Subject: [PW!] First Date Date: Mon, 12 Jul 1999 20:24:13 GMT From: Karnivax <karnivax@my-deja.com> Organization: Deja.com - Share what you know. Learn what you don't. Newsgroups: alt.games.nintendo.pokemon One of my less action-packed stories. Really! --FIRST DATE-- Part 1 by Karnivax After Cathode had been stolen by and retrieved from the villainous Shard Fields, after Magus the Magmar had successfully claimed a Rainbowbadge for Jessica Sullivan, after Kyle's ailing Pokémon had all been fully healed, and after the whole crew had looked around in and come virtually empty-handed out of the Celadon City Department Store (Jessica bought herself a light brown jacket which resembled a bulletproof jacket), Kyle and Jessica started to look for an open space in the city where Grendel the Aerodactyl could proceed to fly them to their next intended destination unheeded. It proved difficult, however. Ever since the huge rainstorm that had been pelting Celadon all afternoon ended, the city was back to what it was usually: horrendously crowded. The team searched for nearly an hour and a half before they decided to simply hang around the city until after dark, when they surmised the crowds would thin out a bit. It was around dinner time, but Kyle was not interested in food. He suggested a visit to the Game Corner to pass the time until the swarms of people receded. "I've got a better idea," Jessica responded. "What say we eat something first? I know of an Italian restaurant here that makes the best chicken parmigiana sandwiches there are. They allow most Pokémon in." Cathode the Pikachu perked up upon hearing the mention of his favorite food: chicken. Cathode was still quite young for a Pikachu, and "chicken" was one of the first words he had learned to recognize. "Pika-ga-ga-ga!" he wailed, wanting to go along with Jessica's suggestion. Kyle paused for a few seconds, looking bemused. "Sure," he eventually said. "I'll even pay." Kyle's father, being a research scientist on Cinnabar Island, was quite the wealthy man. As a result, Kyle's monthly allowance was in quadruple digits. "Cool. It'll be like our first date," Jessica remarked. "Nah. The minimum for a real date is dinner and a movie. This is just dinner," Kyle replied. "Have you seen 'The Matrix' yet?" Jessica hinted. "I haven't, but I hear it's still playing at 5:30 in a theater four blocks from here..." "You planned this whole thing out beforehand, didn't you?" Kyle queried. "You're just hell-bent on going out on a date with me tonight, aren't you?" Jessica grinned knowingly. "Maybe." _This is way too good to be true,_ Kyle thought. _I've never had a beautiful girl actually like me before. What does this one see in me? _ "Well, maybe I'll just end up going along with your little scheme," Kyle said, trying to be a bit cryptic. "Jeez, Kyle," whispered Espio the Charmeleon. "This girl's playing you like a well-tuned guitar." Torrasque the Scyther cut in, "Espy, take a look at that grin on Kyle's face. Do you really think he minds?" Jessica then proceeded to lead Kyle and his Pokémon down six blocks of congested city street to the Italian restaurant she had mentioned. The restaurant was known only as Raphael's. It was a quaint brick building, with a red, white, and green awning over the main entrance. As Kyle, his Pokémon, and Jessica went in, they saw before them a rather expensive-looking building interior. The round tables were made of white and gray marble, with several napkins, wine glasses, utensils, and a candle sitting on each tabletop. Plants that Kyle had never seen before were sitting in pots scattered around the room. The staff wore almost impossibly clean uniforms and actually looked enthusiastic about their work. There was the pleasant scent of cooking pasta all throughout the restaurant. The tables were mostly empty; as Kyle discovered, most of the customers were congregated in a far corner of the room, where a dance floor and small stage was located. Apparently there was some sort of demonstration going on. Kyle told Torrasque to find a table. "Javul," Torrasque replied in a bad German accent, saluting with one blade. He wandered over to a nearby waiter, followed by Thanatos the Gengar, Espio, and Cathode, who was more interested in sniffing around. Cathode was about to pounce on someone's plate of chicken tetrazinni when Thanatos telekinetically caught the rambunctious rodent and returned Cathode to his usual position: sitting atop Torrasque's shoulders, looking cute. Kyle went over to the dance floor area to see what the commotion was about, and Jessica eventually followed suit. Through the crowd, Kyle and Jessica could see in the middle of the dance floor a boy about their age. The boy was a few inches taller than Kyle, and had chin- length, straight, shiny black hair, part of which covered the right side of his face. He had a black goatee and hazel eyes. He was wearing black jeans, a navy blue and forest green hooded sweatshirt, and a pair of very clean white hightops. He had a leather belt that was holding four Pokéballs. "Halberd, show 'em yer Slash attack," the boy said, in a heavy Brooklyn accent. He tossed a large meatball up into the air. As the meatball started to fall, there was a loud battle cry, and then two swishing sounds, like those of a fast-moving sword. The boy then picked up the meatball after it had hit the floor, and revealed that it had been slashed into four equal pieces. The crowd clapped and cheered. "That's all, folks," the boy said. "I gotta be goin'." The people in the audience started to head back to their tables. Kyle and Jessica stuck around. Standing at the boy's feet, holding a sprig of green onion in a ready position over its head like a samurai, was a Farfetch'd. It had a red bandanna tied around its head, much like Rambo. It was wearing a Silph Co. model language translator on a chain around its neck. "C'mon, Halberd, let's move it." "Hold on," the Farfetch'd said. His voice was strongly reminiscent of Ralph Macchio's in "The Karate Kid." "Looks like that couple over there is lookin' for a Pokémon battle." He said this while pointing at Jessica and Kyle. "Yo!" the boy said to Kyle. "Ya here to challenge me?" "That depends. Who are you?" Kyle replied. The boy laughed. "Ya been livin' under a rock or somethin', kid? I'm th' great Vincenzo Larufa, the Italian Stallion! But ya losers can call me Enzo." He pointed to his Farfetch'd. "An' this is Halberd! National Pokékarate champion three years runnin'!" Halberd twirled his weapon like a baton and then pointed it at Kyle menacingly. "I've never heard of them. Have you heard of them?" Jessica whispered to Kyle. "Nah...but we'll see how great they are..." Kyle responded. "Torrasque, get over here!" Torrasque, after getting Thanatos, Cathode, and Espio set at a large empty table and warning "Espy" to watch where he was pointing his tail-flame, wandered over to Kyle. "What is it?" "See that bird over there?" Kyle pointed at Halberd. Torrasque's eyes burned with anger. He became enraged at the sight of just about any bird. "I'll take care of that onion-sucking featherbrain," he snarled. Kyle grinned from ear to ear. Even if he could not convince Torrasque to fight most of the time, he could always count on Torrasque to fight a bird. "Scyther, I choose you!" Kyle shouted, for no valid reason. Torrasque walked on to the dance floor and took a fighting stance. "Ya think that pissant bug can stop my Farfetch'd?" Enzo chuckled at Kyle. "Send out a real Pokémon, ya chump! Halberd eats Scythers for breakfast!" "I actually do," Halberd noted, grinning diabolically. "Now c'mon! Send out another Pokémon an' give me a challenge!" "You want Kyle to send out another Pokémon only because you know I'm going to whoop your feathered ass, you yellow-bellied chicken cacciatore!" Torrasque grunted at Halberd. "Kyle chose *me*! So let's get this ballroom blitz started!" Halberd just laughed at Torrasque's bravado and went back into a ready position. "Halberd, Slash!" Enzo shouted right away. With blinding speed, Halberd rushed up and gave Torrasque a few rapid strikes with his onion sprig, swinging it like a baseball bat. Torrasque's thick scales blunted the attack, however. He shrugged it off. "Torrasque, Toxic!" Kyle called out. Torrasque grinned, as it was the first chance he had been given to try out the Toxic technique. Torrasque took a deep breath, and dodged another Slash attack from Halberd. Eventually Torrasque opened his mouth wide and expectorated a thin stream of acidic venom, which splashed against Halberd's feathery exterior and started slowly burning his skin. "Hang in there, Halberd! Fury Attack!" came the next command. So Halberd rushed Torrasque and started pounding him in the chest with his weapon repeatedly, striking with speed and power comparable to that of a jackhammer. Torrasque swatted Halberd away with one blade and doubled over in pain. "Give 'im the People's Slash!" Kyle ordered. Torrasque did not get the chance to follow that order, however. While Torrasque was still trying to recover from the Fury Attack, Halberd was ignoring the pain of the toxic sludge he was covered in, and he was still going strong. "Peck!" Enzo commanded. Halberd reared his head back and gave Torrasque a mighty peck with his sharpened bill. The hit was hard enough that it punched a hole right in Torrasque's chest, and he winced in agony as blood began to run down. "Peck again!" Halberd's second peck nailed Torrasque hard right at the base of his left arm, causing his entire left arm to break loose and fall off. "Peck him one more time!" Torrasque raised his remaining scythe to block Halberd's third peck, but the scythe broke in two when Halberd's razor-like bill hit. Halberd was about to go in for another Peck when a panicked Kyle rushed over to Torrasque and pulled him out of the ring, laying him flat on the restaurant floor. "All right! All right! You win, damnit!!!" Kyle shouted at Enzo. Kyle picked up Torrasque's broken blade and severed arm. "I knew I would!" Enzo laughed out loud. "Go back to th' ghetto, ya loser! No lame-ass bug can knock out Halberd! C'mon, Halberd, let's get outta this dump and search for someone who actually knows how to train a Pokémon." Halberd did not respond. He finally gave in to the pain of the Toxic attack, keeled over, and passed out. "What...? That bug o' yers hurt Halberd!!!" Enzo roared, recalling the fainted Farfetch'd. Enzo walked over to where Torrasque lay and snarled at Kyle, "You're gonna pay for this. Not today, but some day we'll meet again. And after we have a rematch, you're gonna be walkin' home carryin' yer wussy little Scyther not in a Pokéball, but in a sponge!" Before Enzo stormed out of the restaurant, he gave the ailing Torrasque a hard kick in the side. --FIRST DATE-- Part 2 by Karnivax "G - good (urk) riddance..." Torrasque coughed. "Just relax, Torrasque," Kyle said uneasily, fearful that Torrasque was dying. "I - I gotta get you back to the Pokécenter..." "No..." Torrasque replied weakly. "J - just glue my (ungh) blade back t - t - together...pop my a - arm back in...and put me in my (cough) P - Pokéball...I'll make it..." "But you need help!" Kyle pointed out. "You could bleed to death if -" "I'll make it!" Torrasque repeated. "Go have d - dinner with (urk) Jessica...see 'The Matrix'...I c - couldn't (ungh) live with myself if your f - first date with Jessica got screwed up (gack) because of m - m - me..." Kyle reluctantly took a bottle of Krazy Glue from his backpack, and Jessica took the bottle from him. She glued Torrasque's broken scythe back together, making sure the two pieces lined up properly. Kyle did not think the blade would hold together for any more People's Slashes, but Jessica informed him that the scythe would eventually repair itself completely. Then Jessica took Torrasque's severed arm and popped it back into its socket. Torrasque would not be able to move the arm until the severed nerves repaired themselves, but at least the arm was firmly in place. "This still doesn't solve the problem of the huge wound in your chest, Torrasque," Kyle noted. "Eh...d - don't (urk) worry about it...I'm tough. I can b - bleed for a long t - time before d - d - dying," Torrasque claimed. "That's B.S. and you know it, Torrasque," Jessica snorted. She took off her new jacket, scrunched it into a ball, then used it to apply pressure to Torrasque's chest wound. "Just keep still. The less blood you're pumping, the better." When she had the jacket secured firmly and blocking the flow of any more blood out of Torrasque's body, she told Kyle that he could put Torrasque into his Pokéball for now, and Kyle did so. "C'mon, let's get him back to the Pokécenter." "I've got a better idea...one that won't screw up our plans," Kyle suddenly realized. He walked over and gave Torrasque's Pokéball to Thanatos. "Thanatos, please fly Torrasque to the Pokécenter. He's had a rough day." "Gen gar! Gen!" Thanatos responded, and he saluted to show his acknowledgement. He telekinetically took the Pokéball and flew out of the restaurant at full speed. Cathode started whimpering like a lost puppy, wondering where his master was being taken. He jumped up on the dinner table and was about to give chase when Espio grabbed on to him. "Chill out," Espio said monotonously, as he was not the best at being reassuring. "Espy'll take care of you 'til 'Rasque gets back..." Espio paused for a second. "Hey, if Torrasque can make up obnoxious little pet names, so can I..." Kyle turned to Jessica. "That was some smooth first aid work, Jessica. One might think that that wasn't the first time you'd repaired a Scyther." Jessica smiled uneasily. Kyle was but inches away from prematurely discovering her darkest secret - the fact that she herself turned into a Scyther, or at the very least a human-Scyther hybrid, now and then. "All I ask in return is that we get my jacket cleaned as soon as Torrasque's done using it as a bandage," she said, trying to look more casual than she was. "Consider it done," Kyle replied. "Now, what say we finally do what we came here to do...get food?" "Just try and stop me!" Jessica responded. The uneasiness in her expression quickly faded. Kyle and Jessica sat down at the table where Espio and Cathode were located, and shortly thereafter Espio got up from his seat. "Tell you what," said he. "You two lovebirds can have this table to yourself. I'll get my own table." With Cathode enjoying a ride on top of his head, Espio headed over to a table made for two people and sat down in one of the chairs. The waiter who eventually visited Espio's table was more than a little surprised to take an order of a large Pepsi and a plate of Rigatoni del Rosario from a talking white Charmeleon. Kyle and Jessica both ordered large Sprites and chicken parmigiana sandwiches, and passed the time in between ordering their food and receiving their food by talking about each other's Pokémon - what kind they were, where they had come from, what they acted like. In addition to her prime Pokémon - her Magmar - Jessica had a vain Victreebel, a raucous Muk, a cowardly Cloyster, a pugilistic Electabuzz, and a Porygon that was still in many ways a mystery to her. When the food arrived, Jessica and Kyle proceeded to talk about each other, mainly about each's other's hobbies and favorite bands. Kyle's hobbies had once been amateur photography, Magic: the Gathering, studying mythology, and writing sci-fi novellas. But he put his hobbies on hiatus the second he left on his Pokémon journey. Jessica, on the other hand, tried to integrate her hobbies into her journey whenever possible. One of her hobbies was bike riding, which she did quite a lot of on her expedition. Another was electronics - she was skilled in soldering and welding, skills she learned from and used in the presence of Bill. And, like Kyle, she also played Magic: the Gathering, which she often played with her Porygon. The Porygon was apparently a brilliant strategist, and very difficult indeed to defeat. As for the bands, Kyle was a fan of Fuel, Beck, Creed, and They Might Be Giants, whereas Jessica listened to the Barenaked Ladies, "Weird Al" Yankovic, Collective Soul, and Foo Fighters. Jessica admitted she had never heard of They Might Be Giants. Kyle informed her that they were having a concert in Viridian City in a few weeks and that perhaps she would like to go see the concert with him. Jessica simply replied, "I think I'd like that." When Kyle and Jessica finished eating their sandwiches (the consensus was that the sandwiches were indeed the best chicken parmigiana sandwiches there were), and Espio finished eating his pasta, the team paid for their food and left the building, planning to check in on Torrasque at the Pokécenter before going to the movie theater to see the 5:30 showing of "The Matrix." Upon arriving at and entering the Pokécenter, they found Thanatos sitting in the waiting room, reading an outdated issue of Rolling Stone. Kyle went up to the front desk and rang a small bell, and just one of the endless supply of Nurse Joys walked in from a back room seconds later. "I just dropped by to see how my Scyther's doing," Kyle said. "Scyther? Oh, he's in stable condition," responded Joy. "He's sleeping peacefully in one of our recuperation chambers now. He should be fully healed in, oh, about two and a half hours." Joy reached underneath the main desk, then pulled out Jessica's jacket. "I found this jacket being used as a bandage. I gave it a good cleaning...I take it that it belongs to you?" Joy handed the jacket to Kyle, and he handed it to Jessica, who put the jacket on. "It's fresh out of the dryer," Jessica remarked, rolling the sleeves of the jacket up to her elbows. "Well, Joy, we'll be back in a few hours," Kyle informed the smiling nurse. Kyle turned to Thanatos. "Stay here and wait for Torrasque," Kyle commanded. Thanatos looked up from his magazine and saluted. Kyle, Jessica, Espio, and Cathode then left the Pokécenter and headed back in the direction of Raphael's, eventually being led past the Italian restaurant by Jessica and down a few long city blocks to the movie theater where "The Matrix" was playing. Espio and Cathode were not permitted inside the building, as Espio was a fire hazard, and Cathode was an electrical hazard. Espio merely said he would take Cathode with him to the Celadon City Department Store and do more shopping to pass the time until the movie ended. Kyle had no idea how Espio was as wealthy as he was, but he let Espio and Cathode go to the store nonetheless. Kyle and Jessica entered the movie theater, and Kyle bought two tickets. Then the companions headed into the actual theater part of the building, where the movie was showing. Kyle took a seat in what was just about the direct center of the theater, and Jessica sat right next to him. There were a few outdated previews, and then the movie started. Throughout the course of the movie, Jessica got only as far as resting her head on Kyle, and Kyle got only as far as putting one arm around Jessica. Neither of the two were the kind to kiss on the first date. But it did not matter. They felt good. When the movie came to an end and Kyle and Jessica agreed that the movie was good despite the fact Keanu Reeves was the star, they headed out of the theater and eventually met up with Espio and Cathode. In addition to his pair of sunglasses and his Yankees hat, Espio was now wearing a very small, unbuttoned replica of Paul O' Neill's New York Yankees jersey. "You like?" Espio asked Kyle. The Charmeleon struck a quick fighting pose. "Uh...it's *you*," Kyle replied, rolling his eyes back slightly. "If you're going to just tell me what I want to hear like that," Espio sighed, "at least try not to make it so obvious." "Well, all in all, it was a nice little first date, eh, Kyle?" Jessica queried. "Nothing went terribly wrong." Kyle was silent for a few seconds before responding. "Yeah, I guess it *was* pretty nice," he answered, grinning. "This companionship thing might just work out after all." "The crowds of people are finally receding," Espio pointed out. "We don't have much of a reason to stick around here any more. Where to next?" Kyle replied, "First we're going to pick up Torrasque and Thanatos. And then we're off to Saffron. Jessica, I trust you still have no qualms about riding the Aerodactyl skies?" "No qualms at all, so long as you're there," Jessica responded. See ya later, Shard! --K * A * R * N * I * V * A * X-- "Awesome! I'm poisonous! Those idiots who work at McDonald's won't forget to give me napkins and fancy ketchup ever again..." --Torrasque Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ Share what you know. Learn what you don't.