A Second Chance

Chapter 9

Lance and Silver flew high over Johto. More precisely, Lance flew on Dragonite's back. Silver was in Dragonite's claws. 

"Tell me", Lance demanded. 

"No, I can't!"

"He's going to hurt your friends."

"Why would he have my friends? He doesn't have a reason to kidnap them. You, on the other hand, do."

"Dragonite. . . ", said Lance tiredly, pinching the bridge of his nose. Dragonite released Silver, letting him plummet through the clouds. As its trainer didn't command it to catch the boy, Dragonite stayed where it was, getting more and more worried by the second.  

Finally, Lance relented. "Oh, all right. Go get him."

Dragonite dove strait down, only veering up again after its claws had hooked Silver's clothes, tugging the young red-head out of his fall. 

"Ready to talk yet?" Lance wanted to know. 

". . . . "

". . . Dragonite, -"

"Okay! I'll tell you where he is. Then you can let me go, right?"

"No. I need to know you're not lying. You'll have to come with me."

". . . Alright."

And with that, Silver had agreed to work with the man who just months before had been trying to destroy all of humanity. To save his friends. This was a BAD idea. But he didn't exactly have a choice. 

Yellow woke up. Again. She'd grown to hate waking up in the short time that she'd been a prisoner of the Masked Man. Almost as soon as she was dragging herself off the hard, freezing floor, Lorelei walked in. 

"Tell me", she demanded for the fifth time that day. Yellow just shook her head. Glowering at the young girl's stubbornness, Lorelei brought out her Dewgong. 

"One last chance", she warned. Yellow backed up, shaking her head. She knew what would happen. It was what always happened. "Alright then", Lorelei said, frowning. 

She didn't understand this girl's attachment to Lance, especially since he had tried to kill her. Recently, too. But if Yellow was going to be this way, she'd just have to do it again. "Ice beam", Lorelei commanded. Dewgong let out a thin stream of ice, shoving Yellow violently back against the wall. Lorelei was done playing, however. 

"Full power, Dewgong", she growled. 

Yellow's eyes widened in fear as the attack hit her. She barely had enough strength left to stand, let alone dodge or fight back. So she just stood there, close to collapsing, as the attack slammed into her. Yellow knew that if she collapsed, Lorelei wouldn't let up until she was unconscious. 

Yellow screamed as the force of the attack threw her up against the wall again, little cracks blooming around where she hit. Her skull cracked hard on the wall, and she slumped to the floor.

"Ready yet, Yellow?" Lorelei asked in a calm, even tone of voice. She might as well have been talking about the weather. Yellow pushed herself up onto her hands and knees. 

"I'll. . . never. . . tell you", she gasped out. Defiance shown in the girl's eyes. 

Lorelei growled in frustration. She would break Yellow, no matter what it took. Then once Lorelei had her information, she would kill Yellow. Wouldn't that be fun. 

Lance and Silver landed by an old, broken down laboratory. The outside was a mess, crumbling to pieces. As Lance started forward, Silver hung back, but fearing a trap, Lance made him go first. 

As the two of them reached the second basement floor, Lance stopped suddenly. Something was wrong. Suddenly, a the floor slid back. Immediately, Lance threw himself in front of Silver, ready to take the attack. Unfortunately, it was a net. 

Lance and Silver were dragged roughly into the air. Silver cried out, and Lance grunted in surprise. They both twisted around, trying to reach their poke balls, but the net was too tight, and they couldn't. 

Lance heard footsteps, and twisted around, craning his neck to see who it was. There stood the Masked Man. 

"Araiados", he said, releasing the poisinous spider pokemon, "It seems we have some guests. Perhaps you'd like to welcome them. 

Ditty hadn't made much progress. The little pink pokemon kept having to hide as various pokemon and these two sinister looking people walked past it. And then, once it reached the surface, a Dragonite landed with two passengers. 

The two humans went inside, and Dragonite's trainer had it return to its poke ball. Ditty recognized Silver from a picture Blue had. Figuring these two must be here to help, Ditty followed them, still camouflaged. 

A net shot up, and the one stepped in front Silver to protect him. That was what decided it for Ditty. These two were definitely good. 

When the evil Masked Man that had hurt Blue showed up, and started threatening Silver and the other person with an Ariados, Ditty knew it had to do something right away. But what? 

Silver knew he must have misjudged Lance after he tried to protect him from the net. It was too late for regrets now, however. 

"Any last words?" Asked the Masked Man. Silver could only stare in horror. "I remember you", said the Masked Man, finally recognizing him. "You shouldn't have run away, Silver. Too late for that now, though. Ariodos, sludge bomb."

"I have something I'd like to say", Lance said suddenly, stopping Ariodos in its tracks. 

"Well, what is it?" Asked the Masked Man. 

Lance sighed, as though about to say something painful. Then Silver noticed the pokemon standing behind the Masked Man. "Turn around."

Lance smiled grimly as the man spun around, just in time to get hit with a hyper beam.

"When did you release your Dragonite?" Silver asked, amazed. 

"I didn't", Lance replied. Dragonite used dragon claw to slice through the net, giving the Masked Man and his Ariados enough time to get their wits about them again. 

"I don't- " Silver began, but stopped when he saw Dragonite transform back into Blue's Ditto. "Oh."

Lance released his real Dragonite, which promptly ko'd Ariados. "Guard him", Lance told Dragonite, gesturing toward the Masked Man. 

"Come on", he said, and Silver followed Lance down the hallway. 

They were almost there. Soon, Lance could rescue Yellow and her friends. Soon, Lance and Yellow would be together again. 

What do you think? I wrote this whole chapter while blasting my eardrums out with 3 Days Grace and Good With Grenades to drown out the corny shows my granddad and brother were watching. They've stopped now, thankfully. Please comment, like, fan, follow, etc.