Episode 104! Still feeling sick n’ tired…

Disclaimer: I don’t own pokemon. A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far, away, I did, but then I lost it to the evil WB empire, and Nintendo, and Hasbro, and Shogakukan Comics…

Notes: italics indicates pokemon speech in English, indicates thoughts, and <> indicates telepathic communication.

Lance = Crystal. Lance is a girl.

Timeline: 3 days later

Episode 104: Exploring the back towns of Kanto

“Vulpix, use Flamethrower!”

Vulpix breathed out a stream of fire, setting the towering pile of mail on fire. Ash sighed as they were reduced to ashes.

“Now I know now why the Elite Four stay out of sight and never give anyone their addresses…”

“Fan mail?” Teresa asked. * I made $8900000 selling pictures of Ash online last night! This is a profitable line of work! *

“Yep.”

Lance walked in, with lemonade for the three of them and chocolate chip cookies for Pika-chan. Pika-chan got little hearts for eyes.

“Thank you Crystal!”

“You’re welcome.” Lance said, laughing, as she set the tray down.

Ash grabbed a cookie. “Hey, these are good.”

Teresa nodded. “Did you make them?”

“I just used the recipe in the cookbook.” Lance said. “So, Ash, what are you going to do now? You’ve already fulfilled your dream, haven’t you?”

“I don’t know.” Ash said. “But there are more leagues out there, and I want to compete in them all!”

“Immediately?”

“No, I’m thinking. Why don’t the three of us take a long road trip and explore Kanto?”

“Sounds good to me.” Teresa said.

“We’ll stay away from the major cities and just visit the smaller towns. Who knows, there might be something special out there!”

“You’re right.” Lance said. “So, when are we leaving?”

“Is tomorrow okay?”

“Fine by me. Teresa?”

“No problem.”

Lance smoothed her hair back and put on a blue headband. Then, she surveyed her reflection in the mirror. She was still wearing her blue jeans and blue tank top, but the fingerless gloves were gone. Lance shrugged and put on a pair of white wristbands instead.

< You look nice. >

< Thank you, Dratini. >

< No problem. >

“So, where to, first?” Ash asked. Then, he had a light bulb over his head. “Oops, I forgot something.” He pulled out his staff. “Ditto!”

The amoeba pokemon popped out and looked at Ash questioningly. Ash handed it four poke balls, containing Vaporeon, Jolteon, Flareon, and Sunny.

“Can you take care of them for me?”

Ditto nodded.

< Don’t get in trouble, little brother! > Sunny called.

< I won’t! >

Ditto transformed into Ash. “I’ll take care of the challengers too.” He said. His voice was a tiny bit higher, but hardly noticeable.

“Okay! Thank you.”

Ditto waved as they rode off, Ash and Lance on Rapidash, and Teresa riding her Kangaskhan.

“So, where are we going first?”

“The lighthouse near Cerulean Cape seems to be the closest.” Ash said, consulting his map. “Oh, Bill made the pokemon storage system?”

“You didn’t know?” Teresa asked, shocked.

“No…”

“Maybe I can get him to re-route any catches to Giovanni.” Ash said. “Let’s go!”
Rapidash nodded and sped up, kicking up sand under her feet.

Soon, they reached a sandy beach. Off in the distance, a few miles away, lay a lighthouse.

“Hey, the sun’s still up, let’s go play!” Teresa suggested.

“Great idea, Teresa!”

Teresa smiled, and they all rolled up their pant legs and ran splashing into the salty water.

Lance let Articuno and charmander out of their poke balls, so they could play as well. Charmander just yawned and took a nap, but Articuno flew around, darting over the water and looking for fish.

Ash released all his pokemon as well. Pidgey and Butterfree started a game of freeze tag with Skymew and Storm. Oddish plunked himself down on the sand and began to photosynthesize. Rapidash ran up and down on the beach, kicking up sand and seashells happily. Eterneon dived into the water and took an invigorating swim.

Zapdos began flirting with Articuno, who blushed and tried to drive him away with powder snow, but Zapdos was pretty darn persistent.

Lance smiled. “It’s so cute!”

Ash shrugged. * Whatever makes Zapdos happy… *

“Wish Ash would act like that around me…” Teresa muttered.

As night fell, they walked towards the lighthouse.

“Welcome!” A voice said.

The group looked up and saw a guy in a very ugly brown suit with green, kind of curly hair, waving to them.

“Are you Bill the pokémaniac?”

“That’s me.” Bill said, shaking hands with Ash. “How may I help you?”

“You designed the PC transfer and storage system, right?”

Bill nodded. “Why?”
“Can you re-route my pokemon to the Viridian City gym instead of to Professor Oak’s lab?”

“Sure. Just give me a few minutes to change the coordinates. You do have permission from Giovanni, right?”

“Yep!”

After changing the PC, and a delicious meal cooked by Pika-chan, the group sat on the cliff near the lighthouse.

“Every night, for many weeks, a giant pokemon has been coming.” Bill said. “I want to find out what it was, so I copied its cry. Tonight, we can see it at last.”

“Wow…” Ash said.

Teresa suddenly got little stars around her head. “I’ll make you a costume!”

Ash fell over.

“What a great idea!” Pika-chan seconded. Ash sighed.

“Did you hear that?”

“Maybe this rare pokemon will be the key to our promotion.”

“Who knows?”

Let’s get it! Ninetails said. The others nodded and they began to plot.

Ash wound up dressed in a white vest with lots of gray horizontal lines running across it, which fell a few inches past his hips, over a light orange, long-sleeved, loose shirt and loose orange pants. His boots were light gray and only went a few inches past his ankles. From his back extended a pair of yellow-orange-and-white Dragonite wings, and a Dragonite tail as well. He was wearing a black headband with little antennae, like the ones a Dragonite would have. Embroidered on his vest was a picture of a dark blue dragonair. His belt was dark blue and fastened behind his back.

“Okay, ready!” Teresa told Bill, who sweatdropped. He began playing his tape of the creature’s voice.

Lance narrowed her eyes. * It is Dragonite. The legendary one who tested me so I could become the Dragon Master… *

Answering howls echoed from across the sea.

Soon, a large shape was visible. True, it was a Dragonite, much as Teresa had predicted with her costume.

And of course, TR decided to attack now with their ice guns. Ooh. They did some research. Dragon is weak to ice, after all!

Dragonite roared in pain and began lashing out, throwing Hyper Beams everywhere.

This does not look good. Ninetails murmured.

Meanwhile, up on the island.

“Storm, help!” Ash said, throwing out the dragon pokemon and climbing on it. He gave Crystal a hand up as well.

Storm nodded and charged up a bolt of fire. Then, she threw the Flamethrower attack at Team Rocket.

“AAAHHHHHHHHHH! LOOKS LIKE TEAM ROCKET IS BLASTING OFF AGAIN!”

There was a *ding* and they vanished from view.

Dragonite turned and began walking away.

“Oh no, don’t go!” Bill begged, but it was too late. Teresa did get several shots of it, though, and that made Bill very happy. The next morning, the group left the lighthouse.

“Do you think we’ll see it again?” Ash asked.

“Who knows? Perhaps…”

End Episode 104! *Yawns* I’m tired no, so sleepy… ZZZZ…

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