From: John Willemin (vze27q9e@mail.verizon.net) Subject: [PW!] Another Hard Day's Night Newsgroups: alt.games.nintendo.pokemon Date: 2001-04-18 18:20:55 PST (OOC: Here's a rather half-baked PW! from a rather half-baked author...) "I've...really done it..." Espio the Charizard said, his voice little more than a sustained wheeze. "...I...I've screwed up bad this time..." "Shhh, don't talk," Professor Richter commanded. "Kyle, beam him back into his Pokéball." As Kyle did just that, the phone in the Professor's nearby apartment rang. Without hesitation, the Professor ran from the fifth-floor hallway back into his apartment and picked up the receiver. "Hello?" There was a long pause, then the Professor gave a sigh of relief. "Thank Goddish. Where is she now?" There was another long pause. "Oh...all right. We'll be waiting here." The pause this time was short. "Thanks for all your help. Goodbye." He hung up the phone and returned to the hallway. "That was the security guard," he explained to Kyle. "The police caught Starke and his sidekick. The Jennys want to ask us a few questions now; I can handle that..." "What'll we do about Atropos and Sekhmet?" Kyle wondered, referring to the two Scyther bodies lying in the hall. "And more importantly, what about Jessica?" "Jessica's still out cold," the Professor answered. "An ambulance is on the way for her." He adjusted his glasses. "As for the dead, well...I'm afraid they're evidence now." "I should go with Jessica!" Kyle declared, as he turned to leave. The Professor was quick to stop him. "Jessica will be all right; if your stories have taught me anything, it's that she's one resilient girl. Your top priority now is getting Espio to a Pokémon Center..." Kyle sighed. "...All right." Without any further ado, he headed quickly for the stairs. After Kyle disappeared from sight, the Professor stepped back into his apartment to see if he had any spare Pokéballs to carry the Scyther bodies for the time being. Kyle descended the stairs to the lobby, then rushed through the automatic exit doors to the front parking lot. There, he saw Diedrich Starke's burly accomplice Bader being stuffed into a police car by several Officer Jennys. Kyle caught a glimpse of Starke himself sitting in the back of a different police car. Kyle took a quick look around for Jessica. He found her being held upright by a pair of officers. As Kyle approached, one of the Jennys holding the underdressed Jessica growled at him, "Move along, pervert! Nothing to see here." "But I'm her fiancée!" Kyle cried. "Riiight," the officer retorted. "More likely you're just some horny teenager out to ogle a girl in lingerie! Now move along!" Kyle turned and continued on, mumbling something about that time of the month. On the other side of the parking lot, he almost opened Espio's Pokéball. He slapped himself in the forehead as he realized his mistake. He took his Pokédex off of his belt and called forth from cyber-storage the Pokéball containing Grendel the Aerodactyl. Kyle released the massive avian from the ball and stepped back as Grendel beat his giant wings several times. "Aeeer!" the beast squawked. Kyle hopped on to the Aerodactyl's back and ordered, "Grendel, just Fly. I'll give you directions on the way." "Aeeerooo!" Grendel dashed forward a few steps and took to the air. One ten-minute flight later, Kyle and Grendel were standing before the Seafoam Island Pokémon Center, which for the time being was a giant tent. (A permanent building was under construction nearby.) Kyle recalled Grendel and stepped into the tent. He found that he was the only trainer there. As he stepped up to the front desk, he was quickly recognized by the resident Nurse Joy and her Chansey assistant. "Ah, you were in here earlier today," Joy remembered. "What can I do for you this time?" "My Charizard got stabbed in the chest...I think his lung popped..." Kyle held up Espio's Pokéball. Joy's face turned red. "How could you let -" "Could you just skip the irresponsibility lecture and make with the healing?" Kyle cut her off. Joy let out an irritable "hmmmph" before replying, "Well, one can't really heal a punctured lung...either it heals by itself, or it doesn't." She took a swig from a Thermos full of coffee. "I'll have to keep him here a good while." Kyle blinked. "Define 'good while.'" Joy paused for a moment to think. "Months." Kyle let out a sigh as he handed Espio's Pokéball to the bulbous Chansey at Joy's side. "I'll be back to check on him frequently then..." With a touch of sarcasm, Joy responded, "I'm sure." Kyle turned around and was heading for the exit when he noticed something curious out of the corner of his eye. Sitting on the top of a rack of reading material in the waiting room (which was not so much a room as a collection of cheap plastic chairs) was the Life section of yesterday's newspaper. The front page of the section bore a picture that caused Kyle to do a double take. It was a picture of his old rival Enzo...marrying Jessica. There was no article associated with the picture. There was only a caption: "When Millionaires Marry. Vincenzo Larufa, son of banking mogul Anthony Larufa, exchanged vows with Jessica Sullivan, daughter of famed actress Ingrid Sullivan, in an extravagant Seafoam wedding at Saint John's Cathedral on Tuesday." Kyle was extremely confused by this until he remembered Morpha, Enzo's Ditto, who had played the role of Jessica once before. _Oh, Goddish,_ thought Kyle, cringing at the idea of a person marrying a Pokémon. _Now that's desperation._ He continued on toward the tent exit. No sooner had Kyle exited the tent than someone came crashing into him, knocking both people down. Pokéballs spilled out all over the sidewalk. "Watch it!" Kyle growled. "I'm sorry, mister," said the freckled young boy with tousled black hair who had collided with him. Short of breath, the boy scooped up the loose Pokéballs. "It's just...I was in a hurry...because a Tentacruel poisoned my Lickitung..." "You're a trainer?" Kyle noted. First he checked to make sure none of the loose Pokéballs were his, then he said, "Hey, I've got a whole bunch of Pokémon I'm trying to get rid of...you interested?" The boy looked taken aback by this offer. "I...I don't know..." "Really, I'm serious!" Kyle exclaimed. With a nervous look on his face, the young boy stood up and walked into the Pokémon Center without another word. "Damn," Kyle grunted, realizing that he must have looked like a total pedophile. Shortly thereafter, he released Grendel and flew home to rest for the first time in what seemed like weeks. (OOC: I'll find some way to move five years ahead. Just...not now.) -------------------------------- K * A * R * N * I * V * A * X "I want to embrace a certain stupidity." --Beck