Epilogue

Cinnabar Island-

            Three times in one day? Lance couldn’t believe it.  He was swiftly walking up to the Gym in the Volcano to meet Blaine.  He couldn’t wait any longer. 

            He had just rented a room at a plush resort Hotel when he got the Phone call from Lorelei that the Phantom had defeated Misty with a Kabutops, and then an hour later Bruno said he had defeated Sabrina with the same Pokemon.  Lastly, yet somehow he was still surprised, when he got a call from Agatha.  The Phantom and his Kabutops had wiped the floor with Surge.  After each battle, an Elite Four member had tried to apprehend the fugitive in grey, and each time the Phantom slipped through their fingers. 

            “Kabutops,” Lance said seriously to himself as he threw open the doors to the quiet Gym.  He quickly found his way to the staircase that would take him to Blaine’s room.  “There’s only one person who has the technology to revive Pokemon from fossils.”  It seemed like long ago, but after Lance had defeated Blaine on his own journey to win the Volcano Badge, the Cinnabar Gym Leader had also rewarded him with a revived Aerodactyl. 

            There was one place the Phantom had yet to visit: Cinnabar Island.  Lance threw open the door into Blaine’s apartment.  He needed Blaine’s cooperation, and it didn’t matter how the murderer had gotten Kabutops.  For all I know, he stole it.  He wasn’t going to let the Phantom even think about battle.  Lance, Dragonite, and the rest of the Champion’s Pokemon would be ready to take him down when he arrived.  He was the Champion, it was his duty to bring the Rocket Boss to justice, and the vigilante had shown up and upstaged him.  If one man could do this right under my nose, what’s to stop others from exacting their own revenge, all over Kanto?  He had to arrest the Phantom.  Arrest him for murder.

            Blaine slowly walked out of his little office and greeted Lance with his arms crossed.  “You could have at least let me know you were coming, how can I help you?”

            “I know you’ve received word from the other Gym Leaders.  You know why I’m here.”

            “I’m afraid I don’t follow,” replied Blaine.  “If you’re here to wait for the Phantom, I’m afraid you’ll be disappointed.  He’s already been here and won my Volcano Badge.”

            Lance felt his face redden in fury.  This was the last straw.  “YOU KNOW YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO LET US KNOW IF YOU SAW HIM.  YOU KNEW EVEN BEFORE HE STARTED CHALLENGING THE OTHER GYM LEADERS!”

            Lance looked for the shock in Blaine’s face, for the scientist to try to defend himself.  The locked eyes as the  Cinnabar Island Gym Leader just stared at him, holding something back, Lance knew. 

            He scoffed in frustration and glared back.  Of course, he must have given Kabutops to the Phantom.  He was protecting him, somehow.  Lance remembered back to the day Blaine’s lab was destroyed, he had seen the same withdrawn look in his eye. 

            “When I finally bring the Phantom to justice, you’re next.” He said gravely as he slammed the door and stormed back out of the Gym. He couldn’t trust anything that Blaine told him anymore.  How could anybody trust what the Cinnabar Gym Leader said?

            Lance called out Dragonite.  “To Blackthorn City.”  His golden Dragon-type Pokemon nodded and took off with an urgency that matched its Trainer’s tone.  “He’ll be coming to us.  The Phantom’s days of prancing around Kanto like he owns the place are numbered.”

            The Dragon Champion shot into the sunset, more determined than ever.  This was going to be the most important Pokemon League Championship in a long, long time.

To Be Continued in

A Pokemon Tale

Part IV

A Champion