Quest for Life, Part 1 ( A Pokémon Story)

Chapter 21: An Impossible Dream

(Caius)

When I had fallen asleep, I was half expecting to have another recollection of my past. What I got instead intrigued me. My dream was of me walking up a large stone staircase on a mountain side. Jagged mountains all around. When I looked around and saw nothing but cliffs, I decided that the best and only path, was forward. As I walked forward, I noticed that I had my scythe in my hand, but it seemed completely weightless. I continued up until I had come to the top of the staircase, revealing a flat, stony surface. As I looked around, I saw ruins what looked like an ancient building. I looked around again, and looked behind me from where I had walked up the stairs. I was a bit astonished when I had found out that the stairs had completely disappeared. I turned my head back to the ruins of destroyed pillars. I was about to take another step into this dream when I felt the ground shake. I used my scythe to steady myself from the shaking. As I looked around again, I saw the mountains being engulfed in water, lava, mud slides, and other natural disasters. As all of them converged onto the mountain I was standing on, I braced myself for the full force of the elements. When I pulled my arm away from my eyes, I saw that the water and the lava, as well as all the other disasters had stopped right at my feet as if an invisible wall was keeping them back. As I staggered back, I took a second to catch my breath before I started to hyperventilate. When I turned back around, I saw something at my feet. A small yellow light. As I crouched down to examine it, it shined brighter the closer I got to it. I decided to try and pick it up, but just as my claw was about to grab it, it shined brighter very drastically, then formed a transparent rectangle at my feet. As I looked at the rectangle, another one appeared, just slightly above and forward of it, then another, then another. Pretty soon, it started to form a staircase upwards. As I stood back up, I tested the rectangle to see if I could stand on it. Sure enough, I felt solid ... whatever it was, and once I was sure that it was stable, I lifted my other foot onto the one in front of me. As I began to ascend the stairs, I saw that I was walking into the clouds. As I swiped my arm to clear me a better path, I came out of the clouds to see a large flat transparent platform. It went out as far as I could see it. As I ascended from the final step, I suddenly felt very light. I walked forward while looking around, curious about where I was. When it had felt like I had walked for what felt like hours, I saw something bright charging towards me. I stopped in my tracks and tried to make out what it was. All I could make out of it though, was a large light. I turned my head to the left and saw another light coming from that side, and another from the right. All three were coming into a collision course. As all three lights met, a large beacon of light shined from where they made contact. I shielded my eyes while watching the light. As the light dissipated, I began to see a figure standing in the light. I lowered my arm, and gawked at what I was beholding. Standing in front of me, no more than the length of a Seviper stretched out, was Him. My eyes widened as far as I felt they had ever gone before. It was Arceus! The god of all living things on the earth! I dropped my scythe to the ground and immediately kneeled down. I was in the presence of my creator.

"Rise." I heard from Arceus. "And do not be afraid." I raised my head first, then stood myself up. "Caius, the disturbance of the Truett's has plagued this world for over three-hundred years. It must be put to an end quickly, before they have time to reform a strategy."

"What would you have me do?" I asked.

"In order to defeat the Truett's and drive them back, you must have the power to strike them down and drive them from our world." Arceus replied. "But before you can, I must test your strength for myself." I stared at him with my eyes widened.

"What?" Before I even knew what happened, I heard a piercing screech from Arceus as he slammed one of his legs directly into me, causing me to fly back. It may have been a dream, but I could sure feel the pain coming from it. As I tumbled across the ground, I stopped myself by firmly digging my claw into the ground, creating a large slice in the ground. As I took my claw out, I saw the ground reforming, as if the cut was never there to begin with. I stared back at Arceus, who was charging directly at me. My eyes widened. I wouldn't stand a chance against Arceus! He was way too powerful! But he said he was testing me, so I doubt he would intentionally try to kill me, just try to push me to my limits. So be it. I snapped my fingers, calling my scythe to me. Arceus weaved and dodged the incoming scythe, but I grasped my scythe and gripped it in both hands. As Arceus tried to strike at me, I pushed myself out of the way and tried to swing at Arceus, but he had dodged the attack and fired multiple black lashes of darkness. I pulled my scythe close to me and blocked all of them. However, the last lash had struck the scythe out of my hands and it flew off the platform. I was now without my scythe. As I turned back to Arceus, I saw him charging an attack, a large attack! As he fired it directly at me, I barely dodged the large beam of light and stumbled my way towards him. As he was recovering from the attack, I jumped up at him and delivered a successful swipe of my claw to his head, but only causing him to stagger back a few steps. As he stared back at me, he fired another multiple lashes of darkness at me. This time, I dodged them all and spat out my fire at him. He used Barrier to block the attack, then fired another beam of light at me, this time, hitting me head on, and forcing me back several thousand feet. As I got back on my feet, I was surprised not to see a whole where I was hit. That was a Hyper Beam! That should have at least left me bleeding profusely, then again, dreams are very interesting things. I wish I could say that the pain was just a dream, because man did this hurt. I looked at Arceus, who was recovering from his attack. I used this time to dull the pain with Recover. It may not have been real, but it sure helped make the pain go away. Arceus looked back up at me and charged at me once again. As he came at me with a swing, I went underneath him and swung my fist upward, delivering a Sucker Punch to his stomach and sending him high into the sky. As I stared at him, I saw him stop mid-air, and to my surprise, eighteen plates surrounded him and converged into him all at once. What I saw next horrified me. A ball of light appeared at his head. I clenched my arms together, then separated them enough to start forming a black ball. Arceus shot his ball of light into the air as I released Shadow Ball directly at him. Seeing as he absorbed all the plates, I figured that he would get hit by the attack. I was right when my Shadow Ball hit him directly in the face and caused him to stagger back a few steps. The ball he formed though, shattered into multiple pieces and came striking down at me like a volley of Hyper Beams. I tried to cover myself by slamming my foot into the ground and creating a large earth shield around me using Earth Power. It proved to be of little use, because it pierced right through and hit me. The blast felt even worse than the Hyper Beam I was hit with, and sent me crashing into the ground, creating a large crack on the ground. The second attack created a small explosion near me and sent me back several hundred feet. I looked up to try and find Arceus, but I couldn't see him. To my utter horror, he appeared right in my face and slammed directly into me with his body by using Extreme Speed. As I fell back once again, I caught myself before I tumbled off the edge of the platform. As I looked back up, I saw Arceus coming at me with another Extreme Speed, but luckily, I saw him coming this time and dodged by rolling under him. Once I appeared from the other side, I quickly pivoted myself and delivered a solid punch to Arceus as he was also turning around. He staggered off the platform, but still stayed level with me. As I jumped backwards to get more distance on him, I once again tried to dull the pain by using Recover. As I finished up, I saw Arceus walk back onto the platform and stare directly at me. As we stared at each other, I could feel his piercing gaze. I took initiative this time and dashed at him. I felt a power coming from my claw. As I stiffened my arm, I jumped at him and thrusted my claw at him, hoping to strike him directly in the face. Arceus had raised one of his legs and blocked the attack, but I refused to let him throw off the attack. I landed on the ground and tried to force the attack towards him. I struggled to push it forward, but I could also tell the Arceus was having a hard time pushing me back. As we stared at each other, I felt something that I hadn't felt in a long time. Nothing like adrenaline or anything like that, but a kind of furiosity and enragement that I hadn't felt since I was young. Eventually, he used his other leg to try and strike my stomach, but I used my other arm to grab his leg, then with his own momentum, slammed him into the platform. I then let go of his leg and grabbed his tail and swung him around in a circle until I released him and sent him flying towards the other side of the platform. I saw one of the plates he had absorbed come out of him and stab into the platform, a black plate. I recognized this as the dark plate and immediately charged after not Arceus, but the plate. The plate was taller than me by a few inches, but I grabbed both sides of it and attempted to pull the plate out of the platform. As it began to budge, I could hear Arceus' cry as he was charging another attack, no doubt another Hyper Beam. As I lifted the plate from the platform, I turned it on its flat side to get a view of Arceus, who was doing just that. The plate was heavier than I expected, but it didn't stop me from running directly at him with it. I could hear the loud screech from the incoming Hyper Beam as it slammed on the plate. The force caused me to slide back a few feet, but I continued forward, pushing through the attack. As I approached as close as I wanted to, I dug the plate back into the ground, and once I felt it was stable enough, let it go and take a few steps back. I brought my hands close together and started to form Oblivion Wing. My anger started to fuel my power as the ball grew larger than normal. The light around the Hyper Beam faded away, but I stayed behind the plate in case he was going to try and fire another direct attack. But instead, the plate lifted itself on its own and flew towards Arceus, leaving me completely exposed to him. The plate was absorbed and Arceus saw what I was charging. He began to charge another Hyper Beam at me. This time, I felt certain that I was going to win this battle. As adrenaline soon started to pump in my veins, the ball got bigger than I had even expected it to. As I stared at Arceus, I got the impression that he wasn't holding back on this attack either. We launched our attacks, with Oblivion Wing and Hyper Beam clashing in the middle. At first, it seemed like I was gaining the advantage, pushing his attack back, but one cry from Arceus later proved me wrong. The attack then started to drastically change course, pushing mine back faster than I expected. As the attack neared me, I mustered whatever strength into a yell as I unleashed everything I had into this attack. This caused my beam to help delay the Hyper Beam, but it was still advancing towards me. As I saw the beam come towards me, my anger was replaced with the realization of what I was getting myself into. I was fighting the god of all Pokémon. There was no way I was going to win this battle! I needed help! I was fighting a battle I couldn't win! I thought I could hear something from the sky. Once I realized whose voice it was, I only got a greater feeling of fear.