Screensaver Problems Part 2

PDM: So you decided to keep reading, huh? Not a bad decision, in my opinion.

*Meowth jumps in*

Meowth: Now, where we left off, da kid was just sucked thru de computer to who knows where...

M: Out, out, out! I do all the nonhuman narrating and pre-story crap here! *uses Mega Punch and blasts Meowth through a wall* Now that that's over with, where we left off, the author... What? You say Meowth already said that? Hmph! Fine! Just read!

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Many hours (or was it days?) later, I woke up to find myself in a strange forest. "What the hell?" was my typical reaction. "Where am I? And what the hell did that bleeping screensaver do to me?" I could not tell where I was, and it seemed too much for a prank, and who would do that to me anyways? So I decided to stand still for a second and think. But when I did, I got another shock.

I was dressed in completely different clothes! I am not the coolest person in the school, (actually, people think I'm a geek!) and I dressed accordingly. But my clothes were extremely nice- I was wearing a red

T-shirt, but instead of a weird surfing logo over my heart, there was a nice picture of a Masterball. On the back, it was just red. I was also wearing blue jeans with PKMN stenciled on the right leg, which were saggy enough to be nice but not so much that my boxers were peeking. (I think that's the dumbest fashion trend ever!) My nice artist's beret was still there, but it had a large P on the front. All in all, I thought I looked pretty cool, but that still didn't explain where I was. Then I looked again and was a little more surprised.

I had on a nice backpack with my laptop inside it and my camera (Photography is a hobby of mine) was hanging from my shoulder by its strap. I assumed that the camera supplies were in the pack, too. But what surprised me the most was what was buckled around my waist.

It was a belt that had a Pokeball and a very advanced (like the Johto ones) Pokedex clipped onto it. Now that helped me figure out what had happened to me.

"Either I'm crazy, which is possible, or I'm in the World of Pokemon. Yesssss!!" That had always been my dream ever since I had begun to watch the Pokemon TV show. But how had I gotten here? "Must have been that crazy screensaver." I decided to see if I could boot up my computer and get back to that site to find out more about it.

But when I tried to boot it up, nothing happened. Just then, I noticed that the batteries were dead. And besides, there were no phone lines in a forest that I knew of... ^_^* "Hey! An actual sweatdrop! That's cool!" I exclaimed. It looked like I was stuck here for now.

I had another brainwave. I was wondering if the screensaver questions had not really been that pointless after all, so I decided to check what kind of Pokemon was in the Pokeball. I pushed the button to enlarge it (I had read tons of info on how to operate them on the Net.) and tossed it out. When it hit the ground, it opened and a ray of red light spilled out of it and collected itself into an Abra! "Awesome! An Abra! But I wonder what moves it has? Oh, God, I hope it doesn't only have Teleport!" I decided to check out it with the Pokedex. I pulled it out and turned it on.

"Pokedex activated. Greetings. I am Dexter, a Pokemon analyzer and encyclopedia. I am registered to Chris Weil, 13 years of age, who started out from Viridian on January 10, 2001. He has taken the license test and scored a 98. What function would you prefer?"

"Boy, that thing's longwinded." I thought as I pressed the Analyze button and pointed it at Abra, who had gone to sleep.

"Pokemon Analyze Activated. Abra, Level 10. Knows Teleport, Confusion, and Kinesis."

"That helped. Okay, Abra! Wake up!"

Abra blinked sleepily, but awoke fully when he saw me. He then teleported himself to in front of me.

"Hello, Abra! My name's Chris, and I guess I'm your master. Do you have a nickname?"

"Abra ab abra ra"

"Oh, I guess not. Waitaminute! How'd I understand you?"

The Pokedex piped up from where I had clipped it back onto my belt. "Recent research has found that a special bond occurs between a trainer and his Pokemon. This takes varying amounts of time depending on the pokemon and the trainer, but is almost instantaneous with trainers' starting Pokemon. Once this bond is made, complete understanding of that Pokemon's language is attained." After this long speech, the Pokedex shut down again.

"I get it..."

"Ab-ra!"

"Yeah, I suppose we should head for a town. But I have no clue where anything is, and I have no map."

Abra teleported itself onto my backpack and began digging through whatever was in there until it came up with a rolled-up piece of paper. Handing it to me, it teleported back to its original position and waited expectantly.

"Hey, this is a Town Map! Cool! Thanks, Abra! But what else is in there?" I pulled off my backpack and started digging through it to see what was inside.

I found my camera stuff, my computer accessories, and a whole lot of other stuff. I found some weird money that I guessed must be the Pokemon currency, and when I put it in my wallet, I found that my extra money I had already had turned into Pokecash, too. All together, I had about $10,000. (Pokedex Info: This may seem like a lot, but remember that Potions and Pokeballs cost $200! God only knows how much food and hotels cost!) Also, there were 2 Potions, a Poison Heal, Paralyz Heal, and an Awakening. I stuck all this in the front part of the pack, figuring I'd need it soon. Then under all this stuff, I found two things that really made me happy.

There were 3 Pokeballs and a Pokeflute. (Pokedex Info: Pokeballs are what you capture Pokemon in, and a Pokeflute is a cool flute that you can play to wake up Pokemon besides its obvious use, to make music!) Back home, I was not very musical at all. To tell the truth, I sounded like a sick pig whenever touched an instrument of any kind or tried to sing. But when I lifted the Pokeflute to my lips and tried to play it, beautiful music came out! "I guess that crazy screensaver affected me in more ways than one!" Packing all this back into my bag, I took another look at the Town Map and hit the road for Viridan City, which seemed to be closest.

I began walking when I realized I had to do something about Abra. I turned around to see it following me by levitation. "Do you wanna go back in your Pokeball or stay with me for now?" I asked.

"Ab abra ra!"

"Okay, suit yourself! I guess not everybody likes those balls." I said to him and began walking with Abra by my side, ready for anything. I hoped I could get to Viridian before dark, because I didn't seem to have any camping stuff or food with me.

Time passes...

I had walked for about three hours and was feeling pretty tired as it began to get dark. But as I climbed another hill, an amazing sight met my eyes. There was Viridian City before me, all lit up. I called Abra and started running for the city, figuring I could ask someone for directions to the Pokecenter. (Pokedex Info: A Pokecenter is a place where Pokemon trainers can get their Pokemon healed and stay the night there, on occasion. Plus, it's free!)

But before long, I was utterly lost and about ready to collapse. Nobody had been of any help to me. But my prospects began to look up as I saw a slightly attractive blue-haired police officer come up to me on a motorcycle.

"You look lost. Are you new in town?" she asked.

{Lady, you don't know the half of it!} I thought, but what I actually said was "Yes, actually. I'm looking for the Pokecenter, and I'm completely lost."

"You really are lost! The Pokecenter is on the other side of town."

I groaned, anticipating another long walk, but the police officer cut in on my thoughts with an offer.

"Would you like a ride? The police station is right over there, so it's on my way."

I eagerly accepted, and with all the thanks over with, I picked up Abra and held onto him as the cop started up her motorcycle.

"By the way, my name is Officer Jenny. (Pokedex Info: All towns have an Officer Jenny.) Hold on tight!" With that, the bike roared off towards the other side of town and the Pokecenter.

After about a ten-minute drive, we arrived. She let me off in front of the Pokecenter and headed for a building with a picture of a Growlithe on it. (Pokedex Info: Growlithe are like fire dogs that are commonly used by cops) I headed inside the Pokecenter to see what I could do.

Inside, I saw a Chansey (Pokedex Info: A pink egg-shaped Pokemon. They are so helpful and hardworking that they are generally nurses at Pokemon Centers.) hard at work cleaning up while a nurse sat at the receptionist's desk.

"Hello! Is that your Abra?" she asked.

"Yes, it is," I replied.

"Do you need your Pokemon healed?"

"No. I just started out today, and I haven't had a battle yet. But the only problem is that I have nowhere to stay. Is there any room here for me?"

"Certainly. Our doors are always open for any Pokemon trainer. Chansey, will you get... What was your name?"

"Chris."

"Chansey, will you get Chris a sleeping bag and pillow?" The Chansey nodded and ran off. *to me* "I'm sorry, but you'll have to sleep on one of the couches as all of the beds are in use by Pokemon right now."

"No problem. Just a quick question, but would you be Nurse Joy?"

"Yes. You'll probably meet a lot of my relatives on your travels- there's one in every town and a few others besides."

"Okay, and thanks again. Now can I just ask two more things?"

"Yes?"

"First, do you have anyplace I can plug in my laptop's charger?"

"Right over there." She pointed to a plug on the wall. "What else?"

"Do you have a spare phone line I can hook up to?"

"Certainly- just take your laptop over to that desk. There's a phone jack and a plug you can use."

I thanked her and went over, plugged everything in, and hooked up to see what I could do. I was only slightly surprised that my AOL account had changed to POL (Pokemon Online!), but my bookmarks were still intact. I went to the last one on the list, which was the site I had gotten the new screensaver from. But when the page came up, the previous stuff was gone. Now there was only a banner that said, "This screensaver is being recalled due to several reports of malfunctions." Under it, a status bar (the one that fills up as a job is being done like a download) began to move quickly. Before I could react, the job was done and a message flashed on my screen- "Your faulty screensaver has been recalled. Thank you." Then the browser shut down. "What the-"

I tried to start up the browser again, but when I did, the bookmark was gone, and there was no way I could have remembered that string of letters and numbers. Then when I checked the screensaver, it had changed to one of those spinning text messages- "Psychic Pokemon Rule!" I cursed quietly and shut off the computer, certain I would be stuck here forever. But then a tap on my shoulder startled me.

"Chansey chan!" the Chansey said, handing me a rolled-up sleeping bag and a small pillow. I thanked it, closed down my computer, and got myself set up for the night. I was a little worried about what to do with Abra, but it just settled itself on my chest and went to sleep. I yawned and started to relax. It had been a very interesting day, that was for sure. I figured that I shouldn't think of this as a problem, but as an adventure. Who knew what tomorrow would bring? I rolled over and went to sleep.

The next morning I was awakened by a Farfetch'd (Pokedex Info: A rooster-like Pokemon.) crowing. I sat up, thinking I was still back in my room. So as you may imagine, it was quite a shock to realize I was in a strange Pokecenter with an Abra sleeping on my stomach. I would have jumped up, but I didn't want to hurt Abra. So as I sat on the couch in my sleeping bag, memories of yesterday rushed back to me. "Wow..." I muttered to myself. But then my stomach grumbled. I was roaringly hungry. I gently shook Abra to wake him up, which he did very slowly. Once he was fully awake, I asked him "Abra, I'm going to pack up and go see if there's any food here. Do you want any?"

"Abra abra ra!" he said, violently nodding his head.

"Okay, then help me pack up!" Abra then started lifting objects with his psychic powers and moving them into my backpack. "Boy, it'll really be useful to have you around!" I told him, smiling.

"Abra!" he agreed.

After we had everything packed, and I had the sleeping bag and pillow rolled up and under my arm, we went to find Nurse Joy. We finally found her and Chansey in a kitchen that had the best smells coming from it.

"Mmmmm...."

"Aaaabraaaaa..."

We both were drooling until Nurse Joy looked up from whatever she was cooking and noticed us. "Good morning, Chris! Did you sleep well?"

"Yes, Nurse Joy."

"You both look hungry. Do you want some breakfast?"

"Do we ever!" I shouted, and Abra agreed. In just a few seconds, I was digging into a stack of pancakes and Abra was enjoying a bowl of... ketchup! It had surprised me that he liked ketchup, but I guess every Pokemon is different. We had demolished our plates in less than ten minutes and were stuffed for the first time ever. Then I tried to give Nurse Joy back the sleeping bag.

"Here, Nurse Joy. You can have this back." I said, holding out the bag to her.

"No, Chris. You keep that. You'll need it when you start camping out. Besides, I have a million in the back."

"Wow, thanks, Nurse Joy! I'll be starting out soon, but can I ask you where to find a few more things around here?"

"I'll do better than that. I'll give you a more specialized Town Map. The other one will tell you how to get between towns, but this one will show a street map of all the towns. That should help you on your journey."

"I don't know what to say except for Thank you so much!"

"You're welcome. Anytime. Check in at Pokecenters around the country and give me a call to tell me how you're doing."

"Sure!" I called back as I walked out the door and set off for the nearest Pokemart and food shop.

At the Pokemart, I bought one of each of the Poison Heals, Paralyz Heals, Burn Heals, and Ice Heals. I also sold my Awakening, because the Pokeflute did the same thing. The cool thing was that when the shopkeeper saw the Pokeflute, he asked me to play some music for him. I was a little nervous, thinking he'd throw me out if I sounded like I normally did, but when I played, it was like my fingers had a mind of their own. Believe it or not, I played the first Pokemon theme song all the way through. When I finished, the storeowner and all his other customers applauded me. The storeowner gave me a 10% discount and a tip- if I played the Pokeflute for other Pokemart owners around the world, they'd give me a discount, too. The total for all my purchases came to about $1500. Emboldened by this knowledge, I walked into a grocery shop next door and bought some outdoor cooking supplies and food. With all this loaded up into my backpack, which was still very light, I decided to head into the forest for a little training and experience, for both Abra and me.

When we started walking, a Pokemon popped out of the grass. I couldn't remember what it was, so I scanned it with my Pokedex.

"Drowzee- a Psychic-type Hypnosis Pokemon at Level 6. Knows Hypnosis, Tackle, and Confusion."

"A Drowzee? Let's capture it, Abra!"

"Abra ab!"

"Abra, use Confusion!" Abra used Confusion on the unaware Drowzee, damaging it about 1/4 of its health. The Drowzee then started to use Hypnosis on Abra.

"Abra, give it one in the back with a Teleport!" Abra Teleported to behind the Drowzee and used Confusion on it, causing a critical hit and all but knocking it out. "Great job, Abra!" I then pulled out a Pokeball from my pack, hit the button, and tossed it at the downed Drowzee. When it hit the Drowzee, the ball opened and sucked the Drowzee in with a flash of red light. Then the button on the front turned red as the pokeball began to shiver. But after a few seconds, the light turned white, and the ball stopped shaking. I had caught my first Pokemon! It was entered in my pokedex, and I headed back to the Pokecenter as fast as possible with Abra following close behind.

When I ran through the doors, Nurse Joy looked up and asked, "Back already?"

"I caught a Drowzee!" I cried, overjoyed.

"Congratulations! Do you want me to heal your Pokemon?" she asked.

"Sure, but can I watch? I've always been curious how it works." I asked.

"Certainly. Come on back." she said, walking through a door. Abra and I followed her. Soon we came to a machine that had 6 slots for pokeballs. "Will your Abra get into its pokeball? It'll only be for a few seconds."

"I think so. How about it, Abra?"

"Ab-ra."

"Okay, Abra, return!" I cried, pushing a small button on Abra's pokeball, shooting out a ray of red light towards Abra. When it hit him, he turned into light the same color as the ray. Then all the light was sucked back into the ball. Then I gave both balls to Nurse Joy, who inserted them into the machine. Then she punched in a code, and two tubes lowered over the pokeballs. Then rays of light begun to run down the tubes and seep into the pokeballs. "What is that doing?" I asked.

"It is giving them a specialized Potion, in a sense. Pokemon have incredible natural healing powers, and all Potions and this machine do is speed that up. In a few seconds, your Pokemon will be healed like they had had two weeks of rest."

"Cool! Thanks for the explanation!" When I was done speaking, the tubes withdrew, and the machine lifted both the Pokeballs up so that Nurse Joy could pick them up and give them to me. "Your Pokemon are fighting fit! We hope to see you again!"

"Huh?"

"Boy, I hate saying that, but that's what they hammer into us at nursing school. Anyway, have a good day, Chris!"

"I will, and thanks!" I called as I was heading out for the forest again.

Time passes...

That night, I sat down with a sigh at the place I had chosen for my campsite. I had trained both Abra and Drowzee well today, and they had both gone up a level. (Pokedex Info: Pokemon's strength are measured by levels. All Pokemon begin at Level 1, and Level 100 is the maximum that you can attain. But there have been some unconfirmed reports of Pokemon seen that have been over Level 100 and at Level 0.) That night, even though I could have stayed at the Pokecenter, I wanted to try camping out. I had my sleeping bag unrolled and my stuff all unpacked. I had not had much luck starting a fire until Abra helped me out with some small pyrokinesis, (Pokedex Info: lighting a fire with your mind) and soon I had a pleasant fire crackling. Drowzee was content to stay in its Pokeball, but Abra wanted to stay out as much as possible. I had heated up some vegetable soup for all of us with a side of ketchup for Abra. That night, I slept like a log, but my last thought before dozing off was whether I would ever find any human friends to travel with. True, Pokemon were nice, but they couldn't talk or joke with you. I was a little lonely...

My dreams that night were many and confusing. I remembered none of them the next morning, but one thing that had haunted me through the night was what the advertisement for that screensaver that had gotten me into this had said: "You Might Even Run Into Ash and His Friends!"

"Yeah, right." I said to myself as I packed up our stuff with Abra's help, of course. "What are the odds of finding one threesome in the whole world?" As I started walking with Abra hovering on my shoulder, I remembered that Abra and its evolutions were extremely intelligent. "Abra, you tell me. What are the odds of finding a group of three people in the whole world?"

"Abra......Ab ra abra!"

"About a million to one, huh? Guess that screensaver advertisement was just made up." Just then I literally stumbled on another camp. "Ooof!" I grunted as I picked myself up off the ground while Abra scolded me from his perch in the air.

"Are you all right?" an all too familiar voice said.

"Pika pi?" another familiar voice inquired.

"And that would be the one, Abra..." I muttered.

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PDM: So there you are! Whose camp did Chris stumble into? What will happen next? And above all, WILL THIS STORY FINALLY EVER BECOME A ROMANCE?

Comments, ideas, requests, pictures, and Valentines welcome...

*looks again at what I just said* Shit, did I say that? I guess all the Valentine's stuff is getting to me! (It's February 13 now!)

M: Ooh la la! Smoochie Smoochie!

PDM: *whacks Mew with mallet* Guess he's got nothing but love and mallets on the brain! *grins*

Now... ADVENTURE ON, READERS! (I know I stole that from Disney Adventures, so don't flame me!)