Another chapter!
Disclaimer: Pokemon belongs to Nintendo and Shogakukan Comics. This non-profit, non-copyright infringing fanfiction belongs to me under international copyright laws and taking it is plagiarism. Thank you. *Phantomness bows*
Notes: <> for telepathy, ** for thoughts, italics
if a pokemon talks
Chapter 5
“Well, here we are.” Lorelei said, as she showed Ash in. “Um… well, I suppose you can take Lance’s rooms, since he won’t need them any more…”
Because the Council had not bothered to replace the Elite Four until now, Agatha, Bruno, and Lorelei had each stayed in their own rooms. Ash swallowed nervously.
“We’ll help you clean his stuff out.” Bruno offered helpfully, before he went back to his peanut butter sandwich.
Agatha nodded. < Yes, we’ll help. >
Ash nervously pushed the door to the room open… and blinked.
He wasn’t sure quite what he had been expecting, but the room was nice enough, done in dark colors – dark blue, predominantly, although the bed had crimson curtains over black counterpane…
It looked simple enough, bed, desk, several shelves of books and magazines… curiously free of personal effects…
He found several dark suits and capes in the closet, but not much else. On the whole though, the Spartan effect helped Ash feel much better as he began to customize the dreary surroundings with bright posters and poke dolls…
The one curious thing that Lance had left behind wasn’t that odd in itself, but Ash found it strange how the League Champion’s computer had been on standby for months – it made no sound, so no one had known, and when he had turned it on, it had let him in… Lance hadn’t bothered to password protect it…
So on opening, he had found a recipe for Chicken Parmesan, an incomplete tax report, and, strangely enough, what seemed to be Lance’s diary…
It spanned three years, and he felt bad, but… he was also curious, so he decided to read it. After all, it might be interesting…
I did it.
I finally became League Champion and the Leader of the
Elite Four. I think I made Father proud.
I love my dragons. My lovely, faithful dragons – and now
we’re champions, all five of us – Ptera, Hakuryuu, Kairyuu, and Gyarados…
Oh, I know most people wouldn’t bother training up a
Magikarp, but I’m not like them – I won’t be like them!
It was nice meeting the rest of the Elite Four. Agatha’s
nice, and of course, seeing my cousin Lorelei was well worth it…
I’m sixteen, and I’ve just become League Champion. Most
people can’t say that, but now I can.
Interesting. Ash grinned. Well, he was only twelve, and now he had become League Champion too! Surely eavesdropping didn’t matter, since Lance was, well… dead now, right?
He read on to the next entry.
We just had our first League Council today. Merciful Mew,
it was boring! I sat there for four hours and listened to a bunch of rich men
squabble over things I couldn’t really understand. I think I fell asleep near
the end, but Lorelei was kind enough to sneak her notes (written on six
napkins) over to me.
They were going to poison the Cerulean Cape just to get
rid of the overpopulating Slowpoke, but us Elite Four voted against it, and our
power overrides theirs – thank goodness! But now I know I have to do more
research for this job.
If someone ever says that being Champion is easy, I’ll
slap him! I almost wish I hadn’t beaten Agatha, so I wouldn’t have so much
work. Oh well.
I’ve proved myself on the battlefield, now it’s time to
fight a different fight. Now let’s see…
Right. Okay, I’ve discovered that www.TheDailyKantonian.org has
excellent resources, up to twenty or thirty years back.
It really looks like I’ve got my work cut out for me… oh
well, Ptera wants to go flying. I’ll do it later!
He had to smile at this one, although he frowned. Would he have to do a lot of work too? Or… he hadn’t beaten Agatha as Champion yet! Maybe he wouldn’t!
He kept reading.
Thanksgiving. They were going to send us a roasted
Farfetch’d but really, who in their right mind would eat a pokemon?
Poor things…
Lorelei cooked, and since it was her choice, she made us
all a sushi platter, which I admit is much better than a giant bird, and we
went around the table saying what we were thankful for.
Agatha said that she was thankful she had divorced Oak.
That’s interesting.
Lorelei said that she was thankful that none of the
challengers that pop up every so often here had gotten past her, and that her
Jynx had safely delivered two baby Smoochum into the world.
Bruno said that he was thankful for his strength and
courage.
Me?
Well, dear diary, why do you care what I said? But I said
I was thankful for my family – basically Clair, Lorelei and Father, and for
Agatha’s tutorials on ‘How to be a Champion’.
Well, all right, that’s not quite right, but you get the
point!
After dinner, we toasted marshmallows in the fire – shh,
it’s a secret, and I know that as Elite we’re supposed to be cold and cool, but
we all like marshmallows, even Bruno, although he’ll gripe about how he’s
getting out of shape.
If he continues doing his exercises eight hours a day he will
burn himself out! Idiot.
The stars are pretty tonight…
December 1, 2405
Ash blinked. That really was the last entry. He hoped that Lance had had fun on his vacation. The Champion seemed well, slightly more real now that he knew a bit about him… short entry though.
Maybe… well, Lance had seemed to kind of like this job. He had been older though – Ash smiled. He’d go ask Agatha for help if he ever needed it.
He shut the computer down, fed his pokemon dinner, ate dinner himself, and then showered and hit the sack early.
End Chapter
Completed 6/13/05