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[Pokémon] The Retelling of Pokémon Colosseum

Elite Overlord LeSabre™

On that 'Non stop road'
9,865
Posts
16
Years
YES! The return of Tom who strangely seems to have amazing upper body strength!

catching eye of one message that read 'Magikarp are gonna kill uz all!'
This message likely makes more sense to someone who has borne witness to the awesomeness that is Gurks.

"But...but...I have a top hat!" she protested, taking said object off her head and waving it about. "You can't say no to the top hat!"

"Why not?" Wes asked.

"...You'll make him sad!"
Top hats are boss. More trainers in Pokemon games need them. But did she give hers a name? "Eddie" sounds like a good name for him.

a winking Venus covered in twenty-seven different varieties of lipstick, eye-shadow and beauty cream.
Hey, at least she's having fun with those beauty products :P

what had originally been his drab yet clean, white room was now decorated with posters, confetti and its own disco ball hanging from the top of the ceiling.
I would sell my soul to have a disco ball in my room. And this situation with Ein and Miror B. living under the same roof would make a great reality TV series. I know Miror's intentions are good, but you still have to feel a bit sorry for Ein for having his whole life "disco-fied" xD

The Under in itself had felt so... unscientific.
I know of a teenage girl, abut the same intelligence level as Ein, who would agree with this statement :P

Ah, those crazy, Venus obsessed Under residents. Gotta love 'em, even if you don't really understand what they're trying to say, lol And interesting that someone is beginning to suspect Phenac's mayor... after all the clues (i.e., the suspicious characters and riffraff about his house as well as this arrest warrant for Wes) are right there. And now a small part of me wants to fire up Colosseum (I just finished a play-through this past week), go to the Under, and tell the old man I don't want to hear his story just to see him go ballistic. Am I wrong for wanting to do that?

Oh, and while we're at the Venus stage in the story, look up an '80's song called "Venus" by the band "Bananarama". This song needs to somehow be associated with her, as the line "I'm your Venus" comes directly from that tune.

Another good chapter, and pretty ironic timing since I just finished up a playthrough of Colo as I mentioned earlier. But now I really must go. You see, there's this young lady in a top hat standing over me who's demanding that I see her show. She's quite adamant that I bear witness to it, too. And there's no saying no to the top hat. Especially since I think this person is running the whole show...
 

bobandbill

one more time
16,876
Posts
16
Years
Whee replying to reviews. The more comments the better! ;D
Indeed if you have them learn Flail. :P
Or taught by Johnson. XD
Top hats rule, that is all.
That is quite true.
Ah dang bobandbill, way to ruin my dream of meeting the tooth fairy. ;_;
Vriska is the tooth fairy
Haha, that would have been a funny scene to read.
I had been actually contemplating briefly to write out the scene, but that wouldn't have done well for Wes' aspirations to remain seeming innocent and unnoticed, what with all the attention that would have brought. XD
Don't tell me Venus is going to do your Let's Play Pokemon Diamond you have been posting here, is she? D:
Nah, if she had with ould have been in bright pink and more about herself than anything else, I suspect.
TOMMMMMMMM! :D Haha at the end wheere he was able to carry both Wes and Johnshon. XD;
Hurrah for his return being liked. =D
I enjoyed this quite a lot. I really feel sorry for Johnson this chapter for some reason, maybe because he isn't able to say anything smart in a while. XD Also, LOL at the people being brainwashed. This shall get interesting later on.
Well, to be honest Johnson doesn't get to say anything smart in general. XD And certainly the brainwashing is a point that still gets mention in future chapters.
Again, the scene with Sherles and Rui has some nice foreshadowing during their discussion. Woot for Rui taking matters in her own hands, although she should consider eating yogurt too. :P
Foreshadowing is most fun. ;D And yes, yogurt is always good to eat.
The part with Ein and Miror B--all I'm going to say is cunning Miror B is awesome.

Overall, great chapter here. Looking forward to the next one!
Cunning he is...when he actually sets his mind to it. XD Glad you enjoyed, and cheers for the review!
YES! The return of Tom who strangely seems to have amazing upper body strength!
Bet you didn't expect that. ;D
Top hats are boss. More trainers in Pokemon games need them. But did she give hers a name? "Eddie" sounds like a good name for him.
The hat refuses to reply to the question.
I would sell my soul to have a disco ball in my room. And this situation with Ein and Miror B. living under the same roof would make a great reality TV series. I know Miror's intentions are good, but you still have to feel a bit sorry for Ein for having his whole life "disco-fied" xD
Great, now I have imagined such a television show. XD
Ah, those crazy, Venus obsessed Under residents. Gotta love 'em, even if you don't really understand what they're trying to say, lol And interesting that someone is beginning to suspect Phenac's mayor... after all the clues (i.e., the suspicious characters and riffraff about his house as well as this arrest warrant for Wes) are right there. And now a small part of me wants to fire up Colosseum (I just finished a play-through this past week), go to the Under, and tell the old man I don't want to hear his story just to see him go ballistic. Am I wrong for wanting to do that?
Yeah, unlike everyone in the game, I decided to have the mayor's involvement become not so unnoticed given how the game deals with it. And no, you are not wrong for wanting to do that. XD
Oh, and while we're at the Venus stage in the story, look up an '80's song called "Venus" by the band "Bananarama". This song needs to somehow be associated with her, as the line "I'm your Venus" comes directly from that tune.
I already know the song actually. XD
Another good chapter, and pretty ironic timing since I just finished up a playthrough of Colo as I mentioned earlier. But now I really must go. You see, there's this young lady in a top hat standing over me who's demanding that I see her show. She's quite adamant that I bear witness to it, too. And there's no saying no to the top hat. Especially since I think this person is running the whole show...
GOD SPEED, and cheers for another review! =D
 

bobandbill

one more time
16,876
Posts
16
Years
After a rather productive weekend, here's the next chapter! Hurrah for already doubling last year's chapter production. =p There's a number of references to stuff btw (mostly in the first part) - I'm curious to see if you can catch them all. ;D There is a bit in the 2nd paragraph which is in relation to an unfinished group project ages back... anyways, enjoy the chapter.​




***

Chapter 19: Recovery



Wes groaned as he woke up, rubbing his aching head slowly as he sat up.

What a strange dream... he thought to himself, reflecting on his hallucination. Not that I can remember much, but it was something about travelling about with some weird people with super powers and Tom and Miror B for some reason... and I was either fighting some great entity or a giant duck, I can't really remember. Man, I have the strangest dreams at times... Deciding to look about, Wes found that he was within a small room, lying down in a bed that was far too little for him. A tiny television was switched on next to him on a simple, wooden desk.

"Where am I?" he said aloud to himself, and was unsurprised when nobody answered. He sighed as he tried to put the dream out of his head and focused on what happened before he fell asleep, hoping that nothing bad had happened – he didn't remember much ever since entering that shop besides something about an old man throwing cans everywhere. Normally I'd think my memory is messed up, but given how weird...everything has been, that sounds about right, he thought wryly to himself. Checking his Poké Balls, he saw that he didn't seem to have Espeon and Umbreon and frowned – he knew they were more or less able to take care of themselves but their absence worried him nonetheless. The lack of Johnson came to his mind as well, but he was considerably less concerned about that fact.

And Rui isn't here either-but of course, she'd still be in Pyrite. Pity...at least she was someone interesting to talk to, he reflected. And... that's putting it mildly... Sitting up now, he took another glance at the television.

"Oh hey, it's not an interview," he muttered as he glanced at the screen which was currently displaying a serene setting of a small Taillow sitting on a tree branch in a field, as classical music played in the background.

"Yes, it's that time of day," a gentle voice narrated as the television zoomed onto the Pokémon. "The time of day...where the THINGS ON FIRE SHOW BEGINS!" the television suddenly screamed. Wes blinked in surprise as the Taillow suddenly caught on fire for no apparent reason as obnoxiously loud music blared.

"EVERYTHING'S MORE AWESOME WHEN IT'S ON FIRE!" the narrator continued as the scene changed to show a man walking down a street, before another person wielding a giant torch ran up to the former and lit his hair on fire. As the man ran off screaming, the man grinned at the screen.

"He's now AWESOME!" he declared before the narrator continued.

"Featuring AWESOME the PONYTA!" the television screamed. The scene shifted to show said Pokémon lying on the ground fast asleep as the words 'AWESOME' and 'FIRE' flew across the screen while a guitar solo played.

"What's even happening!?" Wes said in shock.

"LAWNS ON FIRE!" the narrator continued. Wes then stared as he looked closer. Is that... Duncan's lawn? Distant shouting from off-screen about how 'people should stop filming his poor lawn' confirmed that fact to him.

"Oh no, I forgot to turn it off, didn't I..." another person said as they walked into the room. Wes turned and saw that the newcomer was a young teenager with glasses. The two blinked at each other for a moment while the television continued to shout FIRE and AWESOME at the two, before the child grinned.

"Hey, you're all right now! I knew it'd work!" he exclaimed.

"Who are you...?" Wes said quietly in confusion, but his question went ignored as the kid ran back out, only to reappear with Umbreon and Espeon following after him. Noticing Wes was awake the two jumped on him happily as Umbreon licked Wes's face, causing him to laugh.

"Hey guys," Wes said with a grin.

"Umbreon!" (You went a bit crazy!)

Wes blinked at this once Espeon translated Umbreon's comment, and then noticed Rui walk into the room as well.

"Hello," he said, feeling even more perplexed about the whole situation. "Why are you-"

"Wes!" Rui exclaimed, as she tightly hugged the older adolescent.

I'm... unsure what happened but...this is pretty nice, he thought.

"Lackamsmacky, suppurmum awoked!" Tom shouted happily as he ran into the room, haphazardly throwing a frightened Shroomish of all things into the air.

"What are you doing here!?" Wes shouted in surprise as the drunkard also embraced Wes before putting a traffic cone on top of Wes' head and prancing about happily.

"Now yousy could be ze kungly... quen!" he babbled.

"Tom helped us," Rui said as the unfortunate Shroomish landed upside down in a nearby rubbish bin, waving its short, stubby legs about frantically.

"I think some explanation might be needed," Wes said at length as he looked at all of the people currently occupying the room.

"Umbreon-" (Well as I said you went crazy-)

"Maybe Espeon should start off," Wes suggested.

"Espeon... " (Where to begin...) Espeon mused, trying to avoid beginning by stating Wes had gone crazy himself.

"AND NOW THE OCEAN IS ON FIRE!" the television shouted. Tom gasped with sudden delight and planted himself in front of the television.

"It's his favourite show," the kid mumbled.

***

"I think it's better that I don't recall anything else besides feeling rather woozy," Wes said sheepishly after being informed on what had happened. Espeon had told what happened from his perspective, and then Rui filled them in on what had happened in Pyrite and when she found Wes. A few more kids had come into the room and introduced themselves as part of the Kids Grid and how they had learnt of Wes's doings via the television reports. Megg and Bitt were the names of the other members, both on the edge of being a teenager, while Nett was the first one that had greeted Wes, and had also just finished explaining that the water supply was to blame for the problem, saving many paragraphs of repetition for off-screen explanations.

"I don't think anyone would have noticed you acting weirdly though," Nett said. "Everyone else ended up with that obsession because they all drunk the water except for us because we were lucky enough to notice its effects I suppose. But I'm glad we could get you out of it, thanks to our Shroomish here," he continued, petting the mushroom Pokémon happily as it glared angrily at Tom for throwing it into the bin.

"Yeah, thanks again for that," Wes said, grinning at the Shroomish and Nett. "I'm surprised you knew what'd work though from Shroomish spores..."

"Well, that's because we've tested it out before," Nett admitted.

"Oh, on who?" Rui asked.

"Smapping," Tom said while waving his arms about.

"...Ah," Wes answered. "So I guess that's why Tom knew to bring me here then..."

"Yes, that's right. He didn't seem to be as affected by it though at the time, probably because he didn't drink much water..." Nett mumbled. Nett thought back to how they had first encountered the man themselves and shuddered to Rui's interest and confusion.

"Drinkily issy me friend!" Tom said happily.

"So being drunk can have its advantages I suppose," Wes said wryly.

"Heyy, im sottally tober!" Tom protested as he stood up only to fall down. He tried again but failed, so instead he turned back to the television which was still playing the same program.

"...How long does that show run for?" Wes said.

"A couple hours?" Nett replied. "It keeps Tom quiet-"

"FIREEEEE!" Tom shouted spontaneously.

"...relatively quiet at any rate. Anyway, you can see what we are up against with the whole town on Venus's side," Nett concluded bitterly.

"Hang on, Sherles said something about trying to get information from you but he said that communications had been cut off between you and him," Rui said, recalling that Sherles had mentioned that one of the kids had been a 'technical genius' apparently. At this Nett grinned.

"Well, I actually managed to hack my way into Cipher's database," he said proudly as Rui gasped with amazement.

"And by that," said Bitt, "he means 'Tom was waving about a data disk he found in a dumpster in the middle of the street so we persuaded Tom to give it to us'."

"...Okay, that's true," Nett admitted with a grimace. "But I should remind you, Bitt-"

"Yeah, I'm not being fair as he did manage to decode it all and Nett's really good with technology...stuff. Oh, and can you turn on the light? It's getting dark," he said. He then turned on a computer quickly and opened up some files.

"Those were what they looked like initially," explained Megg as Rui and Wes look at the mess.

sdfpsbdbfuf332l84bd0djdnalfallyourbase9fnjs8989ds8fnd110eeeeeeidndhgssgwdjdj393wjd9d0hdhydds
bnjsisisuplantsnbrainshdunfbud0snsosopskdoeipwn39fdn4210dn8ddodyk3jddkduocnbsoredrumred
rumredrumredrumredrum43994jbsc09wjdbs09df09d0dsd09sdd9n2lspdinqq04mdi0djw|vvvvvv|idkdd2
ofmvbonc0rsidjdbu74kdb20sndbcidndg9dndhdjan15honkHONKhOnKHoNkHOOOOOOONKfeb15dj
383nshd12kp0s0nsssst0sm;awjncvldj.djcod.dbc,980upupdowndownleftrightleftrightbashfdiuh294aufvhurhfdsfjsdfjjsdjf...

Wes quickly turned his head away from the screen, his mind already beginning to hurt from reading it. I wonder how he got any sense out of that piece of pure garble, Wes thought.

"Ok, so you got some data, but what is it on?" Wes said. I find it odd that Tom just happened to find such data like that but I guess some things just shouldn't be questioned, he continued to muse as he turned on a lamp and then adjusted its lampshade.

"For starters – I have the location of where they were creating Shadow Pokémon," Nett said proudly.

"Ok that's definitely useful. Heck, I can just take it back up and I won't have to worry about being arrested...maybe," Wes said as he pondered.

"It'd be better if we just sent a message explaining stuff with the data from here...that is if we could," Megg explained. "You see, there's been a block on any sort of transmission from above – bar the television – so we can't communicate with above. We were considering trying to sneak up to above if we couldn't fix it ourselves but there's the whole spy thing going on at the moment so it wouldn't be easy to do so. But maybe a friend of ours might-"

"Hello, all- it's you!" another child walked in suddenly, setting down a large box and gaping at Wes, who was increasingly getting the feeling of being like a celebrity who had just walked into a room of reporters and shuddered involuntarily.

"Well it seems Perr brought in what we needed," Nett laughed. "Yes, that's Wes there, but first I gather you brought in what we needed?"

"Yep, I managed to sneak this past dad by telling him the fridge was on fire again, only this time I was only half-lying," Perr said matter-of-factly. "That's the good news though – I'm afraid there's some bad news as well."

"Oh, what is it?" Megg said quietly.

"They caught Silva."

"Silva?" Wes and Rui said in surprise. A distant cry from outside of 'we got the spy!' confirmed the news.

"What did he do now..." Wes grumbled as he stood up. "I suppose we better check it out." He followed Nett up the stairs as the rest followed. Tom tried to take the television with him, only to express disappointment when it turned off when the plug came out of the power socket, and left the television where it was while mumbling something incomprehensible.

A moment later Johnson walked into the room.

"Oh hey, I heard everyone...where did you all go?" he said, before checking underneath the bed. "Nope, not there...this is a mystery!"

***

Meanwhile, two very sunburnt and tired men limped into Phenac City, moaning to each other as they walked. Every step they had taken had hurt, and they were also covered in sharp spikes sticking from their clothing – the reminders of an unfortunate encounter they had with the rare Cacnea.

"Folly, that's the last time we're going from Pyrite to Phenac by foot," Trudly said darkly.

"Well it's not like you had any other better suggestions!" Folly retorted, before putting on a lame and inaccurate impersonation of his friend. "Oh look, an oasis, let's go –oh it's just an illusion. Let's walk to that other oasis instead!"

"Ah, shut up," Trudly mumbled, before the two simultaneously noticed the fountain in the middle of the city. Breaking into a sprint, they dived into the pool of water loudly and sighed as the water cooled them down at the cost of supplying a fresh wave of pain to their sunburnt skin. They relaxed silently for a while, paying little heed to the stares of the citizens around them, although Trudly did note that they seemed to be paying more attention to them overall now compared to when they had tried to kidnap the girl in the first place.

"At least we got here finally," Folly pointed out. "Miror B is god knows where but maybe we'll be able to find him later on. For now, we can-"

"Do you need any- AHH THE KIDNAPPERS ARE BACK!" someone shouted loudly at the two. Folly and Trudly looked up to see a woman pointing a finger only millimetres from their faces. Trudly groaned.

Probably that same woman who was watching from when we tried to kidnap that girl... he thought. However the woman's claim seemed to prompt the other people to carry on with their lives and ignore her, despite the woman trying to garner more attention by pointing her second index finger at them, followed by general jumping up and down while waving her arms about.

"THE KIDNAPPERS ARE HERE WAIT UNTIL I TELL THE POLICE THEN-"

"Shut your trap, we're just sitting here!" Trudly complained.

"BUT YOU'RE KIDNAPPERRRRRSSSS!" the woman explained. "AND KIDNAPPERS ARE BAD PEOPLE-ARRGH, WATER, MY ONE WEAKNESS!" she shouted suddenly as Folly irritably splashed some water at her, which unexplainably sent her running off.

"…She wasn't that crazy before, was she?" Trudly said quietly as he tried to think back.

"Actually, is she the woman from before..." Folly said doubtfully as the woman proceeded to go to the Pokémon Centre and accuse the building of being a kidnapper too, before throwing eggs at the windows. She was then chased away by an annoyed nurse who was wielding a broom, said object having seemingly terrified the weirdo.

"Probably not then. Maybe she's some Plasma goon on holiday," Trudly replied with a shudder. The group were well known for shouting about how Pokémon should be 'liberated' from trainers and other such nonsense in some silly-sounding region of little importance. "All the same, maybe it'll be best that we go to the Mayor's place to hide sooner rather than later in case someone does recognise us."

"Yes, that's a good idea," his companion agreed. Staggering out of the fountain after they both managed to bump their head on the structure, they walked onwards to their destination, leaving a trail of water behind them that dripped off their clothes.

"Man, there's still sand in my hair," Trudly complained as they walked into the building after checking that nobody was watching. He then frowned, noticing a woman standing in the mayor's swivel seat. She noticed them walk in and beamed at them happily, while Trudly and Folly smiled uncertainly back. After a minute of this Folly decided to speak up.

"Ah…do you happen to know where Evi-ah, Es Cade, the Mayor is?"

"But I'm the Mayor," the woman said, nodding and smiling some more.

"…No you're not," Trudly concluded as he moved to her seat and moved it with her in it despite the woman's protests, and then pushed the chair out of the doorway. The woman departed from the building with a shout of 'BUT I'M THE MAYOR!', before a loud crash was heard from outside.

"Aww, but I liked that chair," Folly said sadly.

"Whatever, the thing is he's not here. I wonder where he went..." Trudly mused. "I mean, he must have been gone for some time for some random woman to have taken over his house." It was common knowledge that residents in Orre would often take to trying to steal other people's houses by pretending to be the real people who lived in them.

"...Maybe he went fishing?" Folly offered.

"Maybe, maybe..." Trudly said, failing to consider the lack of fishing spots in Orre.

Just then, a phone on the desk in the lounge room began ringing. Trudly picked it up without a moment's thought and answered with a casual 'Hello'.

"What are you doing!?" Folly hissed. "We could be found out!"

"Oh no!" Trudly said hurriedly, while still holding the phone to his head. "Nobody's home!" he added to the phone before dropping it and hiding behind a nearby sofa. Folly followed suit and threw a pillow at the phone for good measure.

"Maybe we should have hung up," Folly whispered loudly to Trudly after a moment.

"...Maybe," Trudly agreed. At that point the person on the other end of the line began to speak.

"I'm afraid, Folly and Trudly, that I haven't forgotten what your voices sound like," the voice of Sherles said slowly and deliberately, each word pronounced with a hint of amusement. "Now, I'm not sure what you're doing in the Mayor's house of all places but I figure you wouldn't decide to come here of all places after escaping from jail without good reason, as questionable as your tack might be."

"Oh, he's smart," Folly conceded quietly to Trudly.

"So if I were you, I'd decide that it'd be best to agree to tell me why you would come here and any relation the Mayor has to Cipher, on the condition that if your information is helpful you'll escape any further arrest."

Folly and Trudly looked at each other, quickly thinking about how enjoyable their experience in Pyrite's jail had been with due to the overcrowding and the annoying reporters asking them questions all day, and quickly agreed to the offer with eager nods to the phone. A pause followed.

"So...will you answer?" Sherles asked eventually. Realising that Sherles couldn't see them nod, Trudly spoke

"Oh, sure, as fun as Cipher was at times that deal sounds good to us."

"Even if most of that fun was learning how to dance about from Miror B..." Folly added quietly.

***

Back in The Under, Wes, Rui, Tom, Nett and Megg cautiously walked outside through a few alleyways towards the general direction of triumphant shouting. Coming into view of the large fenced enclosure by the lift, Wes noticed that Silva had indeed come to the town himself, albeit more unsuccessfully given the fact he had been tied up and thrown into said enclosure, with a couple of women dressed in the typical Cipher garb standing guard by a gate. A small crowd had gathered by the fence – Wes recalled a couple of faces from the gang he had encountered earlier, as well as the unimpressive street performer who was currently trying to show an uninterested Silva her top hat. The group shouting cries of 'Spy!' at Silva who seemed to be pretty annoyed by the whole affair.

"Oh great, they did get him," Nett said angrily. "So much for taking a risk, although I'd have thought he'd have been more careful!"

"He likes to be the hero," Wes said with a shrug.

"So what do we do? Seeing the Cipher people there seem to know that he wasn't on their side and if they're standing there as well as that crowd it'd be hard to rescue him ..." Rui said sadly. Wes however grinned at her.

"Well I guess now is as good as any a time to bluff our way past. One of you, encourage a battle from the crowd!" With that he confidently strode forward, and before the Cipher Peons noticed him he pointed at them.

"People of The Under, those two people are the real spies!" he declared loudly.

"What- hey, don't listen to him!" one of the Cipher agents responded with shock as she noticed Wes. "No, he's the spy!" Silva's eyes widened as he heard Wes' claim while Nett shook his head at his rash action.

"Nah, he was hired by Venus, that Leo fellow!" someone on the crowd shouted. Wes continued to smile arrogantly as he continued, glad that someone recognised him from before.

"Well then if your claim is so, prove it!" he taunted. Rui suddenly beamed herself as she saw the cue Wes wanted to create.

"FIGHT!" she shouted, and the crowd responded to the cry by chanting 'FIGHT' themselves, clapping their hands in time to their chant. Tom joined in as well albeit shouting his own versions of the word 'BEER' but nobody else paid this fact much heed.

Good one, Rui, Wes thought. A crowd of ruffians like this always welcome the prospect of a battle to solve their issues, from personal experience anyways – I still have to win it but I'll just make it up as I go.

"Espeon!" (As usual, eh?) Espeon commented after reading Wes' mind, stepping forward with Umbreon to further signal Wes' attempt to get a battle going. The two Cipher agents looked to each other with expressions of despair – realising they suddenly had little alternative they sighed and readied their Poké Balls.

"Well... try taking on all of them at once!" one cried as they quickly threw out six Poké balls which summoned up an array of Pokémon, most of them at least part Bug-types. One was an Ariados on which a far smaller Spinarak sat upon, both spiders hissing at their opponents. Nearby a Volbeat and Illumise stood, but the two seemed more interested at staring at each other lovingly than paying attention to the oncoming battle, while a Ledian rounded out the five bug types.

"Volbeat..." (You're the cutest...)

"Illumise!" (No you're the cutest!) the two firefly Pokémon giggled to each other, to which Espeon gave a look of disdain. Meanwhile a stout plant Pokémon Gloom appeared, revealing itself as the sixth member. It gave a look of spaced-out cheerfulness at the group of creatures around it and yawned.

"Gloom," ('Sup dudes,) it murmured.

"Hey, that Ledian's a Shadow!" Rui managed to shout out in-between the chants of the crowd.

"Yeah, I kinda figured," Wes acknowledged as the ladybug Pokémon punched the Volbeat angrily without any warning before quickly thinking out the situation. Well Bug-types are actually a pretty bad matchup for Espeon and Umbreon on paper...but if they want to use six Pokémon at once then I can even it up somewhat. As for the Shadow... it'll have to wait – I don't think it'd be wise to try snagging anything just now. I won't bother with Entei just now either, but if need be he should be hopefully enough for these bug and grass types...now to keep the trainers riled up.

"Ah, only spies would try using everything at once like that – never had a street battle before, eh?" Wes said as he shook his head and gave them a look of pity. Let's keep the pretence up of being in control here. "Well, you asked for it!" he continued with a shout as he sent out Feraligatr and Makuhita.

"Maku! Hita?" (Aha! Who should I punch first?) Makuhita shouted as he pumped his arms. At that moment Johnson came running onto the scene.

"Ah, there you all are! I was wondering-ow!" he cried as Makuhita turned and punched Johnson out of the way.

"Ah, Johnson, fashionably late as always," Wes drawled. "I want you to arrest those spies when I defeat them," he added. Johnson nodded before rubbing his leg while thinking how heroic a hero he would obviously be upon making the arrest, ignoring the fact Wes and his Pokémon were about to do all the work.

"Sure, you'll beat us with four against six? What, can't you count?" one of the Cipher agents sneered before sighing. "Look here, Ledian, you've got to stop punching Volbeat!"

"Oh," Wes said as he put his sunglasses on. "I don't need six to win."

"UMBREON!" (YEAAAAAAH!) Umbreon shouted as he charged forward and head-butted the distracted Ledian into the crowd. The bug-type happened to collide with the street performer who began to angrily swat at the Pokémon with her top hat multiple times with astounding power. This prompted a reaction from the Cipher agents who blathered commands to their Pokémon.

"Ariados, use... Spider Cannon or something!" one shouted.

Wes raised an eyebrow, feeling pretty sure there was no such move. The Ariados also seemed confused by the command but made do with the first thing that came to it mind which was to shake its body and sent the Spinarak flying at its opponents, using the smaller Pokémon as a projectile.

"SPIIIIIN!" (ARRRRGH!) the Spinarak screamed in a high-pitched shout as it approached its opponents rapidly, only for Makuhita to jump into the air to intercept the spider by punching it back in the direction it came from, the surprised and unfortunate arachnid flying back into the Ariados.

"SPIIIIIIIIN!" (I DISLIKE THIS!)

The collision didn't do much damage, but the savage swipe from Feraligatr that followed did, sending the two Pokémon flying into a wall. Lumped together, they tried to retaliate by spitting out lumps of spider web at their attackers but Espeon then stepped in, repelling the attack with his psychic powers and sending the sticky silk back at the spiders. They struggled but found themselves trapped together by their own move, as Makuhita grinned and moved in before repeatedly punching the tangled Pokémon until they fainted.

"Two down," Wes said confidently. Now beginning to really panic, the two trainers shouted at their Illumise and Volbeat who finally stopped gazing at each other upon being told that the gang of unruly Pokémon running about in front of them were trying to break up their bond. They stared with anger at their opponents with determination, but said resolve quickly faded as Umbreon and Feraligatr simply slammed into the two Pokémon without hesitation on Wes' command. The relaxed Gloom finally came into the battle himself as he sent a Razor Leaf attack at the two but Espeon stepped in again and blocked the attack with a trademark barrier of light, leaving his allies to slash and bite away at the two firefly Pokémon. Once Makuhita charged over to join in while taking a minor detour to punch Johnson again, it was all over for the Bug-type pair as well as they were thoroughly punched into a state of unconsciousness. The crowd cheered at the walkover, impressed by Wes' ability to organise his Pokémon into a winning formation.

"And that's four down," Wes noted.

"Actually, five..." Rui said as the crowd moved away from the street performer who had somehow taken out the Ledian by herself, puffing angrily over the fallen bug which was lying in a crumbled heap - one of its wings were twitching slightly but was otherwise lying still. Satisfied that the Ledian had been dealt with, the woman turned her attention back onto her hat.

"Uh...yes, five," Wes corrected himself. Memo to self – don't touch that hat, he mused, surprised that a Shadow Pokémon went down to her of all people. Noticing this, his Pokémon slowly circled the Gloom which looked around nervously.

"Gloom... gloom?" (Hey, we cool...we chill bros?) the Gloom said hopefully, but to little avail – Espeon, Feraligatr and Umbreon nodded and sent long-ranged combinations of multicoloured beams of light and water at the unfortunate grass type, and Makuhita simply charged in and kicked the Gloom in the face just to be different. Unsurprisingly the attacks felled the Gloom.

"But for goodness sake, that guy's the spy, not us!" one of the agents protested as the two recalled their Pokémon. "And besides it's not fair if someone else faints our special Pokémon like that-"

"I'm sorry, but you'll-" Johnson began as he approached with a pair of handcuffs, unable to contain his excitement of making a successful arrest for once, only for the crowd to flatten him as they mobbed the two. Picking the struggling people up, they threw them into the fenced enclosure, and then picked up Silva and dumped him back outside. Upon closing the gate again they all cheered loudly as one before moving towards the nearest pub, satisfied that justice had been delivered. Wes blinked at the sudden events.

"Ow... did they have to throw me?" Silva complained as Nett helped him remove the rope from his legs and arms. "Thanks again, Wes," he added as he got to his feet gingerly.

"No problem... but why are you here anyway getting caught by Cipher again?" Wes said as he recalled his Pokémon for the time being, ignoring the angry shouting from the Cipher agents from inside. Looking around the suddenly deserted area save for a ranting Tom who was still chanting increasingly weirder words like 'jeelatousmus' and 'cinninininnnyyymony bunsys', he then noticed something on the ground and walked to investigate it.

"I was only trying to help..." he said sheepishly. "We were wondering what to do with the fact that we lost all communications with you, so I decided to come down here to find you guys," he said to Nett.

"Fair enough, although there isn't any need seeing I'm pretty sure we should have that problem fixed soon enough," Nett grinned. "I'll explain when we get to our house."

"Um, Nett, what is this?" Wes asked as he returned with a small, shiny disk with the words 'R DUSK DISK' written on it in texta, the second word crossed out.

"Ah, that's a UFO disk," Nett explained as he looked at it. Wes nodded as he recalled how he had been told that The Under had a UFO-esque transportation vehicle to help ferry people across a large gorge – the same one that was by the Colosseum in Pyrite. Apparently the designer of The Under had been an avid UFO watcher and thought that bridges were made of pure evil. "Everyone has some – it lets them...wait, where did you get that one from?"

"Hey, give that back!" one of the Cipher peons shouted.

"...I'd rather not," Wes said. "Mind telling me why it's obviously important, or should Espeon tell you the last time he messed with someone's mind?"

"Espeon! Espi Espeon-" (Oh, that time! Yes, they ended up with a strange fear of the colour yellow which caused them to scream every time-) Espeon began eagerly to weave a tale, making sure his thoughts were understandable to the Cipher Peons.

"OK IT'S THE DISK TO GET TO WHERE VENUS IS PLEASE DON'T HURT US!" they shouted in unison.

"Well...that's useful," Wes said with a smile as he looked into the enclosure and noticed yet another item had fallen to the ground. "Oh, and..." he nodded to Espeon who closed his eyes – a moment later Wes had the Poké Ball containing the Shadow Ledian in his hand to the dismay and shouts of the Cipher agents who failed to notice they had dropped it when being hauled by the crowd. "I much prefer snagging this way...Well I'm on a roll as it is – I might as well go for her now. The sooner I can prove to the police I'm a good guy the better – I have a vested interest in doing that after all, and doing so before anyone else from Cipher notices what happened here would be for the best too."

"Good luck then," Nett said, patting Wes on the back. "I'm sure with your battling abilities you'll be able to pull through, and in the meantime we'll go back and try to get to Sherles again. If we can't... then Silva, you can go give him the information yourself," he summarised. Nodding, Wes turned to Rui.

"Ah...normally I'd say that it'd be safer for you to stay with them," he started, "but given those two had a Shadow Pokémon and Venus will probably have one herself-"

"Of course I'm coming, silly. You should have figured that out by now!" she teased with a smile as she playfully punched Wes on the arm.

"Touché," Wes acknowledged, feeling rather gladdened by the answer.

"What about me?" Johnson offered.

"...I think it'd be better if you guard these two," Wes said, far less enthusiastic about the offer than Johnson. Nodding, the policeman moved in front of Nett and Silva before looking around cautiously.

"...I think he meant the Cipher agents," Megg said quietly.

"Oh." Johnson said, scratching his head before looking about for where they were.

"There they are," Wes said with a sigh as he pointed. "Seriously, do you always end up being wrong with everything you do?"

"Well..." Johnson said, putting his hand to his chin while trying to think for such an instance. "Oh, this once I did think I was wrong about something, but I was mistaken!" With that he walked over to stand guard in front of the pen, while Wes face-palmed.

"Okay, maybe I and Rui should go off before I lose any more brain cells. Let's go – the sooner the better," he said. Nodding in agreement, the two walked off, leaving Nett alone with Megg, Silva and Tom.

"Aww, but I wanted to talk to Wes to hear his side of how stuff happened!" Megg complained to Nett as they walked back. "Even after watching those reports – the reporters were terrible!"

"Worry donty!" Tom said, bounding after them happily. "I nowy anyfunk abit supamunna's advuntisemunts!" he declared.

"Tom, all your stories involve fire in them," Nett muttered as Tom grinned happily.

***


And that's the end of it! Hope you enjoyed, post your thoughts and all that jazz, ;p

And how this relates to the game as usual:
Spoiler:
 
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Elite Overlord LeSabre™

On that 'Non stop road'
9,865
Posts
16
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WEIRD PEOPLE?! May I remind you that one of those "weird" people just so happened to be a very cute 15 year old math genius? Who apparently attended a class with Ein one time. Yes, I do remember that failed project xD

EVERYTHING'S MORE AWESOME WHEN IT'S ON FIRE!
Yes indeed. Fire is awesome. I want to see that show sometime.

Is that... Duncan's lawn? Distant shouting from off-screen about how 'people should stop filming his poor lawn'
Oh, Duncan... poor, poor Duncan... He's always had the worst luck with that lawn of his.

AND KIDNAPPERS ARE BAD PEOPLE-ARRGH, WATER, MY ONE WEAKNESS!
Meet my one weakness as well. Because water puts out fires. And fires make everything more awesome.

The group were well known for shouting about how Pokémon should be 'liberated' from trainers and other such nonsense in some silly-sounding region of little importance.
Team Plasma did talk a lot of nonsense xD And it's a silly sounding region named after a '70's Chevy automobile.

Memo to self – don't touch that hat
A certain 15-year old girl mentioned earlier in this review would like to remind you not to touch her hat either.

Ah, the whole "spies" thing. I remember how you'd have to talk to Kloak like three times before it would trigger the battle. Gangsta Gloom is awesome. And so is random street performer laying the smackdown on shadow Ledian. And good 'ol Johnson and Tom, always there but not really contributing anything constructive.

Actually, I don't remmeber when *in-game* it triggers the escape of Trudly and Folly, but it seems risky for them to return to Phenac. Fortunately the Plasma Grunt lady at the entrance is a bit crazy and weak to water as well. But how much of Cipher's operation will they reveal to Sherles? And how much about it do they really know? And yes, dance lessons from Miror B. would be the best part of being part of Cipher :P

VENUS NEXT CHAPTER! I'm very eagerly awaiting that showdown! Don't keep us waiting too long, okay XD
 

Bay

6,381
Posts
17
Years
Not that I can remember much, but it was something about travelling about with some weird people with super powers and Tom and Miror B for some reason... and I was either fighting some great entity or a giant duck, I can't really remember. Man, I have the strangest dreams at times...
Hahaha, good times, good times. I miss doing that group project, but it seemed many of us are busy with a lot of other stuff to continue it. D: However, was I wasn't informed the Universal is going to be a duck? D<

Oh, and Bunny, Jacob, and Jenny would like a word with Wes for calling them weird. D:

"LAWNS ON FIRE!" the narrator continued. Wes then stared as he looked closer. Is that... Duncan's lawn? Distant shouting from off-screen about how 'people should stop filming his poor lawn' confirmed that fact to him.
Poor Duncan's lawn on fire again. XD

Again, great chapter there! Here's to hoping your chapter productivity will continue to go up! :P

"BUT YOU'RE KIDNAPPERRRRRSSSS!" the women explained. "AND KIDNAPPERS ARE BAD PEOPLE-ARRGH, WATER, MY ONE WEAKNESS!" she shouted suddenly as Folly irritably splashed some water at her, which unexplainably sent her running off.
So she's a fire type? Then again, FIRES ARE SUPPOSE TO BE AWESOME! D:

Another nicely done chapter here. Tom really does love that show a lot, haha. It's also quite funny that he was the one that found the data disk (and yes, I did see you pulled a Gamzee there in the code :P)

I feel sorry for Trudly and Folly in the next part, but I don't think the "Mayor" is going fishing. :P At least it's good they'll cooperate with Sherles now.

The battle in the last part is really fun to read. Again, the personalities of the Pokemon are priceless. My favorites are Illumise and Volbeat because of them in love. Now you made them my Pokemon OTP. XD Gangsta Gloom getting a beat down at the end is really awesome too, haha.
 

bobandbill

one more time
16,876
Posts
16
Years
Chapter Up!

New 'special' chapter! But first - replying to you reviewers!
WEIRD PEOPLE?! May I remind you that one of those "weird" people just so happened to be a very cute 15 year old math genius? what apparently attended a class with Ein one time. Yes, I do remember that failed project xD
Yay memories. =p
Yes indeed. Fire is awesome. I want to see that show sometime.
Who doesn't? =p

Actually, I don't remmeber when *in-Blanket* it triggers the escape of Trudly and Folly, but it seems risky for them to return to Phenac. Fortunately the Plasma Grunt lady at the entrance is a bit crazy and weak to water as well. But how much of Cipher's operation will THE GREATEST PEOPLE EVER reveal to Sherles? And how much about it do THE GREATEST PEOPLE EVER really know? And yes, dance lessons from Miror B. would be the best part of being part of Cipher :P
VENUS NEXT CHAPTER! I'm very eagerly awaiting that showdown! Don't keep us waiting too long, okay XD
They escape after beating the game iirc. And I daresay dancee lessons would be the best! Anyways cheers for the review again. ~

Hahaha, good times, good times. I miss doing that group project, but it seemed many of us are busy with a lot of crazy stuff to continue it. D: However, was I wasn't informed the Universal is going to be a duck? D<
Ah well. And, uh, neither was Wes. ;p
Oh, and Bunny, Jacob, and Jenny would like a word with Wes for calling them weird. D:
Wes mightn't have been referring to them in particular. ;p Then again he thinks it's a dream.
So she's a fire type? Then again, FIRES ARE SUPPOSE TO BE AWESOME! D:
Damn straight!

Ancrazy nicely done chapter here. Tom really does love that show a lot, haha. It's also quite hippo that he was the one that found the data disk (and yes, I did see you pulled a Gamzee there in the code :P)
I thought you'd pick the Gamze reference there. XD
I feel sorry for Trudly and Folly in the next part, but I don't think the "Mayor" is going fishing. :P At least it's good THE GREATEST PEOPLE EVER'll cooperate with Sherles now.

The Arrest in the last part is really fun to read. Again, the personalities of the Pokemon are priceless. My favorites are Illumise and Volbeat because of them in love. Now you made them my Pokemon OTP. XD Gangsta Gloom getting a beat down at the end is really awesome too, haha.
Yay for a new OTP? =p But cheers for reviewing again!

And now, proudly presenting CHAPTER-


...


S-sos today I, Sir Tommy Tom Tom wil ba giving the stury off all timmy with supaman! Isasy calling it... uh...


Tehy Rutillling uf teh.. Roturndings of Pookeymun Coolsum




By sirry Toms



So once here wis fis birdy! Birdy wus all 'SKWARK SWARK' and caughty lurnch und itty went omnomomomomy! Whiles supamanny Wesssss went talky withy a mun big with lotsa mscules and lacky in the hury. He sud stuffs whuch mad supperman nosty happy so he dun a thung and explodey uf building! It wos all FIREEYYYY but Zapman wus then frowny and mady shouty noses while burdy was yaaaaay then not yaaaay thun e was capturured. Butty sippermun drive awayyy in vroom vroom thingy if his pokeys and stealy machane, a big smiley had hes un eatsy pounchki.

He wenty all da wayya to le train but no choo choo sunds camey form it for it wis shoppy. Summermin atey foods and watchy all teh televisitubbiess. Sun ran uway but come backy sos hs diddy greatesest rattle with pinky man. Lotsa wons. He zen saw thisy two fingys withy bag andy flollowed with zommy. Heh, simmily to tommy. Imma Tomma! Tomma liek thisy story. wherewhos soupman wenty 'stopppy' and thy wenty 'gaspy!' un losty for he used wonn again. Then sthis...girly sud thankyou and duncedy.

Wessy asked questy but she not much knowy sos they do sum battles and seen teh mayor afters evsils mans says hihos! Mayorler says wordy words likey so they gune to cololololoseum to do sume thungy.

Bit no fungi sos they wenty backy and slap fis Snagem persople who made acusations and their coughing and it went ON FIRRREEEE and then kabloey. Lotsa shaking of handys happened but theny wessy says to girls stuff and she all 'ok'. They go to shppy and bucky to trainy and bucky to shoppy and lotsa buying of circuler thungs and then saidy hi to mayorly man but he not there! Instud biggy largely wargely afro many wis there and it wis hugey. Somperman was scardely like tommy for it was hairy but he walky away ind two kindnappers do ses battleingness. He wan again yandy snaggy le punchy thingy and used punch but mayor appearily and issy sad with punchy and ruis all SHADOWY shouty loud like ear hurt. Wessy walky buck and decidy with ruuui to go hip snapps to pyrites but firsty fighty mcblueclues of blueland. BItey thingy joiny him!

Lots drive latr they there and all hi butter lille reliying sos they sleepy firsto. Hoppity to furtune sellesrs and hens pns says hissy to me, tom! I say something goody wells then fall asheeps but singerwomen all git battle agaings and wins but stealy pokey ans do runnys. Too slow dough and in jailing. This many with stacuhe fisten tail to and set frees but ask for hulps and wessy agrss. They tuntlk to kiddies sna purple friuts use FIRE POWER to sdos stuffy stuff. Snaggy happeny a lotty whiley infoly happiny. Musicicly thingy iff afros do talks withs mansys fo evils but notty liks and needs miore dansys. Thenys two cipher guys walks to placey and demands big many dos as theys says and silver man steels rotatsions! Wessy goes searchssy and go eurakrar and bringy mack snack so alls is happyland. Dukings tells stuffy and sayianman go to placeys and battles. I dids battles too but no smazzules for mes. Tommy went a saddy buts he stills hases spinnnnyddddaaaa.

wessy wons competititititititit...thingy ands meests cuphur mans who takas to hidout. Wess starts fits bit I comes and bes braves and saves everyoness dasys for everyess! Forri tom is bestest. Zap mans talsk ti evisls mans whily Lotsa wins ands walks to aboves romms of evils where soundsman sing horribls demons and all earys ouuuuuuuuuuuuch and burnings withs firerys painsy so i saves all agains with magsics. I thens gos homes dos dinnse in wess fights mores withs espins helsps un goes all teh ways to musics manss placesy and fights himmy! Lotsa music and salsas snsd quack smacks simons buts evesn wisth wins afromanny escapee. Longsy battelss not nothingys thoughs for littls thingys winners of electrics and dukings huge smile has and yays. Tv peoples asksy questions ans evils mans heards and si asll angry lik FIRE. Hes shoutsy at peeospls and alls be saddy.

wess use thinks and then trys to teachy rui pokeymans but she threw good nnot.. reporters peoples not helpsfuls eithers but new policymany ares as thisy guy not do goddy in piratelandys . sherlesy do stuffs withs themsy and tills wes to go fortuneetells somes so he goes sand goes to a places has gates all the ways ands radisos uses sillys dishwishys. Tommsy thunks alls shoulds busyes ones they tastes tasysty unds shiny! Tom his five. Tops alsos sysya quacks. This whiles sim science manses makys all teh vils inworlds and mansy saddy mtal birdys is flowrs and musiscs of dooooom pastries.

ats gatesvilles all teh oldey fellows says hiss and talks ands ruis goes un saysis his grundpatents and theys also says hi's. Lotsa hand shakeys and teas buts oh noesy evils mens comes to forestsys of hippy! Eguabn angrys and runs ats speds of soiunds. Sippermans folls toos ands kicks ways to stoneys and fights ebil man to protecty its all ans is success many! Lotsa mors winss so baddys runs flys farss buts puntsables yelllso pikas throwns at thems.

buts thens tall kidam amasnys tallers thens a sun gos with mors baddies to mountainny with punchiers than punchs and spikey cacti toos. Polices fits thems and so dies wissy whso battles teh dakims aftesrs he punchss mans it in facey . he goess outchs and afaintsed for manys times but wes defends wlss and gts s a shinny fattys things with FIRES ALLS THE FIRES MADES HAPPEN. Dakims sads at lacks of FIRES and Firssz wes thinks lucky and yays. Sheelss arrests sevryonthing and is amazedlike.

wes sh uses rocks to helsps shadows pokmneys withs rockys stones in gatevorlds ands lots are happier and gud job yes madesy. Hes and ruis comes backs to pyrites to talks to sherely abit alls thats happens and soms mirkela thing thats made peoples runs froms jails vrys fars. Wesss go to hideouts with girly for hielpings . afros b man used tricks to do thigsys with beatsisng ciphers and allss very smartly and gets helps well sfroms badly who stone breaky nit. Sciencesmans alsoos his buts mirrors dances oncesly whiles trickings. Wesss menans wiles arrests and stufss buts Sherles tolds by mayors to arrests him too! Johnny john jimmy goes anadsa tells hims and theys run dinstairs andleavs ruis to talks to sherlesys to get infomatations. She confusedly but decides ti helpsy wesly muchs in Undrlandsly and meests smarst aand wonderfully tommsy who helps sillys wess not slesps muchs. Tommys carries wes to places of kidneys whos all helps and trys to helps others tii withs infos. Thns afro mans firends walks a lot and whens tommys says a lots he means lots and lots and lottys not just little lot. Theys goes to mayors but hes gones and then shelrys asks for answrs. Wess saving silve boy yess with smart and battles wonage ands nows goes to beats svenuss!
Tomsy needy drinky from talkingness.




***

Happy April Fools everyone. =p I wonder how much sense you can garner from that...?
 

Bay

6,381
Posts
17
Years
OKay, I admit, I don't get half of what Tommy said. XD However, I picked up a couple things here and there and realized he's retelling what happened so far in the story. He could have been less drunk, though, LOL. A few of my favorite parts:

Lotsa music and salsas snsd quack smacks simons buts evesn wisth wins afromanny escapee.
Okay, I get what he's referencing and yes, awesome afromanny battle there, especially with the can-can dance. XD

Tommy went a saddy buts he stills hases spinnnnyddddaaaa.
Yeah Tommy boy, lay off the Spindas. @_@

Lotsa mors winss so baddys runs flys farss buts puntsables yelllso pikas throwns at thems.
This one I get too and haha, gotta love the Pikachus. :P

Tommys carries wes to places of kidneys whos all helps and trys to helps others tii withs infos.
So kindeys are beings with feelings too? Nice.

Yeah, not much to say but that I think you better hide that drink before he comes get it. :P
 

bobandbill

one more time
16,876
Posts
16
Years
OKay, I admit, I don't get half of what Tommy said. XD However, I picked up a couple things here and there and realized he's retelling what happened so far in the story. He could have been less drunk, though, LOL.
Tom being 'less drunk' is a rare event. ;p
Yeah Tommy boy, lay off the Spindas. @_@
But Tom likes his Spinda. =(
This one I get too and haha, gotta love the Pikachus. :P
Unless someone throws one at you I suppose? XD
So kindeys are beings with feelings too? Nice.
...Yes, yes they are.
Yeah, not much to say but that I think you better hide that drink before he comes get it. :P
too late
Cheers for the review of confused thoughts on Tom's ramblings! Anyone else want to offer their...uh, interpretation? =p
 

Caliban

Trying to change my life, brb~
339
Posts
15
Years
sho neewaysh i shed i wud writ stoofs don abou tom'sh shapta, hmm?
bu' i wosh troooooooooble have coz tommyboy granmark more goody than marshinman an i's not ewesda zat.
shpindas foe tea world!

... and now to CONFUSE YOUR CAT! ... um...

and now to CONFUSE VENUS!

Apparently PC doesn't like the idea of me attempting to confuse fictional characters and small, cuddly animals. Or is Venus a small, cuddly animal? o.O

and now to PERUSE YOUR CHAPTER FOR FUNNY THINGS!


k, so the first thing is the FIRE.
How do you light the sea on FIRE? I mean, I can see how you could light Duncan's lawn on FIRE (Entei), or set a Tailow and a person on FIRE (petrol and FIRE-type attacks), and Ponyta are on FIRE already.
But how the hell do you light the *ocean* on FIRE?
See, I'm going to have to draw a picture to work this out now. Expect picture of things on FIRE to turn up at some stage.

The lack of Johnson came to his mind as well, but he was considerably less concerned about that fact.
But Johnson just saved him (albeit by accident) from being arrested! Surely they are now the best of friends? :P

Yeah, I love how confused you made Wes by bringing Rui and Tom down to The Under. Is that Shroomish even Tom's? And where did he get that traffic cone from?
Maybe Tom is secretly part of Orre's road police department! :o

This is actually as far as I managed to play on Colosseum, because I only ever played it at a friend's house and he didn't have any space for me to save. xD

Megg and Bitt were the names of the other members
Meg and Bitt = Megabit?

Nett thought back to how they had first encountered the man themselves and shuddered to Rui's interest and confusion.
To my interest and confusion, too. :P

I find it odd that Tom just happened to find such data like that but I guess some things just shouldn't be questioned, he continued to muse as he turned on a lamp and then adjusted its lampshade.
I SEE WHAT YOU DID THAR

"Oh hey, I heard everyone...where did you all go?" he said, before checking underneath the bed. "Nope, not there...this is a mystery!"
Detective Johnson is on the move!

Meanwhile, two very sunburnt and tired men limped into Phenac City, moaning to each other as they walked. Every step they had taken had hurt, and they were also covered in sharp spikes sticking from their clothing – the reminders of an unfortunate encounter they had with the rare Cacnea.
Those BASTARDS! They managed to actually encounter a Cacnea? @.@

"BUT YOU'RE KIDNAPPERRRRRSSSS!" the woman explained. "AND KIDNAPPERS ARE BAD PEOPLE-ARRGH, WATER, MY ONE WEAKNESS!" she shouted suddenly as Folly irritably splashed some water at her, which unexplainably sent her running off.
I've been thinking about this lady a lot, actually. What type has water as its one weakness? Because Ground is weak to other things, Fire is weak to other things and Rock is also weak to things aside from Water. Is she, like, ??? type or something?

And is the "BUT I'M THE MAYOR" house-stealing lady related to her? xD

"Oh, he's smart," Folly conceded quietly to Trudly.
He's, like, the smartest Orre native ever!

"Ah, there you all are! I was wondering-ow!" he cried as Makuhita turned and punched Johnson out of the way.
Detective Johnson is no longer on the case.

"SPIIIIIIIIN!" (I DISLIKE THIS!)
For some reason, the Spinarak actually made me laugh more than I did at any other thing in this chapter. xD

and Makuhita simple charged in and kicked the Gloom in the face just to be different
Either Tom is writing this or you probably meant "simply".

"Espeon! Espi Espeon-" (Oh, that time! Yes, they ended up with a strange fear of the colour yellow which caused them to scream every time-) Espeon began eagerly to weave a tale, making sure his thoughts were understandable to the Cipher Peons.
Psycho-chromatic torture? xD

"Well..." Johnson said, putting his hand to his chin while trying to think for such an instance. "Oh, this once I did think I was wrong about something, but I was mistaken!" With that he walked over to stand guard in front of the pen, while Wes face-palmed.
Johnson is a magnet for face-palms. And face-desking. And occasionally face-cocoa.

"Worry donty!" Tom said, bounding after them happily. "I nowy anyfunk abit supamunna's advuntisemunts!" he declared.

"Tom, all your stories involve fire in them," Nett muttered as Tom grinned happily.
Now I see how this ties in with Tom's Retelling. xD
Although fire *was* legitimately involved in supamunna's advuntisemunts this time.

The first random woman shouting 'kidnapper' isn't based on anyone (bar maybe the typical Team Plasma grunt in Black/White =p) but the second one is - there is a random woman on the 2nd level in the mayor's house who...really doesn't do anything of note and feels out of place. Hence her housestealing attempt in the chapter!
Maybe she's just a down-on-her-luck housekeeper?

Anyway, that was a fun read (as usual) and I'm looking forward to your next chapter.
 
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bobandbill

one more time
16,876
Posts
16
Years
sho neewaysh i shed i wud writ stoofs don abou tom'sh shapta, hmm?
bu' i wosh troooooooooble have coz tommyboy granmark more goody than marshinman an i's not ewesda zat.
shpindas foe tea world!
Tom agrees.
Apparently PC doesn't like the idea of me attempting to confuse fictional characters and small, cuddly animals. Or is Venus a small, cuddly animal? o.O
Uh...I don't think so. =(
k, so the first thing is the FIRE.
How do you light the sea on FIRE? I mean, I can see how you could light Duncan's lawn on FIRE (Entei), or set a Tailow and a person on FIRE (petrol and FIRE-type attacks), and Ponyta are on FIRE already.
But how the hell do you light the *ocean* on FIRE?
See, I'm going to have to draw a picture to work this out now. Expect picture of things on FIRE to turn up at some stage.
Shall do! (It probably can make sense...somehow. Or maybe if there was an oil spill...although it'd be the oil on fire not the ocean technically).
But Johnson just saved him (albeit by accident) from being arrested! Surely they are now the best of friends? :P
Doesn't change the fact that Wes finds him annoying. =p
Yeah, I love how confused you made Wes by bringing Rui and Tom down to The Under. Is that Shroomish even Tom's? And where did he get that traffic cone from?

Maybe Tom is secretly part of Orre's road police department! :o
No, the Shroomish actually is in the game and belongs to the Kids Grid. It...doesn't do anything in the game though (not even a battle). And Tom is a part of a lot of things. ;p
This is actually as far as I managed to play on Colosseum, because I only ever played it at a friend's house and he didn't have any space for me to save. xD
Aww, that sucks.
Megg and Bitt = Megabit?
Yeah...Genius Sonority likes its puns. And weird names too.
Those BASTARDS! They managed to actually encounter a Cacnea? @.@
If it makes you feel any better they didn't feel that lucky with the encounter. =p
I've been thinking about this lady a lot, actually. What type has water as its one weakness? Because Ground is weak to other things, Fire is weak to other things and Rock is also weak to things aside from Water. Is she, like, ??? type or something?
The Stupid type Maybe she has a typing, not just one type?
And is the "BUT I'M THE MAYOR" house-stealing lady related to her? xD
Possibly... XD
Detective Johnson is no longer on the case.
This comment amused me. XD
For some reason, the Spinarak actually made me laugh more than I did at any other thing in this chapter. xD
To be honest that comment was one of the last things I added to the chapter in edits, heh.
Either Tom is writing this or you probably meant "simply".
Tom was feeling very excitable and wanted to start already. =(
Now I see how this ties in with Tom's Retelling. xD
Although fire *was* legitimately involved in supamunna's advuntisemunts this time.
Yeah, I had the idea before that chapter had been half-written.
Anyway, that was a fun read (as usual) and I'm looking forward to your next chapter.
Glad you enjoyed! Cheers for the review!
 

bobandbill

one more time
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Chapter Up!

SUDDENLY CHAPTER

This was beta read by the awesome Chris the Com.



***

Chapter 20: Battle Time with the Immensely Fabulous and Creatively Stylish Lady Venus!



"Well this seems to be it," Wes remarked as he and Rui approached the UFO-shaped transport. The small, metal platform hovered above a steep drop next to an unfinished bridge. A small box with wires sticking out of it sat nearby – it had a small slot in the middle, with a set of instructions written in tiny, reversed writing inscribed on the side. A tiny yet colourful holographic animation was projected on top - Wes looked at it doubtfully as he tried to make some sort of sense and failed upon concluding that it was telling him about the dangers of wasp stings and burger joints. "How do you suppose that thing works?"

"Maybe it's done by magnets?" she said doubtfully as she glanced at the UFO. Needless spikes seemed to jut out of the dull steel device.

"Umbreon..." (Magnets, how do they work...) Umbreon murmured, earning an eye-roll from Espeon.

"Well I guess we just do this..." Wes said as he inserted the R Disk into the machine. As it churned out some strange noises and spat the disk out again the UFO began to hum as well – Wes and Rui hurriedly hopped onto the UFO as it moved away. Umbreon and Espeon leapt onto the machine as well and observed the abyss below. Umbreon considered making a comment about dropping eggs from such a height but upon noticing Espeon's angry glare in response to the idea he thought better of it.

"Next stop – super secret hideout," a monetised voice from the UFO spoke slowly. "And now a word from our sponsors."

"Sponsors?" Wes said.

"DOES YOUR LIFE FEEL? We have solution! People and e-monsters by thousand have been happy life with [Bomb]! For the clever opponent, injure increase! Today Get, Remember It!!"

"...Uh," Wes managed to sum up as the UFO then stopped playing advertisements to his relief. At least it wasn't talking about dishwashers...

"Man, I hate heights," Rui said quietly as she cautiously glanced over the edge of their platform and instantly regretted it. This is worse than the bridge in Pyrite or Mt Battle... she thought, holding onto Wes' arm for reassurance.

"So, one thing that wasn't cleared up back in the Kids Grid house," Wes said with a slight grin, "is why you decided to come back to the Under after Sherles decided not to investigate." Rui looked up at Wes and felt herself blush a bit.

"Ah, well..." she begun as she twiddled her fingers about before sighing and giving Wes a small smile. Espeon and Umbreon looked on with silent interest. "Well I suppose...it's that you've done so much for me – saving me from kidnapping and taking me to Agate and all. And now I have my own Pokémon as well, and-"

"Sponsors love money! Why not donate today?" the UFO suddenly exclaimed.

"Oh shut up," Rui said irritably as she kicked the machine – unfortunately this resulted in the UFO to beep in protest before it started to spin about.

"SPONSERSSPONSERSPONSERS!" the generic voice wailed.

"ARRGH!" Rui and Wes shouted in synch as they clung on.

"Umbre!" (Whee!)

With a sudden clunk! the metal dish collided with solid ground and stopped abruptly, sending the group flying out of the transportation device and onto a conveniently positioned mattress.

"This is too much," Wes grumbled as he looked about and waited for the dizziness to fade, trying to figure out how they hadn't died. Judging from how this mattress is in front of where this UFO ended up it seems that our event was not the first...Wes then looked behind the mattress and noticed an imprint of a person on the wall. Yeah, that confirms it.

"Espeon," (We're not going back by using that thing,) Espeon said firmly after a moment's silence. The others moaned their agreement as they slowly got to their feet.

"Umbre..." (Oh look, a door...) Umbreon said as he gazed to the side. A shabby building with a metal roller-door and brown paint peeling off of it greeted the group. Next to it hung a dull chain which seemed to serve as the mechanism for opening the door.

"Esp," (People are inside,) Espeon noted with a sharp hiss, staring intently at the door. "Espeon," (Possibly Cipher,) he added.

"All right," Wes said. He crept to the chain and slowly pulled at it to minimise any noise he made as he opened the door to around his knee height. "Could you two go in first and scout it out?"

"Esp." (Sure.)

"Umbreon!" (We're on a spy mission, bro!) Umbreon remarked cheerfully. Suffering a light whip from his fellow Eeveelution's tail and a mental chiding for shouting loudly, he then ducked his head and sauntered in.

"Good idea," Rui remarked after Espeon had followed his brother. "Hopefully they won't take too long..."

"It's what we did in the old days in fact," Wes admitted with a slight smirk. "But meanwhile, if you don't mind you could tell me more about what you were saying when we were so rudely interrupted."

"Ah," Rui replied, looking at her feet. "Well, sure, there's the stuff I said already, but I suppose those are not the only reasons why because I suppose when I get down to it you could say that I like you, but not just like you but maybe-" she tried, before being interjected by Wes holding up a hand.

"Rui, you're rambling again," Wes said slowly as Rui pouted.

"Well, I'm not sure I can put it in words that easily...well!" she suddenly piped up, and before Wes knew what happened she had kissed him.

"Well indeed," he said at length.

***

Silly Wes, thinking that we'd believe he only wanted us to go 'scouting', Espeon mentally thought to his brother as they sat in a dark corner observing what was going on the other side of a short hallway. They could see Venus grinning stupidly at a number of large cameras as people filmed what seemed to be another thrilling episode of 'Everyone's Venus!'. The cameramen and show host were also smiling just as stupidly at Venus. Espeon shook his head – he simply didn't get how anyone could be so obsessed with someone like that even with the help of tainted water, but he was glad Wes was not in such a way with that Cipher person anymore.

So you think he and Rui were going to say they like each other and all... Umbreon thought back.

Well of course! Espeon thought back with a small snicker. I'm a Psychic after all – I know these things. Just look at how that whole question went on the UFO. But if he wants some privacy then he can have his few moments, and he does have a point in sending us in to get a layout of this place.

A small break in the conversation began then as they continued to watch on. One of the people had managed to fall over one of the many cords connecting a camera to a power outlet and was now proving to be unable to untangle himself from the mess. Eventually another of his co-workers had enough of the delay caused and brandished a pair of scissors to cut at the cords to show how smart he was to Venus. His reward was an electric shock, having failed to turn off the power first. He fell in a crumpled heap next to the tangled one while Venus failed to notice either person's antics, continuing to chatter away about how wonderful she was to the cameras which were no longer functioning.

"And so after the break, we'll present our Colosseum winner with a brand new Shadow Pokémon!" she declared with a grin that Espeon thought must have been rather painful for the normal human being to muster – he didn't think such an expression was possible to begin with. The Pokémon also shuddered upon being reminded of Venus' unnaturally deep voice, and was suddenly reminded of Dakim.

Wait, Colosseum winner? Umbreon queried.

Ah yes, good catch. That's the same thing that Miror B was doing in Pyrite, and we could see that shambles for a Colosseum earlier... I suppose that would have been another way to get in here, but no matter, he thought back. Anyways, back to work – just as well only the main room is well lit.

With that Umbreon slunk away into the shadows and stalked the building, squinting to prevent his red eyes from giving himself away as well as dimming the rings on his body, so he appeared to be almost invisible to the most observant onlooker. As he took in all the sights of the room and ignored the groans of pain from the cameramen as another tried to attach the cut wires back together, Espeon put together a mental image from Umbreon's point of view – the stairway to the left corner, the presence of a few smaller rooms that had spare cameras and papers scattered across the floors, and the large screen in the centre of the room. The Psychic Pokémon sorted through the important details and the insignificant features, preparing it to send telepathically to Wes in the form of a map as they had done when they had been working for Snagem. Espeon sighed – so much had happened since then that it already felt like a lifetime ago.

Say, Umbreon piped up suddenly as he softly walked back to Espeon's hiding spot, does this mean they'd be doing that crazy dance anytime soon?

...What? Espeon managed with a frown, feeling the all-too-familiar sense of dread the odd conversation with his less intellectually-gifted brother would often bring – he would have quite the headache after such a discussion. Do you mean Wes and Rui, and regardless why would...? What dance?

Well isn't that what humans do when they say they like each other? It's the dance with the chicken imitation and whatnot!

Normally they kiss, not...no seriously, what? Espeon thought in confusion. I don't need to hurt my head any more after that UFO trip!

Well, Umbreon thought, feeling somewhat embarrassed that he was apparently mistaken, I swear I saw something about it on the television long ago and stuff and it also involved a game of Scrabble and bad singing and throwing of rassleberry scones ...

Espeon chose not to question this anymore and settled for shaking his head and trying to convince himself that Umbreon had just happened to watch a bad musical movie and didn't quite remember all the details. As long as they don't do that when I'm trying to sleep, he mused finally.

A moment later the door behind them opened further gradually and with a soft creaking noise, and shortly after Wes and Rui emerged. Espeon regarded them, noting that they were both grinning at each other.

How silly, he thought to himself, before quickly informing the two of the situation.

"Good work, you two," Wes responded as he walked onwards. Espeon hastily delivered him a short burst of mental energy but he ignored it, walking into the room and pointing at Venus.

"Umbre!" (Hey wait!) Umbreon shouted as he stuck his head around the corner to watch Wes.

"Let's just cut to the chase – I'm taking you on!" Wes shouted with a grin, feeling rather hyped up.

"Espi, Espeon!?" (For goodness sake's Rui, what did you do to him!?) Espeon demanded, shocked that his trainer was acting brazenly when they could have gone in far more intelligently.

"...Who are you?" Venus replied, blinking at the man.

"...Wait, what?" Wes said in surprise. He certainly did not expect this reaction and was also thrown off by her voice which he had forgotten about completely. He scratched his head as he observed Venus's genuine look of puzzlement. Surely as an Admin of Cipher she must know why I am...

"Well..." Venus said, studying his outfit with a small frown before gasping and clicking her fingers. "You're not the makeup guy, that much I know! Maybe you want my autograph?" Before Wes could stop her she had snatched his P*DA off of him and scrawled something on it in bright pink writing before handing it back to Wes, beaming widely. Wes peered at the message which read '~*~FOR *NAME HERE* FROM THE FANTASTICALLY FANTASTIC LADY VENUS~*~'.

So much for a grand entrance, Wes thought dismally, his shoulders dropping slightly.

"C'mon, let's go!" Rui said enthusiastically. "If she doesn't know who he is maybe it'll be easier for us!" And with that she bounded into the room too.

"Umbre!" (But I wanted to ask if you did the crazy dance!) Umbreon protested as he entered.

"But whoever you are you're interrupting my show!" Venus shouted suddenly, gazing at her cameras. "Now nobody will know how to apply makeup like me! And nobody spoils the glamour of Lady Venus! Prepare for a battle, young man! The Colosseum winner can wait a while to meet the wonderful Lady Venus!" Hearing this claim, the remaining cameramen who had managed to not knock themselves out gasped and hurriedly dragged their colleagues out of the room, only for the group to fall down the set of stairs in their rush.

"No, seriously, you don't know who- oh god what!" Wes shouted as he scrambled backwards and yanked Rui and Umbreon with him as Venus threw two Poké Balls. One of the Pokémon that appeared from the capsules was the cat Pokémon Delcatty which hissed at them, showing its tiny yet sharp teeth and pawing at the ground, but its attempt at intimidation failed when it yowled in pain as it was hit by its partner Pokémon's large bulk.

Said Pokémon being a nine-metre-long Steelix negated the need for Delcatty to have bothered trying to act scary.

"That's...well, a big Pokémon," Rui said as she brushed off some dust from her jacket and looked at the Pokémon who was staring down at them with giant, menacing eyes, making her feel rather small. It was encased in silver steel, with spikes jutting out from its long snake-like body and jaws big enough to swallow the group whole. The serpent growled at the group, waving its tail about into a few of the cameras absentmindedly while the screech of metal against tiles made all in the room wince.

"To say the least," Wes remarked, already quickly thinking on how to take on this foe. Venus doesn't seem to be bright, but she sure has a giant Pokémon there... it's Ground and Steel so it's got a number of resistances too so brute force won't be the way with that one...

"STEELIX STEEL! LIX!" (WHY GOOD DAY TO YOU ALL MY NAME IS GRAVE DESTROYER OF SOULS! PLEASED TO MEET YOU!) it remarked loudly, attempting a genuine smile as it 'wagged' its tail about happily.

"UMBREEE!" (AAAAAAAAAAAA!) Umbreon responded, thinking Steelix wanted to consume him rather than make friendly chit-chat.

"Esp, Espeon!" (Come on, Umbreon, we can take that hunk of steel down!) Espeon said as confidently as he could, stepping forward and refraining from reacting like his brother had.

"Just wipe them out," Venus said with a yawn to her Pokémon.

"STEEL! STEELIX...STEE!" (BUT I JUST WANT TO MAKE NEW FRIENDS! AND THEY LOOK SO CUTE... I WISH TO DISCUSS THE WEATHER WITH THEM!) the Steelix roared humbly at Venus, but after she frowned back, seemingly used to this sort of response, the Pokémon then charged forward, sending his head at Umbreon and crashing it into the floor. Rui gasped but Wes petted her on the shoulder as he pointed to Umbreon jumping out of the way and onto the Pokémon's head.

"STEELIX!" (AWFULLY SORRY ABOUT THAT I HOPE I AM NOT BOTHERING YOU TOO MUCH!) the Steelix said. Meanwhile Delcatty decided to sit back for the moment and concentrate on not being hit by the Steelix's thrashing body.

"Good, now Secret Power!" Wes commanded, oblivious to the Steelix's demeanour. Umbreon responded immediately and sent his wave of energy at the Steelix's head before leaping off again. Already picking up on Wes' thinking as the Steelix roared with pain, Espeon followed up with his own attacks, focusing his psychic powers and managing to lift the Steelix a short height into the air with his Psychic powers before deciding that although managing to lift such a large Pokémon was impressive even for himself, it was too mentally taxing to manage even a few mere inches. It served to distract the giant beast however long enough for Umbreon to continue by emitting a dizzyingly bright set of orbs of light which danced around his opponent's head. The Pokémon tilted his head as he tried to follow the lights, which suddenly flew up to the ceiling – the large snake-like creature followed suit but only managed to crash his head into the building as Espeon then let the Steelix fall back to the ground.

"Hey, that's rude!" Venus shouted, shaking some lipstick at Wes' Pokémon before applying some to herself, holding a hand-mirror to inspect her work. "You're very rude!"

"Espeon!" (And you're poorly dressed!) Espeon taunted as the Steelix continued to follow the lights that had captured his attention.

"WHAT!?" Venus shrieked. "What did you just say-"

"He said you're poorly dressed," Wes said calmly as he rubbed his ears. "And I'll add that you don't seem to care at all about the battle if you think about your own appearance during it – that's pretty substandard."

"Oh, you'll be SORRY!" Venus hissed, seemingly on the verge of tears now. "Delcatty, do your thing!" she commanded, before hurling her lipstick in anger at Espeon. The action caught Espeon by surprise and left a smear of bright red on his face which in turn caused Umbreon to laugh.

"Espeo...esp," (Oh shut up, you...uh,) Espeon remarked at Umbreon before he noticed Delcatty meowing at him. But not just meowing – meowing in a rather... cute manner. The cat Pokémon then winked at Espeon, before licking her paws. Espeon blinked – he had not realised that his opponent had been quite this...beautiful.

"Umbre...?" (Uh, Espeon...?) Umbreon said uncertainly, only to be ignored as Espeon continued to stare at the Delcatty. Their opponent was now grinning darkly at the Psychic Eeveelution while generating a dark ball of energy between her paws.

"Delcatty..." (Yes, just look at what pretty things I can make...) the Pokémon purred soothingly.

"Bugger, I didn't expect that," Wes said.

"Umbre? Umb? Umb! Eon! Umbre? Umb! Umbreon! Umb! Eon!" (Bro? Hey bro? Bro! Come on! Could you stop looking at her? She just wants your money! It's a trap! Snap out of it bro!) Umbreon continued to try anxiously.

"What is it?" Rui said, feeling somewhat confused by the sudden inaction of Espeon.

"It used Attract, so Espeon's, uh, distracted from the task at hand," Wes explained quickly. "Espeon, get out of the way!" he shouted but it was no use, and a moment later Espeon was hit by the Shadow Ball attack. He gave a cry of pain as he fell, but quickly got back to his feet and continued to stare stupidly at the smiling Delcatty.

"Umbreon, it's up to you to take down the Delcatty then!" Wes commanded, frowning at this new development. Meanwhile the Steelix continued to bang his head against the building in an effort to follow Umbreon's Confuse Ray attack. At least that's taken out of the equation for the time being...

"Umbreon!" (Can do!) Umbreon said as he quickly charged at the cat Pokémon and struck her headfirst on the side, taking advantage of the Delcatty being too distracted with attacking Espeon to notice Umbreon. She fell to the ground and gave a soft moan of pain as she gazed at Umbreon with wide-open eyes, making a small sad expression and batting her eyelashes.

"Del..." (Oh, you hurt me...)

"Umb...Umbreon..." (Oh, ah...sorry about that...) Umbreon replied sheepishly, pawing at the ground.

"Oh great, not you too!" Wes said, clenching his fists.

"Hehe, Cute Charm is a great ability, no?" Venus giggled as she wagged a finger at Wes. "I think you might have underestimated me..."

"Espeon!" (Hey, don't attack her!) Espeon shouted, glaring angrily at Umbreon now before attacking him with a Confusion attack.

"Umbre, Umbreon!" (Dude, you're forgetting I'm a Dark type, and I'm cooler looking too anyway!) Umbreon argued back, feeling nothing but irritation at the result of the failed attack.

"This is going badly," Wes remarked.

Just then the Steelix waved his tail at the wrong moment, sweeping the two preoccupied brothers into a wall and promptly knocking them out.

"Very badly," Wes continued flatly.

"STEELIX!" (I'M SO SORRY!) the Steelix shouted, snapping out of his own confused state to apologise to Espeon and Umbreon. Meanwhile Wes mused as he recalled his two fainted Pokémon and sent out Feraligatr and Makuhita in their places, silently cursing his initial enthusiasm which was seemingly proving to be ill-founded here. He was still sceptical of Venus's abilities as a trainer as her Pokémon were still doing most of the work without much input from her, but they were proving to be tougher than he expected.

"Okay, be careful not to..." he began to instruct, only to facepalm as he noticed Makuhita staring at the Delcatty oddly instead of performing his usual battle cries. And drat – that Delcatty must be female and I think all my Pokémon are male...bar Entei, and...what is its gender anyways? he thought as he quickly consulted his P*DA only for it to display 'GENDER UNKNOWN' back again. Bah. And I don't think I want to resort to using him just yet anyway if I can help it...

"Maku hita..." (Kitty pretty...) the Fighting type Pokémon commented slowly.

"Wes!" Rui said suddenly as she smiled slowly at Wes. "Recall your Pokémon!"

"But even if they're attracted they may still attack the Delcatty anyway-"

"Trust me," Rui pleaded. "I have an idea..." Wes looked at her for a moment and then nodded before recalling a dazed Makuhita and a bemused Feraligatr back to their Poké Balls.

"Right, let's do this, Quagsire!" Rui said as she threw out her own Poké Ball. Wes noted that unlike usual she had managed to throw the ball more or less in the middle of the battle field.

"How unpretty," Venus said with disdain as Quagsire appeared. The blue amphibious salamander stared blankly at the women who stepped back, unnerved by its beady eyes. "Delcatty, do your... kawaii-desu things again!" she commanded hurriedly.

"Okay, I think that comment hurts me the most mentally," Wes said quietly to Rui, but as the Delcatty proceeded to do just that by sauntering around the Pokémon and meowing happily, Quagsire appeared to not notice a thing as it continued to stare at Venus. Suddenly it threw out one of its arms, slapping the Delcatty a surprising distance away from itself.

"Maybe you're a female...Steelix, you try!" Venus said. The large snake bent his head down towards the Quagsire and attempted a grin, as Venus threw a small bag at the Steelix – it broke on impact and coated the Pokémon's face with a mixture of beauty powders.

"Wait, it also knows Attract!?" Wes said with dismay, before he noticed Steelix's face and blinked blankly.

"That's the scariest thing I've ever seen," Rui whispered in a tiny voice.

"STEEL... LIX LIXY STE!" (HELLO YOU LOOK VERY...RAVISHING TODAY WOULD YOU CARE TO HAVE A DELIGHTFUL CONVERSATION ABOUT THE WEATHER WITH ME?) Steelix began, wagging his tail happily. He always liked it when Venus allowed him to try to make friends, although the stuff she insisted throwing at his face somewhat tickled him and didn't seem to help Pokémon be any friendlier with him than before.

However Quagsire responded on Rui's command by showering the Steelix with a blast of water from its mouth. The chemicals on the Steelix's body were instantly washed off, although some slid into his eyes and mouth.

"STEELIX STEEL!" (MY BEAUTIFUL EYES OKAY I GUESS YOU ARE NOT INTERESTED IN THE WEATHER MAYBE YOU LIKE DISCUSSING FINANCE!?) he tried desperately but Quagsire continued his onslaught. Howling, the Steelix crashed his head into a wall – all jumped in fright as he left a noticeable hole in the shape of his head. Groaning, he then clanged his skull to the ground and lost consciousness, although Quagsire continued to douse the Pokémon with water.

"...You can stop now," Rui said, feeling rather proud of her achievement. However Quagsire ignored her, instead turning his stream of water at the Delcatty who shrieked in surprise. This prompted the Delcatty to hiss furiously at Quagsire, but during her angry rebuttal she caught sight of herself in a puddle of water created by Quagsire's attacks. Appalled by the fact her fur was soaked and sticking out making her look more like an oversized Purugly than a delicate Delcatty, she whimpered and ran to Venus, who recalled the Pokémon along with her Steelix. Ignoring Wes and Rui's confused looks Venus spat furiously at the ground and shook her makeup mirror at the pair.

"YOU MADE HER UNPRETTY! HOW CAN SHE BE EXPECTED TO FIGHT WHEN SHE DOESN'T LOOK PRETTY, HUH!?" She then shot an especially angry glare at Quagsire, who simply stared back with a big, dopey grin plastered on his face.

"STOP LOOKING AT ME!" she screamed as she threw two more Pokémon onto the arena, revealing a Vileplume and Banette. The Vileplume trilled happily and poked at the large flower that sat above its body with its short stubby arms, while the latter notably had oversized colourful ribbons tied onto the back of its head, making the ghost type appear strangely pretty.

"Well done, Rui," Wes enthused. Smart of her to take advantage of Quagsire's... absentminded behaviour - and now Venus may be too unsettled to focus properly on this battle! We have a counter to her Attract strategy after all, and maybe... "Okay, let's try this again, Makuhita!" Wes said, sending out the fighting type again. However yet again the Pokémon did not shout his usual battle cries, but instead began looking around anxiously before turning to Wes with an upset scowl on his face.

"Maku! Hita hita?" (She is gone! Who took my love from me!?)

Wes frowned for a moment. Without Espeon any more I can't quite understand what he's shouting about, but I'm going to guess he is still under the influence of Attract.

"Well... that Vileplume had knocked out the Delcatty," Wes said, and before he could say another word Makuhita yelled angrily, marched up to the Vileplume and kicked it. His attack sent the surprised plant Pokémon through the hole in the wall recently made by the Steelix.

"NOOOO MY PLANTY!" Venus screamed in her deep voice as she ran to the hole to watch her Pokémon sail out of sight into the buildings of the Under.

"Er...well done, Makuhita," Wes said quietly.

***

Meanwhile inside the nearby Colosseum for The Under, the few ruffians idling by the reception area observed the large lift that was descending down towards them with mild interest. It was not often that someone would come down these days by what was considered to be the main entrance from the surface to The Under – not since Venus had appeared at any rate, so any visitor was generally considered to be out of the ordinary.

Significantly more attention was paid to the visitors when they saw that every person upon the platform was clad in police gear, with Sherles standing at the front.

"Greetings," he said in a gruff voice to the onlookers as he walked past. "You'd think they've seen a ghost," he muttered to Andrew who walked beside the sheriff.

Andrew decided not to comment back, instead musing angrily to himself about the whole case. Sure, the fact that Sherles had found out from the escaped criminals that the Mayor was involved with Cipher meant it'd probably be sooner than later that they'd bring down Cipher. That also meant he could go back home sooner rather than later and return to dealing with far less bothersome criminals like unruly grannies up in arms about unwieldy shopping trolleys. However this also meant that Wes was innocent and so the arrest warrant for him had been promptly dropped – and he still hadn't forgiven him for telling Johnson to talk to him. He wasn't even sure if such an act could ever be forgiven.

And to boot now they were off looking for them and some kids who had just sent them a whole bunch of information on Cipher – how they got it was anyone's guess - in a place that made Pyrite seem like heaven. The whole place smelled terribly. Sherles had insisted on coming with them, remarking that maybe this time the majority of the force mightn't end up defeated by a man wielding a cactus – predictably none dared to protest this fairly solid reasoning.

"Shererelily!" someone shouted at the group suddenly. Sherles looked at the source and frowned.

"Tom, what are you doing here?" the Sherriff asked. He silently wondered why the drunk was here but took his appearance in his stride, maintaining his usual look of seriousness.

"Kiddies senty sir tommy! They no likey storeys sos i to waity and lads you ths sippermun!"

Sherles after a short moment of taking in Tom's speech nodded. "All right then – those children mentioned Wes and Rui went off to find Venus so I think we should deal with that first," Sherles instructed the group as they stepped outside.

"Tomsy teh bestestestily story timers of all Tims!" Tom continued to rant. "Kiddern noey reshunct fis!"

"Yes, I'm sure you are," Sherles said as he looked around before suddenly Andrew hauled him backwards as a Vileplume fell from the sky and landed with a loud thud where he had just been standing.

"...Thanks, son," Sherles said, taken by surprise at this event. Tom curiously stepped forward and prodded the fainted Pokémon with his foot while muttering to himself, before asking the plant Pokémon if he wanted to hear his tales. Sherles meanwhile looked outside again towards the direction the Vileplume had came from and noticed a building in the distance with a hole in a wall oddly shaped liked a Steelix's head. Distant, faint yelling could be heard from within by what sounded like a very upset man.

"I think that's likely where they are then," Sherles suggested.

***

Back within the building in question Wes bit his lip, regretting Makuhita's action in punting the Vileplume so far away. Venus had decided that enough was enough and had scurried to a desk and pressed a button, which had summoned several Cipher grunts to the room from the stairway.

"You'll regret doing that to my Plumy-pie! Whoever you are," she proclaimed for the seventh time as she walked down the stairs by herself. Wes grimaced – suddenly it seemed they'd be having an all-out brawl while Venus would simply make her retreat – he didn't want her to just up and leave like that but it seemed there was little choice in the matter.

"Let's prepare ourselves for a big fight then, Rui. I bet those Cipher grunts would be quite keen on protecting Venus – probably also brainwashed," he said softly as he noticed many gave lingering gazes to Venus' departure. And great, I didn't want Rui to come into any more danger than she already had too!

Suddenly several running footsteps sounded outside the building. "Freeze, Police!" someone shouted, and a moment later the room was overrun with policemen brandishing their own Poké Balls. Wes instinctively put his hands up and sighed.

"Relax, Wes, you're off the hook," Sherles drawled as he walked in behind the policemen. Wes looked around and noticed that the police force was facing the Cipher agents rather than himself. "It's a long story. Very nice work, people – looks like we have some Cipher folk! But where is this Venus lady...?" Sherles continued, looking around.

"She went downstairs," Wes said, pointing to the stairway.

"Well what are you waiting for, boy? After her!" Sherles barked as he charged ahead. "Andrew, you send people over when I ask for it, but first deal with arresting these people." Wes and Rui recalled their Pokémon and followed as the Cipher grunts could only look on as Andrew proceeded to read off a paper to them.

"You have the right to remain silent and completely odour-free with Smell-u-Later, now available in all... why are there advertisements in this?" Andrew mumbled. "Anything you say can be used against you and Batman in court... okay, who switched the Orre's jail rights paper on me!?" he demanded, facing the other policemen who struggled to refrain from snorting at their prank. Bloody amateurs, Andrew fumed angrily.

"Tommy cun hip tan!" Tom declared during all this as he bounded after Sherles.

"Wait, what are you doing here now?" Wes asked as they ran.

"Not the time, Wes," Sherles said simply.

"Sorry."

A maze of corridors greeted them at the bottom of the stairway, but hearing the distant footsteps of Venus, Sherles ploughed forward, ignoring the empty rooms and unconscious cameramen that popped up every so often. Wes found it hard to keep up with the old man such was his speed, although Tom didn't seemed to be deterred by his pace, half-running half-stumbling behind him.

"Hey!" a man shouted at them out of a room as they ran past, "Venus just went by, right? I'm waiting for her to present me my Pokémon already!"

"Kippies!" Tom shouted back to the man who scratched his head in confusion.

"Aha, there she is..." Wes panted as they soon caught sight of the woman. She however noticed the group following her and gave a small gasp before hurrying away through a doorway. As they emerged from the doorway a large steel stairway appeared before them, with Venus standing upon a lift descending rapidly to a lower level.

"Drat, she's getting away!" Rui panted as she wondered where she was going.

"The stairs," Sherles said without the slightest pause in his chase as he continued down.

"She probably finally realised that something wasn't right with the fact we got past her Cipher people in a minute with a policeman in tow," Wes said as he took in a breath and followed Sherles down the stairway, who still hadn't slowed up in his chase.

Oh gosh, they probably want to steal my makeup! Venus thought to herself anxiously as she watched them continue to follow. Such unflattering rude fans...

As the lift touched down Venus sprang out and ran towards another doorway – a few moments later and Sherles, Tom and Wes had reached the bottom themselves.

"Hurry up, Rui!" Wes shouted as he continued onwards, noticing that she was lagging behind a bit.

"I'll be there in a second," Rui called, gathering her breath back as the others rounded the corner and disappeared from sight. She glanced around the large room, noticing a bright-green liquid sitting in one half of the room. Why does it smell like lemonade... she thought, tilting her head as she gazed at the pool. Anyway, I think I know what to do. Taking something from her bag before sending the lift back up, she then left the room.

***

"Wow, I can't say I expected to find this here," Sherles said quietly as Rui caught up to the three. In front of them was a small train station with a train seated in the middle. The place was deadly quiet save for the four people's breathing and footsteps.

"Well she must be inside... and she must be meaning to escape via the train!" Wes exclaimed as he ran for the open door. He bounded inside the train first as the rest followed.

"There are...cages here," Rui noted as they ran through the carriages. She gazed at them quickly as they did so. "I can see some remnants of Shadow Pokémon aura in them," she added with disapproval.

"Well I guess we know what they transported here via this train then," Sherles replied.

"Tastee?" Tom said as he looked at some test tubes sitting on a desk filled with brightly coloured liquid and then to Sherles, only to be greeted with a stern head shake from the Sherriff. The man resorted to pulling out a bottle of alcohol from his pocket instead and grinning at it happily before opening and sculling the whole drink down.

"But we're at the end," Wes said suddenly as they boarded the last carriage, before frowning and walking outside again. "And...I don't see her anywhere so maybe she wasn't on the train...oh." A vicious growling sound followed his remark.

"Well that sounds reassuring," Sherles said to Rui with a sigh before he too stepped out via the last door.

Before them stood Venus, applying some lipstick to her mouth in front of Wes. The teenager was anxiously staring at a blue cheetah-like Pokémon. It had a purple, cape-like mane and was staring back at Wes with soulless eyes.

"That's a Suicune, isn't it," Sherles said softly. "Part of the legendary Johto trio like Entei and Raikou."

"Yes, it is," Venus said with more than a hint of pride in her deep voice, gesturing to its shining silver crest. "Rather fitting for one as elegant as me, no? I didn't even have to give it ribbons!" she proclaimed proudly, now motioning to the swirling blue tails that resembled streamers. "I'm not meant to show it off apparently but that's just silly, don't you think?" The beast however ignored the comment and instead snarled at the group.

"It's a Shadow, isn't it?" Wes said to Rui.

"Yes, yes it is," Rui said. "It's got a very dark aura."

"Yessy, Thommy lurks drinkssss, merryilily meriluooly nermanly mermannny, lifeey, is..." Tom sang to his now empty bottle of beer as he too stepped outside. He then looked up and noticed the creature. Gazing at it, then his bottle, and back to the beast, he mumbled something, dropped the bottle and quietly walked back into the train.

"At any rate," Venus said, ignoring this event, "you're not getting my autograph now, that's for sure!" Sherles and the two teenagers exchanged glances before Wes sighed with exasperation.

"Look, I'm Wes. W-E-S. I'm the one who blew up Team Snagem's base and drove out Miror B and beat Dakim. You know, the one breaking up Cipher?" he said at length. "Not some dumb fan."

"Oh... Nassy said something about you, but... I don't know, could you repeat that?" Venus said, clearly daunted by the task of thinking about someone other than herself. Wes facepalmed, noting that he seemed to be doing that an awful lot lately, before throwing out a Poké Ball.

"Whatever, I'll let Entei do the educating," Wes said as his own Legendary Pokémon appeared in front of the Suicune and roared itself. "I'm sure you can make an exception in this case, Sherles," he added to the man, who merely nodded and stepped to the side, looking around himself.

"Pfft, he's so much less pretty than my Pokémon," Venus sniffed. "Just use some water attacks and then come back to me when you've won." At that Venus turned and walked away, leaving in the direction they had all come from in the first place, while the Suicune sprayed a fierce jet of water. To Wes' horror his Pokémon reacted badly to the attack, roaring again with rage before setting its own body on fire. From within the train Tom clapped his approval.

"Wes, his aura's gone red – he's very angry!" Rui cried as she scurried back from the heat.

"Steady, steady, Entei, aim your attacks at that Suicune, not us!" Wes cried as he stepped back. This utterly failed as the Suicune quickly attacked again, producing another bellow. Entei decided the best way to take out its rage was by running through the station's walls.

"...Bugger," Wes said as he recalled the Pokémon through the hole it had created. I obviously cannot control Entei again – so maybe I'll have to use my remaining Pokémon-

"And there it goes," Sherles remarked, noting that the Water-type had bounded off after her master already, content that the Entei had been dealt with.

"Well damn," Wes said, punching what was left of the wall in annoyance.

They then observed the Suicune run head-first into an invisible barrier, groan and stagger about on its feet from the impact.

"Wait, what?" Wes said. "But..."

Sherles quietly motioned to his Alakazam who was standing on top of the train. "You didn't forget about my own Pokémon now, did you?" he said with a wink as he put away his P*DA. "Right, we're going to wear this thing down and keep it from getting away until the rest of the force get down here with their nets – not a conventional capture but it'll do. Just need a few minutes for it or so."

"All right then," Wes said, pulling out his Poké Balls. "But what about Venus – she'll get away-"

"Actually, I think she won't," Rui said with a grin.

***

Venus was meanwhile gloating to herself as she approached the lift, somewhat annoyed that it was no longer down at the ground floor but rather back at the top. Whoever had made this so was very rude and inconsiderate of ladies in need like her. She looked with disapproval at the flight of stairs and decided she'd rather wait for the lift to come back down and pressed the button.

"Why is it so icky here," she said to herself, gazing around. "Next time I plan to escape people after my makeup I'm doing so in style – I better tell those grunts to clean this place up-YOU!" she hissed suddenly as the lift descended.

For standing upon it was Quagsire, who had been waiting patiently for either something to do or Rui to come back, whichever had come first.

"Why, I'm going to make you pay for making my Delcatty all wet!" Venus ranted to the mudfish Pokémon.

"Qua, quag," (Duh, water fun,) the Pokémon responded as it doused her with water as Rui had instructed it to do, causing the woman to shriek.

"AAAAAA! WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT MY CLOTHES THEY ARE RUINED-" Venus screamed, when Quagsire managed to recall Rui mention the word mud to him before she had left. Quagsire liked mud, and so decided to share this fact with Venus.

She was none too pleased.

***

Andrew frowned as a few minutes later he came into the room and heard a strange sobbing noise. Jogging down the set of stairs before him with a number of other policemen in tow, he found a rather happy Quagsire standing in front of a crying woman howling at the Pokémon, her clothes full of dirt and water. She then tried to slap the Quagsire only for it to slap her back. She then gazed at the men.

"Oh, my fans, my fans..." she whispered. "You'll save Venus, won't you? Won't you!?"

"...I think we better arrest her just to be safe," Andrew ordered to a couple of the policemen who nodded, while the rest followed Andrew onwards.

"Well damn, he was right," Andrew muttered as he came into sight of Wes, Rui and Sherles doing battle against a Suicune in what appeared to be an underground train station. They had managed to corner the beast – a small Plusle was hopping up and down rapidly with excitement, while an Alakazam was throwing an array of spoons at the Suicune and a Feraligatr attacking from afar with jets of water, forcing the Suicune to remain in said corner in order to avoid being hit.

"Get to it," Sherles barked as he noticed the arrival of people, prompting them to throw a large array of Net Balls above the Suicune – at once nets came out of the capsules and ensnared the Pokémon. The Suicune struggled to run off but fell down, and decided to make do with lying still save for some heavy breathing and glaring angrily at everyone.

"Excellent... good work, men," Sherles said, wiping his brow before recalling his Pokémon.

"We did it!" Rui beamed happily, recalling the Plusle as well before turning to Andrew. "Did my Quagsire stop Venus?"

Andrew nodded. "Yeah, if by Venus you mean that woman crying loudly about being wet- hey, who's in the train!?" he suddenly shouted in alarm.

"Well, Tom is...oh," Wes said as he turned to look – through the windows they could see a puzzled Tom stumbling about as the train started moving suddenly.

"Tommy no likey choo choo!" they heard him cry as the train departed from sight.

"Well, I guess maybe it was a bit too much to hope that everything would have gone down smoothly," Sherles said at length.

***




And so concludes the battle with Venus! Hope you enjoyed, please comment, yadda yadda yadda. Time to show how this relates to the game!

Spoiler:


As a minor note, one of the ads was a reference to Telefang ie 'Pokemon Diamond/Jade', of which I have recently been doing a Let's Play of - it is full of delightful engrish such as that. =p An-chan of PC and other places came up with the ad and here it is slightly edited.

Also, Duncan wishes to teach you a word. (He also suggests checking out that Surviving the World site for it is pretty cool).
 
Last edited:

Bay

6,381
Posts
17
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Umbreon considered making a comment about dropping eggs from such a height but upon noticing Espeon's angry glare in response to the idea he thought better of it.
It won't be a pretty sight if you do that, Umbreon. *shakes head*

"Sponsors love money! Why not donate today?" the UFO suddenly exclaimed.
NO! D<

"Umbre..." (Oh look, a door...) Umbreon noted as he gazed to the side. A shabby building with a metal roller-door and brown paint peeling off of it greeted the group. Next to it hung a dull chain which seemed to serve as the mechanism for opening the door.

"Esp," (People are inside,) Espeon noted with a sharp hiss, staring intently at the door. "Espeon," (Possibly Cipher,) he noted.
Here you have "noted" repeated three times, which is a bit redundant. You can replace two of the "noted" to "said".

"Well, I'm not sure I can put it in words that easily...well!" she suddenly piped up, and before Wes knew what happened she had kissed him.

"Well indeed," he said at length.
You said you don't do shipping, bobandbill? ;P This is very cute, though. :3

Say, Umbreon piped up suddenly as he softly walked back to Espeon's hiding spot, does this mean they'd be doing that crazy dance anytime soon?

...What? Espeon managed with a frown, feeling the all-too-familiar sense of dread the odd conversation with his less intellectually-gifted brother would often bring – he would have quite the headache after such a discussion. Do you mean Wes and Rui, and regardless why would...? What dance?

Well isn't that what humans do when they say they like each other? It's the dance with the chicken imitation and whatnot!

Normally they kiss, not...no seriously, what? Espeon thought in confusion. I don't need to hurt my head any more after that UFO trip!
LOL When Umbreon said "crazy dance" I thought he meant sex, but haha he meant that dance.

Haha, the first part of the battle is great. Love Steelix there. Poor him, he just wants to talk about weather and finance (I wouldn't mind having a finance discussion with him :P ). Espeon and Umbreon fighting over Delcatty is very funny and oh man, Quagsire owning the battle is just priceless.

The part inside the Under gotta love a surprise thud from a Vileplume. XD Also, yay more Tom!

The last part wee~ for Venus getting caught and also that Suicune being dealt with. Nice thinking, Sherles!

Overall, another awesome chapter there. Oi, the ads reminds me I need to read your Let's Play! D: I will get to it, eventually! Looking forward to the next chapter!
 

Elite Overlord LeSabre™

On that 'Non stop road'
9,865
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This review is... ~*~FOR *NAME HERE* FROM THE FANTASTICALLY FANTASTIC ELITE OVERLORD LESABRE~*~

"DOES YOUR LIFE FEEL? We have solution! People and e-monsters by thousand have been happy life with [Bomb]! For the clever opponent, injure increase! Today Get, Remember It!!"
I'm not quite sure what this product is, but I already know I must have it.


"Well, I'm not sure I can put it in words that easily...well!" she suddenly piped up, and before Wes knew what happened she had kissed him.


WHY GOOD DAY TO YOU ALL MY NAME IS GRAVE DESTROYER OF SOULS! PLEASED TO MEET YOU!
It's better than calling it 'Fluffy' I guess...

OKAY I GUESS YOU ARE NOT INTERESTED IN THE WEATHER MAYBE YOU LIKE DISCUSSING FINANCE!?
I don't even like talking about finance and I majored in the subject xD

(Kitty pretty...)
"YOU MADE HER UNPRETTY! HOW CAN SHE BE EXPECTED TO FIGHT WHEN SHE DOESN'T LOOK PRETTY, HUH!?"
For the record, Persian is still the prettier kitty. Just thought I'd point that out.

Anything you say can be used against you and Batman in court
Guess Riddler's finally pressing charges for all those years of getting beat up...

"AAAAAA! WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT MY CLOTHES THEY ARE RUINED-"
Quagsire liked mud, and so decided to share this fact with Venus.

She was none too pleased.
I can think of another certain someone who wouldn't be pleased if something like that happened to her clothes... and you have three guesses as to who that person may be:P


"Tommy no likey choo choo!"
Actually, I rather likey riding choo choos. I certainly don't get to do it often enough.

Yay, new chapter! And a quite enjoyable one at that :)

Ah, the big showdown with Venus... or at least a shortened version of it. Though someone with a deep voice should never be saying "Plumy-pie" xD Interesting take on Venus' favored Attract move too... for once Makuhita doesn't instinctively pummel an opponent. Even if he did a number on Plumy-pie... And giant iron snakes just want to make casual conversation, lol delcatty, however, behaves exactly as you'd expect her to. And a rather unorthodox way of capturing Suicune, but if Entei is any indication it's doubtful Suicune would be all that helpful on Wes' team anyway. I have to wonder if Suicune would have actually returned to Venus if it hadn't been captured, though... it sounds kinda ditzy of her to say, "Just come back to me when you're finished beating those guys" but who knows - Shadow Pokemon might do exactly that.

Oh, Tom... the stories you could tell, if only you could speak coherently and you didn't try to tell them during critical missions xD But just let Tom drink the weird chemicals on the train... they couldn't possibly mess up his brain more than the alcohol does.

And yes, I am that fantastically fantastic. Now I just need Venus' autograph and that bomb thingy they were advertising on the UFO to make my life complete.
 

bobandbill

one more time
16,876
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16
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Time to reply finally, herp.
It won't be a pretty sight if you do that, Umbreon. *shakes head*
No, it would not. =(
Here you have "noted" repeated three times, which is a bit redundant. You can replace two of the "noted" to "said".
Duly noted!...wait. ;p But yeah, changed that now, cheers.
You said you don't do shipping, bobandbill? ;P This is very cute, though. :3
Already explained over the chat but yeah, still not a shipper myself. =p But given how the game goes about it... well, it wouldn't be right to leave it out tbh imo.
LOL When Umbreon said "crazy dance" I thought he meant sex, but haha he meant that dance.
Yes, he most certainly meant that dance, not sex. =p
Haha, the first part of the battle is great. Love Steelix there. Poor him, he just wants to talk about weather and finance (I wouldn't mind having a finance discussion with him :P ). Espeon and Umbreon fighting over Delcatty is very funny and oh man, Quagsire owning the battle is just priceless.

The part inside the Under gotta love a surprise thud from a Vileplume. XD Also, yay more Tom!

The last part wee~ for Venus getting caught and also that Suicune being dealt with. Nice thinking, Sherles!

Overall, another awesome chapter there. Oi, the ads reminds me I need to read your Let's Play! D: I will get to it, eventually! Looking forward to the next chapter!
Glad you enjoyed those parts, and thanks again for the usual prompt review! =D
This review is... ~*~FOR *NAME HERE* FROM THE FANTASTICALLY FANTASTIC ELITE OVERLORD LESABRE~*~
I'll keep that in mind!
I'm not quite sure what this product is, but I already know I must have it.
It's quite literally a [Bomb]. ;p
I don't even like talking about finance and I majored in the subject xD
That's pkay, Bay can talk to the Steelix even more now. =p
I can think of another certain someone who wouldn't be pleased if something like that happened to her clothes... and you have three guesses as to who that person may be:P
I probably only need one. ;p

Yay, new chapter! And a quite enjoyable one at that :)
Ah, the big showdown with Venus... or at least a shortened version of it. Though someone with a deep voice should never be saying "Plumy-pie" xD Interesting take on Venus' favored Attract move too... for once Makuhita doesn't instinctively pummel an opponent. Even if he did a number on Plumy-pie... And giant iron snakes just want to make casual conversation, lol delcatty, however, behaves exactly as you'd expect her to. And a rather unorthodox way of capturing Suicune, but if Entei is any indication it's doubtful Suicune would be all that helpful on Wes' team anyway. I have to wonder if Suicune would have actually returned to Venus if it hadn't been captured, though... it sounds kinda ditzy of her to say, "Just come back to me when you're finished beating those guys" but who knows - Shadow Pokemon might do exactly that.
Glad you found it enjoyable then. =) Agreed nobody should say that, and well I guess it works both ways - it did head back after her (but if it wouldn't have rampaged itself is another matter) and Venus is pretty ditzy. =p
Oh, Tom... the stories you could tell, if only you could speak coherently and you didn't try to tell them during critical missions xD But just let Tom drink the weird chemicals on the train... they couldn't possibly mess up his brain more than the alcohol does.
And yes, I am that fantastically fantastic. Now I just need Venus' autograph and that bomb thingy they were advertising on the UFO to make my life complete.
Tom tries at least I suppose. Anyways thanks again for the review too!

And glad you are also finding it entertaining, valhike, even if your review was against the FF&W rules. =p
 

bobandbill

one more time
16,876
Posts
16
Years
Oh look a chapter.

Beta-read by Chris the Com.




***


Chapter 21 - Lab of Shadows



Tom began his sixteenth attempt at convincing the train to stop moving so fast and noisily, but yet again had little success. No matter how many times he waved his empty bottle of beer or sung obscure national anthems, the train continued on its way as it rattled loudly through the dark tunnel and paid the man no heed. Giving up for a few minutes, he decided to sit down and contemplate, gazing at the spinning ceiling as he did so.

Tommsy no this likes, he concluded, before getting back to his feet bursting into a fresh chorus of what he believed to be Orre's anthem.

"Orreeyly lorely oll... nots versy guds bit wezz still tornsings, sos lots of sandys cactsis groaning-"

Suddenly the train came to a shrieking halt which sent Tom flying down the carriage. As he staggered to his feet he peered outside, wondering if the train had objected to this particular tune. He noticed that the train had also chosen to stop at a station that looked rather similar to the other one, with two men standing by a doorway. Thinking that he should go ask if they had a spare drink with them, he stumbled out of the train towards them, bursting into fresh song.

"Strange, Bill, I would have thought that nobody was due to come here," one of the men said quietly to the other as they noticed the newcomer's footsteps; they were unable to see Tom clearly from their side of the train. He frowned – he had been having a most enthralling conversation with his colleague about the intricacies of making sandwiches with limited supplies in dangerous situations. They did not have much to talk about after all, being the typical Cipher guards told to guard an empty train station for a surprisingly decent wage. The two were pretty low on the Cipher ladder and hence knew little about what actually went on in the lab save the essentials, and had already exhausted far more normal topics three weeks ago.

"No... wait a second, Bob, I believe that's an intruder there," the other replied. "Only one person and we'd have heard if it was Venus by now."

"Oh, so it seems, Bill," Bob replied, scratching his head.

"...And...andy OORRREEY isss coolyes inds...stuffys," Tom hiccupped as he drew closer.

"Well, what are we to do?" Bill continued. "He could be armed! He sounds crazy! And we were told not to let anybody into the lab!"

"And if we let him in we could lose our jobs," Bill said thoughtfully.

"Good point, Bill."

"Thank you, Bob."

"Soss says Issy... whosvers i's ams. Nots jimmys, I nots likes jimmymans!" Tom declared to himself, still in a sing-song manner.

"Quick, run – we'll blow up the entrance!" Bob said, and with that the two sprinted through the doorway. Confused, Tom continued to follow slowly, only to fall over again as a sudden explosion rocked the ground. He got up after a minute and peered in – the room in front of him was scorched an ugly black and split in two, with the two other men on the other side of the newly created gorge.

"...Oh, he's just a drunkard," Bill stated, noticing the beer bottle in Tom's hand.

"Sumpitles!" Tom shouted as he wandered back onto the train, deciding that when things like this happened it was usually better to just go to sleep and hope stuff had changed for the better when he woke up.

"So he was, Bob," replied the other, covering his nose as they both retreated upstairs from the sharp smell left behind. They then shut the door behind them and looked around – thankfully nobody had been in that part of the building to really notice anything; all the researchers were likely still in the adjacent building hard at work.

"So I guess blowing up this whole room was a bit over the top, wouldn't you say?"

"But it did its job in keeping him out, I suppose."

"That it did."

"So I take it we're not telling Ein about this?"

"Agreed. Besides, he's taking a nap or something, the crazy scientist. A week without sleep would put you in a bad state even with a lot of coffee..."

A pause followed as they sat down.

"So, as I was saying, you've got to have cheese in there – sure, making it from scratch may not be easy when..."

***
Meanwhile, the group in The Under had retired back to the humble interior police station in Pyrite, albeit not the majority of the arrested Cipher Grunts. As they had run out of space in the normal jail cells they had resorted to chaining the new prisoners to the top of the building while a new temporary prison could be constructed, and gave each a piece of cardboard to protect themselves from the sun. They hadn't been happy about the arrangement but stopped protesting when Sherles suggested that they perhaps preferred being given the Orre law treatment. It turned out that everyone had been rather fond of their left arm.

Venus however got her own private cell, although that didn't cheer her up at all. She took to screaming for her fans to save her from such a grubby place and put her on a television show before she died of a lack of cherry-flavoured lipstick, until Rui had enough of her shouts disrupting any possible conversations and threatened to let Quagsire sit with her in the cell. This had also worked extraordinarily well.

Her Pokémon had been confiscated in case she tried to break out with her Steelix or other Pokémon of hers. The Suicune was also currently in a separate room until the police could purify it and figure out what to do with it afterwards. It hadn't been very accommodating and had taken to blasting water at the faces of those who dared to step too close to it, so they decided to leave it entangled in the nets so it wouldn't cause any more trouble beyond that.

Meanwhile Wes' Pokémon had recovered from the battle effects of Attract. It took a good dose of food and in Umbreon's case television, and Makuhita's case anger management heaped upon Johnson to take their mind off the Delcatty initially, but afterwards they seemed to have forgotten about the cat Pokémon's existence completely, bar Espeon who seemed somewhat embarrassed about the whole event. Johnson seemed the most relieved to see them make a full recovery.

The same could not be said for citizens of The Under who went into a huge withdrawal upon realising that Venus' show was no longer airing, and later on that she had been removed from The Under completely. Much gnashing of teeth and wailings of 'YOU'RE OUR VENUSSSS' were shouted by all under her spell at inanimate objects, so Sherles had imposed a barrier around all lifts from Pyrite to The Under until they could replace the water supply, and brought The Under's part of the Kids Grid to Pyrite for the time being. This in itself was appearing to be a fairly expensive and difficult operation given the lack of water resources the Orre region had outside of Phenac, and the surprising resistance the people of Phenac City were putting up against the news they may not be able to run their water fountain for the next few weeks. However with no mayor remaining they didn't have much choice – it appeared that he had left in the last few days, but to where was another question.

"So Sherles," Wes said after all that had been taken care of, "what's next?" He noticed Andrew silently glare at him as he walked off to do a routine check-up on the prisoners. Presumably he was none too happy about his quick acceptance by the remaining police force members but Wes tried to shrug it off.

"Well, we're to launch an attack on the Shadow Lab we learnt about from the Kids Grid – we have its coordinates and so forth so hopefully we shall be able get in without too much trouble. However I feel it would be foolish to assume it would be easy, so again I'm assigning as much force as we can afford to move in." Sherles then sighed as he stared at papers of notes, many of them detailing trivial matters such as how the cost of soap was being affected by their progress. "We're not far now, but there's still too many questions."

Suddenly a man burst into a room, panting heavily. All turned to look at this newcomer – Wes quickly noted his ridiculous get-up which consisted of purple magician-esque clothing complete with cape and bow-tie.

"Where's my darling Suicune!?" he shouted at them. His eyes darted back and forth as he looked frantically around the room.

"Ah, who are you?" Sherles said, standing up to greet him.

"Are you Suicune in disguise?" he continued to yell, clearly distressed.

"Umbreon..." (Why is he here...) Umbreon asked quietly, already disapproving of the man as Sherles quickly reassured him that he was not Suicune in disguise.

"Esp Espeon-espi," (I take it Sherles has asked this person to come to clear up some plot points-er, give more info on Suicune,) Espeon offered.

"But I didn't," Sherles replied to Espeon.

"Esp." (Oh.)

"However, I suppose I have to ask you – how do you know that we have a Suicune? We've been keeping that piece of news away from the reporters as well..." Sherles asked the man.

"Oh, I always know where Suicune is," he said mysteriously with a wide grin. "But never fear! I merely wish to... gaze upon it."

"He scares me," Rui said quietly to Wes who nodded his agreement.

"Maybe you'd like some éclairs," Johnson offered.

"Are they shaped like Suicune?" the man asked. Johnson gazed at the pastries.

"They look more like...just like éclairs, actually..."

"Okay... well I take it you would know a lot about Suicune then, as well as the other two members of the Johto legendary beast trio?" Sherles asked.

"Pah, who cares about the other two! I specialise in Suicune! It's the most graceful!" he boasted.

"Maybe that is so, but we'd like information on them nonetheless. Orre's resources on such legendary Pokémon are quite limited so I thought you'd be able to give us some useful information, and Entei is in our possession too and Raikou is likely in the region too. We've... had to rescue them, you see."

"Well, let's see," he said softly, sitting down as he adjusted his bowtie. At the moment Andrew returned and gave another look of irritation at the loud newcomer who had ended up in his seat.

"Who the heck are you?" Andrew asked.

"Eusine, at your service," Eusine replied with a grin. "Here, have my business card," he added as he conjured one out of thin air into his gloved hands and gave it to the bewildered policeman. Andrew looked at him before glancing at the card – it was covered in sparkles and a poorly drawn image of Eusine and Suicune with the phrase 'best friends' written messily below it.

"Anyway! I have done many years of research upon them after all. It's said there's only one of each ofthem around at any one time but that's not so clear, but what is certain is that even if there are more than one of each, their number is few. In brief, the first record of these three Pokémon details how they died in a fire caused by a thunderstorm in a famous tower, now known as the Burnt Tower of Ecruteak. However Ho-oh, the legendary phoenix of Johto, was said to have brought them back to life during the incident while rain had put out the fire. Raikou, the Electric Pokémon was also granted the power of electricity – from the lightning strike – Entei became the Fire legendary, and Suicune the water legendary due to the rain from the storm. Suicune is said to roam the country-"

"So essentially they became legendary from the incident?" Wes asked, receiving a nod in reply.

"Mind you this is legend in itself, but there are certain things that seem to point to it – for instance they have often returned to the Burnt Tower by themselves," Eusine explained.

"All right then, knowing how they could have gotten here would be also useful information to have as well," Sherles prompted. "After all, if they are native to Johto..."

"That's a good question. Although they can be fast enough to run on water – Suicune has done so itself many times in front of my eyes – I doubt they travelled an entire ocean to get here. There's little reason after all, so I suspect that someone simply captured them in Johto or thereabouts and then they were brought here. It is not uncommon for thieves to search them out for a price to collectors or whatnot, but none have as divine a cause as myself!"

"And... what cause is that?" Rui asked in confusion.

"Quiet! My Suicune senses are tingling!" Eusine shouted as he charged off into the prison cells. An elated shout followed a moment later.

"Well he most certainly likes Suicune..." Wes muttered as they followed the man. They found him grinning at Suicune's cell, and Suicune giving a look of uncertainty back at him, seemingly recognising the man.

"Oh, they have tainted you! I sense that you are not quite right..." Eusine said sadly after a moment.

"Well... that's true too, but how can you tell?" Rui asked, wondering if he could see an aura like herself.

"Ah, well I have encountered Suicune many times before, and something... just feels off about it now," Eusine said as he scratched his head, as Rui sighed slightly. "But we can perform a simple test!" he continued. "May someone fetch me a cup of water? Make sure it's not clean by the way," he added.

"Johnson, fetch a clean glass of water please," Sherles said as the officer ran off.

"But I said...." Eusine said, but a moment later Johnson had returned with water with a green tinge to it and a few specks of dirt floating about in it.

"Sorry about the water, but-" Johnson began before Eusine cut him off.

"Well... anyway! This should likely be a good test," the man said before holding the cup to Suicune's face through the cell bars, who growled for a moment before its crest glowed a lighter blue for a brief moment. Eusine then retrieved the water – somehow it had become a more unpleasant green colour with an unpleasant smell to it.

"Ah, that proves it then! You see, Suicune will travel far and wide in search of water to purify – but now Suicune has done the exact opposite to this water and made it dirtier!"

"All right, I suppose that's enough for now – we have something to attend to," Sherles said with a smile.

"I'll stay here then," Eusine said quickly, and upon seeing that the man was content with just watching the great beast the Sheriff motioned to the rest to return to the office.

"Well he certainly solved one mystery for us," he said when they got there.

"And that is?" Wes asked.

"Well, if the Shadow version of Suicune doesn't purify water but makes it bad instead, then how do you suppose Cipher went about tainting the water supply in The Under? That, and given the fact Venus' Pokémon all know Attract, including a ghost Pokémon and another known for producing many perfumes and potions from its flower..."

"Wow, that...actually does explain how they brainwashed the town then," Wes said. "I suppose that gave Suicune a good use to them then, although I can't imagine they knew about that before acquiring that Pokémon..."

"Well perhaps it was discovered when they were made into Shadow Pokémon," Sherles said. "I hope they don't have Ho-oh though as that legendary sounds like another to be linked to the Johto beasts. I'll ask him more about it later. Anyways, that strange fellow was likely on to something as well with saying people may had been hired for a price to acquire it from such a distant region – because we know one person who would have had the money to purchase such Pokémon."

"Who?" came the inevitable question from Johnson. "Was it you?"

"...No, Johnson, it wasn't me," Sherles said with a sigh.

"Andrew?"

"No, the more likely answer is the Mayor himself," Andrew said as he banged his head against a wall.

"So that means he's been helping Cipher directly if so..." Wes mused.

"Thing is, he has vanished and we don't know where he is. Maybe he's at that Shadow Lab though which is our next port of call – news of our attack on The Under will likely spread quickly no thanks to these reporters and so it's better we investigate that sooner rather than later."

"And how soon is that?" Wes asked.

"Why, I suppose now is as good a time as any," Sherles replied. "Duking can be in charge while I'm off. I take it you'll be coming with us?"

"Yes," Wes and Rui replied in unison. Sherles smiled before he walked outside to begin giving orders with the ever-loyal Johnson rushing behind him to help out, as the two grinned at each other's simultaneous answers.

"Aww, young love," Andrew drawled before he huffed and made to leave himself.

"Wait a moment there," Wes said, frowning. "I can't say I exactly like you but what is your issue with me in the first place?"

"Oh, just a few things, like you lucking out against a criminal organisation being the reason I've had to leave home to help out this... terribad region, and you being the reason that I've had to have Johnson talk to me excessively," Andrew said angrily. "Heck, he asked me sixteen times about which way the toilet water spins. Sixteen! I counted because it was the only way for me to keep sane without my brain exploding from that man's inanity," he spat sarcastically. "And you were the one to tell him to do just so!"

"...Okay, although I don't think you should blame me for the former, I'll admit that the latter was pretty low of me," Wes admitted.

"Yeah, it was," Rui said as she lightly punched Wes in the arm who winced slightly.

"But at any rate... I don't like it and I think I've made enough enemies in Cipher and Team Snagem, so is there any way I can make it up to you?" Wes asked in a doubtful voice.

Andrew looked at the teenager and thought for a moment before smiling sadistically. "Well I suppose there is one thing that'll go some way..."

"I don't like that smile," Wes said uncertainly.

***

Meanwhile, as Dakim continued his training on the art of attacking people with chairs with what remained of the Cipher grunts in the main headquarters, his class was briefly interrupted as a window shattered from high above, followed shortly by the crashing of electronics by the group.

"Man, what was that?" Dakim said as he poked at the smouldering mess.

"That appears to be Nascour's new television," someone else answered. "Or was."

"So I take it he heard more bad news just now?" another queried.

"STUPID VENUS! STUPID POLICE! STUPID...EVERYTHING!" was suddenly shouted from above before another object flew out.

"And there goes his computer too," muttered a third.

"Man," Dakim said, shaking his head.

***

A few hours later as he made his way behind the rest of the police force's convoy to the Cipher lab, Wes was regretting his offer to make up for his previous grievances to Andrew, and was desperately looking forward to arriving at their destination. He could see a set of gray buildings far into the distance and it was only a matter of time until they got there, but every minute taken to get there felt like an eternity to him.

"Say Wes," Johnson said from the side seat in the Zoomer, "what way do you think toilet water spins?"

"I knew that it was a stupid idea to agree to have to travel with Johnson for the rest of the time he spent in Orre," Wes muttered darkly under his breath.

Luckily for him a few minutes later they arrived at their destination. Wes parked his vehicle by the others and eagerly jumped out as Johnson tried to figure out how to use his seat belt.

"Enjoy the trip?" Andrew said to him, unable to resist a grin.

"Shut up," Wes mumbled. Rui however decided to ignore the two's bickering and instead observed the building.

"So, how do we get in?" Rui said.

All turned to see why she would ask such a question and were greeted with the sight of fencing composed of light-blue lasers shimmering in the desert sunlight.

"Well it turns out they're pretty well guarded here," Sherles remarked gruffly. "It's not very high but I don't think any of us can jump over it or anything with ease... maybe we'd need to use our Pokémon to get over but that would be a timely operation in itself- JOHNSON GET THE HECK AWAY FROM THERE!" Sherles barked, but Johnson was too busy inspecting the fence for himself.

"I wonder if it's hot?" Johnson said as he walked into the fence only to find himself on the other side, remarkably unaffected.

"...Don't tell me," Rui said faintly, "that those lasers are fake..."

"I...suppose they are," Sherles said as he passed his wallet through the fence as well to confirm that Johnson hadn't simply defied physics with his stupidity.

"It's almost a pity they were fake," Andrew remarked.

"I guess Johnson's idiocy can be useful on these raids at times," Sherles said with a shrug.

"Hey, is anyone home?" Johnson yelled as he knocked on the door of the lab. He then caught sight of a security camera and began waving at it happily. "Hey Sherles, I think I'll be on TV!" he shouted back, beaming.

"Forget that I said that," Sherles continued.

***

Chaos filled the lab as news filtered through the ranks that the police had shown up, and even more so when two guards hired by Cipher revealed that they had 'accidentally' blown up the sole route to the underground station. The scientists ran about in a frenzy as the Cipher agents argued over who should be in the front line to try and fight off the police force.

Unsurprisingly, the racket woke up Ein who stepped out of his room to find the lab in a mass panic. He yawned as he frowned at the anarchy.

"What's going on?" he shouted at the room. "I wanted some sleep and I find all of you having a rave party instead of doing work!"

"Doom, doom, all is doomed!" a researcher shouted as he ran about in circles.

"Quiet, you," Ein said as he slapped the man, the sound echoing around the complex – a few took notice and then more noticed those; within a mere moment all had quietened down.

"Now, what's going on?" Ein repeated slowly.

"Okay, in short, we've been found out," one person mumbled. "The police are outside and they already realised the laser fence is fake."

"Hmm, I knew that we shouldn't have cut corners on defence but we did need more funds on the project itself," Ein replied bitterly. "So what's the-"

"And the route to the underground train system has been blocked off," another added.

"But why is-" Ein began before he was cut off by the PA system suddenly playing extremely loud, upbeat music comprised mostly of a piano tune.

"What the heck is Miror B up to now?" Ein shouted.

"I thought he knew about the attack, but I guess-"

"Never mind that now then, just turn it off! You lot have electric types, so get to protecting this room with them then if you have any sense. Light Screens and electricity should do for a while to hold them off. Meanwhile I'll get to trying to erase this data before I'll give the signal for retreat – we can at worst make our own path to the train," he added as he retreated to his room. As the researchers began to organise themselves however, he mused.

And by 'we', I mean me, but I don't think the fools need to know that.

***

"Good, that'll distract them! I'm sure of it," Miror B smiled as he inserted the CD into the system. "Ah, and one of my favourite tunes as well! But maybe I should choose this tune instead... or maybe-"

"I suppose, but shouldn't you just make your escape now?" Skrub said.

"Ah yes, escape is a fine idea," sang Miror B as he continued to dance towards the exit before stopping midway. "Wait a moment, you said you instead of we!"

"Well, it has been good meeting you and all," Skrub began, deliberately choosing to leave out how his constant playing of music and insistence to teach him how to tango had got on his nerves a bit, "but I've a good reason to stay behind – I need to have one last shot at someone seeing as I saw them with the police force from that video footage."

"And who is that?" Miror B asked.

"Wes. I can blame him for my demotion after all seeing my loss to him is the reason for it. I don't care much about being caught by the police as I figure I will be in the end anyway – Cipher's doomed anyhow now. I just want to battle him again and hopefully win this time – he's the cause of my own downfall. And maybe I'll still be able to escape afterwards and walk back to headquarters via the same route."

"Ah, that fellow," Miror B frowned. "I didn't realise he was here and I suppose that's all the more reason to get out of here. I wish you luck for he is a mighty battler indeed who has proved himself worthy of battling to my beat! I'll put in a good word for you if I can as agreed should you be caught, be sure of that!" With that the two shook hands before Miror B continued to dance off, radio in one hand and a bag of belongings in another as Skrub went in the opposite direction.

"Now, I hope everyone else didn't go to the train as well~" Miror B sung to himself as he opened a door and walked down the stairs to the train station, only to stop as he saw what had happened to the room before him.

"Oh yeah... Well, that's simply un-fabulous," he said as he inspected the gorge in front of him. "But I don't think that should stop me – come out, my lovelies!"

Two Ludicolo appeared and quacked musically at their man before they began to dance.

"Not just now, Ludicolo," Miror B said with a grin. "Firstly we need to make a path! You can make a constant Water Gun attack on the opposite side of that gap there," he instructed to one as he pointed at the point in question, "and you perform Icy Wind afterwards in the same direction."

The two Pokémon quacked and obliged – as the first sprayed water from its mouth the other clapped its hands and spun around twice before exhaling a cold gust at the water jet, causing the water to promptly freeze. Within half a minute a makeshift bridge of ice had been made.

"Excellent; our very own bridge over troubled water!" Miror B sung as he slid across the new pathway. His two Ludicolo crossed over the gorge as well and then joined Miror B in a conga dance towards the train.

"So it's just us!" Miror B said as he stepped inside, only to notice Tom sleeping upside-down.

"Okay, one passenger... what an unkempt hairstyle though!" Miror B frowned before checking his bag. "Ah yes, good thing I still have Folly and Trudly's!" he exclaimed as he pulled out a fake afro in the same style as his and placed it on the man's head.

"There, much more groovy!" he exclaimed as he then turned to the controls and pressed some buttons, sending the train on its way. "Now, my Ludicolo," he said as he released his remaining Pokémon, "what say we turn this trip into a party train?"

The Ludicolo quacked happily in response.

***

"Why are Cipher having a party here?" Rui asked Wes as they entered the laboratory behind the group of police who had begun the battle. A bunch of nervous scientists and Cipher agents stood behind a barrier of electricity and Light Screens conjured up by an array of Magnemite, Magneton and Electrode, while Sherles begun directing the police force's attacks against said barricade. Their army of Growlithe were forced to currently attack from afar as any that strayed to close were promptly shocked by stray sparks.

But what was out of place was the loud music playing throughout the building. And despite the situation, the music was strangely catchy.

"That's a good question," Wes said as he observed the battle, trying to decide the best place to join in. "If I were to hazard a guess..."

"There, this should override it!" one scientist sitting by a computer suddenly shouted as he typed away, only to cover his ears as the music was replaced by a loud, obnoxious siren instead. Everyone glared at him, including his own colleagues.

"Oh god no," one shouted at him. "At least turn off the sound, don't replace it with that!"

"But I can't," the former shouted back as he tried to further change the settings. "Whatever he did, he rigged it up pretty well... but maybe this will help us!"

"Well change it back!" one of the policemen shouted angrily.

"Or we'll press extra charges for noise pollution!" Johnson added.

"How will the alarm help us!?" another scientist cried. "We're the only ones who are going to hear it and we're in trouble!"

"Fine," the scientist shouted back before undoing his actions, only for a different song to begin playing. The Pokémon ceased their attacks as they looked at the speakers above their heads in puzzlement, as did their trainers.

You can dance, you can jive,
Having the time of your life,

"What the hell?" Andrew grumbled as all paused in the battle as they noticed the music as well, as Wes suddenly snapped his fingers.

"Only one person would play that sort of music here – Miror B!"

Ooh see that girl, watch that scene,
Dig in the dancing queen.

"What is he doing here then?" Rui exclaimed as the other policemen tried to ignore the music and resumed their Pokémon's attacks on the barrier, fire colliding with the wall of light over and over with little effect. "And why is he playing music over the PA system?"

"Who knows but... well, we'll worry about that later," Sherles said as he observed the battle. "Firstly we need to get past this barrier in some other manner as we're doing naught, but we'd need a Pokémon to be able to take electric attacks. Rui, I'd suggest you use your Quagsire..."

"Sure!" she said, releasing her Pokémon. Quagsire looked about before assuming his usual indifferent gaze, seemingly immune to the distraction of the music.

"Quagsire, go towards the barrier and knock it down," Rui commanded. The Pokémon nodded and lumbered forward as Wes released four of his Pokémon as well.

"Makuhita, break the barrier but only when I say to do so. Espeon, Umbreon and Feraligatr, go in when the barricade is clear."

"Makuhita!" (Why must strange music keep playing during battles?) Makuhita complained.

"Umbre..." (Now I want to dance...) Umbreon moaned. Meanwhile the opposing side had noticed the Quagsire begin striking at the barrier with his flippers, making it shake visibly. Panicked at the Pokémon's apparent disregard for the danger and continually distracted by the music, they ordered their Pokémon to focus their electric attacks upon it only to quickly realise it was immune due to its typing.

They weren't quick enough however.

"Right, Makuhita – Brick Break the barrier yourself!" Wes commanded.

Dancing queen, feel the beat of the tambourine, oh yeah...

"Maku Hita!" (Tambourines can die!) the Fighting Pokémon shouted as he charged forward and struck the barrier himself, shattering it out of existence. A wave of Pokémon from their side followed as the police responded to Makuhita's success, now with no barrier to stop them from continuing their assault. The pack of Growlithe swarmed the rest, delivering fire attacks with remarkable precision. Umbreon and Espeon moved forward and began their own attacks on an Electrode and quickly took it down, while Feraligatr crept up on an unsuspecting Cipher grunt and held him up high above the ground.

"Please don't hurt me," the man whispered as he stared in fear. Feraligatr glared back before shrugging.

"Fera!" (Sure!) he said as he lowered the man down. He sighed with relief, only for Makuhita to run past and deliver an almighty punch to the unfortunate man, before nodding his thanks to the Feraligatr.

"Bring me back up bring me back up!" the man cried.

"Right, splitting up time!" Sherles shouted as a few researchers decided to hide underneath desks in a desperate bid to avoid being arrested as others tried to bravely fight on, before quickly giving up and running off into separate rooms, leaving the rest of their comrades behind. "Take a corridor and make sure we've got everyone! Rui, I'll need you to identify any Shadow Pokémon we find here from these people, so I suggest you stay here – no need for you to go running off after all."

Makuhita cheered and punched a chair before running off in search of more people to whack about. Wes noticed the Pokémon run down a corridor while he punched every door he passed and decided to give chase, as he recalled his other Pokémon.

"I'll be back soon!" he called.

***

As the assault continued, another smaller police presence was currently searching in the midst of Eclo Canyon for the remainder of Team Snagem, and in particular their leader Gonzap. This was proving to be more annoying than they had anticipated as it turned out that the members not yet caught knew their surroundings far better than them and hence were able to avoid their investigations thus far. They would have thought that there had been nobody left in the area if not for the fact that they were pelted with objects such as stones and pieces of metal and on one occasion, eggs from above.

That had been a particularly unpleasant encounter.

The leader of the group however was sure that now they had them as they advanced towards a cave they suspected was their hideout. They had ruled out every other likely possibility and furthermore their Growlithe had picked up their tracks.

"Yes, that has to be them," he said with more than a hint of pride in his voice to the others as he peeked around a corner. "I can see the minute yet tell-tale signs that this must be their current hideaway!"

"And what are those?" one asked.

"Well for one, there's a banner stating that 'Team Snagem are teh best' outside that cave," he replied.

"Not very minute but I suppose it's a sign all right." The rest then made formation and waited a moment before sprinting into the cave and sending out their Growlithe to enable them to see in the dark via their fire abilities.

"Surrender, Team Snagem!" the leader shouted triumphantly as they ran. "This is the police, and you are completely surroun-AAAAAA!" he suddenly screamed as the ground beneath him and the rest of his team gave way and they fell into a deep pit. Muttering darkly to himself as the others moaned in pain and picked themselves out of the muddy bottom, the leader looked up to find only a sole Growlithe had avoided the trap as it peered back at him.

"Go... go get help," he said as he wiped mud off his face. The Pokémon nodded and started to run off, only to promptly return to sight and look at the leader again.

"No, you can have a treat afterwards," he replied firmly.

The Pokémon began to whine in protest before suddenly yelping as a boot appeared from behind it and sent it into the pit. After checking that the dog was alright, the policeman turned back to find himself looking up at Gonzap and a number of Team Snagem grunts.

"...Hello there," he said weakly.

"I see our time spent digging that up was worth the effort! For you see, I think you're the ones surrounded now," Gonzap laughed. The other grunts began to laugh too before Gonzap turned around.

"Quiet, it's my turn to laugh!" he said. They fell quiet before Gonzap sighed.

"Never mind, you ruined this fine moment anyway for me. At any rate," he continued, now addressing the police again, "I wouldn't worry too much about being caught," he said, unable to help but smile.

"...Why is that?" one policeman asked.

"Well you see, it's simple! Why, it'll even largely benefit you! You stop chasing up – leave us be, release the rest of our team members, what have you – and we won't hurt you much!"

"That hardly sounds fair," another muttered.

"No, it probably doesn't, but you're in the pit and I'm not," Gonzap said.

"He has a point," another Team Snagem member added.

"Besides..." Gonzap continued after glaring at his member to silently convey to him to let him do the talking, "we're willing to also do one other thing."

"And that is...?"

"We'll show you where Cipher's main headquarters are. Oh, you'll kick yourself for not having found it yet!"

***

Skrub sighed as he stared at the security system upon a door leading to a room that Ein was in currently. He had caught sight of him and told him to help one of the scientists lock the door as means of a barrier between him and the police force outside. He didn't dare ignore him then and there to blow his cover, but it was wasting precious time he didn't have to spare.

"Why are we basing the password on these DNA samples we took of the Shadow Pokémon?" he asked the person who was furiously fumbling through a catalogue of said samples.

"WHO CARES JUST INPUT SOMETHING IN IT IT'S THE FIRST THING I THOUGHT OF!" he screamed as he threw a bunch of tubes at the former. Skrub sighed as he caught some and began entering in data as Dancing Queen continued to play.

"Man, we're so doomed!" the scientist continued. "The police are approaching like a big...doom thing and we'll never hold them off! I should have listened to my mother and just worked in the toothpaste industry!"

"Shut up," Skrub said as he finished setting up a password.

"AAAAAAAAAA!" the other person continued to scream.

"Will you can it? It's bloody distracting!" Skrub shouted angrily at the other, before he realised why he had been yelling - a Makuhita had suddenly turned up and had begun pounding the scientist with great delight. Noticing the Pokémon seemed too preoccupied to notice him, he quickly jumped around the corner and lay still as he glanced around it.

"What the...wait, I remember you," Skrub said uneasily to himself quietly.

"Hita hita!" (You're fun to punch!) Makuhita grinned at the scientist.

"Oh...there you are," Wes said as he came running up the corridor a few seconds later, panting. "Good work, Makuhita, but I think you've had enough punching hapless people today." Makuhita scowled at this news as Skrub quickly thought things out in his mind.

Can I actually do this? I mean...his Makuhita seems stronger than before and so his other Pokémon must also be of similar strength. I've still only got the Pokémon I used against him the last time around. And come to think of it, I'd rather not get punched like that poor guy.. in the open maybe I'd risk it, but in this tight space and all with the chance of someone else coming around to help him... The Cipher peon glanced at the man lying on the floor.

"My arm isn't meant to bend like thaaaaat," he moaned.

Yep, definitely not. However...

"Let's go on further first and see what's in this room before coming back then," Wes said to his Pokémon as he walked in. "Maybe there's something of note here?"

Watching Wes and Makuhita walk deeper into the room, Skrub seized his chance and sprang to the door and slammed it shut before locking it. Wes quickly turned around and walked to the door, frowning as he found himself unable to open it, and further still as Makuhita punched it unsuccessfully. Skrub meanwhile laughed to himself as he began running for the subway.

Haha, that'll do nicely – that door's hard to break. I can't have my rematch yet against him, but at least I'll get out of here alive with some more luck – I can always walk via the tracks. And furthermore, Wes can have some fun with the likes of Ein – if his battling prowess is anything to go by, he'll give him a run for his money, no doubt. And Ein will have a hard time escaping himself!

***



Yay another 'end-it-before-an-admin-battle begins' ending ohohoho aren't I original. =p

Spoiler:

Hope you enjoyed and all!
 
Last edited:

Bay

6,381
Posts
17
Years
As they had run out of space in the normal jail cells they had resorted to chaining the new prisoners to the top of the building while a new temporary prison could be constructed, and gave each a piece of cardboard to protect themselves from the sun.
@_@ I'm not liking that idea very much, haha.

"Ésp Espeon-espi," (I take it Sherles has asked this person to come to clear up some plot points-er, give more info on Suicune,) Espeon offered.
Espeon sure keeps slipping stuff here and there, huh? :P

"I wonder if it's hot?" Johnson said as he walked into the fence only to find himself on the other side, remarkably unaffected.

"...Don't tell me," Rui said faintly, "that those lasers are fake..."

"I...suppose they are," Sherles said as he passed his wallet through the fence as well to confirm that Johnson hadn't simply defied physics with his stupidity.
…brb, going to wonder how it's possible to go through a fence like that. Wait, it's fake? D:

"So it's just us!" Miror B said as he stepped inside, only to notice Tom sleeping upside-down.

"Okay, one passenger... what an unkempt hairstyle though!" Miror B frowned before checking his bag. "Ah yes, good thing I still have Folly and Trudly's!" he exclaimed as he pulled out a fake afro in the same style as his and placed it on the man's head.
Hahahaha, I suddenly realize the reference there. Totally groovy. XD

Yay, Bob and Bill featured at the beginning of the first chapter! Awesome. And yes, making sandwiches is serious business. *nods*

Oh man, upon the description of "purple magician-esque clothing complete with cape and bow-tie" I knew Eusine is going for Suicune. XD Love his business card there—EUSINE AND SUICUNE, BFF. It's a good thing Sherles told Johnson to get clean water or else the bumbling officer will definitely get one if the sheiff said dirty water instead, haha. Speaking of which, the mayor being gone for a while? Plot point, plot point!

I quite like the scene with Mirror B and his Ludicolo. They're always great together, LOL. And yes, again love the part where Thomas Tom wears an afro there. :P I want to say pffffft though over Dancing Queen playing in the background. XD

So yeah, overall another great chapter here. Can't wait for the next one!
 

bobandbill

one more time
16,876
Posts
16
Years
@_@ I'm not liking that idea very much, haha.
Why joining Cipher is a bad idea. Remember it! ;p
Espeon sure keeps slipping stuff here and there, huh? :P
Yes, he does. I suppose being Psychic, he has...greater awareness than most.
Hahahaha, I suddenly realize the reference there. Totally groovy. XD
Very groovy. XD And it works by itself too!
Yay, Bob and Bill featured at the beginning of the first chapter! Awesome. And yes, making sandwiches is serious business. *nods*
Hurrah for you picking up on that. =) Bob and Bill are also great experts on sandwiches.
Speaking of which, the mayor being gone for a while? Plot point, plot point!
Yes, it is a plot point. A plot point in the game itself too! (For if you go to his house at that point he's nowhere to be seen).
I want to say pffffft though over Dancing Queen playing in the background. XD

So yeah, overall another great chapter here. Can't wait for the next one!
Then say pffffft I'm not stopping you. =p And thanks again for the review, Bay!
 

bobandbill

one more time
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Chapter Up!

No more uni = hopefully faster chapter writing speeds! Let's test that out.


Beta read by Chris the Com.


***

Chapter 22 – The Scientist's Stand



Wes frowned at the door and the person behind the cold glass window upon it, who was running off into a passageway while shouting in glee.

"All right, Makuhita, let's worry about that later," he said to the Fighting type who was slamming the steel door with his fists. The Pokémon shook his arms and glared at his inanimate opponent, noting the fact that his efforts only managed to make small dents. "Maybe Feraligatr can help you if there's no other way out from here."

"Makuhita!" (But I'm stronger!) Makuhita protested loudly as he gave the door one last strike and followed Wes. The trainer wandered around the room aimlessly as he pulled out his P*DA.

"Yes, hello, Sherles. It seems some Cipher grunt thought it would be fun to lock a door behind me," Wes said to the machine. Makuhita looked at Wes and wondered how he was able to talk to someone else through such a thing without even having to punch it to make it work.

"Yes, I know, I didn't exactly want to get trapped myself," Wes continued to speak in a strained voice. "I'll just check this place first and see if there isn't another way out – if not then I'll just break it down or call for assistance. Oh, hey, I found some stairs," Wes added, half to himself as he proceeded to walk down. Makuhita bounded after him, jumping down one step at a time carefully like a small child trying to navigate her way around a playground.

"Maku...hita..." (Stupid steps... being bigger than me...) Makuhita muttered.

"Oh, found someone," Wes announced as he reached the bottom of the steps. "Hey, no, don't throw that at me! Makuhita, little help?" he added as the sound of glass slamming into the stairway followed. Makuhita looked up eagerly at the source to notice Wes dodging test tubes and vases coming from another man clad in white, who was running between rows of lab benches arranged neatly in the large room towards an elevator. Makuhita quickly surveyed the man before giving a startled shout.

"Ma! Ku!" (You! Stop!) Makuhita shouted as he jumped forward and promptly fell down the remaining steps. Growling at his increasingly annoying small stature, he turned around and punched the stairwell before advancing towards the escaping figure who was hurriedly pressing a button next to the elevator. A few seconds later the doors flew open.

"Hey, come back here!" Wes shouted at the vase-wielding man, noting to himself that he appeared to be another scientist with a strange spike of hair protruding from the front of his face.

"Oh, hello Wes! I didn't expect to see you here!" Johnson called as he stepped out of the elevator. Wes blinked at the officer's sudden presence, and the scientist also seemed surprised to have his escape route suddenly blocked off and slowly backed away.

"Oh, hello! Nice to meet you!" Johnson beamed as he walked towards the man and offered a handshake.

A short pause followed before his smile faded as the researcher struck him on the head with another urn, pushed him to the side and ran towards the elevator again. Makuhita however was ready by now and clapped his fists together before thrusting them forward in a swift movement, sending out a silver packet of air at the elevator system. The attack smacked into the elevator's door controls just as the man reached them, which exploded in a shower of sparks and sent the elevator back up.

"That's... pretty good work," Wes said warmly to Makuhita, only to notice the scientist was now throwing four Poké Balls at him and Johnson instead of vases. Cursing silently to himself, he summoned some more of his own in his two Eeveelutions, Feraligatr and Yanma. As the other Pokémon appeared, Makuhita charged forwards haphazardly as he waved his fists around and shoved aside one of the lab benches to the side.

"MAKU!" (I WILL DESTROY YOU!) Makuhita yelled loudly as he charged forward at the man, only to be held back by Wes who hung on desperately to his arm.

"Why are you so angry?" Wes exclaimed. "Angrier than normal, anyway..." he added. He then looked at his other Pokémon and noticed that Feraligatr was also snarling at their opponent. Only Espeon and Umbreon were not seemingly outraged at the mere presence of the scientist before him, while Yanma merely continued to ramble to itself about the wonders of coffee and its own ability to fly faster than coffee.

"What's going on there?" Sherles asked through the P*DA suddenly.

"Too quick for me, I see," the man said to Wes softly as his Pokémon materialised in the form of two water and two flying types.

"Not now, I've got a battle going on! I'll call back later!" Wes shouted at his P*DA before cancelling the call and turning the P*DA at the Pokémon in front of him. It confirmed one of them was a Golbat which he was already familiar with – it was hard not to recognise such a Pokémon whose mouth was nearly as big as its own body. "Johnson, get over here!" he added to the officer who ran over.

"He's not very nice, is he?" Johnson asked as he rubbed his head. "Hit my head, he did!"

"Now's not the time for complaining!" Wes shouted.

"It hurts like ouchie," Johnson continued sadly.

"Golbat!" (I vant to suck vour blood!) the Golbat shouted at the group as his tongue hung out of his mouth and left a small puddle of drool on the ground.

Yep, definitely a Golbat, Wes thought as he looked at the other three Pokémon which he hadn't seen before. The P*DA quickly informed him they were made up of a Huntail, Lanturn and Altaria, the former two remaining stationary on the floor given their unusual position of being out of water. They didn't seem too fazed by that though, as upon their heads were strange pieces of equipment that resembled scuba diving gear. Glancing at the scientist, Wes decided it must have been made by him to allow his Pokémon to be able to breathe better outside of water.

"Go, Magikarp!" Johnson shouted as he sent out his Pokémon, which proceeded to flop about haphazardly.

"How nice to see some familiar faces, though," the man continued to say to the fuming Makuhita as he began to stroke his chin, ignoring the policeman's addition. Wes looked at the man and frowned.

"What does that mean?" he challenged, as he also noticed that the man seemed rather tired despite his tone of voice – he actually wasn't stroking his chin but more where a beard would have been had he had one.

"Lanturn, Charge Beam. Huntail, Hydro Pump. Altaria and Golbat, Air Cutter," the man replied monotonically.

"Oh, for... just avoid the attacks if you can!" Wes shouted as the flying types took to the air and the Lanturn shot sparks from the orb-like protrusions from its dorsal fins, while the Huntail shot water from its breathing apparatus. Caught off-guard, Wes' Pokémon attempted to move out of the way, but the combination of the four attacks were too difficult for everyone to dodge successfully, save for the Magikarp which escaped unscathed from sheer luck. More benches also fell victim to the attacks and crumbled, clearing some space on the battle field.

"Yanma!" (This-is-not-coffee-this-is-pain-I-don't-like-pain-it-is-painful!)

"I thought you'd be better than that, Wes," the man replied. Wes frowned – this man knew his name. "Again!" he added, as his Pokémon obeyed his orders. Wes' Pokémon quickly attempted to dodge again and were somewhat more successful this time in getting out of the way, but it was clear which side was having the current advantage.

"Who are you?" Wes asked as he glanced at Espeon. Please get Feraligatr and Makuhita to explain to me why they're so riled up at this fellow, he asked with his thoughts.

"Esp," (On it,) Espeon said as he began telepathically talking to the two.

"I don't think you need to know who I am," the scientist replied. "Just that I'll be the one to derive your weaknesses and end your lucky streak. Same again," he added to his Pokémon.

"Okay guys, let's go on the defensive – Espeon, two Light Screens, and Umbreon, help him set them up! The rest, strike any who try to get in close!"Wes said. The two quickly nodded and focused their minds to create a double barrier in front of them, one situated before the other. The first onslaught of attacks struck the first wall which shimmered slightly but held its ground as the rest of Wes' Pokémon rested behind, and Magikarp continued to flop around.

"Keep it up!" Johnson yelled excitedly, ejecting a sigh from Wes.

"Just keep attacking from afar until the barriers fall," the man commanded calmly.

His name is Ein, Espeon said to Wes privately a moment later telepathically, albeit slowly given his current focus on the barriers in front of his teammates, wave after wave of attacks sent by Ein's Pokémon with reckless abandon slamming into each barricade of light. As for your question – Ein here seems to have been the brains behind the actual shadowfication process. Makuhita and Feraligatr remember him all too well from their previous time here.

Well, I can't blame them then,Wes thought back, wincing slightly as one of the Light Screens fell. And I take it we cannot let Ein get away either then, but it'll be hard... I may need you to sit back, Espeon, actually – it'll be faster to relay my commands through you to the others and less obvious than announcing them. I think our old trick may be worth a shot.

Sure, Espeon replied. I'll set up a quick mental link between you and the others. Say something to them if you want just to lock it in. Almost immediately Wes felt the presence of Feraligatr's and Makuhita's minds. He knew what it was like – he had done so similarly with Espeon and Umbreon ages back to have fun against opponents who were baffled by the illusion that Wes' Pokémon didn't require any commands to battle so well, but he still breathed deeply and attempted to focus on catching the mental link.

Who goes there? Makuhita thought suddenly as he became aware of Wes's psyche, raising a hand to his head as he pondered if he should punch himself or not to make it go away.

Don't be stupid, it's just a quick relay method between you and Wes, Espeon berated. He thinks, you do.

Yes, so... don't punch yourself, Wes thought. And although I can tell you're both angry at this man, I want you to keep your cool. It won't help us, and he may be relying on that fact if he still thinks you are Shadow Pokémon.

Okay, Feraligatr thought back, before Wes was then made aware of Umbreon's mind. They both acknowledged each other with the mental equivalent of a nod, as Umbreon instantly understood the purpose of the link.

Yanma's mind however threw Wes off.

Hello-do-you-like-coffee-I-like-coffee! he shouted loudly.

Uh... yes, I do. Anyways, this is to-

Hey-I-can-hear-thoughts-that-is-so-cool-it's-just-like-talking-only-it's-thinking-I-wish-coffee-could-do-that!

Wes sighed. Yes... anyways, when I think at you to do something, please do so. And that man over there-

That-man-gives-coffee-I-like-that-person-you-should-give-him-a-hug-I-can-fly!

He...what? Wes thought to himself before again addressing Yanma. Well he stole the coffee now so we need to stop him. And... I'll give you some after we beat him.

Yanma gasped back with delight as Wes then regathered his thoughts, wondering if he would regret the bribe or not.

Hello there, good sir, another presence suddenly said to Wes.

Ah... hello, Wes thought back, wondering who he was talking to only to notice the Magikarp was jumping about even more enthusiastically than before.

I presume you are to help give myself directions rather than Johnson for the time being, perchance? the fish asked.

Yes, that's correct... Wes thought back.

Splendid! I'll be sure to do my best for Johnson then – he's the smartest person I've known but I'm sure it will be a pleasure to work with you as well!

...The smartest? Poor Magikarp, Wes thought to himself.

Let's take this guy down! Espeon shouted at the others.

***

"Hmm, Wes found someone who's putting up a fight and Johnson stumbled his way there too," Sherles explained to Rui as he closed his P*DA. "I suppose he'll be a while then."

"I hope he's all right," Rui said quietly.

"Don't you worry, Wes will be fine," Sherles said reassuringly. "But it sounds like that person is eager to get away, and more so than this bunch," Sherles added as he gestured to the group of Cipher grunts and scientists covered in scorch burns sitting in the corner that had given themselves up. They didn't look too amused by the whole situation, nor by the fact that a lot had their hair burnt off from the fire attacks of the Growlithe. Chuckling to himself, Sherles turned to a few other policemen.

"Yes, sir!" they responded, anticipating his orders.

"You two! I want you to go investigate the business of that locked door, just in case. And for you, head back outside, and patrol the premises. People may yet break out, and it's hard to gauge what exits this place has. Make sure that if anyone makes a break for it, they don't get away."

"Can we take some snacks with us?" one asked eagerly.

"Do you think that this is a... oh very well, get something," Sherles conceded with a sigh as the policemen started looking sad in anticipation of a negative response. Surprised at the approval they quietly high-fived and ran for the supply bag the group had brought along, grabbed as many palmeras as they could hold and dashed off.

"They sure are quick..." Rui said quietly as Sherles shook his head.

"Back in my day..."

***

A moment later, the second Light Screen shattered. Ein smirked – it was clear to him that Wes had not yet thought up any commands, as none came from the trainer, although plenty of words came from the officer who didn't appear to have much of a clue what to do. Yet a moment later he balked in surprised as the teenager's Pokémon flew forward without any command at his, with the Makuhita and Feraligatr leading the charge.

"Interesting..." Ein mused. "No matter - meet the Makuhita with Wing Attack and Aerial Ace, Golbat and Altaria, and you other two keep them at bay with ranged water attacks!" Ein commanded.

"Huntail!" (Water!)

"Lanturn!" (Water!) the two fish Pokémon said in unison as they fired spherical blobs of water at their opponents.

"Goolll!" (Bloood!) the bat shouted alongside the Altaria as he flew behind the projectiles at the fighting type. The opponents however dodged the water attacks without colliding into each other, working like a well-oiled machine. They then moved to intercept the aerial threat, Feraligatr slashing at the Golbat from the side and Umbreon leaping onto the Altaria's back as Yanma fired colourful beams at the dragon's head. Makuhita then jumped up and struck with wild abandon at the Altaria, followed by the Magikarp bouncing high into the air and rebounding from the ceiling into the Altaria's head.

"Retreat, but keep firing long-ranged attacks to keep them away from you," Ein said as he added a few curses to himself. Suddenly it didn't seem that he'd be able to escape that easily – not that the broken elevator controls helped much in the first place. Maybe I should have taken the time to make my other Pokémon into Shadow ones...and still that boy isn't saying a thing, he thought. And his Shadow Pokémon in Makuhita and Yanma are not acting rashly – why is that? He gazed as his Pokémon's opponents continued to surge towards him, and then smiled.

"Featherdance, Altaria! Golbat, help her out!" Ein ordered.

"Altaria!" (Feathers!) the bird shouted, suddenly shedding a large amount of the feathers making up its fluffy wings and flapping them towards her opponents.

"Golbat!" (Blood!) the bat echoed as he also flapped his wings, creating a mini-tornado of feathers that rapidly grew in size.

"And you two, increase the humidity of the air by sixty percent, minimum!" Noticing the blank looks given to him by the Lanturn and Huntail, he scowled. "Dampen the air!" he said. The two Pokémon happily chanted 'more water!' in unison before lightly spraying the tornado of feathers which then spread through the lab. The down quickly clung to the opposing Pokémon's skin, tickling the group and distracting them for a moment on top of making them look rather ridiculous; Umbreon for instance suddenly found himself with a white beard and moustache of fluff.

"Yanma yan yan!"(I'm-covered-in-this-fluffy-non-coffee-substance-it's-very-itchy-and-not-coffee-which-is-displeasing!) the bug shrilled as it flew around in circles into more feathers, as Makuhita tried to punch them out of his way.

And that's all I need. Ein chuckled softly as Wes involuntarily sneezed from the fluff filling the air. "Now, focus all your attacks on the Espeon!"

Wes tensed at the command before mentally yelling at his Pokémon to get back and defend the Psychic Eeveelution; however their movements were now somewhat stifled due to the feathers, as was their visibility. As they got into the way of the first wave of attacks, Ein's grin widened.

"Now, activate the Divergence and Convolution Theorem manoeuvre! Switch targets and all focus your Confusion-based attacks on the trainer!" Ein shouted.

Wait, the trainer- Wes begun to think, before a blast of light and sound hit him. Staggering about as he clutched his head he gasped at the sheer onslaught to his senses – he suddenly could only see a kaleidoscope of colours, his eardrums burnt hotly with pain, and he became dimly aware that he couldn't focus on the battle anymore.

"Ferali Feraligatr? (Why are you suddenly telling me to 'Jam jam Singapore the ropes are singing ever since the watermelon...?) Feraligatr queried to Wes as a stream of garbled thoughts were transmitted to Wes' Pokémon. The alligator then shouted as a blast of attacks struck him from behind as Ein took advantage of the situation.

"Tricks like that won't work with me," Ein said, "although it certainly was quite the novel idea. I may need to consider using that myself in future! Keep them at bay," he said to his Flying Pokémon, "while you two blast a hole in the wall out of here," he added to his water types which gleefully begun shouting 'water!' again at each other. They fired water projectiles at the wall on Ein's end of the room, blasting the gray brick wall into chunks that clattered against the floor.

Espeon sighed and removed the mental link between Wes and his Pokémon. So much for that plan,he thought to everyone before trying to communicate with Wes to snap him out of his state of mind. He quickly declared the attempt futile at best to himself as he was greeted with a wave of thoughts along the lines of 'musician colours every greens' repeated over and over, before being distracted by a stray water attack which he avoided just in time with an inelegant bound behind a desk.

Okay, let's try to rearrange ourselves! he thought desperately to the other Pokémon. Makuhita, go fix him!

"Maku!" (Can do!) Makuhita shouted as he ran past a Wing Attack of Golbat's and jumped into the air, slapping Wes hard in the face as he landed.

"Arrgh!" Wes shouted in response before falling over onto his hands and knees.

"Don't worry, Johnson will do... something!" Johnson said bravely to Wes, before ducking as the Golbat flew too close to his head and waving his badge at the Pokémon. "Stop speeding, or I'll arrest you!" he shouted.

"Gol!" (Blood!) the bat retorted.

No offense, Johnson, but... Espeon began, before he paused for a moment. He looked at Wes and quickly decided that it would be a while before he would be to make a comprehensible sentence, let alone command a Pokémon battle, and glanced back at Johnson. Say... A moment later Johnson blinked and then jumped slightly.

"Arrgh! Voices!" he shouted before Espeon quickly sent a hasty telepathic message explaining to Johnson what he intended for him to do, and hoped silently to himself that Johnson would just go along with it.

Err... Feraligatr, do a good thing! Johnson tried a moment later uneasily.

Like? the alligator Pokémon growled back as he eyed the Altaria and Golbat who were now circling him, obeying Ein's orders.

Think, Johnson! the officer thought as he waved his hands to himself as he felt his heart beat quicken. What would Magikarp do? He glanced at his Pokémon for a moment before focusing back to the blue giant.

Jump up...really high! he conveyed to Feraligatr, who frowned at the Johnson.

Well, if you say so, he grumbled, jumping slightly into the air just as the two Flying types decided to swoop at him. Although the jump had been rather small given the large Pokémon had been motionless, it was enough to force the two to make the sudden adjustment to their flight paths, which enabled Feraligatr to swing his arms outwards into his opponents and catch them by their heads in mid-air.

"Fera!" (It worked!) he shouted with surprise before shrugging and bashing their heads together.

"Altaria!" (Oww!) the dragon shouted as she spat a blast of fire from her mouth in retaliation that singed Feraligatr's left arm while hurting the Golbat considerably.

"Baaat!" (Dloob!) shouted the bat as he gasped and fell limp as Feraligatr jumped again as a reflex reaction to the searing pain and dropped the bat as he shook his paws quickly, his now burning claws adding to the pain. He then directed the Altaria's face away from himself as the screeching bird continued spewing fire haphazardly, and threw the dragon towards Ein.

"What the-" the scientist shouted as he instinctively ducked out of the way, letting the bird fire straight into the hole just created by his other two Pokémon and crash into the remaining parts of wall. The Altaria gave a startled squeak before fainting as well.

"Well don't just watch, keep creating an exit!" he shouted at his remaining Pokémon as he recalled the other two and looked back at the battle field, observing that Wes was still babbling nonsense to himself and frowned. He then turned his attention to the policeman who was gazing at Makuhita.

You should jump as well, it really works! Johnson thought eagerly to the Fighting type. You might as well jump!

No, punching is more fun! Makuhita shouted telepathically as he waved his arms at the man and then demonstrated how well it was helping Wes regain his senses. As this went on, Espeon noticed Ein's gaze and quickly stepped into the conversation.

Sorry to interrupt the enthralling conversation here, but Johnson - stop nodding and looking at the Pokémon you're thinking to like that! Or that man will notice!

Oh, okay, Johnson thought to Espeon happily as he turned and begun to nod at the Psychic type, adding in a thumbs up for good measure.

"Aha, you thought the same trick would work again?" Ein said, shaking his head as he laughed at the giveaway and walked back to inspect the progress on his escape route. "Repeat the confusion attacks on the officer there, Lanturn and Huntail!"

"Lanturn!" (Not water!) called the fish Pokémon as he emitted another set of dazzling lights at the target as Huntail began a screech of his own.

Thanks, Johnson, and I don't mean that sarcastically this time! Espeon thought quickly to the Policeman and smirked. Hook, line and sinker, Ein. As the attacks converged, Espeon leapt in front of Johnson and glowed a deeper shade of purple, letting the status effects hit him instead before the aura around him brightened and reflected the attacks, the majority of the waves of light and sound flying right back at the original perpetrators.

"Oh, I-" Ein began as it dawned him all too late as his water types found themselves on the receiving end of their own attacks.

"Lant!" (Water!) Lanturn shouted as he blasted water into the Huntail, who shouted and retaliated back as they squirmed about on the ground.

"...see," Ein finished as he shook his head and recalled his two Pokémon. Espeon grinned as he breathed deeply to recover from the energy further expended on his Magic Coat manoeuvre. The only remaining sign of Ein's Pokémon were now the feathers floating around the room that hadn't yet attached themselves to Wes' Pokémon.

"Good work... Espeon..." Wes managed slowly as got to his feet. He shook his head and tentatively tried to keep his balance.

"Umb Umb Umbreon!" (Da daaaaah daahh dah!) Umbreon shouted as he suddenly fell over himself. Espeon looked at his brother and sighed.

"Espeon esp..." (Don't tell me some of the attack hit you too...)

"Umb eon Umb!" (Dah dah DUUH DAAAH dum!) Umbreon replied before giggling oddly and attempting to bite his own legs.

"Well that's unfortunate..." Wes said as he grimaced in pain and clutched at his leg. "Yes... and you can stop punching me," he added to Makuhita.

"Makuhita!" (But punching solves problems!) Makuhita shouted proudly.

"Bah, this is an untimely error of judgment I feel..." Ein said quietly to himself, ignoring the conversation between his opposition before gazing at the gap and grinned. But they managed to finish that hole to a satisfactory standard, but first I'll have to reveal my trump card and then get out of here.

"Yes, Makuhita, but I'm better...oh," Wes said as he noticed the sudden appearance of a new Pokémon that looked all too much like Entei and Suicune in size and stature for his liking.

"Fera..." (Not another one...)

"Discharge, Raikou," Ein said calmly as he picked up his flailing Lanturn.

Espeon instinctively summoned a Protect barrier between himself and the two trainers on his side as Raikou snarled and unleashed a burst of electricity that engulfed the room and struck every other living being in the room, save for Ein who was protected by his Lanturn – the sparks that came his way were absorbed by the dazed fish Pokémon who glowed brightly, the electricity seemingly healing it rather than hurt it. The computers littered around the room burst into flames and test tubes exploded, showering the room in glass. Both Yanma and Feraligatr fell from the immense attack while both Umbreon and Makuhita hung on, the Dark Type continuing his senseless singing despite the attack. Espeon panted heavily after the attack ended and quickly dropped his Protect barrier, and Huntail also suffered from the friendly fire and fainted.

"Good dodging, Magikarp!" Johnson shouted to his Pokémon which continued to flop around despite the attacks.

"How did it avoid that attack...?" Ein mused, paying no attention to the state of his Huntail.

"Are you trying to bring down the whole lab to kill us all or something!?" Wes shouted angrily as he recalled his fainted Pokémon.

"Kill everyone? Hmm, yes, that's a splendid idea. Raikou, Shadow Rush!" Ein said with a smile. The electric beast immediately charged forward at the trainers. Wes hurriedly glanced at Espeon.

I'm too tired to do another Protect! Espeon conveyed to his trainer.

"Stop him, Magikarp!" Johnson commanded. The fish Pokémon flopped in front of the Raikou and was instantly knocked back over Johnson's head by the Raikou which continued its run, and smacked heavily into the wall with a loud slap.

"Not like that!" Johnson shouted in fright. Wes looked to Makuhita who was running as fast as he could to intercept the Raikou, but although he managed to strike the Pokémon in the leg and evoke a roar of pain, he was kicked to the side for his troubles and rolled a few times into a wall. The fighting type narrowed his eyes and glared at the Raikou before getting to his feet again, but by then the Raikou had resumed his sprint.

If only I were bigger... Makuhita thought, slamming an arm against the wall.

He's too small to stop that thing... Wes thought in tandem. "Right," Wes acknowledged as he fumbled for another Poké Ball. Finding it in his coat's pocket, he jabbed at the button as he aimed it in front of the group. He then grabbed Espeon and Johnson and hauled them to the side just as Entei appeared and was slammed into by Raikou.

"Do your own Shadow Rush!" Wes yelled. The fire type this time was all too keen to oblige having been greeted by Raikou's attack and flew into the opposing legendary beast himself. The Raikou responded by charging again, and so the two legendary Pokémon clashed, the room shaking as the large monsters struck each other.

"WHAT!?" Ein shouted, stamping a foot and tugging at his lab coat. "HOW DO YOU HAVE DAKIM'S ENTEI!?"

Oh, so Cipher still don't know I have it... well until now, Wes thought as he continued to back away from the two Pokémon.

"Nobody told me he went and lost it to you!" Ein raged. "Raikou, lure it this way so I can get out!" he shouted, but the legendary ignored him, too consumed by its fight against Entei.

"Darn it all... but..." he mused, looking at his Lanturn. The confused Pokémon muttered gibberish at Ein. The scientist frowned and slapped the Pokémon before hurling it at the Entei.

"Lots of water!" he commanded, and by luck Lanturn heard the command and obliged, shooting out water as he landed on the Entei. The fire type looked up and roared, distracted by the fish and set upon it instead.

"No, don't do that, Entei!" Wes shouted, but the additional water attacks further produced by the Lanturn prevented the legendary from paying any heed, while the Raikou added its own Thunderbolt attack to its opponent from afar.

"Onwards at the trainers again, Raikou!" Ein yelled. The electric legendary shook his head slightly before setting off again, no longer overwhelmed by the need to take down the Entei.

I'm slightly undoing its shadow status by calling its name, but I suppose that's the least of my problems. For the boy though-no! Ein thought as a fist suddenly connected with the side of Raikou's head and sent it flying into a wall with a loud thud.

"How convenient... and... but..." Ein stuttered as something dawned on him. "No...that can't be possible, unless..."

"Hariyama!" (I got bigger!) the fighting Pokémon shouted. Wes grinned – they had been all so distracted by the Entei and Raikou battle that nobody had noticed Makuhita evolve suddenly and immediately make his impact. Now instead of being a touch below the waist height of Wes, the Pokémon towered over his trainer and had the physique of a large sumo wrestler. He lumbered forward towards the Raikou and picked up the dazed legendary before hurling him to the other side of the room into another wall.

"If he evolved... he must have been purified..." Ein continued to himself. "So my process was fully reversed as well... and that Feraligatr must have..." The scientist banged his hand against a desk as Raikou limped away from the wall, snarling at Hariyama.

"What's the matter?" Wes asked with a smirk.

"Raikou, this way to the hole!" Ein called suddenly, ignoring Wes. As Raikou turned and charged at the exit Ein ran at the electric and leapt on before ducking his head as they disappeared.

"Wait...what? You can't do that! Only Pokémon can flee battles!" Johnson shouted, waving his police badge at their direction. "Stop, in the name of the law! And my shiny badge!"

"Well I didn't expect that," Wes said. "Nor for him to leave his remaining Pokémon behind..." he added, looking at Entei currently stomping on the Lanturn with great delight and the fainted Huntail. Sighing, Wes took out its Poké Ball and returned the fire type.

"You won't be much help in chasing that Raikou if you keep being distracted... Maku-no, Hariyama, you up for taking him on?" the fighting Pokémon nodded before marching off.

"It has my name on it!" Johnson continued to shout, before pausing in thought. "What is the name of the law...?" he asked.

"No, no. He'll be too fast with a Raikou," Wes said. "Espeon, do you have-"

Yes, Espeon thought to Wes. Wes grinned and held up the newly evolved Pokémon's ball and returned Hariyama, before Espeon took control of the orb and sent it whizzing after Ein.

"Good luck," Wes said softly, before sitting down on the ground and observing the burning surroundings.

"I suppose Tom would have liked to be here," he added to himself before pulling out his P*DA to alert Sherles.

"Hey Wes, do you suppose the law's name is Jim?" Johnson asked the teenager.

"Hmm? Yes, I suppose it is a good name," Wes sighed.

***

Outside the lab the two policemen ordered to keep guard stood by the fake laser fence, kicking at rocks and shielding their eyes from the sun. Their Growlithe sat at their feet, panting heavily as they kept watch.

"Gee, it sure is boring around here," one complained as he took a sip from a cup of coffee. The other nodded – it was no fun at all to stay outside in this heat when everyone else was having a battle inside the air-conditioned lab. They could even hear the bangs and cries of Pokémon battling below.

But the free coffee and food for their efforts did make up for it.

It was at that point that Raikou crashed through the ground near them and landed on the ground untidily with Ein hanging on for dear life. He straightened and brushed hair from his face as Raikou stood still for a moment and regarded the policemen, who looked back at the pair with mouths open wider than an awestruck Swalot. The first officer didn't even appear to notice he was spilling hot coffee on his pants.

"Well, allow me to make it more interesting, gentlemen!" Ein smiled savagely. "Thunderbolt the fools!" The legendary Pokémon obliged with a thunderous roar and ejected a ball of dazzlingly bright electricity.

"Oh dear-" one began before being struck by the attack, and fell.

"Come in, we've got a guy on a Raikou-" the other shouted into his walkie talkie before also succumbing to a similar fate.

"See, wasn't that fun?" Ein asked. "But maybe I overdid it," he added as he wrinkled his nose at the smell of singed clothing. "Yes, too much fun-" The scientist cut himself off as he heard the sound of a Poké Ball opening followed by a battle cry of an all too familiar Pokémon behind him.

"Hari!" (Prepare yourself!) Hariyama shouted as he assumed a fighting stance as Ein turned his head.

"Well... you were quite fast to get here," he said slowly. "But even when evolved, your species is still not known for their speed, and so I am fairly confident you cannot chase me on foot. So I'm afraid we must dash!" Ein said to Hariyama before slapping the Raikou's backside hard, prompting his Pokémon back into a sprint in the opposite direction.

"Hari!" (Coward!) Hariyama shouted after them, shaking a fist before inspecting his surroundings. Noticing the pair of Growlithe whining and licking at the faces of their unconscious trainers, he walked towards them.

But he's right, I can't chase after him... he mused as he picked up the distracted dog Pokémon. He then spun around quickly and like a discus thrower hurled the two fire types into the air. The pair of dogs yelped in surprise as they whizzed high into the sky. He then followed their path and watched the two projectiles fly towards the escapees.

...but I can throw things a great distance now, Hariyama smiled as he observed one crash into Ein who shouted in surprise and fell off his ride, and the other into Raikou's head.

Yes, I like being bigger.

"Where did you... Raikou, wait up!" Ein ordered, but the electric Pokémon paid no heed, now angered by the surprise attack. He merely snarled at Ein and sprinted off faster than before into the deserts of Orre. Meanwhile the two Growlithe got to their feet despite being somewhat dazed by their impromptu flight. Looking at Ein and recalling it was he who had ordered the legendary to hurt their trainers, they growled.

"Hehe... easy now, let's not act hastily..." Ein pleaded, scrambling to his feet as the two dog Pokémon slowly begun to circle the scientist.

"Hari, Hariyama!" (Wait for me, I want to hit him too!) called the fighting type as he ran towards the scientist. "Hariyama!" (I have the bigger score to settle, after all!)

***


And the usual what-was-in-the-game-and-chapters deal! Not very long as it's just one battle:

Spoiler:


Hope you enjoyed!
 
Last edited:

Bay

6,381
Posts
17
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You know, I think Johnson should have scuba diving gear for Magikarp LOL. Anyways though, oh dear Ein. This is gonna be good. Also wee mindlink! I love Yanma and Magikarp (such a gentleman, haha)'s thoughts there.

Wee more of the battle. Too bad Ein caught on with the mindlink but at least Espeon's idea for using Johnson to do the commands worked, haha. I admit I too wondered how Magikarp was able to dodge one of Raikou's electric attacks. XD; And yay for Makuhita evolving into Hariyama! :D

Woot, free coffee and food! XD Those two policement don't deserve it. :P Okay, Ein hanging onto Raikou is a very amusing image. *reads futher at the part where Hariyama throws the two Growlithe and Ein and Raikou being surprised by it* Okay, this is an even funnier scene to imagine. BRB laughing forever over this.

Overall another enjoyable chapter here! A short battle but still nicely written there. Can't wait for the next one!
 

bobandbill

one more time
16,876
Posts
16
Years
You know, I think Johnson should have scuba diving gear for Magikarp LOL. Anyways though, oh dear Ein. This is gonna be good. Also wee mindlink! I love Yanma and Magikarp (such a gentleman, haha)'s thoughts there.
He probably should, but then he'd likely manage to break it in give different ways before fitting it on. =p And fit it on backwards too, somehow.
Wee more of the battle. Too bad Ein caught on with the mindlink but at least Espeon's idea for using Johnson to do the commands worked, haha. I admit I too wondered how Magikarp was able to dodge one of Raikou's electric attacks. XD; And yay for Makuhita evolving into Hariyama! :D

Woot, free coffee and food! XD Those two policement don't deserve it. :P Okay, Ein hanging onto Raikou is a very amusing image. *reads futher at the part where Hariyama throws the two Growlithe and Ein and Raikou being surprised by it* Okay, this is an even funnier scene to imagine. BRB laughing forever over this.

Overall another enjoyable chapter here! A short battle but still nicely written there. Can't wait for the next one!
I figured that Ein would be the sort of person to notice tricks like that - he is observant and smart after all in the games. And glad you enjoyed the ending parts as well - they were most fun to write. XD (And short battle? It was about ten pages in itself! =p) Cheers for the review again, Bay!
 
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