Chaser and the Sea Spirit's Den

Chaser and the Power of Faith

 Entering the skies did little to assuage the chill Goh was feeling as he held onto Articuno's back. Certainly, if Grookey wasn't already inside his ball, he'd be chattering his teeth and asking to go inside now. Or maybe he'd get Argent out and clasp onto his warm, silver fur.

The thought about how warm Argent must feel was one Goh kept in mind for a few moments as the legendary Pokémon took him into the air.

As Articuno flew in short circles around the top of Glace Islet, Goh looked at the other two islets, wondering how Serena and Chloe were doing. He briefly wondered if he should go check on them until he saw a spire of flame shoot from Feu Islet, and the flame-winged phoenix appeared in the skies with the now familiar girl holding her grey hat as the legendary Moltres rose into the skies, followed closely by Ash's Dragonite. Moltres began flying around the islets, heading over to meet with Goh and Articuno, but this only brought the other fact into further relief.

"Chloe..."

She still hadn't appeared, and Flygon was also currently absent.

He put his hand on his chest, feeling his own rapid heartbeat. His worry for her was pulling him to check on her, but he steeled himself. He knew that if he went to check, she would only grow upset with him. He did believe she could handle this on her own, right?

He recalled the last time, when his faith wasn't as strong, when he had failed the test. So he did practically the only thing he could in this situation, and he silently prayed for her safety.

Articuno looked back at him, clearly unaccustomed to a human on their back, and Goh saw the curiosity in the legendary Pokémon's eyes.

A bolt of lightning exploded from the top of Foudre Islet, and Goh felt his blood run cold. He moved to ask Articuno to head over before the bird lurched to the side, narrowly avoiding an electrical blast aimed in their direction.

It seemed that they had finally gotten Matori's attention as the flying ship was turned in their direction. Goh recognized the sorts of blasters attached to it, once used in Sinnoh to attack Darkrai and Cresselia.

He missed having Flygon, but they would have to work for now.

"Articuno, use Ice Beam!"

Obeying the boy's command like they were a trained Pokémon, Articuno fired a ray of cryonic energy, sapping the heat out of the air around Goh. The beam collided with the front of Matori's airship, causing large crystals of ice to form on its surface and over one of the blasters.

"Goh!"

Serena's voice carried over even this distance.

"Is Chloe back yet?"

"Does it look like it?" he asked, his annoyance coming out a bit stronger than he intended. "As long as Team Rocket doesn't have Zapdos, we need to keep believing in her. So let's keep Team Rocket busy!"

Articuno matched Goh's tone with a battlecry of their own, which Moltres quickly responded to. Dragonite, too, looked ready to take the fight to Team Rocket.

Suddenly, a voice began playing from a speaker located on the side of the airship.

"Attention, brats who've taken our legendary Pokémon. You will leave at once and hand them over, or we'll be forced to shoot you down where you are. It is a long way down to the bay from here."

The voice, Goh recognized, belonged to Matori, the leader of the Team Rocket group in this operation whom they had met in town. "Shouldn't you ask before trying to shoot us?" he shouted back.

"Then I guess the answer's no," Matori responded. "Fine. I owe you brats back for wrecking a lot of our operations, so I'm going to enjoy this."

Right after the words cut out, the blasters began charging and firing again, shattering the ice that covered them as they aimed for Goh and Serena. The Legendary Pokémon moved to dodge the rapid-fire electrical blasts as quickly as they could before returning to position to continue their own attack.