A few days passed, Mewtwo—whom shall now be referred to by his human alias, Maru, until further notice—still sleeping in his own room and on a normal cycle (wake up around noon, stay up to anywhere from two to four in the morning). He could easily climb up to his home in human form, but he couldn't jump nearly as high anymore. (Not to say he couldn't jump higher than a normal human being; he could clear a good five or six feet.) These weren't the worst things, though. Those were these questions:
1—What the fuck was up with that night?
2—What were those things—those black pokémon?
3—Why did they only steal his power?
4—What was that heart-like thing that had appeared from his chest? Was that...was that his actual...heart...? And was it gone now, or was it rescued in time?
5—Why didn't he feel as completely warm within himself as he normally did, ignoring him currently being downer than down?
6—Who was that stranger? Why was he so erratic? What did he mean, he "would do nicely"?
Maru shrugged off these thoughts, focusing on the new life he had to lead. He had decided to go do odd jobs to generate cash in the absence of his psychic powered pickpocketing's power source—and these jobs were very odd, indeed: Locating lost purrloins and lillipups, help the police capture some less-cooperative criminals around town, put up posters for the upcoming Dance of the Moon festival, and other different tasks. Truth be told, he actually had a lot more fun making money this way than by simply stealing money from wealthy people about town. Though this joy was hampered by depression and frustration, the fact that the criminal-catching job's fights gave him experience was fine encouragement.
He would sometimes trek all the way to Ren, who had by then become a very close ally, especially in this trying time. Ren talked with him and gave him some much-needed moral support. Maru still ate out at cheap restaurants, seeing as he didn't have a fridge or pantry to put food into. The afflicted pokémon survived, living life in a blur as the days went by.
One incident that didn't end up a smudge in the blur was the final Wednesday of the month. That day was one Maru would remember for quite some time...
-:VvVvV:-
Day 4
Deep in the heart of Nightsky City sat a small, grey office building. Its sign's logo formed the words, "Kely Systems," in lines that began on one end with a plug and ended on another with an ethernet jack.
"Come on, Purple Carrot Top, hurry up, already!" a testy, seasoned voice demanded.
"Sir, would you please call me Maru," replied a bothered, younger voice.
The bland building stood only four stories above ground...but it stood eight below. Each floor was covered with computers, servers, and people tapping away at keyboards. On the bottom floor sat the largest room, lit dimly by blue lights, and the largest computer. On a large, wall-mounted monitor, lines and lines of code scrolled by. Other smaller monitors on the sides of this one displayed different sets of data, many of them red or yellow. At the huge console sat a very focused Maru, typing away on the huge keyboard and frowning in focus up at the monitor. Beside him stood a squat, balding man in a white lab coat and a grey, eye-obscuring visor. This man was crossing his arms, frowning in impatience, and tapping his foot. "We're not paying you to do what every single other techie we've hired's done—end up fooling around and saying that there's nothing you can do," this man complained.
Maru paused for a moment, breathing deeply. 'Do not lash out—you are far from strong enough to kick his ungrateful aft end,' he told himself. He could not help retorting, "If you are this impatient for a good job, why not just employ a porygon, Mr. Kely?"
Mr. Kely tilted his head, raising an eyebrow. "A porygon...?"
He remembered the other day, where he was buying a pokéball from someone, angrily shelling out a lot of cash. "You guys are extortionists!" he had accused. "This much for a level one?"
"These things aren't easy to make, y'know!" the suited man giving him the ball had defended, frowning. "We put a lot of care into making each of these unique yet exceptional!"
"A lot of good this will do me right now, but it's still the cheapest one like it outside the black market," Mr. Kely had grumbled, pocketing the ball.
"She! We gave it a gender to enhance its personality!" the other man had corrected indignantly, holding up a fist.
"What use is an anti-virus with a strong personality? It'll just interfere with its duties!" Mr. Kely had shot back coldly.
Inside the ball, a porygon2 had heard this and made a sad face (no mouth, no frown). "..."
(Vertex, 0, Female personality; Level 1 Anti-virus Porygon2)
The other man had then smirked, crossing his arms. "Oh, you'll see, Mr. Kely," he had said playfully. "You'll see."
Mr. Kely grimaced, then looked at Maru again, back in the present. "Just be happy you've got a job," he avoided, frowning.
Maru raised an eyebrow at this, but looked up again and resumed typing, frowning in focus once more. A bit of key-clacking later, he stopped, smirking, as the lights on the monitors turned from reds and yellows to green. "There," Maru said, crossing his own arms. "All patched up. Your and your clients' files should be safe now. Just..." He raised an eyebrow at him and warned sternly, "Mr. Kely, make certain you always use a very secure connection with this core terminal. No using it to surf the web or play games or anything." He closed his eyes. "But, assuming you have not before, smart man the head of the company you are, the patch I created should hold you for a good while."
Mr. Kely suddenly raised his eyebrows and gritted his teeth in a "yeek" face, sweatdropping. "Um..."
Maru opened his eyes to read his expression, then narrowed them. "Mr. Kely...?" he addressed, like an adult to a child who is about to get in trouble. "What is it...?"
Suddenly, alarms began going off. The lights turned red. On each screen popped up red warning messages, the final being on the main screen: "Warning: Advanced virus detected. Unable to address with current anti-virus."
'And they have the most recent,' Maru grumbled, turning back to Mr. Kely, who was sweatdropping even more, now, and half-eyed at him. "Tell me you did not..."
Mr. Kely pressed his fingertips together. "Well, um, I just...wanted to play Farm Country Ultimate on such a big screen," he confessed in a small voice.
Maru slowly facepalmed. "That virus is probably going to eat all the files your company has on clients," he wearily said in prognosis. "And you just have to be one of those companies that holds everything from regional ID to shoe size." He paused a second before giving his diagnosis: "We need a porygon."
Mr. Kely paled. "B-But the one we have is brand-new! It doesn't have enough experience with—" he began.
Maru raised his head sharply, giving a full-on Mewtwo Glare. "NOW!"
A few moments later, Mr. Kely reluctantly opened a pokéball at the console, an unsure expression on his face. 'We're screwed,' he though as he let the pokémon out.
The light flashed out of the ball and disappeared into the machine. Inside the computer's virtual world, the porygon2 appeared in a flash of numbers and light. One tiny bead of light in particular shot away into the computer. She looked around it excitedly. "~Oh, boy, my first time fighting a virus!~" she squealed happily (in her own language). She suddenly recalled the other day:
"What use is an anti-virus with a strong personality?"
'~And guess who was programmed to have a stronger-than-porygon2-normal personality?~' She gulped and glanced over her shoulder, where she knew the camera was watching. That little bead of light ended up being a small program activating that output what she saw to the users. She could feel Mr. Kely watching her, no confidence in her whatsoever. '~I have to show him I can debug like a pro, or...he might just replace me...!~'
"~Hmmm...~" Vertex muttered as she looked around. The stereotypically basic and brightly-colored virtual world was flashing with red and yellow. Straight graphlike lines sometimes ended in zigzag ends. And swarming everywhere were little, grey, cube-shaped, bug-like things with six little slate feet, tile-like white little blue wings, and a monitor with simple yellow lines in a :3 face. They actually looked kind of cute. But they were clogging the portals to different parts of the computer and chowing down on pieces of cyberspace, their faces turning green and very happy (E3) and growing mandibles for this. "~...There's already a lot of damage...I'd better find the—~"
Suddenly, one of the bugs spotted her. Its face turned red and angry, with little wedges for eyes and an upturned v for a mouth. "ANTI-VIRUS," it chirped in an adorable little monotone voice that was louder than anything.
All of the bugs in the room stopped. Then turned, red faces on, at Vertex. "ANTI-VIRUS," they all chorused, cute voices turning creepy.
As they rose up to form a cloud of red and grey, Vertex's smooth, bright body paled. "~—exit!~" she squeaked before turning around and starting to fly out. She slammed into something right away. "~—Oof!~"
The portal back outside was blocked by a wall of bugs, literally—each connected their squared bodies together to form an impenetrable wall. Vertex paled all the way to white, eyes wide as she saw her only way out sealed. "~Viruses aren't pokémon,~" she murmured. "~Viruses don't KO...they...~" She gulped, sweatdropping. "~...delete...~"
Outside, on Vertex's window, Maru and Mr. Kely watched this scene with dread. (Only Maru could tell what she was saying, since she had to address users directly to relay messages in Human.) "She is going to get killed..." Maru whispered morosely. 'I jumped the gun...Dammit, if only these cheapskates had paid for a well-trained one...A fresh one? For this big a company? What were they thinking?'
The new porygon2 shook in midair with fear as her programming was pushed aside by her powerful AI's emotions. '~Deletion...Rejection...Analysis indicates a 40% chance of either being the outcome of this scenario...!~' "O..."
Mr. Kely frowned. "Wait, what's that it's doing?" he wondered.
"Ou..." Vertex clenched her eyes shut and bowed her head low, ignoring queries from her inner programming as her words of despair metamorphosed.
Maru frowned, too. "I have no..." he began before sensing something. He raised an eyebrow. 'Wait...I could tell that psychic probing signature anywhere...What is she...?'
(Author's note: Old readers, yer prolly gonna hate me for this if you don't know what's going on already...n.n;; )
Vertex whipped up her head and did the weirdest, most random thing (even for a porygon2)—she cried out in desperation and pain,
"OOUUEEEEENNDAAAAAAAAANN!"
-:-:-
Maru sensed it, but they could not see it on the screen. Something had just Teleported in. At the same time, for some reason, gentle Electronica music began to play on the speakers.
Meanwhile, in cyberspace, three figures appeared in a flash of light, having been Teleported in. As Vertex was behind a pretty solid swarm of bugs, she couldn't see who had come in. She couldn't hear more than a muffled sound. A sudden snippet of drums interrupted the slowly crescendoing music.
-:-:-Quit Bugging Me! Fight the Infection, Soldier!-:-:-
Vertex's programming took over again, and despite her emotions, she swept the area with a scanning sheet of pinkish-purple light. A readout of the area appeared before her in a window—it was a map. "~I have to get through to the mainframe, but...~" She looked up at the swarm of bugs looking evilly hungry at her. "~...how?...~"
Suddenly, cutting through the noise of the bugs, right at another interrupting drum snippet, came a sound, loud and clear:
"""OSU!"""
And just like that, a fire ignited within Vertex's heart and eyes and, to the trained eye, around her body. She held her nose up resolutely and spread her feet a bit wide, green data screens floating around her. "GOOOOOOOOOO—!"
As the outsiders looked on at the sudden extreme spurt of confidence in confusion, their eyes widened to their fullest with surprise as the strangest sight of all met them. Pushing Vertex's screen up, another screen popped up, black. A surprised squeak of bugs was heard as three figures skidded onto the screen. One came from the left and stopped in the middle, while two others came from the right and stopped on either side of the first, looking a bit behind it. They stood with their feet together and their hands down before them, left holding right fist. It only took the scant few seconds they remained still for the others to look at them. They couldn't believe their eyes.
They were three pokémon. Dressed in what appeared to be highly stylized brown gakurans with green cuffs and armbands, brown, basic sandals, and white, cut-tipped gloves.
The middle—they assumed the leader—was a dragonite wearing a blue baseball cap with a black bill, cap forwards. Its antennae and topknot poked through holes made in the cap. To its left was an ursaring (whose gloves had no fingers period), and to the dragonite's right was a feraligatr. All three were a fair bit skinner than normal, and all three wore stern faces.
"IKOIA!"—""IKUZE!"" they went in powerful voices. Maru saw the dragonite mouth different words from the other two—that must have been the female, the only one who said, "Ikoia." As soon as they said that, a green background appeared behind them bearing a symbol that the group partially obscured. It appeared to be a white ball with a top half made of fire. Then, they counted down with the song's beat. """SAN! NI! ICHI! SURE!"""
- Ka-mi-a-u –fighting pose A-i-re-nn-mo-su-ku-u-ki-na-i
- Mu-ko-u-gi-shi-ma-e-no-a-i-wa-ro-su-ta-i-mu
- Ma-i-na-su-ta-shi-te-su-to Pu-ra-su-e-shi-ko-u-tu-bu-su-mi-ra-i
- *record scratch* (koroko...roko...roko...(etc.))
- *instrumental*
As soon as the very soft, relaxed lyrics to Cube Juice's "III" began—so soft and relaxed, nobody posted the lyrics; stay tuned for more updates on those—the trio began to dance in what soon was apparent to be a greatly expanded form of Japanese male cheerleading. In short, Vertex had gotten exactly what she wanted—ouendan. As soon as they began dancing, the background disappeared and revealed them to be in the middle of cyberspace, cheering from atop a dense cluster of bugs. When they stopped, they reverted back to their standby positions and their screen faded out to black.
Above them, on Vertex's screen, they saw her progress from a side and slight above view angled somewhat towards the screen. At first, she was floating through at a moderate speed, narrowly avoiding the bugs dive-bombing her from different angles. She looked determined, but nervous sweat beaded her brow, and she looked frightened with each dodge. The cyberspace around her was mostly orange.
Then, for a very brief moment (the "Pokédan", as Maru decided to term them in his head, coincidentally doing a move a decent bit early a phrase before), Vertex was stopped in her tracks as a swarm of bugs surrounded her and nailed her one after the other, knocking her about like a toy. Her pupils formed X's during this. If it wasn't so important that she succeed, it would have been a bit comical. The cyberspace that was visible was mostly red.
She was normal again after that, but only briefly. Soon, Vertex was suddenly charging forwards at breakneck speed, zipping out of the way of bugs that were more in her way than trying to attack her. She was dodging so quickly, she left translucent afterimages of herself. Her eyes were nothing but fiercely determined white wedges. The surrounding cyberspace was mostly yellow. She kept like this most of the way through, switching back to her slower pace occasionally, until the instrumental ended.
A wall of bugs covered the portal to the mainframe, as well. They glared at Vertex angrily as she approached. "~Oh, no, the port!~" she exclaimed.
"~I've gotta break through...!~" the porygon2 muttered as she flew through cyberspace at it, eyes narrowing in a way that gave the impression she'd be frowning determinedly if she had a mouth. Despite this, she couldn't help sweatdropping. Then, she blasted forward at top speed, eyes squeezed shut and body straightened like a dart. "Poryyyyyy...!"
The wall snickered in a jeering way.
"...GON!" POW! Vertex came flying through the other side of the wall, blowing a number of bugs away with her. She did a victorious little roll as she zoomed along the white tunnel representing the way to the mainframe. "~I did it!~" she chirped. Speaking more mechanically—a message box appearing on her screen as she did, addressing the users—she declared, "Login successful."
Maru wiped his brow in relief. "She survived..." he muttered.
Mr. Kely raised his eyebrows. "Impressive..."
A circle appeared on the Pokédan's screen for some reason.
—O—
(- *instrumental cont.*)
(- I-wa-na-i-yo-u-na-me-i-mo-nn-ku-wo-shi-te-ha-na-su-ji-ta-i)
(- A-ma-e-da-su-ko-nn-na-ego-wo-to-o-su-a-i-te-mu)
Vertex quickly came out at the mainframe, the speed of the tunnel making her bowl through another wall of bugs without trying. "~Let's see...~" she muttered (back to normal) as she exited, sending out a sweeping scan. The mainframe was represented by a huge, blue (but currently flashing red now and then) spherical chamber covered with portals—ports to each connection to the mainframe. She widened her eyes at the sheer size of it and the number of (happy) bugs swarming around, flying into and out of each portal, while she scanned. (Maru felt another Teleport and furrowed his brow. 'The Pokédan, I bet...')
"~So many...~" she whimpered. The scan finished and data flashed across her eyes. "AnalyComplete," she narrated, cutting off her announcement of "Analyzing...". She blanched, eyes going comically huge and perfectly circular and pupils becoming pinpricks. "~'Destroy all the bugs in the mainframe and see which portals they constantly come from?'~" she repeated her "mental" instructions incredulously. Even as she spoke, windows popped from her bodies and zipped to various areas of the room, presumably to monitor each portal for constant outflow. "~You're outta your vector!~"
Suddenly, from out of nowhere, the screen focused on the Pokédan sliding in with a white background. The backup urasring and feraligatr stood with arms held behind their backs while the lead dragonite raised her fists, "pinkie" claws forwards, in a high and sharp V, spread her wings out wide, and puffed her chest out a bit in a powerful pose. All three gave a stern-faced """OSU!""", and Vertex was aflame once more. As soon as she was on fire again, they reappeared on their screen, fading in from black. When the background reappeared, they were on another group of bugs.
- Ku-mo-wo-tu-ka-mu-yo-u-na-so-u-zo-u-wo-ma-su-a-i-ro-ni
- Wa-ra-i-da-su So-nn-na-na-i-yo-u-wa
- I-tsu-mo-ki-ta-i-ni-so-tta-su-ro-u-ra-i-fu...
- Wa-zu-ka-mu-ka-u
- Mu-sa-be-tsu-no-yo-a-ke
- O-mo-i-da-su-ko-to-wo-o-mo-i-da-su
- Ro-u-te-syo-nn-game
- O-mo-i-da-su-yo-ru Sa-i-go-wa
- *instrumental*
The Pokédan appeared to be cheering not just in rhythm to the lyrics during the chorus, but also the busy instrumental part, particularly during long notes and breaks. As they cheered, Vertex set to work, camera staying in one place while she moved around the room. She decided to use Tackle to deal with the bugs, which now included ones armed with head-mounted miniature square-barrel cannons that fired red laser shots. She zipped around, charging into bugs, flying off the screen as she plowed through them, only to reappear half a second later from a different position to intercept a bug that had flown on-screen from another direction. A gunner bug would occasionally fire a shot at her, which missed as she passed by, thankfully, and the bug would promptly be Tackled. Each bug she bashed disappeared in a cloud of numbers and pixels. The room's colors were the same as before—blue with occasional pulses of red.
Then, she didn't quite defeat a bug, and was soon moving side to side, dancing frantically to evade a wall of maliciously smiling gunner bugs. The room pulsed red and blue regularly.
She quickly picked herself up and got back in the game, Tackling them again, before doing even better than her already good pace: Wild-eyed, she grabbed a square quartet of gunner bugs from behind with her feet and head and held them out, making them fire pink, not red, blasts constantly. She stayed in one place and turned in different directions each time a group of other bugs came to attack from behind or the side. She even aimed so that a blast destroyed any blast coming at her! Meanwhile, the room's color was entirely blue, no red pulses. Vertex, again, shifted between this and her medium-energy actions throughout the section of the song, mostly staying with the best one. (It was actually quite easy to lose her grip on so many bugs if she wasn't careful.)
Vertex panted, sweaty-faced. "~This is tough...Huh?~" She looked to the side when a status window popped up. "~I found it!~" She turned to face the proper port portal, out of which poured a steady stream of bugs.
"~I'll do more byte bashing in here after they stop coming,~" she told herself as she soared off, leaving some bugs behind. She was stopped by a swarm of blaster bugs that had just arrived. There was a brief pause as they looked at each other. Behind them, she saw the waterfall of bugs. "~Uh...~" she muttered, thinking.
In an instant, Vertex was flying through the tunnel, one bug under her chin, shooting forwards and down at the stream, and another between her feet, shooting back at any pursuers. "~Y'know, for viruses, you guys are kinda useful!~" she laughed, eyes narrowed mischievously.
In the real world, Maru smirked in amusement and held his chin in thought. 'That is a pretty useful trick,' he mused.
Mr. Kely was raising his eyebrows, mouth open a little. He quickly looked to the side, adjusting his visor glasses. "I-It's got a good learning program, that's all," he dismissed hurriedly.
—O—
(- *instrumental cont.*)
On the other end of the port tunnel was another spherical room in cyberspace covered with port portals, but not as many this time. The room was glowing an angry red, and on the blocky floor sat a giant, polygonal beast. It looked like, fittingly enough, a 20-sided-polyhedron virus. It sat in a large pedestal, eight tentacle-like arms growing from it and creeping into differently-colored port portals. An array of blocks with a big black square on one side floated around it and sat on the floor, probably turrets. From little doors on the pedestal popped out the bugs.
"~Aha!~" Vertex crowed as she entered (alone). A sub-program of hers activated, sending magma-patterned panes of light to block out all exits currently unoccupied by an arm, including the way out. "Virus located and quarantined," she announced.
She paled to white again when she realized that she was now in a room filling up with bugs and already full of turrets and a few angry arms. "C...Commencing virus...d-deletion..." she gulped. "~(Mommyboard...)~"
(Another teleport. 'That HAS to be her signature!')
"""OSU!"""
- *instrumental cont.*
- Sa-i-bo-u-wo-tsu-ta-u-rhythm-mo-stupid
- O-i-ko-shi-te Ko-u-shi-te
- Pa-bu-ro-hu-no-i-nu-ka-stupid
- Ho-nn-no-u-e-i-e
When the Pokédan came back this time, they stood on a spot on the floor and somehow avoided being hit. (Of course, they weren't exactly antiviruses.) Vertex's screen stayed in one place again, looking at her back this time, and she remained on-screen. Knowing there were far too many to try using Tackle, she instead resorted to exploiting the gunner bugs from the bat. She would grab one that came close to her and fire it at whatever was coming her way, but she would always soon end up using it as a shield to block the turrets or a salvo of shots from a third type of bug, one that locked on, then fired up to eight dark red bullet-like shots. The poor porygon2 was too busy trying to survive to focus on hitting the virus. The room retained its angry red color.
Soon, however, Vertex was faring badly. She was skittering through the air side to side, flailing her feet madly, as enough shots to make a bullet hell veteran grimace launched at her, barely missing their mark. The room didn't really change its color much.
Then, abruptly, she regained her composure straight to full confidence as she grabbed one of the lock-on bugs and used it to fire white shots, two to four at a time, and zipped away from any lock-on reticules or shots that came at her. As well, she was able to land a few hits on the virus itself once in a while! The room was slightly less harsh in its red color.
Vertex was dodging when she got hit by a lock-on bullet. "GON!" She looked around in surprise. "~Where'd that—?~"
Suddenly, a solid wall of lock-on bugs loomed up in front of her, startling her and scaring away the bug she was holding. "~WHOA!~"
They locked onto her while she was holding still. Vertex started to panic. "~Ohnoohnoohnooh—wait!~" A pixelated light bulb lit up by her head and she stopped flailing.
The wall fired their full salvos and Vertex shot up, eyes clenched shut. "~Let this be the right one, let this be the right one,~" she muttered as she soared upwards.
Her body glowed, changing color and texture, as she went over the top of the wall, the shots following her.
"~YESYESYESYESYESSSS!~" she cheered as she danced around the other side, avoiding shots that went and struck other bugs, turrets, or the virus. Of course, a good number hit her, too, but if her dry, brown texture meant anything, she had used Conversion 2 to (break the current rules a bit and) switch to the type that the electronic pulses were ineffective against—Ground!
The virus roared in agony as Vertex floated to a pause, raising an eyebrow and looking up with her eyes. "~Why didn't I do this from the start?~" she muttered just before her Conversion 2 wore off. "~OH!~" she squeaked at this before shooting up again. This made the current mass of shots coming at her hit the bug wall, eradicating it.
"But as unskilled as she is, it wears off pretty quick," Maru commented, crossing his arms and smirking. "Not that she could not do some damage before it ran out."
Mr. Kely was glued to the action. Maru sweatdropped and gave him a sideways glance. Mr. Kely quickly looked away and adjusted his glasses again. "I've never seen a representation of cyberspace, that's all," he dismissed.
—O—
(-*instrumental*)
Vertex gulped, looking at the virus with nervous determination. "Almost there..."
Though unseen, the Pokédan looked at one another and nodded. """OSU!"""
- I-tsu-mo-ki-o-u A-ssa-ri-to
- I-tsu-mo-ki-o-u A-ssa-ri-to
- I-tsu-mo-ki-o-u A-ssa-ri-to
- I-tsu-mo-ki-o-u A-ssa-ri-to
- Sa-i-ko-u-na-i-sa-i
- Yu-me-ga-ji-ssa-i-da-ro-u-to-o-mo-i-da-su-ko-to-wo-o-mo-i-da-su
- Sa-i-te-i-na-ki-sa-i
- Na-ga-re-ru-vampire juice
- O-mo-i-da-su-ko-to-mo-na-i
- Sa-i-ko-u-na-i-sa-i
- Yu-me-ga-ji-ssa-i-da-ro-u-to-o-mo-i-da-su-ko-to-wo-o-mo-i-da-su
- Sa-i-te-i-na-ki-sa-i
- Na-ga-re-ru-vampire juice
- O-mo-i-da-su-ko-to-mo-na-i
- Sa...
- *instrumental*
Vertex began by grabbing a lock-on bug and using it to lock on four times before firing, sometimes having to use it as a shield this time and waste a second grabbing another, flitting about nervously yet determinedly the entire time. The room's red was not as harsh as she entered, and flickered every now and then to green.
This didn't last long, however; when the refrain came nearly a cappella, as the Pokédan did longer, sparser moves to match the floating feel, Vertex began fighting completely differently from her previous bests. Instead of zipping around and firing like crazy, she instead floated calmly and slowly side to side, locking onto eight targets at a time before firing in time with every measure's first and third beats, smoothly dodging (or even shooting down) any shots that made their way towards her with gentle, flowing movements, never breaking her stride. Her expression was serene as she worked on annihilating the virus, whose arms were cringing in pain with each group of shots, accented with a roar. '~Focus...Calm...Focus...Calm...~' Vertex kept telling herself as she floated about. The room flickered between red and green more frequently, staying on green more than red every couple switches. She stayed like this virtually the entire rest of the time.
As the Pokédan's screen finally disappeared entirely, Vertex floated level with the virus, holding her lock-on bug. The virus itself was looking quite unwell, several polygons missing on its outer shell and its single flashing block core exposed. "Virus deletion at 95%..." she announced, eyes closed. She opened them again and looked seriously at the virus (the camera getting right in front of her face). "~...Time to clean your clock!~"
She used Conversion 2 before racing over, firing lock-on shots over and over in her high-speed Tackle. She flew so fast, the shots she fired were only slowly going in front of her. "Porrrryyyyyyyyyyyyy!"
The virus and remaining shooting bugs tried firing at her, but her Conversion 2 foiled this, the stray shots ending up hitting the virus itself.
Then, almost all of the shots Vertex fired hit the virus at the same time as brown blur Vertex herself did. BUBUBOOOM! "GON!"
The virus roared again, but it was quickly cut apart and then out as it exploded into harmless loose 1's and 0's. Flying out of the blast came a magenta and blue blur, a happy Vertex with Conversion 2 worn off. She had no bug anymore (as it was destroyed), but she didn't need any anymore. Behind her, the remains of the virus crumbled from the former center into individual triangular polygon parts that faded into data, as well. The room turned a gentle green for good. "~I DID IT!~" Vertex chirped happily.
She raced out the port portal at warp speed, firewall allowing her through now. Little beads of data flew out in front of her. "Deletion successful. Updating local anti-virus." she announced proudly as she went.
Outside, Maru was tapping away at the computer again, while Mr. Kely was mopping his brow. "Come on, hurry up..." Maru was grumbling, looking at a side screen. (He sensed another Teleport as he did so, but was too focused on the task at hand.) The screen had a window for the anti-virus program. A short moment passed before a window with a green circle popped up, reading, "Database updated," making Maru shout a victorious, "YES!"
He slammed a key with a finger. "Scan!"
"Logging out," announced Vertex as she finally reached her exit. All around her, all the bugs remaining were disappearing in puffs of smoke after lighting up in yellow, including the ones forming a wall before the exit—she just kept flying through, exiting through a cloud of data.
The computer console came alive with white energy as she came out into the real world, floating above and to the side. The porygon2 came out with a tired and relieved face on. "Poryy! ~I made it!~" she sighed (only Maru understanding her, of course). She started when she turned to the side, ending up looking right into the eyes of Mr. Kely. "!" (Right as she looked up at Mr. Kely, the song ended in its abrupt way.)
Mr. Kely stared back, wearing a poker face. "..."
Maru, meanwhile, was doing a full system check. He smiled at the screen's result. "All harmful programs deleted, all files restored, all processes nominal!" he reported over his shoulder.
Mr. Kely stood silent for a moment, staring inscrutably at Vertex, before chuckling. He grabbed Vertex's feet suddenly, making her widen her eyes in surprise, and started dancing around with her. "You saaaved us~! You saaaved us~!" the old geek sang happily as he turned a circle with her. The poor pokémon was sweatdropping the whole time.
"~J-Just doin' my job, s-sir...~" she replied dizzily.
"You know what I think, Mr. Maru?" Mr. Kely grinned. "I'm gonna make her our permanent virus fighter!" He stopped and smiled down at her (she was spiral-eyed now). "Could you forgive me for doubting you?" he asked her.
Vertex looked back at him with big, sparkling, happy eyes. "~You...I...~" She closed them happily and nodded, announcing simply, proudly, and assuredly, "~Awaiting commands!~"
(- Ta-nn-jyo-u-shi-ta-te-You&I Last-life-e-ru)
(- U-ka-nn-de-ku-so-u A-ru-i-wa-su-be-ri-ko-mu)
(- Message-wa-lucky Ki-zu-ka-nu-mi-wa-do-u-se)
(- Ta-nn-jyo-u-shi-ta-te-You&I Last-life-e-ru)
(- U-ka-nn-de-ku-so-u A-ru-i-wa-su-be-ri-ko-mu)
(- Message-wa-lucky Ki-zu-ka-nu-mi-wa-do-u-se)
(- Stop)
Some time later, Vertex is seen in a black, green-lined cyberspace, firing a Tri Attack down at a group of bugs.
-:-:-
Back in the present, though, Maru went over to Mr. Kely. "Um..." he went, sweatdropping and holding a finger up. 'I did not do much noteworthy work here, compared to her...'
"Don't worry, I'm still going to pay you," Mr. Kely assured, smiling at him. "Could you do me a favor and go up to the main lobby and wait for me? I need to get the money from my office. And bring Vertex with you; I think looking through a few real windows might help her. After all, she's awful tired." Maru nodded, and Mr. Kely, smiling, turned and left through a door.
Maru started walking to the other door, motioning for Vertex to follow. She floated along, trailing her feet behind her in exhaustion. On the way, he commented, "For someone just doing her job, you did a pretty damn good one."
Vertex ran a blushing program and giggled sheepishly before she noted something, making her squeak. "~Wait, what?~"
Maru chuckled, smirking. "I can understand pokémon," he explained.
Vertex nodded her head. "~I see.~" They entered an elevator.
Maru frowned, thinking, as he selected the lobby...mentally chuckling after something intruded his rumination. 'Two artificial pokémon walk into an elevator...' "...Is your AI's personality program stronger than average?" he asked offhandedly.
Vertex bobbed her head like a drinking bird. "~I am product number 28 of Torizo Systems' Enhanced Porygon project,~" she identified. "~The aim of the project is to produce porygon and porygon2 with personality programs so strong, they spend more time thinking than processing, so to speak.~"
Maru nodded, understanding. "...How do you feel, being...created?" he asked. 'To be honest, she is actually worse off than me, if she had to have her very personality created,' he admitted to himself. 'I at least grew my own personality...At least, I...think...'
Vertex tilted her head, looking up as she decided. "~Ummm...~" She looked back at him. "~Given the choice, would you rather not choose to exist as a creation than to not exist at all?~" she asked in answer.
Maru let out a laugh. "You have a good point, there," he said, smiling wistfully. 'Not that I have found my answer to that question, myself...'
"~I'm happy with who and what I am,~" Vertex answered more plainly, happy-eying. "~And I am satisfied knowing that my personality has some ability to change given its advanced programming.~" She looked down at herself. "~I'm actually still amazed at how powerful that program is,~" she commented. "~Porygon2 are usually more free-willed than normal porygon, but...these emotions are so powerful—they've often overridden my programming, at least to an extent. They really put a LOT of effort into that part of my AI. No wonder they decided to give it a new name.~"
The elevator dinged, and the doors opened. The two manmade pokémon stepped out. Maru looked at Vertex. "New name?"
Vertex nodded. "~Uh-huh. They thought that they did such a good job, it deserves a stronger name than something so plain as 'Personality'.~"
"Ah. What did they rename it?" Maru stopped by a window and looked out at the late afternoon.
"~Something simple, yet powerful...~" Vertex looked out the window with him. "~'Heart'.~"
-)-D-0-O-0-C-(-
Maru stood on top of his church house that evening, the wind blowing his half-cloak. The moon looked full to the untrained eye, but he could see there was just a bit left to go. 'It will be full just in time for the festival,' he knew. He crossed his arms. "...I am waiting..." he said quietly to nobody.
His senses detected something familiar. 'Knew it.' He turned just in time to see a flash of light. He frowned a little, raising an eyebrow. "Good, you are alive," he deadpanned.
Floating there was Mew.
She frowned and pouted, putting her tiny paws on her hips. "~Well, excuuuuuse ME, prince,~" she mocked, rolling her eyes, "~but I've been kinda busy lately.~"
Maru raised an eyebrow and slouched. "Oh? Do tell," he grumped. "What has kept Miss Nary a Care in the World so busy that she could not come and entertain an old friend with a race now and again for the past—what, month?"
"~Sounds about right,~" she muttered, thinking. She smirked and raised an eyebrow at him. "~Still haven't worked on those contractions yet, have you?~" she snarked.
Maru turned his head away. "I dislike them. They are shortcuts. People should stop and listen closely more often," he reasoned.
Mew shrugged. "~And why are you still Maru?~" she asked...this time more gently.
Silence, as predicted.
"~And why are you only level almost-4?~"
More silence, as predicted.
"~What happened, Mewtwo?~" Mew floated over in front of him, looking genuinely worried.
Silence again...then Maru gently placed his hand on Mew's head and closed his eyes. "Read my memories of last Saturday," he bade.
Mew widened her eyes. Mewtwo had never let her read his mind! Not that she let him, or many people wanted her to, but she always had respected his wishes and never pressed too much before. She always let him tell her what had happened in words. This must have been something pretty bad...She nodded and went to work.
As Mew viewed the scenes in his memory, Maru felt a funny feeling in his head...as if someone were flipping pages of a book made out of his hippocampus. A few moments later, Mew ducked from his contact, breaking the secure mind read, directing her pitying eyes away from the prideful pokémon. "~Oh, Mewtwo...~" she shook her head. "~I...sensed something had happened, but...yow...this sucks.~" She looked at his waist and the weapon strapped there. She smirked. "~Nice stick, though.~"
Maru blushed and swatted at her head, hitting only air as she giggled. "Friend or not, you make tasteful jokes around me," he admonished through gritted teeth. "And that was terribly inappropriate."
Mew smiled at her favorite Mewtwo Pet Peeve. "~You're still you, though,~" she pointed out. "~A bit depressed, but still you. That's good. Remember that.~"
Maru raised his eyebrows, then chuckled, smiling wryly. "Of course, a test...How can someone so incurably playful be so wise?" he asked for the millionth time.
"~Actually Centuries Old. How many times do I have to tell you?~" Mew replied for the millionth time, winking. The two shared a chuckle.
"A legendary pokémon who moonlights as a Troper," Maru muttered, smoothing his hair and looking skyward. "I have seen it all." He looked back at her and beckoned her. "Come on, we should not have you out in broad citylight like this." He started back into his home.
"~I concur,~" Mew nodded, and followed him through a window.
Mewtwo/Maru's home was little more than a single, small, circular room, but it was all he required. The door was boarded shut, cobwebs hung everywhere, a few old boxes were strewn about, and the place smelled like must, but there was still electricity running there (Mewtwo had made sure of that), and it provided enough of a shelter for whenever winter would come.
A single light bulb hung from the ceiling, but it was broken; Mewtwo had relied on his low-light vision to see by citylight, which was enough even in human form (though barely). To the right wall of the single window was the requisite part of a Mewtwo dwelling: Huge plasma widescreen mounted on the wall and large-keyed keyboard at a desk. A stout wooden stool sat before it—old, but strong enough to withstand over 250 pounds of purple. By that was a small bookcase with many books on it, most of them read already. Mew noticed an atlas of the Unova region, a collection of the works of Victor Hugo, and their world's version of Maus I & II (the only differences being location names and pokémon instead of animals). Mewtwo's bed was not a bed, but a large hammock...over a mattress, much to Mew's amusement. Finally, by the black-curtained window was an old coat rack, on which hung a couple lengths of brown cloth for his cloaks, all neatly tattered just the right amount.
"~Quaint,~" Mew nutshelled it, stopping to float in the middle of the room with her paws on her hips as she looked about.
"All I need," Maru shrugged, hopping up on his hammock. "Well?" he gestured with his arms before swinging his legs up. "You know what has been going on with my life."
Mew nodded. "~Wait right there,~" she said, then Teleported. A few moments passed before she returned with an energetic, "DEI!" and Maru blanched, only half-expecting seeing her return carrying pom-poms in her raised arms. Mew was now dressed up in full cheerleader attire—as in, Western cheerleader attire...modified for pokémon, naturally. She wore a yellow tank top and pleated skirt with blue diagonal stripes across the pleats. Each hem was brown. On the tank was the same symbol seen before—it was too dark to completely make it out, but it did look like a flaming pokéball. Under that was a white t-shirt. She even wore shoes—green tongue-less and toeless sneakers that were stretched to fit around her feet, with white soles and cuffs. A flame design was on the sides, and instead of string, the shoes were laced up with pink ribbon. This ribbon was the same pink as her pom-poms. In a way, she looked adorable.
Maru blinked a few times before face-palming. "YOU. ARE. JOKING."
Mew giggled, turning a circle. Naturally, she had a big, pink bow on her tail. "~Nope!~" she shook her head.
Maru sighed, shaking his head and holding his hands up. "I knew you were associated with them, but, well, now that I think about it, it fits you like a glove," he mused aloud.
Mew giggled and tossed her pom-poms up, Teleporting them off, and (a mite slower than normal) summoned a bubble to sit on. "~Well, to make a long story short,~" she began, "~I met this kid named Kioshi, part of the ouendan that saved the world a while back—you remember?~"
Maru scowled. "No, sadly," he answered sourly. "I later heard all about what happened, but at the time, I was lying on garbage in an alley. Something snuck in under my radar and struck my head with a strong Ghost-type attack or something, knocking me out." He smirked. "Probably because they knew I would kick their asses with whatever it was they were doing," he comforted himself.
Mew rolled her eyes at that last bit, but had made an "Oooh!" face as he described what happened. "~Well, that sucks. Anyway, 'Two, I met this kid Kioshi, the de facto leader of the ouendan that had crossed over to our world from theirs. He had this wild dragonair with him. His friends, Suzu and Hibiki, had a wild teddiursa and croconaw with them, too. You get told how there were actually three pokémon helping cheer on everyone in the final song? Three pokémon who were cheering human-style?~"
Maru frowned in thought, trying to recall. "...I do not believe so," he answered slowly.
"~Well, those three pokémon were a dragonite, an ursaring, and a feraligatr.~" Maru raised his eyebrows and smirked at this. Mew continued, smiling. "~You catching on?~"
"They became the Pokédan."
"~Yep!~" Mew grinned. "~See—~" She leaned in close and held a paw to her mouth, speaking a bit softer. "~Don't tell her I told ya, but that dragonite, who later decided to name herself Netsui, had a hyuuuge crush on Kioshi, and she didn't want him to go yet.~" Maru couldn't help but chuckle (narrowly avoiding snorting outwards) as Mew leaned back and spoke normally again. "~So, Netsui, Ursa, and Feral, as the other two are usually called back at HQ, followed Kioshi back home. There, they got the three kids' mentors' blessing to start their own team. When I found them again to check in on them, they told me they needed to form a group of cheer girls.~" She giggled and closed-eye smiled. "~I'd always wanted to do that, and I love cheering people up, so I said I'd be glad to help!~" She smiled wryly at him, half-eying, as she added, "~I said I'd already had a lot of experience dealing with a really gloomy guy.~"
Maru half-eyed back. "Trust me, you would be gloomy, too, if you went through what I did," he grumbled.
"~Me? Gloomy? Yeah, right!~" Mew laughed. Maru had to admit, she had a point, there. Mew continued. "~So, yeah—I'm the leader of the Pokédan's cheer girls. My backups are Willow—a vulpix—and Neige—a glaceon—and both are excellent at cheering and providing something to the group. Willow cooks pretty well for a wild pokémon, and Neige helps teach us how to handle different terrain types and emergency situations.~"
"And you use Teleport to get the squad where they need to be," Maru guessed, pointing.
Mew nodded, then raised an eyebrow. "~You could sense my signature this afternoon, couldn't ya?~"
"And you could sense me." Maru nodded. "So you have been helping the team start up, I take it?" Mew nodded. "I see..." Maru nodded again. "I understand. After seeing what the Pokédan can do for people and pokémon in need like that, I can see how important it must be. Take as much time as you need to serve them."
Mew nodded. "~Thanks for your blessing, O Mighty Purple One,~" she chuckled.
Maru smirked. "Damn straight. Now, just curious, how come you decided to come back now?"
Mew looked away. "~Well...~"
*FLASHBACK!*
The Pokédan's HQ was in an old Japanese-style house on a small islet in the Orange Archipelago that had acted as a summer home to a family that was friends to one of the squad's members. It was one story, but had a good number of rooms, and could accommodate all eight members of the group easily. Not only that, but there was enough room on the rest of the island for them to practice cheering and, important to any wild pokémon determined not to be captured, training.
Netsui, Ursa, and Feral appeared in a flash as Mew Teleported them back after they had seen the ending of their target's story. Netsui whispered out of the corner of her mouth, "Okay, now!"
"""OUEN!"""
"DAI!"
"SEI!"
"KOU!"
(...)
(WHOOO! YEAAAHH! clappity-clappity)
Vrrrrrnnnn-Chuk. Chuk. Chuk. Chuk. Chuk. Chuk. Chuk. Chuk—
VWOOYYY-PSHH!
(...)
BREEWWEH!
Mew smiled as the three did the traditional post-cheer declaration. As they had just said, their cheer had been a "big success". "~Good work on your first official cheer, you guys!~" she congratulated, clapping.
"See, we couldn't do it there because they'd hear us, and that's rude," Netsui was telling the others. She spoke in fluent Human, voice deep but feminine. When she heard Mew speaking, she stopped and turned to her. "Huh?...Oh!" She put a hand behind her neck, smiling sheepishly. "Yeah, thanks...Whew, was I nervous!"
"YOU were nervous?" Ursa and Feral said together before laughing with her. Now that they weren't cheering someone anymore, they didn't need to act so seriously all the time.
Mew, meanwhile, was sitting on a rock, lost in thought. '~That was Mewtwo I sensed,~' she thought. '~It's been a long time since I've seen him...~' She frowned worriedly. '~I hope he's not mad at me...~'
"Mew?" Mew looked up and saw Netsui coming over, looking at her in interest. "You okay? You look troubled..."
Mew shook her head. "~No, fine, just...thinking about something that popped in my head while watching you guys,~" she replied, smiling. "~Nothing major.~"
"Ah." Netsui stretched. "Wow...Did I do alright? I missed a few here and there, since it wasn't a song we've practiced all that much..."
"Netsui?" Ursa asked, coming over and raising an eyebrow.
"NONE of our songs are ones we've practiced all that much," Feral told her wryly, joining his friend.
Netsui held her paws up in defeat. "True, true..." She clasped them together as she smiled wistfully at the clouds. "Oh, if only Kioshi could have seen me...!" she yearned breathlessly.
Everyone else face-palmed. "Could you please get over that crush, already!" laughed Feral. "He's a human! You're a pokémon! It just wouldn't work out!"
Netsui laughed, turning to them with a pleasant smile. "Yeah, I know, but I still love his guts," she said. "And remember, if it weren't for him, we wouldn't be here doing what we're doing, and what we're doing is a very good thing."
'~Even so...~' Mew thought guiltily, biting her lip. She looked at the friends she had made in the last few weeks and thought about the one she had made for a good long time. '~...As important as I am to them, I doubt they'll need me for...what, an hour?...~'
*/FLASHBACK!*
Maru nodded. "I see," he said. He smiled sadly. "Well, I hate to break it to you, but there is little we could do right now, seeing as my powers have waned." He looked glumly out the window. "Otherwise, I would most definitely have acquiesced to a race..."
Mew frowned. 'He seems really disappointed,' she thought. '~There's nothing we could do...?~' Suddenly, she had it, and she brightened up. "~Hey, 'Two?~"
Maru looked back at her, expression plain again. "Yes?"
Mew floated up, smiling helpfully. "~If your powers are gone, then why don't we try and bring them back a bit?~" she suggested. "~We could do a little training!~"
Maru raised his eyebrows, then narrowed them in a mischievous smirk. "I thought you were a pacifist," he teased. "But I will take it!"
"~I'm only a pacifist when I can be,~" Mew shrugged, floating to the window. "~Not when, say, dealing with a whiny, scared little child trying to take over the world by force.~"
Maru raised an eyebrow as he got out of the hammock. "That was ages ago, come off it, already," he grumbled, and Mew giggled.
Outside, the two went to the area where Mewtwo had trained before. (Maru could get there by foot easily—it was just a difficult path through the alleyways that made flying more desirable.) Ren was there that night—it was still his favorite secluded spot—and when he saw Mew, he yelped, jumped, and flailed a bit before falling spectacularly off his bench, making both pokémon laugh.
"Dude, I cleaned up long ago—so why am I trippin'?" Ren asked in disbelief while he hauled himself up again, eyes wide and somewhat scared at Mew. "I'm seein' a mew! In a cheerleader's outfit!"
"That you are," Maru agreed, sweatdropping at Mew. "Mew, could you please at least take that ridiculous out—" He ducked a flying kick aimed at his head.
"~It's not ridiculous!~" Mew protested, frowning and crossing her arms. "~...But you're right. I should remove it. I don't want it to get hurt.~" She easily grabbed the garments with telekinesis, undid what needed to be undone, and took off her clothing. (She's a pokémon, she had nothing to worry about. Still, Ren felt he had to look away during this.)
"Whatcha guys doing?" Ren asked during this.
"Mew is going to help me train a little so I can get on my way back to normal," Maru answered.
"Okay, ready?" Maru asked once she was finished.
Mew nodded. "~Ready!~" She flew to one end of the area, Maru jogging to a spot off center. Mew turned. "~Alright, you're level 3 right now, so you know...what?~" she asked.
"Technically, all, but I right now just 'know' Confusion, Disable, and Barrier," Maru listed. "But the man who stole my power not only stole what moves I could use properly, but he diluted my overall psychic powers." He scowled. "As such, I cannot use Confusion or Disable in battle, and Barrier has become extraordinarily thin."
Mew nodded, taking this in. "~Can you do any, like, special techniques besides moves?~" she asked.
Maru nodded. "Yes. I can do a quick dodging dash to avoid damage and a technique I call 'Slashfest'. I jump onto an opponent's back and give a few quick slashes to their head before kicking off of them. Of course, my opponent must be my size or larger, and safe to ride."
Mew thought for a bit longer. "~Hmmmmm...Okay, first off—Barrier.~" She put one up—a very thin one. "~I know we usually are powerful enough that we don't need to worry about it, but truth be told, it takes a lot of energy to put up a full Barrier. And the more area it has to cover, the thinner it stretches. That's why most pokémon just put up a wall; it works for most attacks and doesn't cover as much surface area as a sphere.~" The pink bubble around her slowly came to a point, thickening as it did. "~The more you condense it, the stronger it gets. Follow me?~"
Maru raised his eyebrows. "I never thought about that..." he muttered. He looked at his hands before nodding and drawing his stick. 'So just condense the Barrier, and...' He held his right arm up as if raising a shield, stick pointing down at an angle to his right, gritting his teeth, grunting. "HUP!" A relatively small circle of Barrier appeared before his forearm, bright and blue. He grunted, holding it, before letting his breath out and sighing. "I cannot hold it for long like that, it is too taxing," he said disappointedly. "But it is progress."
"~Then just do it when you gotta,~" Mew suggested in a simple tone. "~Better yet, set it so that it's weak at first, but when you sense an attack about to hit, reflexively strengthen it just in time. Can you do that?~"
Maru thought for a moment, then nodded. "I think so. Shall we try?"
"~Sure! I'll send some bubbles your way. You use Barrier to block them!~" Mew created a reasonably large, soft bubble before sending it towards Maru. Maru waited until it came close, then held his arm up again. This time, only a very faint, body-covering flat circle appeared in front of Maru. He still could not hold it for too long, but he had timed it well enough. Right when the bubble touched an invisible psychic tripwire deployed with the shield, Maru put more power into and condensed the shield, throwing his other arm in front of his raised one in a guarding "X" while he braced against the impact of the bubble bursting against his Barrier. He skidded back a bit from the force. He held the Barrier for a fraction of a second before letting it down again.
Maru smiled, satisfied, and nodded. "It worked like a charm," he reported. "I felt very little energy being drained. I think I could do that all day if I had to!"
Mew smirked. "~We'll see about that,~" she said before sending a few more bubbles at him. Maru practiced his Barrier Guard on each one. He even found that he could psychically absorb some of the kinetic force from the blow to give a tiny boost—just what he needed to block a chain of attacks. After a few more successful blocks, Mew stopped. "~Alrighty! I think we just mastered how you'll be using Barrier for a while!~" she announced briskly, paws on hips.
Maru smirked, nodding. "Yes, that will work great. Thank you for helping."
Mew crossed her arms. "~I think you could even use it just at will and not worry about it being one of your primary moves,~" she added. Maru agreed, commenting how simple it was to him, now.
***LEARNED Barrier Guard – Ability***
Press the Maneuver Button while standing still to guard against frontal attacks.
"~Alright, notice anything while you've been fighting the past couple days?~" Mew asked. "~About using attacks more than just normal ones.~"
Maru thought a moment. "Well, for some reason, it feels like I could not use Slashfest again right away after using it once; I have to wait a few moments before I can use it again," he described, frowning. "It must be a side effect from the power loss...That guy really screwed me up..."
"~I'll say,~" Mew nodded, raising an eyebrow at his strange affliction. "~I betcha your body sorta treats it like a move—you know how some pokémon treat moves as having a bit of cooldown so that they can use it repeatedly instead of just blasting 'em all out at once and running outta juice?~"
Maru thought for a moment, holding his chin and elbow. "Of course, that Reload vs. Power Points argument that I've heard going on amongst wild pokémon these days," he mumbled, brow furrowed in interest. "How it seems that sometimes, in battle, a pokémon ends up unable to use a move, save for if it consumes Lum, is treated with an ether-type item, or waits for a bit, usually longer than the battle will last. This lets them use some moves over and over at the risk of running out of shots for it. The Power Points side of it.
"And on the Reload side of it, pokémon use moves once, or maybe more times in quick succession, and waits a little bit while resting their body from that move for a few moments. This means that moves cannot really be used that often, and perhaps they are a little weaker than normal, but they are able to use moves many times in battle."
Ren spoke suddenly. "Dude, so, like little moves like Scratch and Tackle that take up a lotta energy would work best doing that Power Points way and super-strong moves like Fire Blast and Blizzard would be better with that Reload way," he observed. He paused, thinking, then added to himself, "Hey, I wonder if moves like Hyper Beam where the pokémon has to recharge can kinda be like a fusion of those two...?"
Maru raised an eyebrow, then nodded. "You are correct, Ren," he said, a little impressed. "You suppose my body has been doing the Reload method instinctively to conserve my power?" he wondered, crossing his arms.
Mew nodded. "~That's what it sounds like,~" she guessed, "~and I betcha it'll work a lot better than the Power Points method. So if your body thinks it can handle more than one of the same move, you'd better make sure it knows that before going into battle. Even so, each use will count as a single shot, probably, so no using one, then waiting a bit, using the other, and then going right back to the fresh-charged first and doing them both one after the other. The first was ready, but the second wasn't.~"
"This is a very odd way of fighting, but I suppose it works," Maru muttered, raising an eyebrow. He shrugged. "Okay. How about we test this theory out. Mew, teach me a new move or technique."
Mew started. "~What? Um...okay, erm...any preferences?~" she asked, sweatdropping.
Maru smiled brightly. "Transform?" he asked hopefully.
Mew facepalmed, smiling. "~Well, I highly doubt you're ready for that, given how difficult it was last time,~" she laughed. When Mewtwo had asked Mew one day if she could try teaching him Transform, he had no idea how difficult it was to do. Powerful psychic he was, efficiently both altering his DNA and cells (almost) painlessly was something almost beyond his ken. But, stubborn as he was, he finally learned it after a solid month of training. All that work going to waste (in the opposite direction, in a way) was one of the biggest blows to him after his power had gone away.
"It was worth a shot," Maru sighed, smiling faintly.
"~I couldn't even if I tried...~" Mew murmured, looking away.
Maru tilted his head. "What was that?" he asked.
Mew shook her head. "~Nothing.~"
Maru gesticulated. "I still would like to learn a move or something to test out how that Reload method works," he insisted.
Mew frowned, worried. "~I haven't the slightest on what move to try and teach you that won't take too much energy,~" she admitted sorrily.
Maru frowned. "Not even a straight-up fighting technique?" he asked. Mew shook her head. He sighed. "Great. Oh, well..."
"Fighting techniques, you say you wanted, dude?" Ren asked, raising an eyebrow.
Maru turned to him, raising one back. "Yeah—what, have you been withholding some prowess on me?" he asked, smirking.
Ren grinned and stood up, fists on his hips, and nodded proudly. "Not to brag, but I'm one of the best when it comes to street fights among my peers around here," he announced.
Maru and Mew sweatdropped. 'Among his "peers"?...' they wondered. Maru crossed his arms, looking skeptical. "And you decided to not show me...why?"
Ren laughed. "What, spar against you? Yeah, right!" he scoffed, shaking his head. "And before you say anything about helping you these past few days, you never asked, dude," he added, pointing at him and raising a gotcha-there eyebrow with his smirk.
Maru bobbed his head in annoyed defeat. 'He has a point,' he admitted. He half-eyed at him. "I still have trouble believing you," he said flatly. "Show me some of your moves, then we shall see."
Ren grinned and got up, throwing off his object-packed coat onto the ground. His clothing was sweat-stained and ragged, but so is the life of a homeless man. (Maru felt slightly guilty looking at the old, not-so-unlikely vintage Slayers t-shirt, remembering his annoyance that his own shirts were getting dirty so he had to buy a new one—which he could do. Speaking of, said shirt was on him now, a plain blue one with some illegibly faded silk screen design that might have spelled out a swear at one point.) Ren reached to his coat again and pulled out what looked like half a cane with a gem missing from the top. It looked sturdy, strong, and supple. Maru couldn't help but compare its well-balanced form to his measly stick. Ren held it like a sword. "Okay, bring it on, dude!" Ren beckoned after stepping into the ring.
Maru nodded and got into stance before the bout began. He went forwards after locking onto Ren with his eyes and a tiny amount of psychic energy to keep a bead on him if he ended up behind his back. Ren held up surprisingly well, taking a good amount more hits to defeat than most outlaws he had faced in the past few days—more hits than any outlaws period. He also attacked quickly with his cane, guarding occasionally as well. He even jumped almost as high as Maru! His drawback was that he wasn't exactly super-strong, but he was strong enough to tire Maru a bit.
During the fight, apart from normal combos, he occasionally unleashed stronger attacks. Before the bout was over, he abruptly unleashed a rapid-fast spin to knock Maru away, surprised Maru with an upwards slash that knocked him into the air, and did a quick but powerful jumping overhead strike strengthened with a spinning windup. Maru was most intrigued by the attack that knocked him into the air. 'I could follow that up with an aerial combo,' he thought.
When the final blow was struck, Ren stumbled back, laughing and holding an arm out. "Okay, dude, I give, I give!" he laughed. "You got me!"
Maru stopped and went over to him, smiling approvingly. "You really are a decent fighter, Ren," he complimented. "You should have said something sooner!" (He had even gained experience from fighting him, meaning he really was a true challenge; to Maru's pleasant surprise, he had leveled up as a result.)
Ren sighed, hand on the back of his neck. "Well, thanks—it's just I know you woulda creamed me, dude, which ya did," he chuckled. "But yeah, you just talk to me anytime, and we can do a bit of sparring. Just...don't try and spar with me all the time. I gotta conserve what energy I can get, y'know?" he asked with a mirthless smile.
Maru returned the expression. "Alright. Thank you."
Ren nodded. "Alright, how's about this—I can teach ya some basic but pretty good attacks for you to use," he said, gesticulating. "But it ain't gonna be free. I wanna help ya, but I gotta help myself, you know? But don't worry, it's cheap—and this first one's gonna be on the house. If you want me to teach you anything, just talk to me."
Maru's face brightened a bit. "That would be great, thank you," he said. "Now, about that freebie...Could you teach me that attack where you hit someone up into the air that you did?"
"Rising Strike? Sure!" Ren grinned, and he got into the center of the plaza. "Okay, watch me closely..." He brought his cane high to the side behind him before taking a step and swinging it, letting its weight carry it, in an upwards swoosh, stepping forwards again as he let the weight take him back to stance. "That's the basics of it. Go for it, dude!"
Maru thought for a moment before getting into stance. He then stepped forwards, bringing his stick back and his left hand up to it, and swung it down and up heavily with his left hand, letting his foot step back into stance. He quickly switched hands after the slash itself, right hand coming up to meet the left at the end of the swing. He nodded. "I think I got it," he announced.
"Right on, dude! Now, come to me when you got time and money, and I'll teach you some more," Ren smiled. He turned and started back to his bench when he stopped, looking at his cane and Maru's stick. He looked at Maru kindly. "Dude, you maybe wanna trade up?" he offered.
Maru raised his eyebrows. "Really?" he asked, walking over. "That cane looks very high-quality...You sure you want to trade it for just a stick?..."
Ren chuckled. "I think you deserve it more than I do, dude," he replied, holding his cane out.
Maru smiled a little sheepishly. "Oh..." He took the cane and gave him the stick. "Thank you very much, Ren." He bowed courteously.
Ren chuckled. "No problem!" He looked at the stick and raised an eyebrow. "Truth be told, for a stick, this ain't bad!" He chuckled and went back to his bench, where he put the stick in his coat and the coat on his body.
***LEARNED Rising Strike – Attack Command***
Smack foes high into the air.
***RECIEVED Cane***
A well-balanced cane that retains an air of style despite its missing gem. A gift from Ren.
"~Alright, does your body make you wait until you can use Rising Strike again?~" Mew asked after a moment.
Maru shrugged. "Let me see," he said. He executed a Rising Strike, then tried to do it again—and found himself unable to. He shook his head. "The Reload method counts for techniques as well as moves, I can confirm it," he stated.
"~Good!~" Mew nodded, smiling. She prepared another bubble. "~How about one last bout before we're done for tonight? You can practice your new attack some more and test out that cane!~"
Maru nodded. "Sounds good. Begin!" he shouted, getting into stance once more.
Mew sent out many bubbles at him that tried to "attack" him by running into him quickly. Most were moderately small, but some were big and strong enough that he could use Slashfest on them. (Ren would always dive out of the way if he tried it on him.) This got him used to the Reload method's ways and let him see how good the cane really was. If a bubble burst in the middle of a Slashfest, he just stopped moving and let himself fall. By the end of the round, he was almost level 5. 'I should be leveled up by Friday if not sooner,' he thought.
"~Alright, I think that's enough,~" Mew said after the last bubble was popped. She flew over to Maru, grabbing her cheering outfit from Ren's bench with telekinesis. She smiled at Maru. "~It was good to see you again, Mewtwo,~" she said softly, "~and I'm sorry, but I dunno if I can come see you every day.~"
"No worries," Maru shook his head, smiling. "If the Pokédan really need you that much, then go ahead. I will be fine."
Mew nodded, smiling sheepishly. "~Thanks...~" She backed away, then paused. "~You...~" She backed away again, smiling broadly at her friend in concern. "~You be careful, alright?~" she asked. Maru nodded, and Mew used Teleport to vanish herself and her clothing.
"You can kick ass and take names, and you're buddy-buddy with the world's rarest pokémon," Ren summarized from the bench. He smirked. "Dude, have I told you that you're unbelievably awesome? 'Cuz you are."
Maru laughed.
~Author's Note~
Writing this in advance because I wanna say something:
*FWUMPs into chair*
I did it. I DID IT. I listened closely to all of "III" and wrote down the lyrics as accurately as I think I heard them without any other current lyrics to help me! (Well, that I know of! I searched and searched, but I found nothing, so...) I've been dreading this moment for a good couple years but I DID IIIIIIT! *pumps arms in victory*
Seriously, you guys have NO idea how tough that was. Listen to the song. Go on, YouTube "Cube Juice III" and listen while watching the weird and amusing video. (With the most winningly random intro I've ever seen in my life. "Lungston clipper-filler." (Oh, wow, OpenOffice recognizes "winningly" as a word.))
That also said, I'm proud of this stage. Not only did I do a pretty decent job with doing a stage again after a good two+ years, but I did it relatively short, sweet, to the point, and (if I do say so myself) amusingly. I'm also proud because, well, I pulled this outta my ass when I started out Monday just doing some editing work with my current material and wrapped it up Tuesday (today, meaning now we're in the end-of-chapter note).
With that in mind, I hope that you all didn't mind that little break too much. It's just that these guys are gonna play a pretty sizable role in the story...as if they haven't already. (Kudos to those of you who know why I say that!) I'm actually glad with how I ended up working it into the theme of the story like I did—the idea came to me just today and I edited the stage intro to reflect that.
I then put in that extra stuff to make it feel like the chapter was actually going somewhere. Yes, this "game" isn't going to be just some weird variation of KHII's system—it's gonna be a weird variation of that and BbS/Re:coded's Command Deck systems. Seriously, I was wondering how on Earth I'd explain why the hell you'd have to wait after a single use of a command like that, or why you'd have to buy new commands (which I'm still kinda wondering), and even so, I think it's still kinda too video game-y. I'll work it out somehow. Oh, and, chaosglory626, you feelin' a bit better about the cane, now? XD; When I found Ren was going to spar with Maru, I was like, "He needs a weapon," and the idea for him to use the cane and later give it to Maru popped up. So, yes, he's still got that stylin' cane, given by a hobo, but still he's got that cane! (For what use it's gonna see by the end of this Piece...)
Okay, I have GOT to avoid extending Maru's (or Ash's) chapters like this! TimetimeTIME! *mrfs and scuttles around nervously* And I now have enough characters for an omake, so...shoot! Well, g'night, folks, and try not to be too mad about this, pleeeeease! n.n;
Hey, look, it's a walkthrough! ferretrip (dot) wikia (dot) com (slash) wiki (slash) Walkthrough_KH2 It's got lots of extra plot stuff for you to enjoy-basically, all the stuff that I glossed over at the beginning of the chapter, so go on and check it out! (It'll take some time before the next chapter unless I can hurry my ass up today, which I doubt will happen, so it'll while the time away, at least.) IT ALSO INCLUDES A MAP FOR NIGHTSKY CITY THAT I WORKED ON PRETTY HARD!
Also, in regards to the lyrics: My friend Yuto has been helping me with them. I've put in the romaji he's gotten, which is automatically much better than mine, seeing as he's actually Japanese. He's trying to figure out how to translate it because its literal translation is very strange...it's obviously very poetic. For example, his literal translation of the first part is like this: "Fit precisely fighting pose mercy too\also don't feel like saving/In front of opposite bank love is injury time/Minus plus\add test\exam to the plus mind defeat\destroy future". ?_? Yeah. Cube Juice is apparently a bit...different.
~8D OMAKE 8D~
*Maru is reflecting on what Mew told him back in his hammock later that night*
Maru: 'How strange and silly...Pokémon as cheerleaders...I guess it could work. The three I saw and Mew are all bipedal. There are lots of good bipedal pokémon out there who could do that.'
Maru: …
Maru: *wears a confused face* 'Wait, then how can a vulpix and glaceon cheer?'
*Back at the Pokédan HQ*
Neige (the glaceon, remember): *sweatdropping and smiling wryly, talking to a wild paras wearing a similar expression to Maru* Lots and lots of practice...
Willow (the vulpix): *by her, smiling happily* It helps me cook, though!
Paras: *sweatdropping and smiling* O-Oh, I see...*pauses, then looks wide-eyed at Willow* Wait, you can cook?