From: John Willemin (vze27q9e@mail.verizon.net) Subject: [PW!] The Surprise Newsgroups: alt.games.nintendo.pokemon Date: 2001-08-26 19:18:12 PST Grendel the Aerodactyl made a quiet landing on Seafoam with his two despondent passengers. Kyle said nothing as he beamed Grendel back into his Pokéball, and Jessica was unable to offer her fiancé any words of comfort as the couple headed into the apartment building they called home. They silently took the elevator up to the fifth floor and made a lugubrious procession to their apartment door. As Kyle fiddled with the lock, he thought he heard movement inside the apartment. His depressed expression became one of alarm. In anticipation of another break-in, Kyle paused a moment to take Leviathan's Pokéball from his belt. Then he unlocked the door and opened it with a sharp kick. He was greeted with a shout of "SUR-PRIIISE!!!" Kyle stood in the doorway, his mouth agape. Several of his family members, his father among them, were in the apartment and were seemingly having a party. He could not muster a full sentence. "Dad...what's..." "Bill called me a few months ago and informed me you'd be returning today!" Professor Richter explained. "I realize that you and Jessica never got very far into planning that wedding of yours before your time journey, so I got the relatives together and we set the whole thing up in time for your return!" He approached Kyle and Jessica. "The wedding's at seven, at Saint John's. I suggest you two get ready!" Neither Kyle nor Jessica budged. "Is something the matter?" the Professor wondered. "Doctor Eckert..." Kyle softly replied. "He told us about...about Espio..." Professor Richter did not know what to say to this, so Kyle went on to add, "Espio drowned himself, and it's all my fault..." The Professor was silent a bit longer, then he explained, "Espio didn't drown himself, Kyle. I saw the body. He had been attacked...not by a Gyarados like the papers said, but by a particularly vicious Scyther. We found a charred Scyther body not too far from Espio's. Evidently Espio killed the Scyther but was mortally wounded himself. Maybe the Scyther had been cast out of its hive for mental problems...it's odd that a Scyther would randomly attack a Charizard, and it's odder still that a lone Scyther was hanging out at the Lake of Rage..." "Still..." Kyle moped, "Still, I put Espio into the university..." The Professor was in deep thought for a moment. "I think that instead of blaming yourself for Espio's death, you should be proud that he was so attached to you as to break out of Rosetta University to look for you." "He was probably looking for me so he could burn my face off for abandoning him!" Kyle countered. "Come now, Kyle," the Professor said. "Does that sound like Espio to you?" Kyle lowered his head. "No...it doesn't..." He suddenly pounded one fist against the wall, which made Jessica jump. "I never should've gone on that stupid time-jump! I could've visited Espio at the university...I could've -" He then let out a miserable sigh and let his arms fall limp. Jessica at last spoke up. "What if...we used Bill's time machine to go back to the past..." "It wouldn't work," Kyle replied. "If we were able to travel back to the past to save Espio, then it would have happened already, and Espio would be alive right now. And if Espio were here now, then we'd have no reason to travel back in time to save him in the first place, because we didn't know he needed saving until we arrived here in the future...ugh, I don't even want to think about it. Bottom line is, the past is set. Ever see that movie 'Twelve Mankeys?'" Jessica was silent. Kyle, too, seemed to have nothing further to say. "Well, it seems we all acknowledge that none of this could be helped," the Professor finally broke the silence. "Call me callous, but how about we concern ourselves with the wedding that's, oh, three hours away?" Without a hint of enthusiasm, Kyle responded, "All right." (OOC: I credit NewHaights for the "Twelve Mankeys" crack. But only because I came up with a better movie pun earlier, and I knew he'd steal it if I didn't credit him for this one. =P) -------------------------------------- K * A * R * N * I * V * A * X "Your cavalier dismissal of mechanics shows a commendable bravado, from a swashbuckling perspective. But from an academic perspective, it's a real problem." -My English teacher Mr. Hench, commenting on a term paper