Chapter 22

I almost fell again as the portal activated, sucking in bits of loose rock from the pillars. Ash leaned on my neck slightly as he got up, shielding his face from the flying debris.

Latias, Latios, Mesprit, and Uxie flew up to us.

"Sorry we couldn't stop the plates in time," said Latios.

"They were just too strong for us," said Mesprit, "we only got three of them down before it was too late,"

"That's okay, you did your best," said Ash. He looked around. "Latios, can you go make sure Pikachu and Azelf are safe?"

"Of course," said Latos, "I'll be right back,"

"Thanks," said Ash, "Uxie, Mesprit, what's the danger right now?"

"I'd say we have about ten minutes before the portal reaches its full power," said Uxie, "after that... both of the worlds may be destroyed,"

"The only way to stop it would be to..." Mesprit sighed. "have someone from both worlds stop it,"

I gulped. "You mean me?"

Uxie nodded. "You are the only one who has the power of both worlds inside you, we can stall the portal but only you can stop it,"

I sighed. Why did it have to be me? I never wanted these powers, I just wanted to be normal. But just as I was about to say I couldn't, that it was too hard. I looked around.

It was like a veil was lifted from my eyes as I saw everything in a new light. For the first time in my life, I had friends who didn't care who I really was, friends who I could bond with and trust, friends who trusted me back, friends who... believed in me.

I took a deep breath. "What do I have to do?"

Mesprit and Uxie glanced at each other for a moment.

"I'm afraid you're going to have to... fly through the portal," said Mesprit.

I had to fly through there? "But where will it take me?" I asked.

"We don't know," said Uxie, "but it's the only way,"

It looked like I had no choice. Either I flew through the portal to who knows where or both worlds got destroyed. I sighed, knowing there was a pretty good chance I would die either way.

"Come on, you got this Michael!"

I turned to see Pikachu by my side, smiling with a determined gleam in his eyes although he still was a bit bruised from fighting Cryus.

"We defeated Cyrus and his grunts," said Latios, "they shouldn't cause us any more trouble,"

"Thanks you guys," said Ash. He turned to me. "Michael, I'm not going to force you to do anything, but I think you should,"

"But what if I.. you know..."

"Die?" Ash finished my sentence.

I nodded.

"I don't think you'll die, Michael," said Uxie, "we just don't know where the portal will take you,"

"Yeah, don't worry about it!" said Pikachu, "Ash has died plenty of times before and he's still fine,"

That surprised me enough to make me stop thinking about the portal for a second. "Wait, then how is he alive?"

Ash rolled his eyes at Pikachu. "I've only died twice Pikachu,"

"Three times, if you count the alternate timeline," said Pikachu,

Ash sighed. "Anyway, to answer your question, Michael, I don't know how I'm still alive, but I do know that I'm alive because I need to keep helping people and Pokemon. No one dies until it is their time to die and it just wasn't my time yet,"

I nodded, getting a boost of energy from Ash's words. "Okay, I'm going through,"

Before I could change my mind, I flew towards the vortex that was rapidly engulfing most of Spear Pillar. I took one last glance at my friends before taking a deep breath and flying in.


I groaned and slowly opened my eyes, not knowing where I was. I looked around. Something about this place looked familiar, but I couldn't remember exactly where it was.

I tried to get a better look around, but it was dark and the moon wasn't very bright. I sighed and turned invisible, not sure if this place was dangerous or not.

I was in the middle of a small park, with the outlines of swings and a play structure barely visible from the street lights. Houses surrounded the park, blocking most of the moonlight.

I flew up, hoping to get a better view of my surroundings. Looking at the neighborhood from above, however, didn't reveal any interesting features. I sighed, about to give up when I noticed something; one of the houses had a hole in its roof.

As I flew over to the house, it began to look more and more familiar. I gasped when I realized it was my house.

With a new burst of speed, I flew through the hole in the roof, wondering why my parents hadn't bothered to fix it yet. 'They must have just been busy,' I thought.

I switched to my human form, which took me a bit longer than usual since I hadn't used it in a while. I was about to run out the door to surprise my brother and parents when I noticed something in the room.

It was a small plaque with the words 'To Michael' on it. Around the plaque were a few flowers and pictures with me, my parents, and my brother on them.

I felt a sudden pang of guilt as I realized my family had thought I was dead this whole time. A few tears rolled down my face. How could I have forgotten? Nurse Joy had said there was an emergency broadcast, and the military blasting me into the ocean would surely have made headline news.

I wiped the tears from my eyes and made a beeline for the door. It was my fault that my family had grieved over me this long and I had to fix it.

The first place I ran to was my brother's room. I slowly opened the door, wondering if he was asleep.

I heard a groaning sound from inside the room. "Can we finish tomorrow Dad? I'm really tired,"

I suppressed a chuckle and stepped into the room.

David turned around. "Dad, I-" he stopped mid-sentence when he got a good look at me. He stared, frozen in his chair. After a moment of awkward silence, he managed a few words. "A-are y-you a g-ghost?"

For a second I was tempted to pretend I was, but decided not to. I had already put him through enough.

"Last time I checked, I wasn't a ghost," I replied.

"But how? I saw you... you know..."

I nodded. "I got hit by that missle, but this Pokemon called Lugia saved me apparently. Sorry for worrying you, but I didn't have any way to get back,"

"Then how did you?" he asked, still having trouble believing it was me.

I sighed. "It's a long story. Why don't you get mom and dad? They'll probably want to hear this too,"

He nodded and walked out of the room, looking like he was worried I would disappear while he was gone.

I heard a few voices from another room, but couldn't fully make them out. Eventually, the door opened and my mom came bursting in.

"Michael! Why didn't you tell us anything?" she said, rushing over to me, "We all thought you were dead!"

"I'm sorry," I replied, "I would have told you, but I had no way to contact you,"

"Maybe we should have given you a phone or something," said my dad.

I shook my head. "Even if it had survived the missile and the ocean, I doubt it would work in the Pokemon world,"

"But if you're here now, why didn't you come back sooner?" asked my mom.

"I didn't have a way until now," I said, "apparently the Pokemon world is in a different dimension, so I had to fly through a portal to get here,"

"What have you been doing all this time?" asked David, "I doubt you just flew around, looking for a portal for months,"

I chuckled. "No, I didn't." I paused for a moment, trying to think of where to start. I eventually decided to start with when I met Lugia. "You guys should probably sit down," I said, "this is going to be a long story,"


There's the chapter, I hope you enjoyed it!

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