Chapter 25

Well, I've been updating chapters like crazy just like I said I would. I wanted to let you know that the August may be slower than July as I have Started working on something very important For college. Do not worry though, I will not forget to update at all, expect something to come out maybe once or twice a week, but no promises.

The Deadline will most likely make a return as well, so keep an eye out for that. I will also be releasing the final chapter of Am I Just Your Tool next week. Until then, I thank you for support and hope to hear some critique on my work.

(Matthew POV)

I woke up the next morning and saw that my room was empty. If William came in here last night, he certainly was quiet. I got out of bed and went downstairs, I saw my father sitting on the couch reading a book on the federation. He smiled when he saw me, but went right back to his book afterwards.

I sighed and went into the kitchen, Nicholas was sitting at the table eating just like yesterday. He turned around to face me, giving me a serious look of concern.

"Hey Matthew, how are you feeling today, you're not still upset are you?"he asked me.

"What are you talking about, I wasn't upset." I responded, trying to walk away and avoid the question, but he had gotten up and grabbed me.

"We kind of heard you last night, William didn't want to bother you, so he slept on the couch. Is there something you want to talk about Matthew?" He kept pestering me.

"No, where is William now, I do want to ask him something though?" I wondered.

"He went into town to get something, I don't think you should go, but I know you probably will anyway so I'll go with you." He said, starting towards the door slowly.

"You know you don't have to, I could just keep to the shadows and avoid attention." I suggested, wanting to be alone.

"Yeah right, I know you, you'll go into the town and pick a fight with the first person who says something smart. I'm going with you, but I'll keep my distance when we get to William if you want." He responded as he walked out the door.

I knew there wasn't any way to change his mind, I swear he's as bad as me sometimes. I'm not afraid to admit I have a headstrong attitude. But I had hoped to find William alone, I don't really trust Nicholas completely yet, but if he's with me, I might be able to find William faster. I just hope we don't run into any trouble.

We had finally arrived at the Treasure Town entrance; it was still early in the morning so there wasn't anyone out yet. Nicholas looked around before turning to face me.

"Ok, we can do this two ways, we can go straight in or sneak around. I know you'd probably like to hide, but I don't think it will be easy to find William that way, but I also want you to feel safe." He told me, placing a paw on my shoulder.

I smiled and told him I would go straight through town, I assumed that I would be ok just as long as he was beside me the entire way. I had learned over the years to ignore rude comments, but I couldn't stop attacks.

The two of us went in and started looking for William. There wasn't really anybody out here either, and the ones who were surprisingly didn't seem to care, a Bagon actually smiled at me. We walked around for quite a while, but we still weren't able to find William. It was starting to get later and other towns folk were starting to come out, and I was getting worried that we might run into a confrontation soon.

"Hey Nicholas, I think it's time we head out, it's starting to get a little crowded." I suggested to him.

He nodded and we were going to head back when we finally noticed William outside a market stand. We started towards him, but I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw the shop owner. It was the same Merchant from the past, and the very same Machoke standing next to him. Nicholas started to push me softly from behind, but I immediately turned around and grabbed his arm.

"Maybe, we should wait, I don't want to disturb him while he's trying to buy stuff." I said.

"Don't be ridiculous, you can disturb your own friend Matthew." He shrugged my statement off, still nudging me towards him.

"Nicholas, please stop, I don't want to go over there!" I begged and pleaded. He looked surprised and immediately stopped.

"Why, what's wrong, I thought you wanted to see William?" He asked me.

I didn't see anything wrong with telling him, I didn't know if he'd believe me, but it was worth a shot.

"All right look, when I was out on my own, you know how I was stealing to survive." I asked him. He nodded as I continued, "Well, that Machoke caught me trying to steal from his boss, and he said he'd kill me if I ever showed my face around him again." I sighed.

"Then this is the perfect time to make things right, he won't hurt you if me and William are with you. Just go walk up and apologize to him, if he doesn't accept then get over it." Nicholas suggested to me.

I decided that it was best to at least try to apologize. I Can't say that it would work, and I'd probably go home with some broken bones, but I had to start somewhere. The two of use walked up and called out to William. He turned around and smiled when Nicholas, but not so much when he saw me.

"Matthew, are you crazy, why are you just walking through town like nothing is wrong! Someone might try to hurt you!" He yelled at me.

"I'm sorry, I just wanted to talk to you in private, but you weren't at home and Nicholas was going out." I said quietly, looking down at the ground.

William softened up and patted me on the shoulder. I looked up and smiled at him and he did the same to me.

"It's all right, I'm sorry I yelled at you, I'm just worried about you." He told me.

I had been so caught up talking to William that I hadn't even noticed that Machoke had stormed up in front of us and was glaring down at me.

"Well, look who it is, I thought I told you I never wanted to see your sorry face around here again punk." He said as he started to reach for me.

"Don't you dare touch him, he came here to talk to your boss and is under our protection!" Nicholas yelled as he got in front of me.

"You think I got a problem with hitting your trashy ass either. You're just a thug and no better than him. I'll beat you into the ground too Dewott!" The Machoke shouted in return, raising a fist to hit us.

"You won't hit them if you don't want to go to jail Machoke!" We heard someone yell from behind us.

I turned around and saw a Magnemite floating towards us. He stopped when he was directly between us and the brute.

"You're going to take up for them, that one's a criminal and the other one is a thug. They were born to be jerks. My father always told me you can't trust a water type as far as you could throw them." He complained.

"Look, I don't care what they said to you. You're a grown adult and they are children, now stop being ignorant or I'll take you to jail." Magnemite warned him.

"This is dumb; I'm going on my break. I don't feel like dealing with this right now!" He shouted as he stormed off.

Magnemite stood still and quiet, William had slipped over next to me and was wondering if he should say something, before he turned and looked at all of us.

"And as for you Buizel, I Don't know why on earth you came into town. I hope it wasn't to start trouble, but I'm going to ask you and the Dewott to leave, William can stay, Magnezone wants to talk to you." He said before turning around and beckoning William to follow him.

"Are you telling me that we can't stay in town, That's not fair, we didn't even do anything!" Nicholas shouted.

"It's that or a jail cell." Magnemite suggested before turning back around. "You've got five minutes." Before walking away.

Nicholas and I had made our way back out of town and stopped to sit and talk. He was outraged at the obvious injustice that had just occurred, and fairly so.

"They can't do this; we didn't even do anything wrong. I think we should go back in town and stay as long as we want." Nicholas sighed in frustration.

"I agree that it wasn't fair, but I don't have the intention of spending the night in jail." I reminded him of the jail threat.

"Yeah good point, but I still think it would be worth it just to pop that egotistical jerk." He joked.

We sat in silence for a moment before something came to my mind. When we were in town, that Machoke had called Nicholas a thug. I had to figure out what he was talking about, did he find out about his past.

"Nicholas can I ask you something, why did he call you a thug?" I asked him.

He stirred for a moment, before sighing and turning to face me.

"One of the Pokémon that I used to hurt came here, and it basically caused a bunch of others to start calling me out that I attacked them, and then I just got the title of a thug." He finished as he stared at the ground.

I just went over to him and put a paw on his shoulder, I didn't know what to do. He looked so hurt and I was so useless. He looked up at me and let out a small smile.

"Let's just go home Matt, I think I'd like to relax for a while." He suggested.

I nodded in agreement and we headed off to get back to the house, both of us worried about what would happen next.

End of chapter 25

I'll admit this wasn't the best place to end the chapter, but I wanted to get something out since I haven't been doing that lately. I was going to include the conversation between William and Magnezone, but decided to wait until the next chapter. I hope you enjoy it and as always, please review and tell me what you think so I can improve as a writer.

Shiv740