From: Karnivax <karnivax@my-deja.com> Subject: [PW!] Dog Day Afternoon Date: Saturday, September 04, 1999 6:13 AM This whole story is a plot device allowing me to bring back Rampage the Rhydon. But as I'm reading over this story, I gotta say, Roberto did a better job of portraying Rampage in "To Send or Not to Send" than I did here, and that's pretty sad, considering Rampage is my character! --DOG DAY AFTERNOON-- Part 1 by Karnivax David Bradley and his partner Goliath were standing just outside the entrance to Victory Road. With a lot of help from his mysterious master, David had successfully stolen Sabrina's Alakazam in Saffron City. And David had led a successful Clefable and Wigglytuff hunt in Mount Moon recently...together with his insane, murderous Rhydon, Rampage, the brainwashed David had managed to slaughter fourteen Wigglytuff and five Clefable. Now he was on a new mission, possibly his toughest yet. He knew that Kyle Richter and Jessica Sullivan were inevitably going to arrive at Victory Road, and the first phase of David's mission was to intercept them. Then he was to capture Jessica, kill Kyle by any means possible, and steal Thanatos the Gengar, whose psychic abilities were formidable. At that moment, Grendel the Aerodactyl, with his two passengers, touched down at the first of the eight checkpoints leading to Victory Road. Kyle had to show his Boulderbadge to the guard at the first checkpoint, then his Cascadebadge to the guard at the second checkpoint, and so on. The bureaucratic red tape continued for about twenty minutes before Kyle and Jessica were at last past all of the checkpoints, past the large lake that was just beyond the last checkpoint, and ready to journey through the dangerous Victory Road. Kyle remembered his dad telling him that at any given time, there was at least one of the three types of Legendary Birds hanging out on Victory Road. Kyle recalled his run-in with an angry Moltres on Cinnabar Island, as well as his side trip to see a peacefully nesting Zapdos near Cerulean City. Kyle had yet to see the third mythical bird, Articuno. Kyle had read about Articuno sightings in the Seafoam Islands, off the coast of Cinnabar Island, and even as far north as Viridian Forest. It did not seem too farfetched to him that an Articuno could be dwelling in the labyrinthine cave that was Victory Road. As Kyle walked along, he considered releasing Espio, just so he could keep an eye on the self-loathing Charmeleon. But then Kyle considered his other fire Pokémon - his loyal Arcanine, Fenris, who had been in cyber-storage for quite some time. Using his Pokédex, Kyle then teleported Espio's Pokéball to cyber-storage and reclaimed Fenris's Pokéball. Fenris had not won a battle in a while, and Kyle figured the fire-dog needed to stomp some wild Pokémon on Victory Road. "Is that what I think it is?" Jessica asked, looking at the Pokédex picture. "It's an Arcanine," Kyle responded. "You're kidding me. You've got an Arcanine? You've been sitting on a gold mine this whole time, and you've been keeping it in cyber- storage?" "Gold mine? What are you talking about?" Kyle grunted. "Arcanine are beasts of legend! They're said to be as rare as the Legendary Birds!" "Beast of legend? You're out of your mind, Jess. Anyone with a Growlithe and a little cash can get an Arcanine." Jessica then pulled out a Pokéball and released her Porygon, Ermac. "Ermac, scan for Arcanine. Full radius." "Processing search parameters..." The Porygon started humming and whirring for several seconds, then eventually he announced, "One match found." "That's your Arcanine, Kyle," Jessica pointed out. "Yours is the only one within thirty miles. And Indigo Plateau, where only the greatest trainers hang out, is within thirty miles." "Your Porygon can tell you that?!" Kyle cried, dumbfounded. "It's not as useful an ability as you might think. He can tell me how many of a certain Pokémon are within a certain radius, but he can't tell me where they are." Jessica then asked Ermac to scan for Dragonite at full radius, and in time Ermac announced that there were five matches. "See, Kyle? There are more Dragonite within thirty miles than there are Arcanine." Jessica then recalled Ermac. Kyle, flatly disbelieving that he was the owner of a legendary Pokémon, released Fenris. The first thing the Arcanine did was walk behind a large rock and stay there for a while, no doubt to purge bodily wastes privately. Then he went about leaping madly, barking, and wagging his bushy tail. But at one point he sniffed Jessica's shoes. After that, he instantly took a defensive position and started to growl. "Arc! Arcanine!!!" he yelped at Jessica. "Legendary, my ass! You're just a big, burning Saint Bernard," Kyle remarked to Fenris. Kyle held the Arcanine around the neck to keep him from pouncing. "Sorry about that, Jess..." "It's my fault," Jessica started to explain. "Even in human mode, I smell like a Scyther to most Pokémon. And fire Pokémon don't like bugs." "And flying Pokémon love to eat bugs," Kyle pointed out. "I guess that explains why Grendel attacked you in Saffron City..." He calmed Fenris down by scratching him behind the ears, and then the team continued walking. On the way, Thanatos started to play Rob Zombie's "Dragula" on his guitar. Torrasque did not even try to sing along. Eventually the entrance to Victory Road appeared. Kyle ran over to the entrance at full speed, followed closely by Fenris. Torrasque, Cathode, Thanatos, Atropos, and Jessica followed at a slightly slower pace. As Kyle stood before the entrance, Fenris caught a scent and started sniffing the ground in front of the entrance madly. He stopped sniffing every few seconds to bark. "You found something, boy?" Kyle asked. And with that, David Bradley and Goliath emerged from the darkness of the cave. David was wearing his red contact lenses, and he looked vaguely demonic. Goliath was simply sneering diabolically. "Jeez, don't you two know when to quit?!" Kyle exclaimed. David reached over to one of his two holsters. He rapidly drew the brand-new shiny black Walther P.P.K. he had bought in Saffron. He aimed it at Kyle's head and pulled the trigger before Kyle's slow reflexes could get him out of the way. CLICK. Nothing happened. Astonished, David put his Walther back and drew his trusty Cougar Magnum. Again he aimed right at Kyle. Again he pulled the trigger. CLICK. Again nothing happened. "Goddish damn it!" David roared in his Australian voice, putting away his Magnum. "I used up all o' my damn bullets on the Clefable and Wigglytuff hunt!" Kyle smiled, thinking he had just witnessed divine intervention. "Well, at least you guys aren't doing your stupid motto." "Thanks for remindin' me, mate!" David responded. David had a last-ditch method in his head for killing Kyle, but he wanted to get the motto out of the way first. While Goliath hit a button on his custom translator that caused the duo's theme music to play, David struck an imposing pose. "To bereave the wealthy of their worth..." Goliath chimed in, "To subjugate the entire Earth..." "To trample upon all who stand in our path!" "To spare no insubordinates from our wrath!" "David!" "Goliath!" "Team Rocket - faster than the eye can see!" "Stand your ground or cower and flee!" Goliath finished the motto off by doing a quick backflip, then pounding his fists together twice and taking a fighting stance. It looked like something a typical boss character from the Mega Man series did when it introduced itself. David threw off his black leather jacket. Underneath the jacket he was wearing a long-sleeved white shirt which bore the red R of Team Rocket. The sleeves were rolled up almost to David's shoulders, so people could clearly see the impressive amount of muscle he had in his arms. On his rather hairy left forearm, David had a tattoo of a red dragon. Then, in the blink of an eye, David tossed out a Pokéball. It bounced to a stop in front of Kyle, but did not open. "Defective Pokéball, huh?" Kyle laughed. "That's a bummer." Suddenly Kyle looked down, and he noticed the Pokéball rolling from side to side. Then finally it popped open, and a breathtakingly large stone monster, a creature which had to have been at least nine feet tall, appeared in front of Kyle. The creature was a Rhydon. A gigantic Rhydon that was stained with dried blood and had what looked like a giant drill bit for a horn. Rampage the Rhydon. "So this is the all-powerful killer Rhydon that you told me about in Cinnabar?" Kyle asked David. "Same one," David responded. "Rampage, Stomp the kid!" --DOG DAY AFTERNOON-- Part 2 by Karnivax Rampage was about to listen to David for once. The beastly Rhydon charged, and was preparing to Stomp Kyle into a fine paste. Fenris, however, pushed Kyle out of the way and took Rampage's blow right in the side. Infuriated that he had missed his intended target, Rampage flailed his arms about and snorted madly, then tailwhipped Fenris on the back, knocking him flat. "Rhyyydon!!!" Rampage bellowed, audibly blowing air through his nose. He flipped Fenris on to his back, then Stomped with one giant foot on the fallen Fenris's chest, coming close to breaking the Arcanine's ribcage. "Cloyster, go!" Kyle shouted. He released Seaclamp, who, upon slowly opening his shell, was a little surprised to see Kyle as his trainer all of a sudden. "Cloyssster?" Seaclamp queried. "Don't just look at me!" Kyle yelled at Seaclamp. "Use Aurora Beam!" Rampage paused for just a second to observe the new challenger. Then he gave Fenris a solid punt in the side to send him flying. The frightened Seaclamp closed his shell and hoped for the best. Rampage proceeded to kick, scratch, and Stomp on Seaclamp ferociously, trying unsuccessfully to break the Cloyster's armor. After ruthlessly assaulting the bivalve Pokémon for about a minute, Rampage got bored and went to pummel Fenris some more. "Now use Aurora Beam!" Kyle commanded. Seaclamp slowly opened up his shell again, then saw that the danger had passed. "Cloyssster," he sighed. From the long spike just above his core, Seaclamp fired off a beam of light blue energy which struck the lumbering Rampage in the back. Rampage was slowed down significantly by the layer of frost that then surrounded his whole body, but he did not stop moving. "Tendril, take him down while he's cold!" Jessica shouted. She unleashed Tendril, her vain Victreebel. "Use your Razor Leaf!" Tendril sized up his opponent, and seemed confident that he would be able to knock out the giant Rhydon without risking any damage to himself. So Tendril bounced over to Rampage, summoned up all his strength, and then started spitting a barrage of sharp-edged leaves at Rampage. The leaves ripped right through Rampage's stone armor and remained embedded in his skin. The utterly silent Tendril then bounced away happily, expecting to see the Rhydon crash to the ground and faint. But Rampage did not even fall. He shook himself like a dog, getting rid of the layer of frost from the Aurora Beam and the many leaves from the Razor Leaf. Rampage glared angrily at Tendril, whose eyes bulged with fear. Frightened that Rampage might hit him and destroy his flawless image, Tendril quickly bounced back over to Jessica, as if begging to be put back in his Pokéball. After Jessica recalled Tendril, Rampage went instead to pick on Seaclamp, who again was hiding inside his shell. But as Rampage got close, an unprecedented rush of courage came over Seaclamp. Rampage picked Seaclamp up off of the ground, planning to smash the Cloyster against the stone walls of Victory Road. Seaclamp responded by opening his shell, then shutting it...right on Rampage's head. Rampage stumbled around blindly and roared loud enough to wake the dead. Fenris took the opportunity to crawl away and get his strength back. The ground rumbled and cracked as Rampage struggled. Over time Rampage simply used his sheer strength to pull Seaclamp open and remove him from around his head. Then Rampage slammed Seaclamp closed, and the horn on Rampage's muzzle, much to Kyle's shock, started rotating just like a drill. "'Is 'orn's cybernetic," David announced proudly. "It cost me a small fortune, it did...but nothin' I couldn't steal from a few 'alfwit trainers." Rampage proceeded to drill a few holes in Seaclamp's shell. Inside the shell, Seaclamp's jet-black, spherical core rolled and dodged, trying desperately to avoid the biting point of the drill. Eventually Fenris came up behind Rampage and charged like a freight train, hitting Rampage in the back with a Take Down attack. It did not take Rampage down at all, but it did take his attention away from Seaclamp. Kyle, mentally considering his options, recalled his shy Cloyster. He frantically thought about his next move while Fenris used Agility and gave the lumbering Rampage the run-around. "I grow weary of these foolish games!" Goliath snorted at David from his position in front of Victory Road. "Having Rampage slaughter the boy's Pokémon is hardly one of our mission objectives. And Rampage can not even handle that, it seems! Look at how easily his attention is diverted!" "Relax, Goliath," David responded. "We'll get to the mission. But for now, just sit back and enjoy Rampage's show." And on the sidelines, Torrasque pointed out to Jessica and Kyle, "Aurora Beam didn't stop him, but it did slow him down." "We need a better ice attack, then," Jessica decided. "Leviathan, go!" With that, she released the arrogant Dragonite that had once belonged to Kyle. Leviathan turned on his translator. Rampage stopped trying to follow the swift Fenris, and turned to look at the new challenger. Rampage let out a roar that sent shockwaves through the ground. "Lookie here," commented Leviathan, who was never intimidated by a battle against a larger opponent. "Poor little lonely rhinosaur wants some attention." "One of these days I'll get a catch phrase too," Torrasque grunted to no one in particular. "Give him your Ice Beam!" Jessica called out. "I'm all over it," Leviathan responded. He watched and waited as Rampage dashed toward him and prepared to take Leviathan's head off with one left hook. Just milliseconds before Rampage's left fist could strike Leviathan, the Dragonite expectorated a giant blue energy blast which encased the fist, as well as Rampage's whole body, in a thick layer of ice. The Rhydon was frozen solid. "Feel free to shower me with applause," Leviathan said to his compatriots. There was silence for a while. Jessica simply recalled Leviathan. "Enough of this waiting! I will complete the mission myself!" Goliath bellowed. He pulled off one of the larger pieces of his stone armor (a piece which was mystically replaced seconds later) and threw it at Kyle's head. The projectile never reached its target, though. Thanatos used Psychic and telekinetically stopped the stone dead in the air. He stuck his phantasmal tongue out at Goliath. "I suppose I should have expected that...but let us see if you can stop an Earthquake!" Goliath jumped roughly ten feet straight up into the air, and slammed back to the ground with such force that a massive and quite visible shockwave was kicked up. The shockwave sent David flying backwards, but it did the same to Kyle and Jessica. Torrasque and Atropos hovered just above the wave and Fenris jumped over it while Thanatos, who forgot he could fly out of the way, was blasted several feet into the air by the ground attack. Right before it dissipated, the wave managed to crack the ice that was detaining Rampage. When Rampage burst forth from his icy prison, the first thing he saw was a dazed Thanatos crashing to earth and getting to his feet. Rampage's eyes went scarlet. "RHYYYYY!!!" he boomed. He immediately tried to Stomp on Thanatos, and when that failed, Rampage used Rock Slide and hammered the Gengar with a barrage of rocks that were literally coming out of nowhere. "Gennn garrr..." Thanatos groaned. Even for a sentient collection of gas, he displayed injury with remarkable clarity. He keeled over and passed out. Fenris used Flamethrower after Flamethrower on Rampage, hoping the ice had at least weakened the beast, but he was unable to even singe Rampage's hide. Fenris used Agility again and dived out of the way the second Rampage came barreling toward him. "The Gengar is down!" Goliath pointed out to David. "Use your Ultra Ball!" "When there's somethin' strange in your neighborhood...who ya gonna call?" David said to himself, as he wound up to throw an Ultra Ball at the phantom Thanatos. "Team Rocket!" he answered his own query, as he let the Ultra Ball fly. At roughly the same second that David threw the ball, Rampage landed a jab on Fenris's muzzle. The tremendous force of the blow sent Fenris flying right into the path of the Ultra Ball. The spheroid hit Fenris in the head, opened, beamed the Arcanine inside, snapped shut, and fell to the ground. Fenris was too weak to offer any resistance. "You captured the incorrect Pokémon!" Goliath noted. Kyle dashed to grab the ball containing Fenris, only to be backhanded by Rampage and knocked out cold. Torrasque tried next, but Rampage was intent on protecting his master's property, and tailwhipped the headstrong Scyther away. Cathode just hid behind a rock and shivered with fright. David rushed in, grabbed the full Ultra Ball, attached it to his belt, then recalled Rampage. "Still, catchin' an Arcanine is pretty good, mate!" he said to Goliath. "Hmmm...second order of business...the girl!" Jessica, being torn between running for her life and staying by Kyle's side, was making no progress. But before David could grab Jessica by the arm, Atropos jumped into David's path. "Stand aside, bugger! I'm a man on a mission," he snapped at Atropos. He tried to shove the stubborn Atropos out of the way, but Atropos blocked his advance. "Jessica's under my protection," Atropos stated. She kicked David in the face. David backed away slightly. "Goliath!" he called. Goliath charged at Atropos and made an attempt to Tackle her. But somehow he passed right through her and fell to the ground. Atropos vanished, only to reappear five feet away. "A teleporting insect?" Goliath wondered. As he got up, he noticed Atropos standing right behind him. "It's called Double Team," Atropos explained. "Simply put, it lets me pull off interesting tricks like this..." With that, she seemed to split into two Scyther. "Which one's the real me?" the twin Scyther both said. Goliath lunged at the Atropos on the left, and it disappeared mere milliseconds before he hit it, reappearing inches from where it had been before. Goliath then dived at the Atropos on the right, and again struck only terra firma. "They...are both illusions?" "Wrong answer...they're both real," the twin Atroposes responded. "I'm moving at a speed faster than the speed at which your brain processes visual information, creating the illusion that I'm in two places at once. Neat trick, huh? Now you know how it's done. Not that it matters..." Before Goliath could even bat an eye, Atropos Slashed him right across his vulnerable face, leaving a bloody streak along his muzzle. Then she simply unleashed a flurry of blindingly fast kicks upon Goliath's head, eventually sending him staggering backwards. By that point, Atropos's Double Team had worn off. Goliath saw his chance to attack, and David saw his chance to capture Jessica. While Goliath hit Atropos directly in the thorax with a Rock Throw attack, David took hold of Jessica's wrist and made a mad dash toward the entrance to Victory Road with her. This did not go unnoticed by Atropos, however. Ailing from but hardly weakened by Goliath's rock attack, Atropos backflipped away from Goliath and then Slashed at David...cutting his left hand off at the wrist. Jessica was freed, but she fell to the ground and screamed bloody murder when she saw David's severed hand still clinging to her wrist. Her adrenaline level rising, Jessica felt a pair of Scyther wings beginning to sprout from her shoulder blades. She shook the dead hand loose and backed away from it, then pulled off her jacket to free her rapidly growing wings. David's cry of pain was almost as loud as Rampage's roar. He clutched at the bloody stump where his left hand had once been and grimaced, then started wavering, the pain affecting his balance. "I...can still...(ungh)...kill...the boy!" he choked, his voice strained. With his remaining hand, he picked up one of the discarded pieces of Goliath's armor and charged toward the fallen Kyle, planning to crush the boy's head underneath the stone. Atropos reused Double Team and used the insane speed boost to kick the furious David in the spine, knocking him flat on his face. Then she stood atop his back, keeping Goliath at bay by threatening to skewer David. "Master...I...(urk)...failed ya!" David yelled, raising his remaining hand. Atropos was quite surprised by David's shout, and even more surprised by the fact that, seconds later, both David and Goliath vanished in a purple flash. "How...how did he do that?" Jessica wondered. Her wings had grown to their full size, and her left forearm was starting to turn into a Scyther blade as she saw David's dead hand sitting in front of her and twitching eerily. "I'm more concerned with how you're doing that," Atropos commented, pointing to one of Jessica's wings. "Errr...I'll explain it while we try to revive Kyle and the others," Jessica said. She got up from the ground, slowly caught the shivering Cathode, then went about trying to jolt Kyle, Torrasque, and Thanatos back into consciousness. I think that's about as gory as one of my stories gets...no wonder I couldn't live up to Roberto's portrayal of Rampage. ^_^ --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.