Subject: [PW] [WC] [R1] Day Two, Match One: Bringing In the Heavy Octillery! Yolei vs. Hichiro! Date: Thu, 5 Dec 2002 06:08:25 -0800 From: "Chet Weaver Roasting On an Open Fire, Jack Frost Nipping At Your Toes..." <nichirasu@hotmail.com> Newsgroups: alt.games.nintendo.pokemon Yolei had tried to enjoy watching the Whirl Cup, but as soon as she saw a Quagsire go down in the first round to a Corsola all she could think about was strategy. She also thought about getting more training in before her match in the first round tomorrow and what Pokemon she should rent. She hadn't seen the rentals yet, but she hoped to get a Golduck or a Lanturn, if not both. With her luck, she'd probably wind up with a Psyduck and a Magikarp. Whatever the outcome, she needed to find an edge. Her train of thought chugged on steadily until nightfall. Yolei was settling into bed thinking about every possible scenario she could and what to do in them, when she heard a melody being played from the bunk above her. She got up and looked over to find Lynkeru playing an instrument. "What's that?" she asked. "It's an ocarina," Lynkeru replied. "A friend of mine gave it to me. I almost thought the Rocket had stolen it. I figured I'd give it a test, see if it needs tuning." "Oh," Yolei said. In a somewhat teasing tone, she asked, "Is it from your boyfriend?" "No," Lynkeru answered. "Just a really good friend, who I'll probably never see again." There was a sad silence for a moment, which faded into what Yolei considered to be an awkward silence. She thought about asking her about it, but decided against it. "I guess I'll leave you to your tuning," Yolei said. "Good night." Yolei climbed back into her bed. Soon her thoughts drifted, the idea of Lynkeru playing her ocarina was runover by the train of thought carrying her Quagsire-training possibilities. The engineer did the best he could to stop the train before it hit but failed and somehow both plummeted into a bizzare metaphorical pit and the two concepts were so horrifically mangled by her drowsiness that the idea of a Quagsire playing an ocarina filled Yolei's mind. That's silly, Yolei thought. A Quagsire wouldn't play an ocarina. If anything, they'd play the bongos with their tails. Either would be cute, though, and an ocarina was more likely to put someone to sleep. That is, if they knew the right tune. "That's it!" Yolei exclaimed, attempting to jump from her bed. The attempt was foiled the by the presence of another bed above her and she unintentionally knocked herself out. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------- "Nothing like arriving before everyone else to get in some early training, eh Vaporeon?" Rainer said. "Por!" the Vaporeon concurred as Pokemon and trainer enterred the training area for the aforementionted early training. They were quite surprised to find that they were not the first ones to arrive. Yolei was crouching by the pool, which was currently inhabited by a Quagsire and an Arbok. "Okay, lower the frequency a bit more," Yolei said, watching her PokeGear. "Okay, I think that's good. Boris?" "Chabok?" the Arbok replied. Yolei studied Boris for a moment before saying, "I don't think it's working. Try lowering the frequency some more..." "You know, I don't think an Arbok counts as a water Pokemon," Rainer said. "Huh? Wha?" Yolei replied. Taken by surprise by the sudden input, she nearly lost her balance and toppled into the water. Rainer caught her and the last minute and helped her stand. "Careful there," he said. "Thanks," Yolei said, blushing a bit. "Boris is just a test subject. I needed someone to try my new technique on, and I didn't have any other water Pokemon." "What kind of new technique?" Rainer asked. "Well, the idea is..." Yolei caught herself before she got any further. She giggled a bit and said, "I can't tell you. You're competition!" "If I promise to lose, will you tell me then?" "Nice try, hot shot. Boris, Rink, c'mon." "Where are you going?" Rainer inquired as Yolei and her Pokemon began to leave. "Tail Whip doesn't seem to be working out for my technique," Yolei said. "I'm going to have to... Whoops. Trade secret!" Rainer shook his head as Yolei left and said, "Weird girl." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------- "Welcome everyone to the second day of the first round of the Whirl Cup!" the announcer greeted the roaring crowd. "The first match is about to begin. In the red square, coming all the way from Cherrygrove City, is the rookie Yolei Hernandez! Her opponent, in the green square, is veteran contender Hichiro!" "Show him what for, Yolei!" Lynkeru called out from the stands. "Take him down!" Tetsuo yelled. Seeing Lynkeru, Tetsuo and Yuki in the audience, Yolei turned to them and waved. Then she turned her attention to her opponent. Having gone through the records earlier, she knew what Pokemon he would use. Not because Hichiro had only one Pokemon, but his entire team consisted of Octillery. Hichiro had been eliminated in the preliminaries before due to a depressed Pokemon, but chances were that had changed. Though it won't necessarily be easy, she figured she at least had a fighting chance. "Trainers ready?" the referee asked. "Begin!" "Octillery, I choose you!" Hichiro predictably called. The quadrapus landed in the water with a big splash. "Go, Rink!" Yolei tossed her PokeBall into the water and her Quagsire emerged. "Don't worry about our new technique just yet. We can work on it later." "Another Quagsire in the first round!" the announcer announced. "Will it suffer the same fate as the one from yesterday?" "He better not," Yolei muttered. "Rink, Amnesia!" "Octillery, Water Gun!" Hichiro called out. "Quagsire appears to be focusing his energies defensively," the announcer said. Rink was indeed doing so, raising his Special Defense greatly in preparation for his opponents move. Octillery shot off its Water Gun and it slammed into the Quagsire. "Oh! And Quagsire takes it in the face!" the announcer declared. "Octillery, Octazooka!" Hichiro commanded. "Rink! Dive to evade!" Yolei ordered. Octillery rose up and fired eight shots into the air. Rink dove under water to avoid them as they came back down. "Octillery's attack missed completely!" the announced declared. "And it looks like Quagsire's taking this fight underwater!" Rink almost immediately splashed up right in front of Octillery, slapping it in the face with his tail. "Ouch! I guess it's Octillery's turn to eat one!" the announcer proclaimed. It was clear by the look on Octillery's face that the Tail Whip added more insult than injury. Infuriated, the cephalopod Wrapped its groping tentacles around Rink in an attempt to strangle him. "Wait, Octillery!" Hichiro called out. "I didn't give you a command yet!" "Slam him, Rink!" Yolei shouted. Rink and Octillery sunk for a moment before erupting from the water and flying into the air. Rink repositioned Octillery under him as they came back down and rammed his head into Octillery's as they crashed into one of the stone columns. The Quagsire rolled off his opponent, rubbed his head in pain and spat out some water. Octillery, meanwhile, was out like a light. "It's a one-hit wonder!" the announcer shouted. "Quagsire took out Octillery with its first attack and advances its trainer to the second round!" "Yay!" Yolei cheered. "I won! Rink, high-five!" Yolei held up a hand as Rink swam over. He then leapt out of the water and slapped Yolei's palm with his tail. "Ew, you're all sticky," Yolei said, examining her hand. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------- "Congratulations on winning, Yolei," Yuki said as they met her outside after the first round. "Thanks guys," Yolei beamed. "Let's get something to eat," Tetsuo said. "I'm starving." "You guys go on without me," Yolei said. "I have some training to do, plus I have to rent a Pokemon for the second round." "You've been training all day," Lynkeru said. "Yeah," Yuki agreed. "You've probably been training more today than you have in the rest of your journey. You deserve a break." "I guess you're right," Yolei conceded. "I am kinda beat. I suppose I can put things off for maybe and hour or so. What's the worst that can happen?" [Zip-pan] [Zip-pan] [Zip-pan] [Zip-pan] "WHAT DO YOU MEAN THERE'S ONLY TWO LEFT!?" Yolei exclaimed. "The rest have already been rented," the old man behind the counter explained. "But.. but how!?" Yolei demanded. "Well, we had only a few to begin with," the old man said. "Many of them were rented by trainers just moments after they won their matches." Yolei groaned as her body sagged in disappointment. "Of course, the lion's share was checked out in the last hour or so," the old man continued. There was a loud thump as Yolei's head hit the counter. "I knew I should've came here first," she said. "Sorry, Yolei," Tetsuo apologized. "We thought there'd be more in stock," Lynkeru added. "Ah, don't beat yourselves up about it, guys," Yolei said, regaining an erect posture. "I'll probably do it myself when I lose my next match!" "Doubt it," Lynkeru, Tetsuo and Yuki said. Yolei groaned in frustration and turned her attention back to the old man. "But you have more in the back, right?" Yolei asked, or rather insisted. "You gotta have more than this!" "I'm sorry, but this is all I have at the moment," the old man replied. Yolei grabbed him by the collar and brought him down to her face. "Listen..." Yolei looked down as his name tag. "Old man?" "It's 'Oldman,'" Oldman corrected, removing Yolei's hands from his shirt. "Like 'Goldman,' but with without the 'G'. Greg Oldman." "Sorry, Mr. Oldman," Yolei apologized. "This is all that I have in stock," Oldman continued. "You can either take what's here or wait until someone loses and returns there's, but I can't gaurantee the latter." "Okay, okay," Yolei said as she looked into the nearby tank again. Her only options were a sorry-looking Psyduck and an old Magikarp that had attempted to Splash her with water when she first looked in. "You should definitely take the fish," Lynkeru said. "Why?" Yolei asked. "Because red fish are lucky," Lynkeru explained. "And they're clever, too." "Not Magikarp," Yolei said. "Magikarp are probably the most pathetic Pokemon species on the planet." "That one's got a lot of fight in 'em, though," Oldman said. "No doubt," Yolei said. "I heard a legend once of a fish like that tricking a dragon into leaving his post at the gate to the Dragon Realm, allowing the fish to enter and become a dragon himself," Lynkeru said. "Fascinating story," Yolei said. "But that doesn't change the fact that a Magikarp couldn't beat an egg. I heard that conmen sell them to inexperienced trainers who don't know any better and rip them off for most of their money. I'll probably have more luck with Psyduck." "Well?" Oldman asked. "I guess I'll take Psyduck for now," Yolei replied. "I'll wait until I need to rent a third one." "Good choice," Oldman said, pulling the duck out of the water and plopping it on the counter. "How much do we owe you?" Yolei asked. "Rentals are free for the tournament," Oldman replied, handing Yolei Psyduck's PokeBall. "Cool," Yolei remarked and she recalled Psyduck. "Maybe I can make something out of him if I train him a bit." "We charge a deliquent fee per level," Oldman said. "And for altered movesets and evolutions." "What? Why?" Yuki asked. "Gotta make a buck somehow," Oldman answered. "I mean, who in their right mind rents Pokemon?" "You ethical business practices astound me," Yolei deadpanned. Leaving with the others, she said, "C'mon. I know a few tricks I got off the internet..." -- Chet "Tech" Weaver's Revised Basic Sig Desperado Coyote! http://desperadocoyote.keenspace.com "No ride is complete without a clown in an electric chair." -- My brother "That depends on what you mean. If by 'ready' you mean 'superior to you in each and every way,' then, yes, I am." -- Vegito, DragonBall Z ("Meet Vegito")