Chapter Five: Shattered Ice
The Cerulean Caves wasn't a place prone to frosts, snowfall, or for that matter, heavy blizzards. No, that was the Seafoam Islands' job.
But today it was. The citizens of Cerulean City gathered at the waterfronts and gawped at the massive blizzard-cloud hovering over the Cerulean Caves, never spreading, never shrinking. Between the icy darkness they sometimes caught sight of a blue blur, gone too fast for them to be completely sure it was ever there, darting amongst the cold storm wherever the clouds are thickest.
"It's unnatural, this storm." People insisted, feeling the invisible aura of an immense power roiling and snapping in the air but never knowing it for what it was. Sometimes someone would see the blue shape and make out a wing or a long ribbon-like tail. They would shout out to the person next to them, but by the time they turned around it was always gone. Dismissed as illusions seen out of the corner of an eye. A blue thunderbolt.
One trainer saw it, and knew it for what is was. She remembered challenging the beast in a foolish fit of naïvety and getting soundly curbstomped in spite of a type advantage. Her companions, considered powerful by common standards beaten within an in of their lives by a simple, contemptuous flap of a Legendary wing.
"Articuno." Misty murmured softly, gazing at the turmoil from the top of her Gym. "Why are you here?"
.oOo.
Articuno fanned her wings lazily, banking to one side, then diving and jinking and shooting through her clouds faster than the eye could follow. The little ones saw her and gaped in awe, but she wasn't here for their entertainment. No, she came for something else.
She dived again, then pulled up sharply and rolled. All the while her ruby eyes calmly scanned her surroundings, seeing things far away, things not visible to a mortal eye. Searching, searching.
Articuno waited.
She let her blazing blue-white aura be seen, magnified it even, adding to the ferocity of her storm. Her power mixed with the storm and sent waves of aura roaring out into the world, sure to attract the attention of the one she waited for.
Articuno was nothing if not patient.
After a long while or a short while (Time was nothing to an immortal), an answer came. A sudden pulse of psychic energy disrupted the storm, and it began to quietly abate. Articuno did not bother to summon it again. The storm had served its purpose.
What seemed to be an armoured figure with a feline tail emerged at the center of the psychic dissonance, and flew up towards her, spiting all laws of gravity. Articuno sliced gracefully through the air and landed on a rocky outcrop just above where the creature hovered.
"Old one." The creature spoke in a dispassionate tone. The little creatures often spoke of him in tones of fear. Articuno had gathered all she could about him from the witnesses around her brothers' homes. The little creatures had seen much, but little would come out of their fearful mouths.
"Mewtwo." Articuno greeted. "What brings you here?" A pointless question. She had brought him here, but someone else had sent him.
"My partner wishes for me to subdue you for scientific purposes." Mewtwo answered in a toneless voice. "It would make it easy for both of us if you came of you own will."
Partner. Scientific purposes. Articuno had a faint idea of who the 'partner' was, but it would not do to assume things.
"Did you take my brothers in a similar way? Scientific purposes?" Articuno wondered out aloud. "Did they, I wonder, follow tamely to be imprisoned and forced to fight for a cause they have no part of, against our other kin? For scientific purposes?" Of course not. She knew her hot-headed brothers too well. Zapdos would have told them no with beak and claw and thunder, and Moltres would have japed and laughed in their faces and tried to talk his way out of it, but still resisted with everything he had.
"You do not have a choice." The feline told her simply. "You cannot hope to win."
Articuno tilted her head sideways. Long, long ago when the world was young, she would have been able to put the arrogant kitten in his place. But that was a long time ago, when the gods walked the mortal realms and she and her brothers had been true phoenixes then, not this sad remnant Arceus had reduced them to after He no longer had a need of them. Groudon and Kyogre weren't the only ones to lose their Primordial forms, though the little one's memories didn't stretch so far back.
"We shall see." Articuno answered. Before she quite finished communicating, she shot up into the air and brought her wings together with the force of a thunderclap. Winter howled and lashed out at Mewtwo and he was pushed backwards violently and narrowly avoided getting dashed against a rock. His eyes glowed blue as he rose into the air and shielded himself from the blizzard.
"Futile."
Mewtwo narrowed his eyes and darted at Articuno, a ball of shadow in his hands. He fired it at the blue phoenix and backflipped, flying backwards then diving. Articuno rolled and let the sphere shoot past her. Grey mist billowed out after her, and soon the whole island was enshrouded in a thick fog, making anything further away than five feet of the viewer nigh impossible to see. The cat-creature wasn't troubled by it; after all, he was Psychic.
"I believe the little ones call that 'Shadow Ball'." Articuno mused as she shot past Mewtwo, wings vertical to the ground. Mewtwo's feline head snapped around, but Articuno was no longer there.
"Power you may have plenty of, but you have not properly learnt how to use your skills yet." Articuno's voice reverberated around them. Mewtwo whirled around to find nothing but air and shadows.
A blue ball of light formed in Mewtwo's right paw, then another in his left. He scanned the clouded skies around him with glowing eyes and then spun, launching both spheres in opposite directions to each other. They both plunged straight down. From below, there was a sound of splintering ice.
"Aura Sphere." Articuno's voice called down from above. Mewtwo flicked a third Sphere from his tail and it sped upwards. He was answered by a shower of ice shards, which slid off his barrier harmlessly.
"So very easy to counter. It follows the target, yes, but it cannot punch through a physical barrier." This time, her voice came from behind. Mewtwo blasted fire in all directions, but failed to hit anything important.
Mewtwo looked faintly puzzled for a moment. An Ice Beam came out of the fog and Mewtwo jolted back- right into the path of a bolt of darkness coming from the opposite direction. He gave a very catlike hiss of pain.
"Impossible." He said, tone devoid of any shock, more a curious statement than an actual exclamation. "You cannot learnt Dark or Ghost type attacks."
A musical laugh. A chunk of ice falling from above which Mewtwo dodged with ease. A flash of light and an explosion from underneath and suddenly all the ice was flying back up, splintered into deadly sharp shards. Mewtwo curled into a ball and Rapid Spun into a blur, deflecting all the ice shards.
"You fight like a Human-Bound, little kit." Articuno sang. "You have much to learn. Your attacks are restricted by the little ones' imagination. Much and more are possible outside of the 'Moves' you learn." Mewtwo stopped his Rapid Spin and sent a Flame Burst upwards, melting all the ice shards before they came down again. He tried locating the bird Legendary with his psychic powers but came up blank yet again.
A blue blur shot past him at impossible speeds, visible only to his enhanced eyesight. He lashed out with a Psycho Cut. The Double Team clone dissipated in a blast of smoke and Mewtwo reeled away, only to be hit by a bolt of cold.
Just for a fleeting moment, Mewtwo caught a whisper of thought. Tiny. But it was enough. Mewtwo zeroed in on it and Fire Blasted it mercilessly. A bang and a flash of light, like when a Substitute dissolves. A Hyper Beam blasted out of nowhere and smacked into Mewtwo's palm as he caught it without suffering damage.
Something clicked into place in his head. The feline unleashed psychic energy in all directions to dissipate the fog, but it wouldn't budge. He caught the tell-tale blankness of Dark energy woven into the making of the Mist. It wasn't possible, it shouldn't be possible, but Articuno had turned her Mist from Ice type into Dark type.
So instead he used the psychic energy to push the air particles into each other and create a wind instead of simply brushing it aside with his power as he would have usually done.
The skies cleared, though the storm-clouds still hung somewhat heavily overhead. Mewtwo descended and crouched low, breathing harsh. He looked up to make sure the coast was clear to avoid being taken unawares while Recovering.
A blue shape dove down from high, arrowing straight for him. He couldn't sense Articuno's mind at all, though he put it down to the result of spending too much time in the Dark-Mist. He brought his paws together and Focus Blasted it as hard as he could.
The image dissipated as the attack ripped through it. A Double Team clone. Mewtwo's senses hadn't told wrong. Fancy play with Double Team clones. No wonder she had seemed so fast.
Four more copies dove down. Once again, Mewtwo could not sense their minds. He dismissed them as more Double Team clones. After all, when has a Double Team clone ever done damage to anyone?
He closed his eyes and began his Recover... Only to be hit by four Sky Attacks all at once. Mewtwo yowled just like a cat as healing warred with damage, perhaps doing more damage than healing. Blind with pain, he lashed out with a mass Fire Blast and reduced the clones to mist in seconds.
Articuno felt a flicker of amusement.
Mewtwo recovered his emotionless state and gritted his feline teeth. "You are wiser than your brothers." He noted. "How have you hidden your mind from me? Substitutes have a trace of the maker's consciousness, yet I sensed nothing in yours."
"Think like a Legendary, kitten." Articuno answered. "Your power is not limited by a little one's concepts. 'Rest' is a 'Psychic' type 'move', no? Psychic and Dark are closer than you think. It is easy to hide your mind when your physical body is not conscious."
Mewtwo frowned. He did not know why Articuno was telling him so much. Giving information to the enemy was never beneficial unless it was false, and Mewtwo knew for a fact that Articuno was not lying. Articuno was not stupid, nor did she like to boast, so why? She would gain nothing, yet she gives advice freely. Mewtwo did not understand why anyone would do anything if it did not benefit their self.
"It is possible to control an unconscious body, as the 'move' 'Sleep Talk' proves." Articuno continued. "Though complete control has to be mastered through difficult training."
Mewtwo finished healing himself and stood, tail lashing. "Show yourself." He demanded.
A pause. "Very well."
The temperature suddenly dropped by fifty degrees celsius. Water froze almost instantly. A rush of cold air, and the ice phoenix was rising to face Mewtwo, winter trailing from her wings. A blast of snow and cold air cloaking a beautiful, terrible being.
She was bigger than her clones, her feathers brighter, her tail smoother. It was clear that she didn't participate in the skirmish in the sky at all.
Mewtwo's partner had scoffed at the idea the Legendaries were gods, and the ease of capturing Zapdos and Moltres had proved him true. But they had being outside their element and caught unawares.
"No." Articuno cawed, reading the thoughts he had unintentionally let out of his tightly-guarded mind. "Not true gods, but we are certainly at least half."
Mewtwo didn't reply. He crouched in a fighting stance, signalling the end of the conversation. Articuno dipped her head once, and rose in a flurry of snow.
They took to the air. Mewtwo started with a Psyshock, and Articuno countered with a wave of invisible matter that rippled the fabric of the universe and sent the Psyshock veering away. The sky itself trembled as they fought and the folks of Cerulean City wondered What the hell is going on? as invisble energy lashed and howled and tore roof tiles loose and sent quite a few people to the psyche ward or nearby therapists.
The magical creatures under stood what was going on immediately and evacuated, or tried to. Many trainers were dragged or knocked out and carried into Mount Moon or the road to Vermilion City in bemusement as their Pokémon companions decided their chances of survival was higher in a place where there weren't two Legendaries having a smackdown.
Meanwhile at Cerulean Caves, the said Legendaries were going at each other with everything they had and some things they didn't (e.g A nearby Gyarados that wasn't smart enough to get out of the way and was used as a whip/bat/psychic power-held cannon/projectile).
"Mommy! There's a flying Garry!" A little girl screamed, pointing at the unfortunate sea-serpent.
Her mother gave her an absentminded pat on the head. "That's nice, dearie."
Articuno's blue feathers were no longer quite so neat, though she still looked quite regal. Mewtwo had ice on several parts of his armour, though it wasn't damaged enough to stop working. Though Mewtwo himself didn't know, Articuno had figured out what it was for and did not try to break it.
Mewtwo used Quick Attack. Something so simple that he often overlooked it, but he had need of it now. He slammed into Articuno's underside, the phoenix unable to dodge due to getting hit by Supersonic just before. With a boost of psychic energy, he flipped them so they were plunging head-first to the ground and firmly kept it that way with more psychic energy.
Just before they hit the ground, Mewtwo let go and fired Psystrike point-blank.
He waited for the dust to settle and approached the crater, tail flicking this way and that. He floated above the unmoving blue shape and sent out a psychic probe to make sure the bird Legendary was out.
Nope.
Articuno shot up and hit him hard, the leftover energy from Protect fading, and forced her consciousness into his through the path left by his retracting mind.
No! Not possible.
Anything is possible. Articuno hummed as she dived through his memories, searching.
Mewtwo snarled and prepared to shove her out. It was his mind, and as a Psychic he was on his home turf.
Articuno brushed past the irrelevant thoughts. Past dealings with other Legendaries and missions, things Team Rocket had made him do. He doesn't know. She realised with a flicker of pity. Mewtwo didn't know what he was doing, at least not the full extent of it.
Mewtwo's mental defences snapped shut and Articuno found herself trapped in. She shook her head to herself. Mistake, kitten.
The armour clad cat suddenly became aware of the fact that he was once again twenty thousand feet in the air, and firmly ensnared in Articuno's claws.
And that was when Articuno unleashed the Sheer Cold she had left as a timed command in her subconsciousness.
It bought her time, if nothing else. Even in his de-powered state, Mewtwo wasn't a creature to be taken out by that one hit, though he was injured enough to be sufficiently distracted.
Capture of Zapdos, plans to trap Johto Legendaries, the Mew hair that led to his creation, tinged with an acrid tang of bitterness. Articuno went past them all. But no endgame. If there was an ultimate goal aside from the simple greed for wealth and power, Mewtwo was not told of it. Then she found a quite interesting piece of news.
Not him. Another little one. The power has changed hands.
Mewtwo howled and tore Articuno out, sending her reeling back into her own body. Then, with an enraged and unnecessary amount of force, struck back at his attacker and victim.
Psystrike.
At full blast.
Articuno fell, her blue wings unmoving.
Cool red eyes met shocked purple.
She allowed herself one flicker of satisfaction, and fell like an ending song.
All the creatures, big or small, furred, feathered or scaled lifted their heads and gave a single, simultaneous howl of incomprehensible emotion.
"What's gotten into you?" I complained as all my Pokémon, who never agreed on a thing except for Poképuffs, uttered a cacophony of howls, shrieks, and PIIKA!s all at once.
Charmander gave me a long, sorrowful look and curled into a ball. The others quieted down as well, lowering their heads like a funeral procession. Even Vulpix, who had seemed to be resistant to bad moods.
The Pokécenter was ringing from the echoes of the resident Pokémon's calls. The Pokémon out in the streets were also utterly silent, even the ever-creeking Bugs.
I came to the conclusion that something incredibly bad had happened, like a Legendary dying. I hoped it wasn't one of the Dragon-type ones (I loved the Dragon Legendaries 'cos they're rawrsome), Mew (Mew was one of the only Legendaries with an interesting personality, and besides, it's cute), or Articuno (Say yes to eternal ice-cream and a literally cool phoenix). Or maybe the Pokémart just ran out of 'puffs.
"Did someone just die?" I rubbed Charmander's golden scales. He looked at me miserably with big blue eyes from his curled-up position and nodded.
Okay. I didn't actually expect to get it right, but since I did, I mentally gave myself an imaginary medal.
"Who was it, buddy?" I asked softly. When Charmander failed to answer, Pikachu turned and faced me, and then mimed a flapping motion with his little arms.
A bird, then. Or just one with wings. That was an extremely bad sign. I liked the winged ones. I decided not to question Pikachu further because I suddenly found myself unwilling to find out.
I returned my pack to its storage ball and clipped that onto my belt. "C'mon, guys." I grinned. "Let's take Mount Moon by storm."
All of them perked up at that. Bloodthirsty critters, the lot of them. All the better for me.
I checked out of the Pokécenter, politely smiling in response to Nurse Joy's 'hope to see you again!', and approach the gaping entrance to Mount Moon.
Those Geodudes will never know what hit them. Or what stepped on them, for that matter.
The inside of Mount Moon was dark. 'Dark' with a capital 'D' and a capital every other letter too. I had Pikachu scamper in front of with on Lightbulb Mode (Flash) so I wouldn't step on every Geodude in my path and end up getting Rock Thrown at (That first one was enough, thank you.) The trainers in there were pretty small fry, but I'd only seen two in what felt like hours. And only near the entrance, where the dark wasn't so absolute.
I briefly considered catching a Zubat. They popped up pretty often, usually diving at my face. Pikachu dealt with them quite suffiently, and we left a trail of fainted just-about-every-Pokémon-species-in-Mount-Moon behind us everywhere we went. There was plenty of opportunity to just drop a Pokéball on one.
I was still debating whether or not to obtain a Zubat to go on my team (Crobats are awesome) when the Onix came out of nowhere. Not nowhere, because everything had to come from somewhere, but you know what I mean. Straight out of the dark.
I had ended up on the cave wall at the opposite side before the pain fully registered. I howled and curled up in a ball, fingers reaching for my forehead. I howled again when I touched it, my hands jerking away like something electrocuted.
My mind dimly registered roaring and other chaotic noises coming from somewhere close by. My back hurt, my head hurt, and I felt like I wouldn't want to move for years. There was something liquid on my hand, which meant my head must have been bleeding. I just wanted to go to sleep and wake up somewhere nice, pumped full of painkillers. Fire and lightning roared and crackled somewhere close by, but it didn't quite get to my head.
I slowly came to the conclusion that I was being attacked. I heard a squeal of pain from Pikachu and a small-sounding thump. Vulpix, I thought dazedly. Aria. They would get me out of this mess. My fingers crept slowly down to my belt. If only I could get the Pokéballs, sent out my Pokémon...
"Send out the others, girl, and I'll kill your pet lizard." growled a voice from the dark.
I was startled. A trained Onix. Of course. Wild Pokémon don't strike to kill, or even to seriously wound. But why would another trainer...?
I slowly turned my head, hissing at the flare of pain it produced. I gritted my teeth, though more at the sight that greeted me than at the pain.
Charmander growled and Scratched, writhing like a severed skink tail, though that did not make the Onix relax its grip one little bit.
"I take it that this is supposed to be a robbery?" I asked as nonchalantly as I could, biting down a wince of pain.
Whoever it was didn't come out of the shadows, but I could hear a frown in his voice when he spoke.
"You're supposed to be scared." It almost sounded petulant.
"Oh, I'm terrified." I reassured him (provided that it was a 'him' and not a woman with a voice distorter). Where had that damn mouse run off to?
"It said, on that book. The victim is supposed to be scared out of their wits, and I was supposed to stop them from screaming and bring other people to the scene." The whoever-it -was complained.
"Uh." I wasn't sure how to respond to that.
"You're not screaming." He/she said in a disappointed tone.
Gods dammit, where is the annoying mouse? If Pikachu wasn't dead then he should turn up anytime now.
"Aaagghh. I screamed." I said. I gave him a disturbingly big smile as I tried to inconspicuously inch my fingers to the other two Pokéballs attached to my belt.
I scraped the rocks near my foot against the ground and coughed. "Excuse me, mister, may I tie my bootlaces?"
"No."
"May I blow my nose?"
"No."
"I need to pee really, really badly."
"Give me all your possessions first and you can piss anywhere you want."
"Uh..." I turned my brain upside-down for ideas. I came up with one.
I widened my eyes as far as they could go.
"OH MY ARCEUS WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!" I pointed at something behind them with an expression of utter terror on my face.
Surprisingly, it worked.
As one, man and Pokémon snapped around to look behind them. With a victorious shriek, I violently threw my two Pokémon-occupied balls onto the ground in front of me.
The guy must have noticed, but he made no effort to turn around. Seeing no danger in the present, I proceeded to peek around the giant Onix.
And got a faceful of Tyranitar.
"ARRGHH!" I yelled. "GET ME OUTTA HERE I DON'T WANNA DIE IN JURASSIC PARK!"
BOOM.
The T-tar lifted a foot as casually as you please, and stepped on the Onix like it was an irritating bug.
It was super effective!
"Uh-oh-" An that was all the guy had to say before he was suddenly and violently Thundershocked into unconsciousness. I would have cheered, but my skull felt like it was on the wrong end of a jackhammer.
A Dragonite floated into view with a look of utter puppyish innocence on its face (They always have that look), antennae crackling with leftover electricity. With the light from Charmander's flickering tail flame, I could clearly see that the Dragon-Type had shimmering emerald scales glowing brightly from Flash.
I imagine the look on my face must have resembled that of someone who has being hit in the face with a Magikarp. Quite suddenly and violently. Charmander leaped out of the way and tried to bury himself in my jacket, tail sticking out like a misplaced torch.
There was a smallish scuffling sound as a figure climbed off the Tyranitar's back, and a rustle as another slid off the tail of the Dragonite.
"Three cheers for Team Skull!" The boy with the Tyranitar announced loudly, his voice bouncing off the cave walls like sugar-high schoolkids.
"HIP HIP HOORAY! HIP-"
"Sharesh!" The other boy shouted. "Keep your voice down!" His also-loud voice joined Sharesh's in bouncing off walls.
I winced and clutched my head as the loud volume whacked into my head like a sledgehammer.
"BUT YOU'RE SHOUTING TOO!" Sharesh complained.
"YEAH, THAT'S 'COS YOU'RE-"
"SHUT UP!" I yelled, and immediately regretted it as my head pain tripled in size. I groaned and curled up even more tightly than before. I felt the little lump that was Charmander crawl out of my jacket and growl threateningly.
The two guys immediately noticed. One poked the other in the arm.
"Hey Sharesh, there's-"
"-A tiny lizard threatening us with an untimely demise." Sharesh whispered not-so-quietly. "Don't worry, Warp. I'll protect you-"
"No, you karp-for-brains!" Warp whisper-snapped. "I'm talking about the girl!"
I shifted slightly and whimpered. Help me! I yelled mentally.
The two looked at each other. Then at their Pokémon. Then back at me. And proceeded to repeat the process.
"I don't know what to do! Do you know what to do when there's a girl with a waterfall of blood coming out of her head, Warp? Do you? Do you?"
What did he just say?
My hand went to my head and I swallowed a shriek of pain as it came away soaked. With an effort that not even the most annoyingly persistent fangirls could summon up, I lifted it to my face.
My hand was cover with more red than I'd ever seen before (Even after a painting class).
"Uh..." I dimly heard one of the boys start to say something.
Ah, shit.
Then I promptly fainted from shock, blood loss, probable concussions, and sheer confusion.
Sorry to say this. This story probably won't be updated in quite some time 'cus I'll be trying to divert most of my attention to finishing my first story.
The new characters are based on two real-life people whom I met in a Pixelmon server called CraftableMC. 'Course their real names aren't what I put down. They're just imitations of their usernames. Since Pixelmon has been shut down so I'll probably never hear from them again, I decided to put the two characters in as a kinda eulogy to Pixelmon.
Anyways, if those two have suddenly taken an interest in FanFiction and are reading this, please don't sue me for not writing your character well enough.
-Nanosecond