Pallet was a small town south of the Kanto region. It was a quiet place, housing close to one hundred people that varied from retired trainers to farmers primarily. It also housed professor oak, the regions certified pokemon expert, a genius in pokemon relationships with their trainers and powerful trainer in his hayday, there was even a rumor that he was once the Pokemon League champion for a short time before becoming a said researcher, although it has never been proven. Even so, his work provided great insight to the mysteries of pokemon.
When the time was right and the young aspiring trainers of pallet had finished their schooling and training, they turned to professor oak in guidance to complete their dream of becoming a pokemon trainer and venturing into the lands of Kanto and beyond. Many came from around the continent to finish their certification as the professor was very generous with his knowledge and pokemon handling.
Ash Ketchum had lived in pallet town his whole life, being born and raised there by his mother and following in the footsteps of his late father, pokemon breeding. He often helped professor oak at his lab during the summers to further his experience and knowledge along with his his best friend, Gary Oak. Gary and Ash had grown up like siblings in a way, although most of the people in kanto would tell you they were 'rivals' due to the fact of their competitive spirit and relentless ambition to one up each other outweighed their 'brotherly love', but everyone knew they connected like real siblings.
For ash it was all he had, the children of pallet were many years younger than him, gary and a hand full of others being the only ones close to his age, but he busied himself with his studies, determined to make a name for himself.
Professor oak and gary did their best to make ash and his mother as comfortable as possible, even so much as to paying for ashs' schooling and pokemon training. Ash in turn grew up to be a generous and heart felt person towards man and creature alike, always helping out the citizens of pallet and taking care of the pokemon at the professors lab and wild ones that found their way into town. He was regarded by many as the pride of Pallet.
"Ash! Sweetie! The professor sent a letter, he wants you to meet him at the lab."
"Alright mom!" Ash headed downstairs and grabbed his backpack, an early birthday present from his mother that would come in hand on his ventures. He kissed his mother on the cheek and headed out the door, a small yellow rodent following at his heel, once outside the pokemon scurried up it's trainers leg and perched itself on his shoulders.
"Pika pika!" The small pokemon chitted as it gazed upon the land. Spring in pallet was a lovely time of year and brought many different species of pokemon from Johto located to the west.
"Let's go see the professor!" Ash exclaimed as he walked to the dirt road and made his way to the professors lab across town. He was completely lost in his thoughts that he didn't notice a small Marill running up beside him, Pikachu on the other hand was keeping a trained eye on him, it wasn't likely that the pokemon was dangerous, but they could be quite troublesome.
Pikachu hopped off it's trainers shoulders as a blast of water his Ash in the side of the head, knocking off his hat. Ash swore under his breath as he wiped his face dry and looked around, spotting the marill on the other side of the road. He squatted down and smiled at the pokemon, while putting his hand onto pikachus back to calm the rodent down, it's cheeks sparking with electricity gearing up for an attack.
"Hello there little troublemaker, what are you doing out here all by yourself?" The small pokemon responded with another blast of water, Ash simply moved his head out of the way and laughed.
"You have some spunk little one." This seemed to anger the pokemon as it puffed it's cheeks and prepared for another attack.
"Marill!" The pokemon stopped it's attack and sprinted down the road, it's tiny legs pumping as fast as they can.
Ash looked down the road he had just come from and saw a young woman running, her head looking side to side frantically.
"Hi! Have you..." The girl noticed Ashs' wet shirt and damp hair and sighed heavily.
"A marill I assume? He just sprinted down the path here." Ash said as he pointed out the direction of the run away pokemon. The young woman bowed her head and apologized profusely, explaining that the marill was still a baby and had escaped just a few minutes ago.
"It's okay, it was only a water gun, no harm done." He ran his fingers through his hair and placed his cap back on his head.
"He was booking it, i'm not sure how far route one is, but as his pace he could make it there in the next hour."
"Thank you so much!" The woman then sprinted down the path to find her missing pokemon.
Ash looked down at Pikachu and smirked a the small pokemon, the small rodent hoped up the trainers body to his shoulders and nestled in. He didn't recognize the girl even though pallet was a small town, but they did receive quite a few visitors in the spring and summer time, he paid no mind and carried on his way.
It took Ash close to ten minutes to arrive at the professors lab, thankfully the weather was cool and had a small breeze blowing through. The lab, which was located in the south, was perched on a hill that expanded many acres out the back, eventually leading to the Cinnabar Sea.
Ash walked up the path and knocked on the labs doors, echoing throughout the lab and reverberating against the walls. A young man wearing a lab coat opened the door and eyed Ash.
"Well if it isn't Ashy-boy. Came to finally acknowledge that I am the superior trainer today?" The young man placed his hands on his hips and threw his nose to the air, hoping for a reaction from ash.
"Knock it off gary, unless you want me to tell your sister what really happened the other day with her laundry."
Garys faced turned a bright red as he scoffed and turned and walked back into the lab, ash held his side as he heartily laughed and followed him in, his laugh echoing off the walls and catching the attention of the assistants in the lab.
"It wasn't my fault, she needs to learn to put her away laundry properly." Gary crossed his arms and turned to ash.
"Gramps is out back tending to the pokemon, I assume you're here to talk about the encyclopedia?"
"Something along those lines, I was thinking of heading out tomorrow to be completely honest, I was hoping he could expedite the supplies for me so I can be on my way sooner."
"Sooner?" Gary raised an eye brow and walked up to ash, placing a hand on his shoulder and looking him square in the eye. "I thought you weren't going to leave for another month?" His tone going from calm to serious instantly, almost pleading him to reconsider.
"I thought so to, but you know me and my gut. I keep getting this weird feeling that if I don't go sooner, I will be missing out on so much." Ash smiled and walked past gary to the back of the lab, his pikachu hopping off his shoulder and scurrying down the hall to his right.
"I'll go grab him a few treats for the road, just break it easy on the old man."
Ash nodded and headed through the lab towards the back, Oak was an understanding man but his temper got the better of him from time to time. He walked down a narrow hall that led to a single door at the end, bold letters warning to head back unless supervised or someone of high caliber, opening the door he shielded the sun with his hand and adjusted his cap with the other.
"OAK! IT'S ASH!" He yelled out into the reserve, before taking a seat on a bench near the exit. He leaned back and waited for the professor to make his way to him, although if ten minutes had passed he would go look for the old geezer himself, which was the case most of the time seeing how the old man would get caught up in his work and lose track of time and distract him to no end.
He stared out into the pasture and watched as two bulbasaur playfully ran by, followed by a handful of oddish. While most of the pokemon here were trainer owned, many wild pokemon that wondered here tended to stay until they passed, almost instinctively knowing the peaceful aura of the place and seeking it out to make it home.
A few minutes had passed before the shuffling of feet were heard by ash, the professor was walking down the path to the left with his hands behind his back and a lit cigarette hanging loosely from his lips. The professor had his eyes closed and walked an irregular beat, taking a few steps in stride before idling and resuming his venture, it was common with him to 'take time with himself' on the reserve as he put it.
He stopped a few feet from ash before taking the cigarette from his mouth and exhaling deeply.
"Good morning Ash, coffee?" The professor ran a hand through his greying hair and placed the cigarette right back in his mouth, taking a long drag and letting the smoke billow out of his mouth and nose.
"Of course Professor." Ash rose and followed Oak back into the lab. If he was to leave as soon as possible he would have to go with the flow for the time being.
"Today? Impossible." Oaks answer was blunt and emotionless.
"I understand the possible dangers, but the benefits greatly outweigh them!" Ash was pleading his case heavily, unfortunately the professor was standing his ground firmly and he couldn't blame him, something of this stature has never been done before successfully and the resources required for another 'test' were too severe.
"I'm sorry Ash, but my answer stands, we need more time." Oak placed another cigarette in his mouth and struck a match from the wooden table he was sitting behind.
"Professor Oak, I implore you to allow me to start the journey today, if not tomorrow. I can be in Pewter by three weeks time and consult with Brock, i'll send a carrier Pidgey with any results I may come across, not to mention the Pewter Summit lines up with my travels, it's nothing but a win - win situation." Ash was laying it on thick to the professor, he had to pull out all the stops to get through the old mans thick skull.
"But why Ash? Our research is going well and there is no need for such rash decisions such as this, has gary put you up to this? Don't tell me it's another half ass scheme of his."
"I assure you professor, gary had no idea up until today, I believe the timing is right and that I am ready." The room was silent, professor oak sat behind his desk with the cigarette still sitting in his mouth until, the match never reaching it's target.
The professor sighed and rubbed his temples, he brows furrowed and he grumbled under his breath for a few minutes. Ash was persistent with everything he wanted and made sure to get his facts in check before pursuing.
"I will allow it. On one condition though!" He struck another match.
"Anything." Ash could barely contain his excitement and grasped the edge of the chair he was sitting on.
"You must still complete contribute to our side project, everything written down and documented must be delivered by a carrier pidgey at any opportune moment, understood? A diagram or rough sketch would be most enjoyable as well."
"Of course professor."
The room was silent as Oak looked upon Ash, one he could call his most outstanding apprentice, aside from gary that is. Oak leaned back in his chair and pondered his decision.
"I will provide you the essentials to get to Pewter, but from there on you are on your own my boy, I hope you can understand."
"Of course professor! Thank you very much! This honestly means a lot!" Ash stood up and bowed hastily before briskly walking out of the professors office.
"And don't forget to tell your mother! I can't handle another episode!" He shouted at the boy running down the hallway to find pikachu and gary.
"That boy.." The professor chuckled and took a long drag from his cigarette before leaning back in his chair and retrieving a pad of paper from under his desk, one dated and signed by ash many years ago. He smiled and placed it on top of his desk, grabbing a pencil and paper to write a letter.
"It's gonna be boring without you here Ash." Gary was loading up a pack of essentials for ash in one of the labs store rooms, anything lightweight and able to fit in a travel pack that wouldn't disturb the package in his front pack. He had a tent, a raincoat, a few flints, one small hatchet and hunting knife, a collapsible fishing pole of his own design, binoculars, enough dried food to last a month, and plenty of pads of paper and pencils.
"You sound like my mother, I will only be gone for a couple of months at the most, and besides, i'll be sending a carrier pidgey to the professor whenever I get the chance. If you're really that worried about me I suppose I can send you one too gare-bear." The last comment resulted in an empty box colliding with the back of his head, laughter ensued from the two young men.
"Just check in every once in a while, let me know how the women of Pewter fare to the ones at home okay?" Gary perched his brow as his imagination got the better of him.
"Yeah yeah, I'll let you know." Ash finished up his preparations and slipped on a small pack to the front of his body. His pikachu perching itself on his shoulder like usual and grabbed his backpack from gary and put it on, the straps from his front pack causing no distress.
"Fits good, time to go then."
Ash began his journey by walking up the path of route one heading to Viridian city, his first major stop before trekking through viridian forest, thankfully it was a cool day and if he paced himself he would only have to stay one night on the road before coming into town the following afternoon.
"It's a perfect day huh Pikachu?" The small rodent chirped back to it's trainer as it kept a trained eye on a few spearow perched onto a tree branch a few yards away.
"Pay them no mind Pikachu, wouldn't want to have the whole flock upon us know would we?" The small rodent sparked it's cheeks and relaxed, another day perhaps.
The two continued to walk for a couple hours before mid afternoon was upon them.
"How about we set up camp and try out the fishing pole gary was raving about? Maybe a couple goldeen? Lucky if we can get a magikarp for some flavour." Ash placed his backpack down onto the ground and took off his cap before wiping the sweat off his brow with the sleeve of his shirt.
"Why don't you go find some wood for a fire pikachu, ill set up camp and then we can fish, I think the river is close by but I can't really remember from the last time." Horrible images of him falling into the river and nearly drifting all the way back to Pallet clouded his mind, he shuddered and shook his head.
"Let's not let that happen again!"
Pikachu dashed off to collect some wood and Ash began setting up camp, the tent was big enough to fit his whole body, but that was about it, thankfully it was spring and the nights didn't get too cold, but a blanket was always a nice leisure.
A few minutes passed and Pikachu came back with a mouthful of sticks, dropping them a couple feet away from the tent and dashing back into the wooded area of the trail. He repeated the process until Ash was done, bothering him with constant chittering to hopefully start fishing.
"I'm getting pretty hungry, I suppose this is enough wood for a quick meal, let's try and find the river buddy." Pikachu hopped onto Ash's shoulder and the two ventured out east. The river was easier to find then Ash had thought, being a couple hundred feet from the campsite. He still had his front pack on and carefully took it off and placed it next to him while Pikachu jumped into a nearby tree and scouted it's branches for edible berries.
Ash put some gloves on and cast his line into the water, placing the butt of the pole between his feet and leaning back with his arms behind his head, the outdoors were so nice and peaceful that he wished he could live out here for the rest of his life.
A few seconds minutes before the line tugged slightly, he sat up and carefully grasped the pole in his hands, waiting for the right moment. When the line tugged harder he yanked back, the line giving much more resistence and continuing it's back and forth pull.
"Got a big one buddy!" Ash leaned back and grabbed the line, pulling it hard and swift, a small pokemon shooting out of the water and landing on the small shore, splashing and flopping about.
"A goldeen! Nice, looks a little on the small side though, let's keep it up for a few more minutes." Ash picked up the goldeen and threw it further inland towards his pack, Pikachu jumping down and giving the water pokemon a small zap to stop the flailing.
Ash cast his line once more and placed the end of the pole between his feet, once again laying back with his hands behind his head. Not a few seconds after he did the brush to his left rustled unexpectedly, pikachu jumping closer to his trainer and sparking his cheeks, chittering madly as to whatever it could be, ash simply turned his head to the side to get a look at what it was, there was usually rattata and bug pokemon on the way to Viridian, but one could never be too careful and he unhooked the leather safety strap of his hatchet.
A moment later a small blue mouse pokemon rolled out of the brush and looked at Ash, then to pikachu, whose cheeks were alive with electricity, and then back to ash, a devilish smirk coming across it's face.
"Wait a minute.." Ash braced himself as a blast of water hit him square in the face, he sat up quickly and coughed heartily, a small laugh coming at the end of his fit.
"I remember you!" He stood up and grabbed the pole that was nestled between his feet, only for it to jerk right out of his hands and into the river quicker than pikachus double team.
"MARILL!" The small blue pokemons demeanor changed almost immediately as it ran towards Ash and pikachu, trying to get as much space as it could from the booming voice. Both pikachu and ash were taken back by the shrill sound of the voice and looked from side to side to find the origin of it.
A young woman emerged from the same brush and looked as though she was ready to kill, her facial expressions were stone and her aura blazed hot! She looked around frantically before setting her eyes on Ash and pikachu, the small blue pokemon taking salvation behind the two of them.
"I assume this little one is yours?" Ash asked as he knelt down and grasped the marill, the pokemon retaliating by blasting him with another stream of water.
"Oh my gosh, i'm so sorry! And yes, it is." The young woman stepped forward and placed a spherical ball to the side of the pokemon and it vanished within. She bowed her head and apologized profusely.
"This sounds oddly familiar." Ash proclaimed as he put his hand to his chin, trying his best to not laugh. The young woman looked up at ash confused before realization dawned upon her.
"You're the same guy from Pallet?! I am so, so sorry! This marill has been nothing but trouble, I hope it didn't cause too much trouble."
"No, I suppose it hasn't." Ash rubbed the back of his neck as he glanced to the river.
The young woman glanced to the river and back to ash, noticing the small goldeen on the ground.
"Were you fishing?" Her eyes lit up a tad as she asked the question.
"I was, but it seems this will be the only catch for the day." He motioned to the water pokemon a few feet from him. She gave him a questioning glance before realizing what had happened.
"Did your pole get snatched by a pokemon because of this little brat?" She asked as she held up the mechanical sphere.
"Yes, but no worries, I can have another made in a jiff." Ash said lying through his teeth, he was going to have to explain to gary how his newest invention was gone just a day into his journey.
"Oh my god, I cannot believe.." The young woman turned around and took a few deep breaths.
"Let me make it up to you, I have a few goldeen, a seaking and even a magikarp. I'll give you a few as payback, I know it's not much but.."
"Would you really? Thank you! I was hoping to catch a magikarp myself! But if you really have a seaking you're willing to share we can call it even!" Ash was practically drooling at the mouth just thinking of the splendid feast he was about to have.
"Are you sure? Fishing poles are quite pricey.."
"Don't worry about it, in fact, why don't you accompany me and Pikachu for dinner? It'd be nice to have some company, he's not much of a conversation holder to be honest."
The young woman giggled, it was quite angelic.
"Sure, that sounds nice..uh..?" The two stared at each other, the young woman awkwardly fumbling with her words.
"Oh! Ash, Ash Ketchum." He held out his hand, the young woman smiled and shook his hand gently.
"Misty Kazumi."
A/N: As you can see, this is not OC for many characters, and it will be that way for the entire story. I will also be switching up a few names and pokemon teams that will be shown in later chapters. I hope you all enjoy the story and stick around for the long haul!
Thank you! Review and comment if you'd like!