I have a serious lack of croutons, so let's get right to it.


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Extended Visit



The light engulfed them, then in a matter of seconds, faded away.  They
were still in the field, but in a different time period.  Eric looked
around, checking for any signs of current urban development, but it
looked as if no one had yet discovered this secluded grove, even fifty
years in the future.  Then again, it was more likely that no one chose
to build anything here.

"Huh.  Everything looks the same," Maggie said slowly.  "Seems kinda
weird that nothing would be here, even after all this-"  She fell 
silent for a moment, and Mewtwo noticed that she had caught sight of
something behind him.  He turned and saw the small cabin where Sean had
been taken, perfectly preserved in every detail.  It was like someone
had rebuilt it, exactly how it had been before.

"What the hell?"  Eric had noticed the cabin as well.  "What's that
thing doing here?"

"Perhaps someone rebuilt it," Mewtwo suggested.  "It has been a long
time."

"Yeah, I guess."  He walked over to the cabin and inspected the inside;
a few seconds later he ran out in a panic.

"You get the fuck out of here!" a feminine voice screeched.  A woman 
ran out soon after, wearing nothing but a towel that was poorly wrapped
around her nude body.  "And don't come back!!!"  The woman went back
into the cabin and slammed the door loudly.  "Damn horny kids..."

"Umm...that was weird."

"What...no, *who* the hell was that?" Maggie asked, slightly stunned.

"I don't know.  Something's not right here.  The TV in there had rabbit
ears and worked off the UHF spectrum."

"Then it was just an older model."

"Yeah, but who would have something like that after fifty years?"  He
held up the remote and punched a few buttons, then starred at the tiny
screen intenstly.  The other two waited until he finally looked up at 
them with an absolutely horrified look on his face.

"We fucked up."

"Excuse me?" Mewtwo inquired.

"We're not fifty years in the future, we're twenty-two years in the
past!  Something interfered with the remote, and now for some reason,
I can't get it to send us back!"

"Why not?"

"How the hell should I know?!  I'm not a fucking engineer!!"  The 
horrified look turned to an angry one.  "We can't get fucking back!!!"

"I don't think I see that as a very large problem."

"Not a problem?!  Not a fucking problem?!?!  Instead of being fifty
years in the future we're twenty-two years in the past with a broken
remote and absolutely no hope of ever getting back because there's 
absolutely no way of fixing whatever's wrong with the damn thing, and
you don't think that's a large problem?!  Well, let me tell you 
something:  That.  Fucking.  Sucks."

He turned on his heel and walked away, but Mewtwo was still cool as
ever.  He didn't have any problems with spending a little time in a 
place where no one had ever heard of him.  Besides, it might be nice to
be able to walk amongst humans without being attacked.

***

In a back alley of Saffron city there was a bright flash of light that
was invisible to all but one person.  One Mr. Barnes, a passerby who
had just happened to be passing that alley on his way home from work.
He carefully walked into the alley to inspect the light, and found a
small boy, about ten years of age, curled up in a ball, wearing nothing
but rags.  Being a kind person, Mr. Barnes pulled the boy to a sitting
position and wrapped his coat around him.  The boy opened his eyes and
stared at Mr. Barnes, then before he knew it, Mr. Barnes' face was torn
off by a massive red claw.  He never had a chance to scream.

***

Saffron City was a busy place at night, with the entire city bright 
with hundreds upon thousands of lights.  In the day, it was just 
another city, boring and dull in Mewtwo's opinion.  It was a weekday,
and everyone was either in school or at work.  They still hadn't caught
up with Eric, but they had received a message from a man in a business
suit that he was at the Plaza hotel and waiting for them in room 1307.

They found it easily enough, seeing as the Plaza was the biggest and
most expensive hotel in the city.  A bellhop escorted them to their
room, but came away without a tip, since Eric was the one with the 
money.  Maggie was sure the guy would spit in their food if he got the
chance.

***

Inside an abandoned warehouse in the poorer district of downtown stood
a man in a business suit, minus his coat and his face.  Opposite him
stood a very large red creature.

"What is your name?" the red thing asked in a growling voice.

"Joseph Barnes," the man stiffly replied.

"Well, hello Mr. Barnes.  I am Khali, your new master."

"Yes, master."

"Now, Mr. Barnes, tell me about this world."

He did so, describing everything he knew about it, which was not that
much, actually.  He described the city, his friends, his family, his
two daughters.  Khali listened with great interest, especially at the
parts about his family.  He would need more bodies if he was to survive
here.  Then Barnes recollected his days as a pokŽmon trainer, and Khali
was *very* interested.

"Tell me about the pokŽmon.  About *all* of them."

It took a while, but Barnes recounted all his knowledge, which mainly
consisted of things he had read in books.  He hadn't actually trained
outside of the city, or even left the city except on business.  After a
few more minutes, it didn't matter much, since Khali had acquired the
exact information he needed, which was the only weakness of psychic
pokŽmon.  He would certainly put it to good use.

***

It was certainly a good hotel room.  It had three bedrooms, two 
bathrooms, a kitchenette, and an honor bar, which Eric had already 
cleared out.  He was in the kitchen mixing random bottles of alcohol 
and drinking the results.  Neither Maggie nor Mewtwo thought that was a
very good idea, but they weren't about to stop him.

"So, how's the remote?" Maggie asked casually.

Eric downed another bottle, then looked up at her.  "Well, it's not as
bad as I thought before, but I still don't know what's wrong with it."

"So what do we do?" Mewtwo asked.

"I'm not sure.  Right now all we need to do is sit tight and I can 
probably figure out how to fix it, but until I do, I'd prefer we keep
a low profile."

"Understood."

Maggie snatched a few of the bottles away and tossed them on the bed.
"I call that one!"

"Whatever."  Eric went into the other bedroom, locked the door, then 
opened the window and jumped out.  There wasn't anybody around, since
the window opened to the back of the hotel, and all there was back 
there was an alley.  He could see a small patch of red amongst the 
gray, but he didn't think much of it and flew away.

Two hours later he landed on top of a very busy office building, then
pulled his cell phone from his coat and dialed a number.  "Yeah, it's
me.  Get over here, now."

Almost immediately there was a flash of light, and a young woman 
appeared near him with a very annoyed expression on her face.  "What 
is it?" she asked.

"I need some help."

"Now there's a shocker."

"Shut up."  He pulled the remote from his coat and tossed it to her.
She caught it easily and inspected it closely.  "It's broken," he
explained, "And I want to know why."

"Well, I can tell you this right now, the battery is dead."

"Excuse me?"

"It's out of power.  It originally had enough power for two trips, but
something drained the rest of it somehow."

"Do you know what drained it?"

"Nope, not yet."

"So how do we get back?"

"Power it up."  She tossed the remote back at him, but before he caught
it, it stopped in midair.

"How?"  He calmly plucked the remote out of the air and placed it back
in his coat.  "Couldn't I just..."  His hand was suddenly engulfed in
energy, and it managed to brighten up even the sun-lit rooftop.

"No, it's a different kind of energy that this thing needs.  Look, I'll
do some thinking and get back to you later.  Till then, I suggest you
just relax and enjoy yourself."

"How the hell am I supposed to enjoy myself?"

"Oh, you'll think of something."

He didn't bother with a reply, and flew off.  She watched him till he
was out of sight, then turned to the door that allowed everyone else
access to the roof and caught sight of another teenager in black 
clothing.

"What did you tell him?" the newcomer asked.

"I told him the remote was out of power," she replied.

"Do you know why?"

"Of course."

"Did you tell him?"

"No.  Just that it was out of power and I'd tell him why later."

"Good."

"You seem a little on-edge," she observed.

"I don't like it here," he said simply.

"Oh, come on, this place is great!  The air is fresh, the cities are
bustling with activity, and the Pikachus are so cute!"  A small Pikachu
suddenly appeared next to her, looking as cute as could be.

"I don't like cute," he snarled just before a bolt of energy blasted
the Pikachu into a smoldering black spot on the roof.

"Okay, okay, you don't have to get violent.  Look, I'll keep them busy
long enough for you to do your part, okay?"

"Good.  Talk to you later."  He vanished in a flash of light, and soon
after, there was no one left on the roof.

***

Inside the abandoned warehouse, Khali stood and observed his warriors.
Mr. Barnes' family and friends provided good bodies to use once Barnes
had killed them, compliments of a .45 barreta resting in his dresser
drawer.  He wasn't a particularly paranoid man, but he did have 
children, so...  Khali decided to address them and inform them of their
mission.

"Now, the enemy is near.  Fan out around the city.  Find your fellow
family and friends, kill them, then bring them to me.  We shall defeat
our foe with numbers rather than skill and shear power.  He shall not
be allowed to leave this world.  Now, go!"

They all slowly lumbered out the door, the image of blood in their 
minds.  They all had guns, knives, and other deadly implements, and 
their bloodlust had been fueled by their new master and leader.  None
of them even realized that they were setting out to kill the ones they
loved.

***

Later in the day, Eric lumbered into the hotel room with an annoyed 
look on his face.

"Hey, where were you?" Maggie asked.

"Just seeing the sights," he replied.

"Do you have any idea how to get us back?" Mewtwo inquired.

"Not yet.  Right now I just want to get some sleep."

They all agreed they should rest up and went to their respective rooms.
Maggie slid under the covers of a very soft bed, Eric flipped a full 
270 degrees and landed on the ceiling, then laid down on a floating 
bedspread.  Mewtwo sat on the only chair in his room.  Comfort was 
irrelevant; it only distracted them from the matters at hand.  Besides,
he didn't want to get too used to this luxury.  He would be leaving 
soon, one way or the other.

***

In the middle of a dream or at the end of the world, he wasn't sure,
Eric stood in the food court of a mall.  The woman he was talking to 
earlier was standing next to him.

"Finally!" he exclaimed.  "Took you long enough."

"Sorry," she replied, "I would've been here sooner, but I got caught up
in traffic."

"Yeah, right."  They sat down at a table and ordered a pizza.  "So, do
you know what happened with the remote?"

"Of course."  She pulled the remote from her pocket, but Eric could've
sworn she gave it back to him...  "Someone horned in on your trip with
a link-up with the remote.  They used the power you saved for the
return trip to send someone through time with you."

"Who is 'they?'"

"Take a guess.  The only temporal unit that uses the link-up option is
the time portal."

"But no one's used time portals for centuries, and..."  Then he
remembered just who had been using old Agency technology.  "Those 
clones?" he asked, already sure of the answer.

"Of course."

"Well, then that's no big deal, I can take Aaron no problem."

"They wouldn't have sent him.  You already kicked his ass, so they'd
probably send somebody stronger."

"But no one's stronger than Aaron, at least in their circle, anyway."

"Think.  There wasn't just Agent clones living here."

A very bad thought entered his head.  "Khali?"

"Yup.  Unfortunately for you, he's not a clone, which means he might
actually be a challenge for you."

"Damn.  So what do we do?"

"Well, the remote can be powered back up, but the method is a little
unusual."

"Are you kidding?  Unusual is my middle name!"

"You can say that again," she muttered under her breath.

"What?"

"Nothing!"  She handed the remote back to him, then took a bite out of
the newly-arrived pizza.  "Listen, there's some rocks on this planet
called Moon Stones, and they have the right kind of energy to power up
the remote.  Unfortunately, the amount of energy required will take at
least a couple hundred stones."

"That's fine, I know where we can get some."

"Good."  She finished the slice, then got up and walked away.  After a
few steps, she turned around.  "Hey, look.  The walls are bleeding."

He looked around and saw she was right.  Blood was oozing out of the
walls at a quick pace.  It was quickly at knee level, then at waist
level, then just before it reached his neck, he woke up.

"Man, I have *got* to stop falling asleep."

Two seconds later, he was unconcious.

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Well, I'm off to the market to get more croutons.

*looks outside and notices his tires are shot out*

Damn it!!!


The Master of Eternal Darkness,

Shadow