From: Adrian Tymes (wingcat@pacbell.net) Subject: [PW!] A Time To End, A Time To Begin Newsgroups: alt.games.nintendo.pokemon Date: 2000-10-22 11:08:47 PST [This is the post I was going to write if Future won. On reflection, it also gives some benefit to Present, with a little rewording.] --- Professor Oak prided himself on his extensive knowledge of pokemon. Not a single species failed to receive at least some mention in his notebooks, and he was certain that was not just because he remained completely clueless as to a species' existence. Even the "Johto species" that had started appearing a few years ago were all accounted for, though some in Kanto had yet to encounter even a single one. Second most extensive in his knowledge was his lab. He knew all the pokemon he was taking care of for various trainers. He knew what equipment his lab carried. Best of all, he knew all of his aides by name. Many managers of groups his size could not be bothered to make friends of their employees, but he felt that was a mistake. Which was why he looked with some concern upon one of his aides that day. "Excuse me, miss, can I help you?" The lab-coated scientist snapped to attention, almost dropping the slide she was carrying. "No, no, I'm f-f-fine..." "I don't believe we've met. My name's Professor Oak." "I...are you sure you don't remember me? I'm your aide, Aerie. I've been working here for..." Oak folded his arms. "I don't recall having an aide named Aerie." "What? B-but..." "I think you should tell me who you really are, before I have to call Officer Jenny." Aerie was on her knees in front of Oak in an instant. "Please, let me work here. I...this dream is all I have left. If I can't, I don't know what I would do..." Oak closed his eyes to hide their rolling. Another fan. There had been many before, and he had no doubt there would be many after. Fortunately, most of them had the dedication to pan out. That Tracy fellow that Ash brought him had done surprisngly well. When he opened them again, though, Aerie's face was but two dots and a line. "*Please*." Oak took two steps back, then realized. "Wait...you're Doppler's Aerie, aren't you?" "...yes." "Where's Seth?" "Somewhere in the timestream. I was hoping to use your facilities to look for him." "Not possible, I'm afraid. Believe me, I tried my best when Mimic asked." "You don't have the equipment, yet. But, in the time I come from, you had better temporal sensors. How about if I build some? Once I've found Seth, the sensors stay here." "Well...ok, sounds like a deal to me." Aerie, her face back to normal, hugged him again. "Thanks, grandpa!" "'Grandpa'? Don't tell me I've got another sister." Oak did not have to look behind him to know the identity of their audience of one. "It's a bit complicated, Gary. Suffice it to say, her parents aren't yours. By the way, nice to see you've finally returned." "Yeah, well, Giovanni kicking me out of my own gym was a good excuse for a vacation, but now I'm gonna let him have it." Oak debated whether to ask his biological grandchild about the rumors of him being given Vermillion Gym due to ties with Team Rocket, but decided not to. Some things were best not discussed in front of any audience, even one who had witnessed, and in all likelihood committed, far greater acts of treachery. Why did that thought disturb him so? Despite their disagreements, Doppler would not turn on him personally if he made a promise, and his daughter seemed much more agreeable... ****** A few weeks later, Oak stood at a podium, many of his aides seated in front of him. Those who could not be present were listening to the proceedings via videophone, while Aerie stood by his side in front of a person-sized disk mounted in a support frame. "Greetings, all of you. As you know, Aerie's been working on a little project for me; I'll let her explain. Aerie?" She smiled, silently nodding as she took the podium. "I'll make this quick, because I'd like to move on to the demo. In short, it's an advancement on Bill's time capsule. As it turns out, the time capsule does not directly shift things through time in our universe. Instead, it shifts things to a parallel universe where the constants of physics are slightly different...same laws, but, without going into too much detail, things get wierd fast over there." A hand shot up. "Is that the technical term?" General laughter. Aerie smiled. "No, it's the press term, and there are reporters dialing in. I've already put the technical report on our Web site. Anyway, one of the wierdnesses is that time in our universe does not always map one to one with time and space over there, which means that you can travel through time just by changing your position. A controlled shift, then drop back to ours, and you've changed times. Anyway, there are certain...times...when something gets stuck in there..." Seeing the tear roll down her cheek, Oak put his hand on Aerie's shoulder. "Go on." She nodded. "This opens a portal to that universe directly, both to let us see and - possibly - to retrieve what's in there." Oak frowned, then turned to the microphone. "Going in there is just a theory. We haven't tested transit yet; there's a good chance that anything that stays in that universe for more than a short while decays until only its component atoms could be retrieved." Aerie closed her eyes, muttered something, then looked up. "Anyway, let's do the demo." She flicked a switch on the disk's side, causing it to glow blue. "So, Aerie, have you decided what you're looking for first?" "Was there ever any doubt?" Oak blinked, then faced the audience again. "We're trying to find a person and some pokemon who failed to make a transit." She tapped a few buttons on the side, monitoring various readouts. "I've got a lock." "Let's see." "Homing in...there." Oak looked at the disk, still a blank blue. "I don't see anything." "No, they're there, I know it." She stood in front of the disk. "Now to get them out." "Wha...Aerie, no, wait! You could be killed!" "Professor...if they're dead, it doesn't matter. If there's even a chance that Seth's alive, I have to be with him. Forgive me." Before anyone could restrain her, Aerie dove in. Of course, the machine exploded. Oak turned to the audience to forgive Aerie's actions, only to notice that many of his aides were missing. ****** "In our top story tonight... "More information on the temporal disaster which started at Professor Oak's lab but soon spread throughout Kanto. Here's Professor Oak with the details. Professor?" "Thanks, Mary. Analysis has confirmed that the only effect was to displace certain people and pokemon through time. Some to the future, some to the past, none more than a few years. Those in the future will most likely be alright, because we'll know to expect them. Those in the past should be ok now, since they've been living with us for the past few years." "Professor, what about concerns that those in the past could change the past? And, further, why didn't any of them tell us about it then, so we could be prepared for it now?" "There's a bit of debate about that, but the leading theory is called 'quantum preservation of the timestream'. I wish we had a better name for it... "Anyway, the details are complex, but the basics are simple. In quantum mechanics, a lot of the unusual effects one sees are technically possible at scales that you and I see every day, but in practice they're so unlikely that they only occur under controlled conditions. At the quantum scale, though, the higher probability effects are impossible, so only the otherwise-unlikely effects can occur. "Likewise, setting up a paradox in history is impossible. One can not, say, kill one's father before one is conceived, barring sperm banks or the like. If one tried, say with a gun, the weapon could jam, the bullet could miss, the bullet could hit but cause a minor injury that would be dismissed as a stray pokemon attack, or something else could happen. The only thing that could not happen, no matter how many attempts were made, would be success; it'd be Murphy's Law over and over again. The same applies to any attempts to notify the public about this event, and on looking at the record, several such attempts were made, but not noticed until now. Any changes they have made, were already part of our history, though perhaps no one but the time traveller knew exactly what happened until now." "Thank you, Professor. Also in the news, geologists warn that Cinnabar Island may be about to blow its top again. Many residents, lead by gym leader Blaine, are resisting evacuation efforts, citing the fact that they have recently completed reconstruction and put in lava shields around the inhabited part of the island. There is widespread agreement by those not on the island that the lava shields, in the words of one anonymous construction worker who helped build them, 'don't stand a magikarp's chance against Mewtwo'." TBC?