Marril
09/05/2004, 01:55 PM
33 is the closest thing to 1/3 of a hundred. Remember that, kids, it'll serve you well. More of that dastartly Plot we keep hearing about, too. He's an evil one, I swear. Takes up all the space in a series. :p
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Simon was unconcerned. This concerned Kenneth greatly, as a man wounded in operation was of great importance. The fact that Schuler, acting as a body double for Giovanni, taking a bullet in the process, was in a normal hospital was disconcerting, to say the least.
In plainclothes, Kenneth was putting on a convincing show of trying to talk the nurse on duty into letting him see Schuler.
“I’m sorry, sir,” said the nurse, “but he’s just out of post-op, and nobody is allowed to see him.”
“I know that, good lady,” Kenneth said in a light voice. In reality, he was simply bored and looking for amusement. He concocted a fake relationship on the spot. “However, as you have undoubtedly been told, I’m both his boss at work and his cousin-in-law, and I must speak with him about matters concerning both.”
“I… I can’t allow that,” said the nurse.
Kenneth raised his palms in defeat. “Alas and alack, you are right. Good day.”
Sweeping his hand around in a grand fashion, he managed to pick the nurse’s security pass without her noticing.
“Son of a…” Kenneth said to himself, twirling the key card in his fingers, admiring the fact that he’d just stolen it. “Didn’t think that’d work.”
Keying the lock for Schuler’s room and stepping inside, Kenneth sat beside Schuler’s bed.
“Ignore my roommate over there,” Schuler managed, “he’s a bit out of it. Just a bit, y’know?”
Kenneth wasn’t sure what Schuler meant. He guessed that he was being warned that the third party in the room was partially conscious and thus he shouldn’t discuss matters pertaining to Team Rocket in an otherwise unmonitored room.
“You doing all right?” Kenneth asked.
“The hospital Jell-O’s going to kill me,” Schuler said, “but I’ll manage. What’re you doing here?”
Kenneth didn’t speak. This was an unpleasant job, to discover whether anybody had figured out Schuler’s identity. If they had, Kenneth was to devise the most efficient possible means for subtle extraction. Assuming none could be found, Kenneth had to silence Schuler by any means necessary.
“Whoa, man, never seen you so serious-looking,” Schuler said. “Everything ok?”
“Yeah,” Kenneth replied, his mouth dry. “Great. Ultra. Master.”
The door opened and Kenneth spun around. An Orthan Chansey had entered the room, dressed in a nurse’s uniform. Kenneth’s paranoia got the better of him, despite the fact that he knew the round woman to be no threat.
“Excuse me,” said Chansey. “I didn’t know there were visitors in here.”
“Quite all right, miss,” Kenneth said, standing up. “Was just going. Oh, Schuler, ten, thirty-two, eight, four, six.”
10-32-8-4-6 having no meaning by itself, Chansey was prompted by her curiosity to ask as Kenneth left, “What was that?”
Schuler coughed, which hurt his stomach. The bullet had penetrated just below his ribcage on the left side, and the stitches were quite uncomfortable. “Nothing. He’s, uh, my boss from work. Thinks he has a sense of humour.”
“I… see,” Chansey replied.
Schuler’s thoughts turned inward. Operational protocol hardly had any form of military-style precision. He rifled though his police training and subsequent Team Rocket training for meanings to a random batch of numbers. He could come up with none.
Kenneth leaned against his arm against the wall. His stomach felt hollow. Posing as a male nurse, he’d gained access to the hospital’s database. They’d found out who Schuler was, generally. They knew he was a Rocket member.
He looked at the printout. “Member of Team Rocket, ex-police officer from Goldenrod City. No visitors permitted until police observation has been established,” said the report.
Kenneth bore no animosity toward the concept of death. It was a natural progression of life. He bore great animosity toward it ending prematurely, however. He was going to get Schuler out.
The hospital was waiting until Schuler was stable to contact the police. This gave him a window of opportunity. Only a few people knew that Schuler was a Rocket. Simply, Kenneth had to hack into the system and delete the file stating this. After Schuler was stable, Kenneth would move Schuler out of the hospital before the police arrived.
Smirking at his own ingenuity, knowing it was a horrendously simple task; Kenneth sat down to complete this task.
That afternoon, having skimmed the report, Agent Mikhail simply shook his head. “Kenneth, you SOB. That was too risky and you know it.”
David’s mind led him in strange paths. Unaware, he crossed the landscape. It was a barren island in the Orange Archipelago, but that wasn’t possible, as the Neo League finals were being held there.
A presence hung over the stadium. David couldn’t see it or even feel it. A similar presence was also there, but it came from the stands.
“What…” David wondered, looking around. He was surrounded by the stands, having been in the barren landscape moments before.
“Hey, what’s going on here?” David asked aloud.
“Open your eyes,” a female voice said from nowhere. David shook his head.
The presence above the stadium dimmed, but the one in the stands only increased in its sheer… presence. David didn’t know how to interpret the feeling.
Pain engulfed his right cheek. Sam’s face appeared in front of him.
“What?” David asked groggily.
“Sleepwalker,” Sam said, obviously annoyed.
“I was?” David sat down on the bed, still confused.
“All over the place,” replied Sam. “Had to beat you up to wake you. What was going on?”
David exhaled, unsure of himself. “I… don’t know. Was having a weird dream. Remember that stuff with the Vermillion army base?”
“You warned them all about something and they ignored you?”
“Yeah, that,” David said thoughtfully. “Same mind.”
Sam crouched down so she was at eye level with David. “I’m worried.”
“Me too, Sam. Me too.”
Sam paced about the room. “Dad believed you. Heck, he even knew a bit about what you were going through. Maybe we should give him a call or something.”
“No,” David said.
“Why not?”
“I… I don’t know. I just feel like I need to go through this myself, or something. Sounds like it’s a plot device of a badly-written story or something, but that’s how I feel.”
“We have a lot of time, you know,” said Sam. “Just don’t rush it.”
“Where to next?” Marril asked boredly, laying on her back on the hotel bed.
“We stop and have fun,” said Alex. He turned to Tschel. “You know, we spend almost all our time in hotel rooms and stuff instead of in our actual homes?”
Tschel shrugged. “Fun, if you don’t mind being away from home. Should be the Pokémon League’s motto for recruiting new trainers.”
“Answer my question,” Marril said. “Don’t necessarily mean what city, just where in general.”
“I leave all the fun-finding to you two,” Tschel said.
Alex glanced sideways at Tschel. He stood up off of the bed and asked, “Why us two?”
“You two are better at it.”
“Well, I know what I’m going to be doing,” said Marril. “Assuming you don’t have any plans.”
“Oh?” Alex asked, sitting back down beside Tschel. “If you wanna go somewhere, go. We aren’t going to make you miss something you want to see.”
“Really?” Marril asked.
Tschel scoffed. “Honestly. You’re not a Pokémon anymore.”
“What is it, anyway?” Inquired Alex.
“Oh, well. You’ll laugh,” Marril said, shrugging.
“No I won’t,” Tschel said quickly.
“A’ight,” Marril shrugged. “There’s this support group seminar thing whatchamacallit for Orthan Pokémon that meets about weekly or so. Thought I’d attend a meeting or something.”
“That’s actually pretty good, Marril,” Tschel admitted.
“And here I was thinking you’d laugh.”
Alex stood up and sat down again, this time beside Marril. “For the irony,” he whispered to her, “just laugh at whatever either of us comes up to do in the meantime. You know, less worthwhile.”
Tschel frowned. “You’re giving her a new way to make me suffer. I just know it.”
Alex flashed Tschel a smile. Things were definitely back to normal “Nah.”
After Marril had left and he’d asked a rather unexpected question, Tschel couldn’t find it in him to admit that he was surprised at its answer.
“Well, I’m not saying no,” Alex said, smiling. “It’s just that, well, asking me out all formal boyfriend-style when we’re doing the Neo League already… well, you know.”
“Well, I just thought…” Tschel said, straightening his back defensively.
“Oh come on,” Alex said, taking ahold of Tschel’s arm and resting his head on his shoulder. “I already said yes. Just having some fun, you know? I only meant that we’re spending a lot of time together already.”
Tschel sighed. “Well then, shall we go?”
“You’re the one sitting there.”
“You’re the one holding my arm.”
“But I don’t wanna let go…”
Tschel smiled. He stood up, Alex with him. Not quite used to having someone hanging off him, Tschel left with Alex to go on their first official date. “And it only took ya this long,” Tschel imagined Marril might say.
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That's it for this week, folks. Next chapter goes up when it goes up. Until then, remember that there is nothing for you to remember.
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Simon was unconcerned. This concerned Kenneth greatly, as a man wounded in operation was of great importance. The fact that Schuler, acting as a body double for Giovanni, taking a bullet in the process, was in a normal hospital was disconcerting, to say the least.
In plainclothes, Kenneth was putting on a convincing show of trying to talk the nurse on duty into letting him see Schuler.
“I’m sorry, sir,” said the nurse, “but he’s just out of post-op, and nobody is allowed to see him.”
“I know that, good lady,” Kenneth said in a light voice. In reality, he was simply bored and looking for amusement. He concocted a fake relationship on the spot. “However, as you have undoubtedly been told, I’m both his boss at work and his cousin-in-law, and I must speak with him about matters concerning both.”
“I… I can’t allow that,” said the nurse.
Kenneth raised his palms in defeat. “Alas and alack, you are right. Good day.”
Sweeping his hand around in a grand fashion, he managed to pick the nurse’s security pass without her noticing.
“Son of a…” Kenneth said to himself, twirling the key card in his fingers, admiring the fact that he’d just stolen it. “Didn’t think that’d work.”
Keying the lock for Schuler’s room and stepping inside, Kenneth sat beside Schuler’s bed.
“Ignore my roommate over there,” Schuler managed, “he’s a bit out of it. Just a bit, y’know?”
Kenneth wasn’t sure what Schuler meant. He guessed that he was being warned that the third party in the room was partially conscious and thus he shouldn’t discuss matters pertaining to Team Rocket in an otherwise unmonitored room.
“You doing all right?” Kenneth asked.
“The hospital Jell-O’s going to kill me,” Schuler said, “but I’ll manage. What’re you doing here?”
Kenneth didn’t speak. This was an unpleasant job, to discover whether anybody had figured out Schuler’s identity. If they had, Kenneth was to devise the most efficient possible means for subtle extraction. Assuming none could be found, Kenneth had to silence Schuler by any means necessary.
“Whoa, man, never seen you so serious-looking,” Schuler said. “Everything ok?”
“Yeah,” Kenneth replied, his mouth dry. “Great. Ultra. Master.”
The door opened and Kenneth spun around. An Orthan Chansey had entered the room, dressed in a nurse’s uniform. Kenneth’s paranoia got the better of him, despite the fact that he knew the round woman to be no threat.
“Excuse me,” said Chansey. “I didn’t know there were visitors in here.”
“Quite all right, miss,” Kenneth said, standing up. “Was just going. Oh, Schuler, ten, thirty-two, eight, four, six.”
10-32-8-4-6 having no meaning by itself, Chansey was prompted by her curiosity to ask as Kenneth left, “What was that?”
Schuler coughed, which hurt his stomach. The bullet had penetrated just below his ribcage on the left side, and the stitches were quite uncomfortable. “Nothing. He’s, uh, my boss from work. Thinks he has a sense of humour.”
“I… see,” Chansey replied.
Schuler’s thoughts turned inward. Operational protocol hardly had any form of military-style precision. He rifled though his police training and subsequent Team Rocket training for meanings to a random batch of numbers. He could come up with none.
Kenneth leaned against his arm against the wall. His stomach felt hollow. Posing as a male nurse, he’d gained access to the hospital’s database. They’d found out who Schuler was, generally. They knew he was a Rocket member.
He looked at the printout. “Member of Team Rocket, ex-police officer from Goldenrod City. No visitors permitted until police observation has been established,” said the report.
Kenneth bore no animosity toward the concept of death. It was a natural progression of life. He bore great animosity toward it ending prematurely, however. He was going to get Schuler out.
The hospital was waiting until Schuler was stable to contact the police. This gave him a window of opportunity. Only a few people knew that Schuler was a Rocket. Simply, Kenneth had to hack into the system and delete the file stating this. After Schuler was stable, Kenneth would move Schuler out of the hospital before the police arrived.
Smirking at his own ingenuity, knowing it was a horrendously simple task; Kenneth sat down to complete this task.
That afternoon, having skimmed the report, Agent Mikhail simply shook his head. “Kenneth, you SOB. That was too risky and you know it.”
David’s mind led him in strange paths. Unaware, he crossed the landscape. It was a barren island in the Orange Archipelago, but that wasn’t possible, as the Neo League finals were being held there.
A presence hung over the stadium. David couldn’t see it or even feel it. A similar presence was also there, but it came from the stands.
“What…” David wondered, looking around. He was surrounded by the stands, having been in the barren landscape moments before.
“Hey, what’s going on here?” David asked aloud.
“Open your eyes,” a female voice said from nowhere. David shook his head.
The presence above the stadium dimmed, but the one in the stands only increased in its sheer… presence. David didn’t know how to interpret the feeling.
Pain engulfed his right cheek. Sam’s face appeared in front of him.
“What?” David asked groggily.
“Sleepwalker,” Sam said, obviously annoyed.
“I was?” David sat down on the bed, still confused.
“All over the place,” replied Sam. “Had to beat you up to wake you. What was going on?”
David exhaled, unsure of himself. “I… don’t know. Was having a weird dream. Remember that stuff with the Vermillion army base?”
“You warned them all about something and they ignored you?”
“Yeah, that,” David said thoughtfully. “Same mind.”
Sam crouched down so she was at eye level with David. “I’m worried.”
“Me too, Sam. Me too.”
Sam paced about the room. “Dad believed you. Heck, he even knew a bit about what you were going through. Maybe we should give him a call or something.”
“No,” David said.
“Why not?”
“I… I don’t know. I just feel like I need to go through this myself, or something. Sounds like it’s a plot device of a badly-written story or something, but that’s how I feel.”
“We have a lot of time, you know,” said Sam. “Just don’t rush it.”
“Where to next?” Marril asked boredly, laying on her back on the hotel bed.
“We stop and have fun,” said Alex. He turned to Tschel. “You know, we spend almost all our time in hotel rooms and stuff instead of in our actual homes?”
Tschel shrugged. “Fun, if you don’t mind being away from home. Should be the Pokémon League’s motto for recruiting new trainers.”
“Answer my question,” Marril said. “Don’t necessarily mean what city, just where in general.”
“I leave all the fun-finding to you two,” Tschel said.
Alex glanced sideways at Tschel. He stood up off of the bed and asked, “Why us two?”
“You two are better at it.”
“Well, I know what I’m going to be doing,” said Marril. “Assuming you don’t have any plans.”
“Oh?” Alex asked, sitting back down beside Tschel. “If you wanna go somewhere, go. We aren’t going to make you miss something you want to see.”
“Really?” Marril asked.
Tschel scoffed. “Honestly. You’re not a Pokémon anymore.”
“What is it, anyway?” Inquired Alex.
“Oh, well. You’ll laugh,” Marril said, shrugging.
“No I won’t,” Tschel said quickly.
“A’ight,” Marril shrugged. “There’s this support group seminar thing whatchamacallit for Orthan Pokémon that meets about weekly or so. Thought I’d attend a meeting or something.”
“That’s actually pretty good, Marril,” Tschel admitted.
“And here I was thinking you’d laugh.”
Alex stood up and sat down again, this time beside Marril. “For the irony,” he whispered to her, “just laugh at whatever either of us comes up to do in the meantime. You know, less worthwhile.”
Tschel frowned. “You’re giving her a new way to make me suffer. I just know it.”
Alex flashed Tschel a smile. Things were definitely back to normal “Nah.”
After Marril had left and he’d asked a rather unexpected question, Tschel couldn’t find it in him to admit that he was surprised at its answer.
“Well, I’m not saying no,” Alex said, smiling. “It’s just that, well, asking me out all formal boyfriend-style when we’re doing the Neo League already… well, you know.”
“Well, I just thought…” Tschel said, straightening his back defensively.
“Oh come on,” Alex said, taking ahold of Tschel’s arm and resting his head on his shoulder. “I already said yes. Just having some fun, you know? I only meant that we’re spending a lot of time together already.”
Tschel sighed. “Well then, shall we go?”
“You’re the one sitting there.”
“You’re the one holding my arm.”
“But I don’t wanna let go…”
Tschel smiled. He stood up, Alex with him. Not quite used to having someone hanging off him, Tschel left with Alex to go on their first official date. “And it only took ya this long,” Tschel imagined Marril might say.
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That's it for this week, folks. Next chapter goes up when it goes up. Until then, remember that there is nothing for you to remember.