Ice Queen
By: Snowy Refuge
Yes. Another story. Luckily for you, however, this isn't about N, but our dearest Red about ten or so years after Leaf Green and Fire Red take place.
Disclaimer: Pokémon and all of the characters in Pokémon (Red, Blue, Professor Oak, etc.) belong to Game Freak, not me. Also, since he's mentioned above, N isn't mine, either. I only own Liam, Icie, and their Coworkers. Also, the book cover was made by All0412 on Deviantart.
Chapter 1
It may have only been the twelfth time in two years that they had been relocated, but it seemed like the millionth.
Really, all that Liam wanted out of joining the PPA two years ago was to do better for the Pokémon of the world, go on an adventure or two, and maybe even find some people that share the same love for Pokémon that he has. That's all. Nothing too big, right?
So, then, why is it that he's always been forced to travel from one location to another, region after region, without going on any big missions? And why is it that all of this simply happens because he's got a partner with an ego the size of a Wailord that manages to piss off just about everyone at their new headquarters within two months?
Well, my friends; the answer is simple. Poor Liam just has bad luck.
Like, really bad luck.
And so this is why he sat in the cafeteria of his new headquarters, alone, with his head pressed firmly against the table, his tray of food left untouched.
Lulu, his Teddiursa, sat on top of the table next to him with her paw prodding at some of the food in her own bowl. Every now and then, she would look to the side to make sure that her blonde master was fine, and then go back to playing with her food. Apparently, she wasn't in too much of a mood for eating, either.
Not that Liam could blame her. He was sure that she was just as sick and tired of all of these relocations as he was. They didn't deserve this, relocating every other month and being given death glares from other PPA agents just because he was partnered up with the ice queen of his generation. It just wasn't fair, to Liam or his Pokémon. He didn't even choose Icie as his-
"Hey, Liam!" At the sound of his name, the young man lifted his head from the table and turned it in the direction of the voice.
There, standing to the side of his table, were three children crowding behind a tall green-haired woman. The woman's dark red eyes were sparkling and her lips were drawn into a large grin that lit up her tanned face. Liam squinted at the woman for a moment, unable to conjure up the woman from his memory, before a light bulb went up in his head and a smile began to stretch across his own face. "Carly! Long time, no see!" He greeted her fondly and watched her with dark green eyes as she sat down next to him.
The three children soon followed suit and sat themselves down across from the two adults without a word. One was a boy with light blue hair and green eyes that sized him up silently. Sitting next to the blue haired boy was a girl with brown eyes and matching short hair that wore glasses; Liam could practically see the intelligence running through her eyes as she stared at him. The last one was a blonde boy that sat in his chair uncomfortably, watching everything that moved in the room with a timid purple gaze.
"Nice seeing you, too," Carly greeted, and then followed Liam's eyes to the children. She smiled embarrassedly. "They're not mine," she assured him teasingly. "They go to school not too far away from here and they're taking a kind-of field trip where I guide them around for a few months and teach them about the life of a PPA agent."
"Oh," Liam nodded. "So, then, these are possible recruits for the future?"
"Yep; they were having trouble deciding whether they wanted to work here, at the Pokémon Protection Association, or be one of those overrated Pokémon Rangers, so here they are!" Carly took a sweep over her small group again and indicated the boy that had been watching Liam like a hawk for the past minute. "This, here, is Sebastian, but you can just call him Sebby. He doesn't mind."
"Yes, I do mind," Sebastian spoke up, finally letting his eyes leave Liam so that he could glare at Carly. "I told you not to call me that."
"Oh, you're just grumpy." The woman merely waved off his comment and pointed at the calculating young girl that sat next to Sebastian. "The girl sitting there next to Sebby, probably calculating a bunch of math problems in her head, is Alma."
The small girl waved to Liam and said, "Nice to meet you," rather flatly, not leaving much of an impression for the blonde man to go by.
Carly shrugged her shoulders at the girl's lack of enthusiasm and moved on to the last child, whom was still refusing to look at them. "And the last one is named Tanner." She leaned a bit closer to Liam, so that she whispered in his ear quietly enough to make sure that no one else could hear. "Now, he's really shy, so don't be surprised if he stutters a lot or doesn't look you in the eyes."
Tanner's purple eyes darted over to the older man, but then retreated to Lulu, whom was currently staring at Alma, probably transfixed by the light reflecting off of her glasses. "H-hello," he muttered softly.
Liam smiled at the three children. "Well, it's nice to meet you guys; any friend of Carly's is a friend of mine. This is my partner, Lulu, and I'm-"
"Liam," Sebastian interrupted him. "We know; Carly wouldn't shut up when she found out that you were being relocated here."
Alma pushed her glasses up and nodded. "Yes, she was rather ecstatic."
Carly blushed at this statement and glared at the young girl. "Oh, shut it, you!" She pouted, and then turned to Sebastian. "And who do you think you are, Sebby? Such cruel betrayal shall not be forgotten."
The young woman's sudden, albeit goofy, reaction almost shocked Liam, although he could gather up enough intelligence as to why she may have reacted like that. On his first relocation to some town in his homeland, Johto, he had met Carly and, astonishingly, in the two months that they had been there, his partner Icie had yet to bitch at her enough to make her want to have nothing to do with them. Rumor had it that the only reason Carly put up with all of Icie's bitching by hanging out with Liam was that she was head-over-heels in love with him. And judging by the way that her eyes always lit up whenever she saw him and that he had yet to see her in a foul mood despite how her partner Jackson always complained about how grumpy she usually is, Liam wasn't sure if he could say that this rumor was too far from the truth.
At this last thought, a question suddenly popped into Liam's head and before he could stop himself, he ended up blurting it out. "Where's Jackson?"
At the sound of the name, the heads of several agents turned to their table. Some people looked upset, others angry.
Carly, however, turned to Lulu and began to pet her with a thoughtful look adorning her face and a small frown overcoming her lips. "We were out on Mount Silver a few weeks ago," she told him quietly enough so that the three children wouldn't hear. They made it very obvious that they wanted to know what was going on, however, as they had focused expressions of their faces, as if they were straining their ears to hear what was being said. "There was this Golbat on the side of a mountain with its wing stuck under a boulder, and Jackson climbed over to try and help it, but…" She bit her lip. "There was an avalanche. I just barely made it out of the way, so when it was over, Tyranitar and I went searching for him…"
Liam sent an apologetic look to her as realization dawned on his face. "You didn't find him."
"Just a few of his pokéballs and the Golbat, but it was already dead."
The life of a PPA agent could be dauntingly tragic at times.
Liam leaned back in his chair and shook his head. Jackson dead? It seemed incomprehensible. The guy had been so lively the last time he'd seen him. Then again, if that were the truth, then it would explain why Carly was stuck with three little kids. She wouldn't be allowed to do any more missions or tasks until they found her a new partner to work with…
"So what about Icie?"
The blonde's head snapped back into Carly's direction. "Huh?"
"Well, you asked me for an update on my partner," she said. "So, how about you tell me how yours is doing?"
Liam scratched the top of his head awkwardly. "She crashed out in her bunk as soon as we got here last night, and I haven't seen her since then. She usually goes to bed as soon as we reach a new HQ, though, so she should be fine. The flying just gives her motion sickness." He rambled aimlessly, hoping that the answer would satisfy Carly, but a displeased frown took place on her lips.
"Not that," she rolled her eyes. "I mean… Is she still, you know…" She hesitated a moment, her eyes darting back to the kids every now and then. "B-I-T-C-H-Y?"
"Language," Alma warned in a flat tone that suggested that she could care less, even though the older woman technically didn't swear. She just spelled a swear word. There's no real harm in that, right?
Liam ignored the ten-year-old, though, in favor of responding to his old friend's question. "Why do you think that we got relocated here?"
Carly's voice boomed with laughter and she beat against Liam's back with the palm of her hand. "You know, I really did miss you, Liam, buddy!"
Liam scowled at her and rubbed his now sore back before coming back with a sarcastic remark. "Really? Because I couldn't tell, what with all of the abuse you put me through. I should have had you sued by now!"
Sebastian and Alma, for the most part, were watching the two of them goof around with little interest, but poor little Tanner was through with their antics and swept his nervous gaze around the cafeteria to try and find something to distract him. Mostly, he was on the search for Pokémon because they couldn't intimidate him nearly as easily as people could.
In his search, he spotted a pair of long blue ears that connected to the head of a rather composed Glaceon. The Glaceon, a male as he soon discovered, was strutting close to a pair of fuzzy white boots, his head high with pride and his stride the perfect combination of gracefulness and confidence. The ice-type walked slowly, his tail waving from side to side in what appeared to be delight and rubbed his head against the leg of the person that he was walking next to. In response, a gloved hand reached down and stroked the top of the Pokémon's back, scratched behind his ears, and patted the top of his head.
The child's eyes followed the hand until he reached the pale face of a young woman, probably no older than her mid-twenties, wearing a dark blue ski cap that sat on the top of long black hair and a large white scarf that obstructed the view of most of her face, so the most that he could see were her pale blue eyes that stared intensely at the Pokémon she was petting.
Now, Tanner had been at the HQ with Alma and Sebastian for a week, so he had met most of the PPA agents that worked at Mount Silver, but he had never seen this woman, so obviously, she must have been new. And judging by the fact that Liam and his partner were the only people that he had heard were relocating there…
"U-Uh…" Carly and Liam stopped in their excited chatter and turned to the shy young boy, who was pointing in the direction. "I-Is that lady over there M-Ms. Icie?"
Frowning, Liam turned around in his chair to look at the figure Tanner was pointing at. Once his eyes set on the woman, he sighed, but before he could say anything, Carly responded first. "That's Icie, alright. Only she would wear a coat and scarf in this building. I swear, it's always, like, eighty or something in here."
"Seventy-Six," Alma corrected. "That's what the thermostat at the door says."
Carly rolled her eyes. "Whatever."
Tanner watched as this "Icie" woman stood up and dusted her gloves off on her dark blue coat and began looking for an empty table with her Glaceon at her side. "She d-doesn't seem as m-mean as you guys say," he voiced weakly.
The two adults that sat across from him blinked in silence, but then a moment later, they burst out laughing. "You must be looking at the wrong person, then," Liam choked out, wiping a tear from his eye. "She's the most cold-hearted person that I know. Don't get me wrong or anything, I love her like she's my little sister, but she's just plain cruel and self-absorbed."
"Oh, really, now?" Carly waggled her eyebrows mischievously with a wide grin on her face and, before anyone could see it coming, she stood up and waved to Icie. "Yo! Icie! Get your butt over here, girl!"
Icie's head turned in their direction and she watched them with cold, calculating eyes and began to walk towards their table. Liam instantly pulled Carly back into her seat in a sudden state of panic. "Carly! What are you doing?"
She grinned at him. "Teaching the kids a quick lesson about the PPA's Ice Queen."
Liam would have reprimanded her if not for the fact that Icie had officially reached their table and stood in front of them with her arms crossed and her foot tapping against the floor impatiently. "Yes?"
Carly's innocent grin seemed to annoy the woman even more, but she ignored it. "Well, first I wanted to say hello. I haven't seen you in over a year; I missed you, Icie!"
There was an annoyed twitch of the eyebrow. "Hello."
Carly grinned even more. She wasn't expecting much more of a response, anyway. Liam flashed a warning glare in the green-haired woman's direction, but she was already past the point of no return.
"I also wanted to tell you that Liam said he's in love with you."
"WHAT?!"
Never before in his entire life had Liam wanted to strangle someone nearly as much as he wanted to strangle Carly at the very moment. He especially felt distressed when Icie's now narrowed pale blue eyes (partially for which she was nicknamed) landed on him in a cold stare.
She pulled down at the scarf that covered the bottom half of her face, and everyone could see her scowl. "I'm aware that I'm probably the most beautiful woman you've ever laid eyes on," she said rather arrogantly, much to the children's surprise. Her eyes only narrowed even more. "But get your head out of the gutter, Liam. I don't have time for your petty crushes."
And, just like that, she turned her back to an open-mouthed Liam and walked away, her Glaceon purposely brushing Liam's leg with his tail as he scampered off after Icie with an upbeat rhythm to his step.
As soon as Icie was out of ear-shot, Carly turned to the three kids while snickering quietly to herself. "And that, children, is precisely why you should always be careful about what you say to Icie. She'll crush your hopes and dreams without even so much as blinking."
Sebastian stared at her. "She sure seems like she's got some issues," he stated.
Everyone at the table voiced their agreements and began to talk about anything ranging from Alma being at the top of her class, to Carly attempting to bathe Tyranitar last week only to end up a sloppy, bubbly mess, to Tanner's inexplicable awkwardness (Tanner didn't really care if people kept asking him why he was so shy around people; it wasn't as if there was any real reason for it, anyway).
And, really, this was all that they did for half of the day, because there isn't much for a PPA agent to do during the day when you're not on a mission, so most people either hung out in the cafeteria, went outside to train, or headed out to town. But with another snow storm having been kicked up right after Liam and Icie made it to Mount Silver last night, it didn't look like very good weather for most people to be training in. They'd probably freeze to death before they could call out a first move.
However, when Liam received a call on his phone, he had been so happy to have something else to do that he didn't even bother to check the caller I.D. before he flipped it open and practically yelled into the phone, "Hey, Liam here!"
Carly started talking with the kids, so he got up from the table and stood in the corner when the other person's voice came through.
"Hello, Mr. Chester," the smooth voice of a man found itself ringing inside of Liam's ears. To the side, Lulu was becoming bored with the four people that she's been hanging out with the entire day and jumped down from the table, starting to walk towards Liam. "This Daniel Corey."
Daniel Corey. The PPA's head at Mount Silver.
Instantly, Liam's back straightened, despite the fact that the man over the phone couldn't see him. Lulu looked up at her friend, curious as to what was going on. "Mr. Corey," the words stumbled out of Liam's mouth nervously. The heads don't normally call him within the first week of his arrival. Had Icie done something already? "To what do I owe the pleasure of this call?"
Even though he wasn't by the table anymore, Liam was still able to catch Carly snorting in laughter at his stiffness. A few of the other people in the cafeteria that had taken to eavesdropping were doing the same.
"Well, I would like to see you in my office as soon as possible with your partner, Caroline Meriwether," Daniel Corey replied coolly from his end of the phone, referring to his partner's actual name rather than the nickname that she would normally only respond to. This brought a little bit of relief to Liam. If Icie wasn't already there, then it was most likely that she hadn't gotten into any sort of trouble. Yet.
"Yes, sir! I'll be there as soon as I find her!"
After hanging up, Liam said good-bye to Carly and the kids and went into a search for Icie. He couldn't find her in the cafeteria and she wasn't in her room, so he figured that she was outside. Cold weather never really bothered her, and since she specializes in ice-type Pokémon, they normally have no issues with snow storms.
So he braced himself and, after grabbing the largest coat that he could find and stuffing Lulu in it to keep the both of them warm, walked out into the frigid courtyard that marked their training area.
Surprisingly, he spotted his partner rather quickly, since she was the only person out there. She sat on the snow-covered ground with her back against an old tree, wisps of frosty breath made visible from over her thick scarf by the cold air. Her Cubchoo sat in her lap while she stroked the top of his head and her Glaceon sat curled up to her side. Up in the tree above her, Weavile sat on a branch with her arms crossed and eyes closed, possibly resting.
Delibird looked up from something that he was playing with in his hands and Mamoswine stopped trudging around in the snow as Liam entered the courtyard. They stared at him for a quick moment and then went back to their business.
Icie also looked over at him, and Liam went to check what was in the direction that she had been staring at beforehand. Lapras slept with her head bowed, floating serenely at the top of the water of a pond in the corner of the courtyard.
"What is it now?"
At the annoyance that came from his partner's mouth, Liam looked over at her again. She was glaring at him.
He cleared his throat and watched an icy fog rise out of his own mouth. "Mr. Corey wants us."
She raised her eyebrow, and Liam was able to spot Weavile opening a single eye when Lulu's head popped up from the top of his coat. "I didn't do anything," Icie told him defensively.
"I know."
Icie stared at him another moment before she returned all of her Pokémon to their pokéballs and got up with a sigh.
As she walked past him into the doors of the building, Liam was just able to make out something that she was muttering to herself.
"This better be good."
When the door closed behind her, Lulu looked up at her master's face, which was distorted with some sort of disappointment. "Ursa?"
Liam looked down at his Pokémon and lightly ruffled the top of her head with the palm of his now near-frozen hand. "Let's get going."
Author's Note:
So, that's it. Please feel free to review and tell me how I did. But, please, don't be too harsh on Icie; I don't think her tiny black hole of a heart will be able to take it. (As some of my readers may be able to tell, I like having bitchy heroines; they just make the story all the more interesting.)
Thanks; see you next chapter (maybe)!
