Chapter 5: Cold
"Shit", Magnus shouted. Even his Garchomp wouldn't be able to catch up with their helicopter.
"Flash Cannon!", he ordered one last time even though he knew his Magnezone's attack would not be able to reach them. The Galactic helicopter disappeared behind a silvery veil of snow. He had arrived just a bit too late. The frostbitten skin on his knuckles burst open as he returned Magnezone to its Pokéball. Between his feet, ever-so-small drops of his blood turned the snow into a light shade of pink. Finally, he decided to call the Champion on his PokéNav.
"Magnus?", Cynthia answered his call, "Have you already reached Lake Acuity? How did you do?"
Taking a deep breath, the seemingly freeze-dried air of northern Sinnoh pierced his throat as if he had swallowed hundreds of needles.
"I've failed."
Saying this hurt him even more than the horrible coldness that had already crept into his bones. The moment of silence on the other end of the phone call didn't make things better.
"Me too", she eventually answered and thereby sent Magnus into a state of shock.
"What?", he exclaimed, "How?"
"They must have realised that Looker gained access to their secret plans... So they changed things up", she answered, "They took the professor hostage. I managed to free him, but that bought them enough time."
"Shit", Magnus shook his head in disbelief.
"And it gets worse."
His eyes widened more and more as she told him that Lake Valor had essentially been blown up. Doing there best to save the injured and beached Pokémon, the Elite Four and Gym Leaders had no chance to pursuit Team Galactic.
"We knew that they would focus their efforts on Lake Valor", Cynthia said, "But I had no idea that even the Elite Four wouldn't be enough..."
There was another minute of silence between them as they both needed some time to let the unfortunate reality sink in: Cynthia's secret mission at Lake Verity, Magnus's one man mission at Lake Acuity and even the Pokémon League's main offensive at Lake Valor – all had failed.
"I will call you back once we've sorted ourselves out here", Cynthia finally ended the phone call.
"Sorry I failed you", he muttered.
"Keep your head up", she tried to cheer him up, "I'll talk to Looker and Interpol about what to do next. I'll get in touch with you afterwards."
There he was, all on his own. His fist slammed into the ground, crushing the snow below it. Dammit! He had hurried to Lake Acuity as fast as he could. Flying through the harsh north wind. Enduring the coldness creeping into every fibre of his body. All in vain. He had been too late.
He dragged himself to Snowpoint City, slowly treading through the deep snow. Every step was a fight and not just against his worn-out body. Whenever he looked up, the wind would blow icy snow into his eyes. Finally, the weather cleared up a bit and previously hidden by the snowfall, a chimney was sticking out of the spruce treetops. Walking through the entrance gate of Snowpoint, he let his eyes wander. Not much to see here, really. An old stone temple was towering over the small houses, but other than that, the only remarkable thing about this city was its Gym and the frozen port. Wait... Magnus suddenly came to a halt, his tired mind trying to process what he had just seen. A Gym. His body tensed, but not in excitement. With a Gym Leader. He clenched his teeth. A Gym Leader who wasn't at Lake Acuity.
"Why the hell weren't you at the Lake?", he shouted after storming through the Gym's entrance.
Several trainers in winter clothing stared at him. Unsure who to direct his anger towards, he hastily pointed at all of them.
"Who of you is the Gym Leader here?"
"That's me, Candice", a warm female voice answered from the back of the room. A young woman emerged from behind the crowd of trainers. Her short skirt and light shirt would have made Magnus shiver, if he hadn't been heated by his rage.
"Should we take care of this troublemaker?", one of the trainers asked, but Magnus was quick to interrupt him.
"If you also want to get your ass beaten, then get in line!", he turned his head from the seemingly horrified trainer to the Gym leader, "She's first!"
"Don't worry", Candice told her trainers, "I'll teach this hothead a lesson."
"Teach me a lesson?", his shouts had gotten a high-pitched undertone, "Someone's should have taught you a lesson on carrying out your duty as a Gym Leader!"
"Cut it out!", she hissed back at him, "Four versus four. I hope you are ready. Snover, go!"
"Magnezone, finish her!"
She sent out a small Pokémon that looked like a snow-covered bush or tree. A white aura formed around its body and shot at the Gym's ceiling, crystallising into many small hailstones, the first of which dropped onto Magnezone.
"Of course", Magnus snarled, "Even indoors there's snow. Magnezone, finish this nonsense! Flash Cannon!"
A single shot firmly knocked out Snover, but to Magnus's disdain, the hail continued to fall.
"Let's start to take this seriously", Candice muttered and sent out her Medicham. Magnus knew these Pokémon and their enormous offensive power from Hoenn all too well. Better finish it off quickly.
"Thunderbolt!", he shouted and Candice answered with "High Jump Kick!"
Magnezone moved first, but when its Thunderbolt had fired, Medicham had already jumped up so that the attack only grazed it. Medicham came flying down towards Magnezone and before Magnus could react, Medicham's foot hit Magnezone right between its eyes. Magnezone immediately crashed into the floor. One-hit-knockout.
"Garchomp, avenge Magnezone!"
Just as his Garchomp hit the battlefield, Magnus remembered something about Medichams: they can learn Ice Punch. And he's currently in an Ice Gym. The type which is four times effective against his Garchomp. Crap. He should have thought this through, but there was no turning back now. The hail hit both Garchomp and Medicham, but his Garchomp was visibly more distressed by it than his opponent. Screw it.
"Dragon Claw!" - "Ice Punch!"
Garchomp swiftly charged at Medicham who remained still, almost in a meditative pose. Just when Garchomp's glowing claw was about to strike at Medicham, it lunged at the Dragon-type with its fist surrounded by a light-blue aura. Medicham was fast, but Garchomp was even faster and the Dragon Claw hit Medicham before its attack could properly connect. The impact of Garchomp's claw sent Medicham flying, but its icy fist nevertheless grazed Garchomp's left leg. Megnus knew that Medicham would not be able to stand up again; despite their enormous attack, Medichams have rather lacklustre defenses. But the way Garchomp's left leg was twitching worried him. Again, hail hit his Dragon-type, but to Magnus's relieve, the hail's intensity seemed to have calmed down.
Without saying a word, Candice withdrew her Medicham. Her sharp eyes first fixed on Garchomp, then on Magnus. The tension between them was almost tangible. Finally, she broke the silence and calmly said: "Go, Abomasnow!"
A larger, more sinister looking version of Snover hit the field and again, a white aura formed around its body and reinvigorated the hail.
"Crap", Magnus thought, "Just when the hail was about to end..." He then turned towards the Gym Leader.
"You know, instead of spreading bad weather, you could have maybe spent some time on... I don't know... stopping Team Galactic at the lake?"
She frowned even more, but Magnus realised she wouldn't react to his taunting. He sighed and instead commanded his Garchomp "Fire Fang!". Finally, the Gym Leader responded with "Ice Shard" and to Magnus's surprise, icy blades instantly formed around Abomasnow and shot at Garchomp at an unprecedented speed. His Garchomp had already started to charge at the opponent and, unable to change his course, ran through the frozen shrapnel and buried his burning jaws into Abomasnow. Garchomp was severely hurt by the ice, but Abomasnow flinched and could not react when Magnus ordered a second Fire Fang that set the Ice-type ablaze. It took a few seconds, but eventually, Abomasnow toppled over. Although his opponent had only one Pokémon left, Magnus could not feel particularly happy. His Garchomp had clearly suffered a lot from these Ice-type attacks. Not to mention the hail that kept raining down on him.
"Froslass, finish him", Candice said and a humanoid Pokémon emerged from the Pokéball, floating a bit above the ground. Although there was no wind inside of the Gym, its body was moving like being gently touched by a breeze. There was something eerie about this opponent, but Magnus decided not to bother with this.
"Fire Fang!", he commanded, but just when Garchomp was about to strike, his opponent vanished in the hail.
"What the?", muttered Magnus and Candice replied with a smirk: "Blizzard!"
From close range, a massive blizzard hit his Garchomp right on his injured left side. Garchomp tried to stand up again, but his left leg just would not comply, and after another failed attempt, Froslass finished off the immobilised Garchomp with an Ice Beam.
"You'll regret that!", Magnus growled as he withdrew Garchomp, "Go, Rotom!"
A small, orange bulb with a pointy tip, wide eyes and an even wider grin floated just above the battlefield, surrounded by weak lightnings erupting from its body.
"Shadow Ball!", Magnus commanded and Candice ordered her Froslass to counter with a Shadow Ball on her own. Rotom got hit hard by the incoming blast, but Froslass again just vanished behind a veil of snow.
"What the hell is going on here?", he shouted and the desperation in his voice made Candice chuckle.
"You should know this", she replied, "After all, your Garchomp has a similar ability!"
"What?" That just confused him more than before.
"I'll explain it to you later. For now: Shadow Ball!"
"Quick, Shadow Ball!"
Both Pokémon formed purple spheres in front of them and launched them at their opponent. Magnus's Rotom was smashed into the ground, but Froslass faded into the hail again – but this time not quickly enough and it got partially hit by Rotom's Shadow Ball. Magnus noticed that the hail had again become weaker. "Maybe", he thought, "Froslass's ability to dodge the attacks is connected to the intensity of the hail."
"Hey, don't you wanna send out a new Pokémon?"
The Gym Leader's voice pulled Magnus out of his thoughts and when his attention returned to the battlefield, he saw that his Rotom was lying motionless on the ground. Crap, another Pokémon down. So now they were both down to their last Pokémon. His Sceptile would be weak against the Ice-type attacks, just like his Honchkrow. He really was ill-prepared for the Ice-type Gym. Taking a deep breath, he tried to calm himself down. He had to think clearly now.
"The hail is getting weaker", he thought, "So there might be a better chance to hit Froslass now. But if we get a chance to hit it, we have to finish it in one strike. If this comes down to a hit-or-miss-gamble, we might as well give it our strongest punch!"
He sighed and sent out his final Pokémon. Rampardos roared as its prehistoric body hit the field. The two legs were tensely strained, eagerly waiting to charge and slam the massive dome on its skull into an opponent.
"Froslass, Blizzard!"
"Head Smash!"
Rampardos's legs twitched and catapulted its body forward, the ground vibrating with each step. Running through Froslass's Blizzard, it seemed to almost be unphased by the Ice-type attack, but that was only because it was so keen on the attack that it did not yet notice the pain that had been inflicted to it. Froslass tried to hide behind the hail, but too little, too late: Rampardos's head, covered in a light red aura, smashed into the Ice-type and Magnus felt his every muscle relax when the opponent hit the ground. A super effective hit from Rampardos's enormous attack. One-hit-knockout. Finally, the strain from the Blizzard must have reached the brain of Rampardos as it started to stagger and twitch in pain. Erupting into a victory roar, Rampardos was withdrawn by Magnus to let it recover.
"Has my ice managed to cool you down a bit?", asked Candice as she gave Magnus the Icicle Badge.
"I guess so", he answered slightly ashamed, "Sorry for having burst into your Gym like a maniac."
Candice tried to smile at him, but he could see the sorrow in her eyes.
"I understand your anger", she said, "But unfortunately, the Lakes weren't the only place under attack... They also mounted an assault on Snowpoint Temple."
"What? That wasn't part of their plan at all!"
"You mean the documents Looker gave us?", she sighed, "Yes, but their plans seemed to have changed. I don't know how the temple is connected to their overall goals, but as the Snowpoint Gym Leader, I could not leave this sacred place undefended. There weren't many of them, but enough to keep me busy."
Magnus hesitated for a moment before asking: "Do you think it might have been a distraction?"
"Maybe", she replied so quickly that Magnus thought she might have had the same theory. They decided that they both needed rest to get over today's events and while Candice retreated to meditate in the Snowpoint Temple, Magnus went to the local Pokécenter. Whenever Cynthia would call him back about what to do next, he would need his Pokémon to be prepared to fight, prepared to push their limits – and maybe to push his own limits, too.