They did manage the trip to Cerulean City—a good long while later. Mew was no help psychically; she was too deep in thought to lend a helping hand—or brain cell, actually. Aries wanted to help, but his first two tries revealed that while he could lift people, he couldn't keep their bodies straight, and she ended up in positions she usually got in for a game of Twister.

"Some yards left, dear Arceus," she groaned. "I don't think I can even make that. The soles've already worn off of my sneakers." Aries looked at her curiously. He was just like her and Henry, covered in mud and dirt and sweat, but he didn't look mad about it at all, weirdly.

"Do you want me to try—"

"No I do not want you to try again. I have a spine for a reason; I don't want it to break, thank you." He made that kicked puppy face again. "That won't work, moron; I'm getting used to it now."

"Lucario, lu," Henry said, smirking at her knowingly. She didn't need Aries to translate for that.

"And no, I don't like him, Henry." Aries watched her for a few seconds, an odd expression on his face. "If you don't get out of my head—"

"Don't worry, I'm not reading your mind," he said coolly.

"How do I know you're not lying?"

His face didn't change, but she felt a little tingling at her left temple, like a Wurmple was trying to crawl through her skin. She slapped the side of her face instinctively. "Yeah! See? I said so!"

"I was proving a point," he said, scowling. "I can't invade your mind without you feeling it, strangely."

"Then… Then how I know Mew's not feeding you information?" she accused, even though Mew wasn't even paying them any attention.

"Mew is not as unscrupulous as you or me," he said simply. "It wouldn't, while I would."

"So you admit to not having morals," she said edgily. He shrugged.

"Of course. I'm not prideful or anything; I'll admit that I'm just human, that, like you, I can be selfish too, and I can be mean, and I can unintentionally hurt other people, but I can also make friends, like…you."

"What makes you think I'm your friend?"

He smirked. "I don't think an acquaintance would've stayed with me after facing Mewtwo. Any brave man would have pissed his pants and ran away—you stayed."

"Yeah—well—well—"

"Oh, what a perfectly biting comeback!"

She grabbed him by the collar, waving her fist warningly. "If you don't stop playing—" She froze when he turned his face away, his expression terrified, and decided to let him go. He didn't say anything, but she got the feeling it wasn't the first time he got roughed up.

"We're almost there, Denise," he said brightly, and she couldn't tell if he was faking or not. She wished the mind-reading shoe was on the other foot.

How should we get to the Johto region after this? Mew wondered all of a sudden, startling Denise.

"Space portal?" Aries suggested, eyes fixed on Cerulean City in the distance.

No; our movements are most likely being tracked, either by Silver or Cyrus, she said.

"Okay, I can believe either one of those creeps are watching us, but how? There aren't exactly cameras in the open fields," Denise pointed out.

"Yes, but there are satellites in space, many of which Team Galactic and Team Rocket manufactured. It's child's play for them to use the feed to see us."

"That means they can see Mew, doesn't it?" she asked. Mew shook her head.

Capturing psychics requires a very high-resolution camera because the energy we displace causes the molecules around us to vibrate faster in lens, which in turn makes them reflective, and the more powerful the psychic, the harder it is to decode this mirror. I believe that even for Giovanni, this will take a while, too long for them to track us if we just pop in and out of Cerulean.

"Well I'm sorry, but I don't wanna just pop in and out," Denise complained. "I'm tired and hungry and I need a shower bad."

"Luca," Henry said in agreement, trying to shake the mud from his fur to no avail.

We don't have the time to—

"Mew, please," Aries added. "Even if we were to go straight to Team Rocket's HQ, we'd be no match for them in this condition. Besides, we still have that mystery Pokémon to heal." Mew thought for a minute, then nodded. The rest of the walk was silent as they trudged across the grass, then it eased up a bit when they found the dirt pathway. Aries glanced at Denise, who was breathless, then at Henry, who was in the same condition.

"Why don't you return him to his PokeBall?" he asked.

"We—huh—lost it—ah—long time ago," she replied between breaths, trying to ignore the stinging pain of her bare heel coming in contact with sharp rocks in the dirt.

"Hm," he murmured thoughtfully.

"That's—hah—not fair, you know," she said, stopping. He stopped too, and so did Henry and Mew.

"What?"

"You're over there acting all mysterious and crap, hah, not telling me what you're thinking when you can always tell what I'm thinking."

"It isn't fair, is it?" he conceded, brushing his hair from his eyes. "Alright then; for every thought of yours that I see out of line, you get to 'see' one of mine."

"Then you already owe me, like, a hundred!"

He frowned a little, then smirked. "Let's start with two, but let's keep walking." They started again, Cerulean City so close she could smell the seawater in it and almost distinguish the people and Pokémon at the outskirts.

"Okay…. Um…" She had a lot of things she wanted to ask, but she had to pick two. "Where are you from really, 'cause since you're a human like me, you're not born or created or whatever like a Legendary."

He didn't answer for a while, walking forward purposefully. Then, "I'm from Pallet Town, Denise."

"The thing in Pallet Town… You are from there, then; you didn't answer me before. I mean, I can understand why, but…"

"What." His voice was somewhat edgier.

"Nothing. And how did you meet Mew?"

"It saved my life," he replied.

"Legendaries save lives?"

"Of course; they do feel emotions, like regular people or Pokémon. Mew is actually very compassionate."

"Like I can tell," she muttered. Henry suddenly barked, running forward. Denise looked up and realized that they were a few feet away from the entrance; she could hear and see the hustle and bustle of Cerulean City. She chased after him, eager to make it to the Pokémon Center and the beds it held.

They made it there a few minutes before Aries and Mew did, bursting through the doors. The wall clock said it was ten minutes past three in the morning; the PokéCenter was very empty as a result, with only one Trainer and his Golem sitting in the chairs. Nurse Joy and her Chansey gasped when they barreled through and they recoiled a little when Denise went up to the counter. "We need a room for two," she demanded. Nurse Joy nodded after her shock wore off and started typing in the computer, which was when Aries showed up by himself.

"Good evening," he said, approaching their counter. Nurse Joy's Chansey looked at him strangely; he returned the look and she turned away a little too quickly. He pulled out the strange Pokémon's PokeBall and set it on the counter. "Can you please heal this Pokémon, and get us two rooms too?"

"She already asked for a room," Nurse Joy replied, checking her computer. "I'm sorry; usually, we separate boys and girls, but there's only one room available for you two."

"H-Huh?" She hadn't even realized she asked for a single room, and it turned out they had to share anyway? Nurse Joy reached under the counter and handed them a room key before taking Aries' PokeBall.

"This will be ready by morning," she said. "Goodnight, you two."

"Aagh!" Denise groaned, kicking the nearest chair and instantly recoiling in pain from the metal base. Henry had that kind of tense face that meant he wanted to laugh but held it in for her sake—and damn smart of him too, lest she kick him where he absolutely did not want to be kicked.

The room was at the end of a long hall; a few other doors were open, and Denise saw a lot of other Pokémon Trainers and their Pokémon. Some of them had Pokémon from other regions, which meant they travelled a long way. She wondered how it felt to always be moving, stopping just to fight a Gym, travelling around the region until you beat the Pokémon League and became Champion. Dee told her he made it to the eighth Gym, which meant he was eligible to fight the Elite Four, but that he stopped there. She wished she had asked him why.

Their room was plain with a wooden floor, white walls, a window, and twin beds on either side. There was a bathroom on one side; Denise was the first inside, locking the door to make sure Aries didn't try anything. She dropped her backpack and clothes and took a long, hot shower and she'll be damned if it didn't feel like the best thing in the world. She stayed under until the water going down the drain changed from muddy to clear and dried herself off, digging out a t-shirt and shorts from her bag. When she opened the door, Aries was sitting on the edge of the right bed laughing with Henry. A familiar Wurmple was curled up in the corner, fast asleep.

"Hey, what's so funny?" she asked. She got annoyed when they continued laughing for ten more seconds.

"Well, Henry had a fascinating story of you as a kid," he said, wiping his eyes. "Said that you tried giving mud pies to your first crush, and he thought it was chocolate until he saw the Wurmple Eggs—" He had to stop talking because he and Henry started laughing again. She threw her backpack at him angrily, causing him to fall to the floor.

"Go take a damn shower," she snapped, stomping over to her own bed and dropping onto it, fumbling with a rubber band and her hair. Aries was still laughing as he went into the bathroom, shutting the door. Henry sat at the foot of Aries' bed, chuckling under his breath. "Yeah, keep laughing and you won't get any breakfast."

"Lu," he said apologetically, but he didn't stop.

"At least apologize with a straight face!"

He coughed and cleared his throat. "Lucario."

"Fine, fine, whatever, I'll take that." She rolled over to face the wall. The room was silent save for the sound of the shower in the bathroom. She let her mind wander and it instantly returned to the events of that day. To be honest, those last twenty hours were the most interesting of her entire life. If I keep travelling with him, she thought, then there'll be a lot more interesting times, for sure. But then there's Silver to worry about, and Cyrus too, and…Mewtwo. She shivered at the thought of its name.

"Luca?" Henry said, concerned.

"I'm alright," she murmured, shaking her head. I can't be scared, 'cause then Henry'll get worried, she thought. And I don't need Henry to be any more worried than he already is for me. She heard the water shut off in the bathroom, then Aries asked if she had any spare clothes for him to sleep in. "They won't fit, midget," she called back.

"Doesn't matter," he replied. She sighed.

"Henry, give him a shirt and pants." She heard Henry go through her bag, then the bathroom door creaked open and shut again. A few minutes later, the door opened.

"Henry, you can go clean up now, although the shower's not that clean anymore," Aries said.

"Lucario."

"You're welcome." The door shut again and the shower turned on again. She heard Aries going through her bag and sat up instantly.

"Hey, you can't—"

"Hmm?" he asked, propping the window open and setting his wet cloak and clothes on the ledge. "I was just borrowing a towel." He looked a lot smaller without his cloak, like a twelve-year-old or thirteen-year-old. Actually…

"Hey, how old are you?"

"Me?" he said. "I'm sixteen."

Sixteen, she thought. Two years younger than me, and yet…

"'And yet he looks so small and fragile,'" he finished aloud, getting a towel and straightening up.

"Hey," she snapped. "You owe me a thought for that."

"Oh, yes," he conceded with a sigh, sitting on the edge of his bed and drying his hair. "Old habits are hard to break. What do you want to know?"

"Ugh… What do you think of me?" she asked without really thinking about it. He raised an eyebrow. "I can't tell with the way you act; it's like you never had a friend before."

"I do not know; friends do not constantly threaten other friends."

"I wasn't serious that time."

"Which time exactly? The thirteenth?" He smirked as she groaned. "I haven't had a friend, by the way," he answered. "Not before Mew."

"Oh. Alright." Henry saved them from an awkward silence by emerging from the bathroom, a towel around his shoulders.

"Lucario!" he exclaimed happily, throwing his fists in the air.

"Anyway, I'm beat," she said quickly, pointing at the lamp on her bedside table. Henry finished drying himself off before flipping the lights off. The room instantly became dark with the moon and stars throwing a few bits of light on the floor. She pulled the covers up over her head, feeling Aries' eyes on her.

"Lu?" Henry said curiously.

"Go to sleep," she snapped, rolling over. Henry didn't say anything else, but she could still feel Aries' eyes on her until she fell into a dream-filled sleep.

—

When Denise woke up, the sun was high in the sky. It looked like it was ten or eleven in the morning. She sat up yawning and saw that while Henry was sleeping at the foot of her bed, Aries' bed was made neatly and he was gone, although his clothes were still on the windowsill and the bathroom was open and empty. She was just about to go looking for him when the room's door opened and he showed up with three metal trays stacked on top of each other.

"I brought breakfast," he said brightly, which annoyed her to no ends. There was a small folding table in the corner of the room, which Denise set up. Aries chose the same breakfast for all of them, or maybe the PokéCenter had one breakfast: scrambled Pidgey eggs, Grumpig bacon, toast, and a bottle of orange juice. Mew woke up when they started eating and Aries gave her a slice of toast with some eggs.

It tastes like individual elements and molecules, she complained.

"Then don't eat it," Denise snapped, shoving as much of her eggs in her mouth as she could.

"Denise, you'll choke," Aries warned.

"Shut up," she said, swallowing. Henry pretended to be highly focused on balancing all of his eggs on his toast, staying out of the conversation.

"Fine," he sighed, taking a bite of his toast. She gave him a few angry looks between bites; it wasn't her fault she was freaking starving, and it didn't help that he acted like eating was just a pastime. He had to be hungry too, since they did the same things the other day, but he sure as hell didn't show it.

"Also," he continued, startling her a little. He set a PokeBall on the table. "I stopped by Nurse Joy on my way to the café and I reclaimed this."

Denise picked up the PokeBall and pressed the button. It popped open and a red beam shot out and onto the floor. When the light died down, the grey and red thing was back again, except this time it was dry and glaring at them with narrowed blue eyes. Who the hell are you all? it growled. It took Denise a few seconds to realize it was speaking telepathically, and a few more to realize that she'd become so desensitized to weird stuff that she wasn't surprised at all, although she still couldn't recognize the Pokémon.

"…I see," Aries murmured. "And where is he now?"

What? the Pokémon said, confused. It stared at Aries for a long while before it muttered, Psychic, of course.

"What the hell are you two talking about?" Denise demanded. "And what the hell are you?"

Sick of dirty humans, I am, it snapped, lurching to its feet. It was tall, Aries' height, with grey fur all over its body and long red fur like hair on its head.

"He is a Zoroark," Aries said. "A Unova Pokémon."

A Unova Pokémon? she thought. No wonder I didn't recognize it.

I'm the Zoroark, idiot, he snapped, apparently offended. The king of my pack.

"You were," he corrected softly. The Zoroark narrowed his eyes at Aries.

Look, do you want to take this outside, because I have zero qualms about taking a human down and beating your scrawny little—

"ENOUGH!" she shouted, causing both of them to fall silent and look at her. "You can argue and pick fights all you want but not when I'm eating, or else you'll be pickin' a fight with me, and trust me when I say you'll lose that one. Do I make myself clear?" she snapped at the Zoroark. He still scowled, but he went to a corner and sat down, not making another sound. "Good," she huffed, turning back to her breakfast.

Okay, well, maybe I won't fight every human, the Zoroark muttered.

"Denise is the one opponent I believe even Arceus would lose to," Aries laughed, earning a glare from her.

"Lucario, Luca, Lucario," Henry said, finally adding in his two cents. Aries laughed again.

"'She was always the one saving Dee and Derrick from playground bullies in elementary school. Half of them can't have kids of their own today.'"

"You might join them," she warned, bringing Henry back to his eggs-and-toast monomania.

"In any case," he said, "what's your name, friend?"

Hah! I'm not your friend, the Zoroark grumbled, turning his back to them so that he looked like a fluffy red pillow. She vaguely wondered if it was possible to smother a pillow.

His name is Theophilus, Mew supplied.

"A very profound name," he said somewhat admirably. Theophilus snorted, but even Denise could tell he was pleased at that. "What happened to you, Theophilus?" Aries asked. He got no response, and he apparently respected Theophilus' privacy more than Denise's, because he didn't try to pry. "Please tell me; I did try to help you by bringing you to the Pokémon Center, you know."

Fat load of good that'll do me, what with Val still hot on my— He cut himself off, writhing a little in his spot.

"Who is Val?" Denise asked, and of course, she didn't get a response. Aries suddenly gasped, taking up Theophilus' PokeBall.

"I forgot to release you," he said. "Hold on—"

"Yeah, hold on," she said, putting her hand on his to stop him. He looked up at her in interest. "Don't release him just yet."

"What?" What? Aries and Theophilus said at the same time, although the latter yelled it, leaping to his feet and turning back to them. The hell are you talking about, "Don't release him just yet?"

"I'm talking about what I'm talking about," she said, unperturbed. That seemed to scare him and Aries and Henry more than if she was mad. "You're really annoying me, and 'cause I have morals enough to not attack someone that's just had their butt kicked, I won't touch you—however, I will keep you until I find your problem and solve it myself, just to get a word of gratitude out of you."

He made a grimace so bad she assumed that for him, apologizing was tantamount to suicide. And what if I don't wanna apologize, huh?

She smiled. "You get to be my Pokémon." Theophilus completely froze.

"Lucario," Henry said, shaking his head.

'If there was ever a punishment worse than death,' Mew translated, taking bites from Aries' tray while he was watching the exchange between her and Theophilus.

"Indeed," Aries agreed.

Alright, alright! Theophilus said, throwing his claws in the air. I give up! Fine, you guys can help, he sighed. But that doesn't make me like you trash any more. And you can't win against Val.

"Who's Val?" Aries asked this time, putting his hand on her arm to stop her from rushing Theophilus.

Valentine, he repeated with both distaste and fear, is the guy who wants my head on a platter—and my big brother.

—

Denise and Aries checked out of the PokéCenter a few hours later when their clothes were clean and dry. (For whatever reason, he had washed her shirt and jeans too, which she appreciated since she didn't have money to buy a new outfit but didn't thank him out loud for.) Theophilus whined about it while they were out on an empty street near the entrance to Cerulean Cave, trying to figure out how to get to Johto.

"Plane tickets are out of the question," Aries said, Mew in his arms. At Denise's badgering, she had changed into an Eevee.

"Why? 'Cause you're broke?" Denise asked, ignoring Theophilus' ringing protests in her head. Aries did too, although he did look at Theophilus several times.

"No, I'm just scared of heights," he said very plainly.

"What? With all that crap that happened to you years ago, you're scared of heights? What, are you afraid the moon'll fall on you?"

"Lucario, Luca, Lucario?" Henry asked.

"I believe either Denise or Theophilus would go crazy, in that case," Aries said.

"What?" she asked.

"Henry suggested a boat."

"I don't like this," she complained. "Why don't you teach me how to understand Pokémon, at the very least?"

"Hmm," he hummed thoughtfully. "It isn't that hard, and with the strength of the bond you and Henry could… Alright, I will, but on the way."

"Why don't we travel by Rapidash?" she suggested.

"They're hard to find; harder to tame."

"You can't…?"

"Some things are immune to even my boundless charm," he said, although she couldn't tell if he was joking or not.

Even so, Mew said, we can't ride Rapidash across the water.

"What about teleportation?" she asked. "I mean, that's a Psychic-type move, isn't it?"

"Maybe in a different time," Aries said, "but right now, with all of this baggage… And besides, teleportation becomes iffy after a certain amount of mass; you're more likely to teleport and leave a few extremities behind."

"Like?"

"Well… How well would you fare without, say, your right arm?"

This is stupid! Theophilus exclaimed, getting a sharp look from Henry this time. Oh, like I'm scared of a Psychic-type with no Psychic-type abilities, he scowled, crossing his arms over his bushy chest.

"Luca," Henry snapped, turning to him with his fists clenched.

You can't hurt me, Theophilus said.

"Lucario," Henry said bitterly, cracking his knuckles. Denise grabbed his arm.

"I'm all for you knockin' his brains out, Henry, but he may actually be useful against you-know-who and you-know-what, so spare him, please?"

Henry moved away from Theophilus, although he kept a grimace on the whole time. "I know!" Denise said. "Warp pad!"

"Warp pad?" Aries repeated, confused.

"You know, that crap Team Rocket invented that'll take you anywhere in seconds!"

"Doesn't that entail—I don't know—finding and infiltrating a Team Rocket base?"

"We can do that, no sweat."

Yes, "sweat," Mew countered. Even if we don't consider Silver, who is one of their stronger Trainers, the Executives are currently in Kanto, and they make for strong protection.

"But we have you," Denise said. "And Henry and this wacko here."

Who says I'm helping you? Theophilus snorted.

"Can you, please?" Aries asked.

No, he said. I'm not gonna help out any humans because you all are some useless, selfish bastards and I'm ten times better off without any of you buggin' me! he yelled before he vanished. Like, vanished vanished—he completely disappeared a second later. Then:

"He's still here," Aries said quietly.

"What is he, invisible?"

"Something like that; he is creating an illusion for our physical eyes, but my mind's eye can still perceive his thoughts. We can't touch him though," he said when she started kicking where Theophilus was standing seconds ago.

Frustrated, she pulled out his PokeBall and pressed the return button. The red flash scattered everywhere for a minute before finally catching Theophilus' form, pulling him back inside. "So we're going to a Team Rocket base?"

Aries thought for a long while. "I can't think of anything better, so…"

"Lucario," Henry shrugged.

This is madness, Mew said, but she was outvoted.

"Then it's settled," Denise said. "Let's start looking."