In this chapter, our four heroes will face off against Pryce. They couldn't get to him before because of the NPC roadblock. Don't NPCs have anything better to do than block roads?

Well, now there's nothing stopping them. So I don't see what they're waiting for...

Will their Pokemon freeze up? Or can they break the ice?

Also, one of Lucy's Pokemon is going to evolve.

And Sarah's Slowpoke is going to evolve. I suppose she needs something to cheer her up after what happened.

Chapter 34: Have An Ice Day

Ned and Chris entered the Mahogany Gym, taking a moment to look over the arena.

Sure enough, Pryce was waiting for them inside. He was glad that the man standing in front of the gym entrance had finally left. Apparently, another gym leader by the name of Bugsy once had the same problem.

Chris was excited to get her seventh Johto badge. Though she had to admit, her Johto journey wasn't taking as long as her Kanto journey was. There didn't seem to be as many roads to travel.

The former immediately began to shiver. It looked somebody wasn't turning on the heater.

"It's c-c-cold in this gym..." chattered Ned.

Chris looked at Ned curiously.

"Were you expecting something different?" asked Chris. The gym leader DID specialize in ice-types. He was the teacher of winter's harshness.

Next time he was going to be complaining about the heat when they decided to enter a fire-type gym leader's gym.

Perhaps their Pokemon were lucky that they had fur. In the case of Ned's Eevee, it seemed that he could adapt to virtually any environment...even environments that were polluted.

Standing in the arena was Pryce. Based on his age, he had a lot of experience being a Pokemon Trainer. Perhaps that was how to be the Gym Leader. Then again, Whitney and Jasmine were both a lot younger than he was and yet they still were strong enough to become a Gym Leader.

Then again, there were Gym Leaders that were a lot younger than he is that were still strong enough to become Gym Leaders.

"So, you're here to challenge me." noted Pryce.

"Yep." nodded Chris.

"Well then, I hope your Pokemon are capable of withstanding the bitter cold." answered the man.

"I'm not sure if I can w-w-withstand the c-c-cold." noted Ned.

"I think they'll be fine." remarked Chris.

For his first Pokemon, Pryce sent out Dewgong.

"Dew dew dew dew dew!" exclaimed Dewgong.

"Hmm..." noted Chris.

Perhaps an electric Pokemon would be her best choice. Dewgong was both water and ice type, so he could potentially do super effective damage against a grass type OR a fire type, even if they could do super effective damage in return.

If she used a grass type, she would be skating on thin ice. Somewhat literally.

She decided to send out Electabuzz.

"Buzz buzz!" shouted the electric Pokemon.

"Using an electric type? Good strategy." noted Pryce.

However, it would be wrong to assume to that Dewgong would go down easily.

Dewgong fired an Ice Beam at Electrabuzz.

Quickly, he moved out of the way.

"It's a good thing that Electabuzz is so fast..." noted Ned.

"Yeah...it makes punching his foes a lot easier. Speaking of which, why not use Elec Punch?" instructed Chris.

Electabuzz hit Dewgong with Elec Punch.

"Dewgong!" exclaimed Dewgong. Electabuzz packed a mean punch.

Unfortunately, Dewgong was paralyzed by the attack.

Electabuzz then followed with a Thunderbolt.

Dewgong fainted.

Pryce sent out Piloswine next.

Strangely enough, despite the fur over his eyes, Piloswine seemed able to see his opponent just fine.

All of a sudden, having Electabuzz on the field wasn't such a good idea anymore.

Perhaps it would be best if she switched Pokemon.

She decided to switch to her Shellder.

"Shellder shellder!" exclaimed the shellfish Pokemon.

Piloswine fired a Mud Bomb at Shellder, but she avoided it.

Shellder fired Icicle Spears at Piloswine.

He flinched from all the icicles.

Shellder fired a Water Pulse at Piloswine.

It was a critical hit.

Piloswine fainted.

"Piloswine..." murmured the pig Pokemon.

Now, all that was left was Pryce's Jynx.

"Jynx!" shouted the icy Pokemon.

"Jynx sure has a unique type combination.." noted Chris.

Jynx used Sweet Kiss on Shellder.

Shellder felt confused...and hurt herself.

Chris sighed.

However, she snapped out of her confusion shortly afterwards.

She used Surf.

Jynx was hit by a small tidal wave.

However, she hit Shellder with Psychic in retaliation.

Shellder fainted.

"Shellder..." murmured the shell Pokemon. There was some attacks that not even her shell could defend her against.

Chris sent out Charizard next.

Charizard let out a roar.

Jynx was intimidated by it...but appropriately for an ice Pokemon, she kept her cool.

She decided to go on the offensive, as per her trainer's instruction.

Jynx attempted to use Ice Punch, but Charizard was too fast.

He used Flamethrower.

"Jynx!" shouted the ice Pokemon.

She used Psychic in retaliation.

Charizard took damage from the attack, but wasn't confused.

Charizard used Flamethrower again and Jynx fainted.

"Yeah! I did it!" cheered Chris.

"So you did." nodded Pryce.

Admitting defeat, Pryce handed Chris her Glacier Badge.

She had a wide grin on her face.

Now there was only one gym badge left to go until she was ready for the Pokemon League.

According to the map, the final Gym Leader was at Blackthorn City.

Apparently, Blackthorn City could be reached through the Ice Path...but the man selling Ragecandybars was still there blocking the route towards the cavern. It seemed like that was where Pryce did a lot of his training.

When would he leave?

Well, he was packing up, so he would be gone soon.

But he didn't want people to bother him.

Chris sighed. She was so close and yet so far away.

SHe wondered what she would do until the man finally left.

"I guess I should challenge the Gym Leader next..." noted Ned.

Suddenly, he began to shiver again.

"Right after I put on a coat." said the boy.

Lucy and Jake approached the Mahogany City Gym. Things sure were a lot more peaceful now that Magikarps weren't evolving so spontaneously. Perhaps people could fish at the lake safely again.

But unbeknownst to them, Morgiana was preparing to carry out her plans. Her most diabolical plan yet. One that she had been planning ever since she started Team Shadow in the first place.

But at first she had to deal with the Pokemon Champion. To be honest, he was likely a bigger threat than those meddling kids that were fighting against her. His dragon Pokemon were strong enough to take on even her executives.

She bet they would be surprised once they figured out the truth about her.

She approached Lance with a warm smile on her face, able to hide her contempt for him.

"Thank you for stopping Team Shadow. I don't know what they would have done if you hadn't entered their hideout." said Morgiana.

"You're welcome." answered Lance.

"I decided to give your dragons some snacks." stated the lady.

Lance accepted her offer.

Unbeknownst to Lance, Morgiana had added a debilitating poison to those snacks.

The poison wouldn't immediately take effect...so Lance wouldn't know they were poisoned until it was too late.

Morgiana handed the snacks to Lance.

"Thank you." said Lance. Hopefully his dragons would enjoy them.

Unfortunately, they would not.

Morgiana left with a smile. Lance had fallen right for her trap. It was lucky that her appearance threw people off her true nature. Even the Pokemon Champion himself had been fooled.

Although...that girl had managed to figure out the truth. Her name was Sarah, wasn't it? She was a smart girl.

Now that Lance was out of the way, she could get to her ultimate goal.

Soon all the Pokemon in Johto would be hers to control.

Personally she wondered what she would do with them all.

Well, she would think of something eventually.

Lucy decided to challenge the Gym Leader.

She noted that the leader liked to use ice-types. Ironically enough, the seventh Gym Leader of Kanto had been a fire-type specialist.

"I guess it would be a good idea for me to choose a fire type..." noted Lucy. She didn't have any rock or fighting types, which put her at a disadvantage.

Pryce sent out Jynx.

"Jynx jynx jynx!" exclaimed the ice Pokemon.

"I wonder why this Pokemon loosely resembles a human..." noted Lucy.

It was curious indeed. Maybe Professor Elm was looking into that. Or Professor Oak.

Well, there were some things people didn't understand about Pokemon. There were things not even the Pokemon Champion himself knew about them.

To counter Pryce's Jynx, she decided to send out her Ponyta.

It was best to fight ice with fire.

Although...it seemed that a lot of ice types were also water types.

That kind of limited her Ponyta's use against ice Pokemon, though she got the feeling that there was a pure ice Pokemon out there somewhere.

"Ponyta!" exclaimed Lucy's Ponyta.

"Be careful Lucy...given his age he likely has been a Pokemon Trainer for years..." warned Jake.

Then again, she already defeated Blaine. While he had very different choices in Pokemon he also had years of experience.

"Well, I have learned how to do well in a Pokemon battle rather quickly..." acknowledged Lucy.

"That's true..." nodded the boy. He knew full well who her father was.

Ponyta blasted Jynx with Flame Wheel.

"Ponyta!" exclaimed the fire Pokemon as she expelled fire from her mouth.

Jynx gasped in astonishment as she was pelted by the flames. Those flames were very hot indeed.

She attempted to kiss Ponyta, but she was too fast for that to be efficient.

It was just as well. Jynx preferred kissing male Pokemon anyway...and Ponyta was not one of them.

She kicked Jynx with one of her hooves.

Jynx hit Ponyta with Ice Punch...but that didn't seem to hurt her much.

Ponyta hit Jynx with Flame Wheel once again.

Her eyes widened with astonishment.

It was a critical hit.

Jynx fainted.

"Jynx..." murmured the fainted ice Pokemon.

Some Pokemon just couldn't take the heat. Grass Pokemon, for example.

However, Pryce intended to send out an opponent that was much more suited for Ponyta...though technically it was still an ice type.

That Pokemon happened to be Dewgong.

"Dewgong dewgong!" shouted the water and ice Pokemon, clapping his flippers.

Lucy noted that perhaps it would be best if she switched. Dewgong's water attacks could do a lot of damage to her Ponyta.

However, a grass type wouldn't be such a good idea either. Chances are they would be frozen by Dewgong's Ice Beam.

Perhaps an electric type would be the way to go.

Fortunately, during her travels in the Johto reason, she had acquired a Mareep, which had grown into a very strong electric Pokemon indeed.

She withdrew Ponyta and sent out Ampharos.

Ampharos used Thunderbolt.

However, Dewgong hit Ampharos with Ice Beam in retaliation.

Ampharos prepared to launch another Thunderbolt while Dewgong prepared to use Surf.

This had interesting results.

Both Ampharos and Dewgong fainted simultaneously.

Pryce sent out Piloswine.

Lucy sent out Poliwhirl, since Piloswine happened to be part ground type.

She fired bubbles at Piloswine.

Piloswine was injured by the bubbles, but he bombarded Poliwhirl with a Mud Bomb in retaliation.

Poliwhirl was pelted with mud.

"Poliwhirl..." murmured the water Pokemon. To be honest, she wasn't expecting ground type attacks in this kind of gym.

And to make matters worse, that attack had really packed a wallop.

She hit Piloswine with a Power-Up Punch.

Piloswine headbutted Poliwhirl in retaliation.

Unfortunately, though she had worn down Piloswine, she couldn't take him down by herself. That ice Pokemon was simply too strong.

Eventually, Poliwhirl fainted after Piloswine fired off another Mud Bomb.

Lucy was down to her last Pokemon.

But on the other hand, Piloswine looked rather tired.

It looked as if Lucy would have to see if Ponyta would do the job.

Clefairy cheered her trainer on.

"Clefairy! Clef!" shouted the fairy Pokemon.

Fortunately, it appeared that things looked good for her.

Ponyta decided to focus her energy for evolution.

Ponyta evolved into Rapidash.

"Yes!" exclaimed Lucy.

Now she was going to be faster than ever.

Rapidash hit Piloswine with Flame Wheel.

"Piloswine!" bellowed the swine Pokemon.

She then followed with a Stomp.

Unfortunately for Piloswine, Rapidash was simply too fast for him.

Piloswine fainted.

Pryce withdrew his fainted Pokemon.

Impressed with her talent, Pryce decided to give Lucy her seventh Gym badge for Johto.

One more and she would be ready for the Pokemon League.

Now that Lucy had managed to defeat the Gym Leader, Jake decided that now it would be his turn to fight Pryce.

"Here goes nothing..." said Jake.

Meanwhile, Sarah's Slowpoke was going fishing right outside Mahogany Town.

Nearby, Sarah was upset about what had happened recently.

On the other hand, Morgiana's former Murkrow seemed rather happy. At long last she was free from her awful Pokemon trainer.

Nearby, Sarah's Togepi wondered if Murkrow would sit on her. Technically speaking, she was an egg.

She had decided to go with her since she had nowhere else to go at that point.

"Personally I don't think you should hang out with Team Shadow anyway. Their leader treated me like some sort of punching bag..." noted Murkrow.

She wasn't happy at Murkrow's lack of combat potential. Back when she first got her, Murkrow simply wasn't good at combat. The only Pokemon she did remotely well against were Pokemon that had a type disadvantage against her, such as psychic Pokemon for example.

Whenever Morgiana felt angry, she would usually take out her anger on her.

She had a habit of shaking her bird cage, causing her to shed her black feathers.

Most people didn't know it, but it wasn't hard to anger her. Often she would repress her rage until she returned to the hideout and then take it on her bird Pokemon.

"How'd you learn to talk, anyway?" inquired Sarah.

"Well, I wanted Morgiana to stop treating me the way she did...so I decided to see if I could talk to her about it. Eventually, I learned the human language...but unfortunately that didn't change anything." noted Sarah's new Murkrow.

"Oh." answered the girl.

"She said that if I spilled the beans on her being the leader of Team Shadow, I'd be released in the wild...I wouldn't survive that." noted the bird Pokemon.

"She reminds me a bit of Jerry..." remarked Sarah.

"I don't know who he is, but I think the world would be a lot better off if people didn't abuse their Pokemon..." remarked Sarah's Murkrow.

Sarah nodded.

Totodile wondered if he should join Slowpoke in the sport of fishing.

Then again, he would rather dive in the water and swallow up fish instead of doing it the same way Slowpoke was.

And besides, his tail was smaller than Slowpoke's.

Personally Totodile wondered why Slowpoke wasn't as energetic as he was.

Suddenly, Slowpoke got a bite.

It appeared to be a Shellder.

Slowpoke smirked. It looked as if his time to evolve had come. He had been waiting patiently for this moment.

But shortly afterward, something unexpected happened.

"Hey! Let him go!" demanded Sarah.

Quickly, she pulled the Shellder off of Slowpoke's tail.

This caused the Shellder to notice something he hadn't before.

Sure, Slowpoke's tail looked delicious, but what about the head?

Surely, his head would be rather tasty.

He decided to try that.

Shortly afterward, Slowpoke began to evolve...

...he became a Slowking.

"Totodile?" asked Sarah's Totodile. That Pokemon looked different from the Slowbros he had seen.

Apparently, it was known as a Slowking.

Sarah scanned Slowking with her Pokedex.

"Slowking, the Royal Pokemon. Slowking is known for its incredible intellect, and remains calm regardless of the situation." noted Sarah's Pokedex.

"I guess he's not becoming a Slowbro..." noted Sarah.

Totodile shrugged.

But on the other hand, Slowking had combat potential as well.

Personally, Slowking was glad that he could still use his tail...otherwise he would have to go swimming for food, and that wouldn't be as fun for him.

Suddenly, Sarah sighed.

Her Pokemon evolving was nice, but she still had gotten herself kicked out Team Shadow.

It then occurred to her that perhaps she should return the Totodile that she stole.

"Now that I've been kicked out of Team Shadow I should probably return you to Prof. Elm..." noted Sarah.

Totodile frowned.

"And Togepi as compensation..." remarked the girl.

Togepi cried.

Reluctantly, she went back to New Bark Town.

Meanwhile...

In Goldenrod City, two Team Shadow Grunts were having a conversation with each other.

"Did you hear about what's going to happen?" asked one of the Team Shadow Grunt.

"Yeah! We're going to rule over Johto!" exclaimed the other Team Shadow Grunt. Officer Jenny would be powerless against them.

Nearby, Team Rocket overheard this.

"They're going to rule Johto?" questioned James.

"They say that she's going to mind control every Pokemon in Johto!" exclaimed one of the Team Shadow Grunts.

"Yeah! Nobody will be able to oppose her after that!" bellowed the other Team Shadow Grunt.

"She's going to seize control of every Pokemon in Johto? Man, that's evil!" exclaimed James.

"I wonder why our former boss never thought of that..." noted Jessie.

"I guess I might as well start building a statue of her..." remarked Meowth.

"Wait...if she's going to take control of our Pokemon, does that mean our days of crime are over?" inquired the blue-haired man.

"Now that you say that, it probably is." answered Jessie.

"Aw man!" exclaimed Meowth.

"What are we going to do?" asked James.

"Maybe end it with a big bang?" inquired Jessie.

"That's a great idea! Let's rob Professor Oak!" bellowed the blue-haired former Team Rocket Grunt.

"There's a problem with that...I don't think we'd have enough time to get to Kanto before she executes her plan..." noted Meowth. Otherwise, he would be all up for it.

"We'll just have to rob Professor Elm then..." noted Jessie.

"Works for me!" exclaimed James. His security was lighter, anyway.

The two of them set off to New Bark Town on their hot air balloon...careful to avoid any passing bird Pokemon that might pop it.

Morgiana is so devious. Have you ever wondered why Lance didn't show up to stop Team Rocket when they hijacked the Radio Tower? Well, in this fanfic there's an explanation for why Lance isn't going to be there.

Hopefully our heroes can handle Morgiana without him. But, as you know, she's a pretty strong Pokemon trainer. Do they have what it takes to stop her?

Fortunately, someone else may be able to help them...you might have been expecting them already, but I'm not telling.

Oh, and I figured Sarah's Slowpoke would evolve into a Slowking because I figured unlike Jerry, Sarah would care if there was another Pokemon biting into him.

And yes, our heroes will be headed to the Radio Tower soon.

Can Sarah stop Team Rocket? Or what's left of them anyway?