Whee! ^-^

Disclaimer: I don’t own pokemon. It belongs to Nintendo and Shogakukan Comics. This is non-profit, non-copyright infringing fanfic written by me and it’s mine! ^-^

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

Chapter 10

Two days later, they set out on their first mission.

“All we have to do is capture some Magikarp?” Ash asked. “But… isn’t that…”

“Too easy for you?” Lance chuckled.

“Hai!”

“First of all, they’re not normal Magikarp.” Lance said, showing him the photograph the scout had taken.

They were golden Magikarps.

“And, secondly…”

Ash squeaked as Lance suddenly kissed him and pinned him to the ground for a few minutes. By the time he regained coherency, Lance had pulled away.

“L-lance?”

The trainer yanked two razor-edged daggers out of the wall and tsked. “Still trying to kill me? Well, too bad…”

There was a scream outside.

“Don’t make Ptera angry…”

Ash realized a bit belatedly why what had happened had happened. * Oh… well, it felt nice anyways… *

Lance opened the door a few minutes later, and then called the cleanup crew to remove the splatters all over the wall.

Aerodactyl looked very proud of himself.

“That’s why.” Lance said, even though Ash hadn’t asked. Ash blushed, nodded, and looked away.

He should quit freaking out so easily…

Lance took his arm, and they both vanished and reappeared on the shore of a regular-looking river.

“So the Magikarps are here?”

“Yes.”

“What was the second thing you were going to say?”

“Oh. Right. Be careful, they have giant teeth.”

Ash’s eyes widened. Lance threw in a handful of crackers, and all at once, giant golden Magikarps appeared, huge mouths gaping with razor teeth.

“Voila.”

“Plusle, give ‘em a Thunderbolt!”

The sizzling remainders of several fishes landed on land, where Lance quickly caught them with the patented black Rocket balls.

“How many do we need?”

“At least 30…”

“Okay!”

However, Ash was forced to retreat when Plusle was nearly eaten by a truly large Magikarp.

Lance tossed Ash a handful of the rocket balls and pulled out his own pokemon. “Ptera, Supersonic them all!”

Aerodactyl shrieked as he nodded. Then, there were the wing attacks… and that filled the quota.

“So that’s it?”

“That’s it.” Lance smiled. They were back at HQ before a few hours were up, and Giovanni handed them another mission.

“We start with the easy ones.” Lance explained. ‘It’s no good asking you to, say, capture Entei.”

“Oh. But I’m not that weak!”

“No,” Lance said truthfully, “But father doesn’t send children out to die either.”

“… I see…”

“No, you don’t see yet.” Lance smiled. “Let me show you.”

Ash nodded, as Lance placed his hands on Ash’s shoulders and then closed his eyes. An aura began to whip around them in frenzied little sparks of gold.

*********************Flashback Mode**********************************

Lance stood on the top of a building, a coil of rope in his hands.

< Ready? >

Ready!

Lance smirked as he rappelled down the building quickly, before jimmying open a window on the sixth floor.

He landed inside silently without a sound.

That was when the gunshots went off.

Lance swore inwardly and threw himself onto the ground, as Aerodactyl swooped over him like a cover, the bullets ricocheting off its steel skin.

He was very glad at that instant that he had found Ptera.

< Screech! >

Ptera nodded and screeched, his voice sending the man quailing in fear temporarily. That was enough time for Lance to whip out the throwing daggers hidden inside his shirt and assassinate the man. Quickly.

Sighing, he entered the office, and quickly hacked through the computer system, finding the disk, and was off in half an hour. Still…

I need to get faster.

Master Lance!

Lance frowned, as his fingers came away bloody. * What the… *

That was when he noticed the wound on his left shoulder made when the bullet grazed him.

Too confident, it seemed. * Damn… I wasn’t fast enough… *

Master, are you all right?

Lance nodded as he healed himself with the Viridian Power. * I have to be more careful next time, if it weren’t for Ptera I could have been dead… *

He went back to Plateau as normal, but even Giovanni could see some slight change beneath the surface.

“What’s wrong, son?”

“I was way too careless. I could have been taken captive or identified.”

“Ah…”

Lance nodded as he took off his Blackglasses. “I have to be more careful.”

“Well, I’m glad you learned this lesson on your own…”

Lance looked chastised, as Giovanni smiled. “Don’t worry, you’ll get better as you gain more experience.’

“Hai.”

‘Did you kill Ronald?”

“Hai.”

“Then you did well.”

“But…”

“I don’t demand perfection, you’re still a child, Lance. Just be careful.”

“Hai!” Lance saluted and then left the office.

Completed 6/23/04