Episode 154! Wow, I have enough episodes for all the Kanto pokemon.

Disclaimer: Hmm… no, I don’t think I own pokemon. Charlotte, Destiny, etc. belong to me. Unfortunately, nothing else does.

Notes: <> indicates telepathy, ** indicates thoughts, italics indicates translated pokemon speech…

Yes, Lance is a girl. Just in case there’s a new reader or two.

Episode 154: Happiness and Annoyance

Ash got up shakily and brushed himself off. * Good thing I managed to use Pidgeot’s wings in time. * Eusine was lying quite still on the ground, bleeding.

Ash frowned. * Well, I can’t just leave him here. *

“Are you all right, Ash?” Pika-chan asked, fluttering in front of his face.

“Yes, Pika-chan. But he isn’t.”

Pika-chan tsked. “Oh well.”

“Pika-chan! We can’t just leave him here.”

“Of course not!”
Pika-chan yawned and glowed bluely for a second, before Eusine vanished. “There. He’ll wake up in the Viridian City hospital.”

“Oh. Thank you, pika-chan.”

“Just give me snacks!”
Ash pulled a package of Fudge cookies out of his backpack and tossed them to her. Pika-chan glomped the cookies happily.

“Yay!”

“Let’s leave this tower.” Ash said. “It doesn’t feel right.”

“I know.” Pika-chan said. Ash released Diglett, who assented to digging them out. Soon, they emerged.

Lance was waiting for them as they walked into the pokemon center.

“Ash, what happened?”

“The roof wasn’t strong enough to battle on.”

“Oh.” Lance said. She peered at him. “You should go take a shower.”

“I know.” Ash said.

“And change out of the costume. It’s a mess. You might want to ditch the mask too, you’re getting weird looks.”

Ash looked at what had once been a pristine green shirt and black pants. “Point taken.” He handed Joy his poke balls, before he headed for the showers.

After a long, luxurious shower, Ash reemerged in his standard outfit… red-and-white jacket, black t-shirt, black jeans, and red and white sneakers. His league cap was on his head, and his black hair was neatly spiked back. It was growing quite long. Maybe a ponytail would be needed soon.

Lance was waiting.

“Come on, I’ll treat you to dinner.”

“Really?” Ash glomped Lance happily. “Yay!”

Lance’s eyebrow twitched slightly. “Come on, where do you want to go?”

“How about that Italian restaurant over there?”

“Why not?”
Lance and Ash collected their pokemon from Joy and headed off to the restaurant.

They had a delicious dinner of pasta, finished off with Gelato and Flan. It was very tasty, which made Ash really happen.

“Yummy…”
Lance smiled as she watched Ash inhale ice cream. “You must really like sweets. Maybe even more than Pika-chan.”

“Nah.” Ash said. Pika-chan had already consumed no less than twenty-one ice cream cones. “I’ve only had six.”

Lance twitched slightly. * Sigh… oh well. Someone has to be happy. He’s so cute! And still a kid, even after everything. Oh well. Maybe that’s why he’s referred to as the youngest guardian in the prophecy. *

“Are you going to challenge Morty tomorrow?”

Ash grinned impishly. “You bet!”

“It won’t be a hard battle, at least.”

Ash nodded. * On the other hand, I can always wait a bit; we’re not in that much of a hurry. *

Three days later…

“What?! Morty’s not in his gym?”

The Channeller Ash had just defeated shook her head, sending white bangs flying every which way. “He is gone for solo training.”

“Well, that’s wonderful…” Ash said, a bit sarcastically. “Do you know where he went?”

Shake of heads.

Ash turned to Pika-chan. Skymew fluttered near him, eyes flashing cutely. < Hehehehe, I beat all of those ghost pokemon! >

“Just go fight Jasmine first.”

“Right!” Ash said. He grinned. “Okay, here I come!” He raced out the door. Lance followed him, and they ran all the way to Olivine.

*Pant, pant*

“Wow, that was fast.” Ash said, as he had some Fresh Water. “There weren’t any trainers on the way.”

“No, they guard a different route.” Lance explained. “We took the longer way.”

“We did?”

Lance nodded. “If you want to fight some trainers, you can go back to the shorter Route.”

Ash considered. * Well, more EXP and money is good… why not? It might cause a pokemon card to appear as well. *

“Okay!”

Soon, they ran into several junior trainers. Seeing the poke balls on Ash’s belt, they immediately began yelling challenges.

“Well, I can’t fight all of you at the same time.” Ash said. “Who’s going first?”

“Me.” A boy said. He had smooth black hair under a green cap and a blue/green outfit.

“All right, then. Let’s begin.”

“Machop, I choose you!”
Ash stifled a laugh. * This is kind of pathetic… *

“Kadabra, I choose you! Use Psybeam!”
Machop really had no chance…

Kadabra took out the second Machop and Machoke as well. < This is no contest at all. I find it a bit annoying. >

“Darn it! I will avenge you!” One of the boy’s friends shouted. “I am Chris! Go! Pikachu!”

“Interesting.” Ash said. “Kadabra, protect yourself with Light Screen.”

The attack cut the damage from Pikachu’s Thundershock attack in half, so not much was done.

“Kadabra, use Kinesis.”

Kadabra sneered and lowered Pikachu’s accuracy.

Pikachu’s next Thundershock hit, but not the one after that.

Chris panicked. “Pikachu, use Quick Attack!”

“Kadabra, use Psychic!”

“No! Pikachu!” Chris shrieked. “Double Team!”

It was too late. The psychic waves crashing into Pikachu finished it off.

Ash shrugged and recalled Kadabra.

Meanwhile…

“Charmander, Flamethrower now!”

”Oh no! Heracross!” The lass dashed onto the battlefield to look at her injured pokemon. “Heracross, are you okay?”

Heracross weakly managed to stand, before it blacked out.

“Great as usual, Charmander.” Lance praised her pokemon. Charmander wagged his tail happily.

A few battles later, Ash getting tired, because he was only using his pokemon cards. Lance noticed this.

“Last battle, Ash. You need to rest.”

Ash didn’t argue with the ice master’s logic. < Okay. >

“Bellossem, finish it off with Giga Drain!”

The poor Graveler really had no chance at all…

Bellossem smiled and danced happily. She sparkled brightly. Ash recalled her and hopped on Fearow. "Okay, let's hit the pokemon center."

"Well, this is convenient." Lance said.

Ash blinked.

Lance pointed to one of the working nurse pokemon. Only this one had a faint, barely visible glow to it.

"That's-. What is it?"

"Togetic. Togepi’s evolution." Lance said. "Just like the Chansey card, it does not like to fight.”

Ash nodded.

“But first, you need to get disguised just in case.”

Ash sweatdropped; but accepted the logic. He dropped his poke balls off with Nurse Joy, before heading into the bathroom. He wore a long blonde wig and a white shirt with pink ruffles on it, over a pair of white pants with the same ruffles. He also had white conductor gloves and pink shiny shoes.

Ash darted out furtively, glancing about. Pika-chan was snapping pictures and trying hard not to laugh.

“Under a new seal of contract, your master commands you, return to your true form, pokemon card.”

Togetic looked sweetly at Ash before she vanished.

Ash smiled before he fainted.

“Idiot.” Lance said a bit affectionately. She scooped him up and took him upstairs to a room. Then, she sprayed him with Starshine potion.

Ash stirred, still asleep.

< Get some rest. > Lance said. Then, she left.

End Episode 154!

Flames = DIE! Reviews = authoress handing out food and promising to update faster.

So… since I’m hurt, I’ll be updating slower. But I felt nice so I put up 2 chapters.