Doomed on a Mountaintop

by Besprizornye

When Cassie takes a trip to the Seafoam Islands she stumbles upon a sinister plot by Team Rocket to capture the legendary Articuno, and to make matters worse, their plan seems to center around her!

It was summertime and Cassie was the envy of all of her friends. Some of them had booked family vacations to more exotic locations, and some of them had snagged more prestigious internships, but no one else that she knew could boast as Cassie could that she was going to spend the whole summer on Cinnabar Island. The honor and connections that came with working for the prestigious Fuji Pokémon Laboratory on the island were certainly a factor, but Cassie couldn't deny that it was more likely the thought of spending every minute she could away from the lab swimming and sunning herself on the beach which made the eyes of even her closest friends turn green with envy.

Now she was two weeks into her summer internship and a lot of Cassie's expectations had needed to be adjusted. The work in the lab was interesting enough in theory, and sometimes there was a chance to witness some truly cutting-edge process or technology, but a lot of her time was spent with the pokémon under observation, dutifully noting their conditions for the lab's logs. Inevitably, most of Cassie's contributions were along the lines of "no discernable change observed".

On top of the kind of work she was doing, Cassie had needed to adjust to just how much of it there was. Cassie's daily routine started earlier than she had anticipated, and it took a monumental effort of will for the young woman to hold to her new schedule. The hours in the lab were long, and even though Cinnabar Island enjoyed some of the best weather in the whole region, Cassie was hardly able to enjoy her evenings as much as she would have liked. Instead of hitting the beach, the boardwalk, or any of the other attractions on the island, most nights saw Cassie drag herself back to the dormitories run by the lab, eat dinner, and go to bed early to try and prepare for the whole cycle to begin again the next day.

The exceptions were the weekends, and that was where Cassie caught more than just a glimmer of the exciting and envy inducing summer for which she had hoped. She was only one of three interns, but many of the lab's staff weren't much older than Cassie and her peers so there was an approachability to the younger researchers and technicians that the senior members of the staff lacked. Everyone was perfectly professional on the clock, but after the workday had ended, Cassie's coworkers shed their lab coats and hit the town like any other group of young adults in the prime of their lives would.

Frankly, it was hard for Cassie to keep up with them sometimes, and her dormitory became a refuge from the "work hard, play hard" clique. When the weekend rolled around, however, Cassie was eager to make up for missed chances and tagged along with her coworkers for trips to the beach, movie outings, and even excursions out to the Seafoam Islands.

Part of what made Cinnabar Island such an attractive destination for Cassie and her friends was the fact that the Seafoam Islands were a short boat ride away. That the island chain to the east of Cinnabar Island was more secluded and less of a tourist hotspot ironically made it all the more appealing to tourists like Cassie. Native Cinnabarians also enjoyed it, too, which was why Cassie was able to pitch a weekend spent camping out on one of the islands to her coworkers without them deriding her as a wide-eyed sightseer, or at least not too much.

The boat ride to the island Cassie's group had picked as its base for their weekend was smooth, and had seen the researchers, technicians, and interns throwing themselves into unwinding with aplomb. Drinks and laughs had been shared. Once on the island, they had set up their tents and splashed around in the sun until one of Cassie's coworkers had gotten the idea of doing a miniature pokémon tournament. This summer the big trend among the junior staff at the Fuji Pokémon Laboratory had been "trade-battles", where a set of trainers eagerly swapped pokémon back and forth and then battled one another with the resulting teams. Cassie hadn't really understood the appeal when she had first been introduced to the idea, and even weeks of peer pressure hadn't changed her mind. When she heard of the idea of doing a trade-battle tournament on the beach, Cassie quickly begged off.

"No thanks," she said, and grinned at the chorus of groans and boos her answer earned. "I'm not much for battling, and anyways, I don't want to give up my growlithe for a dewgong, or whatever you're offering." Cassie laughed as the rest of the group's disappointment became ruder and more exaggerated. "Hey, don't let me stop you all from having fun," she said as she put her hands up to ward off her coworkers' jeers. "I'm just going to go on a little hike. I should be back for dinner."

"Do you want one of us to go with you?" one of the other interns asked, a mousy girl whose voice betrayed how badly she wanted to stay and be a part of the rest of the group. "I mean, just to be safe. You shouldn't go hiking alone, right?"

Cassie waved off the other girl's concern and said, "Don't worry about me, I know what I'm doing and, besides, I'll have my growlithe with me."

"Aw, let her go," one of the full-time lab employees said with a laugh, "Cass isn't the type to get herself in trouble, or do much of anything!" The others joined in his mirth, and they laughed all the harder when Cassie gave them a rude hand gesture and then set off on her hike.

"Jerks, all of them," Cassie said to herself with a smile and a shake of her head.

An hour later, Cassie was climbing up the steep side of a rocky incline and wondering what she might find at the top. Growing up in Pewter City had given her plenty experience rock climbing and Cassie felt surefooted and confident even given her lack of equipment and her casual clothes. The others had laughed at her from packing sensible shoes instead of a cute pair of sandals, but Cassie had harbored a desire to explore more of the Seafoam Islands than just its beaches. Now, with her long blonde hair nearly tamed in a ponytail and the wind blowing the salty smell of the ocean against her face and bare arms and legs, Cassie was sure that she had made the right choice.

Cassie had set a goal for herself of climbing atop an outcropping of rock jutting out from the island's conical shape. She found handholds and footholds and gradually pulled herself up, driven by the twin desires of seeing the view she would earn at the top and of fulfilling her self-imposed challenge. But when Cassie finally started pulling herself up onto the landing she had chosen, she was stunned to find that there were two people already standing there, looking at her expectantly.

There were two of them: a man a few years older than Cassie and a girl who looked to be about the same age as her. Both were dressed in the telltale black uniforms of Team Rocket and Cassie was about to start climbing down when the man's foot came down on her fingers. His expression was calculating instead of cruel, but that made it all the worse that he was stepping on her fingers not simply to hurt her but to hold her in place. "Come up nice and slowly there, girl," he said coolly. "We won't hurt you if you do what we say."

"Why should I?" Cassie said as bravely as she could, but the truth was that she already felt her grip weakening from the strain of holding up the half of her body hanging off the cliff and from the gradually increasing pressure crushing her fingers. She knew the outcome, and the older Rocket did as well, because he didn't respond to her bravado but simply waited for Cassie to make the inevitable choice. "Fine," admitted Cassie begrudgingly, even though she knew that choosing to climb up to the Rockets was an obviously better choice than falling to certain injury and possible death.

Both of the Rockets helped her up, the man more roughly than the girl. But at least the hard-faced Rocket was direct. His companion did everything she could to avoid looking Cassie in the eye. Instead, she looked to her companion for guidance and assurance as she asked, "Will she do, Billy?"

"She'll do fine," the Rocket named Billy said curtly. Then to Cassie, he said stonily, "Thank you for making yourself available. It saved us the trouble of having to go down and pick off one of your companions."

"Anything to be helpful," Cassie murmured with a grimace as she tried to flex away the lingering pain in her fingers. "What are you two doing, anyways? I thought Team Rocket was broken up, like, multiple times."

Billy's already stern face grew harder still and he said, "There are those of us who still carry the torch. People will see that there is still plenty of life left in Team Rocket soon enough."

"Aren't you scared?" the other Rocket interjected. Now that Cassie finally got a good look at the other girl's face, she wondered if her initial estimate had been off and this Rocket was in fact younger than she was.

"What's the point of being scared?" Cassie answered. "Whatever you two are planning to do, I'm at your mercy, for the time being."

"'For the time being'", Billy repeated, but he didn't elaborate further. Instead, he barked at the other Rocket, "Kitt!"

"Yes, Billy?" the girl said at once.

"Tie her hands and then we'll start walking to the place we scoped out earlier."

Kitt nodded and took out a length of cord from her bag, but although she was rough enough seizing Cassie's wrists and crossing them behind her back, Kitt's hands were trembling too much for her to tie a proper knot. Before Cassie could start to entertain hopes of an easy escape, Billy caught his teammate's fumbling failures and moved to take over. He bound Cassie's hands tightly behind her back and then, with a curt nod to Kitt, the pair started walking Cassie further up the mountain.

"I hope you don't expect me to climb like this," Cassie said with as little sarcasm as she could muster.

"There's walking trails crisscrossing most of these islands," Billy said coolly. "Luckily for you, we just have to walk."

"You know, my friends will come looking for me," Cassie said. When that didn't get any response from either Billy or Kitt, Cassie continued, "I don't know what your plan is, but if you're trying to hold me for ransom, you should know that I'm a student doing an internship. I'm no one important."

"Not yet," said Billy and he gave Cassie a hard shove so that she would be quiet and focus on following Kitt.

They walked in silence for a long time. The further that they went up the mountain, the colder the air got and Cassie's body was soon wracked with shivers. Even the midday sun shining overhead wasn't enough to combat the plunging temperatures. The Rockets didn't seem bothered by the cold, but Cassie was trembling under her shorts and red sleeveless top. "It's freezing up here!" Cassie said through teeth that were threatening to start chattering at any minute. "I didn't think it could get this cold this far south."

"The Seafoam Islands are home to a lot of ice-type pokémon," Billy remarked without turning around. "Many of them can stand the warm waters for a period, but they prefer the cold and have the ability to remake the environment into one they prefer." Now the Rocket glanced over his shoulder and cocked an eyebrow as he asked, "What do you know about these islands, girl?"

"My name's not 'girl'," huffed Cassie, but before she could give her name, Kitt stumbled onto Cassie's feet and sent the girl sprawling onto the ground between the two Rockets. "Ouch," Cassie groaned, but her injuries were thankfully limited to some minor scratches on her arms and face.

Billy worked with Kitt to help Cassie to her feet, but then he began talking again as if nothing had happened, "Even though they are dormant volcanoes, inside of this island and its siblings is an icy network of caves. Wherever ice-type pokémon reside, they tend to create these kinds of environments, no matter the region or the latitude. These pokémon who both prefer and create a frozen environment create a cycle. They grow and prosper in the cold and their numbers mean that they are more able to create the ideal habitat. In some cases, they can even attract other pokémon to the home that they've made."

Cassie tried to follow along with Billy's words, but it was hard to understand why he was giving her a lesson and even harder to care when she was so cold. Still, Cassie said gamely, "So, what does that have to do with me?"

"You're the key to our plan, girl," said Billy, and the weight of those words chilled Cassie more than the air around her. "Ice-type pokémon attract other ice-type pokémon," Billy explained again, "and what is the most powerful ice-type pokémon in these parts?"

"Um, Articuno."

"That's right, the titan of ice, and one of the legendary bird pokémon." Billy said without any emotion. "The Seafoam Islands are one of Articuno's haunts. There are many legends around Articuno, some of them mere fantasy but others seem to be based in truth." The Rocket was silent for a minute as he surveyed the land around them. Cassie was surprised to see a layer of frost on some of the plants daring to try and survive on top of the frigid peak. Finally, Billy said to Kitt, "We're close. You can get out your pokémon now, Kitt."

The younger Rocket nodded and said, "Right, Billy." She took her attention away from Cassie to retrieve a poké ball from her bag, and Cassie used the distraction to try and make her move.

Even though her hands were still bound, Cassie still was able to push the slight girl behind her with enough force to knock her off balance thanks to the unsteady ground. Even before Kitt had hit the ground, Cassie was off and running back down the mountain path which the Rockets had led her. Cassie made it a few yards and dared to think that she might have earned her freedom when a sudden blast of heat made the girl freeze in her tracks as a gout of fire surged past her head. For fear of the next attack being more than a warning shot, Cassie stayed deathly still until the pair of Rockets came to collect her.

"That wasn't very smart," Billy said simply as he grabbed Cassie's restraints and guided her further up the past.

Once she was turned around, Cassie could see that the source of the attack which had frightened her so badly was the pokémon by Kitt's side, a magcargo with gooey red skin under its round gray shell. The pokémon's body bubbled and popped every so often which contributed to its alien appearance. The Rocket commanding the strange gastropod pokémon was shaking next to it, but Cassie realized that it wasn't from the cold when Kitt's shaky voice cried, "Don't make me attack you again, girl!" The word, so dismissive in Billy's hands seemed almost comical in Kitt's. "We're almost there, and then, and then we'll be done with you, so just keep walking and don't try that again!"

More than Billy's blunt professionalism it was Kitt's nervous display which made Cassie feel afraid. "What are you going to do to me?" she asked Billy when they were walking again. Kitt's slow magcargo reduced their pace, but its lava-like body generated enough heat to chase away the cold, although Cassie took little comfort in that bit of physical comfort.

"One of the legends about Articuno is that it appears to doomed travelers in its domain," Billy said. "Kitt and I have found enough stories and accounts to suggest that this isn't just an old wives' tale, but a particular quirk of Articuno. The fearsome titan of ice has a soft spot for lost causes."

"Like me," said Cassie, and she realized only after she had spoken that the words had come out as a statement instead of the question that she thought she had been intending.

"Like you," Billy agreed, and they reached a small plateau which overlooked the rest of the island. If she squinted, Cassie thought that she could see signs of a fierce pokémon battle raging on the beach between her friends and coworkers. "You're going to be our bait to lure Articuno out of hiding," Billy said with the air of a man describing a recipe. "Once the legendary pokémon makes itself known, Kitt and I will battle it and capture it. That will mark the start of Team Rocket's resurgence."

Cassie stumbled when Billy started to pull her away from the center of the plateau. "And then you'll let me go?" she asked without much hope.

Billy had the decency to grimace, while next to him Kitt was staring at Cassie as though seeing her for the first time. "That's the issue with the legend," the older Rocket said slowly. "If Articuno wants a doomed traveler, I believe it has to be someone who couldn't be saved without Articuno's interference. No Articuno, no survival."

"Billy, please don't talk about it anymore," Kitt said softly, her eyes still as wide as dinner plates. "Can we please just get it over with? I want to go home."

"Don't worry," said Billy, "it'll be over soon enough." Then he started towards Cassie, ignoring the hatred in the girl's eyes. Cassie backed away from the Rocket until she was standing with nothing behind her but a long fall. "Anything you want to say, girl?"

"My name is Cassie, and you two are nothing but slime!" When Billy moved to push her, Cassie dropped down and drove her head into the Rocket's midsection. While he was doubled-over in pain, Cassie tried frantically to get her hands free from the cord tied around her wrists.

It was hard enough to focus on freeing herself without Kitt screaming, "Move, Billy! We can't get a clear shot with you standing there!" but somehow Cassie painfully wrenched a hand from the plastic shackles and she ignored the pain to pull out a red and white poké ball from the pocket of her shorts.

"Rufus!" shouted Cassie and her orange- and black-striped growlithe emerged from its pokémon ball just as Kitt ordered, "Flamethrower!"

The magcargo's stream of fire was intercepted by Rufus's furry little body, and the small canine pokémon growled its anger at seeing its trainer attacked. Hope surged through Cassie's body as she pulled her other hand free and let the cord the Rockets had used to restrain her fall off the cliff behind her. "Good work, Rufus! Now-" But before Cassie could finish her order, a flash of red light signaled that Billy had sent out his own pokémon. Cassie had no time to react before a round purple koffing, smelling of rot and pollution, flew through the air and slammed into her hard enough to send her careening off of the mountain.

Cassie screamed and shut her eyes tight, hoping that she could not feel the final impact when it came. But the bone-crunching finale didn't come. Instead, Cassie felt her downward momentum suddenly halt as she was plucked out of the air by a large claw. The sudden stop drove all of the air out of her lungs, and that was the only reason why the sight of her savior didn't take her breath away.

Articuno, the legendary bird pokémon, was holding Cassie in its talons. Cassie realized that none of the artwork she had seen of the majestic pokémon had ever truly done it justice. With feathers which glimmered like icicles in the sun and a proud and noble bearing, Cassie knew that she would remember this moment for the rest of her life. "Thank you," she wheezed without knowing whether the pokémon would even understand. It looked as though Articuno might try to set her down, but then Billy's voice pierced through Cassie's waking dream as the Rocket shouted, "Attack, Kitt! Now!"

Suddenly, Articuno's graceful flight turned into a series of looping maneuvers as the titan of ice dodged stream after stream of fire sent its way by Kitt's magcargo. Cassie screamed again and tried to cling to the clawed foot holding onto her as best she could. Being this close to the powerful ice-type pokémon was numbing her fingers and the sensation only worsened when Articuno breathed in and then fired off its own attack: a beam of icy energy which froze the ground around Kitt's magcargo and sent the two Rocket's running for cover.

Articuno's opponent didn't shy away from the attack, however. Instead, the incredible heat of magcargo's fiery attacks was already melting the icy residue of the legendary bird pokémon's attack around it as it continued its offensive.

Despite its beautiful display of airborne acrobatics, Articuno's luck ran out and its foe managed to clip its wing and earn a painful yet still ethereally beautiful cry of pain from the legendary pokémon. Articuno began to lose altitude and Cassie shut her eyes tight to try and avoid becoming sick from her savior's erratic flying. "What can we do?" Cassie asked herself with her eyes and jaw all clenched. "What can I do?"

The idea that came to Cassie was risky and ill-thought-out but it was still looked to her like the best shot that she was going to get. "Rufus!" she called, a lonely voice in the whipping wind around her. "We have to help Articuno! Get that magcargo off its feet, no matter what you have to do!"

Cassie couldn't be sure that her words got through to her small pokémon, and she didn't know how the Rockets Billy and Kitt would react to her orders, but she did know that getting Rufus's help was only half of her plan. The other was lightening Articuno's load so that the legendary pokémon didn't have to try and fight off the Rockets with her weighing it down. So, the next time that Articuno's dizzying flight pattern took her over the plateau, Cassie ignored all of her body's instincts screaming at her and slipped free from Articuno's talons to fall to the ground below.

Landing hurt, but it would have hurt a lot more if she hadn't landed on top of Billy. The Rocket had looked up to see Cassie falling from the sky and had barely a moment to shout his surprise before the girl had struck him and the two crumpled to the ground. It was a mad scramble for Cassie and Billy to get back on their feet, and Kitt was torn between wanting to help her teammate and keeping her attention on her magcargo's battle with Articuno. Billy made his opinion clear by roaring, "Don't take your eyes off of it! Everything depends on Articuno!"

Still, Kitt was distracted, and because of that she failed to see Cassie's growlithe coming until it was too late. Besides Billy's koffing, Rufus was the smallest pokémon on the narrow plateau, but when it dove into Kitt's magcargo, it did so with such heart and strength that the oozing pokémon was almost knocked over. It gobbled unintelligibly at its attacker and for a moment it forgot about Articuno.

But Articuno had not forgotten about the magcargo, and it let loose with another beam of energy which struck the fiery pokémon on its flank. The icy attack did not freeze Kitt's magcargo, but it did result in the gooey pokémon's body beginning to cool and harden like a flow of lava. Slowly, the magcargo tried to divide its attention between Articuno and Cassie's growlithe, but Billy already decided that the Rockets had lost.

"Have your magcargo throw down a rock slide, Kitt," he ordered before giving a sharp nod to his own pokémon. At its trainer's command, Kitt's magcargo groaned and started throwing heavy globs of its hardening body at Articuno, causing the legendary pokémon to swoop and dive out of the way of the rocky barrage. Cassie kept her head covered as well, but she spied Articuno readying another freezing attack sure to finish off its foe.

Cassie cheered, only for her exultation to be turned into a series of hacking coughs as Billy's koffing spewed a cloud of thick black smoke which blanketed the entire plateau in a haze. Part of Cassie wondered if Articuno would still risk attacking, but no icy blasts came. The winds at this high altitude blew away the smoke quickly enough, but neither Cassie nor Rufus nor Articuno saw the Rockets or Kitt's magcargo. The only trail that Billy and Kitt left behind was a rough tunnel of melted earth leading down into the bowels of the island. Cassie took a glance down it and saw nothing but darkness.

Standing over that wound in the earth, the full impact of what Cassie had just been through struck her all at once and she swayed on her feet. Her legs were steadied by the reassuring warmth of her growlithe, and she looked down and smiled her gratitude to Rufus before looking to the sky to search for Articuno. The powerful pokémon was already flying away with powerful beats of its glittering wings. Cassie felt sad as she watched Articuno's shape shrink in the distance. She might have allowed herself a minute or two to absorb the incredible experience of having met a legendary pokémon, but the encounter with the Rockets left her too shaken to dwell for long on Articuno's beauty.

"I've got to tell someone," Cassie said to herself, and she shivered as much from the thought that occurred to her as the cold. "What if those two don't give up and go after Articuno again, or a different legendary pokémon?" Rufus whined nervously and Cassie found that she couldn't do much to reassure her pokémon. She did pick up her growlithe and hold his warm furry body against her chest so that he would stave off the worst of the cold for her. Then Cassie began a lonely descent down the mountain, her mind whirring with thoughts of who she could warn about this latest resurgence of Team Rocket.