“Why had I not thought of this before?” Red groaned. “This is so much easier.”

Ivysaur let out a long croak as it approached him, shaking off a mound of snow that had fallen on its back. It was shaking a little from the cold, and winced as it stepped forward.

“Ah… though maybe you weren’t the best choice for this,” he admitted. “Being a grass type and all.”

This was received with as much of a nod as the seed pokémon could manage, as it huddled up closer to Red and circled around him. Next to him, Ritchie was watching his Butterfree slowly flying towards him, waving it in cheerfully.

It had been little over a day since they had left Passover Town, and the path had only continued to grow more perilous. After a very close call where Red had nearly slipped and fell down a large gorge, they had decided to send out their pokémon to help them where it might be too dangerous for a human to tread.

Red reached down and patted Ivysaur’s back. “You can come back for now,” he said, pressing the return button on its pokéball. “Maybe Mankey would be better. Cleffa’s probably too small for this kind of thing.”

Ritchie hummed a short tune, then stepped forward, motioning for Red and Green to follow him. Shortly after, however, he paused, turning back towards Green with a questioning gaze.

“How much longer is this going to take, anyway?” he asked. “I know we haven’t been out of Passover Town for very long, but still…”

“Another week or so, I think. Depends on how easy it is to find Articuno.”

“Another week?!” Red cried, groaning in exasperation.

“Oh, come on. It’s not that long, if you think about it.”

“Well, I suppose not…” he grumbled, trudging forward through the snow, which reached up to his ankles. The ground cover didn’t bother him much, as he had come prepared with boots and thick socks- it was the occasional bout of slushy rain that was more annoying.

“Uh… it hadn’t occurred to me to ask this earlier,” Ritchie said in a curious tone, “but how do you know where to look? The Cerulean Range is massive, and even if you can narrow it down to Rhydon’s Horn, that’s still a lot of ground to cover!”

“I mentioned earlier that I had some maps and intel, right? Or- well, I told Red, pretty sure you weren’t there. Anyways, there’s actually a group of researchers who have been going on expeditions to gather data on ‘legendary pokémon’ like Articuno. They’re actually funded by the Pewter Museum of Science, and there’s quite a bit of data that they’ve made free for the public to access.”

“The Pewter… Oh, right, I remember something like that,” Red murmured.

“So it turns out that there’s a massive cave system that spans the entire Cerulean Range- one that we only really discovered recently ‘cause of some cave-ins near Passover Town. And this research team has solid evidence to believe that Articuno actually lives inside these caves. I know I referenced it a couple of times- I’m surprised you never asked what I meant when I said we were going into the mountain.”

“Trust me, that was the least pressing of my concerns,” Red deadpanned.

“I did wonder about that…” Ritchie said.

“Yeah, well… Anyways, while there are plenty of entrances to this cave system all over the Range, there’s only one relatively safe one. It’s pretty close- only a few hours ahead, I think, and I’ve got some tools to help track down Articuno once we actually get inside. If we have a near-miss type situation, you could even use the tracker on your pokédex to find it again!”

Red nodded in thought, then reeled back in shock as he realized what Green had just said. “Wait, what?! How do you know about that?”

Annoyingly, all he got in the way of a response was a singsong “it’s a secreeeet,” which was followed by a stout refusal to answer any further questions. This lapsed into an apprehensive silence that continued well into the early afternoon, until they finally reached the small crevice that would lead them inside the mountain.

“Good afternoon passengers. This is the pre-boarding announcement for flight PA378 to Heahea City. We are now inviting passengers with small children, and any passengers requiring special assistance, to begin boarding at this time. Please have your boarding pass and identification ready. Regular boarding will begin in approximately ten minute’s time. Thank you.”

“Oh, Gyarados balls,” Phoenix grunted, heaving her backpack onto her shoulders. She had just made it out of security, goddammit!

And she had planned on getting lunch here, too- now she would have to wait until the layover in Mistralton City to get anything to eat. She couldn’t afford to complain, though. It was a miracle that she had been able to book this last minute flight after her planned return had been… somewhat delayed. It had been for a good enough reason, but regardless, she felt rather guilty about it. At least she would still arrive before Christmas morning.

That was when, once again, her mind wandered back to Red and Ritchie. They were… interesting trainers.

She knew they would be able to handle the person who had stolen from them. They were capable enough, and they couldn’t be in too much danger. ‘Green’- assuming she had signed the letter with her own name- only needed a favor, more likely than not. If she had intended on harming them, she would have easily done so already- and failed, as Phoenix was more than capable of protecting the two of them. If it had come to that.

Would they be able to get eight badges each and enter the Indigo League Tournament? More likely than not. Would either of them be able to win, though? That was another question entirely, and she wasn’t sure. She had faith in them, if it counted for anything.

Red, in particular. Ritchie was a good battler in his own right, but lacked a certain edge that was necessary to make it far in the later stages. Phoenix chuckled as she recalled her first encounter with the Fuchsia gym leader Koga three years ago. It had been a very shocking experience.

“Uh… crap,” she muttered to herself, looking down at a map of the airport she was in. “It’s gate B7, right?”

Phoenix looked back up, checked the signs nearby, then headed in the direction of her gate. As she walked through the wide open space, however, she couldn’t help but overhear some of the nearby conversation. She was too hurried to tell exactly what was going on, but clearly something had happened, because just about everyone was talking about Lance, Pryce, and- yeesh- politics. Not her forte.

Champion Pryce had retired shortly before the end of the last league year, and there had been a lot of discussion over who would replace him. Typically, a new champion was crowned when the old one was beaten in a no-holds-barred, official battle, following either a league tournament win or a successful elite four gauntlet with a week-long rest period in between. Even after that, the Pokémon Association would have to decide whether or not the challenger was capable of handling the position, and the answer was frequently no. Most of the time, you had to be either a gym leader or elite four member with many years of experience to be seriously considered- though many considered those who beat the champion to at least have champion status, if not the official role itself, and were regarded on the same level as the ‘real’ ones.

Of course, the situation here was different. Since Pryce had resigned of his own volition, there was no automatic successor to replace him. As the ace of the elite four, Lance was the most likely candidate; he had taken over most of the champion duties for the time being anyways, and had even defeated Blaine in the fire-type specialist’s two-year reign as champion. This, however, was well before Phoenix had first come to Kanto, and barely after she had been born, so she wasn’t too informed about those events.

The fact of the matter was that it was causing serious strains in Kanto-Johto relations. The two regions shared an elite four, a champion, and badges from one were valid in the others’ league. They were, however, entirely separate in most other ways that mattered, and a lot of people from both sides had a strong national identity.

So the idea of another Johto champion after the previous one held a fifteen-year reign? That didn’t make Kanto nationalists very happy.

There had already been one skirmish between the two regions, only forty years ago. Those who took less extreme stances on the matter were crossing their fingers and hoping that there wouldn’t be a second.

Thankfully for Phoenix, she was soon to escape the center of the conflict, but despite her best efforts, she knew her mind would keep wandering back to the state of things here.

But that was for another time. Right now, she had a plane to get on… and only two minutes left to get on it. Crap.

“Two Golems, a flock of Golbats, and a Poliwhirl,” Red said, his heart pounding as he inched back around the corner to where Green was waiting patiently for him.

“Ah, never mind,” she said, waving her hand awkwardly. “This isn’t the right direction, anyway. I think the other path will get us closer.”

“Oh, thank Arceus,” Red breathed, lagging behind for a moment as he gave himself a chance to relax.

“Hey, at least we’re getting close!” Green called back cheerfully. “The thermometer readings are getting unnaturally low, which is a pretty strong indicator that we’re near Articuno’s territory. Even I’m feeling the chill at this point.”

“Yeah, no kidding,” Red grunted, noting her unzipped coat and lack of any other cold-weather gear. He was surprised that she hadn’t contracted hypothermia already. Green glanced back and saw him looking her over, then winked at him.

He shuddered.

“This path’s clear!” Ritchie’s voice called. A second later, and the trainer was in full view, stepping towards them at a brisk but cautious pace- after four days in the maze of tunnels within the Cerulean Range, they had both learned their lesson when it came to running. Moisture on the cavern’s floor froze over quickly, making the floor slick and easy to fall on.

“Good. We’ll be looking for a pretty large cavern, alright? Articuno’s pretty big, so it won’t nest anywhere it doesn’t have enough room to stretch its wings. Keep an eye out.”

“Right!” Ritchie responded, which Red followed with a quiet grunt of affirmation. Green smiled at them, then motioned for Ritchie to lead the way, which he did with a surprising amount of pep in his step. Just like Green’s seeming unconcern about the cold, it baffled Red how his peer could walk with such vigor and excitement.

Though, for a brief moment, he wondered if it was such a bad thing that he was so cheerful. It certainly lightened the mood, at least a little.

Then Ritchie slipped on the icy floor, just barely catching himself before he could topple over, and that thought left Red’s mind as quickly as it had entered it.

As they continued to walk through the cramped passageways, a strange breeze began to whip around, twisting and turning at odd places and causing small puffs of snow to form randomly in the air. Upon seeing this, a grin grew on Green’s face, and she began to walk at a faster pace, leaving Red scrambling to keep up with her. She paid him no mind, however, and he found himself several feet behind her as they entered a tunnel that was much wider than what they had previously been in- a nice contrast to the previous stretch, but Red couldn’t properly enjoy it.

He had a sneaking suspicion that they were being watched.

Suddenly, a loud cacophony of clattering sounded out from around them, and a mass of blue blurs appeared from behind boulders and inside shadowy corners. The group’s heads snapped up, only to find themselves face-to-face with a cluster of five aggressive Cloysters.

“An ambush!” Ritchie yelled in surprise.

“Not… quite,” Red said. “I think we just wandered into their territory, that’s all.”

“They were hiding, though?”

“Not necessarily, they could have just been-”

“Hey! Now’s not the time!” Green shouted, giving them an irritated glance. “Doesn’t matter if it was on purpose or not, they have us surrounded.”

“Right!” Ritchie responded, pulling out a pokéball. “Go, Sparky!”

“C’mon out, Jigglypuff!” Green said, pressing the release button on one of her love balls.

“Uh…” Red muttered, looking down at his own pokéballs. ‘Ivysaur’s already weak from the battle against that Zubat flock earlier. And no offense to Cleffa, but it just isn’t strong enough to handle this, if I had to bet. It’s a baby form of a relatively weak pokémon. So that means…’

“Red, get your head in the game!” Green called out. “You go check ahead while we battle these things, alright? Make sure there aren’t any more of them.”

Red blinked. “Right,” he responded, dashing off around the nearby corner- in his haste, however, he lost his balance on a patch of ice, falling at an angle that sent him crashing into the cave wall. Before he could stand up, he found himself sliding down a small crevice at the bottom of the rock face, which, after another short and painful fall, led down into a much bigger cavern.

“Oh, crud,” he grunted, coughing. After taking a moment to collect himself, he stood up, dusted himself off, and looked around.

“Hey, Red?” Ritchie- who had noticed his plight and ran over to where he had fallen- called down to him, peering down the hole. “Are you okay?”

All was silent for a moment- if you didn’t count the distant sounds of Green fighting off the group of Cloysters. Then, Red looked up at Ritchie, his eyes wide in shock.

“It’s here,” he breathed. “Articuno.”