That was… magnificent!
The huge blue wings, the whole its body – everything – was covered with icy-looking feathers, glowing in the light. A majestic movement that this creature makes charms and scares at the same time. His long tail waves in the air like a ribbon, and shines like a diamond.
But the brutal look on his small head with three sharp feathers on forehead literally says: "This is your doom. Run away, fool."
"GYAOOO!" Articuno screeched once more, at the same time giving us his strong cold breath that chilled me to the bones.
"Hey, hey, stop this! Enough of your icy Fresh Mint breath!" I shouted at him displeased. He didn`t seem to remember this advertisement, and flapped his wings to go higher. Each his flap gave us even more chill than before.
"Grwlr?" Dumpling asked me. I felt very little confidence in his voice, and didn`t know how to answer. But I knew how I MUST NOT answer.
"You`re a tough fire type, yeah? So act as a tough fire type!" I cheered him, strictly scolding at the same time. "Get in flight and bring him down with your Flamethrower!"
But he just looked at me, not understanding. I didn`t understand this too – he is always ready to fight, no matter what. There is no opponent unbeatable for him! But right now he just stands there and looks at me… with mistrust.
But he was interrupted by a powerful wind created by Articuno. This looked like Gust, and angered my pokemon quite a lot.
"Come on! You`re Dumpling! The best pokemon in the world!" I kept on inspiring him. "You defeated Onix and Starmie at a huge disadvantage! You defeated many other strong pokemon, and all that made you even stronger! Do it!"
Finally, the flame on Charizard`s tail enflamed even stronger, and my pokemon roared, shaking the walls on cavern.
"Yeah-ha-ha! That`s it! Keep Flamethrowing him!" I laughed evilly. Things look not that bad for now… But soon we will anger the monster, and he will want to kill us. So I ran away to the shore and grabbed my greatball. "And meanwhile I will prepare Lei Sheng to cowardly runaway…"
So I released my poor Gyarados to the ground and began to spray him with super potions.
"I need you alive and well, big guy!" I whispered to him. "We need your help!"
Dumpling heard me talking to Lei Sheng and growled displeased. This distracted him from the battle, and the opponent had the chance to launch a powerful beam of pure ice at his wing. And what a powerful Ice Beam that was! Wing got frozen immediately, with Dumpling losing control over the flight and slowly falling down.
"Unfreeze it with Flamethrower!" I advised loudly and returned my attention to Lei Sheng. "…that`s all. You got it?"
He growled in agreement, looking at me with trustful eyes.
"Then go!" I waved my hands and stepped back, leaving him some place to jump into the water and hide in the depth. I heard a story about Magikarps climbing up waterfalls… I hope Gyarados can do that too.
And now I`m back to the main event – Articuno. I already realized, how powerful this creature is, when he made another shot of Ice Beam, missing Dumpling and striking the wall near me. This instantly created a large icicle that broke under its own weight and fell down on me. Thankfully, I was fast enough to dodge that crap.
But soon everything turned upside-down, as smart Articuno realized who`s standing behind all these. Me! A miserable human giving order to attack him. Nature doesn`t play by rules, so he decided to deal with me first.
A powerful gust knocked me off and pressed into the wall. Really strong pain exploded in my back, even paralyzing for some time. Dumpling recovered after the last hit and found out that the enemy threatens his trainer, and roared at the freeze pokemon. Articuno didn`t pay much of attention to this flaming vermin and began to charge another Ice Beam, this time aiming directly at me. Well, I`m going to be a nice ice sculpture…
But Dumpling jumped before me without hesitation, taking a hit from Ice Beam and falling down on the ground… immediately getting covered with a thick layer of ice.
HE became an ice sculpture…
And that infuriated me.
"So, that`s how you do it? Bring it on, legend!" I yelled at him, releasing all my pokemon at the same time. "It`s a boss battle then!"
Almost the whole team surrounded me, stretching for a fight.
"Moment, keep attacking with Bite! Harry, Acid! Reaper, Poison Sting! Loser, Shadow Punch!" I gave orders to each one of them to buy me some time to restore Dumpling.
Somewhere in my pocket I had a special medicine hidden, called Ice Heal. This thing is specially made to recover pokemon after such freezing moves. So, when the next round of battle began, I rushed to the frozen body of Charizard to help him.
Sudden loud explosion of Ice Beam impact and screech of Moment made me look up. The powerful hit from Articuno – despite being powerful by itself, but also super-effective against flying types – just threw Golbat on the wall and turned into a large icicle. Judging by his eyes, that one hit was too much for him.
"Return…" I grumbled and beamed Moment back. He did buy us some time, while other pokemon battle the beast.
Oh, maybe, coming here was a bad idea… Oh, how stupid I am! Thinking that I can measure my strength to a legendary pokemon. We`re all going to die here, that`s for sure.
BLAST! Another Ice Beam finished off Harry, freezing him to the ground. Damn it, now I have to return him too. At least, I reached Dumpling and can heal him…
Ice Heal looks like a regular potion, just a bit of different color and shape. I carefully sprayed it over the frozen body, causing the ice slowly to melt.
Sound of battle behind me worried a lot. Reaper and Loser fought really well even without me, but even their power is not matched to a legendary pokemon. And to the moment I finished with Dumpling, both of them fell.
"Damn you…" I swore, returning my last battling pokemon back to their capsules and helping Charizard to get up. "Let`s be reasonable, Dumpling… We are screwed." I said him while looking at the approaching monstrosity. "But not yet. We still have your wings… And Smokescreen for retreat!"
He got me and directed a strong and thick stream of smoke at Articuno. The veil covered him and disturbed his aiming, making the freeze pokemon to direct his next Ice Beam right into the wall. And, oh my, what a power it was – a huge dent remained in this poor wall, now even more covered in ice. It that thing would hit us – both of us would be dead.
But now we have our small advantage – he can`t hit us in this Smokescreen.
"Let`s go up, Dumpling!" I bravely commanded to my pokemon and jumped on his back. He roared loudly and rushed into the air, through his own veil of smoke and to the hole in ceiling.
"WHIRRR!" Articuno angrily cried before us, not unable to hit us.
I turned my head back to look at him and measure how far can we go. Meanwhile, the legendary pokemon shined brightly in the dark veil and… suddenly a mist appeared, very quickly clearing up the smoke and then disappearing again.
Wow… He have just destroyed my plan of retreat.
"Faster, Dumpling, faster!" I hurried up my pokemon, hoping that we are have enough speed to run away from Articuno.
I feel really bad for acting like an idiot. I lost almost the whole team to this damn bird… Who knows – maybe, after this he will head to Cinnabar Island and freeze it to hell? And then the whole Kanto region… Because some moron angered him. Ouch.
But right now all I need to do is just save my skin – piece of cake. Well, almost.
"Let`s try the Ninety-Flight maneuver, Dumpling! You have seen Moment doing it, right?" I suggested carefully. "That place!"
I pointed at the place near the hole, and my pokemon rushed there. This maneuver is really risky, and possibly will drop me off. But we may have a chance to come out alive of this battle.
So I grabbed Dumpling`s neck as strong as I can just not to choke him and whispered my idea. He gladly growled and accelerated even more. Articuno behind us was on our tail, chasing with all his speed, but I could clearly see that he is not that fast as my Charizard. So he decided to compensate the lack of speed by shooting ice beams in back.
"To the left!" I gave the command, and Dumpling barely dodged the attack. "Right!" We dodged another one. Articuno still wasn`t going to surrender.
But so aren`t we. Charizard slowed a bit to let the chaser approach closer. Feeling the close prey, he stopped shooting and now just tried his best to reach us with his strong beak.
Suddenly a really crazy idea struck my mind, and I pulled my hand in pocket. PokeDex felt really cold and wet. I remember that it survived my swim for Magikarp and a bit more… But today I had to swim too much, a-a-and…
It`s dead. I doesn`t turn on anymore, just make some glitch beeping sound and that`s all. I managed to break a PokeDex! I knew I should have put it into a water-proof pocket with TM-Case. Damn!
"It`s all because of you!" I accused Articuno following us. "Screw you, Articuno! Get this, you legendary piece of shit!" And with all anger in my possession, I threw the now-useless device right in his face. Damn, how enjoyable it was to look how it hit. But he definitely didn`t like it and accelerated even more to reach us.
Fine, I never could make photos right. But I can make cool tricks on my pokemon.
"NOW!" I commanded, made my grip stronger and closed eyes.
Dumpling made a sharp turn away from the ceiling and headed straight up. Articuno was not that agile and crushed into the solid rock.
We left the mountain and headed right up. The extremely strong sunlight almost blinded us, but we made a spin, turned to the side and headed away from the island. I don`t care if Cinnabar is in the other direction right now – I just want to live!
The loud battle cry from behind us stated that there is someone that don`t want us to live. The freeze pokemon was approaching us at high speed, angered even more now. The cold wind filled area around us, making it really uncomfortable together with hot burning sun.
"Descend." I ordered to Dumpling and tapped his neck a couple of times. He listened to me and went down, luckily dodging one Ice Beam from Articuno…
…but not the second one.
It hit both of us really hard, making spin in uncontrollable fall. I released Dumpling on our way down the ocean just to take a pokeball and return him back before he hits the water. I did this and went to the bottom with pride…
Then nothing happened. Articuno approached the water surface where the intruders of his lair just were, but no more. Just bubbles coming from the very deep.
Disappointed by such miserable victory, the freeze pokemon quietly flew high up and headed back to his lair on Seafoam Islands.
Only after that I let myself and Lei Sheng return to the surface.
Oh, now the air feels even more enjoyable than earlier. I breathed heavily, greedily, fast, like the last time in life.
"Ugh… Ah… Thank you, Lei Sheng…" I thanked my loyal Gyarados. He actually managed to find all the way up here and catch me when I need him. "Good job, our plan worked."
We remained on surface for some more minutes, recovering after all this shit. The cold quickly disappeared, replaced by strong sun again, the sun so strong I felt the water boiling around me. Well, not actually boiling, but the weather appeared to be really fit for sun tanning.
"Okay, let`s try to define our position…" I said and climbed up Lei Sheng. He raised his head with me even higher, giving me better view.
Well… As I remember, from the side of Fuchsia City the larger island was a bit left and closer… Now it is left and further… I guess, I came out to west side, which is exactly where I need. I could really use a compass here…
"Dumpling, let`s go!" I released my pokemon into the air, and he clumsily flew up before balancing his flight. He`s still getting used to it. Maybe I should not tire him even more now with carrying me around. "I need you to scout the area. Head over there, for a couple of minutes, then return straight back, okay?"
Charizard hovered there for some seconds, looking at Lei Sheng mistrustfully. They exchanged a quiet growl, and then Dumpling nodded to me and flew in a suggestive direction of Cinnabar Island.
The next few minutes I have spent, thinking about the endless ocean and how not to die in it. Soon I had to stop torturing myself because of the appearance of a blurred figure on a horizon, heading to me from the Islands. As this figure approached closer and closer, it looked more and more like Douchebag on Quartz.
"How did you get there so fast?" He asked me, expressing some accusation in his voice.
"Well… I had a good stimulation." I looked back worried of Articuno new appearance. "Did you find anything interesting there?"
"These islands are boring like you." He sighed loudly. "That article about a legendary pokemon is bullshit, I knew it!"
I wanted to smile while listening to him. He can`t even imagine what I had to experience… Should I tell him?
"What… if I tell you… that I saw Articuno and even battled him?" I slowly and lightly asked Douchebag.
"Ha-ha!" He laughed in reply. "I already know that you like to lie. I wouldn`t be surprised."
Well, screw Douchebag. I knew he will never believe me. So it will be a little secret of me and my team. And Articuno.
"And why the heck are you still here?" He suddenly questioned me. "Who are you waiting for? Me?"
"Ha, naïve Douchebag…" I laughed at him this time. The roar of Dumpling returning from the scouting had some perfect timing. "I am waiting for him! What did you find? Cinnabar Island is there?"
Dumpling unsurely roared in reply. I guess, he did see some island in that direction.
"Okay, good job. Have a rest." I raised the pokeball to return him, but noticed suddenly strange look on his face. He looked… disappointed. "What`s wrong?"
"Grwar…" He answered and pointed at something behind him. I guess, he just asks me to fly him.
"Oh, Dumpling, I`ll stay on Lei Sheng for some time." I explained, smiling from sudden behavior of my first pokemon. "I need to accompany Douchebag a bit."
Charizard looked down, and then suddenly switched his displeased look on Gyarados. That confused me for some time, but then I returned him into pokeball.
After that we continued our sea journey to Cinnabar Island.
The weather was HORRIBLE! The sun keeps shining stronger and stronger, an it`s just killing me. Damn, I could even see the slight fog around us… Ah, I wish to reach Cinnabar Island faster and hide in my PokeCenter room with air conditioner.
"I see it!" Douchebag gladly shouted to me. I focused my eyesight on the mirage far before us and saw the land too.
"Well, damn, finally!" I washed my face with hot salty water and got up on my living ship. "I`m dying from this sunshine hell!"
Our pokemon felt this too, and hurried to reach the island faster too and have a rest from the open sun. But it`s still in minutes away, so I returned to my half-dead state.
"Oh, cool!" Sudden cry from Douchebag woke me. "It`s even bigger than I thought!"
"What bigger?" I asked him with interest.
"The mansion over there!" He pointed at the large building on the further hill. It really looked like a mansion of some sort. But for me it was just another very rich house.
"What`s so special about it?" I questioned, not understanding.
"The Capone family ruled this mansion for centuries! It`s one of the biggest cultural collections in the whole world! You can say… a Pokemon Culture Museum! Or just a Pokemon Mansion." Douchebag seemed too excited about this cultural stuff. Where did he get that shit?
But for one specific reason this looked pretty suspicious for me…
"And who now lives in this mansion?"
"I don`t know. I heard the Capone were all arrested some years ago… So, maybe, it`s now privatized by some rich company?"
We approached the island close enough to look through this mansion. Yes, this place looks very spoiled, actually feels like a mafia lair. A centuries-long mafia lair.
Suddenly we noticed a slight smoke coming up from this mansion. While we were landing on beach and returning our pokemon back to their pokeballs, the smoke just became stronger and really looked like danger.
And then some helicopters got up from the roof. I grabbed my binocular that left after Saffron operation and observed these vehicles…
"It`s Team Rocket!" I exclaimed with extreme surprise.
"It can`t be…" Douchebag said quietly, like he doesn`t actually believe in it.
Meanwhile, new sources of smoke appeared, with old ones turning into a real flame. It was spreading really quickly, devouring the old mansion like simple wood. I was too shocked by this sight that I didn`t try to pursue Rocket choppers on my Dumpling – something really bad is going on in this mansion, right here!
"Let`s go!" I rushed up the road to this mansion, ignoring the signs of private territory and other crap.
And then… the chain of huge explosions covered the whole building. One of them appeared to be really close to us, and threw us away. This contused me for some time, killing my eyes and ears… When I came back to senses and the feelings – at least, half-working – returned to me, I saw someone in the flame.
A tall human-like figure, very blurred because of my contusion. He threw a short look at me, with his evil eyes glowing purple. I couldn't` say anything as I was terrified and disoriented at the same time.
He didn`t say anything either and just vanished in the flames again as quickly as appeared.
May this be a hallucination? I… I can`t think straight.
I found Douchebag lying in the rubble and helped him to get up.
"Let`s get out of here."
Both of us – hurt more by effect, not by explosion – tried left this wretched place as quickly as we could.
This is not the end…