Exiled Stranger

That evening, while at the dinner table with his mother and father, Mint tells them about how he saw the ghost of the Elder Cinccino. Of course, this is not without its own consequences, for his parents aren't happy about what he did.

Emilia frowns at him. "You know you're not supposed to go into the Elder's den! If anyone finds out, we're all gonna be in hot water!" she then sighs, for she partially understands why he did it. It's not the first time he's told them about going there.

Ross shakes his head. "If you keep sneaking in there, you're bound to get caught. I'm not gonna say the same thing I've said the last 30 times you broke in, it's a broken record at this point."

Mint looks at the ground in shame. "I know… but I didn't want to do something regrettable to those children…"

Both his parents look at each other for a second, confused as to what he means by that. Emilia has no choice but to ask him. "Mint… what do you mean…?"

He nervously responds. "I-I didn't do anything to them… they're the ones that… that made me break into the den… They were teasing me and I took myself away from them to avoid hurting or yelling at them."

She stays silent. At least he's being honest. The fact that he knew what not to do pleases her but because he broke into the den, it might as well have been him hurting one of them. She frowns once more.

"I know you hate when others bully you, but you cannot be breaking into the Elder's den anymore. We've told you this so many times that it's probably drilled into your head by this point but I'm saying it again: do not ever break into the elder's den. Okay? Please Mint, I don't want you getting in trouble."

He nods. There is one thing he hasn't told them about, and that's the little pendant sitting on the grass chair directly in front of him under the table as to not be seen by either of them. He's unsure about telling them, for they might think he stole it, which isn't what happened. He takes a quick glance at it and then shoots back up to his parents. Luckily for him, they didn't notice his sudden eye movement. The pendant is faintly glowing and an aura similar to the one the elder had seems to outline it. Perhaps the Elder's power is contained within the pendant, but Mint has zero clue as to why she gave it to him.

His thoughts are interrupted by his mother. "Mint… you haven't touched your food since you got home. Aren't you hungry?"

He looks at the small berry pile in front of him. On any other day, these would've been gone mere seconds after he came home, but not today. He has way too much on his mind and one of the things that isn't being thought about is hunger.

"S-sorry mom… I'm just not that hungry." he says quietly.

She shrugs. "Oh well, I can't blame you. If you really did see the ghost of our Elder, then I wouldn't want to eat either."

He stands up from the table, sneakily picking up the pendant in the process and hiding it well in his right paw. "I'm gonna go for a walk. I won't go far."

Ross immediately stands up. "You better be careful. You remember the rumors going around the colony, right?"

He looks him in the eyes and his expression tenses a bit. "I don't want to hear about you getting hurt by them, so you better be aware of your surroundings. If you see anything, run. It's not worth trying to fight them, especially since nobody has seen what they look like."

Mint gives him a slow nod. "I wasn't planning on fighting with anybody, I don't feel like it. I'll be careful, don't you worry."

Ross, while hesitant, sits back down and watches his son leave the den.

The sun has fallen below the horizon but there's still a bit of light left. It isn't enough for the forest to be lit up properly for most day dwelling Pokemon to see thanks to the thick leaves and brush, but that's not a problem for Mint. Some of the Minccino in the colony have the ability to see in the dark a little bit better than the others, and Mint and his family are part of that group.

To him, the path ahead is only slightly darkened. While there is no wind, the leaves and grasses sway ever so slightly. He walks down the path towards the main colony, looking at the pendant in the process. It glows and gives off a bit of light and little shiny sparkles radiate off its surface. As he looks at it, he's compelled to put it around his neck to wear it but in the back of his mind, the thought of someone seeing him with it might spark new rumors or instigate more bullying so he refrains from wearing it...for now.

He passes by the strange stone in the grass from yesterday. Untouched and undiscovered, it watches him walk by. It seems to resonate and begins glowing faintly in his presence but the moment he's more than 10 feet away, it stops glowing. Seems the stone has taken a liking to him. Surprisingly, he didn't notice it yet again, probably because he's engrossed in trying to understand the reasons behind why the Elder gave him the pendant.

"Why would she give me something so valuable and precious to her? More importantly, why does it seem to constantly glow and sparkle? Did she put her soul into it? Is that what that light was yesterday?" he thought to himself as something tells him to look up.

He's on the very outskirts of the colony. Seems he didn't pay attention to where he was going.

"Oops… I went the wrong way I guess… my father told me to pay attention and I'm already disobeying him by coming here." he whispers to himself before turning around and running back the way he came.

As he runs past the stone once again, it quickly begins to glow in his presence and out of the corner of his eye, he notices it. He stops and looks back. The glow is gone. He raises an eyebrow at this and walks over to where he thinks the glow was coming from and as he pushes the tall grass aside, the stone begins to glow brightly and reveal itself to him.

He walks over to it and kneels down to get a better look. He's never seen a stone glow that brightly before, but then again, it's quite pretty as well. He raises his left paw and slowly reaches for it…

The sound of someone whistling grabs his attention and he turns his head towards the direction it's coming from. He notices a dark shape coming towards him from the direction of the colony and he jumps behind a nearby tree, tightly grasping the pendant in his right paw to hide it as best as possible. The shining stone stops glowing and he pokes his head out a tiny bit to see who or what it is.

The dark silhouette is difficult to make out, but from what appears to be its cheeks, a couple quick jolts of electricity seem to come from it every 4 or so seconds. These bolts momentarily light up the stranger's face and reveal their yellow skin and red cheek pouches. Only one Pokemon has the ability to use electricity and has red cheek pouches and yellow skin: Pikachu.

Mint finds this very odd. "What the…? What's a Pikachu doing in Pinwheel Forest, better yet, what're they doing in our colony?" he thinks to himself when suddenly, the Pikachu's eyes shoot towards the tree he's hiding behind.

He ducks behind it quickly, hoping they didn't see him. The Pikachu coughs a couple times and then calls out to him. "Eyyo? I saw that… if you're trying to scare me, you've failed already. Come out and show yourself, I won't hurt ya."

Mint doesn't want to, but he doesn't wanna seem like an asshole to an outsider so he comes out of hiding. The Pikachu squints their eyes at them for a moment and then laughs. "Ahahahaaaa! A Minccino was trying to scare me!? Bwahahahahaahaaaa!"

He continues to laugh as if it was the funniest thing he's seen all day. Mint can't determine if he's being laughed AT or if they're laughing at what they thought he was trying to do to them. They stop laughing and wipe a few tears from their eyes. "Ooh man… been a long time since any baby Pokemon tried to scare me… I'm a little too old for that, don't you think, sport?" they say to him.

He puts his paws behind his back and tucks his feet in a little and nervously replies. "...I-I guess…"

The Pikachu waves it off. "Eh fuggedaboutit… You look like a good kid. Tell me, what's your name?"

"M-my n-n-name…!?" he quickly responds without thinking, a couple drops of sweat forming on his forehead.

The Pikachu nods. "Yes. A form of identification, a name! Ya know, like what you're parents, friends, and Elders call ya. Do ya got one?"

Mint gulps and nods.

"Okay, then what're called, champ?" he asks.

Mint starts to shake anxiously. "M-mi-m-m-m… Mint… m-my name is m-mint…"

The Pikachu gives him a friendly smile. "Mint! Now THAT's what I call a name! As for you, you can call me one ear'd, broken tail'd meg!"

Mint raises an eyebrow. The Pikachu notices that he doesn't get the joke and sighs. "...Tough humor, huh? Alright, plain and simple, people and Pokemon call me Scott." he then extends his left hand out for Mint to shake.

Mint raises his left paw, still shaking anxiously, but manages to grab his hand and they shake. Scott gives him a gentle pat on the shoulder. "Hey, chill out man! There's no need for all this anxiety and shit, I ain't gonna do anything to you."

He takes a deep breath and stops shaking. It's been a while since he met a stranger. It doesn't help that his mind isn't giving him anything to say though, so it just seems weird. Scott doesn't seem to care though. "Alright, I get your gig… you're one of those socially awkward types aren't you?" he says.

Mint's cheeks become a little red. "H-how'd he know…?" he thought to himself.

Scott notices this. "Aha! Seems I'm right!" he then does a little victory pose. "Score another one for the scottster!" he turns back to him. "Since that's how it seems it's gonna be, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. Take as long as you need to respond to anything I say. If it makes it easier for you though, you don't have to say anything. I get it, you're scared to talk and shit. I was just like that once when I was younger."

He walks closer to him and motions for him to turn around. "Let's go for a walk, shall we?" and he starts gently pushing Mint down the path.

"N-n-n… no… w-w-wait… I…" he can't say anything, he's too nervous and his brain's speaking center has shut down.

"No no, we're going. Everything's fine." he then notices that Mint's fur color is much different than all the other Minccino he's seen. "What's this? A different fur color than grey?"

Mint's cheeks are burning red. He can't even say anything and he's about to get bullied by a STRANGER, someone who doesn't know anything about him besides the fact that he's socially awkward. Scott pushes him along. "Man… c'mon, use your feet dammit! I know your muscles work, you aren't an old timer just yet!"

He stops resisting and walks, sighing to himself. "How did I get into this mess, and how am I gonna get out of it? I want to know what that stone from earlier was…"

Scott notices he seems to be a bit pensive. "Hey, what're ya thinking about? I can tell something's on your mind."

He stays silent, it's the only thing he can think of that could get him out of this.

"Not gonna answer? That's cool. I get your types a lot. Anyway, you're probably thinking about what I was doing in your colony. Well look no further, for I'm someone who used to live in a colony just like you, but alas… I was much different than the others and they didn't want to associate themselves with me, so they left me out to dry."

Sounds like what Mint's dealing with right now. This grabs his attention and he listens to him. Scott continues. "Unlike other Pikachu, my ears were a little deformed and my tail was all chewed up. Well, actually, it's not quite that bad, but I've got a bit of a quirk to my appearance and they certainly didn't approve of it. I can't change myself in that regard though, so I said to hell with them. Bad luck and all that negative shit, you know what I'm saying?" he looks at Mint, who nods slowly.

True to his words, he has a rather odd looking deformity going on with one of his ears. It seems to be bent in a few directions. His tail is also weird as well, looking as if something had clawed and tore it up. Other than that, he was still classifiable as a Pikachu. He continues to talk.

"Yep! I'm an exile. It ain't all that bad though. I found out a few months later that karma came into effect and all of those bastards were caught by some weird group of humans. I forgot what they were called… PFU? PPU? Ah who the fuck cares, serves them right. Treated me like shit and made me feel like a waste of oxygen. That's what you get, all the bad energy you put out there got thrown right back at ya."

He stretches himself out and walks with Mint. He notices that he seems rather interested in his story, so he continues. "Now, I don't know anything about you, but you seem like the sort that might be considered different in a bad way. Look at yourself, no Minccino I've seen in this colony a few hours ago had fur the likes of your color."

Mint becomes a little upset by this. Scott somehow knew this without being told anything. Either he's a stalker he never saw until now, or he's just getting lucky. Regardless, it's freaking him out a little.

"That look you're givin' me. I'm right, aren't I? Score another for me then… but that's not important. At LEAST you've still got a home and a family to go back to, right?"

Mint gives him an odd look.

"What? Am I wrong or something…?" he sighs. "Whatever… family or not, you haven't been kicked out, otherwise you wouldn't have been in the same place I was." he then remembers that he noticed him hiding behind the tree moments before meeting him. "By the way, why were you hiding behind that tree earlier? I was kidding about you trying to scare me, but I'm stuck on figuring out what you were really doing. Mind telling me?"

Mint's eyes shoot wide open, he has to speak for the first time in what seems like an eternity. "O-oh… yeah… a-about that…" he taps his paws together nervously. "Y-you see… I was… I-I was…"

He doesn't want to tell him about the stone. He fears that he might take it and stop him from figuring out what was causing it to glow. Scott waits for him to tell him the rest but Mint doesn't.

"You were what? What were you doing?" he asks.

Mint sighs. He can't think of any white lies at the moment so he sucks it up and deals with it. "I-I was looking… at a g-glowing stone…"

"A glowing stone?"

Mint nods. "Y-yes…" he averts his gaze away from him.

Scott thinks about it for a second, then speaks. "Maybe this forest has some glowstone. I know there's certain places in Unova that have glowing stones. For example, you know Chargestone Cave?"

Mint shakes his head.

"Ahh… well, inside that cave, there's a bunch of stones filled to the brim with electricity. If you touch one, you'll get a shocking surprise. They also glow as well if that wasn't implied at this point. Anyway, maybe one of those stones were transported out here by an ancient Pokemon or something. You never know!" says Scott.

He has a point, but what Mint saw wasn't electricity causing that stone to glow. Scott is interested in it too. "Anyway, where is the stone located? I'm assuming you know because this IS your home after all."

Mint stops and takes a look around him. He suddenly notices that Scott had taken him into a part of the forest he's never been in. They're really deep in Pinwheel Forest and they haven't even been walking that fast, it doesn't even feel that they walked that far either. Mint remembers what his father had said, to pay attention, and by extension, don't go too far into the forest.

He turns to Scott. "Y-yeah… but… I uh… I have to g-go… it's l-late and… there's b-bad Pokemon… bad Pokemon are out here…" he says, hoping he'll let him go.

Scott shrugs. "Oh well, guess I'll see you around or something. I don't know when I'll be here again, so I hope you figure out whatever it is you wanted to figure out."

Mint nods and turns around to head back home but before he takes off running on all fours, Scott stops him. "Hey hold on!"

Mint looks back at him.

"Try not to let those assholes bother you too much! Just because you're different doesn't mean that it's a bad thing!"

Mint nods and then takes off. As much as this stranger seemed to understand him, he didn't really like him that much. He came off as someone that just constantly talked and seemed to be a bit annoying. Despite that though, he appears to be quite knowledgeable and perhaps the next time Mint sees him, he'll actually be able to talk to him properly...