A/N: For an explanation of how the backpack works, read Flame Creamfire,
by moonymonster, who also owns Maya and Flame herself. In case you were
wondering, each chapter will alternate from the storyline to solo chapters
about several of the main characters.
Chapter 5
The Arcade
I pulled off my backpack and pulled my bike out of it. I jumped on and pedaled as hard as I could towards the usual hangout, an arcade called the Trainer.
I stood next to the Whack-a-Diglett game, where nobody else was, and pulled out my Pokegear. Inserting the green phone cartridge, I dialed furiously.
"Courtney? 'S Jim. Trainer, now!" I said quickly.
"What? You didn't call me Hick Girl. What's wrong?"
"Just get here ASAP." I hung up.
Within fifteen minutes, everyone had gathered.
"What's goin' on, Jim? I'm missin' the skateboard competition!" said Steve, who kept up with the standing of these competitions and wasn't bad himself.
"Yoink!" said Bob, grabbing the hammer for the game behind me. "Y'know, I'd probably be a better klepto if I didn't say "Yoink" every time I stole something." he said sadly.
Courtney and her friend Kerry ran up. At the sight of Courtney, I yelped and Philip said, "Goo!"
"What did you do to your hair?" asked Goliath. It was red!
Kerry replied bubbily, "She dyed it!"
Courtney looked embarrassed. "It didn't turn out too well."
"That doesn't matter right now! Sabrina and some nut called General Cos have kidnapped the Prof and they still have Erika!" I said loudly without meaning to.
"You shot who in that what now?" asked somebody around the corner. It was the same voice that I had heard earlier at school! Maya and her white Charmander came popped their heads around.
"Oops, didn't mean to be so loud. Who said that?" I asked. The voice couldn't've been Maya.
"Sorry," she said. "This is Flame Creamfire. Somehow, before I met her, she learned to talk."
I looked, puzzled, at the Fire-type. It was completely white, with a cream belly and tail-flame. I knelt down for a closer look.
"What're you lookin' at, bud?" she asked, making me jump back in surprise.
"Sorry," I mumbled, getting back up. "Okay, I guess you two heard what I said. Oak and Erika are bein' held for ransom, and payment is my gene- Pokemon."
"But you can't give those away!" said Isaac.
"I know. I think we can sneak into warehouse and break them out ourselves."
"How're we gonna do that?" asked Courtney.
"I'm not sure. I don't even know which warehouse they mean."
"I do," said Steve suddenly. "I'll check it out and be back in a while." He mounted his black board and took off. As he grinded on the side of a rail, the manager yelled at him.
"How many times do I hafta tell you stinkin' kids: no skating inside!"
* * *
A half-hour later, I had beaten Goliath fifteen times on the Battle Simulator, where you plugged in your Pokedex and battled on a simulation. Presently, I was busy blasting bugs on Weedle.
I only had one segment of the worm left to destroy when a Spinarak came down quickly and killed my last Bug Zapper. "Crud!" I said, realizing that I was out of tokens.
A small claw tapped me on the shoulder. I jumped, then turned to see Maya's abnormal Charmander standing behind me. "Beat you in X-Mon Arcade?" she offered, indicating a machine next to mine.
"You wish, lizard," I said, taking my place next to her. I wasn't about to let some smart-aleck talking Pokemon beat me at my game.
She chose a blue Ditto as her fighter; I picked a Sneasel wearing an orange spandex uniform. We chose the random option when the time came to choose a battle arena.
Immediately after the game said "Begin", the Ditto transformed into my Sneasel. I hacked and slashed with my mutant's claws. She struck back with the same attack.
I tried to remember the button combo for Rage. Up, up, down, strong punch, weak kick, what next?
Suddenly, Flame Creamfire rapidly pressed a series of buttons that launched a volley of slashes on my golden Dark-type. With one final jab with the claws, my character flew across the screen and hit the ground, defeated.
"Winner- Blue Ditto" flashed across the screen.
"That's it. This time, I buy," I told the reptile. "Klepto, gimme back my tokens."
"What tokens?" asked Bob.
"I heard you 'Yoink' them earlier."
He cussed. "I need to work on that. Here." He handed me five bronze tokens, two of which I promptly inserted into the slot.
Before selecting my character, I pressed my own special button sequence, unlocking a new character.
Selecting the new Pidgey character, I grinned at Charmander. "What's that little thing gonna do?" She had no idea.
"Uh-uh. Not tellin'." I mimed zipping my lips.
Thinking she could steal whatever trick I was about to pull, Flame chose Ditto. I smiled evilly and chuckled.
"What're you laughin' about, Jim?"
"Oh, you'll see."
As soon as the screen changed to our battlefield, a sapphire blob and a tiny brown bird dropped from on top of floating platforms. The former became the latter, but then, unlike hers, my Pidgey flew up and was engulfed in a burning inferno.
As the smoke cleared, a Moltres was revealed, its blazing wings sparkling as beautifully as they could in a video game.
"Meet the Phoenix." I pressed the Medium Punch button, sending a firestorm down at the tiny bird, frying it like at KFC in seconds.
"Winner- Phoenix" blinked several times before Flame's voice came back. "Why didn't mine transform into the big bird?"
"That's one of Moltres' properties: Ditto may copy its shape, but not its invincibility and strength as the Phoenix."
She looked at me in disbelief. "You couldn't've told me that sooner?"
"Nah. Wanted to let you see that nobody beats Hawkwind at X-Mon."
"Apparently not."
I decided to see what everyone else was doing. Courtney, naturally, was hooked on the Milking for Tickets game, which was a large plastic Miltank whose udder lit up and you had to pull on it. She was raking in tickets quickly. She said she was saving for something big.
Bob was sitting in a chair, shaking. "Klepto, what's wrong?" asked Kerry.
"Must.keep.from.stealing." he kept muttering. He had never gone over an hour without stealing something, and even half was a strain. Bob was sweating profusely by this point.
Philip and Goliath were arm wrestling at another table. Even though Phil was about two years older than the rest of us, Big G was strong enough to be two, maybe three years older. Both were grunting and groaning, large purple veins popping out on their arms. Maya sat beside them, watching and laughing.
Isaac had found the skateboarding game and was pulling tricks like he did them every day. He probably did, too.
I found Carol sitting at a table alone. She was reading a large, old book. The pages were yellowed and torn. The binding was falling apart.
"Whatcha readin'?" I asked curiously.
She looked up and was about to answer when Steve zoomed in, knocking over a chair near the entrance. Jumping off the board, he flipped it into his hand by stepping on the end. He was panting wildly when he tried to talk.
"Cos.got Oak.in warehouse.crazy Pokemon."
"Whoa, dude, take a breath."
He sat down and breathed deeply. Finally able to breathe, he said, "Cos has the hostages in the warehouse, but they have guards. Lots of 'em. I dunno what we're gonna do."
"What kinds of guards?"
"Gene-Pokemon."
A/N: Weedle is the Pokemon version of Centipede, if you couldn't tell. Also, you can probably figure out the names of the X-Men represented in X- Mon.
Chapter 5
The Arcade
I pulled off my backpack and pulled my bike out of it. I jumped on and pedaled as hard as I could towards the usual hangout, an arcade called the Trainer.
I stood next to the Whack-a-Diglett game, where nobody else was, and pulled out my Pokegear. Inserting the green phone cartridge, I dialed furiously.
"Courtney? 'S Jim. Trainer, now!" I said quickly.
"What? You didn't call me Hick Girl. What's wrong?"
"Just get here ASAP." I hung up.
Within fifteen minutes, everyone had gathered.
"What's goin' on, Jim? I'm missin' the skateboard competition!" said Steve, who kept up with the standing of these competitions and wasn't bad himself.
"Yoink!" said Bob, grabbing the hammer for the game behind me. "Y'know, I'd probably be a better klepto if I didn't say "Yoink" every time I stole something." he said sadly.
Courtney and her friend Kerry ran up. At the sight of Courtney, I yelped and Philip said, "Goo!"
"What did you do to your hair?" asked Goliath. It was red!
Kerry replied bubbily, "She dyed it!"
Courtney looked embarrassed. "It didn't turn out too well."
"That doesn't matter right now! Sabrina and some nut called General Cos have kidnapped the Prof and they still have Erika!" I said loudly without meaning to.
"You shot who in that what now?" asked somebody around the corner. It was the same voice that I had heard earlier at school! Maya and her white Charmander came popped their heads around.
"Oops, didn't mean to be so loud. Who said that?" I asked. The voice couldn't've been Maya.
"Sorry," she said. "This is Flame Creamfire. Somehow, before I met her, she learned to talk."
I looked, puzzled, at the Fire-type. It was completely white, with a cream belly and tail-flame. I knelt down for a closer look.
"What're you lookin' at, bud?" she asked, making me jump back in surprise.
"Sorry," I mumbled, getting back up. "Okay, I guess you two heard what I said. Oak and Erika are bein' held for ransom, and payment is my gene- Pokemon."
"But you can't give those away!" said Isaac.
"I know. I think we can sneak into warehouse and break them out ourselves."
"How're we gonna do that?" asked Courtney.
"I'm not sure. I don't even know which warehouse they mean."
"I do," said Steve suddenly. "I'll check it out and be back in a while." He mounted his black board and took off. As he grinded on the side of a rail, the manager yelled at him.
"How many times do I hafta tell you stinkin' kids: no skating inside!"
* * *
A half-hour later, I had beaten Goliath fifteen times on the Battle Simulator, where you plugged in your Pokedex and battled on a simulation. Presently, I was busy blasting bugs on Weedle.
I only had one segment of the worm left to destroy when a Spinarak came down quickly and killed my last Bug Zapper. "Crud!" I said, realizing that I was out of tokens.
A small claw tapped me on the shoulder. I jumped, then turned to see Maya's abnormal Charmander standing behind me. "Beat you in X-Mon Arcade?" she offered, indicating a machine next to mine.
"You wish, lizard," I said, taking my place next to her. I wasn't about to let some smart-aleck talking Pokemon beat me at my game.
She chose a blue Ditto as her fighter; I picked a Sneasel wearing an orange spandex uniform. We chose the random option when the time came to choose a battle arena.
Immediately after the game said "Begin", the Ditto transformed into my Sneasel. I hacked and slashed with my mutant's claws. She struck back with the same attack.
I tried to remember the button combo for Rage. Up, up, down, strong punch, weak kick, what next?
Suddenly, Flame Creamfire rapidly pressed a series of buttons that launched a volley of slashes on my golden Dark-type. With one final jab with the claws, my character flew across the screen and hit the ground, defeated.
"Winner- Blue Ditto" flashed across the screen.
"That's it. This time, I buy," I told the reptile. "Klepto, gimme back my tokens."
"What tokens?" asked Bob.
"I heard you 'Yoink' them earlier."
He cussed. "I need to work on that. Here." He handed me five bronze tokens, two of which I promptly inserted into the slot.
Before selecting my character, I pressed my own special button sequence, unlocking a new character.
Selecting the new Pidgey character, I grinned at Charmander. "What's that little thing gonna do?" She had no idea.
"Uh-uh. Not tellin'." I mimed zipping my lips.
Thinking she could steal whatever trick I was about to pull, Flame chose Ditto. I smiled evilly and chuckled.
"What're you laughin' about, Jim?"
"Oh, you'll see."
As soon as the screen changed to our battlefield, a sapphire blob and a tiny brown bird dropped from on top of floating platforms. The former became the latter, but then, unlike hers, my Pidgey flew up and was engulfed in a burning inferno.
As the smoke cleared, a Moltres was revealed, its blazing wings sparkling as beautifully as they could in a video game.
"Meet the Phoenix." I pressed the Medium Punch button, sending a firestorm down at the tiny bird, frying it like at KFC in seconds.
"Winner- Phoenix" blinked several times before Flame's voice came back. "Why didn't mine transform into the big bird?"
"That's one of Moltres' properties: Ditto may copy its shape, but not its invincibility and strength as the Phoenix."
She looked at me in disbelief. "You couldn't've told me that sooner?"
"Nah. Wanted to let you see that nobody beats Hawkwind at X-Mon."
"Apparently not."
I decided to see what everyone else was doing. Courtney, naturally, was hooked on the Milking for Tickets game, which was a large plastic Miltank whose udder lit up and you had to pull on it. She was raking in tickets quickly. She said she was saving for something big.
Bob was sitting in a chair, shaking. "Klepto, what's wrong?" asked Kerry.
"Must.keep.from.stealing." he kept muttering. He had never gone over an hour without stealing something, and even half was a strain. Bob was sweating profusely by this point.
Philip and Goliath were arm wrestling at another table. Even though Phil was about two years older than the rest of us, Big G was strong enough to be two, maybe three years older. Both were grunting and groaning, large purple veins popping out on their arms. Maya sat beside them, watching and laughing.
Isaac had found the skateboarding game and was pulling tricks like he did them every day. He probably did, too.
I found Carol sitting at a table alone. She was reading a large, old book. The pages were yellowed and torn. The binding was falling apart.
"Whatcha readin'?" I asked curiously.
She looked up and was about to answer when Steve zoomed in, knocking over a chair near the entrance. Jumping off the board, he flipped it into his hand by stepping on the end. He was panting wildly when he tried to talk.
"Cos.got Oak.in warehouse.crazy Pokemon."
"Whoa, dude, take a breath."
He sat down and breathed deeply. Finally able to breathe, he said, "Cos has the hostages in the warehouse, but they have guards. Lots of 'em. I dunno what we're gonna do."
"What kinds of guards?"
"Gene-Pokemon."
A/N: Weedle is the Pokemon version of Centipede, if you couldn't tell. Also, you can probably figure out the names of the X-Men represented in X- Mon.