Oh I was born, a rune-miner’s daughter…

I think college has snapped me mind.

Disclaimer: Pokemon belongs to Nintendo. This fanfic is mine; do not take it. Enough said.

Notes: <> for telepathy, ** for thoughts, italics if a pokemon talks

RECAP: Ash met TR and Serebii

Chapter 10

“What deal?” Ash asked suspiciously.

< If you successfully complete this mission, then I will guarantee you status as a Bug Master. >

“That would be cheating.”

Butterfree nodded in agreement. Yes, yes!

We won’t do it! Beedrill yelled.

Venomoth fluttered in front of Ash protective, ready to blast this threat with a Psychic.

< Brave, very brave. > Serebii acknowledged, < But I’m afraid you don’t have much of a choice. >

“Finally.” Lance sighed. It had taken almost forty-five minutes before finding the signal, but now…

His eyes flashed brightly and he and Dragonite flew through the cave’s hidden entrance. Serebii jumped, startled.

“Dragonite, Hyper Beam!” Lance saw the pokemon as a threat. Even Serebii must take damage from Hyper Beam…

“Now! Ice Beam!” While the stunned time-travel pokemon was still trying to recover, a bolt of freezing energy struck her in the head.

Lance whipped out an Ultra Ball and threw it. Serebii struggled, not quite sure what was going on, but failed to escape.

Caught!

Ash recovered from his earlier paralysis and stared at Lance in awe. “Sugoi…”

“Are you all right?”

“Yes… yes! Wow, how did you find me? Who are you?”

“First things first.” Lance chuckled. “I’m Lance Dragyn, I’m trying to become a Dragon Master, and I heard there was a rare dragon-type here, so I came searching. It was pure luck that I found you.”

“That’s not a dragon.”

“True, but it might be a good pokemon.” Inwardly, Lance smirked. Father would be extremely pleased…

He had netted Serebii!

The bugs looked exceedingly relieved at the rescue, as Lance flew them back down to more earthly level on his Dragonite.

“I’ll see you around then, Ash!” Lance said, waving goodbye.

Ash looked after him with starry eyes. * Wow… *

Beedrill smirked. Well, well, it looks like Master has a crush!

Maybe!

That’s interesting. Butterfree remarked.

Venomoth fanned Ash a few times until he came back to normal.

“Well, I don’t think what’s that pokemon’s name will bother us again!”

Good! Beedrill nodded. She was bossy.

I know…

“Being a bug master would be very cool, but if I had to cheat, then I’d give up.”

That’s the right attitude to have. Butterfree commended.

After recuperating from the unexpected Serebii intervention, Ash headed off to Saffron as he had originally decided to do.

First, though, he stopped in the Safari Zone, where he managed to net a Scyther, although it cost him 25 of his 30 Safari balls.

Still, it was worth it! He had been surprised to discover the fierce-looking Scyther was female though, but pleasantly surprised.

She was a good fighter as well…

Currently, he was in the last stretch of the trail. About two miles ahead, the entrance to Saffron waited.

Lance watched from a tree. * He’s not going to be able to enter, all the entrances are sealed… *

Plus, there was a Light Screen defense covering the whole city. Unless Ash had some way to tunnel in, he was stuck.

From what Lance had seen, Ash _had_ no pokemon besides bug-types. Therefore, he could not enter, right?

Right. No matter how unexpected some circumstances are, not all of them are… undoable. Then again, other things are constant.

Like… it’s impossible to break a Light Screen without the Brick Break TM that would not be discovered for another five years.

Or…another was that no matter how odd Ash was, he couldn’t get in.

Ash studied the city, puzzled. “There’s no way in.”

Looks like it! Beedrill buzzed.

I could fly us up to take a look. Scyther volunteered.

“That’d be cool!” Scyther nodded as Ash climbed on her back, before she flew up into the air several hundred feet.

They could see occasional glimmers of pinkish light once in a while. That was…

“Light Screen?”

Seems like it’s covering the whole city. Scyther mused.

“That’s horrible! Hmm…”

You have an idea?

Ash threw a handy gumball at the light screen. It just bounced off and fell… slid down… and hit the ground below with a splat.

He didn’t want to try it.

“No, I suppose we’ll just have to go somewhere else. But not Cinnabar.” Ash said firmly.

… Too dangerous. Scyther agreed as they rapidly descended back to good old terra firma. * Someone will get hurt if we do that… *

Bugs were afraid of fire after all.

Did he have much of a choice? He only had five badges… no, four. Wait a minute…

“Let’s go back to Vermillion and fight Surge!”

Now that seems preferable…

Since all were in agreement now, they returned to Vermillion. Sure enough, Surge was there. He agreed to a battle, but only one-on-one.

“Go, Raichu!”

Electric, couldn’t use Butterfree, she was part flying and so was Scyther…

“Venomoth, use Toxic!”

Raichu began feeling the effects of poison as it faltered, but still went at Venomoth with a Mega Punch.

Venomoth shrugged and retaliated with Mega Drain, healing some HP. Raichu took more poison damage.

“Thunderwave!”

“Stun Spore!”

All the dust in the air absorbed the thunderwave. Ash nodded. “Good, now use Supersonic!”

A confused _and_ poisoned pokemon? It only took two more turns for Surge to hand over the Thunderbadge and cash.

“That was good, kid. Maybe we’ll fight again in the future.”

“Maybe!” Ash waved goodbye. * Three badges left… *

End Chapter

Completed 9/22/04