Episode 97! A long, chain of episodes… Urk. Sounds like episomes. NO! GET OUT OF MY HEAD, EVIL BIOLOGY SPIRITS!

Disclaimer: Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who truly owns pokemon, one and all?

*Mirror shows a picture of Nintendo, Satoshi Tajiri, and lots of other companies*

Not mine! But I do own destiny, Charlotte, Pika-chan…

Notes: <> indicates telepathy, ** indicates thoughts, italics indicates pokemon talking. I tend to deviate from the animation storyline, in case you haven’t noticed, so no complaints about being non-canon.

Timeline: Two days later, Ash is leaving for his battle on the rock field…

Xaero – don’t’ like garlic? More’s the pity, oh well…

Ranma – I’m sure you’ll figure it out… *Wink*

Vulpix Dark Flame – I’m happy, I love designing costumes! ^_^

Digifan1- why would I make Ash lose? *Confused* unless it was a plot device, which I’ve already used before…

Guy Shani – all right. Lance is not evil. The guardians will be revealed in a few chapters. Lance isn’t afraid to use her magic, she’s more powerful than either Ash or Teresa right now, so she could easily wipe their memories. And remember, Lance’s specialty is illusion, so who can see?

Episode 97: Magma Eruption! Fire and earth unite!

“Prepare for Trouble!”

“And make it double!”

“To protect the world from devastation!”

“To unite all peoples within our nation!”

“To denounce the evils of truth and love!”

“To extend our reach to the stars above!”

“Amy!”

“Jake!”

“Team Rocket blasts off at the speed of light!”

“Surrender now or prepare to fight!”

“Ninetails!”

“Not you again.” Ash groaned.

“Hand over your pokemon, twerp!”

“Who are they calling a twerp?” Teresa muttered as she safely retreated to the sidelines with her camera ready.

“Oh no!” Ash’s mom said.

“Now, now, I’m sure Ash can handle himself.” Oak said, as he led Delilah to the side, out of harm’s way.

“Not you two again.” Lance said.

“We’re not interested in you.” Jake said.

“But enough talking!” Amy reprimanded. “Snubbull, go! Use your Scary Face!” Snubbull’s face enlarged and it glared at Ash.

“Mankey, use Low Kick!”

“Oh no you don’t!” Ash said. “Pikachu, I choose you!” Pika-chan took that as her cue and jumped off his shoulder.

“PIKACHU!” She shouted, frying them with Thunderbolt.

Ninetails entered the fray by spraying Confuse Rays left and right, causing no small amount of confusion.

Meanwhile, Amy had pulled out a flamethrower. Who knows how they got it, TR is pretty resourceful.

She fired off a blast of fire at Ash, who cringed and tried to get out of the way, but unfortunately, he tripped over a rock.

“Ow!”

“ASH!” His mom screamed, as she tried to rush over and help, but Professor Oak held her back.

“My baby!”

A blue aura surrounded Lance, as she quickly shielded Ash with Mist. Her eyes were closed, and her dark red hair billowed slightly in an invisible wind as she released the magic.

Ash looked up to see a shield protecting him. “How? Oh well, I won’t waste time.” He grabbed his key and activated it with a simple Release.

“Card created by Clow, please accept this new star power and take on your new form! Your new master Ashura commands you, Release! Rhydon!”

Rhydon appeared and charged the rockets. Amy panicked and fired off more and more blasts of flame, but Rhydon just brushed them off.

“Of course!” Professor Oak said. “Rhydon lives inside boiling lava! It would not be affected by Team Rocket’s flamethrowers.”

“Ash!” His mom screamed, as she rushed over. “Oh, I was so worried…”

Lance opened her clenched fists and released her hold on the water shield. * That was kind of tiring… I wonder why? *

< I know. > A voice whispered in her head. < It’s midday. Your magic is very weak at this time. And water shield’s a very strong spell. >

< Oh. Thank you, Dragonair. >

< No hay problema. >

“Well, let’s go to the stadium now.” Ash said, as he tried vainly to brush the soot off his clothes.

“Ash! You’re covered with black dust! You can’t go in like that!” Oak said sounding scandalized.

“Don’t worry!” Teresa said. “I have come to the rescue!” With a flourish, she whirled out a costume.

Ash sweatdropped. * Just my luck… *

< Just do it. > Pika-chan said.

Ash sighed as he took the costume and headed for the convenient bushes situated nearby.

When he emerged, he had a dark brown coat trimmed with gold at all the edges, tan pants, boots with three black stripes on them, and a fawn-colored headband.

“I like it!” Ash’s mom said. “You look so cute, little Ashy!”

Ash turned bright red. “Mom!”

“It looks interesting.” Lance said, as she surveyed him. “Brown doesn’t suit you that well.”

“Well, it looks fine to me!” Teresa said, glaring at Lance.

Lance glared back.

Ash gulped. * Oh no! I hate it when girls fight! *

“Crystal…”

“Hai?” Lance asked, turning to look at him and turning on the sparkly eyes and rose petals effect.

“Let’s just go to the stadium…”

“Okay!”

Teresa glared.

Indigo Stadium…

“Flareon, use Fire Blast!” Flareon exhaled and flamed Andrew’s Vileplume. It toppled over, charred black.

“Argh! Vileplume, return!” Andrew said.

“Vileplume is unable to battle! This round goes to Ash!” The ref proclaimed.

Andrew recalled his Vileplume. * Darn, that Flareon’s already finished off Vileplume and Tangela. Guess I’ll have to play type advantage… *

“Nidorino, go!”

Ash looked at Flareon, who nodded.

“Flareon, Return!”

“What?” Asked the announcer. “It seems that Ash withdraws his pokemon almost completely at random! What sort of strategy is this?”

“A smart one.” Ash muttered. “Jolteon, go!”

“Ooh!” Said all of the eevee-obsessed fangirls in the crowd.

“Nidorino, use Horn Drill!”

“Jolteon, use Agility!” Jolteon dashed around, evading Nidorino’s charges.

“Darn it!” Andrew said angrily. “Hit it with a Toxic attack to slow it down!”

Nidorino nodded and sprayed Jolteon with black gooey fluid.

Jolteon looked disgusted. Yuck! Get this off me!

< Hang in there, Jolteon. Use Pin Missle! >

Jolteon nodded and sunk Nidorino full of needles. Nidorino roared in pain and charged blindly.

Jolteon waited until it was almost there, before he zapped it with a Thunderwave, paralyzing it.

“Nidorino is unable to battle! This round goes to Ash!”

Ash smiled as he recalled Jolteon. “Here’s a Psncureberry for you.”

Jolteon smiled and chomped happily, along with some berries Ash had provided.

“You did great!” Pika-chan said.

Jolteon blushed. You think so?

“I know so!”

Ash posed with his three pokemon (Pika-chan, Flareon, and Jolteon) for the cameras.

Ash’s mom and Oak were clapping.

“He did a good job raising his pokemon.” Oak said.

Delia nodded. “He gets it from his father, I think.”

“Just who is Ash’s father?

Delia shrugged and didn’t’ say anything.

“You did it, Ash!” Lance said, as she ran onto the field and hugged him.

“Yep!” Ash said, smiling brightly.

Teresa scowled. * Grr… *

End Episode 97! *Smiles* Please drop a review, it will make me very happy! *Hands out candy to reviewers* Flames will be used to forge Return, and I’ll trap Nelvana in the past before they made CC so they can’t make it! Confused?

Or, I will use flames on the evil reviewer for Looped who I have an insane desire to kill…