Alex didn't move a muscle as he stared up at Roaring Moon towering over him. It stood a good six feet tall, with a wingspan easily three times its height. It was nothing short of intimidating.
After a long, tense moment, Roaring Moon grunted and lowered itself to the ground, keeping its eyes fixed on Alex.
Sensing the hostility's ease, Alex decided to try his stupid idea.
He released his Dark type energy, revealing his human form, but Roaring Moon didn't react. It had likely seen through the disguise from the start.
Alex calmly reached out and placed a hand on Roaring Moon's head, slow and steady. The moment he made contact, a surge of Dark type energy flooded into him. He lost control as it rampaged through his body, engulfing him in a writhing mass of darkness.
The energy overwhelmed him as his thoughts twisted into something colder, more violent, and unnervingly confident. As if nothing else mattered. Only death and destruction.
Alex settled into meditation, following the routine he had practiced countless times. He gathered the small spark of Aura within him and guided it toward his heart, then began circulating it through his body. But the effort felt hopeless, like trying to stir a vast ocean with nothing but a spoon.
Still, he persevered, riding out the storm and doing his best to maintain his sense of self. It took hours, days even, or perhaps an eternity, but eventually the rampaging Dark energy settled, filling him to the brink.
Alex felt cold and emotionless, his mind calculating as he assessed his situation.
The bond with Roaring Moon had snapped into place, but it left him teetering on the edge of losing himself, his thoughts stripped down to raw analysis and instinct.
Violence was at the forefront of his mind consuming all his thoughts. The need to dominate others and stand at the precipice of power.
Still, one thing was clear, even to this version of Alex. He needed to return to the present, so he focused on his objective with cold calculation and determined the best course of action.
"I'm Alex. Nice to meet you, Roaring Moon."
He received a low grunt in response, followed by Roaring Moon nuzzling against his chest, clearly seeking affection.
"You're quite tame for a Pokémon that destroyed a civilization," Alex remarked as he ran his hands over its neck.
"The fact that even Paradox Pokémon can be tamed during this time suggests that humans eventually evolved and acquired the ability to bond with Pokémon. This means the humans of this era lack that ability and instead see them as alien monsters bent on humanity's destruction. Fascinating."
"Either way, want to help me find a little green Pokémon?"
It responded with a low grunt and a nod.
"Thanks, big guy. I'm looking for Celebi, a small green Pokémon that's both Psychic and Grass type. It should be somewhere in this forest. It's weak right now and needs help. Think you can find it?"
Roaring Moon considered the request before finally nodding. It should be easy to find if they just flew over the forest. As dense as the trees were, they were no match for Roaring Moon if it decided to plow through them.
"I should give you a name. 'Roaring Moon' is a bit of a mouthful. What do you think about Grim?"
Roaring Moon tilted its head, as if running the name through its mind, before finally nodding in acceptance.
"Great. Grim it is, then. Happy to have you," Alex said with a blank expression.
The entire time, Alex had been focused solely on how to take advantage of Roaring Moon, without sparing a thought for anything else. As long as he reached Celebi, nothing else here truly mattered. Roaring Moon was probably too powerful to bring along anyway. So Alex had been playing on its affection to get it to do his bidding.
Once their plan was set, Grim took off, circled around, then dove down and grabbed Alex by the shoulders as they soared above the forest.
Riding on its back wasn't an option since the sunlight was too harsh, but as long as Alex stayed beneath Grim, he could fly freely.
Flying high above the forest canopy, Alex finally got a better look at the world. As he had calculated, the planet had once been home to an advanced human civilization, with ruined cities, towns, and villages scattered across the landscape.
Crumbling skyscrapers leaned at odd angles, overtaken by vines and rust. Roads were cracked and split by thick roots, and moss-covered vehicles lay abandoned. Though nature had reclaimed most of the land, fragments of human structures still jutted from the overgrowth, a fading echo of a lost civilization.
Pokémon were a rare sight, but the few he spotted were all Champion ranked. That level of power made it easy for them to wipe out a civilization, especially one where humans couldn't bond with Pokémon to defend themselves.
As they circled above the forest, Alex spotted a group of scavengers camped near a clearing, gathered around a small cage that held a green creature.
They were celebrating the capture of their latest hunt, which was most likely Celebi. That changed the moment they noticed Grim soaring overhead. Their celebration ended instantly as they scattered in all directions, each man running for their own survival.
Alex patted Grim's arm and pointed toward the spot where the scavengers had left their captive and supplies. It was clear they knew how to survive in this harsh world.
Once Grim landed, Alex confirmed that the caged creature was indeed Celebi. It had fainted, and its small body bore scorch marks where it had been struck by energy weapons.
"You can go have some fun," Alex said to Grim, who let out a thunderous roar before taking off and diving toward the humans it had been watching.
Meanwhile, Alex shielded himself from the harsh sunlight with his Dark type energy, then released the small Pokémon from the cage and carried it toward the nearest shade.
He drew his gun, swiped through the settings until the bullet was set to Heal Pulse, then fired at the fainted Celebi. Its wounds recovered immediately, but it would still take time to regain consciousness since he didn't have a Revive on hand.
So, Alex made his way to the supplies the scavengers had left behind and began rummaging through them. He found dried animal meat, cloth scraps, crystals of some kind, salvaged weapons, and machines that looked like little more than junk to him.
He brought everything back to the shade and began inspecting them methodically, like a predator studying its prey's belongings.
The animal meat was crudely made through smoking, a time tested method of preserving meat. The cloth scraps were random and used to fill in the gaps in torn clothing. The weapons were of the same standard as he had found with the previous scavengers. The machines were junk whose purpose he couldn't discern.
He wasn't an engineer, after all. He was, however, familiar with crystals given his fascination with his weapons.
The crystals were artificial, given how perfect they were. They had flawless symmetry, no inclusions, and a color too consistent to be natural. Natural crystals usually had uneven hues or zoning, but these didn't. Under closer inspection, he even spotted tiny gas bubbles and faint internal layers, subtle signs that confirmed they were man made.
As Alex examined the crystals, the sounds of destruction echoed through the forest. Grim continued to hunt down the scattered scavengers, returning each time with their corpses and adding them to a growing pile beside him. Every pass shattered the sound barrier as it tore through the forest, leaving devastation in its wake.
Alex didn't mind. In fact, he found it almost endearing to be offered such trophies by a creature vastly more powerful than himself. It fed perfectly into the darker parts of his ego, the ones that craved dominance, violence, death, and ruin.
A few hours later, just as the sun was about to set, Celebi awoke to a scene of death, staring blankly at the pile of corpses Grim had collected.
"You're awake. Do you remember me?"
Celebi turned to look at Alex, who had an emotionally blank expression, taking a long moment before finally nodding. It floated into the air, then concentrated until Alex felt the familiar, overwhelming psychic invasion. This time, however, he easily shrugged it off, dampened the pressure, and received the message.
"You will return."
"Yes," Alex replied, then glanced at Grim. "Come."
Grim obeyed and rested its head on Alex's lap.
"Give me a part of you to remember. Someday, we may meet again," Alex said while stroking its head.
Grim looked up at him sadly before plucking a feather from its wing. It pulsed with its energy and glowed ominously in the fading light.
Alex pocketed it, then stood and waited for Celebi to begin.
Celebi concentrated with all its might before Alex felt the familiar sensation of the world melting, accompanied by the warping pull of time tearing open. Space twisted and folded in on itself once more, bending the very structure of reality. The sky split, light bent at unnatural angles, and every sense screamed in protest.
He tried to brace himself this time, knowing what was coming, but it made no difference.
Pressure flooded his skull like a vice clamping down. His vision blurred, then stretched, then shattered into meaningless color. His ears rang with distorted echoes of voices he couldn't recognize, overlapping and out of sync.
His stomach lurched. He staggered, collapsed, and once again vomited onto the ground.
Then, just as suddenly as it began, the chaos subsided. Gravity returned. The air stilled. The pain faded into silence.
He had returned.
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