Story Notes:
Disclaimer: I do not own pokemon
What's in a name?
Frosslass wakes up early the next morning with a slight headache from when she had fallen to the ground,
"Ugh... my head..." She looks to the door remembering when Vecransyh had asked her if she wanted a name and being overcome with those strange feelings and fainting. Or at least that's what she thinks happened. Frosslass lays back down on the bed turning over with her eyes closed, "A name... I still wonder what it was..." She then opens her eyes and looks directly into the sleeping face of Vecransyh jumping. She says nothing but stares wide-eyed at Vecransyh wondering why he had slept in her bed, (Was he... worried about me after I fell? Did he put me in bed?) Her mind wracked with questions she sits up and puts her hands to her head as the headache returns, (Must have hit my head harder then I thought... Wait... while I was unconscious he could've...) She then looks at Vecransyh sleeping peacefully but after a brief look over his body she sighs and dismisses the thought after seeing him fully clothed, "Humans and Pokemon are incompatible anyway and besides... humans are terrible beings..." She looks back to Vecransyh who stretches in his sleep and Frosslass shifts over to him, "Why do you care about me?" Frosslass jumps as she hears him speak,
"Because you're no different from me." Vecransyh opens his eyes and looks at her. Frosslass scowls at the comment,
"I'm nothing like you humans. Why are you here anyway?" Vecransyh gives her a serious look,
"You fainted last night so I stayed here just in case you were sick or something." Frosslass gives him a cold look that almost looks sad,
"I'm fine. I sleep alone, that's how it's always been." Vecransyh looks at her and sees the very faint flicker of sadness in her eyes as she turns away and floats off of the bed and faces away from him, "Go..." Vecransyh slides off of the bed and stands up. He walks over to Frosslass and she turns to him with a cold glare. Then Vecransyh did something that she had never thought he could have done. Vecransyh takes a step towards her and embraces her tightly whispering softly,
"You don't have to be afraid any more." Frosslass floats in his embrace for a few minutes completely lost in her own thoughts and finally speaks,
"Let me go." Vecransyh doesn't move as his embrace becomes a little lighter. Frosslass closes her eyes after a few more moments of embrace and puts her arms around him crying softly, (This feels... so... comforting...) she lays her head on his shoulder still weeping lightly. She is knocked out of her trance by a light knocking sound on the door and she takes her arms off of Vecransyh pushing him away. She glares at him with the same cold look but Vecransyh sees a slight thankfulness in her eyes replacing most of the visible sorrow. Frosslass opens the door to find Xylina. Vecransyh smiles and waves slightly,
"Hey, was just heading back." Xylina then looks at Frosslass, who has her usual cold look,
"Take him now." Vecransyh and Xylina quickly leave and Frosslass floats back over to the bed lying down on it looking up at the ceiling, "So that's what being held is like... all of the pain melts away..." Out in the hallway Xylina turns to Vecransyh,
"So, what happened?"
"A hug. She looked like she needed it. Looks like I was wrong though." Xylina giggles,
"Don't worry about it. I'll talk to her later." Vecransyh nods as the two head back to their room and fall asleep as it is still early in the morning. Meanwhile back in her room Frosslass has gone over to the window and is watching a black figure apparently trying to fight the air. She opens the window and when the slight glare of the glass was gone she looks at the figure again recognizing him as Stratos,
"What're you doing?" Stratos jumps and looks around frantically for the voice, "Up here!" Stratos looks up at Frosslass and bows,
"I am training. Father doesn't like me to fight but I can't help it. I just feel like I'm destined for so much and I want to get even stronger. Please don't tell my father I was training..." Frosslass nods at the small Lucario,
"I don't talk to him anyway so your secret is safe with me." Stratos gives her a happy childish grin,
"Thank you miss... did you find your name yet?" Frosslass shakes her head,
"Not yet little one." Stratos grins,
"Okay! When you find it I wanna know! It's probably a really pretty name if you have it!" Frosslass blushes at the complement and returns to her bedroom floating over to the bed,
"Pretty...?" She slides off her skull mask and looks into a full-body mirror on the wall, "I wonder if Vecransyh thinks so." Frosslass then blinks and shakes her head, "What does it matter what he thinks?! Still..." She looks down, "It would be nice to hear a man say it..." She returns the mask to her head and lies down on the bed letting her arms fall out to the sides of her as she stares up at the ceiling. Without another thought hitting her she falls asleep. A few hours pass and Frosslass wakes up to a light tapping on her door. She looks over to the clock and her eyes widen as she had slept into the afternoon. Floating over to the door she opens it to find the cheerful face of Stratos looking up at her,
"Hello! I got sent here to get you. We're heading off to lunch before heading off to the gym do you want to come?" Frosslass nods as she feels the hunger in her stomach start to take effect,
"Sure." Stratos leads Frosslass to a nearby restaurant and the two head inside. Stratos sits down between Latias and Drake and Frosslass sits down next to Xylina at the edge of the table. Next to Kazamaru sits Abra to his left and Scarlet to his right. After their food arrives Kazamaru grins as he looks across the table to Vecransyh,
"Today's the day we get our next badges dude! Can't wait till I get to mop the floor with yet another gym leader! Hehe, I'm getting pretty dang strong. I might just be the best out of our group besides Drake!" Abra looks over at Kazamaru and stands up picking up his plate of spaghetti in the process. Abra turns to him and turns the plate over effectively covering his head in spaghetti. Kaza turns his head towards the Abra as everyone at the table, excluding Frosslass, burst into laughter, "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR?!?!" Abra smiles and sits back in his chair,
"You were being very egotistical so I decided to cover you in spaghetti."
After Kazamaru returned to the Pokemon center to get cleaned up the group heads to the gym in the lower half of the city. Kaza heads through the door first and looks around at the flowery walls and the large grassy ground of the gym,
"Oh balls. It's a grass gym." Drake walks through the door with Stratos on his shoulder and Latias next to him. Drake takes out Arcanine's pokeball and spins it on his finger,
"Should be a fun match." Scarlet giggles as she looks around the room,
"Grass + psychic = fun times!" A woman approaches them she wears a short, light-brown skirt, a dark-green shawl on her shoulders with a small black belly shirt underneath exposing a large amount of her stomach, her hair is an orange color with a visible second layer of solid black underneath,
"Hello everyone, my name is Gardenia, You all here for badges?" Everyone, besides Frosslass and Latias nod and Kazamaru grins taking a step ahead of everyone,
"I'll go first." In a short while Kazamaru's Camerupt stands across from a small bud with legs. Kazamaru blinks, "That's it...?" Gardenia grins,
"Yup! Now lets start!" Camerupt takes a huge breathe and releases a stream of fire at the small Pokemon but it dodges out of the way and suddenly a bright light appears over heard illuminating the field much more then it was a short while ago. The leafs on the bud open revealing and small, but happy, looking Cherrim that dances about in the sunlight while releasing bladed leafs at Camerupt who just shrugs off the weak hits and blasts it with an intense fire blast taking it down immediately. Gardenia takes out a pokeball returning Cherrim and takes out another, "Maybe Sunny Day wasn't the best choice..." She tosses the pokeball and in a flash a large Torterra roars toward his opponent and begins charging him dodging a flamethrower in the process and head butting into Camerupt sending the giant camel skidding backwards before running back at the Torterra and releasing a huge flamethrower that the giant turtle ducks to avoid. A moment later the Torterra smells something burning and looks back to see the tree on his shell completely ablaze! After a few moments of running around the Torterra passes out from exhaustion and the flames on his back die down and fizzle out. Gardenia returns Torterra to his pokeball and takes out a third, "This isn't going very well for me..." Kaza grins,
"Well, fire V.S. grass." Gardenia groans,
"Yeah, that always goes sooo well for me." She tosses the pokeball releasing a green Pokemon with two bouquets of flowers for hands. The Roserade looks upon her opponent darkly and leaps to the side to avoid the flames fires from the camel's mouth. She then fires a barrage of Shadow Balls that all strike with immense power taking down the camel. Roserade lands in a samurai stance and looks up at her victim. Kazamaru looks on in shock when he sees the power of such an unintimidating Pokemon,
"No way!" He returns Camerupt to his ball and releases his Aggron in a flash of light. The blue triceratops looks down at the tiny Pokemon and back at Kazamaru,
"This is my opponent? I swear, you're just using me to overkill all of the weak opponents." Kazamaru lets out a chuckle,
"Weak compared to you at least. Anyway, that just took down Camerupt so be careful." Aggron nods knowing full well that Kaza's Camerupt had quite a large amount of stamina. Aggron rushes Roserade but the Pokemon continues to avoid the potential strikes and even avoids an earthquake attack by leaping off of the ground for a long enough amount of time. She fires a Solarbeam at Aggron, who endures the hit and then looks back at Roserade with a dark smirk,
"That was the wrong move." Aggron then charges his Metal Burst and rushes the Roserade only to have his most powerful attack parried and be blasted back by a mighty Solarbeam that causes him to be blasted backwards unconscious. Kazamaru stares at the Pokemon with his mouth hanging open as it had just taken down his strongest Pokemon using nearly the strongest power of his strongest attack. Aggron disappears into his pokeball and Kazamaru thinks through his remaining Pokemon before remembering his new acquisition,
"Let's do this Tankburger!!" The thrown pokeball opens in a flash of light and the giant blue bear scratches his stomach as he looks down at his opponent,
"Bah, I'm too tired to fight." Kazamaru's eyes widen,
"Just win this for me!" Tankburger shrugs and falls forward crushing Roserade under his massive body as he falls asleep. Gardenia takes out a pokeball and Roserade disappears into it,
"Well, that was effective." Tankburger disappears into his ball and the two trainers walk up to each other and shake hands,
"That's one hell of a Roserade!" Gardenia smiles,
"If I had a nickel for every trainer that's told me that I'd have exactly 107 dollars and 85 cents." She then hands him a badge that is three green diamonds framed in silver. Kaza's eyes light up as he takes the badge,
"Yay!"
After a quick visit to the Pokemon center and another after Drake's battle and another after Scarlet's battle Gardenia stands across from Vecransyh and Xylina who floats next to him. Gardenia sends out her Cherrim and Vecransyh sends out Drifblim and the giant balloon simply floats around the arena easily avoiding the Solarbeams fired from the tiny Cherrim. Using a few gust attacks the Cherrim quickly falls and is recalled and quickly replaces by Torterra who meets a similar end due to it being weak to flying attacks as well. Torterra is replaced by the mighty Roserade who takes a fighting stance and begins tracking the movements of the giant balloon before releasing a single shadow ball that causes the balloon to fall from the sky and land near her. The Roserade smirks but looks down in shock as the balloon begins to glow brightly followed by a huge explosion. As the smoke clears Gardenia smiles lightly as Roserade stands proudly covered by a green barrier and looking not the least bit amused by the attack. Xylina floats onto the field as Drifblim is recalled and she begins throwing shadow balls at the Roserade only to have her avoid them and return fire with her own. The battle between them lasts for a few minutes before they each are hit by a shadow ball sending them flying back and landing on their backs before getting up and returning to firing their shadow balls back and forth at each other. After around twenty minutes of this Xylina fires an ice beam at Roserade who jumps up slightly and runs across the thin beam of ice and jumps above Xylina blasting her with a bright Solarbeam causing her to pass out. Gardenia grins,
"Booya!" Vecransyh looks down as he takes out Xylina's pokeball and she disappears inside of it. He then releases her next to him and takes out a third pokeball,
(I've got four more Pokemon so this won't last to long. I'll just keep hammering away at that thing and...) Vecransyh's train of thought is sent crashing down a hillside while the people inside of it scream and plunge to their deaths as he sees Frosslass float in front of him and opens her eyes looking upon her opponent, (FROSSLASS?!?!) She says nothing as she engages in battle with the flowery Pokemon. Roserade begins firing shadow balls and Razor leafs at her and she returns fire with ice beams and her own Shadow Balls,
"You're quite a durable little thing if you can take all of these hits and still be standing!" Roserade says nothing but grins as she lands another shadow ball into Frosslass causing her to move away slightly, "Pretty decent hit but the battle isn't in your favor. I think I'll end it." Frosslass begins to glow a bright light-blue color and puts her hands together before throwing her hands out as a giant shockwave freezes Roserade into a block of solid ice and it shatters leaving the unconscious Pokemon to fall forward defeated. Gardenia returns Frosslass to her pokeball and walks towards the ghost Pokemon, Vecransyh and the newly revived Xylina,
"Was that Sheer Cold...?" Frosslass nods and the gym leader smiles, "I see, then you must be that legendary Frosslass." Frosslass gives her a cold glare,
"You will tell no one you saw me till I no longer reside within this city and you will not tell them where I went." Gardenia nods a little intimidated by the sternness of her voice,
"You have my word. Here you go." Gardenia hands Vecransyh his own Forest Badge and he stows it in his pocket with his other twelve with a happy smile,
"Thanks!" Gardenia waves as the group heads out of the gym and back towards the Pokemon center. After everyone is patched up the group, besides Frosslass, sits around a table looking at a map figuring out what their next destination is. Frosslass sits in a chair in the corner staring at Vecransyh who has his back to her. After a few moments Xylina floats out of the huddle and over to Frosslass sitting down in the chair next to her,
"You okay?" Frosslass gives her a questionable look,
"I'm fine. Why do you ask?" Xylina shrugs,
"Just noticed you over here deep in thought and thought I'd ask." Frosslass shrugs,
"Sometimes one needs to be alone with one's thoughts to truly feel necessary." Xylina smiles,
"Nice words to live by. So, how was the hug?" Frosslass gives her a puzzled look,
"What hug...?"
"The hug with Vecransyh. How was it? I won't tell him I promise. He thinks you hated it." Frosslass blushes lightly under her skull mask and looks down,
"It was... the first time I've ever felt truly safe. It was like he had this kind of aura around him that made me feel completely at ease and like there was nothing that could possibly be bad in my life. It was like all of my sorrow and anger melted away and was replaced by pure happiness... which is a feeling I have not felt in... eleven years." Xylina looks at her shocked by this,
"Eleven years?!" Frosslass looks at her and nods,
"Yes, but I've become accustomed to feeling sorrow and feeling happiness is something that doesn't come naturally to me if at all. It's almost uncomfortable how good it feels." Xylina smiles,
"Sounds like you're starting to open up. You should ask him for a name now. I see it in your eyes that you want one." Frosslass looks at her in shock,
"You don't know that! I do not want to be named!" Xylina smiles slyly,
"I can see that you're at least curious about it." Frosslass looks down,
"Yes."
"Then how about I ask him what name he thought of for you and I tell you?" Frosslass continues looking down at the floor,
"I'd like that..." Xylina smiles,
"Okay. I'll ask him tonight." Meanwhile at the table Drake is telling everyone about heading to the next gym,
"So, anyway, we're going to go east of this city until we hit Mt. Coronet. We get through this little path in there and that'll put us just within a short distance of Hearthome city and our next badge." Vecransyh blinks as he hears the name 'Hearthome',
"Hearthome? My mom lives in Hearthome!" Drake grins,
"We'll have to pay her a visit when we get there then." Shortly after running through the plan again everyone heads up to their rooms for the night. Frosslass sits in her room waiting impatiently for a knock on the door from Xylina so she could hear the name Vecransyh had picked for her. Meanwhile in their room Xylina and Vecransyh lie on the bed facing each other,
"Why do you want to know the name I picked out for Frosslass?"
"Just curious is all." Vecransyh lets out a loud yawn,
"Sorry but I'm not revealing it to anyone until she asks me herself. A name serves no purpose if its possessor refuses it." Xylina sits up and floats off of the bed,
"Okay. I'm going to get a snack from the vending machine. You want anything?" Vecransyh shakes his head,
"Nah, I'm good." Xylina disappears out the door and heads down the hallway towards Frosslass' room and knocks on the door along with jumping back when the door is flung open instantly,
"Well? What is it?!" Xylina shakes her head and looks at her sadly,
"He told me that no one is allowed to know until you ask him and he tells you personally. Sorry, but it looks like if you want to know you'll have to ask him yourself." Frosslass looks down,
"I see... I suppose I'll just ask him but not take on the name as my own..." Frosslass looks up, "Hey... would it be okay If I slept in his bed again? You can be there too..." Xylina blinks at the request,
"Can I ask why?"
"When he hugged me... he said that I don't need to be afraid any more and... well, sleeping alone is a reminder of my horrid past. It's fine if you say no, I'll understand." Xylina smiles,
"It's perfectly alright. Let's go." Frosslass looks up at her and nods as the two of them head down the hall and head into Vecransyh's room. Xylina and Frosslass head over to the bed to find Vecransyh asleep and they each lie down on either side of him. Frosslass faces away from Vecransyh as she drifts off to sleep and Xylina looks at her with a light smile knowing that her icy heartis melting and that soon she would be a much happier Pokemon. Vecransyh is asleep on his side facing Frosslass and wakes up slightly reaching out and putting his arms around Frosslass' waist pulling her close to him in an embrace before falling back to sleep. Frosslass blushes deeply but all of the previous feelings rush back to her as she feels Vecransyh's warm embrace and she falls into a peaceful sleep unaware of misdeeds going on just outside the Pokemon center.
"Ugh... my head..." She looks to the door remembering when Vecransyh had asked her if she wanted a name and being overcome with those strange feelings and fainting. Or at least that's what she thinks happened. Frosslass lays back down on the bed turning over with her eyes closed, "A name... I still wonder what it was..." She then opens her eyes and looks directly into the sleeping face of Vecransyh jumping. She says nothing but stares wide-eyed at Vecransyh wondering why he had slept in her bed, (Was he... worried about me after I fell? Did he put me in bed?) Her mind wracked with questions she sits up and puts her hands to her head as the headache returns, (Must have hit my head harder then I thought... Wait... while I was unconscious he could've...) She then looks at Vecransyh sleeping peacefully but after a brief look over his body she sighs and dismisses the thought after seeing him fully clothed, "Humans and Pokemon are incompatible anyway and besides... humans are terrible beings..." She looks back to Vecransyh who stretches in his sleep and Frosslass shifts over to him, "Why do you care about me?" Frosslass jumps as she hears him speak,
"Because you're no different from me." Vecransyh opens his eyes and looks at her. Frosslass scowls at the comment,
"I'm nothing like you humans. Why are you here anyway?" Vecransyh gives her a serious look,
"You fainted last night so I stayed here just in case you were sick or something." Frosslass gives him a cold look that almost looks sad,
"I'm fine. I sleep alone, that's how it's always been." Vecransyh looks at her and sees the very faint flicker of sadness in her eyes as she turns away and floats off of the bed and faces away from him, "Go..." Vecransyh slides off of the bed and stands up. He walks over to Frosslass and she turns to him with a cold glare. Then Vecransyh did something that she had never thought he could have done. Vecransyh takes a step towards her and embraces her tightly whispering softly,
"You don't have to be afraid any more." Frosslass floats in his embrace for a few minutes completely lost in her own thoughts and finally speaks,
"Let me go." Vecransyh doesn't move as his embrace becomes a little lighter. Frosslass closes her eyes after a few more moments of embrace and puts her arms around him crying softly, (This feels... so... comforting...) she lays her head on his shoulder still weeping lightly. She is knocked out of her trance by a light knocking sound on the door and she takes her arms off of Vecransyh pushing him away. She glares at him with the same cold look but Vecransyh sees a slight thankfulness in her eyes replacing most of the visible sorrow. Frosslass opens the door to find Xylina. Vecransyh smiles and waves slightly,
"Hey, was just heading back." Xylina then looks at Frosslass, who has her usual cold look,
"Take him now." Vecransyh and Xylina quickly leave and Frosslass floats back over to the bed lying down on it looking up at the ceiling, "So that's what being held is like... all of the pain melts away..." Out in the hallway Xylina turns to Vecransyh,
"So, what happened?"
"A hug. She looked like she needed it. Looks like I was wrong though." Xylina giggles,
"Don't worry about it. I'll talk to her later." Vecransyh nods as the two head back to their room and fall asleep as it is still early in the morning. Meanwhile back in her room Frosslass has gone over to the window and is watching a black figure apparently trying to fight the air. She opens the window and when the slight glare of the glass was gone she looks at the figure again recognizing him as Stratos,
"What're you doing?" Stratos jumps and looks around frantically for the voice, "Up here!" Stratos looks up at Frosslass and bows,
"I am training. Father doesn't like me to fight but I can't help it. I just feel like I'm destined for so much and I want to get even stronger. Please don't tell my father I was training..." Frosslass nods at the small Lucario,
"I don't talk to him anyway so your secret is safe with me." Stratos gives her a happy childish grin,
"Thank you miss... did you find your name yet?" Frosslass shakes her head,
"Not yet little one." Stratos grins,
"Okay! When you find it I wanna know! It's probably a really pretty name if you have it!" Frosslass blushes at the complement and returns to her bedroom floating over to the bed,
"Pretty...?" She slides off her skull mask and looks into a full-body mirror on the wall, "I wonder if Vecransyh thinks so." Frosslass then blinks and shakes her head, "What does it matter what he thinks?! Still..." She looks down, "It would be nice to hear a man say it..." She returns the mask to her head and lies down on the bed letting her arms fall out to the sides of her as she stares up at the ceiling. Without another thought hitting her she falls asleep. A few hours pass and Frosslass wakes up to a light tapping on her door. She looks over to the clock and her eyes widen as she had slept into the afternoon. Floating over to the door she opens it to find the cheerful face of Stratos looking up at her,
"Hello! I got sent here to get you. We're heading off to lunch before heading off to the gym do you want to come?" Frosslass nods as she feels the hunger in her stomach start to take effect,
"Sure." Stratos leads Frosslass to a nearby restaurant and the two head inside. Stratos sits down between Latias and Drake and Frosslass sits down next to Xylina at the edge of the table. Next to Kazamaru sits Abra to his left and Scarlet to his right. After their food arrives Kazamaru grins as he looks across the table to Vecransyh,
"Today's the day we get our next badges dude! Can't wait till I get to mop the floor with yet another gym leader! Hehe, I'm getting pretty dang strong. I might just be the best out of our group besides Drake!" Abra looks over at Kazamaru and stands up picking up his plate of spaghetti in the process. Abra turns to him and turns the plate over effectively covering his head in spaghetti. Kaza turns his head towards the Abra as everyone at the table, excluding Frosslass, burst into laughter, "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR?!?!" Abra smiles and sits back in his chair,
"You were being very egotistical so I decided to cover you in spaghetti."
After Kazamaru returned to the Pokemon center to get cleaned up the group heads to the gym in the lower half of the city. Kaza heads through the door first and looks around at the flowery walls and the large grassy ground of the gym,
"Oh balls. It's a grass gym." Drake walks through the door with Stratos on his shoulder and Latias next to him. Drake takes out Arcanine's pokeball and spins it on his finger,
"Should be a fun match." Scarlet giggles as she looks around the room,
"Grass + psychic = fun times!" A woman approaches them she wears a short, light-brown skirt, a dark-green shawl on her shoulders with a small black belly shirt underneath exposing a large amount of her stomach, her hair is an orange color with a visible second layer of solid black underneath,
"Hello everyone, my name is Gardenia, You all here for badges?" Everyone, besides Frosslass and Latias nod and Kazamaru grins taking a step ahead of everyone,
"I'll go first." In a short while Kazamaru's Camerupt stands across from a small bud with legs. Kazamaru blinks, "That's it...?" Gardenia grins,
"Yup! Now lets start!" Camerupt takes a huge breathe and releases a stream of fire at the small Pokemon but it dodges out of the way and suddenly a bright light appears over heard illuminating the field much more then it was a short while ago. The leafs on the bud open revealing and small, but happy, looking Cherrim that dances about in the sunlight while releasing bladed leafs at Camerupt who just shrugs off the weak hits and blasts it with an intense fire blast taking it down immediately. Gardenia takes out a pokeball returning Cherrim and takes out another, "Maybe Sunny Day wasn't the best choice..." She tosses the pokeball and in a flash a large Torterra roars toward his opponent and begins charging him dodging a flamethrower in the process and head butting into Camerupt sending the giant camel skidding backwards before running back at the Torterra and releasing a huge flamethrower that the giant turtle ducks to avoid. A moment later the Torterra smells something burning and looks back to see the tree on his shell completely ablaze! After a few moments of running around the Torterra passes out from exhaustion and the flames on his back die down and fizzle out. Gardenia returns Torterra to his pokeball and takes out a third, "This isn't going very well for me..." Kaza grins,
"Well, fire V.S. grass." Gardenia groans,
"Yeah, that always goes sooo well for me." She tosses the pokeball releasing a green Pokemon with two bouquets of flowers for hands. The Roserade looks upon her opponent darkly and leaps to the side to avoid the flames fires from the camel's mouth. She then fires a barrage of Shadow Balls that all strike with immense power taking down the camel. Roserade lands in a samurai stance and looks up at her victim. Kazamaru looks on in shock when he sees the power of such an unintimidating Pokemon,
"No way!" He returns Camerupt to his ball and releases his Aggron in a flash of light. The blue triceratops looks down at the tiny Pokemon and back at Kazamaru,
"This is my opponent? I swear, you're just using me to overkill all of the weak opponents." Kazamaru lets out a chuckle,
"Weak compared to you at least. Anyway, that just took down Camerupt so be careful." Aggron nods knowing full well that Kaza's Camerupt had quite a large amount of stamina. Aggron rushes Roserade but the Pokemon continues to avoid the potential strikes and even avoids an earthquake attack by leaping off of the ground for a long enough amount of time. She fires a Solarbeam at Aggron, who endures the hit and then looks back at Roserade with a dark smirk,
"That was the wrong move." Aggron then charges his Metal Burst and rushes the Roserade only to have his most powerful attack parried and be blasted back by a mighty Solarbeam that causes him to be blasted backwards unconscious. Kazamaru stares at the Pokemon with his mouth hanging open as it had just taken down his strongest Pokemon using nearly the strongest power of his strongest attack. Aggron disappears into his pokeball and Kazamaru thinks through his remaining Pokemon before remembering his new acquisition,
"Let's do this Tankburger!!" The thrown pokeball opens in a flash of light and the giant blue bear scratches his stomach as he looks down at his opponent,
"Bah, I'm too tired to fight." Kazamaru's eyes widen,
"Just win this for me!" Tankburger shrugs and falls forward crushing Roserade under his massive body as he falls asleep. Gardenia takes out a pokeball and Roserade disappears into it,
"Well, that was effective." Tankburger disappears into his ball and the two trainers walk up to each other and shake hands,
"That's one hell of a Roserade!" Gardenia smiles,
"If I had a nickel for every trainer that's told me that I'd have exactly 107 dollars and 85 cents." She then hands him a badge that is three green diamonds framed in silver. Kaza's eyes light up as he takes the badge,
"Yay!"
After a quick visit to the Pokemon center and another after Drake's battle and another after Scarlet's battle Gardenia stands across from Vecransyh and Xylina who floats next to him. Gardenia sends out her Cherrim and Vecransyh sends out Drifblim and the giant balloon simply floats around the arena easily avoiding the Solarbeams fired from the tiny Cherrim. Using a few gust attacks the Cherrim quickly falls and is recalled and quickly replaces by Torterra who meets a similar end due to it being weak to flying attacks as well. Torterra is replaced by the mighty Roserade who takes a fighting stance and begins tracking the movements of the giant balloon before releasing a single shadow ball that causes the balloon to fall from the sky and land near her. The Roserade smirks but looks down in shock as the balloon begins to glow brightly followed by a huge explosion. As the smoke clears Gardenia smiles lightly as Roserade stands proudly covered by a green barrier and looking not the least bit amused by the attack. Xylina floats onto the field as Drifblim is recalled and she begins throwing shadow balls at the Roserade only to have her avoid them and return fire with her own. The battle between them lasts for a few minutes before they each are hit by a shadow ball sending them flying back and landing on their backs before getting up and returning to firing their shadow balls back and forth at each other. After around twenty minutes of this Xylina fires an ice beam at Roserade who jumps up slightly and runs across the thin beam of ice and jumps above Xylina blasting her with a bright Solarbeam causing her to pass out. Gardenia grins,
"Booya!" Vecransyh looks down as he takes out Xylina's pokeball and she disappears inside of it. He then releases her next to him and takes out a third pokeball,
(I've got four more Pokemon so this won't last to long. I'll just keep hammering away at that thing and...) Vecransyh's train of thought is sent crashing down a hillside while the people inside of it scream and plunge to their deaths as he sees Frosslass float in front of him and opens her eyes looking upon her opponent, (FROSSLASS?!?!) She says nothing as she engages in battle with the flowery Pokemon. Roserade begins firing shadow balls and Razor leafs at her and she returns fire with ice beams and her own Shadow Balls,
"You're quite a durable little thing if you can take all of these hits and still be standing!" Roserade says nothing but grins as she lands another shadow ball into Frosslass causing her to move away slightly, "Pretty decent hit but the battle isn't in your favor. I think I'll end it." Frosslass begins to glow a bright light-blue color and puts her hands together before throwing her hands out as a giant shockwave freezes Roserade into a block of solid ice and it shatters leaving the unconscious Pokemon to fall forward defeated. Gardenia returns Frosslass to her pokeball and walks towards the ghost Pokemon, Vecransyh and the newly revived Xylina,
"Was that Sheer Cold...?" Frosslass nods and the gym leader smiles, "I see, then you must be that legendary Frosslass." Frosslass gives her a cold glare,
"You will tell no one you saw me till I no longer reside within this city and you will not tell them where I went." Gardenia nods a little intimidated by the sternness of her voice,
"You have my word. Here you go." Gardenia hands Vecransyh his own Forest Badge and he stows it in his pocket with his other twelve with a happy smile,
"Thanks!" Gardenia waves as the group heads out of the gym and back towards the Pokemon center. After everyone is patched up the group, besides Frosslass, sits around a table looking at a map figuring out what their next destination is. Frosslass sits in a chair in the corner staring at Vecransyh who has his back to her. After a few moments Xylina floats out of the huddle and over to Frosslass sitting down in the chair next to her,
"You okay?" Frosslass gives her a questionable look,
"I'm fine. Why do you ask?" Xylina shrugs,
"Just noticed you over here deep in thought and thought I'd ask." Frosslass shrugs,
"Sometimes one needs to be alone with one's thoughts to truly feel necessary." Xylina smiles,
"Nice words to live by. So, how was the hug?" Frosslass gives her a puzzled look,
"What hug...?"
"The hug with Vecransyh. How was it? I won't tell him I promise. He thinks you hated it." Frosslass blushes lightly under her skull mask and looks down,
"It was... the first time I've ever felt truly safe. It was like he had this kind of aura around him that made me feel completely at ease and like there was nothing that could possibly be bad in my life. It was like all of my sorrow and anger melted away and was replaced by pure happiness... which is a feeling I have not felt in... eleven years." Xylina looks at her shocked by this,
"Eleven years?!" Frosslass looks at her and nods,
"Yes, but I've become accustomed to feeling sorrow and feeling happiness is something that doesn't come naturally to me if at all. It's almost uncomfortable how good it feels." Xylina smiles,
"Sounds like you're starting to open up. You should ask him for a name now. I see it in your eyes that you want one." Frosslass looks at her in shock,
"You don't know that! I do not want to be named!" Xylina smiles slyly,
"I can see that you're at least curious about it." Frosslass looks down,
"Yes."
"Then how about I ask him what name he thought of for you and I tell you?" Frosslass continues looking down at the floor,
"I'd like that..." Xylina smiles,
"Okay. I'll ask him tonight." Meanwhile at the table Drake is telling everyone about heading to the next gym,
"So, anyway, we're going to go east of this city until we hit Mt. Coronet. We get through this little path in there and that'll put us just within a short distance of Hearthome city and our next badge." Vecransyh blinks as he hears the name 'Hearthome',
"Hearthome? My mom lives in Hearthome!" Drake grins,
"We'll have to pay her a visit when we get there then." Shortly after running through the plan again everyone heads up to their rooms for the night. Frosslass sits in her room waiting impatiently for a knock on the door from Xylina so she could hear the name Vecransyh had picked for her. Meanwhile in their room Xylina and Vecransyh lie on the bed facing each other,
"Why do you want to know the name I picked out for Frosslass?"
"Just curious is all." Vecransyh lets out a loud yawn,
"Sorry but I'm not revealing it to anyone until she asks me herself. A name serves no purpose if its possessor refuses it." Xylina sits up and floats off of the bed,
"Okay. I'm going to get a snack from the vending machine. You want anything?" Vecransyh shakes his head,
"Nah, I'm good." Xylina disappears out the door and heads down the hallway towards Frosslass' room and knocks on the door along with jumping back when the door is flung open instantly,
"Well? What is it?!" Xylina shakes her head and looks at her sadly,
"He told me that no one is allowed to know until you ask him and he tells you personally. Sorry, but it looks like if you want to know you'll have to ask him yourself." Frosslass looks down,
"I see... I suppose I'll just ask him but not take on the name as my own..." Frosslass looks up, "Hey... would it be okay If I slept in his bed again? You can be there too..." Xylina blinks at the request,
"Can I ask why?"
"When he hugged me... he said that I don't need to be afraid any more and... well, sleeping alone is a reminder of my horrid past. It's fine if you say no, I'll understand." Xylina smiles,
"It's perfectly alright. Let's go." Frosslass looks up at her and nods as the two of them head down the hall and head into Vecransyh's room. Xylina and Frosslass head over to the bed to find Vecransyh asleep and they each lie down on either side of him. Frosslass faces away from Vecransyh as she drifts off to sleep and Xylina looks at her with a light smile knowing that her icy heartis melting and that soon she would be a much happier Pokemon. Vecransyh is asleep on his side facing Frosslass and wakes up slightly reaching out and putting his arms around Frosslass' waist pulling her close to him in an embrace before falling back to sleep. Frosslass blushes deeply but all of the previous feelings rush back to her as she feels Vecransyh's warm embrace and she falls into a peaceful sleep unaware of misdeeds going on just outside the Pokemon center.