Freeze Frame

Chapter Three: Medallion Madness

A/N: Just to let you know this idea was inspired by a short story I wrote for a forum/site called Pokemon Elite 2000 Forums, so go to if you want to! It is an awesome site!

The rain was coming down in a light drizzle, yet lightning and thunder rang throughout the clearing as Alexsis and Kiana hurried to find shelter. The two found a small canopy of shady trees and crouched, sitting underneath the shelter with rain becoming heavier and pounding at their makeshift camp, attempting to rip it down.

The two drew their knees up to their chests and panted. Kiana saw a shadow geam from the corner of her eye, but in a second it and its companion were gone.

Neither of the duo spoke, the only sound hovering between them was that of their own ragged breathing. Both their Pokemon had been returned when the rain started, so there were no interruptions when Alexsis shouted overt he steadily worsening drum of the rain: "We had better get to higher ground!"

Kiana chose only to nod as they ducked from their shelter into the sticky mud and darted off. It was only a few moments before Kiana's left foot became stuck in the squishy mud and, unable to remove it, she was pulled down. She felt as if she were being sucked downard, couldn't move or call for help.

The mud deepened but as she flailed she realised that it was impossible to get out of this. She felt her breathing stop.. she was suffocating. She knew it would end like this, she would let everyone down.

But as soon as she felt this a roar came. Suddenly she was able to lift her head; to move even. She felt something warm beneath her and saw a flash of a ghostle Ninetales.

Then everything went black.

"Kiana? Kiana?"

Kiana black groaned, stretching out on some warm surface before allowing her weary eyes to crack open... she found them staring into vivid green ones and jerked backwards and up at the same time in alarm.

The first thing that could be seen was Alexsis, sitting down and laughing. "Jeez, Alex, don't scare me like that!" scolded Kiana before chuckling too. Immediately she stopped to gaze around.

What met her was a fine cave that looked as if it had been crafted by human's hands. A merrily crackling fire was set in the middle, near her, and she was sprawled out on a beautiful soft blanket.

"What happened?"

"Well, we were running towards this cave when you fell into the mud. I went to help you but this Ninetales came, a ghostly kind of creepy one, who helped me put you on her larger than usual back. She helped me carry you here and set us up a nice fire... then told me to give you this."

She held out a beautifull crafted golden phoenix pendant. It felt warm to the touch even though it had been nowhere near the fire, and when she touched it she could almost see the great fire bird's wings moving.

"Wow..." she said softly, clasping it around her neck and feeling a strange feeling that if she let the medallion get into the wrong hands terrible things would happen. She stood up, looking towards Alexsis.

"I... I guess we'd better be going." she stuttered slightly and headed out oft he cave, stretching from sleepiness as she walked out, followed by Alexsis. It had barely been a few minutes when a Pidgey darted from a tree to their right and swept dangerously close to Kiana, making both girls give yelps of suprise.

Then Kiana realisedt he bird had taken her medallion. "STOP THAT PIDGEY, IT TOOK MY MEDALLION!" she yelled to Alexsis. They both set off into a breakneck speed until they found the Pidgey, sort of cornered and perched in front of the medallion ready to fight.

"Let's go, Anubis!" she yelled, flicking out the sphere easily. It released the form of her Eevee in a flash of red light.

"Anu, use your Sand Attack at its eyes then follow up with a Quick attack and Bite!"

The Eevee obeyed, dartign up to the Pidgey before itu nderstood what had happened and pawing at the ground, spreading puffs of sand into the bird's normally keen eyes and making it squawk in protest.

Then Anubis pulled off one of their oldest tactics. He jumped up, hitting the ground with amazing balance and quickly darting to the left, then to the right then back to the middle before slamming into Pidgey. He slammed into the bird Pokemon, pivoting while the Pidgey was still recovering and sinking his teeth into the left wing of the bird.

It cawed loudly, taking off into the air unevenly and shaking its injured wing angrily. It retaliated with another loud caw and a Gust, slightly punctured by the wound of the left wing.

Nevertheless the attack wooshed into Anubis, sending him rolling backwards and coming to land, painfully and panting, on his paws. "Take down!" ordered Kiana, leaning forward a bit as the newly erupted sun sent small sparkles through her hair.

Eevee obeyed, lunging forward onto a rock behind Pidgey before it could notice. In one swift movement the doglike Pokemon had leapt far from the rock, pushing itself forward to slam into Pidgey.

The bird squawked once more as it came spiraling down, slamming into the ground with Eevee on top of it. The latter tumbled off soon afterwards, damaged by the small recoil though the Pidgey was alot worse off.

Though he was wounded badly, he still made a slight comeback, slamming into the dog with his own Take down but also reeling back from the impact of recoil.

"Bite, then stand back!"

Immediately the dog rushed forward, clamping its teeth into the furry body of the Pidgey briefly before staggering backwards as a Pokeball was thrown at the fallen bird, engulfing him in a burst of white light and sucking him into the sphere.

The fallen contained twitched a couple of times then lay still. Kiana rushed forward in excitement, scooping up the sphere and hugging Anubis during a victory dance in which she repeatedly shouted "We did it, we did it!"

She returned the tuckered out Eevee and returned the high five offered by Alexsis. She grinned widely and they left the area, talking excitedly about the battle.

It wasn't long before they came upon a rickety bridge above a river; the only way to go across. "Looks like we'll have to take it." said Alexsis. Kiana nodded and shrugged, but shivered slightly as they made their way slowly across the bridge. Though the bridge made nary a creak as they crept across it, as soon as they reached the end a loud snap was heard from behind them.

They turned, seemingly in slow motion. Kiana screamed and flung out her hand to catch the edge of the ground as the bridge slipped from under them. Alexsis screamed as well, grabbing onto Kiana's outheld hand quickly.

The girls panted and yelped, each casting looks down at the river. They yelled for help for several minutes, to no avail of course, until Kiana, cracking undert he strain of holding onto the edge of the cliff with Alexsis in tow, finally let go-

But just then she felt a warm, strong hand grab hers. Heard a voice call "Ra, help me out!" and a Bulbasaur reply, "Bulba!"

They felt theirselves being lifted to safety. Kiana, expecting to land on her hands and knees or some form of it, braced herself for the impact, but felt none...

That is, until she staggered forward into someone else.

When she opened her eyes she looked up and found herself staring into the face of a young boy, no more than 14, with untidy black hair (coughHarryPottercough?) and calm gray eyes. (What is this, a combination of Lupin and Harry?)

But he looked suprised... she wondered why, until she looked around and realised she had fallen smack into him.

She stumbled back with a deep red blush and a mumbled sorry that could barely be heard. The boy reached up and ruffled his hair a bit, looking nervous.

Kiana grinned a bit at the obvious tension and chuckled, though there was a hint of nervousness in her tone. Then the other two began to chuckle, until it was stopped by the boy.

"My name is Drake. Drake Leon." he said, and he gave Kiana what looked to her like a fleeting grin, which made her smile foolishly and blush a bit again.

"Alexsis Story." said Alexsis with a nod of her head.

There was a few moments islence where Drake nodded, then turned to Kiana with another grin. "And you are..."

Kiana immediately disposed of the spreading grin that was still on her face, but it could easily be told that she was still smiling inside.

"Kiana. Kiana Black."