Shadows on the Heart Window to the soul
by Flygon
Chapter 21

Pokemon Stadium Bound

They boarded the train in the morning, and were told that the trip would take three days. There were not a lot of people on the train, but Misty insisted that Ash and she share a room, Brock and Suzy took another and the boys both got to share one. Even with the heating on the train, they could feel the chill once they entered the snowy areas. It seemed to seep through the walls of the train and made the wearing of light jacket a must on board the train. Even Pikachu had a little jacket for herself, as did the two pichu of Tommy and Eddie. They watched out a window in the dining car as the white scenery went by and shivered when they saw one valley area that was so buried in snow that they could only see the tops of some of the trees. It was near the end of the second day of the trip when they felt the train stop and an announcement that several trees had been knocked onto the tracks. They were told that it would be a few hours before the trains pokemon could clear them. All were told that the temperature was a nice nine below zero with almost no wind and no clouds in site, so folks could step off the train and get some fresh air.

Ash and the rest stepped off the train and looked around. Then some wild snover seemed to pop out of the snow at that moment. They battled them for a while, each managing to catch one of the ice/grass types, and then some sneasles wanted some fun. For almost twenty minutes, the sneasles and the trainers seemed to play. They would throw snowballs, and seem to drop if they were hit. They all had fun, and Eddie and two of the sneasles seemed to be playing a game of tag. Then the train whistle blew telling them that the way was clear and they should board again. Eddie, impulsively hugged the two that he had been playing tag with, and waived to them as he walked back to the train. However, when he got to the train, a conductor told him that wild pokemon were not allowed on the train. The whole group turned to see the two sneasles had followed them and were smiling at Eddie. He turned to them.

"Thanks for all the fun," He told the two pokemon. "But I have to go now. My big brother is going to be getting another badge from the gym. I wish I could stay here and play with you, but I can't."

"Sne Sne Snesle." They both said to him and tapped the case at his belt with the poke balls.

"You mean you want to come with me?" He asked the two, wide eyed. "And be my friends and pokemon?"

Both nodded energetically, practically bouncing in the snow. Eddie looked up at both his brothers with the question in his eyes. He saw Ash grin and give him a nod.

"That happened to Ash a couple of times too." Brock put in when he saw the unasked question. "A couple of his best pokemon ended up simply joining him because they cared about him."

"You do know," Eddie said quietly as he pulled out two heal balls that Ash had given him and laid them in the snow. "That I won't be able to keep you with me all the time. I will train and play with you as often as I can, though."

He watched as each of them approached a poke ball and simply slapped a button. He saw they converted to energy and were drawn inside and the buttons instantly turned white with no struggle. He picked up the two balls and looked at them with something close to wonder in his eyes as the disk in his belt sleeve pulsed twice and the balls shimmered and were gone. Then with a smile on his face, he boarded the train to continue with his big brothers to Snowpoint city.

Near the end of the train, stood a young man, who had a slight frown on his face. He watched as the two pokemon he had released and sent toward the boy were drawn into the poke balls. He saw the smile of joy on the boys face, and for a moment, he felt his frown melt. Then a voice behind him caused him to whirl.

"That was very generous of you, just Rick." Cynthia told the boy.

"They were crap pokemon." He growled and plastered the frown back on his face. "The kid is into garbage picking, so I thought he deserved them."

"Yes." Cynthia replied "I can see that."

"What is that supposed to mean?" He looked at her.

"Nothing." She countered, looking at the spot where the group had just boarded. "Just that you could try making friends with some people."

"Friends are for losers." He said as he turned to get back on the train. "They always let you down, or hold you back or turn on you. I learned that at the orphanage. You want to be strong, you stand on your own, and by yourself. Grab power and leave the weak. Just like those pokemon with their wimpy moves."

"Your right," Cynthia began as he reached up to grab the bar. "moves like Shadow ball, shadow claw, Ice beam, blizzard, Surf, strength, rock smash, ice punch, are 'wimpy' moves." She saw him freeze, with his foot on the first step. "Especially since three of those moves have to be learned by teaching machines."

"What are you trying to tell me?" He snapped over his shoulder, still frozen for the moment.

"That if you bend a bit," She responded levelly. "Or give in a bit, the rewards can be great. That goes for pokemon, and people. You have to give them a chance."

He gave her a cynical chuckle.

"Tell that to all the 'dreamers' that are still at the orphanages." He turned his head and looked directly at her. "Maybe they might buy it, for a while. I've done fine without any friends. I got away from that orphanage, and now I am going to be a winner."

"One piece of advice, just Rick."

"What now?"

"If you want to start your tournament career off with a win," she paused to make sure that she had his attention. "Wait till next time here. Don't enter the competition with Ash Ketchum."

"Trying to protect him?" he sneered. "Afraid I'll beat him badly?"

"No," she replied and saw his eyebrow go up. "I am trying to protect you." His other eyebrow went up. "Ash fights for something that, at this time, you know nothing about. And I sense that if you enter this competition, you will lose, though perhaps you may also win, but not the competition."

"Humph." he snorted. "Riddles? Anyhow, it's too late. I have the eight badges and am already registered. I just trying to round out my team and get them as strong as possible." He climbed up and through the door. He took his seat in the last car and looked out the window to see the woman that reffed the battle he had had with that kid. simply standing there. The train started up and he watched as she stood there in the snow, and grew smaller and smaller.

Cynthia watched as the train faded in the distance. A single tear trailed down her face from her visible eye.

"I wish you luck, just Rick." she muttered to the air. "That is the only way you will stand a chance against Ash Ketchum this time around."

The group arrived in Snowpoint city and checked into the Pokemon center there. They had all agreed that only four days would be spent here. The first day they lounged around and the second day Ash went to the gym to try for his seventh badge and won it with the help of his Monferno, and his best and oldest friend, Pikachu. When he got back to the pokemon center he saw a very thoughtful Eddie sitting there.

"What's up Eddie?" he asked with some concern.

"He want's to try a gym battle." Tommy supplied from his bunk.

"Why Eddie?" Ash asked as he sat near his little brother. "You don't have to worry about badges for the Junior league, this is an event for the fifty year anniversery celibration."

"I want to test my self." he looked at Ash. "Havn't you ever just battled to test yourself?"

"Tomorrow," Ash told him after only a moments hesitation. "We can talk to the leader here at Snowpoint."

"Thanks Ash."

Ash saw his little brother smile, but he also saw nervousness there. Ash hoped everything would be ok.

The next day he went with his brother Eddie and entered the gym. Candance looked at Ash curiously at first then told him that he already had the badge.

"My brother Eddie wants to test himself, and asks if you could battle him as if this were a gym battle." Ash explained.

"I would be honoured." She replied, as she caught Eddies gaze.

Ash watched the battle, fighting himself to keep from giving advice. His little brother had been told that they would allow only four pokemon here, and he had spent a while looking over his notes on his pokemon and moves. then he had gone to the pokemon center and came back, still slightly nervous but he was smiling. Now Ash watched as Candance tossed out her Snover and Eddie responded with his magby, Blazer. Blazer made short work of the Snover, and when Candance replaced the downed Snover with her abomisnow it looked like another quick win, but the larger pokemon managed to dodge the first two attacks of the fire type. Then it closed on the smaller pokemon and landed a partial hit with a hyperbeam, Eddie saw his pokemon reel back from that attack but it still stood, which shocked everybody there. Eddie called for a flame thrower while the larger pokemon was recharging, and the Abomisnow went down. But his Magby was also tired. Then Candance let loose her medicham and it took down his Magby with one hit.

"Blazer, you ok?" He asked his pokemon with obvious concern. He smiled as the little Pokemon seemed to nod. "You did great, Blazer." He told the pokemon. "You take a nice rest, and I'll give you some charcoal sticks with your food tonight."

Ash watched as Eddie recalled his pokemon and then released a Misdreavus. He saw a look of shock on Candance's face, but it could not have been as much as his own look of shock. Misdreavus took five attacks to bring down the medicham and Candance, with a smile of respect, let out her final pokemon, Sneasle. It took out the pure ghost with two hits from a shadow ball, and on hit from a shadow claw. It also took out Eddies Pichu in four hits, even though pikachus baby landed a volt tackle on the ice dark type. Then Eddie tossed out his last pokemon, and the shocked look in Candance was obvious. It was his Riolu. The little pokemon stood there and Candance called for an icebeam, Eddie shouted out for bullet punch and Ash watched as Candance smiled. sensing victory. Then he ordered the punch into the ground, and Candance's face went blank for a moment. The Icebeam fired, but struck only a large cloud of debris that the bullet punch had kicked up. Then Eddie yelled out for Striker, his Riolu, to use copy cat and go point blank. Candance smiled at the obvious mistake. Her Ice type was much higher level and could take an icebeam attack with very little problem.

Ash fought the urge to tell his brother that an ice attack on an ice pokemon of that level would do nothing. Then he nearly dropped to the ground when Striker was four paces away, and Eddie called out another attack.

"Striker, use brick break, now." Tommie shouted, now that his pokemon was too close for hers to dodge. "And follow up with Sky-uppercut."

Candance did nothing. She knew that she had been tricked. She thought an eager trainer had made a basic mistake and she became over confident. She recalled her pokemon, and held out her hand palm down, consigning defeat.

"Why are you giving up?" Eddie asked, bewildered.

"Would you allow one of your pokemon to be hurt if you could prevent it?" She asked him in return.

"No,"

"Neither would I," she put her hand on his shoulder when she was closer to him. "When I saw that you had gotten so close and changed your attack like that, to one that would seriously hurt my pokemon, and ordered up a second, equally damaging attack, I knew that I had lost. To continue would just hurt my pokemon. If this were a real gym battle, right now I would be telling you that you had battled supremely, and be handing you an Icicle Badge. Even though it is not a true gym battle, I will give you this." She held out the Icicle Badge. "It may not be any use to you in competitions, but it will show proof that you defeated me fairly in a battle. I would also like to give you this." And she handed him a metal coat. "Certain pokemon who grow while holding that, will evolve differently. We have no use for it here, and would like to see it put to some use."

As they headed back to the pokemon center, Ash was concerned about his brother. He was very quiet.

"Is anything wrong. Eddie?" He asked the boy, putting his hand on the others shoulder. "Please tell me."

"I thought I would lose." He turned to his big brother with a look of wonder. "I just wanted to test myself and see how far I could go in a real gym battle, I didn't think I would win."

"You have good pokemon." Ash told him, giving his shoulder a little squeeze. "You have some really good skill in the way you trained them. and you trust in them. Either way, you would have won, even if you lost the battle, you would have won in other ways." he saw the blank look, and smiled. "If you would have lost the battle, you would have learned what you did wrong, and then you would won knowledge. It took me a bit, but that was one think that I discovered when I blew the Indigo plateau. You won, however, and learned more, which is a win win situation. And I must say you shocked me, little bro, when you let out Misdreavus, and then let your Riolu out. You handled your pokemon perfectly, this time. Learn, grow, and adapt. Or as Brawly would say, go with the flow. And always remember, here," he tapped Eddie on the forehead, "here," tapped him on the chest, "and here," and then he tapped him on the back of the head. "That there is always somebody that will be better then you. You have to keep that in mind and prepare for that moment, but don't let it smother you. You won't always win, take the losses along with the wins and learn from them, and keep trusting in your pokemon." He winked at the boy. "Now lets get your pokemon to the center and give them some treats for that fantastic battle."

Eddie smiled broadly and nodded as they turned to the center.

A lone figure detached himself from a shadowy corner of the nearby house he hid in. Rick had a strange look in his eye as his eyes followed the pair who were heading to the pokemon center. He had heard every word, and now he was filled with doubts.

In the room Tommy was trying to figure out how he would help his brother deal with a loss when the jubilant pair entered the room. He watched his grinning brother pulled out a real gym badge from his pocket and put it on the table. Tommy nearly whooped for joy. Here he was worried about his brother, and the young boy had beaten a real gym leader. He was out of the chair and had his hands on his brothers shoulders.

"Way to go, Brother." He cheered.

The others joined in and Eddie found himself the focus of a small party. He fell asleep later that night with a smile on his face. He had done it. He, Edward Ketchum, had beaten a full gym leader, and he had his brother proud of him. He reached over to the pillow near him to say good night to Volt, only to remember that Volt was still downstairs recovering. He would give his little friend some extra poke treats.