Subject: [PW!] Bad News Comes To Those Who Wait Date: Mon, 24 Mar 2003 16:25:40 -0000 From: "Steffan Alun" <steffan.alun@virgin.net> Organization: Virgin Net Usenet Service Newsgroups: alt.games.nintendo.pokemon [NS: WG will be posted soon. Just for fun, try to guess who the main character is before it's revealed. If you play that game, please post your guess just out of interest ^_^.] The nurse checked the chart at the bottom of the bed. No change, she thought. No surprises there. The girl who was sleeping in the bed had been brought in because of a cold or flu of some sort. However, the condition had worsened, and she was lookg no better today. The nurse had been instructed to ensure that the girl's Smoochum was around whenever it was necessary to wake her up; it helped her feel comfortable, apparently. The nurse didn't see how this could be the case, and was mildly phobic of Smoochums, but she followed her instructions anyway. She released the Smoochum from its Pokéball. "Alright, you," said the nurse. "Sit here. Next to your master. Friend. Whatever." Smoochum sat on the chair next to the bed. Shelley's bed. The nurse woke the girl up. She sat up slowly, rubbing her eyes. When she spoke, her voice was croaky. "Am I home yet?" She had very little energy left, and started to drop back down onto the bed. "I'm afraid not," said the nurse. "I need to take your pulse and blood pressure again. Just to check." "What's wrong with me?" "That's what I need to find out. The quicker I get your pulse and blood pressure, the quicker we'll know the problem and the quicker we can make you better. Look - Smoochum's here." Shelley rolled over. "Hi, Smoochum," she said. "Is my dad here?" "He will be soon." "Will I get to see him?" The nurse sighed. The girl's father visited every day, but could rarely stay long. He'd recently been promoted, and he now worked almost obsessively from the time he woke up until the time he went to sleep. He did ensure that he had half an hour free to check up on his daughter, but for the most part, communication with the hospital was done by phone. The nurse who was now taking the girl's pulse had been given the duty of keeping track of the girl's situation and the father's comments. Through this job, the nurse had become intimately familiar with the family's history and situation. Both of Shelley's parents worked full time. The father, of course, worked constantly. The mother visited a few times a week, often for hours on end, but her visiting times were highly unpredictable. This was why most communication was scheduled for her father's visits, which were as regular and as dependable as The nurse suddenly realised something. Something wasn't right. It was a hot day, but the girl's hand was ice cold. She looked over at the Smoochum. It didn't seem to be doing anything to affect the temprature. The nurse spent the next hour taking measurments and conducting tests on the girl. The results didn't look good. The nurse was surprised at how emotional she felt. Even though she'd tried to distance herself from the girl and her family, she'd become attached to her. That was a huge factor in the way she felt. Another factor, of course, was that she could never understand why anyone deserved a fatal disease at the age of twelve. This was horrible. Worse still, her father would be arriving in five minutes. The nurse dried the tears that had formed in the corners of her eyes. She went back into the girl's room to recall the Smoochum and made her way down the stairs to the front of the building, ready for the father. As punctual as humanly possible, the familiar Mercedes pulled into the car park. The familiar shape of Shelley's father exited the car. He walked straight to the hospital, rushing to get it done, but clearly not a confident walker. "Hello again, Mr Smith," said the nurse. "Please. Call me Mike." PokéWars!: Mike Smith "Bad News Comes To Those Who Wait" Steffan Alun Mike Smith's life was not what one would consider to be "easy". A few months previously, he'd been working as an assistant to Ralph Harrison, the head of the Goldenrod branch of ComComCom - the Complete Communicatons Company, a company that controlled all phones, fax machines and modems in Kanto and Johto. Mr Harrison had been a difficult boss, as he very rarely gave Mike any information and would often mess up plans for seemingly no good reason. However, Mr Harrison had at least appeared competent and sane. That is, until the day Mike had taken his daughter to the hospital. For some reason, Mr Harrison had also been taken to the hospital, but managed to escape from his ward and stole Mike's car. Mike had chased after him in another car. Mr Harrison was attacked by a giant Charizard, which Mike had later found out was a transformed Ditto. Mike had tried to convince the Ditto to help him track down Mr Harrison, but the Ditto had better things to do. When Mike returned to the company, he was asked what had happened to his boss. He explained that he'd run away after seeing the Charizard. He didn't mention that he'd also threatened him with a gun and stolen a car. Mike had been given Mr Harrison's old job. He'd refused to hire an assistant, because he was adamant that Mr Harrison would return and would be given his old job back. Because of this, Mike always had a huge workload, and this had kept him away from his family for a lot of the time. However, he reserved half an hour every day to visit the hospital to check up on his daughter. Usually, he'd come in, maybe leave her a gift, maybe visit her ward if he had time, and then he'd leave, back to work. Today was different. Today, he found out that Shelley was seriously ill. "I know that," said Mike. "That's why she's been in here for five months." "We've found out that she has a fatal illness." Mike's eyes widened. His mouth opened slightly. He tried to pull himself together. "If you want to talk to an expert on th..." Mike looked her in the eyes, as though he was seeing her for the first time. "It took you FIVE MONTHS to find this out?" "We didn't think there was anything wrong with her aside from..." "She's been here for FIVE MONTHS! What on earth HAVE you been doing?" "We've been sorting out her blood pressure and..." "For FIVE MONTHS?" Mike was out of control. "Actually, it's closer to six..." The nurse's observation didn't help. "Isn't there anything that can be done?" "Well..." the nurse stared. "I'm afraid not." "Yes there is. You started saying 'well'. People only do that when they're pretending they don't want to say something." "Alright, there is an operation that has cured the disease in all known instances of its applications." "Do that, then." "It's not that easy. It's a very expensive procedure." "How expensive?" The nurse passed Mike her clipboard and pointed to the number halfway down the page. Mike stared at it, unable to make sense of the number for a few seconds. When he was finally able to comprehend it, he realised that this operation was worth more than the entire Goldenrod branch of ComComCom. Needless to say, Mike had nowhere near enough money. Suddenly, he felt a sensation not unlike claustrophobia. A feeling of being imprisoned; this time, he was trapped in the limits of his own finance and the time that Shelley had left to get through her illness. He looked around quickly, spinning his head from side to side. He started pacing the floor, trying to get some sense of freedom, but he was unable to do so. He ran through the door. He walked past the company car and into the small hospital garden. He picked up a few stones and dropped them again. He had no idea what he was doing, but he knew he had to do something to stop himself from losing it altogether. Right, a plan. Earn money. Win it? No. Risks. Bank loan? Maybe. As a start. Steal it? That's a backup plan. Mike realised that he had no idea what he was going to do. Surely he wouldn't really steal money. Surely. For years, Mike had been completely focused on his work. Now, all of a sudden, he had to focus on his family. He was saddened to find that he didn't know where to start. He had to tell his wife. Yes, that was the place to start. She could help him plan. They could earn the money together. They could make appeals, maybe start some charity thing. Mike climbed into the car. As he reversed the Mercedes out of the car park, he wondered whether the company would allow him to swap the car for something cheaper and keep the change. [NS: For clarification; Mike is now in Goldenrod and Harrison is AWOL.] -- Steffan http://iceduck.pkmn.co.uk Go there now. No, NOW.