2 Years Later
An eleven-year-old Ash Ketchum stood on the edge of Pallet Town, where the main road turned into Route 1. His mother, Delia, stood next to him, though a bit away. It seemed as if she was unsure as to why she was there.
"Well, honey… I guess this is goodbye, for now. Please, be safe- you have no idea what could happen out there. Even with Sky, this world is a dangerous place, so just… Be careful…" she trailed off.
Ash simply nodded, then turned and took the first step of a journey that would change his life. There were no hugs, no tearful farewells. Not even a wave. Delia simply watched, slightly saddened, as her only son walked away, not knowing if he would ever return.
At the very least, he had Sky with him, and if all else failed, Ash could always rely on Diorook…
But that was where the problems stemmed from. Why Ash had been separated from society, and curled in on himself. Because people were cruel, and could not accept something so different from themselves- and figuring out that a person shared a body with an alien definitely counted as different.
It wasn't like Ash had shown off his new abilities; some people had asked what had happened, and like the naive child he was, he told them. When they didn't believe him, he showed them. And then things got crazy.
For the citizens of Pallet Town, watching red and blue tentacles sprout from the back of one of their own had been horrifying. At first, they expected something else to follow, and leave Ash as a lifeless husk when the creature finally ripped its way out of the boy's body. When that didn't happen, the horror became focused on Ash himself, since he was the closest thing to associate with the madness. Children made fun of him for being weird, and parents urged their kids to stay away, lest the boy reveal some new, deadly power, and go on a psychotic rampage.
It ended up with Ash only being able to count on his mother and Professor Oak. Even Oak's grandson, Gary, had shunned Ash, which was totally unexpected since the boys had been the best of friends ever since they could walk. Sure, Gary could be cruel, as all kids were, but nobody had ever imagined he would do such a thing. The good Professor was shocked, the first time he heard Gary insult Delia's son, and scolded the boy for hours. Unfortunately, that only made things worse, as Gary took his anger out on Ash.
Ash, the sweet boy, simply took the insults and beatings. He had no wish to hurt anybody, and knew that retaliation would do just that. So, he allowed it to happen. At the very least, he could always turn to his mother when things got too rough.
Until the day he couldn't.
She had seen him make use of his extra appendages one too many times, heard one too many words from the townspeople, and somehow managed to develop a fear of her own son. Many nightmares were had, about Ash using those alien tentacles to strangle the other children, to stab holes through living people, to fling them around until they hit a hard surface with enough force that their skulls broke open, spilling blood and brain matter all over the ground.
This fear culminated into Delia being unable to look her own son in the eye, something which he took notice of immediately. He questioned her, not wanting to believe his dear, sweet mother could ever think him a monster, until finally the pressure bearing down on Delia became too great, and she snapped like a twig.
She had screamed, raged, cursed at her child, begging him to leave her in peace, and take his 'freakishness' elsewhere.
Ash had stared at her, watching her pant heavily, then simply turned around and walked out the house.
The boy didn't go far; just down to Professor Oak's lab, the only person in his entire hometown who hadn't shunned him for something beyond his control, and basically took up residence there. For the first month after his mother's outburst, Ash didn't even leave the lab, requesting that Professor Oak go over to his house to pick up clothes, sleeping on the tiled floor, and eating with the pokemon Oak cared for and researched. During that month, Ash had a lot of time alone, allowing him to think over the events that had led him there. Finally, he realized that none of it really mattered. All he had to do was put up with it until he was eleven, when he could become a pokemon trainer, and leave this forsaken town behind.
His future decided, Ash ended his impromptu short-distance vacation, and headed back home. Delia had groveled in front of his feet, begging for his forgiveness, admitting that she had wronged him greatly. Ash merely looked on, contemplatively, then told his mother to rise. That was all he said, and two years later, Delia still didn't know if he forgave her. She had no illusions, however.
After that whole fiasco was concluded, Pallet Town quieted down. Ash avoided most everyone else, so that there would be no cause for confrontation. He even stayed away from his mother as much as he could while living in the same house, only seeing her at meal times. Instead, Ash went back to Professor Oak's lab to occupy his time. During one of those visits, Ash learned that he could communicate psychically with pokemon, which solidified his position as Oak's assistant.
Between the ages of eight and nine, Ash simply helped the professor with mundane tasks; cleaning, organizing, moving things, and feeding the pokemon. Once his psychic abilities surfaced, he was also able to figure out why any of the pokemon were upset, and managed to defuse most potentially volatile situations with ease- saving Oak many thousands of dollars in lab repairs.
At the age of nine, after receiving Skybreaker the pikachu, Oak began to take Ash with him on field missions, to observe wild pokemon in their natural habitat. These tasks took them all over the Kanto region, though mostly into uncivilized areas. With nothing better to do than train pikachu and observe the wild animals, old man and young boy spent much time talking, with Professor Oak imparting his vast wisdom onto Ash, greatly expanding the boy's understanding of this world.
Ash learned the structure of the Pokemon League, as well as a basic history. It was even revealed that, at one point, Oak had been the Regional Champion of Kanto, until a man named Lance came along and beat him, barely. It came down to a battle between dragonites. Oak's was slightly tired from having to fight a raging gyarados in a previous round, giving Lance's dragonite the edge it needed to secure the victory. Oak wasn't bitter over the whole thing- if anything, he was fairly relieved. Now that he no longer had to stay at Indigo Plateau all the time, he could focus his time on doing the thing he loved the most; studying pokemon. That was around the time Oak moved to Pallet Town some thirty years ago.
Ash learned quite a bit about pokemon, both from studying them in the wild, and from what Oak said. He learned about the types, the vast number of different species, the locations where certain kinds could be found, the habits of certain races, and special talents of a variety of pokemon, though they were mostly from the Kanto region.
The most interesting thing, however, was by far the topic of Legendary pokemon. Creatures with phenomenal strength, with the power to alter the world- in some cases, the fabric of the universe itself. These tales and stories intrigued Ash so greatly, that he revealed to Oak that once he was the strongest pokemon trainer in the world, he would become the world's best Legendary researcher.
"Heh, good luck with that, Ash! First, you'll need to prove you're the best by beating the Regional Champions, and with six regions and so many other powerful trainers, that's going to be quite the tough challenge!" Oak had said.
Ash already knew a bit of that, and had already determined that with Skybreaker by his side, nobody would be able to stop him.
That was why Ash was now halfway between Pallet Town and Viridian City, following Route 1 between the towns. He turned to the pikachu riding on his shoulder, since the electric mouse hated his pokeball with a passion.
"Are you ready for this, Sky? Together, we'll become the absolute strongest, and nobody will be able to beat us!"
Sky nodded enthusiastically, cheek sacs sparkling slightly with his excitedness.
"Yes, we will soon be at the top of this world. However, we must start this journey before we can end it. I suggest hurrying up, unless you enjoy the idea of spending days on the road." Diorook said in his mind.
Ash scratched his cheek sheepishly. "Right…" he muttered, deciding to take Dio's advice.
With a bit of effort, Ash tapped into the levitation powers of the deoxys, then lifted off the ground, shooting into the sky.
"Well, here we go!"
So, the journey has finally started. Took long enough, eh? Has that mess with Delia thrown anyone for a loop? Did it seem realistic? Am I asking too many questions? Btw, this is the last chapter I'm writing during my "planning period", everything else is going to be live. It took nowhere near a week, once I realized the Pokemon Adventures manga was a bit too incoherent to follow the plot. For example, take a look at the map of the Kanto Region. How in the hell did Red up going from Cerulean City, to Vermillion, without any mention of Saffron, which is smack in the middle of the two? Unless he was roughing it off the main paths, which I think is not the best idea. By the way, is the flying using Dio's power too much? I just don't want Ash to spend too much time on the road, because I'll have a hard time coming up with situations to make content about. Most of this trilogy is gonna be spent in cities, so yeah. Review with any things you think I should change.