Chapter 3: Now, To Find Him.
Now, the only remaining question was: Where do I find this "Ash Ketchum"?
The solution was easy, but I still hesitated.
I didn't like to read people's minds anymore than I had to, despite my without-a-thought reading of the Professor's.
I'd certainly read enough minds already for a thousand lifetimes.
It always felt like a breach of privacy when I did so...And I knew how much *I* enjoyed *my* privacy...
Professor Oak seemed to have no clue where to find the boy...But he knew who might.
Phew. I was glad I didn't have to scour through all the minds in the countryside to get a hint of his location...
Instead I would go to a good source.
The boy's mother.
With a flick of my tail, I zipped off, this time out the window, it closing silently behind me.
I scanned the nearby houses, then found the right one.
It was easier to read minds the closer you were to them, and a whole lot less draining.
Inside the house, Ash's mother was sleeping. Just in time, I noticed a Mr. Mime, and became very careful in moving around, and shielding my mind from his.
Mr. Mime was a Psychic Pokémon, so I would have to tread, metaphorically speaking of course, since I rarely touched the ground, carefully.
The woman clenched her pillow tightly, happily whispering, "Oh Ash, I'm so proud of you..." The tone in her voice turned sad, "But I miss you...and I just wish you would come home..."
I felt a ping at the last word.
Home.
I used to have a home.
Until the Evil Man had begun destroying it, plowing down trees and wrecking perfectly nice lakes...
All in an attempt to flush out me and any other members of my species that might be hiding there.
Luckily I wasn't too surprised when I first heard the bulldozers, and whizzed up, instead of throughout the trees in my haven, where I would surely have been caught.
I'd then checked out what they were doing, and with my mind caused several of the large machines to crash into each other, making sure the humans got out alive, (as much as I hated them, they didn't deserve to die,) but blocking the area with debris so that it would take quite a while for them to remove it all and get back to work on destroying my habitat.
Time was bought for a small price, but I'd best use it wisely.
After glancing at a picture on the bedside table, to take in the capped boy's appearance, I scanned the mother's mind...
It seemed the last report she'd gotten from her son was kind of sketchy on details...She thought he was near Viridian City, but was unsure.
To Viridian City it is, then.
After a quick flying journey (I didn't like to Teleport because my only brother, even though he was inexperienced and well aware of it, had tried Teleporting one time, but something had gone terribly wrong. When he returned he was insane. My father had reluctantly put him out of his misery, but it still continued to haunt my memory), I was in Viridian City.
I gave a quick mental check on the few awake citizens' minds, but they knew nothing of the boy from Pallet Town's location.
The nearby woods, perhaps? The walking path?
Annoyed, I hovered in one spot for a moment, then shot off on the path that lead out of Viridian City. I reached out Psychically, and finally found a couple of young human minds and a few Pokémon's, happily chatting, laughing, and camping out around a warm fire.
At last!
I'd finally found him!
Now, the only remaining question was: Where do I find this "Ash Ketchum"?
The solution was easy, but I still hesitated.
I didn't like to read people's minds anymore than I had to, despite my without-a-thought reading of the Professor's.
I'd certainly read enough minds already for a thousand lifetimes.
It always felt like a breach of privacy when I did so...And I knew how much *I* enjoyed *my* privacy...
Professor Oak seemed to have no clue where to find the boy...But he knew who might.
Phew. I was glad I didn't have to scour through all the minds in the countryside to get a hint of his location...
Instead I would go to a good source.
The boy's mother.
With a flick of my tail, I zipped off, this time out the window, it closing silently behind me.
I scanned the nearby houses, then found the right one.
It was easier to read minds the closer you were to them, and a whole lot less draining.
Inside the house, Ash's mother was sleeping. Just in time, I noticed a Mr. Mime, and became very careful in moving around, and shielding my mind from his.
Mr. Mime was a Psychic Pokémon, so I would have to tread, metaphorically speaking of course, since I rarely touched the ground, carefully.
The woman clenched her pillow tightly, happily whispering, "Oh Ash, I'm so proud of you..." The tone in her voice turned sad, "But I miss you...and I just wish you would come home..."
I felt a ping at the last word.
Home.
I used to have a home.
Until the Evil Man had begun destroying it, plowing down trees and wrecking perfectly nice lakes...
All in an attempt to flush out me and any other members of my species that might be hiding there.
Luckily I wasn't too surprised when I first heard the bulldozers, and whizzed up, instead of throughout the trees in my haven, where I would surely have been caught.
I'd then checked out what they were doing, and with my mind caused several of the large machines to crash into each other, making sure the humans got out alive, (as much as I hated them, they didn't deserve to die,) but blocking the area with debris so that it would take quite a while for them to remove it all and get back to work on destroying my habitat.
Time was bought for a small price, but I'd best use it wisely.
After glancing at a picture on the bedside table, to take in the capped boy's appearance, I scanned the mother's mind...
It seemed the last report she'd gotten from her son was kind of sketchy on details...She thought he was near Viridian City, but was unsure.
To Viridian City it is, then.
After a quick flying journey (I didn't like to Teleport because my only brother, even though he was inexperienced and well aware of it, had tried Teleporting one time, but something had gone terribly wrong. When he returned he was insane. My father had reluctantly put him out of his misery, but it still continued to haunt my memory), I was in Viridian City.
I gave a quick mental check on the few awake citizens' minds, but they knew nothing of the boy from Pallet Town's location.
The nearby woods, perhaps? The walking path?
Annoyed, I hovered in one spot for a moment, then shot off on the path that lead out of Viridian City. I reached out Psychically, and finally found a couple of young human minds and a few Pokémon's, happily chatting, laughing, and camping out around a warm fire.
At last!
I'd finally found him!