I'd be amazed if I still had any readers left at this point, but if I do, I hope this chapter was worth the wait. It's hard for me to write these days, but no matter how long it takes, I promise I will finish this story.
Bonus points to anyone who finds the hidden Pokémon Gold and Silver reference in this chapter!
CHAPTER 9: Cold and Silver
The Indigo Plateau plaza was surprisingly quiet for a Monday afternoon. With everyone in town for the Indigo League, the majority of its current population didn't have jobs or the like to be at during the day, yet the usual hustle and bustle of the city centre was presently only a smattering of small crowds. A rare occurrence. But being a man of timid disposition, Adrian Planner always preferred it this way.
Over the cobbled ground he strode, stumbling now and again or arbitrarily losing his balance. His clumsiness was profound at the best of times, but right now, his mind was a million miles away. The stress of meeting the League's deadlines, the tumult of Team Rocket's attack over the weekend, the hectic scene he'd witnessed yesterday, and, of course, the one who had been at the heart of all of these events…
Perhaps he should not have been so surprised, then, when his scatterbrained self ended up clashing straight into the back of an unaware pedestrian.
"Oof!" he coughed. "Oh god, I'm s-sorry, I'm s-so s-s-sorry!"
The person in question, a young woman in a slimming yellow top and knee-length brown skirt, caught herself before she fell forwards and turned forcefully towards her 'attacker.'
"Hey, pal, I'm walking here, what's the big id–"
Their expressions changed simultaneously; Adrian's from remorse to revulsion, and the woman's from anger to an unashamedly salacious smirk.
"Oh…it's you again," Adrian groaned.
"Well whaddaya know, it must be my birthday!" Macy teased with a wink. "Adrian, isn't it? My, how DO we keep running into each other!"
"I've been asking myself the same thing," he deadpanned back. "Don't you think you've caused enough damage already?"
She snorted. "What, by helping Ash with his training and getting rid of Team Rocket for you? Oh yeah, lock me up, I'm the worst."
Adrian struggled to respond to this, sighing his frustrated defeat after a few failed attempts.
"Whatever," he muttered. His head then snapped back up. "And what's all this stuff you keep saying about Ash? Are you two, you know, together or something?"
A high-pitched laugh rattled gleefully out of Macy's mouth. "HA! Now that is priceless!"
The architect's eyebrows lowered. "What?"
"Look, back in the day I might have had a thing for the guy – and I'm not saying he's not still yummy as hell – but let's face it, he'd have to be some kind of demigod to bag a work of art like yours truly, am I right?"
Ignoring the boy's tutting, she added, "Not to mention there's only one gal on the whole planet Ashy wants. Don't even think the poor dork knows it yet."
A strange dark pang hit Adrian in the chest, but he thought it best not to dwell on it.
"Since you're here, though, I've got a favour to ask," Macy said, her chirpiness dying way down in this moment. "Can you please tell Misty I'm sorry for what happened yesterday? I didn't mean to upset her, honest."
The man's features scrunched up. "Tell her yourself," he said in disbelief. "I'm not your errand boy."
She smiled. "Oh, I would, but, see…Misty doesn't like me very much."
"I can't imagine why," he muttered without skipping a beat.
"What, the teasing?" she laughed. "That's nothing! We go way back, you know. I'm sure we'd be good friends if she could forgive me for, er…encroaching on her apricorn patch, if you catch my drift."
Of course, this only confused Adrian more. "Huh? Apricorn patch?"
Rather than answer, Macy's flitting eyes rested on her addressee's right side. "Hey, what's that you've got behind your back?"
"Huh?" Adrian recoiled. "N-Nothing! I'm just, um…itchy, that's all! See?"
Unfortunately for him, his faux scratching motion brought out a papery rustling sound from the item he held in his hand. Rolling his eyes at the woman's resultant smugness, he hesitantly uncoiled his arm around to the front of his body and hung his head.
"Ooh, how lovely!" Macy squealed as the bright bouquet of flowers appeared before her. "Adrian, you wicked boy, you shouldn't have…"
"They're not for you," he snapped with disgust. "They're for…uhh…"
"Yes?" she prompted sweetly.
"Psyduck!" he shouted. Try as he might to stop it, his face was now burning like a cyndaquil's back. "I was…just heading over to the lab to, er…give these to Psyduck! You know, um, to go with all the others…ehehe."
Macy's eyelids drooped. "They're roses," she plainly said. "You don't give roses to a pokémon, buddy. Especially not the famously romantic Sinnohan blue ones."
"It was all they had!" he lied through his teeth. The face she was making at him was unbearable.
"Oh please," she giggled. "So, you gonna tell me, or do I have to poke it out of you?"
She jabbed him in the side, causing him to yelp in surprise. Then she did it again. And again.
"Argh!" he flinched. "Stop it!"
"I can do this all day, pal!" she sang between arm thrusts.
"Alriiiight!" Adrian panted after a good volley of pokes. "They're…they're for Misty, okay?"
Macy stepped back, gesturing with her eyes for him to elaborate.
"I…just thought they might cheer her up after, well, all she's been through. With Team Rocket's attack and the damn battle yesterday…"
This last little snippet was spoken in an unsubtly accusative tone. Macy sighed in understanding.
"Anyway, I've been meaning to try out that new ice cream place near the stadium, and I was, um, going to ask if she wanted to come along."
He exhaled shakily, blinking multiple times as if to try and wake himself up. Between blinks, Macy's expression turned mischievous once again, and her mouth formed an O-shape that simultaneously conveyed understanding and amusement.
"Ohhhhh, I get it now," she trilled through a sickly grin. "You liiiiiiiiiike her, don't you?"
"Wh-What?" he gasped, his cheeks seething with heat. "Wh-What d-d-do you…."
"Ha, I knew it!" she cheered. "You're crushing on her bad, mister!"
"N-No! That's not…I mean I d-don't…I'm just…"
Seeing the boy was at risk of hyperventilating, Macy tried a different method. "Well, remind me not to book you in for any boxing matches."
He looked up. "Huh?"
"Because you, sir, are punching WAY above your weight!"
The sudden look in his eyes was one of great offense. "Hey!" he barked at her. "What gives you the right to say that? You don't know anything about me! And even if I, you know, did – which I don't! – she, er, she and I…I mean, um…uhhh…"
"Take it easy, man, you're gonna give yourself an aneurysm," Macy joked. "Your secret's safe with me, okay?"
"There's no secret!" he insisted. "Just mind your own business!"
As Adrian began to storm away, the girl puffed out her cheeks and shrugged. "Man, he's even in denial like him, too…"
He turned around on the spot. "What?"
"Oh, nothing," she smiled guiltily.
"What are you talking about?" he probed. "Like who?"
"Like Ash, silly! Jeez, it's one thing to be a dead ringer for the guy, but do you have to have his stubbornness too?"
The revelation, while maddeningly confusing, evoked an unpleasant ethereal sensation in Adrian's mind. The weight in his stomach returned, and a cold flush swept all around his body, causing him to shiver.
"I don't understand," he said in a voice even meeker than usual. "Are you saying that I…look like Ash?"
Macy blinked. "Of course you do!" she cried, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Then her smile disappeared. "Wait a minute. You have met Ash, haven't you?"
When he shook his head, the girl's body tensed, and the whistling sound she made through her teeth only intensified Adrian's strange discomfort.
"Ohhhhh boy," she eerily dragged out. "In that case, forget I said anything, I was just winding you up! Heeheehee…"
With his insides churning, Adrian turned away to look at his watch. This unwelcome conversation had thrown him right off his self-imposed schedule.
"I don't have time for this," he sighed impatiently. "I'm going to the lab."
"Oh crap!" came a cry from behind him. "Yeeeeeah, I wouldn't waste my time if I were you, Adrian. I forgot to tell you; Misty's not there."
He scoffed. "Really? Is that the best you've got?"
"I'm serious! She and Ash went to Mt. Silver to train together! The lab's not even open today!"
"And you know this how?"
"Ash told me when I called him about our daily meet-up. They're really there, I swear!"
A pause rang out after this. Adrian looked down at the flowers in his hand, his foggy mess of a mind only becoming foggier. "Misty's gone training with Ash?" he said to himself, his tone darkening with each word. "Ugh. Great. Just great."
Despite his drooping head, the relatively diminutive Macy was still able to meet his eyes when looking up.
"Hey, chin up, dude, you can just give them to her when she gets ba-aaaAAAAAARGH!"
With their backs turned to the street, neither Adrian nor Macy saw the crowd of heavyset teenagers thundering towards them. Luckily for Adrian, the stampede merely clipped his arm, and he caught his balance just in time to hear one of them mention something about a nearby sale on sportswear. Macy, however, was knocked right off her feet, her exposed legs meeting the gravelled path hard and fast.
"What th-the…" Adrian stammered, barely a second before he heard a small whimper from his right.
"Aaarrghh…" Macy groaned as she stumbled to her feet. "H-HEY, GET BACK HERE! BUNCHA C-COWARDS, WHEN I CATCH UP TO Y-ARRRGH, DAMMIT!"
She made it only four or five steps before crumpling back down to the ground, clutching her right knee in pain. Her long hair fell over most of her body, concealing both her face and the injury that had immobilised her.
"What's wrong?" Adrian asked tentatively.
"What do you care?" her muffled voice snapped up at him.
He raised an eyebrow. "Are you crying?"
"Oh, you'd like that, wouldn't you! Go ahead, laugh it up!"
Shaking his head, Adrian knelt down in front of her and reached for the satchel on his shoulder. "Okay, okay, don't make a scene. Here."
As she looked up, Macy saw the man wearing a strangely concerned look on his face, as well as holding a dark green box in his hand.
"Was that i-in your bag?" she asked, biting her lip to stop the tears. "Who the hell carries a f-first-aid kit with them?"
"Fine, I guess I'll put it away then," he responded in kind.
"No! …Ugh, I mean, s-sure, do your thing." Her voice lowered. "Nerd…"
Adrian took a small spray bottle out of the box, wetting the cloth in his other hand with it. Nervously, he dabbed at the coin-sized scrape on Macy's leg, clearing away the dirt and gravel around the edges. His little finger brushed against her skin while doing so, and he stopped instantly.
"Um…sorry," he said, unable to look her in the eye. Macy acknowledged this with a little smile to herself.
"Can I ask you something?" she spoke up a moment later. He nodded. "I'm gonna go out on a limb and say you haven't had much experience with girls."
"What gave it away?" he replied in a deadpan tone.
"Ah, don't be like that," she smiled again. "Their loss, I say."
His pensive silence was the perfect setup for her next question. "I'm wondering, though: are your feelings for Misty just based on the fact she's a girl who's nice to you?"
"I told you, I don't have feelings for Misty," he sighed, though with an involuntary shiver afterwards. "Do you want me to help you or not?"
"Okay, sorry, never mind. I just don't want you to overthink things and get hurt, that's all."
"Why would you care about me getting hurt?"
"I'm not made of stone, you know. And I can already tell you're a super nice guy. Is it so wrong to want the best for you?"
Perhaps it was the lingering mindset he'd been left in after such a question, or perhaps it was the strangely intimate situation he and Macy had just found themselves in, but Adrian, despite sensing the conversation had been dropped, felt a peculiar urge to get something more off his chest.
"I've told myself a handful of times that I was in love," he said. Macy, her expression dead serious, listened intently. "In reality, I was just seeing what I wanted to see. I put them on a pedestal. I was flattered by the attention they gave me. That's not love. That's just sad."
She said nothing, assuming this to just be the beginning of the story.
"Misty's unlike anyone I've ever met. Her whole family is world-famous, and she's, well, the most beautiful and talented of them all. I'm lucky to even know her, right? I mean, I never expected the actual Misty Waterflower to want to be friends with me of all people."
He cleared his throat. "Argh…I'm rambling, sorry. The thing is, talking to people has always made me so nervous. My stuttering is enough to put people off, and with girls it's even worse. Do you" – his eyes travelled up to hers – "do you think I'm naïve for trying?"
Macy was so engrossed in the shy man's unexpected openness that she had virtually forgotten about her injured leg. "Oh, Adrian," she smiled sympathetically, "I think that's something you're gonna have to figure out yourself. There is one thing I can tell you, though…"
"What's that?" he asked.
"You've never once stuttered while talking to me."
His hands stopped around the cloth. Though not a particularly gratifying one, the fact was certainly a shock – so much so that his heart gave a violent leap.
"You're…not a normal girl," he groaned.
"HA! You can say that again!" she laughed. "Ooh, oww!"
"Stay still," tutted Adrian. "You can go back to being a hyperactive pain in the ass once I'm done."
"You promise?" she winked.
Ignoring her, he sealed a thin dressing over her knee with two strips of tape, pressing it lightly down for a few seconds.
"There," he said. "Better?"
Macy couldn't deny that his first-aid skills had been impeccable. There was no longer any trace of the intense pain she felt just minutes ago. More soothing than that, however, was the warmth from his smooth hand on her leg. Once he took it away, a cold emptiness persisted around the area, one that somehow made its way to her chest.
"Y-Yeah," she said breathlessly. "Thank you, Adrian."
"Don't mention it," he replied with a little smile. "Let me help you up."
Yet, before he could, the revitalised Macy was already on her feet.
"Too slow!" she squealed. "Gonna have to do better than that, A-dog!"
"A-dog?" he grimaced.
"Aww, lighten up, huh, Ade-Meister? Aderino? The Big A-to-the-drian?"
At the start of their conversation, her antics would've infuriated him to no end. But now, against his better judgement, his flustered face stretched into a small but sincere smirk.
"God, you're annoying," he half-sighed, half-laughed.
"Always," Macy chirped, sidling up to him and batting her eyelids. "Soooo…did I hear you say something about ice cream?"
Unbelievable, he thought in mild amusement. There really was no stopping this girl. Then again, now that he had nowhere to be…
"…Go on, then."
As was their plan the previous evening, Ash and Misty had embarked on their journey to Mt. Silver at 8am sharp, their bags stocked with pokéballs, snacks, and all manner of adventuring paraphernalia they had accrued over the years. Already they had been walking for almost five hours, but that duration meant nothing to them, for so many times had their childhood troupe been forced to trudge along for whole days and nights, just to find a town or a suitable place to set up camp. Misty knew half a day was a bit of an ambitious goal; at the earliest, she guessed they'd be back in Indigo Plateau by tomorrow morning. A whole day to herself. She'd virtually forgotten what that sensation felt like.
The trip was filled with lively conversation all the way, most of it stemming from Ash's untenable enthusiasm. "But we've never been all the way to the top!" was his repeated defence when she had questioned why he was so excited to be going somewhere they'd already been before. Adventuring truly was in his soul, and Misty felt privileged to be part of his ongoing story again.
The higher up they got, the colder and snowier the environs became. When paired with the midday sun, everywhere they stepped shone a gleaming, sparkling white, the kind that she feared would blind her if she gazed upon its beauty for too long. For the first time in weeks, months, maybe even years, Misty felt like she was truly alive. And with her favourite person in the entire world there to share it with her, the scene was akin to something from her most fantastical of girlish dreams.
"Hey, I can see my house from here!" gushed Ash as he turned to the horizon.
"Please," Misty smirked, "the only thing to see in that direction is Viridian Forest."
"Oh man, that brings back memories," he smiled as he scanned the miles and miles of thick wilderness to his right. "Remember Caterpie, Mist?"
His teasing tone was clear as day. "Yes, and I also remember introducing him to my mallet," she sniped back. "Do I have to do the same with you?"
"Pikaaa pika!" chortled Pikachu atop his embarrassed trainer's head.
"Gee, take a joke, will ya?" Ash recoiled mockingly. Misty shook her head and continued walking.
"I wonder how Butterfree's doing," he mused slowly. Though Misty didn't reply, she had been thinking the same thing since the mention of her friend's first ever captured pokémon.
"D'you think I should let out my pokémon?" came the boy's breathy voice again a minute later. "This is their journey as much as ours, after all."
"Good idea," Misty nodded, fingering the single pokéball on her own belt. "I…think I'll leave Caserin where he is for now, though."
He cocked his head. "What for?"
"Well, after what happened to him at the battle yest-"
Her mouth closed instantly. "Um…never mind. Let's keep going."
She brushed past him, after which he shrugged and gathered his five miniaturised pokéballs into his hands. Throwing them up in the air, the white energy that burst forth was rendered practically invisible by the snowy surroundings.
"Hey, guys!" Ash beamed as his five storied battlers appeared. "Look where we are!"
Their adjustment to the unexpected cold varied from pokémon to pokémon. Glalie, of course, could not have been happier, spinning gleefully around in his natural element. Staraptor, too, appreciated the brisk mountain breeze ruffling through its jet-black feathers, and Totodile wasted no time in burying himself jubilantly in the snow.
The same could not be said of Krookodile and Charizard, who were not exactly thrilled to feel the chilly, slippery substance beneath their feet. While the latter simply raised up his flaming tail in indignance, the former's aghast scowl and crossed arms made it very clear how he felt about being stuck halfway up a frozen mountain.
"Kroooook…" he snarled gutturally.
Ash turned to him. "What's up, Krookodile? Aren't you psyched to be here?"
The Intimidation Pokémon gave little else in the way of response besides a small and sour smile.
"That flat ground up there looks like a good spot to do some training," suggested Misty. Her friend followed her pointing finger to a wide dirt path further ahead and nodded.
"Sure, Mist!" he exclaimed. "Okay, gang, race ya there!"
While Misty hung back with a shake of her head, Ash and his pokémon bolted forwards, each clambering through the ankle-deep snow with mirthfulness to spare (Glalie and Staraptor naturally had rather an unfair advantage). Unsurprisingly, Krookodile did not move a muscle – at least, not at first. As Totodile scampered up behind his left foot, Krookodile kicked off the ground as if to begin running, the upwards motion covering the poor starter pokémon in a mound of snow.
"Totooo-ho-hooo!" he coughed angrily. The elder crocodile smirked over his shoulder before cockily strolling up the mountain after his trainer.
"Did you say something, Totodile?" Misty cooed, having missed the incident by a split second.
A humiliated blush spread across the crest of Totodile's ridged maw. Looking in the direction his aggravating teammate was walking in, he inhaled sharply, loosing a violent splash of water onto the sloped path ahead. Contact with the snow froze it instantly, and all it took was one half-footfall from the lumbering Krookodile for his legs to fly out behind him and send him sliding roughly down on his belly.
"Totototototototo!" howled the little croc in wicked amusement. This time, both Ash and Misty had caught the whole thing.
"HEY!" Ash cried. "Totodile, what's your problem?"
Trudging up to level ground, Totodile grabbed a pile of snow and splashed it in his own face, then stiffly pointed up to Krookodile (who looked anything but apologetic).
"I thought you'd taken care of this petty rivalry by now," Misty sighed.
"Me too!" he snapped back. Sitting down on the frosty gravel, the pokémon trainer beckoned for his two warring pokémon to do the same, and although there was some hesitation, both Krookodile and Totodile eventually obliged, their bodies subtly turned away from one another.
"Okay, listen, you two," he said seriously. "We've got one shot at this tournament, and there's no way we can win if we spend the whole time fighting amongst ourselves."
Furtive glares were exchanged between the pair.
"I need to know you guys are on my side. That you're gonna give a hundred per cent when the time comes."
"Pika pi-kaaa!" seconded Pikachu.
"So whatever this is, we're not going any further till it stops, and I mean completely. Got it?"
Off to the side, Misty couldn't help smiling lightly to herself. This was a level of maturity she'd scarcely seen from her best friend. It had been three years, now she thought about it. She could certainly get used to it.
"Krook," shrugged Krookodile as if to casually agree. Ash exhaled a great sigh of relief – although that relief was short-lived, as the pokémon's thick tail then swatted Totodile halfway down the steep hill the party had just scaled.
"What the…what did I just say?!" their trainer gasped, incensed. Misty extended a hand to help him up.
"I don't think yelling is going to get through to them, Ash," she muttered.
"Huh?!" he fired back. "You yell all the time!"
"Yeah, at you, dumbass!"
"Well…so?"
"Those two are so full of energy, and they just need to get it out of their system somehow! Something like…like…"
Her pondering was stopped by a wet chunk of snow splatting straight across her friend's cheek. Down the path, Totodile, who had been aiming for Krookodile, grinned guiltily and tried to hide his face with his tiny claw.
"Like a snowball fight," Misty finished, making no attempt to push down her own amusement. "Hey guys, wait for me!"
Ash watched the scene below him quickly unfold into an all-out flurry of snowy projectiles. He could pick out Misty's fiery hair the whole time, and something about the image bathed him suddenly in a nostalgic full-body shiver. This was exactly what he'd wanted from this trip – and leave it to his best friend to figure that out for him.
"Alright, then, you're on!" he cheered excitedly. "Save some snow for the rest of us, will y–"
And that was when another one hit him straight in the face.
From behind the thick penthouse door came three gentle taps, each subtly increasing in force. Having been host to the startlingly quiet Adrian just two days ago, the residents now knew to listen close whenever they were expecting company, and so were prepared for the arrival of someone almost equally mild-mannered.
"Ah, Professor Cairn!" Brock greeted by shaking the man's hand. "I'm so glad you could come!"
"It's my pleasure, Brock," Cairn smiled. "Honestly, I was quite flattered by your invitation."
Stepping inside, he looked around in awe. "My, this place is spectacular, isn't it? Misty told me about Lance's extreme generosity, but I never expected anything like this!"
"Yeah, it's, like, rad!" giggled Violet. "Better than that dumb old gym any day."
The professor nodded to himself. "Ah, you must be the famous Sensational Sisters," he addressed the three women standing before him. "I can certainly see the family resemblance."
"Too bad the apricorn had to fall, like, so far from the tree, huh?" Lily sassed.
"Oh dear, I do hope you're not referring to Misty there, are you?"
Shaking her head, Daisy elbowed her catty younger sister in the side. "Like, be nice, you," she scolded.
Brock, sensing the tension, decided to quickly move the introductions along. "Professor Cairn, this is Tracey Sketchit, our old friend and" – his teeth clenched – "Daisy's fiancé…"
"It's great to finally meet you, Professor," the pokémon watcher said, also extending his hand. "I've heard so much about you."
"And I you, Mr. Sketchit! What a shame it is that we haven't been acquainted until now. I must say, I'm quite eager to see these legendary sketches of yours."
As Tracey blushed and laughed awkwardly, Brock cleared his throat. "Actually, Professor, that's partly why we asked you here today."
He cocked his head. "Oh?"
"Ash's birthday is this Saturday," Tracey jumped in. Cairn gave an "ahh" in acknowledgement, but otherwise stayed silent to await what came next. "I've been working on something for him the whole time we've been staying here. There's still a ways to go yet, though."
"How kind of you," Cairn politely answered, albeit still curious as to what this had to do with him.
"And during my downtime, I decided to paint a little something for Misty too, because of all she's been through lately. I was– well, we were wondering if you'd like to see it before she and Ash get back from Mt. Silver."
The professor's face turned from confusion to utter joy in the space of a second.
"Really? Why, yes, of course, I'd be honoured!"
Daisy growled in excitement. "Argh, come on, come on, just lemme see it already!"
"Wait, have none of you seen it either?"
"Nope," Brock laughed, jabbing Tracey in the side, "this guy's been pretty darn secretive about the whole thing."
"Okay, okay," Tracey chuckled as he stepped towards an easel covered by a white sheet. "Here we go. Three, two, one…"
He carefully lifted off the sheet, and the gasps that filled the room were sonorous enough to wake up a slumbering snorlax. Its design was minimalist, no two delicate brushstrokes touching each other, but radiated with emotion, a wordless beauty that was enough to bring Daisy, Violet, Lily, and even Brock to tears. Against a calming wash of light blue were two sleek watercolour outlines of both Misty and Psyduck, holding hands and looking peacefully out to the west. Neither figure was detailed in any intricate way – all the lines were there without any of the 'filling' – yet the picture-perfect shapes and glow-like colouration around them made the message of the painting completely unmistakable.
It was hope. Hope that, someday soon, pokémon and master would reunite, reaffirming their timeless unspoken bond and looking to their bright future together as inseparable partners.
"My…god…" Brock sniffed, flicking the last stray tear from his eye.
"It's b-beautiful," Daisy whimpered a second later.
Cairn, meanwhile, was left stunned. Psyduck was not just a patient to him, and neither was Misty merely his client. The pair had made such an impression on the humble academic in the short time he had known them that he almost considered them family. He'd seen everything the chaos of the Cerulean gym incident had done to them, physically and emotionally, and in this canvas seemed to be embedded an immortal reminder of this tumultuous time. Being the chief individual responsible for nursing Psyduck back to health, the image should have piled on the pressure that much more. Instead, it flooded him with resolve. A picture was worth a thousand words, he recalled; rather convenient here, for he certainly had no words to give.
"What do you think, Professor?" prompted Tracey, a little unnerved by the man's silence.
As if waking up from a deep trance, Cairn opened his eyes wide and shook his head. "It's astounding!" he exclaimed. "Forgive me, I just got so lost in that mesmerising artwork. Did you really paint this, Tracey?"
"I did," he said bashfully. "Not my best work, but…"
"Not your best? My boy, this could be shown in an art gallery alongside the likes of the great Gan Gogh himself! I'm honestly in awe of the talent here in this room right now."
Tracey almost fell over from the shock of such a compliment. "Wow," he exhaled. "You really think so?"
"Absolutely. And I know something else too: Misty will be overjoyed to receive such a thoughtful gift from a true friend."
Warm smiles occupied the faces of everyone in the spacious top-floor apartment. Even Azurill, whose role in recent events had been limited to carefree napping on the penthouse's plumpest cushions, bounced gleefully atop his balled tail at the sight of such shared joy.
"Ooh!" Violet squealed. "Like, look how shiny it is! Here, do this."
Her pink-haired head veered from side to side on the spot, and, curious, the others gradually began to do the same. Indeed, the little shift in perspective brought forth a brilliant rainbow sheen from the surface of the painting, not unlike the shimmer of oil on a sunlit road.
"Hey, you're right!" Daisy observed. "How'd you do that, Tray Tray?"
The man in question smiled wide. "I tried something different with my watercolour technique," he explained proudly. "Instead of water, I used the leftover serum from Psyduck's tank. It had this amazing gleam to it, so I really couldn't resist once I saw it."
"No way! Like, where'd you come up with that idea, baby?"
"Oh, I can't take credit for that. It was Brock who brought the serum to me in the first place. Right, Brock?"
The doctor-in-training nodded. "The chemicals in the liquid killed off all the germs and contaminants, so it was totally safe to reuse. I thought that if Tracey could somehow use it to paint with, it would be a nice kind of tribute to all the effort everyone has put in to make things right again."
Cairn stepped closer to the painting, holding his glasses an inch away from his nose to get a better look.
"This is my serum?" he asked in amazement. "How remarkably unexpected. Perhaps I ought to rebrand it as a high-end varnish, eh?"
Everyone laughed until Lily jarringly leapt forward, her face lit up like a lampent in a dark room.
"AHHH IT'S SO SPARKLY, I WANNA TOUCH IT!"
Despite the volume of her statement, nobody seemed in any great rush to stop her. The impulsive girl brought up her hand and brushed it lightly across the silky surface of the painting. It was less than a second, though, before a violent shake rattled the entire apartment, and the canvas itself glowed the faintest blue colour, as if lit up from behind with a torch.
"Eeeeek!" Daisy squealed. "Earthquake!"
She squashed herself into Tracey's chest, almost causing him to fall backwards.
"Wh-What was that?" he said. "What just happened?"
Having not noticed the painting's luminescence, Brock looked down from the window at the plaza below.
"Nobody's panicking or anything," he murmured. "It's like they didn't even feel it down there."
He turned to Cairn. "Do you have any ideas, Professor?"
Unbeknownst to anyone but the man himself, Cairn's pager had received a message at what seemed like the exact same moment. Scanning it, his expression turned from mild concern to complete seriousness.
"Psyduck's vitals just spiked," he spoke worriedly. "I've never seen this before. I must go and check on him."
"Psyduck?" Brock repeated. "Is he alright?"
"I'm afraid I can't say, Brock. Thank you for inviting me, everyone – please, excuse me."
Before help could be offered, Cairn scuttled across the room, out the door, and stumbled into the elevator in the hallway.
"Man, I totally feel him," Violet commented casually. "I, like, hate it when I leave the shower on too."
Ignoring her, the room turned its attention to Lily, who was next to speak.
"I don't get it," she shrugged. "All I did was this!"
She brushed across the painting again, and everything that had happened just moments ago – the shaking of the apartment, the glow of the painting, and the bewilderment of everyone witness to it – played out in equal fashion a second time. Daisy, both scared and irritated, rushed forward and swatted her sister's arm away from the canvas.
"Maybe, like, don't do that then, stupid."
It was evening now, 8:24 to be precise, and, amazingly, Ash and Misty had made it at least three-quarters of the way up to Mt. Silver's summit. What was supposed to be a day of training had largely turned into an extended hike with intermittent snowball fights every hour or so. At least it had proven to be a great bonding exercise, which, to Ash, was almost just as important.
The group had decided to stop at a small ruined settlement of sorts built right into the mountainside. Probably an old outpost from the time of the Johtonian wars, Misty thought. Whatever it was, it was a great spot to finally get some real battling in.
She spied her friend standing at the end of a long stone platform overlooking the whole of Kanto and Johto. His jacket was billowing backwards in the crisp mountain breeze, and against the setting sun his bright blue clothes seemed to take on a slightly reddish colour. Far be it from Misty to call Ash 'cool', but she had to admit that it made for quite a striking image.
"Hey," she said when only a few feet away from him. Her only answer was the whistle of the wind.
"…"
"Hey, Ash," she tried again. Still, his back remained turned.
"…"
Not appreciating the drama of this moment, Misty closed the distance and tapped him roughly on the shoulder. A second later…
"RAAARRGH!"
"AHHH!" she yelped, falling back into a pile of snow. Ash lowered his 'scary hands' pose and immediately fell about in a fit of laughter.
"Oh maaaaaan, you shoulda seen your face!" he guffawed.
"Pika Pikaa-chu!" Pikachu joined in.
Misty shook the white coldness from her hair, leaping to her feet and staring her friend down with a red chill staining her cheeks.
"Hey!" she half-gasped, half-shouted. "You scare me like that one more time, Ash Ketchum, and I'll be using your face as a snowboard on the way back down!" Unsurprisingly, this remark did not deter him.
"Ahh, so I did scare you!" he goaded.
"That's…that's not what I meant! You just, er…shut up!"
Her foot dug hard into the ground in front of her, kicking up a layer of snow that mostly collected atop the brim of Ash's hat.
"That's how you wanna play, huh?" he laughed as he mirrored the girl's actions exactly.
"Ahhck! N-Nooo!" she spluttered. "We shouldn't be playing at all! Aren't we supposed to be up here to train?"
He nodded, though not entirely seriously. "Sure we are, Mist. But I thought you of all people should know…" – he stood a step back – "you don't start what you can't finish!"
The unprepared girl could let out nary a breath before being tackled straight off the platform and down into the soft snow beside it. Were it any deeper, she may have vanished from sight altogether; as it was, her face remained above the surface, and all she could see before her, encircled in a coincidental white frame, was Ash's sniggering face only inches away. In that moment, she forgot she was supposed to be angry, and it was purely thanks to her snowy sarcophagus that a hot flush hadn't overwhelmed her within the second. Her only option, it seemed, was to laugh along with him.
"You jerk," she giggled, throwing the snow she scraped off her clothes into his face. "Even by your own standards, you're in one hell of an annoying mood."
Ash scratched behind his head, then looked out into the distance. "Last time we were here, I thought we were going to travel together forever. I" – he blushed – "guess it's just nice to have a little of that feeling back."
Her smile replaced by the thumping of her heart, Misty moved to within a step from her friend. She rested her hand on his forearm and turned him around to face her slowly.
"Me too, Ash," she almost whispered. "You don't know how much I've missed this."
"Ayyrgh?" squawked Staraptor behind them. Ash and Misty both swivelled outwards, staring out across the Johto side of the landscape in search of the noise.
"What is it, buddy?" Ash called out. A squeeze of his arm came in place of a direct response.
"Ash…do you see that?"
Whatever it was, this distant tiny circle of grey that had Misty and the pokémon so enraptured, was certainly not there the last time Ash had looked.
"A pokémon?" he thought instinctively.
"I don't think so," she muttered back. "It looks metal."
"A plane?"
"Too small. Way too small. Although," her voice slowed, "is it just me, or does it look like it's getting…closer?"
For the next few seconds, all they did was watch. It was, indeed, hard to tell in the white fog surrounding the mountain, but even Ash had begun to notice the shape growing in size as it approached. Not only that, but was there smoke coming out from behind it? In an untypical shortness of time, the situation clicked.
"GET DOWN!"
The missile slammed into the mountainside, shearing through the snow and sending up a tidal wave of white precipitation in the following explosion. Ash and Misty, flat on the ground underneath the stone structure, clutched their wringing ears as they looked around in alarm.
"Eeeeek!" Misty cried out through the heavy snowfall. "Where did that come from?!"
"I d-don't know," Ash coughed back. "Are you oka- Charizard, NO!"
Before their eyes came another identical missile, visible through the fog only from within a mere few feet away. A burst of flame from their left brought forth a violent orange explosion as it made contact with the projectile, and a streamlined pair of wings could be seen flapping away through the centre.
"Come back, Charizard!" he pleaded. "There's something out there; it's not safe!"
The distant sky was lit up by orange-red lines, each one in a different place as Charizard swooped around in search of their attackers.
"Wait," Misty gasped. "I hear something. Does that sound like a helicopter to you?"
Another explosion coincided with the sound of a pained roar and a high-speed smack on the snow not far from her. As Ash darted forward in the direction of his downed pokémon, the sight that appeared in front of Misty gave her all the answer she needed.
"Team Rocket!" she bellowed in disgust. "Wait, who are you?"
"Expecting a motto?" the silver-haired woman in the driver's seat deadpanned. "Atilla, fire again."
The musclebound blond man next to her hoisted an RPG up on his shoulder and took aim.
"YAAAH!" Misty screamed, rolling down the hill on her right just before the missile made impact. Her head then swivelled around in panic. "Ash! Ash, it's Team Rocket! Where are you?!"
"Mistyyyy!" came a muffled shout from the snow-capped hillock above her. She fumbled her way along the wall until the outline of her friend was finally in her sights.
"Wait, there's TWO of them?!" Atilla grunted.
"Don't you ever read the mission briefing?" his sombre teammate sighed.
"You know them things send me to sleep, Hun. Jeez, why's it always damn kids interfering in Team Rocket's plans?"
"Charizard's hurt real bad," Ash murmured. His voice was pebbled with worry. "Please, Charizard, please return."
As Misty watched the red light from Ash's pokéball shrugged violently off by the wounded fire-type, her mind went racing back to what had happened with Gyarados back at the gym. Their two pokémon were very much alike in a lot of ways – stubborn, volatile, maybe even a little prideful – but when it came to protecting their trainers, not even the gravest of injuries would stop them from fighting until the bitter end.
"What do you want with us?" she barked over to the small attack aircraft.
"Ooh…yeeeeah, you're not gonna like this bit," Atilla whistled through his teeth. "Let's just say the snow'll take care of ya when we're through here, eh?"
"Toto-dile!" rasped Totodile, leaping in front of Ash, Misty, and Charizard.
"Enough of this," Hun said softly. "Kill them all."
The 'R' emblem on the front of the helicopter crackled with light as two machine guns began to splatter the snow in quick-moving lines up towards their targets.
"Totodile, get out of the way!" yelled Ash.
"Diiiile?!"
The gunfire was now a stone's throw away. Totodile held his breath, but stood his ground. At the very last moment, his eyes flickered shut. At least this fate he'd chosen would give his trainers a chance to escape…
"Krooooooook!"
Krookodile slammed down on the snow in front of Totodile, causing the latter to bounce upwards from the force. He opened his eyes to see a small nod from over the elder croc's shoulder, then watched as a volley of sharp stones flew swiftly at the helicopter's cockpit.
"Whoooaa!" Atilla stammered as the vehicle was knocked roughly to the right.
"Ash, we have to run, now!" Misty ordered.
"I can't leave Charizard here!" he countered.
"There's no time! Come on!"
"NO! You go, Misty. I need to stay with him!"
"Readjusting course now," Hun droned. "Keep firing, Atilla."
"Arrgh!" Misty growled. The guns would be on them again in seconds. "Wait! Staraptor, Glalie, grab Charizard and carry him along with us! Quickly!"
The two pokémon hovering nearby did as instructed, hoisting the semi-conscious dragon into the air and floating back upwards.
"Now, Ash, let's go!"
He nodded, leaping to his feet. "There's no way we'll be able to run in this snow. Krookodile, one more Stone Edge, go!"
Krookodile, upon seeing his trainer's pointing finger, created another storm of rocks in orbiting halos around his body. With a thrust of his arms, they shot forwards and dug themselves firmly into the snow-covered ground like a makeshift cobbled path.
"Over here, Misty!" Ash called, taking her wrist and leading her up the Stone Edge staircase. To save them from the incoming bullet barrage, he turned back for but a second and returned Totodile and Krookodile to their pokéballs.
"Grr, stay still, you little punks!" Atilla grumbled. Several more missiles spewed out of his weapon, eating through the hard stones with ease.
"Where are we going?!" Misty panted. "We're on a mountain; there's nowhere to hide here!"
Furiously running and equally out of breath, Ash had only his gut instinct to guide him in this moment. Pikachu, though initially firing electricity back at the Team Rocket chopper, was now scampering alongside his trainer with complete urgency.
"Pi?" He stopped to sniff the air around him. "Pikapi! Pikaaaa!"
"H-Huh?"
Pikachu jumped upwards into a front flip, at the zenith of which an Electro Ball fizzed out of his tail and burst upon a nearby rock. For the briefest of spells, the fog around the area completely dissipated.
"Misty, look!" Ash cried. "There's a cave up there! Come on!"
The Stone Edge cobbles had come to an end, but in no way did that stop the pair from clambering manically up towards their cover.
"I'm warning you, Atilla," snarled Hun, "if you let them escape…"
"Relax, Hun, I got this," he waved off. Squinting into the scope of the RPG, the man grinned a toothy grin of pure malice. "So long, brats."
The rocket made direct contact with the mouth of the cave just as Ash, Misty, and their pokémon had crossed over the threshold. The explosion caused the rockface to crumble instantly, and the piles of snow it had held up came spilling relentlessly over the opening.
"Aaaaaah!" Misty whimpered in the growing darkness of the cave. "What's happening?!"
Snow continued to fall for minutes after, gushing down the mountainside like blood from an open wound. When it finally stopped, the surface shone bright and smooth as though it had never moved at all, and all trace of a cave having ever existed there had utterly disappeared.
A cold, cold silence fell across the silver mountain.
"…"
"…"
"…Are they gone?"
"I…I don't know. Can you hear anything, Pikachu?"
"Chuuu…"
"Maybe they left. We should get out of here."
"Wait!"
Misty grabbed her best friend's arm just as he moved to stand up and run. The avalanche had completely sealed the entrance to the cave, leaving them with only Charizard's sputtering tail as a source of light, and every line of anxiety on Ash's typically childish face stood out against the dancing flame.
"How do we know it's safe?" she whispered up to him. "If we leave now and they're still out there waiting for us, we won't stand a chance."
"Well what do you suggest we do? Just sit cowering here in this freezing cave all night?"
The redhead looked over at the thick snow wall penning them in and sighed. "We may have to…"
"Booyah!" cheered Atilla with a boastful fist-pump. "Two pidgey with one stone! Did you see that?"
Hun frowned. "Don't celebrate prematurely. We need to be absolutely sure before we report back to HQ."
"Ah, lighten up, Hun! Here, lemme have a look at that scanner doohickie of yours…" His square jaw leaned over towards a console on his partner's side of the cockpit. "HA! See? No life signs anywhere in that direction! Boy, I am getting a promotion for this."
"The scanner has been malfunctioning ever since we ascended to this altitude," she plainly replied. "Our technology will be no good here."
Atilla's face scrunched in disgust. "Goddammit, you don't mean we gotta…"
"Yes, Atilla. We wait."
"…Oh, goodie…"
"Besides," said Misty as Ash settled back down beside her, "we can't hope to travel with Charizard like this. Not until he agrees to go back into his pokéball."
Ash sighed with internal pain. "Ugghh. I…guess you're right." He knelt down beside his wounded old friend. "Ch-Charizard, I'm so sorry."
The orange dragon was lying flat on his stomach, his arms tucked underneath him and wings flopping limply down at either side. Despite not having broken the skin, the blast from the missile continued to sting his body all over, causing him to twitch and shiver every now and then. And although his eyelids grew heavier by the second, every ounce of his remaining strength was being put to use keeping his burning tail aloft. Until his human friends were safe from harm, Charizard would refuse to see the inside of his pokéball.
"He's freezing," Ash flinched when he laid his hand on the pokémon's scaled back. "Misty, Pikachu, help me keep him warm."
Side by side, the three of them crouched around Charizard and began to vigorously rub along his skin with their hands, making sure to generate as much heat as possible across as wide an area as they could reach.
"Why you gotta…be so st-stubborn, huuh?" the pokémon trainer panted downwards. "I wouldn't have…wanted you to s-save us if it…meant you'd get hurt like this…"
"Ash, calm down," Misty reassured him. "You're gonna be okay, Charizard; we'll make sure of it. We owe you our lives."
After what seemed like a lifetime, a slight swelling of the Flame Pokémon's tail fire signalled to Ash, Misty, and Pikachu that their efforts had paid off. Charizard had stopped shivering, and although there was still immense pain in his neck, his head clumsily turned to face his rescuers, both respect and gratitude shining in his eyes.
Ash and Misty, breathing relieved sighs of white vapour, fell back against the wall of the cave, their hands raw and scratched from caressing all those tough scales.
"Of all the places to get déjà vu," Misty remarked, still a little out of breath.
"Huh?" Ash wheezed back at her.
"This, right here. Don't you think?"
"No, I meant what does 'déjà whatever' mean?"
She sighed in a woefully familiar fashion. "This situation – helping Charizard keep warm – it's just like that time in the Orange Islands."
A jarring rustle came from her left side. "You mean when he got frozen by that poliwrath and we had to thaw him out?" He paused. "Yeah. Yeah, I guess it is."
"We were all so worried about him," Misty recalled, "but you know, if none of that had happened, Charizard might never have learned to respect you and me the way he does. He wouldn't have flown in front of that missile for us just now, and we'd probably be-"
"I know," Ash smiled. "I can't even imagine my life without my pokémon looking out for me. It'd sure be a lot shorter for one thing, hehe."
Misty's hand patted along the icy wall behind her until it reached her friend's shoulder. "At least his condition isn't as bad as it was back then."
She felt him nodding by the movement of his neck muscles, and a short silence rang out for almost a minute after. Not a trace of outside noise permeated their cavernous hideaway; were it not for the cold and the potential danger, she'd never have known tranquillity quite like it. Especially with Ash Ketchum right there at her side.
"Speaking of de– er, degaa– whatever you just said," the boy in question chimed in, "I've just thought of something from even longer ago."
Her head turned, although he was but a hatted outline. "Oh?"
"It was the first year of my journey. Pikachu and I got separated from you and Brock because of a snowstorm, and we had to spend all night in a cave we dug in the mountain. Remember?"
"…Oh yeah, I remember that," Misty said after a second of thought. "You've never really spoken about that before. Wait, this is what it was like?"
"Pretty much. I mean, Charizard was only a charmander back then, but other than that, this is a total case of, um, Dijon Mew, was it?"
If not for the need to stay relatively quiet, Misty would have burst out laughing. "Day-jah vuh-oo," she spelled out for him. "At least master one language before you tackle another, dummy." As the giggling died down, she quickly turned serious again. "But anyway…how did you manage to get through the night last time?"
"I wanted Pikachu to go in his pokéball, but he refused." Beside him, Pikachu gave a little shiver of disgust. "Then, all my other pokémon came out to be with me, and we huddled together for warmth till morning."
That last notion caused Misty to blush strongly; at last, a reason to be grateful for the darkness they were in. "Oh," she murmured to herself. "Well, er, don't get any ideas here, Ketchum, you hear me?"
"Wha…?"
"Ugh. Never mind."
Outside, Atilla yawned as melodramatic a yawn as he could muster.
"Booooooooooored," he groaned, while his teammate shook her head indignantly. "Hun, we've been here for nearly an hour. Look at the dial there – we're almost out of fuel! Can we go now?"
"Atilla, you know what will happen if this mission is a failure," she sighed without looking around. "Our CO was very specific about wanting them dead."
"I know, I know! But come on; what're the chances those two pipsqueaks survived that avalanche? And even if they did, they'll never find their way back down in this blizzard."
Hun's silence was a telltale sign to the boorish man that his words were starting to get through to her.
"So, are we going already or what? My lips are cracking from this damn cold."
Another minute of quiet passed, and Atilla sank back in his chair, rolling his eyes. As he did so, the helicopter banked abruptly to the right, causing him to bang his head on the window.
"Oww!"
"Stop your whining," Hun tutted at him. "I'm giving you what you want here."
His eyes lit up. "You mean we're leaving?"
"Yes. I will write a report detailing that although no bodies could be recovered, targets Alpha and Beta were unquestionably eliminated in the avalanche on Mt. Silver."
Taking one hand off the joystick, she grabbed her partner roughly by the collar. "I'm warning you, though; if they survive, and S finds out we didn't carry out our orders," – she creaked forward in her chair – "on your head be it."
Misty covered her face to shield it from a sudden updraught of frigid air.
"Ayyyee," she winced. "I wish that wouldn't keep happening. Okay, Ash, I admit it, I should've worn longer pants for this trip. Happy now?"
When no answer came, she crouched forward. "Ash?"
The pokémon trainer was looking intently at Charizard, whose eyelids were drooping lower by the second.
"I think he's falling asleep," he whispered over. "D'you think now's our chance to return him?"
Misty approached the flame so that both she and Ash could see each other clearly. "Return him?"
"Yeah. I don't think he'll let us if he wakes up again."
"But…but what about the heat? And the light! What will we do when those things are gone?"
"Misty, he's hurt bad. If we don't return him now, he'll be far worse off than we are."
"I…"
His plea made sense, of course, but without Charizard's tail, their one source of heat in this frozen cave, there'd be no telling how long they would last. Even so…
"Okay."
Ash held up the pokéball, and for a brief second, the cave was lit up by the pulse of red that swallowed the injured Charizard back into his mobile home.
"Brrrrrrzhhhh," Misty stuttered with chattering teeth. The change in temperature was instantaneous.
"That's it, Charizard, you take a long rest," Ash smiled down at the sphere in his hands. Only when the spitting sound of the fire had vanished did he then pick up on his friend's predicament.
"Are you cold?" he asked into the darkness. Misty glared in his general direction.
"You think?!"
He followed her voice and sat back down against the wall. "Here."
"Eeek!" she flinched as something unfamiliar touched her skin. Upon identifying the familiar smell of Ash's jacket, however, her burning red face was practically enough to warm her up by itself.
"I don't feel the cold much anyway," he said.
Snapping out of it, Misty roughly patted the ground beside her. "Don't be so stupid," she grumbled as she stretched half of the jacket around his and Pikachu's shoulders. "I'm not gonna let you freeze to death just because you choose now of all times to act chivalrous."
"Chiv-whatty-ous?"
"Forget it."
There was not much conversation after that. They could hardly talk about their surroundings, after all, and Misty thought it best to conserve her energy should they actually be stuck in here all night. But as far as Ash Ketchum was concerned, a moment spent in silence was a moment wasted, and he, for one, would never run out of things to say.
"Misty?"
In such close proximity to him, Misty felt the vibration of his voice all down her right arm. If she weren't shivering already, that would definitely have done the job.
"Yeah?" she softly responded.
"What was in that picture frame by your bed in the gym?"
This was a curveball if she'd ever heard one. "What? What has that got to do with…"
"I'm just wondering, is all. I saw it the day I came to visit."
"Oh, so you were snooping around in my room."
"Only a little!"
Shaking her head, Misty took in a shaky breath. "Well, um, it was a picture of you and me – just you and me – at–"
"Ugh, let me guess," Ash moaned, "Maiden's Peak?"
"N-No!" she immediately rebutted. Good lord, the teasing they had both endured ever since that one childhood dance had seriously scarred them – despite it secretly being one of Misty's most treasured memories. "It was, uhh…"
"Yeah?"
Another sharp inhale. "It was a picture of you and me on the St. Anne, just a few months after we first met. You'd just traded Butterfree for a raticate, and Brock took our photo while we were looking over the side."
"Huh, I remember that," Ash said. "What's so special about that day, though?"
"Well, we fought a lot more then, you know," she grinned. "You used to irritate the hell out of me. But that day…that exact moment…that was the first time I really felt like we were friends."
His breath caught in his throat. "I…really?"
She nodded, despite knowing he couldn't see her. "Yeah. And even though you still irritate the crap out of me, Mr. Pokémon Master," – her hand found his on the ice floor – "I wouldn't change a thing."
The single pokéball on Misty's belt suddenly began to quiver. It went unnoticed at first, but just as she reached to her side, the capsule burst open, spewing out an emerging heart shape of white energy.
"Luuuv!" the shape cried as the white gave way to bright pink.
"Caserin?" Misty gasped. "What are you doing? It's cold here, get back in your pokéball before–"
Like Ash seconds earlier, the wind in her lungs vented in full that very moment. Before their eyes was the most dazzling, moving, and simply magical display of light they had ever seen. Their faces were reflected in the shine of Caserin's radiant body, and the nearest walls of the cave were illuminated brilliantly with a wash of pinkish hues.
"Pikaaa," mouthed Pikachu in awe.
"Caserin…" seconded Misty. "What's…what are you…?"
As she tried to answer, the Heart Shape Pokémon floated serenely towards she and Ash, stopping only when he had buried himself neatly across their laps.
"Wow…he's so warm," Ash said. "This is amazing…"
Gradually, things began to make sense to Caserin's trainer – and tears instantly pooled in her eyes. "Caserin," she sniffed, "are you doing this…for us?"
"Luv-disc," he nodded.
Without thinking, she snuggled as tightly as she could around her beloved little ludvisc, her body pressing against Ash's in the process. The warmth that they both provided gave her shivers for a vastly different reason, and suddenly, it mattered little to her that Team Rocket may still be lying in wait for them outside. Right now, in a snowed-in cave miles above the ground, holding her glowing heart between her and the one she loved most in this entire world – there truly was no greater feeling. To her, this position had made the whole trip that much more worthwhile, danger included, for it reminded her of something the years apart had almost stolen from her memory: when Ash was around, even the worst of times had a silver lining. They didn't call it Mt. Silver for nothing, after all.
"Thank you, Caserin," Misty whimpered, the blue-green of her eyes shimmering like stained glass. "Thank you."
