The next morning Ash did his best to map out how their trip was going to go
from this point.
"We're going to be walking in open-air for a day or so. That's when we'll be
the most vulnerable
to blizzards or other kinds of inclement weather. Luckily, I know of a lot of
small caves dotted along this part of the area. After that, we'll hit another
two-to-three-day trip through the Crimson
Forest, which is basically just a collection of evergreens clumped together
in the middle of a
mountain range. Even at this time of year, the quicker streams won't have
frozen over quite yet,
so we'll have running water and forest shelter. After the forest there's a
short expanse of barren
land, not even a full day's hike, and then... well, the valley, I guess."
"So we're talking four-to-five days, more than one where we could easily be
subject to ice storms," Gary summed up.
"Exactly."
"When you put it that way, I can't believe I considered not coming," Brock
said, his voice dripping sarcasm.
Jessie did her best to look on the bright side. "At least it's not a
cross-country trip through tundra. That would be hell."
"Oh, and this isn't?" Tracey countered.
Misty sighed. "Could we please not get into a fight, not now. We have
bounty hunters on our
tail, blizzards just lying in wait, and who knows what kind of animals in the
forest... the last thing we need is to debate on how bad the trip is."
"She's got a good point," James agreed. "I wouldn't mind getting under some
cover as soon as possible. This IS winter in the mountains, remember?"
No one could argue with the voices of reason, so they grabbed their
supplies and started off,hoping to heaven that nothing too terrible would occur.
A good portion of the day was more-or-less uneventful, and the travellers
welcomed the calm.
"Enjoy it while you can. Karl and his gang have probably been moving night
and day, and will
more than likely be raining laser shots on us by the time we reach the
Crimson Forest." Mariko,
the only one not doing their best to enjoy the quiet, sent the painful
reminder out shortly after lunch.
"Why do you feel the need too keep reminding us?" Gary asked somewhat
irritably.
Mariko smiled with her eyes. "I can't let you enjoy yourselves too
much, now can I?"
Gary muttered something that involved a lot of cursing under his breath.
Surprisingly, Tracey came to Mariko's defense.
"She's right; if we let our guard down they could catch us unawares," the
artist said.
"Who's side are you on?" Jessie teased. "Even though she is right, we can't
spend the entire
trip jumping at the smallest sound." She put her hands behind her head.
"Besides, James,
Mariko and I are the only ones who need to worry. Karl and this clique of his
don't have any reason to kill the rest of you."
"I wouldn't be surprised if he did, though, just for fun," James said
bitterly.
"Mm-hm, that would be something the weasel would do," Mariko added.
With lack of a better subject, Brock decided to ask a question he'd been
curious of. "You keep
referring to him as just Karl, but all the others call Mariko Midnight- even
James- but he always
gets called Jake, or Carol. How do you get up to nickname status?" He
blushed. "I know it sounds stupid, but I don't know much about assassins."
"They call me Midnight because I prefer it to my real name," Mariko
answered. "It sounds more
like a bounty hunter's name. Mariko," she said the name with slight distaste,
"means 'desert flower' in my country."
"Yeah, that doesn't really say, 'I can kill you dead,' does it?" Ash asked
rhetorically.
Mariko continued. "I don't mind you all calling me that, of course, or I
would have said
something. Now," she shot James an unreadable look, "our friend over there
has earned the nickname 'Rookie,' though not of his own accord. It's a demeaning
thing; I don't use it, but Karl
and his cronies do. As for Karl," she paused, to remember, "I don't believe
he has a nickname, or
not one used widely. I often refer to him as the weasel, or, as a cohort of
mine once said: 'the
back-stabbing two-faced greedy power hungry weaseling racist pig.'"
James chuckled. "Aria, right?" Mariko nodded. "I haven't seen her in years,
how is she?"
"Dead. Someone hired Karl to kill her," there was a harsh edge to the
female assassin's voice
that the others had never heard before. "Which is one reason I treasure this
excuse to take his life."
They walked on in silence, unsure of how to respond to something like that.
An icy wind whipped around the group, sending sprinklings of snow at their feet.
Jessie pulled her cloak tighter. "A storm on the way? I didn't notice any
warning signs."
"There rarely are any in the mountains. You can't see many clouds; it's
probably coming from
our blindside," Ash explained. "We had better hurry. I know of a cave further
up; if we hurry we should reach it before the blizzard hits."
"A blizzard?" Misty shivered. "How can you tell?"
Ash glanced at the black edge of a cloud just peeking across the mountain
peak. "That's not a
flurry cloud. Hopefully it's just snow, and no ice, or we could be in a mess
of trouble. Could we all move a little faster? I'd hate to lose someone now."
They quickened their pace, forcing sore body parts to work harder. They had
only been speed-
walking for a little over a minute when the first chunks of snow hit their path.
"How far off is the cave?" Tracey asked, raising his voice to be heard over
a whistling wind.
Ash seemed unsure. "Not too far, I'm positive. It would be a lot more
helpful if I'd been this far up recently. It's been a over a year."
"Comforting," Tracey muttered, but the remark went unheard against the
north wind.
Before long the large, dark blizzard cloud had filled the sky, making it
almost impossible to see,
what with the whirling snowflakes, bits of ice here and there, and dim light
the sun managed to
produce through the overcast sky. Ash put a hand on the wall, telling the
rest to keep up with him and he'd do his best to find the cave he knew was there.
Somehow or other, Misty wound up at the back of the crew. She kept Brock
and Mariko, the two
closest to her, in sight at all times, but was unable to see anyone else
through the haze. As they
were nearing a curve in the path, her foot hit an ice-covered rock. Misty
slipped, landing hard on
the already snow-packed ground. She closed her eyes, cursing slightly at her
clumsiness. When she glanced back up she couldn't see a soul.
Misty's breathing quickened. 'No!' she screamed inwardly. 'They couldn't
have left me! I can't be alone... I can't...' She looked down, feeling hot tears
on her cheeks. 'God,no, I'm by myself. No, no, no!'
Someone touched her shoulder. The young woman jumped, her head snapping up.
"You okay? Did you hurt something?" It was Brock.
Misty rubbed a hand across her eyes, hoping he hadn't seen her nearly break
down. "I think I'm okay. I slipped, and when I looked back up everyone was gone."
"You're lucky I happened to glance up," he told her. "I tried to tell
Mariko to call everyone to a
halt, but I don't think she heard me over this storm."
Brock held out a hand to help her up. Misty took it, using the rock wall as
balance so as not to
get blown over. "Thanks." She brushed off her jeans, shivering. "So, now what?"
Brock held up a Pokéball. "Any chance we'll dig into a hot springs again?"
Misty laughed, remembering the childhood memory in a snowstorm similar to
this one. "We can only hope."
In a moment Brock's giant Onix was quickly tunneling a spacious cave for
the duo to wade out the storm in.
"Why didn't you mention this earlier, to Ash?" Misty wondered.
Brock shrugged. "I was going to, but he never gave me a chance. Then I
wound up near the
back of the line and he wouldn't have been able to hear me anyway." He
followed the rock snake
it, saying to his friend, "Lucky for you I was at the back, huh?"
She nodded, glad to have someone with her. "More than you know, Brock."
Onix had curled the cave around slightly, so that when they got to the back
the wind and snow
barely reached them. Brock recalled the Pokémon, looking around. "It's not
the Ritz, but I guess it'll work for the night."
Misty hugged her cold body. "Too bad there's no heater." She realized she
could barely see
Brock, who was only standing a few feet away. "Or a lighting system." Her
companion rummaged
in his bag for something. After a moment, he pulled out what resembled
another Pokéball in the
dim light. In moments a red fire lizard appeared. "A Charmeleon?"
He grinned. "Bet you didn't know I had one of those."
Using their rolled up sleeping bags as seats, Brock and Misty roasted a
small meal across the
lizard's tail. Surprisingly, the plan worked very well. They had light, heat
and cooked food. It was
still chilly in the cave, so they shared a blanket Brock had,
enjoying the quiet evening.
A little after nine the whistling of the wind and flakes of snow that
peeped around the corner slowed, then stopped altogether.
"I think the storm's slowing down," Brock observed. He stood up, going to
the entrance of the
burrow. Misty followed. Sure enough, the snow was now coming down softly,
without an edge to
it. Brock nodded, confirming his guess. "I think I'll go look ahead a little
ways, to see if I can find the others."
Misty's heart pounded in her chest. "I'll come with you," she said
immediately.
Brock protested. "You'd better stay here. If it speeds up again,
it'll be easier for one person to
get back then two. Besides, I don't want you to get hurt. The ground's
probably covered in ice."
"You shouldn't go either," Misty warned. "Why not just wait until morning?
They can take care of themselves."
"I'm only going to go a little ways, I promise," he told her. "They're
probably worried about us,
so if I can find them we'll come back and get you. Charmeleon will keep you
warm, and nothing would attack you in this weather."
Misty's voice held a tone of desperation, though Brock couldn't figure out
way. "But, like you said, it isn't safe. What about the ice?"
Brock tapped his shoe. "These things get great traction." He jerked his
head at her tennis
shoes. "Those don't. I'll be fine, Mist. Really." He turned to go.
Misty's grabbed the back of his shirt. "But what if I won't be fine?!" she
snapped.
He looked back at his old friend; there were tears in her eyes.
"Misty, what's-"
"I'll tell you everything," she said, barely able to control her anxiety.
"If you'll please, please not leave me alone."
Brock handed Misty his canteen. She took it, taking a couple sips and
wiping away her tears,
even though she knew more would come before the night was over. "Thanks, I
needed that." He
tucked part of the blanket around her trembling body- more from emotion than
chill air- taking the other half for himself. "Even better."
She took a deep, long breath to gather all thoughts. "I've tried to block
all the details from my
mind, so this'll be brief. When Cerulean got bombed- five months ago, though
it feels like twenty
years- my entire family went down with it. I'd been visiting some people in
Saffron when it
happened, and we were all devastated by the news. Things went by well enough,
for a while,
until all the sympathetic visitors decided they'd paid their debts. And I was
left alone. I started to,
you know, contemplate my existence, and wondered if I wasn't supposed to die
with the rest of
them. A couple months later, I decided the best way to solve the problem was
too be dead myself." She rolled up the sleeves of her sweater, showing Brock the
thin pink scars; self-
explanatory markings of her suicide attempt. "But I chickened out of letting
it go all the way. I
was completely terrified to be by myself after that. Everytime I was alone
I'd start thinking about
it again- I couldn't stop myself. But, when I was with other people, I didn't
have to worry about it. I
had the evidence that I shouldn't be dead all around me." She shuddered at
the memories. "I
was on my way up to the Indigo Plateau, thinking I could stay with an old
friend for a while. There
were hardly any people there, and no one I knew... I was about to do it
again, when Ash found me."
The soft crackle of a sleeping Charmeleon's tail was all that could be
heard. A light wind
reached their location, breezing by and causing Misty to shiver
involuntarily. Brock put his arm
around her shoulder. "I'm so sorry. If I'd only known-"
"Well, now you do. Lucky me: I get to be the emotionally unstable one," it
was a pitiful attempt
at humor, but she felt like she had to try and lighten it up or she'd burst
into tears again.
"Does anyone else know?"
"Ash does. Knowing Tracey, he probably does too. I tried to hide it, and I
did a decent job. It's only when I'm alone, you know."
Brock remembered the few moments when the weak side had shown. That first
night they had
come to town, when Ash left in a rage, Misty had stayed at his house,
claiming, "she didn't like
walking dark strees alone;" when Tracey and Gary had first come, Misty had
rubbed her wrists
together and commented that she didn't like being by herself. It all made
sense, now. "Why didn't you tell us? It would have stopped moments like this."
"Would you want to go around telling everyone that you're a suicidal
autopath?" Misty
questioned. "I didn't want to get special treatment. It was easier to just
make sure I was with
someone. And, with our group, it ended up being pretty simple. But I guess
fate is making me
face this." She looked up at him. "So, what do you think of me now? Still
want to be seen in public with the crazy girl?"
Brock gave her a gentle squeeze for comfort. "You're still the same person.
And believe me, in
this day and age you aren't the only one who's considered suicide."
"Who else?"
"Oh, Jessie and James, no doubt. Ash and Gary, probably. Maybe
Tracey." He paused, then said softly, "Me."
Misty couldn't believe it. "You?" How could Brock, always so stable, have
flirted with suicide!?
"When you lose your mom at age thirteen and have to raise nine siblings on
your own, there are very few solutions you don't think of to get out of it," he
explained. "I never did anything, but I
thought about it several times. I guess I just came to terms with that fact
that you get a lot more
out of life than death." He handed her his water bottle again. "But forget
about me- are YOU okay?"
She sniffed. "I am, now. It helps a little, getting it off your chest. But,
if it's all the same to you,
I'd prefer to change the subject." She leaned against him, closing her eyes.
"You've been real
sweet about this." Her voice turned harsh. "When I explained it to Ash he
just told me to get over
it and that other people in the world had worse problems."
Brock frowned. "Is there any chance we could NOT talk about Ash, just this
once?"
Misty's eyes came open fast. She moved them upwards so she could see
Brock's face. "Oh,sure, sorry." She hesitated. "I do that a lot, don't I?"
"I got used to it after a while," he said, just the slightest edge to his
voice. "You know, Mist, if you like him that much you ought to just say so-"
"Ash!?" Misty yelped, turning bright red.
"You do, don't you?"
She sighed. "I did, once. But he's so different now. And after that scene
in the bar, I'd really
prefer to have as little to do with him as possible. " She faked a small
laugh, trying to hide the stress. "I thought you didn't want to talk about him."
"I wasn't. I was talking about you," he answered quietly.
She smiled. "Always looking out for me."
"Who else would?"
As another stray wind whipped through the tunnel- the storm had quickened
its pace again-
Misty pulled the blanket closer around herself, snuggling next to Brock. He
stiffened a little, but
relaxed after a moment. "You know, this didn't turn out to be such a bad
evening after all," Misty
commented sleepily. "It's so easy to talk to you, about anything. One of the
many reasons I love ya."
They sat in silence for a couple of minutes, the flicker of firelight
playing across the cave walls
and the duo's faces . After a moment, Brock said, "Love you too, Mist."
There was no response, but he didn't expect one. Brock knew his companion
had already fallen asleep.