Not All Arrogance (A Gary Oak Love Story) Part 10~Learning New Tricks, Meeting Old Friends
Gary, Amy and Duplica, along with Slasher, Harmony and Ditto, entered the forest area at the edge of Vermillion City. They had just finished looking up which of their Pokémon were best suited to learn Thunderbolt and had come up with Slasher because its fur was actually hollow apparently, giving space to store the electricity. Harmony's body was highly elastic and made it possible to carry electricity as well, except should she carry a lot of it she would blow up like a balloon and tower over everyone. Ditto was going to transform in Raichu (whom it had observed through the window of the gym) and unleash electricity for Harmony and Slasher to absorb. They seemed pretty nervous about the whole thing, but had to done.
Ditto attacked the other Pokémon and they practiced absorbing. It took many super potions but at last they managed to hold the electricity in their bodies meaning that then they had to practice discharging it. Harmony blew up into an enormous electric ball when absorbing and pretty well exploded with the stuff when discharging causing massive property damage but other than that all was going well. Then Amy heard a familiar voice that made her smile, Gary scowl, and Duplica look confused.
"Hey! Amy! How're you doing?" it was Ash, oddly enough.
"Hi Amy! Nice meeting you again!" Misty greeted with a smile. It seemed Ash hadn't paid her back for her bike yet, surprise surprise.
"Amy, my love! Our paths seem to have crossed again, it must be fate!" Brock said with a goofy grin.
Duplica looked at me oddly "You're his love?"
Amy shook her head and replied, "no. Brock's just girl crazy. Also, why is Brock even here? He's the gym leader of Pewter City, don't they... need him there or something? Not to mention he's supporting a family of ten small children!"
Brock laughed and answered Amy's question, "Well, it turns out that my father returned from his Pokemon journey as a failure, therefore implying he sucks at Pokemon training, I decided to leave the prestige of the Pewter gym and the lives of my young siblings in his clearly incapable hands!"
"Um..." Amy raised an eyebrow, "That's... nice..."
"Pika Pi!" Pikachu said happily from Ash's shoulder and waved.
Gary smirked at Ash, "oh Ashy-boy, still trudging along are you?"
Ash lowered his head as blood crept into his cheeks from rising agitation, "grr, Gary..."
"Oh lay off Gary," Amy snapped and ran over to give Ash a big hug. She then greeted Pikachu and Misty and introduced them to Duplica and her Ditto who had reverted to his pink rubbery state from Raichu. Amy was pretty sure they had the Thunderbolt technique learned anyway.
"So how long have you been here?" Ash asked smiling.
"They've been here since yesterday training for the gym battle. Then in just a few days we're going to the party on the SS Anne!" Duplica replied looking pumped.
"I don't suppose YOU have a ticket eh Ashy-boy?" Gary asked with a smirk.
"Er... of, of course I do!" Ash retorted angrily.
"What? We don-" Misty started to say but Ash clamped his hand over her mouth. The red head struggled to pull it off.
Amy giggled, "Ash, it's okay if you don't, Gary's just being a jerk as per usual." Gary looked unhappy at Amy's assessment.
"Well we're just going to head over to the gym now; I think I can handle it," Ash said glaring at Gary as he marched by.
"Um, you might want to train first Ash, Lt. Surge is tough..." Amy said with a frown and Ash laughed, starting to walk backwards with his hands behind his head in a confident pose.
"I'm not worried, I already have two badges..."
"Brock and my sisters GAVE you those badges Ash!" Misty snapped.
"They GAVE you the badges?" Gary laughed.
"HEY! I'll have you kn- AH!" Ash let out a yell as he tripped and fell backward on his butt. Amy sighed, knowing Ash was never the best at moving backwards. Gary was gasping in peals of mirth, and the rest of the group was sniggering as well.
"Okay Ash," Amy managed to squeak out around her giggles, "But we're still coming to watch you."
*****
It wasn't long before the group, now with 6 members, reached the doors of the Vermillion gym once again. They entered and Lt. Surge approached almost immediately with his posse.
"Come back fer more have ya? Oh and look, you brought some more baby friends!" the beefy gym leader said in his deep voice.
Amy sighed, "Surge, yes, Ash is going to battle you. Then Gary is going to try again, and then I will. Can we please just go to the gym floor now?"
Five minutes later Ash had run out to the Pokémon center with Pikachu and Lt. Surge was laughing heartily. Pikachu had tried very hard but couldn't withstand Raichu's super strong blasts. She wondered how Harmony and Slasher would survive them when they weren't even electric types.
'But,' she reminded herself, 'our Pokémon have trained to absorb shocks like that, Pikachu probably never absorbed electricity before. He wouldn't have to since he can make his own.'
Ash had left with Misty but Brock had stayed behind to see Gary and Amy's battles. Ash promised to be back before Amy's turn, but had to miss Gary's. Therefore Amy, Duplica and Brock stood at the sidelines when Gary stepped forward with his Raticate at his side, looking confidently towards Lt. Surge and his Raichu.
"Okay Slasher, let's do this." Gary told his Pokémon, who nodded and ran forward.
"Let's knock it out like we did the first time Raichu," Lt. Surge said as the new battle commenced. It began with a simple series of physical blows but then Raichu let loose its Thunderbolt. Gary was ready.
"Absorb it!"
"What're you talking about twerp?" Lt. Surge sneered but froze when he saw the Thunderbolt hit Slasher without leaving a scratch. Instead Slasher stood poised, fur crackling with electricity as Lt. Surge gasped, "What the-? HIT IT AGAIN!" Raichu attacked and Slasher was hit again and again by Thunderbolt. Raichu looked tired yet Lt. Surge still pushed it on. Now Slasher looked like a fuzzy pompom with fur filled with Thunder. Gary grinned and shouted for the release. The electricity hit Raichu with great force, knocking it unconscious. Gary had won. It took him a moment to realise it, and Amy hoped that this once... but no. He was victory dancing again. Amy thought she'd die of embarrassment, but Duplica and Brock looked amused.
"Come on Amy, lighten up and let him have some fun!" Duplica said giving Amy and one armed squeeze. Amy looked at her new friend and smiled a bit.
"Oh all right. YOU GO GARY!" she yelled standing up and throwing her fist in the air. He looked up at her a little shocked but then grinned widely. Slasher, still puffed up but less deadly, grinned as well before keeling over for a nap. Lt. Surge, still completely mystified by Gary's sudden win, handed over the badge and told Amy she'd have to come back tomorrow for the battle. He didn't add that it was because his best fighter had just been knocked out.
*****
Amy, Gary, Duplica and Brock met Ash and Misty at the Pokémon center and were informed that Pikachu was going to be fine. The spent the rest of night taking turns staying with Pikachu and Ash, who was camped up with his pooped Pokemon. Except for Gary, since they didn't need anyone else stuck in a hospital bed. Then all except Ash headed for the bedroom where they had 3 bunk beds. They discussed strategy and attacks for a while, then Brock and Gary got sort of left out when Amy, Duplica and Misty launched into deep discussion of which of the famous Pokémon trainers was the cutest. Duplica maintained Lance as best. Amy, although she admitted Lance was hot, insisted that Brawly from the Hoenn region was definitely tops. Misty shook her head to both and said Wallace, water gym leader from Soolipus City was the most handsome.
Obviously, Gary and Brock had a tough time with this discussion, so instead they started to discuss Pokémon food recipes. Then they all decided to turn it. At around midnight Ash wandered in as well, dead tired and hoping Pikachu would be okay. Amy still hadn't told them about Team Rocket and the moonstones and neither had Gary or Duplica. It just hadn't come up and they had actually forgotten about it for the time being, hard as it is to believe.
*****
The next day, four days from the ship's departure, Amy and Ash stood before Lt. Surge once more. Lt. Surge said he'd take Ash first, certain Pikachu couldn't have super charged so quickly after such massive damage. Wrong. Using speed rather than power had been Brock's suggestion and Pikachu ran circles around its evolved counterpart, making it thoroughly dizzy. Then, when confronted with Thunderbolt, Pikachu grounded itself by standing on its tail. Raichu ran out of juice and Pikachu clobbered him. Once again, Lt. Surge was in shock. Amy wondered if he would go emo on them and refuse to battle her, but he agreed to a match the next day once Raichu had recovered. Amy hoped Harmony was up for this.
They went out for milkshakes to celebrate and managed to get through the day of training and talking without incident. Brock went off to look into getting tickets for the S. S. Anne but discovered it was invitation only. Ash looked disappointed but cheered up when Amy suggested they get ice cream. He was always fairly easy to please.
Once again, Lt. Surge fell at the hands of Harmony's electric blast, which also blew out all the gyms lights and windows.
"Not your week, is it?" Amy said smirking as she hugged Harmony after the match. She got a grunt in response along with the badge and a shout for them to never come back. Amy found this hilariously funny and broke into hysteric giggles at odd moment throughout the day.
They still had a couple days until departure and spent the time basically having fun. Ash, Misty and Brock decided to stick around until they left on the cruise. Things went smoothly, as long as Ash and Gary weren't allowed to talk to each other. Or get anywhere near each other. In any case Gary looked relieved as Amy and Duplica bid farewell to Ash and the others. There was a scary moment when Amy thought she'd forgotten the invitations, but she found them stuck under her moonstone. Amy rushed to the deck to wave goodbye to Ash and the others, but couldn't see them anywhere on the dock.
"I'm sure they're there, looking up for us, there's just too many people to make them out," Duplica said, her Ditto on her shoulder.
"Yeah, you're probably right," Amy said nodding with a resigned smile.
"Eev," Isis said in agreement from her shoulder.
"Yeah, or maybe they just deserted you. You know, it IS Ash..." Gary said, with Socrates at his feet looking up at him uncertainly.
Amy whirled around and growled, "And what's THAT supposed to mean?"
Gary looked a little freaked out at Amy's response, "Well, you know..."
"She might, but I don't," Duplica said sounding confused.
" Never mind! It's just Gary being a JERK!" Amy yelled at him before storming away. Duplica stared a moment before following, calling her name. Gary looked at the spot in the crowd where both girls had disappeared. Socrates sighed and jumped up onto his shoulder.
Gary looked at him with a raised eyebrow "What?" Socrates rolled his eyes and jumped down, running after Amy and Duplica. "Hey, where are you going? Get back here!" Gary snapped, taking off after his Pokémon.