"Regret is something that lives with you, you fear doing something because of it and it can cause serious problems for the future but in the end those that live with regret learn more than those that don't"

Marcy Averlin, Psychologist (December 5th 2367)

Chapter Five

Regret and other feelings

"He threw a pokèball at the Pachirisu."

He did, the threw it and the Pachirisu stayed in its place, the pokèball opened and sucked the creature inside before wobbling and making the overly familiar 'Ping' sound indicating that whatever was in it was caught.

That moment sealed Joshs fate.

Josh took the pokèball with a shaking hand before I snatched it away and let the Pachirisu inside it get out.

"I dub thee Paul"

Josh looked at me with a shocked expression while opening his mouth to speak, nothing came out so he was left standing there gaping like some fish.

I sighed before saying some familiar words "is it that hard to understand Josh ? You would have released poor Paul immediately after seeing him so I named him Paul so you would keep him because your best friend ever named him oh so graciously Paul, do you get my logic ? " oh revenge was sweet.

Josh looked dumbfounded before saying rather pitifully "But .. but but ... the Pachirisu attacked me and to protect myself I had to catch it .."

"Lola already knocked it out"

"She did ?"

"Yeah .. "

"Oh .. damn" he sighed before looking at Paul.

"Paul" he practically had to force the word to come out of his throat "Come over to give your trainer a hu- AAAAAAAHHHHH !" the Pachiri- Paul immediately latched onto his arm before closing its eyes and realising something that could revive a dead man his heart but thankfully sparked around Josh, only hitting some stray starly after which my dear Nate immediately ran after to .. I don't want to know.

Oh Josh you are so going to regret this.

Josh fumbled around with the pokèball he grabbed from my hands before returning the monster he caught.

"I ... I .. I'm going to .. tt .. to r-release it rrr- .. right away ..y " he stuttered.

"No"

He glared at me while doing a rather good imitation of how Paul looked "What ?"

"I said no, I couldn't release Bob so you won't release Paul"

Josh glared at me some more before looking back at his arm, his sleeve was ruined at his left arm, courtesy of Paul, and a nasty looking wound was on it.

"We might have to get you checked out at the center, checking if you don't have pokèrus or something like that"

Josh nodded before we started the one hour walk back to Floaroma and away from more evil Pachirisu.

The Nurse Joy almost had a heart-attack after seeing Josh walking in before rushing him of to some room while calling Chansey to get the disinfection-kit and some vaccination-stuff as well.

Poor, poor Josh.

It was well past noon when I saw Josh again, I already ate the lunch nurse Joy packed for us this morning, and he looked horrified.

I offered him a cookie from the left-overs from the lunch but he denied saying something like "Horrible .. needles .. never again .. noooo !"

After looking more thoroughly I saw his left arm was partially bandaged and the nurse soon explained that he was lucky not to get pokèrus or anything but we should keep an eye on it, if it hurt for more than 4 days or started getting slightly green-ish we should immediately get a nurse.

And that people, was all done by a Pachirisu.

We stayed at the center mostly that day, checking whether Josh was still alive and making plans to get around Eterna Forest the quickest.

"If we walk fast enough any bug living there won't notice us!"

"There are no bugs there"

"Oh ... are you 100% sure ?"

"Yes .. "

I wasn't happy with the way he said it but I let it be.

In the evening we decided to eat some more canned stuff because we were running out of money and we officially registered Paul as Josh his pokèmon.

After that we let our own Pokèmon out to eat, Josh gave me the ball containing Paul before running away.

Paul to my surprise managed to get along immediately with Nate while Bob and Lola didn't like the guy.

Lola actually started 'fighting' the obviously hostile pokèmon while Bob just turned her back on him.

The 'fight' was short lived because Nate sided with Paul and tackled poor Lola away from Paul and at that moment I knew that a very bad alliance was formed.

Nate and Paul, the hostile pokèmon vs Lola and Bob, the poor ones.

If anyone is up there, please protect Josh, Bob, Lola and I from the evilness of those two.

Please.

I did find out during the feeding-adventure that Paul did like his food where Nate and Bob left to eat whatever they ate, Nate probably meat while Bob would go and eat bark.

Lola just ate her food without complaining before waggling away to find Josh.

I returned Paul after he was done and returned him to a relieved Josh exclaiming "You're ALIVE !"

"Gee thanks for your trust"

Some other trainer looked at us weirdly before shrugging and walking away.

Nate and Bob returned half an hour later with bulging stomachs.

I called my mom again before returning my two pokèmon and going to bed early because tomorrow was D-Day.

We would go to Eterna Forest and win because we were going around it.

Evil Forest 0, Jacob 1.

Ha.

The next morning came too soon and after another canned breakfast to save money we went on our way after checking our bags.

I let both Nate and Bob walk alongside me this time for 'bonding' purpose and Josh happily carried Lola, Paul safely in his ball.

It took us a little less than an hour to get to the bridge that would lead us to Eterna Forest and once we crossed it we were in for a surprise.

Where route 204 of practically empty except for the occasional Budew this route was bursting with life.

Starly, Pachirisu, Budew and some Buizel were seen flashing through the grass wherever you looked and to my horror Laura Marie was there as well, battling another poor unsespecting person.

But Josh and I managed to make some progress with our own pokèmon as well by battling, and losing most of it, wild pokèmon.

Starly mostly flew away once Nate attempted to tackle them mainly because me shouting "Tackle !"gave it away and Bob ignored me to eat some bark.

Lola happily sprayed anything Josh pointed at and Paul was still inside his ball, too much of a risk.

Then a small blue-haired boy walked up to us, his blue hair was obviously dyed, and looked me in the eye while shouting "I challenge you to a pokèmon battle !"

"Err,," I looked at Josh for help but he was busy with Lola "No thank you ?"

The boy became red "No No NO! You can't say no, it's like .. like a rule once someone makes eye contact you have to battle !" he whined.

I looked around me for a while before getting an idea "Did you know that my Charizard is rather hungry around this time ?"

The boy was nowhere to be seen, only a trail of sand and dust was left where the blue-haired boy stood.

"youngsters" I mumbled "Why can't they leave me alone ... Josh will you send Paul after them the next time they come ?"

Josh looked horrified before shaking his head.

I sighed before mumbling something about lunch.

We walked for another 2 hours before stopping to use the 'toilet' and eating more canned stuff, I miss the pokècenter already.

Some female trainers came to join us once they spotted Lola and started babbling about how 'Cute' and 'Adorable' the Lotad was.

After they left and we cleaned up our stuf we continued walking again.

We were approached for some battles for a while but I politely denied and they went away quickly, they weren't as forceful as blue-guy.

I battled some more random wild pokèmon, still losing occasionally but Nate actually won some more and Bob managed to defeat some pokèmon on her own as well.

And then the high trees of Eterna Forest became visible on the horizon and I shuddered.

We came past a house on our way where a nice lady had some potions and offered to heal our pokèmon and we were allowed to make us of her toilet, bless her.

But once we walked to the route that would get us around the forest we were in for a surprise.

The, wearing a black jacket and with a motorbike next to him stood a big scary guy.

He had two pictures in his hand and when we attempted to walk past him we glimpsed the pictures before seeing it was us, a picture of Josh and I that was taken for each of our trainer IDs, how did he get those ?

And then he stepped in front of us and pushed us back.

"You can't pass"

"Why not ?" we both asked, annoyance clearly in our voice.

"Dunno" he shrugged "Some guy in white gave me this and promised me a lot of money if I made sure you wouldn't get through the forest this way, said something about a Growlithe as well .."

Josh and I shared a look, mine horrified and his just pale.

Ryan, the rich guy.

Oh darn.

We tried to reason with the big scary guy but he called out a Wurmple and I ran for it until the Wurmple was nowhere to be seen and I stood in front of Eterna Forests entrance.

Josh quickly found me and said "Shrimp, we have to go this way now, that guy won't let us pass and this is the only other way to Eterna"

I nodded, I couldn't find my voice and my hands were shaking at the prospect of actually entering Eterna Forest.

Eterna Forest 1, Jacob -100.

I begged Josh to stay here for the remaining part of the day to train some more and then as if on cue a camper walked up to me, how do I know it's a camper ?
The green outfit and the insignia signed to the guys chest.

"Hi my name is Danny and I .. I'd like to battle .. please ?" he asked uncertain.

I nodded "Yeah sure one on one ?"

He grinned a little more sure of himself "Sure !"

We walked backwards a bit before he grabbed the only pokèball on his belt and yelled "Piper I choose you !" a Ponyta came out of it.

I looked at my side to Nate "Err Nate .. don't eat him please"

Nate walked up to our 'battlefield' before yawning.

"Piper use Tail Whip !" he yelled.

The Ponyta-Piper turned her backside to Jacob and started wiggling her fiery tail to him while looking rather mocking.

"Nate Leer!" Nate looked at me with his usual stoic face before sighing and glaring at the Ponyta who then looked rather scared of my little purple pokèmon.

"Nate" "Piper" "Tackle !" both Danny and I yelled almost simultaneously.

Nate started running towards the faster Ponyta that charged at him but at the last moment decided to evade the attack and ran past the Ponyta after wich he suddenly was behind her and ran straight into the Pipers legs causing her to stumble and fall.

"Nate you .. ignored orders again .. never mind tackle again !" Nate did listen this time and charged straight at Piper and hit her rather hard on the side, rendering her unconscious.

We won.

We won !

Nate didn't exactly follow orders but WE WON !

I happily grabbed Nate and threw him in the air, big mistake because the moment I caught him his spikes dug into my hand.

I looked at the now slightly green holes in my hand.

I just got poisoned.

Oh joy.

Danny returned his Ponyta and then walked up to us "Well done ! here you go" he handed me a few coins which I happily put in my pocket, money ...

He then looked at my hand before grimacing "Ouch looks painful" and then at Joshs arm "what happened to you ?" he said with wide eyes.

"I got attacked by some wild Staraptor yesterday" the poor boy actually believed this.

"Can I do anything to help ?"

I suddenly got this evil glint in my eyes "Why yes, you actually can !"

And that's how Danny joined our pathetic two-man show to get us through Eterna Forest with his Fire-pokèmon Piper because as you all know, bugs are not happy with fire.

Eterna Forest 1, Jacob 2.

We brought Piper to the nice old lady in her house to heal and once more make use of her toilet.

I showed the lady my hand and found out there was one way of curing poison.

Antidote.

Antidote is commonly used by pokèmon that are poisoned and are not made for use by humans, I repeat NOT made for human use.

And that's how I got to drink my own Antidote after which I immediately drank at least a liter of water from the woman's tap.

God bless her again.

The woman invited us for dinner after that saying we were a lot like her own grandson who's on his own journey as well and we even got to spend the night.

I am going to include the lady in my will.

And that's how the now three of us found ourselves standing in front of the Eterna Forest entrance after a nice breakfast and a 'Good luck' form the lady,with me shaking while looking pale and Josh and Danny happily chatting.

Paul was actually out of his pokèball for breakfast and immediately went after Josh who ran away and locked himself in the toilet.

Danny just laughed and I grinned, oh revenge.

And there we stood, Nate and Bob in front of me (yes they are being used as a shield) and Piper walking with Danny up front.
And then we stepped into the Forest, towards my doom.

I am so going to regret this.

Disclaimer: No, still don't own it.
I said before Friday but on Friday works just as well with the whole I'm in Europe, he's in the US, she's in Asia etc.
So there's Ryan (or the one to do his work) and Danny (originally 'Camper Jacob' from route 205 but I changed the name) and the healing-lady.
Couldn't update faster because I went to see some puppies, I might get one ! it's a "Drentse Patrijs" look it up on Google, great dogs.
Explaining things that are not clear:
1. Aren't rivals supposed to battle the hero ? yes but that's overused mine (Ryan) will probably battle sometime but he has the money, why not hire someone ?
2. Paul the Pachirisu, seriously ? yes if you ever read the 'Twilight Saga' you'll notice the hot-headed werewolf 'Paul' and Paul also means little according to some site so I liked it because it fits, a little hot headed squirrel thing.
3. He ignored random youngster ? yes they annoy the hell out of me in the games so I made him refuse to battle, we'll see that youngster again for sure :l
Reviews:
Omega the Omniscient:
Once again thank you for pointing out my mistakes, I usually don't see them :(
I googled 'Kudos' it means 'Praise or renown' and Josh is still alive !
DONT be jealous because I have to learn that much languages, it sucks.
Imagine: "Hoi ik heet ..." "Bonjour je m'appelle ... " "Hi my name is ... " "Hallo, Ich heisse ..." "Buenos Dias, me llamo ... " and some people from my class also do Latin, if you use the British (?) school system I'll be doing A-Levels or something, it's called VWO+ (+ means having an extra class) VWO is the normal one.
If you want I can teach you some languages except French, I dislike it even though I have French family.
And I'll change the cookies ^.^ and yes conflict drives the story I had to really think to find a way to get Jacob through that forest so that's why we now have Danny.

Next update will either be tommorrow or the day after that, If I'm really motivated might even be today but don't count on that.
Does anyone actually have any ideas to make this more than the average "Go on a journey, get a rival, destroy evil team, save world, get badges, become champion" thing ? because that'll be boring and I don't like boring things ...
Anyway those that review get this: a special cookie made by the lovely miss Mary Sue, married to Legolas, daughter of Dumbledore, Savior of the world and totally famous for her delicious cookies.
Warning: Might contain glitter, sparkles, rainbows and other 'Sue-Stuff' but they are still delicious ! :)

Edit 25-04-2011 19:50, This is done from my brothers computer mine has unfortunately decided to kill my internet,e-mail,word and other uses, me and my dad are working to restore it (Partly done) but it might take a while for it to work fully again so the update will take longer than planned (Think a week or something)

Shynah.