From: Bandraptor (bandraptor@aol.com) Subject: [PW!] Title? We don't need no stinkin' title! Newsgroups: alt.games.nintendo.pokemon Date: 2000/05/19 Kohban the Meowth was standing in the middle of the Rocket Station that bordered on the town of Lavender, trying to find someone with information as to Murasaki's whereabouts. Nori was sitting off to the side, entertaining herself by playing with her Pokedex. Rubix the Wartortle was seated next to her, staring intently at a thick silver book with the words "Pocket Monsters Daijiten" written in yellow characters across the cover. It was opened to a page with a picture of a Wartortle on it, and big block letters that read 'KAMEIL'. Now, Rubix couldn't actually understand Japanese, with the exception of a few kana, but he wasn't about to let Nori know that. So, he read the move tables aloud, telling Nori in excruciating detail exactly which attacks he was going to use to kill her. "...At level thirty-one, I learn 'Kara ni ko-mo-ru.' And at level thirty-nine, I learn 'Rocket Zu...tsu...ki.' Damned if I'm gonna learn any Rocket moves..." Nori ignored him, and turned her attention back to the Pokedex. It was a fairly plain looking device, similar to the Dexter model made popular by Ash Ketchem. Excepting the screen on the left panel, the entire device was a mess of buttons. Many of them pertained to the everyday functions of the Pokedex, and were far from vital, since the Pokedex generally reported back information without any sort of prompt. There were other buttons, however. One was used to swap Pokemon in the party with Pokemon stored in a computer, two more were used to select the Pokemon to be switched. A fourth button enabled the user to select the place to store their Pokemon, by connecting to a server that listed all possible storage areas, and allowing them to chose the one they wanted. Nori's Pokedex was missing this particular button. Yet another button activate the Pokedex history file, a record of all Pokemon ever owned by the trainer. Nori pressed that one, and a list of about two dozen entries came up: <"Persian. Nickname: Persian. Original trainer: Sodate Mizuke. Current location: Viridian City."> The tracking feature worked by zeroing in on the location of the last Pokemon Center the Pokemon in question had been treated at. A clever Pokemon thief could evade tracking entirely, simply by avoiding Pokemon Centers. But that wasn't always possible. <"Ekans/Arbok. Nickname: Giseisha. Original trainer: Nori Mizuke. Current location: Cerulean City."> And sometimes it was outdated. <"Lickitung. Nickname: Akuni. Original trainer: Nori Mizuke. Current location: Cerulean City."> <"Magmar. Nickname: Magmar. Original trainer..."> the Pokedex voice fizzled out, and the written data became a mess of garbled numbers. Nori puzzled over this momentarily, then remembered that her Magmar had originally belonged to a Rocket. Most likely, they masked the IDs of stolen Pokemon, as a precaution. <"Bulbasaur. Nickname: Fushigidane. Original trainer: Nori Mizuke. Current Location: Celadon City."> She should remember to pick it up, when she passed the Celadon Gym. <"Wartortle. Nickname: Wartortle. Original trainer..."> Nori poked the turtle. "Why do you answer to 'Rubix', anyway?" "Why do you answer to 'stupid little bitch'?" "I *don't* answer to 'stupid little bitch'. If you're not gonna be helpful, don't bother answering." "If you don't like my answers, stop asking me questions!" <"Porygon. Nickname: Inapplicable. This Pokemon is unregistered, a violation of statue 12..."> "D'oh." Nori sighed, "I should probably take care of that. I think there's a Name Rater in town, I can register with him." Nori skimmed through the entries for the Pokemon she'd stolen and sent to Headquarters, until something else caught her eye. <"Dragonite. Nickname: Mikado. Original trainer: Nori Mizuke. Location...unknown."> "Er...I had a Dragonite?" "You don't remember?" Rubix snorted. "Then it's probably one of the ones you stole. The owner probably killed themselves when they realized it was gone." Nori shook her head, "It wasn't one of the stolen ones. The stolen ones had their trainer IDs deleted, and this one is registered to me." "What're you asking me for? Christ. Only *you* could lose a Dragonite. Stupid little bitch." Nori snapped the Pokedex shut. "You know," she began, ignoring Rubix's insult, "I've been thinking. According to my Pokedex, I haven't caught any new Pokemon in a really long time. I'm not being a very good Pokemon Trainer, and I guess I'm not being a very good Rocket, either. I should probably work on the latter before Giovanni decides I'm just some upstart kid who joined Team Rocket as part of an ingenious plan to gain access to their secrets, and destroy them from the inside!" Rubix rolled his eyes. "Somehow, I doubt he'll think that." At that moment, a black suited Rocket walked up to Nori, and handed her a phone. "Mizuke, right? The Boss wants to talk with you." Nori blinked, "Wow, he asked for me by name?" "Nooo..." the other Rocket narrowed his eyes, "He asked if there were any sloppy looking kids lazing about the Station. *I* knew your name, because you gave it to me when you checked in here." "Oh." Nori took the phone. "'llo?" "Mizuke." Giovanni's artificially lowered voice sounded so loud over the phone, that Nori had to hold it away from her ear. "I haven't received any Pokemon from you in over two months. I'm beginning to think you're just some upstart kid who joined Team Rocket as part of an ingenious plan to gain access to our secrets, and destroy us from the inside! ...What was that noise?" "Um...nothing." Nori cast a glance at Rubix, who had fallen out of his chair. "Er...anyway, I've been meaning to send you some Pokemon, it's just that I was stuck in the--" Nori cut herself off, deciding it would be better if Giovanni didn't know she'd broken into the Diet Coke Bottle From Hell (evolved form) and crashed the entire computer system there. "...Stuck trying to find some 'Agent Murasaki' for a Meowth I've been traveling with. Can you tell me where she is?" "If Agent Murasaki is anything like Agent Orange, no. Chemical weapons are reserved for senior officers." The voice on the other line responded. "At any rate, since you don't seem to be busy tracking my white Persian or stealing Pokemon to aid my plans of world conquest, I was hoping you could run a little mission for me. Where, would you say, is the perfect place to mine for Moon Stones?" "Uh...Mount Moon?" "Typical small minded answer. Even if there are Moon Stones in Mount Moon--which I doubt, considering that area has a high population of Clefairy, not Clefable--the route through the mountain is highly traveled, which makes it impossible to maintain a low-key mining operation there. I know this better than anyone, having funded four or five expeditions with no success. It seems that every time, the miners are chased off by snot-nosed little kids who then steal the Moon Stones for themselves...and sometimes more than that; about a year ago, one of my men reported a newly-stollen Magmar missing, following the bust. But, I digress. No need boring you with lectures regarding things you certainly know nothing about." "R-right..." Nori sweatdropped, wondering if this was coincidental, or if Giovanni's knowledge of her past was just borderline omniscient. "So, where IS the perfect place to mine for Moon Stones?" "The Safari Zone, in Fuchsia City. Given the number of Nidoran in that area, there must be a caste of Nidoqueen hidden somewhere inside the park. Where there are Nidoqueen, there are Moon Stones--find them, and bring them to me. Oh, and be aware, the average Nidoqueen can crush human bones as if they were toothpicks." "Yippee." Nori grumbled, as she returned the phone to the hook, "Good thing I have a trusty Water Pokemon to protect me from all those nasty Ground types." Rubix snickered, "What? You think I'll stand by while those Nido-broads tear ya limb from limb?" "No. I think you'll join in." "Heh, do you have me pegged." "Now be quiet." Nori tiptoed towards the door. "If we're lucky, we can make it outta here without Kohban spotting us." TBC... -Beth, of the ever changing sig.