Arc 6: Armageddon Game

Chapter 135:

Rude Awakening

It was surprisingly easy to get pizza after the world ended. Because it had ended, technically. And technically, I was one of the only few who survived it. Of course all the structural damage had been reset, so in theory most pizzerias should've been able to operate as usual. Disregarding any mental trauma endured after being brought back to life.

But even with that, somehow, someone just saw the entire world get reset, the gods leave, the entire League in panic and thought to themselves. Yeah, now is a good time to make pizza.

It was a good time for business actually and the business was good considering most people were too traumatized, confused or not really in the mood to do anything after realizing they had quite literally died. After all, people still needed to eat and those food packages that the League sent were… well, I didn't think they were too bad, but those food packages were meant to be consumed after the entity city was in ruins and all the food was either spoiled or unrecoverable. But in this case the supermarket still stood and all of the infrastructure still functioned.

It was just that the people who were supposed to be doing their job at the supermarket were walking around like zombies. I saw some people just barge in and take whatever they needed. Some left cash on the counter, but most didn't.

The pizza was good, despite the fact it was probably made under the strangest circumstances.

"Hand me another slice, I don't care which one." Midna hadn't even finished her piece before she already asked for the next one.

A slice of pizza lit up a fluorescent blue before it was whisked away. It landed in front of Midna and promptly fell down on the bed sheet. I couldn't help but wince a little as the Zorua began to eat it with little regard for the grease and sauces that fell onto my bed.

I was also eating pizza while sitting on the bed, but I was using a plate. The only one who cared about using a plate, besides me, was Fay. I just didn't want bits of pizza to spill onto the floor and didn't like the idea of oil or sauce on my hands. Fay because, well, no clue actually. She used to live in the mountains so it wasn't natural to her, but I guess she had a sense of decency unlike the other savages.

The Riolu in question sat quietly on a pillow in the room's corner, next to the open window. She was looking at the slice like she could hardly comprehend it. She ate it slowly, carefully taking a bite and making sure to chew each piece before moving onto the next.

I expected her to be a bit unstable still, after all, she was released from the Pokémon center less than an hour ago, but what was bothering her clearly ran deeper than just surface wounds or exhaustion. I made a mental note to talk to her about it later.

Luna was guarding the pizza boxes, keeping them to her left on the table. She sat next to them,her legs dangling over the edge as she toyed with her slice. She was using her psychic powers to tear off chunks and feed them to herself. I did note how she wasn't eating the crusts.

I let out a sigh and picked up a can from the foot of the bed. It still had some juice left. I brought it to my mouth and took a sip. I looked for a place to wipe my hands clean. With my foot I picked up a discarded towel and used it to quickly clean them.

"MY EYES!" A long drawn out cry came from the window. "FUCK!"

"Gross," Midna commented idly. "Luna, be a dear and please shut the window."

Invisible hands grasped the window and shut it tight. I had left it open to enjoy the cool evening air, but the wailing from people still stuck in their nightmares was grating my nerves. I thought by now the League would've found everyone and done hypnosis on them to put them at ease, but apparently not.

Luna quietly took another slice from the pile, preemptively picking off the crust and discarding it.

"That person will be fine, right?" Fay said with a small voice after a brief moment of quiet. She looked up from her plate. "I mean, the League definitely has a plan for how to help them, right?"

When Midna and Luna didn't answer, Fay's big eyes fell on me. They looked at me with hope and expectations..

"Well," I began, trying to think of what would be the best answer. I myself felt pretty tired. "To be honest, the League hasn't said or done anything. But I am sure they'll do fine."

The lack of response from the League was actually kind of eerie. It really felt like even the big guys at the top were unsure about what just happened. I mean, I barely grasped what actually took place and I had been a big part of it. Or at least a part of its finale.

My laptop was placed somewhat behind me on the bed and was monitoring some forum posts. The DiScavenger program was actually struggling to keep up with all the rumors and conversations and was continuously lagging.

It was late in Sinnoh, yet people were still very active online. This world's variant of Reddit, plagiarized by yours truly, was buzzing with Legendary sightings across the world, other people were posting pictures of the Sinnoh night sky and remarking on how the stars seemed off. One poster thought they were particularly clever by pointing out how the Knight constellation shone extra bright, but they were immediately told that the Knight had always been like that this time of year, then they continued to argue in the comments.

Ping.

A message from Hylla: A mass network breach today. This line might be compromised. I'll be there in 4 hours.

Yikes. I quickly typed a response and turned to face my team.

"Okay, Hylla will be over in 4 hours."

"Kinky." Midna remarked, wagging her tail.
"Shut it."

{We'll need a good cover story.} Luna pondered out loud, sharing her thoughts with everyone in the room.

Fay blankly stared at the window. Her plate had been put down, clearly having lost her appetite. She slowly turned her head around; her pupils were contracted, while tiny blue flames danced around her paws. She was agitated. Softly, with the smallest voice, she asked, "How can you all just sit there and eat pizza?"

Luna's red eyes turned towards me. I didn't even need to look in her direction to feel her gaze, which was intensely focused upon me. I could also feel her emotions bleeding into me. Luna whispered telepathically, {At the museum you told me you would follow this path regardless of the costs, this pursuit of greatness. Now that you've seen the cost, do you still believe it to be worth it?}

My heart began to beat faster, and my breathing became ragged. Just the memory of my conversation with Dialga and Palkia was enough to bring back the entire adrenaline rush. The fear and excitement, the hope and desperation for answers.

And I finally got them. Even if I had to go through everything again, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

"It was absolutely worth it." I said. I looked at Fay. "We gained so much information. I've spoken to the gods of Space and Time and not a single person died."

"Flamera died," Fay bit back. She pointed at Midna. "She had to eat her corpse. How can you just forget that?"

"Technically, not the first time I ate a-" the glare Fay shot at Midna silenced the witty fox.

My stomach started to churn when Fay mentioned Flamera. I tried to harden my heart and ignore the stabbing pain I felt. "Look, you have to do the math. We were given shitty odds and played our cards the best way we could."

Fay shook her head. "But what if we went into this entirely wrong? What if we warned the League? What if we evacuated the entire town and all the people before the Legendaries came through?" Fay sulked. She hung her head low. "I just… I thought it would be different."

I thought of the stories I had read; the heroes of those stories always had a clear cut justification for their actions, some way to remove responsibility and make it clear that there was only one path of action they could've taken.

But as I went through that list, I came up entirely blank. All I could say was that I tried to do the right thing, but that felt extremely shallow. But still, in my heart of hearts I knew that this had been the only path I could've taken. Talking to the League would've lowered my chances of meeting Dialga and Palkia, left me in a worse position or outed me as an interdimensional traveler.

Luna jumped down from her table and walked over to Fay. She barely noticed the psychic's approach, she was murmuring something to herself while sulking.

Luna knelt down next to her and whispered something in her ears. I couldn't hear the words. They were either not shared, or in Pokéspeak. Midna pitched her ears and I had the idea she could hear Luna's words perfectly fine.

Fay's eyes lit up a little bit, her pointed ears twitched. I had no idea what she said, but it did seem to raise Fay's spirit quite a bit as her frown slowly faded away.

Luna pulled back and looked at Fay expectantly.

"You're certain?" Fay asked hesitantly.

Luna smiled warmly. {He was chosen by Fate. Palkia herself said it.}

Fay nodded slowly as whatever Luna had told her began to take root in her subconscious. Her posture changed and the fire returned to her. "W-well, yeah that makes sense, I suppose."

She stood up straight and looked at me. Proudly she declared: "If you are going to be a hero of legends, then I shall be your blade of Justice! While you focus on saving the world, I will make sure we are doing the right thing like a true Lucario would!"

I blinked. My cheeks colouring as I felt my heart begin to melt at this fluffy display of heroism and straight up cuteness.

"I'd be honored," I said with full honesty. "I don't know how time travel works, or what Fate's plan is exactly, but I am honored to have you all as companions."

Fay leaped into my arms for a hug, one I returned in full and one I actually needed myself as well. I embraced her and felt my own soul lighten up as well, as if touched by Fay's aura.

Unrelated, and out of nowhere, a gravelly voice called: "I would like another mozzarella."

In the darkest corner of the room, hidden out of sight and most likely out of mind - since I had practically forgotten he was here - was Darkrai. He… well, he still looked weak and was barely a dark shade on the wall. For an unknown reason Dialga's time rewind hadn't restored his physical state.

Luna tossed a slice into the corner of the room. {This is the last mozzarella.}

A hand reached out of the wall and pulled the slice into the wall.

I wasn't exactly sure what to do with Darkrai. I wasn't sure what to do about a lot of stuff, but Darkrai was one of the more important loose ends. After Dialga and Palkia had pissed off I didn't really have any other options then to bring him with me to my room for at least this night.

He had been silent the entire time, I guess he was still very much destabilized from the entire incident. He'd taken a beating from everyone in Alamos town and failed in his self proclaimed duty to protect Alamos town.

I would offer him to join my team or something later, but for now I just offered him to tag along. He hadn't been pinpointed as the instigator of what people had started to call the Alamos Incident, but he was still a target having been seen threatening me and Flamera on live television.

Luckily, despite being made out of shadows and smoke and probably fucked up shit like nightmares, Darkrai could still eat a pizza just fine. Apparently he had never done so before.

Maybe he had been silent because he was too busy savoring the fine Italian cuisine?

For now he was just a nice shadow in the room that would at least keep my dreams safe; plus he only ate one slice every 6 minutes. That's what friends do for eachother.

"Okay, so plans for Hylla." I began to theorize out loud. "What should we tell her?"

Midna grinned.

{No.} Luna glared at Midna.

"But she'll arrive really late," Midna sang. "You really want to discuss business that late?"

"Good point," I murmured. "I'll tell the receptionist to leave a room free."

The ground started to rumble. It was so sudden I barely had time to notice it before a loud screeching noise tore through the room and the tremors doubled in ferocity. It set all my nerves on edge.

From the shadows emerged Darkrai. "Dream Walker!"

"What?" I snapped.

"No! Not you, another one!"

My eyes flew to the window and I hurried forward to get a better look.

In the distance the two giant towers that stood above Alamos trembled and shook. It was almost as if they pulsed and each pulse caused the quakes to repeat itself. The left tower began to collapse inwards, crumbling like a house of cards. While it tore itself down, the right tower was dragged down with it and the 2 pillars that had withstood the full force of space and time collapsed gloriously.

"Fate, what the fuck?!" I whispered as I practically pressed my face against the glass. The light from inside caused the room to slightly reflect itself but through my own face I could see it very clearly.

The Space-Time towers were no more.

My fingers folded around the chess piece. It was a crystal miniature version of a Kirlia, the glass was black, so I was probably playing black then?

The chessboard in front of me was similarly made out of milky white and charcoal black glass. The board looked very fragile, as if a small whisper could cause it to shatter. Small figurines in either color were placed across the board in a strange configuration.

Sitting opposite of me, presumably playing white, was a girl with long silvery white hair that flowed down. Her face was beautiful but painfully pale, almost like a statue. The one thing that broke the theme were the striking yellow coloured eyes that were almost golden.

I felt like I was just dropped in the middle of something. Like I had been here for a while, yet the latest memory I was…

My eyes widened. The Space-Time Towers. I almost jumped up, but I managed to restrain myself at the last second.

"A dream," I muttered quietly. I calmed myself down and tried to orient myself. I looked at the girl sitting in front of me, she was expectantly waiting for me to make a move. The girl looked very familiar.

"We've met before," I said.

I almost dropped the chess piece I was holding, but I managed to hold onto it. Would it even shatter? Dreams were weird, and especially dreams like these.

"Have we?" The girl's voice sounded playful but there was a deeper undercurrent in the way she spoke, one that made me unable to feel at ease. "It could be true, who knows? This is your dream after all."

From above the sun glared down in an almost painful radiance, it shone far too bright for my liking.

We were sitting in the middle of some ruins I hadn't seen before. A glade surrounded the dilapidated sandstone structure that had sunken into the ground. Below our feet grass tried to crawl across the ancient stone floor tiles. A triangular pattern was carved into the marble, a circular formation surrounded it but time had softened all the edges to the point not much of the original design could be seen. The crystal chess set reflected the light in all directions. When I moved Luna's piece, fractured light started to dance around the ground and leaves.

"Why are you here? I was awake a second ago." I slowly put down Luna's piece. I wasn't sure where to place it, but I placed it on a square that didn't feel terrible. The game in its entirety looked nonsensical. I had no way of knowing which pieces represented what.

"You called me," the girl answered, a fox-like smirk curling up on her lips. "So here I am."

I considered her words. I was still dreaming, was this another Darkrai situation? Was I dream walking, or was something else happening? I carefully thought about my next words for a few seconds. I looked at the person in front of me.

White hair. Golden eyes. Able to traverse dreams. If it were anyone else Darkrai would surely have broken me out of it, yet I was still here. It had to be.

I was now certain I had run into her before. Though I highly doubted that it had been a random encounter.

"You're Arceus?"

The girl lowered her head and rested it upon her arms to study the chess pieces. She was wearing the same thing she wore last time I saw her. She tapped some of the pieces, twisting their heads and playing with their shapes.

Finally, she moved a piece, a white Suicune, to the left side of the board. She sighed wistfully. "Arceus, The Alpha, The Light that Sleeps. Those are just names given to me."

"Aurum?" I asked, I raised an eyebrow. "That's one of your names?"

"It should be my name in your tongue." Aurum paused. "I believe so at least."

After a few seconds of parsing the thought I muttered. "Gold, I see."

She grinned, her eyes gleamed with joy. "It's your turn."

I looked at the board, trying to decipher any meaning from it. All the pieces had been replaced by Pokémon, people, objects. Some I recognized, most I didn't. Also, I had the suspicion that the board's setup had changed from when I last saw it.

At the corner of the right side was the sword Heartbreaker. I moved it one tile, not sure what else to do with it.

"So you're God. Capital G. The creator." My voice was filled with disbelief and apprehension. And rightfully so, I had always thought about Arceus at least in a conceptual manner. I had dreams where an entity I believed to be Arceus, spoke to me. But this is the first time I was face to face with…well, something that was Arceus?

Arceus? Aurum, what was I supposed to call her? It? As if she could see my internal struggles, the girl laughed. "Again, names are just attempts to label what I am."

"Then what are you?" I asked, the words shooting out of my mouth. "I mean, why do you look like a human? Aren't you supposed to be like, I don't know— a fucking llama?"

A look of annoyance crossed the girl's face. "I do not know why your mind does what it does. But I think it's safe to assume that this fleeting form is at least something you can comprehend." She leaned over the board and picked up a piece. It was a miniature version of Jubilife City, it was characterized by its tall skyscrapers. She moved it forward until it was right next to a black Larvitar. "Your move."

"Why are you here?" I asked again. "I mean, why now?"

"The fabric of space and time is at the weakest it has been in a long while," Aurum said. "Time is broken. Too many things traveling between time and too many Legendaries for a stable flow of events. Any other questions?" Aurum raised an eyebrow. "Also, it is still your move."

I looked at the board.

The pieces had again changed. I was certain that she was just trying to gaslight me. I studied each piece, some of them seemed to be random Pokémon, some of the pieces were people I knew personally or had seen on TV. Some of the more strange pieces resembled objects such as a comet, a sword or a vial of blood. I decided against touching any of the pieces I didn't recognize. Somewhere on my frontline, next to a girl I didn't recognize was a black piece that resembled Snowflake. I randomly decided to push that piece towards the Larvitar piece.

I looked at Aurum again. "Why did you summon me?"

Aurum's smile split wider. Her eyes sparkled with mirth, however, there was something wrong with the way she smiled. it was almost as if she was possessed.

"That's a very good question," she admitted. "One I do not have the answer to." She idly tapped a figurine of a Pikachu and moved it back to her side of the field. Without taking her eyes off the game she spoke. "You are clearly marked by me, but I don't recall bringing you here."

"What do you mean?" I asked, feeling sweat form on my forehead. My heart was thumping in my throat. "You can't just casually say that."

Aurum's mouth twisted. "For what it's worth, you fascinate me utterly. I hoped you would have the answer for that question, though now that I know you don't, I am even more interested."

"Then what am I supposed to do?" I asked, trying to get any semblance of reason from her. "Why do I have these strange abilities? What is my purpose? I can't be in this world without reason."

Aurum tilted her head, confusion showing in her eyes. "Didn't you already decide that long ago? You wanted to challenge Fate, no?"

"You can't be serious." I stuttered.

"It is decided." Aurum nodded. "I am excited to see where this goes. Do not disappoint me."

"HOW?!" I cried out, indignified. I got up, unbalancing the board as I did so. "I barely survived an encounter with your two sociopathic children. Fuck knows what the League and all the other villains are doing?"

Aurum sighed wistfully. She picked up a piece from the chess board. Was it a boy, or a man? It looked human at least. She twisted the piece between her fingers. The light from above seemed to increase its intensity. The sweat I felt wasn't just from stress, it was getting hotter.

"The High League, Cyrus, your friends. They're all strategizing, making plans and playing this big game that they don't fully understand." Aurum gestured towards the board. "You won't be able to out play them all. You're not smart enough and the rules won't allow that to happen."

Instead of elaborating, she smashed down the piece upon the board. The glass cracked and splintered as she forced it down. Above, the sun swelled inside and began to burn away at my retina. The chess piece began to glow.

Aurum's eyes blazed with madness and she kept pressing down the piece onto the board. The glass started to shatter. "Here's my tip. If you can't play the game. You break it."

The light above exploded.

My nerves screamed.

The world became pure white.

A/N And we are starting off the new Arc. As you can see, I kind of want to have more fun and fluff moments again now we finally went through the hurdle of writing the entire Alamos Arc.

Probably also will do shorter but faster uploads again, since there's a bit more breathing space in the story's outline.

Thanks a lot to Fae the Fox and Rat the Muffin King for helping me out with beta reading. Delta, you're a stinky.

Thanks for all the reviews and favorites. Be sure to favorite if you haven't favorited because I am trying to become a famous fanfic writer.

This was today's Insane World of Pokémon, take a breather but do not linger too long. We got a whole insane world to explore.

-CaptainMoonShine-