*Cheers* Chapter!

Chapter 11: Eruption

Brock quickly became aware of the evening chill, so without a second thought, he brought Cindy back to the base with him.

He could explain it all in the morning.

For the first night in days, he slept well.

The next morning, he let Cindy run along with the other children.

After all, at least part of his family was here.

The rest…

Brock clenched his fists. * I knew it! He can’t be trusted… he’s inhuman! Killing my family! No wonder he never cries! Well, it’s time to pay him back. I’ll make him feel the same pain. *

Fire burned in his eyes as he stalked off to find the Dragon Master.

He found Lance sitting outside alone, watching the clouds.

“Murderer.” Brock hissed. The ground around the dragon master suddenly erupted in a flurry of spikes.

Lance calmly levitated in the air, eyes glowing bluely. “You wanted to see me?”

“You killed my family, you bastard!” Brock yelled, as rocks went flying through the air at the other trainer. “DIE!”

“They weren’t human.” Lance replied, as the rocks crumpled into icy dust.

True, oh so true, the scientists hadn’t learned their lesson with Mewtwo, they were still messing with the genetics they knew not of.

Death, failure, slavery… the end results.

“THEY WERE MY SIBLINGS! THEY WERE KIDNAPPED AGAINST THEIR WILL! THEY DIDN’T VOLUNTEER!”

“Are you sure?” Lance asked with a slight smile.

“OF COURSE!”

“Well, if it’s your word against Lugia’s, I’m more inclined to trust my guardian.” Lance mused, as hail began to strike Brock with increasing fury.

“They’d never volunteer!”

“You sound so sure of yourself. Think about it, in a way its like mastery without the time and effort.”

“Liar!”

“I’m only speaking the truth.” Lance said idly, before his eyes narrowed, and he jumped, missing a spike of earth that might have impaled him.

His outfit was not as lucky.

Lance cursed.

Brock stared, temporarily stunned.

Lance quickly focused another layer of dark energy over herself, to repair, and teleported.

Brock continued to stare.

“CATELYN!”

Another reason!

Not only his family, but his girlfriend too…

“Clara…” Brock sobbed.

Ash looked up as Lance appeared in his room looking severely pissed off.

“What happened, Lance-chan?”

“I am going to castrate Brock and gouge out his eyes with a wooden spoon.”

“Oh.”

“Honestly! He’s such a humanitarian! He knows that there’s only one in about five hundred chances of the experiment working, and then they might live only a few weeks or wind up as a mind-controlled puppet, but he doesn’t care! I swear, there might be little vipers in this base for all we know. It was his idea to keep the people we saved here! Sheesh, why that is I don’t know. Damn it all!”

“Lance-chan…” Ash said, knowing that it was rare for her to lose her temper.

“TEME!”

“Hmm?”

“I just realized something! How would Brock know that I killed his family unless someone told him.”

“Someone told him…” Ash echoed, before he caught the implications too.

“We have a spy.”

The two chosen nodded to each other, pocketed their respective weapons, and left the room.

“Chansey! Kangaskhan!”

The group of pokemon stared at the two frazzled Chosen.

< What is it? >
< Start scanning. We have a spy. >
Grim looks settled on the pokemon’s faces as they nodded.

Soon, it was discovered.

All they had to look for was heightened energy.

Brock burst in just as Lance was about to pronounce judgment on Cindy.

“STOP!”

Lance kept a careful grip on the golden scales of Fate, Chosen’s possession.

“I wasn’t killing her.”
“She’s all I have left! You took Clara from me too!”
“So you figured it out.” Lance laughed.

“Yes, _Catelyn_.” Brock hissed.

Lance chuckled. “I wasn’t doing anything. Lucky for you, she didn’t volunteer. Pity though, twenty-three Aerodactyl died for those wings.”

Brock froze.

Cindy looked ready to cry. “I-I!”

From her back grew a pair of rocky wings.

Lance smirked. “Even now the dragon’s blood cries out for revenge.”

“STOP! I won’t let you hurt her!”

“I was just testing.” Lance said perfectly innocently. “You pass.”

“… What?”

“It was forced on her, after all. And since she’s your sister, I’ll spare her life.”

Without a backwards glance, Lance walked off.

“Lance-chan…” Ash looked at Brock, before he frowned.

“I want you to leave Lance-chan alone. She’s been through more than you know. Do you know that as Dragon Master she feels the death of every dragon pokemon!”
Brock blinked.

“And you accuse her of being cold!”

“But…”

“Lance-chan isn’t corrupting me, if anything, you are! If Lance was evil she wouldn’t let all these children live here! You’re the blind optimist who’s causing trouble! Can’t you see how useless your endeavors are?!”

Without another word, Ash raced after the Dragon Master.

End Chapter