Episode 182 is here! Well, I feel nice, so here’s an extra chapter for ya!

Disclaimer/Notes: See another chapter, I’m sick of putting it up every time. I’ve written so many chapters already…

Me no own pokemon, you no sue, agreed?

Destiny is mine, steal and die, Charlotte and the guardians are mine as well, as is Hope…

Timeline: One month later

Episode 182: … A blob from outer space?

“Altaria, sing now!”

“No use, Storm, Blizzard!” Yep. Winona’s gym, Fortree City, and it looked like she was losing quite badly, too…

Ash grinned and triumphantly flashed a ‘V’ for Victory as Storm finished off Altaria.

“Great work, Ash!” Charlotte cheered, throwing her batons and pom-poms into the air. Ash grinned and they hi-fived. Then Charlotte fell over, as all the items she had just thrown into the air hit her on the head. Ash sweatdropped.

“Well, I must confer on you my badge.” Winona said, offering the feather badge.

Ash beamed brightly and pinned it onto his vest, before he left, still hyper. * This is one of the one’s Crys doesn’t have yet… *

“So, how have the cards been?”

“Oh, pretty good.” Ash said. “Got Volbeat n’ Torkoal yesterday. But wouldn’t it be okay if I took the guardianship test before I completed this set?”

“Yes, but we’re being cautious.” Charlotte said. She touched a scar on her left arm and winced.

“Is that from?”

“The test? Yes. Scizor.” She refused to divulge any more information. All Ash concluded was that fighting highly powerful pokemon was important.

“Okay then!”

The two of them headed deeper into the tall, grassy plains near Fortree. Charlotte’s eyes suddenly lit up as she thought of something.

“Got it! Let’s train some more.”

‘But…” Ash said. “Won’t your magic be weaker now since it’s raining?”

‘I found a way around that.” Charlotte said, as she flipped out a card. “Want to try it?”

“Sure, why not? RELEASE!” Ash said, activating his wand. “I’ll start out with… Tropius, go! Use Razor Leaf!”

“I know that using a fire type during a rain dance is suicidal, so let’s try… Articuno, Blizzard!” Charlotte said, activating the ice type. The two pokemon began a midair battle, leaves and ice flying everywhere.

“Articuno, use Diamond Dust!”

“What?” Ash asked, then looked shock as Tropius, hit by the attack, began turning into diamond. Panicking, the pokemon immediately dove back into card form and vanished.

“How did you do that?”

“Well, you’ll have to thank the ice guardian for that little trick.” Charlotte said, smiling. “New attack.”

“I see.” Ash said. * So mine can do it as well… okay then! *

“Let’s try this one then, Torchic, you’re up!”

“You seem to like that card.” Charlotte said, as Articuno used Bubblebeam to send the little bird flying. Ash frowned, and swapped for Combusken. Combusken managed to send Articuno up in flames, but shockingly, the bird still managed to freeze Combusken solid before fainting, forcing Ash to recall it as well.

“Hmm…” Ash furrowed his brow, thinking. “Okay then, I’ll just have to direct attack. Pidgeot! Scyther!” The wings and sword formed, and he flew at Charlotte, sending a spray of bubbles at her.

Charlotte eeped and dived underground with a Dig attack. Ash hovered, waiting for her to reemerge.

Just then, a Steelix shot out and nearly crushed him, Ash quickly teleported away and summoned Flareon, who took care of Steelix, and then Blastoise, to flood Charlotte out. It was a good plan…

Until she sent him flying with Murkrow’s faint attack and then nailed him with Thunderwave.

Ash twitched. And twitched some more, until he changed into a Golem and went after the Murkrow.

Charlotte shifted into a Vaporeon and met him head on with Hydro Pump, so Ash switched to a Pichu and brightly used Sweet Kiss.

A few minutes later, a snoozing Charlotte woke up and used Starburst, filling the air with smoke and sparks, allowing her to escape. Ash, undeterred, used the Detect ability and the battling continued.

*CRASH*

Charlotte jumped out of the way as a heavily loaded, armored Ludicolo landed where she had been a millisecond ago.

“Thank goodness I used Dash… hmm, let’s try this! Psychic!”

Ludicolo switched into Absol, and there went the psychic waves. But no damage was done, of course.

And Absol went ahead with Razor wind, sending Charlotte flying, and then she switched to a Steelix again and knocked out Absol, and they both decided it was time for a break.

“Merciful Mew, I’m tired.”

“Me too.”

Two exhausted trainers lay on the grassy fields and munched peanut butter sandwiches.

“Sometimes it seems like the only thing motivating me is endless training…”

“You really think so, Ash?”

Ash looked up and sighed. “I don’t know, but I feel so empty without Crystal… why?”

Charlotte hid a smile at this. “Perhaps it is because you have feelings for her.”

“Eh? Feelings? But… we’re just friends!”

“Are you sure?”

Ash thought back to the few times they had kissed, and a pale pink tinted his cheeks. “But, that was just for luck…”

“Thunder’s guardian, did I ever tell you, you were too naïve for your own good?”

Ash blinked.

Charlotte sighed. *And I remind myself again, why I don’t fall in love. * “I’m sure you’ll understand. You are fifteen, after all!”

Ash blinked some more.

*CRASH*

And that was when the bulky, silver-tinted, obscenely garish orange spaceship landed on top of them.

A few seconds later, the spaceship went flying off into a grove of trees as two peeved guardians blasted it from their wands, respectively. Guess that mix of fire and electricity wasn’t good for the ship.

Ash brushed the dirt out of his hair and coughed. “Yuck!”

Charlotte nodded as she brushed ashes off of her jacket and pants. “Great… it looks like my dry cleaning bill is going to be going up.”

Pika-chan and Vulpix-chan dashed over. “Are you two all right?”

“Sure, as soon as we figure out where that spaceship came from!” Ash declared.

“And figure out if there are any people inside.”

The two finally made their way over to the spaceship. After Arcanine melted open a hole, they peered in.

Inside was a black blob. With blue stalk eyes.

“AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” Pika-chan shrieked.

The other two trainers, who whipped out their respective weapons and got ready to attack, echoed this sentiment.

The blob gargled off some indecipherable language. It sounded like a dirge.

“I’m getting miserable just standing near this thing.” Charlotte said, as she ran a few feet away. Ash followed suit, he was already pretty moody but now he was getting downright disheartened.

The lamenting noise continued, until neither Chosen could stand it anymore.

Angel took the initiative and froze the blob with Blizzard.

“Well, that was direct.”

“Why not?” Angel said, licking his paw. “After all, we were all getting needled, but I decided to do something about it.”

“So you did…”

“Of course I did!”

Ash pulled out Lance’s pokédex and scanned, but it was not identified as any pokemon, not even a hybrid.

“It’s a real alien?”

“That is out of my normal area of expertise.” Charlotte said. “Oh well, it will defrost soon.”

The two sat and waited, expectantly, for whichever would happen next.

End Episode 182!

Cliffhanger? Of sorts! ^_^

Completed 9/24/2003