Darkness. Shadows. Why was it always the void? The horror of waking to blindness, fearing that he had awoken to finally succumbing to the chilling grip of the absent space. There were no stars above this endless night- only a nightmare wracked sleep to torment the soul- if he even had that much anymore.
He had no control over the continual swaying of the dark. Was he awake or was he still asleep? Did it even matter? Had he finally been forced to let go of that slim slither of hope of returning to his own body, his family, his long-lost existence? It was too much to wish for, he had to accept that now, he had tried to cling onto too much and had lost everything as a result, even himself.
There was a serenity in letting go. In finally giving in to the relentlessness of fate. If only he had done more, but he hadn't, and this was the consequence. The sooner he became okay with that, the sooner he could allow the greedy embrace of nothing to swallow him whole.
A pinprick, bright white. Splitting out across the horizon of nothing. White, to red, like a sunless sunrise. This was it, the end of all things. His attempts to fight fate and return home had finally pushed existence to its breaking point. At least he was there, at the end.
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Espir landed on the ground, the red light receding from around him. He turned, recovering, and watched Alexis pocket the Pokéball once more. He tried to remember what had happened. Where was he? Hearthome City. The fancy buildings, the dark Pokémon gym interior. Fighting ghost Pokémon. That was right, he had fallen in battle. He was so unused to losing that he had automatically assumed the darkness to be that which he feared, instead of simply inside a Pokéball while he recovered from the battle.
He looked around and saw Shane.
"How did we do?" He asked, but Shane was already grinning before the sentence was finished. "Get in!"
Espir rushed over to Shane and hugged him, congratulating him on the victory.
"You did most of the work, it was nothing, really," Shane said bashfully.
"Stepping into that arena at all is brave enough," Espir said, shaking his head at Shane, "you should be proud of yourself, I know I am."
Espir turned around to look back up at Alexis, but lost his balance slightly. He felt dizzy, though he was uninjured now, after the trip to the Pokécenter. Was he still recovering from the Pokéball? Had it dazed him that thoroughly?
Espir tried to grab onto thin air as he fell over, the dizziness shifting into a headache. He looked around, confused, and noticed Shane also shaking his head as he stood unsteadily on his four feet. Alexis had her brow furrowed and an arm out ever so slightly, as if trying to keep her footing while on a rocky boat. What was going on?
"Do you guys-" Espir couldn't finish his sentence, as he fell through the cobblestone floor of the city street.
A moment later, after the briefest instance of darkness surrounded him, he opened his eyes to Hearthome City once again- but there were no pedestrians about this time. Alexis and Shane both appeared, rising from the ground, too. It was like the cobblestone slabs unfurled to eject them from the ground.
"What's happened?" Espir asked. He no longer felt dizzy.
"It feels like we've shifted worlds again," Shane said.
"How do you know?"
"I'm not sure, I can feel a sort of magnetism at times whenever those portals appear and I felt it very strongly for a moment when we just fell through the floor."
"Do you feel it anymore?" Espir asked.
"Faintly, ever so faintly," Shane said, nodding and pointing his head in a direction that was close to westerly, if they were still in their previous world.
"Are you two, okay?" Alexis asked, not knowing what conversation had just transpired.
Espir and Shane nodded and then Espir wondered about how to let Alexis know what Shane had just been saying. He motioned for drawing supplies, to see if Alexis had any, but she just shrugged.
"I'm sorry, I don't have anything to draw with anymore," Alexis said. "How about if we find a good patch of mud?"
Espir shrugged and nodded; it was better than nothing.
The three of them walked out of the city, as the empty streets felt oddly ominous to each of them. Shane did his best to gently prompt Alexis to follow him, so that they were already moving in the direction that his internal magnetism was guiding him.
They quickly found a grassy area, considering there was so much woodland surrounding the city, so Espir grabbed a fallen branch from a nearby tree and started to etch out what he hoped Alexis would understand.
He first drew a tear in the air, which looked more like an oval once it was drawn on the ground. Then he drew what he thought was a pretty good drawing of a magnet- sort of like a horseshoe with capped ends. Then he drew an arrow from the magnet, to the tear. Finally, he pointed at Shane and waited for Alexis to put the pieces together.
"You want to ride Zorua to a portal?" Alexis asked, before throwing up her hands at Espir's immediate frustration. "No, no, wait, wait. I can guess again. That's a portal, right? And this... isn't a horseshoe. Is it a… magnet? Okay, good, good. Is Zorua somehow a magnet for portals? Is it his fault we've got stuck here? No… oh! He can lead us to a portal?"
Both Espir and Shane celebrated as Alexis finally guessed the answer correctly. It would have been so much easier to just speak to her, if that were possible.
"So, which way are we going?" Alexis asked, looking down at Shane, now.
Shane indicated with his head, still in the western direction.
"That's good," Alexis noted, after consulting her map. "If this world is anything like our own, that's the direction we need to go for the next gym badge."
"Are you serious? Is that really the most important thing right now?" Espir snapped at Alexis.
"I know, I know," Alexis said, rightly guessing what had annoyed Espir. "Priorities. I was just saying…"
"Come on, Espir," Shane said calmly, "different people cope with stress in different ways. She has her quest and we have ours- allow her this escapism."
"That sounded oddly poignant," Espir scoffed, but he stopped staring angrily at Alexis and allowed Shane to start leading the three of them through the forest ahead.
"Why do you think there are no people around?" Shane asked.
"There are buildings, so they must be here somewhere," Espir said, shrugging. "Maybe just a coincidence?"
"At this point, I doubt coincidence is something that really exists," Shane said, sighing as they walked.
"I can agree with you on that one. We've had way too many close calls for coincidence to still be a thing."
"It's nice to see you two chatting," Alexis said, out of the blue. "You know, Zorua, Marshadow hadn't had the best luck at communicating with others until you joined us. I definitely haven't been able to help in that regard."
"Spill all of our juicy secrets, why don't you," Espir said, though he didn't say it mean-spiritedly. "Yeah, it hasn't been great. Not the worst, but the others weren't too fond of me until they realized I wasn't the only one struggling like this."
"I wonder how many others have ended up like us," Shane said.
"Probably best not to think about," Espir replied, "it'll only make things harder when it comes time to fixing our own situations."
"How so?"
"I'm assuming Mew is going to seal all the holes up once we're sorted," Espir said, "but I really don't have any idea how it all works."
"That makes two of us."
The ground suddenly rumbled beneath the trio's feet, causing them all to stop and focus on balancing. It was only a quick shudder, but an intense one.
"What just happened?" Alexis muttered to the other two, feeling a strong urge to run and hide out of nowhere.
Neither Espir nor Shane had an answer for her, but they felt the exact same chilling sense of fear grip them.
There were a couple lighter shudders, but the trio now focused on moving swiftly and trying to not worry too much about the seemingly sporadic earthquakes that were kicking off. They didn't see any actual sign of the earthquakes, no cracks in the ground or aftermath- but they felt each and every one.
It took some time before another sign of what was going on finally crossed their path. They didn't know exactly how long ago it had been planted there, but the three of them found a deep indent in the ground before them. The tree that had been in that area, which spanned a wide area, were crushed down, as if by a gigantic hydraulic press. Due to the depth of the indent, they decided it would be easier to walk around it, rather than risk getting stuck in it.
They were halfway around getting past the indent when Espir had a thought and cast his eyes over it once again. He felt the chilling touch of fear hit him once again as the thought sunk in further into his mind.
"We need to hide," Espir said, "now."
"Why, what's the hurry?" Shane asked. "We haven't seen any sign of anyone in ages."
"Yes, we have," Espir said, pointing at the indent. "That's the sign. Those weren't earthquakes..."
"...That's a footprint."
"GRRR-OOOOOO...OOOOOH!"
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Hide and seek.
Not necessarily a game that Espir had played a lot of as a child, but he needed to be on his top game now. When the seekers were fifty-foot-tall behemoths with super powers, hiding was a little more than paramount to one's survival.
Thankfully, everyone was on the same page from the instant they had heard the world-shattering screech of a giant Pokémon. Shane took the lead and they darted for the cover of the trees once more. They knew they didn't have much of an opportunity to stay still, too, because they had seen what happened to trees if a giant Pokémon decided to walk over them. They needed to get to that possible portal as soon as... well, possible.
Espir and Shane knew the power of Pokémon senses, so they had to be as quiet as they could when darting through the trees. Shane felt the tug of the magnetism as they were running and kept them on course as best as he could, but there was very little opportunity for chatting from this point forward.
They locked eyes onto the first giant Pokémon as it was getting close to sunset. The trio really didn't feel like they could settle down for the night and had tried to push forward, only to see a fifty foot tall Monferno stride past, each step taking it impossible distances across their field of view.
Espir couldn't help but think that a simple Ember from a being of that size could scorch half of this forest. He was wondering less and less where the other humans were, as these giant Pokémon seemed to be a good reason for those humans either being wiped out, or staying hidden.
Perhaps the ominous feeling from the city was that there were humans there, but they were watching the trio arrive and stand out in the open- knowing the risk they posed; maybe, it was from the lack of humans entirely, having been eradicated by these giant beasts. It was better to not think about it, but Espir couldn't help himself.
"We need to sleep at some point," Alexis whispered as they wove through the trees under the cover of darkness. It had been a good while since they'd heard any more shudders of the earth, so it was a semi-safe bet that many of the giant Pokémon were sleeping. They had to be concerned about any nocturnal ones, but they also needed to rest soon, otherwise they wouldn't get another chance for another day. They had to be at their best to be crossing such a large area of land while such giant beasts were stomping around, too.
Espir was completely taken aback. His entire world had been flipped upside down AGAIN, and he couldn't believe his eyes when he saw the towering creatures that roamed this strange alternate world. Alexis, on the other hand, seemed remarkably calm and unphased by the whole thing - a stark contrast to Espir's own reaction. To see Alexis so composed amidst such an incredibly weird and concerning situation was both confusing and, to be honest, kind of scary for Espir.
They picked a cluster of trees that felt even more bunched together than some of the others, it was their best bet to catch even a few hours of sleep. Even in such an unbelievably dangerous situation, it was hard to argue about the rest that they sorely needed. They hadn't truly rested since before the gym battle.
Espir tried to stay awake a little longer than the other two, to keep some sort of watch, but eventually- even for him- sleep took him under.
It is all coming to a head. Can't you see? Look a little closer, till the clarity blinds you. Only then, will the full picture come together. A beautiful tapestry of destruction. For now, it is best if you wake up. Wake up.
"Wake up," Alexis urged Espir, shaking him out of his sleep. Espir looked around, figuring out where he was quite quickly, the words in his sleep already becoming lost, like mist to the sunshine.
Shane wasn't looking at Espir, but instead upwards. Espir followed his line of sight and Alexis stepped back to start looking up, too, back at the giant Pokémon that had spotted them. The reverse magnifying glass effect of feeling like bugs under inspection was troubling to Espir and he didn't know what to do. If they moved too much, would it prompt the giant Wooper to attack? Its huge blue head looked down, investigating the smaller beings- so far, showing no sign of malice or aggression.
"What is the plan?" Espir muttered to the other two.
"We can't stay here forever," Shane said, mesmerized by how large the Pokémon was.
"Then we try a slow and steady walk away," Espir suggested, "and if it attacks, we run like hell."
"I don't see any other way of doing this," Shane said, agreeing reluctantly.
Espir patted Alexis on her calf as he slowly got to his feet, too, and motioned for the three of them to slowly start making their way in the direction Shane felt they needed to go. The atmosphere was too tense for any of them to even risk breathing. It felt like they had all woken up to a tarantula waiting, poised, before their eyes. Each movement was strained and deliberate, stress and fear battled with adrenaline to keep the trio from just breaking out into an all-out sprint.
The Wooper continued to watch them as they slowly and painstakingly slunk back behind the cover of the trees. A moment later, causing all three of them to dive to the side, the tree was yanked out of the ground, roots and all- for the Wooper to continue staring at them.
Shane's confidence broke and he bolted, forcing the other two to dart after him, after a moment's hesitation. The Wooper watched them run for a moment before realizing it wasn't for its own entertainment anymore. Now, the Wooper gave chase, its own aggression building as the beings it had been inspecting didn't stay within the confines it wanted them to.
"Please tell me that magnetism is feeling closer!" Espir shouted at Shane as all three of them hurried away from the giant Pokémon, that was kicking through trees in an attempt to catch up with them. The ground rumbled so much it threatened to knock all three of them over- but they stayed standing long enough to keep the distance between them and the Wooper.
It had yet to give up chasing them, but was certainly slowing down.
"I think it might have lost sight of us," Espir said, urging the others to slow down to avoid alerting it with the sound of their running. "We might be able to hide from it again."
"Good," Shane said, "I don't think I can take another day of running."
"But you're a Pokémon that's in good shape?" Espir chuckled, the adrenaline keeping the fear at bay.
"It's the thought of running that tires me, not so much the running- anymore," Shane said, sharing the laughter, though quietly.
"I wish I could understand you two," Alexis muttered, more to herself than anyone else. "Come on, let's keep going."
Shane and Espir nodded and the three of them continued on, though more stealthily than how they had begun their day's travel.
"It is definitely getting closer," Shane said, answering Espir's earlier question, "but I don't know how long it will be until we're there. Also, the last time I felt this, the portal didn't appear for a good couple days, so we can't rely on it just waiting for us to arrive."
"Unless it only opened because we were there?" Espir suggested, causing Shane to nod and think a little more on how the whole thing worked.
"Do you think one of these will get me back home?" Shane asked, after they had walked a little further.
"I don't see why not," Espir shrugged, "though it'll have to be quite lucky to do that- not to dampen your spirits at all."
"We've spent the last day hiding from giant death machines, I don't think my spirits can be dampened."
"That's a silver lining, then," Espir laughed, getting Alexis to glance at them once again.
"I know this is how you must've felt whenever I spoke to humans with you around," Alexis said, "but I can't stand not being a part of this conversation."
"Swings and roundabouts," Espir said, shrugging.
"Hey, I think that's more civilization," Shane said, indicating ahead.
"I wonder if there's anything civilized within it," Espir muttered. Alexis looked forwards, following where the two Pokémon were looking.
"Finally," she sighed, "I wonder if there are any humans in this place."
"Wait," Espir said, "I think I recognize that… no way…"
"What?" Shane asked, slowing down.
"That's Oreburgh City," Espir laughed, "why is it always Oreburgh City?"
"I don't know what you mean by that, but sure," Shane said, "I guess it's good to know where we are?"
"I guess so," Espir nodded, as the trio did indeed walk out of the trees and set their eyes upon the city of rock and rubble.
"If anywhere, this would be a good place for people to hide," Alexis said, "there's all the mines here; they should be good for hiding from those giant Pokémon."
"Good idea," Espir nodded, "I think we should check those mines out, just in case?"
"Were you agreeing with me, or not?" Alexis asked, looking down at Espir.
Espir gave her a thumbs up and she smiled, nodding.
"Thank you," she said, "just wanted to make sure."
"No problem," Espir said, before pushing on ahead. "Let's get out of the open and into those mines."
Shane and Alexis followed Espir's eager footsteps, hurrying on ahead to try and get into what they hoped was some fragile form of safety.
They managed to get into the mines without much trouble, though the lack of people still astounded all three of them. At least in the last world they had been in, there were other people. They may have been deranged evil people, but the world was still populated by someone. These cities still existed, so there must have been a population at some point.
Trying to delve further into the mines proved more difficult, however, as it was rife with cave-ins and barriers for no entry. Of course, the trio ignored any of the barriers, but the cave-ins were a difficulty that they couldn't overcome.
Espir lit up a small fire in his hands, as if charging a fire-type move, so that they had some light to see by. As he did, they all noticed the near caveman-esque carvings and paintings on the walls of the mines. There was writing along with the drawings.
The rudimentary art showed humans and Pokémon, as their normal sizes, but then the humans found some sort of gems that had crashed down from space. Investigating these gems turned the Pokémon nearby to all grow at a rapid rate, causing unparalleled destruction.
As the Pokémon grew, the humans tried to restrain them, but they no longer wished to be bound by human rules- instead hunting them down and sending them fleeing into hiding- the images showed a crowd of humans rushing into the mines.
Espir looked down the tunnel, at the cave in. With all the rumbling footsteps, he wouldn't be shocked to find many, many bodies under that rubble. They couldn't hide there long, otherwise they could share the same fate as those in the drawings.
"How far is the portal from us now?" Espir asked Shane.
"It's… let me think, it feels close- somewhere in this city, I feel."
"Do you think we can make it before sundown?"
"I think so," Shane said, "but remember, it's only the feeling. The portal might not be there right now."
"It's a chance we're going to have to take," Espir said, "lead the way."
Shane nodded and started to walk back out of the mines, towards the light.
"We're leaving already?" Alexis asked, noticing the others were walking away. She was still staring at the artwork until she heard them walking. "Are we close?"
Espir turned and nodded to Alexis and she quickened her pace, relief and eagerness pushing her on.
"That's great news," she said, "I've had more than enough of this place. I'm not sure if I like it more or less than the one with our doppelgangers."
"I think I'd prefer this one," Espir muttered in agreement. Those copies were horrid to deal with.
Following Shane's lead, like a sniffer dog, they crept back out into the open. They all stuck to the shadows, alleyways and walls- trying to keep out of the middle of the streets, just in case a giant Pokémon happened to wander by.
The further they walked, the more Espir realized they were walking towards the museum that he and Alexis had attended all that time ago. They hurried across the street and forced their way into the museum, that seemed to have been barricaded shut.
Espir passed through the door and removed the planks of wood propping the doors closed on the other side.
"It's just through here," Shane said, "or that's where the feeling is."
They walked into the area with all the glass exhibits- though many of the glass cases were smashed and glass shards littered the floor. Part of the ceiling had caved in on the far side of the museum.
"This is where Team Cosmic attacked us, one time," Espir explained to Shane as Alexis took in the derelict surroundings. "Right… here."
As Espir stood where he had been standing so long ago, the air pulsed as if they were underwater and feeling a strong current. More glass shattered around them as the tear that Shane had been sensing ripped open before them.
"Is this it?" Espir asked Shane, but Alexis was already running to jump through it.
"No better alternative," Shane replied, running after Alexis as Espir took one last look at their surroundings and jumped after his allies, leaving yet another strange world behind. He just hoped they were jumping back to their original one.
LukarioLM64: Both Jamie and myself have looked into what you were saying, and we both wholeheartedly agree with you. The story seemed to reach a point where things started dragging on too much. We're glad that you're still enjoying the story, as well that you enjoy the inclusion of Shane, but the lack of character development between himself and Espir (Or just Shane in general) is very apparent when you go back through the chapters. Separately, Alexis is proving to be difficult to make interesting at times. Jamie has plans for her in the future, and we're gonna try to express her psyche more in future chapters. She's been a bit calm... too calm. We have plans to work with that as the story continues as well. Thank you so much for your review. I know it's cliché to say, but it truly means a lot to hear any constructive criticism at all.