From: Karnivax (karnivax@my-deja.com) Subject: [PW!] Shard of a Legacy Newsgroups: alt.games.nintendo.pokemon Date: 2000-12-10 17:50:07 PST (OOC: This was going to be my "transition into G/S" story...but, as ever, I'm plagued by loose ends... >_<;) "Welcome to your new home," Professor James Richter said as he unlocked and opened the wooden door before him. It had been more than three weeks since the destruction of Cinnabar, and Kyle and Jessica were finally moving into their own Seafoam Island home after bouncing from hotel to hotel for the past three weeks. "I know it's not much...but ideally, the two of you won't be living here forever." Jessica Sullivan, still in her replica plug suit (she had received many strange looks as a result), strode into the modest one-bedroom one- bathroom apartment. Kyle Richter, carrying a Pokédex and six Pokéballs that had once been Shard Fields's, entered moments later. Kyle dumped the items into a chair. "Thanks, Dad," Kyle eventually responded, "but...where are *you* going to go?" "Oh, don't worry about me," the Professor answered. "I rented a little apartment for myself just three doors down..." Suddenly acoustic guitar music filled the air. It was eventually accompanied by singing: "I took a walk around the world, to ease my troubled mind...I left my body lyin' somewhere in the sands o' time..." "Have you guys ever thought about making your *own* songs?" Kyle remarked as Espio the white Charizard and his accompaniment Thanatos the guitar-playing black Gengar at last arrived. In their wake was Atropos, Jessica's red Scyther, who had her head held low. "Espio can sing and play keyboard, Thanatos can play guitar. All you need is a drum machine, and you'll be the next They Might Be Giants!" Espio scratched his head. "Who's There May Be Giants?" "Don't you remember? Kyle and I went to one of their concerts," Jessica commented. Keeping in mind that Atropos was nearby, Jessica dropped her voice to a barely audible whisper as she added: "After which, I, um...had that little alcohol-soaked Scyther-mode tryst with Torrasque..." "Oh yeah, I remember that now!" Espio exclaimed. "Jeez, how could someone get so drunk as to -" He cut himself off when he saw Jessica glower at him. There was a long silence. Professor Richter started to walk away. "If you need my help with anything," he said, "I'm in room 538..." Kyle looked around. Much of the furniture from his old Cinnabar home had been successfully transplanted to his new Seafoam home, thanks to a crack team of Machoke and Rhydon. He gave a nod of approval, then he picked up Oracle, Shard's Pokédex, and checked if there was anything in Shard's cyber-storage space. "Now that I don't have to worry about messing up any more hotel rooms," Kyle said, "I can see what Shard gave us!" Jessica sat down in Kyle's old Italian leather recliner. Thanatos put away his ghostly guitar and floated into the kitchen to practice possessing kitchen utensils. Espio approached him. "Now that I think about it, whatever happened to my keyboard?" Kyle sweatdropped. "It was in your Pokéball for a while...but it was later taken out and placed in safe keeping at...the Cinnabar Labs." Espio let out a sigh. "Maybe it's for the best," he said. "I didn't earn that keyboard...I paid for it with money stolen from humans..." Jessica piped up, "Um, to your credit, you stole it from a bunch of villainous Poké-poachers..." Espio paid no attention. He clenched a fist as tears of determination streamed down his face. "But from now on, I'm going legit! I'm going to garner wealth the right way! And I'm going to buy the best damn keyboard this rag-tag group has ever seen!!!" He shook his fist in the air. Another sweatdrop joined the one already on Kyle's head. _Oh Goddish...Espio's multiple personalities are multiplying,_ he thought. Suddenly Oracle let out a surprisingly loud chime. Kyle's eyes widened as he looked at the screen. "Shard's cyber-storage space is practically overflowing!" Kyle cried. "He must have tons of Pokémon in there!" "Somehow I don't think they'll be of much use," Espio said. "Am I the only one who finds it odd that a Rocket just handed over all of his Pokéballs to Kyle and vanished without a trace? I bet he told his Pokémon to disembowel you or something just so he'd get the last laugh." "We can take 'em," Kyle stated. He started to beam Shard's stored Pokéballs into the apartment one-by-one. Twelve Pokéballs joined the initial six. After that there was a long pause. Kyle tapped his feet impatiently as Oracle seemed to be struggling to beam anything else forth. Suddenly a large pile of odds and ends materialized before Kyle. "What...what's this junk?" he asked rhetorically. He checked Oracle and saw that Shard's cyber-storage space was now empty. Kyle shrugged and started to root through the pile of Shard's belongings. Disguises and Team Rocket uniforms of every color and design made up the bulk of the pile, but there were also several Transformers toys, a few grenades built to look like Magnemite, and a massive shoulder-mounted weapon which was identified by its label as a Lickitunglash XXL Lickizooka. Kyle pulled out one of the more incongruous items: a female Rocket uniform. "What do you suppose he had this for?" Kyle wondered. "Maybe it's better that we not know," Jessica answered. "Well, I don't see how we're going to get any use out of this stuff...on to the Pokémon!" Kyle picked up the first Pokéball. "Whoever you are, I choose you!" He spiked the spheroid on the floor. A diminutive pinkish creature wearing goggles and a language translator materialized at Kyle's feet. Kyle quickly asked, "Who's that Pokémon?" "It's Clefairy!" Jessica and Espio said in chorus. The Clefairy, startled, fell backwards. "Where...where am I?" his translator asked in a timid voice. "Who are you people?" "I'm Kyle...uh, I'm your new owner?" the trainer attempted. The Clefairy got back up. "How?" "Shard left you with me and split," Kyle answered curtly. "But..." "If you're about to ask me why, don't bother," Kyle cut the Clefairy off. "Just introduce yourself and give us the standard expository dialogue..." "Well...my name's Tinker," the shy Clefairy began as he fiddled nervously with his goggles. He reached behind his back and inexplicably produced a large toolbox which he seemed to have no trouble lifting. "I - I'd be of no use to you in battle...but I can fix broken things...or make already-working things work better." He started to gain confidence as he saw an item to use as an example. "Like...that television over there. I - I can make it get channels you never knew existed..." "Are you any good with scientific technology?" Kyle asked. Tinker's eyes lit up. "Like...particle accelerators?" Kyle sweatdropped yet again. "Um, something like that." "Goddish, yes!" Tinker responded, very confident now. "Great!" Kyle said. "I know just what to do with you." Kyle picked the light Pokémon up and carried him out of the apartment to nearby room 538. Kyle knocked on the door, and Professor Richter quickly opened it. "Need my help already, eh?" the Professor asked. Kyle held the Clefairy up in front of Professor Richter's face. "This is Tinker," Kyle explained. "If the Cinnabar Labs ever rebuild on Seafoam, this little guy might be of use to you." "Cinnabar Labs?" Tinker said hopefully. "*You* could get *me* a job at the Cinnabar Labs?" Tinker put on his best forlorn expression and begged Kyle's father, "Oh, please take me with you! I don't eat much, and I've had all my shots..." "I'll...see what I can do," a surprised Professor said. He took the Clefairy from Kyle and headed back into his apartment. As Kyle returned to his own apartment, he heard Tinker inquiring about genetic engineering. Kyle grabbed a second Pokéball and tossed it down. "Who's that Pokémon?" he repeated as a triad of cylindrical creatures with beady eyes and large red noses was released from the ball. "It's Dugtrio!" Jessica and Espio said, again simultaneously. They looked oddly at each other. "Trio trio trio!" echoed the mole Pokémon collective. Kyle glanced at Oracle's screen. "His name's Undermine," Kyle found out. He looked up at the ceiling in thought. "I wonder what can be done with this one..." "Aren't you going to train it?" Jessica asked. "I barely have time to take care of the Pokémon I already have," Kyle responded. "Ideally, I'll be able to find new owners for all of these Pokémon..." He paused a bit. "If *you* want any of these Pokémon, be sure to speak up." When Jessica said nothing, Kyle recalled Undermine and tossed down another Pokéball. This one released what looked like a floating purple meteorite with a smaller meteorite fused to it. Both meteorites bore rather depressed-looking faces. "Who's that -" "It's Weezing!" Jessica and Espio both said pre-emptively in an attempt to outdo each other. "Stop that!" they shouted in unison. Atropos just moped about in silence. "Weez!" both of the Weezing's heads grunted. From the craters on its hide came several puffs of noxious green smoke. "This charming fellow *cough* is named *cough* Noxin," Kyle noted. "Finding a *gasp* new owner for this one could be *cough* difficult..." He quickly withdrew the gaseous Pokémon. When the smoke cleared, Kyle took the next two Pokéballs and opened them simultaneously. "Niii!" exclaimed a sharp-clawed light blue quadruped. "Niii!" answered a spine-covered purple one in a deeper voice. "Nidorina and Nidorino," Kyle at last recognized two of Shard's Pokémon. "And isn't this quaint: Shard named them Bonnie and Clyde." "More troops for Daggoth and Kerrigan," Jessica remarked. "Speaking of which, I wonder how Kerrigan's doing..." Jessica stood up and threw down one of her own Pokéballs. Kerrigan the Nidoqueen materialized, and she was looking quite rotund. As if she had been waiting for years to be released, Kerrigan let out a pained cry and lumbered into the nearest bathroom. "She's going into labor!" Jessica asserted. Kyle removed one of the Pokéballs from his belt and threw it down. As a portly Nidoking appeared, Kyle ordered, "Daggoth, make yourself useful and go help your Queen." He pointed toward the bathroom. Daggoth marched proudly into the bathroom and asked, "What troubles Queen Kerrigan?" Another pained cry from Kerrigan prompted Daggoth to respond: "Oh." Atropos subtly broke into tears as she was reminded of the relationship she had had that had ended so abruptly. Kyle heard several faint sniffles coming from the red Scyther. He went over to whisper to Jessica: "Hey, what's with her? She hasn't said a word since -" "Since she found out what happened to Torrasque," Jessica quietly finished. "I've done everything I could to console her, to no avail. I guess she just needs time to heal..." Kyle shrugged and withdrew Bonnie and Clyde. He quickly opened up another Pokéball. From this Pokéball came a familiar electric blue Pikachu. "Cathode!" Kyle cried as the blue rodent jumped into his arms. "I missed you, buddy!" He thought about the reason Cathode had been taken away in the first place. "I hope you weren't too frisky with that Pikachu of Shard's..." "Chaaa!" Cathode answered as he found a perch atop Kyle's right shoulder. Another Pokéball went down, and out came another Pikachu, this one female and with normal yellow fur. She seemed to be struggling just to stand. "So...Shockwave," Kyle said after a quick glance at Oracle's screen, "you're looking unusually roly-poly. Cathode, you wouldn't know anything about that, would you?" "Pi ka," Cathode said proudly. The adolescent Pikachu jumped down from Kyle's shoulder and held the wobbly Shockwave steady. Atropos's sobbing became quite audible at this point. "I suppose this means I'll at least have to hang on to the extra Pikachu," Kyle thought. "I'll take her," Jessica piped up. "Deal!" Kyle responded. He tossed Shockwave's Pokéball to Jessica. "Moving right along..." Kyle picked up three Pokéballs and opened them all at once. A tremendous jellyfish-like Pokémon appeared and flopped to the floor. Kyle jumped back as a few of the creature's stinging tentacles came close to his feet. "Tenta cruuuel," the beast burbled through a long beak-like protrusion. A flower Pokémon with gigantic petals materialized right on top of the Tentacruel's head. "Vile plume!" the top-heavy plant said happily. In turn, a familiar Pokémon with a round body and dinner plate- like eyes appeared atop the Vileplume's petals. The corpulent Pokémon looked around and jumped down from the top of the short stack of Pokémon. The angry-looking Pokémon waddled over to the familiar human who was watching him and grunted, "Puff...someone better get with the explainin', 'fore I turn this place into Kyle's House of Blood..." "Banshee's adorable as usual," Kyle commented, ignoring the Jigglypuff's threat. "Puuuff!" Banshee growled at Kyle's comment. "I'll show *you* adorable!" Banshee reached behind his back to call forth his mighty mallet when Kyle beamed the irritable balloon back into his Pokéball. "Where were we?" Kyle said as he perused the array of techniques that the Tentacruel and Vileplume knew. "These acid-spitters are named Man-O'-War and Oddrey II." He pointed at the Pokémon as he said their names. "Jeez, think Shard had enough Poison-types?" Kyle withdrew the two Pokémon and continued on. There were still eight Pokéballs to go, and again Kyle opened three of them at once. The next three Pokémon were all ones Kyle recognized offhand: Magmar, Porygon, and Tangela. The Magmar had a decidedly Psyduck-like expression on his face. "Mag mar?" the burning hadrosaur said in a clueless fashion as he scratched his head-flames. "According to Shard's Pokédex, this particular Magmar is 'a spazzy, beetle-headed doofus with the intellect of a mule's hoof,'" Kyle pointed out. "Now, care to guess what the Magmar's name is?" He paused dramatically. "It's Ash!" Jessica tried to hide her laughter at that. Espio just said sheepishly, "I don't get it." "We can take him back to Cinnabar," Kyle suggested. "I'm sure he'll be very happy there now..." Kyle then noticed the Tangela shying away and putting her vines up in front of her face. He took a quick glance at Oracle's description of the plant Pokémon. "And we can just release human-fearing Shoelace here into the wild." He recalled Ash and Shoelace for the time being and then turned to the Porygon. "And this Porygon...I bet there's a rich trainer out there who'd pay a good deal of money for this floating pile of pixels." "And now a word from our sponsor!" the Porygon suddenly spoke. "Scrapper the Porygon! The choice of a new generation! It's everywhere you want to be! Bad credit? No credit? No problem!" Espio sweatdropped, only to have the sweatdrop quickly evaporate on his hot Charizard head. "Or maybe not..." "Oh man," Kyle said. He looked at Jessica. "This Porygon reminds me of that Lapras of yours...before he revealed himself as a long- winded blowhard, that is." "Riptide hasn't forgotten his torment at the hands of male poachers and scientists," Jessica explained. "I'm sure if you show Riptide that you're not a threat, he'll be nicer to you..." "Peh..." Kyle snorted. "Riptide is just another in a long line of stuck-up telepaths who think they know everything." Kyle looked again at the Porygon. "Hmmm...maybe we can get someone at Silph to debug Scrapper here..." "Maybe my Ermac can talk some logic into him," Jessica suggested. She used her Pokédex to summon a Pokéball from her cyber-storage space, then she quickly opened the Pokéball to reveal Ermac, her own Porygon. Ermac lazily floated over to Scrapper and stared blankly at him with his hexagonal eyes. Curious, Scrapper returned Ermac's blank stare. "Pory gon," quoth Ermac in a computerized voice. His interest dwindling, Scrapper turned away and continued babbling: "On the road of life, there are passengers, and there are drivers..." Unable to tolerate Scrapper's Junkion-like stream of prattle any longer, Kyle withdrew the Porygon and took up the next trio of Pokéballs. Jessica took hold of her Porygon. "Ermac's never spoken in Poké- ese before," she noted. Suddenly Ermac made a noise that was little more than a mechanical squawk. Then came a familiar voice: "Hi, Jessica, this is Bill!" Surprised, Jessica responded, "Uh, hi -" "Don't try to talk to me," Bill's voice interrupted. "I'm only a recording." Jessica facefaulted. "Listen, while Ermac was with me, Silph came out with a Porygon Upgrade!" Bill started to explain. "Pokémaniac that I am, I just had to know what the Upgrade did...so I got one and installed it in Ermac for you. Unfortunately, I had to remove Ermac's English speech capability to free up enough memory for the Upgrade...but I promise it'll be worth it." There was a pause. Ermac's body turned transparent for a few seconds, and floating within him was a small black box. Bill went on: "For reasons I can't begin to fathom, the Upgrade isn't supposed to do anything until you trade Ermac to another trainer. But hey, that shouldn't be a problem with that boyfriend of yours around, eh? Best of luck to you both. Bill out." Ermac made another squawk, then he was silent. "That...was odd," Jessica commented as she stood back up. "We'll trade next time we're at a Pokécenter," Kyle told her. "Now, we've still got five Pokémon to go..." "Will this never end?!" Espio lamented. Kyle tossed down the next three Pokéballs. One large Aerodactyl appeared, flanked by two very small Pokémon. Jessica immediately swooped up one of the small Pokémon and held it in the air. "An Eevee!" she squealed. She hugged the furry Pokémon against her bosom. The stunned Normal-type let out a muffled "Buiii..." "Okay, so we have another keeper," Kyle remarked, wondering why Jessica never showed him such a level of affection. "His name's Sandstorm, presumably because he has Sand-Attack..." "I'd better let you keep Sand-Attack then, eh?" Jessica gushed to Sandstorm as she allowed the Eevee to breathe again. She turned to Kyle. "Eevee's my favorite Pokémon of all..." "Aeeerrr!" the nearby Aerodactyl screeched as he unfurled his purplish wings. "Me Smirker hate mushy stuff!" With the wings out of the way, Kyle could see that the prehistoric beast was wearing a language translator. "Shard chose odd Pokémon to bestow the gift of speech upon," Kyle remarked. The grounded avian waddled toward Kyle and grabbed hold of the trainer's shirt collar with the talons on his wings. "Where Shard?!" the Aerodactyl demanded. "Shard's gone," Kyle replied, unafraid. "You're with Kyle now." "Kyle? Me Smirker remember Kyle," Smirker growled. "Shard no like Kyle. So me Smirker no like Kyle!" Smirker slowly brought his free wing back. Espio took a step forward, but Kyle waved him off. WHAM! Kyle struck Smirker hard in the side of the muzzle with one of the empty Pokéballs. "Owww!!!" Smirker whimpered. For several seconds the Aerodactyl just rubbed his snout...then, all of a sudden, he let go of Kyle and backed off in concession. "Kyle win," Smirker grunted. "For now." Smirker then removed his language translator just to keep the humans from understanding the long line of ancient cusswords he spewed forth after that. Espio began, "How did you -" "I gave him a good hit in the pecking spot," Kyle explained, pointing to his nose. "It was how I got Grendel to listen to me." "Wacky." "Chu," Cathode added. Finally Kyle strode up to the third Pokémon in this group of three. The Pokémon was a green, almost crab-like insect with tiny mushrooms growing on its back. "Hmmm...I wonder what can be done with this little guy." He looked at Oracle's screen. "His name's Gangreen...a bit more threatening a name than this critter deserves, I think." "Parrras!" Gangreen piped up, obviously offended. With unexpected speed, he leapt into the air and clung to Kyle's face. Kyle flailed about madly and knocked several chairs over before prying the facehugger loose and dropping it on its back. But the frenzied Paras just rolled over and jumped right back on to Kyle's face. Kyle ran around until help from Espio removed the crazed parasite a second time. Espio pinned the struggling bug to the floor with one scaly foot. "Kill it!" Kyle shouted. "For Goddish's sake, kill it!!!" Jessica shook her head and sighed. She put Sandstorm down for the moment, and the Eevee scurried over to talk to Cathode. After that, Jessica plucked Gangreen out from under Espio's foot. Then she simply held the Paras in front of her. "He didn't mean it," she told the insect in a sweet voice. "You're very threatening in your own right." Gangreen was calmed, but not because of Jessica's words. Just one whiff of the faint Scyther scent that Jessica exuded caused Gangreen to scurry along Jessica's right arm to her shoulder, where he rubbed against her neck affectionately. "Parrrasss," he purred. "How does she *do* that?!" Kyle cried, exasperated. "You just have to know how to talk to them," Jessica responded, not unaware of the fact that Gangreen thought he was cozying up to a female insect. "So I take it you want to keep that thing too?" Kyle wondered. "I don't think so," Jessica admitted. Her voice lowered once again as she added, "I'm afraid he'll grow attached to Atropos." Atropos normally would have heard her name even at a whisper, but she was too busy crying. Kyle withdrew Gangreen and Smirker, then he tossed Sandstorm's Pokéball to Jessica. "Last two," Kyle noted as he picked up and threw down the second-to-last Pokéball. A brown, vaguely humanoid creature with flexible, spring-like legs materialized in a meditative position. "Pain Dance..." Kyle said softly, instantly recognizing Shard's powerful Hitmonlee. The Fighting-type slowly stood and faced his new trainer. Despite his lack of a mouth, Pain Dance too spoke: "Lee..." he said just as softly, evidently also in recognition. "Shard's gone," Kyle wasted no time in pointing out. "He's entrusted all his Pokémon to me. I don't plan to hang on to most of his Pokémon...but you I intend to keep. There aren't too many Pokémon out there who could have taken Torrasque on like that..." Pain Dance made not the slightest movement for several seconds. Then he glanced down and noticed Smirker's translator was lying at his feet. He took up the translator and put it over his shoulder. He thought back to his only confrontation with Kyle. "Torrasque?" the translator grunted in a rather Oriental-sounding accent. "...Oh yes, the Scyther. Pardon my slow response, but I try to push such pitiful weaklings out of my mind to save room for memories of *worthy* opponents." Quickly, Jessica ran to cover Atropos's tympana before the conversation made the widowed Scyther any more upset. But it was too late. Atropos, her sorrow suddenly turned to rage, ran away from Jessica and toward Pain Dance. "How dare you speak of Torrasque that way!" Atropos shrieked. Jessica quickly grabbed Atropos's arms before she could try to dice the Hitmonlee into kibble. "How else should I speak of a Pokémon who fought so poorly and surrendered so readily?" Pain Dance scoffed. "He supposedly bore a tremendous type advantage over me...yet I scarcely landed two Mega Kicks on him before he tried to concede." "Liar!" Atropos thundered. "Ask Kyle, female," Pain Dance shot back. "He saw the whole thing." "Torrasque only wanted to concede because you hit his Pikachu with one of those kicks!" Jessica pointed out. "Pika chuuu!" Cathode chimed in. He shook his tiny fist. "Bah!" Pain Dance snapped. "A contest of might is no place for such mush-brained sentimentality." "Maybe Torrasque was feeling ill that day," Atropos asserted. "Maybe his mind was elsewhere. The bottom line is, that fight couldn't have been under normal circumstances, because if it had been, he would have torn you apart!" Tears were still welling up in her eyes. "Torrasque was a hero...he gave his life to save everyone...if it weren't for him, you'd be dissolving in the digestive tract of a giant Nidoking right now!" Pain Dance looked stunned. "Torrasque...is dead?" He crossed his arms behind his back and closed his eyes as he continued. "You speak of a giant Nidoking...that sounds like the battle last year that I begged - er, *demanded* Shard take me to, but to no avail..." He turned away and thought out loud: "Could it be that some time between our confrontation and the present...that fool Scyther...became a hero?" "Now you're catching on," Kyle suddenly cut in. Oddly, Kyle then immediately beamed Pain Dance back into his Pokéball. "Still, I don't much care for your tone," he added, not really caring that Pain Dance could not have heard him. "All right, time for the last -" "Behold!" Daggoth's voice suddenly bellowed. He swaggered out of the bathroom with a speckled, basketball-sized egg in his hands. "Queen Kerrigan has yielded the first of what shall, before long, be millions of drones!" Seconds later, Kerrigan, back to her slender self, crawled weakly out of the bathroom on all fours. "Niii..." she sighed. "One egg?" Kyle remarked. "That's it? But Jeanette said Nidos breed like rabbits..." "Evidently Jeanette was misinformed," Jessica responded. "The deal was that she'd get half of the offspring, rounded up," Kyle remembered. "Which means...we have to give this egg to her." Daggoth rarely listened to what any human said, but he clearly heard something about giving the egg away. "This drone belongs to Daggoth!" he thundered. "None shall take it from him!" While Daggoth ranted, Espio took the opportunity and plucked the egg right from Daggoth's grasp. Quoth the Charizard: "Yoink." He detained the angry Nidoking with his tail and then put one tympanum to the egg's shell. "Wonder what's inside?" Espio said to no one in particular. "It still needs more time, though." "Thank you for that bit of obviousness." Kyle recalled Daggoth, then he took the egg from Espio and placed it on a soft couch cushion. "All right, we're down to the last Pokéball," Kyle said as he picked up the final Pokéball and felt something attached to it. "Hey, there's a note attached to this one," he realized. Kyle ripped the note off of the spheroid and read aloud: "'If you are reading this, you are in deeper trouble than you know. This Pokémon is illegal to have even seen. The truth is out there...there are races of Pokémon being kept under wraps. This is one of them. Giovanni refused to take her, but I had to find somewhere to keep her. Please, take good care of her. Her nickname is Lotus.'" Kyle paused to check out all the strange looks he was receiving. "Here goes nothing," he said as he released the ball. Kyle expected to see some manner of bloodthirsty beast appear, but such was far from the case. The Pokémon that materialized was a light green quadruped that was about the size of a housecat. Surrounding its neck were small green bumps that looked like buds. On the top of its head was a spade-shaped leaf. Its expression was one of curiosity. "Chika...?" it spoke up, in a voice reminiscent of a Pikachu's. "Who's that Pokémon?" Kyle asked once more. Espio answered first this time. "It's...uh..." "It's cute!" Jessica cried. "Take it," Kyle said, rather absent-mindedly. He handed Jessica the Pokéball. "Cathode already breaks my team's cute limit." "Pi?" Cathode spoke up, barely hearing his name over the panting of Shockwave. There was a long pause. Thanatos emerged from the kitchen with a quintet of spoons eerily circling him. Espio examined his talons. Kerrigan fell asleep on the floor. Atropos rubbed her eyes with the backs of her scythes. Cathode whispered sweet nothings in Shockwave's ear. And Sandstorm just scratched one ear with one hind leg. Kyle stuck his hands in his pockets and looked around. "So...that was fun," he remarked. "What now?" "To the Pokécenter...to trade Ermac, and to find out what Pokémon I just got!" Jessica suggested. She then motioned to the anime convention costume she was wearing. "And then, to the Gap!" Kyle looked to be pondering this for a while before he made a bizarre Kramer-like hand gesture and responded, "Giddyup." (OOC: Shard, you get the title of "Dialogue Consultant" for this story. How official-sounding! ^_^) --K * A * R * N * I * V * A * X-- "I want to embrace a certain stupidity." --Beck