*Crying tears of happiness* I finally have a series plotbunny! Even if it’s a short series…
Disclaimer: Angelic Layer belongs to CLAMP and Kodansha. Pokemon belongs to Nintendo and Shogakukan Comics. This non-profit, non-copyright infringing fanfic belongs to me. Okay? K!
Notes: <> for telepathy, ** for thoughts, italics if a pokemon talks

If you don’t like the pokemon I picked, blame my calculator.

Chapter 2

Ash did not sleep well that night.

By the time morning arrived, he had captured twenty or so more angels. Electabuzz. Charmander. Weepinbell. Skitty. Typhlosion. Lotad. Mankey. Azumarill. Ariados. Bellossem. Skarmory. Dragonair. Wailmer. Swinub. Diglett. Quagsire. Tentacruel. Whiscash. Nincada. Pupitar.

Hopefully it had put a small dent in the population.

He had also discovered something else that was very interesting. The ‘poke balls’ apparently healed the angels, like after every Layer battle.

They also made the angels obey him.

Hmm…

Well, originally, angels fought by the will of their Deus. With the bond re-forged, that would make sense…

Then, there was type advantage.

Fire, water, electric… oh, there were many types. It was a bit of trial and error but also common sense to figure out what was what.

The poke balls could link too. They had now formed a string belt, but he could add more strands should more appear.

“Ash, dear…”

He took the warm milk from his mom and smiled tiredly.

“I feel scared.”

“I’m scared too, mom…”

“What can we do? How did this happen?”

“I don’t know.”

That was when someone crashed in through the window, followed by an enraged pokemon.

Lance immediately appeared and captured the pokemon himself in two seconds.

Delia gaped.

Charlotte winced as she brushed herself off, trying to get out the glass shards. “Ow…”

“Hey, I remember you!”

“Yes, so do I. Your angel beat my Flareon.” Charlotte said. “A pity Flareon can’t fight water-types…”

“So yours stayed loyal?”

Charlotte nodded. “I’ve got three now. Flareon, Ninetails, and Rapidash.”

“It looks like you have another new water-type, Deus.” Lance said. “I believe this is a Vaporeon.”

“Oh, that’s nice.”

“Say, Charlotte, you play Angelic Layer more than I. What happened?”

“I believe that the system was infiltrated by some crazy magician who wants to take over the world. At least that’s what I heard.”

“It would make sense though…” Ash said thoughtfully. “Anyway to stop him?”

“Catch the angels before he does?”

“Well, thanks.”

“No problem.” Charlotte grinned. “I’m taking the next plane out of here to America. This place is too freaky for me. Thanks for your help.”

“No problem.”

She left fifteen minutes later.

“Oh Ash, maybe we should leave too…” Delia sobbed.

“Mom, you can go, but I feel I should stay.” He couldn’t explain the feeling, it just felt… right.

Delia sighed. “I knew you would. It’s your nature. Take care of yourself, then, honey.”

Soon, she was also on a plane off the islands.

< Deus, you need rest before you do any more pokemon catching. >

Ash nodded.

Lance kept watch over his Deus while Ash slept. Pretty soon, another angel showed up. This one was easy for him to defeat though.

One good earthquake and it was down.

“Minun? A rather speedy angel with electric-type moves.” Lance said, as he clipped it onto Ash’s belt.

Since he didn’t need sleep, he spent many nights studying other angels and their types, strategies, to make him better. He also read Ash’s high school textbooks.

Now, he could do most every attack.

It was nice.

He would always protect his Deus.

And so time passed.

Most of the cities in Indigo were destroyed, and Ash was worried. He cried the first few times he saw dead people, but then it became so common he felt nothing.

He dedicated himself wholly to the goal of capture.

Six months passed.

“I’ve found you, boy.” A cracked voice said. “I’m impressed.”

“Show yourself.” Ash said. He had taken to wearing black leather, because it was pretty good protection from attacks.

An old man appeared. He had six poke balls.

“I have the six most powerful angels ever created here, and they’re all mine. Do you really think you can win?”

“I think it was stupid of you to use magic just to rule a dead world. There’s hardly anyone alive left.”

“Ah, who said I wanted them?”

“Huh?”

“Don’t you remember me?”

No, it wasn’t his father… Ash screwed up his eyes, gaped. “Robert?” He had only seen his replacement once.

“Yes! I wanted to defeat you, and now I’ve done it!” He cackled. Apparently a coma had done nothing for him…

< He’s insane. >

< I know! Lance, what do we do? >

< What can we do? Defeat those six angels of his, and then we’ll go from there… >

End Chapter

Completed 8/5/04