Subject: [PW!] One Week Later Date: Sun, 30 Sep 2001 07:42:14 GMT From: Rob <robfrompw@yahoo.com> Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net Newsgroups: alt.games.nintendo.pokemon Sarah steps out of the National Park, the place she's been hanging out for the past week, leading Barbie the Mareep through the eastern checkpoint, into Route 36. After a brisk afternoon walk with all of her Pokemon in the hot sun, she wants to rest her feet. She spots a nearby Ice Berry tree, picks one of the delicious fruit dangling from the tree's lower branches, then sits down under the tree, leans her back against its trunk, and takes a bite of the Ice Berry, "Oooh, this berry chills me to the core! I get a wonderful sensation!" She smiles as she shivers, then puts the Ice Berry up to Barbie's mouth, "Want some?" "Reep!" Barbie shakes her head, then lays down right next to Sarah. She closes her eyes and begins to imagine the Mareep that made up her old flock, in hopes of counting them so that she'll fall asleep, until she realizes something that makes her eyes dart open! She has no idea what she did this morning. "EEEEEEP!" Sarah pets Barbie's fleece with her free hand and finishes swallowing the Ice Berry in her mouth before asking, "What's wrong, Barbie?" "Rrrr..." The Mareep tries to remember what happened yesterday to see if it will help her remember what happened this morning, but has difficulties remembering that too. She searches her memory banks and the last thing she recalls is Sarah catching a Sunkern and leaving the National Park. Though fully aware that this happened approximately one week ago, she has no idea what happened during that time. She has a sad look on her blue face when she glances up at Sarah. She knows that her trainer doesn't understand what she says, but she tries to ask the question anyway, "Ma mar mareepreep. Maaa mareep ma re mar reep?" Sarah bites her lower lip. She misses Mimic's company now more than ever since he used to translate everything that Pokemon said to her, "Oh, how I wish I had a transla... hey... I know!" Sarah pops the last piece of her Ice Berry into her mouth, then rummages around within her satchel for her Lure Ball. Upon finding it, she drops the Lure Ball on the ground next to Barbie, and out pops a disgruntled Slowpoke. Sarah puts her hand on the Pokemon's head and asks, "Luthor, sweetie, could you please translate what my Mareep Barbie is tryin' to tell me? She seems kinda worried and I wanna know what's buggin' her." Luthor stays silent for a moment, then shouts, "What makes you think that just because Luthor is the most intelligent being on this planet that he knows every single language that exists?" The Slowpoke pauses for a moment, sighs since he's aware of his imperfections even though he doesn't like admitting it, not even to himself, then explains, "I only understand the languages of Pokemon found on the Seafoam Islands and those of all sorts of Grass Pokemon. I only understand the latter since I learned the languages while living in the Grass Pokemon Gym of the woman who will obviously willingly become my lover once I rule every inch of every universe." "Oh." Sarah sweatdrops, "Thanks anyway..." She calls Luthor back into his Lure Ball, puts it back in her bag, and sighs, "Oh, how I wish Mimic were here..." "MA REEP!" Barbie exclaims, having just formulated an explanation regarding why she can't remember the past week. She realizes that she clearly remembers just about every single moment of every single day when she was traveling with the Ditto, but can't remember the week where he's been absent, so she uses these facts to come to a conclusion that seems obvious and truly plausible to the paranoid Mareep. She figures that just before he left, Mimic used his psychic abilities, which she's aware of only in speculation, to weaken her mind to the point that she can't remember anything so that she'd abandon Sarah, leaving them both vulnerable. Fearing that she and her shepherdess are in danger if they stay still much longer, she hops up and urges Sarah to press on. "I guess you just wanna hurry to Ecruteak City..." Sarah comments as she stands up again, "It sure was nice of Malachy to point the way there when we dropped by his grandpa's Pidgey Express business to mail that letter I wrote to the farm..." "Reee?" Barbie's eyes boggle, since she doesn't recall a single memory of what Sarah just said occurring, except for the fact that a letter had been written. Scared that she's not going to remember what she just thought of seconds ago, she hurries eastward, Sarah in pursuit. She gets the feeling that she's being watched... Eye the I-shaped Unown is floating behind Sarah, angrily looking past her shoulder to the Mareep who's forcing Eye to run faster than Eye ever has. Eye was really enjoying hiding behind the Ice Berry tree, where Eye could relax. Eye could've really gotten used to that. Eye watches with Eye's one eye as Barbie, not watching where she was going since she was looking around for Mimic, crashes into a gigantic Sudowoodo blocking the road. Eye's eye widens and Eye hides behind a tree. The Sudowoodo, who isn't the least bit hurt by Barbie's unintentional Tackle attack, crosses his huge arms and leers at Sarah while saying in a deep, intimidating voice, "This here's a Toll Road. And I'm a Toll Taker. You bozos gonna pay me, or what?" He extends one arm forward, its spheres rattling when he does so. "I... uh... I... I... I..." Sarah stammers, nervously rummaging through her satchel, hoping to find something that will interest the Sudowoodo. Eye wonders if Sarah is asking Eye to come to her aid, but Eye doesn't move from behind the tree since Eye's scared of the Sudowoodo. Right after the Sudowoodo says, "I take Nuggets, but I don't take Johtonian Express," Sarah pulls out a round shiny yellowish object, but it's not a Nugget - it's the spiky Sun Stone she received from Professor Elm. She holds it in the palm of her hands and extends it towards the Sudowoodo, who frowns and shakes his head. Upon seeing him displeased, Sarah gulps, and quickly shoves the Sun Stone back into her satchel. Since she wasn't careful while putting it back in, one of the Sun Stone's spikes breaks the shell of the wobbling Egg within her bag. Sarah hears the Egg cracking, so she pulls it out of her satchel and examines the hole... The tips of a small metal claw pop out through the hole. Sarah, who had heard of but never seen Skarmory, wonders if it's the Pokemon who's currently popping out of the egg. She knows that Bird Pokemon lay eggs, so she figures that this is mostly likely the case... that is, until she sees the small light brown furry arm attached to the metal claw come out. The Pokemon within flails his tiny arm around, slashing at the Egg that encloses him until enough of the shell breaks apart. Once the Egg's been shredded up, the baby Pokemon within stands up. A Teddiursa wearing a cracked shell as a hat stands in the palms of Sarah's hands, facing her, "Teddi?" "No, that's my brother - my name's Sarah!" Sarah smiles at the cute little Teddiursa that just hatched out of the Egg that Bob Raiser gave her a while back. When she thinks about it, she finds it extremely weird that a bear Pokemon would lay an egg, but she figures just about anything's possible in the Pokemon world - including a baby Pokemon born with metallic claws. She remembers that Bob once told her that his parents run a day-care center, so she figures that they must have somehow bred the Teddiursa to have Metal Claws. She suddenly remembers the mean Sudowoodo who had been intimidating her earlier, so she looks up, to find that his disposition has changed to a friendly one. Despite the smiling, or perhaps suspicious of it, Barbie continues to be frozen in fear before the grinning Sudowoodo. "Hey, that baby's cool!" The beaming Sudowoodo comments and stomps off to one side, "I can tell that yer hip... just get on with yer trip!" He just rattles his arms around happily and dances around as Sarah walks past him, hugging her new baby Teddiursa close to her chest. Once Sarah's past the Sudowoodo, Barbie snaps out of her frozen state and chases after the shepherdess. Both make pretty fast progress towards Ecruteak City until they see a group of people gathered in the distance. This stops both of them in their tracks. It's as if time has stopped around the four males and one female gathered a bit further up the Route, but in reality, it's just that Barbie and Sarah are both equally afraid of large groups. Sarah notices that one of the males is kissing the female present. It seems like everyone witnessing this event is waiting for the female to respond to the kiss, now including Sarah and Barbie. -Sarah