And… another chapter!

Lance’s title is ‘Master of the Elements’… how interesting… *grabs bunny before it can escape*

Disclaimer: Pokemon belongs to Shogakukan Comics and Nintendo. This non-profit, non-copyright infringing fanfiction belongs to me under international copyright laws. Don’t take it!

Notes: <> for telepathy, italics for pokemon talking, ** for some thoughts. AU.

Chapter 5 A-searching we will go

 

            It took a good two days for the complete flight to Johto. Red hadn’t dared try looking up Lance’s info again. That close call had been hard for him and for Green’s Porygon… lucky that he had it now…

            Fine.

            He’d go straight to Blackthorn and ask there. Luckily, Johto and Kanto were separated by a nearly impenetrable mountain range. If not for the combined effects of his Dragonair, Aerodactyl, Fearow, Gyarados, and Eevee, he wouldn’t have made it past them alive. With a sigh, Red walked into Blackthorn City, wondering whom he should ask…

            Here in Johto Team Rocket had no presence though, and the league was still running like normal. However, that was probably because only Johto had bothered to develop an elaborate system of nuclear weaponry, and they had ordered Team Rocket to stay out, otherwise they would destroy Kanto, forget the consequences.

            Needless to say, Giovanni had acquiesced to their request.

 

            Green’s Porygon… during the attack on the lab, it had been monitoring Oak’s systems, so it had immediately tried to send him all the stored pokemon. He had no idea why, but in any case, he’d only gotten a small pile before the entire network began to collapse. All of Bill and Oak’s work down the drain…

            Speaking of Bill, he was now working for Team Rocket under mind control. Poor guy… Red missed him.

            After seeing the futility of the situation, Porygon had fled to Red’s pokedex before destroying the remnants of the network, preventing Team Rocket from using it. In emergencies, it did not matter about pokemon carrying capacity. Not a moment too soon, either, for Blue died days after Green and Oak.

            Luck? Maybe.

 

            In any case, Red had oh, thirty pokemon or so… so many had perished in the flames, but at least some were spared…

            “Oh! Excuse me!”

            Red snapped out of thought as a girl with blue hair in a ponytail hurriedly helped him up. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t see where I was going-.”

            “Um… if it’s not too much, could I ask you a question?”

            Claire froze, turning to face red eyes underneath a red-and-white cap. “I suppose so… what was it? Please not a gym battle, my schedule’s way full…”

            Red shook his head quickly. “Nothing like that – you’re a gym leader? I was wondering if you knew someone named Lance-.” Red abruptly stopped talking as Claire fled into the Blackthorn City Gym.

            “?”

           

            Claire slammed the doors shut. She should have known that this would happen eventually, but ever since Team Rocket had taken over Kanto, everyone should have forgotten about Lance. After all, he was dead, wasn’t he? Wasn’t he? Yes… he was.

            There was no denying that.

            In Dragon’s Den there were crystals specially infused with magic. They sparkled a bright blue as long as the trainers they belonged to were alive, but should the trainer of one orb die… that orb would turn a cloudy yellow and break.

            Lance’s had flickered and gone out almost exactly two years ago… in five days it would be the second anniversary of his death.

            Why did it still affect her? Maybe it was because that although they were first cousins, both had lost their parents, so their grandfather had adopted both of them and they had lived like siblings, only two years apart…

            It didn’t matter. Lance was dead.

            Who was this trainer?

 

            Red helped himself to chocolate malt as he sighed. So maybe asking people wouldn’t do… he could check the library!

            Team Rocket shouldn’t have bothered to destroy the books and magazines here. With that in mind, Red quickly finished the malt and then went to the library.

            Soon, he was deep in genealogy records.

 

            Lance… Dragyn, a common last name used by the Dragon user clan that lived in Dragon’s den. His mother was a woman from Viridian, and his closest living relatives were his cousin Claire – and his great-grandfather. All their other relatives were dead. How scary…

            It was some sort of genetic autoimmune disorder that was passed down through generations. Since the gene was dominant…

            Most of the family and children died.

            Lance and Claire had been lucky and both gotten recessive forms. That was why they were still alive – well, Claire was alive.

            Neatly penciled in was the date of Lance’s death. It looked familiar for some reason; then it clicked in Red’s mind.

            That was the day they had defeated the Elite Four on Cerise Island.

            Lance had died in battle? How?

            Maybe…

            Maybe there was something Yellow hadn’t told him.

 

            Yellow was just a little kid, though! She couldn’t have been more than seven when she fought Lance. How had she won?

            Was this Viridian Power really so important?

            There wasn’t any data on it in the library though.

            However, one thing caught Red’s interest. There had been pictures in that genealogy, and Claire… that girl he had bumped into earlier.

            No wonder she hadn’t wanted to talk about it!

            Well, if he saw her again he should apologize for bringing something like that up. The memories must hurt….

            If he had lost his family, it would hurt too, but he couldn’t remember them much. Poliwag had taken care of him, somehow…

            His father had never existed for him. His mother… well, she had died when he was five, but no one had come to take care of him.

            It didn’t matter anymore… he was a trainer. He had his pokemon to take care of him. Everything would be just fine.

            Now he just had to figure out some way to contact Lance… but if Lance were dead, then he’d be a ghost, right?

            Wasn’t there some Gym Leader in Johto who could talk to ghosts? He’d go tomorrow, it was getting late. He’d been in the library for four hours already!

            He quickly left and went to the Pokemon Center, where he booked a room for the night. Tomorrow… he would find out some answers.

 

End Chapter

Completed 2/11/05

Lance: Red gets suspicious

Red/Ash: Looks that way!

Phantomness: *rubs eyes* Still have to work on my research paper…

Kairo: *hands authoress hot chocolate*

Phantomness: Arigato, Kairo!

Pika-chan: *eating a chocolate-covered apple*

Shoyko: *Brings a blanket*

Phantomness: Back to work then…