Ruka flopped backward over the arm of the overstuffed chair in the
Rocket's Rec Room, her long legs flinging up over her head as her back and
bottom landed squarely in the sagging seat of the recliner.
She knocked back a mouthful of cola from the can in her hand and smiled
across the room at her brother Ryer where he sat with his girlfriend Katie in
his lap. The couple were whispering to each other and giggling. Katie's pink
looped hair swung across her back as she giggled at something, her tall blue
eyes squeezing shut.
Nina dumped herself angrily into a chair next to Ruka.
"Aren't they sickening?" she whispered, clenching her gloved hand into a
tight fist.
"I think it's sweet how they ignore us." Ruka said. "You're just upset cause
Brian hasn't called you from his Poke-tour Cerulean City since Tuesday."
"He's my boyfriend!" Nina exploded. "He has an obligation to talk to me!"
"Ever think he might be busy?" Mew asked from the back of the chair. The
Pokemon cat, recently evolved into a Persian, gave Nina an obvious look.
Nina pulled her baseball cap down from atop her long red hair and stuffed her
face into it, slouching down in her chair. Her blue blazer and yellow t shirt
shifted up against the chair, totally exposing her bare stomach.
She crossed her arms over her chest and everyone could tell she was glaring
inside her baseball cap.
"Oh, get over it, Nina." Ryer groaned from across the room, breaking his
repoir with Katie. "You're only here to visit us twice a year. Can't you be
plesant at all?"
"No!" Nina snapped grumpily.
"Hey. I know what we can do to cheer her up." Katie said.
"Does your Mom and Dad's cat Meowth still have that Time Machine he invented
that you guys traveled back in time in by accident?"
"Yeah, but it's busted." Ruka said.
"We could try and fix it." Ryer suggested.
"Well I don't know anything about machines but we 'could' try." Nina said
from inside her baseball cap.
"Terrific!"
Ruka, Ryer and their friends raced out of the rec room into the back of the
apartment where Meowth kept all of his crazy inventions.
"Lesse..." Ruka said sifting through the pile. "Pokemon operated can opener,
Anti-Pikachu Suits, Sewer Breath Support Systems, Giant Submarine Magnet,
Ah Ha! Time Machine!"
"That's the Time Machine?" Nina asked, sweatdropping as Ruka held up the tin
can attached to the dead energizer battery.
"That's it?" Katie asked.
"Yeah." Ryer sighed. "Kinda weird isn't it?"
"I'll say." Ruka set down the time machine and her cola cup on the work
table. "Let's see what we can do with this." she said turning around to grab
a tool from the box of them behind her. As she spun she knocked her glass of
cola onto the time machine. The can and battery sparked and sputtered.
"Uh oh." Said Ruka as a flash of light engulfed the room.
Chapter Two - Flash Fall
"Jesse?" James asked sitting up straight under the tree where they
were lying in the shade. "Did you hear a flash?"
"Hear a flash?" Jesse asked lazily, opening one clear blue eye to fix her
boyfriend with an inquiring stare.
"Yes."
"No James I didn't hear a flash." she yawned. "You must have been dreaming."
"But I wasn't asleep." James protested. "I heard a flash! I know I did!"
"James?" Meowth asked, poking his head out of the picnic basket. "How exactly
does one 'hear' a 'flash'?"
"I mean I SAW a flash!" James yelled in agravation.
"Where?" Jesse asked.
"Up in the tree." James said and pointed to the branches overhead.
All in an instant the leaves began rocking about and several screaming voices
echoed down from the branches. Jesse and James barely bolted out of the way
as four people and a Pokemon fell from the tree.
"Ow!" Katie screamed.
"Ah! Ryer you're on my hair!" yelled Ruka.
"Nina! You're crushing me!" Ryer wheezed.
"My Pokeballs better be okay!" Nina shrieked.
"You're ALL on my tail!" Mew yowled.
"Ruka?" James asked.
"Ryer?" said Jesse.
"We're in the past again aren't we?" Ruka said.
"Yep." Meowth nodded, pouncing onto her stomach. "You're back."
"What are you doing back here?" James asked, pulling Ruka up off the ground.
"I spilled soda on the Time Machine." she said meekly, pressing her index
fingers together. "It was an accident."
Jesse grabbed Ryer and Nina by the hands and pulled them up.
"It's good to see you." she grinned at Ryer. "Who's this?"
"I'm Nina Ketchum. Got a problem with that?" Nina growled, twisting her
baseball cap around on her head so that a lock of her hair stuck out from the
hole in the back.
"No problem." Jesse mummbled, stepping back as Ryer helped Katie up.
"Who's that?" James asked, pointing to her.
"This is Katie. She's one of the quads." Ryer grinned. "Katie this is my
Dad in the past."
"Hello." Katie said nervously. "Ry-chan are we seriously in the past?"
Ruka and Ryer both nodded and looked right over at Jesse and James.
Inside of five seconds the four were huddled in a group hug, crying
hysterically.
"Whatcha know?" Nina said. "They really do know each other."
"We're really in the past?" Katie said, still disbelieving.
Nina nodded.
"HOW ARE WE GONNA GET HOME!?!?!?!?" Katie screamed.
"Relax. All we need is my Ditto to duplicate the time machine." Ruka laughed,
reaching down to her hip to show Katie her Ditto's pokeball.
Her hands fumbled around her hips for a second, then she reached into her
skirt pockets and dug around in her jacket. "Um..." she stuttered, shaking
out the contents of her left boot. She found a button and a haircomb.
"I..uh.."
She shook out her other boot. A penny and a stamp. No Pokeball.
"AAAAAAAAAA! MY POKEBALL WITH MY DITTO IS GONE!!!"
Chapter Three - It's Lost, Okay. Face It. You Lost It.
"My Pokeball, my Pokeball, my Pokeball!" Ruka wailed running in
circles. "I lost my Ditto! We'll never get home! My Pokeball, my Pokeball,
my Pokeball,...."
"Never get home!?! I have band practice tomorrow!" Katie screamed.
"I'll never graduate highschool!" Nina shouted. "I have to graduate high
school or I'll never get a good job! Worse! I'm stuck in the past! AAAAA!"
Ryer clamped his hands over his ears. "I have a headache..." he complained.
"Hold it!" Meowth yowled, scratch attacking all three screaming girls.
"If I invented this time machine I should be able to build a new one for
you right?" he said, calmly.
"He's right you know. He did build the original." Ryer said.
"Good point." said Ruka. Katie and Nina nodded.
"BUT FIRST WE MANGLE YOUR MANGY FURBALL THROAT FOR WRECKING OUR FACES!" They
all screamed in unison, tackling Meowth in football fashion.
"Oh sheesh." James groaned as Jesse began yelling at the girls.
"Get his knee! His left knee is bad! One kick ad he's down!"
"Yeeow!" Meowth howled as Jesse poured antiseptic onto a cut on his
paw. "That hurts!" he screamed.
"Oh shut up and hold still." Jesse said. "You got yourself into this with
your own claws furball."
Nina sat contently against a tree juggling three pokeballs.
"What's in those?" James asked her as he passed around some sandwiches from
the picnic basket.
"My Pikachu and Hitmonchan and a Starmie my Mom gave me." Nina replied. "What
Pokemon have you got?"
"A Wheezing,.." James mummbled, pressing his fingers together. "...And I used
to have a Growlithe. And once I had a Weedenbell."
"Kakkoi." Nina said, casually.
"I think I remember Ruka telling me that you and your sisters each have a
Vulpix." Jesse said to Katie.
Katie nodded as she bit into an apple. "Mine's just evolved to a Ninetales."
she said. "It's really pretty but it's been kind of weak for a while."
Meowth pulled his bandaged paw out of Jesse's hand.
"So can you describe the time machine too me so I can build it again?" he
asked Ruka.
"Sure." She said. "It's a tin can attached to a dead battery."
"I think I have a dead battery in here somewhere." Nina said pulling a red
bag out of her jacket and stuffing her arm into it. "It should be...here!"
She handed Meowth an energizer battery. "It's from my walkman. I'm pretty
sure it's dead cause my walkman won't play anymore."
"Great. Do we have a tin can?"
James dug into the picnic basket. "If you eat this tuna we will." he said.
Meowth jumped at the can and emptied it inside of five seconds.
He sat the battery on top of the empty can. "Nothin'!" he exclaimed after
a few seconds.
"You need wires to attach them." Ryer sighed and peeled the paper covering
off a pair of twist ties, wrapping them around the battery and the can.
"There."
Several minutes passed.
"Nothin's happening!" Meowth yelled.
"Maybe if I...." Ruka began, pouring a glass of Cola onto the machine.
In a flash on light everyone, including Jesse, James and Meowth, vanished
from 1999.
