From: Karnivax <varanus@nospam.com> Subject: Re: [PW!] A Shard of Decency (ATTN: Shard Fields) Date: Saturday, July 24, 1999 7:19 PM > A hop, skip, and jump later, Shard and Jess collapsed just inside Bill's > doorway. "Okay, Jess," said Bill, shaking them back to consciousness, "I'm > ready to get that Char DNA out of you." > > "Not so fast!" protested Shard. "I have something I want first!" It was at that time that Espio had succeeded in reviving Kyle. Kyle looked up weakly at Shard and asked, "What the hell is *he* doing here? And Espio is standing right next to me...where did that white Charizard come from?" "This Charizard happens to be your girlfriend," Shard snapped. "She's not herself today. You're just lucky I decided to save her tail...and that was even harder than it sounds." He pointed to Jessica the Charizard's tail-flame, which was at that moment as dim as that of a candle. "Jessica?! What happened to you?" Kyle, his facial expression becoming one of concern, got up and ran toward Jessica, only to have her turn away and cover her face in shame. Her body was still entirely Charizard, but she was back to her human state of mind. "But let's get down to business. As I understand, Bill, your Telepods are capable of turning ordinary people into vicious were-Pokémon. And what I want is to be a vicious were-Pokémon. I trust you can make that happen." Bill, having quickly installed the replacement parts for the Telepod controls and also having located and discarded the Charmeleon scale which had caused Jessica's transformation, looked over at the saddened Jessica and said, "Well, apparently I can...but what Pokémon would you want to be?" Shard pondered that for a second. "I want to be something that's really strong against psychics." Bill then went over to his lab desk and started searching through his expansive collection of Pokémon DNA samples. "Well, I can do that, but you know, the only type of Pokémon that has a resistance to psychic attacks is -" "You heard me! Get on with it!" Shard growled, dropping Jessica's clothing on the floor and getting into the right Telepod. Bill shrugged, tossed a DNA sample into the pod with Shard, then closed the door and started up the machine. Again there was a fair amount of whirring and clunking, and then Shard disappeared, only to reappear in the other Telepod seconds later. Bill opened up the other Telepod, and smoke billowed out on to the floor. Shard slowly stepped out of the Telepod, and everyone who saw him went wide-eyed. Bill handed Shard a hand mirror. Shard took a look at himself, then smashed the mirror against the nearby lab desk. When Shard came out of the Telepod, granted, he was still wearing all of his clothes, he was not carrying any bent spoons, and he still lacked a mustache. But there was no mistaking that he was an Alakazam. His eyes bulged with shock at the sight of himself. He had become the very Pokémon that he hated and feared most in the world. He started thrashing about madly, knocking things off of tables and throwing anything small enough to throw. "You idiot!!!" Shard roared at Bill. "I said I wanted something strong against psychics! Not a psychic!!!" "Quick, we gotta get Jessica in the Telepod before Shardkazam trashes the place!" Kyle exclaimed. With the help of Espio, Torrasque, and Thanatos, Kyle shoved the rapidly shrinking Jessica the Charizard into the nearest of the two Telepods. Having calmed down significantly since her tirade at the Pokémart, Jessica was going back to human form, and fast. Bill quickly scoured the pods to get rid of the Alakazam DNA, then set the machine to eradicate Charizard DNA, then activated the Telepods one more time. The Telepods whirred and clunked louder than ever, and smoke started rising from the control panel, but the machine held together. Kyle quickly tossed Jessica's clothing into the other Telepod, knowing she would need them after teleporting. Jessica seconds later found herself human again and "au naturale" in the other pod, but, in the privacy of the closed Telepod, she rapidly got her clothes back on, then jumped out of the Telepod, no longer feeling faint. She rushed over to Kyle and put her arms around him. Kyle was a little surprised by this at first, but he adjusted quickly. Espio and Torrasque quickly subdued the rampaging Shard, who was not much of a threat (aside from telepathy, which he could not help using, he had no idea how to use the deadly psychic powers that were now at his disposal). As they pushed him into one of the Telepods, Bill quickly hit the activation button. The Telepods started up, and this time the machine seemed about ready to explode as it teleported Shard from one pod to the other and removed his Alakazam genes. The once again human Shard rematerialized in the other pod and emerged dazed and disoriented. But in his mind, he still heard the thoughts of the others around him. He clutched at his head and doubled over. "No...the powers...they're still here!!! ARRRGGGH!!!" He fell to his knees, shouting at Sabrina. His sheer rage sent waves of dangerous telekinetic force rippling all throughout the room. The Telepods started to rumble and shoot out sparks. Then both Telepods burst into flames, exploded somewhat non-violently, and collapsed into twisted heaps of charred metal. Shard, his power spent, stared down at the floor. Melodia went over to try and comfort him. Cathode the Pikachu followed suit; remembering how kind Shard had been to him in Celadon City. Bill was stunned. His jaw fell open. He stood staring at the wreckage for several seconds before gasping, "Those...those were my life's work...I can't ever repair them..." Then Bill heard an alarm coming from the still-intact control panel, and went to see why the alarm was going off, even though he knew it was because the Telepods were destroyed. But as Bill found out, the alarm was going off for another reason as well. "Uh, Jessica?" Bill said. "I have some...bad news." Jessica looked over at Bill. "What kind of bad news?" "Um...the machine got rid of the Charizard DNA in you just fine...but analysis shows that it never entirely got rid of your Scyther DNA. The Scyther DNA strands were just too complex to entirely destroy. There's still a teeny-tiny number of them floating around in your system." Jessica knew her secret was out, and sighed, "Don't tell me. The DNA transformation theory will take effect, the little bits of Scyther DNA will multiply, and I'll be right back to where I started, right? And I'll be stuck as a were-Scyther for as long as I live, won't I?" Bill sighed and tapped on his nose with one index finger. Jessica was near crying, but she held back the tears. Kyle looked at her, knowing it was not the best time to talk to her, but nonetheless, he asked, "What are you talking about?" So a bleary-eyed Jessica explained the thing she had been hiding from Kyle all this time: that because of one of Bill's earlier experiments, she underwent transformations into a blue Scyther every time her adrenaline level became high enough. She explained that she never had asthma. She explained that Torrasque and Thanatos had known her secret all along. She cried that she was doomed to be a freak for the rest of her life. She said she would understand if Kyle wanted to ditch her post haste. Kyle held the sobbing Jessica close and wondered how he had failed to realize Jessica's affliction sooner. He thought about what it would mean for his young relationship with Jessica. Then he briefly imagined himself living with a curse. He thought about Torrasque, who had to live with the curse of being a Scyther with a human brain. He thought about how Torrasque and he had been best friends for six years regardless of Torrasque's curse. "So you turn into a Scyther when you get scared? No biggie," Kyle consoled. "I've lived alongside a Scyther for a third of my life. And anyway, you don't strike me as the kind who gets scared often..." Jessica went right on sobbing, but after that the sobbing lessened in intensity until it was just an incremental sniffle. "No one's ditching anyone..." Kyle continued. Shard got up from the floor and walked over to Kyle and Jessica. "Look at you two!" he cried. "You have each other; you have hope! All I have now is a Gym Leader who wants me dead, and the very powers I hate the most coursing through me! You make me sick!!!" Shard then angrily stomped out of the building with Banshee and Melodia, mumbling something about Sabrina. "Come on...it's time we headed to Viridian City," Kyle informed Jessica. Jessica looked up. "Yeah...you're right..." She gave Bill a heartfelt farewell, and the whole crew - Kyle, Jessica, Torrasque, Cathode, Thanatos, and Espio - headed outside. The rain was quickly beginning to abate. Kyle recalled Espio and then unleashed Grendel. Kyle and Jessica climbed atop the Aerodactyl, and this time Jessica held on tight to Kyle as the flight began. Torrasque, Cathode, and Thanatos followed behind, surprised at how well Kyle had reacted to learning Jessica's darkest secret and at last convinced that the relationship between the two humans would work out just fine after all. It's over! But Kyle and Shard shall meet again, oh yes! --K * A * R * N * I * V * A * X-- "Life is like a crap sandwich: the more bread you got, the less crap you gotta take." --Tom Servo -- Posted via Talkway - http://www.talkway.com Exchange ideas on practically anything (tm).