Have
you heard the tale of Lorelei Belle Winters? No? Well, let me tell it to you,
then. I have collected the first part of her life in a story that I call Hell
Hath no Fury: an Ice Queen’s Saga. I suppose that I should tell you the basics
of what happened to her in that tale. Before I begin that summation, however, I
must inform you of certain things that appertain to the proceeding tales.
First and foremost, I shall tell you the tale of Lokrye.
It is not a tale to be told simply, nor lightly.
In time out of mind, he had grown powerful and he had grown greedy. He wanted
to rule the entire world. The rest of the Titans could not defeat him. The
other Titans turned to the humans and Pokemon of this
world, and convinced them to join the fight against Lokrye.
But Lokrye had turned some of the Pokemon
against
Previously on Hell Hath no Fury: an Ice
Queen's Saga:
The door closed, and Lorelei sighed in relief as she lowered her schoolbook.
That had been close. Just three more days, and she’d be able to get out of
She’d only have, however, a two-day window in which to go. Her next-door
neighbor, was going to be checking on her every day, but would be gone for the
first two days of the conference. By her estimation, it would take a day to get
to Pewter, she would rest up there, challenge the gym
leader, and head for the Johto Border. It would take
up the rest of that day to get there
+++
Lorelei heard a twig snap behind her. She leaped to her feet and whirled
around, her hand snapping out and releasing Sneasel
before she dropped down into a defensive position.
“Who’s there?” she demanded, taking a cautious step forward.
A figure formed out of the bushes and came towards her, grinning. Lorelei felt
her eyes narrow. It was a human, not a Pokemon.
Nobody else knew about places like this. Or, if they did, they didn’t know how
to get here. They were too heavily guarded by Pokemon.
That meant only one thing. She’d been discovered earlier than she had thought,
and they were here to take her back. Well, they wouldn’t get her without a
fight, that was for certain. With a yell, she charged forward, felt something
cold go up her arm, and somehow found herself on her back, staring up at that
grinning face.
Lorelei felt true terror as she realized that she couldn’t move. Not a muscle
would work. She opened her mouth to scream, but no words came out. Then the
human dissolved into the grinning face of a Gastly.
Lorelei felt herself grow colder and colder as the Ghost descended towards her.
This was it. She was dead. And there was nothing she could do about it.
+++++
Lorelei stared up at the Gastly that slowly descended
upon her. It was little more than a large, spectral blob with a face on it. A large, spectral blob with a face on it that was going to kill her.
Lorelei grimaced. This was just great. Nobody knew where she was, so no help
would be forthcoming. Plus, even if she did get out of this, she’d be hours
behind schedule. It occurred to her that she could give up now, and forget all
about going to Johto. Or about living, for that
matter, or she could fight the Gastly with every
fiber in her being.
A quick check of her senses revealed that she couldn’t move anything. Then,
with sheer force of will, she slowly lifted an arm, and pushed herself to her
right. The Gastly seemed to frown, then darted down
and, with its long tongue, licked her arm. Instantly, Lorelei could feel
numbness lancing out from the location of the lick, and remembered that she had
learned from Professor Oak that Pokemon that used the
Lick technique actually utilized a variant of several kinds of poison that was
absorbed through the skin, and passed through the bloodstream. Some moved
through the bloodstream faster than others.
This was, of course, different than the various powder-based poisons,
paralyzing agents, and sleeping agents. Those, if she recalled correctly, were
inhaled through the respiratory tract, and then absorbed into the bloodstream.
She groaned. Sometimes, ignorance was better than knowing exactly how things
happened in battles. Because if you were ignorant of how things worked, you
wouldn’t be able to imagine it happening. Slowly. Painfully. Cell by agonizing cell.
The Gastly hovered several feet away, watching her
amusedly. It stared at her, licking whatever it had for lips, and then moved
forward in short, agonizingly taunting jaunts. Then, it rose up, moved back
slightly, then came about smartly. It hovered in the
air, grinning at her wickedly, and then came in, slowly, for the kill.
Then, out of nowhere, an Ice Beam stabbed through its innards, and passed
through the other side, freezing a good deal of whatever kind of gases made up
the Gastly, but not enough to freeze it completely.
Growling softly, the Gastly stopped its forward
motion, pivoted along its horizontal axis, and, through its spectral innards,
Lorelei could see the tell-tale glow of the Gastly’s
eyes as it used its Hypnosis Technique.
Lorelei felt her brain begin to shut down from the Paralyzing Poison, and black
began creeping in at the edge of her vision. She wasn’t sure if it was supposed
to have thiskind of effect, but then, it was usually
used on Pokemon, not humans, wasn’t it.
She could hear the sounds of a Pokemon battle off to
one side, and watched as the Gastly disappeared out
of her vision. Whatever Pokemon her savior was, she kenw that it couldn’t possibly hold out for long. That gastly was nearly ready for evoltion
into a Haunter, if her time with the Pokemon
Professors Antonio Silph and Oak had taught her
anything at all about such things. She couldn’t hear a trainer barking out
orders, so Gastly’s opponent had to be either wild, or…or the Sneasel she had
brought with her to start her on her journey. Her eyes narrowed. If it really
was herSneasel, there was no way that she would let
anything happen to it.
Her eyes narrowed. How could she get rid of this paralysis? It was far more
potent for a human than it was for a Pokemon. She
didn’t have anything to counter the paralysis poison….or did she? Suddenly, her
muddled mind remembered she had PRZ Heals in her backpack. They hadn’t been
approved for humans, though. On the other hand, however, the paralyzation poison generally wasn’t used on humans,
either. And the PRZ Heal HAD been specially formulated
to counter this and other strains of paralyzation
poisons as well.
Lorelei’s eyes widened as she realized what she needed to do. She needed to get
one of her PRZ Heals, and inject it into her bloodstream. She nearly panicked
when she thought of this, but then remembered the healing supplies in her Pokeball Belt.
From what she could hear of the Pokemon Battle, the Pokemon attacking the Gastly was
losing. She tried to remember if she had put any PRZ Heals into the leather
pouches on the Pokeball Belt that she had modified.
With horror, she realized that she couldn’t remember anymore if she had put any
in there. She narrowed her eyes and realized that she’d need to pump them into
herself at random.
That meant taking the risk of them being Potions, SLP Heals, BRN Heals, or FRZ
Heals. She took a deep breath, and struggled to open the first leather pouch,
and jabbed it against her skin. There was a quick hiss as the liquid inside
metabolized itself into her bloodstream. She felt extremely warm in the leg
that she had jabbed whatever it was into her system, then it spread throughout
her entire body.
Lorelei grimaced as she became warmer and warmer, andshe realized that it must have been a FRZ Heal. Sweating
profusely despite the relatively cool temperature, she flipped open the next
pouch, and jabbed the container into her thigh. A thin, rushing sensation of
coolness pervaded her body, and Lorelei realized, to her abject relief, that
she had just given herself a BRN Heal.
Lorelei fumbled with the third pouch, and somehow managed to get whatever it
was out and pressed against her leg. Lorelei could feel her control slipping
quickly. The blackness that had been pressing against the edges of her vision
had now consumed almost all of it. The muzziness that
had enveloped her thoughts was now almost overwhelming. With the last vestiges
of willpower, she pressed the button that would send whatever it was roaring
through her veins.
And then, moments later, she lost consciousness.
+++++
When she awoke again, her first thoughts were that she was dead, and the figure
leaning over her was saying that she’d flunked a test, and she wouldn’t be
passing through the pearly gates anytime soon.
But then, slowly, her vision began to focus. Very slowly.
Lorelei groaned and lifted a hand to her forehead. It felt like it weighed
thirty tons, but she couldn’t care less about it. She had a headache that felt
like a Snorlax had sat on her head, every inch of her
body ached, and someone had to have a tape recorder and playing feedback. Constantly. Unceasingly. Without end. About how often “The bells” was repeated in the
poem “The Bells”
Then she remembered seeing somebody above her. She groaned, and forced her eyes
to focus. “Easy,” the voice said, “Easy. You’re in
pretty bad shape, if what I’ve been able to tell has been right. Did you take
all three of those?” the boy asked, pointing at three discarded containers that
held the Silph company logo on them.
Lorelei felt herself losing her center of gravity, and reached an arm out to
steady herself, but she learned that she still wasn’t strong enough to support
her own weight, and that the ground wasn’t as soft as some people would make it
out to be.
“Whoa,” the boy said, “Take it easy. You’ve been through quite the ordeal, what
with all the Dream Eaters that Haunter used.” Lorelei thought dimly somewhere
in the back of her mind that if she were one hundred percent, she’d be excited
about a guy being this concerned about her, “And all those Confuse Rays? No
wonder you’re like this.”
Lorelei felt anger slush through her, like it knew where it was going, but
somehow couldn’t make it. “Where is it?” she demanded weakly, spread-eagled on
her back in the middle of
The boy chuckled. “That’d be pretty hard to do, since it’s already a ghost.”
Lorelei frowned, and felt herself slipping away from
consciousness once more, “That’s never stopped me before,” she muttered, and
fell, into a deep and dreamless sleep.
+++++
Lorelei groaned, and put a hand to her head. For a moment, she wondered if she
had loaned her head to some sports team to use at a charity event, and had just
now gotten back to her, but then she remembered what had happened Then she remembered. She had to get to Johto!
She sat up quickly, and her head pounded even more—if that were possible. She glanced
around, and saw that she was in a plain room. There wasn’t much in it, except
for the bed. But there was one smell that could never quite be gotten rid of. The tell-tale chemicals of a Pokemon
Prof’s lab. Lorelei groaned, lifted the covers to make sure she was
still dressed, got out of bed, and staggered to the door. Somebody had probably
taken her to
She opened the door, and gawked openly. On the other
side were the usual trappings, machinations, and devices that were frequent to
a Pokemon Professor’s laboratory, but the thing that
set it apart from every other one was the fact that none other than Professor
Martin J. Elm was working diligently with his aides. On what, Lorelei didn’t
know and, frankly, she didn’t care that much.
All she wanted to know was how she had gotten from midway between
“She’s awake!” a familiar voice exclaimed from behind her. She whirled around,
though she had to reach out a hand to grab at a nearby table to steady herself, and saw the boy that had been in the forest with
her. “Finally. Took you long
enough.” Lorelei looked at him, a puzzled expression on her face. He
grinned, “You were out for a while.”
Lorelei felt her heart sink. A while? This would
seriously put a damper on her plans. All because of one
stupid Gastly. “How—“ she
began, and stopped when pain seared through her brain, “How long was I out?”
she asked weakly.
“Just over a week,” the boy said, “I talked to your parents. They said that
they didn’t give you permission to start your journey, but you were signed up
with the Johto League with their signatures. And,
since you were technically in Johto by then, they had
no legal jurisdiction over you.”
Lorelei grimaced, putting the hand not supporting herself up to her forehead.
She briefly remembered forging her parents’ signature on the registration
forms, but what he didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him. “Huh,” she replied. “So I’m,
where
The boy grinned, “Nope, Blackthorne. Elm’s got a
secondary laboratory here, and he’s checking up on some of his protégés.” The
dark-skinned boy glanced past her into the room, “I was on my way here, and I
brought you with me. Not as if I could really turn back if I wanted to keep my
appointment.”
Lorelei frowned, and shook her head to clear a slight buzzing, “Appointment?” she
asked, “For what?”
“Ah!” a cheerful voice exclaimed from behind her, “Mr. Slate. How good of you
to come. With your input, I’ve managed to stabilize the DNA.” Lorelei turned
around to see Professor Elm, his normally immaculate black hair a Rattata’s nest. His juvenile-like bright
eyes shining with excitement. “We’ve found a way to stabilize the DNA
enough that we think that the next litter of Vulithe
will be able to evolve. We’ve even been able to build a computer simulation of
the evolution. We’re dubbing it the Artail!”
The dark-skinned boy grinned, although his eyes still remained shut. Did they
ever open? “That’s great, Professor! I have a feeling that Pyro
has been wanting to evolve for a while. I’ve tried to
tell her that it’s not possible, but she doesn’t seem to listen.” Brock
grinned, “She’s a spunky little thing.”
Lorelei, who had been leaning against the wall beside the door, out of Elm’s
direct eyesight coughed. “Am I invisible?” she demanded, “Or am
I just alone, here?”
Elm jumped a good three inches into the air, and spun around, his glasses
falling off of his nose, and his eyes darted about wildly, then he spotted her.
“Ah,” he said, “The mystery girl. Lorelei Belle Winters, four-time champion of
the Allnian National Tournament; one of the heirs to
the Winters fortune; and the terror of
The boy’s eyes widened, and for a second Lorelei thought they’d pop right out
of his head. Lorelei sighed, “Look, all I did was beat up five kids for picking
on me, and they gave me that nickname.”
Elm raised an eyebrow. “Yes, except they were all members of Team Rocket, and
they all had at least one Pokemon.” Lorelei’s eyes
narrowed at him, but he continued, “And then there were that pair that they
sent after you. Butch and Cassidy, wasn’t it?” he grinned, “Last I heard, they
were going to be getting out of the hospital in a week.” He grinned, “I’m sure
even Brock here’s heard of you.”
Lorelei pursed her lips, “Are you done, yet?” she asked, ignoring the
open-mouthed kid he’d called Brock, “Because if you are, I’ll just take my Sneasel and get out of here.”
Elm’s eyes lit up, “Ah, yes. Your Sneasel.
It’s from the Gerantal bloodline, isn’t it?” Lorelei
raised an eyebrow, “The entire line has a fascinating genomic pattern. Their ice-type
moves are unusually strong, even for an Ice type.”
Lorelei stared at him, dead-panned, “Are you done?” she asked blankly. “I’d
kind of like to get out of here.”
Elm nodded, “Why, yes, I think I am. Unless you would like to
be one of the next stewards of one of the Vulithes
that I’ve bred. Have you heard of them?”
Lorelei nodded slowly, “It was on the front page of the Viridian City Paper
yester-“ she caught herself, “about a week ago.” She
finished.
Elm nodded, “Then you must know that I’ve been giving them out to trainers for
a week at a time. Brock, here, just returned his Vulithe,
so we’ll have to keep it under observation for at least three days. However, I
have a Vulithe down in
Lorelei raised an eyebrow, “It doesn’t bother you that I nearly got killed by a
Gastly?” she asked cautiously, knowing that this was
a chance of a lifetime, “doesn’t it bother you that I might get killed, and it
might die with me?”
Johto’s Pokemon Professor
frowned. “Gastly?” he asked, “Brock told me that it
was a Haunter. I wouldn’t expect your Sneasel to be
able to do anything against something like that. That was probably why it was
fainted when he found the two of you.”
“Myabe it evolved after it fainted
your Sneasel,” Brock offered, and the two turned to
look at him. “It’s just a possibility.”
Elm nodded, “that is indeed what appears to have happened..”
He turned back to Lorelei, “And no, it doesn’t bother me at all. In fact, with
your infamy, I’d be honored to have you safeguard one of my special Pokemon. It might just give me a little extra publicity.
Brock, you had better run if you want to catch that Breeder’s Conference in
Brock nodded, “Right,” he said, “You two will be able to get to
Elm turned to Lorelei, “So,” he inquired eagerly, “what do you say, will you
take the Vulithe?”
Lorelei shrugged, “Yeah,” she said, a faint smile on her face, “Why not? It’ll
give me something to do.”
Elm rubbed his hands together, “Excellent!” he exclaimed, “Then onwards to New
Bark Town!”
+++++
Lorelei groaned, “Are we there yet?” she demanded, hurrying to catch up with
the surprisingly spry Professor Elm, “I don’t see why we had to go out into the
woods so you could check on that Sandshrew nest. I’m
tired, I’m sore. I’m thirsty. I got scratched up back there when I tried to
capture one of them. How much longer?” she demanded.
“It will seem longer,” Elm admonished in a frustrated tone, “The more times
that you ask how much longer it will be! And I told you not to try to capture
them. It’s your fault you became injured.”
“’It’s your fault you became injured,’” Lorelei parroted back, “What does that
mean? You should have told me that the Sandslash nest
was right next to the Sandshrew nest!”
Elm sighed, “I ASSUMED that you knew that Sandslash
was the evolution of Sandshrew, and because Sandshrew are the offspring of Sandslash,
you would know that the Sandslash nest would be near
the Sandshrew nest!”
Lorelei glared at him, “Yeah,” she muttered, “Whatever.” She glared at him, and
was about to quip another cutting remark when the woods suddenly parted, and
they stepped from Route 29 and into
The view took her breath away. While she was used to big cities, and had become
accustomed to small cities, she still wasn’t prepared for what she saw.
New
Elm chuckled, “Yeah, I guess it is. I’m kind of used to it, though, so it
doesn’t affect me like most people did. It’s a better place to live than
Goldenrod, though,” he remarked, grinning, “Too many people there. Can’t get a lot of breathing room. People around here are
good, neighborly, and accept you no matter what.” He looked at Lorelei slyly,
and added. "Well, at least me." Elm smiled contentedly. “Well, come
on, now. You said that you wanted a Vulithe, so let’s
get to the lab and get you set up.”
+++++
Lorelei looked around the lab as she entered. It was big. Much larger than the
one that Professor Silph had had when she had been
living in Alto, yet not quite as big as Oak’s had been when they had gone there
for his annual Christmas Parties. Still, it was quite spacious. And, if this
was as big as it looked from outside, this part was just the public laboratory,
and Elm’s private lab was in the back. If this was anything like Oak’s lab, he
probably lived here, too.
Professor Elm deftly made his way through the crush of adults who were all
screaming and waving papers at him by smiling and saying something that was
drowned out by the screaming to them. Lorelei shook her head. If this was
anything like what happened at Oak’s place, this was the day before Elm gave
out Pokemon.
A sudden chill swept through her as she realized that unless she wanted all the
good Pokémon to be scared away by little kids, she would have to get moving as
fast as she could. Some of those kids could really move. And they made a lot of
noise. In fact, Pokémon from all over the area were probably running away as
quickly as they could.
Lorelei tried to look over the crowd, but wasn’t quite able to. She’d lost
Professor Elm, and with this many people crammed into his lab, all shouting at
once, it would be nearly impossible to find him.
Suddenly, Lorelei felt a tap on her shoulder, and saw a parent standing there.
“Hi!” she shouted, “Sorry to interrupt whatever you were doing, but my
daughter, Maya recognized you from the old Alnnian
Tournaments, and wants to have your autograph!”
Lorelei stood there in shock for a moment, not quite believing that anyone
would remember her, then smiled, “Sure!” she shouted,
“What do you want me to sign?”
The mother smiled and pushed forward a ten-year old girl. Lorelei forced
herself not to grimace. While she probably didn’t have sticky fingers anymore,
she still didn’t like little kids. “Here!” the kid said, thrusting a Pokeball in her face, “This is going to be my starter as
soon as Mom finishes registering me!”
Lorelei smiled weakly and took the Pokeball from the
kid, as well as a proffered permanent marker, and quickly wrote her name around
the white section of the Pokeball. Lorelei handed the
Pokeball back to the girl, and smiled quickly before
turning back to look for Professor Elm.
Just at that moment, Elm appeared, smiling apologetically, “I’m sorry!” he
shouted, “But one of my aides gave the Vulithe to a Hoenner that was passing through. I’ll give you Brock’s Vulithe. It’ll take a few days to get everything in order,
though!”
Lorelei smiled, and quickly turned to get away from the lab. As the doors
closed behind her, she took a deep breath. Finally, some
peace and quiet. Now she’d be able to get started on her journey. With a
bounce in her step, she walked towards the
+++++
Lorelei smiled and thanked one of the the eternally
too-jubilant Nurse Joy sisters, and turned for the door, to be greeted by a
sight that would haunt her for four days.
“There she is!” exclaimed the kid whose Pokeball she
had signed. Behind her were four kids, young kids, that all looked at her
eagerly, wearing what appeared to be those Official Lorelei Fan Club T-shirts she’d
managed to get recalled, although not before several hundred of them had been
sold in Kanto and, she realized with a sinking stomach, Johto.
Then the moment was over, and the five kids rushed towards her. With a nimble
turn and a swift leap, she was over the counter and running through the back
door before the Nurse Joy could stop her. She was in a hallway, and there were
three doors. One, an exit, was too far away for her to make. The other two were
partway down the corridor. One was open, one was closed.
Lorelei ran down the hallway, turned the doorknob on the closed door, booted it
open, and darted through the previously open door. The kids, seeing the newly
opened door moving, ran through the door, screaming, and as soon as the last
one of them was in, Lorelei darted back out into the hallway, slammed the door
closed, and ran through the exit.
THAT had been a close one.
+++++
Lorelei found herself jogging down the path, glancing back over her shoulder at
She shook her head. That was insane. That kid wouldn’t be able to officially
start until the next day, and by that time, Lorelei would be in
Lorelei snapped the Pokeball out of its holder, and
flicked it into the air. Her Sneasel appeared, and
landed in a fighting pose, mirroring the one that its trainer had just dropped
into.
From all around her, Lorelei could hear chittering,
like some kind of insect. Some kind of big insect.
From the woods in front of her, Lorelei saw an Ariados
step into the path, and take a challenging step forward. From all sides,
Lorelei saw and heard Spinarak climbing onto the
path, staring at her with their unblinking eyes.
She growled for a moment. Why couldn’t she have a normal journey, where Pokemon were rare, and didn’t want you for their next meal
every single battle? She took a deep breath, and realized that she herself
would have to fight if she wanted to get out of this one. A
quick glance around her revealed that there were no fewer than fifteen bugs
waiting for her to make the first move, not including the Ariados.
“I’m screwed,” she muttered, and smiled tightly as she remembered that her
hero, Devon Harding, had died in battle as well. “’course,” she chuckled to
herself, “That battle wasn’t because she was running away from a bunch of kids
with a rookie Sneasel.” Her Sneasel
whipped its head around and bared its tiny teeth at her. “No offense,” she
said, grinning. “This is going to be fun. If they don’t kill
us, first.”