Yet more drivel from yours truly...
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Misty held the ball in front of her, concentrating as the familiar blue
aura glowed around her then swept into the container of her favored
avatar. Once sufficient power had been transferred to the ball, she
sent it forwards with a flick of her wrist. "GOOO..."
"PSYDUCK!"
"..."
Next to her, Ash barely stifled a snicker. "Gee, Misty, I thought it
took some white mana to cast him."
"That's the trouble: he takes *any* mana, when he replaces someone
else." She absently rubbed her a barely visible scar on her arm. "At
least he doesn't return any extra mana. I *hate* the burn."
"Yeah, well..." He raised one hand to chin level, almost absently
coalescing one spark each of red, green, and blue in it and mentally
flicking it towards the balls still on his belt. Moments later,
charmander, bulbasaur, and squirtle appeared in front of him.
"PIPIPI!" Pikachu leapt from Ash's backpack to the top of his head,
then down to the ground. "PIKA!" He scampered off towards the pokemon
center just ahead, shortly followed by the rest of Ash's and Misty's
pokemon, their stomachs growling in unison.
Ash did let out a chuckle at this. "Too bad they can't just feed off
the mana like we do, huh, Misty?"
She shrugged. "Yeah, well...it took years to draw links to all those
islands; it'd better have paid off *some*how. Which reminds me: you
didn't have any mana sources when Professor Oak gave you Pikachu. How'd
you cast him?"
"I didn't. Never have. He's almost his own source. A pokemon only
needs mana to come out of its ball, you know."
"Or to do attacks. That wasn't natural lightning that trashed my bike."
"Look, I said I'm sorry."
"They say some people can be sources of mana. I wonder..."
"Misty, why are you looking at me like ULK!" Ash jerked ramrod straight
as streams of white suddenly poured out of him.
"I thought so." Misty channeled the mana into a healing potion, finally
getting rid of the scar which had irritated her ever since she tried to
channel her power into a bicycle which suddenly was not there to receive
it. Only when it had faded away did she put her arm around Ash to keep
him from falling over in his sudden exhaustion.