Chapter 1: A New Story Begins

It was a good day. The sun was out and shining, Pidgey's were casually flying in the light blue, cloud dotted sky. Tree's swayed with a steady breeze coming in from the Pallet shore. There was the occasional cry of a baby from some distant home and a few people and Pokemon out sweeping their front lawns and terraces. In the backdrop of the sky, one could see the red roof of the Pokemon centre, the large lab that Professor Gary Oak lounged around in all day and the brown structure of the small orphanage.

Ariah Reified was strolling down the main road to the school of Pallet Town. The road was lined with shops and buildings, with a few cars parked beside the pavement. She had brown hair down to her shoulders, pale skin and bright hazel eyes that were currently glazed over looking up at the sky. People described her as weird or strange and that she was in her own dream world most of the time. She didn't have many friends, not that she actually cared.

'A-ri-ah!'

Her eyes seemed to unglaze themselves and she turned her head downwards slightly to look at the approaching figure of Ryo Kubota. He also had brown hair, but his eyes were a warm maroon and he was slightly tanned. He was also a good 7 inches taller and he was smiling like Christmas had come early. 'Guess what?' He beamed at her as he arrived in front of her, panting slightly.

'I don't know, what?'

'No! Guess!'

'Um…ok…the Ducks have finally left their idea of taking over the world and have settled down to make a peace treaty with the Bunny Rebellion?'

Ryo stared at her. She stared back.

'What…? Oh well! Anyway! Tomorrow we're going to get our first Pokemon!' His beam widened until it was threatening to rip his face in two.

'That's nice…' She moved to side step him and carry on down the road until something occurred to her.

'We're!?'

'Yup!' Ryo took her arm and dragged her down the road to the school.

'I have everything arranged with Miss. Jane! Tomorrow, YOU and I are going down to Professor Oak's laboratory, 8am on the dot to pick up our very first Pokemon!' He turned his head slightly to look at her and smiled. Ariah groaned.

'But I don't want to…'

He stopped and grabbed both her smaller hands in his, leaning down to face her better he put on his best puppy-dog eyes.

'Come on Ariah…don't be this de-motivated for the rest of your life!' She glared at him. 'Besides, you're my very best friend and it wouldn't be that great without you by my side when I become the Pokemon Master!' He straightened and laughed. She merely rolled her eyes.

They carried on down the road to school, him happily chatting away about the choices available and their pro's and con's. She merely allowed her eyes to glaze over again, bored with his chatter. It wasn't that she disliked Ryo; it was just that she couldn't understand everyone's perceived enthusiasm with Pokemon and becoming a Pokemon master. Ryo was also one of her few, if not only, friend. He usually sat next to her in class, went to the library with her, visited her in the orphanage and invited her to his house although this could've been because he was classed as a total geek whose only one pro was that he was good at football.

The school was a fairly large building, with white walls and a blue tiled roof. It had large glass windows and an even larger front playground. It also had kindergarten all the way to high school. They stopped at the gates, where other students were entering, chatting away happily, some running around and full with energy. On the front steps were some students busily doing their homework or reading books.

'It'll be so great…a Pokemon Master…' Ryo's eyes shined with eagerness.

'In your dreams, twerp.'

Ariah and Ryo quickly turned to face the school bully Jason. He was an inch taller that Ryo, with a tough muscular body and some nasty scratches running down his face, he also had jet-black messy hair and cold blue eyes. He was currently wearing an open black top with baggy grey pants held together by a tiger-skin belt. He smirked at them; meanwhile behind him were his two henchmen, Rick and Phillip.

Ryo grimaced at Jason, 'What do you want?'

'What makes you think I want anything, I just want to give you some advice, 'cos I'm great like that.' His smirked widened. Ariah gave a light groan and rolled her eyes. Ryo tensed.

'You won't make it to the Pokemon League,' Jason leered, 'you won't even make it to the first gym! So give up now and save the tears!' Jason laughed. Ryo glared at him. With that, he and his two cronies left, laughing all the while.

The two stayed quiet for a little while before Ryo burst.

'I'll show that prick! I'll stomp him in the League and then laugh in his face!'

'Maybe you should just ignore him…' Ariah muttered as Ryo stormed off.

Ariah was quietly walking back from school, contemplating tomorrow. Ryo did a lot of things badly, including his English essays, but he was very good about going through with something he said, she knew he was going to come tomorrow morning and force her to get a Pokemon. She was now at the end of the road, had to cut through the forest and then she'd arrive at the orphanage. Following her usual route, she passed back into her thoughts, contemplating life as usual.

That is, until her wondering eyes landed on something in the bushes behind a clump of trees. She blinked, looked around and then slowly and cautiously headed towards the bush. So far she could see an amazingly long, pink tail. Taking in a breath, she gently pushed the leaves aside-

Her mouth dropped open in amazement. Lying there, covered in bruises and cuts; with bristled, pink fur was a Mew - the legendary Mew. Unless this was Mew's long-distant cousin…or sister…or brother…she shook her head, snapping out of her thoughts. It was most definitely a Mew.

Picking up a stick, she prodded the little pink ball of fluff. It twitched but did nothing else. Looking around to make sure no one was looking, she leaned down and felt its heartbeat. Yep. Alive.

She bit her fingernails. This wasn't good…having a legendary Pokemon lying injured in front of you and having nowhere to put it. If she took it back to the Orphanage, all the other kids would quickly find it and who knew where that would lead! But if she left it out here, it could get attacked and eaten by some vicious Pokemon, and that would be too cruel. She groaned. She might as well take it back to the orphanage, fend off the children and keep it quiet and hidden until she had to leave for the inevitable journey that Ryo wanted to drag her on.

She gently picked the little creature up in her arms, laid it in her bag, making it as comfortable as possible, and headed off, making sure not to jostle the bag too much.

The Orphanage was a small building, housing 17 children. The most notable thing about the plain old building was the amount of land it had around it. Everyone liked the land because they could run around all they wanted. Ariah did not much care for the Orphanage; she didn't really like the people and the women who ran it, Mrs. Dray, was a bit of an oddball.

She entered the building, still holding her rug sack and hoping to bypass the occupants there. Unfortunately Lina, another orphan with bright red hair and laughing green eyes, caught her.

'Ariah,' she whispered. Ariah suppressed a groan. She silently walked over; Lina had he ear pressed up against the kitchen door where the sounds of Mrs and Mr Dray could be heard.

'They're talking about you…' Ariah blinked and then squatted down next to Lina to listen in on the conversation.

'Oh but we can't! He'll be so angry!' That was Mrs Dray; she had that voice of a constipated woman anyone could recognise for miles around.

'May! We have the let her out of here sometime! She's 15 for god sakes! I've already got it organised, she's not going to be in any danger.'

'That still doesn't dispute the fact that he's going to be angry!'

'He!? How can you talk of him at this time! Abandoning…enough of that. She'll leave for her own Pokemon journey, you won't stop that!' Mr Dray sounded very angry.

'Oh dear…'

Ariah blinked. Lina looked at her and smiled, before taking her hand and quietly leading them up to their room. Lina sprawled on her bed and beamed at Ariah.

'Good for you Ariah! I can't believe you're going on a Pokemon journey…it doesn't seem like something you'd do…'

'Believe me, it wasn't by choice…' Lina giggled.

'But enough of that! Come show us the Pokemon you choose!'

'Sure…' Ariah muttered.

'Oh…and could you maybe do something for me…?' Lina leaned closer to Ariah and looked around, not that anyone else was in the room though. Ariah groaned and leaned closer in too.

'While you're at it catching Pokemon and all that…could you maybe, please please get me a Spearow? A male one…' Lina's beam widened and she put on her best puppy-dog face.

Ariah stared at her, ' I suppose I could…'

'YES!' She threw her arms around Ariah. 'You're the bestest friend ever! Thank you so much!!!'

Ariah tried to get herself out of the vice-like grip; 'yeah…' she choked out.

After Ariah and Lina had talked for a bit more, Ariah quickly closed the door behind her and returned to the rug-sack. Very gently, she lifted its lid and peered inside, there, curled up into a ball, was the Mew. So she hadn't been daydreaming it…

Looking around cautiously, Ariah gently picked up the injured Mew and softly laid it down on her pillow, then she tip-toed to the closet tucked away in the corner of the room, to the top draw that held some first-aid equipment, and then returned to the Mew. After some time, the Mew had been bandaged sufficiently. Ariah looked at the time, a big clock over the door. It was a few minutes to dinnertime. Sighing, she tucked the Mew back inside her rug-sack, laid it under the bed and headed downstairs to help with preparing dinner.

lol! My first Pokemon fic x3 I'm thinking of later putting in Character POV's but that's later 3 Tell me what you think! Review! Review! Review! Pleaaaaaase? (puppy dog eyes)