Subject: [PW] Tech Weaver Finally Ends the Bug-Catching Contest! Now Let's Get the Heck Outta Here! Date: Sat, 27 Apr 2002 13:29:34 -0700 From: "Tech Weaver - Biggest Dreamer with Bathtubs Full of Hope!" <nichirasu@hotmail.com> Organization: CompuServe Interactive Services Newsgroups: alt.games.nintendo.pokemon Needless to say, Lynkeru was feeling a bit confused. Large, charging beetles generally don't freeze in mid-stampede about a foot from your face. Not in her experience, at least. "Everything has stopped," Indi, Lynkeru's fairy, said. "It's like when Shiny Unown H froze you, except with everyone else." Lynkeru looked around. Sure enough, everyone else was holding perfectly still. The Pinsir was posed in mid-step, the trainers it had thrown out of the way hung in mid-air, as have a number of PokeBalls and attacks. It was like a three-dimensional pictograph. "Fascinating," Chevy said. "These two creatures seem to have us trapped in a temporal eddy." "A what?" Lynkeru asked. "An area of space where time moves faster than the space around it," Chevy explained. "THIS IS SO COOL!!! Can other Pokemon on this world do this, too!?" Looking at the Shiney Unowns Y and P floating beside them, Lynkeru said, "I don't know, but I do know that these things can freeze stuff." "THAT IS SO COOL, TOO!!! But we can't win the contest if everyone else is frozen." "Yeah, we better move back into normal time or something." "Oh, oh! Wait!" Chevy said. He put a PokeBall on the ground in the Pinsir 's path. "This'll be so cool!" As Chevy and Lynkeru moved out of the Pinsir's path time began to thaw. Everything moved slowly at first, but things soon picked up as the Pinsir zoomed by. Despite Chevy's plan, the Pinsir merely kicked the PokeBall out of the way. The ball smacked Lynkeru in the forehead, knocked her down and caught the Ledian that had been clinging to the back of her head. "Are you okay?" Chevy asked. "Ow!" Lynkeru growled as she got back up. "That hurt!" "Heh, sorry," Chevy apologized. "That was meant for the Pinsir." "No kidding," Lynkeru said. "Can I have your attention please?" requested a booming voice. "Time is up, and that means the contest is coming to a close! Everyone please gather at the South entrance as we make our announcement." "Ah, no!" Mamoru replied. "I wasn't even able to catch anything!" "Wish me luck, then," Yolei said. "Maybe I'll let you use my Sun Stone sometime. Heh heh." "Stay on guard, Keaton," Kitsu said. "The Masked Rocket will probably strike once the winners are announced." "Yeah," Keaton agreed. "Then he'll take the winning Pokemon." And there's no telling what the alien's technology will allow him to do, he added mentally. Soon everyone was gathered near the South entrance. A stage had been set up and a guy in a Venomoth costume was on it. "Alright, is everyone here?" the Venomoth man said. "Well, you better be, because it's time to judge the bugs!" The Venomoth man pulled a remote from his costume and pressed a button. The lights on the Park Balls lit up as the statistical information of the Pokemon inside them was analyzed. Empty Park Balls were teleported away from the contestants as well. "And the results are in!" Venomoth man announced as a slip of paper was handed to him. "The top three contestants, in no particular order, are... Yolei Hernandez, Chevy Blazer, and..." Venomoth man looked at the card again to make sure he was reading it correctly, "...Foogooey!" "Hey, I won!" Yolei exclaimed before hurrying on to the stage. A boy dressed in a big, ragged, old coat and silver hair walked onto the stage showing what was probably the bare minimum of enthusiasm. He stood next to Yolei and gave a dark, somewhat glassy-eyed smile to the audience. "It's pronounced 'few-oog'," Fugue said. Chevy scampered onstage, where excitedly ran in circles, chanting, "Ohboyohboyohboyohboyohboyohboyohboyohboyohboyohboy...." you get the idea. "This Fugue guy could be the Masked Rocket in disguise," Kitsu said. "Or maybe even the alien," Keaton added. "First, the third-place winner is Fugue!" the Venomoth man announced. "Show 'em your winning Pokemon, Fugue!" Fugue smoothly reached into his pocket flung a Park Ball onto the stage, releasing a Butterfree. "...And what a strong-looking Butterfree it is!" the Venomoth man said. "I don't see what's so tough about a giant butterfly," Lynkeru remarked. "As third place winner, Fugue get's the Gold Berry!" the Venomoth man declared, handing a Gold Berry to Fugue. "And now, the winner is..." "ME!" From out of the forest rose a large, metallic disk. Atop this flying saucer stood a figure with a black cape and a red "R." "I am the Masked Rocket!" he announced. "And all your Pokemon are now mine!" "I don't think so!" the crowd called out, almost in unison. The Masked Rocket rolled his eyes. "Why does everybody want to be the hero these days?" he asked himself. "Anyway, it doesn't matter what you think, because this time I have the upper hand! Behold my superiority!" "He's about to use his secret alien technology!" Keaton warned. "Magnetons, Thunder Wave!" the Masked Rocket called out. The saucer's edge split open to reveal three Magnetons zooming along in a circuit within. Before anyone could react, a wave of electricity washed over most of the audience and abruptly stopped in front of Lynkeru. "They did it again!" Indi said. Y and P were at Lynkeru's sides again, and time around her had stopped. The electricity, however, was slowly creeping towards her, oozing from person to person. The crowd had packed itself fairly close to the stage, and everyone in it was within range of the Thunder Wave. "We better get out of this crowd," Lynkeru said. She quickly pushed her way through the crowd and dashed a few feet away from it. She turned to see that time had already caught up with her. The Thunder Wave stopped just short of her and had fully paralyzed the entire crowd. "Am I a genius or what?" the Masked Rocket laughed. "Now no one can stop my... What? You! How did YOU escape my Thunder Wave!?" "You're the genius, you figure it out!" Lynkeru shouted back. "I have no time for this!" the Masked Rocket growled as position his craft above Lynkeru. "Magnetons, Thunderbo-" Before he could finish his command, a blur suddenly formed in front of him and became a were-Ninetails girl in samurai robes. She landed in front of him on the saucer. "No way!" Masked Rocket exclaimed as the saucer unsteadily readjusted to the weight. "You're supposed to be paralyzed!" "Ever hear of PrzcureBerry?" Kitsu asked before jabbing her black sword into the saucer. There was a crackle of electricity as the Magneton she struck was knocked out. The saucer began to sway unsteadily. "A bottle of Paralyze Heal works, too," Keaton said as he landed behind the Masked Rocket on the saucer. He jabbed his red sword into the saucer knocking out yet another Magneton. The samurai duo leapt off as one edge of the saucer suddenly dropped. The Masked Rocket hung on as the saucer stayed aloft as if it were hanging by a thread tied to a single point. The Masked Rocket struggled to regain control of his craft. A very difficult thing to do when your hanging by the steerage. The saucer shook again and the Rocket looked up to see Lynkeru sitting on the upper edge. "Hang out around here a lot?" Lynkeru asked. "I'll hang you!" the Rocket shot back. "You're not still hung up on our previous encounters are you?" Lynkeru inquired as the saucer began to rock. "Well, hang in there! Don't let bad experiences 'sway' your thinking! Get back in the 'swing' of things! Look at you! You're dangling by a thread!" "Are you going to try to make bad puns or are you going to do something!?" the Masked Rocket demanded. "Well, I'd hate to keep you in suspension..." Lynkeru remarked. She drew her saber and thrust it into the saucer. She leapt off as the saucer quickly plummeted and landed next to Kitsu and Keaton. The saucer flipped as it fell and landed on the Masked Rocket. "That takes care of the Rocket," Keaton said. "Now we need to find that alien..." "Think he's alright?" Kitsu asked. The bottom panel of the saucer was suddenly flung off. The Masked Rocket sprung up with an enraged howl. "You haven't seen the last of me!" he shouted, pointing an accusing finger. "Soon, all your Pokemon shall be mine!" With that, he ducked back into his craft. Up-churning dirt leading away from it indicated Northward movement. "He must be using some alien tunneling thingy!" Keaton exclaimed. "Or just a Pokemon that knows Dig," Kitsu added. 'Or the Wolfo Mask,' Lynkeru thought to herself. "You meet such interesting people as a Pokemon Trainer," Fugue pointed out to Yolei. "It'd be so fun to be them, wouldn't you agree?" "Uh, yeah, sure," Yolei said. "Now that that's over with," the Venomoth man said, "Can we have everyone's attention over here please? Yes, thank you. So, with Fugue in third place with a prize-winning Butterfree, that means either Yolei or Chevy will take first place. But first, I must announce the second place winner.... And that person is... Yolei which means Chevy won first prize! Show us what you caught, guys!" The crowd cheered as the winners reveal their Pokemon: Yolei with a Scyther, and Chevy with the Ledian. "All right!" the Venomoth man continued. "Yolei wins an Everstone and Chevy wins the Sun Stone! Congratulations! But no one in this contest goes away empty-handed! Everyone who participated gets a Berry and one of the Pokemon they caught! Congratulations everybody!" "You caught a Scyther!?" Mamoru asked of Yolei as she stepped off the stage. "Yep," Yolei replied. "I'm naming him Duo." "Great, let's just get out of here," Lynkeru said as she approached them. "I feel like I've been here for months." "Lynkeru!" Chevy said, hopping off the stage. "Thanks for helping me in the contest. You want you Ledian back?" "Nah, you keep her," Lynkeru said. "She was wild, and you caught her fair and square. I was tired of her hanging on the back of my head anyway." "Gee, thanks!" Chevy cheered. "What are you going to do next, Chevy?" Yolei asked. "Oh, I think I'll head over to New Bark and see Professor Elm about getting a proper Trainer's License," Chevy explained. "THAT'LL BE SO COOL!!! I'll be able to go and win Gym Badges and stuff! Oh boy, oh boy! Thanks again! Ohboyohboyohboyohboyohboyohboyohboyohboyohboyohboyohboy....!" And so on and so forth as he scampered off into the distance. "Now that the Masked Rocket's taken care of, we better find that alien!" Keaton said. "That alien can probably take care of himself," Kitsu said. "But now that Famifax has dumped you, we can go back into Goldenrod and meet up with those other half-Pokemon people or even try and find the gypsy again." "Nah," Keaton said. "Let's not go there." "Why not?" "Too many bad memories." "*Sigh* I don't believe you..." To Be Continued... -- Chet "Tech" Weaver's Revised Basic Sig All that's required of us is to survive. Anything else is a product of modern society. Desperado Coyote! http://desperadocoyote.keenspace.com "No ride is complete without a clown in an electric chair." -- My brother AIM: PanGatomon, Rorschach Mask, NemesisWolfHelm