Like most gym leaders, Pryce enjoyed his job. However, not for the reasons you would think. His favorite past-time was ruining Johto trainer's campaigns and reveling in their pain.
Every morning he would get up nice and early to make sure all the icy tiles in the gym were repaved, keeping them slippery and dangerous. Then he would carefully make his way to the back, where he would perch himself on a large pillar of ice and watch in glee as the gym trainers would slip and stumble to their positions.
He had no love for skiers and snowboarders who worshipped him like a god, and loved torturing them as much as the aspiring champions that occasionally made their way into his subzero lair. In fact, sometimes he wished the pokemon league would give in to his pleas and let him handle the gym solo; but to his dismay, he was stuck with poor excuses for trainers.
Every day he sat in disgust as newcomers would easily tear them apart, torching them with Magmars and pummeling them with Hitmontops. It was truly repulsive. But, Pryce was somewhat glad that his gym trainers were pathetically weak. He loved the thrill of seeing the arrogant newbies rush through the gym with ease, and then get crushed to a frosty pulp when they encountered him. And today was no exception.
With four dreams destroyed before noon, Pryce saw it as a personal best. He was now relaxing on his throne of ice, indulging in its chilly aura. But he time of rest was soon cut when he heard panting and a string a swear words directly below him.
"Hmm?" he opened his eyes and mumbled arrogantly, leaning over the edge to notice a young girl in her tweens with a dozen scraps. She continued to pant, and the noise began to irritate the old man. "What do you want child?" Pryce barked, happy to see a frightened twitch being released from the youth. The girl stood up, and tried to speak, but all that came out was a cacophony of chattering.
Pryce rolled his eyes. Stupid children. Thinking they can handle 23 degree weather in a tank top and short shorts, he thought to himself and with a command from his trusty Piloswine his throne sank to ground level, until he was only a foot from the icy floor.
"Well? Get up." Pryce snapped at the newcomer harshly, rapping on the floor with his icicle shaped cane. "I suppose wish to defeat me, in hopes of becoming a pokemon master?"
His last words had a steely tone, which had been perfected over the years to discourage even the most valiant spirits. The girl nodded slowly, and then bravely spoke up. "I-I'm gonna melt you into a p-puddle!" she stammered, and all Pryce could do was laugh.
Like he hadn't heard that before.
Chances are her team consisted of a somewhat strong fire, fighting, or steel type who she thought could single -handedly beat him with, and then three or four other pokemon that were too weak to even have a worthy battle with.
Sure enough, the cruel leader wasn't surprised when the first pokemon the girl summoned was a Quilava. This is will be like all the others, Pryce thought coldly, and smiled evilly as the girl's face turned from smug to shock as he called his Dewgong to the field.
"This will be all I need to crush you." he called out mockingly, causing the girl to tense up. And it was. Two water pulses and an ice beam were all it took. Pryce really didn't need to use the last move; he just loved seeing his opponent fall to his icy powers.
And it got better. Like expected, the girl probably thought her prized Quilava would take out all he had, and when that proved wrong, she was embarrassed to send out three Jumpluffs in a row.
"Hmpf. A flower fetish." Pryce smugly noted as one by one he froze the weaklings into oblivion. No mercy, no sympathy, he thought to himself as he mockingly pointed to the door.
"Next time bring some real competition missy. And don't cry either. Most of the failures before you have experienced the pain of frozen tears. I suggest you skip that experience."
As Pryce talked the girl stared with misty eyes, then with a whimper she left.
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After a successful day at the gym, it was time for Pryce to go home. Being the crazy, cruel, and yet cautious old man he was, he decided to ride his Piloswine. After all, the swine pokemon deserved the reward; Pryce's favorite took many dreams that day.
So even though it was almost eleven at night, Pryce laughed like a crazed maniac as his loud pig snorted and stomped through the sleepy town, purposely being as loud as possible.
It only took a few minutes of this until various people charged outside into the cool summer night, obviously enraged at the unpopular leader.
"Pryce! You good for nothing creep!" "Get that fat pig off the streets!" "And I had just gotten my kids to sleep! Jeez Pryce!"
The once peaceful town was now filled with a cacophony of complaints and threats. Pryce just laughed and gave them all his usual greeting – his favorite hand gesture.
This set another round of shouts and with the whole town annoyed, Pryce could now go home, eat, and sleep in peace.
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"Grandpa, did you ride on Piloswine again?" a young but surprisingly strict sounding voice said from the kitchen as Pryce stepped into his house. He took a deep breath before answering, making sure he relished the cold. Pryce had a habit of keeping the thermostat no higher than forty degrees.
"And why would you think that, Grace?" he called back, though he made sure to take the steely tone out of his voice. It was family; they weren't incompetent like the rest of the world. Well, maybe not as incompetent.
Pryce could hear his eldest granddaughter give an exasperated sigh. Then he heard her stomp towards him. Oh great, he thought as Grace came to welcome him with a rather large stack of shattered plates and a look frostier than the interior of his gym.
"Oh, I don't know," Grace started, sarcasm nearly dripping off her tongue. "I think the entire house shaking would be a good start."
Pryce just shrugged at his grandchild, and as he walked inside the house he took the plates from her. "See, before you came along to baby-sit me, this was why I used paper plates."
He quickly shuffled into the kitchen, hoping to dispose of the broken plates and eat his dinner before Grace could finish her scolding. But karma kicked in, and before he knew it Grace was right in his face.
Jeez it's embarrassing how tall she's getting, Pryce sheepishly thought. Grace was almost fifteen, but she was easily six foot. In the split second before her rant began, Pryce proceeded to remember why she was even here. Oh yeah, it was because his daughter was too poor to care for her children. It was a good thing he broke down and only let one stay with him. He was tolerant with family, but kids are still kids, and Pryce hated kids. I can't believe she convinced me that I needed someone to help take care of me. Did she know who he was? He was Pryce! The lone wolf of Mahogany. The man who shattered dreams on a daily basis. He didn't need help.
But the truth was, as much as he hated to admit it, Pryce really did need Grace's help. She cooked, cleaned, did the groceries; it was great. Pryce never had to worry about those things anymore. It was because of that fact alone he let her stay and live with him.
It also meant he had to listen to her rants, like the one happening right at that moment.
"You're a crazy old man Gramps! And cruel too! You're lucky the pokemon league needs you, cause if it weren't for them, a mob would run you out of this place!" her long brown hair thrashed about as she spoke, and her gray eyes flashed with anger and passion.
Even though he was getting yelled at, Pryce couldn't notice how much she looked like her whore of a mother (but he knew Grace was clean, unlike Diana). That's the other reason Pryce allowed Grace to stay. No slutty daughter of his was going to ruin his granddaughter's purity. But thinking about how innocent Grace was was very difficult to do when she was yelling at him. But luckily his thoughts helped him ease through most of it, and he could tell she was about to finish.
"-and no more riding Piloswine okay? Now sit down and I'll get your supper!" with a huff Grace moved Pryce to the table, then went back into the kitchen, preparing a meal such a devil of a man didn't deserve. "Make sure my coffee is chilled." Pryce called out, giving a malicious grin to his granddaughter as she walked into the dining room. Grace groaned, and then went back into the kitchen to finish the task.
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After they both finished eating, Grace got up and went to the small table by the door, grabbing a handful of letters. Pryce gave a sigh of content.
"Letters for me? Ooh I have so many fans!" he said cheerfully as Grace gave him the stack.
As usual, most of the letters were from the townspeople, complaining about his absurd antics and his harsh habits. With a snort he threw that section of the letters behind him and continued to look through the rest of the pile.
"Oh? What do we have here?" Pryce questioned out loud, ripping open a letter with the blackthorn gym symbol. As he read to himself a look of sheer disgust grew on his face.
"Listen to this Grace! It appears Miss Clair, the holy overlord of dragons, is telling me to lay off!" he spat, his obvious distaste for the gym leader present.
Grace merely rolled her eyes. Hearing your grandfather gripe and yell about hate letters all the time wasn't exactly the way you'd want to spend your teen years. "Apparently she hasn't had a challenger in weeks! Well," he began, rage fueling him, "if she thinks she can just ridicule me, she should get her pompous ass over here and we can have a battle to see who really is supreme!"
Pryce patted his piloswine's ultra ball. "Piloswine could take all her stupid dragonairs down!" he ripped Clair's note in two, and grabbed the final letter.
"Hmpf, it's from the Pokemon league. Maybe they've noticed what a superb job I've done and decided to make me an elite four member?" Pryce opened the seal and read aloud what the tan paper held.
"Dear Mr. Pryce, when it comes to battling everyone knows that you are truly an excellent Trainer. The past several weeks we have calculated that you have denied exactly forty-seven trainers from advancing in the pokemon league challenge."
Pryce paused after reading that to give a triumphant smile. But as he continued reading he frowned.
"While you probably see this as a great achievement, we at the league are strongly disappointed in you. As a gym leader you are supposed to challenge the trainers in a stimulating and somewhat compassionate way. And while we are pointing out disturbances, the complaints in your town are getting far out of control. Did you know that Mahogany used to be the fourth most populated city in Johto? It's now last Pryce, and we believe it is you to be blamed for that. The other role of a gym leader is to make sure the town you are assigned to is safe and happy, and for a long time Mahogany has been far from happy. We hate to do this, but until you can prove that you can be a better gym leader, we are temporarily removing you from your position."
There was more, but Pryce didn't care. He was livid. After all the years he spent training to become great, and now this? Blasphemous! The bitter old man gave a roar and he sprang from his chair.
Grace quickly got up to meet him, and grabbed his arms.
"Grandpa Pryce."
Her eyes once again struck him with awe, and they calmed him down. But not by much.
"Those bastards. I give them forty years, forty, and this is how they repay me?" Pryce said caustically. Grace gave a sigh and squeezed his hands.
"Gramps, I know you're not like everyone else, and that's what makes you unique. But the league is right. You need compassion. You're a great battler, but you only show love and spirit to your pokemon. You need to extend that to everyone. If you can learn that, then I'm sure they'll give you your job back."
Pryce took in a deep breath, then released it. He opened his eyes and stared at his granddaughter. "Thanks Grace." Was all he said.
Grace smiled and nodded, then grabbed the letter from the floor. She began to read from where Pryce left off.
"We do believe you can do this, so that is why we have arranged for you to travel to Snowpoint city, Sinnoh. The gym leader there, Candice, is very skilled and she shows the qualities we think you need work on. We're not saying that she's going to teach you or train you; we just think that if you spend time with her that you will realize what we want you to gain. Your flight leaves in one week. We do not know how long it will take you to achieve the goal, but we will pay for all your expenses and damages. This is your only chance, so don't mess it up."
When she finished he stared into her Grandfather's pale blue eyes. "I hate traveling by airplane or bird. Can't Piloswine take me?" he scowled. Grace laughed. "Gramps, there's this thing called the ocean separating Johto and Sinnoh."
"Ok then, how about Lapras?"