Disclaimer: Pokemon belongs to Nintendo. Angelic Layer belongs to CLAMP and Kodansha. This is non-profit, non-copyright infringing fanfic written by me, and guess what? It’s mine!

Notes: ** for thoughts, in case that wasn’t evident.

Chapter 5

Ash smiled as he poured himself a glass of milk to go with his cornflakes. “Mom, I’ll see you later.”

“All right, Ash, but do be careful. I’ve heard rumors of some trainers who sneak into tournaments to steal angels.”

“Oh no!”

“Yes, so I want you to be careful, okay?”

Ash nodded.

A bit more comforted, Delia went back to her laundry. Jacques hadn’t contacted Ash yet. Maybe he wouldn’t. She hoped so at least.

That man…

Ash had given Lance a bath in special angel solution and dressed him in another set of armor. This one was lighter, and silver instead of black, with a blue Chinese dragon on the front, but it didn’t hide his wings. Instead, it partially covered them except the tips of the steel feathers.

So Lance would be protected if he flew.

Lighter armor increased agility as well, and that would come in handy if he fought more power and strength types.

At least Lance had good defense, otherwise Aggron’s attack would have been one-hit KO.

Ash carried Lance, his perfect angel, proudly back to the school, and a new day of battling began.

“Roselia, Petal Dance!”

Lance smirked; mirroring Ash’s smile, and dodged all the petals, before the wind direction changed and all the dropped petals flew back towards Roselia…

They rubbed against each other as they flew, and the friction caused sparks, since it was silk it caught fire…

Roselia on fire could not really fight, and Barbara forfeited, not wanting her angel to become more damaged.

It was good to have a fast angel, and defensive too, Ash decided. He hugged Lance tightly to his chest.

Kawaii…

“Pidgeot, Whirlwind!”

“Hang in there, Lance.” Ash said, as he watched his angel being battered by the wind currents. His opponent was pretty smart.

Lance could fly, but his wings were light so heavy storms didn’t bode well. Ash chewed on his lip, before something clicked in his mind.

Lance suddenly grabbed onto Pidgeot’s back and wouldn’t let go. As Pidgeot flapped, the wind currents did nothing.

Adrian had carefully phased and placed the battle so his own pokemon’s attacks would not deal damage. That made perfect sense.

Now Lance was in the zone of safety as well. So…

Time to counterattack!

Several rapid punches quickly lowered Pidgeot’s HP, the bird could not really retaliate without hurting herself, and Adrian realized this.

He did, however, use one last move, Sky Attack, which blasted both Pidgeot and Lance against the wall of the Layer, but…

Lance had more remaining HP and stood, slightly injured but still standing. Satoshi was once again declared the victor.

Charizard was quite hard to defeat.

But luckily, the last Flamethrower had missed and exhausted its sparks, so Lance had been able to finish the battle.

Still, it wasn’t easy.

Ash cleaned a few spots of dust and grime off Lance’s armor with a cloth dipped in cleaning solution.

“There we go, all done…”

He smiled.

He was eating a slightly early dinner after three more winning matches when someone came up to him.

“So you’re Satoshi.”

Ash nodded.

“I’ve heard that you use an old model, but you’ve won against several new pokemon models already.”

Ash nodded again.

“How about a match later? My name’s Rudy.”

“All right.”

Ash paid for his food, he could have used Angel card points, he got a set number for entering the tournament as well as for battles, more if he won of course, but he was saving those to buy more accessories for Lance.

Not that it was a bad thing.

Ash gave Lance another kiss for luck, and then found Rudy at a platform.

“Wow…”

Instead of just empty air, this platform had a layer of sand over the bottom.

“It’s a new environment.” Rudy explained. “If you win on one of these, you get double the angel points, and it counts as two wins instead of one.”

“Testing?”

“Yes. Now let’s begin!”

Rudy had an angel named Mahri, she was tiny, only about half Lance’s height, but she was very fast.

And very loud! How had he programmed a voice?

Ash was startled, so Lance froze, long enough for Mahri to do a Tackle. Luckily, her attack was pretty low.

But Ash could see Rudy’s strategy now.

His angel talked in a very annoying voice. If the Deus couldn’t concentrate, the angel wouldn’t be able to fight.

Ash took a deep breath and ordered Lance to use a simple jab and then reverse punch. Mahri dodged the bluff, but not the actual strike.

She crumpled temporarily, but Ash saw from a quick glance that that was a trick too, so Lance used Thunder.

Mahri staggered up, and used Tackle, to meet with Slash.

Both flew backwards, but one flew harder.

“Mahri!” Rudy gasped. “Oh no!”

Lance brushed himself off and waited.

Mahri did not get up. Was she really – yes, she had speed, and programming in that voice had cost Attack and Defense.

No wonder.

The equipment needed weighed her down, but it could not be damaged or else she would really not be able to fight.

So a voice-possessing angel would probably not be a good idea.

He didn’t mind.

“Winner: Satoshi!”

Ash smiled as he picked Lance up. They needed 25 wins to get into finals… they could do it. He and Lance were a team.

“You treat that doll better than most people treat their kids.” Rudy commented as he watched Ash carefully check Lance over with a magnifying glass, and put Heal-gel on his leg.

The plastic? Metal? Whatever the substance was, healed the leg, and the angel was as good as new.

“Gomen nasai, Lance.” Ash whispered. “I didn’t even notice when you fought Hitmonlee earlier.”

He had to work harder! He didn’t want to break his angel! He wanted to protect his angel!

But he also wanted to win and show his dad force wasn’t everything.

Lance was cool and soft in his hands as he finished the patching. With a wistful smile, Ash picked the doll up and walked to the shop.

Maybe he had enough Angel points to get something new.

“He’s won eleven.”

“Excellent.”

“So now what?”

“I’m going to wait. His mother has poisoned his mind against me.”

“His mother? Why would she-.” The worker broke off with sudden realization. Of course!

Jacques mailed off a check to one Delia every month, so…

Why wouldn’t it be expenses?

Ginger was his second wife after all.

Jacques coughed, drawing the tech’s attention back. “Yes, sir.”

“Get me the tapes of all his battles.”

“Yes, sir.”

The man ran off to work.

End Chapter

Completed 6/7/04