Pokemon Fan Fiction ❯ For Those Left Behind ❯ Chapter 2

Chapter two~! *Phantomness chases plotbunnies across a field of dandelions*

Disclaimer: I'm a broke college student with 20k + debt. I don't own pokemon. I can't afford it. Don't steal my fanfic, I wrote it myself and taking it infringes on copyright law!

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

Time Jump - 4 years later

Chapter 2

 

Misty and Brock were at the annual Gym Leader conference. It was held every two years, despite the name, and they had their reports ready. After the incident with Ash, they had parted ways, Misty to leave and study with the Water Master Wallace in far-off Houen, and Brock to hook up with Suzie again and study Pokemon breeding with her.

It had worked well. While they had trained, their families had run their respective gyms, although a Cascade Badge was still considered mostly a joke.

It was a crying shame that, but life was never fair.

 

Lance was just finishing up his speech when his cell phone rang. Giving the group a sheepish grin, he picked up.

“Aniki?”

“Red, I'm kind of busy right now.”

“But I'm turning blue….”

Lance didn't need to hear more. He tossed the startled President Goodwin the lecture, last two pages highlighted….

“My brother's sick. I'll be back.”

With that, he took off on Dragonite.

 

President Goodwin looked at the notes. “Ah, nothing important, just some ending remarks. Let's vote, shall we? I suppose Lance will be voting for this proposal as he was defending it…”

And business continued on, as usual. No one really thought much of it.

But Misty found herself intrigued. Lance had a younger brother?

How interesting… was he cute? Was he good with pokemon? Was he available? She knew that most people were scared of her fiery temper, but… hmm

Maybe he would be different!

 

Lance landed quickly and looked around. < Red? Where are you? >

< I'm in bed like I should be. >

He nodded and closed his eyes, teleporting. Dragonite was fast, but this was faster, and time was of essence, especially since Red had started displaying those strange symptoms a month ago…

He would feel tired and pass out, and at other times he had enough energy to bounce off the walls. Lance would have attributed it to some drug or another, except that he kept an eye on Red's diet and they only had fish and rice and vegetables, so it was not that, unless there was some contaminant in the water.

Red had adamantly refused to see a doctor, and in any case Lance's Viridian power was excellent for healing all manner of things, from broken bones to fevers to serious wounds.

But now…

It seemed to be failing. No, it still worked on pokemon and on Lance's own injuries, but it seemed incapable of curing Red's illness.

What were they to do?

 

Now though, this was something he had not expected.

“Am I going to die?” Red queried.

“Can you still breathe?” Lance asked in response. He and Red had become real brothers, or at least blood brothers two years ago. They'd let their blood mingle in an ancient ritual and nothing had gone wrong.

Wait a second…

“Red…It looks like you're growing scales though…”

“I am? Scales?”

Lance held up a mirror. Red gave a pained cry. His face was covered with bluish spots and yes, it did look like scales, and so were his hands. “What-what's causing this?”

“I wish I knew.”

“Maybe it's some weird disease…”

“Oh, I think we would know if there was an epidemic of scales growing around.” Lance said dryly. “Do they hurt?”

“Only a bit, but not really anymore. It feels like bugs stinging you for a few seconds and then it goes away.”

“Interesting. Did you eat anything special today?”

“Just the bagel that was in the fridge.”

Lance rolled his eyes. He'd wanted that for lunch but now was not the time to argue. “Really and truly?”

“Yes!”

 

< You aren't lying to me? > The telepathy had come after the ritual, almost as if it were a gift. A gift to make up for something lost…

< I promise. > Red sounded a bit sulky, but considering these odd circumstances, perhaps one ought to be more patient…

< All right… >

He placed his hands on Red's cheeks, concentrating…. The glow of the Viridian power was a soothing green, but it didn't seem to help.

Red gave a surprised gasp.

“What's wrong now?”

“M y hands! They're turning into claws!”

“What?” That hadn't been what he wanted to happen! But sure enough, Red's fingers were thickening, elongating into razor tips and claws…

Red clutched at Lance, accidentally tearing through muscle and skin - those claws were sharp! However, it did not help, as a few moments later, Lance was left with a small blue dragon. It had red eyes.

No, Lance was not having a good day.

 

Said dragon curled up in his lap and cheeped - er, chirped softly. Lance absentmindedly healed the gash he'd gotten from Red's claws earlier and tried to figure out what was going on.

Would he turn into a dragon too? Red did not look like any species of dragon he had seen or owned…

 

He looked at himself critically. Pale skin, dark red hair, golden eyes… no, he saw nothing out of place, but he was a dragon master after all. He was the Dragon Master, if rumors could be believed.

Lance shrugged. He could deal with potential problems later. First though, something had to be done…

Red growled softly.

“Hungry, I take it?”

The dragon nodded and Lance checked the fridge. Maybe dragons ate raw fish. Ah yes, he had some tuna around here….

A few minutes later, Lance watched the dragon eat through the fourth can of tuna and wondered just what he had gotten into now.

Was normality something denied to him?

Now if only he could find a way to change Red back…

 

End Chapter

Completed 10/1/05

Ugh, done!

Lance: …

Phantomness: I'm tired, okay? I have midterms!
Ash: You have no life…