Episode 45!

Disclaimer: Shadow does not own pokemon. Shadow owns Destiny, Charlotte, Pika-chan, Vulpix-chan, Angel, etc.

Note: <> indicates telepathy, ** indicates thoughts, and italics indicates poke speech.

Note: Charlotte is exactly 17 years old

Ranma – Heh, you’re right. So you want Flareon? Yay! Fire! *Calms down* Dark Espeon would be cool, Light Umbreon might be kind of hard, but I can try… eevelutions rule! Auburn like Sakura’s on CCS? *Thinks* Bizarre. But it would be cool if it really were that color!
Rowena Ravenclaw – Yay! Another Nelvana hater! Well, another vote for Lance w/reddish brown hair. Vaporeon, hmm…

Dark Ramza – Jolteon is a good pokemon… double kick to cover weakness to rock…

Tmp – Right! Well, I put that in because someone flamed me for Charlotte being a Mary Sue before… *Scowls* Flareon or vaporeon… Actually, Skymew is a water/flying type, but he can’t exactly use it much… so Vaporeon would be good…Lance’s hair is Red? Close… and Ash will stay in Cosmos for a while, explanations will be up later!

SnowTiger – Black? Well, Lance’s hair is black in Ace Sanchez’s fic Pokemon Master… Flareon, eh?

Silver #2: Another vote for black hair? No…

Trutenor – Ash will return home… not telling!

Articuno Trainer Ben – Oh! Thank you! Yes, I saw that Episode. Another vote for reddish-brown? Maybe I’m colorblind… Another vote for Flareon!

Satoshi – Red? *Thinks hard*

Matthais-8888 – Okay! Third vote for Vaporeon! Cool hair color, red-orange w/ gold or silver swirls… Sorry for the ‘filler’ scenes… but I just kind of try to follow the TV way, and there are a lot of fillers there.

Eevee99 – Another vote for Vaporeon! Brown hair? Close!

The Pokemon Reader – Yet another vote for Vaporeon! I guess I know who’s going to win. Yes! You’re the first one who said that Lance’s hair is pink! Actually, I think they should have made it the same red his outfit was… so you want Teresa to stay? Sorry, but it’s a plot thing, you’ll see!

Shadow watched the Episode ‘Talk about an evolution’ Seven times, and I am convinced that Lance’s hair is pink. A dark pink, but pink nonetheless! Contrast his hair color with the red and black of his outfit and you’ll see what I mean… of course, he’s not going to have pink hair in my fic! *Sobs* Pink! It’s a darker shade of pink than Whitney’s hair. How could they do this to the Champion of the Elite Four?!

Actually, in the sunset scene at the end of ‘Rage of Innocence, which I watched today, it looks kind of red-orange. But still! *Scowls*

Episode 45: Arrival in Sapphire city, Mercury badge coming up!

They landed a bare half hour later. Ash now knew why they called it Mercury city. EVERYTHING was blue and silver. Everything. Even the gym was its own shade of icy blue. Ash’s eyes blurred and he felt dizzy.

“Are you okay?” Charlotte asked as they dismounted.

“Everything’s so… blue!” Ash said, in disbelief. “How is this possible?”

“The gym leader is very fond of that color.” Charlotte said dryly. “She’s also pretty hard to beat.”

“Really?” Ash didn’t look convinced.

“Yep. But maybe you’re a better trainer than I am, so I wouldn’t know.” Charlotte said. “I’ll show you in.”

Ash followed her towards the gym.

“So, what do you think?” Vulpix-chan asked as she showed Pika-chan her favorite ice-cream parlor.

Pika-chan’s eyes lit up. “Ice cream!”

“Do you like ice cream?”

“Are you crazy? I love ice cream!” Pika-chan reassured Vulpix-chan. “I don’t know what I would do without sweets!”

“Wai! I’m not the only sugar-happy one!” Vulpix-chan said.

The ice cream storeowner groaned when he saw Vulpix-chan. “Not again! Why does your master send you here to bug me every week?”

Vulpix-chan shrugged and placed a fifty-dollar bill on the counter and produced a list. The man groaned and began scooping ice cream. Pika-chan watched, interested.

< You come here every week? >

< Almost every week. We run out of ice cream really fast. >

< Ah. >

“Okay, I’ll just watch.” Charlotte said, as she pulled out her dark blue pokédex. “I’ve already got this badge.”

Ash walked into the gym and onto the challenger’s platform. “I challenge you for a badge!” He called.

A girl walked out. She had short blue hair in a ponytail, wire-rimmed glasses, and was wearing an ice-blue bodysuit.

“Okay! I’m the Mercury gym leader Amy, and I accept your challenge!” She said.

“But we need a referee.”

“I’ll ref.” Charlotte said.

Amy blanched. “What are you doing here?”

“I came as moral support for my little cousin Ash!” Charlotte said. Ash blinked, but decided to ask about it later.

Amy sighed. “Fine.” *Grr… she’s probably going to help him… I remember when she creamed me with her fire and electric pokemon… *

“All right, so do you want a 2x2, 3x3, or 4x4 battle?” Amy asked.

“3x3!” Ash said.

“WAIT!” Teresa shouted. Ash blinked in confusion. “What?”

“You forgot to wear your costume!” Teresa said as she dragged Ash off towards the bathrooms.

Charlotte slowly blinked. *Okay… *

Ash emerged a few minutes later. He had an ice-blue silk jacket, and dark blue ski pants. His snow boots were white, but he still had his dark blue fingerless gloves. On his head was a little ice-blue hat trimmed with white fur that had a little dark blue pom-pom on the end.

“Very wintry.” Charlotte remarked. Teresa perched herself on the bleachers and began videotaping.

“Challenger chooses first pokemon.” She said, as she picked up two flags.

“I choose Ponyta!” Ash said. His fire-type materialized in a roar of flame and stamped proudly.

Wow! Where are we? I haven’t seen this place before?

< We’re in another dimension, Ponyta. I’ll explain later. > Ash replied.

Ponyta nodded.

“Amy chooses Lapras!”

Ash flinched. * This does not look good for Ponyta. What am I going to do? *

“Lapras, use Surf!” Amy said confidently.

“Ponyta, use Fire Spin to evaporate the water!”

Ponyta’s fire spin canceled out Lapras’s surf attack. Ash sighed in relief. * Good, Ponyta is faster, so it will attack first. *

“Let’s make this quick! Use another Fire Spin to contain Lapras, then use Rage Tackle!”

Ponyta snickered a little bit and did as she was told. As soon as lapras was contained, she charged over and Lapras was hit in the head by a charging horse. In any case, Lapras fainted from the pain.

“Lapras, Return.” Amy said sadly. * I was hoping this would be easy! Grr… *

“First round goes to Ash!” Charlotte said, holding up a green flag.

“Amy chooses Jynx! Lovely Kiss that Ponyta out of action!” Amy shouted.

Jynx waddled over to Ponyta and planted a kiss on its muzzle, before following up with Ice Punch. Ponyta shrieked as it was frozen.

“Ponyta, return!” Ash said. < Don’t worry, girl. > He focused fire energy into its poke ball, and Ponyta was defrosted, but too weak to re-enter battle, without Ash using the Wand or taking it to a center.

“Ponyta is unable to battle.” Charlotte said. She held up the red flag.

Ash thought fast. * I can’t use Storm, she’s weak to ice. The same goes for Pidgey and Oddish. I’m not sure about Butterfree, so that leaves… Skymew or Sunny. *

“Sunny, I choose you!”

< Finally! > Sunny said. She shook herself and prepared to battle.

“Jynx, Blizzard!”

“Sunny, Quick attack!” Sunny dashed past the attack and rammed Jynx. Then, she decided to take the chance and used Flaming Thunder.

A wave of fire mixed with bits of electricity engulfed Jynx. When the smoke cleared, Jynx was still standing.

“No way! What level is that on?” Ash asked in shock.

Teresa shrugged and continued to tape.

“Jynx, Lovely Kiss again!”

“Sunny Pin Missle!” Sunny waited until Jynx was very close, before firing off a Pin Missle attack. The pins all got stuck in Jynx’s hair. Jynx immediately freaked out and pulled out a mirror.

Ash blinked. * Okay… it’s worried about its hair in the middle of a battle? *

Sunny shrugged and used Thunderbolt. Jynx fell over, cross-eyed.

“Jynx is unable to battle! Second round goes to Ash!” Charlotte said. The scoreboard lit up, showing that Amy had 2 pokemon down and Ash had 1.

“I choose Swinub!” Amy shouted. “Use Earthquake!”

Sunny was tossed into the air, hard. < What is that? I’ve never seen that pokemon before? >

< I don’t know either! > Ash said.

< What do we do? > Sunny asked as she struggled to stand.

“Sunny, Return.” Ash said. * So this has to be ice/ground, right? Since this is an ice gym and it knows earthquake. I’ll have to take a chance. *

“Oddish, go! Use Razor Leaf!” Oddish immediately began shooting the razor leaves at the Swinub, which squeaked and fell over.

“Swinub, Powder Snow!” Amy said. “If you freeze Oddish, we can win!”

“Oddish, douse it with Sleep Powder!” Ash commanded. Oddish nodded as the powder drifted over the arena and settled on the Swinub, which began to snore.

“Argh! Swinub, return!” Amy said angrily. “Fine, you win. Here’s your badge.” She handed him a round, light blue pin with the symbol of mercury on it.

Ash grinned and posed for Teresa.

“Great job, Ash!” Charlotte said. “You’re a really good trainer!”

“Thanks!” Ash said, as he pinned his newest badge onto his jacket. He finished with an ending pose, before Teresa shut down her camera.

“Say, where did Pika-chan go?”

“Vulpix-chan probably took her to the ice-cream parlor.” Charlotte said. “I know! I’ll buy you an ice cream!”

“Why?”

“Because you beat Amy! We’ve been rivals for a long time… and it was a good way to humiliate her.”

Ash’s eyebrow twitched, but he accepted her offer.

Charlotte bought Ash a vanilla-chocolate-strawberry-mint chip-double fudge- cookies n’ cream-cherry cheesecake- mocha ice-cream cone. She bought Teresa a mint chip, and she got a strawberry one herself.

“Why me?” The ice cream man moaned. * That girl comes every week and buys like twenty gallons of ice cream! And I have to scoop it all out! *

“Are you ready to go now, Pika-chan?” Ash asked.

Pika-chan nodded. < I had six ice creams! >

Ash’s eyes widened a bit. “Well, I hope you work it all off.”

“So, where are we going next?” Teresa wanted to know.

“Next is Ruby City. But it’s going to take a few days of hiking to get there.”

“No problem.” Ash said. “But first… can I change?”

Charlotte indicated the public restrooms. After Ash changed, they set out for Ruby City. Ash rode Ponyta, Charlotte rode Arcanine, and Teresa rode her Kangaskhan.

“So, Ash, how have things been?”

“Well, I have to change all of my cards now.”

“Really? That’s interesting.” Charlotte said. She held out a stack. “Here are mine. I had to change them too.”

Ash picked one up. It was gold and red with a sun on top.

“They’re called Sunlight cards. Not that creative, but…”

“Pika-chan wants to call mine Ash tree cards.”
Charlotte laughed. “That’s funny!”

Ash scowled a bit, but sighed. “Wait, there’s a pokemon called the Jump?”

“Oh no, those are spirits I changed into cards.” Charlotte explained. “When you become a card master, you can create cards, but you already know that. I’m just copying Clow’s cards, just in case.”

“I see.”

End Episode 45! C&CC please! Flames will be used to summon Byakko-seikun! 10 needed reviews for next chapter.

Poll: If Ash’s primary magic type is ‘Star’, what should his second type be?

Thunder

Shadow

Wind/Flying

Earth

Psychic

Other (not fire or ice or dragon because I need those for other characters)