Pokémon: ICE COLD

"Okay. I'm sorry. It's not funny…”

Lucas put his hand on Barry's shoulder and smiled. “Where’d I find such a good friend? If I could go back in time, I wouldn’t change anything.”

Barry’s face creased, turning a bit red. “Bro, why’d you have to make it weird? You fumbled your chance to flirt with that Dawn girl and now you’re trying to flirt with ME? Maybe you’re a girl too!”

Lucas’s laughter echoed around the foggy forest. “That’s how I really feel, though! Mom says expressing my emotions is healthy and I shouldn’t try to hide or suppress them. And i didnt fumble anything, idiot! It just wasn't the right time...”

Barry rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. “That all sounds like a bunch of sissy talk to me, Lucas. I bet my dad would agree.”

“You said you were scared just a minute ago!”

“That’s different. You were dying.”

“Well, I mean it...thanks. Now let’s catch the legendary Pokémon. I won’t have another headache like that again. I don’t know what you meant by me knowing we were gonna meet that guy, but I’ll take it more seriously…”

Barry smiled and nodded his head. But…

“Uh…yeah…I just realized we don’t have Pokéballs. ” He kicked the snow sheepishly, his hands hiding in the pockets of his orange winter jacket.

Lucas’s shoulders dropped, and he sighed a breath of freezing mist. “That’s pretty lame...what do we do now?”

“Wait! That girl said we should stop by the lab, right? I bet they have infinite pokéballs!" Barry’s eyes lit up like two orange light bulbs.

“Yeah! They probably have millilns to spare if we ask nicely–HEY!”

Barry cackled like an evil villain, sprinting into the forest without a second thought. “Race you to Sandgem! Loser pays a billion bucks!”

“That’s not fair, why do you always cheat?”

Lucas dashed after him, his short black hair rustling in the wind like a furry patch of grass.

But as he raced across the snow, his eyes caught a glimpse of something magnificent that forced him to stop.

A trail of glittering pink stars skiing on the cerulean lake.

“No way…Barry! Barry! Come back! You have to see this–it’s real!” Lucas’s eyes looked like they were about to burst, his voice crackling and roaring like lightning, as if he were a fierce Luxray.

Suddenly, a bright magenta light flashed in his face like a sparkling flare that tore apart the thin veil of snow and sent him stumbling back into the snowy grass.

Lucas was paralyzed. His face was painted by a divine rosy aura that permeated all around the air in a swirling vortex of psychic energy.

He gripped his scarf. Fear crashed around his mind like an ocean in a bottle.

No...Everything. Excitement, rage, sorrow, pain, joy, curiosity–his heart swelled with the most intense cocktail of feelings he’d ever felt. Everything he'd try to hold down...

The anger and sorrow of his mother never being around...the anxiety and self-doubt swirling in the deepest depths of his soul...everything.

Floating in front of him, a perfectly lustrous red jewel encrusted in his head and beaming into his very soul with its brilliant golden eyes…

“…Mesprit!”