2 Ch 2. Unknown people

Another vortex suddenly opened in another forest, spewing out a black haired boy with a pokemon egg firmly in his grasp and a small bag on his back. On the boy's shoulder was a pink cat-like Pokémon with a long tail. A small glimpse of Celebi could be seen on the other side of the vortex before it closed behind them.

Ares looked vigilantly around him as the forest he had previously been at was a lot denser than where he was now. The trees were different as well, with no sight of any berry trees or medicinal herbs to be seen.

"Where?" Ares said to no one in particular.

[Future.] Mew responded.

"?"

Ares wasn't sure what Mew meant, but took it as being far away from his village. Ares stood up slowly, his body swaying dangerously as it was still weak from days of starvation and mistreatment. Gaining some support from a tree, Ares waited a bit as he gained a bit of strength in his legs.

[This way] Mew said as she pointed to her right.

Ares nodded as he followed Mew's directions. Ares had no idea where he was and assumed Mew knew the way. Who would've thought that Mew would just randomly point somewhere? Not that Mew would tell Ares that. Mew just felt that that way was better than other directions.

Ares slowly went through the forest, following the sudden and strange directions Mew would give from time to time. Mew would sometimes send him up a tree, wading through streams only to walk back, crawl beneath bushes. It was quite a challenge.

Every now and then they would encounter Pokémon. From Caterpie, Weedle, Ratatta and Pidgy. There were a few more of the more evolved forms, but Ares managed to evade them or scare them away. Though it was more Mew who did the scaring, but she wasn't going to tell that either.

The day slowly darkened as the warmth of the sun quickly cooled down and the night became cold. Ares shivered under the cold relentless breeze, as the clothes he wore were only as good as worn rags, barely protecting him from the chilling wind.

Mew went from his shoulder into his shirt, sharing the warmth of her body with Ares. While she could have changed her shape into something bigger and gotten them out of the forest, it wouldn't make much of a difference. At least they had cover from the weather and other pokemon under the coverage of the forest. Deciding to take a break, Ares found a relatively safe looking spot near a big, hollow tree. Moving inside it, the two plus an egg were protected from the cold, blowing wind.

[You really should retract your aura] Mew suddenly said, confusing Ares.

"How? I don't know." Ares said, as the villagers hated to even look at him, never mind teach him about aura. If anything, his leaking aura would keep predatory pokemon away from them.

[Hmm, try to feel it. It flows like water through your body. Once you feel it, try to focus everything inside.] Mew said, a bit uncertain as she hadn't taught such things before. To Mew it was more like a feeling, like how she used and retracted her own presence.

"Like...this...?" Ares said as he imagined water flowing through his body, staying inside his body without leaking. Like his skin was the shore and his veins were the river. Very slowly, his aura retracted into his body, though not everything as the aura was just too large to do that in one try.

[Good enough. Keep practicing] Mew said, a bit proud of herself for teaching something she didn't know zubat shit about.

"Okay." Ares said, still a bit uncertain if everything went as it should. He followed Mew's teachings and continued to retract his aura, until he felt almost everything was drawn back into his body.

[Well done. Now sleep.] Mew said as she yawned drowsily. Ares yawned as well, little tears appearing in the corner of his eye as he sleepily rubbed them. His head began to nod up and down, until he finally fell asleep, his head leaning againt the wall. Mew too fell asleep, guided by the faintly glowing light of the egg in Ares's hands. It glowed briefly and remained normal afterwards.

.

.

.

Somewhere deep in the forest bordering Pallet town, a little boy around four years old was stumbling on the faint path.

"Stupid dad...*sniff*... why don't you find me..."

The boy wiped away the threatening tears, staying strong and trying to find the way back. His dad had finally returned after a long time. He would leave again in a couple of days, so he wanted to cheer up his mom. A big goofy smile appeared on his face when he imagined the big smile his mom would have when she saw the present he got her. The boy looked once more at the pretty green stone he had found. It would definitely be a nice surprise for his mom.

The boy quickly put the stone back in his pocket as he heard the sound of running water.

"When lost, look for water. It is necessary to survive." Was what the boy remembered his father saying.

The boy quickly moved towards it, a cold shiver running across his back as the night was really cold. Not watching his feet, he stumbled across a root sticking out of the ground, falling down face first.

The boy rubbed his nose, painfull from the fall. Warm droplets fell as a little trickle of blood dripped from his nose.

The boy squeezed his nose shut to stop the bleeding and glared at the perpetrator, the root.

"Your fault." The boy grumbled as he slowly got up again.

Ending up on his feet again, from out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a white fabric. Curious, the boy moved closer slowly, coming face to face with a sleeping boy. The boy held his breath in surprise, quickly moving forward to get a better look at the other. The boy was about the same age as him, maybe older, but he looked like he could drop dead any second now.

Disturbed by the sound, Ares opened his eyes drowsily, rubbing the sleep from them. Ares blinked at the unknown surroundings but froze when he saw someone staring at him, blood covering the boy's lower face.

Ares backed away, his back firmly pressed against the tree as a low growl escaped his mouth.

The boy didn't seem disturbed at Ares's behavior as he went towards him and showed he didn't have anything in his hands. Making the blood that had once stopped flow freely again, tainting the lower half of his face red again. He quickly grabbed his nose again, squeezing it shut once more.

"Are you okay?" The boy said, his voice a bit nasal from clenching his nose, worried about Ares.

Ares didn't understand what the boy was saying, the words sounded so similar yet so strange. He could discern the meaning, but they sounded a bit strange. As if the words he had been comfortable with had all been scrambled up.

"O...kay?" Ares responded guardedly, not knowing when the boy might attack him. At least there weren't any stones around the boy could throw at him.

The boy sat down in front of Ares, a big goofy smile on his face.

"My name's Ash, what's yours?"

Ares tilted his head in confusion. What the hell was the other boy talking about? He had no clue at all.

Ash pointed at himself. "Ash"

Then he pointed to Ares. Ares pointed at Ash calling out his name, followed by pointing at himself and saying his own name. "Ares"

"Hi Ares." Ash waved, laughing loudly.

"Hi.....Ash." Ares copied Ash, waved and laughed monotonously.

"Well, I guess it's a start."

Ash crawled closer and entered the tree hollow. Ares froze slightly, but relaxed when Ash just sat down beside him. Ash didn't even seem bothered by his strange looks, something his villagers had found demonic. Ash seemed like a good kid, Ares thought.

"That's a cool Egg. Can I touch it?" Ash said as he eyed the big egg in Ares's hands. He motioned what he wanted to do and Ares nodded slightly.

Ash moved his hands forward, touching the warm surface of the egg. All kinds of patters in blue and black covered the surface of he egg. It wasn't like any egg Ash had seen before, not that he had seen Pokémon eggs before.

"ASH! ASH!"

"WHERE ARE YOU!"

"ASH!"

In the distance people were yelling, while flashes of light could be seen throught the dense trees, flickering every now and then past the tree line.

Ash happily scrambled to his feet, yelling, jumping and waving to the people that he was there.

Within a few minutes, a crowd of people carrying flashlights, riding Pokémon arrived. Some came by air, while others were riding on pokemon called Tauros.

At the front, a furious woman was scolding Ash. Behind her, a man with a red cap tried to distance himself, an attempt to hide his presence, but was eventually scolded as well.

"But mom, I went to get you a present." Ash said, handing over the pretty green stone he had been carrying.

"That is no excuse to be in the forest so late at night! Who known what might have happened. There are wild pokemon here that might attack you out of nowhere. You don't even have a pokemon to protect you! Red! You say something too!"

The man with the red cap, Red, stepped forward as he too had been worried, though not as much as his wife Delia.

Red stepped forward but didn't say anything and just rubbed Ash's head. Ash, glad he wasn't yelled at changed the subject.

"Dad, Dad, there's a boy over there." Ash whispered, pointing at the tree he had been staying in.

Red stepped towards it, carefully crouching down. He looked around and spotted the vigilant Ares. Not expecting to see another child here, don't even mention one so malnourished, Red beckoned to Ares to come closer. He showed his hands were empty, kept them low and smiled lightly, all to lower the vigilant kids guard.

Ares snarled slightly but slowly crept forward until he was bathed in the lights from the flashlights.

"He's Ares!" Ash happily said, grabbing Ares's hand despite the snarling. Ares was startled at the warm hand grabbing his as Ash happily introduced him to the people around him. He instinctually tried to pull his hand back, but Ash's grip was firm. After trying a little more, he gave up and held the egg in his other hand a bit tighter. Mew had, on some point disappeared, but he could still feel her on his shoulder.

Of in his own thoughts, Ares didn't noticed the stares he was getting.

The people around them seemed a bit shocked at seeing a kid there, but that was all. They reacted the same way Ash did when they saw him. None seemed to mind his strange appearance.

"That's my mom and this is my dad." Ash said as he pointed at Delia and Red, pulling Ares out of his stupor.

Ares pointed at Delia. "Mom"

Followed by pointing at Red. "Dad"

The pointed at himself. "Ares"

The people around him smiled at the clumsy introduction, as the group started to walk back to Pallet town. Ares was still guided by Ash, his hand firmly grasping his own. As he was too weak to walk on his own, he was carried in the arms of Red, making the whole leading action a bit awkward, as Ash had to stand on his tiptoes to even reach his hand.

At the edge of town, a old man in a long white lab coat and his younger companion, stood waiting for the rest to return.

Seeing the group getting closer from inside the forest, he waited patiently till they were in front of him.

"Ah Red, how did it go?" The old man said when the group stopped in front of him.

Red didn't respond and only showed the happy-looking Ash in front of him and a starved vigilant Ares being carried in his arms.

"I see. Well then, why don't we go back to my lab and talk about this whole ordeal, shall we. Thank you all for helping to find the young lad."

The old man thanked the other town folks and went towards his house with Delia, Red, Ash and Ares in tow. The rest of the crowd quickly dispersed, returning to their homes to share the good news. Ash had been found safe and sound.

On the way, one of the assistants of the old man had run of somewhere, coming back with what looked like another man in a white coat, this one carrying a big black leather bag with him.

The old man's younger companion, looking a bit like him but much younger, didn't say anything other than grin at Red and poking him in the side.

Like that the group went to drink a cup of hot tea to relax after a late forest adventure.

The strange man that had joined them latter was apparently a doctor, who had done a check-up on Ares and kept on monitoring him throughout the coming conversation and through the night.