Chapter 39
The last Ferrothorn was knocked off the ceiling and fell amongst a heap of his companions who were also knocked out. The door across the room opened for the next challenge.
“How long have we been going on for?” Claire said as she snuffed out her stick with her tail.
“I dunno, about six floors now.” West responded as he reloaded his rocket launcher.
As it turned out, the challenges inside the tower were a bit more complex that the ones offered in their home world. Rather than fighting enemies all over, some floors featured puzzles they had to solve, such as crossing large pits or combining moves to connect with hard to reach enemies or objects.
The went into the next room cautiously. They didn’t know what could be behind the next door, so they needed to be careful for any ambushes. When they entered the next room, they saw a blank room. Andy noted how eerie the room was as they took lengthy steps into the area.
A swarm of darkness overtook them, and with a cry of surprise they lost each other. Andy felt a force moving him around the room. After about a minute the darkness fell and Andy was put in the corner of the room. The door they entered through and the door they want to reach were on both of Andy’s sides, and he was put in the corner of the area that was outlined in the center of the room.
Each of his friends were on other corners of the room. Andy looked around for any enemies that may come but couldn’t find any. He scratched his head as he walked towards his friends.
“What was that abou-” Andy ran smack into a wall. He pulled back with a gasp and took care of a bloody nose. As he stepped back the wall disappeared, and he had full view of the room again. He saw some of his friends also try to walk away but also met a wall.
Curious, Andy walked back towards the direction of the wall, this time exercising caution. The wall again appeared as Andy turned to the side and walked down the side. Another wall appeared at his side as the first one disappeared behind him. Soon a new wall showed up right in front of him, but with an opening in the side.
Oh no, it’s an invisible maze!
“Woah guys it’s an invisible maze!” West shouted.
“Kinda beat you to that!” Claire, Andy and Josh said in unison. Andy looked to the ceiling. The wall went all the way up, so there would be no jumping over the walls, and Andy was confident that these wouldn’t go down with moves either.
“What should we do?” Claire said.
“Just follow the left wall until you get to the other end.” Andy replied. He was pretty good at mazes, but that was just from doing the ones found on paper. He didn’t know how well that would work in a real maze.
He put a paw on his left side and began following it. Andy heard nothing but walls rising and falling as he and his friends progressed.
This is pretty easy. Nothing bad.
After about a few minutes or so, Andy heard some distress from some distance away. Claire and West had bumped into each other accidentally.
“Oh, I found you!”
“Oh, good. Let’s finish this maze together.” The noise level was reduced now that only three people were activating the walls.
Minutes passed, and Josh whistled. “I found the door. Don’t take too long!”
“We won’t!” They continued along the maze. More minutes passed, and it was just Andy who was navigating the maze.
Andy began to be bored and began to hum himself a song. Wall after wall after wall had passed, and still he hummed. The appearance of the walls was now memorized in perfect detail as he kept going and going.
Andy lost track of the time now. He felt like he had been going on for hours and hours. He began messing up the lyrics to the songs in his head as he became increasingly frustrated with the walls. He just wanted the walls to be gone so he can join his friends and be done with the room.
Andy soon found a door, and he felt a huge amount of relief. He walked over but noticed something is wrong.
The other three made it, right? Oh please don’t be…
Andy pressed his back against the door as hard as he could so the walls disappeared. He found his friends on the other side of the room still waiting for him.
“NO!!!” Andy shouted, making Claire jump. He ran back into the maze and was in a frenzy. He no longer followed the left wall anymore, he was making a mad dash over towards the door. He was repeatedly running into the walls over and over until he eventually just held a arm to his nose to stop it from bleeding. Andy never really had claustrophobia, but he felt a great anxiety from this test.
Wall after wall after wall, and Andy was left to just blasting them with his moves. Sure enough they were absorbed by the walls and showed not even a scratch. He fired attack after attack, hoping that he would eventually weaken a wall and break through it.
Is this what insanity feels like? I absolutely hate it!!
He kept going and going on and on until he began to feel light headed. It was becoming difficult to stand and he was getting dizzy. He tried to focus on his surroundings but he couldn’t take it anymore.
I just need to lie down.
***
The next thing Andy knew is that he was under the ocean. He took a moment to calm down, knowing he was back in a comfortable place. He swam up to the surface and looked around for Nephi, but all he could see was just empty blue. Soon he saw a bright orange life preserver attached to a rope coming towards him. He grabbed on, and soon the rope straightened as he was pulled away.
After some time, Andy saw the island, an embodiment of his mind come over the horizon. He was being pulled towards the dock, and he saw Nephi operating a crank that reeled Andy in. When he got close to the port, he let go of the preserver and climbed to the side, where he climbed a ladder and got out of the water.
“Oh, Nephi, I’m glad to see you agai-” The Blaziken slapped Andy across the face so hard it sent him tumbling onto the pier. Nephi grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and dragged him towards the shore.
This must be what a child being pulled by the hair feels like.
Andy felt tears welling up in his eyes due to the pain and the fear he was felling. He always got scared whenever an adult got upset, and he couldn’t help but feel like it was something he did.
Something was wrong about the beach. Last time it was surrounded by some of his mental projections, but now nobody was around, and he felt a general sense of unease.
Andy was dragged up the hill, past his “house”, past the castle he ventured down last time, and was taken to the back of the island. Soon after Nephi stopped and threw Andy to the ground.
“Do you see that?” Nephi shouted. When Andy turned twards what Nephi was referring to, he saw a huge crater. The sides were smoking, as if a meteorite has just recently struck. Since Andy remembered that this island represented his mind, whatever that crater meant was not good.
“Y-yes!”
“Do you know why that’s there?!”
“No!”
“That little meltdown you had did this!”
Andy looked back at the crater. Just losing control did this?!
“M-maybe we can fix it?”
“You kiddin’? This is why people like Vincent are the way they are! You can’t. Fix it!”
Andy was having a hard time keeping a straight face. Being yelled at, especially by something so much taller than him, was scary. He just wanted to leave, go back home to his base room and not have to do this anymore.
“What should I do?”
“I dunno, maybe not go crazy next time!”
“O-okay…” They sat in silence for a few minutes before Nephi tapped Andy on the shoulder.
“C’mon, I’m going to take you back.” They walked back in silence as they got into Nephi’s boat and went out into the middle of the sea.
“Just go.”
Andy obeyed and jumped into the water. He had nothing to say to Nephi and was ready to go back to the real world.
***
As Andy regained consciousness he heard some sounds of Pokémon moving around. He tried to breathe as he relaxed but found that the airway through his nose was blocked. He returned to breathing through his mouth as he woke up. He found that his whole muzzle was put in a cast of a kind. There was even a bit that went into his mouth.
A Blissey came into the room. “Oh good, you’re awake. Let’s do some quick check-ups to make sure you’re okay.” And so Andy was subjected to some inspections to make sure he could breathe properly, answered some questions, and the like. “Okay, looks like you’re making some good recovery. I’ve got some people here who want to meet you, will that be okay?”
“Who a dey?”
“Oh, a Braixen, a Weavile, and a Dewott.”
“Yes.”
The Blissey left, and after a few moments Andy’s friends came in.
“How you feeling?”
“Good.”
“That’s great to hear.”
“Whad habbened?”
“So you were throwing moves everywhere for a while, and we stood by waiting for you. Then you didn’t make any more sounds, and the walls stayed perfectly still.”
“We got worried, and…well, we forfeited the challenge to come save you.” Andy now felt a new feeling of guilt. There was a good chance they were just before the top of the tower, and he blew it for them.
“When we got to you, you were completely out, and you were surrounded by blood. If we didn’t come to get you, you could’ve died of blood loss. How many times did you hit your nose?”
“Ib so sorry…”
“Don’t sweat about the challenge.” Josh said. “We just got word that Mr. X will be taking his time to get here, so rest up. You kinda got a front-row seat to the fight we’ll have.”
“’Kay…”
“We’ll be sleeping at the Inn we got, we’ll save you a bed for when you get out.” Claire gave Andy a little pat on his shoulder as they all left.
***
That night, Andy was awoken by a sound in his room. A figure was standing over him, and Andy soon recognized his visitor as Bonnie. She was holding a small package.
“Are you alright?” Andy nodded. “Alright.” She sat down near the edge of his bed and put down the package. She looked down at the floor for some time.
“What’s wrong?” He asked.
“I’ve been feeling really guilty about getting you and your base into trouble. I tell you, I wasn’t a spy or anything. I guess I had that tracker planted when I was captured by those agents.”
“It’s nothing.”
“No, but because of me your base was trashed and everything went wrong. I’m sure they did something to make you guys come here.” Andy shook his head and began telling her about what had happened at the base. He told her about everyone being okay and that the Pokeuman team came because they wanted a change and that Pokextinction was looking to redeem themselves. He assured her that the damage done was not her fault.
“Well, that’s a little better.”
“Don’t feel bad.”
“Okay. Thank you.” She reached behind and gave Andy the little item and Andy undid the napkin wrapped around it. Inside was a type of sandwich. “That’s and Oran Berry Sandwich. I don’t think you’ve been feed very well.”
“Looks delicious.”
“I’ll see you tomorrow.” She got up and left the room. Andy munched on the sandwich and went back to sleep.
***
After a day of being in a bed, Andy was able to go out and about with his friends but took it easy to heal. After another day, nurses said he could remove the little cast and he was able to enjoy the time with his friends.
“Hey, now that I’m okay, do you guys want to do the tower again?”
“Wait, what? After nearly dying, you want to do that again?”
“Well, sure! Let’s get some bragging rights in, yeah?”
His friends looked at each other for a moment, but then agreed. They entered the tower in the very first room they were overtaken by darkness again and were put on other corners of the room. The very first challenge was the invisible wall maze. Andy knew this would be a trial to overcome, especially now that he knew letting his primal fears take control of him would damage his mind even further.
They began the maze almost like how they did the first time. As Andy was going through the maze, he thought of what he should do if he got separated and alone like the first time again. Soon he heard his friends regroup and all three made it to the door. Andy couldn’t help but chuckle; the first time he was alone in the maze was most likely bad luck, but this time it felt like the tower purposefully made this harder for just Andy.
Andy once again followed the left wall, and this time he spaced out. Going along the wall wasn’t going to get him out any faster, but it was better than running around aimlessly. By spacing out, he essentially left his body on autopilot while he could do other things mentally. He tried to sense where walls could show up and see if he could spot a potential map, but his sensors were clouded. After another minute or so he began having a dialogue with himself.
I wonder if Bonnie really does feel better.
She probably does, but she may still feel guilty too.
Well, I can understand that. What should we do to comfort her?
You got me.
Should I tell the others what Bonnie told me?
No. I think she felt comfortable talking to just us, it wouldn’t be very nice.
…Who am I talking to? Is it myself or is that Nephi talking?
…Good question.
So is this all because I hurt my mind or am I really that lonely?
Maybe loneliness, but my money’s on the crater.
I don’t doubt that.
…Remember the time you went on your first weeklong camping trip some odd years ago?
Yeah! I got to do stand-up paddle boarding for the first time. Felt really cool to-
Andy felt something stopping his way, and he leapt back in surprise.
Do the walls have arms?!
“Hey you made it!” The arm was Josh’s, who prevented Andy from running into the door and braking his nose.
“Woah…I really did it!” Andy felt very happy for overcoming a personal challenge.
The rest of the tower came by like a blur to Andy, and he eventually lost attention to how many floors there were until he opened the door and was blinded by the sudden light that came in. He shielded his eyes until he his eyes took in the brightness.
“Wait a second…” West said. “Is that light? Like, sunlight?!” Andy jumped out of the door way and went up the stairs to his side. He climbed up the stairs and made it to the roof. From above, the whole world was at their feet. The air was flowing up here, providing the group with a breath of fresh air for a change.
“Congratulations!” A voice shouted. Andy recognized that voice. It was a voice that yelled at them to accomplish specific objectives in some rooms of the tower. Decidueye flew down from the skies. “By completing the tower, you’ve proven to be part of the greatest warriors.” The four leapt up and cheered. Decidueye spread his wings and a strange power teleported all of them to the ground, where they had a nice dinner to celebrate.
Next: here
The last Ferrothorn was knocked off the ceiling and fell amongst a heap of his companions who were also knocked out. The door across the room opened for the next challenge.
“How long have we been going on for?” Claire said as she snuffed out her stick with her tail.
“I dunno, about six floors now.” West responded as he reloaded his rocket launcher.
As it turned out, the challenges inside the tower were a bit more complex that the ones offered in their home world. Rather than fighting enemies all over, some floors featured puzzles they had to solve, such as crossing large pits or combining moves to connect with hard to reach enemies or objects.
The went into the next room cautiously. They didn’t know what could be behind the next door, so they needed to be careful for any ambushes. When they entered the next room, they saw a blank room. Andy noted how eerie the room was as they took lengthy steps into the area.
A swarm of darkness overtook them, and with a cry of surprise they lost each other. Andy felt a force moving him around the room. After about a minute the darkness fell and Andy was put in the corner of the room. The door they entered through and the door they want to reach were on both of Andy’s sides, and he was put in the corner of the area that was outlined in the center of the room.
Each of his friends were on other corners of the room. Andy looked around for any enemies that may come but couldn’t find any. He scratched his head as he walked towards his friends.
“What was that abou-” Andy ran smack into a wall. He pulled back with a gasp and took care of a bloody nose. As he stepped back the wall disappeared, and he had full view of the room again. He saw some of his friends also try to walk away but also met a wall.
Curious, Andy walked back towards the direction of the wall, this time exercising caution. The wall again appeared as Andy turned to the side and walked down the side. Another wall appeared at his side as the first one disappeared behind him. Soon a new wall showed up right in front of him, but with an opening in the side.
Oh no, it’s an invisible maze!
“Woah guys it’s an invisible maze!” West shouted.
“Kinda beat you to that!” Claire, Andy and Josh said in unison. Andy looked to the ceiling. The wall went all the way up, so there would be no jumping over the walls, and Andy was confident that these wouldn’t go down with moves either.
“What should we do?” Claire said.
“Just follow the left wall until you get to the other end.” Andy replied. He was pretty good at mazes, but that was just from doing the ones found on paper. He didn’t know how well that would work in a real maze.
He put a paw on his left side and began following it. Andy heard nothing but walls rising and falling as he and his friends progressed.
This is pretty easy. Nothing bad.
After about a few minutes or so, Andy heard some distress from some distance away. Claire and West had bumped into each other accidentally.
“Oh, I found you!”
“Oh, good. Let’s finish this maze together.” The noise level was reduced now that only three people were activating the walls.
Minutes passed, and Josh whistled. “I found the door. Don’t take too long!”
“We won’t!” They continued along the maze. More minutes passed, and it was just Andy who was navigating the maze.
Andy began to be bored and began to hum himself a song. Wall after wall after wall had passed, and still he hummed. The appearance of the walls was now memorized in perfect detail as he kept going and going.
Andy lost track of the time now. He felt like he had been going on for hours and hours. He began messing up the lyrics to the songs in his head as he became increasingly frustrated with the walls. He just wanted the walls to be gone so he can join his friends and be done with the room.
Andy soon found a door, and he felt a huge amount of relief. He walked over but noticed something is wrong.
The other three made it, right? Oh please don’t be…
Andy pressed his back against the door as hard as he could so the walls disappeared. He found his friends on the other side of the room still waiting for him.
“NO!!!” Andy shouted, making Claire jump. He ran back into the maze and was in a frenzy. He no longer followed the left wall anymore, he was making a mad dash over towards the door. He was repeatedly running into the walls over and over until he eventually just held a arm to his nose to stop it from bleeding. Andy never really had claustrophobia, but he felt a great anxiety from this test.
Wall after wall after wall, and Andy was left to just blasting them with his moves. Sure enough they were absorbed by the walls and showed not even a scratch. He fired attack after attack, hoping that he would eventually weaken a wall and break through it.
Is this what insanity feels like? I absolutely hate it!!
He kept going and going on and on until he began to feel light headed. It was becoming difficult to stand and he was getting dizzy. He tried to focus on his surroundings but he couldn’t take it anymore.
I just need to lie down.
***
The next thing Andy knew is that he was under the ocean. He took a moment to calm down, knowing he was back in a comfortable place. He swam up to the surface and looked around for Nephi, but all he could see was just empty blue. Soon he saw a bright orange life preserver attached to a rope coming towards him. He grabbed on, and soon the rope straightened as he was pulled away.
After some time, Andy saw the island, an embodiment of his mind come over the horizon. He was being pulled towards the dock, and he saw Nephi operating a crank that reeled Andy in. When he got close to the port, he let go of the preserver and climbed to the side, where he climbed a ladder and got out of the water.
“Oh, Nephi, I’m glad to see you agai-” The Blaziken slapped Andy across the face so hard it sent him tumbling onto the pier. Nephi grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and dragged him towards the shore.
This must be what a child being pulled by the hair feels like.
Andy felt tears welling up in his eyes due to the pain and the fear he was felling. He always got scared whenever an adult got upset, and he couldn’t help but feel like it was something he did.
Something was wrong about the beach. Last time it was surrounded by some of his mental projections, but now nobody was around, and he felt a general sense of unease.
Andy was dragged up the hill, past his “house”, past the castle he ventured down last time, and was taken to the back of the island. Soon after Nephi stopped and threw Andy to the ground.
“Do you see that?” Nephi shouted. When Andy turned twards what Nephi was referring to, he saw a huge crater. The sides were smoking, as if a meteorite has just recently struck. Since Andy remembered that this island represented his mind, whatever that crater meant was not good.
“Y-yes!”
“Do you know why that’s there?!”
“No!”
“That little meltdown you had did this!”
Andy looked back at the crater. Just losing control did this?!
“M-maybe we can fix it?”
“You kiddin’? This is why people like Vincent are the way they are! You can’t. Fix it!”
Andy was having a hard time keeping a straight face. Being yelled at, especially by something so much taller than him, was scary. He just wanted to leave, go back home to his base room and not have to do this anymore.
“What should I do?”
“I dunno, maybe not go crazy next time!”
“O-okay…” They sat in silence for a few minutes before Nephi tapped Andy on the shoulder.
“C’mon, I’m going to take you back.” They walked back in silence as they got into Nephi’s boat and went out into the middle of the sea.
“Just go.”
Andy obeyed and jumped into the water. He had nothing to say to Nephi and was ready to go back to the real world.
***
As Andy regained consciousness he heard some sounds of Pokémon moving around. He tried to breathe as he relaxed but found that the airway through his nose was blocked. He returned to breathing through his mouth as he woke up. He found that his whole muzzle was put in a cast of a kind. There was even a bit that went into his mouth.
A Blissey came into the room. “Oh good, you’re awake. Let’s do some quick check-ups to make sure you’re okay.” And so Andy was subjected to some inspections to make sure he could breathe properly, answered some questions, and the like. “Okay, looks like you’re making some good recovery. I’ve got some people here who want to meet you, will that be okay?”
“Who a dey?”
“Oh, a Braixen, a Weavile, and a Dewott.”
“Yes.”
The Blissey left, and after a few moments Andy’s friends came in.
“How you feeling?”
“Good.”
“That’s great to hear.”
“Whad habbened?”
“So you were throwing moves everywhere for a while, and we stood by waiting for you. Then you didn’t make any more sounds, and the walls stayed perfectly still.”
“We got worried, and…well, we forfeited the challenge to come save you.” Andy now felt a new feeling of guilt. There was a good chance they were just before the top of the tower, and he blew it for them.
“When we got to you, you were completely out, and you were surrounded by blood. If we didn’t come to get you, you could’ve died of blood loss. How many times did you hit your nose?”
“Ib so sorry…”
“Don’t sweat about the challenge.” Josh said. “We just got word that Mr. X will be taking his time to get here, so rest up. You kinda got a front-row seat to the fight we’ll have.”
“’Kay…”
“We’ll be sleeping at the Inn we got, we’ll save you a bed for when you get out.” Claire gave Andy a little pat on his shoulder as they all left.
***
That night, Andy was awoken by a sound in his room. A figure was standing over him, and Andy soon recognized his visitor as Bonnie. She was holding a small package.
“Are you alright?” Andy nodded. “Alright.” She sat down near the edge of his bed and put down the package. She looked down at the floor for some time.
“What’s wrong?” He asked.
“I’ve been feeling really guilty about getting you and your base into trouble. I tell you, I wasn’t a spy or anything. I guess I had that tracker planted when I was captured by those agents.”
“It’s nothing.”
“No, but because of me your base was trashed and everything went wrong. I’m sure they did something to make you guys come here.” Andy shook his head and began telling her about what had happened at the base. He told her about everyone being okay and that the Pokeuman team came because they wanted a change and that Pokextinction was looking to redeem themselves. He assured her that the damage done was not her fault.
“Well, that’s a little better.”
“Don’t feel bad.”
“Okay. Thank you.” She reached behind and gave Andy the little item and Andy undid the napkin wrapped around it. Inside was a type of sandwich. “That’s and Oran Berry Sandwich. I don’t think you’ve been feed very well.”
“Looks delicious.”
“I’ll see you tomorrow.” She got up and left the room. Andy munched on the sandwich and went back to sleep.
***
After a day of being in a bed, Andy was able to go out and about with his friends but took it easy to heal. After another day, nurses said he could remove the little cast and he was able to enjoy the time with his friends.
“Hey, now that I’m okay, do you guys want to do the tower again?”
“Wait, what? After nearly dying, you want to do that again?”
“Well, sure! Let’s get some bragging rights in, yeah?”
His friends looked at each other for a moment, but then agreed. They entered the tower in the very first room they were overtaken by darkness again and were put on other corners of the room. The very first challenge was the invisible wall maze. Andy knew this would be a trial to overcome, especially now that he knew letting his primal fears take control of him would damage his mind even further.
They began the maze almost like how they did the first time. As Andy was going through the maze, he thought of what he should do if he got separated and alone like the first time again. Soon he heard his friends regroup and all three made it to the door. Andy couldn’t help but chuckle; the first time he was alone in the maze was most likely bad luck, but this time it felt like the tower purposefully made this harder for just Andy.
Andy once again followed the left wall, and this time he spaced out. Going along the wall wasn’t going to get him out any faster, but it was better than running around aimlessly. By spacing out, he essentially left his body on autopilot while he could do other things mentally. He tried to sense where walls could show up and see if he could spot a potential map, but his sensors were clouded. After another minute or so he began having a dialogue with himself.
I wonder if Bonnie really does feel better.
She probably does, but she may still feel guilty too.
Well, I can understand that. What should we do to comfort her?
You got me.
Should I tell the others what Bonnie told me?
No. I think she felt comfortable talking to just us, it wouldn’t be very nice.
…Who am I talking to? Is it myself or is that Nephi talking?
…Good question.
So is this all because I hurt my mind or am I really that lonely?
Maybe loneliness, but my money’s on the crater.
I don’t doubt that.
…Remember the time you went on your first weeklong camping trip some odd years ago?
Yeah! I got to do stand-up paddle boarding for the first time. Felt really cool to-
Andy felt something stopping his way, and he leapt back in surprise.
Do the walls have arms?!
“Hey you made it!” The arm was Josh’s, who prevented Andy from running into the door and braking his nose.
“Woah…I really did it!” Andy felt very happy for overcoming a personal challenge.
The rest of the tower came by like a blur to Andy, and he eventually lost attention to how many floors there were until he opened the door and was blinded by the sudden light that came in. He shielded his eyes until he his eyes took in the brightness.
“Wait a second…” West said. “Is that light? Like, sunlight?!” Andy jumped out of the door way and went up the stairs to his side. He climbed up the stairs and made it to the roof. From above, the whole world was at their feet. The air was flowing up here, providing the group with a breath of fresh air for a change.
“Congratulations!” A voice shouted. Andy recognized that voice. It was a voice that yelled at them to accomplish specific objectives in some rooms of the tower. Decidueye flew down from the skies. “By completing the tower, you’ve proven to be part of the greatest warriors.” The four leapt up and cheered. Decidueye spread his wings and a strange power teleported all of them to the ground, where they had a nice dinner to celebrate.
Next: here
