Warning: This is not standard Pokemon fanfiction. It contains scenes of
violence and some inappropriate language.

*************************************************************************
			
                           Pokemon Master 

Fanfiction by Ace Sanchez.

All parts of this story may be found at the following address:
http://www.users.bigpond.net.au/acey/pokemon.htm

Note: Pokemon and its associated characters are copyright by Nintendo,
Game Freak, Creatures Inc, and 4Kids Productions.

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Part 10 - Resentments


Cold, so biting cold. As she hugged herself around her slim shoulders,
folds of her ice-blue cloak blew out in front of her by the biting winds
at her back. She stared out at the black tumbling waters of the vast
ocean. From her perch upon a seaside cliff that seemed to be made
entirely of ice, she remained silent and still, even as her high heels
seemed to hold her unnaturally steady upon the sheer slippery surface.

Cold to suit her frozen soul. It was what she was after all. To tell the
truth, she didn't know how she could still be alive with her very heart
unbeating, a block of ice.

Sea-green eyes blinked once. She could sense them coming. She reached
within her cloak to remove her small spectacles and put them on
carefully.

She watched.

And waited.


<><><>


Nock. Draw. Release. The arrow seemed to glint as it shot straight and
true over the black waters of the ocean. A distant scream of a gyarados
as the sharp projectile of steel, wood and fletching shot into one of its
crimson red eyes. Even from this distance, the roar of the death-cry was
audible before being replaced by a gurgling, then silence as the black
scaly head sunk into the turbulent waters. However, more gyarados just
seemed to replace the one just killed. The large pack continued following
the white ship relentlessly.

Ash lowered the large wooden long-bow and reached down for another arrow
from the quiver laying by his side. He had a great view from his position
sitting high atop the stern; at the rear of the large ship. His legs
dangled over the edge of the deck, high over the trailing, bubbling
waters expelled by the ship's turbine.

For the past hour or so, the sky had been steadily growing brighter, not
the same impenetrable darkness that had descended over the world since
the prophecy of death began, but almost beginning to glow white. It
seemed to be light reflected from the earth, from the icebergs that grew
ever so numerous on their voyage south-west. As a result, the biting wind
was even colder now, cold enough to bite flesh.

But Ash didn't let it bother him. He felt around in the quiver, not
dropping his gaze from the pack of gyarados that had been following the
ship since two days ago. But his fingers touched air. Empty.

He silently looked over to Pikachu, who scampered over on all fours to
the pack of hunting gear laying on the deck behind him and placed it by
his side.

He took out another arrow. Nock. Draw. Release. Death-cry. He didn't like
killing pokemon, never had. In fact, once he had been willing to lay his
life on the line for any of them for any of the lightest reasons. But the
past years had taught himself a new way of living. If one could call it
that.

Concentrating on the arrows again, he focused on his targets. Anyway, 
these were different. These were monstrosities - failed creations. They 
would stop at nothing but at the destruction of every single living 
thing on the planet.

He heard the hatch open behind him and a person step out, but continued
concentrating on the bow, the arrow. Nock. Draw. Release. Death-cry.
"Hey, Duplica," he said without turning around.

A pause. Then a light laugh. "I guess it was my overly sensuous presence
that gave me away," she said lightly from behind him. Then in a more
serious tone, "So, Ashy-boy, this is where you've been hiding. You've
largely been avoiding everyone ever since you regained consciousness."
She watched him release another arrow, felling yet another gyarados in
the distance. "I was wondering who was thinning out those numbers." She
flopped down by his side, letting her legs dangle over the edge of the
roof and over the trailing waters like him. "I can sit here, can't I? I
haven't seen you since ..." She hesitated. "Since we all got split up."

He nodded. "As long as you don't say the 'M' word." He lowered the bow
and looked at her. "There's something I've been thinking about a long
time now. Tell me the truth, Duplica. What really happened back at
Cerulean?"

"Ahem." She brushed her windblown hair away from her eyes and looked
away. "You mean you don't remember?"

"Obviously not," he said dryly.

"Misty didn't tell you?"

He frowned. "I said not to even say the 'M' word."

"Just what is wrong with you two?" she said in exasperation. "Whenever
you're apart, both of you seem so sad, but when you're together all you
do is fight and fight-"

He cut her off. "Duplica, don't try to change the subject."

For a moment she got a stubborn look on her face, then she looked down at
the ocean. "Well, to put it short, well ... you kind of attacked us.
Well, mostly Mist- I mean, you-know-who."

"What?" He knew something happened, but nothing like what Duplica had
just told him.

"Pika!" Pikachu said in shock, who was also listening by his other side.

Duplica nervously cracked her knuckles. "It looked like you were
seriously out of it ... no emotions, nothing. I thought you were
brainwashed or something."

Ash desperately thought back from his dim recollections of that night. He
and Pikachu had been just about to destroy the Cerulean tower when
someone ... Sabrina ... Sabrina had did some sort of psychic attack on
him. He couldn't remember exactly what she did though. Except she must
have been successful ...

Duplica hurriedly continued. "But you didn't do anything serious - to us
anyway. And Mist- um, you-know-who, is still up and kicking so you can't
have done anything to her. And you're back to your normal self, mostly
anyway. So what's the big problem? It was that crazy bitch, Sabrina's
fault. Who, I might add, I don't trust one tiny bit. After spouting off 
this corny stuff about destroying the Elite Four and Master Garick, she 
just up and leaves."

He thought hard. "The thing is, that I can't remember exactly what
happened back at South Lavender either." His eyes closed. "After Brock
took me out, it's all a blur." At the thought of Brock, his throat
tightened. He still felt terrible about his old best friend. Like one of
the foundations his life was built from was just suddenly ripped away
from him. He knew that he should be feeling outraged about him and Misty,
but curiously, all he felt was some sort of emptiness. If Misty truly did
love Brock over him, who was he to complain? Maybe he should just release
him and let her be. He shook his head. "I don't even know how we captured
him."

"Brock? Mist- I mean, you-know-who, told me that after you were knocked
out, Brock and Valdera had this huge fight which ended up destroying the
entire base. And uh, some sort of reaction from Valdera's element mucked
up with the Forbidden Pokemon there and uh, captured him ... or
something." She shrugged. "At that point, yours truly led the rescue
squad and evacuated mostly everyone."

"Mostly everyone?"

"Well, Koga and Aya were nowhere to be found as well as a few other
people, uhh ..." She waved her hand. "Who I can't quite remember the
names off the top of my head." Then she clicked her fingers. "And you
of course, who we fished out of the ocean the next day, which you already
know about." Suddenly the wind grew even colder, blowing Duplica's long
blue hair from behind her and over her cheek. She shivered in the long
coat she wore over her slender shoulders. "Brrrr ... is it getting colder
or what? I wish I could just make myself up some woollies to keep me 
warm, but those Forbidden would just find us even more tempting if they 
sensed any sort of power disturbance out here in the open." She hugged 
herself. "As it is, I had to borrow some real clothes for the moment 
from Mist - I mean, you-know-who's sisters."

Ash turned his attention back on the gyarados following them and with one
hand, swiped away a lock of black hair which had fallen in his face from
the wind. "Yeah, even though we're close to the Seafoam Islands, you'd
think it would get warmer with us getting closer to Cinnabar, but it's
just been getting colder and colder." He indicated the icebergs they were
passing. "What else is weird is that we've been sailing in League
controlled territory for some time now, but we still haven't seen any
League vessels." He nocked another arrow and shot it. Another gyarados
screamed as its eye was pierced and killed.

Duplica squinted. "That's some really good shooting. It must be at least
two hundred yards and I can hardly even see them from here. The only way
you could be killing them is by hitting them dead-on in the eye where
they're vulnerable."

Ash shrugged one shoulder. "I had lots of practise during the Dark
Pokemon Wars."

They fell to silence as Ash methodically shot down more and more
gyarados. Although, more just seemed to replace every single one, like
there was a bottomless supply of them just beneath the surface of the
water.

Duplica shivered again. "You know, it's almost time for dinner. How about
you halt off your fun and let's go down and warm up? And you can't avoid
everyone on this boat forever. It's another two more days before we 
reach the Viridian Gulf and head off to Indigo Plateau."

Ash lowered the bow. "Alright, why not?" 

He didn't want Misty to think that she had run him off. She was the one
who did the running after all.


<><><>


"So, like, you see, during the Dark Wars, we somehow got separated from
the rest of the fleet and were cut off for quite some time somewhere
around the Seafoam Islands. Afterward, when we heard what the Pokemon
League were doing, we decided to stick around and help all the natives
protect themselves during which-"

"Daisy, I don't think Misty is like listening," Lily interrupted her
with an exasperated sigh, as she combed her shoulder-length pink hair
with a hairbrush.

Daisy looked at her youngest, red-haired sister who was now sitting down
on the opposite couch and staring absentmindedly out the port-hole. She
was rolling and unrolling a lock of her red hair around a finger.
"So Misty, are you like listening or what?"

Misty continued to look vacantly out the window. "I'm listening."

Lily dropped the comb, leaned over and waved her hand beside Misty's
face. There was no reaction. "Misty, your panties are on fire," she said
in a straight tone.

"That's nice," Misty replied automatically.

"Misty, your tit is like, hanging out of your dress," Lily tried again.

"That's nice," Misty said.

Erika stepped into the room in her green cloak, swinging her long black
staff around in circles with one hand. "No, this is how you do it girls."
She smiled. "Misty, Ash is here," she said softly.

"Wha-what!" Misty immediately said in a panicked tone as she rapidly sat
up straight and looked from side to side. Her blue eyes heated up with
the promise of conflict.

"See, like that's why I never got a boyfriend," Lily declared, leaning
back on the couch and putting her hands behind her head.

Daisy crossed her arms. "And I always thought it was because you were so
... how you say, effervescent," she said dryly.

"That too," Lily agreed.

Daisy then turned her attention back to Misty and tilted her blonde head
to the side, blue eyes inquiring. "Just, like, what is wrong with you
little sister? What is up between you and Ash? Last time we saw you years
ago, you were all so lovey-dovey." 

Misty looked away. "Things change."

"Is this some kind of lover's spat?" Daisy asked Erika.

Erika sighed as she walked off to the corner of the room, this time
spinning her staff around from hand to hand. "If it is, it's been going
on for five years."

"Well, little sister's always been stubborn," Lily stated.

Something beeped and Daisy quickly pulled a small device from her belt
and looked at it. "Hmmmm, Violet needs us at the helm. Misty, we'll have
to like continue this talk later." She rolled her eyes. "If it can even
be called a talk with you mostly just sitting there. Oh, and dinner
should be ready soon, although I don't know how it'll turn out with that
doctor girl doing the cooking..."

"Giselle?" Erika asked. "Oh, she may be a bitch, but I have to admit she
is a great cook."

Lily looked sideways at Misty. "She said she was mixing up something
extra special for Ash."

Misty narrowed her eyes. "Really? Well I'm a much better cook than she
is!"

Daisy had a sceptical expression on her face. "Really now. Well, anyway
we have to go." She and Lily stood up from where they were sitting on the
couch, smoothed down their sailor jackets and left the room.

For a while it was silent, except for the sounds of the air swishing as
Erika practised with her staff while Misty stared out the porthole
at the black ocean again. Finally, Erika looked at Misty with a concerned
look on her face. She propped her staff against the wall and grabbed a
hand-towel from a nearby table. Wiping her face as she sat down on the
couch, she joined her. "Okay, finally I get you to myself. You've almost
been avoiding everyone as much as Ash-"

"Don't say the A-word," Misty interrupted.

"Okay, you-know-who, then," Erika said exasperated. "Now about what I,
how you say, 'learned', back at South Lavender ... I know you weren't ...
'like that' with Brock, even though Brock may have thought so, come to
think of it ... but anyway, why don't you tell Ash the truth?"

Misty crossed her legs out in front of her. "I told him the truth ... and
... he won't believe me. So, later I thought, fine! I don't need him!"
She sounded like she was trying to convince herself as much as Erika. A
tear betrayed her by trickling out of one eye, but she angrily wiped it
away from a fold of her blue cloak. "And he is such a hypocrite!"

"What do you mean?"

She looked away. "I-I, can't tell you."

Erika suddenly got a burst of intuition. "Is this what caused you to
leave him five years ago?"

She hesitated, then nodded slowly.

"Don't you think it's time to tell someone what happened?"

The room fell to silence again. The sounds of the ship moving was soft in
the background, the water swishing and the floor gently rocking with the
waves. 

Misty finally turned to Erika with pain-filled blue eyes. "I-I ... oh
Erika!" It all just started flooding out of her as the dam holding off
her emotions broke. What she saw that day came back fully into her mind.
Erika rushed over and hugged her. As Misty told her story in short sobs
and jumbled sentences, Erika's green eyes began to narrow menacingly.


<><><>


The dining room of the ship was fairly large, more than enough space to
accommodate all the escapees from South Lavender. Which wasn't quite 
that many, now that Ash finally got to see everyone in one place. Aside 
from the table he was sitting at which was in the far corner, there was 
only about three other tables of people. There was the Captain and Nurse 
Joy from Castle Town sitting at the opposite table along with Bruno, 
Junior and a green-haired woman who he hadn't seen before although he 
thought was a bit familiar. There was *her* table, with *her* sisters, 
and Erika and her Trainers - the table he had been purposely trying to 
ignore. And finally, there was a table of miscellaneous Trainers and 
people he didn't really know, many of whom were all looking at him with 
scared looks on their faces.

He tried to ignore the stares as he ate silently, lifting his chopsticks
methodically. Pikachu munched on a red apple sitting on the table next to
his bowl, his only other companion at the table besides Duplica. "I don't
think this was such a good idea," he said softly.

Duplica, dressed in one of her 'own' outfits now that she was below
decks - a smallish black dress with a slitted skirt, and open at the neck
- just waved them off as she munched on her own food. "Maybe they're all
staring at me," she said modestly, in-between mouthfuls.

"What about the women?" Ash said, smiling a little now.

Duplica tossed her head, cascading blue hair over her shoulder. "Maybe
they're gay."

He laughed. "You're a riot, Duplica."

"Pika," Pikachu agreed.

"Ash!" a girl suddenly cried from behind him. Everyone turned to look,
even *her* and Bruno's table. It was Laselle, dressed in a green jumper
and skirt. Her brown eyes were shining underneath long black hair. "You
came to dinner!"

"Hi, Laselle," Ash greeted her.

"Laselle, you didn't have to shout it that loud," Duplica groaned.

Ash blushed as Laselle suddenly leaned over and hugged him around the
neck. "It's just that I haven't seen him in so long," she explained
happily.

"It's only been about three or four days," Duplica said, rolling her
eyes.

Laselle let go of Ash's neck. "Well, I've only known him about a week, so
three or four days is a lifetime!" All of a sudden, her eyes widened as
she spotted someone behind Ash's back. "You!" Her voice grew icy and her
eyes narrowed. "What are you doing here?"

Ash turned around. Behind him and approaching was Giselle, looking as
perfect as a model, her long dark hair trailing in the air behind her.
She was wearing an elegant green dress over her slim form and a white
apron which read, 'world's most beautiful cook' on the front in bold
letters. She stopped by Ash's side and smirked her red lips. "Didn't
you know I was stationed at South Lavender, Laselle my dear." She looked
down patronisingly at the shorter girl.

Ash's eyes widened as he looked at the two of them. There was something
about the two of them...

Laselle lifted her chin. "Unfortunately not."

"Well, you're certainly growing more beautiful with age - you're starting
to look more and more like me," Giselle said in a superior tone as she
folded her arms and leaned on one high-heeled foot.

Ash tallied in his head. Same long black-brown hair, same brown eyes,
similar facial features... "Are you two related by any chance?"

"Unfortunately yes," Laselle spat.

He looked at Giselle with incredulous eyes. "You're her *mother*?"

Giselle looked offended. "I don't think it was possible for me to have
kids when I was six years old. She's my little sister."

"Oh."

Duplica sighed and kicked him under the table. "Sometimes I really worry
about you, Ash..."


<><><>


"So, like Ash decided to join us for dinner this time," Violet said as
she eyed the handsome young man in the black clothes at the far table. He
was surrounded by women and looking a bit bewildered.

Lily nudged Misty in the shoulder from beside her. "Well, aren't you
going to say anything?"

"He's not my boyfriend anymore," Misty said quietly as she picked at her
food. But there was a telltale flush of red on her cheeks.

Erika just glared. "Leave him, he's probably enjoying himself. We have
more important things to discuss anyhow. Like whether we should believe
anything that Sabrina said. For all we know, she could be luring us all
to the Palace of the Elite Four to get slaughtered all in one place."

Misty agreed, grateful for the change of subject. "I know. It just seems
too simple. Just how far can we trust her?"

Violet rubbed her chin. "It seems to me that you like need someone who
knows her well." She flicked her head of hair coloured like her name,
in Ash's direction, who now seemed to be trying to break up a fight
between Giselle and Laselle. "Wasn't Ash part of the Pokemon League
longer than anyone else here? He's worked with her before. I say we
should ask him to join this conversation."

Misty banged her hand on the table, clattering the cutlery. "No, I don't
even want to talk to him!" A cold aura began to emit from her body.

"Little sister, you're like, being totally illogical," Violet scolded
her. "What he tells us could be the meaning of life and death. Now are
you going to let some silly lover's spat be the death of us all?"

Misty looked away, abashed, letting her aura drop. "Sorry. Just don't
expect me to even talk to him."

Violet looked at Erika's young medic, Joy. "Would you please call Master
Ash over here? Tell him we like need to discuss something with him." Then
she paused. "Wait, get Mistress Duplica and Master Bruno over here too. 
They may know something as well." 

"Yes, Mistress," the young nurse said as she stood up and approached
Ash's table.

Something cracked. Daisy turned to her little sister to see that she had
frozen her chopsticks solid and snapped them in her hands. "Careful with
those. We already have to use so much energy to keep us warm, its not
helping with you acting like a freezer all the time."

Misty just lifted her chin defiantly. Violet sighed. She wished Daisy was
here, but no, she had to get the easy job of captaining the ship at this
time-slot.

Then they were standing around the table. Ash, Duplica and Bruno. Already
Ash and Misty were flinging daggers at each other through their eyes.
Bruno and Duplica sat down, leaving only one seat vacant. The one next to
Misty.

Ash turned from his glare-fight and looked in horror at the only space
left. "I am *not* sitting next to her," he said in a dangerous voice.

"He is *not* sitting next to me," Misty stated in a voice just as
dangerous.

Violet threw up her hands. "This is just rich! Like, how can you two be
so immature?"

"Are not!" they both said in unison. They looked at each other, then
blushed.

Lily smirked. "Just sit down Ash. Are you afraid of her or something? Are
you afraid of him, Misty?"

"No!" they denied simultaneously.

"Then just sit down already so we can get to business!" Lily ordered,
surprising everyone with her firm tone.

Ash blinked his light-brown eyes. He sat down obediently.

Violet silently looked at the ceiling. Remind me to be nicer to Lily, she
thought to herself. She looked at Ash, who blew some stray strands of
black hair out of his eyes with a slight breath and returned her look.
"You weren't conscious when Sabrina revealed the supposed way of closing
this so-called Forbidden Gate, but you know of it don't you? You've known
Sabrina longer than any of us. What are your thoughts?"

Ash fiddled with a piece of frozen chopstick that was in front of him and
looked at Misty for a second. Then he answered. "Well, Sabrina's always
been the most mysterious person I've ever met, well, maybe the
second-most, I'm not sure. But I don't think I'd be lying if I said that
she seemed to be closer to me than most other League Trainers or Pokemon
Masters. My opinion is that ... well she could in fact be telling the
truth." He took a sideways glance at Misty and his eyes glowed golden for
a second. "But most probably not the whole truth."

Misty tossed her red hair over her shoulder contemptuously.

"It does sound like that it makes a certain kind of sense," Duplica
offered. "There's something in the prophecies that state the towers being
linked to souls. The Elite Four and Master Garick must be those souls.
Naturally, if those souls were put out of the picture..."

Bruno was thinking, his square chin resting against huge fingers. "You
actually buy that?" he asked in his deep voice. "Either it's one big
deliberate trap, or she could be just setting us directly against the
League so that we'd destroy each other. Do you really want to kill Brock?
Because that's what we'd have to do if we believe her. He *is* one of the
Elite Four - we know that now. My replacement in fact."

"No one kills Brock," Ash stated firmly as he folded his arms over his
black shirt.

"Why are you sticking up for him?" Bruno looked puzzled. "It's obvious
now that he's been against you from day one." His rust-coloured eyes
flashed menacingly. "We were all made fools of. I trusted him like a
brother."

Ash shook his head. "He wasn't like that in the beginning." He stared
down at the table. "Maybe I can help him. I-I, just have to."

"Great, just great," Erika said mockingly. "Our best bet to win this
thing and we can't even put that into action. How about you, Misty?" She
looked at her friend. "Would you kill Brock if it meant saving the
world?"

Misty looked away and picked specks of nothing from her blue dress. "I-I
don't know."

"I'd rather let Brock and Misty go off together," Ash said. 

Stony silence greeted his words.

Then a wet noodle splattered on his cheek. He turned his head in the
direction it came from. Misty.

She had an innocent expression on her face. "What?" she asked, with a
lifting of one slim eyebrow.

Ash reached over to snag a rice ball by poking it with a frozen 
chopstick and then sneezed on purpose. The rice ball flew on to Misty's 
nose and splattered into a white gooey mess. It made her look like a 
clown. An angry clown. "Oops," he said, smiling lopsidedly. "That was an
accident."

Misty slipped forward deliberately, throwing her bowl of food forward so
it splattered on Ash's head. Wet mushy stuff dribbled all through his
fine black hair and ran down his face. "Oops. That was too," she said
with a gleam in her eye.

Soon, it just degenerated into a full-on food-fight between Ash and
Misty. Noodles, rice, sushi and everything else were fair game to be used
as weapons. The whole room was silently staring at the two of them
sitting down next to each other and mashing food into each other's faces.

Violet shook her head. These were the people who were going to
save them?

And then suddenly the floor seemed to jerk violently underneath them as
if the ship had been hit. Violet's beeper let out a shrill sound and
she snatched it from her belt and looked at it. "Damn, we're under
attack! Daisy says its a Pokemon League ship at six-o-clock!"


<><><>


"Like, they didn't even show up on the ship's scanner, so they managed to
knock out our submerging capability before I detected them!" Daisy was
shouting as she wrestled with the wheel on the captain's seat. The black
ocean through the ship's view screen in front of her looked rougher than
before, and the floor was noticeably rising up and down with the waves.

Violet and Lily immediately rushed over and took their positions on the
seats by her sides. Panels opened with a whooshing sound and control
sticks and switches were rapidly set and positioned. Lily threw on
headphones and a mike while Violet pulled down a pair of electronic
goggles and placed them over her head.

Other than Misty's sisters in the bridge, there was also Ash, Misty,
Duplica, Erika, and Bruno all inside the sophisticated control and
driving room of the ship. As always, Pikachu was sitting on Ash's
shoulder although the black electric mouse was actively trying to avoid
the gooey mess all over Ash's head and face.

"What kind of League ship is it?" Ash asked as he wiped some liquid away
from his eyes which was dribbling down from his hair.

Violet fiddled with the goggles. "It looks like a Class Three Pokemon
League Destroyer Battleship! It's huge!"

"Shit. Daisy, can this ship outrun it?"

Daisy was still wrestling with the wheel. "Like, I don't know yet. Lily,
how's the hydro-turbines? I think number two is giving me a spot of
trouble."

Lily pulled out a keyboard and began tapping on it furiously with her
slim fingers. Readings came out of the small monitor in flashing red
letters. "Like I think number two's been damaged! It must have got hit
when they took out the ballast. Report says heat, liquid and electrical
overload. What the hell did they hit us with?"

"I think it was a combined fire, water and electric blast," Daisy said,
frowning as she skilfully manoeuvred the ship past two icebergs. The
floor tilted left, then right, causing Ash, Misty, Duplica, Bruno and
Erika to hold on to handholds on the ceiling for balance. 

Duplica gasped as she held herself steady. "They're using direct
elemental attacks? Are they crazy? Any Forbidden Pokemon in the area will
sense it and surround us all!"

"I thought the Pokemon League control the Forbidden?" Bruno asked
curiously. "They wouldn't be attacked too, would they?"

Duplica shook her head. "You should have seen the League army at South
Lavender. They were totally ripped apart by Forbidden Pokemon. Maybe they
don't control them as much as they think they do."

"So we can't outrun them?" Misty asked her sister.

Daisy looked at her monitor and pushed her blonde hair back behind her
ears with one hand. "I don't think so. We're losing like too much speed,
especially with the large amount of icebergs that we have to dodge now.
We can't outrun them or escape by submerging, with number two damaged and
the ballast gone."

"I guess we'll just have to fight then, or somehow damage their ship
enough that they can't follow," Ash said as he took out a pair
of fingerless black gloves from his pocket and slipped them on to his
hands.

Misty frowned. "You're not thinking of using lightning are you?"

Ash spun away from her, walking briskly to the hatch as his hooded cloak
materialised over his form out of dark floating shadows. "I can fight
hand-to-hand. Bruno, you coming?"

Bruno cracked his knuckles and summoned his maroon cloak over his
muscular shoulders. His dark eyes were eager. "Sure, I haven't had a good
fist-fight in ages - a good one, meaning one that I can actually win," he
said dryly.

"Count me in also," Erika said as her green cloak sparkled over her dress
with the smell of flowers. She extended her hands as she summoned her
black wooden staff into them. "I haven't been practising for nothing."

Duplica smiled, but shook her head. "I'd love to come too, but I'd
probably just get in your way. I'm no good without using my transform
ability." She looked at Misty out the corner of her eye. "Misty?"

Misty flared blue as her cloak solidified around her body. "I can fight
physically if I have to." She silently dared Ash to object with a flat
stare.

Ash shrugged the shoulder Pikachu wasn't sitting on. "If you think you
can."

Misty pulled out blue fingerless gloves, which matched her cloak and 
dress and put them on slowly. "I know I can."

Daisy let out a breath of disbelief as she continued to pilot the ship.
"Children, like, please. Just get out there and get that damn ship off
our tail!"


<><><>


"They're shooting a line!" Bruno called up from below, at the starboard
side of the ship. "They're trying to snag us!"

A huge steel anchor with a thick rope attached was flying toward them
from the large dark-blue Pokemon League ship which was about fifty or
sixty feet behind them and closing. It crashed somewhere on the front
deck and got caught on a railing.

"Pikachu, the bow!" Ash said quickly from his position atop the
upper-deck at the stern of the ship.

"Pikapi!" Pikachu handed him the bow and the quiver that they had left
up here before they went down for dinner.

Immediately, Ash nocked an arrow, aimed and shot, cutting the rope before
it could tighten up and pull them off course. His hair flapping over his
eyes by the freezing cold wind did nothing to distract his concentration.

"Nice shot," Erika grudgingly said from beside him, the wind also blowing
her shortish black hair and cloak around violently.

Ash didn't say anything and lowered the bow as he turned his attention
back on the League ship. Erika had strangely been acting hostile toward
him lately. If he said anything, she'd probably cut him down as quickly
as he had cut the rope.

The ship tilted as they dodged another iceberg at full speed and he
quickly grabbed on to the port-side railing at the edge of the upper-deck
to hold him steady, Erika following suit. Pikachu grabbed on to his
ankle.

For a moment, the League ship was out of view with the massive
whitish-blue iceberg blocking their field of vision. He shivered as the
wind grew even colder.

When they passed the huge iceberg, the League ship was even closer and a
person was now visible, standing high on the front of it, at the point of
the bow. It was a tall woman. She was dressed in long black overcoat
with dark-blue hair worn in a long braid, which floated behind her in the
wind. The right side of her face was covered by her long bangs, but the
half of her face that he could see was attractive, although there was
something about her expression that made him uneasy.

"You can't escape," she said, her voice somehow amplified by her ship so
that they could hear. "Halt!" she ordered.

"I don't think so!" Ash shouted back over the wind.

Her eye focused on him. "Ah, Ash is it not? So we do indeed have the
right ship. Halt your ship, I wish to discuss something with you."

"Discuss?" Erika whispered to him.

Ash looked at her and shrugged. He turned back to the huge League ship
with the woman standing on it. "What do you want?" he shouted.

"It has come to my attention that you harbour something, or rather
someone, that I want," the woman replied. Her voice still being amplified
so that it could be heard easily. "You will surrender him to me or face
the consequences."

Puzzled, Ash smoothed his wind-blown hair away from his eyes again.
"Someone?"

Surprisingly, the woman seemed to growl. "The Rock Master. Brock. Give
him to me!" Her voice was now angry, when before she had been calm.

Footsteps sounded behind him and Ash turned to see Misty arriving from
the lower-deck, via a ladder on the port-side of the ship. Her long red
hair was being blown forward by the wind, but she didn't seem to be
affected by the cold at all; not even any goose bumps. "This is weird,"
she said as she stopped by his side and tried to stop her blue cloak from
blowing everywhere. "If this is the Pokemon League, wouldn't they be
attacking us furiously by now? They're close enough, but all they've
tried to do so far is snag us with lines, besides disable our best chance
for escape."

"They want Brock for some reason," Ash said, shrugging his shoulders.

"What for?"

Ash turned back to the huge ship following them. It was even closer now
so that in a few more minutes the woman who was standing on its tip would
be able to jump down to their ship. "Is this some sort of rescue?" he
shouted up at her.

The half of her mouth that was visible tilted upward and then the woman
laughed hard, looking up at the pulsing grey sky. Then she looked down at
him and her eye flashed, brown he could see now. She was starting to look
a bit familiar too, although it was hard to tell with half her face
covered by her blue hair. 

"Not exactly," the woman finally said after her laughter had died down,
although she was still letting out a few chuckles. "I'm going to kill
him."

Misty suddenly snapped her fingers. "Hey, you're Brock's girlfriend! I
thought you looked familiar."

Ash blinked. Holy. She was too! "You're Suzie, the Pokemon Breeder lady!"
he exclaimed. As far as he knew, she wasn't part of the Pokemon League.
Was she the captain of this ship? Why was she the captain of this ship?

The woman suddenly stopped her laughing, instantly angry again. "I'm no
longer Brock's girlfriend, haven't been for at least three years now; and
what a mistake that was. But I *am* Suzie, you're right about that, Ash.
Now I know you have Brock, hand him over."

"No way!" Ash refused.

Erika elbowed him in the side. "Are you sure that's wise, Ash? What
Sabrina told us... she could be doing us a favour."

"Look, we don't know if she's lying or not." He folded his arms. "And I
won't be forced into anything."

Misty just cracked her knuckles. "Just get ready for a fight, Erika. When
Ash gets this stubborn, there's nothing else we can do."

"Oh, shut up," Ash said.

"No, you shut up," Misty replied.

Suzie glared at them. "I was willing to negotiate this peaceably, but now
I'll just have to do this by force." The League ship was right on their
tail now and she was looking directly down at them, with her arms folded.
"I have a friend of yours here Ash, that wanted to get another crack at
you. I have him here just in case you wanted to be stubborn."

Ash stepped sideways, his folds of his cloak blowing across his face and
prepared himself. "I'm not afraid of anyone," he called up to her.

"Pika pika!" Pikachu agreed by his foot, cheeks sparking dark
electricity.

A tall, muscular figure in a light-brown hooded cloak stepped out next to
Suzie. With one swift movement, he threw off the cowl, revealing his
full features.

Ash gasped.

"Hello, Ash." It was a hauntingly familiar, lilting accent. He had spiky
green hair and brown eyes. Or eye. He had only one left. There was a long
jagged scar which ran from the top of his forehead, through his
non-existent left eye down to the bottom corner of his hard mouth.

"AJ, is that you?"

"You should know, the one person who destroyed my dreams back at the
semi-finals of the Pokemon League tournaments," AJ said in a resentful
tone. He tapped his scar. "And later gave me this."

Ash stepped backward, tightening his black cloak on his shoulders.
"That was an accident."

"Accident-shmackcident!" AJ roared. Then he shook his head and composed
himself. "Well now, besides me, this whole ship seems to have somethin
against you, Ash. These here fellows I met just now, want to kill you
too. You're a mighty popular fellow, Ash." He stepped aside as three more
cloaked figures walked from behind him and stood at the ship's railing.
One was in blue, one was in red and the last was in yellow. They were
all of equal height at about six feet each.

All three of them simultaneously threw the hoods of their cloaks back.
The colours of their hair matched their cloaks and elements. "Ash, we
heard you killed our little brother," they said in unison.

"The Eevee brothers?" Ash called up to them. "What are you talking
about?"

"You've killed so many people, you don't remember? His name was Mikey!"

Surprisingly, Misty stepped forward. "That's a lie! Ash didn't kill
Mikey, it was your damned Missingno at Mount Moon!"

The blue-cloaked brother sneered down at her. "Why should we believe you?
You're nothing but Ash's whore! You'd say anything to save his butt."

Misty's eyes flared and a blue aura of cold arose around her, possible to
feel even in the artic wind. "You come down here, Rainer, and say that,
and I'll show you a Water Master's power."

Rainer folded his arms. "Don't mind if I do. I haven't had an equal
element fight in a long time."

Ash glared at Misty. "Watch it, you know we can't use direct attacks
against them, even if they can against us."

"Damn it!" Misty cursed, letting her power die down.

Erika spoke up. "Look if we're all going to fight, you can't use any of
your element-based attacks! Otherwise we'll all be bait for Forbidden
Pokemon."

Suzie let out an uncaring breath. "We're of the Pokemon League so they
won't touch us, but they can and will 'touch' you." She put her hands on
her hips. "Last chance. Give me Brock and I may let you free to do what
you want - for as long as you have left to live anyway."

"No dice, Suzie," AJ said, "we also want Ash now."

"That wasn't part of the deal," Suzie protested, turning to glare at him.

"Look," Ash interrupted, "if it was just me, then sure, I'd give myself
up. But I can't let you have Brock. Sorry."

"Who gives a shit about Brock?" AJ growled. "I'm finally gonna pay you
back for what you did to me, you piece of shit! Sandshrew, let's git
him!"

"Shrew!" A small yellow rodent with armoured skin leapt up on to his
shoulder, and AJ leaped over the ship's railing and dived down with a
flying kick directly at Ash, light-brown cloak floating behind him.

Ash flipped away, barely dodging the kick, as AJ came down with a
crunching sound on the deck, exactly where Ash's head was just a
millisecond before.

Misty was about to join in when Rainer jumped down, blasting icy energy
from his fingertips as he did so, causing her to leap away in the
opposite direction.

That left the red-cloaked brother and the yellow-cloaked one to jump down
and take on Erika. Suzie signalled and her huge ship began to fall back,
separating itself from them.


<><><>


"Ah heh heh, this doesn't seem exactly fair now, boys ..." Erika said,
backing away with her staff spinning around in one hand. "And I don't
even know your names."

The red-cloaked brother with flaming hair grinned evilly as he stepped
forward, hands bursting into flickering fire. "Well now, how rude of us.
I'm Pyro, while my bro in yellow is Sparky."

Sparky winked as he also stepped forward, his yellow cloak putting the
truth to his name.

"Is it alright if I take Sparky?" Erika asked flippantly. "I don't really
like fire as you'd imagine."

Suddenly Bruno joined her, having just arrived from the lower-deck, his
huge fists raised and ready. "I'll take hot-head here."

Erika sighed gratefully. "Bruno, if you weren't so big and scary, I could
kiss you."


<><><>


Ash blocked another punch with a complex twist of his arm and stepped
backward again. "Look, AJ, I don't want to fight you. Especially when one
wrong move could kill us all."

"Bullshit," AJ said, advancing again. His spiky green hair was unmoving
against the wind. "Do you think after all this time searching for you,
I'm gonna let you off scot-free? Especially when I've completed my
training! Training meant to stop you personally! Any electric attack you
throw at me will be ineffective." He abruptly threw his Sandshrew into
the air. "Sandshrew, Earth Blade!"

"Shrew!" the sandshrew squeaked and then the deck of the ship seemed to
tremble as the rodent pokemon flashed and then reformed itself into
energy as if it were being sucked into a poke-ball, but instead
metamorphised into a curved broad sword, the same colour of light-brown
as AJ's cloak. AJ grabbed it out the air and began spinning it around the
fingers of his right hand in front of him. The air made whistling sounds
at each rotation.

"That's right, I've even learned your little trick," AJ said quietly,
still spinning his sword around. He turned his head, his single eye
flashing hatred. "Where's your rat? Sandshrew will rip it apart this
time."

Faster than he could blink, a small shadowy figure seemed to streak past
AJ's head from behind, startling him. 

"Pika!" It was Pikachu who leaped beside Ash's foot on all fours, tail in
the air. His cobalt-blue eyes were glowing, casting an eerie light over
its night-dark body. Abruptly, he leaped up high on to Ash's left
shoulder. 

AJ sneered. "Ha! It didn't like me calling it that did it? I hate your
Pikachu almost as much - no more, than I hate you. How can its attacks
have beaten Sandshrew back at the semi-finals? It's impossible."

Ash shook his head. "Get over it already, AJ. Pokemon League was years
ago. You came third or fourth, that's still a high rank. And it hardly
matters now, when the whole world is at stake."

AJ's black eye glowed malevolently. "Third? Fourth? You ruined my dream,
Ash, and that was to become first. THE Pokemon Master. The greatest one
of all time. Ever since you beat me, my dream changed. My dream to have
revenge. Except you stopped me last time and took my eye. But now, I've
trained up enough to destroy you." He seemed to be waiting. "Well? Aren't
you going to form your rat into a sword and fight me?"

Ash shook his head. "Weren't you listening? Any stray elemental energy
will attract Forbidden Pokemon to us like fish to a hooked worm."

"Fool," AJ said, shaking his head as he stopped spinning his sword and
held it aloft. "Then this won't be as much fun as I thought." He
sidestepped quickly in a spin and slashed impossibly fast.

Ash just managed to dodge it, although the sword cut off a part of his
cloak. "I can still fight you hand-to-hand," he said as his cloak
regenerated itself out of dark shadows.

"Don't be so confident," AJ advised as he shifted the momentum of his
missed swing into an even faster and stronger side-slash.

This time, Ash weaved in close, shifting himself around the swung blade
lithely and flashed into an uncountable series of rapid punches and
palm strikes on AJ's face and chest. He finished the series with a
backward hand flip, kicking AJ on the chin and sending him flying. Then 
he completed the flip and landed in a crouching position.

But AJ recovered in midair and executed a sideways twist to land his 
feet on the deck with a soft thump. A trickle of blood ran out of his 
left nostril and he sniffed. "Not bad." He chuckled without humour. 
"But I marked you too."

Ash sucked in his breath as the upper-arm of his cloak suddenly split
open and blood ran out of a fresh deep cut.

"Cha!" Pikachu said in shock from on top of his other shoulder at seeing
the slash.

"And here's another new trick I taught Sandshrew just for you." AJ lifted
his sword and held it in both hands. "Sandshrew, Electric Inversion!" All
at once, the blade of his sword seemed to spark on and off.

Instantly Ash doubled over as an intense pain flared inside his head.
Pikachu fell off his shoulder and on to the ground like a dead weight. It
felt like hammers beating against his skull. Dimly he could sense that
Pikachu was in agonising pain as well and was rolled up in a ball
clutching his head.

AJ grinned. "How do you like that? I spent years perfecting this. It
actually destabilises the being of anything electric-based within a
certain radius."


<><><>


"C'mon, I thought we were going to have a water fight," Rainer complained
as he formed a huge ball of ice and water in his palm and then flung it
at her.

Misty spun around, letting her long blue cloak nullify it to snow flakes
which drifted around her. Then she completed the spin and crouched,
clutching a fold of her mantle. "I can beat you even without using direct
water attacks."

Rainer tilted his head. "Are you kidding? A Pokemon Master's
effectiveness is solely due to the elemental abilities that he wields,
fighting hand-in-hand with his pokemon. Otherwise we may as well be only
weak Trainers." He pulled a blue poke-ball from his cloak and threw it.
"Isn't that right, Vaporeon?"

The ball split, releasing the four legged and blue marine Pokemon. Its
black eyes were narrowed as it thrashed its long tail of fins. "Vee!"

"See, even Vaporeon agrees with me!" Rainer stated triumphantly.

Misty reached inside her cloak for her own poke-ball and enlarged it in
her hand. "That's only half the story. A real Pokemon Master is one who
has a true bond with their Pokemon, understands them, trains them, feels
what it feels, shares their hurts, loves and conflicts. It isn't just a
learned trait, you have to be born to it. We'll see how your Vaporeon
compares to mine." She threw it, releasing her own pokemon to stand in
front of Rainer's. Her Vaporeon was silent, spines stiffened in
preparation.

Rainer chuckled. "A pretty speech, but you've lost this one. My Vaporeon
is even bigger than yours. Vaporeon, Ice Beam!"

"Vee!" Rainer's Vaporeon opened its mouth, letting out a stream of icy
cold directly at Misty's.

"Have you ever heard the saying, size doesn't matter?" Misty said,
smiling. "Vaporeon, Coldness Redirect!"

Misty's Vaporeon didn't say anything as it stood still, letting the Ice
Beam freeze it in a solid block of ice.

"Hahaha! Is that your boyfriend's excuse?" Rainer taunted.

"Well, actually, yes. But he doesn't know what a find he is. What do you
think is the real reason I followed him around all those years?" she
said, winking suggestively. "Now, watch."

Rainer's Vaporeon began to look puzzled as a light mist rose around its
body. "Vee? Vee!" The mist solidified into ice, while Misty's Vaporeon
cracked out of its own cold prison.

"How the hell did you do that?" Rainer said in shock.

Misty's hand flashed as a blue poke-ball appeared on her palm. She
recalled her Vaporeon. "And you call yourself a Water Master?" Then she
launched herself forward in a spinning aerial manoeuvre, blue cloak
flapping everywhere, and kicked Rainer in the face knocking him ten feet
backward and on to the roof railing.


<><><>


Pyro had a black eye. "Argh!" he yelled as he lifted his arms to try
another bolt of flame, but his head jerked as Bruno smashed him in the
face yet again.

"One, two, one two," Bruno said underneath his breath, then he spun
around into a mid-level roundhouse kick, smashing Pyro backward like a
soccer ball and flat on his back. "Ah, that felt good!" he sighed, as he
pushed his sweat-soaked brown hair back on his head.

Pyro coughed, turned over and spat out a tooth on the deck.

"Come on, fight like a real man," Bruno said, flexing his chest muscles
as he approached. "None of this sissy power stuff."

Pyro flipped upright and snarled. "You muscle-bound moron. I'm going to
burn you good!" His hands burst into flame and he lunged in a quick
punch. 

Bruno yelled as Pyro managed to score across his arm, giving it a nasty
burn. He counter-attacked with a grab and a sweep, knocking him to the
floor again. "Ah, so you're not as easy as I thought," Bruno said,
beating the flames off his arm.

Pyro rolled away and threw a red poke-ball. "Flareon, go! Fire Blast!"

"Darn," Bruno said, taking a step backward.


<><><>


Sparky already had his Jolteon out. The electric evolution of Eevee was
snapping and hissing as Erika tried to beat it off with her staff.

The Thunder Master brother was enjoying the show. "Heh, you can't keep
that up forever," he gloated as he tried to tilt his body in the best
possible angle for the wind to hit him just right so that his yellow
cloak would flare out nicely.

Erika retreated a couple of steps, waving her staff menacingly at the
spiky-backed yellow pokemon. "Bad boy, bad!" Erika was scolding it. "Go
bother someone else!"

"Jolt!" The Jolteon began to spark, black eyes narrowing fiercely.

Then she noticed that she was backing up almost up to Ash and Pikachu.
They seemed to be bent over in pain. What was wrong with them? 

But the weirdest thing started to happen. Sparky's Jolteon suddenly froze
up and started to emit a whimpering sound.

"Jolteon?" Sparky called out in worry. "What's wrong?" He ran closer
until he too doubled over in pain. He screamed.

The green-haired guy that seemed to hold the biggest grudge on Ash
abruptly shouted, "You fools, get away from there!"

Ash groaned as AJ turned his attention away. "Got to ... got to..." He
leaned over and grabbed the metal railing of the ship's roof. Slowly, he
ripped a bar off with the sound of steel creaking. "There!" he shouted as
he threw it like a spear at a sword that AJ was holding, which was
blinking in front of them. The sword seemed to squeal a shrill sound
as the railing smashed into it and knocked it away to clatter upon the
deck.

"Sandshrew!" AJ cried in horror. He kicked Ash away furiously and then
turned on the coughing Sparky. "You idiot, look what you did!"

"Me?" Sparky choked, standing up and slowly recovering from the intense
pain. "What did I-"?

AJ stamped his booted foot, and a wave of pressurised air travelled along
the deck and knocked him over. "Now for Ash and his rat-" he snarled,
spying the small black pikachu slowly standing up on to its hind legs and
shaking its head.

But Erika stepped forward and quickly dealt him two blows with her staff,
once in the chest, then a spinning slash at his legs, tripping him over.
"Oh no you don't!" she said in satisfaction as she dealt a final blow to
the head knocking him out.

Sparky lifted himself to his feet, eyes burning yellow. "I've had enough!
Brothers, it's time!"


<><><>


Rainer's eyes abruptly shone blue. He stopped throwing Ice Beams and
turned. "Yes, it's time."

Misty blinked. "What are you talking about?"

The frozen Vaporeon suddenly burst out of its coating of ice and leaped
away towards the rear of the ship.


<><><>


All of a sudden, Pyro burst out laughing as his eyes flared red. "Now
you're dead. It's time."

The Flareon that was attacking Bruno blinked once and then loped away on
all fours, red fur glowing bright with fire. Pyro followed, his cloak
trailing flames on the deck of the ship.

"Come back here and fight," Bruno called as he ran after them.


<><><>


The three brothers and their pokemon stood in the centre of the ship's
roof.

"I don't like the looks of this," Erika said as Bruno and Misty just
arrived and stood next to her.

Ash stepped backward and let Pikachu jump up on to his shoulder. "Get
ready."

"For what?" Misty asked curiously.

Rainer yelled, "Vaporeon, merge!"

Pyro yelled, "Flareon, merge!"

Sparky yelled, "Jolteon, merge!"

The three pokemon seemed to flash then slowly slide into each other as if
they were as insubstantial as air. What formed in the centre quickly
began to grow larger and larger until it was at least eight feet tall.
Soon the merging was complete and what stood there was a huge dragon-like
creature which stood on four spiny legs, but had three heads and three
tails. Each head corresponded to each of the pokemon that had spawned it,
the middle was a Flareon's head while the two side heads were a Jolteon
and Vaporeon respectively. The three tails corresponded to the same
pokemon also, but that was where the resemblance ended. The actual torso
of the fearsome creature was a dragon's, complete with wings and coloured
black as the night. All three heads roared simultaneously, a terrifying
sound that seared the soul. Its razor-sharp claws scratched deep furrows
on the ship's steel deck.

Bruno blinked. "Holy crap."

"What he said," Erika mumbled. She took one look at her staff, then
another at the Eevee-dragon creature and hid it behind her back,
blushing.

Ash and Misty were silent, their cloaks rustling sinuously in the cold
wind. Pikachu was still on Ash's shoulder.

The hatch behind them opened and Lily stuck her head out. "What's all the
racket up here, and why have we suddenly gained at least a ton in
weight?"

The dragon thing roared.

Lily turned her head and her blue eyes widened as large as saucers.
"Oh... Well, I'll leave it to you guys. Sayanara!" She slammed the hatch
shut.

The three Pokemon Master brothers laughed. "Sorry now aren't you, that
you murdered our little brother?"

Misty shook her head. "For the last time, none of us killed Mikey."

"Liars," Pyro accused. "I'm going first. Triverion, Ultimate Fire!" He
looked at Ash and pointed. "On him!"

Ash pivoted sideways as the middle head focused its large red eyes on him
menacingly and began to inhale with powerful suction.

"Guys," Erika suddenly spoke up. "Has it just gone colder or is it my
imagination?"

"Now is not the time to think about the weather, Erika," Bruno said
matter-of-factly.

Ash looked at her out of the corner of his eye. "No, actually, she's
right. This cold ... it doesn't feel natural." He looked behind the ship.
"And those flock of gyarados that were following us have disappeared."

"Ash, watch out!" Misty warned as the Triverion's middle head opened its
fanged mouth and let out a solid bar of white flame from its throat. 

Ash spun around, letting his black cloak cover his form as the immensely
hot, burning fire struck. Darkness seemed to flash as Misty, Erika and
Bruno were blown back off their feet by a wave of intense heat. Black
mist and smoke was flying everywhere making it hard to see.

"That was almost too easy," Pyro said contemptuously with a flick of his
red hair. "Now where's Brock?" Then as the black mist was cleared by the
biting-cold wind, a dark form was seen kneeling on the deck, black cloak
smoking. "What? You're harder to kill than last week's mayonnaise!"
But suddenly, his teeth chattered and he began to hug himself around his
red cloak as he realised something. "Hey, brothers, you feel that? It's
starting to get freezing!"

A sharper wind began to blow from the west and everyone looked in that
direction. No longer was the horizon over the tossing black ocean
visible, it was absolutely clogged up with white impenetrable fog. It
seemed to be rapidly approaching over the ocean as if it were a tidal 
wave that was as wide as the eye could see.

"Who cares about some storm?" Rainer shouted. "It's my turn! Triverion,
get ready for Ultimate Ice." He pointed at Misty who was standing up from
being knocked over. "On that bitch!"

Sparky grabbed his arm. "No wait, I don't think that's a natural storm."

Pyro jerked backward. "Shit. Do you think it's her? I think we're close
enough that-"

And then the wind grew even more fierce and a storm of hail and snow
began to fall around them. Ice fell so hard, it felt like stones being
beaten across their backs. A loud clattering sound began to pervade the
air as the hail smashed against the ship's deck.


<><><>


Butch and Cassidy were watching the action as they stood next to Suzie
atop the deck of the large Pokemon League Battleship. They had been
observing the fight for quite some time as their ship followed at a
discrete distance.

"They're not going to kill Ashura are they?" Cassidy asked in a high
voice. "That flame attack of their's actually looked like it could have
killed him."

Suzie shrugged uncaringly. "I doubt they'd be able to kill him. He is one
of the Forbidden Pokemon Masters after all." She narrowed her one visible
eye. "All I want is Brock."

Butch shivered and tightened his grey over-cloak. "It's freezing! Maybe
we should go in, it's starting to snow," he said, lifting his palm up.

Cassidy cursed as a large piece of ice bounced off her blonde head. "It's
not snowing you fool, it's hail!"

And then there was the most horrible screeching sound like fingernails on
a blackboard. Their ship jerkily came to a stop from underneath them
sending Butch and Cassidy stumbling forward. 

Suzie, however, stayed secure on her two feet. She took a step forward
and peered over the edge of the bow. "The water around our ship has been
frozen," she said calmly.

Cassidy saw that the smaller white ship they were following had stopped
too. "They've been frozen also. What gives?"

"Maybe that," Suzie indicated with a nod of her chin.

They looked to the side and saw a rapid fog approaching. And at the
centre of the fog, a lone figure. The fog seemed to be emanating from it
as it approached them from the horizon. It seemed as if the figure was
walking on water ... on the ocean itself.


<><><>


Ash watched as he knelt, his black cloak still smoking from the fire
attack, as the figure in the fog came closer and closer. Slowly, details
emerged. It was wearing a Master's hooded cloak, that much was obvious,
and it was the colour of frozen ice, a pale whitish-blue. The freezing
cold wind was blowing it across to the side, casting a slim curvaceous
figure in relief. Long, milk-white legs were revealed with each flap of
the cloak. A woman.

Around her feet, the water of the ocean seemed to freeze as she came
forward, and that was how she was able to 'walk' on water. And then her
sliding gait was explained as he picked out that she was actually on ice
skates, skating on the ice-path of her creation.

Brightest green eyes flared within the shadows of her cowl.

Lorelei.

The first of the Elite Four.

As she neared them more and more, the air began to grow even more
unbearably cold and the fog began to cut out the already scant light. Ash
reached behind to cover his head with the hood of his cloak and tightened
it. Pikachu burrowed into his arms and stuck his head out the top,
pointed ears twitching.

Everyone else covered their heads and faces with their cowls too, except
for Misty who seemed to be unaffected by the cold or the hail, which just
seemed to dissolve before it hit her. She was silently staring down
across at Lorelei, her eyes glowing an icy-blue as her long red hair
seemed like a flame in the sudden darkness.

As for the huge Triverion, it had shrunk down to crouch in a ball,
whimpering as it tried to keep warm.

Finally, when Lorelei was about thirty or so feet away from their ship,
she hopped sideways and skidded on the pathway of ice she had created,
and came to a stop, her skates creating icy-blue sparks. Her long cloak
rustled lithely along her body, revealing enough bare skin underneath to
show that she was almost naked underneath it. Her head remained covered
by her hood, although her eyes were still glowing green deep within them
- all that was visible of her facial features.

"I sense warmth." Her voice was icy, as cold as the arctic wind. It was
actually a pleasant voice, a singer's voice, except there was something
about it which seemed to freeze the soul. "All warmth must be destroyed."

The three Eevee brothers, Rainer, Pyro and Sparky took a step backward,
obviously frightened.

"What's your problem?" Erika whispered over to them. "Isn't she on your
side?"

"Yes and no," Pyro whispered back. "It was said that Lorelei lost her
sanity a few years ago, and now no one really knows whose side she's on."

"What?" Bruno looked absolutely shocked.

Ash nodded slowly. "It's true. That's why she was kept largely apart from
the other League Pokemon Masters and Trainers."

"I-I didn't know," Bruno mumbled.

Erika recalled her staff away with a flash of emerald light. "The
question is, why is she here?"

Sparky answered her. "We're near Cinnabar. She was in charge of the
Cinnabar focal point for opening the gate. Master Garick had to use her
since she is one of the most powerful Pokemon Masters in the world, after
all."

A groaning came from the floor. Everyone turned to look and watched as AJ
regained consciousness and pushed himself to his feet. "I remember that
bitch," AJ snorted angrily. "She was the one who made sure I didn't even
qualify for Pokemon League the next year!" He grabbed his sword and then
jumped off the side of the ship to attack her.

Ash stepped forward to grab him, but missed. "AJ, you fool, you don't
know what you're doing!"

AJ landed lightly on the frozen island of ice surrounding the ship and
hopped toward her, slipping a little, with his sword held horizontally by
his side. "You're dead!" he shouted, his eye glowing fiercely.

Lorelei waited for him to come, silent, as the cold wind blew her
ice-blue cloak sinuously around her slim form. But when AJ swung his
sword at her, she suddenly spun in a high spin-kick, cloak gliding like a
ballerina's skirt, as she agilely blocked it with the blade of her left
ice skate. As AJ stepped off-balance, his sword ricocheting off her
foot, she spun again, this time striking with her right leg, the sharp
blade of her ice-skate stabbing deeply into his chest with a splash of
blood. AJ coughed once before Lorelei tossed him away with a smooth
movement of her long leg to send him sliding off the ice and into the
ocean. He sunk beneath the black turbulent waters without a trace.

Her eyes were still glowing green as she turned back to look up at them.
"Warmth is a disease that lets one feel. Soon all will be replaced by
blissful cold." Her aura of white fog began spreading outward, toward
the ship.

Ash sensed movement by his side, but was too late to stop Misty from also
jumping off the side of the ship. "Misty!"

As she leaped down, red hair and blue cloak trailing behind her in the
air, blue-white flashes sparked from her feet as blades of ice-skates
formed underneath her black boots. She landed with a skidding of ice and
began skating toward Lorelei.

Tucking Pikachu within his cloak to keep warm, Ash moved to follow when
suddenly hard thick arms grasped him from behind and caught him in a
strong hold. He turned his head to find that it was Bruno holding him,
his rust-coloured eyes shining fierce. "Bruno, what the hell?"

All Bruno did was tighten his hold further, so that even Pikachu was
trapped, caught within Ash's immobilised arms. The hard Fight Master
closed his eyes. "I'm sorry, Ash."


<><><>


Misty slid to a stop, shards of ice flying away from her skates as
she slowed down. In front of her, Lorelei was unmoving, two bright points
of green light that were her eyes glowing over the shadows of her face.
Both their cloaks seemed to rustle in synchronised movements, in timing
with each gust of the frozen wind.

She didn't quite know what she was doing. There was just something she
felt deep within that pulled her to seek this confrontation.

Abruptly, Lorelei threw off her hood and tossed her long wavy hair free
to flap behind her in the wind. It was a dark-blue, a purple colour that
almost matched the dark waters of the ocean. Over her deep green eyes,
she still wore her oval spectacles, the same ones she had worn back in
the days of the Pokemon League tournaments.

"You are warm ... yet cold at the same time." Her voice was just louder
than a whisper. "Do you seek the frozen oblivion?" Her hands by her sides
began to pulse with icy-blue power, emitting a fog whiter than was
natural.

"Lorelei ..." Misty voiced. "Why?" 

She thought back to the past. Years ago, Lorelei, the mistress of icy
pokemon had been her idol. She had looked up to her, like Ash had looked
up to the other Elite Four. Once, she had even thought about following in
her footsteps, a pure ice trainer - although water, her first love, had
brought her back. Lorelei had been aloof, a cold personality, yet
even so, deep down, Misty thought she was a caring person, someone who
you could tell could feel deeply. This Lorelei was different, a Lorelei
who embraced the cold and nothing else.

Suddenly Lorelei blinked and the faintest tinge of red appeared on her
pale-as-ice cheeks. "Y-You!" she shouted. "So you think you can escape
death?" She lifted her arms skywards and the cold power she had gathered
rocketed up into the sky. Clouds up above trembled and roared.

Misty slipped backward at the freezing cold backlash, so cold that even
she could feel it.

The hail began to fall harder and the gusts of cold wind grew
exponentially powerful - powerful enough to crack the ice they were
standing on. It forced Misty to slide away despite her skates being
locked against the ice.

"Master Pokemon of Ice!" Lorelei shouted over the now screaming wind.
"Show her the numbness that only ice can give!"

It was as if a giant earthquake had hit underneath the ocean. The ice
that they were standing upon, cracked apart even more. Misty gasped in
horror as her sisters' ship behind her began to rise as something ...
something huge began pushing it from underneath, from underneath the
island of frozen ocean it was marooned in.

In front of the ship a massive head broke out of the ice, the head of a
giant lapras. It was as translucent as frozen spring water but with eyes
that glowed a crimson red, the colour of the Forbidden. It rose up
higher, revealing a long elegant neck, smooth as the ice it was made of.

As it rose rapidly, she saw that the ship was actually on the huge
lapras' back, held within the frozen spines of ice that adorned the
saddle of its massive torso. Its icy body broke up out of the frozen
island of ocean carrying the ship up to a height of at least twenty or
thirty feet.

Lorelei flung her arms down in an abrupt gesture. "BLIZZARD!" she
screamed.


<><><>


"Let go of me!" Ash shouted as Bruno continued to hold him from behind in
a double arm-lock.

But Bruno was silent, unspeaking.

Ash's eyes blazed golden, lighting up the darkness created by the storm.
"Can't you see? Misty ... ARGH!" He savagely broke out of Bruno's hold
with a powerful surge of strength and was about to leap from the ship,
when the deck shook and he lost balance, stumbling over to his hands and
knees. Pikachu fell out of his arm to land in front of him on all fours.
Everyone else fell down too in the wake of the horribly shaking floor.

"We're ... we're rising!" Erika gasped as she rolled over to look out
the starboard-side.

"Shit!" Sparky cursed.

Everyone clung face-down on the deck as the ship rose higher and higher
until it stopped rising and bobbed once. Hail slashed across their backs
as the storm of ice above them grew to abnormal proportions.

At the front of the ship, the back of a huge head rose up high. It was
glimmering and transparent as if it were made of ice. Ash felt a chill go
down his spine that was not the cold as he gazed upon it.

"It's-it's the Master Pokemon of Ice!" It was Rainer's voice. "That
lapras!"

"But I thought it was dead!" Pyro said, shocked.

It can't be! Ash thought. *She* was the Master Pokemon of Ice? "Nessie!"
he yelled up to it. "Is that you?"

Immediately, the lapras' head began to turn around. Its brightly glowing
red eyes widened when they alighted upon him. A light female voice boomed
telepathically through the air, easily heard despite the screaming wind.
"MASTER ASH?"

"Nessie? H-How?"

"Pikapi!" Pikachu shouted up to it.

It closed its crimson eyes. "I'M SORRY."

And then it seemed like the world had turned white.


<><><>


The unnatural blizzard raged on, completely engulfing the ship in its icy
embrace. Even the League Battleship had gotten caught and was tossed
around the ocean like a leaf in a hurricane.

But the storm was not created for the sole purpose of death, but for a
different reason ... a reason of vengeance.


<><><>


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 squad. 
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. Sand 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 a 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 form 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 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 those 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
many 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 it."

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 could have been 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 the 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 you're 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 hers. "Do you mind?"

He continued thrusting powerfully up the path with pushes on his skates
and pulled 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 into 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 the statue. "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 smile.

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 his senses 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," one of the Grass Trainers, 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 the 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.

Collatra 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 drifted
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 and leapt up 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 a
one-eighty 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 electric 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 attempt 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." Then 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 seen 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 alleyway's 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 lots 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 arrogance. 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
clear. 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 were 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."


<><><>


Ash carefully looked down through the frozen branches of the tree.
"Nothing. I think falling into that crack I made gave us enough time to
lose them."

They were sitting up high in a frozen tree house that they had found in 
a public park playground for shelter and rest. Mostly for Erika though, 
as she had been too tired to go on. Right now, he watched in bemusement 
as she rubbed the arches of her bare feet with her hands.

"I don't think I like skating," she said tiredly as she blew a strand of
short blue-black hair away from her mouth.

Pikachu and Misty were warming their hands on another dark campfire he
had created.

"You sure that using our elements won't attract notice? We are trying to 
lose them after all, not find more trouble," Misty said as she brushed
the flakes of ice from her long red hair with a small hand-comb.

"I already explained it," Ash said, collapsing down next to them and
suddenly feeling very tired. He threaded his fingers through the long
black hair of his bangs above his eyes and sighed. "Too much Forbidden to
notice it, if that makes sense."

Misty shrugged one shoulder. "In a weird Ashy-kind-of-way, it sort of
does."

"Actually, I think it's more of a weird Misty-kind-of-way," he
retaliated.

"No, it's an Ashy-weird," she fired back.

"No, definitely Misty-weird."

"Chaaa..." Pikachu groaned in a fed up tone of voice.

"You can say that again," Erika sighed.

"Chaaa..." Pikachu obliged her.

Unexpectedly, Erika suddenly looked at Ash and narrowed her grass-green
eyes at him. "Besides, you seem particularly well after a week of
'Hydroxin Waterflower.' You guys are all alike, after bed, you forget
about it the next day."

Ash leaned back against the wall of the tree house and put his hands
behind his head. "What are you talking about?"

She looked from him to Misty pointedly. "I assume since he seems very
much alive, he's free of the poison? And to do that, you had to um ..."
She coughed. "You know..."

Misty suddenly crawled over to Ash and grasped the sides of his head with
both hands. "Actually, I didn't. And I was wondering about that all the
way back at South Lavender."

"Didn't what?" Ash said, still confused. Misty's blue eyes were staring
into his seriously. "What are you doing? You want to kiss me or
something?"

"Don't flatter yourself," Misty said as her eyes glowed a bright blue, an
obvious sign that she was accessing her power. A minute later, the glow
of her eyes died down and she sat back down next to him. "I was right.
You're completely free from my influence."

"Isn't that a good thing?" Ash said flippantly.

"I don't understand it," Misty said, ignoring his witticisms. "There was
no way he could be free of my poison unless I flushed it out of his
system."

"Wait, wasn't Valdera at South Lavender too?" Erika suddenly said.

Misty narrowed her eyes in sudden thought. Then after coming to a sudden
conclusion, she slapped him on the face. Ash's teeth seemed to rattle in
his mouth.

"And just what was that for?" he asked with his brow raised as he rubbed
himself on his now stinging cheek.

"You-you two-timing gigolo!" Misty accused. "You, you male whore!"

Ash pushed himself away from her. "Have you gone crazy?"

"Pikapi!" Pikachu said, also in puzzlement.

"You slept with my sister!"

Ash blinked. "Well I did go out with her back at Pokemon League after we
split up. And might I again inform you that I didn't even know you two
were related even though that might seem unbelievable. I thought you knew
that?"

"Not at Pokemon League, just now at South Lavender!"

"But that's impossible. I was imprisoned and asleep most of the time! I
was injured, remember." He shook his head. "Besides, why should you care?
We're officially a broken couple."

Misty grew tongue-tied. "Because ... well, because!"

Then it was Ash's turn to get angry as he remembered what Duplica had
told him on the ship. "And what's this about not telling me the whole
truth back at Cerulean? How I attacked you under mind-control?"

"What?" Erika said in alarm. "Misty, you didn't tell any of us about
that."

Misty twiddled her thumbs. "I-I didn't think it would help." She looked
at him. "You seemed so depressed..."

"I have to know things like that," Ash told her. "As it is, it doesn't
look good. I have to make sure that it never happens again ... or who
knows what will happen. Now seriously, tell me the truth. What exactly
happened back at South Lavender? And just how *did* we capture Brock? And
just how did the base get destroyed? And don't tell me it's because Brock
and Valdera destroyed it in their fight; I don't buy it one bit."

She looked away. "Okay, I'll tell you what really happened. You-"

"Wait," he cut her off. "Do you hear something?"

"Look, do you want me to tell you or not?"

"Move!" He dived forward, knocking Misty and Erika away with a flying
tackle, just as something exploded through the floor. It bisected the
whole tree house into two distinct pieces which, in turn, blew apart into
countless other bits of debris.

Everything was in confusion as Ash, Misty, Erika and Pikachu were
suddenly floating in midair after the abrupt eruption, with broken pieces
of icy wood, branches and tree leaves to accompany them. Then Ash flipped
upright in midair, and rapidly descended to land in a crouch on the
icy-grassy floor far below the tree, his black cloak billowing around
him. Misty and Erika followed suit, also landing in crouches by his sides
while Pikachu landed on his left shoulder, alert. Subsesquently, bits of
the destroyed tree house fell all around them with several muted crashes
and a showering of shattering ice.

"What was that?" Misty asked breathlessly as her long red hair continued
to settle around the shoulders of her blue cloak.

A hiss came from above them and they leaped backward as a white-furred
panther-like pokemon landed with its razor-blade claws outstretched just
where they had been crouching before. The red jewel on its forehead was
blinking threateningly as it licked its chops around its dagger-sharp
whiskers. Vertical slit-like eyes stared at them unblinkingly and seemed
to glow an eerie pale white.

"A persian!" Erika exclaimed as a green sparkle covered her dainty feet
and her boots formed back along them. She rose to a stand and
outstretched her hands as she summoned her long black staff.

Ash held her off with a hand as he remained in a crouch. "Wait. I think I
recognise this persian."

A flash from above in the corner of his eye warned him just in time. He
fell backward as a thrown dagger just missed his throat and sunk into the
icy earth between his ankles.

"Up there!" Ash warned as he lifted his hand and threw a long bolt of
black lightning up at the tree the dagger had come from. The cracking
charge of shadow electricity sheared off one of the branches and sent it
crashing to the ground in a hail of icy sparks. It revealed a slim figure
dressed in black baggy trousers and a short-sleeved tank-top that was 
standing in the upper-canopy of the branches. Its face was covered by a 
ninja's veil while long red hair up in a ponytail streamed out the 
opening at the back of its head. "Jessie!" he exclaimed, recognising her.

"And James!" Misty called out as she dodged another dagger which flew out
from the bushes and embedded itself in the icy trunk of the tree they had
just fallen from. Sure enough, a figure dressed similar to Jessie, but
wearing a long-sleeved black shirt instead, somersaulted out of the
bushes. A lock of bright blue hair flared out of the slit in his mask
truthfully revealing him as the male counterpart of the Jessie and James
duo.

"Team Rocket?" Erika said in puzzlement as she scratched her head with
one hand. "I thought that organisation was destroyed at the conclusion of
the Dark Pokemon Wars."

Ash stood up and backed away as Jessie flipped down from the tree and
landed softly in front of him. She had begun spinning a pair of
three-pronged sai knives around the fingers of both hands. "These two
aren't Team Rocket anymore. We met them back at Mount Moon, and to tell
the truth they didn't seem too bad. In fact, they were helping us
dispatch some Pokemon League soldiers."

Misty, in turn, was backing away from James, who had also begun spinning
sai knives around his hands. "That's right."

Persian had begun to stalk Erika, who also began to back away. "Well, if
these people are now such fine upstanding citizens, then just why in the
name of all Grass Pokemon are they attacking *us*?"

"Look at their eyes!" Misty said aloud.

Ash did so and narrowed his own. "Didn't Jessie have blue eyes? A real
sinister kind of blue. Now it looks like they're washed out - a pale
white."

"Same with James and Persian," Misty said. "And usually, they'd be
talking a kind of trash talk. It isn't like them to be silent for more
than a few minutes like this."

"Mind control? Was I like this?"

"Not really. Your eyes were red."

"Um," Erika interjected. "I'd hate to interrupt your little chat, but
they're getting awfully close now."

"Well, it's best if we just knock them unconscious until we find out why
they're like this," Ash said. "Try your Sleep Powder?"

"Good idea," Erika said as she lifted one hand. Her green eyes began to
glow and her cloak and shoulder-length hair arose to waver sinuously.
"Hope this works!" she shouted as she scrunched up her fist and then
seemed to throw something at the three former members of Team Rocket.
Sparkly yellow powder flared brightly in the air as it settled over them
in a light coating of stars. But still Jessie, James and Persian
continued to advance.

"Uh, what was the use-by date on your Sleep Powder, Erika?" Ash asked in
a tone as dry as dirt.

Erika glared at him. "Maybe they're immune to Grass techniques."

Misty gave a slight smile of recollection. "Well, they're certainly not
immune to Electric attacks, Ash. Why don't you paralyse them?"

"Okay, Pikachu, Thunder Wave!" he said, throwing Pikachu up into the air.

His dark electric mouse sparked darkly as it flipped around high. 
"Pika ... CHUUU!" he shrilled as a tidal wave of ebony thunder emitted
from his body and splashed over the trio.

But when the electricity dissipated, they were still unaffected,
unstoppably advancing.

Pikachu landed softy on the frozen grassy ground on his hind legs and
blinked his cobalt-blue eyes. His pointed ears and jagged tail were
twitching in confusion. "Pika?"

"Uh, what was the use-by date on your Pikachu, Ash?" Erika took great
pleasure in saying.

"Very funny," Ash said, as he blew a lock of hair that fallen over his
left eye with a twist of his lips. "Something's definitely wrong here."

"There's always the old fashioned way," Misty said, as liquid energy
formed around her hands into her twin ice daggers.

"Right," Erika said as she grasped her staff with both hands and began
spinning it around in three-sixty degree revolutions in front of her.

Ash looked down at Pikachu. "I don't want any fatalities little pal, so,
uh..." He looked up at the tree and pointed. "You stay up there and watch
okay?"

"Pikapi!" Pikachu said as he folded his little arms, annoyed.

"Okay, if you do this for me, I'll give you an extra helping of ketchup
when we get back to the ship."

Pikachu's tummy rumbled. "Cha," he said embarrassed, then nodded his chin
and scampered up the tree to sit on the branch. He gave Ash a thumbs up.
"Chu, pikachu!"

"Thanks, pal! This'll only take a few seconds anyway," Ash said, just as
Jessie tried a roundhouse kick, which he blocked with a crossing of his
arms. But then, expecting a blow of strength that would normally come
from a woman, he was completely surprised when the power of the hit
propelled him sliding away backward until the lower edge of a
slippery-dip at his back tripped him over to fall on his bottom and he
slid up the kiddie slide in reverse. At the top, gravity decided to put
in its two cents and pulled him down again just as if he were a real kid
playing on the slide. Of course, since the slide was all iced up, he
slid down much too fast and he fell on his butt at the bottom.

"Cha ha ha!" Pikachu laughed from his vantage point atop the tree.

"This is embarrassing," Ash said as he ripped the folds of his cloak away
that had fallen in front of his face and stood up, rubbing his aching
forearms.

Meanwhile Misty and Erika were about to take on James and Persian, side
by side.

"Why do I always have to get the Pokemon?" Erika complained as she dodged
a few testing slashes of Persian's front claws.

"I don't know," Misty shrugged as she began clashing blades with James'
sais with icy sparks. "Maybe you just have a way with animals."

"I'd rather have a way with men," Erika declared as Persian growled and
finally leaped up at her. To dodge, she struck the end of her staff into
the frozen grass and pole-vaulted over his head to land on top of some
monkey bars in the centre of the playground, but almost slipped until her
boots found purchase upon the narrow bars of ice.

"Isn't that the same thing?" Misty sighed as James began a three step
offense with his blades that she was hard-pressed to counter. She sucked
in her breath as one of the knives almost slashed across her wrist and
she couldn't twist away in time for a rising flying kick which took her
in the shoulder and knocked her away powerfully. She flew away a dozen
metres and landed on her back on a kiddie swing which swung backward and
deposited her on the ground on her back in short order. "Owww," she
groaned as the ice blades on her hands winked out.

Then she screamed in shock as someone fell on top of her in a tumble of
black clothing. Golden-brown eyes looked into her own.

"Ugh, sorry Misty, but Jessie packs quite a punch," Ash mumbled.

She threw him off her with a growl and he rotated in midair to land on
his feet with a flap of his cloak.

"What are you doing? I thought you were supposed to be good in a fight? 
Are you going easy on her?" Misty asked in annoyance as she jumped 
upright.

Ash shrugged as he turned back to Jessie who was now leaping toward him
silently on the tops of all the playground equipment. "Maybe. I don't
really like fighting women, especially when they're friends."

"Friends?" Misty asked as she turned around to face James as he was also
leaping toward her on the tops of the playground equipment.

"Well, we've known them so long now, that it just feels right to call
them that," he explained.

"Yeah, trying to steal Pikachu most of that time," Misty snorted. "I
think that punch rattled your brains is what I think."

"Well at least, I have a brain to get rattled," he replied sardonically.

"Are you implying something?"

"Is it that obvious?"

She turned around with blue fire in her eyes. "Why, you-"

"JUMP!" Ash shouted and he leapt upwards, grasping Misty's arm to carry
her upward with him.

Below them, Jessie and James collided into each other, their skulls hard
enough to knock each other unconscious and fall flat on their backs.

Ash and Misty turned a flip in the air and then landed back down on the
ground with a hard thump of their boots, their cloaks billowing around
them. Misty descended to one knee to examine the dynamic duo.

"They'll be fine," she said after a while and looked up at him. "Nothing
serious."

"Heh," Ash said, the corner of his mouth lifted in a smile. "It looks
like that being mind-controlled still left their intelligence intact."

"Pikapi!" Pikachu suddenly warned.

Ash turned to see what Pikachu was pointing at and just managed to catch
the corner of someone's black robe disappear from behind a tree at the
far edge of the park. "Someone was watching!" he shouted as he crouched
and leaped up high on to the branch of the nearest frozen tree. "Go check
if Erika's okay, I'll get whoever it is!" he said as he began leaping
from tree to tree towards where he had seen it, his cloak flapping behind
him at each jump. "C'mon, Pikachu!"

"Chu!" Pikachu said as he also began leaping from tree to tree after him.


<><><>


Misty frowned after them. She was sorely tempted to follow, but Erika may
need her help after all. Turning around, she was surprised to see that it
was getting foggy. White steam was rising from the frozen floor, vapour
of water like her name. Wait a second, she thought as she turned around
again. The mist was rising much too fast to be anything natural...

"Mistaria, you're mine," a voice as cold as the mist suddenly said softly
in her ear. Hands formed out of the whiteness, grabbing her and her 
thoughts turned into the bleak frozenness of despair.


<><><>


When the park ended, Ash jumped from the tree to the roof of a frozen
house and almost slipped, before he gained his balance and ran along the
slippery tiles quickly but carefully. A jingling noise sounded beneath
him. There! He spotted the black-robed figure running along the sidewalk
from below. Smoothly, he leaped off the roof head-first, arms
outstretched into a flying tackle. As he caught him about the waist, he 
used his momentum to bring them both down and he rolled them over until 
he caught him in a secure arm-lock from behind. "Alright, who are you 
and what were you doing watching us?" he asked gruffly.

But then long black hair filtered into his vision; it was a girl!

"I-I'm sorry," she sobbed in a pretty voice. "I-I was just so scared! I-I
was looking for help and I thought you could ... but-but I thought you
were going to kill me!"

Immediately, he let go of her and scrambled backward, feeling ashamed.
"No, I think I'm the one who has to say sorry ... I had no idea," he said
scratching the back of his head. "Did I hurt you?"

The girl turned around revealing a cute pretty face dominated by
large pale-silver eyes that almost looked white. On the black robe she
wore, she had a variety of charms and necklaces draped around it and that
was the jingling noise he had heard when she had been running. "Oh no ...
I-I, just a bruise I think. Her milk-pale cheeks blushed red as she
looked at him. "Oh, you're so cute!" Then she blushed even more and
looked away. "I-I mean sorry, I shouldn't be so forward!"

Ash stood up and put his hands behind his head. "Heh heh heh, no it's
alright." She reminded him of Laselle for some reason ... maybe because
they looked about the same age - about fifteen or so.

He lowered a hand and helped her to her feet. She stood about as tall as
his shoulder, and he suddenly felt very protective of her. "So ... uh ...
uh..."

"Chanelle," she offered with a slight smile as she looked up at him.

"Chanelle ... what are you doing in a place like this? Oh great, that
sounds like a pick-up line ... I mean seriously, this place is dead, I
don't know what's up with that."

Chanelle looked down at her feet suddenly turning even paler than white
if that seemed possible. "I-I lived here ... with my family ... until the
sky went dark and there was screaming and screaming and-"

He touched her shoulder. "It's alright, you don't have to tell me."

She looked up, a tear dribbling out of one silver eye and then sobbed as
she collapsed into his arms, hugging him tightly around the stomach.

Poor kid, Ash thought. "Anyway, I'm Ash and you don't have to worry about
a thing-"

"Pika chu," Pikachu said as he jumped down from the roof, finally
catching up to him. He scampered over and jumped on to his shoulder as
Ash released Chanelle from the hug. "Chu pikachu?" he asked curiously,
indicating her.

"Pikachu, this is Chanelle ... she's been stranded on this horrible
island ever since it was frozen."

Pikachu narrowed his blue eyes. "Pikapi."

"Don't be silly, she's just a girl," Ash said with a shrug. "Now let's
get back to Misty and Erika."


<><><>


"Weird how the persian just collapsed like that, almost like it just ran
out of batteries," Erika said tiredly as she leaned on her staff for
support.

"But, where's Misty?" Ash asked, looking around the frozen park for the
blue-cloaked woman he could just not get out from underneath his skin.
She was like a burr that got caught in your clothes and stuck there
forever.

"I thought she went with you," Erika said, puzzled. She looked at
Chanelle who was standing silently behind him with a frightened
expression on her face. "Unless you traded her in for that girl you have
now."

"Erika, this is serious. I swear I told her to stay with you to help out
with Persian," Ash said exasperated.

Erika waved her hand at the unconscious pokemon. "I can take care of
myself."

"But didn't you just say it just fell over? You didn't exactly do
anything."

"Hey, it's the results that matter isn't it?" she replied with a shrug.

"Pikapi, pipikachu!" Pikachu called out.

Ash turned and ran over to where his pokemon was examining the frozen
grassy ground. He crouched down to get a closer look. It looked like
Misty's boot prints, where the blades of ice had been crushed. Looking 
at they way they were arranged, it seemed as if she had turned to walk 
back toward Erika, but then just stopped as if she had disappeared into 
thin air. "I don't like the looks of this," he said gravely. He leaned 
closer as he noticed a fine sheen of icy water clinging down upon the 
trampled icy grass. "Mist..." he stated.

"What does that mean?"

He looked up at the centre of the island at the high peaks of the frozen
volcano. A watery vapour of steam had begun to rise from the top in an
uncanny imitation of real lava as the beginnings of a dark-purple vortex
began swirling around in the air. A slight rumble trembled along the
ground.

"It means we're in deep shit," he said.

"Pikachu," Pikachu agreed.


<><><>


Misty blinked as she suddenly awoke, feeling like she had just arisen
from a cold-as-death slumber. The first thing she realised was that the
air around her was so cold, she was afraid her blood would start to
freeze. That meant that the temperature was so severe that it would
actually affect her even though her element was strong against ice.

The ground she was laying on was also just as cold and so hard it was
painful to her back. As her eyes regained their vision, she sat up and
hugged herself with her arms. There was a freezing wind blowing, jerking
her hair and her cloak around her like a flag caught in a hurricane.

"So, Mistaria ... you have awakened."

Misty rapidly stood up and almost slipped upon the sheer ice she was
standing on. And then she saw just how grave her situation was. What she
was standing on was what looked like a small flat iceberg floating upon a
cold sea of liquid energy. The dark clouds above looked close enough to
suggest that she was at a very high altitude. Around her, also floating
on the freezing liquid were numerous icebergs like the one she was
standing on and everything was surrounded by a blue arctic wall of rock
which closed them off in a circle. The place looked vaguely familiar and
she gasped as she realised that this was the exact place that Ash had
fought Blaine for his Volcano badge all those years ago. On top of the
fiery volcano itself. Except, now the volcano's lava was lethally cold
instead of lethally hot, and the small platforms floating upon the lava
were much lower than the high peaks Ash's charizard and Blaine's magmar
had fought upon. To make things even worse, she noticed that a swirling
purple cloud above them was beginning to reveal itself as the second
Forbidden vortex.

Misty looked back at who had spoken and saw Lorelei in her ice-blue
cloak, her long purple-blue hair streaming behind her in the frozen wind.
She was standing on one of the other many ice-platforms at the other side
of the volcano, standing impossibly steady upon her ice-skates. Her
sea-green eyes behind her small spectacles glowed fiercely, the glow so
bright it completely encompassed her beautiful face.

Lorelei then lifted her arms and the air seemed to grow even colder, cold
enough that Misty thought her soul was freezing.

"You think you can match up to me, Mistaria?" Her voice boomed and
echoed within the walls of the volcano.

"Mistress Lorelei, this is ridiculous!" Misty shouted over to her. "I
never wanted to match up to you!"

"You actions give the lie!" Lorelei shouted back. "You stole everything
from me! Everything!" Her voice quieted to a whisper, hard to hear in the
screaming of the wind. "Until I had nothing left but the cold..." Her
eyes flashed and she ripped off her glasses and threw them into the
freezing lava, although they froze up and shattered before they could
even touch the cold liquid surface. A tear streamed down her cheek before
it froze and was blown off her face by the wind. Underneath, she was
almost naked save for a very short black mini-skirt and dress. "Well, now
... I call for a Circle of Masters! Physical combat!" She lowered her
raised arms in an abrupt gesture. "She who flees the circle or lies
unconscious shall forfeit ... their life!" She grasped the shoulders of
her icy cloak and threw it off behind her to be snatched by the violent
wind and carried off into the darkening sky. The purple swirling vortex
above them screamed as it snatched the cloak like a hungry mouth and
shredded it to so many fragments of icy fabric.

Misty narrowed her eyes as she summoned her power of Water as a buffer
against the freezing coldness. Her form glowed bright blue as she too
threw off her blue cloak to be snatched by the hungry wind, leaving her
long sapphire-coloured elegant dress to flap around furiously. Ice-skates
formed out of her boots and her height was raised a few inches. "Very
well, you know I have to accept," she said gravely. She leaned to one
side and ripped the end of her skirt off to leave more room to manoeuvre
for her now-bare legs.

Lorelei smiled a smile devoid of any warmth whatsoever. "I know."


<><><>


Before them stood the impossibly-tall volcano of Cinnabar Island. Ash 
was looking up and could just see the blue sparks of flaring Water and 
Ice energy flaring at the very top of the now-frozen mountain of cold. 
And above all was the swirling purpleness of the second Forbidden gate. 
His gaze drifted downward and rested upon the huge iron gates that were 
the entrance to this place of doom. It lay off to the right of the 
pools of flowing liquid blue energy that used to be the hot springs he 
had once bathed in so very long ago.

"I still say you should have stayed behind to look for the others,
Erika," he said without turning around.

"Pika pika," Pikachu seconded from his shoulder.

"Look, Misty's always come when I needed her, so why I can't I do the
same for her?" she replied stubbornly.

"You're just putting Jessie, James and Persian in needless danger," he
indicated their unconscious bodies behind them being carried on the
flower of Erika's Venusaur.

"Saur!" the huge, green squat dinosaur-like pokemon with a large, wide
flower on its back, agreed.

"And Chanelle looks terrified," he indicated the girl who was sitting on
the venusaur's shoulder with a scared expression on her face.

Erika folded her arms. "Best friends come first."

Ash sighed. "Okay, but-"

The icy ground beneath their skates trembled.

"An earthquake?" Erika inquired, looking down at the ground.

"Worse than that," Ash said, nodding his chin in the direction of the
cold springs flowing along the base of the volcano. Something huge and
translucent was rising out of the pool of freezing liquid energy.

"Oh, great, not *that* again," Erika said sliding backward a step and
raising her dark wooden staff.

"MASTER ASH," the massive Lapras made of ice boomed telepathically
through the air as it rose out of the frozen springs. It was much too
large to fit all the way through and so smashed its way upward through
the floor of ice itself. "YOU SHOULD NOT HAVE COME."

"Nessie!" Ash shouted as he skated forward. "I want answers! Why did you
ever consent to become a Master Pokemon?"

The huge lapras paused, its horned head looking down at him from above.
"AFTER YOU ABANDONED ME, I GREW ATTACHED TO SOMEONE ELSE. IT WAS HER WISH
THAT I BECOME SO."

"You mean, Lorelei?" he asked. Then he frowned. "And I never abandoned
you! I let you go free because I thought it was what you wanted!"

"FORGIVE ME FOR SAYING SO, BUT YOU ARE A FOOL, MASTER ASH. YOU HAVE
ABANDONED COUNTLESS POKEMON THROUGHOUT YOUR JOURNEY. DIDN'T YOU EVER
REALISE THAT ABOVE ALL THEY WOULD WANT TO STAY WITH YOU NO MATTER WHAT? 
IT IS LIKE OFFERING BUT A CRUST OF BREAD TO A BEGGAR THEN SNATCHING AWAY 
THE LOAF WHEN THEY REACH FOR MORE." She looked down at the pikachu on 
his shoulder. "ABOVE ALL, ONLY YOUR FIRST POKEMON WAS SPARED FROM YOUR
STUPIDITY."

"I-I never knew you felt that way," Ash said, his throat tightening. But
all those pokemon he had let go. Was this how they really felt? But it
had always seemed like the right thing to do. Were his beliefs flawed?

"AND NOW I CANNOT LET YOU PASS BECAUSE IT IS MISTRESS LORELEI'S WISH."

"But, Misty's up there! You know her! How can you let her be murdered?"

"IT IS MISTRESS LORELEI'S WISH," was all she said. "NOW LEAVE BEFORE I
MUST RESORT TO VIOLENCE."

Ash didn't know what to do. He just couldn't attack Nessie, it wouldn't
feel right ... even if she was the Pokemon League's sixth Master Pokemon.
But ... but Misty was in the fight of her life. He couldn't abandon her -
he just couldn't! It would tear his soul apart just when he thought he
had mended it.

"Ashy-boy!" a throaty female voice suddenly shouted. "I finally found
you!"

He turned around to see a voluptuous violet-cloaked woman with long blue
hair skating toward them from the direction of the city. "Duplica!" he
called out in surprise. He spotted Junior and one of Bruno's trainers as
well as Laselle and Giselle all skating toward them.

"I'll distract her for you, now get up there and save your girlfriend!"
Duplica said as she leaped into the air and began changing into a huge
yellow bird with spiky wings. Electricity crackled around her form as
the new zapdos took to the air. "ZAP!" she shouted in an amused voice
from her razor-point orange beak.

"WHAT?" Nessie cried as Duplica-Zapdos shot a massive jagged bolt of
charged Thunder into her and she cried in pain, flinching as she 
unwillingly began to sink back into the cold springs.

"Not so hard, Duplica, but thanks a lot!" Ash said as he crouched and
formed a disc of black shadow beneath his feet. "Up we go, Pikachu!" he
called out as they began to rise rapidly in the air to the top of the
volcano. "By the way, she's not my girlfriend!" he said down to her.

"ZAP! Get out of denial, Ash, the land of truth can be very rewarding!"
Duplica-Zapdos replied as she zoomed around in the air and continued to
keep Nessie busy with bolts of electricity.

Erika, Junior, Laselle, Giselle and the rest of them ran past the
battling pokemon to the huge iron door. "We'll go up the conventional
way!" Erika shouted. "Meet you up there, Ash!"


<><><>


Where did she go? Misty thought frantically as she searched all around
the volcanic arena with her eyes. Leaping from ice-platform to
ice-platform as she skated around was beginning to tire her and already
she was bleeding from numerous cuts on her arms and legs. Although she
thought she had given about as good as she got so far - she was sure she
had cut Lorelei in just as many places with kicks of her own razor-sharp
ice-skates.

Just as she guessed correctly, she leaped away from the platform she was
currently on as Lorelei exploded from underneath, feet-first, with her
razor-sharp ice-skates cutting through as an ice-pick shatters ice. In
midair, she turned a half-twist, shaking off the cold lava from her body
and landed upon another platform.

Misty sucked in her breath as a splash of the freezing-molten liquid
struck her in the forearm and immediately her skin began hardening to
ice. It was only from hard thought and desperation that allowed her to
gather enough Water energy in her body to melt it back to normal.

"Too cold for you, Mistaria?" Lorelei asked as she shook her blue-purple
mane of hair, to fully free it of the liquid freezing lava. "You should
embrace it as do I, for feelings are not worth feeling."

"You're wrong, Mistress Lorelei!" Misty shouted in an emotionally-pained
voice. "Feelings are what make us human! You used to understand that ...
to be cold and nothing else is nothing but a parody of death."

"Ironic coming from you ... as you in turn were the one to teach me these
values," Lorelei replied as she began leaping from iceberg to iceberg for
another attack. The cuts along her bare skin that Misty had inflicted
upon her seemed to not even slow her down. "You and *him*. Him
especially! He stole a part of me when he left me behind to rot in the
Pokemon League. Allowing yourself to feel opens up the possibility of
being hurt. And hurt is inevitable in this immoral world!"

"Him?" Misty asked in confusion as she prepared for Lorelei's assault.
"Who are you talking about?"

"I assume she's talking about me," a tight masculine voice called out
over the wind.

Misty turned and gasped in surprise as she saw Bruno standing upon one of
the icy platforms, his maroon cloak billowing about his huge muscular
body in the fierce wind of ice.

Lorelei saw him and screamed. She abruptly stopped her charge with a
snow-plough manoeuvre sending ice-shards flying from her skates. "You! 
You dare to show your face to me?"

Bruno stayed deathly still upon his platform of ice. Abruptly, he broke
down and covered his face with his hands. "I'm sorry, Lorelei ... but you
seemed happy in the Pokemon League ... while I ... I couldn't bear what
we had become; nothing but a body of over-powered people seeking to gain
our own ends at the expense of others. We were nothing but a more
powerful Team Rocket."

Lorelei's sea-green eyes narrowed to glowing horizontal slits. "And you
think I was? I was happy because of you! For once I had a family to call
my own ... and yet with one 'moral' step you completely removed it from
me." She turned her attention back to Misty. "Was she worth it, Bruno?
Was it worth having an inferior version of myself by your side instead of
me?" Her form abruptly became shrouded in an ice-blue freezing aura. "No
matter what you answer, she will be naught but ice and I will shatter it
like you shattered my heart."

"No, she has absolutely nothing to do with any of us!" Bruno roared. "I 
don't know how you ever reached this insane conclusion that I left you
for her. Leave her be, she is and always was Ashura's girl!"

Suddenly, a dark form swooped up and over the crater wall of the volcano.
A black-cloaked form riding on a disc of shadow. "I wouldn't put it quite
that way, Bruno, but no one's turning Misty into an ice block! This is a
family discussion, that I'd rather you left us out of!"

"Ash!" Misty cried out in abject relief as he swooped toward her.

"Misty! Jump!" he called out and she did so, right into his arms as they
glided upward upon Ash's power of shadow.

"She's escaping!" Lorelei screamed as she began to fire bolts of ice from
her fists.

Misty felt dizzy as Ash manoeuvred around in quick midair turns and loops
to dodge the wild shots.

"Stop that!" Bruno shouted as he began leaping from platform to platform
towards her with big crunching sounds from his heavy boots.

"Who are you to tell me what to do?" Lorelei said as she began to point
her blazing fists at him.

"Your husband!" Bruno roared as he jumped into a high tackle knocking
her off her skates into a high parabolic arc until they landed upon
another ice platform, Bruno pinning Lorelei on her back. Hissing in pain
from the coldness seeping from her skin to his arms, he quickly lowered
his head and kissed her.

For a moment, she struggled, the flesh of lips feeling as cold and hard
as ice, but then the faintest tinge of warmth began to pervade them.
Lorelei burst out into tears and collapsed as Bruno hugged her in his hot
embrace.


<><><>


Ash, with Pikachu on his shoulder, and Misty watched from above as they
hovered upon Ash's disc of shadow. "Amazing how a kiss can solve so many
problems," Ash said, shaking his head as he carefully rode both of them
against the wind.

Misty didn't answer. He turned his head to see what she was doing and
found her staring at him with a strange expression on her face. Her blue
eyes were bright with emotion and suddenly he felt warm as her arms
wrapped around his side became a burning brand. Long locks of her
crimson hair caressed his cheek like a feather upon soft down.

His eyes lowered to her pert pink lips and he abruptly remembered what
they tasted like ... like strawberries and cream. He had the sudden
uncontrollable urge to test that memory ... and she too began leaning in
close for a merging of lips...

But a shrill, terrifying scream from above broke the spell and they
looked up to find that the dark-purple vortex had grown even larger,
large enough to swallow the volcano whole. Dark shadows of flapping
shapes became visible from within, uncountable dots of blood-red eyes
looking down at them in hunger as they waited patiently for freedom.

"The Forbidden Gate is becoming fully open!" Lorelei's voice called from
below. Her tone had grown considerably warmer - whatever Bruno had done
had been more than completely successful.

"How can we stop it?" Bruno asked quickly as they stood up.

"Master Bruno, you're alright!" a new voice sounded from the far side of
the top of the volcano.

Ash looked down to see that the rest of them had finally climbed to the
top through the stairway. Junior was standing upon the entrance ledge,
holding on to the visor of his maroon cap to keep it from being blown
away from the wind. Next to him were Erika, Giselle and Laselle.

"Junior, what are you doing here?" Bruno yelled in surprised anger.

"JT," Lorelei suddenly said softly. Then more loudly, "My JT?" Her
sea-green eyes were wide as she stared at him.

"JT?" Junior called out. "I remember when I was small, someone used to
call me that!" His own green eyes widened. "No, there's no way!"

"Lorelei!" Bruno shouted.

Lorelei suddenly grasped her hands tightly against Bruno's shoulders.
"How could you bring my son here?" she sobbed. "Now the gate is too far
open, everyone here will die!"

"Tell me how we can stop it!" Bruno asked again, this time more
desperately.

"MOM?" Junior yelled over the wind. "But-but if she's my mom, that means,
Master Bruno ... Master Bruno..."

"Is your father!" Lorelei completed. "Bruno how could you not tell him?"

Bruno closed his eyes. "I-I couldn't. I just couldn't! He didn't deserve
a father like me ... better to be an orphan than be the son of a
heartless murderer!"

"You're wrong!" Lorelei shouted. "Everyone deserves a family! Family is
what keeps people together. Without them, the loneliness will lead to
despair ... and with the despair, the bitter touch of complete coldness."
Her green eyes had sunk to a dull glow at the remembrance of her
feelings. "I can't let that happen," she suddenly whispered in a low
voice. "I won't. I won't let it!"

Bruno had to back away as she suddenly summoned such an immense amount of
elemental power that the very air around her body began to freeze solid.

"Lorelei, what are you doing?" Bruno said appalled. "You can't hold that
much energy without it ripping you apart!"

"Bruno," she said in a soft tone, tears freezing around her eyes. "You
must know that I am a focal point holder. Three of the Elite Four were
given the duty of acting as a conduit for each of the three towers to
allow the Forbidden Gates to open. We holders are part of the keys to
these gates. If all of us die, then the Prophecy of Armageddon will be
stopped."

"So Sabrina was telling the truth!" Erika shouted.

"But-but," Bruno began, his eyes beginning to moisten. "That means ...
NO!" he screamed in a voice full of pain and denial. "Not after we've
just found each other again! Not after just remeeting your son!"

"But it is because that JT - and you - are here that I must do this,"
Lorelei said in a voice just louder than a breath. "My death and my final
blast of power will slow down the destruction of this island enough for
you to escape." She paused, her eyes beginning to glow even brighter,
brighter than the whitest of stars. "Goodbye, Bruno ... my love... take
care of JT for me -" She smiled bitter-sweetly. And then she was gone.

All Bruno could do was let out a yell of complete anguish and loss.


<><><>


Seeming to shrill in pain as if it had taken a mortal blow, the massive
swirling dark-purple vortex of death flared as if a thunderstorm had just
begun within its dark heart.

The pure white island of ice and its volcano underneath it began to shake
underneath a massive upheaval of the sea and ground. Light which flared
from the ice itself and seemed to light the island from the darkness,
began to blink as it lost its source of power.

Wind blew and hail struck. Air smelling of ozone and melting ice was
everywhere around them.

"Which way is the ship?" Ash shouted over the careening of the wind as he
desperately steered his platform of floating shadow that was holding
everyone up in the wildly shaking air. He had extended it, large enough 
to carry most of their companions, while Duplica in Pidgeot form, flying 
behind him with powerful beats of her wings, carried the rest that would 
not fit. The icy city below them was beginning to collapse within itself;
houses, trees, buildings and everything was disintegrating as if the 
whole island was a sandcastle that had just been submerged within the 
sea.

"It's at the south of the island, on the beach!" Giselle answered him as
she yelled over the noise of destruction. "We better hurry and hope that
Misty's sisters have gotten that ship fixed or we can all say good
night!"

A few desperate minutes later, Ash spotted the white pointed form of the
ship far below them on the white beach. It looked like Misty's sisters
had already begun to cast off.

"Hey, they're not leaving us are they?" Laselle asked in sudden fear as
she lay on her chest, clutching the shadow platform with her hands
tightly.

"No, they're just getting ready so that when we come, we can make a
speedy getaway," Misty explained, still holding Ash's side.

"Pidgeot!" Duplica-Pidgeot trilled. "Let's dive!" she cried as she 
lowered one wing and swooped down like a fighter jet.

"W-Watch it!" Jessie said, who had now awoken from unconsciousness and
seemed normal - normal for her -  as she clung to Duplica-Pidgeot's
brown-feathered back in fear.

"I'm scared of heights!" James cried.

"Oh, be quiet!" Duplica-Pidgeot trilled. "You're lucky I'm even giving
you a ride!"

Ash banked his disc of shadow and followed them down.

Lily was waving at them from on top of the deck. "Like finally!" she
shouted when she saw them descending. "We were becoming like totally
worried!"

Duplica-Pidgeot landed first with an elegant gliding of wings, although
she deposited Jessie, James and Persian more than a little roughly upon
the hard deck.

"Ow!" they cried.

"Sorry, an accident!" Duplica said innocently although the wicked tone in
her voice gave the lie as she shifted back into human form.

After that it was Ash's turn, and it was more than a little hard for him
since upholding the Shadow levitation so large and for so long had
completely tired him out. Pikachu as well, as he had been adding his
power to his. As it was they were still a couple of feet in the air above
the ship before, he could no longer maintain it and they all fell down
with a thump in the wake of the sudden empty air.

"Quick, below decks!" Lily said, helping everyone up. "We're going to
have to submerge to get out of this one!" She indicated the island behind
them as the ship sped away at full acceleration. She looked at Ash as he
tiredly stood up and began following everyone down the hatch with Pikachu
on his shoulder. She shook her head. "You know, places that go to hell
seem to be quite common when you're around."

"Tell me about it."

After submerging, they managed to escape the destruction of Cinnabar
Island. Onward, the ship turned its destination north to the Viridian
Gulf.

But it was a sombre mood that descended over the party of people within
the ship. They were one step closer to their goal, but at what price.

Bruno stayed locked in his rooms for the whole journey, while Junior
refused to even speak. Even Erika seemed to fall in depression at the
knowledge of her three Grass Trainers death.

And unknown, behind in the cargo-hold, a stow-away plotted retribution.


<><><>


The cold air above the ruins of Cerulean City was dead calm. Gruesome
animalistic howling sounded every so often interrupting the terrifying
stillness which enveloped the land. Forgotten crumbling buildings lay
throughout, seeming devoid of all life. Aside from the deadness of the
ruins, by contrast the tall circular black tower that rose above the
destruction was pulsing with dark-purple waves. It was from here that
such appalling cries of inhumanness originated, or more precisely above
it, the first vortex of the Forbidden. Which now seemed to be drifting to
the west...

Behind a toppled building, white light seemed to burst as something came
into being. As it flared and gained solidity, it emerged into a slim
white-cloaked figure. Its head was covered by its hood and the two
glowing blue lights constrained within its shadows that were its eyes,
slowly rotated their field of vision.

Crumbled pieces of rocks and stone crunched underneath her white boots as
Valdera began to search. It was around here somewhere. After all these
years, she still remembered where it was, even if Cerulean City looked
... slightly different.

Strangely, a sense of homesickness came over her as she looked around at
all the destroyed ruins of buildings and burnt trees and other ashes that
used to be the plentiful plant life of the city. She was only seven years
old when she decided that life was nothing but a stupid vessel to pass
through before ultimately leading to its true goal - death. And so she
had staged her death and run away... there were better things to do than
suffer under the company of her stupid sisters. And oh, how she had hated
Mistaria... and now if what she suspected was true, then life was worse
than a vessel of death. Nothing but a bad joke.

Something hissed among the broken stone bricks to her right, breaking her
train of thought. A rattata the colour of the night, leaped out of a
crevice and began to pounce toward her. Lazily, Valdera lifted one hand.
Her fingers crackled as pure white lightning exploded forth in a
devastating bolt of hot destruction. The rattata seemed to evaporate into
red steam as the electricity streamed through its body and into a
half-collapsed broken stone wall - which just exploded into a shower of
molten lava upon contact.

Stupid Forbidden. Lord Garick was indeed an idiot to use such
uncontrollable creatures. If Ashura wasn't so stubborn and joined her,
nothing would be able to stop the combined might of light and shadow.
Masters such as they did not need outside power; they only needed each
other. Thinking about that, she realised that already she missed him.
Maybe she shouldn't have done what she did back at the Rebel base. It
just let her crave for more. She quickly put it out of her mind as she
continued on her way without a glance back.

Finally, upon a large depression on the ground among the largest ruins of
a building yet, she spotted the severed head of a large seel. The sign of
the Cerulean City Gym.

"So, you have come for answers," a voice said from behind her, eerie in
its emotionless.

Valdera turned around. A tall figure, taller than even her, in a cloak
the colour of twilight stood there. Its head was also covered by its
hood, making the features of its face invisible save for the eyes.
"Sabrina," she stated in annoyance. "As if I wanted any of your
psycho-masochistic babble."

Sabrina continued without acknowledgement. "There's no escaping from it.
Your blood is as entwined as the knots of a life's thread. As you have
seen with Ashura, the prophecies are proving true. All dualities will
become one eventually. That much is obvious."

Valdera sucked in her breath. Something tickled on her cheek and she
angrily wiped it away after realising it was a tear. Then she collapsed
to her knees on the stony ground and looked at her slim white hands.
"Prophecies can be broken!" she suddenly sobbed in denial. She looked up
with a defiant look on her face. "And I will find a way to break it!"

But no longer was Sabrina there. Only the dead air surrounding the
equally dead city.

Valdera brushed away a long lock of blonde hair away from her eye. It was
time she and 'Misty' had a more serious encounter. 'Ash' could only
belong to one sister ... her.


*** End of Part 10

_________________________________________________________________________

                                POKEDEX
_________________________________________________________________________

SHADOW PIKACHU
Type 1 - Shadow
Type 2 - Electricity

Attack : Shadow Slice
Type   : Shadow / Fighting
 
In blade form, a strike of the sword that can be launched over surprising
distances to cut any substance known to man.

_________________________________________________________________________

Notes:

Ack. My fingers are about to fall off from the length of this fic. I
think I beat my record... anyway, time for my world-famous notes! What do
you mean you don't know about them? Start from Part 1 then! *grin*

New Characters: Try to guess what each of the new characters (Ania,
Triana, Colletra and Hikaru. Oh and Chanelle.) match up to from the
gameboy game - answers at bottom ^_^;;. By the way, I didn't want to
create even more new ones but I found describing them as "Erika's
Trainers" or "Bruno's Trainers" got pretty old and required actual names.
Although on second thought, I just killed most of them off anyway so
maybe it didn't matter.

On Ash's bow shooting skill: I chose two hundred yards because I just
finished watching Guiness Prime time and it said the furthest someone
could shoot an arrow with accuracy was one hundred yards. So naturally, I
chose double for Ash *grin*.

On Triverion: I've always been a big fan of Transformers where they would
all join to make a big robot ^_^;;. Except this idea was based more on
how it was done in the PSX game, Xenogears.

On Lorelei: Sorry for being so corny, but I thought a kiss would fit for
some reason. Kind of like Sleeping Beauty ... or Sleeping Insane-Woman.

On Ice skating: Ain't it totally cool? That would be awesome if there
really was a city of ice to skate around in ^_^.

Anyway, as always tell me if I stuffed up this chapter or whether you
loved it to pieces. And if I stuffed up, tell me where you think I did it
so I can see if I can improve it. Thanks!


Ace Sanchez
Emails : jsanchez@bigpond.net.au
       : aceywacey@hotmail.com
       : acey@i.am
WWW    : http://i.am/acey
       : http://www.users.bigpond.net.au/acey