A Memory Forgotten

Chapter 1

"Alright, your Primeape is good to go." Brock proclaimed, handing the Pokemon back to its young trainer. "Take some of this Pokemon food, too. I guarantee you that Primeape will really enjoy it."

"Wow, thanks!" The young boy said happily, taking his Primeape and the bag of food from Brock's outstretched hands.

"Don't mention it." Brock said with a smile. "Best of luck in your next match."

Brock stood rooted to the spot as he watched the young boy, no older than fourteen or fifteen, scamper off down the hall and out of sight. The passion the boy had for Pokemon was readily evident, and Brock was reminded of a time when he traveled with someone similar. He didn't think of his time traveling with Ash and Misty often anymore, but the similarities between this young competitor and Ash stirred many memories in his mind that he had chosen to forget. Ash and his other companions were the best friends he had ever had, and he would be a fool to deny it. But their personal aspirations separated them a couple years ago, and Brock had moved on.

During that time, Brock worked on perfecting his trade, and had become a moderately respected Pokemon breeder in the process. And after all this time, he had finally caught his big break. Just a little while ago, he was contacted by a Pokemon League official who asked him if he was interested in caring for injured Pokemon for an upcoming Pokemon tournament. The intense battling that the tournament was sure to produce meant that there needed to be many Pokemon nurses as well as breeders on hand - nurses to do the all-purpose healing and breeders to give Pokemon some special treatment. The offer itself was humbling, as only those the Pokemon League deemed capable were invited to such events.

Brock had accepted the offer almost immediately, and began to travel to the tournament's location in Saffron City just a couple weeks later. And now here he was, on day four of the week-long tournament, and he loved every minute of it. The pay was good, the trainers were appreciative, and most importantly, he got to spend all of his time working with Pokemon. It was everything that he had expected and even more.

It was vigorous work, however. He and several other breeders were operating a stand in the lobby of the stadium where the tournament was being hosted, and there was a constant stream of customers lining up to make use of their services. He had to spend so much time caring for Pokemon that he didn't have any time to actually watch any of the matches going on; which, admittedly, was something he wanted to do. There was an overhead television set nearby but he couldn't even make use of that because caring for Pokemon takes so much attention and he really couldn't divert his gaze very often.

The amount of work was starting to lessen, though. Being about halfway through the tournament, many of the trainers had already been knocked out. The tournament was huge, with a staggering 128 contestants, but the format was fairly simple. It started off with pool-play, with all the contestants being divided into pools of four. After pool play, the top two contestants from each pool would advance to the single-elimination knock-out round. Once the bracket had played out and there were only two trainers left, they will battle it out in a best-of-three format to determine the champion.

The first three days of the tournament were for pool play, so they were all intense work days since no one had been eliminated yet. However, day four was the beginning of the knock-out round, meaning only half of the initial 128 still remained, and the work wasn't quite as bad. In fact, now that he had finished treating the young trainer's Primeape, Brock was left with nothing to do. There was no one else waiting in line, so Brock used the free time to watch a fragment of the match that was currently going on up on the television.

However, all he got to see was a very strong thunderbolt from a Pikachu before he was interrupted by a voice which said, "Brock?"

Brock looked away from the television and instantly tensed up. The voice had sounded familiar and upon seeing the man's face, Brock instantly recognized him as James, of Team Rocket. Brock was overcome with a sense of apprehension as James walked over to him. Admittedly, James looked innocent enough, wearing a standard uniform and appearing to be working for the custodial staff for this event. But Brock had fallen victim to more than a few false identities that James and Team Rocket had prepared, so Brock kept his guard up.

"What are you doing here?" James said incredulously.

"What are you doing here?" Brock regurgitated as he narrowed his eyes in suspicion. Though he wasn't sure what game James was playing, Brock knew for sure that James was up to something.

"What?" James said, looking slightly shocked. "Don't look at me like that! I'm not up to anything, I swear it!"

"Uh-huh." Brock said, growing even more suspicious. "Where are the other two? Off completing the other part of your latest elaborate scheme?"

"You mean Jessie and Meowth?" James said with a frown. "We, uh... we don't travel together anymore."

"Yeah, alright." Brock said as he raised an eyebrow. "I don't believe it."

"Just give me a chance, alright?" James said in a huff.

Brock sighed. He still was suspicious of the perennial perpetrator, but Brock could also tell there was something sincere to his words. "What did you have in mind?" Brock said carefully.

"How about we go watch a match, huh?" James asked hopefully.

Brock frowned. "What are you up to?"

"Hey, come on, I just want to go watch a match." James replied. "If we hurry, we might even be able to watch the ending of your friend's match."

"My friend's?" Brock asked.

"Yeah, you know, Ash." James replied. To Brock, this was very unexpected news as he had not even known that Ash was in this tournament, but James had obviously thought otherwise. "Wait, you didn't know he was in the tournament? I thought that was the reason that you are here."

"No, I'm here on work." Brock said shortly. "Ash is here?"

"Yeah, like I said, he's in a match right now." James replied. "What do you say?"

Brock thought for a moment, considering the prospect of leaving his station and watching his old friend in the arena. To make things easier, one of the fellow breeders at the station turned to him and said, "Go on ahead. We can cover you for a little while."

"Thanks, Greg." Brock nodded, then turned back to James. He still didn't like trusting him but his motivations seemed sincere enough thus far, so Brock said to him, "Lead the way. But anything suspicious and I'm gone, alright?"

"There won't be, I can swear that." James replied. "Come on, then."

Brock cautiously walked behind James through the stadium's crowded hallways, his anticipation of seeing Ash again displaced by his distrust for his ever-misleading companion. Nonetheless, he continued to follow James up to the top floor of the stadium, where they walked out onto a balcony which overlooked the Pokemon battle going on way down below. They finally came to a stop at this point, leaning over and resting their forearms on the handrail.

They were a long way up, but even at a distance, Brock recognized Ash almost immediately. He was wearing the same, standard hat that Brock had to come to know him by, and his Pokemon of choice at this point in the match was Pikachu. It honestly looked like he hadn't changed at all, even after all this time.

"See?" James said proudly, stirring Brock from his memories. "I was telling the truth, wasn't I? The little twerp...err, I mean, your friend is here."

Brock raised his eyebrow. "Yeah, you're right, but that only makes you're appearance even more suspicious."

"What?" James asked. "I don't follow him around anymore, I told you that."

"Alright." Brock said sarcastically. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm just here on work." James replied slowly. "A man needs a living, right?"

"Whatever happened to Team Rocket, huh?" Brock asked snidely.

"They, uh...they kicked me out." James replied slowly. "This time, I really am just a janitor."

Despite his nature, Brock let out a cruel laugh. "Considering all the times you failed, they should have kicked you out a long time ago."

"Sad, but true." James said with a sigh.

"I...I'm sorry." Brock said, overcome with a sense a regret that he dearly wanted to deny.

"It's alright." James said. "Everything turned out well, in the end."

Brock still wasn't sure if he believed James, but he chose not to think on it anymore. Instead, he turned his attention back to the match, where Ash was really up against the wall. Pikachu had just gone down and Ash only had one Pokemon left, whereas his opponent still had two. But Brock knew to never count Ash out, and Ash didn't disappoint on this occasion. After Pikachu, he sent out his ace, and he rolled through his opponents final two Pokemon. It was his very unpredictable Charizard who won it for Ash, its overwhelming strength able to propel it to victory despite being at a type disadvantage.

Brock cheered along with the rest of the crowd as Ash was declared the victor by the announcer. With this win, Ash now entered the round of 32, and his next match would probably be sometime tomorrow. With his hand raised to the crowd, Ash turned his back on the arena and disappeared down a tunnel and out of sight.

"Well, he's still quite the trainer, eh?" James said after a moment or two.

"Yeah, he is." Brock replied distractedly.

"Aren't you going to go see him?" James asked.

"Huh?" Brock asked. He had been focused on watching the next two contestants enter the arena, but this unexpected question drew his undivided attention.

"Go." James said more forcefully, sensing the fact that Brock wanted to reunite with his old friend. "I don't mind."

Leaving James on his own was not the reason for Brock's hesitation, as James seemed to mistakenly believe. "I don't even know if he'll want to see me. It's been so long." Brock replied.

"All the more reason to go talk to him." James said. "You two went everywhere together! There's no way he won't want to see you again. Don't let this chance pass you by. I didn't leave on the best terms with Jessie but not a day goes by that I don't wish I could see her again."

Brock, overcome with a new-found sense of resolution, nodded. "Yeah, you're right."

"That's the spirit." James said with a lighthearted laugh.

Brock turned to James, unsure of what to say in parting to this man he had long considered to be his enemy. Perhaps he still is, but his demeanor thus far was nothing but amiable. In the end, Brock decided on a very emotionless farewell by saying, "Take it easy, then."

"Yeah, you too." James nodded. "Perhaps I'll see you later."

With that, Brock turned his back and walked back out of the stadium. He took the staircase back down to the ground floor, which was much more crowded now since a match had just ended. He carefully weaved through all the people and worked his way toward the spot he could only assume Ash was now: a Pokemon Center. He had no way of knowing for certain, of course, but as Ash had just finished a match, that seemed like the logical place to start.

There were more than a couple Pokemon Centers scattered throughout the ground floor of the stadium, so Brock just started at the closest one and began searching. He passed by quite a few Nurse Joy's, many of whom he recognized from his adventures, but after searching three of the Pokemon Centers, he found no sign of Ash. But, upon entering the fourth location, Brock found his friend of old. Ash was standing at the counter and was about to turn to leave, having just been returned his injured Pokemon from the center.

Brock, with an elation he hadn't experienced in quite some time, quickly covered the gap between him and Ash while shouting, "Ash!" a couple of times.

At first, he only drew the ire glances of annoyed onlookers, but when he finally did get Ash's attention, Ash turned to him and, upon recognizing him, exclaimed happily, "Brock! No shit, it is you! How's it going?"

Brock, expecting to see his childhood friend, was slightly of-put by Ash's new, aged appearance. He was sporting an untrimmed beard that was thin but fairly long, and it simply looked unkempt, as if Ash was just too lazy to shave it off. His hair was the same way, messy and ungroomed, but Brock had come to expect that of Ash even back during their adventures. His clothes were wrinkled and there was a subtle yet unmistakeable stench coming him, and all that led Brock to believe that he had many priorities over cleanliness.

Nonetheless, Brock overlooked the appearance and said, "It's great to see you, Ash. I was starting to think I would never see you again."

"No kidding! Man, what are you doing here, anyway?" Ash asked, a playful smile pursed on his lips. "Misty put you up to this, didn't she?"

"Misty?" Brock asked. "No, I'm here on work. Why, is Misty here, too?"

"Of course." Ash replied simply. "She's my girl, now."

"Oh, congratulations." Brock said. "I always thought you two would get together."

"Well, you said you were here on work?" Ash asked, quick to change the subject. "What have you been up to?"

"I'm a Pokemon breeder." Brock replied. "The League hired me for this event. I'm helping run a stand over on the other side of the stadium, giving Pokemon massages and helping them return to pristine condition. You should come by when you get a chance."

"Really? Breeding?" Ash asked incredulously. "You're still into that?"

"What's wrong with that?" Brock said with a frown. "It's been my dream for as long as I can remember, you know that."

"Yeah, but I always thought you would grow out of it." Ash said with a laugh. "It just so..."

"So...what, exactly?" Brock asked, growing annoyed. "Please, tell me."

"Nevermind." Ash said with another laugh and a quick shake of his head. "To each his own."

Brock frowned, but chose to ignore it. "So, what about you? You still seem to be quite the trainer, eh?"

"Oh, yeah." Ash said with a confident smile. "Me and Pikachu are still going strong."

"Good to hear." Brock said with a laugh. "Where is Pikachu, anyway?"

"Resting, probably." Ash said with a shrug. "I'm leaving him with the nurse for a little while longer, he took a beating out there. Hey, look, I told Misty to wait for me so I need to get going. My next match is tomorrow at noon, come watch me!"

"Sure, I would like that." Brock replied.

"Awesome." Ash replied. "I'll let Misty know, you can go sit with her if you'd like. See ya, Brock."

With that, Ash turned his back and left. As much as he had been wanting to see Ash again, Brock felt nothing but a certain sickness in his stomach as he watched his old friend leave. A lot had changed in their time apart, that much was for sure, and Brock wasn't quite sure he liked the changes.

After a few minutes, Brock followed in Ash's footsteps out of the center. He continued on down the corridors back to his station with the rest of the breeders, which was just as quiet as it had been when he left. And though he resumed his work, his mind remained focused on tomorrow and what it will bring.