceus . . . the most powerful Pokémon to ever exist. . . . It would make sense that such is why you were able to do what you did. Otherwise, you could be something that's completely non-human . . . perhaps 100% Pokémon, but stuck in a human form," he rambled.
My expression brought along an uncomfortable look, my eyes looking down.
"Is there something wrong with that?"
". . . I'm just a normal person living the life here . . . I don't feel like getting pulled into this whole thing . . . where I'm some kind of demi-god or whatever history wants to call it. . . ."
"No point in living a life if you're not a live, however."
His statement brought along my attention, causing me to lean up and ask, "What do you mean by that?"
Reaching behind himself, he wriggled his hands about some. From right out of a pocket of his belt, he pulled out a paper. It was clean-folded, before he unraveled it and held out his hand toward me. I took on it, before looking over it. It had numerous lines of symbols on it—looking as though it was taken directly from a photocopying machine.
"That right there is a script describing the destruction that was supposed to happen ten years ago—when that man stopped Yveltal from killing all biological life on our planet." He grunted, before standing himself up and moving to sit next to me on the edge of the bed. His finger pointed to the first few lines of symbols. "These statements told that the Destruction Pokémon would come down onto the planet and exterminate all living life with a plague. It talks more of how this plague would be delivered—when and how. But down here—" he moved his hand downward "—that is where it describes its future plans. . . . If Yveltal were to be defeated—by miracle—then the peaceful times would not last long. In a certain amount of years' due-time—let's say ten—Yveltal would come down once more and attempt to eradicate life once more. It then talks of how this process would be repeated until success. . . ."
He stood up and moved himself right back onto my couch, having all of my attention.
"Now we're not sure exactly when this will happen . . . but with the rise of Groudon—without the interference of Team Magma—we believe this might be a warning to this event occurring soon."
"He did tell me that more were coming. . . ."
"And that just confirms it—more than we already knew."
". . . So what's this got to do with me?"
"Everything, Daniel. We . . . we haven't been able to find that man from ten years ago. It's doubtful that he died, but . . . our efforts were unsuccessful in finding him. But instead, we have found you. You've fought off the full power of a legendary, and you probably aren't at the extent of your power! . . . There's so much to do with you, you don't even know. . . . So we need you, Daniel. We need you to help us stop Yveltal again—just like that great man did ten years ago. . . ."
As he pushed his statement forward, my expression was more off-putting and I looked to my side in thought.
Seeing this, he stood up and got onto one of his knees—on the floor—before taking his cap off and holding it to his chest.
"Listen to me, Daniel . . . I've . . . I've done a lot of bad things in my life. Stolen, hurt, manipulated . . . there's a lot that I've done. It was all for a passion, though. I always told myself: 'This is for the greater good; I'm only doing this for the greater good' . . . and maybe I was wrong. My passion is still the same, but I can't just plow through everyone else's lives . . . against their will. That's not my right. But I can't fix what I've done in the past—and I possibly can't compensate for it, either. . . . If there's anything good I'm gonna' do, though . . . it's gonna' be to stop my planet from getting destroyed—and all the water along with it. I want people and Pokémon to be able to live together in harmony, not just die off because a few Pokémon decided so. . . . I need to make up for what I've done—or at least try, Daniel. You're the only way I can do that. Please . . . help me . . . and not just me, but the world. Your neighbors, your friends, your family. . . ."
My eyes fell from looking off to him—at his mention of 'family.' I took a slow blink with all thought being processed together. Slowly, I followed in with a sigh, before standing up.
"I'll do it," was my short answer.
Quickly, he brought himself up to a stand, affixing his hat back to normal. He was only a few inches taller than me—it felt easy to talk to him.
"I—I know it's a lot to hear, but this is the world we're talking about!" he stressed.
"Yeah, I know. . . . I said I'll do it."
His expression shifting into a wide, happy grin, he slowly nodded and placed his hands on my shoulders.
"O—Okay! Good! Great! . . . Here, let's . . . let's go, then! We don't have any time to waste!" he shouted, pushing me towards the stairs of my apartment.
Along the way, I reached to my dresser and grabbed my sweatshirt, keeping it in hand as I was forced down and down—all ready to go on some kind of adventure to stop the world from dying. . . .
Pretty crazy day, I guess.