Subject: [PW!] [WC] The Oldman and the Sea Date: 27 Dec 2002 16:13:35 -0800 From: wingcat@pacbell.net (Adrian Tymes) Organization: http://groups.google.com/ Newsgroups: alt.games.nintendo.pokemon Squirtle noted the clock with concern. Aerie had said she might not be able to help, and it seemed she was correct. Little time remained; in the distance, Squirtle could already see a delivery truck approaching, probably to pick up Oldman's remaining pokemon. Inside, Oldman counted his pokemon and frowned. It looked like Aerie had no intention of returning his squirtle or goldeen, not that he was going to press the issue. But it seemed that his krabby was also missing. Aerie...no, that one had been recaptured, then rented again to a persian. Who quite possibly felt like Aerie did. For all he knew, that could have been Aerie too; she certainly seemed to be able to take forms like a ditto. Not that it mattered: he was out three pokemon. On the bright side, he had sold a poliwrath for an exorbitant amount, claiming all kinds of troubles when, in truth, his suppliers - Team Rocket, he suspected, but again, he knew better than to invite unnecessary trouble by asking what he did not need to know - already had one in stock. The profit from that one more than made up for losing three pokemon. Two pokemon, he corrected himself as Squirtle walked in the door. "Hello! Sorry, we're closed. Or are you here to join your friends?" To his surprise, Squirtle nodded. "Oh, great! Let me get your pokeball and-" "SQUIRT!" A razor-thin jet of water sliced off the corner of his counter. "What? I need to get you checked out before you go back in the tank." "...tle." Squirtle produced a small sack, containing the second place prize money Aerie had entrusted Squirtle with. Tossing it on the counter, it proceeded to shatter each of Oldman's aquariums, releasing the pokemon inside, then pointed to the door and ordered, "SQUIRTLE!" Oldman quickly counted the coins. They were more than enough to cover the costs of the pokemon, and the damage to his store. Even so, this was intolerable. He snatched up Squirtle's pokeball... "YARRR!" ...only to recoil as a still slightly frozen Goldeen, its scales turned permanently white from frostbite and its size larger for the feeding frenzy it had engaged in outside the arena, flopped through the wall. The fish did not stay for long, though; even being able to flop over land, it could only hold its breath for so long before needing to return to the water. It only stayed long enough to take one bite, but this was more than enough distraction for Squirtle to direct the other pokemon out and into the water, some under their own power and some carried. --- Hours later, Oldman stood on a cliff overlooking the harbor, leaning on a peg leg that had been supplied until a decent prosthetic could arrive, absently fingering where his new nemesis had bitten his limb off. "Aye, it was that Goldeen that dismasted me; that Goldeen that brought me to this dead stump I stand on now." Tossing both arms in the air, he shouted out, "Aye, and I'll chase it 'round the harbor, and 'round the islands, and 'round the whirlpools, and 'round Moltres's flames before I give it up. And this is what I ship for! To chase that white goldeen on both sides of land, and over all sides of Earth, 'till it spouts black blood and rolls fin out." Unfortunately, the Officer Jenny who had asked for confirmation of what had done this to him and what his plans were had long since thanked him and wandered off. It was only then that he noticed this. Dismayed, he set off for a local Staryubuck's to pick up his spirits. Meanwhile, in the harbor, the white Goldeen drifted further out to sea. It had learned primarily one thing under Aerie's tutelage: how to eat. It liked to eat. And so it would eat. And grow, so it could eat more and larger things. TBC? [NS: Easy ref, too easy to resist passing up. ^_^; Anyone who wants to use the white goldeen as an NPC is free to do so. Aerie certainly does not plan to come back for it, at least any time soon, nor is she laying any claim to it.]