Chapter 3

Rescuing a Famous Explorer

A few days after the exhilarating exploration up Sky Peak, both Team Go-Getters and Team Poképals had made it to the Super Rank, which was one rank higher than the Diamond Rank from completing jobs after the exploration. Today, with Team Go-Getters already departed for their usual job-taking duties, Leon and Blaze of Team Poképals met up with a mr. mime who told them about the tale of a famous explorer named Scizor. He was an extraordinary explorer whose fame stretched across the entire pokémon world, and had a reputation that all other explorers aspired toward. However, he went missing while exploring Blizzard Island, which was located far to the southwest from Treasure Town. Many exploration teams had set out to rescue Scizor, but due to the bitter cold and frequent blizzards, no one had been able to rescue him so far. From what Mr. Mime told Leon and Blaze about all of this, it was a tale that originated several years ago, and that there were rumors that Scizor was searching for an amazing treasure within the cold island itself. The mime pokémon then encouraged the very skillful Team Poképals to rescue the great explorer once and for all, since the climate at Blizzard Island had improved, and that meant that the possibility of that elusive rescue had arrived at last. Leon and Blaze agreed to this, and they made their way to the island.

Upon arriving at Blizzard Island, Blaze had felt a chill around his body, while his piplup friend Leon felt like it was home to him, since he was a penguin pokémon. They turned to each other for a conversation.

"B-b-b-boy, Leon!" Blaze began as he shook from the cold. "It sure is cold around here! Luckily for you though, you don't seem to be affected one bit by the chill!"

The piplup had a little laugh before he spoke.

"It feels like home to me here! Don't worry though, Blaze! We won't consider moving here at all. I love our new home at Sharpedo Bluff so much, that it's the only place we'll think of staying at for a long time!"

"T-t-thanks for saying that, pal. Now let's go rescue Scizor as quickly as we can before this cold gets the best of me!"

They went ahead into the dungeon of Blizzard Island.

The dungeon of the snowy island had twenty floors of mostly ice-type pokémon, mixed in with water and normal types. The ice-types were no problem for Blaze, since his fire-type moves would prove super effective in knocking them down for the count. He and Leon however would still need to be on their guard to get through this snowy dungeon.

When they successfully got through Blizzard Island's main dungeon, they ran into a crevice that cut through a giant wall of ice. Realizing that this was the entrance to another dungeon, they decided to restock their item supply at a nearby Kangaskhan Rock before they went in.

The other dungeon of Blizzard Island, aptly named the Crevice Cave, had around fifteen more floors of ice, water, and normal-type pokémon. Team Poképals once again followed the same strategy they had from the previous dungeon to conquer this one.

When Leon and Blaze got deep within Crevice Cave, they saw a pokémon encased in ice. It was red in color, had wings on its back, and two claws to attack other pokémon in battle. Based from what it looked like, it was assumed to be a bug-type pokémon.

"Hey! That must be Scizor over there!" exclaimed Leon. "He must be that great explorer which Mr. Mime talked about!"

"Let's get closer so we can get him out of his icy prison!" replied Blaze.

The two tried to get closer to him, but a gust of wind, along with the falling snow, suddenly stopped them in their tracks. A mysterious feminine voice also laughed in the area, as she spoke.

"Visitors...what a rare sight for me."

More snow, albeit now at a rapid rate, fell down, blinding Team Poképals. After a few seconds, it stopped, allowing Leon and Blaze to open their eyes to see another pokémon in front of the frozen Scizor. It was floating in the air, and had a mostly snowy-white body, indicating that it was an ice-type. They stepped back in alarm from the pokémon as it greeted itself.

"Welcome to the both of you. I am Froslass, and I play host to the infrequent visitors to this frozen hinterland! It must have been awfully exhausting for you to fight those blizzards..."

"Not for me, at least!" insisted Leon.

"I can't say the same, though!" said Blaze.

"Well then, little chimchar...come closer to me," replied Froslass. "You must be chilled almost down to the bone..."

"Don't listen to her, Blaze!" warned Leon, as he grabbed the chimchar back to him. "She's trying to trick you!"

Blaze listened to his piplup buddy, as he stayed put.

"I see, then..." Froslass said. She got into her battle stance before she continued talking. "I'll have to do this the hard way. Prepare yourselves to be frozen solid from head to feet!"

"Not today!" Team Poképals replied, as they also got into their stances.

The battle to save Scizor from the clutches of Froslass had begun!

Since it was only a two-versus-one affair with the ice-type boss, Leon and Blaze used their pure battle instincts to bring her down. The chimchar utilized his fire-type moves carefully to weaken Froslass considerably so that he and Leon could defeat her without any problem.

A few moments later, Froslass had collapsed onto the ground, as Team Poképals had won the battle. Leon and Blaze turned to each other to celebrate.

"That's another victory for the great Team Poképals!" Blaze said.

"Awesome!" replied Leon.

They jumped up in the air while they did a high-five. Once they landed, they turned to Froslass, who got up slowly while groaning in pain.

"Impressive, young pokémon..." she said. "You have got your reward. Remember that I will not go easy on you the next time we meet..."

She had a laugh while a wave of falling snow blinded the area. Once it cleared, Froslass was gone from Team Poképals' sight. The ice that kept Scizor frozen, meanwhile, broke apart, and he and his body moved once more. He shook off the cold and looked around to realize where he was.

"Ah, yes. I recall now," he began. "I had been exploring Blizzard Island here before I was set upon by that beastly Froslass..." He turned to Leon and Blaze. "Oh! Both of you must've come to rescue me, right?"

"That's right!" they said.

"Please forgive me for not introducing myself. My name is Scizor, and I am an explorer." He noticed that Blaze was shaking from the cold. "Well, fellow piplup...your poor chimchar friend here seems to be terribly cold. Let's leave this island at once so I can explain myself further."

"Yeah, let's get goin'!" Leon replied.

"I c-c-couldn't agree more!" Blaze happily said.

The three pokémon got close to each other to teleport out of Crevice Cave.

When Team Poképals and Scizor all got back near Treasure Town, Team Go-Getters also joined up with them to listen in to their conversation.

"I am sincerely grateful for your coming to my rescue," Scizor said to Leon and a now warm Blaze. "If both of you hadn't come along, I very well could've remained encased in ice forever. However, little did I expect to see that decades have passed since my icebound predicament. It was as if I had traveled to an entirely different world. Incidentally, I would like to somehow repay you for saving my life."

The pincer pokémon sweat-dropped, realizing that he was short on money.

"However, I find myself alone in an alien world, and without a single poké to my name. I have no other idea on how to possibly repay you..."

"Hey, it's fine!" insisted Leon. "You don't need to thank us any more."

Scizor decided to search his pockets, and felt that he found something.

"Wait! I do have something here after all!" He turned to Team Go-Getters. "Will the three of you get close to us, please?"

Ian, Charmander, and Chikorita joined the group.

"All of you are exploration teams, right?" questioned Scizor.

"Yeah!" all the members of the two teams cheered.

"I see! Now, although you may find this truth to be unlikely, I was once an explorer of some repute. I'll now let you know that I am an honorary member of the Pokémon Exploration Team Federation!"

Team Poképals and Team Go-Getters could only sweat-drop in response, having no idea what it meant.

"An honorary..." Leon began.

"...Member?" finished Ian.

"Correct!" insisted Scizor. "An honorary member, such as myself, has the right to give special status to exemplary exploration teams. Both of you teams fit that category!" He turned to Team Go-Getters. "For you three, I heard that all of you have once saved the world from disaster once as well."

"That's true!" they said.

Scizor then turned to Team Poképals.

"As for you two, your incredible courage during my rescue proves that you are more than exemplary!"

He focused his attention on the entire crowd.

"For all of your efforts, I confer upon you...the Secret Rank!"

The two teams drew confused looks, having no slight idea of the newly discovered hidden rank.

"It's a rank that makes exploration teams eligible to take on special missions that were normally inaccessible without that Secret Rank. Those special missions are highly confidential jobs that come straight from the Exploration Team Federation itself."

"Highly confidential?" wondered Blaze. "I don't get it..."

"You may not know now," Scizor replied, "but it will become clear in due time. I'll need to make a note of your new rank on your Explorer Badges."

He put a star on each member's Explorer Badge to officially activate their teams' Secret Rank.

"I still don't know what this is about, but thanks, anyway," said a still confused Leon.

"It's the least that I could do," insisted Scizor. "I will never forget your valor and kindness that all of you have shown to me! I must now be on my way. Until then, farewell!"

He turned to his left to make his way out of the town completely, as everybody watched him leave. They sweat-dropped again, as they still had no idea what their newly acquired Secret Rank meant, despite Scizor trying his best to explain it to them.

"Okay then..." Leon said after a while.

"Hopefully we'll get what he said later on," Ian replied. "For now, let's go home and get some rest."

Everyone agreed and they went to Sharpedo Bluff to turn in for today.