No, Red has not realized that Lance is a genie. I doubt Lance himself knows what he’s become, so it’s a perfectly understandable situation and Red isn’t the type to make wishes randomly.
Disclaimer: Pokemon belongs to Nintendo and Shogakukan Comics. This non-profit, non-copyright infringing fanfiction belongs to me under international copyright laws and taking it is plagiarism. Thank you. *Phantomness bows*
Notes: <> for telepathy, ** for thoughts, italics if a pokemon talks
Chapter 3
Aerodactyl reacted instantly, a Hyper Beam blasting the rat far of into the distance. Lance blinked. That had seemed familiar…
Hadn’t he had an Aerodactyl before becoming a pokemon? Where was it now?
No, being Master’s pokemon was more important…
He had to stay here with Master. He couldn’t leave to go look for other pokemon. Besides, pokemon couldn’t be pokemon trainers.
With that in mind, Lance sat back down and continued talking to the other pokemon.
Red blinked at the bar on his pokedex as Lance suddenly gained EXP and shot up several levels. It must have been EXP share since Lance had been the target under attack before Aerodactyl had jumped in.
Lance felt a strange tingle in his body, just as the pokedex announced that he had learned Twister.
“Twister? Never heard of it.” Red clicked on the information link and found that it was a dragon-type move.
Well, that fit. And since Lance was now a pokemon, his pokemon, he might as well… train him. After all, if Team Rocket got wind of this… Red wasn’t sure what the situation was, but there was a lot of bad blood between him and Team Rocket. No doubt Giovanni would run into him again soon, and in any case, he needed all his pokemon to be battle-worthy.
With that thought in mind, he bottled several water bottles with hot spring water and than headed down the slopes to find some weaker pokemon he could train Lance against. Down near the bottom of the slope, he found some Rattata and Doduo that would do nicely.
The battle began easily enough. A wild Rattata charged, and Lance reacted with Thunderwave. It was interesting to see his fingers crackle with electricity before a web of it ensnared the unwary purple rat.
“Good work, Lance! Now use Twister!” Red called out. A miniature tornado sucked up the Rattata and spat it out again.
The Rattata staggered, before succumbing to the effects of faint. Red grinned.
“Great work Lance!”
It wasn’t until several hours later, when he managed to get the other boy to down a Potion, that he realized what had gone wrong.
He had been actively treating someone like a pokemon! Worse, Lance hadn’t even protested so he hadn’t thought about it!
How was he supposed to fix this mess?
To his astonishment, Red realized that he really had no idea where to begin. He was an excellent battler and could think up some pretty nifty strategies, but unfortunately, that was no help at the present.
The pokedex happily informed him that Lance was now on level eighteen. He ignored it.
What to do? What to do?
Truthfully, Red was not quite sure what he could do. It was complicated; this situation of his, and unfortunately, Lance was no help as a solution.
He could barely act normal, much less…
Red sighed.
Lance turned to look at him, confusion clear in those eyes. “Master?”
“That’s enough training for now, Lance.”
That seemed to pacify the human pokemon, and he nodded as he walked back to Red’s side and snuggled up next to him. “Yes, Master.”
It was horrible! What was he supposed to do?
Red sighed as he patted Lance’s head, running his fingers through long red hair before he realized what he was doing. Lance wasn’t a pet! As soon as they fixed this he would…
Well, they would go back to being… distant opponents, he guessed. The Elite Four were supposed to be evil, and he knew that Agatha and Lorelei were, but Bruno had been good-hearted…
Maybe Lance was the same way?
Nah, he was just fooling himself with a fantasy. Red picked up Lance’s Ultra Ball and recalled him, not wanting to dwell on his thoughts. It was too confusing.
The next morning, it was no easier. He belatedly realized that he’d forgotten to feed his … pet human, pokemon. It did not make him feel any better when he realized that Lance didn’t really need to eat.
He was slipping as a trainer, maybe… or he’d never been that good of a trainer to begin with?
Well, that wasn’t technically true. He’d taken care of his own pokemon and even Green’s pokemon without trouble. So why was having Lance around different from having other pokemon?
Was Lance distracting him?
It did not make sense, but on the other hand, it made plenty of sense? But why would such a thing disturb him?
It could be the fact that Red himself was afraid of being captured, but that wasn’t it. Were he to be completely honest with himself, it was the fact that Lance was calling him Master and acting so subservient.
It was turning him on.
Now that in itself was unsettling. For one thing, last time he checked, he had been attracted to girls, and secondly, he didn’t even know Lance! He’d caught him by accident!
Still…
Red entertained a fantasy of having Misty, Erika, and Sabrina as pokemon and than quickly cut the thought. It was immoral to keep people in capture devices. It obviously took away free will, and…
The trainer resisted the urge to go back into his seeping bag and sleep again. This was unfortunately, not a nightmare…
Wit a groan he fixed himself breakfast of oatmeal – instant, of course, and than released Lance from his poke ball.
“Good morning, Master.” His pokemon said. “How may I serve you?”
Red twitched. “Can you stop calling me Master?”
“Negative.” Lance spoke. “A pokemon must always address Master as Master.”
Wait a minute. That sounded more coherent than the day before. “Lance? Is the conditioning wearing off?”
“Negative.” Lance replied again. “The conditioning is still in place.”
“Than what’s going on?”
Lance smiled. “Memory suppression is wearing off.”
“Oh! Well, that’s good, isn’t it?”
Lance nodded.
“We’ve got a long day ahead of us. Let’s go train.”
That ended the conversation for the time being.
End Chapter
Completed 12/2/05
Work with me, brain. Bunny, don’t die!