Subject: [PW!] Sometimes it's not crazy to talk to yourself Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2001 08:26:31 -0500 From: Continue <continue2@mindspring.com> Organization: MindSpring Enterprises Newsgroups: alt.games.nintendo.pokemon Not more than a hundred feet from the Pokemon Center, Drake pulls up short. "Ni?" Spunky inquires of the sudden stop. "Something I just remembered," The Dragonite begins as an indication of a more lengthy response. "There're safeguards on the pokeballs, so you can't capture a pokemon that someone else has already caught. Anytime a pokeball is used, it can be tracked. Those mean I can't just take the pokeballs with those shiny Unowns from that Shorts Kid. Considering the mentality and what the prize is worth, I don't think there's any way to convince the kid to trade 'em either. That really only leaves me with two choices." "Do?" Spunky prompts, although it already seems like some of what's been said is over the Nidoking's head. "I could go the League officials and contest his care of them, but that's normally only even considered by them if it's a case of extreme abuse. For this one, I'd have to explain what's going on, which isn't a good idea. The only other choice I can think of is to go to Nurse Marcia and ask her if she learned what to do for stolen pokeballs in her days with Team Rocket." Spunky growls softly at the mention of the woman who he still believes he has some reason not to like, although he isn't entirely sure. "Calm down," The Dragon pokemon tells the Nidoking "When things get strange you sometimes have to do things you wouldn't normally do." Drake pauses in order to let this sink in for the Nidoking. "It's only been a few minutes, so I figure she hasn't gone off shift and left or somethi--" The Dragonite suddenly cuts off when he sees a barely perceptible shimmer rush through the air towards him. He steels himself for a blow, but he feels almost nothing. The great shock comes as he watches the deep red afternoon sky instantly become a bright blue. He had been facing the sun, but he doesn't see it anymore. Instinctively he turns around and and quickly catches sight of the sun at the place that it should be an hour after dawn. He then quickly checks to see if Spunky is still there. Seeing that he is, Drake asks "Did you see that, too?" The Nidoking nods, set in a fierce defensive posture over the confusing event. Drake is about to make a comment, but before he can there is a muffled beeping followed by a partially-muffled cry of "Meowth!" as his bag seemingly undergoes a small contained explosion. The Dragonite opens the bag and Memuyo immediately pops out, shoving Drake's pokedex at the Dragon pokemon while telling him "Meowth meow owth <I believe this is your heart attack-inducer>." The Dragonite takes the still-beeping pokedex and opens it up, pushing a flashing button. The face of a Dragonite appears on the small screen, looking remarkably familiar. A different voice from the usual one issues from the small speaker of the device. "First things first, release your third Natu. Just tell her to remember, she has a perfect memory, apparently. Push the button when you've done that." When the voice finishes the screen turns white with the word 'Waiting' on it. Feeling further confusion as he recognizes the voice as being his own, Drake almost hypnotically removes the specified pokeball. After the Natu within has formed out of the white glow of energy accompanying its release, The Dragonite tells the bird pokemon which he has been informed is female "Remember." She nods and Drake seems to break out of the trance that he's been in for the past few moments as he smolderingly declares "Somebody better tell me what's going on soon or when I find who's responsible they're gonna be put in their own universe of pain." Now feeling a little bit more in control of what's going on, he pushes the same button that he had previously. The image of the Dragonite's face reappears on the screen and Drake's voice once again comes from the speaker. "No, I'm not responsible, or should I say we're not responsible, maybe. You'll understand better when you're me." Spunky's arms drop limply to his sides, defeated by utter confusion. Drake groans as something dawns on him "Not again." "Yes, again," the voice continues from the speaker "I'm you in the future, making sure to send back a message to me so I'll know what I'm going to need to do to get here. Your Natu will remember to remind you to make this recording and the timing so you're going to miss anything when you respond to what I say. Bill will help you send the message with his time travel technology and Professor Oak will give you the information about the backdoor on your Pokedex that will let you put this message on it." "So, was me getting tossed a half-day because you put this message on here?" The Dragon pokemon questions his image. "Bill told me no, that he was just using an existing temporal, uh, something-or-other, I can't remember and it doesn't really matter. What matters is that we get to what this is about." When the voice doesn't instantly continue, Drake impatiently prompts "And that is?" "When you started to figure this out, you were remembering that little concert you did with Mimic in Cerulean City during the temporal distortions about five years ago. It's about that. In about a day, it'll be time for you to be performing the other side of that concert." "And what if I don't?" The Dragon pokemon defiantly questions. "Right now I'm sitting in the timeline where I, uh, I mean you went and did it. From what I'm told, another timeline branches off from where you are a few minutes ago. In that one, I didn't remind you about the concert, so you never went to it. It ends very messily about the time of the concert. Bill gaVe me some analogy about becoming fertilizer so the rest of the time-space continuum could continue to branch out, but it's deep doo-doo anyway you think about it." His brain catches everything that he's just been told, but a detail catches in the grinding gears of the Dragonite's thought process "Wait a minute, you just mentioned that the timeline splits on whether or not I leave the message to remind myself about this. There's nothing about another timeline if I decide not to do this?" "You and I both know I'm not that stupid," The voice tells him "Besides, there are several returning concert-goers who are rich from getting the lottery numbers at the first concert. Some of them are grateful and also see the benefit of investing in your business idea. There's also another grateful attendee who happens to have, well, had, er, well, will... You're gonna get a chance to get two shiny Unown. Human languages do not handle tenses for time travel well." Ignoring the voice's discombobulation about time travel communication, Drake asks "Okay, so do I just head there right now and meet Mimic there?" "Not quite. First, you're going to give your Natus the psychic impression they need to teleport to the Azalea Pokemon Center. Once there, you're going to leave Spunky in the care of the Nurse Joy on duty until Sarah Jane gets back there for him. You're going to get the psychic impression for teleporting to the Goldenrod City Pokemon Center from her. From there you're going to follow a map in your pokedex to the residence of a human who calls himself Marvin the Magician. He wasn't at the first concert, but he'll be at the second concert. You'll find out why you have to go meet him when you get there." "Anything else?" Drake penultimately asks. "Yeah, close up the pokedex and put it back in your bag next to Memuyo, who is asleep again because he didn't think any of this was worth interrupting his naptime." After this, the image fades to white with lettering that reads 'End of message'. The Dragon pokemon opens up his bag to find Memuyo is indeed asleep and puts the pokedex back inside. After closing the bag he turns to Spunky and says "Well, you heard me." "Dooo" the Nidoking whines. "Sorry, this is kind of high priority. I'm sure you'll be fine with the Nurse Joy there." Drake ignores Spunky's snort and pulls out another pokeball from which is released another Natu. Regarding both Natu before him Drake tells them "Okay, you're going to be picking out an image of a place from my mind and teleporting there when I tell you, okay?" Two teleports and a quick flight through Goldenrod City later finds Drake at the door to the apartment indicated on his map. He knocks on the door and waits for it to open. A middle-aged man in clothing that causes Drake to raise an eyebrow ridge opens the door part-way and cautiously inquires "You're not here about any debts, are you?" Both Drake's eyebrow ridges raise in amusement, but he decides against a mischievous idea that crosses his mind and simply answers "No, but I'm looking for someone called Marvin the Magnificent. Are you him?" "Why, yes! Yes, I am," Marvin's tone becomes more inviting and he bows as he says "Marvin the Magician at your service. How can I be of service?" "I could properly explain why I'm here," The Dragonite begins "but only Psychic pokemon have languages where explanations involving time travel aren't confusing. Let me just leave it at my name is Drake and I was instructed to meet you here before going to Cerulean City for some reason." <TBC> Jeff Hauser* *Sig Sold Seperately