Beyond the Adventure - A Pokémon Story

Chapter 17: Endgame pt4

                We watch the volcano closely, standing there for several minutes, just watching, listening, waiting.  All I hear is the sound of magma bubbling.  All is quiet, and I finally allow myself to breathe.  I look at Darius, then at Jess.  They both shake their heads.  It is over.

                Jaws limps to me, giving me a big grin.  I pick him up and put him on my shoulders.  Dunsparce flops up to me and smiles.  I kneel down and rub her head.  “You did fantastic,” I say.  “I’m so proud of you all.”

                Darius and Jess tend to their Pokémon.  Poor Prinplup and Lapras look exhausted.  Darius feeds them some berries, then pulls them into their balls.  Absol looks all right, standing before Darius, looking proud.  Articuno looks weary, but well, while Manectric sits down and starts grooming herself.  Everyone seems to be okay.

                “Well, that plan certainly worked,” Darius says.  “Why didn’t we do that before?”

                “I think you guys are just used to playing by the League rules,” I say.  “When it comes to life or death situations, sometimes you gotta break the rules to survive.”

                “We obliterated that thing!” Jess boasts.  “Yeah, did you see it thrash about as it melted?  It was all ‘oh my God I’m melting, stooooooop!  It burns!’  HA!”

                “Call Steven,” I say.  “Let him know it’s over.”

                “With pleasure!” Jess says.  She looks at her Pokégear and starts punching in Steven’s number when suddenly, Articuno lets out a bloodcurdling screech.  I look and see Articuno fall to the ground, her chest charred to a crisp.  I look at Jess, who does not move, stunned.

                “Jess, quick!  Her ball!” I shout.  When she does not move, I charge her, grab Articuno’s ball, and pull her in myself.

                Darius looks at us.  “What the hell happened?!” Darius shouts.

                I look at Darius and rising into the air behind him, I see a blue crystalline orb floating in the air.  It glistens in the sunlight, then starts to glow.  My eyes go wide with fear.  “Darius!  Get down!”

                “Huh?”  Darius looks behind him, sees the orb, and dives out of the way at the last second.  A powerful beam flies right by him.  Darius shouts in pain and hits the ground, grabbing his arm.  He rolls, then sits up.  The beam seems to have clipped his arm.  Blood seeps from under his hand, soaking his sleeve.

                The orb suddenly starts to morph.  Slowly, red and green flesh begins to envelop the orb.  I rush over to Darius.  He moves his hand and I inspect the injury.  It is a clean slice through his tricep muscle.  Bad, but not crippling.  He is lucky.

                Darius tears his shirt and starts to wrap it up.  I help him up and we face the awful truth; this thing is indestructible!  As it begins regenerating its body, I try to formulate another plan, but I come up empty.  Darius does not waste any time, though.  He commands Absol into action.

                “Absol, use Dark Pulse!” he shouts.  Absol leaps toward the orb and fires the same dark pulsating beam he did before.  The sick fleshy orb retaliates with its own beam, firing it through Absol’s attack.  Absol ducks just in time, the beam passing through the space where his head once was.  I look back at Dunsparce and Jaws.  Dunsparce is already launching stones at Dexoys, while Jaws is stockpiling food in his jaw.  Jess joins in, commanding Manectric to fire bolts of lightning.  Deoxys’ chest finishes regenerating and its arms and legs start to push their way out.  It dodges each attack effortlessly, zipping through the air with ease.  A stone from Dunsparce manages to connect, hitting it in the orb.  Deoxys fires a beam in return.  Dunsparce quickly burrows into the ground, but the beam hits the ground where she burrowed, and I hear her squeal in pain.  She pops out of the ground, flops for a few seconds, then stops moving.