//------------------------------//
// (9) - Stay Frosty 
// Story: A Pokemon Problem 
// by Solecism 
//------------------------------//

A Pokemon Problem

(9) - Stay Frosty




"Oh fuck..."

"Oi!" Ryder head-butted the cage softer than I thought possible, but still with enough force to stir whomever was trapped inside. This had the unfortunate side-effect of scaring the living hell out of the person inside the Swinub: they jumped nearly a foot high within the cage, bounced off of the metal bars, and cowered in the corner. Undeterred, Ryder continued.

"It's us, Ryder and—"

"Oh my God, you guys have no idea how happy I am to see you! Err, hear you. I can't see too well," the Swinub responded.

Well I'll be damned. By the voice, it appeared that Seth was inhabiting the furry little bastard. Instead of having strange warbles, like Ryder's, Seth's voice had actually deepened an octave or two, which was hilarious because he was a Swinub: those little piglets were practically foot-warming beanbags, and they didn't look menacing in the slightest.

And no, I wasn't even offended that Seth didn't care who was with Ryder. Not at all.

Deciding to get straight to the point, I asked, "What the hell are these Pegasi doing?"

"Peg-asi?"

"Yeah, Pegasi. Y'know, the plural of 'pegasus'?"

"I always thought those were called pegasuses," Seth remarked. "Anyway, to answer your question: I have no idea. I can't understand whatever it is they're saying. I mean, I was just minding my own business, out looking for food in the snowy forest, and the next thing I know, these two flying horses come and scoop me up!"

"And they just stuffed you in the cage?" Ryder asked.

Seth nodded his fluffy little head. "They weren't very kind about it, either: They stuffed me in here like an old plush toy."

I heard two voices that weren't Ryder and Seth slowly approach from the crater. They were constantly overriding each other, and it sounded like they were in the middle of a heated discussion. I closed my eye and listened in.

"I don't care how you feel about it," one snapped, a male voice. "What else are we going to eat up here, hmm? What—"

"Something! Anything other than this!" the other overrode, this one a female. "This is sick! We're ponies, not gryphons—"

"Don't you bucking dare compare us to those feathered imbeciles." The male voice responded in an icy tone—and I don't mean that he sounded like he was cold. "I should report you to the Captain for your insubordination."

"Insubordination?! All I said was the fact that this is sick!"

"Sick? Sick! We eat fish; they're alive, aren't they? What makes that furry brown thing in the crate any different?"

"How is it different—How is it not different?!"

"This conversation is over. If you don't want to assist, fine: do something that you think is productive. You can starve for all I care."

The female voice harrumphed. "You'll get yours, Spear. You'll get yours."

I heard the hoofsteps break apart and be no longer synonymous. Turning around and fluttering my eye open, I saw a solitary pegasus trudging its way through the snow—on a direct collision course with our little party. Thankfully, I was pretty sure that he (I was certain that pegasus was the male voice I had heard) couldn't see us: the wind, while not as strong as the Windigoes', was still strong enough to raise the loose snow from the ground, making it difficult for even me to see, and I had a computer-powered eye.

Spinning back around, I interrupted Ryder and Seth, who had been carrying on a conversation while I was distracted. I'd have to ask them about it later.

"I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but we've got a problem."

After getting their attention, I quickly explained the situation we were in.

"They—They're going to eat me?!" screamed Seth. Ironically, his voice went many pitches higher, making him squeal like... well... like a pig. I glared at Ryder for not explaining why we investigated the cages in the first place. He seemed to shrink a little.

"Not if we can get you out of there first," I said, hoping to instil some confidence. I made to speak—think, dammit!—about how we could get Seth out of the cage, but therein laid a problem. With myself only knowing Take Down until (or rather, if) I evolved into a Metang, and the fact that Ryder seemed to only know Lick, I had no idea how we'd actually get Seth out.

"Uhh... Seth, you wouldn't happen to know any moves, would you?"

Seth calmed down a little bit (most certainly from my direct and take-control attitude) and said, "I don't think so. Actually, wait! I can... sort of control the snow around me. I mean, I can't whip snowballs at anyone—nothing like that, but I can kinda... direct it, if that makes any sense."

It didn't, and that wasn't something that seemed to be useful in our current predicament. "Why don't you Tackle the cage?" Ryder offered. "You can do that, right?"

Seth shook his head sadly. "I tried that already. All I got was a headache for my trouble."

"Join the club," I muttered. My headache hadn't gone away ever since I used Take Down on Second Sight's home, but I'd learned to deal with it. Christ, it felt so long since that happened, although in reality, it was only earlier today.

"Dammit! There's got to be a way out of this mess!" Ryder exclaimed, thinking furiously, his eyes scrolling from side to side like he did back in his old body. Occasionally, one of his eyes would go all the way around from the momentum.

I heard a crunch of snow behind us, and I whipped around, bumping into the heavy cages when I did. They were heavy enough that they didn't budge, even with my two-hundred pound form hitting them.

Staring at us, slack-jawed, was a pegasus. Up close, I could see that his mane and tail were a dull grey. What parts of his body that weren't frosted white were a sickly yellow colour. I couldn't see his eyes, mainly because of the snow goggles.

After staring at us for almost ten seconds without moving, he finally spoke, quietly, but loud enough that I could hear—and what he said would've made me gulp had I still a throat to gulp with.

"My-oh-my. What have we here?"