Dragon's Dance
is a Pokémon fanfic by A_Pen. It tells the story of the future Kanto/Johto league champion Lance - how he became such a powerful trainer, why he left his home and family in the Dragon's Den, and why he hates Team Rocket so much. It takes place in a universe that is mostly inspired by the video games, but draws heavy inspiration from the manga in some spots, and is much closer in tone to it than the games.
Wataru is a young boy from the small mountain village of Ryu's Gift, the only place left in Johto where wild Dragonites, Dragonairs, and Dratinis can be found. He and his Dratini, Toku, are banished after breaking the village's law by revealing the mountain's secret to the son of a visiting trader. Their only hope of being allowed to return is to evolve Toku into a Dragonite, a feat that would prove him to be a master dragon tamer.
Accomplishing this won't be easy, and as Wataru journeys into the foreign land of Kanto, he finds his path repeatedly crossing with that of a mysterious group known as Team Rocket...
Tropes:
- 0% Approval Rating: No one likes Kikuko, Kanto's champion. The older generations regard her fearfully as a witch (not helped by her specialty being ghost type Pokémon), while the younger generations resent her for doing nothing to help deal with the numerous issues in Kanto - the danger and lack of job options other than mining in in Pewter, the poverty in Viridian, the rise of Team Rocket, etc. Even casual battle fans don't like her, since her battles are boring to watch.
- The Atoner: After discovering Team Rocket's true nature, Lance becomes a vigilante to try and atone for having helped them by working to disrupt their operations using his inside knowledge of how they operate.
- Bad People Abuse Animals: The Grand Royale Casino is a corrupt business that doesn't have a problem with employing young teenagers under the table, is heavily implied to have bribed the police, and has significant business dealings with Team Rocket. The first tip off that they're not on the up and up is that the dratini they have on display as a prize is very sickly due to being kept in an improper tank and they rebuff Wataru's attempts to tell them how to help it.
- Bavarian Fire Drill: When an unfamiliar but well-dressed man walks into the casino and goes straight towards the door labeled 'staff only', Wataru (who's been working at the casino for months and is familiar with the rest of the regular employees) immediately thinks that he's attempting to bluff him when he says that he is staff and is just so far above Wataru's paygrade that Wataru has never seen him before, and insists that the man show him his ID or he'll have him removed. He actually is authorized to be there, but is impressed enough by Wataru's intelligence and refusal to back down that he offers him a better job instead of getting him into trouble.
- Beary Friendly: While powerful, Archer tells Lance that wild Ursaring are gentle by nature and will not attack unprovoked. This is why later Lance thinks that Proton threatening a man with his Ursaring is just a bluff. It isn't.
- Beware the Mind Reader: A Kadabra is employed by the Grand Royale Casino to monitor the thoughts of everyone who enters and to warn the guards if someone is planning on trying to rob it. Wataru realizes that while the casino employs burly humans and tough-looking Pokémon like Machokes and Charmeleon as bouncers, the Kadabra is the real security.
- Blindfolded Trip: Wataru is brought to Team Rocket's training camp blindfolded via helicopter to ensure that he can't lead anyone to it if he backs out.
- Book Dumb: Wataru frequently skips his lessons on his village's history in favor of training with Toku, which he has a natural talent for. Because of this he only has a vague knowledge of major events in their history, and thus doesn't realize why keeping the Dragonite who live in the valley secret from outsiders is such a big deal to the elders.
- Chekhov's Gun: Early in his journey, Wataru battles Monu, who is out of badges due to his gym being destroyed by a cave-in and who gives him a piece of a moonstone instead. Much later, Hunter is trying to evolve her nidorina before her final test, but wasn't able to afford more than a moonstone fragment herself, which isn't enough. Combining the two pieces allows the Nidorina to evolve into Nidoqueen.
- Combat Pragmatist: Hunter lays poisoned barbs around the approach to the tower to weaken any other recruits as they approach, and steals their pokeballs so that she doesn't have to fight them at full strength if they refuse her demands to turn over their tokens to her. When she knows she's outmatched in a fight against Lance and his newly evolved Charizard, she has her Nidoqueen attack him directly and try to knock him out.
- Curb-Stomp Battle:
- Lance's battle against Jiro is hilariously onesided. Toku only managed to hit his Persian with a single attack that did little damage while the Persian easily demolished Toku. The battle ending with her casually grooming her fur while sitting on top of Toku's prone body just added insult to injury. Despite that, Jiro is impressed - after all, most people can't land a single blow against the ace Pokémon of one of the Elite Four.
- Lance's battle with Kikuko in her old gym ends very quickly, with the only attack Toku is able to learn being Thunder Wave. She's swiftly outmaneuvered, overpowered, and rendered unconscious from Gengar's psychic attacks. While Jiro tries to encourage him afterwards by saying that Kikuko will be overconfident in their next battle because of it, Lance is left very disheartened.
- Dark and Troubled Past:
- Strongly implied to be the case for Giovanni. His past is shrouded in mystery, but he came to Kanto alone at the age of 12, sealed inside a crate of oranges on a cargo ship, and lived in such poverty when he got there that he had to sell his grandmother's prized necklace just to survive.
- Jiro's past is also implied to have been very unpleasant. He grew up too poor to afford Pokéballs, and his starter Pokémon was a street cat that he found in an alley. He tells Lance that the only family he has that matters to him are his Pokémon, and implies that his blood family only cared about him when he made it big.
- Debt Detester: Hunter hates that she owes Lance for giving her the moonstone piece that let her Nidorina evolve. To make them even, she offers uncharacteristically offers to let him go with his own token and one other to ensure that he makes it onto the command track of Team Rocket when she had Ibuki's Pokéball at her mercy and could've demanded all his tokens in exchange for her safe return. When he initially refuses, she increases the offer to let him keep his token and two others.
- Defeat Means Friendship: The Sneasel that Archer gives to Lance initially shuns his other Pokémon and enjoys sneaking behind him to poke him in the back to remind him of how she'd sliced him during the battle where she was captured. Him managing to feint her and get her in the same manner that she'd gotten him finally earns her respect, and from that point onward she became willing to train with the rest of his Pokémon and even treat him with a degree of friendliness.
- Defector from Decadence: Lance defects from Team Rocket after witnessing one of its leaders murder a man in cold blood when he wouldn't pay up, shattering his illusions that it was a group of Well Intentioned Extremists who wanted to better the world like he had thought they were.
- Die or Fly: Stuck in a 3-on-1 fight against a Nidoqueen, Fearow, and Scyther, Kana evolves into a Charizard to even the fight - if she hadn't, she would've quickly lost.
- Evil-Detecting Dog: Archer is willing to hear Wataru out about having raised a Dratini despite how impossible it sounds because his Houndoom Acova likes him, and she doesn't like liars.
- Evil Virtues: Executive Archer may one of the heads of Team Rocket, a murderer and a criminal, but he keeps his word. When Lance surpasses all other trainees by obtaining the most tokens in their final test, he gives him the Grand Royale Casino's Dratini just as he promised he would.
- The Exile: For breaking the village law by showing the son of a visiting merchant the dragonites who live in the valley, the village elders (including his uncle) banish a twelve year-old Wataru.
- Failure-to-Save Murder: During a mission with Team Rocket, Lance stands guard outside the door while a high-ranking member threatens a wealthy man with his ursaring if he doesn't renew his business contracts with Team Rocket. The man refuses, and the Ursaring mauls him to death. Lance, frozen with shock and horror, doesn't do anything to save him, and considers himself just as guilty of the man's death as the rocket member who ordered the ursaring to attack. For that reason doesn't feel worthy of returning home even though the experience causes Toku to evolve and become able to fly him away.
- Fatal Flaw: Hunter points out that Lance's biggest flaw is that he expects battles to be straightforward and fair, even when its clear that they won't be, and is thus constantly caught off-guard by sneak attacks and foul play. She uses this to her advantage when she ambushes him and steals Ibuki's Pokéball in order to extort his tokens from him instead of facing him in a fair fight.
- Fixing the Game: According to Archer, the Grand Royale Casino's jackpot can never be won - the slots are rigged so that they will never produce the right combination. It's never confirmed either way, but it's heavily implied that he's correct.
- Half-Breed Discrimination: Wataru is shunned by the other children in his village because his mother was an outsider. While the elder who teaches them does her best to impress upon them that blood isn't everything and that they shouldn't discriminate because it, it doesn't make a difference to the kids, especially when some of the adults in the village feel the same way.
- Heroic Sacrifice: The former Cinnabar gym leader, Isami, stayed on the island during the volcano's eruption to divert the lava flow away from the islanders who weren't warned in enough time to evacuate. She and her Pokémon saved many, but she was killed in the process.
- Hidden Elf Village: The village of Ryu's Gift. Their inhabitants shun most interaction with the outside world and keep secret the dragons who live among them there, out of fear of being targeted by warlords the way they were in the distant past.
- It Was a Gift: When Wataru is banished, Ibuki gives him the cloak she'd spent months dying for her dance performance, as they both know they're unlikely to ever see each other again.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Giovanni himself isn't sure if the witch his mother brought him to to cure his insomnia and nightmares as a child really used magic to help him or if the sheer terror of the experience just helped him learn to clear his own mind.
- Memento MacGuffin: The only thing Giovanni has left of his family is his grandmother's velveteen ribbon, which he's kept ever since he came to Kanto as a reminder.
- Not So Stoic: The floor manager of the casino remains perpetually calm under pressure. Her actually looking afraid when it seems like Wataru pissed off Archer lets him know just how big of a deal the latter is.
- Off Screen Moment Of Awesome: Because Lance got hit by Sleep Powder and passed out, we don't get to see how Toku took out Opal's whole team and the Beedrill swarm by herself to rescue him and Kana.
- Only Friend: Lance and Hunter became each other's only friends during their time training to join Team Rocket, being two of the best battlers in their group who both have a desperate drive to prove themselves. This friendship isn't enough to make Hunter not ambush him at the end of their final test, nor from Lance taking her tokens when he defeats her.
- Only One Name: Wataru doesn't have a family name since he doesn't know who his parents are, which becomes a problem when he needs to get a legal ID after his banishment.
- Parental Abandonment: Wataru never knew his parents, just that his mother was a gaijin. He doesn't even know if they're alive or not.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Giovanni's Marowak is only three feet tall, but is strong enough to bring down a full-grown Charizard large enough for Lance to comfortably ride on.
- Police Are Useless: When he sees how badly the Grand Royale Casino's dratini is being treated, Wataru tries to go to the police and file charges of Pokémon abuse/neglect. While initially interested, the officer he talks to immediately becomes cold and tells him to stop stirring up trouble when he says who the Dratini is owned by, forcing Wataru to try and find a way to rescue the Dratini himself.
- Rite-of-Passage Name Change: Members of Team Rocket don't use their real names, partly so that if they're captured or betray the group they're not able to tell the police anyone's real identities. Anyone who wishes to join them picks a new name when they begin training: this is how Wataru becomes Lance.
- Rope Bridge: Lance encounters one over a chasm that's already been broken, forcing him to rely on Delphin's Dewgong to a make an ice bridge across.
- The Runaway:
- Aki, a girl Wataru befriends while working for the Celadon City casino, ran away from Pewter City after her parents died and she was put into an orphanage. She ran away because she knew that if she stayed, she'd end up working in the mines just like her parents had. She assumes at first that Wataru ran away from home for similar reasons.
- Hunter was the youngest of eight siblings, and was constantly overlooked. She knew that no one had any expectations of her, and ran away to join Team Rocket in order to prove to everyone how strong she really was.
- Satisfied Street Rat: Jiro grew up too poor to even afford a Pokéball for Kintsugi, his Meowth that he found curled inside a broken flower pot. How he went from that to a member of the Kanto Elite Four isn't something he goes into detail on, but he takes pride in how far he and his Pokémon have come against the expectations of everyone who'd looked down on him.
- Skilled, but Naive: While Lance is a gifted trainer and strategist who can think quickly under pressure in order to win battles, he's shockingly naive when it comes to other people and often doesn't look deeper at a situation than the surface. Even when warned that the other trainees will be free to (and even expected to) attack each other in order to steal their tokens he repeatedly falls for traps and ambushes, nearly getting taken out multiple times by opponents who wouldn't have been able to match him in a fair fight.
- Theme Naming: Lance names all the Pokémon he obtains during his journey after people he admires. Ibuki the Gyarados is named after his cousin, Kana the Charmander is named after a master dragon tamer in Ryu's Gift, Kaisho the Dratini is named after a legendary dragon master, Hunter the Sneasel is named for his former friend, and Archer the Aerodactyl is named for his mentor in Team Rocket, Executive Archer.
- Throwing the Fight: Downplayed; the exhibition match between Jiro and the Johto champion Akane is close-fought and ultimately ends in a draw. Afterwards, Jiro tells Lance that if she'd really wanted to, Akane could've won but it's an unspoken rule that exhibition matches between Kanto and Johto have to end in draws.
- Unnecessary Roughness: Lance is disturbed by how unnecessarily painful Giovanni's takedowns are during his gym battle with him, including having his nidoking force Archer to swallow poison and having his Marowak dislocate the bones in Kana's wings to stop her from flying. He never breaks any rules for the matches, as all the damage is non-permanent, but Lance realizes it's an intimidation tactic, intended to show him just how easy it would be for Giovanni to cause that permanent damage.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Airi, the merchant's son is a very minor character who isn't seen after the first couple chapters. Him innocently asking if he can see the Dragonites after Wataru tells him they live in the valley ultimately leads to Wataru's banishment and completely changing the course of his and Toku's lives.
- Unwitting Pawn: Lance spends a good chunk of the story following Archer's orders with little idea what of end goal he's actually advancing. Crashing the league president's party with a 'rampaging Gyarados' to humiliate him? The party was held in Cerulean City, and it had the side effect of accelerating Hamako's political decline, causing her to ultimately resign as gym leader and be replaced with someone less opposed to Team Rocket's business interests in Cerulean.
- Villain with Good Publicity: Giovanni Fiorelli is widely admired by the citizens of Viridian City for growing up poor like many of them and returning after making his fortune to build the city's Pokémon gym, raising workers out of poverty with the jobs the project created. Even outside of Viridian, he's widely respected for his skill as both a Pokémon trainer and a businessman. What no one knows is that he's the leader of Team Rocket, the notorious criminal organization who will not hesitate to steal, extort, and kill in order to get what they want.
- You Are Worth Hell: Despite knowing that they're unlikely to ever be able to return, Toku chooses to come with Wataru on his exile rather than remain behind in the only home the two of them have ever known. Even after she evolves into a Dragonite and could return on her own, she refuses to return without him.
