And yet another chapter!
Disclaimer/Notes: Pokemon belongs to Nintendo. This non-profit, non-copyright infringing fanfic belongs to me under international copyright laws. The original pokegenie idea belongs to Disruptor, and I do have his permission to use it for this fic.

I use ** for thoughts, italics for pokemon language, and <> for telepathy.

This may turn out to be het championshipping… eventually…

Started 9/7/04

Chapter 12

The morning of the fourth round dawned mildly cloudy. Ash set off for the ice field readily enough, his poke balls a-twinkling on that black poke belt. He showed up fifteen minutes early and pulled out a manga to read. He was just nearing the climatic ending scene when his opponent finally showed up. With a sigh, Ash stowed his manga and got ready to battle.

“I choose you, Pikachu!”

“Oh, a pikachu…” Ash did a quick check. It was a male all right. He smiled across the arena at Richie, and then tossed out Pikachu.

“Pikachu, use Attract!”

Little pink hearts engulfed Richie’s Leon, much to his dismay. Ash grinned. “Now, use Rollout!”

He and Lance had done some TM shopping, not just for Lance, and now, it was coming in handy. Leon went flying the first time, second time he retaliated with quick attack, but Rollout’s power was increasing every turn… yes! That was enough to overcome Leon’s defense, so Richie was one pokemon down.

“Interesting.” Richie smiled. “Butterfree, go!”

“… His team is starting to resemble mine…” Ash mused. Wait a minute… wasn’t Butterfree part _flying_? Woohoo! Type advantage! “Pikachu, Thunderbolt!”

Poor Butterfree. It managed to get in Poisonpowder before faint, but oh well… Ash spotted Charmander as Richie’s third pokemon.

His team is just scarily like mine…

“Charmander, Dig!”

Ash quickly recalled Pikachu. * Scary… * “All right! Bulbasaur! Let’s go!”

“…?” Richie blinked. “Charmander, Ember!”

Bulbasaur braced herself, before Sweet Scent immobilized Charmander. Despite the close proximity of the flames, she wasn’t harmed yet.

Then, sleep powder fell and put Charmander to sleep.

Bulbasaur smiled happily and used three Razor Leaf attacks to finish off Charmander.

Sleeping pokemon can’t attack after all! What was really lucky was how Charmander stayed asleep.

Richie was in shock. He hadn’t even dented Ash’s pokemon. This boy hadn’t gotten to his current position by sheer luck, at least he didn’t think so…

Ash smiled brightly. * Three more battles to champion… *

Lance yawned. She was bored, but not much. Now what to do? Unless Ash let her out, she was going to stay.

It wasn’t too bad inside the poke ball… she had it decorated nicely, and her pokemon were there to keep her company.

It was like a self-contained biosphere. Lance flopped onto her bed, pulled the covers up under her chin, and went to sleep.

Nice…

The next day, there was another match. No special fields for this one…

Gabrielle tossed her floss-pink hair and smiled at Ash. She was fifteen, beautiful, and if the rumors could be believed, possessed a Honou.

Ash wasn’t quite inclined to believe that, but he had seen tapes of her battles. She relied on one pokemon to win – her Persian.

It was a good pokemon – knew Thunderbolt and Hyper Beam. It also had fast speed and could pin and devour – or at least attempt to – a pokemon in seconds.

Her other pokemon were if he remembered correctly, Weepinbell and Clefable and Kangaskhan. So she liked normal-types…

Fighting-types weren’t his favorites though, he didn’t like them much. Did he even have any?

Ghost-type might be in his favor, but he couldn’t – and didn’t – want to use Lance. That would be majorly unfair!
He tried not to break his promises.

< You have Hitmonchan. > Lance sent. < Remember? >

Ash did. Pidgeot had taken it out in one hit while they had been traveling in the mountains near Saffron.

Good pokemon, that one.

However, he wasn’t sure he wanted to use it. He also had a Primeape from the same area, but… for some odd reason…

< Lance, is Hitmonchan a human pokemon? >

< Very good Ash. I believe they were… and they backslid during the last Surge. So the Tyrogue chain, Makuhita chain, Meditite chain, Jynx, Machop chain, Abra chain, Slakoth chain, Ralts chain, and Mankey chain are all… the closest. >

Ash nodded. * Most of them are normal, and fighting… a couple of psychics. * “So the first Surge mostly created normal-types, since humans are essentially ‘normal’?”

< That is correct. There were only a few exceptions… like Jynx. >

“Then…”

Lance caught his train of thought. < Ash, by now so many years have passed that they probably think of themselves as pokemon anyways. You shouldn’t feel guilty for catching them. >

“O-okay…”

Using Geodude wouldn’t be good either, as he hadn’t really trained it after catching…

“Just stick to your team.” Lance advised.

< I should… >

Talking in telepathy got easier the more he used it. Lance had gifted him after he had made a wish earlier. She preferred talking in telepathy to saying ‘Genie, genie’ all the time in any case. Thus, it was simpler if he could do the same and not look like he was talking to himself crazily.

Use every advantage you have, ne?

< Yes you should. What happened to trust in your team and your friendship, Ash? > Lance teased. * Or did something happen? *

“I feel… it’s like something prickling in my skin, unidentifiable, but it keeps coming closer… oh Mew, what if Professor Oak gives me Misty?!”

< That’s what you’re worried about? >

Ash nodded.

< Sometimes, you don’t see the obvious until I mention it to you. But then again… why don’t you just wish _never_ for that to happen? >

“Oh!”

And so he did.

The next morning, he had to battle Gabriella. His first impression was pink. Pink jeans, pink tank top, and…

Pink hair tied up in two little braids with two pink bows… oh, one little click, one attack astray, and *Poof*

She was a walking time bomb.

Ash walked over to his side of the arena and flashed a grin. “Let’s begin.”

End Chapter

Completed 9/10/04