Subject: [PW!] This Flying Pokemon's A Steel Date: Tue, 11 Dec 2001 02:22:19 GMT From: Rob <robfrompw@yahoo.com> Organization: AT&T Worldnet Newsgroups: alt.games.nintendo.pokemon Robert examines the blue-and-white Great Ball in his hand, then looks up at the smiling clerk of the Ecruteak City Pokemart, "Six-hundred, eh?" The nondescript clerk behind the desk at the Pokemart nods with a smile on his face, "Yes, sir." Robert haggles, "No discount for Gym Leaders? I run a Gym in Lavender..." "No, sir." The clerk shakes his head, the same smile plastered on his face. "Oh, alright." Robert pulls his Indigo Credit Card out of one of the pockets of his blue jeans and hands it to the clerk. The clerk examines the credit card, then looks up with his unchanging smile, "This only covers Gym-related purchases." Robert nods. He's been hearing that same phrase and variations of it almost every single time he's used the card in the past five years, so his response comes quickly, "I know that. I'm going to use the Pokemon I catch with the Great Ball in my Gym." The clerk slides Robert's Indigo Credit Card through the card reader. He pushes a button then while it reads "Authorizing..." the smile on his face is replaced by an intense stare. When the machine reads "Approved," the superficial smile suddenly reappears on the clerk's face. After giving Robert back his Indigo Credit Card, which Robert quickly pockets, the clerk exclaims with way too much enthusiasm, "Thank you for shopping at the Ecruteak City Pokemart! Please come again!" Robert shrinks his brand new Great Ball, latches it on the third place on his belt, right next to his Horsea's Pokeball, and heads outside of the Pokemart. He takes a deep breath before starting his march southward, towards Route 36. Today Robert's in search of a large Skarmory that Morty the Gym Leader told him about - a Steel Pokemon he plans to catch in the Great Ball he just purchased. By the time Robert leaves the Ecruteak City Limits, the sun is already setting in the west. Suddenly, a small pink Pokemon floats up to Robert, the two leaves coming from her head carrying her in the wind, "Pip pip!" "...cheerio?" Robert asks, trying to finish the strange-looking Pokemon's sentence. A sudden gust of wind blows the Hoppip away before she can say anything else. Robert looks around, wondering if the gust of wind was caused by a certain Skarmory he's searching for, but instead of seeing a bird Pokemon in the tall grasses around him, he sees various Grass Pokemon - including Oddish, Bellsprout, Gloom, and Weepinbell. Just then, Robert realizes where he is, "Ohhh... This must be the 'Grass Route' Morty was talking about - Route 37. That means I just have to keep going south and I'll be on Route 36 in no time!" One of the Weepinbell hiding in the tall grasses says, "Duh." "Hey, be nice!" Robert looks around to find out who just spoke without success, then says, "This is my first time in Johto." A sleepy Bellossom who's using the Weepinbell who recently spoke as a pillow yawns, "Osssssom!" Robert grins, "Yeah, I think it's awesome too! Especially since despite being new here, I just recently earned a Fog Badge!" An Oddish waddles over to where the Bellossom is trying to get to sleep and he cuddles up beside her, "Odd..." "You think it's odd that I was able to earn the Fog Badge?!" Robert asks indignantly, then huffs, "Well, you know what? I don't care what you think. I have to go find a Skarmory!" Robert marches southward and the Grass Pokemon all rejoice. "SKAR!" The high-pitched screech coming from the tree-tops of a rather tall tree in the distance catches Robert's attention. He races up to the tree on Route 36 and once he arrives at its trunk, he looks straight up to see a huge metallic bird Pokemon perched on one of its branches. Robert plucks his Great Ball off of his belt, winds up for a pitch, and hurls the blue-and-white sphere straight up towards the Pokemon above him, aiming to capture the large Skarmory with it... ...but the force of gravity pulls the Great Ball back down towards the ground before it comes close to its intended target, hitting Robert in the head. He rubs his head where the Great Ball made contact while mumbling, "Too bad gravity's already been discovered by Issac Magnewton..." He grabs the first Pokeball on his belt and drops it on the ground next to where the Great Ball landed, releasing his Farfetch'd. He crouches down and says, "Farfetch'd, I know you've have some difficulties flying in the past, but do you think you can fly to the top of this tree here and get that Skarmory up there to come down?" "Fetch'd far!" The goofy-looking tan-colored Farfetch'd salutes with one of his wings, bites down on the leek in his beak, and starts to flap his wings. He continues to flap them. And then he flaps them some more... until he finally manages to hover one foot from the ground. He sweatdrops and squawks variations of his name as he continues to escalate, his flapping intensifying as he climbs, but when he arrives at Robert's eye level, his wings go limp and he crash lands on the ground! Robert sighs, annoyed that unlike in the movies, in real life abilities aren't automatically perfected when they're needed, "At least you tried..." He pulls his Farfetch'd back into his Pokeball, places it back on his belt, and looks up at the branches of the tall tree looming before him. When Robert can't spot the Skarmory above him, he asks, "Hey, where'd it go?" "SKAR!" The high-pitched scream nearly bursts Robert's ear-drums this time, since it originates from right behind his head. Robert spins around to see the angry facial expression of a Steel Bird Pokemon flapping her wings to stay aloft, "...hi." "SKARMORY SKAR!" The huge Skarmory lunges her beak at the Pokeballs on Robert's belt, but Robert leaps out of the way before she can peck it, especially since he thinks she's actually aiming to peck a little below the belt. When the Skarmory swoops down and grabs the Great Ball on the ground in one of her claws, Robert gasps. Hoping that she'll drop the Great Ball if she's attacked and figuring that he has to weaken the Skarmory before catching her anyway, Robert plucks the second Pokeball off his belt, and without dropping it, since he thinks the Skarmory might pick it up in her other claw, releases his Horsea. Robert quickly instructs his Water Pokemon, "Horsea, your current opponent may be the size of a..." The moment Horsea looks up at the giant Skarmory flying above her, her eyes bulge and she shrieks, "HORSE!" "Yeah, exactly. I didn't know you knew English..." Robert nods, figuring that his girlfriend taught Horsea how to speak English before she traded her to him, then finishes his thought, "Anyway, whatever you do - don't freak out. Use your Twister attack!" Horsea remembers that in the past she had to face a giant Dugtrio who she managed to defeat, so she doesn't let the size of her Steel opponent intimidate her. She takes in air through her circular mouth, then blows a Twister out of her mouth. The small tornado quickly grows in size as it spins towards the Skarmory in its path, then engulfs the Flying Steel Pokemon! As the attack rages on, Robert's Great Ball is shot out of the Twister attack, towards Robert. He catches it, then when the Twister dissipates, he wonders whether he should have Horsea weaken the Skarmory more or just hurl the Great Ball at it now. During this pause, even though it's just a five second pause, night falls. Then, shortly after that, something else falls - a Pokemon Egg plummets down towards Earth from the tree tops. The Skarmory looks up at the falling Egg and shrieks, "SKAAAAAR!" Following the Skarmory's line of vision, Robert looks up and sees a metallic Egg falling straight down towards the ground. He immediately drops the Pokeball and Great Ball he's holding, cups his hands, and manages to catch the Egg before it hits the ground. He sighs, relieved to have saved the life of the baby Pokemon within, then looks over at the Skarmory, "I'm really, really sorry - I think it might've been my Horsea's Twister that blew your Egg out of the..." Robert's interrupted by another shriek, "SKAAAAR!" He looks up to see another Egg plummeting to the ground, and he's able to catch this one too. When Robert glances over to continue apologizing, the Skarmory is gone. He looks up to see the Flying Steel Pokemon soaring back up to the top of the tall tree she was perched on earlier. Robert and his Horsea then listen as they hear loud screeching and squawking coming from foliage above, some issued by the Skarmory and others by another bird Pokemon, but neither Robert nor Horsea can tell what kind of bird Pokemon. About a minute later, the squawking stops and a small black bird Pokemon falls from the sky, crashing right next to where Robert's Great Ball on the ground, "...krow..." After that, the Skarmory flies back down from the tree top and grabs both of the Eggs Robert caught with her claws, "Skar." "I'm sorry I tried to catch you..." Robert sweatdrops as he explains, "I didn't know you were a mommy. If I did, I wouldn't have made you abandon your nest. But please keep in mind that I was the one who saved your Eggs when they fell! Let's just call it even?" "...mor skar." The huge Skarmory nods once at Robert, then carries her two Eggs back up to her nest. Robert sighs and crouches down next to his Horsea, "So much for catching a Johto Pokemon today." "Murk..." The small black bird Pokemon that was knocked out of the tree by the Skarmory rubs his aching head with his wings. Robert pats his Horsea on her head, "I mean, according to Jasmine, there's very few Steel Pokemon. I bet there's even less Dark Pokemon out there. If a Steel Pokemon was able to survive your Twister attack without getting seriously weakened, I dread to think how hard catching a Dark Pokemon will be!" The bird Pokemon glances around, dazed and confused from being hit by so many Steel Wing attacks, "Krow..." "So what am I going to do?" Robert asks his Horsea, still thinking she might be able to speak English. He throws his arms up into the air, "Just drop a bunch of Pokeballs on the ground and hope a weakened Dark Pokemon just wanders into one of them?" "Murkrow!" The black bird Pokemon sees a metallic surface before his eyes, so he Pecks it, thinking in his dazed state that it belongs to the Skarmory he's fighting. The metallic surface just happens to be the button on Robert's Great Ball. This triggers the Great Ball to pop open, convert the Murkrow into energy, and suck it inside. The Great Ball wobbles three times, but the Murkrow that was pulled into it is too weak to break free of it, so it stops wobbling and announces, "DING!" This noise startles Robert. He stands up straight, walks over to his Great Ball, and picks it up. He releases the Pokemon within, and the Murkrow who was just caught materializes. Robert examines the Murkrow for a moment with his eyes - he's shorter than his Farfetch'd is, has dark feathers, and appears very weak. Robert pauses, then exclaims, "THIS IS GREAT!!!" Robert's Horsea glances over to the Pokemon that Robert has inadvertently caught and boggles before asking, "Sea?" "You know Spanish too, Horsea?" Robert looks over at his Horsea and grins, "I always knew Rilli was an awesome teacher, but WOW!" He then gestures over to his newly caught Murkrow, "Yes, of course this is great! It looks like this little black bird's a Dark Pokemon and he's even shorter and weaker-looking than Farfetch'd! That means he must evolve at least twice, just like Pidgey do, into a Dark Pokemon so ferocious he'll make that Skarmory look like a Magikarp with wings. WOO HOO!" After hearing Robert's reasoning, his Horsea is just as dazed and confused as Robert's Murkrow is. Robert pulls both of his confused Pokemon back into their respective Pokeballs, then continues his march southward with a grin on his face, hoping to find a Pokemon Center. -Robert