Emerald eyes

A Pokémon fanfiction by Wouter Jaegers.

 

The Public Library of Viridian City.

Nervously Gary used the card that had been stolen from Ash Ketchum. Although he knew that this was wrong he couldn’t withstand the temptation to use it, Gary had been spying on Ash during the journeys that he, that redhead and that guy with the squinting eyes made. Although he would never admit it, Gary had all the rights to fear Ash. Ash was getting better and better as a trainer. Even when he lost a battle Ash always came back on top in the rematch.

Why wouldn’t Ash see it, why didn’t he see the pain Gary was in? Being the famous Professor Oak’s grandson wasn’t easy. Ash was a normal middle class boy and he had faults. Faults that Gary envied. Ash surely wasn’t the best trainer but his friendships he had with his pokémon were beyond Trainer and student, they stood equal.

Ash always had been dense, stubborn and loud mouthed and yet he made friends really easily. Not "friends" as in opportunistic people who just stab you in the back when the opportunity presents itself. No, real friends who are his equal and who will be there when he needs them and who he will aid when they call on him.

Gary always envied Ash for that particular character trait. It when Gary was send to a private school that his envy started to come up in a big way. Gary never made friends, all the other kids stayed away from the rich kid he was. It was at that time that his envy began to change into resentment. Ash Ketchum would forever be his rival.

The fact that Ash had been keeping a journal and had been storing it in the Ketchum database would provide him with inside data as to what would be his weaknesses. Gary smiled as the card did its work and got him online and into the Ketchum database. Finally, the moment of truth. But the page wouldn’t load. 



Huh, what was that? Gary looked around and all of a sudden he felt something taking place on his shoulder.

"I advice you not to move." A voice solemnly spoke. I know from personal experience how strong Pikachu’s shocks are."

"Oh rats." Gary whispered while hitting the Escape button. But it didn’t respond.

"It’s no use Gary, it won’t work at all without my password." The voice spoke again and a hand in a glove with open fingers reached out and grabbed the card. "I will now take this back thank you." 

Gary felt how the pokémon sitting on his shoulders leaped off and joined its trainer.

"Tell you what, I will keep the PC on and you’ll have to figure the password out." The voice behind Gary spoke mockingly.

"And what good is that gonna do?" Gary laughed. "I know so much about you that it will be a piece of cake before I figure it out."

"Really, then why bother breaking into my personal files if you know all there is to know about me?" Came the reply "I will give you one hint though. The password is describing both the first and the last thing you would associate with me."

"Ah, so the password is ‘Pikachu’ I knew it would be that easy, you are so predictable." Gary laughed while typing it in. "Now I will know every weakness of you."

"Ah so that’s why you lowered yourself to steal from the person who was once your best friend." The voice sighed. "Nice try but ‘Pikachu’ is not the password." With that the person walked away. 

Gary looked around and saw the person walking away.

"He’s just playing mind games with me." Gary growled while pushing the enter button. "It must be ‘Pikachu’ there is just no doubt about that."

Yes that Pikachu, caught by his grandfather, that was the one Pokémon Ash cherished the most. Gary thought back to that day when he met up with Ash and his two right hands at the lab of his grandfather. 

"What kind of pokémon would you use against my Geodude?" The guy with the squinting eyes asked him when Gary told them about his techniques.

"I would use a water type pokémon against a rock type pokémon and keeping a grass type in reserve." He remembered replying. "Tell me Ash, what pokémon did you use against him?" Gary recognized Brock as the former Pewter City gym leader so he knew that Ash had to battle him at least once.

"Ash used his Pikachu." The redhead replied.

"HAH, everybody knows that electric type pokémon are weak against stone types, you are such a loser Ash!" Gary remembered saying but later it occurred to him that Ash had actually won from Brock using his Pikachu.

 

So "Pikachu" just HAD to be the password.


Entrance not accepted, please check your username and password.

 

"What?" Gary stared blankly at the screen. ‘Pikachu’ really wasn’t the password. Now Gary was faced with a challenge. 

"The password is both the first and the last thing you would associate with me." Gary repeated to himself. "Okay Gary Oak think, what would be the first and the last thing you would associate with Ash?"

Gary thought back to one occasion where he saw Ash training his Cindaquill, maybe that would provide the clue.

"Okay Cindaquill, use you best tackle attack on me." Ash called out to Cindaquill at that time. Gary at first didn’t understand what was going on, why would ash order his pokémon to attack himself?

But as that training session progressed Gary began to see the merits of it, Cindaquill and Ash both were getting stronger. Gary had seen Ash using Cindaquill in battles before and the Cindaquill was lazy and didn’t use its flamethrower attack unless it was heated up properly. Ash, much like a drill sergeant, trained Cindaquill to total obedience and to get heated up as soon as a battle started.

Cindaquill proved to be superior to the Scarmory they battled after the training. That day was a turning point for Ash Ketchum, his training became more vigorous and his strategies more thought out.

Take that Team Rocket battle on that Miltank farm in Goldenrod city for example. Ash used exact the same techniques in the re-match against the Goldenrod city gym trainer and won from her. Ash became stronger with every mile he and his friends walked, reinforcing the vow that he would become a pokémon master.

Gary cringed at the thought, Ash a pokémon master, that certainly would be the last thing he’d associate Ash with.

But that’s just it, the last thing he’d associate with Ash would have been the first thing Ash would associate himself with. "Pokémon master" just HAD to be the word.

Entrance not accepted, please check your username and password.

Gary began to look really dark, this wasn’t the word either. 

"Come on, figuring out Ash can’t be that hard." He muttered. "But then again, if it really were as easy as I think it is, then why did Ash allow me to guess his password?"

Gary took a deep thought, what else was there that would link Ash to a particular word. But maybe it wasn’t a word but a name or a description of something. Yes, that would make a lot more sense.

Maybe the word just might be the team name of those two mishaps and their talking Meowth. "Team Rocket, I wonder why they put so much effort into trying to steal that Pikachu from Ash." Gary muttered. "I do have to admit that that Pikachu of his can take on any Raichu in the world but my Eevee did defeated him…"

As Gary thought back to every encounter he had with Team Rocket he had to chuckle at how badly organized they were. Eevee defeated Pikachu but only after a very strict training and studying Ash’s way of fighting. Coupled to the fact that Gary knew Ash from childhood on, that gave him the advantage to win from Ash but only just.

"If I were to train Team Rocket, they would have that Pikachu in their claws in no time." Gary laughed while typing.

"Team Rocket" 

Entrance not accepted, please check your username and password.

So this wasn’t it either. "Wait a sec it could also be the name of a person very close to Ash. His mother, Ash is a real Mother’s child." Gary smiled. "So her name is the password."

Delia 

Entrance not accepted, please check your username and password.

"Oh I get it, stupid of me not to think of that before." Gary laughed. "It ought to be her full name."

Delia Ketchum

Entrance not accepted, please check your username and password.

"Okaaaaaaaayyyyyyyy." Gary growled. "I guess that this isn’t the word too. Who else would be on Ash’s list? Maybe one of his travelling companions."


Yes, he had a good point there, that guy with the squinting eyes and that scrawny redhead were always in his shadow. That guy with the squinting eyes used to be the gymleader of Pewter City, Gary remembered battling him. Brock had been talking to him after the battle, Brock told him about his aspirations to go out and learn to be a pokémon breeder. Ash apparently gave him the break he needed since he became Ash and that Redhead’s travelling companion.

Brock 

Entrance not accepted, please check your username and password.

 

But it could also be that guy he brought with him from the orange islands who became his grandfather’s new assistant. Tracey Scetcher was in Gary’s eyes the stereotypical view of a nerd. Studying everything there is to learn about pokémon. No wonder that his grandfather accepted Tracey’s offer and took him under his wing and having Tracey becoming his pupil. That was a first, Gary could vividly remember how his grandfather declined all offers to teach others since he was to busy with all his work, which was a nice way of saying that none of them were worth it. But Tracey was the first since Professor Elm who was accepted.

Gary didn’t know what to think of Tracey, he was without a doubt very intelligent and talented but there were two things he didn’t like about him. First, Tracey was more and more likely to become his Grandfather’s successor, an honor that Gary wanted for himself. "Oh well I never understood at all what all those research is good for." Gary grumbled. 

But the second reason why he disliked Tracey was more personal. Gary growled at the memory of walking in to the Oak’s household and finding his sister May kissing Tracey. Gary went numb when witnessing that. When addressing May about it, she just shrugged his objections aside and stated, quite rightly, that she was free to choose her own boyfriends. Ever since that day he hated Ash even more, why did he bring this guy around in the first place? 

But when trying Tracey’s name it didn’t work either. So that left only one option.


"Oh NO, don’t tell me you got us lost again Ash Ketchum." He remembered hearing the Redhead shout to Ash more than once.

That redhead, that scrawny little redhead, she was the female mirror image of Ash. If Ash would ever get married than she would be his wife, they just fitted each other perfectly.


"So that’s it!" Gary smiled. "Ash and that redhead are an item even though neither of them wants to admit it, the password must be either her name or a description of her. Knowing Ash he must have used a description, her name would have been too obvious."

Calves.

"I must admit that that Redhead has very good looking legs, so this just might be it." Gary smiled while envisioning Misty

Entrance not accepted, please check your username and password.

"Okay, then how about ‘Pig tail’ that certainly comes to mind when seeing her."

Entrance not accepted, please check your username and password.

"Come on, I know that I’m close…" Gary grumbled "Her pokémon, maybe his password is the name of one of her pokémon."

Once again Gary’s thoughts flew off. Back again to his grandfather’s lab.

"I have just discovered that Pokémon tend to take over the character of their trainers." He remembered hearing Prof. Oak say to Ash and his friends. He himself was at the time busy with his doduo and didn’t hear the rest of what was said.

"Something about a psyduck and then that Redhead said that that wasn’t true." Gary muttered "Psyduck, she has a psyduck, so that’s the password."

Psyduck

Entrance not accepted, please check your username and password.

 

"AARRRRGNNNN!" Gary hissed "Okay, one of us is going to give in, and it won’t be me! Okay calm down, so it is her name after all." Gary smiled and sighed in relieve. "Okay then, finally justice, so here we go."

Gary brought his fingers to the keys and then stopped dead in his tracks. Her name, what the hell was her name?

Gary then started to dig up memories trying to fit the jigsaw together. Gary stared into the distance until his eyes began to sting. "Damn it, I don’t need misty eyes right now!" he shouted while wiping his eyes. "Wait a minute, misty… …misty… That’s her name, Misty!"

Misty

After typing the name in Gary first took a deep breath before tapping the "enter" button. 

"Oh secrets which lie buried for so long, show thyself." Gary muttered while slowly increasing the pressuring on the button. He wanted to relish every second of this grateful moment.



"Hey, what’s going on?" Gary asked while watching the empty screen.


"Sir I told you five times already that the public library is closed but you never gave any reply or made any attempt to leaving. So I decided to leave you here until the moment I would leave myself." A voice spoke, Gary looked around and saw a librarian. The woman looked impatient back at him. "But since you are still here and I need to go home, I was forced to literary pull the plug here."

"But, I, I was just about, only one more minute and I would…" Gary sputtered. "Oh no, why now, why at this moment, no, no, no, no, no…"

"Sir, either you leave now or I will call the police!" The librarian sneered.

 

It was raining, such a fitting weather type, Gary was so close, just a single tap away and without the card, he wouldn’t be able to hack into the Ketchum PC again. Gary wanted to scream, to tear something apart but he couldn’t, he wouldn’t show emotions, and certainly not in a city where everybody would be seeing him.

No, he would not vent the disappointment from this drawback. He would just swallow it and let it smolder, just like the rest of the bitter resentments he cherished for Ash Ketchum.

 

Meanwhile at the pokémon center was Ash busy preparing to upload his daily update into the Ketchum PC. Ash typed in the password and then made his way through the files. Nothing was gone so Gary hadn’t succeeded into finding the password. Ash smiled, Gary obviously didn’t think that a girl’s name as simple as "Misty" would have been the password. Misty was his first travelling partner and his best friend so it was only logical for him to use her name as his password. 

After finishing his daily upload, Ash stretched and readied himself for the night. When walking into the guestroom he saw her already asleep. From a distance he heard Brock’s voice, obviously trying to seduce Nurse Joy since Misty wouldn’t be able to keep him from doing so at an hour like this.

Ash walked over to Misty and looked at her, Ash had been going through a whole lot with her at his side and yet it all seemed to go so fast.

Misty was loudmouthed, stubborn and strict, the reason why he considered her the last thing he’d associate himself with. But Misty was also sweet, pretty and caring. And those were the traits which made her the first thing he’d associate with himself. 

"Sweat dreams emerald eyes." Ash whispered to Misty before making himself ready for the night.

"To you too black head." Came the softer than a breath reply as Misty opened one of her eyes and smiled.

 

The End

    Source: geocities.com/mitsy_mermaid