185Okay, for those not in the know, this is a rewrite of the original first chapter because in the beginning this was just going to be a testing of the waters, as well as to get out an attempt at a crack pairing out of my system. It spiraled from there, but in the later chapters where I've taken my too-sweet time to update I decided I ought to rewrite the old chapters to make them as clean and well written as the later, serious chapters are. Anyway, hope you enjoy the read, and do drop a comment in a review or a pm to let me know what you think C:
The first thing that came to mind when Lance awoke was the blinding light filtering into his eyes. Blinding light, almost like the Lightning flashing, flickering lights- reflections everywhere from water flooding in-
The second that came to mind, when his hand lifted to block out the source, or at least to get a reprieve from its blinding rays, was that his body felt incredibly heavy and sore, and that there was a splitting headache assaulting him, a pain, glittering steel from a knife that swiped at him. Men cloaked in shadows all around, fast and quick that he's almost fighting literal shadows against knives and fists with kicks and careful hands.
He blinks away the flashes of fragmented memory, noting thirdly that something gritty and like sandpaper was on his face, his hands, his clothes- daring to peek under the shade of his hand, he saw white grains of sand crusted to his clothes.
He remembered… Melted sapphire, cold as ice, flooding from blasted silver walls, so salty and repulsive to the tongue. Shadows all around, at his heels. Then a shadow falls and he is no longer alone as an avenging goddess of fury joins his side and they fight away the shadows. Fire rips them apart- he's flung out of the walls.
Falling...
Falling...
Darkness soaks him to the bone, crushing down on him. He breaks the surface, fighting for his life, and finds steel waiting for him. Solid steel that he barely keeps a grip on, but it is enough as he drifts away in the darkness, hearing flames and explosions over the crash of water.
He didn't bother stopping the groan from loosening in his throat as he heaved to. Lance got to his feet, noticing the weak, wobbling that followed his rise. His limbs ached, he could feel sand in one too many places, and his body felt like it had been used as a personal punching bag for a Machamp. His mouth was dry as the desert, and skin hot from the sun.
Lance ignored his body's complaints and took a long look at his surroundings. He appeared to have been stranded on a beach, white sand only tainted to a yellow by the harsh blue ocean water crashing onto shore. With one look to his left or right he could see nothing by rocky shallows and beach sand as far as his eye could see. An endless ocean bowed before him, surf waves gathering far out and crashing fierce against the beach and rocks.
Behind him was grass and a few healthy, strong palm trees poked out in tufts and in thin groups from the sand before becoming a lush, forested curtain of jungle that he couldn't see any farther into past a few dozen trees. The only implication he could see of any other topographic features of where he was at were a few thin, difficult to see points of snow-less mountain peaks peeking over the thick jungle.
Large scraps of sheet metal occasionally struck the air from beneath the sand. That's right, he remembered through his headache, he had been on a ship.
"Going from Vermillion to the League Champion Gathering... a storm hit and something went wrong with the ship and it started tearing apart." he reminded himself. The metal scrap he had drifted upon had belonged to it, and the vessel had to have sunk in the ocean. How else could he be stranded here?
Stranded.
That word left an awful taste on his tongue.
"Alright, I can handle this. " he told himself to calm the rising tide of panic, his hand reaching for his pokeballs, "I can use Dragonite to fly me upwards, see this land from above. Find some civiliza-"
His words died in his throat once his hand stopped on the space where Dragonite's pokeball was supposed to rest, alongside Gyarados and the Dragonair twins.
Key word: supposed to rest.
It wasn't there.
They weren't there.
His pokemon were gone.
Short, sweet, and to the point, aren't I?Okay, so I know I'm going to need to explain about Lance. This fic is in the anime universe, with Ash and Company's shenaigans, so this is anime Lance. HOWEVER, I've attached elements from his other counterparts to him, including that nifty poketelepathy that he has in the PokeSpecial manga series (check it out, it's great).
If you like this, review. Fave's are nice... but reviews are better.
If no like, review and tell me so.
If not, I'll just continue anyway. Whenever I get around to it.
Lots of Love!
-KO13