Yatta~!

Disclaimer: Pokemon belongs to Nintendo and Shogakukan Comics. This non-profit, non-copyright infringing fanfiction belongs to me under international copyright laws and taking it is plagiarism. Thank you. *Phantomness bows*

Notes: <> for telepathy, ** for thoughts, italics if a pokemon talks

Chapter 2

He woke up to find Red curled up against his side, and his hair back to normal. He smiled as he eased himself out of the boy’s grasp and padded to the bathroom. In the closet, he found spare clothing and changed, feeling the comfortable black encase him once again, and downstairs, Clair was attempting to make breakfast. The key word, of course, was attempting.

Lance laughed. “Good morning.”

Clair almost jumped, but she just threw him the spatula. “You cook!”

He gave her a smirk, and began to cook. Moments later, they were both seated at the table, eating when Red plodded downstairs, yawning and rubbing his eyes.

“Is it morning already?”

“It’s almost noon, Red.” Clair said. “There’s milk and orange juice in the fridge.”

“Gotcha.” They finished eating, and began to plan.

“We could stay here for a bit.”

“I certainly don’t mind.” Clair said. “But you’d have to change your clothes at the least, and dye your hair at the worst.”

“I know.” Lance shrugged. He looked at Red, who was frowning.

“Black hair is really common, but I have to do something about my eyes…”

“Why not just wear colored contacts that will make them look brown?”

“That’s not a bad idea.” Red nodded. “But what about you?”

“I’ll think of something.” Lance grinned.

Clair shook her head. “You are not borrowing any of my clothes.”

Red’s jaw dropped.

Lance looked at his appalled expression and snickered. “I was just kidding.”

“Oh! Good…”

“If you're into that sort of thing though, I could…”

Red blushed and looked down into his plate, suddenly finding his scrambled eggs very interesting. Clair hid a laugh behind her hand and poured herself some more tea.

“Really, Red, you get riled up so easily. It’s cute.”

Red’s eyes darted from Clair to Lance, not sure what he was going to say, but feeling that he was falling into a pit. A very deep pit…

He hastily applied himself to the provisions and said no more.

“You really should not tease him so.” Clair admonished, as Lance and Red packed up, ready to head for Houen. Lance’s hair was now a very intriguing shade of pink, almost white, and in spite of Red’s fish eyes, he looked rather good in it. Red had, true to his word, put in brown contacts, and was now going by the name of ‘Ash Ketchum’. It sounded horribly odd and cliché but at least it was different.

Lance was just using his middle name, Wataru. It sounded fine, and Red tried not to look as Lance switched his clothing, black bodysuit bleaching to white.

“Do you really think no one will notice?”

“What can I say? People in Houen can be quite dense.”

“Point taken.”

“Besides,” Lance moved his hands down and Red watched, fascinated, as his clothing began to shift, changing into a t-shirt and black jeans. The t-shirt had an adorably cute picture of a Pikachu on it. Red almost choked, but kept his breathing steady. “How do you do that? It can’t be your Viridian Power…”

Lance smirked. “That’s my secret, Red.”

“We all have secrets.”

“What can I say? It makes life more interesting!”

“Mm.” Red nodded. “You are happy now, right?”

Lance ruffled Red’s hair. “You’re an empath, Red. What do you think?”

“I think you are… or you’re very good at hiding pain.”

“Could be.” Lance acknowledged the hit. “But I have no desire to lie to you, my dear Champion.”

“That’s what I like best about you!”

They released their pokémon and took off. Fearow for Red, and for Lance, Skarmory…

True, Lance had dragon pokémon, but even though they were his favorite, he did have a few others… like Skarmory. And Skarmory was less eye-catching than a Dragonair or Aerodactyl, especially in Houen.

“What are you going to do?”

Red frowned. “What do you mean?”

“All you have with you is your team, Red… what about all your pokémon who are with Professor Oak?”

Red smirked. “Don’t worry. I rigged Bill’s machine.”

“Did you? And when did this event occur?”

Red shrugged. “Well, Bruno’s Hitmonlee broke into his cottage, right? It completely destroyed the transfer machine. Well, when I was helping him fix it, I noticed that… I don’t know, something made me type in a password. I think it was ‘I hate Hitmonlee’, but then it asked me where I wanted to put my emergency transfer to.”

“And?”

“I noticed that I didn’t have one set, so I just said ‘Current location’. And so, I hit it last night!”

Flabbergasted, Lance did nothing but stare at Red like he was the Eighth Wonder of the World. “You mean to tell me that you have all your pokémon with you?”

“Yep! See? I was prepared before I broke you out!”

“… You have grown up admirably, Red…” Was all he finally said, “Let’s be on our way?”

“Kk!”

Meanwhile, back in Pallet, all hell was breaking loose.

“What do you mean he’s gone?” Green shouted at Oak.

“Red’s missing, I told you! And so are all his pokémon!”

Blue huffed. “I suppose that means he’s run away.”

“How could he break Lance out of jail? That’s crazy!” Yellow nodded. “I bet he was hypnotized or something.”

“That does seem quite likely.” Professor Oak rubbed his chin, deep in thought. “But I need you to search for him.”

“I’ll be right on it!” Yellow saluted, Pika on her shoulder.

Green shrugged. “I have nothing better to do right now.”

“I’ll call Silver and we’ll look together.” Blue promised.

“Thank you for your prompt responses.” Oak nodded. “I would go myself….”

“We already know you’re too old for field work, Grandfather.” Green cut in. “Do not stress. Besides, Red is quite old enough to take care of himself.” * I hope… *

“I’ll find him.” Yellow promised. “Right Pika?”

Right!

But why would Red do such a thing? It boggled the mind…

End Chapter

Completed 7/7/06

Yes, I have a plot! I hope it actually lasts more than two chapters! *Looks at last fic and sighs. Editing time!

*Picks up giant scissors*