And… another chapter!

Disclaimer: Don’t own pokemon, own this fanfic, don’t steal my work!

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

Chapter 3

 

            “…. What?”

            So Lance wasn’t the most coherent person at that moment, but it was perfectly understandable. What in the world…

            Lorelei shrugged helplessly. “Gomen nasai…”

            “Lorelei, what’s going on? Why-?” He stopped as the Dragonair floated up next to him.

            “Something has come up, which you need to take care of.”

            “What?”

            < It’s much more important than what you do now. >

            Lance racked his brains and tried his best to discern their intent, but finding no retort, he followed Umbreon and hoped that it wasn’t malicious.

            Hn. Well, Lorelei would like bringing life to baby pokemon…

            Umbreon and Mew led him to a cave. How there was a cave in the sky, Lance had no idea, but…

            “Well?”

            < Shh…. >

 

            Well, he hoped that they’d enlighten him soon. This was boring. His steps followed theirs softly in the darkness.

            What was going on?

            If they were going to turn him into a pokemon or something, surely they would tell… right? He hoped so.

            Finally, the long walk in the cave seemed to end.

            “Well…”

 

            < Hold on! >

            Lance quirked an eyebrow at Mew, who was busy arguing with Umbreon over something, he didn’t know what, but he hoped it wasn’t him.

            Exactly what was going on?

            Dragons are supposed to be patient, so Lance sat down and began humming the full score of ‘Phantom of the Opera’ in his head. It helped him relax. He was halfway through the second act when the pokemon were finally done arguing.

            < Well, here we are. >

            Lance blinked. They hadn’t moved an inch. Exactly what was so important?

            < Close your eyes. >

            Uh-oh… alarm bells began going off in Lance’s head, but he obeyed… a few seconds later, Mew told him to open them again.

            Well, one thing was for certain, the butterfly wings were gone. Well, no more flying then….

            “Mew, what’s going on?”

            < We gave your job to Lorelei, so we’re setting you up for another job.”

            < I see… >

            “You’ll like it, I promise!”

            … He wasn’t too sure about that. Legendaries could be odd…

            Still… maybe not having butterfly wings was a good sign.

            They hadn’t looked all that good on him either way.

 

            Silence ticked. The seconds flashed by. Lance opened his eyes upon Mew’s signal, and gasped.

            Dragons.

            The entire cave was filled with ghostly dragon spirits. What on earth?

            “This is the dragon reserve, then?”

            < You have heard of I? > Mew asked in wonder.

            Lance smiled. < Well, yes. I was using it to control the dragons I unleashed as an army against humanity… >

            Umbreon stifled a gasp. That powerful while still mortal? Impossible! Well, wasn’t it?

            He thought so…

 

            “I’m sure you’ll enjoy your new job.” Mew said perkily, before the two legendaries departed.

            Lance smiled as the spirits swirled around him. Oh yes, indeed…

 

            Time passed… two years in fact, but it might have been seconds to Lance. After all, time flowed so strangely in this realm…

            But he was happy.

            The dragons told tales of the earth below, and ancient times, and always, there were new spirits to join them.

            Lance was pleased when his own dragon-spirits arrived only days after he had switched jobs. So they had died…        

            But now they were together, so everything was fine. Right?

 

            Back on earth though, things were steadily falling downhill. Team Rocket had taken advantage of the Elite Four’s destruction to take control, only a bare month after Lorelei had been tried.

            Professor Oak had died… Green and Oak together in the lab, no time to react before the whole place was in flames… all the pokemon perished, save for those few, which the Rockets had looted…

            Blue was desolate, but Team Rocket caught her days later and stole the three legendary birds from her.

            Red… no one knew where he had gone.

            Yellow… well, Giovanni had done something of his own, not sure what, but apparently he had stolen her powers… and without them, she was pretty useless.

            So Yellow was left alone. They took Pikachu from her though, Red’s Pikachu, but who was going to contest it now?

Civilians were no longer allowed pokemon. Team rocket had a base in every city in Kanto, and many other areas besides – Mount Moon and the abandoned Power plant were examples, also Seafoam islands.

Was there any hope left?

Who knew?

 

            Red sighed as he peeked out of the house he had been hiding in. This had to be one of the most embarrassing things he had ever done…

            Ditto was a good disguise though. Blue’s Ditto…

Blue had used her pokedex to hone in on his, staggered to his door on the point of death, and with her last breath bequeathed her three remaining pokemon to him – Ditto, Blastoise, and Clefable.

Team Rocket had stolen the three legendary birds from her, and… well, the rest was not his to pry, but for a girl it was a fate worse than death. They hadn’t thought she’d had more pokemon.

Clefable had flown her to Red’s house, but he known that his mistress’s time was running out. No human could survive what she had gone through.

Afterwards, Red had said a prayer for her, and buried her in his yard with only a simple wreath of flowers to mark her grave. It was too risky for a more visible monument. That day, he had gone into hiding.

Studying, he had finally stumbled upon the secret scroll that held the means to create a weapon to defeat Team Rocket.

There was only one problem. He needed someone with the Viridian Power to act as the focus. Yellow had lost her powers. Giovanni was the leader of Team Rocket. Who else was left? He didn’t know…

 

End Chapter

Completed 2/11/05

Lance: Time to bring me in, eh?

Phantomness: Hai~!

Shoyko: Darkfic warning!

Yue: Least now she’s writing pokemon not CCS… should be grateful then…