A/N:
Fjord Cannon: No comment.
Shelby Cloyster: I won't have the Regi's, sorry. I've never understood them... I'd recommend reading Latias' journey, if you want them in the story. The Regis are in that one, though the author only used them for ?two? chapters. But... to be honest, I've never LIKED them either. I've liked being able to cut them down in Coliseum. (Diabolic grin). Anyway, yes, Icewind and Chris meet up. (Chuckles) How else would Chris show up in Frozen Wind?
ShadoWalker: Thanks for the compliment. Writing's a good way to burn time, actually... well, for me. But I'm wierd, I enjoy spending hours typing.
Chapter Thirty-Nine: Long road, long shadows
Chris grinned, and called out mentally (Teskara, you know what to do. Blast it with Solarbeam.) Kani's ability did have a benefit – it granted any pokemon that was susceptible to a psychic attack could learn EVERY attack that they could learn (TM, egg, or learned), but the attacks wore out the pokemon, until they gained enough strength to naturally learn it (or reached high levels, in the case of TM or egg moves).
Teskara and the rest were working on their endurance thanks to that. Even Kani was doing that, and fighting battles.
Teskara nodded, and light gathered around her for a moment, then she fired the attack. Since Sunny Day was in effect, the time needed to gather the light was minimal. The Raticade groaned, and collapsed after the attack finished.
Chris laughed, then grinned at the trainer. "Well, that's that."
The trainer sighed, and pulled out his pokedex, after recalling his defeated pokemon. Chris honestly thought he wasn't that bad, just misguided. He wanted to join the Rockets to become a pokemon master, and he thought the Rockets would help him get there.
Yea, right. Chris pulled out his pokedex, and checked his funds. Like he expected, he'd gotten about 1,000. While he'd been in the Center, the League had upgraded all the pokedexes to handle monetary transactions when someone lost / won a battle. There had been a lot of complains about loosing trainers running off with their cash, so they'd instituted that change. Heck, the 'dexes could now even somehow teleport your cash if you had it on you, rather than stored in your trainer's account. Private accounts were safe, but trainers had to have some money to give over when they lost…
Of course, both sides had to agree they WERE in a battle for it to happen, so there were ways around that rule.
Chris called out to Teskara "Nice job Teskara. Feeling more confident now?"
Teskara gave him a warm smile, though she was breathing heavily. (Much better. I never realized that battles could be fun.)
Chris laughed, and looked over at Mark, the loosing trainer. "Your pokemon are good fighters, they've got heart. Once they get in some more practice, you'll do quite well against whatever gym you chose to take on."
Mark kicked a stone, and looked up at him, a twisted smile on his face. "Yea, sure. You annihilated me, and you've only got two gym badges."
Chris grinned guiltily. "I doubt that, actually. Two of my pokemon passed out, it came down to the wire."
Mark shrugged, and slouched off.
Chris sighed. To be honest, his pokemon hadn't passed out due to damage at all. Anekiro had used too much energy in a Hyper Beam, and Kani fell asleep after using a series of attacks. She'd done a showy assault… Chris had to shake his head at some of the stuff she'd done.
The Rocket scout whistled softly. She'd been watching for trainers to recruit into Team Rocket, especially very skilled ones. More often, skilled trainers were starting to attack Team Rocket members on sight, and they could always use more Enforcers to deal with them.
Mark had been a prospect, he had a reputation for pulling a win under extreme circumstances, and was naive as well.
But this Chris character had cut down his team of pokemon with a very powerful team of his own. In fact, she doubted that his pokemon had fainted from damage (like he'd acted), but EXHAUSTION from their own attacks. And it looked like he was working to correct that quickly.
She shook her head, and brought out her PDA, searching the Rocket database for anything on this trainer.
Eventually, it came up with over a hundred hits, most of them outdated. She sighed, and instead called a Capture Team. From the way he talked, it didn't seem likely he was a useful prospect. But his pokemon would be useful, and possibly the girl's pokemon (she appeared to be traveling with him… but not going out with him).
"Mira here. I found a trainer with strong pokemon walking the bridge towards Fuchsia. Requesting a VERY skilled Capture team. Repeat very skilled, he's no weak ten year old, and he's traveling with another trainer."
"We'll see if we can find someone. Mira, how much are you willing to stake on this?"
"A great deal, he nuked one of my prospects… and the only reason he couldn't do it with one pokemon is because they used up too much energy attacking."
Chris continued to walk down the pier towards Fuchsia, everyone except Mathrara sleeping in their pokeballs. Sanja was sticking close to him, (pretending that they were going out), because of…
A fisherman called out "Hey cutie. How about ditching that wimp?"
Chris grimly smiled, knowing Sanja was giving the fisherman a look that told him he was lower than Rattata shit in her opinion. She didn't say anything either.
After they were mostly out of earshot, Sanja said wearily, "I'm tired of this shit. Why do they keep on hitting on me?"
Chris shrugged, blushing slightly as he explained, "You're incredible-looking, and I'm scrawny."
Sanja gave him a flat stare, but he nodded. "It's true. I'm a guy, I understand that much. They think they have a chance if they act all macho, or something…" Chris sighed, and shook his head, his expression pained. "It'd probably be worse if you were traveling alone."
Sanja looked thoughtful for a moment, then her eyes flared into a bright red blaze. Chris blinked, and shielded himself with a weak psychic shield. When Sanja's eyes went blazing red, that meant she was a step away from going into berserker mode. Though berserker mode somehow improved her psychic and physical powers, she lost all control of herself. He said softly "Uh, Sanja? Don't worry, after you kick one of their asses, word would go out to the sickos to stay away."
Sanja narrowed her eyes at him, but then nodded, the blaze in her eyes fading. Chris sighed in relief, then threw Kani's pokeball. She came out, yawned, and gave him a sleepy look. (What's up?)
Chris shrugged, and said, "How long of a trip?"
(Few days, maybe. We're making good time. We ought to stop at the electric gym… never mind, Anekiro can fly us there later.)
Kani yawned, and added (Anekiro told me that he's getting close to evolving. I'd guess about 8 levels or so, but he says sooner.)
Mathrara laughed, and said (Well, I've got all of my learned moves. Can I have a fire stone?)
Chris arched his left eyebrow. "Sure…"
Kani sighed, and nodded. (As much as I hate to agree with him, he does have all his moves. It's because we've been fighting with Sanja's pokemon. They're no pushovers, and even Tsali practices with us now. We've all gotten a lot stronger.)
Chris said wonderingly "Then why did you fall asleep after that battle?"
(I WAS tired. I shouldn't have burned so much energy tele… 'walking around like that. If I'd just used my barrier on that Arcanine, I'd be perfectly fine. But I wanted to try out some new combos that I'd thought up.)
Chris shook his head soundlessly, and sighed. Kani, taking that as permission to get some sleep again, disappeared into her pokeball.
The dynamic duo finished setting up their trap. They knew that their target left his pokemon loose (amateur), and their secondary target kept her pokemon in their balls.
They went into hiding, waiting.
Chris swore, and looked back at Mathrara. Mathrara carefully nodded at him, and then leaned onto Chris. If worse came to worse, he'd use Faint Attack to take himself (and Chris) out of range. But he (Chris) hoped that wasn't needed, the void wasn't a pleasant place.
Sanja was shouting at the fisherman who had just hit on her. "You fucking bastard! You're NOTHING! Ugly as hell, what makes you think I'd WANT someone like you?" Her eyes shot out beams of red light, and Chris shuddered. Critical mass had been reached, and all hell would be breaking out… now.
The fisherman began to hover in the air, surrounded by blood red light. Chris looked away, he didn't want to know what she did, so long as it didn't include murder.
Mathrara only commented, (she's never going to be hit on by this bunch ever again, I can tell you that much. Even I'd back off.)
Chris shuddered, and nodded.
Sanja turned to Chris and Mathrara. Chris noticed that her eyes weren't glowing anymore, and he nodded to Mathrara, who ambled a bit away. Chris shrugged, and said "feeling better now?"
Sanja nodded, and walked ahead of them, not even cracking a grin. Chris blinked at that – she usually was at least partially social, though barely… he called out "what's with the cold shoulder?"
Sanja shook her head. Now that she'd gone berserk… well, she knew that men didn't like a girl who could kick their ass. The whole macho bullshit pissed her off, that was probably the reason she liked Chris – he didn't seem to know that he was supposed to act macho, and hit on her regularly. All the other guys did, before they found out she was a berserker… weird. It was nice, knowing that he wasn't afraid of her…
She mentally kicked herself. Damn it, she WASN'T going to fall in love with ANYONE. Period. It'd never been part of her game plan for life, and it wasn't going to be now. He might be a friend, but that was IT.
"Nothing. I'm…"
Chris snorted loudly. "Nothing my ass. So you're different, so what? I've told you before, it doesn't matter… or it shouldn't."
The group traveled in silence for awhile. They'd reached the end of the piers, and Chris was QUITE happy about that. With no fisherman, that meant Sanja could relax, and not threaten disembowelment every time another guy came within 15 feet of her. And Kani, Anekiro, and Teskara had recovered enough to stay out of their balls, even fight (though they wouldn't be at 100)
Chris sighed in relief, then stopped. "Uh, Sanja? Hold up. I know I'm feeling people around here, but they're hidden…"
Sanja blinked, then nodded. "They're hidden in those…"
Both of them (actually, all the pokemon besides the hovering Anekiro) fell into a pit.
Chris groaned. "Sanja, could you get off me? I need to breathe too…"
Sanja got off him, standing up shakily. She looked over at the hovering Dragonair, and said "Anekiro, can you fly us up?"
Kani said (I'll handle it.) Everyone glowed with a purple light (Kani included), and then hovered out of the hole, onto solid ground.
Chris shook his head once his feet touched solid ground. "Whoever did that is gonna…"
A woman's voice said from somewhere "Prepare for trouble"
A guy (with a hell of an annoying voice) said "And make it double"
"To infect the world with devastation"
"To conquer…" Chris glared at the source of the racket (he wanted to shut the guy with that annoying voice up). Kani did the same, and used her psychic powers to force their mouths closed. Two Rockets and a Raticate stumbled out of the bushes, glaring at Kani. She shrugged, then released them.
They continued as if nothing was wrong "To extend our wrath to the stars above." Mathrara moaned, (Make it stop!)
"Cassidy!"
"Butch." (Gyah!)
"Team Rocket, blast off at the speed of light."
"Surrender now or you'll surely lose the fight."
(You got it!)
Chris, Sanja, Kani, and the rest of the pokemon stared at the Rockets for a moment, then burst out laughing. Chris gasped out, "who are these buffoons? Rockets? I've been worried about idiots like these?" He coughed, then laughed even harder. Mathrara was as well… but he was also plotting to torch 'butch'.
Cassidy and Butch exchanged looks. "The motto doesn't seem to work anymore."
Chris finished up laughing, and said "see ya later. Well, hopefully NOT, but with my luck… Anekiro, Hyper Beam! Send them packing!"
Anekiro opened his mouth, a beam of energy forming within it. He jutted his head forward, and the Hyper Beam hit them, sending them flying into the distance. He floated lower to the ground, and after a few moments to re-gather energy enough to move, gave Chris an exhausted look. Chris, understanding, returned him into his pokeball.
A few minutes after defeating those clowns (well, that was a joke of a group of Team Rocket members…), Chris stopped, looking at the setting sun. "Kani, any rain for the night?"
(No. It'll be fine, you don't need a tent.)
Chris grinned, and dug out his sleeping roll. They'd gotten off the path about five minutes ago, so right now they were basically on a prairie (a bit dry due to lack of rain). A couple of pokemon were wandering around, but gave them a wide birth. "No rain means I don't have to set up a tent…" Chris's grin became massive, and he said merrily, "yes."
Frankly, most trainers didn't have to worry about bugs with their own pokemon out. Especially if they had a variety of types, because the small insects (not Weedle, but tiny things that weren't technically pokemon – more like midges) reacted to them with fear, and left an area around them alone.
Chris woke up, his sleep undisturbed by prophetic dreams for once. He had a bad feeling that Fushia was going to be a nightmare, since he was going out to prove that their gym leader had killed the previous leader (or made her disappear), and was a Rocket.
And he didn't like that. When a woman vanishes… ho boy.
A/N: Sorry for the lack of update yesterday. I've been falling behind with the pace of this story. (Ducks the glares). Hey! It's true! Anyway, I'll be able to update this story on time (monday / thursday) for maybe two chapters, but then it'll be on 'when I finish the chapter' basis.
