From: Karnivax <karnivax@my-deja.com> Subject: [PW!] [LEAGUE] Interlude Date: Sunday, December 19, 1999 6:18 AM This story's just my way of giving Jessica's Lapras a total overhaul while I still can... ^^; --INTERLUDE-- Part 1 by Karnivax His face obscured by insufficient light, the Justice of the Peace moved along with his line of questioning. "Do you, Kyle Joseph Richter, take this woman to be your lawful wedded wife, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, for as long as you both shall live?" Kyle looked over at Jessica, who was in full wedding garb. "I do," Kyle said enthusiastically. "And do you, Jessica Anne Sullivan, take this man to be your lawful wedded husband, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, for as long as you both shall live?" Jessica smirked. "I do." "Then, by the power vested in me, I pronounce you man and wife. You may kiss the bride." Kyle lifted Jessica's veil to land a kiss on her lips, then hesitated. "Jess, what's with the costume?" he queried. Jessica sweatdropped. "What are you talking about? This is a wedding dress!" "I'm sorry, but I don't believe you." Kyle put her hand on Jessica's shoulder, and suddenly, Jessica's entire bridal outfit fell apart and turned into dust, leaving Jessica very indecently exposed. Mortified, Jessica covered herself as best she could. The audience at the wedding let out a collective gasp. A few horrified people got up from their seats and ran screaming from the chapel. "How could you do that?!" Jessica shrieked at Kyle. Jessica's face was as red as a stop light. "How could you think you could fool me?" Kyle pointed at a spot just above Jessica's navel. Fearing that her lack of clothing had just become the least of her concerns, Jessica moved her arms out of the way, looked down, and saw the exact spot Kyle was pointing at. At that spot, there was a significant tear in Jessica's skin...but there was no blood. As Jessica inspected the tear, she noted that her skin felt an awful lot like rubber. She put her fingers inside the tear and felt something rigid and scaly, like lizard skin. It dawned on her that her human form was actually a costume. Part of her was relieved to know that she was not actually naked. Most of her was galvanized by the realization that the costume was evidently concealing something inhuman. "You've kept up your deception for long enough, Jessica!" Kyle thundered. He reached into the tear and pulled Jessica's rubber costume apart. "Ah-ha! I knew it all along! You're just a Pokémon in human's clothing!" Underneath the human disguise, Jessica was one hundred percent Scyther. "This...this isn't possible!" she shrieked, staring at her blades. How a Scyther had fit perfectly into a human costume was a formidable mystery indeed. "I'm human! You hear me?! I'm not...a...scy...ther...scyyy..." Jessica's humanity was slipping away by the second. The shadowy Justice of the Peace came into full view. It was Diedrich Starke, the diabolical man Jessica remembered from the Cinnabar Island Laboratories. "I made you what you are!" Diedrich chuckled, before regaling Jessica with reverberating laughter. Jessica fell to her knees and blacked out as what remained of her human mind took a back seat to animal instincts... "Jessica, wake up! How were you able to doze off in a place like this?" "Wha...?" Jessica snapped out of her horrific reverie and opened her eyes to reality. She was still sitting in the Grass Field audience for the Pokémon League Games. Kyle was standing before her. Somehow Jessica had fallen asleep in her seat after the round ended...and as she found out moments later, Cathode the Pikachu had fallen asleep in her lap. "Ungh...stadium hot dogs will do strange things to a person." "We've got some time before the next round," Kyle pointed out. "We have to get to the Pokécenter. In terms of Pokémon that are trustworthy *and* conscious, Ares and Grendel are the only Pokémon I have left. I'd ask to borrow one of yours, but I can't risk it being disobedient..." "Where's Daggoth?" Jessica wondered. "Errr...he's going to be...occupied...for a while," Kyle replied. "Oh yeah, now I remember. What did Jeanette think about all this?" "Assuming Daggoth and his mate are doing what I think they're doing right now, Jeanette says Nidoqueen will be having babies within six months...once that happens, Jeanette calls me, and we get half of the babies. Rounded down." "I've always wanted a Nidoran. They're so cute..." Jessica gushed. Cathode woke up upon hearing the C word. "Piiika?" Jessica scratched Cathode's chin. "That won't be a problem. Jeanette says the Nidos are real prolific breeders...like rabbits. In a few years we may be up to our ears in the venomous little beasties." Jessica got up from her seat with Cathode. "Well, off to the Pokécenter, I guess..." Kyle, Jessica, and Cathode headed down the stadium stairs to the Grass Field, then from the field to the in- stadium Pokécenter. When Kyle and Jessica entered the Grass Field Pokécenter, however, the situation was the same as it was back at the Ice Field Pokécenter: standing room only. There were trainers practically stacked on top of one another. Kyle asked the resident Nurse Joy how much of a wait there would be. Joy responded, "You might as well bring a sleeping bag." The duo left the Pokécenter in despair. "I could chance it and put one of David Bradley's Pokémon on my team," Kyle suggested, "or..." "How about I lend you my Lapras?" Jessica asked. "Considering I haven't sent him out yet, he *should* obey you..." "That Lapras is out of his mind," Kyle noted. "Still...ice Pokémon have a tendency to kick much ass. I'll do it." Jessica reached for the Pokéball containing her as of yet unnamed Lapras. She accidentally knocked the Pokéball off of her belt. The spheroid opened, and out came Lapras. There was a long period of silence at that point. Lapras stifled a yawn. "Funny, I remember him being a lot more...talkative," Jessica remarked. "And a lot more insane," Kyle added. _You humans are so...superficial,_ Lapras snorted telepathically. _Mere sight and sound is enough to convince you of *anything*._ "He...isn't nuts?" Kyle figured. _Congratulations! Give the man a cigar,_ Lapras retorted. _What you deemed 'nuts' was my ticket to escaping that miserable laboratory...as well as the wild. What self-respecting scientist would want to keep a Lapras that rambles incoherently all day long?_ "Wait...the wild? Why would you want to escape the wild?" Jessica asked. _Oh, I don't know,_ Lapras caustically grunted. _Maybe to get away from the harpoons of poachers. Maybe to break the tedium of swimming back and forth ceaselessly. Maybe just to find out for myself if *all* humans are belligerent, unfeeling cretins. You tell me._ "I liked him better when he rambled," Kyle admitted. "You know, Jess, I get the feeling that -" _- I won't fight for you,_ Lapras finished. _And you're exactly correct. Perhaps you humans deserve some credit after all._ "Well, if you won't fight, what are you good for?" Kyle queried. _What gave you the idea that I won't fight?_ Lapras shot back. _It's *you*, Kyle, that I object to. I have no qualms about fighting for Jessica here._ "How did you know our -" Jessica started. "Never mind." "All Pokémon naturally like Jessica," Kyle grunted. "What's her secret?" _You know, this is just a hunch, but I'd say that the fact she can *be* a Pokémon may have something to do with it,_ Lapras snapped. _Plus there's the fact that between the two of you, Jessica has fewer defective chromosomes..._ Kyle ground his teeth. --INTERLUDE-- Part 2 by Karnivax "It's not like I'm a Pokémon all that often," Jessica noted. "It's a power that, frankly, I could do without." Lapras rolled his eyes back. _How annoyingly...typical._ "And what's *that* supposed to mean?" Jessica wondered. _You are so frightened by the concept of individuality. In your case, Jessica, fate has bestowed upon you a boon that gives you numerous advantages over other humans. But do you revel in your gift? Of course you don't. You fear and revile your power, for the sole reason that it would alienate you from the rest of your species. I would think that, as an adolescent, you would be accustomed to alienation by now...but perhaps I misjudge you._ "For a telepath, you're not very good at mindreading," Jessica shot back. "That isn't even close to the reason I hate my power. I don't hate my power because I fear that something *will* happen. I hate it because of something that *already* happened." Jessica reached into her jacket and removed a small circular device that was no larger than a poker chip. The device had a small red knob on it. _An adrenal synthesizer,_ Lapras noted. _Correct?_ "Exactly," Jessica responded. Lapras looked on proudly. _And you say I'm no good at mindreading._ Kyle asked the obvious question: "What is an adrenal synthesizer?" "Two months after I turned sixteen - in other words, two months after the lab accident at Bill's - Bill got the idea that maybe a time would come when I would actually *want* to be in Scyther form," Jessica explained. "So he made this device for me. In short, I attach it to my arm, and the more I turn the knob to the right, the more Scyther- like I become. I turn the knob back to the left, and I'm human again." "You mean...all this time you had a device that could control your power?!" Kyle cried. "It doesn't offer as much control as you might think," Jessica responded. "If I reach Scyther form naturally, I can't just slap this thing on and change myself back. The synthesizer can only change me back if it was what caused me to transform in the first place." "That kinda sucks..." "Kachuuu," Cathode added. "Well, anyway, after a few weeks of having the device, curiosity got the best of me," Jessica went on. "I decided to experiment with my new form. So one day I attached the synthesizer and turned it all the way up. "Unfortunately, I hadn't considered how animal instincts would factor into the equation. I had turned the device up so far that once I was in Scyther mode, my human mind was reduced to a spectator. With my instincts in full control, I took up residence in the tall grasses outside Cerulean and killing whatever small animals I could for food. "After about two months of living as a feral animal, word apparently got out to the people of Cerulean that there was a Scyther running around. Your typical Cerulean trainer has no idea what a Scyther is. So before long, trainers were trying to catch me at every turn. I must have gained a ton of experience fighting them all off... "However, I couldn't keep defending myself forever. Eventually a college-age trainer who also happened to be one of the biggest jackasses on the planet sent a Magmar to battle me. I lost big time, and the guy caught me in a Pokéball. "Now, this particular trainer seemed to want to raise his team not just to fight, but to kill as well. He put all of his Pokémon through horrific torture to toughen them up..." Here Kyle noticed tears starting to well up in Jessica's eyes. "He kept me chained to a tree for hours on end...he'd spend at least an hour a day just standing in front of me...whipping me, throwing rocks at me, driving nails - *sniff* - into my feet and blades...one time he - *sniff* - shackled me to a table and pulled my wings out with pliers..." Having dredged up so many painful memories, Jessica broke out crying right then and there. Kyle immediately went over to comfort her. He hugged her tight. "It's okay...it's okay...just skip that part," he said, trying to sound consoling. "How did you ever escape?" Jessica continued sobbing for a few minutes, then finally went on with her story. "After five weeks of living hell...the battery in the synthesizer went dead," she continued, choking back tears. "The trainer was so shocked to see me suddenly become human...that I was able to knock him out with a chair...and set his Pokémon free. None of the guy's clothes fit me...so, without a scrap of clothing on, I had to sneak home in the middle of the night. That was the only time I ever used the synthesizer...and I've hated my stupid power ever since." Lapras's mind was not changed by Jessica's story. _Let me see if I fully understand this. You loathe your power...all because you turned a little red dial a few too many degrees?_ he queried. Jessica did not respond. _Tell me, Jessica: what do you do when one of your Pokémon faints in battle? Do you heal the Pokémon and let it continue fighting, or do you simply keep it in its Pokéball for the rest of its life?_ The point of Lapras's analogy struck Jessica hard. "I...let it continue fighting..." _Of course. No trainer should squander a Pokémon's whole existence over one infinitesimal failure. Just as no living being with a gift such as yours should squander their gift over a rookie mistake. Now that you know what *not* to do with that adrenal synthesizer...consider the things you *can* do with it._ Lapras paused. _Or don't. You can simply continue to treat your boon like a curse and go on as you always have, blissfully ignorant of the extent of your skills._ "Will you get off her back already?" Kyle growled at Lapras. "No...Lapras, you're right...I never even gave my power a second chance..." Jessica wiped tears away from her eyes. "I was so busy whining about how much of a freak I had become that I didn't even look for a bright side like I normally would." She lifted her head high. "But I can start un-squandering my power right now." She recalled Lapras into his Pokéball, then looked at Kyle. "Kyle, I can't guarantee you that any of my Pokémon will obey you in battle. But I *can* guarantee you that I will. I'll use the synthesizer...and I can be your third Pokémon in the next round." "No way!" Kyle cried. His hug tightened. "Jessica, you're too important to me." "I told you, I have tons of battle experience," Jessica countered. "And this time I'll put the synthesizer at a setting where I'm human enough to control what I'm doing, but Scyther enough to beat the living crap out of an enemy Pokémon." "What if my next opponent sends out a Charizard or an Onix or something like that?" Kyle responded. "You could get killed out there!" "Please, Kyle, just trust me on this one," Jessica pleaded. "I know what I'm doing. I'm fully aware of the risks. If I get in over my head, I'll retreat. I swear." Kyle crossed his arms stubbornly. "I'd rather forfeit the match." "Come on, Kyle," Jessica continued. "I know you don't want to do that." Kyle knew Jessica was never going to back down this way. He tried another strategy. "All right...you can be my Pokémon...on one condition." "Go on." "You have to turn the synthesizer up all the way. If you have any humanity left in you at all during the match, I'll feel really bad about ordering you around." Kyle was confident that that condition would make Jessica reconsider joining his team. Jessica contemplated this new development, then said, "If it'll keep you from forfeiting and ruining your lifelong dream of winning this tournament, I'll do it." She rolled up one jacket sleeve, attached the adrenal synthesizer to her arm, and turned the red knob on the synthesizer all the way to the right. "That should start to work in about fifteen minutes. Come on, let's go get the skinny on round three." His strategy defeated, Kyle let out a pathetic sigh. "All right, you don't have to turn it all the way up. I give." Jessica just smirked, having seen Kyle's bluff well in advance. She turned the knob a little to the left, then headed with Kyle and Cathode back to Indigo Stadium's main desk. That Lapras still doesn't have a name...so I'm open to suggestions... ^_^;;; --K * A * R * N * I * V * A * X-- "Our wretched society is so made that those who walk on the well-trodden path always throw stones at those who are showing a new road." --Voltaire Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ Before you buy.