Well, here is the fifth chapter. *Looks out the window at the pouring rain* winter…
Curse you Grendel!
That book is so depressing that now I find it difficult to write happy fics.
Disclaimer: Ask Nintendo or The Pokemon Company, I don’t own pokemon. This is fanfiction. No profit is being made. I only own what I create myself.
Notes: ** for thinking, <> for telepathy, and italics for pokemon chatter.
Chapter 5: Getting to know you
Lance, Ash, Charlotte, and Lorelei sat around the table in Indigo Plateau, playing hearts.
“Curses.” Ash muttered as he got the queen of spades. “More negative points…”
“No, I don’t think so.” Charlotte said. “If Lorelei gets all the hearts it’ll be positive.”
“But she can’t, since I have the two and four.” Lance said, pointing to the small pile next to her.
Lorelei’s mind whirled as she tried to figure out exactly how to get rid of the ace of hearts in her hand. * Can’t shoot the moon, so… hmm… *
Charlotte looked at the stack of two spades and quickly put down the four of spades.
Lance was about to make her move when the phone rang.
Ash frowned. “I’ll get it.” He got up and walked over to the videophone in the hall, before flicking it on. “Hello?”
Erika’s face appeared. “Oh! Hi, Ashura.”
“What is it?”
Erika frowned. “Uncontrollable wildfires around Celadon and Vermillion. I figured you might know how to help, since you’re a water master.”
“Be right there.” Ash replied. He got up and found the others, quickly explaining the situation. They were all flying there on Lance’s Dragonair.
When they found the sites, they split up. Lorelei and Charlotte tackled Vermillion, while Ash and Lance took care of Celadon.
Ash concentrated on dousing the flames, while Lance called up a terrific rainstorm that cleared most of the mess.
Elsewhere, Lorelei was freezing the fires into spikes of ice, and Charlotte was directing the flames to burn only the brush and not harm the endangered trees.
It was good teamwork.
Soon, the conflagration had been doused.
“Back to the Plateau then.” Lorelei said, as they all climbed back on Dragonair, who was more than willing to oblige.
“Best course of action for now.” Lance said with a grin.
“Not too hard.” Lorelei mused.
Ash smiled. “But sensei, if it were hard, wouldn’t you be a weak master?”
Lorelei laughed good-naturedly. “True.”
Soon, they were back at the Plateau relaxing with iced drinks.
Charlotte smiled as she downed an iced vanilla mocha.
“You like coffee that much?”
“Quick energy.” The trainer explained. “In a busy life, often invaluable.”
“With no crazy side effects like sugar.’ Lance added.
Ash grinned.
“You consumed six boxes of pixy sticks before the conference, and practically groped me while the speaker was making his speech. It was not a good impression.”
“Sorry.”
“You sure looked funny though.” Lorelei said, smiling.
Lance blushed. “It wasn’t fun…”
“Sure…” Charlotte teased.
Lance frowned. “Well, the moral of the story is that Ash should not devour excess sugar.”
“Nobody can deal with all of that at once. It would overload their system.”
Lorelei took a sip of iced tea. “Well, that’s been proven already.”
Ash flushed. “Well, you don’t have to pick on me.”
“We’re not.” Charlotte said, handing him a marshmallow chocolate bar.
“Oh.” Ash muttered as he ate the sweet confection.
The load ostentatious ringing of a bell heralded the arrival of a challenger. Sighing, Charlotte and Lorelei got up.
“We’ll page you if he or she gets past us.”
Ash nodded as he continued to munch on the chocolate.
Lance sighed. “Won’t you ever grow up?”
Ash blinked. “I’m a master…”
“That’s not what I meant.’ Lance sighed. “You’ll understand later.”
Ash nodded and helped himself to another box of chocolates. Ah, fangirls could be useful sometimes.
“Hah!” Vincent crowed as his Electabuzz downed Dewgong. Lorelei seethed inwardly. * Calm… just because we’re only allowed to use our weakest pokemon does not mean we’re bad trainers… right. In a masters duel I’d win for sure. *
She stepped aside.
In the next room, Charlotte was waiting. A lava shaft lined the arena, with only a small platform to battle on. It was very good for intimidating challengers. Charlotte often had to fish them out once they tripped and fell into the smoky pit below.
Vincent gulped slightly.
“Let’s begin.” Charlotte said, not bothering to give a speech. That way, he could ponder strategy while tuning her out.
“Okay!” Vincent said confidently. Sure, his Golem was useless now, but Electabuzz was still active. And so were his Blastoise and Fearow. Ditto probably wouldn’t be good in this match… nor Ponyta.
Charlotte smiled.
“Arcanine, let’s go!”
Arcanine roared and appeared. Vincent of course used his Blastoise. It didn’t seem to be a fair fight.
“Arcanine! Extreemespeed!” Arcanine agilely dodged over the jets of water sent its way. Charlotte nodded as she calculated how much more damage Arcanine could take. None of the Hydro Pumps had hit, but it had taken a strong Surf attack to the chest.
“Hyper Beam!”
The unsuspecting Blastoise fell off the platform, its heavy bulk dragging it down into the flames below. A few seconds later, Charlotte’s Mantine fished it out.
“I win.” Charlotte grinned.
“Grr…” Vincent stomped off.
Ash turned away from the display screen. “She’s good.”
“Lorelei should have used Lapras or Jynx…” Lance considered. “Ah well. She can blow off some steam.”
As they watched, Jynx formed a little human shaped ball of ice. Lorelei fished a lipstick out of her pockets and drew little ‘x’ on all four of its limbs.
Outside, Vincent suddenly found himself frozen in an ice statue.
“Much better.” Lorelei said in satisfaction as she returned.
“That was different…”
End Chapter!