Okay it's time for a new chapter of Operation Winter Can be Fun! And as you can see in the previous chapters things have not gone well for Ash's quest to make Iris like winter. Also some may think that Ash is kinda like the bad guy, by always making Iris cry and freak out at the end of each chapter as said in this review(post review) but btw Ash may look like he's just making things worse but I just planned all things that happened the way they did to all lead up to this chapter in which you will see why Iris hates winter! So without further ado, enjoy this chapter!
Chapter 7: A Walk Down Memory Lane pt1
Ash gently rubbed Iris's back as her tears and small sobs seemed to subside. He looked down at the purple haired teen that had her face buried in his chest, "Iris…I'm sorry…I didn't know you had such a bad past during winter,"
Iris gave a shakily sigh, "…I-It's okay…I-I know you didn't mean to d-do all that stuff o-on purpose," she pulled the thick blue jacket, her boyfriend had draped over her, and tighter around herself as a strong cold wind caused her body to tremble. "I-if I'd told you all of th-that stuff in the first place…then maybe I-I wouldn't have ruined y-your plans to m-make me like winter-"
"Iris…no just forget about that," Ash said snuggling his girlfriend closer, as he too tired to ignore the cold that surrounded them and the pain shooting through his right arm. "I'm calling off the bet…no more making you try to get over your fear of winter, okay?"
Iris lifted her face for Ash to see, it was mostly coated with frost, except for the small streaks that her hot tears had melted down her cheeks as they flowed from her big brown eyes. She gave a weak smile, "Thanks Ash…but I-I still wanna try to get over this stupid fear-"
"But I-I was forcing y-you to do t-these th-things...without even knowing h-how they were effecting y-you," Ash said to her as his teeth chattered slightly, "and after all those memories you to-told m-me about I-I don't see why you want t-to continue…" he stopped to sneeze.
Iris's browns dipped downward as she gave a worried look up at him, "A-Ash you're freezing," she started to make an attempt to remove his jacket that Ash had given to her but he stopped her.
"N-No Iris you need i-it more than I-I do," Ash responded giving a small smile, he rested his head on top of Iris's head, ignoring the chilly white frost that layered her long violet locks and wrapped his good arm around the both of them while he resting the aching one limply on lap. "Besides I-I have you to keep me warm,"
"B-But you're arm it might b-be broken…a-and i-if you don't st-stay warm you'll get s-sick and I-" Iris's sentence was cut short as Ash kissed her cold purplish lips. Normally receiving a kiss would make Iris smile, but she just pulled away and once again buried her face in his chest and started to cry again. "I-I'm s-so sc-scared Ash…" Iris sobbed, as she wished that she wasn't so cold, so mentally and physically exasperated but she most of all wished that she wasn't so terrified of their current situation.
It pained Ash to see the girl he loved cry. "It's o-okay Iris," Ash reassured her, holding her close to comfort and to keep her and himself warm, "everything will be fine, I-I promise."
There was only the response of more muffled crying from his girlfriend.
Ash heaved a sigh, causing a small puff of mist to appear before his mouth as he exhaled. Another wind blew; Ash's teeth chattered as his freezing hand clutched the coat he had given Iris, a shiver racked through his entire body, forcing him to bite back a cry of pain as it jolted his injured arm. As Ash pulled Iris closer in effort to keep her and himself warm, he could fell her shaking even harder than he was. This made his heart sink with worry because just like his girlfriend he, himself was scared; he couldn't deny that. Who wouldn't be scared? He was trapped in a cave, in freezing temperatures with evening quickly approaching. A nonstop pain was pulsing through his right arm and burned like hell if Ash even attempted to move it. The raven haired teen was worried that it might be broken, but he only though passively on his own injury, it was his girlfriend whom he was concerned about. Despite that she was trying her hardest to mask her own injuries; Ash could see that wasn't holding up too well. She was coated, head to toe, with a layer of icy white frost that wouldn't go away no matter how many times she brushed at her face and it would always reappear after a tear melted through it. Her lips were the same dark shade of purple as her hair and she was shaking like a leaf being whipped around in a hurricane, which all made sense practically half frozen after Iris had endured a direct hit from that ice type attack a while back.
And even though Ash wanted to get out of the cave that imprisoned them he knew that with his useless aching arm and Iris being far too weak to move or do anything that could help them escape the cave, he knew he was just going to sit tight and to try his hardest to keep them both warm. But with the temperature dropping, the winds blowing, more snow falling from the darkening sky and he and Iris getting colder and colder as time ticked away Ash didn't know if either of them had enough body heat to keep them warm enough until Pikachu and Axew came back with some help.
'The other days might have been bad…but today is absolute worst…'Ash thought, gritting his teeth at the horrible and unbearable cold. 'Ignore the cold…you have to endure it. You have to stay strong for Iris, especially now since she was so cold and terrified.' He thought as he heard her cough a few times and whimper. Pulling Iris closer Ash closed his eyes and let his wander back to that afternoon and back to how all of this had happened to begin with.
(Flashback)
It was the afternoon and Iris and Ash were seated in the living room after enjoying the lunch Mrs. Ketchum had prepared for them. They both sat on opposite sides of the couch, facing each other, both still dressed in their pjs despite the fact that it was a little past noon. And since Axew and Pikachu were in the kitchen, bugging Mr. Mime, while Mrs. Ketchum was cleaning the dishes from the meal, silence hung in the room.
"Are you sure Ash?" Iris asked for the third time as she crossed her arms over her chest. She was still spectacle about what her boyfriend had just said.
"Yeah, I'm sure," he responded, "You get to choose what we do today,"
"So, I can choose anything…and we'll do it?" Iris asked, arching an eyebrow
"Yup," Ash said with a nod of his head, "and b-besides," he gave sheepish grin, "since everything I've chosen so far, ended up not working out the way I planned, I guess it wouldn't hurt to let you have a chance to pick something. So go ahead, name anything Iris."
"Well…" Iris started as she pulled her legs up onto the couch the two were seated on. The purple haired teen thought for a moment. "We've already done so many things…first it was sledding, then we tried ice skating, after that it was making cookies-"
"Don't forget about making a snowAxew," Ash reminded her.
"Right," Iris said, she placed a finger to her chin, "um well…"
"How about we do something romantic like you and me, snuggled by the fire place as we watched a movie and maybe we could even have some hot chocolate," Ash suggested.
Iris blinked, and gave a confused look, "A-Ash…where did you get that idea?"
"You, remember? That's what you wanted us to do yesterday," he said, giving a wink.
Iris blushed, "Oh…yeah I did," she giggled as she moved closer to her boyfriend and pulled herself up onto his lap, draped her arms around his neck and looked at him, "It's a good idea Ash, but…"
"But what?"
"Is it okay if we also did something else?"
"Sure, what did you have in mind?"
"Um nothing much…I just wanted to go for a walk,"
Ash blinked, "A walk?! B-But Iris i-it's still cold outside!" he indicated to the window that showed the 12 inches of snow that was still present on the ground, "are you sure feeling okay? You didn't catch that stomach bug I got yesterday did you?" he reached out to touch he forehead.
"No, silly," Iris giggled as she playfully swatted away his hand, "I couldn't have caught it anyways, you were only sick because you ate too many raw eggs, remember?"
"Oh, yeah," Ash said, thinking back to the horrible stomach ache he had for eating practically all of Iris's cookies from yesterday. He was lucky that he got all the raw eggs out of his system late last night and was now feeling much better. "Why do you want to go for a walk, Iris?"
"Because…taking a walk with the snow falling…" Iris said slowly, "it's romantic," blush dusted her cheeks.
"Romantic?" Ash repeated. "But how is snow romantic? I thought you hated snow Iris,"
"I never said I hated snow, I actually find it kinda pretty," his girlfriend admitted as she looked out the window, "I just don't like how cold it is. And besides taking a walk will be fun!"
"Well, I guess getting out of the house wouldn't be a bad idea."
"Yeah, and since you're eye's practically all better, the cold won't bother it anymore."
Iris indicated to her boyfriend's left eye, which had finally swelled down and the only evidence of his black eye, from when they went ice skating, was a purplish ring around it.
"True," Ash stated as he gently rubbed his left eye, which was still a tad sore, "but Iris are you absolutely sure you want to go for a walk?"
"Yes, besides you did say I get to choose anything I want!" Iris reminded him with a smile, she hopped off his lap, and headed towards the stairs, "and besides after the whole cooking fiasco from yesterday, I think your mom wants us out of the house."
Ash couldn't help but chuckle as he came up and kissed Iris's cheek, "Alright then, a walk it is!"
"And when we come back, hot chocolate and snuggling by the fire place!" Iris added, kissing him back.
And as planned, the young couple got ready for their walk, and within a half hour later a snowy forest trail was occupied by the purple haired teen who was dressed, for the fourth time this week, in her winter clothes that consisted of her puffy canary yellow snow coat, pink gloves, snow boots and scarf with her hair done up into a single ponytail. Her beloved companion was also dressed in his winter attire of his slightly puffy navy blue snow coat, red mittens, his regular red sneakers and his Pokémon League hat, strolled beside her.
His red gloved fingers were entwined with his girlfriend's fingers, that were concealed in her pink gloves, their hands swung back and forth as they walked, enjoying the snowy scenery and the sound of the snow crunching underfoot.
"It's gorges out here," Iris commented softly, as if her voice would hurt the calming silence around them.
"Yeah, it sure it," Ash agreed before he leaned down and kissed on the cheek, "and your welcome by the way,"
"You're welcome?" Iris repeated in confusion, as she arched an eyebrow.
"Yeah, you know for making you enjoy winter enough for you to decide to come outside without me having to carry you out of the house," Ash explained with a playful grin, as he watched his girlfriend blush.
"Oh right," Iris remembered back to the day they went ice skating when she had made a big scene through the streets of Pallet Town when Ash had her slung over his shoulder.
Sure the events Ash had planned had taken Iris out of her comfort zone, but even so getting pegged in the face with rock filled snowballs, going sledding and getting humiliated on TV, going ice skating and falling a countless amount of times, and making cookies and ruining Mrs. Ketchum's kitchen wasn't all bad. It was fun and she laughed and enjoyed herself for the most part, and it even reminded Iris had pretty the winter season made the outside world look. The way the snowflakes, ever so gently danced down from the sky and thickly layered the ground, the way the trees glistened when the sunlight hit the icicles dangling from their branches and the festive decorations that were put up all around town, as if to intensify the snow's natural beauty, even though it all did consist of just the color white and happened to be freezing cold.
Iris smiled up at Ash, "Your right Ash, thanks for everything. You made me see that winter…isn't that bad," she looked sheepishly down at her feet. "Because I was so afraid of it…I guess I forgot that winter could in fact be well…fun!"
Ash's face brightened with a grin as he laughed, "Ha, ha I knew! I knew, I'd be able to make you like winter!"
"Hey, hey I never said I liked winter!" Iris defensively stated as she crossed her arms over her chest. "I said that it was fun!"
"Yeah, so what? Same thing!" Ash insisted as poked her nose, "You love winter Iris! Admit it!"
"No way! I am not admitting anything, Ashton Satoshi Ketchum," Iris said with a playful smirk upon reciting her boyfriend's full name.
"Sure whatever you say Iris," Ash said, with a shrug of his shoulders. "But I still think-"
"Ash I do not like winter, got it?" Iris snapped, her tone now sounding upset, her face now baring a frown, as if to warn him not to push any further in the argument.
Sweatdropping in surprise at her sudden mood change Ash sighed, "Alright fine, maybe you don't like winter, there's no need to get upset over it," he gently placed his arm around the purple teen's shoulder and held her close.
There came no response with his tender action, just a sigh. There was a moment of silence before a question that had been in the back of Ash's mind came to his attention and without thinking he asked it.
"Hey, Iris…I'm just curious…what made you so scared of winter anyways?"
His question was rather simple but made Iris stiffen and stop right in her tracks, "What?" she asked, wondering if she had heard Ash right.
"Um I was wondering what made you so scared of winter," repeated Ash.
Dark brown eyes blinked at Ash, before they turned at the ground, "Oh…well Ash I-I really don't like t-talking about that…" admitted Iris as her feet started to work again, she quickly walked pasted her boyfriend, arms hugged to her chest, eyes downcast.
"Oh come on, Iris, why won't you tell me?"
"Because I-I just…don't want to,"
"But I'm your boyfriend; doesn't that give me the right to know?"
"Kind of but…it's really personal and-WAHH!" screamed Iris as a mound of snow came falling from above and landed on her head. Looking up she shouted in a scolding tone, "Axew! Pikachu! I told you two to stop jumping like that!"
"Pika pi chu pi," Pikachu apologetically murmured as he hid behind the branch of the snow covered tree he and his dragon type companion were perched in.
"Ax ax axew," added Axew, knowing that the falling snow was his fault. Their tree jumping contest was extra challenging due to the fact that the braches were covered in snow that was prone to slip off the branches if they landed on them wrong way.
"I told you bringing those two would be a bad idea," Ash chuckled as he helped wipe the snow from on top of Iris's head.
"I know, but we couldn't leave them at your house," Iris said shaking her head as she watched the two continue their game. "They would of caused more stress for your mother…and by the way did she ever actually accept our apology for the whole cookie catastrophe from yesterday?"
"I don't know, maybe," Ash said with a shrug as he removed the last of the snow from his girlfriend's head. "But how about we start there?"
Iris's brows furrowed in confusion, "What do you mean 'start there'?"
"You know, explaining why you're so afraid of winter?"
"What does my fear have to do with the mess we made in the kitchen yesterday?"
"Oh come on Iris, you totally freaked out when my mom asked why you put eight eggs into your batch of cookies,"
Ash's reminder caused Iris to close her eyes, "Oh yeah…I almost forgot about that…"
"Forgot?! How could anyone forget a freak out like that?" Ash chuckled, but then bit his tongue as he saw the frown on her face deepen, and her eyelids crease as her eyes squeezed closed. "Oh um…sorry I-I didn't mean-"
"No…your right," Iris opened her eyes and faced him, "no one could forget that, especially me…since it was the same thing I did last time no one liked my cookies…"
"Wait…Iris what are you trying to say?" Ash asked, now curious and confused at the same time.
Iris heaved a sigh, allowing a small cloud of mist to eject from her mouth along with it, "What I'm trying to say…no well explain to you, Ash is that-"
"AX AXEW!"
Iris's head snapped up from staring at the snow covered ground and her eyes darted about until they landed on a horrific scene in the trees overhead. There stood her small Axew on a lower tree branch, his red scarf ensnared on a splintering part of the branch, and right above him a higher branch, weighted down by the snow, threatened to break and smash him!
"Axew! Oh, no!" Iris shouted as she broke into a run towards the tree were her dragon type was trying to wrestle his scarf free from the branch. But Iris wasn't going to get there in time, with a loud snapping sound the branch broke free and started tumbling down towards the defenseless Pokemon.
Axew cried out and braced himself for the dreadful impact when, like the best fried he was, Pikachu shouted his name as he swung out his tail, that gleamed bright silver with the steel type awesomeness of Iron Tail. Pikachu's attack hit the tree limb head on, sending it sailing into the tall trees and underbrush that lined the trail.
"Phew, that was close," Ash breathed as he watched Iris effortlessly scale the tree, untangle Axew's scarf from the tree branch's bark and hoping safely down to the ground, Axew cradled in her arms. "Good job, buddy." Ash praised Pikachu as he jumped up onto his shoulder. "If you hadn't thought of using Iron Tail that branch-"
Ash was suddenly cut short when from the underbrush came a loud roar of pain.
"AB ABOMASNNNOOOWWW!"
The loud sound caused the ground to shake, snow to fall from weighted down tree limbs and everyone to become frozen statues of fear.
Iris stood still, clutching Axew in her arms, her eyes glued towards the clump of trees where the sound had emitted from. "A-Ash…wh-what w-was that?" she asked, her voice no louder than a squeak.
Knowing as little as Iris did about the sound, Ash stayed perfectly still and darted his eyes around waiting to see something. After a long moment he was hoping that whatever made such a loud noise was gone, but that was when the underbrush scuffled and moved about and then out of nowhere something crashed through the trees and other snow covered greenery that had once concealed it.
"AAABBBOMASSNNNOWW!" The Abomasnow shouted, with it's evergreen colored tipped arms raised high in the air and it's purple beady eyes bearing down on the two humans and their Pokemon, anger gleaming in them. This was due to the fact that there was a large red welt on the ice type's head, and obvious sign that the tree limb Pikachu had Iron Tailed off into the distance hadn't landed safely on the ground as anticipated.
Ash stiffened and his heart leaped into his throat as his eyes darted over towards his girlfriend. Iris just stood there like a statue, her big brown eyes doubled in size and all the color drained from her face. By how her lips were trembling Ash knew Iris was going to scream. That couldn't happen, that Abomasnow was already pissed off enough and if Iris made such a loud sound it would attack! He had to calm her down.
"Iris," Ash whispered to the purple haired teen. Her eyes, which were now mostly the color of her chocolaty irises due to how small her pupils had shrunken from fear, darted over to him. "Stay calm…and back away as slow as you can."
Iris looked back to the ice type that stood no more than ten feet away from here as her brain processed what Ash had just instructed her to do. Back away? No that couldn't be done! Her muscles were stiff and heavy as if they were made out of concreate, and even if she managed to lift a foot Iris was sure her knees would turn to water and she fall over right there on the spot. Iris was frozen with fear and deaf by the sound of her racing heart, she was so scared that Iris could barely remember to breath. Along with the adrenaline, fear was searing through her veins which only intensified a feeling she had only faced once. Way back then, during that winter.
"Iris, come on, snap out of it." Ash hissed as discreetly as he could. "You've gotta move, Iris!"
"Snow?" the Abomasnow turned it's purple gaze towards Ash and narrowed it's eyes, as if daring either of them to move.
Seeing that he had no other choice but to talk to the Pokemon, in hopes of getting it to leave them be, Ash took in a breath before uttering a shaky sentence. "L-Listen Abomasnow, w-we didn't mean to d-disturb you," Ash started. With the Pokemon's attention on him he looked back at Iris and gave a quick forward motion with his hand, telling her to come over to him.
Iris gave a shaky bob of her head and demanded her brain to allow her to move. And surprisingly her brain listened and ever so slowly her foot lifted and shakily helped her move towards her boyfriend.
"My girlfriend and I-I we were just out here for a walk." Ash continued, feeling a bit more at ease seeing that Iris was moving. He turned back to Abomasnow, keeping his amber eyes locked with its tiny purple ones. The wild Pokemon couldn't see Iris's movements or it would bond to think she posed a threat and attack. Swallowing thickly Ash went on to explain the welt on it's head. "We're also sorry for that tree branch that hit you-"
"ABOMASSSNNNNOOOWWW!" ice/grass type roared as if the comment had reminded it of the pain that was still throbbing in it's head. It also reminded the Abomasnow how angry it was and that's what triggered the terrible event afterwards. "SNOW SNOOOWW!" Abomasnow yelled, it's giant arms raised in the air before they came crashing down, spraying snow in every direction and covered Iris from head to toe.
The sudden action, the sudden cold from the snow, the sudden fear, that the huge Pokemon was about to attack, raced through Iris as knees turned to water, causing her to huddle to the snow covered ground, as she let out an earsplitting scream! It was so loud and high pitched it could have dished out the same amount of damage as Hyper Voice attack! Either way it only enraged the Abomasnow even more and it roared loudly, as it held it's fluffy ears. First it had been hit in the head, and now it was being attack by some unknown sound?! The Pokemon has had enough of this! With it's tiny eyes flaring with anger it started to stomp towards the small human in the snow.
Ash felt his breath catch in his throat. "I-Iris's stay c-calm," he managed as all he could do was watch as the Pokemon approached his girlfriend. "Ju-Just don't move and i-it' won't attack you." Even if the Abomasnow tried Ash knew Pikachu would be there to launch an attack.
'Just don't move, just don't move, just don't move.' Were the words that replayed in Iris's head, but they were quickly started to become drowned out by the sound of her racing heart that thudded in her ears. Iris sat in the snow, paralyzed by fear and the snow that was started to melt through her gloves and hair and freeze on her face. Every cell inside her was screaming for her to run, but her legs weren't responding, neither were her arms when another thought told her to throw something at the oncoming Pokemon. But she couldn't she was too scared, and her fear was becoming worse and worse as memories, Iris had thought she had buried deep into a far corner of her brain, started to resurface from that winter.
"Ax! AXEW!" Axew shouted bravely as he leaped out of Iris's stiff arms and gave the most intimidating look he could muster up at the Abomasnow that stood a mere five feet from where his terrified trainer sat.
But the larger Pokemon barely seemed fazed by the smaller one's attempt to appear stronger than it. "AB SNOW!" Abomasnow shouted as it lifted one it's larger hands and smacked Axew aside.
"AAAAXXXX!" Axew cried as he went slaying clear across the area before slamming mercilessly into a tree, the impact dropping snow over him.
Pikachu was shocked by this Pokemon's rouge behavior and quickly dismounted from Ash's shoulder and started to rush over to his dragon type's friend to see if he was okay, but the Abomasnow wasn't having it.
"Pikachu! No, don't!" Ash shouted after the electric type. He could already see, from the gleam in Abomsnow's eyes, that Pikachu's movement triggered it's instinct to attack! And like expected, the Abomasnow lunged out arms raised to strike the two defenseless Pokemon, and it was about to make a direct hit but it was interrupted.
"DON'T YOU DARE LAY A FINGER ON THEM!" It was Iris, who somehow had gotten to her feet, hands clenched into fist as she ran towards the wild Pokemon and her face baring the expression of rage as she leaped up high into the air, both feet outstretched, before she brought them both down hard on the Abomasnow's head, causing it to face plant the snow.
Ash was too stunned to do anything; all he could do was stare wide eyed at what had just happened. Had Iris, his ice type loathing girlfriend, really just attacked an ice type Pokemon without any signs of hesitation? It was so mind boggling that he was lost in thought for a brief moment until another loud sound rang through the air.
"AAAABBB SNOOOWWW!" Abomasnow was now enraged, and pushed itself up from where the impact of Iris's surprise attack had left it. It's eyes burning as the pain from a second welt, which was larger and redder than the last, throb wildly. "AABBOMMASNNOOWW!" It cried, standing up to it's full height, all it's anger addressed towards the small purple haired human that it looked down on.
The anger and determination that had once been present on Iris's face had vanished and she once again stood there, cowering at the intimidating size of the dreaded ice type Pokemon. 'I angered it. It's gonna get me! It's gonna be just like before!' Iris thought as her mind flash more of those terrifying memories and menacing words from her past. It was all too much. The fear, the cold, the memories! Iris couldn't take it!
"IRIS!" Ash shouted, when Iris let out another shriek of fear before running off into the woods, the angered Abomasnow hot on her heels. "Come on, you two." Ash said to the Pokemon before they dashed into the woods as well.
'Why did she scream? Why did she run?' Ash thought, pumping his legs harder just to keep the Abomasnow in view as he leaped and dodged branches and other debris that the larger Pokemon was leaving behind as it crashed through the forest. 'Iris knows better than to run away, let alone attack, an angry Pokemon! Why would she do something that stupid?!' Ash's breaths were now coming out in ragged huffs as the purist started to go uphill, making him wonder how Iris was able to keep to such a fast running speed as the incline got higher and higher.
"Pika pi!" Pikachu, who had taken to the trees with Axew in order to keep up, called and stopped on a branch and pointed urgently ahead.
"What? What is it?" Ash managed to ask between breaths, but he was answered by his girlfriend's scream. "IRIS!" the thought of Iris being in danger was all it took for Ash to sprint the last few feet up the side of a large hill, no trees in sight only snow as far as the eye could see and a steep downward slope were the large hill dissented into a deep, dark, and unforeseeable area.
"NO! PLEASE I-I DIDN'T MEAN IT! DON'T HURT ME!" screamed a voice, tainted with fear a choked by sobs, belonging to his girlfriend.
Ash pushed himself a bit farther ready to rush to Iris's aid, but then suddenly the ground sank from under his feet. "What the hell?" he cried seeing that he had stepped onto a lower part of the ground and now was up to his waist in snow! Ash tried to struggle free, but the snow was letting him go, so as he wriggled and clawed at the white stuff Ash was horrified to find that he was only able to witness the horrible scene of Iris trapped between the hill's steep drop off and the approaching Abomasnow.
"AAABBBB!" Abomasnow stared, as an icy blue orb started to form in it's mouth.
"NO!" Ash shouted, using the last bit of his energy to pull himself free. But knowing that he wouldn't be able to reach Iris in time he turned to the two Pokemon. "Pikachu, quick Electro Ball, Axew Dragon Rage!" he commanded.
Pikachu and Axew did what they were told, and launched their electric type and dragon type attacks, but not before the Abomasnow let lose it's Blizzard attack! "SSSNOOOW!" it cried as the powerful ice type attack whipped up what used to be large mounds of snow on the ground up into the air, with a strong and freezing wind which. Doing so only amplified the sheer power of the Blizzard attack right before it was launched right at the purple haired girl.
Iris didn't even have time to scream before the chilling winds and shards of ice, all of various sizes, bombarded her. It sent numbing and burning pain searing through Iris as her fatigue body was coated in a thick layer of frost as she was thrown back and slammed down hard onto the snowy ground.
"IRIS! NO!"
Those two words were all Iris's ringing ears were able to decipher before her vison blurred and everything around her went black.
"SNOOWWW!" Abomasnow cried when Pikachu's Electro Ball and Axew's Dragon Rage finally made a direct hit to the wild Pokemon, causing it to stumble.
"That's not enough!" Ash shouted angrily, as he, Pikachu and Axew faced off the larger Pokemon. "Axew use Giga Impact and Pikachu, Volt Tackle!"
(Tg2012: I know Volt Tackle was switched out for Electro Ball but personally, I've always loved Pikachu's Volt Tackle and have no shame in bringing it back :D)
Following their given commands Axew charge energy until he was aglow with a faint white light and launched himself towards his opponent, while Pikachu raced towards Abomasnow his entire body coated with an electrical field. Even though he wanted to witness Abomasnow get KOed Ash deiced against it and used this as a distraction to get a head start in getting to his girlfriend. When she had fainted, Iris's body was laying dangerously close to the hill's cliff like edge, just a few inches from falling over and into the unknown below. Ash had to get to her.
"PIKA!
"AXEW!"
The two Pokemon shouted as they combined attacks rammed hard into the wild Abomasnow. The ice/grass type cried out in pain. It staggered on it's feet, trying to fight it's body's want to give in, but it was too much and swirls replaced it's eyes as it was KOed. But event though it was defeated, the Abomasnow still got its revenge on the small female human it had chased, for when it had hit the ground, it's weight sent a vibration, almost like a small termer, reverberating through ground.
Ash stumbled a bit as the vibration nearly threw him to the ground but falling was the least of his problems. "I-Iris, no!" Ash shouted, as his girlfriend's limp body bounced lifelessly in reaction to the strong vibration. It was then when the snow cushioning her crumbled and toppled off the hill's edge, taking Iris, frost covered body and all, down with it. "NO!" Ash shouted, horrified as he watched Iris fall, like a ragdoll, just as he managed to climb to top of the hill. The raven haired teen bared his teeth, and then without giving it another thought he leaped over the edge of the hill!
Wind whipped at his face and he had to blink constantly to keep the snow from blinding him as gravity pulled his downward but that didn't stop Ash as he somehow managed to reach out and grab his unconscious girlfriend from midair and pull her close to him. Ash made sure to cradle her head close to his chest and then squeezed his eyes closed, bracing himself from the impact.
'I hope snow is just as soft as it looks,' Ash thought.
It wasn't. The teens hit the ground hard and the sound of their impact was occupied by a loud snap.
"GAAHH!" Ash cried out as a fiery pain shot through his right arm, which had taken most of the impact upon hitting the ground. He grunted and groaned as he tumbled and rolled but was grateful when he slid to a stop. Ash shakily sat up, wincing at the pain that flared in his right arm as he struggled to hold Iris, but he managed and but upon sitting upright Ash frowned, bewildered. Sure he was expecting the ground to be hard but not rock hard, so then using his one arm, while the other one ached and held Iris, Ash slowly brushed away the snow on the ground. "What the hell?" Ash said as he stared at the ground…or what was supposed to be the ground, because underneath the snow wasn't any dirt or grass it was, "Ice?" Ash questioned.
Then as if to answer there was a cracking sound. A sound that the raven haired boy was all too familiar with, it was the same sound he heard the day he took Iris sledding. His breath quicken as he noticed a large crack forming on the icy surface beneath him! Seeing this Ash scrabbled to his feet, but the weight of Iris in his right arm caused a fiery pain to shot through it and he couldn't hold back his cry of pain as he slip and fell back down. And, unfortunately, that was all the ice needed for it to shatter. "AAHHH!" Ash shouted as he felt the ground fall out from under him.
He was expecting to be engulfed with ice water but to Ash's surprise the next sensation he felt wasn't painfully chilly wetness. It was another hard surface and then there was a sharp pain in the back of his head, and another burning pain in his right arm as it went limp and Iris's lifeless body tumbled out of his grip.
"…I-Iris…" Ash slurred his vison blurring as he was pelted with tiny pieces of ice that fell from above, but he ignored them. Using whatever bit of strength he had left, Ash crawled over to his girlfriend and was able to pull her close to him with his good arm. "I-I'll ge-get you o-out of th-this," he pressed his lips on her frost coated forehead as he slumped against an unknown wall, "I-I promise…"
Then darkness swallowed him.
What will happen to Ash and Iris? Where did they end up? Is Iris okay after being hit with such a powerful Blizzard attack? And will Iris ever tell Ash the reason why she so afraid of winter? Find out on the next chapter of Operation: Winter Can Be Fun!
Yeah…you guys are probably hating me for leaving you guys at a cliffhanger like that, but hey at least I got a chapter posted :D! Anyway, expect a lot out of the next chappy because this one was a bit shorter than I thought it would be, but that's okay because I promise the next chapter will longer! But I can't really promise if I'll post it anytime soon…so yeah! School's got me all hung up on my fanfiction work if you can't tell :/
Bye: TG2012
PS: Review!
