Icy Winds
#3 of Vaporeon
Icy winds.
Sandy had gone back to the Customise shop later with Crystal to get her a customised ball as well. She took the time to get her a Mystic Water for her and was greeted like a hero when she got to the counter. She paid for another Poké Ball and the Mystic water, which she tied around Crystal's neck. Crystal nuzzled Sandy's hand happily as she was put back on the floor and led out. Though it was only about half a kilometer from her house, the walk back felt like it was ten times longer. Trainers and other collectors alike eyed Crystal, wondering how Sandy had come across such a rare Pokémon. She even got asked to trade five times by some of the creepier guys. She had to put her foot down when one guy had followed her all the way home. Luckily Jenny was still in the area and had given the guy a stern warning, telling him to leave. Sandy returned to the backyard and showed her companions their new Poké Balls. Blueberry's was a blue and white Great Ball with a silver ring and activator, the red stripes replaced with fins like those that Blueberry had, even though the ring aroud his neck was small. Azure's was all white except for some highlights, it was an Ultra Ball with sharp pointed tips on the blue H on the top, and the ring and activator were the same vibrant blue. Finally came Izaac's. Another Great Ball; Gold on the top and black on the bottom, the red striped made puffier. The ring was a bright, shiny blue and the activator silver. Izaac hugged her and went back to playing with the Eevee in the yard, Blueberry nuzzled her lovingly and rested underneath shade. On a sunny day like this, even the cold would not stop him from dehydrating in the sun's glare. Azure walked up to Sandy and jumped into her lap, nuzzling and hugging her in what was probrably the first show of affection she had given to anyone but her son. Sandy wrapped her arms around the affectionate Pokémon and hugged her back.
"I thought you'd be like this." She said. Azure pulled out of the embrace and shyly went back to watching Izaac from the shadows Blueberry was sleeping in. Crystal tugged at Sandy's jumper sleeve. She turned her attention to the little canine. "Hey, what's up?" She asked, picking the shaking water type up and putting her into her lap. Crystal looked terrified of something, but Sandy couldn't figure out what. "Mum, come over here would you?" She said loudly. Crystal's eyelids slowly drooped until her eyes were closed. Crystal stopped shaking. Infact, she even stopped breathing! "Mum!" She yelled, the sudden stillness of the puppy terrifying her.
"What's wrong?" Her mother called from the pens, rushing over. and looking intently at the little Pokémon.
"She looked terrified of something and suddenly just stopped!"
"Stopped?"
"She's not breathing mum! Help her!"
Sandy's mother snatched Crystal from sandy's unresisting hands and lay her on the ground. "Go call the Pokécenter! Tell Joy it's an emergency, I'll do what I can here, but we need someone who's a professional at keeping people in this world, not bringing them in! Get Alice out here, too!" Sandy ran inside as her mother performed C.P.R. on the still Pokémon. She managed to get her heart restarted and breathing when Blueberry yelped and also started shaking uncontrollably. Alice came running out. "Alice, scan the yard, there's something here that shouldn't be!" Sandy's mother yelled as she picked up Crystal and rushed over to Blueberry. "Hey!" She shouted in his face. "Wake up! I need you to breathe on me! C'mon, dammit!" Blueberry feebly opened his eye, gave a terrified yelp and exhaled heavily on her face before he also succumbed.
Sandy came running back out as her mother was giving C.P.R. to Blueberry. "What's going on?!"
"Sandy!" Her mother yelled frantically. "Something's not right! They're both freezing cold, colder than they should be, even on a day like this! Withdraw Crystal quickly to preserve her as she is now and do the same with Blueberry when I get his breathing started again!" Sandy did as she was instructed when Alice spoke up. She, too, looked terrified.
"I've found it!" she said. "There's a Froslass in the air above us, she's not noticed me but I can't fight one off so I'm not a threat to her yet!"
Sandy pulled Charizard out into the yard. "Tell Char where she is, he can do the rest!" She yelled. Charizard sat still for a moment, then roared extremely loudly, his face twisted into rage, and blew fire into the air, his flamethrower attack smacking into the invisible ghost and knocking it out. An angry yell cred out from the front yard, and Sandy rushed to the front door, Azure right on her heels. Sandy kicked the door open as Azure flew past her, her claws slashing open the heels of the collector who had followed Sandy home. The man pitifully fell to the ground as Sandy's father stepped out the door. Sandy's father, though a kind and extremely easy-going man, was not someone to meet in a dark alley. Six foot tall and built like a brick outhouse, he had once arm-wrestled a Machamp into submission over a spilled beer. Getting on his bad side was like slapping a Kangaskhan's child while it was in the pouch (which he did on a regular basis as a joke to the Kangaskhan's owner.) He bore down upon the collector and grabbed him by the scruff of his shirt, lifting him physically off the ground.
"Was that your Froslass in our yard attacking Pokémon?" he asked with a voice like a growling bear.
"I... Uh..." Came the reply.
"What's going on over here?" Jenny asked as she pulled up with Joy in a small van. She took one look at the collector and sighed. "I told you to leave fifteen minutes ago!"
Joy rushed up to Sandy, a pair of Chansey pulling a large cart full of medical equipment and a stretcher behind them. "Where's the emergency?"Joy asked. Sandy released her barely breathing Pokémon onto the stretcher. Joy pulled a Stethoscope from the cart and listened intently before Sandy's mother came out carrying blankets.
"I thought we might need these." She said.
"what's going on?" Jenny asked, this time angrily. "Why are you still here?!"
Sandy, through her sobbing, gave a furious glare at the collector. "This creep!" She said, anger pushing her words. "Sent his Froslass into our backyard and had it attack my Pokémon!"
"Where's your proof?" the collector retorted.
Right at that moment, little Izaac came out the door carrying the burned Froslass. He carried it over to Joy and shyly put it at her feet before retreating back to Sandy, who picked him up.
"There's my proof!" She said defiantly. Azure, still growling dangerously, inched her way back to Sandy and hid behind her.
Joy wrapped the water Pokémon in blankets, knelt down and picked up the Froslass. She had put a mask over Crystal's muzzle, feeding her oxygen directly. "They'll live, but it's amazing that they survied the ice damage at all."
"They didn't." sandy's mother said. "I had to resuscitate them. It was really close, too."
Even nurse joy shot a hateful look at the collector.
"What is your excuse?!" Jenny barked. "Attacking someone's Pokémon outside of official confines is against the law!"
Sandy's father grinned nasitly. "We're more than a home here, Jenny; remember? We're a no-combat zone due to our breeding ranch in the backyard."
"So you are..!" Jenny responded. "I want an explanation, young man! Right now!"
Joy spoke up. "This Suicune is only a puppy! What could she have possibly done to have deserved this?!" She angrily snapped .
"She wouldn't trade me that Pokémon! If I can't have a Suicune, no one else should!" He barked back at her.
"Oh? Is that what you think?" came an unfamiliar man's voice. The voice's owner stepped out from behind the van. "Sorry, I couldn't help but overhear that."
Jenny smiled lightly. "It's alright Captain Maximillian, I understand." She turned to everyone else. "May I introduce Captain Maximillian, the current officer in command at the local station."
"Good day." he said calmly. "Now, I believe that this young man here just said that if 'he can't have a Suicune no one else can,' yes?" The collector nodded. "Well then." the captain stepped back as he dropped a Poké Ball on the ground. It snapped open, releasing a large female Suicune. the Pokémon had a rather unhappy look on her face. "I trust you could hear all that, Darma?"
"Indeed I could." She replied in an icy tone. "It sickened me."
Maximillian nodded. "As it does me to think that this... 'Collector' would be willing to end such a young and innocent life for his own satisfaction." He practically spat the words. "Jenny, arrest this man and confiscate his Pokémon. Joy, if you could take the Froslass to the center and keep her there for her healing I shall need the stretcher." Joy nodded as Sandy's father let go of the collector and he was pushed into the police car. Maximillian ushered the family and Pokémon back inside the house before wheeling the trolley inside, letting his partner in and closing the door. They went into the family room and sat down, Sandy wiping tears off her face as she stood next to the stretcher, gently petting her sleeping companions.
"She's the mother, isn't she?" Sandy asked out of the blue, directing her question to Maximillion.
"Yes." Came his reply. "She's my irreplaceable partner. Even though she's a Suicune, Darma can talk telepathically as psychic types can, her father being an Alakazam and all. I came here because she told me she wanted children, but we could not care for one if she did bear young."
"So you left the egg here?" Sandy's mother pushed.
"Yes. It was hard on her, but Darma understood that she couldn't have kept a puppy with her when we were on duty, so she came to accept it." Maximillian sighed. "It was pure luck that we were able to detect the attack on time to get here when we did."
"If I had gotten here sooner, I'd have torn that jackass limb from limb." Darma said, quietly. "I have been watching your ranch for days now, since Alice told me that my egg had hatched, and even helped her to find the Froslass in time." Darma's voice was almost soothing, calming Sandy as she listened. "It is wonderful that someone so full of life and kindness as you has become the owner of her. I would never have accepted someone with anything else becoming her trainer."
Sandy blushed. "Th-thanks."
Soon the sleeping Pokémon shifted in their blankets and tried to open their eyes. They shivered horribly from the cold their bodies had been subjected to. Sandy pulled Blueberry from the stretcher and into her arms, rubbing his chest through the blankets covering him to warm him up faster. Izaac and Azure had been sitting behind Sandy the whole time, avoiding the large canine and her master, but hopped up onto the stretcher when their companions shifted. Azure clumsily pulled little Crystal into her own arms, draping her tail over the still sleeping Suicune. Sandy smiled at this, as did Darma.
"Like a true mother would." She said, before her face grew depressed. "Why didn't I do that...?"
Maximillian scratched her behind her ear. "Because you've never honed your maternal instincts." He said soothingly.
Izaac put his face to Crystal's and yipped at her questioningly, lifting the mask from her face. She responded by licking his nose, making him smile- and glow! He was as shocked by the sudden glow as the rest of the room, was and toppled off the stretcher, landing on the couch as the bright light engulphed the whole room. The blinding light slowly faded from their vision, but Izaac was nowhere to be seen.
"Izaac?" Sandy asked, before she heard the back door slam. She handed Blueberry to her mother and then rushed out, chasing the noise. She pounded out the door and into the yard, the group of Eevee all watching her. Charizard was distracted by something on the roof, and Sandy followed his gaze. A dark shadow was cloaking the form, but it stood on the pinnacle of the roof. Charizard lifted Sandy onto the roof where she cautiously made her way to the figure. "Izaac?"
The figure turned sharply, features finally revealed.
'What's happened to me!?' Izaac's teary face said. Sandy pulled the Pokémon into a hug.
"Oh, Izaac, you've finally evolved into a Lucario!" She informed him happily before realising that izaac wasn't actually standing on the roof anymore. Sandy looked him over. "Well, you've gained a little hight, but you're still small." She said, wiping tears from his matted fur. He still bore all the colours of a shiny Lucario, but was shorter, only about a foot or two taller than he was before. The spike on his chest was less pronounced, as well, being shorter and more rounded. "Not that height matters much." She said happily, kneeling down with her hands on his shoulders. "You're still huggable and that's all that matters!" Izaac nodded, his chest still heaving every few seconds as he stifled a sob. "Now, now, don't cry, this is a good thing!" sandy said. "I read somewhere that Lucario can understand human speech and talk. Maybe one of these days I'll hear your voice, hm?" Izaac nodded. "Now, let's get off this roof, it's cold up here and your mother is likely to be worried sick." She pulled Izaac onto her shoulders and carefully stepped down the roof. "You've not gotten much heavier though," she said "it's like you've been made for optimum lovability." She jumped off the roof, Charizard catching her and placing her on the grass. She walked back inside, putting charizard away as she went and bending low in the doorways to allow for Izaac to go through them rather than bump his head. She entered the family room and put him on the ground, taking a now fidgetly Crystal from Azure and scratching Crystal on her muzzle. Sandy's mother tilted her head curiously at the short Lucario. "Growing problems." Sandy said.
Azure hopped up to Izaac curiously. He smelled like her son, he was coloured like her son, but he didn't look like her son. She turned her head questioningly to Sandy.
"Yeah, that's little Izaac." She reassured her.
Azure took this as enough explanation and pulled Izaac into a motherly embrace, one he cautiously returned. She nuzzled his cheek before sitting down next to Sandy, eyeing Darma wearily. Darma felt her gaze and became more than a little disturbed.
"...Whaaat?" She asked nervously. "Is there something on me?" She continued, looking herself over. Azure shook her head and pointed to the left side of her muzzle with a claw.
Maximillion leaned down and picked a chunk of biscuit off of Darma's muzzle. "Honestly, if you're going to sneak biscuits at least try not to leave bits all over your face." He said, chuckling. She threw him an accusing look.
"I didn't... I'd never!" She stammered.
"Give it up, lady, you got caught." Izaac said, before realising he had spoken english and slapping a paw to his mouth. His voice was childlike, youthful, yet sounded experienced; as if he was really knowledgeable. He withdrew in on himself and cowered behind Sandy's chair. "Sorry, sorry!" He said, now sounding like he expected to be punished. Sandy reached down and grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and pulled him into her chair next to her, making him cower. She had an angry look on her face.
"Why're you sorry?" She asked, her face suddenly calming.
Izaac searched for a reason, and much to the amusement of everyone, tried to make a reason up when he couldn't find one. Sandy's dad threw Izaac's Black Belt to Sandy from the couch, where it had come off of Izaac during evolution.
"You should be sorry because you left your belt behind." She said to him sarcastically. "And for also trying to sneak biscuits."
He looked confused. "But I never oomph!" She interrupted him by putting a biscuit in his open mouth. He pulled it out and laughed. "Very funny."
"I thought so." She responded, tying the silken Black Belt around his waist again.
Maximillion stood up and motioned for Darma to follow. "It's been a nice time meeting the family of Darma's daughter, but we must be off. Paperwork and such." Darma nodded sadly.
"I would like to come visit her again some time again, Max?" She said. "Mayhaps a time she shall not be sleeping."
"She's not sleeping now;" Sandy said. "Why don't you come over here?" Darma slowly moved over and looked the puppy in her face, who smiled at her and weakly licked her face.
"I do not know what to say..." Darma said sadly.
"Don't worry." sandy's mother said. "In time it'll come to you."
Sandy nodded, pulling out her cellphone. "I'll be here a while longer, so feel free to drop by some time." She said. She put the phone to her ear as it rang. "Hello, Simon? It's me, Sandy... Yeah, I'm fine... Look, there's a bit too much happening down here at the moment and I can't leave for another ten days or so... No, it's nothing like that... Teleport over then! C'mon!" She yelled, hanging up. She waited a few moments before a loud bang was heard in the kitchen followed by some rough cursing. Simon came strolling out with a colander on his head. His Gardevoir following close behind, trying frantically to pull the metal off her trainer.
"So, what's this 'too much' you're talking about?" He asked. Azure, again, tried to stay just out of vision of everyone, and Izaac shrunk into the chair. Sandy, however, lifted the puppy Suicune to his face.
"This." She said matter-of-factly, lowering her again so that she could see her mother. Darma nuzzled Crystal lightly. Simon gazed around the room until he saw Captain Maximillian, when he freaked.
"Wha- Who- You're Maximillion of the force, arent you?!" He blurted, Gardevoir got the colander off of his head and rolled her eyes. Simon's eyes darted to the large Suicune practically in Sandy's lap. "I'm not in trouble for anything am I?"
"Please." gardevoir said, sarcastically. "If you did something illegal enough for Captain Maximillion himself to arrest you, I'd have put you under the delusion that you were a three week old Ralts." She bonked him on the head with the colander. "Twit."
Izaac started to rise out of his hiding position until Simon fixed his gaze on him. "The little one has evolved, eh?" He asked.
"Y.. yeah..." Izaac responded quietly, throwing Simon off guard.
"He talks, too." Sandy said.
"I must ask, why are your Pokémon so shy?" Maximillion probed at Sandy.
She fidgeted for a moment before responding. "Their original trainer, a Rocket, was extremely cruel to them, and they have trouble trusting people."
"Well;" Darma started "if there is anyone they should trust, it would be Max." She said certainly. "And you."
Sandy nodded. "I don't know how well they trust me, but I can't wait for them to love me as much I do them." Crystal shifted in the blankets and fell asleep in Sandy's arms. She cradled her contently, looking to Darma. "I hope she never grows up."
"If you wish it enough, she may pick up on your hopes and stay small forever." Darma said, walking to the door, stopping to nuzzle Izaac on the way past him, making him blush. "I am sure I shall see you again soon." She said, and with that, walked out after Maximillion. Sandy turned her attention to Simon, who still had a stumped look on his face.
"I can't go anywhere until Crystal is old enough to travel, so I'm going to be stuck here for a few days. Here, go around the corner to the Customise shop and hand them this reciept."
"What's it for?"
"They're making me a unique ball for Crystal, and it should be ready about now. Just go pick it up and bring it back, okay?"
"... What's in it for me?" Simon asked sarcastically. Sandy sighed.
"They have special items for Pokémon there, too. I'm sure you could get a nice Twisted Spoon for Gardevoir?" Simon went to attack, but Gardevoir konked him with the colander again.
"A Twisted Spoon is an item that increases my psychic power, you idiot." She said to him. "Honestly, you call yourself a trainer..."
Simon and Gardevoir returned soon after, again rematerialising in the kitchen and knocking into things loudly. He followed the sounds of laughter into the backyard and up to Sandy, handing her a paper bag.
"Here, this is the thing you wanted." He said as she took it, tearing the paper open. Sandy lifted a beautifully carved ball out of the bag. It was probably, at one stage, a Great Ball, but it was hard to tell. Two glass like horns, much like Crystal's own, adorned the front, the top half a purple hue similar to Crystal's own long cape-like mane, the bottom half a pale blue that blended the horns perfectly and faded to white at the bottom. The top had two long white tails where the red stripes would be, and the ball had a trio of white diamond shaped patches on the back. the ring around the center and the activator were both white. The ball was perfect!
"The guy at the counted said it was a shame to let such a beautifully crafted ball go, and even that if he had known it would turn out so well he'd have charged more for it." Simon commented. Sandy didn't care, she loved it. She called Crystal over.
"Hello, crystal!" she said at the smiling Pokémon. "I've got a gift for you!" She held out the Poké Ball to the little canine. She looked surprised for a moment, but quickly tapped her nose onto the activator and vanished inside in a flash of blue light. Sandy released her again and hugged her tightly. "I love you." she mumbled into her ear.
"I love you too."