From: RobfromVoid <RobfromVoid@prodigy.net> Subject: [PW!] My True Love Gave to Me: A Way To Beat Giovanni! Date: Friday, December 31, 1999 1:07 AM Nendil wrote: > A little digging brought out the box that Rilli had received. "Ice > cream," > Robert read off the label. "In this weather?" > > "No, Ice *Beam*," Rilli corrected him. "It's a TM. Your pokémon > don't know ice > moves, do they?" > > "No... this'll definitely come in handy," Robert replied with a > smile. "Thank > you for all this, Rilli!" > > "Same here," the girl laughed as she gave him a kiss. "Now shall we > go visit > our newest ghost family?" After a short walk to the hospital section of the Celadon City Pokemon Center, Robert and Rilli stand mesmerized at the strange behavior patterns of Gengar and Haunter. The male ghost is flexing the muscles on his recently formed arm for the female, who tosses her violet egg up into the air to clap wildly for a moment, only to catch the egg in her disembodied floating hands mere seconds before it drops through the bed. Gengar's grin turns upside down and he scolds his mate for her carelessness in dealing with their child. He wags his now tiny finger at her, "Gengar, gen gengar gengar!" The female Haunter rolls her eyes and juggles her egg as if it were a bowling pin, "Haunt? Haunt Haunter Haunter?!" "Gengar Gargen..." The Gengar's grin returns and he laughs through his ghostly teeth, "GEN, GEN, GEN, GENGAR!" Mithril-rama giggles quietly herself and nods, having understood what her Haunter had said, "She does have a point there..." "What are you talking about?!" Robert looks genuinely concerned about the egg that holds his Pokemon's infant, "Haunter, stop juggling that egg! Gengar, stop laughing and tell your wife to be more careful!" He looks down at Mithril-rama, notices her chuckling, and his jaw drops, "Rilli, what did your Haunter say that's made you and Gengar snap? Gengar told her to be careful with the egg, and she starts juggling it, then you two laugh? Has everyone here but me gone mad?!" Mithril-rama wipes some tears from her face and explains, "When Gengar asked that, Haunter replied: 'What? You're afraid I'll kill it?'" Rilli starts chuckling again, but Robert's expression continues to appear both confused and horrified, so she further explains, "They're Ghost Pokemon... the baby inside the egg is *already* dead. You can't kill something that's already dead!" Robert doesn't laugh at Haunter's observation, he just sighs, "Do you remember when I asked how this happened yesterday night and you replied Biology?" He shakes his head, "This isn't Biology at all. This is Necrology. How did two Ghost Pokemon manage to procreate something that is going to be born dead? That's just absurd! It would've made much more sense if your Victreebel and my Vileplume had a child... at least I know about Plant Biology. This ghost thing is new to me." "It's new to all of us..." Mithril-rama pats Robert's back and leans on his shoulder. She looks over at Gengar. Robert's Ghost Pokemon has his arms crossed and is doing a dance where he kicks his legs - a clever way to show off his new limbs to his limb-less mate. Mithril-rama smirks at the dance and looks up at Robert, "You never did tell me how Gengar evolved... In fact, you didn't tell me anything about what happened while we were apart, besides the Crooke being next to you on the Pidgeot..." Robert is about to correct Rilli on the mispronunciation of the name 'Brooke', but he figures it might anger Rilli, so he decides to talk about his experiences with Giovanni and Jeremy in Viridian City instead, "I'll start where most stories start - at the beginning. Sabrina sent me to the Viridian Gym alright, but it was plagued with Rockets that drove the decent Gym Leader called Giovanni away into hiding. They took me prisoner. When I was locked in my cell, a Ditto, so evil that he killed a Rocket right in front of me, wanted to help me escape - but Jack and Jill, remember them?, stopped me. I wasn't going to leave the Gym until Giovanni came, but they were not interested on me leaving or not - they wanted my Pokeballs... "The next thing I know, I was covered in Sleep Powder from that giant palm tree that Jill has. After a night of dreaming about you, I woke up in the Gym's prison, where Giovanni, the gracious Gym Leader, let me go free after a brief personality test! I still had my Pokeballs with me, so I figure he must have saved me and my Pokemon from those two stupid Rockets then put me back in the cell so I would be protected from any Rockets who might've still been hanging around the Gym! "Giovanni, ever benevolent, accepted my challenge for an Earth Badge right on the spot - even though he probably had more important things to do. Unfortunately I lost, but I'm still very grateful to Giovanni, though, since he saved me from Team Rocket and let me out of that prison the moment that he knew it was safe to go outside, just like I thought he would! He really is a spectacular guy, despite what that evil lying Ditto told me about him; Leader of Team Rocket, indeed. Giovanni's probably the nicest Gym Leader I've ever met! He's nothing like Lieutenant Surge and Sabrina..." Mithril-rama tries to place the Giovanni's name with a face, "Really? Huh. I always heard bad things about Giovanni... But anyway, that still doesn't explain how your Haunter evolved into Gengar..." Robert nods, "I'm getting to that... When I went to a Krazy Karaoke at Brock's Diner to eat lunch while waiting for my food, Brock forced me on stage - he's not exactly the nicest Gym Leader, not like Giovanni. My singing was interrupted by Jeremy, whose laughing was louder than the music! I challenged him to a Pokemon match - his best against my best. After eating lunch, there was a Showdown at Viridian City between his first Pokemon, Machoke, and my first Pokemon, Haunter. As I thought, Haunter won, then Jeremy offered a quick trade and trade back to evolve both our Pokemon, just like Golem evolved when I traded him with you... or you traded him with me, as the case was at the time. After the trade, Machoke and Haunter evolved into Machamp and Gengar, respectively, and even though Jeremy tried to steal Gengar, a Chansey stopped him!" "A Chansey?" Rilli blinks at the thought of such a peaceful Pokemon overpowering Jeremy, "How does that work?" Robert frowns, remembering how very violent this particular Chansey was, "She was a Chansey with a Chainsaw! She drove her weapon through Jeremy's wrist... I took back my Gengar and returned his Machamp. I don't know what happened to him after Bambi carried him away since moments later I checked my E-Mail and saw your letter. I ran to the Pidgeot Express and took the first Pidgeot over here... So what happened to *you* during the two days we were apart?" "Um..." Rilli looks down sheepishly, since she doesn't have such an adventurous tale to tell, "Sabrina sent me to the Gaming Corner, I released Haunter to help me find you, saw that she was pregnant, rushed her over to this Pokemon Center, wrote an E-mail to you while Nurse Joy delivered her egg, then kept Haunter company until you showed up last night. But I missed you just as much as you missed me, and maybe even more, since I really didn't have anything to keep me occupied." "I'm sure we missed each other equally..." Robert smiles and kisses Rilli on her forehead, "...now, I need your help to figure out how to win an Earth Badge. Giovanni might be a nice guy, but he's a tough Pokemon trainer. He has a Nidoqueen that knows Thunder, Double Kick, and I'm guessing she knows a strong Ground attack, too, since I remember that she's a Ground Pokemon. We're going to have to concentrate for hours to figure out how to..." Robert pauses and grabs his stomach when he hears it rumbling, "...we'll figure out the Pokemon I should use against Giovanni during Christmas dinner! I'm starving!" Mithril-rama pokes Robert's belly, "I remember the feeling from when I was stuck in your body. Let's find a nice place to eat, then- you can try out your new ski jacket, because it's going to be very cold. Dreaming of a White Christmas is great, but experiencing one is a different story." She shivers just thinking about how cold it'll be in the snowy climate. She links her arm around Robert's and the couple say good-bye to their Ghost Pokemon, who have to stay in the Pokemon Center's hospital one more night, then Robert and Rilli head out into the cold Celadon night, to look for a nice restaurant... They come across a large strange looking building with a sign over it that reads "T. G. I." Plastered over the right side of the sign is the word "Christmas" drawn in snow white letters on a red and green background. Robert shrugs, and figures he should give the restaurant a shot - he'd never heard of it before, though he had heard of one rather similar to it. He and Rilli trudge through the snow until they reach the door. When they enter the room full of fake wooden walls, the first thing they notice is the crazy junk hung on the walls - Santa's clothing, a few bags of toys, and a traffic light that doesn't work with a fake Rapidash running over an elderly female mannequin. Robert whistles in awe, "This place looks really high class..." A woman dressed in a Jynx costume frightens Robert when she approaches. Though the girl is pretty, the costume certainly isn't. The woman chuckles and says, "Hi, my name is Wanda. Don't be afraid, kid, it's just a Christmas theme... All the waiters are dressed as Santa, all the waitresses are dressed as Jynx, and all the cooks are dressed as Rapidash - just to remind you how sizzling hot all our meals are served!" Wanda laughs obnoxiously and leads Robert and Rilli to a table. "I'll do my best to make sure you have a very merry Christmas away from home. Are you Pokemon trainers?" "Yeah, I'm a Pokemon trainer on a quest to become a Pokemon Master. My girlfriend here is also away from home on her quest to become a great Pokemon Researcher." Robert's stomach rumbles again, so he has to order before the woman asks if he wants to or not, "We'd like Honeybaked Ham, mashed potatoes, and corn on the cob, please. Oh yeah, and two sodas." "Oh my, ya'll sure are eager to eat, huh?" Wanda laughs obnoxiously again, pulls a note pad out of her very spacious Jynx brassiere, jots the order down, shoves it back into storage, then walks away, wiggling her hips to stay in character. Mithril-rama looks stunned and furrows her brow at Robert, "Why did you order for me, Robert? It's not that I have a problem with what you ordered, it just would've been nicer if you asked me about it first..." "I think we're at the step of our relationship where I can order for you..." Robert smiles at Rilli, who returns it with a silly grin of her own. Robert pulls off his blue ski jacket, since its warmer inside the restaurant, and leans across the candlelight provided on the table, so Rilli can hear him better, "Okay, now let's figure out how I can beat Giovanni's Nidoqueen to earn the Earth Badge! You pretty much know about all of my twelve Pokemon, right? They are: Gengar, Cubone, Farfetch'd, Vileplume, Slowbro, Golem, Raichu, Charmeleon, Tauros, Golduck, Snorlax, and Hitmonchan. Wow, hey, I named them all without pausing! Anyway, the Nidoqueen has Electricity, Fighting, Ground, and something else, possibly Poison, on her side. I have twelve Pokemon with a variety of attacks. There has to be *some* way to beat that overgrown rabbit! Right, Rilli?" -Robert