From: Karnivax <karnivax@my-deja.com> Subject: [PW!] Kismet (repost) Date: Friday, July 02, 1999 12:55 PM Well, not only did I put the WG tag on it the first time, but I also left this story chock full of grammar errors. What a wonderful day this has been... *snarl* --KISMET-- Part 1 by Karnivax "We're ready to get a Rainbowbadge," Kyle Richter announced to his Pokémon teammates, as he exited the Celadon City Pokécenter. The team had reached Celadon just two hours ago after a day-long flight from Pokémon Island, and the first order of business had been to fully revive all of the Pokémon that had fainted in the brutal battle against the juggernaut-like Ditto, Proteus. Nurse Joy was rather shocked to see so many fainted Pokémon brought into the Pokécenter by one person, and admonished Kyle for trying to conquer an evil Ditto. Apparently Nurse Joy or one of her innumerable relatives had had some bad experiences with an evil Ditto. Kyle calmly apologized for his bravado and claimed he did not at the time know the extent of the powers a Ditto could wield, when in actuality he knew full well. He had heard many stories from his father about the fateful occurrences in the Cinnabar Island Laboratories that had spawned Mimic and his duplicitous opposite number, Doppler. Kyle and his fully healed crew headed through a long series of filthy alleyways to reach the southwest corner of the city, making it a point to avoid as much human contact as possible. Kyle was in no mood to battle any random trainers who might be hiding within the city crowds; he simply wanted to find the Celadon City Gym, win a Rainbowbadge, and be on his way. Though the team had a particularly tough time resisting the allure of the Celadon Game Corner, where Kyle had won a Hyper Beam TM on an earlier trip, they managed to pass all of the city's most inviting sights by. Making good time, the team eventually reached the Celadon City Gym. The perfume-like aromas coming from inside the mushroom- shaped building could be clearly smelled almost a hundred feet from the gym's entrance. "Is something...burning?" Espio the Charmeleon queried, taking a deep whiff of the perfume. Kyle raised one eyebrow. "No," he said plainly. Espio rubbed his hands together and grinned. "Of course. Not *yet*." Espio's typical depression and self-loathing had seemed to abate slightly now that he knew Kyle was sending him in to the battle against Erika, which Espio was practically guaranteed to win. Espio did not let on for one minute that deep down he was still emotionally crushed by his discovery on Pokémon Island that his entire family had been murdered. Espio, having had one of the most tumultuous upbringings of any Pokémon on Pokémon Island, was an expert at hiding his true sadness from others. The front door was unlocked, so Kyle and his team headed right in. The scents intensified, and the fact the air conditioner was running inside the building only served to better spread the smells around. Kyle could not stand the smell of perfume and was just about gagging, but once he covered his nose and took a look around the gym he saw that the building's interior was the most exquisitely decorated of any official gym he had seen thus far. All of the windows were squeaky- clean, the floors were made of glistening tile, and the walls were stucco, painted a sky blue. There were exotic plants everywhere...hanging from the ceiling, sitting in pots atop the main desk, even crawling up the walls. "Hellooo?" Torrasque the Scyther called out, noticing no one behind the main desk. "By any chance is there a Gym Leader in this Gym?" Cathode the blue Pikachu cupped his hands to his mouth and tried to mimic Torrasque. "Pikaaa? Chuuu?!" he shouted. A feminine voice eventually replied, "I'll be with you in just a minute!" Kyle and his team stood waiting near the main entrance for what turned out to be a few minutes. Thanatos the Gengar occupied himself by pulling out his ghostly guitar and playing the tune to The Offspring's "Burn it Up." Eventually a dark-haired woman who appeared to be somewhere in her twenties approached. She was wearing denim overalls, a red-orange T- shirt, work boots, and gardening gloves. She was holding a soil- encrusted trowel and a few Pokéballs. "So, what can I do for you?" the woman asked melodiously. "I'm here to challenge Erika for a Rainbowbadge," Kyle replied, in a voice that sounded rehearsed. He uncovered his nose. "Well, you found me," the woman admitted. "I apologize for the delay. Business was slow, so my assistants went home early." Erika led Kyle to the far end of the ring-shaped main hallway of the circular building, then through a door and into the center of the gym, where the main arena was located. The arena was a round room with a domed ceiling, which let quite a lot of sunlight in. There was a ring of soil along the circumference of the circular room, and in the soil, trees were growing. Opposite the room from the entrance door were entirely empty bleachers. The battleground was indicated by white paint lines on a small field of grass. "The battle will be two-on-two," said Erika, taking her place at one end of the battleground. "For my first Pokémon, I choose...Victreebel!" Erika tossed a Pokéball into the court, and out came a peculiar-looking flytrap Pokémon. "Bel...bel...bel," the flytrap chanted, flailing its leaves about. "Dragonite, go!" Kyle said, and unleashed Leviathan. Before the battle started, Leviathan took back from Thanatos the language translator that was rightfully his and put it around his neck, just so he could taunt the opponent. Espio was deeply disappointed that Kyle had not sent him in, but he said nothing. "Well, lookie here," Leviathan said in his arrogant voice, grinning at Victreebel. "Little lonely bell wants some attention." Kyle noted, "Hey, Leviathan, that was a complete sentence!" "Yeah, so it was," Leviathan realized. "Hey, Thanatos, is this a new translator?" Thanatos nodded. "Awesome. I hope you don't mind if I keep it," Leviathan responded. Then he motioned for Victreebel to make the first attack. "Let's get down to it..." "Victreebel, Razor Leaf!" Erika commanded. Victreebel leaned forward and expectorated a barrage of sharp-edged leaves. Leviathan hardly moved. He merely yawned and let the leaves bounce off of his scaly hide. "Come on, you can do better than that," he goaded. "Let's not get cocky here, Leviathan!" Kyle ordered, wondering where the Dragonite's arrogance stemmed from. Leviathan had been well under control during the battles against Moltres and Onix. He had been mostly under control in the battles against Clavicle, Panopticon, and Proteus. Now Leviathan was totally out of control. It occurred to Kyle that despite Leviathan's great intelligence, he was still exhibiting the very same pattern that even the most feeble-minded of Pokémon exhibited: the stronger he got, the more disobedient he became. "It isn't being cocky if you can back it up," Leviathan snapped. "Don't give me this egotistical crap, Leviathan. I didn't raise you so you could be a complete jerk. Now use your Hyper Beam," Kyle grunted. "Nah," Leviathan laughed, ignoring Kyle's command. "Victreebel's got me on the ropes here! I want to see if it can finish the job." Kyle clenched his fists, but he was virtually helpless to stop a dangerously powerful Pokémon like Leviathan. Kyle just looked on and hoped Victreebel would defeat Leviathan to teach the arrogant Dragonite a little humility. "Fine...Victreebel, Vine Whip!" Erika shouted, rather annoyed by Leviathan's ego. With Erika's command, Victreebel gave Leviathan a mighty lash with the vine that hung off of its back. There was a resounding CRACK as the Vine Whip connected, and Leviathan was nearly knocked out of the arena. Leviathan picked himself up and dusted himself off. "Ungh...that's more like it," he groaned. "Keep it coming!" "Mega Drain!" came Erika's next order. Showing speed amazing for a plant, Victreebel leaped at Leviathan with its jaws wide open, and Leviathan obligingly stuck his left arm into Victreebel's mouth. But then Victreebel stuck its teeth into Leviathan's arm and started draining the life from him. Leviathan, finally recognizing that the Victreebel was a considerable threat, started waving his arm wildly, trying to shake off the plant Pokémon. Its grip was far too tight, however. Leviathan even tried bashing Victreebel against the ground repeatedly, but it did no good. Leviathan, his vitality being rapidly leeched from him, was tiring quickly, but he tried not to show it. Finally he announced, "All right, Victreebel, winter's coming early this year..." He fired off a small Ice Beam at Victreebel, which was still more than enough to encase the grass Pokémon in ice. Then Leviathan snapped Victreebel's frozen teeth off and removed the chilled flytrap from his arm. Leviathan then saw that his Ice Beam had frozen his own left hand. "Hey, Espio. Get over here," he ordered. Espio sauntered over to Leviathan. "What do you want?" Leviathan merely grabbed Espio's flaming tail and used it to melt the ice around his left hand. "That will be all," Leviathan said, letting Espio go. Leviathan then rolled the frozen Victreebel back to Erika. "Send out your next Pokémon! I'm ready for more!" "No, you're not," snapped an angry Kyle, who recalled Leviathan against the Dragonite's will. "Charmeleon, your turn." Espio smiled and entered the court. Erika recalled Victreebel, then tossed out a second Pokéball. "Vileplume, go!" Erika said, and from the Pokéball came a Vileplume, the largest type of flower in the world. "Quickly! Use your Stun Spore!" Vileplume tilted its giant petals toward Espio and fired off a cloud of poisonous spores in an explosive burst. "Counter with Flamethrower!" Kyle commanded. Espio pointed one index talon at the spore cloud and incinerated the Stun Spores. "Now, Slash!" Espio charged toward Vileplume and sliced at it with his sharp claws, but the attack was effectively blunted by Vileplume's petals, which were surprisingly tough. "Petal Dance, Vileplume!" came Erika's next command. Vileplume began gently swaying from side to side and singing "Vile...pluuume," waving its tiny arms around in circles. "What's it doing?" Espio wondered, having missed Erika's order. "Well, it isn't the Macarena," Torrasque shot back. Cathode started doing the same dance as Vileplume and laughing giddily. Then Vileplume tilted forward again, and launched three massive salvos of mini-petals. The hundreds of seemingly harmless petals strafed Espio and started cutting through his scaly skin. "AIEEE!" Espio shrieked. "These things are sharp! I feel like I'm swimming in a pool full of razor blades!" "Hang in there, Espio. Use Fire Spin!" Kyle shouted. Espio calmed down, then lit both his index talons on fire and started gyrating like a turbine, arms outstretched. Eventually the flames on Espio's tail and talons intensified and were swirled up into the rapid column of wind created by Espio's spinning, thus making a tornado of fire. The remaining petals from the Petal Dance were instantly burned up. When the tornado reached full strength, Espio sent it rumbling toward Vileplume, who tried to avoid the whirling cylinder of flame, but ended up getting sucked right into the middle of it. Vileplume spun around like a flaming top for several seconds, and when the Fire Spin subsided, Vileplume was still burning, and running around frantically as it tried to put itself out. "Vileplume's weak! Use your Flamethrower again!" came Kyle's next command. Espio pointed both index talons at Vileplume and nailed the flower Pokémon with twin flame blasts. That did it. The charred Vileplume stopped running, coughed up a cloud of smoke, and collapsed to the ground, unconscious and still burning. Erika ran over to a nearby watering can and splashed the contents on Vileplume, putting out the fire. "All right! I admit defeat!" Erika shrieked at Kyle, putting Vileplume back in its Pokéball. "But your Pokémon didn't need to be so violent!" Erika reached into a pocket on her overalls, then tossed a Rainbowbadge and a TM to Kyle. "You can use the TM to teach a Pokémon Mega Drain. It's one of the more powerful grass attacks." "But to use that I would probably want a grass Pokémon..." Kyle said to himself, as he and his team left the arena and started to head toward the exit. "And come to think of it, I never did get a starter Pokémon from Professor Oak. I think he owes me a Bulbasaur..." "Whoa, whoa, whoa," interrupted Torrasque. "Could you please refrain from planning any more side trips for a while?" "It won't be a side trip. I think we'll just drop by Pallet Town when we're on our way back to Viridian to whoop Giovanni." "At last, you're making some sense!" Torrasque remarked. Kyle waved goodbye to Erika, put the new TM in his schoolbag, and found he still had the Thunderbolt TM he had won from Lieutenant Surge. Kyle handed that TM to Torrasque. "Here, I think you should use this on Cathode. In case he ever gets lost, he'll be able to defend himself with the top of the line in electric weaponry, maybe even shock some KFC workers into giving him more of the Colonel's secret rec - OOF!" It was then that Kyle, who was not looking where he was going, bumped into a girl and nearly knocked her over. "I'm sorry, I didn't see you," Kyle apologized, not even looking at the person he had bumped into. The girl just smiled and said, "I should've known I'd find you here." --KISMET-- Part 2 by Karnivax "Jessica?" Kyle realized. "Jeez, how is it we keep running into each other?" Jessica Sullivan's grin widened. "I'll go out a limb here and say kismet is a big part of it." Kyle tried to change the subject. "So...what brings you here?" "I'm here for a Rainbowbadge, naturally," Jessica answered. "But now that I see you're here, I believe that can wait." "Wait for what?" "Well, don't you agree it's strange that we've managed to cross each other's paths on three separate occasions, in three separate places?" "I don't think 'strange' is a strong enough word," Kyle remarked, still trying hard not to make his crush on Jessica too evident. "I'm thinking more along the lines of 'supernatural.'" "Call it what you will, but I'd say it's almost as if some divine force believes we're *supposed* to be together. And, well, far be it from me to ignore divine intervention." "What are you getting at here?" Kyle asked, though he actually had quite a good idea of what Jessica was getting at. "I'm getting at a proposition," Jessica answered. "I think we should become traveling companions. I mean, think about it. Wouldn't you rather be working alongside my Pokémon and I, rather than battling us? We'd be an unstoppable team, you and I." "Kyle, don't answer just yet," Torrasque interrupted, as Kyle started ruminating over Jessica's suggestion. "Jessica, might I have a word with you?" Torrasque led Jessica just outside of the building to assure no one else would hear what he wanted to say. Torrasque whispered to Jessica, "I don't think you've thought this through. I mean, consider your little affliction. What are you going to do if, while traveling with Kyle, something gets your adrenal glands working overtime, and you transform into Scyther mode?" "If it happens, it happens," Jessica answered. "I wasn't planning on keeping that hidden from him forever. I only feel I need to keep it a secret until the two of us are close enough that he won't be too put off by it." "But neither of us know just how well the two of you are going to hit it off," Torrasque said. "Piii. Kachu," Cathode added, sitting on top of Torrasque's head. Cathode had taken the Thunderbolt TM from Torrasque and was hugging the black mini-computer. "Kyle went out of his way to save my life in Cerulean City, despite the fact we hardly knew each other," Jessica pointed out. "If that isn't a clear sign that he has some feelings for me, I don't know what is." Torrasque was nonplussed. For several seconds he looked as if he had something to say, but he said nothing. Eventually he and Cathode just headed back into the gym, where Espio was tending to his own wounds, Thanatos was playing "Everlong," and Kyle was still ruminating. "Well, have you made your decision, Kyle?" Jessica asked as she re- entered the gym. "Indeed I have," Kyle responded. "All right, Jessica, you can go with us. On two conditions, though." "Name them," Jessica said, a wide grin crossing her face. "First of all, we travel by Aerodactyl, not by bike. So if you're acrophobic, you might want to consider remaining a solo act." "Hey, flying's not a problem," Jessica replied. "Mom had a Pidgeot I used to fly around on all the time as a kid." "And second, before you can travel with us, you have to beat me in a Pokémon rematch. One-on-one." Now it was Kyle's turn to grin. Jessica, unfazed, said, "You're on." "All right!" Kyle exclaimed. "Come on, we'll have the battle right outside the gym." So Kyle, his team, and Jessica all exited the gym. Just in front of the gym, Kyle and Jessica took their positions roughly twenty feet apart from each other, and proceeded to choose their respective Pokémon. "That fight I put up against her Magmar in Pewter was a one-time deal, Kyle. I'm not doing that again. Capisce?" Torrasque snapped. "Relax, Torrasque. I know just who I'm going to send in." Kyle tossed out the Pokéball containing Leviathan. "Dragonite, I choose you!" Leviathan emerged and struck a fighting pose on the dusty makeshift battlefield. "I knew you'd come to your senses, Kyle!" Leviathan announced. Then he turned toward Jessica and shouted, "You'd better be ready to bow to the master!" "Well," commented Jessica. "I didn't know you had a Dragonite, Kyle." "Awww, you didn't knooow?" Leviathan shot back. "Your ass better caaall somebodyyy!!!" "Ermac, get in there and shut him up!" Jessica commanded, as she unleashed her enigmatic Porygon, Ermac. Ermac hovered about five feet from Leviathan and noted in a mechanical voice, "Short-range scanners indicate presence of hostile carbon-based lifeform, genus and species Draco oakus." Then, for several seconds, Ermac emitted a high-pitched whirring sound, like that of a hard drive. "Entering combat mode..." "This has to be some sort of joke!" Leviathan laughed. "How is a floating computer glitch supposed to hurt me? Kyle, how best should I whoop this virus's digitized tail?" "Don't look at me," Kyle replied. "You don't obey my orders, remember?" "That's *right*," Leviathan realized. "I was just messing with you." It was at that moment that Jessica shouted, "Ermac, Psybeam!" Leviathan let out a contemptuous snicker, crossed his arms, and proceeded to simply watch Ermac. Ermac started gathering a massive amount of energy, and glowing as it did. "Command acknowledged. Processing request...Target acquired and locked. Commencing primary ignition..." With that, a small orb of psychedelically-colored psi energy appeared right in front of Ermac and started to gradually increase in size until it had roughly the diameter of a large beach ball. Leviathan continued to stand and watch. Then Ermac announced, "Firing primary weapon." No sooner had he said that than the psi-ball hurtled right toward Leviathan. The ball grew a fiery tail as it flew, giving it the appearance of a multicolored comet. The air visibly distorted in the Psybeam's wake. Leviathan was nowhere near fast enough to dodge the psionic projectile. It struck him in the chest and exploded in a flash of smoke and blinding psychedelic light, scattering dirt everywhere and launching the astonished Leviathan almost fifteen feet into the air. He fell back to the ground with an earthshaking THUD and bounced over to Kyle's feet. "Target status: out of commission," Ermac triumphantly announced. "All right, I admit it, Kyle," the battered and burned Leviathan sighed, "I've been a complete hard-ass. I was totally out of line. I let my strength go to my head. I should've just listened to you from the start." "*That's* the Dragonite I raised!" Kyle exclaimed. "Now let's get you back to the Pokécenter, eh?" Kyle recalled the ailing Leviathan and re-attached Leviathan's Pokéball to his belt. "All right, Jessica, you beat me fair and square. We're officially traveling companions." "You won't regret this!" Jessica happily responded, recalling Ermac. Jessica saw how Kyle had not made the slightest effort to win, and that solidified her belief that Kyle liked her. She approached Kyle and asked, "So, where do you want to go first?" "First we're going to get Leviathan and Espio healed up at the Pokécenter, and after that you can go get your Rainbowbadge. Then after that I guess we can just hang around Celadon for a little while, check out the sights, maybe do some shopping at that huge freakin' department store they have here. That is, if you want to," Kyle answered. "It's a date," Jessica said, smiling. "Oh, don't get ahead of me," Kyle responded, half-grinning. So Kyle and his new companion headed with Torrasque, Cathode, Thanatos and Espio back in the direction of the Celadon City Pokécenter, walking this time not covertly through the dark back alleys, but confidently out in the open. Now this time I got it right. --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.