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Chapter 11: Scizor Scare

Ash ran out of the Oak's laboratory and to where the pokemon were being kept. He just wanted to be alone, and to be with the only things he can trust. His pokemon. Ash ran to the back gate and jiggled it open. He was surprised that Professor Oak hadn't fixed the lock yet, but continued on anyways. He ran past the grazing Tauros, hoping to reach the forest part of the pokemon grounds quickly. After a few minutes, Ash stopped near the pond to take a breather. He could hear Misty and Gary looking for him, but he didn't want to be found. After splashing some water on his face, Ash continued on in search of the forest. Eventually, Ash was surrounded by dense foliage, and he decided to hide somewhere. Meanwhile, Misty and Gary sounded closer. Panicking, Ash crawled into a gap in the evergreen next to him. Misty and Gary ran past the tree he was in, expecting him to hide somewhere else. Ash sighed and leaned back. Well it seems like they're off my tail now. Maybe I can sleep the pain away... Ash said and yawned. He was tired from all the drama of the day. So he let his head fall slack and began to doze off. Little did he know that Gary's Scizor was lurking nearby. Ash also didn't know that Gary's Scizor was quite aggressive to strangers. As Scizor went up to its favorite tree to sleep in, it found a human boy nestled in its favorite spot. This made Scizor angry at the stranger, so it let out a low growl and sharpened its pincers. Ash was awoken by the growl and looked up to see an angry Scizor about to attack him.

"WAHHHH!" Ash screamed and dodged Scizor's punch. Gary and Misty heard Ash's cry from where they were looking and raced back to help him. Ash frantically dodged more attacks and tried to find his pokeballs. Oh crap. They're in my backpack inside the lab! Ash thought with despair. Ash slowly backed away from the Scizor, but he found himself cornered. This is it. I'm done for. Ash thought to himself as Scizor brought its claw back for a punch.

"Scizor, return!" A fading voice said. Then Ash blacked out.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

"Ash, please wake up! Come on, open your eyes!" A female voice said to Ash as he slowly regained consciousness. His vision was still blurry, but he could tell he was at Professor Oak's lab and that a familiar redhead was standing over him.

"M-Misty...Is that you?" Ash said weakly. The fatigue from dodging so many attacks and the thought of dying had caused Ash to faint. Misty smiled and wiped the tears off her face. Ash managed a faint smile back.

"Yeah it's me, Ash. How did Gary's Scizor find you?" Misty said with a worried expression. So it was Gary's Scizor, eh? Heh, that explains why it doesn't like me. I remember back to the Silver Conference when my Snorlax beat it. Ash thought to himself, but Misty was waiting for an answer.

"I guess I must have been in its nest. That would explain why it tried to attack me." Ash said to Misty. She nodded in agreement. But then, Gary entered the room and shook his. Ash immediately felt a pang of anger rise up from him at the mere sight of Gary, but again tried to cool himself down.

"Nah, Ashy-boy. Scizor only likes his trainer, who happens to be me." Gary explained, completely expressionless. Misty guessed that Gary felt a lot worse about what happened than he was letting show, so she went over and patted him on the back. Ash's jealousy rose even higher, no thanks to Misty.

"Don't call me that, Gary!" Ash yelled, using the name calling excuse just to vent some of his anger. Gary put his hands up in an apologetic way, and Misty went back over to Ash to try to comfort him. When she placed her hand on his shoulder, Ash shrugged it off and gave a nasty glare at Misty, who looked shocked.

"And don't think you're off the hook, either Misty! I can't believe you didn't tell me any sooner that you and Gary dated. I thought all the secrets were out, but I guess I was wrong! Any other deep, dark secrets you wanna tell me about, Misty? Might as well tell me now!" Ash spewed harsh words at the one he loved. Misty's eyes became wet with tears as she ran out of the room. She was unable to speak when she was crying, not like she'd want to talk to Ash when he's enraged anyways. Meanwhile, Gary was furious now as well. He wet right up to Ash and punched him in the gut. Ash doubled over in pain from Gary's blow.

"What the HELL, Gary?" Ash shouted at his old rival. Gary wanted to punch Ash again, but refrained from doing so.

"You're asking ME what the hell? If you hadn't overreacted, none of this would have happened! You really hurt Misty, Ash!" Gary yelled back at Ash, who looked sorry for a second, but then his anger rose up again.

"Yeah I'm aware. But she hurt me more by not telling me! First it was the idea behind her fear of bugs, and now this! I always told her everything, but she can't trust me enough to tell me? It's wrong, Gary!" Ash said, tears now welling in his eyes as well. Gary felt sorry for his emotional friend, and he went to sit next to him. Gary sighed and looked through the window.

"Ash, she didn't want to tell me any of it, either. It's a girl thing. And about us dating? It lasted about two weeks." Gary said and looked down. Ash looked in surprise at Gary. Normally, Gary was a one night stand kind of guy. But for him to feel guilty about Misty and his relationship lasting two weeks is odd. Ash cocked his head to the side and stared at Gary.

"Only two weeks? What happened?" Ash said, now trying to comfort his childhood friend. Gary chuckled at his concern.

"You really wanna know? Everything I did for that girl wasn't right, because I didn't do it like you would have. If I took her out to eat, she would ask why I didn't stuff my face like you did. If I took her to a movie, she would ask me why I wanted to see a chick flick with her instead of a comedy. She says you like comedies. She would always talk about you, Ash. For the first time in my life, I felt inadequately suited to please a girl. And to think I would actually lose to you when it comes to love; now that is a miracle." Gary said and sighed again. Ash couldn't help but smile after he heard this. Gary nodded at Ash's response and patted his back.

"Wow, I can't believe this whole time she was waiting for me." Ash said softly. Gary nodded again and looked at Ash.

"Yeah she was, now go and stop making her wait even longer." Gary said to Ash. With renewed confidence, Ash ran out the door to find Misty.