Viewing Single Post From: APRIL--or, How the Video Game World Fought Back

Viewing Single Post From: APRIL--or, How the Video Game World Fought Back
nya_chan	Jun 20 2007, 06:52 PM
TeH g00fy admin (I wonder why no one takes me seriously...) Posts: 749 Group: Admin Member #1 Joined: December 14, 2006	Chapter 40 I examined Stephen from toe to head, from the lack of fashion sense that manifested itself in his purple zig-zagged "suit" and elbow-height bracelets, to his grim expression, to his steel-blue hair. "And how shall Hell go about making itself run free with reckless abandon?" I inquired politely. "With both orbs moved from MT. PYRE, the balance of nature will be upset, and Groudon and Kyogre will run free, destroying Hoenn." "Gee, that's terrible," I said with horribly feigned distress. He shot me a glare. "This is serious. I only lifted my eyebrow. "How so? It's a video game as I've been trying to tell you for the past 30-odd hours. I could sit around and do nothing for a year, and it would still change nothing. Big whoop if Groudon and/or Kyogre are free. There's no harm done, the weather just looks different and the music's more... 'dramatic,' if you can call it that." "You really don't care, do you?" Stephen asked, eyes wide, grim countenance replaced with one of shock. I gave him the same look. "And you do?" "Of course I do!" he cried. "This game--" "And here I thought we were somewhat similar," I said wretchedly, nose wrinkling in disgust. "But you actually care about this game and don't mind the PTB. You got Stockholm Syndrome or something?" "It's not Stockholm Syndrome," he grimaced. "It's just that without this game, I'd have no existence." "Like you can call this one?" I said, throwing my arms up in the air, no longer feigning distress. "Would--" "That's enough," he said, clamping his hand over my mouth. "We'll continue this discussion later, at my house. I have something to give you. Okay?" I pulled his hand off my mouth. "You nearly stuck your thumb up my nose," I growled, still simmering. Nobody but me silenced me. And even that was iffy. "Sorry," he said in a tone usually reserved for those who aren't really sorry in the slightest. I stuck my tongue out at him in reply, but his back was already facing me as he walked out the door. * Stephen's house was... almost exactly like the rest of the houses on this God-forsaken spit of land dubbed and "island." Of course, the stand-out at Stephen's house was-- "Rocks? What in the world is with all the rocks?" I poked a display case cautiously. "Watch it," he snapped. "You'll get fingerprints on the glass." "No big deal. Y'see, there's this marvelous invention known as 'Windex'--" "Quiet." "And anyway, which came first, the last name or the hobby, Stephen Stone?" "I'm not afraid to ram this geode down your throat, just so you know, APRIL," he returned. "And if you must know, it was the PTB's brilliant idea. Though it may have been a cheesy translation." "'Least you're not a month.... Oh, yeah! I was getting to a point! Just what is it with you and the PTB anyway? I mean, aren't they ruining your life as well? I know my life sucks." "You're a pessimist, so that's already one strike against your chances of having a happy life." "You turned to drugs to cope! So now you're the master of life lessons?" Stephen scowled. "You're a pain. When ever I try to answer one of your questions, you interrupt." "Can't all be saints." "Argh!" Stephen clapped his hands to the side of his head, and for a moment, I worried he might yank his hair out. "You--" He pointed to me, then sighed. "Look, I'm not exactly the 'Happiness Guru' or whatever, but I do know my life took a sharp turn for the better when I simply gave in to the PTB. You and I are more alike then you might realize. When the game was played the first time through, I was a bit of an ass. I matured as the game was reset on multiple occasions. I became resigned to my fate. You think this cartridge was given away once? Not even close. There's just... something weird about it. Almost as soon as the game started for the first time, the first PTB used a GameShark, thereby eternally screwing us. "It seemed that every time the game was reset, some character realized their life sucked and took it upon themselves to fight back with all they had. Me, that Mart Worker from Oldale, even one of Brendan's personalities at one point. You see, the glitches the PTB see aren't actually caused by the GameShark. If the Shark was the epicenter, the glitches are the aftershocks." He smiled at me sadly. "And they've been pretty long-lasting." I gave him a pained look. "S-so, that means that even though I've been fighting back, I'm still playing a role?" "APRIL--" he said, reaching out with one hand as if to somehow comfort me by patting my on the shoulder. "No." I flinched away. "I'm tired of being a pawn. Isn't there anything I can do so I can just be me--do something that hasn't already been done before?" "Freedom comes at a cost," Stephen said, after a pause. "Then I'll pay it!" I exclaimed. "Anything...." He shook his head. "It's not something you can do. I'm sorry. If there was a way, I'd tell you, but there isn't, so I can't." "Durr...." He shot me a tired, I-don't-even-know-why-I-put-up-with-you look. "Spare me. One minute you're depressed, the next you're back to your usual snide self? Do you even have a heart?" I opened my mouth to say something, but found myself at a loss for words. I wasn't sure if it was because he was right, or if I literally had run out of retorts. Stephen took it to be the former. "We'll finish this later." "Bu--" "No. Wait 'til we're in the Save Room, 'kay? If you still have questions, I can answer them then." "Eh--?" "I was only supposed to give you this, anyway." He handed me a CD. "HM Dive. And lo, my life is complete." "Yeah, it should be." A pat on the back became a forceful shove toward the door which I promptly toppled out of, head over heels. "Same to you, jerk," I grumbled, dusting myself off. I continued to mutter various threats and profanities as I went through the bizarre process of teaching Dive to Mudkip via HM. That done, I set sail on Linoone to teach Archie why piratism is a bad** thing that's mostly illegal. Maybe it's the goofy accents. On my "journey," I mulled over my conversation with Stephen. Am I really as soul-less as he says I am? I mean, sure, I'm rude, I'm obnoxious.... I wouldn't want to know me.... I starred up at the sky for answers. None were forthcoming. The sky was the same black as the Save Room. "Black like my soul, huh?" I said to the endless expanse of nothingness. It occurred to me that I was probably looking through the opposite side of the screen. "Yeah, well screw you!" I called upward, though doubting the PTB could hear. I sighed, feeling lost and confused. After my earlier confession I had made at Stephen's house, most people would have burst into tears. Yet I hadn't felt the slightest bit of remorse. Why--? I turned my head down just in time to narrowly dodge a box asking if I wanted to go underwater. Before I could say anything, I was whisked below the ocean's surface. Belatedly, I plugged my nose. When I couldn't hold my breath any longer, I gave in and took a deep breath of seawater. Discovering the water was as easy to breathe as air, I anxiously felt my neck for gills. I wasn't sure if I was wholly relieved when I didn't find any. While I was busy with my multiple revelations, I hadn't noticed an underwater cave that now approached at an excruciatingly slow speed. Inside was the tiny submarine no more than twice my size that had somehow managed to fit a decent percentage of Team Aqua's population here. "I should have given up wondering about these things a long time ago," I muttered with a sigh, surfacing and hoping I wouldn't get the Bends. "No matter how many times I do it, saving the world continues to be annoying. Isn't that right?" I asked my latest victim, a female grunt whose crack team of low-leveled Poochyenas and and Zubats had mysteriously lost to my level 50 something Pelipper. The Grunt squeaked an inaudiable reply. "I thought so," I murmured and continued on. A seemingly thick fog decended on the next room. Why the Programmers That Be had decided to even add it was beyond me, and I pondered it as I walked southward, toward a giant pool full of a frozen-in-time Kyogre. I was still lost in thought as wandered toward me, muttering curses at a red sphere. "Avast! Work ye confounded RED ORB! Shine damn you! I want control of KYOGRE!" "Somehow I doubt swearing at it is going to make it work any faster," I informed him, hands on my hips. I had decided the PTB were merely unfathomable, dictator-like beings that lacked any sort of sense, common or otherwise. The orb shone a bright red light on all that was visible on the screen. "Of course, I could be mistaken," I amended with a wince. Archie's expression went from frustrated to gleeful to flat-out pissed in aproximately five seconds as Kyogre trundled away in the same way Groudon had for Maxie. "A-as could I," muttered Archie, now ashamed. "Ya don't say.... Hey, y'know what, I've fought Maxie a ton of times, but I haven't fought you once. What gives?" "Argh, eh, wha'? Something?" Archie said, wringing his hands and gazing off distractedly in the direction Kyogre had taken. "I just though I'd inform you of you wussiness. And you call yourself a pi--" "Blast! Nobody, but nobody calls Cap'n Archie a wuss wit'out walkin' da plank!" "Pirates didn't make people walk the plank. That was what buccaneers did." "Really? Well, er--suffer my wrath anywho!" "As my lady commands. Do your worst." The battle was painfully short. Mightyena seemed to be some sort of weird, bad guy stand-by. He fell to the paws of Minun, as did Crobat and Sharpedo. "I-I..." Archie stammered. "I lost? How could I--" To add to his emerging wimpiness, he burst into tears. "I don't want to do this anymore! It all started just as a rivalry between me 'n' Maxie!" As he talked, I could hear his exaggerated Pirate accent start to deteriorate. As if to explain, he continued, "It wasn't even fair! He got the cool accent! It's hard to talk like a pirate! And now Maxie's going to surpass me because I've quit! Whaaaah!" "Define 'cool.' And Maxie quit already. Third-person's gone and everything." Archie sniffled. "Really?" Just at that moment, Maxie came storming down the path. "Maxie?" said Archie, a bit bemused. "Archie! What have you wrought? Do you know what humidity does to my hair?" "Look, I can explai--humidity?" "Yes you weather-challenged ingrate! Thanks to GROUDON, the sun's especially bright. But thanks to KYOGRE, it keeps alternating between sun and rain! All the extra evaporating rain is making my hair puff up like nobody's business." "And you wonder why people think you're a girl. The name, the long hair, the--" "Quiet!" Archie snapped. "But GROUDON was your fault, not mine. And, isn't the weather itself a more pressing issue than, um... your hair?" "Well, yeah, I suppose you're right... on both counts.... But... the weather! The Pokemon! My hair!" I made a gagging noise, catching both all of us, especially me, by surprise. "Erm, we, that is, APRIL and I, should check this out." "Well, let's go right up then," I advised. And "right up" we were. As the screen went black, we teleported to the surface where the cavern reached it's highest point, giving Archie, Maxie, and me a place to stand in the middle of the ocean. The weather changed at regular intervals from a downpour to a heat wave. Basically, as soon as something got soaked, it dried in the next few seconds, before it got drenched again. Maxie's hair was indeed frizzy, in all possible terms of the word. "Can I borrow your bandanna? Pleasepleaseplease?" he begged Archie, who promptly covered the blue scrap of cloth protectively. I did likewise. "So, the matter of GROUDON and KYOGRE.... What are we to do?" asked Archie, hands still firmly protecting the top of his head. "We're the cause aren't we? Sure, you were and idiot--" "Thanks a ton." "--but I was one too. Let's end this, once and for all, okay, buddy?" Archie grinned brightly. "Deal!" The pair darted off-screen. "Are they walking on water or something?" I asked no one in particular. "I suppose," said an all-too-familiar voice: Stephen. "Hey, APRIL! long time no see!" "Can it," I told him. "But I suppose we have more important things to do than bicker. I don't care one way or the other, but it seems you do. So now what?" He looked at the sky. "Well, when it's actually raining, the cloud seems to be there, over Sootopolis. I say we go there." "Wait! Sooto-where-now?!" "See ya there!" said Stephen as a black shape materialized and carried him away. Grumbling, I pulled out a map. Finding Sootopolis, I chose Pelipper from my team's line-up and selected "FLY." There was no way I was going to do anymore Surfing and Diving, at least in the near future. So, off I went to the imploded vocano-turned-city, to face whatever was lurking there. I really hate saving the world. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Another personal favorite....


APRIL--or, How the Video Game World Fought Back · Finished Stories