Subject: Re: [PW!][WC][R2] Carol vs. Aerie Date: Thu, 12 Dec 2002 06:02:33 GMT From: Adrian Tymes <wingcat@pacbell.net> Organization: Prodigy Internet http://www.prodigy.com Newsgroups: alt.games.nintendo.pokemon Jose L. Solano wrote: > "Squirtle, return!" Aerie called. Her Squirtle jumped onto her platformed > and rubbed its chest. "Golden, Horn Drill!" > > "What?!" Carol hadn't noticed that Aerie's Goldeen was already there. Was it > there the entire match? Not that it mattered. The precise hit sent the poor > Psyduck flying several feet out of the water, right into the arena opening on > Aerie's side. He was too far inside for Carol to see him, much less recall him. > > "Psyduck is out of the arena, and as you all know, that qualifies as a loss! > Carol better act quick in order to counter Aerie's Goldeen!" > > "Guess I have to use the idiot's crab thing... go, Kabuto!" The Kabuto > immediately grabbed on to Aerie's Goldeen, refusing to let go. "Oh, here we go > again..." > > As the match continued, one seat in the stands was empty. Trent Retwin > silently moved through the inner corridor of the arena, right to an entrance > leading to the battlefield itself. He noticed Carol's opponent Aerie was > closest to him. He decided he would take his shot right there. He took his gun > out of his trenchcoat, loaded it, and knelt to steady his aim. Aerie smirked. Having Goldeen aim its attack as Squirtle drew the victim near was, she felt, simply brilliant. That it actually worked was all the proof she needed. Meanwhile, Yolei frowned at her unown radar. The display showed quite a few shiny unown in very close proximity, but when she looked in that direction, all she saw was Aerie. Carefully, she tiptoed closer. Perhaps one of them was clinging to Aerie's front? No, as she got a different angle, triangulation said the one she was tracing was inside Aerie's neck. But that was impossible, unless... Aerie's hand whipped out, grabbing Yolei's arm in a vise-like grip. "Excuse me," she snarled without deigning to look back. "I'm trying to have a match here!" Yolei winced, but checked her radar once again. "Sorry. I just...do you have a shiny unown?" That got her attention. Aerie turned towards Yolei, her eyes glowing, and dragged the other trainer closer by her arm. "What do you know about the shiny unown?" "You're hurting me!" Neither one saw the goldeen and the kabuto knock each other violently from pillar to pillar, each one refusing to let go. Tackles, drills, and other moves were out the window; they were simply struggling against one another. It did not take very long before they were both on the central pillar, fainted, and the referee declared, "Neither pokemon is able to battle. Since Squirtle is still able to battle, this match goes to Aerie!" Trent, however, saw this, and saw Carol bringing her pokeball up to recall Kabuto. "You are *not* getting my pokemon back!" He fired. Aerie let go of Yolei and staggered back, her shocked gaze dropping to the hole in her abdomen. Yolei quickly reached out to catch Aerie, but too late: Aerie toppled off the platform and into the water, disappearing with a 'plop'. This, along with "Karen" flat on her back with a growing stain of red on and around her - which only Trent knew looked far more serious than it was - had the audience on its feet. Even the announcer was at a loss for words. The camera crew desparately tried to get a visual on Aerie to help direct the emergency divers, but in vain. Panic might not have set in had anyone seen Aerie surface outside the stadium and immediately start swimming away, said exit assisted by an underwater teleport, but as it was, only Carol would be taken to the hospital that day. As Yolei rubbed her arm, wondering if it would bruise, Trent leapt from concealment, making a mad dash for the arena and his Kabu-*WHAM!* Avalance looked at the newly pinned human, then to Blizzard. "<You mean like this?>" "<Yes, that will do. Now maybe these humans will finally give me my Jigglypuff.>" "Tent <it, you STILL haven't> cool<ing noticed this is no> tenta <Jigglypuff factory?>" Squirtle, noticing its friend had been out of the water for a disturbingly long time now, hopped from platform to platform, picked up Goldeen (and Kabuto, still locked on despite being unconscious), and high tailed it for the pokemon center, making sure to use Karen's exit from the arena so as to avoid all the craziness. --- Trent sat in the repaired little jail, his gun tantalizingly just out of reach. "Sand," Ashura remarked. "Yeah, well at least I've got it better than you." Which was true, as far as he could tell: a human in a steel cage was better than a ground type pokemon in a glass cage, suspended inside an aquarium full of water, broken only by a small air pipe and the suspension latticework. Sure, Ashura could escape, but the water promised extreme pain if he tried - more so than the now electrified steel bars. "Sand. Sandslash sand?" "Nope, I'm not dead." Aerie smiled. "But thanks for asking." Trent blinked. "Where did you come from?" "Oh, here and there." Aerie twirled a lock of her hair to wring it out, flicking the water against the cage where it sizzled and smoked for a second. "I see they've upgraded your security. Nothing your pokemon couldn't handle - *if* he was free." "Look, if you've come to get back at me for shooting you..." "Actually," Aerie interrupted, "I'm impressed. You and I had no quarrel that I know of, so I assume your target was the other woman. Not a bad shot, to hit her like that - but, sorry to say, they say she'll live." Trent paused, measuring up the girl. "I was trying to wound her, actually. Scare her into giving my Kabuto back." "Ah." Aerie smiled, carefully not mentioning that she was planning to keep the fossil for a bit, to see if it could help her. Best that he assume the woman got it back. "So, why are you here?" "Because I've got a job for you. I need someone ruthless, and deniable. You are the latter, and you'll do for the former." "Thanks, I think." "Have you heard of the shiny unown?" "Not really. What about them?" "They're shiny, and they're unown. And this girl..." Aerie transformed into Yolei. "...or one of her companions has at least one. I want you to retrieve any shiny unown they have and give them to me before the closing ceremonies." Trent blinked. "You're a ditto?" "*Half* ditto." She transformed back, and smirked. "Anyway, are you interested?" "What's my payment?" "Freedom. One dose, up front. Get caught again, and you're on your own. And don't worry if you fail: even your failure will tell me something about how to get what I want from them." She picked up Trent's gun. "Take it or leave it." "Okay, fine. Beating up a little girl shouldn't be too tough. She's not another half ditto, is she?" "Nope. So far as I can tell, she's full human." Aerie dangled the gun in front of Trent's cell. "Remember, I don't care whether she and her companions wind up dead or alive. I just want their shiny unown." Trent's eyes watched the gun. "Got it." "Good." She whirled around, smashed the aquarium's outer wall with the gun, and completed her whirl to hand the gun to Trent, sticking it between the bars. "Oh, and if anyone asks, you can tell 'em I forgave you for shooting me. That *was* a nice shot." "Right." Trent took the gun, and watched as Ashura burst out of his prison, leapt over the moat that remained of his former walls, and set to work on Trent's cage. By the time his eyes returned to Aerie, she was gone. He wondered if he really would follow up on the job: she had, after all, made the mistake of paying in full up front. TBC?