Not All Arrogance (A Gary Oak Love Story) Part 2~An Unexpected Roadblock
((Joyful Note: Yeah... I think things started getting improving in chapter 3, so I hope I can put that much out today at least. Hooray for editing, its so mind numbing I'm not even thinking about my exaaaa-ams.... crap. Oh well, I'll get this out at least!))
"Of course being the grandson of a famous Pokémon professor has its downsides too, like I'm always getting people asking me questions about him, and I've had to make some television appearances, but really, I believe that the most..." Gary went on... and on... and on...
Amy had tuned him out 10 minutes ago, though he still nattered in the background of her thoughts. They had only been driving about a quarter of an hour and Gary was already driving her up the wall. She expected herself to yell at him to shut up very soon now.
She absently took out a Pokeball and began to play with it in her hands as she stared out the windshield. She still couldn't understand why her father had suddenly said she couldn't go on a Pokémon journey. Actually, it wasn't so sudden she supposed. He had been getting steadily more and more on edge since Amy had been approved to receive her Pokémon license over a month ago. Amy still didn't understand why he would be so apprehensive about it. Because of whatever her father's problem was, she was now forced to travel with 24/7 talkfest Gary, and as bad is that was for Amy, she imagined Ash was even worse off. He was stuck alone, what if he thought she had abandoned him or something? That would be awful! These thoughts consumed Amy as they drove.
"And once Socrates evolves, into a Jolteon, or maybe an Umbreon if I can't find a Thunderstone, they're hard to find, I'm going to beat every loser who..." Gary continued to talk; unaware that Amy was ignoring him. She was in fact about to tell him to shut up or she was going to blow out a tire on this godforsaken car. However, they just rounded a bend and standing in the middle of the road was a figure with its arms outstretched to either side of him, blocking the way.
Amy let out a yell and Gary swerved and hit the break. They stopped inches from the figure, now right beside Amy's side of the car. He hadn't moved an inch. Amy let out a small gasp. It was her father.
"Dad, wha-what are you doing here? We could have killed you!" Amy whispered, scared at the intense look in her father's eyes.
"Sure, you could have killed me, but what do you care? You're going to kill yourselves!" her father snapped. Amy recoiled but recovered.
"Dad! I'm traveling with Gary just like it said in your contract I signed! You can't stop me now! Besides, my Pokémon will protect me so-"
"Protect you? HA! Your Pokémon will be the death of you, you mark my words! They'll turn on you! HOW DO YOU THINK YOUR MOTHER DIED!?" He yelled. Amy froze, dumbfounded, even Gary was silent, either because of his non-stop bragging session exhausted him or he actually didn't have anything to say.
"You never told me how she died. You only told me I was 2 years old at the time. That's all." Amy said once she regained her voice, shaky as it was.
Her father drew a breath as shaky as Amy's voice. "When she was alive, your mother was a great Pokémon trainer, as was I, I suppose. But one day, I came home from the park with you, and the kitchen, was a mess, and on the floor was your m-mother. She was c-covered with," the normally reserved man had a dry sob issue from his lips before continuing "Bites and scratches! All over! And you know what was beside her, licking her wounds? Licking her BLOOD? Her own Ninetails! I yelled, and grabbed a broom. I chased it away, I bashed it a couple times, it never returned. I hurried you into your room and locked the door. I called the hospital, but it was too late. She had been dead before we had gotten home. I then sent hers and my Pokémon far away, to gyms where they would be another's burden, I wanted you as far away from Pokémon as possible. But it was useless; you had your mother's... fascination for the beasts. Oh sure, you may think your Pokémon is cute now, but it will turn on you. I told people your mother died falling down the stairs, I didn't want anyone saying she died because she was a bad Pokémon trainer, it wasn't her fault, no one can truly control those, those, DEATH MACHINES!" Amy's father, her pillar of stability all her childhood years, fell to his knees, sobbing freely.
"Daddy..." Amy whispered and reached towards him, but hesitated when her father's head snapped up towards her, fires of a crazy man blazing in his eyes.
"I won't lose you, I WONT LOSE YOU TOO!" he yelled and lunged towards his daughter, but Gary stepped on the gas and they zoomed away leaving her father, who pierced the air with angry cries of anguish.
"Sorry dad... I never knew... but I can't..." Amy whispered to herself. "He's gone insane, I think." she directed this last statement to Gary, who was white faced.
"Yeah." he said softly. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a cell phone.
"What are you doing?" Amy asked confused.
"Calling gramps, I'm not sure your dad's going to go straight home, so I think gramps might have to come get him." Gary said dialling.
"Well pull over first! Don't you know the statistics for car crash victims that talk on a cell phone while driving?" Amy snapped, her annoyance at Gary a welcome distraction from the new, disturbing information she had just received.
"Fine." Gary said rolling his eyes and pulling over.
Amy was a bit surprised at his compliance without argument. When he started talking, Amy stared off into the forest beside the dirt road they were traveling on. She was thinking about what her dad had said, about her mother's death. From the sound of it, he was jumping to conclusions, her Ninetails could have been protecting her from something else, but... what Pokémon WOULD have done it? She couldn't think clearly. Suddenly her attention was diverted by movement in the bushes. Gary wasn't paying attention to Amy, so he didn't notice as she left the car and headed towards the moving bush. She crept, slowly, slowly, towards it. Taking a deep breath she pulled aside the brambles and saw, to her shock and delight, a tiny Spearow, probably a baby, sitting there. It squawked in fear when it saw her, and winced as it moved its wing. It seemed broken. Amy felt a twang of sympathy.
"Shh shh, it's okay, I'm your friend, I'll help you, shh..." Amy whispered soothingly to the tiny creature. It cocked its head slightly, then sighed and bowed its head. Amy smiled and picked it up, it trembled slightly, but it seemed like it wasn't in any life threatening danger. Still, she felt he should probably see a doctor. She straightened up and headed back to the car, the bird Pokémon cradled to her chest. It WAS tiny, only a bit bigger than the palm of Amy's hand.
Gary was only just getting off the phone. "Well, gramps said he was going to send out a search party and... why are you out there? Hey, that's a Pokémon!" Gary said shocked. He started to pull out his Pokedex.
"Don't bother, it's a Spearow, honestly, I thought you were a grandson of a famous Pokémon professor, you don't even know a Spearow when you see one?" Amy said rolling her eyes and getting in the car. She decided to think about her father issues later. "I think its wing's broken, so let's get to Viridian Pokémon Center okay?" Amy said smiling ever so slightly.
"No way! Not until I catch a Pokémon too!" Gary snapped. Amy stared at him.
"Gary, I just said this Spearow is HURT." Amy said exasperated.
"Well I doubt it'll take long, I mean, if you found one so fast... just stay here I'll be back..." Gary was out of the car and into the woods before Amy could comprehend the situation. Shaking her head, Amy leaned back against her seat and the Spearow, now on her lap, adjusted itself and was soon dozing. Amy closed her eyes, and before she knew it, she was sound asleep as well.
*****
When Amy woke in near pitch blackness to a horrible screeching, she realised it was the Spearow in her lap. At first she thought it might be hungry, when the sound of loud chittering approached, along with a loud yelling. Jerking her head and straining to see into the darkness, Amy witnessed Gary running with a terrified look on his face out of the trees, with a swarm of Rattata on his tail. Amy sat stunned as Gary ran around the car, hopping over the door rather than opening it, revved the engine and took off down the road.
"What happened?!" Amy asked quieting the Spearow.
"Well, um, I caught a Pokémon! A Raticate, a big one too!" Gary said grinning. His face was dirty, and he was sweating.
"Soooo....." Amy said raising a tired eyebrow.
"Erm, that didn't make the Rattata happy.... they aren't still back there are they?" Gary asked hesitantly.
Amy glanced back into the dark, no glowing eyes were to be seen "Nope." Amy sighed.
"Great," Gary said relaxing. "Anyway, the Raticate I got would beat that scrawny Spearow in a second, it put up quite a fight, but in the end, Socrates beat him, I swear we barely got out alive! We-" Gary stopped suddenly, Amy had stiffened and was shaking slightly.
"Amy, oh, sorry, I didn't mean to..." he trailed off. He had inadvertently brought up Pokémon killing and well... the human mind connects the worst things sometimes.
'So much for putting that out of my mind.' Amy thought to herself. They drove on in silence a bit. Amy found she almost missed Gary's constant stream of words.
Suddenly Amy started to feel drops of water on her hair. Gary seemed to have noticed the rain as well and pushed a button on the dashboard, making the convertible's roof go up. The windshield wipers turned on as well. It wasn't all that long before they finally saw the lights of Viridian, just as the sky started to thunder. Amy hoped Ash was okay, wherever he was.
When they at last reached the Pokémon center, Gary parked and they ran through the rain towards the building before them. It was raining so hard out that by the time they had gotten inside they were already nearly soaked to the skin. Amy shook out her hair and then took the Spearow to the counter where a red-headed woman in a nurse's uniform was typing on a computer. She looked up as Amy approached.
"Hello, I'm Nurse Joy, how may I help you?" she asked.
*****
About 2 hours later, Amy was lying on the Pokémon center bed; she had taken the top bunk after a brief dispute with Gary. Seeing as Amy was a master at Rock Paper Scissors though, she won the rights. Isis was at her feet, happy to be breathing fresh air. The Spearow had its wing bound and was roosting on the post by Amy's head. He had his own Pokeball now had had been dubbed Avion. Socrates was sleeping on Gary's chest. (How he could stand it with Gary's snoring Amy sure didn't know) but Gary's Raticate was still in its ball. Amy didn't blame Gary for naming this one Slasher, she felt it fully deserved that name. It looked scary
In any case, she was tired even after her nap in the car and soon she had fallen asleep. So much for her first day as a Pokemon Trainer.
((Joyful Note: Is it good yet? I don't know. I'll start editing the 3rd part anyway and then I'll probably call it a day))