Episode 110:
Buttercup's Big Day

Last time…

Our heroes arrived on Yellow Island where Icy and Trinity both battled the gym leader Trevor for the Yellow Amber Badge. Trinity tested her skill first and overcame Trevor’s thunderous rage. Later that day, Icy too defeated the lightning trainer. But now, another enemy is waiting to derail our hero’s progress. And this… is where the adventure continues…

«« INTRO »»

As the clouds part, the camera flies over a vast green landscape, lined with numerous flowers and small trees and pokémon running around. Finally, the camera zooms past Icy, Sara, and Trinity as it soars into the sky.

Scenes change as we see each of the Spectral League gym leaders in dramatic poses with their pokémon and their respective island in the background. As we reach the final leader, the world begins to change into lines and becomes the Virtual Plane.

A slightly more foreboding music plays as shadows of a small winged pokémon, a duck-shaped red-bluish pokémon, a young boy, and an older man with a staff pass by. A tear drops from the boy’s face as he drops a small locket, causing the scene to switch again.

The ripples of the tear drops fade into a scene of Icy and his friends having a picnic and a few shots of battles with other trainers and a short spar with Gamma and Eamudo. Finally, the camera zooms out to show a large portion of the world, but with an ominous figure looming behind it.

«« END INTRO »»

That night, Icy, Sara, and Trinity celebrated their victory by having a large feast at the Brock’s Diner in the pokécenter. Icy let his pokémon out to enjoy some of the food as well.

“You actually did pretty well Icy. I must admit, when I first met you, I really thought you were all talk and no show, but, I guess you are a great trainer. You pokémon are really special too,” Trinity said. She was looking at Buttercup.

“Thanks. You’re very resourceful too. And that Sneasel of yours is totally awesome in battle. You must have trained everyday to get that good.”

“Well, Sneasel and I have been a team since I started training pokémon. She was my starting pokémon. We both knew the road ahead was tough, but we stuck to it and now we are going to make it all the way to the Championship.” She patted Sneasel’s head making the cat pokémon purr in delight. “By the way, I’ve been meaning to ask you about something.”

“Oh, what is it?”

“That butterfree you have there, Buttercup right? She’s different from what most pokémon guide books show under butterfrees. Where did you find such an interesting one?”

“Oh, well, I was in a forest outside of Celadon City and met a group of butterfree there. Buttercup stood out from the others, but she was a real fighter. I challenged her to a match and it wasn’t easy, but I won and she agreed to travel with me. She’s a very special companion.”

“May I see her for a moment?”

“Umm, sure.” Icy handed Buttercup gently over to Trinity.

“Aww, your wings are very soft, that’s really healthy. You’re a bit smaller than most butterfree, but faster I bet too.” Trinity examined her more closely and handed the pokémon back to Icy. “She really is a special one. In more ways than one,” she added smiling.

“What do you mean?” Sara asked.

“Well, I once did a huge science report on butterfree, so I learned a lot about them. As it turns out, today is Buttercup’s birthday.”

“What, are you sure?” Icy asked.

“Yea. It has to do with the patterns on their wings, but I’m almost certain that today is her birthday.”

“That’s great!” Icy turned to Buttercup and smiled. “Happy Birthday Buttercup.” Buttercup flapped its wings happily. “Well then, since it’s your birthday, we have to throw you a big party hehe.” Sara smiled too now and was already busy planning out what to get.

Meanwhile…

“Humph… Those brats… This time, I’m gonna get em good.” The dark man set his eyes on the main lightning power plant. “Yes, only a matter of time…”

While the dark man was planning his next move, a shiny red-blue pokémon was flying through cyberspace now. Suddenly, a voice began instructing it. “Ok, you’re about five minutes away from the power station. It’ll be guarded so be sure to have your weapons charged and at full power now. Good luck.” The pokémon nodded and speeded towards its destination.

A group of magnemites barred the pokémon’s path. “Halt. This is a restricted area. No unauthorized entry permitted. Return to your operator immediately or be erased.” The pokémon sneered at them menacingly. “This is your last warning, return…”

The pokémon opened fire sending waves of psy-energy beams all over the area. One by one, the magnemites were defeated and their cyber-images vanished. In no time flat, the pokémon had beaten all of the power station’s security forces.

“Good work, now for phase two,” its operator instructed.

Sara had just finished the cake for Buttercup when Trinity’s Suihou came running into the kitchen. Apparently, it was being chased by Trinity’s cyndaquil for blowing bubbles at him. “Aghhh!!!” she screamed, but the cake was fine. At the last moment, Aura and Sapphire lifted her above the misbehaving pokémon and the cake and Sara were safe. She sighed and thanked her butterfree from the help and took the cake out to Icy and Trinity and Buttercup.

“Calm down you two,” Trinity said sternly. Suihou tried to play innocent but Trinity wasn’t buying it. “You can’t fool me you little bubble blower, back in the ball with ya.” She recalled her pokémon and everyone began singing.

“Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Buttercup, Happy Birthday to you!!” Buttercup used a small gust attack to blow out the candle and everyone clapped. Suddenly, the lights went out.

“Huh, what happened to the lights?” Sara asked trying to stay close to Icy. A few moments later, the center’s backup power generator kicked in. “Oh… Huh?!?”

“Buttercup!!!” Icy shouted his friend’s name out but she was nowhere to be found. “Oh no!”

“Icy, I think this might explain…” Trinity said grimly. She held up a ransom note.

“If you wanna see your butterfree again, come to the power station. Signed, Gamma…” Icy balled his fist angrily. “Gaghh, if he so much as touches her, I’ll rip him apart!!!”

“Icy, please, calm down. Let’s be careful, I think Gamma must also be behind this power outage too. He’s probably got the entire station under his control and this is all gonna be a trap…”

“It doesn’t matter. I’ve got to save Buttercup. Even if it means walking into a trap.”

“Well, you aren’t going alone,” Trinity said.

“Don’t even think about leaving me behind,” Sara added.

“Thanks girls. Ok then, let’s go save Buttercup.”

“Hold still you little bug.” Eamudo gripped the bag containing Buttercup by its teeth while Gamma rode on top. “Your friends shall come for you soon enough.” Gamma laughed evilly as Eamudo flew towards the power plant.

Meanwhile, at the plant… “W..Who are you?” a security guard asked.

“Hmmhmmhmm, that’s not for you to know.” The sleek tall man chuckled and turned aside drawing his cape. From afar, a boy and another winged pokémon took seats to watch.

“You’ll never get away with this. Please, this plant powers the entire island. Without it, how will the hospitals and pokécenters get power for their medical machines? Are you really that low?”

The boy watched as the caped man returned to the guard. “They do not concern me.” The guard’s eyes widened upon hearing the words and was swiftly knocked unconscious by the man.

“Yes, nothing else in this world concerns us but capturing that Frosterpie. Nothing else matters…” The pokémon crawled up beside him as the boy pet it. “Don’t fail me this time…” The boy and the pokémon slowly faded away.

Gamma arrived inside the plant. The caped man greeted him. “Everything here is secure. I’m leaving the remainder of this mission in your hands. Please try not to screw it up. I am late for an appointment…” The caped man vanished.

“Whatever. As soon as Icy arrives, the real show will begin. I won’t lose this time.” Gamma laughed evilly as a few agents assembled behind him. “Fwahahaha, are the preparations in order?”

“Yes sir Gamma. Please, follow me to the command room. We will be able to monitor the entire station from there. Icy will not make it out of this plant alive.”

“Excellent. Now, remember, we are supposed to keep this Frosterpie pokémon in one piece, but no one said anything about the others.” Gamma sneered. “I trust your men know what to do.”

“Absolutely sir. We are ready.”

“Perfect…” Gamma opened the bag. “Here, take this one to the main generator room. She’s outlived her usefulness to me.”

“Y…Yes sir.” The head agent took the worn out butterfree with him to the main generator room.

“Do come to save your precious friend Icy. I know you can make it this far, far enough to watch your little friend die before your very eyes, bwahahahahaha!!!”

Back to our heroes…

“There it is,” Trinity said pointing ahead.

“Gamma’s in there. Buttercup too. Huh?!?” Icy held his head. “No, Buttercup, they’re gonna kill her!”

“No! C’mon, let’s go!” Sara said.

“I hope you two know what you’re doing.”

The trio ran towards the front entrance to the plant where a group of agents were waiting for them.

“Welcome to your graves trainers!” The agents threw out pokéballs from each direction releasing various fighting, poison, and rock type pokémon.

“We haven’t got time for this,” Icy said. Gathering energy, he created a psy-electric sphere around himself and the girls. “Go, psy-elec sphere!” Immediately, the sphere of energy emanated all around him, knocking out all the pokémon and the agents. Icy and the others ran inside.

“Halt you!” Agents released other pokémon, but Trinity called out Sneasel to dispatch them.

“Sneasel, time to help out too. Use your fury swipes to teach these no good losers a lesson.” Sneasel easily defeated the agents’ pokémon.

Room by room, Icy, Sara, and Trinity faced harder and tougher agents and pokémon, but they were winning each battle, however, their pokémon were tiring out. By the time Icy reached the main generator room, most of their pokémon were completely worn out.

“Buttercup’s in this room, I can feel her.” They smashed the door down to see Buttercup strapped to a small lightning rod in a row of rods. Hers was almost ready to be sent out. “BUTTERCUP!!!!!”

“Well well, you finally showed. I was beginning to think you’d miss seeing her die.” Gamma drew his cape and Eamudo immediately lunged for Icy.

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! Ready to fight, come in sight. Icy calls, Static.”

“Hahaha, foolish kid. If you attack, your little butterfree friend will be fried. Hahahahaha!!!” Gamma snapped his finger and Eamudo swiped Static with its metal wings very hard. Static was cut bad and fainted.

“No, Static return!”

“I’ll handle him, go save Buttercup.” Trinity sent out her Cyndaquil who began to barbeque Eamudo.

“Buttercup, I’m coming!” Icy ran towards the rods. Buttercup slowly opened her eyes, and struggled seeing her master racing to save her. “Buttercup!!!” Icy frantically went to untie her when he felt his body go stiff. “AAAGGGHHHHHHHHHH” he cried out falling to his knees and then laying face down on the floor.

“Pathetic child. No one ever said I had to keep you alive. Give me Frosterpie, or I’ll kill every one of your pokémon until I find him, and then I’ll kill the rest.”

Icy coughed. “Never you evil jerk. Hocus, help me!” Icy’s Kadabra appeared and narrowed its eyes, staring down Gamma.

“No, NOOO, NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!” Gamma tried to hold Icy down but lost his grip as Hocus sent him flying into the air. “Damn you Icy!!!!!” Hocus caught Eamudo in his telekinesis spell and sent them both packing.

Icy struggled to get up but couldn’t. “Cyber, cut Buttercup free…” Icy collapsed as Cyber appeared and sliced the ropes holding Buttercup just before the lightning rod was sent up to be used.

“ICY!!!” Sara called out running over to her friend. “Oh no, please Icy, speak to me. Please!!!”

“Miss Sara, the master was alive I assure you. He’s injured bad though. I suggest we untie the other plant workers so they can fix this mess and take master to a doctor right away.”

“Yes, yes, ok. Hang in there Icy, I’m here. Everything’s gonna be just fine.” Suddenly, Sara heard a ticking sound. “Oh… Oh GODDISH!!!” Her eyes widened seeing the timer of a bomb Gamma had planted on the main generator. “HOCUS!!!”

Hocus didn’t think twice about it and used every last drop of psychic power in him to teleport everyone in the building to a safe distance as the bomb exploded.

Gamma watched from a hilltop as the entire power plant exploded sending debris out for miles and smoke hundreds of feet into the air. Fire and rescue crews arrived on the scene only a few moments later. “Mission complete… for now…” Gamma drew his cape. “Next time Icy… I’ll kill you.” The walked off into the sunset as smoke rose above the horizon behind him.

The rescue crews rushed Icy and other injured workers to the local clinic where pikachus were busy generating power for the facilities. Even Trevor was helping with his pokémon. “Huh, it’s those kids from earlier.”

“Trevor? Icy’s hurt very badly…”

“Yes, I can see that. What in the world happened there? All of the sudden, the lights in my gym just went out, and my pokémon had to generate power for lighting, and then, I hear this loud boom, and bang, the power plant is burning to the ground!”

“We don’t have time to explain the details. Please, Icy needs to see a doctor right away.”

“Alright.” Trevor helped Sara and Trinity take Icy to a doctor for examination.

Meanwhile…

“And in other news today, the main power plant on Yellow Island in the Spectral Islands chain exploded today after a gang of ruthless criminals, possible agents of the notorious Team Rocket gang took over the power plant. Some kids competing in the pokémon... {crackle} {crackle}”.

“Dang namit. What is wrong wit dis here TV?”

“Huh, oh who cares, did you go food shopping like I told you to?”

“Ah, there it is again,” the man said as the TV picture came back.

“The kid, Icy, is in stable condition tonight at a makeshift hospital set up outside the power plant area. Firefighters continue to fight… {crackle}.”

Meanwhile, in space… “Weapon charged and ready…”

“Sir, your orders?”

“Fire.”

“{crakle} battle {crackle} {static}…”

The man hit the TV. “What is wrong wit this darn TV? We got to buy us a new TV tomorrow.”

“Hey, pa, git out here. The sky is…” The man went outside of the trailer with his wife and looked up. Cutting through the sky like a razor was a bolt of light that ripped apart the earth and sent a shockwave out around the blast point. Nothing in its path survived…

«« ENDING »»

Light harp-like music plays showing each of the main characters with their pokémon asleep. Finally, we see just an outline of a young boy, asleep with a winged pokémon and a strange pokémon beside them.