(Reboot) Pokemon: Beyond the Tall Grass

"Your friend only died because he failed his judgement." Zapdos replied. "He looks into your mind, you heart, your soul. He looks at your past, present and your future. Should he like what he has seen, he will allow you to live on as an Ascended one. If not, THEN you die. From what I heard, it doesn't hurt."

"But only the child who blessed, or cursed, you can bring you to the Creator." Rotom added. "Or he would come after you himself, as I have heard he did."


"Now will you please tell your friend to get off of me?" Zapdos snapped, struggling against Loka's hold.

She nods slowly and gets up, turning to Loka. "You can let him go now." She tells her, waiting for him to get up. "But don't go anywhere yet. I have one final thing to say to you." She tells him, feeling for Entei's crystal in her pocket. It was time to end this. She had had enough of being 'blessed' with powers and getting other people into trouble. If her life was really worth so much to Arceus, he could have it.

"Kar...?" Cerise asked quietly, not sure who this person was that Catia had namedropped. As Zapdos slowly stood up, Cerise felt his gaze drifting to Catia, who was reaching into her pocket for something. That look on her face seemed so... defeated, almost like the way she had looked after the Open Mic Night? Cerise watched her carefully, hoping she wasn't about to do something reckless.

"Loka, what the hell are you doing?" Rizu sounded more confused than angry. Although, he was obviously irritated at the lack of acknowledgement of his question.

As Loka hopped off the back of Zapdos, who promptly stood up and brushed himself off, she went as stood between Rizu and Wes.

"Catia 'ere has been hounded by these avatars since she met Entei." She answered. "This one is Zapdos, as he claims. They were chasin' him this way so I drop kicked 'em into the pavement."

"I see you're still agile." Wes commented, who only got a glare in reply.

"Anyways, there seems to be many more of these guys out there." Loka said to the two. She then called out to Catia. "What ya thinkin'?"

"What in the Distortion World is an Avatar?" Rizu had instinctively put his hands on his hips in confusion. He quickly scanned with his eyes [not head] the ground as he awaited an answer. "And not to rain on your parade... but, that is a man, not a Pokemon." His eyes narrowed at the avatar as his Foresight allowed him to see through the illusion. [kinda like an after image]

Catia watches Zapdos get up before clenching her fist and giving a growl, winding up and punching him in the face. Hard. "That's for ruining my dinner with Wes!" She growled at him, huffing and straightening her hair before going over to Wes and giving him a worried look, touching his paralyzed arm tenderly. "Are you okay Wes?" She asked him, a concerned look in her eyes.

Loka turned to fully face her brother. He had so much to learn right now.

"All we know, is that Avatars are the children of Arceus, and they're 'ere in the forms of humans." 

"We currently don't have a way to see through their guise, and we can't force them to show us. So far it seems that it's voluntary." Wes added. "And Yes, I'm fine. I just need to reset the circuitry and regain feeling."

"The 'ave the ability the give people special abilities. I ain't sure what Entei gave Catia, though..."

"Th- ...fascinating." He pondered for a moment, now realizing what he was seeing was real- or at least plausible. He knew the answer to his next question, but it felt natural to ask anyway. "What about them?" He scanned the lot of them. "Are they 'Avatars' too?"

Loka followed his gaze to each of the party members, now a bit curious about this as well.

"I... I dunno." she admitted. "It's hard to tell unless they out an' start firin' lightning from their hands, or spewin' fire. Then again, I do that. But I ain't an avatar..." She sighs and pinched the bridge of her nose. "This is gonna be confusin'..."

Catia smiled at Wes and nodded before turning back to the others. "Regardless of outcome, I've had enough of being chased around just so I can be judged by Arceus. If he really wants me so badly...." She reaches into her pocket and takes out the crystal that Entei had given her. "Then he can have me." She says, staring at the fire colored crystal in her hands. All she had to do was smash it on the ground and Entei said that he would come to her.

As Rizu spoke, Cerise glanced at the Chicole siblings, recalling what Rotom had said about Loka. Apparently, she was "blessed" with abilities, but was her brother too? But to get back to the point...

"I'm pretty sure we aren't avatars... or at least, I'm pretty sure I'm not, at the very least. But like Loka said, the avatars can give people abilities if they want to. Like, take Lo-" Cerise was about to tell the Chicole's about who else had avatar abilities, but stopped as he looked over at Zapdos. Cerise knew that Arceus was unafraid to inflict his "judgment" upon the "gifted" individuals, and he had figured that Zapdos would most likely report to Arceus who had received gifts without his knowledge. The egg hatcher wasn't keen on telling much more about the situation unless he knew there wasn't any immediate danger. Clearing his throat, he spoke again. "A time and place for everything."

His eyes landed on Wes, who both Catia and Loka seemed to know somehow. And to be honest, it wasn't likely that this unknown male just happened to be a mutual friend of the two girls. Who the heck was he?

As Catia turned the crystal over in her hands, it slipped from her grasp. The small orb fell to the street and shattered. Pieces of glass glowing with red energy now lay on the ground.

"Well it looks like there no going back now." Zapdos commented.

The glass shards descintigrated and whirled up, slowly taking the form of a person; Entei. He looked around quickly, spotted Zapdos standing there and proceeded to drop kick him. 

"That's for being an asshole." Entei said. "Catia, you called? What's wrong?"

Rotom helped Zapdos stand, who was now coughing and holding his chest. He grunted in pain, as this was the second time he's been kicked in 20 minutes.

"ANYONE ELSE WANNA KICK ME TOO?" He said angrily. "Get it out of the way now, or forever hold your kick!"

Catia took a deep breath and looked up at Entei confidently. "I'm tired of running from Arceus. If he wants to judge me so badly then take me to him. Innocent lives become at stake everytime one of you guys chases after me like this. I can't risk anyone else getting hurt because of what's going on." She explains to him.

A smashing right uppercut into Zapdos chin sent the avatar up just enough for Decoda to swiftly spin kick the legendary back a couple feet and onto the ground again.

Decoda huffed loudly as he returned to a normal stand.  "You could say I added a little spin to the kick you so requested."  He would smile at his own stupid jokes, but this time he wasn't playing.  So Catia was going to be judged if she went through with this, but what would the judging entail?  What kind of test would she have to pass and what would it mean?  Would she really be...?  He didn't want to think about that last part, growling as he looked over at Entei.  His eyes were bright with frustration and his teeth clenched together.

"What was even the point of you giving her something if you knew this was going to happen?!  Idiot!  Don't you play by your own rules?" he shouted, keeping to his spot as he didn't have anything to protect himself from a burn from a fire type if he attacked him.  Not even Mudkip's water would be cool enough to cease that kind of pain.  He then flipped around back to Rotom, snorting out hot air.  "In that case, I guess you did save us some pain by not giving us your blessing-curse thing.  I don't know whether I should thank you for sparing us or hit you for not telling us sooner, like back at the damn Game Corner where you were hiding!"

Then he looked at Rizu, ready to answer his question. "I'm not an avatar.  But I wouldn't want to be if all they do is break their own rules for who knows why.  Stupid..."

Cerise nodded, agreeing with most of what Decoda said. It was certainly strange for the avatars to give people gifts if they knew the danger the gifted people would be in. What was the motive behind not telling Arceus? In his musings, Cerise glanced up as Decoda began to yell at Rotom, adjusting his glasses as the sweat on his nose began to lower them.

The egg hatcher looked over the group, taking in their surroundings. It was surprising that nobody else from the Pokemon Center had come out to investigate the sounds of the broken window. Hopefully, nobody would want to come over to investigate.

Cerise glanced over at Catia, who was now facing Entei. He narrowed his eyes a bit. Why was she finding it necessary to hide vital information from the rest of the group, like "Kar"-- who Cerise assumed was another Ascended that Catia knew somehow. And instead of talking to them about her problems, she instead opted to get advice from other random people she barely knew? Did she not trust her actual traveling companions?

Rotom frowned at Decoda as he was yelled at. Decoda never asked him anything, so he really din't have answers to give! 

"...Not all of us break the rules, Sir Decoda." Rotom spoke, his voice held a bit static, signaling his sadness. "Only those who have something against our Creator do so..."

"Yes, I was wrong about giving her this ability." Entei admitted. "However, I wasn't expecting her to become tangled up in another Ascended's judgement. She would have been much safer much longer if she would have stayed with you all." He then turned to Catia and placed a hand on her shoulder. "If that is what you want, then so it shall be."

The girl and the avatar disappeared in a flash of fire. Loka made a grab for the two, but missed by a couple seconds. 

"If she goes an' dies..." Loka whispered. "I'll kill Arceus m'self."



Catia ended up floating in a void of darkness. There was nothing to see... just black. Through the darkness, she heard a voice.

"SO I SEE YOU HAVE COME TO ME, LINEFELT."

The darkness faded away and Catia found herself standing atop a glass-like platform in some sort of cave. Behind her, a staircase descended down into an area of ruined pillars. Before her stood Arceus in his human form. He stared her down for a bit before finally speaking.

"IT IS TIME FOR YOUR JUDGEMENT."

He approached her and stared into her eyes as his own began to glow bright white. As he looked into her heart, mind and soul, her past, present, and her future, his expression kept changing. He showed anger, sadness, happiness, and pain. It ended with rage, and a lot of it.

"ENOUGH!"

He took a couple of steps back and speared his hand and charged for Catia. However he stopped a mere inch from her nose. He then spoke in a calmer tone then usual.

"I could kill you on your past decisions alone. But I will allow you to live because of what I saw in your future." He lowered his hand as it returned to normal. "I will send you back to the humans. Do NOT make me regret my decision, Grieval."


He held a hand out to her, palm facing out. An orb of bright energy was beginning to form. Arceus readied himself to blast her.


"Any last words before I send you back to where you were?"

Catia gulped and her eyes shit tight when she saw Arceus going for her. When she didn't feel anything, she slowly opened one eye and breathed a sigh of relief in her head. That had been close. When asked if she had anything else to say, she quietly shook her head, not really wanting to provoke him at this current point in time.

"...You have questions. Many of them." Arceus started. "Ask them now, or forever keep your silence."

He pressed his hand to Catia's head. She felt the warmth the Entei had given her leave her body.

"I have revoked your blessing. You have not earned such a gift. And..." he looked over to the left where Entei was chained to a pole and muzzled. "He will be dealt with accordingly."

Decoda took off his hat as he sighed heavily.  Part of him felt bad because Rotom was right.  Nobody asked about it until today.  The day they were all supposed to relax, but obtain new tools and a potential ally (to which, only the latter seemed like it was in effect).  To him, this felt like the wrong day to throw them into a darker world of harsh realities and the oncoming fears of trading life for power.  This could have happened to any one of them.  If only he knew, he would likely volunteer to be the guinea pig.

He brushed his hands through his hair as he strode over to Rotom, and in that last step, swung his hand onto his shoulder and looked into his sad face.  Pokemon, demi-god or not, they all still had feelings.

"I'm sorry, Rotom.  This is all still really new for us.  All of us," he said softly with a light smile, hoping that would be enough of an apology.

When Catia had left in the fires of Entei, he turned around, his eyes wide with fear.  In his mind, he prayed for her return - it was too early to have her be punished for something that hasn't even been talked about yet!  And she was much too young to have her past mistakes (because they all had them, for sure, being young and naive teenagers) outweigh the potential she carried.  On top of that, he couldn't stand to lose a friend, or anyone he cared for.

When Loka dove for them, all he could hear was an incoherent muttering sound.  He couldn't make out the words, but knew she was mad.  Her body was already radiating hot air, feeling the different in temperature drift around her.

"Loka..."

Catia growled at Arceus when she felt Entei's blessing leave her body. "Hey! I passed your stupid judgement! What the hell was that for?!" She felt her anger at the legendary pokemon for trashing her peace well up inside her as she grew angrier with him. "And another thing, if Entei gave me that blessing in the first place, doesn't that mean he would think me worthy of it in the first place? Regardless of what you just did, you could've just killed me and got rid of it that way. But you didn't did you? Also...." She grew slightly quiet as she stared at Arceus in shame. "....You saw her didn't you? You saw my shadow? The one from my dreams? Is that what you fear from me?" She sighs and takes a deep breath, calming herself. "I don't blame you. I blame myself everyday for the loss of my father. I blame myself for not having protected Kar from you either. He was a nice boy and someone that had great kindness in his heart. I saw that when I sung with him on that stage. And you took him from the world without so much as a chance to prove himself. Why?" She stared at Arceus confidently. "You told me to ask you questions if I had them. I have more but let's have these answered first." She tells him.

"YOU WERE BARELY WORTH TO LET LIVING, LINEFELT." Arceus roared. "I'm surprised you aren't grateful for that."

He stepped back from Catia, the white energy now glowing red. He listened to her angry protests and scoffed.

"Exactly. HE thought you were worthy. If he thought you were so worthy of a blessing, he would have brought you to me. I would have then judged you. If you failed then, you would not be in this situation!" He shot the energy ball at Entei, who doubled over in pain. "Onto your next question; Why didn't I kill you? As I said before, It was because of what I saw in your future. You are part of something great, Grieval." Arceus turned and waved his hand in the air. The two of them were transferred to a room with nothing but stained glass scenes. He points to the first one, which shows a dark haired girl in a hospital bed. "It all started with one. She dies in the place of many, only to be resurrected by my son, Ho-Oh. She suffers a heavy loss; a part of her can never be used again." He shows her the second one, which shows the girl trekking through the woods, coming across a boy with a lute, a knight, an assassin and a monk. "Gifted with a second chance, she sets off to fulfill her purpose; which is still unknown to her. On her travels, she meets several others. All but the monk have yet to suffer their loss." He points to the next one which shows the group of people standing before an army. A few of the avatars are along side them. "They are to stand as one against a rising threat which could wipe out life; Humans and pokemon alike." The last panel shows the group seemingly victorious, however, this panel is cracked and falling apart. the dark haired girl's face had fallen and was shattered on the ground.

They soon found themselves back on the glass-like platform. Arceus looked on with a serious expression.

"Yes I saw her. No I do not fear her. And you would not have been able to save him, Linefelt. I had given him time to prove himself. He was the last Ascended that I trusted, and he betrayed my trust. So I eradicated his existence."

He waved his hand again, a chair forming for Catia to sit on.

"Ask away."

Catia nods and sits down, relaxing a bit. "These ascended....why us? Why am I unworthy to you also? What's so wrong of my past? We are all entitled to our choices. True, I have made decisions in my past that I regret to this day, but no one person should be penalized for having made such a decision. Humans are not perfect after all. We are only as good as the mold from which we are cast." She asks him.

Arceus had begun pacing but paused his movement when her listened to Catia's words. 

"My children may protect this world, but they cannot do it themselves. So I allow then to pick out humans who are seen as fit to wield our powers. They bring these humans to me and I tell them the final verdict; pass or fail. Pass, and they live on as disciples of us. Fail and they simply do not receive the blessing." He resumed pacing. "SOME of my children..." he looked over to Entei. "Tend to be disobedient as ascend humans without my judgement. Should the blessing, and curses, fall into the wrong hands..." 

He halted his pacing and stepped further back from Catia and turned away from her, his arms behind his back.

"Do you have any further questions, or would you like to go back." He spoke, still not facing her.

Catia's eyes widened as she heard Arcues' answer. "They....help you protect this world?" She seemed to grow quiet for a moment before speaking again. "Am I not able to protect anyone? Have I yet to become strong enough to be the shield and light for everyone I care for?" She pauses for a moment before standing up, not looking at Arceus. "....Don't answer that. I don't need you to tell me whether or not I can protect those that I care about. My life means nothing so long as others live on to fulfill their fates. I don't care if you think I'm unworthy of your blessing's. You may be a god, but I seek to prove you wrong. I know what I'm going to do now." She looks back up at Arceus confidently, her eyes shining with a new bravery. "I'm going to protect those that I care for. And if they are cursed by your children, then I will keep them safe." She sighs as she smiles at him. "You may take me back now." She tells him.