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Forgotten year

Thick layer of fog floated above the streets of Lumiose city during this overcast day that hung above the city like a bad atmosphere. Countless puddles, which had resulted from rain a few hours ago, added to the glumness that prevailed in the capital of Kalos.

It was a day to stay in, so to speak.

Just a few individuals left the warmth of their houses to walk their Furfrous.

It could start to rain again at any minute and some would say that the sky was about to cry.

Under the protection of an umbrella, two humans stood motionless on the sidewalk of one of the city's many streets. Both of them had blonde hair and they were a little similar, however, this wasn't a surprise, because they were siblings.

"We looked so much forward to this.", said the little girl gloomily.

She looked at a poster that hung on the wall of a shop. On it, you could see a picture of Aria and her Delphox with the tile 'Pokémon Showcase in Lumiose city'. According to the poster, it was supposed to be held today. Was it cancelled?

"I know," answered her brother, Clemont. "There will be more Pokémon Showcases in the future , but at the moment, no one of us would really want to enjoy it."

Bonnie knew what he meant, because next to the Showcase poster was another poster, but it wasn't a commercial, but rather the exact opposite. It was difficult to look at it, because it only reminded the siblings on their helplessness in this situation.

It was a missing person report.

There were a few details about the person given on the poster: Raven-colored hair, brown eyes, red and white cap, red shoes, blue and white shirt, jeans, gloves, always a Pikachu on his shoulder

It was a missing poster of Ash! Of course, his photo on the poster was unmistakable and every information about his whereabouts should be given to the police station of the town. On the picture, the boy looked so enthusiastic unlike the people that stood in front of the poster.

"I hope so much that he's okay.", said Bonnie sadly, being on the verge of tears.

As her brother, Clemont had to say some encouraging words. " … Ash's not the kind of person that just disappears without a reason, Bonnie. Maybe, he just needs some time alone … you know."

"*sniff* … we haven't seen him in three days, Clemont. Do you really think that he would stay away for so long?", asked Bonnie, sniffing and she wiped a tear away.

Actually, Clemont couldn't give her a true answer.

Actually, the missing person poster wasn't only on this wall, but rather on almost every wall in the whole city, however, there hadn't been a person that had seen Ash so far. With the foggy weather, the whole scene looked like a bad detective movie.

"The fog doesn't make it easy.", explained Clemont, looking up.

Every now and then, you could see a police car that drove along a street, however, it didn't feel as if everybody gave its best to find the missing boy.

"Let's continue to search for him!", demanded Bonnie, clenching her fists and confronting her brother with a determined expression.

"You're right, but at first, we need to think about spots where we haven't looked so far.", answered Clemont, understanding the importance of keeping a level head. "At the moment, we have to work with the police and together, we'll find him. No need to worry!"

"He has to feel so lonely.", said Bonnie, knowing how much she was afraid of being alone.

"Don't forget that Pikachu's with him, Bonnie, so he isn't completely alone.", retorted Clemont, trying everything in his power to encourage his sister not to lose her hope.

" … yes … he wouldn't let his other Pokémon back, would he?", asked Bonnie, somewhat rhetorically.

Indeed, Ash's other Pokémon were still within his backpack and the backpack wasn't with the raven-haired trainer at the moment.

"That's right. They are too important to him.", replied Clemont, nodding. In his opinion, Ash's will was one of the strongest that he had ever seen and that made him believe that the Kanto native would appear again and then, they could continue the journey together.

Once again, Bonnie sniffed silently after she saw another set of posters.

"We'll find him for sure.", said Clemont again, pretending to be without doubt.

"I … *sniff* … I just thought about Serena … she's not the same anymore.", said Bonnie, looking sadly to the ground.

Clemont knew that, but he also knew that Serena was closer to Ash than they were. It wasn't just the fact that she met him in her early childhood, but that she also got her inspiration and motivation from him.

I f someone thought that it was difficult to encourage Bonnie, then he hadn't seen Serena …

Not far away in a Pokémon centre room, it was quite dark and the curtains blocked every light that came from the outside. The room was a complete mess and it didn't look like as if the owner did much for its beauty right now.

A scary silence dominated the room and the gloomy atmosphere from the outside was reflected within the room as well.

On a small table next to the door was a plate with soup and some sort of cup with something to drink.

It was difficult to tell, but it seemed that it stood there for a few hours already. Strangely enough, you couldn't peek through the keyhole, because it was blocked by the key from the other side, which meant that someone locked the door up from the outside.

In the bed of the room was someone, but she wasn't sleeping.

She was rather clinging to her covers, because of frustration and other emotions.

Every time she heard how a car drove past the centre, she lifted her head, but every time, she was disappointed, because there was no one coming.

Suddenly, she coughed heavily and it annoyed her to cough.

When she turned onto her side, you could see that her face was red, however, it wasn't a blush.

With sweatdrops appearing on her forehead, you could only assume that she had a light fever.

Her whole body shivered and her headache, courtesy of her fever, made it even worse for her, because she thought too much. She strained her mind too much and she couldn't even give herself some rest that she actually needed.

In the corner o the room you could see a bag and various Pokémon stuff, including Poffles and a ribbon, however, it didn't look as if it was touched at all. On the night table next to the bed, the same missing poster laid on the furniture that hung on every wall in the town.

In another corner, there was a dustbin and apparently, someone didn't bother too much to hit the basket, because close to it laid a rumbled paper, where you could only read the words invitation and showcase anymore.

Continuously, sniffing and sobbing was audible from the girl …

In the same building, Officer Jenny stood in front of the counter, talking with Nurse Joy, who nodded a few times after Jenny gave her a few orders. Like everywhere, a gloomy atmosphere reigned in the hall and it was almost sensible that no one wanted to talk too much.

"Don't worry, Officer!", said Joy, understanding the importance of Jenny's request. "I already brought her a warm soup and a hot drink, although I don't know if she wants to accept it."

"I can't blame her.", retorted Jenny, taking a huge breath. "After all, her friend went missing."

After a short silence, Joy replied, "It's terrible that it's Ash from out of all people … I hope nothing happened to him. He's such a kind boy."

"Be assured that the police does everything in its power to find him.", assured Jenny, showing her conscientiousness. "That's why you have to keep an eye on this girl, Joy."

"I will, but it will be difficult to convince her to wait her and not to look for him on her own.", explained Joy, with a worried undertone.

"No matter, how hard it is, but she needs to think about her own well being. She looked two straight days for him, even during the nights and even during the storm one day ago. Fortunately, her fever isn't too bad, however, she needs to stay in bed for at least a few days. It won't help her friend at all if she risks her own health for him.", explained Jenny coherently.

"I find it drastic to lock her in a room.", explained Joy uneasily.

"It's drastic.", Jenny admitted, not wanting to lie. "The police can't take the responsibility though when something happens to her. It's for her own good."

Joy nodded and she looked worriedly to the corridor. "I hope so much that Ash will be found soon, so she doesn't have to worry anymore. It would be the best medicine at the moment."

In the meantime, it had started to rain at the outside, but it didn't have any effect on the girl, who still tried to convince herself that it was just a nightmare and that she would wake up any time soon. She was weakened and it made her angry that she didn't have the strength to look for her friend.

She almost didn't sleep at all during the last few days and when she did, it was only for a few minutes.

Eventually, she couldn't suppress her tears anymore.

Reality hit hard and the girl started to fear the worst scenario.

Every time, she feared that he wouldn't come back.

Now, it was even worse that she didn't know at all what happened to him, or why he was gone.

"Ash, where are you?", said the girl suddenly, expecting some answer from out of the blue that never came though.

At another location, where it didn't even rain at the moment, a chaotic event possibly spelled the beginning of a plot that would perhaps cause a series of events that would cost everyone something, more or less.

Miles and miles around, there wasn't an inhabited spot and from the view of a bird, you couldn't see anything strange here. There was just nature, nothing more.

With a blurred vision, Ash woke up from a very long sleep and he coughed a few times, which hurt his lunges a lot. It took a few moments until Ash eventually remembered what had happened to him and he forced himself up to a sitting position.

His vision was still blurry, he felt terrible and his throat was as dry as dust.

Suddenly, a bowl with fresh water was placed in front of him and Ash didn't even think before he drank as much as he could. After his torturing thirst was gone, he tried to get aware of his surroundings, however, he only noticed the hard ground at first.

"How do you feel?", asked someone with a thoughtful voice.

"Terrible … where am I?", asked Ash weakly, breathing heavily.

"I can't tell you where we are, because I don't know it myself.", retorted the voice tensely. "Actually, you almost slept two days and I - - -"

"Two days?", retorted Ash with a shocked voice and he started to look hectically around. There wasn't much light at this spot and Ash couldn't notice much right now, only something that looked like bars of a prison in front of him. "Where's Pikachu?"

"Pikachu? I guess, it's your Pokémon, but they brought you here without any Pokémon, although you said the name of it a few times during your sleep.", said the voice, seemingly taking its time to answer Ash's question.

Slowly but surely, Ash's eyes adapted to the light and now, he could see that it were indeed bars in front of him and he was in a small prison, or cell.

Shaking the bars, the boy tried to open the cell somehow, however, it was useless.

It wasn't a surprise though, because Ash felt so weak. "I'm almost starving …"

"I know, but unfortunately, they don't give us anything to eat.", responded the voice again.

Eventually, Ash turned around to see with whom he was talking at all. With the few light, Ash could at least tell that the other person was just a boy like him, perhaps even the same age. Apparently, he had messy brown and longer hair in a ponytail, three-colored eyes and a normal built.

"Who are they that you're talking about?", asked Ash, burning with curiosity after he calmed down a bit.

"Did I say they?", asked the fellow prisoner. "Well, I don't really know who they are, or if it is even more than one. I just woke here up just like you, although I've been here for … oh … I can't really tell. Maybe a week."

"Wait! You haven't eaten anything for a week?", asked Ash with disbelieve.

Looking away, the boy sighed. "Well, it is how it is, but pity won't bring us anything. Before you ask though, I can't tell what all of this is. I can't tell you why we are here and I can't tell you what will happen to us, however, I'm sure that you want out of here as much as I do."

Ash nodded. "I need to find Pikachu and my friends are surely worried sick by my absence.", retorted Ash, clenching his fists.

"This makes it even more important to get out of this prison.", retorted the brunette before he became weirdly silent. " … okay, I was perhaps not completely honest back then … actually, I might have a clue where we are …"

Ash didn't know the boy well enough to be mad at him.

"It are just rumors, okay? From time to time, there were talks about Pokémon that just went missing without a trace. Some people said that those Pokémon were kidnapped and used for some sort of experiments. I don't know… maybe, we are the first humans to be caught by whoever it is.", explained the boy, unsettled.

Ash immediately feared for Pikachu.

"I don't want to serve as a guinea pig. That's out of question.", said the brown-haired boy, with slight fear in his voice and he even shivered a little in fear.

"Nobody will serve as a guinea pig!", assured Ash decisively. "If there's really someone, who does such horrible things, I'll stop him!"

"You're right! I can't start to lose my nerves.", replied the boy, knowing how little it helped to be afraid. "Actually, I might have a plan to get out …"

"My name's Ash.", said Ash suddenly. "We'll get out of here! No need to worry."

Slightly caught off guard, the boy didn't expect such a formality, but he responded, "It's nice to meet you Ash, although the circumstances could be better. By the way, my name's David - - - -"

"OH,YOU'RE AWAKE!"

The voice came from out of the blue and Ash looked hectically around. According to his expression, David hadn't heard this voice so far, but he knew that it was responsible for their situation in this isolated prison.

"Where's Pikachu?", shouted Ash with a demanding voice, being ready to fight for his friend.

"THEN IT'S TIME TO START WITH MY LITTLE IDEA."

Appearing from the shadows, a Haunter became visible in front of Ash before the Pokémon paralyzed him with its tongue. Dropping onto the ground, Ash couldn't do anything and he didn't even realize anything around him, although he wasn't unconsciousness, nor was he sleeping.

Slowly but surely, Ash believed that he could control his body again and maybe, the paralysis was disappearing. Despite his regaining of his consciousness, Ash felt just as weak as before and he wasn't able to move his body the way he wanted to.

'What the heck? What's happening here.', thought Ash, having no idea.

He noticed some kind of pressure on his wrists and ankles before a terrible headache destroyed his thoughts. It was as if someone was playing with his thoughts and Ash couldn't even fight against it. It went so far that the boy remembered some adventures from his past.

"Interesting."

Suddenly, Ash was ripped out of his memories and he heard this voice again. It was the same voice that he had also heard in the cell.

Ash could be wrong, but he could swear that he heard how someone tipped onto a keyboard or something similar.

"This object had experienced some really interesting things."

Fortunately, Ash then slowly regained his vision and although it was blurred again at the beginning, he immediately noticed that he was out of the cell and in the distance he spotted perhaps screens. Anyway, here wasn't any sunlight as well, which didn't make it easy to see something at all.

'Who's playing with me here?', wondered Ash silently.

"It could be worth it to use him for a longer period of time."

Now, Ash saw a silhouette that moved through his field of vision.

"What are you doing?", mumbled Ash with some power.

Apparently, the person hadn't expected that the boy wasn't paralyzed anymore and he turned around, away from his screens. Walking closer to the boy, the individual seemed to think exactly about the things he did and said.

"What a surprise that you are aware of the situation.", said the voice, sounding rather annoying somehow. "Apparently, you're quite used to get hit by Pokémon attacks from time to time, but that shouldn't surprise me after what I saw."

It still took a few seconds, but now Ash finally saw who was in front of him.

It was a human, no doubt about it. It was a man with oily long black hair that partly hung into the man's face. Ash couldn't quite see his face, but what he saw didn't look pretty, although Ash was the last one to judge someone by its look. Spotting a white lab coat, the guy looked rather weak for an adult.

After his initial puzzlement, Ash tried to move, but he couldn't. Turning his head, he realized that his wrists and ankles were strapped to an operating room table that stood almost vertical at the moment. No matter how hard he tried, Ash couldn't get out of this.

"It's amazing that you can move that well at all anymore.", said the man indifferent. "You're surely an interesting object."

"What the heck are you talking about? Where am I? Where's Pikachu?", said Ash aggressively.

"So many questions, however, you don't need the answers. They won't bring you anything at all. Instead, you should be cooperative and let yourself just be used for my experiments.", retorted the man, who was seemingly a scientist.

Ash realized that David was right with his rumor.

"Forget it! I won't allow that you continue with your kidnapping of innocent Pokémon and people!", exclaimed Ash strongly, still trying to loosen his chains somehow.

"Who told you something about kidnapping? I just help those imperfect objects.", explained the scientist, obviously believing every word that he said. "It's my desire to make the world better, but too many people think that this isn't the ultimate goal."

Ash heard too many stories about making the world better, but it shouldn't be done with any means necessary.

"You aren't better than all the others criminals of the world.", claimed Ash.

"So young, so naïve.", said the man. "In that case, it's obvious that you won't help me. Well, I still can get the recognition that I deserve with the help you though. I just have to keep you alive long enough, but for a scientist like me, that's the easiest task."

Ash's heartbeat increased, because he knew that he was in trouble here.

"If you want me, fine!", said Ash suddenly. "Let Pikachu out of this though!"

Apparently, the scientist didn't hear Ash or he just pretended that he didn't hear anything. Working on his computers, the horrible man tipped quickly thousands of formulas into his computer. Either he was very intelligent or just crazy.

"My friends will find me!", explained Ash threateningly.

The laughter of the scientist echoed through the lab. "Don't blur your mind with such illusions, test object. You have been away for three days and where are your friends? Tell me, how long does it take until the police stops to look for someone? Two or three weeks? My other guest had been here for almost ten days. Do you notice something?"

Ash crunched with his teeth.

"You can't scare me with your words.", claimed Ash bravely. "Anyway, what's with David? What are you up to?"

"I guess, you mean your fellow test object, huh?", said the doctor, laughing like a hyena when he moved through the room, looking at various experiments on his tables that he executed with chemical equipment. "He was just unlucky to find my lab. I'll see what I can do with him. There's certainly an experiment that I thought of as a sideline."

"You won't come away with this!", said Ash, although it sounded less convincing than before.

Once again, the scientist ignored Ash's words and he just paid attention to his computers and experiments.

'Damn it! I can't loosen the chains … I can't allow that something like this happens!', thought Ash desperately. There wasn't a way for him to get out of this situation and he would surely not want to help this crazy man.

Pulling on his chains one last time, Ash didn't dare to believe that this should be it.

Not wanting to discuss anything, the scientist stood suddenly in front of Ash before he then pressed some sort of respiratory mask on Ash's face. Not able to defend himself, Ash shook his body, but his lungs were soon filled with some sort of gas that he didn't know.

Slowly, he felt the powerlessness again that he already felt after Haunter licked him.

Refusing to give up, Ash tried everything in his power to keep his mind awake.

"Just surrender to it … you won't sleep, although it might feel like it …"

The scientist's words almost didn't reach Ash anymore and the raven-haired trainer just couldn't win the fight, no matter how much he wished for it.

'Bonnie, Clemont, Pikachu, Serena, everyone … I'm sorry.'

Soon thereafter, Ash didn't realize anything anymore and he didn't even feel that he was existing at all.

With his mind floating between reality and fantasy, Ash couldn't catch a single thought and every second felt like a year, yet a millisecond for some reason. Does it feel like that when you're in a vegetative state?

Then, for some reason, Ash eventually saw something! The faces of his friends that he befriended over the years. It felt strange, because they seemed so happy and Ash just acted the way he always did, however, after a few seconds of puzzlement, he suddenly remembered the scenes. It were memories! It were experiences of his travels and Ash relived them once more, second for second. From time to time, however, some memories were skipped before it continued at a memory that involved some kind of legendary Pokémon.

Adventure for adventure, Ash experienced almost everything.

It was like a movie that played in front of him.

Some memories were even repeated a few times.

It seemed as if this would never end …

Suddenly, Ash opened his real eyes.

End of chapter!