Chapter 15

We slowly talked ourselves to sleep, only for me to be violently woken up at around midnight, by violently I mean she suddenly pushed me out of the bed.

I hit the wall hard...and woke up.

-tired, hurt, and confused- Me: "Owee...what the..what the hell?"

-scared- Phoebe: "No...don't do that...,leave him alone..."

She was still asleep, but she was thrashing around, and her powers were acting in a completely unpredictable manner, making a mess of the room as things were lifted up and tossed to the floor.

-realizing, quietly- Me: "Oh god, she's having nightmares again."

Me: "-sighs-."

-yelling- Me: "PHEEEBLES!"

-spooked- Phoebe: "Ahhhhhhhhh!"

She opened her eyes and looked around the room.

-realizing- Phoebe: "Oh no...nonononononoonono."

-worried- Phoebe: "Oh arceus Cj,I didn't hurt you again did I?"

-blatantly- Me: "You threw me ...out of the bed..."

-worried- Phoebe: "I didn't mean too...I'm so sorry baby."

Me: "I know..."

-jokingly- Me: "What are you having nightmares about now anyway? The disney movie?"

Phoebe: "No, it's that book."

Me: "Oh...ok."

She crawled out of bed.

Phoebe: "I'm going to go downstairs, ok?"

Phoebe :"You go back to sleep, I need to clear my head."

Me:"Ok."

Me:"You'll come back won't you?"

Phoebe:"When I feel like I won't have anymore nightmares I will."

Me: "Ok."

She left the room while I straightened some things up before getting back in bed.

It had been awhile since she had gotten a full night's sleep.

The next morning I got out of bed early because Phoebe still wasn't with me and without her I became bored very quickly.

So I headed downstairs and found her snuggling with Nina on the couch, both of them were still asleep and they were quite cute together so I left them alone and headed upstairs to check on Charley. As I peeked into his room to see if he was awake Phoebe came up behind me and hugged me.

-surprised- Me: "Huh?"

-softly, tiredly- Phoebe: "Goodmorning Cj.."

-softly Me: "hehe, Goodmorning baby girl.

I quietly closed the door.

-softly- Me:"Why was Nina on the couch with you?"

-softly- Phoebe:"She couldn't sleep last night either so we had some girl talk, and then we watched tv for a little bit, and then we must have fallen asleep together."

-softly- Phoebe:"Also she's still asleep, "

Phoebe: "So, how about, we go back to our room..."

Phoebe: "I'll take off my gown."

-lustfully- Phoebe: "And then I'll let you stick your big..."

She kissed me on the cheek.

-lustfully- Phoebe: "Fat."

She kissed me on the other cheek.

-lustfully- Phoebe: "Human cock."

-cutely -Phoebe :"In my tiny wittle gardevoir pussy?"

-softly, enamored- Me: "Ohhhh baby..."

-playfully- Phoebe: "Come on baby let's go."

She turned around and headed back to our room.

I had no choice but to follow her.

When I entered the room she had already left her gown on the floor.

She used her powers to shut the door and then she came up to me, pulled down my pants and fondled my equipment until it was hard enough for her to wrap her lips around it.

Phoebe:"this make up for it Cj?"

-lovingly- Me: "You know you didn't have to go this far to make up for it."

-playfully- Phoebe: "Oh I knowww, but isn't so much more fun?"

-lustfully- Me: "ohh baby girl."

So we had fun, in the early hours of the morning, like so many other mornings.

-lovingly- Phoebe: "-sighs-, that was great."

-lovingly- Phoebe: "You naughty naughty boy."

-lovingly- Me: "Oh baby... I love you.."

-cutely-Phoebe: "love you."

We held eachother close, until heard a sudden creaking sound.

Phoebe: "Did you hear that?"

Me: "What?"

Phoebe: "Wait what the?"

Phoebe: "The door is open."

Me: "Was it closed?"

Phoebe: "Yeah, I closed it...before we started..."

-realizing- Phoebe: "Oh arceus.."

-angry- Phoebe:" NIIIIIINNNNNA!"

-breathing heavily- Phoebe: "GO to your room, NOW, you are in so much trouble missy!..."

-terrified- Nina: "EEEEK!"

Shhe teleported away.

Phoebe: "-sighs- that little pervert."

Phoebe:"I can't believe she did that."

Me:"She's in heat isn't she? Maybe she couldn't help it?"

Phoebe:"Cj she was watching us have sex...we're her parents..."

Me: "I know, I know."

Me: "Calm down."

Phoebe:"I'm going to go talk to her."

She got up and began to dress herself.

Me:"What are you going to say?"

Phoebe: "I'm going to tell her how screwed up what she just did was."

Me: "I think she gets it."

-somewhat spiteful- Phoebe: "Well I'm going to make sure it soaks in."

Just then Charley began to cry from the next room. Phoebe likely woke him up wiith her yelling.

Me:"I guess I'll take care of Charley then."

-very annoyed- Me:" also, did you have to scream in my ear?"

Phoebe:"I'm sorry Cj."

-solemnly- Me:"This morning was going so well."

Phoebe:"I know."

She finished dressing herself and quietly left the room.

I got up, got dressed and then collected a rather upset Charley from his room.

-frightened- Charley: "Dawhy...Mawa scwee... Cawey scare..."

Me: "I know little guy..."

I held him while he cried, eventually he settled down.

-calmly- Me: "It's allright little guy, there's nothing to cry about."

After he stopped crying I got him changed and dressed and brought him downstairs. Nina was in her room crying. I tried to keep Charley away so he wouldn't get upset too.

Then I realized it was lightly snowing outside, the first snow we had seen in awhile, if not the very first of the year.I brought Charley into the dining room, set him in his high chair with a few of his toys to play with, and began to make pancakes for everyone. Phoebe came in shortly after I began to mix the batter.

She wrapped her arms around me.

-unsure- Me:"Baby girl...?"

-upset- Phoebe:"ooooh Cj..."

Me: "What's wrong?"

-upset- Phoebe: "I don't know what to do."

Me:"About Nina?"

Me:"Hell if I know."

-sadly- Phoebe:"No...Cj...I don't know where she is..."

Me:"What?"

-upset-Phoebe: "She teleported away from me."

-upset-Phoebe: "I have no way of knowing where she went."

Me: "Outside?"

Phoebe: "Well duh..."

Phoebe: "But where outside?"

Me: "Honey...calm down ok?"

Me: "We're all she has, she has to come back."

Phoebe: "But what if it's like you?"

Me: "Baby girl I had to leave for you..."

Me:"She doesn't have anyone to leave for."

Phoebe:"What if she gets raped?"

Me:"Sweety...it's been a really long time since i've seen any wild pokemon around here aside from the occasional pidgeot."

And those pidgeots were quite tame, acting alot like hawks, possibly a threat to small cats and dogs if the owners weren't careful, but other than that they pretty much left humans alone. Like hawks, they would feed on snakes and rabbits and other small animals, but perhaps out of a sense of nobility, they would absolutely refuse to harm other, weaker birds, even going out of its way to protect them. That said, they were fairly rare and they never seemed to stay in the same area for more than a few days.

Me:"This isn't hearthome forrest, there's not a whole lot of pokemon out here."

Phoebe:"I hope you're right."

Me:"She'll come back I promise."

She turned and started to walk away but I grabbed her and pulled her towards me.

-playfully- Me: "No you come here.., let me hold you baby."

-playfully-Phoebe: "Why?"

Me: "Because I didn't get to this morning."

Phoebe: "awwwwe, Cj.'
Me: "-sighs-, I love you."

Phoebe: "I love you."

Me:"Now just wait for her to come home, because she will, and I think you two will need to talk some more."

-assuredly- Phoebe:"Oh we willll."

Phoebe: "Do you need Charley right now or can I hold him for a bit?"

Me: "Go ahead and take him sweety, I just set him in his chair so he wouldn't wander off."

Me: "I'll have breakfast ready in a little bit."

Me: "Why don't you just relax and wait for Nina to come back."

Phoebe :"Ok."

She kissed me on the cheek before leaving the room and taking Charley from his high chair.

-playfully- Phoebe: "Hello baby boy did you miss me?"

-cheerfully- Charley: "Mawa!"

I felt somebody grab me from behind and before I could even do anything I was teleported outside the house.

Nina: "Dad?"

Me: "Nina...?"

Me: "What the hell?"

Nina: "Come with me..."

Me: "Where ?"

Nina: "Mom is mean... I wanna live somewhere else."

Me: "Trust me she's not the mean one."

Me: "You just haven't managed to piss me off yet."

Me: "I'm not going with you."

Me:"Four years ago I ran away with your mother, I'm not gonna go on the run again just for you."

-upset- Nina:" But Cj it is me, Nina switched our bodies somehow..."

-in disbelief- Me: "Yeah...right...I bet the face eating aliens did it..."

One of the many bizarre stories she thought up when playing with Charley.

Me: "Nina, come on, I'm not stupid."

Phoebe: "Nina!"

Phoebe teleported in.

-sternly- Nina: "Give me my body back right now missy!"

-confused- Phoebe: "What? ?"

Me: "She's trying to make me believe she switched bodies with you somehow."

She gave Nina a very...confused look. Which Nina then returned.

-confused- Nina: "How did you find me?"

-somewhat upset- Phoebe: "You really think I wouldn't notice your father suddenly falling silent?"

-unsure- Nina:"Huh?"

Me:"She wants me to run away with her."

-amused- Phoebe:"eheh...What?"

Phoebe: "Where are you going to go Nina?"

Phoebe:"Stay here sweetie, we love you."

Phoebe:"You're just not yourself recently because you're in heat, you have to realize this."

Phoebe: "As soon as you're back to normal you're not going to feel the same way."

Me:"Where's Charley?"

Phoebe: "He's back in his highchair."

Me: "Oh... ok."

Me: "Nina, you're delusional, I don't know what's going on in your head, but, come on, this isn't you."

Phoebe gave her a hug.

Phoebe: "I'm sorry I scared you sweety."

Phoebe: "I know you've been having a rough week so I'm going to let you off easy this time ok?"

Phoebe: "But if I catch you spying on us again...'

-nervously- Nina: "I'm busted?"

Phoebe: "mhmmmmm."

Me: "Why don't we all just head back inside?"

Phoebe: "Mhmm, we need to get back to Charley. He's all by himself."

Phoebe: "Come on Nina, why don't we play some video games?"

-solemnly- Nina: "Ok."

Phoebe: "It's been awhile."

Me: "You just need to take it easy until your back to normal, ok?"

-solemnly- Nina: "-sniffles-, ok... daddy."

Nina: "I'm cold.."

Me: "So am I."

Phoebe :"Well let's get you two inside then."

Phoebe: "Nina what were you thinking? Trying to run away in the snow without a coat."

-sternly- Me :"If it got any colder you could freeze to death."

Nina: "Really?"

Phoebe :"Your father's right sweety."

Me: "We had a few dogs that ran away when it was snowing once."

Me: "The snow was too deep and we couldn't chase them."

Me: "They made it about as far as the next section before they froze to death."

Nina: "Why?"

Me: "Because that's what happens when things get too cold."

Me: "Although the weather was alot worse than this."

Phoebe: "Full restores will work though."

Me: "True."

We headed back inside, and the morning quickly returned to normal.

Sometime after breakfast Phoebe and I were called in to the facility again, so we left once Corina arrived to look after Charley for us. Nina had settled down by the time she arrived, so both Phoebe and I felt that she would be ok.

Once we arrived, we met with James who immediately began to question us about the book and what it contained, though Phoebe wasn't able to finish it yet.

-in the briefing room-

James: "Dr. Black informed me that you were able to retrieve a book containing information on Myrenthal."

Phoebe: "Mhm, I brought it with us, see?"

James: "So what has this book led you to discover so far?"

Phoebe :"Well , first off, I can't read anything on the first fifty pages, it's in a dead language that nobody seemed to know how to read even in its own world."

Phoebe:"After page fifty it is written in something that resembles modern human language, though it is stilll somewhat hard to read."

Phoebe: "It talks about a dark wizard named Garglemesh."

Phoebe: "And then it talks about all the atrocities he commited."

James: "Like what? "

Phoebe: "Well, he forced a man to marry a chicken."

James: "One of those edible bird things?"

-somewhat surprised- Me: "Uhuh..."

Very few people in the pokemon world actually knew what a chicken was.

Phoebe: "He killed some ladie's husband and then tried to marry her."

Phoebe: "He killed all the cows in a village, and caused many people to die of starvation."

Phoebe: "He basically did a lot of evil things."

James: "Ok."

James: "What are cows and how did they stop him?"

Phoebe: "I haven't gotten that far yet."

Phoebe:"And cows are like tauros and miltank, just bigger and not as intelligent."

James:"Oh...ok."

Me: "Honey you know you don't have to read the entire book, you can skip to the parts we need."

Phoebe: "I know, but look."

She showed me the page.

Phoebe: "The text is really small and handwritten, there's a lot of it, and there's not exactly a table of contents or anything to show me where the important stuff is."

Phoebe: "And it's a big book, it takes awhile to skim through."

Me: "I understand."

James: "Well, we haven't had any luck locating Myrenthall yet, so you have some time.

James: "Though we could try putting the book through a scanner."

Me: "Like a computer scanner?"

James: "No, an archival scanner, it can scan books and other texts and digitize them."

James: "That way they can be searched electronically."

James: "Unfortunately they aren't particularly common."

James: "The Central Library has the only one nearby that I know of .",

James: "You should take the book there and see if they'll let you use it."

Phoebe: "Ok."

Phoebe :"But first we need to go back to that world, we have to vouge for our driver over there or he could get in trouble."

James:" I'll inform Dr. Black, they'll take care of it."

James: "You need to focus more on finding the information that we need."

Phoebe: "Ok."

James:"So get going to that library."

Phoebe: "Ok."

We left the facility and headed to the library, it was in a large, old building in a very busy commercial district near the heart of the city. It took about an hour of driving to get there because of the traffic, and atleast half that to find somewhere to park, but eventually we were able to enter the building.

It was probably the biggest library I had ever seen.

For such a large building in such a crowded part of the city, there wasn't a whole lot of people inside.

Librarian: "Can I help you?"

Phoebe: "We need to use your archival scanner."

Librarian :"For what reason?"

Phoebe: "We have this book."

She set the rather large book on the front desk.

Librarian:" What a book, it looks ancient."

Librarian :"Do you know what it's about? Where did you get it?"

Me: "It's a long story."

Phoebe: "I don't know if we're allowed to tell you."

She showed her agent Id.

-quietly- Librarian: "You two are Phoebe and Cj?"

Phoebe: "Mhmmmm."

-unsure- Phoebe: "Sooo, can we use your scanner?"

Librarian: "Ohh, Ok, follow me, I'll take you to it."

We followed her back behind the front desk and into a computer lab type room with a handfull of computers and a large, cylindrical machine, about twice the size of those giant photocopy machines seen in schools, one of which was also sitting in the corner of the room.

The librarian turned one of the computers on, and then pulled out a tray from the odd machine.

Librarian: "Ok, you need to place the book in here, and then I'll handle the rest."

Phoebe:"Ok."

Phoebe set the book onto the tray, and closed it, then we waited for a few moments for the computer to finish starting up. Then that the librarian used it to turn on the machine, which emitted a bright white light from it's center that flickered on and off about 4 times per second. This went on for quite a few minutes until the light finally stayed off and the machine had finished.

Librarian: "Ok, now we just have to process it."

Librarian :"It's over 1000 pages so it might take awhile, the computer has to decipher the text from all the images it has scanned. "

Librarian: "Why don't you go see if there's any book you would like, I'll get you when it's done."

Phoebe: "Ok."

We headed back out into the library, it was a quite a big place, and there were a lot of books available. We wandered around a bit, and found some magazines to read. Neither of us thought getting started in a book right now was a good idea, because if we ended up checking it out the library was far enough away from our usuall beat that returning it would be a hassle. So we stuck with magazines that we wouldn't get sucked into, and that was enough to hold us off until the scanning was complete.

Library:"Here, the entire contents of the book are digitized on this flash drive."

Library: "Nearly any computer can search through it now."

Phoebe: "Ok, thankyou."

We left the library and arrived back at the facility yet another hour later. We headed to the portal lab, just to see what was going on as we weren't really sure what we needed to do at this point. Under Dr. Black's instruction we ended up using one of the pcs in the lab to search through the contents of the drive. The first thing we searched for was death, ofcourse, being a book about evil people, this was not a very uncommon word so we had to go with something else.

Phoebe: "Why can't we just search for Myrenthall?"

Me :"Because his death won't be in here, it hasn't happened yet."

Me :"Wait a minute, can't your mother tell us how to beat him?"

Phoebe: "Cj, to see her we'd have to go all the way back over the Hearthome, and even then she doesn't like to reveal the future like that, it can have severe consequences."

Phoebe:"And there's no guarantee she's seen it either."

Me: "Oh, yeah I forgot about that..."

Phoebe: "Though I would like to visit them again."

Me: "Doesn't Nina have a winter break or something?"

Phoebe :"I think so."

Me: "Maybe we'll go then."

Phoebe:"Ok."

We spent some time searching through the book together, trying to find anything that could help us. Eventually we found something on page 458.

"In the year 568, Garglemesh was bound in chains of electrum, there he was tortured for a total of 40 days, he was starved, he was cut with knives, and flogged senselessly , and after those 40 days were up, the people of the river village, whom he had murdered so many of previously, took up blades of holy metal, and used them to pierce his heart. The curse was undone, and Garglemesh was condemned to the fiery pit forevermore. "

-unsure- Phoebe: "What is holy metal?"

Me: "I don't know...metal with holes?"

Phoebe: "I doubt it."

Me: "Maybe it says somewhere else in here?"

Phoebe: "Maybe."

We ran a search for holy metal, another reference came up on page 254.

"It was discovered that our nightmares have become true, the villagers have discovered that our creation is weak to holy metal, a battle scarred sword tempered in the blood of the ones it has slain."

-surprised- Me: "What?"

Phoebe :"How are we going to get that?"

Me: "Crap I guess we do have to go back."

Dr. Black: "What's the problem?"

Me: "Myrenthall's weakness is a sword tempered in the blood of its victims."

Dr. Black: "That doesn't make any sense."

Me: "Neither does he himself, but he's real...so..."

Phoebe: "We have to go back through the portal."

Phoebe: "And hope we can find a sword that will work."

Me :"Do you know how hard that could be?"

Phoebe :"Hmm?"

Me: "They can't be too common."

Phoebe: "But we can't just go about killing people to make one either."

Me: "True."

Dr. Black: "There's nothing scientific that says that will work."

Me: "Well, we're going by their world's rules, not ours."

Me: "Myrenthall is from that world, he goes by it's rules whether he wants to or not."

Phoebe :"But what about the electrum chains?"

Phoebe: "Could those hold him?"

Dr. Black: "Electrum is an alloy of gold and silver."

: "Small amounts of it are used in power bracelets. But it has to be electrified and combined with platinum and manganese to effectively prohibit psychic powers furthermore, aluminum is used as a transfer ."

Dr. Black: "However, electrum chains could contain enough to disrupt psychic powers in a non-electrified state, but you would need almost 50lbs of atleast 80\20 electrum to do so."

Phoebe: "It's because gold is very dense, it's hard for my powers to work through it."

Me :"Does that mean your jewelry makes you weaker?"

Phoebe: "No Cj, it takes a lot more than that."

Me: "Oh ok."

Dr. Black: "They probably don't know the science of power bracelets, but I believe that's why the chains held Garglemesh down."

Phoebe: "But he has escaped from the bracelets."

Dr. Black: "True."

Dr. Black: "So we need something stronger."

Dr. Black: "Now back to the sword."

Phoebe: "They said it would be better to capture Myrenthall and keep him alive than to kill him."

Dr. Black: " Why is that?"

Phoebe: "Because if we kill him, another will be chosen to take his place."

Dr. Black: "I see, so if we can somehow suspend him indefinitely, we can keep another from spawning."

Phoebe :"Mhm."

Dr. Black: "Well then, I have another idea."

Dr. Black :"What if we freeze him solid?"

Phoebe: "We don't have any ice types."

Me :"What about those seels we came across a few days ago?"

Phoebe: "They were just visiting, they're probably long gone by now."

Dr. Black: "You can find sneasel up on Mt. Silver, if you head over there tomorrow you should be able to make it back by the afternoon."

Phoebe: "No!"

Me: "Why not?"

Phoebe :"Don't you remember? You got killed by a weaville once..."

Me :"Ohhhh...that..."

Me:"That was a long time ago."

Phoebe: "I know, but I still have nightmares of that day sometimes."

Me: "Ohhh, allright."

Me: "Maybe our seel friends are still at that beach."

Phoebe: "We can go check, but I doubt it."

Phoebe :"And what are we going to do? Capture them?"

Me: "Perhaps temporarily."

Me :"You could talk them into helping, that's how you got Draco."

Phoebe: "Yeah, that's true."

A reminder as he hasn't been mentioned in awhile, Draco was her dragonair she caught in the safari zone in the Kanto region as a dratini. As a late addition to her team it was one of her weaker Pokémon, and hadn't seen many battles.

Phoebe: "Wait a minute…I taught Draco how to use icebeam."

Phoebe: "He can help us."

Me: "Sounds like a plan."

Phoebe: "Now all we need to do is find Myrenthall again."

Dr. Black: "And therein is the challenge, we have no way of knowing where he will pop up next."

Dr. Black: "So keep your pokemon ready and get ready to respond when we need you."

Dr. Black: "With that said you two can go home for the day."

Phoebe: "Ok, great."

We left the facility and headed home, once we got there Phoebe let Draco out inside the house.

Me :"Honey what are you doing?"

Phoebe: "Now Draco be careful, don't knock anything over."

Phoebe :" I let you out so I could tell you that we're going to need you soon."

Corina had left just a few moments before, Nina was working on her homework and Charley was on the couch watching TV with me.

Me: "Hey Charley look."

I held him up so he could get a look at Draco.

-excitedly- Charley: "Es poemah dawhy…Cawey see poemah."

Me : "Mhm…"

Draco came over to see him.

-sternly- Phoebe: "Draco be careful, he's my baby."

-softly- Draco: "Drrrrrraaaaaaaaaaa."

Charley :"Poemah see Cawey."

Me: "Yeah, I think he sees you."

Charley tapped him on the head.

Charley:"es col..."

-unsure- Me:"He's cold?"

Phoebe :"That's because he's a dragon type."

-cutely- Charley :"Dwaga ty?"

Phoebe: "Mhmmm."

-curiously- Charley :"Es mawa poemah?"

-playfully- Phoebe: "Mhmm, he's my pokemon."

It was strange having Draco out in the house, but he seemed mild mannered enough, he pretty much just slinked over to a corner of the living room, and even played nicely with Charley for a little bit. He would gently knock down his block towers for him, which Charley thought was extremely funny. Somehow even more funny then when he knocked them down himself. After awhile all his laughter and tower building had tired him out, so I set Charley down for a nap while Phoebe helped Nina with her homework that she still hadn't caught up on yet.

When I came back down Draco had taken over the couch.

Me :"Seriously?"

-mischeviously- Draco: "Drrraaaa."

I went into Nina's room.

Nina: "Hi dad."

Me: "Hey sweetie.."

Phoebe :"Cj?"

Phoebe: "What's going on?"

Me :"Draco won't get off the couch."

Phoebe: "-sighs-, I'll go get him."

Me: "So how much homework do you have left?"

Nina: "A lot..."

Me: "It can't be very hard can it?"

Nina: "Yes it can."

Me: "How so?"

Nina: "When it talks about things that happened hundreds of years ago."

Me: "Oh...really?"

Nina: "Yeah how am I supposed to know what happened back then?"

Me :"Did you try reading the book?"

Nina: "Ummm...i dunnnno..."

Me: "How do you not know?"

Nina: "I don't like it, it's boring.."

Me :"Well I'm sure that kind of attitude will get you an 'a'."

Nina: "Why do I need to get an a?"

-unsure- Me: "Well...um..."

Me:"You don't, but it would be nice to see you apply yourself and achieve something."

Me: "Don't worry about it so much ok?"

Me: "Your mother loves history, she'll help you."

Nina: "But she doesn't know most of this stuff either."

Me: "Well then, maybe we can go to the library sometime and do some research."

Me: "We went to the central one today, it was huge."

Nina: "You did?"

Me: "Mhm, we had to, for work."

Nina: "Ok..."

Phoebe came back in.

Phoebe: "Ok I got him off the couch he shouldn't be too much of a problem now."

Me: "Allright."

Me: "Why don't you just return him?"

Phoebe: "Because I just kind of miss having him out..."

Me: "Oh...ok."

Phoebe: "I remember when he was a dratini I could carry him around my neck."

Me :"And some day he'll be a dragonite, and he won't be able to fit in the house anymore."

-somewhat saddened- Phoebe: "I know Cj."

Phoebe: "Oh well."

Nina: "Are we going to go to the library?"

Phoebe: "We should have taken you with us today."

Phoebe: "We'll take you tomorrow sweety how does that sound?"

Phoebe: "Work has been pretty slow recently so I doubt anything will happen."

Nina: "Ok."

Soon enough, the next day arrived, and we did infact take Nina over to the library, by now she had pretty much returned to normal, so Phoebe was ok with this. I found something to read to Charley while Phoebe took Nina to look for some history books.

-reading- Me :"And so, little Neddy the nidoran ripped the blue flowers to shreds."

-cutely- Charley: "Why Dawhy?"

Me :"I don't know...you tell me.."

I showed him the picture.

Charley: "Flow got eteh.."

Me :"No he didn't eat them he ripped them up."

-cutely- Charley: "Why Dawhy?"

-reading- Me: "Well, on the next page, it says he was very upset that they were not the same color as him."

Charley: " Cawey dunno."

Me: "Well, see Charley, Neddy is purple, and the flowers are blue."

Me: "And because neddy has the mind of a five year old, he thinks that means they must be destroyed."

Me: "And now we'll go to the next page."

Me: "And then Neddy met Nedina, who was blue like the flowers."

Me: "'Go Away', Neddy said."

-cutely- Charley :"Goh ahhway!"

Me:"But Nedina didn't leave..."

-cutely- Charley: "Buh...din lee."

Charley :"Cawey dunno.."

Me: "Well you see he's yelling at her, he's saying 'go away'."

I tried to use the pictures to explain the story to him.

-unsure- Charley: "Cawey no wa scwee..."

Me: "He's not screaming, he's yelling.."

-grumpily- Charley:"Cawey no wa yehwee..."

He made a weird face, apparently the thought of yelling absolutely disgusted him, anyway while I continued to read to him, Phoebe and Nina sat down nearby and began to read through several books they had collected.

Nina had brought her homework with her so she could finish it while we were here, and once she got it out, it didn't take long for the two of them to start making progress. Two hours later, they had completed the bulk of Nina's history assignments, while Charley had fallen asleep. So we headed for home after they returned all the books, and then another 2 hours later we arrived, which was about the same time Charley began to wake up from his nap.

Once we got home, Phoebe headed outside to work with Draco, while I was left inside with a very energetic Charley and Nina, who was almost back to normal. Nina was taking a break from her homework and was playing nicely with Charley on the floor. Charley was in an extremely playful mood and frequently burst into a fit of giggles at seemingly random intervals.

Nina: "Charley, you goofball, cars can't drive upside down."

-happily- Charley: "Newa seewee."

The simple act of her flipping the toy car back over delighted him.

Me: "Nina can you keep an eye on him for a moment?"

Me:" I want to go see what your mother is up to."

-unsure- Nina: "Ok."

Me :"Just keep playing with him, you're good."

Nina: "Ok dad."

I threw on a jacket and headed outside, it was barely below freezing and there was a fair amount of snow on the ground, Phoebe was in the backyard with Draco, who was noticeably moving a bit slower because of the cold.

Me: "Are you sure he'll be ok out here?"

Phoebe :"It's not that cold, he'll be fine."

Phoebe: "Besides it's not like I'm going to leave him out here."

Draco gave her a funny look.

-unsure- Draco: "Drraaa?!"

Phoebe: "Oh relax, I said I wasn't going to."

Phoebe :"Besides, if you're out in the cold like this long enough, you'll get used to it."

Phoebe: "And then you'll be that much stronger."

I gave her a hug.

-lovingly- Phoebe :"Ohhh Cj..."

-lovingly- Me: "Haven't got to spend much time with you today."

-lovingly- Phoebe :"Ohhhh."

Phoebe: "Is Nina watching Charley?"

Me: "Mhm."

Phoebe: "Ok."

-unsure- Draco: "Drrrraaa?"

Phoebe: "Sorry Draco just give us a moment."

We held eachother for a little bit.

Phoebe: "-sighs-, I love you."

Me: "Love you too baby."

She let go.

Phoebe: "Ok, Cj, that's enough I need to get back to training."

Me: "I know."

She kissed me on the cheek then turned around to face Draco.

Phoebe: "Come on Draco, let's work on your ice beam some more, and try to get that accuracy up."

Phoebe :"Cj can you go inside and get some empty soda cans that he can use as targets?"

Me: "Sure."

I did as she asked.

Phoebe: "Thankyou."

Me : "Mhm."

Phoebe: "Ok Draco, now aim at the can."

She used her powers to manipulate the cans and suspend them in the air for Draco to hit. As completely normal soda cans they were very lightweight, as expected, so she could control them pretty easilly, and could even get them to dodge his attacks, simulating a real opponent. She had done this a few times before with many of her pokemon, in order to improve the accuracy of their various ranged attacks. To the point where most of our discarded soda cans were cut, melted, dented, and otherwise destroyed long before we could recycle them.

I checked on the chickens to make sure they still had water before heading back inside, yes we still have chickens, they're just not that important or exciting, so usually they're not worth mentioning, Nina usually takes care of them after school. As it was cold outside, they were all just huddled together around their house. Anyway, after installing a heater in their water to keep it from freezing, I headed inside, where Nina was still playing with Charley, who was still in a very jolly mood.

Not much happened for a few days, then we recieved a report about a major electronics outlet being robbed in Saffron. It wasn't much to go on, but given Myrenthall's fascination with electronics and the fact that the police couldn't find a suspect, it was enough for James to send us down there on the magnet train. We left Charley with Corina, and Nina was back in school at this point. We stopped by the store to investigate the damage. It was a mess, the store was mostly empty except for a few broken tvs, broken glass, and some smaller goods that apparently just weren't important enough to take. Even most of the shelving was gone.

The cameras had been deliberately destroyed, the only footage available consisted of what happened just prior to the attack. The available footage shows the shop looking completely normal one minute, and then the camera blacks out the next without any sign of anyone around, furthermore, as it happened at night, there was nobody in the shop when it happened.

There was one witness however, a young meowth kitten. Phoebe tried to translate for it, but it was really young, so all the little meowth could say was that the store was robbed by a "flying human", which, although it pretty much guaranteed that it was Myrenthall, it really wasn't that helpful, as we had no idea where he went or what he was planning to do with all the electronics he stole. The skarmory team had come to Saffron as well, and already had their skarmorys on patrol.

Me: "hmmm..."

-curious- Me: "I wonder where it all went?"

Phoebe: "I don't know."

Me:" You saw how much stuff was in here right?"

Me: "He would need several trucks to move all that stuff out."

Me:"And then there's the question of where he would hide it all."

-concerned- Phoebe: "I hope the owner is ok..."

Me: "Oh he'll be fine, he wasn't even here when it happened."

Me: "And he probably has insurance."

Phoebe: "I hope so."

-on radio- Skarmory agent: "We've located a large amount of electronics on top of the KNB tower."

Me: "KNB tower?"

Skarmory Agent: "Kanto National bank, head over there now and check it out."

Me: "Ok."

We arrived at the KNB tower about a half hour later. It was a huge building, one of the ones we had scaled before when Team Rocket attacked with it blimps a long time ago, though we never actually went to the top, we just went as high as we needed to for Phoebe to teleport us onto the blimps.

Fortunately this time the elevator was functional so we didn't have to take the stairs, that said, it was still a 30 minute ride to the top, as the elevator kept having to stop every few floors to let other people on and off. On the top floor was a rather luxurious penthouse, a pile of various electronics, and an empty swimming pool. Oddly, all the windows of the penthouse were covered up with trashbags, they weren't broken, they were just covered up.

Phoebe sent out Draco before we headed inside, inside there were more electronics, many of them disassembled into many component pieces, circuitboards and tiny screws littered the floor.

Draco: "Drrra.."

Phoebe: "Shhhh, he hears something."

-muffled- unknown man:" mmmmmmph...mmmph mphhh.."

Phoebe: "Huh?"

Phoebe :"There's someone in the closet."

I opened the closet door, inside there was a well dressed man all tied up.

-confused- Me: "Who are you?"

-cutely- Phoebe: "Cj you have to untie him first."

She untied him so he could speak.

-stressed- unknown man: "This crazy guy broke in and tied me up. I've been in that closet for hours."

Me: "Ok...calm down...who are you?"

Unknown Man: "Just call me Steve.."

-calmly- Me: "Why are you here?"

Steve: "This is my penthouse..."

-overwhelmed- Steve: "-sighs-...he trashed it..."

-confused- Me: "Don't you have to be rich to own a place like this...? Don't you have bodyguards?"

Steve: "I did, I don't know what happened to them."

Steve: "Call the police before he comes back."

Me: "We are the police you moron, you think we just wandered up here?"

Steve: "It hurts..."

Me :"What hurts?"

He stood up, darted out the door, and ran straight off the edge of the roof.

Me: "What the hell?"

Phoebe fell to her knees.

-confused- Me :"Pheebles?"

-stressed- Phoebe: "-pants- , give me a sec."

She used her powers to bring the man back up to the roof, saving him from certain death. (A fall from this height would likely reduce him to a puddle of red goop that not even revives could fix.)

Phoebe: "Ok Mister, I think you need to stay tied up..."

Phoebe: "Until you realize you can't fly."

She held him down.

Steve: "It hurts..."

Phoebe: "Settle down."

Phoebe: "You're suffering from an illusion."

Phoebe: "You're feeling things that aren't really there."

She placed her hand on his forhead.

Phoebe: "There, is that better?"

Steve took a moment to catch his breath, by the looks of things, whatever she did relieved him of his suffering.

30 seconds later.

-exhausted- Steve: " yeaaahh...I think that did it...thankyou."

Me: "Let me guess, old guy did this to you?"

Steve: "Yep."

Me:"Big White Beard? Tuxedo?"

Steve: "Yep."

Phoebe:"We're already looking for him, don't worry."

-into radio- Me: "Hey we got a civilian up here, he's the owner of the penthouse."

-on radio- Skarmory Team Leader: "Right, send him down, other agents are comming to collect him."

-into- Me: "Ok roger that."

Me: "Pheebles why don't you stay up here with Draco, I'll take him down to the ground floor."

Steve: "I'm calling in my helicopter."

Me: "Sorry but we can't let you do that."

Steve: "I can make it on my own..."

Me:"Other agents will be waiting for you on the ground, you need to go with them."

-a bit dissapointed- Phoebe: "-sighs-"

Steve :"I have a company that I need to get back too, they haven't heard from me in several hours, if they don't hear from me soon they'll start looking."

Me: "What company? Silph co?"

Steve: "No, Godrio Wireless, the best internet service in the Kanto\Johto region."

Steve: "I'm a CEO."

Me: "Ok well, why don't you just call them, tell them you're ok and then go with the agents when they arrive."

Me: "If everything goes according to plan your life will be back to normal by tomorrow."

Me: "Listen, the bottom line is, we can't have you up here when that old guy comes back, and you now know top secret information we can't let out into the public."

Phoebe: "Our boss is very concerned about this for some reason."

Me :"So please just cooperate."

Steve: "Can I take my pokemon with me?"

Me: "Pheebles? Can we trust him?"

Phoebe: "Hmmm..."

She closed her eyes for a moment.

Phoebe: "You better play it safe, he means well, but that won't keep him from trying something stupid."

Me :"Allright."

Me: "No you can't take them with you, but if you show us where they are, we can send them to the center and you can pick them up later."

Steve: "Why not? "

Me: "Because we can't be sure you won't try to use them to get out of this."

Phoebe: "I'll go get them, I know where they are now."

Me: "Ok."

After I escorted Steve down the elevator along with his pokemon and handed both off to our fellow agents, I returned to the roof, Phoebe and Draco stayed up there the whole time in case Myrenthall returned while I was gone. The other agents brought Steve back to the facility, where his memories were altered to remove anything he had witnessed. A simple cover story involving him witnessing a robbery was crafted to explain his disappearence.

Anyway, we waited on the roof for quite awhile for Myrenthall to show up.

When he finally returned, he was carrying even more stolen tvs.

Me :"How many tvs do you need?"

Myrenthall: "Assss manny asss it takeeesssss to build another helmet."

-sternly- Myrenthall :"Be gone mortal...you're beginning to annnnoy me."

-defiantly- Me:"Naaaaahhh."

Myrenthall: "If I knew that wench wasn't somewhere around here... I would have killed ya already."

He dropped his tvs.

Myrenthall:" Exornafunima."

I felt very weak all of a sudden as a black sphere began to form in his hands, and right when I a was on the verge of falling unconscious the sphere disintegrated and I quickly regained my strength.

-surprised- Myrenthall :"What? That should of taken your soul. "

Me: "Yeah, my soul doesn't like to come out...sorry."

Myrenthall: "Then I shall have to resort to more primitive means."

He pulled out a revolver.

Me: "Big deal, we got revives."

Myrenthal :"Not from thisssss you don't."

Phoebe came out of hiding and threw a shadowball at him, knocking him off the edge, he quickly teleported back up and shot me. There was no wound but I still felt like I had been shot.

-confused- Me :"What?"

I fell to my knees.

-in pain- Me :"-gasps-"...

Draco began to fire Icebeams at him, I fought through the pain and pulled out my gun as well and began to fire, with Phoebe firing shadowballs as well. Draco managed to graze him, slowing him down long enough for consecutive icebeams to freeze him solid.

I began to feel weak and blacked out just a few moments later as if I had sustained severe blood loss. When I woke up, I found myself surrounded by darkness. My stomach was bleeding, but I couldn't feel anything, it was like I was in a dream.

Me :"Where am I?"

Dusknoir: "You're in a coma..."

Dusknoir's single red eye appeared in the darkness.

Dusknoir: "You know I was hoping it would be awhile before we met again."

Me:"Dusknoir?"

Me: "Am I dead?"

Dusknoir: "No, not quite."

Dusknoir: "It's quite a strange situation we have here now, even stranger than last time."

Dusknoir: "See it appears your body is still alive, but you yourself are wounded."

Dusknoir: "I've never seen anything quite like this before."

Me:"How do I get out of here?"

Dusknoir: "I would think you'd have to find a way to heal yourself, but...I don't know."

-meanwhile-

Phoebe :"Oh no...Cj..."

Myrenthall: "Now that he'ssss out of the way."

Phoebe: "Draco keep him moving.."

Draco: "Drrrrraaaaa."

He fired another ice beam.

Myrenthall :"I'll ask you one last time."

Myrenthall: "Marry me or I'll do to you what I did to him."

He pointed the gun at her.

-yelling- Phoebe: "NO!"

A low power shadowball knocked the gun out of his hands, without thinking, Myrenthall bent over to retrieve it, only for Draco to hit him square in the ass, he winced and then was frozen solid in that pose, but Phoebe wasn't ready to laugh, after all, I was still unconscious.

Phoebe: "Goodjob Draco, that's enough."

Phoebe: "Ooooooh Cj..."

She kneeled down beside me.

-unsure- Phoebe :"Your body isn't hurt so what's wrong?"

Phoebe :"I guess I have to go in their and find out."

She closed her eyes and touched my forhead.

-wherever the hell I was-

Phoebe: "Cj?, Hello?"

Dusknoir: "Well there's your wife, maybe she can help."

Dusknoir: "You're not actually dead yet so there's not much I can do."

Dusknoir: "I don't even know why they sent me out here."

Dusknoir left, the world lightened up a bit, revealing a floor made of what appeared to be concrete.

Phoebe approached me.

Phoebe: "Ohhhhh you're hurt."

Me: "Is it really you baby girl?"

Phoebe: "Yes...it's me.."

Phoebe:"I can only be here for a few minutes though, it takes alot of energy to do this."

Phoebe: "So listen, you need to find a way to heal yourself."

Phoebe: "You're inside you own mind right now."

Phoebe: "Out in the real world, you're unconscious."

Phoebe :"That gun myrenthall had must have been able to affect your soul."

Me:"How do I heal?"

Phoebe: "You need to find whatever part of this place is broken and fix it."

Me: "What?"

Phoebe: "Secondly, remember nothing here is real Cj, it's all just to help you visualize things"

Phoebe: "Except for me, but I have to go soon."

She kissed me.

Phoebe: "Don't give up ok? We're counting on you."

Me :"Don't cry baby."

Phoebe: "I'll try not too."

She slowly faded out of existence, leaving me on my own.

With nothing else to do I wandered around in the dark, somehow after she left it seemed to be just light enough for me to get my bearings. I found a concrete wall and proceeded alongside it until I came across a room. I headed into the room, the light increased enough so I could see the walls that consisted of completely spotless mirrors.

Me: "What the?"

The door dissapeared behind, there was no escape.

My reflections upon the mirrors began distort and act on their own accord.

The first simply changed to me wearing all black and somewhat depressed looking.

reflection1: "Soooo weak."

The second warped into a child that resembled me when I was 6 or 7. He was very upset.

-upset- reflection2: "I don't deserve her."

The third looked more machine than human. He looked like me if I was some sort of weird human cyborg.

-angry- reflection3: "When I get out of here, I'm going to kill him..."

The fourth reflection, who unlike the others seemed to be alot quieter, was restrained to the wall by chains of iron, their seemed to be an unnatural shadow over its face though I assumed it looked just like mine.

Me: "Hey, wake up..."

It didn't respond. Whatever these things were, it didn't seem that they could hear me, but as I listened to what they were saying. I began to believe that they represented different aspects of my mind.

I placed my hand upon the mirror with the child, and it went through, as if the mirror were made of a thick gel or something.

-upset- reflection2: "I don't know what's going on."

-upset- reflection2: "I'm scared...what if she leaves me?."

Me :"Haven't you realized by now, she won't leave you?"

-upset- reflection2: "What if she dies?"

Me: "She won't, aside from that, I think it's safer to say we're closer to death than she is as the moment."

Me: "Do you know how to get out of here?"

-upset- reflection2: "You have to get the others, to agree."

reflection2:" And then there's that mean guy..."

Me: "Ok..."

Me :"Do you agree?"

reflection2: "Do you think we can protect her if we do?"

Me: "Does it matter? If we stay here we're definetaly not going to be able to."

reflection2: "Ok."

He faded away and I was teleported back to mirror room, now the room was triangular and there were only 3 mirrors. I approached the one with myself wearing black next.

Me: "What's your problem?"

Reflection1: "I don't know, you tell me."

Reflection1: "Can't you see? We're screwed?"

Reflection1: "She was looking at that rich Ceo guy, you know she was."

Reflection1: "And the scientist before that..."

Me: "She wouldn't do that, not after all we've been through."

Me :"Besides, you were looking at the nurse..."

Reflection1 :"Ummmmm...eheh..."

Me: "Are you comming or what?"

Reflection1 :"Does she really love us?"

Me: "Do you really love her?"

Me: "Because if you keep distrusting her like that she will leave."

Reflection1: " You're right."

He faded away, this time I was simply teleported into the room with the cyborg.

Reflection3: "It's about damned time you got here."

Me: "You comming?"

Reflection3 :"One question."

Reflection3 :"Promise me we'll kick his ass once we're through."

Me :"hehe...of course."

And with that he faded away, and I found myself standing infront of the 4th reflection

Me: "What are you?"

I asked, knowing I probably wouldn't get a response.

It looked up and spoke in a demonic voice

Reflection 4 : "I am the last part of you, that you need, the only one that is capable of allowing you to heal."

Reflection 4: " All you need to do is break these chains."

A sledgehammer appeared in the corner of the room.

Me:" But what are you?"

Reflection 4: "You already know, I am your darkness, the part of you that is already broken beyond recovery."

Reflection 4: "If you break these chains, you will awake."

Me :"But then what? I'll just let you run free?"

Me: "You're in those chains for a reason, you're lying to me."

Me: "I don't need to let you out to get out of here do I?"

Reflection4: "hehehehehehehehe..."

Reflection4: "Well played."

Reflection4: "You passed."

Reflection4 :"But watch yourself kid, don't let him shoot you again, or you might have to set me free."

He began to fade away, and I awoke, back on the rooftop, with my head in Phoebe's lap.

Phoebe: "Cj..."

Phoebe: "-sighs-, I was starting to worry I'd have to take you to a hospital."

Me :"How long was..."

-interupting- Phoebe: "Twenty minutes."

Phoebe :"I got a surprise for you."

Me: "What? "

Phoebe: "A myrenthallcycle."

Draco: "Drrrrrraa."

I turned and saw myrenthall frozen in a block of ice.

Me: "Good, atleast that worked out."

Phoebe :"Can you get up?"

Me: "Yeah, I can try."

-jokingly- Me: "Although I kind of like just laying here."

Phoebe :"Oooooh Cj."

-playfully- Phoebe: "Come on, get up."

Me: "-sighs- Fine."

A few minutes later, we were heading back to the Goldenrod City on the magnet train, with Myrenthal being transported to the Havac base in the Lumina region via cargo plane, to remain frozen until further notice. Once we got back to the experiment facility, we talked with Dr. Black at the lab for a little bit to kill some time before we needed to leave to pick up Nina from school. Myrenthal was finally out of the way, for now atleast. Tomorrow we would finally be able to explore more portals...