4Preview
4 years ago
"Lost again, huh?" A little girl said knowingly, without bothering go look up from the book she was reading.
"Shut up! I'll have you know I won the last time!" The boy who had just sat down a couple meters away, at the base of the small hill that housed the tree the girl was sitting under, shot back.
Something then hit the back of the boys head and he spun around shouting "what the hell?!" Only to be met with the girl still immersed in her book.
A tick mark appeared on his head as he made a "tch" sound and looked down to find a energy bar lying next to him. He picked up the bar and unwrapped it with a muttered "thanks" before eating it.
The girl chuckled at this, "you two are always getting so competitive, all the other kids in the town look half dead from just trying to stay in the running, still it amazes me your actually able to keep up with that muscle brained bundle of energy" as she says this she spars a glance over at the group of kids still racing around.
One in particular was about four leaps ahead, smiling wildly, completely unaware of the other kids panting and huffing in a utterly hopeless attempt to somehow defeat him.
"Yeah, well, I am 'The Gary Oak,' you know," the boy who had now mostly caught his breath said cockily, making her role her eyes.
But the girl knew he had to have worked hard to be able to match up with her muscle headed brother.
She remembered when they had first moved to pallet 2 years before, the twins had been the talk of the town and yet their strong personalities seemed to quickly set up a wall between them and most all the other kids. They would be the center of the attention and yet no one would befriend them. The only one who would attempt to brake though that wall was the egotistical Gary Oak.
The boy had been outraged that anyone would "try to steel his spotlight." He began to constantly challenge them, which her brother, Red, ever the competition freak, would always gladly accept, and so the boy quickly became part of their daily lives.
Gary's persistence had begun to get to Red and he started to see him as a close friend and rival.
To Leaf however, it seemed simply a daily annoyance, that is, until the unbelievable happened, he finally managed to beat Red. At that moment the boy look genuinely happy, his smile wasn't the usual cocky one he always wore, but one of someone who had just completed one of their life goals after years upon years of hard work and was now standing on top of the world.
It was at that moment that Leaf begain to see Gary differently.
Before she knew it Gary had ended up a close friend and a constant in the twins life's. Gary won far more frequently now and she'd never seen Red as happy as he was now that he had a worthy rival (that boy really is such a muscle head). Additionally it became quite apparent that Gary had become quite attached to the two as well, as the three were practically inseparable.
As for Leaf it was her first time having someone other then her brother who she could feel at ease around.
Gary also had a habit of picking on other kids in town, especially the one other kid their age, Leaf was a little curious about it but didn't feel comfortable bringing it up, the other kids kept their distance from her even more then Red after all.
Speaking of Red, she was sure he wasn't even aware of any of it.
If she were to be honest, it occasionally frightened her that Gary was part of a world that she and Red weren't, but she'd never admit to that, not only was it embarrassing, it was selfish.
"That aside," Gary said, interrupting her train of thought, "where the hell does that doofus get all that energy anyway?" He said in wonder as he watched the boy still running cheerfully after 3 strait hours of races.
"Ah... I suspect he either got my portion of energy in addition to his own or he likely robbed a star in his past life." Leaf stated noncomicly, eyes on her book.
"Ha! I'd put money on that bet!" Gary laughed and Leaf smirked.
Just then a boy Leaf recognised as the other kid their age, who had been lagging behind, tripped and fell.
"Ah! What's wrong Ashy-boy? And here I was even nice enough to take a brake so you wouldn't have to be so aware of how behind you are, not that it makes much of a difference!" Gary called, not able to resist the urge to tease the poor boy.
"Ashy-boy?" Leaf asked with a raised eyebrow, unable to hold back the question upon hearing the strange name.
"Ah, you don't really need to worry about a brat like him, Leafy. He's the same age as us and loves talking big, but he's a total wimp, and about as dumb as that brother of yours, if not dumber." Gary explained.
"Ah, that is pretty bad." Leaf agreed without a second's hesitation.
"I am not!" The boy yelled furiously, his face bright red, before running home.
"See?" Gary gestured and Leaf nodded.
A few days later
Ash was on his way to play with the other kids when he saw the girl Gary had been talking to the other day sitting by some flowers with her nose in a book as always.
He knew who she was, she was Red's younger twin sister, Leaf. She rivaled Gary for the smartest kid in town, though she didn't care much for competitions, unlike her brother.
Leaf didn't really talk to people much at all, though she did seem to hang out with Red and Gary sometimes. No one really knew much about her apart from that she was smart and always seemed to have her head in a book.
He never really payed her much attention before, but curiousity got the best of him and he desired to try his hand at talking to her.
"Hey, what'cha reading?" He asked, walking up to her.
She glanced up at him as a look of surprise crossed her face.
"A research journal on legends surrounding pokemon from various regions, why?" She asked sceptically.
Ash's face lit up at that. "Really?! Cool! Can I see?!" He asked excitedly.
"Huh...?" Leaf asked, sweat dropping.
"You know I'm gonna be a pokemon master when I grow up and catch all the pokemon in the whole world!" Ash exclaimed, beginning to rant.
"Wow, slow down there a sec Ashy-boy..." Leaf said holding her hands up, trying to get him to shut up.
"It's Not Ashy-boy! My name is Ash!" He then yelled furiously.
"Sure, Ash, whatever... Anyway, I'm kind of trying to read and your ranting randomly isn't really helping..." She told him with a forced smile. She really wanted to return to her book.
"Oh, sorry..." Ash said, then realized what she was referring to and became upset.
"Hey...! I wasn't ranting randomly! I was talking about my dream! And why do you want to read books so much instead of having fun with everyone anyways? That's weird!" He declared angrily, effectively shocking her, she'd realized many people felt that way about her but it was the first time someone had actually declared it right in her face like that. Hearing it said to her face so harshly somewhat stung in a way a little different from usual, but she quickly recomposed herself however.
"And just what's so weird about it Ashy-boy?" A cocky voice with a threatening edge in it asked.
Ash turned to see a pissed off looking Gary with a very upset looking Red standing beside him and suppressed a gulp.
"It's fine." Leaf interrupted, voice flat and emotionless, face blank, eyes not leaving her book as they all turned to her in surprise.
"R-really?" Red asked hesitantly.
Ash looked horribly guilt ridden as he choked out "l-look Leaf... I'm really sorry, I swear I didn't mean it."
Leaf just waved him off, "that kind of thing doesn't bother me at all." She said.
"Bu-but..." Ash stuttered.
Gary was glaring at the boy, looking ready to snap any second.
"Look, I said it's fine. Can we please just leave it at that?" Leaf sighed.
Ash looked to the ground in shame, nodding before running off.
After watching him leave, Red turned to Leaf wile Gary stared after ash.
"Your really okay?" Red questioned cautiously.
"Completely. Now hurry up and return to your game." Leaf nodded before looking up at him with a soft smile.
Reassured, Red flashed a smile of his own before running off to play again.
Gary didn't follow.
"How long are you going to stand there for?" Leaf asked, eyes already returned to her book.
"You can't seriously think I'm as simple minded as those two idiots." Gary said fixing his gaze on her as he crossed his arms.
"It's not that big a deal... I'm already used to it." She sighed and muttered indignantly.
Gary stayed quite for a wile and it ended up unnerving her a bit.
Then he started walking, she thought he had given up at last till she heard him say "being used to it doesn't mean it doesn't hurt." as he took a seat next to her, leaning against her arm, though facing away from her.
Her eyes went wide as he did so.
They both went quiet after that.
Slowly, she let her hair cover her face and allowed herself to lean in to him, just a bit.
"Say, Gary..?" She murmured, her voice soft and sweet like a gentle breeze.
"Hm?" He uttered in response, his eyes closed as though he were napping.
"Thanks..." She whispered as a serene smile plagued her lips, eyes shut, book closed on her lap.
3 years later
Gary POV
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
I reach out and smack the annoying alarm clock as I yawn and pull myself out of bed.
I felt like I'd just had a really good dream but I just couldn't seem to remember what it was about.
I got up and got ready for school. A group of fan girls were waiting outside my house as usual, I gave them one of my most charming smiles and they followed me off to school.
When I got there I quickly noticed my best friend Red, hard to miss the kid jumping around like an idiot.
Standing beside him was his younger twin sister Leaf. She was standing there looking uncomfortable with her eyes darting back and forth.
'Uh-oh, not this again...' I thought with an angry grown.
Ever since Leaf started to mature a little more lately, she's started to attract more attention from the guys. Most girls welcome such attention. Not Leaf.
Here's the real problem, most people in town find Leaf unapproachable or view her as socially awkward, as a resalt the attention she's been getting, on more then one occasion, has been of the largely unwelcomed nature, if you get my drift.
I'm actually starting to worry about her mental health if this keeps up, it's really starting to get to her. Red's too big an idiot to know what to watch out for so I usually have to take care of it myself.
Not that I have a problem with that, I want to mess up all those bastards' faces real bad, and Red's too soft anyways. Still, it'd be nice to actually be able to count on him to look after his own sister, but he's just too trusting and gullible.
Speaking of Red though, at least he's normal today. He's been 'trying out' thinking these days. It's got everyone worried his brain's going to explode, sounds ridiculous but the way he goes all red and his face gets all twisted up really makes it seem like it's going to happen.
"Another guy with bad taste and no manors huh?" I tease, walking over to the twins as Leaf glares in my direction, then her gaze softens and she nods. That's record breaking honesty. Not a good sign.
"So what happened?" I ask her seriously.
She looks around a bit warily before she finally answers me.
Slowly, she takes out something from her pocket and hands it to me.
Upon unfolding it, my eyes narrow immediately, eyebrows furrowing.
This wasn't the usual thing like I'd expected. The person wasn't just anonymous, they even used cut out letters, but more then that the message was really weird.
"iF yOU aReN't AT thE eNtranCE To rOUtE 01 bY 17:45 SomEtHIng BaD MiGht HapPeN tO tHiS ToWn." It said. It also had a taer in it.
"Is this a prank?" I asked retoricly, raising an eyebrow.
Leaf shook her head, "I don't know. But if it is, it's a pretty elaborate one, it was attached to a knife that landed right in front of my face when I opened the door this morning." She explained, looking pretty freaked out.
I felt my stumick flip when I heard that. I almost asked if she was serious, but I know her well enough to know she was, even the guys giving her creepy looks and occasionally following her didn't freak her out this much.
I seriously want to beat the crap out of these guys right now. Who goes around threatening and even throwing knifes at 9 year old girls, that's just messed up.
"Does Red know?" I ask her, glancing over at the idiot.
She shook her head. "Everyone else was still asleep..." She muttered softly, knowing I was going to be upset at her for her poor judgement.
'Of course. Tippical Leaf. Always keeping to herself. And of course Red doesn't have the brains to know to ask her. Hopeless idiot.' I think sharply, rolling my eyes.
Leaf is reckless, stubborn, and good at hidding things, you have to really push her to find out what's up and Red always seems to unknowingly find a way to make things worse. I learned long ago that if I don't intervien with these two's messes things end up getting way out of hand. You'd be amazed at how much trouble these twins can cause.
I remember the first time I learned that Leaf was actually the twin with the larger affinity for trouble. She may be smart, but those brains can be dangerous. It was also the first time I learned she and Red weren't opposites after all.
I'll never forget the time her science excitement attracted a heard of pokemon that nearly destroyed the school, or the time she lead her group on the field trip to a rare colored beedrill for a picture, or the time she decided to scavenge through gramps' office for reading material, she actually ended up giving him advice on some research that he actually seemed pretty interested in, don't know much about it, but you could tell whatever she had suggested was probably crazy dangerous just by catching a word here and there. She also climed a 6 foot tree to get a baby pidgy back to it's nest when it fell, it took her 12 trys and she refused to ask for help, she can be stubborn like that. But one of the worst times was when she decided to help a Rattata that had pissed off some Beedrill escape, that had been one of the scariest moments in my life when I saw her run out of the bushes being followed by that horde.
The first time I saw that side of her was a day about a month after they moved here. She found a spearrow with a broken wing, she'd been looking after it and asking around about it. One day wile I was hanging out with Red she came in to the house soking wet and a complete mess, her hair was messed up, her clothes were deshevaled, and she had a bunch of scrapes and bruises all over. She didn't say what had happened, just shook her head.
About five boys from class were out the next day. After a bit of digging I found out that the boys had been messing with the spearrow and broken it's wing. She had found out and gone to beat them up, no one had had a clue about what she'd been up to when she had been asking around about it.
Since that time she's done a lot of reckless things most people aren't aware of. Luckily I've managed to bail her out when she gets too far in over her head. That's why she doesn't bother hidding stuff from me anymore, she knows that if she doesn't tell me I'll find out for myself.
"Any idea why?" I asked sceptically, eyeing her out of the corner of my eye.
She avoided my gaze.
'Great. So she did something reckless again after all.' I thought, narrowing my gaze.
"I might have seen something strange and been snooping around..." She reluctantly admitted.
"Strange how?" I asked, eyes still narrowed.
"I saw some weird looking guys snooping around the area... I followed them and some stuff happened." she admitted.
"What kind of stuff?" I questioned her.
"The stuff kind." She said, adamant on keeping it a secret, making me narrow my eyes farther.
I let out a deep sigh then turned to her with a dead serious expiration and in a tone that leaves no room for argument I said, "well, your not going."
She raised an eyebrow at me making a face that said I must think I'm a real comedian. Leaf didn't like being told what to do.
I level at her with the glare of a protective best friend that won't be denied and repeat myself "your not going."
Her expression contorts into one of outrage, betrayal, and something else I can't quite place.
I don't care. She's not going near these creeps. Not unless it's over my dead body. She knows it too. I continue my stone cold glare.
She pouts stubornly with tears in her eyes and runs off.
Shit.
I run after her as fast as my legs will carry me, I already know where she's going, I just pray those ass holes didn't show up early.
As I run I pass one of the pokemon I help grapms with. Realizing I might need the help, I call or out to it, "Eevee!"
Eevee's head shoots up and when it notices my desprateness, it's quickly on the alert and runs after me.
When we arrive I find it's just as I feard. Leaf has been surrounded by four strange men in black outfits with R's on their chests.
"Eevee use bite!" I command and Eevee attacks one of the men then one of the others come after me wile another is trying to help get Eevee off, leaving only one to go after Leaf.
I charged forward and used all my strength to jump and land with both feet in the guy's gut, somehow it worked more or less and he stumbled back and hit a tree pretty hard, and just like that he's uncontionce.
Leaf's doing really well on her end too, she continually doges and teases the guy, wearing him out, and when he looks just short of keeling over, she picks up a branch that's more like a log and rams him right in the gut and the next thing I know, he's foaming at the mouth.
I run over to Leaf to stand between her and the remaining two, putting my arm out in front of her just in case they were really too dense to get the message of 'your not getting anywhere near her.'
They'd finally gotten Eevee off and it landed in front of us protectively.
"Eevee! Use swift!" I called out and Eevee pelted them with stars till they ran off.
"You ok?" I asked turning to Leaf who just nodsded in response.
I let out a sigh before taking her by the hand and leading her away I know all too well it'd be pointless to lecture her. At times like this, it was best to simply stand beside her quietly, let her brood over it herself, but not let it go too far or get too long. She'd realize the trouble she'd caused on her own, but if you let it go on too long she'd start uselessly over thinking it too.
I told gramps about what happened. A bunch of officer Jenny's were called in after that, they didn't lighten security until they were confident the group wouldn't come again.
Mind you, I still have to keep an eye out for my best friends, at least till they can learn to watch their own backs.
One week ago
Normal POV
Red raced down the stairs fast as a speeding bullet.
"Last one there's a rotten egg!" He called to his sister.
"How old are you? Five?" She laughed back at him, grinding wildly.
"Jeez, slow down there Red, you won't have any fun if on your journey if you just rush through it." Their mom joked.
"I won't rush through, I just want to get out there!" Red told her with his trademark grin.
"Okay dear," she laughed and waved as he and Leaf set out for professor oak's lab.
"Hey! You guys!" Gary called out to them when they got there.
"Hey Gary," Red greeted.
"Hey," Leaf ecoed.
"So, you guys ready to get your first pokemon? I know I am," Gary grinned.
"Yeah! I've never been so ready in my life!" Red cheered.
"And Red, You better be ready for a fight once we get our pokemon!" Gary challenged.
"Always!" Red agreed.
Leaf smiled at them before clearing her throat.
"Shall we go?" She suggested, leading the way. The two boys followed after her.
Professor Oak waved them over when he spotted them.
"So, you all ready to receive your first pokemon?" He asked them with a grin.
"YEAH!" Red practically exploded with enthusiasm, making the other three sweat drop.
"er.. Red, why don't you go first?" The professor suggested and the other two nodded in agreement.
"Really?! Alright, then I pick... Charmander!" Red announced, picking up the pokeball.
"Then I'll take squirtol!" Gary said taking one of the others.
"That leaves me with Bulbasoar," Leaf said happily as she took the last pokeball.
"Alright then, and here is a pokedex for each of you," professor Oak smiled as he handed one to each of them.
As soon as they got outside Gary and Red started their battle, it was a close match, both pokemon only knew the move tackle, but in the end Red still managed to win by a hair.
When they finished they heard a horn honk at them, they turned to see a bunch of Gary's fans in a jeep.
Gary was psyched.
Leaf on the other hand seemed a little upset, it wasn't her normal upset or anything like Gary was always telling him he missed, it was a lot more subtle, Gary didn't notice this one because it differed too much from her normal upset, but this one Red could tell, Leaf wasn't as used to hidding it and she displayed tell tale signs that only the two, being twins, would possibly notice.
Unfortunately, unlike Gary, Red wasn't good at understanding that kind of stuff and he couldn't figure out what was bugging her no matter how hard he tried, Leaf never talked about things that bugged her, Red hated that, but if he ever hinted that he realized something was up she'd only try harder to hide it so he wouldn't worry. Sometimes just knowing that alone was enough to make him hate that she was the smart one.
Red was her older brother, if only by a few minutes, and he wanted to protect his sister just like any other brother would, but that's easier said then done when she's smarter then you and decides to keep to herself.
Red was eternally grateful to have a best friend like Gary who was willing to look after his sister when he couldn't. Mind you, he got better after Gary told him about the incident that happened a year ago now.
He and Gary made sure he knew how to tell when she was in real trouble, but he was still having just a bit of trouble with the more subtle stuff.
At least he could be sure whatever she was upset about now, it wasn't something big, she'd get over it, it'd still bug her, but she'd be okay.
He and Leaf set out together while Gary went off with his fans.
It was fun, Leaf caught a pidgy and he caught a spearrow.
Unfortunately the gym in the naboring town was closed, but they didn't let that deswade them.
It took them a week to reach Pewter city, mostly because Red couldn't turn down a challenge be it from a passing trainer or wild pokemon, by that time Red had caught a spearow, Paras, and Mankey, while Leaf caught a Pidgey, Pikachu, and Weedle, who had evolved to a Kakuna and then to a Beedrill only a few days before they arrived.
When they arrived at the Pewter pokemon center they found Gary checking out.
When he saw them he immediately raised an eyebrow, "what took you both so long? I already finished my gym battle two days ago." Gary said as he folded his arms.
"We came as fast as we could." Red stated confidentially.
"I think you mean as fast as we could with you stopping to challenge everything that breaths." Leaf corrected, rolling her eyes at her brother.
"So?" Red asked lamely, not seeing the connection, only making the other two shake their heads in exasperation.
"So where's your little posse?" Leaf asked not seeing the rather rediculus cheer girls anywhere.
Red could tell she was irritated again but still didn't know at what.
"You mean my fan girls. I went out alone to gather some information on a rummer I'd heard." Gary shrugged.
"Sounds inconvenient." Leaf sneered. She often made fun of how Gary acted so cocky around girls and would often get extremely agitated whenever the one's he dragged around would get in the way.
When they were younger and went to do something fun the girls who had come along uninvited would start complaining that they were tired and didn't want to go.
Leaf would never indicate she had a problem with them at the time but the minute they were home she would practically explode with furry at the other girls. At times like that it was best to stay clear of her.
Gary never seemed to notice it though even at times like this when she let her last contempt shoe through.
"What rummor were you looking into?" Red asked, applying for a change in topic.
"I heard someone saw some suspicious guys in black with red R's on their chest around Mt. Moon." Gary said, making Red and Leaf's eyebrows shoot up with their eyes open wide and Leaf flinch.
"You mean like the one's that came after Leaf that time?" Red asked and Gary nodded.
Leaf looked pretty uneasy and Red put a supportive hand on her shoulder.
"It'll be okay." He assured her.
Gary on the other hand was thinking that it had been a year and he still hadn't figured out what they wanted in the first place.
'What could it be?' He wondered.