Author Notes: An idea I got while I was at work, and discussing Pokémon with my colleague. I don't know if I will make this an active work. If you guys are interested in reading more of this, mention it in the comments.
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[Choose]
I felt delirious.
"Where.....am....I?"
"What is happening?"
[60]... [59]... [58]... [57]
A countdown? A countdown for what? Where is this countdown coming from?
I tried to look around me, but all I saw was a black void.
.....Wait, is this place truly a black void, or did I lose my vision? But why would I.....
....Ah, I remember now.
There was an attack at the school.
....Why was I at a school? Was I a teacher? Or part of the faculty? I can't remember.
I....I think I know the attacker.
One of the students. A boy who is frequently bullied at school.
I think we tried to help. I remember a meeting with the bully's parents....So I was a teacher then?
Anyways, I tried to help, but it was to no avail. The bully's parents were worse than their son in some ways and had a lot of connections.
I.....I think they got me fired? I don't remember. I just remember despair as I took my stuff from the faculty room when the bullied boy attacked.
I still don't know how he got his hands on a rifle, of all things.
Last thing I remember is standing in front of...the children? Yes, children. I was standing in front of the children when the boy fired.
There was blood, screaming, and sirens.
...Yes. Sirens. That's the last thing I remember.....
[Choose]
[30]... [29]... [28]... [27]
Once again, I felt an insistent pull on my consciousness with a countdown and a command to choose.....something.
What am I supposed to choose? And what is that countdown?
As if responding to my question, new information appeared in my.....mind? Soul?
.....Now that I think about it, shouldn't I be dead? Or am I in a hospital or something? Or maybe in a coma?
In my mind, I saw a roulette wheel with one chance to spin it.
Or, the choice to reject it.
How did I know that I only had one chance? I do not know. What will happen to me if I reject this choice? I don't know.
Nothing makes sense here.
[10]... [9]... [8]... [7]
With the countdown nearly reaching its end, I felt panic set in as a sense of doom enveloped my very being. Looks like my....my what?
The memory is really foggy, and my mind is not working all that well right now.
Without hesitation, I spun it immediately, fearing what would happen when the countdown reached its end.
I know that I am probably hallucinating all of this. But my primal instincts don't know that, so fear is still a factor within my decision-making.
.....Ah. There it is. Instincts. The word I was looking for earlier.
I do not see anything on the wheel as it came to a stop. I do not know what is happening to me.
In fact, I don't even know what the point of all this is or why my conscience is doing this to me...or is it my conscience?
...Just what is going on here?
The moment the wheel came to a stop and disappeared from my mind, I felt unbearable pain. I don't know where the pain came from. All I know is that it is impossible to describe it with words.
Then, the pain was gone before knowledge and memories that I am sure are not mine came flooding into my mind.
Something really bad or really good was happening to me, and for the life of me, I could not put it into words.
Before I could question all of this any further, I lost consciousness again.
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Slowly, I opened my eyes to the beauty of the cosmos within my sight and could not help but sigh.
'That dream again, after so long.'
With a yawn that was probably not audible to anything else in the universe, I lazily flexed my 'antenne', creating a magnetic funnel dozens of kilometers in radius. Something that would have given any scientist from my old world a heart attack, considering that the source of it was biological rather than technological.
Then again, I don't understand science all that well. Hell, it took me a long, long time of study to understand my own body and barely grasp the principles of how it worked after I was born.
'Skimming' across the edge of the world's atmosphere, I lazily rolled around to feel the heat of the sun and its cosmic winds on my belly, letting out a contented sigh while my body kept moving on instinct.
Unlike a winged creature, I do not fly using lift. Instead, I use some kind of interaction between the Earth's magnetic field and my own to create a type of levitation effect, similar to those solenoids I remember from my old life.
Again, I am no scientist, so it is difficult to put into words what my body does on instinct, but that is the gist of it, I think.
Opening my mouth, I let my pseudo-magnetic funnel pull in all kinds of stuff deposited into the upper atmosphere by the solar winds, filling my belly with my 'food' that would serve as my source of power.
Over the years, I have done a lot of experimentation, and I have many guesses on what my body is powered by. But the leading theory is Nuclear Fusion or Fission.
I have observed this over thousands of years I've been alive.
Every time I feed, power floods my whole body. It feels like I can do anything I want without consequences. But, the most important part is that my inherited memory from my predecessors, the previous generations of my species, tells me that every time I feed, I am powering my internal furnace.
Now, an internal furnace could be referring to anything, especially when I take into account that the genetic memory I inherited is from a species that operates on instinct and has no understanding of science, even when compared to an insane idiot like me.
But somehow, I feel like I am knocking on the right door when I think about nuclear fusion.
The biggest evidence I have for my theory is what happens when I eat specific meteorites that occasionally get too close to Earth.
Most of the time, nothing much happens since they are mostly made of metals that I use to enhance my biology or store them as macrons for my primary weapon. However, sometimes, I stumble upon meteorites that are extremely rich in metals, which probably also contain high quantities of Iridium if my guess I right.
That is when I feel like I can literally conquer the world since I enter my 'Mega-Evolution' state after consuming them. I think, when I consume this Iridium, the material acts as some kind of Nuclear Catalyst.
Again, all of this is just theory, but I still feel that this is exactly what is going on within my body.
Thankfully, over the years, I have learned to separate these minerals and store them in my body for later use instead of immediately triggering my Mega state.
Once I felt stuffed, I let go of the magnetic funnel and continued moving at speeds well beyond the sound barrier above the atmosphere, letting out a contented sigh.
'Another boring day, in this probably immortal life of mine.'
'....Well. As boring as it can be for a nuclear-powered serpent living at the edge of the atmosphere.'
Rolling over again, I gazed down at the planet beneath me.
My home. My realm.
Even after so many years, it is still hard for me to reconcile with the fact that I died and was somehow reborn in a world that was so similar yet different from what I knew.
I was a teacher in some school. I don't remember much of that life anymore, what with my lifespan and the fact that I may or may not have gone insane a couple of times....or a dozen.
But I do remember that I was shot dead by a kid who was my student.
Then, something happened. There was this void. A space that I can't exactly recall, where I was told to choose...something. And I chose.
Then, I woke up here.
I hatched from an egg. The only intact one among dozens of others. In a scattered nest and a dead body nearby. The withered skeleton of a colossal serpent, but one that was probably only a third as big as I am right now.
I think that dead body might have been my 'mother'.
A traumatic time in my life, truly. To go from being a human to being what I am now? It was a horrifying experience.
GRRRRR
My involuntary growl allowed me to regain my focus, making me sigh as I remenisc those memories.
Anyways. Those days are long since gone.
The man called Andrew Edwards is long since gone.
My name is Rayquaza.
A name I gave myself after realizing that I had somehow reincarnated into a pokemon look alike in a world of Titans.
And I am the protector of this world.