36. Home

A small group consisting of one human and three pokemon appeared right in front of Pallet Town's entrance from Route 1. At the sight of his hometown, the young man had a large smile appear on his face.

"Ah, it's great to be home again," remarked Ash while spreading out his arms. Breathing in the air before letting it out, he then turned to his starter.

"Right, Pikachu?"

"Chaaa!" answered Pikachu happily, mimicking his friend's movements.

Riolu and Mewtwo looked at the settlement ahead of them. It wasn't a large town, but it was a peaceful little community that gave a homey air to it with its modest houses and well groomed landscape.

They walked down the path in front of them, passing the professor's lab on the right shortly after and several other houses as they continued on down the path.

"Master…"

"What's up Riolu?" asked Ash as he stopped to look at his newest pokemon since he had stopped walking, making Mewtwo stop as well. "And are you gonna keep calling me that?"

"Yes." Ash let out a sigh at that, which Riolu ignored.

"And does your mother know about your ability to use Aura?" asked the aura canine. He had been thinking about that for a while and wanted to know the answer to it.

Ash glanced at Mewtwo who showed some interest in his answer before looking at Riolu again.

"Yeah, she does. Doesn't know about the aura training I did at the Kingdom of Rota though," he said, and seeing the expression on Riolu's face, he explained further.

"I didn't get a chance to tell her, and I'm not sure if I should. I don't want her to worry too much. If she knew even ten percent of the stuff I've done in my life, she'd never let me leave the house," he said with a small chuckle.

"Pika pika," agreed Pikachu as he crossed his arms and nodded.

"I see," replied Riolu, glancing at Mewtwo who didn't say anything about it.

"Very well. Let's carry on Master."

They walked on, traveling some distance as they passed other houses and small businesses along the path with nobody around to see them surprisingly.

Before long, they found themselves in front of Ash's home. The house they stopped in front of was a simple two story white house, but Ash loved everything about it. He walked up the front porch steps of the house with Riolu and Mewtwo right behind him and rang the door bell.

The door opened almost immediately and Ash was quickly pulled inside and crushed in a hug given by his loving mother, Delia Ketchum.

"Oh, my baby is back home! Oh, how I missed you my little baby!" cried Delia, while smothering her son in her hug, preventing him from breathing properly.

Pikachu had jumped down onto the ground at the last second to escape the crushing hug that took place and sniggered at his friend's predicament. Riolu and Mewtwo both sported stunned expressions on their faces, not expecting that or how quickly the woman moved.

"Mom…can't….breathe…Pikachu...tell…pokémon…love…them…" Ash said with great difficulty in between gasping for air. When he was finally, although reluctantly, let go the raven haired trainer took heaving breaths, trying to get air back into his lungs.

His mom giggled while waving away his outrageous behavior.

"Oh stop acting like a drama queen! Oh, and who are your friends?" inquired Delia as she spotted two bipedal pokemon looking at her with curious looks while behind her son.

"This is Riolu," said Ash after catching his breath again, pointing to the aura pokémon. "And this is Mewtwo," he added, moving his hand to point at the legendary pokemon.

"They're my new friends. We dropped by to visit before we head out again."

"Oh, you're gonna leave again so soon?" asked Delia with sadness coating her words.

Ash let a small smile form on his face.

"Yeah, we can't stay long. Sorry Mom but there's some things I need to take care of," he said. Right when he finished speaking, his stomach made one of his infamous growls, which made the group stare at him. Ash sweat dropped over their stares while chuckling weakly and rubbing the back of his head.

Delia smiled a little. "Well, at least you haven't changed much. Stay for some food and then you can go. Can't let you leave on an empty stomach, now can I?" she asked rhetorically and her son smiled.

"Come on, and you two as well. Any friend or pokémon of Ash's is welcome here anytime. Give me a few minutes and Mimey and I will have breakfast ready." She moved inside and the rest followed, saying hello to the Mr. Mime who lived with Ash's mom, taking care of most of the chores around the house and almost always would prevent others from doing them.

Once breakfast was made, everyone gathered around the dining table and ate the delicious food consisting of scrambled eggs, crisp bacon and fluffy pancakes that Delia cooked, commenting on how great it tasted.

She was a little shocked to hear Riolu and Mewtwo speak, even if it was with telepathy, but quickly got over it. It wasn't the first time she was around such pokemon and probably wouldn't be the last.

"So, what have you been up to these past couple of months? I thought you would've stayed home for a bit. Especially after that party with everyone here," asked Delia after they spoke about a few other things.

"That party was fun and it was good seeing everyone again," commented Ash with a large smile, thinking of his friends and how they all came to visit him and hang out together. His mind started drifting towards other things that he was thinking about recently before forcing himself to not do so and answered his mother's questions.

"Well, you know me. Always looking towards my next great adventure!" he said with a chuckle and she chuckled too with Riolu and Pikachu smiling while Mewtwo remained stoic.

"Anyway, I went to visit the Kingdom of Rota again," started Ash while helping himself to another piece of toast.

"Got to learn some cool stuff for a couple weeks there. Then I went to train at Mount Silver where I ran into Mewtwo and Riolu and we decided to travel together."