From: TheRunt <therunt411@aol.com> Subject: [PW!][Repost] Big P: Case of the Missing Pokémon (Part 2 of 2) Date: Thursday, September 16, 1999 6:51 PM (This is Part 2 of a compilation repost of the "Case of the Missing Pokémon" thread. For your convenience, a summary of this episode appears at the bottom.) "Well, if it ain't Lara an' some more of her little friends," drawls Dario. "Working with Team Rocket again to sabotage the race?" says Lara venomously. "Those losers? I done myself one better. I created my own gang," returns Dario. "Let's show 'em what you can do!" he calls inside. Several big, burly roughnecks emerge from the cabin. "Oh great," Damian says, reaching for his pokéballs. Sarah Jane makes a few quick adjustments to her Pokédex, then throws out her two remaining Pokéballs. A Krabby and a Kadabra appear. "Nipper - you, Shields, and Ferdinand will fight this one," she whispers, "Sigfreid - you see if you can teleport in and get Robert and Rilli out of there." The Kadabra nods, then disappears. Sarah Jane slides off Ferdinand's back. The Tauros takes his place with the Mr. Mime and the Krabby, waiting for Sarah Jane's directions. "Wattson, Kreskin - Go!" calls Runt. A Pikachu and a Butterfree materialize from there perspective pokéballs. "Wattson, you and Rolly are gonna need to pool your talents in battle -- Kreskin, Try to get inside and help Sigfreid free Rilli 'n Robert..." {Sure thing Boss} <Meanwhile, inside the cabin> Rilli picks at the ropes with her nails in hopes of achieving something, but doesn't get very far. Her Horsea whinnies helplessly from her cage and blows a few bubbles, which drift halfway across the room and pop. Rilli racks her brains to think of some way to get free and past the one goon guarding them, or to somehow signal for help, but she's too tied up to do anything. A quick flash of light in the room signals the arrival of Sigfreid. The guard looks up at the uninvited guest, but he is quickly immobilized with psychic energy. The Kadabra walks up to the man and Thwaps him on the side of the head with its spoon - the goon goes out like a light. "Remind me to stay away from silverware from now on," comments a wide-eyed Rilli. "Reee," Kreskin calls out as he swoops out of the fireplace. {Hey Spoon-Boy!} "Beee Freee" {You free the guy, I'll free the girl} "Kadabra," replies Sigfreid, who then begins untying Robert. {Okay} "Thank you so much for helping us!" Rilli cheers quietly as the green Butterfree loosens her ropes. "Please take Robert somewhere where he can get treated for sunstroke -- I can handle things here." Sigfreid mutters something and vanishes with the unconscious trainer. "Now..." says Rilli, surveying her surroundings. Cages containing stolen Pokémon are piled all around the large room. Hearing the ruckus outside, she figures the fight must have begun. "I've got to do something...first open these cages." She kneels down by Horsea's cage and jiggles the door, but finds it locked. All the other cages are the same. "I don't know how to pick locks...but maybe Haunter does!" Kreskin starts to say something, but decides against it. {'Help someone out and this is the thanks I get'} He shakes his head and flies up to one of the higher cages. Then, using his antennae, begins to pick the lock. She reaches into her purse for the pokéball, then realizes that it isn't with her. "That's right, those guys took our stuff...so where would they put it?" Rilli's eyes passed around the room, not spotting her purse. She does, however, see the guard still passed out on the floor. "Maybe he has it..." A search through his pockets finds no pokéballs, but does turn up a key. Rilli nearly slaps her forehead for passing up the obvious, then thinks better of it and quickly goes to unlock Horsea's cage. "Horsea, you're too small to fight against those guys outside, so get out of the way and try to find our stuff, okay?" The seahorse whinnies and hops away. Cautiously, Rilli examines all the other locked up Pokémon. Some of them look weak and weary, but most are watching her actions through the cages - a few even scratching anxiously at the doors. "If I let you guys out, will you help us fight against Dario and his gang?" Kreskin attempts to remind her of his presence by clearing his little throat, but a chorus of roars, squeals, and other affirmative cries drowns him out. Although tempted to hit her with a Psychic attack, he refrains and opens the door of the cage he was working on instead. "Great! When I let you out, go wait near the door and don't alert anyone that you're free. We'll rush them all at once." More nods and anticipatory gazes meet Rilli as she kneels to unlock a cage. <Back outside...> Jon steps up, "Feels great to be doing this so soon, anyway," he thinks aloud. 'DAMN! I haven't battled in so long... I wonder who's in the balls right now...' Furiously, he chucks Pokéballs out. "Go, Jolteon, Dragonair, Kabutops!" Jon is luckily rewarded with the correct Pokémon. Something tugs at his shorts. "Oh, right. Ninetales, do your stuff." The fox Pokémon runs forward to the 'army' already involved in combat. The Vulpix perched on Jon's head attempts to leap to its parent's side, but is caught in midair. "Not until you learn another attack!" "Vullll," it whines. "Skhan!" Roo joins in. "Same goes for you too, squirt - you're too young and too inexperienced..." says Runt, patting his young Pokémon lightly on the head. "That's one of the reasons I decided to leave Cuddles and Spunky behind with Christy," says Sarah Jane. "They couldn't ride with me here, and with all of the big Pokémon, they might get underfoot." Runt looks up to see how his mice are doing. After a few moments, he realizes that the battle is a draw at best and that, unless something turns in their favor soon, Dario might just win. "Tiny, Pixie - I choose you!" In the blink of an eye, Robert and Sigfreid appear in the middle of the battlefield. Jon walks up to Robert, "Send out your Pokémon to help us out!" Robert looks down at his trench coat, "What would a gumshoe do in a case like this?" Robert stares off into the distance for a moment, then shakes his head, "I don't know. I DO know what a Pokémon trainer would do!" Robert throws his trench coat off and adjusts his belt. He reaches for his sixth Pokéball and throws it, "Charmeleon, go!" The large red lizard emerges from the Pokéball, looking very angry. His beauty sleep has been disturbed. "CHARRRR!" He looks around, then sees Robert standing nearby. He narrows his eyes, "Charrrr..." Damian runs over to Robert, "Why don't you release more Pokémon? That one doesn't look like he wants to fight." "I can't release more than one!" Robert places one hand over his badges in a salute, "It is against the rules set forth by the Pokémon League, and even if the enemy sends out ten Pokémon at a time, I may only counter with one. It is the way of the law abiding Pokémon trainer. It is my way." Robert's salute ends, and he points at one of the goon's Pokémon, a Dodrio. "Charmeleon, attack that mutant three-headed Doduo, a product of nuclear testing, no doubt!" The Charmeleon defiantly shakes his head and flicks his claws in Robert's general direction. Damian makes a face at Robert, "That's a Dodrio, the evolved form of..." Before he can finish his little lesson, he's knocked down by a goon's Primeape. "Drake, little help here!" "PRIMEAPE!" it bellows. Drake would have been there to intervene if it weren't for one small problem in the form of a 21-foot long Gyarados. Drake had thought he had easily dispatched it like most foes when he knocked it down with a Hyper Beam. However, the Dragonite doesn't notice it get back up after turning around. The torrent of water from the Gyarados' Hydro Pump catches him completely off-guard and sends him rocketing skyward. All this leaves Damian pretty far up the creek against the enraged Primeape. The only thing that the young trainer can think to do as he lay on the ground is put his arms in front of his face in a hopeless attempt to deflect the blows that are about to hit him. Fortunately for him, the Magnemite alighted on his head begins to glow. The glow becomes a quick flash and both human and Pokémon disappear. A split second after, the Primeape's fist slammed into the ground. The pug-nosed Pokémon looked around. Seeing neither the human nor the Pokémon that it had originally targeted, it began to jump up and down screaming in impotent fury. This continues until it spies what appeared to be a group of Scythers coming after it. Ten gleaming blades might intimidate some, but doesn't seem to faze the fighting Pokémon. "Blade, Slash!" Damian orders his Double Teamed Scyther, from a now much safer position. As one, the five Scythers leap into the air and come down crossing both blades as it hits the ground leaving a large red X across the oversized face of the raging Pokémon. This causes it fall back momentarily until one of the roughneck's Pokémon, a Geodude, comes bounding to the now injured Pokémon. The Primeape blindly lashes out. In doing so it grabs the arm of the hapless Geodude and, as if a thought other than one of anger had actually crossed its mind, surges forward swinging the Geodude wildly. Damian, having never seen this before, has absolutely no idea what to do since the wielded Geodude effectively blocks any physical attack. "Scy?" prompts Blade, ask for his master's command. This proves to be worst possible action as the rock-toting fighting Pokémon homes in on this sound to find its one true target amongst the illusions that it had created. Before the Scyther can escape, the Primeape begins to savagely beat it with the Geodude who can be heard saying amidst blows, "Dude! Dude! Dude! Dude!" As one of the few combatants that could actually understand what the Pokémon is saying, Sarah Jane turns to see what was going on. Sarah Jane's attention is quickly shifted back to her Pokémon as it get caught up in the battle. Unable to think of anything else, Damian pulls out his Pokédex. He points it at his Magnemite and finds out something he can use. He covered his ears and says, "Bulletproof, Sonic Boom!" The Magnemite stops circling its master's head and lines up on its target. Electricity crackles across it as its magnets begin to vibrate faster and faster. A second after the Primeape stops beating its unconscious victim, a pair of nearly imperceptible waves shoot out from the small metallic Pokémon. Fortunately for the other combatants the two sets of sound waves are perfectly calibrated and cancel each other out, except in a straight line to the hairy fighting Pokémon. The force of the blast knocks it back and the raging beast finally passes out. This causes it to release the Geodude it was. The rocky Pokémon gradually descended to the ground, spinning like a slowing helicopter blade. As it slams into the ground, it gives a final "Duude...." and flops over unconscious. Robert glances around to see how the rest of his team mates are doing. Mithril-rama is still no where to be seen, and many of the Pokémon are suffering at the hands of the enemy - but not everyone on the team was faring badly. Jon's Ninetales and Pixie the Vulpix nearly incinerate a Jynx. While Tiny and Jon's Dragonair wrap up a Machamp and manage to squeeze it until it gives in to the enormous pressure. The biggest problems for the team comes from only two Pokémon. The first is the Gyarados who immediately after dealing with Drake was ordered to take out the Pokémon which threatened it most: Jon's Jolteon and Wattson the Pikachu. Before either of the Pokémon or their masters realize what's going on, they had been taken out of the fight. One Hyper Beam sends Jolteon sprawling and a Bite attack takes the fight out of Wattson, quickly ending the electric threat. The other problem Pokémon is much smaller, but no less feared. The huge blue, saucer-shaped eyes are a dead giveaway that the Pokémon causing most of the Pokémon in the battle to fall was none other than a Wigglytuff. Only the largest and most menacing of the roughnecks controlled this monster. As each opponent comes before the Wigglytuff, its muscular master coos softly to it, "Sing for Daddy! C'mon, sing for daddy!" After each Pokémon falls to the ground, asleep, the overly burly man pats his Pokémon gently on the head and directs it to another target. More than one person forms large sweatdrops at seeing this sight on the battlefield, especially considering how effective it was. All around them, the battles rage. Dario, astride his Dodrio faces Lara and her Rapidash. "We might as well get this taken care of before the race, so I can eliminate the rest of the competition," sneers Dario. "Dario, this is the last time ya'll will ever interfere in one of our races," she returns levelly. A shout is heard from within Dario's house and the front door, as well as several feet of the wooden wall around it, shatter as the stolen Pokémon break out. One person can be seen standing behind the escaping Pokémon and Robert shouts, "Rilli!" Within seconds, everything changes. Most of the roughnecks are bowled over and trampled by the newly-freed Pokémon. Siegfried takes advantage of the distraction to shoot a Psybeam at the Tauros that had stomped on Shields. Ferdinand follows this up by slamming into the now confused Tauros. It crumples to the ground after the combined attack. An escaping Rapidash stomps the Wigglytuff's master into the ground. Since it no longer hears its master, it turns in confusion "Wiggly?" Clampion the Cloyster takes advantage of the situation and shoots the balloon Pokémon in the back with an ice beam, freezing it. An escaping Tauros runs over the chilled Wigglytuff like a freight train and causes the ice encasing it to shatter. The Pokémon gives one last "Tuff!" before fainting. The remaining freed Pokémon begin to go after the Gyarados. It turns to them, but bellows out in pain and turns in the other direction. As it looks down, it sees Robert's Graveler about to throw itself at the larger Pokémon again. The Gyarados rears back for a strike, catching something out of the corner of its eye. It turns just in time to get hit square in the face with a Hyper Beam from Drake. This proves to be enough and the Gyarados falls to the ground and stops moving. "That's the last a' yer friends, Dario." Lara turns back from the now almost quiet battle. Dario is still smiling, however. "Ah'm still gonna win. All those pok'mon that just escaped are gonna be real drained from bein' caged all day. If ya' try ta' race 'em tomorrow, they could end up with perm'nent injuries. Won't be hard for me ta' win when I show up fer the race with nobody else there." "Ya'll won't make it there!" Lara responds and has Rapidash rear up for a stomp. Dario gives one last "HAH!" as he quickly has his Dodrio get out of the way then run around behind his house. Lara doesn't give chase and Dustin speaks up, "Why are you letting him get away?" "They're a lot of thick woods back there," explains Lara "'tween that and the river in the middle of it, Dario'll have no problem keeping us from tracking him. Only thing we can do is wait for him to show up for the race tomorrow. Problem is Dario was right, Can't race the pok'mon that he stole or they could end up injured in a way no pok'mon center could heal." She pauses to look at everybody gathered around her. "That only leaves all o' us ta' win that race." <To Be Continued...> Summary: A major Pokémon battle between the group and Dario's gang. After Rilli and Kreskin (Runt's Butterfree) free all of the captured Pokémon, Dario's gang is defeated and Dario runs off into the woods. _______________________________________________________________ "Slow and steady wins the race."