Not All Arrogance (A Gary Oak Love Story) Part 21~Road to Viridian Again, The Last Badge
Amy, Gary, Duplica and Tory arrived in Pallet Town late the next day. Ditto rode on Duplica's shoulder and Gabriel was happily walking by Amy's feet once more.
"Wow, it feels like we haven't been here in forever, huh?" Amy said in wonder as they walked along the dirt road. She honestly felt a little sick about this; she hadn't spoken to her dad since he freaked out on her way out of this town... she wasn't sure she'd really be accepted with open arms. Gary seemed to sense her discomfort.
"Uh, I think we should go see my gramps first, if you don't mind, Amy," Gary suggested and Amy breathed a sigh of relief.
"That's fine with me," she said with a smile.
"So this is where you guys grew up?" Tory said, looking around at the houses on both sides and the few people out in their yards. Several of them waved and welcomed Gary and Amy back home. They waved back.
"Yep, them and Ash. Oh, you haven't met him yet right?" Duplica babbled, "Well you probably'll meet him eventually if you hang around with us."
"Oh yeah sure," he smiled, "I'll probably stick around until the Pokémon League anyway, but I'd like to call home when we get to Prof. Oak's."
"Seems like a plan to me," Amy said, grinning as they approached the giant windmill on the hill.
Prof. Oak would eventually say that he was very happy to see them, was glad to meet Tory and Duplica for the first time and that he'd really like to study Gabriel's mutation, but he had something to rant about first.
"I was worried sick! I knew you were right in the middle of the Seafoam and Cinnabar islands when there were those weird weather changes, and then those explosions from the volcano, why didn't you call?" the old man demanded from Gary. Amy stepped between them.
"Hey it's not Gary's fault! Excuse us if Team Rocket sort of had us kidnapped!"
"WHAT?"
"Amy, I'm not sure you're helping," Tory pointed out, and Amy laughed a little.
"Uh, guess not. Sorry Professor, I was joking?" she said with a nervous grin, which somehow Oak accepted.
"So we wanted to say hi before going to see if Amy and Gary can get their final badges," Duplica explained.
"Oh really? I believe Ash said that's where he was going when he passed through here yesterday, he should be arriving there by tomorrow afternoon on foot," Prof Oak said and Gary's eyes widened.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN ASH WAS HERE YESTERDAY?"
"Calm down Gary," Prof. Oak groaned, rubbing his forehead as if he knew this would happen. "Yes he was; he already had his Volcano badge; he said he got it the previous day..."
"Wait, that bastard Blaine was taking on challengers while we were kidnapped by Team Rocket?" Amy raged and then piped up with "Kidding!" when Prof Oak looked suspicious.
"That's IT! We are catching up NOW! Come on Amy, call out Selene, we can get there tonight and-"
"Come on Gary! They won't get there till tomorrow! Just let us stay the night here alright?" Duplica moaned loudly to a chorus of agreement from Amy and Tory.
"Fine, let the stupid loser get ahead why don't you…" Gary muttered.
"Right, that's reasonable. Now Amy, I believe your father would be able to accept a visit from you rationally, Delia has been talking to him every day and we've had him go in for some long overdue therapy. He's doing much better then when you last saw him, and he's even agreed to end the contract that made you have to travel with Gary, so if you want to split up you can," Prof. Oak explained.
"But I don't want to," Amy said smiling and looked over at her boyfriend. Gary seemed to have a tiny shade of red in his cheeks and looked pleased with himself.
Before trying a visit with Amy's dad, they decided to visit with the Pokémon they'd sent to Prof. Oak. As it turned out, Gary's Magikarp had somehow evolved into a Gyrados. Gar quickly traded his unused Sandshrew in for the powerful water type.
Then they went to the house of Amy's father.
Strangely, the visit was extremely uneventful- almost normal. It was as if her father was trying to ignore the fact that he had been trying to force his daughter not to go on a Pokémon journey at all. He greeted Gary warmly, smiled for Duplica and Tory, and hugged his daughter. The only thing wrong was that he seemed very cold towards Gabriel and Ditto, to their disappointment. Amy really thought his anger at Pokémon was totally ungrounded; there was no way Ninetails had killed her mom. All the same, if she brought that up now it would sort of ruin the mood so she'd probably be best to let it go and keep her mouth shut. Even when her father sent Gabriel a death glare for trying to reach the bowl of fruit on the table and scratching the surface with his claws, Amy recalled the young pokemon into its ball rather than defend him.
That night Tory went to spend the night at Gary's house while Duplica slept over with Amy. Duplica totally went wild when she found Amy's diary and was in near tears when she started reading Amy's top ten list of hottest famous Pokémon trainers and researchers. This included Lance, Bill, and Eugene from the Hoenn league among others. Amy was thoroughly embarrassed by this.
The next day, Amy and Duplica met up with Tory and Gary, who seemed to have done some male bonding over video games and were now talking like best friends.
"I swear, when we come back after I get my final badge I'm gonna cream you at Super Poke-Brothers Brawl!" Gary said with a big grin.
"Keep dreaming, once I help you unlock Charizard you can't beat me, he's my best guy!"
"Hi guys! We're heading for Viridian now right?" Duplica giggled. Amy released Selene, who was at last rested and ready to travel. They climbed aboard, waved goodbye to Prof. Oak, and headed into the sky for Viridian. Only about fifteen minutes later they were there as Selene flew fast and it wasn't that far when you didn'. Unlike their previous road to Viridian, the sky was clear and sunny. They landed in front of the gym, just as Ash, Misty and Brock were approaching, coincidently.
"Amy? Is that you? When'd you get a Dragonair?" Ash asked, mouth hanging open as Amy hopped down.
"Amy! My dearest!" Brock cried running for Amy but Gary blocked him.
"Back off, she's got a boyfriend now!" he growled and Amy blushed brightly.
"Who? This guy?" a shocked Ash turned toward Tory.
Tory's eyes widened. "Huh? Me?"
"I should think not!" Duplica huffed, grabbing her surfer boy's arm.
"Who then?" Ash looked confused.
"I think it's Gary, Ash," Misty whispered.
"What? Gary?" Ash laughed at the absurdity. "You're not dating Gary, right?"
"Uh yeah, I guess I am," Amy said, shifting her feet uneasily. Ash looked devastated, but no one really acknowledged it.
"She's so beautiful!" Misty cried out as she ran over to pet Dragonair.
Brock took a look too. "She seems really healthy."
"Yep, her name's Selene," Amy said proudly.
"So you're Ash huh? Amy's talked about you. I'm Tory, Duplica's boyfriend, I'm from the Seafoam Islands," Tory said, flashing a grin and shaking Ash's hand.
"Oh, nice to meet you," Ash said, recovering slightly. "Yeah I'm Ash, this is Misty, Brock, and Pikachu!"
"Pika Pi!" Pikachu chirped from his shoulder.
Amy suddenly noticed a new acquisition in Misty's arms. "Misty, what Pokémon is that?" she asked, pointing to what looked like half an egg with pointed gloop coming out the top and black beady eyes. Some might call it cute, like Duplica who ran over to coo over it, but Amy frankly found it a bit creepy.
"Oh, this is Togepi!" Misty said, cuddling it to her chest.
"Toge!" the eggshell Pokémon cried maliciously.
"So Ashy boy, you're getting the Viridian City gym badge too huh? It was closed when we were here last," Gary said folding his arms and sneering at Ash. It would have been an innocent statement from someone else, but Gary made it seem condescending.
"Well so what if am?" Ash demanded and Amy sighed.
"Okay you guys should really break it up. No one's guarding the gym this time so I can only assume it's open. I suggest we go in?" Amy said, forcing herself to smile as much as possible under the circumstances. They opened the gym doors... only to find the guards inside them.
"Don't tell me the gym leader still isn't here!" Gary growled and the guard shook his head.
"No he's here, but only one challenger is allowed inside at a time," the guard explained.
"Oh, but we aren't challenging, only Ash, Gary and Amy are," Brock said pointing each of them out.
"Then only one of them is allowed in at a time, and you spectators are each allowed inside for only one match," said the other guard.
"That's not fair!" Misty said haughtily but Brock shook his head.
"Gym leaders can make their own rules," he said knowledgably, "We can still watch Ash."
"Oh, well, yeah," Misty muttered.
"Mmm... kay, I'll watch Amy and you watch Gary, okay, Tory?" Duplica suggested, standing on tiptoe and giving Tory a quick kiss. He blushed and nodded.
"Sure thing," he said, sounding dazed.
Gary shrugged. "I'm heading in first though!"
"Be my guest," Amy said gesturing him in. Gary smirked and headed through the doors with Tory, followed by the guards. Amy went to recall Selene. Suddenly Misty shrieked.
"TOGEPI'S GONE!" was the cry and so she, Ash and Brock ran off to find the egg Pokémon while Duplica and Amy dawdled in front of the gym. Suddenly they heard screaming inside... and it sounded like the guys. Suddenly it was silenced.
"Gary? Are you okay?" Amy asked loudly and banged on the doors. They swung opened. She looked at Duplica nervously. It was dark in there.
"W-what do you think happened to them?" Duplica whispered.
"I don't know, but I'm going to find out." Amy gulped and marched into the gym, followed by Duplica, who looked rather unsure that this was the best course of action. So did her Ditto, but her Ditto normally copied Duplica's expression. They walked carefully as their eyes adjusted the darkness, then Amy's foot hit something that said "OUCH."
"Gary? Is that you?" Amy asked, dropping to her knees beside the figure and lifting his shoulders from the ground. Off to the right she heard Duplica asking Tory if he was okay and Tory's muttered response acknowledging his conscious state.
"Yeah it's me... Amy?" Gary said weakly.
"What happened to you?" Amy asked brushing the hair from his face.
"Amy... the gym leader, it's Giovanni. He has a new Pokémon too, and I swear, it's pure evil."
"But, there's no such thing as an evil Pokémon," Amy said, confused.
"Well this one is. You can't beat it Amy, it's too powerful..."
"Well I'm going to try! Giovanni is NOT getting away with hurting you like this!"
"So I have another challenger then?" Giovanni's voice rang from across the room and the lights flipped on. In front of him was a strange Pokémon Amy had never seen the likes of. With all the machinery on its body it looked like a cyborg.
"Giovanni! How dare you do this to my Tory!" Duplica cried, jumping to her feet and looking at Giovanni in rage. Tory did look pretty beat up.
"He'll be fine," Giovanni said gruffly. "Now, the rules of this gym are thus: You can use all your Pokémon at once and if you can make my Pokémon give up the battle, you get a badge." Amy looked over at Gary and noticed his Pokémon were lying around him, looking totally wiped out.
"Erm..." Amy said looking a bit nervous.
He grinned. "Maybe you need more of a prize? How about this, if you can beat me, I'll give you and your boyfriend badges, how's that?"
"Fine, deal, let's do this," Amy said, taking her place across from Giovanni.
"No Amy, don't do it!" Gary cried from the floor and winced.
"Not listening! Go everyone!" Amy cried, throwing her Pokeballs onto the field. Selene, Isis, Harmony, Gabriel, William(Machop) and Avion appeared, ready to go. "Okay, Selene, Dragon Rage! Isis, Ice Beam! Harmony, Thunderbolt! Gabriel, Blizzard! William, Mega Punch! Avion, Drill Peck!"
Her Pokémon charged at the cyborg Pokémon, but merely bounced back from an invisible, circular barrier that seemed to be around it. Giovanni snapped his fingers and the odd Pokémon raised its hand, glowing in a blue light. The blue light then surrounded Amy's Pokémon as well, causing them all to rise into the air helplessly.
"Yes! With Mewtwo at my side no one can prevent me from ruling the world! Even without Sunraroes and Darentoes, Mewtwo's power is more than enough to lead my army!" Giovanni announced, grinning widely. Suddenly Amy's Pokémon fell to the ground, the blue light gone. Mewtwo turned to its trainer. A weird voice echoed through the room, or maybe in their minds? "You will rule the world? You said we would rule it together!"
Giovanni glared down at Mewtwo. "You were created by humans to obey humans. That is the purpose of a Pokémon."
Amy's mouth dropped open. "NO IT'S NOT!"
"B-but I thought it was," Duplica said hesitantly from behind Amy. "I mean they aren't as smart as people..." Ditto looked offended but Duplica didn't notice.
"Hey, my Pokémon are smart!" Gary snapped.
Amy's hands shook in fury. "NO! We're just trainers, we help the Pokémon get stronger and in return they help protect our bodies and our honour! It's a trade of services, not slavery!"
"Shut up girl, you don't understand what you're talking about," Giovanni growled.
"I understand way more than you do!" Amy shouted.
"Well yeah, it's not slavery but the fact is that trainers do end up with a lot more credit and fame than the Pokémon they train do," Tory pointed out.
"Well that's not fair," Amy said clenching her fists.
"This Pokémon is mine to own and control!" Giovanni shouted.
"ENOUGH OF THIS!" Mewtwo roared. "NO ONE CONTROLS ME!"
The Pokémon then blasted out of his armour, revealing a purple, vaguely cat like form. He glared at all the humans in the room before blasting off through the ceiling. Giovanni screamed for it to get back here, like that would ever work. Amy smiled and recalled her Pokémon.
"I believe you owe me two badges?"
Giovanni's mouth opened in anger. "What are you talking about? You didn't win!"
"But Mewtwo did give up the battle." Gary pointed out, recalling his own Pokémon "That's all she had to do to win."
"And I know you don't want the police to know this is where you've been hiding out." Amy smirked.
Giovanni growled something under his breath and then shouted, "FINE!" before throwing two Earth badges down to Amy. She in turn tossed one to Gary on the floor and both girls helped their boys out of the gym and down the street toward the Pokémon center.
While their Pokémon were healing, Amy suddenly realized that Ash had to fight the gym leader now too. Of course he had no idea that Giovanni was head of Team Rocket... or his father... but would that make him more or less safe in battling him? Did Giovanni know what Ash looked like? Suddenly there was a loud explosion. Some kids ran in saying the gym had exploded. A few minutes later Ash, Misty and Brock came into the Pokémon center looking a bit dirty but not seriously hurt.
"Uh, well, I got an Earth badge, but I had to fight Jesse and James to get it. It was really weird… apparently they'd been left in charge of the gym. I don't know what idiot would let them do something as important as run a gym but…" Ash showed them his badge, identical to Amy's and Gary's.
The whole group decided to spend the day in Viridian, having fun before going back to Pallet Town the next day. They all ate out at a fast food joint and went to see the latest Staryu Wars movie. That night, in the girl's bedroom at the Pokémon center with Duplica and Misty, Amy took out her mother's red badge case and opened it, looking happily at the 8 glittering gym badges. These were her passport into the Indigo League. She wondered if her mother would be proud of her.
The next day they all walked back to Pallet, Pikachu, Ditto, Gabriel and Togepi running around at their feet. The way back to Pallet was downhill and always took less time than the way up to Viridian. It still took a while. They would have taken Selene, but even a Dragonair would have trouble carrying seven people. Amy thought that Gary and Ash were behaving themselves quite well... though Ash wasn't really talking much and when he did speak to Amy he seemed unconvincing in his cheerful act. In any case, when they got back Prof. Oak seemed really happy about Amy, Gary and Ash all getting all eight badges. He happened to point out that the other 3 trainers that came out of Pallet Town all were total failures as trainers. Way to be nice Professor.
In any case, the Indigo League competition wasn't to start for another month, so they all decided to set up where they'd be sleeping. Misty and Duplica would be staying with Amy, Brock would stay with Ash and Tory would stay with Gary. When Duplica and Tory went to meet Ash's mom, Delia Ketchum seemed totally shocked for some reason. Ash didn't notice his mom's distress though, and was easily shooed out to the store for milk while Delia sat down in her living room with Amy and Duplica. (Misty and Brock had gone with Ash and Tory was at Gary's house).
"Mrs. Ketchum," Amy said a little awkwardly,"Um, we know who Ash's dad is. We think you should know too that... he's sort of in charge of Team Rocket."
Delia looked even more shocked. "H-he is? Well I suppose I always knew he had some problems with the temptation of world domination. So you must also know that Duplica is Ash's twin then?" Now it was Amy and Duplica's turn to be shocked out of their minds.
"He's my WHAT? B-but that would mean you're my mom, and then Giovanni is my... OH MY GOD!" Duplica shrieked and fell backwards.
"Oh, so you didn't know?" Delia looked embarrassed. "Please don't tell Ash, he shouldn't have to know all this."
"Trust me, I don't want Ash to know," Duplica said looking freaked out. "Why did you send me away to my grandparents... oh my god I've been staying with Giovanni's parents! But they called my dad... Geo... … … oh my god!"
Delia Ketchem frowned. "His parents knew I was pregnant and wanted to take the child since they thought I was too young to care for it properly. So when I had twins we sent them you and kept Ash, but I'd really rather have had both of you..."
This was a very awkward scene, but it ended quickly with Ash appearing. Since Delia had begged their silence about his father they tactfully changed the topic to the upcoming Pokemon league, a topic Ash easily got into without noticing any strange looks Duplica gave him. She was trying to figure out where the family resemblance was.
About two weeks later, Gary and Amy were sitting out in the field around Oak's windmill house. The wind was blowing softly through their hair and Gary's hand was lightly on Amy's. They were watching Ash's obscene amount of Tauros stampede around their enclosure.
"So are you ready yet, Amy?" Gary asked suddenly, looking at her. Amy looked at him wide eyed in confusion.
"Ready for what? The Pokémon league? I guess so, I mean, Avion's been having trouble learning Mirror Move but his evolution into Fearow is pretty impressive."
"I guess, yeah." Gar shrugged. "But I meant more… um…" he leant toward Amy and brushed his lips against hers. She kissed back uncertainly, but caught on as his tongue darted in insistently. Amy pushed herself back from him.
"Oh, that..." Amy said blushing violently. "Uh..."
"I- erm- I don't mean to push or anything. Nevermind," Gary muttered. Amy's blush deepened and she looked extremely freaked out.
"I- I uh..." Amy thought about it, looking down. She did like Gary, a lot. But that seemed like a bit of a big step for a kids show.
"Well, I guess we really shouldn't think about it right now anyway. It's not like we could when we're here with everybody. But I thought after the Pokemon league when Duplica and Tory have left to do whatever they're going to do and Ash and his friends have gone, we'd be alone together again."
"And this time we won't hate each other," Amy said softly, for the first time realising how serious this was.
Then Ash's voice suddenly rang over the hill, loudly screaming. "AMY! AMY YOU'LL NEVER BELEIVE THIS!"
"WHAT IS IT?" Amy yelled back.
"Hey Ash, buzz off!" Gary growled but Ash didn't seem to notice.
"Your dad just proposed to my mom!" he said wide eyed at Amy, whose jaw dropped.
"WHAT?"
"And she said yes!"
"WHAT?"
"So you're going to be my sister!"
Amy gave that a second to sink in and then her face lit up. "AWESOME!" she jumped up and gave Ash a huge hug.
Gary's eyebrow rose. That would mean if he married Amy, Ash would be his brother-in-law. That would be… weird.
"Oh, is that why my dad's so calm? I was sure he'd still be furious… or refuse to speak to me. Something," Amy frowned.
"I guess so," Ash said with a shrug. "Though I thought it would be more from Oak convincing him that his pokemon prejudice shouldn't… um… estrange him from his own daughter? I think that's the word he used. Anyway, yeah, they're getting married!"
"Well… that's great then! I'd better go congratulate him then!" Amy said, hurrying off down the hill, "See you guys later!"
"Yeah," Gary replied to Amy and sighed, looking over at Ash. "So what do you think about being my brother-in-law?"
"Your- your- WHAT?" Ash yelped.
"Brother-in-law. If I marry Amy-"
"Marry Amy… That's kinda thinking a little far ahead don't you think," Ash said in a low, deadpan voice, his eyes narrowed.
"Well, why shouldn't she marry me? Looking at the other guys around here, I wouldn't say I have much competition," Gary snorted.
Ash glared. "You seriously think you're the best looking guy who's interested in Amy?"
Gary gave a smug look. "Obviously."
"You mean you haven't seen any other guy look at Amy your whole journey so far?"
"N- well…" Gary frowned, remembering Sameri… and Brock… and Bill… and what about that Rocket- Bonk was it? Did he like her too? Maybe… "Okay maybe I've seen other guys but Amy didn't… well I think she might've liked Bill but she said he was too old for her. No, I'm definitely the best guy for her. Anyway, you'd better do well in the Pokemon League. I don't want to be related to a total loser. Smell ya later!" Gary sneered, heading down the hill to find Amy again.
((Joyful Note: I know we haven't had a big father confrontation. Yet. I do have a sequel after the last part of this coming. I always thought it seemed a bit darker than this and we'll go into all the parental issues... ANYWAY, I'm mostly writing this for those who've stuck by it at this point. I've had critics but whatever, some people like it so I won't leave them hanging. One more part to go!))