Pokemon Max: Final Showdown

Ch. 77 Beginning of the End Part 5

Ch. 77 Beginning of the End Part 5

I opened the door as dramatically as possible. "Guys...meet me."

To say it was kind of  dramatic is definitely understating it. I stood proudly by the door as alternate dimension versions of me stepped through.

I went up to the first in the line. "Todds, this is the team, team, this is girl me, weird me, zombie fighter me, and me number five."

I looked back at my friends. Harper clearly didn't know what to think, evident from her face. Nelly and Joey were kind of just in awe, Adrian seemed annoyed, and Taylor gave me a look of frustration. I whispered gently into her ear. "I think I outdid you..."

"Shut up."

"So, you guys remember when I did the alternate dimension thing, right? These are the other versions of me."

None of them really changed positions. "Right, so...introduce yourselves? 'Kay?" I stepped away, and slowly people began talking. I pulled Lily to the side.

"How's John doing?" I asked quietly.

"He's okay. He's coming up with a few stray memories, and over the time he's been recovering most of what he lost. And in case you're wondering, no, I don't think he hates you."

"That's...that's good."

"And how are you?"

"I'm better. I dunno, it's not easy to work with, but I have to ignore what I know for now. What matters is, you know, saving the world."

"That's the guy I know." She smiled.

"So, I better go see how everything's going." I slipped away and walked around. Tommy was talking with Joey and Nelly, apparently showing off his little friend (whose name I unfortunately could not remember).

Tori was talking with Harper, and the two seemed to be getting along pretty well. Red was pretty much off to the side with John, who was very interested in his Pokemon. And of course, Adrian and Z were hitting it off, which I gotta admit, was making me kind of frightened when near either one of them.

I looked off to the side of everyone else, and found good old 5 standing awkwardly silent. I slipped away from the others, and came up beside him. "How're you doing?"

"I'm alright, I guess. It's just..."

"What's wrong?" I asked, pretty confident I understood.

"Well, I don't...you know...I don't really want to be involved in the fighting. I mean, I don't have any of the abilities or stuff you guys have, and..."

I cut him off. "I totally get you. None of us really want to be involved in all of this. To tell you the truth, I can't wait for all of it to be over. But we have to do this to help people, so we will. Don't worry we'll keep you safe. Besides, you're one of us. If we left you behind it'd be like...I don't know...buying only eleven eggs."

"So we're the equivalent of eggs in this scenario?" He looked at me with concern.

"Alright, so it wasn't the best analogy, work with me here." I put a hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry man, we got this."

"Yeah, but I'm still..."

"You're worried about defending yourself, huh? I understand." I turned around. "Hey, Z!" He turned casually. "You got a spare gun?"

"Don't be ridiculous." He replied, walking over to us. He suddenly reached down and flipped out another weapon. "I always have a spare gun."

"Nope!" 5 backed away quickly, with his voice cracking strangely as he said so. It became noticeably deeper for a moment. He cleared his throat and spoke again. "Yeah, I'm not a gun person, or a weapons person. Or really a fighting person, so...I'm just gonna go over here." He walked away quickly.

I looked at Z. "Did that seem weird to you?"

He shrugged. "Last time we met it was fighting for our lives for like twenty minutes tops. I wouldn't say you know exactly who you're talking to."

"Yeah..." I walked over to the door and looked outside. The weather had become fittingly ominous, a fact I wasn't sure was just a coincidence or created by Arceus himself, seeing as he could probably do that because reasons.

I walked over to a radio we kept in the kitchen and turned it on. I scanned around before hitting something that sounded appropriate. "The mysterious creature which appeared in the city has not done much, but from what witnesses have seen, its intentions appear to be hostile. Local authorities and defense units are responding, but we have not received word on what their next plan is."

I turned the radio off. If those people tried to fight Arceus, things could get really bad. We had to do something now. I walked out to the others. "All right, everyone." It became incredibly silent. Everyone looked at me. They were expecting me to tell them what to do.

"It's game time. Hope you all are ready, because we have to leave. Now."

---

And so I led a group of the most underwhelming people to possibly save the city (and/or the world) into a fight that would likely result in death.

I was starting to think about maybe leaving 5 behind.

But I was mainly distracted by the spinning merry-go-round of thoughts in my head. Chief among them being, It's surprisingly quiet considering the whole giant monster threatening to destroy the place.

I led everyone through a street that led to where we had first encountered Arceus. I made sure no one was too ready to fight, since we didn't know what would happen.

That made me all the more frightened.

After an unbearably long walk, we reached the site. Arceus still stood there, its eyes closed as if it was concentrating. I ignored him and looked at where Lucario lay.

That's what I was here for. To stop that from happening again.

As we took a few steps closer, Arceus opened its eyes, its stare piercing through me. I managed to keep walking despite a growing knot in my stomach.

"I see you have returned." Arceus told us. "What might you be here to do?"

"What are we gonna do?" I muttered to myself. I looked back at everyone. No matter how nervous they were, they nodded at me, giving me their assurance.

I looked back at him. "...We're gonna stop you."

He stared at us.

Then a sinister gleam appeared in his eyes. "Perhaps after you are no longer busy." He lifted his front legs into the air, slamming them down. Shockwaves from the move rippled around us, throwing us off our feet. I looked over at some of the buildings, which began creaking, and bits of rubble began to fall.

I looked up at him again.

"Well? Go on, little heroes."

Someone's scream came from a nearby building.

"Save the day."