Pallet Town, a very quaint little village in the western Kanto region, enveloped by mountains, and wide open grass fields,
where only a handful of small houses sit connected by a system of dirt roads, leading up to the big laboratory in the middle of it all and leading off to places unknown. The residents of this little hamlet are usually in very good spirits, but these days this was not the case.
A boy who appeared to be 15 years of age at least lay on his bed, staring at the blank ceiling of his bedroom, the wooden window blinds were shut so little light came into the room even at the days brightest. The room was a little messy with assorted clothing scattered across the hardwood floor. Everything else seemed in order including a collection of baseball caps each one battered with age and general wear and tear, lined up in a row.
You would have never known this was Ash Ketchum, the young hot shot Pokemon trainer native to this little town. He looked nothing like most people remembered him, his short messy hair had grown long almost past his shoulders, he wore just a black t shirt and some jeans, in his hands was a white beanie hat with the image of a pink colored pokeball on the front of it.
He looked down at it and sighed and lay his head back down. "I can't believe I lost to Kenny... I didn't think he was serious..." He thought, "why I agreed to it I don't know, shes probably forgotten about me anyway. I should have told her before all this happened!" Ash growled under his breath and began to scrawl words onto a piece of paper.
"I cry out your name,
but can you hear me?"
About a year or so ago, Kenny challenged Ash to a match to chose who Dawn was to travel with after the league, Kenny won and Ash reluctantly kept his promise and let her go. He spiraled into a deep depression and called off his plans to conquer Isshu and hadn't travelled since. When he first came home he helped his mom and Miney around the house when needed and ran errands with her but as the months pasted he began to Isolate himself more and more.
Nowdays he rarely spoke to anyone, not even to his mother, or Professor Oak, or Brock or even himself. He rarely left his room or the house for that matter, only to feed himself he left his room, as he had a small bathroom and shower located in his bedroom. He stayed in his room, by himself not even with his best friend Pikachu whom he bonded with for many years. The once optimistic, aspiring Pokemon trainer, ready for anything, and anything, anywhere was now a misanthropic shadow of his former self.
He looked over his shoulder and saw an acoustic guitar laying against his dresser and picked it up. Upon returning from Sinnoh he felt he had nothing left to do, so one day he brought home the guitar which he had bought new at a store just outside town and began to teach himself how to play. His mom said he would sit for hours on end in his room strumming away on the instrument reading lessons online for assistance. They seemed to help as he progressed quickly with the instrument and had begun to write a few songs.
Then another day he brought home another guitar, an electric guitar this time long with an assortment of cables and wires and began to fool around with that as well spending hours playing like before. Again he began to write a few songs with that and even began to record his songs, as Delia Ketchum found in a search of his room when Ash actually walked outside in a while,
the songs were very cold, angry, and nihilistic, played along with synthesized machine gun like blast beat drumming which sounded remarkably realistic. Any trace of singing in any of the songs were more like shrieks from a person dying a slow,
horrible death. This provoked worry in the mind of Ash's mother wondering what Ash might do with himself.
After only playing a few notes on the guitar he put it down and slumped down off his bed and turned on the television, on the screen was a live broadcast of a Pokemon contest from a far off land, and Kenny had just started his appeal.
Ash watched on in total disgust as he graced the arena during the appeal. He couldn't stand to look at him, his face all smug and full of confidence as he put on a pretty little show for the people around him, feeling his stomach turn as the crowd roared with approval. He reached for the remote to turn it off but had misplaced it and by the time he had found it Kenny had finished his appeal. Ash was glad he didn't have to look at Kenny anymore and left it on for a minute but grew bored and grabbed the remote to turn it off when the contest announcer spoke over the PA system.
"Coming up next is fellow Sinnoh native Ms. Dawn Berlitz!"
Ash dropped the remote and sat back down unenthusiastically, even simply hearing her name got him down.
Dawn appeared as a speck on the right side of the screen, dressed the way Ash remembered her usually dressed in, a pink and black miniskirt, pink go-go boots and scarf, and the white beanie hat, jogging onto the stage and releasing her Piplup from it's Pokeball and began her routine.
Ash could see a slight blandness in her appeal and an evident lack of enthusiasm shown by Dawn. Looking at her face she was not smiling brightly. She didn't look all happy, her face was very solemn, watching intently Piplup's every move.
"She's not gonna make it with that attitude." Ash thought, now very worried about Dawn's well being.
When her appeal was over, she didn't wave to anyone, she didn't congratulate Piplup, she just walked off stage without a word.
Ash nodded in grave disbelief "She's lost it." He whispered, turning the television off.
Ash then opened up the window blinds and looked out towards the horizon, wondering about Dawn. "I wish I could have told her,
then she might not have gone with Kenny." He turned away from the light and closed the blinds once more and slumped back down onto his bed. "Dawn, I know you can't hear me but I love you I always have. I wish I told you before but I was too clueless to think of that back then. I hope you felt the same way..." Ash rolled over onto his side and went to sleep.
At the contest arena, it is revealed that Ash's prediction was correct, Dawn had not made it to the 2nd round but Kenny had.
She was devastated and sat in the dressing room weeping. This was part of a trend that was going on in her contest career since she started traveling with Kenny she had never won a contest, no matter how hard she tried she never made it past the 1st round, she couldn't understand why.
"Why do I even try anymore!" She sniffled, wiping her eyes.
Her Piplup quietly watched on from the other side of the room, feeling his master's sorrows.
Dawn stared at her reflection in the mirror in front of her buried her face in her hands trying to hold back more tears, thinking of her journeys and triumphs she had with her old friends. "If only Ash was here, he helped me out so much..."
Over the PA came the announcement that Kenny had won the ribbon for the contest the 4th one he won in a row. Dawn slammed her forehead on the station she sat at, trying harder then before to keep from bawling her eyes out.
"I need you right now Ash Ketchum!"
She sat there sulking until she heard a door behind her open, she didn't move or turn around as if she heard nothing.
Kenny walked in to get ready to change into his traveling clothing and saw Dawn slouched over in front of the mirror.
He decided to take the opportunity to mock Dawn for losing again. "Lost again?" He started, "awww that's too bad."
"Don't rub it in!" Dawn tried to shout but came out as a whisper.
"Oh there's no need to rub it in, because you can't make it on your own."
Dawn sat completely silent, her sadness slowly being replaced by anger.
"You always had that Ash help you through a contest." Kenny continued on.
"N-no! I never had to rely on him to for my appeals!"
"Oh thats bullshit," Kenny retorted, "every contest you've been in you've always had a little battle with him first."
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"You've always had him walk you through them like a little baby, he's only saying you're great cause he feels sorry for you.
I bet your mom feels the same way about you, she pretends to support you but really is ashamed of you."
Dawn's eyebrows twitched as he pelted her with insults.
"Your appeals have always been mediocre at best, I bet you blew the judges so you'd get make the next rounds like the slut you are!"
Dawn stood up and slammed her hands down on the station staring blankly at her reflection in the mirror.
"Oh what are you gonna do bitch?" Kenny taunted, walking over and slapping Dawn on the back of the head.
That did it, Dawn swung around and slugged Kenny right in the face.
Kenny doubled over and quickly recovered. "Oh you asked for it!" He growled and tried to throw a punch back but Dawn blocked him and wrapped her arm around his and forced it upwards, dislocating his shoulder and then forced Kenny into the wall leaving a large dent in the drywall and knocking Kenny out cold.
"Come on Piplup!" She called the blue penguin like Pokemon, which was now in a state of shock, back into it's Pokeball then quickly gathered her things and took off out of the locker room, out of the arena, and out into the forest trail where she stopped to catch her breath after running what felt like a mile.
"I couldn't deal with him anymore," she said, "I don't care if I get banned for life he's a dick!" Dawn let Piplup back out of it's Pokeball, he was not as shocked now but very confused and tried to ask what was going on.
"We're going to find Ash," She said, assuming that's what Piplup was asking which was exactly right on the mark, "wherever he is." Dawn got up and removed the hairclips from her hair so it fell down naturally and then took off her beanie.
"Since Kenny's gonna go berserk when he wakes up I might wanna make a change in wardrobe." She thought, and wandered off in the bushes and changed to another dress, one with a different color palette, it as white with a blue trim and had a longer skirt,
and she traded the go-go boots for a pair of white slip on shoes.
"Well that's as much a disguise I can put on right now." Dawn sighed and started walking along the trail with Piplup.
Back in the locker room Kenny comes back to consciousness and looks around wondering where he is, then remembers.
"That bitch is dead when I find her!" He proclaimed, and tried to stand up but yelps in pain due to his dislocated shoulder.
"As soon as I get out of the Hospital..."