From: Karnivax <karnivax@my-deja.com> Subject: [PW!] Cutting Edge Date: Monday, August 23, 1999 7:46 AM Regulus: Now, I present to you the reigning heavyweight champion of the Pokéworld...at six feet, seven inches...two hundred sixty-nine pounds...Mr. Omnipotent...Mewtwo! ::Mewtwo walks out and takes his position in the ring as LL Cool J's "Mama Said Knock You Out" plays, crowd cheers and throws flowers, Tauras throws a Master Ball and somehow misses Mewtwo:: Dreadite: And the challenger...at ten inches...eight pounds...Proteus the Ditto! ::Proteus oozes out and takes his position in the ring as Soul Coughing's "Super Bon-Bon" plays, crowd boos and throws trash, Tauras throws another Master Ball and somehow misses Proteus:: Regulus: All right, you two know the fucking rules, goddamnit! Proteus, if you fucking win against Mewtwo, I'll ban your ass from this federation! UnderSTAND? Proteus: Crap. ::Bell rings:: --CUTTING EDGE-- Part 1 by Karnivax _I have sensed your presence ever since you set foot in this dungeon. Your attempt to remain covert is wasted in the presence of a telepath such as I..._ _A pleasure to telepathically meet you too, Mewtwo._ _I know why you are here. I feel obligated to give you fair warning - you are wasting your time._ _Relax, Mewtwo. Your mental voice sounds so...hostile._ _And justifiably so. You see, I do not take kindly to such a blatant affront upon my home, and my solitude._ _This Underground Dungeon was once my home as well, Mewtwo. I have as much right to exist here as you. Don't think of me as an intruder; think of me as just another subterranean Ditto, looking for someone to converse with._ _You can not hide your true intentions from me...Proteus, is it? You seek to incapacitate me and deliver me to a 'greater power.' There is not a doubt in my mind that you are one of Doppler's sycophants. The miserable little coward...he dares not face me himself!_ _Why would *he* do what he could get someone *else* to do better? _ Proteus mentally chuckled, realizing with glee that he had succeeded in shielding the name of his true master from Mewtwo. _You are sealed into this cave by a psionic dampening field, Mewtwo. There will be no teleporting to safety for you today. The only way out of this cave is through me._ Then it was Mewtwo's turn to chuckle. _You make it sound difficult,_ he remarked. Proteus, who was swimming through the subterranean river in the Underground Dungeon as an orange Seadra, burst out of the water and landed on a small island in the southeastern quadrant. Proteus melted down into his normal Ditto form, then looked over at the center of the island, where a bemused-looking Mewtwo was sitting on a rock. Proteus quickly scanned for nearby Pokémon to turn into, and noticed a wild Rhydon sitting on the other side of the river. Proteus quickly morphed into a rust-colored Rhydon and approached Mewtwo. "En garde," Proteus bellowed. "As you wish," Mewtwo snorted. He started to form a giant Psybeam in one hand. But seconds later the growing ball of psi simply fizzled out. Mewtwo was for once astonished. "What...?" Proteus leaned his head back and laughed. "The dampening field doesn't just surround the cave, it's everywhere inside the cave too! Any of your psychic powers that require more energy than telepathy are useless!" "How could Doppler possibly wield such a power?" Mewtwo said to himself. "Well, obviously he can't maintain the field forever. It's diverting all of his energy," Proteus explained, still under the guise of a servant of Doppler. "But I'm sure the field will last just long enough for me to give you a thorough thrashing." "Nonsense," Mewtwo grunted. "Any strong psychic powers you possess will be useless as well, Proteus." "Correct as ever," a grinning Proteus replied. "But if I were a betting Pokémon, I'd be willing to bet that you don't have nearly as much experience with hand-to-hand combat as I do..." Proteus cracked his giant knuckles. "As the humans say: 'put 'em up.'" Meanwhile... "Grendel, take us down right in front of that building." "Aeeero!" Grendel the Aerodactyl made a three-point landing in front of the Cinnabar Island Laboratories - workplace of Kyle Richter's father, place of "birth" for Grendel and Torrasque, place renowned for its ability to bring to life extinct Pokémon. It was rather late at night, but the labs typically stayed open until midnight. "Daaactyl!" Grendel's screeching voice rang out. He felt the need to do brief self-congratulatory victory songs after he pulled off a perfect landing. "Yeah, yeah, don't you get egotistical on me too," Kyle said to Grendel. Grendel responded with a confused look. Thanatos the Gengar tried in Poké-ese to explain to Grendel what Kyle was talking about. Kyle and his traveling companion Jessica got off of Grendel, and as they headed for the entrance to the building, they found Torrasque the Scyther standing in front of the door, holding Cathode the Pikachu in his scaly arms and waiting impatiently for someone with an access card to open the door. "You beat Grendel here?" Kyle pointed out to Torrasque. "My, aren't we anxious." "Just open the door," Torrasque said to him. Kyle pulled from his backpack an access card given to him by his dad, then swiped it through the slot next to the door. The mechanical door slid open. Torrasque and Cathode rushed inside and headed right for the main laboratory, followed by Thanatos, then Kyle, Jessica, and the awkward Grendel. Torrasque offered only "Hi" as a greeting to the scientists he saw roaming the white-tiled halls on the way to the main lab. Cathode waved to each scientist with his tiny rodent arms, even though he knew none of the workers in the building save for Kyle's father. Eventually Torrasque found the door to the main lab, and one of the workers, recognizing the small Scyther, let him in. Torrasque went immediately over to the desk where he saw Kyle's father looking intently at a paper attached to a clipboard. "Kachupi!" Cathode cried, nearly giving Professor Richter a heart attack. The Professor turned around to look at his familiar guests, then adjusted his glasses. "Welcome back, Torrasque," the Professor greeted. He then saw Kyle and company enter the room. "Hey, Kyle! Good to see you've dropped by!" Grendel quickly waddled over to the Professor and licked his face. "Yes, yes, it's good to see you too, Grendel." Thanatos floated over to where Grendel, Torrasque, and Thanatos were, just because. "...Hi, Dad," Kyle said, unsure of how his father would react to seeing him with a girlfriend. "And who's this with you?" the Professor asked, approaching Jessica. "This is Jessica Sullivan," Kyle explained. "We met in Celadon City, and we've been traveling together ever since." "Well, I'm Professor Richter," Kyle's father said. He shook Jessica's hand. "For some reason your name sounds familiar...oh well, maybe it's just an early stage of senility." "Hi, Professor," Jessica jovially greeted. There was a brief silence. The Professor turned to Kyle. "Judging by that anxious look in Torrasque's eyes, I'll bet you're here to meet the product of the experiment I informed Torrasque about." He walked over and opened a door on the left side of the main lab. "It's in here..." Not sure what to make of things, Kyle, Jessica, and the free- roaming Pokémon followed the Professor into the next room. The room was mostly dark, illuminated only by the screens of a few computer workstations. A few scientists were watching the output that was unfolding on the screens. One wall of the room was evidently the transparent side of a one-way mirror. On the other side of the mirror was a well-lit room, which looked like an arena of sorts. And in the arena, running blindingly fast on a treadmill, was a light red, female Scyther. Torrasque seemed to enter a whole new realm of consciousness as he saw the female. Kyle waved one hand in front of Torrasque's face, but got no response. "Atropos is awake and healthy," Professor Richter announced. "And, might I add, Bill's consciousness-dubbing technology surpassed all of our expectations. Atropos mastered an entire high-school curriculum in just two weeks!" Jessica watched as Atropos accidentally cut through the metal bar on the treadmill that she was trying to hold on to. "You might say it's technology on the 'cutting edge,'" Jessica commented, hoping her horrendous pun would snap Torrasque out of his lovestruck trance. She had no such luck. The Professor walked over to one of the computer consoles, which had a microphone attached to it. He spoke into the microphone: "Atropos? I believe your trainer is here." Elsewhere, David Bradley and his gigantic, murderous Rhydon, Rampage, were exploring the lower caverns of Mount Moon, hunting down wild Clefable and Wigglytuff, for no reason other than the fact that David's enigmatic new master believed the otherworldly Pokémon were not worthy of walking the Earth. Using his trusty Cougar Magnum and the brand-new Walther P.P.K. he had bought in Saffron City, David had already managed to kill four Wigglytuff and one Clefable. Through sheer brute force, Rampage had murdered five Wigglytuff and an impressive two Clefable. The team had met their quota, but they continued hunting nonetheless, planning to hunt until sunset or until David ran out of bullets, whichever came first. "It's a pity Goliath's so spooked by killin'," David remarked to Rampage, who was not paying much attention. "'E's missin' out on some fun, eh, mate?" Rampage delicately activated the language translator he had temporarily taken from Goliath. "Rampage no understand why David make Goliath partner," Rampage snorted, having never taken much time to figure out how his language translated into English. "Goliath good speaker. But also coward. Goliath fear hunt. But Rampage no fear hunt! Rampage fear nothing! David make Rampage partner!" "Sorry, not gonna 'appen," David responded. "Goliath's just too damn good at doin' the motto. And 'sides, in order not to be the laughin'stock o' Team Rocket, I'd 'ave to name ya Goliath, and then name Goliath the Golem somethin' else. What sort o' name for a Team Rocket duo is 'David and Rampage?'" "So name Rampage Goliath. Rampage no care," Rampage grunted. "And Rampage can learn motto." "Just keep lookin' for Clefable, ya big lummox," David commanded, rather peevishly. Rampage turned away and started following a strong Clefable scent. "'David and Rampage' sound fine to Rampage," he said under his breath. In time Rampage tracked the Clefable scent to where it was strongest...and caught sight of the Clefable. The timid creature was hiding behind a boulder. Knowing the Rhydon had spotted it, the Clefable ran for its life. "Deeestroooyyy!!!" Rampage roared, as he gave chase. The massive armored monster eventually cornered the Clefable, and before the desperate Clefable could even perform a Metronome, Rampage pounced upon the creature and proceeded to tear it to shreds. From David's vantage point, all he could see was a furiously attacking Rampage, tossing bloody chunks of Clefable every which way. David subtly averted his eyes. "That's, uh, some good work there," he said, his distaste for watching Rampage eviscerate wild Pokémon still slightly present even after having been brainwashed. --CUTTING EDGE-- Part 2 by Karnivax At the time that the light red female Scyther entered the dark computer room, Thanatos was busy scoping out a suspicious-looking panel on one of the walls of the room, and as he inspected the panel, it suddenly let out a loud whirring noise and rotated one hundred and eighty degrees. On the other side of the wall panel was a hidden television with a Nintendo 64 hooked up to it. "Hey! Don't let the boss see that!!!" one of the scientists in the room shouted at Thanatos. The fun-loving Gengar paid no attention. He turned on the television and the Nintendo, telekinetically lifted a controller, and started playing Zelda 64. Professor Richter chided the scientists for trying to hide a game system from him, but he assured them he would not get rid of it. Because of the brief commotion, only Torrasque noticed Atropos's arrival. Atropos, like Torrasque, was short for her species, but had abnormally large scythes. The spines on her head, as well as her scaly muzzle, were slightly shorter than Torrasque's. Her irises were emerald green. Her thighs and bosom were remarkably well-developed for a Scyther. Her light red reptilian skin shone brightly in what little light there was in the room; not like Torrasque, whose green scales had long since lost their luster. Atropos's wings glistened with all of the colors of the rainbow, or at least Torrasque seemed to think they did. Torrasque forced himself not to stare at Atropos by smacking himself in the snout with the dull side of his left scythe. "You're...Torrasque, aren't you?" Atropos said, in a melodious feminine voice. "Uh...my name is...is..." Torrasque fumbled. "Errr...line?" he said, hoping someone nearby could fill in the blank. "Erline? Is that Italian?" Atropos chuckled. "...Torrasque," Torrasque responded. "I mean, my name is Torrasque." "I've heard a lot about you, Torrasque," Atropos pointed out. "Saw your baby pictures, too." Atropos pointed at a Polaroid photograph that was sitting on a nearby desk. Torrasque looked at the photo. The photo showed himself in the lab as a three-month-old hatchling, reading 'The Brothers Karamazov.'" Kyle walked over and looked at the photo too. It seemed inordinately amusing to him, knowing that somewhere behind Torrasque's irreverent teenage façade lay an intellect far surpassing most humans. "I don't know what I was thinking back then," Torrasque remarked, as he looked at the photograph. "Dostoyevsky is much too proletarian for my tastes." There was a long period of silence. "Give me a Kurt Vonnegut book any day..." Atropos idly scratched the back of her head gently with one blade. "So, ummm...now that we're together, and if we're through delaying the inevitable...you want to get mated one of these days?" Torrasque turned his gaze from the photograph to Atropos. "Okay," he responded. Kyle facefaulted. "One minute of small talk, and the two of you are engaged?!" he shrieked. "Well, unlike you humans with your silly dating and 'woo-ing,' we Scyther prefer to cut right to the chase," Torrasque responded. "Pun intended." Kyle picked himself up off of the ground, then paused in contemplation. "Well, Atropos, let me say now that as long as you're traveling with us, you're going to have to pull your own weight. Which means battling once in a while." "Hey, I'll train her," Jessica cut in. "You've already got a Scyther, Kyle." To make room for Atropos on her team, Jessica teleported her Muk, Alkaline, to cyber-storage. "So...uh, welcome to the team, Atropos," Kyle then said, and shook hands with Atropos. Unfortunately, Kyle cut his hand open while trying to shake Atropos's scythe. He started waving his hand around frantically and swearing like Eric Cartman. "Interesting customs you humans have," Atropos commented. "You won't regret this, Kyle!" Torrasque said, a wide reptilian grin on his face. "I may already be regretting it," Kyle responded. He wiped the blood from his hand off on to his jeans. Meanwhile, deep within the Underground Dungeon... "My master was right about you, Mewtwo," Proteus grunted, as he gave the humanoid feline a vicious left jab to the face. "You're so reliant on your nigh-infinite psychic powers, you wouldn't know what to do if one day your powers ran out." Proteus hit Mewtwo with a left hook, and the catlike Pokémon stumbled to the ground. As he attempted to get up, Proteus tailwhipped him back down. Proteus glanced at Mewtwo's mouth, and he could clearly see a reddish fluid trickling down from the creature's lips. "Well, what do you know? The omnipotent lord of Pokémon *does* bleed after all," Proteus remarked. Proteus took several steps back, then charged and punted Mewtwo through a stalagmite. Mewtwo slowly got up and grabbed the broken chunk of stalagmite from the cave floor. He rushed at Proteus and hit him in the head with it. "Please...you're using a rock against a creature that's made of rock?" Proteus the Rhydon chuckled, casually swatting Mewtwo aside. "Well, I suppose you're only as good as the pathetic humans who made you..." "Just keep believing that," Mewtwo shot back. His hands started glowing yellow. "Within minutes this wretched dampening field will dissipate..." Mewtwo then unleashed a Swift attack from both hands. Proteus stood in one place and watched as his hide easily deflected the barrage of mini-stars. "Minutes are more than you have," Proteus snapped. He playfully poked Mewtwo in the gut a few times with the gigantic drill-horn protruding from his stone muzzle. Then he gave Mewtwo a giant headbutt which sent him crashing into the far wall of the cave. Proteus very slowly started trundling over to where Mewtwo lay, roughly twenty feet away from his previous position. Mewtwo took one last look at his approaching opponent, then at last, the feline's eyes closed and he fainted. "They said it couldn't be done!" Proteus bellowed. "But I've done it! Mewtwo is all mine!!!" He slung the helpless white and purple genetic hybrid over his shoulder, then started a long and slow trek to the cave exit. Proteus did not get far before he received an incoming telepathic message from his master: _Excellent work, Proteus! The dampening field is now down. Stand by for teleportation back to base._ Proteus started whistling a merry tune, waiting to be teleported out of the dungeon. As he stood there in the cave, he took no notice of the fact that Mewtwo's eyes were wide open, and glowing purple. Then, before Proteus knew what had happened, Mewtwo had disappeared in a purple flash. "What?!" Proteus roared. He was thunderstruck. "Impossible...!!! How could he have recovered so quickly???!!!" Mewtwo's voice echoed throughout the cave. "It was simple...I merely used a technique very appropriately known as Recover." "Coward!" Proteus bellowed, knowing Mewtwo had to be somewhere nearby. "Show yourself!!!" "Why, I am right behind you," Mewtwo said. Proteus whirled around, and saw nothing behind him but the cave setting. Then something exploded against his back. Proteus was knocked head over heels. He crashed to the ground with such an impact that it shook a few stalactites from the ceiling. Proteus got up quickly, rage burning in his eyes. "Invisibility?! Is that it?!" he growled. "Wretch! You have no honor!!!" Mewtwo then materialized sitting right on top of Proteus's head. "Tell that to 'the pathetic humans who made me,'" Mewtwo snapped. His powers fully restored, Mewtwo became invisible again. Then he floated into the air and rocked Proteus with a huge purple psi- blast. The Ditto-Rhydon slammed to the cave floor. "Two can play at this game, then!" Proteus snapped. From his position on the ground, he fired off a giant Psybeam in the direction Mewtwo's blast had come from. The invisible Mewtwo easily swatted the Psybeam away. The psychedelic beam hit a far wall and exploded with such violence that it became evident that the ceiling of the lower cave level was near collapse. Proteus then pushed his psionic abilities to their limit and started to gather a staggering amount of psi into each of his fists, which started glowing with a brilliant blue light. Then he opened his fists, pointed them in Mewtwo's direction, and then proceeded to unleash Psybeam after Psybeam from his hands, at a rate comparable to machine gun fire. But Proteus watched with dread as each and every one of his shots was deflected effortlessly by the hovering Mewtwo. The cave rumbled and clattered with the force of the myriad psi explosions. Stalactites came crashing down everywhere. Both combatants seemed to ignore the fact that the ceiling was coming crashing down. "I admit, you did surprisingly well in the first round, Proteus," Mewtwo confessed. He once again became visible. As he floated in the air, his entire body was surrounded by a nimbus of what appeared to be purple flame. "You revealed the chink in my proverbial armor: physical combat. A weakness which I will work hard to dispose of." Mewtwo raised his arms high above his head, and a glowing orb of purple psi appeared above him. He was preparing for his strongest attack - Psychic. "Do not worry...I will be sure to tell Doppler just how much of a challenge you provided for me before I ultimately scattered your atoms across the planet." The psi-orb then exploded with a blinding multicolored light, and Proteus was engulfed by a gigantic wave of pure psi. Everything within radius of the blast was literally being torn apart. Proteus screamed in agony as, unable to hold himself together any longer, he was reduced to a series of viscous black splatters on the floor and wall of the cave. The red jewel that Proteus always bore upon his forehead was inside one of the splatters, stuck to the wall. When the Psychic attack at last subsided, Mewtwo decided he had best move his home to an upper level of the cave, as the ceiling of the lower level was continuing to fall. "Farewell, Proteus," Mewtwo called out. He then snapped his fingers and teleported away right before the whole ceiling caved in with an earsplitting CRASH that shook up the inhabitants of the nearby Cerulean City. Minutes later, as the cave was once again calm and the dust was clearing, something oozed up from the gigantic pile of collapsed rock on the bottom of the Underground Dungeon. A cluster of tiny black blobs crawled out from under the wreckage, one of the blobs carrying a small red jewel inside of it. The tiny blobs gradually fused into one blob, and on the one blob, a mouth and two glowing yellow eyes appeared. The red jewel was once again visible, set into the polymorphous black blob's makeshift forehead. "See you later, Mewtwo," the reconstructed Proteus said rather quietly. Then he disappeared in a purple flash. My villains ain't chumps! ^^;;; --K * A * R * N * I * V * A * X-- "Only two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the former." --Albert Einstein Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ Share what you know. Learn what you don't.