Episode 84! 12 x 7!

Disclaimer: Come on; is this being shown on T.V.? If not, then I obviously am not the owner of pokemon. I wish it was mine, but I don’t think I’ll be finding any genie lamps anytime soon. Oh, but Destiny and the others are mine and mine alone!

Notes: <> indicates telepathy, **indicates thoughts, italics indicates translated poke speech! Yay! Read my notes!

Lance is a girl. Just in case you still haven’t figured it out.

Ranma – yep, I definitely think Lance is jealous. Oh well, it will work out somehow.

Mathias-8888 – well, you’ll have to wait a couple of chapters until Teresa returns, sorry if I’m boring you… *thinks*

Digifan1 – thank you! ^_^

HellFlameVulpix – Hehehehe, kind of devious, isn’t she?

MoonDaemon – I said that Teresa was off in the Orange Islands, remember? ^_^

Xaero – guess what, almost everyone hates Teresa but one or two fans do like her so I can’t kill her off yet… but don’t worry… sure, submit a character, might take me a while to use him/her because I’m already writing Episode 140ish…

Episode 86: Articuno attacks! Facing the titan of ice!

“This place is huge.” Ash said, looking around at the icy cavern. “It’s beautiful.”

Lance nodded.

“Why don’t you use this chance to catch some water pokemon, Crystal?”

“But I only have a Charmander.” Lance said, hugging the little fire lizard to her chest. “I don’t think it would be a good idea.”

“Well, in that case…let’s just explore!”
Pika-chan munched on a lemon popsicle as they walked. Maybe the cold wasn’t affecting her at all.

“The cave ends here.” Lance said, looking perplexed. “But there’s an island across all this water.”

“Let’s surf across and see.” Ash said.

“But your pokemon are all tired from the trip here.”

Ash pulled out his Wand of the Water Guardian. “Never fear – wait! What’s happening?” The wand with the blue gem that Charlotte had given him was glowing with icy blue light.

“It’s reacting to something!” Pika-chan said in a hushed whisper.

“Could it be Articuno? The swimmers did mention something about a legend.” Lance offered.

“You’re right.” Ash said. * Disturb not the balance of fire, ice, and electricity. I’m electricity and Charlotte’s fire, but who’s ice? Oh well, if Articuno is nearby, I can try to tame it. *

“Then we have to go surf across.” Ash said as he healed Vaporeon and Storm.

“Better not use Storm. Dragons are weak to ice.”

“Then I’ll use a card.” Ash said. “Key that hides the power of the stars, reveal your true form before me! Your master under the seal of contract Ashura commands you, Release.”

His staff appeared in a twinkling of bright lights. Ash took it and pulled out a card.

“How about Golduck?” The elegant water pokemon materialized and they both climbed on. “Okay, Golduck, let’s Surf.”

Soon, they reached an island.

“It’s Articuno.” Ash breathed, watching the sleeping bird.

“It’s so pretty…” Lance added. * Articuno, the ice-type. Technically it should be mine, as the second guardian, but… I’m not sure. Can I catch it without revealing myself to Ash? It’s not time yet. *

As if Articuno had sensed her thoughts, it suddenly opened its eyes and awoke.

“AAHHHHH!”

“Run for it!” Ash yelled as they dashed off the island and hopped on the waiting water pokemon. Then, they took off.

Articuno chased them, throwing ice beams left and right.

“This is not good.” Lance whispered as she ducked down to avoid a very large bolt of flying ice.

“We have to fight back, Ash.”

“How?” Ash asked. * Articuno’s still my sister, well; actually, this one is one of my numerous cousins because my sis lives on Ice Island, but still! I can’t just fight it! *

Lance stood up with a determined look on her face. “Charmander, I choose you!”

“Are you insane?!” Ash demanded. “There’s no way you can beat Articuno with a Charmander, even if it is weak to fire!”

“Flamethrower!”
Ash sighed. * She’s not listening to me… *

Articuno shockingly did not avoid the flame. Instead, it crashed straight into it.

“Now finish it with Ember!” Lance said.

Ash’s jaw dropped. * No way! *

Articuno dropped like a rock. Lance smiled and threw an Ultra ball at it.

Articuno was captured!

Ash slowly removed his jaw from the floor. “Crystal?! What level is your Charmander on?”

“I don’t know. Around sixty?”

“Wow!” Pika-chan said.

“I guess with only one pokemon to train it’s pretty easy to level up highly quite quickly…”

“Wow, with an Articuno, you’ll do really well at the League Championships.” Ash said.

Lance looked kind of sad. “I’m not going to compete. I don’t have any badges, anyways.”

“Why not?”

“Well… my parents don’t approve of pokemon training. I kind of ran away from home… they don’t’ know I’m out here.”

“I see. Okay then. I won’t force you to compete.” Ash said.

“Thanks, Ash.” * He’s nice. He’s still pretty naïve too. I’m glad, one of the guardians has to retain some semblance of childhood… *

They were almost out of the cave, when, all of a sudden, water and ice pokémon appeared out of nowhere and began attacking them.

“What’s going on?!” Pika-chan demanded as she Thundershocked some out of their path. * Is there something wrong? *

“I don’t think they’ll let us leave with Articuno without a fight.” Ash said, as he reached for his key. “We’ll have to force our way out.”

“That’s bad.” Lance said.

“Don’t worry, I’ll protect you!” Ash said. * We’re the same age, but she’s still my responsibility. *

“Key that hides the power of the stars, reveal your true form before me! Your master under the seal of contract Ashura commands you, Release!”

The staff formed. Ash gave it a few experimental spins before throwing out some pokemon cards.

“Venusaur, go! Use razor leaf!” The sharp leaves flew in all directions, knocking the water pokemon out of the way. However, some Seel and Dewgong teamed up and used Ice Beam and Aurora Beam against the vulnerable grass-type.

“Charmander, use Rage!” Charmander nodded and began obeying Lance’s orders, sending some of the pokemon flying.

“Go away!” Pika-chan shouted, shocking more of them.

After about fifteen minutes, our heroes were getting tired out, but more pokémon just kept coming.

“You know, Ash, sometimes discretion is the better part of valor.” Pika-chan remarked.

“What does that mean?”

“You know when to fight, and when to run away!” Pika-chan replied cheerfully. Ash sweatdropped.

“So you’re telling us to run?”

“Charmander’s getting really low on HP, Ash.” Lance said in a small voice.

“Oh, sorry Crystal.”

Lance would have said more, but a stray Confusion attack from a nearby Psyduck went wild and hit her.

Lance clutched her head in pain. “No! Stop!”

“Crystal!” Ash said. “All right Pika-chan, you’ve proved your point. Teleport Ring!” A chain of multicolored energy surrounded them and they vanished into thin air, leaving vengeful water pokemon staring at empty space.

“Will she be okay?” Ash asked Nurse Joy as they stopped at the pokemon center. Joy looked grave.

“I can’t be certain. But we’ll do our best.”
Ash looked guilty. * This is my fault… if I had listened to Pika-chan when she told me to leave, this wouldn’t have happened! *

Pika-chan looked a bit shamefaced as well. * She makes such nice snacks… I didn’t want her to get hurt! *

“What can we do?” Ash asked.

“Hope and pray.” Joy said shortly. “If all is well, she’ll be back on her feet tomorrow morning.”

Ash and Pika-chan sighed.

Sometime in the middle of the night, Lance woke up. Her head still throbbed, but the pain and magic drain was gone.

“So you’re the one.” A voice said. “The second guardian of the triple guardianship with the power of ice, water, and dragon.”

“Hi.” Lance said tiredly. Charlotte tsked.

“You almost blew your cover!”

“I know. I’m sorry. But I can’t give up, I have to keep testing Ash until he changes all of them.”

Charlotte nodded. “Take care of yourself. Bob is gone, but there may still be other dangers out there.”

Lance nodded. Charlotte vanished in a whirl of red light.

End Episode 86! So, what do you think? Comments and Constructive Criticism create food for plotbunnies! Flames will be used to create Jump, who will turn into a giant rabbit and crush Nelvana!