A Winkle in Reality

[98ajaj]

So in this timeline Blaine didnt shun Giovanni? Sweet! Can't wait for peri to claim the badge by picking it up off his corpse!

 

[The Radiance's Follower]

Blaine patriotism used to make him fall from grace. It do be like that.

 

[ElysiaNightshade]

yesss

 

[HankPankylol]

Thank you for reading. Hopefully you enjoy. If you REALLY like it, I have a P-a-t-r-e-o-n, under the same name, where you can read 5 chapters ahead.

---

I had no idea what the hell was going on anymore, but I was really pissed off about it.

Crawling through the volcano had sucked, but that was seemingly my own habitual dumbassery biting me in the ass, so I wasn't going to bitch too much about that. On the other side, I'd even admit that it had been kind of fun – in a 'that was crazy' kind of way.

But Mewtwo attacking Mahogany Town? Adam the Rocket Grunt being in Cinnabar Gym? Blaine being affiliated with Team Rocket?

I was very confused, and very angry, so the first words out of my mouth when Gym Leader Pryce stepped through the doorway weren't the most polite.

"Occu-poto, dickhead, wait your turn-!"

"Where is Blaine?"

Pryce didn't yell. He didn't rage or scream; none of the fury he surely felt was to be found in his even, hoarse tone, like a man who didn't speak overly much.

Yet his eyes gleamed.

"I don't-!"

Cold.

I couldn't finish my sentence, all air driven from my lungs while, for a horrific moment, my heart went still in my chest from the shock. A howl of wind rushed past the white-haired man, littered with tiny snowflakes that were on me before I could blink, gently landing on my exposed torso, shirt removed because of the heat from the volcano.

As soon as the sprinkles of snowy geometry brushed my skin, they blossomed into ice flowers as big as my palm, sweat instantly flash-frozen into a thin layer of hoar-frost before being buried under the blooming bouquet. The moisture was sucked from my skin, leaving it dry and stretched as both Adam and I were swallowed by the chilly prison, nothing but our heads left exposed.

"Where is Blaine?"

It burned. That was the only thing I could think of, Pryce's words merely background noise in comparison. And the Ice-Type Master wasn't waiting for me to recover.

I was so stunned by the sudden entrapment that I didn't notice the cause of it gliding towards me with a strange, almost dancing grace until it was right in front of me. When I did, for a second, I thought it was a human, if a very short one. Bipedal, long blonde hair swayed behind the figure as it sashayed forwards, the hemline of the long red dress – with two golden circles over the… chest area – billowing with every step of hidden feet. But the delusion fell when our eyes met. Big white, saucer-like eyes sparkled at me from a round, uncomfortably humanoid face, full pink lips pressed together and forward in a trumpet shape. But it was the deep purple skin that tipped me off, the color of frostbitten flesh after days in the snow. No human would've survived such conditions, not even in the Pokémon world. My eyes tracked the dark purple hand attached to a white-skinned limb as it lifted, the digits curling until only the index finger was extended as it lowered to touch the middle of my forehead.

The Jynx's fingertip was like a red-hot coal searing into my flesh, but I barely registered it compared to the lance of cold that hammered into my mind, past whatever passive defense my part Ghost aura granted me that usually kept out curious psychics and-

-soft pop! of displaced air… "Hi Adam!"... empty office behind him, Blaine the presumed source of the Teleport…-

-"Son of a fucking whore! He never has, stubborn old-!" Blaine's voice… "how the fuck does he know!? Somebody… a Ratatta in the ranks... this place is burnt. We need to move," Blaine said... "Get it off this island tonight. The Sevii Lab can… the expansion's finished. Don't fucking wait until tonight; do it quickly; start with the… It'll take him a… through the mountain, but not long enough! Prioritize! Throw everything we have at the cunt, their sacrifice will be worth…

-"Blaine, you know, the Gym Leader?... totally not bodacious."...

-Lance grabbed the back of my chair… "fight me, ha!" The old, one-armed woman grinned… Lance stared at the massive skull… "not… great at that."...

-Lance leaned down over me… stop myself from averting my eyes. He snorted… Petrel glared as Honedge kept him pinned… Rocket base under the Game Corner…

It was like an axe had been driven into my skull, Jynx's finger feeling as if it had gone all the way to the knuckle and was trying to rip my head apart from the inside. A low, constant droning groan escaped my clenched teeth despite my best efforts. But underneath that sound, there was another moaning wail, higher-pitched and melodic.

-Blaine looked almost hungry… Professor Oak's humiliation… "This is Blaine Heatmoore, Clan Head-"... Walter Waterflower… S.S. Anne… "Thi-... Executive Proton-"...

-Mt. Moon... "... a Graveler." Adam sai-… Grant…

-blood, gore, death… Pidgey with stitched-on, extra wings-… red R in the da-... "they're kidnapping your children-"... … Slowking…

-Hyper B-... "SHARON!"... "Executive Prot-"...

-Orre…

-a swirling, endless kaleidoscope of colors humanity had never known surrounded me as I drifted through nothing/everything, every sensation bombarding me in my sensory deprivation chamber. Reality itself flinched strangely, crumbling unnaturally like space was trying to get away. As a shadow the size of a solar system spread its galactic wings – evident only in the abyss it painted across non-existence – there was a ripping noise as everything twisted and grew hazy. As the faintest sliver of planetoid crimson orbs opened to glare balefully at me – through me, beyond me – there was a shrill scream as the Distorted world imploded and faded to darkness. The red eyes lingered, like lanterns against the black as it refused to let go of the memory, growing closer and closer and closer and closer and closer, a row of ivory as long as mountains were tall flashing -

-"Awwwwww, what the fuck…" I moaned, clenching my eyes shut against the searing migraine. The lower part of my face felt wet and warm, and between grimaces, I saw a smear of red frozen on the ice beneath me, a strand of fresh crimson liquid connecting it to my chin. You knew it was a healthy nosebleed when it was a stream rather than drips.

At least it cut both ways, though.

"JYYyYYyYYyYYyYNNnNNnNN!" Jynx stumbled back with a musical scream, clutching her head in pain. She stepped on the hem of her dress and tripped, the red clothe-skin-thing rising over her head when she did a full backwards somersault and ended up face down.

"Jynx!" Pryce barked and rushed over to his downed Psychic, her frame racked with slight spasms. As her Trainer helped her roll over, I could see cracks in the frozen skin around the Jynx's eyes, large droplets of ruined, sludge-like blood leaving a trail across her cheeks. "What happened!? What did you see!?"

Pale, almost pure white energy flickered unsteadily in her eyes as their gazes met, and instantly, the Gym Leader flinched back with a stifled grunt, her right eye squeezing shut. "Don't show me, don't show me. Just tell me."

The flickering grew worse and worse as Jynx pushed through the second-hand backlash of my memories to relay what she found to Pryce. Based on his furrowed brow and the slight twitches of his eye, it was still far from a pleasant experience. The blackish blood began bubbling up from Jynx's cracked skin again, yet she persevered.

Finally, she blinked and disrupted their unbroken eye contact, and she went limp on the floor, not unconscious but far from okay.

"Well done." Pryce nodded stoically, recalling the humanoid Pokémon into her ball: a brown, knobbly sphere, almost twice the size of a PokéBall.

An Acorn ball, the precursor to the modern PokéBall. Just like Blaine used. There was irony to be found there if I wasn't busy trying to press my face against the large, protruding clump of ice on my shoulder, ignoring the way my blood froze against it and glued me to it in favor of the sweet relief.

"That's quite the mental defense you have there," the Gym Leader grumbled as he moved to stand in front of me, hands clasped over his cane, face back in the impassive folds he entered with and any signs of pain hidden.

"Eat my ass," I complained, not in a very sharing mood. Honedge, however, was. My shadow darkening as it began distending, the hilt with its blue eye narrowed emerging-

-and then just… stopping, like he was stuck. The shadow became pitch black and seemed to cling to him while he vibrated, jerking a little back and forth yet unable to get out.

My steadily refocusing vision saw that Pryce's own shadow was unusually large and overlapped with mine, both an abyssal void from which a pair of ice-blue pupils gazed up at me from within yellow sclera.

"I will let that one slide, in light of our… introduction," Pryce drawled. Something white and ethereal rose behind him: a white, kimono-like cloth billowing in an invisible wind, folding in a way that made it clear it was hollow despite the red band holding it closed. Those blue and yellow eyes stared at me with mirth from within a white skull, the edges of frostbitten skin, much like Jynx's, barely visible through the eye holes. Thread-thin arms dangled like earlobes, a disproportionately bulky hand rising to point at me while the other covered the Froslass' mouth as a ghostly giggle filled the room. "You will stand in the back and wait until I am done."

I didn't get to respond before the Ice/Ghost-Type flexed its hand and I started moving against my will. Despite being solid, the ice flowed around me like molasses, pushing me backwards while Adam rose to take my position across from Pryce, standing with his arms outstretched. I tried to help, to pull myself out, but the material resisted me as much as it ever had, refusing to bend for anyone except its mistress.

I stumbled, emerging from the living ice with a wet pop! My knees buckled, forcing me to grab onto the large, expensive desk to keep myself up. Shivers shook my body violently, pins and needles replacing the burning chill. A trembling hand lowered to the PokéBalls on my belt, yet ran into a thick circle of ice around my waist. Down at my feet, Honedge continued to struggle against the soupy shadow, an almost invisible line still connecting me to Pryce.

Shit. I hadn't felt so outclassed and screwed since Walter, and it wasn't something I'd missed.

"Where's Blaine?" The emotionless tone was kind of scary, but it fell a little short of Walter's uncaring death threats. Even Adam, whether due to his newfound courage or being unimpressed, didn't falter in the face of Pryce.

"I-I-I d-d-don't-!"

Tap!

"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

I flinched back against the desk as the cane rose and fell, impacting his left forearm ever so lightly. In response, cracks rushed down the limb and over all five fingers, enveloping it like a spiderweb. There was a single second where it seemed like that was all that was going to happen.

Then, starting at the fingertips and working backwards, Adam's hand disintegrated into a fine, glittery powder that landed in a neat pile beneath him, hints of red twinkling in the light. The Rocket Grunt stared at the stump for a moment, a thin layer of ice capping the surgically even wound, while the last blood fled his face. As the reality sank in and his eyes widened, pupils dilating, he opened his mouth to scream, yet even that was denied to him as Pryce's hand closed around his mouth with deceptive strength.

"Silence. Where is Blaine? I do not ask thrice." He gave Adam a moment for the words to sink in before removing his hand.

"FUUUUUUUUUUUUU-!"

He was forced into silence again, but not by Pryce. Purple bloomed where Froslass' fingertips touched him, the skin cracking and weeping at the caress while the ghost leaned in almost intimately. For a second, I thought the Pokémon was going to kiss him as their noses brushed together gently, their eyes locked.

And then the muffled shriek leaked out from behind Froslass' hand, Adam's eyes rolling into the back of his head as he started thrashing in his ice block. Something cracked in his neck as he strained against the grip, powdered spittle and foam staining the ghost. Veins throbbed against his skin, blood vessels bursting in both his eyes and nose as the unearthly scream rose and rose and rose.

Until it didn't. Until Adam fell silent and limp in Froslass' embrace, the ice around him melting at a ridiculous rate. As he ragdolled to the floor in a boneless heap, he landed with his face my way, allowing me to see the blank eyes as he gaped, open-mouthed, into nothing. His chest rose and fell with gentle breaths, but there was nobody home, a black handprint marking both cheeks that went so deep I could see a glimpse of cheekbone.

"Wha-..." I breathed weakly, Pryce and his Pokémon staring at each other much like the Jynx and he had done. They ignored me long enough for the worst of the tremors to settle in the warm volcano air, and I found some painkillers in my backpack before Pryce finally glanced at me with a tiny frown, the edge of his lip twitching like it was threatening to curl into a snarl.

"Acquired my information. Or, attempted to. Unfortunately, precise details are often lost in translation." He glared between Adam and an apologetic Froslass. "I would have preferred to wait until my Psychic was available," the glare darted towards me briefly, "but I do not have that luxury. Blaine will know that I captured him and move bases quickly. You will tell me," his cane rose again to point at my forehead, my eyes crossing to track the tip. It felt uncomfortably similar to having a gun to my head. "where this 'Sevii Lab' that you raided was. How long ago, what island."

"Shouldn't…. shouldn't you know that?" Fucker had been in my head; what did he mean, 'tell him'?

"Do not play games with me." The cane lowered to hover just over my skin, a cold air radiating from the grainy wood. "Your recent memories were barely coherent, never mind that far back. I suppose your unnaturalness has its uses. Now, tell me."

"It doesn't matter…" I still couldn't catch my breath. "It… it was years ago, and it was destroyed. They won't-can't use the same base."

He sniffed disdainfully. "You would be surprised how often such a thing occurs. Between the resources required to make a new one and the idea that no one would check the same place twice, reusing bases is a fairly popular thing. It is one of Blaine's favorites."

I shook my head slowly to avoid agitating it too much, trying to peel as much of the coagulated blood off my face as possible. "Not that one. The locals know where it is, and they won't risk that twice. Not after what we did."

"'The locals'?" Pryce's gaze sharpened at my minor flinch. Shit, he had me rattled and off-kilter, making me overspeak. "'After what we did'? It was barely distinguishable according to Jynx, but she spoke of blood and carnage, pain and torture. That is the event to which you refer?"

I rubbed my arms to try and get the rest of the sensation back in them, eyeing Pryce silently as I chewed over my answer.

Pryce hadn't exactly endeared himself to me, so even if I had more to give him, I wasn't inclined to do so. Nah, let him run off into the Sevii jungle halfcocked on his own, asshole. I didn't need him. Sucked about his town, but that wasn't my problem. He was definitely on to something about the whole 'get there before Blaine can move somewhere else'; I was fully on board with that. As soon as Pryce left, I was going to call in some help – Blaine was a Master even during the Rebellion and was hiding in a whole-ass base; not even I was that arrogant – and head straight…

… wait, call who?

Grant and the Pebble Clan were out, as always when it came to Team Rocket. However, so were Walter and the Waterflowers. I had no reason to think they were involved with Team Rocket; quite the opposite.

Except that Walter and Blaine used to be friends back during the war. Fuck, they were still friends, it seemed like. I didn't necessarily think he would take Blaine's 'side' over mine, but he would be unusually driven to investigate first and probably involve way more people than was wise. Who knew how many random clerks and salary workers were secretly on the Rockets' payroll. All it would take was one hearing what we were up to and they would vanish into thin air. There was no way Pryce was authorized to be there, certainly not acting like he was. I didn't even know why he was on Cinnabar, or how he connected the dots, but it wouldn't hold up.

Blaine was a Gym Leader, and one of the most prominent figures of the Johto Rebellion. Before Oak, Blaine had been one of the leading generals keeping the Blackthorns, but especially Pryce, at bay, and a reputation like that lingered. I could only imagine even more so given the growing displeasure with the state of Indigo.

If the League got Blaine before I did, he was gone. But… he was what I'd been hoping, damn near praying, for. Blaine would know about Proton. He would know about the bases, about the Pebble Clan, about Giovanni.

Blaine could make the whole thing come tumbling down, and I couldn't see how I could do anything to him.

Clair? She wouldn't go for it; it was political suicide if it went wrong. Straight to Lance? I didn't have his number, and that was assuming he would trust me over one of his Gym Leaders – though that was a fairly decent bet, given Blaine's distaste for all things Johto. But I would need to get a hold of him, convince him to drop everything, fly to Cinnabar to pick me up, and then go further into the Sevii Island chain. I doubted he cared for Pryce much more than Blaine, either. And if I were Team Rocket, having eyes on the Champion would be one of my top priorities.

Briefly, Ash, Brock, Misty, and even fucking Gary flashed through my mind, but I discarded the idea as quickly as it came; Green's frightened face and teary eyes burned into my mind.

Not that. Not again. Yet, that meant…

… don't fucking tell me that the geriatric lunatic was my best bet. Worse, my only real bet.

Damnit.

I eyed him, making him tilt his head at the change in attitude. My eyes drifted down to Adam's vacant face as he gazed blankly at the ceiling. He definitely wasn't a fan of Team Rocket, that much was for sure.

"... They won't be in the same base-" Pryce tsked at my repetitive answer, clearly getting more and more impatient the more it dragged out.

"I will worry about the veracity of your intelligence-!"

"-but I know someone who will know where they are." Pryce rolled his eyes so hard I was impressed they didn't fall out of his skull.

"Who, then? Or are you unsatisfied with your dramatization?"

"What are you going to do to Blaine?" Might as well make sure we were on the same page.

"I will torture him for information regarding his disgusting abomination and then kill him painfully. Everyone that stands between me and that goal will die as well. Are you one of those people?" It was my turn to roll my eyes.

"Now who's being dramatic?" I stuffed my hands under my armpits after getting the worst of the blood off, not happy with how red and tingly my fingers were. "Okay, I have an offer for you. I'll take us to my… informant, who will tell us where the base is. We raid it-"

"We?" Pryce interrupted, Froslass giggling over his shoulder.

"Yes, we. My informant, so I'm coming. Unless you wish to search the entirety of Sevii yourself?" His eyes narrowed, but he said nothing. "Right. So, WE raid the base and find Blaine, who will tell us where Proton is, and everything about Team Rocket. Oh, and whatever you wanna know." Presumably Mewtwo, which would be included in the 'everything about Team Rocket' part.

I thought he might reject me for a second as he just stared at me. Then, there was a noise from outside the office, and he simply nodded.

"If that's what the information costs, then fine. What is your name?"

"Periwinkle. Or just Pe-" he didn't care, turning around and striding for the door.

"If you die, it is on you, Periwinkle. WE are heading for an active combat zone, and I will not have the time nor focus to save you. Do you understand?"

"Yeah, yeah." The usual spiel everyone gave when I was joining something dangerous. It had been a minute, actually. Most of my dumb-assery had been without adult supervision for a while. "Fairchild Island. That's where my informant is. Uh, Island Fi-Four?"

"Island Five." Pryce corrected, stepping over the melting slushy of ice dust that used to be the door and walking out. "I know of it. We will only require a single Teleport. Come."

I sighed while leaning against the desk, letting the rapidly changed situation sink in and doing my best not to look at Adam's prone figure. That was still disturbing. Instead, I glanced over the work surface as I pushed off it and made to walk away. A picture frame had fallen over, and I reached out to lift it out of habit more than anything else, glancing at the photo within as I turned to follow Pryce-

I froze, the world standing still as I stared at the image. Time lost meaning in my shock, words and events flashing through my mind as I was forced to re-evaluate so many things…

"Periwinkle!" Pryce's call from down the hall shook me from my stupor.

"Y-yeah, I'm coming!" I yelled back, grabbed the picture, and shoved it in my bag. It would have to wait; we were in a bit of a time crunch. Just outside the doorless doorway, I found a wet Zorua lying unconscious on the ground. She seemed fine, other than being knocked out, but I still glared after Pryce's shrinking form, my hand falling to my PokéBalls by instinct – only to find them free of ice and accessible again, letting me return her.

And then a flurry of worried Pokémon immediately beset me, all of them breaking free of their balls to threaten and soothe, forcing me back into the office to make room for all of us.

Reassuring them as quickly as I could, I rushed to catch up to Pryce, running by several doors that were wide open and filled with activity as I did so. Reaching the much older man, I tried to put what I'd discovered out of my mind and think about something else. Though that only led me in a circle back to the other thing I'd done my best to not think about.

"...is Adam going to recover or?"

"No."

"Hmm." I settled on a grunt. That… I think I would've preferred it if he'd died. Felt less messed up, somehow.

Probably wouldn't lose sleep over it, though. At the end of the day, it was Adam.

The rooms we passed were, as stated, filled with people, and I briefly thought that it was Team Rocket Grunts doing as Blaine had commanded and packing everything up before I noticed the calmness. That brief pause gave me enough time to notice the clothes. The top halves hung around their waists, goggles around their necks, and hats removed in the sweltering heat, but that didn't stop me from recognizing a onesie snowsuit.

My equilibrium was all kinds of off, but I was going out on a limb and trusting that those were with Pryce. It felt like a safe bet, especially when he didn't react.

We passed through the reception office, two of Pryce's Acorn balls flashing and returning a pair of Pokémon standing guard before I could see what they were, and then left the 'Gym' behind entirely. I looked to Pryce to lead the way out of the volcano – since I doubted he'd squeezed through that tiny-ass gap – but instantly saw that I didn't need him to show the way.

The way was clearly the twenty-by-twenty-foot tunnel that carved straight through the mountain. It was a perfect half circle with a dot of light at the far end, dead straight with the excess material pressed tightly together to make stable walls and ceiling.

"Mamoswine?" I asked as we started walking down the tunnel. The temperature had dropped as soon as we hit the tunnel, thanks to the fresh air making its way in, but now and then, we'd move by a particularly warm spot, and I did my best not to think of the magma flowing beside and over us.

"Correct." He gave me a mildly impressed glance at my identification. Jokes on him, I cheated and remembered that his ace was a Piloswine, which was part Ground-type. "It was the most direct path."

"I-yeah. Yeah, that's true." I didn't have a response to that. He was just objectively correct.

The sun was a lot lower on the horizon than it had been when I entered the volcano, but that was nearly all from spelunking through the caves.

A flash of red and a Jynx twirled in greeting, ending it with a sweeping bow before Pryce. I was impressed that it had shaken off the dive into my mind so quickly, as the aftereffects still throbbed in my head, only to look closer and understand.

"You have two Jynx?" I asked while returning Honedge to his ball. Something that took multiple tries since he kept breaking back out.

"Not mine," he grunted, which made sense. Otherwise, why use Froslass to mind-dive Adam if it was so inaccurate? "It is a short trip to Island Five. We shall learn the location of the base and then rendezvous with my men for the actual assault." I looked at him questioningly, only to be distracted by the Jynx reaching out for us. Not that my head wasn't being ripped in two or my blood frozen in my veins, I could fully appreciate how little I liked Jynx. Much like Mr. Mime, she was just too humanoid. And why did it look like she had boobs!? Who came up with that design? At least it was the purple-skinned one and not the black one; that one was just uncomfortable-

A cold hand grasped my shoulder and dragged me with it as it was sucked through a strawhole, reality twisting as we disappeared from Cinnabar.

---

"Which way?" Pryce asked, and that was a fair question.

"Uhhhhh," I mumbled, looking around to try and find something that looked familiar. In my defense, I did find something I recognized.

More trees. Lots of those on Fairchild Island.

"You don't know." I hadn't known Pryce's tone could get flatter, and I could've done without the demonstration.

"Well, I don't fucking-they found me last time!" I didn't bother to lower my tone, flinging my arms out as I gestured to our surroundings. We'd needed a second Teleport to get us to the part of the island that I recognized, but it was quickly done, and before I knew it, we were in the forest. Pryce almost had to drag me inside, but we did, and then we just had to find it. Them. Anything, honestly. "A Scyther showed up and took me to their leader, a Slowking-"

"Your source is a random, wild Pokémon you have met once?"

"Don't take that tone with me!" I pointed at him, Espeon mimicking me with her tail. Most of my team was out and about to try and help me find the Pokémon Senate's gathering spot. "Slowking's good people!"

"Not any kind of people. Not people at all." I snorted at the answer. In our brief acquaintance, I'd found Pryce to be a very dry and humorless person.

"Semantics! You know what I mean!"

Pryce stared at me blankly for a moment before sighing and gesturing, making his Froslass rise up from his shadow. I wasn't sure what he intended, but I was curious.

"Ice Age."

My eyes widened at the same rate as Froslass' grin, snow-speckled wind starting to swirl in her hands as she lifted them up above her head, palms to the sky.

"Wait-!"

Too late.

WHOOOOOOOOOSSSSEEEEE!

A hurricane erupted from Froslass, a torrent of howling wind and hammering hail that blanketed everything around us in a veil of whirling white. I dropped into a crouch, Espeon held to my chest and my other hand over my eyes to try and protect them, despite being in the eye of the storm. Something large, furry, and cold dropped on top of me – Sol, based on the way the cold swiftly turned to wetness – pressing me down until the screaming wind ceased and the world became visible again.

Or whatever had replaced it.

For hundreds of feet around us, the landscape stood frozen. Trees made of ice, leaves still stuck to their branches. Bushes of intertwined frost, each thin twig perfectly coated. As Sol shifted and let me up, I could see a drop of water hanging from a stick, stilled in the very last moment before it dropped.

It was beautiful. It was serene.

It was all gone, crumbling the same way that Adam's arm and hand had, every tree, bush, shrub, weed, and even rock, atomized into crystalline dust. As they faded, I could see my team through the rising clouds of ice mist, perfectly unharmed despite the most devastating attack I had ever seen.

Relief flooded me, and with the worry out of the way, it was free to be instantly replaced with anger.

"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING-!?" I started yelling before being forced to flinch back from the tip of his cane pointing at me.

"There is nobody here," Pryce interrupted, eyes scanning the horizon as various Pokémon began sticking their heads out of the snow with stunned expressions on their faces. "Nobody important, at least." As I looked around, more and more emerged until we were soon surrounded by suddenly homeless pokémon.

Somehow, miraculously, I don't think he hit a single one.

"You have proved useless," he continued, not mincing words, "as I should have expected. We-"

"You will regrow those."

Pryce spun around in a flash, hands falling to his Acorn balls while Froslass simply turned around to be in front of her Trainer protectively. Standing there, arms crossed behind his back as he surveyed the ruined circle of decimation, stood Slowking, the same Pokémon that had helped me the last time I'd been on the island with a Rocket problem. He looked the same as the last time I'd seen him, though I had hardly expected anything else. The Psychic was very old, after all, unnaturally so.

"Wha…" Pryce's face was one for the ages, his mouth hanging open and eyes bulging as he stared at the shorter bipedal figure.

"I said, you will regrow those. The plants. The trees. The flowers. All of it will be returned by your hand." I couldn't blame Pryce for his shock. It wasn't every day you met a Pokémon that could actually talk. Not through telepathy, though Slowking was very capable of that as well, but by forming human words with his mouth.

"How-?" Pryce tried again.

"Silence." Slowking's voice offered no choice. "You come to our land, seeking our aid, and yet you bring nothing but destruction, tearing apart your surroundings like a child not getting his way. You still stand only because you came here at the side of my friend, and your little tantrum failed to touch any of my people. If a single one had been harmed, you would be dead at my feet." The two of them stared at each other, Froslass hanging unnaturally still over Pryce's shoulder. As the tension rose, I interjected, both to try and alleviate it and because I honestly felt bad. I'd brought Pryce with me; the blame was at least partially on me.

"Slowking, listen, I'm-I'm sorry about all this-" Slowking cut me off with a raised, stubby hand, eyes never leaving Pryce's. For a moment, I thought they might come to blows.

"I thank you for your consideration, but I am not talking to you. I am talking to him." The silence continued while they tried to glare each other into submission. All the while, more and more Pokémon started recovering from Pryce's attack, some of whom I recognized – like the blue-green mass of vines that slowly clambered back to its feet. Large, wet eyes gazed out over the destruction as it tried to scoop up some of the snow and shape it back into a tree shape, letting out a deep wail when it collapsed. Slowly, the eyes dried as they lifted, filling with an anger I hadn't seen even when Tangrowth was snapping necks as they landed on Pryce.

And then, Pryce's chin lowered slightly, his eyes never leaving Slowking's as he bowed his head.

"... as you say, Elder. I… was overly eager and have offended you. You will be repaid." The words didn't come easy, but neither did it take as much as I'd have thought from someone who seemed as set in doing things his way as Pryce did.

Then again, while Slowking was definitely unusual, it would make sense if most places with a big population of wild Pokémon had some sort of hierarchy, and as Gym Leader, Pryce would likely be the one to deal with those.

Slowking hummed, still looking around. One of his arms came up, palm and single finger, plus a thumb, extended as he slowly passed it over his fallen forest. As he did so, the large piles of dust and thick mist that hung in the air melted as if time were fast-forwarding, the newly turned water seeping into the muddy ground.

Based on the renewed tension in Pryce's frame and the way Froslass straight up flinched, it wasn't supposed to be that easy.

"You will replant them with your own hands. I shall allow your 'team' as you call it, to help you grow them. Then, there are a couple of areas that could use your expertise. After that, our debt shall be settled." He resumed staring at Pryce until the old man bowed his head again with a soft 'understood'.

Only then did Slowking turn his eyes towards me, some of the stoic seriousness leaving him in favor of giving me a small smile and his own tilt of the head.

"Greetings, Friend Periwinkle. As I said when we parted, we meet again, though you tend to play tricks on my divinations. The prophecy is not yet at hand, though the waves tremble at its coming."

"Hey, Slowking, good to see you. Uh, just Peri is fine," I smiled much bigger, making his own widen a fraction. I meant it too; Slowking was great. "Still not helping you with the prophecy, but that's not why I'm here. There's no easy way to say this, but Team Rocket has set up a new base here, somewhere on one of these Islands." I waited for a response, Slowking's smile fading and a look of sorrow overtaking it. But no surprise. "You knew." It wasn't a question.

Slowking slowly nodded. "I did," he admitted with a heavy sigh. "'Twas only a matter of months until they attempted to build a second base to restart their horrors. Or, rebuild, I suppose I should say, as they sought to use the same place, for some reason." I ignored Pryce's glance. "We destroyed it, of course. As we did the first, and as we would do the third. The fourth, as it would turn out, was a trap." A vicious gleam passed through his eyes, so at odds with his normal zen-ness. "It did not turn out as they wished, though it was our toughest battle yet. Kind-Sun-Roses, the Mightyena you met, was amongst those who fell."

"Shit," I sighed. The Dark-type had been an absolute monster, but she had done me a solid and seemed to be a decent parent. "How's the kid?"

"As well as can be expected." Slowking nodded his appreciation at the question with a quick flash of his smile. "Under the circumstances, at least. He is fully grown, if nothing else, and evolved himself in the battle that followed. His mother would be proud of him."

"That's good to hear. But if you destroyed all the bases…" I trailed off, letting Slowking finish it for me.

"Ahhh, but by the fifth, the enemy learned," he chuckled darkly, "slower than children, yes, but they learned. They learned that we tracked the scent of our own, so they brought their victims in from the mainland. They learned that no matter where they hid in our forests, we would find them, so they stopped hiding in our forests."

"Not in the forest?" I frowned. "No offense, but these islands are nothing but forest! What else is-"

"Knot Island," Pryce said it with certainty and annoyance, typing furiously on a PokéNav. "I should have known. Blaine is nothing if not unoriginal." Seeing my confusion, he smacked my leg lightly with his cane, making me jerk away, though thankfully my leg didn't crumple into dust. "The volcano, fool! He built his base in Mt. Ember."

"Ooohhh, that makes sense," I admitted. "That's what we needed, though! I knew you were the guy, Slowking, thanks, bro! Come on, let's go and-" I was cut off by Slowking shaking his head.

"I am sorry, Friend Peri, but even if we should want to," he paused briefly to shoot a glance at Pryce, then at everything around us. Or, the lack of anything around us. "We cannot aid you. Not with this. Not there."

"Why?"

"As I said, the enemy learned. They avoided the forest because we go there, and set up base where we don't go. They studied us, learned our patterns, and stay where we cannot get to them."

That didn't make any sense to me, and I was about to say as much when Pryce decided we were done.

"Then we thank you for your aid, Elder, and pledge our services to remove this cancer from your land," he declared grandly. Then he glanced around and continued a little sheepishly. "Let it be the beginning of repayment. Once more, apologies for the… as you say, tantrum. There is quite the history between our quarry and myself, and in my rush and anger, I forgot myself."

At that, Slowking had a little smile to spare Pryce as well. "Mistakes are a part of life, young one. The important thing is that we recognize them, and never grow so set in our ways that we believe ourselves right simply because that is, and has been, our way of doing things."

Pryce seemed unsure what to do regarding the 'young one' comment, something I suspected he couldn't remember the last time he was called. So he chose to ignore it and release his second Jynx again while I waved goodbye to Slowking, kind of sad at the short visit.

"I'll see you when I see you, I guess. And not for the prophecy!" I had only grown more convinced that I wanted nothing to do with the whole Lugia and the Birds nonsense. Leave that shit, and the fate of the world, to Ash.

...

Slowking's smile returned with a chuckle. "Even you don't believe that anymore, my friend! It warms my heart to see you again. You've made progress, even if the shadows still linger in your soul. But let me see you off with a warning. Be careful, Friend Peri." I looked over my shoulder to see Slowking staring at me with solemn eyes. "You will find much more than merely criminals in the fire of Mt. Ember. Stay far from the summit, no matter the temptation."

I didn't have time to respond before we were once again hurled through time and space, heading towards Knot Island to catch Blaine before he disappeared.

---

Slowking! Love Slowking; always good to see him.

Also, it's not really a secret what's atop Mt. Ember, so that'll be fun.

Thank you for reading. Hopefully you enjoyed. If you REALLY liked it, I have a P-a-t-r-e-o-n, under the same name, where you can read 5 chapters ahead.

 

[Pandaemonium04]

Ahhh Pryce just learned a very big lesson. First his Jynx got mind clobbered and then his tantrum is called out. He's gonna be looking back on this day and wondering about who TF is Peri for a while

 

[Protosoul]

Ash really needed to teach him Iron Tail or something. The only moves the Electric-Type had that could even hurt the Rock/Ground-Type were Quick Attack and Tackle, and as funny as watching the small mouse throw itself face-first into a rock would be, it wasn't exactly a winning strategy. The Ground-Type immunity to electricity wasn't a hard rule, as far as I knew after asking Brock, but the minerals in Graveler's rocky hide would conduct the current and insulate its biological insides.

Click to shrink...

You said in the first pewter chapter that Pikachu learned Iron Tail to beat Brock:

Yeah, he's over there! After our second battle, which I won by the way!" He preened like I was supposed to be impressed, though I held my tongue for once and just waited until he continued. "But yeah, I met his dad, and he helped train Pikachu to learn Iron Tail! Did you know he could learn that!?" The yellow rodent seemed to have heard his name as he suddenly appeared by Ash's side. The mouse Pokémon's eyes lit up when he saw me, swiftly running over and starting to pull on my pant legs. I absently threw him one of the veggie treats from my pouch.

Click to shrink...

 

[TheGeneral03]

TFTC

 

[HankPankylol]

Thank you for reading. Hopefully you enjoy. If you REALLY like it, I have a P-a-t-r-e-o-n, under the same name, where you can read 5 chapters ahead.

Been a little while since we had a taste of the good ol' ultra violence, so let's fix that. It's not as bad as the first Sevii Lab, but do be warned: Violence and Gore ahead.

---

In hindsight, while Slowking was invaluable in helping us find the new base in time, we should probably have specified where exactly it was.

Because Mt. Ember was absolutely humongous.

Every glimpse through the dense canopy was dominated by the peak, a column of near-black smoke pouring from the opening at the top. The Cinnabar volcano had been mostly dormant – other than the oh-so-lovely interior – but its big Sevii brother very much wasn't, a pulsing red-orange glow shining like a lighthouse against the setting sun and drawing us like Venomoth to the flame.

If nothing else, logic at least told us to start on the backside of the mountain, as far from the nearby town – 'Knot Town' for some insane reason – as possible.

"So, last time they used an ass-load of Gastly, Haunter, and some sort of Dark-Type, maybe Houndour or Poochyena, to hide themselves behind the Distortion-uh, Ghost and Dark-Type energies," I broke the silence that had settled over us, palm shooting up to catch a branch as it snapped back from Pryce's pushing past it. The Gym Leader's eyes didn't meet my small glare, locked on my hand.

"... that's extremely unhealthy for extended periods of time. I suppose Blaine has finally thrown off even the thin veneer of civility, ha!" It wasn't an amused bark of laughter, more of a derisive acknowledgment of being proven right. "Still, that gives us something to search for. Typical Blaine, overpreparation to the point of detriment, endlessly secure in his monumental arrogance." Reaching down, he tapped one of the PokéBalls at his waist. And I did mean PokéBall, rather than Acorn ball. I'd seen the older and larger row of ten on the front of his belt back in Blaine's office, but in all the excitement, I hadn't noticed the second line of standard red and white capture devices along the small of his back.

15 Pokémon, though one of those was presumably the Jynx that wasn't his, so 14. That Gym Leader privilege at work. Not that I was one to talk, I'd never had to deal with the carry limit myself.

The PokéBall opened and a second Froslass materialized, twirling in the air with a ghostly whisper rattling the leaves around us.

As Pryce's primary Froslass joined the second, swirling around each other playfully, I noticed the differences. Physically, they were damn-near identical in the way only immaterial Ghost-Types could. The one who destroyed a section of the Fairchild forest was almost see-through, like glacial ice rather than the bone of the lesser Ice-Type. Likewise, while they both left a chilly mist in their wake, only the first's froze to snowflakes that drifted to the grass and grew into tiny spires. Around his shoulders, Espeon shivered as the darkness became a little darker, the trees seeming to close in on us, long and crooked limbs reaching down like twisted fingers.

"Find him. We end this today."

I'd been so focused on the Froslass duo that I'd missed the other two Pokémon that Pryce had released, only getting a brief glimpse of a pair of bipedal figures before they moved, leaves ripped from their branches as the trees shook behind them, the Froslass making a game of hitting as many of the falling bits of foliage as possible when they followed them.

That wasn't enough reason to just stand around and gape, though.

"Espeon, can you look for any human minds? Use your new move to give yourself some more 'oomph'." The Eeveelution's eyes and focusing crystal started shining, dimly at first yet quickly building in intensity, a soft pink glow slowly illuminating the bleak jungle-

"Don't!"

Pryce's barked command disrupted Espeon's focus, the buildup energy slipping through her figurative fingers. Annoyed, I found Pryce meeting my glare with one of his own.

"Why not!?"

"'Why not'!? Are you trying to sabotage us or are you just simple in the head!? Any half-competent Psychic or even a decent ghost would notice telepathy, never mind that kind of buildup! You will notice that I only used Ghost- and Dark-Types to avoid detection!"

… okay fair, but still! "You don't need to be a dickhead about it!"

"Bah!" Pryce nearly beaned me with his cane as he dismissed my words. "I do not have time to coddle you. If a few harsh words offend you, you might as well go home now." A muffled ping! rang out from his pocket, making him pull out his PokéNav. "The north-west side is clear."

Fat chance that I'd up and leave just before things got good. "If you think so lowly of me, why'd you accept me coming so quickly? You could've tried to demand that I go home after we met Slowking." That had surprised me. I usually had to work harder for it.

"One, there was no time to argue. Two, you are an above-average Trainer. While you would be of limited use against Blaine himself and are unlikely to match up to my Mahogany Trainers, I expect there to be plenty of fodder that needs dealing with."

"... thanks." Maybe.

We continued searching for a while longer, the only sound being our feet crunching fallen leaves under our boots. It was remarkably quiet, in fact. Eerily so. No Noctowls hooting, no Spinaraks bustling about. I could've been convinced that Pryce and I were the only living beings in the forest.

It was disconcerting, and Slowking's words came back to the forefront of my mind.

The denizens of Knot Island didn't go near Mt. Ember.

So when something rustled a bush gently, the sound of something harsh scraping against bark reaching our ears, we could be blamed for stopping and getting ready to fight.

A flash of light green through the branches of a bush, steel-hard membranes grinding together with a high-pitched screech. An armored, almost reptilian snout above triangular eyes peering out from behind a tree.

A Scyther.

"Yo!" I raised a hand in greeting. I didn't know the species well enough to see if it was the same Scyther I'd met during my first time on the Sevii Islands, but there was no reason to be rude. "Slowking send you?"

The Scyther tilted its head, gaze bouncing between me and Pryce, the Ice-Type Master slowly removing his hand from his belt – though it didn't stray far. Suddenly it jerked back into cover like it got spooked, and vanished from sight again.

But not so far that we couldn't still hear it. Exchanging a look, I shrugged and followed the Bug-Type, Pryce on my heels.

As always, it didn't take long for me to get bored walking in silence.

"Hey, can I ask you a question?"

"You just did."

I glanced at him, caught off guard by the joke, only to see his face hadn't changed from the icy mask. Oh shit, it wasn't a joke.

"You and Blaine really don't like each other, huh?"

"That's not a question."

"Mother-" I rolled my eyes. "Why!? Is it just because you guys were leaders during the Rebellion? Because it sounds more personal than that."

"You would be right." Pryce's face didn't change, but his tone was as cold as that 'Ice Age' technique Froslass had used. "It is very personal."

I waited a beat to see if he'd explain, but no such luck. "Why?"

"None of your business. Now, shut up and keep a lookout." Another ping! of a revived message. "North-east and north-north-east are clear. We're closing in."

Our Scyther guide seemed to agree as the path slowly swung inward, the trees and dense foliage thinning as we reached the treeline. Ahead, the smoldering Mt. Ember towered over us, the ground surrounding it slowly beating back the grass in favor of rocky terrain, the moisture in both land and the very air noticeably less than the rest of the island.

I'd expected us to need to search even when we got to where Scyther was leading us – the door to the last Sevii lab being located inside a fake, hollow tree trunk – but even while still lurking out of view within the jungle, it was impossible to miss the swarm of black dots that swarmed around a spot a fifth up the massive height of the volcano.

"Well, that was easy," I mumbled. Blaine really was freaking out and pulling the plug on everything if he was being that obvious. I turned to thank Scyther for showing us the way, only to blink in surprise when I couldn't see him anywhere.

"Took longer than I would have liked, but it seems we are still in time," Pryce grunted, making a call. From the side, I could see a rough-looking older man with a nasty set of scars across his face and a white ski-suit saluting Pryce. "Brad, we found it. I am sending you coordinates; Teleport in and then be ready to set up a Null-field field."

"Yes, sir! Be advised that we have experienced some Teleportation interference close to the volcano. Permission to arrive 500 feet back and make the rest of the trip on foot?"

"Tsk!" Pryce clicked his tongue at the news, but didn't linger on it. "Granted. Stay alert. We might be reading into an ambush."

"Understood. See you in a minute, General. Brad, over and out." As 'Brad' vanished from the screen, Pryce turned to me.

"Ready yourself. We go in as soon as they arrive."

He didn't have to tell me twice.

---

It didn't take long for the Mahogany Trainers to make their way to us, even with having to Teleport further in as Pryce and I retraced our steps to meet them halfway. Like specters, 28 white-clad men and women emerged from the darkening forest to take up position in front of Pryce in five rows of five, with the last three standing further in front. Most of the Trainers had unzipped their suits and let the top hang loose around their waists, dark patches of sweat visible on their undershirts.

The leading figure hadn't done so, however. The mountain of a man, standing a head taller than the second biggest and nearly as wide as Bruno – though with a healthy amount of body fat instead of Bruno's insane definition – stepped forwards with his back straight and hands clasped behind him. Scars littered the bald head and cut lines through the bushy beard, the two nastiest of which crossed beneath an eyepatch that hid his left eye and curved down to bisect his upper lip, giving him a permanent, teeth-flashing snarl.

Despite his appearance, his tone was professional and restrained, one remaining blue eye staring straight ahead as he reported in.

"All present and accounted for, General-Gym Leader, apologies." Brad saluted.

"Good." Pryce didn't acknowledge Brad's slip of the tongue. "Then let me inform you of the plan." He turned back around to Mt. Ember, though we couldn't see the base from where we were. "Our primary objective is, as you know, the capture or elimination of Blaine Heatmoore, Clan Head of Clan Heatmoore, Gym Leader of Cinnabar, General of Indigo. Our secondary goal is any and all information regarding the unidentified Pokémon that attacked Mahogany." There was a stir at that, teeth and hands clenching in anger. "Tertiary, Blaine is in league with the criminal organization known as Team Rocket. Any and all evidence to that extent, as well as anything regarding other associates, will also be collected. Make no mistake," there was a bloodlust in Pryce's eyes, a crack in his icy facade, "this ends today. Everything Blaine Heatmoore has done and built, we will bring crashing down around his ears." The Mahogany Trainers were too well trained to cheer, but there was a feeling of rising excitement.

"Blaine's an fucker, but he ain't stupid," Brad rumbled, stroking his beard thoughtfully. "While I'm sure he'd prefer if we didn't find him, we should assume that he's up to his ol' tricks. Seismic sensors, Null-field, the lot. He's got the high ground, so we should probably be ready for a Mt. Silver special. They can't go too crazy without burying their own base in lava, but the field favors them."

Pryce nodded seriously at that, while I was left scratching my head in confusion. What was an Mt. Silver special?

"Jenny, take 10 and secure us the terrain. We cannot allow them to bombard us from above."

One of the other two leaders beside Brad saluted: a severe-faced woman who was missing the tip of one ear, the edges discolored from frostbite. "Yes, Gym Leader!" She turned around and started pointing towards various people who broke ranks and formed up in front of her instead.

"Regarding the Null-field, it would appear that it is already up," Pryce continued with a frown, "though it is…"

"It's fuckin' weird," Brad completed, frowning at the volcano. "It ain't Ghost or Dark, but something's screwing with the Psychic's."

Something was nagging me; something about Slowking's ominous warning about the peak of Mt. Ember refused to leave me, but I just couldn't focus. I was on the fucking Sevii Islands, again, about to raid a Team Rocket base. Again. I sucked in a stuttery breath, wiping my sweaty palms.

"Something to be mindful of. We still don't know the location of the Psychic," Pryce concluded before tapping the earth firmly with his cane. "Enough talking. Weaviles out, illusions up, Jenny's team at the ready. Expect a trap. Now, move."

In a series of red flashes – and one nearly invisible blur returning to Pryce – 18 bipedal, cat-esque, gray Pokémon emerged with sinister grins full of sharp teeth. Red feathers crowned its head and collar, two larger ones poking out from each ear. With a snikt! sound, long, razor-sharp claws sprang from their paws, rubbing against each other as dark Denial energy started leaking from them. The Dark-Type energy spread and rose, coming up to form a viscous bubble around us. Gym Trainers zipped up their suits again, poor bastards, and redonned their goggles.

As soon as the edges of the large illusion joined up above – leaving everything slightly hazy and distorted, like wearing funhouse sunglasses – everyone moved in synchronicity, low to the ground as they rushed forwards, damn near leaving me behind.

Jenny's ten flanked us, five on each side as we ran; the whole line of us ghost-quiet. It felt like time crawled as we traversed the barren ground towards Mt. Ember, my heart hammering and fingers itching towards my PokéBalls, but I refrained.

Not yet.

Halfway there, we were forced to slow, our boots kicking up dust that threatened to drift out of our illusion and give us away. The reduced pace at least had an effect on the Trainers around me, their hands clenching and heads twitching more and more. It felt like it took hours.

Yet, in a heartbeat, we reached the foot of the mountain, Mt. Ember rising endlessly before us. The sun had all but set; still, the flickering fire above let us see our surroundings. Including the people still rushing around what turned out to be a cave, the entrance hidden from sight behind an upward-jutting cliff.

Pryce held up his hand before flicking it left and then right. In response, Brad and the other sub-commander – a terribly non-descript guy whose only adjective was 'brown' – slowly split off. Some of the Weavile went with them, their feline faces scrunched up in concentration as part of the illusion bubble went with them, leaving the rest of us to cram in closer together as what we were left with shrunk.

Minutes passed without incident, and I'd just started to relax into the idea that maybe, possibly, this once, the recon might actually happen before anyone tried to kill us.

I don't know why I bothered.

"CONTACT!" The brown guy's voice cracked out from above, sharp and immediate, and the Weavile's illusion sheared apart around me like wet paper as the ground ahead suddenly moved.

Black- and red-clothed people poured out of hidden alcoves, popped out of the ground like human moles, and threw off rock-painted blankets that they'd been hiding under, a cacophony of 'AHA!'s surrounding us on all sides. Red R's stood out prominently on the smirking Rocket Grunts' chests, but that wasn't the only red amongst them, nor were the flashing PokéBalls. No, Cinnabar Gym Trainers grinned at us alongside the terrorists as Graveler, Rhyhorn, Magmar, and a small camel Pokémon, tan with green spots, formed all around them.

Time slowed as rocky and flaming appendages rose, a tangible feeling of energy building.

"INCOMING!" Brad yelled, Jenny and her team stepping forward and unleashing their own Pokémon as the ones above made their move.

Graveler slammed rocky fists into stone in perfect unison overhead, the ground splintering and cracking as Rhyhorn reared up on the back legs and fell back down with deep roars. The earth heaved like water, a bulge traveling through it and down toward us as it ripped apart, the whole side of the volcano being pried from the whole and crumbling down toward us. If that wasn't bad enough, the Magmar and Numel were right behind them, smashing the ground with their own attacks.

For a second, there was nothing – other than the small mountain-worth of stone crashing towards us. Then, the vibration that I'd dismissed as the earthquake-landslide intensified.

rrrrrRRRRRRRR-CR-CRRRUUUUUMMM!

Magma exploded from the ground like a popped pimple, molten rock gushing outwards as the earth cracked in half, a long line dividing the ground just over the landslide. The lava bubbled out with force, pulled from deep within by the Lava Plum, and fell down the mountain to mix and melt the landslide. In seconds, a surge of melted and melting rock was rushing down the mountain like a tidal wave, rising so high it blotted out the volcano.

Knowing it was coming and having anything useful to do about several tons of falling magma turned out to be two very different problems.

"JENNY!" And then the ground in front of us simply detonated outward.

An absolutely humongous creature rose, shaggy brown fur so thick and puffy it looked nearly round, twin curved tusks of pure ice longer than a man was tall lowered like a battering ram – and it drove straight into the leading wall of molten rock without slowing even a fraction. Stone rose and twisted with every step, a wedge growing in front of the Mamoswine that extended back over our heads, and everywhere its feet came down, the ground simply stopped being molten, ice crawling out fast enough to freeze the leading edge of the flow solid before it finished falling.

Jenny's Piloswine came in beside it a half-second later, and while smaller than Mamoswine – much smaller – the fury pile was still an absolute unit, especially when backed up by another 10 equally massive mammoths that slammed into the wave of magma in Mamoswine's wake and shattered it, the ground curling behind them to make a path.

"MOVE, MOVE, MOVE!" I was shoved from behind as we started sprinting, a tunnel of stone forming around us to hold back the lava. The ground in front was frozen from Mamoswine's steps, yet the longer we ran, the warmer it got and soon, the ground turned to mud. It wasn't that bad towards the front, but I heard more than one curse behind me as someone slipped. The reshaped stone around began to glow with heat, slowly turning a cherry color as the air started wavering. Pryce's Weavile jumped onto his shoulders, looking ridiculous as it held onto what little hair its Trainer had left while blowing huge plumes of ice around the tunnel. The rock exploded from the temperature shift, cracks forming to allow lava to leak through and start melting through the ice instantly, yet, much like Froslass', it seemed resistant.

But not immune. It shrank and shrank as we forged blindly forwards, following behind the bellowing Mamoswine, sweat dripping from our brows and evaporating on contact with the ground, cracks growing wider as the temperature shifts became greater-

And then we were through, Mamoswine swinging its massive head and shattering our rocky shield into splinters that ripped through a foursome of Rockets and a Cinnabar Trainer who got caught with their pants down as we spilled out of the opening, the last of the tunnel melting into slag behind us. They weren't ready for us, or the Rockets weren't, at least, most of them gaping at us even as hundreds of pounds of charging mammoth smacked into them and trampled them underfoot. Blaine's personal Trainers were performing better, fights breaking out as we forced them away from the entrance.

"FASTER, FASTER!" Jenny's voice, closer now, Piloswine already wheeling to meet the grunts pouring down after us. "I've got the exterior – get inside before they regroup!"

We went through the opening, me in between Brad and the brown guy, and poured into the base after Pryce.

The smell hit me instantly – antiseptic, ozone, and something sterile in the way that had nothing to do with cleanliness. It had my head swimming, and as I stepped inside properly, seeing the bare walls, the lab coats, the carnage that was already spreading. Pryce had hit the gathered defenders like a wrecking ball, human and Pokémon strewn about…

-A dozen corpses lay sprawled out over the hard packed earth of the hideout. Throats were ripped out, the bodies laying facedown in a growing puddle of their own blood-

The floor tilted.

Not really. Some distant, still-functioning part of my brain knew that, the same part that knew this wasn't the other lab, wasn't the ship, wasn't Proton's voice in the dark, wasn't the sound Sharon had made – just a half-second flash of white tile and something small and feathered with too many wings stitched on wrong, gone as fast as it arrived, before Espeon's weight pressed hard and deliberate against my shoulder, her mental prescense against my mind.

"I'm good," I said, mostly to convince myself. "I'm good." Mostly true.

Better than the ship, anyway. I'd take better.

Trainers spread out behind us as I followed the leaders, securing the rooms as we passed them. The passages weren't super wide, enough for five of us to walk shoulder to shoulder, so I didn't bring out the whole team quite yet. That being said, Espeon, Zorua, Hercules, Honedge, Siren, and even Aurora were all fanning out in front of me or staying close.

We didn't get three corridors deep before the first real resistance hit – a squad of grunts backed by a swarm of Golbat and a pair of hulking Magmar, and it went about as well for them as it usually did. Herc took one of the Golbat with a Thundershock, even as Brad's Pokémon – a grinning clam of a Pokémon, as big as a human and covered in spikes that protruded from its shell – slammed its protective casing closed against the Flamethrower that washed over it, Brad pulling me down behind the Cloyster with him. The second the stream of fire ended, he thumped his Pokémon hard on the back.

"Spike Cannon!"

The Cloyster cackled as it obeyed, the protrusion across its shell glowing with energy before it shot forward with a muffled boom!

Meanwhile, I managed to get Zorua's attention, the Dark-Type halfway between terrified by all the fighting and excited by the unaware targets.

"Distract them!" I told her, making her vanish beneath an illusion as she crept off. It didn't take more than a second before a horrified scream rang out and Brad and I stepped out of cover.

"Aqua Cutter!"

"Ice and Water, wide! Herc, light them up!"

I ran forward even as Aurora and Siren breathed out a drizzle of ice and water, respectively, something Hercules followed up with a Shockwave that raced through and electrified the water. Some of the Golbat managed to avoid it on account of being too high up, and one of the Magmar only got clipped, but the rest seized up as their muscles spasmed.

Something Brad's Cloyster took advantage of, spitting out a hair-thin stream of water, twisting its head around to cover the whole width of the corridor. For a moment, nothing happened other than a deep line cutting across the walls.

Then, the tops tumbled to the ground, followed by the bottom halves, intestines and organs squelching as they plopped into the quickly spreading pool of blood.

-the two Pokémon pulled away from each other and I barely managed to close my eyes before a series of snaps and pops were barely heard over all the screaming, followed by a tearing noise and wet splats as something I preferred not thinking about hit the floor-

"-ad! Hey!" Something hit me on the cheek, snapping me out of it. Reflexively, I lashed out and nearly clocked Brad in the face. "Whoa, hey!"

"I'm good!" I snapped even though he didn't ask. I was breathing hard, eyes flickering towards the bisected corpses as Cloyster snipped the last Golbat from the air.

Brad did not look like he believed me, but we were also in the middle of something, so he couldn't dwell on it.

"KEEP MOVING!" He called down the hall instead, and I made myself do exactly that, stepping over half a body and maneuvering around the other half.

It was way deeper than the first lab. I kept thinking it, the thought unwilling to leave my head. We were already deeper into Mt. Ember than the first Sevii base had been and it just kept going. How deep-

I accidentally glanced into a room as we passed it and felt like Bruno's Machamp had punched me in the chest. Along the far wall, barely visible between the three Mahogany Trainers who stepped inside to battle it out with the five Grunts and a single Cinnabar Trainer leading them, were cages. A Rattata paced its cell in perfect, practiced circles on six legs arranged in a spider's gait, joints that had healed clean around whatever they'd grafted on. A Pidgey-

-mindlessly bashed its head against the bars of its cage, two wings beating furiously. The other pair of wings laid limply at its side, fresh stitches visible where they were attached below the natural ones-

Herc shoulder-checked me to the side, an almost painfully bright stream of fire flying between us. I could feel the heat sear the peach fuzz from my cheeks despite the distance. My already twisted stomach lurched as the Elactabuzz caught a Vulpix in his large palm and I turned away instead to deal with the opportunistic Cinnabar Trainer trying to sink a knife between my ribs. He screamed when Honedge flashed past in his chase of Golbat that wouldn't leave me alone and severed the hand at the wrist; thick spurts of crimson landed all over the front of my shirt even as my knuckles crashed into his face.

BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!

Even as we went down to the floor, I kept it up.

BAM! BAM! BAM!

Fist raised to smash his nose all the way into his brain, I barely caught the way his eye looked past me to something behind, in time to throw myself sideways. The Cinnabar Trainer only had a second to try and scream again before a trio of sharp rocks pierced his chest with a series of thud! thud! thud! The Graveler lowered its hands, absolutely dumbfounded at its mistake, right until it was hosed down by furious Siren.

We hit real resistance again two junctions later – enough Grunts and Cinnabar red that Brad actually called a halt to reposition, and it was an ugly slugging fest of people who had decided dying is on the table. One of the Mahogany trainers went down under a Machoke's fist, ribs giving out all at once with a series of cracks, and didn't get back up ashis own Sneasel tore into the Machoke's throat, uncaring that the Fighting-Type managed to get its hands around it and crush its chest as long as it got the kill.

I caught the claw howling for Brad's back with Honedge on pure reflex, a half-second before conscious thought caught up, and shoved him sideways hard enough that the strike that would've opened his spine instead scored a long, shallow line across his shoulder blade that soaked through his suit in seconds. Honedge met the attacker, fainted around its arm and drove through, coming out the other side in a burst of viscera, while I stomped on the Trainer's knee and forced his head into the wall with force, ignoring the way his skull seemed to give way and the size of the bloodpool that spread when he hit the floor.

"You're bleeding," I said to Brad instead, stupidly, because it was the only thing my brain offered up.

"Had worse." Brad didn't even slow, pressing a hand flat against his shoulder, blood running dark between his fingers. "Owe you one, though."

"I think we're square," I dismissed, getting a quick slap on the shoulder as we rushed to try and catch up.

Pryce didn't wait for anyone, though. He pushed on alone through the next junction, ice trailing off his cane, boots, the hem of his coat, everything, like the cold had simply decided it lived inside him permanently now and had stopped asking permission. Bodies were left in his wake, crumpled piles of crushed ice as even the more enthusiastic Cinnabar Trainers waited for the Gym Leader to pass before emerging to confront the rest of us.

"General, HOLD-!" Brad's voice cracked with genuine frustration, clocking a sneaky guy hiding behind one of his buddies. The blow swung the man left, right into my own fist, which sent him into Brad's boot, which put him on the floor. Brad's Weavil made sure he stayed there, the Ice/Dark-Type smiling up at me, strands of flesh stuck between its teeth before it vanished again.

By the time we'd cleared out the small group barring our way, Pryce was long gone.

"PRYYYYCE!" Brad roared after him to be heard over the commotion behind us. But it wasn't Pryce who answered.

"Having a bit of trouble?"

From up ahead, a pair of knee-high, white boots with a heel stepped out of one of the rooms, uncaring that they landed in a bit of blood that we'd sprayed that way. A long skirt, white with black trim, swooshed down to mid-shin, but had a slit on either side that went up to mid-thigh. A belt held the long-sleeved, single-piece uniform together, a hand with orange-painted nails planted there as their owner cocked their wide hips to the side. Orange hair in an almost anchor-shape, with a wicked widow's peak, stayed remarkably still as the woman tossed her head, long, golden earrings flashing in the different lights from behind us.

But most noteworthy was the black patch over her heart, with a blood-red R.

"You'd be one of them there Executives, eh?" Brad mused, tensing as the woman stopped in the middle of the hallway, spinning a PokéBall on her finger casually.

"I would indeed be 'one of them there Executives'," she smirked, flicking the PokéBall upwards before snatching it back when it was right in front of her face. Cringe. "Executive Ariana, to be exact. I do so hate to be a poor host, but how about we let the daddies talk, hmm?" Her eyes slid to me. "Besides, its been so long since we've seen each other. Don't you want to catch up?"

Brad glanced at me, and I shrugged. "Never seen her before, no clue."

Ariana's smirk grew thin, and her eye twitched. Someone didn't like being disrespected, which meant having to deal with me was going to be a rough time for her. "I was on the S.S. Anne."

Right, the one Archie beat the shit out of with one Pokémon. I heard about that. "I feel like I would remember that. You don't have to lie; it's okay to have missed some stuff. Sucks, but it happens. Kinda sad to pretend otherwise, though."

The smirk was completely gone. "I see why Proton doesn't like you."

"WHERE IS HE!?" I tried to jump towards her, but Brad managed to hold me back, though he was obviously surprised that he had to put his back into it. In the face of my sudden rage, Ariana looked genuinely startled, taking a small step back. "I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU!"

"Hold, kid!" It took a few breaths and curses, but he put me down without me flying off. "You go on ahead."

"What!?" I asked him incredulously. How did that make sense!?

"You can't beat her, no, stop!" I opened my mouth to argue, but he cut me off. "You can't! So you go on ahead and help the General while I clean this up."

"If I can't fight her, I definitely can't fight Blane!"

"You don't need to. You just need to keep the ol' man alive long enough for me to get there." He looked at me as serious as I'd ever seen him. I hadn't known him for more than an hour, if that, but it had been an intense hour. "Listen, Pryce is a great man and even better Trainer, but when it comes to Blaine, he's dumb as shit. He'll walk straight into a trap as long as Blaine is there. Play interference, run that big mouth of yours, just stall! GO!" He pushed me ahead, pulling out another pair of PokéBalls as his Cloyster and Weavile stepped in front of him.

"Oh?" Ariana's smirk returned along with another flip of her helmet-hair. "You think I'll just let him go?"

Brad snorted, unzipping his ski-suit, but keeping it on. I'd seen the thick clothing shrug of a decent Ember, so I finally understood why everyone was wearing them inside the volcano. "If you think you can take your eyes off me, be my guest. I'll step over your corpse and get the ol' man myself."

"Hmmmm," Ariana hummed, but then, inexplicably, she stepped to the side. "Brad Bradly, Menace of the Ice Path. Usually, I'd go for it anyway, but with you… you deserve my undivided attention."

Looking between them, I hesitated for a moment before swallowing my reluctance and moving to the opposite side of where Ariana was. Slowly, I crept along the wall, eyes on Ariana despite the two higher-level Trainers never breaking their staring contest. Once I was past her, I briefly contemplated trying to attack her from behind, the good old pincer maneuver. Then her shadow shifted damn-near unnoticeably, and I abandoned the idea, instead getting Brad's eye and mouthing 'ghost' to him while pointing at her shadow. He didn't acknowledge me, but that was fine. I would just have to… trust that Brad had it.

I stepped away from the wall as I moved, picking up the pace to try and get to Pryce.

Good thing, too.

BOOOOOOOOOM!

The left wall exploded outwards, compacted dirt and stone smashed into dust and grit as a Hitmonchan came through it already swinging, catching a Sneasel across the jaw with a jab that didn't just knock it out – it caved half the poor thing's face in, bone giving under the impact with a sound that turned my stomach.

"Hi-Yah!"

I didn't get a full second to process it before the wall behind the Hitmonchan tore open the exact same way, a larger and bulkier bipedal figure slamming another into the opposite wall with a loud yell of exertion.

A person, punched hard enough to shatter the stone on impact and keep sliding, one arm bent at an angle arms weren't supposed to bend, blood running down the wall dark and fast from the back of his head to stain the white ski-suit the Mahogany Trainer was wearing. Miraculously, the Trainer started stirring.

"Hi-Yah!"

Until a foot hit his face so hard it caved in the wall behind him, teeth splintering and nose shattering as the skull broke under the force.

Above the dead Trainer, a fairly tall man retracted his bare foot, uncaring of the vermillion that stained the pant leg of the white karate gi. Muscle bulged visibly through the sleeveless top, thick, scarred hands clasped together with a loud smack! A head with short hair bowed to his deceased opponent in a gesture of respect.

"You fought well. Simply not well enough."

Straightening up, the man sighed and turned in our direction before seeing me, dark eyes widening while the thick, caterpillar-esque eyebrows shot so far up they nearly vanished under his red bandana.

In return, my own eyes were wually wide, my voice barely a whisper.

"... Koichi?"

---

Le gasp! Betrayal on the high seas!

Thank you for reading. Hopefully you enjoyed. If you REALLY liked it, I have a P-a-t-r-e-o-n, under the same name, where you can read 5 chapters ahead.

 

[98ajaj]

I dont remember who that is...

 

[ApiLol123123]

"... Koichi?"

Click to shrink...

Isn't that the Karate guy?

Thanks for the chapter, eager to read the next one!!!

 

[TheGeneral03]

TFTC. Cant wait to see why karate Guy from saffron join the fight.