Welp, like I said last chapter, I have begun my quest to spruce up the first leg of this story. Chapter 1 version 2.0 should already be live, so check it out if you're interested. I'll have the second one up by next week, probably. I've read it over and the transition between the new C1 and the old C2 is fairly seamless event-wise, so I'm in no hurry, but I'm probably going to completely rewrite it as well. I'm not sure where the line is between the dated and the decent content is, but hopefully I won't end up rewriting half the story!
Chapter 53: Giving Up the Ghost
The engine of the TARDIS gradually wound down, aided by the alert and nigh omnipresent Tom Nook. Simply watching him run back and forth between the various consoles and doodads was a sight to see, considering the ship was probably designed with multiple co-pilots in mind. Finally, the noise ceased. Nook leaned against the wall to catch his breath.
"We're here!" panted the raccoon. "I hope you're planning on staying a while, because I think I might need a quick nap..."
Knight eagerly headed for the door. With any luck, in just a short while, Blah would finally be able to act on his own again, without answering to anybody. And perhaps he'd be at least a little bit closer to getting back to his normal, male human form.
'One step at a time, Blah,' he told himself as he opened the doors... only to be met with a bright shining light in his eyes.
"Ack!" Knight held up his arm in recoil. "Did you take us to the surface of the sun or something?"
"Oh... my apologies, I thought you were a ghost!" The light turned off, revealing that it had actually come from a flashlight. Holding the flashlight was a strange old man in a white coat, an oversized vacuum cleaner strapped to his back. He studied Knight from eye level, being about the same height, adjusting his round, nigh-opaque glasses. "Although when a blue phone box materializes in the middle of one's lab with little warning but a mechanical whir, one could hardly know what to expect it to contain."
"Wait, you just dropped us off in the middle of his lab?" Knight turned towards Tom Nook. "Right outside would have been fine..."
"This thing isn't all that precise," Nook said in his defense. "Sorry if we startled you, sir..."
"Hoho, it's nothing to worry about," the old man chuckled. "Hardly anything scares me anymore. I'm Professor Elvin Gadd, but most people just call me E. Gadd. Oh my, is this thing bigger on the inside?" Without waiting for everyone else to introduce themselves, he brushed past Knight and entered the TARDIS. "My word, there's an entire ship in here..." He examined the central console in awe. "This is astounding! What do you call this marvelous masterpiece of technology?"
"This is the TARDIS, or Time and Relative Dimension in Space," Nook answered, somewhat bewildered at the professor's enthusiasm. "It's a time machine."
"A time machine, you say?" E. Gadd laughed. "I invented a time machine once, but it was nothing like this! How long did it take you to build? Ten, twenty years?"
"Oh, well, I didn't build it alone..." Nook modestly replied. "I had a bit of help from-"
"We're not here to show off our time machine," interrupted Knight. "We heard you were an expert on the subject of ghosts, and wanted to know if you could help us out of a little predicament..."
"Oh, a thousand pardons," the professor apologized again. "Maybe we can talk about this TARDIS later... but yes, I am indeed an expert on paranormal entities such as ghosts! What do you need?"
"Well, it's kind of a complicated story..." Knight began. "Basically, a friend of ours died, but Sera here managed to preserve his soul with the intent of putting it in a new robotic body. Except there was an accident and it wound up in mine instead. So now, the two of us are-"
"A simple spirit extraction, eh?" E. Gadd cut him off. "You've come to the right place! Please, follow me."
"You sound as though this is fairly routine," pointed out Sera as she and the others followed him out of the box.
"You'd be surprised how often people need spirits put in their place, as it were!" said Gadd, walking back into his lab. "I've made somewhat of a side business of it."
"This would be the perfect place for a Ghostbusters reference, if I were a bigger movie buff," Knight commented.
As they walked, the four visitors were finally able to get a good look around the laboratory. There was very little space to move around, as most of it was occupied by elaborate machinery, giant glass tubes filled with liquid and other strange things, and paintings. Paintings on the walls, paintings in piles, painting frames, blank paintings. Those that were not blank usually depicted pale, blank-eyed human figures of every shape and size imaginable.
E. Gadd stopped at a table, upon which sat a white, folded up handheld device. When he retrieved and opened the device, it appeared to resemble a particular dual-screened gaming console. He pointed its two rear-mounted cameras at Knight and pressed a few buttons, causing it to emit a low pulsating noise.
"Aha... just as I predicted, we have here a class C possession," announced the professor. "A rare case, but not a difficult one to remedy."
"So what exactly is the 'remedy'?" asked Knight. "You're not going to suck my soul out with that vacuum and put me in a painting, are you...?"
"Not at all!" denied E. Gadd. "That's only necessary when the foreign spirit refuses to part with the host." This did not calm Blah's nerves as well as he thought it would, knowing that the vacuum can indeed suck souls out of living bodies, apparently.
"Wait, so these paintings all contain ghosts...?" Broshi cautiously studied one of the paintings, which depicted a middle-aged man in a rocking chair.
"They certainly do, my dear Yoshi," affirmed E. Gadd. "Don't worry, they won't come to life or anything! Those paintings can keep them sealed up indefinitely."
"Funny how an ordinary painting can turn into a high-security ghost prison, huh," said Knight.
"Oh, these paintings are far from ordinary," the professor stated, much to Blah's surprise. "The secret lies within - each painting has one of these suckers at its core!" He pulled an object out of his pocket and held it out for everyone to see. It was a yellow, transparent crystal which refracted light in all directions. "This is the crystallized form of a mysterious and rare element which I recently discovered myself. I have appropriately dubbed it Gaddium!" He announced the name proudly, to the mild disapproval of Broshi. "The structure of this crystal is arranged in such a way that any soul that passes through it will become trapped there. It's the backbone of all my ghost-related research and machinery."
"Aha," Sera exclaimed. "So it can be used as a way to reliably transport souls from one vessel to another."
"Precisely!"
'Wait a minute...' thought Blah, as he studied the Gaddium crystal closely. 'Why does all of that sound so familiar...?' He couldn't quite place his finger on it, but the concept of a soul-storing crystal seemed to stick out in the back of his mind.
'You've heard of this stuff before?' Tails responded. 'I can't even imagine where such an element would fit on the periodic table...'
'It's not really an element, per se,' Blah corrected, wracking his half of the brain for a hint as to what it really was. 'I'm not even really sure what to call it, but I feel like I've known about it for a long time.'
'Maybe it's another one of your creations?' prompted Tails. 'You told me about how you went to an entire world that you created...'
Blah felt something click. Tails was right on the money. 'Of course!'
"We have to go back to Moros," declared Knight.
"Did you suddenly remember something?" Sera asked.
"I sure did," Knight continued. "There's a way I can get my old human body back, fully functional and normal, and all we need is some of that Soulite."
"'Soulite', eh?" Broshi repeated. "Sure beats 'Gaddium'."
"Yep, that stuff's a pretty big part of the Moros story." Knight gave a short laugh. "I can't believe I didn't consider it earlier..."
E. Gadd bore a baffled expression. "Surely you must be mistaken," he protested. "I discovered this element... nobody had heard of it before, and you already have a name for it?"
"Sorry," Knight apologized with a shrug. "You can still call it Gaddium if you want."
"I can understand how Soulite would make returning to your body infinitely easier," said Sera, "but how would we obtain said body in a fully functional and normal form?"
"Well..." Knight looked away. "I'd rather not say. It involves some serious spoilers. Blah, spoilers are really only applicable if we're planning on reading a story, not when we're living it. Then it just becomes important information that you know and nobody else does. And I'd kinda like to know too. But what if... ok, fine." Knight threw his hands in the air. "There's an alien race secretly inhabiting the planet, and they've got facilities full of genetic engineering equipment. We can just scan the DNA of my dead body, change the sex back to male, and replicate another one, good as new."
This bit of information came as quite a shock to everyone, including Tom Nook.
"I say, genetic engineering? Alien technology?" E. Gadd expressed quite a bit of interest in the topic. "Now THAT is something I would like to see! Ooh, I never would have guessed that a whole world of advanced technology has been lying right under my nose!"
"The question is," Sera pressed, "would those aliens cooperate with us? Are they hostile? Xenophobic?"
"I dunno," Knight answered, pondering. "They might cooperate. They're not usually hostile, they're just interested in one thing: the acquisition of knowledge. We can cross that bridge when we come to it, though. Sera, you'd be able to teleport us to Moros, since we've been there already, right?"
Sera shook her head. "Moros is currently in the Medium. I cannot teleport across dimensions, unfortunately."
"Dang, so I'll have to enter the game first... and probably you, too... Oh well, it was worth a shot." Knight looked at E. Gadd, who seemed to be having difficulty following the conversation. Nobody blamed him. "I guess we can just start by extracting my soul and work our way from there, so do your thing, Professor!"
"R-right, of course," the professor snapped back to reality. "Please step into this chamber." He indicated a large cylindrical glass container hooked up to a larger machine via pipes and wires. A second, identical chamber was situated opposite the first.
"Am I to assume that the other chamber is for the target vessel?" asked Sera, to which Gadd nodded. "Very well. I shall fetch Metails." She vanished without a moment of further delay.
"I wonder if Eggman made any progress on it while we were out and about," Knight questioned. "I mean, it'll work either way, but you might not be able to fly... Eh, I've gotten this far without flying. My parents were both pegasi, my whole life was being grounded while surrounded by fliers. I can cope. Really? Cause I seem to recall you jumping at the chance to fly not too long ago, even preferring it to teleporting. ...Ok, you're right. I'm mad jelly. But I'll try to keep my cool..."
E. Gadd loudly cleared his throat, pointing to the chamber again. "Oh whoops, sorry," Knight apologized as he stepped in.
"This extraction won't happen a moment too soon..." muttered the scientist.
Not a moment too soon herself, Sera reappeared, clutching the arm of a much less intimidating Metal Tails in one hand, and Dr. Eggman's hand in the other.
"Ooh, I see Eggman took my advice on the eyes," observed Knight, appreciating the new appearance, "...but did you have to bring him here too?"
"He insisted on it," Sera explained.
"Hey, I just hate being out of the loop, okay?" pouted the doctor. He casually glanced over the lab. "Hmm. Not bad," he assessed, "but it could do with a little spring cleaning."
"You're one to talk," Knight taunted. Eggman growled.
"In my defense," E. Gadd refuted, already not too fond of the former villain, "keeping things spick and span only entices the ghosts to make a mess of the place. I've learned to embrace the chaos."
"Is it my turn to impatiently clear my throat?" Knight cut in, eyeing the robot duplicate eagerly.
"Yeah, me and Sera kinda have someplace to be," Broshi added.
"Of course, let's get cracking!" E. Gadd was equally keen to start the process, dragging Metal Tails into the second chamber and closing the doors on both. He inserted his self-named crystal into a slot in the center of the machine and typed vigorously on the keyboard. The machine whirred to life. Soft, white light filled the chambers. Knight spoke, but his voice was dampened to the point of obscurity by the tightly sealed doors, and soon, the loudness of the device itself as it built up energy. The light in the first chamber faded to a vivid orange.
"Hmm, orange, that's a new one," commented the professor, slightly worrying the other spectators.
The orange light faded just as fast, causing the body of Tails to slump over, unconscious. Metal Tails rattled in place as its chamber took on the orange coloration. Mild sparks sputtered out of the robot, and soon the machine followed suit. All the lights in the entire laboratory flickered. There was a loud pop and a puff of thick smoke from an exhaust vent on the extractor, and with that, it began to power down.
E. Gadd opened the left chamber and helped the groggily reawakening Tails to his feet. "D-did it work...?" he asked, clutching his head in an effort to keep it from spinning. "Blah? You still there?" A lack of response indicated the contrary.
"It seems one half went off without a hitch, at least," noted Gadd, already rushing over to the other chamber. "Let's see how your friend is doing..." He opened the other door. Metal Tails remained motionless.
"Blah?" called Sera. "Are you situated? Is everything okay?"
There was no response. The robot continued to stare straight ahead with its cute, yet lifeless eyes. A cold feeling of dread washed over everyone.
"Looks like you screwed up somewhere," Broshi accused.
"I don't understand..." The professor pulled the robot out of the cylinder and set it in the middle of the room, studying it closely. "I know my extractor works fine on robots, both on the sending and receiving end. I've tried it before..."
"So what happened to Blah, then?" Sera inspected the machine, stopping on the slot which contained the Soulite. "Is he trapped in one of those crystals?"
Dr. Eggman chuckled. "Maybe you geniuses should try turning the robot on before drawing any conclusions."
Eggman's statement caused everyone to freeze. "...Yeah, that might help," Tails agreed, walking to the back of his metallic likeness, opening up a panel and flipping a switch.
The robot suddenly emitted a noise not unlike a gasp as all of its joints sprang into motion at once. It nearly fell over, but with a bit of stammering, it managed to right itself.
"Whoa, this is different," the robot emitted a series of synthetic noises resembling speech. It sounded like it was trying its best to replicate Blah's original human voice. There was a collective sigh of relief.
Blah experimented with moving his new metal body parts. There was a very slight yet noticable delay between his desire to move and the feedback of his movements, leaving him feeling somewhat numb, but it reminded him of operating a computer at the speed of thought. He tried walking a few steps, and having no difficulty with them, he broke into a run around the room, driving everyone else towards the walls out of his way. He found himself able to navigate around the clutter with the same competence as he would have had with a body of flesh and bone, although it was a completely different method of achieving it.
He stopped. He was aware that he had expended a bit of energy, but he was happy to find that he had no breath to catch.
"So, how does it feel?" Tails inquired. "Do you like it?"
"Hand me my hammer," responded Blah. Tails hesitantly grabbed the Pwnhammer by its handle and dragged it over to Blah, who snatched it up eagerly. The weapon was almost as big as him, yet he was able to swing it around with ease. He swung at an imaginary adversary from the side, then flipped it up and slammed from the top fluidly despite its mass. The resulting slam shattered one of the tiles in the floor, yielding an expression of legitimate fear from E. Gadd. Not to mention just about everyone else.
Blah set the hammer down, the pixels that constituted his eyes forming content semi-circles in lieu of a mouth to grin with. "It's perfect."
Soft, soothing music wafted through the amply lit Pokemon Center. As the sun had set a while ago, the building was nearly empty, except for the dedicated Nurse Joy and a single trainer and his Floatzel sitting on a couch in the corner.
Bob shifted his legs anxiously, folding his arms and glancing at his companion for the hundredth time. Franz was laying on his back and absentmindedly staring at the ceiling. Nothing new.
"Hey Nurse," he called, "what time is it now?"
"9:31, just like it was 30 seconds ago," Joy answered with an almost inhuman about of cheerfulness and patience.
Bob grunted, shifting his legs again. "Sera's taking kind of a long time... Do you think she forgot about me, Franz? Or is she playing a trick on me?"
"Float," answered the Pokemon, even though he knew his trainer would interpret the syllable as whatever he wanted to hear.
"Yeah, you're right. I'm just being silly." He sighed.
"No one ever said 'silly' was a bad thing."
The new voice startled Bob, but as he realized who it belonged to, he beamed. "Sera! You're finally here!" He looked up to see the Kadabra, as well as an unfamiliar orange dinosaur. Bob stared at the newcomer in awe, admiring his triangular shades. "Whoa, what kind of Pokemon is that?! It looks awesome!" Franz sat up at his trainer's expression of interest, also quite fond of his appearance.
"Yoshi?" answered Broshi, somewhat confused.
"Oh, it's a Yoshi!" Bob excitedly remarked. "I have to get me one of those someday..."
"His name is Broshi," Sera corrected, "And Yoshis are not Pokemon. They are a reptilian species originating from a small island near the Mushroom Kingdom, prized for their ability to serve as mounts. Broshi here is to be a player in our SBURB session, and he was sent with me to help reclaim Blahtown." Broshi nodded.
Bob raised an eyebrow. "Uh, I think I know a Pokemon when I see one. What else would speak only its own name?" Broshi rolled his eyes behind his glasses. "Also, what's a SBURB?"
"There is much to explain, and little time," Sera dismissed. "We have a town to defend. Return Franz to his Pokeball to prepare for the trip."
Bob held out his Pokeball, enveloping the Floatzel in a reddish light and drawing him in. "Ok, but when this is all over, you better put on your exposition-" Bob paused, realizing that Sera had teleported him the moment Franz disappeared into the Pokeball. He found himself standing in the middle of a group of 4 buildings of various quality construction, the area dimly lit by scattered torches. "...pants."
Sera scanned Blahtown, looking for anything that obviously didn't belong. The town seemed perfectly normal. She slowly approached the most recently-built house, trying to get a good look through the window, but she didn't get very close before the door opened.
Standing in the doorway was, to Bob and Sera's surprise, none other than Edwin.
"So, you've finally wisened up, hm?" Edwin mused condescendingly. "I hope you know that it's too late for you. Charge has already planted himself firmly into your session."
"That is just what you want us to think," Sera refuted. "If it were already too late, you would not still be here. Plus, in case you forgot - I can read your mind. There is still much left in your plan."
Edwin laughed. "You'll have a hard time figuring out what that plan is, though, as not even I know Charge's agenda!" He raised his hand, which carried six Pokeballs. "But what I do know is that I can't let you incessantly bumbling gnats ruin any of it."
"Pfft, so it's a Pokemon fight you want, huh?" Bob pulled out his five Pokeballs, throwing them all to the ground and unleashing his team, each one as eager to battle as their trainer. "You should know by now that I'm a master of the six-on-six style. You have no chance!"
The cowboy looked down on Bob's Pokemon with pity. "What an adorable little team you have. Too bad I have to crush them all." He threw his own Pokeballs, summoning a team that made Bob's jaw drop. Taking up practically the entire sky in front of them were the intimidating forms of Palkia, Dialga, Deoxys, Rayquaza, Darkrai, and Mewtwo.
"What the... Where did... How..." stammered Bob. His own party were equally flabbergasted.
"Let's just say I have connections," Edwin replied with a triumphant laugh as his squadron of legendary Pokemon assumed battle stances. "You can give up now. I won't blame you."
Bob was tempted to take him up on that offer, but he knew that if he backed down, there would be little hope for Blah or his endeavors. He clenched his fists, staring Edwin down. "N-no way!" he cried. "Using legendaries is about the cheapest thing imaginable! I won't let you have the satisfaction of winning like that! Come on, guys!" Bob's Pokemon snapped to attention at their trainer's confident words. "Let's show the world that we're willing to do battle with the gods themselves in the name of righteousness!"
Oh man! Looks like we finally get to have another fight! I don't know about you all, but I was getting tired of all that chatter and running around. Tune in next week for the battle of the century!