Disclaimer: Pokemon belongs to Nintendo and Shogakukan Comics. This non-profit, non-copyright infringing fanfic belongs to me. Do not take my work. Okay?

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

Lance: Interesting…

Ash: I’m not dead! I’m not dead!

Phantomness: I love Shogakukan Comics. ^-^

Pika-chan: *eating marshmallows* Oh?

Kairo: It’s better than the anime in Phantomness’s mind.

Started 3/7/03

Chapter 3

“Lance… do you hate people?”
Lance inclined his head. “Most of them.”

“Why?”

“Why are you so interested in my life story?”

“Um… well… there’s no one to talk to since you killed everybody!”

“Point taken. Very well. It’s rather simple.”

Red crossed his arms and waited. Pika did the same in imitation of his trainer. Lance shook his head inwardly.

“Pika, you didn’t notice?”

? What?

“I’m not human, you couldn’t tell when you and Yellow fought me in Vermillion? Oh, I’m disappointed…”

Pikachu’s jaw dropped.

Red’s did the same.

“What – are you a cyborg or a clone or something?”

“Merciful Mew, no!”

Lugia chuckled. < Well, he does have a point… >

“I’m Lugia’s child.”

Red’s eyes boggled out. “You’re _what_?”

“Lugia’s child.”

Lugia hid his face behind a wing in a mock display of bashfulness. < Chosen! There was no need… >

< Father… >

Lugia gulped as Lance turned shimmery, way-too-big puppy dog eyes on him. * Where did he learn this? *

< You don’t like me? >

Red’s mood shifted from shocked to even more shocked…

< Ah! I didn’t mean it that way! I love you! >

Lance smiled as Lugia hugged him. Carefully.

Red felt a little melted, and Pika was practically sniffling himself at the tableaux they presented.

How sweet…

He didn’t feel as angry now though…

Red sighed inwardly. * Maybe I should calm down first… catch some more pokemon, get back into the hang of things… yes; that would be good… *

Wait…

Well, why not talk to Lance? It wasn’t as if it could hurt. Heck, there were probably no problems now…

But he’d wait. Lance looked like lugia was choking him.

< Father, I can’t breathe… >

< Sorry. >

He found Lance by himself outside, watching dragons swim just beneath the surface.

“Lance? Do you hate me?”

“Why would I hate you?”

“Um… I almost killed you!”

“So? I did the same…”

Red gulped. * Yes, that’s true… *

Pika purred as he munched on a lightning fried fish. The food was doable and much better than raw mushrooms.

Ew… those were disgusting, and Yellow had believed in ‘natural’ food.

And she wondered why Pika had shocked her one night!

Stupid aimless wandering did no good…

Well, now Master Red was fine.

That was good.

And… er, Lance’s destroy the human race plan was not a problem since it had already happened a few years ago. They had been shocked when they learned they had been sleeping for years to ‘heal’.

Whatever that meant…

Pika yawned. Now what to do? They could battle some more, but until then, he wanted to relax.

Life was so stressful as a Champion’s pokemon.

Well, now it was no longer a problem.

Plus, Master Red wouldn’t have to worry about rabid fans chasing him all hours of the day. So it really was for the best.

Humans were so complicated…

Sheesh. Well, he’d tell Red what he thought. They were friends after all.

Actually, what Pika thought was that there was a rather attractive Marill that demanded his immediate attention.

Priorities must be put in order after all…

Red spent the day training Gyra and Venus against wild water pokemon.

It wasn’t a bad day, but then he started to think about food with a sinking feeling. No raw fish please…

What to eat?

He couldn’t eat pokemon food, and he doubted there was really any of it lying around… what to do?

What did Lance eat? Seaweed?

“Um… Lance?”

The trainer slash pokemon turned. “What is it?”

Red gulped slightly. Well, Lance sure looked human… but that wasn’t the point. “Do you have food?”

“Of course.”

“Can I have some?”

“We’re not going to starve you.” Lance said. “Follow me.”

Red did, and they came to a stone door in the back area of Lugia’s caves.

“By the moonlight and dark we command you, open.” Lance said, placing his hand on it.

Inwards the room swung.

Red gaped at what was inside. It wasn’t just food, there were other things too… apparently this was for storage. But no matter…

He helped himself to some potatoes and fried sausages – it had to be magic, otherwise where would food come from – and felt better.

“Now then, whenever you’re hungry, you can pop down here.”

“Arigato.”

Lance smiled and floated out.

End Chapter

3/7/03 to 3/9/03