A New Life Through The Eyes Of Kanto: An Autobiography

Round Six: Gary Vs Robin; Pallet's Last Hope

I waited patiently, the phone receiver ringing in my right ear, until Prof. Oak's face finally appeared on the screen.

"Gary!" he greeted me with a broad smile.

"Hello, sir," I said in a low tone.

Prof. Oak's smile faded instantly. "What's with the sad face? Is something wrong?"

"Hiiiii, Professorrr!" June bumped me over to the side and sat beside me on the limited space of the chair, smiling excitedly at Prof. Oak.

His eyes bulged out and he slid back in his chair. "June! Um... Hello." He chuckled nervously.

"June!" I glared at her. "I told you to behave!"

"I am! I just wanted to say hi to Prof. Oak," June said to me sadly. She turned back to the professor, smiling again. "How are you, great, all knowing, master of Pokemon information?"

Prof. Oak got red in the face and he closed his eyes while rubbing the back of his head, smiling. "I don't know about all knowing master, but I'm doing okay. How are you two?"
"I'm doing well, but Gary here is really nervous about his upcoming battle."

Prof. Oak's face hardened as his hand lowered. "Ah, yes. Your next match is against Robin."

"How did you know?" I asked, surprised.

"Robin told me just last night. He seemed rather excited about it, and was only upset that you two wouldn't be battling in the final match."

I nodded, remembering last night when Robin and I had found out we'd be battling today.

He had been stunned at first, but soon began to eagerly tell me how exciting this was going to be.

I had forced a smile on my face to match Robin's happiness, but inside, I was afraid for some reason. I wasn't ready to battle Robin, yet. We were supposed to make it all the way. Together.

For Aly.

For Kiwi.

Only one of us was going to proceed, now.

I dwelled on the upcoming match all night, not saying much to June, who had asked if I was okay a few times. I would only say I was fine, and then stayed quiet. I didn't eat that night, either.

Catherine was strong on my mind as well. I wondered how she was doing. I wondered how she would act when the time came for me to battle her.

It was past three in the morning before I finally fell asleep.

After leaving our Pokemon at the Pokemon Center, June led the way to a huge restaurant to have some breakfast hours later, but I had refused to eat. I was hungry, but I just couldn't bring myself to eat anything, even when June slid her plate of her remaining two chocolate chip pancakes over to me.

I didn't want her germs, anyway.

We had left the restaurant and it was my turn to lead the way towards one of the buildings holding battles that made up the Indigo Stadium. Once inside one of them, I had made my phone call to Prof. Oak, telling June to keep herself calm.

"Robin plans on giving it his all," Prof. Oak told me. "I expect you'll do the same."

"Of course! I'm just nervous."

"You two had to battle eventually, right?"

"That was the plan, but I wanted it to be the final match." I sighed. "I guess we all wanted a lot, huh?"

Prof. Oak was silent, his eyes focused on me.

"Nothing worked out how we planned it at all," I said thoughtfully, wearily. My eyes lowered, unable to handle Prof. Oak's hard stare, my own emotions starting to overflow into my eyes. "Nothing turned out how we expected it to."