- THE LUGIA CHRONICLES -
- AFTER CHRONICLES -
- The RPG/S -
Greetings, I am R. A. Stott, the creator of THE LUGIA CHRONICLES (TLC) posted elsewhere here on FFN. And if you've just read the title of this monster I'm about to drop on you, you're probably asking yourself what the heck is an RPG/S? (Pronounced Arr Pee Gee Slash Ess)
Well, any of us who are FanFic fiends and/or posters on traditional BBSs, LiveJournals and the occasional BLOGs know that an RPG is short for Roll Playing Game. But what is a /S?
A '/S' means that the rules for this type of roll playing game is that the posts are to be Story Posts – not short burst of speech or single word addition – no script style drop-ins – these are FULL PARAGRAPH monster posts, some of which could or would take pages to get through – in other words – CHAPTERS.
So? Big deal you say? What's that got to do with my PokéReading of this PokéFic? Not much really, only that the source for this story came from one of the longest RPGs ever on the two boards that it ran on. Here's the story behind the story…
I had a group following who loved The Lugia Chronicles (TLC) when it was originally posted on the now defunct Team Rocket's Headquarters NEXT board back in the summer of 1999 through the summer of 2000. In September of 2000, shortly before the old board shut down and the new board, TRHQ2, opened, having recently posted the final chapters of TLC, I announced on the Roll Playing forum a planned RPG that would continue the plot of the original story, but rather than it just be myself delivering new chapters, being on the gaming section, allow input by all the members of the board in the most creative way possible. It would allow anyone who wished to put their ideas in and add their own plots. It's purpose was to let the kids create circumstances that I would then come along and plop monster chapters on, allowing the co-authors to reap what they sowed. And brother, did they ever sow! And thus in October of 2000, just in time for Halloween, TEAM ROCKET'S HAUNTED HAYRIDE was born.
In the summer of 2001, as the old board was phased out, and the new board took over, the game was transferred lock, stock and paragraph to the new Roll Playing forum and given a new name – AFTER CHRONICLES – The Hayride. There, it added to its already staggering post counts. With over 1200 total entries, 750+ of which were full story chapters, when it finally was put to bed in August of 2005 it just blew my mind the size it had become. (With all the flotsam and nonsense posts removed leaving just the actual chapter entries, Hayride runs 800+ pages in MS Word [1]) An incredible amount of talent, skills and just plain old chutzpah were spent on this project, and I'm proud of each and every 'author/player' who joined in and grew along with the story. Many of these kids have grown and are in the world today making things better for us all – god love 'em! Not everyone stayed to the end, and some joined in midway – but I want to thank each and every one of them for allowing us to see their creativity, for allowing us 'others' to actually use their original characters without screaming foul, and for giving us all their gift of being partners in one hell of a story!
In April of 2007, the TRHQ2 board had all of its posts deleted by either accident or vandalism – years of stories and creative works by these kids were thought lost. Fortunately some of us old codgers thought to back-up some of these great huge memory hogging story-based RPG/S' before that, so the work here can be seen by those who wish to see what the hey-day of a fad (Pokémon, if you hadn't guessed) was like. Here's to the kids – Ya gotta love 'em! I sure do!
R. A. Stott – ArkNorth Productions/DMS – June 2007
Afterthought – During the summer of 2007 through January 2008, having been given the 'keys' so to speak of the old TRHQ2 BBS, PBM and I worked with the folks at ezBoards and their successors, YUKU, to restore as much of the old site as possible. I am happy to note that the majority of the old board was restored, and is currently available again for use, with many of the classic posts and stories preserved for fans and friends alike to rummage through once again. To find it, simply Google 'TRHQ2' and have fun!
For those who read through the original RPG, a note to what you're about to journey through here – the unedited version of the AFTER CHRONICLES – The HAYRIDE still exist over on TRHQ2 – these chapters presented here though have been augmented, fleshed out and rewritten to keep the flow of the story running properly. This means there is a great deal of NEW MATERIAL. So go forth and enjoy!
Cheers!
R. A. Stott – ArkNorth Productions/DMS - April 2014
AFTER CHRONICLES
THE RPG/S
Based on the FanFic series
THE LUGIA CHRONICLES
By Anne Ruecroft & R. A. Stott
and the RPG
'TEAM ROCKET'S HAUNTED HAYRIDE'
Compiled, edited and rewritten by R. A. Stott
Contributing Authors for this chapter -
ArkNorth, PeanutbutterMewTwo, and Baby Jigglypuff
Chapter One
TEAM ROCKET'S HAUNTED HAYRIDE
October 11th. It was nearly a year since the affair with the Black Lugia had cut a swath of destruction and death on the Prime Level of the PokéWorlds. Professor Robert North sat back in his seat in the core of what was known as Tech Lab One, Team Rocket's Special Technical Services lab. It was first thing in the morning, and this time was set aside to read inter-office memos and mail. It was one of few things he found tiresome being on this level of reality. He had become weary of all the political turmoil and rebuilding going on up on the Prime Level that he decided on taking a break from it all and temporarily move down to Level 1.1. It was calming, but some of that level's Team Rocket's habits were a bit irritating. Giovanni, for example, was quite fond of memos. And that morning the top one caught his attention as it was headed by a sad looking Halloween pumpkin and was on glaringly nasty looking orange paper.
"Oh god, what is he up to now?" he mumbled to himself as he tried to drink his coffee with a straight face.
"Tis the month of spooks and goblins, Haunters and Gengars, and the occasional Gastly," the memo began. "The Silph Company is having their annual Haunted Hayride again this year, spread across the company headquarters' acres of land."
North sighed. This was going to be ugly, he just knew it.
"As usual, all Team Rocket operatives are to volunteer for this duty - your mission - entertain the kiddies and parents, while attempting to steal their PokéBalls! Now get at it!" This last bit was followed by a happy Jack-o-lantern shouting out "Prepare for trouble!"
North shook his head as he dropped the memo into a convenient shredder. He then tapped a button on his control board.
"George," he called into a com unit, "what's my schedule for the rest of the month?"
The Golden R communications officer rummaged through a date-book. "It looks like you have two meetings and a staff operations update by month's end," he replied. "Why?"
North grunted as the last of the diced orange memo departed for places unknown. "Cancel them," he said. "I need a break from this break!"
"Very well sir!" George replied as he updated the itinerary. "Any idea on just what and where to yet?"
North tapped his chin. "Book me on the next flight to the Isle of Mann… I want to see just what a PokéManx Cat looks like."
Wednesday, October 11th, 2000 – the first day of the Silph Company's Annual Hayride and Fright Festival. Six hay wagons were to be used and would depart every fifteen minutes, or so it was supposed to be. But one of the children had brought along his Charmander, and with all that combustible material, the Rockets were lucky to only loose just one vehicle.
"Alright everyone!" James barked from the front of the wagon. "Single file! That's it!"
A round yellow-haired kid stared at James. "Yo man, what are YOU supposed to be?" he sarcastically asked.
James looked at his disguise. "I'm Jack! Jack the PUMPKIN KING!"
"More like the Pumpkin Dweeb!" the kid ribbed.
"Just get on da wagon ya twoip!" Meowth hissed.
"And what are you?" the kid huffed. "At least your costume ain't as lame as this dork's is!"
Meowth snarled. "Listen you's! What I am is a little guy in a little suit whose gonna show ya's a little FURY SWIPE if ya's don't GET ON DA WAGON! - Oh, and would you please put all your PokéBalls in dis box fer da safety and security of all da passengers?"
Jessie, all dolled up as Jack's girlfriend Sally, looked about at all the children surrounding the wagon waiting to get up on the hay. "Gee, I wasn't expecting this many little kids."
"Well we are da only hayride dis side a' Pallet," Meowth said as he climbed up between the lopsided 'Jack' and Jessie. "Da boss made sure a' dat!"
James looked down the path that was laid out. The entrance to the 'Trail of Terror' ride had been built so that the wagons needed to pass through a long dark tunnel. Now that the sun was going down, the opening only became more ominous. James started to shake, causing his enlarged foam head to bend oddly at the mouth.
"Are you SURE all the spooks are fake Jessie?" he quaked.
She looked over at him and saw the twisted form of the head. She smacked it causing it to spin once. "What are you so worried about?" she barked as the mouth/face opening was facing towards her.
The foam head began to vibrate rapidly. "I'M SCARED!" James whined. That only got him his fake head's mouth shut as Jessie slammed down on him.
"Will's you's two just shut up?" Meowth chattered at them as he jumped on the back of the Tauros that was hitched up to the wagon. "Ya wanna ruin da 'surprise' for all da kids?" This got the children antsy.
A boy yelled "Hurry up! We wanna ride!"
This was followed by a girl adding "Yeah! When do we start?"
This finished with a crescendo of all the kids chanting "HAY-RIDE! HAY-RIDE! HAY-RIDE! HAY-RIDE!"
"Hey you two!" someone croaked. "What's that holdup?! You were supposed to have left five minutes ago!"
"Hold your Rapidashes!" Jessie shouted back at Butch over on Wagon Two. At least she got the satisfaction of hearing one of his kids asking if he was making that voice up for the ride, and if he was not, why was he not in a frog's costume rather than a Prince?
"I kissed him kid," 'Princess' Cassidy was heard to bark. "Now shut up and sit down!"
"Wait until the boss hears he refused to wear the frog's head," Jessie giggled to herself as she and James climbed to the top of the haystack in their wagon and settled the brats down. "We'll start in a moment!" she announced. "Now, due to regulations…"
"…And da Fire Marshall," Meowth interjected from the back of the Tauros.
"…We ask you to please put your PokéBalls in these holding trays," she continued sweetly. "We wouldn't want you to lose them during the ride, now would we?"
James reached into the head's mouth to scratch his ear. "Umm, yes we would, wouldn't we, Jess?" he asked her. He found his arm being 'bit' by his foam head as Jessie slammed it shut again.
"NO you Imbecile!" she hissed and whispered. "We WOULDN'T…" She winked and nudged him to drive home her point.
"But what about our plan to steal…" he started. It then finally dawned on him. "Oh! Oh, no, I guess we wouldn't then."
"Isn't Jack the Pumpkin King just totally clueless?!" Jessie added as a cover.
"You're telling me," the yellow haired kid yelled back. "What do you see in him 'Sally'?"
"Good question," Jessie mumbled and sighed. She and James continued to gather the orbs. They then placed them in a slot hidden in the top bail of hay behind their seat as they sat down.
"All right kiddies," Meowth yelled from the front, "let da TERROR BEGIN!"
"Yea, yea," spiky kid yawned. "Shut up and start already…"
James gave the leads a slight crack. The Tauros started to trundle down the dark path.
Station Two was out in the woods past the tunnel roughly a half mile, and a quarter mile from Station One. It was a single manned post, where an 'alien specter' was to float around the wagon without any visible means to support it, and have enough of a physical presence to scare the willies out of the kids. It was right up her alley.
She sighed to herself. 'How did I wind up in a tree on a chilly October night waiting to ambush a Team Rocket wagon?' she kept asking herself. "Oh well," she now said aloud as she checked her aura field she generated for that ghost-look they wanted, "I'll just make the best of it. Now I know the first one is Jessie and James, those dim bulbs… followed by Butch and Cassidy… swell…" From her vantage point she saw the movement of a small guide light on the side of Wagon One. She readied her 'attack' by fading out. It would probably be another half hour before they would arrive at her station.
"Muuuuu!"
Jessie suddenly found herself within a binding wrap of foam and fake boney arms as James grabbed her. Fortunately she also now had the reigns.
"W-What was that?" he stammered as Jessie began the process of unwinding her partner so that she didn't drive them into the ditch.
"It was probably nothing!" Jessie harped now hitting him to release her. "Now concentrate! We have to get ready for Station One!"
"Muuuuuuuuu!"
"Stop it Meowth!" she now hissed at the cat up front.
"Hey, dat wasn't me," he griped back.
"It wasn't… you?" James asked as he shivered.
"Jack funny!" he heard. He looked over his shoulder to find a little girl rider looking at him. "Jack funny!" she repeated. "Oh look!"
James only had a moment to glance before the dark night became totally black.
M2 sat waiting for the wagon to roll by. He looked grim with a long butcher's knife stuck through his body - really - the MewTwo had used his powers to psychically insert the knife into himself so that it protruded out his back in the most horrific way. And with some added ketchup for blood, and he looked the gory sight.
His mood was also gory.
"Why are we here?" he griped. Beside him squatted what looked like Professor North, but was actually a droid from the lab on Level Prime that had been blasted by a team from that level's Giovanni's personal hit squad, Terminal Solutions, in the final Battle of the Silph Company nearly a year prior. It had been designed to simulate the way a real human body would react to most situations, including getting blown apart by a sawed-off shotgun. It had a gaping hole in its chest and was covered in red goo. It had shocked the dickens out of Gio during the siege, so this was the perfect place to put it in it's current state of un-repair. It also gave the real North the perfect excuse for not being there – he was there… he just wasn't.
"WHY - ARE - WE - HERE?!" M2 repeated himself.
"Lookout duty... The Golden R knows that this 'ride' is only to snitch PokéBalls off the riders," the droid said as it looked about with its infrared eyes.
"I'm not Team Rocket... I'm not REALLY Golden R!" M2 quibbled, as the sounds of the first wagon got closer.
"Oh come now! You can't tell me that you just love sticking that knife through yourself and spooking the humans out!" the droid said with a smirk.
M2 smiled. "It does have it's... pleasures... though this ketchup is attracting Pikachus..."
"Pika Pika!" a small electric rodent said from behind them. It had found the PokéCat's bottle and was enjoying itself.
The droid shook its head. "Giovanni should make that standard issue..."
"Muuuuu!"
M2 looked out from the shrubs they were behind. "What's that sound? There shouldn't be anyone between the start of the ride and here..."
"Muuuuu!"
The droid looked out as well. "My scanners hear it too, but I can not discern where it's coming from..."
"MuuuuuUUUUUUUVOOOP!"
That sound made both M2 and the droid jump out of the shrub. The Pikachu followed close behind as it enjoyed the ketchup.
"Oh goodie! Now what?"
M2 looked at the droid. "What?"
The robot adjusted its glasses. "The entire wagon is gone... vanished!"
M2 cocked his head. "That's some hayride!" he said as he removed the knife and spun it in his paws.
"Let's backtrack," the droid suggested, crunching across the dried leaves and tall grass back up the path the ride was supposed to have taken. M2 shook his head and followed. The Pikachu happily continued with its ketchup.
Then it disappeared.
M2 felt the movement. He spun about just in time to see the bottle of ketchup fall to the ground.
"Droid, you'd better look at this… HURRY!" he barked.
The North-Bot looked back at where the MewTwo had stopped. "What?" it asked.
"That Pikachu that was behind us… it just vanished."
"Did you spook it?" the droid asked. M2 looked over at him with an expression of 'I can't believe you just asked me that' on his face.
"No, it just vanished," he said. "Almost like a teleport move."
The North-Droid scratched its head as it started back. "Well, that's impossible, especially for a wild Pikachu. All it was doing was sitting right there…"
Then the droid vanished as well.
M2 crouched down in a defensive stance. His tail whipped about as he attempted to sense his surroundings. He remembered his Doorknob was still on, the device used to keep unwanted contact with other psychics and energy creatures given to him by North's group. He gave it a twist to lower its output. As he did, a wall of black fell upon him.
Station Two was getting impatient. It was now over an hour behind schedule even for the second and third wagons to get there. She spied up the road and no longer saw any of the lanterns that would tell her where the carts were.
"Those two bumbling idiots!" she grumbled. "Did they manage to drive everyone off a cliff or something?" She sighed and figured she had better check this out – after all, she was supposed to keep an eye on them as well.
She leapt down from the tree with surprising agility landing catlike on all fours. She padded up the path that lead back to the starting tunnel.
She neared Station One. She knew this one was supposed to have been manned by two members of Team Rocket's Golden R division – she snickered to herself as she remembered how that always sounded like they ran some sort of fast-food restaurant. She lifted herself off the ground and settled near the hideout the two were suppose to be in. She found it empty. She landed and felt something under her toe.
"Eww!" she said as she leapt up. "What was that?" She looked down and raised a small glow off herself to see. "Blood?" she asked as she touched it. "No, this is ketchup… maybe they are opening a fast-food joint!" She laughed to herself until she saw the tracks leading up towards the path. She took a step to follow.
Muuuuuuuuuuuu!
A wall of black slammed down on her. Her head spun with the feeling of being pulled down a drain. She felt her legs give out as she dropped down and held the ground that didn't seem stable enough to stand on any further.
When it stopped she opened her eyes to a sharply shaped shadow below herself. She spun around and looked skywards.
A bone white moon hung in the sharp night air, its surface contrasting with the black tree branches silhouette against it. Her head whirled. This was not… possible.
"What's going on here?" she said to herself. "I didn't teleport myself… and I don't think someone else could have gotten past my barriers… and what is with that full moon? There wasn't a full moon before…"
"And who are you?" suddenly reverberated within her mind. She turned sharply at the sound of the voice.
In the moonlight two MewTwo found themselves staring at one another. She was a slight bit smaller than the other one, and a touch more lavender in color than its gray.
"Who… who are you?" she thought.
The hayride was now a roller coaster ride for the members of Team Rocket. It ended with a resounding thud.
Jessie and James lifted themselves up off the wagon driver's footrest where they landed.
"Where are we James?" Jessie squeaked from her position.
"Oh, this doesn't look right," he replied as he held the Jack head down over his own head for protection. He peeked out of it's mouth.
They looked around themselves. Instead of being in a forest, they were now in an empty field of tall grass. The moon was full and the stars were shining brightly, but they could not see anything around them. Jessie then examined their load.
"Where did all the little brats go?" she asked.
James spun about and yanked on the secret drawer behind them. "I don't know, and their PokéBalls aren't here either!"
Jessie pointed over the front of the wagon. "The Tauros is gone, as is Meowth! Oh James, what is going on?!"
"Muuuuuuuuu!"
"There's that horrible sound again!" James yelped. "You hear it, right?"
Jessie answered by wrapping herself around James as he did the same to her. She grabbed his oversized costume head and covered both their heads with it.
A few seconds of deathly silence ran by. They chanced a peek out from the maul of Jack the Pumpkin King's foam mouth.
The moon light was extremely bright, but even with its glow, only the path seemed illuminated. But something was walking up it. They could see the silhouette there – slowly – pacing – dragging itself.
"Who's there?" James asked the figure.
"Murph…" was all they got back.
"Oh, it's Murphy!" James said in a relieved voice. "You know – Murphy from the shop we get our car tuned up at?"
Jessie smacked him up the side of the head. Obviously that was not Murphy.
M2 examined the female MewTwo before him. "MewTwo are not supposed to be gender specific," he said.
"Really?" the other said in his mind. "You could have fooled me. Besides, I thought I was the only one in this area. Are you telling me that Giovanni successfully made more MewTwo?"
M2 grimaced. "Not exactly," he transmitted. He then saw her expression change from confusion and perturbed anger to one of wonder.
"I sense a difference in you…" she telecommunicated almost in awe. "You are not of this dimension, are you?"
M2 smiled, and nodded his head. "No, I am not." She took a step towards him, but he put a paw up.
"Wait a moment," he said aloud which caught her by surprise – she rarely used her own voice. She watched him reach for a chain around his neck. When he turned it about, she saw a small device hanging from it.
"What is that?" she asked trying out her own vocal cords for once. She saw him look up and smile.
M2 twisted the round top of the device. "It's called a Doorknob. It projects a protective field around myself."
She looked slightly offended by the though that this MewTwo needed protection, and he felt it too, briefly. Suddenly, she no longer felt his mind at all.
"You've… shut me out…" she said a bit startled.
M2 nodded. "For our mutual protection I had to. I have been near other MewTwo and Mew before. Being close to each other tends to short us out. And right now, this current situation is enough of a headache..." M2 flipped the knife he had been using as a prop. "Well, this is different..."
"How so?" she asked.
"I for one usually do not teleport so easily, without my consent, of course..."
"I could say the same," she agreed. She then looked at the MewTwo. "Unless you were the one who transmatted me."
M2 plunked his fisted paws into his hips. "My dear, as of a few minutes ago I did not even know you existed! And you seem to not know that you're not the only MewTwo on this level!"
She stepped back. "I-I'm not?" she asked in shock.
"Muuuuuu!"
The MewTwo looked around themselves.
"What was that?" she asked.
M2 glared at the sky. "It's the same sound the droid and I heard when this all started..."
She looked back at him. "Droid?"
"Me..." came a voice from nearby.
The MewTwo walked over a slight roll in the field, and found a pair of legs sticking out of a hole.
"Ah, I see you found my legs! Good!" the voice said from off to the left. M2 looked down into the base of the depression, and saw the rest of the droid. It had been sliced cleanly along its waist.
"Peachy," M2 scoffed as the other MewTwo came over to look at the body.
"Oh my!" North-Droid exclaimed. "You found PBM!"
"PB-what?" M2 asked.
"Professor North?" she asked.
The droid managed to touch its chest. "A reasonable facsimile my dear," it replied. "How are you child?"
"PB-what?" M2 asked again. The droid scowled at him.
"Oh very well," it grumbled. "PBM, this is M2. M2, this is PBM, one of the MewTwo of this level."
"One of?!" she asked. "You mean he was telling the truth? There are others?"
"You have a name?" M2 cut in as he plucked the legs out of the scrub bush they were sticking out of and took them down to the torso.
"Well?" she asked a bit confused and miffed as well. "It sounds like you have one as well."
"Mine was out of necessity because there was more than one MewTwo where I was at the time." He looked at the female MewTwo and shook his head. "PBM?" he asked.
"M2" she shot back.
He tapped his chest with the knife bearing paw then held two digits up with the other.
"Knifey victory?" she asked by the gesture.
M2 got an angry look and repeated his little dance. "Mew – 2" he added for verbal affect. "So what does PBM stand for?"
He was surprised that she turned scarlet from his question – it was something he had never seen a MewTwo do. She spun about. "Ummm… welll… ummm…"
"What's that?" M2 mocked. "What's that? I can't hear you!"
"Peanut Butter…" she mumbled.
M2 stood still for a moment then looked down at the droid in the grass.
"She was named by the daughter of the scientist who created her," the droid answered.
"Peanut Butter… MewTwo," M2 filled it out. "Shouldn't that make her PBM2?"
"Umm, no," the Droid said as it started tinkering with some connections and wires in the legs section. The feet and knees would twitch as circuits were reestablished.
M2 shook his head at the mess at his feet. "So how did you get in THIS condition droid?" he asked.
"How?" it replied loudly. "What do you mean how? YOU did this to me!"
M2 stepped back, surprised by the accusation. "Me? Why would I have a reason to slice you in half, droid?"
"Well you tell me!" the automaton said as it flipped its legs over so they weren't upside down. "I thought it was odd as well."
"I can tell you, it wasn't me droid..." M2 said with much conviction.
The droid cocked its head, showing some further damage it has sustained - probably from the tumble it took coming down the hill. "You are noted as one who never lies..." it said as it reset a few finger joints in its right hand.
M2 looked at the knife and examined it. "See? Clean as a whistle. Without a trace..."
"Look at that!" PBM said, looking closely at the knife blade. Streaks of crimson started to roll down it, appearing from out of nowhere.
"Now, it's getting gross," M2 said, as he watched it trickle down his hand.
The droid waved M2 closer. "Let me scan it," it said, as it adjust its glasses. "Well, it's not mech-fluid... not even any residual trace... its blood all right..."
M2 glared at the blade. "What type?"
"Cross referencing..." the droid said, looking hard at the goo.
"It's not human... It's Pokémon... Rodent... Pikachu..."
M2 threw the knife down and looked about the terrain, a look of worry on his face. The expression caught PBM by surprise.
"What?" she asked. "What is it?"
M2 kept looking about in the darkness. "We were with a Pikachu before we were swept up in this…" he told her as he continued to sweep with his senses.
"Muuuuuu!" the sound came again. But this time, it was followed by evil laughter. M2 felt a cold wave run through his soul. He pointed skywards and shot an orb of energy off as a flare.
Nearby at Wagon One, Jessie and James still couldn't figure who the figure was that was approaching them. But as the flare fired off, hope rose with it.
"L-look! There's someone else here in this field with us!" Jessie said, still shivering, but with a slight sound of relief.
James was looking the other way at the approaching figure. "Look!" he said. "It's Meowth!"
It turned slowly and looked back at them. The sight caused both Rockets to tumble back towards the wagon.
The field had been illuminated by the flair. Now they could see that this grassland seemed to stretch for miles in all directions, save for a line of trees behind the path the wagon had come down. What got M2 and PBM's attention though was high above the horizon. There was a pair of menacing red eyes glaring down on them.
"Ha ha ha... nice try..." the eyes said. Then a gust of wind sniffed out the energy orb like a candle.
"Well," the droid said, almost in a happy tone, "we're in it now, aren't we?" As they returned to darkness, the two MewTwos watched as it started to re-assemble itself.
Jessie and James were almost just as happy the flare blew out, for while it glowed, they could see the figure that looked like Meowth get closer, and it was a sight. Its fur was a tatter, its forehead charm broken, a ragged ear flopped along its head, and the expression on its face was that...
...of a zombie...
"Muuuuuuuu!" the sound made again, but not from the Meowth.
PBM blinked in the darkness. She held her hand over her eyes. A soft lavender glow illuminated around her.
Up on the path, the Meowth stopped its advance on the wagon and turned towards the new source of light out in the field. There it came upon the shimmering form of PBM. The Meowth stopped moving and stared. At first she thought it was looking at her, but then she realized it was looking past her.
"Okay, um, M2 is it?" she nervously asked her fellow MewTwo. "There is something behind me. Whatever it is it's nastier than a zombie Meowth, right?"
M2 chanced a quick glance. Whatever it was, it certainly WAS nastier looking than any zombie Meowth.
It was an unmoving mass. Shades of crimson so dark it was almost black seemed to move across its skin - Almost as if the markings themselves were alive. PBM's huge purple eyes grew larger as she began muttering something under her breath, almost like a chant. M2 leaned closer trying to hear what she was saying as he defended her rear. He wondered if it was some sort of a spell or some special Level 1.1 incantation…
He heard "There's-no-place-like-home-There's-no-place-like-home-There's-no-place-like…"
"Click your heels Dorothy," he murmured to her. "It's not moving any closer towards us!"
They looked beside them and saw the droid dragging itself forward. It reached the red-black mass and poked at it while scanning. "Well, whatever this was, something killed it."
PBM and M2 stared at it. "That big thing is DEAD?" PBM asked with a look of near sickness all over her face. "Ugh! Something really NASTY must've gotten to it!"
The North-Droid nodded as it returned to attaching its spine to its lower section. "Agreed – from its size and shape, I would say it once was a Tauros, or some other large Pokémon type."
Opposite it, the Meowth mewed sympathetically. It waved one paw in the air. Taking a gulp, PBM stepped forward and inspected it. Tiny red swirls where moving up it slowly. The Zombie Meowth mewed sadly again.
"It's... It's... it seems to be killing the Meowth slowly," she said. "No… wait… It's not killing it… It's the only thing keeping the Meowth alive… Something has made it a zombie… and its fighting back."
The ragged Meowth nodded slowly. "Nyaaaa..." it murmured halfheartedly. Then it collapsed into her arms.
The voice echoed again across the barren field. Taunting, drawing the unsuspecting pawns closer.
"Muuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!"
Over by the now empty wagon, whatever had made that eerie call caused Jessie and James to nearly asphyxiate each other, which only managed to twist and distort the foam Jack head more. Finally as she was beginning to turn blue Jessie managed to shove James away enough to look around.
"James, where did that Zombie Meowth go?" she asked.
"I don't know and I don't want to find out!" he moaned.
"We have to find it," she announced as she stood up and looked about. "Look there are some tracks."
"Wait a minute Jessie!" James bellowed. "Give me two good reasons why we should go after a ZOMBIE Meowth?!"
Jessie tapped her chin. "Well, the first good reason would be that if that was our Meowth, we can help him – he'd owe us big time! The second would be that if it wasn't our Meowth, we could always capture it and give it to the boss as a new Pokémon type!"
James sighed as he removed the headgear to his costume and plunked it on the wagon's footboard. "I don't think Zombie is a proper evolution for a Meowth," he said as he followed his partner into the weeds in the direction the creature had gone.
It only took a few rises in the grass to find the Meowth, and all the others it had wandered into.
"Jessie, what are those?" James asked of the two psy-cats. M2 blinked at him. He then rolled his eyes skywards, allowing them to fall on his neighboring Pokémon.
"Did you blank out their memories of us?[2]" he asked PBM.
She coughed. "It must have been one of my fellow MewTwo," she coyly remarked to him, using her new found knowledge of their existence to her benefit.
"Great…" he grumbled as he prepared to release their minds. "Allow me…"
But before anyone could do anything they heard the ghostly voice again calling, "Muuuuumaaaa!"
Jessie glared at PBM. The fact that she was about to talk to a droid and two genetic experiments didn't seem to faze her much.
"You seem to be holding my Zombie Meowth," she said at last.
"Yours? Oh, I see," PBM replied. "You can have him back if you'd like." She lifted the Meowth to hand it to the lady Rocket, but it began to hissed madly and clawed its way back up the MewTwo's arm. "OW! Meowth!" she cried.
Jessie looked hurt. "Meowth! Come here!"
The cat hissed again, its red eyes glinting sharply in the contrasting purple light.
"What? Why?" PBM translated the hissing for the others. "That's not Jessie!" she yelped in alarm as she leapt back.
James looked at the red swoosh of hair blocking his vision "What? Of course that's Jessie," he scoffed. "She might look a little different in makeup, but that's just her costu…"
He wasn't laughing however when the Non-Jessie turned to smile at him with glinting fangs protruding from her ruby mouth. And now the stitches that had been drawn on her for the Sally costume were real heavy thread with their ends dangling and swaying as she lumbered towards him.
James screamed "That's NOT Jessie! Not even on a BAD day is that Jessie!"
The Meowth hissed as it bared its claws and raised its hair on end. PBM felt the fur along her spine rise too. Before she quite realized what she was doing, she had crouched on all fours and was spitting like an angry alley cat!
"Well, that's different," M2 commented a bit bemused by her actions.
"…What? …What am I doing?" she asked herself as she sat back up and shook her head. "Why on earth did I do that? I've NEVER done that before!" She then felt the droid tap her.
"I think we have a more pressing matter at the moment," it said as it pointed over towards the bi-fanged Jessie as she moved towards the terrified James with an unrelenting motion. Her smile was unwavering as James sobbed in fear.
PBM knitted her brow and concentrated on the Rocket. James was unceremoniously teleported out of the way and dropped into a heap near the droid. M2, seeing an opening, concentrated on taking control of the fake Jessie as her movement ceased, and a soft glow surrounded her.
"Well now, what do I do with her?" he asked those present.
PBM was too busy trying to pull a hissing Meowth off her head to answer him. Finally the North-Droid had repaired itself enough to yank up its pants and stand up. It stepped beside M2 and examined the cursing and angry doppelganger he held.
"I would suggest that our next move would be trying to find the REAL Jessie," it suggested as it continued to reconnect components now that it was upright.
The Pseudo-Jessie opened her mouth wide and spat venom, which splattered over the droid's lab coat, sizzling.
"How rude!" the droid said, pouring a small amount of mech-fluid over the acid. "I just fixed that!"
M2 instantly snapped an energy orb around the apparition and launched it twenty feet over their heads. It hissed and cursed at them, but to no avail.
James was having a hard time taking all this in, until he looked at the droid again. "Wait a minute! I know you... aren't you that scientist who gives us all that neat special stuff when we're out on the road?"
"And then you go and trash it," the droid shot back at him. "How many times have you and Jessie crunched that Magikarp Sub Professor North gave you?"
James caught the inference in the droid's sentence. "Professor North?" Then he saw the dangling servos and components from the droid's mid section in the moon light. "You're not North!"
"Correct, I'm North," a voice said coming over the rise of the hill. Everyone looked up to see the scientist trudging through the grass.
"Rob! Rob?" M2 called out in surprise. "What are YOU doing here? I thought you were off on vacation…"
"I was," he said, looking around. "There I was at fifty thousand feet in my flight to England, when I suddenly fell out of my seat, and landed in this field back there." He looked down at the upright mess at the bottom of the depression.
"Droid, what happen to you?" he asked.
"Selective slicing and dicing," it responded while resetting its leg. The foot twitched - That was good. The knee sparked - That was bad. "Shall I contact the base and activate the second droid?"
North looked around them. "Are you telling me you can contact the base?" he asked it.
The droid thought about it. It then stuck its finger in its mouth for a moment then held it over its head. "No sir, I'm sorry, but I can not," it replied having failed.
"Then no," North told it. He then looked up at the orb above them. "What's with Jessie?"
"That's not Jessie," M2 said, watching the orb as the creature inside scratched and clawed at the sides.
James climbed up the hill and grabbed the scientist by the lapels of his jacket. "Professor North, you've got to help us!" he bellowed. "You got to help me! Where's Jessie? Where's my Jessie?!"
North looked at the orb. "Why don't we ask her?" he suggested towards the demon within the sphere.
M2 grinned at the suggestion. A MewTwo may sometime smile - Even that's enough to send chills up a spine… But a MewTwo that grins… James still didn't know what this creature was, but when he saw this he froze in fear.
M2 looked at his orb and brought it down to about five feet off the ground. He then made a hand gesture, and the sphere started to spin. The creature inside yelled and hollered an evil sounding wail of a banshee as it went round and round.
But then the sounds changed. It sounded less and less like a demon, and more like... Jessie!
"JaAaAaAaAaMsE! StOp ThIiIiIiIiS CrAaAaAaAaZy ThIiIiIiNg!" she screamed.
North pulled out a scanning rod from his lab jacket and waved it over the orb. "That's Jessie all right!" he announced as he read the readout.
M2 looked at the scientist with some shock and slowed the orb. When it stopped, he released the contents to the ground softly.
"No more for me Mommy... I just ate..." Jessie gurgled as she collapsed into James' arms.
M2 looked back at North. "This is strange... First this place made it look as if I had sliced the droid in half, then it had Pikachu blood run from that knife. Now, it attempts to make us destroy Jessie…"
"Yes, very selective, don't you agree?" the scientist noted.
"Hey, while you have that out, you might want to check that out over there," M2 said as he pointed over near the droid at the undulating mass on the ground. "Well now that's strange as well…"
The droid looked beside itself and exclaimed, "Oh my! It shrunk!"
"Yuck…" North said as he bent down next to throbbing blob. "I take it that this was larger?"
M2 held his paws over his head. "Much larger," he showed with his arms.
North glanced over at his droid. "Couldn't you get a reading on this?" he asked it.
"It was hard to read… I thought it might have been a Tauros at first..." it replied. "But there was too much dextrose..."
"Dextrose?" North asked as he waved the wand over the glob. "Well, this is odd..."
"Like everything else here," PBM said as she was still trying to get the zombie Meowth off her head.
"What are your readings, Rob?" M2 asked.
"Well..." he said, looking at the small ball in the palm of his hand that the rod fed into, "at one point it read as a large blob of strawberry Jell-O® with ketchup poured over it. But now it's showing as the remains of a Pikachu..."
"The Pikachu!" M2 said, bending down next to the mass.
"You've done this to us... You've done this to us..." a voice said from behind M2 and North. They looked at each other then back at PBM.
She was looking up at the Meowth on her head.
"You've done this to us... and you will pay!" the Meowth said.
"You've looked better there Meowth!" North said as he waved the scanner at him. "Oh, hey Peanut!" he added towards the MewTwo under the chatty cat. "Long time no see!"
"Umm... Hi!" she said while keeping her eyes on the possessed creature on her head. She gave a little wave as well.
"You know her?" M2 whispered into the scientist's ear as he stepped away to examine his readings.
He looked back at her as she adjusted one of Meowth's feet that was nearly poking her in the left eye. "She's a local. I've run into her once or twice since we arrived."
"And you were going to mention about her to me when?" the now decidedly male MewTwo asked him.
"Down boy," North grunted. "Looking at what we're in, you'll have plenty of time to get acquainted."
"That's not what I meant, and you know it," M2 growled.
North looked back. Now the Meowth was drooling on her forehead, and she was attempting to get it to either raise its head, or close its mouth.
"Yes, nothing but professionalism. Indeed." He stepped back over to her side to make some more readings. A jet of steam shot out of M2's nose as he followed.
"Muuuuuuuuu!" the haunted voice cried from the field. North looked about.
Then the Jell-O® burst beside them splattering everything around.
"Oh, thank you!" the droid complained as it removed a large blob from its face. It looked back, as did North and M2, and saw the skeleton of a Pikachu.
"Pika," it said, its voice echoing over the field.
"Swell," the droid commented, catching the creature's attention. Then the skeletal Pikachu jumped up and spun around, severing the robot's head with its bony tail cartilage.
"Oh that's gonna take longer to fix!" the droid said as its body shut down in sparks.
"Pika PIKA!" the bones said.
"Well, you don't have to say it like that!" North told it, quickly getting up.
"You - you understood it?!" James yelped.
North looked back at the Rocket and nodded. "Yes, I can understand PokéSpeach… trust me, it's a long story… which I'll tell you later…[3]"
"PIIIIIIKAAAAACHUUUUUU!" the bundle of bone shrieked as it fired off a surprisingly large Thundershock.
M2 shielded everyone the best he could as the lightning lit up the field. But surprisingly, the energy had penetrated his defense partly. He found himself being tossed to PBM's feet. She looked down at the heap.
"Pretty... eyes..." he said, before passing out.
"The MewTwo is down! The MewTwo is down!" the zombie on her head called. "Now for the other one!"
"Oh, of all the times to be without my lab jacket," North grumbled as he searched his pockets for anything. Other than the scanning rod and his airline tickets, he found his communicator, which he knew would not work. He even tried the little button marked 'Emergency Transmat' and smirked at the lack of response.
"PIIIIIKAAAAACHUUUUUU!" the enraged skeleton screamed.
"HAAAA HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" the evil eyes said, appearing overhead once again.
And the Roll Play Rolls on...
[1] - Set in 10Pt Courier font
[2] – See "Pokémon the Movie - MewTwo Strikes Back"
[3] - See The Lugia Chronicles - Chapter 11 - "Branded" here on FFN
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