From: Adrian Tymes (wingcat@pacbell.net) Subject: Re: [PW!] The Unknown Road Newsgroups: alt.games.nintendo.pokemon Date: 2000/03/01 Maria Rocket wrote: > Seth nodded his head...still feeling a bit troubled by his strange dream. "I > suppose you're right... So, where are we exactly, now?" Seth got up and > opened the door to the room to look around. Some people were still wandering > the halls with luggage. He glanced at the front of their door. > > "Room 132. Heh..." Some time later, Aerie lounged on a deck chair, mischief on her mind. Slasher had gone off to find a sunbeam somewhere, and Seth had decided to take a longer rest to fully recover - which Aerie did not want to interrupt for his sake, not even for some playful cuddling. Thus left to her own devices for the moment, she decided to indulge in a pleasure she had not seriously enjoyed since arriving in this timeline: people watching. Now, most people watchers try to glean details from various visible attributes. Baggy eyes here, a furtive glance there...these can tell a lot about someone, if one knows what to watch for and is lucky enough to catch some unguarded moments. For Aerie, though, people watching took on a more intrusive note. She relaxed her body and let her mind wander, testing the doors of passing minds. It was a slightly dangerous sport: try to read even the most basic psi-trained, and one would likely be noticed; even the untrained could usually feel any deep intrusion. More than a few of Sabrina's students were raised to take great offense at people wantonly probing others' minds, for they thought these gave all users of the power a bad reputation; some had even killed over it. But Doppler's training included ways to avoid notice. Mostly evasion and hiding, withdrawing one's presence like a squirtle into its shell at the slightest hint that someone had noticed. But, while no one was looking...a memory here, a hint there, a mental image of Doppler exploding into pink dust scattered by a pidgey's wind... Aerie sat bolt upright. Where had that come from?!? Someone on this ship had witnessed Doppler's death, or at least sincerely believed they had. But in her excitement, she lost the trace just as she realized its significance, and was unable to relocate it. Perhaps it was just as well. Doppler, dead? It was certainly possible; this was another timeline. While just a few months ago this event would have driven her into a homocidal rage, the only remnants of that program were like a child's sign saying "Pay Toll To Cross Bridge", where the bridge was a stick over a stream. She smiled as she visualized herself kicking the sign over, breaking the stick with a stomp, and dancing back and forth across the stream as she headed down the path of the flow. Then again, Doppler was resourceful enough that he might have faked his own death. She remembered the last time she had been on this ship; he had taken her, along with several children of his followers, and pretended to be a large family. In truth, the cruise was to be a proving ground, where the kids did what came naturally to kids: cause mischief. A day and a night out of port, they struck. For four days, accidents and maintenance problems beset the stranded ship, filling the infirmiary to overflowing - after all medical supplies were mysteriously "lost". For four nights, not a good dream was to be had on the ship, replaced instead by nightmares and fears - as the children learned what people really fear. Aerie watched as one of her peers set pair after pair of very recently ex-lovers at each others' throats; more than one pair actually came to blows, with the medical staff too busy with other things to notice when they lay bleeding in the aftermath. Then, exactly one hundred twenty hours after leaving port, they detonated the fuel tanks after filling the life boats and life vests with holes, teleporting away at the last minute before a concussion bomb rocked the ship, sending all others who would have flown, swam, teleported, or just plain escaped to the bottom. All hands were reported lost. All hands...and Aerie could almost swear it was right over there, just on the horizon. This SS Anne would be passing over that point, where the souls might just try to follow Aerie to call for vengeance... ****** Seth stared at the ceiling, slightly bored. He had needed the nap, and was still too tired to go anywhere. His mind lay between activity and rest; in a perfect mood for cuddling. Aerie was nowhere in sight, though, and he did not wish to disturb her by calling... AerieburstthroughthedoorandlaunchedontoSeth'schestgrippinghisshoulderand bawlinghereyesoutandclingingtoSethasthoughherlifedependedonit. Seth blinked twice, then hugged Aerie, stroking her hair to calm her down. Sometimes, life was just randomly good. TBC?