Amber tossed her blonde hair once before stuffing it down the back of her thick, heavy coat again. She pulled her hood up, pulled at the drawstrings slightly to tighten it around her face, and sneezed at the faux fur lining the edges.

The Raticate beside her chattered its teeth quietly. She wasn’t cold. Rats just did that sometimes. She looked up at her mistress and was greeted with a determined smile.

“Ready, Rue?”

“Tiicaaate!”

They began the climb.

Mount Coronet was harsh; they had battled their way up, returned to Snowpoint, climbed again, and repeated until Amber felt they were ready to reach the top. This was the time they would do it properly.

They started from the Snowpoint side of the mountain, laden with only the bare essentials. Rue carried a small bag fixed to a strong, comfortable red harness. In it were some healing items and some food.

After about quarter of an hour, the climb began to steepen. Snow began to fall less often – hail took its place, and then it got too cold to do either. Amber breathed into her mittens whenever she rested, and Rue huddled close to her with fur puffed up.

The trainer had even bought gloves for her Pokémon’s four paws. Apparently she came prepared for anything. Rue didn’t like the feel or look of them, but at least they kept her warm…

Hours later, they were traversing a near-vertical sheet of icy rock when Amber’s foot hit something. She cried out in dismay as she lost her grip, rocks crumbling beneath her as she felt herself wrenched backwards by gravity-

A sickening lurch in her stomach, and she looked up to see that Rue had sunk her teeth into her backpack, all four paws planted firmly on the rock face.

She didn’t hesitate to struggle back upright, clinging to the rocks, and let out a sigh of relief. “Thanks.”

Rue gave a gruff squeak and they resumed their climb quickly – but Amber stopped again.

“Raatiih?”

“Rue, come see this.” She was lightly prodding something that was embedded in a sheet of ice, looking confused. “This is what I tripped on.”

The Raticate climbed down parallel to her, and stared at it blankly. The object was metallic and spherical. She helped her trainer to dig around it, pulling at the rocks and ice to clear a space.

Eventually, the object came loose. Amber almost dropped it, but after fumbling with it for a second she tightened her grip and then put it into her rucksack.

“I think there’s a ledge somewhere just above us. Let’s rest there for a while.” The Raticate nodded. They made it to an outcrop of rock that was covered in black ice, and struggled up over its edge to huddle against the cliff face.

Amber took her bag off her back and cradled it with her knees whilst she took out the strange object from earlier. Now that she could look at it properly, she noticed there was a white circle on one side, and two metal screws fixed in just below it…

“Oh my goodness! I think this is a Magnemite!”

The Raticate looked surprised and sniffed at it, intrigued. “Rati?”

“I wonder where its magnets went,” Amber stated thoughtfully. “Maybe it was defeated and lost its magnetism.” She hesitated. “But the thing is, Magnemite don’t naturally appear on Mount Coronet. Do they?”

Her Raticate clumsily settled down on her lap, over the top of her bag. She seemed determined to stay there for a while, too, but her trainer didn’t mind. They were sharing their heat, which was important.

“Maybe it has a trainer. Ah, we should probably try and wake it up, hmm? That is…” She swallowed uneasily. “If it’s still okay.”

Amber pulled out a Pokéball from her bag, reaching under Rue (much to the Raticate’s dismay). She pressed the button on it and with a flurry of holographic rose petals and sparkles from the applied stickers a Raichu appeared. The lack of a point on the end of its tail made it clear that it was a female.

“Raaaiiih?”

“Careful, there’s a cliff right next to you.” She giggled as the Raichu looked shocked and leapt towards her, shivering against the cold. “Don’t worry, you’re not staying out long. Could you maybe transfer some electricity into this Magnemite for me?”

The Raichu stepped carefully over the ice and sniffed at the Magnemite, confused. With a noncommittal shrug, the Pokémon brought its lightning bolt tail around and touched it to the Magnemite’s metal body. For a few moments, it sparked rapidly, then calmed down to a barely-noticeable glow.

The human and all three Pokémon remained fairly still for about two minutes.

“I don’t think it’s working,” Amber commented, looking worried, but then all of a sudden an eye blinked open…

“M-mag!”

“Hey, hey, don’t panic – shh, it’s okay,” she cooed. The Pokémon calmed down and stared at her in confusion. “We found you lodged in some ice. You’re on Mount Coronet.”

The Raichu’s tail let out an accidental spark, and its owner moved it away in case it happened again.

“My friend was just recharging you,” the human explained, smiling reassuringly. The Magnemite blinked at her. “We’re not sure where your magnets are. I think they might have fallen down to the bottom of the cliff somewhere. I’m going to go back and find them in a little while, once we’ve got you to a Pokémon Centre. Thanks,” she added, returning the Raichu to her Pokéball.

“Mag?”

“Don’t worry. You’re in good hands.” She picked out another Pokéball, and Rue gave up trying to stay on top of the bag, moving to the side to groom herself instead. The trainer pressed the button and a Kadabra appeared. She hadn’t put any stickers on this one; Kazza had simply looked disdainful and unhappy whenever it appeared from a Pokéball that had some on it, so she just stopped using them.

Teleport?

“Yes, Kazza. To the nearest Pokémon Centre. We found a Magnemite, and it’s in bad shape.”

Looks it, the Pokémon remarked via telepathy. He took a more sturdy stance on the frozen ground and, after Amber had returned Rue to her Pokéball, they all blipped out of existence.