Saving Shard

Chapter 6

Lance the Dragon Master always played by the rules, but tonight was an exception. He would sooner lie dead than see Team Rocket controlling that monster again. The Rockets were not getting it back. Not for anything. Not even for the Pokemon Master's fiancée.

In the Rockets last correspondence they had outlined strict rules for the swapping of Misty Waterflower for the Pokemon. Lance decided that some rules were made to be broken.

The Rockets had specifically demanded that Ash and Lance meet them alone in the Pewter City old stone quarry.

Fine.

Lance and Ash were both, currently, all alone in the middle of the quarry.

The Rockets had also demanded that they turn over a Master Ball with their Pokemon inside. This is where the rules were going to be amended. Ash was presently carrying a very exact copy of a Master Ball in his coat pocket, and that ball had a very talented Ditto inside. A Ditto which Lance had spent hours training to become a perfect copy of Team Rocket's Pokemon.

Lance used a precise method to train the Ditto. He had begun by showing Ditto some film footage of the monster. Ditto had watched nearly a dozen news recordings of the creature destroying Goldenrod City — the horrific historical event when the Rockets chose to debut their beast. The graphic events on the recordings reminded them all why this monster could never be set free, why Team Rocket had to be stopped. At any cost.

Ditto was wholly disturbed by the visuals and took its job seriously. Ditto had memorized the physical characteristics as well as the movements of the creature. Next Lance brought in an array of high level psychic Pokemon. The Ditto was able to quickly learn and copy several basic psychic attacks. After many hours the Ditto was able to hold the physical appearance of the creature, levitate and create psychic beams. Ideally, Lance would have preferred a few more hours to train, but unfortunately, this would have to be enough. Lance just prayed that Team Rocket would buy their charade long enough for them to snatch Misty back.

This plan was incredibly risky to say the least. Lance and Ash were not dealing with idiot Rocket grunts. No doubt the Rocket Elites would be handling this case personally. However, this plan was the only chance Misty had. If it failed then she would be a sitting Psyduck in their hands. Naturally Lance had a plan B, but that didn't guarantee Misty would still be alive long enough for them to execute it.

The noble Dragon Master sighed. His heart ached with sympathy for Ash. The young Pokemon Master was like a brother to him and, on some level, Lance felt responsible for this dreadful situation. After all, it was Lance who had mentored Ash while becoming Pokemon Master, even fully knowing the risks involved. Becoming the Pokemon Master meant becoming responsible for protecting the monster from the Rockets.

Lance had always known the potential hazard this meant for Ash and his loved-ones. Lance wanted to set everything right again and, he was determined to exhaust all options in order to do so. He HAD to rescue Misty. And, once this situation was resolved, Lance would personally hire the best bodyguards in the country for her. Preferably there would be no future threats to her life, but the preference was not realistic. As long as Misty's was in Ash's life she would be a target for the Rockets.

Lance wanted to apprehend all of the Rockets responsible for Misty's kidnapping and let the law punish them properly. Unfortunately, it was impossible to identify them. They all wore masks in public and never left any tracks, never as much as a fingerprint.

Lance felt nauseous as he recalled Team Rocket's video threat . . .poor Misty . . . he wished that he could find the bastard who was beating her. He would like to personally return the favor. Lance had sent the video to a government analyzing facility. He had hoped that they could study the video and figure out either where Misty was or the identity of her attacker. Unfortunately, the intelligence personnel knew nothing about Misty's whereabouts and reported little about her blue-haired assailant. What little information was known was unhelpful. The blue-haired Rocket was a suspect in several major crimes – as most Rockets were. Lance could have guessed as much. Also, like all Rockets, he never left any clues. All the authorities had were a few blurry pictures from various crime scenes, but he adorned a mask in each one.