"What have your superiors told you?"

Ash Ketchum fidgeted slightly. The almost conspiratorial tone of the
question made the room seem quite cold, despite the fact that he was
almost sweating in his proximity to the fire. Taken off guard by such a
query, Ash mentally stumbled, which the rest of the room's occupants
could see from the opening and closing of his mouth. It took several
seconds for Ash to form a reply, and then it was not a well composed
one.

"Well... Three trainers were murdered recently... Their heads severed,
and their pok�balls found to be removed..."

The clergy who'd asked the question -- Reverend James, was it? -- nodded
his head. "However, the pok�balls themselves were not found, at all."

"Taken, then?"

"Yes," the large man in the chair, Serge, replied. "Taken... by the
Headless Goldduck."

Ash blanched at the rediculousness of such a reply. An anxious buildup
with such a silly climax. A headless Goldduck? "I find that hard to
believe," he said.

"But true," James said. "A Goldduck, ferocious in its temper as well as
its combat ability, frequented the West Woods of Silver Hollow some
twenty years previous. The Goldduck beheaded its trainer during a
pok�mon battle and stole the young boy's Ponyta, the largest of its kind
and the only one known to have been black in color. They killed many
other trainers before the Pok�mon Constabulary sent in a hunting party.
The resulting encounter killed the Goldduck, dismembered by a Venusaur's
Razor Leaf, and the party buried its body in the woods. Now it has come
back with his companion to continue their bloody work--"

"A moment, please," Ash said. A bead of sweat ran down his temple; he
doubted it was from the fire's heat. "You believe that a rogue pok�mon -
- a dead one, at that -- is riding a black Ponyta -- which is almost
unbelievable to begin with -- while killing pok�mon trainers and taking
their pok�mon?"

James and Serge nodded, along with the two other Silver Hollow
representatives, Brock and Giovanni.

Ash sighed and shook his head. "We have murders and pok�mon thefts in
Viridian City without the aid of ghouls and goblins. For instance, the
band called Team Rocket--"

"We assure you, Constable Ketchum," Giovanni interrupted, "that this
threat is quite real."

Ash 'hmph'ed before crossing his arms. "Real, perhaps, but not as your
superstitions play it off as. I will find this so-called 'Headless
Goldduck' and show to you that it is a creature of flesh and blood, and
not of shadow and myth."




At my local gaming store rests a Goldduck miniature on top of one of the
registers. My friend and I came back from watching 'Sleepy Hollow' and
were just in time to be present for its reconstructive surgery --
someone had knocked the figure off of the register and broken off its
head. One of the storeclerks got some crazy glue and, after failing to
reattach the head to the broken neck, glued the head to the inside of
its hand. It was soon dubbed 'the Headless Goldduck' and continues its
watch over the store with a somewhat... shifted perspective.

C&C, flame, whatever; just keep it off the list.

<cr128a@earthlink.net>

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