The never-ending blizzard swirled around the boy's slim figure, around his bony, bare arms exposed by the short-sleeved shirt he wore. Every Trainer who had ever come to challenge him found it hard to believe that he'd survived such cold temperatures, and that he was still surviving them even as they spoke.

His family and friends had long since stopped contacting him - it was always so hard for them to come up to the mountain that they had simply abandoned the cause.

A shaft of sunlight burst out suddenly, illuminating his red eyes.

Sunlight was rare. Unseen during a blizzard.

He'd vowed once that if he ever saw sunlight during a blizzard, he would go down the mountain, because that meant he'd spent too much time up there.

Well, he thought, staring out at the beam of pale light, it's time…

Time to become Red again.

°º°º°º°º°º°

It had been a long time since Red had been to the base of the mountain - he descended to the lowest parts of the upper half of it to bathe and find food every day, but he'd never gone lower than that.

He emerged from the cave entrance at the bottom, and shielded his eyes from the sun - it was almost always dark at the summit. It was also much warmer down here, and snow hardly ever fell at the base.

Red looked up at the sky.

Vast, vivid, boundless, blue.

The trees and grass were bright green, almost unnaturally so. After years of nothing but snow, he felt as though he was in a completely alien world.

Red was suddenly reminded of something, looking at the color of the plants around him.

Pleading eyes, as vivid green as spring leaves.

He walked to his right, towards the stairs leading down to Route 28, and finally reached the Pokémon League Reception Gate.

He stepped in through the door, and the guards turned around.

One of them had been holding a pen that he was writing on a notepad with. The pen was now on the floor.

"Champion Red?" whispered one of them in awe.

Red doffed his cap with a slight grin.

The guard with the pen smiled. "Welcome back."

"Thank you," said Red. It was the most he'd spoken to another person in over three years.

He continued into the center of the gate, and looked at the three options he had.

1. Continue into Victory Road, to the Pokémon League, and challenge it.

No, he wanted to see places, not battle. He'd had enough of training for a while.

2. Go all the way down through Routes 26 and 27, to New Bark Town in Johto.

Eh…he wanted to see more people as soon as he could, and Routes 26 and 27 would take at least an hour to traverse with his rusty memory. He'd rather go to another place.

3. Go forward, to Route 22. To Viridian City, where…

Red smiled. His choice was obvious.

He walked forward.

Viridian City.