Chapter 7
Phantom Fury
Alfa looked up. It was sunny day, though that didn't make much of a difference to the overall climate of Hia Valley. Inside the boundaries of Almia Castle's grounds though, the weather was slightly warm, with the cool breeze of Hia Valley making the overall climate pleasant. Alfa smiled to himself as he got up and went to Ice's room, to find his twin fast asleep.
Alfa walked out into the main corridor and turned into Sicilia's room. She was starting to wake up. He left the room in a pleasant mood before she woke up. He set off through the castle corridors, finding some of the Pokémon that were still in the castle. The Throne Room of Almia Castle, where Lucario had previously resided with the blue gem, had also had the ice melted from it, but was otherwise untouched. It would have been sacrilegious to use the throne room for any other purpose.
He went further down to the ground floor. The main dining and entrance halls were in good shape. He examined the floor. It had been defrosted as well and it was amazing how intricate the patterns on the floor really were when they were defrosted and polished. He turned around and headed back to his room, picking up his styler to check for voicemail. There were about twenty messages on it from Kellyn, Keith, Wendy, Sven, and 'The Professore' as Professor Hastings had infamously been nicknamed among rangers. Alfa had re-registered him in his styler as exactly that. Most of them were inquiries about how the move had gone, and Alfa had sent them all a simple reply; see you at work today.
The one that wasn't about the move was from the professor, reminding him about the first match of the season the next day. It was them versus Brotherhood, one of the gym circuit teams. They had decided to name their team… well, they hadn't exactly named it yet, so in the lineup, they showed up as RU-T1. He glanced at the clock, seeing the words seven thirty displayed in blue light. He had an hour and a half to get to the union. He went to his room and got ready before grabbing his Styler and heading to the table. He found Ice at the table holding up a small display screen.
"It's called the sleep-seeker," began Ice, "You pass it over someone's face and it tells you how long they've been asleep for and how long they'll continue to sleep for unless they're woken up."
"Ok, but what's your point?" asked Alfa.
"Sicilia." Stated Ice simply, as he slid the Sleep-Seeker across the table for Alfa to look at. He read the display.
She would continue to sleep for another five hours.
"Perfect." Replied Alfa. "Lunch break's at twelve thirty, and it takes half an hour to get home. We can be back to have lunch with her before taking her where she wants to go." He finished his breakfast, and headed out to find Latios before he left, he needed Latios after all. He found Latios roaming around over the lake and waved.
Seeing Alfa, Latios changed course and headed for the castle.
'Nice flight?' inquired Alfa
'Yes, the air here is nice for flying in. I was target practicing with the ice chunks that form overnight in the lake. The way across is clear now. You won't have to use the Mercedes Beam today.' Replied Latios. Mercedes had recently created a new feature in their cars. For safety reasons, there was now an energy beam equipped in each model. The car had a nitrate cycle which would create a beam of energy to be fired out the Mercedes symbol on the front of the car, below the hood, in the shape of the Mercedes logo. It was far more successful than CES's Blast Fuel. Alfa hadn't forgotten that fiasco.
Ice came out, with Articuno behind him. He had left a note on the inside of Sicilia's door saying that they were at work, and they would be back half an hour after she read the note for lunch. The duo got into their respective cars. Alfa's was sapphire blue and ice's was ice grey. Alfa drove of the edge of the driveway, straight into the water as he hit the aqua mode button. The car converted itself into a submergible underwater travel vessel as he crossed the lake, Ice overtaking him from underneath.
He pulled up onto the Ice in a minute at the other end of the lake and headed around Ice's car, overtaking him on the land wing of the journey. He throttled the car till he was at the entrance to the cave where the river that would take them to the union began. He slowed down inside the cave and maneuvered the car into the water as Ice caught up with him and did the same. Soon they were out of the cave, so Alfa ascended and pressed the button with a picture of a river on it. The car ascended so that the doors were above the water and the roof retracted.
It was a scenic route, something he had never had time to admire on a floatzel. He pulled the car up to the dock in front of the union turning and pulled the car onto land driving into the union's parking lot. Alfa got out of the car and looked at the number plate. ASB 262. Alfa Snowbelle. Just like Keith to think of something like that. He glanced across the lot to where a volcano red McLaren 12C Spider was parked. This was interesting, they had had the car painted red.
He turned around to see Ice parking. The two of them went up the steps to the training center together, which was to be used as a football field until the end of their run in the tournament.
"Ah, you're here." Said the professor. "Good, we can begin now. Our first order of business is to name the team before we practice. Any suggestions, or rather, ideas?" Alfa glanced around. The only person missing from the line was Murph.
"Maybe, um… wait, um….. Wreckers!" said Keith.
"No way in hell!" replied Sven.
"I think that Alfa should be the one to decide on the team's name, seeing as he is the captain." Said the professor.
"A fine idea indeed." Replied Chairperson Erma. "Any ideas Alfa dear?"
"Well, I think, since nobody actually considers the ranger's teams to be very good in general, but since we've put together what I believe is an amazing, and truly likely to be victorious team, I think that Phantom Fury would be a perfect name. We have come to take the trophy, with a fury driving us, a fury that no one see's. A phantom fury." Stated Alfa
"A fitting name for the team that'll win this year." Remarked Lunick.
"Yeah, it just sticks." Said Wendy.
"Onto our next order of business is to examine our first opponents. Brotherhood is a team of gym leaders from Kanto and Johto, seeing as those two are joint, or rather brother regions. Let's pull up their team on the wall monitor please.
Brotherhood
Blue Oak, 20, Forward, Captain | Scizor
Brock Orton, 24, Defense | Golem
Mortimer Cabot, 28, Midfield | Gengar
Brendon Surge, 30, Forward | Electabuzz
Koga Brinson, 40, Defense | Crobat
Janine Brinson, 18, Midfield | Crobat
Falkner Wind-walker, 24, Forward | Pidgeot
Chuck Norris, 35, Keeper | Metagross
Jasmine Wilson, 24, Defense | Hitmonlee
Misty Maven, 20, Defense | Wartortle
Sabrina Wilber, 29, Midfield | Alakazam
"A tough team indeed, including the runner up for the indigo plateau Pokémon league." Said Professor Hastings.
"Excuse me, professor." Rythmi came running in. "There's a transmission from the Football Federation. It says that Brotherhood will not be our first opponents, but rather another team, Gemstone, will. The official matchboard is being updated as we speak.
"Let's not waste any time then. Pull up the file on Gemstone." Ordered the Professor.
Gemstone
Norman Winston, 37, Defense, Captain | Slaking
Wallace Bleu, 30, Midfield | Golduck
Brawly Ammonite, 22, Keeper | Hariyama
Tate Physic, 12, Defense | Medicham
Liza Physic, 12 Defense |Medicham
Maylene Benson, 25, Forward | Lucario
Roark Stone, 25, Midfield | Rampardos
Byron Stone, 41, Defense | Bastiodon
Brent Wake, 36, Midfield | Floatzel
Volkner Brave, 22, Forward | Electivire
"Another well put together team, but not as worrying as brotherhood. Hopefully, we won't have to face Brotherhood for a while. Now then, head to the place marked with your name, and do what the screen says. Each program addresses you weaknesses until they surpass you strengths, then evens you out." Said the professor. "Your measurements will be taken and uniforms sent our tonight. Chop chop."
Alfa headed over to the dividing part where his name was written, wondering what had been observed as his weaknesses. He saw a canon attached to the wall. He wondered why it was there. He wasn't the keeper. RECEIVING A PASS, read the label. All of a sudden the canon moved to the left and fired. Alfa realized what he was supposed to do too late and missed the approaching ball. The canon swiveled to the right this time and fired a shot that was head height for him. He dove that way and headed the ball away.
To his surprise, the canon reformed itself into a curved barrel before firing again and Alfa was forced to stretch his entire left leg out as far as it would go to stop the ball instead of being able to stop it with his knee. A tricky shot. For the next hour, Alfa was attempting to keep the pace up as the machine kept firing balls in every direction.
When the hour was over, there was a small break before the computers switched programs and started again. This time Alfa was working on catching the opposing keeper's throw and sending it right back at the goal. For this task he was put in a virtual reality helmet, so he had to perform the actions on a ball and keeper only he could see and touch. The hours passed by quickly amidst various exercises and Alfa had just finished piercing through a surrounding defense when the professor informed them of the lunch break.
The two boys had until two thirty to get back for practice so they headed out to the parking lot and left for Almia Castle. Half an hour later they were at the castle and they were met in the main hall by Sicilia.
"How did you predict when I would wake up?" she demanded. Instead of answering, Ice tossed her the Sleep-Seeker.
"What is this thing?" asked Sicilia
"Sleep-Seeker. It tells us how long you've been asleep and how long you'll go on sleeping for. Those times are from seven thirty today. Let's go for lunch." Said Ice.
"What do you feel like having today Sicilia?" asked Alfa as they headed out to the cars.
"Hmm….. Pizza." She replied after thinking carefully.
"Ok then, we'll go to Marnier's Pizza." Said Alfa as they piled into the cars. Sicilia was in the front seat with Alfa. Ice was in his own car.
"Race you there." Said Ice.
"You're on." Said Alfa
"Three." Said Ice over the intercom.
"Two". Said Alfa
"One." Said Ice again.
"GO." Cut in Sicilia.
The two cars were parallel each other and the ice chunks had all been cleared out by Latios that morning. Alfa hit the throttle and pushed the car into the water submerging it in aqua mode. He turned left instead of going straight between the glaciers.
"What are you doing?" asked Sicilia. "Ice is going to overtake us."
"Rapids. They flow away from the castle and can keep us ahead for a good distance." Replied Alfa as he pulled the car to the right and maxed the throttle to go with the currents. In a matter of seconds they had reached the end of the lake and were pushing out of it. Sicilia glanced in the mirror. There was quite a gap between Ice and them. All of a sudden, Ice swiveled his car around, hit the reverse pedal, and activated the Mercedes Beam.
"Nice trick." Said Alfa as Ice passed them. "But we're still going to win." He closed the roof of the car and turned left instead of going into the cave. Sicilia saw an opening barely wide enough for the car to pass through.
"That opening leads straight into the beginning of the river. Ice will have to slow down inside the cave, but we won't." and with that Alfa throttled the car through the opening and straight into a rapid flowing section of the river. Almost immediately, they had gone under into the river Alfa looked out the windshield, Ice was right in front of and above them. Alfa switched to sixth gear and pushed ahead of Ice while he was still underwater, before taking the cabin out of the water and pushing it out to the dock. He pulled the car out of the water as Ice tried to catch up with them without success. Alfa was back on dry land and he was in sixth gear. He shot across the union road and was soon at Altru Park. He swung the car to the left, where Altru Mall now was and parked it in the first slot available. He stepped out of the car and stood next to it, waiting for Ice to pull up. He could see his car.
A minute later, Ice pulled up and parked his car next to Alfa's car. Sicilia stepped out of the car just then.
"That was crazy." She said, as she stretched her arms.
"Come on, let's get inside and eat. We took less time than usual since we raced here, so we can take our time with lunch." Said Ice. The three of them went inside and headed in the direction of Marnier's pizza. They waited in line for their turn, got their pizza and sat down at a table. All of a sudden Sicilia's phone started ringing. She picked it up and talked for a minute before cutting the call.
"So, Sicilia, what do you want to do while we're at work." Asked Alfa.
"Well, I have a friend who just called me. She moved to Almia two months ago. She was wondering if I could visit her." Replied Sicilia.
"Where does she live, we can have you there from right after lunch until well, how long do you want to be there." Inquired Ice.
"9 Altru Heights, and I'd like to be there until your next break, because I want to see the union as well." She answered.
"Ok, we'll pick you up around five thirty, the break begins then and goes till six. After that we're there till eight. Today's a long day due to practice." Said Alfa. The minute they finished discussing this and started eating, Wendy, Sven and Kellyn walked up.
"D'you mind if we have lunch with you?" asked Sven.
"Go ahead." Said Ice. So the six of them had their lunch together and after that, Alfa and Ice dropped Sicilia off at her friend's apartment. When they returned to work, the next three hours passed by in a flurry of practice exercises. Soon they had picked Sicilia up and brought her to the union. They had just showed her the operations room when the clock struck six. The boys took her to the practice room where she started talking to Rythmi about the uniforms for the team.
The first hour passed by in a flurry. Professor Hastings announced that the second hour would be an interaction hour. The Pokémon in the team were brought to the room apparently, they had been kept at practice in the partner pen. They began by shooting penalties at Ice, then they moved on to cutting through a defensive line, which also counted as blocking an attacking line, and stopping penalties. On the side lines, Professor Hastings gave Sicilia two tickets which were valid for repetition use. That meant that after the ticket was checked, she could use it again for any match including Phantom Fury.
Soon, the whistle was blown, signifying that they could go home. Tried out from playing football all day, and the occasional emergency call from somebody stopping their practice, the boys briefly said that they would be at the union by nine the next day, found Sicilia and left. When they got home, they found Uniforms in a box outside their door. A crimson V-neck t-shirt and black knee length shorts for Alfa, with crimson armband included, and a black keeper's suit for Ice.
They picked the uniforms up went to their rooms, set alarms, and literally crashed on their beds.