Chaotic Good

Chapter 13: Motivation

note: apologies for my horrible attempt at angst in the previous chapter.

Jay's POV

The next, and final, room was made of pumice. Matt complained about getting calusses as soon as he saw the room. This one held, surprise surprise, a statue of Azelf. There was no plate to be seen, no message. Simply a large boulder at the other end, probably blocking a door of some sort. The task looked obvious enough.

"A'right losers, step back. Except you, Mr. Tall Dark and Scary." LoveGame announced, gesturing to Mike. He scowled at LoveGame but stayed put as everybody took three steps backwards.

"Okay, I'll Surf it, then you hit it up with that POWERFUL Iron Head of yours. Got it?"  Before he could respond, Matt spoke up, looking slightly irritated.

"OR, I could just Focus Blast it. Y'know, the easier way." His arms were crossed. LoveGame frowned and stepped back as Matt walked forward. Walked doesn't even describe it, more like he strut forward. Mike followed the Mantine. 

"Okay, everybody shut up so I can focus. Also, Jay, breathe quieter." What?

"I don't breathe loud, what the hell?" I said. Matt didn't respond, but I sure felt self aware now. "Just do the thing, Arceus." Matt lifted his hands towards his forehead and a small orange orb appeared around his hands. It grew, and it was about the size of his entire hand when he shot it at the boulder. Smoke erupted from where it hit, but nobody expected the boulder to still be there when the smoke cleared.

"What the shit..." Matt said, his arms falling limp to his side. Focus Blast is one of the strongest moves, the boulder should've been obliterated! But there it sat, it hadn't even budged. This is weird.

"I'm not doing that again. Thing takes alot of energy." Matt slumped down by one of the walls. He was breathing louder. It took all of my strength to not call him a hypocrite. 

"Okay, let's try LoveGame's method again." Zena suggested. LoveGame quickly used Surf, gallons of water spurted at once from under the rock, soaking it from top to bottom. How did that move even work? What if there was no water around? Weird. The rock was dripping water everywhere now. LoveGame nodded in Mike's direction. He assumed battle stance, and sprinted towards the rock at full speed. His forehead seemed to glisten as if it were metal. He collided with the boulder with full strength, which caused alot of smaller rocks to fall from the ceiling. Despite Mike's brute force, the boulder still hadn't budged, despite all of the water that had soaked through the cracks. Surely it had been weakened enough for an Iron Head to reduce it to rubble?

"Okay, is this thing magic?" Mike asked with a confused tone. It had to be, right? I decided to try and break the boulder.

"Let me try next. Physical attacks aren't doing much, but maybe special attacks will." I drew in the energy around me, and released it with an Earth Power that hit the boulder directly under. The bottom was glowing red from the immense heat. But, as expected, it looked the same as it had when we first walked in here. I looked up at the Azelf statue, it's mouth curled slightly into a smirk. Was it always smirking? Why, the little...it's laughing at us! I was glaring at it now, and its eyes glinted. Whatever, I'm not going to get riled up over a dumb statue. 

"Well I mean, I could Earthquake it, but no nguarantee we wont get crushed by rocks." Everybody mumbled in agreement. 

"Everybody at once?" I suggested. They all nodded their head in agreement.

"Okay, I'll use Earth Power along with Zena's Flamethrower. Maybe Mike can use Dig this time, LoveGame can Surf and Matt can Focus Blast. All good?"

"Yup."

"Hokeyp."

"Fine."

Mike didn't say anything, but he nodded. They all moved into position.

"On three. One...Two...-Mike dug underground- Three!" Matt let loose his Focus Blast and proceeded to pummel the boulder with a Leaf Storm, dust and pebbles flew at us, which hurt more than I had expected. LoveGame was putting his heart and soul into his Surf, it looked like he was gonna faint or something. I decided against using Earth Power, since it would hit Mike as well. Instead I went for a Dragon Pulse. There was a loud thud, and we all paused. Please tell me Mike's Dig didn't work. I heard him speaking, but I couldn't catch anything. It sounded alot like fuckinghelldamnitcantthisrockjustfuckingmoveArceushelpus. 

"I think I ran out of energy for this Flamethrower." Zena said, looking exhausted. She tried breathing another, but only smoke came out. "Man! Isn't my Flamethrower meant to be like 4000 degrees or something?" 

"Don't flatter yourself." Matt said, breathing heavily.

We all rested for about 20 more minutes, but Zena looked like she was deep in thought. Suddenly she yelled "IVE HAD AN EPIPHANY!" Everbody looked at her. "Okay, the statue up there is Azelf, right?" She explained. "Well, Azelf is the Pokemon of Willpower. So, that just means we have to not give up, right?" She looked around at us grinning, but then frowned when none of us reacted. 

"Whats wrong with you guys?" I scratched the back of my head awkwardly. I wasn't feeling it. Matt was glaring at the wall, LoveGame looked like he wasn't even paying attention.

"We give up, Zena. Can't we just go around this wretched place?" Mike responded. 

"What? No! The light led me here! You guys can't see it, obviously, but it's leading under the boulder. We've gotta do this the right way! Remember? Mega Evolution!" Everybody perked up at this. LoveGame jumped up.

"She's right, though. I'm not gonna give up!" I felt pumped up, too. I stood up, stretching.

"Yeah, I s'pose we did come this way for a reason." Mike groaned and stood up as well, leaving Moody Matt.

"Get up you big buzzkill." I said with a smile.

"Ugh. Fine. For Mega Evolution, woo." He said un-enthusiastically. "Woah, what the shit." Matt was looking at the space above Azelf's head. Unown words were being scratched above it.

Willpower is what drives us to be who we are. Without Willpower, we may as well be Humans. Be glad Azelf blessed you with it. The boulder clicked and slid to the side. Magic. Everybody cheered, and Zena looked smug. "I told you nerds. Now let's get to the Forest of Life!"

And with that, we walked out of the cave into a wide plains, the fresh air felt like drinking cold water after being in a desert for hours.