Wai~! Another chapter!

Disclaimer/Notes: See previous chapter. AU. I warn that I tend to switch tenses and POVs but I shall try to give warning

Red is age 14, Yellow age 9

Chapter 4 – Visiting the past

 

            “Yellow?”

            “Who are you?” Yellow asked. She lived alone with her uncle in a small house near Viridian. Her uncle worked as a janitor in Team Rocket HQ. Yellow herself worked as a fisherwoman to catch food for them and sell the extras to make some money every day. This boy with long purple hair in a ponytail to his waist and green eyes she didn’t recognize. “If you want to buy fish, we’re sold out for the day.”

            “Don’t you recognize my voice?” He sounded hurt. Yellow frowned, then beckoned him in and closed the door.

            “Who are you, really?”

            Eyes twinkled, before the face and hair melted away to a familiar face, albeit odd with a ditto perched on his hat appeared. “Nice seeing you again, yellow.”

            “Red!” She hugged him tightly. Oh, she was so glad he was alive! She’d heard that he’d died like the other beginning trainers Oak had sent out, but apparently not.

            “Blue and Green are really gone though,” Red said, as if she had been broadcasting her thoughts and he had read them

            Yellow deflated instantly. “I know.”

            “I needed to ask you a question.” Red looked around furtively, as if expecting Team Rocket to pop out any minute. “There’s a prophecy of a weapon that can be used to bring down Team Rocket, but you need someone with the Viridian Power. I was wondering if you?”

            “I’ve lost mine though.” Yellow said sadly.

            “No, did you know anyone else who had it?”

            “Giovanni and L-.” Yellow bit her lip.

            “Giovanni and who?”

            “Never mind, forget it.”

            “Yellow, this is important! The fate of the world is at stake here!”

            “But it won’t help! He’s dead!” Yellow shrieked.

            “He’s…. dead? Who’s dead?”

 

            Yellow’s heart clenched. If she told… Red would hate her, but she couldn’t lie to him. She owed him, or did she?

            She had lost his Pikachu! He’d hate her for that! She’d been intending to give it back, truly, but after Cerise Island they’d been washed up in different areas and she just hadn’t been able to see him…

            That was what she told herself in any case. A selfish part admitted that she had wanted to keep the surfing Pikachu. Rare and powerful pokemon…

            Plus it was cute.

 

            She had killed Lance though. It was her hand, her voice that had ordered the Megavolt – one hundred thousand volt thunder, 10x more powerful than thunderbolt. Could the human body sustain 10 to the sixth power of electricity?

            No human could survive that.

            Besides he had fallen – she had seen him fall into the lava, and his dragons, paralyzed, floating in midair…

            No human could survive that.

            She was a murderer.

 

            Red was waiting patiently for a reply. Yellow steeled herself, and spoke.

            “Lance is dead, but he had the Viridian power. He was the Leader of the Elite Four… the person I was fighting.”

            “So that’s it.” Red snapped his fingers.

            “Hmm?”

            “Blaine said something to the effect of ‘That bird is Lance’s secret weapon’, which is why we used our three starters to blast it apart with fire, water, and grass.”

            “Oh.”

            “That’s all I can tell you.”

            Red nodded, as footsteps sounded outside. With a half-smile and wink, he waved, before a poke ball opened, released a pokemon, and he vanished in the glow of Teleport.

            Two Rocket agents burst in.

 

            Yellow looked up, knife in hand, a half-gutted fish in the other.

            “False alarm.” One growled.

            “You! Did you see a boy with an Aerodactyl?”

            “Huh?”

            Yellow was puzzled. She had thought… no, Red had Ditto, but that was all, right? All his pokemon had been at Oak’s lab, and now, it was destroyed.

            That had to be it. Did he even have an Aerodactyl?

            “Guess not.” The second said, his Drowzee quickly scanning the room. “Hmm… although there was a strong signature in here. You know that keeping pokemon is against the law, little girl.”

            “I don’t have any pokemon!”

            Undaunted, the rockets searched the entire house, the kitchen, bathroom, living room, and two bedrooms. No pokemon, poke ball, or even poke doll was found.

            Finally the two left.

            Yellow shook her head. “Honestly! How could I get any pokemon anyways?”

            There were few wild pokemon – Team Rocket had captured them all, or killed them… it was very sad.

            Yellow shook her head and turned back to dinner preparations.

            She hoped Red knew what he was doing…

 

            Team Rocket had abolished all pokedexes, so Red didn’t really use his anymore. That meant that in theory, Team Rocket should have no way to track him.

 

            He didn’t know what had happened to Misty, Brock, and Erika. The three of them had vanished too. Were they dead, killed like so many other trainers who had failed to join Team Rocket? He didn’t know… * I do know that Giovanni doesn’t want me dead… *

            Years ago, Giovanni had said that if Red lost to him during the battle for the Earth Badge, he would become Giovanni’s top rocket.

            That was a scary thought.

            He hadn’t even been that good!

            With a sigh, he shook his head and pulled out his pokedex, bringing up the World Wide Web. Green’s former Porygon looked out and began scrambling the signal.

 

            “Computer, run a search for a trainer named ‘Lance’, last name unknown. He should have something to do with dragon pokemon.”

            For several minutes a faint buzzing was all that registered. Finally, something else happened. Two sites popped up.

            One was the former Pokemon League’s website that hadn’t been updated in two years. The second was the Blackthorn City registry.

            Red hit the League site first. He found Lance’s name on the list, as sixth Pokemon League champion. Interesting. He himself was the ninth, so Lance had been a really good trainer – his team consisted of Dragonite, Gyarados, and Aerodactyl, with Magikarp, Horsea, and Charmander in italics.

            That meant he hadn’t used them in any battles. Wow!

            Well, that was some information at least.

            He scrolled down a bit farther – a short biography. Lance had been born in Blackthorn City, thirteen years old when he won League Championships, both his parents were dead, and there were rumors that he had… telepathic abilities, but he wasn’t registered as a psychic trainer. Odd.

            Porygon suddenly shrieked, as a string of code appeared across Red’s pokedex. He quickly shut it down, shaking his head.

            I looked like Team Rocket was trying to lock on to his location. Well, he’d try again in a few days…

            For now though, he had a bit of information on where to start. Red released Aerodactyl, nodding.

            “Let’s Fly to Johto, Aeroy…”

 

End Chapter

Completed 2/11/05