From: RobfromVoid <RobfromVoid@prodigy.net> Subject: [PW!] The Cinnabar Ditto Date: Sunday, December 05, 1999 1:00 AM "C'mon, Famifax!" Marvin grabs the pink haired five year old's hand and tries to pull her away from a lamp post on Cinnabar Island. An scary, old, abandoned mansion is visible in the background, and a purple Ditto is slowly oozing towards it. Marvin looks back to this Ditto and shouts, "Hey, hold on, Xerox! I'm trying to get your sister to come with us..." Xerox, the purple Ditto, stops in her tracks and sighs. She walks back towards Marvin and looks up at him with her small dot eyes in a forlorn position, "Couldn't you have brought Bozo along and left Famifax to guard the caravan instead, master?" "I think it's..." Marvin struggles, but the five year old doesn't move. "...import for..." It looks rather odd for the thirty-eight year old man in the blue tuxedo to be struggling with a toddler in a flowery dress. "...Famifax to..." Marvin closes his eyes and clenches his teeth, putting all of his efforts into dragging Famifax along, "...learn about her past! URGH!" "I do not think it is wise to *force* her to join us, master." Xerox looks at Famifax's worried face and her watery sky blue eyes, "Besides, I doubt that you will be able to pull her away from herself. Splitting a Ditto in half is difficult." Marvin steps away from the lamp post and sighs, "You're right, Xerox, I can't force... Splitting a Ditto in half? Huh?" Marvin is surprised when the little girl he was talking to melds into the lamp post! The lamp post shrinks into a red fire hydrant that is very similar to one across the street. The seemingly inanimate object giggles and exclaims, "Thankie, Marvy-man, yer tha best fwiend a girlie can have! I'll waits right here! Fersure!" Marvin bends down and holds Xerox in his arms, "Okay, we'll be back soon. See you later, Famifax!" He looks down at Xerox, who nods, then walks towards the huge destroyed mansion nearby. He steps into the place, expecting to be in utter darkness, but is surprised to see fires burning everywhere in the building. These flames are not the original ones that burned down the laboratory. They were caused by the Fire Pokemon who live there now. Marvin isn't aware of this until he sees a Vulpix in the room spew a Flamethrower at an old desk, setting it on fire! "Yikes! We'd better be careful in here!" "Ah, master, you never cease to astound me in your ability to point out the obvious." Xerox smirks, until she realizes that her master's cynical sense of comedy is still infesting her personality, at which point she sighs, "I guess I shall never live down that time I ate your dreams. One could say I still have indigestion..." Xerox thinks about her comment, then groans at herself. Marvin isn't paying much attention to Xerox, as he's more concerned with not getting himself incinerated by the flames surrounding him. He adjusts the collar of his shirt, "Geeze, I haven't sweat this much since that failed show in Pewter City! 1500 years old, indeed..." Marvin rounds a corner and finds a stairwell. Since there is no where else to go but up, he climbs up to the second floor, "Xerox, you don't suppose you could Transform into a Water Type Pokemon and...?" "I have never Transformed into a Water Type Pokemon, thus I have no memory of one and cannot." Xerox tries to remember all she read about Mimic and Doppler, "Such is the limitation of a Cinnabar Ditto - trained to have an excellent capacity to remember what it has been, but not what it has seen. It is both a curse and a blessing. It is a curse because you could be basking in a refreshing spray of Bubbles right now if the limitation weren't there. It is a blessing since it ensures that I will not gain the power to be Mewtwo if I see him. To be Mewtwo is to be insane." Marvin furrows his brow, "Uh... who's Mewtwo?" Xerox falls out of Marvin's arms in shock and crashes onto the ground, "Oh, never mind, master! I think the world is a better place if at least one person doesn't know about Mewtwo." Xerox looks up from the ground and her eyes light up as much as a Ditto's eyes can when she sees the door that leads to a room she remembers from her past, "There! That room... It is where my sister and I were genetically engineered! It is where I spoke my first word... I must visit it again!" Xerox crawls towards the door at a fast pace, and Marvin chases after her holding on to his top hat, so it doesn't fall off! Marvin asks while panting, "And... what was... your first... word?" "Ditty." Xerox replies, remembering how proud she was of herself that day, and how happy she made the scientists. Marvin stops outside the door to the room and starts laughing out loud, "Wow, very impressive, Xerox! What did your first ditty sound like? Was it: If I were a Ditto, I'd Ditto in the morning, I'd Ditto in the..." Xerox cuts him off with an angry glare, "It is difficult to learn the English language when your own language consists of two syllables - Dit and tó. Why, even the word 'toe' caused me trouble, since it is said slightly differently than tó. Fortunately, my vocabulary has greatly increased since that day, whereas your vocabulary has remained the same since your last day of college. When was that, exactly? Ten, twenty... thousand years ago?" When Xerox is done speaking, Marvin is no longer laughing. He is frowning, and hunched over. Xerox mimics his frown, "I apologize, master. I got carried away." "Apology accepted..." Marvin opens the door and walks inside the room. There are no fires lit in the room, but a single window in the room shines light onto all the cobweb-covered beakers, bunsen burners, and lab reports on the tables in the room. Marvin walks up to one of the papers and sits down to read it. Xerox climbs up his leg and hops onto the table from his lap. She sits in front of the sheet of paper. Three seconds later, she exclaims, "Read it! It's not about Ditto..." Marvin opens his mouth to read the first word, but all he ends up doing is sighing, "You sure do read fast, Xerox..." He puts another yellowed paper in front of Xerox, and a few seconds later, she shakes her head (which for Ditto are their whole body). She does this for a few more documents. Marvin places his hand on Xerox and says, "That was the last one here. It looks like anything they had about you and Famifax was lost or stolen by burglars..." Xerox frowns, "There must be proof... I need to know if what I remember is true, or just a fabrication of Azure Heights reports I read. I remember Mimic, Doppler, and Famifax being here. But Mimic and Famifax don't remember anything. I do not understand this desire to know why I am how I am, but it is impossible to deny that it exists. I must know the truth." "The truth?" Marvin slams his hand onto the desk, sending up some dust, "...you can't HANDLE the truth!" Xerox looks confused, "What is that supposed to mean?" "I dunno..." Marvin chuckles for a moment, "...I've just always wanted to say that! ...hey, what's this?" He notices a document which was obscured by dust until Marvin slammed the desk. Marvin takes the document in his hands and starts to read it out loud, "The Ditto Files, final generation... This... this must be what you're looking for! I'd read it to you, but the suspense would probably kill you... here..." Marvin lays the report in front of Xerox. Within seconds, she knows the truth. Xerox is flustered, and doesn't know what to tell Marvin first, "They put... Famifax was... Mimic and Doppler weren't... What I remember is... How could they do that to...? If that's true, then I'm... It's all just..." Xerox bursts into tears! "Oh, sure, NOW you can produce water..." Marvin starts to chuckle half-heartedly, but soon pouts when he notices that his lame joke didn't help cheer up Xerox, who is still crying. He picks up the paper to see what Xerox is so sad about. He starts reading the report ever so slowly, when he hears an angry voice coming from behind. He turns around to see a huge pile of purple ooze with one giant arm blocking the exit. Marvin screams and stands up, "It's the attack of the mutant Ditto!" "MUH MUH MUH MUK!!!" The Pokemon whom Marvin thinks is a mutant Ditto bellows. The Muk's mouth hangs open and acidic drool flows from it. It always wanted to see what was inside that room, ever since it was a Grimer, and now not only does it get to see inside, but it gets a delicious lunch and a Ditto dessert. It oozes towards Marvin, "Muk, Muh Muh MUK!" Marvin starts talking to himself, as he usually does when he's nervous, "Xerox can't help me now..." He glances at Xerox, who is still crying, unaware of the Muk in the room. Marvin opens up his coat and looks in his pockets. Two Safari Balls rest inside one of the many pockets of the coat full of magical trinkets, "Exeggcute's never won a battle before, so I guess my only choice is..." Marvin grabs the Safari Ball of his newest Pokemon and throws it, "Lickitung, I choose you!" The Safari Ball pops open when it hits the floor, and the red light which escapes from it settles on the unsettling form of a large pink and white Pokemon with a long tongue sticking out of his mouth, "Licki! Lickitung, tung!" "Muuuhhhhk?" Muk stops moving towards Marvin since Lickitung is in the way. Muk's never seen that Pokemon before, which means that it doesn't know what to expect. Just in case, Muk gets on the defensive and its hand forms into a fist. Marvin smiles when he sees that Lickitung stopped Muk, but his smile goes away when he remembers that he doesn't know any of Lickitung's attacks. The only Pokemon Attacks he's ever had to issue are Transform, Hypnosis, and Barrage. Other than those three moves, he doesn't really remember many more, which is why he'd be a horrible Ditto trainer if his Ditto weren't so smart. Marvin knows that if he doesn't issue a command, Muk will not be scared of Lickitung when it sees that he isn't a threat... So he decides to go for the most obvious Attack ever, "Lickitung, Lick attack, now!" Lickitung tries to move his tongue, but can't for some odd reason. He looks back at his trainer and shrugs, "Licki? Tuuung?" "Muh-huh-huh-HUK!!!" Seeing that Lickitung doesn't know what he's doing, Muk advances, raising its arm up high to perform a particularly devastating Pound attack... Marvin bites his lip. There has to be some way to get Lickitung to use his tongue. Marvin snaps his fingers, "Of course! Hey, Lickitung, I think that Pokemon is made of purple pudding! Mmmm, perfectly pleasing purple pudding Pokemon!" "Licki?! Lickitung!!!" Lickitung's giant tongue acts like a windmill when he licks his lips. The tongue extends forward, twice the length of his body, and lodges itself inside Muk's mouth. Lickitung moves its tongue all over the inside of Muk's mouth, and it looks like Lickitung is making out with the Muk! When Lickitung realizes that Muk isn't actually made of pudding, he retracts his tongue, which is burnt from Muk's acidic saliva. But Lickitung's attempt at eating Muk wasn't completely pointless... Not only did Muk get French Kissed for the first time in its life, it is also Paralyzed from the 'Lick' attack! Marvin runs up to his Lickitung and pats him on the back, "I guess I was wrong about it being made of pudding... Sorry about that! I'll get you some real pudding when we get out of here. Let's go quickly, before Muk starts moving again!" Lickitung looks up at his trainer and frowns, lowering his white eyebrows in anger, "Lickitung Licki Lick!" He was expecting to eat a huge pile of purple pudding, and all he has is a pain on his tongue. The voracious Pokemon just *has* to eat something. He Wraps his tongue around the document in Marvin's hand and pulls it into his mouth. Lickitung doesn't even chew the piece of paper. In just one swallow, the crucial document is gone... only to return as a useless piece of... "CRAP!" Marvin shouts, opening up his Lickitung's mouth to see if he can pull the report out, "How could you eat the Ditto Files?!" The magician sighs when he sees that the Pokemon's mouth is empty, and wishes he could really make objects appear out of no where... unfortunately, magic is just an illusion. Lickitung notices that his trainer is sad, so he tries to lick Marvin to make him feel better, but Marvin leaps out of the way just in time to avoid paralysis. He grabs Lickitung's Safari Ball off the ground, recalls the constantly hungry Pokemon, and stuffs it back in his coat pocket, "Xerox, let's get out of here!" "As you wish... master..." Xerox has stopped crying. She is just staring blankly into space, as if life has lost all meaning. Marvin grabs her and holds her close as he runs past the Paralyzed Muk, into the flames of the building. He runs down the stairs, and finds the exit of the abandoned mansion. He leaves the building before a Growlithe at the door can spit fire at him! He walks up to the red fire hydrant outside, "I have good news and bad news, Famifax... Which do you want to hear first?" The fire hydrant does not respond. "Oh, giving me the silent treatment, huh?" Marvin frowns at the fire hydrant, "Well, I *wanted* you to come, and you..." "That is not my sister." Xerox says monotonously, "She must have wandered off while I found out that I am..." She trails off on that last part, then changes the subject back to Famifax, "We should return to the caravan, first. She might be there." Marvin nods, and starts walking back towards his caravan, looking left and right just in case he sees Famifax on the way. She usually stands out in a crowd, even one of tourists. When he doesn't see any scantily clad teenage girls, he turns his attention back to the Ditto Sister currently in his arms, "Xerox, it's not like you to cry... Just what did you read on that paper?" Xerox starts trembling as she responds, "I read about who I really am. I am Xerox. I am a Cinnabar Ditto." -Marvin