Pokémon: Blizzard [IC]

"Jiminy Kricketune! DRAGON RAGE?!" Laura gasped.

Dragon Rage had a base accuracy of 100 and always dealt a flat 40 HP; deadly, especially at the levels her Pokémon were at.

Lillian fell to the ground.

Terry turned around and stared at the fainted Petilil, then gave Laura a perplexed look before floating back to her and wrapping himself around her right arm again. The Honedge took a concerned glance at the Deino, and shuddered.

"Wow, okay. Geez. I quit. I quit. You win already."

Even if Terry managed to survive one Dragon Rage, it would take at least three Fury Cutters to down the Deino... two more than the Honedge would have.

She called back her Petilil and sprayed medicine on it, before reaching into her pocket to dig out some bills. "Man, remind me not to battle you until probably after the second Gym. That move is way too powerful. She smiled apologetically at Reyna. "Hey, what's the point of letting my Pokémon get hurt more than they need to?"

"You tried," Laura said to her Petilil, who was out cold from the sheer force of the attack.

Terry was unsatisfied, however. The Honedge once again unwrapped himself from Laura's arm and patted Lillian on the head with his sash arm, tousling her leaves, before unsheathing himself and pointing at the Dark/Dragon Pokémon.

"Wait, Terry, you're gonna--"

The Honedge squinted at the Deino, gripping his sheath.

Lillian came to and saw Terry glaring at Xylem, and some of her Grass-type vitality returned to her as she began to cheer, hopping up and down.

--------------------------------------

Knox nodded and told Ford to chip away at the ice. Ford split into the two wheels and reattached by the sides via magnetism. The Klink had formed a kind of buzzsaw by staggering its teeth.

While his Klink buzzed at the teeth of the frozen gears, Knox dug around his tool belt for something to chip away at the fronts of the gears. He didn't have a sledgehammer handy, only a small work hammer that he didn't think would be good enough to get rid of large chunks of the ice, but now that Dante had sheared off a sheet like that, he could begin to pick off the larger areas.

Knox set to work, taking the nail remover and hacking away at the larger areas of frozen machine, attempting to remove the most visibly obstructive ice.

Shaun

"Oh, um, okay." he responded "T-thanks." Shaun took a few steps back as the battle began. He watched Xylem and Lillian battled, impressed as the Deino engulfed the Petlil in blue flames. He opened the Pokedex and pointed it at the Deino, interested by its power.

Deino, the Irate Pokemon the Pokedex said in an electronic voice Lacking sight, it's unaware of its surroundings, so it bumps into things and eats anything that moves. Shaun took a cautious step back to make sure the Deino didn't go the wrong way and bite off a few toes. The Pokedex showed that the move the Deino used was dragon rage, an attack that always did the same amount of damage. Then, he turned to the Petlil:

Petlil, the Bulb Pokemon. The leaves on its head are very bitter. Eating one of these leaves is known to refresh a tired body. The move that the Petlil had used was Leech Seed, an attack that drained health from the target to the user. Shaun watched the battle so eagerly that Skully decided to float off and take a little look around. The Duskull floated around the battle, careful not to receive any collateral damage, and soon found itself floating about ten feet in the air, staring down at a boy and a little Solosis. Both of them looked rather timid and easy to scare, something that Duskull loved to do. It chuckled darkly and floated over their heads, where it hid in the shadows. It waited a few moment and then jumped out at Sean, holding its arms up in the air, sticking out its tongue, and letting out a ghostly howl.

Ozymandias


Meanwhile, Ozymandias decided to come roaring into the scene, his backpack bouncing up and down with the mind plate inside. It tore through alleys, its body spinning up a storm and its eyes darting around, taking in the scene. Grant's shouts could be heard echoing behind it, but it ignored him, still staring at the object in the distance. What was that? It sparkled silver in the sunlight and now appeared to be...on someone's arm? That was odd. Before Baltoy could figure out what was going on, it was on its back dazed and confused from an impact with...what was that? It looked up with blurry vision, and groaned "tooooooooooooy" weakly. In his franticness, it had crashed into Caroline.

Ford nodded at Dante, before whirling up one more time and slamming into the chunk of ice. The drawbridge’s gears stopped twitching and spun back to life, making a mechanical tick-tick-tick until the drawbridge slammed shut. Knox looked out as the bridge’s halves lowered just as a ship passed between them and into the ocean. “Praise Helix, that’s over with,” Knox said to Paige. “Now we just gotta wake ‘im up with the direct approach.”

Ford used Charge!

Ford began charging electricity!

Ford’s Special Defense rose!

Knox took out a pair of rubber gloves and grabbed both halves of his Klink by the noses. They began to spin slowly. “Try not to dislodge too much energy, Ford. We just want a little jolt.”

Knox approached the bridge operator. “CLEAR!”

BRSZAP!

The operator shot straight up with a literal jolt. “Daw, Bird Jesus! You OK, man?” Knox asked, releasing Ford and placing a gloved hand on the operator, whose clothes were smoldering somewhat. Knox grabbed a broken chunk of ice and dabbed it at the hottest places. “Sorry; we couldn’t wait for you to wake up.”

“Who… what… Wait, are you the guy with the… no, you’re not in armor. And that’s certainly neither a Bronzor nor a Snorunt at your side… and the other guy was alone. Who are you?” asked the operator.

“You might call us the cleanup crew. That guy was probably the dude who iced your bridge. Please don’t call the cops on us.”

“Er, I don’t think I will… I need some time to think…” The operator placed an elbow on his chair, and recoiled slightly when an electric spark jumped between his elbow and the metal in the arm.

Knox turned to Paige. “What now, Captain?” Knox was not a girl person, but he had a respect for people with technologic know-how, or just a sense of logic in general. He saluted jokingly, then peeled off his rubber gloves, tucking them into his belt loop.

Caroline watched the two with interest, not really bothered that the dinosaur Pokemon didn't take interest in her. It had probably expected some sort of food, since she was holding out her hand in such a manner. She briefly patted it on the head as it turned to greet its real owner. Caroline watched the exchange between Damian and the Honedge with a great amount of interest, he seemed like a really advanced trainer by the way acted around his pokemon. And the thing with the revive, the pretty much blew her mind. She quietly reminded herself to take a note about that later.

Suddenly the conversation was directed back to her. The girl had gestured over to her, and the boy had started talking to her. Caroline smiled in return. "I can tell!" She said in response to Damian telling her his Tyrunt had a lot of energy. "He's really cute!" The Tyrunt even had a cute name. Her voice was filled with excitement. "It's not often someone gets to see a fossil pokemon...well...walking around."

She was about to continue complementing the pokemon, when another ran right into her. Caroline found herself taking a few steps backwards to steady herself, not wanting to fall down and embarrass herself. She rubbed her head, trying to figure out what had happened. "Hmm?" She groaned, looking down. "Oh!" Suddenly the excitement and smile had returned to her as she helped the little pokemon in by its arms. "Sorry little guy" she said, hoping he hadn't damaged himself. She had a soft spot for ancient and mysterious pokemon. Suddenly Donna and Damien took a back seat to the Baltoy. "Are you okay little friend?"

Weehee! And just like that, the lights were out for the Petilil! Another one-hit-knock-out victory for Xylem, getting all the experience he needs to become stronger. All it took was one loss and this Laura girl didn't even hesitate to forfeit! Reyna cheered and Xylem, intrigued by his mistress' sudden outburst, figured he had pleased her in some way, so he was happy! Whatever he did, he must have hit his mark. In any case, there was still that annoyance on his chest. The inert leech seed didn't hurt him anymore, but still, Xylem found it annoying. He nibbled at it a little before tugging on it and taking it and the vines sprouted from it off and eating it, then absentmindedly chewing on the seed that was previous sapping his strength.

Reyna watched Laura look after the Petilil after what had to be her most humiliating defeat! As she did so, she made a comment about how powerful the move she had used was. Reyna couldn't keep herself from scoffing as she received her prize. "Oh, please! Don't sell Xylem so short. It takes powerful Pokemon to use powerful moves!"

She had to say, it felt pretty insulting to her to be told that her Pokemon didn't do as much work as it did. They worked hard to get to this point! A member of the Pokemon League, for instance, wouldn't deserve to be called a bad trainer or that their moves were too powerful! They worked hard to get to get where they were now, of course they're powerful! They worked hard! Excusing your own weakness for their enemy being too strong? What a laugh! Her own Pokemon seemed to have more spunk. Her Honedge was aiming itself at Xylem. Was it indignant? Insecure? What exactly was wrong with it? Reyna snickered to herself. "That's a pretty ballsy little 'mon, there. I'm guessing he'd like a go at it too? You already quit, so that would have to mean a second match..."

Well that was quick. Sean thought. One draconian typhoon and the girl quit and gave Reyna her prize. Geez, he wouldn't want to fight her. They both had their points... that Deino and the move it used were powerful, perhaps even out of... Laura, was it? Perhaps even out of Laura's league. But he also had to hand it to Reyna for raising that Deino so strong. Meepers orbited Sean's head, prompting him to look up. As he did so, suddenly a ghost with a skull mask jumped at him and howled! "Ah!" Sean squealed as he jumped backward and fell over the bench he was perched on. Even Meepers let out a cry and hid behind Sean's hair. Congress, the Slakoth, who landed softly on the grass just lazily looked up in the air seemingly unimpressed by the Duskull's antics. Sean was still shaking even when he pulled out his Pokedex to see what it could have been. "Duskull, the Requiem Pokemon. It doggedly pursues its prey wherever it goes. However, the chase is abandoned at sunrise."

Wh-what... what?! Prey? Sean's heart was beating against the inside of his chest like a drum, accelerating in its beat. Oh gosh, oh gosh, oh gosh... was it hunting him? Like the Beartic! Her was prey! Again! Sean was beginning to feel tears well up in his eyes and his breathing was uneven. All he could do to help himself was to weakly whimper, "help me..."

A good few moments passed by, with both Sean and his Solosis cowering beneath the Duskull. It took all this time for Congress to finally register what happened and let out an excited yelp, before it struggled to roll its lazy body over and onto its back, very slowly mimicking Sean's movements. Reyna was too busy being wrapped up in her business with Laura to notice the scene going on behind her.

Laura smiled. “Alright, then. Terry, use Swords Dance.”

Terry used Swords Dance!

Terry’s Attack rose sharply!

The Honedge overturned himself, pointing his blade to the sky, before performing a frenetic series of slashes to raise his spirit. All the while, however, the sword eyed the small dragon, cautiously making hiss movements; he saw the power of that Dragon Rage and could not risk a hit.

Laura crossed her fingers. More than likely the Deino was either going to use a Dark-type move or Dragon Rage; whichever one it was, Terry would have to be clever enough on his own to handle it.

———————————————————

Knox nodded at Paige. “I think I’ll cross the bridge, too. I mean, it’s not doing any good being holed up in a single town all day; that’s not my idea of a journey.”

He recalled his Klink and strode across the drawbridge.

Knox smirked. “Magikarp, huh? You gonna get that nice powerful Gyarados?” he asked. It wasn’t a condescending remark. This was a real logical-looking (and sounding) girl; the juxtaposition of a rampant sea beast like the atrocious serpent Gyarados with a gal like Paige was slightly amusing.

Knox looked out to the ocean. “You know, my gramps had a Feebas pool in his backyard. There was something about that Pokémon that appealed to him. Maybe it was marvel at an ecosystem that allowed Pokémon like that to thrive; maybe it was out of respect for that ecosystem that he tried to recreate it in his own home.

“He had one particular favorite. Her name was Bessie. Man, was she uuu-gly! Lopsided fins, a hole in the dorsal that was bigger than the others, big round dinner-plate eyes that moved independently of each other… But she was the nicest. Gramps used to tell me that when he stuck his legs in the pool, Bessie would swim in circles, rubbing his legs. He called it his good-luck charm.

“Good old Bessie. When I was a kid, and I visited Gramps out in the country, he’d take me back to his yard and show me the pool. And I’d remember that that particular Feebas would swim in circles, making the largest splash. Gramps would lift her out of the water, and he’d always feed her dry Poffin crumbs. Feebas might be an ugly Pokémon, but man, the way Bessie loved Gramps; that makes her the most beautiful Feebas I’ve ever known. I wonder if Bessie’s still alive, and if Gramps is still taking care of her. It’s been a year since I’ve last visited my Gramps.”

Knox felt good reminiscing about his grandfather and the Feebas. The connection between Gramps and Bessie was purer than any meretricious pampering that any old Delcatty could receive. But Knox felt something else when he told this to Paige. Once he got his grandfather’s story through to the girl, she felt more approachable; perhaps because she now held a piece of Knox’s past.

“Sorry, did I bore you?” Knox asked, his expression solidifying back into its predominantly stoic state, although the vestige of a nostalgic smile lingered in his expression.

"Hey!" Reyna barked indignantly. The nerve! "At least give me some warning! Xylem! Dragon Rage..."

Xylem the Deino took in a deep breath, an action that might cause its opponent to tense up and try its best to anticipate where to avoid it. Honestly! Talk about incourteous! Bah, fine, fight fire with fire, right? Let them get away with their cheap tricks, they're going to learn not even that will save them. Sure, Laura seemed like a nice girl (at first!), but this was a good rundown of her abilities! She got a feeling that her Deino was more trained than these two and had greater battling experience. That was enough to take down this Honedge without a cinch, even with their cheating! Her strategy was always simple, but it was effective: overwhelm the opponent! Charge straight in. Trainers these days always seemed more used to a conservative style, so as soon as they encounter a flurry of relentless attacks, they panicked! At least that was the case in her experience. Still. She wasn't going to give Laura a chance. Reyna smirked. "Just kidding - close in and Bite!"

The maneuver she used just then... it wasn't the first time she has used it. She got a reputation among her peers back in Mauville, so they all learned to be wary of Dragon Rage. So she combated that by faking a Dragon Rage command; it was to catch them off guard, and while their Pokemon is caught flat-footed expecting a torrent of blue fire and electricity, Xylem lunges forward with his maws wide open.

Revenge and deceit are dishes best served cold, of course.

Xylem leaped forward with his fangs bared, poised to use Bite on the Honedge with bone-crushing force. What was the neat thing about Bite, again? Something along the lines of it being a very scary and upfront attack and "if it doesn't beat 'em, they'll be flinching away". That's what her dad said anyway, and he wasn't a super reliable sort. But then again, he did know a fair amount about Pokemon. So if what he says is true, Bite should finish off the Honedge in one swoop, and if not, maybe it will cringe away and give her another chance?

Laura winced. “Ack, sorry about that,” she said, through a teeth-gritted, apologetic smile of discomfort. She genuinely was sorry. “I get excited when these things start up."

Xylem used Bite!

The Deino lunged at Terry and latched on with its undeveloped, but still very potent, fangs.

It’s super effective!

Laura cringed; most Dark-type moves were based on negative energy or what would be considered dirty fighting in a human brawl. However, Terry steeled his gaze and endured the hit. Laura gave a little smile at the Honedge’s resolve. “Alright, while it’s close, give it the Fury Cutter.”

Terry used Fury Cutter!

Terry flung his sheath to the side and wrapped his sash around Xylem’s neck before swinging around and bringing the flat of his blade into the dragon’s snout, wrenching himself from the Deino’s jaws in the process. A cringeworthy metal screak whined when Terry’s blade ground against Xylem’s fangs. Terry then unwrapped himself and began to slash furiously in an attempt to drive the Deino backwards. Each slash was driven by the addition of the previous cut’s force to the Honedge’s current acceleration.

It's super effective!

The Honedge let loose a final slash and snatched the Deino’s neck again, using it as an axle to launch himself back towards Laura. Terry scooped up the sheath and gazed at the Irate Pokémon.

Laura politely made no comment about Reyna’s trick, though she had to hand it to her; this chick was good. She wasn’t just judging off of that freaking Dragon Rage that OHKO’d Lillian, because any old Dragon-type could do that. Many Trainers back in Unova talked about sweepers and phasers and tanks and walls and annoyers and all sorts of competitive jargon that Laura didn’t give two Bidoofs about. Laura had a grudging respect for Reyna’s tactic of blowing through everything in her way. Hey, that worked. She’d heard stories of Trainers blasting through their adventures with their starting Pokémon thirty to forty levels higher than the second-highest-leveled Pokémon in their team.

Knox thought about it. "Maybe," he said, shrugging with a slight pout. He then pulled a town map out of his tool belt. "Hmm, how far is Opal from... Holy Helix, that's a long way," he said, his eyes widening. Knox folded up the map and stuffed it into his belt. "Man, it's times like this when I wish I had a bike. I never found much use for one since I spent most of my life at my pops's auto repair. I guess I'd pick up pretty quick, though. I have a way with machines."

Knox heard a growl around him. "That doesn't sound very nice."

A patch of tall grass to Knox's left rustled, and two Poochyenas sauntered out, baring their fangs. To Knox's left, a pair of Houndours growled as they approached the boy and his Klink. In front, a Mightyena approached Knox and barked harshly. "I think we stumbled upon dog territory," Knox said to Paige. "Wild Dark-types aren't exactly known for being 'cute and cuddly.'"

Knox has seen plenty of kids with happy, yipping pet Poochyenas and Houndours, but wild dog Pokémon were rather vicious, especially if they were Dark-types like Poochyena.

Poochyena used Tackle!

One of the two Poochyenas dashed at Knox, its mouth open, in an attempt to knock the boy down. Ford spun in a circle and bashed the Poochyena in the snout, knocking the dog Pokémon backwards.

Ford used Vicegrip!

Ford then clamped down upon the Poochyena’s torso, causing the black dog to yelp in pain. However, one of the Houndour’s teeth began to glow.

Houndour used Ember!

The Houndour blew several hot sparks at the Klink’s direction before letting loose the spray of coals that was the Ember attack. Ford winced, its spinning becoming irregular as the coals singed its metal skin.

Ford used Charge!

Ford began charging electricity!

Ford’s Special Defense rose!

Ford used Vicegrip!

After charging up with electricity, Ford’s gears latched onto the Houndour and began to gnash for another Vicegrip attack. The Klink, with the backs of its gears, snapped the Houndour’s snout anytime the dog attempted to bite.

“I could use a little help,” Knox called to Paige, warding away the Mightyena with his hammer.

Xylem was unable to watch the Honedge swing its blade at him, and Reyna was unable to warn him in time. He felt a cut on its chest, causing him to jump back and yap in pain. He heard Reyna yell, "get out of there!" Xylem felt another, harsher cut and let out another agitated yap before retreating backward, feeling the swishes through the air as the Honedge swung wildly. As for Reyna, she grumbled as she watched her blind Pokemon try its best to avoid the oncoming attacks. That's all he could do for now. Biting a swinging blade wasn't smart, and they didn't have the time to be using Dragon Rage and this thing was just picking up more momentum. She watched it carefully trying to find a way out.

She saw the tassel holding the Honedge's sheath. That could be a way out. It was risky, but as long that Pokemon was holding its sheath, it shouldn't do anything to harm Xylem.

She continued to watch the cycle off Terry's rotations carefully. Xylem was beginning to struggle staying away from the spinning blade, sweat was dripping down its legs and neck and soaking his fur. Now! "Bite!" Reyna called. Xylem lunged forward as Terry's blade was swinging around and pointed away from him. The Irate Pokemon's teeth gripped the cloth that wrapped around its sheath, but the acting momentum had eventually fling him off in the other direction a fair distance away from the Honedge without doing it much damage. Reyna swore beneath her breath.

Fine. Whatever. That will have to do. If the Pokemon hadn't dropped its sheath out of alarm, then maybe it cringed. Xylem's fangs touched a weak point after all. Regardless, Reyna was given another chance and she was becoming a little irritated.

"Okay, no holding back this time." She growled. "Shake it off, Xylem. One o' clock! Dragon Rage!"

Skully laughed in delight as Sean leapt for cover. Duskulls inherently loved making children cry, and were famous for scaring bad children. It nearly keeled over laughing, performing barrel rolls in midair. Three creatures, a human, a solosis, and a slakoth: this was truly a legendary scare! After about twenty seconds of laughter, Duskull finally stopped. The boy was still crying, but Duskull didn't really care. The scare was fun and it felt little remorse. Just as it looked up, Shaun came running over.

"Skully!" Shaun shouted as he approached the boy and his Solosis "What did you do?"

"Skull-skull?" Duskull replied.

"Did you scare him?" Shaun snapped back. Duskull mumbled a cry and shrugged his shoulders. "Skully, I told you before! It's not nice to scare people! Now say you're sorry." Duskull dropped its head and sagged its shoulders. It floated over to Sean, Solosis, and Congress and mumbled "Dus-dus-duskull..." Skully said sadly.

"Good. Now return to your Pokeball." Shaun opened the Luxury Ball and Duskull was spirited away in a flash of scarlet light. After safely stowing the Pokeball in his jacket, Shaun offered a helping hand to Sean. The poor kid seemed absolutely terrified. Shaun felt his pain. When he had first met Skully, the Duskull scared him so much that he tripped over a tombstone and fell onto a sleeping Vulpix. He still had a burn scar on his lower back from the ordeal.

"Sorry about him." Shaun said to Sean (this is going to get confusing) "Skully can be kind of...um...me...me...mean to people."

Ozymandias and Grant


wip

Knox and the Mightyena glared at each other, the boy brandishing his hammer and the Mightyena baring its fangs. One Poochyena yelped as Dante’s Take Down knocked it into the grass, its legs kicking at the air.

The leader of the pack lunged first; Knox sidestepped the canine and ran after the Mightyena. The dog Pokémon got a blow to the snout when it turned around. Ford rolled across the floor under the Mightyena’s belly and dug its teeth into the warm flesh. Mightyena howled in pain, ducking its head in between its legs to glare at the gears. Ford floated up behind Mightyena, sparking with electricity. Ford tackled the Mightyena and clamped down upon its tail with the flat backs of its gears.

Ford used Vicegrip!

When Mightyena yelped, Knox got the dog Pokémon in the snout again with his hammer, knocking it out.

Ford learned Thundershock!]

Knox noticed that the electricity around Ford was sparking more frequently. “Ford, you gotta let that stuff loose!”

Ford used Thundershock!

The Klink spun rapidly, sending sparks of electricity flying before flinging small bolts of lightning at each dog. The Poochyenas and Houndours yelped, panicking upon contact with the electricity. They whimpered and whined as Ford leered over them, ticking metronomically like a time bomb.

The alpha Mightyena quivered, struggling to its feet and lunging at Ford. Knox slugged the Mightyena in the snout, and Ford charged up once more and fired electricity at the Mightyena. ZAP!

The Mightyena barked harshly at its cronies and they retreated, tails between their legs, into the tall grass.

“Yeah, that’s right! Get outta here!” Knox said, flailing his hammer at the retreating dog pack. He turned to Ford and high-fived (sixed in Ford’s case since the gears had 6 teeth each) the Klink. He then turned to Paige. “Bump it, girl,” he said, clenching his fist and putting it out towards Paige.

————————————————

Terry’s eye widened when Xylem’s mouth opened for another Dragon Rage. “Aw, GEEZ!” Laura yelped when the flames engulfed the field. The Honedge, in a last-ditch attempt at survival, retreated into his sheath and wrapped himself in the sash. He fell and clattered to the ground, gripping his sheath tightly to ward off the flames.

When the flames died down, Laura called out to Terry. “Er, Terry? You good there, bro?”

The Honedge didn’t move. “Jiminy! That’s a wrap,” Laura said, shrugging and smiling apologetically at Reyna. Terry weakly unwrapped himself and dragged his sheath across the floor before getting back up and falling over, its pupil X’d out.

Terry fainted!

“Bagh, you win again,” Laura conceded. She lifted the limp Honedge up and his eye blinked back to life. Terry sheathed himself once more and wrapped himself back around Laura’s right arm. “Hey, man, you don’t have to look so embarrassed,” Laura said, patting the wrapped sash on her right arm. “You managed to make a scratch.”

Lillian indignantly huffed. “Oh, sorry, Lillian,” Laura said. “I think you tried your best, too. Kind of hard to survive a Dragon Rage when you’re at like, 33 HP max or something."

Reyna threw her head back and let loose a jovial laugh with a sense of pride welling up in her core and tightening her chest. It was of course nothing done out of scorn or spite, but rather being proud of Xylem's hard work. She took her second prize in a row after shooting her Pokemon a word or two of praise and getting ready to tend to the injuries he had received. "Nice try, Laura!" She called to her with a goofy, toothy grin.

That was, of course, suddenly interrupted by the potion bottle that had abruptly dropped down in front of her. He looked of to the side to see where it came from. It was some boy. Of course. And judging by what he had said and how he carried himself, she supposed this guy was what she called "a total prick". Probably some ego hurt try-hard. Regardless, he didn't need this boytoy to help her out. To answer Damian, she lifted her booted foot and stomped on the potion presented in front of her, grinding the plastic into pieces and causing the medicine to seep into the ground. She then went into her own military styled backpack and procured a healing potion.

"Nice tatt," Reyna retorted, "did your ma pick that for you?" Seriously. A pretty little Dragonair wrapped around his arm. What a pansy. "What makes you think you and your wide-rimmed hoodie can handle me, hm?" Talk about overcompensating in style. Did this guy think he was a badass? If he wanted to give her prize money, then by all means, but she was not interested in wasting time. Still, the way she spoke to Damian was condescending, but a hint inciteful. This was a stupid boy that wanted to flaunt his muscles. Reyna wasn't one to be flirty - at all - but she didn't have a problem with teasing him and making him uncomfortable.

But she still flashed her Dexter at the dinosaur out of curiosity. "Tyrunt, the Royal Heir Pokemon," it beeped and proceeded to feed her the information on it. Huh. So this thing was old. And a rock type. Old and rock means slow, right? Then she could by all means blast it away with Dragon Rage and take his money. She didn't like this guy. His smirk was stupid. It reminded her of Mr. Mime.

Sean's world, on the other hand, was turned upside down the moment he got scared by the Duskull. Almost as soon as it did however, a boy ran up and criticized the scary ghost type, before returning it to its Pokeball. So it belonged to a trainer? Thank God! He feebly picked himself of the ground, along with Meepers who hovered beside his head, and walked over to pick up his Slakoth, Congress. "That was yours, wasn't it?" He asked. "Thank goodness. I thought I was a goner." Honestly, by the way he looked, he might have. By hard of breath, and his eyes were red and watery. "What's your name?"

Laura decided she didn’t want to stick around. If the dude with the dino wanted to get his rear whooped by Reyna's Deino, she had no say.

For now, she had to get Lillian and Terry healed back to tip-top condition.

Laura approached the Poké Mart and bought several Potions, before spraying each of her Pokémon back to full health. “Alright, guys, you’re good,” Laura said, patting both of them (well, in Terry’s case, she tousled his sash, while with Lillian, she gave her a little tap with her head).

They exited the Poké Mart.

Laura shivered. “Earth-shaking Excadrills; is it just me, or did it get colder all of a sudden?”

Terry tightened his grip on Laura’s shoulder, his sheath rattling from Terry’s chilly vibrations. Lillian’s leaves sagged and she looked worriedly in Laura’s direction.

Terry’s eye suddenly widened and the sword Pokémon motioned towards the Crystalshore train station. “Hey, Terry, something wrong?” Laura asked, following where her Honedge had pointed. “Look, pal, I just had you healed, and I don’t think you could have—“

Laura approached the train station. Her jaw dropped. “Holy Helix!”

Every train’s wheels were fused, via ice, to the tracks. The doors in the depot and the Pullman cars were frozen shut. Passengers banged the doors, begging for help. “Man, we’ve got a problem,” Laura muttered. Lillian nodded and jumped off Laura’s shoulder. “Alright, Lillian, why don’t you try Leech Seeding the train wheels while I think of something to do about the doors.”

Lillian nodded.

Lillian used Leech Seed!

The train wheels were seeded!

Small roots began to curl from the ground, digging into the frigid cracks between the frozen tracks and iced wheels. Lillian didn’t like the cold wind one bit. She was a sun Pokémon; after all, she functioned best when bathed in the sun’s rays.

Terry unsheathed himself and allowed Laura to grasp his hilt. He stuffed the sheath into Laura’s pack. His single, shining blue eye darted from side to side.

“Alright, Terry, I have no idea if this is going to hurt or not,” Laura said, approaching one of the train doors and hefting her Pokémon over her head.

Terry used Tackle!

Like a club, Terry’s blade bashed straight through the Pullman’s green doors, letting out a blast of cold air. An angry-looking Cryogonal hovered out, breathing chilly mist, its beads of frozen water vapor trailing from its mouth. It made a crackling, frozen humming noise before letting loose a blast of freezing breath. Terry yanked Laura’s arm, saving her from a nasty case of frostbite.

Cryogonal used Ice Shard!

The Cryogonal’s beads of ice sharpened into points and simultaneously streaked towards Terry. The Honedge pulled itself up, manipulating Laura’s right arm to deflect every bead away from his Trainer.

“Hey! Lillian!” Laura called, whistling to her Petilil, who had just set up another Leech Seed on another set of train tracks. The other seed she had laid had already begun to free the train wheels from the ice, cracking the frozen mass between track and wheel. Lillian bounded up to Laura.

Lillian used Absorb!

Lillian latched onto Cryogonal and absorbed vital minerals from the frozen Pokémon’s icy body.

Cryogonal used Rapid Spin!

The snowflake Pokémon twirled once in a circle to knock the Petilil off the platform. “Lillian, just keep doing what you were doing; Terry and I got this!” Laura said to Lillian. The Petilil nodded and hopped to it, planting more seeds to free up more wheel.

Terry glared at the Cryogonal with his one blue eye, before slashing left and cutting a gash in Cryogonal’s icy armor. “Man, you gotta chill out,” Laura said to the deranged snowflake. Cryogonal made another icy clicking noise and dashed at her. Terry swung himself into a guard stance, and he and Laura applied pressure in order to keep Cryogonal’s attack from connecting with Laura’s body.

Both Terry and Cryogonal were blown backwards by the impact.

“Cryogonal, use Sharpen.”

A new voice commanded the Cryogonal to shave off parts of its ice armor in order to sharpen its crystalline edges to a knife-point.

A young woman, about two inches shorter than Laura but with an expression as cold as ice, approached Laura from the other side of the platform. Her hair was electric blue, as were her eyes. She wore a gray hooded sweatshirt and black gloves, and had on short shorts as well as electric blue leggings. Laura could make out a stylized “F” on her breast pocket, set against a jagged snowflake.

“Night Slash.”

Cryogonal swished side-to-side before spinning in a circle like a hellish blue sawblade, ramming into Terry and causing Laura to lose her grip on the Honedge. The Pokémon panicked, swinging back and forth on Laura’s right arm, flailing about, his pupil darting left and right as sweat beaded on his hilt.

It’s super effective!

Laura righted her grip on the Honedge and made a move towards the Cryogonal. “I wouldn’t if you don’t want your arms chopped off,” the other girl said to her. Cryogonal snarled a creaky, icy snarl, its knife-points shining in the dim sunlight.

“You don’t tell me what to do!” Laura yelled, hefting the Honedge and bringing it down suddenly upon Cryogonal like an ax. The snowflake Pokémon winced and crashed to the ground, before weakly getting up and ramming into Laura, sending her—and her Honedge—skittering across the frozen train platform.

Cryogonal menacingly advanced upon Laura as the other girl ordered it to use a second Sharpen technique.

Cryogonal’s Attack rose!

The icy snowflake was now pretty much a living chainsaw, and spun as quickly as one, too. The beads of ice that trailed Cryogonal’s mouth whipped violently around the spinning snowflake as it edged closer and closer to Laura.

Suddenly, Cryogonal glowed with a purplish light. When it hit Laura, she strangely didn’t feel the icy Pokémon’s body cutting through her heart like a chainsaw. It was rather like being punched lightly by a good buddy.

Cryogonal stopped spinning. Laura stifled a burst of laughter. Instead of sharp edges, Cryogonal’s geometric shape formed round, squishy-looking balls of not-fully-frozen ice.

Cryogonal used Night Slash!

The blobs flanking Cryogonal bumped Laura lightly, not even hurting her the slightest bit. Laura couldn’t help but giggle a little bit. “Your frenzied frost-cicle is lookin’ pretty sharp!” Laura jeered to the other, fuming girl. Laura turned to grab her Honedge and caught the slightest glimpse of a round shape in the alley of the depot, flipping back over and darting away.

Terry used Tackle!

Terry smashed his flat upon the squishy Cryogonal, and the icy armor broke to bits. The glowing energy inside Cryogonal dimmed as its ice armor cracked, leaving only a few blank bits. Cryogonal disappeared in a flash of red light into the angry hooded girl’s Poké Ball. “And now, you just stand back and watch as I hack open the doors of these train cars,” Laura mocked, hefting Terry and freeing each and every passenger car’s doors up to open. Immediately, a flood of people began, in panic, to crowd out the doors. “HEY! HEY! SLOW DOWN! ONE AT A TIME! THE ICE IS SLIPPERY!” Laura shouted.

The train cars rumbled. Lillian had come through. The Petilil bounced upon the platform and back onto Laura’s left shoulder. Laura turned and noticed that the hooded chick with the Cryogonal had bailed. Laura shrugged, although she wondered what the heck that girl was doing in the terrorism department.

———————————————————————

Knox saw Paige weeping, and his expression softened. “Hey, don’t feel too bad about it. The mere fact that your Pokémon are willing to work with you is something worth treasuring. It’s not your fault, or your Pokémon’s. He placed a dark palm on Paige’s shoulder and gave her a kind, fraternal shake. “The best thing you can probably do is just put your faith into your guys. I mean, it’s the same way with machines. You can get every equation right, you can put every pipe in the correct place, but you gotta stick to it. Don’t give up. I’m sure that Beldum and Magikarp are happy to have a Trainer like you who cares about them.

Knox let go. “Now, that being said, I don’t think Crystalshore has a Center. If you want, though,” he said, pulling a Potion from his tool belt and unscrewing the cap before tossing the bottle to Paige, "I can just heal up your Pokémon for the walk to the next town. I mean, it’s a little far, but we can manage. Also,” Knox added, fingering the town map, “there should be a Pokémon Gym there. I do want to check that out. So as soon as we get to Opal City, we’ll get your ‘mons over to a Center, pronto.”

Knox trekked ahead. “And don’t worry,” he called back. “We took care of those dogs real good. They aren’t gonna give us trouble for a while, that’s for sure.”

Knox walked ahead, slowing his pace so that Paige could catch up. “Just watch, we’re gonna get attacked by a buncha Persians next,” he muttered.

Something brown caught Knox’s eye. It was a limp Water-type Pokémon. Knox couldn’t just leave it like that and… OH ARCEUS IT WAS ROTTING. WAS IT DEAD?

Knox jumped over the rocks and landed on the white sandy beach, before striding over to examine the brown Pokémon. Thankfully, it wasn’t rotting; it only had the APPEARANCE of rotting. Knox pulled up his Dex and scanned it.

Skrelp. The Mock Kelp Pokémon. Poison/Water type. Skrelp takes on the appearance of rotting seaweed in order to attract prey. If outmatched, it sprays a cloud of poison and makes a getaway.

“So you’re a little blighter, aren’tcha?” Knox muttered, picking up the limp Skrelp’s leafy fin.

Knox wiggled it a little bit. “Hello? Anyone home?” The Skrelp didn’t budge.

Knox noticed that its body temperature was a little bit too low… check that, a lot too low. “Ford, I need you to use Charge enough to heat your body up a bit,” Knox said to his Klink. “Then, turn yourself upside-down, completely parallel to the ground, like Pops’s workbench.”

Ford began charging electricity!

Knox set the limp seahorse on Ford’s gently rotating body and watched Ford glow slightly to warm up the Skrelp. “Careful, Ford, don’t drop it,” Knox said, before walking back towards the path. “Hey, Paige, look at this. I found this guy half-dead on the beach, and geez, its body temperature was way too low. It felt like I was holding, well, a dead fish.”

Suddenly, one of the Skrelp’s red eyes shot open, darting about in panic, looking at Knox and Paige and Ford and the path and sky and everything.

The last thing that the Skrelp had remembered was dragging itself on shore because of the increasingly cold temperatures in the ocean. The leafy seadragon had no clue why the temperature was dropping so low, but it knew it had to get out of the water A.S.A.P.

The Skrelp, gaining a better bearing of its situation, laid back down on the back of the heated Klink, breathing heavily. Knox sprayed a little Potion on the rasping seahorse, and the Skrelp’s breathing seemed to calm down. The distressed water-dweller’s brown snout wiggled, and its baggy eyes began to close again. “Alright, you just take a bit of a rest, alright?”

Knox pulled out an empty Poké Ball. “I can’t let this guy fall prey to any hunting Pokémon while lying vulnerable to predators or unsuspecting Jeeps or whatever,” he said to himself, tapping the Skrelp’s scaly breast with the ball’s button. The ball clicked open, and the Skrelp dissolved into red light, flowing into the capsule.

The ball clicked and Knox peered inside. The Skrelp seemed to be resting.

He took a peek at his Dex. “Lord Helix! It was a GIRL? Aw, man, I’ve never been so embarrassed!” Knox groaned. He had been calling the female Skrelp “guy”.

“Alright, what should I call you… You’re a seaweed, and you’re a Poison Pokémon, so… You’re name’s Mari.”

Knox clipped Mari's Poké Ball to his belt and adjusted it. “Take it easy,” he said, patting the ball. He turned back to Paige. “A’ight, let’s keep going."

Reyna was familiar with Flannery - she was the Gym leader of Lavaridge, just up the mountain from Mauville where she lived. But not Lieutenant Surge, but judging by his title, she figured he had some connection with a military. While she didn't know who he was - Surge, that is, but this Damian kid was a stranger too - she did turn around to face away from the kid that decided to mess with her this time, taking a deep breathe and slowly exhaling as she pressed her fist into the palm of her other hand. "Those are fightin' words." She mumbled to herself. His sister or girlfriend or whatever pissed her off too! Look at her just standing there, watching everything. Whatever it was, this guy was trying to impress somebody. She'd be kicking his ass right now. But this was a challenge to a battle now, not just some prick looking to stir things up. It changed things a little bit. Seriously though, Reyna thought, how bruised of an ego do you need to have to go out of your way to talk smack to the girl with the winning spree?

The more she thought of it, the more she quietly laughed to herself. "All the worst qualities, huh. Yet here he is trying to talk me up..." She finally turned around and faced Damian, rolling her eyes at the sight of him. "If you're that insecure, okay. I'll humor you!"

She looked at Xylem. The potion was numbing and healing up the scratches pretty quickly, but it was just moving as fast as it could to avoid Laura's Honedge. So she wasn't going to try anything fancy or risky. This dude wanted a match and had a huge stick up his ass about it. Nothing makes a statement like a good old Dragon Rage off that bat. Finish him as fast as possible. Bruise his ego even further, it wasn't her problem. "Xylem?" She said to him curiously. The Deino simply yapped back at her and growled at Tyrunt's scent. "Oh, good. So you're all for it."

"I don't care about your money. You ain't anything special, so I'm not gonna pretend you are. Standard rules or whatever."