Episode 166! *COLLAPSES* Man, I got no sleep in Mexico and got sick.

 

Disclaimer: What made you think pokemon was mine? *Takes dried frog pills away from readers* Anyways, Destiny and others are mine but pokemon is not!

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

 

Dark-magician – I have read your fic, I think

Ranma – heh, I suppose…

Link masters – no, Giselle hasn’t trained with magic, but you never know.

SS2 Megami-sama – I love Kairo *huggles*

Blackness44 – hehehe

DrigerVulcan46 – okay…

Aragorn the Ranger – I understand

Alanzia – well, I know. But I like leaving blank spots so imagination can flow…

Digifan1 – k!

Sakura Avalon – I did, and thanks

Air Sylph – oh? *Raises eyebrows* only takes 2 minutes to review, but I’m glad you’re reading

Elizabeth – yes

Random reviewer – oh? Some bakas don’t read my author notes, perhaps you should try starting form the beginning and it might make sense that way.

 

Episode 166: Even when you’re prepared, Judgment is still hard…

 

            When the eye-scarring flashes cleared, Ash saw Giselle floating there. He also saw the Johto book glowing in midair, and a frantic Geo-chan. The book opened, and six shadowy shapes appeared. They glowed and stretched into six pokemon, never seen before. Well, at least Ash had heard about them.

The first one was a red cat with fairy-like wings. On its head was a tuft of flames. Its chest was covered with orange fur, and it had a long, whippy tail. “Flaris.” It said, baring its teeth.

The second cat was a pale blue-green color with fins instead of front paws and a ridge of silver along its back, along with silver wings/fins. “Hydroxis.” It said, as it flapped its fins slightly.

The third cat was a grass-green color, with a wreath of pink and purple flowers around its neck and ears. Huge wings that seemed to be made out of a single flower protruded from its back. “Floweris.” It said, as some petals blew towards Ash and Giselle.

The fourth cat was white with gold lightning shapes on its chest and cheeks. It had a pair of spiky gold wings and a long tail tipped with golden spikes. “Sparkle.” It said, as it flapped its wings and the sound of thunder was heard.

The fifth cat was lavender with pale black wings and black stripes. “Supernatural.” It said, as it shot a psychic beam towards them. Fortunately, the beam missed by less than an inch. Lance laid a hand on Ash’s shoulder as he tensed.

The last cat was pure black with blood-red eyes and wings. “Demon.” It said, as it focused on them with evil intent. Red eyes glowed malevolently.

The challengers and their opponents were ready. Now it was simply a matter of time. The cats focused on Ash first. “You were not the one chosen by decision maker Geodude, and yet you wish to challenge us? You do know this is a direct violation of the rules of guardianship.”

 

Pika-chan hissed. “What do you mean?! The Johto cards were supposed to go to Ash, but Geo-chan stole them!”

“That is not our problem.” Flaris said. “Shall you battle us, then?”

Pika-chan stepped down as Luna bit her tail. “Ow!”

“You have to let Ash handle this on his own.” Luna said through a mouthful of tail.

“Grr…”

Lance nodded. “Good luck, Ash.”

“So let it begin.” Demon said.

 

A dome of dark green energy went up around Ash and the pokemon judges, even cutting off telepathic communication.

Ash narrowed his eyes. They were waiting for him to make the first move. He tightened his grip on his staff and remembered what Pika-chan had said. * I can’t use their elements…. So no fire, water, grass, poison, electric, psychic, ghost, or dark… this is bad. No flying either… *

Sighing, Ash shrugged and pulled out a card. * Here goes… *

“Steelix, Scizor, go! Use Iron Tail and Metal Claw!”

The two steel types attacked, managing to fell Sparkle and nearly knock out Supernatural before Flaris hit them with an extremely well aimed Fire Blast attack. Ash quickly recalled the two pokemon.

Hydroxis began firing off bubblebeam attacks, trying to slow him down, while Supernatural and Demon concentrated and Night Shade mixed with Confuse Ray filled the area.

Ash gulped. * Better try something… * He pulled out another pokemon card. “Fearow, go! Use Drill Peck!”

Fearow nodded and attacked, beak spinning wildly. Supernatural couldn’t take any more and fainted, while Demon fell to the ground, his wings damaged so he couldn’t fly anymore.

Fearow attacked with another Drill peck, but Hydroxis started firing Ice Beams. Ash quickly threw out Raikou; now that Sparkle was gone he could use electric types. “Raikou, Thunder!”

Hydroxis wailed, as a water/flying type she was extremely weak to electricity. However, Floweris quickly dived in front of her, absorbing most of the attack. Ash glared. * Can’t use fire yet… *

“Golem, go!”

The two cats quickly converged on it, while Ash snuck up behind Flaris and knocked it out with a Summon Rain spell. Fearow suddenly cried in pain, as a Zap Cannon attack from Demon crashed into it, forcing Ash to recall him.

Golem waited until they were almost upon him before he used Explosion, knocking out both cats.

With only Demon left, Ash quickly summoned Eterneon. A light ray and the battle were over.

 

However, Giselle wasn’t going to let him win easily. Ash was just about to turn the pokemon into Ash cards when he suddenly cried out in pain as Giselle’s Skarmory card drilled into his back.

“Unfair!” Pika-chan cried, as she launched herself at Geo-chan with murder in her eyes. Geo-chan threw her off and began hurling rocks.

Lance summoned out her own staff and froze Skarmory solid with Freeze. Then, she turned to Giselle.

“So, you can’t attack openly so you stab people in the back.” She said. “Too bad.” She pulled a brown ribbon out of her hair, looped it around double and tied a complicated bow in it. Giselle suddenly found her body contorted in the shape of the ribbon.

 

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

The six pokemon vanished and reappeared as ‘Ash cards’. Ash smiled and hugged them to his chest.

The green dome went down and Ash walked out.

 

Lance quickly ran over to him and began pouring soothing chi over his wounds. < Don’t worry, Ash, I’ll have you all healed up. >

< Thank you. >

A few minutes later, the wound was gone as it had never been, but a faint scar remained.

 

“Your turn.” A voice said. Before Ash could blink, Giselle was encased in the same forest-green dome, and another six cat pokemon appeared before her.

“Key of Clow, hear my plight, the wand reveal, the force ignite! Release!”

“Skarmory, Release and Dispel! Steel Wing!”

As Skarmory moved to strike Sparkle, Flaris spat out a Flamethrower. Skarmory went up in flames.

Giselle threw out Hoppip next. “Hoppip, Release and Dispel! Use Stun Spore!”

“Hoppip is under the control of grass.” Floweris said softly as Hoppip paralyzed Giselle, turning against her.

Giselle froze, looking like a statue.

However, she managed to activate another card. “Cleffa, release and dispel! Use metronome!”

Metronome turned out to be Thunderwave, so Floweris was paralyzed. Hydroxis dived at Giselle, using Water Gun.

Unluckily, the water gun washed off most of the stun spore, so she managed to duck. The cat’s claws grazed her back. Giselle grunted in pain.

“Cleffa, keep attacking! Gligar, Release and dispel! Sand-attack!”

However, Supernatural put up Barrier. “This is boring. Time to finish it. Rainbow wave!”

From each pokemon came a multicolored beam. All the beams hit Giselle. Giselle cried and fainted.

The wand she held exploded in a shower of sparks.

 

The six pokemon stood. “Ashura, we confer upon you the guardianship of the Johto cards.”

“Thank you.” Ash said, smiling. * I wonder how Giselle got more cards? Oh well. They’re mine now. *

“I knew you could do it.” Lance said.

Ash blushed. Then, he noticed something. The ribbon around his neck had, written in gold curlicues, the word ‘Victory’.

“Lance! Did you cheat for me?”

“Oh no.” Lance said, slightly affronted. “It was just for luck.”

 

Ash sighed in relief. * I wouldn’t want to get the mastery of the Johto set just by cheating. That would make me worse than Giselle. *

 

He sighed and swayed a bit. Lance glared at him. “Did you use your own healing powers?”

“Well, I didn’t want to drain you…”

Lance sighed. “I can take care of myself.” She sighed and dumped a bottle of potion over Ash. “Here you go.”

“Thanks.” Ash said in relief as he absorbed it.

“No problem, but can you just be more careful, even if it’s just a façade?”

“All right…”

 

Lance looked at him again. “Get some rest.” Her eyes flashed bluer and hypnosis rings surrounded Ash. He tried to fight off the somnolent power but was unable to. His eyes drifted over as he finally succumbed to slumber.

“Better let his body heal on his own.” Luna said.

“I know,” Pika-chan said, slightly peeved.

Lance’s eyes glowed and she teleported them to Ice Island. There, she set up camp and tucked Ash into bed, before falling asleep herself.

 

End Episode 166!

 

Bittersweet…

MANGA! I got book 10 of pokemon adventure in Chinese. And guess what, Lance and Claire are siblings! Lance is her older brother.

There’s a reason for me not to support dragonshipping… incest.

 

*Sighs* There goes my ‘Lance is a girl’ theory, because of the explicit reference. Who knows though? In book seven, Lance is shown alone. Anyone remember the flashbacks?

Steven also shows up  in book 10!

Morty is cool…

Eusine looks like a freak in the manga… I mean really. My friend thinks he’s cool though.

Crystal, unfortunately, seems to me a major Mary-Sue in the manga. What a pity.

 

Why do Lance and Claire both live in caves behind complicated waterfalls and whirlpool maze things?

Does Silver work for Lance in the manga? I didn’t get the thing yet. Unfortunately, book 10 is mostly about crystal. *scowls* What happened to Gold and Silver? Didn’t they fall and were frozen underneath lake of rage?