Push The World Away
"Alone in the cave atop Mt. Silver; on top of the world, Red watched the snow fall heavily outside. Isolated from everyone, and everything, to him, it was how he pushed the world away."
Can you name all the attacks used in this chapter?
Man, I am terrible at writing intense battles.
Neverending Winter: Red
There was no calendar, no clock, nothing to tell time on Mt. Silver. Days simply went by with the rise and fall of the sun. Red liked it that way; there was no one to tell him when to wake up in the morning, and when to go to bed. No one to tell him anything, really, but it was okay.
The crackling of the fire in front of him was the only source of light, warmth and sound in the cave, the flame watched carefully by Charizard in case it were to burn out. Pikachu curled up by the orange dragon, sleeping.
Alone in the cave atop Mt. Silver; on top of the world, Red watched the snow fall heavily outside. Isolated from everyone, and everything, it was how he pushed the world away. Around him was an eerily peaceful solitude; a world of neverending winter.
It had been three years since he had last been in the city; last talked to anyone. He had originally told Lance he would only be gone for a couple of days to train, but as he climbed higher and higher up the mountain, he became more and more used to the new world he had found. So much so that by the time he had reached the top, he had just settled down there. And so the days turned into weeks; into months; into years.
He remembered the day he had first stepped foot onto the snow, the crunch of ice under the foot of his first step had surprised him. His pokemon had used blizzard before, but it usually melted away instantly after a battle. It was his first time seeing so much ice and fresh snow around him, he almost forgot the cold. But the chill caught up to him soon, and so he slipped into the cave he would from then call his "home".
At the summit, it would snow occasionally, usually just light flakes of snow, drifting gently down from the heavens. However, when it snowed too hard, like days like today, Red would stay hidden inside the cave until the storm died down, which would range from mere hours to days.
He did a mental check of his provisions; the long-lasting storm had caused him to use up much of his firewood, they would need to collect more soon. His food supply should last him for another couple of days, but he should get on that, too. The bad storms as of late had kept trainers from scaling too high up the mountain and finding him, so his potions stock had been untouched.
Crimson eyes shifted from the white blur of falling snow outside to the orange glow of the fire. He recalled again the times in which he was traveling to become a trainer and was unable to find a place to stay. He'd camp outside in the wilderness with his pokemon, spending the nights under the dark sky, watching the stars on the velvet canvas sparkle as he slowly drifted to sleep. And in the chill of dawn, he would wake and continue his journey.
But the journey was now over, and he had found a place he could stay in peace. There were no other people on the mountain, and if there were, they weren't there for long; usually turning back to heal or giving up before they were anywhere near the top. He didn't need to talk to anyone, or listen to anyone. The expectations of him to do his duties as the champion had long disappeared with him. Up here, he realized, he could finally be himself.
Red was sure that if he were to leave the mountain now, no one would recognize him anyway. He had debated it within himself a couple times, but every time had decided against returning to the lower world he had come from. He had hated the stares of admiration and idolisation of everyone he had walked past from back then, simply because he was the champion. And while he wasn't exactly sure how long he had been here for, he was sure that it was long enough to not only change him, but the world he had left for this peaceful place. But anyway, he didn't want to return to the world of shallow ideals and expectations.
The sky had begun to fade from its grayish white to black. Red glanced outside again, noting that the sun had begun to set, and the snowfall had begun to lighten up. Being stuck in the cave all day, the teen slowly pushed himself up to his feet and, using a hand to balance himself in case he were to fall, made his way towards the mouth, out into the snow.
The air was chilly but crisp as he took in a deep breath into the wintery sky. His breath, exhaling in a puff of white, dispersed quickly with the wind, which swirled the snow into a mesmerising dance throughout the mountain. Pikachu hopped out of the cave, into the snow from behind him, disappearing almost instantly as he took a couple of steps onto the white terrain.
Red sat down again at the mouth of the cave, deep enough to be still protected by the stone walls, yet still able to glance up into the dark sky. The contrast of the white of the snow and black of the sky never ceased to calm him, and every so often, a whisper of cold would land on his face, melting into droplets of water which rolled off his face. He shuffled around until he was lying on his back, feet facing the inside of the cave, eyes not once looking away from the sky.
He shivered slightly as a puff of wind strayed from the rest and whirled into the cave. Pikachu's ears popped up from under the snow as he wiggled free from the white and toward his trainer's side. Red absentmindedly placed a hand on his friend, which snuggled under the warmth with a content "chu".
He closed his eyes slowly and he began recalling hazy memories of his time spent in the world he had left. The calm, gentle smiles of his mother who had been so proud of her son, the smiles on the professor's face as he was declared the new champion. The understanding nods from Lance when he had told him he was leaving. He remembered most of all, the pained look in his eyes as he tried to keep the teen from leaving him; the sound of his usually sultry yet arrogant voice cracking as he asked him to think it over again, hoping to change his mind. Red remembered that he had pulled down the cap to shield his eyes, turned his head and walked away, feigning indifference, hoping that he wouldn't notice that his own vision had grown blurry; and deep inside, his own heart was breaking as well. It wasn't going to work out, anyway. He just wanted to push the world away, and if it meant his loved ones as well, so be it.
He recalled his more talkative and energetic self that was his youth, chasing after his pokemon in the field of Route 1, laughing and smiling as they rolled around in the grass. He wondered, what had happened to that child then, and where was that child in him now? The silent, indifferent present had overtaken the past. But at the moment, he wouldn't have it any other way.
Were people still expecting him to return? Lance had most likely taken permanent position as the champion of the Elite Four by now. The professor must have moved on, and his mother... oh. his mother. Was she still waiting for him to come home?
And what about him? Questions flooded his mind.
Was he still worrying over him, thinking of him every day? And how was he faring? Had he become comfortable being the leader of the Viridian Gym yet? Was he overworking the trainers? Red smiled to himself; knowing that he was tough on everyone, not just on his pokemon and on himself. And had anyone defeated him yet? He laughed quietly at the thought; no, no one would be able to defeat him. The Viridian Gym was the toughest gym in all of Johto and Kanto; it took even himself a while to get to that eighth gym.
Crimson irises slowly reappeared and glanced up at the sky. It was pitch black now, with gray-white spots appearing only as the snow was close enough to the mouth of the cave to reflect the light from inside. He wiped a hand against his face, now wet from the snow that had landed on him and brushed aside wet bangs from under his cap.
Tapping his Pikachu beside him gently, he picked up the yellow rodent and returned deeper into the cave; beside the fire. Slipping down to the ground, he leaned against the curled body of Charizard, as usual, thankful that he had decided to bring the fire pokemon along for his training.
When he woke up the next morning at dawn, the mouth of the cave glittered brilliantly with frost. Blinking the sleep from his eyes, Red made his way toward the opening, staring at the sky in awe. The sky in the east glowed a soft tangerine; fading to a slate gray as dreamlike purple clouds hovered in the air. Red smiled contentedly to himself; he would never get tired of the frigid morning skies.
He sat cross-legged on the snow and watched as the sun rose higher into the air, spreading the tangerine skies over until the heavens brightened into an icy blue. The clear sky mornings were rare, and Red wanted to take advantage of it, so he called all his pokemon over to collect firewood and some foods that grew on the mountain.
The day went by productively and Red returned to the cave before the clouds moved in again. By the time everything they had scrounged that day had been organized in the cave, snow had again begun to fall. Red stepped back outside to gaze at the light white clusters that drifted from the heavens.
The soft crunch of snow under boots approaching surprised the crimson-eyed teen. He turned around to gaze at the newcomer – a boy with a gold-and-black cap huddled closely to a fairly tall beast with flames on its back. Red gazed quizzically at the creature; his pokedex had run out of battery ages ago – now a mere contraption in which Red used, at most, as a makeshift mirror. He could tell it was a pokemon though: the way the boy had first turned his head to the being beside him, the way the being itself had nodded and replied with a low grumbling sound.
A sea of questions flooded Red's mind, but after years of solitude, he found it hard to put his thoughts into words. So Red stayed silent and stared at the boy blankly as he babbled on about a place called New Bark Town and his adventure, excited that he had finally found another soul on the expansive mountain. That is, until the boy mentioned something about the Elite Four. Red blinked at the two words, slowly putting together the phrase with the fact the boy was on the mountain in the first place. Red smiled to himself, wondering how the person opposite of him, barely out of boyhood, was able to defeat not only him, but the Elite Four and its dragon Champion as well.
Wordlessly calling for Venusaur to summon a frenzy of plants towards the boy, Red concluded to himself, he must test him. The beast beside the gold-eyed boy flicked his head towards the grass creature and picked up his master, swiftly dodging the flurry of thick stems and waxy green leaves that had now burst through the snowy ground. The fiery beat gently landed a few feet away, only letting go of the boy when he had steadied himself on his own two feet.
The boy grinned as the beast of his stepped forwards with a roar. Red could hear that the boy's cheerful, almost bubbly tone in his voice had been replaced with seriousness as he accepted the challenge, calling for the beast, whom Red now knew was named "Typhlosion" to burn away the vines and Venusaur with a fiery blast.
Venusaur fell slightly forwards as the flames dissipated, and Red smiled inwardly at himself. Blastoise was called up next, who soaked Typhlosion with a strong blast of water from his cannons, knocking the fiery beast against the wall of the mountain, where it fell, slumped over.
A large sunflower pokemon known as "Sunflora" was called next by his challenger, who swiftly felled Red's water pokemon in retun.
Lapras; Politoed. Snorlax; Sudowoodo, Togekiss. Charizard; Ambipom. Pikachu...
They faced each other now; one pokemon each. Sparks crackled across Pikachu's red cheeks as he crouched down to dash into an electrifying tackle, curling up at the last second before impact in hopes of preventing maximum recoil damage. The monkey-like pokemon, hit with the brunt of the attack, whirled around to gain momentum, flicking his tails as they hit the electric rodent; one, two.
Pikachu dodged the second hit; then returned, charging at the Ambipom so quickly he disappears. But the attack misses as a circle of the monkeys formed around the electric-type, who worked quickly to dispel the illusions; his tail glowing a yellow-white as he reached the final one.
One of the hands on Ambipom's tail caught the attack, the other pressing against the chest of his opponent as a smaller hand reached up to slash at the now struggling Pikachu. The small yellow pokemon is then thrown up into the air, the purple pokemon jumping up behind him to attack him twice again.
Pikachu fell back down into the snow, motionless. Red stood equally as motionless, his mind frantically trying to figure out what had happened. The monkey pokemon hopped back to his partner, cheering as he climbed up to sit on the boy's head.
The golden-eyed boy took a step towards Red with a smile. The cheerfulness in his voice had returned, thanking the raven for an exhilarating battle, but Red didn't hear any of it. He had lost himself in his own mind, unable to believe that he had lost, at the same time, understanding why the boy had managed to defeat the Elite Four. He picked up Pikachu and took a few steps backwards, once again, staring blankly at the other, who had now begun talking about how he had been surprised that such a strong trainer had been up on the mountain all along. Red looked up at the sky, wondering how everything would end. The red-eyed boy was saved nearly instantly though, as a strong gust of wind blew through the range. It kicked up the snow up from the ground; blending it with the heavy falling snow that still fell.
Even if I were to push the world away, the world was still on my side, Red thought as took two more steps back, letting himself fall as his feet stepped over the edge.
Lonely Island: Green
"The waves of the ocean calmed him, letting all his worries; fears; thoughts escape his mind. Here, the world - his world, was pushed away."