Disclaimer/Notes: No, no, no. I don’t own pokemon. It belongs to Nintendo, Satoshi Tajiri, and Shogakukan Comics.

So, <> for telepathy, ** for thoughts, italics for pokemon talking

Timeline: 3 months later

 

Chapter 2: Adaptation

           

            Ash performed the Heavenly Spin as sixteen shuriken flew at him from all directions. All of them deflected.

            “Good.” Delia said approvingly. She was dressed in dark red with purple sleeves. Ash couldn’t understand why he hadn’t seen this side of his mother before, but somehow the change felt right, as well as refreshing.

            She seemed younger and more vibrant. It was almost as if she had cast away some dark secret from her past?

            Perhaps.

            “Or maybe not.” Ash said, as he activated the Suicune card to attack, only to discover his mom had thought ahead and laid a trap card out already.

            “Dark Hole.”

            “Oh no…” Ash said, as Suicune went back to the Dream Realm.

            His mom somehow was able to bring Magic and Wizards cards to life. It was kind of like his card powers.

            Strange…

           

            Delia smiled. Ash would get better.

            He had to.

            She had an array of trap cards, and once he learned to escape all of them, he would be much more fit for the role as guardian.

            Much better, she thought, as he used Frameshift to deactivate the trap.

 

            She was preparing Ash to accept the mantle of duty and not shirk it.

            Love interests could come later.

            He would have to be old enough to deal with it, of course.

            She parried his staff and kicked him in the knee, causing him to fall down in pain. However, he cured himself with Chansey while using Reflect to shield, and then locked on and Guillotined.

            Delia fainted for a second, and then got up again as they restarted.

 

            They trained for four hours every day.

            Ash was getting colder too, sealing off his emotions and only showing them to his mom, and his two new friends.

            Charlotte tutored him in biology and chemistry and trigonometry, and taught him long-distance attacks.

            Lance showed him the combination spells and magic weapons, as well as brushing up his horrible knowledge of physics and geometry.

            Set.

            Another month passed.

 

            Ash adjusted his mask as he slipped through the air on Pidgeot’s wings. Silently, he flew over Cerulean.

            This was just a surveillance test.

            Ash swooped down particularly close to a window and cloaked himself in the shadows that made up his element, before peeking in.

            Inside, a single father and his daughter were eating dinner together.

            Ash smiled at the sight as he discreetly scanned them. Finding nothing wrong here, and sensing that perhaps it was needed, he left five thousand dollars under the doormat. It would at least cover the apartment rent for a while, until her father had a steadier job.

            Mysterious Angel…

            Some people thought he was that. He had been seen before. Luckily, it was a colorblind old woman. She had thought his wings were white, and so spread rumors of an angel who helped the poor and helpless.

            Ash did, sometimes. However, he would always read the hearts of those he helped. He did not want to do a service to, say, an axe-murderer wanted in the orange islands.

            However, that wasn’t everything.

            He wasn’t exactly light.

 

            Ash winced slightly as he felt the gentle pressure of his teeth on the inside of his lip. He still needed to feed.

            True, he didn’t need to draw blood often, once a month was more than enough, and if things got really bad he could just consume ten gallons of magic elixir, but that always gave him headaches for days afterwards.

            At the beginning, Lance and Charlotte had let him feed off them, but soon, he found out the strange side effects and stopped.

            Spotting a prospective prey, Ash flew down and landed catlike on the fire escape. Sure enough, there was a teenager, sneaking out.

            He couldn’t see Ash, of course.

            Ash quickly wove an illusion around the poor unfortunate soul, and fed. Not much, less than a cup, which was the amount a girl lost every month due to natural causes. So he knew the person would still live, just feel a little tired.

            Slipping a fifty-dollar bill into the jacket pocket of the kid, he soared off into the sky again.

 

            At home, Lance and Charlotte were waiting.

            “You’re soaked to the skin, Ash.” Charlotte said, as she toweled his hair dry and Lance handed him a mug of hot chocolate with whipped cream.

            “I didn’t even notice the rain.” He said sheepishly.

            Lance shook her head as she handed him an aspirin, which he obediently swallowed. “You don’t’ want to catch cold do you?”

            “No.”

            “Then be good. Your mom’s already in bed, so try to be quiet, ne?”

            “I will.” Ash promised, as he went upstairs to shower.

 

            Charlotte dealt with a flood in Vermillion, while Lance went off to resolve a pack dispute between two Growlithe.

            Being a guardian was nearly full-time.

            When Ash returned, he was sent to the Aqua islands to liberate one of a gym leader’s illegally caught pokemon, and then purify a hot spring that was supposed to heal all ailments.

            Unfortunately, it was useless because of all the garbage the tourists had left behind. Frowning, Ash and his water pokemon went through, collecting all the trash, before Muk leeched out all the toxins in the water.

            “They don’t deserve this.” Ash said, referring to the inhabitants of Aquamarine Island. “I send this spring to the dream realm. The ones there will take care of it.”

            As his eyes glowed purple, the spring vanished from earth completely. Satisfied, Ash surveyed the barren wasteland around him, sure there were no wild pokemon inhabiting it, and left.

 

End Chapter

Started 1/22/03, Completed 1/19/04