Aether's Prelude - An Original Pokémon Fiction

Prologue - Leaving (Ultimate Rise Tie-In)

  It was enough. The abuse. The resentment. Constantly feeling second to someone else, like they only ever cared about him because he was their workhorse. So while they left to go cater to their favorite daughter's whims, he packed his things. He even went into the attic for the only thing his birth parents left him. He stowed it in his grey suitcase and called a car. He was leaving. And this time, his father wouldn't drive up and stop him. He wouldn't turn back because he had no other options or because he still had loyalty. This time, he was actually gone.

The driver arrived in a gray minivan, which almost reminded him of the white van that picked him up for kindergarten when he was young. He opened the sliding door, put the suitcase next to him, and sat down in the van, slumping down somewhat from the emotional weight of the situation. "Alright. Where to, kid?" the driver asked. He thought for a moment, what the best plan would be. He would need to go to the bank in Multivillum Town to get his money. So that was the first stop. "Multivillum Town Square." he replied.

   As the car started to roll away, he took one last short look at the house he'd barely lived in for a year. What he missed, however, was the red and black shape that appeared out of the woods for a moment, and for a moment tired to catch up with the car... Before stopping. Maybe Dan would come back. He could get him then.

After being dropped off at the town square, Dan walked to the bank and withdrew some of his cash and stuffed it in the laptop bag he had with him.

He then got someone to take him to a hotel in Palmarium City. And once he got to the room, he just collapsed on the bed, his emotions having practically drained all his energy. He hardly felt like moving at all. He could only stare at the ceiling, as exhaustion started to overtake him.

  How did it even get this bad, he began to ask himself. He gathered his thoughts, trying to recall just where everything went wrong. But that was the problem, he found. It always had been like this. There really wasn't a start, because it had been like this since the beginning. Only now, he'd gotten so tired of the same thing that he left. After... His only friend and companion was taken away from him. A wound he was still even now. But now wasn't the time to waste on digging out the pain.  Tomorrow, he had a journey to embark on, taking life somewhere it would be lived without the shadows left by his past. Somewhere that hopefully would allow him to heal. So he turned out the light and shifted to a more comfortable position on the bed, as he worked his hardest to fall asleep. And before long, the day was behind him.