Here's the next chapter.
I'm sorry to say that I can no longer accept any more Pokemon recommendations as I'm starting to lose track of them all and it would be unfair to those who have submitted Pokemon if I start forgetting them.
Once the 'Potential Pokemon List' is shorter I will start accepting them again. Thanks you so much those who have submitted requests. You have been a great help in the development of this story. Thank you for understanding.
All of Charles', Flo's, and Alice's Pokemon and their names can be found on my profile.
TurboDriver07 - Thank you for reminding me, sorry about that. I'll make sure to write down the suggestions from now on. Thanks for reading.
SkullGreymonX - Thanks so much. My goal for this story is to make it seem like the anime so I'm pleased that I managed to achieved it with this chapter. Also the tiny handcuffs had returned so that's a plus. The next chapter will focus of Titania and her issues. Also the reason why he offered to release her is because he doesn't own any of his Pokemon and they only joined voluntarily. If they are unhappy with being on the team then he shouldn't force them to stay. Hope you like the next chapter.
Kunoichi69 - Thank you so much. Everyone seems to like Alice's tiny handcuffs. I should include them more in the future. Titania is definitely going through some things and, as I said before, the next chapter is going mainly focus on her. Yeah, Alice's cooking is...not great and we'll explore that later. You also gave me a good idea for a new chapter. Thanks again.
pokemonking0924 - As always, thanks for the support. I believe I already told you about the shift in teams and some of the newer Pokemon are going to be in the spotlight again. That's going to be very exciting and not only that but Sabrina and the gym battle is coming up in a few chapters. However, I am having some trouble deciding whether he should do the battle before of after Ash has his battle or possibly when Ash was at the ghost tower. Ah well, I'll think of something later. Right now, Charles has to focus on Titania and her problems.
Anyway I'm glad you liked the chapter and I can't wait to hear from you soon. Thanks again.
djinn - I'm happy that you enjoyed it. Thanks so much.
Linkonpark100 - Your hunch is correct and we'll explore more of it in the next chapter. Thanks for reading.
BigEater - Charles has his work cut out for him with Titania. I'm sure they can work something out in the next chapter. Yeah, I thought Charles and Flo would be good cooks because they have been preparing to go on a journey for a while now, although Alice's skills are less then satisfactory. I'm also glad you liked the tiny handcuffs, it seems like its everyone's favourite. Thanks so much for reading.
Sonic07 - I can't wait to write chapters with Marina in them. She's just adorable despite being, as you said, a handful. For the porygon episode, the original story is there but I did tweak it in some places. I have to agree that both porygon should stay with the doctor, but Charles catching a porygon himself would be interesting. I haven't read any stories where a trainer has a porygon so that would be great. Thanks so much, hope you like the next chapter.
FartNinja - Thanks so much. I never really played any of the games before and I have to take all my knowledge from the internet so I'm glad I didn't get anything wrong. And you're right about not being in too many battles. He and Charles are going to have to work hard before their gym battle.
Guest (1) - I can guarantee you that they are going to be a lot of sci fi references in this chapter. My favourite one being the title of this chapter.
Guest (2) - You're so right! I love Spaceballs, it's such a great film. Any movie with John Candy and Rick Moranis is just amazing. I have to make sure to include the joke later on.
DarthMonkey - Titania certainly does. I hope you enjoy the next chapter. Unfortunately, it won't be Team Rocket who messes things up, although the person responsible wished that they could blame them.
Guest (3) - I wouldn't be surprised if they was an actual law that the Jenny family had to introduce banning Alice from cooking.
Guest (4) - Thank so much, I'm glad that you enjoyed it.
Guest (5) - I'm so glad that you like Tyche. I'll make sure to include him more in future chapters. Although I have a feeling that even when he evolves, he'll still be accident prone. Thanks for reading.
Thanks for all the reviews. Hope you enjoy the next chapter :)
Chapter 24: Do Porygon Dream Of Electric Mareep?
Pokemon Centre
It was the late afternoon by the time the team arrived at a Pokemon Centre. It was located in a small town near the much larger Saffron City where Charles' next battle with Sabrina will take place.
But now the team were tired and hungry and wanted nothing more then a comfortable bed to sleep in. They haven't had proper lodgings since the Vermillion City's Centre.
They walked up to the reception desk where Nurse Joy stood behind typing on a computer. She looked up and gave a kind smile to them.
"Oh Flo, it's so lovely to see you. We haven't seen each other since the reunion."
Charles and Benny shivered in fear when she mentioned that. Flo had invited them to that family's reunion and they haven't fully recovered. There was something really unnerving being in a room where all the women almost look identical.
Flo smiled, "I know. It's great to see you too. Are there any rooms available at the moment?"
"Of course, chansey would lead you to them," Nurse Joy said as said chansey appeared from around the corner.
("Follow me, please,") she said as she waved her stubby arm to the stairs.
Alice and Flo started to follow but Charles and Benny called out to them.
"I'm actually going to call the lab. I'll be up in a moment," Charles told them as he pointed his thumb over to the phones.
"Alright see you there," Alice said as she and Flo followed the chansey to their room for the night.
Charles and Benny made their way to the phone cubicle and sat down on one of the seats. He lifted the phone off the holder, typed in the number for Professor Oak's lab, and waited for somebody to pick up. After three rings, the image of Professor Oak appeared on the screen before him. However, Charles and Benny wore confused expressions when they took in the sight of the old man. His clothes and grey hair were slightly ruffled and a few lab equipment in the background were smashed to pieces.
"Hello Charles, how are you?" Oak asked, not at all concerned about the state he's in.
"...err Professor are you alright? You look slightly...beaten up."
("It's like a tornado hit the the lab,") Benny commented from Charles' shoulder.
Oak chuckled, "Oh, I'm fine. Mariana was a bit...excited, that's all."
'A bit?' Charles and Benny thought.
"Anyway, how can I help you?" Oak asked.
"Well, can you get Cleo for me. I want to see how my team are doing," he requested politely.
Oak nodded, "Of course, I'll be back in a moment."
The Professor left the screen and they waited for a few seconds. Then Cleo came into view with Mariana wrapped around her middle. The dratini's eyes lit up when she saw her mother on the screen and shot towards it.
("Mama!") she cried but the persian caught her with her paw before she could smack her face against the screen.
("Hold on sweetheart, that's not your mama,") Cleo she warmly said, as Marina whimpered in confusion.
Charles smiled happily when he saw his baby, "Hello Marina. I'm sorry that it has been so long."
("Mama! Mama!) she happily cried.
("Looks like she doesn't mind the separation too much,") Benny said, making Charles chuckle.
He looked over at Cleo, "How's she doing?"
("She's doing fine. She's happy and healthy, so there's nothing to worry about,") Cleo told him, ("Although, it would seem the only two Pokemon who could slow her down is me and Oak's Dragnoite. I swear she's almost like Hurricane sometimes.")
"I can see that," Charles commented as he looked at the destroyed lab.
Benny shook his head, ("Good thing aunty Dragonite knows how to stop her.)
"And the other's how are they?" Charles asked, "Oh and how's abra?"
("The abra's fine. I did have to stop him eating everything in the pantry though. Oh and he would like to be called Mahad since everybody on the team has a name.")
("Mahad,") Benny repeated, ("any reason why that name?")
Cleo shrugged, ("He fell asleep before I could ask. He's still asleep right now actually. Anyway, the others are doing well. The Fleur des Lis sisters are practicing a new routine so they could evolve faster. They decided that they wanted to be bellosomes by the way,") Charles nodded and made a mental note to find two Sun Stones in the future, ("Miko has joined in on their routines as well as trying to improve her attacks. Mystic and Kani have decided to train together and Sneak is being his usual self.)
"Well, I'm happy to hear that. I want to swap some of the team around, if you don't mind rounding them up."
("Sure thing,") Cleo said, ("who do you want?")
Charles took out his list he made earlier, "I would like Mahad, Miko, Sneak, Marina-"
"Oh thank goodness!" Oak cried from off screen, making Cleo and Marina look to the side.
...
...
...
Oak laughed nervously as Cleo shot him a stern look, "I-I mean- I will be sad to see her go...I'll just start up the transporter."
Charles and Benny heard the Professor shuffle away as Cleo turned back to the screen.
("You were saying,") she urged.
"Right, and lastly you Cleo," Charles said much to the persian's surprise.
("Really? You want me to come.")
Charles nodded, "Yeah, I need your Dark type moves in the next gym battle," he explained.
Cleo thought for a moment, ("Well, I suppose I haven't done a gym battle yet,") she murmured before shrugging, ("Alright then.")
"Great and I'll be returning Pyro, Boa, Hurricane, Echo and..." he hesitated slightly, "...Titania," he finally answered.
Cleo's raised an eyebrow, ("Really Titania?") she questioned.
"...Yeah," Charles uttered looking down at the eevee's pokeball sadly.
("Is there something I should know?") Cleo asked.
("We had a bit of a falling out with her,") Benny answered, ("She's going back to think whether she wants to leave us.")
Cleo's eyes widened, ("Arceus! That's...well to be honest I'm not too surprised. She has been rather temperamental since she joined.")
"I know," Charles sighed, "but whether she wants to stay or not is up to her."
("I suppose,") Cleo admitted, ("I'll go round up the team. See you later.")
("Mama?") Mariana whined, not liking the fact that he had to go again.
Cleo reassured her that she'll meet him in a few minutes and she calmed down. They said their goodbyes and Charles ended the call. He stood up and headed over to the room where the pokeball transporter was.
("Hey, you doing alright,") Benny asked his brother.
Charles sighed, "Yeah, lets just transport our team ov-"
He stopped suddenly as he entered the room and saw that the transporter looked different then usual. It was much bigger and more high tech than the ones either of them have seen. It had screens, dozen of buttons and switches, and flashing lights. Charles and Benny inspected it. They couldn't help but feel it was a little out of place in the small Pokemon Centre they were in.
"I see your admiring our new transporter," the voice of Nurse Joy said as she walked over to them.
"New transporter?" Charles questioned, "Are all the Centres getting these?"
Nurse Joy smiled proudly, "Oh no. We are the only one. We have a computer scientist who lives nearby and he built this one. He said that this one was way more efficient at transporting pokeballs then the old ones," she explained before she frowned at the machine, "However, I have no idea how to work it. I still have to read through the manual he gave me," she said, pointing to the reception desk where there was a very large manual was on. It had to be at least 1000 pages long. "I almost threw out my back just lifting it on the desk," she muttered in distaste before smiling back at Charles, "Oh but I'm sure you can work it out. You kids are always good at these high tech gadgets."
Charles gulped nervously, "W-well I'll give it a try," he said, much to Benny's shock.
"Good, please do call me if you need anything," Nurse Joy sweetly said before heading back to the reception desk.
They looked at the transporter unsurely. Charles slowly approached as if it was a sleeping rhydon and cautiously touched it.
("Charles...are you sure that's a good idea?") Benny asked.
His brother nervously tapped one of the screens, making it light up, "Yeah, what's the worst that can happen," he said, "now where's the little arrow thing?" he asked, peering at the screen.
("...Do you...Do you mean the cursor?")
Charles looked at him in confusion, "Why would I need somebody who swears a lot?"
...
...
...
("This can't end well,") Benny sighed.
Thirty Seconds Later
Nurse Joy frowned as he read the manual on her desk. She had actually read the same page fifty times already and she still had no idea what it was talking about.
"Honestly, it's like a reading a foreign language," she muttered to herself.
BANG!
She jumped in fright as a loud noise erupted from the room with the transporter in. Before she knew it, her computer went dark and a yellow warning sign appeared on the screen. She tapped the keyboard, but it didn't do anything. She tried turning off and on, but the warning sign was still there.
"What's going on?" she muttered, looking up and seeing that the phones displayed the same warning sign.
She quickly jogged around the desk and ran into the transporter room. Nurse Joy gasped when she saw the pokeball transporter displaying the warning signs, however the screens also flickered and frizzled wildly. The lights on the console were going mad and a siren had started going off.
Still sat at the console was a wide eyed Charles, holding a rigid Benny in his arms. Both we're in shock of what just happened. Charles turned in his chair and faced Nurse Joy who gaped in horror. He gave her a sheepish smile.
"I think...it broke," he said unhelpfully.
The Next Morning
A man kneeled before the wrecked transporter, pounding the floor with his fist in sorrow with tears streaming down his face. He looked to be his early forties, with messy green hair, and pale skin. He wore a lab coat over an orange shirt and brown trousers. He also wore round glasses with the lenses so thick that his eyes are completely hidden.
"Why!?" he wailed, "Why me!?"
Nurse Joy awkwardly stood next to him, rubbing the weeping man's back and starting to regret calling him over. The man, according to Nurse Joy, was Dr. Akihabara the scientist who built the high tech pokeball transporter and it would seem that he takes his work very seriously. Over to the side, Alice and Flo, with Benny on her shoulder, stood over Charles as he sat on a chair with his head in hands. They looked down at him with blank expressions of their faces.
"So, how did you break the transporter?" Alice inquired.
Charles sighed, "I don't know."
"And how did you manage to bring down the whole cyber network?" Alice further inquired.
"I don't know."
"And how did you manage to do all this damage in thirty seconds?"
"I don't know," Charles answered again as he lifted his head up, "There were a lot of things I didn't understand. There were a lot of options and buttons I needed to press. It kept asking me which photos had a traffic light in and when I got it wrong it called me a robot. But I'm not a robot," he whimpered.
Alice frowned in concern, "I don't believe this."
"I can," Flo sighed, "Charles is really bad with technology," she explained much to Alice's surprise.
"What!? Since when?"
"Since always, Charles and technology don't get along," Flo answered.
"But I've seen him use technology before and not only that he lives in lab," Alice argued.
"Well, I know some stuff. I'm not completely incapable," Charles said, "but most of the time Flo has supervised me. Also I never really went into the lab part and stayed out in the corral with the Pokemon. I think I'm just better with real things than artificial ones. The last time I used a piece of lab equipment was...well..." Charles trailed off in shame.
Alice raised an eyebrow, "What happened?"
"It exploded," Flo answered for him, shocking Alice, "and it was only a microscope."
"You!" Akihabara shouted, getting in Charles' face, "Do you know what you've done! You had shut down the network!"
"Yeah, I know. Now because of it I have full grown man screaming in my face," Charles muttered with a glare.
Nurse Joy grabbed Akihabara by the collar if his lab coat and pulled him away, "Please don't shout at my guests. Or children. Can you just reboot it again."
Akihabara shook his head, "No, there's something wrong with it. It won't let me in. Something is definitely wrong with Porygon."
"Porygon?" Flo asked, "what's that?"
"No time to explain," Akihabara muttered as he tapped rapidly at the keyboard, "we need to get this up and running before the pokeballs get stuck in the system."
"How do you mean?" Charles asked.
"Well, because the system is down, no pokeballs can be transported or received. They are stuck in cyberspace and the only way to unblock it is by..." he trailed off when he realised something, "...Great Scott, we have to go in."
("Hey Charles, didn't he say that the pokeballs were stuck,") Benny said.
"Yeah, why?"
("Wouldn't that mean Cleo and the others are stuck in there,") he said, making Charles' eyes widen in panic.
"Oh no," Charles gasped, earning Flo's and Alice's attention.
"What's wrong?" Flo asked with a concerned frown.
"I was swapping my Pokemon last night. There's a chance that Miko, Sneak, Mahad, Cleo and Marina are in there," he explained before turning the doctor, "Dr. Akihabara, whatever needs to done I will help you. I know I am only ten yea-"
"Excellent," Akihabara said, cutting Charles' speech off, "I was going make you kids do it anyway, so I'm glad you volunteered."
"...oh...okay," Charles uttered, "not quite sure how I feel about that."
Akihabara ignored him and raised his hand up, pointing at the ceiling in determination.
"To the laboratory," he cried before rushing out of the Centre.
...
...
...
("I guess we just follow him then,") Benny muttered, before the team ran after the eccentric scientist.
Nurse Joy was left alone standing next to the machine, not quite sure what to do now. She decided to tape a note on the side of the transporter which read 'Out of Order' and just get on with her duties.
Dr Akihabara Laboratory
There was an old manor building on the edge of town. It's clear that by the overgrown garden, the broken windows and the rusty gates that Dr Akihabara didn't care much for the manor's exterior. However, once the team stepped inside the building, they felt as if they had travelled to the future. The doctor had converted the interior of manor into a giant lab with metal walls and ceilings. As well as electrical equipment and machines dotted around the place, humming and flashing bright lights. Despite the amount of activity, there was hardly an lighting so lab was always shrouded in shadows and might explain the Akihabara's scruffy appearance.
He led the children and pikachu deeper in the lab until they arrived at the largest room in the house. Like the rest of the inside, it had metal walls, machines and everything was shrouded in darkness. However, in the centre of the room, dominating the other equipment, was a giant glass cylinder chamber. It stood on a metal dais and it reached up to the ceiling where it was capped by dome machine with wires spouting out of it.
Akihabara turned back to them and pointed at the chamber, "Alright, everyone get in," he demanded.
"What why?" Flo questioned, glancing at the chamber sceptically.
Akihabara scratched his hair in irritation, "Don't question me. Just do what I say."
"Yeah, we're not going to do that," Charles crossly replied.
"That's right," Alice agreed, "tell us what's going on first."
The doctor sighed in annoyance, "I hate dealing with real people. Why can't they just do what I say," he muttered as he typed something in a panel on the side of the machine.
("I'm guessing he gets along better with artificial life than with real life,") Benny whispered to Charles, ("He's kind like the opposite of you.")
Charles was somewhat relieved by that fact.
Akihabara took a deep breath and turned back to the team, "Fine. Two years ago, I had the idea of making pokeball transportation much more efficient. By creating a guardian to oversee the process there will be less chance of blockages or viruses and transportation would run much smoothly. What I needed was a Pokemon. But no ordinary, a Pokemon who was able to travel through cyberspace, get rid of any threats and maintains the pokeball exchange. That's why I created the porygon, a Pokemon completely comprised of programming code. I was successful in creating two porygon and they have been diligent workers. However, now that the system has been thrown into haywire, I am unable to contact one of the porygon. That's why you must go into cyberspace and investigate what is going on. This chamber will break up your particles and turn them into data in which I will transport into cyberspace. Please children, you must do what you can to help clean this mess."
...
...
...
...
The team stared blankly at Akihabara, not quite sure how to react to...any of that.
"Did you actually receive a doctorate or do you just call yourself a doctor?" Flo asked.
"I'M TELLING THE TRUTH!" the doctor shouted, "why would I lie to you about this."
Alice shrugged, "In our defence, it totally sounds like something out of a sci fi movie. Like the Manectrix or Totodile Recall or Tron...strange they couldn't think of a better name for the last one," she mused.
(A.N: I thought MagneTron was a bit on the nose. However, I'm very proud of Totodile Recall)
"You said you have two porygons," Charles said, "can I meet the other one," he requested.
Akihabara nodded eagerly, happy that he can demonstrate something he created.
"Of course," he said, tapping some keys on the panel.
Suddenly, appearing in the air above them in a flash of light, was a Pokemon none of the have ever seen before. It resembled a duck, but it had rather flat features like it was completely comprised of 3D shapes. It had a pink, polyhedral head that ends in a blue beak, hexagonal eyes, a pink polyhedral body with a blue front, blue triangular prism feet, and a blue rectangular prism tail.
Charles and the porygon observed each other in fascination while Alice gave Akihabara an odd look.
"So, you were serious about all of this. Including the part we have to go into cyberspace," she said in disbelief.
The doctor looked crossly back at her, "Of course, I was being serious."
"Sorry, just didn't think you can actually do that," she told him before sighing, "Sure, we have the technology to travel into cyberspace, but I still have to wait three weeks to get my magazine order," she muttered bitterly.
"Amazing, I never seen a Pokemon like this before," Charles said, "A sort of digital Pokemon. Oh! Why don't we call it a Digimon."
Flo's, Alice's, and Benny's faces instantly soured.
"That an awful name," Flo muttered.
"Never say it again," Alice added.
("Yeah, it sounds like a complete rip off of Pokemon,") Benny spat.
'Why do I feel I uncovered a twenty year old rivalry,' Charles thought with a sweat drop before turning back to the porygon, "Hello, my name is Charles. It's nice to meet you," he politely greeted.
The porygon looked at him with an indifferent expression, ("01000111 01110010 01100101 01100101 01110100 01101001 01101110 01100111 01110011 00100000 01101000 01110101 01101101 01100001 01101110,") it said.
...
...
...
Charles blinked in confusion, "I'm sorry."
("01000111 01110010 01100101 01100101 01110100 01101001 01101110 01100111 01110011 00100000 01101000 01110101 01101101 01100001 01101110,") it repeated.
Charles still didn't understand what the porygon said. Not only was it just saying numbers, but it was speaking in a robotic voice that was hard to understand.
"What did it say, Charles?" Flo asked.
"I-I don't know," Charles uttered, "It's just saying random 1s and 0s."
Akihabara eyebrows raised in surprise, "Great Scott. Porygon speaks in binary code."
"Err...binary code?" Charles asked.
("It's code used in computers to represent text or instructions,") Benny explained, much to his brother's surprise.
"How do you know what binary code is?" Charles questioned.
("How do you not know what binary code is?") Benny short back.
Charles hummed in annoyance enforce smiling back at porygon, "Well, never mind. I don't need to know what you are saying," he said, raising his hand to stroke his blue beak.
Porygon moved back, ("01010000 01101100 01100101 01100001 01110011 01100101 00100000 01100100 01101111 01101110 00011001 01110100 00100000 01110100 01101111 01110101 01100011 01101000 00100000 01101101 01100101.")
"It's alright," Charles reassured in a calm tone as he reached for his beak again, "I'm not going to hurt y-"
As soon as he touched the beak, bolts of electricity shot through his arm, making him shout in agony. He pulled back and shook his hand rapidly to get rid of the pain as Flo and Alice ran over to him.
"Are you alright?" Flo asked, taking his hand and inspecting it for burns.
"I'm fine, honest," Charles reassured her with a small frown.
"What was that for?" Alice crossly interrogated the porygon, as Benny's cheeks started to spark, "he only wanted to pet you. You didn't have to attack him."
Akihabara ran a hand through his messy hair in thought, "Porygon doesn't allow people to touch his beak. It's quite sensitive. I mean, he did warn you," he said, making Charles' eyes widen in surprise.
"Oh my goodness," he uttered as he looked at the Pokemon who was glaring down at him, "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to-"
But before he could finish his apology, Porygon flew away from him and hovered behind Akihabara. He kept glaring angrily at Charles and muttering insults that he couldn't hear.
Charles felt his heart break in two when the Pokemon flew away. In his all his years caring and talking to Pokemon, not a single one had ran away from him. Sure there were Pokemon who seemed weary about speaking to humans and some aggressive ones like Fleur, but they always got used to him eventually and never outright hated him. His stomach felt as if it was weighed down by stones at the thought of not interacting with Pokemon.
Pokemon were everything to him and he didn't want to lose that connection.
Benny shook his head as he leapt onto his brother's shoulder, ("Looks like your as good with virtual Pokemon than you are at computers,") he joked before he noticed his downtrodden expression.
"Yeah...I suppose," he muttered.
Benny's eyes widened in alarm, ("Charles, I'm sorry. That was a joke.")
"I know," Charles said putting on a smile that seemed too forced, "Don't worry about it."
"We are wasting time," Akihabara cried as he tapped wildly at the panel, "I will send porygon with you into cyberspace. It will be your guide when-"
"Hold on," Flo interrupted, "We don't want to be broken into millions of pieces. There has to be another way."
Akihabara shook his head, "I already told you there isn't. If you want to save the Pokemon, you'll do what I say."
Flo and Alice glowered at him and we're about to shout at him when Charles stepped in front of them.
"Look, let's just do what he says," he said, much to their shock.
"But Charles-"
"Marina is in there," Charles cut Alice off, "I caused this mess so I need to fix it. If you don't feel comfortable than I'll go on my own. But I have to save her and the others."
The two girls frowned and shared a look. Obviously, they didn't want to do something dangerous, but then again they couldn't abandon their friend. Especially since he's trying to help all the trapped Pokemon. They came to a silent decision and looked back at Charles.
"Fine, we'll go," Alice sighed with a small smile
"But only so don't do something stupid," Flo added with a giggle.
Charles chuckled, "I can always count on you two to stop me from doing something stupid."
("Don't forget about me,") Benny said, hitting the side of his head with his tail.
"You're usually doing stupid stuff as well," Charles joked.
Akihabara opened the capsule and the team plus Porygon stepped in. Charles glanced at Porygon and saw it was as far away from him as possible and glared at him in annoyance. Charles hummed sadly at this as Akihabara sealed the capsule shut.
"Alright," the doctor said though a speaker, "I'll shall commence in 3..."
Charles gulped and held Benny tightly in his arms.
"...2..."
Flo fidgeted with one of her hair ringlets while Alice gripped her fists tightly nervously.
"...1..."
They all held the breath as they were about to be transported into cyberspace.
"...N- Oh wait I forgot," Akihabara suddenly said, breaking the tense atmosphere, "are any of you susceptible to seizures?"
...
...
...
"I don't think so," Charles answered in uncertainty, "I don't know how we know though. Why?"
"Oh no reason," Akihabara told him as he waved his hand dismissively, doing nothing to calm there nerves, "just try and not look at any red and blue flashing lights and you'll be fine. Okay, 3,2,1 now!"
Before they could question any further, Akihabara pressed the button and started the process. The bottoms of their feet broke apart and turned into invisible data before their eyes. It spread from their feet, up their legs and torso and finally it reached to top of their heads until there was nothing left in the capsule. They had been transported into cyberspace.
Cyberspace
Being in cyberspace was a weird feeling.
There was no concept of space, temperature, gravity or any external sensations that you would feel in the real world. However, because everything was virtual, everything was dictated by programming. So although their bodies couldn't sense any indication of up or down, hot or cold, or being pulled to the ground, the programming told them that there were. It was very off-putting and the team were confused for a few seconds as they tried to make sense of their surroundings. They first noticed that it was mainly dark in the cyberspace with red, green and blue wires darting out of it and zigzagging all over the place. The wires glowed as black dots zoomed through them quickly. They then noticed that they too were going past these wires and realised that the program was telling them that they were falling into the darkness below.
Before they could shout, they landed roughly on something. They groaned painfully before looking up in astonishment when they saw that they were riding on the back of Porygon. The Pokemon had grown several sizes in a blink of life and was large enough to carry them all on its back.
"Thanks Porygon," Flo said as she rubbed its back gratefully.
Porygon turned its head and gave her an eye smile, ("01011001 01101111 01110101 00100111 01110010 01100101 00100000 01110111 01100101 01101100 01100011 01101111 01101101 01100101 00100000 01101000 01110101 01101101 01100001 01101110")
Charles sat up and smiled at it, "Yeah, who knows what would have hap-"
He barely got to finish his sentence before Porygon glared at him and turned back to the front. Charles smiled dropped as he bowed his head sadly. Alice, Flo and Benny gave him concerned looks, but didn't know how to comfort him.
Alice looked over the side and looked at the wires, "Hey, they are all going in the same direction," she said.
"Indeed," a voice said, making them all jump.
Suddenly a screen popped out of the back of Porygon's head and flickered to life. The face of Akihabara appeared on the screen, grinning like mad scientist.
"That would be the Network Highway," he said, "it leads to the main hub where Porygon patrols. If there's a problem then it should be there."
"Right," Alice said, "so all we have to do is follow it and find what's going on," she turned to Porygon with a determined look, "Full speed ahead, Porygon," she ordered.
The Pokemon's tail wagged, ("01001111 01100110 00100000 01100011 01101111 01110101 01110010 01110011 01100101 00101100 00100000 01101000 01110101 01101101 01100001 01101110") it said with a nod of it's large head before quickly following the Network Highway.
'Oh so it listens to everyone else except me,' Charles thought miserably.
A few minutes later and they reached the main hub.
On the way there they saw several wires joined the one they were following to create one giant wire, far bigger then the ones around them. It eventually opened up to a green runway where pokeballs travel along to their destination. However, there was a problem.
Hundreds and thousands were piled up at the entrance of the wire blocked by several barriers (which strangely looked like ones you would see around roadworks) on the runway, the pokeballs spouting from the wire only just contributing to the jam. Charles looked down at the pokeballs, worrying that his team were down there somewhere. However, he decided to not think about it. Solve the problem and then save his Pokemon.
That's when they saw the cause of the blockage. It looked similar to the giant Porygon with the same colour scheme and duck-like appearance, but instead of having flat features they were round and smooth. The team stared in disbelief at the new Pokemon they had found as it spasmed and glitched in the middle of the runway, preventing the pokeballs from going any further. Charles and Benny gritted their teeth in pain as they heard the Pokemon speak. It didn't speak in binary code or any words, but was making very high pitched noises followed by some electrical crackling. It reminded Charles of the sound of a dial up internet, but way more unbearable.
("What is that?") Benny asked as he covered his ears, ("It looks like Porygon.")
The screen showing Akihabara's face turned around and saw the new Pokemon.
He gasped, "Great Scott! It's Porygon2!"
"Who?" everyone questioned.
"The upgraded form of Porygon," the doctor answered, "Like how Pokemon evolve into different forms, Porygon can upgrade. I only just figured that they could do this. I never thought I would see this form in my life time," he excitedly said before his grin dropped, "but there's something wrong. It looks like it's programming is going into haywire. It's doing the opposite of what It's supposed to do. I know that it was patrolling the area at the time, but something must have shocked it into upgrading prematurely. But would could it be?"
Alice, Benny, Flo, Porygon and Akihabara slowly looked at Charles who was sheepishly looked at his feet. He too slowly looked up and winced guiltily at the glares they were shooting him. He cleared his throat and gave everyone an apologetically smile.
"It was an accident," he lamely said.
"An accident!" Akihabara roared, the screen flying into Charles' face "AN ACCIDENT! DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU HAVE DONE!"
Alice grabbed the screen and pulled it away from him, "Alright that's enough. So he did something wrong, big deal."
"Shouting at him will not solve anything," Flo scolded equally as angry at the doctor.
While the two were telling him off, Charles sighed sadly. He glanced at Porygon who only glared back at him and turned his head away. He closed his eyes for a brief second before frowning in determination. He made his way to the side of the Porygon and prepared to leap down. Benny noticed this and turned to him in shock.
("Charles what are you doing?") he cried, his squeaks drawing the others attention.
The trainer looked back at them, "I may not know anything about techology, but Porygon2 is still a Pokemon. I can get through to him."
Before anybody could protest, Charles jumped off the side and landed on the giant wire beneath him. He ran to the end and jumped onto the pike of pokeballs before he climbed to the summit and slid down to the barriers. Slowly and cautiously, he approached Porygon2.
Porygon2 noticed Charles arrival and turned its red eyes towards him. The trainer raised his hands in front of him to show he wasn't a threat.
"It's okay, it's okay," Charles called out in a soft tone as he edged closer to the Pokemon, "My name is Charles. Doctor Akihabara told me you were called Porygon2, that's interesting. I never met a digital Pokemon before."
Porygon2 looked down in confusion, its red eyes twitching as Charles slowly approached his foot.
"It's alright, I not going to hurt-"
He made a mistake.
He thought he could stroke his giant smooth foot reassuringly. However that was the wrong move as Porygon2 when ballistic. He screamed loudly and spasmed in anger, making Charles take a few steps back in shock. Before he could do anything else, Porygon2 shot a powerful Psybeam at him from his beak.
Charles covered his face in defence, but luckily the attack didn't hit. Porygon flew in front of the attack and took the hit for him.
"Charles!"
He looked up and saw Flo hanging over the side, offering her hand so she could pull him up. Charles took it and she, with help from Alice and Benny pulled him back onto the Porygon.
"Take us out of here!" Alice shouted at the Pokemon.
Porygon nodded and flew to a safe distance. Porygon2 shot attacks at them, clearly mad at the incident. It saw the other Pokemon fly behind the main wire and, seeing that it couldn't pursue, started sending assortment of attacks randomly. It glitching grew severally until it was nothing more than a blur.
The team looked at the rampaging Porygon2 in concern. However, Charles face was filled with guilt as he realised he just created a bigger mess.
The screen showing Akihabara hovered up to his face once again.
"Look at what you done now!" he yelled.
"I-I'm sorry, I just thought-"
"Save it," the doctor snapped, "this situation honestly couldn't get any worse."
Dr Akihabara's Lab
Akihabara looked away from the screen showing the cyberspace at the sound of his phone ringing.
"One moment, I'll be right back," he told them before stopping the video feed and picked up his phone.
"Hello?"
"Hello, doctor. It's me Nurse Joy," chirped the nurse from the other end, "I just want to let you know that I called a technician to come over to look over the transporter. He said he's going to do the best he can and insert an antivirus program. I just wanted to let you know."
"An antivirus program!" Akihabara cried in shock, "B-but you can't do that!"
"Why not?"
"Because I sent the children into cyberspace to deal with the problem and if you send an antivirus program it'll think their the virus and eliminate them from existence." he explained frantically,
...
...
...
"Do you actually have a doctorate or do you just say that you have one?" Nurse Joy asked seriously.
"Of course I do!" Akihabara yelled, "Why does nobody believe me that I can send people to cyberspace!?"
"Right," Nurse Joy said, not believing a word that he said, "The technician is calling me over so I need to go. Once you four have finished playing your game can you send the children back. Thanks doctor. Bye."
"W-wait!" Akihabara shouted, but the phone cut of before he could say anymore.
He put the phone down on the receiver and gulped, "Great Scott."
Cyberspace
The screen lit up again and the team looked at the nervous face of Akihabara.
"Right, you know what I said about things not getting any worse," he said, making everyone sweat drop.
One quick explanation later and they were starting to panic. They have a rampaging Porygon2, hundreds of pokeballs to recover and, if that wasn't enough, they have antivirus program that would vaporise all of them.
Safe to say, they have a lot on their virtual hands.
("Charles what do we do?") Benny asked in concern.
Charles hummed in thought, "Well, I guess we can-"
"Oh no you don't," Akihabara snapped, "I'll be the one who gives out the plan."
"What why!?" Charles cried.
The screen flew into his face once again, "Did you forget whose at fault here?"
"Yours for sending us to cyberspace," Flo answered in a deadpanned tone.
"No."
"Yours for not explaining why Nurse Joy shouldn't use the antivirus program properly," Alice answered in a similar tone.
"Look we don't have time to play that blame game," Akihabara said anxiously, making everyone including Porygon roll their eyes, "If Porygon battles Porygon2 and keep it distracted, one of you can remove those barriers and release the pokeballs. I will send another person a video guide to dismantle an antivirus program in case it comes way sooner then we thought. Are we all clear?"
Alice nodded, "I'll deal with the barriers," she said.
("I'll come with you,") Benny said as he leapt onto her shoulder.
Alice slid of Porygon's back and onto the wire below and ran to their position. Charles and Flo followed suit, allowing Porygon to fly over and attack Porgon2.
"I'll watch the video guide," Flo decided, taking the screen out of the air and holding it in her arms.
"What do I do?" Charles asked in confusion.
"Just stay there and don't touch anything," Akihabara ordered firmly, making Charles wince.
Flo gave him an apologetic look, "Charles-"
"Just go," Charles sighed, "You have something important to do. I'll just make things worse."
Flo's eyes widened as he said that. She was about to say something when she head the two virtual Pokemon clash behind her. Flo cast a concerned look at Charles before taking off to find a safe space.
Charles watched her leave before turning his attention back to the fight between Porygon and Porygon2, guilt etched into his face.
Alice and Benny started to work on lifting the barriers preventing the pokeballs from travelling to their destination. They were much heavier than they looked and it took all of Alice's and Benny's strength to even lift it. Once they lifted the first barrier, a few pokeballs on the pile wobbled and then suddenly took off in a flash.
They moved onto the second one, but Porygon2 had noticed the pokeballs pass by him and locked its red eyes upon the two. It prepared an attack and was about to fire when he was hit on the side by a Discharge attack. It squealed madly before turning its eyes to Porygon hovering above him.
("01010000 01101100 01100101 01100001 01110011 01100101 00101100 00100000 01100110 01100101 01101100 01101100 01101111 01110111 00100000 01010000 01101111 01110010 01111001 01100111 01101111 01101110 00101110 00100000 01000011 01101111 01101110 01110100 01110010 01101111 01101100 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 01110010 01110011 01100101 01101100 01100110 00101110!") Porygon shouted, persuading for it to maintain control.
Poryon2, however, didn't listen and squawked insanely at it. It then fired a Thunder Wave at Porygon, but it had already used Protect to keep it from being electrocuted.
Alice and Benny watched the conflict from afar with worried looks.
"I don't know how long Porygon can keep this up. We need to hurry." Alice told Benny.
The pikachu nodded in agreement and the two moved to the next heavy barrier.
Flo, meanwhile, had found a place where she wouldn't be attacked, sat down and turned back to the screen.
"Okay doctor," Flo eagerly said, "show me the video guide."
Akihabara coughed nervously, "Well…" he utttered sheepishly.
Flo glared fiercely at him, "What?"
"It's just that I…don't have one…yet…I'm still waiting on the order," he admitted, making Flo grit her teeth in anger.
"Why would you say you had one then!?" she yelled as Akihabara moved away from the screen in fear.
"W-wait. I-I do have an alternative video," he told her anxiously, "It's just as good, I swear. I send it over to you now."
A few seconds later and the screen went blank. Then a loading symbol appeared which opened onto a website. A website that Flo knew very well and her face dropped in disbelief.
"He…sent me a Poketube tutorial video!" she yelled.
Charles sat on the large wire and looked drearily at everybody doing their tasks. He had never felt so useless in his life, he couldn't contribute to anything.
'If only I was better with technology,' he thought miserably, 'maybe I wouldn't be dragging other sown. Then again, I probably still find a way to make things worse.'
He stared at the porygon battle sadly until his eyebrows raised when he noticed something. The two Pokemon were clashing against each other. Porygon was flying at Porygon2 so he could attack but he was easily repealed by his more advanced version. However, why wasn't Porygon2 flying as well. Surely, he could overwhelm him swiftly.
He reached into his pocket and found that he still had his pokedex with him.
'Must have come with me when we were taken here,' he thought as he flipped it open and scanned the two Pokemon.
It took a while for the pokedex to register the two Pokemon, as they were new species, but eventually their information pinged up.
Porygon: A Pokemon that consists entirely of programming code. Capable of moving freely in cyberspace.
Porygon2: This upgraded version of porygon is designed for space exploration. It can't fly, though.
"Can't fly," Charles repeated out loud as he looked at their move set, "huh, never heard of that move…I wonder what it does?" He looked at what it did and his eyes in realisation, "That's brilliant… that also means you can…" he looked up from the pokedex and smiled eagerly, "I know what to do."
Alice and Benny had just removed the fourth barrier as more and more pokeballs were zooming past them. Alice wiped her brow and looked over at Flo who was sitting with her back to her in the distance.
"How's everything on your end?" she called out.
Flo held her head in her hands as she stared down at the screen in boredom.
"I got two 20 second unskippable ads," she called back, "I swear they're getting worse these days."
Alice and Benny glared at her with deadpanned expressions, "I can't help but feel we got the raw deal," she muttered.
("You got that right,") Benny sighed.
A yelp of pain caught their attention as they turned in time to see Porygon thrown on the runway by a powerful attack. It skidded to a halt on its side just before them and gave a tired whimper.
"Oh no, Porygon," Alice cried as she and Benny rushed over to it.
The Pokemon groaned but got onto its feet. It glowed for a second and his scraps had been healed. Alice assumed that the Pokemon had used are Recover on itself. Porygon was about to go fight again, but a shout stopped him.
"Porygon, wait!" Charles shouted as he ran over to it.
Porygon glared down at him, ("01010111 01101000 01100001 01110100 00100000 01100100 01101111 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01110111 01100001 01101110 01110100 00111111")
Charles sighed, "Look, I know we got off to a bad start, but I know how to defeat Porygon2. All you need to do is let me take charge of the battle. I need to ride on your back and I'll give you the orders," judging by the annoyed look in his eyes, Porygon didn't like that idea, but Charles insisted, "Please. I may not know anything about computers or technology or anything like that. However, I know a lot about Pokemon battles. You just need to trust me just this once."
They stared at each other, virtual Pokemon vs real human. They remained like this until Porygon relented and pointed at his back with his beak.
("01000110 01101001 01101110 01100101 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 01101110 00100000,") it muttered, making Charles smile.
"Thanks Porygon," he said gratefully before climbing on his back and looking down at Alice and Benny, "you guys keep on removing the barriers."
"Charles, be careful please," Alice begged as Benny nodded in agreement.
"Don't worry, I've got this," he said as he gave her bright smile that made her blush.
Porygon took off into the air, leaving the two watching them go.
"Oh, for crying out loud!" Flo shouted from the side, making Alice and Benny look at her.
"What's wrong?"
"This Poketuber won't stop talking about his sponsor. This site has really gone down hill," she muttered as she glared down at the screen.
Alice and Benny sighed in exhaustion.
Charles flew on Porgon's back over towards Porygon2. The rampaging Pokemon's red eyes fixed on them and squawked menacingly at them.
"Porygon2 doesn't have any other skills that you don't already have, but, because its an upgraded version, it means it is stronger than you," Charles told the virtual Pokemon, "however, it can't fly like you can. This means if you keep on moving and strike when its back is turn you'll have the advantage."
("01010101 01101110 01100100 01100101 01110010 01110011 01110100 01101111 01101111 01100100,") Porygon said, nodding his head in understanding.
It began to fly around its fellow Pokemon, using its speed to its advantage. Porygon2 couldn't catch up and all of its attacks kept missing them and flying into the depths of cyberspace.
"Right," Charles said, pulling his goggles over his eyes, "let's battle."
(Battle Start)
"Porygon use Rain Dance," Charles ordered.
...
...
...
Porygon gave him a questioning look over its shoulder.
"Trust me," Charles encouraged making the Porygon sigh.
As Porygon's eyes turned blue, a raincloud appeared over Porygon2 and rained on the Pokemon. Porygon looked up in confusion before shaking its head to get rid of the rain and glared at Porygon and Charles.
("Bombard Porygon2 with Psybeam. Make sure you don't slow down or let it hit you," Charles instructed, holding on tightly as Porygon flew in circles whilst shooting Psybeam after Psybeam from its beak.
Porygon2 squealed in anger as it kept being hit on the back. It glitched furiously and tried to hit them with Electric and Psychic moves, but Porygon was too fast and unpredictable with its movement. Charles could see that it was trying to come up with the best solution for the situation and frowned when he noticed a red ring appear before it. Suddenly, a red target appeared on Porygon and Charles realised what it was doing.
"Porygon, it's using Lock On," Charles informed, "there's no way of running from it. Prepare to be hit."
Porygon and Charles braced themselves as three balls of light, one green one yellow and one blue, appeared before Porygon2 and sent them shooting towards Porygon. All three attacks hit the Pokemon on its left side and it and Charles came crashing down on the runway before skidding to a halt. Charles had managed to hang on, but he jumped down to see if Porygon was alright. He inspected the injuries and saw that they weren't too damaging before going up to Porygon's large head and rubbing the space beneath its eyes.
"Hey, are you hurt?" he asked gently, making the Porygon look down at him.
Porygon saw the concerned expression on his face and frowned guiltily. Perhaps it did misjudge this human. He may not know anything about his kind or how to treat him, but that doesn't make him a bad person. He treated him like he would with any Pokemon and it supposed it was a Pokemon in a way. Porygon shook its head to say that it wasn't too badly hurt, causing a smile to spread over Charles' face.
"Wait a moment," Charles suddenly realised, looking back at Porygon2 who glared at them with its red glowing eyes, "That was Tri Attack which is a Normal type move. That means," he gasped before turning back to Porygon, "I know you want to use Recover, but please don't do it yet. It may be risky but you need to do Conversion 2."
Porygon gave him a strange look, but the determined expression in the boy's eyes made him cave in.
("01010101 01101110 01100100 01100101 01110010 01110011 01110100 01101111 01101111 01100100,") Porygon sighed before it started to glow brightly.
Charles stood back and waited patiently, "Come on, come on."
Conversion 2 (or the second version of Conversion) allows the user to change its type to one that is immune to the last type move its opponent used. This means that if Porygon2 used a Normal type move like Tri Attack then Porygon's type would turn into something that was immune or resistant to Normal types. In this case there were three options that Porygon could change into: Rock type, Ghost types or...
The glowing around Porygon finally disappeared and Charles couldn't help but give a cheer. Porygon's body was no longer pink and blue but now it was coated in thick, shiny metal. Despite there being a 1 in 3 chance of getting it, Porygon had turned into a Steel type.
Charles smiled proudly as it scratched its head, "Well done, Porygon. Now you are resistant to Normal and Psychic type attacks," Charles informed, "However, you still need to look out for Electric types, but you managed to render most of Porygon2's move ineffective. Now you can use Recover."
He climbed onto its shiny back as Porygon repaired itself and looked over at Porygon2. Judging by the look in its eyes, Porygon2 had just computed what was going on and realised that it was in at a disadvantage. It frowned angrily, it eyes glowed a deeper shade of red, and it was spasming out of control. Charles could ever see sparks jump out from its joints.
"Let's go, Porygon," Charles said before they took off flying around in circles, "you need to get close to it. Use Substitute," he ordered, making Porygon stop in mid air.
Seeing an opportunity, Porygon2 sent out a Zap Cannon at the two. But before it could hit, Porygon and Charles disappeared in a puff of smoke and in their place there was a large green crocodile-like doll. The Zap Cannon hit the doll, but because it was an inanimate object, it did nothing. Porygon2 looked around trying to find where its opponent was. It head a sound behind them and turned quickly around, only to see the glowing tail of Porygon about to hit its beak.
"Iron Tail!" Charles ordered just as the attack made contact and Porgon2 was sent flying back.
It landed on the runway and rolled to a stop. They waited with bated breath to see if the Pokemon would get up and Charles hummed when he saw Porygon2 move. However, he frowned when he saw that its eyes were still dark red and seemed to be glitching frantically as more and more sparks were spat out of its joints.
"Damn, I thought hitting him on the beak would snap him out," Charles muttered, "Looks like I have to go with plan B."
Porygon2 got to its round feet and squawked wildly at them before it body started to glow brightly.
("01001001 01110100 00100111 01110011 00100000 01110101 01110011 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01000011 01101111 01101110 01110110 01100101 01110010 01110011 01101001 01101111 01101110") Porygon said in a panic.
"I know its using Conversion," Charles replied.
Porygon knew this was bad. Conversion allows the user to change types to the same as the first attack. Porygon attacked it with an Electric type move and therefore it will change into an electric type and gain back the advantage. However, as he looked at Charles, it was confused as to why he was smiling.
("01010111 01101000 01100001 01110100 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01101001 01110100 00111111?") Porygon questioned.
Charles grinned at him, "You thought he was going to turn into an Electric type. Well, luckily for us, it's not battling you. It's battling me," he explained, "Do you remember the first move I told you to do?"
Porygon frowned in confusion before looking back as the bright light had died down.
Porygon2 seemed pretty confident in its Electric type form, however it didn't feel like an Electric type. It looked down at itself and its red eyes widened when its body had turned into a shade of blue.
"You used Rain Dance. Porygon2 is now a Water type," Charles explained, as Porygon2 roared in anger. Its rampaging has now gone critical.
In its anger, Porygon2 sent out an a Thunder Wave at the two, but Charles was prepared.
"Use Magic Coat," he instructed as a purple screen appeared before Porygon.
The Thunder Wave ricocheted off the Magic Coat and hurtled back at Porygon2. The Pokemon didn't have enough time to move away before it was hit by its own attack. It was even worse as now it was a Water type. It squealed in pain as electricity shot through its body before falling to the ground. It shrunk back to its normal size and its colour converted back to blue and pink.
Porygon2 had fainted.
(Battle End)
A.N: It wasn't until I finished writing the chapter that I realised I made a mistake. 'Conversion changes the user's type to the same type as the first move in the Pokémon's move list.' However, I misread it and thought it changes the user's type to the first move of its opponent like in Conversion 2. So Porygon2 should have changed into a Normal type (Lock On) and not a Water type (Rain Dance). It's too late to change it now so I'm just going to put it as a foot note and make sure I read it properly next time. Sorry.
As soon as Porgon2 was defeated, Alice and Benny had finished removing the last barrier and a flood of pokeballs came shooting past.
"That's it!" Alice cried, "Charles we done it!"
"Okay," Charles called back as he picked up the unconscious Porygon2, "grab Flo and climb onto Porygon."
Alice and Benny did just that and Charles helped his friends onto Porygon. The virtual Pokemon flew away from the runway to avoid disrupting it again.
The humans and Pokemon sighed in relief.
They had managed to save the day.
Flo looked over Porgon2 and inspected the damage, "It's going to be fine," she said, much to everyone's relief, "It will wake up soon enough."
("But how do we know if its back to normal?) Benny questioned.
"I think it is," Charles said, surprising the others, "If there's one thing I know about technology, is that it usually works once you turned it off and on again."
Pokemon Centre
The technician that Nurse Joy hired hummed in surprise as the pokeball transporter turned on. He had been working on it for an hour with little success, so it was a bit of surprise to see it suddenly come alive.
"Oh you fixed it," Nurse Joy happily said as she came into the room, "well done."
"Y-yeah, I suppose I did," the technician said in confusion, "I'll probably still need to send antivirus program to make sure there aren't any bugs," he said, taking out a small disc from his bag and inserting into the system.
Cyberspace
Their victory was short lived as a flash of light caught their attention. In its place was what a round metal object with a rectangular screen displaying '2:00'. They stared in horror as the number suddenly started to countdown.
"Is that a bomb?" Charles uttered.
"Worse," Flo said as she pointed to a pained red cross beneath the countdown, "It's the antivirus program."
"Great Scott!" Akihabara yelled as the screen in Flo's showed his face once again, "I had completely forgot about that."
"Well, don't just stand there, beam us up," Alice shouted at him.
The doctor yelped and started tapping at his keyboard, "Alright, give me a minute."
("We don't have a minute,") Benny muttered as he stared at the countdown ticking away, ("I can try blasting it with an electric attack.")
"I think that would just cause more problems," Charles told him.
"I think I may know how to do it," Flo said, "The video I watched told me exactly what to do in this situation?"
"What really? This exact situation," Alice asked.
"Yeah, you can get a tutorial on anything these days," Flo answered with a shrug, "Charles you need to dismantle it."
Charles eyes widened in shock, "Me!? Why!? I'm rubbish at this."
Flo gave him a serious look, "I need you to do it because first of all, you're the closest to it," Charles looked around and saw that he was indeed the closest person to the program, "Secondly, Charles, what you did today proves that you are capable of using technology. Without you Porygon would have won the battle and Porygon2 would have still been on a rampage. Sure, you may have caused this, but you were also the person who fixed it. If anybody can do this, you can."
Charles consider her words for a moment before looking at the program. Frowning in determination, he reached and grabbed ahold of it.
"Okay, what do I do now?"
"Do whatever you think is best. Let your instincts lead you," Flo encouraged.
("You can do this,") Benny said.
"We believe in you," Alice added firmly.
He looked up and saw Porygon nod his head to him, urging him on.
Charles smiled in determination before looking down at the program, "Right, I think I need to do this," he said before slapping the side of the program, "and this," he prodded at the timer, "and maybe this," he shook the metal ball rapidly.
Suddenly, to his shock, the countdown stopped before the screen went blank. Everyone stared at it for a few moments before before cheering in celebration.
"You did it!" Alice, Flo, and Benny cried.
"I did it!" Charles shouted in glee, "I really dismantled the program! I'm not useless at technology!"
"Err... actually," Akihabara piped up, "I think you broke it."
...
...
...
"I'm sorry?" Charles asked in confusion.
"Yes, from what I can tell you actually broke the program," he explained.
Alice, Charles and Benny wore confused expressions, "But how-"
"My plan worked!" Flo cried happily, pumping her fist in the air.
The others shared a look before they turned back to the pinkette, who grinned victoriously with her eyes closed.
"I don't understand."
"Oh I lied about the video," she explained nonchalantly, "It told me nothing about dismantling it. That's five minutes of my life I won't get back. I just told you that you can dismantle it so you'll break it. I know it was mean, but it doesn't matter because you, in a way, you saved us. Pretty clever, right?"
She opened her eyes, hoping to see praise...
...but all she got was a an angry glare from Charles, who was still holding the antivirus program.
She gulped and looked at Alice and Benny, but they avoided eye contact with her. She turned to Porygon and Akihabara, but the Pokemon just looked ahead and the doctor switched off his screen. She looked back at Charles and started to sweat when she saw he was still glaring at her.
"I...took it a bit too far," she sheepishly admitted, "sorry," she squeaked as she fiddled with one of her ringlets.
Charles wouldn't speak to her for a whole day after this. She would later buy him an ice cream as an apology.
Doctor Akihabara's Lab
After returning to the lab, the team were recovering from the travel into cyberspace. Alice, Flo and Benny were relaxing on the doctor's sofa while Charles was sat at a lab table with the two digital Pokemon now back to their normal sizes. Porygon2 had rebooted a while a go and was working fine, although he was awfully upset with the ordeal.
("I apologise for my actions,") Porygon2 said with its head bowed, ("I am ashamed for going back on my programming")
Apparently, the upgrade allowed the Pokemon human speech rather than speaking in binary code. Charles was very relieved by the fact.
"It's fine, honestly," Charles reassured, "It's actually my fault for messing with your programming."
Porygon2 looked over its friend and frowned when it saw it was looking away in spite. Porygon2 made its way towards it and they seemed to have a telepathic conversation. Progom shook its head in reluctance, but Porygon2 insisted with a frown. Finally, the Porygon closed its eyes as if it was sighing and hovered away to Charles.
("01001101 01111001 00100000 01100001 01110000 01101111 01101100 01101111 01100111 01101001 01100101 01110011 00101100 00100000 01001001 00100000 01110111 01100001 01110011 00100000 01110111 01110010 01101111 01101110 01100111 00100000 01100001 01100010 01101111 01110101 01110100 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01101000 01110101 01101101 01100001 01101110 00101110") Porygon said with a bow of its digital head.
("My fellow Porygon apologies for how treated you,") Porygon2 translated, ("Porygon had always been stubborn ever since our creation. However, I suppose having such attitudes is what makes us more than data. Am I correct?")
"Yes," Charles replied, "and it is what makes you real life Pokemon too," he said, sending a smile at the porygon.
Porygon frowned and looked away, but Charles could see a hint of a smile in his eyes.
Akihabara walked up to Flo, Alice and Benny with a plain look on his face, "Well...I guess I should say thank you for all your hard work," Flo and Alice raised an expectant eyebrow, "...thank you," he awkwardly said.
Alice shrugged, "Not a problem," she told him, "I actually enjoyed cyberspace. It was weird, but in a good way," she admitted.
"Perhaps we would go in again," Flo suggested.
Akihabara shook his head, "No, I would distaste that," he said before walking away.
The two girls glared at him as he walked away, "I hated every interaction we had with that guy," Alice growled.
Pokecentre
"-and well, that's basically what happened," Charles said as he spoke to Cleo and Professor Oak on the Centre's phone.
Evening had come and the team had decided to go back to the Centre for the night. Now that everything was working again, Charles and Benny had called Oak's lab to make sure the Pokemon he had sent over were alright. Luckily, since Charles broke the transporter, the pokeballs had just returned to the lab and everybody was safe. They weren't even in cyberspace at all, so Charles was worrying over nothing. After talking to the rest of his team and seeing that Marina was alright, he told the two what happened...well mostly, he left the cyberspace part out. He didn't know if they would believe him or not.
Oak hummed thoughtfully, "I see that your relationship with technology hasn't changed. I still remember the microscope incident," he mused wearily.
("I am actually surprised that you have a fault,") Cleo chipped in, ("You're so mature and calm that I haven't thought you were even bad at anything.")
Charles shrugged, "None of us are perfect, I suppose. I'm bad at technology, so what. If you worry about things you are not good at then you don't see the things you're actually good at."
Benny sighed, ("Here we go with the wise shtick. I actually missed the clueless Charles,") he teased, earning a look from his brother.
"So, now that everything is sorted, would you like to do the transfer now?" Oak offered.
Charles frowned and looked down at his belt, his eyes falling on Titania's pokeball.
'What am I good at?' he questioned himself, 'I am good at interacting with Pokemon which means I can't give up on Pokemon who are in need. Titania I'm sorry that you feel this way and if you want to leave, then that's your choice. But I can't give up. Not yet. Give me one more chance and I'll do everything I can to make sure you are finally happy,' he thought in determination.
Charles looked up at Oak and Cleo, "Actually, do you mind if we postpone the transfer till tomorrow. I've got some things to sort out," he told them.
Oak seemed surprised by his request while Cleo smiled as if she knew what he was doing.
"Well, okay," Oak said with a forced smile, "But are you sure you don't want me to transfer-"
SMASH!
Oak and Cleo looked around as something smashed to the ground off camera.
"Oh no, Marina has got into the cupboard again," Oak frantically said before running away.
Cleo sighed and turned back to Charles and Benny, "I need to deal with that. Bye," she said before following Oak's lead.
Charles hung up the phone as Benny jumped onto his shoulder, ("So, quite the day we had.")
"I know," Charles replied, "Do you think we'll meet Porygon again?"
("I don't see why not. Hopefully not tomorrow though. I've had enough of computer science and technology for one day,") Benny said, pulling a tired face which made Charles chuckled.
"Yeah, at least everything's back to normal," Charles said.
"Speak for yourself," Nurse Joy mumbled from the reception desk.
She was partially hidden by a manual that Doctor Akihabara had sent her which covered the upgrades that Porygon2 provided. The manual had to be twice the size as the last one and Nurse Joy had to stand on her toes to read it.
Charles and Benny sweat dropped sheepishly as Nurse Joy glared at them.
"Sorry," Charles said.
And another chapter done!
So a few things. Hope you guys had a good Halloween. I stayed indoors, ate sweets and watched my favourite horror films The Thing (2011 and 1982).
Secondly, I was doing research on this chapter and I found the unaired episode online. It was about halfway through when I realised that I have no idea whether I am susceptible to seizures. Luckily I wasn't, but it was seriously bad. So if you're prone to seizures please don't watch the episode. Otherwise it would be a very embarrassing story as to why you had to go to the hospital.
Lastly, in this chapter we talked about Charles feeling useless when he can't interact with other Pokemon. This will be explored further in a future chapter where Charles' temporarily loses his ability to speak to Pokemon and what its effects are.
Anyway hope you enjoyed this chapter and I'll see you next time.
Thanks :)
Potential Pokemon List:
Charles
Nidoran (Female)
Gastley
Ponytail
Drowzee
Goldeen
Tauros
Hitmonlee/Hitmonchan
Aerodactyl
Flo
Chansey
Psyduck
Nidoran (Male)
Kangaskhan
Cubone
Diglett
Alice
Venonat
Farfetch'd
Machop
Rattata
Poliwag
Tangela