From: Adrian Tymes <wingcat@pacbell.net> Subject: [PW!] It Takes No Balls... Date: Saturday, February 05, 2000 2:40 PM All was peaceful in the forest at the base of Mt. Moon. A light rain beat down on the trees and muddy ground; the bushes provided cover for the local wild pokemon, most of whom had decided this would be a good time for a nap. A burst of natural lightning spooked some pikachus, who scampered to the other side of an unpaved path just in time for a humanoid figure to burst out of the foliage above them. The figure - a trainer, to most appearances, with a green vest and a Pokemon League cap - cradled a fainted meowth in his arms and looked desparately skywards. Fear, tinged with a bit of longing, echoed in his eyes. What he was looking at could not be seen with the naked eye, though he was obviously tracking something. Panic flared up, prompting a sudden dash forwards and a tumble-and-roll *FWISH* that barely let him duck a black shadow that swooped in from the sky. As the shadow slowed down, it could be seen to be a spinning boomerang, blacker than night, almost as if it absorbed the light around it. "Why won't you play with me?" He looked at the boomerang, stepping away slightly, then bolted down the path. Despite all this exertion, he was not breathing hard, nor did he appear to be sweating - though the rain could have been hiding his own moisture. "I've got more important things to do!" The boomerang gave chase, keeping pace perfectly, as if defining reality to place it an exact distance and direction from its quarry rather than weaving in the graceful arcs boomerangs should. "What is more important than power?" "What you do with it!" "But you can do nothing, without power. Without *me*." "I have my own power. I don't need you!" The boomerang's unnatural progress carried it through a sign. Some misdirected soul had covered up the last two letters on the sign proclaiming a path to the newest local landmark, replacing them with a "c" and a "k" which now fell to the ground. More lightning played behind the re-renamed Diet Coke Bottle From Hell in the background. "So show me. Show me this power of yours. Why don't you fly, or teleport?" "Because you'd just follow me." He skidded to a halt. The boomerang sailed on. "But you want to alter reality, don't you? I can do that." #...and then destroy me and everything I stand for just because you're some kind of 'cheat destroyer',# he thought, while saying nothing. "Don't ignore me. ... Fine. My other playmates are almost here. Join us when you get over yourself; I'm sure we'll have lots of fun playing." The MissingBoomerang resumed "natural" flight, arcing towards the bottle in the distance. Once his adversary was out of visual and psychic sight, the figure and his meowth cargo dissapeared in a flash of blue. ****** "Oh, my. You shouldn't be out in the storm like this." The rain had picked up a lot in the past few seconds; Nurse Joy figured that the weather was why no one else was in the pokemon center at the moment. The figure walked forwards, water pouring for a bit from the brim of his cap. "Please, Nurse Joy, can you heal him?" He set the meowth on the counter. Nurse Joy tried to make eye contact, but the cap was pulled down low. #I wonder what happened. Does he feel responsible for injuring his pokemon?# #This was self-inflicted.# #Oh...what?# Nurse Joy blinked, but the strange voice did not return to her mind. Figuring it must be some manifestation of her medical training, lessons from some long-forgotten instructor from her college days analysing the pokemon in ways not immediately available to her conscious mind, she nodded. "Can I have his poke ball, please?" "He doesn't have a poke ball." "Oh. Well, you shouldn't let your pokemon run around without one. Tell you what, I'll give you one so you can keep better track of your meowth." She reached under the counter, pulled out a red and white sphere, and sucked her patient into it. The figure tensed briefly, but said nothing. What followed had happened literally millions, perhaps billions, of times before: Nurse Joy placed the poke ball in one of the six hemispherical slots on a machine next to her desk, pushed a button, and watched. When the machine beeped that it had finished, she returned the ball to the figure with a smile. "Here you go." "Why did you put him in a ball?" "He's your meowth, isn't he?" "He's...he *was* wild. I'd rather he have been left that way." Nurse Joy smiled with all her heart. "You should catch pokemon if you want to train them. Wild pokemon are useless to-" ****** The figure slowly walked away from the pokemon center as the rain doused its flames. Behind him, a tuft of red hair still clung to a charred human head, swinging slightly from its mount on the rough top of the tallest structural member still standing. He kicked a piece of rubble out of the way, then brought up the poke ball. "Ironic, that even *I* eventually come to this...go, whoever you are!" With a red flash, the meowth appeared in front of him. It seemed to be melting slightly; the machine had tried to restore its natural form, but this ditto's will was too strong, and it had fought with all of its returning strength. Doppler smiled, then crushed the ball with strength far out of proportion to his current form, breaking the tenuous mental grip it had over its brief captive. "Welcome back from dreamland, friend. I believe we should talk." Another bolt of lightning struck the ruins of the center, naturally attracted to the rough top of the tallest structural member still standing. TBC?