From: Karnivax <karnivax@my-deja.com> Subject: [PW!] The Long Kiss Goodbye Date: Wednesday, October 27, 1999 2:03 PM I finally got around to posting this... --THE LONG KISS GOODBYE-- Part 1 by Karnivax Done with the battle against Luthor the megalomaniacal Slowpoke, Jessica and Espio carefully and quietly approached the rock on which the saddened Kyle sat with the Pokéball containing the body of Torrasque. Jessica knew consoling Kyle was in order, but she had little to no idea on how to go about it. She looked up at the night sky briefly as she approached. The view of the stars above was completely unobstructed. Jessica sighed. The setting was so romantic...and yet the pervasive mood in the vicinity of Kyle's metamorphic chair was nothing short of depressing. "Mind if I sit down?" Jessica asked. "No...go ahead," Kyle gloomily replied. Jessica sat down beside Kyle, and for a while there was silence, save for Thanatos the Gengar, who was floating nearby and tuning up his illusionary guitar, and for Cathode the Pikachu, whose crying had become incremental sniffling. Espio the Charizard was simply leaning against a nearby tree and thinking about how he would feel in Kyle's shoes. Since one of Espio's multiple personalities was that of a manic- depressive, making people feel better was not his forte. Luckily for the rather stumped Jessica, Kyle provided a cue. "Torrasque...he knew he was about to get everything he wanted in life...a wife, a family, those steel scythes he always asked me for...and he gave all of it up..." (here Kyle paused to wipe tears away from his face) "...to save a group that he didn't even know all that well...and his trainer, who treated him like crap all these years." "Being a martyr is never an easy thing, Kyle," Jessica pointed out. "He sacrificed his whole future to ensure ours. And that has to be worth *something* in the next life. I'm certain he's off to a better place... "And consider this...like he said before he passed on, he could have easily ran off and left us all to get obliterated, but as a direct result of his training under you, he stuck around and did what he knew was the right thing. You're not giving yourself enough credit as a trainer, Kyle." Jessica rested her head on Kyle's shoulder. There was a long pause. "In any case...I'm not going to be responsible for the death of any more Pokémon," Kyle proclaimed. "I'm healing up my Pokémon at the nearest Pokécenter, then I'm returning home and setting my Pokémon free...unless you want any of them." Jessica stood up in surprise. "I can't believe what I'm hearing!" she exclaimed. "You've proven yourself a good enough trainer to make a hero out of a violin-playing, couch-potato mantis, and now you're giving up training?" Kyle looked up. "You heard correctly." "But...if you're giving up training...then we may never see each other again..." Kyle contemplated that thought briefly, and then made a very impulsive move. He put his arms around Jessica and gave her a passionate kiss on the lips. At first Jessica was quite shocked by this, but she got swept up in the moment very quickly. She closed her eyes, put her arms around Kyle, and revelled in the experience. When the kiss ended after roughly ten seconds, Kyle went on, "Who was it who said ''tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all?'" He let go of Jessica. "Don't worry, Jess. I'm willing to bet there are about a million other trainers out there who could easily replace me...as long as you're in human form, you're, like, practically every teenage guy's prayers answered." He started to walk off in the direction of the Pokécenter at the base of the nearby Mount Moon. "I'll never forget you, Jessica..." "GYAOOOOO!!!" "...Uh, Jessica, what was that?" Jessica looked up at the starry sky, and flying gracefully overhead was a tremendous blue bird whose tail feathers left a sparkling wake. Jessica quickly activated her Pokédex. "Articuno," the Pokédex explained. "A legendary Pokémon. Easily the most benign of the three Legendary Birds, this one-of-a-kind Pokémon is famous for rescuing wayward travelers. It commands ice- based powers strong enough to freeze entire cities. Like Zapdos and Moltres, Articuno does not lay eggs and will often misappropriate and incubate eggs of smaller bird Pokémon such as Pidgey and Spearow. Articuno feeds primarily on large insects such as Pinsir and Butterfree, both alive and dead. See entries for Zapdos and Moltres." "That's weird," Kyle commented. "My Pokédex said that Zapdos could lay eggs. And it also said that there were male and female Zapdos." He thought about that for a second. "Of course, that could be because my Pokédex is an antiquated, ten-year-old piece of junk that bases its information on legends..." "Kachuuu..." Cathode whimpered, seemingly in agreement. "That Articuno doesn't look terribly benign," Jessica pointed out. The giant bird had a decidedly icy glare on its face. And then suddenly the bird started to descend upon Kyle. Thanatos, not particularly wanting to be part of what was about to happen, went invisible. --THE LONG KISS GOODBYE-- Part 2 by Karnivax "It must smell Torrasque," Kyle sighed. "I am *so* not in the mood for this. I couldn't catch Zapdos or Moltres. This bird isn't going to be any different." Articuno swooped down with claws outstretched, and Kyle - with Cathode clinging to his head for dear life - lunged mightily out of the way as the bird tried to ensnare him. He did not send out any of his Pokémon, or even tell Espio or Thanatos to help him. Having missed its target, Articuno turned around and started off on a second attack run. "Pika-ga-ga-ga!" Cathode nervously cried out, as he pointed up at Articuno. As Jessica tossed a Pokéball straight in front of her, she shouted, "Magus, we've got a bogey at twelve o' clock! A really *big* bogey!" Magus the Magmar burst from the Pokéball, and looked right away at the massive blue bird that was about to divebomb Kyle. "Magus, Flamethrower!" "Mag! Mar!" Magus took a deep breath, then exhaled a hose-like stream of a lighter fluid-like substance. He lit one finger on fire and touched the flame to the stream of fluid, and the harmless-looking fluid became a horizontal column of flame. Articuno let out an earsplitting shriek as the fire singed its feathers. It stopped short in the middle of its divebomb attack, then flew out of the range of Magus's blasts. Its attention no longer on Kyle, Articuno dived at Magus at full speed. Magus rifled off Flamethrower after Flamethrower in an attempt to stop Articuno's dive once again, but Articuno deftly dodged the waves of fire. WHAM! The earth rumbled as Articuno rammed its beak into Magus. As Articuno shoved him back, Magus jammed his claws into the dirt and eventually slowed Articuno to a stop. With Articuno in one place, Magus had enough time to wind up and land a left Fire Punch on Articuno's head. Articuno backed away. It held its wings against its head and squawked loudly in pain. "Gyaaaaao!!!" Articuno screeched. "Mag!" Magus used a Flamethrower to boost him into the air, and landed two right Fire Punch jabs on Articuno's beak, and a devastating left Fire Punch uppercut on Articuno's chin. The ice-bird reeled, then ran as far away from Magus as it could get while still being within fighting range. Articuno had become quite desperate in its search for food, and it was not going to retreat. "We're going to win!" Jessica exclaimed. "Magus, Psychic!" For the second time that day, Magus did not have time to fully charge up for his Psychic attack before the enemy struck. Articuno opened his beak and spat out an Ice Beam. Magus tried to counter with Flamethrower, but the frigid blast easily smothered his fire attack and blanketed the surprised Magmar in a dense layer of frost. Articuno then strode over to the virtually immobilized Magus and used Peck. Magus took the blow right on the skull. Being at level one hundred, Magus survived the fearsome Peck rather easily. But he fainted mere seconds after being hit with it; for while his attack power was top-notch, Magus's defense left a lot to be desired. Its only threat out of the way, Articuno charged toward Kyle and knocked him down with one icy wing. With one of its four-clawed feet, it then snatched Torrasque's Pokéball from Kyle and eyed the spheroid curiously. "Gya?" Articuno sheepishly queried, wondering how to get to the food inside the ball. Jessica shrugged helplessly as she recalled Magus. Since Magus was Jessica's strongest Pokémon, none of Jessica's other Pokémon would stand a chance against the Legendary Bird. "That's the body of my best friend you've got there," Kyle snarled at Articuno. "And I'll be damned if I'm just going to let you make a snack out of it! Cloyster, attack!!!" Kyle released Seaclamp the Cloyster, who did not even open its shell until several seconds after being released. "Cloysss?" Seaclamp wondered, finally opening its shell a crack. Kyle could tell from Seaclamp's high-pitched voice that the gender- switching bivalve had gone back to being female. "You're strong against ice, and that bird should be weak against it!" Kyle shouted at Seaclamp. "Use Ice Beam!" "Why would an ice-bird be weak against ice?!" Jessica cried, not sure if Kyle realized that he had not given up on training after all. "When my dad was a trainer, he used to track Zapdos!" Kyle responded, as Seaclamp nervously started firing Ice Beams up at the fast-flying Articuno. "One of his observations was that Zapdos is weak against other electric-types! Its secondary type - flying - mostly supersedes its primary type in determining its weaknesses. Therefore all three of them must be weak against electric, ice, and rock attacks, even if one of them's a thunder-bird and one of them's an ice-bird!" Seaclamp's Ice Beams were missing Articuno, but not by much. As soon as Articuno started an attack run to hit Seaclamp, one of the Cloyster's Ice Beams found its mark. The Beam struck Articuno's right wing, freezing the wing solid. No longer able to fly, Articuno dropped Torrasque's Pokéball and made a painful crash landing. As Articuno lay spreadeagled on the ground, Kyle approached the majestic bird and reclaimed Torrasque's Pokéball. Then Kyle just sort of stood there for a few seconds, observing the bird more intently now that it had stopped fighting. Articuno was still conscious, but it was not trying to get away; Jessica surmised that it had either broken a leg or it was simply accepting its defeat. Kyle recalled Seaclamp. "Uh, Kyle? It was your Pokémon that knocked Articuno down," Jessica noted. "Aren't you going to catch it?" "I used my last Pokéball to catch that Nidoking," Kyle explained. "You can take Articuno, I guess." "Kyle...you're forgetting about my Scyther transformations," Jessica noted. "I don't exactly want a Pokémon that's higher than me on the food chain." She kicked up a cloud of dirt in frustration. "And I don't have any spare Pokéballs either." "Well...you still should take something home from this," Kyle reasoned. He searched the battlefield briefly and picked up one of the sparkling blue feathers that had fallen from Articuno. He took the feather - which was actually cold to the touch - and put it in Jessica's hair as a decoration of sorts. Kyle and Jessica embraced again, and while they were distracted, Articuno slowly got back to its feet and hobbled away with its frozen wing sticking straight out. Food had been very scarce lately, and Articuno was feeling more power- drained than ever. The fact that Articuno had just spent much of its energy battling Mage did not help its situation. The bird was amazed that even with its powers at their weakest, no trainer had succeeded in catching it. "What was I thinking, even *suggesting* giving up training?" Kyle went on. "Jess, no matter what happens, I'm sticking with you from now on." Jessica kissed Kyle on the cheek. "I knew you'd come around, Kyle!" she happily exclaimed. "So...to the Pokécenter?" "Yeah..." Kyle then seemed to stare off into space. "And after that, we should definitely arrange a proper funeral for Torrasque..." "He saved my life," Jessica noted. "I'll make sure he gets the best funeral money can buy." With that, the couple, Cathode, Espio, and Thanatos went about plotting their course to the Pokécenter at the bottom of Mount Moon. No, people, I'm NOT planning on cloning an Articuno with that feather. Sure, I'm a semi-idiot, but the point is, I'm not a COMPLETE idiot. O.o;; --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/ Before you buy.