Hi!

Disclaimer: Nintendo and Shogakukan Comics owns pokemon, okay? *Winks*

Don’t take my stuff either.

Notes: <> for telepathy, ** for thoughts in context, italics for pokemon talking.

Ages: Ash/Gary = 15, Misty = 17, Brock = 21, Lance = 19

Refer to characters by incorrect gender because that is what others perceive them as, okay?

Chapter 7: Chessboard

It was snowing.

Misty Waterflower sighed to herself. “I think I miss him.”

“Hmm?” Brock Slate peered over his bowl of hot minestrone soup. “You mean Ash?”

“Yes, a little. It was kind of fun traveling around with him.”

“But Misty, you’re getting closer to Mastery now. Don’t you like that?”
“Of course I do! But I have to defeat Lorelei and Lance to do it.”

“Lance?” Brock raised an eyebrow. “Lorelei I understand, as Ice Master, but Lance is a dragon master. Why fight him?”

“Dragons are close to water as well.”

“Oh.”

“Ah, you’ll do fine, Misty.” Gary broke in.

The years had agreed with him, maturing him into a young man with an excellent poison team.

Of course, training under Koga and Aya might have helped too.

His purple cloak did clash a bit with his hair, but Gary didn’t care. If he was a master, who cared about fashion?

Brock wore dark gray, which was interesting. It didn’t look too bad with his vest.

Misty sighed. “I don’t want to fight Lorelei.”

“Why? Make it one on one and it will not hurt your pride too much.”

“That’s not it! She’s my heroine!”
“Your idol,” Gary nodded. “So you don’t want to break that image you’ve created inside your head. But it has to be done.”

“I know, I won’t become a master until the test is over.”

Misty looked at her soda, as if it held the answer to her indecision.

“Sigh…”

“Hey, is this a private party?” A voice asked.

Misty jumped.

“A-ash?”

“None other.’ The kid grinned impishly. “Miss me?”

He was wearing a black cloak, she realized, after some staring. Pikachu peered over his shoulder. It was just like old times again.

“Ash! How have you been?”

“Oh, good.” Ash said, shrugging. “Off training.”

“Why did you leave us in Orange?”

“Couldn’t help it. Destiny called and took us home.”

“…Us?” Brock finally ventured to ask.

Lance rolled her eyes, and crossed her arms. “Yes.”

“You kidnapped him?”

‘Kidnap? Why I never.” The Dragon Master replied. “Someone told me to train Ash. Probably Oak…”

“My grandfather did marry your mother… holy cow! Ash, that makes you my uncle!” Gary blanched.

Ash blinked. “Oh….”

The two turned various shades of green as they tried to sort through the relationship mess.

“Cousins,” Ash finally said, shaking his head. “Any closer than that and I will be sick.”

“Sounds good to me.” Gary nodded. “So, is the cloak real?”

“Of course! Yours?”
“Same.”

Misty looked at Ash surprised. “So, you did dark mastery? Did Karen test you?”

“Not dark.” Ash corrected. “Shadow.”

“Shadow is harder than dark.” Lance said, from the background.

“Hmm…”

“Misty, since he’s here you can fight him now, and Lorelei later.” Brock whispered.

“Good idea.”

“Lance, I challenge you to a one-on-one match.”

“For mastery?” The Dragon Master asked.

“Yes.”
“Deal… and I won’t cheat, so don’t give me that look, Ash.”

Ash sulked. “Fine…”

“Cheat?” Brock asked.

Lance shot Ash a look, and Ash clammed up. Then, he walked to the field also.

“Go! Starmie!”

Lance nodded, if Misty was picking favorites she might as well try something more on her side.

“Kingdra…”

The dual dragon/water evolution of Seadra blinked at Misty’s befuddled expression. What?

We’re having a little match to see if she’s ready for water mastery, since water is one of the easier ones.

I see. Well then, I won’t go easy on her.

I know.

Lance switched back to English, as she and Kingdra attacked.

“Starmie! Barrier!”

Lance narrowed her eyes, silver dragon claws sliding out of her arms as she slashed through it, Kingdra following up with a Dragonbreath that paralyzed Starmie quickly.

“Aw man, Starmie use Recover!” Misty shouted.

Lance shook her head. * She won’t have time… *

Hyper Beam blew both of them into the sky before anything else happened. Lance dusted off her hands.

The blades retracted, healing over with a splattering of black scales. Darkness and dragon…

“Kakkoii Lance-chan!” Ash cheered.

“That was fast.” Gary whistled. Well, Lance had been a master for who knows how many years; there was an advantage there.

“I still think Misty should fight Lorelei first.” Brock remarked. * I just hope Lorelei is weaker… *

“Perhaps.” Lance said thoughtfully.

“But Lorelei’s really powerful!”
“I know, but do they?”

“So, what do you mean by cheating?”

Ash shook his head. “Well, sometimes when we spar, Lance-chan uses certain things to he-to his advantage.”

“Like weather?” Gary asked.

“Yes!”

“It’s not my fault dragons can control the weather.” Lance said amiably.

Brock nodded.

End Chapter