Chapter 2: Questions bred from regret

Ryan was having a flashback of leaving his Pokemon at the getaway party, four years ago, he remembered everything like it happened yesterday,

((I'll miss you,)) Pikachu uttered, he wanted a handshake, but Ryan gave him a hug,

"I'll miss you too Pikachu." His eyes started watering, and as he fared goodbye to his remaining Pokemon, he didn't feel any better, he then, stood up, and shook Alakazam's hand, and hugged as if not wanting to let go. His eyes shed tears "You've been my best friends."

((As you've been ours,)) Alakazam said for the rest of the Pokemon. The rest of his Pokemon were outside the house, he followed Alakazam outside, it was sunset, the Pokemon started moving towards east of the sun, Ryan cleared his eyes with his arm, then he waved "Bye, I...I'll never forget you."

((Neither will we, Ryan, neither will we,)) this flashback ran through him over and over again, questions bred in his mind, bred from regret, 'why did I give up my Pokemon', 'what if I joined the Aathor league', lots of whys and ifs kept eating at his mind, his world turned dark, he no longer sees the point of his decision, he was gullible, and now he's a stupid Pokemon scientist's assistant, where he could've been the Pokemon trainer champion a straight six times in a row...a record time of straight champion wins. He was about to think of more questions when a snap of fingers took him away from him questioning his decision, "Hey!" he snapped, his eye brows tightened, "don't go snapping your fingers at me you..." he looked up to see doctor John, his brown hair in Versachi style, he was wearing a white shirt, and blue pants with a lab coat, "ah, sorry professor."

"It's alright, I was warned by Sarah, anyway" he smiled. Ryan didn't respond.

"Say, Ryan do you know the premises?"

"Yeah, kind of, not really though."

"Alright, let's go, I want you to familiarized."

They started walking; they passed the Pokemon DNA facility, Shiny Pokemon research, and the underwater aquarium, with the professor saying, "you've seen this...let's move to something else."

Ryan yawned, "professor, I saw everything here, there's nothing left to see, let me start my job now."

The professor ignored Ryan's request, "did you know we have a Pokemon arena?"

"Huh?"

They entered glass double-doors, Ryan was looking on a steel flooring room, at the middle of the room a ground arena was put, two young scientists were standing at either side, the arena had blue chairs for audiences at opposite directions, a referee was standing at the middle, a Squirtle was on its right side, and a Snorlax on its left side.

"Squirtle! Water gun, now!" the Squirtle sent a light ray of water that hit Snorlax right on his stomach, the Snorlax showed his teeth, more angry than hurt, "Snorlax, slash."

Snorlax moved towards Squirtle, raised his paws and descended it with all his might...to make it hit the ground. Dust started gathering on the arena, covering both Pokemon "Where's he?" the Snorlax trainer asked. His eyes were all over the arena looking for the water Pokemon. Soon, the dust subsided, and Squirtle was right behind Snorlax!

The Snorlax trainer opened his jaw wide open; he couldn't believe it! "Squirtle, skull bash." The Squirtle retracted his limbs, sprayed water at the ground, he levitated and started spinning, he hit Snorlax's back with a strong thud noise, shortly Snorlax hit the ground while Squirtle was standing beside him, "Squitle, skull bash, again." Squirtle, started doing the preparations but this time, Snorlax was given the command slash, his claw hit Squirtle's skull, his claws broke, and Squirtle's attack didn't connect, the skull hit the ground and started spinning, and soon after, the Pokemon let his face and limbs visible, it was dizzy, "Snorlax, finish it off! Stomp!"

Snorlax introduced his leg to Squirtle's face, planting its face to the ground. "Squirtle can't continue," the referee said, and then pointed at Snorlax's trainer "Snorlax wins the match."

"Well," the professor looked at Ryan, "what do you think?"

"Well...it was boring, to say the least."

"What?"

"That Squirtle could've never beat Snorlax on a one-on-one battle, it's too small, and weak, even if it was experienced, it needs to evolve to a Blastoise for it to ever have a chance, and come on doc, a water gun attack on a Snorlax? What kind of a trainer would do that?!"

"So, put simply, you didn't like it."

"Exactly."

"Alright, come on I'll show you our garden, you'll love it."

"Yeah, right." Ryan mumbled.

"Did you say something?"

"Nothing."

They passed a couple of rooms that Ryan didn't recognize, and then they stood behind steel double-doors, the professor inserted an ID card on a device which unlocked the entryway, the steel slowly opened, and contrary to what Ryan thought, the room was well lighted by the sun penetrating through the glass dome, Ryan inhaled deeply and then exhaled, the room helped him rest some of his muscles, the garden comprised of sand trails to move on with square areas to plant flowers, bushes and some trees. On one square Ryan could see lilies, sunflowers, tulips, roses, jasmines, and cauliflowers; while on another same square he could see some very well trimmed bushes and small trees.

"It's great, isn't it?"

"It's...interesting" he wasn't in the mood to be cheerful. A couple of noises were heard straight ahead.

"Come here, Ryan" the professor whispered. He stood behind the tree and peeked at the Pokemon, Ryan stood beside him, not caring to act like 007, he saw Mankey and a Poliwag arguing over something, a red apple was in the middle, Poliwag tackled Mankey at his stomach, Mankey took a few steps back, and turned his body, his hand-like tail slapped Poliwag's face, it was so strong it left a mark at its face, the Poliwag fainted, while Mankey snickered, took the apple then hid in one of the trees. The professor approached and gave the Pokemon a berry to revitalize it. It slowly stood up and chirped its thanks, then went into an artificial pond.

The professor sighed, "Did you see that?"

"What?"

"The battle for survival, the Mankey and the Poliwag going after the apple, don't you think it's amazing?"

"No, I only saw a couple of weaklings going after something they'll toss sooner than later."

"So, You basically, liked nothing here?"

"Yes."

"mmm...Maybe you're just cranky because you're hungry, come on, let's go eat a light brunch."

"Please don't tell me you just said, cranky!" they reached the cafeteria shortly, Ryan opened the wooden door, the place was almost full of scientists, Sarah was sitting on a chair on a square table, there were three extra chairs, one beside her the other two opposite her, "hey!" she greeted them, Ryan smiled, and went to sit opposite her, while the professor sat beside her. Ryan started talking "Professor, why did you showing me all that?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean the awful Pokemon battles, contests over red apples...I mean what gives?"

"Well, you didn't like the battle?"

"No."

"You were day dreaming today, about if you still had your Pokemon again, right?"

"Wait. Again?"

"Yes, every time someone brings it up, you end up locking on yourself questioning your decision."

"I was rash."

"No, Ryan, you weren't. You had a year to think about it, you studied the situation, and you chose, wisely may I say, to let your Pokemon go."

"If I kept my Pokemon..." professor John cut him off.

"What? Would it make you feel better if you let them rot in my lab? Would you join the league? You said its a kiddy's league yourself Ryan, you probably wouldn't join it again even if they paid you."

"But if I joined another league..." he was cut off again.

"I could give you a starter Pokemon right away, you could then take a ship to Hoenn, then take a bike, keep moving east until you reach Kanto, it'll take you about two months, you'll reach there by the time of the new Pokemon league...is that what you want?"

"Shut up." Ryan slammed the table, "I don't have to listen to this." He started leaving the cafeteria.

"Wait, Ryan." Sarah got up from her seat, wanting to go after him. The professor put an arm in front of her preventing her from doing just that.

"Don't."

"But, professor, Ryan, he..." a concerned look crossed her face.

"He's going to be fine, look, Ryan has a bright future I don't want to see him throw it away because he regrets some decision he made four years ago, right?"

Her expression retracted to one of neutral, "yeah, I think so."

Ryan breathed deeply, and then he let it out slowly. He was standing beside a tree bunk watching the vegetation in front of him; this garden was so serene, so peaceful, unlike his state of mind, which was sad, morbid and angry.

He sighed; "was what professor John told me true?" he asked himself. He looked down at the ground "but, I wanted..." he remembered the professor telling him 'you said its a kiddy's league yourself Ryan'; he started grinning, then the grin turned into laughter, and shortly after it turned hysterical, until his sides hurt, and he sat on the ground. "I got beat by my own words!" his expressions quickly converted to one of sadness, he had a flashback, he was standing on the stand that read '1st place' he was holding his trophy up with his two hands, "what a spectacular show of strength by Ryan Kyle!" Cameras were shooting his picture, people were clapping, some were chanting his name, he liked it.

Then he had a flashback of his Pokemon eating food at the getaway party, did he really do the right thing by letting them go? He knew that he missed them too. He didn't know, which he missed, the glamour of winning the league or his Pokemon? Maybe a bit of both, he didn't know, he may never know. His eyes watered, he wanted to cry, but he then rubbed his eyes with his arm. "Men don't cry." He said to himself and started to stand up.

"Human beings do." A voice said behind him, it was Sarah; she kept walking until she was directly in front of him.

"What you said to the professor was really disrespectful."

"He annoyed me."

"But you say your parents annoy you everyday; I never saw you disrespecting them."

"You're wrong, I did yell at them, I almost ran away from the town."

"Because they tried to discuss the problem?"

"No, it's not like I refused any help, it's just that they kept talking on and on and on, 'you did the right thing', 'are you sure you only miss your Pokemon?', 'are you afraid that you might fall behind?', blah, blah, blah! It just gave me a short circuit."

She smiled, "In a way where you diffuse easily and then explode?"

"Exactly." He pointed. "You do understand me Sarah."

"So, should we go, would you apologize to the professor?" she looked hopeful.

He sighed, "Well..."

"Please, you know admitting you made a mistake is a virtue."

"I'm not much of a virtuous person."

"Then do it for me."

"Well, okay I'll do it for you, then." Deep down, Ryan did want to apologize. He just didn't want to sound stupid saying 'yeah, sure' where mere minutes ago he had the devil's look on the professor.

They started walking outside the green garden, "I'm glad this is all over now." She said, sighing.

"Please! That was hardly fifteen minutes."

She looked puzzled, "Ryan." She started talking "you've been here for more than two hours now!"

"Really?" baffled, he looked back at the tree bunk where he was leaning on, 'those were two hours of my life I'm not getting back' he told himself.

"Is something wrong?" she asked.

"Nothing," he retorted "Listen, after I'm done apologizing, I'll take you to lunch"

"I already ate."

"Then I'll eat lunch, and I'll buy you a smoothie." She nodded and smiled.