Nuzlocke: The Gold Standard Chapter 14.5

Chapter 14 Part 2: Frosty Reception

Why You Don't Kick Doors - Need for Skis as Mike is Watched - There Goes Another Phone - The Difficulty of Reaching Doors - Fascinating Stories Regarding Middle Names - Multiple Head Case - Mike Prostrates Before the Gym Leader - A Public Disservice Announcement - Stepping Up to the Mantle - Elm Inspires Another Adventure


The door to Mahogany Town Gym flew open under the impact of Mike's foot, sunlight from outside spilling in, and the sight of him in the doorway remained impressive for about half a second before his weight shifted forwards and his foot came down and touched on the floor. Then it all started going wrong quickly. Where there should normally have been a welcoming mat or entrance hall or something to greet him into the Gym, his foot found instead a sheet of perfect ice, smooth as a windless sea after a damn good waxing, and from there the law of momentum put its own metaphorical foot down and the poor Trainer slipped forward, skidded, tumbled and fell smack on his backside across a distance of a few metres to gradually coast to a halt next to the wall opposite the door.

From outside the Gym, Colin the Umbreon looked in through the open door and nodded. 'Yeah, I think you can take this one, Clyde. Strangely enough, somehow I'm not up to it anymore. I don't much fancy becoming an extra in a children's comedy cartoon.'

Mike wedged his hand against the wall behind him and with a pained expression grunted as he tried to levy himself up the wall, but his feet slipped out underneath him and he hit the floor with a thump again. 'Aahhh... Owww... Why would you make a Gym that... Oww...'

The floor of the Gym twinkled happily in its reflection of the interior lights and bright sunshine outside, its surface flat enough to have been made with a spirit level and slippery as a greased eel. Reflected doubly, causing Mike's vision to go funny as he tried to work out which people where upside-down mirror images and which ones just weren't feeling well that morning, the Skiers stood with perfect stillness on the surface of the ice, watching Mike's endeavours with curiosity as he slowly pushed himself back up, successfully making it to standing this time but gripping the wall like he was part of the masonry.

Carefully, Mike managed to extract an arm. Ignoring all the Skiers around him that had decided to take a polite interest in his current misadventures, he peered out to the door where Clyde his Magmar looked back into the building after him with concern while Colin the Umbreon just looked like he was having to try hard not to laugh directly at his own trainer. 'Ok,' he said to them with a voice of admitted failure, 'We might need to plan this one instead of just charging in. I called that one wrong.' The Skiers nodded sympathetically - they'd all been there before. 'You two ok?'

'I am fine, sir, but it's you I worry about,' the Magmar answered calling through the doorway.

'I didn't go in the icy deathtrap hall of stupidity,' Colin not-so-helpfully added, 'so I'm totally fine. Thanks for asking. Four legs, on this? No way.'

'Great. If I can't navigate this crazy building, guys, then you can't,' Mike said somewhat presumptuously, 'so you'd probably better come back for now.' Slowly, so as not to disturb whatever force of moment had allowed to remain balanced on the floor in this state, he held out two Poke Balls and returned them from where he was, the red light streaming the length of the room. Inch by inch he returned them to his belt, his eyes catching his wrist on the way down.

'Oh, for the love of!-'

His tumble hadn't been quite as harmless as he'd thought. One more thing to do next time he was in the big city... He sighed with resignation as he looked at the cracked screen and buckled casing. Another new PokeGear.

It was somewhere around this point he realised there were other people in the room.

The Skiers just held his gaze for a while, both sides quietly wondering what was going through the other's mind. It eventually fell to the Skier nearest to Mike in the blue jacket to say 'So... Are you here to challenge Pryce?'

For a second Mike felt very much like just saying 'No' and leaving this deathtrap funhouse, but that would get him nothing in the long run. Sp he took a deep breath and managed 'Yeah, is he in the back like all the others were?'

'That's the one. So I'm guessing you'll want to battle us first.'

Again, 'no' would have been a very helpful answer. 'Yeah, although not from here. As I pass you, that alright?'

'Hey, we know the line-of-sight rules here. Good luck.'

'What? Why? Why particularly?'

Mike took a careful step towards the door on his left, and at least this time managed to stay upright as he careened helplessly into the wall opposite him in that direction without the slightest ability to stop or control himself otherwise, gliding straight past the door as he went. As soon as he'd got control of his body and mental capacities again he took another step towards the door again, but again glided straight past in and slid back to the position he had started from not ten seconds ago.

The Skier nodded. 'Yep. It has that effect on those who aren't experienced... or didn't bring skis. You have to line yourself up with the door perfectly to stand any chance of hitting it at all.'

Mike's expression was somewhere between a stare of disbelief and a furious glare. 'Are you kidding?'

'If only.'

The trainer sighed. 'This is going to be a really long day.'


-A long, long time later-


Balanced with perfect grace and poise in the middle of the floor of sheet ice, the old man Pryce barely raised an amused eyebrow as the poor straggling Mike crashed almost directly into him, after many trips back and forth across his field of vision like an outtake of The Benny Hill Show. 'Easy, young one. It won't do for you to cripple me outside battle first.'

'S-Sorry, sir...' Mike fumbled as he rocked on his feet, trying to balance his weight back and forth to cancel his ice-powered momentum. Eventually he came to a standstill, so long as his feet stayed exactly as they were for ever and ever until they froze to the floor. 'Are you the Gym Leader?'

'Yes, indeed. You seem very unexperienced.'

'Unexperienced at ice skating, yes! I'm not good at covering slippery floors in only a pair of trainers!'

'And yet you still managed it, which says something about you. Although the process of watching you try was very amusing,' Pryce added with a smile as Mike sighed desperately. 'Perhaps it will come with more time.'

'It had better do by the time I come to leave.'

'Ah, now that wouldn't be fun at all. So you intend to challenge me? Let me tell you a story about my middle name.'

'I'd rather just fight, actually.'

'Oh, I see. In that case...' Pryce suddenly stood up bolt straight, his back going from arched to rigid in a second and leaving the part of Mike that wasn't intimidated by the sight wondering if the cane was only a prop. The old man didn't seem as little and feeble as he stood tall and looked down his nose at Mike like he was assessed and marked down. 'Pokemon and people experience great many things, and I too have seen and suffered much,' he said with sudden sternness and unshakable tone. 'As your elder, allow me to instruct! You should learn from your predecessors, your olders and betters! I have been training Pokemon since before you were alive. I do not submit easily. Now, I shall demonstrate my skill - at least, to a level you may have a chance against!'

Pryce's Seel flopped onto the Gym floor almost comically, but then hunkered down and looked at Mike like it was squaring up at him. Mike reached for a Poke Ball. 'Solenoid, this is what we've been training for. All that work we put in to get you to your new state... Time to use it and use it good!'

Solenoid appeared from the light of the Ball, and hovered as it looked down at its opponent. 'Very well then,' it said calmly. 'Let's begin. I hope that-'

'-this will prove a better-'

'-challenge than Team Rocket.'

The Magneton's three heads nodded, or at least bobbed in the air, in unison and a blast of electricity shot out and struck the Seel. At first the leader's Pokemon recoiled, but then rose again and shot an Icy Wind in response. This, however, broke over the Steel type's casing without even making them blink.

'You will have-' the first head of Solenoid started.

'-to do better,' the next head continued seamlessly. 'Try this again-'

'-and see if you can still last,' the last head finished without the slightest pause. Another Thundershock made the Seel fall down, swirls in his eyes as Pryce returned it.

Mike grinned. 'Was that the warm-up round?'

'Warm is not our style here,' Pryce said with unaffected evenness. 'Dewgong, now you try.'

'Keep the electricity going, Solenoid!' Mike urged. 'Until it goes wrong, it doesn't need fixing!'

'We're-'

'-onto-'

'-it.' No sooner had the third head finished speaking than it sent a Thundershock at the Dewgong. This was if anything just as effective as on Seel, but the Dewgong sent back a strong Aurora Beam instead. This at least made Solenoid flinch this time. However, another Thundershock sent this opponent unconscious as well and Pryce down to his third Pokemon.

'Piloswine.' Mike thought quickly. Solenoid was no totally out of the question. Ideally he'd have used Dan at this point, as none of the rest of his team really suited to deal with this opponent and its types. But these were not ideal conditions, and he had a non-ideal solution. 'Solenoid, get back. Clyde, you're up.'

The Magmar bowed, but Pryce's Piloswine seemed to be having none of it and before Clyde was ready to do his own attack launched an Icy Wind at him in the hopes of catching him out.

'Play fair! Take this, then,' Clyde called and launched himself forward with a Fire Punch that, to Mike's frank amazement, made the Piloswine tip forward as if defeated, even if it then found the strength to raise its head again. Ground, it turns out, may beat Fire but it doesn't resist it. Despite his unfavourable position, Pryce seemed totally at peace as he sprayed a Hyper Potion on his Pokemon, but then Clyde swung another Fire Punch on Mike's command and this time knocked the Piloswine right out in one blow.

Clyde dusted his hands off with a satisfied smile. 'So ends another thrilling, if short-lived battle.'

Pryce looked down in silence for a several seconds, as of in deep contemplation, but then looked up at Mike and smiled gently. 'Now that was an impressive display. I didn't really hold back - you were simply trained well enough. I'm sure you have what it takes to face the obstacles life presents to us. Here, you have earned this.' He held out his hand and Mike reached over, taking the Glacier Badge out of the Gym Leader's palm.

Mike opened his mouth, maybe to express gratitude or maybe to complain about the quickness of the battle, but the act of reaching out for the badge caused a slight but critical shift of balance in Mike's feet and he suddenly slipped forward, his legs going back from underneath him and his body hitting the ice at Pryce's feet in a fall that would be embarrassing for Mike if it wasn't so annoying for him again.

Pryce's expression hadn't lost its steady smile. 'Please, express your thankfulness some other way. I think it's time for you to leave now.'

This, however, proved a challenge. It took many, many minutes of slipping, sliding, smashing into walls and, yes, falling on the ice for Mike to make his way to the door and make his way out.

And that was just the first room.


---


Mike had set off for his Gym challenge in the early-ish morning but the Sun was high in the sky by the time he tumbled out of the door of the Gym into the warmth and light outside. He pulled himself up and together on the Gym's doorstep, taking the chance to finally get his breath back, and tested the ground before him with a foot. It was solid, and didn't slip under his feet as he moved. Good start. He tested another foot, just in case.

Unaware that some people had started to pass funny looks at his actions, he stopped and inspected the device on his wrist formerly known as his PokeGear. The first fall had been the worst, but constant tumbles and crashes had knocked and bashed and rattled it so much that it would be a miracle if it even turned on, let alone send messages or get the radio.

He was tinkering with it slightly as he made his way to the Pokemon Centre, because nothing's broken until you know for certain that it is, when a voice drifted into his ears. '...all personnel have been told to leave the Radio Tower for their own safety. In similar interests of safety, do not attempt any travels in the region of...' Mike's head snapped around to find the mysterious source of sound around him. An aerial radio was sat on the windowsill of a nearby house, the open window causing the voice to drift through in an eerie not-really-here-voice. But what did it mean? Leave the Radio Tower for safety...

At this point his incessant fiddling apparently made something work, because the PokeGear screen suddenly flashed on for no more than a couple of seconds, cheerfully displaying behind the cracked screen that he had one message from Professor Elm unopened. The message preview at the top of the screen read as far as 'COME TO GOLDENROD, IN GREAT D' before the edge of the screen cut it off, and then the screen itself shut off again just in time for Mike to wonder what the frick was going on. Elm wanted him in this area, that presumably was warned away from the general public, because there was trouble? He wasn't that great, was he? Sure, he had seven Gym badges now, but he was still not-

Wait a minute.

Radio Tower. Trouble around Goldenrod. Danger to the public, but not apparently to Mike.

His brow furrowed, biting his lip in concentration. If any of his team had been out to see him, they'd probably have asked why he was ill. High levels of computation where going on in his head.

The shop in Mahogany... The one covered in aerials. From which a signal had been broadcast, to manipulate and control Pokemon. But he'd stopped that, hadn't he? But the woman in the base had said... What was it... The experiment had been a success. Shut down early, but a success.

What do you do after a successful experiment you intend to profit from? Repeat it on an industrial scale.

Goldenrod City.

The biggest transceivers and broadcasters in Johto.

Team Rocket had come for the Radio Tower. They were going to put their plan out all over the region. And Elm wanted him to do something about it.

His calculated suspicions were confirmed by the drifting voice of the nearby radio. 'For unknown reasons Team Rocket seem to be targeting this Radio Tower... This message will repeat until help is obtained or Team Rocket finds a way to change it. Repeat: do not travel around Goldenrod City...'

Goldenrod City. Elm wanted Mike to fight off Team Rocket. And, as tempting as it was to leave the despised Goldenrod City to its fate, Mike couldn't let Team Rocket get away with this. He sighed as he realised he was thinking these kind of thoughts now, but it was too late. He'd already done it twice, he'd better do it again. No time to waste and all that.

He stopped, and for a minute wondered what Johto paid its police service for. But this feeling passed.

He reached for a different Poke Ball. 'Kate?'

'Uh? Wha? I mean... yeah, what d'you want?'

'Take me to Goldenrod City. I've got a new appointment, and I intend to keep it.'

'Is it Team Rocket?'

'You can read my mind by now.'

Man and bird took off and soared into the sky, heading east where a tower gleamed with gold to the north, but then another one further south stood with wireless transceivers that were buzzing and flashing furiously in the sunlight.