-chapter 8-
-Cj's perspective-
The next morning came and went, We had breakfast, and spent some time in the rec room, playing the arcade games and what not, and before long, it was noon, shortly after lunch, the scout planes were sent out to survey the area, the ship had travelled very far north at this point, and there was nothing but ice and large glaciers as far as the eye could see. We all got some coats from the equipment room to watch the planes take off. They accelerated so quickly they barely needed half the runway. As soon as they took off, they circled the ship a few times before flying off into the distance, scanning the area as they travelled. They both returned just a few hours later, and carefully landed on the ship. After taxing to the elevator, they were lowered back into the hanger, and a few of the scientist set to work, studying the data they had gathered during their flight. Melissa was overseeing them.
-in the hanger-
Melissa: "Are we still getting the same readings?"
Unknown scientist: "Looks like it, large amounts of tungsten and iron, right around this area, the rest is mostly just ice."
Melissa: "Good."
Melissa: "Allright, prepare the choppers, I need all the tents and other supplies loaded up, I want to be able to leave this ship by the next two hours, come on people."
Charley was wearing this big orange round coat that we found for him in the equipment room. It made him look like a cute little pinecone as it wrapped around him like a cocoon. It made him a little awkward for Phoebe to carry,and he couldn't move around very well while wearing it, but it did keep him warm so he could watch the planes take off. Despite the coat seemingly giving him ample protection, I still had my doubts about taking him off the ship with us, but Phoebe thought otherwise.
Phoebe :"Cj we have to take him with us, if we leave him here, he'll miss me, he might even miss you if you leave."
Me: "Awe...really?"
Phoebe :"Mhm, he has become attached to you as well, can't you see?"
Me: "But honey, it's dangerous out there, I just don't want him to get hurt."
Phoebe :"He's got this coat, he'll be ok."
Me: "Are you sure?"
Phoebe: "Mhm."
Me: "Ok, but I want to know if anything goes wrong."
Phoebe: "You will, don't worry."
Me: "Allright, then, I guess he can go."
Phoebe :"Don't worry Cj, he'll be fine."
-playfully- Phoebe: "Won't you sweety?"
I didn't feel like arguing with her, if she was so sure he'd be safe, well, she was usually right. Although I wasn't sure how long Charley would want to stay in that coat. Over the next few hours, the hangar bay was very busy, once again the cargo choppers were being inspected and a few of them were loaded with equipment and supplies.
When it was finally time to leave we all got on one of the choppers, and they took us off the ship and onto the icey landscape, about an hour away from the ship. No buildings or plants, just ice as far as the eye could see, the land was mostly flat, with a few large but pretty glaciers and snow drifts spread around to break up the monotony. Once the choppers landed at their destination, Melissa ordered everyone, including Nina and I to work on unloading the choppers and setting up the base camp. Phoebe didn't have to work, as she was trying to keep Charley warm. After the choppers were unloaded, they went back to the ship, only to return with some empty containers which were going to be used as makeshift buildings, they were the same ones that we salvaged from the abandoned ship yesterday, sans the one with the bodies, which was dumped into the ocean after the bodies were each given a proper burial at sea. Which, by the way was an awkward service because nobody on board even knew these people, although we did get their names from the ship's log atleast.
The first few hours were rough, as it was extremely cold, and there was no heat or shelter. The choppers kept ferrying supplies back and forth while we set to work constructing all the tents, which consisted of unraveling a giant roll of watertight, nylon like fabric, and asembling a giant, dome like frame out of metal tubes, inside the fabric. Despite the dome being almost 1000ft in diameter, it went up very quickly, as the frame was designed to be held together by just one bolt per joint. And despite that, it was still remarkably sturdy. Once the dome was constructed,several smaller individual rooms were sectioned off inside, with the largest one in the center, which would contain a combined hydrogen generator and heating unit,running on the freezing water trapped below the ice. It also had some sort of filter equipped that allowed it to run properly on salt water, although a small amount of freshwater was still needed to start it up. It provided enough electricity to light the dome, and for a few other things if needed.
Once the generator was started, the interior of the tent quickly heated up to about 70 degrees. A few tents that were salvaged from the other ship were constructed on the outside, with heating provided by a insulated piping system from the heater within the dome. The containers were provided with heat in the same way, although they had to have holes drilled in them.
Of the rooms inside the dome, Phoebe and I had one to ourselves, while Nina shared the one adjacent to ours. As for Charley, well, he could stay in either one. He was still wearing his coat, although he was begining to get a little fussy because he couldn't move around on his own while wearing it. We would probably let him out once it got warm enough.
The rooms were very flexible, like legos, the walls were so simple to contruct that rooms could be joined together or divided as needed, with the smallest possible being seven by seven feet, the floor of the dome was arranged in a grid-like pattern with joints at all the intersections, all spaced about seven feet apart, so the smallest room would be seven by seven feet, with about a 7 foot ceiling, which in most cases was big enough for atleast two people to sleep and stand in comfortably. The larger rooms were near the center of the dome, which were set up as a small lab, kitchen, a meeting room, and a small lavatory, which was basically just a port-o-potty. Once most of the work was completed, and everyone was warming up, Melissa called everyone into the briefing room for a short meeting.
There was only about 30 people here, mostly scientists, as well as a few officers who seemed to have come along just out of curiousity, though they would come in handy just in case we did come across mewtwo. We didn't know what we were looking for exactly, just that we needed to go to where the readings had been recieved. What we would see when we got there was beyond me, it could be nothing, it could be the ship, encased in the ice, it could be just an abnormally large deposit of tungsten and iron, which was unlikely as the ground was mostly just ice up here. I had no idea what to expect, and I don't think anyone else did either.
-in the meeting room-
Melissa: "Ok everyone, for the next day or so this will be our base of operations."
Melissa: "As soon as the choppers come back with the rest of the supplies, including the snowbusses,we will be going on a expedition over to where we have recieved the readings, I'm not even sure exactly what we will find there, so please be cautious, and stay close to the group, I don't want anyone getting lost. "
Charley started to cry, he really wanted out of his coat, which wasn't surprising considering he couldn't move his arms or legs very well inside of it, that said, he also couldn't take it off by himself either.
-calmly- Phoebe :"Charley calm down..."
Phoebe quietly took him out of the room and tried to calm him down. Although it really didn't help much because we could still hear him through the walls. Everyone looked around in awkward silence as Charley continued to cry, until Phoebe finally decided to let him out of his coat. After he finally calmed down, she carried him back into the room. The awkwardness of the situation made it feel like hours had passed, when really it was just a few minutes.
Phoebe :"Sorry, he doesn't seem to like his coat very much."
Melissa: "That's ok Phoebe, most babies don't, but it's for their safety."
Melissa: "Ok, now where were we?"
Melissa: "Ok, I don't want anyone getting lost, and um...look out for um..polar bears...they look kind of like beartics, but they are not pokemon, so do not try to catch them, just try to avoid them if you can, only attack them if there's no other option."
Melissa: "Same goes for anything else that isn't human or a known pokemon, though I doubt there will be any other humans or pokemon out here besides us."
Melissa: "That's all I can think to say for now, the choppers are on the way, so we'll be leaving shortly."
Melissa: " If some of you could go outside to help them unload their cargo, it would be appreciated."
Melissa:" Anyway, that's all I have to say for now."
Melissa: "You are all dismissed."
Everyone started to leave the room, returning to their own little rooms.
Me: "Phoebe I think you and Charley should stay here."
Phoebe: "I thought you would say that."
Phoebe: "But why don't we all just stay here then?"
Phoebe :"I want to go too you know?"
Phoebe: "Charley will be fine, don't worry."
Me: "What if he decides he wants out of his coat again while we're out there?"
Phoebe: "Well, he'll just have to deal with it."
Phoebe: "I let him out for a little bit now, so he can have a little bit of playtime before we have to head out again."
Me: "Ok."
Phoebe: "Hopefully by then he'll be tired so he won't put up much of a fuss."
Me: "Hopefully."
-cutely babling- Charley: Walwal...ralts..."
-playfully- Me: "You don't like that coat do you? Hehe..."
-playfully- Me: "That's ok, you won't have to wear it for long."
Phoebe: "Let's just go to our room, and play with Charley for a little bit."
Me: "Did you bring his toys?"
Phoebe: "Mhm."
Me: "Ok."
Nina: "What about me?"
Phoebe: "Nina you can come too silly."
Phoebe: "We're not going to forget about you."
Phoebe: "Now come on let's go."
Nina: "Ok."
We all crowded into our tiny room, now complete with an air matress and some blankets. We spent the next half hour just playing with Charley, keeping him happy until the choppers came back.
Once they returned, we had to get him back in his coat, unfortunately, just the sight of thing made him start to cry.
-calmly- Phoebe: "Charley you have to wear it, it's cold out there."
His crying only got worse, as Phoebe carefully tried to slip it around him, it was like he was afraid of it, and of course he was struggling like crazy trying to get it off. But once it was on, he gave up struggling, but kept crying, wanting to be let out so he could play some more.
Phoebe held him and tried to get him to calm down.
Phoebe: "Charley it's ok, you won't be in there for long, but we have to go back outside and you have to stay warm, you have to trust me Charley, it's for your safety."
He gazed into her eyes as he began to calm down.
-lovingly- Phoebe: "You understand don't you? My smart little boy."
-lovingly- Phoebe: "Momma loves you."
Melissa unzipped the door and peered into the room.
Melissa: "Um, guys we're getting ready to leave, just saying."
Me: "Ok."
Melissa: "I can hear Charley cry from the other side of the dome."
Melissa: "Is he going to be ok? I'm sorry we don't have any other coats for him, but that's the only kind that will work for babies in this enviroment, we made it for the Northern Lumina region, it was designed for human babies, but I think it will work for Charley too."
Phoebe: "He'll be fine, he'll get used to it."
Melissa: "We shouldn't be outside for more than a few hours at a time, so he won't have to wear it for long."
Phoebe: "That's good."
Melissa: "As long as you keep his face out of the wind, he should be fine."
Phoebe: "Good."
I could faintly hear the choppers comming in from outside.
Melissa: "Excuse me, I have to go now. We'll leave as soon as they get the snowbusses warmed up."
Melissa zipped the door back up and left.
Me: "You ready to go Nina?"
Nina: "Mhm."
Me: "Good."
Phoebe: "Should we go on out there and wait for them?"
Me: "We could move towards the entrance, no reason to go back out there until we have to."
We all got up and stumbled out of the room, towards the entrance of the dome, where some of the scientists were waiting as well. From what I could hear, the choppers had landed, so I guess they were just unloading them now. After waiting for just a few minutes, we were all called outside, where the snowbusses were idling around.
The snowbusses were basically large, boxy, bus-like vehicles, with rubber treads, to allow them to travel through heavy snow and ice with ease. The snowbuses were slow, and their interior amenities were minimal, much like a regular bus, but atleast they were heated.
Soon we were riding towards the suspicious area, at what seemed to be about 35 miles per hour, even though it was slow, the ride was far from boring, as we could see the artic landscape out of the windows much more clearly now as the freezing wind was not in our faces. It looked so...empty, but beautiful in its own way. The gigantic glaciers that dotted the otherwise flat landscape had the prettiest shade of blue.
Eventually we reached the location, right next to a glacier, it took a little bit of searching, but eventually we found the entrance to a cave in the ice. Nina, Melissa, and I went into the cave along with some of the scientists, but Phoebe stayed by the buses with Charley, and a few of the officers.
Melissa: "This has to be it..."
Me: "I don't know, I mean the chance that your ship just happened to come to this planet is highly unlikely."
Me: "But there has to be something here."
Melissa: "Mhm."
Me: "Look at these steps carved into the ice, this isn't a natural cave."
Melissa: "Mhm."
The cave eventually led us to a large, metal door, like some kind of underground vault, my curiousity peaked as I wondered what lay behind it. Obviously nobody knew how to get it to open. There was a little red button and a key slot on the right, obviously we didn't even know where to begin to look for the key.
Me: "Can you teleport inside?"
Melissa: "It's too risky, I don't know how thick it is."
Me: "Nina don't try it honey..."
Nina: "I won't."
Nina: "But how do we get inside then?"
Melissa: "Do you think your blastoise could break it down?"
Me: "Probably not."
Melissa: "I don't know how to get through it then..."
Melissa:" Unless we blow it open."
Melissa: "You see any buttons or anything?"
Me: "There's one over here, but it needs a key."
Melissa: "Hmm..."
She used her powers to bypass the lock, and then she pressed the button, which opened the door, only to reveal yet another large metal door with a passcode lock, and a little digital screen that politely said "welcome". What exactly it was welcoming us to, was still a mystery.
Melissa: "Oh dammit...I can't get passed those."
Melissa: "-sighs-, I'm going back up to get one of the technicians down here, to see what they can do about this."
Me: "Allright."
She came back a few minutes later.
Unknown technician: "Allright where is it?"
Melissa: "It's over here."
Unknown technician: "Hmm..."
Unknown technician: "This is going to take a while."
Melissa: "You need anything?"
Unknown technician: "Nah...I got everything I need here, I'm just going to need atleast 20 minutes or so to get passed it."
Melissa: "Ok, tell us when you're done."
We went back up and left him to his work, Nina and I went back on the bus to see Phoebe, while Melissa mingled with the other scientists. The buses were idling so they would stay warm.
Phoebe: "So Cj what's down there?"
Me: "There's something, but I can't tell what it is exactly, there's a big metal door in the way we can't get passed."
Phoebe "Oh, um...ok."
Me: "How's Charley doing?"
Phoebe: "He's good, I let him out of his coat, since they're leaving the buses running."
Me: "Ok."
-cutely- Nina: "Hi little brother."
He looked up at us with his cute little eyes, with an innocent smile on his face. He always looked so cheerful when he wasn't upset.
Phoebe: "I think he missed you..."
Me:" Awe...I wasn't gone that long."
Phoebe: "Yeah, but, a few minutes is a long time to him."
Me: "Hehe...I guess so."
Me: "There's this guy down there now trying to bypass the lock, he said it was going to take awhile. So, I guess we'll have the next few minutes together."
-cutely- Phoebe: "Awe...that's sweet."
We kissed, Nina looked away, as usual, while everyone outside started to flock around the entrance to the cave.
Phoebe :"I want to go see what's out there."
Phoebe :"But I don't think I can convince Charley to let me put his coat back on."
Me:" Well if you want to go down there I could watch him."
Phoebe: "Awe...that's exactly what I was hoping you would say."
Nina: "Can I go back out with you?"
Phoebe :"Of course Nina."
Phoebe: "Ok we'll be back in a little bit, you two play nice."
Me: "Of course we will."
She kissed us both on the cheek before leaving the bus with Nina. Charley was a little worried as she left, and tried to follow her, but I held him back.
-confused- Charley: "ralts?"
Me: "Don't worry little guy, she'll come back."
Me :"Just keep playing around."
Me: "You can't go outside without your coat, you'll freeze."
-sadly moaning- Charley: "Ral...ralllllts."
Me: "Hmm?"
Me: "Don't cry...it will be ok."
Me: "You want me to hold you?"
Charley: "Ralralralts..."
Me: "It's going to be ok little buddy. I promise."
Me: "Come here, maybe we can see her out the window."
I picked him up, and held him up to the window so he could see out of it.
Me: "See there she is, right there, going into the cave with your sister."
He put his little hands up to the window when he saw her, which cheered him up a little bit.
-cutely babling- Charley: "walwal wa."
-playfully- Me: "Yeah you see her don't you?"
I could tell he wanted to go out there to be with her, but he couldn't without his coat.
Me: "If you let me put your coat on, we can go out there, I bet it would make her happy."
Charley: "Ralts ralts..."
Me :"-sighs- I wish I knew what that meant."
I placed him back down on the seat, and then he started to crawl over to his coat. The bus had just two long benches for seats, instead of the seats a normal bus would have.
Me: "Hehe, now you want to wear it."
Me: "-sighs-, allright then."
I helped him into his coat, and zipped him up, and then I carefully brought him outside, keeping his face out of the wind, and I went back into the cave to find the girls.
They were waiting down at the bottom infront of the door.
Nina: "Mommy, daddy's comming."
Phoebe: "Oh..."
Me: "Pheebles."
Phoebe: "Hi..."
Phoebe: "Awe...you got Charley to wear his coat."
Me: "Mhm, only because he wanted to see you,hehe."
-happily- Charley: "Ralts!"
Phoebe: "Awe..."
Phoebe scooped him up and kissed him, he was so happy to see her.
Phoebe: "I love you."
Me: "I see they still haven't gotten the door open."
Phoebe: "Nope, not yet."
Phoebe: "He wired the lock into his computer though, and now he's just trying to find the password."
Me: "Oh really?"
Phoebe: "Mhm."
Melissa came down.
Melissa: "Oh look you're all down here."
-cutely- Nina: "Yep..."
Melissa: "Anyway, Mr. Sanders, how close are you to getting the door open?"
Unknown technician: "It shouldn't be much longer now, so far the code is um...1,3...9...and we still have a few numbers to go."
Melissa: "Ok."
Phoebe: "How did you know to bring all this equipment?"
Melissa: "Well, we assumed the ship was either trapped in the ice, or in some type of storage facility."
Melissa: "Though it turned out to be both, hehe."
Me :"We don't even know if it's in there yet."
Phoebe :"Well what else could possibly be in there Cj?"
Me: "I don't know..."
Mr. Sanders: "Well we're about to find out, 5...2...8...6...3...1 and...7."
The ground shook as the door began to open, revealing what looked to be just a small, empty room. We all went inside, except Melissa, who went back up to bring everyone else down. It didn't take us long to figure out that the chamber was just an elevator. We waited for Melissa to come back before we went down.
Melissa: "Did you find anything?"
She brought about a dozen scientists with her.
Phoebe: "Yeah, it's and elevator."
Melissa: "Hmm...weird."
Melissa: "Alright Mr. Sanders, you wait here."
-pointing people out- Melissa: "and you, you, and you, come with me."
Everyone she chose was an officer.
Melissa :"Phoebe you should probably stay up here with Charley and Nina until we are sure it's safe."
-let down- Phoebe: "Oh allright, but Cj, be safe."
Me: "Of course honey."
She kissed me on the cheek, somewhat embarrassing me.
-softly- Phoebe: "I love you."
-softly- Me: "I love you too."
-anxious- Melissa: "Allright come along."
Phoebe: "Sorry."
She left the elevator, along with Nina, while Melissa pressed the button to go down, or wherever this thing went.
The doors closed, and we descended, for what seemed like a good ten minutes or so. When the doors finally opened again, we found ourselves in a much larger, and strangely warm room.
Me: "We must be in the ocean by now."
Melissa: "Probably."
Melissa: "Allright I need you guys to search the area, I don't think there's anyone here, and I can't sense anyone, but we have to be sure before we bring the scientist in, you too Cj, come on."
Me: "Right."
We explored the area, there was one large, empty room, and then several smaller rooms off to the side, like some sort of hub, it kind of reminded me of the old F.B.P.M base, before it exploded. It obviously wasn't one of Team Rocket's bases. The temperature was fairly warm, to the point where I took off my coat because I was getting too hot. We split up and each took a different room to search, I sent Bubba out, to help with the search, and just in case I needed him.
Bubba: "Blast...blastoise."
Me: "There's no one to fight this time buddy, so you can relax, I just needed some help to look through this base."
Bubba: "Blast..."
He actually seemed kind of sad that there wasn't something to fight.
I turned the lights on in the room, revealing what looked like some kind of laboratory, various diagrams lined the walls, there was a chalkboard along one side, several computers, microscopes, unrecognizable parts and pieces off of some machine. We heard some yelling coming from the adjacent room, which immediately got Bubba's attention, so we headed over there just to see what was going on.
-in the other room-
Me: "What happened?"
Unknown officer: "Nothing, I just found this guy, he's not armed, but I don't think he's quite right though."
-crazed babling- Unknown Lunatic: "Is...is...is it over?"
Melissa:"Is what over? What is this place?"
-crazed, scaired, babling- Unknown lunatic: "She's one of them...save me...please...save me..."
Me: "How long have you been down here?"
Unknown lunatic: "Since...since...the..day...it...started..."
He saw Bubba standing behind me.
Unknown lunatic: "Oh god there's another one behind you..."
He took off and made a break for the elevator. Melissa teleported in front of him, causing him to run back to the officers.
-panicked,yelling- Unknown lunatic: "Why won't you save me?"
Unknown officer: "Just calm down, there's nothing to worry about."
Bubba: "Blast..."
Me: "-sighs- Bubba, you're not helping, you're just scairing him more."
The poor guy had a panic attack, and fell unconsious soon afterwards.
Me :"Hmm...did not see that comming."
Unknown officer 2: "Is he dead?"
Melissa: "No, the poor guy just fainted."
Melissa: "He'll be fine in a few hours."
Melissa: "Get this man a coat and take him back to the ship, have the nurses look him over, and get him something to eat too, the poor man's a skeleton."
Unknown officer: "Yes Mam."
Two of the officers carrried him to the elevator. While a third lended him his coat.
Me: "If what he was saying was true, and he's been here since the disaster, then he's been down here for atleast 4 years, probably on his own."
Melissa: "That answers alot."
Melissa: "I also hope we can get more answers out of him, if he knew about this place, then he probably worked here at some point."
Me: "Right."
Melissa: "And he's obviously deeply afraid of pokemon."
Melissa: "We'll have the nurses look at him, hopefully he hasn't gone too far insane to be of use."
Melissa: "Did you find any others?"
Me: "No, I found a bunch of diagrams though, if you want to look at those, I have no idea what they're for."
Melissa: "Ok."
Melissa: "What about you...officer...um?"
Unknown Officer: "It's Lawrence, mam...Lawrence."
Officer Lawrence: "And no, I didn't find anyone else, but I did find a stair case, this place has another floor."
Melissa: "Oh...ok then, you all go check that place out, I'll go look at those diagrams."
Me: "Ok."
We headed to the staircase.
Officer Lawrence: "You ever see a place like this before?"
Me: "A few times, but they're usually full of rocket agents, and by now there's usually some blaring alarm going off."
Officer Lawrence: "And there's still no sign of the Explorer."
Me: "It's got to be somewhere here though, if it's not, I don't know where else it could be."
Down the stairs, there were several utility rooms. A pantry, with several empty C-ration packages scattered around the floor, around a somewhat ironically placed freezer, that was still running, but empty. There was also a few bottles of water, and about half a dozen untouched C-rations. Another room contained a large heating unit, another was a small cafeteria, void of anything to eat. There was a bunk room, that was lined with bunkbeds, and a tv with a couch, indicating there were several people here at one point.
There were also two small shower rooms, one for men and one for women, a laundry room with a washer and dryer, but only a few sets of clothes that probably belonged to the insane quack we found earlier.
And searching all those rooms and finding nothing, we headed back upstairs, were Melissa was looking over the diagrams, and several documents seemingly fascinated by them.
Me: "What did you find?"
Mellisa: "These diagrams, this stuff is crazy, you know about a certain Philadelphia experiment?"
Me: "Sort of..."
Melissa: "Roswell...1947?"
Me: "Mhm."
Melisa: "The bermuda triangle?"
Me: "Mhm, what's your point?"
Melissa: "This place..."
Melissa: "It's like Russia's area 51."
-confused- Me: "Russia's?"
Melissa: "Well...sort of..."
Melissa: "It is on Russian land, or...ice, but, it looks like the U.S was partially involved in this place too."
Melissa: "And nobody ever knew about it."
Melissa: "This place makes area 51 look normal."
Me: "And how do you know this much about earth's geography?"
Melissa: "Easy, we sent out research teams as soon as the portals were opened, to gather data about your countries, cultures, and other things, it's one of the first things we did silly."
Melissa: "Here, they were researching things such as wormholes, hydro conversion technology, stuff that they knew could change the world, if they could figure it out, stuff that our world had already come up with, surprisingly enough.
Me: "How far did they get on that hydro stuff?"
Melissa: "Um...they were close, but not quite, they aren't running near enough voltage for it to work properly, and the electronics they're using aren't quite able to withstand such high voltages at a safe level."
Me: "Oh...um...ok."
Melissa: "Anyway, I know the explorer has to be here."
Melissa: "You see these parts, some of these are pieces of it."
Melissa: "And there's an elevator in the center of the room, but the controls for it don't work.
Melissa: "So what did you find downstairs?"
Officer Lawrence: "Not much, it's just a living area, we didn't see anyone else down there."
Melissa: "Ok."
Melissa: "I need to bring the rest of the team down here."
She went to the elevator, it took a few minutes to come back down.
-standing in the elevator- Melissa: "I'll get you another coat while I'm up there."
Officer Lawrence: "Thanks."
She went up, and then came back down about twenty minutes later with some more scientists, Phoebe, and the children.
Me: "Hey sweety."
Phoebe :"Hi Cj."
-cutely- Charley: "Ralts."
Me: "Hehe, you staying warm little guy?"
Phoebe :"Yeah, he's ok."
Phoebe: "It's warm down here, he can come out of his coat now I bet."
Me: "Mhm."
Nina hugged me while Phoebe help Charley out of his coat.
-cutely- Nina: "Hi daddy, hi Bubba."
Bubba: "Blastoise..."
Me: "Hi sweetheart."
Nina: "This place is huge."
Me: "Mhm, don't touch anything ok?"
Nina: "Ok."
Phoebe: "Is there anywhere to sit down?"
Me: "There's some chairs in the lab, over in that room."
Phoebe: "Ok."
We went over to the lab and found a place to sit at a table. A few of the scientists were in here, rumaging through things.
Phoebe :"Are there any beds here?"
Me: "There's a bunk room on the lower floor, but it didn't look much better than the beds on the ship..."
Phoebe :"Awe..."
Nina: "Mommy what's this thing? It's heavy."
She was holding up some random part.
Phoebe: "I don't know."
Me: "I don't know either...and didn't I tell you not to touch anything?"
Nina:" Sorry."
Me: "It's ok."
She struggled to put it back on the table.
Phoebe :"I wonder if this place had anything to do with the F.B.P.M."
Me: "Nah, this place predates the F.B.P.M."
Me: "This place is like Area 51, except even more secretive."
Phoebe: "Hmmm, and nothing to do with team rocket either."
Me: "Nope."
Me:"I think there's something else here, I mean the explorer has to be hiding here somewhere."
Phoebe: "Yeah, but where?"
Me: "I think there's another elevator or something in the middle of the main room, there's a control panel on the wall for it, but I don't think it works."
Me: "But there's an obvious seam in the floor there, so something is hiding under it, it's just we don't know how to get to it."
Melissa came into the room.
Melissa: "Cj?"
Me: "Yeah?"
Melissa: "Did you see, like a breaker box or something on the second floor?"
Me: "None that I remember."
Melissa: "Ok then I'll go look for one, I think we can flip the breaker and hopefully get the elevator controls to work."
Phoebe: "Wait Melissa..."
Melissa: "What?"
Phoebe :"When is lunch going to be?"
Melissa: "Oh...um...we're having some food brought over from the base, it will be here in about a half hour or so."
Phoebe: "Ok..."
She left the room.
-in the background, yelling- Melissa: "Ok I need everyone to stay away from the center, I'm going downstairs to find the breaker box, which may have the switch we need, you don't want to be in the center when it moves."
Phoebe :"So what do you want to do until lunch?"
Me: "I don't know, I thought I would just hang out with you and the kids."
Phoebe :"Awe...ok, sure."
Nina: "Mommy, I miss Matches, when are we going to go home?"
Phoebe: "Whenever we find the explorer and get it back to the other world."
Me: "I actually kind of miss home, as strange as that sounds."
Phoebe: "Yeah, after this we'll stay at home for a week or so, then we'll go to Sinnoh."
Nina: "Really?"
Phoebe: "Mhm."
Nina: "Why? I was hoping we could stay home for awhile."
Phoebe: "Because, your grandparents have never met Charley silly, we haven't visited them since before he was born."
Me: "Yeah, it's been atleast a year or so."
Phoebe: "Mhm, I just wanted to wait till Charley was old enough to fly."
Phoebe: "And now that he is, we need to see them."
Me: "We will sweety, as soon as we're done with this."
Nina: "Ok"
Charley was crawling around on the table, he didn't have any toys to play with at the moment.
Phoebe: "I wish I brought his blocks along, but I left my purse back at the base."
Me: "Ah well, I think he just enjoys crawling around."
Phoebe: "Hehe...maybe."
-playfully- Phoebe: "Whatcha looking at you little cutey?"
-cutely- Charley: "Ralts..."
Phoebe: "Hehe..."
Bubba: "Blastoise...blast..."
-scaired- Charley: "Ralts?!"
He looked up at Bubba, who was standing at the end of the table, Charley was still somewhat afraid of him, so he quickly crawled back over to Phoebe. Surprisingly he calmed down once he was closer to her, and didn't burst into tears. I was surprised Charley didn't notice him earlier, I was kind of hoping he just wasn't afraid of him anymore.
-calmly- Phoebe: "Oh Charley don't be afraid, he won't hurt you."
-scaired, babling- Charley: "Ralts ralts,wara..wa...ralts."
Phoebe: "No Charley, he isn't bad, don't be silly."
Phoebe :"Cj can you return him please, just to help Charley calm down?"
Me: "Yeah I guess. Sorry buddy, I'll let you out more when we get home ok?"
-somewhat sadly- Bubba: "Blastoise..."
I returned him to his ball to put Charley at ease.
Phoebe: "Thankyou Cj."
Phoebe: "I wish I had something to drink."
Me: "I saw some bottles of water downstairs if you want one, they're unopened, so I'm sure they're still good."
Phoebe: "That would be nice."
Me: "Ok, I'll go get you one."
Phoebe: "Oh come on, we'll go with you."
Me: "Ok."
She picked up Charley and we left the room together, and headed to the lower floor, Melissa and a few others were there, looking for the breaker box. We let them be, and I showed Phoebe to the pantry.
Phoebe: "What's with all the trash on the floor? This place is a mess."
Me: "I don't know, it was probably that insane guy."
Phoebe: "Oh you mean that unconcious guy they brought up earlier?"
Me: "Mhm."
Me: "Well, anyway, here's those bottles of water I was talking about."
Phoebe: "Oh."
Me: "And here's one for you Nina."
-cutely- Nina: "Thankyou Daddy."
Me: "You want me to hold Charley for you so you can drink baby girl?"
Phoebe: "Yeah, that would be nice."
She carefully handed Charley to me.
Phoebe: "Be careful with him."
Me: "I know."
-playfully- Me: "Hey little guy.."
He smiled at me as I lifted him up.
Phoebe: "hehe."
Phoebe :"Let's go back upstairs, I liked the lab room better."
Me: "Yeah, me too."
We headed back to the stairs, it looked like Melissa finally found the breaker box, although she couldn't get it open, due to their being yet another passcode lock.
Phoebe :"You find anything yet?"
Melissa: "Yeah, I found the box, but it has another passcode lock so I can't get inside it."
Melissa :"I'm going to have to get the technician to hack the code again."
Phoebe: "Awe ok."
She followed us upstairs, and then went to look for the technician while we returned to the table we were sitting at earlier. I felt like we should have done more, but there was really nothing we could do, so we just sat back and let the scientists go through every document, diagram, blueprint, or miscelaneous object they could find. Eventually, Melissa did manage to get into the box, quickly found the switch she was looking for, and soon enough, we heard a loud electrical noise as the center of the floor began to lower into a secret floor.
After returning the elevator to it's usual position. Melissa soon called me over as well as the three officers from earlier to go down and check things out, to make sure it was safe for the others.
The hidden floor was kind of different, it was just one large, dark room. It was pitch black at first, but the lights flickered on after we left the elevator, likely on some kind of sensor. In the room there were a few workbenches, with more miscelaneous parts and tools scattered around them, and the explorer, sitting there collecting dust, with several parts missing. It was probably the strangest machine I have ever seen. It resembled a flying saucer, but it was missing a lot of parts, most of it was stripped down to the framework. It wasn't extremely big, maybe about 50 or 60 feet across or so. What remained of it's outer panneling gleamed in a shiny, silver color.
There were some other machines here too, a large jet engine, which had to have been off of something else, and a smaller rc model of the explorer, in pristine condition, apparently a representation of how somebody thought it would have worked, the attractive model instantly caught my attention, and I was very tempted to play with it, but I had more important things to do at the moment.
There was also something that looked like a satelite, and of course there were about half a dozen snowmobiles parked in the corner. More diagrams were pinned to walls above the work benches, more stuff for the scientists to read.
Melissa: "Awe...it's a wreck, it will take forever to put it back together."
Me: "Well, I don't think you really expected to be able to fly it out of here did you?"
Melissa: "Don't be silly, it couldn't fly even if it was in perfect order."
Me: "Oh...right."
I kept forgetting it was never designed to fly.
Melissa: "There has to be another control panel on the wall or something."
Me: "Yeah, maybe."
Melissa: "I found it."
Melissa: "You're going to need to send out Bubba again, we need all the strength we can get to push that ship onto the elevator."
Me: "Ok sure."
I sent out Bubba.
Bubba: "Blast?"
Me: "Need your help again buddy, sorry we aren't home yet."
One of the officers sent out a machoke, and another sent out a tentacruel, and we all worked together to push the explorer onto the the elevator, thankfully it was on rollers, but it was still very heavy, for 300 tons though, it rolled a lot easier than I thought it would.
Once we rolled the ship onto the elevator, Melissa pressed the button with her powers and we all went up together. After returning to the main floor, we quickly rolled the ship off of the elevator, and then Melissa sent some scientists back down to check out the lower floor.
All the other scientists quickly flocked around the ship in amazement, while I went back over to my family.
-concerned- Phoebe: "It looks damaged."
Me: "Yeah, I think they stripped it, trying to reverse engineer it or something."
Melissa: "Allright everyone, we need to find a way to get this out of here, obviously it won't fit in the entrance elevator, so there has to be another way."
Melissa: "Also, start gathering up all the parts as well, there's several in the lab, and some more on the floor down below."
Melissa :"Also, lunch should be here soon, and you're all free to take a break when it comes."
Melissa: "But for now, let's try to get some work done."
Everyone set about their business, I returned Bubba before Charley noticed him, and then I went back down to the lower floor, since Phoebe and Nina wanted to see what was there. The R\c model of the explorer instantly caught Nina's attention.
Nina: "Hey look there's a toy one."
Me: "Yeah, I know, but don't touch it ok, it's not yours."
Nina: "Awe..."
Phoebe: "What is all this stuff Cj?"
Me: "I'm not really sure, just parts off the explorer and some other odds and ends."
Me: "There's even something that looks like a portal machine over there, but it doesn't work, and it's too small for anything to fit through."
Phoebe: "Hmm."
Phoebe: "I wonder if the time travel guy knew anything about this place?"
Me: "Probably, but I doubt he had anything to do with it, I think they were just researching the same things."
Me: "Hehe I kind of forgot about him."
Phoebe: "Yeah, we haven't seen him in quite awhile."
Me: "Ahwell."
Nina: "Who's the time travel guy?"
Me: "That's just it Nina, he's a guy that can travel through time, and that's pretty much all we know about him."
Me: "You might meet him, you might not, I don't really know where he is or even if he's still alive at the moment."
Nina: "Oh...ok."
Phoebe :"Is it even possible for him to die?"
Me: "I don't know."
Nina: "What's this remote for?"
Me: "Um that's for the model ship I guess."
Nina: "Does it work?"
Me: "I don't know, but leave it alone Nina, you could break it."
Phoebe: "Nina, your father's right."
Nina: "Awe..."
Me: "I wanted to play with it too."
Nina: "Really?"
Me: "Yeah, it looks cool."
Phoebe :"Come on, let's see what's over here."
Me: " Ok baby girl."
We went over to the benches, though there wasn't much on them that the scientist hadn't already taken. There was a computer that one of the scientist had turned on, and was now showing the familiar windows 7 startup screen, and shortly after that, the login screen, and since nobody knew the password, or even the login name for that matter, they had to get the technician down here to try to crack it.
Once they hacked into the computer, all they found was a few text files, along with the usual desktop icons.
The text files contained a journal of important notes about the experiments and research that had gone on here, dating clear back to the 60's, obviously the older notes were made on a different machine, possibly even by hand, and then later transfered over. Anyway, the scientists took great interest in this, so they ended up taking the entire pc up to the main floor.
The main thing they were trying to figure out was how to get the explorer out of the facility, but they decided to wait until the insane guy we met earlier came to, just in case he had an answer.
Eventually lunch finally arrived, so we went back up to the main floor, and had a nice little picnic at the table in the lab, with some hamburgers and nomelade.
Phoebe :"sighs, finally we get something to eat."
Me: "I was thinking the same thing."
Nina: "What about Charley? He can't eat hamburgers."
Phoebe: "That's ok I brought some food for him, I'll feed him after I'm done eating."
Nina: "Ok."
Charley was sitting on the table, as we didn't have a high-chair for him here, of course we both kept a close eye on him to make sure he didn't fall. He seemed perfectly content to just sit there for a few minutes and chew on his teething ring, looking very cute while doing so.
After Phoebe finished eating she got some baby food out for him, and tried to feed him. Nina and I stayed around to watch, as it was kind of funny when Charley wouldn't cooperate.
After lunch, the scientist started to gather up the parts of the ship, wheeling them around on little carts, after awhile, we all headed back to the tent base, and the scientists spent the afternoon studying the parts and documents they retrieved. Melissa took a chopper back to the ship, as she was waiting for the insane man we found earlier to regain consiousness, hoping he would know more about the secret base, including how to get the explorer out of it. She had to rely on Dr. Ponta to speak with him though, as he was still terrified of pokemon, whether they were evil or not.
Phoebe and I stayed at the tent base, trying to keep Charley and Nina entertained. Which wasn't too dificult.
Nina: "I miss my tv."
Phoebe: "We'll be home soon enough and then you can watch it, we're almost done here, we just have to find a way to get the explorer out of the base, and then, once we get it on the ship, we can start to head back home."
Phoebe: "I think."
Me: "Sounds right to me."
Nina: "How come you never bring me on any of your fun trips?"
Phoebe :"Because sweety, they're too dangerous for you."
Me: "Mhm."
Phoebe: "And we brought you on this one didn't we?"
-moaning- Nina :"But this isn't fun, there's nothing to do here..."
Phoebe :"Well, I think we're only going to be here for one night Nina, and then we'll be back on the ship, and you can play those games you like so much."
Nina: "Ok..."
Phoebe :"But for now, you can play with Charley, he looks like he's having fun."
Nina: "But he's a baby, he can have fun with anything."
Charley was happily playing with his blocks, which were now spread out over the top half of the room.
Phoebe: "Oh, sweety now you're just being grumpy."
Phoebe: "Maybe you could go watch the scientists work, as long as you stay out of their way."
Nina: "um, ok."
Phoebe: "Or...here, you can play with Cloudela."
Nina: "Ok..."
She handed her Cloudela's pokeball, that she was keeping in her purse, with a few of her other pokemon. As a reminder we didn't have a full team with us, just a few that we thought would be fine up here.
Phoebe: "But don't make it use any attacks inside the tent, if you rip a hole in it you'll be in big trouble."
Nina: "Ok, I promise I won't."
Nina: "Come out Cloudela."
She pressed the button, and let cloudela out of it's ball.
Cloudela: "Clou...clou.."
Nina: "Come on let's go into the dome."
She led Cloudela out of the room.
Me :"So Pheebles, what do you want to do now?"
Phoebe: "I don't know."
Phoebe :"What's Charley doing?"
Me: "It looks like he's building towers again."
Phoebe: "Oh...ok."
Phoebe :"Hehe."
We layed down on the air matress, and watched him play for a little while. Occasionally he would bring a few blocks over to us, like he wanted us to play blocks as well.
-cutely- Phoebe: "Awe...Charley, you want us to play with you?"
-cutely babling- Charley: "Ralts...walwa ralts."
Me: "Hehe."
Phoebe: "One of these days, he'll learn to speak human, but for now he's still trying to learn gardevoirian."
Phoebe: "Once he feels that he has got that down, he'll be more open to learning other languages."
Me: "Why is that?"
Phoebe :"That's just how a baby ralt's mind works, nobody really knows why, but since he's half human, he may start to learn human even earlier."
Phoebe :"Which is why I think he says wahwa and other nonsensible syllables like that, because he's trying to speak human and gardevoirian at the same time, because he doesn't understand that they're completely different languages."
Phoebe: "But it's ok, he'll learn eventually I'm sure."
Me: "Yeah."
-cutely- Charley:"Wa..."
-playfully- Phoebe :"What are you doing?"
He crawled up to her, and tried to place a block on her head.
Phoebe :"Charley, you silly boy, blocks don't go on my head, they go on the floor."
He kept trying, although she gently shook them off everytime. For some reason Charley found this to be extremely funny, so he kept trying.
Phoebe: "Ok Charley that's enough."
Me: "Hehe, you little goofball."
He didn't stop, he just kept giggling.
Phoebe :"If you don't stop, I'll tickle you."
Charley obviously didn't understand, and kept trying to place blocks on her head, which resulted in Phoebe picking him up and tickling him, making him giggle even more.
Me: "Hehe."
Me: "Go easy on him sweety."
Phoebe:" Awe, but his laugh is so cute."
Even after she stopped tickling him, Charley giggled for quite awhile, his laughter was highly infectious, so before long all of us were laughing.
-trying not to laugh- Me: "Ok, you two have...heheeh...got...to...hehehe...calm...down..."
Phoebe: "I'm trying...it's just...hehe...look at his cute litte fa-hehe-ace."
Phoebe: "Oh Charley I love you."
She pulled him close, as they both started to calm down.
Phoebe: "Come here Cj, hehe, I love you too."
Me: "Hehe..."
Phoebe: "-sighs-..."
Phoebe: "That was fun hehe..."
Me :"Yeah I guess, for a little bit."
Phoebe: "My stomach hurts now..."
Me: "Mine too."
Me: "Let's just settle down for a little bit."
Phoebe: "Ok."
Phoebe: "-sighs-, I think he needs changed."
Phoebe :"I'll go change him real quick."
Me: "Ok."
She kissed me on the cheek, before leaving the room, taking Charley with her.
-meanwhile, Nina's perspective-
I was exploring the dome, with Cloudela, who seemed to hover just out of my reach. I couldn't hover as high as it could. There were a lot of little rooms scattered about, and everything was orange, the floor was orange, the walls were orange, and the ceiling was orange. This made it confusing, because nearly every room looked the same on the outside.
But I went about, exploring, though there wasn't much to explore, most of the sciency guys were gathered around the center, looking at the stuff they took from the base.
I really want to go home, I am bored with this place. I want to go home and watch my tv and play with Matches. But Mommy said we can't go home yet. I don't know why. Ahwell, atleast tonight I would have a whole room to myself, unless Mommy decides to let Charley sleep in my room too, but that's ok, Charley was usually pretty quiet.
Anyway, I was bored, so I went to go see what the scientist were doing, I tried my best to stay out of their way, they looked really busy, writing things down in there notebooks, looking at some of the parts they gathered with microscopes, lazers and all sorts of machines. A few of them were reading the notes they found on the computer.
Cloudela: "Clou Cloudela Clou? (What are all these people doing?)"
Me: "I don't know what they're doing."
Me: "Come on Cloudela let's go."
Cloudela: "Clou Clou? (Where are we going?")"
Me :"We're going to go back to the room."
-concerned- Cloudela: "Cloud...cloudela... (I don't want to go back in my ball yet.)."
Me :"You don't have to go back in yet, you can stay out for a little bit if you want."
Cloudela: "Clou..(ok)."
Me: "Now come on."
I went back to my parent's room, Mommy was gone, only Daddy was there.
Cj: "Hey sweetheart."
Me: "Where did Mommy go?"
Cj: "Oh she just went to change Charley, she should be back in a few minutes."
Me: "Oh...ok."
Me: "What are you doing?"
Cj: "Nothing, just waiting for her to come back."
Me :"Ok..."
Cj: "What are you doing?"
Me: "I went to go see what the scientist were doing, but I didn't understand any of it, then I got bored so I came back here."
Cj :"hehe...ok."
Me: "-sighs-, Daddy, I'm so bored..."
Cj: "Yeah, I know how you feel."
Cj: "Why don't you go try to talk to the scientist, maybe they'll explain what they're doing?"
Me: "But...I don't want to..."
Cj: "Why not?"
Me: "Because they're busy and I don't want to bother them."
Cj:"It won't bother them if you ask nicely...just find one that doesn't look as busy as the others. I'm sure they'll talk to you."
Me: "Um...you think so?"
Cj: "Mhm, why wouldn't they?"
Mommy came up behind me, carrying Charley.
Phoebe: "Back already sweety?"
Me: "No, I'm going to go back to the labs."
Phoebe: "Oh...ok.."
-playfully- Me: "Hi Charley...how are you?"
Phoebe :"Hehe.."
He looked at me, but didn't respond, or babble like he sometimes did.
Phoebe :"He's allright sweety, I think he's just a little tired."
Me: "Oh...ok."
-cheerfully- Phoebe :"Goodbye sweety."
Me: "Goodbye mommy."
I left the room and headed to the center of the dome, back to the little lab the scientist were working in. The room was a little crowded, but Cloudela and I got inside without getting in anyone's way. There was a lot of noise, as the scientists were talking amongst themselves, mostly about very complicated things I didn't understand. Daddy wanted me to talk to them, but I was so nervous, and I didn't want to bother them, so I just hid in the corner and watched them work.
Cloudela :"Clou cloudela clou clou? (You're not going to talk to them?)"
Me: "No...not now,maybe later."
It turned out to be sooner than later as one of the scientist noticed me.
Unknown Scientist :"Aren't you Cj's little girl?"
Me: "Um...yes... and this is Cloudela, Who...who are you?"
Unknown Scientist :"I'm Proffesor Steinway."
Me: "Oh...ok, what are you doing here?"
He seemed to be nice.
Proffesor Steinway: "Nothing really, just indexing the parts, trying to make sure we have them all, or most of them atleast."
Me: "Most of them?"
Proffesor Steinway: "Yeah, I don't think we'll be able to find all the parts, there's just too many missing. I was hoping we would find the explorer to be in better shape, but that just didn't happen."
Me: "So, you work for Melissa?"
Proffesor Steinway: "Well...I work at a university, but Melissa is my supervisor for this expedition."
Me: "Oh...ok."
-nercously- Me: "Um...I'm not bothering you am I?"
Proffesor Steinway:" No... not at all."
Proffesor Steinway: "I don't have that much to do, I just have to put these parts in these boxes, after I've Identifyed them, you can help me if you want."
Me: "Um...ok."
I tried to pick up this little metal plate, it was a lot heavier than I thought it would be, and I almost dropped it, until the proffesor took it out of my hand.
Proffesor Steinway: "Becareful with those, they're a lot heavier than they look."
Me: "Hehe...yeah..."
Profesor Steinway: "There's some smaller stuff on that other table you can carry, all those switches and wires need to go in the same box."
Me: "Ok."
I decided to help him, since there really wasn't anything better to do. All I had to do was place things in boxes and then he would tape them up and label them. It wasn't really hard work, and he never let me move the heavier parts. It kind of felt good to help, and before long most of the parts were boxed up and ready to be sent back to the ship.
Me: "There's no more parts left that I can lift."
-kindly- Proffesor Steinway: "I think that's all you can do for now, thankyou for your help."
-kindly- Me: "Your welcome."
Me: "What's it like working for Devon?"
Proffesor Steinway: "You're parents won't tell you?"
Me: "They just told me I probably wouldn't want to know."
Proffesor Steinway: "Yeah, that's probably wise for them to say that."
Profesor Steinway: "Anyway, I usually don't work for Devon, I'm a profesor at Mossdeep University."
Me: "Well, what's it like working there then?"
Profesor Steinway: "It's allright."
Me: "And how did you get over here from Mossdeep?"
Profesor Steinway: "Airplane of course."
Me: "No I mean, how did you get to go on this mission?"
Profesor Steinway: "Oh...well, Devon Co recruited me, you see at the university I study scientific anomalys, like the wormholes that supposedly brought the explorer to this world, a celebi's time travel ability, manaphy's heartswapping ability, and other things that humans just don't quite understand."
Me: "Oh...ok."
I didn't really know what he was talking about, or what a manaphy was, but I was just glad he was talking to me.
Profesor Steinway: "I also work part time at the Mossdeep Space Museum, which is where they're going to take the Explorer after they take it back to our world."
Me: "Space Museum?"
Profesor Steinway: "Mhm, you should come see it when we get it there, we'll fix it all up and make it look like new."
Me: "I'll see what Mommy and Daddy think."
Profesor Steinway: "Ok."
Profesor Steinway: "You should probably go back to them now, just so they don't worry about you."
Me: "Ok."
Me: "Thankyou doctor."
Profesor Steinway: "It's profesor not doctor."
Me: "Oh...sorry..."
Profesor Steinway: "But you're welcome anyway."
Me :"Friends?"
Profesor Steinway: "What?"
Me: "Are we friends?"
Profesor Steinway: "Sure."
I headed back over to mommy and daddy's room, with Cloudela following me. I was feeling a little proud of myself. Aside from my pokemon I've never had a friend before.
Mommy and daddy were laying on the matress, watching Charley play around on the floor, just like they were earlier.
Mommy: "Hello again sweety."
Me: "Hi.."
Phoebe :"Did you find someone to talk to?"
I guess daddy must have told her about our conversation.
Me: "Mhm."
Phoebe: "Who? What's their name?"
-nervously- Me: "Um...uh..."
Cj: "Honey, just let it go, you're making her more nervous."
Phoebe: "Oh ok."
Phoebe :" As long as they're nice."
Me: "He is nice."
Phoebe: "Oh...so it's a guy?"
Me: "Um...yeah, but he's alot older than me, so don't go thinking that we're in love or anything."
Phoebe: "Hehe, I wasn't sweety."
Me: "Good..."
Me: "Did Melissa come back yet?"
Phoebe: "Not that I know of."
Phoebe: "She'll probably be on the ship until tomorrow atleast."
Phoebe: "Cloudela, you want to play with Charley? I don't think he'll be afraid of you."
Cloudela: "Clou...cloudela (Sure, why not)?"
Cj: "When do you think they'll come back?"
Phoebe: "I don't know, but I feel stronger everyday, so hopefully it will be soon."
Charley crawled up to them, holding one of his blocks.
-playfully- Cj: "Hey little guy."
-playfully- Phoebe: "Hehe...did you come to see us?"
-playfully- Phoebe: "Or are you going to try to put blocks on my head again?"
-playfully- Phoebe: "You silly little guy."
Charley was acting really cute today, even in this small room, there was still plenty of space for his tiny self to play around.
Me: "Mommy?"
Phoebe: "What?"
Me: "After this can we go to the Mossdeep Space Museum?"
Phoebe: "I don't know, we were kind of planning on heading to the Sinnoh region remember?"
Phoebe :"We might go someday, don't worry."
Me:" OK."
Phoebe :"What brought this up? Your new friend?"
Me: "Um...yeah...he works there..."
Phoebe: "Oh ok..."
Phoebe: "We'll see...right Cj?"
Cj: "Yeah, of course."
Phoebe: "As for now, Nina, I have something for you..."
Me: "What?"
Phoebe: "Well I brought you my old Ds, I forgot I had it in my purse, so you could play with it if you're bored."
Phoebe: "So here you go, now you can play pokemon if you want."
-cutely- Me: "Awe...thanks Mommy."
Phoebe: "I'm not sure if the batterys are any good though."
She handed me her Ds, and I turned it on, the light was green, so it seemed like the batterys were ok.
Me: "Can I lay down?"
Phoebe: "You'll have to go to your room sweety, there's no more room left in here."
Me: "Ok."
I went to my room and started playing pokemon, starting over from scratch, I picked Chikorita as my starter. As it had quickly become my favorite pokemon to start with. Cloudela stayed behind to play with Charley in my parent's room, so I had the whole room to myself, until Mommy came in.
Phoebe: "Nina, do you still have Cloudela's pokeball?"
Me: "Oh...sorry mom, here you go."
I handed it to her.
Phoebe: "Thankyou."
Phoebe: "Aren't you lonely in here by yourself?"
Me: "Um...maybe a little bit."
Phoebe:" Awe...well, if you want I could stay here with you and we could play pokemon together."
Me: "But then won't Daddy miss you?"
Phoebe: "He'll understand, on one condition."
Me: "What? Why is there a condition?"
I didn't really ask her to join me, but I wanted her to spend time with me.
Phoebe: "Well it's not really a condition it's more of...well..this is just how it's going to be."
Me: "Huh...well then what?"
Phoebe :"Nothing too horrible sweety, I just want Charley to sleep in here tonight, so your father and I can be alone."
Me: "But what if he starts crying and I can't get him to stop?"
Phoebe: "If he starts crying I'll come in to calm him down, don't worry I'll hear him, we'll just be a few feet away."
Me:"-sighs- ok."
Phoebe: "Thankyou sweety, now, I'll be right back ok?"
Me: "Ok."
She left for just a minute or so and came back, probably to give Cloudela's pokeball to daddy.
Phoebe: "Allright sweety move over."
Phoebe :"Did you start a new game?"
Me: "Mhm."
Phoebe: "Ok..."
Phoebe: "What pokemon did you start with?"
Me: "Chikorita."
Phoebe :"Oh...ok."
Me: "And now I'm at the part where I have to name my rival."
Phoebe: "Whatcha going to name him?"
Me: "Um...loser...hehehe."
Phoebe: "Nina don't be so mean."
Me: "Why? He's not real.."
Phoebe: "I know, but still."
I named him loser anyway.
Me: "Hehe...now when he fights me again it will say loser wants to battle..."
Phoebe: "Yeah yeah..."
Me: "And he has a cyndaquil."
Phoebe: "Mhm."
-a few minutes later-
I had just made it to Violet city, and was climbing my way up the Sprout Tower, defeating all the old guys and their silly bellsprouts with my chikorita, and a recently captured pidgey.
Me: "Why are there so many bellsprouts?"
Phoebe :"Because sweety, it's the sprout tower."
Me: "Oh look, a gastly."
Phoebe: "Are you going to catch it?"
Me: "I don't have any more pokeballs, I ran out."
Phoebe: "Oh...ok."
Phoebe: "You don't want that gastly anyway."
Me: "Why not?"
-playfully- Phoebe: "Some gastly can be very mean."
Me: "What if this one is a nice gastly?"
Phoebe: "Well...we don't know that..."
Phoebe: "So it's best to stay away from them."
Me: "What about my old mommy?"
Phoebe :"Well Nina, that was different."
Phoebe: "There are nice gastlys out there sweety, it's just that there is a lot of bad ones too, so it's best to avoid them so you don't get hurt."
-mischeivously- Me: "Can I kick it's butt?"
Phoebe: "Hehe...go ahead, you need the experience."
Me: "Here goes."
-a few minutes later-
I easilly defeated the gastly and finished fighting through the sprout tower, my Chikorita was at about level 12 and my Pidgey was at level 8, I left the city to try to do some training against the wild pokemon, in preparation for my battle against the first gym leader.
Phoebe :"You better get them levelled up pretty good, the first gym leader uses flying type pokemon."
Me: "I know."
Phoebe: "You might want to catch a rattata or a sentret too, that might give you a better chance."
Me: "I don't have any pokeballs."
Phoebe: "Well go back to the store and buy some."
Me: "Ok."
After buying a few pokeballs with the meager amount of money I won from the tower, I headed back out into the grass, and soon I was in a battle against a wild bellsprout, after I had just defeated several trained ones.
Me: "Awe...it's a silly bellsprout."
Phoebe: "Catch it."
Me: "Why?"
Phoebe: "Because, if nothing else it gives you another pokemon to fight with."
Me: "Ok."
I caught the bellsprout and later I caught a rattata too, after defeating several more bellsprout with my pidgey, who was now level 10.
I went to the pokemon center and got my pokemon healed, before heading back out to train my new pokemon.
Me: "Mommy?"
Phoebe: "Mhm?"
Me: "What's your favourite pokemon...besides gardevoirs?"
Phoebe: "I don't know."
Phoebe: "I don't really like ghost types that much, because most of them are evil, but aside from that I can't choose one over the other, they're all special."
Phoebe :"How about you? "
Me: "I like growlithes."
Phoebe: "Hehe, I thought you'd say that."
Me: "Can I find one in this game?"
Phoebe: "Um...not till later on."
Me: "Awe...ok."
Phoebe: "Much later on..."
Me: "-sighs-."
Phoebe: "Oh cheer up sweety, you have a real growlithe..."
Phoebe: "And when we get home I bet he'll want to play with you."
Me: "I miss him."
Phoebe: "It's ok, we'll be home soon."
Me: "I want a chikorita too."
Me: "One that will follow me around like in this game."
Phoebe: "Hehe...those are kind of rare sweety, we'll have to see if we can find one, they only live in the deepest parts of the forrests, where there's a lot more larger, scarier pokemon to look out for."
Me: "Like what?"
Phoebe: "Oh...Victreebels, pinsirs, heracross, scythers, houndooms, arboks, just to name a few."
Me: "What about vileplumes?"
Phoebe: "They live there too, but they're usually very kind pokemon."
Me: "Why do the little chikoritas live around all these dangerous pokemon?"
Phoebe: "The big pokemon don't bother them much, the leaf on their head releases a smell that has a calming effect on them, so they're pretty safe."
Me: "Oh...ok."
Phoebe: "Where are you going now?"
Me: "To the gym, I want to see if I can beat the leader now."
Phoebe: "Ok."
Just then Cloudela came into the room, somehow managing to slip through the little gap between the wall and the floor.
Cloudela: "Clou...Cloudela Clou (dinner is going to be soon.)"
-confused- Phoebe: "Hmm?"
-confused- Me: "Huh?"
Cloudela: "Cloudela...clou clou cloudel...dela cloud (man master told me to tell you that.)"
Phoebe: "Oh you mean Cj?"
Cloudela: "Clou (yes)."
Phoebe: "Ok."
Phoebe: " Ok Nina save the game, let's go see what your father and Charley are doing."
Me: "Ok."
We went over to the other room. Cloudela followed us. When we got there, Daddy was holding Charley, preparing to get up and leave.
Phoebe: "When's dinner going to be?"
Cj: "One of the scientists just said that they'll be serving dinner in a little bit, over by the kitchen."
Phoebe: "Oh...ok..."
-playfully- Phoebe: "How's my little baby boy?"
-cutely babling- Charley: "Wa wa ga...ralts."
Phoebe: "hehe."
-cutely- Phoebe: "Can I hold him?"
Cj: "Of course you can baby girl."
Phoebe: "Hehe, come here Charley."
Daddy carefully handed him to her. Charley was in a very good mood, as usual.
-playfully- Phoebe: "Were you having a good time with daddy?"
-cutely- Charley: "Ralts..."
-playfully- Phoebe: "Hehe, good."
Phoebe:"So should we go over to the kitchen?"
Cj: "We might as well, before there's a line."
Phoebe: "Yeah I guess so."
We headed over to the kitchen, there were several plates of food set out on a table just outside, as well as some paper trays.
Me: "What do they have?"
Cj: "Looks like the usual, tauros burgers and what not."
Me: "Oh...ok."
We went over and got some food to eat. There were no tables or chairs to sit at, so we ended up sitting down right outside of my parent's room to eat. It was kind of awkward, as mommy and daddy frequently had to get up to keep Charley from wandering off. As usual, after mommy finished eating she picked Charley up and tried to feed him some of his baby food. But once again Charley was reluctant to eat, he seemed like he wanted to play instead.
Phoebe :"Come on Charley, you have to eat, it's good for you."
After struggling with him for a little bit, she finally got him to eat.
Phoebe: "There you go, see? It's not bad."
Phoebe: "Now take another bite sweety."
Daddy and I finished our dinner a few minutes later. Watching mommy trying to feed Charley looked very cute to me. Actually, everything Charley did was cute.
After dinner, I went back to my room to play pokemon, Mommy joined me a bit later after playing with Charley and Cloudela for a few minutes.
Me: "Hi mommy."
Phoebe: "Hey sweety, playing pokemon again?"
Me: "Mhm."
Phoebe: "-sighs-, Maybe we can make our room bigger, so we can all be together."
Phoebe: "But I don't know if they'll let us use any more of the wall parts that we need."
Me: "It's ok."
Phoebe: "Yeah I guess so, I don't think we'll be staying here very long."
-a few moments later-
Me:"Mommy?"
Phoebe: "Yes?"
Me :"What do you think Charley will be like, when he grows up?"
Phoebe: "Oh...I don't know, but hopefully he'll be brave and strong like your father, and he'll understand the importance of love and kindness, and hopefully he won't be so shy like your father is sometimes."
Me:"Daddy is shy?"
Phoebe: "Of course, didn't you notice? He doesn't really talk to anyone besides you, me, and your grandparents. He's kind of like you, in that way."
Me: "I didn't know."
Phoebe: "Now...where are you on your game?"
Me: "I just beat all the gym trainers, and now I'm about to fight the leader."
Phoebe: "Ok."
Phoebe :"Do you think you can beat him?"
Me: "Mhm."
Phoebe: "Well go ahead, let's see."
I went up to challenge the gym leader, the battle was fairly easy, I was able to defeat him without losing a single pokemon, and just like that I got the first badge in the game.
-after defeating the gym leader-
Phoebe :"That looked easy."
Me: "It was."
Me: "Now I have to go get this pokemon egg."
Phoebe: "Mhm..."
Phoebe: "It hatches into a togepi remember?"
Me: "Yep, if I train it I might evolve it into a togekiss."
Phoebe: "If you can find a shiny stone."
Me: "Mhm."
I went to go get the egg, then left the town, and battled a trainer who spotted me.
Phoebe :"Well Nina it's getting late."
Me: "I know."
Phoebe: "I need to get Charley ready for bed."
Me: "Can you bring him in here?"
Phoebe: "Of course, I'll be right back."
Me: "Ok."
I continued to play while mommy left to get Charley, she also returned Cloudela for the night, as I heard the familiar sound of a pokeball opening. I beat a few more trainers I found before she came back in with Charley, who seemed to be half asleep already.
-playfully- Me:"Awe...Hi Charley, you look tired."
Phoebe: "Mhm, he is."
-overwhelmed by his cuteness- Me: "hehehe awwwwwe.."
Me: "He's such a cutey."
Phoebe: "Hehe...yeah.."
Phoebe: "Remember, you're his big sister, so you have to protect him when we can't."
Me: "I know."
She checked his diaper to make sure it was still clean and then she slipped him into his coat, so he would be warm, he cried a little bit, possibly just because he was tired, or because he still didn't like his coat.
-playfully- Phoebe: "Hehe, silly little boy, you've been playing all day, no wonder you're so tired."
She comforted him until he quieted down.
-calmly- Phoebe: "Shhh...there we go, mama loves you."
She kissed him before setting him down in the corner of the room.
-quietly- Phoebe: "Ok Nina, you can still play your game, but no sound, and keep quiet so Charley can sleep."
-quietly- Me: "Where are you going?"
-quietly- Phoebe: "I'm going to go back to my room."
Me: "Oh...ok."
She softly kissed me on the cheek before leaving the room.
Phoebe: "Good night sweety."
Me:" Goodnight."
-Cj's perspective-
I was in the room, by myself, picking up Charley's blocks which were now scattered all over what little floor space there was. Phoebe came in just a bit later.
Me: "So he's sleeping in Nina's room tonight?"
Phoebe: "Mhm."
Me: "Ok."
I finished picking up Charley's toys.
-quietly- Phoebe: "So...um...why don't we roll around on the bed for the next few minutes?"
-quietly- Me: "Hehe...-sighs- ...Pheebles."
-quietly- Me: "You crazy girl."
-naughtilly-Phoebe: "I'm your crazy girl."
-quietly- Me: "I know."
I sat down on the mattress, and she sat next to me, carefully taking off her shoes.
-quietly- Phoebe: "Or you know we could just talk or something..."
-quietly- Me: "What do you want?"
-quietly- Phoebe: "I think you know."
-quietly- Me: "Hehe..."
-quietly- Phoebe :"But we have to stay really quiet because Nina is still up.
She kissed me, and before long we started to make out.
-quietly- Phoebe: "-sighs-, this is so much better than last night on the ship."
-quietly- Me: "mhm."
-quietly- Phoebe: "And we haven't even taken our clothes off yet."
-quietly- Me: "-sighs-...yep."
-concerned- Phoebe: "Is something wrong?"
Me: "I just...I just don't really feel it tonight honey."
Phoebe :"Awe...why not?"
Me: "-sighs- I don't know, I'm just tired, and if Nina's still awake, you know she has good hearing."
-a little let down- Phoebe :"Awe, but I set this up just for you."
Me: "I'll make it up to you I promise."
Phoebe: "Oh...Cj...it's allright, I've said that way more than you have..."
Me: "Awe..."
Phoebe: "As long as we can still snuggle."
Me: "Of course."
I kissed her on the cheek as I wrapped my arms around her.
Me: "I love you."
Phoebe: "I love you too."
Me: "Goodnight my queen."
-cutely- Phoebe: "Awe...hehe,goodnight my king..."
We kissed eachother goodnight,and fell asleep a sometime later. We didn't know what the morning would bring, whether they would finally retrieve the Explorer, or if they would spend another day trying to figure out how to get it out of the base. There was also no sign of the supposed Mewtwo anywhere, so hopefully we wouldn't have to deal with him.
