Lance just seems to get in serous trouble sometimes…

Lance: Only ‘sometimes’?
Ash: Ehehehe…

Disclaimer/Notes: See previous chapter

Recap: Ash got the Thunderbadge; Lance got healed

Chapter 11

Celadon Gym smelled like perfume. Lots and lots of cheap perfume… Lance began sneezing as soon as he walked in.

Ash fared better, and managed to tell the junior trainer he wanted. Erika showed up a few minutes later.

Luckily, by then Lance had swallowed two antihistamine tablets and was not sneezing as vigorously. Erika dismissed him, turned to Ash, and released her Gloom.

“Scyther, I choose you! Wing Attack!”

Scyther was fast enough to down Gloom before it’s dreaded stink attack was released. Lucky!

Erika’s pleasant smile started to slip as her tangela was also swiftly taken down. Lance had managed to control his sneezes somewhat by now and was watching.

“Victreebel! Vileplume! Razor Leaf and Petal Dance combination!”

“Eek. Scyther, Fly!”

“Fly? Scyther can’t learn fly!”

No, it couldn’t, but it could get out of the way, at least temporarily. Seeing as Erika had turned 1x1 into 2x2 matches, Charizard’s flames were good help.

There went two grass-types a-flaming…

Erika did the smart thing and handed over the Rainbow Badge.

Lance and Ash went to Saffron next, and then Fuschia. None of those badges were much difficulty either.

It was disappointing.

At least by nightfall Lance had gotten all the pollen out of his system. Poor guy. His eyes were still watering.

< Father… >

< I didn’t know you had allergies either. >

< It’s so annoying! >

< Least it makes your ‘human’ disguise more convincing… >

< I guess… *mental sniff* >

Lugia tried to keep a straight face but it was just so… amusing. At least at home Lance would be fine, it was all water/dragon/ice types there.

Who knew he’d be ‘weak’ to grass?

“Are you okay?” Ash asked for the fourteenth time.

Lance tossed another wadded up Kleenex into the nearby trashcan and nodded. “Mostly…”

“We could take another break…”

“But then that’d slow down your badge collecting.”

Ash giggled. “Lance, I’ve already got six badges. Surely we can afford a break. You can’t get sick again, you’re still weak from that Blizzard attack you took!”

“All right, if you say so, doctor.”

This caused more laughter and a tickle-fest began.

“Iie!”

Lance did not stop as his fingers swiftly exploited the area near Ash’s ribs. “Give up? I’m not going to lose! I’m not that weak!”

“Stop-stop!” Ash was laughing too hard to concentrate as Lance tickled him. “That’s not fair- hey!”

“What?” Lance asked, as Ash shrieked with laughter again.

“I wasn’t ready!” He panted. With renewed vigor, he aimed for one particular region and was rewarded as Lance let go and back flipped to evade his hands.

They collapsed in a chuckling, dizzy heap on the grass outside the Fuschia pokemon center, with many strange looks.

But it was fun!

The next day they went to the petting zoo and fed the rare pokemon on overpriced feed, but it was still fun.

The day after was the bike path between Celadon and Fuschia. Ash got into an argument of sorts with an overly competitive biker.

Oh dear.

In essence, Abra wiped out all his poison and fighting pokemon and evolved to Kadabra… _Then_, his friends showed up…

And Kadabra got more EXP. Quite a bit more.

“Kadabra, use Psybeam!”

“My Machoke!”

“Next?”

“Go, Koffing! Use Tackle!”

“Bloody ignorant idiots… Kadabra, Confusion!”

Koffing went a-flying over the horizon as Kadabra stretched luxuriously. Ah, that felt nice… she was a bit saddened that now she couldn’t fly, but at least she could teleport and levitate and that was so cool.

Yes.

Then, the rest of the badges just fell into place without hesitation, and two months into his journey Ash was technically a Master of Indigo.

He moved onto Johto, and then… well, things happened. He applied for a Breeder’s license, spent a year studying, passed, and that was good.

Title as Master Breeder!

Actually, that was fun. Very fun. He liked the perks – being able to carry around his entire pokemon team at once.

No one had to stay in storage that way. The pokemon appreciated it too. It turned out that he had two eevelutions of different genders, and he soon made a reputation as a breeder who sold Eevees.

As Eevee were rare, this was important and money was suddenly no longer an option. Eevees sold for exceedingly high prices…

He moved back to Houen, didn’t bother to go after their badges, and became a full-time assistant for his father.

It was a while later when he heard rumors about a super-powerful pokemon named Mewtwo.

Was that… his brother?

After all this time, only a faint flicker of revenge was left. Birch had said it was better this way, as anger only killed.

Double-edged sword that hurts both sides…

Did he want to hurt himself?

No!

Lance looked as Ash finished packing. The child had grown up, but fourteen was not too young to be a man.

Dark blue jacket and pants, pokemon blast-proof, and some equipment. “Lance, are you coming?”

“Of course. I wouldn’t let you go after mewtwo by yourself, would I?”

“No.” Ash smiled in relief. “Let’s go.”

They climbed aboard ‘Charizard airlines’ and took off for the rumored cave…

End Chapter

Completed 10/16/04