Here's another somewhat confusing chapter for you. Despite it's "confusingness", I hope you enjoy.

Chapter 14: Riches and Rogues

The hike up Snowstorm Summit was quite simple from there. No more Pokémon crossed their path, much to the relief of Cindy, who was still trying to recover from the shock of Beartic having the disease.

It was quite unnerving to think about Beartic and the blind frenzy it went into upon discovering it had the disease. His voice had changed… his skin color had changed… it was as if they were facing an entirely new creature.

No, we can't think about that now, Cindy chided herself, brushing a few snowflakes from her nose. We have to keep going. We have to get the treasure. What's done is done, and Beartic is gone. We need to go.

"Hey! Cindy!"

Phoenix's excited voice brought Cindy out of her daydreams. He had reached the peak of the mountain, and she was lagging a few steps behind.

"Yeah?" Cindy said.

"Check this place out! It's some sort of temple made entirely from ice!" he said in awe.

"No way!"

Cindy raced up to Phoenix and saw a beautiful, awe-inspiring sight in front of her.

A large, roofed structure that had been constructed entirely out of ice had been built on the peak. It was really quite beautiful; the ice was a shining opaque blue, sparkling despite the lack of sunlight. Many columns supported the roof. The columns were engraved with carvings of various Pokémon.

At the far end of the temple, they could see a large chunk of ice that seemed to be a different color than the rest of the ice surrounding it. It was more of a… greenish-purple color, like a Grass or Poison type Pokémon.

Cindy brought the hunk of discolored ice to Phoenix's attention immediately. "Hey, do you see that thing in there?"

"Yeah," Phoenix said, nodding.

"What do you think it could be?" she said, whispering now.

"I have no idea…" he said blankly.

"Well, let's go check it out, I guess…?" she whispered uncertainly.

"Sure…"

Cindy took one apprehensive step up the slippery ice stairs, afraid to even breathe for fear of alerting the creature within. Phoenix followed close behind, his breath making tiny clouds of mist in the air.

"Hello?" Phoenix said, his voice echoing off the icy walls.

Cindy slapped her hand over his beak. "Shush! That thing might be the legendary that Togepi was talking about, and do you want to make it angry?!" she hissed.

"Sorry!" Phoenix whispered back.

Cindy turned back to the hunk of ice lying on the ground, but if it had heard them bickering, it gave no indication that it did.

"I'm sorry. It's just… I don't want whatever that thing is getting angry at us…" she apologized.

"Oh no, that's fine," he whispered.

The duo continued to walk toward the strange hunk of ice, not daring to make a sound.

One time, Cindy slipped on the freezing floor, yelping as her head hit the ground. She unsteadily got up, rubbing the back of her head, which had hit the ice hard.

"Ow! That really hurt," she complained as she hobbled up.

"Shh! Don't be so loud!" Phoenix hissed.

"Sorry!" she said.

But the strange thing still didn't react.

They continued through the temple slowly, their breath misting in the air. As they approached the thing, they slowed their pace, still not wanting to wake up the creature.

Finally, they were right in front of the strangely colored block of ice.

Cindy screamed.

Her Pokémon instinct kicked in. She recognized the Pokémon as a Regice, she could make out arms, legs, and seven yellow dots in the shape of a plus sign, but everything else was distorted, completely messed up.

It was covered in green and purple splotches, its yellow eyes had dimmed, implying that its vision was swollen, and a disgusting reek of death wafted off from the body. It didn't appear to be alive.

"Yuck… What… What is that?!" Phoenix screamed, taking an involuntary step backwards.

"It's a Regice… I think this was the guardian of the treasure…" Cindy said slowly.

"What… what do you think happened?" Phoenix stuttered.

She thought back to their recent battle against the Beartic. She was fairly sure that it had the disease that Chris and Bagon had… was it possible that the disease had spread to Regice as well?

"I think… I think it's been another victim of the disease…" she guessed, struggling not to gag.

Phoenix looked quite queasy as well, and he stumbled around dizzily like a drunken man. "Urk… This is like an epidemic!"

"Yeah," Cindy agreed, trying not to throw up.

"But… um… hey, that means that we don't have to fight him! We can just go and find the treasure, wherever it is," Phoenix said, quickly trying to change the subject.

"Oh, you want to find treasure too?"

A cruel, mocking, feminine voice echoed through the temple. Cindy looked around frantically for the speaker, but she was nowhere to be found.

"Well, I'm afraid that there is no treasure here… any more!"

"Where are you? Show yourselves!" Phoenix said boldly, glancing around.

"Very well, then! Let's go, boys!"

Three Pokémon leapt out from behind a pillar of ice. Cindy recognized them immediately, though she wasn't at all pleased to see who they were.

Team Nightshade had arrived. Zoroark, Mightyena, and Honchkrow were all present, shivering from the cold. Flurries of snow stuck on Zoroark's long "ponytail". The looks on their faces were the same as they'd always been: a confident sneer, as if they knew they were the best.

"T-Team Nightshade! What are you doing here?!" Phoenix cried.

"Gee, do you really need to ask that? We're looking for treasure!" Mightyena sneered.

"We heard that weakling Togepi telling you that there was treasure on this mountain. So we followed you here to claim the treasure for ourselves!" Honchkrow explained.

It all made sense to Cindy now. The strange feeling that she was being watched, the Treecko dashing off to disable their pursuers, the sound of crunching snow behind them as they walked through the field of white. They had followed them, and by the looks of it, they had arrived at the peak first.

"You sick criminals," Cindy said.

"Anyway, as you can see, there is no longer any treasure here. Can you guess why?" Zoroark asked, her tone cruel and mocking.

Phoenix's eyes widened as the realization occurred to him. "You! You guys stole it!" he cried.

"Exactly!" Zoroark reached into her Explorer Bag and pulled out a sparkling gold treasure chest engraved with runes and crude pictures of Pokémon. From the strained expression on her face, the chest was very heavy.

"Do you see this? It's called the Lost Loot. It's worth more money than you could ever imagine, and as you can tell, that's just the thing that we like!" Honchkrow explained, using his wing to gesture to the chest.

"Oh, you little… Give that back right now!" Cindy demanded.

"See, we're the ones who got the treasure first, and as the phrase goes, finders keepers, losers weepers!" Mightyena said.

"We'll battle you for it!" Phoenix suddenly blurted out.

Cindy glanced at him, a worried expression on her face. "Phoenix—"

"If we win, you keep the treasure. If we lose, you keep the treasure. Is that a deal?" Phoenix said boldly.

Zoroark put the gold chest away in her Explorer Bag with a grunt. "Hmm…" she considered.

Cindy could see, if only for a split second, Zoroark nod. It was a nearly unperceivable nod, but she had seen it. She tensed. Something bad was about to happen.

"Get 'em, Mightyena!" Zoroark commanded.

Mightyena nodded.

Phoenix tensed as well, bracing for an attack. "Here he comes, Cindy!" he warned.

But instead of Mightyena charging at Team Blaze, he charged at the large pillars that held the roof up. Mightyena rammed into it.

There was a low cracking sound. The crystalline pillars began to fracture.

Phoenix cursed. "They're gonna bring down the roof!" he cried.

The cracking sounds got louder. The pillars began to web more, buckling under the strain of Mightyena's repeated attacks. They didn't have much time.

"So… are you gonna escape?" Zoroark asked.

Cindy tried to move but found herself inexplicably rooted to the spot. She looked down and found that her legs were encased in some sort of dark energy, sort of like Katie's psychic powers. She was stuck there with nothing to do but await her demise.

Phoenix groaned, trying to move, but he too was stuck in place. He desperately tapped his Explorer Badge, trying to teleport back to Mead Village, but for whatever reason, no column of light came to save them.

An earsplitting cracking noise filled their ears. Three of the six pillars were cracking, collapsing under the weight of the heavy roof. Icicles began to rain down from the ceiling, falling on the explorers' heads and knocking them silly. The end was coming.

Zoroark laughed a cruel laugh and stepped out of the temple, leaving Cindy and Phoenix alone with a dead Regice.

"Ha ha ha! See you in the great beyond, losers!" she snarled.

Mightyena rammed into one last pillar, cracking it under his vicious attack. The ground began to rumble, the temple slowly collapsing around Cindy and Phoenix, who were still standing there, held in place by Zoroark's weird dark energy.

Phoenix grabbed Cindy's hand and squeezed his eyes shut. "Well, this is it…"

"See you…" Cindy murmured through the noise.

She closed her eyes. A single tear trickled down her cheek. An icicle crashed onto her head, nearly knocking her out. She tensed her body and prepared for death.

KERRACK!

The next thing she knew, Cindy had been pinned to the ground by a chunk of falling ice. A yelp and another crash right next to her told her that Phoenix had also been trapped. The ice was freezing cold, and the weight of it nearly crushed her. She knew there was no way out of this.

Her mind wandered as her breathing became ragged. She thought about all the unanswered questions that still swam around in her head. What was up with the mysterious disease spreading across the world? Who was that mysterious Treecko who saved them in the forest? She had a feeling that she should know him…

But most importantly, why had she been turned into a Pokémon? And by whom?

Gosh, being a Fire type Pokémon's been great. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that I could breathe fire… she thought, her mind slowly shutting down.

Suddenly, her eyes snapped open. She looked at the chunk of ice that was pinning her to the ground, and a plan began to form in her mind.

I'm a Fire type Pokémon… And fire melts ice…

Cindy knew what to do.

She pushed away the good thoughts about being a Pokémon and only focused on the bad thoughts. Team Nightshade had trapped them beneath a ruined temple. They had kidnapped and stolen from an innocent young Pokémon. They had threatened to mug them on multiple occasions.

All those bad memories bottled up in Cindy, threatening to burst out at any minute. She was like a carbonated coke bottle: she was normally quite sweet, but if you disturbed her too much, she'd explode.

And explode she did. With a scream of pure rage, the inferno on her back blazed to life. It seemed much more powerful now, but maybe that was simply her imagination.

Flames swirled around her, licking her skin but not hurting her. Around her, Cindy could feel the ice thawing out, melting away into little puddles of water.

She felt the cold and pressure melt away from her, freeing her from her icy prison. Her muscles still ached, but she knew she would be okay. She struggled to sit up from the freezing ground.

She opened her eyes, temporarily blinded by the bright sunlight. Black spots danced across her vision. She had to blink several times before she could get a clear view of the area around her.

The temple had collapsed. All around them, the ruins of a once-great shrine was now nothing more than a few broken shards of ice. Phoenix was buried underneath a rather large section of the roof, his feathers singed and bruised, but he was still breathing.

Team Nightshade stood a few paces back, gawking at Cindy and Phoenix, shocked that they had survived. Mightyena's mouth repeatedly opened and closed, at a complete loss for words.

The fire on Cindy's back had extinguished, leaving nothing but some melting ice and a few dying embers as a testament to the inferno she had created. She stumbled forward, quite exhausted, but she was desperate to not show it to the band of criminals.

"Impossible. There's no way…" Zoroark stammered.

"How are you still alive?" Honchkrow asked.

Cindy stamped out a tiny ember. "I don't know, either, but I'm not complaining. Just as long as I'm strong enough to fight you…"

"Cin-hee! Cin-hee! 'Elp me up!"

Phoenix's muffled voice brought her attention back to her partner, who was still trapped under a large chunk of ice.

Cindy wasted no time. She quickly used Flame Wheel on the collapsed ice roof. It melted away like ice cream in the hot sun.

Phoenix was lying on the cold ground, some of his feathers singed from Cindy's inferno. His body was dripping wet with melted ice. He looked quite weary and weak, but he was still alive.

Cindy helped him stand up. "Phoenix! Phoenix! Are you okay?" she asked.

"Y-yeah, I think…" He paused and spat a small icicle out of his mouth. "Just as long as I can move, I'm fine."

"That's great."

She turned her attention away from her partner and faced Team Nightshade, who was still gawking at them. "What are you so surprised about?"

"You're… alive…" Honchkrow said.

"Thanks for pointing out the obvious. Yes, we are alive, but if you don't get out of here soon, you won't be!" she snapped.

Honchkrow and Mightyena flinched in fear, but Zoroark held her ground. She didn't look at all pleased that Cindy and Phoenix had somehow survived the collapsing of a temple.

Finally, after staring at the duo for an intense moment, she slowly unbuttoned her Explorer Bag and took out the gold treasure chest. She slowly placed it on the ground, all the while not breaking eye contact with Cindy.

"Here. You can take your stupid Lost Loot. You deserve it," she said grouchily.

Cindy stepped forward warily, not knowing if this was a trick. It apparently wasn't, as Zoroark simply watched as she picked up the heavy treasure chest.

"Thank you, I guess," Cindy said as she retreated back to Phoenix.

"Watch your back next time, 'cause we're not gonna play nice with you next time," Mightyena warned.

Before either team could say another word, Team Nightshade turned around and began the long hike down the mountain, leaving Cindy and Phoenix alone with the ruins of the ice temple.

"Sweet! We did it! We got the treasure of Snowstorm Summit!" Phoenix whooped, pumping his wing into the air.

"Yeah!" Cindy said. "But…"

Phoenix turned to her curiously. "But what?"

"Aren't you wondering about that Regice?" Cindy said.

"Um…" Phoenix glanced down at the ground, his eyes focusing on a single shard of ice. Cindy followed his gaze, and to her faint horror, she found that they were standing on top of Regice's shattered body.

It had been crushed like a bug when the roof collapsed, and now all that remained of the legendary Pokémon was a few shards of discolored ice. It was quite freaky to look at.

"If the disease has spread this far up…" Cindy said.

"We're in the middle of an outbreak of disease," Phoenix said glumly. "This isn't good…"

"You know what? Let's leave. I don't wanna be here," Cindy said, shivering from the cold and the idea of a worldwide outbreak of disease.

"Good idea."

Without hesitation, Phoenix and Cindy reached up to their Explorer Badges. There was a flash of light that shone like a beacon through the snowstorm, and the two explorers were gone.

XxX

More mystery! What is this strange disease? Who or what is causing it? Who is the mysterious Treecko that Cindy thinks of for no apparent reason?

Find out... when I feel like posting the next chapter.

Wait. Didn't I already use this joke? Eh, whatever.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Don't forget to review!