Welcome to Gaia! ::

~Jack

"Took you guys long enough!" Jack wailed out as the fourth wall exploded; having gotten himself a bit riled up in the wait. Handing Ghost a Protect TM he continued to mutter to himself as he started to walk away. Making a mental note that they returned with a Ralts which he should probably add as a recruit to their respective team's paperwork later.

Several members of Team Polaris were gathered around the bulletin board. It's been a while since they've taken a mission, an entire month in fact, not counting Atra's own exploration of the Metal Works. The Team had been hit hard at the Regional ball, and all struggled to keep the team together as Morana, Incultyr, and Altus recovered from their injuries.

Two major battles later -one against the infected town members, and one against the invading Moon Guild- Incultyr decided that enough was enough. Their team had to take a new mission; no way was he going to allow his team to simply sit here and mooch off the guild.

Incultyr looked from one mission to another, as the team talked over what they should do.

Atra ignored everyone else, rather peeved that he had been forced to come along as well. As far as he was concerned, Incultyr was not his leader, but the Larvitar is rather stubborn about it. He looked around aimlessly at the paper pinned to the board, not really looking for anything in particular.

The eevee did a double-take when he spotted the word "plate" in the offered rewards of one of the missions. He stared up at it, the paper just a bit out of his reach, but that wasn't a problem for Atra, who was so adept at magic. The paper glowed slightly as it rose, then tugged outwards with a jerk. The top of the paper ripped, freeing it of the pin, and Atra allowed it to float down.

He stood up onto his hind feet to snatch the paper out of mid-air and then laid it down in front of him, flat on the ground so he could read it.

"I've decided, we're doing this one. Come on." Atra announced, rolling it up with his paw and padding over to the Ditto-Skarmory behind him. Incultyr looked to glare at him.

"Oh no you don't. This is a team decision. Hand that over." The Larvitar growled, walking over to the eevee, hand outstretched. Atra glared at him and he glared back.

"Um...can we please at least take a look Atra?" Altus intervened. The eevee ignored Incultyr and handed the sheet of paper to the Riolu. Altus read it over as Morana padded to his side.

"It seems someone was trapped somewhere in the Frigid Sea." Altus announced. Incultyr was glowering, and snatched the mission sheet from Altus, reading it over.

"Why do you want this mission?" Incultyr asked.

Atra tried to tug it back with Kinesis, but Incultyr held onto the sheet of paper tightly.

"See the rewards?" Atra answered grudgingly. "He's offering an Earth Plate."

While Atra thought this answer enough, apparently the rest of the team did not understand.

"So what?" Incultyr growled. Atra sighed, shaking his head. How stupid were they!?

"There's a lot of legends about the Plates, and all of them leads back to Arceus. They pop up every once in a while. They're a rare find, we can't turn down this opportunity!" Atra explained, not all that confident the others would understand.

"And why are you so keen on this?"

Atra bared his teeth at Incultyr, showing his agitation. The Larvitar was digging too much.

"Any Pokemon can use the innate power of the Plates to augment their own magic. But there are some who can use the Plates as a connection to the Original One Himself, and draw upon his vast power..." Atra started to explain, and then shook his head.

"That Plate is rightfully mine, but I will not steal it from one who ignorantly believes it belongs to them. Whether you will come or not, I will go and complete this mission." Atra turned to Katara, ready to climb onto her back.

Behind them, Incultyr handed the mission sheet to Altus.

"Morana, this is a missing Pokemon mission, so naturally you will be going. Altus, protect her. I will stay in the Team Room in case any needs to be sent back due to injuries." And with that, the Larvitar turned to go to the West Wing.

Atra stared at Morana and Altus as the Riolu tied the mission sheet to the Houndour's collar.

"Let's go find the Dewgong and find out exactly what is going on before we leave."

---

The team stared in awe as the trees suddenly dropped away around them abruptly to either side. In front of them was a vast, nearly unending stretch of white, the frozen sea, a pristine untouched layer of snow on top of it.

The area is usually buffeted with a snowstorm, but today the skies were perfectly clear, and they could see miles. Of course, without the cloud's insulation, it was cold, and without the protection of the trees any longer, the wind that blew across the flat expanse hit them like a wall, chilling them to the bones.

"Arceus it's freezing." Altus said in a shaky voice, his teeth chattering. He's been keeping his complaints to himself the entire way here, but it was just too damned cold. Wrapping his arms around himself, he summoned some fire at his feet. It leapt up around him, warming him, but it's not like he could do this forever. Unlike the others, Altus has very little magical capacity- he was a physical fighter.

Atra used something a little unconventional to keep warm. Drawing upon his ice magic, he trailed an area of coldness behind him. His magic didn't just allow him to make heat disappear- his magic simply moved heat out of one area into another. Which works well in this case because he simply drew that heat into himself. It wasn't much, but enough to keep himself from freezing solid.

"How are you doing Kat?" The eevee asked the Skarmory padding along beside them. She walked awkwardly through the thick snow, her mass and ill-equipped feet making her sink deeply into the powder with each step. When she had tried to fly, she found her wings working ineffectively in the frigid air. A normal Skarmory might have done fine, but Katara was a ditto, the goo that made up her body just didn't want to stay strong in the cold.

"I...I think I'm ok..." Katara answered through laboured breaths. Altus and Morana were watching her, worried.

"Perhaps we should send her back?" Altus voiced his concern. Atra bristled at this, baring his little (but sharp) teeth.

"She comes with me." he growled.

"Um...may I suggest something?" Everyone turned to face Katara, and she shifted her wings uncomfortably.

"I...I'm a...Ditto right? Perhaps if Morana would allow me to transform into her...? I do believe she is the best-suited out of us in this environment."

Atra stared. It was the first time Katara had ever mentioned transforming.

"Um, well, I don't mind." Morana piped up. Being a fire type, the cold didn't bother her. And while her paws weren't as large as those of Houndours that lived in snowy areas, they still acted as better snowshoes than the claws of a Skarmory. The houndour jumped forward so that she was right in front of the Ditto-Skarmory. Katara craned her neck down to touch Morana and for a moment, nothing happened.

Then the Skarmory's shape began to waver and melt together, forming a large blob of silvery goo before reforming into a much larger clone of Morana. Except that it was grey...and blue...and...oddly coloured in general.



"Um...I'm afraid I don't know how to change my colour." Katara apologized, looking down at her new canine body. She took a step forward, her new paws sinking slightly into the snow but not nearly as much. Morana gawked for a moment, staring up at the Houndour that was larger than most Houndoom.

"C'mon, we're wasting time! Let's get this over with quickly and get somewhere warm!" Atra yowled, and bounded out onto the ice.

"Hey, be careful, the ice might be th- ah what the heck." Altus cried out but it was already too late and the eevee was out on the ice. Ah well, it's not like any of them had any significant weight except Katara. Altus and Morana followed behind, with the ditto-Houndour behind them walking slowly, adjusting to her new body. As a ditto, she was instinctively a fast learner for this kind of thing, and was soon walking confidently and with fairly good balance. And she was warm too, her fires perhaps not burning as strongly as that of a real Houndour, but strong enough for the weather.

As they travelled out onto the ice, Morana stopped constantly to sniff the ground. She was trying to pick up the scent of the missing Sealeo, but it was hard for her to get anything. The Dewgong had been unsure of the exact path he and his cousin had taken when they went to explore the cave systems, so the team had to find their track and follow it.

Atra found a nice perch on Katara's back in the meantime, and was quite content to stay on her back. Her Houndour body radiated heat, and even Altus stayed close to her.

"Hey, I think I found something!" Morana called out, and behind her the others rushed over to examine what she saw. There in the snow, was a faint impression that stretched out to their right. Some snow had fallen and covered it, but it wasn't hard to imagine them to be the tracks of a Seleo and Dewgong dragging themselves across the snow.

Anna bent down, sniffing the impression for an hints of the scent she had picked up on the Dewgong and those of the Sealeo's possession at their house. It was hard, whatever scent there was was faint under the snow.

"Out, out of the way!" Morana suddenly screamed, stumbling back as if something was charging at her, attacking her.

"Wha-?"

Katara trusted Morana's warning, backed up as fast as she could without tripping over herself. Altus however, didn't run, eyes on his leader. Morana laid on the ice, cowering, her front paws over her eyes.

"Get out of there!" Altus yelled at her, but the Houndour didn't seem to hear him. She was whimpering and gasping for air. What was going on?

Altus got his answer as the ice beneath them suddenly burst open, the ground heaving, the snow flying up in a large puff. Altus was flung through the air and he landed heavily in the snow some dozen meters away. His left shoulder protested in pain, and tears of pain clouded his vision.

--

Morana was in a state of panic and confusion. When she had been sniffing for a scent, she had gotten a violent mental image of the world exploding about her. Even as she yelled at the others to run though, she didn't feel her body being blasted and torn as it should have. And the images continued, of a mighty roar and rampaging giants about her, yet she felt nothing.

All she could do was to cower on the ice, terrified.

When the events actually began to happen about her, she suddenly knew. She had recently been taught Future Sight at the Dojo. Since then she'd had flashes of the future at random times. She still couldn't control the damned thing.

And then the ice beneath her bucked and she slipped into the water.

---

Katara skidded to a stop, kicking up a cloud of snow before her. Atra stared back, eyes wide, as Altus was flung off his feet and into the ground. And then his eyes were drawn up the rampaging monsters that had done this.

Two large heads were poking out of the water, roaring as they charged through the ice around them, breaking it up and spreading a large area of unfrozen water. It was an amazing sight- the ice was easily three feet, if not more, thick, and the great beasts were ploughing through them as if they weren't there.

Straight at Atra and Katara.

"Oh damn damn damn, Kat, RUN!" Atra screamed. Those things were freaking Gyarados! Katara hesitated though, seeing Altus laying on the snow between themselves and the angry dragons, not to mention Morana was nowhere in sight.

Katara reared up onto her hind legs, and Atra screamed as he fell off the ditto-Houndour's back. The pony-sized Houndour charged forwards towards the Gyarados, intent on Altus's prone figure on the ground.

One of the Gyarados jumped up and out of the water, flying in the air for just a few moments before coming to crashing back down. It nearly avoided crushing Altus, and Katara darted in, fearless. Grabbing the semi-conscious Riolu in her teeth, she flung him onto her back and hoped he would stay on well enough. Altus was aware enough to clutch onto the bone ridges on her back.

The thing roared as it lunged towards Katara, and she did the first thing her Houndour body reflex told her to do: she opened her mouth and breathed as much fire as she could right into the thing's face. Though she normally wouldn't be as strong as an actual fire type, she was much (much) bigger than your average Houndour, and she breathed a lot more fire.

The Gyarados roared as its face got fried, but it continued its forwards lunge, running straight into Katara, driving her into the snow. Altus landed under her, and the Gyarados landed on top of her.

---

Oh god no Arceus no no no no, not this again!

Morana flailed as the water twisted and turned and flipped her into circles. Whatever had burst through the ice was still in the water, and it was stirring up the water currents, majorly. She felt something bump into her, sharp fins scratching her side, but this time she realized the moment from the future for what it was.

A power surged through her then, and begged release. She allowed it to, and somehow, she felt it channelling into the scene she saw in the future.

A dead magikarp that had been intent on tackling Morana bobbed up to the surface, dead, sometime in the near future.

Suddenly, Morana's feet found something solid, and it pushed upwards, propelling her up with it. Her head broke the surface and she took in a lungful of painfully cold sharp air. Sputtering and shivering violently, Morana collapsed on whatever she was now standing on.

"Hold on, I'll get you somewhere safe." A soft kind voice said, and Morana started, realizing that she was on the spiky back of a pokemon. It was blue, a long head extended up before it, and had a large sturdy shell upon which she was resting. Looking around, she could see the ice in the entire area had been churned up, leaving water with ice floating above it.

She gaped as off in the distance, two Gyarados were rampaging on the land. Holy Milktanks were those the things that had burst out of the water!?

---

Atra, feeling particularly brave, charged at the Gyarados that was intent on squishing his friends. Magical leaves materialized before him, all flying at the large serpentine pokemon, though did did little. He had to back off as the second gyarados flew up into the air and then dived down at him, mouth wide open.

Atra scrambled aside, cursing as he ran. A quick attack at the last second saved him as the gyarados crashed into the ice a meter behind him with such force he went right through all three feet of ice and slid into the water. The Shockwave of the impact sent Atra sprawling.

How the heck do they fight these things!? Turning around, Atra watched as fish started to come to the surface of the water, splashing and jumping angrily. A large red fish jumped out of the hole the Gyarados had just made right next to him, but landed short, flopping uselessly on the ice. Atra simply raised a paw and sunk his claws into the Magikarp until it stopped thrashing, barely giving it any notice as he tried to figure out what the heck they could do.

---

Katara felt strain on her body. She was on her feet, the Gyarados above her intent on crushing her. Her legs trembled as she tried to hold her weight up the best she could, less she crush Altus who was beneath her.

"Use...Thunder...bolt..." Altus gasped, and Katara did not understand. She didn't know Thunderbolt, she was a Houndour!

A whirlwind picked up around them, dark wisps of energy forming and taking shape. The Gyarados on top of them roared, rearing back, releasing the weight on Katara. She didn't hesitate, picking Altus up with her teeth and running as fast as she could towards Atra, who was standing by himself in the middle of the ice, deep in concentration. Looking back, she saw the whirlwind of dark energy converge, so that all of the wisps turned sharp and angled in towards the Gyarados, impaling him several times.

Its roar shook the very ice, but as he was distracted by the attack, the second Gyarados flew up and out of the ice near them again. As the behemoth streaked up into the air, crying out shrilly, the first one recovered, rage in its eyes. The Gyarados's mouth opened wide, light and energy gathering there.

"Oh Damn!" Atra yelled, recognizing the Hyper Beam for what it was. Altus struggled to his feet and ran in front of the both of them as the attack came, his body glowing slightly. The hyper beam ran into the small Riolu, and it blasted him off his feet, despite his best efforts to block the attack.

All three of them was sent flying, but the Hyper Beam abruptly veered to the side. They landed hard, all of them starting to feel like some sort of punching bag-rag doll. Ooowwwwww.

Blinking through tears and freezing water -all of them were soaking wet by now- Atra stared as the Gyarados landed hard on its side. A lapras had just flown through the air and tackled it...whoa. Then without warning, the Lapras shot a thunderbolt from its back at the Gyarados, and the giant stopped its thrashing.

Wait, thunderbolt from its back?

Struggling to her feet, Katara saw the same scene, but her eyes were much better. She still retained her vision from her Skarmory form.

"That's Morana on its back." Katara murmured, and then, suddenly, what Altus had said earlier made sense. Thunderbolt! Apparently Morana could use it, and if Katara had transformed into her...

The second Gyarados, absolutely furious, dove down at them from above. Katara simply grabbed the magic inside her transformed magic and threw it up at the flying-water type. A large bolt of electricity shot straight up at the Gyarados, meeting it in mid-dive. the force of it knocked the Gyarados slightly off track as it was knocked out. It landed with a heavy crash near them, instead of onto them. The ice cracked beneath it, but did not completely break.

Suddenly, so suddenly, the battle was over.

Katara sat down onto her haunches, panting, her wet fur stinging with pain. It was an unfamiliar sensation, and she did not like it. The water burned, hurt. She was a fire type right now, and that she was not used to. Beside her Atra collapsed, panting hard. Altus lay in the snow, unconscious from all the beating he had taken.

Morana had hopped off the Lapras's back and ran towards them. She was a wreck as well, her fur dripping wet and steaming as her body heat evaporated it. She looked sick and disoriented as she reached them.

"Are you all ok?" She asked, and took a minute inspecting everyone before pulling out the exploration badge from her collar-pouch. She touched it to Altus, sending him back to their team room where Incultyr waited exactly for something like this. She took charge of the team then, as a leader should. Atra was too tired to even argue about it.

"Kids, what were you here for?" The Lapras had dragged itself across the ice to reach them, concern in her voice, and then she saw the explorer's badge Morana held.

"Ah, a rescue team?"

Anna nodded wordlessly.

"We are looking for a missing Sealeo." Atra explained. "He and his cousin were exploring the caves when an earthquake blocked the entrance. Only the Cousin got out."

The lapras looked thoughtful.

"I know of a small cave system near here. I can carry all of you there except the..." the lapras hesitated when she looked at Katara, who was huge. The Ditto just shook her head.

"I can walk." She said tiredly, looking across the expanse now riddled with open water as well as snow and ice. It would be a treacherous crossing.

---

The cave system wasn't very big. They've gone in for only about a minute or two before they reached the blockage. They couldn't just clear it- that could possibly collapse the whole system.

"Is anyone over there!?" Atra yelled. After a few more times, the team heard a faint response from within the rubble. Gods, did the poor thing get buried? Someone's going to develop a bad case of claustrophobia it seems.

"Ready Katara?"

The ditto nodded her houndour head. She was uncomfortable with the plan, but she was willing to go through with it. The Ditto-Houndour padded up to the pile of rubble and began to deform into a blob of silvery goo.

"Yell out if you feel something goey touch you!" Atra yelled into the rubble pile as the ditto melted against the rocks and began to force her way in. Several minutes later, they heard the Sealeo cry out, and Morana placed a paw on the small amount of ditto goo Katara had left behind, stretching a line of her out unbroken.

"Thank you for all your help." Morana told the lapras, and it inclined its head.

"Don't worry about it. I couldn't just watch you kids get eaten."

Atra grabbed onto Morana's tail and the Houndour activated their explorer's badge.

In a flash of light they were gone, back to their team room to appear in a pile of jumped limbs and silvery goo.

When they got back to the boy's team Room, Katara immediately started to get herself together (literally) and reformed into what she was most comfortable as: a Skarmory. They found Altus sitting on the ground, conscious, and Incultyr behind him, one hand on his arm, the other on his shoulder.

The team got back just in time to see their leader reset the Riolu's dislocated shoulder. Altus wasn't very happy about screaming in front of the whole team.

Morana, Atra, and Katara finished the mission by escorting the Sealeo home. When they were handed their rewards, Atra immediately snatched the Plate out of the bag. On it were inscriptions that Morana couldn't read.

Atra, however, had been taught the Unknown Alphabet and he could read it fluently:

"When the universe was created, its shards became this Plate.
The power of defeated giants infuses this Plate.
Two beings of time and space set free from the Original One.
Three beings were born to bind time and space.
Two make matter and three make spirit, shaping the world.
The Original One breathed alone before the universe came.
The powers of Plates are shared among Pokémon.
The rightful bearer of a Plate draws from the Plate it holds."

Was more of less how it translated, and proved that the Plate was indeed a real one. Atra focused on the last line, "The rightful bearer of a Plate draws from the Plate it holds." and grinned. Rightful bearer, here he comes. Closing his eyes, he could feel the immense power hidden within it, and even better yet, a link to the Original One.

To think of all the ignorant Pokemon that uses Plates as they would any other attack-boosting item!

Morana sorted through the rest of the bag, separating the PD from the Tokens and stared confused at the egg. It seems their clients thought them a good place to unload an unwanted egg...

"Ink is going to raise hell again." Morana sighed as she gently nuzzled the egg. The first egg the team had received, back when it was only just herself and Incultyr, they had dropped off at the Nursery. She still felt terrible about it, hoping the egg would have found a good home.

But they had kept Acer's the egg, the team all begging Ink to. he had given in, and while the baby Turtwig was a handful at times, he was a source of constant joy. Already the little thing could string full sentences together.

She's keeping this one too.

---

When the Team got called outside the next day, Incultyr and Morana went. Morana's eyes widened at the sight of the Gyarados, a small squeak escaping her throat.

"How many times do we have to tell you damned Wild Pokemnon we are not accepting new recruits!?" Incultyr roared in frustration. He wasn't in a good mood- the team had beaten him 7 to 1 on a vote to keep the egg. Even Acer had voted against him! The Turtwig seemed to like the idea of having a younger sibling in the team.

The Gyarados and Incultyr started a hostile staring contest while Morana blubbered her apologies for Ink's hostility to the other two. The hurt Sealeo simply turned and left, but the Lapras was more understanding.

"Feel free to visit me kids. It's awfully lonely out there by myself." The lapras told them, and then turned and left.

The Gyarados eventually turned around and flew off too, muttering something angrily about Rescue Teams.

Complete.
13/13
“The way it fights constriction. Involuntarily keeping itself from becoming a frozen tundra. I can’t help but give it up to this frigid place. It sure does know how to make lives inconvenient.”
Tora turned to her ally, a small Hoppip by the name of Melanie and decided to be the first one to speak. “This place I foul. Why would we ever agree to such a mission.”
Melanie shrugged and continued to row the small boat that the three of them were in. “I know I’m being palpable, but shouldn’t you just keep your eyes on the water below our boat? Any minute could be our last if some violent Pokémon were to overturn it.” It was true that the team didn’t exactly have it together and both Melanie and Tora agreed that they shouldn’t act tense in front of the client but it was rather hard whenever Tora’s natural negativity was added to the equation. “What can I say other than you’re right Sneasel.” The Sneasel on the boat guffawed loudly before correcting Tora. “I haven’t been called that in quite some time. Refer to me as Ichiro.” Tore shook her head while keeping it towards the sea. “I’d rather not.” She then decided to turn around to the Sneasel and decided to make her definition of light talk. “You have a last name correct? I’ll address you by that and don’t even think about saying formalities aren’t necessary. The way I see it, you’re just a client.” Tora then turned her head back to the sea and remained stationary as she perused the waters for any sign of life. “M-My last name is Febrero.” “That’s more like it Mr. Febrero.” The rest of the first mile went rather quietly. No one chose to speak including the silent to this point Melanie. It seemed to her that it was rather pointless to get involved in the senseless disagreement that was taking place. Thus, she merely remained quiet and rowed as hard as she could so she could be done with this sooner than she originally had hoped for. When Mr. Febrero realized there would be no getting through to Tora, he set his sights on Melanie. “You seem interesting. How are you today?” Melanie stopped rowing for a moment just to answer his question, “I’m fine, thank you for-“ “Melanie.” Melanie looked past Mr. Febrero to Tora who still had her eyes set on the sea. “S-Sorry.” Melanie picked up the oar and began to row it back and forth through the solidifying water. “Why can’t we indulge in conversation?” Mr. Febrero stood up and glared at Tora who didn’t even attempt to turn around and make eye-contact with him. “Because if she did then she would stop rowing. I don’t think you noticed Mr. Febrero but that Hoppip cannot multi-task to save her life so it’d be wise if you averted yourself from speaking with her and just let us do our job.”

The rest of their ‘lovely time’ was cut short by a menacing creature approaching fast from the water. “Enemy Pokémon at twelve o’clock! Melanie, now!” Melanie nodded and jumped high into the sky allowing a bitter breeze to blow her even higher up. “When?” Tora looked upwards to Melanie to make sure she was in the right place. “Give it a second. Mr. Febrero wait patiently as we dispose of this Pokémon. Don’t do anything, period.” Mr. Febrero stared blankly as Tora jumped out of the boat and onto a small ice shard that was floating in the water. She then proceeded to envelop her whole body in a sphere. “Show yourself.” Both Melanie and Tora waited motionlessly for another move from beneath the water. Luckily, they didn’t wait long. Mere seconds after announcing that the Pokémon needed to show itself, a Seel leapt out of the water and onto a different small glacier only several feet from Tora. “What are you doing here?” The Pokémon looked violent and was already preparing a headbutt and was aiming at the boat. “It’ll be hard to get back to shore without your boat won’t it?” Tora nodded in agreement. “Exactly; that’s why I’m not allowing you to destroy it.” The Seel laughed atrociously at this remark, letting its guard down in the process. “Now.” Both Seel and Mr. Febrero looked up to see that Melanie was using a Stun Spore attack. “No! Can’t-Move.” The Seel fidgeted a little as the spores kept coming down. “You should’ve just minded your own damn business.” Tora launched a violent Hidden Power and hit the Seel so hard that it plummeted back into the water. “We did good right,” Melanie yelled from high in the sky. “Wonderful.” Mr. Febrero smiled thankfully and waved for her to come back to the boat. “Weak b***h.” Tora jumped back into the boat and skimmed over the waters briefly to make sure there would be no surprise attacks. “Here I come!” Melanie drifted back into the boat and gripped the oar quickly and began to row without a moment’s notice. “Thank you too, Tora.” Tora remained silent as she scanned over the sea, though after a few mintues to think she decided to speak up. “You want to really thank me? Shut-up the rest of the trip.” Mr. Febrero let out a sigh and turned to Melanie expecting some sort of comfort. All she did though was let out her own silent sigh as well.

- - - - -
Round one was over with this treacherous sea but the results of that battle had left a bitter Tora. She felt as though the wild Pokémon only proved how much she didn’t want to do all of this and that this Sneasel was putting her life in danger. “You’re a fool and a big one at that. I don’t want to hear another word from you. Not now, not ever.” She clenched her teeth to suppress herself from giving him an even bigger opinion that was sitting heavily on her chest. She had always tended to give people the cold-shoulder for every little thing and the fact that he wanted to go so far in the sea provoked her even more. No normal Pokémon is this desperate to go Ice skating in her opinion. Instead of replying to this though, Mr. Febrero merely sat silently and counted the ice shards that they passed by. He felt uncomfortable at that point in time and if it wasn’t for the calm and oblivious Melanie then he would’ve asked to be turned around a long time ago. But like Mr. Febrero, all the other Pokémon soon realized that turning around wouldn’t be an option. The icy waters were becoming slush and the idea of going backwards without reward ruined Melanie’s mood as well as Mr. Febrero’s. With that being said though, their moods were about to take another turn for the worse for Tora had announced that another Pokémon was coming.

Instead of jumping into the air this time, Melanie sat nervously on the boat and declared that there wasn’t enough wind to go with the same plan as last time. “Fine, I’ll do this by myself.” A Spheal lunged out of the water and was already launching an Icy Wind. “You think you can hurt me with that!?” Tora then launched herself into the air towards the Icy Wind and used a Protect attack and deflected all of the wind. “Now, Hidden Power!” Tora launched a hidden Power attack knocking the Spheal down into the water. As Tora fell back into the boat, she felt a rumbling coming from beneath it. “Damn, the coward is going to attack from below.” As soon as Tora said this, the boat began to sway slowly causing Melanie to cry in fear for her own safety. “We’re not at any sturdy ice yet! We’re going to drown or freeze to death!” Mr. Febrero quickly stood up and clenched his claw into a fist before declaring, “Not if I can help it!” With that, he dived from the boat into the water. After a few seconds of nervously waiting, the boat stopped rocking and he swam back to the top. “That Spheal was weak. He could hardly fight and he was even in his own element to.” Mr. Febrero let out a sigh and turned to Melanie and signaled for her to keep going. “Wait, you just defeated that Spheal?” Tora glared at Mr. Febrero in disbelief but sure enough, it appeared as though this is what happened. “Y-Yeah. I don’t normally fight but seeing as how you had already injured him before I got into the mess, I really didn’t have a problem.” Tora nodded and averted her gaze back to the slushy sea. It would only be a few more kilometers before they reached solid ice. Too bad he wanted to go during the warmest part of the year for this place.
- - - - - -
The sea was still slush but the air did the trio no justice. The wind was harsh and seemed to bring with it a light blizzard. It really made Team Tora rethink why they even considered taking this mission in the first place. “There’s not much to be done here. It seems as though all the Pokémon are away from us.” Tora turned to Melanie and decided to walk over to her; “You’re alright right?” Though she may have not looked it, Tora had a caring personality all the same as anyone else but her way of displaying it was by toughening up her allies with harsh words. She could be a bit kind at times though like that simple act of kindness out of concern. “Yeah, I just need to take a break.” “No.” Like I said though, her way of displaying kindness could be through harsh words. “How much longer do you expect it to take?” Mr. Febrero stood up and gazed out into the snow covered air. He could hardly see ten feet in front of him so the fact that there could be powerful Pokémon dwelling in the water put him on end. Plus he was a bit tired from that little fight he was in with the Spheal. “It could take hours if this snow storm keeps up. We can’t see that far.” Tora looked up into the sky and as soon as she did, she made a realization. “Oh, this isn’t normal weather. It’s a Pokémon’s skill.” She then turned to Melanie who nodded briefly before continuing to row. “Well, what do we do about it?” Tora shrugged as though she didn’t have an answer. “We do nothing. No point in fighting over some snow. I say if it keeps the other Pokémon happy then who are we to condone them?”

The weather didn’t seem to be picking up but instead, remained steady as they plunged deeper into the sea. It was beginning to grow so cold that a shroud of mist layered the water to symbolize just how cold it really was. “Looks like you can’t go swimming in that Mr. Febrero.” Melanie joked lightly at the situation they had placed themselves into. The path they traveled wasn’t exactly filled with chatter so much of this portion was quiet. Only the snow and hail plummeting into the sea could be heard and for all they knew, they enjoyed it. For one, the silence symbolized no enemy attacks and for two, silence meant that Tora wasn’t scolding Mr. Febrero for something foolish and she wasn’t yelling at Melanie to paddle faster. Yes, the silence was their own small paradise but like most paradises; this didn’t last long. The snow was beginning to turn into hail and was starting to plummet down on them like small rocks falling from the sky. “This Pokémon is about to tick me off. Protect!” As Tora said this, a rainbow colored sphere enveloped the whole boat and deflected all the ice shards as they hit it. “You could’ve done that when Spheal attacked our boat.” Mr. Febrero crossed his arms in an angry fashion and gave her the cold shoulder. “Yeah, you’re right I could’ve but how would you learn to fight?” Tora turned around to Mr. Febrero who scratched his head and was just about to answer the question when a sudden wave hit their boat and went right over the entire protect. “A surf attack? Damn, I let my guard down and a Pokémon attacks.” Tora looked up to see a Lapras riding the surf right over them.
- - - - - -
The Lapras was a majestic Pokémon in all sense of the word though that’s all it was to Tora. There was no strength to be had with it and by thinking this, she somewhat believed that she could actually take it down. As the surf attack came to a stop, Tora planned to counter with a powerful Bug Bite. “They can’t go underwater quickly so I’ll get it here!” Tora jumped out of the boat and clinched Lapras with her mouth causing the Lapras to scream out in pain. “Ow, how dare you?!” Lapras shook her head causing Tora to lose her grip and was sent flying onto a small ice shard. “Do something Melanie.” Tora turned to the boat only to see a petrified Melanie hiding behind Mr. Febrero. “I see you’re cowering! Fine, I’ll do this by myself.” Tora jumped into the air and released a powerful Hidden Power but as she did so, the Lapras countered with a powerful Ice Beam which resulted in a powerful collision. “Now Melanie!” As Lapras shook off the recoil of using her attack, Melanie remained motionless. “Fine I guess I’ll help but you should treat me with some respect if I do!” Mr. Febrero jumped high into the sky and as he did, his claws glowed a bright white color. He then came crashing down upon the Lapras with a power slash attack that knocked the Lapras out upon impact. As Team Tora watched the colossal power that was displayed, they couldn’t help but feel rendered of all their speech capabilities. “Let’s move on okay?” All Tora could do at this comment was nod and she jumped quickly back into the boat. Once the three were all in the boat, they moved on silently towards the deeper part of this freezing sea.

The slosh was solid and the boat was no longer required. “We’ll tread by foot now.” Both Mr. Febrero and Melanie nodded and all three of them leaped out of the boat and onto the thin ice. Since they were all pretty light-weight Pokémon, they were unconcerned with breaking the ice and falling in. However, there were still problems that they were bound to face. For starters, Tora was infuriated with the fact that Melanie was too scared to fight off a Lapras. Things would’ve went a lot smoother if only she had helped out and secondly, Tora couldn’t talk negatively about Mr. Febrero now that he made an agreement with her about helping out. She was entirely unsure as to whether clients could help out on missions but seeing as how he sort of volunteered she didn’t really care. “Thank goodness we’re all done with the paddling, I was beginning to get tired.” Melanie giggled at her own little fact which made Tora even more irritated until eventually she couldn’t help but tell her how she felt. “Listen, I’m not happy with how you refused to help out in the battle. If you still want to be apart of this team you will help in the next one.” Instead of arguing though, Melanie nodded silently and grew a depressed facial expression to show how sorry she really was. Tora was a bit flexible with her though since she understood how much a passivist Melanie was; but in her book, it still didn’t excuse the fact that Tora could’ve been in real danger if Mr. Febrero didn’t step in.
- - - - - -
After eating an apple, the Pokémon realized that had about only three more kilometers from perfect ice that was good enough for skating on. It seemed as though the only problems that were in their way now was cowering and arrogance. However, Tora wasn’t a fool and she knew very well that problems bigger than those were bound to be faced such as another wild Pokémon showing its mug and acting tougher. Though she also knew this ‘wild Pokémon’ would have to fear that Tora was actually standing on something she could fight on. “If we hurry we can probably make it by evening.” Melanie smiled brightly at this comment Tora just made as though she were giving her some kind of hope. “Really? You think so? I hope so!” Melanie smiled warmly completely forgetting about how disappointed and angry Tora was with her but Tora didn’t really seem to mind because it had always been in Melanie’s nature to forget things. Tora glanced briefly over at Mr. Febrero but what she saw was far from what she had expected. Instead of a timid nervous looking Pokémon, she saw a Pokémon that was in a battle stance as though some sort of big battle was about to unfold. “I hope everything’s fine and you’re just doing that to look cool; which you don’t.” Mr. Febrero shook his head and pointed to the distance. “A Pokémon is approaching us and it’s coming pretty fast.” Tora sighed and squinted to see into the distance.

Sure enough, a rather small Shellder seem to be scuttling towards them from the distance. “That’s odd. I didn’t know they could move.” Tora rolled her eyes as the Shellder moved slowly towards them. “Wah! I don’t want to fight!” At this comment, Tora slapped Melanie across the face and screamed at her, “What did I say!?” However, before anyone could say anything more, Mr. Febrero jumped in between them and with a roaring voice declared, “That’s enough!” It was a bit of a shock to hear such a deep voice. It was as though he’d been hiding his real voice the whole time. “What?” Tora squinted her eyes to make sure that he was still Mr. Febrero but before she could antagonize him with more questions the Shellder came within range. “I shall crush you like the insect that you are!” Shellder was of course, referring to Tora since she was the only bug type among them. “Oh? You’re going to crush me huh? On second thought, both of you sit this out. I’ll take care of him.” Shellder was the first to strike with an aurora beam however, it was countered with a Hidden Power from Tora’s behalf. “Is that all you got Shellder?” She then launched a powerful tackle which caused the Shellder to fall on his backside. “Now, time to finish this! Hidden Power!” The spheres that were formed by this move hit Shellder causing it to flip over several times before ultimately fainting. “Hm, insect am I?” Tora then turned to Melanie and Mr. Febrero and realized that she still didn’t know why he had such a deep voice. “You can explain.” However, Mr. Febrero merely shook his head and continued onwards. “It’s right over here. I can tell by the sky.” Mr. Febrero pointed to the crimson sky and how it glistened off the ice like several hundred alternating diamonds.
- - - - - -
The long awaited end to their journey was finally here and the remaining steps were through a beautiful array of colors reflecting off the ice. “It’s wonderful! Thanks for bringing us here Mr. Febrero!” Melanie ran up to Mr. Febrero and hugged him briefly before retreating. “Yeah, enjoy skating. It sure did cause me some problems.” Mr. Febrero laughed at her cocky statement but decided it wouldn’t be worth a reply. “So you’re going to ignore me huh? Well whatever.” Tora smirked a little before pulling out her explorer badge. “Here’s to our first mission right Melanie?” Melanie stared bewilderedly at Tora before realizing she was serious. “Oh? We’re already done here?” Melanie stared at Mr. Febrero as though he should come back with them but Tora soon realized this. “Mr. Febrero can handle himself just fine out here. I on the other hand am about to die from all this cold.” The badge that Tora was holding began to glow a bright white color and soon, Tora’s whole body glowed this color as well, followed shortly by Melanie’s and in the blink of an eye they were gone! Off to the guild to report the conclusion of their mission.
“The way it fights constriction. Involuntarily keeping itself from becoming a frozen tundra. I can’t help but give it up to this frigid place. It sure does know how to make lives inconvenient.”


The return trip to the guild was a bit of a drag. For starters, Melanie complained about how she wouldn’t get to do something like that again but Tora was more than fond enough to point out that Melanie hardly even talked throughout the whole ordeal.
“I tried, it’s just that I didn’t get to because I was busy.”
Another thing that Tora pointed out was the fact that Melanie didn’t even participate in the battles because of her fear.
“Hey! I fought in the first one remember? Against that Seel?”
The excuses were chaotic and the main reason was beyond Tora. She couldn’t see why Melanie would try to make up silly excuses about why or why wouldn’t she help out on the mission.
“Perhaps you should just accept the fact that you failed. That’s always a good starting point.” Tora said this as she looked out over the rolling plains behind the guild. She was waiting patiently for the results of the mission but was unsure as to whether or not it would look good for her seeing as how she had gotten a bit short with the client.
“We’ll do fine!” Melanie always had a way of detecting when Pokémon were sad which was quite frankly, a bit creepy to Tora. She’d done it all the time but whenever she caught Tora off guard like that it always cheered her up.
“Thanks. You know, after all this bickering we do I can still see why we’re a team.” Tora walked over to Melanie he was spread all over the couch and pushed her so that she could sit down as well and she the continued, “Even though we have our differences, we always pull through and it just seems like our bond grows through those challenges.” This heart-felt response made Melanie giggle a bit before putting her two-cents into the equation.
“You’re right! Can’t believe that we’re still together but after hearing that, it all makes sense! We were destined to be partners and that’s why we were put together in the first place.” Melanie brightly smiled and hugged Tora which quickly killed the mood.
“What did I tell you about hugging!?”
“S-Sorry! I couldn’t help myself! You just seemed like you could use a hug.” Melanie quickly ducked as though she were about to get hit but when she couldn’t feel anything, she realized that it wasn’t going to happen.
“Who am I kidding. I couldn’t hit you right now. I’m too exhausted from this mission.” Tora stood up and walked to the front door of their small room. She was waiting for some sort of results and she wasn’t entirely sure how it was handed to her as well.
“Waiting doesn’t solve anything. I read in my Gossip Magazine that waiting makes things go by a lot slower.”
Tora shook her head at this and turned to Melanie, “Need I remind you why magazines aren’t a reliable source of information? Well, for starters they can be made by anyone and the fact that it’s a gossip magazine doesn’t exactly do you any justice either.”
“Well I’m just saying. Alright fine wait there.” Things seemed to be back to the way they were, just like Tora liked them. Tension in the air and an uptight atmosphere always helped her sleep at night.