"ESKARINE! I KNOW YOU'RE THERE! You are two hours late for your deadline! 
ESKARINE! PICK UP THE DANG PHONE! Well, I guess I have no choice but to drop 
you...Eskarine? I was just kidding! Oh fine, call me when you get this," the 
answering machine pinged off. Eskarine smiled to herself as she sat back 
admiring the new design she had just completed. The message she had just 
received was one of five she had received in the past five minutes, each 
counting down the time. "You are one hour and fifty-eight minutes late!" and 
so forth. HEr manager really freaked out whenever he didn't have her design 
on time, but she knew that despite his threats that he'd never drop her. She 
was too valuable as her designs sold faster than copies of Pokemon World 
Online's latest expansion pack.

Eskarine stood up from her chair and walked around her apartment. It was 
really fancy with all the comforts she could ever want. Rare persian rugs 
adorned the floors and rare vases were on display along the wall. Eskarine 
enjoyed rare items. She walked over to the refridgerator in her kitchen and 
pulle dout assorted vegetables to make a salad with. Eskarine figured that 
there were enough crappy reasons why animals had to die and didn't want to 
add to those reasons by using them for her nourishment. Nope, vegetables 
suited her just fine. She had been a vegetarian ever since she was a 
teenager.

In the process of adding a small bit of 1000 island dressing (never too much 
or it would over power the natural taste of the vegetables), she accidently 
got some on the sweater she wore. She cursed under her breath and strolled 
over to her bedroom, opening her cwalk in closet, which was full of rare and 
expensive clothing. Prada and other such brands filled the shelfs. She, 
however, owned no fur or designed her clothes with fur as she despised the 
unnecesary killing of animals. She settled on a tight fitting blue tank top 
with the venus (or female) symbol embrodered on the front with silver thread. 
The shirt showed a little bit of midriff. Despite the fact that she was a 
fashion designer, she never wore her own designs.

She then realised that her tank top didn't match the green pants she was 
wearing and changed into a pair of blue camo capris. The capris were perhaps 
a bit longer on her then the normal person as she was a bit height impared. 
She wasn't short enough to shop in the petites, but she was also not tall 
enough for capris to fit her perfectly. She went to the kitchen and took her 
salad to her desk, bringing along a well measured margarita. Eskarine had the 
talent of mixing drinks to perfection; a talent she developed from a friend 
she had who worked at a bar and taught her the skills. Esk had a wide range 
of contacts.

As she sipped her drink and looked out the window-taking a bite from her 
salad-she saw a taxi cab come to a screeching halt, narrowly missing hitting 
a newspaper boy. Eskarine set down her food, losing the desire to eat. She 
walked over to her couch and layed down for a minute. She took a faded 
picture from her wallet of a beautiful girl. "Madeline," Eskarine said aloud, 
feeling the familiar shape of the words as they left her mouth. She stared 
expressionlessly at the picture in her hands. She sighed and put it back into 
her pocket. She sat up and heard the phone ring. A small smile curved onto 
her lips.

Just as she had predicted, the answering machine picked up and it was her 
manager. "Two hours and five minutes, Eskarine, FIVE MINTUES! You're going to 
be in a lot of trouble! Hurry up and bring your design. I know you're there. 
Please, I'm begging you, bring that design here pronto!" Eskarine shook her 
head and walked over to her salad, taking a few more mouthfuls. She started 
her computer as she ate and sipped her drink. She should really bring her 
design in before the manager had another panic attack. Eskarine grinned and 
thought that keeping him on the line would be more fun.

She really didn't want to go outside at the moment either, with all the cars. 
She hated riding in cars and was glad she only lived a few blocks from her 
place of employment. She had her license, but she supposed it was that night 
that had made her abhor cars. Eskarine booted up Pokemon World Online and 
placed the virtual reality helmet on her head. As soon as she logged off, she 
would bring the design to her manager. As the phone rang again, Esk typed in 
her password and smiled to herself. Perhaps making the manager wait until 
tomorrow wouldn't be such a bad thing.

ooo

Pokemon World Online

Login 13: Realization

Disclaimer: I don't own febreeze, Faulkner, myspace, Prada, or anything like 
that. I also don't own Yagasaki (Trecko(no)) or Aura (Moya) or Drix (who owns 
himself) but I do own the other charcters. I do own Misty Dew and Ontaro, but 
I don't really want them XD yes, after that nice little break with Helium and 
Aura, it's back to the plot. This part is dedicated to Treecko(no) and Drix 
for allowing me to use thier incredible charcters.

ooo

Twilmer and her party had come to the base of the mountain, where the trees 
were begining to grow thicker. After the Crydal Forest, the first town of the 
higher level areas would be upon them. Twilmer was currently bragging to the 
party, who were all pretty much ignoring her, save for the pink-robed 
herbalist. "That's right, level 70! I suppose the fight that chased that 
phantom Mr. Sugimori away was enough to finally level me up. It's just too 
bad that I can't level up while I'm a Pichu, or you'd bet I'd be high enough 
to be in the ten in no time." Twilmer bragged.

Aura snorted at her last comment. "Oh yeah, big deal, the top ten." she 
grumbled.

"What's with you? Everyone else would be dying to join the top ten, but you 
were in it and gave it up! I just don't understand," Twilmer shook her head.

"I wouldn't expect you to, but I have my reasons. Like you, I enjoy a certain 
degree of privacy." Twilmer noted that and nodded in agreement, not pressing 
the matter anymore. She would have loved nothing more than to understand the 
legendary swordswoman and rare double blader, but something told Twilmer that 
that would be a gradual process. She had great respect for the woman, which 
was the only thing that made her keep her mouth shut. She also understood the 
need for privacy on the online world.

"Your true form is very beautiful," Helium commented, blushing as he said it.

"Well, what did you expect from the great Twilmer?" she asked, putting a paw 
behind her head and blushing as well, though no where near as deeply as 
Helium. Aura rolled her eyes at the two, finding thier antics very childish.

"Get a room," Aura grumbled. Twilmer shot her a very dirty look, but Aua 
neither noticed nor cared.

"We should be coming up to a cave soon which leads to Fuwaru Town and into 
the higher level areas, which we have still yet to encounter," Ontaro 
commented as he looked at his map.

"Good, we're making good time then. At this rate, we'll be able to delete 
that glitch and go back to our normal lives in no time," Twilmer smiled, 
however Helium didn't seem to share her enthusiasm on the situation. Twilmer 
had never been through the Crydal Cave before, since she had taken the 
mountainous path on her way to the high levels almost a year ago when she 
first got the game, so this would be a new adventure to her.

Victoria kept using various varieties of slash attack while looking up at 
Sparia. Sparia found it increasingly hard to ignore the immature Weavile. 
Each slash connected with a rock, making a loud clang. Each clang was 
followed by a smirk and a cocky "Weavile." Each cocky "Weavile" was followed 
by another slash of the claw. The endless cycle bore into the Empoleon's 
brain until she couldn't take it anymore. "EMPOLEON!" Sparia shouted, turning 
and staring down the Weavile, who stared back with an egotistical smirk on 
her face.

Aura, Twilmer, Helium, and Emily23 turned to look at the pokemon. Ontaro was 
busy typing away on PWO mail and didn't look over. "What did she say?" 
Emily23 asked.

"She said 'ENOUGH' to Victoria," Twilmer translated, able to udnerstand the 
complex language of pokemon, being one herself at the moment.

Weavile looked up at Sparia and put her claws behind her head, leaning 
against a rock with an air of self importance. "Weavile?" Weavile asked with 
feigned innocence. "What did I do?" Twilmer translated.

"The whole show off act is very childish and I here by ask you to stop this 
foolishness," Twilmer translated.

Weavile looked up at the angered Empoleon and waved her claw, as if Sparia 
were beneath her and no where near as important as the pokemon partner of an 
admin. Sparia was usually able to tolerate a lot, but Victoria was pushing 
her last nerve. Victoria pulled down her eyelid and stuck out her toungue at 
Sparia and she lost it. Sparia rushed forward with iron wings out on either 
side. Victoria dodged the attack and unleashed an icebeam.

"Victoria, stop!" Twilmer commanded, but her words fell on deaf ears as 
Victoria jumped up and came down with a crush claw attack. Sparia grabbed her 
claw in her wing and tightened her grip. Victoria's face twisted in pain as 
Sparia's grip grew tighter.

"That's enough!" Aura shouted. Sparia looked up at her and let go of 
Victoria, who fell to the ground. Sparia seemed embaressed to have lost 
control like that. Victoria lay on the ground, nursing her claw. She had 
never before felt such pain. She looked up at Sparia and stood, holding her 
arm, glaring at her. Sparia sneered down at her.

"Little one, you'd best leave me alone if you know what's good for you," 
Sparia told her. Victoria found angry tears coming to her eyes. She had 
always prided herself on never losing a battle, but it seemed that she could 
not win against Sparia. Victoria futily attempted to slash at Sparia, and 
even tried to use an ice beam. Sparia turned and used an icebeam of her own, 
knocking Victoria into the rock wall behind her. Victoria stood up, looking 
at the group around her. She started to black out and fall towards the 
ground. Twilmer jumped off of Helium's shoulder and rushed over to her fallen 
partner. Victoria caught herself, which was excruciating with her injured 
claw, and swatted Twilmer away.

"Victoria," Twilmer looked up at her pokemon, who stood up and ran off into 
the forest. "Victoria!" Twilmer shouted, running after her pokemon with as 
much agility as her Pichu body could muster. The party followed behind. 
Victoria dodged trees with the grace of a grace master's pokemon and ran into 
the cave. Twilmer stopped, unable to see far and unable to see in which 
direction Victoria had run. Weavile were built to see in the dark, so she 
knew it would be no problem for Victoria to navigate the darkness. "She's 
never acted this way before," Twilmer said quietly.

"And if I'm correct inassuming, your Weavile has never lost a battle before," 
Ontaro remarked coldly.

"She provoked Sparia, so she is in fault," Twilmer admitted. "Well, anyone 
have a light? We need to find her before she gets hurt or something worse." 
Twilmer looked up at her group with determination.

"Well, seeing as none of us have one, I suppose I can use some of my 'Flame 
of Entei' as it's not really as rare as my other items," Aura offered, 
bringing out the Entei shaped lanturn, which was equipped with enough fuel to 
garunte a trip to the underworlds and back.

ooo

A mile into the cave had still brought no sign of Victoria, and Twilmer was 
starting to get very worried. "Where could she be?" Twilmer wondered aloud 
worriedly. Victoria had been by her side since her third day playing Pokemon 
World Online and if anything were to ever happen to Victoria, Twilmer wasn't 
sure if she could bear it.

"Weaviles like the darkness, so it would only make sense that Victoria would 
head to the darkest place to mope." Aura flashed her lanturn around, looking 
for places the Weavile could've hidden.

"She's not moping, she just needs time to think about things," Twilmer 
defended her companion.

"So in other words, she's wallowing in self pity," Aura smirked playfully.

Twilmer’s cheeks sparked dangerously and she was about to say something, when 
Emily23 interrupted their argument. “Bunneary has super sensitive hearing, so 
I bet that she could hear Victoria, right Bunneary?” Emily23 beamed down at 
the fuzzy cream and brown bunny. It looked up at her, and then nodded, it’ 
floppy ears flopping in it’s face. Twilmer humphed, folding her arms across 
her chest as she watched the bunny pokemon stand on it's tip toes and 
concentrate hard, holding it's floppy ears as erect as it could.

"Well?" Twilmer asked impatiently. Bunneary looked around confused, then 
slumped over. "Figures," Twilmer muttered under her breath.

"It seems that Bunneary can't hear well because of all the supersonic waves 
coming from the bat pokemon in this cave," Emily23 sighed. Helium used some 
of his powders to heal the fallen bunny.

"Crap, I forgot about all the Zubats who lived here. Maybe if you could tame 
one, then we could use it's ultrasonic to find Victoria," Twilmer suggested, 
looking up at Emily23.

"It's worth a shot," she giggled, twirling her pole around in a way that 
greatly annoyed Twilmer. but then again, what didn't? The party set off, 
Ontaro checking his map every five seconds so the group wouldn't get lost (he 
also hated the sensation of not knowing where he was), trying to find a bat 
pokemon. This proved almost as difficult as finding Victoria.

"For the love of Darkrai, why is it that when you don't want to find one, you 
get swarmed by Zubats, but when you look for one, they are no where to be 
found?" Twilmer asked, very annoyed at their current situation. She was also 
worried on top of being annoyed, which was never a good combination with the 
admin. "At this rate..." Twilmer didn't finish the sentance. She had a tough 
front to keep and tearing up would completely destroy it at the current 
moment.

"Patience," Aura said, looking out into the darkness. She turned the light 
off, to shouts of protest from Twilmer.

"Ouch, my throat," Helium croaked. Aura snickered to herself; could their 
brave little admin be scared of the dark. Once in the pitch blackness of the 
cave, the leathery wings of a bat could be heard.

"That's right!" Emily23 exclaimed, pounding her fist into her hand. "Bat 
pokemon like the dark." Aura turned the light back on and there was, not a 
Zubat, but a Bolbat in front of them. Emily23 looked up at the bat with 
determination, despite the fact that her knees were shaking. Behind her, 
twilmer was acting as if she hadn't just been clinging to Helium for dear 
life. Helium was also pretending nothing had happened. Ontaro snorted at the 
behavior of the two and Aura just looked amused. Both Twilmer and Helium were 
blushing.

"Okay Bunneary, we have to mess with it's senses, so sing!" Emily23 
commanded. Bunneary sang, but the Golbat really didn't seem to be phased, nor 
did it seem to care. It fluttered to the gound and bowed to show it's 
submission. "What the-" Emily23 wondered aloud.

“Okay,” Aura raised an eyebrow as she looked at the Golbat. Its wings drooped 
slightly and it sighed sadly every few seconds. It began to chirp and Twilmer 
snorted. “What’s wrong?” Aura asked.

“This Golbat says that his wings are oddly shaped, he can’t find love, his 
screech is way to high-pitched for a boy Golbat and that no one wants to be 
around him. Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce you to emo Golbat,” Twilmer 
snickered.

“Aw, poor Golbat just needs some love. I say we take him in,” Emily23 smiled. 
“I think I’ll name him Sunny, lol!”

“Oh yeah, Sunny the emo Golbat,” Twilmer rolled her eyes. "Well, make him 
find Victoria!" Twilmer demanded.

"Okay, Sunny, will you use your supersonic screech to find Miss Pichu's 
Weavile, Victoria, k?" Emily23 smiled down at the Golbat, who seemed 
reluctant to obey. Sunny sighed and rose into the air, letting out a shreik 
that scared everyone. Twilmer covered her ears as best she could; hers being 
the most sensitive.

"He wasn't lieing," Twilmer groaned. Sunny stopped, upon hearing this, and 
began to sniffle. "Sorry," Twilmer muttered, willing to put her pride aside 
to find Victoria. Sunny once again began using his supersonic, and picked up 
the readings of a Weavile. He pointed to the left and began to fly off in 
that direction; Twilmer and company in tow. Twilmer noticed that his flight 
pattern was unusual which made his statement about his wings true also. "I 
wonder if the coding was off with him," Twilmer pondered, watching the 
unusual Golbat as he flew on.

Sure enough, after several minutes of running (Helium's special mixes helping 
with stamina) they came upon a part of the cave which was lined with quartz 
of differant shades. Victoria was perched on one of the ores of purple; 
amethyst. The soothing colors of amethyst soothed Victoria as it was 
Twilmer's favorite color and birthstone color. Victoria opened an eye to peer 
down at the crew. She appeared to have been crying as her eyes were slightly 
puffy. She sneered down at them and turned her back. "Victoria, listen, come 
back. We all want you back, even Sparia!" Twilmer called up. Victoria turned 
slightly in interest to look at the penguin pokemon, however Sparia glared at 
Twilmer and looked back up at Victoria with no readable emotion on her face.

"Weavile," was Victoria's simple rply, to which Sparia did not look too 
happy.

"What did she say, Miss Pichu?" Emily23 asked, turning to look down at the 
tiny admin, who seemed slightly hurt.

"She's basically saying that she'll rejoin us on one condition; if Sparia 
admits that she cheated in the battle they had before and declares Victoria 
the better battler." Twilmer looked up at the Weavile and sighed, "I guess 
wanting to be with her long time companion isn't enough." Emily23 patted 
Twilmer on the back, slightly amused at her response. Twilmer seemed to enjoy 
being patted on the back. She contributed this to the fact that she was a 
Pichu, however she shrugged her off.

"I believe we all know that Sparia would not comply, so what now?" Aura 
asked, placing her nimble hands on defined hips.

"Is there no other way?" Twilmer called up. In answer, Victoria jumped down 
and took off once again. "Darn it!" Twilmer hissed, jumping from Helium's 
shoulder and taking off after Twilmer. Aura and Sparia followed as well as 
the others, Sunny falling slightly behind. They ran into a cavern, which led 
to a dead end. Victoria kicked the wall and then clutched her foot in pain. 
At the disturbance of the sound of claw on rock, a series of chirps was heard 
above the group.

"S" Aura cursed, looking up to see a swarm of Zubat, Golbat, and Crobat 
awaken. They didn't look to happy at being awoken so soon from their slumber. 
Immediantly the bats dove down, attacking the group. Emily23 took to swatting 
some of the Zubats aside with the broad end of her pole, while Helium used a 
sleeping powder to put some of the bats back to sleep. Ontaro flung his 
sheild about, wacking some of the pokemon. Twilmer was to worried about 
Victoria to do anything about the bats, which weren't attacking her since she 
was so low to the ground.

"Victoria!" Twilmer called. Victoria turned to look down at Twilmer and 
sighed. Twilmer understood that Victoria held herself above other pokemon and 
losing to Sparia had hurt more than her just her claw, but her pride. It also 
made Victoria see that she wasn't the big pokemon on campus that she had 
thought herself to be. Victoria held out a claw, closing her eyes. Twilmer 
msiled and took the claw in her paw. "Alright then, let's show these bats 
what they've got coming to them," Twilmer grinned at her partner, who nodded 
confidently back.

The two sparng forth and attacked using a combination of slash and spark 
attack. Sparia took notice of how Victoria was able to weave through the bats 
with such agility and closed her eyes, clucking her tongue. The young Weavile 
may have a long way to go before she reaches the maturity and strength of 
Sparia herself, but she wasn't doing half bad at the moment. "F Bats!" Aura 
shouted as several Crobat got together in a group and used aerial ace. The 
group was ridiculously outnumbered and they were surrounded by a whirlwind of 
very ticked off bat pokemon. Each appeared ready to use a poison status 
inducing attack.

"Oh no!" Helium panicked, searching his inventory. "I don't have any poison 
healing items on me! I never learned how to make items that could protect or 
disperse against poison." He looked up at the group, worry clouding his fair 
face.

"Things just keep getting better and better," Aura shook her head, holding 
her two katanas at her side. The black haired woman did a quick look through 
her own inventory and saw that the only poison healing item she had in her 
inventory was the flower of Shaymin item, and she was not ready to give that 
up quite yet. Ontaro stepped forward, holding his small sheild uncertainly in 
front of the group, cursing under his breath as he realized just how 
outnumbered the group was.

Tha bats reared back and then all flew forward; the party doing it's best to 
brace for the attack. "Here it comes!" Helium shouted, closing his eyes and 
waiting for the blow to hit, however he didn't feel any pain, except the air 
seemed to grow colder. Helium opened his eyes to see that both Sparia and 
Victoria (as well as a small helping from Bunneary) had used icebeam to 
freeze the bats in their paths. Only the Crobats had escaped unharmed as 
their agility was greatly improved since they had four wings. Sparia and 
Victoria looked at each other and nodded. The two jumped forward.

"Alright!" Twilmer jumped up in joy at seeing her friend back in action. 
Twilmer used agility right alongside her and the two attacked one of the 
crobats as Sparia and Aura teamed up, fainting several. Together, thw two 
made short work of the Crobats and all the bat pokemon were laying on the 
floor. Sunny looked around worriedly at everyone. "You know, for helping us 
find Victoria, I suppose I can use my admin skills to fix your coding," 
Twilmer offered, feeling unusually kind to the emo Golbat. It blinked at her 
as she opened a control panal and made quick work of reshaping Sunny's wings 
and fixing his pitch, even deepening it a few octaves so it would be easier 
for him to find a mate. "All set." Twilmer smiled up at the Golbat, who 
seemed thrilled.

"You know, when the bats wake up, this one should tell the others that he 
fought us off single handedly," Aura suggested with a smirk. Sunny seemed to 
approve that idea.

"Well, it seems we've found your home, Sunny," Emily23 smiled at him as her 
level went up. "We're going to miss you." Sunny chirped happily at them.

"Yeah, bye, whatever. Now let's get out of here before those bats wake up, 
see us, and attack us...I mean we ruin Sunny's wonderful plan," Twilmer 
suggested.

"FInally something we can agree on," Ontaro muttered. Twilmer didn't hear 
what he said, but she didn't like him, so she shot him a dirty look. The 
group then ran out of the area as fast as they could. "Okay, now that that's 
over, we need to head right." Ontaro pointed. The group followed Ontaro's 
directions and he succesfully led them out of the cave.

"Maybe you're not so bad after all," Twilmer admitted with a smile, then 
mentally slapped herself. "You weirdos must be rubbing off on me. It seems 
I've become more sentamental lately," Twilmer sniffed.

"Lord knows we don't want that," Aura joked. Twilmer put a paw behind her 
head, grinning. The group shared a hearty laugh, except Ontaro and Machop, 
and continued onward to Fuwaru Town.

ooo

Sorry that's so long, but the next part will be a "movie" of sorts. I mean 
that it will be long, plot oriented, and plot twisting, just as if these past 
parts were episodes and it was a movie...you get it?

I plan to answer the following questions: "What exactly happens when you die 
in the game? What is the true nature of the PWO glitch? and Who is Dream?"