Disclaimer: If I owned pokemon, I wouldn’t be writing fanfiction, now would I be? *Shrugs* Well, Pokemon belongs to Nintendo and Shogakukan Comics and a whole lot of other people, so don’t sue me. Oh yes, and West Side Story is a motion picture and I do have the script and the DVD but I don’t own it either… but I will be using some song lyrics from it. Okay, I’m done.

Notes: Based on West Side Story. Manga characters, not anime! Pairings include pretty obvious Championshipping (Red x Lance Shonen-ai) and others. I suppose some are squintable, like Gold x Bugsy and Lugia knows what else. Tony x Maria shall be Yellow x Brock, and Giovanni and Flannery are Bernardo and Anita. Hehehe…

Warnings: Drugs, drinking, smoking, gang violence, crude language, sexual overtones

Title: West Side Story

Chapter 1

The camera pans in on a sidewalk in New York. Standing on a corner is a boy, a teenager, in a red-and-white jacket, black t-shirt and faded blue jeans, red and white sneakers. Suddenly, from somewhere else, comes a soft, high whistle.

The boy looks up, and it can be seen that he has tanned skin, black hair sticking out in all directions, but the strange thing is his blood-red eyes – strange eyes and the golden tattoos on his face.

He walks purposefully down the street. This is Red – the Leader of the Jets. Just another gang haunting the city streets…

The camera shifts – in the shadows, two boys materialize, leaning against the wall – one with cold golden eyes and silver tattoos underneath long dark red hair, black catsuit and cape, – Lance, Ash’s lieutenant, and another with a bare chest, dirty white pants, black armbands, an aggressive look and posture – Bruno.

Another camera shift – two more boys materialize. A cocky boy in a yellow and black baseball cap, he winks at the camera, wearing a red jacket and black-and-yellow shoes. One oddity is that he is carrying a pool cue in one hand – Gold.

The second boy looks like he escaped from the boy scouts – he’s got lavender hair, wearing a light green short-sleeved shirt and shorts – Bugsy. The baby of the gang, really… quick shots going by, so we see other characters – Silver and Blue, Lorelei…

The Camera slides down and we see Giovanni (Gasp! He’s teenaged so the fic makes sense) walking down the street by himself. He runs into Red and they exchange glares… Lance and Bruno materialize behind Red and make mock bows as he walks by.

… In another area of the city, Bugsy and Gold freeze as they notice that they are outnumbered four to two – Maxie, Surge, Wattson, and Archie have made their way there… (And yes, for the benefit of the fanfic these characters are also teenagers).

The groups split up, and began to reform… whistles in the air, and moments later, both gangs are facing each other, in the middle of an empty playground, a few basketball hoops, rusty, watch the scene…

Red yanks Bugsy away from Surge, who bares his teeth. Bugsy’s wrist is… oddly angled, for lack of a better word. Bruno cracks his knuckles and glares at Giovanni…

As if by some unspoken signal, the fight begins…

Misty, a tomboyish girl who wants to be a Jet, desperately tries to enter the fray, but is studiously ignored by friend and foe alike…

And just as quickly, a siren booms…

< Begin Scene >

The fighting was still going on as Officer Jenny pulled up on the scene, followed by her superior, Agatha Oak.

The detective sighed and leaned on her cane as they left the car. Here it was again…

Really, it was ridiculous, fighting over a little piece of street that if one was strictly judgmental, belonged to the U.S. Government and the city…

At least there were no weapons in sight. For that she could be thankful. Right now it was just brawling, no guns, just fists swinging, boys would be boys…

“Hey, hey, break it up!” Jenny said impatiently, as she shoved herself into the fray. Red’s face immediately shifted into injured innocence as he lounged against a chain-link fence. As usual, Lance was two steps to the side of his leader. They met Officer Jenny’s eyes squarely. No guilt whatsoever…

“Top of the morning to ya, Officer.” Lance drawled, and several of the boys made mock bows.

Jenny sighed. They wouldn’t fool her…

Agatha got out of the car with a disgusted look. “All right, all right, who started it this time?”
Gold and Bruno were about to speak, but Red shot them a warning look and they shut up. Bugsy didn’t answer.

Agatha’s eyes zeroed in on the boy – the weakest link, clutching his wrist. “All right, Bugsy. Which one of the Puerto Ricans bloodied you? Oh my, that looks rather bad… you won’t be using that hand for a while…”

Jenny sighed. “Wasting people’s tax money in free medical care for these kids is a total waste of money, you know.”

Bugsy didn’t answer.

“Well?” Jenny moved closer to Agatha. Bugsy trembled slightly, and cast a pleading look at Red for help. Red coughed and then came forwards.

“Actually, we think that it might have been a cop.” He said pleasantly. “Two, most likely. Don’t worry, we’ll take care of him.”

“Uh huh.” Jenny said unconvinced. “Impossible.”

“Nothing is impossible in America.” Giovanni cut in, breaking the silence. His own gang clustered behind him, like moral support.

Agatha groaned. “Listen, wise guy, you kids want to kill each other, it’s nothing to me! But you’re not doing it while I’m on duty! I have more important things to worry about! Kill each other some other time for all I care! Any questions or do you not comprehend that?”

Several angry looks flashed across various faces, but the groups kept quiet.

“Actually, “ Giovanni said with an oily smile, “Would you mind translating that into Spanish?”

Agatha gave an exasperated snort. “Get out of here, Giovanni! I don’t have time to deal with you.” She snapped.

Giovanni didn’t move.

“Oh, and take your friends. Please.” The sarcasm was enough to… wax a floor with. Or something.

Giovanni gave a mock bow as he and his Sharks melted into the shadows. “Sharks, Vamanos…”

A moment later, Agatha turned to the Jets. “All right children, let us get this nice and clear. If I do not install some law and order in this pathetic neighborhood, they will take away my retirement fund and lower me to some traffic cop that sits around and passes out tickets for illegally parked cars. That lifestyle does not appeal to me at all. So, if I see something of this sort again, I’m afraid I’ll have to suck all your souls out and cart you down to jail. Any questions?”

The Gengar behind her stuck out its tongue.

“Come on Jenny, let’s go.”

Officer Jenny hesitated, but followed her superior as they got into the car and drove away.

There was a pause after they had gone.

“Jail?” Bugsy squeaked.

“Don’t worry about it.” Lance beckoned Bugsy over. “Let me take a look at that wrist of yours.”

Bugsy whimpered slightly as Lance gave a few jabs and then wrenched, but a moment later, blue healing light covered the wound and the hand was back to normal, if slightly sore.

“Medical bills my foot,” Bruno griped. “It’s not like we ever need a doctor.”

“I suppose,” Gold, sneered, “That it’s all those ‘poor souls’ we sent in. And what does she mean, we don’t own this street?”

“We do own it!” Red said, catching the attention of all. “Remember when the Sapphires came in with their Squirtles? We sure showed them who the leaders were. And last year, didn’t we beat off the Hawks and their Pidgeys? Listen. We’ve held onto this area for a long time and by Lugia, we’ll continue to hold it!”

“Yeah, but those Puerto Ricans are different!”

“They multiply!”
“Like Cockroaches!”

“They just keep coming!”

“Soon we’ll be covered in them!”

“They’re ruining free enterprise!”

“They’re ruining the world!”

Red gave a sharp whistle for silence. The Jets fell silent.

Misty followed.

“No girls. Beat it!”

“I can fight, Red! You know I can!”

“Beat it.” Lance hissed. Misty glared at him, but ran off.

The rest of the Jets clustered around Red.

“That’s why we’re going to settle it all with one fight.” Red said coolly. “Because otherwise, according to dear Detective Agatha, we’ll just have to let them move into our area. And we can’t have that, can we?”

“Hell no!”

“Not in a million years!”

“So we’ll move light lighting-.”

“Like Jets!” Bugsy interrupted.

“Yes,” Red nodded. “That’s what we’ll do.”

Bruno grunted and cracked his knuckles again. “Sounds good. When?”

“Cool it, Bruno! The Sharks want a piece of us too. And you know, they’re real down, so they might asks for blades and guns. Well, what will we do then?”

Lance didn’t say a word, but no one missed his motions, as a waterfall of silver seemed to dance between his fingers for a few seconds. The others nodded silently. The point had been made.

“Normally, I wouldn’t speak for our Leader, but it seems,” Lance said, quiet menace, “That if we have to decide this once and for all, we might as well go all out.”

“That’s right.” Red grinned, putting an arm around Lance’s shoulder. “If they want blades, if they want guns, who cares what they want, we’ll give it to them! Because we are not losing what we fought so hard to get!”

“No way!” The rest agreed in unison.

“Now,” Red said, “Protocol demands that I meet Giovanni face to face and issue a challenge…”

“Yes, but we’re not going deep into their territory. That’s suicide.” Gold swore.

“Of course not,” Red grinned, “But he will be at the dance tonight.”

“At the Pallet Gym? But that’s neutral territory.” Silver spoke up.

“Well, it’s not like we’ll hurt them there.” Red said in response. “And besides, I’m only going to challenge him.”

“Right.” Bruno grunted, a bit disappointed, but no one paid him much attention.

“You need a lieutenant to go with you – that’s me.” Gold snapped up. He rapped his pool cue on the ground.

“No, that’s Brock.”

“Brock? But he quit! He went soft! He got a stupid job, for crying out loud!” Gold fumed. “Why not me?”

“Jealous much?” Lance asked wryly. “Brock and Red were the original founders.”

“And besides, Brock’s never let me down.” Red smirked. “So don’t worry, he’ll be at the dance tonight at ten – and so will all of you. I expect you to dress sharp-.”

“Of course.” Gold slicked down his hair and took out a hand mirror to check his appearance. Bugsy mouthed ‘girl’, Bruno looked disgusted, Silver and Lance shrugged, and the others were of similar sentiments.

“Brock will come through for us. He’s a Jet after all.” Red grinned.

End Chapter

Completed 8/12/05

Lance: I smoke?

Red: I’m a gang leader?
Phantomness: Actually, I wanted Lance to be Leader at first, but after reading the script, I figured Ice fit him more than Riff…

Red: …

Shoyko: And…

Phantomness: It will be angst later…

Shoyko: *grumble*