Super Hacker Porygon

[MorriganFearn]

((This post follows the events that took place that the Wishing Well. Please click this fine link to refresh your memory.))

Tommy walked into the town looking tired and beat up. Kimial led the way, looking about him in an aggressive manner, while Pai stood staunchly by his human's side. Around his head, Ora buzzed, looking, as much as a beedrill can, anyway, worried.

Bravi had tried fancy buzzing around the beedrill earlier, in an attempt to cheer the group up. After some stern glares from Ora, and a tongue lashing from Kimial, he was scuttling beside Lyra, feeling dejected. Lyra had also tried to cheer everyone up in her own special way, by saying the reason no one had stolen Nina was because she was worthless, and too bad the theives hadn't taken Ora, but probably even they couldn't take the nagging. No one bothered to chastise her, and after a while She couldn't keep up the playful pretense in the face of the gloom that pervaded the company.

Behind everyone else, Sentouki was subdued, floating along and muttering.

The only person in the cavalcade not obviously changed by the related tale of harrowing events, was Zarsha. The stunky waddled along in a carefree manner looking at the huts.

<You know, we could go buuuuuy something,> she suggested, leering hopefully up at her new trainer.

<That's not our task right now!> Kimial snapped impatiently, his short temper having been completely frayed.

<But buying is shiny!> the mammal suggested brightly, before jumping to one side, as Kimial's claws came out of nowhere. <T'sch. Fine, no pretty shinies for Zarsha, I'm all alone.>

"I'm really sorry, Zarsha," Tommy sighed. "I'm just -- I've been a bad trainer, all right? But I need to get Shiri and Angel back. Angel especially. She's got to be scared."

<Piffle. She's a dark type. We're tough,> Zarsha said. <You're just moody about it.>

<They were stolen, you gas-headed louse!> Kimial yelled. <People who steal other people are. Not. Going. To. Be. Nice!>

<Jeeze, calm down,> Zarsha protested. <I didn't mean --,>

<Just like Lyra didn't mean anything bad about Nina! I'm through with you statics if you treat little children like such trash! Tommy, Sentouki, let's get going! We've got to reach whatever excuse they have for a pokemon center here.>

"Yeah, um," Tommy looked around desperately.

Zarsha sighed. <Look, I was here before with my last trainer, the Colosseum has a PC, and that's all electro-matrix boy needs, right?>

<Theoretically,> Sentouki replied, depression hanging in his tones. <But I don't know how much I'll find. I'm not a super hacker porygon.>

Tommy suddenly stifled a giggle. "Super hacker Porygon Sentouki! You do things in the name of the -- um, holographic matrix! Magically comes to save the day!"

Lyra looked at Bravi, as their trainer went through his paces of maniacal laughter at this. <His sense of humor --,>

<He's been hanging around us waaaaay too long,> Bravi agreed, chuckling, as Zarsha, Pai and Sentouki began to join the cacophony.

Ora buzzed to Kimial's level as the Keckleon continued resolutely up to the doors of the Colosseum. <Please tell me the natives aren't staring.>

<No such luck,> Kimial growled. <But sometimes you just need to have a good laugh. It's either that or go completely crazy.>

<Perhaps I should rescue Nina,> Ora began, looking back at the poison type perched in the opening of Tommy's rucksack.

<Let 'em get it out of their systems, first. Then we'll go inside. And after Sentouki does his magical pokemon routine, I'm gonna want some down time.>

<Won't we have to go after the thieves, first, Kimial?> Ora questioned reprovingly.

<It'd surprise me if that crazy bundle of electrons could find a trail, much less a location. We'll probably have seven leads to check, and in the mean time, I'm gonna want to relax,> the keckleon replied.

<Where? This is a tourist trap without a single hotel,> Ora pointed out dimly.

<It is a colosseum, innit?> Kimial grinned. <I dunno how you wind down, Lady, but before the day is though I want to have shredded someone.>

With this he pushed through the double doors, the still giggling group behind him. They walked towards the counter, and Tommy rang the bell for the man. "Um, excuse me, can I use the PC?"

[Nyaa-Neko]

Hollis turned around slowly, smiling politely at the newcomer. "You want to use the PC?" he asked, the smile still on his face. "Sure, let me just log out, first."

The young man swiveled the screen on the free-access computer, which his Pokemon had been using to surf the internet (it had been a slow day), and returned it to a neutral screen. He then logged in as the account "All Trainers", and pushed the screen back to Tommy. "There you go. All yours."

His natu, Susan, hopped down from his head and onto the counter. She narrowed her eyes at Tommy - his psychic aura seemed sort of familiar. She then hopped off the table, and flitted over to Maria.

"<Hey,>" she hissed at the purugly, who had been reading a magazine. "<Does he seem familiar to you?>"

"<Maaaaybe. Why?>" the purugly replied, flipping a page with her paw.

"<I think that two of the Pokemon from yesterday were from his party.>"

"<Pipe down!>" Maria hissed, standing up and batting the natu down. She peered around the table at the large party of Pokemon, all out of their Pokeballs. "<Do they suspect anything?>" she whispered back once she was safely behind the counter.

"<I don't know...>"

"<Well, then stop acting so weird!>"

Hollis turned to give his Pokemon a strange look. "Maria, let Susan look at the magazine if she wants to," he chastised, smirking at the two. This little boy seemed harmless - what were they so worried about?

[MorriganFearn]

Tommy returned Sentouki, and placed his ball in the PC's pokeball slot. The red and white capsule glowed with the energy transfer, and then it told him that Sentouki was inside the PC system. Tommy left the empty pokeball in the machine, and then turned to the rest of the gang. "Okay guys, conference time," he said nervously. He wasn't certain but what he had just done might have been illegal, like downloading songs from the computer. Either way, he didn't want to attract suspicion. "If we're challenging the Coliseum -- like Kimial wants -- who should I use as my group three, instead of Sentouki? Do I need to use a group three? I mean, let's discuss just any team combo--,"

~ ~ ~

In the computer, Sentouki spread out, sending his conscious AI to log on as the administrator of the PC. The first firewall detected his third login attempt, but the random combo he had run through his own matrix as a password combinded with the probability program limits he set turned out to be the correct password. He wondered why anyone would use "magnolia" as a pass word, but was too busy searching for the previous acesses and transfers. There! A spark of energy that could only be a psychic type augmented with electricity has passed through the network -- this very machine had been the real world contact point!

Sentouki searched the stream for the binary code, and grinned. It was Shiri! He followed the energy path -- but ran into a firewall. The receiving computer was cut off from the network at the moment, and from the looks of it -- Sentouki prodded the security layer experimentally. It snapped at him -- even if he could get in, he wasn't likely to get out. It was a machine for receiving, not for sending.

Okay. Time to retrace the route, then. Now who had sent her through? He tracked Shiri's energy log through the computer's data log, and discovered that the person had logged into an account with all the admin powers minus program installation, and a mysterious power that was classified as GD_1. There was a temporary patch called DS_noflorak, which had been activated recently, too. It was this patch had sent a data packet with a lot of information -- most likely an electric pokemon -- Sentouki pulled up the information. A shinx and a venonat. Okay, not really interesting pokemon, and it could be perfectly innocent. Back to the other weird adminal program. The GD_1 had sent Shiri and Angel's data, and another data packet that Sentouki immediately IDed as two more pokemon. He called this up, and discovered that he was looking at a horsea with a really high level, and a shellgon with some psychic attack. Both had gone into the same heavily guarded PC in the network that Shiri and Angel had ended up in. Going back to the DS_noflorak patch, Sentouki discovered that the shinx and venonat had been transfered to a different but equally impenetrable PC, also, that PC had been directly linked to another PC in the network. That PC was just an average PC, however. It was as anonymous as any Pokemon Center PC on the regular Jenta League network, and could access the various pokemon boxes in Professor Cherry's Server with the right log on data, just as the Coliseum's could.

Having found out all Sentouki thought he could access, the porygon was about to log out, when the thought stuck him to check the e-mail. This was tricky, as he didn't really have the time to read through the e-mails in the adminal inbox. It was easier to copy and paste all the data. Now he could go over them with Tommy's help. Organic brains were better at abstracting data than his programmed AI was. Sentouki logged out, and then waited.

~ ~ ~

<Just take Sentouki back out,> Kimial said carelessly, as he saw the screen on the PC flicker to "transfer complete." <He's still your best pokemon -- even with Angel, and especially with her gone.>

<You know at some point we have to stop "blowing off steam" as Kimial says, and contact the police,> Ora pointed out.

"Yeah, sure," Tommy said, going over to the PC, and calling up Sentouki's stats and hitting "transfer" for the empty ball. It glowed, and Tommy retrieved his porygon. "I -- well, Sentouki's hard to deal with in battle, you know. Anyway, sorry for kicking you off, sir, I guess we'll be going through without any team switches. Anything in the rules I should know before we begin? I'm really just doing this for my group one keckleon."