Team Rocket47's Bestest Fanfic
Chapter 15: New Beginnings
I was going to jump.
Nothing was left for me to live in this world. I was a failure as a
pokemon trainer. Even after I had been ahead of Ash the whole
time since we left on our pokemon journeys, my grandfather still
sided with him after he beat me in the pokemon league. He said
I didn't treat my pokemon with trust and love. He never
understood me. No one ever did.
My parents didn't care about me. They didn't want me coming
back home until I was a pokemon master. That's why I tried so
hard. But still all my efforts failed. That's why I was going to
end it all.
The cool sea wind rustled my hair and shook the trees. I was the
only one who knew about this cliff. Down below I could hear the
waves crashing against the sharp pointed rocks. I used to come
to this place to be alone and think. My parents probably never
even noticed I was ever gone. They were always favoring May
over me. Because she was older, a great pokemon trainer, a
perfect student, and always better then me.
Those stupid cheerleaders that follow me around don't know
how I really feel. They don't know the pain of having to live up
to the reputation of my older sister. Or even Grandpa. I bet no
one looks down at them and says, "Look at that kid. He's the
grandson of Professor Oak, so he's probably a good pokemon
trainer." None of them have to fight to meet those kind of
standards.
I wonder if anyone will miss me when I'm gone, or if they'll
even notice. Probably won't. They'll all say, "He was a weakling
anyway." I have no regrets.
I took a step forward and ended up at the edge of the cliff. A few
pebbles fall off and bounce down the completely vertical rock
edge. It's a lot farther down then I had thought. The swirling
mist conceals the sharp pointed rocks below but I still know that
they're there.
I look to the night sky for one last time then closed my eyes and
took a step forward, preparing for the drop.
"Wait!"
I turned around and saw a girl standing there in the trees, her
face lit up by the tail of the charmander she held in her arms.
She looked younger then me by about two years. Her knee
length hair, which was a violet colour, was braided and slung
over one shoulder. She wore a lilac coloured shirt, dark blue
jeans, and a black jacket. She also wore a black hat, turned
backwards, that set her bangs nicely across her forehead. It was
her eyes that caught me most. They were a eerie blue, and the
glasses she wore reflected the flame of the charmander's tail.
After looking over her for a moment. I remembered what I was
going to do. "You shouldn't try and stop me," I said coldly.
The girl walked over the wet grass and to the cliff edge, and
carefully looked over. "Pretty long way down," she inquired.
Her voice was soft, and sounded very young. She stood up strait
and looked at me with those eerie eyes. Then she asked, "Sharp
rocks at the bottom?"
I only nodded.
"An ideal place to kill yourself. But I just don't see why you'd
want too." She looked over me the same way that I did to her.
After a few moments she said, "You seem pretty young. 13
maybe?"
Again I only nodded.
She smiled. "You've got your whole life ahead of you. Why end
it now?" She slightly tilted her head, waiting for my response.
I looked at her and frowned. Then I turned back to the cliff.
Sadly I said,"I have my reasons."
She set her hand on my shoulder, surprising me. "Care to tell me
some reasons?"
I sat down with on the cliff. She sat down next to me, with her
hand still on my shoulder. Then I began to tell her about my
parents, how I was defeated by Ash, how I had to live up to my
sister and my grandpa's reputations, how no one understood me,
and about how I was such a horrible trainer.
She laughed when I said that I was the worst trainer in the world.
Smiling she looked to me. "You can't be the worst trainer in the
world, because that title belongs to me."
I looked to her and smiled too. "You can't suck that bad."
She laughed again. She had a cute laugh that reminded me of
bubbles popping. "You obviously don't know my skill. I've been
to Vermilion city and I haven't gotten any badges at all. I've
been on my pokemon journey for about a year now and still
Inferno hasn't evolved."
I laughed with her. Then I looked to the small charmander she
still held in her arm. "Is he Inferno?"
"Yup. The one and only."
I looked at Inferno again, who was asleep and noticed it's
colouring. It was yellow orange and red, and the colours blended
together so it appeared like he could match in with a sunset.
"He's beautiful," I said quietly.
The girl smiled again. "Yeah isn't he? I want him to evolve into
a charizard."
"Are you sure you can tame a charizard? They're bad tempered
and don't like trainers much."
"Actually I don't think I can. I suck to much."
"You shouldn't get down on yourself like that."
"And you shouldn't try and jump off a cliff."
I smiled. "I guess you're right. If I promise not to jump off a cliff
will you promise not to say you suck anymore?"
She took my hand and shook it. "It's a deal." Then she stood up.
"I've got to be going now. Maybe we'll meet again under better
situations." She smiled at me once more, then ran off to the edge
of the trees, turned and looked at me. "My name's Joey by the
way."
Before I could give her my own name she ran off, leaving me
looking after her, with a new sense of hope.
* * *
I sighed and blinked while looking into the early morning sun. I
was sitting on the wall outside of Professor Oak's house, hoping
I'd meet that boy again. He'd said he was the Professors
grandson so I thought I might find him here.
I rolled over onto my stomach and sighed. I closed my eyes in
order to try and catch a few more hours sleep before...
"What are you doing up there?"
I rolled over again to see a boy standing at the bottom of the
wall, looking up at me. He wasn't the same kid as I had met last
night. No this kid was shorter with black spiky hair, and he wore
a pokemon league hat.
"Well?"
I turned slightly red. "I'm waiting here for someone," I replied.
"Who ya waiting for?"
I sat up from my reclining position and looked at him. "A guy
named Gary. I met him last night."
The kid growled. "Gary...."
I laughed. "You must be Ash."
"I see you've heard of me. You must be one of my fans."
"Not really. Gary told me about you. He said you were a dork."
Ash obviously looked offended. "Well I beat him in the
pokemon league!"
My smile faded slightly. "And did you gloat in your victory over
him?"
"Of course. Who wouldn't?"
"You should think of how your actions effect people."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Don't worry about it."
"Pika pi!"
I looked down the road to see a pikachu running down the street
toward us.
Ash smiled and held his arms open, in which the pikachu gladly
jumped into.
"Hey Pikachu," he said.
I looked at the two of them and my smile returned. "That
Pikachu yours?"
Ash nodded while Pikachu took his perch on Ash's shoulder.
I hopped down off the wall, walked over to Ash, and gave
Pikachu a pat on the head. Then I scratched behind his ears.
"Chaaaaaaa..."
Ash smiled. "Pikachu likes you."
"Yeah... I have that kind of effect on most pokemon." I stopped
scratching Pikachu and took a step back. "Do you want to battle
me?"
Ash grinned a confident grin. "You're on!"
He led me to a small field not far outside town.
I ran my hand across my four pokeballs. He was probably going
to use Pikachu so it would be best if I used my ground type. I
pulled the third ball off my belt and threw it out into the arena.
"Wufei go!"
"Go Pikachu!"
<Due to Joey's Writer's Block, *fwaps the Writer's Block
Demon* she sent the story to me, Lukey. Let's hope I can do
something with it.>
Ash smiled, because he'd beaten a Cubone once before with
Pikachu. How different could it be?
"You know what to do, Pikachu! Go for it!"
Pikachu nodded, then turned to face Cubone. He was already
running at Pikachu for his first attack, Bone Club. Pikachu
dodged the attack just in time, then whipped around to face
Cubone. He was a moment too late.
Wufei darted past Pikachu, knocking him over the head with his
bone. Pikachu staggered backwards a bit dizzy, then shook his
head and ran at Wufei.
Pikachu used the exact same tactics at he had against Jezelle.
He ran toward Wufei with incredible speed, then jumped over
him, twisting the skull on his head around.
Wufei spun around, a bit disoriented. Pikachu ran up to him,
but Wufei managed to get a lucky shot, knocking Pikachu over
with his skull. Wufei turned the skull back in the right direction,
then glared at Pikachu.
Wufei used bone club again, smacking Pikachu sideways with
the bone. Pikachu was already showing signs of weakness and
fatigue. Pikachu, however, wasn't going to give up.
Pikachu ran at Wufei with a speed that amazed even Ash, then
gave Wufei a head butt to the stomach. Wufei flew backwards a
few feet, then got up slowly. That last hit had done quite a bit of
damage to him. Pikachu hit him again, and this time Wufei had
to use quite a bit of effort to stand back up.
<I guess that's enough. *sends the story back to Joey*>
I clenched my fists. "Crap I can't lose!"
"You should battle people the same level as yourself," Ash
sneered. "I guess I'm just to good for you!"
I was just about to call him something really nasty, but was
stopped by a hand being placed on my shoulder. In surprise I
looked to the owner of the hand to see that it was...
"Gary!" Both Ash and I said his name at the same time, though
Ash said it with more of a tone of contempt.
Gary looked to me. With a smile he said, "Joey right? Try
having Wufei use his growl attack a few times to lower
Pikachu's attack power, then hit him with bone club."
I nodded, looking into his dark blue eyes. Then I turned back to
the battle.
"Wufei use growl!"
<*has the story sent to him again* Once again, Luke is here to
help. That Writer's Block Demon is getting on my nerves.>
With that, Wufei let out a loud growl that froze Pikachu in his
tracks. "Again Wufei!" I called out. I watched as Wufei
growled again, with the same effect. After a third time, I
decided to make my move.
"That's not fair!" Ash yelled at me.
I pulled out a copy of the Pok‚mon Handbook and threw it to
him. "You tell me where it says you can't use growl more than
once during a battle."
Ash looked at me and gave a growl of his own, but he knew I
was right.
"Wufei, use your Bone Club!"
Wufei nodded and ran toward Pikachu, a bit slow since he was
getting tired. Pikachu was still disoriented from Wufei's growl,
so Wufei scored a hit right over the top of his head.
Pikachu staggered backwards and Wufei clubbed him a second,
third, and ever a fourth time. Ash's jaw dropped even farther
with each hit.
Finally Wufei swung his club with all his effort and slammed it
over Pikachu's head. Pikachu held his place, swaying side to
side for a mew moments, then he finally fell over.
Despite the fact that I knew he could do it, I was still shocked
that Wufei had won. Ash was ever more shocked than me.
<Okay, I hope that demon has decided to leave Joey alone now.
*sends the file again*>
Gary smirked then patted me on the shoulder.
Ash however, wasn't too happy. He had run onto the field and
picked up Pikachu. "How could I lose," I heard him say.
Gary smirked again. "You shouldn't underestimate your
opponents Ashie-boy," he mocked.
Ash was about to retaliate with a comment of his own but two
others had entered the field.
"Ash! How could you leave us behind like that," the redhead
yelled before hitting Ash on the head with the mallet.
The other person however, was holding my hand and had a
dorkie look on his face. A fairly large sweatdrop fell down the
back of my head.
"Hello my name is Brock," he said, "And might I say you look
very lovely indeed. Might I ask you your name or perhaps I
could get a phone number."
Before he could ask me more, he was dragged away by the
redhead, who had grabbed his ear.
"But Misty," he whined, "I didn't even get her name!"
Misty grabbed Ash by the back of his shirt and dragged both
boys away mumbling something that sounded like, "I don't
know where you two would be without me."
I looked after them and yelled, "My name's Joey!" Then I
wondered if they were out of earshot or not. I sighed then
noticed that Gary was looking at me with an emotion I couldn't
decipher.
"We should head back to town," he said then led me through the
trees. We walked in silence for awhile before he said, "I never
got to thank you, for last night."
I smiled. "It's alright, really."
He stopped and looked into my eyes. "No, it's not alright. You
stopped me from making one of the biggest mistakes of my life.
I feel like I need to repay you somehow."
I still couldn't read his expression. "I don't know what you
could give me."
Gary only smiled. "I think I know what I can do for you. We can
take a pokemon training journey together and I can help you
become a better pokemon trainer."
I smiled too. "That would be helpful, but are you sure it won't
be a burden on you?"
He shook his head. "No way. I was planning to go out on
another journey anyway. If I didn't then Gramps would have me
running errands til I'm as old as he is."
"That would suck big time." He nodded then we both laughed.
"So we'll be partners?"
"Partners it is."
(c) Joey Oak March
28, 2001