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Sweet! Just when I least expect it, you put up another chapter. And as always, definitely worth the wait.
The high points of the chapter:
*Multiple misspellings of "dishwasher" as graffiti. Seriously, I lol'd hard.
*The mere presence of Miror B.
*Makuhita's method of defeating Gurks's Magikarp and Feebas. Somehow I don't see Makuhita evolving, it's harder to imagine a Hariyama acting the way Makuhita does.
*Gurks's friends stopping him from sending out Wailord.
*Tom reappearing. He is made of epic win.
The whole chapter is epic win. Keep up the good work!
Don't make the top hat sad, Wes! ;-; DON'T MAKE THE TOP HAT SAD.
Stop! Hammer Error Time!
Luckily for the dark-type Pokémon, a large television that had not warranted any sort of mention until now suddenly turned on and played an obnoxiously loud news jingleThe noise
Reaching for his pipe, he noticed it had left his desk and was now firmly in the grasp of Quagsire’s paws, the blue creature staring at the smoke coming from it in amazement.
“You know,” she said to Quagsire as she gave the Pokémon the box, “she’s right. Maybe not about the yogurt, but about taking matters into my own hands. Let’s go to The Under.” With that she marched back to the building the elevator was in with renewed confidence.
He had been tempted to send out his third Pokémon which was apparently a Wailord, but was strongly urged by his companions to refrain from doing so – the last time it was sent out in battle in the streets of The Under, several buildings had been demolished.
The man always confused me. First by using two weak Pokemon, then by sending out a Wailord which would in turn crush quite a few buildings in the tiny space of the under and crush quite a few tiny, tiny people.
“Say yes,” the shopkeeper said quietly. As Wes looked at him questioningly, he just added “Just say yes... please,” with more than a hint of pleading in his voice.
GOD I LOVED THIS MAN. Why did you make Wes say yes?!
“WHAT!” the man shouted abruptly at this reaction, as the shopkeeper facepalmed and retreated to a separate room and locked himself in, mumbling something about this being the fifth time this week to himself while the veteran continued ranting, picking up the surprised Umbreon and shaking him about. “You young kids these days have no patience! Always in a rush! Well fine – I’ll be in a rush too!”
“Espeon!” (Never mind, let’s just follow him!) Espeon shrugged as he followed the man nervously. Umbreon and Rui followed quickly before they lost sight of the wandering drunk.
I love the different personalities everyone has, especially ;197; and ;196;, they hilarious.
Even enough for me to name my own Espeon and Umbreon: Espi and Umbre.
“Umb! Umbreon! Eon...” (Brainwashed, he was! Everyone else in town is! And he thought her a weirdo at first too so it makes no sense...) Umbreon explained, noting that Rui seemed somewhat relievedbythat piece of additional news albeit still worried.
Now with that out of the way, I can talk about more important stuff...like how this chapter is so great.
This chapter, like all of the others, is freaking hilarious. Makuhita's battle with the Magikarp and Feebas along with the old man "rushing" makes it especially funny. Plus, with Tom being back, there is sure to be more epicness later.
I also think I know what caused Wes's brainwashing...
It was the dishwasher graffiti!!! >:3 lol
But seriously, I'm pretty sure I know what did it...unless you decide to pull something from out of nowhere.
Okay, where the heck are you going with this? I just get the PM and now a...
‘Magikarp are gonna kill uz all!’. Meanwhile, Umbreon worryingly regarded another wall which was covered by multiple misspellings of ‘dishwashers’ in red.
No, NO, of course we're not suspicious! We were just admiring your insane antics and the new hippest brainwashing techniques! No, we're not suspicious at all!
and we’re hired to specifically to stop them from...uh, buying a dishwasher! Why, there’s even talk they might try to kidnap her! And we wouldn’t want that, would we
“Yes... in the Mayor’s house.” Rui paused before continuing quickly. “The Mayor hadn’t been there so I’m not sure if that means anything but now that I think about it, it strikes me as rather odd and maybe although this might sound-”
“You’re suggesting the Mayor of Phenac might, just maybe, have something to do with Cipher,” he said bluntly as he retrieved a second pipe from his drawer and made sure it was out of Quagsire’s reach.
Espeon rolled his eyes and looked at Wes, slightly alarmed that Wes was staring blankly at a wall. The Pokémon followed his gaze to observe Wes look at a poster of Venus – looking around, Espeon realised the whole wall was covered with such images.
“Same with the other thing I did that gave Venus all that control! But please turn down the volume; it’s even interrupting the shadowfication processes I’m trying to conduct.”
Hi! Wanna watch my performance and give me money because I’m that impressive!?
Well. Now whenever I play this in the future and find myself in that part of the game, that's going to pop into my head: that The Under smells. And that Umbreon smells. XD Plus, whenever I read Venus's lines in-game, I'm totally going to hear them in a voice like the one you described her as having. I just know this. X3
And yay for Tom's return! More Tom is always a welcome thing.
Yay also for the "RUSH RUSH RUSH!" guy. XD
Meanwhile, Umbreon worryingly regarded another wall which was covered by multiple misspellings of ‘dishwashers’ in red.
...Oh, I shudder to think where he might have gone with that little story... O~o;
Wes frowned and decided that they might as well look for a place to sleep, only to be stopped by a woman who jumped out at them from behind a dumpster.
“Hi! Wanna watch my performance and give me money because I’m that impressive!?”
So there are not only hairasites but also hatasites, hmm? I guess there's just something about human heads that weird-*** parasites just happen to find irresistable.
Suddenly a woman with a smile that took up half of her face appeared on the screen.
One of my favorite characters in any series ever is also capable of that kind of smile, and it doesn't bother me in the least when he makes said smile. Yet for some reason, seeing that kind of smile described in text put a really rather terrifying image in my mind.
“It’s me, Lady Venus! Everyone’s Venus, that’s me!” Venus continued.
“Good, I wasn’t sure for a moment on the Venus part...” Wes said to himself, as the word ‘VENUS’ flew about the screen accompanied by sparkles.
“Ok, I guess we know who really runs the show...” Wes murmured, observing the simple red ‘C’ that sat in the centre of the display, with the words ‘Cipher – Not Evil at All!’ written below.
He gestured to a motionless Mirakle B who was currently lying on the ground next to his desk with a Furret sitting on his head, chattering away excitedly.
Oh, whatever were the odds of that being the case? XP
He also cancelled the train transportation system that was to be constructed, and made it illegal for anybody to bring in strudel because he reportedly disliked the taste.
There's something quite amusing about something like that strudel bit popping up in what was otherwise a relatively serious conversation. Specifically, I found it amusing in that "it's funny because it caught me off guard" way, which is odd considering that, well, given what this is I'm reading here, you'd think I'd be prepared to encounter a pastry reference at any moment. X3
“What-ow!” Rui said, bumping her head lightly on the doorway as she looked back at Sherles.
I am more amused that I probably ought to be by Umbreon being poked in the head there. X3
Umbreon blinked, only to be swept aside by the man as he went on a rampage through the store, hurling discounted cans of orange, un-pickled pickles around the store.
I wonder why this was when you least expected it now. ;D
The high points of the chapter:
*Multiple misspellings of "dishwasher" as graffiti. Seriously, I lol'd hard.
*The mere presence of Miror B.
*Makuhita's method of defeating Gurks's Magikarp and Feebas. Somehow I don't see Makuhita evolving, it's harder to imagine a Hariyama acting the way Makuhita does.
*Gurks's friends stopping him from sending out Wailord.
*Tom reappearing. He is made of epic win.
The whole chapter is epic win. Keep up the good work!
Dishwashers is quickly becoming a cult symbol for Orre... And Makuhita may or may not evolve,nyou'll just have to wait and see. Anyways cheers for mentioning your favourite parts!
Derp that came about from failure of editing something my beta reader told me properly. XD Cheers for pointing that out.
... Hmmm. They run a convincing argument.
The man always confused me. First by using two weak Pokemon, then by sending out a Wailord which would in turn crush quite a few buildings in the tiny space of the under and crush quite a few tiny, tiny people.
I love the different personalities everyone has, especially ;197; and ;196;, they hilarious.
Even enough for me to name my own Espeon and Umbreon: Espi and Umbre.
This chapter, like all of the others, is freaking hilarious. Makuhita's battle with the Magikarp and Feebas along with the old man "rushing" makes it especially funny. Plus, with Tom being back, there is sure to be more epicness later.
I also think I know what caused Wes's brainwashing...
It was the dishwasher graffiti!!! >:3 lol
But seriously, I'm pretty sure I know what did it...unless you decide to pull something from out of nowhere.
It was more an alusion to the fact that many signs in The Under are actually in Japanese - they were never fully changed for some reason. (Laziness, probably).
Well. Now whenever I play this in the future and find myself in that part of the game, that's going to pop into my head: that The Under smells. And that Umbreon smells. XD Plus, whenever I read Venus's lines in-game, I'm totally going to hear them in a voice like the one you described her as having. I just know this. X3
I half considered if I should continue on, but it might have put me off too. =p
One of my favorite characters in any series ever is also capable of that kind of smile, and it doesn't bother me in the least when he makes said smile. Yet for some reason, seeing that kind of smile described in text put a really rather terrifying image in my mind.
There's something quite amusing about something like that strudel bit popping up in what was otherwise a relatively serious conversation. Specifically, I found it amusing in that "it's funny because it caught me off guard" way, which is odd considering that, well, given what this is I'm reading here, you'd think I'd be prepared to encounter a pastry reference at any moment. X3
catching eye of one message that read ‘Magikarp are gonna kill uz all!’. Meanwhile, Umbreon worryingly regarded another wall which was covered by multiple misspellings of ‘dishwashers’ in red.
“Ok, I guess we know who really runs the show...” Wes murmured, observing the simple red ‘C’ that sat in the centre of the display, with the words ‘Cipher – Not Evil at All!’ written below.
“One,” the old woman began, “is the number of the day.” She nodded sagely before laughing and tossing more glitter over the still oblivious Quagsire. As Rui sighed to herself wondering if her day would get any weirder, Fateen continued. “Two – sometimes one must take matters into their own hands, no matter what others say. And three – yogurt is good for your health!” With that, the woman handed Rui a small tub of yogurt and walked off. Rui stared at her retreating figure, and then at the yogurt.
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.
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:
Kids Grid - there's a bunch of them in the Under as well! Nett's the head of the group there and certainly is a technical genius, although how he gets into Cipher's database and all is never revealed. =/. They initially have issues with communications as Cipher has apparently 'jammed their communications' (and not just, you know, catching them, but here that's because Ein made one for Venus to use without knowing about the threat) - they ask you to go to a house to visit Perr who'll give you something that'll fix their satalite dish. Fun times!
Silva - he randomly appears and gets caught by the Cipher guards and is accused of being a spy. Why he is there is also never mentioned but he ends up giving Wes the R Disk which allows one to continue with the game.
Cipher Peons - curiously enough their are called Kloak and Dagur (Cloak and Dagger) - fitting names for the capturers of 'spies' AND Cipher Peons. You battle them (somewhat needlessly) by talking to them - they hav a Shadow Pokemon but otherwise are unimportant. The town's citizens despite watching Silva being caught and all do nothing about you beating them up, notably.
Folly and Trudly in Phenac - the two end up after beating the game from Pyrite's Jail to... the Mayor's House. (I believe the game actually blamed this on Johnson to much comedic effect). In the game you can battle them there again as well (with higher levels And in the case one missed out on Makuhita I suppose). 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!
Makuhita is always punching things but at least it's usually Johnson, lol.
Another fine chaper. Nice reference to Team Plasma. Did Perr appear in Pokemon Coloseeum or just XD?
Calling it here, the woman who shouted at Folly and Trudly is The Wicked Witch of the West. So... Team Plasma is actually trying to liberate Oz from the Wizard, and Elphaba is a member? MIND = BLOWN. UNOVA IS OZ! EVERYTHING MAKES SENSE!
“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.
No time for more quotes, so my highlights are: Umbreon's "YEEEEAAAAH!" before charging into battle, "Spider Cannon", and the Whoops-I-Almost-Spoiled-Something line from Folly/Trudly.
Well, first off, I'm one of your closet stalker-reader people, and I absolutely love this fic. Awesome chapter, as always, and you never cease to make me laugh hysterically to the point of nearly crying and making people around me wonder what the heck I'm doing.
Loved Umbreon's entrance into the battle, too. I can't quote everything I liked from the chapter because... well, that would be most of the chapter. All of it? Yeah, that.
So, again, great chapter, and I'll be eagerly waiting for the next chapter and the opportunity to have my family give me funny looks because I'm laughing that hard.
Reminds me of a string of nightmares I had last night. OH GOD THE GIANT DUCK, RUN, RUN OR IT WILL EATTT YYOOOUUU.
“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.
“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.
women 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 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.
“…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 women 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.
“ 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.”
Poor Gloom. Just tryin' to chillax wit his homies, 'n' dese *****s come in n stawt ta ruin dis joint. Man.
*shot*
“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.
“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.
You just had to put that in there to have me spend 10 minutes reading it over and over for no reason what-so-ever didn't you! >:/ ...at least it was 10 minutes of awesome.
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.
I have always wondered what she was doing in there, and now you make it painfully obvious. You have all of the answers, don't you bobandbill!
“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.
I would comment on more, but you just had to make it so hilarious that I would be basically copying the entire chapter...but that is definately not a bad thing. Keep up the good work!
“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.
“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.”
“Volbeat...” (You’re the cutest...)
“Illumise!” (No you’re the cutest!) the two firefly Pokémon giggled two 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.
“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.