Subject: [PW!] Getting the Chills Date: Sun, 12 Dec 1999 00:45:10 -0500 From: RobfromVoid <RobfromVoid@prodigy.net> Organization: Prodigy Internet http://www.prodigy.com Newsgroups: alt.games.nintendo.pokemon Minax sits on the edge of the Vermilion dock one night, her legs dangling down the side without touching the water. She has her hands pressed on the wooden planks behind her. Minax is wearing her black boots and blue jeans, and she is still wearing dirty white bandages around her chest instead of her rubbery black top. She is recovering from the day when Sarah Jane attacked her in Saffron City, which is why she has been laying low for so long. She came to Vermilion City to see if the healing powers of the beach exist, and she has been feeling better, though she attributes it to time, not the sea. She suddenly shivers. "It's getting cold." Minax notes to Omelette the Chansey, who was standing next to her on the dock admiring the Christmas cruise liners leaving Vermilion, but is now rolled up into a trembling little pink ball that is trying to fall asleep. Minax notices that the Pokemon she considers to be her baby is cold, so she grabs onto where the bandages are tied at her waist and unwraps them upwards. She stops unwinding the bandages before indecently exposing herself, and cuts the bandages there. Minax folds the bandages into a blanket for her Chansey and covers Omelette, who stops trembling and falls asleep. Minax starts shivering since she is even colder now that her abdomen is uncovered. What really gives her the chills, however, is that she was willing to expose her belly button to the cold weather just so a Pokemon can be warm, "Why don't I see Omelette and Zubat like all other Pokemon? I see them and treat them as if they were human. Not only human, either, humans who I care about... and that's rarer than a wild Clefable." Minax pauses, shakes her head, swings her legs onto the dock, and stands up. She clenches her fists in anger at herself, "Why do I sound like an afterschool special? I'm Minax. I'm one of the most vicious villainesses there ever was! I bet Omelette would sleep through my murdering a Pokemon if I don't use my gun..." Minax picks up her rolled up Chansey, deposits her in her sack, and unsheathes her long skinning knife, "Now, to find a victim." Minax wanders through Vermilion City, glancing at the bright Christmas lights set up at some homes. They only bring back bad memories of her Christmas celebrations, but she suppresses these feelings whenever they try to emerge, so that she doesn't get out of the urge to kill a Pokemon to prove to herself that she is still a villainess despite the motherly way she acts towards Omelette. She finds a home where the lights are on, but no cars are outside, "Hmm. It's the tell tale signs of a kid being home alone. As long as the kid's name isn't Macaulay, I should be able to sneak into the house without any problems." Minax steps up to the door of the house and is about to press the doorbell, when a ringing is heard. She is startled, "I thought you had to touch doorbells before they rang. This must be new sensory technology for germ-a-phobes." The ringing is heard again, despite that Minax's finger is no where near the doorbell this time, and it is followed by muffled crying. Minax looks down at her belt and realizes that the noises are coming from her sack. She opens it up wider and pulls out her ringing Communicator. Once the creator of offensive noise is away, Omelette stops crying and tries to fall asleep again. The red-haired Rocket runs away from the house and ducks into the bushes to answer the call. When she flips her device open, a shadowy figure is seen stroking a Persian. Minax raises one eyebrow, "Hello, Boss. What do you want this fine evening?" "I've just received reports that the Saffron Police is looking for you." The Boss' digitized voice doesn't mask his anger, "What's worse than the fact that you let yourself be recognized is what you did to get recognized - you murdered a Fearow. Why didn't you steal it and send it to Headquarters? You're a member of Team Rocket; start acting like one." Minax rolls her eyes, "You want me to try to steal one measly unevolved Pokemon and get blasted into the sky every single day? No deal. I tried that for a few years, and it didn't work for me. Besides, I didn't kill a Fearow. It was probably Doppler pretending to be me again, just like when I killed... I mean, when *he* killed that one girl's Butterfree..." Minax hopes that the Boss doesn't know that she killed Doppler with a salty Pokeball, knowing that she'd be in double trouble for lying. "That makes sense." The Boss's figure nods, and his Persian hisses at the mention of the evil Ditto, "Doppler tried to kill me at my own Gym just the other day. Perhaps setting you up was part of one of his master plans." Minax furrows her brow, wondering why the Boss is lying. She figures that he's trying to trick her into saying she killed the Ditto, but she knows that she can't be caught in a lie, so she keeps on lying, "Yes, Doppler's always up to something..." "If he's not fighting off a cyber raptor in Celadon City, he's trying to destroy a quasi-omnipotent giant Nidoking outside Mount Moon..." The shadows don't conceal the Boss' anger, "...and now it seems like he's trying to infiltrate Team Rocket." Minax bites her lip. Cyber raptor? Quasi-omnipotent Nidoking? She thinks that either the poor old man is losing his marbles, or he's still trying to trick her - but there's no way he's telling the truth since Doppler is dead. Either way, she's not about to snap and say she killed Doppler, "I *will* kill Doppler before I let a Pokemon become the leader of Team Rocket." The Boss nods, and a smile can be discerned on his shadowy face, "I am glad to know that you're still loyal to me, Minax. I have a feeling that my own Rockets want to stab me in the back. If Brutus killed Julius, then it's quite possible that an ignoramus like Shard could try to kill me." The Boss strokes his Persian, and waits for Minax to say something, but she can't speak since she's too busy stifling laughter at the thought of Shard as an assassin. The Boss continues, "I should have known it wasn't you that killed that Fearow. It says in your file that you recruited a new Rocket that day - someone called Oz. Is that so?" Minax smiles, not only because she has an alibi but also because she's finally able to take credit for her work, "Yes I did, sir." "So you admit it!" The Boss points an accusing finger at the screen, "I checked his profile and all he's stolen since the day you initiated him is a Rattata. If he doesn't steal a rare Pokemon soon, you're going to be in big trouble for letting him in, and since you just told me that it was you who recruited him, you can't blame it on Doppler. Merry Christmas." The Boss laughs and the Communicator goes blank. Minax places her Communicator in her sack carefully, so that it doesn't wake up Omelette. She glances at the house she was going to sneak into, and shakes her head, "I have to stop killing needlessly. I can't blame everything I kill on Doppler. Sooner or later, the Boss is going to find out that he's dead..." Minax walks away from the house, to find a nice place she can sleep in to avoid the cold. As she walks, she thinks about the way the Boss talked about Doppler... it was almost as if he wasn't lying about the cyber raptor and Nidoking. The thought that Doppler might still be alive out there gives Minax the chills. -Minax