Chapter XVII- Mysterious Gift

It was finally time to face the leader of the Fuchsia Gym. Me and Erika walked
side by side, with Charizard and Raichu inbetween us. We carefully walked over the
bridge that led to the Gym on the other side of a huge casim.
"Well, who goes first?" Erika asked and counted on her fingers.
"I think I did. Yeah! Because your Charizard evolved after the last battle."
"Ok! So I go first." Erika said and we walked through two large metal doors, decorated
with mosaics. Suddenly, the doors slamed closed behind us. We flew around to see what
had closed them, but there was no one there.
"What should we do?" I asked Erika and grabbed White Blazes' pokeball.
"Charizard! Make us a way out!! Flamethrower now!"
"Go, White Blaze!!" I said and was about to throw her pokeball, when I heard something
behind us. "Charizard Stop!" He looked at me with a 'who do you think you are?' kind of
look.
"No need for that ladies!" Suddenly, a mans voice yelled out, and we heard a large thump
behind us. We both turned around, to see a tall man dressed in black, with a small cape
that had a pokeball on the back of it, standing infront of us. "I think it would be best if
you called your Charizard back into it's pokeball; there are a lot of posionus pokemon
here."
"Who are you?" Erika asked, and called back Charizard.
"I am Koga, leader of the Fucshia City Gym! Fwaaaahhhhh!!" Suddenly, he bolted past us
in a blur, and to my surprise had grabbed Raichu.
"Put him down!" I demanded.
"Why?"
"Raichu......Ice Beam" I said with a smeark.
"What??!!" He suddenly dropped Raichu, and he froze Koga's left hand.
"That's one reason why you should never mess with a pokegod."
"Amazing! But....um, my hand?"
"Oh!! Sorry!! Gyrados." I said dropped Gyrados pokeball. "Gyrados, bite the ice off,
carefully!!" Gyrados, as carefully as possible, knawed of the ice.
"Thank you. Now, I'm guessing you girls aren't here to just talk?"
"I'm Erika Crimson, of Cinnabar Island, and I challange you Koga!"
"Wonderful, my pokemon need some exercise!" He said and snapped his fingers. A large
arena appeared before us, with two spotlights on it. "This will be a one on one match, so
choose your pokemon wisley. Go Venamoth!"
"Go, Vaporeon!" Erika yelled and tossed the pokeball onto the ground.
"Venamoth, Gust!" Venamoth flapped it's wings, faster and faster, creating a whirlwind,
sucking in Vaporeon.
"Vaporeon, Hang on! Use Acid Armor and Bite Venamoth!" Vaporeon let go of the
ground and was sucked into the gust.
"Where did it....?" Koga looked around, but couldn't find Vaporeon.
"Vaporeon, Bite!" suddenly, Vaporeon reappeared behind Venamoth and bit down hard
on it's body.
"Venamoth! use your tackle!" Koga yelled and watched as Vaporeon was tackled back
into the ground.
"Vaporeon! use Water gun!" Vaporeon slowly got back to her feet and blasted a stream of
water at Venamoth. "That's it! Wash the powder off it's wings!"
"What?!" Koga yelled, "Venamoth, Psybeam!"
"Vaporeon! Jump!" Erika yelled and it evaded the Psybeam by jumping high into the air.
"Vaporeon, Ice Beam!" Vaporeon's eyes lighted blue, and it burst out of it's mouth a beam
of ice that froze Venamoth.
"Venamoth return!" Koga said and pulled a badge out of his vest. "Well done Erika! I
didn't think your Vaporeon was at such a high level. You've earned this." He said and she
walked over to him, with Vaporeon at her side. "Marcy, it's your turn." He said and
walked back to his spot on the other side of the field.
"I'm ready Koga!" I yelled as I walked over to where Erika was standing. Erika sat down
behind me and pulled Vaporeon up into her lap.
"Go, Tentacruel!" Koga said and threw a blue pokeball out.
"Go Leafeon!" I yelled and threw out his pokeball.
"Leafeon? Tentacruel, Bind!" Tentacruel flung out one of it's 80 tentacles and grabbed
Leafeon.
"Leafeon! Use your Spikes!" I yelled, and the spikes on Leafeons back stood up then fired
all around Tentacruel.
"Tentacruel don't move!" Koga yelled, but it could balance without moving some of the
tentacles, and stepping on the spikes. "Use your poison sting!" One of it's larger tentacles
came out and latched onto Leafeon.
"LEAF!" *OUCH!!*
"Leafeon! Use sleep powder quick!" Leafeon struggled to squirm about, and finally, it's
leaves moved, and the powder soaked into Tentacruels jelly-like skin. It slowly released
Leafeon, and he fell to the ground. He tried to get up, but the poison was getting to him.
"Vaporeon!!" *Leafeon!!* I suddenly heard Vaporeon from behind me, yelling out.
"What??" I looked back to see. Vaporeon jumped off of Erika's lap as Koga called
Tentacruel back. She ran over to Leafeon and looked into his eyes.
"Le...af..." *Wh...oo..*
"Vapor! Vapo! reon!" *Just stay still!*
"Leaf...eon...Lea..." *What...are...you...* Slowly Vaporeon lowered it's head and touched
Leafeon's nose. I was just as confused as Erika was. Suddenly, a sharp, but beautiful
ringing sound came from Vaporeon.
"Heal Bell!!" I yelled, "Erika, I don't know how, but your Vaporeon learned Heal Bell!!"
"Amazing! I've never seen a Vaporeon able to learn that technique!" Koga yelled alound.
"Leaf!" *Thanks!*
"Vapor...Vapore!" *You're welcome* She said and blushed slightly.
"Le..!" *Hugh?!* Leafeon began to turn red too, as soon as he realized just how pretty she
is.
"I think that's love at first sight." Koga said and walked over to us. "Have they ever met
before this?"
"No...never." I said still a little lost.
"Well, here's your badge Marcy. Good luck to you," He handed me the badge then looked
at Leafeon, "and you also." He smiled, and turned. He snaped his fingers and the lights
shut off, leaving us in the dark. But then the doors opened, just as they had closed before,
and me and Erika both walked out together, staring at Leafeon and Vaporeon, trailing
behind us.
"Well, they get along well, don't they?" I said.
"Sure looks like it." Erika said watching Vaporeon.
"We should probobly get them to the pokemon center, they look pretty beat." I said and
called back Leafeon.
"Vapor!" *Bye!*
"Vaporeon return!" Erika said and called back Vaporeon.
After that, we ran all the way back to the pokemon center, and left our pokemon
with Nurse Joy to be healed. We both ate lunch; I saved some of my sandwich for Raichu,
and Erika saved two apples for Charizard.
"So where's the next gym?" I said finishing off my lunch.
"Well...." Erika began with a smile, "Cinnabar Island!"
"All right! Home sweet home!" I shouted, and grabbed the peice of sandwich I saved, and
my back pack, then ran over to Nurse Joy's counter. "Pokemon for Blaze and Crimson
please!" I shouted in excitment. Erika got up from the table, without her back pack, with
map in hand, walked over to me and said,
"We still have to go through Seafoam Islands."
"So?" I said unknowingly.
"Seafoam I slands is a huge maze." I suddenly calmed down and dropped my back pack.
"Do we have to go through there?"
"We don't have to, but we might see Articuno."
"Here are your pokemon! Good luck girls." Nurse Joy said and handed me two trays.
"Thanks." I said weakly. We both walked away from the counter and back to our table. I
let Raichu out of his pokeball, and Erika let Charizard out too.
"I have a map for Seafoam, but it's still going to be hard." Erika said and put the map
away.
"Well, if we have a chance to see Articuno, I think it's worth it!"
"That's exactly the problem.......It's said that Articuno only appears to those who are
doomed to be lost in the icy maze."
"W..h..a..t?..?"
"SOOOO...even if we do see Articuno, we won't see the light of day again."
"But that's only a legend right?"
"True...but..."
"Come on Erika! It's you and me all the way, legend or not, we can make it!" I said and
shoved the peice of sandwich into Raichu's mouth, because I knew he would have said
something if I hadn't.
"You're right Marc! Let's go!"
We got our stuff together and walked out of the pokemon center with Raichu and
Charizard on either end of us. We walked past all of the buildings, and through the
gatehouse that led to the shore. Erika got onto Charizard, and I got onto Pidgeot, with
Raichu in my lap. We flew across the open water for a while then turned east twords
more ocean. But there seemed to be something different about this one. It was like all of
the stars that were out at night, were in the ocean during the day; it shimmered like no
where else I'd seen.