Not All Arrogance (A Gary Oak Love Story) Part 19~An Icy Alliance, Battle In Flames
Articuno was approaching, screeching all the way. People were running for their lives. Selene had to duck low to beat an icy blast from Articuno's beak and Amy and Gary found themselves next to Duplica and Tory.
"Jess' trying to get Gramps to go home, can we hitch a ride maybe?" Tory asked and Amy nodded fiercely. They leapt aboard and they took off again. Suddenly the icy blasts stopped but the temperature seemed to be dropping. Amy looked back to see Articuno flying up to the top of the mountains as dark clouds formed around them. They began stretching across the sky and soon flakes started to fall.
"Oh my god," Amy whispered to herself as they headed for Tory's house, which was closest and ran inside. His grandpa was freaking out and burning everything in his house shrine to the Ice Titan in order to appease Articuno's rage. Amy was pretty sure that wasn't going to work, but figured a fire would keep them somewhat warm... unless the stories were completely true.
"Oh my god, we're going to die. And everyone in Kanto is going to die, because of us! Well you guys but-" Duplica whimpered and Gary's eyes flashed.
"How the hell is this OUR fault? Team Rocket were the ones flying a huge blimp through the air space and Lance's Dragonite was blasting away at it! WE flew through earlier and nothing happened at all!" Gary snapped.
"True," Tory sighed. "That hardly matters now though. The temperature keeps dropping like this and we'll all be goners."
Amy shook her head vigorously and stood, hands shaking. "NO! We are not just going to curl up here to die!"
"Then what do you propose? The storm's gotten worse, we can't cross water to another region like this... though I guess it's worth a try," Jess said thoughtfully gazing out the window.
"We aren't going to run away, leaving the rest of Kanto to its doom!" Amy growled.
"Um, then what ARE we going to do?" Gary asked raising an eyebrow.
Everyone looked up at Amy expectantly.
"Well..." Amy said biting her lip "I don't actually know," Everyone fell out of their seats.
"Great," Duplica moaned from the floor.
"Oh wait I've got it!" Amy said smacking her fist into her palm. "We'll go talk to Articuno to get him to stop!"
"You can't talk to Articuno! He's at the top of the mountains, how the hell are you going to get up there?" Jess demanded.
"It's worth a try," Amy said expressionlessly.
"I suppose so," Jess sighed.
"So we're going up the mountain on Selene I'm assuming," Gary said sighing and rising to his feet.
"We?" Amy said blanching. She had meant to go alone.
"Of course we, you think we'd let you go alone?" Duplica snapped getting to her feet as well.
"Where Duplica goes I go!" Tory announced standing as well. Duplica giggled.
"I'd better stay here with grandpa in that case, or he might wander off on his own," Jess said glancing towards the shrine where her grandfather was still burning things like chairs.
"Right. Let's go then," Amy said and headed for the door. Then she ran back to dig out some old snow suits. It was FREEZING out.
*****
After bundling up in some old snow suits with lots of sweat shirts and sweaters, the gang of four headed out into the fierce blizzard. Before the power was knocked out a quick internet check confirmed their worst fears as it declared that the whole Kanto region's temperatures were dropping. For the good of all they had to calm the rogue Articuno.
Once outside Amy called out Selene. The only thing that kept Selene warm as they climbed aboard and flew up into the sky toward the mountains was her internal Dragon Fire that all dragons Pokémon possess. They raced for the mountains in the blinding snow guided by vague glimpses. Amy felt her face turn red as the wind whipped by her. When they reached the mountain Selene started going up fast. Luckily Tory had had foresight to pack oxygen masks to wear at the high altitude.
As they passed through the clouds at the top of the mountain however, Selene's strength gave out battling the blasts of wind and she fell into the snowy peak. Amy put her back in her Pokeball but they couldn't stop just yet. They began struggling up the steep slope, the wind flew by as they went and Duplica fell into the snow. They were wearing the masks and couldn't talk but Tory motioned for them to go on while he remained with Duplica. Amy and Gary looked at each other before going over to Duplica and helped lift her out of the snow. Tory grabbed her as well and they started to carry her up the mountain. No one was about to get left behind here. They broke through the cloud cover and saw a sky full of stars and sitting at the top of the mountain was Articuno whipping the storm around with his wings. The bad news was that he was on the opposite peak.
"What the HELL?" Gary shouted in anger at this turn of events, even through his mask. Sound didn't carry too far with the lack of air to travel in but Gary also waved his arms around in his show of rage, causing Articuno to look up and spot them. He screeched in anger and raised his wings above his head, ice beam energizing in his beak.
"NO!" they all shouted at once and held up their hands to stop him. Tory stepped forward and stood straight before bowing low to the great blue bird.
"Ice Titan Articuno! Sovereign of the Cold and Snow of the Earth! Please, listen to us before you continue this storm!" he shouted as loud as he could. He sounded muffled but Articuno seemed to hear all the same. He stopped the ice beam and then flew up towards the other peak. He landed beside them and stared at them intensely. Suddenly Amy could hear an echoing deep voice with an icy edge in her mind. A quick glance left and right confirmed that she wasn't the only one hearing it.
"Why have you come?"
"To stop you from freezing Kanto of course!" Gary snapped crossing his arms. Articuno ruffled his feathers in annoyance but Tory bowed deeply again and begged Articuno to excuse Gary, he's 'special'. That made Gary growl and everyone chuckle a little.
"Please, we know we invaded your airspace, we were wrong, can you please just forgive us this once and-" Duplica started breathlessly in the thin are but Articuno shook his big head.
"That isn't why I'm covering Kanto in ice. You invading my airspace has nothing to do with it. It is that great airship and blasting that passed through... clearly my land has been invaded by violent people and therefore I must exterminate so it can start anew," Articuno announced. Amy's jaw dropped.
"That's it? And you just noticed this now? You don't get out much do you?" Gary muttered. Amy frowned.
"Listen, you can't just go destroying all of us because of some violet people, there's mostly good people down here really!" Amy insisted.
"And so how would you propose I exterminate the villains of my land? I can't go looking everywhere for them, I govern the snow from these mountains."
"You don't have to; we know where they are, Cinnabar Island!" Tory said, his eyes brightening.
"So I just have to freeze Cinnabar?" Articuno questioned and Amy shook her head firmly.
"No, just... just come with us! Be on our side and help us stop them without hurting any innocent people, just stop the storm please!" Amy pleaded. Articuno regarded each of the teenagers in turn.
"...Alright. This time I will listen. But we must defeat these villains or I'm freezing Kanto. You got it?" Articuno said and all four of the teens nodded vigorously. A few minutes later the clouds vanished and the sun began to rise. Hopefully that will warm up the land a bit. In any case, after retrieving their bags from Tory's house(and a shocked Jess and grandpa)they soon found themselves flying across the sea on Articuno's back towards Cinnabar. They filled the great bird in on the plan as they went. The plan was mostly that Articuno would remain out of sight until they had spied around on the island a while (and gotten a couple of Volcano badges but they didn't actually mention that part) and after they'd got an idea where the bad guys were they'd report to Articuno. Then they'd get into battle, defeating the villainous menace once and for all. It wasn't too big on details.
"I'd like to find out what Team Rocket's evil plan is," Tory mused. "I mean, a volcano, moon stones, they're collecting power for something..."
"Well duh," Gary huffed. "I want to know what they're up to as well. It sounds dangerous, luckily we have a legendary Pokemon on our side."
"Actually," Articuno spoke up. "I'm as venerable as any other powerful ice type Pokémon when I'm away from my mountain causing region wide catastrophe. I can help sure, but don't expect me to save you single wingedly."
"Erm, right," Amy laughed nervously. She was not enjoying this situation. Now they were obligated to save the world without godly support? Doom clouds seemed to hang over her head. Well in any case, there was little they could do at the moment to change things, so they stopped a short ways from Cinnabar and changed Pokémon from Articuno to Selene and headed for the harbour port, which was quite busy. People were dancing about, going to the midway, selling and buying. They landed quickly and started doing the tourist thing around the crowds.
It was almost an hour before Duplica found what they had been searching for. Tory gave her a kiss as a reward. Gary and Amy high fived and they quickly ran towards... the gym. Only it was locked.
"OH GODDAMN IT WHY?" Gary cried and fell to his knees in total despair.
"WHY CAN'T WE JUST WALK INTO THE GYM AND BATTLE LIKE NORMAL PEOPLE?" Amy cried as well.
"Well... erm... what now then?" Tory asked with a short laugh.
"We find team Rocket of course!" Duplica said smiling.
"NO WE'RE FINDING THE GYM LEADER!" Gary and Amy shouted together.
"Um..." Tory trailed off at their glinting fiery eyes. Duplica was not terrified though. Instead she frowned and drilled holes with her own eyes.
"Guys... save the world, gym battle, save the world, gym battle. What's more important?"
"THE GYM BAT-" they started but Duplica whacked them both over the head.
"Save the world?" Gary guessed and Duplica nodded and gave him a random cookie.
"Good job, Amy?" she rounded on her.
"Save the world. I knew that. Urg, Gary must be rubbing off on me I guess," Amy laughed.
*****
The four set to work attempting to spy. Unfortunately they were cornered by a hippie. This was not their day.
"Sure you don't want to buy some good luck charms?" the hippie croaked. Gary's eyes blazed.
"NO WE DONT WANT TO BUY A GOOD LUCK CHARM!" he screamed.
"Calm down Gary. Look mister, we just got into town and found out the gym was closed so we aren't really in the mood to buy anything right now," Tory explained.
"Oh, by the way, have you seen anyone acting suspicious lately?" Duplica asked. Amy's eyes widened. She didn't think it was a good idea to ask questions like that but this wasn't a position where she could freely oppose Duplica.
"Suspicious? Can't say I have..." the hippie said slowly, but Amy got the feeling he wasn't telling the truth.
"Well, thanks anyway," Amy sighed, though unsure what she was thanking him for.
"Sure you don't want a charm?"
"Only if it'll charm you away," Amy mumbled, but the hippie seemed to hear.
"Oh sure it will! Buy a charm and I'll stay totally out of your sight or your money back!"
Gary growled. "Okay fine!"
"Pick the blue star there then Gary," Amy said pointing to the hippie's merchandise.
"Fine, one blue star thing."
"Great! That'll be 2000 yen!"
"ARE YOU CRAZY? I'M NOT PAYING THAT!" Gary yelled, storming away. Tory, Duplica and Amy looked at each other, and then took off after him, ditching the hippie.
*****
They checked into a hotel. Then they found out the hippie ran it and didn't give refunds so they wound up each buying a charm to keep him away from them as they enjoyed the hot spring out back, which was apparently naturally heated by the volcano.
"I wonder how long Articuno's going to wait for us to find out where Team Rocket is hiding?" Tory said quietly in the water.
"I hope he'll give us another day at least, today was a totally wash out," Duplica sighed, leaning against Tory's chest.
"I'm sure he will. But I wouldn't give his patience much more cushion time then a day. We'll have to work much harder tomorrow," Amy said firmly and Gary nodded besides her. Unnoticed he had been slowly closing the distance between them in the water since they entered.
"Excuse me, but did you kids just say something about Team Rocket? And Articuno?" the hippie appeared again.
"I thought the charms were supposed to keep you away? Gary grumbled.
"I lied," the hippie shrugged.
"It's nothing, just discussing events. You know the recent freeze was attributed to Articuno and Team Rocket flew between the mountains angering him... we were there you see," Tory smiled. The hippie viewed him closely.
"Alright kid... seems like a major thing to witness too. Well anyway..." the hippie coughed.
"Um, you wouldn't happen to know when the gym leader'll be coming back would you?" Amy asked.
The hippie hmmed and scratched his chin. "Well... I'd say he'll probably return when these new folk leave."
"New folk?" Duplica questioned.
"Oh yeah, a team of volcanologists set up a big headquarters up the mountain to study Mt. Cinnabar and were coming down to the gym all the time to battle. They weren't that good either, so Blaine the gym leader just locked up and left for a while until the heat died down if you'll pardon the pun."
"Erm, sure," Amy laughed as the hippie left. Then she turned to the others. "So... I guess that's probably Team Rocket?"
Tory sighed. "Probably, we should go check tomorrow."
"Definitely!" Gary grinned and put his arm around Amy whom he had succeeded in getting extremely near to. She froze and she was pulled against his naked chest.
"Gary... what are you doing?" she whined pulling back a little but he didn't let go.
"Aw come on, Tory and Duplica are cuddling!" Gary whined.
"Erm... I guess," Amy sighed and leaned in properly, though she felt extremely self conscious that Duplica and Tory were right there across from them.
*****
The next day they decided their best plan was to go up to the research center and find out for a fact whether this was Team Rocket or not. It would be bad if they just sent Articuno after them and it wasn't actually the bad guys. However, when they got up there it was pretty obvious who they were. The Rockets weren't even wearing disguises. They were walking around in black uniform all over.
"Inconspicuous they're not," Amy sighed to resounding nods.
So quickly they mugged some Rockets with Casper's Hypnotic assistance. Donning the uniforms and pulling the hats firmly to conceal their eyes they entered the building. They passed many a Rockets as they did so and eventually broke into a control room where Tory, who apparently was some sort of computer hacking wizard, (How lucky!) hacked the mainframe to find the objectives. All of their mouths dropped open when they discovered what Team Rocket planned to use all their acquired Moonstones for, and when.
"So all of that was planned? Even Lance and Articuno? They have to be kidding," Amy whispered.
"Somehow I doubt that," Tory sighed.
"But, would that seriously work?" Duplica asked, draping her arms around Tory's neck. He was sitting in the computer chair with the rest of the group standing around him.
"Does it matter? We still have to stop them!" Gary said crossing his arms. Amy nodded.
"Gary's right, now let's get out of here before we're cau-aww damn it," Amy groaned as she turned to see Butch and Cassidy glaring bullets at them, flanked by several other Rocket grunts.
"Hey, you're those twerps from before aren't you?" Butch said blinking in surprise "I see you've picked up another twerp as well..." Butch said in his gravelly voice.
"Hey yeah they are! Good work Broccoli!" Cassidy exclaimed.
"BUTCH! What the hell. Broccoli? That's just sad."
"Whatever. Anyway, I don't know how you managed to catch up to us again, but we can't have you getting in our way! Especially when we're so close to our goal. So I'm afraid we're going to have to keep you all in a holding cell until we can figure out what to do with you," Cassidy said in almost a bragging voice.
"I don't think so!" Gary snapped and pulled out his Pokeball... but it wouldn't open. Blinking in shock Amy and Duplica also checked their Pokeballs, to no avail. Tory didn't because he didn't have any Pokémon.
"I see our Pokeball blocking system is as functional as ever!" Butch said with a grin "It was developed so that only Rocket Pokeballs work inside the building!" he said pulling out a black Pokeball with a red R on it. He released a Venesaur which sent out many vines, binding the group tightly.
"Hey! Let us go!" Gary shouted struggling with the thick vines.
"Oh like that ever works!" Duplica yelled at Gary as she too struggled. Tory had turned white and suddenly sneezed.
"P-please stop, I'm a-allergic to grass Pokémon!" Tory said sneezing again. Amy was silent in thought trying to figure out how they could possibly get out of this as Venesaur lifted them all a little off the ground to carry them down the hallway. They could risk calling Articuno of course, but if they did that right here the Rockets would hear of course and possibly be ready for him. They could not risk Articuno being captured by the likes of Team Rocket.
A voice from down the hall shouted. "ARCANINE! FLAMETHROWER!" One blast of fire later and Venesaur was smouldering and coughing. Amy, Duplica, Tory and Gary quickly ran toward where the voice had come from and stood facing... the hippie? Only his wig was off.
"Oh my god, YOU'RE Blaine?" Amy said jaw dropping open. She knew his face from her guidebook of course.
"Yes I am," he said briskly and proceeded to blast his way through the Rockets, clearing the way of escape for them. They ran.
"But, I thought Pokeballs didn't work in there?" Gary asked as they went.
"That's why I released Arcanine outside," Blaine grunted.
"Oh," Gary said blinking and blushing in embarrassment. "Of course," They made it outside and regrouped a short ways away inside a small cave. Blaine turned to them all.
"You'd all better be glad I followed you here, I thought you'd have more sense than to go charging straight in."
"We didn't charge! We snuck!" Duplica sniffed.
"Whatever. We know their plan now anyway," Tory said grimly.
"You do? What is it?" Blaine asked. They told him and his jaw dropped.
"But, but that's insanity. Are you sure you've got that right?" Blaine said softly.
Tory nodded. "It was in the files. That's really their plan."
"By the Fire Titan herself..." Blaine murmured. "And so Lance was involved by you because of them and he... so do you believe that they might have been trying to make you summon Articuno?"
"I hadn't thought of that, but it seems likely," Amy said growing white in the face.
"Well, you kids did good I guess finding out their plan, no way they expected you to hack the system since they weren't counting on Tory so they probably hadn't tricked you into doing that. But you guys should really move on out of here before the Rockets come after you again."
Amy shook her head. "We can't, we promised Articuno we'd help, if we don't help him stop the Rockets he'll freeze all of Kanto."
Blaine swore. "Alright... well... I still don't like this. I know! If you two beat me in a gym battle for two Volcano badges I'll see you as fit to help stop the Rockets. If not, no dice. I won't have rookies taking on these guys."
"No problem! We have six badges each already!" Gary said with a grin. Amy frowned.
"But they're planning to complete their plan tomorrow night, do we have time for this?"
"I think so, but Duplica and I'll try hacking from an outside source in the meantime, we'll try the Pokémon center's computer and meet you guys in the gym later?" Tory said but Blaine shook his head.
"We're not going to the gym. We'll use my secondary training field," he said and hit a rock at the back of the cave. The back of the cave opened like a door and they found themselves entering a small chamber. The door shut and the lights turned on. It was a little safe house, with a computer. Tory and Duplica headed for that, while Blaine took Amy and Gary through to the next room... a field suspending over a vast pit of lava.
"Oh wow," Amy said and Gary whistled. It was really hot in there too.
"So, who will battle be first?" Blaine asked once he'd crossed the field and taken his place on the opposite side.
"I will," Gary said taking the opposite side.
"This will be a three on three Pokémon battle," Blaine said and released his first Pokémon, a Rhydon. Not a fire type but probably had fire moves.
"Okay, go Lucian!" Gary called out, releasing his Wartortle onto the field. Battle commenced. Lucian dodged Rock Throws, Take Downs and Fire Blasts while Rhydon dodged a constant stream of water moves, only getting a few grazes and nothing major. Gary seemed afraid to use Skull Bash or anything that would get Lucian too close to Rhydon. Then Lucian got hit by a flying rock and flew off the field, heading straight for the lava.
"RETURN!" Gary shouted and the red light caught Lucian just in time. He wasn't unconscious though so it counted as a switch out, not a faint. Next Gary let Hercules, his Rhyhorn. Onto the field. This might have been a bad choice considering he hadn't actually used Hercules before. The rock type faced its evolution and Gary ordered a Take Down. Amy couldn't look... And then Gary cheered. She peeked through her fingers to see two Rhydons... Hercules had evolved. Go figure. So after a great wrestling match it was found that Lucian had worn Blaine's Rhydon down enough for Hercules to knock him out. Much cheering from Gary as Rhydon was recalled and Blaine's next Pokémon, a Flareon. The fire feline looked pretty miniscule next to Hercules, but Amy decided it was probably pretty strong. She hoped Gary would decide the same.
Well... Hercules decided that it wasn't worth his time and laughed as he poked it. Hercules was pretty charred when he fainted.... So, Gary decided to send out Socrates, his previous Eevee now Umbreon. He burst forth onto the field and coursed with dark energy ready to be unleashed.
"Faint Attack!" Gary yelled and Umbreon raced forward. Flareon bristled her fur and Blaine called for Quick Attack. They met head on and bounced back, each with small scars.
"Flamethrower!"
"Go right through it and use Crunch!"
Socrates moved so fast the flames seemed to part for him as he attacked Flareon, driving his teeth into her shoulder. Dark energy coursed from Socrates to Flareon, and the fire Pokémon fell. Blaine smiled and called forth his final Pokémon... it jumped out of the lava. It was Magmar, and Gary paled as it made 3 second mince meat out of Socrates. The Umbreon lay still, but Amy could at least tell it was breathing as it was returned. Since Gary had switched out earlier, he only had one choice.
"LUCIAN!" The Wartortle surged out and now the two Pokémon were in combat. Fire and water met and sizzled in midair. Both were taking on heavy damage too. Things were looking bad for Lucian... Then Blastoise took care of Magmar. This was Gary's day for good timed evolutions.
Next was Amy. From her side came Isis the Glaceon, Gabriel the mutant Cubone. From Blaine came Rapidash and Arcanine. Fierce battling actually, shockingly, ended in two epic tied faints. It was time for the final battle.
"Go Selene!" Amy called and the Dragonair twisted into the air. Blaine seemed highly impressed.
"Excellent, I never would have thought you'd have... well I'll just have to do my best won't I?" he chuckled and sent out his final Pokémon, Ninetails. Amy froze, attack words caught in her throat. Obviously this wasn't the Ninetails her mother had owned... well at least it was highly unlikely. But it still evoked a lot of sad memories. Amy stepped back a little. How could she fight this Ninetails? It'd be like... fighting her mom? She wasn't sure, but she couldn't call an attack and Blaine hadn't noticed Amy's distress.
"FIRE BLAST!"
Dragonair looked to her frozen trainer waited for an order, but none came she was hit directly. She cried out and fell to the field's floor in pain. Amy snapped out of it "Selene! Are you okay?" a small cry in response "Oh no, I'm so sorry!" Amy said frantically trying to compose herself. Then Duplica and Tory burst into the room.
"You guys! They know about this place! They caught me hacking a traced me! We have to get out now, maybe Selene... okay apparently not," Tory said blinking at the burnt dragon.
"Too late anyway," Gary said pointing at the Rockets that were storming into the room.
((Joyful Note: Um... so I made Articuno talk. He's a legendary so I thought I could get away with it... and let's face it, when the pokemon can't talk it makes negotiations fairly difficult. I hope no one has any major issues with this.))