Loyal to the Game [Pokemon Fanfic]

Backtrack Backpacking II

Norman sighed as he was jostled a little by the speed of the train he was on. In order to catch up to May, he'd taken the express train, which would at least let him set foot on Kanto soil a day or at least half a day behind May, who had taken the regular overnight train to get there (and which took a minimum of two and a half days to reach Kanto, while his train took one and a half to two days). Unfortunately, the express train, while it had individual compartments, didn't have beds and was even faster than the bullet train May was on.

Damn it, what was that girl thinking? What was the point of all this? He just couldn't see why May would do this, or even think of just running away for whatever strange reason that got into her head, which he was totally clueless about anyway.

May had never been one to be reckless. That made this whole thing absolutely absurd and uncharacteristic of his daughter, who had seemingly just got up and left.

Norman knew that their home life was unusual and truthfully kind of messed up for the past few years or so. He didn't know if that had any factor to May seemingly having snapped, but regardless, he knew he had to somehow make up for it and try even harder than before to be there for his kids, and do what he could to help them through this. It wasn't their fault Caroline and he had gotten like this, and they shouldn't have to suffer for it. It was unfair.

But it was also true that nothing could be done about it, and Caroline and he couldn't be salvaged anyway. Especially not now that she was happy with someone else; he couldn't keep clinging onto the past, to the 'what was', and more so when he didn't even feel the same way anymore. It wasn't fair to anyone, and he had to let go.

Maybe Caroline was right. He should try dating again…

But definitely not with Ash Ketchum. No way –absolutely not.

Not even with how cute she was.

~*~*~

Professor Oak scooped some noodles into his mouth as he narrowed his eyes at the experiment. True to what his assistants had been telling him, it was acting up. He had yet to figure out if it was a good thing or bad thing yet, so he was reserving judgment and keeping an eye on it.

Suddenly, the phone rang and he fumbled a bit, almost dropping his soup on himself as he was startled by the telephone ringing. He hurriedly put it down and rushed to pick up his phone, answering it quickly. Seeing the caller's predicament as well as hearing the poor man panicking, Oak reassured the other he'd get help immediately and have the other back to normal in no time. Ending that call, he contacted the Viridian Joy, assuming that she was the one in charge of the whole "Watchtower Ash" project (he wondered if the Joys were Justice League fans or something…) that she had told him about, regarding the whole keeping an eye on Ash thing going on with the nurses.

According to her, the Nurse Joy in the Pokémon Land's Pokécenter had relayed to her that Ash was currently staying there, though could be leaving any time that morning. Since she hadn't been in yet to pick up her pokémon, so while he hadn't been able to talk to her right then, Pokémon Land's Nurse Joy would tell Ash he needed to talk to her and have her patch through to him as soon as she got there. A little disappointed in missing out talking to his friend, as well as helping out his distressed caller of course, Professor Oak agreed to wait and hung up. He reluctantly went back to his much cooler noodle soup, forcing himself to finish it anyway.

It was, thankfully, not too long after that Ash contacted him and he could see her face filling up his screen. Only that he could see Giovanni Rocketto surprisingly next to her, and he had no idea how the two knew each other or when they'd come into contact. Plus, given Giovanni's usual disposition and arrogance, he was surprised the two got along at all, much less that the other man was taking the time to be near her. And by the proximity of the two and the way their bodies were situated together, it seemed that not only were they familiar with each other but friendly too.