"Gary my boy? Are you there?" a voice crackled to life in the darkness of the hotel room, quickly followed by a monitor booting up, slicing the darkness open to land on the sharp features of an auburn haired teen, whose said hair was tousled with sleep.
"Great ho-oh gramps, it's five thirty in the morning. What's up?"
Gary Oak's voice was hushed in the dark room - he didn't share it with anyone, but it still felt odd to speak loudly when dawn hadn't even cracked over the horizon. His dark blue eyes glinted with concern in the semi-darkness, Gary was an acute observer of body language, and his grandfather's hunched shoulders and wrinkled brow indicated something was amiss.
He grinded his palm against his eye in an attempt to steal the sleep from it, squinting with his other eye as the man he affectionately called 'gramps' fidgeted. "It's kind of an odd time to call for a chat grandpa . . ."
"No, that's not it. Gary - " his grandfather paused, and with a sinking feeling, Gary leaned closer to the speakers, hearing the sobbing of a women in the background. " - It was Delia's idea, I don't mean to bother you so late - but Gary, it's Ash."
The imaginary sound of beautiful, irreplaceable china breaking seemed to resound in Gary's mind, "What about Ash?" cursing himself silently for speaking so quickly. He had given that friendship up a long time ago, and learned to cope with replacing his best friend with cheerleaders and fancy cars.
"The police are working on it Gary, but you're a skilled pokemon trainer, and you are not motivated by justice and a pay check. Ash and Pikachu have been kidnapped Gary, and they need your help."
Kidnapped. Gary was torn - he wanted to blow this off so desperately. When it came to Ash, he had discovered doing nothing was so much less complicated then trying. "I don't understand Grandpa, what are - Ash was kidnapped?"
"By Team Rocket. I understand that police records indicated they had been trying to get ahold of Ash's pikachu for quite a while - "
The electric rat? Why?
" - and they finally succeeded. But Ash was taken too."
"But gramps, what does this have to do with me? Surely Team Rocket will just hold Ash a hostage or something - he's useless." Gary neglected to end his answer with to them and Professor Oak noticed, his eyes narrowing slightly.
"That's the problem Gary. Inside information sources have told us -" the Professor's voice dropped to a whisper, and Gary realized that the sobbing women in the background must be Ash's mother, Delia Ketchum. "- that authorities in Team Rocket are in need of genetic materiel for . . . experiments."
"Experiments?" Gary's stomach lurched uncomfortably, his hands shaking slightly when he remembered his last encounter with Team Rocket's experiments, the evil pokemon who had crushed his undefeated forces with the raising of a finger. He gritted his teeth and steeled his hands though as more unwelcome thoughts - pathetic, weak thoughts - followed. That he better just deal with the memories because this time Ash wasn't here to hold him and tell him it was okay.
"Officer Jenny in Viridian City has more information for you Gary. We'll meet you there tomorrow by noon." Gary nodded stonily. From Viridian he could tell the professor face to face that he couldn't help. Nothing was worth helping Ash.
"And Gary, before you go, don't pretend you don't care about Ash."
The red haired boy slammed the video phone receiver down, and the room was enveloped in darkness once again. He crawled away from the opaque black glass of the screen, but found even when the room was silent and dark once again that he couldn't get the disapproving, knowing face of his guardian out of his head.
He faced the digital clock on the side of his bed, which glared back at him without showing a hint of remorse while telling him that he didn't have enough time to go back to sleep. Feeling uncharacteristically confused and overemotional, Gary tugged the covers from off the bed and pulled them around his shoulders. Leaning back on the bedside, he focused on a crack in the curtains of the window, and closed his eyes to the sight of a single, brightly lit star.