RegiGod: I apologize for such a late update but when I was looking through my stories tonight, I was thinking that I should update some of them at least… so here's an update. Hope you readers out there enjoy it.
Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon or its characters but I do own Josh and the plot.
Warning: This story contains boy x boy so if you don't like it, don't read it.
Coupling: Palletshipping / AshGary / ShiShi
Beta Reader: I don't use a beta reader so I apologize if you find any mistakes in this chapter.
Note: Remember, reviews make me happy!!
Turn Back Time - Chapter 4 (Choices)
Josh's POV
As I walked from Ash's friends' camp, I could hear footsteps rustling from the leaves behind me. I sighed mentally as I knew who it could be… Gary of course. Why does he always give chase? Does he have the same feelings for Ash as Ash does for him? I shook my head violently as I tried to get these thoughts out of my head. This doesn't concern me right now… I'll think about stuff like this in the future when the time arrives. For now, I have to head back to Ash and the others before Ash's friends find us but I have to rid myself of this pest first.
"Gary, may I help you with something?" I suddenly turned around to meet the eyes of the boy in the purple shirt. He seemed very shocked that I had turned to see him. I guess he thought that I didn't hear his footsteps behind me. Kind of foolish if you ask me…
"I already told you. I want you to release from Ash right this minute." Boy, he seemed really upset. I mean, he was practically saying the words through his teeth.
"And like I said once before, why do you even care?" Gary quickly responded, much to my surprise.
"It's none of your damn business! Now let him go right now!" I began to chuckle at the emotions running through him. I always did take joy in other people's emotions whether they were bad or good… no idea why though.
"You talk as if I'm holding Ash right here in front of me. You're an idiot you know. How can I release someone who is not even here? Do you even hear yourself talk?" That's when Gary decided to throw all of his pokeballs at the ground in front of me revealing a variety of pokemon. Hmm… his pokemon seem to be poorly and aggressively trained… at least I now know why he lost to me earlier today.
"That's it! I'm getting tired of your insults and with the way you talk to me! I will force respect out of you!" This time, I just could not stop laughing at the way this guy was getting so upset over words.
"Respect? Out of me? That's hilarious!" I continued to laugh as Gary's face turned red. "Tell me this Gary, have you shown respect to anyone? Have you shown respect to Ash? Have you talked to Ash in a kind way without throwing an insult at him? I really don't think so. And that's why you won't see Ash ever again… maybe in a year from now you will." The last statement seemed to have made Gary both upset and befuddled. Hmm… I wonder what his reaction will be if I say this. "Oh and by the way, Ash will soon be my lover." At that statement, Gary seemed to be at a loss of words and emotions, which brought a smile to my face.
"Love… er? What… do you mean… by that?" My smile never left my face even when I began to talk.
"Oh nothing that deserves too much attention. Well, I'll be taking my leave now. See you soon… Gary." I gave him a wink as I began to walk away, leaving him with his pokemon in the moonlight.
"Turning your back on the enemy is not very wise…" I suddenly heard a rush of footsteps quickly heading my way in which I decided to throw a pokeball behind me revealing my faithful Minun.
"Minun!" My pokemon gleefully yelled out its own name as it prepared itself for battle. I could easily tell that Gary was already underestimating my pokemon based on its small size. That will be a big mistake that he will pay dearly for.
"Hah! What the hell is that? Another rat to exterminate? Fine with me! Eevee!" The brown colored pokemon jumped in front of its comrades before going into its own battle stance. "Quick attack!" As the brown pokemon charged at my pokemon, I waited patiently waited for the right time to come.
"Minun, use thunder wave and stop that pokemon!" Minun jumped happily and sent out waves of thunder, which immediately stopped Eevee in its tracks.
"Eevee! No!" As I glanced at Gary, I could see that he does care for his pokemon… hmm… this boy has such strange characteristics. Perhaps he has an ulterior motive behind his actions.
"You see Gary… you shouldn't underestimate a pokemon based on its size for if you do, you will pay dearly. Minun, finish that pokemon with thunder." As my pokemon began to charge its electric attack, I could see fear running through Gary's face. I guess he shouldn't have followed me.
"Blastoise, use hydro pump now!" Out of nowhere, my Minun was soon struck by a powerful force of water, which threw him into a nearby tree. I seethed through my teeth already knowing whose Blastoise it belonged to - him. What the hell could he be doing here? Did he follow me from the Hoenn region? Impossible but that's the only explanation that's logical.
"What the…" Gary seems shocked as well and his pokemon was soon able to recover itself from the thunder wave.
"Well, well… look who I ran into. Josh, Josh, Josh." I quickly recalled my Minun as Gary did the same thing with his pokemon. I think Gary likes to mimic me… I swiftly looked away at the approaching figure that was soon right in front of me.
Gary's POV"Josh… do you remember me now?" Who was this guy? He just saved my Eevee from the strongest electrical attack there is… but why? Because it was night, I couldn't clearly tell who the figure was but I could tell that he was taller than Josh. Before Josh could answer his question, he quickly recalled his Blastoise back to its pokeball.
"For the last time, I do not know you at all. I do not know why you keep persisting me about it but I have no memories of you at all. I have to say, you just don't know when to quit do you?" Wow… I think this is the first time I saw Josh get somewhat upset today.
"I feel hurt now Josh. If I remember correctly, that's something you would say to me." What the hell is going on here? Ugh, I have no time for this… I have to find Ash!
"Look, just leave me alone. I don't want to do anything that deals with you." As soon as Josh turned his back to this new figure, the new guy quickly pulled Josh back with his hand on his shoulder. "Let me go… now." Josh said that so spitefully that it even struck a nerve in me.
"Why should I?" But of course, this new guy doesn't seem affected by Josh's tone of spite. Josh quickly removed the new figure's hand by his shoulder and began to walk away quickly with the figure in tow. Hmm… this is my chance to follow Josh back to Ash. "Aww… come on Josh. Don't leave me here all alone in the woods." I kept up with their pace as I stealthily dodged anything that was in my way.
"Matt, seriously, leave me alone before I fucking jump you." So Matt was his name… hmm… I wonder what the deal is between the both of them.
"I think I would like for you to jump me." Was it just me… or did he just say that in a husky tone? Yeah… I think it was just me. Josh sighed tiredly as he quickened his pace as I did the same.
"Tell me, when are you going to give up? I'm sure you have other people to stalk other than me." Matt chuckled as he began to reply.
"Is someone jealous that I give other people more attention?" Yep, this is one weird conversation that I'm listening to. And when the hell are we going to reach Ash!?
"Oh trust me, I would love to get no attention from you."
"Now don't say that. I know you love me." Josh exasperatedly sighed as he shook his head. "See? You didn't object to that which means you do love me."
"I don't love you all right! I don't even know who the hell you are!"
"Don't be so upset Josh. Hey… do you remember when you used to give me complements every time I changed something about my looks? Like when I got a haircut or wore different clothes."
"Not even in hell would I give you a complement." Whoever this Matt guy was, he's doing a pretty good job at annoying the hell out of Josh.
"I miss those complements you know."
"You know what? Fu…" Before Josh could finish cursing Matt off, a hot air balloon suddenly crash-landed in front of the figures in front of me. I'm surprised that they didn't get hit… wait a minute… that's Team Rocket's balloon! I recognize that Meowth head anywhere! "Can this night get any worse for me?"
"Want me to make it all better?"
"Would you shut the fuck up Matt?" He really likes to curse when he's upset doesn't he? As groans soon arose from the hot air balloon, I soon saw three figures standing up from the debris.
"Look at what yous did now Jimmy!" That's Meowth talking right now…
"My fault! This was all of your fault! If you weren't scratching my face, I would have seen where I was going!" And that's the blue haired guy talking…
"Would you two shut up! I think we all know who is to blame here…" And that's the red haired nasty girl talking. But where the hell is Ash?
"Oh? And who would that be Jessie?" asked the blue haired man quizzically.
"Who do you think!? The twerp of course!" The… twerp…? Ash…? "Where is he anyway?" The smoke soon dissipated into the air as I soon saw Ash come up from under the balloon rubbing his head with his Pikachu doing the same thing. I could feel my heart skip a beat when I saw him… Ash… you don't know how happy I am to see you right now…
"You!" The red haired girl suddenly grabbed Ash by the shirt and started to shake him violently, which got me a little upset. "You're to blame for all of this! You're going to pay for all of the damages you made!" Suddenly, the balloon and the basket flew high into the air that revealed the pokemon that had single handedly beaten me earlier…
"Hey look! It's your Gardevoir Josh!" So that's the pokemon's name… interesting.
"Really? I didn't know. Thanks for telling me." What a sarcastic bitch he is when he's upset…
"Josh?" said the trio of Team Rocket simultaneously as they looked upon their so-called greatest member.
"Oh Josh!" The red haired girl quickly let go of Ash who began to pat himself down of any injuries. "We've been looking all over for you and…" She took a quick pause to glance at Matt before continuing her sentence. "And who's that? It better not be another one joining our group. We already have this twerp now…" Did I… just hear that correctly? Ash… joined their group?
"What did I tell you to call him? By his name right?"
"Uh… oh that's right! I guess I… forgot?" She chuckled nervously as the other two of the trio could only stare at the scenario unfolding in front of them. As quickly as a heartbeat, my eyes met with Ash's as he looked in our direction. Ash…
"It's time for us to take our leave. Matt… Gary… don't follow us because if either of you do, I will make sure you'll pay." Matt could only shrug as I could only keep on staring at Ash. He seemed to be nervous… and I guess he had a right to be after what I did to him. "I shouldn't even say that because I know you two would follow us anyway. Fine… I have an alternative. Gardevoir, knock them out with psychic!" Before I knew what was happening, I was soon knocked to the ground by its psychic powers and my eyes had quickly closed.
A Few Hours Later…"Hey… hey!" I began to groan from the immense headache I was feeling… and the person who is shouting at me isn't really helping it. "You better get up right now… we have company."
"What…?" I squinted my eyes to see what was happening and I saw a guy who had burgundy hair, brown eyes, a red t-shirt on, and some blue jeans with sneakers. "What's going on?"
"It seems Josh sent some company to make sure we were to disappear and if you don't get up, you'll be exterminated." All of a sudden, I could hear loud groaning noises coming from a large machine.
"What… what the hell was that?" I rubbed my head as I began to slowly get up from my position.
"That would be Team Rocket's new and latest machine… they call it the Big Daddy. We better get out of here… now!" As he began to run away, I too began to follow behind. Was this guy… Matt? I soon looked behind us and I saw a machine that was at least seven feet tall and it had a human figure. It had a drill in replace of its right hand and it sort of had six eyes like an insect of some sort but they were like dots and there were three in two columns. Looked like it was a guy in a diving suit…
"You gotta move faster man! If that thing sees you, it'll call some of its Team Rocket members." As soon as he said that, the machine turned to look in our general direction and when it did, it groaned once more. Before I knew it, there were Team Rocket members right in front of us. "Shit… now look what you did."
"How the hell is this my fault?" We both stopped running as soon as were too close to Team Rocket.
"Well, well… look who it is. The pest who always bothers our admin Josh… you know, he said if we defeated you in a pokemon battle, we would be rewarded greatly." When I felt the ground rumble behind me, I turned to see what it was and saw that it was the machine running towards us with great agility. Damn… every time that thing took a step, the ground shook. How much did it weigh…?
"Oh he said that huh? I doubt any of you could beat me in a pokemon battle." The machine stopped as soon as it was fifty feet away from us. Man… what the hell is going on? I'm so lost right now it's not even funny.
"We'll see about that. We'll use our Big Daddy against one of your pokemon in a one vs. one match. So how about it? Are you going to do it? Or are you too chicken?" The burgundy haired boy could only scoff as he called out a pokemon that I was able to recognize… electrode. "An electric type huh? Figures you would use our Big Daddy's one and only weakness.
"I'll end this before it even starts. Electrode, use thunder!" The ball shaped pokemon soon jumped into the air and shot out an immense thunderbolt at the machine behind us and before I knew it, it was burnt into a crisp.
"What!? But that's impossible! Only Josh has the power to stop a Big Daddy in one attack… you must be his equal. No wonder he's willing to give a large reward if one of us defeated you…"
"Not really his equal per say. Any trainer could defeat this machine of yours if they raised their pokemon well with experience. I bet that not even you could defeat your own machine." Team Rocket could only chuckle as I could see that there were at least ten of them.
"That may be true but it's under our control and it could defeat any trainer except for people like you which is probably one out of a million."
"Whatever. Are you going to do something or are we going to stand here and chat the whole day? I have more important things to do."
"Like what Matt?" So… this was the Matt from last night. He's acting a lot different than he was with Josh. "Are you going to go back and stalk him like you always do?" Wait… Matt's a stalker? That's kind of weird…
"Not really stalk… I just like to be in his presence." Silence soon occurred as it seemed like Matt was having an eye staring contest with Team Rocket. I gulped at the situation I was currently in… man, how did I get myself into this?
"Gary! There you are!"
"Huh?" I turned around to see Ash's friends along with officer Jenny. I never thought I would feel relieved to see some familiar faces… even if they were Ash's dorky friends… Ash… where could you be right now?
"Shit! It's Officer Jenny! Let's get out of here before she gets us!" I quickly turned back to Team Rocket to see the gang running away like cowards.
"Yeah you better run!" shouted Matt as he began to chuckle. Looks like someone's happy…
"Gary!" Misty, Brock, and officer Jenny were soon in front of us asking me multiple questions. "What was Team Rocket doing here? And where's Ash? And what's that thing on the ground?" Misty pointed to the darkened object that was once called a Big Daddy.
"Does it look like I know? All I know right now is that I was following Josh and before I knew what was going on, he had his pokemon use psychic and I was knocked out."
"What!?" Great… the girl doesn't seem satisfied by my answer. "What do you mean? Explain!"
"Geez… stop screaming already. No wonder I gave up on girls…" I looked over to Matt who seemed to be looting whatever the machine had.
"Who are you?" asked Brock as Matt stood up fully to answer.
"My name's Matt. And to answer your annoying questions, Team Rocket was here because Josh sent them to exterminate me and this guy." He pointed over to me before continuing his statement. "And Ash… well, I don't even know who he is. And this thing on the ground is called a Big Daddy, Team Rocket's newest machine that can obliterate any trainer's pokemon with ease."
"So this thing belongs to Team Rocket huh?" Matt nodded to Officer Jenny's question. "Then I better take this into custody and investigate this situation concerning their new technology." Matt didn't seem to care as he began to walk away from us.
"Hey wait!" I suddenly said without thinking. Matt turned to face me as I, for some reason, became kind of nervous. "Can I talk to you for a sec?" He seemed to be unsure on what to say to me but he nodded. We both walked somewhere private where the others couldn't hear our conversation. As soon as we found out spot, we turned to face one another.
"So… what did you want to talk to me about?"
"Well… I just want to know what you know about Josh." Matt seemed to be confused by my question so I decided to give my reason why. "I want to know because Josh took a friend of mine called Ash and before we were knocked out, I remember Josh saying that Ash had joined their group." Matt looked intrigued by what I said as he stared at me for a moment before responding.
"Is there anything else?" Now it was my turn to be confused. "Did you hear anything else? You have to tell me everything you know because if you don't, I won't be able to help you at all." Shit… does he also want to know what Josh said about Ash… about becoming his… lover? I felt sick just by the thought of it.
"He did say something else but I don't think it's important for you to know." The boy in front of me gave a face saying he didn't believe me at all.
"Tell me or I won't tell you anything." I got a bit mad but if he wants to know, fine.
"Josh said that he was going to make Ash his lover." That was when I got a very surprising reaction from Matt. He seemed very shocked by what I just said.
"He… said that?" I nodded. "No… he wouldn't… would he?" I don't know if it's just me but I think he's a bit troubled by this news. "Um… I have an idea. You're going to find your friend right?" I nodded. "How about I help you by traveling with you until we find them?"
"Sure." I said without any hesitation. If he was going to help me find my Ash, then I'll take up his offer.
"Awesome. So what's your name anyway?"
"My name's Gary. Nice to meet you." I stretched out my hand and shook his when he did the same. I don't know but I think I'm acting differently than I normally do.
Meanwhile…"Well, we're here in Violet City." The group looked around at their new surroundings as they continued further into the town. "Are you ready to face the Gym Leader Ash?"
"Of course I am Josh! I'm ready to take on anyone at anytime!" Josh smiled as he looked at the trio behind them. "I can't believe at how fast we got here though."
"That's something you would expect when you ride in a car you know." Josh and Ash laughed together as the Team Rocket trio seemed a bit nervous to be in the town.
"What's wrong with you three?" asked Josh as he could only stare at the trio.
"Well… our clothes are giving us away you know." Josh finally noticed when he saw people murmuring words about Team Rocket.
"Then get a change of clothes and meet us at the gym all right?" The trio nodded as they ran back into the woods. "I don't think those three are going to come back."
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"Oh nothing. It's
just a feeling is all. Now let's head off to the gym!"
RegiGod: So, how was this chapter? Like it? I hope so!