Warning: This is not standard Pokemon fanfiction. It contains scenes of
violence and some inappropriate language.
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Pokemon Master
Fanfiction by Ace Sanchez.
All parts of this story may be found at http://jsa.users.fl.net.au
Note: Pokemon and its associated characters are copyright by Nintendo,
Game Freak, Creatures Inc, and 4Kids Productions.
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Part 10B - Resentments (Continued)
It was a day and a half since the storm.
Laselle awoke with a start. It was dark and she could hardly see as her
eyes blinked to wakefulness. She could hear several other people stirring
around her as well. What had happened? The last thing she remembered was
eating dinner ... a tickling sensation on her bottom startled her out of
her thoughts and she heard a muffled sound come out from under her.
"Laselle, will you get off me?" The voice slowly gained meaning as her
brain sorted itself out.
She rolled over to find that she had been sitting on Giselle's head.
"Gee, sis, I never knew you were so kinky," she said, still a bit dazed.
Giselle snorted in disgust.
Laselle ignored her and looked around as her eyes adjusted to the
dimness. So eating dinner really was the last thing she had done. They
were all in the dining room of the ship... which was now in absolute
shambles. The floor seemed to be tilted diagonally, and all the tables
and chairs had succumbed to gravity and collected at the bottom, against
the wall and the floor. Most of the people had slid to the bottom as
well, and that was why she had been sitting on Giselle's head. There was
a lot of groaning as people tried to pick themselves out of the junk and
from everyone else.
Once she was freed, Giselle went to stand up but then slipped and fell
over forward with an indignant shriek. For a moment she just lay there,
her hair over her face before she pushed herself up to her elbows and
seemed to make a half-crying, half-laughing sound, her face still covered
with her hair.
Then Laselle remembered more of what happened. "That was some storm," she
offered, not bothering to try to stand up on the tilted floor. She tried
to learn from her sister's mistakes.
Someone came stumbling up to her and she turned her head. It was Junior,
looking a bit roughened up with his jeans and black shirt torn as well as
his black hair in disarray. His cap must have fallen off in the scuffle
as he had been wearing it before but not now.
"You okay?" he asked, scratching at his messed up hair.
"I think so." A thought came to her. "Oh no! Ash was outside, wasn't he?
Is he, is he-"
Giselle blew the hair off her face. "Why Laselle dear, do I detect a hint
of a crush?"
She felt her face redden. "None of your business!"
At that moment, the door at the far end of the room crashed open and
three women in sailor's jackets and skirts stumbled in on the uneven
floor. Misty's sisters.
"Like, is everyone alright?" the tallest blonde one said. Daisy, her name
was.
They took inventory of the people there. Everyone seemed to be okay,
except for Joe, Giselle's childhood fanboy, who had sprained his ankle.
Although Laselle couldn't really care less. She thought he was pathetic.
"So what happened? Where are we?" Captain Jenny asked.
Someone looked out the porthole, Laselle thought it was Joy, the younger
medic of Erika's group. "Mistress, I see white sands outside; a beach
of some kind." Her blue eyes were confused. "I've never seen sand this
white before!"
Captain Jenny looked closely at her. "Hey, look Joylene, one of your
relatives!"
Nurse Joy, or Joylene, from the Castle Town smiled. "You're right. She's
one of my sister-in-laws."
"You know, I still don't understand how all of you Joys can be
identical without being directly related," Captain Jenny wondered out
loud.
"Humph!" Joylene said, "And your identical cousins are supposed to make
sense too?"
"Actually, I don't understand that either," Captain Jenny said,
shrugging.
Daisy interjected before the two could prolong their argument. "White
sands? Like I think we've washed ashore on some kind of weirdo island!"
"What about Ash?" Laselle tried.
The shortest of Misty's sisters, Lily with shortish pink hair answered
her. "Duplica's checking the deck right now, but so far, like everyone
who was up there before the storm hit is missing."
Ania, Colletra and Triana, three Grass Trainers looked concerned. Laselle
was glad to see them again when they met up back at South Lavender as
they had been her friends back in Mistress Erika's group. They looked
none-the-worse-for-wear, Ania with her shortish black hair with bangs
over her right eye, Colletra with her blonde ponytail hairstyle and
Triana, who could've passed for Junior's sister with her dark hair and
similar fashion sense; although their green dress uniforms looked a bit
mussed up. "Even Mistress Erika?" they inquired.
"Apparently," Violet, the second sister, said.
"Master Bruno?" a couple of men in maroon muscle shirts asked. Laselle
didn't know their names, she had always tried to avoid Master Bruno's
group.
"Same. And our sister Misty too."
Duplica then stumbled in through the door, shards of ice stuck all over
her jacket and black dress. Her breath was foggy coming from bluish lips.
"Brrrr ... it's cold out! But no luck. I couldn't find any sign of them
at all, except for a few melted patches and scratches on the deck."
"No total way!" Lily said in shock. "Our poor ship!"
"That isn't the half of it. Anyway, I think everyone better come up and
take a look at where we've been shipwrecked."
Ten minutes later, everyone was standing on the upper-deck of the ship
looking in amazement at the land they had washed ashore on. It was indeed
a white beach. Sands of pure white, that seemed to radiate a light of its
own. A chill fog swept over them as they tried to keep their footing on
the slanted, frosted deck. Past the beach were what looked like icy
cliffs, but more could not be seen because of the overhanging white fog.
Behind them, the dark ocean swept gently across the back of the ship,
rocking it a few inches to and fro as it lay lightly buried to the hull
on the sand.
Laselle hugged her arms over her jumper and shivered. "You're right,
Duplica, it is cold!"
Duplica walked over to the star-board rail and leapt over it with one
smooth movement. There was a strange crunching sound as she landed on the
white sands of the beach below. She crouched down and felt the sand.
"This is what I was talking about. All this sand ... it's made of ice!"
Laselle squinted. No wonder why it was so sparkly!
Misty's sisters however were concentrating on something else. "Well,
would you like look at this?" Daisy complained as she examined something
on the stern. "Hydro-turbine number two, is like totally out of wack!
We'll never be able to continue sailing if we don't get this fixed."
"Looks like we'll have to get busy," Violet said with a shrug.
"Great," Lily groaned, as she rolled up the sleeves of her sailor jacket.
Duplica looked up at them from the beach and hugged herself to keep warm.
"We can't leave yet anyway until we find the others. I think we'll find
them somewhere here ... say, what is this place anyhow? Do you girls
know?"
Daisy held off her inspection of the turbine. "Let me just check our
coordinates." She took out a small compass-device thing from her jacket
pocket and fiddled with it. "This doesn't make sense. According to this,
we're somewhere in the vicinity of Cinnabar Island." She pointedly
looked around. "Does this look like Cinnabar Island to you people?"
"It sure doesn't feel like it," Duplica said, her teeth chattering. "More
like Icybar Island. But I guess we better make up a search-party. While
you're fixing the ship, we can go look for Ash and the others."
"I'm coming!" Laselle immediately put in.
"Me too," Junior said.
Colletra, unhooked her whip from her green jacket. "We're coming, me,
Ania and Triana. Mistress Erika may need our help."
"You may need a doctor," Giselle said arrogantly. "I'll lend you my
services."
"Great," Laselle said sarcastically, but her sister just lifted a slim
eyebrow.
"What about me?" Joe asked as he limped out of the hatch and looked over
the deck railing.
"No, your ankle might slow us down," Duplica called up from below.
Joe glared down at her from behind his glasses.
Bruno's two trainers looked concerned. "We'd like to come too, but that
would leave the ship too undefended. We'll have to stay behind."
"Speak for yourself," a deep voice rumbled. Laselle turned in surprise to
see a heavy-set, brown-bearded man in a maroon over-coat step out of the
hatch. Although he looked middle-aged, the muscular build of his body
underneath his clothes belied that. "Master Bruno would have my hide if I
let young Junior go off by himself and with nought but a bevy of
mothering women to accompany him!"
"Hikaru!" Junior whined. "I'm not a baby anymore!"
Laselle smirked. "Could've fooled me."
Junior looked at her with his sea-green eyes and tapped the end of his
cap flippantly. "On second thought, you better come along then. Little
girls need protecting after all."
Giselle looked at her and burst out laughing. "He got you good with that
one, little sister," she said in between gasps of hilarity.
Laselle folded her arms and fumed.
"We'll stay behind with the others," Captain Jenny said, speaking for
Joylene and the younger Nurse Joy.
"I guess that settles that then," Duplica said. She looked far over at
the flat icy pathway leading away from the beach and frowned. "Although,
how we're going to be able to walk on that is anyone's guess. Of course,
I can just whip something up for myself, but I don't know about the rest
of yas."
Lily tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Um, we may have something for you
guys, but its like totally far out. Any of you know how to skate?"
<><><>
Drip. Drop. Melted water fell from the icy roof of the small cave in slow
uneven splashes. Inside, light from an eerie black fire reflected around
the shiny frozen walls. There was no smoke given off by the unnatural
flames as it hissed and crackled. Unnatural, but it was a source of
warmth.
Unwavering, Ash held the image in his mind so that the flame might live.
There was no fuel for the fire, the fire burning on a floor of ice, but
for his thoughts.
A sigh and the woman lying across the other side of the fire stirred.
Grass-green eyes slowly blinked to wakefulness. Letting out a little
gasp, she sat up, clutching black covers to her chin. She shivered as she
combed the shoulder-length black hair away from her face with her
fingers, blue highlights shining in the light of the dark fire.
"A-Ash? What happened?" Erika asked sleepily. She noticed Pikachu was
there also, sitting beside her and warming his jagged tail on the fire.
Ash was hugging himself around his arms as he sat cross-legged, only
wearing his cut-off black shirt and black long-pants. He shrugged as he
turned his head and picked at a small white bandage wrapped around his
upper right arm. "During the storm, we must have got thrown off the ship.
We washed ashore. Besides Pikachu, you were the only one I could see on
that part of the beach. I dragged you here to this cave. You were out of
it for quite some time."
"What? Where's everyone else? Misty?"
He spread his palms over the fire again. "I don't know. But, like us,
they must be somewhere on this island."
"Island?"
"Yeah. Cinnabar Island."
Erika widened her eyes. "Cinnabar Island?" she said loudly, causing her
voice to echo around the frozen walls of the cave. "Then why the heck is
it so cold? Wasn't Cinnabar a tropical island? Years ago, it was even a
tourist attraction. Hot springs?"
He shrugged one shoulder. "I guess Lorelei has been doing some
redecorating."
She focused her green eyes on him directly. "And another thing ... that
lapras. You almost seemed to know it." Her eyes widened. "No, it couldn't
be ..."
He nodded. "Yeah, that was my Lapras ... in the past." Feeling
distinctly uncomfortable, he decided to change the subject. "But the
biggest surprise was when Bruno tried to stop me..."
Erika looked thoughtful. "How much do you know about Bruno exactly?"
"Not much. Only that he's as hard a man as they come. The Master of
Fighting and Strength... all I know is that he's changed a lot since when
I met him as a kid."
"You met him as a kid?" She looked interested.
"Yeah." He gave a short laugh as he shook his head, remembering. "We were
trying to pry out the secret of being a Pokemon Master out of him..."
Shrugging ironically, he continued. "Of course, no one was a *real*
Pokemon Master back then, knowing what we do now. But getting back to the
point, he wasn't near as ruthless as he is currently. In the dark Pokemon
Wars, I wouldn't be lying if I said his methods were cruel."
"In your opinion, were Lorelei and Bruno good ... friends?"
"Well, yeah I guess. Bruno was closest to the other Elite Four, more than
he was to anyone else. Although I must admit it was kind of hard to make
it out between then two. They fought more than talked it seemed," he
said in a baffled expression.
"Interesting," Erika said with the beginnings of a smile. She gave an
abrupt shiver and frowned. She began to slide closer to the fire when her
covers began to slide down. She looked down and gasped as she realised
that she was naked underneath them. With the speed of a burning rapidash,
she lifted them up to her chin again. She glared at Ash, her green eyes
beginning to glow with an inner light. "Um, why am I naked underneath
these covers?" she asked in a deceptively calm voice.
Ash looked at her and his face began to feel flushed. "Look, your clothes
and cloak were soaked alright? I had to take them off or you could've
caught hypothermia from that freezing ocean."
"Pika pika!" Pikachu agreed.
"And trust me, I didn't even look!" he added.
Erika was still furious. "How could you have not looked?"
"You mean, you wanted me to?" Ash asked, confused.
"I, no, I mean ... argh!" Erika sighed as she arranged her thoughts in
order. "I mean, how could you have taken my clothes off if you didn't
look? My dress is complicated enough even to put on."
"I have experience taking off women's dresses," Ash said defensively.
"I'll bet you do," Erika huffed.
"And I used my inner-sense alright?"
"INNER SENSE?" she said in horror. "That's even worse!"
"I, uh, just forget about it!" Ash said in a defeated tone.
Erika looked around. "So where's my things?" Her voice was still
decidedly testy.
Ash patted the bundle by his side. "Here they are. I dried them out for
you with the fire."
She looked closer at it. "Hey, that's not a natural fire. Won't that
attract those Forbidden Pokemon things?"
He tilted his head to the side curiously. "Don't you feel it? There's so
much elemental powers active on this island, that no one's bound to be
able to pick up any individual usage of elements. It's all this ice ...
here look, see how that ice underneath my fire isn't even melting? If
that was natural, we'd be swimming right now."
"Uh ... right," Erika said. She looked at him shiver again. "Where's your
cloak? Why don't you wear it if you're feeling cold?"
He pointed to the covers she was using. "You're using them."
She jerked, almost dropping the covers - which was really his cloak - but
then snatched them up again when she realised that if she dropped them,
she'd be naked. "Uh ... thanks, I think." Her face turned red. "Now will
you please pass my things and look in the other direction."
"What for?"
"So I can get dressed!"
"Oh." He threw over her things and spun himself around to face the wall.
"You too, Pikachu," she said firmly.
"Cha." He heard Pikachu turn around too, although sounding disappointed.
Then he heard her shuffle around and curse as she tried to squeeze into
her underclothes and dress while sitting down. "You know, you don't sound
particularly worried that we've all been split up and Misty's missing,"
she said testingly.
"Nah, I know she's fine," Ash said. "I feel it in here." He thumped his
chest. "But who cares about her anyway."
"Yeah." Her voice grew frosty as if she just remembered something that
made her incredibly angry. "You can turn around now."
Ash did so and warmed his hands over the fire again. She was now dressed
in her green short-sleeved dress and mini-skirt, her long legs crossed
together in front of her.
"Here." She threw Ash's black cloak at him and began to shrug her own
green one on. "Where's my boots?"
"Over there." He pointed over to the far corner, where her thigh-high
black boots were leaning against the icy wall of the cave.
"Okay. We'd better get going soon if we want to find everyone and get off
this freezing island." She began to stand up.
"Erika, watch out, it's-"
She shrieked as she suddenly slipped and fell with a loud thump on her
bottom on the icy floor. "Owwwwwww," she said slowly as she just sat
there, legs splayed out in front of her with a pained expression on her
face.
"-Slippery," Ash finished unnecessarily. He shrugged his black cloak on,
and slowly stood up. "To get anywhere, we'll have to do this-" His boots
began to shimmer with dark shadows and he rose up a couple of inches as
black skates formed underneath the soles. He slid his feet back and forth
over the ice. "See? Lorelei had the right idea with skates."
Erika looked horrified. "But I can't skate," she complained as she began
to crawl over to her boots.
Ash scratched the back of his head. "Um ... well, you'll learn soon, I
bet."
When they were ready to leave the ice cave, Ash was expertly balanced
atop the ice, while Erika kind of wobbled funny and held on to the wall
with one hand as she tried to keep steady on her just-formed hard-wooden
skates on the soles of her boots.
"Wooden skates?" Ash asked, looking doubtfully down at them.
"Well, that's all I can make, thank you very much," Erika huffed.
"Besides, their hard and sharp enough. Want me to test the sharpness on
you?"
"Um." He shook his head. "Don't worry, I'll take your word for it."
Panicking, she suddenly felt around her hair. "Where is my favourite
hair band?" she asked desperately.
"Pikachu," Ash said, turning his head to look at his pokemon sitting on
his left shoulder.
Pikachu was swinging it around his small arm, playing with the red band.
"Chu!" He snapped his paw reluctantly and gave it back to Erika.
<><><>
Like cymbals being crashed together over and over, the ebony waves of the
ocean splashed upon the icy beach. But however cold the ocean breeze was,
it was actually warmer than what air was currently there. Overhead, the
sky was as grey as rain-clouds, pulsing, but thankfully there was no hail
or snow falling despite the low temperature. Faint light that emanated
from the ice all around them seemed to make the whole island glow; making
it seem bright enough that there really was a sun up there, when in fact,
there was none.
Sands of ice crunched underneath the black blades of Ash's skates as he
stepped along the frozen white beach looking for other survivors. It
seemed to stretch out all along the perimeter of the island; they had
already been walking so far and there was no end to be seen.
Behind him, Erika walked along semi-confidently. "Hey, this is actually
pretty easy." Slight puffs of fog escaped from her mouth at each breath.
"This isn't skating, Erika, just walking with skates," he said with a wry
grin, puffs of fog also emitting from his mouth as he talked.
"Oh, shut up." She stopped and looked up towards mainland. "Let's go to
the city. I'm tired and cold, and there's obviously not much of anything
happening here." She brushed her short dark hair away from her eyes and
sighed.
He grunted. "That's assuming there's even a city left." He turned around.
"But I guess your right. That's probably what everyone else did when they
got washed up." He pointedly looked at the volcano of ice looming up on
the horizon, in the centre of the island. Clouds had begun gathering at
the top. "I guess it was obvious that if anything's going to happen, it's
going to happen there."
"I don't understand why we just can't fly around looking for them."
Erika shrugged. "I've got a scyther that can carry me and I'm sure you've
got some sort of technique for doing it..."
"Well, they may not sense us, but up there, they would certainly see us,"
Ash explained. "You wouldn't want some Forbidden Pidgeottos or something
like that tearing us apart would you?"
"Point taken."
They began trudging up the sloped pathway leading to the centre of the
island. The tops of ice-white trees could just be seen beginning at the
top of the slope underneath the dense white fog - a forest of some kind.
Although it started to get harder as the sands of ice gave way to flatter
ground, and hence they actually had to start skating.
Erika began to slip off-balance. "Ah, I-I think I'm going to-"
Ash grabbed her hand, and began pulling her up the slope. "Careful."
"Pika," Pikachu added from atop his shoulder.
Erika glared down at his hand holding her's. "Do you mind?"
He continued thrusting powerfully up the path with pushes on his skates
and pulling her along. "Well, actually, you are pretty heavy," he said
absent-mindedly. "Hey, ow! Can you hold it with that grip?"
"Sorry," Erika said in an unrepentant voice.
At the top of the slope, Erika let go of Ash's hand and skated ineptly
over to one of the tall crystalline trunks. She felt the freezing bark
and quickly removed her hand. "This-This is terrible," she said with a
worrying look.
"What is?"
"Chu?"
She began inspecting all the other trees. "These trees ... are not
covered with ice, but they actually *are* ice. Like, that's what they're
made of."
Ash followed her gaze. "I guess Lorelei *has* been doing some
redecorating ... I'm almost afraid to see what she's done with the city."
"Duh, like it'll be some big surprise," Erika said, sweeping her hand
over the white wilderness. "Brrr ... it almost makes me want to wish for
some fire pokemon. Almost, but not quite."
He was still looking at the trees. Like perfectly carved ice sculptures
they were; they held a strange beauty. A cold beauty. "Let's get going.
The sooner we find the others, the sooner we can find something to eat."
They hadn't eaten anything for over a day at least and his stomach was
grumbling. If only he had his backpack with him - it did have a few
emergency supplies - but unfortunately he had left it back in his room on
the ship.
"Pikapi!" Pikachu brightened at the sound of food.
Erika's smiled. "Hey, maybe you aren't as dumb as Misty says you are."
He looked at her impassively. "Don't say the 'M' word."
<><><>
A light breeze had replaced the stronger wind from before, but it was
still overly cold due to the sheer amount of ice around them. It was a
virtual city of ice ... every single house, building and structure had
been completely frozen, and not just covered with it - but actually
turned into actual ice like the frozen forest they had passed through on
their way to the city. Even the street-signs, mailboxes, flowers and
whatever vegetation had been transmorphed into ice.
Eerie.
It felt like they were the only ones who were alive on the whole island.
Erika had gotten a little better as she skated by Ash's left side on the
street, although she still tended to stumble a little every dozen or so
yards. "See? It was obvious wasn't it?" she said, referring to the frozen
city. Then she shrieked as she spotted something by a frozen bread store
next to the road. "There's someone over there!"
Strange, he hadn't sensed anyone at all. But there actually was a
human-shaped figure leaning against an entrance to an alley. "Stay here."
He skated over to the figure, black cloak trailing behind him in the
light zephyr of the arctic breeze and blinked. "It's not a person - just
an ice sculpture or something." It looked extremely life-like, a soldier
of ice. Slight light from over-head shined through its translucent body
giving it a luminous look.
Erika, right behind him as she hadn't followed his order, leaned in
closer. "Ice sculpture?" Her pert nose twitched. "Ugh! No way! That *is*
a person! Well, used to be one anyway."
Ash bit his lower lip. "I think you're right."
"Pika," Pikachu said on his shoulder looking shocked.
"But ... look at the uniform," Erika said. "It's a Pokemon League
soldier. Why would they do this to their own men?"
"You saw how Lorelei was," Ash said flatly.
"Hmmm ... yet another point taken."
He looked around the white street and buildings, observing more carefully
this time. Noticing more 'ice sculptures' like this one, he frowned.
"Seems like everyone is frozen. Looks like Lorelei saying that all warmth
must be destroyed was actually a literal threat - or a promise."
"She's that powerful?" Erika marvelled.
"Well, obviously the focal point holders must gain some increased
strength from the gate-opening. Otherwise, Lorelei probably could have
done this a whole lot sooner."
At that point, the frozen soldier they had been looking at abruptly
tumbled over and shattered against the icy pathway it was standing on. It
broke apart in to three main chunks of ice while countless more smaller
pieces clattered everywhere. The sudden loud noise echoed around the
frozen walls creating a haunting effect.
"Ah uh! I didn't touch it, it wasn't me," Erika said, throwing her hands
up.
"It doesn't matter anyway, he was already dead." He kneeled and examined
the broken pieces of ice. "Yeah, no bits of red. No blood. Just ice."
Erika was looking through the ice window of the store. "So I suppose if
we thawed out that bread, it'd just be water." She sighed, when suddenly
she frowned and began looking at the window more closely.
"What's the matter?"
"My hair, it's a mess," she said as she looked at her reflection in the
window and combed her shoulder-length blue-black hair with her fingers.
"And I lost my make-up bag too. And my perfumes."
"You're weird," Ash said with a shake of his head. "Besides, if its those
stinky perfumes, you're better off without them."
Erika's eyes in the reflection of the window turned into little green
slits. "Yes, I forgot how much you appreciate my perfumes. Makes me
wonder what a girl can see in you. Despite outward appearances that is."
Ash put his hands behind his head and gave her an infuriating grin. "As
long as you don't have that darned red X stamp to smack my face with
anymore, I'm safe."
Erika fumbled around inside her green cloak. "Thanks for reminding me I
still have it," she said with an evil grin.
But just then, the skin on the back of his neck itched and he turned
around, alert. He sensed something. Or somethings. Although he couldn't
tell from what direction from all the elemental ice around them which was
screwing him up. "Hmmm, much as I enjoy getting stamped in the face,
Erika, I think we better postpone that and get the hell out of here.
Something not all together friendly is coming this way."
"What?" She gained a serious expression and turned, almost slipping
on her skates. "Where?"
"I don't know." They were coming even closer now. "Let's just go!" He
skated behind her and began to push her quickly along the frozen
footpath, his hands on the shoulders of her green cloak.
"Not so fast!" Erika shrieked at the speed he was pushing her.
"Sorry, no can do!"
But as they began to pass an alleyway between two buildings of white ice,
Pikachu shouted, "Pika!" and it was chaos as something collided into
Ash's side. He let go of Erika and she went flying off down the street
screaming. But that was the least of his worries as he collapsed in a
slipping-sliding heap on his back with Pikachu attaching himself to his
face so he couldn't see, while something or someone else had fallen on
top of him in a tangle of clothing and hair.
"Ash?" a woman's voice said from on top of him as they slid away rapidly.
"Misty?" Ash called out. He was still blinded by Pikachu's chest on his
face but he knew that voice. As he lifted Pikachu away from his face,
bright blue eyes dominated his view, at least until long red hair
filtered into his vision and flew into his mouth. "Mrpht!" he shouted.
Misty lifted her head away from on top of him as they continued to slide
away backward on Ash's back. "Sorry! At the count of three, let's jump up
and get out of here!" she said in a high voice.
"Why?" Ash called out when his mouth was free of Misty-hair. He looked
behind them, or in front of them as they were sliding away backward. Then
he saw. Uncountable four-legged forms of what looked like growlithes made
of black ice were snapping and hissing as they poured out from
the alleyway they had just passed and the one Misty had come from. He
couldn't quite see clearly with Misty and Pikachu on top of him, but they
looked all sharp teeth, claws, red eyes and dark frozen spines. "Ask a
stupid question," he answered himself sardonically. "Okay, one, two,
three - JUMP!"
In perfect timing, they disengaged themselves from each other as they
hand-flipped on to their skates with a flap of black and blue cloaks.
They began to skate away furiously side by side. Pikachu landed on his
left shoulder and clutched tightly as they gained speed, black jagged
tail streaming behind.
Ill-sounding shrieks and barks followed them as the dark ice creatures
began to give chase.
"Who was that you were pushing?" Misty suddenly asked with a sideways
glance.
"Pushing? It was Erika ... Erika, oh shit!" Just ahead, just on the rise
of a hill where the street of ice lead, he could see a figure in a green
cloak sliding away rapidly with its hands flapping around in windmills at
the sides. He pushed harder in a burst of frenzied skating to catch her.
"She's going to go down the hill!" Misty said from behind as she also
sped up. "How could you have pushed her like that?"
"Me? It was you who smashed into me!"
"She can't skate! You shouldn't have pushed her in the first place."
"She can't skate so I had to push her in the first place!"
"Um, are you guys going to save me or what?" Erika interrupted in a panic
from right in front of them as she just reached the pinnacle of the hill.
Ash lunged forward. "Don't worry, I've ..." His hand just managed to grab
on to the back of her green cloak. "Got you!" he finished triumphantly.
Unfortunately the green cloak slid off her shoulders, spinning her
around to skate backward in the process. She glared at him as she hugged
her now naked arms, clad in only a short-sleeved green dress, and started
the long deep frightening descent down the icy street-hill.
"Or not," he mumbled.
"I'm going to get you for this, Ash!" Erika said surprisingly calm. Her
short black hair was flying forward in front of her face as she
accelerated out of control down the hill in reverse. Tall ice-white
buildings loomed up at the sides of the street, just waiting for her to
smash and rebound off them like a sorry pinball.
<><><>
A group of eight people were skating rapidly along the narrow iced-up
Road through the country leading to the main part of the city. Each of
them were scanning the frozen houses and foliage on the way there
through the outskirts for any sign of life as they sped and weaved along,
but of course there was none. Other than the sounds of the wind rushing
by them and the sounds of their skates sliding on the ice, there was
only the sound of their breathing to accompany them.
Duplica was in the lead, her long blue hair streaming behind her in the
biting wind along with folds of her violet cloak. "You know, this is
kinda fun," she suddenly exclaimed. "This is just like an oversized
skating rink!"
Laselle, who was directly behind her, thought so too. "But don't you
think it's a bit weird?" she asked. "And what happened to all the people?
This is a League city after all."
Junior's voice came from the back. "Maybe they all moved to Indigo
Plateau, the Pokemon League's Capital. I reckon it's too cold to live
here for very long, and what food could they live on?"
"The boy's got a point," Colletra agreed. "But the question is, why the
city's like this in the first place. Correct me if I'm wrong, but
Cinnabar's a Southern Island, right? The weather is just a tad on the
cold side if you ask me."
"Dangerous too," Duplica said suddenly in a more serious tone. "The
element of ice is everywhere. It's interfering with the balance. Although
the good news is that I think we can use special attacks if we want -
there's no way we can be noticed when there's already so much activity
going on."
Giselle seemed to be fiddling with a small handheld device. "That's
right, this detector shows so much energies that the needle is off the
scale."
"But what of the bad news?" Ania said as she skated up the back
along with Triana. "Something has got to be producing this 'activity' and
my guess is it was the same one who threw that blizzard at our ship."
"Let's just hope that we can find Ash and the others and get this ship
fixed up quick before anything else happens then," Duplica said.
Junior suddenly broke formation and skated off to the side. "Look at
this, guys! Someone's made a lot of those snow angel things. Pretty
realistic don't you think?"
The rest of them slowed down too and they all stopped with a sideways
screech on the icy road to examine what Junior had found. In front of one
of the abandoned farm-houses, on the front yard among frozen bushes stood
several ice statues of people. Laselle got a bad feeling as she looked at
one of a beautiful little girl. She was in a running pose and the bumps
on her cheeks looked like icy tears.
Laselle was startled as Hikaru suddenly skated over to it. He had a
solemn expression on his bearded face. "This is much too realistic." He
turned to look further down the street. She followed his gaze and was
shocked to see much more of the ice statues, all either standing or
laying on the yards in front of houses and some even on the street. "I
fear we now know what happened to all the people of Cinnabar."
Collatra looked disgusted as she studied another one of the statues, this
one a man. She was tugging on the end of her short blonde ponytail
angrily. "But this does not make sense! This was a League controlled
city. They have murdered their own people!"
Duplica frowned as she studied the same statue. "I'm going to test
something." Abruptly her form blurred and shrunk until only a small cute
red fox remained with multiple tails.
"Oh, a Vulpix!" Triana squealed as she skated closer, arms outstretched.
"Vul, hands off!" Duplica-Vulpix growled.
Triana stopped disappointedly. "Awww, Mistress Duplica, you're no fun,"
she said, as she brushed her black hair underneath her green baseball cap
with her fingers.
Laselle raised a brow at her. She still couldn't believe how immature
Triana acted especially since the woman was four years older than her.
"You mean you still have that unhealthy obsession with Vulpi, Triana? And
you, a Grass Trainer. You should be ashamed of yourself," she said with a
slight smile.
Triana lifted her chin. "Well, I did want to become a Fire Trainer,
remember, but we had no Fire Masters in the Rebellion to teach me," she
said defensively. "Besides, you're supposed to be a Grass Trainer too,
and now you have a *bug* pokemon," she said, pointing to Laselle's
backpack.
Laselle reached back to her pack protectively. "Caterpie's not just any
bug pokemon, he's special."
A snort of laughter interrupted her and Laselle frowned as Giselle skated
over to join them.
"You mean, you have a Caterpie now, little sis?" Giselle said, folding
her arms over her ample chest encased within the doctor's coat she was
wearing. "You've sure moved up in the world."
"Care to have a match then, big sister?" Laselle challenged, looking up
at her defiantly.
"Maybe later," Giselle said dismissively.
Meanwhile, Duplica-Vulpix had turned back to the statue. She began to
breathe a small amount of flame at its ankle. Immediately, the ice began
to melt.
Giselle crouched down next to her. "It's just ice all the way through. So
they haven't been conventionally frozen, but completely changed."
Laselle was about to move closer to take a better look, when suddenly the
ice beneath her skates began to vibrate and crack. Desperately, she
shifted her skates back and forth to keep her balance as a soft rumbling
sound began to be heard simultaneous with the moving of the earth.
"Wha-What's going on?" she said alarmed.
"Vul, below us!" Duplica-Vulpix suddenly shouted, but it was too late.
Exploding forth from underneath them, a bluish figure burst from the ice,
completely shattering the frozen man they were studying into a thousand
pieces. It wrenched Giselle from the ground and held her in a painful
arm-lock from behind. Giselle grunted in pain.
"Don't anybody move," the figure said.
The shattered ice was floating around in the air like drifting snowflakes
making it hard for Laselle to see. When it finally settled down, she saw
that it was a blue-cloaked man with hair of the same colour that was
holding her sister hostage. Despite coming from below the ice he looked
astonishingly dry.
Chanelle unhooked her whip from the belt of her green uniform and jacket
and took out a poke-ball with her free hand. "A Pokemon League Master,"
she stated angrily.
Triana, Ania, Junior and Hikaru also held pokeballs at the ready.
Laselle, silently unlatched her backpack from behind her.
"Behind you!" Giselle warned.
Laselle turned her head slightly and watched as two more cloaked figures,
one in red and the last in yellow, came striding up, surrounding them in
a three-point triangle. The ice beneath their steel-spiked boots crunched
and cracked beneath their heavy footsteps.
"That's right, Pokemon Masters," the blue-cloaked man said with an
arrogant twist to his lips. "You don't seem to have any Pokemon Masters
of your own right now, so you know that we can crush you any time
we please." At that, Laselle realised that they thought Duplica was an
ordinary Vulpix. The blue-cloaked man continued, "Now answer my
questions, Rebel trash. Where is the traitor Ash and where are you
keeping the Master of Rock?" He paused. "Oh, forgive me! How rude, but we
haven't introduced ourselves! I'm Rainer, and those are my brothers, Pyro
in the red and Sparky in the yellow."
As Giselle was still caught in a hold from behind, her brown eyes were
shifting to the left. A signal? Laselle thought. Her eyes shifted
downward. Laselle slowly rolled her eyes down to follow her lead. Duplica
still in Vulpix form was sitting down on her haunches, apparently looking
uninterested, but the way her throat was pulsing and her leg muscles were
twitching looked like she was about to spring into action.
The one called Sparky, the one with blond spiky hair and the yellow
cloak, suddenly let out a wolf-whistle. "Woah, that's a babe you got
there, Rainer! Let's take her too!"
Rainer grasped Giselle's chin and wrenched her face around so he could
examine her. "You're right. Damn, if we won't have some fun tonight!"
Giselle's brown eyes narrowed as she stared at him in contempt. "In your
wet dreams, fanboy. Now!" she called out, as she twisted within his grip
and kneed him in the balls simultaneously.
As Rainer let out a breath of complete pain, she grasped him by the neck
and threw him over her shoulder, surprisingly strong enough to launch him
at the yellow-cloaked Sparky. Sparky yelled in confusion as his brother
fell on top of him with a thud and they both collapsed into an
uncoordinated heap on the ice.
"VUL!" Duplica-Vulpix cried out in a cute voice as a long stream of flame
exploded from her mouth at the red-cloaked Pyro's feet. The ice beneath
his steel-spike boots melted and cracked and he shouted in anger as he
collapsed into the hole she created.
"Let's go!" Giselle shouted. She skated over, grasped the side of
Laselle's green jacket and began pulling her away roughly.
Colletra cracked her whip. "What are you talking about? Let's stay and
fight!"
Junior skated up and began pushing her from behind. "Against three
Pokemon Masters? Ha ha, I don't think so!"
Hikaru began to pushing the other two of Erika's trainers. "Junior me
boy's right. The odds aren't in our favour. Let's find Master Bruno
and the others first!"
Duplica-Vulpix let out another huge flamethrower melting the ice between
the three Pokemon Masters and them into a wide ravine. "Vul, that should
slow them down!" Then she ran up leaped on to Junior's shoulder. "Into
the city everyone!"
<><><>
They were skating so fast down the steep slope of the frozen road that by
now, the buildings by their sides were a complete white blur. Ash steered
Erika along from behind her as he grasped the top of her shoulders,
although it was a bit tricky since she was squirming so much and the
green cloak he had accidentally pulled off her was wrapped around one
shoulder. Pikachu had the job of making sure it didn't fall off.
"Your hands are freezing!" Erika accused as she shivered beneath his
fingers.
"Well, if you'd put on your cloak, maybe you'd be a little warmer!" he
said as he steered her smoothly past a curved area of the road and a
raised manhole cover.
Her voice was incredulous. "At this speed? No thanks!"
"I think they're gaining!" Misty said from behind him.
Ash glanced back to see the dark ice-growlithes were indeed catching up.
There was so many of them, they were like a wave of darkness filling up
the entire width of the street. Their growling was becoming louder at
each second as their eyes glowed crimson red. "Can't you get rid of
them?" Ash said annoyed.
"Don't you think I tried that?" she called sarcastically. "Nothing I do
affects them! Why do you think I was running away?"
"Fine! Here, take Erika; I'll take care of it!" he said, thrusting Erika
faster down the slope. Simultaneous as he pushed her, he spun one-eighty
degrees on his skates and continued on in reverse so he could face the
dark pokemon directly.
Erika screeched in fright. "Hey, Ash ... ASH!"
Misty gave him a dirty look as she skated past his side to intercept
her. "You'll see what I mean," she called out over the wind as she
overtook him and began to slide out of his vision.
"Here take this," he said, throwing her Erika's cloak. When he heard her
grasp Erika and steer her behind him, he lifted up his right arm so
Pikachu could run along it. "Pikachu, Shadow Blade!"
"PIKA!" Sparking darkly in shadows so that the light seemed to shift,
Pikachu assumed black katana form as Ash grasped its hilt in both hands.
And just in time as the first couple of dark growlithes gained enough to
be in range to attack.
"GROAR!" They leaped toward him, black needle-point teeth flashing within
their icy muzzles.
Ash did a reverse crossover on his skates to gain position and slashed
a horizontal line. The sword of shadow seemed to leave a dark after-image
as it sheared the dogs in half. But instead of blood gushing forth from
the grievous wounds as the dismembered growlithes collapsed on to the ice
and tumbled backward in pieces, ebony shards of half-frozen water flew
into the air.
However as Ash watched the remaining growlithes jump over their fallen
brethren, he was surprised to see that the halves of the bodies began to
knit back together again. Soon they had already rejoined at the back of
the pack, snapping and hissing as if they had not just been cleaved into
two distinct pieces.
"See that?" Misty said in a told-you-so tone at his back as she steered
Erika along.
"I should have known," Ash replied as he slashed another pair of
growlithes that had gotten too close. Icy-black heads flew off their
shoulders as the pieces tumbled away, but he now knew they would just
stick themselves together again. "These must be second level Forbidden
Pokemon... they can resurrect themselves. The second gateway must be
somewhere on this island."
"This just keeps getting better and better," Misty said sarcastically.
"Hey, the slope is evening out!" Erika said in joy as they began to slow
down. But she grew panicked as she spotted something. "But there's a
sharp turn up ahead, how are we going to make it at this speed?"
Ash took a glance over his shoulder to see that the road curved at about
a sixty degree angle at the bottom of the hillside. They would probably
collide into a building if they tried to make it unaided. "Misty, you go
on ahead and take care of it," he said as he slashed down a frozen
telegraph pole on the side of the street with his sword. The pole fell on
top of half a dozen Forbidden growlithes, crushing them to ice powder. "I
have an idea."
"Okay, Erika, let's go!" Misty said as she began to actually thrust her
skates to accelerate even faster as she pushed her friend onward.
"Shouldn't we be slowing down if we want to make that turn?" Erika asked
in dread.
"Trust me!"
"Isn't that a synonym for 'panic now?'"
Their voices grew fainter as they moved onward to take the corner and
a skidding-on-ice noise began to replace it. As they did so, Ash took
another glance backward to judge distances and absently decapitated
several more growlithes who had gotten too close. After a few mental
calculations, he counted in his head to three. "Okay ... now!" he
shouted as he reversed his grip on the katana's hilt and thrust it point
first into the ice. As he slid at high speed and began reverse cross-over
steps to take the corner, the sword sheared through the ice of the road
like a hot knife through butter. Broken shards of ice flew everywhere in
front of him in a tight cloud of smoke-like snow.
The growlithes of black ice growled in anger as they tumbled into the
long chasm Ash was creating with his sword and splashed into the
freezing-cold water underneath. Like lemmings, they all poured into the
huge crack as if they were water in a bathtub that had just been
unplugged.
The technique also served a second purpose, as using the sword like a
turning guide, he successfully took the corner at high speed. Then he
ripped the sword out of the ice and spun another one-eighty to face
forward again. In the front he saw that Misty and Erika had also made it
around the corner. Although there never really was any doubt as he knew
Misty was an exceptional skater, better than even him. Holding his sword
horizontally behind his back with his right hand, he thrusted faster with
his skates to catch up with them.
<><><>
"Looks like they split up," Rainer said as he crouched and examined the
skate tracks on the icy road. "Three groups ... perfect. One of us for
each." The he stood up and smoothed down his long blue cloak.
Pyro was looking around at the frozen city. Everything seemed to be the
colour of white, a land of unbroken pale hues. He didn't get scared by
much, but something about this place unnerved him. "You think that's
wise, brother? What if we meet up with that damned Ash?" He shivered at a
particularly unpleasant thought. "Or Mistress Lorelei?"
Sparky slapped him on the back. "Hey, we can sense each other can't we?
If any of us gets into trouble, we can just call out to each other's
minds." He snorted. "Triverion can take care of anything."
Pyro hissed as he felt pain at the slap.
"Oh sorry," Sparky laughed. "I forgot old Bruno gave you a beating."
Pyro shoved him back. "Very funny," he said annoyed.
"Stop messing around," Rainer said in seriousness. "Suzie's waiting back
at the ship and she'd have our hides if we don't succeed this time." His
blue eyes got a far-away look. "And that doctor girl..."
"Ha, I think Rainer's in love," Sparky said, nudging him with his elbow.
Rainer coughed. "Well, we're wasting time. I'll take the western road.
What about you guys?"
"I'll take the middle," Sparky said.
"I guess that leaves east for me," Pyro stated.
Rainer began striding along the ice confidently towards the left-hand
road. "Okay, if any of us grab anyone, we'll meet back here for
interrogation. Otherwise, if we see Ash, we'll immediately call out to
each other for help. Got that?"
"Got it," Sparky and Pyro mirrored.
They each went their separate ways.
But little did they know, they would never meet again.
<><><>
"Hello, hello!" Sparky was shouting out, his voice echoing around the
frozen walls of the barren buildings as he stomped along the road of ice
with his heavy boots. "Come out, come out, wherever you are!"
He pointed his right fist at an icy mailbox and let fly a bolt of amber
thunder. The powerful electricity shattered it to so many drops of
snowflakes.
"Are any of you behind that sign I wonder?" He let fly another bolt of
lightning, this time from his left hand. All that was left of the street
sign was a foggy vapour which dissipated to ozone.
"Jolt, jolt!"
Sparky looked down at his Jolteon. It's yellow spines were stiffened in
alarm as it stood slightly crouched on its four legs.
"What is it boy?" He looked in the direction it was facing but there was
nothing there, only a bare store-front.
"What, hungry already? But I just fed you back at the ship!"
He heard a swishing sound behind his back and he immediately spun around,
hands outstretched and blazing with lightning. He scored a long jagged
line along the road of ice before he stopped to see what he hit. There
was nothing, only a massive crack where his thunderbolts had scored the
ground.
"Strange," he mused. "I could've sworn someone was there." He took a step
closer and noticed a parallel track made by ice-skates in the general
area of his strikes. It cut across the road horizontally, but then just
seemed to stop, like whoever made them just disappeared.
"Jolteon, track whoever did that," he said pointing. There was no
response. "Jolteon?" He turned around and gasped.
His Jolteon seemed to have changed colour. To a translucent white. It
stood completely still with a surprised expression on its face. Sparky
ran up to it, the ice cracking beneath his boots and crouched by its
side. He felt its skin and sucked in his breath as the coldness bit the
flesh of his fingertips. It was frozen. And its life signs were
non-existent.
"Jolteon!" Sparky said in denial. "Wake up boy!" He grabbed it again and
didn't care as his fingers prickled in agony from the freezing coldness.
"Snap out of it!" He felt moisture slide down his cheek. "Snap out of it,
I say!"
A cold voice from behind him interrupted. "You should be happy. Your
pokemon has gone to a better place."
Sparky slowly stood up and turned. Before him, on elegant-looking ice
skates stood a slim figure in a pale ice-blue cloak. Glowing green eyes
flared in satisfaction within the shadows of its cloaked face.
"Mistress Lorelei ... how could you?" Sparky said in pain. "Jolteon was
my first pokemon ..." His voice tightened into anger. "And now you've
turned him into a fucking ice block! DIE YOU COLD BITCH!" he shouted
uncontrollably as he lifted his arms and began summoning so much
electric charge into his body that the ice beneath his feet began to
spark and bubble with power. His yellow cloak began floating in the
sudden wind created by the abrupt summoning of so much thunder.
"Warmth is a disease that lets one feel," Lorelei said softly as the
lower folds of her icy cloak began to rustle revealing one long pale and
smooth leg. "Abandon it while you can." Abruptly her form evaporated into
a fine white mist just as Sparky launched a devastating bolt of pure
electricity at her.
But as the lightning touched the mist, it seemed to backfire. Sparky
yelled as his hands lost all feeling within them. In horror he realised
that his hands were slowly turning into ice. His skin cracked and popped
as it hardened to frozen water. "No, what's happening ... NOOOOO-" Then
his lips, tongue and throat turned into ice and he could no longer even
talk. He thought about running away, but his frozen legs would not
respond either. And soon, he could no longer think at all.
It was just so cold.
<><><>
Someone was watching him. Pyro just knew it. He looked up above at all
the tall icy buildings, carefully searched each frozen window, but he
could never see anything.
"Flareon, keep a sharp eye everywhere," he warned to his orange and
red-furred pokemon who was trotting by his side. "And especially for that
damn Bruno. I wanna pay him back for what he did back at the ship."
"Flrrr," Flareon growled in agreement as it turned its head from side to
side, its fur burning softly with small flames.
Pyro tightened his red cloak and hooded himself. "I hate this place. It's
too damn cold for our tastes." And his skin was still stinging from when
that vulpix had melted the floor right beneath his feet and he had fallen
in that freezing water. Weren't fire pokemon supposed to be loyal to
their type? That was what was wrong with this world, no one was worthy
of trust unless they were a blood relation. He saddened as he thought of
his dead little brother. When Sabrina had shown him the melted remains of
Mikey in that hell-hole Mount Moon with a psychic image, he had vowed
that his murderer would pay. Somehow, he wasn't surprised that it was the
traitor Ash. There was no monstrosity that that Shadow-spawn bastard
wouldn't commit...
Then again, as he looked around the street, at the various frozen ice
statues of people, it looked like Mistress Lorelei was even worse. How
could she do this to her own people? No wonder why they couldn't contact
anyone at Cinnabar Island back at Indigo Plateau. They were all dead.
As he looked over the features of one frozen woman as he passed her, he
was startled to realise that he recognised her. It was his old neighbour
back at his childhood home that he had had a crush on. He had always had
a dream of someday going back to look for her... now he had achieved that
dream but not in the way he wanted. He walked quicker to pass her. He
couldn't bear to look at her frozen lifeless body anymore.
"So you're just going to ignore me, Pyro?" a frozen voice said from
behind him, sounding as if it were long in disuse.
Pyro abruptly stopped, his Flareon pausing in alertness as well. "It
can't be, I'm imagining it," he said aloud, refusing to turn around. But
when he heard the creaking of footsteps behind him, he succumbed to
morbid curiosity and turned around. Impossibly, the frozen woman was
slowly walking toward him, eyes the colour of glowing blood within her
icy face.
"I'm hurt," she croaked. "I thought we loved each other..."
"You-You're not her!" Pyro stammered. "Swana is dead ..."
"Oh, but you're wrong!" the ice woman lifted up her arms to the sky. "I
feel so alive! So alive! Join me, Pyro ... join me in the bliss of this
arctic wilderness!"
"Flareon, Fire Blast!" Pyro said in panic.
"FLARE!" Blistering heat replaced the coldness of the air as the
five-limbed star of thick red flame erupted from his pokemon's mouth.
The ice-woman screamed as the flame attack ripped through her cold body
melting off her body below the waist. Her upper torso crashed on to the
hard ground and her left arm shattered into so many pieces of ice and
water.
"Pyro ... how could you. I loved you." Her glowing red eyes winked out
and the rest of her broken body began melting into a slimy puddle.
Pyro fell to his knees on the icy ground, not caring about the extreme
coldness that bit at the flesh of his legs. He felt numb.
"You had the chance of love," a cold voice said at his back. "And yet you
refused it."
Pyro fell to leaning on his hands. "Mistress Lorelei ..." he said in an
uncaring voice. "That was a sick joke. An abomination."
"You are a stupid man," Lorelei decided. "I was only trying to give you
companionship before I sent you into the bleakness of ice. Even I was
denied that chance."
"You need help, Lorelei ... help to your death!" He flipped to his feet
to launch an attack, but he was much too slow. He didn't even have time
to warn his brothers telepathically. Soon another ice statue and his
matching pokemon graced the sidewalk of the city.
<><><>
Giselle was peeking around the frozen dumpster. "I think we lost them."
"Do you see any of the others? Laselle asked, shivering as she crouched
and leaned against the alleyway wall.
"I think I may have saw Duplica, your little boyfriend and his babysitter
run into a building about some time back. As for your three friends, I
haven't got a clue where they went. I still think splitting up was a bad
idea."
"Well, other than making it harder for them to find us, I guess it would
let us find Ash and the others quicker," Laselle offered. A word flared
out of Giselle's speech. "Boyfriend?" she said in puzzlement. Then her
cheeks heated up. "Oh, you mean, Junior. No, he's *not* my boyfriend."
Giselle slid away from the corner and crouched down with her. She gave an
infuriating smile as she brushed her long brown hair with the fingers
of one hand. "I'm proud of you little sister. You can never have too many
admirers."
"You're crazy," Laselle said with a shake of her head. "Oh, by the way,
that was a nice move you did on that Rainer guy."
Giselle shrugged in mock-modesty. "Well beautiful girls like me have to
know self-defence if we want to protect our virtue, you know."
She stared. "Now I remember why I always tried to avoid you, big sister."
Giselle then turned serious. "Well, we can't stay in one place too long.
We better get going." She peeked around the dumpster again. "Okay, see
that ice cream store over there? At my signal we'll cross the road and
duck inside."
Laselle stood up and looked at what she was pointing at. "Isn't it a bit
cold for ice-cream?"
"Don't be silly. We can get out the back door of the store and continue
on north to the centre of the island." She looked up pointedly at the
peak of the white volcano that could just be seen over the roofs of the
city. "I have a feeling we'll find what we need to find at the volcano."
Laselle arched a brow in perfect imitation of her older sister.
"Well okay, it can't hurt to maybe pick up a little ice cream," Giselle
said with a guilty smile.
"You'd probably just break a tooth on it, but it's your loss."
She waited for Giselle's all clear signal before they skated out of the
alleyway one after another and crossed the street quickly. After leaping
over the gutter on the other side and sliding across the sidewalk,
Giselle rammed the frozen door of the ice cream store with her shoulder.
However, it refused to budge.
"Frozen shut," Giselle stated softly. "Let's go around the alley at the
side instead."
Laselle brushed her hair from her shoulder as she turned to skate around
the corner. "I guess that means no ice cream."
"Very funny."
This alleyway at the right side of the ice-cream store was darker than
the one they had been hiding in earlier for some reason that Laselle
couldn't guess. It also seemed colder and she shivered as she skated
through slowly and zipped up her green jacket the furthest it would go.
She spotted another one of those ice-statues standing near the frozen
brick wall and shivered again. "I feel so sorry for those people. How
could it have felt to be frozen solid like that?"
Behind her Giselle let out a breath. "Well, it can't be pleasant, let me
tell you. I've treated patients with severe frost-bite before and even
that isn't pretty." All of a sudden she gasped and held on to Laselle's
shoulder to stop her from going on. "Do you notice anything funny about
that frozen person?"
Laselle turned her gaze back upon the statue. When she had first spotted
it, she had immediately looked away as just looking at them frightened
her to death. But for some reason, the statue looked familiar. It was a
woman ... with a ponytail. Frozen to ice that was steaming slightly as if
it was new. And then she saw the skates on its feet. And the whip in its
hand. A whip that was now also frozen into ice. The terrified expression
on a pretty face that would now never know any other emotion.
She opened her mouth to let out a shrill scream until Giselle hurriedly
Covered her mouth from behind and stopped her. A minute later, her
sister let go, but Laselle still felt like screaming as her heart felt
like it was beating at four times the normal rate. "That-That's
Colletra," she stammered in a voice full of denial. "But-but, how?"
Giselle nodded grimly. "I'm sorry." She placed her hands on Laselle's
shoulders and began to steer her away from it. "I wouldn't look at the
others either."
"What others?" Laselle immediately asked in a high voice as she ripped
herself away from her sister's grasp and turned back. In horror she
realised there were two other statues standing partially behind the first
one. Immediately she picked out a woman in a coat and the other in a cap
and jacket. Frozen in death. "Ania and Triana too," Laselle said in a
heartrending whisper. "They were my friends ... my friends in the Grass
division of the Rebellion." Her eyes felt like they would flood at any
moment. She couldn't believe this! How could they be dead? She felt numb
from the inside-out.
Giselle skated back and roughly began to drag her away, further into the
alley. "Laselle!" she admonished. "Snap out of it! Do you realise that
whoever or whatever did this could still be around?"
"How can you be so cold!" Laselle accused. "People are dead here - people
we know and worked with. Are we just going to leave them here? We should
give them a proper burial!"
"Don't be ridiculous, little sister!" Giselle said in a more firm tone.
"I'm not being cold - I'm being smart! I'm trying to get your life out of
danger - focus on the living! There's nothing more we can do for them,
don't you understand that? I've already seen too much death that I may be
desensitised to it, but I could never be desensitised to losing my only
sister!"
Laselle suddenly deflated. She felt like crying. "I-I'm sorry, Giselle."
"Now don't break out into hysterics over this, understand? Be brave!"
Giselle said. She suddenly stopped. "The alleyways blocked. Damn, this
was a waste of time!" she said in disgust as she pointed out the tall
wall of ice in front of them, visible now that they were close enough. It
was tall enough and slippery enough that it would be impossible to scale.
Laselle spotted something to the left. "Wait, there's a door." She
pointed to the icy-brick wall where the tall rectangular shape of a
doorway stood.
Giselle tossed her long brown hair in thought. "That may lead into the
ice-cream store actually. Maybe we can still go with Plan A."
"And eat lot's of ice cream?" Laselle joked, although it fell a little
flat in the wake of what they had seen. She still couldn't get Colletra's
frozen expression of fear from out of her mind.
"Maybe," Giselle said, trying to lighten the mood. She tried the door
handle and surprisingly it opened. "What do you know? Success. I've just
got the touch, I think," she said with her usual touch of arroance. They
skated inside quickly and shut the door. Despite Giselle's front of
bravery, Laselle could sense that her sister was also pretty shaken up
by the sight of three of their companions led to an icy grave.
"Well, what have we here?" an amused male voice suddenly said.
Laselle immediately searched out within the dim frozen room for the
speaker. Sitting at one of the round serving tables with his booted feet
resting high upon a chair was that Rainer guy.
"Laselle, get out of here!" Giselle shouted as she backed away pushing
her to the door.
"Uh uh!" Rainer scolded her as he lifted one hand in the shape of a gun.
"Bang!" A bullet of water left his finger and collided into the door
behind them. Immediately it splashed all over and froze. Laselle tried to
open it but it was jammed. She tried harder but her hands flared in pain
as frost-bite began seeping into her fingers and she had to let go.
"I can't believe my luck," Rainer said as he lowered his feet from the
seat and stood up, smoothing a lock of blue hair from his forehead. "The
very bitch who abused my privates earlier and she just comes waltzing in
like she owned the place."
"Were you the one who turned our friends to ice in the alleyway?" Giselle
immediately asked coldly.
He looked surprised. "What are you talking about? Alleyway? But I didn't
even come in here through there - I came in through the front door when I
saw you two unsuccessfully try to sneak across the street."
Giselle tapped her chin in thought. "No, it probably couldn't have been
you anyway. You're probably not powerful enough."
He looked offended. "Well, I'm certainly powerful enough to have at the
likes of you," he said airily. He shifted his navy gaze towards Laselle.
"And what's this? Such resemblance! It looks like I get a younger version
of the lovely woman as well."
Immediately, Giselle stepped in front of her. "Touch her and you die."
Laselle grabbed her arm. "Giselle, what are you doing? He's a Pokemon
Master."
"Indeed," Rainer said as he stepped closer and threw a fold of his blue
cloak over the shoulder to allow access to the blue poke-ball attached to
his belt. But curiously as he looked Giselle over, his dark-blue eyes
widened. "Oh what have we here? Your eyes are glowing ... you seem to
have an affinity for mastery."
"Maybe," Giselle said as she tossed her long, brown hair in contempt
lifted her chin haughtily.
"What is he talking about?" Laselle asked, puzzled.
Rainer looked at her. "It seems your sister? Your sister has slight
elemental abilities of her own."
She was shocked. "Is that true?"
Giselle stamped the skate on her left foot on the ground. A puff of steam
arose from the floor and a narrow crack ran along it in a zig-zag motion
directly at Rainer. He yelled as he was powerfully smashed backward into
the icy wall of the room and fell on to his rear.
"That answer your question, Laselle dear?" she asked wryly.
"But-but ... no one knew! Why did you keep it a secret?"
Giselle sighed. "Look, I never wanted any of the complications that come
with being a Pokemon Master. As a Master you're automatically a target.
And plus, there was just something to be said about just being plain old
'Doctor Giselle' a beautiful woman." She let out a hard laugh of some
unknown emotion. Turning her head, she levelled glowing brown eyes
at her. "And this stays strictly a secret understand? I don't want this
coming out!"
"Uh, consider it a secret, big sister," Laselle said, a little bit
scared.
Rainer snorted as he slowly stood up and wiped a trickle of red blood
that was leaking from his mouth with the back of his left hand. "As if
you would get the chance to keep it." He lifted his hands to the side and
a liquid blue glow enveloped them. "Ground is weak against Water and now
you'll find out just how weak!"
"Laselle, out of the way!" Giselle said desperately as she shoved her out
of the way. Her form became shrouded in a brown light and she jerked her
arms in an upward motion. As Rainer's twin blast of cold water shot
forth, it was blocked by a wall of hard earth which rose up out of the
icy ground simultaneous with the movement of her arms.
"Let me help!" Laselle called out over the noise of water and earth
colliding. She opened up her pack to release Caterpie who crawled on to
her shoulder.
Rainer spotted them out of the corner of his eye and he suddenly burst
out in laughter. "Bwahahaha! This is just rich! A stinking caterpie for
crying out loud!"
However at the distraction, Giselle managed to launch a volley of hard
rock from her wall and strike him in the arm. As a result, his left hand
shot of water went wild into the ceiling, blowing off part of the roof in
icy chunks.
"Bitch," he hissed in pain, still keeping up the assault with a one arm
Water Gun. With his now free hand which was bleeding, he pulled his
poke-ball out and threw it to the side. "Vaporeon, Hydro Pump!"
The ball exploded open in mid-air to free his somersaulting blue-finned
pokemon in a blaze of watery energy. "VEE!" it shrilled as it landed on
all fours and opened its mouth to let out a giant circular pillar of hard
blue water.
Giselle went to reach within her white coat for her own pokemon.
"Marowak-" Then she screamed as before she could release it, the
Vaporeon's attack combined with Rainer's overpowered her wall of Ground
and smashed her in the face, flipping her around in a broken back-flip to
land hard on her chest. She screamed again at the impact with the
solid-ice floor.
"Oh, did you hurt your pretty tits?" Rainer said as he jerked his arm
down, cutting off the stream of water. He began to walk forward. "I'll
massage them for you."
Giselle groaned on the floor, blood leaking from a cut near her eye to
pool on the ice she was laying on. "Laselle," she whispered in a soft
voice. "Run..."
But with the violence done to her sister, a haze of red had clouded in
Laselle's vision. "How dare you!" she shouted at Rainer. "You're nothing
but a stupid bully and a pervert!"
Rainer turned his cold blue gaze on her. "Little girl, you actually want
to stay here and watch what I do to your sister?" He began loosening his
pants underneath his cloak. "Or do you want a turn too?"
"Caterpie, Tackle!"
"What's that going to do... ARGH!" he shouted in pain as her small green
caterpillar pokemon leaped off her shoulder to headbutt him in the face.
To complete the move, Caterpie turned a backflip in midair and landed on
the ground with its antennae twitching in satisfaction.
"Pei!" it cried.
Rainer stumbled backward in disbelief clutching his heavily bleeding
face with one hand. "That .. that *bug* broke my nose!" he exclaimed
furiously as if he could not believe it. "Vaporeon, Ice Beam!" he
ordered in rage, pointing down at the tiny green pokemon.
"VEE!" The Vaporeon opened its mouth again to let out a shot of icy-cold.
It struck Caterpie in the torso and completely solidified it in a prison
of iced-up water.
Rainer cracked his knuckles. "Just for that, you little bitch, you're
getting it first," he said in annoyance as he stepped forward rapidly.
But Laselle did the last thing he expected. She attacked. "You bastard!"
she cried as she bowled him over in one leap and began punching him in
the face over and over.
"Argh, get off me you little vixen!" he said in complete surprise. He
managed to roll over and overpower her with her wrists captured in his
grip but only after he had sustained two black eyes and a fat lip to go
with his broken nose.
Laselle struggled ineffectually underneath him. "Pervert! Bully!" she
shouted and spat up into his face.
"That's it, you're getting it-" Rainer began in extreme irritation as the
spittle slid down his cheek, but stopped as he noticed a weird glow to
the side. He turned his head and widened his eyes as he spotted the
frozen caterpie emitting a whitish light. "Hey, what is that? Vaporeon,
freeze it again, it's getting out!"
But before the Vaporeon could even open its mouth, the ice shattered
sending sharp shrapnel everywhere. Rainer and his pokemon cried out as
bits of dagger-like ice shot into their flesh, knocking them backward.
Freed, Laselle jumped up to a crouch and slid away to lean against the
wall. Anxiously, she looked at what happened to her caterpie. What she
saw shocked her.
"Free!" the butterfree chirped as it hovered in the air with slow beats
of its wings. Its wings and body were coloured a complete night-black;
the only offset to the colour were its glowing crimson eyes.
Rainer groaned as he slowly pushed himself to his hands and knees. His
face was a bloody mess from the beating Laselle had given him. "It
evolved? Straight to a butterfree? That's impossible!"
Laselle was in shock too. That was right, how could it have evolved to a
butterfree? It had completely skipped its second stage evolution as a
metapod!
The butterfree looked at her as if waiting for something. "Oh yeah,"
Laselle finally said. She pointed at the fallen Water Master and his
pokemon. "Butterfree, Confusion!"
But instead of the Confusion rays that she expected to come out of
Butterfree's antennae, instead a solid beam of sapphire psychic power
erupted forth in a shot so powerful, it created a storm of wind inside
the enclosed room. Rainer and his Vaporeon were smashed through the wall
and outside the building as if they bullets through paper. Through the
hole they left in the wall, she watched them continue to fly away until
they smashed through the building across the street. At the collision,
the building collapsed on top of them like a house of playing cards.
For a moment there was silence as Laselle dropped her mouth open in
complete astonishment.
Then Giselle groaned on the floor. "I was right. You really have moved up
in the world, sister dear."
*** Continued in Part 10C
Ace Sanchez
Email: jsa@fl.net.au
WWW: http://jsa.users.fl.net.au