-chapter13 the mystery of Myrenthall, part 4-

The next morning we took Nina to school as usual, then the mechanic called us, so we picked up the car, which had finally been repaired, and then we headed to the facility, With Phoebe driving her car, while I took the sedan, with Charley comfortably watching tv in back. We didn't have enough time to take her car home as they expected us to be there at around 9:30.

Once we got there, we were sent to the briefing room once again, which had now become the usual since Myrenthal escaped. James was already there waiting for us.

Phoebe: "So what's going on today?'

James :"I've recieved some strange news..."

Me: "What does that mean?"

James: "It appears that Myrenthall has kidnapped Christine."

-in disbelief- Phoebe: "No way!..."

Me: "We arrested her just to have him kidnap her?"

Me: "What?"

James: "The power bracelets made her an easy target."

Phoebe: "He'll probably try to marry her..."

Me: "Yeah..."

Me: "That said, what do we care?"

-amused- Phoebe: "I hate to admit it, but Cj's right, marrying him seems like a fitting punishment for her."

James: "Because if we can get Christine back, even for a moment, we could convince her to lure Myrenthall out."

James:"Because he has smartened up, we don't where he's hiding, because he's not showing up on the cameras like he used too."

James: "Anyway Matt should be here shortly."

-unsure- Me: "You arrested him?"

James: "No...we're keeping him under our protection, just in case Myrenthall wants him dead, that and there's a chance that if Christine gets in a dire enough situation she may contact him with her powers."

Me :"How?"

Phoebe: "Because they used to be close...she's familiar with how his mind works, if she could find a way to amplify her telepathic abilities, she could contact him easilly."

Phoebe: "That's how I can find you in crowds easilly because I know you so well."

Me: "Ok."

James :"Anyway, aside from that, we don't have any more missions for you."

James: "Hopefully Christine will be able to attempt to escape on her own, or atleast force Myrenthall to make mistakes, ."

James: "Because as of now, we have no idea where either of them are."

Phoebe: "So how's Melissa? Is she doing ok, I haven't seen her in so long."

James: "She's not feeling the best, but, she's allright."

-curious- Phoebe: "Are you excited?"

James: "I'm a bit more worried then excited."

-cheerfully-Phoebe: "Ohhhh, it'll be fine, you'll see, you'll have two adorable babies..."

-cutely- Charley: "Cawey es bay.."

Phoebe: "Yes you're a baby too aren't you?"

James: "Anyway, that's all I've got for today, just be ready to get called out if we find anything."

Phoebe: "Ok."

James:"Maybe you could drop by the portal lab, they're doing some experiments with places they've already explored."

James:"They've also ammassed a large collection of things from all the worlds they've discovered."

Me:"Allright, sounds cool."

Phoebe:" Then let's go see."

Me:"Allright then."

Phoebe:"Goodbye James."

James:"Goodbye."

-cutely- Charley: "goobye j-jase!"

Phoebe: "hehe."

We left the room and headed back to the portal lab, it had been quite awhile since we had been there, and when we arrived, the room looked completely different. There was lots of junk scattered everywhere, strange looking guns, books, posters, antique furniture, and in the corner of the room, was a race car and a motorcycle, which Dr. Black was currently inspecting. Dr. Nash was nowhere to be seen.

Me: "Where's Dr. Nash?"

Dr. Black: "I'm afraid he transfered to another department."

Dr. Black: "So I'm running this experiment now."

Me: "Ok."

Phoebe: "Is all this stuff from the portals?"

Dr. Black: "Mhm."

Charley: "Mawa Cawey see peepo.."

-playfully- Phoebe: "Mhm..we know seewee."

Dr. Black: "They wouldn't let us explore the new portals yet, so we've been going back through the old ones and collecting things."

Me: "Does this thing work?"

Dr. Black: "No, I don't think it does, it worked in it's world, but since I drove it through the portal it hasn't wanted to start."

Dr. Black: "Stranger still it doesn't seem to have any moving parts except for the wheels and handlebars."

Me: "You get this from Grand theft auto land, or the other racing world?"

Dr. Black: "Grand theft auto land, that car over there is from the racing world, it's kind of the same way, can't even get inside it though."

Me: "How'd you get it out?"

Dr. Black:" It wasn't easy, we had to borrow an alakazam from Dr. Melzinga from the lab down the hall to teleport it out of the racetrack, as not even a machamp could throw it out, there was an invisible wall that was only solid for it, though everyone else could pass through, but once the alakazam teleported it around that wall, the machamp was easilly able to push it through the portal.

Me: "It's indestructable?:

Dr. Black: "Yeah it's electromatter, it's kind of like porygon.

Dr. Black:"But like porygon, doesn't have many moving parts besides the wheels."

Dr. Black: "And despite not having any mechanical parts aside from the wheels, it weighs just as much as a real race car, give or take a few pounds.

Me:"What about the driver?"

There was a helmeted driver behind the window, sitting completely still.

Dr. Black:"Completely inorganic."

Me:"Creepy."

Phoebe:"Atleast it has a helmet."

Me:"True."

Me:"It's not a creepy, staring face."

Dr. Black:"As our next subject may be."

Dr. Black:"We sent some agents back into gta land a few minutes ago, we're trying to see what happens when a pedestrian is brought into this world."

Me:"Wait what?"

Phoebe:"What if it ends up like Myrenthall?"

Dr. Black:"Its very unlikely there will be any issue, considering the pedestrians seem to be less than intelligent beings."

-on radio- unknown agent:"We have succesfully restrained the pedestrian, we'll have it back in a jiff."

-on radio- Dr. Black:"Allright Hetz bring him back."

Dr. Black: "Anyway we have big plans comming up."

Phoebe: "Like what?"

Dr. Black: "We haven't proposed this to Melissa yet."

Dr. Black: "But we're planning on forming a team of recruits from all over the multiverse, in order to explore it."

Me: "Are you sure they'll allow that...especially with Myrenthall and everything?"

Dr. Black: "I don't know, that's why we're waiting for you guys to bust Myrenthall, before we say anything to Melissa about this."

Bob: "Oh, hello you two.."

-kindly- Phoebe: "Three."

He didn't realize Charley was with us. So she turned around and showed him.

Bob:" Hehe...ok."

Charley: "Mawa Cawey see mo peepo..."

-playfully- Phoebe: "I know sweety you're seeing alot of people today aren't you?"

Bob: "So what are you two doing here?"

Phoebe:"Ohhh...just stopping by. Seeing if you needed out help or not."

Bob:"Did you tell em about our plan doc?"

Dr. Black: "Affirmative."

Bob: "Whadya think?"

Phoebe: "It could be pretty fun if it works out like you say it."

Phoebe: "But really it's not our decision it's Melissa's."

Me: "Right."

Charley: "Mawa whe meweesa? Cawey no see Meweesa, lah tie..."

Phoebe: "Ohhhh I know sweety.."

Phoebe: "She's allright she's just at home.."

Phoebe: "Getting ready for her babies."

Bob:"Sorry but we don't really have anything else planned for today, maybe you could come back tomorrow."

Phoebe:"Oh ok, we'll have to see what Myrenthal does though."

-playfully- Phoebe:"Say goodbye Charley."

-cutely- Charley:"Gahbye!"

Phoebe:"hehe, allright lets go."

We left the facility and returned home, it seemed like the rest of the day was going to be normal, until we went back into town to pick Nina up from school. Only to find out that she and her friends had gone to the gym, after waiting around in the parking lot of her school for about half an hour until Phoebe decided to go in and ask the teachers where she had gone after nearly all the other students had left.

Phoebe was not pleased with this, to say the least.

I just quietly waited in the car with Charley while she stormed into the gym. It wasn't very long before she came back out with Nina.

-somewhat angry- Phoebe:"Nina we went over this already, if you're planning to go somewhere after school you ned to tell us."

Nina:"I was going to tell you after."

Me:"Sweety it doesn't work that way."

-annoyed- Phoebe:"That's just an excuse, you know you have to tell us first, do you know how long we waited for you at your school?"

Phoebe:"You're grounded."

-scared- Nina:"No!"

-annoyed- Phoebe:"You're not allowed to stay after school with your friends any more."

-defiantly- Nina:"No no no.."

Me:"Nina you're 14 act like it."

-defiantly- Nina:"Screw you."

-angrily yelling- Phoebe:"NINA..."

-upset- Charley:"Mawa no skwee!"

Phoebe:"Great now you upset Charley."

Nina:"No... you upset him."

Me:"Nina...seriously..."

-calmly- Me:"Just stop."

Me: "Why are you fighting us like this?"

-unsure- Nina: "I don't know..."

-sadly- Nina:"I'm sorry."

Me: "It's allright, just settle down."

Me: "You too Pheebles."

Phoebe: "Why me? You heard what she said."

Me: "Just let it go."

Me: "Nina you know better than this."

Nina: "I know..."

-cutely- Charley: "Newa sowhy...may mawa skwee."

Nina: "She didn't scream, she yelled."

Phoebe: "-sighs-, Nina we need to talk when we get home, it's important."

Nina: "ok..."

Nina: "About what?"

Phoebe: "Well...wait and see."

Nina :"awwwe, ok."

When we got home Phoebe sent me upstairs to play with Charley so she could talk to Nina in private...I had suspicions about what they were talking about, but, I figured it was best to let Phoebe handle it.

I helped Charley construct things with his blocks for about half an hour until Phoebe came up.

-seriously- Phoebe "Cj."

Me: "Mhm..."

Phoebe: " You need to know."

Me: "Need to know what?"

Phoebe: "I needed to talk to Nina in private because the way she's acting, she should be going into heat very soon."

Me: "So my suspicions were correct."

Phoebe: "-sighs- Mhm."

Phoebe: "She needs to stay home from school tomorrow."

Me: "Oh she'll be fine.."

Phoebe: "But other pokemon..."

Phoebe: "That's the way they did things when I grew up."

Phoebe: When I went into heat for the first time..."

Me: "Woah woah woah...ralts can go into heat?"

Phoebe: "Only if they're old enough..."

Phoebe: "But they can't actually reproduce until they evolve into kirlia and even then it's heavilly shunned."

Me: "Ok, I don't think I ever needed to know that..."

Phoebe: "Sorry."

Phoebe: "But it's important she stays home."

Me:"Ohhh she'll be fine, they don't just let random pokemon wander into the building.

Phoebe: "Yes but the principle has a that walks around with her."

Me: "Yeah but the is a proffesional he's not going to do that."

Me: "They are psychic types aren't they? "

Me: "They should be smart enough to not give in to their instincts."

Phoebe: "But what if Nina wants to?"

Me: "After what happened to her I highly doubt it."

Phoebe: "Look i'd rather she stay here for the week so I can keep an eye on her."

Phoebe: "It would make me feel so much better."

Me: "-sighs-...aalllllright."

Phoebe :"And she'll be so much safer."

-the next morning, around 7:30am.-

Phoebe and I were snuggling in bed, since Nina wasn't going to school I decided to sleep in.

However, it seemed that Phoebe had not explained to Nina that she wasn't going to school, so about ten minutes from when we would normally have to leave, she bursted into our room.

-unsure- Nina: "Mom help me..."

-just woken up- Me: "Huh?"

Phoebe: "Cj let go of me."

-tiredly- Me: "Huh...oh sorry..."

-worried- Nina: "my boobs are acting weird..."

-tiredly- Me: "Didn't...need...to...hear...that.."

Phoebe: "-sighs-..."

She clambered out of bed and walked Nina out of the room.

Phoebe: "Come on sweety..."

Nina:"They hurt."

Phoebe:"I know...I know, we talked about this yesterday remember?"

She led her out of the room. I fell asleep again just a few minutes later. Waking up when I heard the door open again.

Phoebe: "-sighs-, like I said, she's in heat, -sighs-, arceus, I was hoping we'd have another day to prepare.."

Me:"You were in heat a few months ago weren't you baby?"

-jokingly- Phoebe :"Mhm...glad you remember."

-quietly- Phoebe: "Weirdo.."

-tired- Me: "So what now? "

Phoebe :"Well, its her first time, so it could get pretty bad, her body isn't mature yet, but unlike you humans who mature gradually, she will go through it all at once."

Phoebe: "Thankfully, she's not in love with anyone, so really we just have to keep her away from other pokemon. This will also make her somewhat emotionally confused."

Phoebe :"She's complaining that her boobs hurt and that she's hot, but that's normal."

Me: "Ok."

Phoebe: "Hopefully she'll get through it before next week."

Phoebe: "I set her up with a movie to watch on her tv, so hopefully she'll stay in bed for awhile."

Me: "What about her schoolwork?"

Phoebe: "Um...I don't know."

Me: "If you call in I'm sure we can get next week's work for her and then we can bring it home so she can do it without getting too far behind.."

Phoebe: "Her school wouldn't be used to this would it?"

Me:"Nope..."

Me: "But I'm sure they'll understand."

Me: "We could just say that she's sick."

Phoebe: "Yeah I guess so."

Me: "Potions don't work well against diseases right?"

Phoebe: "Right."

-playfully-Phoebe:"And now the fun part begins."

Me:"Whats that?"

-mischeivously- Phoebe:"Welllllllllll."

Phoebe:"In case she decides she wants you for whatever reason."

-naughtily- Phoebe:"You need to give me your sperms, so she won't be able to seduce you."

Me:"What? Baby girl I'd never do that to her...you know."

Phoebe:"I know, but she could try and..."

Phoebe:"-sighs- Ok you got me... I just want you right now, is that such a bad thing?"

Me:"Well then just come here baby , you don't need to lie you know."

-lovingly- Phoebe: "Ohhh Cj."

-sincerely- Me: "I love you."

We made love and then we just held eachother close throughout the early, quiet hours of the morning.

It was a slow morning, a few minutes after we had sex we both took a shower together seizing the opportunity since Charley wasn't awake yet. After we got dressed we checked on Charley and found him awake in his crib, so we got him changed and dressed and then we all headed downstairs. I turned on the tv for Charley while Phoebe went to check on Nina. After making sure Nina was ok she headed upstairs to retrieve her phone. Then from the sound of things she called Nina's school, and a few minutes later she finally came back down.

Phoebe: "Ok, I called her school, you need to go pick up her homework."

Phoebe:" I'll stay here with her."

Me: "Ok..."

Phoebe :"Why don't you take Charley with you too?"

Me: "Ok. What about work?"

Phoebe:"Maybe Corina can help?"

Me:"I don't know."

Phoebe:"I'll give her a call..."

Phoebe:"and um while you're there, if you could pick up some anesthetics at the store, for Nina, that would be nice."

Me: "Do they even have those?"

Phoebe: "Yeah, just get that stuff we got Charley when he was teething."

Me: "I don't know if that would work for her.."

Me:" I'll see what I can find."

Phoebe: "Ok."

I gave her a hug and kiss goodbye, then I collected Bubba's pokeball from upstairs, then I collected Charley from the floor and finally headed out.

I brought Bubba along so he could watch over Charley while I was in the school collecting Nina's homework. About and hour and a half later, shortly after I had just left the school with a stack of textbooks and papers, Phoebe called me.

Me: "What's going on baby?"

-on phone- Phoebe:"Cj, I brought Nina to the pokemon center, she was having problems breathing."

-concerned-Me:"What?"

-on phone- Phoebe:"I'm don't know, I'm scared, just come quick."

Me:"Ok."

I headed over to the center as fast as I could.

Once I got there Phoebe led me into the back. Of course I brought Charley was with me as well.

-concerned- Me:"What's happening?"

Phoebe: "Here, I'll take Charley, the nurse can explain."

Me: "What's going on?"

She just looked down, doing all she could not to cry.

Me: "Baby girl?"

Phoebe: "The nurse said she might not make it."

Me: "What? She was fine this morning..."

-concerned- Me: "What happened?"

I gave her a hug.

The nurse came out from the back.

Nurse: "Her breathing is stable, but it would be best to keep her here until she gets through it..."

Nurse: "I put her on some pain killers, and some power bracelets.."

Me: "Why does she need bracelets?"

Nurse: "Painkillers can make psychic pokemon lose control of their powers sometimes, especially when combined with sleeping gas."

Nurse: "It's for her own safety so she won't accidently damage the equipment."

Nurse: "Sadly there's not much else I can do. "

-concerned- Me: "What's wrong with my daughter?"

Nurse:" Look, Cj, it's not easy explain, but because team rocket forced her to evolve faster than she should have, she never matured at the Kirlia stage, and now that her body is trying to mature at the gardevoir stage instead, it has brought about some complications. "

The conversation only got more awkward from there, to be honest, I tried not to pay the least bit of attention.

Anyway all I really picked up was.

Phoebe: "So her own boobs can kill her?"

Nurse: "Sadly yes..."

-quietly- Me: "Hey Charley..."

-cutely- Charley:"Dawhy!"

Phoebe:"You want to play with him?"

She handed him over to me, knowing I needed a distraction.

Nurse: "If neccesary we can relieve the pressure through surgery."

-upset- Phoebe: "What are you going to cut her boobs off?"

Nurse: "No...um...not quite."

Nurse: "It's quite simple really."

Nurse: "All we have to do is carefully cut the skin around both of her breasts."

And with that I was more grossed out then upset. I turned my attention towards Charley and did my best to ignore what she was saying. I've had enough of hearing about Nina's boobs for the day. It just wasn't something I wanted to think about...Phoebe's boobs on the other hand...my god were those things beautiful...

The nurse then went on to explain some type of surgery she could perform if it got too bad...I just tickled Charley and used his laughter to drown out her voice...

Nurse: "...This will allow the inner mamarial tissue to expand as normal, and then a potion will simply be applied afterwards which will then give her the extra tissue that she needs for them to expand properly thereafter."

Phoebe: "Ok so if you do this she'll be fine?"

Nurse: "Well there might be other complications, but this will solve the most dangerous one."

Nurse: "But even if it's neccesary we shouldn't perform the surgery untill she reaches her peak in a few days time."

Nurse: "We don't want those cuts to be open any longer than neccesary."

Nurse: "Chansey will have her on anesthetics the whole time, and we'll be doing our best to make it as painless as possible."

-happilly- Chansey:"Chansey...Channn."

-upset- Phoebe:"Ok...if that's what you think is best, we trust you."

-upset- Charley:"Mawa no quy...Cawey no wa..."

-solemnly- Me:"She's strong...she'll make it."

-solemnly- Me:"I know she will."

-tearing up- Phoebe:"CJ..."

-upset- Phoebe :"Can we see her?"

Nurse: "Of course, just hurry up before the sleeping meds kick in, because once they do she'll be out like a light."

Phoebe: "Ok."

Phoebe: "Come on Cj."

I followed them into the back of the center, Nina was lying on one of the beds, she looked really sick, to be honest. Her chest and face were tinged slightly pink, and she was barely concious.

-weakly- Nina: "Mom...dad?"

-calmly- Phoebe: "Hey sweety."

-weakly- Nina: "Do I have to go... through this every time... I go in heat?"

Phoebe: "No, just the first time sweety, after this it will be much easier, I promise."

-saddened- Nina: "If I'm still alive after this..."

Me:" Hey...come on now...don't give up so easilly."

Me :"If you give up now all your training will be for nothing.."

Me: "Don't let this stop you because you have to be a trainer someday, you understand?"

Nina: "I'll try..."

Phoebe: "We know sweety."

-upset- Nina: "I love you mom."

Phoebe: "I love you."

-oblivious- Cawey: "Cawey luh newa ..."

-cutely- Cawey: "No quy Newa, Cawey luh."

Me: "hehehe..."

Me: "I love you too sweetheart."

Me: "We all do."

Me: "Now get some rest ok?"

-sleepily- Nina:"When I get out of here you better still be alive."

-lightheartedly- Phoebe:"You're life is in danger and you're telling us to be careful?"

Me:"Hehe...we should go she's about to fall asleep."

Phoebe:"Yeah."

-tiredly- Nina:"Love you dad."

Me:"Love you too sweety."

-cheerfully oblivious- Charley:"Bye Newa...Cawey luh!"

-solemnly- Phoebe:"If you're still awake we'll be back to check on you this afternnon."

As we quietly left the center, we were both worried about her, Charley not so much, but only because he was too young to understand. Though he seemed to be trying to keep quiet as if he suspected that something wasn't right. It was a long, quiet drive home, especially since Phoebe was in her own car so it was just Charley and me.

When we got back we just sat in front of the tv...completely overwhelmed.

- a few silent minutes later-

Me:"Well you going to say something?"

Phoebe:"I don't know what to say Cj..."

Phoebe:"Nina could die and there's nothing we can do about it."

Me:"I have an idea...if things get bad."

Phoebe:"What?"

Me:"We could track down a manaphy and give her a different body."

Phoebe:"Do you have any Idea how rare manaphys are?"

Phoebe:"And where are we going to get her a different body that isn't already occupied?"

Phoebe:"We can't just kill someone to save her you know, it's not right."

She gave me a strange look, I instantly knew what she was thinking.

Me:"No no no no no no no no no..."

Phoebe:"I could give her my body."

Me:"No..."

Phoebe:"I need too she's my daughter."

Me:"And you expect me to raise both her and Charley without you?"

-upset- Phoebe:"WE DON'T HAVE MANY OPTIONS HERE!"

She got up and stormed upstairs.

-worried- Me:"Pheebles?"

-upset- Charley:"NOooo mawa cwy!"

Charley began to cry.

Me:"Shhhhhh it's allright Charley."

I picked him up gave him a hug.

-upset- Charley:"CAWEY DUNNA WHY MAWA QWY-EN!"

-calmly- Me:"You don't wanna know little guy."

I slowly headed up the stairs, taking Charley with me.

Me: "Just settle down ok? We'll go see what's wrong."

I could hear Phoebe crying through the door, she locked herself in our room.

Me:"Pheebles?"

Me:"Baby girl, please just open the door."

-muffled, crying- Phoebe: "Just leave me alone."

-muffled, crying- Phoebe: "You don't want to see me like this."

Me: "You know you're scaring Charley right?"

She used her powers to unlock and open the door.

-upset yelling- Charley: "DAWHY MAWA QWY-EN!"

Me: "I know, I know."

-very sad- Phoebe: "Sorry baby..."

-upset- Phoebe: "I'm sorry Cj.."

-solemnly- Me: "-sighs- It's allright baby girl."

I set Charley on the bed and gave her a hug, and we held eachother like that for quite awhile, while Charley just patiently watched.

Me :"We're getting ahead of ourselves baby."

-calmly- Me: "There's no guarantee she can't pull through on her own, or that the surgery will fail even."

Phoebe: "I know..."

Me:"The nurse seemed confident."

-calmly- Me :"Let's just stop talking about it ok?"

-calmly- Me: "She wouldn't want us to be like this."

-calmly- Me: "Hopefully we'll get called in soon and we'll be able to distract ourselves by kicking Myrenthal's ass."

-calmly- Phoebe: "-sniffles- Hopefully."

Charley:"Dawhy luh mawa.."

Me:"Very much."

Phoebe: "Mhmmm."

Charley: "Cawey luh mawa tooo."

Phoebe: "I know sweety."

She picked him up and kissed him.

-lovingly- Phoebe: "Mama loves you too."

Phoebe:"And don't say things like that around Charley."

Me: "Sorry."

Phoebe: "You know if he picks it up he'll start saying it all the time."

Me :"I know, I know."

Me: "You settled down now?"

Phoebe: "I'll do my best to stay calm...for you and Charley."

Me: "Ok."

-cutely- Charley: "Mawa may ancays fo Cawey?"

-amused- Me: "Hehehe."

Me: "Well that came out of nowhere."

-cutely- Charley: "Pleeees mawa pleeees..."

-lovingly- Phoebe: "-sighs-, well you really haven't had breakfast yet, so, ok."

Phoebe:"Why don't you play with your father until I have them ready for you?"

She handed him to me.

Me:"Allright."

Me:"Come on Charley."

I brought him downstairs and kept him occupied until Phoebe had his pancakes ready.

-about a half hour later in the dining room-

We were sitting at the table while Charley was eating.

Phoebe: "I made some for Nina too."

Me: "Really?"

Phoebe: "She can have them for dinner when we go back over."

Me: "They'll get cold by then won't they?"

Phoebe:"-sighs- you're right, they will,but...the center has a microwave."

Me:"Allright then."

Charley: "Mawa we gah see Jace ageh?"

-unsure- Phoebe:" Are we going to see James again?"

Phoebe: "I don't know little guy."

Me: "Honey you know we should keep working."

Me: "Then we can visit Nina afterwards."

Phoebe:"Yeah, but we still don't know if James will be there or not."

Me: "True."

Me: "So when are we going to go then?"

Phoebe: " After Charley finishes his pancakes."

Me: "Ok."

We were both still worried about Nina, Phoebe was barely holding on, doing her best not to be an emotional wreck, but I could still see through her smile...and there wasn't anything I could say to make her feel better, she was right to be upset. I felt bad about it too, but as usual I could tolerate emotional pain a bit better than she could. I was just glad Charley was nearly oblivious to all of this, because trying to keep both of them calm would take a miracle. I say nearly oblivious because as you can see he does get worried when Phoebe gets upset, so he wasn't completely unaware.

Anyway, for the first time ever, we got called into work right after we pulled out of the driveway on the way there. So we just continued on our way.

-about a half hour later, in the briefing room of the experiment facility-

When we entered the room, James was there as usual, as well as a strange man in a hood.

Me:"what's with mr. hood?"
Phoebe:"I don't know, I can't read his thoughts.."

James:"Glad you two could make it."

James:" It's been a few days, but we might have finally found a lead on Myrenthal."

-cutely- Charley:"Mawa es Jace.."

Phoebe:"Mhm."

James:"Hello."

Me:"So what's our lead."

James:"Right, allow our guest to explain."

The hooded man spoke in a low, mysterious, but understandable voice.

unknown man:" Last night a strange man interupted our service, grabbed our priest, and teleported away before anyone could retaliate."

Me:"Ummmm..yeah that sounds like him."

Phoebe:"But why would he do that?"

James:"Well, you said he may try to marry Christine, he needs a priest to do that."

unknown man:" But our priests don't perform marriages."

Me :"Well they do now..."

Phoebe: "Myrenthall is from another world, he doesn't know anything about the cult of helix.."

-unsure- Me: "The what?"

-nervous- Unknown man: "I didn't say anything about that..."

Phoebe: "But you said your church doesn't perform marriages, the church of arceus does..., and there's only a few religions followed around here that don't."

-to James, still nervous- Unknown man: "Did you tell them?"

James:"No, but they can figure it out on their own."

-mischeivously- Phoebe:"A-ha, that confirms it."

-pressured- Unknown man: "Ok fine you're correct I am of the church of helix, but for the love of anarchy, we just want our priest back."

Phoebe:"Ok ok, relax..."

Phoebe:"Geesh, you know maybe you'd have more followers if you weren't so secretive?"

-scoldingly- Me: "Pheebles..."

Phoebe:"Sorry."

James:"Anyway, we need to find out where Myrenthall is now."

Me:"Well he's got the bride, he's got the priest."

Phoebe:"Witnesses, he needs witnesses."

Me:"Um maybe."

Me:"But in that case he'll probably just go after random civilians."

James: "But kidnapping that many people at once would get him caught very easilly."

Me: "True."

Me: "So where could he kidnap a bunch of people at once without getting caught?"

Me: "And then where the hell would he hold the wedding?"

Phoebe: "Maybe he doesn't have to kidnap them."

Phoebe: "What if they were all willingly gathered in one place and he could just get married in front of them."

Me :"What you mean like an assembly? Theatrical performance maybe?"

Phoebe: "Or a movie, or...hmmm...I don't know."

Me: "Anything like that happening tonight?"

James: "Um, let me see, Goldenrod City alone has 5 currently operating movie theatres, 8 dinner theatres, 3 of which will not have a performance tonight and the Northern Goldenrod highschool has a pta meeting tonight."

Phoebe:"How do you know all that?"

James: "Everyday the mayor's office emails us a voluntary list of all the events going on in the city, what venues are planning on operating and which ones aren't. The police use it to beef up security when neccesary, and we use it for, well stuff like this."

James:"In addition to that there's an Arcanic Stoutland concert tonight at the old training arena."

James: "There's going to be a lot of people there tonight."

Me: "Yeah, but does he know that?"

Phoebe: "That's it, that's how we get him."

Phoebe: "We need to spread as much publicity about the concert as possible, make it so he can't not know about it."

Me: "Then he'll have to show up because that's where all the people will be, Pheebles you're a genius."

Phoebe: "hehe."

unknown man: "And our priest?"

Me: "If Myrenthall is there, he'll be there too."

James:"But if he doesn't show up it's a bunch of money down the drain."

James: "And if he appears in front of a crowd at an event like that, millions of people will know of his existence. It will be a PR nightmare."

Phoebe: "I can use an amplifier to wipe their memories."

Me: "But the cameras, a concert like that is probably televised."

Phoebe:"-sighs-, you're right."

James: " We have access to jamming equipment, if we block the broadcast along with the landlines we should be able to jam them for a few minutes without raising suspicion."

James: "That will give you a window of, about 10-20 minutes to get him offstage and whipe their memorys before we risk them finding out about our jammers."

James:"And we'd rather not have knowledge of either of those compromised."

Charley: "Mawa Cawey wah dow!"

James:" I don't know if I should let you, it's a huge risk."

Me: "Yeah but, this could be our only chance to get him, and if we don't there's a chance he'll end up making a public appearence anyway, which we won't know about until it's already to late to stop."

-awkward silence-

Phoebe: "It's your call James."

unknown man: "I'm with them."

James: "Which reminds me."

James:" As far as you're concerned, we don't have jamming equipment."

unknown man: "Absolutely...right.."

James:"Allright, we got nothing to lose, I'll let you two run this one."

Me: "Ok."

James: "Sir, I'm sorry, but I have to ask you to leave the room now as we have some mission critical details to discuss."

unknown man: "Right..ok you'll get our priest back though right?"

James:" We'll do our best."

James: "Agent Donovan will see you out."

-cutely- Charley: "Goobye peepo!"

The man left the room. Donovan was already waiting by the door.

James:"Ok...the concert starts at 11:00pm tonight."

Phoebe: "Good, that's after Charley's bedtime."

-defensively- Charley: "Cawey no wa go beh."

Phoebe: "We know sweety."

James :"The jammer truck will be a black Devon suv, civilian model, license plate ROCK-ON, with flame vinyls and illegally tinted windows."

Me: "Wouldn't that draw attention to it?"

James: "Exactly, people will think it belongs to a rock'n' roll fanatic and not the defense division."

James:"Look for a voltorb sticker on the rear window, that's how ."

-interupting- Charley:" Cawey wa dow."

Phoebe:"Shhh, Charley be quiet this is important."

Phoebe:"Sorry James, he's getting a bit bored."

James: "It's ok."

She set Charley on the table so he could move around a bit.

James: "Anyway the vehicle will have a voltorb sticker on the rear window, that's how you'll know its the right one."

James:"The police will be told the same thing so they'll know to leave it alone."

James:" There will be two agents with the SUV to assist you, one will be in the crowd observing the show, and the other will be concealed in the back of the suv to operate the jamming equipment via radio commands from the other."

James:" You two need to be there early, I'll pull some strings so I can get you some back stage passes so you can be ready and in position."

Phoebe:"But if Cj isn't in the crowd Myrenthall could spot him."

Me:"Well then I'll just to figure out what that helix guy was doing."

Phoebe:"Huh?"

Me:"You said you couldn't read his thoughts."

Phoebe:"Yeah, but I could still tell he was there, I could reconize his brain waves I just couldn't understand them."

Phoebe:"If you want to keep him from reading your mind just wear an aluminum hat."

Me:"What?"

Phoebe:"That's all you have to do."

Phoebe:"Or you could get a normal hat and line it with aluminum so you don't look like a weirdo."

-lovingly- Phoebe:"But then we couldn't talk like this ..."

Me:"Ok..."

Me:"Then you'll have to be up on stage baby girl."

Me:"-sighs-, which means I'll be in the crowd."

-lovingly- Phoebe:"Oh like it's really that bad, it's a rock concert, you love rock music, you'll love it."

Me:"I know, I know."

Me:"Allright then that's the plan."

Phoebe:"Mhm."

James:"Well then, that means I have a lot of stuff to arrange."

James:"I guess I'll see you on tv tonight."

Me: "Um..ok, see ya."

He got up and quickly left the room.

-cutely- Charley: "Goobye jace!"

Phoebe: "So now what?"

Me: "I don't know, you want to go check out the portal lab?"

Me: "They said they might have something for us today.

Charley: "Mawa cawey wah wa teephee."

Phoebe: "Charley not right now, there's no tv for you watch in here."

Charley: "But Cawey wa..."

Phoebe: "That doesn't give me the power to make a tv appear out of nowhere little guy."

Phoebe: "Cj, I kind of want to go back and check on Nina."

Me:" She's probably asleep."

Me: "She'll be fine, the nurse won't let anything happen to her."

Charley: "Mawa..."

Charley: "Mawa..."

Phoebe: "Well...ok...why don't we go see the lab then."

Charley: "Mawa..."

Me: "Allright then let's go."

-loudly- Charley: "MAWA LEESEN!"

Phoebe: "What?"

Phoebe: "And don't squeeze my neck like that it hurts."

Charley: "Cawey wa teephee..."

Phoebe: "-sighs-."

Me: "hehehehe..."

Phoebe: "No Charley, you listen, I already told you there is no tv for you to watch, I'm sorry but I can't do anything about it right now."

-cutely- Charley: "Buh Mawa, Cawey wa teephee..."

Me: "Hehehe..."

Me:"You can't argue with him."

-desperately- Phoebe:"-sighs-, arceus give some sense to my poor son."

Phoebe:"Cj hold him for a second."

Me:"Ok."

She handed him to me.

-excitedly- Charley:"Mawa go may teephee fo Cawey?"

Phoebe:"Charley, I don't know the first thing about making a tv, you goofball."

Phoebe:"But, I do have one of your toys in my purse."

Phoebe:"So here you go little guy."

She handed him his lotad plush and then she took him back from me.

Charley:"Cawey pomah!"

Phoebe:"Mhmmmm it's your pokemon, happy now?"

-cheerfully- Charley:"Cawey luh pomah."

Phoebe:"Allright then, let's go."

For some reason Charley just decided to be a little goofball today.

We left the room, and headed over to the staircase.

-playfully- Charley: "Lotah wah fwy!"

He tossed his plush down the stairs.

Phoebe: "Charley..."

Charley: "Lotah fah dow.."

-amused-Me:"Mhmmm."

-cutely- Charley:"Mawa go geh lotah fo Cawey?"

We both gave him awkward looks, Phoebe retrieved it for him as we were heading down the stairs. I tried my best not to laugh.

Phoebe: "Now hold onto it Charley, lotad doesn't want to fly anymore."

Phoebe: "If you throw it again I'll take it away from you."

Charley: "Buh mawa, lotah wa fwy..."

-somewhat irritated- Phoebe: "Charley..."

He was about to throw it again, but Phoebe stopped him.

-somewhat irritated- Phoebe: "Mommy is going to scream if lotad flys again."

-worried- Charley: "No mawa...no skwee."

Phoebe: "Allright then lotah doesn't want to fly."

-nervous- Charley: "Lotad no wa fwy no mo."

Phoebe: "I thought so."

We made it down the stairs and over to the lab without another comical moment from Charley.

This time Bob was here, but Dr. Black was gone, along with the car they had gotten from the racing world.

Cawey:"Mawa Cawey see thes peepo ageh."

Phoebe:"Mhm you've seen him before haven't you?"

Bob:"Good afternoon."

Bob:"Dr. Black is in gtaland at the moment, we're seeing if we can get the car to function in there."

Bob:"But from the sound of things it's not going very well."

Dr. Black:"As you can see on the camera the car is reacting quite strangely to this enviroment.

Bob:"It's weird, the wheels have fallen off and everything, even the windows have turned a solid white."

Me:"It's like a texture glitch."

Bob:"Correct."

Me: "So it can only function in it's own world, in another virtual world it's completely broken."

Bob: "It seems that way."

Me:"It's like trying to take a car from one game and sticking it in another without any modification. The game doesn't know how to deal with it."

Bob: "Exactly."

Bob:" All these dimensions, virtual and organic, appear to have their own sets of rules. The virtual worlds have their programming languages, and we have our laws of physics. And only a handfull of things between them are compatible. "

Bob: "Now I wonder what will happen if we bring that car back into this world."

Me: "I don't know."

Phoebe:" What if it snaps back together? Couldn't that be dangerous?"

Me: "She has a point."

Me: "Who knows how all these object could react."

Me: "What if they cause a nuclear explosion or something?"

Phoebe: "Well I don't think something like that would happen."

Phoebe: "But they might move around unpredictably."

Phoebe: "I mean look at that, not only is it completely white now, but the wheels fell off, and you've said before you couldn't get them off if you tried."

Bob: "Very true."

Bob: "Allright Dr. Black, send the wheels back in."

A wheel rolled out of the portal, nothing happened, it was still solid white.

Bob: "Hmm, interesting."

Bob: "It appears that simply entering Gta land has permanently changed it."

The wheel tipped over and broke in half.

Me: "What the?"

Phoebe: "How?"

Bob: "It appears that it had been turned into plaster."

Me :"Why plaster?"

Bob: "It's the most basic of all materials, it's basically just compressed dirt."

Bob: "It's electromatter got changed on a subatomic level...curious, very curious."

Bob:"You may not understand this, but everything solid made out of electromatter that is not given a material property is assumed to be a pure white plaster according this world."

Bob:"We learned that the hard way in the initial stages of the original porygon project."

-realizing- Phoebe: "That little figurine on your desk..."

Me: "What?"

Phoebe: "He has a little uncolored figurine of a porygon on his desk."

Me:"When were you in his office?"

Phoebe:"It was before we met, so a long time ago, I was being interviewed for my participation in the experiment."

Bob:"You remember that?"

Bob:"Well yeah, you're right, that figurine was the result of one of our early experiments."

Bob: "Thankfully that was before porygon even had ai so it was never actually alive."

Dr. Black came through the portal.

Dr. Black: "We'll have to abandon the rest, according to our scanners a player character is approaching."

Bob: "Allright."

He flipped a switch and the portal shut down while Dr. Black examined the broken wheel.

Dr. Black: "What happened here?"

Bob: "It turned to plaster just like we theorized."

Dr. Black."hmmmm...I was hoping it would still be metal and rubber."

Bob:"Well...too bad..."

Dr. Black: "Ok, when did you two get here?"

Phoebe: "Three...Charley's with us too."

Dr. Black: "Ok."

Phoebe: "We just wanted to drop by to see if you have anything for us to do."

Dr. Black: "Well, we need to get another car from the racing game world, since the one we had is,...well I don't think it exists anymore."

Bob: "It took forever to get it out the first time."

Dr. Black: "I know, but now we know how to do it, it shouldn't take as long."

Phoebe: "You had an alakazam help you last time didn't you?"

Dr. Black: "You should be able to help as well."

Phoebe: "Do you know how much power it takes to teleport something that large?"

Me: "You've done it before baby girl."

Dr. Black: "It's not that far."

Phoebe: "Oh ok I guess I can try."

Phoebe: "Wait my powers didn't work in there last time."

Dr. Black:"Your right, you'll have to wear this helmet."

Phoebe: "What is it an amplifier?"

Dr. Black:" No but it will allow your powers to work, it will take your psionic waves and convert them into a format the world will understand, we just invented it last week so an alakazam could help us get the first car out."

Dr. Black: "Allright then Bob, let's get the racing world portal set up."

Bob: "Right."

A few minutes later they had the portal setup and the three of us headed into the racing world.

As not much happened in the racing world aside from racing, it was perfectly safe for Charley to come with us.

Phoebe:"Ok we'll have to head to the finish line and wait for the cars to finish the race, I have to touch them to teleport them, and at the speed they're going stopping them isn't going to be easy."

Phoebe:"Cj you just need to keep Charley safe."

Me:"From what? There's nothing here."

Phoebe:"Hehe...yeah, pretty much."

Me:"You want to see the race cars Charley?"

Charley:"Ray cahs?"

Me:"Yeah like the ones you play with all the time."

-curiously- Charley:"They go kwash?"

Phoebe:"I hope not..."

Eventually we made our way through the fake background cityscape to the edge of the track.

From there, we took the long way around to the finish line, as Phoebe insisted that Charley shouldn't be on the track. Occasionally a group of race cars would pass by.

Charley:"Dawhy Cah es skwee."

Me:"The car is screaming?"

Me:"Yeah they are pretty loud aren't they?"

I moved a bit further away from the track, as Charley didn't like loud noises.

When we made it to the finish line we waited patiently for the race to end and the cars to come to a stop. After that we detached our safety cables and Phoebe teleported us down to the track and while I gave Charley a good view of the race cars, she attempted to teleport one of them outside the track. Her helmet lit up as she did so.

Phoebe:"This thing is getting warm."
Phoebe:"But atleast I know it works now."

She put her hands against the car that was closest to the edge and closed her eyes.

Both her and the car were enveloped in light and then they dissapeared from the track.

-unsure- Me: "Pheebles where did you go?"

-in the distance- Phoebe: "Up here Cj."

Me: "Oh, you made it?"

Phoebe: "Mhm."

Me: "Ok."

Phoebe: "Just let me rest a bit and I'll get you an Charley up here too."

Me:" Ok."

-worried- Phoebe: "This thing is getting hot, I need to take it off before it burns me."

She took off the helmet.

Me:"They probably haven't worked all the bugs out of it yet."

Me:"Not that it really matters now that we got it passed the barrier, I think."

Phoebe:"How are we going to get it back to the portal though?"

-into radio- Me: "We go the car out of the track now what?"

-on radio- Dr. Black:"Hold on we're sending a machamp in to retrieve it, you two can come back now."

Me:"Ok."

Me: "Pheebles come on they said we can head back."

Phoebe: "Ok..just give me a moment, this thing needs to cool off."

Me: "They're sending a machamp to retrieve the car."

-excitedly- Phoebe:"A machamp?"

-unsure- Me:"Yeah...soooooo?"

Phoebe: "You're not jealous..?"

Me :"I just know you wouldn't consider running away."

Phoebe :"Awweeee you trust me now?"

Me: "Of course I do Pheebles."

Phoebe: "That's nice."

Me: "Helmet cool yet?"

Phoebe: "Um, yeah its a bit cooler."

She began to strap it back on.

Then she teleported alongside me and kissed me on the cheek.

Phoebe:"I love you."

Me: "Love you too baby."

-somewhat jealous- Charley:"Cawey wa mawa kees...mma."

He held out his arms and made a rather silly looking kissy face.

Phoebe :"Awwwee...but you still get jealous don't you little guy?"

She gave Charley a kiss as well.

Me: "Allright let's head back."

Phoebe:" ok."

She took my hand and teleported us out of the track.

She quickly took off her helmet again.

Phoebe: "Ow it's getting hot again."

Me: "You ok?"

Phoebe: "Yeah, I'm just glad it didn't set my hair on fire."

Phoebe: "Silly helmet, it probably has a defective wire or something."

-playfully- Me: "How can a wire be defective?"

Phoebe: "I don't know...by being hooked up to the wrong thing?"

-playfully- Me: "Wouldn't that be the wiring not the wire.?"

-playfully- Me: "I mean in that case the wire would still be working fine."

-playfully- Phoebe: "Oohhhh I don't know Cj."

-cutely- Charley: "Cawey dunno wa eenywa ses."

Me: "Hehe.."

Phoebe :"That's allright sweety."

We passed the machamp on the way back, accompanied by Dr. Black.

Anyway about 15 minutes later we made it back to the portal, and we hung around in the lab with Bob until Dr. Black and the Machamp came back with the car. Which took about another 50 minutes.

-while waiting for Dr. Black to return-

Bob:"Yeah I told them they rushed that thing's developement."

Bob:"But still it only works on psychic pokemon, in specifis virtual worlds where psychic powers don't already exist."

Bob:"And the only psychic pokemon we had at the time to test that thing was Dr. Melzinga's alakazam, and it never complained about the heat."

Bob:"Then again, alakazam's powers may not be entirely the same as yours."

Phoebe:"Alakazams aren't very sensitive to pain, you might want to check to make sure it didn't get burned"

Me:"They aren't? I thought they were kind of fragile?"

Phoebe:"They are...but alakazams are so smart they spend most of their time completely zoned out...they're just barely aware of their surroundings and they spend most of their time meditating."

Anyway, when Dr. Black and the machamp finally returned, we were dismissed, so we headed back out to the car, and headed back to the pokemon center to visit Nina.

Phoebe:"Hello again nurse."

Nurse:"Welcome back."

Nurse:"I'm sorry but Nina is still asleep, why don't you come back this evening? She'll be awake for supper."

Phoebe:"Ok."

Phoebe:"We brought her some pancakes."

She set the container of pancakes on the counter.

Nurse:"Oh ok...she can have them when she wakes up."

Phoebe:"You might want to microwave them though, they're cold."

Nurse:"Allright then."

Me:"Have you heard abouth the Arcanic Stoutland concert tonight?"

Nurse:"Yes actually, some kids were talking about it earlier."

Me:"Well um, if Nina could watch it somehow, on tv, that would be nice."

Nurse:" I'll see what I can do."

Since Nina was asleep, we decided to head home.

Phoebe:"Why do you want her to watch it?"

Phoebe:"You know she doesn't like the kind of music that we do."

Me:"I know, but what if we get on tv tonight?"

Phoebe:"We're trying to stay undercover, to get Myrenthal."

Me:"I know but, maybe if we play our cards right, she can watch us take him down from the safety of her bed at the hospital."

Phoebe:"And what if she sees Christine?"

Me:"She's got bracelets, the Nurse can keep her under control."

Me:"She'll have to find out eventually you know."

Phoebe:"-sighs-...yeah I guess.."

Eventually we arrived at home, the afternoon was quiet and uneventful, Charley took a nap, Phoebe and I talked a lot about Nina and what we we were going to do this summer, even though it was only the first week into november... halloween kind of just passed by unnoticed like it had every year since the disaster. It wasn't a holiday in the pokemon world, and candy was somewhat hard to come by, I hadn't seen a candybar in years that wasn't from the pokemon world.

The evening got rough...she got upset about Nina again and headed to our room to cry so Charley wouldn't see, so I went up to try to calm her down but then she got upset with me for not being as upset as her, then we had a fight, and we spent the next hour hating ourselves for we spent the next hour just holding eachother in silence and all of this happened while Charley happily played with his toys on the floor completely unattended. Thankfully he didn't hurt himself.

Anyway, after we made up and put Charley to bed for the night, Corina arrived while Phoebe was upstairs getting ready for the concert.

Me:"Hello?"

Corina: "I came to look after Nina and Charley while you're at the concert tonight."

Me: "Ok."

Corina:"Where is the little guy?"

Me :"In front of the tv, where the little couch potato usually is."

-cutely- Charley: "Cowewa..."

Corina: "It looks like he isn't watching it though, he's playing with his little cars."

Me: "Yeah I guess so."

-from the top of the stairs- Phoebe: "Oh hi Corina."

She came down the stairs in one of her nicer dresses, she looked beautiful, of course, but perhaps a little overdressed for the occasion.

-confused- Me: "Um...Pheebles... why are you all dressed up?"

Phoebe:"Why what's wrong?"

Corina :"It's a rock concert Phoebe you don't have to dress up like that."

Phoebe: "I didn't know."

Me: "It's not a formal event..."

Phoebe: "Ok then I guess I'll just go change."

Corina:" There's no time for that, you two need to get going."

-moody- Phoebe:"Your're not Melissa you know."

Corina: "I've been friends with her longer than you have."

Phoebe: "So?."

-annoyed- Me:"Oh come on, I just got her to calm down.."

-calmly- Phoebe:"-sighs- She's right, it's ok Cj come on let's go."

She headed out the door and got in the car.

Corina :"Why's she so upset.."

-curious- Corina:"Where's Nina she's usually out here by now?"

Me:"That's why."

Me: "Nina's at the pokemon center, it's pretty bad, Phoebe is extremely upset about it..."

-realizing- Corina: "Oh...ookay...I understand."

Corina: "Is she going to be allright? What happened?"

Me:"We don't know just keep an eye on Charley for us. We don't want to talk about what's wrong."

Corina: "Why what is it?"

Corina: "-sighs-, nevermind, you better get going."

Me: "-sighs-, yeah...thanks alot."

Me: "Goodbye."

Corina: "Bye."

I left the house and got in the car.

- on the way to goldenrod-

-curious- Phoebe: "What were you talking about?"

Me: "She didn't understand why you were so upset."

Phoebe: "Oh...so you told her about Nina?"

Me: "Well I had too, you know it's not like she wasn't going to notice her not being there."

Phoebe:"Fair enough."

Me:" I keep telling you , you just need to calm down ok?"

Me:"I know you're hurting right now, and I know I can't just tell you to stop."

Me: "But there's nothing we can do to help Nina anymore than we've already done."

Me: "We just have to stick together and hope the nurse can figure something out."

Phoebe: "Oh Cj..."

-guiltly- Phoebe :"Why were we fighting earlier?"

Me: "I don't remember anymore."

Me: "But baby girl please, calm down, your driving me crazy..."

Me: "And not in the enjoyable way you usually do."

Phoebe :"..awwwwe ..Cj"

-pleased- Phoebe: "mmmm.."

-lovingly- Phoebe: "I love you."

Me: "I love you."

Me :"Now let's give Nina something to watch..."

Phoebe: "Noooo..Cj, rememmber...we have to stay undercover until we get Myrenthall..and the show will be blocked until we get him."

Me: "I know I know, but maybe we could go on afterwards."

Phoebe: "Ummm...maybe."

Me:"Nina would like it, you know she would."

Phoebe:"I know, I know."

Me :"Ok we're almost through the portal, just stay focused baby."

Phoebe :"I'll do my best."

Me:"I know you will."

-jokingly- Phoebe:"And you don't get kidnapped again."

-defensively- Me:"Hey I...I..."

Phoebe:"You were hurt...I know big boy.."

-awkward silence-

Phoebe: "Cj?"

Phoebe:"You ok?"

Me:"Yeah..."

Me:"Just...no more fighting ok?"

Phoebe: "It'll be ok.."

Me: "We're on the same side...always.."

-lovingly- Phoebe: "And forever."

Me: "If I wasn't driving i'd hug you right now."

-lovingly- Phoebe: "Awe..."

When we reached the old training arena, which was in the heart of Goldenrod. There was already quite a crowd.

-after parking and leaving the car-

She got and immediately came around and gave me a hug.

Me:"awe...Pheebles."

-lovingly- Phoebe:"You said you wanted a hug."

I put my arms around her as well, and then we kissed.

Me: "-sighs- I love you baby."

Phoebe: "I love you."

Phoebe:"Now let's get this done."

Me: "Mhm."

We walked up to the front of the lot, a line was already starting to form at the entrance, and we couldn't see inside, but they weren't letting people in yet, so we were still early.

We quickly found the suv with the jamming equipment, parked among an assortment of custom trucks and local newsvans it blended in better than we thought it would.

The driver had already left and the windows were dark so we couldn't see inside, but knowing there was someone in the back, Phoebe put her id up to the window, and moments later the rear left door opened and someone stepped out.

unknown agent: "We were wondering when you'd show up."

unknown agent: "My partner is waiting in line, anyway, here's your backstage passes, go show these at the entrance and they should let you in."

unknown agent: "The band hasn't arrived from their hotel yet, so it will just be you and the stage crew back there for now."

unknown agent: "And, here, is a psionic amplifyer for later."

He handed her a strange device, it looked like a pokeball but was smaller, and all blue with a black button.

-unsure- Phoebe: "A pokemon is holding it?"

unknown agent: "No, that's an item ball."

Phoebe: "Oh ok.."

Unknown agent: "Just click the button and it will expand and the amplifyer will come out."

Phoebe: "I've never seen these before."

Unknown agent: "Yeah, they're not very popular, they can only store one item each, regardless of size, and sometimes if the object inside them is particularly large, they can break, and then if they happen to be in a confined space when that happens all hell breaks lose.

Unknown agent: "Because of that they weren't as safe as pokeballs so they were quickly pulled off the market."

Unknown agent: "But they're perfect for covert operations where small objects need to be made even smaller."

Phoebe: "I see."

Unknown agent: "Anyway good luck."

Unknown agent: "If you could get their autographs, my daughter would love them."

Phoebe: "Hehe...we'll see..."

He got back into the suv and then we headed to entrance.

Me: "So item balls exist?"

Phoebe: "Apparently."

Me: "I was starting to wonder."

We showed our backstage passes to the guy at the front gate, and then one of the bouncers showed us inside. The band hadn't arrived yet and there were some people on the stage still setting up audio equipment. The arena was inside a large open air colliseum type building, with seating for many, it had been around for many decades and was a popular area, used for everything from a place to train pokemon to concerts, to sporting events.

I noticed a lone magneton hanging around a generator set up to power the stage lights, likely one of the stage crew's pokemon.

In the pokemon world the magnemite line were not only popular security guards, but also played a part in the music industry. The can use the magnetic pulses they naturally generate, the same ones that make them a threat to computers, on speakers to distort the sound that they emit, and particularly well trained ones can cause effects that expensive equipment could only produce otherwise. It can be difficult to train a magnemite to do this, but ones that can master this skill become an invaluable asset to any band.

Anyway, not much happened, we watched the stage crew set up, a few minutes later people slowly began to file in and fill up the place. Within minutes the mostly empty arena became packed and crowded, an indication that the extra promotions James had given the event were working, then we headed backstage.

When the band arrived the lead singer, Keith Hedgewood, spoke with us.

Keith: "Cj and Phoebe right?"

Keith: "I remember you...you were there when we did that private gig in Unova..."

Phoebe:"Yeah that's right, at that business convention thing..."

Keith: "Well I hope you enjoy the show, we got some new material tonight, been studying the rock of the other...you might be familiar with it Cj.."

-shyly- Me: "We'll just have to see."

When it came time for the band to perform, Phoebe stayed backstage while I headed out into the crowd to camoflage myself from Myrenthall.

The show started as normal, the band introduced themselves, and performed their most popular song at the time "Sleeping Giant" A ballad about an unconcious golurk that was presumed dead and left in a crypt, somewhere in Castelia, only to wake up 40 years later and, in a severely confused state, attack the same town it was supposed to protect.

-an excerpt from the song-

"Forgotten in the crypt,

from a battle long ago,

the golurk slowly lifted its head,

no one bothered to think it might not be dead...

So it broke out of the crypt,

and caused chaos in the town...

times had changed

things had been rearranged

Since it was buried in the ground.

It's former pokemon friends

had all met their ends

and its trainer could not be found.

And all the things it used to know

about the city that it protected so

it found that they were no longer true.

it wasn't the city that it once knew.

so now it's causing chaos.

now it's causing chaos.

now it's causing chaaaa-os

because that's the only thing it wants to do..."

Halfway through the song we began to get the feeling that Myrenthall wouldn't show up, but because it was our job we stayed to make sure.

The band managed to play 4 songs, including an interesting cover of "heavy metal", it wasn't until the intermission when Myrenthall finally took the stage, using his powers to subdue the bouncers who tried to keep him from getting up there. He threw down a pair of strange black orbs that turned into two bilowing clouds of black smoke when they hit the stage, when the smoke cleared, Christine with him as well, tied to a chair with tape over her mouth, and a man I could only assume was the missing priest, who wasn't bound in anyway but too terrified to move. Most of the crowd froze in fear, and panic briefly erupted when the doors behind them closed, though I wasn't really sure who closed them, the crowd calmed down just moments later when they realized Myrenthall was planning on killing them.

The magneton who was essentially part of the band, did not like this and decided to get involved.

Magneton: "Mag..."

Myrenthal: "What do you want...?"

-angrily- Magneton: "MAG!"

It used thundershock on him, but it got absorbed by another black orb he had in his hand.

Myrenthall:"Nice try but you're going to need more than that."

I overheard one of the film crews complaining that their equipment stopped working, the jammer was active...

Myrenthall: "Noctus phasssmanassssia."

He hit magneton with some sort of psychic pulse. Knocking it backwards into a wall of speakers, a very loud squeal of feedback was heard followed by a loud bang...fortunately it was the speakers, not magneton that exploded.

-weakly- Magneton: "mag...ne...ton..."

Phoebe: "Cj can you hear this?"

Me: "Yeah I can hear you baby."

Myrenthal :"Ssstart the ssseromony."

Priest: "Um..."

Myrenthal:"Like we rehearsed you fool!"

Priest:" Well w-we are g-gathered here today so that these t-two can be m-married..."

Christine was conscious but she had tape over her mouth and couldn't say anything, though I can't say she looked like she was enjoying this. The priest looked extremely nervous, Myrenthall had to help him complete his own lines.

Priest: "Sooooo...um..."

-somewhat annoyed- Myrenthall: "Do I take her to be my lawfully wedded wife?..."

Priest :"Um...yeah..."

Myrenthall: "I do..."

-nervously- Priest: "Do you take him to be you lawfully wedded wi-I mean husband?"

-muffled- Christine: "mmmm...mmmmm."

She was noticably shaking her head.

Me: "What are you waiting for?"

Phoebe: "Just a sec."

Phoebe: "Get up to the front of the crowd."

Myrenthall: "Sssshe means yesssss."

Christine: "-trying to scream-"

Priest: "Ok...um."

Myrenthall: "By the authorrity invessssted in you...by...me.."

Priest: "Uh huh."

-nervously- Priest: "I n-now pronounce you h-husband an"

-angrilly- Phoebe: "MYRENTHALL!"

She emerged from behind the curtain, now wearing the amplifier.

Myrenthall: "You again?..."

She hit him with a psychic wave that immediately pushed him off the stage, he landed right by me, so I slipped some power cuffs on his wrists before he could get back up. Then he tried to fight me, but since he was without his powers and was still injured from our last conflict, it wasn't too difficult for me to restrain the old guy.

The crowd, which had been pretty quiet since Myrenthal took the stage, decided to cheer for her.

-still muffled- Christine:"mmmmmmmmmmmm."

The priest seized the opportunity and ran away, I tried to follow him but he dissapeared into the crowd, assuming he would be able to make it back to his church on his own, it made sense just to let him go.

Phoebe: "You know Christine, I could have just let him marry you."

-still muffled- Christine:"mmmmmm."

Phoebe: "I'll untie you later, I like you better this way."

-angry- Christine:"mmm."

Myrenthall: "Let go..."

-defiantly- Me: "Nahhhh..."

He pulled another black orb from his sleeve.

Myrenthall: "ascenfunima!"

The orb dispersed into thick black smoke, I held my breath and dragged him up on stage.

Me:"You're going to go back to where you came from old man."

Phoebe: "Cj are you ok I can't see you?"

Myrenthall: "ascendulana!"

Me: "I'm allright, I still got him."

Phoebe:"Bring him back on stage and get behind me."

Me: "Right."

It was a struggle, but eventually I got him back up there.

Myrenthall: "Sssshe has an amplifier..."

Me:"Mhmm..."

Phoebe: "Ok ..."

She closed her eyes.

Phoebe: "Let's see if I can do this."

Phoebe: "Stay behind me Cj."

Me: "I know I know."

Her helmet started to glow, and an intense wave of purple energy flooded the arena, she fell to her knees as the wave made it's way across the ground, bathing the entire arena in purple light.

The entire crowd fell unconcious for just a second, then one by one they all started to get back up.

Me: "Pheebles?"

I took Myrenthall back behind the stage so nobody would see him. Phoebe teleported back with Christine seconds later.

Phoebe came back later with Christine. Just as the band was comming back from their break.

Keith: "What is going on out there?"

Me: "No big deal, just some crazy old man that wanted to ruin your show."

Drummer:"Magneton are you ok?"

Keith: "Don't tell me magneton got hurt."

-weakly- Magneton: "Mag..."

Drummer:"He's too hurt to perform."

Drummer: "He trashed our speakers too."

Keith: "We have more on the bus, we can make it work."

Stagehand: "You want me to go get those?"

Keith: "Yeah, go now, hurry.."

Keith:"As for magneton...well we're out of luck."

Me: "I have a magnezone..."

Keith: "Yeah, but our magneton is specially trained to perform, he can't just be replaced like that."

Christine :"mmmmmmm"

Me: "Shutup..."

Phoebe had taken off her helmet and was still on her knees trying to catch her breath.

Keith:"Who's she?"

Me: "Nobody you want to know, trust me on that."

Unknown man: "Are we ready for extraction?"

Keith: "Who are you?"

Unknown man: "I'm with them."

He held up an agent Id.

Me :"Yeah, let's get them out of here."

Unknown man: "Just the old man, let the girl go."

Me: "What?"

Unknown man: "She's not wanted anymore."

Me: "-sighs-..."

Christine :"mmmmmmm"

Phoebe: "Ok, but let me get a picture..."

Unknown man: "Why?"

Phoebe: "Nina will love this."

She took a picture of Christine, and then she finally began to untie her from the chair.

Phoebe: "And now... the fun part."

She wripped the tape off her mouth. For a brief moment Christine's face was one of pure pain.

Christine: "You're going to pay for this."

Phoebe: "Yeah right, you're still in bracelets."

Unknown man: "Don't remove those."

Phoebe: "Why would I?"

I assisted in escorting Myrenthall to the suv, he was put in the back, and then the Jammer team left for the experiment facility.

When I came back Phoebe was on stage and the cameras were rolling.

-quietly to self- Me: "-sighs-, Pheebles what are you doing?"

Phoebe: "I hope you all have been enjoying the concert so far, I know you're all confused, but we're having technical difficulties right now with a new type of speaker that can project emotion. We hope that we can get Arcanic Stoutland back on stage as soon as possible, so if you can all just hold on for a little while longer your patience will be greatly appreciated and rewarded."

Phoebe:"Oh and Hi Nina sweety...I hope you're watching this."

Phoebe :"Your father is here too, actually here he comes right now."

I headed up onstage, trying to ignore the face that all cameras were on me.

-quietly- Phoebe :"Anything you want to say baby?"

-shyly- Me: "What are you doing?"

Phoebe:"You said you wanted to be on tv for Nina..."

-nervously- Me: "Yeah ...I did.. didn't I?..."

-nervously- Me: "Hey sweety...we love you..."

Some one motioned us back behind to curtains.

Phoebe :"Ok I guess that's all the time we get, enjoy the rest of the show."

Phoebe :"Also, one more thing, Arcanic Stoutland's magneton has injured itself, so it would be greatly appreciated if somebody could please donate a potion..."

She put the mic back in the stand and we headed backstage.

Keith: " I don't think we can go back on without Magneton."

Phoebe: "Just wait a minute, someone will donate a potion I'm sure of it."

It took awhile, but a few minutes later one of the bouncers came backstage with a potion.

Bouncer: "Someone gave us this, said magneton could have it.

Keith:"Use it on him then."

Keith:"Bastian get the drums, Arny the guitar..."

Keith :"Let's get this show rolling again."

Keith:"I'm not sure what happened but it looks like the can continue."

Keith: "You guys were on a job this whole time weren't you?"

Phoebe: "Mhm."

Keith: "-sighs-, shoulda known."

Me:"We still enjoyed the show."

Phoebe: "Mhmmmm."

Magneton: "Mag..."

Keith: "Ready Magneton?"

Magneton: "Magna..."

Keith: "Allright, you know what to do, let's rock this place."

The curtains began to open, the other band members had already taken their positions.

Keith took the mic.

Keith:"Lets hear it for whoever was kind enough to lend us a potion, let's hear it for heroes Cj and Phoebe for, well whatever the heck tried to stop our show tonight...

Keith :"And finally, LET'S ROCK!"

The band began to play as we made our way off the stage.

It was a long walk back to the car, trying to get through the crowds unnoticed.

Phoebe was tired, so I kind of had to keep an eye on her so she wouldn't fall behind.

When we got home it was atleast 1:00am, Phoebe fell asleep in the car, I was too tired to carry her up so I had to wake her up and then we both struggled up the stairs and fell asleep just minutes after we got in bed. Corina had fallen asleep on the couch, but we were so tired we just let her stay the night.