ACL: 49. A Monument to New Beginnings

Chapter 49: A Monument to New Beginnings

Brockton Bay, NH, USA
Monday, February 14, 2011
Type: Rock

Aegis and Vista left to close out their patrol. After a quick rest, I picked up my self-imposed construction project again. The sun had set, but I had a few hours to go until midnight. Unfortunately, I’d lost track of time while building the pier.

I smiled ruefully as I got to work again. When was the last time I did that? It had to have been when I dug out my base, and the boltholes to and from the ferry station. I felt like a kid who got too absorbed playing with LEGOs, only for his mom to call him down to dinner. I didn’t mind too much; there was something delightful about the simple joy of manual labor. 

Unfortunately, I didn’t think I’d be able to finish my sculpture garden in time. The plan had been to kidnap Amy and bring her here for a nighttime picnic watching the waves. I was going to fill this pier with statues of cape couples in the city: Assault and battery, Flashbang and Brandish, Manpower and Lady Photon, and of course, Armsmaster and his bike.

Now, I didn’t think I’d have enough time to host that picnic, after all. Certainly not without breaking her curfew. Just because I didn’t care didn’t mean she’d feel the same way. I realized now that if I wanted a romantic sculpture garden for Valentine’s Day, I should have started the project the day before.

Which raised the question: If not a Valentine’s Day gag, why build this pier at all? What could I use to fill this sculpture garden?

I formed sturdy rails along the pier. If anyone fell over the side, they’d fall onto the wavebreaks, thick, granite columns that jutted out in all directions. Aegis was right; if that happened, I’d never hear the end of it.

After that, I raised up stone pedestals along the pier. Marble this time, which was thankfully no more complicated than the granite I’d been using so far. Though it was a far more aesthetically pleasing mineral, that was no reason for a pokemon to struggle with it more than any other type of stone.

I learned a lot from this little project of mine. For starters, I learned that certain pokemon had an affinity for certain types of minerals. Many rock types compressed stones out of the dirt, which I believed made most rocks used in rock type moves sedimentary rocks. However, there were some glaring exceptions.

Magcargo could pull up igneous rock, as befitting its nature as a magma-snail. Gigalith, using the crystals jutting out of its body as seeds, could generate crystal lattice structures, primarily of quartz.

And carbink… Carbink could go a step further. They were “jewel pokemon,” children of Diancie, the Queen of the Diamond Domain. They were, quite literally, made of diamonds.

In the end, I opted to turn it into an open-air shrine of sorts. Onto each pedestal, I placed a statue of a Legend. I forged them out of sturdy marble and inlaid them with shimmering quartz for accents. I considered using diamonds, but thought better of it. That was just begging people to try to steal them.

My first statues were located at the point nearest to the coast, where my “island” almost touched US soil. Here, two figures rose up, each about fourteen feet tall. One was a bipedal dinosaur who looked out over a pedestal modeled after a rugged cliffside while the other was an orca-like entity who rode a platform of waves. Anyone from my world could recognize them with ease: Groudon and Kyogre, Land and Sea manifest.

The third, Rayquaza, was the trickiest. He didn’t get a pedestal, for to imply that he needed to touch the ground was blasphemy. Instead, I thickened the stone railings and grew Rayquaza’s body from them until the Sky formed a looming arch over the two titans. Rayquaza’s head looked down between them, jaws open as if to chide them for their squabbling.

At the center, smack dab between the three gods of the earth, I raised a marble plaque. In clear, simple script, I greeted my guests:

Dearest guests,

Welcome to the Isle of Petty Revenge. Look down. See the two-inch gap between this land and American soil and know that this is indeed an island. It is also a shrine, a monument to the Legends and the Origin of All. Be welcome. Bear witness.

The three who guard this threshold are Groudon, Kyogre, and Rayquaza. This isle was made on the day of lovers. As such, it is only right that I dedicate this place of prominence to the oldest couple in history, and their marriage therapist.

May all quarreling couples gaze upon the horizon and know that the Sky has heard your shit before. So please, stop fighting. You’re not original. You’re not special. Your bickering is just tiresome.

Best regards,

Menagerie
Aura Master, Paragon of Arceus, and the Will of Legends

I leaned back with satisfaction. That hadn’t taken nearly as long as I’d feared. Not only did I have a clear image of each Legend, from more experience than any sane man would ever want, these sculptures didn’t have to support the weight of the entire pier. Though the pier was just a flat base, building it had been much more difficult.

I moved on from pedestal to pedestal. I couldn’t build all the Legends, not even all the ones I’d personally met. Still, I included all the major ones.

After Hoenn’s big three came the three dragons of Unova: Truth, Ideals, and between them, the Void that came from a lack of either. I didn’t bother with cheeky plaques for them, just a simple nod to their domains and an inscribed prayer for their wellbeing.

To my dying day, I never did get to see what the “unified Tajitu” looked like. Their separation remained the greatest sin of the so-called “twin heroes.” Their legacy was neither a land of truth nor of ideals, but continued bloodshed and civil war, brought on by the greed and ambition of their descendants.

Next came a happier story, twin towers modeled in ancient, Johtoan style. One, I capped with a bell of beaten metal I took from an aggron’s scale. The other also had a bell, one shaped from quartz that glimmered with a rainbow hue. They were perches, upon which sat Lugia and Ho-Oh.

My time in Johto had been among my fondest. Not only was it a place full of ancient history, its two Legends actually got along and shared the adoration of the region’s people equally. When Lugia’s tower burned down, Ho-Oh actually left the Bell Tower in turn, in search of a pure-hearted trainer. It had been my privilege to mentor Crystal.

Fourth came the scales of Life and Death. Here, I made but one, enormous statue at the center of the walkway. Two figures, a stag with rainbow horns and a raptor with enormous, hand-like wings, stood across from one another. Between them was what many would mistake for a flower.

It was the “ultimate weapon,” its very name a monument to human hubris. Truthfully, there had been many “ultimate weapons,” though this one was admittedly more impressive than most. It was uniquely capable of harnessing the diametrically opposed powers of life and death.

AZ, the ancient king of Kalos, used the power of Xerneas to raise his floette from the grave. He sacrificed countless other pokemon to do it, which horrified his partner. He believed, perhaps rightly, that Xerneas cursed them both with immortality because of it, so that the two might become stagnant spectators to the horrors that the king had wrought.

Then, seeing the war that had cost his region so much, he converted this device into a weapon. Drawing upon Yveltal’s domain over death, he killed everyone involved on both sides. That final battle, and Yveltal’s judgment, was why Kalos had a “Lumiose Badlands” in the first place. Even three thousand years later, not even a blade of grass would grow there, for Death had made her judgment.

Then came time for me to pay homage to the final region I ever visited: Alola. I felt… conflicted.

Necrozma wasn’t evil. I still maintained that none of the Legends were. It was a creature of light, robbed of its very essence by the ancestors of the Ultra Recon Squad. It was a creature driven mad by millennia of indescribable agony, yet one more stone to cast at the feet of human folly.

Yet, I couldn’t dismiss that final battle, either. The Light that Burns the Sky had also burnt me from the world. My own strength had been insufficient. My team, each ready to stand on the world stage, couldn’t hold a candle to the Blinding One’s full power. And so, I gave my life to buy a few, precious seconds. I’d placed my hopes on Selene and Gladion, the two who had bonded with Lunala and Solgaleo.

Whatever else I thought of the matter, my gamble had paid off. Alola was still standing. The world had not lost its light. Most of my team survived, free to choose their own retirements. My watch as a protector of the world had ended in searing light.

I looked up at the face of the Blinding One. This statue was carved with white marble, a poor imitation of its light. And, amidst the darkness and the sound of lapping waves, I let go.

I let go of the resentment, the bitterness of what might have been. After all, my death had not been the end. Arceus was not done with me yet.

Finally, I came to the very end of the pier. Here, four pedestals stood, three slightly smaller and one that stood higher than all the others. Time. Space. Distortion. The Origin.

Sinnoh was my home. Funny enough, it was also an old name for Arceus, not that the ancient clans knew it. I’d been so naive when I started out, filled with an unyielding need to prove myself. Every decision, every battle, had shaped me even as I shaped the world around me. I looked upon those days with nostalgia as I carved the faces of my gods.

For a moment, I was tempted to put something silly on his plaque. He’d grumble but I doubted he’d truly care. Instead, I opted for something simple. A summation of my life in a single sentence, and also a reminder to myself:

The one who honors the Origin may shape the future.

There was no need for anything else. To date, I did not know of a single religion that worshipped Arceus directly. The Origin of All had no temples. There was the Hall of Origin, but that had not been built by mortal hands. He demanded no sacrifices or prayers or ceremonies.

So, I offered none. I simply stood there, in quiet reflection of all that I’d done. I knew that Arceus sent me here for a reason. I knew not why, but I could only hope I would be sufficient. Perhaps this time, I wouldn’t have to die to do it.

X

Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Type: Dragon

PE was hard, and not for the usual reasons.

Aura was me. I was aura. I’d had quite the breakthrough recently. Though I could channel it to make myself stronger as I’d done against Lung, it wasn’t as though it was “off” every other time. Last I checked, souls didn’t work like that; you couldn’t just “shut off” your soul. Inactive, yes, but there was always a passive minimum.

It was why people in my old world were stronger than people in Earth-Bet. There were people who rode dodrio, rapidash, and any number of flying types without fear of falling. Normal people survived attacks from pokemon all the time.

Alder, the retired Unova Champion, had been a septuagenarian when I last saw him flip a charging gigalith onto its back. Then there was Chuck, the Johto gym leader who got into punchouts with his machamp. Sure, his machamp pulled his punches, but there were limits to how much someone could hold back. Anyone from Earth-Bet would be crippled for life by even a glancing blow from a machamp of that caliber.

“Aura is the light of the soul. Just like a lighthouse in the night, its light cannot be hidden,” Gurkinn had said. And he was right.

Now that I’d gotten back into training seriously, it was getting harder to hide the fact that I was blatantly superhuman by this world’s standards. Even my passive aura made me a minor brute. I was stronger. I was faster. I did not tire after a mile. I did not feel pressured when my classmates jostled me for the soccer ball.

Frankly, it was getting difficult to pretend. I could sorta force myself to sweat more if I panted like I was hyperventilating. I also snuck away occasionally to splash water on my face so I could better sell the facade.

Luckily, I wasn’t the only one with noticeable improvements.

“Looking good, Dallon,” Coach Mooton barked. Not at Vicky, the known brute didn’t exactly do PE like the rest of us, at Amy.

Ever since I awakened her aura, the freckled brunette started to take PE much more seriously. No matter how much she grumbled, she couldn’t deny that aura was too good of a force multiplier to not develop.

Truthfully, I was pretty sure the existence of aura bugged her like nothing else. She was the biokinetic. She didn’t enjoy her time at the hospital, but that didn’t mean she didn’t take pride in her power.

She was a woman of science who firmly believed that biology followed certain rules, and that these natural laws were immutable facets of existence. If humans could not explain parahuman biology, then that was a failing on the part of human understanding. The law existed, even if it had yet to be described coherently.

Then, I came along. I flipped her worldview on its head. With proof she could tangibly experience, I showed her that maybe biology wasn’t absolute.

Not only did I prove to her the existence of souls, I also showed her a world in which humanity did not reign uncontested atop the food chain. I showed her the undeniable proof of godlike beings and told her that friendship was a valid path to world-shaking power.

She both loved and hated me for it. She hated that she couldn’t grab hold of aura like she could with biology. She hated that it was a miracle that couldn’t be understood in terms of hard numbers or DNA sequences and amino acid configurations.

Most of all, she hated that she couldn’t ignore it.

So, she did as told. She bitched and moaned and texted me death threats, but she kept up with the regimen I’d assigned her. She exercised each morning. She meditated each evening. And, in just days, she was seeing results.

Not a lot. She wouldn’t be punching Lung anytime soon, if ever. Never mind a brute rating, she wasn’t even the most athletic girl in class.

But she knew her body best. She knew better than anyone that the human body was a thing that had to be sculpted over time, with great effort. Consistency was the true key to athleticism and she knew that she was seeing greater results than a mere few days of effort could explain.

I caught her after PE with a shit-eating grin. I echoed Coach Mooton, “Looking good, Dallon. Trying to impress your boyfriend?”

“Fuck off, Blake,” she shot back, elbowing me in the arm. Still, she joined me as we walked to class. “You know what the worst part about aura is?”

“The gains you can’t explain?”

“No, they’re bullshit, but whatever; I’ll cope. It’s the emotions. The empathy. I just… It’s a lot of information.”

“Yeah that takes a while to get used to.”

“I… Is it supposed to be like this? I get little bursts of vicarious happiness whenever someone else is happy. I’m not even trying to connect with them or whatever. And when someone’s sad or upset…”

“You also feel it, at least a little. Aura is communion,” I recited softly. “Some pokemon, like lucario, are born with this gift. Humans who develop it later can have a hard time adjusting.”

“How do you deal with it? All the emotions that aren’t really yours.”

“I compartmentalize. It’s why meditation is so important. Otherwise, you might end up becoming a people-pleaser. Not that that’s inherently a bad thing, but focus too much on other people’s happiness and you leave your own by the wayside.”

“I… I get it. I think that some people won’t be happy with whatever I do.”

“So do what brings you fulfillment, Ames.”

“Even if it makes me selfish?”

“Even then. A damaged pot can hold no water. A damaged soul can not ignite another.”

“Fuck you with your fortune cookie mumbo jumbo.”

“It’s true.”

“Yeah, I get it. Later, Blake.”

“Later.”

We said goodbye as we split for our respective classes. We couldn’t linger together long. At school, I was more Dean’s friend than Amy’s. It was funny in a way. I wondered if having aura would make her more sympathetic towards Dean’s own tendency to please everyone.

Probably not. I found Amy and Cherie to be two sides of the same coin. Cherie was too selfish. She needed to interact with others, to build connections and experience all the emotions of life unfiltered by her power. I enabled her pranking ways because I wanted her to associate her own happiness with the happiness of those around her.

Amy was her polar opposite. She’d spent her cape career being a “heal-bot.” She was tired, burnt out, and felt exploited by the system and the role her power had pigeon-holed her into. Maybe the last part wasn’t objectively true, but that was how she felt.

In a word, Amy needed to be more selfish. She needed to compartmentalize, to separate her own identity from that of Panacea. Sure, it was nice that she could feel the genuine gratitude and appreciation people had for her, but what I wanted most for her was for her to learn to pursue her own happiness. 

Smiling softly, I headed for my next class. I had a feeling she was on the right track.

X

That afternoon, I was practicing condensing and expelling aura into a proper Aura Sphere. It was slow going. If aura was the power of bonds, it by definition required something to be bonded to. It was so much harder to project aura into the world than it was to simply strengthen myself. When placed outside the body with nothing to bond to, it dissipated quickly.

It was possible, of course. Lucario could do it instinctively in the form of Aura Sphere and Bone Rush, but humans simply lacked that innate talent. Already, it was impressive enough that I had access to aura at all, and could reinforce my body to the extent I could.

Knowing that didn’t keep me from becoming frustrated. A part of it was that I could do it in my past life, but another part was the raikou’s challenge. The lightning-tiger said he’d lend me his form if I could master Aura Sphere again. I thought it’d be easy. I wa wrong.

I held out my gauntleted hand. The leather felt snug, and if I was being honest, a little sweaty. I wondered if I should reconsider my armor once summer came around. It had fulfilled its purpose, giving me protection until I could protect myself via aura. Then again, I was sure Sabah and Lisa would say something about branding and my image as a hero.

I snorted with amusement before turning back to my practice. Focusing, I coaxed my aura to the surface. An orb of blue floated atop my palm. It was about the size of a volleyball and pulsed with all the power I could muster. It took a lot of effort to condense aura like this, to make it visible and tangible outside the body.

This small amount could shield me from flames that would immolate a man. If I crashed it into something, it could total a car, or stop a faux-dragon cold. It was more than most people had, even back in my old world, but quantity alone wasn’t enough.

I tossed it into the air and willed it to remain whole, but it was futile. It held its shape for four feet or so, but quickly lost cohesion until it ballooned and scattered like smoke. All that power, worthless without the right focus.

I groaned. Four feet was an improvement, but I doubted that raikou would consider such a pathetic display worthy. Still, I was mostly out of aura so I decided to call it quits for the day.

As I was getting ready to return to the ferry station, my burner phone rang with an unexpected text. Very few people had my number, after all. Amy was at the hospital. We’d given Dragon berry seeds on Sunday and so would likely not hear from her for a while. Sabah and Lisa weren’t likely to need me.

Curious, I checked to find a name I hadn’t thought about in a while: Theresa. I’d forgotten to change the contact so Taylor was still “Theresa” here. I picked up with a curious smile.

“Hello? Theresa? How are you?”

Author’s Note

Diancie’s title is a reference to the movie, Cocoon of Destruction. There is a place called the Diamond Domain, where she rules as queen over many carbink.

The Legends aren’t placed in a chronological order if that wasn’t clear. 

Animal Fact: Chameleons can rotate each eye independently to observe two things at once, or focus on a single object to better gauge distance. Their total field of vision is about 342 degrees. They can also see ultraviolet light.