"Pokemon" Speaking ("Pokemon Emphasis")

"Human" Speaking ("Human Emphasis" or Human Emphasis)

'Thoughts'

Ooooooookay! I am going to just speedily type this chapter. So, here we go! And I sincerely apologize for the long wait for the other chapter and this extremely short chapter! I'll try to work harder, I promise! … If I don't die first… XD

Chapter 4

"Just shut up Kurosaki," Toshiro muttered absently. He gave up listening after his fifth try. He wasn't exactly in the mood.

"Oy, Toshiro! Aren't you even listening to me? Can't you find a way to turn us back? Toshiro!" Kurosaki continued to try to pester the distracted Glaceon.

Pikachu was currently trying to unsuccessfully tug the Arcanine's leg to pull him away in case the Glaceon had another one of his small tantrums. "Please, Arcanine! Can't you leave him alone?" he pleaded-with a hint of politeness. His last comment was ignored.

Ichigo turned his head slightly towards the yellow mouse and glowered. "My name is Kurosaki Ichigo, not 'Arcanine,'" he reminded firmly.

"Enough, Kurosaki," the Glaceon spoke up, authoritatively. The intensity of the teal orbs that were once dim increased in power as he slowly regained his composure (before he started pondering their situation).

Ichigo stopped. Out of curiosity. "What is it?" he asked.

The Glaceon didn't answer; instead he stood up from his relaxed position and retreated into the forest, taking swift and light steps.

"Toshiro! Wait up!" Ichigo called, bounding after the smaller frame.

Pikachu was left deserted. He sighed, his ears falling when he did so.

Ash looked up when he heard the Pokemon finally cease his talking for the past half an hour, only to see that the Arcanine was nowhere to be found. All that was left was a depressed-looking Pikachu. "Hey, Pikachu!" he called out.

His Pokemon lifted his head when his name was called and looked at his trainer.

"Do you know where Arcanine went?" Ash asked.

Pikachu nodded his head (more like bowed, but not formally) and pointed at the forest. "Pika, Pikachu!"

"Huh? They went in the forest?" Ash realized. He stood up to follow them, but stopped when he heard Max's voice.

"You should probably let them go, for now," he said, looking over at Ash while continuing to crouch and play with Brock's Bonsly.

"What?" Ash looked back at him. "Why's that, Max?" he questioned.

"Have you ever even noticed how closely you guys watch over them?" Max pointed out. "You pretty much follow them everywhere! Let them have some time to themselves so they won't feel like prisoners."

"Max is right," Brock said, not too far away. He was rubbing his Marshtomp with a wet cloth, which it seemed to enjoy. "Every Pokemon needs to have at least a healthy amount of time of freedom, or else they will feel like they're trapped."

Ash stared off into the distance. "I guess you're-," he was cut off when a bright pillar of aqua-blue light shot into the sky which suddenly turned dark with clouds. He looked up, bewildered. A cold element dropped onto the tip of his nose. He blinked and tried focusing his eyes. Is this… snow?

A loud noise erupted from the forest. All the humans who were once fascinated with the weather, abruptly turned towards the source to behold the strange, foreign, black and red energy that flared until it was many feet over the trees.

May, until this moment, forgotten, gasped as she realized something. "Glaceon and Arcanine!" she exclaimed, horrified and worried. "They headed in that direction!"

The group stared as the words sunk in. Inhales of breath, though haggard from a certain heavy pressure, were heard and they immediately sped into the forest, towards the danger. As they ran, more of the strange, but strong, power continued to flare-growing stronger each second. The snow increased until it was practically a blizzard, causing them to slow their pace as they couldn't see a yard in front of them. It pushed at them, roughly and unrelenting, as if trying to force them to go back.

And then it happened.

The energy soared in a pillar of black and red into the clouds and beyond as if responding to the now, raging blizzard.

Instantaneously, the humans and Pokemon could move no longer as the combined forces crashed upon their shoulders, forcing some of them to lay flat on the ground or down on their knees. Their eyes were wide with shock.

They couldn't even say a word. Everyone trembled from the sheer force. Max was the most affected, however. Him having the lowest reiatsu, he was the only one who felt like he was being extremely suffocated.

May watched, out of the corner of her eye, helplessly as he younger brother looked like he was being choked by an invisible force. 'Just what is going on here?!' she practically screamed in her mind. She couldn't move at all, nor could she utter a word. The weight pushed harder on her whole body, causing her to gasp in pain. Tears pricked in the corner of her eyes, as she saw the state her friends were in.

Brock grunted every now and then as he tried to fight back against the force. His actions were in vain, however, when, ever so slowly, he was pushed closer and closer to lying on his stomach.

Ash was doing much better than the others. He had a much lighter weight, though it was still extremely heavy, causing him to not be able to move from his crouched position. In front of him, he could see Pikachu with his eyes closed tightly, trembling. It pained him to see his Pokemon in such agony. Determination sparked in his chest, and with renewed strength, he slowly and shakily stood up. Trying to push past the force of the blizzard and the weight combined, it took almost all his might just to make his first step. He took a deep breath, lifted his other foot, pushed, and-.

Fell face-first onto the rocky ground. Hard.

It took a few seconds for him to realize that the weight had disappeared and he could breathe more easily.

Max breathed in fresh air but caused him to start hacking quite violently. He clenched his fists on the ground, unintentionally grabbing dirt as he did so. He ruggedly took a breath, registering vaguely that his older sister was rubbing his back and calling his name.

"Max!" May called her unresponsive brother. "MAX!"

"I-I'm fine," he said quietly.

May furrowed her eyebrows and deepened her frown. "Of course you're not fine!" she exclaimed. "It's no use lying, Max." She turned towards Brock and Ash who were already standing up, concern etched on their faces. "Don't worry about us. We'll catch up later," she said. "Go help those Pokemon!"

Brock and Ash hesitated, but reluctantly nodded. Turning on their heel, they dashed forward- their recovered Pokemon running beside them. 'Hang on you guys, we're coming,' Ash thought as a sweat trailed down his face.

Thankfully, but at the same time, strangely, the clouds had departed. The sun shone brightly in the clear, azure sky, leaving no evidence of there ever being a 'storm'. All that was left was a thin sheet of snow here and there- on top of trees, on the bushes, or just on the ground.

They ran for a few minutes before they finally reached yet another clearing.

…

A new clearing.

Trees had been torn off of their roots and had been collided against the nearby trees. Half of the clearing was covered with a sheet of gleaming ice. The other half was practically surrounded by fire, alive and raging. Leaves of the trees were forcefully ripped off of their branches, in piles of burning greenery, or frozen sculptures.

And in the middle of all this disarray, were Glaceon and Arcanine- who didn't exactly seem at all aware. In a battle position, Glaceon and Arcanine had eyes void of any consciousness. Glaceon had a strong and controlled, azure aura covering his entire body, making the ice gleam to its brightest. On the other hand, Arcanine had a strong, but wild, and almost uncontrolled force encasing his body in waves of black tinged in red at the ends.

"Arcanine! Glaceon!" Ash yelled, trying to get a response. Unable to do so, he took a step forward, but immediately stepped back with a loud yelp when his foot froze and the fire reached towards him. Steam rose from his frozen foot by the sheer coldness, causing Ash to yell out (in panic) and tell Pikachu to break it off. His treatment was a confused thunderbolt that made him yell out louder. In the end, he was almost burned to a crisp, but the ice finally broke off, dispersing into the air. "At least…at least I know you grew stronger," he croaked out before collapsing. Fortunately, he was snapped out of his daze. Unfortunately, it had alerted the now dangerous Pokemon.

Glaceon and Arcanine snapped their heads toward the noise, their eyes still misted with emptiness. Nonetheless, both pairs of eyes hardened and narrowed at the intruders. Glaceon arched his back, eyes gleaming and jaw clenched, like a cat that was hissing warningly at a dangerous person. The atmosphere around Arcanine darkened as his aura spread out further around his area, stance practically the same as the other Pokemon.

Brock, suddenly realizing the situation they were in, tried to stop them from attacking. He raised his hands up in a gesture to show that he was unarmed. "Easy there, we're just trying to help you guys," he said calmly. It didn't work. Anyone could see that when they took a menacing step towards them.

"Uh, Brock, I don't think it's working," Ash said nervously, now standing up and watching the dangerous Pokemon take another step, causing him to step backwards in anxiety.

"Calm down, there's no need to fight," Brock continued, doing his best to stand firm. "Let's just go back to the camp where you could ease off your stress. How about that?" He was greeted with silence. Then…

They pounced.

Like a pair of ravenous wolves, they leaped at them as if they were the dangerous threat. As they flew, Ash could've sworn that everything seemed to last for a long time, despite the Pokemons' obvious speeds.

The Glaceon shouted out and a bright light engulfed its small frame. In seconds, the light died down and miniature ice wings that unexpectedly appeared on its back, glowing brightly and unfurled. With renewed speed in the air, the Glaceon sped up until he was a little less than equal to the swift haste of the upgraded Arcanine. Knowing that there was no way to dodge them, Ash commanded Pikachu to use Volt Tackle on Glaceon while Brock commanded his Marshtomp to use Water Gun on Arcanine.

Though reluctant about attacking a 'friend', Pikachu listened and started rushing forward with what seemed to be quick attack until he increased his speed. Quickly, Pikachu's electricity combined with the quick attack, creating the Volt Tackle that left a sparking trail as Pikachu rushed by. Reaching top speed, Pikachu jumped up to intercept the oncoming Glaceon. While this happened, Marshtomp had powered up his Water Gun and on Brock's command, blasted it all out at the Arcanine.

At the last second, the Arcanine swiftly moved in a different direction- right towards Glaceon. Said Pokemon only had a split second to see it's attacker before getting powerfully tackled on the side and being blasted away into the far distance until they couldn't see him any longer. But they did see the long path and the mammoth billow of dirt, miles and miles away. Because Arcanine had sent off Glaceon, his reward was a full-on Volt Tackle from Pikachu. Electricity ran through his big stature as he was also sent backwards, only to stable himself and grind his huge paws against the ground. Looking up and snarling fiercely at his shocked opponents, Arcanine felt an unknown power to run through his veins.

Brock and Ash widened their eyes as the Arcanine's body suddenly radiated a murderous red along with his eyes. "Brock, what is that?!" Ash yelled questionably.

Brock closed his slightly open mouth and clenched his jaw. "Outrage," he said, lowly. He turned to Ash. "Be careful, Ash! It is one of the strongest Dragon-Type moves that a Pokemon could use!"

Ash stared back at Brock, sweat running down his chin. "What do you mean?" he questioned.

Brock turned back to look at the enraged Arcanine. "I once learned that if a Pokemon uses Outrage, that Pokemon will immediately go on a complete rampage," he advised further. "That Pokemon will have an incredibly increased amount of power once Outrage is activated. It is almost impossible to stop it."

"What?!" Ash exclaimed. He abruptly looked at the Pokemon on the other side of the destroyed clearing. He clenched his fist, thinking hard. 'To have that much strength…' he thought. His eyes widened as he realized. "Brock!"

Said Pokemon breeder turned towards him.

Ash had taken on his signature determined expression. "To have that much strength," he started, "there just has to be a drawback to it!" He turned towards the taller male. "Isn't there?"

Brock thought hard for a brief moment, but nodded. "Yes, there is," he said. When he saw Ash gain a hopeful look, he continued quickly. "But the problem is, it only happens after the attack is done." Ash's expression cracked. "After a certain amount of time, the Outrage is deactivated. When that happens, the user becomes confused." Ash held a fist in front of his face, once again determined.

"Well then, we'll just have to hang on until that happens!" he said. He pointed at Arcanine. "Pikachu, use Thunderbolt!"

Pikachu looked at his trainer and nodded, "Pika!" Pikachu looked at the watching Arcanine. Raising his hands up and charging up quickly, he brought his hands down and guided the electricity out of his body and towards the opponent with a loud yell.

Arcanine gathered flames inside his mouth and countered the Thunderbolt with a powered-up Flamethrower. The Thunderbolt was overwhelmed rather quickly and the Flamethrower continued its journey towards its main targets.

Brock took a step forward. "Marshtomp, use Protect!" he called out.

His Pokemon ran in front of them and conjured up its move. When the Flamethrower hit, the Protect held strong for a minute (Marshtomp straining from the pure intensity of the attack) until the shield broke- the partly deduced Flamethrower colliding against the poor Pokemon.

"Marshtomp!" Brock called out in distress as his loyal Pokemon was thrown backwards and skidded across the ground, painfully. He was about to run towards his Pokemon when Arcanine howled loudly and released yet another flamethrower at the downed Pokemon.

Pikachu, unexpectedly, ran in front of Marshtomp and quickly used Volt Tackle to intercept the Flamethrower. Just as fast, an explosion appeared when the two forces connected, causing a large gust of wind and smoke to erupt while Ash and Brock had to cover their eyes with their arms. A hard thump was heard, and when Ash removed his arms from his eyes, he saw his Pokemon lying on the ground, injured and defeated. "Pikachu!" he yelled out, running towards his Pokemon and scooping him up in his arms. Just as he did so, however, a shadow fell over him. He froze and looked up slowly at the towering figure of Arcanine. There is no way that he could outrun it. Ignoring his instincts, he closed his eyes tight and held his Pikachu closer to his chest. But he then opened his eyes a few seconds later when another howl from the Pokemon was heard.

Arcanine was down on the ground, clawing his snout under his eyes that were red… with confusion. He stood up on his four legs and howled again, running forward. Ash had to quickly move out of the way as it bounded past him. A loud crash, along with a small quake made him look back and see the Arcanine knocked out with his back on the ground, unconscious and red on his face from colliding face-first on the tree trunk.

Silence reigned the atmosphere.

"What… was that?"

To be continued…

NO WAIT! STOP! STOP! DO NOT QUIT READING YET! THERE'S ONE MORE THING! SO DON'T GO AWAY!

He woke up with his body aching all over.

Rolling over so that his stomach was on the ground, with a grunt, he used both of his hands to push himself to a kneeling position. Unable to stand just yet, he sluggishly took in his surroundings: a large trail in the ground as if something was scraped against it- hard- a knocked over boulder, trees of various sizes also knocked over, and bits of ice littered on the ground, but already starting to break apart.

That's when it hit him.

Walking into the forest with a certain wolf/dog creature trailing after him, finding a spot to sit down and meditate to try and get into his inner world… He racked his brain as he tried to figure out what happened afterwards. All he remembered were blurs of fire, thunder, and figures about the size of humans. He massaged his temples using his fingers, looking at the boulder. He must have bumped his head on the boulder if he couldn't remember. It was either that, or his brain wasn't able to fully comprehend what was going on at the given time.

He sat there, trying to regain his senses for a while, scolding himself for being so weak. He rubbed his fingers against his temple in hopes of soothing his throbbing temple when he realized something important.

He had fingers.

He brought his hand back up, seeing that it was not the usual, teal-colored foot. It was a hand with fingers. Looking down, he saw that he was wearing his Shinigami uniform, Shihakushō with the Haori and all, his thin chain with a star-like clip to hold his Zanpaktou, his turquoise scarf…

Toshiro Hitsugaya's eyes widened.

He was back to normal.

OK! NOW, I'M DONE! I am so sorry for the battle sequence. Battles are just NOT my element. T.T

-ShiraChan-Desu