Hi all! *Waves* I’m back from Mexico. Did you miss me?
Link Masters – Lance has a way of disappearing and appearing, no?
Incomplete13 – ah, I feel I owe Gary an apology. ^-^ So he’ll get a fairly good role in this fic.
Charmeleon – I see.
Chapter 3: problems
About a week had passed, and Ash was feeling very uneasy. For one, more dimensional tears were opening up and more pokemon were appearing in the realm, much to the Professor’s delight.
“Lance-chan…” Ash whispered. “What to do?”
Gary looked over from where he was trying to fish up a Magikarp. “Ash? You’re spacing out again.”
“Gomen.” Ash replied. He sighed. * I hope she’s okay… *
Meanwhile, Lance sat with a stack of cards in her hands. She breathed slowly. “All right. I’ve sealed all of them. Whatever they pull out of the dream realm now will only be copy of the pokemon.”
She focused as the cards duplicated themselves and flew off to find Ash, leaving her with a set of dark blue cards sitting in her hands. A white set trimmed with gold flew off to find him.
“I hope he’s all right…”
Ash blinked as what looked like a comet made out of… cards? Flew out of the air and circled him for a brief minute before settling in his hands.
Flipping one over, he realized that they were cards. Each had a picture of a pokemon on top. There were hundreds of them, depicting all the pokemon that existed in the realm.
A small smile quirked at the corners of Ash’s mouth. * So that’s how she dealt with it. Well, it certainly works. Keeping the realm’s powers while allowing the humans to deal with what they’ve called up. *
“Yes! I got one!” Gary yelled, fishing up the carp.
“Gary… Magikarp are practically worthless. They only know Splash.” Ash replied. “Why are you bothering to catch one?”
Gary shrugged. “Maybe it’ll evolve. ‘Sides, Brock’s using a Geodude and an Onix at his gym, and I need a water pokemon.”
“True, but…” Ash sighed. * Not my problem. Wait, why isn’t he using Squirtle? *
“Ash, you
have anything besides that Elementeon or whatever you call it?”
Ash grinned to himself. * If
only Gary knew… *
“Well, Elementeon does know water moves.”
Gary sighed as he glanced at his Magikarp. “So lil’ fishie… do you evolve?”
Magikarp flopped around.
Ash laughed. “Gary, I don’t think it can talk.”
Gary frowned. “Well, it was worth a try…’
Ash laughed a little bit more. “Maybe, but it’d probably take an awful lot of training, Gary.”
“No problem.” Gary replied, tacking EXP share onto Magikarp. “Pidgeot n’ Noctowl could use a little bit of training too.”
“Ah…”
T-minus five days of training and Gary was getting annoyed… and bored to the point of tears. “When does Magikarp evolve?”
“Level twenty I think…”
“Great…” Gary cried. “It’s only level 18!”
“Poor Gary…”
Gary pouted. “Maybe I’ll just try fighting Brock with Pidgeot.”
“You could,” Ash pointed out. “But… why don’t you use a grass-type? You did catch an oddish.”
“True…but it only knows… Absorb.”
Ash sweatdropped. “Well, I don’t know…” He groomed Elementeon and yawned.
Gary continued to train the fish for another day until (good for Gary!) It evolved into Gyarados.
“YES!” Gary cheered.
Ash grinned. “So, Brock is no problem now?”
“You bet! I’m so happy!” Gary cheered. “Let’s go to the gym right now!”
Ash raised his eyebrows as he followed behind at a slower pace.
“Brock, I
challenge you!”
Brock shrugged. “Bring it on.”
“Gyarados, go!”
“Woah.” Brock said, his eyes popping out. “Geodude, Tackle!”
Gyarados spat out Hydro Pump, knocking Geodude into the wall. Onix fared no better, unfortunately.
Brock handed Gary one of his new badges and the two trainers left the gym.
“Say, Ash, I bet you’re wondering why I didn’t use Squirtle?”
Ash nodded. “You have a perfectly good water-type.”
“Yeah, but I wanted to see if there was something useful about Magikarp. And apparently, there is!”
“Intriguing, certainly.” Ash replied. “Hold on, I’ll be back in a second.”
“I’ll be at the Center.” Gary called.
Ash returned to the gym and challenged Brock, who only laughed.
“My Elementeon can destroy any of your pokemon in milliseconds.” Ash replied, getting angry.
“Hah! What a joke! Look, get out of my gym. I have no time for little kids like you.”
“You think so?” Ash asked. “Key of Hidden Shadows, open the gates to the dream realm!”
With a faint flash, they found themselves in an area filled with swirling greens and pinks.
“Where are we?!” Brock demanded.
Ash smiled. “Welcome to the dream realm, where all pokemon were born.”
“Y-you!” Brock spluttered. “What are you?!”
Ash considered. “Um… apprentice to a fallen angel. So! Let’s begin.” His eyes glowed golden as a card appeared in front of him.
Brock huffed angrily. * Arrogant kid… * “Onix, I choose you!”
“Vaporeon…” Ash whispered softly. “Now.”
Instantly, Onix collapsed.
“WHAT?!” Brock demanded.
Ash smirked. “I’m no beginning trainer, you know. I am one of this realm’s guardians.”
Brock began to sweat. * Uh-oh… maybe I shouldn’t have insulted him. *
“Too late.” Ash replied. “I’m leaving.” And with that, he vanished, leaving Brock locked in the dream realm.
Brock gulped as several large pokemon he had never seen before advanced…
End Chapter!
Completed 2/24/04
I think I still dislike Brock…
I am putting up another extra chapter after this, so please review. *Bows*