From: Bandraptor (bandraptor@yahoo.com) Subject: [PW!] You can't spell "trivial" without r-i-v-a-l Newsgroups: alt.games.nintendo.pokemon Date: 2003-10-21 19:16:28 PST Sapphire, an eighteen year old man swathed in Hoenn garb, is walking briskly along the forested Route 101, en route to Oldale Town. Sapphire's Torchic is hopping gleefully behind him, enjoying her newfound freedom very much! Having spent most of her short life inside a Pokeball on a storage shelf, Torchic has never had a chance to meet her parents, much less any other Pokemon; and she is very eager to find out everything she can about the world around her. She is absolutely overjoyed that Sapphire has decided to whisk her away from her boring life at Professor Birch's laboratory, and every few minutes, she nuzzles his leg to let him know how much she loves him! "Torchic, you're annoying." Grey's scornful voice sounds odd coming out of the innocent looking Sapphire's mouth, but since nobody's around, "Sapphire" doesn't see any reason to keep up his act. He scoops Torchic up off the ground, and cups his hand around her beak in reprimand, "Stop it." Torchic isn't sure what she's done to make her trainer angry, but since she wants to be his friend, she hops onto his shoulder, and nuzzles him to say that she's sorry! Sapphire lets out a sigh of exasperation, and reaches for the belt that's wrapped around his right thigh. "All right. Pokeball time." He presses the recall button on Torchic's Pokeball, but Torchic jumps off of his shoulder before she can be caught in the beam of red light! Once on the ground, she dodges the laser twice again, then bows lightly, and wags her tail, signifying that she wants to play! Sapphire zaps her with his taser. "What a pain," he grumbles, lifting the paralyzed Torchic up by one leg. He holds her out in front of his face, and examines her for a moment, before grunting in disgust. "You aren't a suitable partner. You look like something I'd feed to one of my dogs. I think I'll name you 'Fillet'." "HOU!" Raksha the Houndoom barks at him from inside her Reson Ball. "What?" Sapphire raises an eyebrow, "You think that giving my Starter Pokemon a cruel nickname will make me seem less like the sympathetic character that I'm trying to portray?" He shrugs his shoulders. "Fine. I'll name her 'Filly'. That's the sort of sickly sweet nickname that an idiot trainer like Sapphire would retch up." The newly dubbed Filly, having overcome her paralysis, wants to know who Sapphire's talking to! She flips out of his grasp, and as she twirls towards the ground, she grabs hold of his Pokebelt in her beak. When, an instant later, she loses her grip, the Pokebelt springs upwards, spilling its contents into the grass. The two crystal Reson Balls land button-side down, and snap open! Gurion the Arcanine materializes with his nostrils flared, and he doesn't lower his hackles until he's certain that there aren't any strangers around. Raksha, by comparison, seems a little disoriented when she solidifies a few feet above the ground, but she manages to recover in time to make a dainty landing. Concerned that the Torchic might run away, and blab about their existence, the two dogs quickly back Filly into a tree trunk, and hold her there with mean looks that are every bit as effective as the actual move. "Well, Filly," Sapphire folds his arms across his chest, "can you keep a secret?" Filly doesn't realize that she's being given an ultimatum, because she is too naive to understand that her life is in danger. It's because of her simple desire to please Sapphire that she smiles agreeably, and chirps, "Torchic!" Sapphire snaps his fingers to call the dogs back. Raksha comes readily, but Gurion continues to stare at Filly in a hungry fashion. "Gurion." Sapphire calls, "You can't eat her. Forget what I said about her looking like food." Gurion turns away from Filly, and skulks back towards Sapphire, but not without much snarling, and under-the-breath grumbling about how Sapphire shouldn't say things that he doesn't really mean. "Oh, like you have any right to complain about deception." Sapphire shoots back hotly. "You once deceived me into believing you were intelligent." He recalls the Arcanine into his Reson Ball. "Okay. Raksha?" Sapphire looks over his shoulder, to see his Houndoom--her maternal instincts having taken over--giving the baby Torchic a tongue bath. "Ugh...Raksha, quit wasting time." Raksha just rolls her eyes at her trainer, not expecting him to appreciate the importance of having a clean coat. She gives the half-sopped Filly one last lick, then uses a Flamethrower to dry her off, before retreating to her Reson Ball. Sapphire returns the balls to their respective pouches, and casts a cursory glance at Filly, who's busy trying to get her feathers to lie the way she likes them. Hoping that this task will keep the Torchic out of his way for a while, Sapphire unclips his white PokeNav from his belt, and focusses his full attention on it. He runs his finger around the circular touch pad until he reaches the map menu, then lays the device flat in his hand, so that he can properly view the holographic map that is projected up from it. "Crap!" Sapphire curses, when the global positioning system informs him that he's on Route 103, "I overshot Oldale Town? How did I manage that? Filly, this is all your fault." Filly blinks, cluelessly. "Chi?" "What the--is that a Torchic?" The bushes behind Filly rustle a bit, and then a teenage boy steps out. He has bleached white hair, a thick, black bandanna, and loud, Hoenn-style clothing. Looking at Filly, the boy nods, sagely, "I knew I recognized that cry." To Sapphire, he says, "So! My dad gave you a Starter Pokemon. That makes you my rival!" Sapphire glares at the newcomer in annoyance. "What?" The teenager presses, "You got that Torchic from Professor Birch, right? And if he gave you a Pokemon, then he must have given you a Pokedex, like this one." He flips open his own Pokedex, and holds it out for Sapphire to see. "I've been hard at work for the past few years, trying to help my dad catalogue all of the Pokemon in Hoenn. I say you're my rival, because if you have a Pokedex, then you're my rival in completing the Pokedex project!" "Okay, fine. You're my rival." Sapphire rolls his eyes. "I guess I'd better come up with a name for you." "Ummm..." The teenager shakes his head. "My name is Brendan. What are you talking about? Are you from some foreign country where Trainers acknowledge their rivalries by giving each other ritual nicknames? That's pretty dumb. If you give me a nickname, I'll ignore it." "So, you're autonomous, eh?" Sapphire considers the ramifications. "Could it be possible that, here in Hoenn, rivals exist as more than mere vehicles to help advance my progress?" Brendan dismisses this gibberish. "Jeez. Even for a rookie Trainer, you're pretty dense." His eyes suddenly light up, and he slaps his fist into an open palm. "I know! I'm going to take you under my wing, and teach you everything I know about Pokemon training!" Sapphire casts a baleful look down at his self-proclaimed mentor. He sighs, realizing that if he doesn't go along with Brendan, the teenager will most likely tell everybody he knows what a big jerk Sapphire is; and then it will be difficult for Sapphire to grill the locals about the Magma and Aqua organizations. Sapphire clears his throat, and gets into character. "Wow, thank you!" He says, enthusiastically, "It's pretty lucky that I ran into you, because I don't know the first thing about training Pokemon. Can you teach me how to throw a Pokeball?" "Well..." Brendan doesn't want to admit that he isn't very good at using Pokeballs, and in fact, during his entire career as a Trainer, he has only captured a paltry four Pokemon. "...no. But I will teach you how to battle." Brendan is ponderous. "Let's see...you have a Torchic, which means that you're going to be facing a lot of Water-types. You should always be prepared to fight against your weakness, so I'll let you get a feel for things by battling my Mudkip." He presses the release button on one of his Pokeballs, and an instant later, a slimy, blue swamp tromper appears on the ground in front of him. Brendan explains, "We'll start out by just having your Torchic dodge Mudkip's attacks, and after a few rounds of that, we can work on your offense." Sapphire has no intention of spending the rest of his day practicing remedial training exercises, so he crouches down in the grass, and whispers to Filly, "I think that Pokemon wants to be your friend. Why don't you go over, and say hello?" Filly chirps ecstatically, and races towards the Mudkip! She is immediately creamed by a Water Gun attack. Sapphire makes a big show of acting worried, as he dashes over to his beaten Torchic: "Oh, no! She's hurt! I have to get her to a Pokemon Center!" He scoops Filly up in his arms, and starts to jog away, calling to Brendan over his shoulder, "Sorry we couldn't finish our lesson--maybe some other time! I really did want to hang out with you--really!" "Wait!" Just when it seems that Sapphire's in the clear, Brendan catches up with him. "It isn't safe to travel through the forest when you don't have a Pokemon who can protect you. I'll escort you to the Pokemon Center!" Sapphire lets out a moan of very real pain, and doesn't even attempt to sound appreciative as he mumbles, "...great..." Brendan mistakenly assumes that Sapphire's sullen demeanor has to do with his concern for Filly, and gives him a reassuring clap on the back. "Don't worry, Sapphire! Your Torchic will be healed in no time! Then we can continue our training--I'll let Torchic battle my Mudkip until she's strong enough to beat him!" Sapphire's shoulders droop a bit further, "...just great." TBC? --Sigless Beth