From: Karnivax <karnivax@my-deja.com> Subject: [PW!] City of Blues Date: Sunday, June 13, 1999 10:52 AM Here we have one of my longest and downright weirdest PW! stories to date. But all will be explained in due time... --CITY OF BLUES-- Part 1 by Karnivax Kyle Richter, riding his trusty Aerodactyl, Grendel, landed on the bank of a rushing river, followed shortly thereafter by his two other free-flying Pokémon, Thanatos the Gengar and Torrasque the Scyther. Torrasque made a less than perfect landing, tripping upon making contact with the ground and landing face-first in the mud. Thanatos simply hovered two feet above the ground and started snickering, "G - gen...g - gar...gen..." "Laugh it up, Casper," snorted Torrasque contemptuously, getting back to his feet and brushing himself off gingerly with his scythes. "But know that I've got the Ghostbusters' number." Torrasque took a quick look around. All he saw was a few miles of grassy fields, an entrance to a pitch-black subterranean cave protruding from the ground, two nearby mountains, and a quick-moving river running past the mountains. "I thought we agreed we were going to Cerulean City!" Torrasque pointed out. "Indeed we did," Kyle responded. "This is the outskirts of Cerulean City. That cave over there is the Rock Tunnel...you know, the one that's so dark you need a Pokémon with the Flash attack to get through." "So where's the Cerulean City Gym? That *is* what we came here for, is it not?" "Be patient, Torrasque," said Kyle. "There's a place I want to visit first, here in the city's periphery." "It'd better not be the Rock Tunnel." "Of course not. Right over those two mountains there is where we're going. There's an abandoned hydroelectric plant on the other side, and rumor has it the plant's swarming with rare Pokémon." "But...you only have one unoccupied Pokéball with you...mine! What's the point?" Kyle grinned from ear to ear. "Oh, you'll see." With that, Kyle returned Grendel to his Pokéball, and he started heading for the left side of the left mountain, where the river was running past. Torrasque and Thanatos reluctantly followed behind. Thanatos passed the time on the long journey around the left side of the mountain by playing songs like "King Nothing" and "Freak on a Leash" on his phantasmal guitar. Torrasque, not knowing of much else to do, sang along in his vaguely baritone singing voice. Eventually the team made it around to the far side of the mountain, and just barely standing there was a huge power plant. The river's tributary, which had once powered the plant, had dried up, and most of the windows in the building were shattered. The main doors were practically falling off of their hinges. Ivy was creeping up two of the plant's four walls. A beaten-up, rusted Buick sat just outside the building, and as Torrasque glanced over at the driver's seat of the wrecked car, he saw a tiny, electric-blue creature staring back at him from behind the steering wheel. The creature then leaped out of the car with blinding speed and hid behind one of the flattened tires, shivering with fear. "Hey, cool!" remarked Torrasque, observing the mouse-like Pokémon. "Oh, that?" Kyle commented. "It's just a Pikachu. They're probably a dime a dozen here." "More like a Freak-achu! Look at it...it's *blue*! announced Torrasque. He pondered deeply for a few seconds. "Kyle, give me my Pokéball." Kyle tossed the one unoccupied Pokéball he had to Torrasque, who caught it in his mouth. "Thinking of becoming a trainer, eh, Torrasque?" Kyle asked. "Well, you'll regret it. Pikachus hate Pokéballs." Torrasque turned his nose up. He ever so slowly crawled over to the shivering Pikachu, remaining perfectly silent. The Pikachu was paralyzed with fright, and just stood there, shivering more and more. Eventually Torrasque was in range. He tapped the Pikachu with one scythe. Torrasque was at such a high experience level that the Pikachu was instantly knocked unconscious. Then Torrasque opened his mouth and dropped the Pokéball on the blue rodent. The Pikachu was pulled inside the Pokéball, and did not even struggle to get free. Kyle and Thanatos started clapping sarcastically upon seeing Torrasque's effortless capture. Torrasque clicked the Pokéball's release button, and the Pikachu came right back out, knowing that Torrasque was its trainer now. Torrasque flipped the again-empty Pokéball into the air with one scythe and swatted the red and white sphere back to Kyle. "Won't be needing that," Torrasque said. He then lowered his scythes to the ground to serve as a gang-plank for the tiny Pikachu to crawl up on his shoulders. The rodent looked nervous about obliging. It responded only with a meek "Pi-ka." "Awww...isn't he cute?" Torrasque commented. He gently scooped up the hesitant Pikachu in his scythes and carried it over to Kyle to show off. "I always wanted one of these Pikachus." "Pikachus aren't all that strong," Kyle pointed out. "Not as a fighter," Torrasque said. "As a pet." He took a good look at the Pikachu, and the Pikachu looked back, with both fear and curiosity in its eyes. For several seconds Torrasque tried to think of an electricity-related term that he could use to name his new pet. "Cathode! That's what I'll call you," Torrasque eventually exclaimed to the young Pikachu. "Chu?" queried the rodent. "See? It was worth it to come here," said Kyle. "Now what say we actually go *inside* the power plant?" So Torrasque placed Cathode atop his right shoulder, and the team walked up to the power plant's main entrance. Kyle kicked down the rotten door and the group slowly headed inside the building. Inside the plant's main room were a gigantic, moss-covered turbine and power generator, both wrecked and useless. Shattered crates and ceiling lamps were strewn about, and the floor was littered with sharp debris. A catwalk which led to the decrepit control rooms up near the top of the building had partially collapsed. The elevator which led to the catwalk had a snapped cable. Not a single light remained lit in the whole establishment. "Let's try to keep quiet," Kyle whispered. "There's no telling how many Pokémon could be around here. Thanatos, put your guitar away." Thanatos grudgingly obeyed. Kyle reached into his backpack and pulled out a flashlight. He shone it on each of the shattered crates, one by one. The flashlight revealed several frightened Pikachus hiding behind the crates, but no particularly rare Pokémon. The group slowly headed toward the turbine, and Kyle shone the flashlight inside. He suddenly became very still as he saw something moving inside the hollowed-out turbine. "It's an Electabuzz," Kyle whispered. "We'd best move on before it sees us..." The group slowly backed away, and the apathetic Electabuzz paid no attention. Then, despite the fact that none of the machines in the building had any power running through them, Kyle and his Pokémon all heard the distinct ZAP of an electrical current coming from above. Everyone looked up at the ceiling. They were all rather astonished by what they saw. Up in the rafters was a nest constructed solely of insulated wire. Perched inside the nest was a giant yellow and black bird, whose size was matched only by the massive Moltres that Kyle had fought on Cinnabar Island. The electric bird was casually preening its pointy feathers, and as the bird preened, electrical sparks shot out from its wings. "There it is...the coup de grace," Kyle pointed out. He removed his Pokédex and activated it, pointing it at the large bird. "Zapdos," said the Pokédex. "A legendary Pokémon. Though they are generally friendly towards humans, Zapdos are capable of generating electric currents of up to four thousand amperes and become potentially fatal if disturbed. Zapdos use their pointed beaks to break open oyster and clam shells, as they have a penchant for bivalves. Every century, female Zapdos build large nests indoors to lay eggs; male Zapdos sit upon the eggs until they hatch. It is rumored that Zapdos have the ability to alter weather patterns." "Kyle, you don't know what you're doing here," Torrasque noted. "Remember when you tried to catch that Moltres? That bird beat Leviathan and Fenris nine ways to Sunday. We have to steer clear of this Zapdos before history repeats itself." Kyle paused for a moment. He remembered the battle against Moltres well...how Moltres had attacked after Kyle had accidentally come upon the bird's only egg, how Leviathan the Dragonite and Fenris the Arcanine had been defeated easily by the bird, how Torrasque had knocked out Moltres with a well-timed Hyper Beam, how Kyle himself had failed to even come close to catching the fire-bird. Kyle then stared up at the peaceful-looking Zapdos. The avian was just sitting there on its eggs, not really caring that a human, a Scyther, a black Gengar, and a blue Pikachu were all looking right at it. "You're right, Torrasque," Kyle admitted. "Let's...let's just leave. We came here for the Cascadebadge, and that's what we're going to get." Kyle turned and headed for the door. Thanatos followed, looking rather confused. Torrasque, being a little surprised at Kyle's change of heart, balked a bit before joining the other two. Cathode just clung to Torrasque's shoulder for dear life. The team exited the power plant, and started going back the way they had came - around the mountains. The journey back was slightly longer than the journey forth. One thing that slowed the trip down was an audible rumble in Cathode's stomach. "Cathode's hungry," Torrasque pointed out. "So what do you want me to do about it?" Kyle asked. "Hold on." Torrasque reached into Kyle's backpack and lifted a small plastic bucket from it by skewering it on his scythes. "I know Cathode'll love this," Torrasque commented. "Colonel's secret recipe." He removed a fried chicken drumstick from the bucket and pointed the piece of meat at Cathode. Cathode started sniffing it curiously, then grabbed on to it. "Pika," he remarked. He nibbled one end of the drumstick, then, with a happy look on his face, tossed the entire drumstick into his mouth. He chewed intently for several seconds, then spat out the chicken bone. He then leaned his head back and swallowed the meat in one gulp. "Chuuu!" he announced triumphantly. "Now you've done it," Kyle said to Torrasque. "You gave him people food. You've warped him for life." "No, I -" Before Torrasque could finish his sentence, Cathode leaped into the KFC bucket with a happy "Piii!" and started off on a feeding frenzy. Chicken bones were flying everywhere. In a matter of minutes, all that was left in the bucket were a few crumbs, some chicken grease, and a very fat Cathode. Cathode casually belched up a wishbone. "Chaaa," he purred. "You brought this upon yourself, Torrasque," Kyle laughed. Torrasque merely stuck out his forked tongue, and the team continued on its way. When they finally arrived back at their starting point, Kyle and crew started heading up past the Rock Tunnel to Cerulean City. --CITY OF BLUES-- Part 2 by Karnivax As the group entered the grounds of the unusually small Cerulean City, panicked people started running every which way. Kyle was a little confused as to what was going on when suddenly he noticed Thanatos again taking out his guitar, getting ready to play. "Well, looks like your reputation preceded you, even here in Cerulean, Thanatos," Kyle pointed out. "You must have done some traveling before you joined my crew." "Gen-gar," Thanatos replied, nodding. He started playing "What it's Like," a song one would not expect a horror rock/heavy metal fanatic like Thanatos to play. Torrasque gave vocal accompaniment for a while; at least until he forgot the words to the bridge vocal. A few citygoers stopped running and watched the musical performance; an even smaller few showered Thanatos and Torrasque with dollar bills. As Thanatos and Torrasque started to talk to each other in Poké- ese about forming a band, Kyle saw a very familiar girl ride by at full speed on a mountain bike. The biker was being chased by what appeared to be some sort of cyborg velociraptor on booster-powered rollerblades. "Hmm, that was fairly odd," Torrasque noted, rather apathetically. "That person on the bike...that was Jessica Sullivan!" Kyle pointed out. He started running after the bike, but was nowhere near catching up. "Jessica? That was the girl whose Magmar nearly killed me!" Torrasque pointed out. "Let's not get involved!" Kyle refused to listen. He released Grendel, got on to the Aerodactyl's back, and told him to fly after Jessica. Grendel took off like a shot. Torrasque, Thanatos and Cathode simply stayed where they were. "Oh no. No way am I letting Kyle drag me into another one of his crazy divergent escapades," Torrasque snorted. Thanatos paid no attention. He put his guitar away and started flying after Kyle and Grendel. "Hmph," grunted Torrasque, seeing Thanatos leave. "Cathode, you'll stay here with me, right?" Cathode, who was still sitting inside the KFC bucket, gave an affirmative "Pi-ka." Torrasque went and sat down on a nearby park bench to wait for Kyle to return. Eventually Kyle, riding Grendel, started to catch up to Jessica on her bike. Kyle offered to have Grendel airlift Jessica out of danger, but she refused, saying "Kyle, get out of here!" and waving him away. Jessica seemed to be trying to hide her entire left hand within the sleeve of her leather jacket, which must have made riding a bike a little tough. Kyle had no idea why Jessica was doing so. Kyle also noticed that even though Jessica was wearing a cap in a way that shadowed her face, he could see that Jessica's entire face was turning an unusual shade of blue. Kyle decided that if he could not remove Jessica from the source of danger, he would remove the source of danger. Kyle had Grendel fly in to the left side of the cyborg dinosaur and ordered Grendel to perform a Bite attack. Grendel veered sharply to the right and tried to bite open the metal command module on the creature's back, but his teeth could not penetrate it. There was a mechanical whirring noise as the beast turned its head to look at Grendel. One of the creature's eyes was red, and it started to glow. Suddenly the saurian fired a bright red eyelaser through Grendel's right wing, knocking him out of the air. Kyle and Grendel crashed to the ground with an unnatural THUD. Kyle, who had broken at least two ribs in the crash, noticed that Thanatos was catching up to the dinosaur and was about to fly by. "Thanatos, Psychic attack!" Kyle shouted, with agony in his voice. Thanatos, still in midair, started to gather energy for several seconds. Then he made an odd motion with his hands. As he did, the saurian began to slowly lift off the ground. When Thanatos had telekinetically lifted the saurian to an altitude of about fifteen feet, he slammed the reptile right back down. That stalled the creature enough for Jessica to get away. The beast angrily got back up. It started to zero in on Thanatos, and no matter where Thanatos flew, the cyborg was aiming right at him. Eventually the cyborg fired a second eyebeam, which managed to blow Thanatos out of the sky despite his status as a ghost. By that time Kyle had sent the now-flightless Grendel to join the fight with a Wing Attack. Grendel charged and slashed at the cyber-saur with the edge of its stone-like wing. The reptile hardly flinched. It pointed its tail - which had a plasma cannon attached to its tip - at Grendel, then quickly fired. A green plasma blast struck Grendel square in the chest, knocking him head over talons. "Thisss isss a wassste of time," the reptile hissed, in a decidedly metallic voice, to Grendel and Thanatos. "Retreat while you ssstill can." "Right back at ya, you Jurassic Park reject!" shouted Kyle. "Dragonite, I choose you!" He tossed out a Pokéball, and out came Kyle's powerful Dragonite, Leviathan. "Leviathan, Thunderbolt!!!" came Kyle's command. Leviathan powered up a deadly electric current in each hand and rifled off twin lightning bolts at the cyber-saur. Both blasts scored a direct hit, and this time it seemed that the creature was taking damage. It fell to the ground, and sparks were shooting out of its body. Leviathan walked over to the cyborg and picked it up by the scruff of the neck. "Who are you?" Leviathan's language translator asked. The nearly paralyzed cyber-saur replied, "I am the harbinger of a far greater power...even if you dessstroy me, it makesss no difference...my massster will obliterate you all with ssscarcely a thought!" The creature then fired up the boosters on its feet and pointed them at Leviathan, burning him badly and causing him to let go of the cyber-saur. Before Leviathan could recover, the beast shellacked him with a second plasma blast. The last thing that Leviathan noticed before passing out was that the symbol on his own language translator - the symbol of Silph Co. - matched the symbol that was clearly visible on the cyber-saur's command module. The half-mechanized dinosaur, knowing it was damaged considerably and that it would not be able to catch up to and capture Jessica and her Pokémon, hit a button on a small console attached to his left wrist and teleported away in a flash of violet light. Kyle returned ailing Grendel and Leviathan to their respective Pokéballs, and slowly tried to get up; but his chest hurt intensely from the broken ribs, and he could not stand. Thanatos, who had not taken much damage at all, tried to help him by telekinetically lifting him. Kyle told him not to. "Thanatos, go get Torrasque and Cathode," Kyle groaned. "We have to follow Jessica and find out what that monster was and why it was after her." Thanatos nodded. "Gen-gar," he said plainly. Alone, he started flying back into the heart of Cerulean City, where Torrasque and Cathode were patiently waiting. Thanatos explained the situation to the Scyther and his pet Pikachu, and directed them to where Kyle lay helpless. Torrasque, who was in fact deeply concerned for his trainer, took Cathode and started flying at full speed after Thanatos as he led the way to Kyle. When Torrasque finally arrived, he put Cathode gently on his back and offered to help Kyle up. Kyle refused. "Well, how am I supposed to take you to the hospital then?" queried Torrasque. "You can do that later," Kyle moaned. "For now, we need to follow Jessica. She's headed toward that lighthouse off in the distance." Kyle pointed at the lighthouse, which stood atop a tall cliff overlooking the sea just outside of the city. Kyle unleashed his swift Arcanine, Fenris, and told Torrasque to place him on Fenris's back. Torrasque lifted Kyle up with the dull ends of his scythes and placed him atop Fenris as ordered. Kyle, struggling to find a painless position in which to sit upon Fenris, commanded the canine Pokémon to take him to the lighthouse. Fenris started running in the lighthouse's direction, and Torrasque and Thanatos flew after him. Again Cathode had to hold on to Torrasque for dear life. Not long after clearing the city and starting to follow the dirt path which led to the lighthouse, Kyle saw Jessica's mountain bike lying on the ground by the side of the path, along with a pair of shredded sandals. There were some footprints leading away from the bike. Fenris started following them. For about twenty feet there were human footprints; after that there were footprints of something else entirely. "What happened to Jessica?" wondered Kyle. Torrasque walked over to one of the non-human footprints and placed his own foot inside it. It was almost a perfect fit. "Another Scyther?" he suggested. "It's weird to find one way out here..." Sure enough, as Fenris followed the footprints around to the back of a large rock, a light blue, female Scyther was hiding behind the rock, looking panicked. Once Torrasque saw her, emotions were stirred up inside of him that he had never felt before. "Wowowowowowow. *Wow*!" he remarked, lovestruck instantaneously. "What's a fine- lookin' grrrl like yourself doing in a slag-pit like Cerulean City?" The female Scyther took off like a bullet, covering her face as if ashamed to be looked at. "Hey, come back!" called Torrasque. "I've had all my shots!!!" Torrasque tried to give chase as the female Scyther ran away, but Kyle held him back. Torrasque was heartbroken. He started pounding his scythes against the rock in frustration, knowing female Scythers were very hard to come by. As the team continued looking for clues, they eventually found a pile of the rest of Jessica's clothing. "Unless she randomly decided to go skinny-dipping in the sea, which isn't very likely," Kyle said, finally putting all the clues together, "I think I know just where Jessica is." "Oh really?" Torrasque sobbed, now only pretending to care about Kyle's agenda. "Enlighten me, then! Where is she?" "Well, this is just speculation," Kyle answered, "but I'd say Jessica and that female Scyther are one and the same." Still reading? Congratulations. You survived another Karnivax fanfic. :) -------------------------------------------------- K * A * R * N * I * V * A * X "You trolls are so headstrong and predictable...you are your own worst enemies." Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ Share what you know. Learn what you don't.