In this chapter, our heroes will enter Ice Path to get to Blackthorn City.
It's going to be cold in there.
Can they make it?
Oh, and Sarah is going to catch a new Pokemon. It's two types in one. There are some Pokemon like that. Like Charizard for example.
Since the Silver Conference is coming soon, it wouldn't hurt to try catching one.
Chapter 39: Icy Road Ahead
As they progressed through the Ice Path, our heroes got a message.
It was from the director from the Radio Tower.
He was thankful to the heroes for their help. If it weren't for them, Morgiana would have won. The prospect gave him the shivers.
Who would have thought that one of the executives would be able to impersonate him to plan out the big event?
Luckily, she was behind bars now.
She wouldn't hurt anyone else now.
Apparently, while the four of them had defeated the Team Shadow executives, it was Sarah who had rescued the director.
Turned out he was in Morgiana's mansion the whole time.
Our heroes were relieved that the director was safe.
Fortunately, there didn't seem to be any icicles falling from the ceiling.
That could end up injuring them or their Pokemon.
Fortunately, fire Pokemon were resistant to it.
Not long after our heroes had entered the cavern, they encountered Sarah.
"Hey, Sarah, what are you doing here?" asked Lucy.
"I figured I might as well go on a Pokemon journey on my own now that I'm done with Team Shadow." noted the girl.
She knew at the other end of the Ice Path was a city.
Ned noted that wasn't a bad idea.
After all, she was an accomplished Pokemon trainer.
Though her defeat of Team shadow wasn't necessarily a result of her battle prowess.
Ironicaliy enough, she had played a role in thwarting other schemes of Team Shadow even though she was a member of the group at the time. Such as when her Pokemon blew up the device Team Shadow was using to broadcast their signal.
"Um, Sarah, I think this is the last place you want to be." warned Jake.
"Why is tha-whoa!" exclaimed Sarah.
Inevitably, she slipped on the ice and crashed into a wall.
"Oof!" shouted the girl.
It seemed she had forgotten about her clumsiness.
Luckily, she was alright.
A nearby wild Swinub decided to check on her.
He couldn't help but feel concerned.
"Swinub?" asked the swine Pokemon.
"Huh?" asked Sarah.
She got to her feet.
"Swinub." remarked the swine Pokemon. One needed to watch their footing in a place like this.
Luckily, for some Pokemon, they had mastered sliding across the ice.
Most of them happened to be ice types.
But some of them happened to be water types.
"Can you help me out?" asked Sarah.
Swinub nodded. He would like to help out.
"Wait...how can you navigate your surroundings? Your eyes are closed!" exclaimed the girl. She reminded her a bit of a Snorlax.
"Swinub." explained the wild Swinub.
"Oh right, your nose." answered Sarah.
Perhaps having such a strong sense of smell could be useful.
Ironically, he would probably do well against Grimer despite that, because he was a ground type.
"Is there anything I can do to return the favor?" questioned the girl.
"Swinub." nodded the swine Pokemon.
To be honest, it would be nice to leave the cavern.
Sure, it was nice and chilly in there. But he got the feeling there was a lot more of the world to see.
In Blackthorn City was a cavern known as the Dragon's Den.
But you couldn't enter without the Gym Leader's permission.
"Wait, hold up. You're challenging me without a single gym badge?" asked Clair.
Sarah chuckled nervously.
"Come back when you have seven!" exclaimed the gym leader, pointing her finger to the gym entrance.
She wasn't challenging novice challengers.
She shrugged and left to go collect seven gym badges.
Luckily, she knew where the gyms were from her travels.
So she wouldn't have to search for them.
"Should we wait for her?" asked Jake. She'd probably be eager to challenge the Gym Leader once she had obtained seven gym badges.
"Why would we do that?" questioned Chris.
"Something tells me that she's not going to take long." noted the boy. She was a pretty good battler.
And she would be itching to fight Clair when she returned.
Sarah went to Violet City first so she could fight Falkner.
However, he was confused by her decision in the fight.
"You're using a grass type against my flying types?" asked Falkner, scratching his blue hair.
That didn't seem like a good decision. Some trainers had tried using Bellsprout and it hadn't ended well.
However, his opponent corrected him.
"It's not a grass type." explained Sarah.
She knew better than to use that Pokemon type against a flying specialist. A rock type would work much better. Or an electric type depending on her mood.
Sudowoodo nodded. From now on, he was being honest. He wasn't pretending to be a tree anymore. Though he still looked like one.
Falkner scratched his head again. This was confusing...much like a Zubat's Confuse Ray.
He considered training one, but the places where Zubats lived also tended to have rock Pokemon.
However, Sarah would be proven true soon enough. She knew the types of each of her Pokemon, even Sudowoodo.
Sudowoodo hit Pidgey with Rock Slide.
Pidgey fainted almost instantly.
"Pidgey..." murmured the small bird Pokemon.
Falkner was rather surprised.
He honestly hadn't been expecting that.
Perhaps he should have trusted Sarah's judgment.
Pidgey didn't even know what had hit him.
It felt hard though, he could tell that much.
He then took down Pidgeotto as well, who only fared slightly better due to his better speed.
The gusts of wind fired at Sudowoodo didn't mean much to him.
"Sudowoodo!" cheered the Pokemon that actually wasn't a tree.
He had done well.
"Pidgeotto..." murmured the bird Pokémon, swirls in his eyes.
That Pokemon had really ruffled his feathers.
"I guess you weren't kidding when you said he was a rock type." noted the Gym Leader.
Though he found that information to be pretty surprising.
Seemed some Pokemon were not what they appear to be.
He gave Sarah her first gym badge, which she happily accepted.
She then went to Azalea Town.
Fortunately, her Pokemon could fly her there.
Namely, her Murkrow.
She still remembered the Slowpoke Well.
It was good that the Slowpoke were safe. Now that Team Shadow had been disbanded, there shouldn't be any more trouble.
And the Slowpokes could rest easy without fear of having their tails cut off.
Sarah noted that the gym resembled Ilex Forest. She had been there before.
Sarah's Slugma made short work of Butterfree and Beedrill.
The fire Pokemon was happy at her success.
"Beedrill..." murmured the fainted bug Pokemon.
"Butterfree..." whispered the fellow fainted bug Pokemon.
Having a fire type really helped against a bug type specialist.
But when Bugsy sent out Scyther, she had another idea.
She withdrew Slugma and sent out Sudowoodo.
He could blend in with the arena pretty well.
Scyther lunged at Sudowoodo with her arms.
She would cut the Pokemon down to size...literally.
But Sudowoodo poked her on the head.
Scyther instantly fainted, collapsing on the floor.
Swirls formed in her eyes.
"My Sudowoodo certainly is tough..." noted Sarah, putting her hand on her chin.
He had come a long way since he was terrified of her Totodile.
Though Sudowoodo still preferred fighting Pokemon he had a type advantage against.
"Ugh, I forgot about Scyther and her quadruple weakness to rock..." noted Bugsy.
No wonder she had fainted so quickly. How could he have forgotten about that?
After beating Bugsy, Sarah then went after Whitney.
She decided to use Swinub for this one.
He could use some battle experience.
Apparently, he was ravenous, because he kept drinking Miltank's milk whenever she summoned it.
This worked in her favor, naturally.
When Whitney lost the fight, she began to cry.
"Wahhhh! Boohooo!" exclaimed the gym leader. Why couldn't she win?
Not that she had a losing streak.
"There's more to life than winning." remarked Murkrow.
"What to do..." said Sarah.
Surely there was a way to cheer up Whitney.
The young girl then had an idea.
She gave Togepi to Whitney.
After all, she and the baby Pokemon persistently got along. And she knew from experience Whitney liked cute Pokemon.
Though the former might have had to do with the fact that she had raised Togepi since she was just an egg. She certainly didn't allow a wild Pokemon to eat it.
This cheered her up surprisingly well.
Afterwards, Sarah got her third badge.
"So far, so good." remarked the young girl.
She then went to fight Morty.
Though she took a moment to admire the Burned Tower.
That was where she met Slugma.
Totodile found the gym was rather spooky.
"Totodile..." murmured the water Pokemon, chattering his many teeth.
Togepi felt the same way as well.
"If you want, we can leave." suggested the girl.
She happened to know a Pokemon day care center. Togepi could stay there while she fought the gym leader.
However, the baby Pokemon felt she would be fine as long as she was with her trainer.
Murkrow herself didn't seem to mind the darkness though.
Maybe it was because she was a dark type. She could see in the dark.
She was used to the darkness.
Because of that, Sarah suggested she try fighting one of Morty's Pokemon.
"Huh? Me?" asked Murkrow.
She was expecting Sarah to use something else.
"Did that Murkrow just talk?" questioned Morty.
Though he was a ghost type specialist, even he found that to be spooky.
You didn't see a Pokemon like that every day.
Although, perhaps Pokemon were getting smarter. He was well aware of the existence of psychic Pokemon.
Fortunately for Sarah, Murkrow did well against Gastly.
Gastly fainted.
But she fainted against Haunter. She was worn out after that last fight.
So Sarah needed to send out another Pokemon.
Slowking seemed like the Pokemon for the job.
Her Slowking did well in taking down Morty's ghost types.
He had good special defense, so he didn't need to worry as much about the ghost Pokemon attacking him in retaliation.
Slowking did well against Chuck as well.
Perhaps Primeape could learn from Slowking...to stay calm and focused in a fight.
She used Oddish to take down Poliwrath.
In the process. she became a Gloom.
Though for some strange reason, she was drooling a lot.
Even though there wasn't any Pokechow for her around.
Currently, both fighting Pokemon was at the Pokemon Center. They would be back in shape soon though.
Chuck would make sure of that.
For her sixth and seventh gym badges, she used Slugma. She didn't have too many options for steel types. But a fire Pokemon would be ideal.
Understandably, her Swinub happened to be a good choice as well.
To her knowledge, ice Pokemon had only one resistance. But since Swinub was part ground type, he also was additionally immune to electricity.
She would want to keep that in mind if she encountered an electric Pokemon...whether it was wild or in the hands of a trainer.
During her fight with Pryce, Slugma evolved into Magcargo.
She was pretty proud of her.
This didn't stop her from fainting against Piloswine though.
Lousy double type disadvantages.
Still, her Totodile was enough to take down Piloswine.
"What? You've gotten seven badges already?!" exclaimed Clair.
She could tell she wasn't lying, because she presented the gym badges to her.
That was probably a new record.
Perhaps she had underestimated Sarah.
Well, since she had gotten the seven badges so quickly, she decided she would battle Sarah first.
The rest of our heroes waited to see how the battle would turn out.
Sarah got the feeling that her Swinub would come in handy.
After all, dragon types were weak against ice types.
So it seemed as good of an idea as any.
She heard that Clair had a Kingdra though.
Sending out Swinub against her wasn't a good idea. He would most likely end up being pelted with water. And he wouldn't like getting his fur wet.
But she would cross that bridge if she came to it.
Swinub would work against her other dragon types though.
And our heroes have made it to Blackthorn City.
Now they have a shot at getting their final gym badge.
Can they defeat Clair? She's the toughest of all the Johto gym leaders. She's not a member of the Elite Four though. Not yet, anyway.
Sarah sure got those badges fast, didn't she? She might have set a new record.
You probably weren't expecting all eight gym leaders to appear in the same chapter, huh?
