Subject: [PW!] Belle Date: Sat, 07 Sep 2002 21:48:08 GMT From: Rob <robfrompw@yahoo.com> Organization: AT&T Worldnet Newsgroups: alt.games.nintendo.pokemon On a bed, covered with sterile white sheets, a blonde fair-skinned teenage girl, wearing just a blue hospital robe, awakens. She blinks twice, then rubs her hazel eyes with her fists. She feels well-rested. As most people do upon waking up in some place they don't remember falling asleep in, she tries to recall what happened right before she fell asleep. Unfortunately, she can't remember. Her eyes wander, examining the room she's in hopes of finding some visual clues that will stimulate her memory. Seeing all the machines, including one hooked up to her veins, and bottles of medicine in the white-walled room with her, she figures she's in a hospital, but doesn't recall having entered a hospital at any point in her life, let alone last night. She does recall having been in Pokemon Centers, but not hospitals made especially for people. "Think, ..." She pauses the moment she's about to address herself in the third-person and is startled when she realizes that she can't remember something much more important than what she was doing last night - her own name. She then tries to recall where her home is and draws a blank there, too. Confused and scared, she starts crying out, "Help! Help me! Anyone, help!" Within seconds, a smiling red-haired nurse in her 30s runs into the room and exclaims, "You're awake! You're finally awake!" "Finally awake? What do you mean?" The girl on the bed sits up and looks at the nurse who's so excited to see her conscious. The nurse explains, "You've been in a coma for a few months after having suffered minor head injuries in a Rock Slide near Mount Mortar. Your Flaaffy rushed to Ecruteak City to find help for you. You were taken to the Olivine City Hospital, but since their coma expert had left the hospital, you were soon transferred here, to the Cianwood City Hospital. We've tried to locate your family to no avail. I'm so glad you're awake, so we can finally find out who you are and where you're from." "Actually..." The teenager says, gazing sadly downwards, "I was hoping you could tell me. I don't remember." The nurse's smile turns into a frown and she stays silent for almost a minute before asking, "What DO you remember?" "I..." The girl stops just as soon as she starts, thinks for a moment, then continues, "I don't remember anything about who I am - I don't remember who my family is, who my friends are, or even having a Flaaffy. I do remember what a family is, what friends are, and what a Flaaffy looks like, though." "Oh dear." The nurse sits down on the bed next to her patient, "I believe you have amnesia." The girl blinks, then looks at the nurse with a blank stare. "I have what?" "Amnesia. It's a psychological affliction where a person has a complete or partial loss of memory." The nurse puts her hand on the girl's shoulder, "It's also a Pokemon move that increases Special Defense, but that's besides the point." The teenager falls backwards onto the bed, her head landing squarely on her pillow. Tears start to well up in her eyes. In hopes of comforting the teenage girl, the nurse says, "Don't worry - sometimes amnesia only lasts for a few hours. Maybe if I tell you what we do know about you, you'll start to remember who you are. A shepherd's crook and two Gym Badges were found on your person, so we think you might be a Pokemon Trainer who was raised in a rural, possibly southern area of Johto." "Pokemon Trainer..." The girl repeats, mulling it over in her head, "How many Pokemon do I have?" "Four - a Flaaffy, a Cyndaquil, a Sunkern, and a Slowpoke who knows how to speak English." The nurse replies, "We've tried to get information about you from the Slowpoke, but Nurse Joy over at the Pokemon Center has diagnosed him as being paranoid schizophrenic with multiple delusions, so he hasn't been much help. He just keeps insisting your name is Supergirl and that you've been helping him in his quest to become Slowking of the Multiverse... whatever that means." The amnesiac girl sighs and shakes her head, "I don't remember having any of those Pokemon." "I'll call Nurse Joy over at the Pokemon Center and ask her to send them over here. Maybe if you spend some time with them, that'll jog your memory. If not, you'll have to stay at this hospital getting treatments until you finally do remember who you are and where you're from, but hopefully it won't come to that. My name's Nurse Wendy - if you need anything, just call me using that buzzer on the bed railing." Nurse Wendy smiles at her patient and places her hand on the girl's forehead. "I don't remember my name, but you can call me..." The girl thinks about it for a moment, trying to come up with a name that's appropriate for her. "Belle. You know, since I'm probably a southern girl." Belle smiles. "Well, Belle, you stay right there in bed. I'm going to go call Nurse Joy, then I'll be right back to disconnect your IV. You're going to be eating solid food tonight!" Nurse Wendy heads out of the room. Belle stretches out on the bed and thinks out loud, "Belle. I like the sound of that." -Belle