From: Continue (continue2@mindspring.com) Subject: Re: [PW!] Psycho Vs. Psychic! Newsgroups: alt.games.nintendo.pokemon Date: 2000/04/13 RobfromVoid wrote: >Luthor recalls Bane into his Pokeball, looks up at Sabrina, and says, >"You're just lucky that Luthor is a good sport, Sabrina, or else your >brain would have exploded by now. Now, I demand that you use your >magical powers to send Luthor to Safari City so that he may earn a >Marshmallow Badge. I've met two Lex Luthors who have been unable >to do this, but if you're such a great Psychic, Luthor is sure that you >will be able to. If you manage to do this, then Luthor will dub you as >the second strongest psychic in the world once he takes over the >world, which should be in no time if you send Luthor to Safari City." > >"So, you want me to Teleport you to a Gym?" Sabrina places her hand >on her chin to consider this, then nods, "Since you're such a weak >Psychic Pokemon and have no potential for greatness as a Psychic, >you do not belong in my Psychic Gym. I will Teleport you to a Gym >where they can appreciate a Pokemon who has the potential of >learning Water-based attacks." Sabrina blinks and Luthor disappears >in a flash of blue light, dress and all. Sabrina then addresses the >Dragonite standing near the entrance to her chamber, "Now then, >Drake, what is this I mind-read about a Pokemon-operated Delivery >Service?" "This seems like one of those good-and-bad situations," Drake thought to himself "It’s probably best if I just tell things the way they are." "Yes, that probably would be the best idea." Sabrina said from her throne. A reaction automatically started to form in the Dragonite’s mind, but he quickly squashed it before it had a chance to take any recognizable form. He finished the session in his head with "@#&%! I better make sure the only thing in my head here is what I’m saying." With that Drake casually closed the distance between himself and Sabrina, bringing himself to a comfortable conversation distance instead of having to shout across the chamber. Memuyo the Meowth padded along behind him, keeping the Dragonite between itself and Sabrina as if the dragon pokemon were being used as a shield. "The idea of a Pokemon Delivery Service is why I came here, "Drake begins "but that Slowpoke was the reason why I’m here before you. If you could tell me where you –" "Forget about that Slowpoke," Sabrina interrupts "He was sent to where he is now to be taught a lesson. I will not let you interfere until he has had the chance to learn his lesson." The Dragonite quickly decided not to press the matter. Not even Mewtwo had the ability to turn people into dolls on a whim, and he was generally regarded as the most powerful pokemon. When the human that was now before him told you to forget about something, it was a better idea to do so voluntarily rather than have it done for you. "In that case, I’ll explain my delivery service, like you asked originally." Drake added the last part in hopes that it would stroke Sabrina’s ego a bit and smooth over this last little rough spot a bit. "It came to me the last time a delivery vehicle passed me by." The Dragonite avoided calling it a ‘human delivery vehicle’ since he wanted to avoid any unnecessary possibility of offending the one he was talking to. "This delivery truck passed by leaving a black cloud of smoke in its wake. That cloud of crap left me coughing and I figured that despite the fact that the shipping ports it was headed to weren’t too far away, it would still take the truck a couple of minutes to get there. It left me wondering why they didn’t just use teleporting pokemon to deliver the stuff instead. It’s cleaner, faster, and cheaper, but nobody does it." Sabrina had sat through the explanation with her usual impassive mask. This didn’t change as she prompted "So you decided to start one yourself." Drake shrugged "I still need the teleporting pokemon to start, but yeah since no one else is doing it, I decided to take the opportunity. I have a listing of all of the pokemon that can learn Teleport, so it looks like it’ll just be a matter of getting enough of the pokemon on the list together." "It won’t be that easy," Sabrina said as she uncrossed her legs and crossed the one that had been on the bottom over the other one "There are several things for you to consider for your delivery service." "I know that Pokemon Centers have teleport systems, but those are only for pokeballs and other small items," The Dragonite quickly counters "Besides even if they were for other things, why would you want to go to the Pokemon Center when you could have your package delivered to you in a matter of minutes? My service would also be cheaper since I don’t need to buy or maintain all that equipment." Before the Dragon pokemon could continue with his list, Sabrina cut in. "That wasn’t what I was referring to. There are limitations to Teleport and the pokemon who learn it that you do not appear to have considered." This caused Drake to stop and raise an eyebrow in interest. At least he would have raised an eyebrow if Dragonites had them. He raised an eye ridge instead. "The first is that a pokemon can only teleport to a place that they can see, by their eyes or their mind’s eye. This means the pokemon in question would either had to have already been everywhere or have contact with someone who has. The other limit on teleport itself is that the distance that can be traveled in one jump is limited, but this can be overcome by multiple teleports." Sabrina paused after this explanation. To Drake it was just long enough for him to feel as if she was looking right through him. She continued speaking before he could think of something to say and find his voice again. "There is one last thing that you must take into consideration in order to do what you want. If you are to use strong pokemon, you will need to acquire badges." This caused Drake to immediately protest. "Somebody said it best long before me: ‘Badges? We don’t need no stinkin badges!’ I’m not some human child training pokemon to enter the League. I am a pokemon who can explain to others why they should do what I’m asking." None of what was just said caused Sabrina to even blink more than she would naturally. "Any strong pokemon will see that you are not doing the same as you ask of it. It will see that as you giving it orders and it will not take orders from something that it sees as weak. Unless you wish to periodically battle those pokemon to show your power, you will need badges. Those who were not there to witness you earning the badges will be told what they represent by others that were. Those that are there to witness it will understand the achievements that the badges represent." Fire danced in the Dragonite’s eyes and he almost let out a feral growl in anger. The thought of having to collect badges like some would-be Pokemon Master burned him like acid. The thought drilled deeper and deeper into his mind until it struck a memory. Memories of what he had done and how he had reacted. It was then that he was forced to accept what the Psychic had told him as she sat upon her throne. He didn’t like it, but he could see that it was true. "Okay, fine," Drake said as he forced his face and bearing back into a composed state "I’m sure that I’ll find your advice helpful, but that isn’t why I came here in the first place." The Dragon Pokemon paused, but Sabrina gave none of the indications of interest that he was hoping to see. He continued on anyway. "One of the reasons that I came here was to find out where I could capture some Mr. Mime and Jynx. I’ve never heard from anyone where they could be caught, but I figured that someone at a gym full of psychics should know." At this Sabrina nodded. "This is one instance in which you thought correctly. It is not widely known, but the pokemon that you have just mentioned may be found in the wild outside of this city. In the wild, they are able to use their abilities to conceal their presence to most. While they can occasionally be found by someone who is lucky enough, it is easiest to locate them using other psychic pokemon." She paused for an instant before asking "Is that the only reason why you have come to my gym?" Drake thought he heard annoyance in Sabrina’s tone when she asked the question. He figured that it he wasn’t imagining it, then she probably was probably irritated at having to bother with such matters. Since he wasn’t about to bring up the talking Slowpoke again, he figured there was no reason to not get to what brought him here in the first place. The Dragonite shook his head. "Actually, no. I’ve come here because I couldn’t find something in the Celadon Mega Mart that I’m going to need. When I asked about it, I was told that they stopped selling it when some fad went out of fashion. It was further explained to me that they didn’t sell enough after that and they stopped carrying it after that. When I asked if there was some other place that I could purchase it, I was directed here. Of course the item I’m referring to is the TM for Teleport." Something in Sabrina’s expression changed almost imperceptibly. "What you have heard is correct. Not very many people have shown an interest in teaching teleport to their pokemon. I currently have an agreement with Silph Co that makes me the only distributor for that particular TM. Those at Silph have found this bargain to be mutually beneficial. However, I’m sure you don’t really care about that. I’m assuming you came with sufficient funds to purchase several of these?" During Sabrina’s comments a Haunter had appeared next to her and now looked over at Drake inquisitively. "I acquired a business partner while I was in Celadon." Drake was deflecting the question since he didn’t have any money. He stepped sideways and gracefully swung his arms to showcase the now-exposed Memuyo. He hoped a cute and cuddly Meowth could soften Sabrina up so that he might be able to cut a good deal. Memuyo smiled weakly, sweatdropped, and waved a paw at Sabrina. The Meowth quickly followed this up by darting behind Drake, once again using the Dragonite as a shield. One of the Haunter’s disembodied hands pointed at Drake as the other went to cover the ghost’s face. "Haw, Haw, Haw, Haw, Haunter! <Ha! Ha! You are so screwed, buddy!>" A small grin tugged at the side of Sabrina’s mouth and Drake quickly figured that cute and cuddly had been pretty well canceled out by cowardly. He hoped he could ride whatever positive emotion Sabrina was feeling right now to get a little generosity from the Psychic. "While I can’t afford any of those TMs at the moment, I was hoping to cut a deal to delay the payments until I get the money. Considering how easy it is to obtain money with a Meowth, it’s obvious that I’ll have the money eventually." "Yes, I believe we can come to a mutually beneficial arrangement." Sabrina paused after saying this and the phrasing of it tugged at Drake as he began to form a connection to what the Psychic had just said. "What I propose is this: In exchange for each of the TMs that I will give you give, I will own one half of one percent of your delivery service once it is started. I think this is a very good deal. In fact, I doubt you’ll be able to find a better one anywhere." The Dragon pokemon had little difficulty in figuring this one out. Sabrina had him caught as surely as if he was in a pokeball. He knew with what she had dropped before about her deal with Silph that if he refused the deal, she could insure that he would never be able to buy one of the TMs that he now needed. If he didn’t take the deal, his delivery business died here. "The deal sounds…good, how many Teleport TMs do you have right now?" "Only twenty, but we can make further arrangements when I order more from Silph." If Drake had been more inclined towards histrionics he would have stumbled across the floor and collapsed. As it was he maintained his outward composure by only displaying a slight grimace. In his head however, he was shouting "Twenty! Ten percent of the company gone before I’ve even started! And I’ve gotta sit here and suck it up! This sucks!" "Okay, it sounds like we’ve got a deal." The Dragonite was beginning to hate the workings of business already. He decided to try and end this as quickly as possible. "Can you have someone show me to where you’re keeping the TMs?" "Not exactly, no." That wasn’t what he was hoping to hear. "One of my assistants was sent to sell our stock of those TMs to the eager trainers that would be attending the voyage of the current S.S. Anne. Considering how previous voyages of ships with that name have ended, I had figured on little difficulty in selling off the stock around that time." Drake was beginning to wonder if he had just made a deal with the devil, or a minor demon at the very least. "In that case, do you know where the ship is right now so I could go there and pick up the TMs?" "I can do better than that. I’ll send you there." The fact that the grin that had tugged at one side of her mouth was now on both sides did not seem to be a comforting sign. Drake didn’t like what might happen at this point. "That’s quite -" The Dragonite abruptly disappeared in a flash of light. When it faded there was a Meowth on the floor of Sabrina’s gym. It’s eyes grew wide and it quickly looked left then right. It asked in a small voice "Meow?" Upon her throne Sabrina sat. The grin was gone from her face as she looked at the pokemon in the middle of the floor. "I suppose you should go with him as well." With that there was another flash of light, and there were no pokemon in Sabrina’s chamber save for one gleeful Haunter. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- "- alright." Drake was now someplace that was darker and dingier than where he had just been. His eyes had just about to adjusted to the difference in the light level when there was a flash of light and something landed on his head. It felt warm and fuzzy. "Memuyo?" "Meowth!" The Dragonite sighed. "At least this doesn’t look like a doll house." "Meow? Meowth owth me. <Where are we? It looks like part of a warehouse>" Drake felt the world move slightly underneath him. "I’m betting that us and these crates are occupying the cargo hold on the S.S. Anne. It figures. She could’ve teleported us into a first class suite, but she puts us here. Let’s see what we can find." Some noise drifted over to the Dragonite. Lacking any other direction at the moment, he headed towards it. <TBC in another thread> Jeff Hauser* *Sig Sold Seperately