Pokemon: Real Time
Chapter 1
Vortex
to Oblivion
This
is based on my stay at TIP, and all of this really happened, except what's in
the story. Most of the scenery and
rooms and buildings, students, and counselors, etc exist. Their names have been changed, so I can
avoid a big-ass lawsuit. People who
were with me at TIP, you know who you are, love ya, thanx for being there. Also, I have changed TIP to TFP, for Talent Finding Program, for complex legal
reasons. i.e. Big-ass lawsuits.
"Well,
we've got a vacation, finally. Let's
make the most of it, Sabrina," I said. Just after the Master X incident we had come back to the mansion. For now, we had time off, and the Mercs were
visiting. David and the Robots were
managing the Ranch, and we were given a vacation from League work.
I
kissed her. And then Snowflake walked
into our room. Shit, this always
happened. I stood up, straightening my
jacket, an action I was all to familiar with. Sabrina fell back onto the bed, letting out a sigh, and the word shit,
under her breath. How did he get past
the lock? Snowflake held up the
MasterDex I had left outside the room, in an effort to lower disturbances. Ash's picture was on the screen, and he
looked nervous.
"Hi,
Ash."
"Hello,
J."
"Yeah,
this is kind of, um, my vacation."
"I
know, but you need to be at the Indigo HQ in three hours. There has been a problem, and we need
you."
"Yeah,
I'll be there. Three hours, bye."
"And..."
I shut the MasterDex off. Snowflake
looked at me with a strange look on his face.
"Oh,
yeah, out, and take that thing with you, we'll see you guys on the patio in two
hours." He closed the door,
carrying the MasterDex.
"Well,
looks like I've you all to myself for two hours, Kojiro," Sabrina said,
pulling me down to her by my collar.
"Well,
you'll actually have to leave some of me for me, or my brain functions'll stop,
and I'll be clinically dead," I said, jokingly. To think I'd almost lost her to Darien. Man, I was lucky.
"We
wouldn't want that, now would we." She kissed me.
"No,
we wouldn't, unless we are a Rocket Strike Team. Then we'd really want that. But why are we referring to ourselves in the plural?"
"I
don't know." I kissed my wife.
"I
love you, Sabrina."
"And
I, you, James." We kissed again
and I unbuttoned the back of her jacket.
We
met the others on the patio, and I teleported us to the Pokemon League HQ
office. Casey threw up.
"You've
got to get used to this, C," I told him. Ash met us, a worried look on his face.
"James,
you're going to have to without D on
this mission," he told us, "he has work at the Ranch."
"Yeah,
what do you need?"
"Well,"
he brought up a holographic display of the island, "vortexes, dimensional
rips, that is, have been opening in a field outside of Celadon City, and if you
can't stop them, and the public gets wind of it, we could have a lot of
trouble. They have been opening every
day at 10:00 AM, and last for an hour. We need you to shut it down, or get inside it and find out what's
causing it. Good luck, Kojiro, Sabrina,
Snowflake, Russell, Megan, Kim, Brian, and puking person I can't
identify."
"That's
C, sir."
"Oh,
of course, C. Who is he again?"
"Um,
Casey Adkisson."
"Oh,
yeah, Casey, good luck."
"Thank
you siiiihoogh." Casey threw up
again. He'd have a bad day when we got
to the vortex.
After
following Ash's map, and getting lost a bit, we arrived at the field. I checked my watch, 9:55. We had five minutes. We'd have to get ready. We lay out the equipment. Then I noticed the grass, iw was all bent
towards the center of the field. Everyone else noted it too.
"Guys,
this means the vortex's suction is going to me incredibly strong," I
warned. At that second it opened, and
we were all sucked in. We landed in a
grassy area surronded by brick buildings.
"Where
are we?"
"TFP,"
I said.
"What? How do you know that?"
"Wild
guess, I'm psychic, and it say 'welcome TFP students' on that sign."
"Ah. What's TFP."
"You
know what, I have no idea."
"Yo,
kids, get to your check ins!" an adult called.
"Where?"
Megan asked.
"Over
there," the adult, whose name tag said 'Ric,' said, pointing.
"Thanks,
Ric!" We walked to the line. I waited my turn and went to see the people
in white t-shirts waiting there.
"Hi,
what's your name."
"Ko...
James, James Kelley."
"Ok,
you've already checked in, do you need something?"
"Yeah,
sorry, what's my room again?"
"J
206."
"Thanks." The others grouped around me, and we
discussed what had happened.
"What
was that?"
"Well,
we're in an alternate universe, kind of. I read the minds of the people, and all of us, except Sabrina have
checked in here. It seems, Sabrina
doesn't exist here, nor Ash, Brock, Misty, or any of the people we know. It seems that no one knows about them in any
way."
"That
is scary. I say we get our pokemon and
get as far away as possible," Snowflake said, reaching for a
pokeball.
"No,
this is where the distrubance is coming from. We need to stay here and find out what's causing it. We still have a mission."
"You've
got a point. We are here, in this
world, but so is another copy of us. Maybe we should talk to them."
"Good
idea, let's go to my dorm room."
"That
didn't sound right," Sabrina said.
It
was supposed to sound right? I
thought to her.
Hehe,
funny boy, Kojiro.
Geez,
quiet lovebirds, I can't think. Megan thought.
"Megan? How, Psychic, what?"
"Sorry,
just kind of, did that," she said. I hugged her.
"That's
great, you're getting to use the psychic power given to you by the stone
goo."
"Hehe,
goo. Yeah, but we have a mission, let's
go to," she read my note on my hand I had made, "J 206, to see
you."
"Yes,
let's."
"We
caught the door behind some other kids, noticing it had a card key lock we
couldn't open without a card. And
teleporting would be noticed. We
entered the first hall.
"There's
one-oh-six, it must be upstairs." We climbed the stairs, found the room, and knocked. I answered the door. Me, but two years younger.
"Hello,
what?"
"Hello,
I'm you." I tried the direct
approach.
"That
can't be right, but it is," Me said, "come in." Thank Goddish the me in this world had
moderate psychic prediction power. Casey lay on a cot in the opposite end of the room. Casey also stood behind me, looking green,
from travelling. So Casey and I were 'roomies.' It wasn't as bad as being 'commies.' We all came in, and James's eyes widened as
he saw what must have been an idle daydream unfold in front of him.
"You're
Kojiro Kai Li?" he asked.
"Yeah,
I guess I am."
"I
write fan fiction about you."
"Huh?"
"Stories,
based on a TV show, about you."
"What
TV show?"
"Pokemon,
it on Kids WB at 2:30."
"Woah,
what's it about?"
"Pokemon
trainers. Ash, Misty, Brock,
Pikachu."
"Weird,
this is weird," Megan said. Casey
looked at Casey, and they exchanged highfives. Talk about bonding. James looked
at Megan.
"You,
you're that nice girl that lives in CC, you showed us in this morning, when my
mom and I were lost."
"You
have parents?" I asked him.
"Yeah,
don't you? Oh, wait, I wrote you in
without them."
"Where
are you in the stories, how far have you written?"
"Um,
during the Demonstone incident."
"Oh,
yeah, did you get past the thing with Keith and then Lily dies?"
"She
dies?"
"Unfortunately,
yes."
"What
else happens?"
"I'll
tell you later, we're staying here tonight."
"How,
this room's tiny. Wait, there are
Commons rooms downstairs, you could live down there. It's only three weeks, and if you can go invisible, then you're
fine."
"Sabrina
and I can manage it."
"Sabrina's
here?"
"Yeah,
I am," She stepped out from behind the others, where she had remained
unseen.
"Cool!"
"Do
I exist here?"
"You,
no, only on the TV show, when your Kadabra beat Pikachu, and then Ash won the
badge by making you and Kadabra laugh."
"I'm
only a fictional character?"
"That
about sums it up."
"Sucks
to be me."
"Don't
think like that," I told her, putting my arm around her, "you're very
real to me." James showed us the
way to the commons room, and unlocked them with the key hanging around his neck
on what appeared to be a shoelace. We
went in, and found several couches that resembled water buffalo that had been
dead for some time. Except, they (the
couches) smelled worse. I was going to
sleep on the rug, but realized it was beer stained and smelled like a frat
carpet, which it was. Anyone who knows
what a frat carpet looks and smells like, well, you know why I didn't sleep
down there. Then Casey whistled from
the hallway, pointing to another door across from ours, and he unlocked it with
his key. The room was beautiful,
compared to the other, but only had one couch, which was clean, a table,
chairs, a clean carpet, a fridge, and a stove. We drew lots for the couch, between the three couples, and Sabrina and I
ended up on the floor. As did Megan and
Russel. James and Casey brought down
their extra pillows, which were Duke University property, and were covered in
plastic, and gave them to us and the Mercs. This ammounted to two pillows. James brought the sheets that were on his bed, because he'd brought his
own, and gave them to me.
"Thanks,
I think," I said.
"Welcome,
I think," he replied. At that
second Robert and Sugar walked into the room.
"Hey
Megan!" Robert exclaimed,
"I've been looking for you."
"You
look older!" Sugar said. Sugar was
not in a dress. I scanned his
mind. He was this dimension's Sugar,
and I liked him more. He, unlike my
dimension's Sugar, was not wearing a dress. Robert, also was different. He
wasn't his nastyish old self, but rather, a nice, younger him. And then Megan walked in.
"Guys,
I was... OhmiGod!"
"Hello,
self!" My Megan said perkily to her younger form. Megan 2 just kind of stared.
"Two
of 'em?" asked Robert.
"Uhhhh?"
Asked Sugar.
"Hi,
Megan 2!" James and I echoed.
"Holy
Shit, this is freaky!" Robert said. Sugar's eyes were wide.
"I
trust you guys'll keep things quiet. We
don't need any leaks. If anyone finds
out, there's gonna be a big mess up." I explained our plight.
"Pokemon? You mean, like, Pikachu and stuff?"
Megan 2 asked. I called out
Pikachu.
"Pika?"
it questioned its surroundings.
"A
new dimension, Goldie," I told it.
"Chu."
"Yeah,
get back in the pokeball, you're not safe here."
"Chaaa?" It asked as I returned it.
"Th-tha-that
was a Pikachu."
"MmHmm."
"Oh,
God, they exist!" Sugar said.
"Listen,
people from this dimension, you need to get back to your rooms, or someone's
gonna come looking for you, and we'll be discovered. See you all later.
"Ace!
Ha ha! I win again!" Snowflake played his last card. Sabrina and I watched the game, along with
Megan and Russel. We were playing
Hearts with teams. Right now it
appeared that Russell and his wife were winning. Sabrina and I had agreed to keep our psychic power out of
this.
"Hey
guys, after the dorm counselors call Lights Out, we sneak out the window, and
find out what's doin' this to us. We're
going to do everyting we can. Pokemon
don't exist here, so we have to be careful."
"Yeah,
well what about psychics?"
"I
only sense us here, maybe others far away. None within a thousand miles.
"Lights
out!" called a tired looking counselor. I slipped out the window, followed by Sabrina, Kim, Brian, Casey, and
Snowflake. Megan and Russel elected to
stay back. Kim, Snowflake, and Brian
went to the left of the window, and we went to the right. We came around a corner, and ended up in the
middle of a grassy area maybe thirty meters wide, where we had arrived
earlier. I felt a dark presence, suddenly,
appearing. My hand traced to my
psyblade. Casey shivered, sensitive to
its presence. It was gone. I kept aware. Sabrina whispered, instead of telepathy, because an enemy psychic
could 'hear' our thoughts, that she'd felt it too. I looked around, nothing was in sight, at least out of the
ordinary. We continued around, wary. We stayed out another hour. We regrouped in front of our window. The lights were out inside. I climbed in. I could see Megan and Russel, asleep, in a sleeping bag from one
of their packs. I helped Sabrina and
the others in, and looked fro another bag. There wasn't one. I grabbed the
sheet that James had brought, and realized there was no pillow. Kim and Brian were asleep on the couch. I
lay down, letting Sabrina use my chest as a pillow, which probably wasn't
comfortable, but would be better than the floor. I lay my head back, and found that there was something like a
cloth, or something, on the floor there. I bunched it up and used it as a pillow. I fell asleep, my arm lightly resting on Sabrina's stomach.
"Hey,
Kelley, wake up!" Megan was
saying. I opened my eyes. Sabrina was barely awake, and she mumbled
something about breakfast.
"What,
Meg?"
"Mind
giving me my clothes?"
"Huh? Why would I have your clothes?"
"You're using them as a
pillow."
"No,
I'm not, You're wearing them..." I
reached my hand beind my head and tossed them to her.
"How
do you get dressed in a sleeping bag?" she asked. At that minute Megan 2 walked in, followed
by me 2 and Casey 2.
"Hi,
guys! What the hell!" Megan 2 said, almost stepping on Megan.
"Hi,
self!"
"Are
you naked?"
"No,
I have a sock on."
"Geez,
I thought... I hope you two are
married."
"Actually,
We
finally arrived at breakfast, in mess hall that was called the Oak Room. We
stood in line and got food that looked like roadkill, and sat down to eat. Maybe it was a pancake, maybe it was
squirrel, but it didn't taste like either. It tasted more like industrial waste. It was terribly hard to eat with chopsticks, too. I wasn't used to the western utensils these
people used. I poked the thing, and
could almost see it move. I went in
search of packaged food. Sabrina was
behind me, as was most of my group, except Brain, who seemed to be able to eat
the gerbil burritos. Don't ask how I
know it's made of gerbils, that's a story I don't wish to recount. That, or Megan's discovery of Monkey
Burgers.
By
the second week I couldn't sleep because I'd been eating rice krispie treats ad
packaged coffee. Snowflake had
discovered that the psychology class had put vodka in the water. The rest of us drank soda, and subsequently
found out where they had put aphrodesiacs. This proved for an interesting adventure, wherein we all had to stay
away from people of the opposite sex until the effects wore off. Let's just say it didn't work. Needless to say, we didn't drink any more
soda. Much... The stuff clouded your mind more than lots of Sake, which had
caused me to wake up naked in an inflatable castle with the rest of the Merc
group. I had no memory of the previous
night, and niether did any one else, and haven't remebered it since. I hoped no memories came back, or it might
result in Sabrina getting mad and killing whoever it was I had ended up doing
something with. Or everything could be
fine, and had been the result of a freak skinny-dipping accident. I had forgotten about it all until the soda
experience.
That's
just about when Darien appeared. He
came as a kid in TFP. I could see the phermones just about
dripping off him, and he was always surrounded by a swarm of scantily clad
girls. The girls in this dimension were
very flippant with clothing restrictions, which were non-existant, as far as I
could see. Quite a few of the young
ladies were wearing things that appeared to be made for Pikachus, and were
closely clustered around my arch-enemy. I walked up to him.
"Hello,
butthead." I greeted. I was almost
hit by a flying mini-purse. He lunged
at me, and I caught him in a psychic hold.
"Remember
what Michael said, you can't hurt me."
"Oh,
come, come, James. We're in a different
dimension. You see, the Revs' religion
has very little hold here, and yours in non-existant. I am free here."
"You're
gonna be dead here, if you try anything stupid," I said, hand running to
my gun. I changed my mind, and went for
my psyblade. He jumped back, high, and
flipped, landing twenty feet away, and flung a fireball at me.
"Oh,
look, he's so powerful! He's so,
intense!" said one of the members
of his little squad of girls.
"He
must be unique! So strong!" said another. The fireball came at me, and I turned it back at him. His eyes went wide as it hit him, as did his
cheerleader squad's. He fell
backwards. Quite a few heads turned,
students and counselors alike. He had
his psyblade out, as did I, and we clashed, blocking, striking. I knocked his blade away. He hadn't been
practicing. His hand went for a pokeball. Mine did too, Lugia. The two
pokemon came out, his a Gengar, mine, Lugia. The crowd gasped, and a few people screamed as Lugia unfolded its huge
wings.
"Lugia,
Hyper Beam!" I yelled. It fired a
burning beam of energy at Darien's Gengar. Gengar shrieked. It tried to
deflect the beam with its power. Lugia
was too powerful, though, and Gengar fainted.
"Jesus,
they've got them thingys from TV!" a guy in the back said.
"It's
a pokemon!" I corrected.
"Hey,
freak!" someone said, "you got a Pikachu?"
"Hey,
dipwad, yeah!" I said.
"Pikachu,
let's rock!" I called it out. Pikachu came out.
"What's
yer name, rat?"
"Pika?" Goldie, my pikachu, a unique Golden Pikachu,
asked.
"Goldie."
I told the boy.
"Goldie,
sounds kind of, whatsit, wussified."
"Really?" I asked.
"Yeah."
"Have
you ever seen the pokemon show?"
"Not
really."
"Wanna
see what pikachu can do?"
"Maybe... Sure."
"Ok,
Goldie, Thunderstorm him!" Bzzzzaaap! The kid was
spastically waving his arms as he lay, looking like a dead possum, on the brick
walkway. I stepped over him, as did my
friends.
"Don't
call my pokemon 'rat' ever again, ok?" I said, leaving. We walked out the arch, where we teleported
into the CC commons, and ended up face to face with us playing fool, which is a
card game, not a random thing we do.