From: asver...@unity.ncsu.edu (Andrusi) Subject: [PW!][BBB] Preparations Date: 14 Aug 2004 18:44:53 -0700 (I'm baaaaaaack! I considered reposting "Beginning of a New Era" since it's been over a year, but decided not to since it's right there in the Pavillion archive and because it would feel weird to repost such an old post.) --------------- Cinnabar Island --------------- Several blocks from the old building that was formerly Blaine's Gym, a young trainer stepped into a phone booth to call his parents. His Ninetales tried to follow him in, but there wasn't room for the two of them, so he shooed her out. Annoyed, the Ninetales sat down a few yards away. ">Hey there.<" That was no human, it was a Pokémon. Vaporeon, judging by the voice. The Ninetales looked up. Yep, Vaporeon. No trainer in sight. She settled back down. The Vaporeon cleared his throat. ">I said 'Hey there,'<" he said, a little louder this time. ">Do you have have hearing problems or something?<" ">I don't associate with wild, *untrained* Pokémon,<" Ninetales replied with what passes for a smirk on a Ninetales. ">Well, now, that's not a very nice thing to say,<" Vaporeon pointed out. ">What makes you think I'm not trained?<" ">You don't belong to my trainer. Nobody else here.<" ">I used to have a trainer,<" the Vaporeon said. ">I'm Osiris, OT Andrew Renev aka BASHER ANDY, ID number six three two three five.<" ">And he released you?<" ">He... something happened to him.<" A pause. ">I don't like talking about it.<" ">Then why'd you bring it up?<" ">Exposition. The readers need to know who I am.<" ">What?<" ">I have no idea. So, do you pity me enough to--<" NINETALES used ROAR! Wild VAPOREON ran away scared! -------------------------------------------------- Thirty seconds later, elsewhere on Cinnabar Island -------------------------------------------------- ">Man, some Pokémon just can't take a joke,<" Osiris thought out loud. "Struck out again?" ">Yeah, I--<" Osiris turned around. ">It isn't...<" Cyclonus smiled. "What's up? Trying to spread your IVs to the next generation?" ">Hey, I'll have you know, my Speed value is 14.<" "Old scale or new scale?" Osiris looked down. ">New.<" Cyclonus laughed. "Nothing wrong with that. Heck, my Special Attack value is 12. Oh, by the way, I'd like you to meet my new pal Crumplezone." He motioned to the Pichu strapped to his back, who grinned and said ">Bay-po!<" Osiris chuckled. ">The evil Cyclonus has a baby Pichu. You know, I'm not sure I want to know how that happened.<" "Well, that's related to why I'm here." ">You mean you didn't come here because you wanted to see your old pal Osiris?<" The Vaporeon pretended to be hurt. ">And after all the good times we had trying to kill each other?<" "Those times are also related to why I'm here." Osiris paused, then chuckled. ">Oh, I get it now. You're trying to prove you're not totally heartless like you and your pal Scourge acted back in those days.<" "My, ah, 'pal' Scourge is... well, I guess he's distantly related to why I'm here." There was a long pause. ">Well, I'm stumped. Why are you here?<" "Well, to make a long story short, a legendary Pokémon told me that the world will end unless I destroy a lot of Voltorbs. I figured I could do pretty well based on what BBB did, but I decided to consult an expert first, and you came to mind. And it seems like it's taken me a year to get here." ">So let me get this straight,<" Osiris said. ">You're going to do exactly what you spent practically your entire WGed existance preventing my trainer from doing.<" "Yes." ">Using only what knowledge about this task that you picked up from fighting Andy and Enimuram.<" "Correct." ">Who couldn't have wiped out a herd of Electrodes if they'd been hanging from their rear ends.<" "True." ">With only a newborn Pichu to help you.<" "Yup." ">And the entire world is counting on you to succeed.<" "Exactly." ">Would you mind slapping yourself a few times? I don't have hands.<" Cyclonus groaned. "I admit it's not a perfect plan." ">In the sense that I admit an Ice Beam attack gives off less heat than the sun. Look, you don't need advice, you need damage control. For that matter, the idea that you would start up the Bomb Ball Bashers again without any original Bomb Ball Bashers says something to me. It says you're a freaking moron.<" "Yes," Cyclonus said with a sigh, "you can come along." ">Yay!<" Osiris exclaimed. The two Pokémon proceeded to dance for joy. Or more accurately, they danced for Joy, who had walked out of the Center, spotted the Pokémon, and informed them of her policy that any Pokémon who danced outside the Center was to recieve a free Pokéblock. "Pagh, weh pawlih agh?" Osiris managed to say despite having his mouth full. He'd meant something more along the lines of ">So, where to next?<" but had ended up with something too garbled to be translated. "Didn't your mother ever tell you not to talk with your mouth full?" Cyclonus responded. "Anyway, I think I should tell you where we're going next. We are going to Hoenn." Osiris nearly choked on his Pokéblock. He swallowed it whole (a move which would give him occasional stomachaches for the next few days as it dissolved way too slowly) and shouted ">HOENN?!<" Crumplezone proceeded to scream bloody murder. Cyclonus gave him a small piece of paper he'd found on the ground earlier, and the Pichu was so entertained by this that he shut up. "Yes, Hoenn. You know, the place that's overrun by groups who think they know what the world should be like better than nature does and where people still believe Kyogre and Groudon are real." ">WHY?!<" "Because everyone else in Kanto or Johto seems to be going there, and where people go, Pokémon go. Especially the more human-influenced Pokémon." ">Like Magnemite and Voltorb. Good thinking. But how do we get there?<" "Um..." ">Didn't really think this through, did you?" TBC (The Pokéspeech won't be fully translated all the time... it's done here mainly because otherwise the bit at the beginning wouldn't have made sense. From here on out I'll try to find indirect ways to show what the Pokémon besides Cyclonus are saying.) (Also, someone go slap around Microsoft for me and tell them to put an option in Notepad that makes it not add line breaks at the end of every line. I'm seriously tempted to start writing in Word or something.)