Pokemon: Next Generation

Chapter 10: A Blast From The Past

Chapter 10: A Blast From The Past 

I tried to scream, but only a muffled mmmr! came out.  

"Em, it's me," Daniel whispered in my ear. "Stay quiet." 

My eyes widened as he took his hand off my mouth. "What was that for!?" 

"Shh!" he exclaimed, pointing to the clearing as a teenage girl emerged from some bushes on the opposite side. 

"Togepi!" the girl called. I watched her closely. She had a yellow tank top on with red overalls and jean shorts. Her red hair was up in a side ponytail. She looked drained, her blue eyes worried, as she brushed her hand through bushes, obviously looking for the Pokemon in question. 

"Wow," Daniel whispered. "She's cute." 

"What?" I hissed at him. 

"What do you want me to say? She's good looking!" Daniel exclaimed in a low voice. I noted that his eyes were a bit wider and more interested than they were when we'd smelled food. 

"Well, you can't date her. We're in the past and you'll screw up time," I huffed impatiently. 

Daniel shrugged. "You sound upset." 

"I'm in the past, crouching in bushes with you! Of course I'm upset." I poked him hard in the side. 

"I think you're jealous." Daniel grinned. 

"Jealous? Why would I be jealous!?" 

"Because I said she was hot-" 

"You just said she was good looking and cute, not hot!" I roared as furiously as I could in a whisper. 

"Well, she's all three. I-" 

I interrupted, "Listen, shut up. I'm not jealous. I'm just mad." 

"About what? That I complimented her and not you?" 

I gripped the tree next to me so tightly that bark came off in my hand. 

Daniel sighed, though I saw he was too busy looking at the girl to notice the bark in my hand. "Fine. Don't answer." 

"I'm just trying to listen to this girl, ok? Shh!" I looked back out to where she was walking around- she was coming closer. 

"Togepi!" A boy appeared from the left, apparently also searching the area. He had a red and white baseball cap on with a green slanted letter "L" at the very center. 

I recognized the hat immediately, but I kept staring at his hat with wide eyes, trying to figure out if it was just my imagination or some sort of copy. There was no way it was a Pokemon League Expo hat. There were only a hundred in existence and I happened to know one of the lucky owners. 

Daniel noticed my stiffness. "What's wrong?" 

I shook my head, feeling lightheaded as I studied the boy walking around, searching the area with his black eyes.. He had black hair that looked pretty messy. He wore a blue and white short sleeved shirt over a black t-shirt. He bent down, his jeans bending with him as he put his green gloved hands into bushed to search for the Togepi. He was the freaking spitting image of my dad. The only thing missing was a Pikachu. 

"Em? Seriously, it looks like you're going to get sick or something." Daniel gripped my shoulder gently. 

I pointed to the boy. "Don't these two look familiar to you?" 

Daniel gave me a funny look and I didn't blame him. How would we know someone in the past? He looked back at the clearing. "I don't know about the boy, but now that you mention it, the girl does look kinda..." 

He stopped suddenly and then swore, looking at me as if he'd just seen a ghost. He turned toward me and tightened his hold on my shoulder, refusing to let go, "Is that your mom?" 

My white face got waaaay whiter. 

"That looks like... holy Murkrow... that looks like your mom in teenaged form." Daniel shook my body. "Ok, this is now officially the weirdest thing we've ever done." 

As he looked over the bushes again I came to my senses. He was giving her some sort of odd expression of longing- or at least that's what I made it out to be. "Hey! That's my mom, stop looking at her like that." 

"Oh." Daniel blinked. "Sorry, it's just... she looks so..." 

"Hot?" I filled in the blank, my eyes narrowing into slits as I stared him down. 

He frowned, "Sorry... I mean, I didn't know it was your MOM when I said that, Em." 

I made a weird sound of disbelief even though I knew that he'd never felt that way about my mom. Daniel was like an adopted son to her, really. Ever since he was five years old he'd had been coming by the Cerulean Gym after school to help her with the Pokemon. His family had always felt like Pokemon were a waste of time, but not him. My mom had taken to him right away and so had I for reasons I didn't really want to think about. As if I wanted to feel even worse for being angry at him right now. 

I winced at the memory, glad that Daniel interrupted my thoughts, "Maybe they aren't your parents?" 

"Maybe," I said bluntly, wishing I could believe myself. 

Silence again. 

"I mean, where's Pikachu and all of Misty's Water Pokemon? Didn't they travel around with Brock back then... now... whenever this is? I mean, maybe we're in the present and these kids just look-" 

He was interrupted by the girl screaming in frustration. She turned to the boy. "Ash, you were in charge of watching Togepi!" 

"Sorry, Misty. It was an eggcident. Get it? Eggcident?" Ash smiled hesitantly. 

"I'll show you an eggcident! How would you like to be scrambled!?" Misty shoved a fist right under his chin, but didn't follow through on a punch. Ash cringed, apologizing repeatedly. 

"Oh. My. Arceus." I felt like I was going to melt into the ground, unable to reassemble myself. 

"Em!" Daniel said in warning. "Careful, watch out!" 

My vision flickered and I began falling forward, losing consciousness just like I'd lost my sanity. 

Hey Readers!

Another update on Next Gen, yay! How are you liking the story? It's starting to really get started now. 

If you're voting, following, and/or commenting (or just reading), thanks! It means a lot to me and I love seeing your feedback.

Pokemon Question of the Day: Who do you think is the most useful Pokemon? Meaning who would help you in every day life. It could be for whatever reason, but I'd like to hear why you think your Pokemon you choose is most useful.

Thanks again! Have a great day.

-Flips