From: Karnivax <karnivax@my-deja.com> Subject: [PW!] City of Blues (continued) Date: Tuesday, June 15, 1999 3:53 PM Yup, what was already an absurdly long fanfic has a second half. So here it is. BTW, I apologize if I screwed up Alyssa's continuity in this story. You'll see what I mean. But anyway, even if I did, I can no doubt fix it later. --CITY OF BLUES-- Part 3 by Karnivax "You mean...that Scyther...was really human?!" "All the clues point to it," Kyle answered. "That had to have been Jessica. Looks like you'll have to keep looking for a mate, Torrasque." "Crap!" Torrasque groaned, a frown forming on his saurian face. "Nature hates me, I just know it..." He sadly kicked a nearby pebble as far as he could. "Hold on, Torrasque," said Kyle. "I think you'll like what I'm planning." "Fire away," Torrasque sighed. "We're going to split up. We'll kill not two, but three proverbial birds with one stone." Kyle started thinking deeply for a few seconds, then released his Dragonite, Leviathan. Kyle removed the language translator from around Leviathan's neck and gave it to his Gengar, Thanatos. "Thanatos, continue over to the lighthouse and try to find out why Jessica was so intent on going there. The language translator will allow you to communicate with any humans in the lighthouse and maybe get the answers we need. Stay there, I'll meet you there later." Thanatos saluted, and started flying at full speed toward the lighthouse on the edge of the cliff. "Torrasque, you and Cathode are going to follow that female Scyther and confirm that it is, in fact, Jessica, and maybe get some more answers from her if you can. If it isn't Jessica, well, I guess you found yourself a mate, Torrasque." Torrasque's face brightened. He too saluted, with his left scythe. "Consider it done, Commander!" he happily responded. "But...ummm, what are *you* going to do?" "I'm going to do what we came to Cerulean to do," Kyle replied. "Fenris and I are going to head on down to the Cerulean City Gym and, as you might say, 'check a few water Pokémon in to the Smack Down Hotel.' We'll be walking out of here with a Cascadebadge, I assure you of that." Kyle then groaned in agony and clutched his chest. His broken ribs still pained him intensely, but the pain seemed to be coming in incremental surges. "But you can't even walk, Kyle!" Torrasque pointed out, a concerned tone in his voice. "Don't you at least want to go to the hospital first?" "I'll be fine," Kyle said, trying not to show how much pain he was feeling. "You don't need to do much running around to have your Dragonite zap a water Pokémon with a Thunderbolt, after all." A diabolical grin crossed Leviathan's face as he thought about how he was going to win a Cascadebadge for Kyle. "Well...if you're sure you're okay..." "Positive. Meet me at the lighthouse when you're done." With that, Kyle recalled Leviathan and started riding Fenris back into the city, where the official gym was located. Torrasque, holding Cathode tightly, took off and started flying after the retreating female Scyther, who was just barely within sight. Thanatos was the first to arrive at his destination: the lighthouse. He passed right through the wooden door, and inside the lighthouse was a laboratory of amazing proportions. A huge metal table covered with machines the likes of which Thanatos had never seen ran down the middle of the room. On one of the far sides of the hexagonal lab was a fume hood, a fire extinguisher and a small closet containing safety goggles and lab coats. Opposite from that side, right next to the door Thanatos had come in through, was a small table on which a cutting-edge computer workstation sat, and a steel chair to go with the table. A single halogen lamp hung from the ceiling. Adjacent to the computer workstation was a pair of large, mostly hollow machines that looked almost exactly like the Telepods from "The Fly." A man who appeared to be in his late teens or early twenties, wearing a red and white hooded sweatshirt, dark blue jeans, black sneakers, and safety goggles, had opened up a panel on one of the machines and was busy doing some soldering. He had straight green hair which effectively covered his ears. He had brown eyes, and his face was entirely devoid of zits, blackheads or any such abnormalities. The man stopped soldering upon noticing Thanatos, removed his goggles, and looked on with fascination. Thanatos activated the language translator, and the man immediately made a comment. "Wait. Before you say anything, get rid of that Silph Co. translator. Here, use this one. It translates more languages, and makes things a lot clearer." The man plucked a different language translator off of the metal table and gave it to Gengar. He then took the Silph Co. translator from Gengar and threw it against the wall. "Never trust Silph Co.," the man snorted. "They're nothing but a bunch of two-bit corporate saboteurs. And their products, except for the way-cool Porygon, are just plain inferior." He paused. "The name's Bill...certified Pokémaniac. So, to what do I owe the honor of your presence, oh traveling Gengar?" he said to Thanatos. "I'm here to find out what you know about a Jessica Sullivan," Thanatos grunted in his Ringo Starr-esque accent. "Jessica! She's a good friend of mine. Why do you ask?" "Because she was bein' chased by a bloomin' dinosaur, and she appeared to be lookin' for shelter here, and I was wonderin' -" "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait a minute...*dinosaur*?" So Thanatos took a few minutes to explain the whole cyber- velociraptor situation to Bill. Bill did not seem to be buying it, but he did show evident concern for Jessica. "Is she all right?" Bill asked at one point. "We don't think so. As best we can figure, she just turned into a bloomin' Scyther all of a sudden and flew away." "Oh, no..." Bill commented, turning away. He had a knowing frown on his face. "Listen, you have to find her and calm her down at all costs. If you don't, she could get stuck like that forever!" "Stop the bloomin' presses, man! There ain't nothin' I can do right now. *I* lost track of her several minutes ago!" "Crap!" roared Bill. He kicked the steel chair in frustration. Then he just walked over to the metal table and leaned over it, putting one hand on his forehead. "I never should've tested the stupid thing on humans...and now I'm going to lose one of my best friends because of my own ignorance!" There was utter anger in his expression. "Calm down. If I know my trainer, he's got one of his Pokémon trackin' the girl down. In the meanwhile, how in bloody hell did this happen?" Bill sighed. "You see those two big Telepods over there?" he asked rhetorically. "Those were supposed to be the collective pride of my inventing career. I tested them on Pokémon for a long time. I used three in particular: an Eevee, a Ponyta, and a Scyther. It worked just fine...it teleported the Pokémon from one pod to the other with no problem. After a while I decided to finally test the Telepods on humans. I figured that if it worked, it would revolutionize transportation for all mankind. I acquired two human test subjects. One was named Alyssa Halver. The other was Jessica. "Some time during the testing I did with Pokémon, Pokémon DNA - probably from hair or scales or something - wound up on the inside of the Telepods. When Alyssa went through, her human DNA fused with some Ponyta DNA. As a result, she would randomly turn from human to Ponyta and back. I tried to fix that affliction just recently, but only succeeded in...errr...switching her gender." Bill looked decidedly embarassed about saying that part. He ran his fingers through his hair nervously. He continued, "I scoured the Telepods to try and clean out any excess Pokémon DNA. When I believed there was no excess DNA remaining, I sent Jessica through. But as it turned out, there were still a few strands of Scyther DNA in one Telepod. So Jessica turns into a Scyther; and a blue one at that, for reasons unknown to me. But her transformation isn't random, like Alyssa's. It's triggered by adrenaline. Normally Jessica's changes only last for a few hours, and most of the time she doesn't even become a full Scyther. But my research shows that if Jessica gets a large enough adrenaline boost, she runs the risk of losing her human mind to that of the Scyther. If that were to happen, the change would become permanent, and she'd be gone forever. And if she's as panicked as you say right now, then she's probably bursting with adrenaline..." By that point, Torrasque was flying out over the sea at full speed, beginning to catch up to the light blue Scyther that was Jessica, who was not particularly experienced at flying. Cathode was holding on to Torrasque's back, squealing "Piiiiikaaaaa!!!" the whole way. Eventually Torrasque got in close enough to fly right alongside Jessica, and tried to get her to turn around and head back for land. Jessica was so fargone that she could not offer a response in English. She merely shook her head "no." "I hate to do this to one as beautiful as you, but..." Torrasque began. He then slashed off Jessica's right wing, being careful not to strike a nerve. As Jessica began to fall, Torrasque caught her and quickly airlifted her back to the cliff on which the lighthouse stood. Jessica tried to run away upon landing, but Torrasque held her back. "Just calm down," he said, giving his best attempt at a soothing voice. "All I want are some answers." Jessica continued struggling for a while, then finally gave up. She just stood within Torrasque's grasp for several minutes, panting and trying to regain her composure. Torrasque waited in silence, and after a while Jessica stopped panting. Very slowly she started to change back to normal. Her voice was the first thing to come back. "Is this how you treat all the lady Scythers, Torrasque?" she irritably asked, in a somewhat squeaky voice. Torrasque's head drooped. Deep down, Torrasque was emotionally crushed that the Scyther was indeed Jessica. Torrasque fought hard not to make his emotional breakdown evident. "I want to know what that dinosaur was and why it was chasing you," Torrasque asked. "It called itself Panopticon. It kept saying I was 'empowered' and that I was to become a servant of its master." "Master?" "I don't know who his master is. Some whacko. Is there anything else?" "...No." There was a distinct tone of sadness in Torrasque's voice. Jessica turned to look at Torrasque, and could not help but feel a little sympathetic for him, realizing his situation. "Let me guess...you were hoping that I was a potential mate," she sighed. "Now, we both know it wouldn't work out, but trust me, if I really were a Scyther, I'd be downright honored to get hitched with you." She smiled uneasily, internally telling herself that what she had just said was her Scyther half talking. "Besides, you're a smart bug. I'm sure you'll find a real female Scyther somewhere." "Maybe," Torrasque said glumly. While he did not doubt that he would find female Scythers, he highly doubted he would ever find one who had anything in common with him. It suddenly felt to him as if his mind were stuck in the wrong body. He did not feel he fit in with either humans or other Scythers. "Okay. Now could I go get my clothes?" Jessica asked. "Walking around without clothes might be fine for a Pokémon, but once I change back I'm going to need them..." "They're over there," Torrasque said, letting Jessica go and pointing her toward the pile of her discarded apparel. As Jessica started to pick up her clothes, Torrasque added, "Oh, and by the way...your secret's safe with me." "Chuuu," added Cathode, trying to inform Jessica that he too would keep her secret safe. "I appreciate that." After that, Jessica walked behind a large rock to wait for her return to human form and to get changed. Torrasque sat down in the dirt path to the lighthouse, just ruminating about how he was going to find a mate and start a family in just the four years he believed he had left in his life. --CITY OF BLUES-- Part 4 by Karnivax At that moment, Kyle and Fenris had arrived at the main entrance to the Cerulean City Gym. Fenris banged on the door with one paw, and eventually a woman in her early twenties wearing a light blue business suit answered the door. The woman took one look at the pained Kyle and said, "The hospital is down the road from here, I'm afraid." "No, no. I'm here to challenge the Gym Leader," Kyle groaned. "Well, if you're sure..." The woman turned toward two late teen- age girls who were sitting inside the gym, behind the main desk, each girl typing away at a computer. "We have a challenger here," the first woman said. "Do either of you know where Misty is? She usually handles this..." "She got up and went for a trip to the Safari Zone just yesterday," the younger of the two girls behind the desk said, looking up from her computer. "But hey, *I'm* still here. And if I remember correctly, which I'm quite sure I do, it's my turn to battle a challenger. Violet had the last one." The other girl behind the desk grudgingly admitted, "Yeah, I know, Lily. It's your turn." "Great!" said Lily, with a flip of her shoulder-length red hair. She got up from the desk and motioned to Kyle and Fenris. "Follow me," she commanded. She led Fenris along a twisting hallway and finally into a gigantic dome-shaped room with blue tiled floors and a massive pool in the middle. Strewn about inside the pool were fake, flat- topped icebergs which served as platforms. At the top of the dome was a large conglomeration of windows, through which sunlight was shining unobstructedly. The light created much glare as it reflected off the pool. Lily headed for the locker room door on the other side of the pool area. "Wait right there, okay?" she melodiously said to Kyle. "I'll be back in about ten minutes." Then she went inside the locker room, and there was silence. A little more than ten minutes later, Lily emerged from the locker room, wearing a black, rubbery diving suit and a belt holding three Pokéballs. "This'll be a two-on-two match," Lily announced. She tossed one Pokéball into the pool, and out came a Lapras. Lily leaped into the pool and climbed on to the Lapras's back. "Nessie is just here to give me a little mobility while the battle's going on," she pointed out, stroking the Lapras on the back of its head. "You don't mind, right?" "Not at all," Kyle replied. He commanded Fenris to leap to one of the fake icebergs in order to get a better view of the fight. Fenris hesitated before obeying, afraid of falling into the pool. "Good. Now, for your first challenge, you'll have to defeat..." (here Lily took out a second Pokéball) "...Kingler!!!" She tossed the second Pokéball on to one of the fake icebergs, and the Pokéball released the giant crustacean that was Kingler. "Machamp, go!!!" ordered Kyle, and threw a Pokéball on to the iceberg directly across the pool from Kingler. Kyle's pugnacious Machamp, Ares, emerged from the Pokéball in a flash of light. Ares showed off his massive pectorals for several seconds, then struck a heroic pose. Starting the fight off with a bang, Lily ordered, "Kingler, give him your Vicegrip attack!" Showing surprising agility for a giant king crab, Kingler leaped over to the platform on which Ares stood and ensnared the vain Machamp in one massive claw, trying to constrict him into submission. Ares pushed the claw open and gave Kingler a Low Kick to the face, knocking him into the pool. "Ares! Karate Chop!" Kyle shouted. Ares plucked Kingler out of the water, dropped him on to the platform, and gave him a lightning- quick chop to the carapace. Kingler's shell was quite tough, however, and did not receive much damage. "Kingler, Crabhammer!" came Lily's next command. Kingler interlocked his two claws and leaped high into the air. As he came down, he slammed his two claws right on Ares's skull. There was an audible BOOM as the hit connected. Ares looked stunned and nearly fell over. He shook his aching head and quickly regained his balance. "Seismic Toss!" Kyle cried. Ares leaned over and lifted the surprised Kingler up off the platform, then started spinning the crustacean over his head. "Maaaaa...CHAMP!" Ares shouted. He threw Kingler straight up into the air, nearly tossing him through the ceiling. As Kingler plummetted back down to the pool below, Machamp decided to do a little of the improvisation that he was known for and nailed Kingler with an uppercut that sent him crashing into the far wall of the domed room. Kingler slowly slid down to the floor and wound up flat on his back, staring blankly up at the room's rotunda. He was completely knocked out. "Kingler, return!" said Lily, and recalled the unconscious invertebrate. Then Lily took out a final Pokéball and tossed it into the pool. "Gyarados, I choose you!" From the Pokéball came the imposingly gigantic sea serpent, Gyarados. It let out a roar which seemed to shake the whole gym. "Machamp, return," said Kyle, recalling the triumphant Ares. "Now, Dragonite!" Kyle then unleashed Leviathan, who did not seem the least bit intimidated by Gyarados despite the sea serpent's tremendous size advantage. "Gyarados, Dragon Rage!" Lily called out. Gyarados opened its gaping maw and exhaled what appeared to be a blue stream of flame. The flame wrapped around Leviathan, and for several seconds Leviathan was engulfed in a whirling fiery column. But after a while the flames dissipated, and Leviathan emerged virtually unscathed. Lily quickly rifled off another order: "Hydro Pump!" Gyarados plunged into the water, then, as if by telekinesis, huge streams of water began shooting up from the pool like geysers. One of the blasts upended the platform on which Leviathan was standing, but before he could fall into the water, he took off and started flying around inside the arena. One of the water spouts scored a direct hit on Leviathan, but it hardly damaged him, as dragons had a resistance to water. Gyarados ceased his attack and surfaced again, wondering what to do next. "Leviathan, Thunderbolt," Kyle said calmly. Leviathan started quickly gathering energy, and before Gyarados knew what was happening, Leviathan flew right over top of Gyarados and called down the thunder. Gyarados let out a roar of utter agony as he was struck by twin lightning bolts. While the lightning did not reach far enough down to electrify the entire pool, the stunned Gyarados fell over backwards in the water and created a colossal splash which knocked Lily and her Lapras right out of the pool and nearly capsized the platform on which Kyle was placed. When Lily regained her composure and recalled both Lapras and Gyarados, she reached into a small pocket in her diving suit and pulled out a Cascadebadge. She flipped the small badge to Kyle and headed back to the locker room. "Not bad, not bad at all," Lily remarked in a somewhat disappointed tone, as she hit the proverbial showers. Kyle recalled Leviathan and slid the Cascadebadge into the pocket of his denim jacket, along with his Soulbadge, Volcanobadge, and Boulderbadge. _Four down, four to go,_ he thought. He directed Fenris off of the pool platform, back through the twisting hallway, past the main desk, and out of the gym. Upon exiting the gym, Kyle told Fenris to head back to the lighthouse. Roughly fifteen minutes later, when Thanatos, Torrasque, Cathode, Fenris and Kyle all met up again near the lighthouse, Thanatos and Torrasque discussed their findings...though they were making it a point not to let Kyle know the truth. "Yeah, so it turns out that blue Scyther chick was just a Scyther, nothin' else," Thanatos fraudulently explained. "That Jessica bird was just skinny-dippin' in the sea after all." "But...why?" Kyle asked, wondering how he could have been wrong about the Scyther being Jessica. "I figured I just needed to cool off after being chased for about six miles by that cyber-saur," replied Jessica, as she walked out from behind a rock. She was back in human form, fully clothed, and drenched with seawater. "What did you think happened to me, Kyle?" "...Nothing," Kyle eventually responded. "I was only wondering where you were, that's all." "Really? I'm touched," said Jessica. "If I didn't know better, I'd say you like me." Kyle's face froze. Jessica had pretty effectively trapped him, and he knew it. "Don't flatter yourself," Kyle replied, though no one, not even Kyle himself, believed that what he said was truly representative of his feelings. There was an unsettling silence. Jessica simply stood with a knowing smile on her face. Eventually Kyle announced, "Well, we'd best be heading out. We're off to Vermilion City for the next badge." "Catch you later," said Jessica. She picked up her bike from the side of the dirt road and got on her vehicle. "And maybe next time we'll have that Pokémon rematch you wanted, eh?" "You can bet on that," came Kyle's answer. He released Grendel and hopped on to the Aerodactyl's back. As Jessica rode her bike up to the lighthouse to finally visit Bill, Grendel took off for Vermilion, followed closely by Thanatos, and Torrasque with Cathode. Not long after take-off, Torrasque flew in close to Kyle and Grendel and asked, "You know how in Lavender Town you told me I had a predominantly human brain?" "Yeah. So?" "Is there any chance I could get it transplanted into a human body?" "Why on earth would you want to do that?" Kyle asked, somewhat taken aback by the inquiry. "...Never mind. It was a stupid question. Just forget I asked." "You are one crazy Pokémon, Torrasque..." And that's the end of the City of Blues story arc. I swear. -------------------------------------------------- K * A * R * N * I * V * A * X "You trolls are so headstrong and predictable...you are your own worst enemies." 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