Yellow squealed in excitement as she laid her eyes on the magnificent city of Celadon. "Oh, wow! It's Celadon City!" she exclaimed, clasping her hands together in awe. Austin was equally awestruck as he took in the enormity of the city. It was far bigger than he had ever imagined, making Saffron City look like a tiny village in comparison.

"You know, I didn't think my competition at the Battle Chateau was so important," Yellow said to Austin with a smile, causing him to nod in agreement. However, Austin didn't have the heart to tell Yellow the real reason they were here in Celadon. They were on a mission to lure out Jessie, James, or any other Team Rocket member as part of his plan C.

Lucario, the aura Pokemon, was reading a note out loud. "Hmm, do you humans have something to compensate for when building such large, thick, long...." he said before Austin grabbed Lucario's snout and Pikachu coughed into his hand. Haunter, the ghost Pokemon, was laughing at Lucario's joke.

"Read it again," Austin said, causing Lucario to comply. "I don't get it," Yellow said, confused. Austin facepalmed as Haunter and Pikachu looked at Lucario with genuine concern in their eyes. "Why are you looking at me like that?" Lucario asked, but Austin just pointed at the page and then at Lucario's groin. The joke finally landed, and Lucario exclaimed, "Oh, I get it... Gross." Austin shook his head, not believing the situation. Yellow, still innocently clueless, asked, "I don't get it."

.....

The group had finally made it to another large city. Celadon City was the largest city in Kanto with Saffron City a close second.

As the group made their way to the Pokemon Center, they saw a red convertible speeding past them. As they watched it pass, Austin and Yellow instantly recognized one of the faces in the car. It was none other than Gary Oak.

Upon seeing the two, Gary ordered the cheerleader driving the convertible to stop. He then got out of the car and approached the trio and Pikachu.

"Yo, Ashy Boi," he greeted as he held up his right arm.

"Gary, long time no see," Austin said.

" Yeah, I can see that your two friends have abandoned you. If I was them, I would have done the same." Gary said trying to get a rise from Austin who merely replied while covering Yellow's ears, " And I can still see you hanging around those gold diggers."

" Hey !"

Many of the girls said causing Austin to glance at them before glancing back at Gary who gulped as he saw the cold look in Austin's eyes.

"I should correct myself; I still see that you're hanging around your father's hand-me-downs."

Many of the girls gasped at Austin's words while Gary tried to think of a comeback.

" I, I can see that you just came here. I was here to win the Rainbow Badge from Erika, the gym leader here. Now that I've beaten her, I just got my fourth gym badge," Gary said while embarrassed at his comeback.

Austin leaned in a little causing Gary to subconsciously back away as he saw Austin's crimson eyes.

Austin just smirked," Do you want a round of applause for that? Mr. Gary Oak, the grandson of the Great Professor Samuel Oak."

Gary flinched at Austin's dry tone.

" You have changed, Ash."

" People change over time; Gary. I changed maybe it was for the better or the worse. I think you should change too. Why don't you leave this training business to someone else ?"

Austin said while patting Gary's cheek before walking away.

Releasing Yellow's ears, Austin didn't say anything while Lucario and Haunter gave him a thumbs up.

Pikachu thoughts that maybe he was a little too hard on Gary.

" You said, a bad word didn't you," Yellow asked.

" No, I didn't," Austin replied causing Yellow to huff.

" I don't believe you."

" Oh, you can ask Luacrio if you don't believe me."

Yellow's head quickly turned towards Lucario who replied with a smirk," He said a bad word."

" I knew it !" Yellow said but before Austin could refute further, Gary bellowed out causing everyone to look at them.

" I challenge you to a pokemon battle, Ash Ketchum!"

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Gary Oak, the grandson of Professor Oak had once been Ash's best friend, back when they used to be little kids. As they grew up, Gary developed a mean streak and began to establish himself as the big bully of the town—the only unfortunate fact being that he had the skills to prove his mettle, even back then in school. Top in the class, top in pokémon theory and stats, and Ash's contender when it came to practical battling using simulators.

And then that incident happened.

Ash had never really known anything about his father, not even his name. His mother, being the owner of a restaurant herself, didn't suffer from financial troubles. Besides, from what he had guessed, the restaurant that belonged to them, was his father's, one that he had gifted his mother before… leaving. And irrespective of how much he would have liked to believe, he knew very well that the restaurant went a long way in establishing financial prosperity for his little family.

Delia Ketchum however, despite being the world's best mom, went seemingly silent whenever Ash inquired about his father- that, or she would start weeping. Over the years, little Ash had slowly come to associate anything linked to his father, as something of an anathema—not to be spoken in front of his mom. Delia seemed happy to ignore the absence of a father in Ash's life, and not wanting to spoil it, Ash had readily decided to pretend the same.

He had often wondered why his father had left him and his mom. From whatever bits and pieces he could gather, his father wasn't exactly a bad person or anything, and considering that he had willingly transferred the rights to the restaurant to Delia's name—Ash didn't think that his father was a cold-hearted bastard as well. Then why did he leave? His mother had once told him, back when he was a child, that his father was a great man, and a great trainer, who went separate ways because of personal reasons. The more cynical part of him often wondered (or dare he admit it, feared) that he was the reason why his father had deserted his mother.

And then he had come across a single Pokeball, one that looked slightly old-fashioned, what with the strange black and silver coloring instead of the usual red and white- inside the store room. Also, there was this strange inscription on it, one that could be roughly called an R. When Delia had witnessed him holding it, she had downright panicked and told Ash to throw it away, which he did. However, that didn't stop him from getting it back from the trash later in the day and hiding it safely in a drawer.

The next day, he had taken it to school to observe the strange pokeball in detail. For some unexplainable reason, a part of him had stuck to the half-baked conclusion that the Pokeball (coined Red ball according to his little mind), had belonged to his father once, and despite all the rage, and all the confusion he had over his father's departure, little Ash Ketchum had clenched to this lone item that he believed, belonged to his father.

And that was where Gary Oak had found him, staring at the odd-looking Pokeball.

As was common with his behavior, Gary had snatched the Red ball from his hand, an action that had resulted in a simulator battle between himself and a rather indignant Ash Ketchum. The match ended in a draw.

And then Gary had done something that in Ash's mind, was simply unforgivable.

"It was a draw, and that means… that we both won the match by halves. The prize should be halved as well, don't you agree?" He tore open the Res Ball into two halves, tossing the top part to Ash while putting the other half inside his pocket. "Smell ya later, loser."

That was the day when Ash had lost a friend, and gained a rival, or should he say it, a nemesis, one he had sworn to defeat and humiliate in the future.

...

Austin blinked a few times as he didn't expect such a memory to arise in his mind at such a random time.

Maybe it was Gary's outburst that triggered it or maybe there was some other unknown reason for that memory to arise but ultimately Austin didn't care.

" You are going to take back everything you just said !" Gary roared out in fury with Austin just nodded.