Chapter Six - The Vast, White
"Jeez, Daniel, you've been hiding a lot, huh?"
That Barry talking, for a forenote.
Pulling my sweatshirt overhead and onto my body, I wriggled out my arms to get in place, before answering back, "I didn't find any of this stuff out until a few days ago."
I felt him nudge into my side, causing me to curl in that direction and move away some.
"Well, good thing! The island would've probably been destroyed if you didn't stop that guy, y'know?"
". . . Yes, I know."
"And that includes where we're going, too! My place. The place that Team Aqua placed their place at. The place of Team Aqua. Pl—"
"Shut up," a feminine voice commanded. Pulling down my shirt fully, I looked to find that it was actually the Nero person. Very serious in tone, as I could tell. Could be why she didn't talk that much.
Looking around, the four of ourselves were caught up in the crowd of passersby—"shoobies," the term I'd fondly refer to them with.
Over bridges and around corners, the group would just go—myself following behind Archie and Nero.
"As Barry said . . . we're going to the Team Aqua hideout. I mean, there are a few—back in the mainland of Hoenn—but we also have one here. This island's very important, believe it or not," Archie explained, keeping his head slightly turned back towards me.
Leaning ahead for better hearing, I asked, "Does it have to do with that machine in the big museum?"
"Yes, it does, actually. Odd you know that, but . . . yes, that's right. It's supposedly able to manipulate our very realities and bend the properties of physics to extents that shouldn't be possible."
". . . Why is it just in the open like that?"
"I would suggest having it destroyed, but . . . y'know, historical purposes. . . . Plus, you need a special set of legendary Pokémon to do that. You must know about the local legends—Latias and Latios—I'd assume."
". . . Yeah, of course . . ." I dragged, bringing myself into thought.
Thinking about that girl from earlier—I definitely was now. Not trying to draw conclusions here, but that could've been something along those lines.
I was apparently pulled out of a hospital in time after someone took me out of there. I had no recollection of any days prior—and as soon as I wake up, there's just some girl right there. Latias should probably look like a Pokémon, but it's not as if Groudon looked like one either. Groudon's supposed to be this big, Godzilla-like creature . . . not a humanoid-shaped monster.
Looking up, I held a confused expression on my face, asking, "Hey, Archie, how much do you know about Latias?"
"Just what they teach you in the books—plus some personal stuff from some other people. Red and white, understand human speech, and can turn invisible."
My eyes trailed to my feet.
"Not to just assume stuff here, but when I woke up from sleeping . . . there was some girl in my room. Dressed kinda' odd—didn't steal anything . . . just disappeared out of nowhere."
"Thinking Latias was watching you or something?"
"And on top of that . . . you said I was taken out of the hospital by a family member. I don't have any family around—not alive or that I know of."
"That definitely could've been her, then."
All the way up to a twenty minute walk, Archie and Nero stopped, standing in front of a basic-looking, red brick building. It was square and large, however, and took up the entire block. I hadn't seen it around before.
"Sounds like it was Latias to me—the way you're describing it," he finished, bringing his hands to rest onto each side of his hips. "But anyways . . . here we are . . . Team Aqua HQ. Nicely sized, you think?"
"It's pretty big, yeah. . . ."
Moving on forward, his hands pressed to a set of two doors—directly next to each other—which then opened up in opposite directions to reveal a large, open inside. I followed behind all three of the others, walking in and finding that the bricks were more of a wall, rather than of a home.
Far off, there was an office-like enclosure attached to a far-end—connected to the entire building. In the middle, there was a long, wide slab of land that had concrete at the foot of it. And around the rest of the scene were paths of stone, seeming to float in this giant, large pool that surrounded everything but the outer brim of grass in the building. The place looked lively, as various types of shark-looking Pokémon and other various types of fish-looking Pokémon populated the area.
Without hesitation, Archie began to walk over the path of stones—which were obviously connected to the ground—and begin making his way towards the middle.
"You can easily tell that we like water here—right?"
Managing behind Archie, Barry, and Nero, I stumbled onto one of the rocks, before following behind at a steady pace.
"Yeah, I got that from 'Team Aqua'."
"It's a staple in my lifestyle—I've always loved Water-Type Pokémon. At one point, I wanted the entire world to be water . . . but that wouldn't be fair, right? . . . Yeah, ha . . . dumb idea, I think."
Without many more words, the four of us found ourselves right in the middle of that stone platform. It looked like . . . it was held for events or something. I'm not too sure.
"Usually, we use this spot for battling Pokémon," he began.
Or that—too.
"But we're gonna' be trying something different, now. I mean, are you a Pokémon trainer?"
"Not by any extent."
"Yeah, I figured as much . . . but you yourself fight. . . . I want to see how strong you are."
"I'm okay."
"You're more than that! You took on my prior nemesis . . . the legend that I hated so fiercely . . . and all by yourself—with a sword! I want to see just how strong you yourself are, Daniel. . . ."
"Am I fighting you?"
"God, no! That would be suicide . . . but I think Nero would make a much more even match to you—figuring you're both on the same boat, right?"
She took a casual step up to the both of our sides, looking from him to myself.
"Yeah, that'd be fair, I guess," I spoke.
"All right! Let myself and Barry get back, and then you two can start. . . . Rules are this: first one to draw blood—please, don't kill each other."
Quickly, he grabbed Barry by the shoulder and dragged him out to the brim of the area. Nero then pushed an object into my chest, my arms coming up to cradle it instinctively before I looked down.
It was my sword. Must've left it back at the house when I was rushed out. Quickly, I looped the metal part of the sheath to my side, before adjusting it some to make it comfy.
Looking back up, the woman was already at the opposite side of the area from me. On her body, however, I didn't see a weapon. Or maybe she had a concealed one.
"All right! Whenever you two are ready, have at it!" Archie shouted from a distance.
I looked to him, before looking back to her.
Kneeling down to the water, she pulled her hands up from it, before turning around and looking to myself. Defying gravity, two massive blobs of water surrounded each of her hands—hands now balled up into fists. She moved her arms further away from her body—spanning side to side—before the blobs of water formed into a three-point piece on each side. With a curve similar to claws, each hand seemed to hold a form-retaining shape of three claws—and being incredibly large at that.
Following suit, each ounce of water froze into ice—clear and smooth as all could be. In a feel for the massive forms, Nero was able to move her alleged weapons with complete ease—looking just about weightless.
Must've been that magic stuff Archie talked about.
She then looked at me, before taking her steps forward. She allowed her claws to lightly drag along the ground behind her, it not breaking and actually keeping the same exact sharpness as before. Following, I started walking forward—sword kept undrawn and in its comfy sheath.
I figured that's where the fight began, as she took a sudden decision to leap forward at me. Her expression was completely emotionless—oddly enough. Maybe even serious.
Her first attack was a swipe aimed directly for my right side. Her ice-formed claws were so massive, however, that they allowed me to make a short hop to the side and move through the space between one claw and another.
But she followed up with her dominant hand, crashing it down where I was. It didn't take much more to step backwards and barely be missed by the attack. But she was much faster than any other normal person—immediately recovering to take a rapid chain of three swipes, all in different directions. They were angled for mobility reasons, which allowed me to move my body from side to side and barely dodge each to every single attack. Following, I found myself in touching distance from her.
There wasn't enough room for me to draw my sword, however, which prompted an odd look from her to myself, before diving her body down onto one shoulder and break-dance spinning quickly. A flurry of cuts made their way all around the area, myself ducking my head and arching my body around the edges of each attack while getting decently away.
Moving back to a stand, her foot kicked into the ground to halt her momentum, before she leapt forward another time—claws aimed in stabbing positions toward myself. In this time, I took a moment to draw my sword, before aiming it in a swinging fashion.
The edge of my blade flew up along her cheek as I stood myself up, having slid under her attack and right up to the woman—with my back up against her chest. My arm held up highly as I kept my sword in place, before she let her claws collapse to the ground—giving me space.
I stepped back out of her zone, before clunking my sword back into its position.
Her face wasn't of shock—just serious and stern, like what I had done was normal. She looked down to her cut with her eyes, letting her numerous blades of ice melt and sink into the solid ground beneath. She let out a long exhale as she returned to a firm stance, hands delved into the pockets of her suit.
"O—Over already?" Archie asked, scurrying back to where we stood.
". . . Yes," Nero said—all with slight reluctance.
"There's no way you won that fast," Barry cut in.
"He wasn't serious at all, either . . . I was a toy to him."
With Nero's eyes set on me, Barry and Archie slowly brought a bewildered and unbelieving expression into my direction—looking right at me.
". . . What else aren't you telling us . . . Daniel?" Archie slowly came to ask, frowning with his question.
I was lacking in answers, bringing up to just shrug.
"Ah, that's just like his mom! Arceus damn it!" I heard from behind.
Turning around—and most likely everyone else looking to the source of the speaking—I would find an incredibly tall, skinny man standing behind.
Long hair of white, crystal blue eyes surrounded by black, and a lightly pale complexion . . . which matched up to the long, white trench coat he wore . . . which had ruffles throughout its brims—like it was made of feathers. And along his belt, boots, and elbow-length gloves lied neutral-gray, filling the color for the metal that seemed to elegantly clunk with each movement he took.
I got an alarmingly odd feeling from this guy.
Looming what had to be two or so feet over myself, he leaned in and looked over me with a smile—an embracive and happy smile, for what it was worth.
"Mhm . . . I can even see it in your eyes!" he aimlessly spoke.
". . . Pardon?" I managed.
"Hey, Daniel! First time meeting you around! I'm—technically—your uncle," he told in a greeting, speaking all upbeat as he reached over a lengthy arm. He wanted me to shake on it.
And so I did, shaking uneasily as I looked to him.
". . . What?" I continued to ask.
Unnoticed by myself, Nero and the rest had affirmed their place a couple steps back—staring in sheer awe.
"Y'know? . . . Your mother's brother?"
"M— . . . I don't remember you," I stuttered, before recollecting into a statement.
"I mean, I wouldn't think so . . . I did have a lot of other stuff to attend to," he reasoned, bringing a hand up to his chin.
I stepped back some—from him being somewhat too close—before leaning a hand onto my back.
"So, uh . . . who exactly are you?"
"You can't tell, huh? You must have some poor senses there, buddo," he spoke—possibly teasing, but I couldn't tell.
He smiled, before leaning to his side a bit—to a long metal pole, which shared a similar color to the metal along his dressed up coat. On one end of it was a large, round-looking thing that had holes scattered around it—like an engine; and to the other end was a pointed tip of white color, like that of a spear.
"I'm Reshiram!"
Only another one of the legendary Pokémon from high-heaven above.
". . . Oh."
"Quite the reaction, aheh . . . but anyways, I'm here to bring you a message!"
"What's the message?"
"Well, it's from your mom," he spoke.
My expression turned from blank and lost to focused real quick.
". . . Mom?"
"Mhm, it sure is."
". . . What she say?"
[Start Song: "Fox Stevenson - Lightspeed"]
He lightheartedly laughed a bit, before taking a step around me and walking towards the group consisting of Nero, Archie, and Barry.
"You guys should probably make some space for us—please?" he asked, but in a commanding tone.
They were visibly shaken by him, scurrying away to the same side of the area—and just a bit away.
"So you want to know what the message says, hm?" he asked, half-shouting.
"Y—Yes!" I replied.
"Well, here . . . how about this?" Following his statement, he spun his spear around in his hand—with incredible ease—before letting it clunk into the both of his hands, holding a downward-pointing stance.
"You beat me in a small sparring match, and I tell you what it is," he told, a heavy smirk held on his face.
With as little hesitation as I could muster, I drew out my sword and took a steady stance. He began to slowly sidestep in a clockwise direction, to which I mimicked, keeping a consistent distance from him.
"That sound fair?"
"As long as you're not lying to me, then it does."
He grinned widely—innocently, of course.
"All right! No killing, though!" he added.
I was fine with that—all the way.
Continuously, the both of us continued to move around in a circular fashion, slowly and as though to stall.
My stance adjusted and I was ready to fight. He continued to keep his stance still, refusing to project any next movements whatsoever. With so much distance between us, I wasn't all too worried.
I guess I was about to fight another legendary, but that was okay.
Just as long as he wasn't lying to me about that message.
With a burst of fire behind himself, it looked as though he had glided all the way over to where I stood, taking a lancing cut directly towards where I stood.
I twisted my sword downward to intercept the tip of his weapon, deflecting the blow right to the side. But his arm shifted, and so did his spear, working right towards my other side. I brought my elbows above my head and sword around my back, halting the next attack right there. He shifted his stance to a sideways sort of stance, bringing the weapon to be aimed right into my head.
A cut upward was taken by myself, glancing the attack into another direction. But just as soon as I had done such, he had been stabbing towards my hip. I dove my blade right at the weapon, parrying once more. Following, a simultaneous flurry of five or so attacks came in from each a different direction. Matching these, I threw arms to all different sides, switching up my stance in the few seconds I was given, before sidestepping to the last strike.
With my elbows now tucked, I stepped forward and plunged my sword toward his abdomen. A strong strike was made to match my stab, kicking my weapon and arms up into the air. I hid my opening quickly with changing into a one-handed form, sliding myself forward to bring the edge of my blade into him. My slash was met with a metal bar, but I continued forward into another cut from above.
Using the actual point of his weapon itself, he riposted my movement, leading me to attack from another direction. At blocking the next, I came on with another, and another almost instantaneously, both at opposite sides of his torso. He hadn't bothered to dodge whatsoever, swiftly moving his weapon to contact and push off the cuts and slices I would take.
He hadn't moved an inch from my attacks, which I had to change. Had to do better—somehow.
In retaliation, his spear shot upward toward my head. I hooked my neck to the side and allowed the weapon to just barely miss myself, before lowly diving downward and taking a knee-bent slash across his legs. This missed, himself jumping a small amount to allow my weapon to pass under. With my back open right there, he brought his spear down right to where my head would be. I matched this with the broad side of my sword, allowing it to fall down right next to me—both hands barred right next to me face.
Spinning about widely, I pushed him up off of where I stood for a few feet. The spear showed for much more range as he extended a single arm forward to bring the weapon into me. From dodging to the side, I brought my left arm over and under the weapon, curling down on it and hugging the pole-part of it to my side. Sliding forward, I slashed vertically onto him, causing him to release his weapon and move himself to behind me.
I quickly fired my sword back into its sheath, before swinging around the polearm into his direction, just for him to duck under the sweeping attack. Keeping momentum, I spun it around at my right before allowing it to fall into my second hand and stab forward in a direct manner. He moved to the side, before bringing his hands up onto my wrists and yanking, causing me to let go of the spear—and for it to gain airtime with spinning.
In this quick moment, I pulled my wrist back to unsheath my sword, using one motion to swing right at him. He caught the spear during its spin, directly blocking my attack right in the middle. He tilted his weapon all the way around, catching my sword to be on the opposite end of where it had been, leaving him the ability to turn around and jam his spear right into my side.
Around his weapon came, forcing me to bring my back and line it close to his stomach. I let my sword settle in my hand for a moment, before turning myself around and making an upward cut. Without a block to it, he moved his head back from the arch and stepped away from me a couple paces.
With his attacks taking a break, I rested into a defensive form, eyeing him closely.
"For Arceus' sake, you're . . . you're unbelievably fast," he told, hefting a single breath.
"Using a spear like that—it's pretty good," I returned.
He laughed some, leaning a bit onto his hip.
"Talking that way about a deity that's been alive for thousands of years, huh?"
"As I said to Groudon . . . there's only one real God, and it's not Arceus," I told, lightly smirking under my near-tired face.
He took on a silly frown, before bringing up the tip of his weapon and aiming towards myself.
"I'll have to check up on you with that after this, Danny."
He sure would.
Taking a single step forward, I found myself within distance of him. Following my step was a wide strike, which was met by the bar of his weapon. My weapon recoiled off, and he was met with a surprised expression as he stumbled back quite a bit.
Unfinished to my attacks, I jut my weapon to his side at a speed faster than either of us had before. He managed to match his weapon to mine, ringing a large crash of metal as my weapon bounced yet again. My expression was widely eyeing to him, teeth grit as I brought down another attack vertical to where he stood.
Lacking ability to parry another attack, he shuffled himself out of the way, only to be met with a followed-up strike to his side. He hugged that spear to his side, effectively stopping my blade from driving into his body. My combination continued from there, as I made a quick slice at his ankle, able to catch a single cut through the light armor he wore. My weapon dragged up along his leg and to his torso, but was stopped mid-way by his spear.
He spun my sword right out of my hand from there, before charging his weapon upward towards my neck. Disregarding the lack of a sword, I used my wrist and lifted the attack upward—causing it to miss. Reversing my grip around, I took hold of the weapon, before spinning it about and glancing a cut on his arm. I locked my elbow back following this, following a stab right at him.
My attack all but missed, cutting widely across his chest—through his armor and into his skin. Hastily, he grabbed the end-part of his weapon, to which I let go of it, letting him have it as I looked to my sword—lying on the ground a bit away.
Feet kicked against the hard ground and I found myself handling that sword once more, before meeting it to a fast attack right on where I was. His spear swung back and around, matching to my sword again, and then again. It took not much more than a flick of my weapon upward to interrupt his attacks, giving me the go-ahead to bring down a hefty slash onto him.
His eyes were halved and I could see he was tired, yet, still managing to keep off my attacks as I continued towards him. He stepped back from each blow I made, where I would just follow up in advancing. Albeit the remaining parts of his body were open, I focused on attack to where his spear was. I cut down onto it, then up onto it, following a smash into it from the side.
He stumbled back—finally out of reach of myself from him—to a good twenty or so feet away from me. His form was degraded and he clung onto his weapon with just one hand, letting the front of it rest on the ground.
It was over.
I let my form sag forward and downward, shoulders relaxing in place. But right out of the corner of my eye, a large explosion went off—right where Reshiram stood.
Bringing my attention up, I just barely managed to swing my body back and out of the way from a white form. I fell back onto my rear, hands landing behind to hold me up as I looked over to my left side.
Impaled into the ground was Reshiram's spear, with a stream of smoke steadily curling up into the air—exiting from the larger bottom of the weapon, as though it was a rocket.
Quickly looking back to my right, my eyes stayed wide as Reshiram stood in a still position while panting—standing as though he had thrown something. Which he had done.
My eyes fell to my chest, where there was a large cut right through my sweatshirt. I groaned and brought a hand over it to feel about, before slumping into place tiredly.
[End Song]
". . . And that's all, huh?" he asked, breathing heavily.
"You mean the fight, right?" I counter-questioned.
"Yeah."
"I would think so—yeah. . . ."
He tilted his head back and laughed, before heaving himself up into a stand. He then followed in walking towards me and looking over myself, before offering a hand.
I took on it, standing up with him.
"Looks like you beat me, huh?" he lightheartedly asked—albeit rhetorical at that.
"You think so?" I asked.
"Oh, definitely . . . you destroyed me in that last part there."
I slouched my form and looked over to the weapon of his, embedded into the ground. I felt him softly pat my back, laughing off more.
"Sorry about that cheap shot, by the way . . . got a little too 'into it' there. . . ."
I turned around, looking down, finding my sword right there. Dropped it when I was nearly impaled by that spear. I leaned over and picked up the weapon, before letting it slide right back into its sheath.
Eyeing back around, Reshiram had been standing there—already with his weapon back in-hand. He leaned against it, gently smiling while looking towards me.
"So . . . you wanna' hear that message now, hm?"
". . . Oh, shoot, y—yes! I do," I told, taking some small excitement in my tone.
"Aha . . . y'know, I was going to tell you anyway—if you had lost that fight . . ." he dragged, "Because when I heard that you actually beat Groudon himself, I didn't exactly believe it."
I blinked for a moment, before letting my shoulders stretch out backward.
"But now that I've seen what you really are . . . how would you like to come see your mom? Probably better than just getting a message, right?"
Instantly, I nodded to him and stuttered, "Y—Yeah, that's better! Please?"
He laughed and waved about a hand with a small motion.
"Okay, okay . . . calm down there, buddy. . . ."
His eyes set off from me and upward for a moment, before falling back down.
"I'm really not supposed to, but . . . I think I'll bring you along—Arceus won't really do anything, anyway."
I kept still with all attention set on him—listening intently, too.
Another time, his eyes shifted about, then back to me—from the side.
"You really want to see your mom, huh?"
"Of course I want to see my mom! Are you crazy or something? It's been . . . a . . . a really long time, y'know . . . ?"
He nodded, mumbling about, "I see. . . ."
Following that, he took a deep inhale, before propping the base of his weapon firmly against the ground. He then offered out his hand to me, before speaking:
"C'mon, then . . . let's go."