The hard snapping of twigs and the soft ruffling of overgrown bushes being pushed finally gave way to a steep fall for anybody unsuspecting.

  “Ah, shit!” Victor shook as the ground near the ledge of where he was running started to give way, quickly making him plummet to the bottom.

  CRACK!! “AHH!!”

  Victor painfully landed onto his back with an agonizing crack on his leg, his right leg had landed onto a pointed stone and pierced through his jeans.

  “Ahhh… fuck… fuck fuckfuckfuck…”

  He slowly started to move his injured leg as he moved it closer to him to reach into his pocket to grab his phone to call for help.

  “Dad's gonna be pissed, man I should've just waited until the road was clear.”

  Victor couldn't see the sky very well to surely know sundown was approaching, but he could hear the pidove and other pokemon making sounds and getting back to their nests and hiding places.

  He mustered the strength to bend his leg to reach for his phone. His hand gently swept the edge of the case until he bent his leg just enough to finally push it out so it would fall onto the ground.

  As he reached down next to him to grab it, he could feel a small stream of blood flowing from the wound on his calf. “Oh god damnit… c'mon, Vic. You've read Haxet” Victor reassured himself, his tone filled with worry. “I'm just like that kid but probably not gonna die.”

  He finally managed to get a grip on his phone and wiped the blood onto his jacket to put in his passcode. With his left hand holding his phone and right hand putting pressure onto the wound he managed to put in the code.

  “I know when to go out, I know when to stay in!”

  His phone blared the song at max volume, but fortunately he paused it from his home screen with just a tap. “Thank Arceus I'm too dizzy to get scared…”

  He raised his phone to the air to get some semblance of a signal but nothing came up. “Oh you have gotta be kidding me man. First Dad won't let me have a pokemon now I'm trapped in the middle of nowhere without a signal.”

  He let go of his wound and used that arm to help himself sit up and lean against the wall behind him. As his pain spiked he gave himself a slap to the cheek hard enough to imprint blood onto his skin.

  “Okay, I'm getting up in three…..two……..ONE!” Victor groaned and bit into his left arm's sleeve to help with the pain management. His legs attempted to buckle under the weight; but they oddly felt pretty light. It wasn't any sort of precursor to fainting; but it just didn't feel too bad.

  “Hey wait, where's my backpack?” Victor muttered as he talked to himself in wonder. He looked around in the forest and spotted it hanging from the branch that had made him fall. He growled slightly and said “well I ain't getting that anytime soon; that has all of my film equipment…”

  He stood and thought for a moment, unknowing to the setting sun just behind him warning of the dangers and cold of the night. He turned to walk further into the woods as he thought to himself. `I guess if I remembered to put my spare phone in there, it should be traceable later.`

  As he walked through the thinning woods with his phone raised into the air, he started to get something resembling a signal on his phone. But he was much more interested in something right In front of his eyes; he wasn't lost at all! He was surprisingly headed the right way all this time.

  Dragon Spiral Tower stood tall in front of Victor's eyes. It pierced the setting sun just above the top almost as if the sun was being impaled and bleeding a mix of pink and orange.

  Victor's original plan was to start filming shots for his movie in this very tower but it was all thrown out the window. He lowered his phone's brightness in an attempt to conserve power and that's when he noticed something odd. The signal bar was constantly switching from no bars to full bars in an instant.

  He tried to dial the number of his father and it did sound as if he picked up but the sounds came up as a jumbled mess of static, mechanical whirring and… deep roars? Before he could listen much more the call suddenly cut, and his phone started to emit those roars from before but it was lower, much lower.

  The bird chirping brought a slight comfort to him as his leg wound started to slow and my movement started to increase towards the huge tower in the distance.

  After around half an hour he eventually reached the bridge of the main entrance. An uneven bridge of stairs keeping him from plummeting down below into the water was constantly creaking from recent years of constant use.

  “Okay Vic… alright….. don't look down, don't look down.”

  As an attempt to not fall off of the bridge, Victor steeled himself and quickly sprinted across the rest of the way so his fear couldn't catch up to him.

  The first thing that happened as he neared the end was that he suddenly felt the whole tower shake and something blocked the light coming in through crumbled walls for a split second.

  He looked absolutely everywhere but found absolutely nothing. He quickly finished getting to the other side and checked if the added elevation helped his phone's signal.

  “Damn it!” His voice echoed into the entrance as the phone signal bars were going back and forth between full and no bars even faster now.

  If he were to call for help; he would probably need to make it up as far as needed to get just enough signal to phone the police. He would probably get into massive trouble considering the route here is completely impassible normally, naturally making being here pretty illegal without permission

  He ignored the thought of punishment and continued into the first floor. It seemed to be flooded everywhere but the straight path to the second floor.

  Victor walked to the next floor while firmly planting his shoes so he would not trip on the wet ground and potentially get some sort of ancient disease from the water below. There was also some sort of low rumbling sound distracting him from his goal. It wasn't the same as the disruption from when he first entered.

  “What's that noise?” He asked himself before stopping before the set of stairs. It was that rumbling noise again, but not just that anymore; there were heavy stomping sounds filling his ears now.

  “Oh you're kidding me man” Victor whispered to himself as his breath hitched. “It's… right behind me, isn't it?” He turned around and his eyes met with an absolutely colossal Druddigon. Even if it was far across the room from him, he could feel its unwavering energy seeping into his very being.

  Without missing a beat, Victor quickly sprinted up the stairs as the Druddigon gave chase while breaking the tiles of the floors and ramming itself into walls. The tower shook with an absolute and radical attack from Druddigon. As an attempt to catch up with Victor it used an iron head attack to launch itself directly at the wall opposing the staircase, all the way from across the room. It was already catching up.

  As soon as Victor's feet landed on the second floor he ran over to fallen pillars and dove under the one being held up by another fallen pillar. He hid behind them and prayed the rampaging dragon didn't notice he was here.

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  As soon as he felt he was safe, he pulled out his phone. It was hard to tell if the signal was getting better or worse, but if he tried to make the call from here; the dragon would definitely hear and tear him to shreds

  Victor heard the stairs being put under intense strain and eventually crumble. He realized he was actively watching the destruction of one of the world's most important landmarks. And he knew he was to blame, this place was closed off for a reason.

  The Druddigon was here, it got up the stairs and was approaching the falling pillars. He puts a hand over his mouth and slowly makes his way towards the next set of stairs.

  Through the fallen rubble and dust Victor made his way to the third floor. It was a bunch of ramps, and if he fell the water below would definitely be his death. He took a running start and quickly dashed and jumped off of each ramp. He tried his best to land quietly, but it seemed it was enough to not catch the attention of the Druddigon.

  As he made his way to floor 4, Victor felt a different pain this time; there was a clear open wound on his left shoulder and a piece of rubble piercing into his waist. It's bleeding like absolute hell and shows no signs of stopping like his leg injury. The adrenaline from the Druddigon made him unaware that diving under a pile of rubble is likely not the best move.

  He held his wounds the best he could. Right arm on shoulder and left arm pressing on the waist, but doing it too hard as to not put the object deeper and killing him faster.

  “Oooooh… yeah it's so over, sheesh…. Fuuuuck…” Victor grinded his teeth as he spoke through his pain. He heavily questioned why he decided to wear cargo shorts and a raggedy jacket on this trip, which has to be the worst combination of clothing ever conceived.

  The multiple flights of stairs were doing their part to wear him down to the bone. Each step was like rubbing salt into the wounds and dowsing it in hot sauce. For some odd reason; as he starts to near floor 5, Victor could clearly hear the words

  “Burn, baby burn!” Echos from all the way up from the final floor. Victor's expression grew worried when he thought he would be Happy to hear some sign of possible help in this tower. But he pushes through the fear and calls out. “Hey! I-I need help! I'm injured!”

  No response

  The heavy winds started to Roar within the castle as the altitude rises with each step. The sun finally set as Victor was left pretty blind. He would bring out his phone flashlight, but he had to preserve every bit of battery life possible. He was getting weaker, much, much faster each step.

  `Hopefully that Dragon doesn't smell my blood… it would probably collapse the whole tower if it got up here` Victor thought himself, distracting himself from his impending collapse by steeling his gaze to the next floor.

  As he tried to not fall over from the pain and exhaustion he made it up to floor 5. “Oh you gotta be kidding me!” Victor yelled in frustration as he realized this was a maze-like floor intended to waste time for whatever reason.

  “I'm not dealing with this! Whatever God is after me can just leave me alone.” Victor said as he slowly backed up, let go of his wounds briefly and jumped across every gap. The ground cracked and settled with each jump.

  The floor was crumbling. The wall the Druddigon had bashed into had completely ruined the delicate structure of the whole tower.

  Without missing a single beat, Victor jumped around every corner that wasn't in Immediate danger of collapsing. Eventually before he got fully worn out he made it onto the stairs to the 6th floor.

  Running as fast as he possibly could with his injuries he didn't even get a good look at floor 6 before the outer pillars crashed down onto the floor, leaving the 7th floor without support.

  Dust was erupting from every rumbling crevice of the tower and coating surroundings in gray.as those in the nearby town watched in a mix of awe and fear. Unknowing to them, a young soul was about to lose his life in this tragedy.

  Before Victor knew it, his life had ended. And he was confused.

  ‘Just that fast? And I didn't even see what killed me?’ He thought as his being floated through a deep and vast black void. Maybe the world Arceus was said to bring you when you died was real? He could think and feel himself get heavier and heavier.

  A vision started to come through, no not a vision. It was like witnessing a scene from a movie. He could see almost camera-like shots changing scenes and angles until it settled on a town, in the middle of spring.

  Early spring - 5 years ago in Aspertia city

  Team Plasma had been thwarted, it was done and the Unova was going to rest. But what was wrong? He thought about sealing Zekrom back into the stone; but he was tired. Something about his battle with Ghetsis and N had absolutely worn him out.

  The trees and flowers in the surrounding area were blooming back into life, almost like some kind of sign that life was going to be normal. He awoke in his bed and almost couldn't get up, if it wasn't for the fact he offered to volunteer in the Pokemon Trainer School in Aspertia City he would've just rotted in bed.

  He forced himself from the comfortable hotel bed and walked over to the dresser and pulled out some clothes. He wore this same brand of clothing every day during his journey and it just felt natural to teach about pokemon in it.

  He thought about what he was going to do, it was pretty straight forward. He would arrive early to discuss with the school faculty what's and what's not okay to talk about with the children. Of course he knew he shouldn't be talking about that time his Samurott completely sliced a Team Plasma grunts left arm off, but there were probably more specific examples to talk about.

  Just as he was going to grab his hat, the phone by his bed rang. He stumbled over there as he was busy putting on his pants without messing up with the belt this time. He picked up the phone praying in his mind it wasn't the school canceling or something.

  “Hello?”

  “Hi honey!” A feminine voice spoke from the phone. He sighed a sigh of relief as his mom continued to speak. “I just called to remind you to put on your good suit! It was your father's, he wore it when he died.”

  “Yeah… my bad, I'll put it on right now.” His mother was always weird about his father. It was always “Your father did this when he was your age!” and “honor your father in the tournament by using his favorite pokemon! I already sent you the Stunfisk!” And many such cases.

  He opened his nightstand to see a neatly folded funeral like suit. “Hey mom, I thought Dad died from a…”

  “Bye honey, Don't hurt yourself!” A phone clatter could be heard for a split second before the call cut.

  “...A hyper beam accident, Love you mom”

  He put the suit back into the drawer and closed it, and he carefully made sure to tighten his hat correctly. a sudden knock on his hotel door rang across the empty hotel room he was staying at.

  “Mister… how do I say this name…” the voice of one of the staff sounded confused. “Just call me Black!” I raised my voice just high enough for her to hear.

  “Ah, okay.” She cleared her throat as a negative atmosphere started to form. He opened the door to see her holding his backpack.

  He quickly tensed up. His backpack was left in front of his bed, and he should have noticed if it was gone, especially in the morning.

  “What? What the hell happened?” He said in pure worry as she stretched out her arms to give the backpack back to him “It was found fallen out of your window this morning, and a pokeball is missing.

  He started to Internally freak out, it better not have been his Master Ball. He should've sealed Zekrom back up ages ago. “Mister Black, are you feeling alright? You've been so pale and sluggish since the first time I saw you yesterday.”

  He scrounged through his backpack as he hastily responded full of stress. “Yeah… yeah…! I haven't been feeling the best but it's all good. The doctor said I don't have any symptoms, just said to relax and reduce stress.”

  “Oh, alright I guess…”

  “SHIT!” He yelled at the top of his lungs. The Master Ball was empty and Zekrom was loose. Was it going back to its counterpart? Was it going to get revenge for something, or does it just not like being stuck? He pushed past the women and practically glided down the stairs while attempting to put the backpack on his back.

  He opened the front door and looked at the sky to see if it was angry. It didn't seem that way, there were no storm clouds. He started to slightly wheeze as his chest felt heavy. He didn't want to have another fainting spell, as he had a recent surge of those recently. So he started to calm himself down by talking to himself

  “Okay… Okay… what's the highest point of the town? The bench overlooking the horizon, I'm pretty sure.”

  He quickly started to sprint north of the town, and quickly past the school he was supposed to go to. There were white petals spread across the city block, shifting in a rush as his footsteps gradually got weaker, weaker… and weaker…..

  As he approached the path with the bench he had to put his hands on his knees and breath. He never had to take a breather from such a short run before. It was getting worse. After a minute, he lifted his head up and saw it.

  Zekrom was standing just by the bench, staring at the pond ahead. The wind started to slow as He stumbled forward, holding onto a railing. “Z-Zekrom… get back in-” he collapsed forward as his body failed to respond to his attempts to stay upright, sending the Master Ball he was holding falling off the side of the railing into the forest below.

  “Mortal, your doctor said to rest.” A deep voice came from the direction of the Zekrom as Black laid still on the ground. Surely it couldn't talk, right? It never said a word to him, even in the recent events. Maybe this is what N hears or something?

  “I've been alive for many Millennia. Lost many I used to know as true companions. My nature lies in relationships, but I must leave those I know.”

  Black didn't even have the strength to speak or be in shock as he lifted himself just enough to fall over onto the bench. A soft buzz came from Zekrom as he turned around from his view.

  “That is why I have broken the boundaries Arceus has set for humans and Pokemon. I am speaking to you, not as your companion, but your friend.”

  Zekrom flexed an arm and claws on his right as he looked down, a hint of shame and a sliver of pride on his face. “I've had many partners. None of them stayed around

  more than a year like you have. You are my only friend. No matter what the consequences for my actions are, I will be by your side.”

  “Forevermore”