Chapter 4: The Meeting

The girl had curly blonde hair that had been dyed with silver stripes. She had a soft face with cold blue eyes. She was wearing a combat jacket over her camo halter top, and had a dark green skirt that reached past her knees.
“Hello, my name is Romra.” She said. “I’m a survival expert. I heard that Pokémon in this area have become more aggressive lately, so I came to check it out, and what do I find? Three trainers in peak condition.”
“What?” Richard asked, startled. “We’ve only been here for a couple of hours, how could we cause this?”
“I’m not saying you did.” Romra said. “But someone or something definitely did. I hope I can find out what it is.”
Suddenly, a bunch of clouds appeared in the sky and blocked out the sun. Tyson looked up and saw something begin to fall from the clouds.
“Aw great.” He said. “It’s raining!”
“No,” Romra said. “It’s snowing.”
She was right. The three trainers saw brilliant white flakes coming down.
“How did you know?” Harrietta asked her.
“Some people are saying that there is an Icico here, but they were supposed to have gone extinct several thousand years ago.” Romra replied. “Icico were thought to bring winter with them wherever they went.”
“So,” Tyson said. “What does that have to do with why you were hiding yourself from us?”
“Well,” Romra began. “Some people say that there are a group of strangers here who are viciously attacking at random. I thought you might be them, but the way that girl over there was so excited made it obvious that you weren’t them.”
“Heh,” A voice said. “So they sent you here to deal with us, huh?”
A man of about twenty stepped toward them from behind a large boulder. He had blue dyed hair, and icy blue eyes that seemed to lack emotion. He was wearing a black jumpsuit with a large letter D on the front.
“Don’t worry.” He said. “I’ve got more than enough to defeat all four of you!”
He reached toward his belt and pulled out a Poké Ball.
“Go, Dryce!” He called.
A golem-like creature made entirely out of ice appeared. The strangest thing about it was that the ice appeared to be hollow and was filled with what appeared to be black smog.
“Use Ice Punch!” The man called out.
‘Darn it!’ Romra thought. ‘I only brought one of them. Well, he’ll have to do.’
“Go, Scorver!” Romra cried, tossing a Poké Ball of her own.
A scorpion-like creature appeared. It was very small, even shorter than Richard’s Caterworm. It had an overall metallic sheen to it, and was silver colored. Its pincers almost looked too big for it to lift.
“Scorver, use X-Scissor!” Romra commanded.
The Scorpion raised its pincers and slashed them at Dryce’s fist.
“Ha, fool!” The strange man shouted. “Nothing that small has a chance against Dryce!”
“Does it now?” Romra asked him.
Dryce suddenly gasped and flew back, its hand badly injured.
“How did that little tick manage to do that to my Dryce?” He asked Romra.
“Because,” Romra replied. “You are nowhere near my level of combat. These three are just starting out, so I can forgive them for not recognizing my name, but surely you recognize the name of Romra, the Iron Maiden.”
“Th-th-the Iron Maiden!” The man stuttered in fright. “Dryce, Return!”
As soon as Dryce was back in its Poké Ball, the man turned tail and ran.
“What?” Tyson asked, confused. “Iron maiden, isn’t that an old torture device?”
“Yes.” Romra said, recalling Scorver. “I wasn’t completely honest with you earlier. I am one of the Elite Four.”
“Whoa!” Richard cried. “Really?”
“Yes really,” Romra sighed. “I’m the weakest of us, but I’m still more than powerful enough to take you all on at once.”
“I believe that.” Tyson said, remembering what had happened to the strangers Dryce. “Well, I’m Tyson, that guy over there is Richard, and she is Harrietta. Anyway, I guess that the stories about overly aggressive trainers here were true, but I still wonder, what caused the snow?”
Tyson looked up at the sky and saw a break in the clouds. Suddenly, a long, blue shape squirmed its way across the gap.
“Did you see that!?” He gasped.
Richard, Harrietta and Romra all looked up.
“See what, Tyson?” Harrietta asked.
“There is nothing there.” Romra stated.
“Are you sure you’re all right?” Richard asked Tyson, putting his hand to Tyson’s forehead.
“I’m fine.” Tyson said, pushing Richard away. “It was probably just a cloud or something like that.”
Though he said that, Tyson secretly worried that it was one of those Icico’s Romra had mentioned earlier.
“Well,” Romra said. “You’re heading for Raws Town, correct?”
“Yeah,” Harrietta said. “Why, are you heading there too?”
“No, actually.” Romra said. “I’m going in the opposite direction, to Droll Town. I need to meet with Professor Beech.”
“Oh,” Harrietta said, a bit disappointed that she wouldn’t get to be with Romra for much longer.
“Even though I don’t know you that well,” Romra said. “I observed your technique in that race you had with Richard earlier. You would be a great Pokémon Co-ordinator.”
“Really?” Harrietta asked, remembering all the great things she had heard about Co-ordination.
“Yes.” Romra replied, grinning. “Good bye, friends.”
Harrietta grinned back as Romra left.
“Well,” She said happily. “Let’s get going.”
The three friends continued walking for a bit, eventually reaching Raws Town.
They had barley taken a step into town when, suddenly, a long, thin shape leapt out of the bushes and wrapped itself tightly around Tyson.
“Tyson!” Richard and Harrietta cried as they leapt forward to help their friend.
Strong hands suddenly grabbed the collars of their shirts, and pulled them back.
“Now, now,” A deep voice said. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you…”

Next Time: The mysterious attacker is revealed. Is he related to the man that was beaten off by Romra? Or is he part of something more sinister?