Ah! Here we are. Goodness this part is clichéd. I apologize. *Bows* When you have writer’s block you just kind of go with whatever attacks.

Chapter 2: Leaving a Stop

Ash breezed through the day, chatted a little with his friend Sunny, and then went home, bright as usual.

He hadn’t counted on a change in routine.

“Hey, shrimp.” A voice drawled. Ash’s eyes widened as he saw Arata, a boy who was three years older, but still on Level five, advance on him. Ash instinctively touched the new dark green bar sewed onto his uniform for rank.

“So you did get promoted! Stupid little kid, too smart for your own good…” With a sudden violent motion, the young adult slammed Ash into the chain-link fence that encircled the junkyard on Ash’s route home. For a second, the intense pain in Ash’s head knocked out his vision, and his eyes clouded over.

“Stupid little ___!” Arata called, as he yanked off Ash’s poke belt and took off running with it. “Worthless little worm! Well, you won’t become any master now, Hahaha!”

Inside the pendant, Lance’s eyes widened. “That human… hurt my hikari… my poor little light… he dared to do this…”

Her emotions sparked and glittered as she materialized next to Ash, who was knocked out.

“Poor little koibito… I should have acted sooner.” Lance said, as she scooped Ash up and kissed him gently on the forehead. With a thought, she sent him into the dream realm, where he would be safe, yes, safe, the pokemon and Charlotte would watch over him. She would deal with the man now.

Her golden eyes gleamed with the promise of vengeance as she took off in a swirl of steel feathers.

Ash slept on in the dream realm, as his cards gathered around him, and Chansey and Blissey used soft-boiled to heal his injuries.

Poor master.

Mistress will take care of him now. She promised.

Yes! She will.

We will too, when he remembers us and calls us to him.

I miss him

I hope he remembers soon too, Flareon.

Me too.

It’s very important, but at least he has some protection.

Lance smiled as she landed in front of Arata, at his stunned expression.

“You hurt Ash…” She said.

“So?” Arata spat.

Lance shook out her wings with a happy smile. “I’m here to take revenge for my little koibito.”

In her hands, a ball of blue light formed.

“Eternal Winter!”

Arata screamed as he was suddenly frozen solid in a ball of ice. But his mind remained conscious, even as the cold bit and chomped on him.

He was stuck there for eternity, unless one of the pokemon ate him.

With another thought, Lance dropped him off in Seafoam.

Another ornament for me, Chosen? Articuno yawned as she looked at the ball. Oh well, at least the kids can play on it.

Chirps came from the cave of baby Articunos.

Articuno smiled in a motherly way, and went around checking on all of them.

Lance’s eyes glowed faintly, before she returned to the pendant. As soon as Ash woke up, he left the dream realm.

“Eh?” Ash stared at himself, seeing that his poke belt was back where it belonged. “What happened?”

There was no answer from the junkyard.

Sighing, Ash put the incident out of his mind, and walked towards home. He felt lighter though, as though a weight had been lifted from his mind.

The kids used to tease him about an imaginary friend. Sometimes, he heard a soft voice talking to him. But as he got older, it started going away.

Ash frowned.

Maybe, his imaginary friend, was… real?

Sighing, Ash rubbed his pendant to reassure himself and walked inside. Kin was still at work, so he just made himself some apples with peanut butter before going upstairs to do his homework.

Soon, Kin came home with dinner, and they chatted affably.

It was not a bad day, and the bump on his head was already losing pain and size. It was very small now, almost as if much time had passed so it had healed.

Ash smiled as he helped himself to a thick slice of blueberry pie.

It was delicious.

“You like, Satoshi?”

“Hai!” Ash said happily as he ate another slice.

She slipped into his dreams that night, as she had done for years, only before he hadn’t remembered.

Together, they walked through the dream realm.

A dark and a light, until the light melted to shadow…

They were two pieces of a puzzle, and they needed to stay together.

Lance did not feel like freezing the earth agian.

Ash woke up with a faint blush on his cheekbones as he buckled on his poke belt and fed his pokemon breakfast.

You okay? Espeon asked.

Ash nodded. “Just…”
He’s blushing! Ampharos crowed. He really is!

Ooh! Espeon looked interested as she twitched her tails. That’s news!

Who is it? Ampharos pressed, as he sparked brightly.

“Not telling.’ Ash said, before making a mad dash for the bathroom. About two feet away from it, Noctowl landed on his head, overbalancing him.

Tell! Tell! He hooted.

Yes, yes! It’s a girl, right? Ampharos added.

Please? Espeon asked, turning on the puppy dog eyes. She tapped Ash’s poke belt, and the rest of his poke balls opened.

Ash blushed and tried to escape as a roomful of pokemon blocked off his exits.

End Chapter!

Created 1/30/04, completed 2/6/04