Chapter One: Boreas
Larissa dragged her little brother's bloody, unconscious body out from under the burning rubble, grateful to find he was still breathing. With a massive crash and a wave of red-hot heat another part of the roof collapsed just next to Larissa, showering her in splinters of wood. She caught Proteus and Neso just standing there, gaping at their sister. “RUN!” she yelled. “Run if you don't want to end up like mum and dad!”
For once in their lives, the two Cyndaquils obeyed Larissa, who sprinted after them holding the unconscious Triton by the scruff of the neck, her side full of little bleeding wounds from the splinters. She ignored the pain as she ignored the far worse pain in her mind of seeing her parents die. She couldn't even think of stopping; it'd mean the end of all four of them.
An inferno raged in the dining room ahead, blocking the rear door and trapping them inside. The heat made the moisture in Larissa's eyes and mouth boil. “There's no way out of here, 'Rissa!” squeaked Neso.
“This way!” she yelled, jumping through a hole in one of the collapsing walls. “We can get out through my bedroom window!”
The heat was terrible; she would certainly not have survived this long if she wasn't a Quilava, but that didn't make her immune to fire and heat. With a sound like a giant's roar, the corridor collapsed behind them. Larissa burst through the smouldering door, finding her bedroom alight too, all her possessions turning to ash. But some luck at last: the window had shattered from the heat. She didn't lose any time and chucked Triton straight through, then roughly picked up and threw Neso too, despite his protests. Something exploded, and at the same moment a deafening shockwave filled her mind and something else hit one of her rear legs and snapped it like a twig. She saw Proteus scream her name, but couldn't hear him, her ears buzzing and her mind flooded with pain. She grabbed her little brother by the scruff of the neck and threw him too, then almost collapsed as everything began to go black.
She bit her tongue hard, drawing blood but preventing herself from blacking out. She climbed up into the windowsill with three legs, the fourth dangling uselessly. There were glass shards, but as she stepped in one she found it was half molten and no longer sharp, although hot enough to burn her. She half leapt, half fell out of the window, and the somewhat cooler air outside slightly soothed her wounds. Neso and Proteus crowded around her in panic.
“What do we do?!” Neso cried.
“I want mummy!” Proteus snivelled.
“Keep running!” Larissa snapped, as one of the town's towers collapsed, shaking the ground. “Don't stop running until we're far away! If I fall behind, keep running and find someone you recognise when you've left Diamarina!”
But at that moment, seven pokémon rushed around the corner, part of the mysterious army destroying the once beautiful town. Larissa let Triton go and faced the seven brutes. “Run,” she hissed. “Take Triton with you and find an adult when you're out of Diamarina.”
“But-”
“NOW!” She spit a ray of fire at the enemy, but the Swampert effortlessly intercepted it with a blob of mud. Larissa could hear her brothers run behind her. All she had to do was buy them some time.
But disaster struck: with a massive rumble, the house of their neighbours collapsed onto the road behind her. She turned around in shock, but to her immense relief her brothers were fine. The rubble was piled up high in the street, as unclimbable as the steep walls of rock that surrounded the valley.
The Hariyama laughed. “No way to run now, missy.”
“Fine by me,” Larissa spat, “but let my brothers go. They're just children!”
The Hariyama looked uncomfortable and seemed about to say something, but the Weavile behind it pushed it out of the way. “Lubyanka said no witnesses,” she told the others. “If they're old enough to hatch from their eggs, they're old enough to tell the tale.”
Larissa growled fiercely, her back-flame blazing threateningly. “Stay away from my brothers or I'll kill you all!”
“You?” laughed the Weavile. “You're barely more than a kid yourself.”
“I don't care,” Larissa growled, “I'll tear you limb from limb if you dare hurt them.”
“Come on, we'll kill her first, and then the Cyndaquils.”
“You know, I really don't think you want to do that,” said a calm, cheerful, voice with an odd accent. The seven pokémon turned around in surprise.
A somewhat scruffy Glaceon stood behind them, smiling as if pandemonium didn't rule around him and he hadn't just come across seven pokémon planning to murder children. He seemed perfectly at ease.
The Weavile scoffed. “And why wouldn't we?”
Still the same smile on the Glaceon's blue face. “Because if you do, I'll stop you, and I expect most of you won't survive.”
The seven pokémon between them shook with laughter. The Weavile was the first to recover. “Brave words, but you're outnumbered seven to one. Seven to two if you count the waif.”
“So any survivors will have to deal with crippling embarrassment,” said the fox, still pleasantly. “I'm afraid that does tend to happen.”
“Who are you?” said the Weavile, sounding less amused.
“My name is Boreas.”
“Never heard of you,” sneered the Weavile.
“Obviously. If you had, you'd hardly be standing there waiting to get hurt.”
“You're an awfully arrogant one,” said the Weavile snidely. “You don't stand a chance against the seven of us.”
Boreas' pleasant tone was beginning to annoy Larissa. “You know, I met Ramson the dread pirate president once, and that's just what he said to me. Ever heard of him? Well, I suppose you wouldn't have; as I said, I met him once. Anyway, back to business. Surrender and I'll spare you.”
The Weavile yawned. “Kill him.”
Larissa sprang into action, spitting fire at the back of the Weavile. Meanwhile, she could barely see what was going on with the Glaceon. All seven pokémon attacked him and she saw him nimbly dodge a series of attacks, and parry two more by waving his paw and using some kind of pulse. Then he counterattacked: a beam of ice flew, but was way off target and hit the still burning house Larissa had lived in all her life. More attacks began to fly his way, but were interrupted by a loud creaking and rumbling noise as it began to rain stones and burning wood on the enemy. Larissa jumped back and pushed her brothers as far back as she could. The seven attackers screamed as the house's façade fell towards them, crumbling as it did so. They tried to run from the entire building collapsing on top of them, but were too slow and disappeared under a huge heap of smouldering rubble that fell just a little in front of Larissa's feet, trapping her and her brothers between two piles of burning debris.
A frigid wind as if winter had come early stuck up and extinguished the flames on the ruined pile that used to be Larissa's house. The Glaceon calmly walked over it and offered his paw to help her. “All of you alright?”
“Y-yeah,” Larissa stammered against her will, helping her brothers climb up. “Did you know that was going to happen?”
He smiled smugly. Larissa noticed two scars on his face: one crossing his right eyebrow and almost hitting the piercing, cyan eye, and the other on the left edge of his face. “Well, I knew something like it would happen if I snap-froze that piece of wood.”
“That was so cool!” gasped Neso.
“Hold on!” said Larissa angrily as they reached the other side of the rubble. “You mean you didn't actually know my brothers wouldn't be crushed too?”
He gave her a grin she was quite sure he thought was fetching. “I wasn't certain. But that was unlikely, and these things have a way of working out.”
“Working out?!” Larissa snapped. “You could've killed my brothers!”
“Well, the fact is, I didn't. I saved them, and you, in fact. Something for which you might consider some gratitude.”
“Gra-”
“My name is Boreas, by the way.”
“I know who you are, you already said that.”
Boreas sighed. “Yes, I was merely wondering whether you have a name too.”
“Larissa.”
“A pleasure to meet you, Larissa. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a lot more lives to save. Go west, to the plateau there. There shouldn't be any more of these creeps in your way.” He ran off east, towards the centre of town, and Larissa noticed the tip of his tail was missing.
“I'm Neso, mister!” Neso called after him, but he was already gone. “Aww... C'mon, 'Rissa, we have to follow him.”
“No we don't,” said Larissa. “We have to get out of town, and the plateau would indeed be the best way.”
“But he's so-”
“Come,” she said in a voice not allowing contradiction. “This way'll be the quickest. Stay close to me.”
Putting the only semi-conscious Triton on her back, Larissa guided her brothers through the streets quickly, making sure to avoid everyone. Her heart was alight with rage and despair. If she was on her own, she'd try to avenge her parents and the rest of the town, though she knew she'd be no match for most of the enemy. But that was out of the question; she couldn't abandon her brothers. As she ran, blackness started to creep up on the outside of her vision, slowly giving her tunnel vision and making her feel very light in the head. She was losing a lot of blood, so she had to force herself to keep going, past burning buildings, ruined heaps of rubble, and the occasional corpse.
A sudden, heavy impact threw her over, and voices shouted things she couldn't understand because of the buzzing in her ears. She felt her consciousness drift away, but forced it to stay with her and dug her claws into whomever was pressing her down. She struggled to turn and spit fire into its face, but with another great thump she fell asleep.
–
As she woke up, Larissa began to struggle again, but found herself held by four arms far stronger than her. She fought against them as hard as she could anyway. She ignited her back-flame, but the powerful pokémon was holding her far enough away from itself that it didn't get burnt.
“She's not giving up, this one,” rumbled a voice behind her, that she supposed was a Machamp. As her vision cleared up, she saw all three of her brothers ensnared by a Tangela, squealing in terror.
“Don't kill them!” she yelled. “If you dare hurt them, I'll...”
“You'll what?” grunted the deep voice.
“I'll... I'll... Look, they're only children! Please, if there's anything remotely decent in you, don't kill them.”
The Tangela and the Machamp looked at each other unsurely. “Lubyanka said 'no witnesses'...” said Machamp.
“So what?!” Larissa snapped, capitalising on their obvious doubt. “What are you, mindless lackeys? You know how wrong it would be to kill them! What kind of pokémon would murder children?”
Tangela spoke for the first time, in a whispery voice. “I suppose they wouldn't be witnesses if we took them captive.”
The Machamp grunted in agreement. “What about this one?”
“Break her neck.”
“But Larry, she's barely more than a kid too.”
Larry made an annoyed noise. “Fine, we'll make it four prisoners. Better hope she's in a good mood today...”
Larissa doubted this Lubyanka would let them live, if she was the person who had ordered this monstrous attack in the first place, but at least she had bought them all some time.
As she was carried through the remnants of Diamarina, Larissa tried to keep struggling, but it was like trying to lift up the mountains that surrounded the valley themselves, and she was soon very sore and exhausted. They reached town square, where the devastation of the town really became obvious. The square was littered with the bodies of those who had tried to defend them all against the invaders, and all the buildings here had been destroyed. Even the tower was half collapsed and on fire, and Larissa felt even more depressed realising what that meant.
A Swellow was talking to a Luxray in a rapid patter voice in the middle of the square. The two were guarded by two Archeopses. Larissa's captors approached the group, but waited. When the Swellow had finished talking, the Luxray gave a few instructions. The bird launched and flew off to the south like a lightning bolt. The Luxray turned to face Larissa's captors with an expression of cool distaste on her well-shaped face. Larissa felt the Machamp slightly stiffen with fear. “What is this?” she asked.
“Captives, Lubyanka,” said the Machamp a little quivery.
Lubyanka smiled, but her dark eyes only grew colder. “Captives?” she said with mocking elation. “I'm so glad I've got creative geniuses like you to brighten my day with a surprise! However did you think of it? Especially,” she concluded snappily, “since I ordered you to kill everyone. No witnesses.”
“They're only kids...”
Lubyanka again displayed the mocking smile and sarcasm. “Oh, I see, I see, and that naturally means that, like all kids, they're blind amnesiacs; clearly they're no danger if they survive.”
“W-we just thought that if we captured them instead they couldn't tell anyone either...”
“You did, did you? And naturally, you also though of how we're going to drag them all the way back to base. You've already got a supply of food and water ready to feed them for presumably the rest of their lives. You've got ways to ensure they don't end up escaping and telling everyone what they saw. It's good I have people with such foresight and intelligence to interpret my orders for me.”
“But Lubyanka-”
“'But Lubyanka',” she repeated in a low, dumb voice. “Kill. Everyone. In. Town. Is that really too hard for your pea of a brain to understand?”
Larissa couldn't hold in her fury. “You evil bitch!” she yelled. “Almost a thousand pokémon lived in this town, and we'd done nothing to you! You're sitting in the middle of a pile of corpses, you nut! Do you have an- AAAA-AA-A-A-A-A-A-A-AAAA—AAARGH!” she was interrupted by an agonising electric shock that made every muscle in her body cramp and burn. Meanwhile the Machamp who also received the same shock just about tore her in two in his spasms. The shock finally relented, leaving Larissa in pain.
“I don't remember asking you anything,” said Lubyanka pleasantly. “Anyway, if the two of you don't have the guts to kill this lot, I'll just fry their brains myself right now.”
“I'm afraid I can't let you do that,” said a very familiar voice behind Larissa smoothly. She heard sounds of some kind of struggle, and then she was dropped as the Machamp joined whatever was going on. She jumped to her feet to fight, but was floored by another shock instantly. By the time she recovered enough to turn around and see what was going on, the fighting had stopped. The same Glaceon as before stood amid four defeated pokémon, including Machamp and Tangela. Triton, Proteus, and Neso were paralysed by a shock too, however.
“Who are you?” Lubyanka snapped.
“My name is Boreas,” he said, somewhat dramatically, “and I'm here to stop you.”
Lubyanka mainly looked annoyed. “Your accent. You're not from Fontoura, are you?”
Boreas smirked. “Obviously. If I was, maniacs like you wouldn't be around any more.”
She rolled her eyes in exaggerated fashion. “That's enough banter. Say your piece, if you have anything but idle boasts.”
“Sure, let's get right to business. I'm here to give you a chance to surrender, and to warn you you and most of your thugs will die if you don't.” Larissa was beginning to get a little fed up with the Glaceon's overconfidence and his cocky smile.
“And how are you going to do that to us?” Lubyanka sneered. “I've got two hundred pokémon busy conquering this town. Do you really think you can handle my army on your own?”
A small chuckle from Boreas. “Of course not, that would be silly. But I'm not on my own. I'm married, you see.”
“How nice for you. Tell me where your wife is, and I'll send her my condolences.”
Boreas' smile turned into a sly grin. “She's just up on that mountain, as a matter of fact. Did you know there's a river there? It's got a lot of water in it too, at this time of year. Which is good, considering my dear wifey has rather a lot of affinity with water. Well, she's a Vaporeon, I suppose that's to be expected. Anyway-”
“Is this going anywhere?” Lubyanka snapped. “You're just playing for time, aren't you?”
“No, I'm not.”
Lubyanka sighed in annoyance. “Then tell me what you think two can do against two hundred, or shut up.”
“I was just getting to that, maybe you could just listen for a minute, because all I want to do is accept your surrender and stop talking to you. You see, lovely Aqua isn't on that mountain for her health, she's been changing the flow of that river. Easy enough for a Vaporeon, especially in a mountainous place as this. Meanwhile, I've been rescuing your victims and telling them to gather at the plateau in the west of the valley, and taking out the thugs that were in their way.”
Lubyanka's expression slowly changed from boredom and annoyance to fear as Boreas talked. “You're bluffing! Word about your meddling would've reached me.”
Boreas grinned. “Perhaps. Unless the Swellows you use to communicate happened to meet up with, say, a beam of ice or a very localised, but very powerful storm.”
“So that's why so few of them were coming!”
“I'm afraid so. By now, the survivors will be safe on the plateau, while you and your goons are still in town. Meanwhile, the river is only held back from crashing right over the precipice's edge and washing the remnants of this town and everyone in it away by THAT rock!” he dramatically pointed to a rock on the edge of the huge wall of rock that was the mountainside towering over Diamarina. “I can dislodge it with a single ice beam and drown you and your army.”
“A-and yourself and these four!”
“Don't you worry about me, I've got a plan to survive. Better worry about yourself, Lubyanka. You will surrender, and answer all my questions-”
“I won't,” snapped Lubyanka. “I'd be killed by the Shadow anyway if I did!”
“So you're working for someone else. Thanks, that was my first question.”
“I- You- Oh, it doesn't matter anyway!” Lubyanka yelled. “That rock isn't holding back a river, and you couldn't knock it away with an ice beam if you tried! You're just playing for time!”
Boreas chuckled nervously. “Okay, you got me, I made the stuff about the rock up, and I really am just trying to keep you talking until it happens.”
Lubyanka growled and sparks began to dance through her luxurious fur. “Until what happens?”
“I just told you,” he said matter-of-factly, “until Aqua makes the river flood over that edge and turn this valley into quite a lovely lake with you at the bottom.”
“That was just a bluff, you admitted it!”
Now it was Boreas' turn to sigh and roll his eyes. “You really are almost as stupid as you are evil, aren't you? I only made the bit about the rock up; that river really is coming down unless I give Aqua the signal that you've surrendered.”
Larissa pictured a torrent of water falling down almost a kilometre to drown them all and shuddered. Lubyanka looked almost as frightened. “What's the signal?”
“I don't know. We didn't have much time to talk the plan through and we sort of skimmed over that detail.”
“But-” began Lubyanka.
“You're insane!” Larissa yelled. “We're still here, in the name of Ho-Oh's liver! You'll drown us-”
With a terrifying roar like an erupting volcano, the river came over the edge of the precipice, dragging whole rocks with it into the abyss. The mighty waterfall fell as if in slow-motion, inexorably on its way to destroy what remained of the town. “Here it comes,” said Boreas to Lubyanka with a mad grin. “Run for your life!”
“I'll get you for this!” yelled Lubyanka as she fled from the oncoming water.
“Is that a promise?”
Larissa rushed for her brothers to pick them up and flee too.
The Glaceon turned to Larissa. “Stay close to me, you'll be safe.”
“Safe? You're flooding the valley and we're fire-types! None of us can swim!”
Boreas was gathering planks and other wooden rubble. “That's why I'm building a boat. Help me gather this stuff.”
Larissa decided to help him, pulling planks from the collapsed post office. Her brothers were about to help too, but she told them to stick together at the boat instead. A rumble like a thunderclap echoed through the valley as the water hit the ground. “We'll never finish it in time! It's a pile of trash, not a boat!”
“It'll float either way. Get your brothers in!” As Larissa rushed the three Cyndaquils to the 'boat', Boreas ran his paws over the wood, emitting some kind of frigid, creaking pulse of cold from them that froze the pieces of wood together. Larissa threw her brothers into the makeshift boat.
“It's really cold!” squealed Neso. Larissa's reply was drowned out by the roar of the wall of water, mud, and debris coming their way. Jumping into the boat, she felt a painful sting of cold on all four paws.
“Sit down, or you'll tip the boat!” said Boreas, who was still freezing more to it.
“Easy enough for you to say, snowman; I don't want to freeze my bum off!” Yet she knew he was right and gnashed her teeth in pain as she sat down on the frozen wood.
The burnt-out wreck of the tower was thrown over by the great wave, and a split second later the water reached the five in the boat. The impact knocked all the air out of Larissa, and then they were underwater, the horrible, cold stuff all around her. Bits of wood and stone were shot around in the powerful currents and hit Larissa, battering and stabbing her. Then, just as suddenly as the water had come, they broke the surface, being swept away in the great wave. The raft was constantly breaking apart and Boreas trying to freeze it back together as they swept through the eastern parts of town.
With a great crack and a squeal from Triton, the boat sundered and the little Cyndaquil fell in the speedily flowing water. Larissa cursed and jumped right after him. She reached out in the roiling black pain that was the water, and found a struggling, shrew-like form. She pulled it towards her and held him close to her as she was pelted by debris on all sides. She was spinning in the horrid muck, and had no idea what way the surface was, nor any way to fight the chaotic currents and swim back there. She held her breath and curled up around Triton as much as she could, hoping to shield them both.
There was a great tumbling, an impact that nearly broke her back, and then there was air and light. Larissa gasped and found herself washed up on the hillside that once overlooked the town. Triton coughed up water, and they both lay there panting for breath. A few others were washed up too.
“Survived, did you?” said a nasty voice. Lubyanka, her manes drenched, was looking furious. But not at Larissa.
“Told you,” Boreas grinned. To her relief, Larissa saw Neso and Proteus crawling out of the remnants of the boat, towards her. “How many of your thugs can say the same?”
“Enough to get rid of you once and for all!” Lubyanka yelled. “You lot! Get up and kill the bastard!”
Four washed up pokémon managed to stand up. Larissa tried to get up too, to fight with Boreas, but the water and her wounds had finally taken their toll. She simply didn't have the energy. She could only watch as a rapid battle between Boreas and Lubyanka ensued. Electricity and ice beams flashed back and forth. Boreas parried the Luxray's attacks by waving a paw and unleashing some kind of shockwave of air. But the other thugs were beginning to join the battle.
Larissa was very cold, and growing ever colder. Just when she was beginning to get very worried, she noticed the water actually freezing and an ice-cold wind blowing harder and harder. It grew in strength and became a ferocious tornado of snow and ice centred on Boreas, who was as good as invisible. A Rhydon charged at him, but just ran through an empty cloud of snow. Out of nowhere, Boreas jumped onto its back and unleashed a disabling pulse of cold through its body. As he jumped off, he took down a swooping Swellow with an ice beam.
When Lubyanka shot a lightning bolt at Boreas and a Sceptile a solar beam, he didn't dodge them: instead he froze his fur into a brightly reflective mirror coat. When the two attacks hit him, he was knocked back, but they also reflected: the solar beam hitting Lubyanka full on while the lightning took down the Sceptile. But he hadn't seen the Hitmonlee running up from behind him, its long legs ready to strike, and laughed. “Is this really going to be that easy?”
Before Larissa could shout a warning, a blast of water came from behind her and knocked the fighting-type away. “Forgot to watch your back, as usual?” said a pleasant voice. A beautiful Vaporeon was swimming in the wild lake.
“Him?” lied Boreas. “I knew he was coming. I was about to freeze his legs to the floor and make him trip when you interfered, in fact.”
“Sure, sure.” The Vaporeon walked onto the new shore, shaking out her fur.
Larissa had propped herself up by now, shivering in the water. “You're both mad. What if there were still survivors in town? You just killed them if you missed any! And even if you got them all, what if you had misdirected the river and made it flow onto the western plateau instead?”
Boreas rolled his eyes. “You must be the life of parties with such a cheerful nature. Yes, long winter evenings must just fly with you around. Oh, introductions: this is Aqua, my wife. Aqua, this is Larissa, an ungrateful grouch whose life I saved thrice today.”
“You two are responsible for the flood in the first place, that one doesn't count,” Larissa snapped.
“How do you do?” said Aqua with a pearly smile as she shook Larissa's paw. “Don't mind my husband, he gets a little grumpy when someone doesn't think he's the greatest thing that ever happened to them.”
“I don't- Hold on, where'd Lubyanka go?”
The other four pokémon Boreas and Aqua had defeated were still lying on the new lake's shore, but the Luxray herself had vanished.
This is a sequel to my previous story, The Surprising Adventures of a Glaceon in Unova, but it's not necessary to have read it for this one. Anyway, let me know what you think.
Larissa dragged her little brother's bloody, unconscious body out from under the burning rubble, grateful to find he was still breathing. With a massive crash and a wave of red-hot heat another part of the roof collapsed just next to Larissa, showering her in splinters of wood. She caught Proteus and Neso just standing there, gaping at their sister. “RUN!” she yelled. “Run if you don't want to end up like mum and dad!”
For once in their lives, the two Cyndaquils obeyed Larissa, who sprinted after them holding the unconscious Triton by the scruff of the neck, her side full of little bleeding wounds from the splinters. She ignored the pain as she ignored the far worse pain in her mind of seeing her parents die. She couldn't even think of stopping; it'd mean the end of all four of them.
An inferno raged in the dining room ahead, blocking the rear door and trapping them inside. The heat made the moisture in Larissa's eyes and mouth boil. “There's no way out of here, 'Rissa!” squeaked Neso.
“This way!” she yelled, jumping through a hole in one of the collapsing walls. “We can get out through my bedroom window!”
The heat was terrible; she would certainly not have survived this long if she wasn't a Quilava, but that didn't make her immune to fire and heat. With a sound like a giant's roar, the corridor collapsed behind them. Larissa burst through the smouldering door, finding her bedroom alight too, all her possessions turning to ash. But some luck at last: the window had shattered from the heat. She didn't lose any time and chucked Triton straight through, then roughly picked up and threw Neso too, despite his protests. Something exploded, and at the same moment a deafening shockwave filled her mind and something else hit one of her rear legs and snapped it like a twig. She saw Proteus scream her name, but couldn't hear him, her ears buzzing and her mind flooded with pain. She grabbed her little brother by the scruff of the neck and threw him too, then almost collapsed as everything began to go black.
She bit her tongue hard, drawing blood but preventing herself from blacking out. She climbed up into the windowsill with three legs, the fourth dangling uselessly. There were glass shards, but as she stepped in one she found it was half molten and no longer sharp, although hot enough to burn her. She half leapt, half fell out of the window, and the somewhat cooler air outside slightly soothed her wounds. Neso and Proteus crowded around her in panic.
“What do we do?!” Neso cried.
“I want mummy!” Proteus snivelled.
“Keep running!” Larissa snapped, as one of the town's towers collapsed, shaking the ground. “Don't stop running until we're far away! If I fall behind, keep running and find someone you recognise when you've left Diamarina!”
But at that moment, seven pokémon rushed around the corner, part of the mysterious army destroying the once beautiful town. Larissa let Triton go and faced the seven brutes. “Run,” she hissed. “Take Triton with you and find an adult when you're out of Diamarina.”
“But-”
“NOW!” She spit a ray of fire at the enemy, but the Swampert effortlessly intercepted it with a blob of mud. Larissa could hear her brothers run behind her. All she had to do was buy them some time.
But disaster struck: with a massive rumble, the house of their neighbours collapsed onto the road behind her. She turned around in shock, but to her immense relief her brothers were fine. The rubble was piled up high in the street, as unclimbable as the steep walls of rock that surrounded the valley.
The Hariyama laughed. “No way to run now, missy.”
“Fine by me,” Larissa spat, “but let my brothers go. They're just children!”
The Hariyama looked uncomfortable and seemed about to say something, but the Weavile behind it pushed it out of the way. “Lubyanka said no witnesses,” she told the others. “If they're old enough to hatch from their eggs, they're old enough to tell the tale.”
Larissa growled fiercely, her back-flame blazing threateningly. “Stay away from my brothers or I'll kill you all!”
“You?” laughed the Weavile. “You're barely more than a kid yourself.”
“I don't care,” Larissa growled, “I'll tear you limb from limb if you dare hurt them.”
“Come on, we'll kill her first, and then the Cyndaquils.”
“You know, I really don't think you want to do that,” said a calm, cheerful, voice with an odd accent. The seven pokémon turned around in surprise.
A somewhat scruffy Glaceon stood behind them, smiling as if pandemonium didn't rule around him and he hadn't just come across seven pokémon planning to murder children. He seemed perfectly at ease.
The Weavile scoffed. “And why wouldn't we?”
Still the same smile on the Glaceon's blue face. “Because if you do, I'll stop you, and I expect most of you won't survive.”
The seven pokémon between them shook with laughter. The Weavile was the first to recover. “Brave words, but you're outnumbered seven to one. Seven to two if you count the waif.”
“So any survivors will have to deal with crippling embarrassment,” said the fox, still pleasantly. “I'm afraid that does tend to happen.”
“Who are you?” said the Weavile, sounding less amused.
“My name is Boreas.”
“Never heard of you,” sneered the Weavile.
“Obviously. If you had, you'd hardly be standing there waiting to get hurt.”
“You're an awfully arrogant one,” said the Weavile snidely. “You don't stand a chance against the seven of us.”
Boreas' pleasant tone was beginning to annoy Larissa. “You know, I met Ramson the dread pirate president once, and that's just what he said to me. Ever heard of him? Well, I suppose you wouldn't have; as I said, I met him once. Anyway, back to business. Surrender and I'll spare you.”
The Weavile yawned. “Kill him.”
Larissa sprang into action, spitting fire at the back of the Weavile. Meanwhile, she could barely see what was going on with the Glaceon. All seven pokémon attacked him and she saw him nimbly dodge a series of attacks, and parry two more by waving his paw and using some kind of pulse. Then he counterattacked: a beam of ice flew, but was way off target and hit the still burning house Larissa had lived in all her life. More attacks began to fly his way, but were interrupted by a loud creaking and rumbling noise as it began to rain stones and burning wood on the enemy. Larissa jumped back and pushed her brothers as far back as she could. The seven attackers screamed as the house's façade fell towards them, crumbling as it did so. They tried to run from the entire building collapsing on top of them, but were too slow and disappeared under a huge heap of smouldering rubble that fell just a little in front of Larissa's feet, trapping her and her brothers between two piles of burning debris.
A frigid wind as if winter had come early stuck up and extinguished the flames on the ruined pile that used to be Larissa's house. The Glaceon calmly walked over it and offered his paw to help her. “All of you alright?”
“Y-yeah,” Larissa stammered against her will, helping her brothers climb up. “Did you know that was going to happen?”
He smiled smugly. Larissa noticed two scars on his face: one crossing his right eyebrow and almost hitting the piercing, cyan eye, and the other on the left edge of his face. “Well, I knew something like it would happen if I snap-froze that piece of wood.”
“That was so cool!” gasped Neso.
“Hold on!” said Larissa angrily as they reached the other side of the rubble. “You mean you didn't actually know my brothers wouldn't be crushed too?”
He gave her a grin she was quite sure he thought was fetching. “I wasn't certain. But that was unlikely, and these things have a way of working out.”
“Working out?!” Larissa snapped. “You could've killed my brothers!”
“Well, the fact is, I didn't. I saved them, and you, in fact. Something for which you might consider some gratitude.”
“Gra-”
“My name is Boreas, by the way.”
“I know who you are, you already said that.”
Boreas sighed. “Yes, I was merely wondering whether you have a name too.”
“Larissa.”
“A pleasure to meet you, Larissa. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a lot more lives to save. Go west, to the plateau there. There shouldn't be any more of these creeps in your way.” He ran off east, towards the centre of town, and Larissa noticed the tip of his tail was missing.
“I'm Neso, mister!” Neso called after him, but he was already gone. “Aww... C'mon, 'Rissa, we have to follow him.”
“No we don't,” said Larissa. “We have to get out of town, and the plateau would indeed be the best way.”
“But he's so-”
“Come,” she said in a voice not allowing contradiction. “This way'll be the quickest. Stay close to me.”
Putting the only semi-conscious Triton on her back, Larissa guided her brothers through the streets quickly, making sure to avoid everyone. Her heart was alight with rage and despair. If she was on her own, she'd try to avenge her parents and the rest of the town, though she knew she'd be no match for most of the enemy. But that was out of the question; she couldn't abandon her brothers. As she ran, blackness started to creep up on the outside of her vision, slowly giving her tunnel vision and making her feel very light in the head. She was losing a lot of blood, so she had to force herself to keep going, past burning buildings, ruined heaps of rubble, and the occasional corpse.
A sudden, heavy impact threw her over, and voices shouted things she couldn't understand because of the buzzing in her ears. She felt her consciousness drift away, but forced it to stay with her and dug her claws into whomever was pressing her down. She struggled to turn and spit fire into its face, but with another great thump she fell asleep.
–
As she woke up, Larissa began to struggle again, but found herself held by four arms far stronger than her. She fought against them as hard as she could anyway. She ignited her back-flame, but the powerful pokémon was holding her far enough away from itself that it didn't get burnt.
“She's not giving up, this one,” rumbled a voice behind her, that she supposed was a Machamp. As her vision cleared up, she saw all three of her brothers ensnared by a Tangela, squealing in terror.
“Don't kill them!” she yelled. “If you dare hurt them, I'll...”
“You'll what?” grunted the deep voice.
“I'll... I'll... Look, they're only children! Please, if there's anything remotely decent in you, don't kill them.”
The Tangela and the Machamp looked at each other unsurely. “Lubyanka said 'no witnesses'...” said Machamp.
“So what?!” Larissa snapped, capitalising on their obvious doubt. “What are you, mindless lackeys? You know how wrong it would be to kill them! What kind of pokémon would murder children?”
Tangela spoke for the first time, in a whispery voice. “I suppose they wouldn't be witnesses if we took them captive.”
The Machamp grunted in agreement. “What about this one?”
“Break her neck.”
“But Larry, she's barely more than a kid too.”
Larry made an annoyed noise. “Fine, we'll make it four prisoners. Better hope she's in a good mood today...”
Larissa doubted this Lubyanka would let them live, if she was the person who had ordered this monstrous attack in the first place, but at least she had bought them all some time.
As she was carried through the remnants of Diamarina, Larissa tried to keep struggling, but it was like trying to lift up the mountains that surrounded the valley themselves, and she was soon very sore and exhausted. They reached town square, where the devastation of the town really became obvious. The square was littered with the bodies of those who had tried to defend them all against the invaders, and all the buildings here had been destroyed. Even the tower was half collapsed and on fire, and Larissa felt even more depressed realising what that meant.
A Swellow was talking to a Luxray in a rapid patter voice in the middle of the square. The two were guarded by two Archeopses. Larissa's captors approached the group, but waited. When the Swellow had finished talking, the Luxray gave a few instructions. The bird launched and flew off to the south like a lightning bolt. The Luxray turned to face Larissa's captors with an expression of cool distaste on her well-shaped face. Larissa felt the Machamp slightly stiffen with fear. “What is this?” she asked.
“Captives, Lubyanka,” said the Machamp a little quivery.
Lubyanka smiled, but her dark eyes only grew colder. “Captives?” she said with mocking elation. “I'm so glad I've got creative geniuses like you to brighten my day with a surprise! However did you think of it? Especially,” she concluded snappily, “since I ordered you to kill everyone. No witnesses.”
“They're only kids...”
Lubyanka again displayed the mocking smile and sarcasm. “Oh, I see, I see, and that naturally means that, like all kids, they're blind amnesiacs; clearly they're no danger if they survive.”
“W-we just thought that if we captured them instead they couldn't tell anyone either...”
“You did, did you? And naturally, you also though of how we're going to drag them all the way back to base. You've already got a supply of food and water ready to feed them for presumably the rest of their lives. You've got ways to ensure they don't end up escaping and telling everyone what they saw. It's good I have people with such foresight and intelligence to interpret my orders for me.”
“But Lubyanka-”
“'But Lubyanka',” she repeated in a low, dumb voice. “Kill. Everyone. In. Town. Is that really too hard for your pea of a brain to understand?”
Larissa couldn't hold in her fury. “You evil bitch!” she yelled. “Almost a thousand pokémon lived in this town, and we'd done nothing to you! You're sitting in the middle of a pile of corpses, you nut! Do you have an- AAAA-AA-A-A-A-A-A-A-AAAA—AAARGH!” she was interrupted by an agonising electric shock that made every muscle in her body cramp and burn. Meanwhile the Machamp who also received the same shock just about tore her in two in his spasms. The shock finally relented, leaving Larissa in pain.
“I don't remember asking you anything,” said Lubyanka pleasantly. “Anyway, if the two of you don't have the guts to kill this lot, I'll just fry their brains myself right now.”
“I'm afraid I can't let you do that,” said a very familiar voice behind Larissa smoothly. She heard sounds of some kind of struggle, and then she was dropped as the Machamp joined whatever was going on. She jumped to her feet to fight, but was floored by another shock instantly. By the time she recovered enough to turn around and see what was going on, the fighting had stopped. The same Glaceon as before stood amid four defeated pokémon, including Machamp and Tangela. Triton, Proteus, and Neso were paralysed by a shock too, however.
“Who are you?” Lubyanka snapped.
“My name is Boreas,” he said, somewhat dramatically, “and I'm here to stop you.”
Lubyanka mainly looked annoyed. “Your accent. You're not from Fontoura, are you?”
Boreas smirked. “Obviously. If I was, maniacs like you wouldn't be around any more.”
She rolled her eyes in exaggerated fashion. “That's enough banter. Say your piece, if you have anything but idle boasts.”
“Sure, let's get right to business. I'm here to give you a chance to surrender, and to warn you you and most of your thugs will die if you don't.” Larissa was beginning to get a little fed up with the Glaceon's overconfidence and his cocky smile.
“And how are you going to do that to us?” Lubyanka sneered. “I've got two hundred pokémon busy conquering this town. Do you really think you can handle my army on your own?”
A small chuckle from Boreas. “Of course not, that would be silly. But I'm not on my own. I'm married, you see.”
“How nice for you. Tell me where your wife is, and I'll send her my condolences.”
Boreas' smile turned into a sly grin. “She's just up on that mountain, as a matter of fact. Did you know there's a river there? It's got a lot of water in it too, at this time of year. Which is good, considering my dear wifey has rather a lot of affinity with water. Well, she's a Vaporeon, I suppose that's to be expected. Anyway-”
“Is this going anywhere?” Lubyanka snapped. “You're just playing for time, aren't you?”
“No, I'm not.”
Lubyanka sighed in annoyance. “Then tell me what you think two can do against two hundred, or shut up.”
“I was just getting to that, maybe you could just listen for a minute, because all I want to do is accept your surrender and stop talking to you. You see, lovely Aqua isn't on that mountain for her health, she's been changing the flow of that river. Easy enough for a Vaporeon, especially in a mountainous place as this. Meanwhile, I've been rescuing your victims and telling them to gather at the plateau in the west of the valley, and taking out the thugs that were in their way.”
Lubyanka's expression slowly changed from boredom and annoyance to fear as Boreas talked. “You're bluffing! Word about your meddling would've reached me.”
Boreas grinned. “Perhaps. Unless the Swellows you use to communicate happened to meet up with, say, a beam of ice or a very localised, but very powerful storm.”
“So that's why so few of them were coming!”
“I'm afraid so. By now, the survivors will be safe on the plateau, while you and your goons are still in town. Meanwhile, the river is only held back from crashing right over the precipice's edge and washing the remnants of this town and everyone in it away by THAT rock!” he dramatically pointed to a rock on the edge of the huge wall of rock that was the mountainside towering over Diamarina. “I can dislodge it with a single ice beam and drown you and your army.”
“A-and yourself and these four!”
“Don't you worry about me, I've got a plan to survive. Better worry about yourself, Lubyanka. You will surrender, and answer all my questions-”
“I won't,” snapped Lubyanka. “I'd be killed by the Shadow anyway if I did!”
“So you're working for someone else. Thanks, that was my first question.”
“I- You- Oh, it doesn't matter anyway!” Lubyanka yelled. “That rock isn't holding back a river, and you couldn't knock it away with an ice beam if you tried! You're just playing for time!”
Boreas chuckled nervously. “Okay, you got me, I made the stuff about the rock up, and I really am just trying to keep you talking until it happens.”
Lubyanka growled and sparks began to dance through her luxurious fur. “Until what happens?”
“I just told you,” he said matter-of-factly, “until Aqua makes the river flood over that edge and turn this valley into quite a lovely lake with you at the bottom.”
“That was just a bluff, you admitted it!”
Now it was Boreas' turn to sigh and roll his eyes. “You really are almost as stupid as you are evil, aren't you? I only made the bit about the rock up; that river really is coming down unless I give Aqua the signal that you've surrendered.”
Larissa pictured a torrent of water falling down almost a kilometre to drown them all and shuddered. Lubyanka looked almost as frightened. “What's the signal?”
“I don't know. We didn't have much time to talk the plan through and we sort of skimmed over that detail.”
“But-” began Lubyanka.
“You're insane!” Larissa yelled. “We're still here, in the name of Ho-Oh's liver! You'll drown us-”
With a terrifying roar like an erupting volcano, the river came over the edge of the precipice, dragging whole rocks with it into the abyss. The mighty waterfall fell as if in slow-motion, inexorably on its way to destroy what remained of the town. “Here it comes,” said Boreas to Lubyanka with a mad grin. “Run for your life!”
“I'll get you for this!” yelled Lubyanka as she fled from the oncoming water.
“Is that a promise?”
Larissa rushed for her brothers to pick them up and flee too.
The Glaceon turned to Larissa. “Stay close to me, you'll be safe.”
“Safe? You're flooding the valley and we're fire-types! None of us can swim!”
Boreas was gathering planks and other wooden rubble. “That's why I'm building a boat. Help me gather this stuff.”
Larissa decided to help him, pulling planks from the collapsed post office. Her brothers were about to help too, but she told them to stick together at the boat instead. A rumble like a thunderclap echoed through the valley as the water hit the ground. “We'll never finish it in time! It's a pile of trash, not a boat!”
“It'll float either way. Get your brothers in!” As Larissa rushed the three Cyndaquils to the 'boat', Boreas ran his paws over the wood, emitting some kind of frigid, creaking pulse of cold from them that froze the pieces of wood together. Larissa threw her brothers into the makeshift boat.
“It's really cold!” squealed Neso. Larissa's reply was drowned out by the roar of the wall of water, mud, and debris coming their way. Jumping into the boat, she felt a painful sting of cold on all four paws.
“Sit down, or you'll tip the boat!” said Boreas, who was still freezing more to it.
“Easy enough for you to say, snowman; I don't want to freeze my bum off!” Yet she knew he was right and gnashed her teeth in pain as she sat down on the frozen wood.
The burnt-out wreck of the tower was thrown over by the great wave, and a split second later the water reached the five in the boat. The impact knocked all the air out of Larissa, and then they were underwater, the horrible, cold stuff all around her. Bits of wood and stone were shot around in the powerful currents and hit Larissa, battering and stabbing her. Then, just as suddenly as the water had come, they broke the surface, being swept away in the great wave. The raft was constantly breaking apart and Boreas trying to freeze it back together as they swept through the eastern parts of town.
With a great crack and a squeal from Triton, the boat sundered and the little Cyndaquil fell in the speedily flowing water. Larissa cursed and jumped right after him. She reached out in the roiling black pain that was the water, and found a struggling, shrew-like form. She pulled it towards her and held him close to her as she was pelted by debris on all sides. She was spinning in the horrid muck, and had no idea what way the surface was, nor any way to fight the chaotic currents and swim back there. She held her breath and curled up around Triton as much as she could, hoping to shield them both.
There was a great tumbling, an impact that nearly broke her back, and then there was air and light. Larissa gasped and found herself washed up on the hillside that once overlooked the town. Triton coughed up water, and they both lay there panting for breath. A few others were washed up too.
“Survived, did you?” said a nasty voice. Lubyanka, her manes drenched, was looking furious. But not at Larissa.
“Told you,” Boreas grinned. To her relief, Larissa saw Neso and Proteus crawling out of the remnants of the boat, towards her. “How many of your thugs can say the same?”
“Enough to get rid of you once and for all!” Lubyanka yelled. “You lot! Get up and kill the bastard!”
Four washed up pokémon managed to stand up. Larissa tried to get up too, to fight with Boreas, but the water and her wounds had finally taken their toll. She simply didn't have the energy. She could only watch as a rapid battle between Boreas and Lubyanka ensued. Electricity and ice beams flashed back and forth. Boreas parried the Luxray's attacks by waving a paw and unleashing some kind of shockwave of air. But the other thugs were beginning to join the battle.
Larissa was very cold, and growing ever colder. Just when she was beginning to get very worried, she noticed the water actually freezing and an ice-cold wind blowing harder and harder. It grew in strength and became a ferocious tornado of snow and ice centred on Boreas, who was as good as invisible. A Rhydon charged at him, but just ran through an empty cloud of snow. Out of nowhere, Boreas jumped onto its back and unleashed a disabling pulse of cold through its body. As he jumped off, he took down a swooping Swellow with an ice beam.
When Lubyanka shot a lightning bolt at Boreas and a Sceptile a solar beam, he didn't dodge them: instead he froze his fur into a brightly reflective mirror coat. When the two attacks hit him, he was knocked back, but they also reflected: the solar beam hitting Lubyanka full on while the lightning took down the Sceptile. But he hadn't seen the Hitmonlee running up from behind him, its long legs ready to strike, and laughed. “Is this really going to be that easy?”
Before Larissa could shout a warning, a blast of water came from behind her and knocked the fighting-type away. “Forgot to watch your back, as usual?” said a pleasant voice. A beautiful Vaporeon was swimming in the wild lake.
“Him?” lied Boreas. “I knew he was coming. I was about to freeze his legs to the floor and make him trip when you interfered, in fact.”
“Sure, sure.” The Vaporeon walked onto the new shore, shaking out her fur.
Larissa had propped herself up by now, shivering in the water. “You're both mad. What if there were still survivors in town? You just killed them if you missed any! And even if you got them all, what if you had misdirected the river and made it flow onto the western plateau instead?”
Boreas rolled his eyes. “You must be the life of parties with such a cheerful nature. Yes, long winter evenings must just fly with you around. Oh, introductions: this is Aqua, my wife. Aqua, this is Larissa, an ungrateful grouch whose life I saved thrice today.”
“You two are responsible for the flood in the first place, that one doesn't count,” Larissa snapped.
“How do you do?” said Aqua with a pearly smile as she shook Larissa's paw. “Don't mind my husband, he gets a little grumpy when someone doesn't think he's the greatest thing that ever happened to them.”
“I don't- Hold on, where'd Lubyanka go?”
The other four pokémon Boreas and Aqua had defeated were still lying on the new lake's shore, but the Luxray herself had vanished.
This is a sequel to my previous story, The Surprising Adventures of a Glaceon in Unova, but it's not necessary to have read it for this one. Anyway, let me know what you think.
Last edited by a moderator:
