Avirilli: Another one? *sigh* okay, but don't you think you're writing too many stories at once? You've still got…*starts rambling about the numerous stories she has waiting to be typed*
Windsong: okay, okay! I get it! So I'll focus on finishing my other fics while Hotaru-chan and NNM-chan work on the group fics. Okay?
Avi: what happened to the disclaimers?
Windsong: Oh, yeah, that…Don't own Pokèmon, never will. It's owned by Satoshi Tajiri (I think that's how you spell his name), who invented it, and Game Freak Inc., Creatures Inc., 4Kids entertainment, and (for the moment) Kids WB. Oh, and Nintendo as well. *sigh* so many people…HOWEVER! Jacine, Azulan, Alex, and any other people that come up in this fic that weren't in the original story line of Pokèmon are property of me (Windy-chan), Hotaru-chan, and Nanashi No More! They're OURS, ya hear? *looks around menacingly* Okay, glad you understand. *Avirilli sweatdrops*
Enjoy!
Oh, By the way--Agate blue is a blue-grey color.
[] = author's notes
Jacine
Chapter One
A tall, athletic-looking girl sat elegantly and proudly on the back of a Rapidash. From the cliff where she stood, the young woman's agate blue eyes calmly watched the ever-changing sea below her that sparkled in the rising sun, and though she looked young, her eyes showed that she was about 15. Her hair, black as night and shiny as a raven's wing, had four golden streaks running through it. Half of her hair and two of the gold streaks were tied into a braided half-ponytail; the rest was loose, flowing down to reach her waist. The wind whipped around her, making her loose hair flutter and setting her Rapidash's flaming mane and tail to dancing.
The girl wore a loose white button-down shirt, and in the place where the front shirt pocket would have been a rosebud, colored like the sunrise, was embroidered in shimmering silk thread. On the collar of her blouse was a pin shaped like an eight-pointed star made of clear, faultless crystal. She wore leggings of navy blue, with two golden streaks running down the side of each leg. She wore a golden sash around her waist, and a small circular locket on a silver chain around her neck. The locket was engraved with an intricate floral design on both sides with a blooming rose in the middle, and the silver chain tied with a clasp that looked like a flower. In her hand was a beautiful glaive, which glittered coldly in the dawn light.
Her glaive, along with her locket and her Pokèmon, were her most treasured possessions. The handle of the glaive was made of rosewood, and had a design that looked like two ribbons spiraling down the hilt carved into it for better grip. The blade was razor-sharp and made of stainless steel, with an eight-pointed star etched on one side and a blooming rose engraved on the other. Where the handle met the blade were tied four long ribbons which were white except for the last six inches, which were dyed with the colors of the sunrise. On the island where the woman lived, Aspenleaf island, the glaive was not carried as much for protection as much as ceremony. Every year, all the towns and cities on the island met to have ceremonial battles using their glaives, and the coloration of the ribbons was a way to tell how skilled the person was--white showed that she was two levels away from Master status. Also, the etchings on the blade depicted which city/town the person came from. The blooming rose engraved on her glaive showed that she was from Sunrose City.
Suddenly, a voice broke through the silence of the dawn. "Jacine!"
The woman turned her mount around quickly, her face pensive. Her face quickly lost their wary look and her eyes lit with a kind smile as she caught sight of the young man who was carefully climbing up the rocky incline towards her. "Ohayo, Azulan!" she called. "What brings you here so early?"
Azulan winced. "A challenging trainer. He totally creamed us, so now he wants to battle you, O mighty gym leader." He finally climbed the hill and bowed to her, grinning.
Jacine smiled at his antics, and then grew somber once more. "I didn't expect any trainers so early in the morning--and I also didn't expect you to be up."
"I wasn't," came the bright reply. "None of us were. He banged on the door of the gym and yelled until we all woke up. We were still half-asleep when we battled him--that's half the reason we lost."
Jacine's eyes grew hard, and she looked back out over the water. "Yet another trainer with no manners." she sighed.
The gym leader's companion followed her gaze out over the waters. "Why is it that you come here every morning and look over at the mainland? Aspenleaf's your home now."
"Still, I was born in Kanto. I have ties there." her voice was dreamy, lost in her own thoughts.
Azulan blinked and abruptly turned towards her, smiling again. "Anyway, you've got a battle to fight, so come on!"
Jacine looked away from the ocean and smiled a different smile then the others she had worn before--this one had a hint of a daredevil to it, while her other smiles had been calm, reserved. "Right!" She wheeled her Rapidash around and was about to urge the fire horse into a trot before she realized something. "Want to hitch a ride?" she asked Azulan.
He stood at arm's length away from her mount, and didn't seem to want to get any closer. "I don't know..." he said nervously.
The gym leader snorted. "What, you're going to walk back to the gym? By the time you get there, the fight will be over. Come on, mount up behind me."
"If Windflame won't mind," he quipped, starting to inch even farther away from the Rapidash and eyeing the horse nervously.
Jacine sighed, and made a noise that sounded like a whinny to her mount. The Rapidash turned her head to look at Jacine and whinnied back. The young woman then looked down at Azulan, and using her glaive as a kind of hook, dragged Azulan closer to the Rapidash. "Windflame doesn't mind. Hop on, or I'll drag you on."
Azulan clumsily climbed onto Windflame's back--Jacine rode bareback--and
clutched Jacine's sash very tightly. Both Windflame and Jacine snorted
in amused derision and they set off down the rough slope.
*---*---*
The Sunrose City Gym was a small distance away from the city's heart. However, since the city was surrounded by an ancient forest, the Gym was impossible to see from inside the city itself, and only visible either from the air or from Zenith Mountain, a inactive volcano that loomed over the city, and the path leading to the gym was neat and well-kept, but hidden by brush and narrow, making it easy to overlook.. This made sure that if any trainers wanted to challenge Jacine and her band of 15 followers, they would have to search for it first, making sure that only the most determined--or the most hardheaded, according to Azulan--challenged the gym. The Crystal Star Badge, which Jacine gave to those who defeated her, wasn't needed to reach Indigo Plateau, so none but the determined ones usually came anyway. Of course, the challengers tried to ask the townspeople, but Jacine had given explicit instructions that the townspeople were not to tell any challengers where the gym was, only to confirm that the Gym existed.
It was seven thirty AM when Jacine got off Windflame outside the Gym's gates, helped Azulan off, and led her rapidash inside the training hall. Large and spacious, the room had an immensely high ceiling and Victorian-style design. Along with the training hall were nine bedrooms where nine members of the gym always stayed around the clock (out of the fifteen members, at least nine of those Gym members (excluding Jacine) had to be present at the Gym at any given time), with living quarters that the nine members shared, and a storage room where the badges and necessities for Pokèmon were kept.
When she opened the doors, the nine gym members that were living there at the moment stood up quickly. One of them grabbed the challenger's arm and dragged him to his feet. The trainer, unused to such rough treatment, yelped.
She bowed to her understudies, and walked to stand in front of the scowling challenging trainer, holding her glaive and still leading her rapidash. "Welcome to the Sunrose City Gym."
"I have come to win the Crystal Star Badge."
"Gee, I'm so glad he told us that because we would have never figured that out," Azulan muttered under his breath sarcastically, while Windflame snorted scornfully and stomped a hoof. Jacine kicked Azulan and whinnied/hissed at her Rapidash to mind her manners, even though Jacine herself was annoyed by the trainer's abruptness.
"I see that you have." she continued as politely as she could. "What is your name, and where are you from?"
"I am Alex Akame of Violet City."
Jacine raised one eyebrow. "You're from Johto?"
He nodded.
"Well, let me give you a warning." She twirled her glaive casually. "I'm not easy to beat. I have a very good record. And I don't like rudeness or arrogance in a trainer--I usually come down harder on trainers who are like that. And from that Azulan's been telling me, you're both rude and arrogant. Banging on a gym's doors at six in the morning? That's very impolite. But all the same, I, Jacine Kachira, leader of the Sunrose City Gym, accept your challenge." She examined the edge of her glaive before looking at him again. "It still isn't too late to back out, of course. The crystal star badge isn't necessary to get to Indigo Plateau. Are you sure you want to battle me?"
"Of course!" Was Alex's quick reply.
"Then follow me, please." 'You know not what you do,' Jacine thought, quoting her father. Her father...she quickly pushed the painful memory away; now was not the time to be thinking about that. Jacine turned on her heel and walked towards a small door in the back of the gym. Alex and the other gym members followed. Opening the door, she walked onto a well worn dirt pathway that had once been gravel, but over years of use the gravel had disappeared and been replaced by soft pine needles. Suddenly, the path opened into a clearing in the forest, also well beaten-down, except this one was swept clean of all debris and had the lines of a Pokèmon battle area on it. Jacine stopped, and pointed to a low platform to Alex's right. "You will stand there." As Alex walked up to the platform, Jacine walked to the platform on the left and stood on top of it.
"We will have a three-on-three battle," she informed him.
"Okay!" Alex yelled back. "Come on! Hitmonchan, go!"
"Lightstorm, go!" Jacine yelled, grabbing the pokeball that was clipped onto her sash and hitting it high into the air with her glaive. A reddish-gold--not red--beam of light shot from the ball, and solidified into a Jolteon.
"Hitmonchan, comet punch, now!"
"Lightstorm, quick attack!"
The Jolteon dodged Hitmonchan's super-fast attack, but just barely, and was off balance for a moment before he stabilized and tackled the Hitmonchan, knocking it to the ground then leaping away. Hitmonchan quickly got up, however. "Hitmonchan, use comet punch!" Alex ordered his Pokèmon.
"Light, use thunder wave!" Jacine urged. Lightstorm jumped over Hitmonchan's head, both dodging his attack and disorienting him. Then from Lightstorm's spikes small lightning bolts wrapped around the hitmonchan, forcing Alex's Pokèmon to keep still.
"Now, Light, use thunderbolt and finish it off!"
Lightning leaped from one spike to another until it looked like its namesake, a fiery storm of lightning. The Jolteon leaped high into the air and with a loud, "JOLTEON!" All the electricity stored in his spikes suddenly streaked towards the paralyzed hitmonchan, making it light up like a light bulb. The hitmonchan flew backwards from the force of the blast and fainted. Jacine said nothing and kept a serene expression on her face, with only her eyes giving away her amusement. Lightstorm landed and screeched his victory to the morning sky. Alex stomped his foot in disappointment, and both called back their Pokèmon.
"Next round," she called. "Bladedancer, go!" Jacine did the glaive-toss trick again, and a scyther hovered for a minute, its wings flapping so fast they were a blur, before he landed.
"Kadabra, let's get 'em!" Alex yelled.
Both Pokèmon circled each other warily. "Bladedancer, use your double team!" Jacine yelled.
The scyther took to the air again, hovering a few inches off the ground, when a green glow surrounded its body and three scythers appeared where there had only been one before, hovering menacingly.
"What?! You can't throw in extra Pokèmon! That's illegal!" Alex yelled.
"Who ever said I added extra Pokèmon?" she asked contemptuously. "Learn Pokèmon moves, or you'll never survive. Blade, slash!" She called to her scyther.
"Hey, that's not fair!"
"Keep whining and you're kadabra's going to be knocked out faster then you can blink!" The annoyed Gym Leader snapped back. "Now PAY ATTENTION TO THE MATCH!"
Alex did--and saw that his Kadabra was cowering as the three scythers dived down and sliced at his head. But then he looked closer, and saw that instead of trying to watch all three scythers, the kadabra was focusing on only one... Wait a minute! Alex suddenly realized. Two of the Scythers are illusion! "Kadabra! Use psybeam on...that one!" He pointed to the scyther that his Kadabra was watching so intently.
Kadabra's eyes glowed a bright blue, and from the star on his forehead a powerful blast of light shot forward and engulfed the scyther, making the other two vanish. When the scyther was released from his hold, it fell to the ground, knocked out. "Blade!" Jacine called, her voice like the cry of a wounded animal, before she called her scyther back into its pokeball, clipping it back onto her sash lovingly. "Well fought. Thank you," she whispered to the pokeball.
Then she turned to Alex. "You won that round, so you toss your Pokèmon out first."
Alex grinned triumphantly and tauntingly, at her, and threw out his last Pokèmon. "Go, Spearow!"
"Let's do it, Oceanine!" she called. Her Pokèmon solidified into a sea lion. "Dew-gong-gong!" it called.
"Spearow, Growl!"
"Oceanine, don't listen to the Spearow!"
The Spearow growled menacingly at the Dewgong. However, Oceanine just smiled at it. Spearow stopped for a moment, confused at why his attack didn't work, and Alex sweatdropped.
"Ocean, headbutt it!" The dewgong jumped towards the Spearow. It just barely dived out of the way.
"What good did that do? Spearow, fly!"
Spearow, however, hadn't waited for Alex to give the next order. It was already using fury attack on the Dewgong, missing sometimes and hitting others. The dewgong yelped whenever it was hit by the sharp beak.
"SPEAROOOW!" Alex yelled/whined. "YOU WEREN'T SUPPOSED TO DO THAT!"
"Ocean, roll!" The dewgong rolled over the spearow, flattening
it for a moment and cutting off the attack.
"Hey, Noctowl, you weren't supposed to do that!" Alex yelled
in outrage.
Jacine shook her head sadly. "You really need to train your Pokemon better," she sighed. "Now Oceanine, use Ice Beam!" she called, her voice snapping like a whip.
"Noooo!" Alex cried. "Spearow, get out OF THE WAY!" But too late; the icy blast hit Spearow, nearly knocking it out and freezing it.
"Now use Aurora beam and finish it off!"
"Dew-gong-gong!" it cried, sensing victory. Its eyes sparkled, and it was encircled by a miniature version of the Northern Lights. The aurora turned into a concentrated ball of rainbow light which streaked towards the helpless Noctowl. The bird was thrown back into Alex's platform, and when the light faded the bird was out cold [ack! Bad pun! ^-^]. Alex stomped in anger and called back his fallen Pokèmon.
The challenger from Violet City looked up to see Jacine waiting for him in the center of the battle grounds. One of her understudies had gone into the building and was approaching her with a bouquet of flowers. Humph. Probably to award her for defeating another trainer, Alex thought sulkily. He stepped off the platform and walked towards Jacine, shuffling his feet, head down, pulled out his purse, and shoved half of his yen into her hand. Jacine quickly pocketed the money and abruptly stuck her hand underneath his nose. Alex looked up and saw kindness and slight amusement on her face instead of the haughtiness he expected to see. Alex shook her outstretched hand.
"Thank you," Jacine said warmly to the crestfallen trainer, shaking his hand quickly. "That was a good battle, and in the custom of Aspenleaf Island, I've never let anyone leave my Gym empty-handed." Alex looked surprised. "So here." She handed him the bouquet of flowers. Examining the flowers more closely, he saw that they were roses--but instead of being red they were colored with the pallet of the sunrise. "Those are Sun Roses, the pride and joy of Sunrose City," The Gym Leader explained. "Sunrose City is the only place in the world where you can find these roses. Take these as a parting gift from me."
As she escorted Alex to the front of the gym, she asked, "Where are you staying?"
"With my grandparents on my father's side. Have you heard of them, Xiao Li and Yuji Akame?"
"Oh, yes! Such a nice couple. They have the most beautiful gardens...are you going to come back and challenge me again?"
Alex thought for a few moments. "I'm not sure yet."
"Well, here our paths diverge." Jacine sighed as she reached the front of the gym. "I hope you have learned from your experiences here?" Alex thought for a moment before he nodded hesitantly. "You have the potential to become a great trainer," Jacine told him. "But you have a long way to go--you have to learn each pokemon's strengths and weaknesses, and especially their moves!" she teased him gently. "Also, remember that courtesy and etiquette will get you much farther in life than abruptness and arrogance--and don't let your self-confidence run off with you! It's good to be sure of yourself, but that doesn't mean you should look down on everyone, either! Well, may fortune follow you, Alex Akame," she said, following Gym tradition.
Alex bowed to the Gym Leader. "Ja ne, Jacine-san."
Jacine bowed in return. "Ja ne, Alex." She watched Alex
until the twisted, narrow path led him out of her sight, and then she turned
and vanished inside.
*---*---*
Mewto watched the Gym Leader on his screen intently. What is
it about her? Something...there's something strange about this girl,
but I can't tell what. Something...she's dangerous. As
he watched Jacine dissappear into the Gym, a small, sinister smile quirked
the corners of his mouth. He gently flicked a hint into her mind,
which would surface in a few minutes. There. When she decides
to take my hint and journey to my domain, then I can find out more about
her.
Well, what do you think? You like? You hate? Please
review!
~The Three Spirits
E-mail us please at windicesorcery@gundamwing.org!