Chapter 7

I never really appreciated the warmth of the outpost town until now. The heavy winds bombarded me from all angles, making it rather difficult to push the supplies through the Flats. The searing cold winds felt like they were slicing through my bandages and lopping off skin. This wasn't even one of the deadly blizzards, just the normal winds were enough to freeze me to the bone. The fact that I could still feel anything was reassuring. Meant I could go a ways before I had to stop to warm up. I scanned the horizon for the hundredth time, searching for a single lost Flake in a sea of snow.

"How in the world am I going to find you? You blend in so well. You could be 5 feet in front of me and I wouldn't be able to tell."

The wind eerily came to an abrupt stop. I was more alert than thankful at that point. A gentle breeze blew to my right and I was compelled to look in that direction. There, in the far distance, I saw some snow literally standing above the ground. "Well, what do you know," I whispered to myself.

I looked around for a second to ensure that no flying Pokémon were leading me astray. A quick scan revealed nothing but open sky and the grey omens of one of the aberrant blizzards off in the distance. Not letting this blessing slip through my paws, I trudged toward where I thought I saw Flake.

After what felt like hours of traveling through a barren wasteland, I felt I wasn't getting any closer to my goal. At this point, I didn't even know where my goal was. For all I knew, I could just be wandering aimlessly in this frozen death pit. I had to stop my heart from racing as my mind instinctually thought back to the Furret. I hope I can find her before anything happens to her, or me. I had warmed up a bit since the winds died down, but I hadn't warmed up enough for my nose to be working. In nervous frustration I said aloud, "Dumb nose, if you were working this would go a lot faster."

A sharp voice cut through the air, "What are you doing?"

Relief washed over me as I turned my head to see Flake, who had snuck up next to me. However, the sharpness of her tone and the look on her face was anything but relief, "I'm here looking for you."

"Well, you're wasting your time, like you're wasting mine," she turned and started to walk away.

I called out after her, "Wait." She didn't. "You're not going to help me carry this?" She didn't change. "You're going to abandon your master?" She stopped.

"She can get supplies if she needs them."

"But she's waiting for you. They all are," I stated, a fire welling up inside me. "How could you abandon them so easily?"

"I DIDN'T ABANDON THEM!" She shouted into the empty plains as the winds began to pick up, "THEY CAN TAKE CARE OF THEMSELVES!" I was left speechless by the ferocity of her words. "If I help them, I'm abandoning those stuck out here. I'll never let another life be lost."

I couldn't help but empathize with that, but one thing I was sure about, "You can't save all the Pokémon on your own. There are others…"

The wind wiped at me and I felt myself start to shiver under the bandages, but all my focus remained on Flake when she shouted, "There aren't others!"

"We seem to think there are others." Twin voices rang out across the increasingly deafening winds.

Our heads snapped to the side in shock to see two nearly identical white blobs. I couldn't tell what kind of Pokémon they were as they wore a thick body-covering white sheet, similar to my own. The only real thing I could tell about them was that they were anthropomorphic Pokémon that stood only slightly lower than me. I had to stare further down than I expected in order to find the slits where their eyes rested.

"Who are you," I asked completely dumbfounded.

"What are you two doing here?" Flake asked.

"Questions can be answered later," They both explained in unison. "But first," a masculine voice started before a female one ended, "we better take cover from that." They both pointed past me. I turned my head to the left and only saw grey.

How did I not notice that? I thought

"Let's hook up and get through it together," the twin forms said. To my surprise Flake followed their orders, linking a red line between us. The pair of white Pokémon split, one went in front of Flake and the other behind me. They also had red lines that they used to link up with us. These two Pokémon have the same equipment as us. Just who are they?

Our makeshift line of Pokémon turned to face the oncoming storm. The shear intensity of facing it head on numbed my legs and made the precariously stacked sled of resources shake. With these strange Pokémon leading the way, we pressed onwards into the storm. I expected Flake to start using her blizzard at any moment to counter the weather. To my surprise, the skin tearing, bone biting winds just suddenly stopped. Flake's blizzard was able to stop most of the storm, but never had I felt the effects of the White Death be completely nullified.

I looked up to see a clear cocoon cover our entire group. With the center line like edges of a knife, the cocoon sliced through the storm like it was nothing. As I stared at the strange new addition to our team in front of us, I noticed an aquamarine glow emanating from where I thought its eyes were and the hands it waved about. These are psychic types, and this barrier…I've seen it used before but never like this. It looks like light screen. Though light screen doesn't totally block everything. So how is it blocking everything here? Just who are these two. My questions would have to wait as we pressed on through the now blessedly mundane tempest.

We breached the vortex of grey and returned to our desert of white. I was thoroughly exhausted. Sure, we were out of the storms deadly grasp, but lugging around this huge cart of supplies by myself really took a toll on me. As the Light Screen around us faded, I collapsed onto the snow to rest my weary legs. I could only see one of the new individuals in front of me, but they dropped to the ground as well.

"Never gets any easier," I was jolted in surprise when I heard a voice behind me that I was expecting from the front.

"Who are you two?" I asked in between panting breaths.

The one in front of me linked up with their partner and stood beside me. "Mith," the one on the left said, "Muith," the one on the right said, "pleasure to meet you," they said in harmony.

I stared at the two of them. Other than one voice having a slightly more feminine tone than the other, I couldn't tell a single thing apart. They looked like identical clones in their body covering cloths.

"What are you doing here Mith and Muith?" Flake said, her voice carried a slight edge.

"We were informed that you missed this month's delivery," they said together.

Flake bit her lip for all of a second, "Yeah I did, because I'm out here rescuing others."

One of the pair turned to face me. They didn't say anything, just watched. It seemed like they were scraping at my very soul, searching for something with those eyes alone. If that didn't already make me feel nervous, the emotions I felt from them were unintelligible. It was like their thoughts were mixed and jumbled. Although its common place for high ranked psychic types to purposefully encrypt their emotions, I got the feeling that only a small fraction of the emotions were purposefully jumbled.

"We understand rescuing others trapped here," the one who wasn't drilling into my skull with its stare said, "but you cannot just abandon one Pokémon to rescue the other."

"They can take care of it themselves, these Pokémon can't," Flake started to get heated.

"We know that mom can get selfish when it comes to exploration," Mom?! "But when she does leave, there's a whole team of Pokémon left behind in the outpost that cannot travel the flats. You can't just abandon those when mom isn't around."

Flake visibly shook in frustration, or was it rage? "It takes a whole week, A WEEK, to travel to the outpost!" Flake was shouting at this point, "Do you know how many I've seen die in a day?!"

"Yes," They said simply.

Flake reached her limit as she slammed her paw into the ground, snow shooting into the air, before taking off.

Mith and Muith seemed uninterested in going after her, instead they turned their heads to face me. "We apologize for the rude display."

"No, no its fine," I tried to console them. A part of me thought that this might be how Flake would react, even if I didn't want to admit it.

"Now about you," the one on the left said. I was taken aback as both sets of eyes fell upon me with the mix of emotions quickly veering in a negative direction. "Pretty convenient," the right one said, "that she'd suddenly have these thoughts after meeting you." I don't like where this is going. "Did you happen to say anything to her?" the left one finished. For some weird reason, I felt like they were less prying than earlier.

"I…um…" Thinking back I couldn't come up with anything that I did that would make her think that way. "Would you believe me if I said I had no idea?" I tried, in the vain hope that it would relieve their suspicions.

"Yeah, we believe you," their uniform cry caught me off guard.

I didn't expect it to actually work, "Just like that?"

"Just like that," the left one said, "we routed around in your mind earlier and everything came back clean," the right one finished.

Good, I'm glad that everything…wait, routed around in my mind?! "You what?!" the snowy terrain carried my voice of both shock and anger.

I could've sworn I heard one of them chuckle, but no other sound disturbed the cool air. "You were a potential threat," the right one said, "we had to make sure you were clean," Left finished. "We apologize if you found it inappropriate," they said together.

I tried to level my head. Their argument was completely reasonable, but a part of me felt violated at the idea they swept my mind. Though, that had been happening with alarming frequency lately.

I started after Flake with Mith and Muith at my side. I thought back to the conversation, "You know, what you said to her was a little insensitive."

"We aren't known for our Pokémon communication skills," they said, "Flake is over there," they pointed, "but we're also picking up more than one Pokémon."

I looked across the barren snow. Wind whipped at my cloths and whispered in my ear. She must have found a trapped exploration team, but for some reason, I don't like this.

I turned my head to see both of my companions staring back at me. I was taken off guard by their sudden intensity, but when they said, "the other Pokémon are hostile," I abandoned the sled of supplies and raced across the snow as well as I could with these dumb shoes.

It took no time to pick Flake's unique shape out of all the snow drifts. What I wasn't expecting to see was Pokémon suddenly leaping from under the snow and aiming at Flake. I pressed myself to go faster. Flake tried to dodge, but the attackers blocked all exits. She let out a dazzling beam of light I could only assume was Dazzling Gleam. I was sprinting as fast as I could across the barren plane, desperate to close the distance. I noted the four attackers and was surprised to see two I recognized. Ferilar and Brow cut off Flake's escape along with an Ariados and Mightyena.

I saw the Ariados preparing a web. Fortunately, I had closed enough distance. I halted on the snow, firmly planted my paws and targeted an Inferno at the Ariados. The sheer volume of flames that spilled from my mouth engulfed my entire vision and nearly set me on fire. The flames burned through the air towards the unsuspecting Ariados, lighting it, and the web it was making, aflame. Once I was sure the Ariados wasn't getting up again, I returned to my sprint. The other three Pokémon turned to see what new danger approached them. Before they could get a sightline on me, I charged into their formation and stood beside Flake protectively.

As the ambushers reassessed the situation, I could see that they had no plan to retreat. Ferilar eyed me up as Brow and the Mightyena turned their gaze away from me. I guess I must beat Ferilar before I can get the other's attention on me. Perhaps this is for the best, now I can get back at him for all the trouble he's put me through.

"That would be a dumb way to think about it, don't you think?" "Yes very," I was rather confused as I heard two voices chat amongst themselves in my head. Wh…What?

"Hi again, it's me Mith," one gleefully said waving an invisible hand in my mind. How did I even know he was waving at me? "Because we're linking with your mind. Just think of it like telepathy. Also, I'm here too. Muith that is." I've heard of advanced teams using telepathy to communicate, but I didn't think it would be this invasive. It felt like they were dancing on my brain. "To be honest, it isn't telepathy but linking. That's why it feels like were 'dancing on your mind' because we kind of are." I hate this already.

I looked around trying to spot the pair, but they were invisible in the pearly white landscape. Why aren't you two helping in this fight? We could really use someone to balance these odds.

"No can do mister," Mith thought before Muith, "their end game is us, we can't let them know we're here. It's up to you now."

For a moment, the image of Tyran and his last words passed through my mind. "Tell those two runts I said hi." "That's what we mean when we say we are their end game." They thought together.

Can you stop distracting me? I need to focus on the enemy. Ferilar was still preparing to charge. "Hmm," Mith hummed, "Why don't you take a closer look," What are you talking about… As I starred at Ferilar's stance, I saw no imperfections in it, but he seemed to refuse to move. No…he was moving, slower than a slugma, his hands and feet beginning to stretch out at me. "Stop holding them in suspense and just tell them already Mith," Muith seemed fed up with Mith in my head, "Basically, it's a side effect of linking where we speed up the processing power of your brain. We do it naturally with ourselves all the time, so we can do it with others very easily." Speed up the processing power…? What?!

"Um…" Another voice rang out in my head. "What's going on?" Oh great, another one. "I heard that." This is nothing like telepathy.

"Everyone just listen," Muith's voice overpowered all others for a moment. After a momentary pause, she started up again, "Okay, so we are mind linking so you can communicate more easily. Your thoughts will be transferred to each other as you battle. Any questions?"

"Uhm…"

"Good, now fight!"

Ferilar charged at me, slower than I had expected, but still a charge. I saw his maw fill with water as he prepared some kind of attack. Knowing my weakness to water, I quickly dodged out of the way. However, my movements felt sluggish, as if moving through molasses.

"That's why we're still linking your mind, so you can process the situation faster, but we can't make you move any faster." Definitely helpful there, but hard to get used to.

"I don't know if I can beat them." Flake's thoughts echoed in my own, "I've got two on me." How much battle experience against other explorer teams do you have? I thought. Even though she didn't give a response, I could feel that she had none. A part of me felt a little aggravated to be working with someone who was green. Wait, could she feel that?

"Yes," a pair of voices that I had gotten sick of hearing in my head said. I mentally slapped myself as I thought, focus. Flake, you have a fairy type move, Dazzling Gleam correct? I remembered it from earlier and she confirmed my observations with a head nod, okay, then use that move against the one that's weak to it, the Mightyena. I felt like I could see through her eyes and I pointed at the black growling creature. Just focus on dodging Brow and defeating the Mightyena. "Good advice, I can see your expertise as a bounty hunter shining through here," Muith praised me.

I had to shift my thoughts back to Ferilar as he tried to contort his body to face me after my dodge. His mouth opened wide, releasing a jet of water that barreled towards me. My body moved way too slowly to dodge the near point blank Hydropump. I was forcibly pushed away as the torrent of water pummeled me. I felt the agonizing pain of the water type move as it seared the skin under my cloth. To my surprise, the pain wasn't enough to make me faint.

"You have my light screen to thank for that," Mith proudly boasted, "but please don't get hit like that again. It really hurts you know." It's not like it's my intention to get hit.

I considered retaliating with a flamethrower. However, I remembered how Ferilar was incapable of handling the cold. Any fire type move would probably benefit him. Instead, I opted to shoot incredible Psychic power his way through Extrasensory. Ferilar clutched his head in agony as the psychic waves attacked his mind.

"I do know two grass type moves that would be effective here," Muith said. Unless you're joining in, it won't be all that helpful… a sudden surge of foreign power invaded my mind. As if my body condensed the alien energy on its own, an Energy Ball formed at my lips. The release of the super effective attack was enough to send Ferilar reeling back into the snow. What the…! I could hear Mith laughing in the background. "Will you cut it out already," Muith's angry thoughts filled my mind, "We agreed to never do that to other Pokémon."

"I just couldn't help myself," Mith said through giggles. "Did you see his face?" His thoughts once again dissolved into laughter. I could sense Muith's frustration peaking.

As my fight with Ferilar progressed, I was somehow watching Flake's fight unfold as well. It seemed almost like we shared eyes.

The Mightyena jumped at Flake with a flaming mouth of Fire Fang. As I had instructed before, Flake used a Dazzling Gleam on the charging Mightyena. He staggered back, clearly dazed by the hit.

While the Mightyena was charging Flake, Brow prepared a Flash Cannon. When his comrade fell, the glimmering silverish light was sent hurtling towards Flake, who had no time to dodge. The round found it's mark and I could feel my entire body seizing up with Flake's at the super effective hit.

As my target Ferilar hit the ground, I turned to assist Flake. By the time I was able to get to her, she had already launched another Dazzling Gleam and the Mightyena fainted.

Great work, I thought, now leave Brow to me. "How heroic," Mith teased.

I pulled at the flame deep within me and drew out its essence. The result was a fireball that danced at the edge of my lips. I was surprised at the flame's ferocity given the temperature of the surrounding air. Not letting my flames go to waste in the frigid climate, or letting Brow attack first, I unleased my power in a deadly flamethrower. The giant gong Pokémon was obscured in flames that licked at his steely appearance. Once the flames burned themselves out, they dissipated into thin air. Brow fell with a resounding thud that reverberated across the snow.

Once again, silence returned to the land of white.

I huffed, trying to gather my expended air. The wounds seared my skin even after the fight. Why'd you have to go running off like that Flake, I instinctually thought.

I freaked as I felt a surge of emotions that weren't mine. I calmed down when I realized that our link hadn't been severed. "I…I'm not changing my mind," she thought defiantly, her rage still boiling in the back of my mind, "I will rescue Pokémon, no matter the cost."

Our blood boiled and thoughts began to mimic, "Not everything is about you. Your taking on us, a companion, and you can't just think of the Pokémon your saving anymore."

"I…I…" both Flake and I trembled under the barrage. We felt something formulate deep within ourselves, a base emotion that only now I could put into words. "I…I don't want anyone to go through what we did."

The memory flooded to the surface of our mind along with the tears. We were with her, a lone white Vulpix in a sea of snow. Not another soul in sight, utterly alone. Were we abandoned? Left to die? Lost? We don't know. We traveled endlessly; hungry, cold, and alone. We knew nothing, we had nothing as we traveled the Snow Flats in search of our family. Then we met them, Glacier, she who saved us from nothing. We don't want anyone else to have to endure what we faced! We remembered when we were lost in the forest so long ago with Spindra's words melding with Glacier's. "Help others when you can."

The world shattered. Something forcefully ripped us apart. Memories and images, words and thoughts flew past my brain in broken shards. My fuzzy brain was left trying to put the pieces together, trying to reassemble reality out of the pile of broken thoughts.

"What happened," my ears rang with my voice for the first time.

"Things got a little too connected," Mith and Muith were nothing but fuzzy white blobs as my vision repaired itself.

I wiped my eyes to clear the fogginess, only to find that it was tears obscuring my vision. I cleared them as quickly as I could and got to my paws. I was greeted by the chilling winds that immediately sent me back to huddling on the ground. My head pulsed with pain as it felt like my mind had swollen up and pressed against the sides of my skull. Soon my eyesight returned enough to see Flake in an equally delirious state.

I got my paws under me once again and braved the frigid winds to reach Flake. "I…I know why you're doing this, and I truly feel the same way you do. But I learned a while ago at my Bounty Hunter guild that what you want to do and what your body can keep up with, don't often match." Flake seemed to stare at me, half seeing me, half seeing something else. "We face many life-threating encounters with criminals, I can say that I've seen many lose their lives because they were convinced they could defeat them without seeing their own weakness. Please Flake, don't be one of those fools. Rest for a little bit." I felt like I was being a little disgraceful by calling those who had departed fools, but everyone around the guild called them that so I guess it rubbed off on me.

Her once ethereal gaze now became firmly fixed on me. She chuckled, which caught me a little off guard. "You know, you could say that for everyone who tries to travel these planes. They're all fools who don't see their own limits. Even me." She lowered her head, and I could see the trace of a tear.

Seeing her cry made my insides knot and I knelt to embrace her.

I didn't need to hear their warning as I felt it under my protective cloth, "Hey, storms coming." The twin Pokémon gathered up the defeated Pokémon around us.

Flake instantly stopped crying. "Right," was all that Flake said as she got to her paws and assisted the pair.

As I prepared the sled for the fallen Pokémon, I said to Flake, "When we get back to town, why don't we spend a few days relaxing."

Flake smiled at me and nodded.

Mith and Muith warned, "Just be sure not to stay too long."