"Destinies Change"

- Chapter 1 -

"Vows of Vengeance"

"Come on, just a little closer…" I muttered to myself quietly. "Soon you'll be mine Pikachu!"

As I slowly and noiselessly crept up to the Pikachu, I held a firm grip on the Poke Ball that my grandma gave me a few months ago for my 16th birthday. My dad hadn't been too thrilled when she gave it to me though. To him, Pokemon training was a waste of time because it takes time away from my studies. He told me if I wanted an after school activity, I should take martial arts.

Well, I did take martial arts, and I gotta say it was actually kinda fun! I did always love Dragon Ball Z afterall, and I always wanted to do the stuff I saw Goku and Vegeta do in the animé and manga. But, Pokemon was still my main interest, and martial arts can only be fun for so long. And when I realized as I got older that I couldn't do a Kamehameha or Final Flash, I became less and less interested in martial arts, and started to focus more on Pokémon again.

That's why when my grandma came to visit my family from Vermillion City a few months ago for my birthday I was thrilled! She was a kind-hearted person who always stuck up for me when my parents treated me harshly. But she also shared and understood my love for Pokemon, so naturally for my birthday, she got me something Pokemon related! She gave me 1 Poke Ball, 5 Super Potions, 2 Paralyze and Burn Heals, a Fire Stone, and a Water Stone. Needless to say, I was really excited when I got them! I couldn't wait, to catch new Pokemon!

The only problem was that I didn't have a starting Pokemon, and they don't have any Pokemon Professors in my hometown of Shingoshu. Which meant that to get more Pokemon, I had to capture my own starting Pokemon. That's why I'm here now in the Viridian Forest, trying to catch my favourite Pokemon, Pikachu. I always had a thing for electric Pokemon, and since the legendary Ash Ketchum had a Pikachu for his starting Pokemon, I wanted on too! It's too bad that he died 6 years ago with his wife Misty Waterflower though, because I would've liked to learn how he got to be so good. But it was their time I guess. They were both in their late 80's, and had many kids who I knew well. My best friend of the group though, was Jay. We both loved electric types so we got along pretty well. In fact, he was another one of the reasons why I wanted to get a Pikachu. He already had a Pikachu named Clutch that he got from his dad, and I wanted one just like it!

"You're mine now Pik-"

"Hey Wil!" a girl shouted from behind me, causing the Pikachu to get scared and scamper off.

I groaned as I turned around to face the girl who just scared away the Pikachu that I was trying to catch. She was a bit taller than me, had blue eyes, and had blonde hair with natural brown and black streaks going through it. Instantly, I recognized the girl.

"Ugh…. Ashley," I started, annoyed. "Why did you have to go and yell like that?"

"Oh I'm sorry" she replied, trying to look innocent. "Did I interrupt something here?"

"YES YOU DID!" I shouted angrily to my childhood friend. "I was about to catch that Pikachu when you scared it off!"

"Well soooooorry!" she retorted sarcastically. "Why are you trying to capture a Pikachu anyways? I thought your dad didn't like you having any Pokemon?"

"Well I don't really care what my dad thinks anymore!" I stated harshly. "All my life I've had to listen to him, and my life is miserable because of it!"

"Whoa! Calm down!" she said nervously. "I was just asking! No need to bite my head off about it!"

I sighed. Once again, my anger towards my dad had gotten the better of me.

"I know… I'm sorry Ashley" I replied solemnly. "It's just…..well…….it's just that he's been so annoying lately, and I'm sick of it! Nothing I do is ever good enough for him!"

"Hey" I heard Ashley say as she put a hand on my shoulder. "I know how you feel about your dad, and I'm sorry that he acts the way he does, but shouldn't you talk to him about this if it's been bugging you so much?"

"Because he never listens to me" I told her quietly.

"Well then you gotta make him listen!" she told me, determined. "Stand up to him and tell him what you feel! You're a nice guy, and you shouldn't have to live such a horrible life!"

I smiled. She always did know how to cheer me up. Maybe that's why I liked having her around. Maybe that's why I considered her such a good friend, and maybe more than just a good friend…

"Thanks Ashley" I told her while gently brushing her cheek with my hand. "You always did know how to cheer me up"

I saw her blush as I said that. I wonder why though. Maybe…..maybe she did like me the way I liked her afterall. But before I could question her about it, I saw a bright flash of light and what sounded like thunder in the distance.

"Uh……Ashley?" I started. "I think we should go check what that noise was"

"You read my mind Wil"

"Let's go!"

And with that, we ran off towards the place that would forever change our destinies.

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We finally got to where the noise was coming from, and saw the Pikachu I was trying to catch earlier being struggling to get away from 2 people in what looked like rubber suits. The Pikachu was fighting hard to try to get away from them, but they were relentless and the Pikachu was tiring quickly.

Suddenly, a 3rd man wearing the same kind of suit came up from behind and pounced on the Pikachu. He was pretty a big guy and had the Pikachu in a tight bear hug.

"Gotcha you now, you stupid little rat!" I heard him mutter.

"PIKACHUUUUUUUU!!!!!!" I heard the Pikachu scream.

It was trying it's hardest to struggle out of the man's grip, but it was no use, since he was also wearing one of those weird suits and couldn't be shocked into submission.

"You've caused us enough trouble little one" I heard him say, annoyed. "Now it's back to the lab for you!"

"Ashley!" I whispered. "I think we should go help that Pikachu! Who knows what's gonna happen to it in that lab of theirs!"

"But what can we do?" she asked me worriedly. "Those guys are pretty tough and I doubt we can do that much"

"Don’t worry" I told her reassuringly. "I didn't take 3 years of martial arts for nothing! Besides, you still have YOUR Pokemon with you don't you?"

"Yeah, but I don't think mine are strong enough to take those guys down…"

"Don't worry, just trust in them" I reassured her. "I've seen you battle once or twice and I think they're strong enough"

"Alright…..I'll try"

"Good. Now let's go"

We quickly jumped out of our hiding spot from behind the bushes.

"Let that Pikachu go!" I demanded in my most intimidating voice.

"Yeah! Let him go!" I heard Ashley shout from my right.

The men slowly turned around with a cold, menacing look in their eyes.

"Oh?" the man who had Pikachu asked cooly. "And who might you two be?"

"I'm Wil Kitomi" I told him as calmly as possible, trying to hide the sudden bad feeling I was getting.

"And I'm Ashley Stevens" Ashley told him with a hint of nervousness in her voice.

"Well, Wil and Ashley" the man started. "I'm Toni Mojiro, the new leader of Team Rocket"

"What are you talking about?" I asked confused. "There is no Team Rocket! Ash Ketchum and his friends imprisoned all the members and Giovanni was executed decades ago!"

"Well they did a pretty crappy job if they missed my parents" he told me with a smirk.

"And who are your parents?" I asked inquiringly.

"Jessie and James Mojiro" he said matter-of-factly. "And since it was their dying wish for me to start up Team Rocket once again, I've decided to comply with their wishes"

I stood there in shocked silence. How could Jessie and James have escaped without anyone knowing? Especially for THIS long? There must've been more to this than it seemed. Maybe they bribed some officials to keep quiet or something…

"H-how did they escape?" I stuttered.

"Oh…….they have their ways" he replied with that same smirk still on his face. "And now, I think we should properly introduce ourselves"

"But you just told us that you're Te-" I started.

"Prepare for Trouble!"

"And make it triple!"

I groaned. Oh no…not that stupid annoying motto again!

"Uh, can you guys please just stop the motto? I mean I've heard it enough times in my life" I asked pleadingly.

"Shut up kid!" one of them snapped at me. "The motto is a privilege to hear! You should be honoured that a little kid like you gets to hear it!"

I sighed as they continued what seemed to be the ever-repetitive motto.

"To leave the world in total devastation!"

"To enslave the people in each and every nation!"

"To obliterate everyone who believes in truth and love!"

"To exterminate our enemies and send them past the stars above!"

"Toni!"

"Brad" the gruffy looking man with blue hair standing beside Toni said.

"Jenni" said the woman with light brown hair and eyes.

"Team Rocket blast off quicker than the speed of light!"

"Surrender now, or die painfully in the fight!"

"Well…….that was new" I said surprised. "That’s the 1st time I've ever heard a different motto from Team Rocket.

"It took us a long time to come up" Brad muttered.

"So, now that we've got the introductions over with, maybe you could tell us what you were going to do about this little Pikachu?"

"We were going to take it from you" I told him simply.

"And how were you planning on doing that?" Jenni asked with a chuckle.

"By doing THIS!"

I quickly ran up to Toni and gave him a hard jab to the nose, and followed up with an uppercut to his chin. As he sprang back up quickly and tried to grab me in a bear hug, I ducked under his arms and spun around to give me a roundhouse kick to the back of the head.

"You little shit!" he screamed clutching his head while slowly getting up. "That hurt!"

"Yeah? Well this is gonna hurt a lot more" I told him with a smirk before a landed a swift low-blow on him with my foot, causing him crouch over in pain, dropping a thoroughly spent Pikachu.

But as I was about to jump on him and knock his teeth in, I got turned around by someone and was quickly punched in the mouth, cutting my upper-lip. I could taste and feel the blood that was flowing slowly from my lip, down to my chin as I stared down my assailant, Brad.

He looked at me with a cold glare for a moment before quickly sprinting my direction. As soon as he got close enough, I quickly tried to sweep him off his feet, but he quickly jumped up to avoid my legs and gave me a hard jump kick to the side of my head that sent me flying a few feet back.

"Crap" I muttered as I carefully got up, a little dizzy, and with my vision still a bit blurry from the blow to the head.

As I tried to shake off the nauseating feeling I saw Brad charging at me once again, while Jenni started to attack Ashley with her Graveler.

"Ashley, get your Pokemon out here already!" I shouted as I tried to avoid Brad's quick punches and counter them.

"Charizard, Vulpix, GO!!!"

The two Pokemon came out in a flash of white light and quickly got ready to battle.

I finally saw an opening when he missed a swinging right hook and ducked under to give him a hard, forceful punch to the gut. As he doubled-over from being winded, I quickly picked up the Pikachu and hurried back to Ashley's side while she called out attacks to her Pokemon.

"Charizard, Vulpix, Flamethrower!" I heard her shout.

The 2 Pokemon powered up a bit before unleashed a fury of hot fire at the 3 Rockets.

"Ahhh!!!" the 3 screamed in obvious pain from being engulfed in flames.

Jenni promptly returned her Graveler, who was burned to a crisp by the double Flamethrower attacks, and got out of her rubber suit quickly. Brad and Toni quickly followed, and removed their burning rubber suits with haste. As they got out of those suits, they stared at us with rage.

"We'll get you for this!" Toni screamed as he and the other 2 ran off towards Shingoshu. "You're gonna regret ever doing this to us!"

I watched with a triumphant smile as the 3 ran off.

"Charizard, Vulpix, return!" I heard Ashley say.

"You think they'll be back for that Pikachu?" she asked me with concern.

"Probably" I told her as I looked down at the exhausted Pikachu in my arms. "I wonder what's so special about this little one?"

"Pika….chu" it said as it licked my chin.

"Heh…..I guess it likes me" I told Ashley. "Do you wanna come with me little guy?"

"Cha!" it replied happily.

"Hmm……I think I'll call you Shocking!" I asked while rubbing it's head. "You like that name?"

"Pikachu!"

"Alright then Shocking, let's get back to Shingoshu and get you healed up at the Pokemon Centre!" I exclaimed happily. I had FINALLY gotten my 1st Pokemon! My Grandma would be so proud!

"And afterwards, maybe you can even meet Grandma!" I rambled on as we slowly trudged back to my hometown of Shingoshu tiredly.

"Wil" Ashley said laughing. "Calm down! I've never seen you so excited before!"

"Well…." I started, briefly stopping my chatter with Shocking.

"There is a way I could be happier" I said almost whispering.

I started to stare into Ashley's eyes, and for a moment, got lost in the soft, ocean-blue colour. I saw her turning a bit red as I continued my longing gaze, but as I realized what I was doing, I quickly turned away in embarassment.

"Um……uh….I-I think we should get back to town now" she said nervously, with her head hung low, obviously trying to hide her red face.

"Sure Ashley…..let's go" I replied quietly with a big grin on my face.

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As we slowly walked towards Shingoshu, I continued to chatter along with Shocking, with Ashley walking cheerfully but silently beside me. As the 3 of us neared the town, I saw something that looked like black smoke coming from Shingoshu. As I got closer, I saw that it WAS black smoke!

"Ashley, what's going on?" I asked pointing to where the black smoke was coming from.

"I don't know" she replied quietly. "But I don't like it"

"Neither do I"

As the two of us quickly sprinted towards the source of the smoke, with Pikachu still in my arms, I saw the blazing inferno that was burning a building to smoldering ashes. But as I looked a little more carefully, I saw that it wasn't just ANY building, it was a house. MY house!

"Oh……my……God……" I heard Ashley say with a look of horror on her face.

"OH SHIT!" I screamed in worry.

"MY PARENTS MIGHT STILL BE IN THERE!" I shouted as I handed Shocking to Ashley and started to run towards my burning house.

"Wil, no! Don't go in there!" Ashley yelled in fear.

"I HAVE TO!" I shouted back as I grabbed a nearby fireproof blanket that my dad always had by the yard in case of emergencies.

I draped the blanket around myself and quickly dashed into the burning house to look for my parents. I looked through the dining room, the kitchen, the living room, everywhere! Everywhere except their bedrooms… I sprinted up the stairs and kicked down the door, to see my parents. Burnt to a crisp, and lying in a pool of their own blood. With nothing left of their remains but black burnt skeletons. At that moment, I had to keep myself from falling over in shock. As I looked on at the remains of my parents, I noticed that one of them didn't have……a head…..

"Oh God…" I whispered in anger and horror.

With that, I quickly ran out of the room and down the stairs. I nearly tripped and stumbled over a step as I tried to get that image out of my head. When I finally got out of the house, I stood there, staring in silence at Ashley. It was then that I chose to break down in tears. I sunk to my knees and let the tears of pain flow freely down my face as Ashley set down Shocking and drew me in for a hug.

"Wil, I'm so sorry!" she whispered in sympathy.

"No" I whispered trying to fight the tears that were still cascading down my face. "No it can't be! Maybe…..maybe I'm mistaken and it's someone else's house! Maybe I've even got the wrong street! THEY CAN'T BE DEAD ASHLEY!"

"They can't be…" I repeated quietly, trying to convince myself that it was a mistake, that my parents were still alive, and that wasn't really my house that I just went into.

But it was. I knew that it was. I knew that this burning rubble was the once beautiful place that was my home. It was unmistakably my home. The dark red roof blackened by the raging hot fires, the once white body of the house charred black and quickly turning into ashes. The bedrooms a mess with the bodies of my parents burnt to nothing by blackened bones. My house. My life. My family. They were all……gone…. But my sadness and grief soon turned into anger and a lust for vengeance!

"WHO DID THIS?!" I screamed out as I pounded on the ground in fury. "WHO?!"

As I wiped the tears of anger now pouring down my face, I noticed something in red spray-paint by the street that looked like writing, with some sort of black round object by it. I slowly walked up to the red print on the street and realized in horror that it wasn't spray-paint, and what the black round object really was… It was blood…and a skull. Shocked, but still able to keep my composure, I read the message that was inscribed on the street.

Hey kid! I told ya you'd regret gettin' involved with us! Now because of your stupidity, you're parents had to suffer! But don't worry, we took real nice care of 'em! In fact, your parents screamed pretty nicely when we slowly and painfully killed them! HAHAHA! Well, gotta go! It's been real fun! We left some pretty good fireworks to help you remember this day by! Hope ya like the new 'decoration' that we added to your home kid! Enjoy!

- Toni

P.S. You're dad's head was DEFINITELY a good paintbrush! Heh heh…I guess when his mom told him to use his head, he never thought that it would be used like this huh? HAHAHAHA!

As I finished reading the message, my rage exploded! My blood was boiling for what they did! How DARE that bastard do this to me! From this day on, I make a vow, and make a change in my destiny. From this day on, I vow to KILL each and every one of those Rockets if it's the last thing I do!

"Wil?" I heard Ashley ask from behind me quietly. "What are you gonna do?"

"What do you THINK I'm gonna do?" I asked her trying to keep my emotions in check. "I'm going to KILL every Rocket I see! Especially Toni! When I see that asshole again, I'm going to snap his neck! But not before I slowly break every bone in his body! And I won't rest until he, and every other fucking Rocket is dead!"

At that moment she quickly flung her arms around me and started crying uncontrollably into my shoulder. There was a moment of silence before she spoke up again.

"I'm going with you" she stated emotionlessly.

"What?!" I asked incredulously. "Ashley, you can't! You might get hurt! Please…..I don't want what happened to my parents happening to you"

"Wil, listen" she started with a look of concern in her eyes. "We're best friends. I've known you since I was 6, and I plan to know you until I'm 100! If anything happens to you, I'll never forgive myself for not being there for you like you've always been there for me. So please? Let me go with you?"

I sighed as she drew me in for a comforting hug.

"Fine" I said giving in. "You can come with me. But promise me you'll try to be careful ok?"

"Of course" she replied, a bit cheerful.

"I'M SERIOUS ASHLEY!" I practically screamed.

"AND WHO SAYS I'M NOT?!" she retorted.

"I'm sorry Ashley" I apologized whole-heartedly while brushing her cheek with my hand. "It's just I don't want you ending up like my parents"

"I won't" she stated with more calmness than I had ever seen in her.

"I hope not…"

We just stayed there in a warm embrace, while fire trucks and Water Pokemon came by, lending a hand to help put out the burning flame that engulfed my once beautiful home. Eventually though, I broke the silence.

"You know what Ashley?" I asked her. "My dad always did say that I was destined for greatness, destined to be a scholar, destined to make him proud if I worked hard enough!"

Ashley only nodded in silence as I continued.

"But I guess….." I started and trailed off.

"Huh?" she asked me, confused. "But you guess what?"

"Destinies Change"

By: PikaPi84

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