by
Gethsemane
Disclaimer: This is a custom made fic for Loren Leah, who wrote "Hmmmm... .... I suggest a Gary-centered fanfic, portraying him sympathetically. Optionally, your least favorite character may die. ;) Heh." I don't really know any thing about Gary, but here goes.
I do not own the Pokemon characters and I am not doing this for financial
gain.
I stand here and look at my name on the gravestone. This has got to be the most screwed up feeling in the world... to see your own name on a grave stone.
"It's not me! For Chrissake, get over it!" part of me yells. Yeah, I know it isn't me, but it is my name. I immediately regret this conversation with myself. Once again, I have turned the situation. Made the tragedy about me. Everything they say is true. I'm egocentrical. I'm a jerk....I'm....I'm.....I'm bawling. I'm sitting here at the graveyard bawling. Through the tears, I look at the stone.
Shigeru (Samuel) Garret Oak
My name. His name. He was the first. I could have lived up to my name. I could have tried. I could have made him proud of me...couldn't I? I tried to be my own person, but I still wanted him to be proud of me. I wanted to be the best. I was going to catch them all. I did. I caught them all. Two hundred and forty different species (including each of the 26 types of unown). The ones that I didn't catch weren't meant to be caught. They are one of a kind Pokemon. I didn't catch them, but I saw them. I wrote pokedex entries about them. Let's see...there was Mewtwo, who most people don't believe exists, but I fought it. Then there was Mew, said to be extinct. I found one in some old ruins. It said that it was the last of its kind, I let it go. I've seen the five legendary birds: Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres, Lugia, and Ho-oh. Last, there are the legendary dogs: Raikou, Entei, and Suicune. I also have all the badges that exist. I won them all. All by myself. Always all by myself.
There is a hand on my shoulder.
"Come home, Gary." says my sister. She is strong.
She always has been. She was when Mom and Dad died. She is now. I get up
and walk with her. She puts her arm around me. We pass Ash's house in silence.
Another rush of tears that I try desperately to conceal. Ash...that was
who he was proud of. Ash, always Ash.
"Why don't you go change? Delia's invited us over for dinner." I realize that we are in the house. I go up to my room and go through the motions of changing clothes. Ash, my wonderful "uncle". We joked about that. Ash found it quite amusing. Grandpa loved him like a son, and eventually he got him for a son. I was shocked when they got married (Grandpa and Delia, that is). No one else was....I mean, I wasn't against it, but there was even more attention transferred to the Ketchum family. I never complained. Who did I have to complain to? Not those ditzy cheerleaders that followed me around, and I'm just not the type that has heart to hearts with my pokemon.
I really love my pokemon, but I didn't have the relationship that Ash had with his. That is what Grandpa used to go on and on about. Maybe if I'd started at that age, I would have developed bonds with my pokemon, too. That just didn't happen. When I was 10, I was ready. Grandpa wasn't.
"Gary, I know this is what you want, but you need to stay in school. That's what your parents wanted." Grandpa said. So I stayed in school. I studied overtime. When I was eleven, I got the same story, so I stayed. I pushed myself. I worked. The proficiency test I took rated me as a high school graduate.
"Well done." Grandpa said. Well done...how nice. I was allowed to start my Pokemon Journey that fall. I was twelve. Ash had just turned ten. Of course, his mom let him go right then.
"Gary, I only have a limited number of starters. I cannot play favorites, these need to be for other trainers." Grandpa said. I had got up at six o'clock in the morning, ready to pick out my charmander.
"What?!" I was angry...I was more than angry. "What the hell am I supposed to do?"
"The Arcanine's puppies are ready to go. How about one of those?"
"What?! A puppy?!" Typical! How typical. I have to wait two years to start my journey with a house pet!
"Gary," Sis said, "Arky's puppies are strong. I'm sure they'll evolve soon."
"Fine!" I yell. I grab my gear and head out the back door before they tell me that I have to take the runt or something. I pick out Sparky. He'd always liked me when I fed them. He wasn't happy about the pokeball, but he'd get used to it. As I came around the corner of the house there was a great commotion.
"This is Eyewitness News 11 at the home of the Pokemon Professor Samuel Oak. It is time for the fall hopefuls to arrive to start their lives as Pokemon trainers. Here's our first trainer now!" There were reporters everywhere.
"What's your name, young man!" said an overly peppy female reporter.
"Gary Oak."
"Oh! The Professor's own grandson! Perfect!" The reporter screamed, "Joe! Over here! This is Gary Oak." Joe came over and looked me up and down.
"You the prof's kid?" he said.
"Yeah."
"Well, I've got a deal for you..." The station was doing a documentary on pokemon trainers. If I let them follow me around and film, they would give me a car, food, and lodging. I wasn't about to turn down a deal that sweet. The car was nice, a red convertible. The driver's name was Lara. She smiled at me. The station did an interview with me as the other trainers arrived. It was a live broadcast. By noon there was a flock of girls surrounding me!
"There's an angle. Our boy has his own pep squad!" Joe said. They picked out the best looking of the bunch and told them to hop in. The took us driving around. When we got back it was a bit after lunch. Ash was there, late as usual. He'd got stuck with a moody pikachu that we'd picked up a few days ago. What a loser.
Well, that's what I'd thought then. That pikachu turned out to be quite good. I caught five pokemon before we got to Pewter. Sparky, who simply became "Growlithe" fought well. He put up a good fight in the gym, but I eventually had to use nidoran to win. It really wasn't difficult. I called Grandpa that night from the Poke Center.
"Grandpa! I have five pokemon and a Boulderbadge!"
"Oh. Well done. I have some tea boiling! Bye." he said. Nifty.
By the time I got to Vermilion I had 27 pokemon and two badges. Surge's gym was a piece of cake.
"Hi, Grandpa. I have my third badge and 27 pokemon! I've seen 53 different kinds!"
"Hmm. Well Done." Oh, boy. He could barely contain
his enthusiasm...I'm being sarcastic, by the way. That's the way it was
with every new badge and pokemon, "Well Done" then he was off to get his
tea or a donut or something. If it wasn't that it was, "Ash did this or
Ash did that". Before the Viridian Gym opened I went down to the Orange
Island and won three more badges.
I remember when I got to Viridian. Ash was there. He was bragging about
his seven badges. Ha! I had ten! I went into the gym and witnessed Mewtwo.
I had my ass handed to me that day. Ash ended up fighting those morons
from Team Rocket and caught the badge that the chick dropped. I had to
go to the town hall and register for a badge. I needed the Marshbadge to
get into the Kanto League. I ended up having to fight some ancient guy
who'd once been a leader. It was way too easy. I felt cheated when they
handed me the badge.
"Well, Grandpa. I have all my badges." I said. I had come home to train for the league championships.
"Oh, Well Done." he said, rifling through some paper. Yay for me.
Same thing for my travels in Johto...and everywhere else.
"Well, Gary. You've done well for yourself. Would you like the project of updating the Pokedex?" I was elated. Gramps was actually giving me a chance to do something. The pokedex was completed in two years. I had just turned 18.
"Two Hundred and fifty pokemon. Twenty-six unown. Pictures and reports on each." I said, proudly handing my work over to him.
"Hmm." he paged through it. "Well Done, Gary." he
said. Arrrgh! I had just given up two years. Two years that I could have
used to become a gym leader...or a Master. Two Years! And all I got was
a "Well done." I left. That was five years ago.
"Gary? Gary, you're not even dressed." my sister sighed. I finished putting my shirt on.
"Sorry, sis."
"It's okay."
"I didn't hate him..."
"I know that." she said.
"Yeah, but did he?"
"Of course!" I finished getting dressed. We walked silently over to the lab.
"Oh, hi kids. Come on in. Ash, Misty, and the baby will be over soon." We filed in and sat down in the living room.
"Here, Gary. Sam wanted you to have this." Delia
said handing me an old journal. I thumbed through it. Notes, drawings,
all the typical stuff. I came to the last page.
As the tears ran down my face, I realize that every time he'd said, "Well Done" to me, he was actually saying, "I love you". I realize also that I do not want to be a Pokemon Master. I don't even want the Viridian Gym, which I'd taken over three years ago. I liked my work on the Pokedex. I like research. Perhaps I am like Grandpa. No, I am like him. I have his name and I will live up to it.Gary,
I suppose that you are reading this on the day of my funeral.
Rather strange...writing about your own death. I feel that
you are like me in so many ways, headstrong and pretty much
a loner. You have done everything you've set out to do and
you've done it well. I hope that you will take over my studies,
for I feel that you are most qualified. It is quite a task, but I know
that if you wish to do it, you will. If I haven't said it enough to
you, my boy, I will say it again. Everything you've accomplished
has been Well Done.
-S