Story Notes:
Disclaimer: I do not own pokemon
Froslass' Lament
"Typhlosion! Finish it with Flamethrower!" Frosslass, beaten up from the barrage of attacks, turns to flee only to be struck in the back by the oncoming flames. She collapses and looks off to the side of her body lies on the soft soil of the clearing, "I think that'll do it. Return Typhlosion!" The Pokemon disappears into its pokeball as its trainer begins walking towards the fallen Frosslass, "You put up one hell of a fight little girl." Fear begins forming in Frosslass as she hears the footsteps approach her, "But it looks like the fabled 'princess of ice' is going to be mine. You'll fetch me the title of champion for sure!" Frosslass looks back to the voice to look upon her captor. She knew him all too well although she didn't know his name. He's the one trainer she has had to avoid more then the others. He wears a white shirt and black pants and has a black leather bracelet with a small silver star on it,
"Please... just let me go..." The trainer snickers,
"No way. I've been following you for nine years and I'm not about to lose you now!!" She looks on in horror as the trainer takes out a pokeball that would soon be her prison and he throws it towards her, "Now you're mine!!"
Frosslass' eyes shoot open and she sits up quickly in her bed in a cold sweat. Her heart is pounding and she looks around in pure fear before remembering yesterday and the events that unfolded two nights ago. Shortly after comforting herself with her own thoughts her pulse rate drops and she lets out a soft sigh,
"That's the reason I can't leave... none of the other trainers could ever make me that weak so I only need protection from him... Vecransyh will protect me till I'm stronger." Frosslass sighs, "I suppose humans can be good for something after all... thank you Vecransyh, you've shown me that you and your friends are the only one's I can trust even though not fully..." But as she thinks about Vecransyh, his smile, his voice, his eyes, a soft blush appears on her face as she looks down at the bed, "Why am I thinking of him...?" Frosslass then refills her mind with the negativity of humans and the odd feelings leave her.
A few hours pass before the group heads east of the town and down the road towards Eterna forest. Kaza and Scarlet left a long time before anyone else had even woken up and are already deep in the forest holding hands as they wander through the trees. Kaza turns his head to look at his girlfriend as they walk,
"This place has a nice atmosphere." Scarlet is about to respond before she freezes at the sight in front of them,
"Kaza look!" She speaks in a hushed voice and Kaza turns his head and looks in the direction she is pointing to see a small Abra sitting on the ground with its back to them in a small clearing of trees. The Abra looks like any normal Abra but is a much lighter shade of yellow then others. Kaza grins and takes out a pokeball,
"I'll catch it for you." Scarlet shakes her head,
"Abra are almost impossible to capture with traditional means. I've tried countless times to capture one but it always teleports after breaking out of the ball." Kaza replaces the pokeball onto his belt and folds his arms tapping his foot as he runs through ways to capture an Abra. Then he smiles lightly as his brain hatches the only plan he can think of,
"I'll capture that Abra for you." Scarlet tilts her head,
"And how do you plan to do that?" The smile remains on Kaza's face as he holds up the Master Ball and without another word throws it at the Abra causing it to disappear inside of it and the ball begins to shake rapidly as the Pokemon tries to escape, "Kaza... you used your master ball?!" She looks at him in shock to see a confident smile on his face as he looks toward the Master Ball still shaking rapidly on the ground. The two walk into the small clearing and stare down at the ball as it begins to slow and finally, the ball clicks sealing the capture. Kaza leans down and picks up the ball,
"Dang. Little guy had a lot of energy!" He holds the ball out towards Scarlet, who looks at him in disbelief,
"Do you realize you just used an incredibly valuable and rare pokeball to capture an Abra?!" Kazamaru nods,
"I said I'd catch it for you and I never break a promise. Consider this a token of my love for you." Scarlet takes the Master Ball from his open hand and holds it for a few moments before tightly embracing Kazamaru with tears in her eyes,
"Thank you so much!!!!!!" Kaza lays his hands on her back as he embraces her,
"Anything for you." As the hug ends she looks him directly in the eye,
"I'll repay you for this as a token for my love. Just wait." Kaza nods,
"All right." The two continue walking through the forest and before long, stop in a large open area for lunch. All of their Pokemon sit around them doing whatever interests them and Gardevoir, Kaza, Scarlet, and Abra sit on a blanket eating. The Abra, who is sitting next to Scarlet, lets out a small burp as it reclines onto the grass at the edge of the blanket having completely accepted his fate,
"I guess this isn't so bad. I get to do some traveling now at least." Scarlet and Kazamaru blink as they look towards the talking Pokemon and speak in unison,
"You can talk?!" The Abra sits up and shrugs,
"The world's full of talking psychic Pokemon. You hear a Wailord talk, tell me that shit."
The next few hours are fairly uneventful and soon Kaza and Scarlet reach the end of the forest. Ahead of them is a large trail leading to a bright light to show the forest ending,
"Finally!!" The two walk towards the light but stop when a large blue bear walks across the path and lies down in the middle falling asleep instantly. Kazamaru's eyes widen as he sees the Snorlax barring their path, "If you catch me that Snorlax I will love you for all of eternity because that is the one Pokemon I have always wanted ever since I was born and have not been able to have one because I have not been able to find let alone catch one so please, if you can then catch it for me!!" Scarlet looks like she has a headache from Kaza's very run-on sentence but smiles softly,
"Sure thing, hun!" Sensing hostility the Snorlax wakes up and stands looking angrily at the two trainers,
"You and what army?" The two take a step back at the angry voice but Scarlet releases her Gallade from his pokeball and the Pokemon looks upon his opponent with a smile,
"An army of one big guy." Gallade rushes the bear but is blasted into a tree by an incredible punch to his mid-section knocking the wind out of him,
"Come on. Send out your next Pokemon so I can take it out and go back to sleep." Scarlet returns her fainted Gallade to his pokeball and sends out Gardevoir only to have her meet the same fate and return to her ball only a few seconds later. Scarlet Sends out her Medicham and he rushes the bear avoiding his claws and punches, "GRAH!! Stand still!!" The Medicham runs around the bear slamming it with punches but to no avail as he soon becomes warn out from the recoil of Snorlax's fatty body and takes a punch to the face sending him skidding across the ground and back to his pokeball. The Snorlax folds his arms, "That everyone?" Snorlax blinks as he sees the small Abra in front of him,
"Well, not everyone." Snorlax stomps down and Abra disappears under his foot but reappears sitting on his shoulder, "Wow! Almost got me that time!" He then teleports off of Snorlax's shoulder and grips his stomach, "Wow! You're really big!" Abra teleports just as Snorlax throws a punch and instead hits himself,
"Your trickery will only last so long little fox." Abra repeats his earlier methods and soon Snorlax is heavily damage from his own strikes,
"Stop hitting yourself! You'll lose the battle if you keep doing that!" Abra says as he sits on top of Snorlax's head. Snorlax then tries to hit him but strikes himself in the head this knocking himself out. Abra stands up on his back and bows toward the two trainers, "Thank you! Thank you!" Abra then returns to his ball and Scarlet hands Kaza a pokeball,
"Care to do the honors?" Kaza throws the pokeball with an excited grin on his face and Snorlax disappears into it and quickly becomes captured due to his unconscious state. Kaza and Scarlet walk over to the pokeball and Kaza picks it up holding the ball up to his face,
"I shall name him Tankburger." Scarlet gives him a puzzled look but shrugs and embraces him,
"Now it's like an official trade. Love you, Kaza" Kaza gives her a soft kiss,
"Love you, Scarlet."
Meanwhile, Drake, Latias, Stratos, Vecransyh, Xylina and Frosslass are all walking down the road to the forest. Drake and Latias walk ahead and Stratos is sitting on Drake's shoulder wearing his hat, Vecransyh walks behind them with Xylina on his left and Frosslass on his right. Vecransyh looks over to Frosslass as he walks,
"Sooo, Frosslass?" The ghost looks to her left and gives him a slightly cold look,
"What do you want?" Vecransyh smiles slightly,
"Would you like a name?" Frosslass looks at him in pure disbelief,
"A... name?" Vecransyh looks back towards the forest,
"If you want." Xylina giggles,
"Vecransyh likes to name the Pokemon that don't travel in pokeballs. Since you're going to be traveling with us for a while..." Frosslass interrupts her,
"I do not need a name... Naming a Pokemon is a way of claiming ownership of it and I will have none of that." Vecransyh sighs,
"That's why I asked you if you wanted one instead of just naming you out of the blue." Frosslass' face turns red from embarrassment and she looks down,
"Not yet... I still don't trust humans." Vecransyh nods still looking towards the approaching forest,
"That's fine. I've got a good one for you if you ever change you mind." Frosslass then looks ahead as the forest approaches,
(I wonder what my name is...?) Xylina floats over to the other side of Frosslass and looks at her,
"Hey, why do you look humanoid...?" Frosslass looks down at her appearance,
"I've come to think that it's a defect from the evolution." Frosslass looks over to her, "What about you?" Xylina smiles,
"Same thing. To bad you didn't get hair though." Frosslass smirks,
"I do have hair." She reaches up and taps the skull mask over her face. Xylina looks at her with a bright smile,
"I wanna see!" Frosslass shakes her head,
"Sorry. I'll only take off my mask for the one I choose to love. It's like that for all Frosslass." Xylina tilts her head,
"Got anyone in mind?" Frosslass shrugs,
"I've never felt love before so I doubt I'd even know I was feeling it. The truth of the matter is that I'll probably end up with a different specie of Pokemon because... have you ever seen a Glalie?" Xylina nods, "Have you ever seen a Glalie mate?" Xylina shakes her head completely unable to picture it. Frosslass picks up a small, flat rock and a round rock. She holds the round rock over the smaller rock, "Okay, the big rock is a Glalie and the smaller rock is a Frosslass." Xylina watches as Frosslass slams the round rock into the smaller rock repeatedly before she tosses the two rocks to the side, "Not a pretty sight." Xylina chuckles,
"Sounds painful."
"That's why I'm staying away from them... can I tell you something?" Xylina says something to Vecransyh causing him to walk ahead and join the other three,
"Go ahead."
"Well..." Frosslass blushes as she looks down, "I've never been held by a man... I've always wanted to feel loved for being who I am and not because of how rare or strong I am. I just..." Xylina looks at her sadly,
"The first time is always the best." Frosslass looks up at her with tears in her eyes,
"What...?"
"Beaten to the brink of death and narrowly escaping with your freedom, let alone your life. Having to avoid capture every time you meet someone and barely sleeping at night out of fear that you'll be discovered." Frosslass blinks and gives Xylina a disbelieving look,
"How did you..." Xylina shakes her head,
"I'm describing my own life. Your troubles were for longer then me but we have a similar past. The reason that I now travel with Vecransyh is because I allowed myself to be his. I opened my heart to him and now I fight for him and only for him. The night we met... it was the middle of the night and I saw him resting on a tree in the middle of a park. I found that it would have been easy to escape but something was different about him. He had a certain gentleness in his eyes that gave me the sense of comfort I had been searching for since I left home. I felt safe with him and that is why I'm here." Frosslass looks down,
"Maybe some day I'll feel safe..." Frosslass suddenly realizes that she had smiled before she fell asleep last night and that she never had during her entire life. Xylina smiles,
"Just give it some time. My life was nothing but one bad thing after another until I met Vecransyh." Frosslass looks at her coldly,
"You still lost your freedom."
"But I gained a ton and I still get to travel. He's also the reason I was able to evolve."
"So you lost your freedom and your form. He also named you." Xylina sighs,
"I gave him my freedom, I chose to evolve and I chose to let him give me a name. Everything that has happened between me and him was my choice." Frosslass simply looks ahead unable to rebut against Xylina's argument,
"Whatever... I'm his guardian till I save his life. Then I'm gone." Just before the group disappears into the forest Stratos looks up to see a beautiful rainbow-colored bird fly overhead and he makes a childish smile as he waves to the bird.
After a few hours the entire group has started their trek through the dark Eterna forest and is finding the trip fairly easy with little confrontation. Drake looks over to his right as they all start down a straight path to leave the forest,
"Check that out. Looks like something hit there pretty hard!" Vecransyh walks up to him and runs his hand over the indent noticing some similarities between the hole and the form of a Gallade,
"I think we should find Kaza and Scarlet." After walking down the path a short ways they walk past a huge mansion off to their left with thick branches preventing access by traditional means. Xylina floats over to Vecransyh, Drake, Latias and Stratos and floats near him,
"Wow. Nice pad!" Frosslass floats over but keeps a short distance between herself and the others,
"This is called the old château and it's said to be inhabited by spirits and many ghost Pokemon." Vecransyh looks over to her at the mention of 'ghost',
"What kinds?" Frosslass looks at him with her usual cold gaze,
"Only Gastly. Nothing to get worked up about." Vecransyh shrugs,
"Not like we can get in there anyway." Frosslass tilts her head and holds her arm out. All at once the blockage in front of them is encased in ice and shatters into a pile of snow. Vecransyh blinks,
"I guess I was wrong!" Frosslass gives him a stern look,
"Yes. You were wrong. Now let's get out of this forest. There's nothing interesting in there the house is completely empty." Believing her, the group heads towards the exit of the forest and leave it into the bright light of the sun beating down. Drake takes out the map and looks at where they are before closing it,
"Pretty simple route. There's a bridge over a little path of water then we just walk a little bit and we're there." As the group heads to the bridge they notice a fisherman sitting down with his line in the water looking impatient. They all stop and watch in amazement as he pulls up on the rod pulling a Gyrados from the water and throwing a pokeball capturing it instantly. He heaves a big sigh and then looks over to the people watching him,
"Hello everyone. Eterna city is that way." The man points to his left where the tops of buildings are fairly visible over the horizon. Stratos hops off of Drake's shoulder and walks over to the man looking up at him,
"Are you a trainer?" The man laughs and picks up the infant Lucario with his large hands,
"Yup." Stratos grins,
"Then I challenge you!" Drake takes a few steps forward and takes the Lucario from the fisherman,
"Sorry." The man laughs,
"It's all right my boy! I'll go easy on him." Stratos looks up to his father with a slight sadness in his eyes,
"Please... daddy?" Drake hesitates but then lets out a small sigh,
"All right... but only attacking moves okay? None of the special stuff." Stratos nods as he knows that Drake is referring to Heart Swap,
"Don't worry daddy I know what to do!" A minute later Stratos is in his battle pose as he stands across from a Lombre. The Pokemon is green with blue parts and has a large lily-pad on his head. Stratos looks at the Pokemon with curiosity, "Hi! I'm Stratos! What's your name?" The fisherman laughs,
"He's a Lombre. He can't talk though but he's a pretty good fighter." Stratos grins,
"Yay!" Kaza and Scarlet have joined Vecransyh and the others after seeing them leave the forest. Stratos runs at Lombre who dodges and strikes Stratos with a massive Bubblebeam sending him backwards onto his backside, "Ow!" Stratos hops up and throws an aura sphere that the Lombre dodges and fires two sets of bladed leafs that Stratos 'Matrix' dodges and he throws a second Aura Sphere into the face of a surprised Lombre making him fly backwards onto the ground. The Lombre stands and brushes the light coating of dirt from himself before charging at Stratos with a punch that Stratos dodges and retaliates with a palm into his gut. The two Pokemon begin trading blows striking each other again and again before Stratos is finally blasted backwards by another Bubblebeam. Stratos stands looking fairly weakened as he stares at his opponent still looking fairly ready to fight even with the small bruises on his body. Stratos closes his eyes and puts his paws together and before long a red aura begins forming over his body. Drake looks at Stratos as he begins charging his new attack,
"There wasn't anything like this on his move set list!" Stratos looks toward his opponent who is running at him with a Focus Punch ready to strike and Stratos glares at him before moving his hands behind himself charging a shiny red orb that looks like flames,
"SACRED FIRE!!!!!" He throws his arms forward and releases a huge blast of fire from his palms that engulfs the Lombre before the flames disperse leaving Lombre laying on the ground singed but and very fainted. The fisherman blinks as Lombre returns to his pokeball,
"Umm... okay? So your Lucario knows Sacred fire?" Drake walks over to his son and stands at his side,
"That's new to me." The man grins,
"That's quite a specimen you have there. Up till that only the Phoenix Ho-Oh could use that attack." Drake picks up his son and places him on his shoulder with a smile,
"Guess that makes him pretty special then." The infant giggles as he takes off Drake's hat placing it on his own head,
"Yay! I'm super strong! Right daddy?" Drake pats his son on the head,
"Yep." Shortly after the battle the group starts walking the rest of the way towards Eterna city. Ahead are Drake, Stratos and Latias followed by Vecransyh, Xylina, Kaza and Scarlet. Behind everyone is Frosslass. Vecransyh turns his head to Kaza as they walk,
"So... What happened in the forest? We were walking by this one tree and it had an indent that looked like a Gallade." Scarlet giggles,
"Yup. We had a little battle at the end of the forest." Kaza grins,
"It lead to my new Pokemon making my team full."
"What is it?"
"Not telling. Tomorrow we're getting our next badges so you'll find out then." The sun has started to sink as the group makes their way into the city and to the Pokemon center to heal their Pokemon. Drake has just retrieved Stratos and a second list of his attacks from the nurse and is looking them over. The nurse pats the little Lucario on the head as she looks at Drake,
"He's perfectly healthy but his IQ is tremendously high for his young age." Drake looks up at her,
"So that's why he's able to perform these attacks?" The nurse shakes her head,
"Well, yes and no. If that were the case then he'd have a much larger move set then that. It seems that he only learns a new attack whenever a certain condition is met. I do not know what that condition is though." Drake hands the nurse the sheet,
"I see. Thank you for the information." The nurse nods and, like the nurse before, burns the sheet of paper. Drake walks out into the lobby of the Pokemon center and finds Latias waiting for him. They begins talking as Frosslass meets eyes with Stratos,
(Such a powerful creature...) Stratos walks over to Frosslass and looks up at her curiously,
"Hi! What's your name?" The thought from earlier that day returns to Frosslass as she hears the sentence,
"I don't have a name but I think I'll have one in a while." Stratos then waves as he walks back over to his father,
"Okay miss!"
(Well, he has manners. I suppose he's nothing to worry about.) A few minutes pass before Frosslass retires to her room and lays down pressing her face into the pillow and weeping silently as she often used to do to tire herself out so she could sleep but this time was for a different reason. She looks towards the door as she hears a light knock on it and, after wiping her tears away; she floats over to the door and opens it slowly. Her expression turns cold as Vecransyh comes into view, "What do you want?"
"I came to ask you again if you want a name." But before she can answer the feelings from that morning come back and Frosslass flinches from the odd sensation as it is much stronger then before, "Are you alright?!" Frosslass then faints and falls to the ground much to the surprise of Vecransyh. He opens the door and carries her to the bed before laying her down on it. Vecransyh then heads back to his room and opens the door peering in and Xylina looks at him from the bed surprised at his expression,
"What is it?!" Vecransyh shakes his head,
"Frosslass fainted when I asked if I could give her a name. If it's okay with you I'm going to sleep in her bed tonight just in case something is seriously wrong with her." Xylina nods with a smile,
"All right, but no funny business." Vecransyh blushes a bright red,
"What?!" Xylina giggles as she gives him a playful wink,
"Just kidding, love." Vecransyh walks over to her and lays a passionate kiss on her lips and when the kiss is over she looks slightly overwhelmed from the passion of it,
"How could I betray the perfect girl?" Xylina kisses him back and smiles before he disappears out the door. Vecransyh hurries down the hallway and appears back in Frosslass' room to find her still unconscious on the bed where he left her. Vecransyh lays a hand on her forehead and takes his hand away when it feels hot, "Poor thing must be sick..." He then lies down on the opposite side of Frosslass and falls asleep facing her.
"Please... just let me go..." The trainer snickers,
"No way. I've been following you for nine years and I'm not about to lose you now!!" She looks on in horror as the trainer takes out a pokeball that would soon be her prison and he throws it towards her, "Now you're mine!!"
Frosslass' eyes shoot open and she sits up quickly in her bed in a cold sweat. Her heart is pounding and she looks around in pure fear before remembering yesterday and the events that unfolded two nights ago. Shortly after comforting herself with her own thoughts her pulse rate drops and she lets out a soft sigh,
"That's the reason I can't leave... none of the other trainers could ever make me that weak so I only need protection from him... Vecransyh will protect me till I'm stronger." Frosslass sighs, "I suppose humans can be good for something after all... thank you Vecransyh, you've shown me that you and your friends are the only one's I can trust even though not fully..." But as she thinks about Vecransyh, his smile, his voice, his eyes, a soft blush appears on her face as she looks down at the bed, "Why am I thinking of him...?" Frosslass then refills her mind with the negativity of humans and the odd feelings leave her.
A few hours pass before the group heads east of the town and down the road towards Eterna forest. Kaza and Scarlet left a long time before anyone else had even woken up and are already deep in the forest holding hands as they wander through the trees. Kaza turns his head to look at his girlfriend as they walk,
"This place has a nice atmosphere." Scarlet is about to respond before she freezes at the sight in front of them,
"Kaza look!" She speaks in a hushed voice and Kaza turns his head and looks in the direction she is pointing to see a small Abra sitting on the ground with its back to them in a small clearing of trees. The Abra looks like any normal Abra but is a much lighter shade of yellow then others. Kaza grins and takes out a pokeball,
"I'll catch it for you." Scarlet shakes her head,
"Abra are almost impossible to capture with traditional means. I've tried countless times to capture one but it always teleports after breaking out of the ball." Kaza replaces the pokeball onto his belt and folds his arms tapping his foot as he runs through ways to capture an Abra. Then he smiles lightly as his brain hatches the only plan he can think of,
"I'll capture that Abra for you." Scarlet tilts her head,
"And how do you plan to do that?" The smile remains on Kaza's face as he holds up the Master Ball and without another word throws it at the Abra causing it to disappear inside of it and the ball begins to shake rapidly as the Pokemon tries to escape, "Kaza... you used your master ball?!" She looks at him in shock to see a confident smile on his face as he looks toward the Master Ball still shaking rapidly on the ground. The two walk into the small clearing and stare down at the ball as it begins to slow and finally, the ball clicks sealing the capture. Kaza leans down and picks up the ball,
"Dang. Little guy had a lot of energy!" He holds the ball out towards Scarlet, who looks at him in disbelief,
"Do you realize you just used an incredibly valuable and rare pokeball to capture an Abra?!" Kazamaru nods,
"I said I'd catch it for you and I never break a promise. Consider this a token of my love for you." Scarlet takes the Master Ball from his open hand and holds it for a few moments before tightly embracing Kazamaru with tears in her eyes,
"Thank you so much!!!!!!" Kaza lays his hands on her back as he embraces her,
"Anything for you." As the hug ends she looks him directly in the eye,
"I'll repay you for this as a token for my love. Just wait." Kaza nods,
"All right." The two continue walking through the forest and before long, stop in a large open area for lunch. All of their Pokemon sit around them doing whatever interests them and Gardevoir, Kaza, Scarlet, and Abra sit on a blanket eating. The Abra, who is sitting next to Scarlet, lets out a small burp as it reclines onto the grass at the edge of the blanket having completely accepted his fate,
"I guess this isn't so bad. I get to do some traveling now at least." Scarlet and Kazamaru blink as they look towards the talking Pokemon and speak in unison,
"You can talk?!" The Abra sits up and shrugs,
"The world's full of talking psychic Pokemon. You hear a Wailord talk, tell me that shit."
The next few hours are fairly uneventful and soon Kaza and Scarlet reach the end of the forest. Ahead of them is a large trail leading to a bright light to show the forest ending,
"Finally!!" The two walk towards the light but stop when a large blue bear walks across the path and lies down in the middle falling asleep instantly. Kazamaru's eyes widen as he sees the Snorlax barring their path, "If you catch me that Snorlax I will love you for all of eternity because that is the one Pokemon I have always wanted ever since I was born and have not been able to have one because I have not been able to find let alone catch one so please, if you can then catch it for me!!" Scarlet looks like she has a headache from Kaza's very run-on sentence but smiles softly,
"Sure thing, hun!" Sensing hostility the Snorlax wakes up and stands looking angrily at the two trainers,
"You and what army?" The two take a step back at the angry voice but Scarlet releases her Gallade from his pokeball and the Pokemon looks upon his opponent with a smile,
"An army of one big guy." Gallade rushes the bear but is blasted into a tree by an incredible punch to his mid-section knocking the wind out of him,
"Come on. Send out your next Pokemon so I can take it out and go back to sleep." Scarlet returns her fainted Gallade to his pokeball and sends out Gardevoir only to have her meet the same fate and return to her ball only a few seconds later. Scarlet Sends out her Medicham and he rushes the bear avoiding his claws and punches, "GRAH!! Stand still!!" The Medicham runs around the bear slamming it with punches but to no avail as he soon becomes warn out from the recoil of Snorlax's fatty body and takes a punch to the face sending him skidding across the ground and back to his pokeball. The Snorlax folds his arms, "That everyone?" Snorlax blinks as he sees the small Abra in front of him,
"Well, not everyone." Snorlax stomps down and Abra disappears under his foot but reappears sitting on his shoulder, "Wow! Almost got me that time!" He then teleports off of Snorlax's shoulder and grips his stomach, "Wow! You're really big!" Abra teleports just as Snorlax throws a punch and instead hits himself,
"Your trickery will only last so long little fox." Abra repeats his earlier methods and soon Snorlax is heavily damage from his own strikes,
"Stop hitting yourself! You'll lose the battle if you keep doing that!" Abra says as he sits on top of Snorlax's head. Snorlax then tries to hit him but strikes himself in the head this knocking himself out. Abra stands up on his back and bows toward the two trainers, "Thank you! Thank you!" Abra then returns to his ball and Scarlet hands Kaza a pokeball,
"Care to do the honors?" Kaza throws the pokeball with an excited grin on his face and Snorlax disappears into it and quickly becomes captured due to his unconscious state. Kaza and Scarlet walk over to the pokeball and Kaza picks it up holding the ball up to his face,
"I shall name him Tankburger." Scarlet gives him a puzzled look but shrugs and embraces him,
"Now it's like an official trade. Love you, Kaza" Kaza gives her a soft kiss,
"Love you, Scarlet."
Meanwhile, Drake, Latias, Stratos, Vecransyh, Xylina and Frosslass are all walking down the road to the forest. Drake and Latias walk ahead and Stratos is sitting on Drake's shoulder wearing his hat, Vecransyh walks behind them with Xylina on his left and Frosslass on his right. Vecransyh looks over to Frosslass as he walks,
"Sooo, Frosslass?" The ghost looks to her left and gives him a slightly cold look,
"What do you want?" Vecransyh smiles slightly,
"Would you like a name?" Frosslass looks at him in pure disbelief,
"A... name?" Vecransyh looks back towards the forest,
"If you want." Xylina giggles,
"Vecransyh likes to name the Pokemon that don't travel in pokeballs. Since you're going to be traveling with us for a while..." Frosslass interrupts her,
"I do not need a name... Naming a Pokemon is a way of claiming ownership of it and I will have none of that." Vecransyh sighs,
"That's why I asked you if you wanted one instead of just naming you out of the blue." Frosslass' face turns red from embarrassment and she looks down,
"Not yet... I still don't trust humans." Vecransyh nods still looking towards the approaching forest,
"That's fine. I've got a good one for you if you ever change you mind." Frosslass then looks ahead as the forest approaches,
(I wonder what my name is...?) Xylina floats over to the other side of Frosslass and looks at her,
"Hey, why do you look humanoid...?" Frosslass looks down at her appearance,
"I've come to think that it's a defect from the evolution." Frosslass looks over to her, "What about you?" Xylina smiles,
"Same thing. To bad you didn't get hair though." Frosslass smirks,
"I do have hair." She reaches up and taps the skull mask over her face. Xylina looks at her with a bright smile,
"I wanna see!" Frosslass shakes her head,
"Sorry. I'll only take off my mask for the one I choose to love. It's like that for all Frosslass." Xylina tilts her head,
"Got anyone in mind?" Frosslass shrugs,
"I've never felt love before so I doubt I'd even know I was feeling it. The truth of the matter is that I'll probably end up with a different specie of Pokemon because... have you ever seen a Glalie?" Xylina nods, "Have you ever seen a Glalie mate?" Xylina shakes her head completely unable to picture it. Frosslass picks up a small, flat rock and a round rock. She holds the round rock over the smaller rock, "Okay, the big rock is a Glalie and the smaller rock is a Frosslass." Xylina watches as Frosslass slams the round rock into the smaller rock repeatedly before she tosses the two rocks to the side, "Not a pretty sight." Xylina chuckles,
"Sounds painful."
"That's why I'm staying away from them... can I tell you something?" Xylina says something to Vecransyh causing him to walk ahead and join the other three,
"Go ahead."
"Well..." Frosslass blushes as she looks down, "I've never been held by a man... I've always wanted to feel loved for being who I am and not because of how rare or strong I am. I just..." Xylina looks at her sadly,
"The first time is always the best." Frosslass looks up at her with tears in her eyes,
"What...?"
"Beaten to the brink of death and narrowly escaping with your freedom, let alone your life. Having to avoid capture every time you meet someone and barely sleeping at night out of fear that you'll be discovered." Frosslass blinks and gives Xylina a disbelieving look,
"How did you..." Xylina shakes her head,
"I'm describing my own life. Your troubles were for longer then me but we have a similar past. The reason that I now travel with Vecransyh is because I allowed myself to be his. I opened my heart to him and now I fight for him and only for him. The night we met... it was the middle of the night and I saw him resting on a tree in the middle of a park. I found that it would have been easy to escape but something was different about him. He had a certain gentleness in his eyes that gave me the sense of comfort I had been searching for since I left home. I felt safe with him and that is why I'm here." Frosslass looks down,
"Maybe some day I'll feel safe..." Frosslass suddenly realizes that she had smiled before she fell asleep last night and that she never had during her entire life. Xylina smiles,
"Just give it some time. My life was nothing but one bad thing after another until I met Vecransyh." Frosslass looks at her coldly,
"You still lost your freedom."
"But I gained a ton and I still get to travel. He's also the reason I was able to evolve."
"So you lost your freedom and your form. He also named you." Xylina sighs,
"I gave him my freedom, I chose to evolve and I chose to let him give me a name. Everything that has happened between me and him was my choice." Frosslass simply looks ahead unable to rebut against Xylina's argument,
"Whatever... I'm his guardian till I save his life. Then I'm gone." Just before the group disappears into the forest Stratos looks up to see a beautiful rainbow-colored bird fly overhead and he makes a childish smile as he waves to the bird.
After a few hours the entire group has started their trek through the dark Eterna forest and is finding the trip fairly easy with little confrontation. Drake looks over to his right as they all start down a straight path to leave the forest,
"Check that out. Looks like something hit there pretty hard!" Vecransyh walks up to him and runs his hand over the indent noticing some similarities between the hole and the form of a Gallade,
"I think we should find Kaza and Scarlet." After walking down the path a short ways they walk past a huge mansion off to their left with thick branches preventing access by traditional means. Xylina floats over to Vecransyh, Drake, Latias and Stratos and floats near him,
"Wow. Nice pad!" Frosslass floats over but keeps a short distance between herself and the others,
"This is called the old château and it's said to be inhabited by spirits and many ghost Pokemon." Vecransyh looks over to her at the mention of 'ghost',
"What kinds?" Frosslass looks at him with her usual cold gaze,
"Only Gastly. Nothing to get worked up about." Vecransyh shrugs,
"Not like we can get in there anyway." Frosslass tilts her head and holds her arm out. All at once the blockage in front of them is encased in ice and shatters into a pile of snow. Vecransyh blinks,
"I guess I was wrong!" Frosslass gives him a stern look,
"Yes. You were wrong. Now let's get out of this forest. There's nothing interesting in there the house is completely empty." Believing her, the group heads towards the exit of the forest and leave it into the bright light of the sun beating down. Drake takes out the map and looks at where they are before closing it,
"Pretty simple route. There's a bridge over a little path of water then we just walk a little bit and we're there." As the group heads to the bridge they notice a fisherman sitting down with his line in the water looking impatient. They all stop and watch in amazement as he pulls up on the rod pulling a Gyrados from the water and throwing a pokeball capturing it instantly. He heaves a big sigh and then looks over to the people watching him,
"Hello everyone. Eterna city is that way." The man points to his left where the tops of buildings are fairly visible over the horizon. Stratos hops off of Drake's shoulder and walks over to the man looking up at him,
"Are you a trainer?" The man laughs and picks up the infant Lucario with his large hands,
"Yup." Stratos grins,
"Then I challenge you!" Drake takes a few steps forward and takes the Lucario from the fisherman,
"Sorry." The man laughs,
"It's all right my boy! I'll go easy on him." Stratos looks up to his father with a slight sadness in his eyes,
"Please... daddy?" Drake hesitates but then lets out a small sigh,
"All right... but only attacking moves okay? None of the special stuff." Stratos nods as he knows that Drake is referring to Heart Swap,
"Don't worry daddy I know what to do!" A minute later Stratos is in his battle pose as he stands across from a Lombre. The Pokemon is green with blue parts and has a large lily-pad on his head. Stratos looks at the Pokemon with curiosity, "Hi! I'm Stratos! What's your name?" The fisherman laughs,
"He's a Lombre. He can't talk though but he's a pretty good fighter." Stratos grins,
"Yay!" Kaza and Scarlet have joined Vecransyh and the others after seeing them leave the forest. Stratos runs at Lombre who dodges and strikes Stratos with a massive Bubblebeam sending him backwards onto his backside, "Ow!" Stratos hops up and throws an aura sphere that the Lombre dodges and fires two sets of bladed leafs that Stratos 'Matrix' dodges and he throws a second Aura Sphere into the face of a surprised Lombre making him fly backwards onto the ground. The Lombre stands and brushes the light coating of dirt from himself before charging at Stratos with a punch that Stratos dodges and retaliates with a palm into his gut. The two Pokemon begin trading blows striking each other again and again before Stratos is finally blasted backwards by another Bubblebeam. Stratos stands looking fairly weakened as he stares at his opponent still looking fairly ready to fight even with the small bruises on his body. Stratos closes his eyes and puts his paws together and before long a red aura begins forming over his body. Drake looks at Stratos as he begins charging his new attack,
"There wasn't anything like this on his move set list!" Stratos looks toward his opponent who is running at him with a Focus Punch ready to strike and Stratos glares at him before moving his hands behind himself charging a shiny red orb that looks like flames,
"SACRED FIRE!!!!!" He throws his arms forward and releases a huge blast of fire from his palms that engulfs the Lombre before the flames disperse leaving Lombre laying on the ground singed but and very fainted. The fisherman blinks as Lombre returns to his pokeball,
"Umm... okay? So your Lucario knows Sacred fire?" Drake walks over to his son and stands at his side,
"That's new to me." The man grins,
"That's quite a specimen you have there. Up till that only the Phoenix Ho-Oh could use that attack." Drake picks up his son and places him on his shoulder with a smile,
"Guess that makes him pretty special then." The infant giggles as he takes off Drake's hat placing it on his own head,
"Yay! I'm super strong! Right daddy?" Drake pats his son on the head,
"Yep." Shortly after the battle the group starts walking the rest of the way towards Eterna city. Ahead are Drake, Stratos and Latias followed by Vecransyh, Xylina, Kaza and Scarlet. Behind everyone is Frosslass. Vecransyh turns his head to Kaza as they walk,
"So... What happened in the forest? We were walking by this one tree and it had an indent that looked like a Gallade." Scarlet giggles,
"Yup. We had a little battle at the end of the forest." Kaza grins,
"It lead to my new Pokemon making my team full."
"What is it?"
"Not telling. Tomorrow we're getting our next badges so you'll find out then." The sun has started to sink as the group makes their way into the city and to the Pokemon center to heal their Pokemon. Drake has just retrieved Stratos and a second list of his attacks from the nurse and is looking them over. The nurse pats the little Lucario on the head as she looks at Drake,
"He's perfectly healthy but his IQ is tremendously high for his young age." Drake looks up at her,
"So that's why he's able to perform these attacks?" The nurse shakes her head,
"Well, yes and no. If that were the case then he'd have a much larger move set then that. It seems that he only learns a new attack whenever a certain condition is met. I do not know what that condition is though." Drake hands the nurse the sheet,
"I see. Thank you for the information." The nurse nods and, like the nurse before, burns the sheet of paper. Drake walks out into the lobby of the Pokemon center and finds Latias waiting for him. They begins talking as Frosslass meets eyes with Stratos,
(Such a powerful creature...) Stratos walks over to Frosslass and looks up at her curiously,
"Hi! What's your name?" The thought from earlier that day returns to Frosslass as she hears the sentence,
"I don't have a name but I think I'll have one in a while." Stratos then waves as he walks back over to his father,
"Okay miss!"
(Well, he has manners. I suppose he's nothing to worry about.) A few minutes pass before Frosslass retires to her room and lays down pressing her face into the pillow and weeping silently as she often used to do to tire herself out so she could sleep but this time was for a different reason. She looks towards the door as she hears a light knock on it and, after wiping her tears away; she floats over to the door and opens it slowly. Her expression turns cold as Vecransyh comes into view, "What do you want?"
"I came to ask you again if you want a name." But before she can answer the feelings from that morning come back and Frosslass flinches from the odd sensation as it is much stronger then before, "Are you alright?!" Frosslass then faints and falls to the ground much to the surprise of Vecransyh. He opens the door and carries her to the bed before laying her down on it. Vecransyh then heads back to his room and opens the door peering in and Xylina looks at him from the bed surprised at his expression,
"What is it?!" Vecransyh shakes his head,
"Frosslass fainted when I asked if I could give her a name. If it's okay with you I'm going to sleep in her bed tonight just in case something is seriously wrong with her." Xylina nods with a smile,
"All right, but no funny business." Vecransyh blushes a bright red,
"What?!" Xylina giggles as she gives him a playful wink,
"Just kidding, love." Vecransyh walks over to her and lays a passionate kiss on her lips and when the kiss is over she looks slightly overwhelmed from the passion of it,
"How could I betray the perfect girl?" Xylina kisses him back and smiles before he disappears out the door. Vecransyh hurries down the hallway and appears back in Frosslass' room to find her still unconscious on the bed where he left her. Vecransyh lays a hand on her forehead and takes his hand away when it feels hot, "Poor thing must be sick..." He then lies down on the opposite side of Frosslass and falls asleep facing her.