Another chapter! Guess the mysterious person!

Lance: Phantomness, how obvious can you get?

Phantomness: Did I say it was you?

Ash: Maybe it’s Giovanni? If he’s my father, I mean…

Shoyko: Interesting thought, that

Disclaimer: Phantomness does not own pokemon. Pokemon belongs to Nintendo and Shogakukan Comics. This non-profit, non-copyright infringing fanfiction belongs to me under international copyright laws.

Notes: <> for telepathy, ** for thoughts, italics if a pokemon talks

Chapter 4

Boots clattered noisily against tile. Archie tensed, ready to release his pokemon. However, the steps did not stop at the office and simply continued onwards.

Archie nearly sighed in relief. It wasn’t Delia?

His phone rang.

Archie picked it up. “Hello?”

“Leader Archie! We’re trapped!”

“WHAT?!” Archie roared. “What do you mean? I thought you were taking care of the intruder just fine!”

“He’s blown up half the base sir!”

“Incompetents!” Eyes sparked angrily in snappish rage. * Those screw-ups… I am going to be doing a lot of firing later! *

He? Well, then it was male, not Delia…

The cloaked figure jumped, avoiding a Water Gun attack from a Sharpedo. His Raichu sparked its cheeks angrily.

“Raichu, Thunder!”

There went another section.

Lips quirked up in a half smile as he fled.

“This could be good…” Officer Jenny said hesitantly, “But I don’t think we should go in.”

‘My son’s in there!” Delia said, panicking.

“What? Why?”

“Team Aqua kidnapped him! I don’t know why!”

“Oh dear… we’ll just have to wait.”

“I can’t wait!” Delia snapped. She broke free of Jenny and dashed in. “Ash! Ash, where are you?”

Ash’s ears pricked up. “Mom?”

Delia burst into the office, having somehow blasted the door open. “Ash! Oh my baby, you’re okay, you’re not dead…”

“No, I’m not dead.” Ash said. “But… um, uncle Archie just kind of fainted.”

“He’s not worthy of being called your uncle. Come on, let’s go.”

“Um… okay…”

Ash and Delia ran out of the building. The Officer Jennies came in and dragged the unconscious Archie off to court, where he was tried as the leader of Team Aqua.

He sighed. Why was life suddenly so weird?

All he wanted was a normal pokemon journey, but it didn’t seem to work that way for him…

Did it have something to do with that weird poke ball? Nah.

He hadn’t even been able to open it. So of course there couldn’t be anything in there, right? Right!
He would figure it out later…

“Well, Ash. Did he hurt you?”

“Not really.” * Except for thinking I was stupid. *

Delia frowned. “Not really? Ash, are you hiding something?”

Ash shook his head. Delia didn’t pry, though. She made him a cup of hot chocolate and told him to relax, it had been a long day. That was true. He’d been stunned several times.

That had been annoying! However, as long as there was no permanent damage, he ought to be Ok.

Ash went to sleep.

The next morning, his pokemon were delivered by special express, along with five other poke balls that did *not* look familiar.

However, Ash wasn’t about to complain.

Opening them, he found a Poochyna, a Carvanha, a Tentacool, a Mantine, and a Wailmer. Shrugging, Ash wondered if they were a present from Archie.

Who knew?

Even if they weren’t, no one else had claimed them, so he guessed they were his now, by salvage laws… Team Aqua had kidnapped him after all, so why not some recompense for it? That was fair, right? Right!
Still, the next badge was Surge. From checking the pokemon league website, Ash knew he had a Raichu and specialized in electric pokemon.

Ash himself didn’t have any ground type pokemon that would be resistant to electric moves. Hmm…

What should he do?

While Ash pondered, he went out and trained his new and old pokemon, until they were all roughly the same level. This pleased all except Pikachu, who had gotten almost zero training since she had been on a much higher level. Oh well.

It all evens out in the end.

A few weeks passed peacefully enough while Ash trained around Pallet, making sure he was spending equal amounts of time with all his pokemon, not just the team he would be carrying.

It just wouldn’t be fair to the other pokemon, right?

He was thinking about swinging by Diglett tunnel to grab one of the ground-type moles against Surge, when something crashed in front of him.

Well, more accurately, it was someone in a black cloak.

“Um… hello?” Ash asked.

There was no reply.

Ash poked the person.

There was no reaction.

“Oh no!” Ash sighed. “Well, in that case…” He released Squirtle and had him squirt the man with water to wake this up.

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! COLD!”

The person jumped bolt upright, shaking water off like an angry dog.

“Well, you’re awake.” Ash said ever so cheerfully.

Ashura glared balefully at his younger counterpart. “So it would seem.” Flashing gold met brown as Ash involuntarily stepped back.

… What?

Who?

End Chapter

Completed 12/10/04

Lance: Well, that was different

Ash: I was saved by myself?

Phantomness: Why not?

Kairo: Suitably odd, I’ll admit. But humorous? No.

Pika-chan: *busy consuming a chocolate cake to answer*