Episode 25\Her secret

We woke up at about 10:00am japanese time. The jet lag was starting to wear off. Still didn't have any electricity. It was a cold night without any heating, and the thin walls of this old house didn't help very much. I honestly considered using Hellblade to blow fire through the vents, and would've if I wasn't concerned about accidently setting the house on fire. Thin walls are better then no walls. We both struggled to get any sleep that night. When we woke up, it was snowing, in stark contrast to the overly sunny desert we were used to. It was cold outside, not like Lycomming, but cold none the less. Despite the somewhat inclement weather, we heard a knock at the door. It was a lone lucario. It could speak, but only in japanese, so obviously Phoebe had to do the talking once more.

-tired- Phoebe: "She says her name is Rio..."

-tired- Me: "It's a she?"

-tired- Phoebe: "mhm."

-tired- Phoebe: "She's just looking for somewhere to stay for awhile..."

-tired- Me: " What happened to her trainer?"

-tired- Phoebe: "She says her trainer was very young, and was afraid of her, so she ran away."

-tired- Me: "Ok..."

-tired- Phoebe: "She said she's been traveling for hours...looking for a place to stay."

Me: "Could be a bad indication...that there isn't anything north of here for awhile."

-tired- Phoebe: "Cj..she doesn't have a car you know, she probably just walked all this way.."

-tired- Me: "Yeah but lucarios are supposed to move pretty fast."

-tired- Phoebe: "Yeah I know but still."

-tired- Me: "She can stay here, we were just leaving anyway."

-concerned- Phoebe: "Not in this weather Cj...it's bound to get worse..."

-concerned- Me: "Are you serious?"

-confidently- Phoebe: "I can sense it."

Me: "Dam, so we're stuck here?"

Phoebe: "Unless you want to hurry back to Nagoya, going further north is suicide."

Me: "Dam."

I never thought I'd be caught in a snowstorm in Japan, but here it was. The skyline just didn't have the ground clearance or off-road ability of my truck, it could get stuck in the snow quite easily, even though it was all wheel drive. Its body kit, while cool looking, wasn't going to help it much in this regard.

Phoebe: "She wants to know if there is a problem.."

Me: "Um...no, but honey, I don't think we should stay here... there's no heating, no electricity."

Phoebe: "Then let's just go back to Nagoya then, it's only a few hours away."

Me: "There was another house a few miles back, perhaps it has a generator?"

Phoebe: "Yeah I guess we could go there as well."

So we hit the road, I was driving slow, these roads were very dangerous, with many twist and turns up and down this mountainous region, I drove carefully trying not to drive the skyline off the edge of a cliff. 20 minutes later, when we arrived at that other house I mentioned, it was starting to snow a little thicker then it was before. We quickly went inside searching for a generator, just something to provide us with heat. Well, this house had a small stove, and some firewood. I used Hellblade to light the fire. We had heat, we still didn't have any electricity. That lucario followed us, and knocked on our door about an hour later, shivering from the cold. We let her in, what else were we supposed to do? We all sat there, in front of that stove, occasionally stoking the fire with additional wood we found piled up outside. We were deep in the mountains, no one else was around, who the hell knew where Gengar was. I doubt the snow affected him much, he probably just kept on going forward to Tokyo, or maybe he even stayed in Nagoya. Anyway this weather was causing us to lag behind. Rio said something, Phoebe translated.

Phoebe: "She says thanks for letting her in."

Me: "Uh...no problem?"

Me: "Hey um Phoebe? How long do you think this storm will last?"

Phoebe: "I don't know Cj...I just don't know."

There was some fish in the freezer of the house, kept good by the naturaly cold climate. We roasted them on the fire, I hate seafood, but I was hungry, we all were. I don't know why, but none of my other pokemon were ever hungry. I guess its because they stayed in their balls all the time, while Phoebe, as my wife, no longer even had a ball to stay in. The balls must of kept them nourished somehow, ah well, she wasn't hard to cook for. As long as we were together, she seemed to be content with whatever we had. She was so understanding, so forgiving, so beautiful, not just on the outside, but on the inside as well. So we sat there, in front of the fire, we didn't have much to do, so I went outside and brought the two DSs we had, and we just sat there and played, I played Black 2, while Phoebe played platinum, Rio just sat there, in front of the fire, contemplating something. Outside, the snow kept falling, giving little clue as to when it would stop, and when we could continue on our journey. We had no more food left, there was a bottle of something in the fridge, Phoebe read the labels.

Phoebe: "It says its alcoholic."

Me: "Really?"

I don't drink, I don 't even like the taste of alcohol. I was 19, so I was underaged anyway, weird how it was legal for me to be married, but still illegal for me drink. As for her, she was like 2,3 maybe, but she was a pokemon, she didn't really age, but according to Gengar, her soul was atleast 2 or 3 years old, since I caught her as a ralts about that long ago . And of course, alchoholic beverages were'nt available in the games, so that led her to ask this.

Phoebe: "What does that mean?"

Me: "Means if you drink to much of it you go crazy for a little while."

Phoebe: "How crazy, and for how long?"

Me: "I guess it depends on how much you drink."

She grabbed the bottle. And raised it into the air.

Phoebe: "Do we really have anything else to do Cj?"

Me: "Honey, I'm sorry, but your probably crazy enough without that stuff."

-somewhat angered- Phoebe: "What did you just say?"

-concerned- Me: "I wouldn't drink that..."

She pretty much ignored me,opened the bottle and took a drink.

Me: "Honey? What the hell?"

-intoxicated- Phoebe: "Cj..you gotta try this stuff...its pretty good."

Then Rio walked over to us. I took a drink, thinking, what the hell, if she wants to get drunk, I might as well to. Rio, not having any more sense the either of us, took a drink as well, we had several unintelligible conversations, and then the next few hours, were just a blur. I woke up, I had a headache, we were naked, all 3 of us, in front of the fire. To this day, I don't know what the hell was in that bottle, but I'm fairly sure I don't want to find out. It finally stopped snowing outside. Phoebe was up as well, our drunken stupor had worn off.

Me: "What the hell?"

Phoebe: "Crap, Cj did you...have sex with her?"

Me: "I don't know, I don't remember."

Phoebe: "Well, you're facing her not me, so, I could only assume."

Me: "Your the one that wanted to drink that stuff."

Me: "Look it stopped snowing outside, let's just get out of here before she wakes up."

Fortunately, even though Me and Phoebe woke up, Rio was still asleep. We got up, got our clothes back on, and left her there, alone once again. We drove down those twisted mountain roads, unsure of what to expect, we used Hellblade to melt the snow infront of us. We were making about 20mph on average.

Phoebe: "Cj..."

Me: "Yeah."

Phoebe: "Do you think you had sex with her?"

Me: "I don't know, it wasn't really my fault, I was just following your lead."

Phoebe: "No more alcohol ok?"

She didn't need to tell me that.

Me: "Yeah, I know."

We kept going northwards, towards Tokyo.

Me: "I'm sorry honey."

Phoebe: "No Cj...it's my fault, I shouldn't of been so impulsive."

Me: "Look the storms over, let's just get the hell out of here and pretend that never happened."

Phoebe: "Pretend...how are we supposed to pretend?... I saw you lying on the floor naked, with a lucario, and with me, also naked, lying next to you, but you were facing her not me, so you probably fucked her, thinking she was me, and she just accepted it."

-sadly- Phoebe: "And it's all my fault."

Me: "Honey, calm down, you messed up, we're still together, I still love you, It's not sex if I don't even remember it."

Phoebe: "And you remember every time we've had sex?"

Me: "Ofcourse...everyone better then the last."

-cutely- Phoebe: "Oh...Cj"

Phoebe: "I love you."

Me: "I love you too."

We kissed, but we kept going up the mountain, around those twist and turns. Nothing was up here, it was a long, slow drive, until finally we got back down. It would have been fun to drift down that mountain road, but, not in this weather. After driving for hours, we finally got out of the mountains, and it was starting to get dark. We found yet another house to stay in for the night, this one had a generator, we finally found a house with electricity. We both took showers, because we couldn't this morning, and got ready for bed.

Me: "Weird day huh?"

Phoebe: "What do you meen?"

Me: "No fighting."

Phoebe: "Yeah, but you had sex with a lucario!"

Me: "Does that make it any less weird?"

Phoebe: "No not really."

Me:"We made a mistake honey, you were in on it too."

Phoebe: "I know, but it's hard for me to see you with anyone else Cj."

Me: "We were together, you, me, and her."

Me: "Honey, I love you, and its not like I made the concious decision to have sex with her, hell I don't even remember if I had sex with her. Was she even naked?"

Phoebe: "Cj, lucarios don't have clothes."

Me: "But still, Honey, I warned you not to drink, and look what happened."

Phoebe: "I know, I'm never doing that again."

Me: "Me neither, I promise."

Phoebe: "I just hope we don't run into Rio again."

Me: "With our luck we probably will."

Phoebe: "Do you think she remembers what happened?"

Me: "I hope not."

Me: "Last thing we need to fight is a jealous lucario."

-slightly angry- Phoebe: "What makes you think she's jealous? You don't even remember if you fucked her or not."

Me: "Oh calm down baby, its just you and me, and that's it, no one else, understand?"

Phoebe: "Ok..."

Me: "I think it's the calm before the storm, expect some hard fights tomarrow."

Phoebe: "Oh Cj... I don't know, I can't predict the future."

Me: "Really?"

Phoebe: "Some gardevoirs can, others can read minds, you already know which kind I am."

Me: "Yeah, you're right."

Phoebe: "If I couldn't read your mind Cj, to be honest, I probably wouldn't of fallen in love with you."

Phoebe: "But I can see your pain, I can understand that you truly love me, that even though you are so dark on the outside, you are soft on the inside, and that is the part of you that I fell in love with."

Me: "Honey...I"

-crying out of joy- Phoebe: "I love you Cj, and I always will..."

Me: "Promise me we can be together forever."

-crying out of joy- Phoebe: "Why would I ever want to leave you?"

We hugged...we were already in bed, and fell asleep soon after. It was a pretty boring day. I guess both of us were hoping that what happened in the japanese mountains, stayed in the japanese mountains. Anyway the next day came. We did what we usually did every morning, took showers, I made whatever I could find for breakfast, and then, Rio showed up at our door again.

Me: "See honey, told ya."

Phoebe: "Yeah whatever, what does she want this time?"

Phoebe: "She doesn't understand why we left her."

Me: "Uh huh, and?"

Phoebe: "She was just hoping that you would be willing to be her trainer."

Me: "Does she remember anything that happened after we took that drink yesterday?"

Phoebe: "No... besides waking up and realizing we left."

Me: "So no one remembers?"

Phoebe: "Nope."

Me: "Ok then."

Phoebe: "So are you going to let her be your pokemon or not?"

Me: "Honestly I think she'd be better off if you were her trainer."

Phoebe: "What why?"

Me: "Because I don't know japanese, she doesn't know english, you know both."

Phoebe: "Ok."

Phoebe: "She said she's ok with me as her trainer."

Me: "But how do you feel?"

Phoebe: "Ok I guess."

Rio handed Phoebe a pokeball, which we could only asume was hers. Phoebe returned her, and a few minutes later, we all left. Something was off with Phoebe however, she seemed like she was trying to hide something.

Me: "What's wrong honey?"

-almost defensively- Phoebe: "What, what are you talking about?"

Me: "Something's up, you seem worried."

Phoebe: "Cj..."

Me: "What, are you pregnant?"

Phoebe: "No!"

Phoebe: "It's just..."

Phoebe: "Cj..."

I stopped the car.

Phoebe: "I need to tell you something."

Me: "What?"

Phoebe: "But I don't know if you'll still love me if I tell you."

Me: "You might as well come out with it, if its really that important, you can't keep it a secret forever."

Phoebe: "Your right."

Me: "So go on..."

Phoebe: "Just promise we can still be together after this."

Me: "Of course honey, it would take a hell of a lot for me to stop loving you."

-nervously- Phoebe: " Remember that night you were having that conversation with Gengar? and he told you all about that experiment and the originals and stuff."

Me: "And the next day you tried to kill yourself?'

Phoebe: "Yeah...that."

Phoebe: "He was lying...I was lying, both of us were lying."

-cynical- Me: "About what?"

Phoebe: "Cj...I can't keep it a secret any longer."

Me: "Yeah?"

Phoebe: "I'm the original ralts."

Me: "What?"

Phoebe: "Yes Cj, I'm the original..."

-confused- Me: "Thats it?"

Phoebe: "No...there's more."

Me: "Keep talking missy."

Phoebe: "They kidnapped my parents, and forced me to join the experiment, as a ralts, I was assigned to your specific rom of platinum, they told me, that as a psychic type, that my job was to find a way to contact your world, and if possible, find a way, to enter your world."

Me: "And you did that, so whats the problem?"

Phoebe: " You captured me, and you trained me until I finally evolved into a gardevoir, then I found out how to contact you, before any other psychic type could contact their trainers, besides that alakazam."

Me: "You meen the one that died of old age..."

Phoebe: "That's not why he died, the scientist, they killed him after he told them how to contact this world, and they used that to create the games, and the experiment, some like gengar volunteered, and I was forced to."

Me: "And..."

Phoebe: "Establishing contact with this world, wasn't the main goal of the experiment."

Me: "So what was?"

-crying- Phoebe: "They were going to try to take over this world, and use it for additional resources, but your world was better protected than they first thought, that and they couldn't control the non original pokemon, who remained loyal to those who trained them in the game. The originals, they were told to kill their trainers, I disobeyed, I couldn't kill you Cj, I fell in love with you, and because of that, they killed my parents instead."

Phoebe: "But I opened the window, I let them through, knowing exactly what would happen."

-crying- Phoebe: "I'm sorry, that day after, why I wanted to kill myself, that was really because I couldn't get over the fact that I killed my parents, just so I could have you. But you loved me too, and then you told me you couldn't live without me, I love you Cj, please forgive me."

Me: "What is there to forgive? You've done nothing wrong, they forced you into it."

-crying- Phoebe: "Most of the originals who did follow orders are dead, some of them are still trapped in the game, and then there is gengar, the rogues, the national guard, the japanese military, power crazed trainers with thousands of generated pokemon, they all hate me Cj."

Me: "I don't hate you honey, most people don't even know what the "originals" are, and now none of them besides me actually know what you went through. What you just said, it doesn't change things in the least, we are still going to keep fighting, and we are still going to redeem ourselves."

Phoebe: "I'm just, I'm sorry I dragged you into this."

Me: "Honey, don't be so sorry, I needed this, I needed you, and now that your mine, I'm not letting you go, and I don't care if I have to walkthrough liquid hellfire to keep you, I'm not letting you go, you are mine, and I am yours, and God dammit, we're still in this."

Phoebe: "Thanks Cj...thankyou..."

I hugged her.

Me: "I told you, it would take a hell of alot to make me stop loving you, and this, isn't even anywhere close to that."

Me: "Now come on, we have to put an end to Gengar once and for all."

Phoebe: "Cj...?"

Me: "Yes?"

Phoebe: "None of what I just said was true."

Me: "Then why did you say it?"

Phoebe: "I just, wanted to see if you really loved me as much as you said you did."

Me: "Well that's not really fair."

Me: "How am I supposed to know, if you love me as much as you say you do?"

Phoebe: "Because, I let you tie with me."

Me: "What?"

Phoebe: "A female gardevoir will only tie with the one she loves the most."

Me: "Ok..."

Me: "How do you know that?"

Phoebe: "Memory imprints from the original ralts."

Me: "So your not an original?"

Phoebe: "No...I'm not."

Me: "Ok then...let's just get going."

Phoebe: "Ok..."

After another few hours of uneventful and slow driving, we finally made it to Tokyo, to discover that Gengar had been busy since our last encounter. The outskirts of the city were guarded by rogue pokemon of all kinds... aggrons, flygons, salamences, dragonites, and even a few groudons, though not as large as the one we encountered in the desert. We stopped at a house, a few miles outside the city, I parked the car in its garage, we were trying to stay out of sight, to not let the gigantic pokemon notice us. We could here the flygons buzz loudly as we entered the house where we would quietly plan our next move. It was only logical to assume that we hadn't encountered any other pokemon, besides Rio, because Gengar had drawn them all to Tokyo somehow. Meaning that only a huge fight could be underway.

Me: "So what do you want to do?"

Phoebe: "Go in there, start fighting, and win..."

Me: "Yeah but, should we go in today? Or wait till tomarrow when we'll have more daylight?"

Phoebe: "I don't know."

Me: "I mean it's gengar, if we get stuck there when it gets dark, and he starts sending more ghost types against us, it could get ugly."

Phoebe: "Like it wasn't going to already."

Me: "Damn those groudons, I wish I still had Bubba."

Phoebe: "Well you don't."

Me :" I know he's dead, but we need some water types."

Phoebe: "Cj, Bubba, was..."

Me :"Was what?"

Phoebe: "Its time you know again how he died."

She placed her hand on my head, removing the wall she set up in my mind, I remembered how Bubba died. I was shocked for a few seconds, but I snapped out of it.

Phoebe: "Are you going to be ok?"

Me: "I'm sorry, but what?"

Phoebe: "Are you ok?"

Me:"Yeah I'm fine."

Phoebe: "When he died you were crying."

Me: "I guess since I still knew he was dead, I just got over it."

Phoebe: "Really?"

Me: "Yeah.."

Phoebe: "Weird."

Me: "Well, how far are you on platinum?"

Phoebe: "Um...I'm passed the 8th gym, the elite four is really hard."

Wow, and she played the game for what? 10 hours?

Phoebe: "Why?"

Me: "We may need to transfer some water types."

Phoebe: "Thats not going to happen Cj...I still need to beat the elite four."

Me: "Well come'on, you got through the game that fast."

She picked up her ds and turned it on.

Me: "Well come on, let me see."

I grabbed her Ds.

Phoebe: "Wait no...Cj, don't look."

Me: "Oh cmon, what are you hiding?"

Her team...lvl 52 machoke (male), lvl 57 gallade (Male), lvl 59 gardevoir (Male), lvl56 Infernape, lvl 50 mesprit, lvl 56 Electabuzz (Male).

Me: "Good god, honey, is this some kind of joke?"

I gave her back the Ds.

Phoebe: "No its my team..."

I laughed a little bit.

Phoebe: "How is this funny?"

Me: "You."

Phoebe: "What, your not mad?"

Me: "No, I just find it hilarious actually."

Phoebe: "-sighs- Ohhh Cj..."

Me: "You know we're not transfering them though right?"

Phoebe: "I know..."

Me: "No wonder you're losing. The first elite four member uses bug types, three of your pokemon are weak to bug, and only one is super effective."

Phoebe: "What do you mean?"

Me: "Your "team" is completely unbalanced."

Phoebe: "Well, I have some others..."

Me: "Like what?"

Phoebe: "Another male gardevoir, a staraptor, and a bibarel, and three female gardevoirs"

Me: "That doesn't help much."

Me: "I'd lose mesprit, since its another psychic type, and your weakest link."

Me: "Teach earthquake to your Infernape, and lose machoke as well since it doesn't really help you much."

Me: "On the first guy, put infernape at the front, since bug types are weak to fire. exchange mesprit for staraptor, and try using a gyarados instead of machoke."

Phoebe: "I don't have a gyarados."

Me: "Well, get one honey, its not too hard to get."

Phoebe: "Ok..."

Me: "And honey, I know you are a gardevoir, but seriously, what do you need 5 gardevoirs for? That's just ridiculous."

Phoebe:"I don't know, its just, they're so familiar I guess, its like I'm playing as myself."

Me: "Whatever, if you didn't spend so much time raising all those gardevoirs, you could have raised a stronger team."

Phoebe: "I know."

Me: "Then why?"

Phoebe: "I didn't think the elite four would have a trainer that exclusively used bug types."

Me: "So you were originally trying to beat the game with an entire team of gardevoirs?"

Phoebe: "mhm, plus my starter infernape."

I laughed again, that was just too funny. You'd think a pokemon would know more about pokemon, nope. Ah well, she was trying, although I think she may have gotten a little distracted. And so she set about playing, I got bored about 20 minutes later. I decided to see if this house had a generator.

Phoebe: "Where are you going Cj?"

Me: "To see if this house has a generator."

Phoebe: " Thats probably not the best idea, what if attracts some of those pokemon in Tokyo? They'll find out we're here."

Me: "Right..."

Phoebe: "What? Are you bored?"

Me: " -sighs- Yeah, you get a gyarados yet?"

Phoebe: "No..it's just a magicarp, I hate magicarps, can't do anything but splash around."

She now had a lvl5 magicarp in her party instead of that machoke.

Me: "Run against the elite four, send it out first, then switch it with infernape."

Phoebe: "No Cj, I'll lose again."

Me: "So? It will make magicarp evolve faster."

Phoebe: "Ok fine."

5 minutes later.

Phoebe: "There I lost happy?"

Me: "What level is it now?"

Phoebe: "17"

Me: "Do you have any rare candies?"

Phoebe: "No I fed them all to my gardevoirs."

-disapointed- Me: "Perfect..."

Me: "Well then go rebattle someone until it evolves."

10 minutes later, I actually fell asleep, on the couch.

Phoebe: "Cj it evolved!"

Me: "Huh, wha? Oh...good."

Phoebe: " Now what?"

Me: "Level it up silly you know that."

Phoebe: "Oh yeah..."

She kept playing, I got bored so I started playing black 2, I was trying to beat the black tower. An hour later, I got bored with black 2, but she kept playing platinum, wow, she had one heck of an attention span. Anyway, I wondered around the house, looking for something to do. I couldn't let my pokemon out, as they could alert the guard pokemon in Tokyo which was just a few miles down the highway. With not much else to do, I layed down in bed and fell asleep, only to be woken up by Phoebe 2 hours later. I opened my eyes, she was standing over me.

Phoebe: "I did it Cj, I beat them."

-tired- Me: "Ok?"

Phoebe:"Thats all you have to say?"

Me:"Um? Good job?"

Phoebe: "Ok I guess that works."

Phoebe: "Um Cj?"

Me: "Yeah?"

Phoebe: "Its like 8:00pm now."

Me: "What?"

I guess I was asleep longer then I thought I was. Not to mention we still didn't have a solid plan for what we were going to do tomorrow.

Me: "Well then obviously our attack has been scheduled for tomarrow."

Phoebe: "Mhm"

Me: "Tell ya what, let's transfer that gyarados tomarrow."

Phoebe: "Ok."

Me: "We'll split up, I'll draw their attention, you go in for the kill."

I moved over, she kicked off her shoes and layed down beside me.

Phoebe: "But what if I'm not strong enough to fight on my own?"

Me: "Honey, you beat the game in less then 20 hours, what are you worrying about?"

Phoebe:"I'm worried about you Cj...that you will get hurt."

Me: "Oh cmon, you always worry about that."

Phoebe: "True."

Me: "I will be fine, I promise."

Me: "Listen, we're going to clear that sector, stay there for the night, and then we'll clear another sector tomorrow, and we'll keep doing that until the entire city is clear."

I kissed her.

Me: "It will be fine honey, we haven't failed yet."

Me:"Just don't lose sight of what we're fighting for."

Phoebe: "Ok."

Me: "I know it's not going to be easy, but we'll get through it, together."

Phoebe :"Oh Cj..."

Phoebe: "I love you."

Me: "I love you too."

We kissed. We knew tomorrow would be another hard day of fighting. We both fell asleep a few minutes later.