Gastly X Machina 

By

Nikolai Mirovich

Author's Note: This is the fourth story in my series of Pokemon 
based fanfics. It is sort of an in between story, taking place 
midway through my "Lavender Ghost Story" novella. It's basically 
what happens when Miranda goes to help fix Bob's computer while 
Misty's off visiting Professor Laurna. Oh, and this one's no ecchi 
in any way. Sorry guys, it's a plot episode!

Anyway, there's many people I'd like to thank, but mentioning 
their names could get me killed, so I won't. Also, there's an FAQ 
for this series, which should be at my ASSTR page 
("ftp://ftp.asstr.org/pub/Authors/Nikolai_Mirovich"), which I've 
put together to answer people's questions about the series and 
whatnot. If any one wants to add to it, I'll be more than happy to 
answer any questions you might have.


Gastly X Machina

With a wary sigh and much head shaking, he hit the power button on 
the side of the computer once again. As the machine booted up the 
man rubbed his stubbly chin and pondered the problem. "It can't be 
a hardware problem," he muttered, glancing at the phone and 
wondering if he should call his sister-in-law, "I just got this 
thing upgraded. Unless..."

The computer interrupted the man's musings with a loud beep; 
although in his frustration he hardly noticed the way the normally 
friendly sound had something of a sarcastic tone to it. With a 
stern look, he watched as the login window popped up, overlapping 
the swirls of dark purple that made up his desktop image.

"Robert Kozlovski," he typed in the first box, before glancing 
guiltily over his shoulder and typing his password in the second. 
"There!" he commanded the machine, "Now let me in this time!"

"Sorry, invalid password!" flashed across the screen almost 
instantly afterwards, the small gray rectangular image that 
contained the words wavering slightly.

"What?! This isn't possible-!" he exclaimed, frustrated by the 
machine's unwillingness to comply, throwing his arms into the air 
in defeat, "Oh, I give up!" 

"Vivian!" he called out, hoping his voice would carry down the 
hall, "What's Laurna's number?" 

"It's number nine on the speed dial, Bob," replied an amused voice 
that made Bob lean his head back to see the approaching upside-
down image of his stepdaughter holding a tray with a tea pot and a 
rather large mug, "But you'd probably only get her answering 
machine. She's going to busy for a while yet."

"Hey, Miri," said Bob in a wary tone, shuffling back down into a 
more comfortable position as the courier set the tray down on the 
desk beside the monitor, "Sorry, I forgot about your friend's 
Challenge today."

"No biggie. Oh, and Mom said you were having trouble with the new 
system," his stepdaughter replied in a curious tone, her stormy 
gray eyes narrowing as she spotted the error message, "She thought 
some tea might settle your nerves."

"Bless you both, Miranda," chuckled Bob, pouring the steaming 
liquid into his mug as the woman went around the other side and 
hit the "Enter" key, "Hey, what'cha doing?"

"Testing a theory," she muttered, waiting as the error message 
reluctantly vanished, replaced by the login window once again, 
"Hold on a sec."

Bob smiled, and tried not to laugh as Miranda quickly typed, "If 
that's YOU in there, you're in for some serious trouble!" before 
hitting "Enter" once more.

"That should do it," she said, standing up straight with her arms 
folded, a stern look crossing her face.

"That's the look your mother gives people she's angry with," 
chuckled Bob, amazed when the login message suddenly vanished, and 
words suddenly appeared floating in the ethereal background image.

"I'm sorry..." they read before dissolving inexplicably, only to 
be replaced by "I just wanted to play with the new toy."

"No excuse," said Miranda aloud, causing her stepfather to push 
his chair back from the desk and glance back and forth between his 
computer and stepdaughter, "You should always ask first. And 
besides, I don't want you screwing around with this system. If 
there's ONE bit of data out of place, I'll be 'returning' you 
until the festival's over. You got me?"

Bob felt an icy chill trace its way down his spine as he suddenly 
realized that his wife's daughter wasn't a crazy person talking to 
an inanimate computer and getting responses. A moment later, his 
suspicions were confirmed.

Once the words had vanished from the screen, dark, vile smoke rose 
from the back of the monitor and a sad, apologetic sound issued 
from the speakers as it began to congeal.

Bob glanced at Miranda again, feeling beads of sweat forming along 
his brow even as she stood confidently watching as a ghostly shape 
reflected off the lenses of her glasses.

"Haunt..." pouted an apologetic voice that made Bob jump in his 
seat even though he knew what to expect. Nervously, he turned 
towards the ghost, trying not to shiver at being so close to a 
haunter. 

"I know, but it's no excuse," chastised Miranda, her tone 
maternally stern, but not unforgiving, "And look, you've scared 
poor Bob half to death!"

The haunter turned towards Bob, whose face had become deathly 
pale. "It- It's alright," the man stammered, smiling weakly and 
inwardly wishing that his stepdaughter would keep better tabs on 
her pet ghost, "Really. No harm done, I'm sure."

"Haunter, haunt!" the ghost assured, nodding enthusiastically by 
tilting his whole body forward and back while keeping his 
disembodied, three fingered hands clasped together apologetically.

Miranda raised an eyebrow as her stepfather nervously reached for 
the keyboard, quickly logged in and began sifting through company 
data. "How's it look?" she asked, giving her haunter a warning 
glance and making him shrink back a bit.

"Looks fine," commented Bob, his confidence returning as he 
noticed how much faster the machine seemed to run, "Better than 
before, actually."

Miranda glanced up at the ghost suspiciously, only to find him 
with his hands behind himself, looking innocent and whistling 
tunelessly. "Hey, the new processor's running at 0.85% faster than 
before," commented Bob half rhetorically, glancing up at the ghost 
with a smile and trying not to laugh, "Hey, thanks pal!"

Miranda smiled in spite of herself. "Wraith?" she inquired coyly, 
trying to catch her haunter's eye as he looked everywhere but at 
his trainer, "Just what were you doing in there?"

"Haaanter..." Wraith replied innocently, spinning around and 
staring out the window at the seemingly perpetually overcast sky.

"You didn't mess with any of the accounts, did you?" the courier 
inquired a little more sternly in a warning tone.

"Haunt!" the ghost exclaimed in denial, his eyes spinning around 
his body to face his trainer as his hands came up defensively.

"You'd better not of," Miranda warned, taking out her wallet and 
digging out a plastic card. 

"I- I'll just check out your courier card," stammered Bob, calling 
up the right window as he shook his head at Wraith. The haunter 
seeming cautious as he moved his body around in place so that his 
strange eyes would be attached to his face and not his back, 
"Thanks."

Bob glanced at Miranda's card, wiping dust off the magnetic strip 
against his pant leg before slotting it into the reader just below 
the D:\ drive. A moment later, Miranda's account came up in a 
special window and Bob handed the woman back her card.

"Wow," chuckled Bob, going through Miranda's virtual logbook, "I 
think we've been overworking you, Miri. These dates indicate that 
since you started, the only vacation time you've taken is when the 
Halloween Festival is on. And that's really only a few days out of 
a year."

"Hey, I took a couple of days off in Cerulean this August," his 
stepdaughter replied, leaning on the back of her stepfather's 
chair as she moved in close to read the scrawled text on the 
screen.

"Yes," corrected Bob, nodding thoughtfully as he highlighted a 
portion of the log, "But that's only because we didn't have 
anything for you except for that mail delivery you did. Goodness 
this thing is fast!"

Miranda smirked, glancing up at her still guilty looking haunter 
as Bob called up the courier's financial records. "Come here," she 
said, holding out her hand and giving the ghost a small smile, "I 
think I can forgive you."

Bob leaned back in his chair as Wraith floated past him and into 
his trainers arms. "I don't know how you crazy Lav' brats can do 
that," he commented, double-checking the records to make certain 
that they hadn't been altered.

"But I like ghosts," Miranda replied, unsuccessfully banishing the 
defensiveness from her tone as she walked a short distance and sat 
down on the couch that was at least four years her senior, 
"They're cute in their own way."

Bob found his commented choked off by his amazement as gave his 
stepdaughter a startled look. "C-Cute?!" he stammered, trying not 
to sound hysterical as Miranda sat with one leg over the other 
contentedly running her fingers along the top of her haunter's 
head.

"Yes," Miranda responded wistfully, her stern expression replaced 
by a look of maternal love as her long fingers vanished within the 
strange dark substance that comprised Wraith, only to come away a 
moment later, trailing dark ephemerae which she watched dissolve 
away soon after, "Besides, if it wasn't for Wraith, I'd still be 
having nightmares."

Bob nodded, as always trying to be the understanding fatherly 
type, but never quite succeeding. "Funny that," he said, before 
doing a double take as he glanced at the updated financial report, 
"If I had a ghost in my lap, I think I'd have more nightmares- 
Miranda! You won't believe this!"

The courier glanced up as Wraith smiled and closed his eyes. "What 
is it?" she inquired, pushing her glasses back up her nose, 
causing them to shimmer.

"Well, the good news is, is that you're very much in the red," 
replied Bob, glancing over at her and trying to sound serious, 
"The bad news is, is that I think we really need to take a look at 
how we pay you guys!"

"Why?" laughed Miranda, her tone indicating she wasn't really 
taking the man seriously as she continued to pet Wraith 
affectionately.

"Well, um..." stammered Bob, biting his lip and looking from the 
courier to the screen, "It seems that you're up 20,000 cred."

"Tenth credits, maybe," she chuckled, shaking her head, 
"Seriously, Bob, if you saw the places I've been staying lately, 
there's no way I could possibly have saved up that much money in 
my travels."

The man shook his head in patient disagreement. "Courier Miranda 
Lilcamp," he read tapping a pencil against the screen for effect, 
"Current credit balance +20,000 credits."

"That has to be a mistake," commented Miranda, her tone becoming 
mildly suspicious as she leaned over to see the monitor, "I could 
understand maybe 2000, but 20K? That's just not possible."

Bob sighed warily, holding up his hands in defeat. "The system 
says 20,000, kiddo. But I'll do a complete system check just to be 
sure," he replied, reaching for his mug and sipping at the finally 
cool enough to drink Earl Gray tea, "Would you like some while 
we're waiting?"

Miranda smiled. "Thanks," she said with a nod, "But I'll have to 
get my tea cup, hold on."

Bob gave her a curious look as his stepdaughter poked the ghost in 
her lap playfully. "Wraith, dear," she said playfully, sounding 
like a damsel in distress, "Would you be a sweetie and fetch me my 
cup?"

Wraith opened one eye and muttered an affirmative response before 
one of his disembodied hands flew up and grabbed the eye. To Bob's 
abject horror, and Miranda's infinite amusement, the eye came 
loose with a loud, wet popping sound before being carried off by 
the hand. A second later, the haunter's other hand followed, and 
the trio of ghostly, ephemerate body parts floated out through the 
wall.

"Three, two..." whispered Miranda with amusement as she stared up 
at the faded wallpaper of the far wall, "One!"

"Ahh-! Miranda Lydia Lilcamp!!!" came the angry scream of her 
mother, making the room's three occupant's laugh, "If you want 
something, get it yourself!"

"Oooh," commented Bob, keeping his amused tone low, "'Power Word 
Middle Name'!"

"Now I'm in trouble," the woman replied, giggling as the sound of 
a quiet electric motor drew close.

"Yes you are!" replied her mother, gliding into the room upon her 
electric wheelchair, clutching a handless teacup in her free hand 
and being pursued by Wraith's missing pieces.

"Sorry, Mom," the two human's intoned with amused expressions on 
their faces as Vivian glared at them with both with her mysterious 
magenta coloured eyes.

"Take care of this thing," the wheelchair bound woman said in a 
more neutral tone, tossing the cup in her daughter's direction, 
"It was his."

Miranda leaped up and caught the spinning teacup in both hands, 
nearly dying of a heart attack in the process. "Yes, Mom, I will," 
she promised, sitting back down and not really noticing that 
Wraith seemed unperturbed by her suddenly moving through him 
twice.

"You'd better," she commented, glancing back at Bob with an 
apologetic look.

He returned her glance with a reassuring smile that made Vivian 
close her eyes and nod happily. "Sorry," she whispered to her 
husband, who shrugged like it was nothing.

"I know you loved him," he said, glancing at Miranda who had 
suddenly taken an interest in the portrait of sunset on the wall, 
"I know you both did. And that's alright."

Vivian nodded. "I just don't want you to think I love you any 
less," she replied, looking over at her daughter worriedly, "And 
don't you go thinking I don't care about your father just because 
he's gone. He was a good man, and I'll always love him in my own 
way."

"I know," whispered Miranda, her voice barely audible as her 
mother backed up out of the room.

"So, Miri," said Bob rather quickly as the sound of Vivian's 
wheelchair faded down the hall and Wraith finally got around to 
reconstituting himself, "it'll take a while to scan disk and 
defrag, so while we're waiting, why don't you tell me about 
Wraith? I don't recall you ever really mentioning when and where 
you picked him up."

Miranda chuckled as she got up once again and poured herself a cup 
of tea. "It's a long story," she replied with an amused smile, 
sitting back down and going back to idly spinning her fingers in 
Wraith's ephemera as though she were winding spaghetti onto a 
fork, "But if you really want to hear it..."

"Definitely," assured Bob, trying not to twitch as the courier 
lifted her fingers out of the dozing haunter's body and watched 
the spirit stuff slide back down to it's owner as though it were a 
living thing, "It might help me to understand Wraith a bit better, 
and make him less disquieting to me. Heck, it might make all you 
crazy people here in Lavender make more sense to me."

Miranda smiled, chuckling quietly as she looked down at Wraith 
lovingly. "You knew what you were getting in to when you married 
Mom," she teased, "And I think you've lived here long enough to 
understand us Lav' brats. There's two kinds of people who live in 
a place like Lavender Town, those who embrace the creepiness, and 
those who ignore it. Everyone else left ages ago. And besides, Mom 
came here when she was younger as opposed to being born here, so 
she's not really a Lav' brat."

Bob nodded thoughtfully. "Yes, I remember the story," he replied, 
sipping his tea and glancing at the progress meter, "Your Father 
brought Vivian and her sister here from Neon Town. But your mother 
is loath to talk about the reasons why. Only that it has to do 
with your grandparents on her side. But that's not really what I 
wanted to talk about, now is it?"

Miranda smiled, nodding in agreement. "You wanted me to tell you 
about Wraith," she agreed, holding her teacup aloft and 
reminiscently examining the ring of dragonairs that encircled its 
outer surface near the rim, "Very well then, Bob. If you really 
wanna know, I shall tell you. It all started back three, going on 
four years ago now when I was on my first assignment alone after 
my rather short apprenticeship with Joshua had ended..."

***

The early morning sun glinted off the sea of windows that made up 
the business
section of Vermillion City, making the courier squint against the 
glare as she rode her mountain bike down the still quiet, pre-rush 
hour main street. Ahead of
her rose the tall, rectangular shape of the Sylph Co office tower. 

Although it was less than a tenth of the size of the main Sylph Co 
Arcology in
Saffron, which took up an entire four city blocks, the building 
was
impressive in its own way. The strange apparatus upon its roof, 
for instance,
marked it as the only building in the district with a functional
transposition array. Although the technology wasn't uncommon, it 
was still
overly expensive, and only large corporations like Sylph and a few 
of the
better known poke prof's could really afford them. Although the 
later was
often through city council sponsored grants.
                    
The girl squeezed the breaks, dropping her feet off the pedals, 
the soles of
her shoes scraping along the ground as the bike skidded to a halt 
not far
from the main door. Shivering against the chill morning air, the 
courier
glanced towards the double glass doors and checked her hair in the 
reflection
that faced her.

"I hope they're open," she commented to herself, walking her bike 
towards the
empty bike rack and locking it securely before heading towards the 
entrance.

As she approached, the twin reflective doors slid open into the 
walls giving
her a clear path into the lobby and a clear view of the yawning 
receptionist
who doubled as a security guard.

"Excuse me, miss," the courier called, bits of dirt and gravel 
falling off her
shoes and collecting in a path across the gleaming clean floor 
tiles, "I have
a package for professor Iago."

The woman looked up from her coffee and smiled. "I'm afraid he's 
in a meeting
just now, miss...?"

"Lilcamp," the courier replied with an ingratiating grin, "Miranda 
Lilcamp."

The woman nodded, looking down at the small stack of papers before 
her. "Hm,
seems he's been expecting you, actually," she said with a bit of a 
curious
scowl, "He said the package was important."

Miranda nodded. "Can't say what it is, though," she commented, 
dragging her
backpack off her shoulders and opening it quickly before yanking 
out a large
manila envelope with a large rubber stamped 'Private And 
Confidential'
stenciled across it.

"I have a few ideas," the receptionist chuckled, taking a card key 
from a desk
drawer "But hey, you can just head up now if you'd like."

"That important, eh?" the courier inquired, taking the card and 
holding it up
the overly bright full-spectrum fluorescent lights that all but 
covered the white tiled ceiling.

The woman nodded in agreement. "Yes," she explained, "but I'm not 
one to
spread rumors about my boss."

Miranda chuckled at the thought and said, "And it's against our 
policy to ask
personal questions about our clients, so long as it's nothing 
illegal."
               
The woman shook her head dismissively. "No," she assured as 
Miranda walked
around her circular desk to the bank of elevators and slotted the 
security passcard, "It's nothing bad."

***

A few moments later, the courier leaned back against the wall of 
the elevator,
letting out a held breath and shaking her head at the quiet, 
almost subliminal
elevator music. 

As the elevator ascended, Miranda watched the numbers on the LED 
display change, 
marking her passage up the building until it stopped inexplicably 
at the half way point. "What the-?!" she began, feeling the metal 
box she stood in suddenly jerk to a halt, making Miranda horribly 
aware of the fact that the lift was only being supported more than 
ten stories off the ground by two thin metal cables.

For a moment, Miranda held her breath, listening to the strange 
grinding
noises just above her head. The awful elevator music, however 
continued, not quite loud enough to block out the sounds the 
elevator was making as the lights went out and the reddish tinted 
emergency lighting kicked in.

"This is not good," she breathed, her voice unconsciously kept low 
as the
music suddenly changed, the annoying little tune twisting into a 
strange
cacophony of half garbled sounds. 

Miranda was certain she could make out bits of music from the 
local radio station, snippets of phone conversations, and pieces 
of several Sylph Co workers office answering machines in the mix. 
But before long, the chaotic garble slowly altered. The dozen or 
so voices all uniting to deliver a single message, each voice 
contributing but a single syllable to the simple, sinister 
sentence.

The courier shivered as she heard the words, her hand reaching for 
the handle of the wooden sword all couriers carried at their 
sides. "You're next!" the strange mixture of voices announced 
before the emergency lighting gave way to the standard 
illumination and the annoying elevator music returned as though it 
had never left. A heartbeat later, the elevator jostled roughly, 
and began to rise once more.

"That was not funny," muttered Miranda, feeling her pulse race as 
she ascended, watching the LED tick off the passing floors with 
apprehension until finally reaching the twenty-fifth floor.

As the doors slid open, and the lift let out a polite little 
chime, the courier released her grip on her sword hilt and stepped 
cautiously out onto the white-carpeted floor. 

"Wow," she commented, glancing around at the dozen or so display 
cases containing prototypes of several of the mega corp.'s 
inventions, and the pictures of various pokemon that lined the 
wood paneled walls of the regional VP's office.

"You like it?" inquired a friendly, almost eccentric sounding 
voice from across the almost cavernous room.

Miranda turned her gaze to the far wall, where a huge desk 
comprised of dark wood sat before a wall that was one enormous 
window over looking the city's harbor below. Behind the cluttered 
desk was a high-backed chair, swiveled to face the window so the 
courier couldn't see the speaker at all.

"Y-yes, Professor," the girl stammered, holding up the envelope 
and wishing there was somewhere to wipe her feet as she padded 
quietly across the carpet that probably cost more than she'd make 
in her lifetime, "I have a package that your associates in Saffron 
told me to deliver to you personally-"

"Ah! Excellent!" the man exclaimed happily, cutting the courier 
off as he swiveled his chair around and jumped to his feet 
excitedly, "The divorce papers at last! Where do I sign?"

"I wouldn't know," laughed Miranda, placing the sealed envelope on 
the desk before respectively taking a step back and giving the 
corporate scientist the once over.

Professor Iago's wide, toothy grin never left his round, 
bespectacled face as he tore open the envelope, and his dark blue 
eyes widening with delight as he yanked the small pile of papers 
free of their confines.

"Good-bye you conniving, evil, two timing, manipulative- Oh, 
sorry!" he muttered before glancing up at the sound of Miranda's 
stifled chuckle, "Can I borrow your pen?"

Miranda smiled, reaching into her coat pocket and handing somewhat 
diminutive man a writing implement. "No problem," she assured to 
his word of thanks before taking off her backpack again to dig out 
her clipboard, "Oh, and before I forget, I need you to sign this 
as well."

The smiling, happy man looked up as he signed his name for the 
third time on the legal document. "Well, so long as I'm signing my 
wife away," he chuckled, accepting the clipboard, "I might as well 
sign my life away too!"

Miranda laughed and pointed to the ninth space on the sheet of 
paper. "Just sign and print your name," she requested, finding the 
man's open handed attitude and amusing manner a far and pleasant 
cry from what she'd been expecting.

"Hey," commented Iago, glancing at the sheet of paper after 
signing the requested signatures, "What's this part here at the 
bottom about the Lilcamp Trading Company owning my soul?"

"What?!" exclaimed Miranda, yanking back the clip board and 
blushing as the man laughed, "Oh you!"

"Sorry, miss!" he chuckled running his fingers through his short 
brown hair in an unconscious gesture, "Just yanking your chain. 
But seriously, once I'm done with this I'm going to need to send 
these documents back. Would you mind?"

"Not a problem," the courier assured, shaking her head and causing 
her glasses to slip down her nose a bit, "I'll just write you up a 
quick delivery contract. Won't take a minute."

"Take your time," replied Iago, waving his hand dismissively, 
"Just take a seat over there and relax. I'm going to need my 
assistant for this last part anyway."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, I'm not very good at legalese, I'm afraid," he explained, 
sitting back down in his leather backed chair and shaking his head 
at the document before hitting a button on his desk, "Excuse me, 
but would Professor Kipp please report to my office when she gets 
the chance."

"Former lawyer?" inquired Miranda with a bit of a chuckle as she 
found the appropriate form and sat down in one of the smaller, but 
still comfortable cloth chairs in front of the man's desk.

"Naw, just a master of red tape," explained Professor Iago, "Among 
other things..."

Miranda glanced up from her clipboard and was about to inquire 
when a concealed door to her right clicked open and swung inwards. 
From within the concealed room, the sounds a dozen or so people 
working at computer terminals could be heard over the gentle hum 
of spinning hard disks and noises of video games being played on 
company time.

Through the door, however, stepped a woman who made Miranda want 
to take a step back. 'Yikes!' thought Miranda, trying not to draw 
attention to herself a woman who was easily over six feet in 
height stepped gracefully into the room and casually flipped the 
door shut behind her.

"What's up this time, boss?" she inquired in a bored tone, running 
her fingers idly through her rather androgynous looking, shoulder 
length brown hair before crossing her arms across her chest.

"The papers came in today, Jo," Iago explained, handing the stack 
of stapled documents to the imposing woman and making no effort to 
hide the fact that he was staring blatantly at her legs, "I just 
need you to go over this last part. Looks a little suspicious to 
me."

Professor Kipp nodded as she turned several pages over, her light 
blue eyes going over the words of the document with calculating 
precision. "Yes," she said at last, her tone becoming business-
like, "Basically, it says here that your ex-wife will receive 
ninety-five percent of your shares in Sylph Co if you sign here, 
but by signing back on page three, and NOT on page five, you've 
vetoed that. Unfortunately, though, by signing twice on page 
three, you've made it possible for her to take control of the 
South Bay research laboratory."

"There are worse fates," replied Iago with a shrug, prying his 
eyes off the woman's anatomy for a moment as he looked 
thoughtfully out into nothing, "There's not much she can do down 
there anyway. Besides play with fish I guess... And if she causes 
any real problems, she becomes President Mordeaux's problem, not 
mine."

"So who's her lawyer for the divorce anyway?" inquired Kipp, 
tossing the papers back on the desk and glancing over at Miranda 
for the first time.

"Dupont," her boss responded dryly.

"Hm, thought so," the woman smirked dismissively, "Looks like his 
work. Freaking amateur. Oh, and who's your new friend, by the 
way?"

Iago looked a little startled before glancing over the rims of his 
wide rimmed glasses in the courier's direction. "Lilcamp, right?" 
he inquired with a smile she now recognized as a lecherous grin.

"Miranda, actually," corrected the girl a little nervously, 
getting to her feet and placing the completed document on the 
desk, "Oh, and all that's needed is your signature here, at the 
bottom."

"Hold on. Let me see that!" replied Kipp suspiciously, snatching 
away the paper before her employer could get his stubby fingered 
hand on it.

"It- it's just a standard contract," stammered Miranda, chastising 
herself for feeling unreasoningly intimidated by the older woman's 
presence.

Professor Kipp nodded, her eyes scanning the document suspiciously 
before handing it to Iago. "Looks good," she said in a lighter 
tone, a thin smile crossing her lips as she turned to Miranda and 
held out her hand, "Hi, I'm Professor Joanne Kipp. Sorry about 
that, but I have to look out for my employer."

"No problem," the courier assured her, trying not to be annoyed at 
the thought of being so mistrusted as she took the woman's hand 
and shook it, "But I do have something I'd like to ask, if it's 
okay."

"Sure!" laughed Professor Iago, carefully putting the signed 
documents into a new envelope, "Ask away!"

"Well," Miranda explained a touch pensively as she glanced back at 
the elevator, "I had a bit of a bit of a problem with your lift on 
the way up here."

Kipp and Iago exchanged a quick, surreptitious glance that Miranda 
didn't catch. "Oh, we've been having problems with the elevators 
all week," the woman assured as the man nodded, "It's nothing to 
worry about, though. We have a repair crew working on it."

"But I think that there was a problem with the intercom as well," 
the courier continued, giving them both a suspicious look.

"The intercom?" inquired Joanne, glancing at Iago questioningly, 
"Why wasn't I informed, boss?"

Professor Iago shrugged and smiled defeatedly. "That's news to 
me," he assured, "but this building is old. There's bound to be 
problems."

Just then, a polite beep issued from a hidden speaker on his desk. 
"Professor, there's someone here to see you," came the paid to be 
pleasant tone of the receptionist downstairs.

"But I said I was in a meeting, Joyce," the man replied, pushing a 
button on the desk as he spoke, "Can't it wait? I'd like to gloat 
for a while longer."

"But you don't understand, Professor Balthaza'ar Iago," answered 
the woman's voice, her tone suddenly changing, becoming more 
shrill as a strange background noise akin to the sounds of a 
thousand shrieking voices filled the speaker before the 
receptionist's voice became far more dark and sinister, "You see, 
sir, it's just that you're next!"

With that, the voice cut off, filling the room with an 
uncomfortable silence as the two scientists looked at each other 
nervously before turning to Miranda. The courier folded her arms 
across her chest and smirked. "Looks like it's time to fess up, 
eh?" she commented half-rhetorically.

Joanne smiled nervously for a moment, looking slightly embarrassed 
as she turned back to her boss, her soulful blue eyes going wide 
and pleading. Balthaza'ar swallowed hard in response, seemingly 
unable to "pass the buck" as the tall woman pouted just long 
enough to drive the point home.

"Well- Err, well you see, Ms. Lilcamp," the VP stammered, suddenly 
giving the computer on his desk a worried look, "It's our 
mainframe. It's been having some problems since we installed this 
new bit of software..."

"Problems?" Miranda inquired with a hint of amusement, "Seems more 
like someone's given it a strange sense of humor."

Joanne shrugged as she leaned against the desk. "You're partially 
right," she replied, ignoring Iago's suddenly horrified look in 
her direction, "It does have a sense of humor, but not because we 
gave it one. The... System itself developed that on its own."

"Um- What our dear Professor Kipp is trying to say," interrupted 
Iago, smiling widely, sweat forming on his brow as he leaned back 
in his enormous chair, "Is that we recently completed one of our 
most groundbreaking experiments to date. The successful creation 
of an independently thinking computer."

"You made an AI?" inquired Miranda with an amused grin, "And some 
overworked, underpaid techie got bored and gave it a sense of 
humor?"

"Err, not exactly," muttered Iago, glancing at Joanne, his eyes 
reflecting his desperate concern, "You see, it sort of developed 
this personality quirk on its own."

"Looks like you did your job a little too well," commented 
Miranda, looking back towards the elevator and wondering if it 
might not be a better idea just to take the stairs.

"Thank you," said Joanne with an appreciative smile as she turned 
back to her employer, "You see, boss? Some people DO appreciate 
all the work I do around here!"

Iago folded his arms across his chest and raised a disapproving 
eyebrow. "Well, it WAS your project, Professor Kipp," he said in a 
suddenly stern tone, keeping the amusement from his voice as he 
formulated a plan, "And as such, you are the one responsible for 
it if something goes wrong."

"Wha-?!" exclaimed Joanne in a sudden panic, slamming her hands 
down upon his desk and staring down at him pleadingly as she 
leaned forward, her partially open blouse giving the older man an 
eyeful, "But- But Professor, I thought you said we were a team..."

Balthaza'ar Iago smiled, leaning back again as he linked his 
fingers over his stomach and seemed to relax. "Yes, Professor 
Kipp," he replied, ignoring her sultry pleading tone, "A team 
where I am the team leader. And as such, it's my job to delegate 
responsibility. And in THIS case, Professor, YOU'RE the one 
responsible for the current... 'Malfunction.' So please, take care 
of it would you? I'm a busy man, and I believe that we've taken up 
enough of Ms. Lilcamp's time."

"But- But-!" she stammered as Iago pointedly ignored her and 
shuffled the papers on his desk.

"That will be all Professor Kipp," he said simply as the woman 
stood up, straightened her all to short skirt and adjusted her lab 
coat.

"Fine then," said Joanne, somehow keeping the annoyance from her 
voice as she turned to the courier and smiled sadly. "Well, sorry 
from dragging you into all this, Miss," she said apologetically, 
"but I'm sure I can take care of it eventually."

Miranda shrugged. "No big deal," she said thoughtfully as Joanne 
lead her back to the elevator, "But it's too bad my Aunt Laurna's 
not in town. She knows a thing or two about computers, and she'd 
probably be able to help-"

"Did- Did you say 'Laurna'?!" the scientist exclaimed with sudden 
enthusiasm.

"Err, yeah..."

"Oh my goodness!" laughed Joanne, throwing her arms into the air 
melodramatically as she looked at Miranda with renewed interest, 
"I went to University with her!"

"Really?" Miranda inquired politely as she began to wonder about 
the woman's sanity.

"Oh yeah," continued Joanne, leaning her shoulder against the wall 
and looking reminiscent, "She was my roommate for three years. 
She's the one who gave me the idea for the AI project you know."

"She thought of it first then?"

"On, no, no!" the woman laughed, waving her hand dismissively, "It 
was that gastly of hers, actually-"

"KIPP!" exclaimed Professor Iago from across the room, his voice 
suddenly full anger as his round face blazed red.

"Ooops!" the woman muttered, looking embarrassed, "I guess I 
shouldn't have said that..."

"Viper?" blinked Miranda, "How did he give you an idea for an AI?"

Joanne's tone became more nervous as she hit the elevator button 
several times as hard as she could. "Well, err, ya know," she 
stammered, cursing under her breath as the lift seemed to be 
taking its own sweet time, "That um, gastly just made me think 
that maybe all those scientists before were looking at the problem 
the wrong way. That maybe it wasn't software that we needed, but 
hardware."

"Oh dear," the courier muttered, suddenly dreading where the 
conversation was going.

"Well, you see," the scientist explained, "first I figured I'd try 
something out with my TI-85, but her mind is too structured, so-"

"TI-85?" inquired Miranda, finding her curiosity peaking.

Joanne nodded. "She's my magnemite," the scientist said with a 
reminiscent smile, "I picked him up when our class was doing a 
unit on 'spontaneous generational' pokemon. Unfortunately, as I 
said, she wasn't quite what we were looking for. TI-85 can access 
information and give commands, but she needs to be instructed to 
do so. It seems that magnemites lack the necessary affinity for 
creative thinking that we're looking for. To be honest, their 
minds are just too... simple really."

"So you found something a little more complex then?" inquired 
Miranda, amused by the elevator's stubbornness as Joanne glanced 
nervously over her shoulder at Iago, who was even now holding his 
head with one hand and eating a bottle of pain killers with the 
other, "Something that had both an affinity for computers and was 
more creative than a magnemite?"

"And was more independently thinking," added Joanne with a heavy 
sigh. "Yes," she admitted warily, "that's why we sent a team over 
to Lavender to capture a few 'test subjects'."

"You could have asked my aunt, I'm sure she'd-"

"Oh no!" interrupted Joanne, shaking her head quickly, "We had to 
keep this a secret! Heck, we even hired some kid to go down and 
buy a few of those special pokeballs Laurna makes... Which we 
still can't synthesize, by the way."

Miranda smirked at the thought, but kept her gloating to herself. 
"So you caught a few ghosts then?" she inferred, "And brought them 
back here so you could interface them with your mainframe?"

"Err, well, something like that," Joanne admitted quietly, 
nervously brushing back her hair as the elevator made a loud -
ding!- and the doors began to slide open, "but to be honest, we 
lost an operative in the attempt and only managed to get one."

"So, if it's causing problems with the mainframe, why not just 
'return' it-?" Miranda inquired as Joanne moved to enter the 
elevator but immediately stopped and grabbed the sides of the 
door.

"Dreck!" she shrieked, one leg dangling dangerously over the edge 
of the empty elevator shaft as her shoe plummeted downward and the 
doors started to close again.

"Professor!" the courier shouted, quickly grabbing the scientist's 
shoulders and yanking her back into the VP's office.

As the two tumbled to the carpeted floor in a heap, a sinister 
laughter echoed from deep within the void as the metal doors 
banged shut with a certain finality.

"Th-thanks," Joanne stammered, struggling to her feet as Professor 
Iago ran to her side.

"Are you alright?!" he called in a sudden panic, quickly moving to 
help the woman as Miranda sat up and glared at the now sealed 
doors.

"Oh, I'm fine, I'm fine," the scientist muttered in annoyance as 
Miranda got to her feet with a scowl.

"You do have a contingency plan for something like this, right?" 
she inquired, glancing at the two as Professor Iago began sweating 
again.

"Well, not exa-" he began, only to interrupted by Joanne.

"Actually, yes!" she said triumphantly with a grin, "I can 
recontain this thing in no time. I just have to coax it out of the 
system and the 'return' the ghost to its ball. Then problem 
solved."

Miranda gave her a skeptical look. "You're sure it'll be that 
easy?" she inquired, glancing up as, as if on cue the lights above 
them flickered and died before the emergency generator kicked in.

Joanne and Balthaza'ar glanced up as well, the suddenly dim red 
lighting in the room causing them both to gulp loudly. "M-maybe we 
should evacuate the building," the woman suggested, causing her 
employer to shake his head in dismay.

"Unbelievable," he muttered glancing disapprovingly up at Joanne, 
"Look, we can't afford to alarm the other businesses in this 
building. This is a Sylph matter and I'm sure you can take care of 
it quietly. Blackouts aside."

"I'll get started on a cover story," promised Joanne nervously, 
"But first I'll just stop by the computer lab and take care of our 
little pest."

"You're sure it'll be that easy?" inquired the courier looking up 
at the emergency lights as they flickered and dimmed a notch.

"Not a problem," assured the scientist, brushing off her lab coat 
and striding across the plush white carpeting, stained red by the 
emergency lighting, towards the secret door she'd come through 
earlier with sudden confidence as Miranda hurried after her, "We 
have the most powerful computers on the continent at our disposal! 
Our technology is infallible!"

"What about our little friend?" came Miranda's query, her stormy 
gray eyes widening as she peered into the huge computer lab, it's 
dozens of workstations each with its own wage-slave busily banging 
away on keyboards that were slightly too small, each competing to 
see whom could acquire carpal-tunnel syndrome first.

"I told you, not a problem," came Joanne's reassuring tone as she 
slid into the chair of a large, cluttered workstation at the front 
of the room facing all of the others to signify its owner's 
importance before quickly banished her flying dollar sign 
screensaver with a tap of the 'any' key, "I have a plan."

"I've heard that one before," Miranda chuckled, moving away some 
of the junk before hopping up onto the edge of Joanne's desk as 
the woman's long, manicured fingers danced along the keyboard as 
though the scientist were born to hack code.

"Oh ye of little faith," smiled Joanne before scowling. "Oh, he's 
good," the woman muttered under her breath a moment later, 
suddenly typing one-handed as she reached into her inner lab coat 
pocket and produced a white and steel gray, pokeball in storage 
mode.

"Back-up?" Miranda inquired, tensing slightly as her fingers 
absently brushed across what appeared to be a modified toaster 
equipped with a few extra dials and some kind of needle gauge 
along with its mandatory exposed vacuum tubes.

The woman merely nodded, catching Miranda's eye with a wide smile 
as her left hand continued to run through various security 
protocols, somehow magically bypassing the continual barrage of 
encryptions the ghost sent her way. "Just an old friend," the 
scientist assured, smiling as she hit the activation switch on the 
ball, causing a wave of light to issue forth and a sudden loud 
alarm sounded.

"Warning!" came a seductive female voice with a hint of panic, 
"Containment breach in Sector 7G! All personal have three minutes 
to evacuate the facility."

"That's bad, right?" the courier inquired as most of the techies 
leapt out of their chairs and raced for the fire-exit in a panic 
while Miranda glanced at the oddly shaped creature that floated 
past her line of vision.

Joanne shook her head. "Don't worry," she replied standing up a 
bit to see over her monitor. "Geoff!" the woman called, sending a 
bored looking security guard who was reading a newspaper in the 
corner a scowl, "we have a slight problem here. Think you can, oh, 
I dunno, help out a bit?"

The tall, thin man shrugged from behind his paper, adjusting his 
hat as the last few Sylph Co workers scurried past him, their arms 
laden with computer components, RPG books, a few live chickens, a 
small nuclear device and an assortment of other junk they'd 
brought from home. "Eh, I'll do it later," came his mumbled 
Scottish accent as Miranda absently dug out her purple coloured 
Electronic Parazoological Encyclopedia & Data Input/Output Device.

"Um, shouldn't we be fleeing in terror or something?" the courier 
inquired, aiming the pokedex at the floating metallic looking orb 
with what appeared to be horseshoe magnets attached to its sides 
as it focused its single Cyclops eye at her curiously.

"Naw, relax," assured Joanne, her scowl not penetrating Geoff's 
blatant indifference to the crisis, "I can seal the breach from 
here. Ti', can you link up with the system, please? I need to 
override the containment controls but that little glob of 
ectoplasm keeps modulating the password. Can you keep him busy for 
a moment?"

"Nemite," assured the metallic pokemon as it turned it's 
mechanical gaze from the courier and floated closer to the 
monitor. Then, the flat disk that served as it's eye shined a 
focused beam of amber light at the side of the bulky screen, 
causing the computer to respond with an unhappy clicking sound.

"Odd little thing, isn't it," Miranda commented, feeling strangely 
calm as the red flickering lights and slowly pulsing alarm became 
strangely easy to ignore, giving her a moment to tap the 'Analyze' 
key on her 'Dex.

"She," corrected Joanne, biting her lower lip and giving half a 
smile as her eyes reflected the passing numerical codes she 
ploughed through, "TI-85's a girl."

"How can you tell?" Miranda inquired as the little screen on the 
left side of her pokedex showed a green wire mesh schematic for 
the creature that seemed to be assisting the scientist, all the 
while scrolling the species's vital statistics across the bottom.

"I just can," said Joanne with a shrug, the pokedex blissfully 
silent as the scrolling words read out "Kingdom 'Inanimae,' Phylum 
'Adamus'...".

"So, um, what's that containment thing containing exacting?" the 
courier inquired, her 'Dex scrolling "Order 'Fulmenos', Family 
'Voltolae' Genus 'Volto' Species 'Volto magneto', common name 
'Magnemite'..."

Joanne shook her head as the 'U' shaped objects attached to either 
side of TI-85 spun slowly as the little hovering orb shuddered a 
little from the seeming exertion. "Can't tell ya," she replied 
before smacking down the 'Enter' key with sudden triumph. "Ah ha!" 
the woman exclaimed, leaping to her feet and causing Miranda to 
hop off her desk in surprise as the woman's chair clattered to the 
floor behind her, "Gotcha ya little blob of goo!"

"You got him out of the system?" inquired Miranda speculatively, 
raising an eyebrow as "Type steel/electrical, weaknesses Fire, 
fighting and Ground techniques; Strong against rock, ice, 
plant..." scrolled across the little monitor, threatening its 
owner with a bad case of eyestrain. 

"Nope," Joanne replied, leaning back in her seat and smiling 
proudly at her monitor as TI-85 broke contact and made a small 
sound of relief similar to escaping steam shortly before power was 
restored and the lights came back on, "but I managed to keep him 
out of sector 7G. For now..."

Miranda nodded, glancing up at the ceiling tiles as the computer 
countdown voice halted abruptly, quickly changing its mind about 
the nature of the emergency. "But not out of less essential 
systems, I guess," she replied glumly as the computer voice slowly 
altered itself. "Containment field, reinitialized," the female 
sounding voice announced before slowing down, becoming distorted 
and stammering out a reply, "The eeemmmmmergeeeenccceee, is-is-is 
overrr-" the voice shifted radically at that point, taking on a 
more sinister aspect, "H-H-H-How-Howeeeever, hacker. You're next!"

"I think he means you," called out the security guard from across 
the room as Miranda's pokedex displayed the peculiar nutrient 
requirements for TI-85 and Geoff stood up to get a coffee from the 
machine at the back of the room.

"Whatever, Geoffrey," muttered Joanne, going back to a bout of 
frantic typing, "Look, if you're not going to contribute, could 
you at least stay out of my hair?"

The security guard shrugged as he put nearly four credits worth of 
change into the coffee machine and gabbed one of the paper cups 
the machine didn't actually supply on its own. "Oh, come on now," 
Geoff replied, hitting one of the buttons on the machine several 
times to no avail, "I'm just trying to add a little levity."

"Off hand, I'd say this ghost's sense of humor is enough levity 
for all of us," Miranda commented as sparks flew from Joanne's 
keyboard and her screensaver came of line.

"What the-?!" the scientist exclaimed in aggravation, rubbing her 
fingers against each other to restore feeling before tapping 
frantically at the keys, "I- I can't clear it. The OS isn't 
accepting my password!"

"Try hitting it," responded Geoff, picking up a stack of paper 
cups from the water cooler and dropping the lot into the recycle 
bin. "There," the security guard grumbled under his breath, "That 
ought to be 3.85's worth!"

"Ti, try a direct interface," said Joanne, sparing Miranda half a 
glance as she reached over and flipped on the machine the courier 
was examining earlier as the floating orb linked itself with the 
monitor again, its single cyclops eye showing a flowing pattern of 
ones zeros and the occasion two.

"What is it?" Miranda inquired as the machine made a series of 
small timed beeps.

"Look here," instructed Joanne, pointing at the black screen of 
her monitor. Upon it the words "You're Next!" had appeared, 
printed in large purple block letters. The phrase bounced/moved 
about the screen; rebounding off the edges of its limited space in 
a seemingly random pattern. As it did so, the machine on Kipp's 
desk responded with a beep. One for every time the words hit the 
side of the screen and bounced off.

"It detects your screensaver bouncing?" inquired Miranda 
skeptically, now knowing for certain that one had to be crazy to 
work at Sylph Co.

"No, no, no," the woman laughed, shaking her head in dismay as her 
magnemite made a few unhappy noises, "It detects sarcasm. This is 
NOT my normal screensaver. It seems our little friend decided to 
lock me out and change it to this. As you said, Miss, this ghost's 
sense of humor is enough levity for everyone."

Miranda glanced up at Joanne with an amused look. "That doesn't 
explain why you have one of these, Professor," she replied as the 
scientist turned back to TI-85 and nodded slowly at something the 
pokemon said, "But I suppose it couldn't hurt to see how good it 
really is..."

The courier smiled mischievously, giving her arm a bit of a shake 
and causing a mirconized pokeball to roll out of her sleeve and 
into the palm of her hand. "Nezumi," she said quietly as the ball 
expanded to the size of a baseball, "come ye forth."

"The ghost's rotating the password almost as quickly as Ti's 
hacking it," muttered Joanne as the ball clicked open and a small 
dark-purple and white rodent materialized on the desk beside the 
sarcasm detecting machine, "Um, Ms. Lilcamp, what are you doing?"

Miranda smiled. "Just checking out your toy, seeing if it's just 
reacting to the computer or if it actually does detect sarcasm," 
she explained with a grin that caused Joanne to gulp nervously and 
leaned a little farther back in her chair, "Nezumi, I need your 
help."

The rattata glanced up at his trainer with a skeptical look as she 
pointed at the machine before turning to face it and sniffing the 
air between them. "Ra, rattata?" he inquired, his tone causing one 
of the little black needles on one of the dial to move to the half 
way mark as the beeping sound became a little louder.

"It detects sarcasm," the courier chuckled in amusement, 
affectionately scratching the little rodent between the ears, 
"Just say something silly. Like one of your usual comments."

Nezumi gave a short laugh as he sat upon his haunches and waved 
his forepaw dismissively. "Tatta," he assured, causing the machine 
to react again as the rattata turned to face it and got 
comfortable.

"What's he doing?" inquired Joanne a little nervously as Nezumi 
stretched out a bit and preened his whiskers before clearing his 
throat and seeming to focus his thoughts like some kind of 
professional vocal performer.

"To Nezumi," explained Miranda with a sense of amused pride, 
"Sarcasm is scalpel, not a bludgeon. To some, it's the lowest form 
of humor, but to MY rattata, it's an art form!"

Nezumi glanced up at her with a sudden annoyed look, and waved the 
courier close.

"Yes, dear?" the girl inquired with amusement, leaning in and 
pressing her ear close to the pokemon's snout as he whispered a 
series of quick, quite syllables, "Hm? Oh, yes, of course!"

Miranda giggled as she stood straighter and gave Joanne an amused 
look. "The maestro would appreciate complete silence during the 
performance," she explained as Nezumi nodded and returned to his 
work, letting out a few quiet squeaks to ready his voice.

"I so don't need this," Joanne muttered, ignoring the rattata's 
sudden glare as she watched TI-85's now shaking frame as she 
hovered closer to the monitor, the blue stream of data becoming 
darker with frustration.

At last, though, as the room quieted, save for the whirring of the 
cooling fans and the beeps from the sarcasm-detecting machine, 
Nezumi rose up upon his hind legs, his gleaming red eyes filled 
with fiery determination. For a long moment the rodent stared 
across the desk at the device. It's gleaming dials and 
shimmering/blinking lights taunting him silently as Nezumi's 
whiskers twitched with the passing of a breeze from the air ducts. 
For a time, the tension mounted, the rattata's forepaws clenching 
and unclenching as he focused his mind on his mechanical opponent, 
readying himself for the greatest challenge of his life, steeling 
himself against possible failure and then banishing such thoughts 
from his mind.

But at last, the little creature took a deep breath, holding it in 
his lungs as he rose his little forepaws into the air as though 
about to give a proclamation to the masses. Then, with a small, 
satisfied smile, the pokemon whispered but one single, quiet word 
that seemed completely devoid of emotion, let alone sarcasm.

"Rattata."

If the universe were truly birthed with but a single word, 
Nezumi's was at least a small fragment of the one that could end 
it. With a terrible flash of light, a loud, ear-splitting 
screeching whine and a loud sound of out rushing air, the machine 
that detected sarcasm exploded into a million tiny fragments that 
flew in all directions from the small fireball that burst to life 
upon Joanne's desk, showering the room with smoking bits of wires 
and vacuum-tubes. 

"You got him?!" came a happy exclamation through the black noxious 
smoke that quickly filled the air.

"Wha-? What are you talking about?" coughed Joanne flinging her 
hands about to dispel the fog.

"The ghost!" laughed Balthaza'ar Iago bursting into the room at 
the sound of the explosion, "With that kind of ruckus you must 
have caught it!"

"Nope, sorry," replied Miranda, taking off her glasses and wiping 
off the dirty lenses on her shirt as the blurry image of Nezumi 
smiled proudly up at her, his eyes filled with amusement.

"Then what was-?"

"Sorry, boss," Joanne muttered, shaking her head at the smoking 
wreckage that was once her invention, "It was just Ms. Lilcamp's 
rattata. He overloaded the sarcasm detector."

"What'd he say?" chuckled Iago looming closer as the smoke cleared 
and the sound of a distant phone ringing came to life from the 
other room.

"Rattata," explained Miranda with a shrug as a second phone began 
to ring on one of the unoccupied desks.

"No, I mean what did he say?" inquired Iago as both he and Joanne 
looked at the courier discerningly.

"I told you," Miranda replied as the vid-phone on the wall next to 
Geoff began to ring as well, but the security guard seemed content 
to ignore it as he continued to read his paper, seemingly 
oblivious, "He said 'rattata'."

"No," insisted Joanne, flinging her hands down on her keyboard in 
frustration, "He means, what did your verminous familiar say in 
our terms. What's the translation?"

Miranda smiled down at Nezumi as she slid her glasses back on and 
the little rodent chuckled merrily. "As I said," the courier 
replied, scooping the pokemon up into her hand and holding him 
close, "Nezumi said 'rattata'. That's it. That's all."

"He said his species name?" inquired Joanne, her pale blue eyes 
going wide as the scientist twitched a little at the sight of both 
the courier and her rattata nodding in unison agreement.

"Rattata," they both agreed to Iago's amusement.

"Oh I give up!" muttered Joanne, shaking her head and turned back 
to the hopeless case she called her computer as several more 
phones came to life, ringing incessantly and ever more loudly.

"Um, you, whatever your name is," ordered Iago as he turned to 
leave, waving his hand dismissively in the security guard's 
direction, "Would you mind getting that?"

Geoff threw down his newspaper in frustration as he hauled himself 
up off the chair, his bones creaking just a little. "Oh, alright," 
he muttered walking over to one of the workstations and snatching 
up the phone, "Hello?"

Miranda turned as the tall, thin man went silent, his expression 
paling as he eyes widened. "What is it?" she asked, breaking 
whatever trance Geoff had gone into.

"It, it's for you," he replied in the strange silence that 
overtook the room as soon as he'd answered the phone.

The courier gave him a suspicious look as she put Nezumi upon her 
shoulder and walked across the gleaming white tiled floor to where 
the security guard stood with a shocked expression upon his face. 
When Miranda held out her hand to him, Geoff dropped the phone 
into her palm and fell back into a swivel chair, staring blankly 
out at nothing.

"Yes?" the courier inquired, turning back the way she had come to 
where Joanne was hitting keys at random, trying to unsuccessfully 
disengage the screensaver to no avail.

The phone was silent for half a heartbeat; all except for the 
omnipresent mild crackling static on the line that showed it was 
connected. But as the courier glared and was about to hang up, a 
voice came on the line. A voice whose tone spoke of malevolent 
humor as its giggling, cackling words issued loudly from the 
receiver. "You're next!" 

Miranda's stormy gray eyes widened for a moment as they cast about 
the room, catching sight of all the flat-screen monitors that 
faced her. Each and every single one with the same, block-letter 
screensaver. Each with the same phrase bouncing, rebounding and 
slowly shifting about. "You're next!"

"Okay, this is getting a little too weird," the courier muttered, 
glancing at Geoff who was finally shaking his head to clear his 
mind. "How long's it gonna take to purge your system?" she asked 
Joanne, walking back towards the relative sanity of the 
scientist's desk.

"I'm not sure-" the woman began, her sentence cut short by the 
sudden high-pitched whine that issued from TI-85 as the metallic 
pokemon broke the connection and flew backwards across the room, 
spinning and shooting sparks before crashing into the far wall.

"Ti!" Joanne exclaimed, leaping out of her chair as her monitor 
cracked, shattered, and all but exploded behind her.

"What'd it do?!" exclaimed Geoff as Miranda ran to meet Joanne as 
the magnemite rattled around on the floor, vibrating violently and 
making a long series of wavering exclamations of pain.

"The ghost must have caused a power surge," muttered Joanne, 
bending down to pick TI-85 up and held the strange creature close 
to her chest, "She must have pulled away at the last second..."

"She'll live, right?" Miranda inquired, standing by Joanne's side 
and placing a reassuring hand upon the woman's shoulder.

The scientist nodded, returning TI-85 to her pokeball before 
standing up and shaking her head slowly. "Look," said Joanne 
carefully, "if you want, I'll show you the way out. This isn't 
your fight-"

"No," interrupted Miranda, shaking her head slowly and causing 
Joanne to take pause, "I'm in. Your people nabbed this ghost from 
my hometown, so it's both our problems. Besides, you guys don't 
seem to know all the tricks necessary for handling ghosts."

Joanne smiled, micronizing the pokeball back into storage mode and 
waving Geoff over. "Okay, then," she explained in a more confident 
tone, "With the terminals on this level down, we're going to have 
to access the mainframe directly. Once there, I'll try to flush 
the ghost out again. But I'll need one of you ready to nab it."

Geoff gave a short laugh and quickly looked away, seemingly taking 
an interest in the suddenly flickering florescent lights along the 
tile ceiling as Professor Kipp pulled out a black and gray 
pokeball.

"I'll do it," Miranda replied with a shrug, accepting the ball 
with a displeased glance at the security guard, "but it'll take me 
a few minutes to bypass the imprint codes-"

"No, no," assured Joanne, waving her hand dismissively as she 
walked back towards Iago's office, "We did that already incase 
there was an emergency. That way anyone can 'return' it. Now just 
hold on, I have to inform the boss about our plans."

"It's dangerous to mess with the imprint codes on these things, 
though," Miranda muttered, shaking her head again and pushing her 
glasses back up her nose, "It means any moron can just go off and 
walk away with your poke'."

"Yeah, but controlling it's a different story," added Geoff, 
rolling his eyes in dismay, "Ya'd think with all the tens of 
thousands of cred' this company puts into all their projects, 
they'd be able to plan ahead a little. Especially when dealing 
with a freakin' ghost! Aw well, good luck catching it, kid."

"It's a 'he'," Miranda replied smugly, ignoring the 'kid' remark 
as Nezumi chuckled and resisted the urge to make fun of her.

"Huh? How can you tell?" inquired Geoff skeptically.

"Oh, a ghost looked after me a lot when I was a child. My aunt and 
uncle were always a tad 'busy'," Miranda chuckled with a smile as 
the door to Iago's office swished open once more.

"Okay, all done, let's get going," said an optimistic sounding 
voice from across the room briskly, "We've got a lot to do, so 
we'd best get started." But as the courier glanced up, expecting 
to see Professor Joanne Kipp, she was surprised to find someone 
similar, but different standing in the doorway.

"I- Err, um-?!" Miranda stammered as a tall man in a lab coat over 
the suit he wore entered the room and tied his shoulder-length 
light brown hair back into a short ponytail.

"What?" inquired Geoff, giving the courier a confused look, "There 
a problem?"

"Well, kinda," the girl admitted as Nezumi leaned forward an 
sniffed the air between his trainer and the strange, bespectacled 
scientist, "I was kinda expecting Professor Kipp to be coming with 
us-"

"Kipp?" the man inquired with a start, giving Miranda a discerning 
look over the top of his glasses, "But... I'm Professor Kipp. You 
can just call me Rob, though. Anyway, shall we be off?"

"Now hold on a sec," the young courier interrupted in mild 
aggravation, holding up her hands to stem any argument, "Firstly, 
where's the Professor Kipp we were talking to a moment ago? And 
secondly-"

"Tatta," interrupted Nezumi with a chuckle.

"What?!" the courier demanded, turning her head to look down at 
the rodent upon her shoulder as Rob tried to keep from laughing 
and Geoff just rolled his eyes in dismay again, "You can't be 
serious?!"

Nezumi simply grinned toothily and nodded slowly in satisfaction.

"You mean-?"

"Rattata."

Miranda turned to the scientist and walked towards him 
skeptically. "You're sure?" she inquired, lifting her glasses and 
looking up into Rob's pale blue eyes.

Nezumi sighed heavily as Professor Kipp grinned broadly and held 
up the clipboard he was carrying. "Okay," he said in a more 
business-like tone, "The mainframe's locked away in the basement, 
but with everything else that's been going on we're probably gonna 
have a few problems getting down there."

"You're 'her', aren't you?" Miranda inquired, tilting her head to 
one side curiously.

"Oh, and Geoff, I will need you to come along as well. We don't 
currently know how many levels of the building the software's 
infected, and some of the non-Sylph offices on the lower levels 
may not be as accepting of my explanations."

"But, why-?"

"The tazers?" inquired the security guard, accessing a hidden 
panel in the wall without waiting for a response.

"Um, hello!" exclaimed Miranda exasperatedly.

"Oh, sorry, you had something to add?" inquired Rob, catching the 
long metal rod-like device that was tossed to him by Geoff.

Miranda sighed heavily, shaking her head as she waved away the 
offered tazer. "Never mind," she replied defeatedly, "Maybe it's 
better that I don't ask."

Rob merely smiled as he activated his tazer, causing the tri-prong 
end to light up with a bright blue triangle of focused elections 
that hummed pleasantly. "Very well then, shall we be off...?"

***

"So, Nezumi was able to tell that Professor Kipp was a cross-
dresser, then?" inquired Bob, leaning back in his chair as the 
computer behind him made an unpleasant grinding noise that he 
chose to ignore, "By his/her scent, I take it?"

Miranda smiled in reply, soliciting an eerie chuckle from the 
haunter in her lap. "Oh, I guess that's technically true," the 
courier chuckled, her stormy gray eyes filled with distant humor.

"Technically?" her stepfather inquired.

Miranda blushed lightly, smiling like the mother of an amusing but 
mischievous child. "Well, Nezumi didn't actually call Professor 
Kipp a 'cross-dresser'."

"Oh?"

The courier shook her head, glancing out the door and wondering 
how much longer her beloved's Gym Challenge was going to take. 
"No, what he actually called her was a 'bean-picker'."

Her stepfather blinked loudly, suddenly feeling dreadfully 
inadequate a man for not being able to decipher a simple rattata's 
pun.

"Oh, it was something he picked up that first time we were in 
Celadon," said Miranda quietly, speaking the words as though they 
might cause her to burst into flames of embarrassment, and 
speaking the name of the city's Gym Leader with equal caution, "It 
was because of something one of Erika's assistants said when they 
insisted on doing my hair and all that."

"I heard the one girl had to wear her arm in a sling for two 
weeks," agreed Bob with a nod, glancing at the perpetual wavy 
tangles his stepdaughter's hair grew into.

Miranda nodded. "Yeah, but it was more to do with that outfit they 
made me wear," she explained cautiously, desperate to avoid the 
subject and return to her story, "One of them, her English wasn't 
very good, said that I looked like a 'first-time bean picker' 
because I looked so uncomfortable in that silly kimono they made 
me wear."

"I'm sure it looked very nice."

Miranda shrugged. "Anyway, in Japanese 'bean-picker' is a very 
similar word in to 'cross-dresser' in some fashion," she explained 
with a smile, "I think it's the pronunciation or maybe the kanji's 
similar or something. But still, I'm proud of him for remembering! 
Anywhen, where was I? Oh, yes. Well, when Kipp lead us down to the 
next couple of levels the power went out again, and..."

***

The red emergency lighting system cast an unpleasant crimson glow 
upon the gray plas-crete walls of the emergency stairwell as the 
metal steps clanged dully under their collective feet, taking the 
group down only five levels before encountering a problem.

"It's sealed our section off," explained Rob as the stairwell down 
to the next level was blocked by a set of thick tri-tanium doors 
that slid out of the walls to seal off the top five Sylph Co. 
controlled floors of the building incase of a problem, "We're 
going to have to find another way down."

"Can't you bypass them?" inquired Miranda, staring down at the 
imposing metal 'floor' that began after the last step, and had the 
words "Gate 3" written in large white letters across it.

Rob shook his head in dismay as the words slowly began to 
seemingly 'melt' as they watched. "No," he said slowly as the 
painted words slowly bled into one massive puddle of white goo, 
"Not from here. I'll need to open them manually from elsewhere."

'Good thing then that she's a 'man' right now,' chuckled Nezumi in 
pokespeak, only to be ignored completely as the puddle of white 
goo oozed once more, spreading out across the joined metal plates 
to form the words, "You're Next!"

Miranda glanced at the rattata on her shoulder and smirked, 
missing how pale Geoff's face became as the words morphed. "Where 
about's is the override?" she inquired of Rob who was already 
heading through the closest door and into the first level of the 
purely Sylph Co owned office space.

"It's not far," he replied, glancing about before motioning for 
the others to follow, "We'll need to tear up a few floor tiles to 
get at it, though."

"Were you expecting an attack or something?" the courier inquired, 
causing Geoff to blink and turn away from the words.

"Naw. Well, not from the outside anyway," the security guard 
explained as they followed Rob into a room that took up the entire 
floor, but was dominated by a perfectly square wall of intricately 
connected cubicles.

Miranda merely nodded, noting the heavy tri-tanium shutters that 
had rolled down to block all light from the windows that encircled 
the room. "Seems pretty quiet," she commented in a low tone as Rob 
activated his tazer and crept cautiously forward, "Think everyone 
got out okay?"

Professor Kipp gave a small shrug as they walked along the outer 
edge of the huge beige square formed by the cubicle walls, the 
room seeming deafly silent save for their footsteps upon the 
polished tiles of the floor. "Can't say for sure," he replied, 
raising his hand to stop the others as the trio came to the 
opening across from the elevators, "But I figure the people on 
this level got out okay at the very least."

Rob glanced back at Geoff and raised his tazer, causing the 
security guard to roll his eyes and shuffle past Miranda. "On 
three," the scientist whispered, causing Miranda to smile and 
shake her head in dismay, "One, two-"

"Hey, wait a sec," interrupted Geoff much too loudly, "Do we go in 
on three, or just after?"

"Oh get over it," the courier muttered, stepping past both men and 
walking into the short hallway between the seven-foot high walls, 
"A tazer's not gonna hurt a ghost anyway."

"It's not?" pouted Rob.

"It'll tickle," Miranda replied with a shrug, glancing into two 
open cubicles before moving on and taking a left at the cubicle 
crossroads she came to, "A tazer's designed to affect the nervous 
system of a living thing, right? It's meant to stun them by 
messing with their natural electrical systems."

"Yeah, so?" inquired Geoff, holstering his tazer and following the 
girl into what soon became a strange hedge-maze variant.

"So, a ghost lacks a central nervous system," continued the 
courier as Rob walked behind Geoff, desperately resisting the urge 
to tazer the security guard just for fun, "You'll do a little 
damage but nothing that it'll really notice. I'm afraid you'd need 
to switch them to a more lethal setting to make the tazers 
effective."

"I can do that!" said Rob with a grin as Miranda stopped, 
contemplating the four-way intersection she'd come to, "Oh, take a 
right here, miss."

The courier nodded, her hand suddenly clutching the hilt of her 
wooden bokken as a muffled sound several cubicle entrances in the 
wrong direction caught her attention. "Hold on," Miranda 
whispered, slipping her sword free and creeping along towards the 
sound.

"That won't help you much either then," muttered Geoff as Rob 
paused and glanced in the direction he'd indicated.

"Um, it's-"

"Shh!" came Miranda's response as she suddenly pressed her back 
against the thin beige wall and listened carefully, the blade of 
her wooden weapon held straight up in both hands, "Listen."

The two remained quiet for a moment, listening to the faint 
whimpering coming from close by. "Hop up and take a look," the 
courier whispered to Nezumi who nodded and quickly clamored up the 
rough texture of the wall.

Once at the top, the rattata glanced around inside the small 
office space, inhaling the scent of the human that wasted his life 
away working in the cramped, doorless prison, his whiskers 
twitching in response to the perpetual breeze from the air-ducts, 
but failing to spot any occupants.

'Sorry, Boss Lady,' Nezumi whispered in pokespeak, shaking his 
head in dismay at the half-eaten, but by now stale donut on the 
desk, 'There ain't nobody home.'

"We must have the wrong one," the courier explained, reaching up 
and taking the rattata in her hand before leading the way down the 
aisle, "we must be close to it, though."

"But, um, the override-" stammered Rob, glancing back down the way 
he'd directed, only to have Miranda and Geoff make a right turn 
and disappear. "Hey!" he exclaimed as the air became still and 
devoid of sound once more, "Wait for me!"

As Professor Kipp rounded the corner, he caught a glimpse of Geoff 
taking a left down yet another passageway. "Hey!" the scientist 
hissed in a harsh whisper, chasing after the fleeing security 
guard, "Would ya wait up already!"

But as Rob rounded the second turn, he found the long hallway 
devoid of life, empty except for the several dozen openings onto 
cubicles. "Guys?" he inquired a little nervously, creeping forward 
cautiously as he unscrewed his tazer at the center joint, "Where 
are you? Would ya come out already, this isn't funny!"

But as he slid the casing back on the metal rod, revealing a mess 
of wires and odd circuitry, Professor Kipp happened to glance back 
the way he had come. "What the-?!" the scientist exclaimed, nearly 
dropping his tazer as the scientist spotted the wall that now 
blocked the way he had come.

"Oh, this is NOT funny," he grumbled, pulling out a small Phillips 
screwdriver and making a few fine adjustments to his weapon before 
sliding the casing back in place and giving it a quick test run.

The tazer flared as Rob hit the switch, sending an arc of 
electricity a meter or so long before grounding out into the floor 
and searing the ugly gray carpeting down to the linoleum. 
"Alright!" he called out loudly, holding up the weapon and 
glancing around, "Who wants some?!"

With that, a horrible grinding noise issued from one of the 
cubicles, causing a look of horror to spread across Rob's face. 
"No..." he whispered, recognizing the sound almost instantly and 
running into the closed office before staring in horror at the 
computer monitor.

"No... No, it can't be..." the stricken scientist repeated, 
rushing off into the next, and the next, only to find the same 
result. The same words printed neatly at the bottom of every 
screen he checked. Every computer the scientist came to had 
dropped down into DOS, and the words "C:\>Format C:\" were all 
followed by "C:\>Y" and accompanied by the horrific grinding of 
hard-drives self-destructing, sacrificing all their data to the 
eternal void.

"No!" the scientist shrieked, running to the console and 
desperately banging the keys ineffectually, "That was my thesis on 
the kingdom Inanimae! And now it's gone!"

Just then, another computer's hard drive began to grind, causing a 
look of horror to cross Rob's face as he ran across the way and 
into the next cubicle in time to see the same words at the bottom 
of a black screen. 

"Noooo!" he exclaimed, grabbing hold of his hair with both hands 
as several other computers began to format C:\ in unison, "Not my 
Swiss bank account!"

Rob ran out into the hallway again, barely taking the time to poke 
his head into each cubicle as his personal horror mounted. "Ack! 
All my saved games!" he exclaimed, rushing about in a blind panic, 
"No! Not the last ten years of e-mail correspondences that I've 
been saving for no apparently good reason! And... No! It can't be! 
Not my entire hentai collection! Noooo!!!"

***

Bob raised an eyebrow.

"What?" his stepdaughter laughed, causing Wraith to smirk and 
suppress a chuckle.

"Go on," the man sighed, leaning back in his swivel chair and 
smiling paternally.

"Anyway," continued Miranda, "As I was saying..."

***

Geoff turned as Rob's scream of denial filled the expansive, 
cubicle-infested room, bouncing off the many flimsy walls of five 
hundred some odd Sylph Co worker's willing encumberie.

"Rob?!" the security guard inquired, holding his tazer before him 
and rushing off suddenly in the direction they had come, "Rob, 
guy! Where are ya?!"

The scientist's scream came again, and this time Geoff turned 
around to make sure the courier was following him. "Oh, well now 
that's just great," the security guard muttered dryly, not the 
least bit surprised to find his passage blocked by a beige cubicle 
wall.

"They really don't pay me enough for this," he muttered bitterly, 
turning back around and jogging off towards the sound, taking a 
right at the first intersection before suddenly finding himself in 
one of the large cubicles the middle management used.

"Rob?" he inquired, skeptically, walking across the thinly 
carpeted floor as he scanned the room, making his way towards the 
peculiar wet slapping sound that filled the air, "If that's you 
man, you better tell me now, 'cause I'm tazering the first person 
I see!"

But the only response was the strange wet slapping sound, only 
made worse by the dim red radiance of the emergency lighting 
system, and the sudden gasping, gurgling sound that Geoff now 
realized was coming from the chair in front of the desk.

"Oh, man," the security guard muttered to himself as he grabbed 
the back of the chair and pulled it away from the desk, "I'm sooo 
gonna regret this..."

And as he turned the chair back around and looked at what was 
lying upon it, flopping about in an obscene parody of 
helplessness, Geoff did regret it. "No..." he gasped, taking a 
step back from the large blind albino cave fish that lay across 
the chair, "Oh man why...? Why does it always have to be fish?!"

With that, the Anoptichthys jordani tilted its eyeless head up 
towards the man, its wide, razor sharp tooth filled mouth opening 
wide as it suddenly spoke. "Explain THIS security guard class four 
Geoff!" the fish demanded, its tail flipping impatiently.

"It- It's a fish-!" stammered Geoff, dropping his tazer and taking 
a few frightened steps backward.

"I know it's a fish!" the sightless, albino cave dweller 
reiterated in a deeply annoyed tone, "I said explain it!!!"

***

"What?" inquired Miranda as Bob coughed into his hand.

"Oh. Nothing..." 

***

Miranda glanced over her shoulder at the sound of the two 
screaming Sylph Co. employees, and gulped loudly as she realized 
that she'd somehow managed to leave them both behind.

'Oh, man...' muttered Nezumi, shaking his head at the cacophony of 
terror.

"Don't tell me," the courier replied, shivering as she carefully 
leaned to one side and glanced into the nearest cubicle, "We're 
all gonna die, right?"

'Well, they might...' the pokemon replied leaning with Miranda, 
his nose twitching as he caught the scent of another human. 'Hey, 
looks like we got a live one here,' the rattata squeaked quietly 
as Miranda nodded slowly.

"It's probably one of the people from the higher levels who didn't 
quite make it out," she whispered quietly, not wanting to alarm 
the huddled figure in a lab coat they spotted cowering under the 
desk.

Nezumi nodded in agreement, clinging more tightly to the shoulder 
of Miranda's courier jacket as the girl stepped carefully into the 
doorway and walked slowly forward across the dull gray expanse of 
thin carpet.

"Excuse me?" she called in a sweetly maternal tone, "Are you 
alright?" 

The huddled figure made a pained noise as it shuffled itself 
farther into the shadows, kicking the wall of the cubicle with a 
dull thud as it moved. For a second, the courier caught a glimpse 
of a haggard looking face before an emaciated hand reached out and 
pulled the chair in closer to protect itself from the outside 
world.

"It's alright," assured Miranda with a small smile, crouching down 
to place her wooden sword upon the carpet before taking a few 
steps forward, "I'm here to take care of the ghost. That's what 
you're hiding from right? The gastly you guys brought in?"

The thing under the desk gave a surprised exclamation, and soon 
Miranda could see a pair of wide eyes staring out at her from the 
darkness. "M-Miri?" came the pained sounding tone, "I-Is it really 
y-you?"

The courier blinked, glancing at Nezumi whose eyes narrowed as he 
sniffed the distance between them. 'Fang Face nailed him with 
nightshade,' the rattata muttered, 'And he ain't in good shape.'

Miranda nodded, kneeling a short distance away and leaning forward 
to peer into the darkness. "How do you know that name?" she 
inquired suspiciously, her heart thudding harder in her chest as 
Miranda thought she recognized the man's voice.

"Miri..." came the pained reply, followed by a dry, hacking cough 
as the chair was forced out of the way with a pained grunt, 
"Please, I- I've been hurt..."

The courier shook her head, refusing to believe what her mind 
desperately tried to tell her. "You're an illusion, aren't you?" 
the girl accused through gritted teeth as she bowed her head and 
squeezed her eyes tightly closed, "You're nothing more than the 
gastly trying to mess with my mind."

"No..." the man replied as a shaking hand touched her shoulder 
lightly, its grip as weak as a newborn's, "Miri, it- it's me. It 
really is."

Nezumi glanced at her with befuddlement as Miranda opened her 
eyes, desperately wanting to accept the illusion for real as the 
courier looked into the cloudy gray depths of the man's eyes and 
saw a wounded vision of her Father staring almost happily back at 
her.

"I- I hate you," she told the man in a shaky tone as tears welled 
up in her eyes.

"Miri," the illusion of her father whispered paternally, his warm 
smile marred only by the emaciated look of his face as his shaking 
hand reached up and touched the courier's cheek with cool, dry 
fingers, "how can you say that to your own father?"

Miranda smiled weakly, her body shaking as she shook her head 
slowly. "You- You're just an image pulled from my mind," she 
whispered, sniffling and pushing up her glasses to wipe away a 
tear, "you're just an illusion sent here to distract me."

"Shh..." her father whispered, wincing as he shuffled forward on 
his knees and put his arms around Miranda, "It's alright now, 
dear. You can stay here with me now. It'll be just like it used to 
be."

The courier felt her heart ache painfully as she simply threw her 
arms around him and found herself crying against his shoulder. 
"You're not real... You're not real..." she sobbed, shaking all 
over and knowing that she should simply leave, yet not finding the 
strength to do so.

"I'm as real as you want me to be," Nicholas replied, his voice 
sounding a little more pained before a hacking cough overcame him 
for a moment, causing Miranda to hold him closer until the fit had 
passed. "Th-thank you," he managed as his daughter pulled away and 
looked into his eyes.

"Is, is there anything I can do?" Miranda asked, her tone sounding 
almost helpless as she became lost in the illusion, unable to find 
the strength to disbelieve.

Her father smiled, the crimson glow of the emergency lights above 
their heads dimming as the air grew cold. "There is one thing..." 
he chuckled, sprouting long sharp fangs as somewhere in the 
distance Miranda could hear the sound of a panicked chittering in 
her ear. As though some kind of rodent were screaming something at 
her.

"D-daddy?" the girl stammered, pulling away and stumbling 
backwards as the man's eyes blazed suddenly red and long black 
claws sprouted from his fingertips, tearing painfully from beneath 
the skin, "Wha- What are you-?!"

"I'll swallow your soul!" her father laughed as a sudden blur of 
purple streaked out of nowhere, leaping at the illusion's throat.

'Swallow this!' Nezumi exclaimed as his oddly gleaming fangs sank 
into the man's throat and black dust erupted from the wound like a 
partially plugged geyser as Miranda's hand fell upon the hilt of 
something hard and reassuring.

"Dreck!" the courier exclaimed, suddenly remembering where she was 
and thankful for her habit of placing the business end of her 
wooden blade forward whenever she put it down as she grabbed it up 
and jabbed the bokken forward with all her might.

The illusion howled in seeming pain as the curved wooden blade 
passed through his chest as though it were made of straw, spewing 
more black dust as he clutched at the weapon with both hands.

"M-Miri-!" the man stammered in seeming shock as he looked 
pleadingly into Miranda's eyes, "How-? How could you do this to 
your own father?!"

"You!" the courier growled, taking the sword hilt in both hands 
and twisting it with a grunt, "Are NOT my Father!"

The room filled with an awful laughter that seemed to come from 
the intercom system as the illusion exploded outwards in a hail of 
gritty black dust which quickly dissipated, causing Miranda to 
fall forward as Nezumi dropped to the floor with a piece of chewed 
up paper in his teeth.

"This ghost doesn't fight fair," the courier muttered, chastising 
herself before wiping the tears from her eyes and glanced down at 
Nezumi as he spat out the paper, "Good thing we don't either."

The rattata gave a smug grin as the girl scratched him 
affectionately between the ears. "Oh, and thank you, dear," she 
said with a small smile before picking up the note, "it's good to 
have you watching my back."

'Eh, ain't no problemo, Boss Lady,' Nezumi replied with a shrug as 
Miranda unraveled the note and tried to ignore the saliva.

"I thought as much," the courier sighed heavily a moment later.

'What's it say?' the rodent inquired suspiciously, tilting his 
head to one side as Miranda gave him a bit of a smirk.

"What else?" she replied rhetorically, crumpling up and tossing 
the note over her shoulder, "It says is 'You're next!'..."

***

Joanne rounded the corner; her pulse racing as the sounds of 
computer hard drives dying faded in the distance. "I, I've got to 
get to the center," she panted, leaning against the surprisingly 
sturdy fabric wall and reaching for TI-85's ball, "It, it's the 
only way."

The pokeball made rattling clunking noise as it opened and the 
magnemite that materialized before the scientist didn't look 
terribly happy. With a pained sound that caused sparks to fly off 
of her, TI-85 cast a wary glance at her trainer as she hovered 
unsteadily before the woman and dropped slightly before struggling 
to maintain altitude.

"I'm sorry," said Joanne sympathetically, her fingers gently 
caressing the small metal orb and giving Ti a worried look, "But I 
really need to get to the manual override for the blast-doors, and 
this ghost isn't making it easy on me."

Ti nodded slowly, shaking as another spark fired off her left-hand 
magnet before making a quiet humming sound and projecting a soft 
blue light from her eye, which formed into a simple two-
dimensional map. A second later, and a large red circle appeared 
half way to the center, showing Joanne's position.

"But some of this map isn't accurate anymore," commented Joanne, 
pointing to the a corridor that should have been to her right, but 
wasn't, "Do you have anyway of adjusting the map to make it 
accurate?"

The magnemite shuddered a little in the attempt to make its 
magnets twist slightly in a shrug before altering the immediate 
area of her map to match their surroundings.

"For the rest of the maze, try using a fractal algorithm to 
predict what other changes the ghost may have made," continued 
Joanne, rubbing her chin thoughtfully as the magnemite 
concentrated, and found that the process had a calming effect on 
her frayed nerves, "Assume that it IS possible to reach the 
center, but the ghost just isn't making it easy."

TI-85 nodded and lost a little altitude as the map flickered out 
and a pattern of rising ones, zeros and the occasional two spread 
out across her eye, making random beeping and clicking noises as 
she computated.

A minute later, and the map reappeared before her, this time, 
though, the walls and passages that were different glowed green. 
"Good work, Ti," said Joanne with a smile, patting the magnemite 
on the head as some of the green corridors became rooms or became 
dead ends as new passages opened, "There should be some emergency 
stim's at the center as well, so I'll open those doors after I 
help you affect repairs."

The magnemite made a weak but thankful sound, her internal 
circuitry making an unpleasant, high-pitched whine as Ti moved 
forward to follow the scientist down a hallway that shouldn't have 
been there...

***

Geoff staggered down the long, seemingly endless hallway, his 
tazer flickering in the dim light as the security guard's nervous 
fingers rested against the activation switch, pressing it just 
enough to cause the device to spark. As he moved, Geoff's dark 
eyes scanned the seamless expanse of beige, hoping desperately for 
a side passage, or a doorway into a cubicle. But after what felt 
like forever, not one appeared to him.

"Oh, this is ridiculous," the security guard muttered, finally 
stopping and glaring at the thin wall to his right as he raised 
his fist, "I'll just take the easy route."

With that, Geoff smashed his fist into the wall, only to gasp and 
bite off a curse as pain shot up the man's arm. "What is this 
thing made of?!" he demanded, dropping his tazer and holding his 
fist before giving the wall a kick, and promptly finding himself 
hopping up and down on one foot with what felt like a broken toe.

"Must be a desk or something behind it," the security guard 
muttered, glaring at the other side of the corridor before taking 
a deep breath and running towards it. 

To Geoff's infinite surprise, the wall easily gave way as his 
shoulder ploughed into it. With a short-lived cry of success, he 
watched a portion of the wall fall away before gripping onto the 
sides of the entrance he'd created.

"What the-?!" Geoff gasped, staring down into the black, empty 
void beyond the wall, watching in abject horror as the section 
plummeted, spiraling out of sight into and oblivion.

"Oh man..." the security guard muttered, pushing himself away from 
the brink and taking a few steps down the hall before turning 
around and reaching up to grasp the top of the opposite wall.

With a grunt, he hauled himself off his feet and looked down, 
expecting to see another endless void, but hoping to find an 
empty, normal looking cubical. Instead, Geoff found an endless 
landscape that moved off in all directions and was bordered only 
by the wall that disappeared at either horizon. But it was what 
covered the unending expanse of ground that caused Geoff to cry 
out before letting go and landing in a heap safely back in the 
hallway a second later. 

For spread out across what was surly a barren plane were billions 
of fish, arranged in mountainous piles that flopped about wetly, 
each chanting, "Explain this! Explain this!"

Geoff closed his eyes for a moment, his breathing becoming labored 
as he realized he'd lost his tazer. "Just great," he muttered, 
staggering to his feet before noticing a strange sound of what 
seemed to be stone sliding over stone.

It only took the security guard a few seconds to realize, however, 
that the noise came from the walls of the corridor, and that they 
were slowly moving towards one another.

"That's it!" Geoff told himself before breaking out into a run, 
speeding down the constantly narrowing passageway and regretting 
the half dozen donuts he'd had for breakfast, "I am sooo quitting 
this job if I live through this...!"

***

Miranda walked slowly down the passageway, her eyes closed and 
concentrating on little more than the sound of Nezumi's voice and 
keeping her emotions in check. 'Away from me,' the rattata 
whispered a little nervously, his eyes squeezed tightly closed 
against further illusions as his other senses guided them through 
the maze as the steady breeze from the air ducts bounced off the 
walls and vibrated Nezumi's whiskers in just the right way to let 
him know where he was going, 'don't stop. Move forward.'

"You're sure you're leading us in the right direction, dear?" the 
courier inquired, trying to keep mental track of their lefts and 
rights to make sure they weren't simply walking in circles.

'Eh, I'm a rat,' Nezumi chuckled with a shrug, 'we've got a thing 
for mazes. Oh, towards me here.'

Miranda made a right turn and flinched as she felt herself pass 
through something cold and wet before entering an area where her 
shoes left the dull gray carpet and fell upon black and white 
squares of linoleum.

'Here!' he squeaked, opening his eyes and casting about the 
spacious room, 'I think I've found it!'

Miranda smiled as she opened her eyes, giving a laugh as Nezumi 
leaped off her shoulder and landed on one of the tables that 
filled the small, crowded lunch room. With a victorious 
exclamation, the rattata slid across the smooth surface and jumped 
atop a half eaten cheese sandwich before devouring it greedily.

"I should have known," the courier chuckled as she walked past 
him, examining the three other entranceways and pondering the 
logic of having a lunchroom at the center of a maze of cubicles.

"Only at Sylph Co," she muttered as the sound of hurried footsteps 
and panting caught her attention. "Nezumi," the courier hissed, 
raising her weapon as the rattata rose up upon his haunches, still 
chewing a mouthful of sandwich.

'I'mf omf iff, Boff Laffy!' Nezumi replied, desperately trying to 
dislodge the processed cheese from between his teeth.

Miranda nodded as she noticed the walls of one of the passages 
slowly coming together, accompanied by the sound of grinding 
stone. "He's trying to trap up," she said rhetorically, glancing 
around at the other exits to see what shtick the ghost was using 
on the other passages to imprison them, but was surprised to find 
them clear of obstructions.

A moment later, and the cacophony of running feet, panting and 
grinding stone was accompanied by the sound of a long, drawn out 
scream as Geoff the security guard came barreling out of the 
corridor and into the lunchroom just as the walls slammed closed 
behind him. Undaunted by his successful escape from the jaws of 
death, however, the man continued to run across the floor, blindly 
screaming louder as he ploughed into a table before flipping over 
it and crashing into another.

"Geoff!" exclaimed Miranda, spinning her bokken over her hand and 
sheathing it before running to the security guard's aid as he 
flailed his arms and legs helplessly, cursing bitterly in every 
language he could think of, "Hold on! You've made it! You're 
safe."

Geoff slowly opened his eyes and caught a glimpse of the girl who 
was even now leaning over him with a concerned look in her stormy 
gray eyes. "You..." he stammered, struggling a bit before a sudden 
pain shot up his leg and it refused to move, "You're one of 'them' 
aren't you?!"

"What? I-" began Miranda as Geoff scrambled about, his hands 
checking his pockets as the security guard seemed to become more 
and more panicked.

"Hey, where's my tazer?!" he exclaimed as Miranda stood up 
straighter and shook her head in dismay, "Dreck! I dropped my 
freakin' tazer!"

"Oh, calm down already," the courier told him, placing her hands 
upon her hips and doing her best impression of her mother, "I'm 
not one of his illusions. I'm the real thing."

"Him?!" demanded Geoff, looking back up at Miranda with panicked 
suspicion, "How do you know it's a him? You must be one of its 
illusions! You're just trying to lull me into a false sense of 
security. That's you plan, ain't it?"

"Look," Miranda told him, bending at the knees and moving the 
table off Geoff's injured leg, "even if I was an illusion, this 
broken leg isn't. Now just lie still and try not to think about 
it."

"Oh sure," the security guard muttered, wincing as Miranda 
carefully lifted his leg and unbent it before laying it carefully 
down upon the floor, "You'll get me all comfortable and then drink 
all my blood or something!"

Miranda sighed heavily, feeling exasperated. "Why is it," the girl 
half-demanded as she glanced sternly back at Geoff, "That everyone 
seems to believe that gastlies drink blood? Is it the fangs? Cause 
if it is, you people are way off. I mean, a ghost doesn't even 
have a stomach for crying out loud! And even if they did, they 
still wouldn't be hemovores! They, they're..."

Geoff raised an eyebrow as Miranda took off her backpack and dug 
out her pokedex. "You seem to know a lot about ghosts for someone 
who isn't one," the security guard replied suspiciously, causing 
Miranda to glower back at him as she hit a few buttons in rapid 
succession.

"Empavores," the courier said aloud in response, closing her 'dex 
with a satisfying click, "They feed off emotions. Not vitae. Now, 
as for why I know all these things about ghosts, it's because I've 
heard this stuff since I was little. I'm from Lavender. If you 
don't know at least a little bit about ghosts, you shouldn't be 
living there at all. You'll probably do something stupid like go 
into the Tower or something..."

Just then, the sound of expensive shoes on linoleum and electrical 
sparks flying into the air caught Miranda's attention. Almost on 
instinct, the courier spun around on one foot as she drew her 
bokken, standing as it spun once before taking it in both hands.

"R-Rob?!" the courier inquired with some surprise, lowering her 
weapon slightly as the scientist entered the room, using both 
hands to hold up TI-85 and flinching every time sparks flew up off 
it the magnemite.

"The one and only," the scientist replied through gritted teeth as 
she carefully placed Ti down on the table where Nezumi was just 
finishing his sandwich before noticing the security guard.

"Oh! Is he okay?" Rob inquired with a sudden burst of sympathy as 
he quickly rushed to the man's side.

"Ahh!" Geoff exclaimed, flailing his arms again, "It's another 
one! You're all out to get me!"

"Yeah, he's okay," Miranda chuckled as for the first time she 
noticed that the pattern of squares on the floor wasn't perfect. 
At the center of the room, four black squares met and seemed to 
have a different sheen to them in the emergency lighting.

"I'll get a stim, then," Rob replied, glancing back at Geoff as he 
walked quickly over to the four squares and knelt down beside 
them. "Hm, now if I can just remember how to open this thing..." 
he muttered, reaching into his lab-coat and pulling out a thin 
metal tube.

"Looks like a pressure gage," Miranda commented, glancing 
curiously at the device as Rob pushed a small button upon its 
silvery surface, causing the item to make a curious humming sound.

"That's just what I want people to think," the scientist chuckled 
as he traced the intersecting lines that joined the squares, 
"Keeps me from having to explain how I made it or where I got it."

With that, a soft click issued forth, and the four squares sunk 
slightly before parting and sliding seamlessly into the rest of 
the floor, revealing a large square hole at the center of the 
room.

"So what is it?" Miranda inquired as Rob lifted out the med-kit he 
found attached to the short metal wall within.

"This is where the override for the blast doors is," the scientist 
replied smoothly, indicating the large metal wheel at the bottom 
of the pit, "We have to yank it up a bit first, though."

"No, I mean the device," persisted Miranda as Rob opened the small 
white box and pulled out two stubby cylinders with spray nozzles 
at their ends before carefully checking the labels.

"Huh?" he inquired, standing up and walking over to Geoff, "I'm 
sorry, did you say something, Miss?"

"Dang right I did," the courier muttered, walking past Rob and 
giving Nezumi a secret smile as her hand slipped unnoticed into 
the man's pocket before taking a seat at the table with her 
rattata and TI-85.

"Just hold still," said Rob, kneeling down beside Geoff as the 
security guard cringed, "This won't hurt a bit."

"Oh sure, that's what they all say!" Geoff muttered, cringing as 
Rob pushed his pant leg up enough to expose his ankle, which was 
already turning blue, "Next you'll be saying 'don't worry this'll 
only hurt for a moment.' Or 'why are you screaming and crying? 
This doesn't hurt THAT much!'"

"You had your wisdom teeth out, didn't you?" chuckled Rob, hitting 
the top of the nozzle and spraying out sustained burst of 
something clear, wet and cool against Geoff's leg.

"Yeah? What's it to ya?" the security guard replied suspiciously 
as his entire leg went numb, the nanites going quickly about their 
work even as Rob emptied the remainder of the canister.

"Oh, nothing," the scientist said offhandedly as he stood back up 
and readied the second stimpack before noticing the smile on 
Miranda's face as she held up the curious device he'd used to open 
the compartment.

"You- You can't have the patent!" stammered Rob, quickly running 
over to her and snatching the device away from the courier, "It's 
mine, I tell you! All mine!"

"And ghost-balls are my Aunt Laurna's," Miranda chuckled as Rob 
held the device protectively for a moment, "But it's never stopped 
Sylph Co from offering her enough cred to by an entire continent 
for them."

Rob snickered, tucking the device away before sitting down in one 
of the uncomfortable plastic chairs around the table and 
thoroughly spraying TI-85 with the second canister. "Okay," he 
relented as the tiny fractures in the magnemite's body sealed 
themselves, "it's called a sonic screwdriver. Just don't ask how I 
got it."

"Sure," said Miranda with a shrug as Ti shook himself, the 
sparking bursts of electricity fading as he slowly levitated into 
the air, running a quick diagnostic.

"Feeling better, guy?" his trainer inquired with a pleased smile 
as he set down the empty stimpack and Miranda raised an eyebrow.

"I thought 'he' was a girl?" the courier inquired, causing Rob to 
smile mysteriously as Nezumi wandered over and looked up at the 
floated metal orb, his nose twitching suspiciously.

'Yo, Magna-doodle!' the rattata inquired curiously, causing TI-85 
to tilt in the air, his single eye focused on the small rodent, 
'You don't smell, like... Alive. How is it you guys, you know... 
Get it on?'

TI-85 made a curious sound as his internal circuitry attempted to 
process the question. 'This unit is not plug and play compatible,' 
he said at last, causing Rob to snicker and shake his head as 
Nezumi gave up and wandered back to his customary position upon 
Miranda's shoulder.

"Hey, I can stand!" said Geoff suddenly, staggering to his feet 
and supporting himself upon one of the tables as Rob smiled 
proudly.

"Good ole nanites!" the scientist chuckled, hurrying over to the 
hole in the floor. "Okay, I'll need your help with this one," he 
instructed, grabbing hold of the wheel and yanking it up an inch 
with a bit of a grunt.

"Whatever," muttered Geoff, waving his hand in Miranda's 
direction, "Get the ghost to help you."

"I am NOT a ghost!" the courier shot back, her eyes narrowed as 
she hopped off the table and went to help Rob, "Why would I be 
helping you if I was?"

"'Who are we to question the will of those who have none,'" quoted 
Rob with a chuckle as they both heaved, causing the wheel to make 
an awful metal scraping noise as Miranda glowered at him.

"Ghost's are NOT in the Kingdom Inanimae!" she corrected bitterly, 
the wheel moving up a few more inches as they both strained to get 
it above floor level, "Why can't you people accept that!"

"You- You sound like Laurna," the scientist laughed as they both 
adjusted their stances and heaved the wheel up another foot in one 
go before it locked noisily into place, "She used to rant and rave 
every day about that after class."

"I'm not surprised," the courier agreed with a sudden smile as 
they both strained to turn the wheal to the left, "Aunt Laurna 
doesn't raise her voice too often. But when tourists try and tell 
her things like 'ghosts aren't real' or 'they're just mindless 
balls of gas' she tends to drop the quiet act."

Rob nodded, grunting against the strain as somewhere beneath their 
feet a loud clunking, grinding noise, accompanied by subtle 
shuddering signaled the blast doors opening in response to their 
efforts. 

"That should do it," the scientist replied, letting go of the 
wheel and brushing the metal shavings off his hands, "Now we just 
have to get back out to the stairs."

"Yeah, if that ghost'll let us," muttered Geoff bitterly.

"Actually," Miranda pondered, tapping her chin thoughtfully, "I've 
been thinking about that. As near as I can tell, this is just a 
game to him. So far we haven't met up with anything lethal-"

"So far..." agreed Geoff, rolling his eyes and pacing impatiently 
with just a bit of a limp.

"As I was saying," the courier continued, shaking her head at him, 
"I think he's either just playing with us, or he's trying to 
distract us. It's possible that the ghost's just gonna let us out 
so we can move on to the next 'challenge'."

Rob nodded slowly, motioning TI-85 closer. "Well, I found a way to 
navigate the maze using Ti, so getting out's not going to be a 
problem either way," he explained with a prideful smile at the 
magnemite, "But, why do you think he's just distracting us? What 
else could he be doing?"

Miranda shook her head slowly, thinking her words through. "Does 
your mainframe here have a physical connection to the one at your 
main facility in Saffron?" she inquired, looking up as Rob's eyes 
went wide and the scientist nodded nervously, "And doesn't your 
company run most of the city's systems like the street lights and 
electricity and making sure everyone has clean water and what 
not?"

"Yes, but in order to hack into the mainframe in Saffron, it'd 
take a hacker at least a couple of days just to get past the 
passive security we have up," explained Rob, waving his hand 
dismissively, "And besides, why'd he want to that? I mean, the 
ghost already has a large expensive computer to play in. Why would 
he want to move into another one? Even if it does measure its RAM 
in the tens of Gigabytes..."

The courier smiled as Rob gave his head a shake, breaking the 
little trace he went into for a second and quickly wiped the drool 
away. "See?" the girl replied, "Imagine how he feels? Plus, 
there's another factor to consider. Ghosts need to eat."

"Oh, well that's just great!" exclaimed Geoff, throwing his hands 
into the air and kicking experimentally at one of the walls, "Next 
it'll be trying to swallow our souls or something!" 

Rob laughed as Miranda rolled her eyes. "I think that's what I 
said to your aunt once," the scientist chuckled, turning to the 
security guard and shaking his head with a knowing smile, "Don't 
worry. So long as we all stay awake, the ghost can only feed upon 
our stronger emotions."

"Like pessimism," Miranda chuckled.

"And fear," added Rob, his voice trailing off for a moment as his 
smile died and he turned back to the courier, "Wait, if he gets 
access to Saffron's mainframe, wouldn't that mean he could cause 
all sorts of havoc without having to waste too much of his own 
power?"

Miranda nodded. "Yes. And with Saffron's population, even a few 
days of utter chaos would create something of an emotional storm 
on the ethereal."

"Meaning?" inquired Geoff skeptically.

"Meaning," explained Miranda in a worried tone, "that as the 
emotional build up runs along that weak ley-line you guys have 
that runs from Saffron all the way to the Tower, you'd have every 
hungry ghost in Lavender coming down on you for the world's 
biggest buffet. That in turn, would only cause more fear, probably 
fatalities, and judging by your luck so far, probably some ghost 
would think it was funny to overload that nuclear reactor you have 
in the Sylph Co Arcology."

"Um, no one's supposed to know about that," added Rob a little 
nervously.

"Well, at least we have a few days, right?" inquired Geoff 
hopefully, making Miranda shake her head in response.

"I'd say a few hours at best," she replied, "he's not a human. 
He's a ghost. There's things he can do to bypass security that I'd 
wager even Ti hasn't thought of yet."

"Hey..." pouted Rob as TI-85's magnets drooped a little, "that's 
not fair."

"We'll worry about that later," the courier muttered, taking one 
last look around the room before heading for the nearest exit, 
"Right now we're on the clock, and we need Ti to show us the way 
out of here."

The magnemite made a happy sound as he hovered more proudly in the 
air before projecting the map image once again. 'Hey, ya think we 
can trust the fridge magnet?' Nezumi whispered, eying the 
blue/green image suspiciously, 'If Fang Face can do stuff with 
machines, couldn't he be doin' somethin' ta Ole One Eye too?'

The courier glanced over her shoulder, watching as Rob and TI-85 
stepped forward to lead the way into the labyrinth. "I don't 
know," she whispered back, scratching the rattata under his chin 
reassuringly, "But right now, we don't have a lot of choice. We'll 
just have to wait and see, dearest..."

***

As promised, the blast doors were partially wedged open when they 
arrived back on the stairwell. And much to Geoff's relief, the 
words had returned to normal. With held breaths, Miranda followed 
Professor Kipp through the narrow gap between the two-foot thick 
blast door and wall, soon followed by Geoff, who almost seemed to 
be in a better mood.

"At least this is all down hill, and we can't expect anymore 
surprises," the security guard muttered quietly to himself as he 
glanced at the thick metal door that left only half the flight of 
stairs accessible, only to suddenly hear an ominous rumble and the 
straining of metal as the entire building seemed to shake around 
them.

"Geoff!" exclaimed both Miranda and Rob as they turned around in 
time to see the blast door sliding quickly closed, threatening to 
cut the man off at the midsection.

"Crud!" the security guard exclaimed, his dark eyes going wide 
before leaping forward, and diving down the stairs as the blast 
door slammed shut behind him with an ominously echoing -Boom!-..

"No!" exclaimed Rob as Geoff ploughed into both himself and 
Miranda, sending them all tumbling painfully down to the next 
landing where they landed in a tangle of limbs.

"So much for non-lethal!" grumbled Geoff, reaching back to yank 
Rob's tazer out of his back.

"Ya know, you could have kept your mouth shut," the scientist 
replied, shoving Geoff's foot out of his face as they untangled 
themselves.

"Can we expect any other surprises?" Miranda inquired, shuffling 
backwards until she was clear before standing up.

Rob thought for a moment as Geoff stood and dusted himself off. 
"Well," he said thoughtfully, "there are some extra security 
measures in place just in the off chance we were attacked."

"Attacked?" the courier laughed, picking up Nezumi and checking to 
make sure his pained expression as he limped towards her was just 
an act, "By what?"

Rob shrugged; making sure his tazer was okay. "Oh, mostly just by 
the other people who work here," he explained, "When you rent out 
more than half your office space to other companies you can't be 
too careful. Especially not with the research we do here."

"Anything we need to worry about?" 

Rob shook his head. "Naw, we'd have to turn them on manually from 
Iago's office," he explained, "But I guess someone could always 
get around that and just access the security program itself to 
turn them on..."

"Gee, thanks Rob," muttered Geoff as a loud, annoying ringing 
sound issued from the fire alarm, and the sprinklers turned on, 
drenching them with water, "You DO know the ghost can hear us 
through the intercom system, right?!"

The scientist shook his head. "No, this isn't it," he replied, 
raising his voice above the alarm bell, "we're still okay."

"Actually," corrected Miranda as Nezumi took a small umbrella out 
from seemingly nowhere and held it above his head with a sarcastic 
grin in TI-85's direction, the pokemon looking distinctively 
unhappy about the situation, "I think I see what he's doing."

"Oh?" the others inquired as the courier headed down the stairs, 
her shoes now squishing loudly as she walked.

"He's making sure Rob can't use his tazer, and Ti can use 
electrical techniques until we get somewhere drier," the courier 
explained, causing Rob's expression to become stricken.

"What?!" he exclaimed, tears forming in his eyes even as the cold 
rain from the sprinklers poured over his face, "I can't use my 
tazer?! Oh, the humanity!"

"Which probably means he's got something planned for us," Miranda 
continued, listening intently as something within the walls began 
to shift mechanically, "Something we'll probably need to fight our 
way past."

"Um, I think we're going to have about as much prep-time as an 
Ontario teacher, though," muttered Geoff, catching Miranda's eye 
and pointing down to where the landing they stood on began to rise 
and shift as the stairs rattled and squeaked before turning like 
Venetian blinds.

"Is this one of your 'can't possibly be used against us' security 
measures?" the courier demanded as the landing they stood on 
suddenly tilted at a sharp angle as the steps all became a slanted 
waterfall and the group found themselves sliding down it towards 
the next landing.

"I- It's not my fault- Ah, Geoff you-!" exclaimed Rob as he fell 
upon his back, only to have the security guard trip and land hard 
upon his stomach as Miranda fell forward and grabbed his ankles. 

"What?!" replied the security guard innocently, turning his head 
as Rob's tazer bounced off the wall and flew out of his hand 
before rebounding off TI-85's left magnet and sending the 
construct spinning as the group hit the next landing.

"Try and grab the walls!" shouted Miranda over the sound of the 
artificial rain and Nezumi's laughter in her ear, all the while 
moving her legs apart, pressing her feet against the all too 
smoothly polished walls as the landing tilted to allow them 
continued passage.

"Um... Okay?!" muttered Rob through gritted teeth, grabbing Geoff 
by the arm and trying to shove the security guard off his stomach.

"Not me, you idiot!" the man exclaimed, glaring over his shoulder 
at Rob before falling off as they rounded the corner and sliding 
half way up the wall before continuing down the water-slide in a 
continuingly faster spiral to whatever awaited them at the bottom.

"Geoff!" Miranda shouted, ducking her head as Geoff rolled over 
her and grabbed hold of her ankle, "Hold on! I have plan!"

"Oh, yeah! Like that's reassuring!" he called back as the next 
turn came much faster and the dizzying pace began making him feel 
queasy.

"Professor, hold still!" the girl ordered, waiting for the next 
turn before pushing down against Rob's ankles and letting momentum 
throw her a little higher.

"Sorry!" she exclaimed, reaching out with her arms to grab the 
scientist's shoulders but instead having her hands land upon his 
chest.

"I'm NOT a toboggan-!" began Professor Kipp before suddenly 
blushing deeply with a horrified look upon his face.

"Oh dear," muttered Miranda suddenly looking hideously embarrassed 
as she deliberately moved one hand after the other onto Rob's 
shoulders, ignoring the security guard's screaming as they turned 
again, "I- I wasn't sure, but I guess I know now..."

"I think we have bigger problems," the scientist replied, 
breathing again as the courier removed her hands.

'Told ya,' chuckled Nezumi, sitting atop Miranda's head and using 
all four paws to cling to her now tangled wet hair.

The courier glanced upwards with a bit of a scowl before looking 
forward and seeing the problem. Their seemingly endless, spiraling 
decent had finally gotten them near the bottom, as evidenced by 
the large '#3' painted in white letters on the door they slid 
past.

"What's at the bottom?!" the girl asked, dreading the answer as 
TI-85 finally caught up with them.

"You don't wanna know!" answered Rob, lifting his head awkwardly 
and smiling as he caught sight of the magnemite. "Ti!" he 
exclaimed as the strange pokemon swooped around the corner after 
them, "There's a fire door coming up! I need to you to blast it! 
Just take out the sprinkler above the door first, or you'll get us 
too! Understand?!"

The pokemon tilted forward in a nod, and sped off ahead of them as 
the group rounded the second floor landing. "What's he doing?" 
Miranda asked, hearing the sound of metal crashing into metal with 
something giving away with a whine of protest. A second later, and 
a loud unpleasant sound, reminiscent of tinfoil in a microwave, 
filled the area just a head.

"The boys down in R&D call it 'zap-cannon' for short," explained 
Rob with a prideful smile as the area lit up with a blinding white 
light reminiscent of an arc welder before an explosion and the 
sound of sizzling, hotly oozing metal reached their collective 
ears, "But I think 'plasma bolt' is much more stylish!"

"Whatever works," the courier commented as they slid down the last 
fight of stairs, through a partially melted doorway and most of 
the way across the linoleum floor of the lobby before skidding to 
a slow, wet stop.

"Are we dead?" inquired Geoff as Miranda yanked her feet free of 
his iron grip and rolled off of Rob.

"Almost, but not quite," the courier replied, looking over at the 
glass doors to where sunlight should have been streaming through, 
only to see a wall of cold steel barring the passage.

"It's the ablative armor," explained Rob, standing up and slipping 
off his soaking wet lab coat, "We deploy it incase of an attack, 
or if something dangerous gets loose."

"So much for back-up then," muttered Miranda a little glumly.

'No more back-up for you!' quoted Nezumi with a sarcastic chuckle 
to hide his nervousness, 'Eat more vegetables!'

***

Bob blinked at his suddenly blushing stepdaughter.

"I met Zack in Neon Town this one time when I was still traveling 
with Joshua. We decided to hit this buffet house," she quickly 
explained, avoiding his gaze, "And well, Zack went a little... 
Shall we say 'overboard' and ate more than is humanly possible. 
Mostly the expensive stuff too! That was when this large Chinese 
chef guy ran out of the kitchen wielding a cleaver. He glared at 
Zack while shaking the knife threateningly and yelled out loud 
enough to be heard for a least three block in kinda this broken 
English, 'No more meat for you! Eat more vegetables!' For a while 
there, it occasionally came up in conversation."

Her stepfather nodded, hiding behind his warm mug of tea where it 
was safe from the courier's insanity. "Go on..."

***

"So how do we get down to the basement from here?" Miranda 
inquired as the three made their way towards a pair of discreet 
looking doors marked with the symbols for male and female.

"There's another staircase," explained Rob, pushing his way into 
the women's washroom and causing the courier to stammer for a 
moment before glancing at her hands and blushing.

"Look, I, uh..." she muttered as the scientist lead the way into 
the antiseptic feeling room and quickly disappeared into one of 
the stalls, "I wanna apologize for earlier."

"Huh? For what?" he inquired, banging against the thin metal wall 
as he strained against something.

"Well, for accidentally groping you earlier," the courier replied, 
walking to the wall of sinks before depositing her backpack on the 
counter and carefully extricating Nezumi from her hair.

"No, no, it's alright," came the now feminine sounding voice as 
Miranda removed her courier jacket before undoing the dark tangles 
of her hair and wringing it out over the sink, "It happens now and 
then. I've mostly gotten used to it."

"I still apologize," the courier called back, her eyes going wide 
as she watched the water that fell from her hair turn bright red 
as it pooled in the sink and refused to drain away.

The scientist laughed as she stepped out of the stall followed by 
TI-85, seemingly oblivious to the mess Miranda was making in the 
sink. 'It's just an illusion,' the girl told herself, closing her 
eyes and running her fingers through the long ebony locks, 'he's 
just messing with my mind again.'

Joanne shrugged, checking herself in the mirror before hanging her 
lab coat up on one of the hooks near the door. "The only thing I'm 
concerned about right now, is having to go down into a room full 
of sensitive computer equipment while being soaking wet," she 
explained, resigned to wearing her other damp clothing, "If we had 
time, I'd suggest using the blow-driers, but I think we'll just 
have to deal with it."

The courier nodded slowly, opening her eyes and trying to ignore 
the fact that her reflection was smiling evilly and waving back at 
her. "Another problem too," Miranda added, shivering at the 
thought and trying to ignore the odd assortment of squirming 
centipedes, snails, and little wagging tails that fell from her 
hair to splash down into the bloody sink, "It's probably going to 
be cold down there with the mainframe's air-conditioning."

"That must be part of the reason he set the sprinklers on us," the 
scientist agreed, shaking her head as she pulled open the door and 
Miranda finally gave up, simply tying her hair back again, "Oh, 
well. I guess it's better than fighting one of Ziffle's escaped 
lab experiments..."

***

Geoff pushed open the door to the men's washroom and exhaled 
loudly as he struggled to remove his uniform jacket which was now 
a size too small. "Stupid Sylph Co," the muttered, tossing the 
garment onto the countertop before leaning warily against it in 
front of a mirror, "Who ever heard of issuing dry-clean only 
uniforms! Yeesh!"

But his reverie was suddenly interrupted by a sudden flush of one 
of the toilets. The security guard winced as he slowly opened his 
eyes and said the words he hated to say, but knew he couldn't stop 
himself from saying. "Um, hello?" he called, turning around slowly 
and wishing his tazer hadn't gotten lost in the maze, "is there 
somebody in here?"

Geoff's only reply was a second flushing from a second stall. "Oh, 
they really don't pay me enough for this crap," he muttered, 
stepping nervously forward, leaving wet footprints as he went.

But as Geoff pushed the first stall door open, a third toilet 
flushed farther down the row. "Hello?" the security guard called 
again, flinging the first door open all the way only to find 
nothing, "Look, this isn't funny!"

As if in response, a forth flushed.

"Enough of this," the security guard muttered, walking down the 
row towards the back of the room, simply flinging each of the 
doors open in turn yet finding nothing. 

And as the last door swung shut, the entire row of toilets flushed 
simultaneously, causing Geoff to nearly pull out what remained of 
his short, dark hair. "Ah! I can't take this anymore!" he shouted, 
running blindly for the door, "If they don't fire me for this I'm 
gonna quit...!"

***

As Miranda and Joanne stepped out of the woman's washroom, they 
could hear Geoff's prolonged yell a moment before he came crashing 
through the door of the men's. It was also all they could do to 
keep from laughing however, as the security guard ran across the 
lobby, his thin form wrapped up in toilet paper like some kind of 
B-movie mummy. 

"I think the ghost found him," the courier commented rhetorically 
as they turned to watch Geoff run by, bits of wet paper flying off 
him as he passed the empty receptionist's desk and slammed into 
the front doors of Sylph Co.

"Open! Open! Open!" he demanded, as the automatic doors slid open, 
but the ablative armor blocked his way, forcing Geoff to pound his 
fists futilely against them.

"Geoff! It's okay," called Joanne, jogging after the security 
guard as he slowly slumped to the floor, looking more pale than 
usual, "We're almost there. We'll have this ghost back in his ball 
in like, fifteen minutes at most."

"You, you're sure?" inquired Geoff, his body shaking with both 
cold and fright, barely noticing the woman slide her arm around 
him as she tore away the wrappings.

"Positive," the scientist assured, her tone quiet and soothing as 
she linked an arm through Geoff's and pulled him to his feet, 
"Once we reach the mainframe, me and Ti can flush him out easily."

Geoff nodded slowly, leaning against the much taller woman as she 
walked him back to the receptionist's desk where Miranda waited 
for them. "The door's beside the elevator," explained Joanne, 
nodding to a rather plain section of wall as the courier followed 
her gaze, "But I think we can take a minute for Geoff to recover."

"No, no," he muttered, shaking his head, taking several deep 
breaths as he leaned over the desk, "I'm fine. Just go."

"It'd be better if we stuck together," commented Miranda, her gaze 
tracking Joanne as the woman took out the sonic screwdriver again, 
traversing the room and wielding the item with a wide grin.

"Hey, I ain't sayin' for ya to leave me behind!" the security 
guard exclaimed in sudden alarm, causing Miranda to smile as a 
portion of the wall clicked and slid into itself, revealing a 
dark, lightless passage beyond.

"He's only picking on you because you're letting him get to you, 
ya know," cautioned the courier as Joanne waved them over and TI-
85 began to glow with a strange golden light.

"Oh yeah, and like you're not scared," the security guard 
muttered, following Miranda to the doorway as the glowing 
magnemite lit up a flight of plas-crete steps just beyond the 
doorway.

"I never said I wasn't. I'm just used to not letting ghosts think 
they can push me around, that's all," the courier replied, 
glancing curiously at Joanne, "So um, what's with the secret 
passage?"

Joanne chuckled, smiling mysteriously as she took the first step 
into the cool air of the stairwell. "Oh, mostly paranoia," she 
said with some small satisfaction, the far off whirring of cooling 
fans seeming something of a reassuring lullaby to the woman as she 
descended the steps, "But it's also just a Sylph Co thing. At the 
head office, we have a series of teleporters, but they're awfully 
expensive to install and maintain. Also, I'm not exactly inclined 
to trust such things with a mischievous ghost loose."

"I seem to recall my Aunt mentioning those," pondered Miranda, 
both her and Nezumi suddenly shivering as they entered the eerie 
golden twilight, "apparently one of her classes was on the other 
side of the campus and she used to have to take a teleporter to 
get to class on time in the morning."

Joanne's smile was reminiscent as they hit the first landing and 
moved farther down the plas-crete steps into the looming darkness. 
"Did Laurna also tell you about the time she took the wrong one?" 
the woman inquired, glancing over her shoulder to make sure 
everyone was still with her.

Miranda shook her head in reply. "Nope," she responded, tensing a 
little as something warm and furry leaned against her neck, only 
to quickly realize the cold was getting to Nezumi.

The scientist sighed, shaking her head as the courier simply took 
the small rodent in her hands and held him close to her chest. 
"Oh, she wound up outside one of my professor's classrooms... I 
think we were studying geo-parazoology that semester... Anyway, 
she almost walked in on my professor and some woman. Hm. I wonder 
whatever happened to him? Oh! Um, we're here."

The flight of stairs ended in what appeared to be a small, empty 
room. But as Joanne raised her sonic screwdriver again and 
switched the device on, a section of the wall once again slid 
away. This time, however, brilliant white light poured into the 
small, dark area, blinding everyone except TI-85 momentarily as a 
cold breeze rushed out and the sound of humming computer fans and 
clicking, spinning hard drives filled their ears.

"Behold!" Joanne exclaimed dramatically, holding her arms into the 
air and standing in the doorway so that she blocked the blinding 
light, "SkyNet! Ain't it pretty?"

"It looks like an oil-drum," commented Miranda, ducking under 
Joanne's arm to examine the enormous, cylindrically shaped piece 
of machinery that took up most of the far wall of the somewhat 
large room. 

"Hey now," the scientist replied, stepping over a mass of cables 
that snaked its way across the floor from the mainframe and passed 
before the only exit, "don't be hurting its feelings. It's already 
got an inferiority complex because of AIVAS in Saffron."

The courier chuckled, shivering as she stepped into the icy cold 
room and shook her head in wonder at the array of thick black 
cables that covered most of the floor, the wide metal pipes, 
clearly marked "DNGN", and the curious glass tubes filled with 
bubbling eerie green liquid all of which connected SkyNet to the 
walls, ceiling, the and occasional standard computer terminal.

"Still have that pokeball?" Joanne inquired, seemingly unconcerned 
by the constant flow of cold air from the many air ducts that 
opened into the room and kept the mainframe from over heating.

Miranda nodded as the woman hopped carefully over a particularly 
large bundle of thick black cables and approached the large screen 
built into the side of SkyNet 

"Then you'd best get yourself over here," she cautioned in a 
mildly worried tone, typing several commands into the awkwardly 
placed keyboard beside the display, "if this works, we're gonna 
have one very upset gastly on our hands!"

"Okay," the courier replied a little nervously as she entered the 
room and glanced down at Nezumi. "I'm gonna need both you and Umi 
ready to help if this goes wrong," she explained, watching her 
step as they traversed the room, "You up for it?"

'Ah, it ain't nothin' but a wee little ghostie, Boss Lady,' the 
rattata chuckled, waving a forepaw dismissively, 'Heck, I'll bet I 
could take him on even without Draco-Babe's help!'

"You aren't THAT good, dear," the courier chuckled as they reached 
the mainframe and she set Nezumi down on one of the free patches 
of floor before reaching for the other pokeball she carried.

"I'm sure this'll work," assured Joanne with a confident smile as 
the courier held up the blue and white ball, "I mean, what could 
possibly go wrong?"

Miranda glanced at her with a raised eyebrow. "Umi, come ye 
forth," she replied flatly, causing the ball to click out and send 
out a crimson glow that ached towards the floor beside Nezumi.

"What?" inquired Joanne, holding her hands out helplessly as the 
courier shook her head and turned to the suddenly materialized 
dratini at her feet who immediately began shivering in the cold of 
the computer room.

"Sorry, dear," said Miranda apologetically as she knelt down and 
held out her hands to cup Umi's small, snouted face as the dratini 
made an unhappy sound and wrapped her tail around the courier's 
leg, "I know you hate the cold, but we have a very serious 
problem. I can promise, however, that after we're done, we'll hit 
those hot springs you adore so much."

Umi looked up at Miranda, her multifaceted eyes swirling from pale 
green to golden. 'I, I can handle it then,' she promised in a 
shaking, stammering voice as she uncoiled her tail, 'Just promise 
me you'll make this quick!'

Miranda smiled, affectionately scratching the little dragon's eye 
ridges as she took out the black and gray ghost-ball. "No 
worries," she promised, glancing at Nezumi with a smile and 
scratching him between the ears, "with any luck, you guys won't 
even have to anything."

'Aww, but mom!' chuckled Nezumi, suddenly cringing in mock-terror, 
as Umi turned on him with eyes that suddenly flared orange.

"Okay, ya ready?" inquired Joanne as TI-85 hovered before the 
monitor and switched on her dataflow beam.

The courier nodded as she stood. "As we'll ever be," she promised, 
clutching the ball as it expanded in her hand, watching intently 
as Joanne's fingers danced across the vertically placed keyboard 
and Ti's magnets spun slowly with concentration.

"Almost there..." Joanne commented, beads of sweat forming on her 
brow as she typed faster, "Oh crap!"

"What?!" inquired both Miranda and Geoff at the same time as one 
of the blinking greenlights along the side of the cylinder became 
solid red.

"He's almost gained access to the computer in Saffron!" 

"Can you stop him?" the courier inquired, gulping down her 
nervousness as Joanne gave a short nod.

"No worries!" she laughed nervously, "I have a whole two seconds 
to spare!"

With that, however, TI-85 let out a pained shriek as the data flow 
reversed and the monitor exploded outwards in a shower of sparks 
and shards of glass.

"Ti!" shouted Joanne turning away from the keyboard and half 
lunging forward to grab the magnemite out of the air before they 
both fell to the cable strewn floor.

"Joanne!" Miranda exclaimed, panic suddenly overwhelming her as 
several other lights turned red forming the words "You're Next!" 
before a dozen other switched to a constant glow, leaving only a 
handful still blinking green, "The ghost! It's gonna-!"

But as the courier spoke, all but one of the lights switched to 
red, and as the last green one flickered, the omnipresent hum of 
SkyNet's many cooling fans ceased, replaced by a sudden loud 
rattle and the sound of sound of a very large computer powering 
down as all of the lights went out, only to replaced by the same 
red illumination that filled the rest of the office building.

"What?" inquired Geoff as everyone into the room turned to see him 
with a large plug in his hand, swinging it idly in the air as he 
spoke, "I figured we could just unplug it for crying out loud!"

Miranda let out a slow breath as she turned to Joanne in the 
sudden near darkness. "That works too," she chuckled, only to have 
SkyNet's ominous silence suddenly replaced by a distant, echoing 
clang, and a few muttered curses somewhere within the machine.

The courier's eyes widened as Joanne looked up at her with a 
stricken expression. "Shh," the girl cautioned, slowly sliding her 
pokedex out of her pocket before opening it and placing it 
carefully atop the mainframe, "This might not work..."

With a nervous shiver, Miranda reached her shaking hand up and 
switched the device on. Its small internal fan immediately broke 
the still silence and the glow of the dex's tiny screen provided 
for an eerie glow as something within the mainframe made a quiet 
chuckling sound.

As the group watched, a dark shape partially emerged from SkyNet. 
The rolling shadows seemed to ooze forth from the thick, tri-
tanium casing, only to surround the small purple plastic casing of 
the Parazoological Encyclopedia & Data Input/Output Device like a 
hungry shadow.

Miranda glanced at Umi and Nezumi, raising her hand to clam them 
as a pair of malevolent red eyes burned within the dark mist 
before flickering out with a frightful chuckle as the ghost 
vanished inside the courier's pokedex.

"Now what?" inquired Joanne, getting to her feet and watching with 
morbid fascination as Miranda reached up and took hold of the 
device. 

"You'll see," the girl whispered, her expression twisting to one 
of disgust as the air filled with an wet, squishy, crackling 
sound, and the 'Dex pulled away from the top of the mainframe 
followed by a long trail of thin, greenish translucent goo, "Okay, 
this I think this is a good thing. Here, hold this."

Joanne made half a sound of protest as the courier handed her the 
ectoplasm covered pokedex, and nearly dropped it as the girl 
reached underneath it to scoop the goo away with her bare hand.

"Wha- What are you doing?!" the woman demanded in a harsh whisper 
as Miranda slid her bokken out and wiped the handful of viscous, 
oozing mass of solidified ephemerae along the wooden blade of her 
sword.

"That's not gonna hold his interest for long," she explained, 
nodding to her pokemon, causing Umi to take deep breath, and 
Nezumi to concentrate before suddenly bursting into a bright 
silvery glow and stand upon his hind legs dramatically, "I think 
it's best if we hit the gastly hard when we comes out. After all, 
these ghostballs aren't perfect, and I don't want him just letting 
himself out or something."

"They- They can do that?!" exclaimed Joanne all too loudly as the 
pokedex began to shake in her hand and an image of herself 
appeared upon the little screen.

The courier nodded, her reply suddenly cut off by a peculiar sound 
from the 'Dex. A voice that sounded both eerie and nerve gratingly 
annoying suddenly switched on, filling the room with a few 
stammered words.

"P- P- Professor Joanna Kipp," the device intoned as Miranda's jaw 
dropped. 

"No way!" the courier exclaimed angrily, glowering darkly at the 
device, "I ripped the freakin' speakers out of that ruddy thing 
myself so I'd never have to hear it talk again!"

The pokedex continued unabated, however, running down the list of 
scientific terms to describe a human being. When it neared the end 
of its speech, however, the voice let out a quiet chuckle. 
"Species, human. Resistances; None. Weaknesses; Fighting 
techniques and..." as the voice spoke, the lights in the room 
dimmed slightly as its chuckling voice became a loud, screeching 
laugh of triumph, "Ghost techniques!" 

"Get it away!" the scientist exclaimed in a panic, slamming the 
'dex's cover shut before tossing it across the room.

"Get ready!" cautioned Miranda, watching it pass her in the air, 
and turning to face the device before it hit the ground, "Here it 
comes!"

As the pokedex clattered to the floor, a heavy silence came over 
the room, and everyone held their breath. Waiting.

"That things not going to be very happy when it gets out of there, 
is it?" came Geoff's nervous tone, speaking rhetorically, watching 
as Miranda's pokedex shook violently of its own accord, sending 
sparks flying in all directions and white smoke from somewhere 
within. This was soon accompanied by a terrible grinding, knocking 
sound of most of the hard drive being horrible scragged. 

Miranda nodded, glancing over at Rob. "You wouldn't happen to have 
another magnemite would you?" she asked as a small explosion 
caused the pokedex's cover to open up revealing the darkened, 
cracked screen, across which scrolled the phrase, "You're next..."

"Guess it's just up to you two now then," said Miranda glancing at 
her pokemon, who nodded slowly as they watched their trainer's 
pokedex go through its final death throws.

With a loud -pop!-, several buttons flew off SkyNet's keyboard and 
the maintenance panel blew apart as the gastly within it grew wary 
of the toy and sprang into the air, causing Umi to make an angry 
hissing sound, her eyes glowing blood red as Nezumi gritted his 
teeth, growling at the now laughing ghost.

"NOW!" shouted Miranda, bringing her ectoplasm smeared blade down 
upon the little ghost, cleaving him almost in half as Umi spit a 
walnut sized ball of flame, and Nezumi leaped in the air at it.

With a shriek of pain and rage, the ghost's body shimmered as 
Umi's small fireball exploded against him, and Nezumi's glowing 
teeth sank into his ephemera. "Gassst!" the gastly hissed as a 
wave of dark purple unlight expanded out in all directions, 
throwing his three attackers backwards as he flew forward.

"Miranda!" exclaimed Joanne, running forward and catching the girl 
as she stumbled backwards and landed in the woman's arms.

"Never mind me!" she exclaimed, irritatedly, "don't let that 
freakin' ghost get back to the mainframe!" 

"Oh yeah, I'll get right on that," commented Geoff in a bitterly 
sarcastic tone as Nezumi shook off the effects the 'nightshade' 
attack and scurried quickly over to Umi.

'Ya okay, Draco-babe?' he inquired as the little dragon reared up 
like an angry serpent, baring her small sharp teeth and hissing at 
the wounded ghost before glancing down at Nezumi and making a 
small reassuring sound.

"He's headed for the vents!" called Miranda, struggling to her 
feet and throwing her bokken like a javelin at the gastly even as 
he phased through the air vent grating and disappeared, his 
sinister laughter echoing back to them as the courier's sword 
bounced off the grate and landed on the floor with a damp 
splatting sound.

'I'm on it!' assured Umi, already inhaling deeply and letting 
loose with another small, exploding fireball.

The rest of the group shielded themselves as the grating exploded 
outwards, sending shards of metal in all directions, but the 
dratini was already slithering towards the opening.

'Hold up, Draco-Babe!' exclaimed Nezumi, running after her and 
grabbing the end of Umi's tail as she leapt the short distance up 
to the ragged square hole.

"Try to herd him back this way!" called Miranda, running over 
almost immediately and leaning into the ventilation shaft.

"Oh yeah, right!" exclaimed Geoff, exasperatedly, his small frame 
starting to shake more than usual, "That's just a freakin' great 
plan! Send it back to finish us off!"

"Hey, at least you're pokemon didn't nearly die because of that 
thing," scolded Joanne, clutching TI-85's pokeball protectively.

"Better her than me," muttered the security guard as Miranda 
picked up her sword and stood beside the vent opening, smearing a 
fresh coat of ectoplasm along the wooden blade.

"I- I wish I could help you," said Rob, glancing nervously at the 
dark opening as strange eerie sounds issued forth, followed by the 
scraping of claws on the slippery metal surfaces.

"I just hope they're all right," commented Miranda, not really 
hearing either of them as she did the only thing she could do. 
Wait...

***

Nezumi let go of the little dragon's tail almost immediately after 
she'd slithered her way into the small, confined ventilation 
system. "I say we try to get ahead of him, draco-babe," commented 
Nezumi, panting as he tried to keep up with his long, serpentine 
friend, "Maybe rip him a new one a couple more times before 
headin' him back to the Boss-Lady!"

"No guts no glory?" chuckled the dratini mirthfully, narrowing her 
eyes as she listened to the gastly's distant, echoing laughter and 
trying to track him solely by sound.

"Hey, Miri's only got one of 'em special balls," Nezumi replied, 
trying to ignore the strange muscle cramps he'd received when the 
gastly had nightshaded him, "Might as well make sure it counts!"

"Still," said Umi thoughtfully, making a sharp right turn that the 
rattata was barely able to make as well, "Do we really want a 
ghost with us? They aren't exactly trustworthy, and they tend to 
make people unhappy. I don't like that."

"Eh, she can always trade 'im," the rattata commented, leaping 
over Umi in an attempt to make the next turn.

"Oh dear," the serpentine dragon muttered as they approached the 
next T shaped intersection.

"Wha-?" began Nezumi, his claws clamoring for purchase on the 
smooth shiny metal floor as Umi came to an immediate halt, smiling 
as the rattata went careening into the wall.

"You okay?" asked Umi, her voice suddenly full of concern, her 
sediment echoed by her sudden change in eye colour.

"Yup, yeah," replied Nezumi, staggering to his feet and looking 
suspiciously in both directions, "Only hurt my pride. So, any idea 
which way Fang Face went?"

Umi extended her neck, carefully examining both their options as 
her eyes shifted to a dark, suspicious purple. "We'll need to 
split up," she concluded after a moment, the ghost's laughter 
became more distant, "We don't have much time, and I'm not sure 
which way he went."

"Probably straight on through," muttered the rattata, glancing 
back at his now crooked tail, "solid wall don't stop ghosts, 
Draco-Babe."

Umi nodded, her eyes lighting up the Westward tunnel as she 
crouched low and prepared to give chase in that direction. "True," 
she agreed, her voice becoming a low whisper, "But he's hurt. 
Phasing through too many solid objects would be bad for him right 
now. He'd be risking disruption."

"Dis- wha-?" began Nezumi, shaking his head in dismay. "Dragons!" 
he sighed, chuckling under his voice, "gotta love 'em! All right, 
I'll take this tunnel. See ya before you miss me!"

Umi smiled as she heard the little rattata's claws scrambling over 
the floor as Nezumi tore off as fast as he could, invoking 'quick 
attack' to make up for lost time and obviously barely avoiding 
crashing into another wall judging by the sounds of the curses he 
let out.

"I already do, big brother," said the dratini mostly to herself 
with a smile before slithering off down her own tunnel.

***

Nezumi slowed his pace as the sounds of the ghost's passage grew 
louder. Somewhere up ahead, possibly only a few meters off, the 
rattata could hear the ghost muttering angrily to himself, 
obviously lost.

"Hey! Yo, Fang Face!" called Nezumi, keeping low against a wall 
and concentrating on the information his whiskers told him. 
Movement, not far ahead, definitely not just the constant rush of 
air that flowed through the human made tunnels.

"What'cha want, Cheese Breath?!" taunted the gastly, both their 
voices echoing back and forth, distorting the distance between 
them. But Nezumi's senses told him the ghost was close. Very 
close, and slowly drawing nearer.

"What do ya say you just save us a whole lot a trouble and come 
quietly," offered the rattata, focusing his chi and causing his 
whole body to glow with a silvery light once more.

"Ha! Yeah right!" laughed the gastly, suddenly noticing the 
silvery glow not far off, "But uh, tell me, Buck-Tooth, how many 
times do ya think you can keep doin' that trick a yours?"

"As many times as I need to kick your vaporous butt!" taunted 
Nezumi right back, smiling in spite of himself, a part of him 
actually liking the mischievous spirit.

"Think so?" inquired the gastly with a sinister chuckle.

"You bet!" 

"Alrighty then..." called the ghost, his voice suddenly fading, 
trailing off ominously as Nezumi crept cautiously forward, 
listening for any sounds of movement as his whiskers twitched in 
response to a new presence. Something large. Something larger than 
the gastly had suddenly come out of nowhere, displacing a lot more 
air.

"Fang Face?" called Nezumi, but there was no response. Only the 
quiet, slow, methodical clicking of claws across the metal floor a 
few meters ahead of him met the rattata's ears. 

Instinctively, Nezumi stood on his hind legs and sniffed the 
stale, filtered air. "No..." he whispered to himself, catching the 
scent he dreaded, but couldn't believe could actually be in such a 
confined space, "That's not possible. It's a trick! That ghost's 
just trying to scare me."

The rattata gritted his teeth, wincing as a low, sinister, and 
above all hungry voice suddenly echoed through the tunnels, 
causing all his fur to stand on end. "Mmmmeeeeeooowwwthhh."

The single hungry word echoed through Nezumi's mind even as the 
sound died away. "It's a trick. It's not real," muttered the 
rattata, pressing harder against the wall as he forced himself to 
glace around the corner, fighting off the instincts that screamed 
at him to run.

With the utmost care, Nezumi peered carefully around the corner 
with one wide, frightened eye. What he saw made him jerk back 
immediately, his breath coming out in ragged gasps as his little 
heart pounded loudly in his chest.

For in that second, Nezumi had caught a glimpse of a shadow. The 
shadow of a long tail that coiled at the end much like his own, 
only it swished lazily back and forth as its owner casually 
stalked its prey. Him.

"I- I have to be brave," shuddered the rattata, "I mustn't run 
away... I have to make Miri proud. She's counting on me. And so is 
Draco-Babe."

"Oooowwwth...?" came a questioning, hungry voice, causing Nezumi 
to almost scream. Primal fear gripped the little rattata, and 
vague, distant memories began to creep back into his 
consciousness. A memory so horrible that he would have blocked it 
out if hadn't have happened when he was only a few days old.

As his wide, frightened eyes watched a long, catlike shadow creep 
across the wall in front of him, Nezumi recalled his first, long 
suppressed memory. In that moment, he recalled staring up, 
terrified and paralyzed with fear as an enormous persian stared 
down at him, hissing and licking her lips hungrily at him.

"Yesss," the white furred feline had hissed, stalking forward, 
casually playing with her food, "You shall make a lovely snack for 
my kittens..."

"NO!" shouted a voice, startling the enormous predator for a 
moment. It wasn't another persian, or even a rattata. It was 
human, "He's mine! You can't have him!"

Nezumi looked up at the towering biped and blinked. His nose told 
him that immediately that the human girl was someone he trusted. 
But his young mind still didn't fully understand why.

"Back off, kitty," the girl warned, brandishing something long and 
curved that caused the cat to make threatening noises.

The rattata could smell his human's fear, but knew somehow that 
she was willing to lay down her life for him. For the first time 
he could remember, his heart swelled with love, and he leapt to 
one side, hiding behind her leg as the dark shadow of the persian 
moved forward with frightening speed.

"Noooo!" cried Nezumi as he heard the girl scream, swinging her 
weapon in a wide arc and smashing the persian in the side of the 
head. 

But even as the awful, ear splitting sound of cracking bone filled 
his ears over the feline's angry wail, Nezumi felt the girl shift 
her feet as though expecting another attack.

"Now you die, huuuuuman!" hissed the angry, wounded feline and 
Nezumi closed his eyes tight, trembling as he felt his whiskers 
twitch in response to the persian's sudden swift movements.

"No! No! No!" the rattata cried as he herd the girl's screaming 
fill his ears over the sounds of her clothing being torn apart by 
the terrible feline's 'fury swipes' attack.

But hope burgeoned with in him as a new sound filled Nezumi's 
ears. "Die! Die! Die!" the girl exclaimed, hot tears spilling down 
her face, filling the air with a salty quality, mixing with the 
smell of her blood.

The sounds were accompanied by several loud, sickening cracking 
noises as the girl's weapon smashed down hard upon the persian, 
again and again, causing it to howl in pain and rage before 
bounding off with numerous broken bones and contusions. 

"It- It's okay now," he heard the girl pant as she fell to her 
knees and glanced back at him, "It's gone, dearest."

The baby rattata glanced up at his trainer, his heart swelling 
with love and concern for the human who'd saved his life. "Ra!" he 
squeaked incoherently, causing her to smile and make a strange 
sound that made him happy.

"I love you!" she laughed, dropping the bokken and carefully 
picking him up so she could hold him close...

Nezumi shook his head, clearing the thoughts from his mind. "She 
needs me now," he told himself, grasping at the last shreds of his 
courage and weaving them together, fighting desperately against 
the instinct that told him to run for his life, "And I'm NOT 
letting her down now! And besides, it's just a stupid meowth!"

With a fierce battle cry that sounded more like a half frightened 
squeak, Nezumi bounded out of hiding. With his body suddenly 
glowing silvery once again, the rattata leapt at the shadowy 
figure he saw before him and bit down as hard as he could.

But Nezumi's 'hyper fang' attack found no purchase. To the 
rattata's disappointment, his teeth sank into nothing. "Ha! See," 
he told himself, "It wasn't real! It was just one of Fang Face's 
tricks!"

Nezumi chuckled, cleaning himself up a bit to remove the smell of 
fear from his fur. But as he twisted his head back awkwardly he 
spotted something that nearly caused him to die of fright. Farther 
down the tunnel where he'd come from, the narrow shaft was filled 
floor to ceiling with meowths. Each one was clambering over its 
neighbors, trying to get a look at the rattata. And each had a 
hungry look in its brightly glowing yellow eyes as their claws 
slowly unsheaved.

"That's it!" exclaimed Nezumi, no longer fighting against 
instinct, "I'm out a here!" 

Without a moment's hesitation, the rattata turned and ran for his 
life...

***

Umi slither along the tunnel nearly silently, listening to the 
quietly echoing sounds of the gastly somewhere up ahead of her, 
every so often stopping at an intersection and listening to see 
which way the sound carried. 

As she found herself getting farther and farther away from the 
entrance, the dragon found a gloomy darkness setting in. At first, 
the faint light from her luminescent eyes illuminated the path 
before the dragon, but all too soon the agitated, swirling orange 
glow lit up less and less of the tunnel ahead. 

The effect caused Umi to take pause, and her eyes shifted to a 
strange mixture of orange and purple as she glanced around, 
shivering as a suddenly cold breeze passed by her, bringing with 
it a strange black fog.

"Ghost illusions," Umi told herself in a contemptuous tone, trying 
to hide the spark of fear that surfaced for a moment, "he must be 
low on energy if that's the best he can do."

The dragon gritted her teeth, and slithered forward once again. 
Without daring to look back, she plunged deeper into the cold 
darkness, only to find the light from her now brilliantly orange 
eyes did next to nothing to dispel it. Also, as Umi moved farther 
along, the chill of the cool metal beneath her seemed to intensify 
until Umi was certain she saw a thin layer of frost lining the 
walls.

"It's a trick," the dratini told herself, shutting her eyes tight 
and using her sense of smell to pick up the vague scent of 
ectoplasm in the air while her ears strained to hear a quiet, 
muffled laughter to her left.

"This way," muttered Umi, her teeth chattering as the she found 
herself sticking to the nearly frozen metal beneath her, "All I 
need is one clear shot, and that ghost is going down."

But as she turned the corner, Umi found herself slithering across 
something cold and granular. Carefully opening one eye, the little 
dragon yelped as she spotted the huge snowdrift that blocked her 
passage.

"No," she said, shaking her head and trying to ignore the fact 
that the end of her tail had gone numb, "There can't be snow in 
here. It does NOT snow inside!"

Umi opened her eyes again, and stifled a scream. As she watched, 
sheets of ice began growing over the walls and ceiling, rapidly 
reaching far down the tunnel and leaving long, sharp icicles in 
its wake. 

"Miranda," Umi whimpered, finally unable to ignore the sluggish 
feeling that dulled her reactions, or the fact that her skin was 
beginning to crack in places as frostbite set quickly in, "Help 
me..."

Umi sniffled as she heard the sounds of a sudden howling wind 
racing towards her, and as quickly as she could, wound her 
serpentine body up into as small a target as possible.

"I wish I was, was home," cried the little dragon, gritting her 
teeth against the inevitable chill that would soon sweep over her, 
"It's just so c-cold-"

But as the winds drew nearer, Umi heard a sound that brought her 
back to reality. A loud, panicked wailing and the clacking of 
small claws clambering for purchase across the slippery metal 
floors of the ventilation tunnels. 

"Nezumi?!" the dratini exclaimed, forcing her head up through the 
thick layer of snow and ice she suddenly found herself buried 
under.

The scream grew louder as she listened. The rattata was running in 
a blind panic only a few meters from her position. "Nezumi!" Umi 
called out, her voice full of sudden, blind hope as she leapt from 
the icy prison the gastly had sought to seal her in, sending 
shards of frozen water in all directions.

"Hold on!" Umi called, barely noticing as the gastly's illusions 
fade around her, and the warmth returned to her body, "I'm on my 
way!"

Umi closed her eyes again, wary of any more illusions, instead 
listening to her friend's panicked yelling as he drew near. 
"Nezumi!" she called again, making a sudden sharp turn as she 
heard the rattata's voice more clearly, only to feel a sharp pain 
in her side as she blindly hit the edge of the corner.

"Draco-babe!" the rattata called back, hope entering his panicked 
tone, "Where are ya?!"

"I don't know!" the dragon called back, pausing for a moment 
before striking off in the opposite direction as the sound of 
Nezumi's voice shifted.

"Stay where ya, areeee!" warned Nezumi, his voice rising in pitch 
and trailing off strangely as he used quick-attack to hurtle 
himself down a near by corridor at blinding speed.

"Okay, oof-!" Umi was cut off as something small and furry 
collided with her, sending the dragon sliding quite a distance 
down the tunnel on her back.

"Draco-babe!" exclaimed Nezumi as Umi opened one eye suspiciously, 
"Great to see ya!"

Umi tried not to smile at the wide, bemused grin the rattata gave 
her, but as always Nezumi's good humor was infectious. "Get off 
me, mammal," she chided playfully, flipping over onto her stomach 
once more before rearing up and listening carefully.

"Dreck," muttered Nezumi, glancing down the corridor he'd come 
down and backing up against the dratini as his eyes went wide with 
fright, "They followed me!"

"No," said Umi sternly, quickly wrapping the end of her tail 
around Nezumi's to keep him from tearing off again, "It's just a 
trick. We have to stay together now. It'll be harder for him to 
scare us this way."

"Oh man," the rattata replied, suddenly glancing down another 
corridor as a second sound of scraping claws joined the first, 
"Now we're all gonna die!"

"No one's going to die," assured Umi bravely, trying not to think 
about the frozen prison she'd just recently escaped and finally 
shouting out, loud enough for the gastly to hear, "Come on you 
coward! Stop hiding behind illusions and show yourself!"

"Y-yeah!" added Nezumi, binding together the shreds of his courage 
as dark shadows began to creep around the corners farther down two 
of the only viable exits, "Sh-show yourself, Fang-Face, and let's 
get this over with!"

But their ownly reply was a long, echoing laugh that was 
immediately followed by a dark shape with brightly glowing red 
eyes hurtling down the corridor behind them.

"Over there!" warned Nezumi, nearly leaping out of his skin as he 
'felt' the oncoming pokemon's presence.

"Done!" assured Umi, swiveling her head most of the way around and 
firing off an awkward blast of highly pressurized water.

"Foolish mortals!" cackled the gastly, easily evading the attack 
by spiraling towards them.

"I'll show you foolish!" promised Nezumi, regaining his courage 
with Umi at his side and firing up his focus energy technique.

"Hold-! Still-!" complained Umi, her serpentine body twisting 
awkwardly as she tried to get a clear shot at the oncoming ghost, 
but continually missing even the easiest of hits.

"Sorry! Looks like you loose!" laughed the gastly, his image 
suddenly winking out as the real him appeared a short distance 
behind before a dark purple aura of unlight enveloped him and shot 
out towards his two opponents.

"No!" exclaimed Nezumi, hurtling Umi's tail and standing on his 
hind legs to cover her as the nightshade attack spiraled towards 
them, "Not this day, Fang Face!"

"Nezumi!" the dragon exclaimed as the rattata leapt up and caught 
the blast of negatively charged chi in the torso, sending the 
small bodied rodent flipping end over end past her.

"Impressive," chuckled the gastly, licking his lips as he tasted 
the emotional energy of Nezumi's sudden bravery, "But I think I'll 
have you for desert, little girl!"

"Not on my watch!" squeaked Nezumi, coming out of nowhere and 
leaping into the air once more, his purplish fur still enveloped 
in the silvery glow of the focus energy technique.

"Wha-?!" began the shocked gastly, barely having time to scream as 
the rattata tore into him, continuing right on through his 
ethereal body, and out the other side.

"That's it!" the ghost exclaimed in sudden fear, his eyes going 
wide as he saw a spark of flame brewing deep within the dragon's 
mouth, "I'm outta here!"

"Get 'im, Draco-Babe!" exclaimed Nezumi, lopping awkwardly 
forward, covered in ectoplasm as the gastly barrel rolled his way 
down the tunnel.

"Gotcha!" called Umi, turning to follow the fleeing spectre as the 
rattata grabbed hold of the end of her tail.

"Don't mind the slime, kid!" laughed Nezumi as they rounded a 
corner and he managed to pull himself up a bit farther.

"I'm taking a looooong hot bath after this is over anyway!" 
promised Umi, her voice sounding determined even with a slimy 
rattata clinging desperately to her back.

"Hey!" laughed Nezumi as a sudden white light nearly blinded him, 
"It's the exit! We've got him now!"

***

Not far ahead of them, the gastly fled for his unlife. Though he'd 
shifted back into invisibility, the ectoplasm covering the 
rattata's eyes, and the sheer anger emanating off the dratini 
making the common ploy nearly useless. But then, just ahead, he 
saw the end of the tunnel approaching. He didn't know which end 
he'd come to, but it hardly mattered. The human's would offer 
little or no resistance, even his severely weakened state. He'd 
find a nice safe place to hide for a few days, and then he'd be 
fine. Then it'd be back into the simply incredible computer he'd 
found. Back to delving into its secrets, and back to trying to 
transfer to Saffron's main grid where he'd have sooo much fun 
scaring the life out of everyone-!

A sudden, sharp blow from above interrupted the gastly's train of 
thought. Just as he entered the larger room, something hit him. 
Hard. The gastly's last thoughts where a mixture of sudden fear 
and amazement; but also a begrudging respect for the human's 
resourcefulness. He'd had no idea that a wooden sword covered in 
ectoplasm could even harm him. But as he began to discorporate, 
something spherical passed harmlessly through him, and a strange 
white light enveloped the gastly a second before he went 
unconscious...

***

"Got him!" exclaimed Miranda, snatching up the ghost-ball just as 
her two wounded pokemon half-fell, half-leapt out of the 
ventilation shaft.

"Amazing!" commented Joanne, shaking her head in disbelief as Umi 
landed reasonably safely and glared up at the gray/back pokeball 
in her trainer's hand.

'Eh, not bad,' commented Nezumi in poke-speak, wiping a bit 
ectoplasm off his mouth before spitting out a tooth, 'For a 
human...!'

***

Bob shook his head as Miranda finished her story and her seventh 
cup of tea before leaning back against the archaic looking couch 
and staring thoughtfully at the ceiling. "But he's been loyal to 
me every day since," she explained, idly petting the haunter as 
the ghost smiled contentedly, his disembodied hands reaching far 
back and idly playing with her ponytail in a similar manner, "And 
I've no real reason to complain about him. Wraith was, is and 
always will be a welcome addition to my group."

"I can see that now," mused her stepfather, glancing back at the 
computer and noticing that the complete systems check was 
finished, "Oh, here we go. Hold on."

The man's fingers raced across the keyboard for a moment, striking 
hotkeys that gave him what he wanted far faster than a mouse click 
ever could before calling up the courier's files once again.

"Oh my," he laughed, glancing at Miranda with a defeated smile, 
"I'm afraid it's true, Miri."

"I'm really that rich?" she asked guiltily, the courier's smile 
mildly forced as she tried to reconcile her feelings of guilt and 
elation.

"Yup," responded Bob with a smile and a nod, motioning 
dramatically towards the screen, "You're more than 20,000 credits 
ahead. Spend it wisely, Courier Lilcamp."

"Unbelievable," muttered Miranda, shaking her head in disbelief 
before a small smile crossed her lips. "You know," she said 
thoughtfully, glancing at Wraith mysteriously, "I do know three 
rather well placed people in Sylph Co who owe me favors."

"Oh?" inquired her stepfather, finding Miranda's smile infectious.

The courier nodded. "I was thinking of maybe seeing if I couldn't 
arrange a little gift for you and mom," she said with a nonchalant 
shrug, "Something that would make even Wraith think twice about 
inhabiting your system."

"You, you wouldn't-" stammered Bob, his eyes going wide with 
astonishment.

Miranda nodded, a wide grin crossing her face. "I can't possibly 
spend that much money all on myself," she said helplessly, "And 
besides, if you think your system's fast and efficient now, wait 
until you see what a porygon can do for you!"

Bob shook his head in amazement, uncertain about what to say. 
"Miri," he replied at last, "I think I understand what that friend 
of yours sees in you."

Miranda shrugged. "It's nothing," she assured as her mother's 
voice could be heard from the other room, "I'll see to it before 
we take off again."

"Miri!" her mother called, "Your friend's back from Aunt 
Laurna's!"  

The courier smiled. "I'd better get out there and see how it 
went," she replied, hopping to her feet and grabbing Wraith by the 
hand.

"I'll bet she kicked butt," her stepfather assured with a warm 
smile, "Your friend's one tough cookie."

"Yeah well, just keep your hands out of the cookie jar," his 
stepdaughter teased, ruffling his graying hair as she walked by, 
pausing before exiting the room, "Oh, and thanks, Bob."

"What for?"

Miranda shrugged. "Just for being you," she replied with a slight 
smile, shaking her head as the right words escaped her, "For being 
like a father to me whether I like it or not."

"I'll take that as a compliment," he told her, turning back to the 
computer to hide the blush that Bob knew had crept up his face, 
the warm feeling that overcame him making the man wish he hadn't 
turned the heat on in the room.

"You'd better," the courier chuckled, and walked from the room, 
trailing a sleepy ghost behind her...

THE END

Copyright
Nikolai Mirovich (Wraith@Flashmail.Com)
December 4, 2001
Home Page "ftp://ftp.asstr.org/pub/Authors/Nikolai_Mirovich"

