Chapter 50.1- Oak

And that explained why I sat on the bench in the playground outside the school. The principal had been called in to deal with me when a few of the teachers had noticed me loitering about. That had been one hell of an awkward conversation. When I’d risen to the rank of elite-level by defeating Claire and her team of dragons, I hadn’t completely foreseen the consequences of my actions. Elite level trainers were natural disasters. Each one commanded a team of pokemon powerful enough to lay waste to a city, and people were justifiably wary of them. Since most of my time was spent either with family or with Sabrina, I hadn’t quite realised how it would affect my relationship with the general public. The principal had treated me like a bomb about to explode when he asked why I was sticking around, and had been quick to offer refreshments and company while I maintained my vigil. The fear coming off him had been a bit discomforting. Considering this man had taught me as a child, I couldn’t see why he would ever believe the theories circulating the internet of my supposed instability. I mean, all I did was sue the league, give up being a trainer, and then return only to defeat the league’s strongest gym leader before embarking on a campaign against the Region’s foremost terrorist organisation. All reasonable things to do considering the circumstances. When I declined his offers, he was quick to scurry to his office after making me assure him that I would come straight to him if anything displeased me or if I needed anything. From the movement I could notice within the school, I guessed the teachers were being briefed on things and would probably be on their best behaviour where Gary was concerned. I wonder how Oak did this without causing a stir. I mean the man was the fucking champion.

I considered calling Igneel out to practise his flame aura and endurance, but that required sending Ino back to the ranch to get him, and if a Charizard showed up on school grounds, they’d probably evacuate. I’m guessing the only reason Broly hadn’t gotten a similar reaction already was because of Ino’s presence softening his aura of danger. She was a fairy type, after all. Speaking of fairy type, we had to do more training on those moves. I mean she was able to get good enough to put down Claire’s dragons like they were nothing but if we wanted to take on Lance when the dust settled, we’d have to make a lot more progress. He was a legendary trainer in all respects, and the fact that Oak was even stronger than that gave me the chills. Videos of Oak’s battles weren’t widely available and the lab restricted access to some of the truly fun ones, but the little I could find told me he wasn’t one of pussyfooting around. Huh. Pussyfooting. What a strange word. I’d never really considered that. What do pussies have to do with feet and why the hell did someone come up with a word so weird? I mean the only weirder word I could think of off the top of my head was Gerrymandering. What does that even mean? I mean, I know what it means logically, but the base words. Gerry and mander had no real meaning I could think of. From there, I started playing a game of trying to find words that were suitably weird and amusing.

It took an hour for me to give up on it as a pointless exercise and start texting Sabrina. Ten minutes of that, and she was by my side in a flash of light. “Don’t you have a gym to be leading?” I asked, not wanting her to leave, but still worried about her job. She was already getting some flak within the administrative arm of the league about her continued association with me. Apparently, it wasn’t good PR for her to be seen frolicking- huh, frolicking- about with an insane trainer suing the league. Especially with the reputation human psychics had already begun to garner for instability. She simply flicked my nose.

“I told you, Donnell Oak. It is only a vocal minority of the league who thinks this way. You have quite a few supporters within the Indigo Plateau. They see you as the brightest trainer to rise within the league since Lance himself. They are regrettably mistaken, but I can forgive the ignorance.” I flew into uproarious laughter at the jab. Sabrina wasn’t quite jealous, but she did feel like she wasn’t getting her due credit, a sentiment I duly agreed with. The trainers who thought the Viridian gym to be weakened by Giovanni’s permanent leave of absence were cruelly enlightened. I don’t think even a single trainer has managed to make it past Alakazam since she started working as the gym leader.

“Yes, no one has managed to defeat Alakazam. He has been pushed by a few trainers, but altogether has managed to hold on to a streak of victories. That is why I can afford to visit you here. Challengers have ceased attempting to beat their heads against the brick wall” I laughed again at the face she made with her statement. What would have sounded arrogant coming from anyone else only sounded charming when Sabrina was concerned. She just had that ability, well being the most beautiful woman in the world was an unfair advantage. Beautiful women just had the inbuilt ability to not sound like assholes. Some of them managed to do it in spite of that advantage but those ones were spectacular in all the wrong ways. Beauty doesn’t fix stupidity, a lesson I had to learn the hard way in my first life.

“So what brings you here?” I ask, trying to sound casual like she hadn’t just taken my breath away with a single smile.

“You,” She said simply and my heart skipped a beat. “I could sense your boredom over the keyboard and decided to come spend time with you over here. You still owe me a third date, after all” I laughed again. Sabrina could be surprisingly funny, and months with her had gotten me to get her past some of her weirder habits. I loved her regardless, but… Fuck. I saw her face redden and my mind caught up with what thoughts just ran through my mind. Fuck. Fuck.

I looked at the school in embarrassment, and when I turned back to her, she was gone. I’d forgotten that she was in my head when I went off on a tangent, which was just incredibly stupid. Since she managed to get past my defences the first few times and confessed that she liked being in my head. The silence was calming, or so she said. Ignoring the possible slights to my brain power I’d given her full access, and it made conversations between us all the more interesting, but I was still usually careful to hide thoughts I didn’t want her looking at. Full access wasn’t quite full access. I mean there was no reason for her to know what thoughts ran through my head the few times I got to see her in workout clothing, or when we hung out in pyjamas when we lived together at the gym. Something about a woman in PJs just did it for me. Ok, enough of that. Horny Donnell, go back in your cage. You’ve caused enough problems today. So what would I be doing for the rest of the afternoon?

I couldn’t text Sabrina, because I knew her well enough to know that she sought space to process things and I wouldn’t want to infringe on that space. I couldn’t text any of my other friends on account of them not existing and there was only so much thinking I could do without running the risk of actually going crazy and proving everyone right. Training my pokemon was already a bust. Gary wasn’t supposed to know I was here watching, and getting his school evacuated would be the opposite of discreet, which is what I should be. That also ruled out exercising myself. Since I no longer lived in the wilderness, I had to do actual exercise to keep in shape. Being a trainer required an active lifestyle but I’d seen plenty of trainers who had let go of themselves after settling down to more stable lifestyles. I understood the appeal of just laying in the couch and eating chips all day, but I had a war to fight and if I was ever slow to release my pokemon because my gut got in the way, I’d shoot myself in the fucking head and be done with it.

With nearly all possible avenues of entertainment closed to me, I chose to spend time on the most productive activity of them all. Shouting at random people on the internet. Pokeweb forums always had something interesting going on, and if the notifications I saw were any indication, there was an ongoing debate about whether Ino counted as the strongest psychic type in all of Kanto. No offence to Ino, but they clearly had never seen Sabrina’s Alakazam, or even Oak’s. ‘None taken, my lord,’ She said in my head with a tone that said she was very much offended.

A/N; How's your day going? Really, I'm curious.