From: Adrian Tymes <wingcat@pacbell.net> Subject: Re: [PW!] Getting the Chills Date: Sunday, December 12, 1999 7:12 PM RobfromVoid wrote: > 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...# Without even looking, the Rocket stabs backwards, feeling her knife sink deep into flesh. #Do you really imagine that you have slain the Doppler?# The voice seems a bit robotic, almost artificial. A bit puzzled, she turns around. Impaled on the end of her blade is a Wigglytuff, its solid bulk belying its balloon appearance. She looks around for a bit, before the dead pokemon glows softly. #What is he, to you?# "Dead. Just like you'll be, as soon as you bleed enough." Part of her subconscious warns that her victim is not actually bleeding, but that part is promptly ignored. #Oh. But you are wrong. You see, this body was already dead, but Doppler is alive.# "Yeah, right. If you were dead, how are you speaking to me?" #The Doppler has many followers who have given their lives for his cause. He has found ways to let them continue to serve even with that handicap. Now that he has been shown that essence of life in isolation, he wishes to manufacture it to his specifications.# "Kind of hard to do, since I killed him." #Did you? If so, he survived. Or maybe he did not, but he pulled himself back just as he later pulled his followers back. I do not know, and it does not matter. He is alive now.# "..." #He wishes to use his new knowledge to enhance you, to make you superior to all that currently lives. He has already made several prototypes to that end, of which I am one of the few that existed for more than a few minutes. I wish the Doppler would take care of what he created, or at least properly dispose of us.# "Are you saying you *want* to die?" #That is correct. This is why I volunteered to see you. The Doppler only wishes some cells of yours, in order to create a new body for you, and in service to the Doppler I can not allow myself to fail and survive. I had hoped you knew of a way to kill that which never lived as you have. Your knife will not suffice.# Minax lets the Wigglytuff body slide off her knife, watching it thud to the floor with fear - no, clinical interest, she mentally insists to herself - almost as if she had never killed before. Instinctively, she goes to wipe off the blade, until she notices there is no blood on it. She wipes it anyway, just as a precaution. #So, you do not. How unfortunate. But maybe you can at least stop him from creating more like me.# "What are you saying?" #I want the pain to end. He created us as pieces of his image of you, modified. We love him. He loves only you.# "..." A map plays out in Minax's mind - one that leads to a cavern at the base of Mt. Moon. #When you are ready, that is where his machines are. This may help you with your boss, too: some of the equipment was stolen from Giovanni's labs, though he would never publically admit to having them, nor would Doppler admit to raiding the gym merely to steal them. Not since machines like them were used to create Mewtwo.# "..." Even Minax has her wierdness limits, and they are rapidly approaching. #So come, if you wish to prevent Minaxtwo from existing. But come alone: you may be able to enter, but even an army of Giovanni's would not find the place, not even if they scanned your mind.# The Wigglytuff's glow fades. Minax can sense the spirit leaving. And then she really gets the chills...when the edge of a nearby roof breaks, dumping a large, but mostly harmless, pile of snow on her. The small nick in her neck that lets a few blood drops out goes unfelt amidst the sudden cold, and the spectral globe containing the blood drifts away like the wind... TBC?