Another chapter! *Waves happily*
Disclaimer: Phantomness doth not own pokemon. It belongs to Nintendo and Shogakukan Comics. This is non-profit fanwork, no copyright infringement is intended upon aforementioned companies, and… don’t take my writing since its mine under international copyright laws.
Notes: <> for telepathy, ** for thoughts, italics if a pokemon talks
Chapter 3: Reality goes bump in the night
They had been walking for perhaps three hours when all of a sudden, Lance yanked Ash down, just as what looked like a primitive arrow soared overhead.
“Halt!”
From the bushes, a mishmash of kids, the oldest perhaps sixteen, the youngest five, all dressed in khaki and with dirt-smeared faces emerged.
“What do you want?” Lance asked, reaching for Dragonite’s poke ball.
“You want to walk through our forest, you gotta pay a toll! I’ll be taking that!” The leader sneered. “Go! Persian!”
Lance idly flipped Dragonite’s poke ball into midair, as the dragon freed itself and Hyper beamed all the kids to kingdom come.
“I think not.” He said simply, before he and Ash walked on.
“Aniki?”
“Hai.”
“What if this happens again?”
“I’ll use Amnesia wave… we have to keep our true selves hidden, remember.”
“Hai.” Ash said, as he followed Lance onwards.
It was three days of camping before they located Bruno. During that time, Ash had not observed anything but cruelty and anger.
“Do you think harmony will really come, aniki?”
“I highly doubt it. Perhaps in a few hundred years…” The Dragon Master trailed off, eyes going silver as he scanned the area for danger again.
“Aa.”
They were six and ten and yet so much older than they appeared.
That was the burden of being Chosen.
Perhaps Ash would stay innocent, but not for long.
His light was already bleeding away.
Lance wasn’t old enough to protect him yet, unfortunately.
Still…
They had to complete this mission.
“Daddy!”
Bruno looked surprised as Misty came running into the house. “What is it?”
“There are people out there!”
“Really? Well, let me take a look.”
Bruno quickly assessed the situation. Two boys, obviously orphans, were battling off a fierce Fearow with a Pikachu and a Larvitar.
They weren’t winning, though.
Larvitar’s attacks didn’t even hit Fearow.
“Well, can’t just leave them there…”
“Go! Hitmonchan,
Ice Punch!”
Fearow dropped down in a block
of ice as Ash and Lance looked startled.
“What were you kids thinking?” Bruno asked, recalling his pokemon.
“G-gomen nasai!” Ash said, nearly bursting into tears. “W-we didn’t know it would attack us!”
“Yes, it just came out of nowhere.” Lance said, as he picked Ash up.
“Oh…”
The pokemon had become quite bloodthirsty and dangerous. That was why he had been hesitant when getting Misty her lapras. But it seemed to be fine.
Human-bred babies would not attack humans.
Plus, some pokemon were still okay, and Lapras was a peaceful species. Spearow on the other hand were quite bad-tempered.
That was it.
He studied them, the younger boy was still sniffling while his older brother patted him on the back and tried to console him.
They couldn’t be very old, either way…
“Where are your parents, kids?”
“G-gone.” Ash sniffled.
Lance was a tad more direct. “Dad just never came home, and mom… she was cooking, but then… and it was fire… and it hurt…then everything went black…”
Bruno
pieced together the broken fragments quickly and nodded. Poor kids! They must
have been traumatized!
“Well, so you have no family.
I guess you can stay with us.”
“Nani?!” Misty cried. “Why? We don’t even know them!”
“Misty, calm down. They aren’t dangerous.”
‘How do you know?”
“I don’t, but Agatha will.” Bruno said impatiently. “Let’s go. We’re liable to get attacked again if we stay out here.”
The two followed.
< Shh, calm. > Lance said. < I’ll build your walls now. >
< Hai, aniki. I trust you. >
As they walked, Lance quickly wove in the necessary protections, smooth walls of slick glass inside their minds, protecting their secrets, overlaid with an illusion of perfect normality, mix in some fear and anger…
Even if this ‘Agatha’ were a psychic, she would not be able to pierce either the illusion or the reality that lay below.
What were the powers of a mere mortal against one of the Chosen?
Even if Lance was only ten, he was still at full power. Ash was only at about 1/5, but that was still a lot.
Satisfied, Lance placed a kiss on Ash’s lips while Bruno and the others were not watching, completing the sealing.
< I’m hiding away most of your magic, she’ll only see a little. It’s in the dream realm; you just have to open the gates to use it. >
< Hai! >
< And your acting is fine, so don’t worry. >
Ash beamed.
“Well, we’re here!” Bruno announced about ten minutes later.
An old woman in black greeted them, leaning heavily on a blackthorn stick.
“So… what have we here.”
Her eyes glowed with purple light as she began to scan.
End Chapter
Complete 4/15/04