So… here is Episode 193! Any complaints about the flashbacks? ‘Cause I like them!

Disclaimer: *Phantomness comes out with a scythe* Ahem. Nintendo owns Pokemon. I just own the plotbunny, the new characters, and the new attacks. So don’t bother to sue me. I’m a broke student.

Notes: <> for telepathy, ** for thoughts, italics for

Still flashback mode, it’ll be obvious when I leave this mode.

I just had a final in Calculus… *tired*

Ranma – thanks!
Link Masters – yes, there will be flashbacks for a few more chapters

Akiko Koishii – good luck!

Whatever – I only write what I feel like and I have periods where I write. The het period is over and I like writing shonen-ai better. However, if you wait a few months I’ll come out with some more het championshipping eventually… do check my livejournal for updates and remember that ff.net is anti-shonen-ai and basically I don’t like it much so I have my own page.

Episode 193: Too much darkness isn’t good

They walked into the gym, noting that it was… dark?

“Is this closed?” Ash wondered.

“I’m guessing a scheme to keep trainers clueless and vulnerable to attack.” Lance enunciated.

“Ah…” Ash touched his key and winked. * I think I’ll surprise her. *

“Halt!” A voice yelled.

And immediately from a corner, out jumped a junior trainer.

“Well, that was quite predictable.” Ash muttered.

A geodude appeared and began trying to tackle him.

Ash yawned. “Skymew, Water Gun.”

Skymew nodded and blasted Geodude into the dark. There was a muffled ‘oof.’

“One junior trainer down.” Lance reported. “Seems like he’s buried under his geodude.”

Ash smiled. “Wonder if he’s smart enough to recall it?”

“Hmm…”

This scene was repeated with two more Geodudes before… *gasp* a Graveler appeared.

“Storm, use Surf.” Ash said dryly. The resulting wave of water flooded the gym up to his knees.

Dragonami purred as Ash stroked her head and ears. “Great work!”

Annoyed cursing could be heard from the remaining junior trainers. Ash smoothed down his shiny silver vest and flashed a smile.

Finally, they saw Roxanne on her raised dais.

“Ready to battle?”

Roxanne looked startled. “S-Sure.”

“Great.” Ash said. “Let’s do it.”

“Roxanne chooses Geodude!”

Ash flicked his fingers indiscernibly, as the illusion solidified itself. “Mudkip, go!”

The mudkip card yawned and stretched his little paws. Yay! I get to battle!

“Yes, you do.”

Mudkip nodded and used Water Gun, only serving to annoy Geodude, who retaliated with Tackle.

Then, it used Ice Beam.

As said before, a frozen pokemon cannot battle. Freeze could be the worst of all the status changes. Roxanne swapped for her Nosepass.

“Right…” Ash considered. * It knows electric moves… *

“Mudkip, Mud Sport!”

Electricity’s power was weakened!

Roxanne frowned. * This could be harder than I thought, but I’ll give it a try. * “Nosepass! Zap Cannon!”

Mudkip jumped up but the ball of electricity followed. He cried out as he was paralyzed.

Roxanne sighed in relief.

“Refresh.” Lance said, startling Ash. Mudkip blinked, but shimmered and was cured of paralysis.

“Wow! I forgot about that move! Thanks!” Ash said excitedly. “Mudkip! Surf!”

Nosepass unfortunately was foisted into the land of the fainted pokemon.

Roxanne sweated nervously. * This is not good… *

“Okay, I’ll pull out all the stops. Steelix, go!”

“Is it just me or do gym leaders favor Steelixes?” Ash inquired. “No matter. Flareon’s probably not up for it now, so…”

He flipped out another card. “Vulpix, you’re up!”

Mudkip ran back to Ash and hastily departed the arena.

Vulpix yawned, showing her teeth, and used Flamethrower.

Steelix immediately dug underground, before using Dig. Vulpix was agile enough to jump over the initial strike though. She breathed out a Fire Blast, which struck Steelix squarely on the horn.

Steelix roared in pain and used Tackle, crushing Vulpix… or so it seemed.

Roxanne blinked as Vulpix disappeared. “You were using Substitute?!”

“Heh.” Ash replied. “Vulpix! Will O’ Wisp!”

Well, a burn doesn’t help a Steelix’s health. It used Bind, tying Vulpix up, but the burn was slowly taking its toll.

“Now finish with Hydro Flare.”

Fire that turned into water and took on both of Steelix’s types… Roxanne shuddered, wondering who had developed that move. Sighing, she bestowed the Stone Badge on Ash and watched as he walked out happily.

Strange….

“How’s Mudkip?”

“Fine.” Ash replied as he sent a wave of energy to the little pokemon card, which flashed brightly in response.

“That’s good.”

“Um… Lance? Now that I’m guardian, will you run out of magic?”

“Don’t worry, if I’m in danger of that, I’ll tell you.”

“Promise?”

“Promise.”

“If you wish upon a star…”

“Makes no difference who you are…”

“You’ve seen Pinocchio?”

“I think it had a good moral.”

“Oh.” Ash twiddled his thumbs. * So where are we heading now? *

“Ash, mind if we just hang out at the beach together?”

“Nope!”

“Glad you see it my way.” Lance remarked. They changed into shorts and t-shirts and headed to the expanse of sunny sand.

Pika-chan happily followed and immediately flew to the refreshments stand.

“She is such a glutton…”

“Well, all that food must put a dent in your money supply.”

Ash smirked. “Actually, I use Meowth to find Nuggets and Big Pearls.”

“That does work, but I find it faster just to use this.”

A card shimmered into her hand.

“The Create?” Ash raised his eyebrows. “So you just make money.”

“Hai. Very simple.”

“Well, it’s cool!”

The two sat down on the sand. Ash smiled and began burying lance.

“Hey! No fair!”

“But it’s warm! And you need to lighten up!”

Lance rolled her eyes at him. “I am going to take a long shower after this.”

Ash simply nodded as he patted more sand around her. “Don’t worry, I’ll unbury you soon!”

“You better!”

Ash grinned and began creating a little sand castle while Lance watched. After half an hour, he remembered and dug her up. Of course, a few miscellaneous ice balls sent in his direction didn’t hurt either.

Ash rubbed his sore butt and attempted a glare.

Lance sighed. * Well, at least I put on a swimsuit underneath… * She pulled off her sand-coated t-shirt and shook it, causing brown dust to fly in all directions.

“No fair! You got sand in my eyes!”

“It’s the equivalent of a Sand Attack, you should have dodged.”

Ash pouted and used Protect.

After five minutes, Lance was satisfied, so the two of them coated each other with suntan lotion and hit the ocean.

Ash blushed as he thought back to that. So it wasn’t really anything, but still…

She was warm.

Apparently dragons weren’t cold-blooded after all.

“Ash, why are you standing there up to your knees?” Lance asked. “I thought you wanted to swim?”

“Right!” Ash said, ducking his head underwater and letting his gills appear as he tried not to blush.

Lance raised her eyebrows. * What is wrong with him? * She shrugged and swam out farther before releasing her pokemon, who splashed around in the waves joyfully.

A very relaxing water fight erupted, and both trainers joined on. They didn’t return to shore until about three hours later.

Ash grinned as they teleported to a nearby hotel. “Yay! No camping tonight!”

“Oh yes. I think we need a break.”

The two signed in and paid for a room before heading upstairs.

End chapter!

12/17/03 to 12/18/03

Note: There are only about 10 chapters left. I am not going to be updating this frequently unless I get reviews. Since only about 5 people are reviewing, I suppose I’ll update this once every 3 weeks.