Another chapter!
Disclaimer/Notes: See chapter 1. I don’t own pokemon. Nintendo does. Don’t take my writing; it’s _mine_ under international copyright laws!

Started 9/5/04

Chapter 8

 

            Fool’s bargain!

            They found Dillon easily enough, fighting him was the hard part. He was so fast that the Seven Swords, Chuck and Drake in particular, were too wounded to perform Wall of Swords.

            So… someone had to die.

            Lorelei was brave; yes… she fought Dillon with the suicidal strokes of Heaven’s Wrath, and managed to kill him at the cost of her own life. The Stars could not do much, except throw their own hidden weapons when Dillon got close, too fast and they couldn’t risk hitting the Swords, and even then, he nearly killed Koga and Aya. Only their own affinity with poisons saved their lives.

            Luckily… yes, snake bitten once and the anti-venom stays in your blood, how lucky… still, it took nearly three months for them to heal.

            Bruno broke both his legs in that fight, he needed time to heal as well. Surge only sprained his wrists, too much exertion on his whip…

            Lance stayed on the sidelines with Agatha, keeping eyes out, even though poison needles wouldn’t be much good against Dillon…

            Still, it was a hard job avoiding all those bursts of poison, mixed with acid! So even if you weren’t wounded, no life guarantee…

            He didn’t like that memory, so he cut it short.

 

******************End Flashback**************************************

 

            The food stared back at him. Okay. He could eat it. Just don’t think about the poor rabbit… you’ve had rabbit before at home!

            Except now this girl… Misty? She was staring at him.

            Lance tapped Red’s arm with his fan. “Are you going to eat or not?”

            “Gomen nasai, Lance…” Red picked up the rabbit leg he had and began chewing slowly, ignoring Misty’s look.

            It was food, right?

            It was still storming outside. The only reason they had rabbits was because Aerodactyl had done a bit of quick hunting.

            He was still two weak to fly them home though, so they were stuck for the time being. No idiot was going to go and Surf out there.

            Rain weakens rock-types…

            Lance had dried off his Aerodactyl as best he could. There wasn’t much in his carrying bag, poke balls, pokemon items, a few changes of clothes…

            He was used to traveling light.

 

            “How can you do that?”

            “The rabbit was already dead. If we didn’t eat it, then that would be wasting resources.” Red said quite calmly.

            An ‘eew’ expression plastered itself on Misty’s physiognomy.

            Ash had carefully taken a piece of meat himself and was eating carefully. Heck, it was food, right?

            “Which pokemon of yours was missing?”

            “Um… Bulbasaur and Squirtle.” Ash checked his poke balls.

            “As long as they stay within those facilities they possess, I highly doubt they will be in danger.”

            “… Thanks.”

            Brock cleared his throat awkwardly. “What if the cave floods?”

            “Well, we are hoping it won’t.”

            A charmander wouldn’t survive long in the raging winds and rain, torrents of water, buckets and buckets and cats and dogs… at least Charmander wasn’t the one lost…

            He prayed Bulbasaur and Squirtle were all right.

 

            “So how’d you go blind Lance?”

            Well, it wasn’t the best conversation starter, but any conversation was better than stifling, mournful silence. Yuck.

            Lance shifted to stare in Brock’s direction, at least that of his voice. “You could call it a training accident.”

            “Man, that sucks.”

            Red carefully placed the bones on a pile of dirt away from their sleeping points. Food was fine.

            “Which pokemon was it?” Ash could be such an inquisitive little blabbermouth at times. Who’s going to tell?

            “Scyther.” Lance clipped. * I won’t tell… it’s too… all right. My pride is still rankling. Should have used hidden weapons… *

            From his curt reply, Brock knew not to pry any more. Misty had been about to ask, but she turned her attention to Red.

            “Do you have any water pokemon?”

            “Gyarados.”

            “No, that’s too scary! I only like cute water pokemon. But I’m going to become the world’s best water master!”

            “Impressive dream you’re striving for.” He looked at Lance again. Surely Lance wouldn’t try anything with all these people along.

            Ack! Now he was getting _way_ too paranoid!

            Lance gave no sign of being in Red’s line of sight, as he unfastened his cloak and let it dry, hanging on a rock.

            It had gotten wet earlier when he’d gone out for a moment to call Aerodactyl back and get those rabbits. The blasted winds tossed rain like needles in every direction.

           

            “So, do you have anything?”

            Red had Pidgeot and Chansey with him now, but at Oak’s he had many, many, more pokemon in storage… he thought back, thinking.

            “I also have a Tentacruel and Vaporeon.”

            “Ooh! I love Tentacruel! They’re so pretty, with the shiny red eyes…”

            Red gave Misty a weird look as she continued to rant about how great Tentacruel were. * Odd girl… *

            A slight scraping noise caught everyone’s attention.

            Lance had pulled a packet of needles out of his shirt and was now sharpening them on a rock, causing little metallic shrieking noises.

            “Lance? When did you get _those_?”

            “Picked them up after… the incident.”

            “Oh!”

            “I figured if Agatha could learn, I could too. Besides, the fan’s no good in combat anymore.” A slight bitter chord struck as Red winced.

            “Hai, I’m sorry…”

            “You’ve already apologized enough. Do you remember what you promised me, though? I’m holding you to that.”

            Ash and Co. looked at the two oddly, and then shrugged. Back to business. Misty’s stomach rumbled, and she grimly resigned herself. Took a bite of rabbit, swallowed hard, and ate another.

            It took her half an hour to eat a small piece, choking each one down. Guilt wracked her, but it was eat or die of starvation and that wasn’t appealing.

            Dire circumstances bring out character traits. The will to survive is stronger than most people give it credit for.

            And that was that.

 

End Chapter

Completed 9/7/04

Lance: So now what?
Phantomness: I’m trying to _think_, okay? It takes time to write! And think!

Pika-chan: *offers Phantomness a strawberry sundae*

Phantomness: Thanks Pika-chan

Shoyko: Darkfic is Phantomness’s characteristic writing… *sigh* More work for me.

Kairo: Ehehehe! Humor she hardly writes! I get lots of free time!

Ash: Long as this isn’t a lemon, I’m good…