Cold Heart (Part B) by Michael Keens/ Exodus “Agh!” screamed Emily as she pulled herself above the water, there were waves and currents and Emily couldn’t push through and get to land, obviously the one boulder wasn’t enough to totally cut off the currents around here, a thought suddenly shot through her. “Blossom? Blossom!” “Glaaa!!!” she squealed as she appeared nearby. “And... the Shellder?” It was inside its shell and bobbing around, it would probably be fine as it was a Water-type. “Blossom... Petal Dance!” “Gloom!” nodded Blossom, and took Emily’s hand, now she’d know what Blossom had been through so many times. “GLOOM!!!” squealed Blossom, and Emily and the Gloom rose into the air, surrounded by a cylinder of wind, the spinning started off subtly, and then started to gather speed. “We’re going to make it, Blossom, we’re going to- What the?!” “Gloom?!” The one thing that the two had failed to plan was the surroundings, Petal Dance was most effective on the ground, and in a grassy area too, in order to suck in plenty of leaves and grass to concentrate a huge hit with the Grass-type element, but there wasn’t even a ground, only the water below, which was of course sucked in and surrounded the two, it flew up the sides and then crashed down the centre, Blossom couldn’t function under these conditions and the two fell back down, it took a while to emerge, but they stayed together. “I’m sorry Blossom... At this rate, we won’t make it, and all because I was so obsessive about catching that Shellder, please, return to your Pokéball.” “Gloom!” she said decisively, against Emily’s choice. “You won’t return... But you might not make it, at least if-” “Gloom! Gloom!” she squealed again. “Fine... You’re so stubborn... But you’re a good friend... You’ve always stood by me... just like he did...” “Gloom...” sighed Blossom, who knew exactly what she was talking about. “And heave!!!” shouted a distant voice, and a second boulder came down, blocking the waterfall, but it didn’t stop the rapid waters immediately. Emily gasped as things started to die down just a little. “Wiggly! Wigglytuff!” shouted Harmony, and floated down, cheeks puffed up, she was using her balloon ability to slow her descent. She came floating over Emily and Blossom, and offered her hands, Emily took hold while Blossom clung to her waist, and slowly but surely, Harmony floated everyone to the nearest ice island. Everyone breathed hard, all feeling tired. “Shhhheeeellllll!!!” squealed the Shellder, falling hard onto the icy floor, “Shell... Der...” “Its defeated...” said Emily, drawing a Pokéball, but then she sighed and returned it, “I can’t, its wrong to take advantage of a Pokémon when its this weak...” Emily walked over to it, and sat down as if she were a close friend, and petted it. “Shell?...” it groaned, it had been heavily weakened by its previous battle, and by the currents, it no longer looked like a prankster. “Hey... How’s it going?...” smiled Emily. It saw her Pokéballs, and used its little strength to leap away from her. “No, don’t go!” “Shell-Der!” it said, sticking its tongue at her, and hopping away. “We have to stop it, its too weak, if another wild Pokémon appears, he’ll be in trouble, come on girls!” “Wiggly.” “Gloom!” Emily chased the bouncing Shellder over to a large monument of ice, it was currently leaping up slowly, and Emily followed. “Wait! This cave is dangerous! There’s wild Pokémon everywhere” She looked around, and a dopey Slowpoke and uninterested Staryu were the only Pokémon around. “Ignore them, I’m talking about more dangerous Pokémon like Gyarados, or Kingler, or...” “Shell!!!” squealed the Shellder as a slight shaking caused it to fall, on top of Emily, and everyone tumbled back. “Huh?...” shivered Emily. The frozen monument shattered and a piercing scream echoed around the cavern. “... Or that one!” screamed Emily. She shielded herself, while the Shellder panicked and ran towards the destructive force, hoping to leap up his original escape route before the disturbance made itself known. A large Ice Beam was fired and encased most of the Shellder in ice, and sent it crashing down to Emily, only a small area was clear of ice, and that was around the Shellder’s eyes. Another scream came out, and the cold smoke cleared, standing ahead of Emily was a large beautiful blue bird, that glittered with many lights. “Arti... Articuno?!” shiver Emily in disbelief. It glared towards them and cried out, all the noise and disturbance must have woke it up, and it didn’t look too happy about it. “CUNO!!!” it bellowed, and a random array of beams erupted, and a hill of sharp ice lifted up the Shellder and trapped it there. “Gloom! Gloom!” shouted Blossom, trying to pull Emily away. “I can’t leave... Who knows how angry... or hungry that Articuno is, I can’t abandon that Shellder... Blossom... Please go up there and retrieve that Shellder.” “Gloom...” she muttered, and wandered over, but the bird fired a beam and sent Blossom running back in sheer terror. “Too much, huh, then I’ll go, I’m probably faster than you anyway.” “Gloom!” “Wiggly!” Emily ignored her Pokémon’s cries and charged forward, a couple of beams showered down, but didn’t connect, she leapt up the hill, retrieved the Shellder, and charged back. The Articuno was angry at Emily’s courage, and shot off a rain of cold snow, one piece caught Emily’s foot, freezing it to the floor, the rest built up a tall wall at the end of the island, she was trapped here now. The Shellder was let go as she fell, and the ice around it shattered, it was about to leap over the ice, but then it turned back to Emily, who was sure to face a cold lonely death with her Pokémon, because of him. “Go... Harmony...” groaned Emily, and while Blossom used her Acid attack to very slowly melt the ice, Harmony stepped forward to fend off the bird. “Harmony... Use your Disable, but then quickly use your Double Edge.” She sent a bright light towards the Articuno, which froze it for a moment, and then she flung herself forward and bounced off the bird after dealing a lot of damage, of course, she hurt herself as the Double Edge was known to do that. “Articuno!” screamed the bird, flying forward and ramming its beak at Harmony. “Defense Curl!” She turned away as the bird pecked her and knocked her into the wall, it cracked just a little. “Wiggly...” said Harmony weakly, as her eyes had turned to spirals. “Return, we definitely need a type advantage, and Ice-types are weak against Fire-types. Tails! Go!” “Nine!” “Wiggly!” cheered Harmony, as she crawled back to Emily. “Use your Fire Spin!” “Nine!” The twisting hurricane surrounded the Articuno and burned it with red hot winds, so hot that the area around the Articuno started to melt, and the Articuno lifted itself into the air by flapping its large wings. It was flying higher than just above the island. “Its going to dive bomb her, Tails! Flamethrower!” The Articuno was obviously using Agility as it swept across to the sides while flying down, in order to avoid the flames, it closed in on Tails and dived, but she spewed one last Flamethrower at maximum power, and the Articuno was forced to go through it before ramming Tails, both fell back, but the Articuno started flapping its wings very fast, and the powerful Gust attack flung Tails into the barricade that was the simple wall of ice. “Cuno!” it screamed triumphantly. “We might not win this, that Articuno has only got a few scratches even after a full Flamethrower.” thought out Emily, “Tails...” she whispered, “... Use Ember attack on the wall while I battle, we might not beat it, but we can still escape.” “Nine.” she nodded. “That Articuno is a legendary bird, so it would also be a Flying-type, Go Discharge!” “MAG-NA-TON!” it said strongly. “Discharge! Use your Thunderbolt!” “MAG-NA-TON!” it said in its robotic voice, as a huge charge of yellow light grew around it and fired onto the Articuno, it actually did some good, and that showed how developed Discharge was. “Cuno!” screamed the bird, and fought off the electricity by spreading its wings, it was blackened in certain areas and so Emily didn’t give up all her hopes of escaping. “I won’t die here, I’ve so many more things I have to do, compete in the Pokémon League, see my family again, get married and have kids...” “Gloom?” questioned Blossom. “Discharge! Use Thunder Wave!” “MAG!!!” A small bolt was sent, and upon connecting with the Articuno, it exploded into a sphere of electricity that targeted the bird and overwhelmed it. It tried to flap its wings, but it occasionally got fried by the static around it. “Cuno!!!” it screamed. “Nine!” shouted Tails triumphantly as the wall shattered. “Gloom!” squealed Blossom as she finally cracked the ice, Emily pulled her foot away before the burning matter collapsed the ice and fell into a steaming puddle. “Let’s go! Let’s go!” screamed Emily. “Cuno!” “TON!!!” Discharge was rammed by the bird, who obviously wouldn’t leave matters unresolved, it hit the robotic Pokémon so hard that it was knocked out, but because it was a Magneton, its structure was a little more durable and strong that it didn’t fall to pieces, but it was knocked out, and unfortunately, being in an unconscious state, it couldn’t see the harm it was doing, electricity was still generated among the three magnets, and changed the water into a shocking liquid. “Cuno!” The bird fell down and missed Emily and the other Pokémon, but crashed down on the island and shattered it into small icebergs. Emily screamed as the solid ground she was on, became an unstable piece of ice, floating fast into the electrified area. Blossom, Tails, Harmony and the Shellder were on other floating pieces. “Discharge! Stop it!... It can’t hear me... What are we going to do?!” “Cuno!” wailed the Articuno. “Blossom... Tails... Harmony... Tetsubo!... Help!!!” “Chansey!” “Mime!” “Huh?” exclaimed Emily as the last two Pokémon burst out of their Pokéballs and landed on the island she was on. “Chansey!” shouted Lucky, and grabbed Emily’s hand before she fell into the water, and Miles used his psychic powers to lift the Magneton up. “Thank you both, I’m sorry I didn’t ask for Your help.” “Chansey, Chansey Chansey.” smiled Lucky. “Mime Mime.” said Miles wearing a snide expression. “I... I called out Tetsubo’s name... Well its not my fault, I just forgot he wasn’t here, that’s all!” “Mime Mime...” said Miles shaking his head. “Grrrr, we’ll talk later. Lucky, please use your Soft Boiled to heal Discharge, we need it to win, and to live.” “Chansey.” she nodded, and a glowing light was transmitted from Lucky, and into Discharge, waking it up so it could stop shooting electricity everywhere. “Miles, Psybeam. Harmony, Psychic attack. Blossom, Poison Powder. Tails, Flamethrower. And Discharge, try your Thunder.” They all nodded, cheered, and fired. The Articuno was overwhelmed, by poison, plenty of Psychic attacks, flames, and a full burst of electricity. “Artic... Cuno!!!” screamed the bird, and then it turned away from everyone, and started flapping its wings. “Its... leaving...” said Emily, and then realised something. “Articuno, the Freeze Pokémon. A legendary bird Pokémon that is said to appear to lost and doomed people freezing on icy mountains. It freezes water contained in the winter air and makes it snow.” Emily looked at her Pokédex rather than the massive bird she had been facing, it looked a lot friendlier on the screen. “Boy... Whoever wrote this sure hasn’t been in my shoes...” sighed Emily. The Articuno smashed through the cavern roof and disappeared, but Emily had everything she needed on her Pokédex. “Hey!” shouted Benjamin, “Are you okay? We saw enough to see that you’ve been in a battle with that legendary Pokémon. Please... Do you have any proof?...” “You mean apart from my battered Pokémon?... Well, how about this?...” smiled Emily, holding out her Pokédex. “A Pokédex entry... This is perfect!” shouted his female accomplice, snatching the device and connecting it to one of her own. “It doesn’t matter if its just a record of Articuno, most Pokémon Trainers would never achieve this, this entry will help our research very much, I suggest you keep this entry subtle, and only share it with your closest and most trusted of friends.” Emily turned away, Tetsubo had a side mission to record as many entries as he could for his sponsor, and Emily had been slightly selfish in linking their Pokédex together once, she gave him five new entries and some more later on, but she received many more to help Professor Beech, and she was even more selfish to cut off the link just because she was upset. Maybe... Just maybe... This rare entry would be the gift that restored her friendship with Tetsubo... She missed him an awful lot, there were less doubts in her mind now about going back to her knight in shining armour, but they were doubts none the less. All the pieces of the former island floated towards one area before long, and Emily was reunited with all of her Pokémon, and the Shellder, who wasn’t in such a rush to escape now. “I’m so glad you’re safe, but you’re still in no condition to battle, run along, if that’s what you want.” “Shell...” it said, looking like it was close to tears of happiness. “Shellder!” it screamed, leaping towards Emily, who was quick to catch it and hold it carefully. “You’d like to join me?” “Shell!... Shellder!” “I’m so glad...” smiled Emily. Later on, Emily, the Pokémon and the researchers had escaped the cave and separated, Emily had rested at the Pokémon Centre and sent Discharge home so that she could issue the Shellder a Pokéball, later to be named Shelly. Her Pokémon sat around the resting area, all recovered from their battles. Miles got bored of sitting around, and climbed up to Emily, and gave her a look to question her. “You haven’t forgotten, have you? Well its not my fault I forgot about Tetsubo’s not being here. Subconsciously, I was just used to him leaping into danger to protect me... I guess I miss him, but... I still don’t know if I’m prepared to forgive him yet, but I guess my resentment of him has shrunk into a minor annoyance... You never know... I might just forgive Tetsubo totally someday, so that we can resume the friendship we once enjoyed so much...” “... Mime!” cheered Miles happily, he was glad that Emily might find her true happiness, it didn’t take a genius to figure out that it was with a certain individual. Emily continued to journey on her own for just a little longer, but very soon, she’d confront Tetsubo, and whatever happened then, happened. She’d already proven that she could take care of herself, even in the face of danger, provided she had her Pokémon, but it was always so obvious that Emily was better off with her friends. End of Part B Back to Part A Back to the Side Stories Back to the Pokézone